Chapter 12

Forced Involvement

Dash wakes up. Dash and Penny slept in a secret hiding hole that they used for meetings for their new alliance. Dash sits up and looks at the sleeping pretty snivy lying next to him. Dash never had this feeling before. The feeling of completeness. Scouter's death wasn't his main focus anymore. Dash finally saw that he did change a little but Penny brought him back to himself. Penny's eyes open up. Dash smiles at her. Penny sits up rubs her eyes and asks, "Up already?"

"Yep."

"You always up this early?"

"No. You didn't wake up much later than me."

"Ah."

"Do you want me to get you some food?"

"If you want. I'll be fully awake in a minute."

"I'll get it. It's the least I can do for you." Dash leaves the hole.

Penny sits there and says to herself, "Well he's excited. I'm glad that he's happy. If he's happy then I'm happy." Penny lays back down, "That was a long night."

Dash happily walks into the forest humming a tune he had picked up from the oshawott clan he was kicked out of. The gray clouds in the sky blanketed the sky. The sun couldn't be seen but everyone could tell that it was morning even without the direct sunlight. The wind was a slight cool breeze. Dash's fur moved with the wind. Dash enjoyed the cool breeze. "It's days like these that makes me proud to be wild or as I would be called by those developers, undeveloped." Dash thought, "They don't know what they're missing hiding in their houses." The air had lots of movement yet it remind ominously silent. Dash sniffs the air. A drop of rain lands on Dash's nose. This didn't worry the oshawott even when the rain picked up speed and grew in numbers. Dash remembers when he first experienced the rain.

He was just a little tiny oshawott, maybe not even two months old (his scalchop hadn't fully grown yet), and he was still in the oshawott clan. The oshawott clan wasn't sure what to do with him yet so he safe in the clan until they could decide and Dash's innocence prevented him from seeing the prolong exile. He was playing alone, like usual, and the clouds were just as gray but they didn't blanket the sky. Dash was playing under a tree where he knew he wouldn't be teased for his difference. It started to rain when Dash was tired and he was going to go back to the nest of his parents. Dash was scared. "What is this?" Dash thought. He sees that none of the other oshawotts were showing any fear to these big drops of water. Dash puts out his arm out of the safety of the tree branches over him. A drop of the rain hits Dash's hand. Dash quickly pulls his hand back into the safe area. He quickly realizes that it didn't hurt him. He slowly puts his hand out again. He repeated this process many times until he had gained enough confidence. He steps out of the tree branches safety and his body gets bombarded by the tear drops of the clouds. He wasn't getting hurt by the water. He felt the water bouncing off his oily fur and running down his body. It was very interesting for the little oshawott but atlas his tiredness takes over and he finally makes his way to the nest already half asleep.

Those were the days for Dash. Everyday a new discovery; a new adventure; a new learning experience. Dash was too innocent and ignorant to care about what will happen and what had happen just like the others. Being forced out of the clan definitely changed him. He lost everything except for his heart scale and his scalchop. He tried to get into the clan the next few days but each time being forced out again. He had to finally grow up and leave the clan. That part wasn't so good but everything before that was good Dash.

He sniffs the air again. He finally gets the smell of some berries. The clouds start to pour its familiar substance. Dash stands in the rain for a little. The wind is still blowing its cool breeze and everything seems alright. He walks towards the scent of the berries. He finds them in a clearing, on a white plate, in the middle of an opening of the trees. Almost like they were purposely set there but are they for him to grab?

Dash is hungry. "Those berries look so good. Penny would love them." Dash walks out of the safe bush to get to the berries. He picks them up one by one making sure to check around him in between picking up the berries. When he can't hold any more he turns around and sees a skunktank staring at him as a target. Dash backs up keeping his eyes in the skunktank and he backs in a scrafty. Dash walks backwards at the angle away from them. They both walk together keeping the same distance on Dash both keeping their eyes on Dash. Dash drops the many colorful fruit. They walk over the berries. The skunktank fires a dark shadow ball at Dash but Dash quickly reflects it away with his scalchop. "What do you want from me?" Dash yells. Neither one of them answer. Scrafty then shoots a dark magic line at Dash that was moving very fast but to Dash everything was moving so slow. Dash moves to blocks the dark magic but the attack move through his scalchop then through his chest. Dash holds the place where he was hit and he sees red blood coming out of the wound. Dash drops his scalchop and falls to the ground.

"Let's finish this mission," said the scrafty and the skunktank fires another shadow ball at the helpless Dash. Dash closes his eyes for his final breath. Dash didn't feel the impact of the shadow ball he opens his eyes and sees a dewott with his scalchops engulfed in dark magic and a servine standing ready next to the dewott. Skunktank laughs and said, "You can have him, he's already good as gone." They warp away.

The dewott and servine immediately turn to Dash. Dash vision is bleary as his breathing starts to feel limited. The dewott goes to Dash, "Dash stay with me!" the dewott said as he turns Dash over and holds his wound. Dewott looks at servine, "Go get Penny. If he dies, I'd rather have her be there. I'll be back at you know where."

Servine nods, picks up Dash's scalchop and runs off.

Dewott carefully drags Dash's motionless body away from the attack. Dash goes in and out of consciousness. Even when he is conscious he can't really move. The dewott kept repeating the same thing over and over again, "Just stay with me Dash. Just stay me." Dash never answered to any part of the broken record player. The dewott finally makes it to the place and Dash is placed in a bed. He lays there motionless. Dewott looks at the wound. The shot from the dark magic left a hole in Dash's body that goes all the way through. Dash lays there, not moving, not making a sound and not feeling. Dewott sits Dash's limped body up and holds him there while he wraps some bandages around his chest over his wounds. "Dash, can you hear me?" Dash doesn't answer. Dewott slowly lays his body back down. "I hope you're alive." Dash doesn't answer. Dewott pours a few drops of water in Dash's mouth. "I don't like your chances Dash. You took a pretty hard hit from that shot. Am I talking to myself?" Servine and Penny walk in. Penny sees the broken oshawott on the bed. Servine walks to dewott and they exchange a few whispers. Penny slowly walks to Dash's side as tears start to form in her eyes. Penny kneels next to Dash and she cries on his wounds. Dewott and servine watches Penny's tears roll off her face and get absorbed by the bandages. Dewott, after a few minutes, picks Penny off of Dash and said, "Penny, let's give his wounds some air." Penny stands up still watching for any movement on Dash. Dash doesn't move.

"Is he still alive?" Penny asked.

Servine and dewott look at each other. Servine finally said, "We're not sure."

"We think he is though." dewott added.

"How can you tell?" Penny asked.

"His dark magic hasn't been released." dewott answered.

"Released?"

"When a pokémon that has dark magic dies, all the magic is released at once and it gets absorbed by everything around it. Of course most of the magic is lost in the trees so there is no real advantage to kill one to get more powerful. However if Dash's dark magic is weak, we might not see that process because it's so little."

"Oh." Penny turns to Dash walks to him. "I think you should have this back." She puts the heart scale on Dash's chest.

"Keep it Penny."

Penny walks away from Dash's body.

"Why can't she hear me? I'm trying to talk to you. Are you all ignoring me? Am I dead? Why can't I speak? Why can't I move? I can hear what you're all are saying..." Dash's thoughts go back into darkness again. "Is this a dream?"

"No." A voice from behind Dash is heard, "We're in your conscious."

Dash turns around and sees Scouter, "Y-y-you died but if I see you then am I dead?"

"Not yet."

"Then how are you here in my conscious?"

"Remember that dark ball I fired at you?"

"Ya."

"Well that was a dark magic ball. I gave you my dark magic and since you haven't learned how to control the dark magic I gave you, I have to control it so you don't lose it therefore, I am here."

"So you're alive?"

Scouter laughs, "No, I'm dead"

"Why did you laugh?"

"If I didn't laugh then you would have felt sorry, then you would have felt sorry for me but the fact is, being dead isn't all bad."

"Ah. Do you miss your body?"

"Of course I do but it's fun to see where you go."

"Wait! You can see where I go?"

Scouter laughs, "Yep. With you having little control my dark magic, I'm pretty much can see what you do."

"That's kind of disturbing. Can you hear my thoughts?"

"No. I can't. You controlled enough of the dark magic to prevent me from doing that."

"Oh. Sorry."

Scouter smiles, "It's all good. I know you need it more than me."

"So, you don't mind disappearing forever?"

"Nope. My soul will find a new body, a new life, and I'll forget this life but hopefully I'll be able to avoid this war."

"Me too."

Penny looks at dewott and servine with anger and revenge seeking, "Who did this to him?"

Again, dewott and servine exchanges looks, "Let's talk about it when we know Dash's fate." Said the servine, "We need to focus on him right now. We can get our revenge later."

Scouter looks at Dash, "No you aren't going to die because you've given up and you want to be free. If you're going to die today, you're going to die giving it all you've got."

"Why do you care?"

"Because you got your whole life to die and I know you can live this life one happy oshawott especially with your Penny."

Penny folds her arms, "I want to know! I need to help Dash."

Servine replies with, "How are you going to help him by getting yourself killed by getting revenge?"

Penny tears up again, "I don't know!"

Scouter looks at Dash, "Look how much she cares about you. She is willing to risk her life to get some revenge for you. Do you really want to leave that?"

Dash looks away, "No. Scouter, I need to survive."

"I know Dash but I can't help you with this fight; you have to fight through this. You can't hide the pain. You'll feel once this darkness poison wears off."

"Darkness poison?"

"When Scrafty attacked you, he got you with some of the darkness poison. This is a very deadly poison. It'll put you in a numb state and causes you to be thrown into this conscious room. It gives you the feeling of death. It causes the poisoned to give up thus killing them. Plus if your body can't fight it, and then you'll remain in this state till you're dead from dehydration. Most can't fight off this poison because they have never experienced the dark magic. You on the other hand, you have a chance. You do have experience with dark magic. I don't think they realize it because if they did, they would have fought that dewott and servine. Plus, they are the one giving you drops of water so they are extending your life in this body and they also stopped the bleeding but if your body doesn't fight off this poison you'll die anyways."

"So I need to wake up in order to live."

"Pretty much."

Penny turns to Dash's body still lying there and moving. "Who are you two anyway?"

"We're dewott and servine."

"You're not going to tell me now are you?"

Both servine and dewott shake their heads no.

Dash looks at Scouter, "So how long till I'm free?"

"Could be a few minutes; could be a few months."

"A few months? I will be dead by that time."

"Ya, but the thing is we can't know. It depends on your body's strength and even if you survive the poison, you might go into shock from the pain because the pain will be sudden, plus you still might die from your injuries. You took a pretty bad blow from that attack. You tried to block it and it would have worked with any other attack but this is dark magic. The same thing would have happened with light magic too but with different side effects. The attack went through your scalchop. The only way you can block that attack with your scalchop is to engulf your shell in dark magic but that is a high level magic and you're definitely are not going to learn it right now."

"Oh. So even if I wake up, I could still die."

"Yep."

There is a loud cracking sound. Both Dash and Scouter look up. "Ah, so the poison is breaking apart. This is where we say good bye my friend."

"Will I ever see you again?"

Scouter looks away, "I doubt it. Magic can't bring you back here and even if you could that magic would be very powerful and you would have learned how to control my magic thus making it where I don't control the magic and my soul will be free so I won't be here. Unless you get near death and not improve on your dark magic, which I believe you will improve, then you'll see me again. Otherwise we won't see each other again. May be in the next life we will. Some believe that true friends will re-meet each other in each life."

"Well if that's true, I'll see you in the next life, if not, well good bye. You were a great friend and I won't forget you."

"Dash, one more thing, keep improving on your magic. Don't stop learning because of me."

"Okay. I will. Bye friend."

"Bye friend."

The dark world slowly gets contaminated with light. Scouter fades away with the light. Dash eyes slowly open. The first thing Dash notices is the sharpest pain that he has ever felt in his life. Dash although sees everything, he can't get through this pain to truly see. This pain that Dash is feeling; this is true pain. Pain you can't mask. Pain you can't run from. Pain that you can't avoid. Dash is starting to think dying would be the easy way out. He wishes that he could just scream, but it would be more painful to scream and for some reason he can't make a sound. "Please someone notice that I'm here now. Alive. At least for now." Dash thought. He looks down without moving his head. He sees his heart scale on his chest. He looks around and sees a dewott, a servine, and Penny all talking. About what Dash is not sure. Dash looks back at the heart scale. His hand was on the heart scale, probably put there by Penny. Dash uses all of his strength and all of his pain resistance to move his fingers. Slowly and painfully slides the heart scale. The three don't notice the little but hard movements the oshawott is making. Dash gives the heart scale a final little push and the heart scale travels to the ground. Penny, dewott, and servine all look in the direction of Dash. Dash really wishes he could flail his arms around and do a dance to show that he's awake. Dash knows that they commented on it but the pain has affected his hearing too. Penny walks over to the heart scale, picks it up, and sighs. Dash is really hoping that she sees that he is awake because he couldn't endure that level of pain again if she puts his heart scale in the same place. She puts the heart scale back into Dash's hand back onto his chest. She looks at Dash's open eyes. She turns away and leaves back to talk to dewott and servine, but half way back she turns around and walks back to Dash. She double checks Dash and sees that she wasn't seeing things that his eyes are open. She excitedly hugs him. That was the most loving but most painful hug Dash has received so far. Dash still doesn't have control of his body yet. How much he wishes he could hug her back.

Dewott and servine look at Penny. Penny turns to them and says, "He's finally awake!"

Dewott and servine quickly walk over to see the awakened oshawott.

"Dash, how are you feeling?" Dewott asks. Everyone turns to the oshawott. Dash doesn't answer. "Can you hear me?" Dash tries to nod but it was too painful. Dash just lays there. He examines everyone on the room with his eyes. "I may not feel, talk, or smell but at least I can see and somewhat hear." Dash thought. Dash sees the bandages this time wrapped around his injuries.

"I don't think he can hear anymore." dewott concluded.

"He just woke up; his mind must still be blurry." Servine said.

"You both don't realize how wrong you both are." Dash thought jokingly.

"Dash, these last four days have been so hard for me and I was so worried. Every day I woke up not sure if you were alive or if you were going to survive. If I lost you, I'm not sure what I'd do. I'm so glad that dewott and servine found you. They're the ones that saved your life-" Penny said

"Scouter saved my life too." Dash thought during Penny talking.

"-without them. I wouldn't have known you were in danger. I'm so happy that you are awake to hear this. Even though you're not out of danger of dying and you have a long road to recovery, you are a fighter and you have a strong soul and heart to be able to recover from this."

Again everyone looks at him. Dash might as well be dancing in the room and even then he wouldn't have gotten such a big audience. Dash closes his eyes to try to focus his strength and ignore the new pain that he would feel. Dash slowly smiles a little. Not a lot but for Dash's current state it is as hard as Dash trying to climb a tree in his healthy state. Dash opens his eyes and his smile fades. Penny smiles and says, "Dewott, you're hypothesizes is wrong. He can hear."

"At least some one isn't throwing false conclusions out about me without some evidence." Dash thought.

Dewott looks at Dash, "How can you tell?"

"Sometimes you just know, plus he smiled."

"He could have smiled just because he saw that we were watching him."

Penny folds her arms, "Well, we'll see who's right when he can talk again."

"You're already assuming that he'll talk again?"

"Yep. He may be weakened physically but the mental battle is the one he has to fight the most. He is very strong mentally. If he would have given up, then he would have been dead already. He could have given up but he didn't." Penny turns to Dash, "That's why I love him. Even when times are tough; even when it all seems hopeless he keeps fighting until the very end. Sometimes, and this time counts, it would be easier to give up. To lay on the ground and rot. Dash is different. Dash won't give up on anything. He didn't give up on me," Penny kisses Dash's forehead, "even when I shooed him away. He doesn't give up and I won't give up on him. Even when he has given up. I still won't!"

Dash would jump up and hug her and cry if he could. He just hopes that Penny realizes one day that he fought so hard partly because of her. No one living thing could fight so hard without someone to fight for and to fight with.

Dewott doesn't reply. Servine answers with, "I'm glad that you have such a connection to him. Maybe he is fighting because of you."

"Right!" Dash thought. He enjoyed hearing servine and Penny talking. The dewott, not so much. "Where would I be without you Penny?"

Dewott looks at Dash, "You thirsty buddy?"

Dash didn't really think about it much but ya he was very thirsty. Throat was pretty dry too.

Dewott sits Dash up slowly. No matter how little or how slowly they moved Dash, the pain was unbearable. Dash wonders how he didn't go into shock from the pain of the movement itself but he didn't. Penny had pointed something of Dash that he didn't realize about himself. He was a fighter. He didn't go into shock. Dewott puts a few big drops of water in Dash's mouth. Dash really hates being dependent on someone else for his life. "Am I really worth all this trouble?" Dash thought. Dewott slowly lays Dash down in the familiar bed. Dash slowly falls asleep.

Penny smiles and says, "I'm going to sleep a little better now that we know he has improved a little. These last few nights have been long sleepless nights."

Servine said, "Okay. Goodnight Dash. Goodnight Penny." Servine signals the dewott to follow her outside. Dewott nods and goes outside with the servine following. They walk away so that they can keep a watch on the area but not be heard by Penny or Dash. Servine speaks again, "We need to tell them."

Dewott answers, "Agreed, but we can't tell them now."

"I think we should tomorrow."

"If they ask we'll tell them but we should tell them when Dash is in better condition. We shouldn't confuse them nor give them one more thing to worry about."

"We should tell them."

"We can tell them later."

"No. We need to tell them ASAP."

"Maybe should tell them slowly."

"That's a good idea. Try not to confuse them by giving everything up front. What should we tell them first?"

"I'm not sure."

"How about we tell them who we are since Penny already asked about that."

"Okay."

They both walk back into the house and sneak their way into their beds and go to sleep.

"My body may be broken but my soul is strong. That what Scouter has taught me. He has taught me so much. More than anyone ever could. You probably know more about life than anyone I have and will meet in my life. He surprised me. How can someone teach me so much in so little time? Thank you Scouter. Thank you. I wish I could repay all that you have taught me." Dash goes falls back into deep sleep.