Author's Note: And...this is the promised chapter. After reading it, I hope you will think differently about Blood the absol, and about who he truly is. I realize that up until now, he has basically been a side character, but the truth is that he is a very complicated pokemon with a very complicated past. I hope that this chapter will help you readers understand who he truly is, and answer some of your questions about the mysterious past that he has buried until now. This is the chapter which will reveal the truth about him. This is the chapter about Blood.

P.S. This chapter is a bit longer than the previous longest chapter, which was Boulder Mountain (ah, the memories of writing that!). However, I think you will enjoy it, because I put my best effort into writing it. In fact...I chose to release this chapter on my birthday because it is my birthday present to you readers. Truly...I hope you enjoy reading it, and if you did, feel free to leave a review to tell me your favorite part.

Out came Blood from behind one of the trees.

I was frozen - I didn't know what to say as he slowly approached me. Despite the snow that often sent me stumbling, he moved with elegant grace, as if not a thing in the world could bother him. And I would have believed that as well, but I knew all too well that Blood was not invincible: his weakness was his past.

He stopped a dozen feet away from me, his white coat shimmering in the moonlight, his expression giving away nothing. I couldn't tell if he was deciding what to do with me or if he was simply asking himself the same questions I'd asked myself when I stopped to eat the berry: why had I followed him? Why had I chosen to leave the safety of my bed and the base, going out without anyone to help me if I needed it, just to follow in his steps without knowing where they went or what was lying at the end?

We stood still for several minutes, staring at each other. Not once did Blood move...not once did his mysterious expression change. In those moments, I truly felt distant from him - I couldn't even begin to understand him or what he was thinking, even when we had trained together for months and endured more than most pokemon would ever dream to live through.

Then, before I knew it, I was running. I covered the distance between the two of us with shocking speed, my feet shoving through the snow, my arms held as wide as I could make them. Before I knew what I was doing, I'd embraced Blood's neck, sobbing for joy.

"I was- Blood- I was so worried about you and- you're safe- and it makes me so relieved-" I choked out between sobs. Blood stood as still as the mountain beneath our feet. He made no move to push me away or comfort me - he simply let me sob into the downy fur of his chest.

Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, I looked up and thought I saw a faint smile.

"Minun...I was hoping you would come. And you did. Very few pokemon would do such a thing - indeed, none of the team has, except old Seamus once - and I thank you for your concern." He said, after I'd taken a few steps back and stood, facing him. He looked at me once more, but now he seemed genuinely happy. It was so rare to see him in such a state that tears welled up in my eyes again.

When my tears were long frozen, glistening like dewdrops on my face, Blood turned around to face the far end of the clearing. "Come with me, Minun. I want to show you something."

We made our way across the snow, past the skeletons of trees and boulders topped in a thick layer of white. To my surprise, on the other end of the clearing was a cliff that jutted straight out of the steep slope downwards.

At the edge of the cliff stood a small, round pedestal made of ancient rock that had surprisingly only began to crumble. Blood motioned for me to come closer. Amazed, I stared at the sight - on top of the rock was a small ruby, scattering dazzling red light as the moonlight passed through it. In fact, it almost seemed to shine, radiating a warm, red glow.

But what was truly amazing about the ruby was that it was floating slightly above the rock, slowly spinning as it hovered up and down. Blood smiled as he watched my bewildered face. I had no idea what to say - I'd never seen anything like it before.

"That is my soulstone," Blood explained. "When Ice and I were little, our father, Sun, bestowed upon each of us one. He told us that no matter what happened, our brotherhood would keep us united forever, and that no matter where we are, our soulstones would allow us to connect to each other."

There was a heaviness in Blood's voice as he continued. "I regret to say that it is now my only connection with Ice. It has been many years since I have seen my beloved brother. Since then, he has traveled north...farther north than anyone else has ever been. There are many ancient texts that mention a land where our world ends and another begins. He is on a mission to find that land."

He turned away, and I could see tears in his eyes. "I fear that he may never return. He is a master of the wilderness...among the greatest. His skill has saved him many, many times...but alas, he is not invincible. Someday, he will fall, and my- my brother will be no more."

I stepped forward to comfort him, but he started to walk away from me, towards the soulstone. It seemed like it was getting brighter now by the minute.

"The soulstone is an object of immense power - I have placed it here, on the top of the mountain, for this particular stone draws its source of power from the moon. You are lucky to have arrived this soon - tell me, you departed not long after I did, I suppose? Nevermind. That can be the only possible way. In any case...soon, the soulstone will gather enough energy to become active. Then I will be able to speak to my brother - let us hope all is well with him - before we disappear from each others' lives yet again."

I thought for a while. "Flame told me that you do this once a year."

Blood smiled. "Flame...always the observant one. And he is close - it is a once in a year occurrence, as agreed upon by my brother and I. But when exactly it happens depends on the moon. Only a full moon can fuel our soulstones."

Now there was a faint, shimmering sound - like a howling wind that was barely above a whisper. The soulstone continued to glow brighter and brighter. Blood smiled fondly as he watched it progress.

"It is trying to make contact with my brother's soulstone. And- yes, it looks like it is succeeding. But it will still be a while before it is powerful enough so that we may speak to each other."

The two of us stood, watching and waiting. Finally, Blood padded off to the edge of the cliff where he stopped, looking outwards. I moved over to join him. We sat together, watching the moon, our bodies bathed in its serene glow, the silent beauty of the landscape interrupted only by the muted howling of the soulstone.

"What was Ice like?" I asked tentatively, hoping Blood wouldn't react angrily at my intrusion into his past. But I hoped it seemed reasonable to him, especially since he had already said so much about the two of them as brothers who could never be parted no matter how far they were from each other.

For several minutes Blood stayed silent, and I began to think he wouldn't answer the question. Then he spoke in a low tone that barely covered the immense sorrow in his voice: "He was the best brother I could ever ask for - he was superior to me, yet he did not boast...he was quicker than me, yet he did not use his wits to shame me...he was smarter than me, yet he did not take advantage of my stupidity.

"When I was cowardly, he was brave. When I was in despair, he surged forth with hope and determination. When I was in need, he came to my aid. We were loyal to each other as only brothers could be - never once did he betray me. Never once did he abandon me to death."

Blood seemed to lose his voice, but after a long pause where he seemed to be deciding what to do...he seemed to decide on something, and forced himself to continue. "I wish - I truly do, with all my heart - that I could say the same for myself. But you see, Minun...I cannot. He was my brother, and yet...in a moment of despair, I betrayed him. I left him to die. When he needed me the most, I abandoned him to his fate. I broke the loyalties that only brotherhood could bestow upon me - and had it not been for his extraordinary skill and intuition, he would have died."

Blood looked away - I knew he could not bear to think of it anymore. I didn't know what to say - nothing could comfort him. Nothing could relieve him of his grief. And yet...I still had to try. It was impossible to simply watch as he fell apart.

"Blood- well...did Ice forgive you? At least you deserve that, as brothers-"

Before I could even finish, Blood snarled, leaping onto me and shoving me to the ground. "No, Minun," he said, his fierce glare making me tremble: "You don't understand- I didn't deserve that. Ice forgave me because he understood me better than even I did- he knew that what happened on that fateful day did not truly define who I was. He knew that leaving me forever would forsake the honor of both of us. And so without hesitation, he pardoned me - he said that as brothers, we could not be enemies...as brothers, our fates were forever entwined. We could not be complete without each other."

Never before had I seen Blood so passionate as he was then - he was speaking so powerfully that the whole world would hear of his painful past. It was as if all these years it had been shut inside him, and now he was finally set free.

"Minun, when we first met, I told you that my name was Blood because I was of noble blood, unlike Ice. But Ice was, and has always been, the truly noble one. Many times I have owed my life to him - many times he unhesitantly put his own life in peril to save me from danger. And to think- in the one moment that I had to save him, I did not. For that alone, I should have been exiled from my clan...and if Ice had not been so determined to defend me, I would have gotten what I deserved."

The soulstone was getting so bright that it seemed like the whole clearing was covered in its sparkling red light. But Blood ignored it, pacing around fervently, mumbling to himself. The image of him that I had kept inside of me for so many months had been shattered. Now I saw a side of him that was so alien, so different from who we all thought he was that if I were to try to tell the other team members, they would not believe that it was Blood.

"Blood...what really happened? What do you mean when you said you betrayed Ice?" I asked.

Blood stopped suddenly, and I knew he was thinking about what to say. I knew that he would have no problem remembering what happened. After all...no matter how hard I tried to forget the day Plusle died, I would always see the mysterious egg, the monster as it roared at me, his terrified face right before he was flung into the air, and his limp, lifeless body lying on the dusty ground with almost perfect detail.

"Both Ice and I grew up in the mountains," Blood began. "As I have told you before...our father was Sun. We lived in a clan with several other absol, among them my mother of ancient, royal blood, who led the clan. Of course this is unusual behavior for absol, who are almost always solitary creatures. However, the harsh wilderness and difficult winters forced us to band together to survive.

"Ice and I were inseparable even from the start - our favorite phrase that we would often say in unison went along the lines of: 'Blood and Ice! Brothers to the end!'. We played together all day, whenever we could. Ice would scout new trails among the mountains and we would go hiking, sometimes travelling all the way to the peak. As we grew, Ice and I learned together. We were both trained to hunt from the same absol: an old master named Boulder. We were taught how to battle from our father, and would often challenge other young absol to battles. Often we would win despite their higher levels and better movesets because Ice would devise ways that we could work together to overpower them. He became so good at this that the others all asked him to teach them."

Blood's voice held a tinge of longing as he described his childhood, although he suddenly became more serious. "Although we were happy and content as we grew up, life was not perfect. The mountains are often as wild and unpredictable as the wild pokemon we hunted. In the summer, landslides and flooding often erased many of the trails that Ice and I had hiked on. Earthquakes would send boulders crashing down the slopes. Wild pokemon would move, and we would have to move with them.

"Of course, being disaster pokemon, we were never in any danger since we could sense the events before they happened. But because the mountains are constantly at work, sometimes even changing before our eyes, we were often plagued with an endless sense of impending disasters. I know you will never be able to really understand this, but to an absol this sense of inevitable doom can range from a slight premonition to a feeling so intense and so complete that it renders you incapable of thinking of anything else. Some absol, such as my father, were more sensitive to the feeling, and we relied on them to warn us.

"So when one day my father had a vision of an earthquake on a scale we had never seen before, everyone took him seriously. We prepared to move the whole camp out of the way of the quake. However, it took longer than expected, mostly because some of the absol were very old and did not want to move, among them Boulder. They said that their lives were drawing to an end and it was pointless to keep avoiding death. Both Ice and I pleaded with them to go with the rest of us, but they stubbornly refused."

Blood paused for a moment. I knew from his expression that he found it difficult to retell his past, yet he steeled himself and forced himself to keep going. There was no turning back now. With every word, he was freeing himself from his past.

"Eventually, with the earthquake drawing near, I was ready to give up on them and leave them to the fate that they had chosen for themselves. But Ice was not. And so it was that, with the impending earthquake only two days away, Ice and I went to the gathering of stubborn elders and tried one last time to convince them to come.

"It took a whole night of discussion, but eventually, Ice was able to get a small group to travel back to the new camp on the trail I had scouted. Supposedly we would be able to get out of the danger zone before the earthquake hit, but everything went wrong. The elders argued with each other and couldn't travel as fast as we thought they could...it was as if their determination to die had weakened their strength and will to live.

"Worse, packs of stampeding wild pokemon fleeing the disaster that they just now detected were beginning to swarm through the routes I had marked, blocking us from going through. In their frenzy they often attacked us and the elders, and sometimes we had to fight our way through crowds.

"The most serious mistake came when we decided to take a detour to avoid the swarms. Soon, we were lost, trying our best to determine the direction of the camp and moving towards it, but to no avail. Dead-ends and wrong turns made us lose hours. Soon, the sun was setting, the elders were disgruntled, and after making camp in a gorge Ice and I went desperately scouting ahead to give us the best chance of escaping before the earthquake hit.

"But as fate would have it...none of our preparations mattered. Ice and I...we had fledging senses of disaster, so we failed to predict the earthquake accurately. It struck in the early morning, just before dawn. We had just gotten back from scouting when the ground began to rumble. Little pebbles began to shake, grass trembled...before I knew what was happening, Ice was already waking up the elders, which was no easy task. They were grumbling and bumping around in the darkness as the quake started to get worse. Eventually, we were able to rally them and try our best at getting out of the dangerous area as orderly as we could."

Blood fell silent for a second, his troubled expression illuminated by the gentle rays of the moon. I could see he was trying to compose himself for the next part. I wondered what more could go wrong, but I had a feeling he was about to tell of a disaster worse than anything I had heard so far.

"In our hurry to organize and proceed, neither of us noticed the crumbling rock and loose boulders that the earthquake had unsettled. The gorge sloped downward...we ran at the front, marking the way for the slower elders. The boulders began to slide loose - I...can still see clearly how they tumbled down the slope of the gorge, just narrowly missing us. Minun, I am sure you will be able to relate, as you have fought the relic for so long- although earth and stone do not usually strike, when they do...they are among the most terrifying adversaries, as powerful and unstoppable as nature.

"For all of our battle experience with the other absols, we could not stop the huge boulders as more and more of them began to roll down the slope...gaining speed...overtaking us. To our horror, they crushed several of the elders, who had not thought to look behind themselves and move out of the way. The only thing we could do was to keep running as fast as we could manage, and hope the elders would do the same. Soon, there was a whole landslide right behind us, and giant boulders rumbled down the slope, rolling right by our feet.

"Although Ice was more powerful than I was, I was superior in speed. Quick and alert, I managed to weave past jagged rocks and boulders that had finally come to a rest, blocking parts of the slope. We were almost to the end of the gorge - I could see the valley it emptied into, despite the billowing clouds of dust. Almost to the end - it is where the worst disasters happen, where friendship and loyalty are tested.

"So it should not be a surprise to you, Minun, that it was when we were almost to the end that Ice fell."

For a moment I was confused. What did he mean by "Ice fell"? When I didn't say anything, Blood continued. His voice was heavy and grim. There was a defeated look on his face. Undoubtedly, at that moment, I knew he would give everything if it meant he could change the inevitable - but it was too late.

"Ice very literally fell - one moment we had been getting farther and farther ahead of the landslide, only a few more seconds from being able to escape the quake and the rocks that tumbled after us, threatening to crush us.

"Then the next moment: Ice was sprawled on the ground. Immediately I skidded to a halt, and it was with horror that I saw the huge gash in his left back paw - he must have stepped on one of the jagged rocks that protruded from the ground like spikes." Blood almost seemed to cringe at the image, but I knew the worst was yet to come.

"I had only a few seconds until the rocks would overcome us. Already, the billowing dust was blinding me. I could barely hear Ice's pleas for help over the rumble that filled my ears. To think that we were so close to victory, so close to escaping with our lives! In that one moment- I can still remember with clarity the exact moment the thought came to my head as I saw blood spill out of the injured paw- I knew Ice was doomed.

"Ice was my brother- I could not leave him! Never! I would rather die with him, crushed and destroyed under a force of nature neither of us could control. Let the world know that Ice and Blood were brothers to the end...and not even death could destroy the strength of our brotherhood. Not even death could separate us, and together, not even death we would fear!"

Blood almost shouted those last sentences, his red eyes flaring with passion as he paced around fervently. Then suddenly, he halted. Now his voice was as low as a whisper.

"But no, I did not think those thoughts. Instead, I turned... and I ran. Yes, Minun. I ran! I turned my back on my brother - and ran for my own life! I do not know if Ice saw me disappear into the clouds of dust, for they obscured everything. But I do know that he knew - he knew at that moment that I had abandoned him to his fate. 'Blood and Ice, brothers to the end.' Our old saying, steadfast and true up until that fateful moment. It was the only thing I could think of as I ran away from him, from my own brother. Now Ice was no more...and it was Blood who let him die."

Blood's voice was fierce - his pained expression spoke of crushing grief and guilt beyond what I could even began to imagine. He had just poured out his greatest secret: his past. Now I might began to see who he truly was. Now...I might began to understand.

"In the days afterward, I was overcome with waves of despair, regret, and anger at myself. Twice I thought of exiling myself to some unknown place, never to be seen again. I was broken...I felt like half of me had died. I could never be complete without Ice, and now, because of me, he was gone.

"But I could not bring myself to do so, out of the faint hope that he was somehow still impossibly alive. So when Ice rose from the ashes, staggering into the camp...I was filled with a feeling that even now, I cannot explain. It is like an intense joy, but...there is something more. There is...love, yes. That is the feeling. It is love. Total, unconditional, complete love."

The soulstone was beginning to spin, slow at first, yet gaining speed by the second. At that moment, he seemed to notice it again - he turned towards it, and despite his previous emotion, a longing smile appeared on his face.

"You remind me so much of myself, Minun. Do you know that? Truly, I hope you do. Like me, you have a painful past. Like me, there are certain things that you did not want to talk about. Perhaps it is because you are young...but unlike me, you learned to trust those who you were close to. Gradually, you were able to open up, at least to some extent. You were able to put your feelings into words, and...yes, to be honest, that fascinated me.

"How could you give voice to such pain? How could you explain the sorrow, when nobody else could understand? Nobody else except you, that is. I was...uncomfortable with showing my past to anyone. I was not sure how I would. But after I began to know you, I realized that I was uncomfortable because I refused to trust anyone. I did not know how to tell others because I had never tried to give voice to those thoughts.

"Even though it was difficult at first...by listening to you, eventually I began trying to make order of the turmoil that is my past. I began to see how I could express it. It has been a long, hard journey, and truly, I have been thinking about it for a long time.

"Now, tonight, that dream has become a reality. No longer do I feel burdened. No longer do I feel alone. And it was all because of you, Minun. Maybe you are not the most powerful pokemon. Maybe you are not the quickest, or the most resilient. Neither of us are. But...you have a strength on the inside that makes you truly special, Minun. Remember that."

I was stunned by what Blood had just said, watching as he closed his eyes for a moment, relaxing himself, trying to let go of all the passion and energy he had built up. Blood had always been so mysterious, so solitary, so complete within himself.

Had he really- I almost couldn't believe that for all the time I had known him, and undoubtedly far longer, he had wanted to...express himself? All those times where he refused to say anything about his past...had he simply been unsure how to say it? Had he been waiting for the right time, the right moment, even if he himself wasn't certain when that would be?

In the space of one night, it felt like one Blood had melted away into the darkness, replaced by another that was so different, so...changed that he no longer resembled who he had been before. It was as if forcing himself to relive his past had made him shed the shell he had been trapped inside until now. It was almost awe-inspiring how complicated Blood was - every time I thought I knew who he was, there would always be another layer hidden underneath - and how long it had taken before I could finally began to grasp who he truly was.

"The soulstone is activating!" Blood suddenly exclaimed. An excited glint was in his eye as he rushed around the pedestal, before backing off and carefully lining himself up between it and the moon. "Minun- in just a few moments, I will be able to speak to Ice! Oh...I cannot wait! I- Yes! I can feel his presence! Faint, but it is there, Minun!"

I started to smile, amazed by how excited he was. Maybe recounting his past, and about how Ice had almost died, had made him see Ice in a completely different way than he did before. They were brothers, but...at the same time, they were far beyond that. How else would their soulstones be able to connect to each other, even if they were farther away than they had ever been separated before?

Then a realization came to me: they were just like soul-mates.

They were just like Plusle and I. Blood and Ice, brothers to the end. Nothing could truly separate them from each other. Nothing could break their bonds. That was the only way soulstones could work.

Blood had suddenly gone silent, and his eyes were closed. Suddenly, his face seemed to take on a series of confusing expressions, before he began to mumble to himself for a moment. The soulstone suddenly shot out a blindingly bright beam directly onto the dark spot on his snowy white forehead, and it started to glow a deep, crimson red.

When he opened his eyes again, Blood was more serene and calm than I had ever seen him appear. "Ice is within me, and I am within him," he said solemnly. "We are one and the same, if only for this fleetingly short time." Then he appeared to lapse into deep thought, before returning to his senses.

"He asks if I am well. I reply that yes, I am. Thank you, brother."

Another few moments of silence. It seemed to be some mysterious kind of telepathy. And then: "I told him of a team member I have had for almost a year. His name is Minun. He has taught me a great many things about myself that I did not know."

Finally, Blood seemed to smile. "Now I am telling him that the past bothers me no more. I have told Minun of my past...yes, Minun understands, for his past is painful as well...it is all over now. And- He is congratulating me! Oh...he is happy! Ice is happy! It has been so long since he was pleased... I cannot explain how joyous this makes me feel..."

He started to laugh as he spoke with Ice. It was amazing to watch how sincere Blood was: it was as if Ice was right next to him, and undoubtedly, to Blood he probably was. They spoke about their shared pasts, sometimes jokingly, other times with nostalgia: "Ah...Ice, stop teasing me about that! Really, forget it...no, I don't hate you for that...and yes, father was angry because of that trap we set up for him. To think, we did not even thank him for the soulstones he gave us! Oh, if he could only see us now..."

After what felt like an eternity, Blood seemed to focus again, and spoke to me: "Ice tells me to say to you that he is extremely grateful for the help you gave me. He says...yes, he says he was afraid to speak of the past, for fear that it would injure me. But now...we are free...both of us are free...Minun, there is no way that would express how deep my thanks is for you..."

Eventually, the soulstone's effects weakened, and it was time to say goodbye. I had never seen Blood tear up so much before, but here he was, unashamed as he promised to be safe, and that yes, he would protect Minun, and that he wished the best of luck to Ice...and yes, he really did love Ice, and Ice to him.

After the beam died and the soulstone fell back onto the pedestal with a dull thunk, Blood turned to me and smiled, tears sliding down his snowy white cheeks, an expression of joy I had never seen before on his face. The moon was setting; the first hint of dawn began to show as he walked over to the edge of the cliff and laid down to wait for sunrise.

I wondered briefly why I wasn't tired despite climbing over mountains and listening to Blood as he shed his old self and changed forever, all in the span of one night - and then, as if the thought triggered something in my mind, suddenly the missing exhaustion overcame me.

I staggered several steps, and eventually I managed to make it to Blood. Feeling that I was about to fall over, I was surprised when a force suddenly lifted me up and laid me gently down on the coarse, yet comfortable, fur of his flank.

"Rest, Minun. Times are changing," Blood said simply, his gaze almost hypnotic. I was so tired that I could barely keep myself awake to hear the last of the words: "Soon, the life you and I know will be the past. But because of you, I have realized that one thing has never changed, and never will: Blood and Ice, brothers to the end," he said.

"Thank you, Minun."