Chapter 2: We've got fun and games

Anne swore colourfully as debris started flying in our direction. It seems as though the Sand titan had driven off Regirock and was coming towards us at an alarming pace. "We're not going to reach the settlement in time Anne, what about the pyramid!?" I yelled as we were running. "Good idea!" She replied, doubling her previous pace as we changed direction towards the Holon Pyramid.

The sand started shifting beneath our feet as the titan grew closer towards us. As we stood in the entrance to the pyramid, Regirock flew into the Sand titan. The titans clashed, except it seemed the Sand titan was the stronger one as it ripped chunks of Regirock's stone armour from its body, revealing its flesh. Regirock was lifted up by the other titan and thrown towards us.

Anne, Mom, Dad, Ino and I all rushed into the ancient building, however, my mother was not fast enough to escape the falling sandstone caused by Regirock's impact. Her leg was caught first, which stopped her from moving further and caused her incredible pain. Her screams sounded like a haunting melody, but then they were swiftly silenced when she was crushed beneath a pile of sandstone that blocked the entrance. I started to see red liquid seeping out from beneath the pile.

"This isn't real, this can't be happening!" Before I knew it the words had come out of my mouth. I was subconsciously trying to convince myself that it was a terrible nightmare.

Unfortunately, this was reality.

This was the world I was living in.

My father and sister were just as taken aback as I was at the horrifying sight, except I couldn't pry my eyes away from it. As I was staring at the fresh pool of blood, I saw ripples form in the pool. I rubbed my eyes to make sure I wasn't hallucinating, but the ripples started becoming more frequent. Piles of sand were starting to form in the pool of my mother's blood.

The Sand titan obviously had not fulfilled its quota for cold blooded murder today, it seems.

Prying myself away from my hateful thoughts about the abominable titan, I thought to notify my fellow survivors. "Guys, it's coming! Look at the entrance!" They too became alarmed when they saw the piles of sand grow larger and merge together. Before we could react, the titan had gotten the rest of its body through the debris by smashing open a large hole, allowing the moonlight to illuminate the room. The titan extended a fist aimed for my head, but Ino used some sort of move that seemed as if she was pulling something towards her. This caused the titan to recoil, but it only hindered it for a short while.

The Sand titan was weak to Ino's attacks.

We have a chance at survival!

That small, small chance, was embodied by my incredibly young and weak delta pokemon, who was about to be slapped towards the nearest wall by the incredibly strong, probably ground type, titan. Instead of Ino being annihilated by the monster, it was Anne. She pushed Ino and I out of harm's way whilst she was swatted towards the wall with extreme force. As she collided with the wall, an audible snap reverberated throughout the ancient tomb. She fell onto the skeletons of deceased warriors, causing their armour and weapons to clang against each other and the floor as her body lay restless on them.

I no longer had any hope to survive this horrible, terrible attack. I don't want to live without those I've lost. Why did this happen? Why me? Why them? Why did anyone have to die? Why would anyone do this to someone else? Did this monster have no empathy at all?

Why? Why? Why?

The despicable, detestable, absolutely abhorrent creature moved towards me. My face was streaked with tears as I screamed at the monster. My father stood behind me and my pokemon, cowering in fear like some coward, what a great father he was. He doesn't matter, what did matter is this … thing in front of me.

No matter what. I will kill this monster.

I will make it suffer.

Before I could scream all the air out of my lungs, a blindingly bright, white light emerged from where my sister's corpse lay. For some unknown reason, when the light had faded, the titan had disappeared.

"This is all your fault." My father stomped towards me. It took me a few minutes to realize that he was referring to Ino. "Dad no, stop, she did nothing wrong!" I pleaded, however he didn't listen.

"If you had never come into my son's life, then my wife and daughter would still be alive! You're the reason they were out here in the first place! So don't blame me for what's about to come next." He swatted her to the ground from my shoulder and prepared to step on her. A sheathed blade flew towards him and bashed his burnt head, knocking him unconscious before he could continue. The sword then levitated towards me. "Drew, are you alright!?"

Only one person has ever called me that in my entire life.

"A- Anne?" I asked hesitantly. How is this happening? I … I saw her die.

She levitated towards me and wrapped me in a hug. Or at least she wrapped the blue cloth that was attached to her hilt around me and pressed her new body against mine. "I'm so glad you're alive!" I'm pretty sure if her new form could cry, it would be right now. I too, was crying. At least I had one more family member left than what I thought I did.

I returned the hug as tightly as I could. Ino leaped over to us and croaked at Anne gratefully. Anne let go of me and started rubbing Ino's head with her … cloth appendage? Whatever, doesn't matter. "What now? Mom's gone, Dad is going to kill Ino and you turned into a … sword." I managed to say in between my sobs. I'm fourteen years old and she is, or was, the only adult left who doesn't want to kill my pokemon for existing. And of course I'm not going to know what to do when my mother just died!

Whilst I was having my mental breakdown, Anne turned towards me and looked me in the eye with her single blue one. "Drew, I know things are not okay right now. Things will never be the same. We're both going through the same thing. Except, you only now just realized how horrible our father is at the same time as losing a mother, which is so much worse than when I realized it. But you've still got your dependable older sister with you. Even if I'm a sword now … apparently."

She sounded just as lost as I was. I can't blame her. She just lost any semblance of normality in her already complicated life- or death- I can't tell and now she has to look after her kid brother whilst mourning the loss of her mother. At least she wouldn't be mourning the loss alone.

"We have to leave Holon, but for now let's just get you some sleep. We've both had a horrible time here."

I couldn't help but agree with her assessment. I was barely standing at his point and my voice had almost all but vanished because of my excessive screaming and crying, so I welcomed the idea of a good night's rest.

Unfortunately I did not have such luxuries.

Anne, Ino and I had to sneak back into settlement Foxtrot after another hour's walk from the desert. We had to avoid a search party that was looking for Anne. How would we explain what had happened? Would anyone believe us? Anne doubted that anyone would believe the story, thus the covert operations. Our goal was to get supplies from Anne's tent and sleep in the forest surrounding the settlement, which was easier said than done considering that the entire settlement was illuminated by torch light and had guards patrolling the perimeter.

After Anne knocked out a few guards that almost spotted us and nearly knocked over a nearby torch, we had reached her tent. I took a rucksack that was lying against her desk and started packing. Her PokeDex, a few pokeballs, water bottles, non-perishable foods and some energy bars. I was amazed at how convenient it was that she had all these items, but I reasoned that since she needed to go on expeditions every so often, it made sense for her to be able to be ready at a moment's notice.

Once we had our supplies the three of us set off into the forest. I decided to sleep against a tree, while Ino had secured a comfortable position on my lap and Anne lay herself against my shoulder. I fell asleep before either of them did, however, I didn't sleep for long.

My nightmares made sure that I couldn't sleep for longer than an hour, according to the time on the PokeDex. After the third attempt of resting, I had given up. This last nightmare was particularly gruesome, as I was brutally slaughtered by the Sand titan that caused me to wake up in a cold sweat. I decided to scan Ino- who had saved me from the Sand titan with a grass type move- with the PokeDex and check what moves she had access to at her level, or at least the ones that had been documented by researchers before I had gotten her.

Ino was level five, she had absorb, pound and growl. Not a very impressive moveset, but now I know what she used to save me. Out of curiosity, I decided to scan Anne, to see if the PokeDex could give us the answers that neither of us had. To my surprise, the PokeDex actually recognized her as a Honedge, a steel and ghost type pokemon. According to Honedge's PokeDex entry, it is born when a ghost inhabits a sword and that it drains the life force of others by attaching itself to them. That last bit had frightened me a little bit, but I trusted Anne enough to not drain me of my life force.

The PokeDex also listed the moves that were available to her at the moment, which were Fury Cutter and Tackle. I was still dumbfounded at the fact that my sister had turned into a pokemon, but it explained the source of the white light at the pyramid, however it did not explain what happened to the titan that was after us. I found myself gripping the dex tightly at the thought of that terrible creature. The hate in my heart had not faded since I last saw it.

"What're you doin?" Anne slurred as she woke up. The light from the PokeDex must have woken her. "I got curious about what you turned into and … " I showed her the Honedge PokeDex entry. Her single blue eye seemed to widen- as much as it could- with surprise.

"I-I'm a pokemon?" She let out. I nodded slowly.

"This … this doesn't change anything. I'm still your sister, and you're still my brother. Even if I'm a ghost or whatever now, I'll still protect you to the end. That's what siblings are for, right?"

This time I nodded much more happily and hugged Anne again. All the commotion woke Ino, who decided to turn this into a group hug by clinging to the side of my face. Anne and I started laughing at this. Despite all that happened, we could still laugh, we could still cry and hopefully we could still be happy.

We had each other, and we would be fine as long as we had that.