Hi, me again. Yeah, you're probably tired of these by now but usually they're only used for notes and for shameless advertising. This time, the top note is only for shameless advertising, I might have notes for you at the end though. So, here goes.

Go and read Tales of Flame and Anomaly already! They are by super-terrific authors named Buwaro and Dark Magician Girl Aeris, they are related to each other and they're related to this story too! In fact you might even see a couple of my characters popping up in their fan fictions at points. If you want to see what I mean, don't stand here! Read them after you're done with this chapter!

That being said, I won't make you wait any longer. Go ahead and enjoy Chapter 17: Tense Moments!

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Houndour's POV

I glanced around until my gaze rested on the shocked faces of the Treecko referred to as Jack and the Mudkip who had been right there with us while we infiltrated the base outside of Rustboro City. I could see the painful shock in their eyes when Crescent told us of the orders; they all reflected the sinking feeling I had in my heart. She was being ordered to kill someone... Why? Why would she...

No. She would never do that, not if she had a choice. That was why we were trying so hard to free her.

I heard a loud squeaking noise and turned to the door (everyone else must have heard it too, for I heard them moving about and even heard a foul line from Jack), and soon enough I saw a psychic pokémon flying right in front of it to the other side, followed by another pokémon I knew too well. Sister...

"Houndour! You take Mudkip and go help out Kirlia!" Crescent's voice boomed around me, the command nearly being automatic as Mudkip and I began to run out of the room and follow Sister. Just what a Kirlia was, I didn't know. But, what I did know was that I had to follow Crescent's orders if I wanted everything to be all right, "Jack, Kazu and I will work on freeing Alexa's mind! Don't worry about us!"

I faintly heard the human asking Crescent about his telepathy as I ran after Sister, but ignored it in favour of looking ahead; the psychic pokémon I saw go flying looked a lot like Ralts, but at the same time it wasn't. It was bigger, seemed more delicate and had twin cuts in its veil so that the eyes were visible. Ralts had emitted blinding light earlier though, and Mudkip said that he was evolving...

"You... My parents..." My ears perked at the weak voice of the psychic pokémon, and with a flip of my stomach I saw a crimson stream trailing from his mouth. He was bleeding from the inside... Sister had probably hurt him badly, that much being obvious as the other pokémon tried and failed to stand, "You'll... You'll pay for hurting them..."

"You're so weak, what're you going to do? I doubt you can throw another steel plate at me," As if she hadn't noticed us Sister laughed cruelly at the pokémon I knew was formerly Ralts, which caused Mudkip to narrow her eyes at Sister while she continued on, "This is where you die. Don't fret about losing your trainer, you'll have your parents in Hell soon enough!"

I could only watch helplessly as I saw Sister charge a fire attack in her mouth; my feet seemed stuck to the ground, the conflicts of saving the pokémon that was once Ralts and fighting Sister flooding through my head. The psychic pokémon needed help, badly but...

I couldn't do it. I couldn't step forward to stop her, as if fear had rooted me to the ground I stood upon. That star pokémon, Jirachi, had warned me that I would have to fight Sister but... I could not bring myself to fight against her. She was still my sister, and a part of me couldn't bear to actually try and hurt her with all of my strength.

Some noise snapped me out of my thoughts, however. I heard yelping and when I looked, Sister and Mudkip were wrestling on the ground, Mudkip squirting streams of water right into Sister's face. Sister ended up throwing Mudkip off of her with a growl, Mudkip ignoring her in favour of shouting at me, "Get that other pokémon out of here! I'll handle the Houndoom!"

"But..."

I was cut off by a yelp as I felt something hot collide with my side, though granted it didn't hurt; I felt myself becoming stronger when I was engulfed in the flames Sister had shot at me. I could only stare at her as she began to charge at me, Mudkip once again intervening to fight with Sister, "Go already, Houndour! Get Kirlia out of here!"

"Little Brother!" My ears perked when Sister started to yell at me, glaring at me while she pinned Mudkip to the ground, "Why are you fighting against us? You know you belong with Master! With Team Rocket! I'll have to kill you if you don't come back!"

My ears flattened against my head while both pokémon stared at me, giving me strange looks while they did so. I knew I had to save the psychic pokémon I knew was Ralts but... Sister truly seemed like she wanted me to come back. Maybe that star pokémon was wrong... Maybe I was the one who had to change so I could see Sister be her old self again...

"I'll... I'll kill you both..." Ralts' evolved form spoke again, I felt my stomach flipping when he said that. No, I had to save him... Sister encouraged me to do bad things, I couldn't trust her! But, it was so hard not too, even looking at the injured pokémon she had fought.

Mudkip and Sister continued to scrap as I finally found the courage to move, going to the psychic pokémon and lifting him onto my back. I had to get him out of there, that was the most important thing. However, just as I turned a corner I heard a yelp coming from Sister, my head craning back to take a look.

The water pokémon seemed to have knocked out Sister before she ran up next to me, frowning before she asked, "That was your sister? Did you two really..."

I couldn't look at Mudkip while we tried to head back towards Crescent and the others as I nodded, and I could feel her inquiring gaze on me the whole time. How could I tell her about all that I had done in the past...?

"Misdreavus! Use Shadow Ball on them!"

I yelped when the sudden burst of dark energy surrounded Mudkip, Kirlia and I; Mudkip and Kirlia were both sent flying several meters in front of me while I collapsed. I barely managed to turn around enough to see that it was the ghost pokémon that belonged to former Master who fired it.

"So, my little traitorous pokémon has come crawling back. You figured that we'd find you no matter what, huh?" I looked into former Master's cold eyes then, a low whimper escaping me as I gazed at both her and the ghost pokémon she had released against me. I couldn't... I couldn't bring myself to fight them...

Even if they were wrong, they were all I had.

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Jack's POV

"What's taking so long?" I looked at the pseudo Vaporeon and the human in annoyance while they seemed to be working together on the computer, leaving me to stand around bored and listening to sirens blaring while red lights kept flashing outside of the room. Which of course wasn't the best way to spend my time, now if I had some Oran Berries...

"Stop complaining, we're working as hard as we can to free your trainer!" I winced when Crescent's voice boomed in my mind, he sounded irritated. It seemed like he was really distracted, as if something else was going on in the back of his mind. What was so important that it made this supposed legendary being so distracted? "Kazu, how much longer is it going to take?"

"I've just gotten halfway through the shut down protocol. It's going to take at least five more minutes," Gravely the human spoke to us, causing Crescent's face to go sour when he spoke again, "At this rate, I'm not going to be able to shut it down in time to stop that kid's actions. The most I can do faster is override the command Kujaku gave her."

"Let's do that then. Anything to buy time," And then the two continued to ignore me in silence as they typed away at those keyboard things. Leaving me with absolutely nothing to do. Nothing at all. Nope, nothing to do. Can you tell just how bored I am yet?

Crescent froze for a second, looking at what seemed to be a map on a screen while he shook his head, "She's already there! Kazu, hurry-"

"Oh screw it," I sighed and hopped up onto the computer, right before smacking my tail onto what seemed like a good area. This earned some very shocked glances from Crescent and the human before Crescent shouted at me, "YOU IDIOT!"

What was his problem? I just smashed a machine that was controlling Alexa's brain, big deal.

... Okay, maybe it was a big deal. Oops.

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Reiko's POV

It must have been a few minutes since this kid showed up with a gun in her hand. And, since then she just stood there while pointing it at my head, this blank look in her eyes while she shook. If it weren't for the fact that she had her finger around the trigger I probably would have tried to smack the thing out of her hand by now. But, something was wrong; it looked like she was ordered to kill me (Team Rocket bastards were breaking their word, damn them), but she wasn't just yet. I had to wonder...

And yet, fear kept me from asking. I was so scared, not sure how to react with a gun's barrel staring me down and just waiting for something to happen. It seemed like it was an eternity from when the kid entered the room, her hand shaking as she continued to show what that Kujaku bitch called 'resistance'. It sickened me to watch them doing this to some innocent kid, but at the moment I was helpless.

It was kind of surprising, to admit something like that to myself. Me, helpless? Any other time and it would have been laughable. But, at this point, that's just what I was. But, there was something pushing me to try anyway, "Hey, kid! What do you think you're doing, working for Team Rocket? You don't want to, right?"

I ended up running right up to the bars and staring the kid in the face, watching her hand continue to shake more violently. For whatever reason it seemed like she was listening to me, something that made me feel a bit more confident. Kind of surprising, considering that I was practically staring death in the face, but this is me we're talking about. Even if it is stupid, there was no way in hell I was just going to lie down and let someone get puppeted by those evil bastards!

"Come on, break through! I can tell that you're strong, kid! Break through it's-"

"Die."

I was almost entirely consumed by terror as I heard the bang following the trigger's pull.

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Ooooh! Will Houndour, Mudkip and Kirlia be able to escape Kujaku's wrath? Will Reiko die instantly from the gun Alexa fired? Will the lovechild of Flame and Scarlet grow up to become the new world leader?

I threw that last one in there to make sure that you were still paying attention.

Yeah, it's a short chapter, it took longer than it should have and for that I apologize. However, you can't make me apologize for leaving you with another cliff hanger; those are way too much fun. So, you'll just have to see how it all ends in future chapters! Thanks for sticking with me this far, I hope I haven't disappointed you! Until next time dear readers, farewell!