Welcome to the next chapter! This chapter was actually really fun to write from beginning to end and it is actually one of the longer chapters I've released in awhile.(Not overwhelming of course) This chapter has a lot of character building through dialogue and action and has a bit of goofy conversation's that help show how a character acts when not being faced with death or a serious conversation. Of course I finally get to add something in this chapter I've been wanting to do for awhile but you'll have to read to find out. This chapter also does add a lot of hints to the main story if you read carefully and ask yourself questions on some of the things that may not mean much. (I love leaving clues like that lol) Anyways I hope everyone enjoys this chapter because it was a mother of a chapter to write and edit in one sitting lol. Thanks for reading and thanks to all those that support the story in any way!

Chapter 33: Aiden

Point of View Kana

Our party has now been walking for around an hour since we left Ambrette and we were now on route eight. The route we were on was pretty unique since it followed the shore of the ocean and we were now walking on a path along a beach towards Cyllage city. The sun was now at the peak of its ascension through its daily cycle and it was now over heating everything its rays touched.

Alex appeared to be sweating quite a bit from the hot temperature and Flare seemed to be overheating as well as he walked in a droopy attitude that showed he was tired. I looked over to my left at Gray and saw that he was just taking the heat like a champ and looked almost unfazed by the overwhelming heat. Ebony and Hesh seemed pretty exhausted from the heat as well. Then I looked back at Black and saw that he was lagging behind the rest of the group. The umbreon just took one baby step at a time and looked directly at his feet and refused to look up.

I stopped walking for a few steps until he eventually made his way towards me. The instant he got close to me his head shot up and he took in a deep breath as if I just startled him. After he realized it was just me he exhaled his breath and continued walking in his slothish attitude.

"You alright, you look kinda out of it today" I asked as I walked beside him.

Black just continued walking while looking down at the ground as I saw a bead of sweat roll off his face "It's fifty million degrees out, there's not a shadow in sight and on top of that my black fur is absorbing the heat and I feel like Alex is trying to cook me alive out here… No nocturnal creature should have to endure this" Black said in a negative voice as he kicked the sand around in a childish manner as he kept walking. Although he did have a point on most of the things he did bring up, even if it was exaggerated.

"Yeah it is a little hot out here today" I said as I looked at the back of Black's head.

"A little" Black said in a crazed voice "If it's a little hot out… Then magikarp's are a superior species to the rest of us" Black said sarcastically.

"Maybe they are, and they just don't want us to know" I said jokingly, as I possibly started the biggest conspiracy ever.

"Then kill me now" Black said as he tried to look up a bit as the sun blinded him.

"It couldn't be that bad" I said.

"I couldn't live in a world like that" Black said as he still struggled to look up and endure the sun's rays as he and I both continued to follow behind the rest of the group that was about fifteen steps ahead of us.

"So what did you do before you were captured" I asked out of the blue.

Black instantly looked up at me with his mouth dropped "What did I do before I was captured" he asked himself. "Nothing really… I was honestly alone at that point of my life and didn't do anything significant" he said as he continued to ponder the thought.

"What'd you do before you joined our team" Black then decided to ask me.

The answer was pretty simple and not as exciting as I wish it could have been "Well I was a house pokemon honestly" I said with a nervous laugh worried that he'd judge me.

"Oh well at least a house has air conditioning" Black said.

"True but it gets boring being crammed in a house all day" I responded.

"I'd imagine" Black said in a bored voice as he continued staring at the ground as we walked.

"What about your family, I've never heard you mention them once" I then decided to ask.

Blacks ears instantly flickered as those words hit his ears "My family" he said in a quiet voice. "That subject is off limits" he said as his head went even lower along with his ears.

"Oh sorry I didn't know" I said out of guilt.

Black then let out a small sigh "It's fine, I've been asked that a million times at least."

"Well I'm sure you have your reasons for not wanting to talk about that. But if it helps I never actually knew any of my family" I said and then Black looked up slowly and looked at me and that's when I knew I had a conversation that caught his interest.

"Never" he said in a curious voice.

"Nope I've been with mister Hayter and Alex as long as I can remember" I said.

Black then raised his head a little more than he has since the sun came out "Don't you wonder who they were" he asked.

I then ponder that question that I always thought of. "Of course I do. I just have no way of finding my family" I said as I looked away to hide the emotions in me that were beginning to surface.

"Believe me I know how you feel… about having an empty family life" Black said in a sympathetic voice as he looked at me with caring eyes that showed he knew my pain. Yet how he knew my pain was still a mystery to me.

"Although I did actually know my family" he then said as he looked away to hide his emotions.

"Flare didn't separate you from your family when he caught you did he" I then asked as I instantly started filling in the blanks of what possible happened.

"No" Black almost instantly said. "I haven't seen my family in almost two years.

"Do you miss them" I asked as I instantly realized how dumb of a question that was, especially after he told me that the topic was off limits.

"Yeah" he replied in a numb voice. "I still remember them like it was yesterday. My sister… My brothers… My mother" Black said as he got sucked into his memories and forgot that he was even talking to me.

I then noticed he left someone out of the list of pokemon he remembered "What about your dad" I asked.

"Hardly knew him… Left when I was still a young eevee" Black said.

"I'm sorry to hear that" I truthfully said.

"It's fine… I still wonder if the ass is still out their" Black said in a slightly spiteful voice.

I then realized where Blacks mood was going and wasn't sure of how to handle it "Hey well why don't we change the subject, you said you didn't really like talking about your family life after all" I said in an attempt to change our conversation.

"Oh right" Black instantly said as he snapped out of his mood and remembered that he was too secretive to give away info like that, which I was going to respect that.

Black and I continued walking along route eight as our team slowly left us in the dust. We both eventually realized that and we both picked up our paste and eventually got close enough to our group that we weren't far off in the distance. As I looked at the rest of our team I noticed mostly everyone was socializing except for Alex who had no one to have an interesting conversation with. Flare and Hesh appeared to be having a conversation as I heard laughs escape their mouths every few minutes. Gray would sometimes add his input to the conversation, but he hardly contributed at all. As for Ebony the shy eevee kept to herself and kept walking in silence. I began to wonder if she was just naturally shy or if it was due to mental damage of losing her sister recently.

I then looked over to Black to see how he was holding up and I wasn't surprised to see that the umbreon was still being roasted alive from the suns bright rays. After a few minutes of walking I became bored and the neurons in my brain needed some kind of stimulation or I'd soon die from boredom.

"Okay Black here's a random question" I said with a big smile on my face "What's your zombie apocalypse plan" I asked as the umbreon just looked at me with a confused face.

"The hell is a zombie" he asked as my jaw dropped from his lack of knowledge on the subject.

"Are you kidding me" I yelled obnoxiously and everyone looked back at me as if I was crazy, yet I didn't care since this was an appropriate time for that.

"Seriously…" Black said.

"You know the living dead, people and pokemon coming back to life as brainless monsters that only seek to eat your brains" I said with enthusiasm "Have you not seen any good zombie movies."

"The hell did Alex's family do to you while you lived in that condo" Black said in a creeped out voice.

"Nothing what's wrong with you for not knowing that" I joked as I nudged him with my paw and made him stumble a little as he tried to keep a steady paste while walking.

"You have an overly active imagination" Black said.

"Wouldn't it make more sense that the world has an inactive imagination and mine's just normal" I said jokingly in a voice that was supposed to make me sound dumb.

"Oh mew what's wrong with you… I wanna talk to Flare and Hesh now… or even Gray…" Black said in a dark voice.

"Wow" I said in amazement of what he said.

"Okay maybe not Gray but still" Black then instantly said as he came to his senses and remembered their status as friends. Black's face then froze as he looked ahead and I swear I saw a tear of joy escape his eye as he stared at the rest area ahead.

Alex and the rest of our crew made their way towards the rest area in middle of the route. There was quite a few tables scattered throughout the area along with some cheap lawn chairs to go with the tables and right next to the route was an old man running a concession stand that sold food and drinks and what appeared to be over priced sunglasses.

"What do you guys say we stop for lunch" Alex asked everyone.

"Mew yes please" Black yelled out in a delirious voice as everyone looked back at the crazed umbreon.

Alex just scratched his head at the umbreon's random outburst "You really want to keep going that bad Black" Alex misinterpreted. Black then just stopped talking after Alex failed to interpret his mood and he just looked around the beach and saw an umbrella that made a nice shade spot and he instantly dived into the shade and made himself confortable in his natural environment of the shadows.

"Hey that was my spot" Gray then barked out in anger.

"Bite me" Black then said in a stern voice. Gray then began to growl a little in frustration until Flare nudged the upset absol.

"Remember I asked you to be nice to him" Flare then said quietly to the absol. He then let out a frustrated sigh and walked away. After a few minutes everyone but Black and Ebony where in a big group talking right in front of the beach, including myself.

"It's been such a long hot walk" Flare said in a lazy voice as he lied on the sandy ground.

"Yeah its killing me" Hesh concurred.

"So Kana what where you and Black talking about during the walk here" Flare then asked me. My brain then stopped working as the neurons in my brain failed to make a logical answer and I completely forgot about the random things we talked about. "This and that… and zombies" I said awkwardly.

"Zombies" Flare said in surprise.

"Yeah and he didn't even know what they were" I exclaimed.

"Wow…" Hesh then decided to add as Gray just sat in our group and didn't contribute to the conversation.

"We will have to find a way to show him a zombie movie" Flare then said in excitement.

"Or better yet…" I said as I waited for their attention "Let's show him a really gory horror movie, since he doesn't know a lot about movies" I said jokingly. Everyone then laughed at the idea of Black watching a horror movie and how he would react to the foreign video's he's never seen. Even gray was laughing a little at the concept.

"Then it's decided we are so doing that once we reach Cyllage city" Flare said as he laughed and Hesh nodded in agreement.

After minutes of us adding to the subject I then noticed Alex talking to a female off in the distance who also appeared to be a trainer as well. The lady had dark brown hair and wore a black and gray striped jacket with a black under shirt and she wore black sweat pants and black sport shoe's to match. She also appeared to have green eyes that gave her a rather confident look.

After a few minutes of me observing the two, I then saw them shake hands and Alex then made his way towards us. "Hey guys come over here" I heard Alex yell with a thrilled voice. Every single one of us then stopped what we were doing and made our way towards Alex who was also walking towards us.

We all then stood and awaited for Alex to speak "Would anyone be up for a battle with another trainer, two on two would be the rules we agreed on" Alex said with a big smirk. Almost everyone shook their head in excitement except for Gray, Ebony and Black.

"Black you can't fight though, you know since you just got out of the pokecenter" Alex said.

"Great I didn't really want to fight anyways" Black said in a slightly snide voice.

"I know you wanted to fight but I can't risk you upsetting your wound" Alex then said in a caring voice.

"Yeah keep thinking that" Black then said sarcastically.

Now that Black was out of the mix it just left Gray, Hesh, Flare, Ebony and me.

"Okay how about Kana and…" Alex said as he thought of another pokemon and I then felt myself become extremely nervous from being put on the spot like this. "And how about Flare" Alex said with a satisfied look on his face. Flare then gave an energetic nod and walked next to Alex and I nervously followed behind the two.

Flare then looked over at me and noticed my discomfort as I walked in a non-straight line and my breath picked up a little "Don't worry you'll do fine" Flare said with a reassuring smile on his face as he looked at me with confidence deep within his eyes.

We all continued to walk towards the anonymous trainer as she took two pokeball's off her belt and held one in each of her hands.

"You ready for what's coming" She said in a confident voice.

"Are you ready is the real question" Alex then said with a bigger ego.

Then we were all blinded by a bright flash of a light and two pokemon where released from her pokeball's. The first pokemon I made out was a bulbasaur that looked pretty average along with a confident yet friendly grin on his face.

Then I looked to the right of the bulbasaur and Flare and I both froze at the pokemon that was standing in front of us.

"Wait you" Flare said in surprise.

"Oh mew" A familiar charmander responded, the same charmander that put me in the pokemon center back in Luminose.

"Hey no hard feelings about last time right Jolte" The charmander said in a nervous voice as he scratched the back of his neck.

I then remembered how he also choose to help me after he injured me and I did remember his guilt, so in the end I wasn't too happy about being injured but I wasn't going to hold a grudge as long as he wasn't a bad pokemon.

"No, no grudge" I said with a small smile.

"So… this is your trainer" Flare then asked.

The charmander then looked back at the confident teenage girl and then looked back and lowered his head "This bitchy women decided to catch me when I was wondering around. Now I'm stuck and due to past escape attempts the lady won't let me out of her sight" The charmander said as he then raised his hands in anger.

"Well that really blows" Flare then replied.

Before the battle started I looked back off into the distance and I could see every one of my teammates watching the soon to come battle with high anticipation. The few other humans that were around then stopped what they were doing and readjusted themselves to watch the battle that was about to take place.

"Ready" the teenage girl asked.

"Let's do this" Alex yelled with enthusiasm as he pointed at her.

"Juda use vine whip" the lady yelled to her bulbasaur "Charmander use ember" she then added to her last command.

The instant those words left her mouth I then froze as I saw a giant vine from the bulbasaur come straight towards me and my mind suddenly began to think of everything I could do but instead I choose to think and not act.

"Kana dodge" Alex yelled and brought me back to my senses. I then instantly jumped out of the way as I felt the force of the vine just barely miss me. I didn't have much time to recover though because the instant that I dodged I saw an ember about one foot away from my face. I then let out a small scream as I dropped to the floor as fast as I could and barely avoided another trip to the pokecenter.

"Flare use flame charge and Kana use quick attack on the charmander and don't even give him a chance to breathe" Alex yelled in excitement.

I then took a big gulp and I said my last prayer to Mew and I sprinted towards the charmander at a speed that shouldn't have been possible. I looked to my side and saw Flare's body become engulfed in flame and he too charged towards his opponent.

"Mew no" I heard the charmander yell in fear as he dived away from my paw which had electricity pulsing through it. Right as he was getting back up though I instantly jumped towards him before the lizard could blink and I smack him right in the snout and conducted electricity right into his reptilian body.

The charmander then let out a screech of pain and fell to the ground as his muscles pulsed in pain. I then felt bad, I've never actually caused someone pain like that before. Other than that one time I was fighting that one umbreon to protect myself, but this was different.

"Are you okay" I asked in a guilty voice.

"That hurt" he yelled as he got up to his shaky feet. "Seriously… like what the hell" he continued to yell as he crossed his arms and stomp his feet as he looked at his trainer and everyone stopped fighting and watched the charmander throw a hissy fit.

"You know what I'm done. I am done" He yelled in anger "I'm tired of your bull crap training, being humiliated and I can't take that shit you call food anymore… This is inhumane and I'm going to get pokemon rights groups on yo ass women" he yelled in frustration.

The girl then scratched her head in confusion as she watched the charmander throw his tantrum "Charmander can you please just stay on task for one minute and not slack off" she said as she put her palm to her face.

"Mew just kill me Jolteon… please" the charmander then said as he threw his arms in the air and then faced me.

"Can we continue" I then heard Flare yell from the distance.

"Don't need my permission asshole" the charmander yelled at Flare in a rude tone.

"Rough week, sorry" I then heard the charmander say in a calmer voice towards me.

"Kana use thunder bolt" I then heard Alex yell from the distance.

I then began charging up an attack I've only used a few times due to the fact that my electric attacks were prohibited in the condo I lived in. The charmander's jaw then dropped as I launched a very sloppy and unstable thunder bolt towards him. He then launched an ember to counter the attack and the two attacks collided and caused an explosion that sent both of us flying to the ground.

I was now lying on the ground and I was slightly dazed and I was facing in the direction of Flares fight. I saw Flare dodging vines from the bulbasaur as he tried his hardest to avoid injury. Then I looked towards the charmander that I was supposed to be fighting. He was now staring at the fight between Flare and the bulbasaur and he then charged up an ember and sent it towards Flare who wasn't paying any attention to him.

"Flare" I yelled in an attempt to warn my friend. Flare and the bulbasaur then both looked at the ember and then the bulbasaur took his chance and began charging towards Flare for when he dodged the ember.

But instead of what the bulbasaur planned Flare then grabbed the plant pokemon with his teeth and flung the fella right into the ember and I then heard a loud screech from the bulbasaur as he flew to the ground in a fiery explosion that I was glad I wasn't apart of.

"Damn…" I then heard the charmander say in an awkward voice "Did you like see that…" the charmander said once again in his awkward voice "That was awesome" he then said out loud and the barely conscious bulbasaur looked at him as if he was crazy.

"Who the hell's side you on" he said right before he passed out.

"Whoops he actually heard that" the charmander said in an awkward voice as I then noticed him scratching the back of his neck out of habit of being embarrassed or nervous.

Then I saw my chance to get the charmander while he was distracted and I then tackled the poor sucker as he was looking at his incinerated teammate. Then I heard a small crack noise and the charmander hit the ground and got a mouth full of sand.

"I'm getting really sick of this" I then heard him say as he tried lifting himself up with shaky arms.

"Okay just stop, we surrender" the female trainer then yelled in humiliation.

Alex then let out a big smile and then ran onto the sandy beach where we were fighting and Flare and I both headed towards Alex. "That was great, I'm proud of you two" he said as he crouched down and pulled us into a big hug.

I honestly felt really good since I didn't know what to expect and I felt a lot of pressure and stress relieved. I could honestly say I enjoyed that battle to an extent despite the fact that the team was unorganized.

After a few minutes of everyone praising me and Flare the enemy trainer then walked towards us with her charmander and her bulbasaur was returned to his pokeball to rest.

"That was a good fight Alex, your pokemon impressed me honestly" the lady said as she extended her hand out for a hand shake. Alex then smile "You too your pokemon weren't too bad either" Alex said as he shook her hand. Then the charmander walked towards Black who appeared to be looking at him in an untrusting manner.

"The hell do you want" Black said in an upset voice.

"Whoa, whoa at least here me out" the charmander said as he held his hands up as if he was trying to show he was hiding nothing.

"I get it you are pissed about the whole Luminose city thing and I am too. I was forced to do all of that and I would have never had a hand or paw in that if I had a choice" The charmander explained himself.

"Then why'd you do it" Gray then said as he butted into the conversation.

"Because they were holding my real trainer hostage and I had to or they'd…" the charmander said as his voice got lower.

"Then what happened to him" Gray then asked.

"I don't know they still have him hostage… that is if he's still alive" the charmander said.

"I've actually been looking for you Ryder. You know those freaks and Vincent. You can help me can't you" the charmander asked in an anxious voice.

Black's eyes then froze once the charmander brought up his brother "I'm trying to stay out of that… and I just want to stay below the radar" Black said.

"But they're after you and they're going to find you one day. Let's help each other Black me and you can put a stop to them and save my trainer" the charmander said.

"Stop talking about them" Black then yelled at the top of his lungs. Everyone then looked at black as he wore a tense look filled with anger as he gritted his teeth and stared the charmander dead in the eyes.

"So you choose for them to come to you and kill all of your friends in their sleep and abduct you. Is that what you choose… to be a coward" the charmander said and Black then began to growl in anger as his eyes lit up with fury.

"I suggest you stop talking now" Black said in a dark voice as he began circling around the charmander in a very hostile manner.

"Black stop this" Flare yelled in a concerned voice, but Black ignored Flares advice.

"I can help you find Vincent. I know how you must feel about him after that night and surely you must want to kill him after what he's done to you and your family" the charmander said as he continued twisting Black's heart cords. "I just want t-"

"Shut your fucking mouth before I kill you" Black then snapped in a vicious voice that made everyone including the charmander stand back in fear.

"If you even mention that one more time I'm going to kill you right here" Black continued to yell as he got in the charmander's face and made him fall down on his butt and he then began to shake slightly from Black's dark mood that set everyone's teeth on edge.

Then Flare jumped right beside the charmander and looked Black dead in the eyes without fear "Black that's enough. You can't just threaten pokemon like that" Flare said in a defensive voice as he got ready for Black's wrath.

Black just stood their gritting his teeth and made a scowling noise as if he was resisting what he wanted to say "Mention anything and I'll hospitalize you" Black growled in a sinister tone as he walked away from the group. Alex and the other trainer were too startled by Black's mood to even react properly about the situation and control they're pokemon.

After Black stormed off everyone just sat there in an awkward silence and the only sound was the wind blowing through the air.

"Sorry about that. He's been through some traumatic stuff lately" Alex apologized to the female trainer.

"Its fine I guess" She then replied in a confused voice not knowing how to respond.

Flare then turned around and looked at the charmander "Are you okay" he asked, the charmander just gave a nod and got up off the ground and dusted himself off.

"Thanks" he said dully.

I then decided to walk up to him and see if I could help brighten the mood of the situation "Everyone is okay and that's all that matters" I said with a smile that was obviously forced on my face. I was now scared honestly. 'What doesn't Black want us knowing' I asked myself. 'He didn't even sound like himself. He sounded like a completely different pokemon consumed by hatred' I continued to think.

"Anyways thanks again for helping me and I'm sorry if I caused any trouble now or in the past" the charmander said in a guilty voice.

"No its fine honestly" I quickly added in not leaving much room for him to feel guilty.

"I honestly just wanted to help my trainer. I never meant to hurt anyone. And I surely didn't mean to upset Ryder" the charmander said.

"We call him Black now but just leave that subject alone he's very touchy about that" Flare added in.

"Yeah I learned my lesson" the charmander said sarcastically.

"By the way charmander, what's your name" I then asked since I never caught it from any past dialogue and this was also a good chance to take the subject off Black's violent behavior.

"I never did introduce myself did I" the charmander then said "The name my original trainer gave me was Aiden" the charmander said.

"Aiden that's a unique name" I then added.

"Indeed it is, it actually pretty fitting though since it means little fire… Although the little fire part always made it sound less intimidating and too cute for my taste" the charmander said with a small chuckle of relief from the drama.

Flare then looked at me with a serious glance "We are going to need to have a serious talk with Black. He needs help or he's going to do something impulsive and hurt someone… I understand why he's like this but I can't honestly relate to it" Flare said.

"Relate to what" I asked.

"I can't tell anyone" Flare said as he shifted his glance at the charmander known as Aiden "And I suggest you keep that info quiet or he'll have another break down again" Flare said with a serious voice.

Chapter End

Author Note: Well that was a good chapter in my opinion and fun to write with all the things going on. I found it interesting how this chapter went from lighthearted and possible comical to some depending on humor to a dark chapter towards the very end. Anyways I'd like to discuss Black's little break down. A lot happened on the night he never wants to speak about and he does not want anyone knowing what happened that night and especially the horror's he lived. Of course one day I may be gracious enough to write about it lol. Okay I will explain one day lol but when that part comes up I will lol so until then hang tight. One thing also I'd like to remind you people of is that Aiden is a spy if you remember the Houndour speaking to him, I just though i'd mention that since it may have been easily forgotten and it'll be interesting to write about how things roll out about that and what kind of pokemon Aiden is. Anyways now onto the more lighthearted stuff lol. Someone once told me to add things about me to the characters so I decided to kind of add some to the characters. Example would be Kana and her conversation with Black about the zombies... The reason I added that was because when I get bored I ask the most dumbest questions ever just to cure my boredom so I had her ask that because I thought it would be slightly comical and plus their zombies lol. (I'm a huge zombie fan... just saying now) Anyways I could talk all day/night about this chapter but I don't want to whore out this any longer since this already was a long chapter and you all probably just want to stop reading. Thanks to all those who support the story and I hope this story has remained original enough to retain all of your attention lol.