Oh my gosh, this chapter is kicking my butt! To anyone following this, please know that I work full-time and only get a chance to write in my spare time, so I'm not planning on having a set publishing schedule. Updates are going to come out when they come out.

Anyways, we're going to rewind a bit here, and shift perspectives. Hopefully ya'll don't mind.

P.S. if you read some pack jargon that confuses you, feel free to scroll down to the index. I always try to make the context of these terms really clear in the story itself, but the definitions are there if you need them.

Stairway To Heaven: Part 2

Cato Rak

"So that's where your son gets it from. If you hadn't intervened the other day, he would be nothing but a stain on the forest floor right now."

The words brought the memory of my eldest son standing alone in the center of Saw's Glade to the forefront of my mind. It happened only days ago during the counsel meeting held for the purposes of discussing Akane Ru's unusual birth. Akemin Zu had stepped up to stare off against Mundi with most of the pack looking onward and preparing to witness the duel firsthand. He had always been an unruly child, even as a rua, and never failed to test the limits of my temper. He always managed to get himself into mischief, often leading his friends into danger. However, Akemin had an ingenious mind and was fiercely loyal to those he loved. If his friends found themselves in trouble, as they often did in those days, my son usually got them out of it, sometimes at his own expense.

Those incidents often haunted me, even to this day. I had never loved anything as much as I loved him when he was born. On the day his mother… no, I could not finish the thought. I did not want to remember her now. Out of the corner of my eye, I perceived the Shade that had haunted me for all these years materialize. It was a shadowy zoroark silhouette with white pupilless eyes and a hollow mocking grin. Neither Mundi nor Akane reacted to its sudden presence because it was not real. I had long known this and ignored the Shade's intrusion.

Akemin Zu had grown into a strong and clever member of the pack. Even when his choice of Faro Zu as a mate, a lone Zori Kin banished from her pack in the northern mountains, caused scrutiny among the other zoroarks, he never wavered in his devotion towards her. Mundi's cutting words about his brave challenge during that gathering brought back the fury I had felt in that moment.

Akemin had known that he stood no chance in a head-on battle against Mundi Ka. Aside from myself, very few others in the pack had the strength, wits, and daring to take her on. She knew this too, obviously, and was choosing to throw the fact that I had to intervene and humiliate him in front of the entire pack to stop that ill-fated challenge. A challenge, that although she never formally issued, she had escalated purposefully knowing how my son would react.

I stalked towards her, my dark eyes flaring with ferocity, and growled, "If you ever do that again I'll-"

Mundi glowered up at me with just as much fire, and taunted quietly, showing her teeth, "You'll what? Banish me from the pack? Force me to become a Zori Kin?"

There was something behind her sneering expression that almost made me want to do it. She had always tested my leadership, ever since I gained it. Back then, the previous pack leader, one of Engjell Kro's sons, had passed away due to a confrontation involving the local Far Walkers beyond the forest's borders, and with his death, brought on the battles inside the pack to determine the next Rak. In the end, it had come down to me and her, but I was the one who walked away with the title. Since that day, she looked at me differently. Sometimes her antics made me hate her more than any pokémon I had ever known, but sometimes I wondered how much of it was real. Was she really daring me to banish her, or was there something else brewing beneath her mask of contempt?

We both sensed it at the same time.

My eyes darted around Mundi to a grouping of trees nearby in time to catch the slight swaying in their snow-laden branches. It looked as if a giant mouth inhaled somewhere behind them, causing the trees to look as if they were faintly leaning back. The movement was nearly imperceptible to the untrained eye, but I had seen it before, and I knew what it meant. I only had a fraction of a second to act.

"Get back Akane!" I shouted urgently to the small zorua who was standing only yards away, unknowingly peering in the direction of the oncoming attack, completely unaware of his danger.

The glacial blast that burst from beyond the trees would have struck me head on if Mundi Ka had not pushed my body out of its path. I truly only had that fraction of a second to act, and I had chosen to warn my grandson instead of moving out of harm's way. As the both of us crashed into the ground, I heard Mundi hiss as if she was in pain, and I wondered if she had been hit.

I struck the earth first and used my strength to brace for the fall, as Mundi collapsed on top of me. If she was injured, it did not slow her down, because in the next moment her weight was gone. I did not see where she went, as all my attention focused on locating the little zorua. Had my warning given him enough time to dodge the blast? There was only one attack that announced itself the way this one had. It was a move known only to Ice types and it would have been deadly to the young zorua had he been struck with it directly.

As the attack dissipated and the debris field cleared, I spotted the young pokémon cowering not far from where he had been. The relief I felt at that moment rivalled my determination to get to him as quickly as possible. Although I could not see Mundi, I knew what she was going to do, and Akane could not remain where he was. Vaulting to my feet, I dashed across the narrow strip of ice that now scarred the earth between me and him, the only remnants left of that deadly blast.

I scooped him up into my arms and then used the ice strip to my advantage. Digging my toe claws into the glassy surface as anchors, I used my momentum to skate down the length of the ice until I could leap into a shallow snowbank. It cushioned my landing, allowing me to quickly come to a stop and release Akane from my grasp. He slid into the slippery slush but kept his balance in time to turn and raise his frightened yellow eyes to mine.

"Stay back," I ordered with a snarl, making sure he understood the seriousness of the situation.

I heard Mundi's snarling attack assault my ears and turned in time to see the frozen trees from the epicenter of the first attack fragment, and shatter to pieces as a beartic plunged into the clearing. The crazed pokémon was using a thrash attack, wildly beating at its head to throw off the dark pest riding on its backside. She weathered the onslaught longer than most before she was thrown off.

I took a deep breath, imagined the form in my mind's eye, and unleashed my six sense upon the world. It ballooned around me like an aura, disguising my true form, to display the body of a standard-mode darmanitan. As I sprinted in towards the beartic, I made my illusionary darmanitan body beat its massive knuckles into the earth and its gigantic mouth grin wide with malice.

The beartic forgot about Mundi Ka the moment it spotted me in all my Fire type glory. This had been my goal, of course. She needed time to recover, and Fire types were the mortal enemies of all Ice types like this beartic, and it reacted in the way I expected. It eyed my illusionary form warily, snarling in a low predatory manner, as it backed away from my advance. Unfortunately for this icy denizen of the north, I did know one Fire type move thanks to the friend who inspired this particular illusion.

To pull it off, I allowed the knot of power in the base of my stomach to expand into a churning firestorm. It billowed up my throat, scorching my esophagus, and as I exhaled, a stream of orange flame burst forth from my mouth. At the exact same moment, the darmanitan projection beamed wickedly while the blaze expertly funneled itself through my illusionary mouth towards the bear-like pokémon. It shrieked in horror and jumped away from the hungry flames charring the ends of its fur on its lower back. It roared with fury, twisted its body around expertly in the snow, and using its massive legs, it launched itself parallel to the column of flames still spewing from my snout.

I suddenly realized I had underestimated my opponent's speed. Although beartics were extremely agile in the frigid seas they usually called home, they were more lumbering and slower when on land. The snow-covered meadow might be giving this Ice type a slight edge in its ability to move around on the battlefield, but I had not expected its retaliation to come this quickly. I would not be able to keep up the darmanitan illusion if my opponent landed a direct hit on me. Zoruas and zoroarks needed a certain level of concentration to keep our illusionary disguises functional. Any break in that concentration and the jig was up. This was alright with me, however, because my darmanitan form had served its purpose. I braced for the incoming strike as it was now too late to dodge the blow.

As the colossal body of the bear reached me with its claws raised, Mundi Ka was suddenly in front of my illusionary form facing down the beartic's incoming strike. Her dark sapphire eyes were round and watery as a river of tears streamed down her scarred face. The effect of her random appearance was immediate, as it completely disrupted the bear-like pokémon mid-charge. I watched as its white form veered to the side and couldn't help but chuckle. With the illusion still intact, the darmanitan's deep laughter rumbled across the clearing, humming through my bones. Mundi glanced back at my large form, tears still dripping down her face, and smiled. It was a real one this time; a rarity, for her. It was a smile I had only witnessed a few times in my term as Rak, and every time it surfaced, she seemed to be in some kind of danger.

The darmanitan's face bowed once to her as I nodded silently, letting go of my past resentments, for the moment. She snorted in amusement at this, but then her eyes shifted to something beyond me. I heard the surge of water rushing across the icy field and knew what needed to be done. As I dodged to the side, the darmanitan projection appeared to roll its huge form like a bowling ball across the snow. Water drenched my coat as the beartic, seemingly surfing across the snow on its own personal wave of liquid water, missed my body by inches.

A Water move? I wasn't surprised that it knew one. Many Ice type Pokémon could learn them in order to defend themselves against unfriendly Fire types. Mundi, who was also soaked from dodging the jet of water, hissed angrily, and launched herself into the air after the beartic. Her normally short red claws extended into long blades of pure shadow mid-leap, and she let out a scream of fury as she brought their razor-edged tips down across the other pokémon's back. The beartic roared in rage and turned on her.

I grimaced in frustration. This beartic was getting on my nerves. It obviously had excellent defenses against Mundi's physical attacks, and it was going to take her forever to knock it out at this rate. Luckily, I had a plan. While Mundi continued to distract it, I closed my eyes and surrendered to the Shade that had never dematerialized from earlier. Ever since she came to mind, its dark form had hovered just outside my vision, taunting me with that cruel vacant smile and its empty pale eyes. I had been ignoring it during the battle, but it was time to use the power it held over me to end this.

My beloved Rúna lay motionless, her body crushing the tall grasses and wildflowers beneath her, and those crystal blue eyes that I knew so well were now sightless; unseeing, flat, dead. The end of the world had come so quickly that my mind could not make sense of how we had gotten here. The danger had not subsided. Some part of me knew this, but I could not find the will to care. Why did it matter when the world had already ended?

A door, long kept locked, opened inside my heart and the deep well of simmering hatred that bubbled beyond it spilled out into my blood and mind. The lust for vengeance raced through my system like a drug on overdrive, and I tasted the primordial power that infused all Dark types upon my tongue. I wanted her back. I wanted to kill. I wanted… death.

Mundi's screech of pain brought me back to the battle, and I opened my eyes in time to see her body slump to the ground in the snow. I didn't know if she had been knocked out or killed. In my current state of mind, it didn't really matter. The Shade had disappeared, but my mind discarded this fact as my vision tinted red and zeroed in on my assailant.

'Death,' The Shade's voice in my mind whispered sweetly to me, 'We both want it. Give it to us.'

I was more than happy to oblige. The firestorm in my belly raged and once more, I felt the liquid fire climb through my windpipe. The beartic seemed to understand what was about to happen and charged at me again, surfing on that same wave of water it had summoned before, hoping to beat my next attack, but it was already too late.

"Help!" The wretched cry shocked my system and cost me precious seconds.

Across the meadow, where I had left him, Akane was screaming in terror as a second beartic nearly crushed him. I didn't have time to wonder where this other pokémon had come from before I felt the impact of the first one. The imposing form of the darmanitan flickered away as the collision broke my concentration and sent my body flying backwards. I felt the breath rush out of my lungs in a gasping cough, spewing harmless cinders, as I crashed into the trunk of something solid and jagged behind me.

I had to get to Akane. It was the only thought running through my head. The voice of the Shade was silent now, the bloodlust momentarily at bay. The beartic that attacked me with the water move was still coming, and I was too dazed to dodge its charge. The brave little zorua dodged the other beartic's attack but even from this distance, I could see him trembling. I needed to get to him, but my limbs still wouldn't obey my commands.

"Run Akane!" I shouted desperately to the young rua.

A giant paw was suddenly crushing my throat and a wall of white obstructed my view. The charging beartic had finally arrived. I discovered that it was a tree behind me because the paw at my neck forced my body upwards and I felt the snaps of breaking twigs and bark on my back. I struggled wildly against the pressure at my throat as black spots appeared in my vision. My brain needed oxygen desperately but as the beartic brought its cold black eyes to mine, I knew it was over.

"I've had enough fire for one lifetime," The beartic growled slowly, in his deep male baritone.

Abruptly, the pressure, and the beartic along with it, was gone. I collapsed into the snow and retched. As the air rushed down my throat in gasps, I looked around to see a bedraggled Mundi slamming the body of the beartic away from me. Our opponent was undeterred by this and grinned at the female zoroark, who looked as if she had just emerged from a woodchipper.

That familiar Shade appeared once again with one paw pointing towards the wounded Mundi and, the other covering its unending smile. Its wispy shoulders shook, and I realized in horror that it was laughing at her pain. Then it turned back to me, cocking its head to the side, and with those unseeing eyes pinning me to the ground, I heard a voice whisper in my mind, 'What was it that we wanted?'

Fury coursed through me, and I pushed myself to my feet. The stream of fire left my snout and shot straight towards the unaware beartic, blasting flames across its body. In the next moment, it was all over. I walked over to where the beartic had collapsed in the snow, unconscious, and my upper lip curled. I could still end it. The Shade's voice was begging me to finish it, but I set my jaw and I turned away, denying that wretched ghost.

"What were they doing this far south?" Mundi Ka scowled wearily, as she got to her feet and limped towards me. Battle wounds covered her body, and I noticed one of her hind paws was iced over with frost. It was frozen, perhaps from that initial attack.

"I don't know," I snarled, not at her, but in the direction where Akane had been attacked, "Did you see what happened too…"

Mundi glanced behind us in the same direction with a grim expression, "He escaped, but the other one chased after him."

The wind picked up the falling flurries from the growing storm above us. The worsening weather had not been concerning during the heat of the battle, but now I glared at the falling snow as if it was another battle opponent that needed to be conquered. The sky was quickly darkening, along with the daylight.

"I'm coming with you," Mundi said, when I didn't respond, predicting what I was about to do. Her voice was steely.

"No," I snapped. The anger in my voice wasn't directed at her, but I felt her bristle beside me.

She snarled, "The other beartic is still out there-"

I faced her directly and glared down at her. I was the only zoroark in the pack tall enough to achieve this, "You're already injured. You'd be no use to me out there and you know it."

Her dark eyes widened, but I sensed her incoming fury. I had insulted her. She bared her teeth at me, and our snouts were suddenly only inches apart, "I wasn't asking, Cato Rak."

I didn't rise to her mocking tone this time. There wasn't time to have this argument. I'd lose the light soon, and I needed to get going. I brushed her off coldly, turning back towards the forest and ordered, "Go back and tell the guard what's happened. There's still time before that beartic wakes up. When he does, find out what they were doing here."

She was close to attacking me. I knew if I pushed her any further, she might actually do it. However, after a long tense moment, I heard her frustrated sigh of defeat. Nodding to myself, assured that she was going to follow my commands, I ran off towards the trees.

"Don't die out there, idiot!"

The corner of my mouth twitched when I heard her spit this last insult at me. As I slipped into the forest, scanning the foliage for signs of a trail, all my thoughts went to my grandson.

Hang on Akane, I'm coming.

Index

Moves Used in Story Order:

Sheer Cold, Snarl, Thrash, Flamethrower, an incomplete Slash, Fake Tears, Aqua Jet, Shadow Claw, Nasty Plot, an incomplete Flamethrower, Aqua Jet, Throat Chop, Body Slam, Flamethrower

Pack Slang:

Far Walkers- a term that literally means humans. It was given to them because of their lengthy stride and stamina while traveling.

Saw's Glade- a small hidden meadow near the heart of the forest where Sawsbucks traditionally bring their Deerling in the spring. It was where the first chapter "The Prophecy" took place.

Rua- a shortened form of Zorua, generally used to refer to a young or newly born Zorua.

Zori Kin- a term used to refer to a lone Zorua/Zoroark without a pack. Whether they were banished from their pack or lost their pack in another way, the term is still used with a negative connotation. If they were banished, then they must have done something to be banished for. If they were the lone survivor of a pack that was wiped out, then it meant they came from a weak pack. Basically, they are the same thing as omegas in wolf packs.

Honorific Ranking (Lowest to Highest):

Ru- signifies a newly born or child-aged zorua

Zu- signifies a Zoroark/Zorua that has reached adulthood. Generally, these adults are younger and less experienced.

Ka- signifies an experienced member of the pack. Usually, this moniker is given to Zoroarks/Zoruas who are higher up in the ranks of the pack.

Kro- signifies an elder Zoroark who has attained great wisdom in their old age.

Rak- signifies the leader of the pack. Only one Zoroark/Zorua per pack will be addressed with this honorific.