I left the cavern where Faen lay, still smiling. He would smile there forever. He and Lala would be by each other forever.

But I left. I left to see if I could somehow change the world for the better, to maybe somehow convince other Pokemon we needed to work together. No one ever listened to me. They simply said, after I told them, "That's life."

They didn't understand that my friend, my child, my baby had been killed.

If that was life, I was going to change it. No meager "try to" or "attempt to". I would change it, so that it would never happen to anyone again. So that no one would have to kill someone they loved ever again. So that no one would have to see that horrible smiling face. The smiling face of a murderer.

I traveled… Everywhere I could. I traveled through lawless lands with starving, desperate people trying to kill me almost every step of the way, through lands ruled by a "benevolent" leader, through lands with no one in it that could even understand what I was saying.

And blood. Their blood was slowly dying my paws red. I grew older, stronger, and knew for a fact that this life was a literal Hell when I'd killed so many I evolved. And knew there was no escape when I evolved again.

I was 13 when I evolved for the second time. This world was kill or be killed. I was a mere 13 years old, and I had killed so many. I hated life. I hated this world. I hated everything. I hated everything except my memories of Lala, before Faen came into and destroyed our lives.

But I still tried. I mastered every possible art of bending someone to your will, from hypnotic suggestion to seduction to just plain coming up with a better argument than their defense. I became an artist with words.

But it didn't help. Nothing helped. Nothing would make it so that people would feel the need to understand that our life was worse than anything else. I am certain I wasn't exaggerating.

And then it happened again.

I was talking to a crowd in some semblance of a town, when this red Pokémon walked to the side.

"You're so loud," It complained. "You're all too noisy! Wait, why are you looking at me like that? What did I do?"

It started crying, streams of tears washing away the red. It was pure red. It was like Faen. But it was crying.

"WHY ARE YOU ALL LOOKING AT ME LIKE THAT?" It screamed. "Go away! Stop looking at me! Don't look at me! GO AWAY!"

I couldn't watch. But I was forced to listen. I still hear the echoes. They never leave me.

"Oh… you've stopped looking at me now. Am I not ugly to you anymore?" It looked at one body that had managed to retain its original shape, then curled down next to it. "Now I know how to make it so people won't think I'm ugly anymore!"

They all acted like innocent children, all those whose minds had snapped. They just wanted to have fun, or for people to not think something about them… but they had become so twisted. Innocent killers who had no idea as to what they had just done.

It prodded the body it lay next to. "Why aren't you moving anymore? Won't you move for me?" I cringed in silence, praying it wouldn't see me and add me to that sea of dead things. "Please move, mister. Why won't you wake up? Please wake up, mister."

I left as quietly as I could. For it to have killed… so many, it had to have been very strong, stronger than me.

Until I left the range of its voice, that was all I heard. "Please wake up, mister. Won't you please wake up?"

They would be forgotten. But not by me.

I would never forget. And I would never be forgotten.