"voice dialogue"

'thoughts'

[telepathy]

(Author's notes)

Chapter 3

I watched as Aigan finished using force palm on the last survivor of our ambush. Heard the sickening crack, that I first thought was his head, but it was the helmet the human was wearing. Even so, it was enough to knock him out. He laid there, unconscious, chest rising up and down weakly. I looked at the gash I created when I used night slash on him. It was still bleeding, but not as much as when we found him on the ground.

I looked at the carnage around me; dead soldiers and pokemon, bullets, and scraps of metal littered the field. I turned, and walked towards a dead starly, with what I think was it's nest right above it. 'Poor bird. Must have been caught in the crossfire.' I continued my walk, where I stood over a human soldier. The corpse was burnt to a black crisp, thanks to Veromi's, flamethrower. I looked at the blaziken, who seemed to be unfazed by what just happened. Suddenly, I hear Aigan's voice, and turned around to see him speaking to the other lucario.

"Thank you again, Auros. Without you, we would have had a lot more trouble taking down that gunship." Aigan offered his paw to Auros, who was staring at the mess as well, and shook his head, rejecting his offer.

"No need to thank me. I was only what needed to be done. He left me with no other choice." Auros then gazed over to the wreck of the helicopter, which thankfully, wasn't burning anymore. Only a light stream of smoke remained. The blue jackal then started to walk away from Aigan and the others, but was called out by Aigan.

"Hey! Why don't you stay with us? For tonight, at least. That is the least we can offer." Auros turned towards the offering pokemon, with a slight smile on his face.

"I accept. I suppose it never hurts to stay for a little while. Thank you for your humble offer." he then bowed slightly to Aigan.

"Good. Then we shall be going back to camp. We take the human prisoners, and lock them up. Thoro." Aigan called out to the garchomp. "I need you to take the muscular one. I'll take this one." he pointed to another survivor. He then looked at me, and pointed to the last one; the one with the wounded midsection. "You will take that one, Yusko. And be gentle. Last thing we need is him dying on us." I quickly nodded, and proceeded to carry the load onto my arms. He was surprisingly heavy, for his size, and I struggled slightly to get used to the extra weighr. As Thoro and Aigan carried their loads, they noticed me struggling.

"Do you need help with that? I can carry both of them, no problem at all." He offered. I kindly rejected it by shaking my head. A snort came from the garchomp as he continued "Suit yourself. Don't come complaining to us afterward."

I merely rolled my eyes, as we trekked our way back to camp.

-Time-

By the time we returned to camp, the sun was starting to rise from the horizon. I was half exhausted from the trip. My arm muscles were screaming to set the human down. I quickly found an empty table, and set him there, on his back. He still didn't wake up, and his wound was starting look worse; the skin around it was starting to darken a bit.

"Medic! I need a medic over here!" I shouted as loud as I could. After a minute of waiting for a medic, an audino in a face mask came running to my direction, with a first aid kit. I sighed with relief was the medic stopped by me. "Oh thank Arceus you're here." I pointed at the human. "This one is in need of medical attention. He's sleeping, but I fear he won't be waking up if we don't do something."

The audino crossed her arms and huffed loudly. "And why should I help this human? Our medical stockpile could have been used for... better purposes." hearing her answer really did piss me off... but wait... why was I getting so defensive of this human? We only met each other once in battle; and I just nearly killed him.

"Well, Aigan said we need these humans to be kept alive, no matter what. Even for you, I am sure that you do not want to piss off the lucario now, don't we?" I replied with a sly grin on my face. I do not know if the pink and cream colored pokemon would believe me or not, but she sighed as she shook her head in defeat.

"Fine, I'll see what I can do to treat him, but only because of the boss' orders. Now, let's see here.." I watched curiously as the medic examined the wound I created. After a few moments of examining, she started to pull off bits of the armor the human was wearing off. "Come. I need help getting his armor off. I's the only way to look for any other problems, and for treating this wound."

I quickly came to the audino's aid as we worked together on removing his armor. It wasn't easy; bits of dented armor needed to be ripped off with a lot of effort. This soft, but strong material underneath those plates did not help at all. When we reached the last bits and pieces, a couple of red and white objects fell off onto the ground. I quickly bent over to pick one of them up. It was light, but still looked strong. There was a small button in the middle of the little sphere. Almost out of instinct, I pressed the button curiously. It instantly opened up, and a red beam of light escaped, to reveal a bat-like pokemon; it was a female, shiny noivern, with a fierce scowl on her face.

"Who are you?!" The noivern demanded. Me and the audino flinched as we started to back up away from the angry pokemon, our arms in front of our chests, trying to calm her down.

"Please... calm down. We mean no harm," I started, but then the noivern glanced at it's apparent owner on the table, with his normal clothes left on, and wound still untreated. She snapped he head back at us, fury filling her eyes.

"And what in Arceus's name did you do to master? You'll better explain fast, or you'll regret it!" I desperately tried to find an answer that will hopefully satisfy her. But I only found one way to do so: tell her the truth.

"Okay. You see, it was all in self-defense. This one tried to kill me. I only did what I could. And that was to hurt him." I struggled to stay calm at this point. "I never meant to hurt him this much." I pointed at the still unconscious human the noivern was so protective of.

I looked around, and saw that we drew quite a crowd with our quarrel; lots of pokemon gathered around us, including Thoro and Ninanda- err.. I mean Resh, who both gone into fighting stances, ready to attack. Aigan was also present. Suprisingly, he looked quite calm, although he semed like he was giving us his undivided attention.

"Liar!" noiven roared, causing me to snap back to the threat in front of me. She was starting to huff at me, smoking starting to come out of her nostrils. "I won't believe a word you say. Your almost killed my master. What makes you think I can take your word?"

I feel my fur bristle at those words. 'Well, if she wants to fight, so be it' I thought to myself, as I got into my fighting stance, ready to dodge. I looked back at the crowd; Thoro seems to be charging up his dragon claw, and Resh was ready to use her water shurikens, except that I noticed they were frozen solid as soon as she used ice punch on them at the same time. Aigan noticed both of them, and quickly moved his arm in front of them, with the same neutral expression.

Before I know it, we were at a stare down, waiting for one of us to make the first move, with the entire crowd watching closely. I clenched my fists, before starting up a night daze. Crimson and black energy started building up on my palms. The noiven still stared at me, waiting for an answer.

But before we can get started with out battle, the other pokeball suddenly burst open, letting out a red ray of light. We both looked to see a breloom right between the two of us, his expression quite stern.

"Now what in Arceus's name is wrong with you two?" the breloom snapped at both at us, a scowl on his face, only less intense than the noivern's. "You both should be ashamed at what you're about to do. Don't you see master is hurt? Your pathetic argument is loud enough for me to hear in my pokeball."

I quickly abandoned charging my night daze up, and looked at the grass and fighting type, who was still scolding the noivern. "I expected better from you, Adagio. Why would you be so aggressive? And more importantly, why would you threaten these two pokemon?" He pointed at me and the medic, who had backed up quite a distance. The breloom then glared at me. "And you... I can't say that I completely forgive you for hurting master, but if it's the right thing to do, then so be it." He then eased his scowl a little. "Now, with that out of the way..." he glanced back at the dragon and flying type. "...I feel like that we should introduce ourselves. Name's Morel. You had already met Adaigo, though not in the most friendly manner. Now, who might you be, hmm?" Morel looked back at me, eyes full of curiosity.

But before I could answer his question, Aigan stepped in. "Now that this... pointless drama is over," the lucario turned to the crowd of pokemon "back to your duties. I want nobody here to do the amount work a slaking would do. We have a cause to fight for, now move it!" At once, the crowd started to divide as pokemon went back to their duties, as Aigan had ordered, followed by a few groans of disappointment. After the crowd has gone, he continued "Adaigo, Morel. Mind if I have a private talk together? This is rather important that do so." Morel nodded, but Adaigo hesitated a bit, before finally nodding herself. Aigan then looked back at me. "Yusko, take a rest for today. You've done well last night, and thus deserve a well earned rest. The medic will take it from here. I'm sure she has this under control, right?" He looked at the audino, who nodded quickly.

"Yes, I do, boss. I'll make sure this will get treated. With just a few bandages and medicine, he should be back on his feet in no time. I do no need anymore help at this point. I'll take it from here," she assured us. Aigan made a quick nod, before turning back at me.

"Good. Now get some rest. That's an order." Then the lucario walked away, motioning Adaigo and Morel to come with him. They both followed behind, leaving me with the audino, who was already mashing berries to make some kind of paste. I suddenly felt a wave of exhaustion take over my body. Before I knew it, I found myself yawning, every muscle in my body started to ache.

'Ugh... guess Aigan's right. I really do need some rest...' I commented mentally, as I left the medic to her job, and started my way back to my favorite resting place: a large den that lies at the base of a large tree, located just outside the borders of the camp, to the northeastern side. A pretty quiet place, with little disturbance, which has mostly been only pokemon that needed to pick up supplies, from a stash that was the nearest place to my den, but still was about a two hundred meter walk.

I crawled into the den, which was actually quite clean, despite what others say. Sure, it was an unusual place to call home, but it is very comfortable and cozy place to be in, compared to the hard bunk beds that the others slept on. I dunno how they could possibly get any sleep on those things. Anyways, the inside was dark, the sunlight gradually disappearing as I got deeper, but that is not much of a problem, because my eyes quickly adapted to the darkness.

I finally made it to the end of the den, to a large hollow that was much wider than the rest of the tunnel. There wasn't much inside, besides a small stack of hay, covered with a large blanket that we looted on my first raid on a human convoy. Aigan himself had given it to me. 'Here. I want you to have this. Take it, as a symbol of a fresh start, a close friend, that's always there for you, even though you just befriended them, and a light that will help you find your way through the darkness.' I remembered as he said those words to me. It was one of the most beautiful things he had said to me. Enough to make me tear up a little. Not a lot of kind things have happened to me before joining the resistance.

I hugged the blanket, it's soft, smooth blue texture brings so much comfort and safety when it makes contact with my fur. I sighed contently as I savor the touch for a minute. I then looked back around the hollow. Not much else was inside. Only a few sheets of paper that humans call "poke'". Apparently, these are very valuable and can be traded for all sorts of different items. 'Will be best if I save these for later' I had always told myself. Who knows; maybe they'll be very useful in the future.

Next to the poke', was a small, button-less device that reacts when you touch your fingers (or claws) when you turn it on. I remember people calling it a 'smartphone', so this must be one. Quite interesting to me. It just impresses me how much humans can do, but also saddens me a little at how humans will mistreat them and use it to hurt others. I'm still unsure on how to use it right, so for now, it's just a souvenir.

Finally, the last thing I have in the hollow is a small mirror. It's a little dusty, but still am able to see my reflection. I stared at myself every time, amazed at the fact of evolving brings such drastic changes. My mane a little messy, but still looked beautiful, with a red that goes well with my cyan eyes, and slim gray and dark figure. Whatever it is that I'm simply overreacting is anybody's guess, but that moment was the biggest life changing event I had ever experienced... and I don't intend to forget it.

I yawned again, suddenly remembering my fatigue, and crawled back to the bed, leaving the rest behind. I curled up and slowly closed my eyes, too tired to continue to stay awake.

Unfortunately, though, it will not be a good sleep for me. I find myself in a strange room, with large, metal walls, and a wooden floor. The door was a metal fence, that stood at least twice as tall as me. Looking at myself, I see familiar red tipped paws, ans felt something moving behind me. I turned around, and come to a sudden realization; it was a tail that was making all those movements. 'Wait a moment... it all comes back now... oh no...' I thought as I remembered the time, when I was a zorua, back before old master had taken me, which was about four years ago. Only thing, this was the day he had done so. This dreadful day, that I will never, ever forget.

I suddenly hear voices no far from the room "My apologies on failing to find a suitable servant for you, sir. I'm afraid that what you are about to see is the last of our stock. I can only hope that you will find one or two that will appeal to your taste." I soon heard footsteps that sound to be far away, but were slowly getting louder and louder. I quickly ran back to the farthest corner of the room, hoping that whoever it was, will not notice me, and move on. 'It can't be. Why?...'

I had no time to wonder why, because the footsteps were louder than ever, until I see a pair of boots in front of the metal fence. I looked up and looked straight into the eyes of my old master. Those orbs were filled with desire, and domination; it would make a pangoro run and cry for it's mother's comfort. After taking a good look at me, he called out to the clerk. "Hey, how I'm interested in this one. Come over here, will you?" After a few moments, the clerk joined old master, and started to explain who I was.

"Ah, that zorua? Aye, can't blame you if you're interested. She's nearly irresistible to clients. Taken away from her mother just a month ago. Doesn't remember a thing, surprisingly. Quiet one, and her species is quite rare. One of my most prized possessions. Timid little girl, but gets work done." the clerk said, while glancing at me the whole time. Old master merely groaned in approval. I can't describe how afraid I was... how much I dreaded being at the hands of such a cruel human. I tried moving to another part of the room, but can't. I seemed to be stuck in the position, exactly the way it had happened before.

"Hmm... yes, I can tell why others would want her. She's such a beauty indeed. I suppose that such a rare and beautiful pokemon would not come cheap. And I'm willing to pay you, if what you said about her nature is correct." Old master said, before turnig back to the clerk. "How much are you willing to sell her for?"

"Well... considering at how rare her species is, and how much potential she can hold, I'm willing to sell her for twenty thousand poke', at the minimum. No bargaining for lower. It's that, or nothing." the clerk replied, who was scratching his head. "With that price in mind, do you still want her? You know, it is our policy that you will get a refund, if you are unsatisfied with brought pokemon. So it's virtually no risk on your part if you do buy her, and are left unsatisfied." I could only stare in fear, and I was left speechless, not that I could talk anyways.

Old master stood there for what seemed like an eternity, almost lost in his thoughts. He then nodded, and assured the clerk. "Sold! Seems like I've finally found a suitable one for me."

"Excellent! Thank you for your interest. Now, will you come with me, please. We need to get the paperwork done.. but first..." the clerk went out of my sight, leaving old master behind.

Then, he looked back at me, and started speaking to me, in a cheerful tone that's too good to be true. "See, little one? I'm going to take you out of this dirt pit, and soon, you'll be helping me out, as partners. Now how would you like that?" he then winked at me, before footsteps started to be heard, that got louder and louder. I saw him take a few steps back, giving the owner of the footsteps some space, which unfortunately, was the clerk... and he had what looked like a large gun in his hands.

I instantly panicked, and tried to run, but I forgot the fact this is only a flashback, and I couldn't do anything about it. I felt the terror overwhelming me, the same way it did when it actually happened.

'Oh Arceus... why? Why show me this again?' I screamed to myself desperately, hoping that it will all go away, but it was no good. I watched helplessly, as the clerk pointed the gun at me, and fired.

A massive stinging feeling emerged from my front-right paw, followed by me collapsing on the ground. The feeling... it felt so real. 'could this be a nightmare, or is it really happening?' I wanted to scream my lungs out, but I now couldn't move anything. Whatever was in that shot, was making me paralyzed... 'yawn...' and tired. I felt myself slowly closing my eyes, helpless to do anything else, and was welcomed by darkness, once more.

I shot up as I was snapped back to the present. I accidentally bumped by head on the roof of the den. I winched sharply as I brought a hand up, and starting rubbing it, while reality was getting back to me. 'how... how long was I sleeping...'

I still didn't feel any better; I felt hot, fur drenched in sweat, my heart pounding hard in my chest, as well as breathing rapidly. I put my hand down, and they were shaking pretty hard.

"Huff... huff... must.. be... just another nightmare.." I said to myself between breaths as I struggled to calm down. I felt something wet run down my cheek, and tried to rub it off, when I noticed it was a tear. I quickly blinked, to prevent any more from coming out, and started making my way back outside, leaving my stuff behind.

The cool, refreshing summer night air welcomed me as I left my den, and walked a few stops forward, before collapsing on all fours, while trying to process what happened. 'What.. what was that all about? I've never had such nightmares. Could it be the work of darkrai or something?' I realized that that is not the answer. '..no. if it was darkrai, everyone else would be having the same nightmares. But whatever casued that, it sure did hurt me..' I blinked back more tears that were threatening to emerge. After that's done, I stood up, feeling to afraid to go back to sleep, and instead decided to take a small walk.

I wandered aimlessly throughout the camp and was not keeping track of anything around me. I am still lost in my thoughts. 'Will they ever go away? What was the point of that? Does that mean something is going to happen?' Sadly, none of these questions have an answer. I shook my head violently, trying to throw such thoughts out of my mind.

I finally got back to my senses, and found a lucario in the middle of a small clearing, right at the center of the camp, where public announcements would be made from Aigan, to the rest of the pokemon. He was sitting down, legs crossed, arms relaxing on his thighs, with his back straight and eyes closed. I only took a few more steps forward, before his aura-detecting appendages shot up, and opened his eyes, and looked at my direction. Unlike other lucario, this one had a completely different apperence; instead of the blue colored fur that normal lucario have, this one has a solid white fur color, that reflects the moonlight. His chest, where it's normally colored a cream color, was gray instead. Those metal spikes are also gone; no sign of them on his chest or paws And his eyes were replaced with a solid green color, instead of the usual red. And those eyes seemed more... alive. I see a dim light in them, even from the distance I was at, which is a good ten feet away. Looking at them made me ease up a bit, and I relaxed, letting go of my stress. It was all quiet the whole time, until the lucario broke the silence.

"What is wrong, young zoroark? Your aura shows that you are deeply distressed, and confused. Is it something you want to talk about?" I simply shook my head at his question. He nodded respectfully. "I understand. That much negativity in your aura must be coming from from something very personal. I respect your privacy." All of this didn't surprise me, of course; Aigan had already taught me a considerable amount of all this aura business and how it works. He then continued speaking. "Ah, apologies for my rudeness. My name is Auros, if you do not know already. Mind if I ask you what your name is?"

I sighed, before sitting next to Auros, and gazed down at the ground, and started rolling a small stone around with my hand. "Yusko," I answered, before continuing, "I believed we had met before. You were the one who took down that human gunship, right?" All I heard was a grunt from the fighing and steel type.

"Correct. I never wanted to do that, but they had left me no other choice. If I never done that, there would be no doubt more pokemon will die at the hands of that thing," Auros responded, before changing the subject. "Seems like Aigan is quite a good leader, isn't he? Sure shows the essential aspects of one." I quickly nodded, not taking my eyes off the ground.

"Yup. He sure knows what's he doing. I'm happy that he shows such kindness and dedication to the pokemon living here. He saved me from a very bad human. And I owe him a lot." I felt more and more relaxed as we started getting engaged in this conversation. Enough to give him vague details of my life.

We sat here, for a while, until we both heard some noises nearby. We both looked around for the source, before Auros realizes what it is. "Seems like one of the humans has awaken. Come. Let's go see what he wants." He stood up and offered a paw to me, which I accepted, and was pulled back on my feet. I then followed him to where the humans were being kept.

-POV Change-

I groaned as I awoke on a cold surface, which was a steel floor, and quickly realized that I was in a cage. Metal bars surrounded me, with a roof of the same material right above me. I had to duck my head a little, to avoid hitting it against the roof. I shivered hard as a breeze of cool wind passed by. I looked around me, and found a simple white blanket, and gladly accepted it.

I felt something stiff on my midsection, and looked down, and saw that it was covered in bandages. Everything started coming back to me form there. 'when I was hurt... when I was captured... when my squad killed...' I looked desperately for my equipment, but found nothing. I only had my normal street outfit on, which was tattered and dirty. I still felt a little pain, but thankfully, it was much less intense than before. 'But, why would they keep me alive... I thought... that lucario...' I looked around, hoping to see any more survivors. From what I could see, there were only two more. Each in their separate cages. I instantly recognized them: it was Paul and Billy, and they both were still asleep. 'Oh man... are we the only survivors?'

My thoughts were interrupted as I heard footsteps nearby. I instantly froze in fear, as they got louder and louder. I looked around, and saw two familiar figures approaching me; it was that zoroark and a truly bizarre looking snow white and gray colored lucario with no chest spikes that appeared when we were ambushed. I broke out of my trance, and scooted back to the farthest corner of the cage, afraid of what they are going to do with me. They then both stopped in front of the cage, and squatted down, both of them giving me strange looks in their eyes. The chlorophyll colored eyes of the lucario was enough to make me nervous even more. I swallowed as I started to speak for the first time from waking up. "Wh- who are you? Where am I?"

I was still half surprised as they both spoke to me in telepathy. [My name is Auros.] answered the lucario, his strong male voice making me shutter slightly.

[And I'm Yusko.] the zoroark finished. I can tell from her feminine voice that she is a female. [Seems like you have awakened, and are looking better right now]

Better? I don't feel like I'm feeling better at all. After all, I'm trapped in a cage! But I think it would be better to stay on their good side. "I do. Though better living conditions would be appriciated" I laughed a little, trying to keep these two from doing anything bad to me.

The zoroark named Yusko smiled slightly, her cyan eyes filled with hospitality... and guilt. [I am very sorry for hurting, and almost killing you over there. I wasn't thinking right... and... you know] I find it very sweet that this pokemon asked for forgiveness, even though I had almost killed her myself. I smiled warmly at her.

"No worries. It was not your fault. More like mine. To be honest, I never wanted to shoot you. That hesitation caused me to be hit by you." I laughed softy as Yusko let out a sigh of relief. Seems like these pokemon didn't want to hurt me any more. Auros spoke shortly after.

[She had you patched up as soon as you arrived to camp. Fortunate for you, you were treated just in time, before things got worse. After that, you were out cold for the rest of the day, until now, of course.] I was amazed at how much they cared for me. Don't get me wrong, It's not that I wanted them to leave me out alone, or just kill me outright. As a human that just was an enemy, proper care was frankly, the least expected treatment I would get.

"I... Thank you. Thank you for your kindness. Especially you, Yusko." The dark type pokemon blushed as another breeze passed by, making me shiver some more, and covered myself in the blanket provided. I yawned, exhaustion was coming back for me. They both seemed to noticed this.

[Seems like you're tired, human. We'll let you go back to get some more rest. You'll need it. We can continue discussing the matter in the morning. Farewell.] I watched as Auros tapped Yusko on her shoulder, causing both of them to stand back up and start to walk away. The zoroark looked back at me, her beautiful blue eyes still scanning me. I simply waved at her, and she blushed again, before returning the wave.

'Well.. that went better then expected' I thought to myself. I yawned again, and laid back down at the still cold surface, but at least I still have my blanket for protection. I sighed deeply, before closing my eyes, and going back to sleep.

(Whew, that was a big one. Hope you enjoyed the content of this chapter, and are not bored by it!

Some important news here, regarding the fanfic: I will be revising all chapters. I'm going to be correcting any spelling and grammar mistakes I find. I may or may not change some of the wording of the content, but nothing should be able to change the story, so do not worry if things seem out of place. So expect revisions to be out soon!

Please rate and review this fanfic, people! It helps a lot in more ways than you'll think ^^

And on that note, thank you all, and fly dangerous o7)