Author's Note: Big thanks to everyone reading this far, if any readers have questions please leave a review, I'll answer them in my bio if you're using a guest account or via PM if you have an account. Now on with the show.

Chapter 7: Differing Natures

Distance had, at first disappeared from Blade's mind, but the longer he travelled with Shadow the more it became apparent why his friends apparently didn't enjoy themselves too much around him. He was cold, even to the people he liked, he never showed emotion, and his voice ranged from "uneasily friendly" to "genocidal politeness" more or less regardless of what he did he sounded like he wanted to kill the person he spoke to in the least humane way possible. And yet, whenever the darkrai was around, Blade felt at ease. For the poor sneasel it was as if his mind and body were constantly at war with each other. Part of him was deathly afraid of Shadow, but the other part of him never wanted to be away from the pitch-black pokemon. Regardless of what his body and mind wanted they followed the commands of his heart, which always brought him back to Shadow. The young sneasel was confused, but he put his trust in Shadow. The darkrai had yet to let him down. So Blade simply disregarded the intrusive thoughts and happily followed Shadow. At least until Shadow had somewhere else to be.

"I'm afraid something has come up that requires my attention. Cross the lake without me, I'll meet you on the other side." Shadow floated into the sky and flew off behind Blade. Once again alone Blade looked out over the lake. The body of water was massive to a small pokemon like Blade, but luckily for him the most noticeable feature of this particular terrain was the bridge of land cutting straight through to the other side. But in the middle of the land bridge was a group of trees. A strangely beautiful sight in his eyes and the way the water sparkled in the sunlight was mesmerizing.

After basking in the sunlight for a few minutes Blade finally started to cross the lake. He walked a short distance then broke into a sprint, doing his best to not waste time, he didn't want to keep Shadow waiting after all. The bridge was far longer than he had initially thought 'Well, this is gonna take a while...'

*With Shadow*

The darkrai simply waited in the middle of a field until he felt the ground beneath him rumble. "There you are" Shadow stabbed the ground with a clawed hand and pulled upward yanking a Sandslash from the earth "Looking for something little one?" Shadow knew the answer, but he enjoyed watching the ground type squirm. As that one staring unblinking red eye stared straight into his own the Sandslash seemed to thrash and writhe in the darkrai's grip. "I admit there is something rather enjoyable about seeing the fear as I gaze into your eyes. That is, however not why I have captured you. You're hunting a sneasel, correct?" Sandslash nodded vigorously. "Send a message to your master for me then." The sadistic darkrai chuckled as he gripped one of Sandslash's claws and snapping the sharp object off "The next ones die as the first did. In ceaseless agony." He dropped the ground type and watched as it delved into the ground and away from him. "Something tells me this isn't enough of a deterrent for your master. I'll deal with that once I get there."

*With Blade*

The trees were dense in this area. The surrounding lake was obscured by trees. He pressed on noticing more and more a faint sound growing louder. Someone was shouting. 'Just ignore it Blade, it's not your business' he tried to rationalize in his head. But he kept getting closer and closer. "Stay back! Get away from my egg!" Blade came around a tree seeing two sneasel and a weavile attacking a gardevoir. She was fighting with all she had, but her psychic attacks did nothing. She was being overpowered easily by the two sneasel. The weavile meanwhile was walking toward her egg. Just as he bent down to grab it, the egg was snatched away. Blade was confused 'WHAT THE FUCK AM I DOING?!'

He was holding the egg close to his body and keeping it away from the weavile.

"No, give back my egg" gardevoir cried out only to get hit by a slash from each sneasel.

"Better yet, hand over the egg to me before you put your entire pack in a bad position" weavile called out to him "I'm sure you've got mouths to feed too, but you're alone and there's three of us."

Blade clutched the egg close and passionately yelled out "Nobody is eating this egg!"

Weavile cocked his head "Aww, that's sweet, you think you can lie to us. It's in our nature, you'll devour it the first chance you get." Blade seemed to disappear from his place with the egg and both of the hostile sneasels hit the ground hard.

Blade set the egg with its mother "Stay back, I'll take care of this!"

"Wh-why" gardevoir asked quietly.

"Unlike bastards like you, I could never bring myself to kill and devour a child before they get a chance at a life! Its monsters like you that I hate most!" Blade's claws extended as rage became evident in his voice. His mind was not only on the egg, but how his own father would have killed him, before he ever got a chance to live his life "It's in our nature. What a sick thing to say! Your nature maybe, but my nature is different, I'd rather devour a monster like you than devour an innocent life."

"Hehe, someone must be brain-damaged" weavile chuckled "you don't honestly believe that.." he was cut off as an ice covered claw slammed into his head.

Blade had hit him with Ice Punch "Someones gonna be brain-damaged when I'm done, and it'll be you! You sick FUCK!" Weavile was sent to the ground clutching his now bleeding head. The two sneasels attacked him from behind. The ice on his claws grew sharp and jagged taking a form similar to his claws themselves. He turned on his heels slashing both his assailants with ice claw. Weavile was stunned trying to focus his eyes on Blade. "What's wrong, concussed?" Blade was taunting him.

His partners stood up and attacked again. Blade felt his anger welling up and as the two approached he held both claws together forming a ball of dark energy "Shadow Ball!" He called out throwing the orb at one sneasel, knocking them out instantly. The other burst forth in angry retaliation, but Blade simply side stepped and slammed an ice punch into his opponent. Two down one extremely disoriented opponent to go. Blade moved quickly slashing weavile onto the ground. "Demented freak!" Blade stabbed a claw into weavile's stomach, then the other claw, then back and forth one claw after another stabbing deeply into him "Die, Die Die Die DIIIIIEEE!" Blade flopped onto his side beside weavile seeing the light slowly drain from his eyes as his blood gushed from his abdomen. He held his claws up seeing the blood on himself. After a few moments of staring at his blood soaked claws he doubled over and vomited! Panting for breath and panicking he simply started to melt down "Wh-what have I done? I just…." He glanced over at the dead body and once again vomit spewed from his mouth. He had seen Shadow do far worse and yet, doing it himself, seeing the blood on his claws all he could think was 'How can he so casually do things like that….I feel horrible and I was just helping someone, Shadow does way worse, seemingly just for shits and giggles, but he doesn't have a single issue…. I don't understand..'

His panic was broken by a soft voice "Thank you." Gardevoir gently pulled him away from the blood and vomit "You saved my egg. You're very kind and very brave for a sneasel." She gently patted his head. Blade suddenly didn't feel horrible. "So please don't be upset with yourself, you just saved two lives." She smiled and finished her sentence "And now that he died like that, I doubt anyone will show up for a while, after all, everybody would rather be knocked out, nobody wants to be dead."

Blade stood up wiping his mouth. "Is your egg safe?" He asked, receiving a quick nod "Good. Sorry for the trouble, but I need to go."

And without another word he took off running toward the other end of the lake once again, but as he went he could swear he heard her speak one last time "Thank You."

*With Shadow*

The darkrai had a decent view of the lake from where he was floating. Even a being as dark and cruel as Shadow could appreciate the sight of the sparkling water. Truly it was quite a sight to behold. He simply felt bad that Blade wasn't with him, the view was far better than it was on the ground. But as Shadow could see, Blade was not yet on the other side of the lake. The pitch-black pokemon started to wonder what could have happened. At least he did until he saw the young sneasel come running out of the halfway point. "Well, lets get him something, he seems rather pleased with himself." Shadow floated toward a small tree checking it for berries or apples. He was pleasantly surprised to find not just an apple, but a huge apple in the tree. "If anyone lives here, if you are present say so and I'll leave this where it is, if not you have my deepest apologies." He gently plucked it from the tree a few moments later. Wasting no time at all the dark pokemon teleported to the edge of the land bridge and was surprised to see Blade was already there. "Apologies, I hope I haven't kept you waiting my dear." He held out the huge apple to his small lover. The boy's face lit up as he took the apple and began eating it ravenously "So what did you do that made you so pleased with yourself?"

"I saved an egg from some thieves"

"I see and the parent?"

"She was very grateful for the help, but...I didn't do it for her."

"Then who did you do it for?"

"The egg, whoever is in there deserves a chance at living, my father wanted to take that chance away from me so...so seeing other pokemon trying to steal and eat an egg just….."

"You need not finish the thought Blade" he hugged the sneasel from behind "I understand." Blade dropped the apple and turned around to face Shadow.

He gazed longingly into the single red orb. 'How do you do it, how do you hurt without a second thought?' Blade thought to himself.

"Simple, I do it so they never get to try it again. They forfeit their lives the moment they decide to attack myself or those close to me. End future battles with a particular enemy before they begin as it were."

Blade stood stunned "Wh-what"

"Oh, my apologies, I suppose I should have asked for your permission first, before simply looking into your mind. What did you do to warrant such thoughts?"

"I'd rather not say..."

"Then may I look?"

"Look?"

"Something I discovered not too far back is that I can read minds and memories as if I were watching them in real time."

"Well, I can't stop you if you want to see then..."

"In that case, try not to struggle, you may share the vision as well, but that is a small chance just remember its a memory, don't fight it, let it flow." Blade nodded as Shadow gently pressed their foreheads together. The sight flashed before Blade's eyes in vivid detail, each jab with his claws piercing weavile's flesh as he chanted the word "die" over and over until the light left his eyes. Moments later Blade pulled away and nearly vomited once again from the memory alone. "Relax, it is but a memory, and one in which you followed your heart. Do not think just because you killed him without mercy that you are a monster. You valued the life of an unborn child over the person trying to eat them. By all accounts, you did what needed to be done. It isn't in your nature to be cruel as I am however, even though it isn't in your nature, cruelty can be born through circumstance."

Blade looked into Shadow's eye once again. "That rage wasn't directly aimed at that Weavile was it? It was for your father, correct?"

"Y-yes..."

"Well, then why not hold that rage for him."

"Hold it for him, you mean if I see him again?"

"Precisely." Blade contemplated for a moment and decided he would do as Shadow advised. He guided Blade by the hand leading ever closer to their destination "Blade, tell me about your mother."