A/N: This is an original Pokémon Fan Game, made by Amethyst. if you wish to check it out and play the game download it at Reborn Evolved. search for it on your web browser if you want to get to the website.

Chapter 61- Under the Mountain Sky

Time: 14:30

Location: Labradorra City

"Siiiiigh." A young boy with black hair, silver eyes sighed just to see his breath in the cold air around him. His days on the streets had taught him the very essence of surviving in cold areas with nothing but a black jacket and black jeans to keep himself warm. He looked up to an unfamiliar blue sky.

Nero Umbrasyl never was a mountain boy, born and raised solely in the heart of Reborn City. Nero only knew the darkened sky whether it be from smog, or just the black ceiling of Reborn's dark underside, Seventh street. The fresh cold air stung his lungs, but he could tolerate it, he's been more painful things before.

Whether that thing was believing that he killed his own sister. Be losing his adoptive family of the Magma Gang in Reborn City. Or his more recent demotion in Team Meteor. Nero's life was easily just one painful thing after another. Eventually he just became sort of numb to it.

Just like he became numb to the constant visions from his Absol, Grim. He saw many deaths, people he cared for, people he hated, people he barely even knew. The constant visions meant nothing to Nero as he grew numb, they just became a reminder for Nero's eventual demise. Not that he cared though.

The Boy in black walked down through the streets of Labradorra, down the stairs to the edge of the red Barrier that was in place by Team Meteor's PULSE Mr. Mime. Though the two on the other side were tinged red from where Nero stood, he knew the two trainers… rather Gym Leaders.

"What another Meteor goon here to gloat?" Came from the actual red-haired Rock Leader Hardy. Known as Reborn's second strongest Gym Leader. Recently a special someone of Hardy's has been captured and taken hostage by Team Meteor.

"…" Nero didn't care for Hardy's attitude, so he had his eyes meet with the female leader. Reborn's Number one Gym Leader, Saphira Belrose. "I'm surprised Saphira, didn't think you had it in you."

"Given the situation, I think it was fine. Charlotte knows how I feel." Saphira callously responded to Nero.

"What are you goin' on about mate?" Hardy still not filled in on the loop asked.

"Please, all that stuff about throwing her sisters to the wolves is a complete lie." Nero rolled his eyes. "If Sirius wasn't so obsessed with trying to collect all those keys, he'd remember Tanzan Mountain."

"…?" Hardy looked at Nero confused. Not knowing the story behind it.

"Guess you didn't hear about that, did you?" Nero lowly chuckled as he explained. "When Saphira's younger sister, Laura, ended up getting captured by Team Meteor. Dragon-born over here singly handedly tore through the Base that held Laura all by herself. A good number of Grunts ended up losing their lives that day."

"They were on the wrong side." Saphira responded to that. Not much care for the Meteor Goons she squashed, or drowned.

"They didn't have a choice." Nero said, the strap of a back pack moving as he said. A faint clink of metal lowly echoed. "Either way, wonder what that Princess of Flame is doing with that Ring right now. I know for certain she won't be meeting Sirius. If she actually considered it, you definitely wouldn't let her go, that's for sure." Nero rambled. "Hmm… is she perhaps giving it back to Shiro? I mean a tactic like that won't last, and it definitely wouldn't be that safe. She'd have better luck hiding it somewhere in Route 4."

"Why are you here, Nero?" Saphira sighed asking, she didn't know everything about Nero. But she knew enough to know he certainly wasn't the person to make contact this willingly.

"…" Nero shrugged. "Who knows? See if I could get some information out of you maybe?"

"You ain't gettin' anything from us." Hardy responded. "You, and the rest of those Meteor Bastards are going to get what's comin' to you."

"I'd be careful if I were you. You do know who is on this side of the barrier right?" Nero threatened.

"Why you litt—" Hardy stepped forward to the barrier but Saphira interrupted him.

"You wouldn't do that though." Saphira countered Nero's threat. "After all, she prevented her from getting capture… or rather killed. Didn't she?"

"…" Nero fell silent at that. Unable to give a response.

"Who the hell do you mean by "her"?" Hardy asked, he knew about Lucille's situation. But not every single detail.

"I'm sure you've heard about Lucille's twin brother." Saphira simply stated. Filling the gap in Hardy's mind.

"Are you shittting me? This little twerp?" Hardy cursed at Nero.

"Really couldn't see the family resemblance?" Nero gave a twisted smile. Though the two were twins, the only similar thing about them was their eyes, skin color, and their Absol.

"…" Saphira looked at Nero once more, taking a close look at his eyes. "Your swaying, aren't you?"

"Swaying?" Nero questioned.

"It's breaking you isn't it." Saphira reiterated.

"…" Nero knew what she was asking… and he certainly couldn't answer. "All right, I think that's enough. I thought I might get some info from you, but it seems I'm just wasting my time."

"Nero." Saphira called to him as Nero started up the stairs to Labradorra. "Don't go down this path any further. If you know what's good for you."

"…" Nero stopped, not looking back at Saphira. "(That's already far too late. It's not like I have much farther to go anyway.)"

Nero wandered out of a Pokémart after his meeting with Saphira. While Nero didn't always like to commit crimes, stealing from an abandoned Pokémart would certainly take his mind off of things. Stretching his shoulders, Nero heard the clinking of metal from his bag. "Oh yeah… still have to do that."

Nero walked through the city to the makeshift barracks for the Meteor Grunts. Nero was never a people person, and he never made direct contact with the grunts unless ordered to. Even then he'd try to skirt doing so if he could, often taking dangerous missions by himself.

By the time Nero arrived he could see a group of people standing around what looked to be a sleeping woman. Without so much as looking at her face, Nero knew who it was, Nero already knew what had happened. Though she appeared to be sleeping, she would never wake up. This was ex-Meteor Dame Eclipse. Due to have disobeying orders, and seemingly showing signs of defecting, Meteor Admin Sirius ordered for her to die. Though her body was still alive, her soul was no longer attached to it. Even without a soul, a body can continue to naturally function, but the soul is what controls the mind. Without a soul, there is nothing to control the body, making Eclipse put into an eternal sleep until her true last breath.

"Damn… Damnit!" Cried one Meteor Knight who still deeply cared for Eclipse. Even after her betrayal, Aster. Eclipse's partner through out his days in Team Meteor.

The other Meteors around Aster tried to give him consoling words. But Aster was still in grief, he didn't want to listen.

Meteors walked up to say something in Eclipse's passing. One by one, eventually there was a silence as they noticed that Nero was in front of Eclipse's body. "… Couldn't have been more careful in your actions… couldn't you?"

"Nero…" "Hey…" few grunts spoke up at Nero's criticism. They knew they couldn't do anything to have Nero take back what he said. Even if they tried to fight him, it would only be enviable that they'd lose.

"Take that back." But that didn't stop the grieving Aster.

"…" Nero ignored him muttering something under his breath.

"Take it back, I said!" Aster shouted.

"She made her mistakes. She deserves the criticism." Nero was in a foul mood; he usually wasn't one to speak of the dead. But this… this was personal to him.

"All she wanted was to keep her father safe!" Aster shouted.

"And she knew that if she stopped that PULSE it would kill her." Nero responded. "Should have just stopped and said the two over powered you both…"

"What…" Aster… not the sharpest tool in the shed, instinctively knew something was up with how Nero speaking. "Did you know?"

"…" Nero didn't waste his breath on that question.

"C'mon! Did you know?!" Aster shouted once more. Every Meteor grunt knew about Nero's Ability. In particular how he could foresee someone's death. "Did you know Eclipse would die? Did you not say anything?!"

"I told her to not do anything stupid. Sirius' bad side isn't the place you want to be on." Nero swiftly responded. "Though, not that it matters. No matter what I could've said would have changed it."

"…" Aster bit his lip and punched the ground.

"…" Nero turned to look around… there were grunts looking at him, some with contempt, some who didn't understand, others who knew the risks of everything. Nero looked around the room, looking for one individual. "Simon, come here for a bit. Will ya?"

"…" Despite the two of them of currently being the same rank, the two met off to the side. "Why have you come here Nero? I'm sure you're not here to mourn."

"Right. I'm not one to mourn… But most of the people here are." Nero said swiftly, he's been numb to this sort of thing for far too long. Death was just another day in part of his life. "A lot of good grunts were lost down at Tanzan, weren't they?"

"…" Simon bit his lip, that day, the action against Percival and his friends at the Belrose Manor. That caused the death of Simon's Partner, someone that he cared for deeply to die.

"I couldn't get anyone's body out that lake. But they don't deserve to be forgotten." Nero said, taking the bag off of his back, swinging it into the arms of Simon. The sound clinking metal sounded in the barracks.

Simon confused at Nero's words and hitting him with a clinking bag, opened it. The contents were a surprise to Simon, and made sense of his previous statement. Inside were the dog tags of all the Meteor agents that were lost that day. Simon couldn't believe it as he read the names of each person. There several people who were lost into the depths of the lake, how long did it take Nero to collect them? When did he collect them? "Nero. Why—" Simon cut off his statement almost immediately as Nero had already disappeared from the Barracks.

It was hours after Nero handed the bag of dog tag to Simon. It was starting to hit sunset; Percival had surely beaten Charlotte by this point. Nero sat on a ledge looking out over the mountains. The crimson setting sun burning into his eyes.

"So, this is where you went." Nero heard a voice call out from behind him. "Kind of funny, how the Demon… a creature that are supposedly buried in the depths of the earth, like tall places."

"…" Nero rolled his eyes. "Though it's be surprising for a hawk like you to not be up here, Taka."

"Heh, guess that's right." The brown-haired boy with a red scarf and grey sweater chuckled in response. "So… You gonna return that?"

"Return what?" Nero scoffed, wondering if Taka was just trying to see if Nero stole something, or if Taka knew that Nero took an item from the Pokémart.

"That lighter and pack of cigarettes from the Pokémart." Taka answered Nero. "You know you shouldn't have those things."

"Tch." Nero rolled his eyes. Of course, Taka saw him steal them. "What? I can leave money for them at the counter, but someone else will just take that."

"…" Taka sighed, trying to be the responsible one for Nero. "Nero, your too young for them. Besides those things will kill you."

"Nothing that will be immediate." Nero responded, with a low tone.

"Nero… it could be different." Taka tried time after time… trying to give some hope to a hopeless situation that Nero faced. "Your sister avoided it, if you try… You could too."

"…" Nero only gave a tired sigh. "How many times do you think I have with different people. Different situations. That chances of that happening are slim to none."

"…You tried with Eclipse, didn't you?" Taka sighed.

"Yeah…" Nero said continuing to look out over the sunset. He foresaw Eclipse's death, even went so far to warn her about it, and the best way to avoid it… but it still ended up this way. "It's really impossible to avoid fate, it seems."

"…" Taka fell silent. Remembering a day like no other. "I still can't accept it."

"It's happening within the next two weeks whether you accept it or not." Nero responded.

"…" Taka could only sigh… he could still remember that day. The pure fear Nero had in his eyes when he saw his own death. Taka desperately wanted Nero to try to change his own fate… but Nero didn't believe he could, nor did he deserve to. "Well… I'm getting reassigned soon. Reborn's Water Treatment Center. Something about the Sapphire Bracelets falling down there."

"Hm…" Nero took note of it. "Good luck. I think it was a friend of Shiro's and sis's. They'll be down there eventually."

"…" Taka silently nodded, looking up at the blue sky. Taka thought about giving Nero a chance to betray Team Meteor by taking the Sapphire Bracelets away… but Taka already knew the answer.

The two just sat watching the sunset. Who knew when the next time they'd be in such a calming area together. It was going to be a long next few day for the both of them. Two children doomed by fate. One by blood, the other by circumstance.