chapter 14.

Rukia wandered out of the Waterfall Paradise, and watched as the crack concealed itself again. She wandered around the Garden absentminded, only coming out of her lost trance every once and a while to notice baby Pokemon playing or running around, or simply taking a nap in a flower bed.

She eventually made it to a wall, and just stood there staring up at it. Until she heard a sound coming from a nearby bush.

She looked over toward it with a blank expression on her face, noticing it was just her Eevee.

It skipped over to her, and yelped. Rukia slid down the wall to the ground, and allowed the Eevee to climb into her lap.

It sat there and stared at her, then made another small yelp. Rukia smiled gently and petted it.

Then she looked up toward the sky, and her eyes wandered to the wall and the tree branches hanging over the top of it.

She looked back down to her Eevee, then picked it up and stood.

Rukia climbed up and over the wall, jumping down to her feet. looking around, she got a somewhat nostalgic feeling. She started walking aimlessly, until she saw a large tree off in the distance.

She started walking towards it, and the rest of the forest started thinning out, until it was just this tree.

Eevee jumped out her arms and ran toward the tree, then sat infront of it, staring intently at something.

Rukia walked up to the tree and looked to where Eevee was staring. What she saw was the letters, 'R, X, J, A, M, H, S, A, K' engraved into the wood, with a line connecting each letter, forming a circle. narrowing her eyes, she traced each engraving with her finger.

"These are old markings...they've been here for years, but...who put them there..?" She wondered. Then she heard a twig snap.

Rukia span around quickly, and tried to find where the noise had come from. "I heard you, so come out! Don't make me come look for you!"

Then a dark figure walked out from behind a tree. Wearing a black hoodie with the hood covering most of his face, he stepped forward.

"Take off the hood or else." Rukia warned. The boy threw his hands up, then slid the hood off his head.

What it revealed was a black haired boy with large wrap around shades to conceal his eyes, and fair skin. He smiled gently,

"It's nice to meet you, Rukia." he greeted. Still tense, Rukia narrowed her eyes and stared at the boy, almost as if she was saying, "Try anything funny and I'll kill you."

He got the message and so tried to assure her, "I won't try anything, I promise. I know who you are and what you can do, though. So...can we talk for a bit?"

Although unsure, Rukia nodded. She sat down against the trunk of the tree, and allowed Eevee to jump in her lap. The boy walked over to the tree and sat next to her.

As soon as he did, Rukia blurted out "Who are you and how do you know about me?" A soft smile reached his lips,

"I'm Tal, and I'm a Gijinka just as you are. And I know about you because...I was one of the children that was kidnapped by Team Plasma."

Rukia sat still for a moment. "So are you here to kidnap me or something?"

he shook his head, "No, I don't intend to do anything of the sort. You see, I only recently found out who I really was when I 'overheard' Ghetsis and some grunts talking about my past. Then, they mentioned you and the others...So I had to come and meet you myself. I've left Team Plasma for good, trust me." he put air quotes around that word.

Rukia chuckled softly, "So...eavesdropping? nice." He laughed at that comment.

For some reason unknown to her, Rukia seemed to trust Tal already. But thinking over what her parents had told her, She must've just guessed he got left behind when the others escaped.

"I remember now, being with the other kids when they were training us...I realized how evil and nasty Ghetsis really was. I'm glad to be out of that place now. I just hope they wouldn't come looking for me."

Rukia nodded. She scooped up Eevee and stood, "Well, Tal, come on. I'm sure there's some people who would like to see you."

He smiled and stood, then followed behind Rukia as she began to walk away from the tree. Then she stopped in her tracks.

Surprising Tal, he stopped behind her, "What's up Rukia?" She turned around to face him,

"...Uh...You wouldn't know how to get back to the palace, would you?" He just facepalmed.