Chapter 7

A New Alliance

Dash runs and runs and runs through the endlessly tall trees. There were so many more trees this time around. Dash runs but he knows that they are faster than him in this element. He finally sees a tree line and runs out. He takes a break and looks around still keeping an ear out for the slightest sign that it was time to start moving again. He sees that this is a grass plain. Not exactly an advantage for Dash. He is not familiar with grass plains. Only with water and forests. He turns around and thinks, "Do I go back into the danger zone where it's the most dangerous or do I risk getting lost or be caught in the open?"

Before he has time to answer the question he hears, "He's over here!"

Dash looks up and sees Sparky flying around looking at him. Dash runs into the grass lands but the eyes in the air keeps following him. It was easy to follow Dash because the grass moved down where ever he went. Dash failed to put that into account. Sparky looks up and sees that he is unknowingly running towards a river. Sparky swoops down in front of Dash and Dash changes direction to avoid Sparky. Dash after running a little ways more starts to lose the effect of the adrenaline and he starts to grow weak and slows down.

Sparky knowing that at his state he wouldn't be able to do much, lands in front of him. Dash stops his movement and catches his breath. Penny and Cyndaquil catch up to the tired Dash. Dash sits down with his tired head down. Penny, Sparky, and Cyndaquil all notice the new handkerchief around Dash's neck.

Cyndaquil finally said, "Let's just kill him and get it over with." He makes a movement towards Dash but Penny puts her arm out to stop him. Dash looks up finally still breathing very hard.

Sparky said, "No. Penny is right."

Dash said, "Why don't you kill me evil one?"

Sparky laughs, "You really think I'm the evil one?"

"Ya."

"Well I'm not. Sparks is."

Dash stops listening.

"Look at me Dash." Sparky said softy. "I'm trying to work with you. I could have killed you like the others but I didn't. Don't I get a fair chance to tell my side of the story?"

"Ya. You do. I guess was assuming you were guilty before hearing your side. You were guilty until proven guilty in my head. I'm sorry 'bout that. You just killed a good friend of mine."

"Sorry about that but we had to."

"I guess," Dash looks at Penny, "Haven't seen you in a while."

Penny smiles and said, "It sure has been a while."

Dash looks at Sparky, "Okay. Now your side of the story."

Sparky looks at him, "You'll only half listen for now. We'll talk about it later."

"You'll better tell me now while I'm here."

Sparky looks into Dash's eyes, "Fine. We'll do it now." She turns and looks into the sky. "I know this may be strange to you but please give me as much attention as you gave my brother when you met him and introduced you in this war."

Dash looks back, "Okay."

"Now Sparks probably said I started the war, but the truth is, he did. He wants to eliminate all humans and pokémon that follow them, including me. He has had horrible experiences with humans. When he was young, he had a little girl as an owner. She and him were the best of friends. They did everything together. They played. They ate. They even slept. I knew this stuff because I was on the outside watching in. I was his little sister and I followed him where ever he went. He was my idol. But, the people had to leave. They couldn't take him because of the landlord's orders but he didn't understand. His life went downhill from there. He started a hate towards humans. Slowly the hate grew as the darkness inside of him grew. Somehow, he learned dark magic. I think someone else taught him but I'm not sure who. When I saw what was going on, I started to oppose him and when I started to oppose him, he and his team targeted me along with the humans. I know there are bad humans out there but there are some good. If he wasn't targeting all humans, I probably wouldn't have opposed him but I wouldn't have supported him either. Do you understand me? Do you believe me?"

Dash looks down, "I'm not sure what to believe now. Sparks showed you talking to someone to me."

"Was that in a dark world or something similar?"

"Ya."

"That was a world he created with his dark magic. He created that image of me. What he did in there wasn't real."

"Created image?"

"Yes."

Dash does reply. He tries to put all of these pieces together from multiple puzzles.

"I know you must be confused but if I'm the evil one wouldn't I have killed you already?"

Dash doesn't answer.

Cyndaquil interrupts, "Are we going to kill him or not? He knows my secret now."

Penny answers, "No. You won't."

Sparky looks at Penny and asks, "Why are you so defensive for Dash?"

Penny looks away and doesn't answer.

Dash asks, "Did Penny mention my name before you all met me?"

Sparky answers, "Ya. Both her and Cyndaquil did. Come on Dash let's go to where it's safe. It's getting dark."

"I'm not afraid of the dark."

"Neither am I but, sometimes we need to play it safe. We can risk all our apples in a different basket."

Dash gets up and follows them to their hiding whole. Everyone was tired and almost went to sleep. Everyone except Dash and Penny. Dash leaves to clear those pieces in his head. Penny follows alongside him.

Dash breaks the silences, "So, even you are in this war."

Penny replies, "Physically but not mentally.

"Ya."

"Look. I know you don't want this war. You're done with this war. So am I though. We're trapped in this war but we need to get out before we change or get killed. We need to team up Dash. I'm tired of this war. Once we are rendered useless, they'll abandon us and forget about us. We'll be replaced and forgotten about. Now, that's not the way I want to live."

"Ya. We could just run away now."

"We need a better plan than that. I need you to stay close to me. We can slowly form a true plan and then will put it into action."

"Okay. You can count on me"

Penny hugs Dash closely, "I'm so glad you haven't change from this war. Please don't change. You're the only one I can trust."

Dash face turns a little pink, "Don't worry. Dash won't change."

They smile at each other and they walk back into the lightened place.