We... me and the doctor... met with each other when he came to the door that night. He had been expecting Aria, but when he saw me up and Aria collapse over in a heap, he thought exactly what anyone would about someone my age. That was the most surprising part to me, honestly. {... So young...}

I didn't return his gaze with my own. Mine just constantly looked to the side. I wasn't really thinking about anything. My mind was already made up, so there was nothing to think about.

He crouched down to me on one knee, totally serious as he asked a question I didn't understand. [Are you sure about zhis...?]

While I did finally stare back up at him, I didn't say a word. No. I just thought back to him. {You know I can't understand you. Just think and actually LET me see your thoughts. I can't read as much as my mom anyway, so I'm only gonna see the first thought, if that's what you're worried about.}

With his brows raised, he seemed taken aback... Then closed his eyes and nodded. {Interesting.} And there is was. Wet under reserve. I could finally read him.

With a sigh, I went on. {I want your name, before that.}

He nodded and opened his eyes with a slight smile. {I am called Gundsar Croff. As you might already know, I am zhe director.}

I just nodded my head, simply because I had nothing to express, yet. {Well, I'm Ralina. I'm gonna warn you about one thing to do with my friend Aria here. She might not be as young as you'd wish for her to be. At thirteen, I don't recommend using her. And I don't recommend it for another reason.} I lifted a part of my bangs out of the way of one eye so I knew he'd see me glaring into him. The man named, Gundsar. {You'll pay for it if this succeeds and I'm going to MAKE you pay. Same goes for my mother.}

I could feel his unease after that, even without reading him. It was written on his face in furrowed brows and a slightly opened mouth, as if he were going to say something. He closed His mouth and eyes for a moment, sighing before taking a breath... Then, he opened his eyes again, seeming weary after that. {... Understood. Zhen, I take it you are truly prepared for doing anys'hing...?}

I let my hair drop back into place over my eye, nodding my head. {I have reason to believe you won't try to kill me on purpose. I had a human friend long ago. You don't really remind me anything of him, but I can't say you are as bad as one could be. After all, you spent quite a while tearing into yourself when talking to Aria.}

The human visibly twitched, eying me. {How...?}

{Aria's mind was like an open book a while ago... I got every word of what the two of you talked about out of her.}

That seemed to make him smile a bit, raising a brow. {Vhat a clever child... You-}

"Save it."

He recoiled back as his mind grew silent, even though he couldn't have know what I was saying, vocally.

{Compliments don't change what you have to do to me, so just stop trying to stall. I know that's what you're doing.}

A pause ensued... Then, he nodded his head. {Perhaps I vas attempting to forget. You are quite a small one. I hadn't s'hought I'd stoop so low. But zhen... here ve are.} He rose up to his feet and stood high over me before turning his back to me. {I von't vaste zhis chance you are giving me.}

Dropping my gaze frontward, I walked beside him as he began to lead us down a long, massive hallway, gray in color with a red stripe down the low middle of the walls. Light came from over head to brighten the way, arranged in long bars of cold white. I was fully aware of how much larger he was than me. And yet, it felt like I was walking next to any other person. {I have no idea why, but I don't doubt that... I should, because I just can't bring myself to like you, no matter how you talk.}

While he walked at my pace, he chuckled a little, smiling with this guilty furrow in his brow as he shook his head. {It may be for zhe best. I am quite zhe terrible fazher...} His feeling never changed, so it was pretty easy for me to figure out what he was experiencing. Guilt.

With a huffed laugh, I conceded this. {Yeah, well, I don't know anything about Fathers. I don't even know who mine was. Or even what. So, I can't tell you how bad you did. I can at least tell that you cared, though...}

For a while, I saw nothing come from him as we walked. Eventually, he did think something, though. {I suppose I did...} I felt a small bit of warmth from off of him. I guess what I said comforted him in some way.

You've been wanting to ask me why I never tried to run away that entire time I was outside of the cell... I could tell by the almost silent humming around me that whatever kept our moves from working was still in effect. Humans didn't have any, so I guess they didn't need to worry. It was a pokemon specific crux. I guess it would have been funny to see him get electrocuted, too, though. Then again, they probably made it to where that wouldn't happen... maybe. I can't tell you if that would have worked on a human, since I never got to see a human around at the one time I did try to use a move... We went off topic, though.

After that, we had nothing left to think about. We just walked until we arrived at a very confusing, gray chamber. Machines were everywhere. Some were large, some small, some... complicated to explain. In the center of the far wall was this massive, clear capsule affixed and suspended over a metal, complex machine that served as a base for it. It was hooked up to either wires or hoses of varying size that extended to almost every machine in the room. It also had three ports on either side with tiny tubes connected to them. I don't know what they were for.

There were quite a few scientists here. One of which just happened to be the first one we saw. The unnamed woman that seemed to care what happened to us. She was the first to notice us and at first it looked like she was very distraught to see us... or more specifically, me. Everyone else stared at Gundsar before me.

While Gundsar went on to talk to everyone else, she wouldn't stop looking at me with the saddest frown while I saw what was on her mind. {Why you... Oh, why did it have to be you...} It irritated me, because I think she'd made peace with the thought of having to do what they had to do with me to Aria.

I won't lie... I was staring daggers into her. {Why NOT me? Would it have been any better doing this to Aria? Or my Mother, maybe?}

She gasped audibly and looked at me with pained shock. She hugged her clipboard to her chest and shut her eyes, taking deep breaths. {I-I... I didn't know you were... I-I'm so sorry...}

Again... I won't lie... I enjoyed making her feel that way, darkly enough. I'm sort of disgusted with it, now, because yeah. She had been the only one to care about us so deeply, first. It wasn't right.

I guess it ultimately didn't change anything. For all I know, she probably worked better trying to prove something and I still didn't really know what that was.

The "good doctor", as Aria called him, looked down at me after it seemed like everyone was clear on what had to be done. {Okay. Get atop zhe far machine and do not panic. It vill be a frightening s'hing, but eventually you shall simply slip out of consciousness.}

I didn't immediately do anything, instead taking a moment to breathe and close my eyes... before I sighed and opened them to walk forward, passed the white coats. All the while, I put out my thoughts, laying them bare on the open air, in case my mother or Aria was awake. {If either of you can see or hear this... please, don't be mad at one another. I did this for you both. I couldn't stand the thought of potentially losing either of you. I'm sorry I gave you that crack on the head, Aria. I knew you were going to try and spare me this, but I couldn't let you do what might kill you. And I'm sorry, Mom. I might have done the worst thing in the world to you by making this choice.} It was for any surrounding pokemon to hear. I excluded the humans, because they didn't need to hear that. I guess it would have been worth seeing how they'd handle a little extra voice in their head, but I digress.

If either heard it, they didn't think for me to hear it. Maybe that was just how much it hurt. I know at least one of them could have heard it.

I eventually got in front of the machine and climbed onto the base, rising to my feet as I turned to look around at the scientists faces. One thought, {Astounding. How did Professor Croff get her to do this so willingly?} Another thought, {Please, let this be the one.} One last thought went something like, {This is it. He finally did it. Now, we must succeed and win our future.}

I silently wondered how many times that last guy thought that to himself. It made him almost seem like a poetic idiot.

Gundsar came over to me and knelt down, reaching into the floor of the machine and pulling out a see-through mask of some kind with a black strap. It was connected to a clear wire that lead back down into the base with a stretching strap. He presented it to me as I took it in my hands and read his mind of what he wanted me to do. {Fit zhis onto yourself. It is meant to cover zhe mouth and nose and allow you to breathe. The strap fits around your head to keep it from falling off.}

I eyed the strange thing for a moment, but decided not to stall. I struggled with it a bit, being I had no fingers, but I fit the strap around my head and let the mask secure itself to my face. It was indeed pushing air into me.

Smiling briefly before he returned to a blankness, he looked down at the "floor" beneath me again and pulled out something else fitted to a clear wire and this small, plastic machine. It was a sort of needle.

I wasn't afraid of them, so don't worry. I just raised my brows at it, not that anyone could see that through my hair.

He looked at me again. {Zhis one, I must do. I vill be as quick as possible.}

It made me uneasy that I didn't get control of that, but it wasn't like I would know what to do with it. Giving him a sigh, I nodded my head and waited.

A second woman who's face I can't remember came to his side with a tray and knelt down beside him, presenting him a wet, white cloth of sorts as he nodded without looking her way and took it from the surface. He took th-...

... Whoa. Hang on. Why is your face white? ... Uhm... Do you want me to just skip this? I get the feeling YOU are the one that's squeamish. ... Okay, then I will.

After the uh... You know what was put in, he took a breath, standing up as he walked over to the machine beside me. He hit a series of square in, I guess, some form of password. The tube overhead finally, slowly descended down over me as I looked up with a gasp. I watched it lower into the crevasses in the base, sealing me inside when it locked in place with a -gchunk- and low frequency ring from the glass. I stared to the side of me at the professor, seeing if I could still get a thought out of him. It came. {Zhis vill vork. I haff never been more certain of our genetic sequence zhan I am now. Zhere are no longer any missing genes to vorry about. Even so, zhe next steps shall all need to proceed smoothly under constant supervision.} He paused in whatever he was doing with that machine and blinked... Then, he looked at me. {Zhe tube shall fill vith preservational fluids momentarily. Do not fear. It vill act as a nullifier for zhe need of food and water, as well as eliminate harmful bacteria wherever it lives. Zhere is no need to panic.}

The first thought I had of that while I remained blank and turned to face frontward I excluded him from hearing. {Fun fun. So, either it does what it should or I'm gonna drown.} ... I chuckled a little into a smile, even with the mask obscuring much of it. {Jeeze. When did I start to get so cynical?}

Suddenly, the capsule began to fill with turquoise liquid, beeps sounding out every second. I looked down at my feet as it quickly flooded over them in what felt like no time. No surprise, considering my size.

During the time it took to fill up around me, I constantly kept thinking of mom... of Kimmy... and of Aria... I wondered what this was going to feel like and if they were okay. I wondered when it would be when I finally wake up and how they might look different to me. I didn't know if I'd ever see my sister in particular again, because I'd never been out of the forest and somehow doubted Teleport would be enough...

The cool liquids washed over me in a matter of a single minute, even if the capsule was only half empty. My body tingled with the oddly refreshing sensation as I lost the floor beneath my feet, floating freely. I hadn't closed my eyes yet, but it felt so absent that I barely registered I was surrounded in the water-like substance. It warmed slightly over time, like someone turned up the temperature. It was probably the perfect temperature all-round.

This was about when I started to feel very tired and my eyes grew very heavy. I don't really know what made me fight it back for as long as I could, but I did. I fought off sleep for as long as I could, but before too much time passed, I started to hear the weirdest thing. Let go... Relax yourself... Sleep... I don't know if that was really my mother's voice or if it was just my head going fuzzy with what I wanted to hear.

Reality was blending in with the dreaming world. I know the next thing had to be me seeing things that weren't there, because suddenly, every person there became dust and drifted away... Then the floor was next to dust and flake away, revealing white... After that, I realized I was back outside of the capsule and falling away from what remained of the scene... Falling into the light as I saw the room above... get eaten by what looked like some weird worm-like pokemon with a major horn problem... Or maybe it was just some weird worm, period...

Yeah. Okay. I was definitely messed up, at that point...