Riley couldn't breathe.
The air around him was hot and damp, smothering. The humidity clung to his body, sticking on to his skin, making his wounds sting. His chest felt tight, and it burned. Breathe! He needed to breathe! He strained to gasp, but only choked. Coughs raddled his damaged flesh as he struggled. Finally, a pained breath was sucked through his cracked dry lips. It hurt. Oh Arceus, it was agony, but he panted none the less. Greedily gulping down breath after breath, while a raging wildfire seared away at his lungs. At his whole body.
Was he burning? The furious fever consumed him; choking, scorching, devouring him. Heat flushed his skin, clinging to his body like wet claws digging into his bruised body. Pain crisscrossed his skin in. He didn't need to open his eyes, he knew. He was cut. The bleeding vibrant slices in his flesh stung and burned as they ran red rivers down his limbs and dripped onto the floor. The heat was relentless, determined to cook him away.
The servipers in his stomach began to slithered wildly, and the stench of death that seemed stitched into the air wasn't settling them. He wanted to throw up. The headache set in next. Waves of pulsing pain were quickly accompanied by dizziness, and the worsening of his nausea. The heavy metallic taste of blood rested on his tongue and stained his teeth.
"Wake up," someone snapped.
The voice was not one he recognized, but before he had any time to react a flash of white-hot pain splashed across his right cheek. His body swayed in the air. He felt his burning legs being dragged over the rough floor as he rocked. The hot metal rings he had been chained up with dug into his wrists and pulled his arms over his head as he limply hung there; strung up like a dead fish. Eyes blearily opened, a world of distorted shapes and fuzzy colors greeted him.
"Wake up, Aura User," he was slapped again.
After he stopped flinching, he looked up once again. A women stood in front of him, orange hair, fair skin, with sinister violet eyes; pretty but not his type. A large red 'R' on her tight black dress. Her pink lips twisted into a smirk.
"Welcome back," she cooed, "I thought I was going to need to have Raticate use bite on you."
He stared at the woman, before his memory finally aided him. His eyes widened as it all came flooding back to him. The pain was momentary replaced with shock and fear. The hunters. The explosion. Iron Island. Lucario!
His head snapped up, causing the chains holding him up to jingle and his spiky black, almost navy, hair to dance, "Where is he?" He rasped, as loud as his dry, aching throat would allow.
"Oh, your partner?" The woman teased, with a sickly-sweet tone in her voice, "Don't worry, we're not that heartless. Look to your right."
He hesitantly glanced over; neck still too stiff to actually turn his head. His breathing hitched at the sight. The bi-pedal Jackal-like blue and black Pokémon, laid sprawled out on the room's dirt floor, completely oblivious to the surrounding world. Pieces of fur were missing, ripped out, and patches of red were splotched around the rest of the body, blood stains. The glowing bars of energy were projected from a cube shaped device above the Pokémon, imprisoning his partner. The only comfort that he was given was the subtle moving of Lucario's torso as the Pokémon weakly breathed.
His heart sank, and eyes misted. The partner he had worked with for practically his whole life. The Pokémon he had, hatched, trained, struggled and laughed with for all these years, was now laying on the floor practically bleeding to death before his very eyes. The chains that bound him wouldn't even let him comfort his closest friend.
The women yawned, "What a sob show. Don't worry too much about him. He'll get the necessary treatment. Can't have either of you too damaged you know."
"Who are you?" He growled.
"The name is Cassidy, a member of team Rocket, just a stunning chess piece in the boss's beautiful plan."
"What do you want from me?"
"What makes you think we want something from you?"
"I lived on an island, made of nothing but rock, in a shack, on the opposite side from where the island's tiny settlement was built. You don't go that far to kidnap someone for no reason."
"Smarter than you look, aren't you? The boss needs something from you."
"And who's your boss?"
"Can't tell you yet, but you'll find out soon enough."
"What do he want from me?"
"Oh, just the little gift for Aura you have. He needs users for one of our latest plans, and the wonderful work you did with team galactic's bomb made a great audition," Cassidy pulled a small card shaped piece of paper with burnt edges from her pocket and fiddled with it, "I'm quite excited to work with you actually."
"Really?" Riley's voice was flat, dripping with sarcasm.
"Oh, yes. With your lineage who wouldn't want to work with you."
"I have no idea what you're talking about," He all but growled, before choking on something sticky in his cracked dry throat and breaking into a coughing fit.
Cassidy chuckled, "Don't play dumb, it's practically common knowledge that you're a descendant of the great Sir Aaron. You're his nephew? About 32 generations down, correct?"
Riley grimaced.
"It must have quite a shock when you discovered your abilities, especially, since you're actually not a direct descendant from the noble knight, but his dormant sister. Though, now that I'm looking at you it's not all that hard to believe, you're a spinning image of…"
"What do you want?" He cut her off.
"Like I said, your help."
"You attack and kidnap, me and my partner. Do you actually think I'm going to help you?"
"That's the thing, Guardian Riley, we don't really need you to be willing to help us," she twirled the card between her fingers, "Besides it's not like you'll be working on the aura bit alone."
"What are you talking about? Aura has become a forgotten practice over the centuries," he choked and coughed, "For all we know I'm the last guardian left."
"Maybe you are, maybe you're not," She stopped twirling the card, and stared at it, clicking her tongue, "Does the name, Amanda Gen, ring any bells?" She flipped the card around revealing it to be a photo.
In the photo was two young children, a boy around twelve, and a girl around five. The children look incredibly similar to one another. The same dark hair, and pale skin. They even shared a nose. The only differences that they had, were their eyes and the Pokémon accompanying them. The boy had lagoon blue eyes with a riolu sitting beside him, while the girl's eyes were a stormy grey and she had an eevee resting in her lap.
Riley froze, and a chill went up his spine. That was his photo. He remembered taking it years ago. How happy he felt when it was taken. How much it meant to him. It was such a treasured memory that he always kept the photo in a hidden pocket inside of his coat.
"What? Can't believe that we found out about your sister," Cassidy chuckled and flipped the photo back around to look at it, "When was this taken? Ten? Twelve years ago? Bet she's a real pretty young lady now."
"Mandy, has nothing to do with this," Riley quickly said, "She never gained the gift of Aura."
Cassidy laughed, "Wow, you really have been away from home for a long time, haven't you?"
"What are you talking about?"
"Your little sister got lucky too. Her powers just didn't surface as early as yours did."
Riley was suddenly remined of how sick he felt. The servipers gave a violent twist, and he tried not vomit on the floor. Amanda had aura as well? And this 'team rocket' was going after anyone with aura ability? Horror filled his heart; he wasn't there to protect her.
Cassidy hummed, "To think, in a world where Aura is practically nothing but a myth, two siblings and their cousin are given it? And they all are from the same bloodline? True what they say, it's a small world."
"Cousin?" Riley coughed, trying not to let the pain or fear make his voice tremble, "Now I know you're lying. My mother was an only child and my father line is made of nothing but dormants."
"I didn't mean a first cousin. Did you honestly think that your Great Uncle Aaron never had any kids?"
"He never married."
"Well, that didn't mean he didn't know how to have a good time. Course he most likely never knew about the baby, considering he went and got himself killed, but that doesn't mean we can't go looking."
Riley swallowed, "You won't find anything."
"Oh, on the contrary, we actually found a decent contender."
She must have been bluffing, right? But if she wasn't, he needed to know, "Who?"
"Ash Ketchum."
His stomach gave another turn, and blood drained from his face. He knew that name. The boy, with dark hair, dark eyes, and a pikachu on his shoulder. The boy who saved Lucario from himself during the rage that team galatic's horrid machine had forced the aura Pokémon into. Riley had noticed that the boy's aura was strong, but he didn't have the time to bring it up. However, now that the young guardian thought about it, the buzzing excited and passionate vibrations that waved off of the boy had seemed relatively similar to his own. As much as the idea shocked him, and increased his worry, Riley couldn't deny the possibility; they could have been family.
Cassidy began to laugh again, "Yep, the boy who was on iron island when Team Galactic attacked, was a long-lost cousin. Once again, a small world, isn't it?"
"If you lay a hand on either of them…"
"Oh, you are not in the position to be making threats," Cassidy shook her head, laughing.
The door on the left side of the room, opened. A bright bar of dim golden light flooded into the room. A man with short green hair, and honey brown eyes, poked his head through the doorway.
"What is it, Butch?" Cassidy asked.
"We found him," the man, Butch, said in a voice that sounded like he was choking on something.
"Where?"
"Sinnoh region. Matori's leading the assault."
"And the girl?"
"She's in Ryme City."
A smirk formed on Cassidy's lips and she turned back to Riley, the young guardian's face slowly draining of blood, "Well, I suggest you get comfortable, looks like you'll be getting the family reunion sooner than we thought."
She turned on her heel, and pranced out the door way. The door was closed with a harsh loud slam, but it was the subtle click of the lock that scared Riley the most. He was trapped in here. Struggling against his bindings would do nothing. The chains around his arms and wrists were new. Their metal shiny, silver, and strong. Even if he wasn't exhausted and injured the runes painted on the cuffs blocked out any chance of summoning aura to shatter them. How did they know about runes like these?
A small whimper came from the right side of the room. Riley looked over. His blue meeting a pair of ruby red eyes. Pained, tired, and frightened, ruby red eyes, that told him everything. Lucario had heard the entire conversation.
Riley knew how attached to Amanda Lucario was. As a riolu, his partner had been fascinated with the infant girl. Up until her birth, Lucario had been the youngest of the Gen family, so having something smaller than himself had made him protective of the girl. When she had been born, the aura Pokémon vowed to keep her safe. They both had.
"We not going to let anything happen to her," Riley said trying to convince himself as well as Lucario, "either of them."
The fighting type's eyes gleamed with pain, asking only one word:
How?
His tail twitched. Pale purple eyes looked into the dying light of the sunset. Another day had died, and a new one had been born as the navy pin-pricked youth known as night. From his quiet spot atop of a stone cliff, he could view the lush valley below in all its glory. It was peaceful. He sighed, sometimes she had been right about this world.
A sudden presence appeared behind him. Smaller, but almost an exact copy to his own essence. He didn't even have to turn around.
"What do you want?" he communicated without moving his lips.
"Oh, come on, do I need a reason to visit my baby brother?" a sweet almost feminine voice echoed in his mind.
Resisting the urge to roll his eyes, he turned around. He was greeted by a floating creature of pale cotton candy pink, with sky-blue sparkling eyes. She floated over towards his side, doing daydreaming like loop-de-loops along the way.
"I thought I told you not to call me that," he thought.
A light chuckle, like small silver bells, came from her mind, "You did, but I didn't want to listen."
He sighed, "What are you doing here?"
"You should already know. Haven't you been watching?"
"Of course, I have."
"Then you know."
"So...?"
She rolled her eyes, "The humans are beginning to mess with powers beyond their control. If we do not step in, it could mean the end of their world."
"If you are concerned for the future of this world, then why do you come to me? Go to Arceus. I have no will over anything like the others do."
"You don't think I have? I already tried appealing to the others."
"And they denied your request to help the humans?"
"To save the humans. And not exactly. The reaction wasn't outright rejection, more mixed."
"Mixed?"
"Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina, see no point in saving them as their realms will remain unaffected. Some of the others, like Yveltal, want it to happen. He wishes to feed on the destruction that Team Rocket will cause."
"And Arceus?"
"He's indifferent. Believing we should do nothing, and see what plays out. You know how he is with humans these eras. The alpha lost his favor for the race after the near war his chosen triggered."
"Do none of them agree with you?"
"A few others do, such as the celebi and Xerneas but they won't go against Arceus's decision."
"Then why are you here? You've gotten your answer. Go back to your tree, Mew."
"I'm here because you aren't under their thumb. The Alpha wasn't your maker. You are free and I need your help."
"And why should I help, you? Have you forgotten what the humans did to me? How they used me?"
"No, I haven't," she paused, "but they're worth saving. I know I'm not the only one who remembers a human boy jumping between us to stop the fighting."
He looked back out at the valley, now being bathed in the first few glimpses of starlight. He did remember the boy. The Darkrai-colored-haired boy, and the pikachu who sat upon his shoulder, that jumped into danger to save lives that he didn't even know.
"They've threatened him, Two. They've threatened the boy," she said.
"In what way?"
"The humans have turned their attention to the few of their kind who can access The Alpha's energy. His chosen ones. They want to use the chosen in a ritual to summon Arceus."
"And?"
"The boy is one of the few chosen that remaines."
He hummed, "How many do they need?"
"Four. They have found three and have already captured one of them."
"So, you wish me to protect the other two, and keep them from finding a fourth."
"No, not yet at least, I don't want the others to know what we're doing yet. You making a sudden appearance would be too obvious. Besides a fourth doesn't exist."
"What?"
"There are only three in the world at the moment. Any other future users, won't activate for a number of years. The alpha has confirmed that. He still keeps track of the few that appear despite his disappointment in them."
"Then why are you concerned? They can't possibly complete their goal if they don't have what they need."
"They don't know that. They will try to do it anyway, either using a Pokémon in the missing's place or just the three. That will only accomplish ripping a hole between our world and this one, which will be catastrophic. And most of them aren't trained. The ritual was made for masters. Without proper training the process will kill them. Killing innocents. Killing the boy who saved us."
He sighed, "What is your plan?"
"We bring in a fourth."
"Are you mad? You just said that they needed four. You're giving them what they need."
"No, if we bring in one to teach the others. Then if all else fails, the ritual wouldn't be as deadly."
"And where would we find this fourth? You've said it yourself; they don't exist."
"Not in the usual living state of being."
"So, they're dead?"
"Well…"
"Let me remind you that neither of us practice necromancy."
"They're not dead, but they are not alive either."
"They?"
"Him and his partner."
"How could they not be dead, yet not alive."
"They both gave up their Aura to save me and their home. I couldn't let them die. So, I entrapped them in crystal to allow their spirits to heal."
"So, they rest in a state of suspended animation?"
"I prefer the term limbo, but yes."
"How long have they rested in your chambers?"
"It's complicated. But the short answer…years."
"That long? Why haven't you released them already?"
"I was scared too. They were so close to death…If I awakened them too early, they could risk a coma. And I didn't know how it could affect their psyches, being asleep for so long. Their minds might have already passed on, and being called back to their bodies could drive them insane."
"Well, what's changed your mind?"
"Desperation. Which is why I am coming to you. Will you help me? All I asked is that you watch from afar."
He closed his eyes, and sighed.
A/N:
Welcome! To my newest fic! first chapter of 41! and I can't wait to see all of ya'll at the end of this monster. I basically take the concept of Aura guardians and turn it on it's head, so things are about to get crazy! and there isn't enough fics on these guys
