Chapter 13 - Doubt

At first, Ash was happy to see the Aura Guardian when he entered the room, but once he realized that he had been in a fight, his smile faded. "Sir Aaron?"

To the teen's shock, the man avoided his gaze as if having a hard time looking at him. Lucario also took note of this action and interpreted it as a bad sign. "Did you find the intruder?" the pokémon asked. He nodded once. "He escaped unfortunately." his voice was soft, not focused at his two students.

"Were you able to get some answers from him?" Lucario pressed further. His teacher was silent for a moment before responding. "I did, yet he was...vague about it. There wasn't much importance in what he said."

Ash didn't like the fact that he sounded monotone. "Are you sure?"

"...I...need some time to think. I only came here to check if you were unharmed, Aiden." the trainer noticed that his fake name was stressed in a way that sounded almost bitter. There was something sinister going on, alright; he just wasn't sure how bad it was. At that moment, worrisome questions came in to mind. What did Umbreon tell him? Did he say something about him coming from the future? But then, how did Umbreon even know of such a thing? Unless he was also connected to some legendary...

By the time the onyx-haired teen looked up to see if the man was still there, he was already gone; the door had been left wide open. Surprisingly, Lucario was still close by, deep in thought. Ash thought he was going to ask about their teacher's sudden evasiveness, but the pokémon simply gave him a warning. "Be careful, Aiden. His trust in you is wavering." he then exited the room without another word, leaving the boy at a complete loss as to what had happened and what he should do next.

-o-

"Umbreon, where is the boy?"

"He will be here shortly, Father." the teen replied with an almost too confident tone. "I did not catch him yet, but rest assured I was able to take down a threat while I was there." the large figure in front of him looked like he was mulling over what Umbreon had said. "A threat, you say? You are talking about the Aura Guardian that resides in Cameron Palace?"

The black-haired male grinned broadly. "I have stabbed their fragile bond with doubt, Father. It won't be long before everything crumbles between them."

"Are you sure that it will be effective?"

"It's enough to keep them distant for a while, enough time for me to take the boy without too much force." the man (or what seemed to look like a man) now reflected the smile of the Dark Aura user in front of him. "Good. You will continue watching them until you can strike, yet time is not in our side, so you must find an opening as soon as possible."

"Yes, Father." the teen bowed again and turned around to leave the room before he was stopped by the chilling voice of the man that had brought him out of his misery. "Umbreon, I have one more task for you."

"...what is it?"

"...if your brother interferes with my plan again, kill him." he was shocked, so much so that he couldn't reply immediately and lost his composure for a few moments. "K-kill?"

"We only have a few days left before war day, and we cannot afford any mistakes, especially a traitor. He will not be your priority though, yet if you see him helping the sacrifice, do not hesitate to take him down as well."

"I...I understand."

Just outside the room, Espeon was listening closely to the whole conversation and felt even more worried about her two brothers. She knew that Eevee was a kind boy, and he would have a hard time to resist helping someone else out. Now her older brother was stuck between having to spare the brunette or following Father's orders. She was hoping that they won't try to confront each other and the child will just stay quiet and hidden..."Eevee, please be okay..."

-o-

"And this would be my house. It's a bit far from the village, but at least it's not too noisy here. Good for when you just want to relax, right?"

"Uhm..." Eevee didn't really know how to respond to Trevor's friendly attitude, yet he couldn't help but feel grateful anyway. It's been a while since he felt the warmth of being cared for, and while he didn't really consider the man as a brother figure or anything, it was something the boy had longed for quite a while. Umbreon hadn't acted like this in years...ever since Father had tightened his grip on the teen.

"C'mon, don't just stand there," the older brown-haired male called as he opened the door to the wooden building. "you still have to see your room. I have an extra one for guests, you know?"

"Ah-uh, but..." honestly, he didn't remember asking if he was going to stay with him for the time being. "I never said that I..."

"Hey, I can see it in your eyes, kid. Either you don't have a home, or you don't have a family."

"I-I have a family!" the child shouted back as if angry at Trevor's statement. "I...I have a father, sister, and brother..." his voice trailed off; the boy's eyes looking at the ground. "At least..." he whispered softly. "I want to believe that..."

The man had a confused expression. "So they're like your family, but they aren't? Family isn't always about you sharing the same blood."

"I know, but...I mean...none of us are actually related..."

"Hm, well, we can worry 'bout that later. Y'don't mind staying here for the night, don't you, Eric? I bet your family won't mind." Eevee could do nothing but sigh mentally. He couldn't discuss anything with his man; he would just jump to another topic. It did seem though that he was doing this on purpose and not because he was simply ignorant. No, this guy seemed to be much cleverer than an ordinary person. After all, he was under the same man that had taught Sir Aaron, so he must be more powerful than he was letting on. Yet in truth, the boy couldn't feel any strong aura radiating from him. Eevee didn't sense anything when he first met him, which allowed him to sneak behind the boy easily...in fact, his aura was almost non-existent, and no normal human can ever do that.

"Why...do you want me to stay?" he asked timidly.

Trevor just showed a toothy grin. "I don't really know. There's something about you, Eric. I can feel it." he suddenly went closer to him. "Did you know? Aura Sensing isn't just about knowing when life forms are nearby, but it can tell you all kinds of things about them as well. You can bring it further and learn about their power, their personality, and..." his smile faded to a serious frown. "When they're in pain." he pressed his index finger on Eevee's chest, which made the boy respond in a tiny, surprised yelp. "Your aura tells me that you've been through a lot. A lot more than other adults...a kid like you shouldn't have this kind of aura. One that's dark, deep, and hurting."

The child couldn't say anything in return and simply let the words enter through his mind, trying to process them. "Dark, deep, and hurting...is he describing the dark aura swirling inside of me? Or is it something else entirely?" he thought. What felt like minutes were merely seconds later when Trevor retracted his whole arm and stretched it. "Mmm, well, whatever." his tone was light again compared to a while ago. "I wonder if Aaron was able to finish what he needed to do...he looked like he was in a hurry." he mused aloud. "Ah, enough time out here, let's go inside and make ourselves comfortable, alright?"

Eevee could only nod. He needed to be careful around this guy...while sometimes he would act like a trusting person, he was very observant as well, and he wasn't too sure yet if the man was doing this out of compassion, or a completely different motive.

-o-

It didn't surprise Ash too much that the same guy who dragged him to this timeline would appear again that night. In fact, he almost expected it, for some reason. "You're back." the trainer was still sitting on the same bed, but he felt much better now. He could probably walk around tomorrow after a good night's rest, but he wouldn't sleep just yet. He needed to ask some important questions to this time traveler first.

"Looks like Aaron has picked up on the scent." Dialga muttered while folding his arms in thought. "I didn't think this would happen, but it seems like there is someone else who knows of my presence."

"So Umbreon does know a legendary?"

"...I honestly do not know. There shouldn't be other legendaries nearby except for Mew, and it's obvious that she won't cooperate with someone who wields dark aura."

"Yeah-wait, did you say 'she'?"

"Well that was her chosen gender for her human form, so would it be wrong to refer her as 'she'?" Ash just stared at the older teen. "Uh..."

"Oh, of course that wasn't what you were talking about." Dialga laughed, trying to lighten the situation they were in, but the trainer didn't even smile. "Hah, I guess Palkia will forever be the funny guy, huh?"

"Who exactly are you?"

"Well, allow me to make a formal introduction. My name is Dialga...hm, how would you explain this? I am not the same Dialga that fought with my brother in Alamos Town; those are actually my 'cousins', in a way. You can say that I am a Dialga from another dimension, here because of a little matter that involves your wish, Ash."

"A-another dimension..?"

"That's right. I know it sounds a tad complicated, but I'm still the same pokémon, and have the same abilities. I'll get to why I'm really here. Ash, the time when Sir Aaron's death is coming soon, and I mean very soon. That boy, Umbreon, will be coming back to take you again. You must be extremely careful, or else you could be the one that winds up dead. I cannot interfere too much with the matter at hand, but I've talked to the Mew of this time about this, and she agreed to save you if anything out of control happens. She can protect you long enough for me to send you back, and then I can change everything to the way it was...before I brought you here. Still, you would need to get Sir Aaron to trust you again. That's would be the first step in to fixing this mess, and possibly saving his life without having me to reset everything."

"D-dialga, by very soon, how much time are we talking about here? I can't just...approach him. Umbreon probably told him something that made him doubt me now-"

"You have no choice, Ash. That war day is coming in two days time. Your only chance is tomorrow."

A/N: Ehehe, updated on the deadline again. OTL

Finally bringing things up to speed...honestly, I had no idea how to deal with a doubtful Sir Aaron, so I decided to dodge it a bit for this chapter. I think it's gonna explore more on it for the next one, hm? As usual, I crammed this chapter pretty quickly even if I had Christmas Vacation (I totally forgot about this till I got back to school) and I should really be going to sleep again. /shot

Review, please? :D

EDIT: Fixed some grammar and words. Thanks to Tanon for helping me. ^_^