Book II: Impending Twilight

Chapter 89: Reunited

Point of View Naomi

"It's dark in here," Dante spoke to me.

"It's a cave, what did you expect," I replied to Dante as I made my way through the dark tunnels within the cave known as 'Reflection Cave.'

This was quite the interesting place. While it was cold enough here to make me want to snuggle in the blankets humans use, it was still quite the spectacle. The walls of this cave have natural mirrors formed on them and I could see my own reflection in them. On the ceiling of the cave were these strange blue crystals that emitted a blue light that provided just enough light to navigate safely. Dante curiously looked at his reflection along the cave wall.

"Man, I am looking good," Dante said jokingly as he winked as he reflection while nodding.

"Yeah, keep telling yourself that," I teased as I moved on without him.

"You're just jealous that I inherited all the sexy genes," Dante spoke as he caught up to me.

"Are you saying I got all the ugly genes?" I asked as I glared at him out of the corner of my eye.

"Ughhh…. Well…" Dante said nervously.

"Wait! Is this seriously something you have to think about!" I yelled in absolute anger.

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Dante quickly defended as he got to a safe distance. Rule number one for women: never insult how we look, you'll live a lot longer.

"That's what I thought," I said as I continued to navigate through the cave.

For a bit of time the two of us traveled through the cave in silence. Not because I was angry with him, just because neither of us had anything to say. Our main purpose for travelling through this cave was so we could meet Black in Sharlour City. I would imagine he was already there or he'd be there very soon.

As the two of us continued walking Dante and I saw a pokemon standing towards the end of the tunnel. The pokemon stood in place with his arms crossed and his eyes closed as if he was meditating. I had to squint my eyes, but this pokemon was a dewott. Despite the odd detwott, Dante and I continued to move along.

"That's far enough," the dewott stated once we got close to him as he extended his palm out.

"What's the big deal?" Dante questioned the pokemon.

The dewott remained silent for a moment before responding, "Tell me, are you the umbreon known as Naomi, also one of Jack Jaegar former pokemon?" the dewott questioned me.

My ears flicked as I heard those words, "No, my name is Nia," I cleverly stated as I gave off a friendly yet fake smile.

"Uh huh, you strangely match the description of a pokemon we're hunting for. Runt pokemon, scar located on the left side of her golden ring. Even more suspicious that you're accompanied by the exact same species of a pokemon that her brother would be," the dewott stated.

"That truly is an interesting coincidence," Dante spoke as if it was humorous, while I contemplated on killing him for calling me a runt.

"And who might you be?" I questioned the dewott that stood in our way.

"I don't give my name out to killers," the dewott spoke sharply as his stare pierced me, "Do you take me as an idiot, or do you think you're invincible?" the dewott spoke.

"This is a misunderstanding, my name is Nia, I don't know who this Naomi person it, nor this Jack person," I quickly lied as I backed away from the dewott and Dante instinctively stood between me and the dewott.

"Tsk tsk, seems she's a little liar," a voice spoke from behind us.

I jumped up in surprise to see a pokemon staring at us with a rather unsettling smile. The croagunk stared at me with his yellow eyes as he wore a creepy smile.

"What do you want with me?" I questioned as the two pokemon narrowed the gap of space.

"We're a group of pokemon that have been hunted down by killers such as yourself. Ring a bell?" the dewott asked.

"I could honestly care less about who you guys are, just make the croagunk stop smiling like that, it's creepy as fuck," Dante stated as he kept his distance from the croagunk. I could see why he found that pokemon unsettling, a poison type could kill Dante easily with the right attack.

"Be quiet leafeon, our business isn't with you, just miss Naomi," the dewott said.

"And what're you going to do, kill her?" Dante questioned.

"A pokemon like her has taken many of us, right now we're trying to purge Kalos of all threats so WPA can rebuild," the dewott spoke.

"WPA is still around?" I said in surprise.

"Of course we are," the croagunk said, "Our numbers just grew scarce and we all had to go into hiding for a while. Now the time has come where we can get rid of pokemon like you. So stay still for a moment!" the croagunk suddenly out bursted as the sacs on his cheeks expanded and he quickly spewed a liquid poison out of his mouth. I felt something clamp down on my neck, and I was forcefully pulled to safety.

"Don't just stand there," Dante told me after he released my neck.

Suddenly a hose of water sprayed Dante down onto the ground. I looked towards the source of the attack to see it coming from the dewott. While being sprayed Dante managed to get back up onto his feet.

"I do not need a bath!" Dante shouted as the leaf's on his forepaws emitted a green light and he swiped his claw and a storm of razor leaf's flew towards the dewott. The otter-like pokemon was quick to dodge out of the way.

"Heh heh, this one has a bit of spunk, how amusing," the croagunk chimed as he darted towards Dante. "But let's see how much spunk you have after this!"

The croagunk swiped his poisonous fingers towards Dante. Dante's eyes widened as he veered out of the way. Dante quickly retaliated with his razor leaf attack. The leaf's flew at the croagunk, but he didn't even bother to dodge the attack, and allowed the leaf's to leave minor scratches.

"That tickled," the croagunk said with a laugh.

"Fuck," Dante muttered as we both focused on our own opponent.

"Dante, switch opponents, you won't beat him, and you'll have a type advantage if we switch," I instructed Dante.

"You sure about this?" he questioned me.

"I'm positive," I said with a nod. After those words were swapped, the two of us switched positions to face our new opponent.

I cringed as I saw the creepy smile Dante referred to earlier. Honestly, I was a bit nervous to fight a croagunk, since they're known to have poisonous fingers that can easily kill. But I quickly shook off the feeling of fear that was running through my mind. Sadly I had nothing that would work on him. My dark matter wouldn't be too effective against him, and my physical attacks would fail since I didn't have a strong body build like most umbreon's did. Truthfully, I made a lousy umbreon, but that wasn't going to stop me from surviving.

The sacs on the croagunk expanded and he shot some more of his liquid poison at me. My reflex kicked in and I jumped over the poison as I shot a shadow ball. The croagunk chuckled as he leaned out of the way and my shadow ball exploded against the rock ground behind him.

"How did someone like you manage to kill our members?" the croagunk taunted.

"Shut up, I never wanted any of this, none of it!" I snapped at him as I charged towards him. Dark matter surrounded my right paw as I swiped it towards his face, but the croagunk kept dodging out of the way with very little movement.

"Tsk tsk, I liked the leafeon more, he's not as moody and boring as you," the croagunk insulted as he let out a creepo laugh.

"This isn't a game!" I growled at him.

"Right-right, my apologies, I'll take this more seriously since that's what you wish," the croagunk said as the smile on his face went away and turned into a serious look. "Now, time to face judgment, murderer!" he yelled as he lunged towards me as he swung his poisonous hand downward. My eyes barely processed his speed as I barely managed to jolt back.

"Come here!" he shouted as he jabbed his fingers towards me like a spear. I ducked under his attack and shot a shadow ball towards his gut, but he jumped a few meters into the air.

"You're a sneaky one," he stated as he shot some more of his poisonous liquids at me. I dove away from the attack as it splashed onto the ground. The puddles it formed created a large area that I couldn't jump over, separating me from Dante. The croagunk smirked as he stood on the other side and looked towards my brother that was occupied with dodging water attacks from the dewott. Without hesitation the croagunk dashed towards dante as he bared his poisonous fingers ready to strike.

"Dante!" Was all I managed to scream before the croagunk grabbed Dante by his back leg and yanked on it so hard that it caused him to smack down onto the ground. The croagunk could have killed Dante right then and there, but instead the dewott and him withdrew to a safe distance.

"Bastard," Dante muttered as he climbed back up onto all fours.

I charged up a shadow ball and shot it at the puddle of poison on the ground and created an opening for me to cross over. I approached Dante from behind as I feared the worst, but Dante didn't seem to realize what happened.

"That was a dirty hit," Dante growled at the two.

"Never once did we say we were going to fight you one on one, foolish leafeon," the dewott spoke. Dante began to take a step towards them, but instead he fell towards the ground.

"Dante!" I shouted in concern as I ran to his side and looked at his back left leg. I trembled at the sight of his back leg. His once natural tan leg was now infected with a dark purplish color that looked unhealthy, the leaf that was growing off his leg that once looked healthy was now beginning to become a pale brown as it began to slowly wilt as if it was a leaf in late Fall..

"You didn't know, did you?" the croagunk spoke up. "My species fingers are naturally poisonous, and I don't need to explain to you how poison mixes with grass types. Perhaps a normal pokemon would have a chance of surviving, but a grass type will most certainly die within an hour or two. Give it some time, the effects will start to spread slowly, but you're already out of the fight."

"No…" was all I could say as I saw a piece of the leaf on his leg break off and fall onto the ground.

"It's fine, he won't feel any pain. His muscles are slowly going to become inactive, which will soon lead to his heart giving out. It's a painless process almost, but sadly he won't survive without some serious medical attention."

"I'll kill you," Dante spoke in a weak voice as he tried to move, but he was to weak to get back up on his own.

"Dante…" I said as I began to feel panic rush into my mind. There was no way of winning, no way of surviving, Dante was going to die if I didn't kill them fast.

Point of View Gray, One hour earlier

It was now morning and we were all on the road. Our next destination was Reflection Cave, which I wasn't excited about. Put me against an onix if you must, but keep me out of anything like a cave. After all that time I spent underground in slavery, I kind of grew a small phobia of being in subsurface Since every day I lived in that cave, I was fearful that the cave was going to collapse, after all, I did lose two friends from cave in's.

After a bit of walking on the current route, we travelled uphill a bit until we made our way to the side of a mountain with a cave entrance. Usually I would expect a cave to be pitch dark, but it appeared there was crystals on the ceiling that provided light.

"Well here we are, Reflection Cave," Alex stated, "Everyone be careful in here and stick together. According to what I have read online, there are pokemon in this cave that will attack, so be careful," Alex informed us.

Without any delay, we all headed inside the cave. I tremor ran through my spine as I step foot inside the enclosed area. I felt a bit noxious just from the difference in the air. I know there is only a small chance of a cave collapsing, but my luck in cave's were unbelievable bad.

"Are you alright, you look a bit tense?" Kana whispered to me. I swear, that jolteon can read people's expressions like an open book.

"I'm not a fan of caves, that's all," I responded, trying to be a bit nicer than I used to be.

"You're afraid of caves?" Black butted in as he turned his head back with a surprised expression.

"I didn't say that," I quickly retorted, "Caves just make me feel iffy," I responded.

"And I thought you were fearless," Hesh quickly added in.

"And what would make you think that?" I questioned the pikachu.

"Well, you just kinda give off that vibe, ya know? I mean you went against a psycho riolu, you nearly died and hardly mentioned it, I just didn't take you as the type to fear a cave. I mean what's so bad about them?"

"Let's just talk about something else, it's a story for another day," I spoke as I looked away from the pikachu.

As our group made its way through the cave, we discovered these natural mirrors that followed along the cave walls. Everyone had to take a moment to stop and gawk at their reflection.

"Mmmmm, check out this bulk of sexiness," Hesh stated as he flexed out his muscles.

"I think I see a fat roll," Black stated.

"Fat?No no no, that's my six pack!" Hesh defended.

"Right, can a pikachu even get a six pack or are you just on a shit ton of steroids?" Black asked.

"You know what, I don't see any muscle on you," Hesh retorted.

"We're done here," Black said as he rolled his eyes.

"One point Hesh!" the pikachu shouted as he threw his hands into the air.

As everyone continued to obsess and procrastinate I felt a strange sensation in my horn. The feeling that something was wrong. Yes, my horn was broken off at one point, but at times I could still get the vibes of danger, but only when something really unsettling was happening.

"Alright guys let's get a move on," Alex instructed as he began leading the way through the cave. Everyone began to follow Alex's lead, and I did the same as well for a moment, before I decided to break off from the group and investigate this feeling. I took an alternative path from my group and I headed in the direction I felt the vibe coming from.

Being alone in the cave made me even more iffy, but if something was wrong I had to get over it. I continued to move through the cave in silence as I tried to focus on the direction in which this sensation was coming from. It was so faint, but it had to be something serious if I was feeling anything to begin with.

"W-what're you doing?" A timid voice called out from behind me. My head spun back in surprise to see Ebony behind me.

"Nothing, and why are you following me?" I questioned the child eevee.

"I just thought it was strange to see you breaking off from the group," she responded in a quiet voice. "So… I just wanted to see what you were doing, it's not like you to break off from the group."

"You've been watching me?" I questioned awkwardly.

"I kinda watch everybody. I don't interact a lot, so I just mostly spectate and watch how everyone acts, so I kind of got an idea on how everyone acts," she answered.

"That's… weird," I admitted truthfully. "You need to go back to the group though, now," I sternly stated.

"Why? Is something wrong?"

"I don't know, that's what I'm trying to figure out," I responded.

"Maybe I can help?" Ebony suggested.

"Doubt it," I bluntly replied as I began to make my way towards the danger I felt. Ebony continued to follow me, but I didn't really fight against her, since I didn't want to let this feeling escape me. "If you're going to follow me, then stay hidden if there is danger, and do as I say," I instructed.

"Alright," Ebony answered with a little more energy than before.

Point of View Flare

"W-What the Hell is that thing!" Hesh exclaimed in a panic as he backed away from that thing…

"I… I don't know, but it's creeping me out," Kana said as she too backed away.

"What's wrong with it?" I questioned as my head cocked to the side and my eyes remained stuck on the creature that was building an invisible wall in front of itself.

"Should we kill it?" Black added in.

"May not be a bad idea," Hesh quickly replied, "I mean look at it!" Hesh said as he pointed at the creature with blue hair spiking up from each side of its head. The look in this creatures eyes peered into my soul as it wore a grin on its face that made me shudder as if I was back in Geosenge town.

"Guy's, it's a Mr Mime," Alex told us all as he stood behind Black and me.

"Mimes creep me the fuck out apparently," Hesh spoke from behind everyone Even Kana looked disturbed by this creepy creature.

"All pokemon are equal in the eyes of Arceus... even if it is that thing…" I added in as the creature began to close in on me.

Black showed his fangs as he began to snarl viciously "Back up, or I'll… I'll rip that ugly hair off your head!" Black threatened.

The mime just continued to build a wall like structure in front of itself. Something snapped in Black's head as I saw a vein bulge on his head and he charged towards the mime. The mime just kept doing what it was doing as Black charged towards it. Black directed his head towards the mimes gut as he closed in. A loud thud echoed through the cave as Black face smashed into some completely solid, yet invisible object in front of that weird thing, and he fell to the ground. Everyone stared at the mime as he knelt down next to Black and began to start pretending he was tying something around his neck.

"Did that wall actually work?" Kana said in amazement.

Black began to come back to consciousness as he realized the mime was doing something to him.

"Black, get out of there!" Alex shouted. Black's eyes grew wide as he sprang to his feet and tried running, but he quickly yanked back and fell back down.

"What in the hell?" Black questioned as the mime tugged an invisible leash around Black's neck.

"Awww, Black, I think you're its pet now," Kana said from a safe distance.

"No… no, I'd rather die!" Black shouted as he tried fighting the invisible force, and the mime tried keeping Black from getting away.

"Help!" Black gasped as he fought the mime as the invisible force around his neck choked him as he tried to get away.

"Flare, can you use an attack that won't hurt Black?" Alex asked.

"Sure," I said with a confident nod as I began to inhale a deep breath.

Point of View Naomi

It's going to happen again. Someone's going to die because of me, because I'm weak.

I looked up at the two pokemon as they both stared at me, neither of them looking the least bit threatened by me. I looked back down towards Dante to see him in his weak condition. The poison that entered his body has traveled over the course of a short time. All the leaf's on Dante's body were beginning to wither away, while the purplish color around his leg slowly travelled upward towards his main body.

'If I would have been stronger, I could have just killed these two and Dante would be fine right now. No, I'm more than strong enough to kill the both of them. Stark taught me everything I needed to know to kill, even with the odds stacked against me. I'm not weak fighting wise. I'm just too weak to go through with taking another life, even if it's to save another.'

'This is why Stark died. I was too weak to act properly, both of us could have killed Jack that night, but instead I chose to not let Stark kill Jack, nor did I kill Jack myself. If I was stronger back then, Stark would be alive. Right now, Dante is going to die if I don't kill the two of them. I don't want to kill anyone though is the problem, even if it is to save someone else. But Dante and Stark both risked so much for me, how is it fair that I let these things happen to them? No matter what it costs, I can't keep letting the people I love get hurt.'

"I don't want you to die," I said to Dante as dark matter began to engulf my body, "I'm not losing you to, if I die so be it, but I refuse to let you die here," I continued to speak as the dark matter intensified.

"I don't want you to die. I'll do anything to keep you alive, even if it means hurting others!" I shouted with anxiety as I looked away from Dante and looked at my two enemies, "Even if it means killing, Even if it means reducing myself to a monster," I continued on as I sprinted towards the two.

The croagunk shot his poison towards me, but the dark matter surrounding my body shielded me and burned the liquid before it could touch my skin. The dewott shot a hydropump towards me, but I ducked below the attack as I made my way towards the croagunk.

"She snapped!" the dewott shouted as I threw my whole body towards the croagunk. The croagunk evaded to the side as he spewed more poison towards me, but I lunged through the poison and I clamped my teeth down on the croagunk's stomach. The poison type let out a cry of pain as blood gushed out of his stomach wound.

"I'll kill you for hurting him," I snarled as I released his stomach and I jumped up on him as I wrapped my left paw around the back of his neck and placed the other on his arm as my fangs ripped into his shoulder. The croagunk let out a howl of pain as I ripped off a chunk of his flesh and spit it onto the ground. I then bit down onto his neck. I didn't bite deep into his neck, but I used my grip on him to throw him down onto the ground.

"Stay down or I'll kill you," I threatened him as I sprinted towards the dewott.

As I closed in on the dewott a wave of fire forced me to come to a dead stop. I froze in place as smoke covered the entire room from the fire attack.

"That's enough," a voice called out. This voice was different from the two pokemon I was fighting though. The smoke continued to clear up until I made out two more pokemon. One of which was a middle aged flareon with a scar running horizontally across his face and travelled over his snout to the opposite side of his face, and a grovyle that looked quite a bit younger than him. It took me a second, but I knew this flareon and grovyle.

"Y-you," I stuttered in disbelief as I began to back away in fear.

"Yes Naomi, it's us," the flareon spoke, "Did you ever remember how we saved you, as you were slaughtering my friends?"

"No, you don't understand," I defended myself.

"Murder is murder, there is no way to look at it differently," the flareon spoke as he walked towards me.

"And what about my brother, he's going to die," I snapped at him as I looked back towards Dante.

"He was protecting a criminal, I can't overlook something like that."

"Maybe he didn't know," I responded.

"Perhaps, but something tells me he knew."

'I don't have time for this,' I mentally stated as I looked back at Dante. The leafeon was still barely conscious, but his condition was worsening with each passing second.

"To think that I saved a killer, you seemed like such a smart child back then, how did one such as yourself become who you are now?" the flareon questioned.

"Like it matters, none of you have listened up to this point," I spoke sharply.

"Fine then," the flareon spoke as he inhaled a deep breath. My eyes widened as a flamethrower came my way. I would have moved, but the size was too big to dodge.

Right as the flame neared me an ice cold wave collided with the flame and the two attacks negated each other in an intense explosion that made the cave rumble. The flareon and I both stood in shock as we looked to the side of the cave to see an absol and a little eevee.

"Ebony… Gray…" I whispered to myself.

"Nia!" Ebony shouted out towards me. "Where have you been, everyone thinks you're dead!" the eevee cried out to me as tears quickly began to stream down from her eyes.

"Sorry," I replied with a bit of guilt, but this guilt wasn't my top priority right now, I needed to save Dante at all cost, I could explain myself later.

"Enough, this stops here," the absol spoke powerfully as his vision panned around the room until his eyes set on the flareon and his eyes grew wide. "Z-Zack?" Gray said in surprise. I looked back towards the flareon to see that he was as shocked as the absol.

"Gray? You're alive?"

"A lot happened," Gray spoke quietly. "That doesn't matter now, what are you doing to this umbreon and leafeon?"

"This umbreon is a killer, she assisted Jack Jaegar's team in murdering WPA members," Zack venomously stated as he shot me an evil look.

The absol looked back at me in surprise, "Is that true?" he questioned me.

"I was forced to; Jack would have killed me if I didn't. I never wanted to have anything to do with this, why else do you think I was trying to hunt him and his pokemon down?" I tried to reason. "Listen, I don't care about what happens to me, I don't want my brother to die for trying to protect me, I'm the one at fault, not him," I tried to reason, ready to take full responsibility if it meant saving Dante.

"Zack, call off your friends, she's not a bad pokemon, she saved us a week back when Jack's pokemon came after us. Apparently my friends and I pissed off an organization and they hired Jack. When we were all barely getting by she came and helped," Gray spoke in my defense.

"I can't negate her crimes, she's killed, and for that she has to pay," Zack spoke back calmly, yet his words still contained bite.

"Ebony," Gray spoke to the eevee that was by his side. "Quickly run and get everyone, I doubt I'll be able to take them all on by myself," Gray said in a hushed voice.

"Right," Ebony said as she gave a strong nod. Ebony didn't waste a single second as she turned tail and dashed towards the direction they came from.

"I'll stop her," The dewott said as he began to run after Ebony.

"No, you're not going anywhere," Gray spoke in a low voice as he shot a hail storm towards the dewott. The dewott quickly covered his face with his arms, and the water type was sliced up by the razor sharp daggers of ice.

"Gray stand down. Despite my being glad to see you're okay, I can't let you protect a criminal, not someone like her," Zack spoke as his eyes narrowed in on Gray.

"Sorry, but that umbreon means something to my colleague, and I believe my colleagues and I owe her," Gray responded.

I stared at the absol in surprise. I couldn't believe he was going to help protect me, because of him I have a chance. I looked over towards the side to see Dante lying unconscious on the ground. The poison was doing its job; Dante was going to die soon if something wasn't done.

"Gray, thank you," I said to the absol that was risking a lot for me.

"We're not out of this yet, you can thank me after this is all over," he spoke back to me as he kept his eyes focused on the four pokemon.

"It's really too bad it had to be this way, we all mourned your supposed death, Gray. We only found half your team; we assumed the rest of you were dead as well. So tell me, is Aaron, Eclipse and Sarah still alive?"

Gray remained silent as he wore a bitter look on his face, yet he kept his eyes on Zack.

"I see," Zack said as he shook his head in disappointment, "I'm sorry for your-"

"Let's just do this. If you have no intentions on being reasonable then I have nothing to say," Gray spoke in a low tone. "I always thought WPA was something more than that, full of pokemon that would be rational and listen to both sides of the story, not just kill and ask questions later."

Zack exhaled a long sigh as he broke eye contact with Gray, "WPA was nearly wiped out by pokemon like this umbreon. We can't help the world if we're constantly being hunted down. So, at the moment WPA is hunting those who killed our members, not only for revenge, but so our organization will have a chance of a future. Hardly any of us remain now, the world mostly thinks we're gone, but here we are," Zack spoke with a bitter attitude.

"Again, there's nothing to talk about unless you let her go, I believe she is a victim in all of this. I met the pokemon that forced her to work for them, she's not like them. All of them are monsters, the Raichu, the white umbreon, and that demon riolu," Gray spoke.

'Wait, how does he know about Stark, he's been dead for a while now,' I questioned in my head.

"Perhaps there is nothing to discuss, I'm sorry Grayson," Zack said as he looked back towards Gray.

"You two stay back," Zack spoke as he looked at the dewott and the croagunk, but then looked towards us again, "Isaac, let's go," Zack spoke to the grovyle.

Point of View Black

It took a while, but we beat the shit out of that mime freak. We all took a small breather from the tough fight. The mime was actually pretty strong for a creep.

"Guy's, where's Ebony and Gray?" Kana questioned as she began frantically looking around.

"Wait… I haven't noticed they were gone!" Flare exclaimed as he began looking in every direction as well.

"When did they leave," Kana asked in panic.

"Ebony is one of those pokemon you never notice… she's kinda forgettable and hard to notice, so this doesn't surprise me…" Hesh stated as he shook his head, "But, I'm surprised we lost our biggest friend, excluding Alex of course."

"Still, we can't just let her wander off, she's a kid for Arceus's sake!" Kana yelled in panic.

"Help!" A voice shouted from the way we came from.

"That's Ebony!" Flare commented as he and Kana took off in that direction, while all of us followed behind them. It didn't take more than a few seconds of running for us to be reunited with Ebony. The eevee panted in exhaustion as she tried to catch her breath.

"Gray, he's in trouble," Ebony managed to say in between her breaths. "He needs help, these pokemon are trying to kill Ni-" Ebony began to say before she stopped herself, "Just follow me." Ebony took off running without giving us a chance to reply. But of course it wasn't debatable, we all followed the eevee as Alex tried his hardest to keep up with our group, I guess he too could tell something was very wrong.

Ebony led us down a couple different tunnels until we all heard a rumble. We all came to a dead stop for a moment as we prayed the cave wouldn't collapse.

"We're close," Flare stated.

We all continued running towards Gray. At the end of this tunnel we saw multiple bright flashes of light. A thick smoke covered the entire room and only gave me a small field of vision as it was clearing out. The first thing I made out in this room was Nia and Gray both in defensive positions next to each other. This was going to be interesting, reintroducing Nia that is.

"Nice of you all to show up," Gray commented as he looked at us out of the corner of his eye. "There is four of them, a dewott, a croagunk, a grovyle, and a flareon," Gray informed us.

The smoke began to clear up as four figures began to take shape from within the smoke cloud. All of the pokemon became visible after a moment, Gray was correct on all of their species. Luckily we outnumbered them.

"I'll take the-" I began to say before I froze up at the sight of a familiar pokemon that I haven't seen since I was a child… someone who left me and everyone long ago.

"Ryder?" the flareon spoke as his eyes grew wide and he began to walk towards me. "You've grown so much, you even evolved," the flareon spoke to me.

"Dad…" I whispered to myself as the flareon approached me.

To be continued...

Chapter End