So much for updating over the winter break :( I got caught up in work and college apps, and to make things worse, I got sick as well. I hope this isn't karma for something I wrote a week ago, because it would be slightly creepy if it was.

Chapter 27: Shell Shocked

"Ugh." Levina stared with bloodshot eyes at the Umbreon across from the dining table. "Never again will I drink. Never again. I don't know how you're able to stand all of it." She groaned as she downed her mug of coffee.

"Well, perhaps you have a weak stomach," Shadrach said as he casually bit into a piece of toast. He hummed interestedly as he flipped a newspaper page, a military article having caught his eye, something about the military assaulting Riyaq and a disabled mortar.

She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. "Probably, yeah. But it didn't help that you made me drink it..."

"You didn't have to drink as much as you did. You could have only taken two or three sips," he replied a little defensively. It wasn't his fault that she drank enough to become absolutely shitfaced.

Levina simply huffed and looked away, more than conscious of that fact. Then, "Hey, but what happened after? I remember drinking and all, and you tugging me outside, but anything later's a bit fuzzy."

"Erm." Shadrach paused for a moment, basic survival instinct barely overcoming his desire to tell everything straight. Arceus only knew what she'd do to him if he told her about what had really slipped out of her mouth. "You passed out, so I took you back had Nuwai take you back to the tents," he said, struggling to contain the myriad twitches on his face.

"Really?" she asked suspiciously as she put gradually materializing memories together with the Umbreon's many quite obvious facial tics. "Why do I get the feeling that you're lying?"

"Because you're blowing otherwise normal behaviors out of proportion," he said rather hastily. He raised the newspaper before him to sever eye contact with the Ampharos.

She snorted. "No, I remember giving you something. Something electronic... a recorder?" She tilted her head upwards in thought. "Yeah, that's it, a recorder. Maybe that'll stir something. Do you have it?"

"Uh, I lost it," he said behind the thin paper.

"You WHAT?"

Shadrach considered standing and retreating for a moment, only to realize that the action would only make him seem even more suspicious. He knew the choleric nature of the Ampharos, and was prepared to do combat if necessary, but he didn't like the odds of a physical fighter going up against a special attacker. Both official research records and personal experience weighed heavily in the favor of the latter. And besides, they were in a cafeteria, for Arceus' sake....

More important was what exactly what she was mad about. What if there were personal effects? Or sensitive military information? I'm dead if it's the second-

"Do you know how much that cost me?" she screeched. Although the newspaper visibly shuddered, Shadrach sighed a breath of relief. "Those things cost a lot! A military-grade recorder, the ones that we use in combat! I mean, I'd have to pay-"

"Don't worry about it," he said nonchalantly. "I'll procure another one from somewhere. It's an RX model, right?"

"Yeah," she grumbled, throwing a death glare at the Umbreon hidden behind the newspaper. "And Arceus, at least look at me when we're talking!" She snatched the paper from the top to yield a very surprised Shadrach. "You know these things are days outdated unless something leaks like last time."

He nodded his agreement. "True, true. On that note, there's another mission that we have to undertake soon," he said, hoping that Levina wouldn't notice the change in topic.

She didn't. "Mission? Any details?"

"Minor briefing in fifteen minutes."

"And why wasn't I told of this?" she demanded.

Shadrach couldn't help but let a slight smirk escape him. "Because you were snoring in bed and no one wanted to bring you into a hangover."

"Wha-"

"Anyways," he said, expertly cutting her off, "We should get going. The major's not going to be happy if we're not punctual."

"Screw you." She still got up after him, though, albeit with a healthy amount of eyerolling and glaring.

The Walrein glanced over the five 'mon seated before him. "There are less here than I wished for, but we can make do."

Shadrach looked down the table. The attentive Latias and whimsical Latios were unusually absent, and two of the RMs were permanently gone. He bowed his head slightly at the fact.

"Anyways, I know that it's rather early on the schedule, but we have another operation. A direct action."

"Any time we can get anything but a DA?" Levina asked sourly. "Like a special recon or an unconventional? Or Arceus forbid, maybe an internal defense?"

He shrugged. "Sorry, not my choice. And if you want that, you should have joined a different division. You know this one's more DA than other ops."

"Only cause of Siria," she scowled.

"This DA regards the Nidoking that we had attempted to extract earlier," the major formally began. "We understand that the previous assault was hampered by... an insider providing information to Tamsus. I assure you that we have taken the most stringent measures to increase our security and flush out this informant. You may notice, for example, that I did not send a briefing packet. The courier may spy on the contents and warn his allies."

Din stared at the Walrein. "Are you certain that this is secure? If this also gets leaked, then I don't know who else will die." Shadrach took note of the Vaporeon's irregularly hardened speech as the water-type looked at Jul and Nuwai.

"This mission is being handled differently than others, so I assure you that there will be no interference of any sort."

Din stared distrustfully at him, but contested no further.

"Right. Now, we understand that the attempt to neutralize the kingpin was unsuccessful. The Army's overall casualties exceeded those predicted, meaning that this figure must be taken down as soon as possible. Two Skarmory units that tailed him indicate that he has moved southeast to a small village near the Halcyian border. This area, while not held tightly by Tamsus, is an area where Halcyia and Mirunas have contested ownership for quite some time."

"So politically sensitive," Shadrach said.

"Yes, politically sensitive. For this reason, this mission is entrusted to Alpha Team. We understand that several members are not present for various reasons..." A collective silence fell as the Walrein trailed off for a moment.

"... but five is enough for an extraction. The Nidoking took flight very quickly, so the probability of security being light is high. We have structural plans for you, though not here; security," he said simply.

"As usual, you are allowed to choose the strategy and tactics of the attack. Just understand that this is a sensitive target in an especially sensitive region. Failure is intolerable."

Shadrach, previously deep in thought, opened his eyes. "Can we get support from other units? We only have one unit for visual recon." He looked at Nuwai.

"What unit do you want to borrow from?"

"Romeo."

"Romeo... ever since that last incident, the Air Wing has been restricting Army access to their Skarmory," the major commented darkly. "What happened to RT Five damaged their morale pretty badly."

Shadrach shook his head. "We can't do this without overwatch. Choppers are too loud, all non-special flying-types can't vector and defend against antiair simultaneously, Charizard are too bright... we need Skarmory. Either that or get another pair of Latis, which come once in a blue moon." The general extremely small amount of legendaries in the population combined with the often anti-war stance of many Latis made them far and few within the Halcyian Defense.

"The other Latis are in specialized TFs; they're spread out very thinly," he agreed as he stood up. "I'll try my best to get you a Romeo Team, but I'm not promising anything." A low sigh accompanied his diminishing voice as he walked out of the room.

The SF 'mon looked at each other as they got up. "Well," said Shadrach, "Without Siria or Sirius, this is a little bit more complicated."

"Or Talal and Ward," Din quickly pointed out as he closed the door behind him. "But asides from that, do any of you get a bad feeling about this mission?"

The Umbreon shook his head. "Bad feelings or not, this has to be done. But what bothers me is that we don't have aerial reconnaissance. It's going to be far dicier without the Skarmory." He looked at the Garchomp walking besides him. "Nuwai, can you fly?"

She turned to look out at the mountains. "Fly? Yeah, I can fly..." Shadrach thought he saw something of a sparkle in the pale yellow eyes, but a blink erased any hint of a tear. "I don't know how high, though."

The Umbreon frowned. "It wouldn't be good, anyways. You can act as an combat interim for Sirius for the moment since he taught you a lot of his skills. I can stand in for Siria for CQB, but the reconnaissance aspect is still a problem."

"But we don't have a replacement for either Talal or Ward," Din said.

"They were minor members without specialties, so we won't be too hurt."

"We don't have a replacement for Talal or Ward," Din insisted a bit more sharply.

"That's fine. Since they were general combat soldiers, we aren't lacking anything special."

The Vaporeon stopped in his tracks. "Don't you get it?" he snarled as he clenched his fists. "Talal and Ward... they aren't with us anymore."

He turned to him. "I realize that, but what can we do about it? We've grieved already. Now, there's only moving forward."

"You could respect their memories, at least."

Shadrach tensed slightly noticed that the others stopped to watch their argument. He needed to avoid making himself look like an insensitive ass yet appease the very angry RM before him simultaneously. "I am," he simply said.

"'We aren't lacking anything special?' 'Minor members?' You call that respect?" Din stepped up right in front of the Umbreon.

He could feel the heat of the water-type's anger emit from his face. "I'm simply stating the facts. There's nothing false about what I s-"

His vision suddenly blurred into brown and white as he felt something hard collide with the side of his face. "Well, fuck you too!" the agitated voice screamed over the crackle of electricity. He guessed that Levina must have gotten him quickly with a Thunder Wave. As something helped him back onto his feet, he saw that Din was face down in the snow. A few tiny sparks flew off the unconscious Vaporeon's body.

"He attacked you," Levina said. The pulse in the orb in her tail seemed to fade along with the electrical charge in her hands.

The Umbreon shot a look at Jul, recognizing him as the one who had picked him up. The grass-type merely stepped and lifted his brother onto his back. "I'm sorry," he quietly said. "I... we'll talk this over with him later. Some of our nerves are still frayed from before. C'mon, Nuwai. Let's go." He motioned at the dragon, who silently followed with a frown on her face.

"Well, what do you make of it?" Levina asked as they continued their walk.

Shadrach narrowed his eyes at the question. It was disturbing in itself that the best of those he was working with would directly challenge him, but that Din had actually assaulted him unnerved him. Seeing that he harbored such sentiments, was he to be trusted anymore? Could he possibly be the spy that he had heard about, or was he genuinely that rattled by their deaths? Apart from an outburst when he was initially confronted with the fact, Din didn't appear to have any exaggerated sadness. But again, how much did he really see of him? None, really, outside of mission briefings and some off time.

"I don't know," he finally concluded, showing a rare moment of uncertainty. "I really don't."

Siria stirred, awoken naturally from a long, restful slumber. She raised her arms in an attempt to stretch, but they didn't extend far before being restrained by the chained shackles around her wrists.

The sleepy haze in her mind quickly fled as panic began to course throughout her body. A moment later, that too was displaced by unusual calm and logic trained into her from years of experience. Focus, concentrate. Figure out where you are, how long you've been here, who is holding you, how they are holding you, and if there are any escape routes.

The first thing she noticed that the room was all white. Aside from the shadow her body and chains cast from the fluorescent lights, there was no blemish marring the sheer brightness of even the floor below her. A brief smile flickered across her face; am I in a mental hospital, she wondered wryly.

She quickly gave up wondering for how long she'd been there; it could have been hours or days or months since she'd been taken captive. It was futile to guess, and not that important; it only mattered if her muscles atrophied, or if there were rescue teams inbound.

The who component of her analysis was answered as a door across the room began to open. She was left to wonder why there were no visible cracks or indentations in the wall from the door. It would probably because it's so bright outside-

She was absolutely wrong. As the door swung the rest of the way open, an infinite darkness greeted her. It was if the world outside the room was a black hole; the light from the room seemed to try to fight the death grip the blackness had on it. Her pensive thought was wrested from her mind as a golden, fiery figure entered from the darkness. "Oh, hello Siria," the Typhlosion said with a slight smile.

The Latias snarled and let loose a Surf attack from her maw. The water seemed to be on the verge of overwhelming the fire-type, but suddenly stopped sort and vaporized into steam for no apparent reason at all.

"Why are you attacking me?" he asked. "I didn't do anything... yet."

She next volleyed a Psychic right at his mind, but again, some strange force prevented the attack from successfully going through. A powerful psychic guard surrounded his mind, one that even she couldn't penetrate.

He sighed. "Well, I could give you something to attack me for." The Typhlosion seemed to step back out into the darkness for a moment, only to return with several chains in paw. A few more steps inside revealed that the steel links were attached to three bodies. The Latias pondered; they must be unconscious to be brought inside so easily, for any sane 'mon would put up at least a modicum of resistance against the Typhlosion.

She nearly shrieked out loud as she saw the actual bodies. An Umbreon and two Latios, one visibly older than the other, laid sprawled on the ground before her. "Shadrach... Sirius... father?" she whispered, horrified.

"Just about, yes," the Typhlosion said. "Oh, don't worry. They're alive, but we'll change that shortly."

Enraged, Siria shot a Dragon Pulse at him, but that too was rendered ineffective by a seemingly invisible barrier as the blue beam dissipated midair. "Hold on," he said, nearly chuckling. "Just hold on for a moment."

When he left into the dark again, Siria tried to whisper to the three of them. She hoped to see any signal of life, perhaps a flickering of the eyes or a growl. None of that materialized as much as she tried, though.

"They're knocked out, Siria." The fire-type stood at the door, holding a stubby bronze sword in his left paw. If the circumstances were different, she would have let out a derisive snort at the antiquated weapon. However, with the understanding of what he was probably going to do, her expression was not one of amusement, but horror.

The Typhlosion cricked his neck and leveled the broadsword at Sirius. "Him first, right? Your brother?"

"What do you want from me?" she asked, starting to tremble.

The fire-type slid the sword back into a scabbard on his waist and bent down to make level eye contact with the Latias. Her blood ran cold as he whispered his reason. "Retribution. You nearly killed me, but I survived. This is revenge, and it will be sweet."

He straightened himself back up and unsheathed the blade again. The Latios stirred as the Typhlosion pressed the cold steel against his soft neck. "Wha... what?" he asked blearily as his captor raised the sword. "S-Siria!" he exclaimed, noticing the Latias' shackles. "What the he-"

She couldn't help but turn away as he brought the sword down on the Latios. The abrupt cut in his voice, the cracking of bone, the light shink of the weapon, and the warm liquid which peppered her body all confirmed her terrific expectations. She was too horrified to cry, too stunned to even let out even the slightest hint of her terror.

"You bastard!" she heard another voice shout. Looking up, she saw that Shadrach had engaged the Typhlosion, weaving with a Faint Attack. A small part of her cheered on even though she knew that the struggle was absolutely futile.

The Typhlosion dodged each attack, and struck back with his broadsword. "Watch it," he said warningly. "Or else, you just might get hurt." With that statement, he charged forth with such a great multitude of slashes that the Latias was hard-pressed to see anything more than a blur of gold metal and red spray. As the fire-type extracted the blade from Shadrach's chest, Siria was too slow to avert her gaze when he decapitated him in another lightning-quick slash. The headless body slid downwards, trailing a thick streak of blood on the previously pure, white wall.

She felt a third presence beside her, and nearly lashed out it with a very rational fear until she saw that it was not colored red or gold. Rather, her father was a cerulean blue, a little duller than Sirius' azure shading. Why she noticed that minor detail among the chaos of the scene before her was more than beyond her comprehension.

"The last one," the fire-type said, eying the blood stains on his blade contemptuously. "Your father, right?"

The Latios emitted a low growl. "You stay away from her." It didn't take much to convince Siria that she should accept her father's guardianship. Although she hated him with every bone in her body, she really hated the Typhlosion much, much more.

"Sorry, not your choice." He seemed to defy the elder's Dragon Pulse, its energy shearing off the side of the fire-type's angular snout. "Your daughter has hurt me much, so you will pay."

"Judging from your actions, you probably deserved it," he spat.

The fire-type's crimson eyes seemed to flash with a sense of pain before narrowing in anger. "Careful," he said as he held the broadsword to the Latios' neck.

Siria was surprised to see her father seize the blade tightly in his glowing blue claws. Protect, she quickly thought as he aimed a slash at the fire-type's jugular.

The middle-aged dragon was no match for the relatively young, fit Typhlosion, though. With a snarl, the fire-type planted his feet against the Latios' stomach and kicked him against a wall. Before her father could get up for another attack, he had already pinned him up against the wall with one paw, holding the sword against his neck with the other.

The Latias screamed, simultaneously trying to break her chains and loosing every attack in her arsenal at the fire-type. He turned slowly to face her, nearly unaware of all of the commotion surrounding him. Under his scrutiny, Siria ceased her rather useless actions and treated him to a smoldering glare of her own.

"Siria," he sighed, "What would you do if I killed him?"

"I- I would kill you," she said after a moment's hesitation.

He closed his eyes and seemed to smile. "But why? You don't love him, do you? He's a monster, worse than me."

"Worse than you? He's worse than you?"

"Isn't that how you see him? Committing biological experiments and using them against a sovereign nation hardly compares to getting drunk and yelling at you for one night, right?" He pressed the sword harder against the Latios' neck, causing him to choke and rasp. "But fine. He's evil, and I will remove an evil. Observe."

She hardly remembered what happened next. As blood flew forth from the grayish neck, her vision flickered into blackness as the pure trauma of what she saw overwhelmed her consciousness.

Several hours, she awoke once again. The room was no longer the sterile white it used to be, but a combination of some fresher, redder blood and darker, maroon paste stained on the wall. A strong scent of iron threatened to suffocate her as her eyes watered under the stench.

Looking up, she saw the Typhlosion sitting pensively in the middle of the room, legs crossed, eyes closed, and a crystalline blue ball in his paws. Wait. A blue ba-

"You let that go!" she yelled, shaking with abject fury. It was perfectly justified fury; it had taken her hardly a millisecond to identify what the fire-type held as a Soul Dew. A Soul Dew from either your father or your brother, a voice within her sadly reflected. No one, no one, except the closest of those to the deceased Latios were to even touch the sacred jewel.

The fire-type seemed to stir from his thoughts. "Hmm?" he asked dumbly. "Oh, this." He tossed the sphere into the air as if it were nothing more than a tennis ball. "You Latis are interesting 'mon, you know?" he told a snarling Siria.

"Let go of it!" She would have tried attacking him, but then she ran the risk of damaging or even destroying the Soul Dew.

"How about no?" He stared at it hungrily. "The pure, raw energy in this sphere is more than enough for my experiments. I'll make some Shadow out of this. That would be interesting, don't you think?"

She reared back in utter shock. "W-what? You dare use a Soul Dew for that?"

"Your father's Soul Dew," he corrected. He formed a small hint of a Hidden Power in one of his paws as he held the orb evenly in the other. "And yes, I do. Both my curiosity and my revenge are fulfilled with this. Don't you understand? I get to research and see you squirm at the same time. Two Pidgey with one stone."

"Don't. You. Dare."

As she made eye contact with him, she was certain that there was some form of resignation in the Typhlosion's eyes. "Sorry," he said, shaking his head. "Too bad you didn't appreciate him too much, huh?"

With a paced movement, he brought the Hidden Power in contact with the Soul Dew. The orb put up hardly the slightest resistance as it began to shatter, the shards tinkling like glass on the ground...

THUMP.

Siria whimpered as she fell off her bed and onto the floor. A second later, she was already up off the ground, frantically feeling her body for the imaginary chains and shackles that were only part of the ether she had just emerged from. Her breath came in short, jagged spurts as she confirmed that she was indeed still in her bedroom rather than an ironically white hell. Her entire body trembled as she uneasily climbed back up to the slightly dampened bedsheets.

Even back in bed, she still continued to shake fiercely. To call imagining those closest to her utterly massacred by the most damned of figures traumatizing was a grave understatement; as she looked over to the covered lump in the bed aside from her, she felt as if she wanted to cry.

"Sirius," she whispered, voice nearly cracking. "Sirius."

She was promptly awarded with an extremely loud snore. The Latios tossed in his bed as he mumbled something about "damn electric-types."

The indignant red dragon half wanted to strangle her brother for his lassitude, half wanted to hug him just for the fact that he was still alive and well. In the end, she did neither as she curled up into a ball on her bed and covered her face with her hands. Even though the dream was already over, the brutal scenes would forever remain with her. She tried not to replay it in her head, but her attempts at halting it were, at best, futile.

What scared her even more were the implications of what exactly she had dreamed. Her brother and boyfriend both murdered without a care... hadn't that been what Aiden told her? She could partially understand why they had appeared because of that. But her father? He had little, if any, contact with her until recently. So why did he come into play? Especially in, Arceus forbid, a positive light? And what the Typhlosion said, "appreciating" her father or something. She recoiled at the thought that the monster had actually made her feel sympathetic about something.

That being said, why did she feel sorry? She couldn't believe it herself; for a moment, she felt sorry for her bastard of a father and what he stood for. Though, as she clenched the sheets, she found it hard to summon her iron will at the mental image of her father being killed, and even harder at the idea of his Soul Dew, his last worldly presence, being desecrated and destroyed.

Hard wasn't the correct word, she realized; impossible, on the other hand, fit perfectly. She wouldn't be shamed a bit to admit that she wouldn't sad if her father died, unappealing as the idea sounded. If his Soul Dew was destroyed, she was certain that she would go absolutely ballistic on whatever force was responsible for the action. A slightly hint of regret wormed its way into her conscious when she realized that she had been jerked out of her dream right before she had the chance to exact proper retribution on the Typhlosion for that.

A sudden thought then struck had bad dreams every so often, but ever since that mission in the woods, their intensity and frequency had increased, as if Cresselia had given up her guard to Darkrai to occupy. This one was by far her worst in her entire life; yes, she had dreams in which a family member had been killed, but this one had the vividness and realism that all of the others lacked. The implications of the downwards spiral truly scared her. Am I going crazy? she asked herself. Shell shock, battle fatigue, post-traumatic stress disorder. Oh no... It would be doubly hard to counteract the stress, given the sheer complexity of psychic-type minds when compared to those of other types.

She didn't doubt for a moment that those could be the likely culprits, though. The Latias had seen nearly everything in Special Forces, from the shattered thousand-yard stare to the officer they caught in the restroom with a pistol to his head. She never thought that she'd become one of those cases, but judging from her actions, she just might be...

"Hey, Siria," she heard a voice call out. "Why are you sitting like that?"

She squeaked slightly and pulled the sheets further up her, hoping to prevent him from seeing her shake. Hopefully he wouldn't notice anything odd.

"Are you thirsty? Do you need water?"

She snapped her jaw shut. "I don't need water," she said rather defiantly.

"Then a bit cold? I was hoping you'd feel a little better by now, but I can sleep fine without blankets."

"Not cold, either."

"Then," he said, drawing himself fully erect in his bed, "Why are you shivering?"

"Because I can!" she snapped.

The Latios frowned at her. "Did you have a bad dream again?"

"Why, yes, I did!" She huffed indignantly and fell back onto her bed. "And if you would so kindly leave me alone, it would help!"

Keep it down, would you? We're not the only ones here, she heard in her head. A quick glance to the left revealed that Sirius stared at her expectantly.

She rolled her eyes. Fine. Now please leave me alone before I give you a reason to.

Night. Her brother grumbled out loud before resting his head back onto the pillow.

Siria did the same, only to find herself pulling herself up once again. She didn't find it particularly odd that she couldn't sleep right after such an unnerving dream, but it was... A quick reference to the clock said that it was quite early in the morning.

As her mind returned to depressing thoughts about death and insanity, she thought of something when she looked at her brother. Perhaps with his medic training, he could diagnose her...?

Sirius.

He snored.

SIRIUS!

"What?" he groaned as he rose once again from his sleep. "Siria, what do you-" He paused mid-sentence. Siria, what do you want? One minute you're screaming at me to go to bed and the next you want me back awake? What gives? And it's three in the-

Sirius. How well were you trained in diagnosing trauma? she asked directly.

What kind of trauma? Blast trauma? Penetration trauma? Blun-

Psychological.

Psychological? I'm combat, not therapist, so no. But, he asked as he turned a critical eye towards her, Why are you asking for a psychologist?

No reason, she fibbed.

He shifted to get a better look at her. No reason, you say. No reason at all. You have a bad dream and suddenly you're asking for a psychologist. Don't play me as a fool, sis. His thought-speech had a warning edge to it.

She bristled defensively. The Latias was really looking for someone to talk to, but Shadrach wasn't here, and she was always leery of confiding anything in her brother ever since that incident. It's nothing, honestly.

As if having read her mind (she didn't put him past it), he replied, You can tell me. I'm listening.

Well...

C'mon, sis. It's gonna eat you alive if you don't get it out now.

Fine. Where do I even start? she asked rhetorically. The dream, right. Well, do you want to know what happened?

The Latios nodded.

Are you sure?

Another nod.

Essentially... Aiden, that Typhlosion from earlier, came and... killed Shadrach, you, and father... and later destroyed the Soul Dew from father's body.

In the darkness, she could see her brother's eyes glow a faint white. He what? He did that to us? To dad- the Soul Dew?

She nodded glumly. It was the worst dream I've had in a long time. It scared me, to see you dead. It really did.

Let me guess, he thought trying to inject a little humor in the situation, I don't want a mental picture of this.

I can give-

Noooooo thanks. He shook his head and slipped out of bed. Siria felt the cool breeze coming from outside as he opened the solitary window of the room. Sis, when did these dreams start? You never tell me.

After the mission in the woods, when I nearly got raped by that Glaceon, she thought coldly.

Right, after you almost got r- She sensed a immense anger rise from the Latios' mind; it was huge, nearly suffocating. Do you think, he suggested a bit more calmly, that may have been it?

She narrowed her eyes. I wouldn't doubt it.

Sirius stood looking out the window, shaking his head softly. If I was there when he had taken a shot at you... He glared fiercely out at the blankly dark sky.

The government would give you honors and accolades rather than expelling the both of us from the military, she thought, laughing into the relatively silent air.

The Latios hummed. But why did they have to kick us out in the first place? Why? It was totally unfair. All of the evidence was on your side. Everything was going smoothly.

Money, she replied. The side that has the most money wins, especially if they can line the pockets of those politicians. It doesn't matter what we do; as long as they can bribe enough 'mon, they win.

Yeah, but still...

At least you put him in his place, Siria thought with a smile. Though it might have been a bit extreme...

I don't feel that putting him in a coma was extreme enough. If I wanted to do extreme, I would have started with chaining him up-

Siria could see exactly what he had planned out for the unfortunate 'mon in his mind, and immediately cleared the image from her mind. The machinations he envisioned already outdid what the Typhlosion had showed her by a mile, and she suspected that he was just getting started. You don't need to tell me, Sirius. I know. I know.

Both of them remained stationary in their positions, both contemplating the events of years past. Then, Sirius sighed slightly.

Could that... could that be why you're having these thoughts? You had the exact same conditions when it happened back then as you do now. The bad dreams, the depression...

She opened her maw for a moment. That... The explanation was sound; it definitely made much sense, especially when put in context. But I eventually recovered from that, she pointed out. Will I recover from this?

Well, if you really need to, we can go to a psychologist, but something tells me that you wouldn't like that, he thought with a wry smile.

No. No, I wouldn't.

So you'll try to figure out on your own, huh?

She looked over at his silhouette. Yes.

Another silence fell between them as they each now gave thought to the present. It was a lot of information to digest, after all.

Sirius then decided to break the 'silence.' Anything else you want to tell me, sis?

"Hmm..." She thought for a moment; did she want to discuss what she dreamed about her father, or the now-conflicting thoughts she had regarding him? No, it wouldn't do to have someone so close to her father knowing of her internal debate. The last thing she wanted to reveal was that she was weak on the inside, though confessing to her spiraling depressing and bad dreams all but obliterated that remote possibility. No, nothing else right now.

The Latios visibly relaxed as he returned to his bed. Well, just tell me if anything's on your mind. I'm here for you for real, you know? Not just to poke fun at you, though that is fun sometimes.

Of course it is, she thought with a snort. But for one of the few times in her life, she also felt truly grateful for having such a brother. And I will, Sirius. Night.

As her brother turned into his bed once again, she herself slid back into her sheets. She had a new goal in mind apart from psychoanalyzing her dream: sleep. As she stared out the window, she knew it would be a difficult task for her to accomplish.

"Open the hatch." Shadrach watched as the giant landing dock lowered and hit the soft sand below the helicopter's belly. They were theoretically in the middle of nowhere, twenty klicks from Riyaq and Arceus knows how far from their target. Fortunately, they wouldn't be marching the rest of the way. No, he thought as he looked at the two ATVs loaded in the main bay of the large helicopter, we're going in style.

The plan was simple enough. They would first drive near the outskirts of the village where nobody could hear them; from there, they would infiltrate the targeted compound and capture the Nidoking. If he did not come peacefully, they would use tranquilizers powerful enough to flat-out knock a Groudon unconscious and transport him back to where a similar transport helicopter would rendezvous with them. It was the perfect stealth mission; with Mirunas constantly monitoring the area, any slight hint of military action there would probably cause a giant political debacle, at the very least. The ATVs, relatively soundless compared to the thunder of a transport helicopter, offered them a way of inconspicuous infiltration and exfiltration. Additionally, the major was able to get two Skarmory to provide overwatch security, though communications with them would be limited. Nobody knew if the Mirunas military was watching radio transmissions over the area.

"Alright, let's get these running." Shadrach stepped to the left of an ATV, helping the Leafeon there undo one of the cables prevented the vehicle from bouncing around in-flight. Behind them, Levina, Din, and Nuwai worked the ties on the other one.

He gingerly rolled it out the back of the helicopter and gave the ATV a lookover. The sandy-gray paint appealed to him, thought it wouldn't quite matter at this time of night; from a distance, everything looked black. As he put it into neutral, he saw Levina and Din out of the corner of her eye on the other. Having already gotten the engine running, the Ampharos gave him a terse nod.

Shadrach jammed the starter on his own ATV, and was promptly rewarded with a low-pitched rumble. "Ready?" he asked the Leafeon behind him.

"Ready!" Jul responded energetically.

With no further ado, both of the ATVs revved out into the darkness of the desert, followed by a fast, low-flying Garchomp.