Story Notes:
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.Retrace I - in remakeRetrace II - in remakeRetrace III - in remakeRetrace IV - in remakeRetrace V - in remake
Retrace III - in remake
Memory I
Shattered Sand
Retrace III
Satan from Heaven
The Croconaw inspected briefly the City Map in her claws, then folded roughly the material and slipped it into her backpack. Slackening her coffee-brown anorak, she gazed at the evening blue clouds drifting slowly in the crimson sky, watching her misty breath wafting into the air. How long hadn't she inhaled air as fresh as this, she wondered.
"So this is Leore."
"Desirea! Don't just stone there, I wanna get out of this snow before I freeze to death."
"Hey ... wait! Aaron!" The Croconaw hurried after the Garchomp, clouds of snow rising around her feet as she ran.
The town had a welcoming Christmas atmosphere to it unlike the everlasting gloom of the underground metropolis of Terrano; the lodges had Christmas lights hung over their entrances, the faint music of organs resonated in the air, brightly decorated Yache trees scattered along the roads.
Aaron had reserved a chalet further from the town square, just along the Leore forests, and they made their way down the evenly spread row of cabins. As they passed one by one the street lanterns lined between the cabins, Aaron stopped at the second last cabin down the row, walking up its wooden steps. The cabin was built primarily with sawlogs; the relatively compact porch offered a square table, and a chimney extended from the left side of the roof. Nowadays no one used any longer cinder vents, and Desirea felt a strange but pleasant attachment to this classic styled chalet.
She liked even more the interior layout; the walls had the fresh feel of polished woods, even the bedstand and the closet had been carved from wood. Aaron stepped into the room without a moment's hesitation, throwing casually his backpack onto the desk and slumped into the cushioned chair.
"Go shower first, Desirea."
"Oh. Oh yeah."
Desirea set down beside the closet her backpack and anorak and looked inside its carved doors, then selected from their respective hangers a towel and a bath robe and locked herself inside the bathroom.
She took a moment to admire the unexpectedly clean bathroom, then stripped from her body her shirt and baggies and inspected her female form in the mirror.
Nearing the mature age of eighteen, she was an evolving Croconaw; she had noticed particularly how her snout and claws had grown sharper throughout the past few months, and how she was now a full foot and a half taller than the average Croconaw. Desirea prodded the developing scales on her arm, wondering if she would look any slimmer than she had been before, but then the primary reason she had been paying so much attention to her developing body was Aaron. She loved everything about the Garchomp, only a mere two years older than she was, his appearance, his strength, and his unusual kindness.
She had been so pleased when she had been assigned a mission together with Aaron, and although she had remembered all the dangers Glacie had warned her about falling in love, she didn't want to bother. In fact, the only complication now was Aaron's side of things.
She was probably just another Croconaw in his eyes, there was no way he would even like someone as ordinary as her, apart from the fact that they were both Roost-approved assassins.
Desirea sighed in faint disgruntlement and stepped into the shower. She turned on the showerhead and adjusted higher the temperature, letting the water sprinkle onto her bare scales.
*****
Shiza stared at her wristwatch, for some time her mind was too confused to register the digits, and rapped lightly upon the metal door, hollow knocks echoing down the alley. She glanced nervously down Hacren Second Street, for some reason she had felt a strange aura ever since she had neared Shizue's apartment, but she noticed no one.
The door opened and Shiza was greeted instantly with the Typhlosion's smiling face and the fresh smell of curry.
"You remembered."
"I wonder so myself."
Shiza slipped past Shizue, examining the overly tidy kitchen; it had remained the same neat little apartment since the last time she had visited. The only different thing that Shiza noticed was the Sceptile eating at the dinner table.
Shiza leaned in close to Shizue, eyeing the Sceptile who had glanced back at her. "Who is that?"
"Someone I'm gonna torment till he dies." The Sceptile spluttered when he heard her.
"What did he do?" Shiza followed Shizue into the kitchen, where she picked up a plate of rice.
"He broke into my house." Shizue stated aloud, referring immediately to the Sceptile, as she scooped from the pot a spoonful of curry and poured it generously onto the plate of rice.
"Then why is he ... wait ... do you even know this guy?"
"Let's say ... no! That's why I said he broke into my house." Shizue placed the plate on the glass table surface, offering a sharp ting, and took her seat opposite the Sceptile. "Feel free to take more." Shizue indicated the plate, talking to Shiza.
Shiza climbed onto the chair next to the Sceptile, picked up a spoon and dipped it into the rice. "You mean you let him?"
"He beat me."
"YOU LOST?"
"Yes."
"How?" Shiza dropped her spoon back onto the table, alert completely now; this was the first time she had heard that Shizue had been defeated in a physical combat. Shizue hated the things that Shiza's eyes were conveying to her.
Shizue buried tiredly her face into her paws and muttered so lowly Shiza couldn't hear what she had said.
"What? I didn't catch that, sorry."
"He kissed me."
"WHAAAAAAAAAAT?"
"Shut up!"
"Sorry."
Shizue and the Sceptile looked up at the same time after Shiza had spoken, catching each other's eyes, and Shizue looked away instantly, her face flushing a deep scarlet. Shiza whistled when she saw Shizue shy away, laughing to herself.
"You're so cute, Shizue."
"Go die."
"Sorry."
*****
Desirea blinked confusedly her eyes and gazed tiredly to her front, then nearly jumped from the bed; she had spent the entire night in the same bed with Aaron and she hadn't realized it. She turned away from Aaron and pulled the bedspread over her blushing face.
Was I that tired yesterday? How could I have slept with him without even knowing it? Oh no, I think it's morning already. Desirea peeked out from underneath the bedspread, gazing at the patch of light pouring onto Aaron's form through the drawn windows. Damn, I slept next to him the whole night ... oh wait, isn't this good? He looks so hot even when he's sleeping ...
"Damn, just thinking about him like this ..."
Desirea felt her chest burn with a familiar intensity as she dragged her claw down her belly, and lowered it down slowly, murring softly.
"Are you awake?"
"Huh ... yeah?" Desirea retraced immediately her claws to her side, her heart pounding wildly. Oh no, how long was he awake?
The Garchomp slipped out of bed and drew on his anorak. "I was afraid I would wake you up."
"Oh. Sorry." Desirea flushed and snatched her jacket from the floor.
Desirea thought Leore appeared by far more welcoming in the night; the townspeople had switched off the Christmas lightings in the morning, and the streets were now speckled with people rushing off to their businesses. She felt like another one of them, proceeding to their workplaces to be buried in a mountain of paperwork, just without the mountain of paperwork.'
Aaron arrived before a butchery, the large sign that hung above the store depicted the words in capital MEAT, and a beaming cartoon Swinub licking his lips and showing a thumbs up gesture.
He strolled into the backstreet to the right of the butchery, Desirea following close after, then extracted from his pocket a folded sheet of paper and studied for a moment the descriptions printed onto its surface. He slid it back into his pocket after half a minute or so and continued into the maze of passages.
Straight down the backstreet till the very end, a rusted gate stood guardian of an arced doorway, a dented sign chained onto its front, the words DO NOT ENTER that had been painted on had begun to peel off. Aaron didn't have to confirm his navigation to know that this was the locale; he could sense an individual and enormous aura from inside the shaft. Whomever this aura was coming from, was immensely strong.
"Let's go. Stay alert now."
"Okay."
Desirea drew from her belt a Japanese Kunai, a short coal-black dagger with a small ring at the end of the shaft to hold easily with a finger, and hooked a claw through the ring. Aaron pulled the hood over his head and nudged the askew gate aside, which hinges fell apart suddenly and collapsed onto the floor with a sharp clang.
"Oops. Maybe I should try that again." Aaron laughed awkwardly.
He entered first into the shaft, adjusting his knife pouches to the sides of his belt. Desirea strode over a fallen stone pillar and after the Garchomp, merely glancing at her immediate surroundings, to comprehend the environment she might have to fight in.
Large metal pipes extended deep into the shaft, nailed into the walls at various intervals, metal columns supported the cracked walls from caving in, and planks of splintering wood wrapped in soiled fabric laid along the tiled path. Hollows were drilled into the wall, so that the entire walkway was more or less illuminated throughout. Desirea could fathom why this area had been named the Devil's Nest; it looked like an insane fusion between an abandoned construction site and a biotechnological research facility.
Both Aaron and Desirea didn't need any blueprint or whatsoever to navigate in a labyrinth like this; to them their target was like a giant blinking red dot on a GPS.
"Desirea?"
"Yeah?"
"Don't let your guard down. To possess an aura this huge that I could even sense it out there ... avoid engaging with him if possible, remember we're just here for the target."
"Roger that."
Every step that Desirea walked, the immense aura grew more distinct, even if just by a little, and she found herself praying whomever this aura belonged to wasn't their target.
"Aaron?"
"Anything wrong?"
"No ... I was just wondering, why would someone even stay in here? And why would someone want this Rhydon dead?"
"No idea. If you ask me, the mission outline was too ambiguous."
"I know."
The shaft had extended finally into a large squared chamber, a mass of pipes, steel supports, and cinder blocks scattered in the approximately 5000 square yard area, and in the dead center of it, stood a cinder throne, from it hung the arm of a Rhydon clothed in a dark fabric, swinging gently as the creature breathed.
Desirea peered down from the shaft 60 feet from the ground of the chamber, flinching as the macabre aura hit her. When she had opened her eyes again, the walls around her had dissolved into a pure void of darkness, and no matter where she looked, it was a frigid darkness, like an invisible fire that licked at her senses.
"Aaron?"
She couldn't move, her feet were still planted to the ground, her body forced to an invisible surface behind so she couldn't turn her head back to ensure if Aaron was even still there. The vacuity around her was a slow spiral of raven and violet, cold and soundless, not even the faint buzzing in her ears she would hear when there were no sounds.
Can I even breathe here?
She felt her lungs deflating incredibly, the way a balloon does when it has its blowhole released, and she could almost see her chest collapsing against her ribcage, her bones pressing into her scales. Her eyes were watering, she wanted so bad to scream, but her throat wouldn't make even a sound, not to shatter even the silence that eroded slowly her very sanity.
"Desirea!"
Desirea's knees hit the ground, breathing heavily and sweating the way one does in a sauna as she clawed in a frenzy her chest.
"That ... was the worst ... aura assault ever ..."
"Stay with me, Desirea!" Aaron grabbed her shoulders and stared into her strained eyes.
"Aaron ..." Desirea was laughing feebly as she picked up herself. "We have to fight that thing? That thing's our target?"
"Who's your target?"
Desirea wheeled around, before her was a flurry of sable cloth as the Rhydon stepped from the vertical wall and into the shaft, her amber eyes burning savagely into hers. She had barely time to consider the physical possibilities as she reacted instantly as her instincts told her to.
"Desirea!"
The Rhydon slammed in a burst of crimson red Desirea back into the open cavity, her dark overcoat fluttering like a fallen raven as she plummeted backwards 60 feet into the concrete ground of the chamber.Chapter End Notes:Hope you guys enjoyed my lastest chapter, cos' Amaranthine'll be taking a short break from serialization (LOL I'm thinking too much about manga), while I spam senseless crap and review them later for this story