Update 3/25/12

I'm back again with Chapter two. Thank you to the one reviewer and the many people that took the time to look at this story. I'm sorry the description for this story sucks, but I'm having an incredibly hard time coming up with one. This is the last chapter before we hit the main storyline, but there are going to be other chapters with flashbacks (in fact I believe four is going to be a flash back chapter). Anyway, I'm going to keep working with this story and I hope those of you who are reading it enjoy it.

Anyway a brief warning for a very non descriptive sex scene. Figured I'd let you know. Oh yes and eventually I will be pumping up the rating on this story, but it'll be a long time before that happens.

~.::Tale of Life and Death::.~

"Oh Arceus! There was a mudslide," Nos placed his muddy hands on his drench white tank and wiped them off. The disappointment was overwhelming due to the fact that they had trudged their way almost back to their camp through mounds of mud and floodwater.

"You've got to be kidding me, this path is blocked as well?" Aurora gritted her teeth as she unintentionally dropped her heavy backpack in a giant muddy puddle that they were standing in.

"The mud isn't very stable," He stated as he stuck his hands in it in an attempt to climb the mud pile. "Looks like we should find someplace dry to stay for the night."

Aurora rolled her cerulean eyes. All she wanted to do was crawl into her warm sleeping bag and pretend that this day had never happened.

It had been eight years since they had graduated from college to pursue their dream of learning everything they could about the legendary Pokémon Suicune. They had wandered off the path a bit to explore some of the surrounding area as part of an experiment that Nos was conducting. It was a trip that took up most of their day and now it was getting late, they could see the sun setting in the distance, and their path was blocked from every angle to get back to camp, and where Suicune was residing. The two scientists were incredibly drenched and tired from trudging through plant life all day. And considering that the day had been overcast for the most part didn't help them at all. And then the rainstorm was only making it that much worse.

"Where do you propose we stay for the night?" She wondered getting mud everywhere.

"We should find a cave, at least it will be dry," that was certain.

"Yes, because I feel so comfortable sleeping with Zubat," She sarcastically remarked.

"Do you have a better idea?" He wondered.

She puffed out her cheeks, "Our tent."

He raised a brow.

"Yeah, I surrender. Lead us to the cave oh redheaded one."

"Haha…" He picked up her bag and headed towards a nearby foothill.

There they found a small cave next to a small stream. Whether this stream existed before the storm was yet to be determined, but in the mean time they had found a place to stay for the night.

It wasn't a large cave; a small distance inward and they had reached the back. However, there was more than enough room inside for the two of them to stay comfortably.

Nos plopped Aurora's backpack on the floor of the cave and sat down. Water dripped from every part of his body. He watched outside the cave as water heavily fell from the heavens. Aurora struggled to climb into the cave, but she eventually got herself in. She then lay on the cool floor as a puddle formed around her drenched body.

"Considering all the things we've been through in the past nine years, this isn't all that bad," Nos turned his head and smiled to Aurora who forcibly sat herself up.

"What are you talking about?" She gave him a hard look, "Never have we had to stay anywhere other than our tent. This is the worst!"

"It's not that bad."

"Oh drop your stupid optimistic attitude, I don't want to hear it!" She hollered, "I'm drenched and cold. I didn't even consider packing a change of clothing or blankets or anything!"

"Oh stop pouting, it's unbecoming of you."

She balled up her drenched jacket and chucked it at his head. "I'll whine if I want too!"

He chuckled, "I'm waiting for you to call me intolerable."

"Oh shut it, you pompous fool!"

There was a brief amount of silence between the two of them before Nos turned his drenched head to her. She was staring out of the cave with a sour look on her pale face. It was interesting how she was out in the sun all the time, but the color of her skin never once changed.

"Do you ever think what life would be like if we had never decided to continue pursuing this as a career?" He wondered.

She rolled her eyes, "No."

"C'mon, humor me."

"Why? I've told you before that this is all I've ever wanted to do."

"I'd certainly be married by now."

"Good for you," She responded disgusted. How could he only think of marriage?

"Well, even after all these years, I've never given up on the thought of having a family."

"Then you should never have offered to continue working with me. You know that in this line of work, neither of us have time to just stop what we are doing and settle down. A family would be a major distraction and a commitment that would cause you to choose between your family and your work. Being free, as you and I are, means that there is nothing tying us down to one location which is why we can continue doing what we are doing."

"I'm aware of that… it's just… never mind," he sighed. No matter what he was going to say it was never going to be of any great importance to her.

"Plus kids are messy and they'd just get in the way," she added. She could have cared less about his feelings on the subject.

"I have a rather touchy question to ask you," He said to her knowing that she probably didn't care what the question was, she just wasn't going to want to respond to it, as with every question not having to do with work.

"What?"

"Have you ever had sex?"

She placed her chin on her left palm and stared at him with a bored look on her face, "Your questions get more and more preposterous every time you ask one."

"I'll take that as a no then," He said as he was writing in his journal.

"Are you seriously writing that in your journal?" She yelled as she quickly moved towards him to see exactly what he was writing.

"What?" He wondered as he hugged the journal close to his drenched body.

She snagged it from him and began reading it, "Why would you write this? These entries are supposed to be about you not me!"

"Not true, they're about anything pertaining to the person writing them," He took it back. "Don't read too far into it. Plus no one is going to read these but us."

"Well when we die and then someone decides to continue our research, they will read these!"

"So what? You'll be dead."

"My reputation!" She shouted.

He laughed, "I don't think I've ever seen you act so much like… hm how should I put this?"

"A woman? 'Cuz that is what I am!" She bit her lower lip, how could he be so rude?

"Well yes, but not only that but I've never seen you so open about your feelings." She truly was an astounding creature. He could surely spend as much time studying her as he had spent on Suicune and still know nothing about her.

"Ugh, I'm sorry, I'm just uncomfortable sleeping in a cave. I miss the tent!" She whined, "What if we can't make it back to the tent, or what if the tent is gone? I can't live like this!"

"Sheesh, calm down. I like angry Aurora better than you freaking out."

She lay sprawled out on the cave floor, "I can't do this…"

He crawled over to her, "Hey, don't be like that. This is just a small road bump in our fieldwork. It'll all be over soon." Consoling her felt weird.

"I'm going to go crazy at this rate!" She said as she picked her tear filled face and moved her body so that she was pressed against his in a sitting position.

Nos' face turned bright red. This was very uncharacteristic for her, and he wasn't quite sure what to do.

"It's just one night."

"What if it's not just one night? What if we're stuck in here forever! I can't handle this." Her hands clenched onto his tank and she nuzzled her face in his chest.

He had never realized that she had such unrealistic fears. He didn't even know what to categorize this fear as. A fear of not being able to return to work? Perhaps that was the right name for it.

"We're going to die here!" She cried.

"Woman, get a hold of yourself! Arceus, what's wrong with you?" He shook her. "Are your hair bands on too tight or something?"

She pulled the one holding up her hair out and threw it on the cave floor, "There, does that make you feel better?"

"Not really…" He sighed.

"Why are you so mean to me?" Her cerulean eyes formed tears as she stared at him with eminent sadness.

He rolled his. This was absolutely ridiculous.

"Are you serious right now? You're a huge ball of emotions that I don't know how to handle. Relax!"

She just started bawling.

He sighed hating to have to do what he was about to, but he took his right hand and slapped Aurora as hard as he could across the face.

She slowly brought her left hand up to her swollen red cheek and rubbed it gently. She stared off in the distance with disbelief that he had just done that.

He sighed with relief. She wasn't crying anymore.

She turned her face to him and narrowed her eyes before pouncing on him and slamming his body to the cave floor.

"You fucking bastard! How dare you slap me?" She screamed as she pounded his chest with her fists.

After a bit of a struggle he managed to grab onto her wrists and flipped her onto the ground.

"Stop it! That hurts!"

"Yeah, well so does my face!"

"You're driving me insane, Aurora!"

She stopped struggling, "Fine, what do you suggest I do?"

"Go to sleep!"

"Do you really think I can sleep in this cave?"

He sighed, "Just try."

"It's not going to happen. I'm drenched, this cave is cold, I have nothing comfortable to sleep on, yeah this isn't happening."

He crawled off of her, "You're annoying."

"Well you're no knight in shining armor yourself!" She sat up and rubbed her wrists. "Jerk!" She mumbled under her breath.

He wasn't going to deal with her while she was having mood swings. Dealing with her on a normal basis was bad enough for him. This was brutal and agonizing.

She sat in her dismal corner of the cave. Dark circles had begun to appear under her eyes, but still every bit of her will refused to let her rest.

Looking at her, however, made him feel bad. So Nos made his way over and plopped himself down beside her.

"Look, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have slapped you."

"No, I'm sorry…" She turned her bloodshot tired eyes to him. "It's an irrational fear, I understand the reason behind your methods. It worked."

He was completely taken aback by the fact that she, of all people, was apologizing to him. In the nine years that they had been together, never once had she apologized to him.

"Look, you should get some sleep," She said as her tired eyes stared into his.

He shook his head, "It wouldn't be right if I got some sleep and you didn't. I'll stay up too."

"You know I'd never do that for you."

"True, but I don't plan on letting irrational fears keep me up all night."

"Well thanks," She giggled like a schoolgirl with a crush. Perhaps it was because she was super tired, but whatever it was it felt weird and at that time it didn't bother her so much. Having Nos there to comfort her was exactly what she needed.

She leaned her head on his right shoulder and closed her eyes. He blushed slightly. Never before had he thought of Aurora this way.

And what he did next was certainly going to be regrettable. He turned his head and brushed his lips against her forehead. She could feel his warm breath on her skin and raised her head so that they both gazed into each other's eyes. He searched hers to see if what he was going to do next would be instantly regrettable, but it didn't seem so. He moved his lips closer to hers until they captivated them.

He couldn't be certain as to what had possessed him to want to do this, but for the moment it felt like the right thing to do. He wasn't alone. She wasn't at all certain what had possessed her to allow him to kiss her of all things, but she didn't have the will to push him away and so they sat there for a bit continuing to make out. He then slowly pushed her to the floor of the cave and crawled on top of her and she let him without a fight. And this continued as he removed her clothes. And she even removed his. He then spread her legs and inserted himself in and began to thrust. Whatever had possessed either of them continued for a while until everything was resolved and the two fell to sleep.

Aurora woke in morning, finding her body completely unclothed and Nos to be nowhere in sight. She quickly gathered her clothing and placed them back on. She was frustrated and angry. How could he have taken advantage of her like that?

Nos made his way back over to the cave with some fruit and berries that he had gathered while he was away. It seemed to him that the small stream from the night before was not a permanent part of the land. He climbed back up to the cave to see a very pissed off Aurora.

"Don't you dare yell at me for last night. That was as much your fault as it was mine," He said casually as he placed the food in his hands on the cave floor.

"You took advantage of me!" She yelled.

"Did not," He sighed. "It was a moment of weakness for the both of us."

"I don't feel comfortable around you!"

He rolled his green eyes, "Yeah, yeah, believe me it won't happen again."

"Rapist!"

"Alright, just stop you consented so get over it!" He barked. "I will not be unjustly accused of something when you were as far in the wrong as I was. You can't blame me for your lapse in judgment."

She pointed at him, "Oh yes I can. You'd better lawyer up, fucker!"

"Like you'd actually leave your research long enough to sue me. I know you better than that."

She sat down angrily. He was right. Taking him to court would take far too long and interfere with her work ethic.

"Touch me again and I'll kill you," She threatened.

"Well it's good to see the Aurora that pisses me off is back. I've missed you," He laughed and then bit into one of the fruits that he had found.

And for a month everything was hunky dory between the two scientists, until one day when Aurora woke up from the sudden need to vomit everywhere.

She bolted out of the tent and made it over to a ditch before she began vomiting uncontrollably. Her sudden dashing out from the tent awoke the sleeping redhead. His eyes attempted to adjust to the bright light coming in from the opening of the tent. He had horrible bed head and also hadn't a clue as to what was happening.

Aurora stumbled back into the tent after 10 or so minutes looking even more pale than usual.

"What's wrong?" He wondered.

"I must've ate something really bad last night," She said as she crawled onto her sleeping bag.

"What did you eat?"

"I'm too tired to think about it. I'll check my journal later." She crawled under the covers and curled up to sleep.

"Well if you're not better by tomorrow you should go see a doctor. You could have salmonella," He warned, but she was already fast asleep.

"Oh you are so dead!" Aurora was in a particularly fowl mood considering that she had spent a good chunk of her day away from her research and at a doctor's office of all places.

He didn't even look up from what he was doing, "And what have I done now?"

"I'm fucking pregnant!" She shouted.

That caught his attention. "You're what?"

"Did I stutter?" She was pissed.

"Well that's incredible!" He had a dumb smile upon his face.

"This is all part of some stupid ideal you have isn't it? Well I'm not going to be part of your idealistic fantasy. I'm getting an abortion!"

"What? No, you can't do that!"

"It's my body and I'll do what I want. I told you that I don't want kids!"

"What if it's just my kid?" He asked. "The child will be raised as mine and have nothing to do with you. That way no one will think that you have a child."

She frowned, "You honestly think I'm going to go for that? You must be insane! I'm carrying this child, how will people not know that it is mine?"

"Just look, we can keep the fact that you're pregnant on the down low. No one will have to know. Please Aurora, don't abort this child."

She frowned distastefully at his begging. Had a child meant so much to him then he should have found someone willing to carry it. Aurora wanted nothing to do with the thing, as she so lovingly referred to it, growing in her stomach.

"There's no way in hell that you're going to convince me to keep this 'thing'," She crossed her arms and made an angry sort of pouting face.

"Please!" He groveled.

She rolled her eyes, "Just tell me that the night we spent in the cave was not meant to have this outcome."

"I told you already that it wasn't supposed to happen. We both regret that night, but I think this child should have a chance to live."

"Tsk. Get up. I'll keep the stupid thing if you'll stop acting like a blabbering idiot," She groaned.

"Aurora, what have you consumed today?" Nos asked a bit frustrated as he made his way out of their blue and grey, pitched tent. His face was wrinkled, as it had been lately, since dealing with Aurora's stubbornness. In due time, they would become permanent.

The longhaired brunette stood nearby at a table with a microscope on it. Her face was pressed to the lens while she was jotting down notes with her right hand on a yellow, ruled tablet, at the same time.

"Aurora!" He raised his voice and changed the tone to angry.

She pushed one of the strips of hair loose from her ponytail behind her ear. Her eyes made contact with his, and her mouth instantly turned to a grueling frown.

"What do you want?" How dare he think to interrupt her work!

"What have you consumed today?"

She sighed disgusted and went back to her work.

"Check my journal!" She pointed towards it sitting in her bag.

He walked over steadfast and snatched the black, spiral ringed journal. He opened it and quickly, and thoroughly, flipped through the journal until he reached the entry, or rather lack thereof entry.

"There's nothing written!" He slammed it down on the table once again capturing her attention.

"Guess I haven't eaten then," She replied in a very sarcastic voice.

"You're eight months pregnant and you're appearance dictates that you are only three at most! You need to partake more!"

"Well, it's your fault I'm in this current state," She grumbled while placing a firm hand on her swollen stomach. "Do you even understand how unnecessarily difficult it is for me to do anything?"

"Eat!" He shouted.

She grumbled and made her way over to the cooler and slowly squatted down picking up something to eat. She quickly shoved it in her mouth, chewed, and swallowed before standing back up and facing the man that she grew to detest more than she originally had when they first met.

"Happy?"

He gave her a long hard stare and then turned off to do some research. She sighed desperate to remove him from her very essence, but that was impractical. As much as she loathed him, murder just wasn't in her.

A week later, Nos wandered by the table that Aurora commonly worked at. He noticed something peculiar and picked up a white envelope sitting atop some cluttered papers. It was sealed and the postmarked date was over a year. He tore the envelope removing the card and picture from within.

"Huh," He turned to his companion with an intense look upon his face. His eyes were fixated on the card in hand. "It seems the Hi's had a son. They even sent a picture of the little tike."

He looked up from the letter with a slight chuckle and noticed Aurora clutching her stomach and bent over in pain. Her face was stained with sweat and her eyes could only tell of her excruciating pain.

"Either get me to the fucking hospital or get me medication right fucking now!" She practically screamed at him.

"We're nowhere near a hospital!" The redhead was doing his best to try and maintain his coolness, but he was failing at a rapid pace.

"Then I hope to Arceus that you know how to deliver," She managed to threaten before screaming in pain.

He recalled from college how to deliver Miltank and Pokémon of the like and for now that was his best bet. He walked her over to the nearby stream, remembering that water births are easier on the mother, and had her place the lower half of herself in. Then came the actual challenge of delivering his child…

A wide smile grew across Nos' face as he held the bloody child in his olive arms.

"It's a little girl," he cheered overwhelmed by the fact that he was holding his daughter within his grasp.

"I'm…happy…for…you…" Aurora said as her body collapsed on the ground. She was absolutely drained.

The little girl was bawling in her father's arms. He looked around for something to clean her off with and also something to cut the umbilical cord.

"Here, hold her for a second," Without even given her a chance to reject, Nos placed the tiny baby within Aurora's clutches. He then made his way over to the tent and found an unused white towel and knife.

"Take this blabbering ball away from me!" Aurora ordered slowly regaining her strength.

"Give me a second," He muttered as he moved into the water, back between the brunette's legs. The knife was in his mouth and the towel draped over his shoulder.

He took the knife firmly in his right hand and the umbilical cord in his left. He followed it towards the child's naval and severed it two inches from the body.

"Hand me your hair tie!" He ordered his hand closing off the umbilical cord.

She groaned and pulled it out of her hair. After snagging it from her, he tied off the tip and then took the child from Aurora.

"Aren't you going to help me?" She wondered as he made his way out of the water.

"Yeah give me a minute," he told her as he softly cleaned the little girl whose eyes were currently blue. "I'm going to call you Raine."

The small infant moved her tiny hand and snagged her father's finger. He placed her in a small baby basket that he had picked up a few months ago and then returned to the exhausted brunette.

Completely exasperated, the brunette female pushed herself off the ground and managed to move to shore. He helped her stand to her feet.

"The placenta is floating down the river. In case you want to cherish that too,"

"That's gross," He told her.

Together they had reached the tent. She heaved a sigh and glared at him. "It's part of the package."

"Haha," sarcasm.

"If she keeps me awake one more night I will personally feed her to the ravaging Mightyena," The aggravated brunette was just that: aggravated. "My Arceus, they're quieter than she is!"

It had been a full week since the child was born and her incessant screaming and crying were pushing Aurora over the edge. There was only so much she could handle and this was far beyond her.

"It's your fault that she's horribly sick!" Nos yelled which wasn't helping the fact that Raine was already screaming and crying. "You didn't take care of yourself while you were pregnant and now she's incredibly weak and sick. I'm taking her to the hospital."

"Oh thank Arceus! If I had to listen to that-," She pointed ever so rudely, "-one more night I'd push you both off a cliff!"

Suicune looked over at the child as it lay comfortably atop a nearby hill. It decided not to bother with the bickering family.

It was true that Raine had been a very sick child from the get go. She was born only a few weeks premature, but she was severely underweight. She was a tiny little thing, fitting her entire body within both her father's hands. Her first night outside her mother's womb was a tough one for her. She instantly came down with a cough and after a week it had yet to subside and this bothered Nos. Aurora could have cared less.

The little girl looked a lot like her mother. She had Aurora's brown hair, nose, and pale skin. After a few days, her eyes turned green like her father's and she had some of his facial features.

"Come on, Raine. We're going to the hospital while mean old mommy stays here and does research," Nos babbled.

"She is not calling me 'mommy'!" Aurora yelled.

"Fine then, mean old Aurora," He corrected.

"Well someone has to stay here and watch Suicune!" She tried to defend. Not like she really needed a reason; she didn't want to be a part of that child's life.

Suicune turned its enormous canine head towards them as if to say: "No, I don't," but it didn't want to intrude. Instead, Suicune lay its head back down.

Nos rolled his green eyes, "Whatever, we're off."

"Bye!" She said relieved. Now that the annoying child and Nos were gone, she might actually get some work done.

A few hours later, Nos returned looking a bit worried. Aurora, on the other hand, was standing in front of three Petri dishes that contained water samples. She had spaced them out on the ground and stood there with her hands on her hips contemplating something.

"They want to monitor her for the next month, so she needs to stay in the hospital. The only good thing that's coming out of this is that I finally registered her, so now she has a birth certificate," He scratched the back of his head as he wandered next to the unfavorable brunette.

"And the fact that I'll actually get some sleep, get work done, and keep my sanity," she reminded him.

"It's only for a month. Anyway, what are you doing?" He wondered.

She looked at him with a bored stare, "These are three water samples. Two are from the past two places we visited and the last one is from the river. I'm not really sure what I'm trying to prove right now, but maybe, somehow, they can tell us where Suicune's next stop will be."

He placed his hand on his shaven chin, "I think you need more water samples."

"Yeah, I figured that…" She paused as she looked at the three Petri dishes. "Anyway, I've determined that Suicune is going to be on the move soon."

"…what about Raine?"

"What about her? Leave her in the hospital; it's your best bet. We'll pack up and follow Suicune then in a month's time you can pick her up."

"And what are they going to think? I won't visit my daughter for an entire month, but I'll pick her up when it's all over? I can't do that!" He told her, "I'll stay here."

"That's moronic. We have plenty of research to do, and I can't do it on my own!" She stabbed her finger into his chest.

"I'm not letting our research get in the way of our daughter!"

"Your daughter! She's not mine!"

"Whatever, you'll just have to go on without me!"

"See, this is why I said that having a family could only cause problems. She's of no use to us! She can't do work, nothing! All she does is cry, babble, and poop!"

"I'm not having this argument with you, Aurora! I'm staying put!"

She narrowed her eyes, "Well have fun trying to find some place to stay because I'm taking the tent!"

"Well, in case you've forgotten, I manage our money! I'll just get a hotel!"

"Oh good luck with that," she rolled her eyes, "I guarantee you that our money won't last an entire month!"

"Then I'll ask the Hi's for more!"

"Their money is supposed to be used on our research, not for personal gain!"

"My daughter is sick and it is your fault! I'm not leaving her here!"

"Fine then!" She screamed, "I don't know why I even agreed to any of this! I'll see you in a fucking month!"

"And watch your language! I don't need you speaking like that in front of her," He crossed his arms.

"I will speak however I want in front of your daughter, and there's nothing you can do about it!" And she walked off.

"Spell 'thoroughly' correct or else you can find yourself sleeping in the rain tonight!" Aurora yelled aggravated at the three-year-old who was standing drenched outside their tent.

The young girl was bawling her eyes out because she had been standing out there for nearly two hours and Aurora refused to let her in. Nos had wandered off for the day to do some research and so Aurora, unwillingly, had to take care of the child.

A while back, sometime after Nos had brought her home from the hospital, Aurora came up with this ingenious plan to make Raine do research. Aurora decided that she was going to teach all her knowledge to the child, so that in no time she would become a great researcher. And her plan was working. Raine, now three years old, could formulate simple math equations, collect samples, and formulate complex sentences. Before Raine was allowed to go to sleep each night, since she had started talking, she had to spell out all the words Aurora gave her and had to use them in a proper sentence.

"Aurora, I'm cold, wet, and tired. Can't I just come inside?" Her speech slurred from all the incessant crying and the fact that she had lost one of her front teeth.

The brunette woman sat lazily on her sleeping bag and stared at the child, "And what are you determining my answer to be?"

"I would like you to say 'yes,' but there is a higher probability that you will say 'no.'"

"Then why do you bother asking?"

The young brunette squatted down and wrapped her arms around her knees. She didn't want to spell words anymore. She just wanted to remove herself from the rain.

"Aurora, why is she outside?" Nos complained as he approached the small girl from behind. He held his umbrella over her head.

"She hasn't finished her words today," Aurora said casually as she intentionally fell on her back.

The redhead sighed and looked down at his sobbing daughter, "I'll stay out here with you."

As much as Nos would have loved to force himself and Raine into the tent, it was a bad idea. He used to try it when Raine was a bit younger, but during the night Aurora would pick the child up and throw her back outside. There was no use in fighting it.

"Now spell 'thoroughly'," She ordered.

"T-H…O-R-O-U-G-H…L…Y…thoroughly."

"Use it in a sentence."

"The scientist examined the specimen thoroughly," she continued to cry.

"Diction," Aurora said.

"Aurora!" Nos raised his voice.

"I said 'Diction'."

"D-I-C-T-I-O-N…diction."

Nos looked down at his sad daughter and sighed. The poor girl didn't need this every night.

"The diction in this novel is dry causing it to be a boring read."

Aurora yawned, "You may come in."

Nos extended his hand to his daughter, and the young child took it. He then walked her into the tent and grabbed a few towels to dry her off.

"If she catches a cold, you're going to take care of her," he threatened.

"Oh believe me, you don't want that," And she rolled over to fall asleep.

"There, is that better?" He wondered as he dried the young girl's hair off.

Her face was stained with tears and snot, so he took a tissue and wiped it.

"May I go to bed?" She wondered as her eyes became heavy with tears.

"Of course," he smiled and then watched her crawl into her tiny sleeping bag.

"Now where did she wander off to?" Aurora looked around as she carried a basket with some clothes in it.

"Leave her alone," Nos said as he attempted to fix one of the table legs.

"She's supposed to be going over the field journal. I expect her to have that thing memorized!"

The redhead crawled out from under the table and dusted the dirt off his body. It was a hot summer's day, only a few days after Raine's sixth birthday.

"She's got a photographic memory, I wouldn't worry about it too much," he replied.

She placed the basket in the tent and turned back to her partner, "I still can't believe that bumbling idiot has an IQ of 190."

"She's a genius!" Nos chuckled.

"But she doesn't apply herself!"

"She's a child. Let her run around and enjoy her childhood. You're too strict."

"And you're not strict enough. She doesn't need your carefree attitude!"

"You know, for someone who didn't want to raise her you're awfully bossy!"

"Well if I wasn't doing something about her then she'd just be a hindrance. I've turned her into a masterpiece."

He heaved a heavy sigh. How could Aurora only think of Raine as some type of lab experiment?

"Look she's up there with Suicune," he pointed drawing the brunette's attention to the six-year-old.

"Well she'd best be doing some fucking research then!" Aurora shouted loud enough for the girl to hear.

Raine turned her head to her parents and looked at them monotonously. She then turned her attention back to the legendary canine that rested only a few feet from where she was squatting. In her hands were some red berries that she had found while wandering around earlier. She placed a few down in front on the teal colored hound and then started munching away on the remainder.

Suicune stared at the berries for a bit before taking one and eating it.

"Why can't my parents be as tolerant as you?" She wondered taking a seat on the sand filled ground. "Aurora is always like 'Do this' or 'Do that.' It's incredibly frustrating. You're lucky that you don't have a horrible mother!"

Blitz and Aurora's Espeon made their way over to the young brunette and lay down next to her. Those two were her only friends. But she felt that she was beginning to grow on Suicune and that in no time she would have another friend to play with. She handed both the Eevee evolutions some berries and then began to look at the magnificent creature before her.

Suicune had a bad habit of being lazy while her parents did their research. It would get up and move if Nos or Aurora came within 10 feet of it, but Raine could get within a few inches and Suicune would be fine. No one understood why, but Aurora tried to take advantage of it and made Raine do more research, but she often refused and ran off.

The young girl closed her eyes and inhaled the surrounding air. She loved the summer. Basking in the sun all day was all she ever wanted to do.

When she opened her eyes she saw Suicune in her face. It pressed its nose against hers and a bright light flashed causing her to go momentarily blind. When the light went away, the Legendary beast stood to its feet and wandered away.

Confused and disoriented the young girl made her way back to camp where her parents were standing among a shallow stream. Nos was bent down and collecting a sample while Aurora was tying her hair up in a lengthy ponytail.

She took off her shoes and socks stepping barefooted into the shallow stream. She stood behind her father and tugged on his shirt.

"Papa, my eyes are in excruciating pain," she said rubbing her left eye with her left hand.

Nos capped off his sample and handed it to Aurora before turning to look at his daughter. When he did, he was shocked at what he saw.

"What happened to your hair?" He wondered as he picked up part of her hair that had changed to a strange teal color. "Aurora!"

The brunette sighed desperate to stay out of the family matter, but she turned her attention to them anyway.

"What?"

"Look at her hair!"

The pale brunette made her way over and examined the girl, "What did you get into?"

"Nothing, honest!" She defended, "Suicune touched my nose."

"Don't lie!" The aggravated woman raised her hand as if to slap Raine across the face.

"I don't think she's lying. We don't own anything that could change her hair this color nor does anything this color grow around here."

"Suicune hasn't come in contact with any of us. You actually expect me to believe that it decided to change her hair color? How preposterous!" She laughed.

"We don't know much about Suicune's powers. Anything is possible," Nos released his daughter's hair and moved her left hand to see what was wrong with her eyes. "Your eyes look fine."

"What's wrong with my hair?" She wondered naively.

"Take a look in the stream."

And so she moved herself so that she could see her reflection in the water and what she saw astounded her. Raine usually styled her hair with a part to the right. She would take the dangling hair and shove it behind her ear, but the part that she usually shoved behind her ear had changed from brown to teal. It was unusual and she liked it. Teal, after all, was her favorite color.

"We should write this down in the field journal," Nos proposed.

"I suppose," Aurora responded and pulled the grey book from her bag and placed it on the table.

"What does this mean, Papa?"

"I have no idea," he sounded a bit concerned. Who knew what would result from her strange colored hair. "Anyway, you should probably study the field journal before Aurora springs a pop quiz on you."

"Of course…"

"One of these days she's going to fall off that cliff," Aurora stated as she had looked up from her samples to see what everyone else was doing.

"You're more paranoid than I am," Nos chuckled as he sketched their newest environment.

In the last month, they had moved at least to five different locations among the five regions. Each time Nos would find some place comfortable to sit and sketch the location. In order to better understand the locations that Suicune liked to thrive, he would compare them to each other.

"I'm not paranoid!" She defended. "Well, when she falls off that cliff I'll just laugh and say 'told you so!'"

He rolled his eyes, "She's a smart girl, plus Suicune won't let anything happen to her."

"Smart girl or not, she's the clumsiest person I've ever seen. She always trips over the tent, she always manages to fall into whatever body of water we're by, I don't know how many times in the past six years that I've had to redo laundry because she keeps tripping over things and having the clothes conveniently fall into some sort of mud puddle. Yeah Nos, she's not going to fall off that cliff at all."

"Have some faith," he said.

"Whatever…" She went back to work. "She's all brains, but when it comes to things we haven't taught her, she's as dumb as they come. She wouldn't survive a day on her own."

"Well, that's why she has us."

"Mhm, when she gets older I'm going to start introducing her to every young man I see in hopes that one of them will take her off our hands. I can't continue living like this."

He sighed and then called to his daughter, "Raine, you're getting awfully close to the edge of that cliff."

The young girl heard her father's echoes from way up on the ledge. The cliff she was standing on was ten stories up from where camp was, but other cliffs surrounded it so it was pretty easy to hear each other.

"Don't worry, Papa, I'll be careful!" She laughed and then made her way over to where Blitz and the Espeon were chasing each other.

Suicune stood off a bit looking to the north.

"What's wrong, Suicune?" She wondered.

"The wind is changing. It's time for us to go," he told her telekinetically.

"Already?" She sighed. She was just getting used to this place.

She then looked over and saw Blitz peering over the edge of the cliff. She ran over and picked the shiny Umbreon up.

"What are you doing? Papa just told me to stay away from the cliff!" And as she said that she felt the ground break beneath her feet, and before she knew it she was falling.

Blitz jumped out of her arms and safely landed on the ground but the brunette with the teal stripe continued to plummet.

She screamed at the top of her lungs as Suicune jumped off the cliff and jumped off the two sides trying to catch her. The young girl's screaming gathered her father's attention as he looked up from his drawing.

He knocked his supplies over when he saw her falling.

"Raine!" Nos screamed as he ran to where she was descending.

Aurora looked up from her work and under her breath she said: "I told you so," and then made her way over.

The girl went cascading into the nearby river that divided the two cliffs from each other. Panicked, Nos ran as fast as he could to where his daughter fell in and then noticed her pushed to shore. He was certain she was dead; no human could survive a fall like that.

Nos fell to his knees when he reached her and started crying. His little girl lie face down against the sandy beach, her clothes were stained in blood.

Aurora made her way over and just looked at the horrific sight. Neither of them were moving. She made her way over and stood behind Nos.

She took a deep breath and said: "Sorry."

"I should have listened to you…" He wiped his tear lain face with his arm, "She's incredibly clumsy and I knew that. I shouldn't have let her up there."

"You didn't know…" She said but she was horrible at consoling.

Suicune stood behind them staring at the young girl.

Raine's little hand twitched as she struggled to move it. A bright blue light silhouetted her body in the water. Nos looked up at his little girl and saw her hand twitch.

"Raine!" He crawled over to her and attempted to roll her over.

"That hurts!" She managed to say so he stopped.

Aurora's cerulean eyes widened in surprise. How was it possible that she had survived that?

The two scientists turned their heads towards the Legendary creature and watched as it made its way towards their daughter. It nuzzled her face and then looked at Nos.

"Leave her in the water for a while."

Nos blinked a couple times certainly surprised that Suicune of all things had spoken to him.

"Sure…"

"What did you do to her?" Aurora wondered.

The creature picked up its head and glanced at the female.

"I gave her a blessing. She will be fine as long as she stays in the water," It then walked off.

Aurora knelt down and looked at the girl. She picked up a strand of the girls hair and noticed that the teal piece was almost white.

"Suicune must've purified the water in her body. When she's dying her hair must turn white." This was of course all just and assumption on Aurora's part, but it seemed to make sense. How else would staying in water help her?

Nos looked at her and then back to his daughter, "If it wasn't for Suicune, she'd be dead."

"Certainly. But this is truly astounding. I wonder if this has ever happened to someone before," She questioned.

"It's something worth looking into, but we should keep this a secret. If the world were to find out about this she'd be taken as some sort of freak or people would think that she was some type of immortal power. I don't want her to live a life like that."

"I'll write it in the field journal and only the Hi's and Dr. Willow will know," Aurora stood up and headed back for the camp.

Nos placed his hand on his daughter's head and stroked her hair, "Did you hear that, Raine? You must keep this a secret from everyone."

The young girl attempted to nod her head but ended up giving up. She was in too much pain.

"Everyone's eyes were judging me, Papa," ten-year-old Raine said holding the grey field journal to her body as they were walking to their newest destination to do research. "I'm not some kind of foreign freak!"

Nos placed his hand on his daughter's shoulder and pulled her in for a side embrace, "Society isn't used to seeing a ten-year-old with an unobtainable IQ. I think you did brilliant."

"You were spot on. I don't think your father and I could have done any better," Aurora crossed her arms still hating to praise people.

Raine's eyes lit up when she heard that. It was very rare, indeed, that Aurora ever praised her.

"I just think that they were all shocked when they found out that their talk on Suicune was going to be given by a ten-year-old," Nos chuckled.

Early that mid-summer's day, they made their way to Professor Oak's Research Facility, where he had set up a podium, projector, and several chairs outside, since it was such a nice day, for the talk. There, Raine was privileged to meet all the famous Pokémon Professors and even Dr. Willow, her parent's professor.

"You should keep in mind all those professors. It'll be beneficial to you in the future," Aurora said casually.

"Alright!" The girl smiled and then turned to look up at her father, "So you don't think that they were skeptical of my hair?"

The redhead man with some grey hair pondered it for a second and then said: "No one knows about your hair besides the Hi's and Dr. Willow. For all you, or for that matter we, know, they think you dyed it."

"I'm not stupid, Papa," she remarked.

"Certainly not!"

"You're still a clumsy little shit," Aurora rolled her eyes.

"My apologies…" The girl looked at the ground.

"If Suicune hadn't given you that power, you'd certainly be six feet under."

"I'm aware," she sighed. Why did Aurora always have to bring that up?

Suddenly the ground started shaking just enough to disturb their walking but not much of anything else.

"Tremors," Nos said standing back up from all the shaking. "We'd best tread carefully."

"Suicune!" Raine shouted as she gleefully ran through a field with the two Eevee evolutions following her. She fell to her knees as she hugged the beast. "Papa and Aurora said I did really well!"

"I'm proud of you," It said to her.

"Thanks!" She sat comfortably in the grass and looked around.

She had heard of this place in her parent's field journal, but never had she actually seen Rainbow Valley. In the ten years that Raine had lived, this was the first time that she had come across this location. And she was ecstatic. She loved reading about Rainbow Valley in the field journal and from other books that she happened to stumble across on their many visits to local libraries.

"Do you like the Unova region, Suicune?"

"I like all the regions."

"My personal favorite is Unova. It has all the large cities and bustling people, but then it also has some very serene and desolate spots. The Pokémon are also quite exotic."

Suicune's ears started twitching and the other two Pokémon stood to their feet. Suicune lazily stood up and looked around. Suddenly all the Pidove, Tranquill, and Unfezant flew out from the trees. The Legendary bit onto the girl's collar and tossed her on its back.

"What's wrong?" She wondered startled.

"Earthquake!" Suicune announced as it dashed from the area. The earthquake started moments later.

"I'm concerned for Papa and Aurora! They're by camp!"

"It's too dangerous to head back."

"No, we have to return!" Raine shouted

Suicune halted itself and turned towards the valley to see a sudden rockslide.

"Papa!" She shouted, "Suicune, we need to return!"

Unwilling, the Legendary decided to head back into the chaos as the earthquake subsided. It dashed at full speed to the camp and Raine jumped off. She ran around frantically until she found where the rockslide had occurred and her father sitting on the ground with his hand to his neck.

"Papa!" She dashed over to him.

She noticed blood rapidly descending from his neck and down his arm. She went to move his blood covered hand when he swatted her away.

"Go and get help," he told her trying to remain hopeful for the situation.

"Your artery has been severed. We need to do something or else you'll-"

"I said go get help!" He hated raising his voice to her.

"Where's Aurora?"

"Tsk. Raine, go get help!" He screamed.

She was startled by this action and so she stood shakily to her feet trying not to cry and climbed back onto Suicune. Blitz and Espeon joined her and then they rushed off to the nearest city.

"Suicune, why can't you just do to him what you did to me? He'd have a chance!"

"I'm sorry, Raine. My power can only be given to one person at a time."

She looked back towards the camp and hoped that they would return in time.

Nos shakily headed towards the rockslide and found Aurora's lifeless body. Where her head was supposed to be was replaced by a massive boulder. He knew this was the outcome, but he had to move away from her body. He couldn't let Raine be exposed to this.

The two scientists were rather unlucky. They had just set everything up when the earthquake began. Aurora didn't even have a chance. The boulder that took her life was the first thing to fall. Then a tree came descending and got him pretty good in the neck.

It was useless to try and save himself at this point. He sent his own daughter away so that she wouldn't see him die. There was no possible way that she was going to make it back before he ran out of blood. And as he thought this, he felt himself descend into unconsciousness and fell to the ground dead.

Suicune took the girl to the border of Castelia City. She then jumped off and ran as fast as she could to the police station.

She ran up to the desk and frantically said: "Please help, there was an earthquake and my parent's don't have much time! Hurry my father severed his artery!"

The lady sitting behind the desk just stared at the frantic girl.

"Hold on, I need to take down some information."

"We don't have time for that! They're going to die!" She shouted on the verge of tears.

"What's going on?" An officer Jenny asked as she came out from behind her desk.

"Where did this happen, little girl?" The lady behind the desk asked.

"Rainbow Valley!"

"That's outside our jurisdiction."

"Who cares?" She yelled, "My parents!"

"Now what's going on?"

"There was an earthquake!" She started crying, "Please, they're not going to make it if we wait any longer!"

The officer Jenny looked at the lady behind her desk and nodded. The lady quickly got on the phone and called for everyone to head to Rainbow Valley.

Raine went for a ride in the back of the nice officer Jenny's car and made it back to the campsite. There, they took over the situation and had Raine step back.

The girl gathered the field journal, her parent's journals, and started taking down the tent. Before she could finish, the officer Jenny approached her.

"I'm sorry. We're too late."

Raine froze when she heard those words. How could they be dead?

"No, they can't be."

"I'm sorry…"

She started crying like she never had before. Blitz and the Espeon came over and sat next to her.

"Come on, we should take you back to the city," The officer Jenny went to grab the young girl but she moved away.

"No, no, no, no!" Raine shouted and then turned and bolted deeper into the valley. There she found Suicune and climbed on its back. Blitz and Espeon joined her and they headed off before the officer Jenny could catch up.

Raine had managed to collect her parent's journals, but still she needed the tent and her sleeping bag. They weren't going to put her in some orphanage. The other children there would just abuse her, and she had no place in society. Her IQ would surely cause her to be rejected.

They waited around until all the officers left and then returned to camp where Raine couldn't stop crying. She attempted to continue to take down the tent, but eventually gave up and sat on the ground, bringing her knees to her chest and cried.

Blitz walked over and nuzzled himself against her.

"Blitz, they're gone. They're really gone!"

"Come on, Raine," Suicune said softly, "You can't stay here all night."

The ten-year-old sniffled and then brought herself to her feet. She rolled up the tent and her sleeping. She then gathered her father's bag and shoved her clothes and Aurora's clothes into it, attached the tent and the sleeping bag, found her parent's pokéballs, and then climbed, once again, onto Suicune and headed off—the last time she would be seen by those who knew her for almost seven years.

Alright so I gave Suicune mysterious powers for a couple reasons: one it helps the plot, two he's a Legendary and they don't know much about them so whose to say he can't have mysterious powers, and three it's my story. This also marks the end of the Nos and Aurora arc, but do not fret dear readers...no, they will return continuously throughout the story, whether in flashbacks or memories. Nos and Aurora were both 25 in chapter one and at the beginning of chapter 2, Aurora was 34 and Nos was 33 (he's slightly younger). At the end of the chapter, they were both 45. Next chapter I'm introducing new characters that we haven't met yet, along with what happened to Raine.

As a side note, I force my boyfriend to read all my chapters before I post them (he hates it) and he LOLed when he read their sex scene and told me that it wasn't descriptive enough and here's my answer to that: No one cares about Nos and Aurora. They're not even the freakin main characters! lol

-Aninika