Author's Note: Just a fair warning to everyone, massive time leap approaching.

Chapter 20: Together Until The End

Blade awoke feeling rather sore. Everything they had done the night before, still fresh in his mind. The way Shadow had made him feel powerless, the way every movement the darkrai made radiated pure dominance over the Sneasel, it was intoxicating to him. Just thinking of how everything had played out. The first round had been pure passion, then the second round and beyond was from pure lust and need to satisfy the Sneasel. Shadow had been asked to restrain him, make him beg for more, and Blade had gratuitously used the word "daddy" that night. Even so Blade felt himself overly relaxed and content the next day.

"Shadow?" He walked toward the darkrai as he floated at the cave entrance and hugged the pitch-black pokemon. And Shadow hugged him back.

"Blade, we need to speak of something."

Blade felt his heart beat faster, Shadow had taken an even more serious tone than usual. "What….what about?"

Shadow lowered himself to Blade's height and looked directly into his eyes. "Blade, I've never experienced fear before. Not once in all my life have I ever been gripped by fear. But every single moment apart from you, my mind was racing, I could barely think straight, I was…..I was terrified. I thought I'd never see you again…" Blade blushed deeply at the confession. "Not only that, but it put a great many things into perspective. I cannot bear the thought of losing you, I will travel any distance to help you, and I'll do anything to save you, literally anything. Blade, I love you."

Blade's blush deepened "Shadow….that's…that's so sweet." Blade hugged Shadow again. "I-I love you too!"

"I want you to know something Blade, you are the most important thing in my life, and if anyone anywhere hurts you, I will destroy them and everything they hold dear. Because I refuse to watch you suffer, and I want to be with you, forever and long after."

"I understand Shadow, but don't worry, you and I will be together until the end. I promise you that."

The darkrai pulled the Sneasel beyond the veil of his face and once again kissed the smaller male. They stayed there for a few moments just reveling in the passion of the kiss. Finally they broke the kiss and smiled into each other's eyes. "We should probably get going soon?"

"Yeah, you're probably right. Where to next….my love?"

"Wherever your heart desires, my dear."

"Let's see where life takes us then."

Shadow took Blade by the claw and held him close taking off through the sky at full speed. Where they were going was far off, and held an uncertain future for the two of them. In that moment, Blade had never been happier in his entire life, but things would change soon, for the better or for the worse, wasn't known to them. But they were ready.

*Elsewhere*

"Damn it!" The man slammed his fist down on the table. "You let him escape, and you let my best Scientist leave!"

"My hands are tied, he's working on some other project and we can't touch him. I didn't realize you wanted to go to war with Team Rocket."

The man slumped in his chair. "Of course not, but do you realize what happens if if word gets around that we were performing such unethical experiments?! The government might as well have us executed publicly. And you know if I go down, I'm taking every single one of you with me! So either you bring Lyte back, or you find my Sneasel!"

"I'm afraid that's easier said than done. We can't reach Lyte without provoking Team Rocket, and the sneasel's tracker was removed."

"Son of a bitch!" The man was up in seconds flipping the table. "Get out!" The underling turned away and left without another word. He fixed himself a moment straightening his suit and fixing his hair. After recollecting his emotions he pulled a pokeball from his belt. "Fine, if it's that difficult, then I suppose we deal with things the hard way, no evidence if the evidence is dead." With a burst of light a weavile emerged from the ball. A weavile bearing a wicked grin and a deeply savage look in his eyes. "Ah, Cleave, time for a deal. Don't worry this benefits you more than me. Your freedom, in exchange, you go kill that little wretch you called a son."

"Oh I'd do that for free, but I'll take the deal. He'll die slowly if I have any say in the matter." Cleave's wicked grin only grew wider and the savage look in his eyes became more akin to having a bloodlust. The man smirked and dropped the pokeball in front of Cleave. Without hesitation he slashed the ball in half. The man opened the door for Cleave and the ice type was out the door in seconds. He didn't need anything specific to track Blade, Shard had that putrid stench ingrained in her fur every time they were together. He could recognize it with ease. And he was going to find him, but he had plans for dealing with him in time. Though one thought lingered in his mind. 'It's the night of the new moon tonight, I can feel it! Oh it will be so nice to see her again. I almost feel bad for lying to her, she's beyond gullible. Lucky for us both that she's powerful and attractive. Oh soon, my dear sweet naïve Lunala, we shall be together again.'

*Almost A Year Later*

Shadow watched with pride as Blade went through his training. He had refined his attacks, the way he swept at the air with his claw was at a small angle designed to force the claws in deep and tear away the flesh in an instant. And his practice afforded him incredible balance as he was practicing on a tree branch, his movements making the branch sway and shake. For each stroke with his hand claws, there was one just as deadly from his footpaws. He'd sharpened his reaction time to a fine edge. For a lone sneasel he was quite the force to be reckoned with. He hopped down from the tree branch and tucked his body in rolling back to his feet as he hit the ground. He stood up, letting himself be on display for his boyfriend.

Shadow looked at his personal piece of eye candy. Blade's body was truly a marvel to the darkrai. The Sneasel hadn't bulked up, but his entire body was rather well shaped and the muscles were well toned. To anyone else it would be next to impossible to notice past the ice type's fur. To Shadow however, it was plain as day. "Well done my dear, you have improved a great deal since we met so long ago. You remember it well don't you?" Blade stepped back into the tree as Shadow closed the distance between them. Shadow put an arm on either side of Blade. "It was beneath a tree just like this, that I met you."

"Where you saved my life.."

"Where I decided to train you…"

"Where I fell in love"

"Where I too fell in love" They spoke with passion as Shadow pressed his lips to Blade's once more. The two kissed for but a few moments when they heard someone approaching.

"Seriously will you cut me some slack, the dude was too weak to beat me will you just relax." It was Pyre, and he walked through some bushes with his arms behind his head. He was followed by two pokemon: a Fennekin and a Squirtle. "Seriously Aqua, chill out."

Shadow had whipped around in an instant as he heard the rustling from the bushes. But the pitch-black pokemon relaxed at the sight of Pyre. "Oh, Pyre."

Upon noticing the darkrai, the fire type's eyes lit up and a wide grin graced his face. "Broooooo!" He ran over and hugged Shadow as a friend would to a friend they hadn't seen in a long time and a year was quite a long time for the two of them.

Needless to say, Blade frowned at the sight of the two hugging. He knew full well that Pyre wasn't romantically involved with Shadow, but it still had him seething with jealousy. He managed to shove those emotions down however as Shadow let go of Pure. "It's been quite a while my friend."

"It really has been dude." Pyre looked around for a moment noticing Blade just behind Shadow. "Hey buddy! Wow, you've changed a lot. You look way stronger, and way cuter." Pyre teased him with a wink. Blade didn't react, as much as he disliked the flirtatious nature of the compliment, he knew Pyre wasn't being serious. "Oh hey, let me introduce you guys." The squirtle stepped up at Pyre's beckoning motion. "This here is Aqua, you guys remember that Blastoise I wrecked. Meet his little brother, poor guy was being bullied by his brothers, now he's hanging out with me and he's had my back ever since."

Aqua spoke quietly. "H-hi, it's nice to meet you both."

The Fennekin approached next. "And this gorgeous little lady is, Cynder, the love of my life!" Pyre was smiling and blushing like nothing else. Then he turned to Shadow and Blade. "Aqua, Cynder, these are my friends Shadow and Blade."

Cynder smiled at him and then greeted the other two "it's a pleasure to meet you both."

Shadow took a bow out of respect. "I'm certain the pleasure is all ours miss."

Blade took a bow beside him. "Yeah it really is our pleasure miss Cynder."

"What are you doing out here anyway?" Pyre asked smiling at them.

"We've just been letting life lead us around" Blade smiled back as he grabbed Shadow's arm and leaned into him.

"That's the way to live guys." Pyre smiled at them and waved to all of them. "Come on guys, let's go, there's a beautiful lake nearby. We were just heading there when we ran into you."

And they followed behind him.