Grace

"Are you done yet?"

I hated dealing with the annoying… whatever you would call these. The 'things' that Lu- the boss makes. The things she tries to break every last bit of constitution of before taking control of them. Those things. I don't like em. I'm always tasked with showing them that they have no chance of escape, even the ones that aren't totally taken over yet. LIke this damned mawile that I swear I've stabbed more times than my own food throughout my life.

I never got an answer to my question, just some really heavy breathing. Groans of pain were released from him, alongside the noises of his body re-forming itself. He had to be getting close to his limit though, his mental limit. I hope so anyway. I'm tired of stabbing and further mutilating the same pokemon over and over. I like some variety in my impalement of other pokemon.

I looked at the unconventionally colored, collapsed mawile just in time to see him push himself off of the ground. I let out an annoyed sigh, extending a vine from my back. "This is getting old, pal."

"T-Then just stop…" He barely said, before coughing up a storm. I imagined that it must have been quite painful to constantly lose flesh and reinstate it.

"No can do. If I disobey orders, I have to deal with monotonous chores, and I'd rather spend my time stabbing pokemon in various ways. Believe me, if I had the option to stop messing with you, I would take it in a heartbeat." I explained, thinking about the victims I had lined up to 'investigate' the insides of.

"Why are you all such monsters..?" He asked, his voice hardening. He seemed to be recovering from his wounds faster than usual.

"Uh… I dunno." I shrugged. "I can't remember how I became like this, I was probably born this way. I would think it's the same for everyone else here. Well, everyone besides the ones we have captive here. They're normal."

"Why do you even do all of this? What's the meaning behind it..?" Geez, at least try to hide your desperation.

"If I was trusted with that information, I would have already leaked it to at least seventeen unwanted pokemon. My boss keeps whatever her ideals are in her head. Which is fine by me!" I smiled at him, wanting to creep him out.

"You're okay with blindly following orders of which you don't know the purpose of?"

"If I like doing what I do, why does it matter? I think I've been up to this as long as I can remember, so clearly I have to enjoy it." I tapped one of my paws on the ground. "Honestly I never really cared too much about what exactly she wants with this or that I don't think. I just go with the flow!"

"Are you really okay with being this uncertain?" Someone's overly chatty today.

"I have no clue what you mean. I think I know what I'm doing here. And even if I don't, who cares? I'm pretty sure I'm happy with my life's position."

"Nothing you say is certain." I tilted my head, confused. "You preface almost everything with 'I think' or something similar."

"I do?" I questioned. "Wait, crap, I wasn't supposed to answer that with a question." I cleared my throat. "Doesn't matter, I th- I'm happy with my current life's standing."

"You mind seems like it's been tampered with."

"Pfft, my head is mine and mine alone. All of my choices come from me!" I walked closer to him, leaning my head down. "You're the one who can't make his own choices right now."

"I refuse to fully give into this…" He growled at me. I replied with a giggle.

"You've already been sent out and even played a great role in gathering information about our enemies! I'd say your choices are rather limited."

"According to what I've heard while being here, I'm not even supposed to have a conscious mind. The fact that I still do tells me I still have some sort of control."

"I will admit, you're taking a while to give." I admitted with an over dramatic sigh. "Then again though, nothing lasts forever."

My vine was already jammed through his chest before he had the chance to open his mouth for anything other than a yelp in pain. I stuck it clean through his chest, in the front and out the back. Some of that weird, orange stuff got onto it though, I'll probably have to clean that later.

"You're being a bit too vocal for my liking. How about you stay quiet and break?"

"T-The only reason you're defensive is because you know there's truth in what I've told you here." He said through gritted teeth.

"You can think what you want." I sighed. "I'm not defensive, I'm losing my patience with a mawile that won't shut his damn trap." An uncomfortable feeling creeped up inside of me. Something I wasn't used to. It was like a weird tingle rose up through my back and went out my mouth, resulting in a hiccup. It felt almost as if I shivered, but my body didn't tremble. Like, the feeling of shivering passed through me, but I didn't actually shiver. "Whoa…" I shook my head.

The mawile unexpectedly brought one of his hands up, grabbing the vine that was impaling him. He looked like he was using it for balance of all things.

"Y-You're going to look back on all of the choices you've made eventually. Once you do, Y-You're going to regret every last one. E-Every. Last. O-One." He stuttered out, breathing heavily.

I took slow steps towards him, my vine curving upwards as I closed the distance. I leaned my head within an inch from his. "You. Are. Wrong." I said sternly, before lifting my head up again with a smile. "See? I can talk with emphasis too! And what does it accomplish? Nothingggggg!"

The mawile scoffed through my giggling. I had finally won this verbal battle. Satisfied, I ripped my vine out of him, getting another joyous scream in agony. I didn't get the same rush as I did a few minutes ago though. It was strange. I felt like there was something stuck in my throat. After that, as if there was a boulder sitting on my chest.

Instead of acknowledging the enemy, I gulped it down and kept on laughing.

Kuro

The grass surrounding my paws, the empowering moonlight and the chilly air still felt so foreign. Even after I got away from the Void somehow, I never re-adapted to being in an open space. I didn't have the time to take a breath and take in whatever my surrounding area held. I was too occupied with figuring out where I was, and where I could go. Despite my light shivering from the sharp cold in the air, I didn't feel discouraged from waiting outside for so long. I wasn't absolutely required to wait, but preparing my mind to see familiar faces would need time. I should have been nothing less than excited, I should hardly be able to sit still. Yet, I was nervous, dare I say fearful.

Being so uncertain of myself, not knowing what I should be feeling and comparing it to what I'm actually feeling was just… scary. I didn't like it. I hated second guessing myself, but I couldn't get the notion that I was making all of the wrong choices out of my head. I still think I should have just run away from Core instead of trying to talk to him first. Then he wouldn't have been able to grasp me into this.

I looked down at my paws, resting in the greenery below me. The tips of each blade had a white tint. I knew it was cold, but perhaps more than I thought initially. I had been here all day. Core and I came here via the same method I arrived the first time, although this time I was dropped off in a different spot. Roughly a mile away from me is the Nest. At any moment, I could walk over there, I could go back to the Nest. Arceus, it was so tempting, but at the same time, I was extremely hesitant. Every little doubt I had before was still in my head. I had pushed them back, but they remained alive in my brain.

All four of my legs periodically began shaking, and then stopped over the time I've been pacing. It felt like I was going in mental circles, having a hard time being decisive. I couldn't just walk to the Nest, and at the same time, I couldn't get myself to turn and sprint away. Just a week ago, I wanted nothing more than to reunite with everyone I met within my time at the Nest. Now, to think that I'd go back on that desire and leave when I'm so close, It's ridiculous. Even so, as crazy as it was, I couldn't deny t as a part of me. Why can't I just… decide? Why do I need to go back and forth on what should be an easy choice? I sighed to myself, then grit my teeth.

Why am I so angry..? And at whom..?

I shook my head and dunked my head against the ground. An uncomfortable sensation circulated through my body. I didn't feel like myself. I felt as if I was letting my thoughts get lost in an endless abyss of negative possibilities, without even taking a single moment to think about how great it would be if everything worked out, no matter my choice. I assumed the worst of both sides. There wasn't a good outcome, period. That's what I continuously told myself. Is the really the case though..? Or am I just… just…

"Screw this…" I growled, rubbing my head in the dirt. "Why can't I just make the choice? Why can't I just… not be so incompetent..?"

The sound of ruffling grass entered my ears, and my head shot up instantly. My initial reaction was hostile, but the second my eyes traced the slim figure standing a few meters away, that hostility became clouded. It only took a moment to recall who the black and red furred pokemon standing before me was.

I felt her eyes trace the entirety of my body, before any words were even said. I wanted to verbalize my thoughts, but I couldn't think of anything to say. Well, that's not quite accurate. I had more things to say that I could count, I just couldn't get myself to actually open my mouth and speak. I didn't know what to feel, not with the indecipherable cluster of thoughts I had. Through the dark forest in my head though, I had to suppress my urge to accept the relief that a face I recognized brought upon me.

"Wow…" She said, in a quiet voice. "You look terrible." She followed, no longer soft. I wasn't sure how to reply to that. Needless to say, it wasn't what I was expecting.

"I'm… aware." I replied, letting out a light sigh. "I wasn't aware that anyone knew I was here though…"

"Yeah well, not many do. I can count two, including me." Vero took a step closer to me, seemingly disturbed by my snow-colored eye.

"Are you allowed to tell me who the other is?" I asked, trying to ignore the obvious attention.

"Kage." She simply said. "He, however, decided that he wanted you to come to us, making sure you were ready and all that." Ready..?

"How much did Core tell you..?" I questioned, now feeling a tiny bit of concern.

"Enough-" Vero inhaled. "Enough for me to do this."

Vero slowly walked even closer to me, until only an inch or two separated us. I looked up at her, watching her throw her right arm back. She quickly adjusted the angle of her body and unleashed a powerful slap across the side of my face.

A stinging sensation spread across my cheek, lingering on the surface of my skin.

"I was going to call you certain words too, but decided that might be a bit overkill." Vero said, stepping back to her original position. "I knew that you're kind of dense when it comes to other pokemon, but seriously? How in the world could you consider sticking with those… darker thoughts?"

I paused. I wasn't sure if that was a loaded question, or she actually wanted me to explain myself. My confusion caused me to remain quiet.

"For the record, I don't think you're stupid. But the smartest pokemon can still make hasty and dumb decisions." Vero put one of her claws to her head and sighed. "I don't think you… You don't realize what your life means, do you?"

"I don't understand where you're going with this." I replied, trying to make eye contact.

"Alright then; Say you just up and left instead of letting Core convince you to come here. In fact, go a step farther. Say you didn't talk to Core at all, and you just never came close to him. When was the last time you were seen by someone from the Nest? Before now that is." I took a second to collect my thoughts. This sounded much less rhetorical.

"You were the last to see me." I said. "When I was taken away by the Void's head scientist."

"Correct." Vero halted her speech for a second. "Take a shot at this. Flip our roles. Say I was the one taken, and you were the one immobile, watching it all. After that event takes place, where do you think I'd be?"

I reasoned with myself. It was a simple question to answer, but my cloudy head made any question take me a second to de-construct. "In the possession of the Void."

"Correct again. Now a day passes, and there's no sign of me. Two, three, a week, and nothing. You tell me: What would you think happened?" Ignoring what happened to me, what would I think..?

"I…" A little bit of hesitation was present in my voice. I didn't think of just one possibility, a few jumped into my head. More than a few, a lot popped up. Many things can happen in a week. "I don't know." I answered.

"Exactly." Another space of silence passed. "Do you really think there's anything worse for someone you care about? Is there anything worse than not knowing what's happening with them? Not knowing for sure where they could be, if they're safe, if they're even alive? What's worse than that?"

I, once more, switched out myself and Vero in this hypothetical situation. If I was at the Nest, and Vero, or anyone I know for that matter was taken away, and I had no clue where they were, or even if they were still breathing, what really would be worse? Even if I… If I knew they were dead, would that really be worse than not knowing where they are? If my parents left our home and were attacked, how would I react compared to watching them have their lives taken?

"The imagination is a powerful tool. Something that can enrich you, and probably kill you inside too." Vero followed. "Sometimes, you can even trick yourself into believing something that's unlikely, or even impossible. But when your rational side comes out, you'll be back to limbo." I followed everything Vero said. I began understanding where this was all going. "I mean, it's hard-"

"I don't think this is accurate." I interrupted. "Rationally, as you put it, the members of the Void would have killed me on the spot if they desired it. The fact they didn't do that should have been enough to know that I was still alive."

"Yeah? And then what?" Vero scoffed.

"What do you mean..?" I asked.

"So what if we could reasonably assume you were alive? At the same time as knowing you could still be kicking, we also knew you were in possession of the Void. You were stuck in the Void. The. Void." She looked as if she clenched her teeth. "Since when have they acted rational!? Since when have they done anything besides bring pain and misery!? Arceus, knowing that you're there and still alive doesn't matter if we don't know what the hell they're doing to you…" Vero sounded emotional all of a sudden. It caught me off guard.

"They didn't do anything I couldn't force myself to handle." I told her, wanting to at least try and falsely reassure her that my time there was bearable, no matter how awful.

"Bullshit." She said sternly. "How can you say that while only looking at me with one freaking eye? I have no reason to believe anything other than that you went through utter hell in there."

"That's your assumption. You haven't heard-"

"Yeah, I don't know exactly what you went through in there. But you know what I do know? You look like you just came off the verge of death. Before you were with the Void, you looked pretty normal. After, you look like you got mauled five times over." Vero shook her head. "You're going to try and convince me that you're just fine after that? The fact that we're having this conversation right now shows that's not the case."

I wasn't sure how to reply to her. I could try to keep dancing around it, but I didn't think that would last very long. I couldn't outright… deny anything she said. There wasn't a point in trying to pretend like nothing happened. I would just dig myself deeper and deeper.

"Why does this matter?" I questioned. "This is off topic from what you were talking about before."

"My point is that we had no idea where you were. We didn't know what was happening to you. Much to our fears, it looks like some of our theories weren't so far off. If you just left and never came back… What do you think we would have thought? That you were dead? Well, what would confirm that? We likely wouldn't ever see your corpse. We'd just live day by day, thinking about all of the awful situations you could be in. Just like we have been for the time you've been gone." Vero looked down with a sombre face. "How could you ever considering putting us all through that again?" Again with this..?

"I didn't mean for anyone to be stuck with that in their heads…" I mumbled. "It's safer that I'm not here, that I'm on my own instead of with the Nest."

"Safer?" Vero locked eyes with me. "You must really be out of your damn mind."

"If I'm a target that needs to be ali-"

"Shut up." I was interrupted again. "Don't give me that crap. Don't tell me that you being gone would be better for everyone. Losing an ally doesn't make us safer. It makes us less stable and in more danger than we could be in any other situation."

"That's not true…" I responded. "You-"

"You don't get it." Vero stomped towards me. I felt admittedly intimidated. "You think we can focus on our work, or any kind of confrontation with this hanging over our heads? You think we're any less vulnerable than you? Remember the mission we went on before this all happened? You really think that would have played out the same way had only one of us been there, and the Void attacked? A psycho mawile and a delphox that can literally freeze us in place, even though we should be immune to those kinds of attacks, had only one of us been there, I can tell you Kuro, it would have been much messier."

"No, it wouldn't have." I took a breath. "They were only there for me in the first place. It would have been fine if I hadn't been there."

"Oh yeah? And can you confirm that?

"I can't. But they wouldn't have threatened everyone if I wasn't-"

"You're right. They would have killed them. They would have straight up murdered them instead of using them to lure you in." Vero retorted. Killed them..?

"It's more than possible that they never would have approached that place if I wasn't-"

"Not immediately? Maybe. But not ever? That's wishful thinking. They could have easily come back and killed them all." Vero took another step forward, angrily. "You saw what they tried to do to that pokemon I guarded with an illusion, right? She could have done the same with everyone in one motion. We're lucky that it was just one pokemon and not more!"

"And what if that one pokemon was you!?" I shouted back at Vero. She seemed surprised by my outburst. She took a step back from me, her expression changing.

"I… If you, or anyone else at the Nest lost your life because of getting caught in a crossfire while I'm being hunted…" I shook my head in a rough motion. "I can't even think about it…"

A long pause passed between the two of us. I couldn't think of how else to show her why I would consider some… drastic options.

"Just say you're afraid." Vero said with a sigh. "You're afraid of loss, and further, you being the cause of that loss." I looked to the ground, one of my legs began shaking a little bit. I wasn't sure what to say. I wasn't ashamed to admit my fears or anything, but there wasn't a point in explaining something Vero already clearly knows about.

"What will you do about your fears?" She asked, now sounding much more calm. What..?

"Are you going to sit there and be terrified, alongside letting that control your choices? Or are you going to do something about your fears, and learn how to live with them?" She continued, looking down a little bit. "Believe me, I get it… But you can't make stupid choices just because of how scared you are. If you do, then… Well, nobody will be happy."

Vero slowly turned away and took a few steps forward. I pondered on her words, every last one of them. I looked at what we agreed on, and what we disagreed on. Whether reflecting would influence my blurry thought patterns, I wasn't sure of yet.

"I'm glad that you're okay." Vero muttered, before walking off into the grassy fields.

"I'm happy to see you too." I said aloud, though with no chance of Vero actually hearing me. I slumped to the ground, laying on my side. I took in a sharp inhale, and then exhaled. What should I do..?

I had a new desire to think things through more so than I had already. I really needed to look at this from every perspective and not just the easiest ways out. I closed my eyes and mostly cleared my mind. I let the pulsing moonlight relax me, and tried my best to relax before putting myself through any more mental hoops. I need to release a lot of tension before I think about this any more…

My eyes remained shut for a long while. Time passed, though I wasn't sure how much. I assumed that, when I first arrived here, it was evening. The sky was dark and the moon was out, so either really early morning or evening made sense. The Vero came from the Nest to talk to me, her being awake made it more likely that it was still late rather than early. With how long it feels as if I've been laying down though, perhaps it would be morning soon. I didn't fall asleep, so I was able to vaguely keep track of the transition to the next day.

It didn't take much longer before I heard the sound of something approaching me yet again. It was different than last time, enough for me to determine that it wasn't Vero. I lazily lifted my head up, bringing my eye to a figure I wasn't familiar with. Not at first anyway. The shape was much larger than I was. I recognized it as a haxorus, one that I swear I had seen before, but I didn't know them by name. Maybe I noticed them in passing once..?

I stood up on all fours, not giving them what I would call a death stare, but I didn't look friendly. I wasn't in a good mood, and thus, if this pokemon happened to be hostile, I wanted them to leave as soon as possible. The last pokemon I actually, well sort of battled with was Jewel, unless you count getting smacked around by Core as battling. The look on the face of this haxorus was almost disturbing, like someone who had lost their mind, or at least, someone on the verge of such. I took a hesitant step back, not wanting to seem intimidated, but not wanting to drop my guard at the same time.

"Mmrgh…" There was a mumble from the haxorus. A very uneasy mumble. They didn't speak with any decipherable words, but didn't sound too happy. "You found one of them…" They then spoke, bewildering me. I had never interacted with this pokemon before, and by the way they spoke, it sounded as if they knew something about me. "Now I need to take it back." They unleashed a small growl. I was beyond confused.

"Who are you..?" I sheepishly asked, not wanting conflict.

Instead of a reply, the haxorus ran at me, and attempted to slam one of their arms over my head, which I barely rolled away from. I steadied myself as I finished the motion, looking up at the now aggressor. They turned to me from their missed attempt at an attack, and growled once more. "I'm taking what you have now!"

I was rushed down once more. He was unsteady and unfocused. I strafed to the right and ran passed him, dodging another swing. He turned around to presumably charge at me again. Predicting this, I jumped up and rammed my head into his, before spinning around in the air and hitting him with my tail. He reeled back a few inches, and I faced him once more. He rubbed the side of his head, glaring at me. His body slumped, and he looked as if he was about to collapse. I hardly touched him, and he seemed as if he was on his last leg. The smart move in a battle would be to rush him now, but I was still totally blank as to why I was being attacked in the first place. I didn't know if this was some sort of misunderstanding, or if this was a random pokemon out for blood. Like I needed more confusion…

"Please stop this…" I said, as the haxorus' body lowered, seemingly from being exhausted. "Who are you and why-"

Out of nowhere, another figure launched itself into my sightline. The time of day made it difficult to make out what kind of pokemon it was due to the speed they moved at, but I was able to tell the direction they were headed in. The shape slammed into the haxorus, and in response, he let out an ear-splitting scream. He was shoved away from the force, falling to the ground. The shape held still, facing the haxorus. Without it moving a muscle, the haxorus let out another hoarse yell, and flew back a few more feet, sliding against the ground.

I stared at the shape, slowly deciphering its species. I suddenly didn't care about the haxorus that was just showing mass amounts of aggression towards me. I froze in my tracks, tracing the slim tendrils that connected to a small shape on its head, looking like a crystal. I traced its four legs, its physique, barely larger than my own. I traced its colors, a combination of light and dark blue. A glaceon.

Said glaceon released an aggressive growl, and stomped towards the haxorus, who was barely recovering off of the ground. I heard a sharp inhale, only barely.

"Go. Away." She spoke, low and threatening. The haxorus seemed to hesitate on leaving right after he rose to his feet. "Leave before I shove an icicle in your neck!" She shouted. I could still hardly make it out, everything sounded so distant all of a sudden, ever since she came into my sight. Her voice was aggressive, mean-spirited, and threatening. I still found it angelic at the same time.

The haxorus turned tail and ran right after she shouted, running in the opposite direction of the Nest. I was attacked out of nowhere, by someone who looked exhausted, totally drained. They wouldn't respond to anything I said, instead spouting random rhetoric that I didn't understand. I didn't care though. I did a few moments prior, but not right at this very moment. I was still stuck in place, my one working eye unmoving as my legs.

She turned in my direction, and looked me in the eye. I did the same to her. Every conflicting thought in my head faded instantly, I was now only focused on one thing, one pokemon. Neither of us said a word. A million rushed through my mind, but none of them made it to my mouth. I felt as if time had stopped around me, as if I was still stuck.

She took a few steps closer to me. As much as I wanted to do the same, I still couldn't move, nor speak, nor really think. I watched her expression slowly go back and forth as she seemed to observe my features, from the new details on my face to the new marks down the rest of my body. She continued walking forward, until we were molecules apart. I had to tilt my head up ever so slightly to keep eye contact.

We stood right in front of one another for a solid minute of silence. The air didn't feel dense or tentious though, like the rest of the silence I've experienced today. She leaned down a little bit, touching her forehead to mine. Her crown felt smooth and comforting. I felt my body quiver a little bit, my legs getting the worst of it. A pressure akin to a boulder sitting on me settled in my chest, looming over to my throat. I heavily gulped and my legs gave out. I slumped down and she followed.

A gentle pressure pressed against the back of my head, forcing me forward into a comfortable, soft sensation. I had felt this before, this same exact texture, from a similar position. The paw behind my head slowly moved up and down, gliding across my fur. I felt a warm, moist feeling form on both of my cheeks, coming from my eyes. I was pushed more firmly into the soft pillow in front of me, and heard something.

"Shhhh."

The sound was kind and gentle. I don't know why, but that weakened my fortitude, nearly shattering it. I wasn't aware such a simple noise could have that effect. I started letting out audible sobs. It wasn't in my control anymore. I brought my forelegs forward, and despite them shaking more than ever, I wrapped them around the body in front of me. I dug my head as firmly into her fur as I could.

I focused on the comforting touch on my head. I focused on the gentle noises now resting in my ears.

For the first time in what felt like ages:

I felt relaxed.

Hello Readers!

Typing a chapter with one hand? Never thought I would do that, but here I am. Had a bit of a silly accident with a sharp object, and let's just say my left hand isn't too easy to use at the moment, thanks to a nasty cut almost to the bone. Be careful with sharp things kids.

This took a while to get out for many reasons besides the one above, but I'd rather not go into those. Point is, there's a new chapter out, and one I hope people will enjoy.

I thought the chapter before this came out horribly, but I got some of the best feedback overall on that one than I have on any other in like… a long time. So I guess you guys liked it? Not that I'm complaining, I greatly appreciate it, but hell if that doesn't show that I need to just be at least a little bit confident in some of what I put down here. I owe it to all of you for being so patient with my inconsistent uploading.

Thank you all for reviewing, PMing, all of it. Every bit of interaction I have with you guys seriously makes me a happier person, and I love every bit of it.

See You Next Chapter!