Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon, but Zora and Hunter are straight from my imagination.
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Max woke up when he realized he was falling off his Pidgeot. They'd been flying for so long... and still no sign of Zora... he had to admit, it was a good thing she hadn't been there. If she had, she'd have been caught too. He knew that when she heard about what had happened, she'd go back. The only thing that worried him was if she'd lost some of her steam. Ember too. There was no telling what kind of life they'd been living. He pulled his communicator from his backpack and turned it on.
"Zora? Zora, can you hear me?" Much to his surprise, it fuzzed some, then he heard a voice, but it wasn't Zora's.
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"What is that noise?" Kyle asked.
"My communicator," Zora said as she rummaged through her bag.
"Zora, don't," Hunter said. "You told me you'd thrown that thing away a long time ago. You lied to me,"
"I couldn't get rid of it. I just couldn't. Something told me not to,"
"Zora..." the communicator fuzzed in and out. "Zora? Can—me–"
"Max?"
"Zora, put it away, please. He can pin point us with it," Hunter pleaded.
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"Zora? Zora? The Elite are in trouble," it fuzzed more. Max shouted into it, "Zora! Answer me,"
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"It's dead," she mumbled.
"All the better," Kyle said.
"But..."
"Leave it, Zora. You gave up that life a long time ago,"
"But, still... why now?"
"I don't know,"
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Zora cradled Myth, Ember and Flamer next to her.
"We need to build a fire for Myth. Her temperature is too low, please," she begged.
"You wanna risk being caught,"
"If it means saving Myth, yes."
"No," Kyle said firmly. Zora stared back at Myth. The poor little baby Vulpix was curled up, pain on her face, her body shivering.
Flamer stood and walked away from the group, toward the forest that lay not too far from them. He must have read her mind. Hunter watched Flamer for a minute, then sat next to Zora and rubbed Myth gently.
Flamer returned carrying sticks in his tails and his mouth. He piled them neatly, then lit it with a gentle Ember attack. When Kyle went to stamp the flames out, Flamer hissed at him, raises his tails and pushed the man back with nothing more then appearance.
Ember scooted Myth close to the fire. Hunter called to Flamer and the Ninetales retreated, lying down next to Ember, who was curled around Myth.
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"Pidgeot," Max sat up. "Pidgeot, Pidgeot," he titled his head to indicate smoke in a nearby field.
"Yeah, let's go for it," Max nodded and a now tired Pidgeot headed in that direction. As they came closer to the ground, Max recognized two Ninetales and several Vulpix, three humans. They landed away from the group enough to keep them asleep. After giving his thanks and compliments to his pokemon, Max returned Pidgeot and walked toward the fire. He found that it was indeed Zora's camp. The one thing that terrified him though, was the bandit that was holding her. He seemed to be confining her. Max recognized him as Night Bandit. The one on the other end of the fire was harder to identify. It took him a minute... Kyle. That's who it was. Lance's most hated enemy. These two were defiantly holding Zora prisoner, he thought. But that did not account for the Vulpix...
He puzzled on how to get to Zora and free her without waking her captor. He finally decided on an old tactic that he'd been taught as a boy. Pulling an empty pokeball from his belt, he threw it to the other end of the camp. The clicking noises it made as it opened upon landing woke the bandit, as he planned. Night Bandit stood, making sure she didn't wake up and ran to the other end of the camp. His back to Max, he moved toward Zora. It was too easy, almost. He placed his hand over her mouth and shook her. As she woke up with a start, he pulled her up and dragged her away from the camp. They made it to the edge of the woods and crashed over each other. He uncovered her mouth.
"Max, what are you doing?"
"Lance and the others are in trouble. They've been captured by bandits."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean Lance, Kane and the rest of the Elites are in the prison cell. This bandit, Night Blade, is looking to control the world through the Balances. He's looking for you," she sighed.
"It's not my business,"
"Yes, it is. You're the Fire Heir, you have to—"
"No, you can be the Fire Balance, you know,"
"But Dad chose you,"
"I don't want it, and he knew that,"
"But he chose you, regardless,"
"Zora," they turned at the same time to find Hunter. Max moved between his sister and the Bandit.
"Max," she mumbled.
"You come anywhere near her and I'll kill you," Max said. Hunter shook his head.
"If you'd wanted that, you would have said something before," he said, taking a step forward.
"Don't tempt me, Night Bandit," Max pulled a pokeball from his belt.
Zora stood and walked out from behind Max. Before he could stop her, she ran back to Hunter. He caught her and held her, running his hand over her hair.
"You scared me," he whispered.
"I'm sorry,"
"Zora, come here, sister. What are you doing?"
"Max, Hunter is my husband,"
"What? You married a bandit?"
"I married someone who loves me in return," she said. Hunter extended his hand to Max, but he did not take it.
"This cannot be... why, Zora?"
"Because I love him,"
"But how can you know you love him after so short a time? You've only been gone a year,"
"I have known him far longer," she said. Max was silent for a long time, then shook his head no.
"Will you come back with me?" he asked. She whispered to Hunter. He shook his head no.
"It is not your place anymore, remember? They will take you prisoner again and hold you against your will,"
"But I cannot leave them," she said.
"I won't let you. If you thought your mother-in-law was upset about you traveling while pregnant, think how she'll faint when she finds out about this,"
"You're pregnant?" Max asked, stunned. "Oh, Zora,"
"What?" he shook his head, tears falling. He turned, then spoke over his shoulder.
"I hope you're happy, sister. If you'll excuse me, I have duties to attend to," he tossed a pokeball and a Rapidash appeared. He mounted and rode off; paying little heed to Zora's calling his name.
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Zora cried herself back to sleep that night. Hunter couldn't go back to sleep though, no matter how hard he tried. Kyle (the sleepy-head!) had slept through everything. As had Ember and Flamer. He was glad the pokemon had; they needed the rest.
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His mind calculated like it did when he was a bandit, weighing the risks with that came with his choice of action. He and Zora go back, they try to save Lance and the rest. They succeed, and Zora is their prisoner again. They might let him leave for his help in freeing them. They lose the fight for the Stadium and they too become prisoners and this bandit who's taken over gets exactly what he wants: the Fire Heir. They keep going on in hiding and hope Lance gets out on his own. But the bandit would sill be hunting them. He wouldn't have that. But the baby... it wasn't good for Zora to exert herself. He would never leave her alone, and not in his father's care. Maybe Naomi? That might work...
"No way! You are not leaving me behind!" she shouted.
"Zora, not only does you going endanger the baby, but you're also the one person he's looking for,"
"Which is exactly why I have to be the one to defeat him!"
"Zora, please do not argue with me over this."
"I'll argue all I want!" she bit back. He turned, stunned. She had never used that tone before. Never against him... "You cannot stop me from going, any more then you can make me stay with your mother. Any more then you can make me stay there at all!"
"Zora,"
"I'm going back with you!" she was crying now. Hunter caught her as she fell to her knees. She cried into his shoulder.
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Notes:
Okay, when I started this story, I wrote it all before I had posted the third chapter--I had it all in my head and it had to go on paper or it was gone. Due to being told that the chapters were too short, I started combining two together and posting them as one. What had been a 15 chapter story is now only 10. That's right, I'm sorry, but the next will be the last. I wish it was longer, but since I wrote it all out before hand, and since if I touch any one of my stories more then once it becomes a two year project, I don't think it'll change.
Facia: Thank you for your reviews. I thought about Mightyena's attacks before posting the first chapter, but decided against trying to find out for sure. I'm not as into Pokemon as I used to be, plus, I'm lazy. I'm sorry if that bothered you.
(1) Why Kyle is running in the first place---uhhh, well...I'm not sure. It's probably just because he and Lance fought so much when they where both younger. (2) The Balance's existence is really all they do to keep the Balance. Honestly, it's really such a secret that I'm not totally sure what they do! (3) Zora and Lance have always had different values for life, therefore, they almost never see eye-to-eye. So, yes, Lance is not supposed to be a bad guy, and Zora's choices were supposed to be difficult no matter what she chose.
Other Readers: If you have taken the time to read this far into the story, please review; it doesn't take long at all and helps so much.
