How should I know?
Chapter 9: Max?

The next morning that I awaken only to feel a sharp pain in my neck, I rubbed my eyes in preparation of a meeting with the sun. The sun beamed down wonderfully, as I began to set up. Taking a nice long stretch to get rid of the last night horrible sleep on the ground, 'Damn you Krystal...' I thought to myself as I began to yawn.

"Speaking of the beast, she should be still sleeping inside her tent along with Sasha." I said aloud as I rubbed the front part of my snout. "Sasha..." There's something not quite right about her and if it kills me I'm going to find out what it is. When she recovers a little more I'll have a talk with her, but for now I should be thanking her for yesterday.

I began making my way over to the tent where Krystal and Sasha slept, I looked around the camp site as made my way to them. There was a small pile of wet burned sticks from the fire last night, which I had to put out. I got inched closer to their tent as I something wasn't right...as I'm almost never the first person to awaken.

Being determined as I felt at that moment I decided to open the tent fold. When I peered inside they were both gone, being as paranoid as I was I turned striking a Karate pose in anticipation of a sneak attack by Krystal. After holding that pose for about five minutes to find that nobody was attacking me, I sighed hoping no one had seen that.

Another ten minutes passed before I became worried, they're not usually gone without me, or something could have happened to them. I know Krystal is strong but even she has her weaknesses, and Sasha shouldn't be in any condition to fight with anything. "Maybe I should go out and look for them it's no telling how long they've been gone." I said to myself standing up guessing which direction they've could have went.

So I began walking through the woods in hopes that nothing could have happened to my partner. The more I began to increase pace the more my mind began to play tricks on me and give into doubt. A voice in the back of my head kept saying to me, 'You're too late, give up hope, that little bitch don't want you, and she'll never love you the way you want to love her!'

"Shut up..."

"You're a murderer."

"Shut up...."

"You're a quitter!" The voice said with an eerie tone. That was coming from behind me.

"Shut up!" I yelled as I closed my eyes and made a slashing motion behind me.

When I opened my eyes, I fell down in horror as my claw now drips with blood. I look down to see who it was that I injured; it was a small blue Nidoran now lying on the ground dead...robbed of its life because of me.

I stood up calmly and began to walk away slowly. A smile crept onto my face, as I now began to start laughing very loudly as I walked through the woods.

About an hour passed by when I came across a river, flowing gently as I stared at it. As I approached it my heart felt like the heaviest thing on the planet, and the more I tried to deny what I've done the heavier it became. I found myself dragging towards the river as I now stared at my reflection; disgusted at myself I began to roar loudly.

Once I was out of breath the voice in my mind came back, I stared up at the sky as if I'd see a figure in the sky. I began to fade in and out of consciousness do to the over bearing stress placed on me.

"Murderer... you're an uncontrollable monster you know that. Heh even that little bitch of a beast you call a partner would say that, you lunatic." The voice kept protesting
"Who are you?" I said with now a calm voice.

"Who do you think I am?"

"Since you won't leave me alone I'll assume you're me...well a different part of me, but that's not my question. Tell me now who are you and why are you tormenting me?"

"I'm your Pokémon..." the voice said in a much more relaxed tone.

"My Pokémon what the hell are you talking about?"

"You really don't remember do you?"

"Remember what? Tell me now or so help me!" I said as I became more enraged.

"You'll what kill me, huh killer? Tell you what, go to the Lake of Rage and I'll tell you everything."

"The Lake of Rage? What's that?" I asked the voice.

"Why do you want to go to the Lake of Rage?" A voice said from behind me.

I turned around quickly to see who it was. There stood Sasha looking much better than she did last night; she had a worried look on her face. I stared at her trying to think of what I should tell her, but I couldn't think of anything. So I'll try to answer a question with a question hopefully she'll drop it. Either way I can no longer go with Krystal to Black Thorn city, or be at her side any longer.

'Ugh there I go contradicting myself again.' I thought to myself again, but the being inside my head knew something that I didn't. Plus the whole reason of my journey is to find out about my past and I'm starting to become too relaxed. Now that this opportunity has presented itself I should follow it, and getting the others involve will only make things more complicated.

"The Lake of what now, what's that you're talking about." I said nervously.

"Don't play stupid with me, I know what I heard what you say. Now answer me what do want at the Lake of Rage?"

"Dammit Sasha..." Was all I could say in responds to her.

"Ferali, you know if there's anything bothering you, you can tell me please."

"Sasha I have to go, where's Krystal?" I said turning away from her.

"She probably on the other side of the woods looking for you, she's really worried about you, so you need to come back to us."

"No...there's something at the Lake of Rage that requires my attention. I want know about my past Sasha and nothing is going to stop me...." I said as turned my head and looked at her.

"This isn't how you treat your friends and I won't let you walk away from this team! Thunderbolt!" She yelled out.

I raised my right hand above my head, at that moment a yellow flash of light lit up the forest that we were in. I could feel my hand burning from the discharge of energy, after it stopped I calmly pulled my hand down and examined it.

Sasha was out of breath tired from that attack, as both of her hind legs gave out on her she did her best to remain standing. Everything in my being was telling me to kill her, but I was not going to give into those emotions. I turned away from her and began to make my way across the river and said, "Thank you my friend...."

As I made my way across the river I could the screams coming from where Sasha was last sitting. When I pulled myself out of the river on the other side the voice in my head returned to me, 'See doesn't that feel better, to hurt others not even physically anymore, but if I were you I'd kill that weakling. I suppose as long as you head to your destination it doesn't matter.'

"I don't want to listen to you anymore; even if I have to I'll kill myself first before I ever bring harm to my friends. And something tells me you can't survive without me being alive." I said calmly as I stated the obvious.

"That may be, but I know that you don't wanna die before finding the truth out either." It whispered back to me.

I knew it spoke the truth; I'm willingly to break away with my partner...'the one I've fallen for...' in pursuit of my past. I guess I am the lowest of the low; I completely used Krystal to figure myself out then left her to follow a voice. It's probably for the best that I leave her she shouldn't want anything to do with me and who knows I may see her again if I'm lucky...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
KRYSTAL's POV
Two hours before Ferali awaken.

My eyes began to flicker as I felt something rub against my side; it was Sasha curled into a ball lying against me inside our tent. She was warm and fluffy, she felt great on my skin, and she did such a wonderful job yesterday I couldn't have her sleep in her ball.

I started to become restless I swear that stuff that doctor gave me is going to be the death of me. I slowly started to push Sasha off of me, so I can go outside and stretch my legs. As I was moving her she began awaken with her head rocking back in forward. I giggled at the sight and rubbed her on the head for waking her up.

"Sorry girl I was just trying to get up."

"Absol!"

"Shhh...I think Ferali is still trying to sleep. Hmmm you know I think he feels bad for what happened yesterday. I mean all last night he didn't say a word when we ate dinner, or even look at me for that matter. He must really be depressed." I said as I continued to pet her.

She began to settle down as I rubbed her I smile at her. She really opened up to me since I took her from that woman I'm so glad to see that she's so happy now. That's when I came up with a great idea to help him get over his slump.

"Let's go to a gift shop and get Ferali some gifts, surely that'll give him a boost. While we're out let's get something to eat." I said with a wink to her.

"Absol!" She said happily while wagging her tail.

As we got out of the tent I began to giggle uncontrollable from the sight of Ferali sleeping. His head was curled around a tree. 'He's going to wake with a nasty cramp in his neck.' I thought to myself as I slipped into some new clothes. They consisted of a yellow shirt with Pikachu's face in the center of it, a pair of blue jeans, and a pair of blue sneakers.

Once I was done getting dressed I took a nice long stretch, Sasha joined me, and took one herself. I knelt down to her and asked her if she was ready, she nodded to me and we both began to walk from the camp site.

We walked for about twenty minutes before we came into the National Park. Hopefully there should be a shop around here, so we can get that overgrown baby something to cheer up with.

People were out and about walking the street with their Pokémon, to see so many people and Pokémon in one area would surely give me a headache in an instance. I began to dig inside my backpack and pull out a pair of headphones to block out the sound. The design of the headphones was silly but effective none the less as they were in the shape of Ambipom tail hands.

As we walk through the park many people were enjoying themselves playing with their Pokémon. I thought we should come back here for the day and spend some time together having fun. It's been awhile since we had some off time to relax and it'll give me enough time to burn off the day's loose energy I have pinned inside of me.

About an hour passed as we continued to walk through the park looking for a shop. By this time I was starting to become annoyed at the fact that we couldn't find one. I try to ask a few people, but they didn't want to speak to me do to the headphones. This is the reason I distant myself from people no one wants to know me or help me...

So I continued my search with Sasha till luck actually came to us and we found a souvenir store. We quickly made our way to it and stopped; I looked down to Sasha and smiled. Now feeling better about myself and not having to rely on other people to get what I want, if only I could be that way with my parents.

As I walked up the door, it slid open allowing me access inside the store. It was much larger on the inside than it did on the outside; I took the headphones off my ears, and laid them on my shoulders.

We happily walked through the store picking up a lot cute items that Ferali might like and that'll look great on Sasha. At that time I truly felt happy, as long as I was with my Pokémon no my friends I would be happy. They're the only people that I trust and that trust me, to see the one eighty that Sasha made in her personally, and the way she opened up to us was awesome.

Once we were done gathering all the items that we wanted, we proceeded to the checkout counter. I laid all the items on the counter we may have over did it a bit as all our items took up the entire counter. Another ten minutes passed by waiting for the checkout clerk to finish ringing our items. He looked to me with a disappointed look on his face and rolled his eyes saying, "That'll be five thousand Poke dollars please."

I rolled my eyes back at him then guide them towards a side zipper on my backpack. I stuck my hand inside till I fished around till I felt the hard plastic of my credit card. I retrieved it and handed it to clerk while not looking at him to insult him further.

He took the card from my hand and began to type something on terminal. He took the card the swiped it, he got a strange look on his face. He looked at the card and tried swiping it again, the terminal beeped loudly as a red glow began to flow off of it.

"Sorry mam but your card has been denied."

"Denied?"

"Yeah means you have no money left on it."

"I know what it means but that card has no limit, unless..."

I reached my hand over the counter and snatched my card from the guy. He jump backwards not expecting me to take it away from him. I waved over to Sasha to tell her to come on; she looked confused as to ask 'What happened?' We made our way to the front of the door I petted her on the head and smiled to offer some comfort to her.

I can't believe my parents would do that to me or more like they did it faster than I thought they would...

As we made our way out of the store, the thought of what I was going to do to my parents once I got my hands on them kept passing through my mind. When I find them I'm going to kill them, but I still need to focus on finding Max.

Sasha and I made our calmly walked out of the store, I'm pretty sure that lazy bum should be waking up by now.

Don't want to leave him alone for too long he may start to worry about us. We picked up our pace as we hasten back to our camp.

About thirty minutes passed before we were able to make it back to the camp site. When we got here to only find that the place was deserted. Ferali was nowhere to be found and to tent seemed to have been searched through. That only leads me to believe he must have woken up and searching for Sasha and me. He also must have gone looking in the woods there are foot prints heading back behind my tent into the woods, in the opposite direction of the town.

"..."

"Who's there?!" I said loudly.

I the tree rustling further and further way from where Sasha and I were; I turned back to where Sasha was and whispered to her, "Sasha do me a favor and go look for Ferali South of the tent, I have something to check out. Don't tell him what happened today ok, I don't want him to worry any more than he probably is."

She nodded to me and took off in a blink of an eye. I turned around now more determined to find what has been stalking my camp. I began sprinting in the direction on the noise was coming. The thought of Max kept running through my head as I nimbly dodged the oncoming trees. I continued my path looking for whoever it could be. The sun began to shine brightly as I made my way towards the clearing.

I stopped when I was clear of trees; I didn't hear anything but I knew someone was still around.

"Whoever's out there show yourself now and I might be merciful!" I yelled making my demands.

"Hahaha the little side project acts like it can detect things now." Said a creepy voice that echoed masking where person was.

"I'm not an it! Now you tell me where you are so I can kill you!"

"You lowly bitch, you dare talk to the man you gave you a second chance at life!" The voice said in a furious tone.
My mind went blank as I tried to comprehend what the voice just said.

"The man who gave me a second chance at life....Dr. Shine!"

"Ding Ding Ding...the stupid bitch actually gets it!"

"That's impossible, what are you talking about Dr. Shine died a year ago there's no way you could be him!" I said shrugging off the insult that he threw.

"Oh the things that's impossible...just like you with your, what was it called Osteogenesis imperfecta? It seems you've been making good use out of that little shot I gave you. How's becoming a trainer going kill any other Pokémon's today?"

"Shut up! Since you know so much about me, and you're the real Dr. Shine tell me....Where's Max?!" I yelled to the top of my lungs.

I heard more rustling in the bushes that were in front of me I jumped backwards placing my right hand and foot onto the tree so I could spring off of it and attack him. That's when I felt a sharp pain in my neck; I took a step forward trying to regain my balance I fell forward on my face.

Things were starting to go black as I looked up, all I saw Max's face...

"Go to the Lake of Rage and all will be explained..." The voice whispered in my ear.

"Max..." Was all I could say, and then I passed out.Chapter End Notes:Things are starting to get hairy now....lets see how are hero's fair in next weeks chapter!
p.s. Guys let me know what you think so far I love comments good or bad.
~Pod155 outta here