Book II: Impending twilight

Chapter 114: Aevons and Eons

Point of view Black

"Where am I, and who are you, guys?" My eyes darted around the room, and I was quick to make out the white umbreon, Stark, and an anonymous marowak I had never seen once in my life. I gave out a low growl towards Stark and the marowak as I pulled myself from the blankets that were tightly wrapped around me. To me, it seemed like the marowak was an enemy if he was okay with Stark being around. The Marowak took a step to the side, revealing a third pokemon laid out on a low table. My body became petrified from the revealed sight of Naomi on the table. Images of what happened on the subway cart came back to me.

"Who am I?" Marowak laughed to himself rhetorically, not acknowledging my shocked state. "Perhaps you would recognize me in this form?" With a bright flash of purple, the marowak dropped to all fours and shrank in size. With the light dying a small zorua in his older years mischievously sneered at me, like he knew I was going to be shocked when I figured out it was him.

"Rhys?!" My voice rose up in complete disbelief. "Why are you here, and why're you hiding who you are?"

"It's a long story Ryder, luckily we've got more than enough time for explanations," Rhys replied back.

Even though I was a bit curious about what was going on here, I still couldn't stop myself from being concerned about Naomi's condition. I mean, I attacked her with the intent to really hurt her badly.

With my head hanging towards the ground and my eyes averting any accusing stares, I asked, "Is… Is Naomi going to be-"

"You've got a lot of nerve to act concerned about her after what you did," Stark lashed out, his voice booming through the silent room."

I didn't dare utter a word. I hated that bastard so fucking much, but he was right. Naomi was probably going to hate me now; this would probably be the end of us even having a chance of at least being friends. Truthfully, I didn't want to settle for friends, Naomi just felt more special to me in a way, even if she did have an interest in pokemon like Stark.

Even though I knew it was best to shut up about her for now, I just had to at least defend myself, I didn't think I was in the right, but I didn't truly want to harm Naomi. "It wasn't her I was aiming to harm," I spoke in a low voice towards the albino umbreon.

"Then you're truly incompetent of doing anything. No friend would ever hurt a friend like that, you nearly murdered her because you wanted me." Stark showed his fangs as hit tail rose up in an intimidating manner, "I'll promise you this, if you so much as lay a paw on her again and you'll be dead where you stand. Am I clear, Ryder?" Stark's cold voice threatened.

"I'm not scared of you, but I won't hurt Naomi ever again," I retorted at Stark. 'Just you wait though, we're far from finished, Naomi may see something in you, but I know you're dangerous.'

"Anyways, that's enough love between you two," Rhys spoke up as he walked between the two of us. "Now, despite the bad blood between you two, we all are going to be working together on the same mission. But first off, I did promise some explanations on what exactly you two are. But first, I need to tell you the truth Ryder," Rhys turned his attention towards me.

"Huh, what truth?"

"Well, for starters I didn't originally save you to assassinate Mandus."

"You've got be fucking with me!" I yelled at the zorua, but my words didn't get any kind of a reaction from him.

"Now, now, calm down-"

"Calm down!? How can I do that when you're constantly lying!"

Rhys let out a tired sigh, "Hmmm, I can see where the frustration is coming from, but regardless our bargain still stands, for the safety of your friends, you're mine."

I bit down hard on my lip, actually drawing up a bit of blood. I knew if I wanted to protect everyone, I had to just play along with his games, even if that meant being deceived at every corner along the way.

"Then why do you want me here?" I asked cynically, trying with everything I had not to tell him that I was so close to snapping again.

"I want to destroy Genesis." Rhys bluntly spoke. Me on the other paw, I just paused in astonishment from what I was hearing from the fox.

I had to actually think about whether I actually heard that correctly for a second. "Is… is this a trick, are you testing me right now?"

"No, Ryder. The real reason I asked for your help is because I know I can trust you. Not only that…" Rhys stopped what he was saying with a frantic shake of his head, "No-no, starting from there would only upset you. I'll start from the beginning of what I want from all of you, then maybe you will all see the light in my methods."

"Okay, then speak," I spat out, not feeling any more faith in him than earlier.

"Alright then, I'll start from the beginning," Rhys sighed. "Okay, so this all focuses around the man who goes by the name of Ghost. I'll assume you two are unfamiliar."

"Actually, I met him one time. but we didn't talk or anything… I pretty much know nothing about him," Stark inputted, before relocating himself by Naomi's side. He gently stroked his right paw down Naomi's side. For me the scene was unsettling, I didn't want him laying a finger on her.

"So you know his face," Rhys started back up with a pained laugh. "Well, there's a face I've hated from the day I saw it. Understand this, I have no bonds or reasons to stay with him, to me there is no one I would rather see dead. Our fates have been intertwined since the beginning, but to him I'm nothing more than a pawn. Because of these circumstances I have a deep desire to see him gone for good. And to do this I have assembled a plan to assassinate Ghost.

"The two of you, Stark and Ryder, serve a very pivotal part in my plan. You see, not only are you two both special pokemon, but you both know people that can be our assets if reached out to properly. Ryder with his father's connections to WPA, Stark with his connections to Jack Jaegar. And add those connections with my own and we actually stand a chance against one of the most powerful organizations in the world."

"And you think my Dad cares about what I want?" I snorted at him. "If my father really cared he would have been around like most decent dads, but he and I barely know each other. To be honest, I don't even like him that much."

"Yes, but I know your father would go to great lengths to help you, if asked," Rhys responded. "Besides, I have connections with a member of WPA that's quite important. If the two of them truly stand for peace there is no way, they would turn down an alliance. After all, it'll be the only way to stop Genesis on time. And they won't choose to fight without me because they need my knowledge, I know everything about Genesis and Ghost. But if worst does come to worst, I will do what I have to in order to force the leader, Zack, to help me, even if that means using you. That's half the reason you're here." Rhys's words were nonchalant, he had no care on what I would think of him saying those things. I found the zorua hard to read with his blank expression, he never did show much emotion past those smiles I always found fake.

"So," Rhys interrupted my thoughts as I took in his plan. "I did say you both had two functions here, and the second reason is that I want you all to fight with me."

Stark was the first to speak up out of the two of us, "Because you think we're different from normal umbreons?"

"I don't think, I know," Rhys answered. "I promised an explanation to you two, so I'll stay true to my word. But I do warn you to keep an open mind, most would not find this believable."

"After all I've seen…" Stark mumbled to himself.

Rhys cleared his throat, before speaking up in a stern voice, "Well, I'll put it bluntly, you two aren't normal pokemon, and the reasoning behind this is actually a phenomenon we don't know the reasoning behind, but we know about it. We tested your DNA's, and it's confirmed that the two of you both share some unique genes. The both of you are descendants of Legendaries," Rhys finished with a straight face.

My body became still as I stared at the zorua, expecting him to burst out into laughter, or at least sneer or something from the stupid crap he was feeding us. The fact that he was suggesting this to me was ridiculous, I didn't even believe Legendaries were real.

"And you really believe that?" Stark rose a brow with his question.

Rhys gave a single nod, "Yes, not only that, the two of you have shown you have the gifts usually associated with these rare pokemon. You're the second kind of pokemon, a hybrid between mortal and god. This rare phenomenon has only been naturally found in eeveelutions, and only two kinds of half gods have been found, eons, and aevons. Ryder would be the eon of you two. As crimson may have told you, an eon has control over all the different affinities the eeveelutions can evolve to. While the aevons inherited the raw physical strength and mastery over their natural element. Each side also have certain traits, an eon has red eyes, while an aevon has white and black fur."

Rhys continued to give more and more details, until I just found myself unable to take this crap anymore, "Just stop!" I yelled over him, causing him to stop mid-sentence. "I'm not related to a Legendary in anyway, and that's final! I'm pretty sure my mom would have told me if she had an affair with Giratina or Lugia!"

Rhys just gave a disapproving shake of his head, "Right, you're not well educated on how genes and all of that wo-"

"I have a basic understanding, and I'm pretty sure someone would have told me if my great-great-grandma got laid by a Legendary and secondly, I don't even believe Legendaries!"

"Okay then, Ryder, explain how you're able to use other elements?" Rhys snickered.

If it hadn't been for the fact that I needed Rhys to keep my friends safe, I would have walked out of this room at the mention of me being related to a Legendary, but sadly the situation wasn't in my favor. "Well, I believe it's an evolutionary disorder, after all, I never did intend to evolve into an umbreon, I was aiming for a leafeon or jolteon. Umbreon was the second lowest on my list, the last being a sylveon… So maybe due to me trying to evolve into something else something went wrong in the process of my evolution."

Rhys's lips just barely curved into a smile, "Hmm, that's actually an interesting theory, with the knowledge you had I can see why you'd think that, but sadly you're very wrong. The reason you never knew anything about a Legendary ancestor is probably due to the fact that these are genes that rarely surface in individuals, and most that do have these powers never realize it, and lastly, those genes are eternal and never fade away in the mixture of genes from every passing generation. So perhaps these genes have been in your family tree for far longer than anyone can remember, it's also very possible that all these genes are scattered throughout the world in eeveelutions like yourself, passing them on as they breed. You just simply happened to awaken half of your potential."

"You're just spewing with shit; you know that?"

"Alrighty Ryder, play the tough guy, but as master of deception, I'd have to say you're not very good at it. I'd implore you to be more open minded about all of this, but you're too bitter to accept a single word I speak. So hey, don't listen to what I'm saying. Would that make you accept the truth any better, if I just tell you the opposite of what you need to hear?"

The boards of the floor creaked as I pressed my paw tightly against it. With each word that came from this guy I found myself struggling more and more to not hit him or just do anything to stop him from speaking his deluded words.

"I'm done talking with you," Was all I could manage without having another break down.

"Hmmf, have it your way, Ryder. But before you storm off in a fury, just know that we've got lots of work to do. Quite honestly I couldn't care less what you believe and don't believe, soon the truth will be before you, what you think after that will be up to you."

"Are we done?"

Rhys tipped his head, before reverting back to the form of that marowak from earlier. "I have no further words to waste on you at this moment. Just know that I don't want you leaving for too long, after the three of you recover we'll have work to do."

"Fine," I hissed with a roll of my eyes as I went towards the exit. When I did find my way to the streets, I made sure to put a good amount of space between me and the hide out Rhys chose, but not so much I couldn't find my way back. The hour was late, no one was even out at this time, which was how I liked to spend my time in Lumiose. It was at hours like this that I could actually enjoy the city, even if I did have to watch for the occasional thugs and what not.

Point of View: Take a guess…

Well, it's been awhile since anything has really happened on my part. Things have been… interesting since last time. Example: Everything has sucked, hard! Now here I am, wandering all around Kalos with a very unstable snake lady… Yeah, not the best pick in companionship, but I guess I'm just desperate now to not to be alone. It's been a hard few months, each step along the way wearing me down more and more. With some honesty, I don't think I've ever been so exhausted in my life. Constant thoughts of David didn't help with this either, there wasn't a moment I didn't have him on my mind.

Psycho lady Lucy has a busy life for someone without a purpose. Ever since she 'begged me' to come along… Okay maybe it wasn't like that, but we'll call it a mutual agreement to team up, but since then things have been very busy. We're always travelling, and she's checking out these areas in search of this Rhys fella. Not only are we searching, we're stealthing all of this to. Lucy has pretty much forbidden me to do a list of things, she says It'll blow our cover. I can't really understand what she's talking about though, I mean I was always good at the stealth video games back when I was living with David, so it should apply to real life, right?

So our jolly adventures brought us to quite the place. The best way to describe things here is that it's snowy… like really snowy. And as a charmander, I can't really say I'm fond of snow twenty-four-seven. Lucy guided us through a small city as I hugged myself tightly. Wrapped around me was a long navy-blue scarf I borrowed from a kid that set it down for a little too long while playing with his friends. Despite knowing that it was wrong, I still needed to keep warm. I mean the kids mommy will buy him a new one anyways. But even with the scarf nestled around my body I still found myself shivering. Lucy on the other vine (Get it!) just carried a backpack on her person. She picked it up shortly after we left Shalour, but not once has she showed me the contents. Apparently, whatever was inside was very important to her. At times I would try to get a peek at her little secret, but it always resulted in her whipping me multiple times with those vines. She was nice though, she didn't use the thorns and stopped by the time I was begging for mercy.

An ice cold whip of wind kept coming through the air, nearly blowing out my tail flame each time. Just to be sure I wasn't going to die, I had to hit my tail with a flamethrower just to make sure it didn't give out. The buildings around us didn't do much to shield us from the punishing elements. But maybe that was because their size didn't do much to scratch Lumiose city's colossal buildings.

Another ice cold breeze shot through the air. My hands tightened around the scarf as I blew a small flame to help warm myself. Lucy didn't seem to mind the cold as much as me, which was bizarre because her kind were weak to ice, and my kind weren't… I had it in my head that she was some kind of super pokemon, I mean she already freaky thorns that come out of her vines when she wants.

"I'm cold," I stated in a whine as the flurries of snow falling from the sky blinding my vision.

"We're fine," Lucy casually spoke.

"No, you're fine," I argued in a hushed voice, knowing that this would probably upset her.

"Hey, you're the one who insisted on coming with me. You're welcome to crawl back home whenever you want."

"Home?" I repeated with amusement. Of course I had no home, it was a bit late to go crawling back to my old trainer, whatever her name was. "Heh, remember Luce, I don't have a home."

"Right," the walking snake lady said with a shrug. "You're too annoying to even get captured, and you're a charmander. I mean those amateur kids pretty much wet themselves at the sight of a fire breathing lizard like yourself. Do you realize how easy it would be to land a cushy spot with a human?"

"Oh no-no-no-no, I'm not putting up with any snot nosed brats. I mean seriously, can you see a cool guy like me taking commands from a kid who just graduated from elementary? I mean I'm old enough to be their uncle or older sibling, but if I was their pokemon I'd have no authority. And let's be honest, little kids aren't any fun without the authority to mess around with them and get away with it."

Lucy let out a small chuckle, and while I couldn't see her, I imagined that got a small smile out of her. "Very well, you made your point. I guess a warm bed wouldn't be worth being a child's pokemon."

"Heh. Let's also remember that children are amateurs on properly accommodating for cool pokemon like me. I mean, I'm so hot I'd set the house on fire if they didn't prepare it right. And then I'd be back out on the streets again, with nothing."

"Yeah…" Lucy's voice became a whisper, "That would be a tragic loss."

I felt that something was all of a suddenly a bit off, but then it dawned on me. Of course the mention of a house fire would trigger that thing she mention about her childhood home. Remembering that made my chest feel a bit empty, even if she was waaay too sensitive over the topic. I mean just the mention of anything along those lines would set her off, luckily this was my first time setting her off.

"Hey, sorry," I meekly began. "I probably shouldn't have remind-"

"I don't care," Lucy gave a shrug. "It's messed up, but I'm not looking to get offended at every chance I get. So don't sweat it." Lucy turned back as she partially withdrew one of her vines and allowed it to coil over her shoulder. The extension of her body withdrew a few of its thorns, but didn't prick her due to her being able to control which thorns came out. "But, make a joke about it, and I'll wring you out like a wet rag. Kay?"

I gulped at the morbid threat as I quickly nodded up and down, "Yeah-yeah, I wouldn't tease about that…"

"Good," Lucy sneered, before retracting the slithery vine after her thorns sank back in. I had to wonder though, how painful would it be if she let her vines back in while the thorns were still out? No doubt it would probably tear her insides up quite a bit, I'd even say it would kill her. The thought was a bit unpleasant, since I could see the mistake easily happening in the heat of battle, or even from a careless mistake when making threats towards me.

"Hey," Lucy grabbed my attention. "Let's stop wasting time and get a move on. We don't have a lot of time for this stuff." Lucy hastily picked back up on the path she was taking down Snowbelle.

"Ay, wait for me!" I called as I caught up to her pace. "You know, you're doing all this rushing, and for what? To deliver something to this Rhys guy? Can't you just let me get a peek at what's inside?"

Lucy continued her pace, but gave a hostile glare out the corner of her eye. "Then that would ruin the surprise, wouldn't it?"

"Tff, c'mon, I love me a good spoiler!"

Lucy took her eyes from me. "Stick with me and you'll find out when I find Rhys. Till then, it's too important for anyone to know what I'm carrying. Rhys entrusted me to protecting it, and it's important I get it to him by the end of the year. And as you can tell, we're very close to running out of time."

"Ughhh, you're really no fun, you know that?"

Point of View Flare

I've lost track of how late it was in the night, but I'm sure it was late enough to justify being in bed. Yet all of us were awoken when someone appeared on our doorstep with Ebony, apparently the police found her passed out in a subway just shortly after a terrorist attack. When Alex had the entire mess sorted out, he just sat Ebony down on a recliner in the living room and exhaled a relieved breath before he pressed his palm against his head. A moment of silence went by where the room was silent, but Alex was quick to shatter that.

"Well thank God you're safe. I honestly didn't even know you were gone." Alex removed his palm from his forehead. "But did I not make myself clear back in Shalour?" Alex's arms crossed as he gave the espeon a frustrated look.

"I… I…" Ebony stuttered as her paws began to tremble.

Alex's arms fell to his side as his face loosened with a more composed expression. It didn't take more than seeing the frightened eeveelution for him to realize she was very shaken up and possibly even remorseful, or at least in his eyes he saw that. "Look, I'm not trying to scare you, Ebony. But, I really can't afford to have you guys running out getting into more trouble. I know you didn't intend for that to happen, but maybe stay inside when it's dark, I mean this is a city, things happen this late at night. The last thing I want is for someone to end up abducted or dead in a ditch somewhere. Things were just starting to look up, so I was hoping we could keep things that way. So can you promise me that you won't go out this late in the night again? If so, I promise to let this go." Ebony didn't respond to Alex at first, but our human just waited patiently for an answer.

After about ten seconds passed by, Ebony gave one firm nod of her head. Alex's lips just barely curved as he roughed up the fur on her head. "Alrighty, get some rest." Alex released her head and headed upstairs to go back to sleep.

Left in the silence of the living room was Hesh, Ebony and myself. Despite being a bit tired and still not in the mood for anyone's drama I stuck around to see what Hesh had to say to Ebony. The pikachu approached the espeon shortly after she jumped off the recliner Alex had set her on and placed a hand over her shoulder. Ebony looked down at his hand, before her eyes travelled up his arm until she met his own eyes.

"Is everything alright? It's not like you to go out like that. What is this, some kind of rebellious phase?"

Ebony gave a small shake with her head.

"Talk to me then."

Ebony's stare went towards the ground as she fidgeted in place for a few seconds, before she gained the courage to respond. "I… I saw something," She began quietly, before raising her head up. "I was on the window sill looking out on the street when… I saw a shiny umbreon."

My ears perked up from the mention of this umbreon. It couldn't really be who she was implying it to be, could it? I mean she obviously thought it was him if she was chasing after him. If she really did believe that, then she's wrong, Black abandoned us, he wouldn't be lingering around. I know him, he probably wouldn't even step foot in Lumiose after what happened.

"And you thought it was Black?" Hesh skeptically asked.

"It was!" Ebony rose her voice in frustration. "I followed him, but by the time I actually caught up to him he was being carried off by some marowak and…" Ebony paused as a shiver ran through her body, quickly silencing her tongue, but when she regained the strength to talk her voice was frantic and filled with stammers, "The white umbreon, Stark, was there too. I confirmed that it was Black, and I wanted to stop them, but the marowak did something to me."

"It's alright," Hesh cooed as both of his arms wrapped around her and pulled her against his chest. "I believe you. Even if I can't understand why."

"Black was in danger, and I let that white umbreon take someone else from me! He's going to kill Black, and I know it!" Ebony choked as she began to sob in Hesh's arms. The pikachu held on as tightly as he could as Ebony buried her face in his chest. Hesh eyes were casted on me and at the moment I knew where this was heading.

I pried myself off the couch before I spoke, "You're wanting to do something about this, aren't you?"

"Well, yeah," Hesh responded back. "I mean he did leave us at a bad time, but dammit he's still one of us," Hesh spoke with some kind of passion in his voice, like we were all one big family or something. The thought would have been amusing at one point, but now I couldn't think of it like that. I wasn't sure what I thought of Black at this point, but one thing was for sure, if I never met him Kana would still be here right now. We would still be on our journey; we wouldn't be where we are now. Because of Black our life took a very sharp turn down shit-lane.

"You know," Hesh continued on. "I remember you and Black were pretty tight at one point-"

"That was before Kana died," I spat out. "All of that friendship stuff was before Kana died. Kana was my best friend, had I known I had to choose her life or Black's I would have given Black up in an instant. I would not have let Black stay with us-"

"Okay that's total crap and you know it!" Hesh lashed out at me as he released Ebony and tightened his fists.

"And what do you know?" My voice became a low growl as smoked fumed from my nostrils. The fact that Hesh was trying to act like he had all of this under control was just infuriating. Kana was the only one who truly understood me, and not even she knew everything about me.

"I know for a fact if the old Flare was presented with that choice he would have said screw options A and B. Instead, he would have fought for his friends, because he was just too stubborn to let go of either of them go. We all knew the consequences of what could have happened if we let Black stay, yet we thought it was worth fighting for someone we cared about. I know what happened to Kana wasn't something we wanted, but she wouldn't want us to be hung up on her death either. She'd want us to continue on," Hesh finished and the room was silent.

About ten seconds passed before I was able to answer Hesh, "Stop talking like everything is okay. You barely knew Kana, you wouldn't understand what it's like to have something like that yanked from your life."

"Hmmf, you're right." Hesh gave a single nod. "I enjoyed talking to Kana. She was a fun jolteon, but in the end I didn't ever really have any deep conversations with her. In the end we were just two pokemon intertwined by our trainer. But saying I don't know loss… that's the most ignorant thing you could possibly say to me," Hesh's voice became very cold, almost unsettling. "Remember what happened to my friend back in Ambrette? Yeah, that charmander Connor. He was a close friend of mine, and I spent weeks searching for him without rest. Then when I did finally find him, he was dead. I can fully comprehend the pain of not getting to say goodbye to your friend, it's a terrible feeling, and I feel terrible that you never even got any closure. But you're going to have to stand back up one of these days, or what's the point of even living?

"And I'm not the only one either. Ebony lost her older sister, and she's just a kid, Alex lost his mother, Gray suffered through watching all of his friends in the WPA die, and Black lost most of his family in one night. My point is, all of us have been through something, because this world isn't fair. And you can try and ice everyone out and play the victim, but that isn't going to fix any of your problems, because everyone has been a victim at some point or another."

My ears lowered as I was reminded of what happened to Hesh's friend. Ever since the Pikachu never moped or acted aloof because of his feelings. Hesh moved on instead and chose to come with us and started over… Upon the realization that Hesh wasn't just being ignorant of my feelings, I began to actually feel bad. My feelings towards Kana weren't relieved, but maybe it really was time to try and walk forward.

"Maybe you're right," I spoke in a barely audible volume.

"What's that?" Hesh asked.

I cleared my throat, before repeating myself. "I said… you're right."

A smile formed on Hesh's face, "And you just made your first step forward. I know it won't be easy, but you got all of us to fall back on, and we're not letting go."

"Thanks for that, I probably needed to get yelled at a bit."

Point of View Stark

Hours had passed since Black stormed out of the safe house. Rhys followed after him, which just left me to watch over Naomi. I now had her nestled in the bundles of blankets Black previously occupied when he was unconscious. Everything about Naomi seemed to be fine, the injection Rhys gave her seemed to be working well, her cuts and bruises were already starting to heal up slowly, but still at an impressive speed.

The confines of this old run down home were pretty quiet. You could probably hear someone drop a coin from across the building. The only sound I did hear were my occasional yawns and Naomi's soft breathing pattern. Watching her didn't bother me in the slightest. Naomi spent many nights up late comforting me when I thought I was going to die from my condition, she also went to great lengths to get me medicine, when it should have been impossible for a wild umbreon to get it. For that, I wanted to watch over Naomi and do everything I could to help her. I knew this didn't compare to what she went through, but it was a decent start.

Time continued to go on, and before I knew it I was nearly asleep while in a sitting position. It wasn't until I heard the sound of a grunt that my eyes peered open. I watched as Naomi moved back and forth with her eyes moving below her eye lids. A few more seconds of this passed by before she came to and her eyes slowly opened. I greeted Naomi with a smile, but her confused glances begged for an explanation on what was going on.

"Hey, how're you feeling?" I asked in a soft voice, not wanting to agitate her in any way.

"I'm fine," she spoke in a groggy whisper. "But where are we? What happened back in the subway?"

That flimsy smile I wore was quick to fade away. While I knew the topic was inevitable, I still yearned to postpone it just for the sake of avoiding stress. Right now neither of us needed it, and if I had it my way we'd just save it for tomorrow. But regardless, Naomi wanted an explanation, so I would give it.

"Well," I started as I collected my thoughts. "You may remember being attacked by a group of albino pokemon, or maybe not?"

"No I remember that. Barely, but I do."

"Right, well they derailed the train," I stated bluntly.

"Wait, they what? How're we alive?!" Naomi panicked as she tried standing, but as she put weight on her burnt arm she let out a whimper.

"Take it easy. I'll catch you up," I told Naomi as I gently patted her on the back. I wasn't sure if it worked, but it made me feel better about her pain, so it did something for one of us.

"Is everyone alright, what happened to Raiden and Black?"

"Raiden's alright as far as I knew, Rhys mentioned some friends dealing with them after the crash, whatever that means." Now that I thought of it, what exactly did happen to the sylveon and Raiden? I harbored no feelings over the sylveon, but Raiden was a comrade at one point in my past life, so the thought of him dying wasn't exactly pleasant.

"What about Black? He's okay, right?" Naomi pressed for an answer, and for some reason that sent tingles across my skin. How could she care about him after what happened? He tried to kill us, and while it may have been partially due to the manifestation of the dark matter, he is still accountable for his own actions. Had Naomi been severely injured, that puny umbreon would have been brutalized to death by my own paws.

I gave out a small breath, and gave her what she wanted, regardless of my feelings. "Black's fine, better than the rest of us. But I do want to talk about him real quick." Naomi tiled her head a bit with a curious look, but waited for me to go on. "So, what exactly is the history between you and Ry-… Black."

Naomi's breath stilled for a moment as her eyes seemed to blank out for a second from the question. I didn't like that look in her looked like someone who got caught in a lie and didn't know how to retort.

"I mean, I remember what he said on the train, he had feelings for you. And I can tell you two have spent some time together since I've-" I stopped for a second as I searched for the right words. "Since I've been absent."

"It's not like that," Naomi uttered. "I mean… we were friends, and…" Naomi found herself unable to find the proper wording, which was something new for her.

"Just be honest with me," I sighed out. "While I don't like Black in anyway, I do understand the conditions. You thought I was dead, and you had no way of knowing. So, all I ask is your honesty, I'm not mad with you." I tried my best to be nice about all of this. Of course there was something up with those two. While I may have hidden it, the thought of Black with her just enraged me.

There was a moment of silence before Naomi could bring herself to answer, but when she did her voice was very serious. "Black and I were friends, while I'll admit if you gave us enough time that may have changed, it never evolved past us going on mini dates if you'd call them that. It wasn't a serious relationship, we never kissed, we never had sexual intercourse, we were just kind of getting to know each other before anything else. Or at least in my eyes that's how I saw it."

"But, you liked him? I mean what did you like about him, was it his personality, was he attractive, or-"

"Stark," Naomi cut me off. "Are you insecure about us?" Naomi asked, her eyes peering into me like daggers.

I felt a small blush coming from beneath my fur, I never originally intended for me to get this invested in this topic, I just wanted a simple quick answer. Yet here I am becoming very interested in what Naomi was up to while I was gone.

"Listen," Naomi started. "I'll admit I liked Black, but that doesn't change you and me. I chose you, and I don't regret that decision at all."

"Sorry," I blurted out, which got an odd glance from Naomi. "Umm, for all the weird question and all. I'm not trying to accuse you or anything, it's just weird when I don't know what you've been up to with him. I'm really not trying to make this weird, or come off as if I'm angry with you."

"It's fine," Naomi beamed a smile at me. "Honestly, I just find it cute seeing you all worked up over this, and it's kind of sweet seeing that you actually care."

I let out a relieved sigh. This is why I liked Naomi so much, she wasn't out looking for drama, she was simple and understanding. No fights, no unneeded drama and she was honest with me when she could have easily concealed the truth. But now seeing that all this was taken care of, I did need to give Naomi a proper explanation on what was going on.

"Well that was heartwarming," I joked, "But now we need to talk about what's going on, you missed a lot while you were out.

Naomi agreed to hear what I had to say, and we carried out a long conversation on what all happened. I told her everything from the Omega squad, to Rhys taking us in, to Rhys also wanting our help. On the other paw, I did leave out that I may or may not be some weird god offspring of some kind. I wanted to bring it up, but that was a topic for another day. Maybe it was more that I needed time to actually choose whether I believe it or not, because it was a bit farfetched as Black said earlier.

It wasn't until I was nearly done recapping things for Naomi that the front door to the safe house opened. The first noise to come through the building was a frustrated snarl, followed by a few witty comments between two people that I couldn't make out.

"Seriously, bite me you prick!" Black's voice echoed through the empty building.

"Black please, I am getting a serious headache from your behavior. I'm getting old, and you're going to put me in an early grave."

"Then don't stalk me when I'm trying to get some privacy!" Black snapped back as he was carried into the room by a zoroark that I presumed was Rhys. "Now let me go, we're back!" Black hissed at him.

"Oh no, not until you promise you're going to calm down. It's either that or I mellow you out with mind tricks."

Black tried pushing himself free from the zoroark, but the bipedal fox's arms only tightened more around him.

"Alright, alright, fine!" Black shouted. Rhys let out a frustrated exhale, before releasing Black. The umbreon landed on all fours, before he noticed that the two of us were watching the whole scene.

An awkward tension filled the room as Black's eyes glanced at Naomi, before averting eye contact completely. Naomi didn't even speak a word; all conversations were just gridlocked.

"Well, I'll be the one to alleviate this situation," Rhys said as he reverted back to his zorua form. "You two don't need to necessarily talk out what happened now, for we'll be parting ways tomorrow."

"Wait, what?" Black and I both asked in sync. We both noticed this and casted each other glares, for whatever reason.

"Yes, you heard me right, tomorrow we'll be going our own ways. We have a lot of ground to cover, and we won't cover it on time if we're all working together. Instead, we must disperse separately across Kalos to accomplish our goals before the new year."

"I'm not parting from Naomi," I quickly stated.

Rhys just chuckled at me. "I didn't intend to do that. Naomi was never a part of the original plan, so it's easy to throw her in wherever convenient. Now, I have taken liberty of creating these teams already. Team one will be composed of Me, Black-"

"Dammit," Black muttered below his breath.

Rhys rolled his eyes at the remark, but continued on anyways, "As I was saying, it will be composed of me, Black and Lilly. Our team will be heading out to make an alliance with WPA. Team two will be made up of Stark, Raiden and Naomi. You three will be focusing on making a pact with Jack's pokemon, and then using Black to hire an army of mercenaries. You two will be provided money to pay them for their services. But with Jack's connections you'll be able to get the best of the best.

"Now, are there any questions?" Rhys asked as he looked around the room, and when his eyes met my own I rose my paw.

"So how exactly am I supposed to convince the man who nearly murdered Naomi and I to help us? We're not exactly on good terms."

"Right, well let's be honest. Jack is the type of man to put the money before his personal feelings. So, as long as you two don't antagonize him in any way, the money should be his voice of reason. Of course be careful around him, I wouldn't ever trust him for a second."

"Neither would I," I agreed.

"Now that that's set up, everyone needs to get a good night of sleep. If you think you'll struggle to do that, then just ask me and I'll simply use night daze. Now, I leave the rest of the night to you. Feel free to ask any questions."

When Rhys finished Naomi and I swapped glances. "Well, you're up for this, right?" I asked Naomi.

"You said that Rhys would cure you if we helped, so I don't see any other way if I want you to stay alive. So yeah, I'm fine with this," Naomi's words became quiet near the end of her sentence. I had a feeling to why, and I intended to find out.

"And what about seeing Jack again, that doesn't bother you in the slightest?"

"It does," Naomi confirmed. "A lot to be honest. But, I'm willing to put that aside for your health, besides I still have you now. So in the end I really don't care about fighting. It's over for me, we'll do this one last thing with Jack and after that I plan to isolate him from my life."

"Heh, I couldn't agree more." I nodded my head in agreement. "Anyways, we should be getting some rest, we'll have a lot more travelling to do in the morning."

"Sure."

Rhys had some blankets set out, which Naomi and I both bundled some together to create a nest for us to sleep together in. We both curled up in a pile of soft blankets. Naomi was curled into a ball, while I rested against her with my head resting on her side. As I tried to drift off, I focused on Naomi's breaths, I found them soothing to hear, so I allowed them to be my lullaby.

Chapter end

Author Note: Sorry about the lengthy time between updates... I've been busy so my writing time has been sparse lately. Luckily, things are shifting back to normal for now, so I should be back to updating assuming nothing changes. Hopefully everyone enjoys the new information that has been revealed and you can expect more to follow in future chapters :)

Thanks to genricgamer207 for editing this chapter.

Fun Fact: This chapter was written in multiple countries on the crappiest Ipad keyboard I could find...

Question: I know I should be able to gauge this myself, but does the pacing of this story seem a bit too slow as of recently? I've been trying to make sure the pacing of this story is flowing well, and at the same time I also worry that I rushed a bit too much in some spots? I don't know if anyone has an input on this, but I'm curious what others think.