Chapter 13

Dewott and Servine

Penny is the first to wake up. She looks a Dash's numb sleeping body. She replays what dewott had told her time and time again to do before Dash is awake, "Wake up; check on Dash; if awake tell dewott and servine; if not and you're the first one awake, go and get some water; and blah blah blah. He is no longer unconscious! I don't need to follow this routine." Penny thought, "But it was for Dash and I will do anything for Dash. He hasn't eaten since he was unconscious. He must be hungry but he can't chew nor can I fish. I guess I need to get some soft berries for him." Penny leaves the nest.

The sun had barely broke the horizon. The few warm rays from the sun were very comforting. A lot of complicated events had been happening for the past few days and for something so simple and so warming to touch Penny, just felt so nice. She stays in the open so the sun could keep warming her as she walks. With no cloud in sight to prevent the warming rays, this seems like it's going to be a relaxing day by the weather's point of view. Penny passes by an apple tree. Which reminds her of Sparky. "I wonder how she is doing. If she is doing okay? Dash and I did leave suddenly and neither of us gave any indication of leaving. We would have came back but we got caught in the dark and it can be quiet dangerous in the dark but maybe in the very end, it would have been better to risk the night. Dash might not have been in the same area as the trap. Of course, the attack was planned and not very random, so they would have attacked him sometime or another but maybe I would have been there. Maybe he wouldn't be in such of bad of shape."

Penny hears a sound behind her. She turns around. There was no one. She hears the sound behind her again. She turns around again but this time she sees a fast moving thing moving from the left side of the opening to the right. She gets ready with leaf blades in her hands. She gets pushed from behind into a tree and she is held there but in the mist of the struggle, Penny turns around and sees her attacker that is holding her against the tree. It was a pachirsu with a knife to her neck. "Could this be Sparks?" Penny thought.

"What did you do with Dash?" the pachirsu said.

"Are you Sparks?" Penny said calmly.

"Ya. Now where is Dash?"

Penny lightly moves the knife away from her neck with her finger, "No need to get hostile, I'll tell what happened to him and I'll even take you to him. I have nothing against you. Just put the knife away so we can walk and talk civilized."

Sparks kind of surprised that Penny isn't scared by the knifes says, "Okay." Sparks puts the knifes away and releases Penny.

Penny starts walking the same direction, "I knew you weren't going to kill me."

"How did you know?"

"From what I've heard, you seem like a pretty smart guy and you know you need me to get to Dash."

"Ya. I do. Are you really going to take me to him?"

"Yes but first I'm getting some berries for him."

"hmm... okay but right after we get the berries we go straight to him."

"Fine by me. I wasn't planning anything after that anyways."

"Okay but don't try anything."

"You really have trust issues don't you?"

"I have to, especially someone who is on Sparky's side."

"Well don't worry. I'm here on my own free will and I'm kind of done with Sparky. Now I'm not going against her but I don't want to work with her either. Plus Dash is seriously injured an-"

"What happened to Dash?" Sparks interrupted.

Penny walks over to a bunches of berries in the bush. She picks up a berry. She squeezes it in her hands and it releases the berry juice easily. She picks a few. She hands a few to Sparks and picks a few more. She walks the other direction back to the nest. She finally asks, "What did you say?"

"What happened to Dash?"

Penny looks down, "Please understand that I never want to hurt him and that I would never hurt him. He was going to get some berries for me and he was attacked by a skunktank and a scrafty. He was saved by a dewott and a servine. Servine was the one to tell me all this information."

"So you weren't there?"

"Nope, wish I was though."

"You've really grown close to Dash haven't you?"

"Ya."

"He talked about you."

"Awww."

"We may just know each other and you may work with my sister but you seem like a nice girl and if Dash can trust then I think I can trust you."

"Meh. Some say I'm nice. Some say I'm mean."

"Isn't that true with all of us?"

"Yep. Well I see the nest. He'll be in there. Please don't touch him. He is in a lot of pain."

Penny walks in with Sparks. Dewott and servine stop Sparks from seeing Dash. Penny looks at them and says, "He's okay." She pushes her way in between dewott's and servine's wall with Sparks following. Servine and dewott looks at each other with a worried look. Sparks walks with Penny to Dash still laying down in the bed watching the ceiling. Dash looks at Penny then Sparks. Sparks smiles and says, "Long time no hear."

Dash doesn't answer. "When you weren't contacting me anymore I was beginning to think that you were dead or you were planning something with Sparky."

"He can't talk." Penny said, "He also can't move very well."

"Ah. So darkness poison has control of his body right now."

"Darkness poison?" Penny asked.

"Darkness poison is very deadly. You get it when you have too much darkness in your body to control. You can force darkness on someone by using dark magic. You can light poison too but with light magic instead. It will shut down sight, feeling, hearing, talking, smelling, and it will even make you unconscious. It is very hard to fight. Your body has to reject the excess dark or light magic and it's very difficult for the body to do. If you never experienced dark or light magic, you can't recover. Even if you do know one of them, you still probably won't recover. Dash is very lucky to wake up and be able to hear. He already beat the odds by waking up and hearing."

"Okay." Penny turns to the dewott and servine, "Why didn't you tell me about this darkness poison?"

Dewott and servine hesitate. They both exchange looks at each other and servine finally said, "Well um you see um, you didn't ask."

"We've been talking about Dash's condition for many days and you never mentioned anything about it and Sparks was here for a few minutes and he already explained it to me."

Dewott and Servine look at each other. After they exchange a few whispers in front of the impatient Penny and dewott finally said, "I think it's time to tell you guys who we are."

Penny folds her arms. Dash painfully and slowly turns his head towards everyone. Sparks turns towards dewott and servine.

Servine starts to speak, "Well you remember that skunktank and scrafty that attacked Dash? Well, you see, they are our enemies. They attacked Dash as a way to weaken us. If Dash dies, our enemy wins. Sparks, I know you are in this war with Sparky but this is more dangerous then your little family dispute."

Sparks looks at the Servine with a curious look, "How do you know about Sparky and how do you know about the war Sparky and I are in?"

Servine folds her arms, "You haven't figured it out yet?" She walks over to Penny, "I'm you. I'm Penny."

Dewott walks over to Dash, "And I'm you. I'm Dash."

"Just keep calling us dewott and servine. Our cover can't be blown."

Dash, Sparks, and Penny all are in shock. Penny unfolds her arms, "B-b-but how?"

Servine replies with, "We're from the future. The skunktank and the scrafty are also from the future. They tried to cripple us by killing Dash."

"You're just toying us." Sparks said, "The dewott doesn't have Dash's blue line on his face."

Dash really wanted to say something too but right now he's trapped in thoughts, "Maybe I lose the blue dash when I evolve."

Servine walks over to dewott, "It's still there." Servine rubs dewotts cheek and reviles a blue line. "Nothing a little make-up can't cover up."

Sparks has nothing else to say. Dash, Penny, and Sparks stay there puzzled. Servine carefully reapplies the make-up on dewott's cheek to cover the line.

Dewott finally said, "Look, it wasn't our idea to come back here, when we got wind that they were going to attack Dash we knew that we needed to chase them and protect Dash."

Sparks looks at Dash and said, "Because if Dash died you wouldn't exist anymore?"

"No. That's the most told and wrong myth. It's very common. What really happens is all the things I did after my past dies and will not happen and I can't alter anything. I also can't go farther in the past to prevent the event from happening. You are forced to follow the rules of time and you can't even change anything in the time that you're in. So I will exist only to myself but not to anyone else."

Dash looks at dewott. "That's why they saved me!" Dash thought. Dash really wants to speak. He trying hard to say a word. Sparks looks at Dash realizing that he is fighting the darkness poison to do something. Penny, dewott, and servine are too distracted by the conversation to notice Dash's struggle even though they remain silent in order to gather thoughts. Sparks stands there wishing he could help. Dash fights this seemingly impenetrable dark wall. He slams his body into the wall over and over into the wall just to speak. He now know what he controls and this wall isn't one of them. Dash hits the wall, gets up, and tries again. This wall is tiring him out though. This mental fight is the first major battle Dash has experienced. Sure fighting against two decisions are hard but this is not a mental battle with himself but with something that he has never faced before nor seen before. After many more hits into this unbroken wall, he gets up very slowly and he decides one more time. He backs up. "All or nothing" He runs and slams his body into the wall. He looks up. The wall still stands. He looks down. "Have I been defeated? Can I ever talk again?" He stands up, tired and weak. He looks at the wall again. This time he notices a small little crack. He shakes his head. Looks at it again. "It's definitely there." He puts his hand on his belly. He looks down. "No scalchop..." He remembers that servine took it, probably to show Penny that he was seriously injured. So in this battle, he doesn't have it. He looks behind him and sees his heart scale. "Penny put this on my chest to give it back." He grabs the heart scale. He looks at the crack in the wall. He looks back at the heart scale. He puts part of the heart scale in the crack. He slides the heart scale as far left as it goes then as far right as it goes. Dash hears some of the loose pieces hitting the ground. "This is working!" Finally when he finished damaging the wall by means of the heart scale Dash cleans the heart scale with his spit and hand and puts it away. He looks through the crack. He can't see much on the other side. With his tired body he slowly drags himself away from the wall for another attack on it. He runs but this time he puts everything he has left into the attack including the heart scale. He rams into the crack. He falls backwards and rubs his shoulder. He looks at the crack again the crack has grown. He puts his arm through the grown crack and starts to move it around in the crack getting all the loose debris. The wall cracks even more. Dash hears the wall creaking. Dash taps the wall and the glass wall shatters into many big pieces. Dash watches as the pieces fall towards him but he's too tired to run. The pieces fade away into nothingness as they fall. "My body and mind must be rejecting the pieces." Dash looks pass where the wall used to be in his tired mind. He sees that there is nothing there but space. Space to move around in.

Dash wakes up from mental battle and he hears Penny saying his name and shaking his body. "I must of passed out" Dash thought.

"You okay?" Penny asks.

Dash painfully and kind of unclear said, "Ya."

"You sure?"

Dash less painfully and more clear said, "I'm doing better than yesterday, but it still hurts."

"And you're able to talk now." Penny smiles.

"Ya. It hurts to talk though. What a battle it was just to be able to talk."

"Can you move?"

"If I focus hard enough and if I can endure the pain then yes but because of that I can only do small movements."

"Ah."

"So you heard all that was said?" dewott asked.

"For the most part Dash," Dash said. Dash looks at dewott's scalchops which reminds Dash that his is missing. "Do any of you know where my scalchop is?"

Servine walks up to Dash. She has the scalchop on her chest. She grabs the shell and puts it on Dash's belly after handing Penny the heart scale that was originally making its home on Dash's chest. "There you go." Servine said.

Dash looks at his long lost shell. "Thanks." Dash pauses, "Without this I'm defenseless."

Penny looks at Dash, "No. You're not defenseless without your shell. Just because a warrior goes into battle with weapons doesn't mean he's any stronger. Those with heart and pride have the most powerful weapon of all."

Sparks, dewott, and servine nod in agreement.

"But, maybe the weapon makes the warrior."

"No warrior always has their weapon on them."

"I guess."

"What wrong Dash?"

"I've been laying in bed for the past few days and you all have taken care of me. What have I done for you guys? Nothing." Dash pauses to relieve some of the pain of talking. He starts talking again, "Nothing. Why do I deserve to be cared for? Why? Why? I don't know. I've done nothing for you. Nothing."

Sparks replies, "You've done more than you realize."

Dash doesn't reply.

"You've helped Scouter and I complete some missions."

"Unnecessary missions."

"But missions that you helped with. Everything we do can't always be necessary."

"Ya. It's not necessary to take care of me."

"No but we want to."

Penny walks to the group of berries her and Sparks had picked and starts making juice.

"Sparks, do you really want to?"

"If it was Scouter I would want to help. If it was Cyndaquil, I wouldn't help him. Since it is you, I will help."

"Thanks Sparks."

Penny walks back with berry juice on her hands to Dash with a cup of berry juice. Dewott slowly yet painfully sits Dash up for the drink. Dash holds in the pain by not screaming. Dewott holds him in sitting position. Penny holds the cup to Dash's mouth and slowly pours the warm berry juice in Dash's mouth. Dash drinks the real juice. This was the one action he found that wasn't extremely painful to him. He could deal with the pain of talking but drinking was less painful. He consumes the juice until the cup is dry. Penny pulls the cup away. Penny tells the dewott to keep him sitting up. She puts the cup away. She walks back to Dash and tells him that dewott is going to let go of him and she wants him to stay sitting up. Dash slowly nods. Dewott holds him. Penny says, "Anytime. Don't give him any signal that you're going to do it but be ready to catch him. Any-" Dewott releases Dash in the middle of Penny talking. Dash fights and fights to stay up even though it is very painful and tiring. Dash's body finally gives out and he falls backwards and dewott catches him.

Dash looks at Penny and asks, "Why did you have me do that?"

"To prove to not only me but to you too that you're not as weak and defenseless as you're making yourself seem." Penny answered, "Yes, this is a simple but to a guy with an injury like yours, it is very hard and you have to be strong in order to do it. I'm just proving to you that you're not as weak as you think. If you truly try, then you should be able to do it."

"That's how I started speaking. I tried."

"Yep, you were so focused on what you wanted that you weren't going to stop until you could speak. You didn't care what the costs were to speaking, you wanted to speak so badly. Turns out that this time the cost were few and minor so the risk you took was a great risk. Sometimes they're not always that way."

"Ya... I really didn't think about the costs honestly."

"That's okay, sometimes the best route to take is to not think about it and just do it. We can over think stuff and scare ourself out of the right actions."

"Ah."

Penny turns away and puts the cup away. Dash scans the room at every one. Sparks, dewott, and servine all exchange looks at each other. Sparks soon asks dewott and servine, "If you're future Dash and Penny then why did you try to stop me from entering? You do know me."

Nether dewott or servine answer.

"Why?"

They don't answer.

"Why?" Sparks said with an annoyed voice.

Servine finally answers, "Well, you see, we thought that it was best that you didn't know this stuff. You'll be put in great danger if you follow us."

"Follow you where?" Sparks asked.

"We can't tell you right now."

"Why not?"

"Because we're not ready to go there yet."

"You waiting for Dash to recover?"

"Yep."

There is a still silence in the air. Dash starts to rest his eyes. The wind is all that is causing the noise out of the house. The trees are shaking from the cold air. Dewott, servine, Penny, and Sparks all look at Dash resting his eyes. Sparks leaves the nest to go to sleep. Penny, servine, and dewott one by one start going to their respective beds and go to sleep. Dash opens his eyes one more time to see everyone asleep. Dash painfully changes position in his bed and goes to sleep himself.