Chapter 5: Reforged

"You do not belong here."

White, an endless white stretched beyond his sight.

"You are just a burden."

Heartbeat, sweat and anxiety. They crowded him, submerged him.

"No one is going to remember you."

He tried to run, but to where? Nothing seemed to lead to a clear destination for him. He could only keep running.

"You are a disappointment."

The ground beneath him suddenly shattered, revealing a dark abyss as he fell deeper into that dark void. He tried to shout as loud as he could but something muffled all those sounds. He felt helpless.

"You killed them. You monster! Why would anyone want to be near a murderer like you?"

"Why do you even try? You will always be alone…"

The descent ended. He felt the presence of a cold platform where he lay down after the fall. He tried to get up on his four, slowly and heavily. He took a glance at his surroundings, nothing else besides broken fragments of his messed up memory.

"Mom said it was a gift from the Gods…"

"Dad, stop! I'm already wet from you dragging me into the river…"

"Skarn, no!..."

The pieces resonated. He felt a sharp pain running through his chest. He stared down at the platform. It had already turned into a mirror. He saw his reflection. It was not a normal reflection.

The entire body of the 'creature' was covered in black, its eyes were crimson red and a haunting purple shade emitted from the crescent blade on its head. It did not leave sight of him, a sinister smile forming on its face. A maniacal laugh echoed through the place.

The reflection disappeared. A chill appeared from behind him. His mane glowed up, bright as the sun as the creature jumped at him with a powerful swing. He dodged the attack, hearing a loud crack from where the blade of the creature made contact with the glass.

Battle stance readied, he retaliated by slashing his electric infused claws at the creature. It shrieked before firing multiple dark aura air blades at him. He managed to avoid several of them, but the last one landed, sending him flying into a fragment.

The creature did not let him catch his breath. It charged at him again, but this time, he already predicted it. He took a step sideways, facing directly to the creature's back. With full force, he sank his fangs deep inside the creature, sending waves after waves of electricity into it.

The creature struggled to break through the bite, swinging its body back and forth trying to shrug him off. It was finally able to fling Axel away, but was left incapable of fighting back anymore.

"We'll meet again…"

The creature screamed its final words with a twisted voice. It stumbled on the ground, dissipating into a stream of black mist. Axel coughed exhaustedly. Just as he thought it was all over, the mist enveloped his legs, dragging them downward.

He screamed…

"Axel! Axel! Wake up!"

Aye, cold! Axel jolted awake after Razor threw a bucket of water all over his body. Confused, wet and partially invigorated from the bad dream, Axel gave the gator a fierce glare before shaking off the remaining water from his fur.

"That's a nice way to wake someone up in the morning," Axel sneered.

Razor laughed heartily, "I've tried everything, you know. You just sleep like a log. I even bring my trusty hammer with me."

"Wait, what-?"

The gator put a finger on Axel's mouth to shush the electric lion.

"Shush, details!"

Razor turned around and brought up a tray of freshly picked berries and a glass of water. He put it on the table opposite of Axel and sat down on the straw bed next to it.

"That scream of yours, must have been a very bad nightmare."

Razor tossed over the berry. Axel caught it midair. Having no clear explanation for his dream, Axel just nodded slightly. "It was just… one odd dream," he replied. "Must have been my mind playing with me."

"We still have to meet Meoni later. I'll be waiting at the front door when you're done with your breakfast."

Said so and Razor left the room, leaving Axel alone with his thoughts.

…

The same Windswept Village, but it felt different today. Axel had expected chatters along the path they would go, yet all he saw was just a welcoming smile from everyone even though his blade was not covered.

The duo stumbled across a group of small Pokémon playing near a berry farm. They were chasing after a round ball. The Marill failed to catch the ball as it bounced off the blue mouse's head, rolled forward and stopped right before Axel.

The group of Pokémon hid behind the Marill, seemingly afraid of the Luxio. The blue mouse turned around to reassure them and skipped happily to Axel.

"Brother Luxio, can we have the ball back, please?" it asked sheepishly.

Axel nodded and gently kicked the ball over to the Marill. The mouse bowed as a thanks and grabbed the ball.

"Thank you! You know, you aren't as scary as what our parents told us."

It looked at Axel with a cheerful grin. A heartwarming sensation washed over the lion. He, for the first time, felt some senses of utter relief. Razor rubbed the Marill's head as it shook a bit in denial. It then hurriedly ran back and reunited with the group. They moved away shortly after, leaving the path open.

"These kids really do adapt to newcomers way better than those old heads if I do say so myself," Razor remarked.

"Brother Luxio!" The Marill suddenly peeked its head from a corner of a house and shouted. "My name is Mira. If you have time, my house is at the far west of the town with Oran berry hedges. It's very obvious so you can't miss it. My mom bakes great cakes. Ok, bye!"

Astonished by the sudden invite, Axel turned his head to look at Razor who just shook his head in defeat. He cast a genuine smile at the electric lion and then continued walking forward.

"I do love those Oran pastries, one of the best bakers I know not gonna lie."

Razor whistled triumphantly. "Maybe I will pay them a visit after", Axel thought.

…

Inside the windmill, Meoni was not able to keep his usual composure with him. He floated back and forth repeatedly many times, sometimes rubbing his head in distraught. The note yesterday bothered him too much. He was trying to figure out an answer, a logical explanation that would at least ease the frustration inside him.

Alas, his train of thought was cut short by the arrival of the two who he was waiting for. Razor and Axel already showed up in front of the windmill. Meoni let out a desperate "Gah!" before using her psychic power to drag Razor immediately into the chamber inside.

Taken aback by the abrupt pull, Razor was still able to signal Axel to stand by. A second after, a frowning Mew entered his sight. Just as Razor was about to raise a finger to ask what was going on, Meoni tossed the paper over.

"We need to talk about this," Meoni said in a serious tone.

Never before had Razor witnessed this face of Meoni. He took a closer look at the writing.

A freezing chill ran down his spine from what was said in the torn piece of paper.

"So the Eastern Alliance has decided to do it again…" Razor stuttered. "As if the latest conquering war was not enough for them already."

"Zeka gave that to me last night. Remember that recent event that shook the whole Union?"

"Axel, so that young Luxio was the survivor from the Serene Village attack…" Razor mumbled.

"Yes," Meoni lowered his voice, "his parents, being the daughter and son of the Lunari and Solari tribes, were their targets. This should give the two tribes enough reason to break out of their cold war."

A terrified look creeped onto the faces of both of them, followed by a moment of silence when they thought of the event that would happen. Razor threw the paper aside lifelessly, leaning his back against the chair. He turned his face to the green farms outside, sighing.

"So that was his plan all along, to separate the tribes. Now that the Northern Kingdom is also at risk of collapsing, he could easily dominate them in one invasion."

"There's still a way to stop this," Meoni said with a glimpse of hope.

"You don't mean…"

Meoni quietly explained, "If we're able to bring the culprit of the Serene Village attack to the two tribes, the chances of us stopping the war between the tribes will be much higher."

She threw her fist into the nearby wall, startling Razor a bit. Meoni bit her lips. Razor knew what was going on, the sight of hopelessness and willing to let go from the Mew.

"Razor, I-"

"How's Zeka doing these days?"

The abrupt question caught Meoni off guard. She turned to look Razor deeply in the eyes. Her eyes widened in astonishment.

"How did you k-"

"Shush, I've been with you for too long to know about what you and Zeka have been through." Razor hopped off the chair, patting gently on the Mew's back. "Look, maybe in the other timelines, you choose to let me speared by that one Bisharp and things might have been different. But in this one, I'm still alive, so at least, let me help you save him."

Meoni sobbed. She buried her head deep into Razor's chest exhaustedly. A moment passed and she calmed down.

"Thank you, Razor. Really."

"Now where were we?" Razor reminded.

Meoni wiped away the tears and replied, "I already knew where this was going. We need to get Axel to Daybreak Division. But the recent invasion from the Eastern Alliance has made it more difficult to traverse around the region…"

"We could train him," Razor suggested. "The path that young Luxio needs to take will require him to become stronger regardless. He needs to bring the news to the two tribes. The climb on Celestine Mountain is also not an easy journey."

"About that, I don't think our Luxio needs more combat training."

"Really?"

"From reading his memory, I could tell he was properly trained in battles. But still, I want to test him out."

…

Scorching heat. Sun was already at the peak of the sky, raining down rays of harshness. Axel took shade under the overhang of the windmill roof, partially dozing off. He did not expect the conversation between Razor and Meoni to be that long. The heat had already started to get to him so instinctively, he closed his eyes to a resting state. In daydreaming mode, he could vaguely hear the sound of Razor calling his name.

"Axel! Meoni wants to see you!"

Regaining a bit of his consciousness, he walked slowly to the entrance… where a ball of psychic energy just slammed on him. Axel turned into full alert mode and swapped to his battle stance immediately.

He was not at rest. A barrage of those similar balls chased after him, tracking down his movements. Axel picked up the speed and skillfully avoided them. A few beams of electricity came out from his mouth as he turned around and collided with the psychic spheres, creating small explosions.

He suddenly felt a presence of something behind him. A direct attack. The sound of his blade made contact with the aura sword from Meoni's paw. He struck back, yet, with one paw, she blocked with her sword while the other she fired psychic beams at Axel.

Axel took a step back as Meoni charged at him. Her aura sword swung at the Luxio. An arc slash, an overhead slice and then a sideway thrust. They were either blocked or countered by an opposite directional slash by the Luxio. Two blades clashed then withdrew.

However, Meoni sensed something was wrong. Axel was no longer Axel. As if he had turned into an entire different character, as if… he were nothing more than a Berserker. A sinister aura wrapped around the whole body of the electric lion. She felt grave danger and killing intention radiating from him. The Luxio continued his attacks without resting.

Meoni struggled to block the relentless assault that the Luxio threw at her. Suddenly, a powerful charge and Axel managed to knock Meoni on the ground. Razor felt the danger, and immediately rushed in, shouting.

"No, Axel! Stop!"

Just when the blade on the Luxio's head was near Meoni's throat, the shout from Razor brought senses back to enraged electric lion. Axel dropped his focused state. He saw a Meoni struggling to breath in front of him and realized what had happened.

"Oh no, I-" Axel stuttered. "I-I got carried away again. I'm so sorry!"

Meoni retracted her aura sword, levitating steadily towards Razor and finally resting on his shoulder. She whispered, "He's strong but there's something wrong with him."

Axel, who was still confused of what was going on, received a head shake from Razor, signaling to get inside.

"Come, we have a lot to tell you."

A/N: Yuki's here again! I went back and made the story look a little bit more appealing (by that I mean adding the titles but that doesn't matter). I also improved my grammar and vocabulary choices in the previous chapters as well as adding a tad bit more details (they are trivial if you have read through the story once so don't pay too much attention). With that, if you enjoy my work, a follow would be more than enough. Thanks for reading! Yuki's out!