Chapter 8

Many Things to Learn

There was nothing.

Terron couldn't get his eyes to open, but somehow, he knew it didn't matter. Nothing existed around him. He could feel the nothingness bearing down on him.

He couldn't move. He couldn't struggle. He could only lay upon the strange floor of nothingness beneath him.

Hello? Terron tried to call out. Is anyone there? Where am I?

His words rang through the empty void. They were not words that escaped his tongue, but rather, his thoughts. Somehow, his thoughts were being projected into the world he found himself in.

Just then, someone else's words quietly filled the darkness around Terron.

… Why…

The voice seemed to be coming from every direction. However, the words were distant, seemingly having a difficult time getting to Terron.

…Why are you… here?

I don't know. I don't even know where I am. Can you tell me where I am?

… Ter…ron…

Terron? That's… that's my name… how do you know my name?

Ter… ron… why…

… Why… did… you… come…

Why aren't you answering my questions? Who are you even?

Ter… ron…

Can you even hear me?

Go… back…

What?

Ter…ron…

Ne… ver…

Re…turn.

What are you talking about? Who are you? Why should I never come back? What is this place?! Answer me!

Ne…ver…

Come…

Back…

Terron's eyes snapped open as he inhaled sharply. His heart was pounding at a furious pace. He slowly took deep breaths to calm himself before he noticed where he was. He was resting on soft grass and looking up at an endless sky of blue. A peaceful light shined down upon him from within the blue, nearly blinding him. A pleasant breeze swept past him.

He slowly sat up, not feeling the slightest bit sore or injured. Surely he must have been dead. He had been attacked by a Scyther and it had cut him in two.

There was no doubt. He could still remember the feel of those blades slicing into him.

This had to be where the dead Pokémon went.

As Terron's epiphany dawned upon him, it was then that he noticed something he hadn't seen earlier.

In front of him stood the opening to Overgrowth Jungle.

The Mystery Dungeon he had been killed in.

Yet there it was, as it was when he saw it when he was still alive. Words couldn't describe his shock. There was no way he could have escaped.

Terron checked his body to see if he had any cuts on him from the Scyther attack. Much to his surprise, his body was whole. Not a single scratch was on him nor were there any scars. It was as if he was reborn with his body's former glory.

Perhaps he, in spirit form, was revisiting the last place he had been to before he would depart to the true spirit world.

Terron then noticed that his scarf was gone. It was no longer tied around his neck. He had tied it so securely so that there was no way it could come off, but that was no longer such as it was gone.

Terron began to look around to see if the scarf was nearby, but instead found another body sprawled along the ground next to him.

The body of a Zorua.

"Zekra!" Terron shouted frantically.

He quickly rushed over to her and began shaking her in an attempt to wake her up. Surprisingly enough, he could actually feel her. She was tangible, as his hands weren't sinking into her body. Perhaps even though he was a mere spirit, other spirits could feel whole to him as if they were made of actual flesh. Zekra had died when Terron had, so to him, that was understandable.

Zekra stirred with an uncomfortable frown. It seemed to take some effort, but eventually she was able to release herself from the dark depths of insentience.

Just like Terron, she was completely unharmed. Unlike Terron though, she still had her scarf tied around her, though tattered at the edges.

"Terron?" Zekra asked tiredly as she rubbed her eyes. "Is that you?"

"Yeah, it's me," Terron said with a relieved sigh before a more troubling thought overtook him. "What happened to us though? Are we… dead?"

Terron began to feel unnerved after saying that. The idea of him being dead just wasn't right.

"Dead?" Zekra asked curiously, though uneasiness was beginning to enter her voice. "What are you talking about?"

"Well, do you remember what happened after the Scyther managed push you back?" Terron asked cautiously, secretly hoping that perhaps Zekra could disprove his theory about their current state.

"Ummm," the Zorua said before she began to think back on the incident. "I remember I got knocked down. And… I started getting up… but the Scyther…"

Zekra's eyes grew as she began to realize what Terron was talking about.

"No, that can't be right…" Zekra whispered in disbelief. "No… it's not true. Otherwise… Terron… and Fen…"

"What is it?" Terron asked anxiously, though trying his hardest not to sound worried.

"No! There's no way we're dead!" Zekra cried. "No! I'm not dead! I'm still alive! I know I am!"

"But we got decapitated by a Scyther!" Terron stated. "How could we survive that?"

"I don't know, but we're not dead!" Zekra insisted. "Otherwise, we wouldn't be right outside the jungle! We'd be somewhere else… with others!"

Zekra glanced over toward the dungeon before immediately getting to her feet and taking off. It seemed as though she was going to re-enter the dungeon.

"Hey! Don't go back in there!" Terron shouted as he chased after her. "Zekra!"

Zekra didn't answer. Instead, she continued to scurry away. Terron managed to stay a short distance behind her, but found he couldn't quite catch up with her. Before long, Zekra had managed to get right near the entry of the jungle.

However, instead of entering into the dungeon, she stopped in front of a particular item; their Fellowship bag. It was intact and unharmed just as they were. Terron caught up to Zekra and stopped next to her, panting. He was about to yell at her, but then he noticed their bag as well.

"What's this doing here?" Terron wondered. "I think I had the bag last, but I don't know how this would get here."

Zekra gave an intense glare to the bag before she put one of her paws on it. Much to Terron's surprise, her paw didn't phase through.

Zekra opened the bag just a crack, only for her to gasp once she peered inside. She swiftly flung the cover panel of the messenger bag open so that it smacked lightly against the opposite side of the bag. With the bag completely exposed and all of its contents seeable, Terron could see what was wrong.

"Where'd everything go?!" Terron asked in disbelief.

There were barely any contents within the bag. Though there hadn't been much in the bag before the Scyther incident, seeing almost everything missing was a crushing blow to the two. All of the stones they had collected along the way were gone. It was at this time that Terron realized his weapon was missing as well.

He felt a longing for the club, but it quickly subsided once he brought his mind back to the matter at hand.

The only items that remained were a couple of the berries given to them by Emdox, one apple, and miraculously, their map and mission assignment.

"All of that hard work…" Zekra muttered before closing the bag. "And it's gone."

Zekra closed her eyes and put the strap of the bag over her shoulder.

Terron couldn't tell whether she was angry or depressed.

The expression on her face was just… empty.

"Let's just go back to Aurora Town," Zekra said lowly. "We still have to report our failure."

"But, how are we supposed to talk to anyone if we are dead?" Terron then asked. "I mean, I know you say we're not dead, but there's still the possibility that-"

Zekra glanced at Terron, gritting her teeth and making her eyes slightly narrower.

"We're not dead, Terron," Zekra answered firmly. "Stop saying that. If we were dead… my old friends would be here."

Terron didn't say anything.

Zekra then glanced at the ground, the tension in her eyes lessening.

"No one's here for us," Zekra said quietly. "Not my friends. Not even my parents."

Zekra then went forward, heading back to town. Terron silently followed behind her.

Aurora Town Fellowship

After a long and wordless trip back to their beloved city, Zekra and Terron made their way up through the long flights of stairs within the Fellowship base. Hardly anyone was around due to it being the afternoon, which was good for them since it allowed them to travel more easily.

However, neither of the two were thinking about this happy circumstance.

All Terron could think about was how he had made Zekra share her grim thoughts with him for being so set on thinking they were dead. Zekra no longer seemed irritated with him, but Terron knew it was because she was occupied with more troubling thoughts.

She was no doubt still disheartened about the failure.

Terron, too, felt upset about how they failed at their first mission, but Zekra was taking it harder. She seemed the most enthusiastic about the mission before they were somehow kicked out of the dungeon and stripped of their supplies.

Eventually, the two found themselves outside the Registration office. The two stood in front of the door, hesitant to enter.

Neither wanted to tell Emdox that they had failed their first mission.

Terron and Zekra stood there, looking at the small cracks forming on the wooden door.

Barely a few seconds passed though before the door opened to reveal Emdox, looking down upon the children with pity.

A sigh escaped his beak as he opened the door wider.

"Come inside," the Xatu said. "There's no need to stay out here."

Reluctantly, the Cubone and Zorua went into the room as Emdox gently closed the door behind them. Once they were all in, he led them over to the front desk.

"Well, I suppose we'll have to repost this assignment in case any other teams want to try it," Emdox said. "Can I see your mission assignment?"

Zekra dug through the bag until she managed to find the piece of paper. She then handed it to the Xatu.

"Don't feel so bad," Emdox said gently. "Everyone doesn't do everything perfectly. There are plenty of failures in life. Besides, we're not going to punish you just because you had a mess up. We're not cruel and unreasonable Pokémon. We're very understanding."

Just then, the door opened and Bane and Rayne walked into the room. Rayne was once again sitting on the Arcanine's head, due to the massive size difference.

"Hey Emdox, we wanted to talk to you," Bane started to say. "We were thinking about-"

It was then that he noticed Terron and Zekra in the room. He stopped walking and looked down at the two of them with an odd glance.

"Oh, hello there," Bane said. "What are you two doing here?"

"I'm afraid they're depressed over failing their mission," Emdox sighed. "I'm trying to make them feel better, but they're both stuck in their gloomy thoughts. Well… Terron anyway. I can't be sure with Zekra, but her facial expressions seem to be giving a clear message."

Rayne jumped off Bane's head before going over to the two. She put her hands on each of their shoulders and smiled softly at the two of them.

"You guys don't have to feel so bad about not succeeding in your first mission," Rayne said. "Why, when Bane and I had to do our first mission shortly after we joined Team Valor, we failed it as well."

Terron and Zekra looked at her, their eyes growing with a surprise.

"You did?" Terron asked curiously.

"Yeah, not exactly out most pleasant memory, but it's still nice to laugh at sometimes," Bane then said. "Rayne and I were once sent on our first task together since the other members who didn't really have positions here were busy. Because let's see… King was out in the wild to supply meat for the larder, Éclair and Ragnor were on a different mission, Vantis was visiting one of the other Fellowships, Jade was doing… something, and Garter… what was he doing?"

"Garter wasn't a member yet," Rayne answered. "He didn't come until a few years after we did."

"Oh yeah, that's right," Bane said with a chuckle. "Memory's getting fuzzy. But anyway, Rayne and I had to go get one of our members. They got lost in some forest Mystery Dungeon, so we had to go hunt them down and bring them back. We knew it was a rather lengthy dungeon, but we were confident that we'd make it through. And we did pretty well for the first few floors. We annihilated every kind of resistance in sight."

"Though Bane went just a bit overboard," Rayne added with a smile. "I'm pretty sure Bane would have burned down the entire dungeon had I not put out his fires."

Bane let out a snort.

"I personally think the dungeon would have been better if everything was ashes," Bane remarked.

"Yeah, well anyway, we were about halfway through the dungeon when things started going out of our favor," Rayne continued. "Most of our supplies got stolen by some wild Pokémon when we weren't looking and we ran into a lot of tough Pokémon that took a very long time to beat. We kept going, thinking we would find who we were looking for and get out of there, but…"

Rayne's ears drooped awkwardly.

"We came into a room filled with a bunch of Pokémon," Rayne then said. "There had to be at least thirty Pokémon, all of them being incredibly tough. There were Raichu, and Breloom, and Sceptile, and even a Pinsir! Oh, it was such a horrible experience! Seeing all of those Pokémon ganging up on us all at once still gives me nightmares! We started fighting them at first… but it started becoming rather obvious that we weren't going to win against that mob. We kept fighting though until we literally had no strength left. And then just when they were going to finish us off, Bane pulled out an Escape Orb and got us out of the dungeon. And our client remained stuck in the dungeon until King and Vantis went to do the job."

"And then you two came to me and whined about the awful experience," Emdox said. "And you wouldn't leave, even after I told you I knew what happened. You insisted on telling me the story despite the fact that I was watching the entire thing within your minds."

"We just wanted to vent out our frustrations!" Rayne cried.

"Of course, doing so wasn't exactly our best idea since you ended up telling everyone about our mess up right after," Bane said with a scowl.

"What can I say?" Emdox shrugged. "Your story made an interesting topic."

"But anyway, the point is that we failed our first mission as well, but we ended up okay," Rayne then said to the children. "I mean, we're the leaders! We're some of the strongest Pokémon here, and we were just like you two at one point! And we still fail missions or assignments sometimes."

"Like how Rayne failed at delivering goods to one of the other Fellowships because she forgot the stuff," Bane chuckled.

"It never happened again, though!" Rayne interjected. "But back to what I was saying. You two can have failures. It's going to happen whether it's your first mission or when you're an expert like us. It's inevitable. However, as long as you learn from those failures, then those failures are okay to make."

"But we didn't really learn much from our failure," Zekra then said. "Well, except not to mess with Scyther and to know what the item we're looking for looks like."

"See? You did learn something," Emdox pointed out. "Still, you might not always learn like Rayne is saying, but failure is going to happen, and you just need to learn how to press on if that's the case. So, don't feel bad. It happens. Just move on and try harder next time."

"Well, you guys do have a point," Zekra replied. "I guess even if Team Valor has failures, then it's not something to be too upset over."

"Exactly!" Emdox cheered.

Terron and Zekra seemed to brighten up a little, causing the others to smile happily.

"Good to see that our newest members are no longer depressed," Bane then said. "I just remembered though that there's a quick errand Rayne and I need to go run. We'll talk to you later though about what we wanted to talk about."

"Alright, I will see you two later!" Emdox said as he gave a friendly wave.

Bane lowered his head and let Rayne climb onto his head. Once she was seated comfortably on his fluffy head, the two went out the door and gave their own waves of goodbye. When the two were gone, Emdox looked back at Terron and Zekra.

"Alright, so I'm finished with you two," he said. "You are free to go."

"Okay. Thank you for cheering us up, though," Terron said with a smile.

"It's no problem!" Emdox said. "Team Valor never likes to see our fellow members feeling down. Feel free to come back anytime if you feel hopeless or sad or something. Or I'll just find you since your gloomy thoughts will reach me so easily."

"Yeah… thanks," Terron said awkwardly.

"Well, let's get going, Terron," Zekra then said, her voice much lighter than before. "I think we could probably get some late lunch if we hurry to the cafeteria."

Terron nodded in agreement before the two started to make their way toward the door. After Zekra had exited the room first, Terron started to exit as well.

"Wait, Terron," Emdox then said.

Terron stopped and looked back at the Xatu. He was still standing behind his counter like before, but there seemed to be something different about him. Something in his eyes was different.

"Yeah, what is it?" the Cubone asked.

"You're not a Pokémon," Emdox said, his voice sounding very cautious for some reason. "You… You're a human."

Terron froze up. He couldn't talk.

However, upon hearing these words, he began to remember how he wanted to ask Emdox about his memories. Under normal circumstances, he would have asked Emdox to help with that. Yet right now, Emdox's strange tone was holding Terron back.

Terron shouldn't have felt so paralyzed. He anticipated that Emdox would find out. That was different now that Emdox's attitude had suddenly changed.

"You don't remember anything about yourself, do you?" Emdox then asked.

Terron slowly shook his head.

Emdox stared at Terron for a long time. He didn't blink at all.

"… I can't help you with your amnesia, 'Terron'," Emdox said after a while. "I've dealt with someone with amnesia before… and I've found that when your mind doesn't want you to access your memories, it won't let outsiders access it either. I knew you wanted my help yesterday, but I didn't think it was because you were a human with amnesia. All your thoughts said was that you wanted help remembering lost memories."

Emdox paused. Terron still said nothing.

"So… human… my psychic abilities can't find your lost memories," Emdox said. "You will have to find those on your own."

Terron cast his eyes downward.

"You'd best go join your friend again," Emdox suggested. "She's probably wondering where you are."

Terron nodded silently and headed for the door.

Once he exited the room, he found Zekra standing there by the nearby staircase. Once she noticed Terron, she came rushing over to him.

"Hey, where'd you go?" Zekra asked curiously. "I was heading for the cafeteria, but then I noticed you weren't with me anymore. Something happen?"

Terron looked at Zekra. She seemed cheerful again, which was a welcome change from her previous attitude.

He tried to make himself appear less down and confused.

"Just talking to Emdox about my amnesia since he was a psychic," Terron answered. "He said he couldn't really help I'm afraid."

"Aw, well that's too bad," Zekra said, frowning in disappointment. "I really thought a psychic could help."

"Yeah, but I'm not too upset about it," Terron then said, lying not just to her, but himself. "I'll get my memories back. You'll see. Just need to wait and see, I suppose."

"If you say so," Zekra replied. "Well, you wanna get some food then? Shouldn't be too many Pokémon."

"Yeah, I could use something to eat," Terron said. "So yeah, let's get something then."

Zekra smiled before the two started heading downstairs. As they walked, Terron still felt bothered by the strange way Emdox was talking to him, but he tried to get it out of his thoughts.

After the two had received their meals in the cafeteria, the two sat down at the nearest table.

The two then engaged in friendly conversations, talking about random topics, which greatly helped Terron feel better as well.

About half an hour had gone by when a familiar face came up to the still-eating duo and sat at their table.

Terron and Zekra stopped eating their food instantly as soon as they saw the Pokémon.

It was King. He didn't have any sort of meal on him, which was odd since that seemed to be the only reason why anyone would be in the cafeteria.

"Hello there, children," King greeted, his voice sounding just as uncaring and near emotionless as it had when they first met him.

"Ummm, hi, King," Zekra said. "What are you doing here?"

"I came here to find you two since I heard about your most recent mission," King answered.

"And?" Zekra asked.

King eyed the two children, causing Terron to shrink a bit. The Cubone felt terrified of King since the very air around him was tense. Terron figured they were going to get yelled at thanks to the failure of their mission. The two children waited to see what was to become of them. Zekra stood there with a confused stare while Terron practically trembled in fear.

"Stop your worrying," King said in a near demanding voice. "I came to tell you that I'm going to 'help' you two on your next mission."

Terron and Zekra's jaws dropped.

"What?!" Terron and Zekra both cried in disbelief.

"Since Emdox is a complete chatterbox, he told me that you failed your mission," King explained. "No, correction, he told me about your entire experience with the mission. He told it in such detail, that I would have thought he was a part of the mission had I not known he does this with every story he tells. After listening to his take on your mission, however, I realized you two have many things to learn. Many things."

"Like what?" Zekra asked. "We were basically fine until that Scyther came!"

"Attempting to explain what you should have done during your mission wouldn't do you any good," King replied. "The only way you're going to learn is if you learn while experiencing it."

"So you're going to come with us tomorrow?" Terron then asked. "Don't you have a job here?"

"I have most of the day to myself on that day," King answered. "Sometimes, I get time off since the members of my team switch job positions to give the others breaks. So, I decided that I'd spend tomorrow with assisting our newest members."

"Thanks I suppose," Zekra said awkwardly. "But we don't really need you to come. I think we can figure out what to do on our own next time."

"Sorry, but I've come to the conclusion that you do need someone to help you… children." King interjected.

Zekra scowled.

"No, no we don't!" Zekra insisted. "Team Vendetta can do things on their own! We don't need your help!"

Zekra let out a growl of frustration as she slammed her paws onto the table. The table rattled loudly, causing the plates to move a few inches from the vibrations. King wasn't fazed by her small tantrum.

"If Team Vendetta could do things on their own, they would have not failed their first mission," the Bisharp said coldly.

Zekra flinched at the remark. When she recovered, her frown of contempt grew, but she didn't say anything. Terron knew that it was because she saw some truth in King's words.

"You have the rest of the day to yourselves," King said as he got up. "Enjoy it while you can because tomorrow, your time is with me."

King then went away and disappeared from their sight, leaving behind an unsure Cubone and an irritated Zorua at the table.