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The following few days had changed things radically.

The first day, they woke up early, very early. It was still dark outside when Goh rose from the guest bed and dressed himself before Goh had eaten and tried to get Arron to eat with little success. Afterwards, after the sun rose, they went outside to 'train', whatever that meant.

Now they were behind the house on the grassy field that constituted most of Delilah's backyard. Multiple small craters and scorch marks served as the earth's battle scars from previous training sessions. While most normal people from his world would be impressed by the destructive capabilities of the animals these two young boys kept, Arron had seen far greater.

Goh took a deep breath, flexing his toes in the cool grass before sitting down and going through his bag, taking out his many Pokeballs. Arron was actually surprised by how many he had, considering he'd only seen Raboot up to this point, but it made sense considering the boy's goal to catch as many as he could. Arron couldn't fathom why he'd want to catch as many pokemon as possible, why not catch a few and make them very strong, but maybe that was his instincts from his past life talking: a small group of powerful warriors was far greater than an army of fodder, the Winter War put a great emphasis on the powerful few.

Goh was whispering to himself as he weighed his options both literally and metaphorically, switching between multiple balls undecided before choosing one to bring out. He tossed the ball from his hand onto the ground, releasing a vibrant rainbow energy that manifested into a vaguely bipedal form. As the energy solidified, a creature with long claws and a green carapace began to take shape. It's long snout and massive wings made it look like a dragon at first, but it quickly became clear it was an insect.

"Alright, Scyther, we're gonna battle! Arron! Show me what you can do!"

Arron could barely sense this creature's spiritual pressure, it was as low as a third or fourth seat in the Gotei 13, and he was mildly disappointed. But he set that aside, choosing rather to take the fights he could get, but he would regrettably have to hold back to avoid killing this creature.

Goh pointed out to Arron flamboyantly and grinned, surprising Arron slightly by his attitude change. "Alright, Scyther, don't hold back! Use a fury cutter!"

The idea of a young boy commanding around a deadly creature was comical to Arron, but apparently that's how this world works. The green insect charged at Arron, using its wings to gain momentum, and slammed it's surprisingly sharp claws into the ground where Arron was, only to realize he'd hit an after-image. Arron had used sonido to appear behind Scyther before whacking it with his tail and sending it flying. To Scyther's credit, however, it managed to regain it's balance in midair and land on it's feet gracefully before narrowing its eyes at Arron.

Despite Scyther's apparent setback, Goh remained confident, pumping his fist and pointing again. "C'mon, Scyther, you got this! Use double team!"

Scyther nodded before rushing towards Arron, it's body splitting into multiple independent after images. Arron raised his eyebrow slightly before charging up a Cero and releasing a hail of ice towards Scyther, who dodged as many as it could while most of his after images dissipated from their impact with the cero. Only two remained, both of which jumped on Arron only for him to release another Cero at point blank range, shredding them both. Scyther, the real Scyther, was blown away before performing a somersault and landing on his feet once again, but the damage was done: It's exoskeleton was obviously damaged and it was breathing heavily. A massive ice shard was lodged into its chest, which melted rapidly, but the liquid still clung onto Scyther like syrup. Scyther didn't seem to notice, as it was more enthralled by Arron than anything else.

Much to Arron's surprise, Goh breathed a sigh of relief. "At least you didn't get poisoned by Arron's mercury, Scyther. Let's keep going if you can, then I'll swap you out."

Mercury? Arron laughed inwardly at the boy's cluelessness. They thought his ice contained mercury? Arron realized they must have been referring to the reishi that his ice contained, which slowed down, poisoned and granted Arron greater control over his enemy's own reatsu. Arron had the best Reatsu control of any Arrancar, allowing him to manifest it in ways one could only imagine, and one way was to use it as an offensive tool against his foes with his ice. It's how his Ruptura ability, as well as many others, worked.

Scyther nodded, and steadied itself before focusing on Arron once again, it's pupils dilating from adrenaline. Arron was oddly disturbed by its silence, but decided he'd break the social barrier himself.

"You're not very talkative, are you?"

Scyther's expression remained stoic. "Why talk when we can fight?"

"Because, you might get a hint to what I'm planning next."

Scuther looked at him as if he was crazy. "Why would you even hint at your next move?"

Arron's grin widened. "Because you are outmatched either way."

Unlike most of the opponents he'd faced thus far, Scyther didn't seem at all flustered by Arron's reply, choosing to focus on him instead. It seemed that Scyther had much more willpower than Arron first anticipated.

No matter, he'll fall either way.

Goh watched with apprehension as Arron and Scyther seemed to have an nonverbal conversation, their eyes focused on each other. But while Scyther was determined and focused, Arron was loose and relaxed, so far unimpeded despite Scyther's best efforts.

"All right, Scyther. We have to step up our game. Use double team again, along with agility and double hit! Overwhelm him!"

Scyther took off like a rocket, it's speed drastically increasing as it split apart once again into a dozen different clones. Arron fired another Cero, only for each of the Scyther clones to rapidly avoid each ice shard with almost inhuman skill and precision. Only then did Arron realize this was no normal opponent. He quickly peered back at Goh, seeing the grin on his face. The boy thought he had him cornered.

Arron wouldn't allow that.

Arron pumped as much of his reiatsu into his Hierro as he could, feeling his carapace grow in strength. By the time he was finished, the many Scyther clones descended upon him like a horde of ravenous insects and unleashed a flurry of blows onto him, only for them to leave the faintest of marks across his bony armor. Scyther was dumbfounded, but before it could continue, Arron swept his tail in a semicircle, seeking to unbalance his opponents. Several fell over, disappearing, but close to a third dodged in a multitude of ways before retaliating without Goh's command. Arron managed to destroy one of the clones with a well-placed bala to the forehead, rupturing it, and disabled another by engulfing it in a blast of ice shards. But the two remaining clones closed in once again, their razor wings sharp like steak knives.

Arron simply dissipated with a sonido before reappearing behind both of the Scythers, and seeking for the patch of reiatsu he had attached to the original during the beginning of the battle. He wouldn't kill Scyther, he didn't want to anger Goh, and Scyther had been by far the most talented foe he'd met so far, but he would disable it, painfully.

Arron forces the Syrup-like growth to harden and freeze into ice shards on the original Scyther's chest, causing the clone to dissipate. Scyther stared at it's chest in horror, which was now covered in a thick casing of frozen reiatsu and frost, weighing it down. Arron grinned, forcing the ice to spread further and increasing his own influence on Scyther.

"My abilities are varied, Scyther: I can do many things most would consider unnatural. But by far my favorite is to allow my ice to entangle my enemies until they are frozen."

Scyther's eyes bugged out as the frost began to spread to its limbs and head, and it realized Arron's play. "Treachery, what power is this? My body... I can't move it like before! My speed is gone!"

"Yes, my spirit energy. It will entrap you, it is impossible to escape without great effort, and by the time you begin to break free this battle will be over. Now, Encerrar!"

The frost spread faster than before, rapidly encasing Scyther in a coat of ice and slowing him down as it desperately attempted to reach Arron to no avail. Scyther was finally frozen in place, one long wing-talon outstretched towards Arron, mere inches from his face. Scyther's horrified grimace was quite beautiful when frozen solid, almost like a morbid ice statue.

"Arron, what have you done?"

Arron sat down lazily and yawned as the morning sun began to melt Scyther and free it from it's prison. After cracks formed across the figure, the ice shattered like glass, freeing Scyther from it's grip. Scyther collapsed onto the ground, panting and obviously unfit to battle. It attempted to raise itself from the ground in vain, only to collapse again. It seemed that Arron's abilities were still as dangerous as they were in the Winter War.

"You did well, Scyther. Return!"

Goh picked up Scyther's ball and retrieved it in a flash of red light. He then gave Arron a quizzical look. "Where did you learn to do that?"

Arron didn't bother to answer, knowing the boy wouldn't understand him. Goh just sighed and sat down again, pulling out a notepad and scribbling down something, possibly a summary of the battle between Arron and Scyther. Then, he sat up again, seemingly invigorated. "Alright, I guess I'll have to choose someone stronger. Raboot, you're next."

This time, the familiar red rabbit erupted from her ball, her expression as blank and disinterested as ever. She took a stance like a track runner, her eyes focusing on Arron.

"Alright, Raboot, use Ember!"

Raboot lifted up a pebble from the ground with her foot before kicking it into the air. She then jumped up to meet it and performed a backflip kick, launching the pebble in a blaze of fire and creating an almost pseudo-comet that rapidly sped towards him. Arron had wanted to know how tough Raboot was, since she was apparently Goh's strongest, so he tanked the projectile only to regret it.

The resounding explosion wasn't anything like Arron had predicted. Somehow, the pebble had become like a bullet, and the flames had only grown more powerful, creating a piercing effect of energy that struggled to overcome his iron-hard hierro. While his tenacity prevailed, the resulting force pushed him back several feet and left a nasty crack on Arron's shell, causing him to grit his teeth.

And that was just one attack. Astounding.

It seemed that Arron had severely underestimated these creatures. While many of them were somewhat pathetic, a few of them could hold their own against Arron, and while he was definitely far weaker in this state than he was even as a Gillian, there was no doubt that these creatures had some serious potential.

Raboot desce descended to the ground gracefully before returning to her stance. Goh wasn't smug like before, but his brow arched with a newfound confidence. Arron growled before releasing yet another Cero in an attempt to engulf the rabbit pokemon, but she dodged the worst effects of the blast with unmatched agility, apparently activating her agility move independently without Goh's command. The remaining blizzard simply steamed against her fur, her body heat removing any chance that Arron had to use his Ruptura or Encerrar , or even to impede her, so he conceded that he'd have to switch tactics.

Preparing a Bala on his tail, he charged as much energy as possible in an attempt to intercept her, but Goh had other plans. "Raboot, use flame charge! Make it hurt!"

Raboot howled and erupted into ethereal flames, becoming even faster. She flexed while running and charged forward, preparing to strike Arron directly.

"Raboot, Double kick!"

Raboot leaped into the air and arched one of her feet back and engulfed the other in fire before descending like a meteorite onto Arron. He swung his charged Bala and connected with her foot causing the largest explosion yet to erupt, throwing the both of them back by several meters. Arron tumbled through the dirt, pushed by a force reminiscent of hurricane force winds. He quickly rose to his feet, noticing his bushy tail was burnt and ashen from the attack. Raboot doing much better, her dominant foot already swelling from the impact, one of her toes bent in a painful position.

"Raboot, return-"

"Not yet," Raboot said quietly, resisting the ball's pull. Goh seemed concerned with Raboot's wellbeing, but she had a determined look on her face.

"But Raboot, you're hurt-"

"I said NOT YET," she snarled back at him, growling like a rabid animal. Goh backed away and nodded, apparently understanding what Raboot wanted. She looked back at Arron, whose grin had only widened. Her disdained attitude only grew.

"Now," she said, breathing heavily, "We're going to finish this."

Arron chuckled. "You sure? You look pretty banged up," he gestured to her broken toe.

"A few scratches won't stop me from breaking every broken bone in your body!"

Arron couldn't help himself, he laughed. But it wasn't a laugh of mirth or disbelief, he didn't doubt that she could and would follow through with her threat. It was a laugh of exhilaration. This Raboot had provided him with a good fight, and it wasn't even over yet.

Arron breathed a cloud of frost around his body in a therapeutic fashion. Ice began to form around the cracks and scratches in his shell, sealing them and shattering, leaving it pristine as his own form of high speed regeneration kicked in. Raboot's eyes widened at the concept of Arron healing himself. "How did you heal like that?"

"I'll be keeping that a secret for now. How about you keep up with that promise?"

Raboot didn't respond, rather returning to her original stance, ignoring the pain in her toe. Arron grinned. "You're tough. That's good, that's how it should be, little Raboot."

Without any commands from Goh, Raboot rushed forward, her body erupting into flames once again as she became a blur of speed. Arron charged another Bala and used it to intercept more of her high kicks as he schemed on how to create an opening. Suddenly, an idea flashed into his mind.

He deflected another High kick before quickly slapping Raboot across the field and into the ground with his tail. With a shriek, he unleashed another powerful cero, which raboot dodged before activating double team and splitting into six copies. But his cero wasn't meant to hit her. Ince shards were embedded into the ground in a cone shaped arc in front of him.

Her clones attacked him in groups of twos, seeking to overwhelm him by bypassing his sense of perception. He defended successfully, albeit with a few new cracks in his shell, but that wasn't important. All her clones once again jumped, and he released a cero into the air, ripping apart her clones. Raboot herself swerved around the shards in midair, an impressive feat, but it was too late. Arron slammed his tail into her chest as she was somersaulting around the last shard and sent her flying into the field of ice, which she nimbly avoided with the agility of an acrobat.

"You thought you could get me to land on your ice shards? Well, you were wrong."

Arron's confident smirk remained unchanged, however, and Raboot broke out into cold sweat.

"Who said anything about landing on them?"

Raboot barely began to realize the severity of the situation when Arron began to speak again. "Tormenta De Navajas''

The moment he spoke those words, the ice exploded around Raboot, sending a storm of ice shards in every direction. Goh ran away to avoid the damage, but Raboot wasn't so lucky, as several pierced her abdomen and she shrieked in pain, collapsing to the ground. Arron's smile vanished, noticing her pain. It was necessary, but not something he particularly enjoyed.

Raboot was twitching on the ground as the ice melted and her wounds lay agape. She looked up at him with two crimson eyes. He remained stoic, his mood adapting to the situation.

"This battle is over: you lost."

Raboot didn't seem to agree, attempting to stand but hunching over in pain. "I'm not done with you, not yet."

Arron sighed. "Just stay down." He pushed her back onto the ground again in an attempt to pacify her.

"What… what are you?"

Arron didn't respond.

"Who would ever have powers like this?"

Again, Arron remained silent, not knowing how to respond to her anguish.

"Do you enjoy seeing others in pain? Is that why you hurt Riolu? Is that why you hurt Goh? Do you just do it on a whim?"

Arron wanted to say he didn't, but he couldn't. He didn't enjoy the pain of others, for sure, but he was also very callous. He acted on his anger and fear. Suddenly, his memories of him slaying Nnoitra and his idealistic monolog during that battle seemed very hypocritical. His actions were monstrous as well

But that's who he was. A monster. He devoured millions of souls, that alone was enough to warrant the title of monster.

"I'm a monster." He said, his words remorseful. He breathed a cloud of frost on Raboot, who flinched. But instead of harming her, the frost clogged her wounds and shattered, revealing only missing patches of fur and some gnarly scars. Raboot looked at her body in surprise, flinching when she moved too much, but the worst was healed.

"Why did-" she began to ask, but when she looked back up, Arron was gone.

Arron lay isolated in the Ketchum household once again, underneath Ash's bed. He didn't have the patience to be around anyone right now, especially not people. He didn't want to get lectured again.

Raboot's words had troubled him, he knew it. He didn't want to acknowledge them, but they kept echoing in his mind as he tried to forget them.

'What are you?'

Those words didn't particularly comfort him either. He knew exactly what he was, a soul eating creature disguised and one of these mortal pets, a wolf in sheep's clothing. He had committed atrocities when he was still a Vasto Lorde, both in the human world and in Hueco Mundo, before he found his sister as a quivering Adjuchas. He hated the world, he hated that it took her from him, he hated that he knew it took her from him. Why couldn't he have remained oblivious to his past?

He remembered the day everything came undone, all within a millisecond. The crash, the metal rebar rods from the back of a pickup truck piercing through the windshield and through his lung, his sister's neck snapping from the force. Nothing was clear, just fragments of memory from the crash, but the one thing he could recall with absolute clarity was how she died: she had put her body over his and took the brunt of the force in a last ditch effort to save his life. She had succeeded.

Then he dragged her lifeless body out of the car, hoping to resuscitate her, but a broken neck was a broken neck. He bled out crying over her body, enraged by how unfair it all was. Why her? What had she done wrong?

He had done everything right. He'd put his life back together for his family, to make her proud, and that very same day she was yanked from him like it was all a cruel joke.

Then he found her again. He protected her, making sure what happened last time could never happen again.

From that day on he vowed to be as detached from everyone as possible, except for his sister. Losing her was enough, he couldn't feel that again, but with more people. He failed at that as well. He grew attached to Neliel, to Stark, and even to Ulqiorra. And he felt all of their sufferings. He watched as Stark fell from the sky, blood spewing from his hollow hole. He felt Ulqiorra's dying reiatsu as he was disintegrated by the monster that was once Ichigo Kurosaki. He saw Aizen cut open his sister.

When he saw Raboot in pain like that, it was a rush of pleasure, not one he liked to have, but one that every hollow had instinctively. But he also felt pangs on his heartstrings, because her cries.of pain felt like those of her sister.

That's how monsters are made. Not through beakers and test tubes, or some other form of experimentation, but through unnecessary suffering.

Aizen had been right all along. He died in the very way he'd predicted, coming to terms with the realization of how hopeless his desire to never lose his sister again actually was.

What's worse is that the people who had directly caused the deaths of his companions weren't the bad people. Not by a long shot. While he hated the Soul Society for how backwards and outdated it's core tenants were, the people he fought for the most part were just doing their jobs. Arron realized that Aizen knew how they all would die because he orchestrated all of the events. Ichigo's fight with Ulqiorra, Stark's fight with Shunsui and Ukitake, and of course his murder of Harribel. Aizen's statement wasn't some wizened truth, but rather a warning. Aizen was the puppet master who took pleasure in the deaths of others.

And even with that warning, Arron hadn't realized the true severity of his situation until it was far too late. But in his anger, he'd been too distracted by avenging those he loved rather than preventing their deaths in the first place.

Shunsui and Ukitake being prime examples.

Both Shunsui and Ukitake were breathing heavily while Arron stood in front of them, his once casual demeanor reduced to a determined scowl. His sword was drawn, dripping with the blood of both captains.

'You are going to pay for killing Stark.'

Shunsui used his Shunpo to appear in front of him and release a devastating swing, but Arron blocked it with his blade, firing a Cero at the captain. He dodged, and both captains appeared at either side of him, attempting to overwhelm him with their superior numbers, but Arron sheathed his sword and blocked both sets of blades with his hands so quickly that his form had been a blur. He grabbed onto Shunsui's swords and threw him into a building before kneeing Ukitake in the gut and freezing his Shikai with ice, disabling it's absorption powers and sending the sickly captain flying with a kick to the chest.

Gin had assured him that there would be casualties before he could make his move, but the impatient Arrancar couldn't bear to see anyone else he cared about die. If he had to disable these two captains to get Gon to move, then he would.

Shunsui flew up to meet Arron once again, that same damn smirk on his face present. Their blades met for a while, Shunsui attempting to distract him while Ukitake recovered, but the lazy captain was quickly outmatched by Arron's offensive stance. While Shunsui had managed to strike him several times, the blades barely left a scratch and Arron was pushing his advantage in durability against the much more fragile captain, who barely dodged his sword.

'I don't see why you're so broken up. You're all just hollows, you eat each other for breakfast.'

Arron grit his teeth and punched the captain in the face with the weight of a falling anvil behind it. Shunsui fell from the sky and onto a rooftop, leaving a crater behind.

'That hurt.'

'Good,' Arron replied. He appeared behind the captain, who parried his blow and retaliated with a swarm of strikes. Aron merely tanked through them and punched the captain in the chest with a Bala, sending him through the building.

Shunsui was panting by the time the dust settled, but he quickly resumed his stance, his smile wavering from fatigue.

'You hit a lot harder than expected for someone shorter than six feet' he said. Arron remained silent, charging another Bala.

'Soul Reapers, Arrogant as always. You kill my friend and then you're surprised I'm hurting you?'

Shunsui's shit eating grin returned. 'Just surprised you care so much about anyone. You hollows don't have hearts.'

Before Shunsui could react, Arron grabbed his throat and held Shunsui above him, growling. 'I'm sick of your cheeky attitude and your blatant ignorance. I'm going to break your jaw so I don't have to hear you anymore!'

And with that, Shunsui was sent flying into another building.

It was comical how Arron had been just like Shunsui, just on the opposite side. Maybe because it was easier to cope when you shoved all your emotions aside and became callous. He really had nothing against the man, he was just emotionally compromised. Arron bet if they hadn't been enemies they'd get along very well.

He heard the door open on the other side of the room, and the light footsteps of Delilah enter. She sighed at the messy room before picking up clothes and putting them into a laundry basket on the floor. Then she reached under the bed to see if there were any clothes underneath, finding Arron in the process.

"Oh, there you are. Ash and Goh are worried about you."

Arron avoided eye contact, but Delilah wasn't having any of it. She gently pulled him from under the bed and cradled him in her arms. Arron was surprised by how strong she was, since Goh and Ash both commented on him being heavy, but it seemed that she didn't mind.

"Why are you all alone under the bed? You must be hungry after that battle," Then she noticed the spiderweb of new cracks along his shell from the final moments of his battle with Raboot. "Oh, dear, I didn't know you were hurt, come on, I'll help you."

He squirmed out of her grasp and scampered under the bed again, quickly releasing a cloud of frost to cover him. The temperature of the room dropped a good three or four degrees Celsius before Delilah was able to coax him from underneath the bed again. This time she inspected his shell and found the cracks and bruises to have disappeared. She was startled at first, but then seemed to have had an epiphany. "You used that same move on Raboot after the battle, didn't you?"

Arron remained silent, but she sat down on Ash's bed and began to stroke his fur. "Why are you so upset, then? You won, and you healed Raboot, so I doubt there are any hard feelings. Scyther is okay as well, a few potions fixed him right up."

Arron just curled into a ball, eliciting a sigh from Delilah. "Something else is bothering you? Something you can't tell me because I couldn't understand?"

In more ways than one, he thought to himself.

She nodded, understanding Arron's expression. "It's okay, I understand. I've been there too. I used to do bad things for bad people, and I'm sure you've done bad things as well. But you're here now, and tomorrow's a new day. You just have to let it go, forgive yourself, I did."

Arron was dumbfounded by her intuition, but she simply giggled. "I may not be able to speak to you, but people and pokemon share a strong bond, even if you aren't my pokemon. You've been in my life long enough to notice some of your quirks, and one of them is disappearing when you're upset. I don't know exactly why, but you haven't exactly been on your best behavior, so I guess maybe you came from a bad place."

Arron rested his head on her lap and she stroked his mane. "If you're ever scared, upset, or just not feeling right, you can spend time with me and Mr. Mime. He looks a little scary at first, but he's wonderful, you'll see."

As if she summoned him, Mr. Mime appeared in front of the doorway carrying a platter of tea. He obviously heard what Delilah said, because he stuck his tongue out at her playfully before setting everything down on Ash's nightstand and putting his hands on his hips and tilting his head to the side in a playfully judgemental way. It was hard to find a pokemon that looked like a cartoonist version of Paul Blart the mall cop, but somehow Mr. Mime cut quite the comedic figure.

Delilah giggled at his antics, hand over mouth. "Mimey, I swear, you're just terrible." Mime stuck out his chest with pride, as if to say yep, that's me.

"Well, I'm going to start on some breakfast, Arron, and I don't care what Ash and Goh say: I'm making everyone a special treat of blueberry scones and you will be getting some."

The idea of something that wasn't kibble made his mouth water. He had strong willpower, for sure, but he wouldn't pass up real food.

"But, you have to promise me you'll try some of the pokemon food. It's important, really."

Arron's excitement immediately died with the mention of that stuff. He didn't want to eat that, it looked terrible.

Delilah noticed his disapproval and frowned. "Please, for me? Just try it."

Okay fine, He'd do it, but only for scones.

Raboot was sitting on the couch next to Goh, who was writing down everything he'd seen in the battle on his notepad to give to Professor Cerise. She was bandaged all over, sore and exhausted from her battle with Arron, but she stayed awake to talk with Scyther, who was also bandaged all over, exhausted and tired. They'd been whispering to each other while Goh was preoccupied, and learned a lot of things about Arron in the process.

"I'm not that old, but I've never seen an ice type manipulate ice and frost like that, I'm telling you Raboot it's unnatural."

For Scyther to be speculating was a huge deal. He was a very cut and dry pokemon, very loyal to Goh and not too broken up about being captured because he hadn't had much to do beforehand. He didn't like to assume or think too much, he was a creature of action, much like Riolu in that regard. The main difference is that he knew his limits and wasn't arrogant.

"We know nothing about those powers except he mutters strange words when he says them. What does Encerrar or Tormenta De Navajas mean? Arron put a lot of weight behind those words when he said them, almost as if they hold some special meaning to him. When we perform moves, we don't have to say anything, we just do."

Scyther scratched his chin inquisitively before coming up blank. "Maybe that's how his kind activates their powers? I have no clue what to tell you, all I know is that he's different."

"Well, that's not even the weirdest part. After the battle, when I was practically bleeding out, he used his ice breath and it healed me somehow. I have no clue."

Scyther's eyes widened. "Wait, hold on. So you're telling me that Arron used an ice type move to heal you? How does that even work?!"

Raboot shrugged. "But after he healed me, I asked him why he hurt Riolu and Goh. He became a totally different pokemon the moment I said that, like flipping a switch. He just stood still like he had last night. But the weirdest thing about it were his eyes. He was crying."

"So you mean to tell me that the big bad Arron was crying? From a simple question?"

Raboot nodded. "Yeah, but he didn't seem to notice, it was just two tears. He also said he was a monster."

"Woah, okay, that's a twist. Why would he say or do any of that? From what I heard from Riolu and Pikachu, he was a heartless bastard. To hear about him becoming all mushy like that after a battle is so bizarre."

"Yeah, it is. But then after the battle, his reaction got me thinking. You remember when he beat up Riolu within an inch of his life?"

Scyther nodded. "Yeah, Riolu couldn't stand right for hours. But what does that have to do with this?"

Raboot closed her eyes, apparently deep in thought. "I was just so angry, so confused and angry at the time, and i wanted to know why he did what he did. Why would anyone become provoked to that level with what Riolu did? I know Riolu attacked Arron, but Arron wasn't even scratched. So why not just walk away? Why completely obliterate him? None of his actions add up unless you try to see things differently."

Scyther narrowed his eyes. "What exactly are you implying?"

"I'm implying that Arron isn't like us, both physically and mentally, so we shouldn't try to think like we do. Let's think like he does!"

"Raboot, that sounds absolutely insane."

"I know it does, but just stay with me here. Maybe there's something wrong with Arron. He's so… sporadic. One moment he's friendly to Goh and Ash and the next minute he nearly murders Riolu."

"Maybe he just doesn't like Riolu? He can be unlikable sometimes."

"But that doesn't explain what he said to Riolu afterwards, about how hatred makes for a good motivator. Why would he want to actively make Riolu hate him? Then there's what he said to me during the battle, how I was 'strong' and that was a good thing. I think he has this obsession with strength, but not just his strength. Everyone's strength. Then when I told him I'd beat him, he laughed. But he wasn't making fun of me, he seemed happy about it, happy that I was strong. I think he came from a place where the only thing that mattered wasn't just your strength, but the strength of those around you"

Scyther's eyes widened from an epiphany. "You think he was owned by another trainer before Goh? That would explain why he fought off the police pokemon, maybe he didn't want to be captured and taken back to his trainer. Maybe he was abused by his old trainer?"

The idea of that being true was very sobering, and it painted Arron in a whole new light. Maybe he wasn't evil and sadistic, but rather traumatized and conditioned.

"I don't know, but maybe we should talk to him later. I've got a splitting headache, and I'm in no condition to be playing psychiatrist."

"But one more thing, Raboot. While he was encasing me in ice, he mentioned his spirit energy. I have no clue what he meant by that."

Raboot sighed. "I don't know either, Scyther. All I know is that we need to learn more, if not for his sake, then for ours."

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