Ch 46: Answers

It was the morning after the guardians raided Saffron city and rescued Delia. The Kanto army's plan went off as planned, their rangers secured the explosives and allowed the the air cavalry to move in and liberate the city from team rocket.

The aura guardians also found their captured brothers and liberated them as well. The group was now in the Saffron city guardian guild.

A few guardian healers were looking at Delia, Alexa, and the newly freed guardians.

The guardian healer took one final look at Delia with his aura vision.

"Alright Delia you're going to be fine. You're just a little dehydrated, he didn't give you too much water did he?"

"No." Delia said.

"You're safe, that's all that matters." Felix said before he took Delia by the shoulders and kissed her.

After Felix withdrew he looked down.

"I should have killed that bastard 22 years ago. Next time I'm going to kill him." Felix said.

"Fraid you won't get the chance Felix." Paul said as he walked in.

"What are you talking about?" Ash asked.

"Giovanni is dead."

"What?" The whole group said.

"One of our guardians found a secret passageway in the Silph tower. The passageway lead to a chamber where they found Giovanni's body, or what was left of him. He said it was bloody, whoever killed him had a lot of hate for him. The wounds were also consistent with that of a hidden blade."

"Seir, he would have been the other one who could have done this, but why?" Lucy said.

"He's dead. He's actually gone." Delia said feeling like a great weight was lifted off her.

"Dad, you said his name is really Kal and that he's suppose to be dead. Did you know him?" Ash asked.

Felix sighed.

"Kal Tarven was once my closest friend aside from Lucario. Kal was like the brother I never had, I first met him when we were both 6 years old and started our guardian training. Kal's parents were killed by a man who broke into his house, he ran away before the robber was killed by police when they arrived. He was only 5, he spent a year on his own in the wild living with only pokemon. That was when his future master found him and saw he could use aura."

"He lived on his own with just pokemon." Red said.

"When we started training together we became close friends. Despite what happened to him at such a young age he was one of the happiest people I've ever met. He loved pokemon more than anyone I've ever seen in my life. He excelled at hand to hand combat and aura training, the best of all trainees our age. Despite this, Kal told me he never wanted to end another human's life, he said that if the man who killed his parents were alive he'd find a way to forgive him. He truly believed all life was precious. When we became guardians, he never once killed anyone." Felix said.

"What happened to him then? He's become a monster, he controlled pokemon using aura." Ash said.

"I thought he died 22 years ago, at the hands of Giovanni, the day I rescued your mother from him. I felt his aura no more" Felix said.

"Something happened to him there that changed who he was. It would have changed his aura." Lucy said.

"But what happened to him?" Ash asked.

That is when Felix looked up.

"I know what happened to him, back in the tower, he showed me a memory of what really happened that day from his perspective."

"What happened to him?" Ash asked.

"Let me tell you." Felix said.

Begin flashback

It was over 20 years ago in an abandoned mining shaft tunnel. Standing there were several unconscious rocket grunts. The grunts' uniforms looked different. Instead of black they were white.

Standing over the grunts were a pair of aura guardians. One wore a blue and black robe jacket, the other a blue and brown.

Under his hood the one in blue and black was Felix. He was much younger, in fact he almost looked exactly like Ash.

He had a rocket Sergeant on his knees with his hidden blade to his throat.

"Felix no!" The other Guardian shouted as he grabbed Felix's arm.

"Kal, he shot at Lucario, he tried to kill him. I won't let this go unanswered." Felix said. Not only did he look just like Ash, he sounded like him too.

"He's just a weak man, killing him won't solve anything." The other guardian said.

Younger Felix retracted his hidden blade and smashed his fist into the man's face, knocking him out.

The group saw the other guardian's face. it was Seir.

He had black hair.

Beside him was a large Blastoise.

"Felix you're in your early twenties and you've already killed 3 men. I'm worried about you."

"Our ancestors ended far more lives."

"Only because they had to."

"I didn't murder those 3 men."

"I know, but we're in a different age now Felix. We can do our work without killing anyone."

"You know why we're here. Team rocket is running an illegal black market pokemon ring. Poaching them from innocent, and wild from their mothers to sell like toys. If I find who is running it, I can't make any promises." Felix said.

The two walked down the shaft with their pokemon beside them.

"Felix you're my oldest and closest friend. We've been beside each other since we were children. I want to help you, every mission we go on you just get more and more intense. It's like you've given up on the world."

Felix sighed.

"I don't know Kal. We've been guardians since we were 16, when we were trained I believed we could save everyone and protect people. 6 years now we've been guardians and I see we can't. No matter how many bad men we stop, there just seem to be more."

"Felix, there have always been bad men in this world, and there always will be. We do this because others won't. We can make a difference for some and we do."

"Blast!" His Blastoise shouted.

"See Shelly agrees with me."

Felix's Lucario put his hand on his partner's shoulder as Felix turned to him.

He nodded as Felix sighed.

"Maybe you're right."

The 4 kept walking until they reached a large shaft area. They looked down and saw at least a dozen rocket grunts with Nidorinos beside them. All around the grunts were cages filled with various types of pokemon all looking very sad and afraid.

"My Reduka, look at them all." Kal said.

"Look it's the one running all of this." Felix said as he pointed to the other end of the chamber where a large screen was set up.

Standing in front of it was a man and a woman wearing rocket officer uniforms.

One was none other than Giovanni as a much younger man. They saw the woman standing next to him with long light brown hair and amber eyes.

Young Felix looked at the woman closely.

"No, it can't be."

"Felix do you know that woman?" Kal asked.

"Yes, her name is Delia. She and I knew each other in Pallet town back before I began my training. We were close friends, we played together all day. Then my father took me off to start training, she cried the day I left. I can't believe she's in team rocket, she was always such a good person who loved pokemon."

The screen lit up and showed an older woman wearing a business like attire sitting in a chair.

The woman resembled Giovanni in some ways.

"So my son, how goes your operation?" The woman asked.

"It goes well mother, we've poached plenty of pokemon and sold plenty." Giovanni said sounding proud.

The woman turned to young Delia who looked slightly frightened.

"What about you my future daughter in low, how do you think the operation is going?"

"Well, we've sold 20 this week and made 100,00 thousand." Delia said before Giovanni's expression changed.

"Only 100,000. Well my son it appears there is room for improvement. Let me know when you do." The woman said before the screen went blank.

Giovanni turned to Delia with an enraged expression before he smacked her across the face.

"You stupid bitch! 100,000 , that's nothing!".

"I'm sorry I." Delia pleaded

"You've been freeing them again haven't you!"

"I'm sorry my love I could deal with operating the business on the outside, but this being here seeing what we really do. It's not right." Delia started before Giovanni smacked her across the face again and knocked her to the ground.

Young Felix and Kal as well as their pokemon gave disgusted looks at Giovanni.

"I'm going to stop this, now." Young Felix said.

"Wait, we have to be smart about this. Giovanni probably has more grunts hidden around here. We need to move in with stealth." Kal said.

"We need to stop him now!"

"You think I want to keep watching this, but she's a member of team rocket. We'll save her yes, but we need to be smart about this. Remember what happened the last time you acted out of haste Felix , with those Seel poachers at the Seafoam islands. You were almost forced from the brotherhood."

Young Felix sighed as Lucario put his hand on his shoulder.

" Will never forget the day I acted like a fool. I got you shot, I got Paul shot, and I got Lucario shot. The day my father looked at me as a failure to my bloodline. This isn't the same thing." Felix said.

"Felix please, don't do this." Kal said.

Lucario and Felix both looked at Delia as she was beat by Giovanni.

Lucario looked at Felix and nodded.

"I'm sorry Kal. But we've made our decision." Felix said before he leapt down with Lucario beside him.

"No!" Kal said as Shelly tried to grab them.

"Rocket!" Felix shouted.

Giovanni and the others turned to him.

"Felix?" Delia said.

Felix and his Lucario rushed forward and smashed their way through any rocket grunt of Nidorino.

Kal and Shelly leapt down and joined the fight, easily dispatching any grunts and Nidorino Felix and Lucario missed.

Another dozen grunts ran in and engaged Felix as Lucario turned to him.

"Go! Save Delia!" He shouted.

Lucario sprinted at Giovanni as he took out two Pokeballs and let out a pair of Rhydon.

Mega Lucario leapt over and slammed his fist into one's face, immediately knocking him out.

The other Rhydon tried to smash Lucario with Hammer arm only to have his arm knocked aside by Lucario's foot. Lucario when came in with another power up punch, hurling the Rhydon back.

Before anything else could happen Lucario was hit in the back by a powerful electric shocker.

"Lucario!" Felix shouted as he did everything he could to get through the grunts.

"Kal help!" Felix screamed as Kal and Shelly did their best to fight through the rocket reinforcements.

"Come on Shelly we need to save Lucario!" Kal shouted.

"Oise!" Shelly roared as she smashed two Nidorino with her massive fists.

Lucario fell to his knees as Giovanni smiled and took out a large 50 caliber pistol and a magazine.

"Delia, see this. These are specially designed bullets, fired from this gun they could go through an Aggron's head. No doubt a Lucario." He said.

"No!" Felix shouted as he used aura to hurl 4 grunts back before another 4 took their place.

"But what better way for you to prove your loyalty to me, kill him." Giovanni said.

"No." Delia said.

"No?" Giovanni said before he grabbed Delia and smashed the gun across her face.

"You will do this , now!" He screamed.

Delia looked into Lucario's eyes as he was on his knees. Her eyes began to tear up.

"No." She said before Giovanni smacked her across the face again.

"Stupid bitch, I'll deal with you later." Giovanni said before he aimed the gun at Lucario's head.

Just before he could pull the trigger , Giovanni was hurled back by an pulse of aura that also knocked the gun out of his hands.

Felix sprinted to him and slammed his forearm across his face and prepared to impale him with his hidden blades.

Just before he could Delia grabbed him.

"No, Felix please." Delia said.

"You're defending him?" Felix asked.

"He's a monster, but he's still a person. Even he doesn't deserve to die." Delia said.

Felix looked down at Giovanni before he helped Lucario up.

He then turned to Delia.

"Delia, what happened to you? Why are you in team rocket?"

Delia gave a shameful look.

"I don't know, after you left I was so lonely. It was a hole I was never able to fill. Ever since then it was like my life was going no where. That's when Giovanni found me, he offered me a job at his company and I thought it was a way to finally move forward in my life. He then started charming me and I thought he was" Delia started before Felix took her by the shoulders and kissed her.

Delia's face turned red.

"Uh Felix, not to interrupt you guys. But we've got pokemon to free." Kal said.

"Right." Felix said sweat dropping.

That was when Giovanni got up carefully. He saw an old rail car in front of Felix.

"Bye bye." He said before he kicked the cart forward. The cart smashed into Felix, Delia, and Lucario, knocking them into the cart and carried them out of the room.

Giovanni fired at a pile of old tnt near the exit tunnel. The explosion caused the tunnel area to cave in.

"Felix!" Kal shouted.

"Oise!" Shelly shouted.

Giovanni got up and smiled as he turned to Kal. Moments later over a dozen more grunts ran in with 10 Machamps beside them.

"Oh Reduka." Kal said as he mega evolved Shelly.

The two fought valiantly as more and more rocket grunts ran in. Finally after knocking out 13 grunts, 2 finally had Kal restrained with a man holding each of his arms.

Kal saw Shelly was being restrained by 6 Machamp who held her in place.

The two struggled to get free as Giovanni walked over to them.

"So, you guardians come down here. Disrespect me in front of my fiancee, my mother, and my men, and you take my fiancee. You see your problem is you believe there is good in every person. Let me show you what I think of your love." Giovanni said as he walked over to Shelly.

"No! No! No please no!" Kal shouted.

"No, then why did you come here?" Giovanni laughed as he put the gun over Shelly's head.

Kal looked at Shelly's very sad expression as she looked back at him.

Tears began to stream from both their eyes.

"Please, she's everything to me. She's my entire world. I can't live without her, I'm begging you." Kal said.

"Really? Alright then" Giovanni said before he pulled the trigger.

"No!" Kal screamed before Giovanni fired another 2 times.

Kal's head dropped as tears poured from his head.

Shelly's body dropped to the ground as blood poured from her skull.

"Awww, is the guardian sad because his precious little pokemon is" Giovanni started before Kal raised his head.

Giovanni noticed his expression had changed. He had an almost soulless expression with nothing but hate on his face.

"Huh?" Giovanni said.

Seir now unleashed his hidden blades and thrusted them into the throats of the 2 grunts holding him.

"Graaaaa!" He roared before unleashed a wave of aura that hurled all the grunts back. Giovanni got up and saw the carnage. Seir was cutting through his grunts like he was a savage beast.

Giovanni fired the rest of his magazine , but Seir used aura to deflect each bullet. When there was only 2 grunts left Giovanni pushed them into Seir before sprinting off as fast as he could.

Seir plunged his hidden blades into both grunts so hard he lifted them up before hurling them onto the ground.

Seir was now covered in blood and the bloody corpses of his victims.

"Ghaaaaaaa!" He screamed as he dropped to his knees in front of Shelly's corpse.

A wave of aura went out around him that burst each of the poached pokemon's cages open. The pokemon were terrified at what they just saw and all ran off as Kal wrapped his arms around Shelly's body and began sobbing.

Moments later he heard something else. He turned and saw a small Gible in front of him. He noticed the Gible had a large scar over one of its eyes.

"Gible." The small dragon said.

"Well, you're a long way from home aren't you." Seir said as he looked at the Gible's eye.

"Team rocket did that to you didn't they?".

"Gible." The dragon said sounding sad.

Seir wrapped his arms around the Gible and hugged the small dragon.

End flashback

"They killed his partner pokemon." Red said.

"Shelly was a young squirtle when he found her. She and him took care of each other in the wild when his parents were killed. She went with him to the brotherhood. They were closer than any other guardian and pokemon that I have ever seen. It was like they were soul mates, just not in that way." Felix said.

"I couldn't imagine, having the one I loved most taken by a monster like Giovanni." Ash said. In the past he wanted to hate Seir for everything he did. But now he could only feel sorrow for what had been taken from him.

"Shelly, Ash do you think that was the Blastoise back at the pokemon tower?" Serena asked.

"That would explain a lot, Kal must visit her grave a lot." Ash said

"I don't get it though, if Giovanni killed Shelly, why would Kal join team rocket?" Lucy asked.

"Maybe he wanted to get close to Giovanni so he could kill him." Brock said.

"I doubt it, I saw him alone with Giovanni plenty of times." Delia said.

"Me too." Alexa said.

"He could have killed him and laid waste to his officers easily. What was he doing in team rocket?" Felix said.

"Pika!" Pikachu shouted to Ash.

"Pikachu says that Kal must have wanted something Giovanni had." Ash said.

"That would make a lot of sense, he waited until he had Giovanni's trust, then when he found it he didn't need him anymore and got his revenge." Felix said.

"Regardless , he's still a traitor and is more dangerous than ever now. We have to find him." Paul said.

Felix got up.

"I'm going to find him. I don't care if I have to search every inch of Kanto. I'm going to find Kal." Felix said.

"Groouu!" Lucario roared as he nodded.

"Kal was my friend too, I'm going with you." Paul said.

"What about us?" Red asked.

"Son, this is too much for you. I want you to take mother to the main enclave, she'll be safe there." Felix said.

"Alright." Red said.

"What about you Ash?" Korrina asked.

"Well, with team rocket gone I think I'll keep collecting gym badges and working to get into the elite four." Ash said.

"Good luck bro." Red said.

Author's note:

Yeah that was fast I know,

So that's Kal's tragic backstory, the thing is unlike Shay from Assassins creed I wanted to make Kal sympathetic and have a real reason for what he did.

Now idiot shay's "One assassin did something wrong, ALL ASSASSINS MUST DIE" screw Shay.

So we'll be getting back to gym battles now, but rest assured we'll be seeing Kal again before this is over

So until next time please review comment, suggest, or ask(via PM)