Alright, we've just about reached the end of ARC 1! Oh dang!

Sorry for the delay. I've been losing my interest in fanfiction lately... so I guess that means I have succeeded in my goal of using this story as practice for another, haha. I'll probably just put this one on hiatus after the end of ARC 1 and come back to it in a few months. It would... feel wrong to leave it without properly finishing it. Plus, WHO IS THE POKEMON THAT WAS TURNED INTO A HUMAN? 2 MANY QUESTIONS 5 ME

OMG—ah, so you've got a switch? Well if you want to add me as a friend, here's my switch friend code! It's SW-5166-0430-7628. I haven't played the new pokemon games as of yet (kind of thinking about it, but I don't know) I've just been binging Phoenix Wright lately hahaha... It was finals week these past few days for me, and I got slammed with a sickness, so I couldn't even focus on writing, I legit was dealing with finals, studying until my illness-inflicted brain swam, then I just hid in bed and rested and played Phoenix Wright, haha. Maybe I'll write a couple one-off stories about the Sword/Shield characters if I get into the games. Marnie's pretty freakin cute. I've had a few other friends tell me that they're obsessed with Allister too. That must mean he's a good boyo, haha.
Lucaro and Niri make a fun pair. Lucaro's logical, but he's emotional in the ways that most characters aren't since he's a legit talking pokemon. He's super fun. He makes a good foil for Niri, who is this... savage wreck, haha.
Hahahaha, no yeah Volkner and Flint are definitely dating. I'm surprised you couldn't tell. Maybe I wasn't clear enough? xD That's why Niri's so uncomfortable around them. It just makes her feel freakin lonely. She needs to get over Layke (is what I thought when I started writing the story, only now it looks like both of them are longing for each other and I accidentally made them straight when Niri was supposed to get a girlfriend?!)
Thanks again for all your kind words!

Now let's get this over with~

Chapter 10: To the One I Love

Keebae leads us up a mountain path and into a hollow easily missed by cursory glance. When I can't figure out where she's disappeared to, she calls from the hole, "YOU'RE SO DUMB!" but maybe I just didn't know there was a freaking massive hole in the ground right behind that patch of rocks, okay.

Chuckling, Lucaro follows. I think about elbowing him, but he's too kind for that. He's too good for this lousy world.

We call after the frail girl and follow her into her ditch. I slip when I land and rocks chew up my legs—and suddenly I'm seeing that moment, that moment where Layke turns around and he asks me what's wrong and he knows I've gone and hurt myself again. And his eyes are so kind and his voice is so soft and his hands are so warm and it's too much—and then I open my eyes and it's nothing at all, just the ache of a lullaby in the musty air.

We're gonna find him. I have to keep telling myself because each day it feels less and less real. We're gonna find him.

"It's this way." Keebae's tiny hand snatches my own, and she tugs me forward. Her fingers sink into my hand, brown and cold and almost doll-sized. She's so small, like a—like a prized stuffed animal, or a collector's toy. Her narrow eyes widen until they fill her head, dark and full of forebode. They reflect the aura encircling her wrist. Our only light source, its cerulean luminescence shimmers across the well-worn cavern trail, bounding along the walls and glimmering over smooth stalactites that jiggle dangerously from the ceiling.

It's breathtaking.

"Keebae..." I venture, "what's this way?"

She hovers before moving on, her footsteps splashes in the puddles of stagnant water. "I... I don't think I should tell you."

Lucaro, from over my shoulder, asks, "But you are showing us, yes? Then why can you not tell us?"

"Oh. I guess that's right." Her breath hisses out from between her teeth. "And here I was trying to be all secretive and careful..." Releasing a breath, Keebae hoists her foot from a particularly clumpy puddle and saunters onward. The path slopes up, beckoning us further into the darkness. "We gotta get to the summit before... they do." Shuddering, she adds under her breath, "They're gonna ruin everything...

"Dad—" her voice hitches. "Dad says we're gonna make the world a better place. He's been saying it ever since I met him, ever—ever since he discovered the horrible truth. This planet's rotten to its core, and it's been rotting for years and years and years. C-Can't you tell?" Her eyes flash from over her shoulder. "Lucaro, you can tell... right?"

He swallows, whispers, "Yes... I know what you mean." His paw reaches for my free hand and squeezes it tightly. I all but hear him say I am afraid, Niri.

"You mean..." They both flinch as if they forgot I was also in the chamber, even as I am sandwiched between them. "You mean because pokemon have been treated so poorly lately? Like how we tell them what to do and expect them to listen? Most of them are forced into the role of... subservient slaves... I guess... I-Is that what you're referring to, Keebae?"

"I mean, yeah, part of it at least. People suck. I suck. Everyone sucks." She lets out a grunt, kicking a stone into the abyss of darkness.

"Uhhh... you okay, Keebae? It sounds like your self-esteem's a little, uh, lacki—"

"Yeaahhh yeah yeah yeah whatever." Then she shuts off, and we hike in silence.

But evidently she can't keep it that way. "It's just... frustrating how everyone hurts each other, no matter what. You try your hardest and it doesn't even matter. You'll make someone upset in the end. Always. It's always that way. It doesn't matter how much they care about you or how much you love them. It'll never work out because people aren't perfect, and love isn't real."

Lucaro and I stop to share an awkward glance. I ask, "Keebae... are you sure everything is okay?" I think somebody might have a case of some pent-up emotional baggage.

"No I'm... frrrrrggggh..." Her growls continue, little gremlins of half-formed sentences, as we hike. Somewhere above us, a pinprick of light—white light—emerges. We round a bend and the light grows brighter, too bright; I squint as it overcomes us. The tunnel pours outwards, and the light purifies our tired, scrunched up faces.

I step into snow; it makes a satisfying crunch underfoot. I take another step only to slip over a patch of wet dirt. Pausing, my fingers tight around Lucaro's steady azure paw, I stare at the ground and watch footsteps unfold beneath us, footsteps that are not our own. The fresh track leads ahead: three sets of feet.

They leave the same imprints as Keebae's Galactic boots. She gasps, recognizing them, and utters, "They must be moving really fast... I-I hope they Mars didn't see me and..." She swallows, her face stricken. "Th-This could be bad."

"Oh, great." My free hand, having released Keebae's, lands by my side, curving around my hip. "Because it wasn't already?"

Her sharp teeth rip into a snarl. "Oh shut it, Niri. You're so moody."

"My best friend is also—"

"Shut up shut up I know I know I know... g-get out your prinplup, okay. Just in case."

Wordlessly I touch his ball. He doesn't need me to tell him; Lup joins my side, his lanky, gangly prinplup form collecting particles of snow. Great, puffy clouds blanket the air above us, but what little light that trickles through reflects sharply off the ice-laced earth and blinds us. Our breaths form around our mouths, our stupid, listless, wide-open mouths.

Keebae releases her stolen chimchar—now a little larger, a little ganglier. Monferno. He's got some weird blue stripes around his eyes, like a bandit. Reminds me of his owner. But he clings to her leg in such a way that I can't quite avert my eyes—his undying loyalty renders me speechless. Why does he like her so much, right?

My prinplup huffs. Let's go, Niri. It sounds like we don't have much time.

Right. I swallow hard. Keebae releases a couple other pokemon—some dusky blue zubats and a puffy white thing she calls cinccino, never seen anything like it before—then we head off. She asks me while we crunch over the freshly-laid footsteps, "Don't you have anything other than your dumb bird?"

"Uhhhh..." I shrug. "Never needed anything more than him and Lucaro." And I've got that steel bar, which I've tied around my waist with a scarf we found back at that laboratory. That makes me like a steel type, sort of. "I never really had the time to go catching pokemon either."

"Niri, you could've literally caught pokemon at any point ever."

I grunt. "Well... yeah..."

Before Keebae can make another snap at me, Lucaro butts in. "I appreciate her efforts not to wrongly imprison pokemon who may not wish to be captured and forced to a lifetime of servitude."

Keebae opens and then shuts her mouth. She mutters, "Drat," and that is all.

We've followed the footprints into a lush, snow-covered clearing. A few wayward paths tempt us, but thanks to the fresh steps in the snow, we've no chance of getting lost. Something tells me in the very pit of my soul that I would've made some wrong turns had it not been for the footsteps. Almost like... if they hadn't been here previously, if I'd gone up here all on my own without any help save for my pokemon, I get the feeling I would've fallen into the abyss of endlessly darkened pathways and lost sight of my way forever...

W-Well, thank goodness such is not the case.

Keebae thunders ahead into the cavern, and I follow with Lup and Lucaro at my heels. The blackness swallows us up once more, leaving naught but the beautiful aural glow to comfort us. We file up a narrow hall that morphs into a natural staircase, our toes clicking ominously into the rock-encased noir.

We go slower, softer, at Lucaro's request, and finally he whispers, "I hear someone up ahead."

It's like all the air in the room has been misplaced. Gasping, I try to reply, but I can't—I can't breathe. At my side, Keebae huddles into my shadow, her eyes ever wider with fright. Eventually we all share a long moment in each other's warmth as the shadows beckon about us, the light flickering with Keebae's shaking wrist: and then I rasp, "I'll do it. Keebae, stay here. Wh-While they're distracted, you get past me." My eyes dip to Lucaro just a second. "The big bads are probably past this grunt. You go with her. Okay?" He grimaces, but he blinks in affirmation.

I turn to Keebae's small, shivering form.

She nods silently. When her eyes meet me, they zap me with a quiet, humble gratitude. She mouths, thank you, and I nod without really thinking about it.

Lucaro's paw fumbles around my fingers, and he forms a minuscule azure ring. It slides onto my thumb and stays, secure. "So you can see," he murmurs.

Gently he pats my head. "Be safe."

I struggle to nod, to breathe, to—but there's nothing left to say.

I turn and leave my friends behind. Lup takes my side, ever the loyal pokemon, and my hand falls around my steel bar. Maybe, I'm thinking, maybe if I catch them off-guard, I can knock them straight out with a well-placed smack from the bar. Then we can just—we can just go.

I sense the breathing in the darkness before my tiny light clutches their face. I catch something dark and full of angles before they duck out of the aura's reach.

"Sh-Show yourself." A voice. No... they—they know I'm here. They know I'm here and I can't see them. Stupid of me to think I could surprise them. Something cold and sinister slips down my throat and slides into my stomach. It hurts. I'm scared. It's just me and this grunt in the utter dark. They see me, but I can't see... them.

"How did you find us." The voice again, booming off the walls. I get the idea to wrap my fingers tight around the ring Lucaro gave me; the light, stifled, hides my position. Hurriedly I kick off my shoes and slide on the dusky earth in an effort to obscure where I stand.

I try to squint through the shadows, but I can't make anything out. It's like—oh my gosh it's just like with Roark...

"Tell me, how did you find us."

Then I sense things moving in the air. Grunting, I duck, but papery leaves zing past my face and cut into my skin. Blood streams down my cheek in thin, sharp rivulets. Wincing, I mutter, "I found you because I'm persistent. You don't hide as well as you think you do, you idiots..."

I drag my sleeve up my cheek and wipe at the blood. My fingers knot around my steel bar, releasing the ring to let a brilliant flash of aural light surround me.

And then I feel him—again—stronger—lurking just behind my ear—and with a shriek I swing backwards.

I sense more than hear him double over, panting. "Ow..." he moans—and a flash of his crumpled-up expression delves into my mind. It must be the aura, letting me sense what I can't on my own.

While he's wheezing, I catch the sound of lucario feet, accompanied by a lithe girl and her ensemble of little pokemon. They're gone just as quickly as they came by.

He's up again before I even register it; his hands have wrapped around my head and his fingers twist over my mouth, silencing me.

"I see your pokemon. Now what, hmm?"

What an idiot. I just as much as look at Lup, and he's pecking at the man's feet. "GHH—" He throws my head at the ground, but I catch myself with my weapon and steady onto my feet. Faintly I can hear the breathing of a being, crouched somewhere in the darkness, one armed with leaves and vines and all sorts of plants and things.

But it's weakening. It needs light to survive, and there is no light down here.

Lup, go for that. I'll keep this guy at bay.

Lup is gone from my side, hurtling into the pokemon in the corner of the chamber. Shaking my hand, I raise my hand and let the light from the ring filter into the air. Finally I steal a glimpse of my perpetrator's face, bruised and bloodied by—

My heart clenches when I catch the eyes.

There's no way... and yet.

"Layke," I try, but he's already slamming into me, fighting for purchase, fighting for my weapon—so I swing again and it hits him somewhere between his legs, sending him down harder, faster. With him crumpled to the ground in front of me, moaning weakly, I know—I know I could hit him again, and again and again and...

Lup's got his plant pokemon, whatever that lugging beast is, cornered. No more plant-attacks come my way. He's too weak without the sun. He...

I can faintly make him out in the shadows. A massive, lumbering tortoise. It's Turt, isn't it, I ask Lup, who flinches and mumbles, Oh... wait, it might be. I could... Niri, listen, I could barely hear his voice. He's being subdued. I think it's him but there's something way way wrong with him.

My eyes fall to Layke, struggling to pull himself back up.

I crouch down beside him. This could end very badly.

I let my hand nudge against his.

I look him in the eyes, his soft eyes—once gentle, now restless, broken by days, weeks of unspeakable tortures that I can't begin to verbalize.

"Layke," I ask again, and he shudders.

"Ni..." But the sound dies a horrible death in his throat. "No... it can't be... N-N-Niri's dead..."

"No." I talk over him, gently, louder, louder. "I'm not dead. I'm Niri, and I am very much alive."

"Niri," he whispers, practically whimpering, clinging to my face, "Niri are we both dead... did I finally die Niri... did I finally wake up from this nightmare..."

My breaths crunch in my chest. "N-Night..?" I shake myself. "Layke I'm right—I'm right here. D-Dude, what did they do to you?" Even as I speak, he's clutching me, tugging me into him, pressing his face to my shoulder, hiding his wet, bleary gaze. I feel it cling to my sleeve, but he won't let go, and I don't want to make him, just... let my arms encircle his bent-over figure, ever broken by the monsters that malformed him.

"Layke," I murmur, but he's crying, and he can't hear me over his sobs.

I don't... I don't know what to do. My hands tighten around his shirt, his stupid Team Galactic shirt, and his warmth shimmers over my fingers. He's soft and easy to hold, infinitely difficult to let go of.

"Niri, I..." I go numb with the warmth of his lips, pressing into my skin. He speaks through me. "I thought you died. I thought you were gone and I... and I thought... I thought that I had nothing. Nothing..." His fingers curl around me; one slips from behind my back to intercept my face, and his thumb rhythmically strokes my cheek.

My eyes begin to shut. I feel myself giving into him, whispering his name unendingly. Above my breaths I hear him repeating my own in return. He's warm, achingly warm, the warmest thing I've ever held, and the last thing I ever want to let go of.

Then something loud and foreign slaps across the stone corridor.

Our gasps fill the chamber.

I freeze in Layke's arms. His grip tightens around me; his eyes search past me into the darkness. Locating my arm, he relaxes the aura band off my thumb and slips it over his ring finger, raising it to breach the shadows surrounding us. His free hand locks protectively around my wrist. "You're not dying," he utters, "whatever happens, you're not dying again."

My heart catches, watching the little ring shine from his finger. It's stupid, but it's... I almost want to take his hand and kiss it. Despite the sharp fear in his voice, I can't stifle the slightest bubble of laughter. "Layke, I was never dead in the first place."

"W-Well... okay, yeah, but..." Momentarily flustered, he glances my way. His gaze has softened, overflowing with my silhouette. "I thought that you..." He draws off. "I thought, Niri, I thought—"

"COMMANDER SATURN."

He stiffens. "M-Mars, I..." Even as his voice fractures, eyes brighten, lips tremble, he refuses to release me.

"COMMANDER SATURN, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE."

He opens his mouth. "Um."

"I-I'm his prisoner," I try, but the red-haired woman is already stomping my way with something bright and glowy in her hands, something horrifyingly crimson. It—It's the same texture as the red that glowed over the faces of those scientists, the ones that were all but comatose in the laboratory.

Shrieking, I stand up, launching myself out of Layke's arms, and swing my steel bar at her face. The woman Mars has ducked before I even get the chance to hit her. Lup, from the shadows, jumps at her, drilling into her skin; a nuanced kick sends him reeling, and he's out cold once more, head mashed against a rock wall.

Just like...

I swallow, readying my staff.

It's all I have.

And she knows it. Her eyes, gleaming, flicker to her belt, from which she releases a massive fluffy monster. It hisses as it approaches me on all fours, closing in on me with its massive, shuddering form.

My staff shudders in my hands. I'm supposed to attack her pokemon with it. That's my only defense—my only defense. No Lup, no Lucaro, no other pokemon because Keebae's right. Keebae's right and I am a fool.

I think the commander knows I don't want to hurt her pokemon. Lucaro's bright, emotional eyes overflow me—

Then while I'm distracted her hands clap around me—

And then suddenly I'm on the floor, rocks scraping my knees.

"Y-You pushed me." I wince. "Layke, you..."

I look up to watch the strange, glowing chain-like substance immerse my best friend's neck, absorbing his skin and bleeding red into him. His eyes, suddenly bright, suddenly tearing into my face, go slack.

His voice, strangled in his throat, releases a soft moan: "Niri..." but it draws off to utter chilling silence.

He saved me. That's what he did.

Mars, with a pause, snaps her fingers. "H-He's stronger than me anyways..." she mutters, then directs her attention to my slack-eyed Layke. "Commander Saturn. Kill that girl."

There is no hesitation. No hesitation, only brainless malice moves his arms, steers his feet, sends his remaining pokemon down upon me. There are these horrible toxic-colored frogs that I hurriedly bat at with my staff while they dodge, then this purple spirit monster that laughs when I hit it, laughs with this bubbly black grin.

Nothing is working. I can't touch his stupid agile frogs, and his creepy ghost monster just hisses with approval at my total inability to do literally anything right. Angry tears stream down my face and mingle with the meaningless sweat that gathers on my skin.

"LAYKE," my voice is hoarse, raspy, "LAYKE YOU SAID YOU WERE GONNA KEEP ME SAFE, LIKE, TWO SECONDS AGO."

With a low grunt, his arms outstretch and he leaps at me, tugging at my hair, pushing at my body—

Frantically I swing at him, and he falls back to the ground in a heap.

I'm gasping, breathing these ugly heaving sounds. From behind me I can hear that Mars lady cackle. "He won't stop, you know. He won't stop until he succeeds. You can try all you want to give him a new objective, but he can't keep you safe until he's finished killing you."

"I, I... I..." I can't see. Everything's blurry and the only light comes from Layke's stupid ring finger. And to think I almost called it romantic. To think I wanted... still want... to think I gaze into his face and recognize his kindness, his soft warmth, and yet within he's a merciless murderer charged to take my life away from me.

To think any of this has happened.

A scream tight in my lungs, I sprint at the commander with the bloodred hair. "WELL THEN I'LL KILL YOU FIRST YOU HHHHHHHHORRIBLE CREATURE!" I'm grappling with her and trying to hit her—yet she's still so fast, perfectly guessing my next swing and dodging back.

But soon she's breathing hard, harder than even I am. Her pale cheeks have discolored, and her brow is streaked with sweat. She grunts as she slips out of the way, but I pull strength from my unending stream of adrenaline and keep going. Soon enough it occurs to me to stop swinging right-left-right-left and I stop mid-turn and slam her from the other side—

and she falls.

My fists furl around the staff.

An unbridled need to keep going, to hit her again, again and again and again and again and again until she's more red and black than pale pink, until she's so stained she's unrecognizable, is threatening to drown me.

But then I see Keebae's bright eyes in my head. And I think about the last time I did that—and I stop. And I suck in a breath and I stop.

Layke's still struggling to his feet in the corner. His pokemon haven't actively tried to hurt me, just sort of hover close to me. I think—I think Keebae's right. I think Keebae's right and I think none of the pokemon genuinely want to hurt me, but they have to because they were told to. Whatever Mars did to my best friend... they aren't afraid of him anymore.

I watch as his exhausted tortoise crawls from a corner of the chamber, trembling step by trembling step. Carefully, with a foot, he plants Layke's shirt into the dirt, holding him in place. Dull green eyes turn towards me.

Turt remembers me. "Th-Thank you," I manage, before I have to look away. It hurts too much not to.

But now it's just me and her.

With Mars at my feet, I tuck my sweaty palm beneath her chin and force it up. Her gaze eclipses my own. Shuddering, she shrieks, "What? WHAT do you want?"

I swallow my desire to scream down upon her. "How do I undo the... whatever it is you did to him?"

Her eyes pool with... tears. "I don't..." The bright red in her eyes dims. "I don't know... I-I..." She's... whimpering. This terrifying murder-woman who told Layke to kill me without a second of hesitation now can't keep the whine out of her voice. "D-Dear Cyrus heard a scuffle down here... h-he told me to use the new power we discovered on the intruder... I-I-I-I didn't mean to wipe Commander Saturn's brain... Dear Cyrus r-really liked Commander Saturn... H-He'll be very di-di-disappointed in m-m-me...

Her knees fold up into her chest, and she moans into them. "Dear Cyrus is the only person wh-wh-who ever loved me... h-h-h-he's all that I have... and now he'll hate me... he'll hate me for ruining the mind of our b-best commander... hate me f-f-f-forever... forever..."

The tears gather and fall. They trace my thumb, slipping down my arm and into my sleeve. Disgusted, I release her head and let her cover it in her hands.

S-Something's wrong with this team.

I manage one last glance at my best friend—the one I love—before I hurry into the light at the end of the tunnel.


Wow... well that's one way to end an arc 1, huh? Dang.

Lots of questions xD Sorry to go on hiatus so suddenly, but there's some other things that I really need to work on.

This story was so... interesting to write. I've never written an adventure story at a pace as fast as this one. I was really trying to explore a faster pace, because I feel like most of my stories turn into slice of life by accident, which has its own place—but that place is not in every freakin story I write, haha. I feel like, if anything, this story could've used a somewhat slower pace. There are some things I wish I covered a little more: the relationships between the Galactic members, the disappearance of the gym leaders/Cynthia, the lore behind this world, the fact that Niri was supposed to train more with her staff and also get a girlfriend (I had this idea for her and Maylene to bond, but just, never got the time to introduce her into the story, very sad). I feel like almost everything got brought up, but I don't know if it got brought up ENOUGH I guess. This was still a great experience though.
Writing is hard xD

Anyways, many of these topics WILL be addressed again in a later arc. I just wonder if I brought them up enough for the first arc. The exposition, and all.

Well thanks for reading, and hopefully see you in a couple months~