Book 2: Impending Twilight

Chapter 80: Always thinking about you

Point of View Naomi

I let out a tired yawn as I pried myself off the cold ground. I took a step out of the den I use to live in and I looked up into the night sky. The rings on my body began to glow once I stepped out into the moonlight. I bathed in the rejuvenating lunar rays, and I felt so alive for once.

I looked back in the hole in the tree that Dante and I slept in, and I saw my sleeping brother soundly breathing. I walked back towards Dante and stood over him, and gave one last gaze at him.

"Goodbye Dante, I'm sorry to do this to you again, but it has to be this way," I said with deep melancholy in my voice.

With those final words said, I left my brother so I could regroup with Black, and fulfill my deal with Skull Face. It hurt me a lot to do this to my own brother, but I had one final thing to do, one final task to endure to make things right.

After a few hours of walking I eventually came out of the forest. This was the exact same area I entered the forest, and there was a reason I came back to this exact location. I scanned the area carefully until I noticed a patch of dirt in all the grass around me. I walked up to the dirt patch and began digging up something very valuable to me. After a minute, I felt my paw hit something, and I reached my snout in the hole and pulled out a sack. I placed the sack on the ground and dusted it off before I picked it back up and continued my journey.

The sack which I just acquired contained the injections I needed to keep my brain functioning. I absolutely hated these things, sure it gave me a small boost in intelligence, but I didn't need them to be a genius. These syringes caused more problems than they helped. Example, I am quadruped so I can't inject myself, so imagine having to ask a stranger to inject you with a random needle, but I mostly went with the lie that they were my insulin shots, and I was diabetic. I guess that was believable, compared to nano technology injects.

The route I had planned was going to be efficient. Instead of travelling through all the cities and taking the longest way possible, I was going to follow a river that would literally take me as far as Geosenge. Once I got to Geosenge, I would imagine that Black would be in Shalour, or somewhere around that city. This was the fastest way possible, and I needed to hurry because I spent longer than I needed on seeing my brother.

So for the next hour, I spent my time getting to the river. When I arrived at the river, I began following it as planned. Soon the sun rose and it was early morning. My stomach grumbled in pain, as I felt starvation taking its effect. I tried to ward off the feeling, but my stomach continued to beg me to feed it. I cringed as my stomach began to develop the sick feeling you get when you haven't eaten in a while.

"Arceus, I'm starved," I complained out loud as I dragged my paws along the rocky ground of a mountain.

"You'll get used to the feeling," A white umbreon responded to me as he walked ahead of me.

"I really don't want to get used to poor living conditions," I muttered to myself. Stark just shrugged off what I said and we continued walking through the mountainous terrain.

After hours of nonstop walking through a forest Stark decided that we should stop for a brake. I knew he was only stopping for me, Stark wasn't the type to take brakes. As I lied on the hard ground with a gurgling stomach Stark just paced around. Here and there he would get bored and he'd randomly strike a rock with a dark matter attack.

"Naomi, how come you never talk about your family or anything?" Stark asked me out of nowhere.

My head jolted up as I took in the random question that I never expected, "My family?" I said in confusion. "Why?"

"I'm bored I guess," he dryly answered.

"Well…" I began to say nervously, "There is my Dad who is a jolteon, my mother who is a very caring glaceon, and my brother Dante who used to always be there for me," I answered Stark.

"That's all, nothing else worth sharing?" Stark questioned me in disappointment.

"We were mostly a normal family, until I left one night," I told Stark.

"Why'd you leave?" he asked me.

"Because… I had a breakdown from all the stress everyone caused me, and I ran away," I answered as I thought back to my brother and wished I stayed with him.

Stark let out a sigh, "I never actually knew my family. When I was very young I just remember aimlessly wandering through a forest until I met Sam. Sam and I stayed together after that, eventually we were captured by Jack, and we were taught to be killers," Stark told me. "I always wondered who my real family was, why I was left alone, why I'm white and not black like most umbreons," Stark said with a little pain in his voice.

"I'm sorry to hear that," I honestly responded to him.

"Don't worry about it, it's not like I expect you to care," Stark said.

I got myself up off the ground, and I moved towards Stark who was now facing away from me. I gave him a strong nudge in the arm, and he turned towards me.

"Stark, my brother always told me it wasn't good to bottle things up inside of you. It'll slowly break you down if you hide your feeling from the world, so if you need to talk I'm here for you," I told Stark as I looked into his red eyes.

Stark quickly jumped back from me as he looked at me with a confused look, "I'm a killer, so stop acting like I need to open up, beside, I don't need people worrying about me," Stark yelled at me in anger, but I couldn't help but not feel anger, but sorrow instead.

"I don't think you're a monster," I truthfully told him.

"Tff, Whatever," Stark muttered.

"If you were such a horrible pokemon, then why is it that sometimes you choose to spare pokemon and humans, why is it that you went out of your way to protect me at times?" I questioned the white umbreon.

Stark froze up for a moment before he was able to respond, "Because, I like to pretend I'm not a monster."

"You wouldn't pretend to do that if you didn't care. I think you want to be a better pokemon. A monster like Sam could kill children and still sleep perfectly fine that night, monsters like him are as light as a feather, but I don't see that in you."

"Then what do you see in me?" Stark asked me as he looked at me with curiosity.

"An umbreon with a lot of weight on his back."

Six months later

I cringed in pain as Stark carried me on his back. A giant gash with blood soaking down from it was on my upper right arm. I acquired the gash in a job Stark and I were just on. The mission was to assassinate a man, but his bodyguard scyther managed to get me pretty good. Stark chose to save me, while Sam and Raiden finished off the fight.

"How is your arm?" Stark asked me as he sat me down on the grassy ground right next to a stream just outside of the city we were in.

"It's fine, I just lost a bit of blood, but I think it's slowing down," I responded to Stark as I tried to stand up, but he pushed me back down.

"Don't push it, just rest for a bit," Stark said with concern.

"Sure," I said as I lied on my uninjured side. A few minutes passed by that I spent looking up at the crescent shaped moon. The rings on my body glowed in response to the moon, and I could feel my wound healing up. I looked over to Stark to notice that the black rings on his body didn't really glow like mine did, but I could tell that the moon still gave him more strength.

"Stark?" I called out.

Stark looked towards me, "Is something wrong?"

"No, but haven't you ever considered leaving Jack?" I nervously asked and Stark let out a sigh after I asked the question.

"All the time," he truthfully answered me, "But it isn't that simple."

"It's possible though, we'd just have to get these tracker chips out of us and we could escape to another region or something until Jack forgets about us," I suggested.

"Good luck with getting the tracker out, it's pretty small and hard to get to," Stark replied.

"Well, I don't want to spend the rest of my life doing this, this could be our chance to start over, we could change our lives around," I pleaded to Stark.

Stark walked over to me, and pushed me onto my back as he gently placed a paw on my chest. "Before I met you I would have never considered doing this, but I'd consider running away with you," Stark said as he looked down at me.

"When though?" I asked him.

"I don't know, I need to think about if I really want to do this," Stark answered.

"Well, I'm afraid I'll die before that," I said to Stark, "I'm constantly fearing that Sam or Jack is going to kill me, or I'm going to die on a job. I can't keep living in fear like this, it's driving me mad," I said in a desperate tone..

Stark leaned in closer to me, "I promise I'll keep you alive. I'll protect you from Sam and Jack, just leave all the dirty work to me, I really don't want anything bad to happen to you," Stark said with complete honesty.

I remained silent for a moment as I took in Stark's caring words. It was so shocking to me on how we grew so close over the months, especially since we hated each other at first. Honestly, I felt a connection between Stark and I, he made me feel safe in a time of need, he kept me together when I had my breakdowns, and for this I think I was starting to grow other feelings towards him. Stark's hand soon moved off my chest and onto the ground, and I felt the warmth of his chest up against mine, I felt myself blushing, luckily my fur masked my embarrassment.

I reached out my uninjured arm and wrapped it around the back of his neck and pulled him in closer to me, Stark and I nuzzled our necks together in silence as I cherished the affectionate moment we were sharing.

"Naomi," Stark began to say as he brushed one of his paws against the back of my head, "There is something I've been meaning to tell you for a very long time," Stark said as he exhaled a deep breath, "I… I wanted to tell you that I-"

"What the Hell are you two doing!?" A voice shouted at the two of us, Stark instantly jumped off of me. Looking past Stark, I saw Sam standing a few meters away with his arms crossed. Stark just stood there with a frightened look on his face, it was something I've never seen on him, but I guess he was just mostly embarrassed since we were caught like this.

"N-nothing," Stark replied to Sam as he exhaled a deep breath to calm himself.

"Yeah-well, I don't care about what you two do when you're alone, just stop doing your mating ritual stuff, and let's get back to Jack, we're done here," Sam said as he waved us to follow him.

"Hey, it's not like that!" Stark piped up at the riolu.

"Whatever Stark," Sam said as he continued walking away.

I rolled over onto my chest and I got back up. Stark stood in place with his mouth slightly agape for a moment as he watched the riolu walk away.

"Stark?" I said to get his attention.

"Huh?" he said while still in shock.

"What was it that you wanted to tell me a moment ago?" I asked him nervously.

Stark looked away suddenly and avoided eye contact, "Nothing, just forget about it," he said as he quickly followed the riolu.

My head and ears quickly lowered as Stark walked away. I really wished that moment would have lasted just a few seconds longer. I really wanted to hear him say what I thought he was going to say, I really wanted us to be a thing, and we could both leave this Hellish life and start over.

I snapped out of my daydreaming and I quickly noticed how much time has passed by. I stopped walking and I stood next to the edge of the river as I looked at the current of water. A tear fell from my eye and joined the flowing current.

"Stark…" I said as I continued to recall our time together. I lied down on my stomach and I placed one of my paws in the river as rogue tears continued to stream down from my eyes.

It had felt like a million years since I'd seen him. I'd give anything to be with Stark again. Ever since the day Stark was killed by Jack, life hasn't been the same. It was like a giant part of me was ripped out of my chest, and nothing could fill this abyss of loss and misery.

If I never stopped Stark from killing Jack, we would both be alright right now. We would both be somewhere else in the Kalos region, living a peaceful life. We would possibly have a family of our own by now, and Stark could proudly say he was a part of someone's life and had family for him to love. It was never fair that Stark was forced into that life, he was a good pokemon forced to live as something he wasn't, and after a while, he became the role he was forced into.

Everything was pitch black. I heard talking outside of this darkness, but I couldn't understand a word they were saying. I tried to understand them, but they felt so far from where I was. I continued to try and understand them. My eyes slowly creaked open and they were instantly blinded by bright lights that were shining brightly above me.

"She's awake!" a female yelled, and I saw a blur move across my vision. I tried to understand what was going on, but nothing made sense.

A few moments passed by and my vision slowly returned to me. I was currently lying on a bed in some kind of pokecenter. A lot of things were attached to me, but I had little understanding on what was going on. I tried to move, but I quickly found myself too weak to move.

After a few minutes an old man walked into the room. He wore round glasses around his face, and had a wrinkled face. The old man also wore casual doctor clothes, and he appeared to be going bald and had very little of his dark brown hair left.

I fearfully watched the man as he walked up to me and held up a clipboard. "You are probably very confused right now, and I'm sure you have a lot of questions, and I will answer them."

I tried to speak, but all that came out was a raspy gurgling noise.

"Your name is Naomi, and you have been in a coma. I'm afraid it has been one year, but this is considered a miracle that you awoke due to the circumstances," the doctor said to me.

"Co… ma?" I said in confusion, hardly even able to understand these words, "Na…omi?" I repeated in confusion.

"She appears to be mentally disabled," A psychic voice said in my mind, looking across the room, I saw an alakazam walking towards me..

"I see, it doesn't surprise me," the human stated, "Should we just put her to sleep then?"

"No-no, that won't be necessary, we actually have a program to help pokemon like her. I've actually met her once before all of this, she's a genius and Genesis can make use of a pokemon as intelligent as her. That is why we saved her of course," the alakazam telepathically said.

"Then I'll let you take care of that," the doctor said as he wrote some info down on the clipboard he was holding.

One month later in Flashback

"Alright Naomi, you're doing good," the alakazam said to me as a Kecleon assisted me in walking down a vacant hall. I struggled to move my body, and I managed to walk a short distance down the hall, with the assistance of the Kecleon, "Good job," the alakazam said, and the Kecleon allowed me to lie down..

This was all a part of the physical therapy I was going through to help myself get back to normal. When I was shot in the head by Jack, a lot went wrong in my brain, so I kind of had to relearn a lot of stuff, and build up my muscles again due to inactivity.

"You're doing great Naomi, your recovery is going by very quickly due to the technology we have here at Genesis," the alakazam said.

"I know," I responded to him.

"And after a few more medical operations, we'll be able to increase the dosage you will take for the nanites we're prescribing you," the psychic told me.

"So when will I be free to leave?" I questioned him.

"Very soon, give it two or three months," he told me. "But why are you in such a hurry if you said you were interested in working with us?"

"Because, I have some personal business to wrap up before I can move on with my life," I answered him with the short version.

"Alright, well we'll help you recover so you can do what you need to, I'll be sure to get you a job working with us," the alakazam said with a smile.

"We'll see where things go, I've always wanted to work in the science field, and this organization seems promising," I responded.

"It is promising. Here at Genesis we have some of the most advanced technology. People view some of the experiments as unorthodox, but with our advancements we have created things thought of as impossible, like saving you for example. If you were in a normal pokecenter you would have been in a bed right now drooling all over yourself," the alakazam said, and the thought sent a shiver down my spine.

"Yeah, I look forward to repaying you guys, but I really do look forward to contributing to these advancements in the world," I said with a fake smile. In all honesty, I wanted to work here, but right now I had one thing on my mind: revenge. Before I moved on with anything, Jack had to pay for killing Stark, and Sam was also on my list for being such a disgusting demon..

'I'm coming for you,' I said in my mind as I thought of my revenge.

After I finished reflecting on the past, I stopped resting and I got back up onto my feet. I wiped off my teary eyes and I looked ahead.

"Skull Face, you better not be lying to me, I'm really running out of options," I said to myself.

Most of the things I was thinking about lately left me with a bitter feeling. I promised Genesis that I would work with them after all of this, but I wasn't even sure if that is what I wanted after this was over. My heart was no longer in the same place; I was just desperate to get closure on Jack. And everything after Jack was going to be a surprise; I honestly have no idea what I'm going to do after all of this.

Chapter End

Author Note: Well, that chapter was a lot of things I have never done. So, as you all noticed, I tried writing a bit of romance in this chapter between Stark and Naomi. I've never written anything romance, so my apologies if it came off as cheesy or bad. But hey, I got to learn it somehow, right? Funny story, as I was writing the Naomi and Stark scene, I heard something behind me and my Mom was behind me... That scared the shit out of me, because no one knows I write this story, so if she had to find out somehow, that wouldn't be my preferred way... After that I started locking the door in my computer room, I don't care what they think I'm doing when the door is locked...

Thank you genericgamer207 for helping with the editing, I appreciate it.

Qestion: How bad was my attempt at the Stark and Naomi scene? Any tips anyone would like to share, or did I do fine? Sorry, I do like this element of the story, but it is something I'm not good at.

Fun Fact: In very early story development, I considered Stark actually being a clone of Black that would be his polar opposite. Thank Arceus I scrapped that idea, it's kinda cliche and cheesy.

P.S. I'm sorry if the title of this chapter (Always thinking about you) sounds like a crappy love song... At one point I joked with my beta reader by naming the chapter 'always thinking about you baby.'