Secrets of the Night
DISCLAIMER: I Do NOT own Pokemon!
Chapter 68: Separation and Undertakings
As the nightly confrontation continued between the two heads, the rest of Semira's leaders, or at least the ones who were always present took to the air and watched from a safe distance. Lady Amalia of the Rosette division was on her Tropius, Lord Owen of the Warrior unit was on his Aerodactyl while Grandmaster Vindryl, former head of the Sky Division joined them on his Pidgeot.
"What has gone through their heads this time? And at this time of night!?" The female redhead with venomous violet eyes turned towards her fellow leaders. Her tone was impatient yet filled with strict authority. She crossed her arms as the sleeves of her dark jade kimono billowed in the cold breeze. "If they both suddenly come barging in to my infirmary covered in blood, I'll kick them out. And I don't care if they bleed to death on my lawn."
"Amalia, please." The eldest and largest of the the three raised a patient hand towards the Rosette division head before turning towards the Pidgeot flyer. "Vindryl, shouldn't we stop them? This will surely cause a rift between the Black Scythe and the Sky divisions. They are setting a bad example to the rest."
"I understand your concern, Owen..." The flaxen-haired man with the long blue coat stared at his the form of his Rayquaza coiled around the black tower.
A few hours ago...
Vindryl Aurelius was relaxing in his room when all of a sudden the current Sky division leader Altair stormed inside his room and grabbed the jade orb that he used to mellow the titanic green serpent. All he got were three words: Aeron is gone. It was enough to put the former leader on alert but not enough to stop his successor from snatching his Rayquaza's capsule and rushing out, a menacing vibe rolling off of him.
"Those two are always at each other's throats. Altair will never listen unless he cools his head off and Tristan just do what he wants. Our first priority is to calm our people, especially the juniors. As for the boy, I'll be the one to personally see to Aeron later," Vindryl reassured.
"Are you even certain that this is their usual fight?" Amalia raised a suspicious brow. "Usually, Altair doesn't bring that monstrous dragon of yours."
"He's probably been bottling up all that pent up rage since the Sky Race. Only now, did his thread-like restraint snap," Vindryl Aurelius answered with a slight humorous smile.
"Men and their big toys..." The Rosette mistress muttered to herself.
Vindryl Aurelius sighed inwardly with relief. Despite his humor, he felt things were kind of bad. But he really didn't want things to create a bigger issue. If it could be contained between the two divisions, the better. "Altair is just going to pick Aeron up and fly back home."
"What if Tristan really went through with it? Restoring the boy's memory?" Lord Owen stared at his two fellow leaders who looked back at him in silence. "Tristan is correct to say that the child has the right but those memories aren't worth remembering. What's in the past should be left as it is."
"I realize that, Owen." Amalia nodded. "When Altair sealed them away, it was for Aeron's sake so he could not only he could start a new life for himself but for both of them."
"If he does remember, it would without a doubt cause a rift between Altair and his son. But if he manages to explain, maybe they can make amends," Vindryl added with a sliver of hope in his tone. "Main thing is that Tristan keeps you-know-what under wraps. If Aeron were to learn it is with him. There's no doubt, he'll go after it and who knows what could happen."
"You don't think Tristan would do that..." Amalia said with an uncertain tone, earning equally uncertain looks from the two men.
"All this and the two other heads still refuse to get involved." Owen Ragnorr huffed in contempt.
"Gremio is retired and he hasn't chosen a rightful replacement yet. The Saber unit respects him too much," Vindryl explained. "As for the Gambit division, you know that guy has shown no ounce of responsibility ever since taking up the position. He'll turn up when it really matters." He then sighed deeply, his sky blue eyes glancing at the Rayquaza in the distance. "Thankfully, the seniors and veterans have managed so far."
"Same old story, huh?" Amalia shrugged and flipped her flowing red hair. "Altair and Tristan fight, Altair takes his kid home and we are stuck with crowd control and clean up." The two others nodded. "I was being sarcastic..."
Morning came in lazily. The sound of a Murkrow cawing woke Kiba up from his rather uncomfortable spot in a tree. He groaned before yawning and turned his hazy gaze upwards, looking tiredly for his sleeping companion who was supposed to be perched upside down on the branch above his head, but he wasn't there.
"Noir?" He sat up and felt a weight clinging to his chest. Looking down, expecting it to be the Noibat, his eyes blinked consecutively in disbelief to find a shaggy light brown pokemon with long arms wrapped around his bare chest. "Apparently I've become the clinging post for pokemon," Kiba said with a yawn as he looked around for his companions but apparently they were no where to be seen.
"Awake now, hubby?" Leiko's head emerged from the opposite side of the large tree. Her gaze wandered down and she giggled amusingly at the sight of the pokemon. "Seems you found yourself a blanket for the night. And quite a rarity too. Not many Slakoths are seen around these parts. Must've wandered off from its hiding place during the commotion."
"A Slakoth, huh?" Kiba asked with a tinge of excitement as he looked down at the sleeping form on his chest. Reaching into his pants pockets he reached for one of the two empty pokeballs he still had as he took the shrunken capsule out and had it expand with a click of the trigger. Before Leiko could question him, he bumped the pokeball onto the Slakoth's head as it was surrounded in a bright light and taken into the pokeball where it started shaking. After three shakes, the light died down and a ping sounded, indicating the successful capture.
"What's with the Slakoth? You've grown fond of the blanket?" Leiko asked, eyeing the now inhabited capsule.
"With time I'm sure I will," Kiba said as he released the Slakoth to rest beside him, hanging on the branches. "Slakoth evolve into Vigoroth, right? And Vigoroth don't ever sleep. Once this little fella evolves and I've trained him, I'm going to have a few words with your junior Ikari and see how he fares in a fair fight."
"Found quite the rivalry, I see." Leiko giggled and then yawned. "If only a Vigoroth's energy is contagious… the squabble ended sometime after sunrise. Bellatrix's Mismagius is scoping the damage. It'll be back soon with news."
"What'll we do in the mean time?" Kiba asked as the furry Slakoth suddenly leapt back onto his chest where it wrapped its arms around Kiba's neck.
"Dunno about you, but I wanna catch some more Zs," Leiko answered and climbed further up the tree where she then leaned on her side against the thick tree trunk.
"Hey wait, have you seen the Noibat anywhere?" Kiba asked worriedly. "I haven't seen him anywhere."
"That oversized Zubat?" Leiko opened an eye and answered sleepily, "I think it flew off a few hours ago. It was heading towards the pagoda. Why? Was it that important?"
Instead of getting an answer, Leiko heard a thump hitting the ground. As she leaned over the branches to see what had fallen, she was surprised to see Kiba running towards the Shadow Pagoda with the Slakoth wrapped around his bare back.
Kiba traveled the once familiar road back to the Black Scythe main base. Chunks of debris had chopped down several trees and made a great number of craters. Taking in the sight of the carnage, he raised his head and stared at the state of the black pagoda. Parts of it was missing especially near the upper portion, but overall, it was still standing. For one legendary to do much damage in a night made Kiba think of what Master Tristan had told him about controlling such pokemon.
Arriving at the foot of the tower, he found several members of the Black Scythe division already beginning to clean up the mess. They didn't seem too bothered by what happened but he really couldn't tell with their cold looks. Kiba looked around and saw the members' so-called pokemon partners were also helping them out. But so far, there was no sign of the Noibat.
A flutter of wings sounded behind him and Kiba turned to see Leiko jumping off of her Mandibuzz. "Did you really have to rush off? We'll just be cleaning the mess of the heads… as always." She sighed and rubbed the sleep off her eyes.
"Sorry darling," Kiba apologized with a small smile. "But I'm not one to leave a man behind, even if that man is a furry Zubat who sleeps on my head."
"Fine…" Leiko conceded and sent out her Umbreon. "Yue, scout ahead for an overgrown Zubat." The dark-type Eevee nodded and darted towards the tower. The redhead then turned towards Kiba. "No one is allowed inside the tower until the others are sure it won't collapse all of a sudden. Yue is pretty light on his feet. He can manage a quick scouting mission."
"Thank you," Kiba said appreciatively.
The two passed time by picking up the debris and piling it in one place. Kiba's pokemon were pretty handy given their sheer strength. Tyrant, the Nidoking carried the heavy loads while Bane and Champ broke apart the larger debris so it could be handled easier.
A couple of hours later, Leiko's two female companions came walking towards them. Alice, the childish gothic lolita skipped ahead with her Lieperad while the brunette, whom Kiba guessed was Bellatrix, motioned her Mismagius who was hovering over her shoulder.
"Seems like the squabble was worse than we initially anticipated," Bellatrix began. "Master Tristan is injured badly. Nothing fatal but still leaves him incapacitated for the time being. Lord Altair is nearly in the same condition but he's in the Sky division base, deploying most of his members. It seems like Aeron's gone missing."
"Missing?" Kiba asked in surprise.
The three females turned towards him with skeptic gazes before Bellatrix continued. "He was the main reason Lord Altair assaulted the base with Grandmaster Vindryl's Rayquaza. Apparently, by the time he arrived, the boy was already gone. Master Tristan said that he had no idea where he could be and so…"
"All hell broke loose from that point on," Leiko concluded as she ran a hand through her blood red locks.
Kiba shifted uneasily in place as he made to look busy picking up the debris. He knew exactly why Lord Altair picked a fight with Tristan and why it was deemed a worthy reason to let that colossal pokemon tear the tower apart. But what if anyone found out that he knew he true reasons behind it all? Would he be the next person in the Rayquaza's path of destruction?
An arm coiled around his own, jolting Kiba as he snapped his head, only to see Leiko pout at him with a skeptical brow. Apparently, with the Slakoth clinging behind him, the redhead settled for his arm. "You okay, hubby? You seem pale."
"Oh yeah- fine!" Kiba assured her with perhaps a little too much enthusiasm. "I'm just... Shaken up, you know? I mean it's only my third day here and a legendary pokemon from Hoenn has already tried to kill me. I like spreading out the legendary attacks to about once a decade- twice is a bit much."
Leiko smiled in understanding, making Kiba breath inwardly in relief. She uncoiled herself from his arm just in time to find her Umbreon making his way back to her. And behind the dark-type, fluttering a good distance away was the Noibat.
Kiba sighed in relief that Noir was ok and hadn't been trapped in the collapsed tower or injured by the rampaging Rayquaza. Or worse. The Noibat flapped towards Kiba and promptly plopped against his head. It would have been amusing if the purple bat wasn't quivering or whimpering lowly.
"You alright there, pally?" Kiba asked worriedly as he preened Noir gently. "You had me worried there for awhile, I was starting to think something had happened to you."
Noir continued to whimper as he shook his head and buried himself deeper into Kiba's mess of hair. Kiba was about to say something when he felt his Slakoth's weight move from on his back and stop on Kiba's neck as he looked at the new person-clinging pokemon and smiled up at Noir with a relaxed tone in greeting. The Noibat cast the sloth-like pokemon a glance but then turned away, still depressed.
"What's with the Noibat?" Leiko asked, observantly watching since the little reunion.
"Beats me," Kiba admitted as he looked over to Leiko while continuing to preen Noir gently. "Maybe the Rayquaza shook him up too," he suggested although deep down he believed it was something else.
"Y'know that fuzzy Zubat looks really familiar~" Alice, the smallest of the group, circled around Kiba, her black eyes looking over the Noibat from various angles. "It almost looks like Delibird's Noibat."
"Now that you mention it…" Leiko stepped closer, eyeing the Noibat closely while unaware of Kiba's tenseness. "You did mention that Master Tristan made you look after it, right? Did he say anything else?"
Kiba could feel the sweat falling from his back and he knew only a part of it was from the Slakoth resting on his shoulders.
"He told me that he didn't care what I did with him, only that he was... just another wild Pokemon," he said adding the last part gently for Noir's sake.
"For a wild pokemon, he seems fairly tamed," Bellatrix indicated with an equally observant eye. "Did you catch it in a pokeball?"
"Well... Err no-not exactly," Kiba admitted. "I mean with all the excitement last night I never really had the chance to."
"Well, you caught the Slakoth easy enough earlier," Leiko reminded, pointing to the clinging brown pokemon on Kiba's back. "And I don't think the fuzzy thing will put up much of a fight."
"Yeah, because battling a Noibat with a Nidoking, Hitmonchan or Scizor would be a fair fight right?" Kiba said in Noir's defense.
"Why fight at all? Just try knocking the empty pokeball on its head," Leiko suggested with a small gesture to her own head. "Who knows? It might work."
Seeing as he was being backed into a corner, Kiba slowly took out the last pokeball in his pocket and held it in his hand. Closing his eyes he made to tap the bat Pokemon with the pokeball-
Only for the Slakoth to playfully knock it out of his hand and straight onto Leiko's nose. The sloth Pokémon immediately started laughing at its own prank as Alice doubled over with mirth, Bellatrix sighed while Leiko glared burning daggers at the Slakoth.
"You wanna throw stuff?" The redhead reached for her chakrams. The Slakoth didn't flinch however as a single pink bubble flew from his mouth and into the redhead's face, which after several seconds responded with her falling to the ground fast asleep, followed by the Slakoth's increased laughter at the situation.
Alice bent down and poked Leiko while the redhead's Umbreon growled at the sloth pokemon from a safe distance. The Lolita continued to nudge her companion awake but to no avail. Turning towards Kiba, she stared at him expectantly. "Leiko-nee's hubby, why don't you give your darling a kiss to wake her up?"
Kiba was taken aback by the suggestion as he fought to keep a blush from forming on his face. "Because she'd kill me when she wakes up," he replied plainly.
"Really? I think Leiko-nee has taken quite a liking to you~" Alice teased with an innocent giggle.
"Would you all just stop playing around? We have work to do," Bellatrix intervened as she walked towards Leiko. She plainly kicked her leg and glared down. "If you think this'll excuse you from clean up duty, then you're wrong."
"Five more minutes..." Leiko murmured and rolled to one side, earning another encouraging kick from the brunette. "Spoilsport..."
The Slakoth laughed at the display as Leiko shot another dirty look at the sloth which was promptly ignored. Kiba watched as Leiko and the other assassins walked off, and once they were out of earshot Kiba couldn't help but break into a fit of laughter at his luck as he patted his Slakoth gratefully, promising to find him a big apple later. Unfortunately, throughout the hilarity, Noir had done nothing more than continue to whimper and tremble atop of Kiba's head.
Curious and worried at his little friend's attitude, Kiba called over Bane from his workstation and had him follow him into a grove of trees out of sight of any of the other Black Scythe members.
"Alright Noir," Kiba stated as he removed the Noibat from his head and placed him on a tree stump. Seconds later, the Slakoth climbed atop of Kiba's head and immediately fell asleep. Kiba silently wondered what the appeal to resting on his head was when he looked down at Noir expectantly. "What happened while you were gone? Were you able to find Aeron?"
At the boys name, Noir began whimpering again as he curled himself into a ball as he cried, much to Kiba's surprise.
"What's wrong with him?" Kiba asked Bane.
He's sad, Bane tapped onto a tree.
"I could have told you that!" Kiba complained as he looked back to Noir, moving the Slakoth's arms out of his face so he could see. "Hey it's alright if you couldn't find him, I promised I'd help you find him remember?"
Noir shook his head and screeched sadly which Bane promptly translated, never left behind. Partner always together. Not protect. Failed. The cries grew louder as the Noibat's ear vibrated.
Kiba felt terrible for the little Noibat and tried his best to console his fuzzy friend. "Come on you didn't do anything wrong. I'm sure Aeron is looking for you right now! And what's he gonna think if he finds you crying, huh?"
Noir looked up hopefully, meeting Kiba's encouraging gaze as he wiped the corner of his eyes with his wings. He then looked to the blue morning sky, expecting something or someone to come flying down. A flapping shadow loomed overhead and gradually flew down to them. Noir's face lit up but then he slumped back, depressed, on the stump as it was merely Kiba's Fearow.
However, while Noir was depressed by the Fearow's arrival, Kiba was ecstatic to see his pokemon again as he leapt towards him laughing in relief, causing the Slakoth to fall off of his head from the action.
"I knew you'd be back," he said proudly as he preened his Fearow, rewarding him with a pleased caw. Kiba was relieved, mostly that he had Arrow back but also that if something went wrong he at least now had a way off the island in case of an emergency.
Noir watched them enviously before once again looking to the Sky, waiting for Aeron to come for him. Unconsciously, he fingered his collar and tapped the white round stone with the tip of his claw.
Noticing Noir's expression, Kiba disengaged from Arrow and sat back down to look the Noibat in the eyes. "Don't worry bud we'll find him, and in the mean time you can bunk with us... Unless you've got somewhere better to go." He added with a playful smile.
Noir looked far into the east before he fluttered off the stump and perched on the free space on Kiba's head that was no longer occupied by the Slakoth. Kiba smiled before reaching for the pokeball that Slakoth had nailed Leiko with and held it up for Noir.
"I wouldn't want anyone to accidentally catch you before we find Aeron, so for safety reasons how about you let me catch you? I won't even keep you in the ball," Kiba offered.
The Noibat looked at the capsule warily. Shaking with doubt and hesitation, he stopped to consider what it meant. Aeron would be upset, no doubt but it was a temporary precaution. If it was anyone else, would they return him to his rightful partner? Bracing himself, Noir shut his eyes tight and bumped the pokeball. His form materialized into red matter and he was engulfed into the capsule.
After shaking three times and hearing a ding, Kiba tossed the pokeball back into the air as Noir flapped in the sky momentarily before plopping back onto his head while Kiba pocketed the ball.
"And that's that," he said with a smile as he returned his Slakoth, who was still sleeping on his shoulder, to his pokeball. He then walked back to the pagoda to help with the clean up.
End of Chapter 68
Well, that concludes Kiba's part in Semira for now. It's shorter than the rest lol.
Honestly, all this was a short brainstorm after the Scuffle of Legends.
But I really didn't expect that Noir would be with Kiba at the end. lol.
Aeron's whereabouts will for now, remain a mystery. I'm just evil that way.
Next chapter, we go to Faye and see how she's faring and then some filler chapters,
featuring Maya, CorentinxAspen and Corbin. Then we will go back to Kiba.
How I know this? It's already written! xDD
I would have added a bit of Tristan and Altair but I'm still getting used to human fights. xD
All you get is the aftermath. Heh. Sorry. Don't worry Aspen will make up for the action. (plus romance)
As always, read and review~
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You can ask me questions in the forum and stuff. :3