Crossing the wintery mountains took about two days. Almost too long - by the time the weather got tolerable, there were just a handful of full power banks they have managed to snag from the human town left. The travel was mostly a trudge through knee-deep snow (for Inabayama. Her girlfriend made sure to levitate an entire meter above the surface), with occasional bout of violence when they crossed paths with some particularly territorial Pokemon. Of course, for the two of them, the weather was the difficult part of it all.
To be completely honest, Inabayama was kinda stretching electricity on her side, only reaching for a new power bank once the freezing cold got too intolerable even with the blanket. She was glad she did - seeing the amount left, they could'a ran out a few hours away from their destination. And she was fairly certain that Hiei would not fare too well without.
Speaking of, her girlfriend seemed rather… Distracted by something. Like she was in deep thought over something, and was sometimes stealing glances at the dragon. At first, Inabayama thought she caught on about the power banks, but this continued far far too long to be a concern about her well-being. No, she was fairly certain that something else was at play, though the Goodra decided to wait until they were somewhere warmer to bring it up.
Finally, they made it out of the snow, and into a mountain forest that was in full springtime. And immediately upon arrival, before they even had a chance to rest, Hiei decided to deal with the capture devices they've amassed while in the human town. Not the ones Inabayama planned to bludgeon humans with - the ones with Pokemon inside. If Inabayama had to make a guess, it had something to do with her girlfriend's odd behaviour earlier.
Once they found a large enough clearing, Inabayama passed the bag full of capture devices, and stood next to the Gardevoir, clearly intending to look out for any signs of trouble. At that, Hiei silently nodded, then switching her attention to the task at hand.
A dozen of capture devices were levitated out of the bag and cracked open, forcing the Pokemon inside to appear, looking around in clear confusion. The Gardevoir took a few moments to look them over, before finally speaking.
"The humans that captured you are dead. You have been freed, and can do whatever you wish with your lives from now on," she proclaimed in that same authoritative tone as when she spoke to Pokemon living near her mountain. Her red eyes were watching the reactions of the freed Pokemon closely, "If any of you want to go back to human lands for whatever reason, just cross these mountains. The human settlement is in two days from here."
A couple of Pokemon seemed to weigh that option, before ultimately deciding against it. Another Pokemon, some sort of a plant with flowers for arms, seemed rather affronted with the idea that their human was dead, though this one was smart enough not to try their luck against Hiei. In just a few minutes, this dozen has vacated the clearing to look around the area, while Hiei levitated and cracked open another dozen of capture devices.
She gave this bunch of freed Pokemon that same speech. This time, a bipedal jackal with a spike in their chest instantly decided to cross the mountains, though the rest of the reactions was roughly the same as the first time. Soon, these Pokemon left the clearing as well, and Hiei began the process with the third dozen, though this time stopped midway by Inabayama's question.
"Uhh… This seems uncharacteristically slow for you," Inabayama looked at her girlfriend in a slight confusion, "I thought you'd just free them all at once?"
"First of all, we don't know the sizes of the ones inside. Open too many, and the freed ones might get trampled. Second of all, I'm checking them for something," at this, she telekinetically cracked the next batch of capture devices open.
That answered Inabayama's question of 'what she was looking for' before said question could be voiced - the dragon instantly picked up that particular Pokemon among the bunch. Seeing as Hiei's scarlet eyes instantly zeroed on them, the Goodra was right.
"The humans that captured you are dead," the Gardevoir looked around one more time, before bringing her attention back towards that one Pokemon, "All of you have been freed, and may do whatever you wish with your lives from now on. If you want to return to the human lands, cross those mountains, I don't care. Except for you."
With a wave of her hand, the Pokemon surrounding that one floated aside, as Hiei slowly flew towards them through the air. One of the moved Pokemon, a large stone snake, took an exception to that, and struck at the Gardevoir with their tail - only to be offhandedly swatted with her arm, rending their body apart at the point of impact. The rest of the Pokemon took it upon themselves to flee immediately, save for-
"What do you want from me?!" her target forced out, now looking positively terrified.
A bipedal Pokemon with a body of white and green, with purple eyes, and a purple crystal in their torso. They bore resemblance to that mechanical Abomination a human brought to Hiei's mountain - to roughly the same degree as Gardevoir did - or rather, that Abomination was a combination of Hiei's kin's, and this Pokemon's kin's appearances. It was that mutated man-made offshoot of Gardevoirs.
"You know, despite the history between my kin and yours, I bear no ill will towards you," Hiei spoke plainly.
"The… History?.." they looked at her in confusion.
"Your species, Gallades, were made by humans. Created through selective breeding of my own kin, until we bore only surface resemblance, despite going through the same evolutionary process in our youth. Until my kin died off because humans wanted yours more. This was done through no fault of your own, and was entirely through the sickening machinations of humanity"
"And you are telling me this… Why?,,"
"So that you know that I bear no joy from doing this," with a simple motion, Hiei grabbed Gallade's chest crystal between her fingers, and squeezed. A nauseating, cracking sound permeated through the air, followed by a deafening cry of agony, "Your kin was doomed from the moment mine died off, and is now kept alive through unsustainable methods. The only thing I can offer to your pitiful kind is to put you out of your misery with my own two hands, rather than allowing humans to put you through the same hell that were my kin's final days"
Bleeding out, yet gathering the last ounces of strength, the Gallade tried to fight back by throwing several strikes at Hiei, only to be stopped by her invisible barrier. Hiei's mask of calm cold did not even twitch.
"Farewell"
At this, the chest crystal shattered in Hiei's hand, and with a final, pained gasp, the Gallade fell to the ground, like a broken doll. Unmoving.
Suddenly, the clearing drowned in horrible silence.
A horrible, blood chilling silence, not disturbed by wind in the slightest. The kind of silence in which you can hear your own heartbeat, louder than war drums.
And in the midst of that silence, for what felt like an eternity, Hiei just stood in front of the corpse, unmoving as it is. At some point, Inabayama came over, trying to suppress her worry as she looked at the clouded expression on her girlfriend's face.
"Do you see that tumour-like growth around his hips?" the Gardevoir spoke in unsettling monotone, "When a Kirlia evolves into this form, his skirt gets ingrown, leading to this bloated shape. Humans thought it makes them look more masculine, which is why they kept breeding this mutation to the point it took over, and despite its health risks. Oftentimes it starts to rot right under their skin, or leads to actual tumours. Because of this, most Gallades live half as long as regular Gardevoirs did. The fact, that the humans have to use those Ditto monstrosities to 'sustain' their population only makes it worse, as it's just inbreeding with extra steps"
Inabayama slowly nodded. She could understand the logic behind her girlfriend's words, though she still thought that something was out of place.
"You… Weren't kidding that this brought you no joy, huh?"
"He could have been a part of my kin. But instead, the humans had to kill off half of it, and turn the other into this sick joke," Gardevoir snarled.
"Wouldn't removing the limiters fix this problem somehow too?"
"It might. I don't see how though," at this, Hiei looked away, "Gallades have essentially reached an evolutionary dead end. There is no close enough species they could cross-breed with to fix this"
"I see… Speaking of, you knew he was there, right? That's why you were acting odd?"
"… Yes. There's this… Telepathic frequency that my kin possesses. It's like a distinct sound that you can recognise someone with, and even use for communication. His kin possesses their own telepathic frequency. It's close enough to be noticeable, yet too far to be understandable. And it was enough to notice him even through the Pokeball"
"And… There's only one, right?" the dragon looked at the remaining capture devices, "If there's another one, want me to deal with him?"
"No…" at this, Hiei finally turned back to the dragon, with a semblance of a smile on her face, "Thanks, but… I'll be the one to do this"