Welcome to the fourth chapter of "A Mansion made of Dreams", which is also the second part of the crossover between this story and "The Valley" by exclamation man. If you haven't read the first four chapters of "The Valley" yet, then I feel kind of sorry for you... and advise you to do it right now. Not only is it absolutely worth your time, but it is also necessary for you to understand what is going on in the following chapter. Of course, all characters that originate from exclamation man's story are owned by him, including Sable the Umbreon, who was his idea, even though she was first mentioned in the third chapter of my story. Well, this should be enough information, now enjoy the chapter.



PLEASE NOTE: I do not own Pokémon, and I have to say that I'm kind of proud of it, because the idea of capturing animal-like creatures to make them fight each other is pretty sick, actually. Whatever, every species of Pokémon referred to in the following text is the property of their rightful owner, however, the actual story belongs to me. 



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A Mansion made of Dreams



Chapter four: Darkness and Fire





Richard awoke to a strange mix of noises. His eyes opened, but they were completely useless in the surrounding darkness. For a moment he was tempted to turn on the lamp, but it would probably wake Light as well. The Raichu was lying right next to him; as usual, he was holding her embraced with his arm. He felt the soft fur of her cheek on his naked chest, and for a moment he thought about just going to sleep again. It was in the middle of the night, after all.
But the human found it harder than he had imagined to just ignore the steady noise that was coming from... somewhere. He couldn't really focus on it, it sounded somewhat dull. His gaze wandered around the room, until it stopped at the window. He blinked. Whatever kind of sound had woken him up, it had probably come from outside, and it hadn't stopped yet. It was a collection of noises that he had never heard before like that; there was the typical sound of Pokémon speaking, or even shouting and screaming, all in front of a background of thumps and screeches. Maybe some kind of fight was going on? But there had to be a lot of Pokémon involved, and why should that be Richard's business, anyway? It'd be better for him to just go back to sleep and focus on the beautiful Raichu female that lay next to him. That was what his thoughts told him. But there was something else as well, and this something seemed to urge him to stand up and see what was going on out there.
The next thing he heard sounded almost like an explosion, although it was just as dull as all the other noises. He slowly retreated his arms that he had held Light with, being careful not to wake her. Then, he lifted the blanket and got out of the bed, standing up on his feet.
It was so dark in the room that he couldn't see a thing; all he could at least vaguely make out was the shape of the window. But Richard knew where his furniture stood, and thus he was able to avoid crashing into anything as he slowly made his way over to the wall. The curtains were still closed. He shook his head and pulled them aside, looking out of the window.

He held his breath at the sight that appeared in front of him. Down there on the meadow that lay between the mansion and the forest he could see the dark shapes of what had to be almost a hundred Pokémon, running around and obviously launching their attacks at each other. The only things he was able to make out clearly were the flames that some fire types had on their bodies. Everything else was a blur; bolts of light appeared and vanished, were sent from one dark shape to another, accompanied by occasional screams.
Richard blinked as he stood without moving. His mind had yet to get a full grasp on the situation. A lot of dark figures, dancing around on the meadow, fighting each other... The only stable points in this reduced universe were a few flames, like beacons in the night... Flames? Flames held some kind of special significance, right...? Slowly, Richard was able to recall the image of a fire, burning in the middle of a dark emptiness. Was he dreaming? He had to be... This couldn't be real. The flames, the dull noises, it all appeared to him like a hallucination. But then again... How could he know that what he now remembered hadn't been real? The whole world was nothing but an image, anyway, that was seen differently by everyone. Nobody knew what was real. It didn't even matter.
Richard didn't even notice that he was moving towards the shelves. His gaze was still locked on the window. He reached out with his right hand and, without looking, got a hold of a cold, almost cylindric object. As he retreated his hand, he saw the knife he was holding. The moonlight coming in from the window made the blade and the embedded black jewel shimmer.
Slowly, a smile formed on Richard's face. The sound coming from outside lost its importance; it was just noise, he wouldn't need to care about it at all. He stepped closer to the window, touching the cold glass with his left hand.

„Such a beautiful world, is it not?", spoke a familiar voice. Richard knew that this voice came from the flames he saw out there. There were no Pokémon, no shady figures; the whole world had been reduced to darkness and fire. „As long as we are allowed to kill each other, we will be happy", the voice continued on. Richard nodded. Suddenly, he felt a desire building up inside him. For some reason, he wanted to be down there, on the dark field, in order to follow the flames in their destructive dance.

„Come here", whispered the fire. „Do not deny yourself the pleasure of bringing an end to this pathetic world." Richard's forehead touched the window. He was taking deep breaths. His hand closed tighter around the hilt of the knife. This was a dream. This was real. It was all the same. The world would go down in flames, and if he could do anything to make this happen sooner, then all the better. Darkness and fire, darkness and fire, the only two elements that were truly eternal; one born from hate, the other one from nothingness, and together they formed destruction.

Richard turned around. He wanted to leave this room, leave this mansion and let himself become a part of the destruction. But as his eyes wandered in the direction of the door, they passed the bed. The bed where his beloved Raichu was lying in, dormant and peaceful, like a sleeping goddess. He slowly approached her. Darkness and fire, there was so much of it... But there was only such a little bit of light, and maybe it would all be lost if he couldn't protect it during this night where the world would end. His Raichu named Light, the only pure being on earth, fast asleep, not even knowing what was going on around her. Of course... She wasn't allowed to see the world in such a state. Just witnessing the destruction would stain her purity, and then she would sooner or later change from light to darkness as well, just as it had happened to Richard.

„I won't let this happen to you", he whispered as his left hand got a hold of the Pokéball that was lying on the table next to the bed. For a moment, he just looked at the Raichu; this was probably the last time he would ever see her.

„You can't keep the inevitable from happening", the voice reminded him. Richard blinked. For just a second he thought he had seen the flame, standing right in front of him. His right hand, with which he was holding the knife, shivered. Was this a nightmare? Maybe he had gone insane, even more than he had always been. But crazy people do not know about their own insanity, right?

„You could speed it up a little", whispered the flame. Richard knew it was standing right behind him. But he couldn't turn around. If he turned around and didn't see anything, that'd mean he was insane. He didn't want to be insane.

„What do you mean?", he mumbled. Richard was turning the Pokéball in his left hand. He'd just have to recall Light, and she'd be safe. If anyone could ever be safe in a dying world.

„You have to kill her." A shiver went through Richard's body. The Pokéball in his left hand, the knife in his right hand. „The world will not end until everything has turned to darkness", said the flame. „You do want to bring down this world, do you not?" Richard nodded. This was true. But then suddenly, he turned around. There was no flame standing behind him.

„Why didn't this happen five years ago?", he asked in a low, but desperate tone. „Why couldn't that have happened before I met her...?"

„What difference does it make?", asked the flame. Once again, Richard was sure it stood right behind him. This time, he turned around immediately. But all he saw was the bed and the sleeping Raichu. „It has all been made from darkness, and it will all return to darkness again. You cannot prevent her death, you can only delay it. And even that is something you will not be able to accomplish for a very long time." Richard didn't move. He just stared at Light. „This is the end of the world", said the flame. „You have been waiting for it for such a long time. Do not delay it any further. It has to happen." Richard closed his eyes. He felt somewhat dizzy. The faint noises of the battle out on the field now seemed unreal to him. Then again, everything seemed unreal. His hands were shivering. With his left thumb, he pressed the button on the Pokéball. For just a second, the room was flooded with light, then it was bathed in darkness again. The Raichu wasn't there anymore. Richard slowly brought the Pokéball to his mouth and gave it a kiss.

„Be safe, my love", he whispered. Then, he placed the ball on the bed and hid it unter the blanket. For a moment, there was silence. Even the fighting noises appeared to be gone. Richard's head started to hurt.

„You're a disobedient servant", hissed the flame. „Our goddess will not like this." With his left hand, Richard wiped the sweat off his forehead.

„Light is my only goddess", he murmured. He then turned to the door. For some reason, he felt reluctant to go.

„Come to me", whispered the flame. „Come to me. I will show you the way home. I will show you the place where there are no worries, where there is no sorrow. Let us enjoy the end of the world together." Slowly, Richard stepped towards the door. On the way he picked up his shirt from the floor and put it on.

„Our goddess will forgive you", spoke the flame. „If you help us now, all will be forgiven. Go out there and kill." Richard's right hand closed around the hilt of the knife so tightly that it would have hurt, if he had been able to feel pain at this moment. But there was nothing except for him and the flame. And the darkness. His right hand went under his shirt, hiding the knife, while his left hand ran across the wooden door and stopped when it had reached the doorknob. Richard opened the door and took a step into the dark corridor.








„Retreat! Everyone back into the mansion at once!"

Pokémon everywhere were shouting this, trying to make themselves heard. In the distance, a little closer to the forest, the battle was still going on. There were occasional bursts of fire or lightning, but it all stopped now rather quickly as most of the fighting Pokémon turned around and ran back to the large building. Blaze didn't really understand what was happening at the moment; as far as he could tell, the Pokémon of the mansion had been quite succesful in fending off the attackers. The fight was far from being over, but to him it was certain which side would be the winner.

„There are still enemies inside the building!", shouted someone a few feet behind him. Because of the darkness, the Typhlosion couldn't recognize who it was. He frowned. Hadn't Slyver, that Jolteon and that Arcanine already taken care of that? But maybe the Pokémon that had been in the hallway hadn't been the only ones that had managed to get inside the building. He hesitated for a moment. From his point of view, it was still foolish to just make the entire front line retreat. Maybe he should try to prevent them from doing this? In addition, the conversation he had just had with the Drowzee was still on his mind. All this confusion made it somewhat hard to focus. But Blaze had always been good at concentrating on the most important task at hand. He shook his head to clear his thoughts and then noticed some Pokémon running in his general direction. They were trying to get back to the mansion; he'd have to stop them from giving up their advantage they obviously had out here in the field!

„Stop!", he shouted. „Everyone, stop! If you retreat to the mansion, it'll be even easier for them to get inside!" Nobody seemed to listen to him. What was wrong with those fools? Just then, he recognized a familiar figure in the crowd. Finally! Together with Slyver, he could make them realize the flaws in their strategy. But the Golduck ran right past him, shouting:

„Blaze! Come on, we need to retreat!" The Typhlosion decided to follow Slyver's advice, even though he still didn't understand why this should be an intelligent tactic. He quickly got down on all fours and tried to catch up with the Golduck, but he was still exhausted and not as fast as he usually was. When Slyver noticed that, he slowed down a little, until Blaze had reached his side.

„Why are we running like a bunch of scared Rattata?" the Typhlosion asked, panting.

„No idea", Slyver admitted. „But they claim to have a plan." Blaze risked a look over his shoulder. As far as he could tell in the darkness, the enemies used their retreat as a chance to reorganize their formation.

„This plan had better be working", he mumbled. Just a moment later, he and Slyver reached the door through which they had left the building about fifteen minutes ago. A Machamp stood there, motioning the arriving Pokémon to get inside.

„Come on, come on, we need to get everyone in here as quick as possible!" The hallway filled up pretty quickly. Including Slyver and Blaze, there were about twenty Pokémon. He recognized the Jolteon that had earlier brought down a complete corridor full of enemies in a co-attack with Slyver, but the Arcanine wasn't anywhere to be seen. But as the Typhlosion turned around he noticed that the fire type was actually the last one out on the field. Just a second later, he reached the entrance as well.

„Nobody's out there anymore", he informed the Machamp. „Tell Ryakee she can start."

„Alright", agreed the Machamp and dashed off through the corridor, the Pokémon in his way quickly stepping to the side. Blaze decided he had not known what was going on for a time long enough now, and he looked at the Arcanine, his expression halfway confused and halfway enraged.

„Why do you just throw away an advantage like that? They were keeping them away from the mansion!" The Arcanine shook his head.

„It would have been too risky", he replied. „We can have Ryakee take care of this, without any of our Pokémon getting injured." Blaze frowned. The Arcanine must have gone insane. A single Pokémon could never withstand a small army, like there was on the field. But just as he opened his mouth again, he felt one of Slyver's webbed flippers on his shoulder.

„He's right", said the Golduck. „Ryakee can do that alone. We should rather search for those who got inside." For a moment, Blaze wanted to protest, but then he remembered that Slyver had been here longer than him. He probably knew who Ryakee was, and Blaze was sure he could trust the Golduck's evaluation."

„Okay", he said with a nod, „let's see what we can do."








„It's all clear!", said a rather exhausted Dolph. „There's none of us out there anymore."

Ryakee nodded. She had already gotten confirmation from the side where the hall and the side where the fighting area lay; the entrance where Dolph had just come from had been the last one. Unfortunately, the reason why there was nobody out in the field near the hall was that the enemies had already gotten in from that side, and were now trying to get past the defenders in the mansion, but those who were attacking from the fighting area's side were still out in the field. Ryakee saw them right in front of her as she stepped through the door; they had formed a rather large line and were closing in quickly. Without losing any more time, the Dragonite quickly started flapping her wings and took off, feeling the cool air of the night on her body. Netho was flying right next to her, for his eyesight was stronger and more accurate; a Noctowl would have been better, of course, but there wasn't one living at the mansion.
Within a few seconds, Ryakee and Netho had gained enough altitude to move around freely, since they were now above the building's roof. The Dragonite had some trouble recognizing the enemies from this height, but Netho showed her their location by making a quick dive at them. Ryakee took a deep breath and concentrated as much as possible. Then, she launched a large ball of energy at the attacker's lines, that was as large as a smaller meteorite and at least as fast. Its color was somewhere between blue and white and it gave off a faint light, so Ryakee could actually make out the horrified expression of a Poliwrath within the attacker's lines. Then, the Hyper Beam hit the ground. Those Pokémon who were not directly hit by it fell over from the enormous shockwave of the impact. A general confusion seemed to get hold of the enemies as a few immediately turned around and ran, after getting up again. But the more courageous ones looked up to where the attack had come from. Just a second later, Ryakee saw two Flamethrowers and a Thunder attack coming right at her, but she didn't even try to dodge. She just kept her position in the air and let the attacks hit, without even wincing slightly. The Dragonite figured this would seem intimidating, and it indeed worked, as another few Pokémon saw how useless their attacks were and then ran away as well. But those who had stayed and weren't unconscious nor dead now tried to charge the mansion. Ryakee fired another Hyper Beam, and the line of attackers shrank once more. There were now two craters in the ground; she took a deep breath in order to create another one. But just after she had launched her third attack, she heard Netho's voice:

„Miss Ryakee, we have got to get to the other side. The enemies are closing in from there." The Dragonite growled lowly. Only about four or five attackers were still up and running towards the mansion, from what she could tell. She would have loved to wipe these out as well with one last Hyper Beam, but then decided it'd be better to let them reach the building and defend the other side of the mansion, just as Netho had proposed. She quickly turned around and followed the Pidgeotto, who was already flying over the roof of the mansion.







When Thunder had woke them up, telling them about the mansion being under attack, Ral?re had immediately dashed out of the room in order to join the fight. The Ninetales had needed to help in the battle as well, so that had left Niani with the duty of taking care of Kara, who was currently hiding under her blanket. All the Jolteon could see of her friend was a shivering shape. Niani sighed. She was confident that it'd all go well; after all, this mansion was like a fortress, and especially those Pokémon who used to hang out at the fighting area just about all day would be very helpful in defending the building.

„Kara, you're absolutely safe", she said for maybe the eleventh time. „You've heard that Ryakee is taking care of things now, right? Nobody will get past her."

„But... But they're already in here!", shrieked the Totodile. The Jolteon rolled her eyes. She noticed that these days she did this way more often than before. It was probably Kara's influence on her. However, contemplations like this were of no importance at the moment. It would be much more useful to focus on getting Kara to calm down.

„Hey", said Niani in a soft tone, while gently nudging Kara's back with her nose. „They won't get far. Remember how many Pokémon there are in this mansion, it won't take long until they've found each one of the intruders." The Totodile seemed at least reassured enough to stick out her head from under the blankets. She took a quick look at the closed door and then turned to Niani.

„Why did they even attack us?", she asked, still with a considerable shiver in her voice. The Jolteon looked to the side.

„Nobody really knows", she replied. She shook her head. „It's strange that such a large group of Pokémon just attacks a building like this here. What do they even hope to get out of it?" Slowly, Niani turned towards the door. She felt the urge to go out there and find the answer to that question by herself. Faint battle noises could be heard, but they seemed lower than they had been a few minutes ago. The Jolteon took a deep breath. For now, there was no way for her to satisfy her curiosity; keeping Kara safe was the most important thing at the moment.

„How many are there?", came the Totodile's frightened voice. Niani shrugged. Her gaze was still locked on the door.

„There's a lot of them", she stated, „but they aren't as many as we are." She turned to Kara again, showing her a reassuring smile. „Ryakee could probably take out all of them by herself." The Totodile just shook her head.

„Ryakee can only fight out there", she replied. „She'd make the whole building collapse if she used her Hyper Beam in the mansion."

„Well, we've got enough other great fighters, haven't we?" Niani was slowly getting a little annoyed. Kara didn't really seem interested in losing her fears. „Look, I'm sure this'll turn out alright..."

„How can you be so certain?" The Totodile's voice was shivering more now than it had been a few moments ago. „Maybe those attackers are really strong? How many of them have made their way inside, anyway?" Niani sighed loudly.

„Seriously, Kara, how am I supposed to know? Maybe you should just stop acting like a scared child for once, so..." Suddenly, she stopped. Her eyes wandered from the Totodile to the door again. Kara seemed even more nervous now that the Jolteon had stopped talking.

„What's wrong?", she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Niani gritted her teeth.

„The children...", she murmured. Then, she turned to look at the Totodile again. Her expression had changed from calm to worried. „Kara, I've got to go check on Chria right now!"

„What?", squeaked the Totodile. „You want to go out there?" With a shivering paw, she pointed at the door. Niani nodded.

„I need so see if the children are safe! I doubt Chria will be able to protect them all by herself." She turned around and had reached the door after making two steps.

„Wait!" Kara's voice sounded frantic. When Niani looked at her again, it seemed as if the Totodile couldn't decide whether she should stay hidden under her blanket our jump off the bed. „What am I supposed to do?" The Jolteon shrugged.

„I think it'd be best if you just came with me." Kara apparently wanted to protest, so Niani quickly added: „Look, I'm going whether you like it or not. You can either follow, or stay here all by yourself, hoping nobody will find you." After this, it didn't take Kara very long to decide. She hopped off the bed and hurried to run after Niani, who had already opened the door and dashed off into the dark hallway.









„Here, this one, too! And those ones over there!"

It was rather hard to see anything in the darkness, but Doc had practically memorized which kind of potions stood at which places in the cupboard. For some reason, the light switches didn't work. The attackers had done something to the electricity supply.
The moment he had known there was a fight, Doc had grabbed whatever potions he had been able to carry and rushed off to the hall, where a lot of attackers had managed to get inside the mansion. But he had soon found out that such a small amount of potions couldn't be enough to help all those who had gotten injured. Luckily, he had found a Tangela named Myrnee. He had quickly instructed her to follow him back to his room, and now they stood in front of his cupboard which contained all the potions and medicine Richard had bought sometime.

„Those here at the back are a little stronger. Take them as well!"

Myrnee's tentacles quickly got a hold of the vials Doc had pointed at. The Chansey looked at her over his shoulder. She was holding about fourty little bottles with her many vines. Doc nodded.

„That should be enough. Quick now, let's get back!"

Through the black corridors, he led the way back towards the hall. For a while he heard nothing but the clinking of the vials Myrnee held, but as they approached the closed door behind which there was the gigantic room, the familiar sound of battle drowned it.
Doc wasted no more time. He quickly opened the door and ran up to the line of defenders, the Tangela closely following him.

„I've got more potions!", he shouted. „Everyone who needs to be treated, get out of that fight and come here!" For a moment he feared that nobody might have heard him, but just as he wanted to shout again, he could recognize one... no, at least two large figures coming towards him. They appeared to be carrying something. Doc couldn't make out any details in the darkness. Sometimes, a fire attack would light up the room for a moment, but after that it always seemed even darker than before.

„Here, see what you can do for him", came a male voice from the Primeape. He and the Kangaskhan next to him placed a large Nidoking on the ground in front of Doc. Then, they disappeared again, dashing off to carry on fighting.
The Nidoking was breathing hard and his eyes were closed. Doc bent over and carefully placed his soft paws on the large Pokémon's cheeks. It didn't react at all. Very carefully, the Chansey pulled back one of the Nidoking's eyelids and looked at the shivering pupil beneath. He nodded.

„I need an antidote for poison", he said in a calm tone. „The vial has a red cross on it." He held out his paw and felt Myrnee hand him a small bottle. Doc took off the lid and opened the Nidoking's mouth with his paws. He poured the dark liquid inside and let the large Pokémon swallow it. Then, he held out his paw again.

„Now a potion", he commanded. „Not the strongest one. Give me one of the bottles that have an „M" on them."

„Sure, no problem", replied a familiar voice. Doc turned his head and saw that Vlad had taken the potion he had asked for from the Tangela and now handed it to him. The Chansey nodded and then turned to the unconscious Nidoking.

„I'm glad you aren't dead yet", he said while making the large Pokémon drink this potion as well. „Just try to stay in this condition for another while, alright?"

„Hey, it's not like I'm as careless as Zanner here", the Hitmontop protected himself. „You know me, I can watch out for myself." Doc nodded slightly and then raised his head, looking at another figure being carried towards him. He sighed.

„In the hell that is war, no one will be left unscathed."









Layla was crying and Valerie didn't know what to do. She felt like shedding tears herself, but she wouldn't allow this to happen; it'd only make the Sandshrew, that was sitting in the corner of the room, feel even worse.
Ryledar was lying on the floor. Valerie didn't know if he was unconscious or dead, and she didn't want to check, either. If he was still alive, then there wouldn't be anything she could do for him, anyway, and if he was dead, well... She didn't even want to think about that.
The Magmar had tried to defend Layla and her when they had been attacked by a Rhyhorn. Even though he'd had a type disadvantage, he had managed to put up quite a fight. Valerie had tried her best to help, and together they had finally been able to scare the attacker away, because he had obviously not wanted to further deal with a rather tough Magmar and a relatively weak, but furious Vulpix at once. For a moment, Valerie had considered to get help for Ryledar, but it would have been way too dangerous. She wouldn't be able to tell which Pokémon lived at the mansion and which didn't, and so there wouldn't be any possibility for her to make a difference between ally and enemy. If she just left the room and asked anyone for help, she was likely to get herself killed; besides, Layla had told her about Blaze not wanting her to do anything stupid. Maybe he'd come by to pick them up soon? Then she could at least feel safe again... But did he even know where they were? Or maybe he wasn't even alive anymore...
Valerie shivered at that thought. Why did she worry about something like this? It was ridiculous. Blaze was definitely strong enough to take care of himself. Then again, when he had fought that Raticate... If it hadn't been for her and Ryledar, then... But she didn't want to have such thoughts now. The situation was bad enough with Ryledar lying in a puddle of his own blood. She didn't have to make it even worse by imagining what could maybe happen to Blaze. Instead, she decided to direct her attention to Layla. The Sandshrew was hiding her face in her paws, giving a heavy sob every now and then. Valerie turned away from the Magmar and stepped over to Layla, gently nudging her cheek with her nose.

„It's gonna be alright", she spoke in a soothing tone. Valerie wasn't sure how she could remain calm in a situation like this, but she managed to do it somehow and for once just decided to accept it. The Sandshrew kept crying.

„We just have to wait for Blaze to come", the Vulpix went on. „You know he'd never just leave us here." Layla looked up now and gave a slight nod. She tried to wipe the tears off her face with her front paws.

„What about him...?", she whispered, taking a short look at the Magmar, but immediately turning away again. Valerie took a deep breath. She had asked herself that question as well.

„He'll be fine", she replied, inspite of her own insecurity on this subject. „As soon as Blaze finds us, we'll get someone to help him." She managed to keep her voice steady. Was she lying? No, she was just being sensitive. After all, there really was a chance it would all turn out well.

Her attention was quickly taken from Layla as someone rushed past the open door. Valerie quickly turned to see who it was. Another Pokémon dashed through the hallway, but the darkness made it impossible for the Vulpix to recognize anything else than that this Pokémon was pretty small. She took a reluctant step towards the door, and then she heard a nervous, female voice:

„Why are you stopping? We're almost there, aren't we?"

„I thought I saw somebody in that room", replied another female voice. Valerie felt even more uneasy than before. She quickly went back to Layla in order to be able to protect the Sandshrew if those two females had any malicious intentions. Layla didn't say anything, but she seemingly had stopped crying now.

Valerie's eyes were locked on the open door, when first a Jolteon and then a Totodile stepped through it. The Jolteon looked around and gasped.

„What happened here?", she asked as she saw the Magmar lying on the ground. She turned to Valerie and Layla. „Did he attack you?" The Vulpix shook her head.

„He protected us", she replied.

„Can you help him?", the Sandshrew asked quickly. The Jolteon turned to Ryledar again and stepped closer to him. After examining him for a moment, she turned back to Valerie and Layla.

„Well, he's alive", she stated. „I'm sure Doc will be able to do something for him, but neither do I know where he is, nor am I able to get that Magmar there somehow." She turned to the door. „But I might be able to find someone who could carry him, if..."

„Didn't you want to do something else first?", the Totodile interrupted. Now that Valerie took a closer look at her, she noticed that the water type had to be a little older than her. She frowned. This was unusual, since the Totodile should already have evolved into Croconaw by this age. But there was no time to worry about that now. The Jolteon nodded.

„Right, I..." She turned to Valerie and Layla again. „You should come with me, children aren't safe here." For just a second, the Vulpix was tempted to protest against being referred to as a child again, but the Jolteon was right, after all; they were definitely not safe. Still, she wasn't entirely sure if she should trust this female that she had never seen before; on the other side, everyone who didn't attack her was an ally, right?

„Alright", she agreed, „we're coming." She stepped towards the Jolteon, Layla following her. The Sandshrew took another short look at Ryledar.

„Will you get someone to help him?", she asked in a low tone. The Jolteon nodded.

„Sure, but we'll have to get you two somewhere safe first. Come on now, follow me!" The yellow-furred female led the way out of the room and then turned to dash down the corridor, paying attention not to go too fast, so Valerie, Layla and the Totodile could still follow. She opened the door and entered another hallway, which was completely empty. In front of the second door on the left, she came to a halt.

„Let's try not to scare them", she said to the Totodile at her side and gently pawed at the door. Low noises had been coming from behind the door, but now it all became silent.

„Who's there?", a male voice called out. Valerie was able to recognize that the owner of this voice was still a child, yet obviously wanted to sound as intimidating as possible.

„Niani", replied the Jolteon. „Please, open the door." Within just a second, her wish was granted and the door swung open. Suddenly, a whole bunch of voices shouted „Niani!", or „It's her!", as the Jolteon quickly stepped into the room, closely followed by the Totodile. Layla and Valerie entered as well.

At first, the Vulpix didn't know what to think of it. On the edge of an artificial pool filled with water, there lay a Lapras, who was obviously just as happy to see the Jolteon called Niani as the children were, that now surrounded the female. There were two Pichus, an Eevee, a Mudkip, a Growlithe, a Chikorita, a Poochyena and a Vulpix. In the corner of the room, there sat one last Pokémon that didn't seem to care about Niani's arrival. It was an Absol. It didn't take Valerie long to see that all the children, including the Vulpix, were a lot younger than her. After the initial joy of seeing Niani, they all slowly turned to Layla and her.

„Who's that?", asked the Vulpix with a frown. Niani turned to look at the two females as well.

„I don't know", she admitted. „I found them in another room and thought they'd be safer here." Then, she quickly turned towards the door, which stood still open. „I'm sorry, but I can't stay", she said hastily. „I still need to get someone to help that Magmar. Kara, please stay here and keep an eye on things until I return."

„Wait!", shouted the Totodile, „How am I supposed to..." But the Jolteon had already dashed off into the corridor. Everyone turned back to Valerie and Layla again. The Vulpix sighed softly. There was a lot of questions she would have to answer now, and she just wished she had Blaze's talent to not give away too much.









It was all a haze. Richard staggered through the corridor without even knowing where he was. The world was spinning before his eyes; at least that counted for what he could see of the world. There wasn't really anything else than darkness, except for the flame. The flame that he knew wasn't there, but that he still saw... even when he closed his eyes. Occasionally, his shoulders bumped against the hallway's walls. He didn't even know if he was still walking forward, or if maybe he had accidentally turned around. But he remembered going down a staircase. At least he thought he remembered this. He couldn't be certain about anything anymore.
It didn't matter if he closed his eyes or not, it was all the same. Darkness and fire. He'd reach the flame eventually, at least that was what it had told him. His right hand kept the knife hidden under his shirt, and his left hand was on the wall, supporting his body, preventing it from just falling over. He was out here for a reason... right? He couldn't remember. What was going on, anyway? Did it even matter? Probably not. But the flame would tell him what to do, he'd just have to reach it...
Suddenly, there was a movement to his right. Richard wasn't sure, but he thought there was an open door... And someone was standing there, maybe coming out of the room? Coming directly at him... At a pretty high speed, even. Something long, something very thin; but the head seemed to be rather big. And there was something shiny... Something that shone in the light of the flame, something that contained darkness and fire, just as Richard's knife did. Something that was there for destruction... It was a tooth, and it was coming right at Richard, pretty fast, but not fast enough for him to believe it was real. In fact, it even seemed to slow down, just to give him a chance to do something against it, just like in a dream... And he felt that his moves were painfully slow as well, as he pulled the knife out from under his shirt and rammed it deep into the Arbok's neck, all up to the hilt, until it didn't go in any further. And there was a gargling sound, and Richard pulled the knife back out, and then a dull noise of a long, thin body hitting the floor and a faint hissing sound, and then everything turned to darkness again and the Arbok was of no importance anymore, because now the flame had reappeared and Richard had to go on... And as he hid the knife under his shirt again, he could feel the fire burning in it, and he could feel the darkness flowing through the blade, and he smiled...
There was another staircase. Or was it the end of the world? He couldn't tell. It was dark and the floor just ended. Maybe he'd fall off and into the eternal night? But then his foot made contact with something, there were steps... It was a staircase. His left hand reached out and held on to the stair-rail. He had to stop his movements for a second. The world was spinning again. Was he going the right way? Descend... Down, down the stairs until he would reach the very core of the earth, so that he could destroy it and put an end to all this. He didn't want to go on anymore. Just standing there, on the step... He felt something like a gentle breeze brush past his cheek. But it wasn't the wind. There was no wind, there was only fire and darkness...

„Come to me", whispered the flame. „Do not stop. You are so close already..."

Slowly, Richard's legs moved again and he went on with his descend. Further down into the darkness, and the veil around his mind seemed to become thicker. He didn't notice that he had reached the end of the stairs. He didn't need to notice anything, anyway. His body wasn't under his control anymore. The flame... It was burning inside of him. He felt the cool blade of the knife against a chest that wasn't his anymore. He didn't hear anything, he didn't see anything... He wanted to scream. It was so terribly lonely in this body, he felt trapped... His eyes didn't work. Or maybe they worked for someone else now.

„I am here for you", spoke the flame. „Come to me, and we can be together..."

But Richard didn't know how he should get to the flame, when someone else was moving his legs. Still, he knew he was going the right way. He had come from up there, where Light still lay, safe and protected within her Pokéball, to this horrible place down here, where a war was waged, where the flame burnt and the darkness spread... And it was his destiny, or maybe just some insane god's will. Did it matter? And then something strange happened; suddenly, all his feelings returned, and he was the one moving his arms and legs again, and as soon as his eyes were able to inform him about his surroundings again, he knew why. He was currently walking through a large, open door, right into the heart of this war. Some faint memory told him that he was entering the hall in some kind of mansion, but he simply ignored it. This wasn't reality as he had known it; it was a weird absurdity, a compromised version of what he had once seen. This was the last battle of this dying world, and it was happening right in his own house. And he'd have a part in this...
Richard just walked forward. Sometimes, there were yellow and red and white rips going through the darkness, but they never lasted long. There were bodies everywhere, but they were unimportant. Richard suspected there had to be a lot of noise, but he couldn't hear anything of this. He just heard the gentle whisper of the flame.

„You finally arrived... Look at me, I am right here..."

Richard turned his head. There, within the ocean of darkness, was the flame. It flickered, it moved around a little and it shivered, but it stayed at its position, waiting for Richard to come. He'd have to find a way through all the dark shapes, though. Some of them moved away on their own, one or two he had to avoid. One of the shapes even charged at him... again... Once more, something shone in the darkness, but it wasn't a tooth this time, it was a claw, and it came towards Richard... Once again, the whole dream slowed down, and Richard drew his knife from under his shirt... The weapon found the attacker's neck, and for a moment he was certain to see the expression of horrified surprise in the Sandslash's eyes, as the Pokémon fell. There was blood on the knife, there was blood on Richard's hand, and he smiled again as the darkness destroyed itself... And suddenly, he knew that everything would be over in a few minutes, suddenly he felt that the end of the world was near, and he turned to the fire again, which was just a few feet away now... And he approached, and he reached out with his hand, because he wanted to touch the flame, because he thought that this was the end of the world and the end of darkness as well, so in order to survive he had to become fire, and thus stay a part of the destruction but not be destroyed himself... And his hand met up with the flame, and Richard felt cold and he felt hot, and there was a flash before his eyes and everything lit up, before it went black again and stayed black, absolutely black, and the world was spinning and his head hurt, and he felt himself falling over but not hitting the ground, but diving into an ocean of darkness again, and the dream lost its stability and broke down along with the whole world, and Richard just floated in an ocean of night and closed his eyes, not feeling, not hearing, not seeing anything, as the entire world went down in flames.








Blaze felt something touch his shoulder, and he immediately turned around, keeping his front paws raised, in order to fend off the eventual attacker. What he saw surprised him; there was no Pokémon, but instead a male human, maybe twenty-five years old. The human's left hand remained in the position it was, seemingly reaching out for Blaze. And then suddenly, the human prostrated and finally fell over completely, his face hitting the ground, his right hand still under his shirt. For just a moment, the sheer oddity of this sudden happening claimed the Typhlosion's attention completely, so that he almost forgot the battle going on around him. But Luckily, he was able to regain his focus just as he noticed from the corner of his eyes that a Raticate was dashing at him in an attempt to knock him down. Blaze quickly jumped out of the way, which caused his enemy to tumble, and unleashed a storm of fire which quickly engulfed the normal type, inflicting large burns all over his body. The attacker obviously decided he had suffered enough pain, as he quickly ran off in the direction he had come from, trying to get away as far and as quickly as possible.
Blaze's mind didn't take notice of that, though; it was busy clarifying things about that human. The Typhlosion figured he had to be the owner of this mansion; sure, where there was a house, there was a human, so it was no surprise that this guy lived here. Everything else remained a riddle, though. Why had he just keeled over like that? And why had he come here, anyway? Humans certainly knew how to construct all kinds of weapons, but they were practically defenseless without any mechanical help. Pure idiocy must have driven that man, to just walk into a dangerous place like this.
Anyway, this was getting Blaze nowhere and he knew it. He either had to return to the fight, or help this human get out of the hall, at least if he wanted to be of any help. But he wasn't strong enough to carry him alone, so someone else would have to do it, anyway. He could as well continue the battle. But just as he turned around, he heard a female voice:

„Whoa! What happened to him?" The Typhlosion turned his head and the first thing he saw was a set of glowing yellow rings. He remembered this image from before, and it didn't take him long to recognize the Umbreon that had helped him fight against the Larvitar before. Blaze, who had noticed that the defenders were doing quite well without him helping, decided he had the time to have a talk with this Umbreon. Maybe she knew why that human had acted in such a strange way? The Typhlosion shrugged.

„Dunno", he replied. „He just fell over for some reason." The Umbreon frowned.

„I haven't seen you around here ever before", she stated. „Are you sure you don't know what went on here?" Her tone of voice didn't make it hard for Blaze to recognize that she suspected him to having attacked the human. He just shook his head and wanted to give a reply, but before he could say anything he was interrupted by someone touching his shoulder once again.

„There y'are", he heard Slyver's familiar voice from behind. About ten minutes ago, when they had arrived at the hall, he had lost the Golduck in the confusion of the battle. But since Slyver had always been able to take care of himself, he hadn't really searched for him. The Umbreon's expression lit up.

„Oh, you know him?" Then, the female shook her head and grinned. „I guess I should have been able to figure that out much sooner. You're Blaze, aren't you?" The Typhlosion nodded.

„Yeah, I..." He was interrupted once more, as Slyver finally noticed the human lying on the ground next to him.

„Hey, what's with him?" Slyver went up to the seemingly unconscious human's side and then looked at Blaze, who just shrugged. The Umbreon moved closer to the human as well.

„Shouldn't we try to help him somehow?"

„We should turn him over first", replied Slyver. His flippers went under the human's chest. „Come on, Blaze, he's pretty heavy." Blaze quickly helped the Golduck and together they managed to turn him so that the man was now lying on his back. His right hand was still obscured by his shirt.

„Look at that", said the Umbreon with a hint of concern in her voice, „there's blood all over his shirt." Slyver nodded.

„Right. I'll go and get Doc, you two wait here, okay?" Blaze and the Umbreon both nodded. He noticed her looking after the Golduck a little longer than he did, then she turned to him. She cleared her throat.

„By the way, my name's Sable", she said. „You know, since our introduction got cut a bit short." The Typhlosion nodded. He didn't think it was the appropriate time for long introductions, anyway, since he still needed answers to all the questions concerning this human.

„What's his name?", he asked, pointing at the unconscious man.

„Richard", said Sable. She seemed to be particularly interested in his right hand that was hidden under the shirt. The Umbreon raised a paw and carefully pulled the shirt to the side. She gasped, and Blaze took a deep breath.

„Is that his blood on the knife?", she whispered. The Typhlosion frowned.

„Doesn't look like it", he meant. „Though... Look, all those wounds on his chest..." He looked up at Sable. „He didn't... inflict them himself, did he?" Blaze knew that this was not an entirely uncommon behavioural pattern among the mentally disturbed, humans and Pokémon alike, so this assumption wasn't too far out. The Umbreon seemed to be pretty uneasy with the subject.

„I... don't know... but..." She cleared her throat again. „To be honest, it wouldn't really surprise me, I guess..." Blaze's question as to why exactly she wouldn't be surprised at this had to wait, as Slyver came into view again, followed closely by a Chansey, which seemed unusually serious compared to other members of his species. The Chansey hurried to reach Richard's side and then bent over as much as this was possible with his egg-shaped body, placing his ear on the human's chest.

„Regular breathing and heartbeat...", he stated and then frowned as he noticed the cuts on his chest. „Doesn't look like he's been attacked, especially because there's not even the slightest rip in his shirt or pants..." He turned to Slyver and shook his head. „Look, I don't know why you called me here, Recovery as well as potions only work on Pokémon and he's not in need of medical help, anyway. Just get someone strong to carry him away, I've still got other things to do..." He turned around and wanted to go, when Blaze stopped him by asking a question:

„Isn't it strange that he just fell over like that, without any reason to it?" Doc shrugged.

„Well, maybe, but I don't have time to bother with that now. You try being the only healer in an all-out war for once, you'll see what I mean." He looked at the unconscious human once more. „Besides, it's Richard. The only thing I'd ever call strange about him would be if he suddenly started to act like everyone else." Those words spoken, Doc left again, heading in the direction where Slyver had found him. The Golduck just shrugged.

„What're we gonna do now?" Blaze looked over his shoulder. The battle was practically won; except for two or three enemies, all the attackers had fled, were dead or unconscious. Finally, he was able to focus on things other than fighting again, and he remembered something... no, someone.

„We need to see if Val and Layla are alright!", he shouted. „Come on!" He ran towards the door that led to the corridor, not looking if Slyver followed. Which he didn't do, at first.

„You gonna take care of him?", he asked Sable while pointing at Richard. The Umbreon nodded.

„I'll see if I can find someone who can get him back to his room." Slyver nodded and then dashed off as well, trying to catch up with Blaze.







Richard awoke from quite possibly the strangest dream he had ever had. What a weird phantasm that was... The mansion under attack by some group of Pokémon, and he walking around, killing a few of them while searching for a flame... What was that supposed to mean?
Now, when he opened his eyes, he noticed two things; firstly, it was brighter in the room than usual, because the curtains were pulled back, allowing the light of the midday sun to come inside without any hindrance, and secondly: Light was gone. After less than a second, Richard was completely awake and sat up in his bed. Light never left his side! There was something going on, and it definitely wasn't anything good. He quickly got out of his bed, and once again he noticed two things at once, of which he couldn't point out which one was more horrifying. On the table next to his bed, there lay the knife with the black jewel. Its blade was splattered with dried blood. And in the bed, formerly hidden under the blanket, there was a Pokéball; Light's Pokéball.
He understood now. The opened curtains, the knife and the Pokéball; it hadn't been a dream. The mansion had been attacked. And he had killed at least two of the attackers... Although, could he even be sure it had really been enemies? It was hard for him to remember anything, but he recalled that at no point, he had been in complete knowledge of the things that had happened around him. Maybe he had accidentally killed two inhabitants of the mansion? There was no way to find out at the moment, and it didn't even really matter. Much more important was the question of what he should do now. His eyes focused on the Pokéball. Yes, he had to release Light first before he would do anything else. Certainly, the Raichu was worried sick.
Richard quickly got a hold of the ball and after a short flash, the Raichu stood on the bed. She was in even worse shape than he had thought; her fur was messier than it had ever been, and her face was still wet with tears. Light's expression showed an enormous amount of misery and sorrow; at least it did for a moment, until she saw Richard. Immediately, she jumped at him and flew right into his chest, almost knocking him over, tightly embracing him with her front paws. For a short moment, Richard just returned the hug without thinking and listened to the Raichu now crying in relief. He was shedding tears as well. But then, thoughts of what he had done entered his mind again, and he reached out to grab Light's paws, which were locked into one another on his back, to carefully loosen them, placing the Raichu on the bed once more. It wasn't hard to tell how much she disagreed with him doing that, but she still let it happen.

„Light", he said in a very serious tone, „I have to tell you something about last night, and I can assure you that this is neither easy for me, nor will you like it." Light's expression grew more anxious, and she quickly looked around the room. On the table next to the bed she found her notepad and ballpoint pen. She quickly wrote:

„What happened last night?" Richard sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. He had a headache again.

„I'm not completely sure", he replied truthfully and sat down on the bed. The Raichu immediately wanted to cuddle up to his side, but he shoved her away in a gentle, yet certain manner. This made Light even more concerned.

„What's wrong?", she wrote. Richard looked to the side.

„Light...", he started and then paused for a long time. He looked over his shoulder at the window through which the sun shone. The world hadn't ended. Well, of course not. The world wouldn't go down just because Richard was crazy. He then tried to look at Light, but found that he couldn't. Instead, he just stared at the door. „I don't think we can be together any longer." He didn't need to look at the Raichu to know about the shocked expression she showed now. After a moment, she reached him a note that just said:

„Why?" Her paw seemed to have shivered again when she had wrote this. The word was almost impossible to read, but Richard had known she was going to ask this, anyway. He stood up again and took a step towards the door, still not turning around to look at Light.

„Because I'm insane, Light." He looked at the ground. „I've always been insane, but now I've become dangerously insane. You're not safe with me anymore." Now he turned to look at the Raichu. She was quite obviously on the brink of tears, but apparently she didn't want to cry again. Instead she held up the note that said „What happened last night?" again. Richard took a deep breath.

„Last night...", he began, „Last night, I've killed two Pokémon. I don't know why, and I don't know if they attacked me or not, but I've killed them." He heard the soft scritching of Light's ballpoint pen again and read what the Raichu had written.

„I don't care", was the first line, and the second one said: „I still love you." Richard closed his eyes.

„Light, I love you, too", he said, „but you don't understand what this is about! If I was able to kill those two Pokémon because of my insanity, then I might kill you as well one day!" Light just nodded and wrote:

„I understand." It took her a little longer to write the next note: „You may kill me if you want to. As long as I'm allowed to stay with you for the rest of my life, I'll be happy." Richard found himself breathing harder after reading this. He wasn't angry at his Raichu. He was angry at himself and the whole world, but he would never be angry at Light.

„Light", he tried it again, speaking very slowly. „I don't know why you seemingly want to completely ignore this, but I'm insane! And I used to be just insane enough to hurt myself, but now I'm insane enough to hurt others as well!"

„You're not insane", said Light's note. This calmed Richard down for some reason. He didn't believe in his own sanity anymore, but his Raichu still did. Slowly, he sat down on the bed again. He winced a little as her paw touched his arm, but he didn't shove her away this time. She began to rub him very gently.

„You'll have to leave", he said after a while. „For your own safety, you'll have to leave." Her left paw wandered from his arm to his hand and Richard intuitively clasped it.

„I won't leave", Light wrote with her right paw.

„Then I'll make you leave", replied Richard, even though his hand, gently caressing Light's paw, told otherwise.

„If you do that", Light wrote, „then I'll kill myself". She looked up at him with a completely serious expression and he knew that this was the truth. The Raichu had never lied to him. If this whole situation hadn't been real, then it would have been funny in a pretty morbid way.

„Light", Richard said in a low tone, „sometimes... no, actually all the time I think it would have been better for you if you had never met me." The Raichu shook her head.

„I would have killed myself the next day", she wrote.








The hall had quickly been changed into one big infirmary. Those Pokémon who hadn't been injured and were strong enough had carried mattresses there, which they had taken from some of the other rooms that had beds. Doc had been awake all night, taking care of his patients. He was extremely tired, but he just had to use Recovery on himself, and all his energy would return. The only problem was that after this, he'd be even more exhausted than before and the next Recovery wouldn't last for as long anymore. He knew that as soon as all the injured Pokémon were taken care of, he'd sleep through for about three days.
He walked through the rows of mattresses, being closely followed by Kara. He was carrying a notepad in which he had written down all the injured Pokémons' names and their conditions, to monitor if and how fast they got better. The reason that annoying Totodile followed him was that she had somehow found out that he had seen Richard's bare chest, and now she was constantly asking him about what the human was trying to hide. The only reason why Doc allowed her to bother him like this was that he needed the distraction. Thinking about nothing but Pokémon injured in a seemingly completely pointless war would sooner or later make him depressed.

„I can't believe you refuse to tell me about this", said the Totodile. „Since I've arrived here, I've been wondering what exactly is wrong with him, and now you could solve this riddle without a problem, but you're just too stubborn!" Doc was currently examining a Persian, who was lying on her side, her eyes closed. He touched her right front paw.

„Does it hurt when I touch you there?" The Persian shook her head. Doc sighed and increased the pressure on her paw. The injured Pokémon clenched her eyes shut and gritted her teeth. The Chansey rolled his eyes. „Look, being too proud to admit you're in pain won't help you." He closed his eyes and concentrated, as he used Recovery on the Persian. After performing this technique, he was breathing a little harder than before. „Don't move that paw for a few hours now, or else it won't heal", he said and then walked away, knowing that the Persian wasn't about to give him an answer anyway. He heard that Kara was still following him.

„I'm not stubborn", he said, answering her question. „If Richard doesn't want anyone to know it, then it'd be wrong if I told you."

„He doesn't want anyone to know what?", Kara asked, emphazising the last word. Doc just shook his head and continued to make his way through the rows of mattresses, stopping from time to time to take a closer look at some of the injured Pokémon. There were about thirty to fourty of them, and the Chansey had to take care of them all. And additionally, he had to deal with Kara.

„I'm not going to stop following you unless you tell me what's wrong with him", she claimed. Doc thought about whether or not he should give her some sort of reply, when a voice from the left called out:

„Oh, Kara, how nice of you to show up." The Totodile stopped walking and turned to see where that had come from. For a moment, the Chansey looked over his shoulder as well and then kept on marching through the rows of wounded Pokémon, knowing that he'd now get a break from listening to Kara's annoying questions all the time.

The Totodile quickly made her way over to the Zangoose's mattress. Ral?re was lying on her back, her arms at her sides. She didn't look too pleased.

„Seriously, I have to wait here until someone of you randomly comes by. Didn't you even worry about me in the least?" Kara shrugged and, after a moment, showed her toothy grin.

„I was sure you could take care of yourself. And besides, you didn't seem to be very worried about me last night, either, when you just stormed out of the room." Ral?re preferred not to look at the Totodile.

„Niani was with you", she mumbled. „She's our great heroine, after all." Now, she finally turned to look at Kara. „What did you do this night?", she asked mockingly. „Did you stay under your blanket all the time?" The Totodile's grin faded.

„Not everyone can be as strong as you are", she replied, sounding a little hurt. Ral?re sighed.

„Alright, I'm sorry for being insensitive. It's just that I'm not in the best of moods, you know, Doc wants me to stay here, even though I feel completely fine, and neither you nor Niani come looking for me..." Kara looked down.

„I guess my curiosity got the best of me again", she sighed. „You're right, I should have come looking for you. As for Niani, you can't blame her; after having found someone to help that Magmar, she returned to the children and stayed there all night long, in order to make them feel protected. I think she's still with them even now." The Zangoose chuckled.

„She has sure taken a liking to them..." She raised her arms and interlocked her paws behind her head, staring at the ceiling. „I wonder if she's planning to be a mother one day, it wouldn't surprise me..."

„She'd have to find a mate first", reminded her Kara. Ral?re frowned.

„Yeah, right", she agreed. „We have to keep an eye on her, or else she's going to make herself unhappy." The Totodile looked to the side.

„Well, maybe she'll find someone good..." The Zangoose grunted.

„As if there were any good males. They're all a bunch of..."

„Please, Ral?re, not again!", Kara hissed in an urging tone. She looked around; luckily, none of the other Pokémon seemed to be interested in Ral?re's words. „You're just going to offend someone!" Ral?re grinned.

„The only ones I'm going to offend are those who deserve it", she replied. Then, she turned to Kara again. „Look, maybe you should get Niani here, so I can tell her something about why this whole „finding a mate" thing is a bad idea. Doc said I'm not allowed to get up until this evening, so I can't search for her myself..." The Totodile raised her front paws in a defensive gesture.

„Wait, wait, aren't you exaggerating this a little? First of all, Niani's not even looking for a mate. And don't you think it's invasive? I mean, you're not her mother or anything like that..." Ral?re shook her head.

„It's only a matter of time with her interest in children", she claimed. „Besides, the sooner she knows, the better." Kara rolled her eyes. She found the Zangoose's behaviour to be extremely patronizing, considering Niani was at least as old as Ral?re. On the other side she was sure that, if the Jolteon wouldn't want to hear Ral?re's bitching about males, she'd be able to tell her that herself. Kara nodded.

„Alright", she said. „I'll go and get her. But you shouldn't be surprised if she won't be too thrilled about what you have to tell her." Ral?re grinned.

„Well, I guess the truth can be hard to handle, but she'll understand it eventually." The Totodile sighed as she turned around.

„As long as it won't turn her into an embittered spinster like you", she muttered under her breath.









„How's he coming along, Doc?"

Blaze, Slyver, Valerie and Layla had all gathered around Ryledar's mattress. The unconscious Magmar was in pretty bad shape, but at least his superficial wounds had closed, so he wasn't losing any more blood. Doc had placed one of his stubby paws on Ryledar's forehead; being a Chansey, he was able to feel how his condition was, as if he was looking right into his body, seeing everything that wasn't the way it should be.

„There's a lot of broken bones...", he mumbled lowly, „...internal injuries... and he lost pretty much blood, but the potions took care of that..." Doc shook his head and turned to the Pokémon who stood next to the mattress. „Has anyone of you ever heard the song „Knocking on Heaven's Door?"" He could tell from their expressions that they didn't know what he was talking about, and he admitted to himself that this had been a pretty pathetic and insensitive attempt at making a joke. „He's not going to die", he explained, „but he's been incredibly close to it. If he doesn't move, then it'll take him at least two days to heal completely, if not even three. But I figure this won't be an issue, since he's still unconscious, after all." The Typhlosion sighed.

„That means we're gonna have to stay here a bit longer than planned." Blaze was not satisfied with how things had turned out. Not only was it basically his fault that the mansion had gotten attacked, but he also wasn't too fond of the thought of staying at this place in general, which was mainly because of the strange experience he had had with its owner.

„Where do you wanna go next, anyway?", Slyver asked in a low tone, making sure that Doc couldn't hear him. Blaze shrugged.

„I'm not sure", he admitted. „But we'll have to get Layla back to her parents at one point. This whole thing has gotten way more dangerous than I would have thought." The Sandshrew looked up as she heard her name, but didn't say anything. Blaze suspected that, after the experiences of the past night, she would be relieved to get back to a safe place. That was, if there even existed such a thing as a „safe place" anymore with those Pokémon from the compound trying to gain power.

„We need to find out what they're gonna do next", suggested Valerie. „If we can manage to be one step ahead, then maybe..."

„That's not gonna work", interrupted Slyver. „How're we supposed to do that in the first place?"

„We don't even have to do it", stated Blaze. He sounded like he was deep in thought. „They attacked this mansion 'cause they wanted the map. And they didn't get what they wanted, so sooner or later, they'll attack us again."

„But they won't do it while we're here", Valerie went on with the thought. „It didn't work the first time, and they won't want more of their members to get killed." The Typhlosion nodded. Now that he thought about it again, maybe it wasn't so bad that they'd have to stay at the mansion for a few more days. As long as they were here, they were safe.

Anyway, they couldn't go on with thinking about how to get an advantage over their enemies, as they saw a Ninetales coming towards them through the rows of mattresses. He seemed to be rather disgruntled, and Blaze immediately knew they were in trouble now. He looked at Slyver; after all, the Golduck had been here for a few days now, and he seemed to know the fire type, as he nodded and waved at him.

„Hi, Thunder", he said with a hint of insecurity in his voice. Blaze recalled Slyver telling him that Thunder was the Ninetales that „kinda runs the show here". For some reason, the Golduck saying his name didn't seem to make him very happy.

„I'm Lightning", he grumbled. „Thunder's lying back there, with a broken jaw." He moved his head in the direction he had spoken of. Slyver cleared his throat.

„I'm... sorry to hear that." Lightning stared piercingly at the Golduck. Doc had disappeared at some point, so they couldn't turn to anyone but the Ninetales.

„Yeah, you better be." He walked past the four waiting Pokémon and didn't look in their direction as he spoke: „I've got some questions to ask you, and I think it's in your best interest that nobody notices that. Follow me." He walked off towards one of the doors on the side of the hall. Blaze, Valerie and Layla all turned to Slyver, who sighed.

„We better do what he wants." They all turned to follow the Ninetales, who didn't even look over his shoulder. There was an uneasy silence; only the low sounds coming from some of the injured Pokémon, like whimpers or whispered conversations were heard. Lightning reached the door and held it open until Blaze, Slyver, Valerie and Layla had stepped into the room. He then followed suit and closed the door behind him again. Blaze looked around. There were bottles of water everywhere, but the Ninetales definitely hadn't taken them in here to offer them something to drink.

„Six", he said, as he turned to the four Pokémon in front of him. „Six Pokémon who were living at the mansion died yesterday night. And if it wasn't for Doc, then almost all of those lying out there would be dead by now as well." Blaze nodded.

„Well, that's not good, but there are always casualties in a battle like this one, and..."

„Yes, but whose battle was this?", growled the Ninetales. His eyes narrowed. „Just a little longer than four years ago, Richard has had this mansion built", he said. „We've never been attacked, not a single time. And now suddenly, you three guys show up here and all hell breaks loose!" He turned from Blaze to Slyver. „And you've got some connection to them, so this is your responsibility as well!" The Golduck shook his head.

„It's easy to just blame us for everything, right?" Lightning's tails shivered.

„Sure it is", he agreed. „I don't know what those guys wanted, but it's obvious to me that they wanted it from you. In other words, if you hadn't shown up here, then those six Pokémon would still be alive." Blaze looked to the side. He understood the Ninetales, in a way; he had known the ones who died, and had therefore had a certain emotional connection to them.

„We got here just before those Pokémon showed up. They weren't here for us; they were planning on a false lead.", claimed the Typhlosion.

"Nothing fucks up a plan like bad intelligence," Slyver noted to nobody in particular. Blaze nodded in agreement.

„You don't know who those enemies were.", he said. „At one point, you'd have had to get involved." Lightning bared his teeth.

„You don't know us", he replied. „Richard doesn't get involved in anything. He has founded this place as a refuge for himself and those of us who are sick of having to care about things like this, who are sick of having to struggle for freedom, for their personal rights and for their very lives! This mansion was built so that there would be a single place in this world where everyone can just live, where we do not have to deal with oppression and power-crazy morons!" Blaze shook his head. This was simply naive and nothing else.

„You can't expect to be just left alone", he argued. „You're right, there's a lot of power-crazy morons out there. Do you think you can just hide from them forever, not getting involved in anything?" Lightning nodded.

„This is exactly what we expect", he said. „And it would work, if it wasn't for Pokémon like you, who seem to be completely fixated on making your problems everyone's problems!"

„We're not the ones making problems here!", Blaze replied, rather agitated by the Ninetales' views on this subject. „Those guys who attacked us are! They're the fuckers who want to rule over everyone, and we're trying to stop them!"

„Then do it alone!", Lightning growled. „You can try to find allies somewhere and build up an army to fight them, or whatever you want to do! But no, you preferred to just lure them here!"

„Look, this is a lot more complicated than you think it is", Blaze replied, trying to sound calm and reasonable. „This whole valley is unstable. Last night good souls were lost because some ignorant, egotistical minds tipped the scale and tried to start a war..."

„I don't care about that stupid valley of yours, we're talking about this mansion right now!", Lightning shouted in a very aggressive tone. Suddenly, he lowered his voice again. „You're pretty smart, I'll give you that; you knew exactly what your enemies were up to, and you didn't want to face a whole army alone. You knew about this mansion and that it's full of Pokémon, and so you just decided to come here, so you could have an army of your own. In other words, you didn't want to get killed, so you just took the opportunity and let others die in your place."

„That's not true!", shouted Valerie. „Blaze wouldn't do something like this!" She looked at the Typhlosion. „Right? You wouldn't risk innocent Pokémons' lives on purpose." Blaze closed his eyes and slightly shook his head. The Vulpix wasn't sure what to think. Slyver's words from the night before drifted into her mind: „There's everyone in between, but they're not important right now." Were they truly unimportant enough to just let them get killed?
The Ninetales grunted.

„Alright, you don't have to admit it. I know it anyway. At least I know for certain now that it was indeed your fault." He turned around and walked towards the door again. But before he left the small room, he looked over his shoulder and said:

„You're going to be in so much trouble with Richard, you'll wish you had never come here." The door closed behind him, and what followed was an uncomfortable silence. Both Valerie and Layla were staring at Blaze. After a while, the Typhlosion took a deep breath.

„What do you think that Richard guy will do to us?", he asked Slyver in a low tone. The Golduck shrugged.

„You can never know with that guy. He might just throw us out. Or something worse."

„Something... worse?", repeated Layla in a shivering tone. She had been completely quiet all the time, so Blaze had almost forgotten she was even there. But now he realized that there was still a child in his company, so he quickly said:

„You shouldn't worry so much. Nobody can blame you for what happened." This didn't seem to make the Sandshrew calm down very much, so Blaze decided to just move on to another topic for now. „Come on", he said, „let's check if Ryledar's woken up yet." He quickly led the way out of the room, being grateful for the chance to not have to look in Valerie's eyes for at least a short moment.









Richard was wandering around the mansion rather aimlessly, trying to find someone who'd be able to fill him in on what exactly had happened the night before. Light was following him as usual. He had first tried the room that Thunder and Lightning shared, but neither of them had been there. The next one he had been able to think of had been Doc, but the Chansey hadn't been in his room, either. He didn't know any of the other Pokémons' names, except for that Jolteon called Niani. He still didn't have any idea why he hadn't forgotten her name like everyone else's, and he didn't plan asking her about it. Not only did he not know her at all, but it would also greatly displease Light.
Right now, he was walking towards the large door which led into the hall. He figured that at least somebody would be there who could clear up things for him, regardless of who it would be. But as he entered the large room, he saw something he hadn't expected in the least; rows of mattresses with obviously injured Pokémon on them. Those of them who were neither asleep nor unconscious turned their heads to look at him; Richard frowned. Slowly, he closed the door behind him and Light and turned his head to the left. He immediately felt better when he saw Doc; now he would finally get an explanation on what exactly had happened the night before. Richard quickly made his way past the many wounded Pokémon and arrived at the Chansey's side; Doc was currently giving a potion to some Bayleef lying on a mattress, who was drinking down the liquid eagerly. After the Chansey was done, Richard cleared his throat to gain his attention. Doc turned around and looked up at him.

„So you're awake", he stated. Light reached Richard a note and he nodded.

„That's kind of obvious", he said. He then took a look around, taking in the image of such a large room full of injured Pokémon. „Look... What exactly happened last night?" Doc sighed and then turned around to continue his examinations. Richard followed him.

„Well, a quite large number of Pokémon attacked us", said the Chansey while Light quickly translated. „After some time, we managed to defeat them, but we lost six of the inhabitants." Doc looked over his shoulder and, to emphasize it, added: „They're dead." He stopped as he had reached another mattress where an unconscious Wartortle lay. His shell was covered in scratches, and as far as Richard could tell from the angle his right arm was at, it was broken. „Some of the enemies fled, some of them were killed", Doc went on while lightly touching the broken limb with his paw. „A few of the stronger Pokémon cleaned the mansion during the night, so there aren't any corpses in the building. I figure they just threw them out into the woods somewhere; the scavengers can take care of them." He shook his head and then said, more to himself than to Richard: „If it wasn't for all these wounded Pokémon, one could think this was all just a bad dream..." Richard tried to get a general impression of the whole situation. He then remembered something that had been on his mind all the time.

„Doc... Those dead Pokémon..." He swallowed. „Did any of them have stab wounds?" This time, the Chansey turned around completely. He looked up at Richard with a frown.

„I should have known that Arbok in the second floor's hallway was killed by you." He kept looking at the human, who felt like the Chansey was staring right into his mind. „Don't worry", he said. „It was an enemy." Richard didn't exactly know how to react; he was a bit relieved that it hadn't been an inhabitant of the mansion, while at the same time it was a horrible feeling to now have confirmation that he had indeed killed at least one Pokémon during that insane night. Additionally, he felt uncertain about Doc having guessed so easily what had been on his mind.

„And what about...", he started, but got interrupted by the Chansey:

„Yeah, that Sandslash was one of the attackers as well." He turned to the Wartortle again. „Now, if you plan to be of any help, you should know that for some reason, we don't have electricity at the moment. It'd be good if you could take care of that." Richard nodded after having read Light's translation. He put the note inside his pants' pocket so that he wouldn't forget about it. Sure, it was unusual that the Chansey told him what to do, but he understood that, under these circumstances, it'd be best to just do whatever he could to help. It was in his best interest to get everything back to normal as soon as possible, after all. „Also", Doc went on, „I'm about to run out of potions, so you've got to order some new ones. I don't know why we got attacked, but there's a possibility it'll happen again, and in that case we should be prepared..."

Richard dropped Light's note and entirely forgot about the Chansey, as he had, after having seen something from the corner of his eyes, turned his head to the right; the first thing he had seen was a Ninetales, which could be either Thunder or Lightning, coming towards him, but what had really caught his eyes were the Pokémon currently stepping through one of the doors on the side of the hall; in fact, his attention was completely focused on the large yellow and blue creature that had flames burning on its back.
To him, it was as if his mind was being split in two at that very moment, and it almost felt like he had two voices in his head, which were screaming at him, trying to get his attention. The one half of his mind hollered about this being the flame that had been sent to ruin his life, the flame that had foretold the end of the world which had never come; the other voice insisted on it just being a Typhlosion, that hadn't been sent by anyone, and that had never done him any harm. He was completely occupied with this internal battle, and for once, his rational side seemed to be winning; he tried to calm himself down, closing his eyes, taking deep breaths.




Light was looking up at Richard with a concerned expression. Something strange seemed to go on with him; he had closed his eyes and was now mumbling „Just a Typhlosion... Just a Typhlosion..." over and over again. The Raichu didn't know if she should try and gain his attention, and she turned around, looking for Doc, noticing that the Chansey was a few steps away already, taking care of the Pokémon, not paying any attention to Richard's strange behaviour. But instead of Doc, a different Pokémon seemed to be interested in her mate. Light still couldn't tell whether the Ninetales was Thunder or Lightning. The fire type approached and then sat down, looking up at the human with an annoyed expression. He then turned to Light.

„Could you please try to get him to notice me somehow? There's something important I've got to tell him." The Raichu nodded without saying anything. She didn't want to get involved in any conversations with males other than her mate.




Richard finally got a hold of himself as he felt something tugging at the left leg of his pants. He blinked and then shook his head. His mind seemed to become somewhat clear; of course, this was just a Typhlosion. He had been insane last night. Just because it was a Pokémon with flames on its back didn't mean it had anything to do with his stupid hallucinations. Richard looked at his mate and managed to show her a more or less reassuring smile, which she returned. There was no reason to make her worry alongside with him. For now, it was important to get everything to return to its normal state. The Raichu pointed at something or someone that was located next to him. The human turned his head and saw the Ninetales sitting there, who was moving his tails in an impatient manner.

„Hello... Lightning?", he guessed. Apparently he had been right, as the fire type nodded and then said something. Light quickly wrote it down and handed the note to him.

„The Typhlosion and his comrades over there are the ones responsible for the attack last night", it said.

„Of course he is", said a voice in Richard's head, „and you knew it all along." His hand shivered. It was true. The flame had come, and it had come for him. Or rather, it had come to make him kill Light. Well, he wouldn't let this happen, not in a million years. He knew he was insane, but he still felt saner than he had felt the night before... if that made any sense. But it wasn't important if things made sense right now.
In a swift motion, his right hand went to his belt, grabbed the one Pokéball he had attached to it and pressed the button; before she even knew what was going on, Light got recalled. She was safe now. Richard fastened the Pokéball to his belt again and then turned to walk towards the Typhlosion at a quick pace. A familiar darkness enveloped his mind. The world seemed to disappear around him; all that was left now was himself and the flame, and with each step, he felt the anger growing inside him.








„It'd be a good idea to leave as soon as possible", Blaze said, still trying to take Valerie's mind off of whatever she might be thinking about at the moment. „They don't want us here, that's kinda obvious."

„Lightning doesn't want us here", corrected the Vulpix. „We can't leave until Ryledar's better again, anyway." There came a low hissing sound from Slyver, and everyone turned to look at him. He was pointing to the left.

„Just in case you need any more confirmation", he said. Blaze saw what the Golduck was talking about, and his eyes went wide. He hadn't thought the Ninetales' threat would become reality so soon.

„Alright, everyone stay calm", the Typhlosion said in a low tone. „Maybe we can reason with him..." But he doubted his own words as he saw the expression in the human's eyes. He just hoped Richard wouldn't become violent; sure, it wouldn't be a problem for him to defend himself, but they'd be even deeper in trouble if they had a battle with the very owner of this mansion. He took a deep breath and readied himself mentally for what was about to come. But what happened next was definitely something he would never have expected.

„I know who you are!", shouted the human as there was still a distance of about ten steps between them. Richard had his eyes fixated on the Typhlosion only.

„He knows you?", asked Valerie from the side. Blaze shook his head.

„I've never seen him in my life before last night." The human came closer, pointing at him with his finger.

„I know who you are and I know why you're here! Why can't you just leave me alone?! Why do you have to keep following me everywhere I go?!" Richard now stood right in front of the Typhlosion, his finger almost poking against the Pokémon's chest. There was an expression in his eyes that Blaze just couldn't figure out, but he knew from his tone of voice that the human was definitely enraged. He cautiously took a step back.

„You're never going to get her!", the human shouted, placing a shivering hand on the Pokéball attached to his belt. „I won't let you do this to me anymore!" Blaze noticed that Slyver, Valerie and Layla, as well as all the other Pokémon in the hall that weren't unconscious, were all watching him now with curious expressions. He felt like he had to defend himself and raised his front paws in a protective manner.

„Look, I don't even know what you're talking about!", he said, trying to stay as calm as possible inspite of his complete confusion with what was going on at the moment. Blaze had fully been taken by surprise by Richard's behaviour, and thus wasn't able to remember that humans can't understand Pokémon language. „Maybe you got something mixed up, or..."

„You're the one who's been making me do all this!", screamed the human, his hands shivering even more than before. „You came here to make me kill her! I know it!" For some reason, his next sentence was spoken in a much lower tone, but it still sounded menacing enough. „Who sent you? Who's the one you referred to as our goddess? Why did you make all that destruction happen last night, and then didn't bring it to an end?!" Blaze could just stare at Richard. This situation was getting crazier by the second. The human turned to the side, looking towards the ground.

„You told me it would end, and yet it still goes on", he murmured. „What did I do to deserve being tortured like this...? Why can't you just either leave me alone or finish this once and for all...?" He turned back to the Typhlosion again. Drops of sweat were forming on the human's forehead. „I tried to get away from it all", he went on in the same strange, somehow absent tone of voice, as if he was talking to himself. „I really didn't want to have anything to do with all that anymore, but you just keep following me. Why do you..."

The human shook his head and blinked. Suddenly, there seemed to change something in his eyes; an indifferent expression filled them now, and all the former rage had apparently disappeared completely. Blaze thought that this would be a good opportunity to try and finally get his opinion across.

„I'm very sorry that you seem to have mistaken me for someone else", he spoke slowly, taking care to think about each word before he said it. He now knew that this human had to be treated with caution. „I really don't..."

„That's enough", said Richard in a tone that fitted the indifferent expression in his eyes. He took a deep breath and brought one of his shaking hands to his sweaty forehead. Then, he turned to Blaze again. „I'm tired of this. You and each one of your friends will be out of this mansion by..." He quickly checked the watch on his left arm. „...by six. That's almost four hours, it should be enough. If I should ever run into you again after this point in time, I will have you killed, understand?" Layla gasped, and Blaze saw from the corner of his eyes that she tried to hide behind the Vulpix, who showed an equally shocked expression. He shook his head.

„This is insane!", he argued, pointing at the unconscious Magmar who was lying on the mattress a few feet away. „We need to wait at least until he's recovered!" Richard looked over his shoulder at the fire type Blaze had pointed to. He frowned.

„Wait a moment...", he mumbled, took the Pokéball off his belt and released a Raichu who was holding a notepad and some sort of pen; she looked around and immediately moved between the human and Blaze, shooting him a hateful glare. The Typhlosion took a step back. He really didn't want to fight at this moment. He wasn't scared of the electric type, for he had dealt with all kinds of Pokémon in the past that had been way more dangerous than her, but it just seemed like a good idea to try not to enrage anyone even more than they already were.

„Light, I need you to translate what this Typhlosion says", said the human. The Raichu named Light turned around and looked at him. He reached down and gently patted her head. „I'll try to explain everything later. Please, just do this for now." Light nodded and looked at Blaze without saying anything. The Typhlosion sighed.

„We can't leave 'till that Magmar over there is healed." The Raichu wrote down his words and then handed the note to her owner. The human shook his head.

„You're a threat to this mansion and to everyone living inside of it, and I want you out of here as soon as possible. He can just follow you when he feels better." Blaze gritted his teeth.

„I can't leave without him." Richard shrugged.

„Why should that be my problem?" He noticed the agitated expression in the Typhlosion's eyes and added: „What, is it your personal privilege to be uncaring? Six of the Pokémon living here died because of your war, if I may remind you." The flames on Blaze's back grew a bit in size. Everyone in this mansion seemed to be completely ignorant of reality, and that just made him angry.

„You don't know anything about what happened! Those Pokémon, and that fight? It's an ongoing power struggle!", he shouted at the human. „You think you can just live here without giving a damn about anything, do you think they would've just let you carry on like this?!" The Raichu seemed to have trouble writing it all down so quickly, but she somehow managed it, apparently. Richard smiled as he read the note.

„You're right", he agreed. „Living here without giving a damn about anything is just what I have in mind. And I really don't have any idea what that war is about, but I guess it's just as pointless as any other war that has ever been waged." Blaze wanted to say something in return, but the human quickly continued. „I don't care about you, you know? You should be thankful we didn't just kill you for endangering us all. Get away from here as soon as you can, and stop lecturing me about war. I happen to be an expert on that subject; I'm a human." He turned around and started to walk away. He stopped again and looked back over his shoulder. „That wounded guy can stay, but just because he's not in the condition to leave. As soon as he's alright, I'll throw him out. And if our patrols catch any of you strolling around in the forests near this mansion, then you'll be killed to ensure our safety." Blaze was absolutely flabbergasted. He just shook his head as the human started to walk away and then turned to Slyver.

„What the hell...?", was all he was able to say at the moment. The Golduck nodded.

„Agreed. What the hell." Then, there was silence. A few of the injured Pokémon still stared at Blaze; they were obviously very angry. The Typhlosion swallowed. This could get very dangerous.

„What do we do now?", he heard a shivering voice ask. Blaze turned to the terrified little Sandshrew. It was kind of ironic how Richard had accused him of being uncaring while at the same time threatening to kill a child.

„If he doesn't even want us in the woods, Ryledar won't have a chance of finding us", Blaze said. „We can either get away from here, or we can try to hide somewhere." He had lowered his voice, for he didn't know how many of the wounded Pokémon were listening.

„Come to my room as soon as possible", whispered a voice behind them, „and don't let anybody see you!" They all turned around. Sable, the Umbreon from the night before, was walking right past them, pretending not to be interested in anything. Blaze blinked.

„How could she get so close without any of us noticing?", he asked Slyver in a whisper. The Golduck shrugged slightly.

„It's probably a dark type-thing."










Niani quickly made her way through the rows of mattresses, closely following Kara who was leading her to where Ral?re lay. The Totodile hadn't wanted to completely reveal the Zangoose's condition; she had just told the Jolteon Ral?re was at the temporary infirmary and that she wanted to tell her something. It had made Niani quite upset that her friend wanted to make her hurry by using such an insensitive trick; for all the Jolteon knew, Ral?re could be heavily injured.

Niani gave a relieved sigh when they finally arrived at the Zangoose's side. Ral?re looked up and showed the Jolteon a small smile. After having noticed that the Pokémon lying on the mattress didn't have any obvious injuries, Niani turned to Kara with an accusing expression. The Totodile showed her toothy grin, shrugged and said:

„I needed to get you away from the children somehow, and I knew it would have been a lot harder if I had told you that she was absolutely fine." Niani just shook her head, but then a smile formed on her face; after all, her friend seemed to be in a way better condition than she had feared. She turned to the Zangoose.

„Ral?re, I'm so sorry for not coming here earlier", she apologized. „Chria and I were occupied all night long, trying to make the children feel more comfortable. It took us ages to get them to go to sleep, and..." Ral?re chuckled.

„That's alright, don't worry about it." She payed attention to not move any other part of her body than her head as she spoke, which made Niani's expression grow more concerned.

„What happened to you?", she asked. „Are you hurt?" The Zangoose shook her head.

„I'm absolutely fine", she replied. „I guess I just overdid it a little last night. I've taken a few hits, but none of them were actually dangerous. The reason I'm here is just that..." She cleared her throat and looked to the side. She found it to be a little embarassing to talk about this. „Well... I didn't really pay attention to how much I was wearing myself out, I guess, and at some point, my body just refused to work..."

„That's just a euphemism for saying she exhausted herself until she fell unconscious", added Kara, grinning as usual. Niani frowned.

„Then why are you staying here?" Ral?re looked back at her and spoke in a lower tone:

„Doc told me to stay and not move. I don't know why. But you know how he gets when someone doesn't follow his medical advice, and he's not in the best of moods, anyway." The Jolteon nodded. She figured that being the only Chansey in such a big mansion would be very stressful, especially when it came to fights like the one that had happened the night before. Niani looked around, getting a clearer impression on the scene now. There were so many wounded Pokémon lying in the hall... Immediately, her mind came up with grim thoughts. She turned back to the Zangoose.

„Ral?re", she said, almost in a whisper, „were there any... casualties?" Ral?re sighed.

„Six", she answered. Niani gasped. „Someone put up a list of their names on that wall." She nodded in the direction where the Jolteon and the Totodile had come from. Niani turned to Kara, who was looking to the side.

„I've read it already", she said. Her grin had disappeared and there was a hint of sadness in her voice. The Jolteon swallowed. It almost never happened that the Totodile was anything else than happy, and seeing her of all Pokémon in a state like this made the situation even worse. Niani's voice was barely above a whisper.

„Who...?"

„Lhenaya, the Kabutops. Do you remember her? She was a quiet one, nobody really knew her, I guess... And she had never been too fond of fighting." The Jolteon nodded slowly. She knew who Kara was talking about, but she had never spoken a word to that Kabutops. „Vindrake, the Scyther", the Totodile went on. „He was a little grumpy sometimes, and he used to be at the fighting range a lot." Niani hadn't been at the battle area too often, so she barely knew any Pokémon from there. She felt guilty for not regarding the death of a Pokémon she had never had a conversation with as such a bad thing as she would see the death of someone she knew better. „Rothenberg, the Vaporeon", said Kara. „I think you knew him a little better..." The Jolteon looked to the side. Kara's words were true; since she had been with the children a lot, she had often sat at the water tank where Chria and Rothenberg ate their food. The artificial pool would definitely seem lonely without him... „Laros, the Hitmonchan", the Totodile continued. „Due to him being a fighting type, also spending most of his time at the battle area." The Jolteon had never made contact with that Hitmonchan; she had always just seen him from a distance. She took a deep breath. „Tabanthia, the Marowak", said Kara. She sighed and her voice shivered for a moment. „She was always helpful and friendly to everyone..." Niani gritted her teeth. She remembered Tabanthia. Just a few days ago, the Marowak had helped her to get some food, which had led to a conversation between Niani and her about all kinds of things, of which some of them had been really personal. But the Jolteon had immediately trusted the friendly female, and Tabanthia had secretly told her that she had probably found the perfect male to be with, the one whose mate she would love to become; and the Marowak had said that male would love her just as much as she loved him, and that life could be so beautiful, and... But Niani couldn't think any further about this. It was just too cruel.
The Jolteon noticed that Kara had stopped talking. The Totodile seemed to feel just as shaken as she did. And she kept looking in another direction.

„Who's the last one?", asked Niani with fear in her voice. She knew it was someone she had known better; it just had to be, if Kara had such trouble telling her about it. Finally, the Totodile took a deep breath and then turned to the Jolteon.

„It's Korph."

„K... Korph?" Niani shook her head. Her mouth and throat had gone dry in an instant, and all she was capable of bringing out was a scratchy, hoarse mutation of her normal voice. „B... But that's... impossible..." Kara looked to the ground. Niani turned to Ral?re, but the Zangoose couldn't look at her, either. „Why... How? He... He was a good fighter, wasn't he? How could..."

„It happened here in the hall", replied Ral?re in a low tone. „It was the last line of attackers, and they were nearly defeated, so I guess he got overconfident. There was a Golem, and he... For some reason, Korph thought he could take him on, but then..." She didn't speak any further. Niani shook her head.

„Why didn't Doc help him?", she asked in a desperate tone. The Zangoose sighed.

„Doc couldn't do anything. His skull was... crushed. The Golem had..."

„Stop!", cried Niani. „That's enough!" She took a step back, constantly shaking her head. She didn't want to accept this reality. Of course, every Pokémon's death was tragic, but Korph? He had been her saviour, alongside with Dolph! If it hadn't been for him, she would have died. They hadn't really been close to each other, but she had always felt better when she had seen him somewhere, and he had always been very nice to her... Not quite a friend, but something very close to it. And she wouldn't see him ever again.
She didn't even notice that she had started to cry. Kara stepped up to her side, trying to comfort her by gently caressing her shoulder with her paw. It was just too much to take; the fear of the preceding night, the general confusion about what had happened and how and why it had happened, and the deaths of those six Pokémon... For what? She still didn't even know why they had been attacked. Why had these six Pokémon had to die? Just because they had been at the wrong place at the wrong time? Was this how life worked? Memories of Niani's past suddenly flooded her mind, and she had to answer this question with a yes... What had she done to deserve first being seperated from her family by a female trainer, then later escape from her in order to return to her home, only to find that it had changed into... into such an abominable place...? And then she had come to this mansion, finally having a hope that things would start to get better... Just to have it crushed by what had happened the night before. This was what life was like. It seemed to get worse and worse.

„It's alright", said Kara in a soothing voice. „We all cried when we found out. But things'll get better again. We're still here for you. Just try to not let it get to you too much..." Niani sobbed. That advice really didn't help at all; still, the Totodile only tried to help. And she was right, after all; she wasn't alone.
After a short while, she got a hold of herself again. The tears stopped flowing and she managed to get her breathing under control; the miserable feeling stayed though, and it wouldn't disappear anytime soon.
Niani wiped the teardrops off her face with her front paws as best as she could. Then, she looked up at Ral?re. The Zangoose was facing her with a rather compassionate expression.

„You wanted to tell me something...", the Jolteon mumbled, trying her best not to break out in tears again. She still felt Kara's paw on her side.

„Yeah", said Ral?re, „and it's pretty important, you see..."

„Do you really think it's intelligent to tell her this now?", hissed the Totodile. „She just stopped crying, you don't need to make her feel bad again!" Niani shook her head and took a deep breath.

„It's alright", she said in a reassuring tone. „As long as it doesn't have anything to do with what happened, it's fine." Niani really wanted Ral?re to tell her now about whatever it was that she had come for; regardless of how depressing it would be, it couldn't be worse than what she had already discovered. Any kind of distraction was welcome to her. She blinked the last remains of her tears away and focused on the Zangoose.

„You've been very interested in Chria's children, haven't you?", asked Ral?re. Niani nodded. The Zangoose turned her head and looked at the ceiling.

„You... Have you ever thought about having children of your own someday? You know, finding a mate, raising a family... That kind of thing." The Jolteon was a little surprised. Since when did Ral?re bother with such things? But she had to admit that there had been thoughts about just that topic; they had never really been there before she had come to the mansion because of all the problems she'd had to deal with, but now, since everything was taken care of... or supposed to be taken care of, at least. But she didn't want to think about the preceding night again, no; she decided to focus entirely on the Zangoose's current question.

„Well...", she said a bit reluctantly, „I've thought about that, yes... Why do you want to know that?" Ral?re sighed.

„Because I care about you, Niani. And I don't want you to make yourself unhappy." The Jolteon frowned and noticed that Kara winced a little. The Totodile seemed to be uncomfortable with Ral?re talking about this subject. „All I'm saying is that you shouldn't trust males too easily", the Zangoose went on. „They don't care about you, you see. They just want to mate with you. That's exactly why Sugar is as popular as she is; they know that, when they're with her they don't have to pretend being interested in how she feels or what she wants to talk about. They know that they don't even have to try to get her to mate with them, because she'll let them have her anyways. And that's what they want all females to be like, just someone to mate with, but not someone they'd have to care about..."

„Don't you think you're exaggerating?", hissed Kara, looking around nervously. She always had the fear that, as soon as Ral?re started speaking badly about males again, it'd end in a mob of angry male Pokémon attacking her someday. But as before, nobody seemed to care. Kara turned to look at Niani who had a somewhat odd expression on her face.

„I'm not a little child, Ral?re", she reminded the Zangoose. „I know that there are some males who are just..."

„There's always more of them than you think!", Ral?re lectured her. She now turned to the Jolteon again. „Look, Niani, I know what I'm talking about. My own father is one of them." Niani perked up. 

„Your... father?", she repeated slowly. The Zangoose closed her eyes and sighed.

„Yes. And it's basically the reason why I'm living here." She paused for a while, obviously trying to find the right words. Then she went on: „I don't know why my mother loved him the way she did. I think she saw someone in him that he wasn't. I think that she, when she looked at him, always saw the male she wanted to be with, and not the male who really was her mate." Ral?re looked back at the ceiling. „He was never there when she needed him, or when I needed him... He was always out to find a new female to mate with. My mother knew about it, of course, and more than one time, she begged him to stop with it and just stay with her. But he never cared about what she wanted or needed, and... One night, I awoke to a sound... My father wasn't there of course, but I saw my mother leaving the den... She went to a large river that was nearby, and I watched as she just walked into the water... and I was too horrified to say or do anything, you see, so I just watched... and I waited for her to come back, because I didn't want to believe it, but... she didn't come back..." Ral?re spoke all that in a distant, somehow emotionless tone. Niani knew the Zangoose wasn't looking for sympathy; she just wanted to tell her story. 

„I didn't return to the den", Ral?re said. „I just ran away, and lived alone in the wilderness for a long time. My father never found me, but I guess he never even tried it. He had never wanted to take care of anyone, after all." She opened her eyes again and looked back at Niani. „I eventually found this mansion. Now look, Niani, what I want to say is: Don't become like my mother. I do not want any female having to suffer like she did. And that's why I advise you not to trust any male at all. Sure, you can say not each one of them has to be like my father. But there's a whole lot who are just like that, and that's why you can never be sure. The only way to keep it safe is to never agree to be anyone's mate. Nobody can take advantage of you if you keep that in mind." The Zangoose seemed to be finished. From the corner of her eyes, Niani noticed Kara looking around again. The Jolteon looked to the ground. It was just ridiculous how insanely depressing this day was. Niani turned around, facing away from Kara and Ral?re.

„I'm going to get some sleep", she murmured and slowly padded away, with her head lowered and her mind weighted. Maybe she would wake up and it'd turn out that everything had just been a bad dream. And if not, she'd just stay in bed and try to wake up again.









Tuesday, 8 April


Dear diary,

My condition becomes worse, and I don't know what to do about it. But maybe I shouldn't worry. Light insists on me being not insane, and I've never cared about anyone else than her anyway, so why should I do it now? My own mind tells me I'm crazy, but I'd rather not listen to it anymore. Nothing good has ever come from being rational, anyway.
The events of the preceding night have left me with a strange feeling. Six of the Pokémon living at the mansion died, but that's not important. At least it isn't to me. The only important thing is that Light's safe, and that the building wasn't destroyed. And, of course, that I've finally met the flame.
I don't know which side of my mind is right; the one claiming he was sent by the goddess, whoever that's supposed to be, to destroy my life, or the one saying he's just a Typhlosion who, through an unfortunate combination of circumstances, has brought us this war. And maybe it doesn't even matter. Things have happened, and nobody can undo them anymore. All I know is that I hate him, even more than I hate myself sometimes.
War is a strange thing. Not only strange, but stupid as well. Sometimes I think that, whoever is responsible for a war, never really grew up; they're still locked up in their childish little world, where they can play their games of war without anybody getting hurt, never noticing their games have become reality a long time ago, never noticing that they became killers. I just don't want to have anything to do with them. I just want to live here, in peace - but no, I'm not allowed to do that. I thought all my problems would be solved if I just turned my back on humanity and moved away from the cities, but it turns out that Pokémon are just as stupid, childish and violent as humans. It's not really a surprise that this insane world drove me crazy, is it?
Why can't they just leave me alone? What kind of advantage do they think they will have by involving me in their foolishness? I do not claim to be any better than they are, no, and I never wanted to be better. I know exactly that I'm egoistic and uncaring; maybe that's because I grew up in an egoistic and uncaring world, or maybe that's just who I am, I don't know and it doesn't matter. All I want is to be left alone. Why won't anybody understand this simple concept? They all go on my nerves, so I don't want any of them to be near me.
That's why Light has to be a goddess; not the goddess the flame had mentioned, of course. Since she's the only one I want to be with, she can't be a part of this world, or she'd go on my nerves just like every other living being. But does a goddess actually need to be protected? Maybe yes, maybe not; I'll keep doing it either way. The very least I will accomplish is that she knows I care about her. And that I won't let this world attempt to destroy her purity.
Look at me, talking about this violent world as if I was a victim. Last night didn't even leave me with a scratch, although it certainly shattered my mind; the true victims are of course those who died. Should I show compassion? I could just hide behind Sartre's words: Every sentient being is infinitely responsible for whatever happens to it. Nobody is a victim, and everyone deserves their fate, because there's always a chance to evade it; one only has to find and take this chance. If they didn't want to die, they would have fled, right? That's basically what I could say; the only bad thing about this is that philosophy just doesn't work in real life.
„Real life" - what a joke. Since when have I known what's real? In fact, I hadn't seen reality for more than five years, until last night when it hit me in the face like a sledge hammer. The only thing I want now is for the whole situation to return to normality again as soon as possible. I'm not sure how I will react if something like last night should ever happen again. Maybe I'll lose my last remaining bit of sanity. Or maybe the world will go down for real.
I should stop writing now, Light just gave me that concerned look again. She always grows worried when I write too much, and she's right; the more I think about everything that's happened, the more depressed I will become. And for her sake, I've got to keep my spirits high.



Richard closed his diary and looked at the Raichu. She was sitting on the bed right in front of him. He sighed.

„Light", he said, „I don't feel too well."

„It'll get better", she wrote. Then, she placed her writing materials on the bed and approached him. With her paws, she carefully raised his right hand and started to gently caress it. Richard closed his eyes.

„I'm so confused", he mumbled. „Maybe I should have killed that Typhlosion right away... Maybe it'd be over then..." He stopped talking and just leaned back against the wall, focusing on the feeling of Light's warm, soft paws softly rubbing his hand. The evening of the day had come. It was around 7:00 PM, so if the Typhlosion was still in the mansion, he would be killed if anyone saw him. Richard had told Lightning to spread the news, so that everyone would know they were facing a threat to the mansion and to their way of life.

A scratching sound came from the door and Richard opened his eyes. He wanted to stand up and look who was there, but with a silent gesture, Light signaled him to stay where he was. She just didn't want him to have to bother with any additional trouble, he felt bad enough as it was. The Raichu jumped from the bed to the ground and moved over to the door. When she opened it, Richard could see a Ninetales standing in the hallway. It had to be Lightning, since Thunder's jaw wouldn't be healed before the next day.
Lightning said something to Light, and she quickly moved to get a hold of her writing utensils again. She then wrote:

„He wants to know about the meeting. It was supposed to be today." Richard sighed.

„I can't", he said. „It'll be on the fifteenth." Lightning frowned and said something.

„Won't that be too late?", Light wrote. The human shook his head.

„We'll still have about fifteen days, that'll be more than enough time." He saw the Ninetales looking at him with a slightly displeased expression. „Look, I can't do this any sooner!", he insisted. „I need some rest, as do the Pokémon of this mansion. We need to put all that's happened behind us before we can concentrate on anything else, and we've got to have at least one week for that." That wasn't the whole truth, of course. Richard's main concern was that, if he had to deal with all the pressure that was about to be put on him before April 15, he'd go completely insane. His damaged mind needed some rest to heal at least the most urgent of wounds.

Lightning nodded and then turned to walk away. But Richard remembered something and said:

„Wait." The Ninetales looked over his shoulder back at the human. Richard brought his hand to his forehead, rubbing it with his fingers.

„Thise six Pokémon who died... Have you buried them already?" Lightning nodded and spoke a few words. Light's note said:

„They were buried right after the fight had been over, on the front side of the mansion, without anything to recognize that there are graves. But there's a note in the hall with their names on it, and it will never be taken down." Richard nodded.

„Good", he said in a tired tone. „Good. Thank you, Lightning." The Ninetales slightly waved at him with his tails and then disappeared from Richard's sight, as Light closed the door again.








It was two days later at 10:07 PM that they could finally try to get away. Blaze, Slyver, Valerie and Layla had been hiding in Sable's room all the time; the Umbreon had secretly brought them food and water, always paying attention to let nobody notice that someone was in her room who shouldn't be there. She had also been the one to tell Ryledar about Blaze and the others still being there, when the Magmar had finally woken up. And now, just about two minutes ago, Doc had declared him to be officially healed, which had been directly followed by a bunch of stronger Pokémon leading him out of the mansion.

„The corridor is clear. Follow me now!" Without saying a word, the four Pokémon quickly followed Sable out of the room. Even though the electricity supply had been repaired by some humans whom Richard had contacted via cell phone, the lights were off in the hallway. But Sable could see fabulously even in the darkest of places.

„I'll go ahead", she whispered and everyone nodded. They knew they would quite possibly all be dead if anyone found them, so they focused on not making even the slightest noise. Sable led the way to the stairs and descended; everyone followed her. She then turned to the left.

„We've got to be fast." She dashed off and counted the doors she passed. Suddenly, she stopped and turned to the left again. „Slyver, open that door." She knew it'd take her much longer than the Golduck to perform this task, because of her paws not being built for opening doors; Slyver's flippers were much more handy. He opened the door just a little bit so that Sable could take a look. She knew there weren't many Pokémon living in the rooms of that hallway, but they'd still need to be careful. They had definitely been lucky that Ryledar hadn't been released before dinnertime, or they would have never made it through the corridor that led to the hall without being seen. But at this hour, most of the Pokémon were either going to sleep, hanging out at the battle area, or still sitting in the hall, enjoying a lazy late evening. The mattresses had been removed from the large room again, since there were only three or four injured Pokémon left, and Doc could take care of them in a smaller room.
Sable gasped lowly as she saw a movement in the dark corridor. She quickly retreated her head and hissed:

„Everyone, into that room, it's empty!" She made a motion towards one of the doors with her head and Blaze and the others quickly hid in there, closing the door behind them. Right after the four Pokémon had left the hallway, the door to the next corridor opened and a Mightyena came stepping through. She acknowledged Sable's presence with a simple nod.

„Are you out for a walk at night?", the Mightyena suspected. Sable nodded.

„Yes. I just need to take a stroll in the moonlight, you know." At this point, she was definitely thankful for being an Umbreon; any other Pokémon except fellow dark types would have probably raised some suspicion if they wanted to take a walk at night. To make it seem like she really wanted to leave the mansion, Sable entered the dark corridor; still, she kept watching the Mightyena as she made her way to the hall and finally disappeared behind the large door. The Umbreon sighed in relief and went up to the door the others were hiding behind.

„It's clear", she said in a low tone. The door opened and Blaze, Slyver, Valerie and Layna came into view again. They quickly followed Sable as she led them through the dark corridor and out into the night through the side exit.

„Alright", she whispered. „Let's head for where Ryledar is supposed to meet us." Blaze looked at her, mildly surprised.

„You're coming along?" The Umbreon nodded.

„Sure. Why do you think I just helped you escape? I want to come with you." The next question was practically written down on the four Pokémons' faces, so she added: „I have my reasons, just as each one of you has theirs. Let's go already." Slyver nodded.

„She's right." Blaze agreed. They all quickly made their way through the darkness of the night, heading towards the woods, all the while taking nervous looks over their shoulders back at the mansion. Nobody was following them, so they were probably still undetected.

„There he is", whispered Blaze. Sable nodded. Right at the entrance to the forest there stood Ryledar, wating for them. He raised his right arm and waved.

„Good to see you", he said as the group of five Pokémon had come closer. Nobody slowed down.

„Gotta get away from here", Slyver reminded him and the Magmar nodded, following the others at the quick pace they had set up. Now that they were in the woods, they were basically safe. The mansion lay behind them, and nobody had noticed that Blaze and the other ones had stayed there inspite of Richard's order. Finally, they wouldn't have to worry about being found out anymore.

„Stop!", commanded a voice all of a sudden and right in front of them, a Pidgeotto landed on the ground. Out of pure surprise, everyone obeyed and the six Pokémon all came to a halt. Sable gasped.

„Netho!" The Pidgeotto turned to look at her. He seemed to be just as surprised as she was.

„Miss Sable!" His gaze wandered over the Pokémon in her entourage and his eyes narrowed. „I have to admit, I would not have suspected you to be on our enemies' side."

„I'm on nobody's side", replied the Umbreon. „I'm just coming with them. Now please, move out of the way. You can't honestly think you'd have a chance at stopping us." The Pidgeotto bowed.

„I had never thought so, Miss Sable. But I would like to turn your attention to the fact, that, since we knew the dangerous situation was not over yet, we have reinforced our patrols." Sable's expression froze as she noticed a slight shake going through the ground, accompanied by a dull thumping sound.. Very slowly, she turned her head to look over her shoulder; the other Pokémon repeated this motion. Behind them, there stood a gigantic Dragonite with her eyes fixated on Blaze. A smile began to spread on her face, and she took a deep breath through her nostrils.

„Run!", cried Sable. Everyone tried to get away as fast as possible now, not caring if they made any noise or not. Netho flew out of the way, in order to not get hit neither by the running Pokémon and nor by Ryakee's Hyper Beam. The Umbreon knew it'd be a good idea to spread out to evade the attack, but it'd be way too hard finding each other again in that case. The other Pokémon seemed to share her sentiment.

There was a large noise, a blinding white light and a shockwave going through the ground as the Dragonite's attack hit the grass right behind the fleeing Pokémon. Sable risked a look over her shoulder. Ryakee had risen up into the air and was preparing another Hyper Beam. The others appeared to have noticed it as well, as they all dashed even faster than before.

Another explosion, another earthquake and chunks of wood flying through the air as the next attack hit the trees right next to Sable. The part of her mind that wasn't completely occupied with getting away as fast as possible wondered why the attack had missed; normally, Ryakee was an expert at hitting her targets. But she couldn't think about this any longer, since the next Hyper Beam sliced through the night just one moment later, colliding with the ground just a few feet behind them.

It went on like this for a while. Hyper Beam after Hyper Beam was shot, but neither of them hit any of the running targets. The long escape was quite tiresome, and from the corner of her eyes, Sable noticed Layla becoming slower and slower from exhaustion; but before she could do or say anything, Slyver had already snatched the small Sandshrew from the ground, carrying her as he kept on running. And after another few moments, the constant attacks ceased; Sable didn't understand why they weren't dead yet, but she continued fleeing, as did all the others. That was, until they were sure they were far enough away from the mansion; just then, all of a sudden, Blaze stopped. Everyone else followed his example, although Sable would have preferred playing it safe and getting away a little further.

„That's enough", said the Typhlosion between deep breaths. „We can go slower from here on." The Umbreon frowned.

„What are you talking about? What if Ryakee is still following us?" Blaze shook his head.

„She isn't. If she wanted to kill us, we'd be dead by now. She just wanted to scare us away." Slyver nodded weakly.

„And she did a damn good job", he added. Sable's gaze passed the Sandshrew that he held in his flippers. She appeared to be sleeping; probably passed out from exhaustion.

„Well, if you think it's safe", said a panting Valerie. She shook her head. „I don't want to keep on running, either."

„Neither do I." Ryledar seemed to be in the worst condition of them all; he had bent over and was panting heavily, with his right arm clutched to his belly. „I just recovered, I'd rather not die of exhaustion." Blaze nodded.

„Alright then, we'll just stay here for the night. I..."

„I'll take first guard", interrupted Slyver with a grin. Blaze shook his head and grinned as well.

„You won't hear me complaining 'bout that."









Niani slowly approached the Machamp that was sitting in the field, facing away from her and the mansion. It was in the morning, but not too early; the sun had already risen above the tree tops. The Jolteon said down right next to the large grey Pokémon without looking up at him.

„Right here", said the Machamp. „This is where we buried him. I memorized the place." Niani nodded slightly. He wasn't looking at her, anyway; just staring off into the distance.

„It's been three days", she stated. She looked up at the Machamp. „You've been out here all the time, haven't you?" He sighed.

„Yeah..." He shook his head. „You know, they say you don't know what you have until it's gone... That's true." Niani looked to the ground. „Friends and family... We tend to take all that for granted, but it can be taken from us so easily..."

„Yes...", the Jolteon agreed in a whisper. Thoughts of her own family filled her mind. The family that just hadn't been there anymore when she had come returning to them. One of the Machamp's four arms softly caressed the grassy ground.

„You know what else they say?", he went on. „They say that they're never really gone, as long as we remember them..." He swallowed. „That's not true. That's not true at all. They leave us, and all that stays is a horrible emptiness..." Niani took a deep breath. She had vowed to herself that she wouldn't cry again because of this. Even though the Machamp, such a strong Pokémon that was still so easily vulnerable, was another example of how cruel this world could be, she would not shed a single tear.

„Dolph", she said reluctantly, „I..." But she couldn't speak further. She just didn't know what to say. There was nothing in the world that she could say that would cheer the Machamp up, and she knew he didn't want her to cheer him up. He had lost his best friend, and this calm thoughtfulness was just what he needed. Niani sighed and watched Dolph's strong hand gently stroke the grass.

„I don't understand life", he said.

„Nobody does", replied Niani. Dolph nodded slowly.

„Good." His voice became a whisper. „Good. For one moment there I thought I'd be lost."





(22788 words)


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This ends the fourth chapter. As I said at the end of the third one, it would be something very special; now, was I right or was I right? As usual, please send eventual feedback to [email protected], leave a review if you have the time and feel like it, and be on the lookout for the next chapter of "The Valley" - all of this will be greatly appreciated. For the next days, I will be working on the third chapter of "Loving the 'Eons", and after that I'll start with the fifth chapter of "A Mansion made of Dreams", so, yeah... If you like my stories, this should be good news for you ^^. Alright, thank you for reading and any review you might write.



-- Lion vom Silberwald