Oo! Sorry! I think I might have missed the weekly update. It's cool, I'll put up another chapter tomorrow to make up for it. ^.^ I hope you like the story so far. This is my first attempt at a Poke'mon story.

Also, what's going to happen after the quarantine scares me a lot more than the actual virus. It's scary. I hope you're not scared. Of the economy crashing, of the government, or even of people getting sick. If you are, I'll tell you a story, and I hope it reminds you of hope, comfort, and snuggling up somewhere safe. Sometimes, a safe break is all we need to gather up our faculties and do what we need to do.

According to the legends of Sinnoh, this Pokémon emerged from an egg and shaped all there is in this world.

9

"There was nothing before Arceus and Aria. All we know is that they came into being together, though they knew little of the other. Both were taken up with their mates, who had been created alongside them, and whose names are too sacred for us to know. Though they had mates, neither could have children, as they existed in chaos, and children need a home, or at least ground, to grow upon.

Both Arceus and Aria knew nothing of pain or happiness. They were in nothing.

Then, a great dragon named Giratina appeared before them, draped in darkness. A god from another world, the dragon had been watching with their beautiful mates for quite some time and had grown envious of the waste. The dragon, born of darkness, knew very well of light and lusted after it. Before Arceus and Aria could understand what they were seeing, the great dragon god Giratina snatched away their beloved lighter halfs and Arceus and Aria's world grew dark.

Desperate, they pawed through the chaos, calling after their mates, knowing true suffering now they were without the delight and comfort of their other halves. Without anyone to cling to, Arceus and Aria, once repulsed by their differences, finally tried to know one another. They kept at a distance, Arceus repulsed by Aria's weakness and frail form, and Aria repulsed by Arceus's power and lack of intellect or complex thought. Slowly, however, since they had no other choice or else whither in loneliness, the two learned basic communication, and through that, learned of each other.

Right away, Aria grew flummoxed with the waste Arceus put his power to, like a flowing river that cut through no stone or nurtured no fish. Using his sharp and clever mind, Aria directed Arceus's power, learning of it far deeper than Arceus could have ever comprehended on his own. Under Aria's instruction and creativity, land for their feet began to be born. Then waters, and stars, air and sky, and finally, a great burst of light.

But the light was not their beloved mates.

And yet, through this miraculous creation, Aria began to comprehend Giratina's world and how it connected to their own once chaotic abyss.

Arceus, now fast friends with Aria and full of wonder for the majesty their teamwork could produce, fully supported Aria's ideas of how to get to their mates and threw himself into the practice to gain the powers that would lead them there—the powers that would create a roadway even into the darkness.

As they trained, practicing, struggling, failing, fighting against the elements, winning, a whole new world came into being on the infantile ground, waters, and sky they had brought into being: plants to cover the earth and touch the sky, jewels and sands, mountains, valleys, flowers, colors, all that could delight the eye and give breath.

And yet, there were no creatures on this land, not of man and not of Arceus.

Then, just as suddenly as Giratina had come upon them, Arceus and Aria came upon him, breaking through the shadows that separated their two worlds. The world in which Giratina lived in was nothing like the beautiful one they had created. It may have once been beautiful and fertile like theirs, millions of years before when Giratina had been new. But having no mate for his own and no kin, no one had ever been born to appreciate it, and it inevitably deteriorated. Even with Arceus and Aria's mates he had made no children, only wishing them to be with him and admire his power.

Arceus and Aria's invasion enraged him past recognition. His form changed. The dead, dark world around him crumbled at the force, brittle as it was. Arceus and Aria's mates cried in fear as their lights were smothered.

A great battle ensued between Arceus and Giratina, as Aria's weaker body had no hopes of combating such power. But he made up for it with his mind, analyzing and instructing Arceus faster than lightning, leaping centuries of experience in leaps and bounds, and it was only because of this that Arceus was able to match Giratina's ancient knowledge.

In the end, it was through Aria's great mind that Arceus's strength prevailed. Giratina could not be destroyed, far to ancient and already a master of death, but Aria came up with a way to seal his sad, dead world from the one they had created, allowing Arceus and Aria to lead their beloved mate's into the beautiful land they had created through their teamwork.

The land gave them a home in which to conceive and rear children, which brought true light to the world and replenished its surface. Together they taught their children the way to meet their full potential, as they had, through each other. They taught them to work through the language barrier, to treat each other well, and to lend each other their greatest strengths, for only then could they become like their fathers and mothers: gods."

"And so…" said Chevy, unaware of the shiny black eyes watching from behind them, sharp yellow and blue ears twitching like children's fingers. "We made a pact with humans. But Arceus and Aria, in their great wisdom, knew that either humans or poke'mon would forget one day, so they left us with statues to follow. These statues are what allow us to work with humans and to get along with them, and one of those is to bow our heads to those who prove their worth in defeating us in battle, or in other words, capturing us. We are to honor them as trainers, and they to honor our power."

Though I was still drowsy, my mind felt wide awake. "And, if done right, you think you'll become gods?"

Chevy nodded. "If done truly, as Arceus and Aria, then yes. Either in this life or the next."

I felt my eyebrows go high at that—a very human expression. "I've never heard of anyone becoming gods."

"Well, it does take time to reach that strength. It's suppose to go on in the next life. The bond between poke'mon and one's trainer is suppose to surpass death and onward until we reach the veil where we have the strength to create worlds."

"Huh…"

I met the eyes of the spying Pikachu and Pichirisu. They flinched and ducked, only to reappear mere seconds later with something I couldn't decipher dancing in their dark eyes. A Pikachu leaned over to whisper something into a Pichirisu's ear. The Pichirisu chattered something back.

Chevy's expression went flat and he turned to face them. They froze.

"I can hear you," he growled.

"Chu!" They squealed, dashing away.

"What were they saying?" I asked.

"Nothing you'd care for," he said with a sniff. "Gossipy little toe rags."

I watched their tails bounce away, one like lighting and one striped white and blue with small spikes. "I never thought something so cute could be so…annoying."

"Cute?" he snorted. "Baby Poochyena are cute. Those are just rats, and disgusting ones at that. You ever had Pichirisu?"

"Uhh…"

"Don't. Taste like tree bark and ozone. And Pikachu leave your tongue numb."

I had to smile at that, or, at least I could feel my body smiling, even though the corners of my mouth could only move so much. Several of my tails wagged, sending a wave of shimmering black around my side where they blanketed over me.

Chevy stared. Hard.

My tails went still. I felt my ears go back. "What?"

"Oh, nothing bad, I'm sorry. I just…forgive me, I've never seen anyone quite like you." He huffed out his nose and looked off to the side. "It's not hard to see why the humans are so interested in your young. You are beautiful. They would be too."

His voice had lowered uncharacteristically soft and a little squirm of unease ran up my stomach.

But I tried to smile again, easing my stubborn ears back up.

"Thank you," I said. "Though I wish I was strong rather than pretty. Pretty isn't going to help me."

"That depends on your goal," he said, his muzzle still turned and looking for all the world as though he were fascinated by the Lotod peeking up from beneath their lillypad caps. "At first I thought you wanted to be strong for the same reason any poke'mon with a connection to Arceus would. But, now knowing you knew nothing of him or his pact with Aria…why do you want to be strong?"

"Isn't it obvious?" My tails swished to the other side, flinging up leaves as they did so. "I want to be free. It is only because I'm so weak I got captured, and by a child no less. But before that I nearly got eaten by a Mightyena and his brood."

Chevy gave a sudden bark of laughter. "That explains why you were so wary of me! Sounds like a very uncouth fellow."

"That was the least of it. He said he'd spare me if I made him pups, is that normal?"

He gave another laugh, this one more disgusted than amused, though it was only thanks to my poke'mon mind that I could tell the difference.

"Hardly," he said. "But I was only in a pact as a child. I never had to find a mate among them."

"I'm sure you've had many since moving in here," I couldn't help feeling a little mischievous as I said it, even as I wondered if he would react as a human would to that suggestion. With how poke'mon breeders were able to hook up all kinds of poke'mon together, I highly doubted it.

To my surprise, Chevy's ears went flat and to the side, and his nose nuzzled beneath his paw.

"I…have not had the pleasure…"

I found my sore legs protesting as I scooted forward like a school girl on her bed eater to hear the embarrassed whispers of her friend. For the first time in forever, I felt light with good-hearted amusement.

"Why are you so embarrassed, Chevy? Am I missing something?"

He snuffed, the air moving so quick through his nose it whistled.

"You can't be so obtuse."

"I didn't know about Arceus, suck at cleaning myself, and couldn't stop fire from coming out of my mouth even though apparently babies can do it. I think I can be. Seriously, why you should be embarrassed around a humiliation like me is the real question."

His ears swiveled from side to back at that and he growled.

"Do not talk about yourself like so."

"I'm only saying the truth. I'm naïve to the extreme, so…why you so embarrassed? Are po—Mightyena only as great as how many, uh, females they've made it?" I wanted to scrape at my tongue. Ugh, saying those words were weird. And if I'd said 'Poke'mon' instead, blegh. Ocean of awkward right there.

He lowered his head between his paws, though his yellow eyes flickered towards me. They jumped over me, looking for something, before he sighed and looked back over the pasture.

"I…I suspect I am strange for…for my kind. I have never known the right things to do or say, and many females believe me uninterested or don't understand my ways of thinking. They think me…disconnected." The yellow eyes flickered back to me, and I thought I saw his tail swish, much as mine had when I smiled. "Obtuse. I've also rarely, if ever, found a female who could match my intellect, and I am ashamed to say that it's a turn off for me to try and be intimate with someone dumb."

I laughed at that, startling myself at the alien sound.

Chevy's ears flicked high.

"I can't tell you how pleasing that is to hear." He slid his muzzle over his paw, his gaze on me no longer discomforted. "I guess I'm embarrassed because I find myself pathetic and…what's the word…inept? I was afraid that would matter to you. It matters to most females."

I felt myself squirm in discomfort at his words—he said 'perform' urk! Pokemon sex, ewe w ewwww—but only felt my tails swishing madly. He didn't seem bothered, though, so I hoped my discomfort was translated as something else than, well, disgust, because I wasn't disgusted at him. No. Quite the opposite.

"To be honest, I'd think less of you if you had mated a ton." I lowered my head onto my own paws, leveling my nose with his, even though we had a good two feet of grass between us. "I'm not interested in mating at all, but, if I was, I'd want someone who'd be dedicated to me and only me. I'm selfish like that."

"Like a life mate," he said, quickly, eagerly.

"Yeah. Pretty much."

"Do Ninetales mate for life?" his tail had begun to swish, almost happily.

"I don't think so, otherwise I doubt Carlos would think he could breed me, right?"

Chevy's tail jumped and patted. "You suppose he knows more about your own kind than you?"

I shrugged, watching as Ponyta stopped mid-gallop with a shout of alarm, having nearly crashed into the line of sparking Pikachu and Pichirisu tails that had popped up out of the blue. She screamed at them and they dashed off, laughing in high "Piiiii ch ch ch ch ch!"

"The only other Ninetales I've very met…well, let's just say she didn't like me and I didn't like her, though…"I closed my eyes. "Though I wanted to. I was trying to."

We fell quiet at that. Ponyta stomped around, raging for a bit more, before flicking her mane of fire back and trotting off. A Pikachu popped up from the other side of the pasture, watching her with an impish grin.

"Where did you come from?" Chevy asked, almost breathlessly. Was he afraid to ask. "How were you raised? Where was your home?"

I hesitated, scrambling for an answer far enough from the truth to be real, but close enough to be honest.

After several moments, filled with his twitching ears, riveted gaze, and the pounding of my heart, I came upon the only things I could say.

"I…I use to live by Oldale, with my mother and my brother. My mother…she didn't like me very much because…because I was a coward and…couldn't do much. My brother, on the other hand, was brave, strong, and adventurous. She loved him." I swallowed back the rock in my throat, trying not to focus on the vivid memory of Collin blooming up before my eyes. "I loved him too. More than I can say…"

I took a deep breath.

"He brought Ninetails to me. He wanted me to like her like he did. But just as I started to try she chased me off. And, being the weak coward I was, I didn't last long at all on my own before I got chased by that stupid, horny Mightyena I told you about into a river and caught by that loser turd."

After a few heavy seconds of breathing deep, fighting back the whine building up in my chest, Chevy's damp nose nuzzled against my wrist.

"I think you're very brave," he said, softly. "And I'm sure your brother loved you too."

I remembered the sweet smile he'd save for me and grew warm.

"I think so too."