"I'm sorry, all of you. I swear to Arceus- I'm sorry!"

This was the mantra I chanted as I ran, my bare feet pounding rythmically against the cool, hard ground. I was sorry, I truly was. The grief resounded with a hollow twang every time I thought of it. Soon enough, the spastic floods of stomach-clenching guilt were enough to force me to kneel as I caught my breath. As I vaccumed in frigid air, the noise of something cracking filled my ears.

I winced. Aldith and her men were here. I would die alone in my father's frozen world. She had her Seviper coiled just behind me. I could hear it hissing.

I was an idiot. I deserved it. Death by poison? Or perhaps its Flamethrower? A Wrap would have suited my father's wishes, no doubt. Team Plasma wasn't created to give mercy. Nor were they formed for quick, painless deaths.

"N, look at me."

That wasn't Aldith, the voice was too... careful. Yet it had a oddly high tone to it, as if the stranger were a female.

"Serperior is with me. He's alright."

My back arched and my eyes snapped open. Yet I stood, at the base of the tree, not daring to turn around. Not daring to see the abomination of nature Colress had shown me in the laboratory.

Cowardice lead to failure. Failure was not an option.

I turned around.

In front of me stood a young woman who stood tall, a solid five feet. Her dark hair looked slick and shone with an ethereal quality to it. Her blue eyes stared grimly into my own, and I could only imagine what she saw in them. She held a Pokeball in her hands.

I felt nothing, only noting the absence of thought when she broke away from my stare. I knew I should have felt something, a pang of remembrance, anything but the ungodly white-hot anger that flared within me. It had been far too long.

All I could muster was an weak "it's been two years."

She smiled, but the curve of her lips was too angular. "How have you been, N?"

We stood like that for a while, recalling the past in forced, high voices until she called me on it.

"Stop, N," she began, biting her lip. "This is serious."

I felt a laugh bubble inside me, and I almost let it out, but I realized what it was: hysteria. Father's voice was ripped from a crevasse in my memory that I had subconciously labeled "forgotten" for a reason. As the memory was relived, I felt the strange sensation of floating, almost as if recalling my past as a different human being.

"Get up, you idiot, get up! You worthless child! Idiot! Abomination! I can't believe we share the same surname! Freak!"

The boy tries so hard to stand, pushing his bloody hands to the slick ground. "Father, I'm trying..."

"NO! If you were trying, you Arceus-forsaken idiot, you would have done it by now! I will repeat myself: kill them now."

The boy hears the thoughts of the Pokémon, the tortured wails of creatures bleeding to death.

"Mama? Wake up, Mama? Oh, Mama, it hurts! Please make it better!"

Some were more acceptant, intelligent in spotting their downwall. It was the quiet last thoughts of those few Pokémon that the boy thought he should never have heard.

"I want to die. Chia, Xario, I love you both. I will be joining you soon... I hope. Arceus take pity on your lost souls." The child hears the sudden, jarring silence of death and huddles into a ball on the ground. "Why do I have to hurt them? Father, please make it stop!"

He is begging now, tugging on his ears to try to stop the noise.

"MAKE IT STOP!"

He pounds on his head with everything he has, and when that does not cease the death, he claws at his eyes and face. His bloody nails find the cool metal of the gun and desperately cling to the object that slips from his grip. In one swift motion, the gun is pointed at the Shinx knelt at a female Luxray's corpse. His fingers clench the trigger and the noise is deafening. The silence is welcome.

The tall man snaps his finger and the corpses are swept away to who-knows-where, leaving the young boy and his father alone in the room. The man reaches for the whip hanging convienently at arm's reach. But his hands to not grasp the worn handle of the abject. Instead, he looks the boy in the eye.

"Natural, do you see now what we humans do? We are afraid of anything we don't understand. And we use our intelligence to kill Pokémon who do not share our fear. It is unfair."

Ignoring the frenzied expression on the child's face, he keeps going.

"You, Natural, like all other human beings, fear death. You were afraid of the voices welcoming death. So look what you did!" He kneels down and grasps a clump of bloody fur and growls. "You killed them."

"No..." The boy tries to speak. "I didn't do it on purpose! I'm sorry, Luxray, Shinx. Absol, I hope you find Chia and Xario. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." A sudden vigorosity ignited within his soul. "IT WASN'T MY FAULT! NO! I DIDN'T DO THIS! IT WASN'T ME!"

I thrash about, feeling the cold, solid ground.

"N. N! Look, wake up! Arceus, why are you so heavy? Crap, N, someone's coming. Man, I'm not joking. Wake up! Wake u-"

I do wake up. Just in time to see her face stretched in a silent scream, her unseeing eyes staring past me, at something I cannot yet fathom.

Will I ever be able to find what she admires right now? The unfathomable?

No. I will die with my face laid out stoically. My eyes will be shut, my lips in a pleasant smile. My hands will be laid gently in my lap, and I will be sitting upright or leaning against a wall.

I know I am kidding myself, believing a fantasy. I probably will not die peacefully and alone.

I probably will go to Hell.

In the fantasy, there is no blood. But in reality, my hands are wet and sticky with the stuff. I don't know whether it is my blood or not. But either way, I am guilty.

I tell myself that I am guilty as I push my palm into hers, trying to give it warmth.

But she remains as cold as the world that surrounds us.

"Sir? So how'd it go?"

"We've got him. Tell Colress that Aldith from Sector 4 has retrieved the target."

"Alright, sir."

"Drew? One more thing."

"Sir?"

"Ghetsis has plans to come to Hoenn next. In fact, C sqad has already arrived there. Are you sure that there will be no hesitation while carrying out my orders?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then you are dismissed."

Drew would have turned to go when he remembered something.

"Sir, I have a question."

He paused, recalling her parting words.

"What city is C squad in right now?"

Aldith narrowed her eyes. "Regional Prefessors go down first, you know that. They've finished with Littleroot and are moving to Petalburg."

Wordlessly, Drew walked through the sliding doors.

Aldith was ruthless.

Well, so was he.

Sapphire eyes were the last things he pictured before taking the long way back to the F squad corridors with a blank mind.

Yes, this is an updated chapter. I just got an amazing review that made me hyperventilate, so, being the perfectionist that I am, I found every little error in every chapter and fixed 'em all. I added Drew, too, the coordinator from Hoenn, 'cause I just got an explosion idea.