I... felt so cold then... that moan of pain sounded so creepy and mortal. Slowly looking in front of me, Gabite was still exactly in front of my body with the left blade he swung. I was so in shock that I couldn't tell if he had gotten me, but just everything in time was so still for me. I couldn't focus on anything; I just felt... so cold.

Suddenly, remembering he hit me, my body acted by itself and thus, my arms shielded my face as I felt the blade somehow lift me up into the air. Spinning a bit, I grunted as my body curled into a guarding position and Gabite readied his attack. Man, I thank Arceus for Batsu, being the incredible fighter he is. He stepped right in front of the boss, forcing him to look at him and be on guard. Trying a Force Palm attack, it forced him to block with both blades and be taken back a bit from the impact.

This allowing me to land on my feet and try to collect myself from the huge impact that had happened. With Batsu's attack, it allowed Sasuke to come behind and try to kick the back of his head. Clipping one of his head jets just barely, the boss staggered away to the ground in a bit of a drunken state. He tried to shake off the dizziness as King happened to come over and tried to punt his head while he was down. He quickly dove underneath the ground and traveled a fair distance back to me. As he popped out of the ground, I began to move in order to counter his attack.

Out of nowhere, a huge flaming attack came from the side of my head from behind me. Despite the huge injuries he had, Elek came out of the blue and did some sort of hurricane kick with his foot on fire, adding a huge fire damage to it. It kinda reminded me of that Ryu character from Capcom's Street Fighter, but with Ken's flame. Anyways, it sent Gabite was sent flying back right at Naruto as he readied a Shadow Ball and fired it at him. Being able to sense the oncoming ball of energy, the boss quickly turned and used his blades to cut through the attack and jump over the Poochyena.

"Elek..." Sasuke said, amazed as he briefly stared with me and Zev at him and his power.

"Hey.. I might be injured, but I can still fight..." Elek panted as he dropped to a knee and held his right arm

"Zev!" Sasuke called out to the Grovyle, "Just keep going with Elek, okay?"

"Got it," he said as he once again helped our possible future supervisor up.

I stayed right near the two and kept giving them a slight bit of protection as we kept on going backwards from the battle. But as much as the adrenaline was shooting through me, I still felt cold... in fact, much colder at that moment. And my vision kept getting blurry... every time I blinked, a tiny part of my eye seemed to get darker and fuzzy. I tried wiping my eyes, but it didn't do any good. The totally focus of my eyes started to be a bit more than I could handle.

It was then I heard a gasp from Zev with a cold stutter, "...Oh my A... Th-thomas?"

I turned to him, for some reason having a difficult time of moving my body just to look at him, asked, "Wh... What?"

It then hit me... he was staring at me, gravely afraid. Elek could sense it, though his eyes no longer functioned, and was just as fearful as him. And it wasn't just the fact that their attitudes alerted me that something was truly wrong. I could feel something really warm trickling down the right side of my body and leg. Slowly with fear making my heart pound faster, I glanced at the horror that I was really bleeding badly. The blade of Gabite had sliced deeply into me that it wasn't just a simple drip; there was a growing pool of blood underneath me and it was rapidly growing...

My body went numb out of sheer fear. Oh gawd... I was bleeding... I was dying... this wasn't supposed to happen. This was only a freaking rescue exam; I didn't expect such a blood-fest injury to befall me. It was sickening as my body felt weaker and weaker from this... I couldn't take this feeling. I just clutched the opened up skin and trembled in fear... the same kind of fear that I had for Pokémon in the human world.

"S...SASUKE!" Zev shouted at the top of his lungs, trying to get some help.

The Buizel only needed a few seconds before a pale look come across his frightened face and his lower lip quivered. Naruto managed to get a glare at me too, and his eyes immediately began to water. Their hearts broke as they realized that I was in total peril.

"BROOOOOOTHEEEERRRR!" he shrieked as he pretty much said 'screw this' to fighting Gabite and rushed to me.

It caused the fight to momentarily stop as all three others stopped and glared at my blood streaming out of my body. I wasn't even able to see the reactions they probably had, because I was getting into so much shock, I was beginning to zone all noises out in fear. I started to fall to my knees as my fur began to drench in crimson blood. My eyes widened as I began to gasp for breath. I just could only see a blurry shade of deep red... and every time I saw that wound bleeding over my arm, I felt more faint...

"Holy freaking hell!" I remember hearing King say out of horror.

"Z-Zev! Switch with me!" Sasuke said, as Batsu immediately attacked Gabite, and caused him and King to resume fighting.

The Grovyle nodded and let go of Elek gently. He decided to leave the bag, for Arceus knows I needed any items I could get for crying out loud. Zooming past both my brothers, he readied his Leaf Blade and rushed over to help fight. Naruto got to me first, his nonstop whining and whimpering gave it away. He tried licking at the huge and deep slash puncture, but by then, the scorching pain of it started to kick in. Yet, I was too in shock to even scream or react. By then, Sasuke had also gotten over to me.

"Oh my Arceus..." Sasuke said, trying to keep cool but evident he was starting to cry, "Thomas, can you hear me...?"

I ended up slowly falling to my left side, but he caught me before I could. I started coughing up more blood and it ran down my mouth. Naruto began to whimper louder as he teared up. Dang, this sucked... I didn't want to die... I don't wanna die...

"S-Sasuke, is everything all right?" Elek asked my brother.

"I... I don't know... I..." I heard him say as he then reached into the bag and grabbed a bunch of berries, probably as much as he could.

"Thomas, look at me. Look a- LOOK AT ME! I need you to eat these berries, do you hear me?" he started to sound like he was crying as he put a berry in my mouth.

At first, the urge to spit it out came into my mind, but realizing what they could do, I quickly began to eat and chew as many as I can. It was hard to swallow with me laying down flat, but I couldn't speak and I was too weak to lift my head. He kept giving me all the Oran berries he could before there were none left to be eaten. The ringing of grunts and attacks clashing and missing could be heard in the background, but it started to muffle as the dizziness started to take over.

"N-No! Thomas! You can't pass out! Do you hear me?" Sasuke said loudly to me.

"Come on, Thomas! I don't want you to leave us!" Naruto said, whimpering as he licked my face in a sob.

I didn't want to pass out... but my body was telling me it had enough... and it needed rest. I panted slowly as all I could see was blurred dots that were Sasuke, Naruto, and Elek. I wanted to cry, scream, do something, but I felt helpless... so helpless...

"Thomas...! ….can't... hear me...Th..."

It was futile; my senses were all going... I couldn't focus anymore. I ended up closing my eyes... and slowly passing out...

-

I opened my eyes to find myself in that huge place... That dream I had... That huge green and blue floating dimension... Once again, I found myself floating in this place alone... Away from everybody and the place I was in...

The injury was still on my body... But not bleeding anymore... However... I could see those two forms again... They waved to me as if I could come over...

I hesistated, but then... Oddly... I was able to swim to them... It hurt to move... But I would make it this time... I swear...

But it began to fade again... I started to lose them... Those two... What did they want...? Why did they always... Target me...?

But I could hear them this time before I lost them and disappeared... Thomas... Thomas... We've waited for you... What did they mean...?

-

I shifted in an uncomfortable position as I saw that it was nighttime... confused and dumbfounded was me. I immediately tried to sit up, but my body couldn't handle me right now. It made me flinch in paralysis. But it was evident that I was no longer in Crystal Cavern anymore.

Just looking around, it seemed that I was in a building interior of some sort. In fact, despite the blurry eyes of mine struggling to awake and straighten, it looked like Nurse Chansey's room in where she helped King with his arms. It was dead silent though, with the exception of the wind blowing. I looked down to see that the huge gaping slice wound was wrapped up intensely as white medical cloth was wrapped all around my body to the point where my chest and stomach were covered without any fur sticking out of it. I was laying in a really comfy bed, that was purposely laying with some towels underneath me, just in case blood happened to open up and leak into the mattress.

It wasn't long until I heard somebody come in, trying to be silent. The vision of the intruder really was difficult in the long run to see from far off, but it became obviously clear once he came closer who my heart pounded for joy for. I began to breathe faster as I teared up when he approached me. I just felt so happy as I began to cry.

"S-Sasuke..."

"Thomas... Oh, Arceus, thank you for saving my brother!" he cried as he ran to me and immediately hugged around my neck, nuzzling deeply into me.

"Thomas!" I heard a familiar cry from Naruto as well as the Poochyena ran up and buried his face into mine, the two of them staining my fur with their tears.

Hell, I didn't care if the three of us were crying like babies; after what I went through, their hugs felt like Heaven to erase the fear and pain I had. I didn't know whether we passed or not, nor did I care at the moment. Just having them near me and knowing I was going to be alright... I was so happy to have them as my brothers and to be alive.

-