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Chapter 66

Home

I can't deal with any of this anymore.

All of my family's gone, I can't talk to my best friend anymore, my best friend's other half hates me, I don't ever want to see Nyx again, and the world is completely against me. I can't keep fighting. I can't go back to my old team, especially not when Tear's there… there's only one place for me in this world now.

I really wish things didn't have to be this way, but it's not like there was any choice.

I'm just so tired…

I can't keep doing any of this...

I can't keep torturing myself…

Zekra slowly opened her eyes. The gloomy thoughts echoing within her mind continued for a few more moments, and then slowly grew more and more distant until her mind was silent once more. She sighed and was about to fall back into slumber, but she noticed something. She was lying upon a large multi-colored rug, sunlight pouring down upon her from a nearby window. Upon seeing this, Zekra realized that all was not right. The last thing she could remember was flying through the air in the middle of the night and making her way over the ocean. She couldn't remember ever stopping into an inn or whatever this strange room was that she now found herself in. She didn't even remember falling asleep.

The Zorua glanced at her surroundings some more. The room was a fairly small one with a few pieces of furniture scattered about it, such as a dresser and a bookshelf filled with various books of sorts. From what she could tell, it was a bedroom in someone's house, and somehow it seemed strangely familiar to her. However, Zekra wasn't going to let that remain a mystery for very long. With a yawn, she climbed onto her feet and headed toward the sole door in the room. But just as Zekra was to reach for the handle and leave, she saw her reflection in a mirror hung on a wall nearby.

She was a complete mess. Much of her fur was matted with dry blood and dirt, making her fur stick up in odd places. Even the purple cape that was draped over her body like a cloak was torn in many places. And yet, despite this, there wasn't a single injury upon her. There wasn't a scar anywhere along her skin that could have suggested where the dried blood could have come from. Upon seeing her raggedy and unkempt appearance, Zekra suddenly realized where she was and her circumstances surrounding it.

The Zorua hastily opened the door and bolted down the hallway. She only made it about halfway down when a familiar Sylveon and Glaceon appeared at the end of it. The moment they saw her, they rushed over to her as she brought herself to a halt. Zekra felt a very uncomfortable pain stir up in her heart as the two adults embraced her from either side, pressing their faces against her filthy cheeks.

"Oh, you're awake! You're finally awake," the Sylveon whispered, stroking Zekra's head with one of her ribbons. "I was getting really worried about you. You wouldn't wake up when we found you and you had all of those awful injuries all over you... I really was starting to think you were dead."

"I'm alright," Zekra assured in a quiet voice. "I'm not dead. I just got hurt before I got here, but you don't have to worry. I'm not hurt anymore because I'm… I'm a fast healer. I just look like this because I haven't taken a bath or anything in days."

The Sylveon smiled softly as she held Zekra closer, constricting the little Zorua's airways. She let out a pained choking sound, prompting the Sylveon to loosen her grip. Zekra sighed in relief and though she wanted to have her personal space back, she decided to allow the Sylveon to continue embracing her. She could only imagine what troubled emotions were running through the fairy-type upon seeing her surrogate child walking and moving again despite appearing half-dead.

So, Zekra remained still as the Glaceon and Sylveon continued to keep her close for another minute of relieved silence. Then, they finally separated themselves from her and looked down upon her with the warm smiles she had seen them wear so much when she still lived with them. The same smiles her own birth parents had given her many times.

"Well, it's good to see you up again," the Sylveon then said, wiping tears out of her eyes. "You were passed out all night and for quite a bit of this morning."

"Yeah, sorry to get you guys all worried," Zekra said ruefully. "I was going to just knock on the door as soon as I got here, but I guess I was a lot more tired than I thought and just passed out. But I guess that's what happens when you fly non-stop over an ocean and were pretty tired in the first place."

"It's alright, you don't have to apologize for anything," the Sylveon said gently. "You made it back here in one piece, that's all that matters right now. You're okay and alive."

Zekra smiled, but it wasn't a happy smile.

"If it's okay to pry a little though, Zekra," the Glaceon then said, taking a cautious step forward, "what brings you back here? It really is good to see you again, but I thought that you said you and your friends had something to take care of and that you wouldn't come back until you fulfilled your mission. Did you succeed in doing so? And whatever happened to that Greninja mercenary that we sent to take care of you?"

Zekra, at that moment, wished she had never come back to her appointed guardians. She knew that they would inevitably question her whereabouts, but she had thought she could at least avoid it for a few more days. She didn't think she had the strength within her to talk about what had occurred over the last few weeks. The very thought of those memories made her stomach tie itself into a painful knot.

But, she also knew that she didn't have a choice in the matter. The Sylveon and Glaceon deserved to know why she was among them once more, even if she could only offer a minimal amount of details. It was the best thing she could give to the ones who were so deeply concerned over her well-being.

"I didn't get what I wanted done," Zekra answered, choosing her words carefully. "Tear and Novus and that Greninja and I were doing fine for a while, and we got a lot of stuff done, but we didn't exactly get to do what we originally wanted. We only got part of our work done. Even with all of the help we've been getting, it wasn't enough. And, everything was just really going downhill the more I kept going forward. Things started falling apart, friendships were broken, hearts were shattered, and… I realized that I couldn't deal with it anymore. I wasn't as strong as I always thought I was. I really used to believe that I could take on anything in the world and get through it with no problem, but after these past few days, I've realized I'm not. I'm not an invincible Zorua; I'm just a weak little kid who got mixed up in a very dark world that's full of monsters I stand no chance against…

"The Greninja... well, he's gone. Something happened to him and he's not with me or Tear and Novus anymore. Tear and Novus are still out there on Shiron, trying to finish what they started, but that's because they're stronger than me. They can handle what that world throws at them. I can't do that anymore, I just can't. Not after everything that I saw and went through. And that's why I came back here; because there's literally nowhere else for me in this world. Once I became a part of that dark world, almost all of the places I could trust in the normal world disappeared. Your guys' home is the only place in this entire world that I can belong in without ever having to worry about the dark world coming after me. I know what I just said probably made no sense, but it's the only way I can describe it. Once you go into that dark world, a part of it starts stalking you and follows you everywhere, waiting for you to let your guard down so it can strike. It will never leave you alone no matter where you go, even if you don't ever go back to that dark world. But it can't follow me to your house because you're so far away from all of the chaos. The dark world can't follow me back here."

"What will this dark world do to you when it finally catches up to you?" the Glaceon asked slowly, making an apparent effort to understand Zekra's ramblings.

"Kill me," Zekra said tersely.

The Glaceon and Sylveon both cringed back, making Zekra immediately regret what she had said. She should have lied and said something less frightening, but it seemed the damage had been done. There was no going back on her word.

"But like I said, it's not going to follow me here," Zekra added quickly. "It doesn't have a reason to. It probably knows that if I went here, then I'm no longer doing anything that would be problematic to it. It'd probably realize that I'm pretty much dead to it and just leave me alone. So, I didn't drag any sort of danger here. It's not like something's going to fall out of the sky and ravage the island."

"By the gods… no wonder why you look like an absolute mess," the Glaceon gasped, utterly horrified. "Zekra, what were you doing this whole time? Who did this to you?"

"I can't tell you that," Zekra replied, looking down at her paws. "I'm sorry, but I can't. It's something I can't talk about."

"But what's after you clearly wants to hurt you," the Sylveon then said. "If you tell us what it is and what happened to you while you were away, we could help you."

"You guys can't help me with that," Zekra stated somberly. "It'd be great if you could, but you can't. Nobody in this normal world can. Only those who are in both this world and the dark world can really help me, and I don't want to talk to them anymore. I can't face them anymore after everything that happened. And like I said, if I'm here, the dark world won't come after me. It'll realize that it won and that I'm no longer someone of importance to it."

Both of the guardians gave Zekra a saddened frown. Zekra found she still couldn't look at them in the eyes and kept her gaze glued to the ground. She realized now that they were probably terrified of her and were going to ask her to leave. She couldn't blame them. Revealing that something wanted to kill you and being unable to explain why was enough to unnerve any rational Pokémon. But perhaps she could remain on the island even if she couldn't live with anyone. Perhaps she could live on her own as a wanderer of the island and survive off the meat of the wild Pokémon in the ocean. She would still be safe if she remained on the island of Shirra.

At least, she could only hope she'd remain safe. She honestly didn't know if the Primogenitor would leave her alone. Despite no longer having the willpower to fight it, she knew there was still a good chance that the Primogenitor might still consider her a threat and order its generals to kill her anyway. She could only pray that it had lost interest in a heartbroken, hopeless Zorua.

"Well I'd really like to know what's going on with you," the Glaceon then said, snapping Zekra out of her daze, "but if you really don't want to talk about it, then I guess I'll leave it alone for now. But regardless of that… you're free to stay here again."

Zekra looked up at the Sylveon and Glaceon to find them both staring at her with solemn gazes filled with pity, a tinge of anxiety within.

"I can stay?" Zekra asked.

"Yes, you can," the Sylveon answered with a nod. "You've always been welcome here ever since Len asked us to take you in quite a while ago, and even after you left to go on your journey with your friends. Even if you're apparently running away from whatever horrible thing you're talking about, you're still welcome here. Nothing can ever change that."

For the first time in a long while, Zekra actually felt a genuine smile creep onto her muzzle.

"Thank you," she said softly.

The Glaceon and Sylveon only smiled in return as they went up to her and once again held her in a close embrace. And while the pain didn't leave Zekra as they held her against their warm fur, she did feel more relieved than she had felt in a very long time.

After the two guardians had released Zekra, they allowed her to clean herself. They showed her their giant, wooden makeshift tub sitting outside filled with water from a nearby well, and let her be as she rid herself of the blood and grime that clung to her fur. It took quite a bit of time and almost too much soap, but eventually Zekra was able to bring back the sheen in her fur. Her Deception Amulet and tattered cloak still retained the dark smudges from the dried blood, as it was quite difficult to remove completely blood from cloth, but she wasn't bothered by this. The stains weren't too noticeable due to the already dark coloring of the accessories, and it didn't matter what they looked like anyway. They both were very important to her for other reasons.

When Zekra had scrubbed herself of the filth from her harrowing encounter with Shade, she then went back inside the house. She was quick to find her two guardians were still inside, sitting upon soft cushions and chatting amongst each other. The moment she came back inside, they both stopped what they were doing and looked over at her.

"Feeling better?" the Sylveon asked.

"Yeah, I am," Zekra replied. "Feeling a lot better."

"Glad to hear that," the Sylveon smiled. "Did you need anything else?"

"No, I don't think so," Zekra said with a slow shake of her head. "I think I'm alright for now."

"You don't want anything to eat?" the Sylveon then asked.

"No, I'm not hungry right now," Zekra answered. "Maybe in a couple of hours or something, though."

"Well then in that case, would you like to come with me to the market, Zekra?" the Glaceon asked for a change. "Tonight we were going to make a stew and I was going to go to the market to buy some of the ingredients. You don't have to if you don't want to, but I'd appreciate it if you'd come along and help me out."

"Sure, I guess," Zekra shrugged indifferently. "When do you want to go?"

"How about in ten minutes?" he asked after pondering for a moment.

"Sure."

Zekra then sat down on the rug near the two. She knew she could have gone back to the room she woke up in, as she presumed that would be her new bedroom, but she didn't have the energy to walk any further. Then also, if she was to leave in a few minutes, it was best to remain near the door to save both herself and the Glaceon time. Thus, Zekra remained on the wool rug, feeling it between her paws as the two in front of her continued their conversation. She didn't bother to pay attention to them, figuring that whatever they were talking about wasn't important to her. She only let herself leave reality and enter an empty daydream.

She half-expected a certain entity to appear in that blank void she was now drifting through, but found that no one was with her. There were no voices nor were there any glimmers of black light. It was truly only her within her mind. She absently reached at the collar of her cape and pressed her paw into it. The anti-plague pin was still there, pinned to the inside of the fabric, still keeping her plagued self locked away. Zekra thought she would have felt some relief or happiness at that thought, but found she had no feelings lingering in her heart. She was empty.

But she knew it was better this way. She couldn't have her plagued self with her anymore. Granted, it was still a part of her and it was the sole reason her injuries had already healed when it should have taken a week more, but it wasn't in her mind now. It couldn't communicate with her and persuade her into doing whatever it wanted. It couldn't turn her into more of a monster than she already was. She had little of her humanity left, and she was going to treasure the scraps that were still there.

Zekra would have pondered more, but then she saw the Glaceon get up from his seat and disappear elsewhere in the house. And then, about a minute later, he reappeared with two crochet grocery bags hooked over his neck and hanging on both sides of him.

"Ready?" he asked Zekra.

"Yeah," Zekra nodded before turning to the Sylveon. "See you later."

"See you, Zekra," the Sylveon said warmly.

Zekra then made her way over to the door and opened it for the Glaceon. He nodded appreciatively as he walked through, where Zekra soon followed after him and shut the door behind her. Then together, the two strode through the sand, making their way toward the plaza Zekra had visited a few times when she lived on the island before.

For a while, neither of them said anything to the other. They only walked in silence as the intense rays of the afternoon sun beat down upon them. Zekra imagined that she would have been roasted by the heat if it weren't for the fact that she was walking alongside a Glaceon. For a reason she couldn't understand, the air around him was very cool, almost chilling and reminded her of the cold, deathly aura she had felt around plagued Pokémon. However, the Glaceon's aura was much less potent. His aura didn't send an unfathomable dread into her soul, only reducing the temperature by about thirty degrees. She thought it was somewhat pleasant.

After thinking about it for a while, Zekra soon found herself very curious about how he was able to reduce the temperature, as well as a number of other things. Before long, Zekra mustered up the courage to break the silence.

"How are you making the air around us colder?" she wondered.

"Ah, it's been quite a while since I've been asked that," the Glaceon chuckled to himself. "Well, to put it in a way you'd understand, I have this organ in my body that can suck all of the heat out of the air and it makes the air you feel quite cold. Because after all, cold isn't a force of energy; it's merely the absence of heat."

"Really?" Zekra asked.

"Yes, we ice-types call that organ a firn," the Glaceon explained simply. "That firn can also do other things, but I think I'll spare you the details. You probably don't want to hear my ramblings about it when you're not an ice-type."

"Well actually, I kind of do want to hear about it," Zekra stated. "Yeah, it's weird, but… I've seen a lot of weird stuff. I really don't think you can top it with whatever your firn does. And what you're talking about does sound kind of interesting, so yeah, go ahead. Tell me more. I wanna know."

The Glaceon shot Zekra a confused frown, but it soon became that of a pleasantly surprised smile.

"If you really want to know so much, I suppose I could indulge you in some details," he said, swishing his tail behind him. "I can't explain everything to you since that'd take all day, but I can tell you some interesting facts at least."

"That's fine," Zekra assured.

"Alright, well the firn actually has a chamber within it that has two openings I can control. After the firn sucks the heat out of the air, it then uses that heat as an energy source and it can do one of two things. One of things is what I already told you, which is make the air extremely cold around me so that I can use it for attacks. For you see, we ice-types don't actually breathe out ice even though we give the illusion that we do. We breathe out the same air as any of you other Pokémon do, except that because of our firns and the reduced temperature around us, it turns it into ice the second it leaves our mouths. And, if we practice right, we can make our firns turn that air into something other than ice, like snow or sleet. It's all in adjusting the temperature a certain way with our firns. But a lot of ice-types like to keep the air in ice form because they find it more effective than snow, so it's something that's not practiced so much anymore. They find that the ice is much more lethal than snow, since the ice tips can become very sharp and impale someone's heart and mind very easily if aimed correctly."

"That makes sense," Zekra replied. "If you're fighting something, you usually want to hurt them, and having something sharp would be the best way to do so. It's better than just pelting them with snow, which is probably more annoying than painful."

"Both forms of the cold have their benefits," the Glaceon shrugged. "It's your choice in which form you'd rather use, and though I myself have preferred the more solid ice form, I try not to make it have sharp ends. I prefer using it to trap things instead of hurting them."

Zekra nodded thoughtfully. Admittedly, what he had said didn't sound very strange to her at all. In fact, it sounded rather logical and quite tangible to grasp. It was certainly much easier to understand than how the ghost-types could see and enter the spirit world when no one else could.

"But that's not really all that strange," the Glaceon admitted, snapping Zekra out of her pondering. "What I'm going to tell you next is the most curious, I'd almost say disturbing, aspect of ice-types, something that can upset others quite a bit if we're not careful."

"What, that you guys run away every time a snowstorm hits near your home and you don't come back for days?" Zekra wondered.

"Hah, no, no, we're not that drawn to snow," the Glaceon laughed before bringing back his solemn expression. "No, it's the other thing our firns can do. One opening, the outward opening in the firn, allows us to make our icy attacks, but the other opening, the inward opening I spoke of, actually floods the cold into our bodies. Once the cold is in our bodies, it can reduce our body temperature, allowing us to travel through frigid climates without feeling a thing. However, doing so comes with the side effect of blocking out all of our emotions. We cannot feel anything as this is happening. I could literally watch Lyra die before my eyes and not feel a single thing. My firn would make it impossible because the cold would prevent the proper chemicals that create my emotions to ever be released from my mind. Allow your firn to deposit cold into your blood for long enough and you'll soon become completely heartless and unfeeling. You can imagine how that would be a problem when interacting with anybody."

Zekra thought for a moment. She couldn't understand how blocking out emotions could be a problem to anyone. If anything, it sounded rather pleasant. It meant that there wouldn't be any pain when keeping terrible secrets from friends or having a family member die. But after pondering for a moment, she could see that there actually were some problems with that sort of lifestyle.

"Yeah, because it'd be impossible to care about other Pokémon if you don't have emotions," Zekra replied. "You'll treat everyone really indifferently because you don't want to talk to them. And then you'll probably drive everyone away because of the way you're acting. Maybe you'll even start killing Pokémon who annoy you because you don't want to put up with them, and it'd be impossible to feel guilty about doing that…"

"Exactly, though there's also another reason why you need your emotions," the Glaceon added. "If you don't have your emotions, they can't tell you that what you'redoing is wrong. Because sometimes, Zekra, something can be logically correct and it looks like nothing's wrong with it at a glance. But if you look at it from a more sentimental perspective, you'll see that what you once thought was right is actually very, very wrong. But you'd never know unless your heart told you otherwise. For example, I know that something absolutely horrible happened to you while you were away."

Zekra cringed, anticipating that he would soon begin to question her for answers. She quick started formulating ideas within her mind to help her escape the situation, whether it be bolting away right there or fainting on the spot, claiming that her injuries were suddenly relapsing.

"If I were looking at this from a more stern perspective, I'd demand the answers out of you so I can figure out how to help you," he continued on. "It's still done from an emotional standpoint, but there's a bit of a stern or logical tactic added to it. After all, it'd help you and I could figure out a way to stop whatever was trying to kill you earlier. It'd technically be the correct thing to do. But from a much more emotional perspective where I look at the situation through empathy, I see that you clearly don't want to talk about whatever's on your mind and that prying further will cause you to resent me. And even if you didn't resent me, you would be extremely uncomfortable talking about it and it'd cause you even more pain to try to explain it. So, because I do love you like one of my own children, I've chosen to listen to my heart and decided not to press for more information. I decided that I'd leave you alone and let you come talk to me about it if you ever wanted to on your own accord, not because I forced you."

Zekra stopped cycling through her list of ideas. She almost stopped for a moment as his words processed in her mind whilst shaking her other thoughts out of her head. It took her a few seconds to completely understand what he was saying to her, but when she finally did, she looked up at him with an awed gaze.

"You're really going to leave it alone?" Zekra asked slowly, almost not believing what she was hearing. "You're not going to ask me what happened, like ever?"

"Yes, I'm leaving it alone," the Glaceon replied. "And so is Lyra. Even though I really do want to know what's wrong with you, I know I can't force anything out of you without you hating me. Right now, what I think you need more than anything is to be given what I like to call tender space. In other words, Lyra and I will give you our support and love you unconditionally, but we won't pry you for information. That's exactly what tender space is. I know some would say that tough love is much more appropriate with your circumstances, but I don't believe that you're in the best condition for that. Tough love is only for certain circumstances and I know using it on you right now would a terrible idea."

"Thanks… that means a lot to me," Zekra said hoarsely, unable to properly express her gratitude.

The Glaceon smiled to himself.

"But that's exactly what I mean when I say that you do need your emotions sometimes," he then said. "I know my example wasn't exactly a grand example of how emotions can steer you away from making bad decisions, but it's the best one I have that I know you can relate to. Do you understand what I'm saying?"

"Yeah, I do," Zekra assured quietly.

In reality, Zekra was telling only a half-truth. While she could understand the reasoning behind the Glaceon's words, she could only make herself believe it to a small degree. She could understand that emotions played a key role in life and that they existed for a reason, but she couldn't get herself to believe that emotions in her personal situation were mandatory. After all, it was thanks to her volatile emotions that she had suffered through unbearable pain for the past while. They had done nothing for her but bring her heartbreak and drive her away from her friends. If she had never had them in the first place, then she knew that she would still be with all of her friends, able to keep the dark secrets far away from Terron. There would have been no guilt to torment her as she traveled alongside him. Then not only that, but she would be able to fulfill her ambition of ending the Plagued Ones once and for all. Even if the Primogenitor killed every single creature she knew and loved… nothing could stop her if she simply no longer had any emotions attached to her companions. She'd only go on as if nothing happened.

But Zekra knew better than to express these thoughts. So, she only remained silent as the conversation between the two ended and they arrived at the market. They spent about an hour searching through the aisles for the proper ingredients, which included a variety of spices and vegetables, as well as a large slab of meat. After they had gathered everything they needed, the two then bartered with the merchant and bought everything for roughly three thousand Poké. Then, after packing everything into the crochet bags they had brought with them, they headed back home together.

Shortly after they got home, the two of them then helped Lyra, the name of Sylveon as the Glaceon had revealed, in preparing the meal. After a couple of hours of chopping up vegetables and meat with the aid of Zekra's Scyther blades, boiling the meat in a massive pot of water, and slowly adding the various vegetables and spices to it all whilst the Sylveon stirred it with a wooden spoon, the stew was at last done.

The three sat around the table with a bowl filled with the delicious meal, all quite hungry from their efforts and eagerly devouring the food. At least, the two guardians were digging through their meals with haste. Zekra only lapped up small mouthfuls with her tongue at a time. She didn't feel particularly inclined to fill her non-existent stomach.

"This stuff is really good," Zekra said with the best imitation of happiness she could muster up. "I haven't had something this great in a pretty long time."

"I'm glad you like it," Lyra smiled. "You did a really good job chopping up everything, you know. I don't think anyone in our house before was able to do that as well as you! Not even any of our kids after they evolved. They'd always be stumbling a little no matter what. It was kind of funny to watch."

"You mean Crystelle?" Zekra asked.

"Well yes, her, but Frazil and I had other children too," Lyra clarified. "We had three children before she was ever born. But they all grew up and left I'm afraid. They're somewhere out there, living their own lives and doing whatever makes them happy."

"Oh, okay" Zekra said simply. "Do you know what they're all up to?"

"For the most part, I do," Lyra replied. "Our eldest child, Ivy, decided to become a Sylveon like me and started working at some doctor's office back on the main land. I don't see her too much anymore, but she seems happy for the most part. And then our other child, Vee, well he's quite a story. He was always sort of a strange child, and one day, he told Frazil and I that he discovered there were other Eon types he could become other than Vaporeon, Flareon, Jolteon, Espeon, Umbreon, Glaceon, Leafeon, and Sylveon. He said that he had heard some Pokémon talking about some secret method that could turn him into one of the other eight elemental types. And because he always did want to be a dragon-type even though we kept telling him it was impossible, he chased after those Pokémon he was stalking and I haven't heard from him sense. He's probably still trying to figure out a way to turn into that dragon Eon. He kept calling it a Wyvereon or something like that…"

An awkward silence immediately fell over the group at the thought of the wayward, lost Eevee. Zekra didn't dare state that she thought that Vee was probably dead, or worse, a Plagued One.

"Um, who was your other child?" Zekra then asked, trying to relieve the depressing atmosphere. "You said you had one more that wasn't Crystelle."

"Oh right, almost forgot," Lyra said, laughing to herself. "Right, well, you actually know her, Zekra. Her name's Éclair."

"Wait, Éclair?" Zekra babbled. "You mean that Ninetales that used to be one of the leaders in the Fellowship?"

"Yep, that's her!" Lyra beamed.

"But she's a Ninetales, and you guys are…" Zekra tried to say.

"We found Éclair when she was still an egg," Frazil explained. "We found her when Lyra and I were on a vacation of sorts somewhere on the main land. We were in some woods and we found this nest, and in it was her egg. From what we could tell, the parents had abandoned it for whatever reason and weren't returning, so we took it upon ourselves to take it home with us. We had no idea what was in the egg, but we didn't mind too much. And then a few weeks after we got home, Éclair hatched, and we took care of her ever since. I'm sure you know what happened to her after she left home."

"So that's how Len was able to find you guys," Zekra muttered. "Éclair must have told him about you guys…"

"For the most part, that's what it was," Lyra shrugged. "I'll admit that I worry about her now that her Fellowship was destroyed by this horrible forest fire, but she's always been a strong Pokémon who's been able to handle just about anything. And she does have Len with her, and he was always a dependable guy. But still..."

Zekra didn't say anything. She now knew that Lyra and Frazil were connected to the Fellowship. Admittedly should have been able to figure it out when the Fellowship assigned Zekra and her friends to them, as it seemed unreasonable that they'd choose a random family when Len cared so much for the children, but the shock was still there. But thankfully, it seemed that Lyra and Frazil were being kept in the dark about the Fellowship's true nature. Éclair must have loved the both of them too much to tell them the truth about Shiron. She must have done everything in her power to keep that terrible secret away from them, lest their days become filled with fear and paranoia.

Zekra briefly wondered what Éclair and the other leaders she once served long ago were doing now, but quickly stifled the thought when she realized it would bring her nothing but heartbreak. She didn't want to remember being dismissed from the Fellowship, even if doing so had ultimately opened her eyes to the truth. Though more importantly, she didn't want to think that there was a small chance that Len and his group were actually working for the Primogenitor and that all of the trust she had held in them was nothing but a ploy to make her Plagued One food. Two other factions of the Fellowship had been revealed to work for the Primogenitor, so what made Len and his team any different?

"Where's Crystelle?" Zekra abruptly asked, needing to get her mind on a new topic. "I haven't seen her at all today."

"Oh, she went on a little trip about a week ago," Lyra answered, slightly taken aback by Zekra's terseness. "She decided that she wanted to be an Umbreon, so she went with a trainer to the main land and she's learning from him how to use her darkness powers correctly and things like that. She said she'd be back in a few months, though."

"So she decided to be an Umbreon, huh? Funny, since she was terrified of everything I told her about the dark-types," Zekra laughed dryly.

"Well Pokémon can change their minds," Lyra replied gently. "Maybe after you left she thought about what you said some more and realized that it didn't sound so bad anymore."

"Maybe," Zekra shrugged.

The three continued then continued to eat, Lyra and Frazil starting their own discussion about something Zekra paid no attention to. When everyone's meals were finished, the two guardians then left Zekra alone, telling her that the room she awoke in earlier that day was now her bedroom and that she could do as she pleased with it. They had also said something about how they would further discuss household chores she'd be doing for them if she were to live with them and other such things, but Zekra had mostly blanked out by the time she had finished her dinner. She found she was quickly losing the will to keep talking and spend time with others.

With no reason to remain in the dining room any longer, Zekra retreated to her newly appointed bedroom and closed the door behind her. She took a quick look at her surroundings, and found that there was something there that she hadn't noticed earlier that day. There, lying on the wool rug, was a shredded bag that somehow remained in one piece. She immediately recognized it to be Zeverous's bag.

Zekra slowly approached the bag and dug through it, carefully pulling out all of the equipment from within and setting it upon the floor. After a few minutes, she found herself sitting amongst a number of berries, dried meats, wonder orbs, scarves of many varieties, and a map of Shiron. Miraculously, nothing within the bag had been damaged, leaving everything in near perfect condition. The map had a few spots upon it, presumably from coming in contact with berry juice or water, but otherwise it was in pristine condition.

But they were all useless. Everything before her was useless in her new life where she no longer had to face danger and death every single day. They were junk now.

The Zorua sat there, staring at the items with a very empty stare, a number of emotions attempting to creep back into her extinguished heart.

The moonlight pouring into the room from the window abruptly dimmed. Zekra quickly swiveled her head toward the window just in time to see a shadow retreat away from the outside. All of the wallowing emotions weighing her down were instantly eradicated as she turned into a Sableye and opened up the window with her claws. Then, she leapt outside and transformed back into a Zorua, snarling whilst her eyes radiated a bright aqua.

There was no one in sight.

Zekra frowned as she dimmed the glow in her eyes, but she refused to leave her spot. She only stood there, slowly eyeing her surroundings for a flicker of movement.

"I'm only going you to tell this once, so you better listen," Zekra called out into the darkness. "I know that you work for the Primogenitor. I don't know if you're a Plagued One or if you're one of its generals or even the Primogenitor itself, but it doesn't matter. I'll tell all of you the exact same thing; I'm not going to be fighting you guys anymore. You won, okay? I'm not the pesky little Zorua that kept being a giant thorn in your side. That Zorua I used to be died and she's never coming back. You guys killed her and I'm all that's left; just some shell that has absolutely no intentions of dealing with you guys anymore."

Zekra felt tears form in her eyes as soon as she spoke the words, but she forced herself to use the little strength she had left in her to be strong and unmoving.

"So just leave me alone," she went on, refusing to let the sadness clogging her throat break her. "I don't want to see you here anymore. You've won this battle. I'm nobody to you anymore. I'm just some pathetic Zorua who's got nothing left now. Not even killing me would benefit you anymore."

Zekra waited a minute to see if the creature would reappear, or at least give some sort of indication that it had heard her words. But as she somewhat expected, she was met with nothing but silence. When she saw this, Zekra retreated back inside her room, shutting the window behind her as well as pulling a curtain over it lest the creature come back.

Then, she collapsed on the rug and buried herself in her cloak, refusing to let the bitter tears leave her eyes.