We have arrived at the midpoint of Worlds Apart! There are ten chapters before this, and I intend for there to be ten chapters after this.

And remember, everyone, if you ever want to chat with me, the tag is SnowLabrador#7822 on Discord. I accept all friend requests unless you're an obvious troll. Enjoy!


Rizal is gone. He's never coming back. And the sooner I accept it, the better.

Zen might know the truth. He might know exactly what he needed to do in order to come to terms with it. He just didn't want to do it.

In a way, the Zoroark's absence stung worse than his parents' early demise. In that case, his parents had never betrayed him; indeed, they'd gone to their graves in an effort to save his life. Rizal, on the other hand, had actively decided to turn his back on Zen, and that's the part that hurt the most.

Every time he ate a meal with Valentina now, the human lady would sigh, running a hand through her white blonde bangs. She would give Zen facial expressions that said I am so, so sorry.

Life after Rizal wasn't easy to adjust to. No longer could the Riolu boy look forward to running outside the house after breakfast, meeting up with his best friend one house over, and then racing each other to the clearing where Grant and Emaire hung out.

If that wasn't bad enough, it seemed as though the Turtwig and Vulpix had begun to grow apart. Most of the time, only one of them was present in the clearing when Zen arrived. This was a problem, since a game of tag can't exactly work with only two players.

For the most part, Zen and whichever other Pokémon was there would simply sit in the grass and talk. But this got old fast, especially during the late summer heat. The temperatures made Zen restless, even though it felt like he was baking alive.

If this new development in his relationship with Grant and Emaire wasn't bad enough, the growing pains Zen experienced only got worse. Some nights, they left him unable to sleep, as though his very bones had splinters within them.

Of course, if what Rizal had been through was any indication, Zen was about to evolve pretty soon. He would become a Lucario before long, at least if he met the other criterion for evolution.

He remembered hearing that a Riolu needed to achieve a certain level of happiness before evolving. Beyond the question of how one could really quantify happiness, there was the question of how Zen could be happy when everything was falling apart around him.

And so, in some respects, it felt like his body was at war with itself. As long as he was unhappy, Zen could never evolve, and yet his hormones were telling him that it was time to become a Lucario, leading to these aches and pains. But since this conflict prevented him from experiencing happiness, he wouldn't be able to become a Lucario.

It was a vicious cycle, which left him feeling as though he might be stuck in a Riolu's body forevermore.

Valentina, of course, did her best to remedy this. She sometimes let Zen sleep with a hot water bottle, which relieved the aches somewhat. But it wasn't a permanent solution; even she acknowledged this. The only thing that could truly help was far more elusive.

As stated above, these growing pains left the Riolu boy sleepless on many nights. He would lie awake, howling in near-agony, until the sun came up and started shining through the windows. Then, he would have to accept that sleep just wasn't coming, no matter how much he needed it.

When he did sleep, however, things weren't much better.

Zen would toss and turn for hours, trying to find a comfortable position. But when he closed his eyes at last, he frequently found himself trapped in a nightmare with no way out.

Sometimes, he dreamed of his parents, gunned down by a faceless hunter in their own home. In Zen's mind, there was no good reason to give this hunter a face or name, because that would amount to glorifying his actions.

These dreams were never like the one he'd had a few years ago, in which his father was by his side to reassure him. No, this one was a nightmare; he heard noises from that cave that nobody ever wants to hear.

One of the nightmares, however, did not feature his parents. That didn't make it any less horrifying, though; if anything, it was even worse than the ones in which he heard the gunshots that had left him an orphan.

He saw a tall, majestic Zoroark marching awkwardly through the woods. That in itself was a shocking contrast; it seemed that the Zoroark, despite his good looks in general, was struggling to keep his balance. He certainly wasn't graceful.

It was almost as if he'd only recently evolved. Going from being a quadruped to walking on two legs must have been quite an adjustment.

Wait a minute…

Zen could hardly believe it at first, but seconds later, he found it hard to ignore the obvious truth. The Zoroark was Rizal.

This was further evidenced by the mustached man tiptoeing next to the Zoroark; he looked just like Cedric Nale. Indeed, he almost certainly was Cedric Nale.

"Okay, Rizal" Mr. Nale whispered. "We have to be very quiet, as you know. Otherwise our prey will hear us, and that's the last thing we want."

The Zoroark nodded, grimacing slightly. Then, the pair continued through the tall grass, past pine trees and small streams.

"There it is!" Rizal whispered, pointing in one direction. Zen, although he knew he was in a dream, felt sick to his stomach as he heard the Zoroark, who had once been his best friend, exclaim so gleefully that he'd found his prey.

"What species is it?" Mr. Nale asked, using an equally quiet voice.

"An Alolan Vulpix" the Zoroark mouthed quietly. "The little guy's in that direction, and he doesn't seem to suspect a thing. Now's our best chance, let's give chase!"

Rizal was able to run faster than his owner, but Mr. Nale was no slowpoke either. The pair sprinted into the brush, and the mustached man could be heard loading his weapon.

Zen found it difficult to watch as Mr. Nale raised his rifle, aiming lower towards the ground so as to hit a small target. His focus was sickening enough, but probably the more disturbing part was the way his eyes glinted.

Mr. Nale looked as though he were having the time of his life. He was about to shoot and kill an Alolan Vulpix, who had probably been brought to Hisui by a settler from the archipelago. That Alolan Vulpix had a family to go back to, probably hopes and dreams as well, and Cedric Nale was about to snatch those hopes and dreams away from him.

With a sound that had haunted several of Zen's dreams, Mr. Nale pulled the trigger.

There was the sound of a bullet traveling through the air at high speed, and for a moment, Zen held out hope that he wouldn't hear any other sounds besides the gunshot; well, other than Mr. Nale's screams of frustration, that is.

Unfortunately, the next sound he heard was a sickening splat.

Zen gasped, grateful that Mr. Nale couldn't hear him. Rizal flinched at the noise, but he didn't say anything.

The hunter and his Zoroark stepped slowly towards the body of the Alolan Vulpix. It was still recognizable as having been an Alolan Vulpix, but there was a bullet in its back, which had resulted in blood spreading throughout its fur.

The gory details will be left out here, but Zen found the whole scene nauseating to look at. Even worse, however, was Mr. Nale's reaction to it.

"I got him good!" the mustached man exclaimed, no longer concerned with subtlety. "Look at that, Rizal! Am I a skilled marksman or what?"

"You are, Cedric, you are" the Zoroark replied, somewhat tepidly. "What are you going to do with him?"

"Well, we really have two options" Mr. Nale said. "We can clean his fur off and sell it as a blanket. Plenty of people in Hisui would pay lots of money for that little piece of Alola."

"Or?"

"Or we could hang up his head as a trophy. It'll show all the other hunters in the region that you don't mess with Cedric Nale and Rizal. I mean, we got an Alolan Vulpix, for crying out loud."

Zen could hardly bear it, hearing about how proud the two were of having ended the life of a Pokémon. He willed himself to wake up, but his subconscious seemed determined to trap him in this nightmare a little longer.

"Personally, I like the second option better," Rizal replied. "I don't think people will want a bloody blanket, even if it's been cleaned off."

That was the last thing Zen saw before he sat bolt upright in bed, his conscious mind coming back online. He looked around his bedroom, seeing that the sun had yet to rise; it was still very much the early hours of the morning.

He had no way of knowing if the events he'd just witnessed were true. That didn't make them any less frightening, though.

It was agonizing, not knowing what to believe about Rizal's true motivations. It would have almost been easier to accept if the Zoroark had just flat-out said that he loved hunting down innocent, exotic Pokémon.

Zen did not sleep again that night. Instead, he lay awake, his legs spasming with bursts of pain. His body was engaged in a civil war, and whichever side ended up winning, the end of that war would not come without a great deal of suffering.


Autumn arrived, bringing with it cooler temperatures, more breezes, and more variably colored foliage. One might think that these factors would improve the Riolu boy's mental health, but they'd be wrong.

With every day that passed without Rizal, Zen found it harder and harder not to launch into tirades against the Zoroark. It didn't matter that Rizal was hundreds of miles away and would never hear them.

Valentina, of course, wasn't particularly happy with Zen for being loud. She would sometimes enter his room and raise a finger in front of her closed mouth, the universal gesture for Be quiet. The only question was: What was Zen interrupting?

She probably wouldn't be reading; Zen had at least skimmed everything in her library by now, so Valentina most likely had as well. As far as the Riolu boy knew, she had no job other than tending to the farm and selling her goods in town (in which Zen joined her a few more times, luckily without any further incidents.)

On one occasion, Zen found himself pounding his feet against the floorboards. Not for the first time, he found himself screaming something like, "Rizal, you suck! How dare you betray me like that!" And he knew Valentina wouldn't be pleased, but he hardly cared.

Something was different this time, though. Valentina did not enter his room, and Zen wondered if she was taking a midafternoon nap, something she did not do, at least not in the time he'd lived with her.

He stopped marching in place. It wasn't doing him any good, because ultimately, it wouldn't solve the problem. And he instead tiptoed out of his bedroom and down the hallway.

There was another room in the house, one to which he rarely ventured. Its shelves were piled high with stacks of documents, probably on all sorts of topics, and there was even an apparatus he didn't recognize, but that his owner called a "computer."

Valentina had labeled the room as her office, and it was for this reason that Zen usually stayed out of it. It was best not to stick his neck where it didn't belong.

However, today he was simply too curious not to enter the office, especially once he heard the sound of sobbing coming from that particular room.

This gave Zen pause. For obvious reasons, there was only one person who might be sobbing in there, unless someone else had invaded their home (and that wasn't likely at all.) Besides, the "voice" of the crying was consistent with it being Valentina.

Do I try to comfort her, or just leave her alone?

After a few seconds, Zen decided on the former option. Valentina had comforted him any number of times the last few years, so it was time for him to return the favor.

"Valentina?" he asked quietly, opening the door to the office.

The lady turned around, her bright blue eyes wet with tears. Zen's heart began to pound as he realized that he might have just made a big mistake.

"Oh. Hello, Zen" Valentina replied, in a sad yet soothing tone. "Do you need anything?"

"Not really," the Riolu boy said. "It's just…why are you crying? Is everything okay?"

Valentina sighed. "Things are just fine. It's been years since it happened, and I've had plenty of time to think it through."

Zen frowned. "When what happened? If it's not too personal, of course."

Valentina sighed again. "Well, I've kept it from you the whole time you've been living with me. Perhaps I should have been more transparent, but I didn't think I wanted to burden you with the truth."

A number of possibilities ran through Zen's mind, some more disturbing than others. It occurred to him that maybe Valentina was in league with the hunters, but he shot that idea down quickly. It was unthinkable, in more ways than one.

"I can handle the truth," the Riolu boy insisted. But could he?

Valentina nodded. "I think you can handle it. Besides, you've experienced it as well, so it might make you feel less alone to know what happened to me."

There was another silence, but then the lady continued speaking. She got down on her knees, as though she were praying to Arceus, and looked Zen directly in the eyes.

"I lived alone before you came here, but it hasn't always been that way. Indeed, one can say I never truly lived alone. I had a husband."

Zen didn't say anything; instead, he sat down, careful not to crush his own tail, and listened intently to what Valentina had to say.

"We weren't just lovers, we were best friends. I remember hiking with him in the forest many times, exploring in much the same way you did with Rizal."

Zen shuddered. "Would you mind not bringing him up? It's rather painful."

Valentina nodded. "My apologies. Anyway, I loved my husband very much. We were young, and we didn't have children yet. We wanted to hold off on having kids so that we could settle in and see everything Hisui had to offer."

"So you're a settler?"

She nodded again. "Yes. I came here with my husband when we were newlyweds. I'd thought that we would eventually have kids, and I'd experience motherhood. We would grow old together, making new memories every year, and then maybe retire somewhere warmer."

Zen was on the verge of tears, mainly because this was clearly a difficult subject for Valentina to talk about. It seemed that sobs were indeed contagious.

"I'm assuming that didn't happen," the Riolu boy said weakly.

Valentina nodded once more. "I didn't think our marriage would ever end. Of course, on some level, everyone knows they'll die one day. I just didn't expect my husband to get sick at thirty.

"He had cancer, which is when cells in one's body start multiplying at quick rates. Your parents might have taught you something about biology, or maybe not, but I just remember feeling so helpless. There was nothing I could do as he got weaker and weaker…".

After that, Valentina teared up further, and Zen put his arms around her. They sat there for a few moments, the human lady sobbing, the Riolu boy trying to make her feel better any way he could.

Finally, she continued.

"He fought hard, but Arceus had other ideas. The Creator took him from me about a year before you arrived. Since then, I have been too afraid to remarry, not that there are many dating options for widows in Hisui. Sometimes I wonder if they think I'm responsible for my husband's death."

Zen shook his head. "That's ridiculous. How can they believe that?"

"You might dismiss it, Zen, but these people don't know any better. Perhaps I should have spotted the signs sooner, gotten him treatment earlier in his cancer battle. But I can't change my past actions, or rather, lack thereof."

"You did nothing wrong," Zen insisted. "You were the best wife you could be, I'm sure of it!"

"That's easy enough for you to say when you weren't there" Valentina replied. "At the time, I thought I was doing the right thing, but in the years since he died, I've wondered if I could have done something, anything differently."

Something else occurred to Zen. "Is that why you didn't want me playing outside with the others at first?"

There was an awkward silence, and Valentina's face looked so pained it made Zen feel terrible. Slowly, though, she nodded.

"Yes. I'd been so lonely for so long, and finally gotten to know you. I didn't want to lose you, and I was willing to prevent that from happening by any means necessary. For that, I want to apologize as unequivocally as I can."

Zen nodded. "Really, you don't need to worry. The woods felt pretty frightening after my parents were killed; I don't think I would have been in the right mind at first."

Valentina shook her head. "I could have at least given you a little more freedom. What's the point of loving someone if you don't want to help them grow and blossom?"

It was only then that the Riolu boy fully processed everything Valentina was telling him. He hadn't been lied to, but the human lady hadn't been giving him the full truth either.

More importantly, the tragedy Valentina had been through was a lot like his own. In some ways, of course, it was different; Zen's parents had sacrificed themselves to save him, whereas Valentina's husband had simply died. Additionally, the deaths of Nathaniel and Raine had been a lot quicker.

Both losses, however, had left the survivor very much alone, as well as wondering what, if anything, they could have done differently. Was there any action they could have taken that might have made it so that they weren't alone?

And yet, despite (or perhaps because of) these horrendous tragedies, Zen and Valentina had found one another. They'd given each other company these last few years, which wasn't everything, but it was still something.

As the pair embraced each other once again, Zen felt something begin to change within him. Something about both having lost loved ones made him feel a certain amount of solidarity with Valentina.

A warm sensation made itself known within Zen's legs. It spread throughout his bones and blood, working its way up to his chest. At first, it was a pleasant feeling, much like sitting in front of a fireplace on a cold winter night.

But then the heat became more intense, and Zen found himself grimacing. He gritted his teeth as his legs ached. It was as though they were being stretched out by some large, invisible hands.

"Is everything okay, Zen?" Valentina asked him, her eyes shifting from wistfulness to urgency. "Should I get a doctor?"

The Riolu boy was barely able to nod. He felt the bones and ligaments in his legs stretching out just like the legs themselves; dozens of large splinters were poking him from inside. He gasped, letting go of Valentina's hand.

Zen collapsed onto his back, landing directly on his tail, which made his eyes water. Valentina also gasped as she watched Zen's display.

"I think…I think you're evolving, Zen!" she exclaimed.

It didn't feel like a cause for celebration. Zen groaned more and more as his bone structure rearranged itself, all of them connecting with one another like tinker toys. His entire body was being shuffled like a deck of cards.

And then came the agony in his chest. Perhaps this was what a heart attack felt like; something was trying to burst out of Zen's chest, as though it were being crushed by something else. The sensation was hard to describe, but it wasn't a pleasant one.

Similar sensations also made themselves known on the backs of his paws, albeit to a much lesser degree. Like a mountain rising from the planet's crust, two bone-like spikes erupted from his wrists.

Seconds later, the same type of spike rose out of his chest; this one occurred much more slowly. Zen tried to block his mind out; he hoped to pass out until this was all over, because everything was becoming more and more difficult to process.

Finally, just as suddenly as it had started, it stopped.

Zen found himself still lying on the ground; perhaps at one point he had blacked out briefly from the pain, but he was fully conscious now, albeit a little dizzy.

He tried to sit up, but Valentina forced him back down.

"I wouldn't recommend that right now. Just lie down until you're ready to get up. It can be a bit hard to move around right after evolving."

Right after evolving. Wait a minute, I just evolved!

A wave that was partly euphoria, but a greater part was relief, washed over Zen. He had finally achieved the rite of passage for any Pokémon: Evolution.

"I…evolved," he said weakly.

"That's right," Valentina replied, smiling. "You are a Lucario now."