The day after Drake went to talk to Eclipse, it was obvious what had occurred. Drake had followed through on his word and told her how he felt about her. Based on the fact that neither had been seen without the other nearby since, I decided that I'd been right and that the Umbreon had harbored the same feelings for him. However, it was equally obvious that neither had ever been in an actual relationship before, since the both of them acted rather awkward about it.

Now, I would have thought that getting one of my best friends into a good relationship would make me feel good. But I was wrong. Seeing the Zangoose happy with the one he loved only made me feel worse about my own relationship with Chelsea.

For the past two weeks, we had been mating twice a week or so, but she still refused to call us mates, and thus so did I. We both loved each other, I knew that was true. And yet her words echoed in my head, wrenching at my heart every minute we spent together. "It's best if we don't become mates...it won't amount to anything anyway..."

I scowled and slammed one claw into the wall next to my bed. She was wrong. I just knew it.

"Our love does mean something." I growled my frustration to nobody in particular. I sat down heavily on my bed, the same one Chelsea and I had first mated in. "Why can't she just see that?"

'She's just concerned about you,' a voice in my head told me.

'She's hurting us both! How can she be concerned about me?'

'She knows that she could die on any mission, on any day. She's trying to protect you.'

'By denying both of our feelings!?'

'If that's what it takes...'

'What it takes is for her to just admit that she loves me.'

'She's already done that.'

'YOU KNOW WHAT I MEAN!'

'Of course I know what you mean. I AM you.'

'Then AGREE with me, don't keep trying to make us feel bad!'

'Maybe you can talk to her...'

'Maybe I WILL talk to her.'

That was it. I had to talk to Chelsea about this. Otherwise I was going to go insane wondering whether or not she really loved me. Like in that one play Spark told me about...Othrelos? Othallin? Othello! That's the one. I knew how that Othello guy felt, being torn between love and confusion. Except that Chelsea was Iago and Desdemona at the same time, giving me signs that she loved me but still leading me to wonder. It was torture.

"Ugh...Chelsea!" I groaned.

"I thought I was the one with psychic powers."

The Gardevoir stood in my door, which had apparently opened while I was lost in thought.

"I came to talk to you..."

"Good," I told her. "We definitely need to talk."

"...about Spike."

"Huh?" Confusion racked my brain. "What about him?"

"We need to get him to talk to Twilightâ�""

"We'll talk about him some other time," I interrupted. "Right now, we need to talk about us."

She sighed, her terrifyingly beautiful yellow eyes betraying no emotion. I hated it when that happened. "Listen, Aggron..."

"No, you listen." An irrational anger flared within me. "What you said those two weeks ago has been haunting me since then! I don't care that we can't have kids! We don't need a family to be mates!"

"I told you, it wouldn't mean anything." Chelsea's voice trailed off sadly.

"And I told you, it does mean something!" For the first time in my entire life, I felt tears coming to my eyes. Only Chelsea could do that.

"Aggron." Her expression suddenly hardened. "We can't be mates, lovers, whatever you want to call it. It's that simple."

"But it's not simple!" I growled angrily, half because of her stubbornness and half because of the tears that were openly flowing down my cheeks. A part of me idly wondered whether I would rust.

"Yes, it is," came the cold reply. "The Creators made us that way."

I scoffed. "'The Creators made us that way'? They also said we couldn't fall in love! They said we didn't have souls! Obviously, they were wrong about that, or we wouldn't be in this situation!"

Chelsea was silent, although an unreadable emotion clouded her face. She looked away quickly.

"If it's really so simple, then explain something to me," I demanded. "How can we mate and not be mates?"

She turned away. "I'd better go."

"Chelsea, wait!" I grabbed her arm. "How can we love each other and not be lovers? Just explain that to me."

She returned my gaze evenly. "I never told you that I loved you."

With those simple words (ironic, huh?), my world shattered. I hardly noticed my claw releasing her, hardly noticed her leaving my room. I couldn't think straight. No, I couldn't think. The next thing I knew, I was laying on my bed wondering why I wasn't crying. The only reason that came to mind was that Chelsea was gone. My mate, my lover, the one female I would ever love...gone.

---

"What do I do now?" I asked hopelessly.

I was in Sage's room. It was more of a greenhouse than a living space, but I suppose they were the same thing to a Venusaur like Sage. Sage was the second oldest Dark Pokémon I knew personally, the oldest being 036. Sage was number 54, so he was pretty high up there as well.

From what I'd heard, he hadn't been out on a mission since before Spark was created, which was a while ago. Instead, Sage preferred to tend to his garden and dispense various bits of wisdom, which was how he'd earned his nickname. He was the one you went to talk to if you needed help with something personal. I suppose he was like a school psychologist in that sense. To me, however, he'd become the closest thing to a father I'd ever had.

Right now, I was sitting in one of the wooden chairs as I recounted the story of what happened between Chelsea and I the day before. I could feel the wounds in my heart get torn open again as I spoke, but this time there were no tears.

Because she's gone, I thought, not even trying to hide the anguish I was feeling. Sage had that effect on others. I figured it was because he was just so damn understanding.

"I think the only thing you can do is to tell her how much pain you're in," Sage answered slowly, his voice deep and rumbling yet comforting nonetheless.

I grunted. "How can I talk to her when I can barely even stand to think about her?"

"If you can't stand to think about something, then don't," Sage replied simply. "But nothing will be solved that way."

---

The rest of the week passed without any events. I didn't see Chelsea at all, and I didn't seek her out, either. When I woke up the following morning, there was a mission awaiting my attention. I shut her out of my mind as I trudged to the briefing room and stood there as the other members of the team arrived. Spark was first, immediately coming towards me to babble about something.

She, of course, was part of the usual team, and she arrived next. At the sight of the beautiful Gardevoir, my heart felt like it was torn apart a second time.

Drake and Eclipse came in together. Between her presence and the sight of the happy couple, I was officially depressed, almost to the point of wishing I could kill myself. I didn't want to live without her, but not even I could get through my own armor. She was the only one capable of causing me any pain, and she was definitely doing so, even without trying. I wrenched my gaze away from all of them and stared at the door.

To my surprise, 036 entered the room next. The Garchomp looked around the room, observing its occupants before his gaze settled on me. He took a couple steps toward me, but stopped and looked closely at me, almost seeming to stare into my soul for a few moments. Those piercing eyes abruptly focused on her instead before returning to me and showing a mixture of sadness and...sympathy? And I thought she was the only one capable of detecting emotions.

Zero and Spike were the last to enter the room. Zero silently took his usual position by the door as Spike came over to me. 036 dashed over to stand next to him for reasons unknown.

"So Aggron," Spike began, grinning. "how many times did you and Chelse get it on since the last mission?"

I looked at him sadly, not replying. I noticed Chelsea watching me expressionlessly as 036 whispered something into the Tyranitar's ear slit. Spike's eyes widened.

"So you two lovebirds actually broke up!?" Spike asked. "Does this mean I get a chance at that hot ass?"

I had more hatred for Spike in that split second than I had for everyone else I had ever hated combined. Before I knew what was happening, I was lifting the five-hundred-pound lizard by the neck with one claw, and drawing the other fist back to hit him a third time. Drake, Spark and 036 were trying to drag me off of Spike, but were failing miserably.

"Guys, break it up!"

I looked toward the door just in time to see X enter. He always seemed to know exactly what was going on in the room before he entered.

"Don't ever talk about Chelsea like that again," I growled at Spike. "or mark my words, I will kill you."

I let him down, and he rubbed his throat, coughing. I turned to X, ready for the briefing.

"For Arceus's sake, it was just a joke," Spike managed between coughs.

I whirled back around and slammed a fist into his skull, sending him flying a few feet before he landed. "You think it's funny!?"

"Enough!" X shouted.

"X, I'm not going to work with this bastard," I told the man, still glaring at the fallen Tyranitar. "Only one of us is going on the mission, me or him. Choose."

I was so furious that I didn't even realize that I'd just told X what to do, at least not at first. Normally, Dark Pokémon who did that got punished, but I didn't care. For one thing, they couldn't do anything to me.

X just nodded, though. "I figured that might be the case." He looked at Spike, who was being helped to his feet. "You're off the team."

"What!?" The Tyranitar coughed before continuing. "He attacked me!"

"He'll be more helpful to the mission than you would be, even in his current state. You're off."

Spike stormed out of the room, although I got the feeling that he understood exactly why I attacked him. I was too angry with him to care, though.

"What's the mission today, X?" Eclipse asked, apparently attempting to distract me from my anger. There wasn't a single Dark Pokémon that didn't know that I always paid attention during a briefing.

"You all have heard of an organization known as Team Rocket, yes?" X asked in reply.

We all nodded. Team Rocket seemed to be the Creator's main competition, so of course we'd run into them on various occasions.

"Team Rocket has been gathering information about Dark Pokemon for a while now. They've been trying to keep it quiet, but they slipped up. From what our sources tell us, they have far too much information to be allowed to continue. Your job is simple. Take them down."

"Completely?" 036 inquired. Just like him to ask about details.

"Completely," X confirmed. "One more thing. Since you're now down a team member, I'm going with you."

"No way," I told him. "You'd just slow us down."

"I was going to have to accompany you on a mission at some point anyway," X explained. "It might as well be now. Don't worry, I can defend myself."

I considered pushing the argument, but decided against it. If he died on the mission, everyone knew whose fault it was.

---

"Tell me I'm not the only one who finds this ironic," Spark said as we entered the building. According to X, this was where we would find the head of Team Rocket, but Spark was completely right about the irony.

We were back at the Silph Co. building. This time, however, we used the front door.

"Welcome back," X said dryly.

"Why are we here again?" Spark asked.

"I'd guess that when we took out the leaders of Silph Co. the first time," 036 told him. "Team Rocket decided to take over."

"Exactly right. In fact, their capture of Silph Co. is what brought them to our attention," X added. "The head honcho here is known as Giovanni. We don't know whether that's his real name; it probably isn't. He's our main target. We're also looking for the executives codenamed Petrel, Ariana, Proton, and Archer. They're our secondary targets. Without these five, the whole organization should collapse."

"What are we waiting for, then?" I growled. "Let's just get this over with."

"You okay, man?" Drake asked me. "You're usually happy to go out on a mission."

I glared at him over my shoulder. He looked genuinely concerned, as did Eclipse, Spark, and 036. Even Zero wasn't wearing his usual "I hate the universe" expression; it had been replaced by an expression that said "What's his problem?"

"The sooner we're done here, the sooner I can get back to being alone," I growled. "And stop acting worried about me; I don't need your pity. I doubt you could really sympathize anyway. None of you have ever had your heart torn out."

Drake recoiled as if I'd tried to strike him. Spark opened his mouth to say something, but 036 put a claw on his shoulder and shook his head. I heard Chelsea sigh sadly, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Eclipse move to comfort her.

I tried not to think about how badly I needed to be comforted too. There were only two beings in the world who could comfort me. Sage was being a little too obscure for me, and the other...well, she was the source of the problem.

"Aggron is right." X frowned at me, probably wondering whether or not my depression would affect my performance. "Team Rocket probably knows we're here by now. We should hurry before our targets evacuate."

I stomped toward the stairs. I knew I had no reason to be angry with any of them, but I couldn't help it. They kept trying to talk to me when they had no idea what I was going through. Chelsea might feel the same way I did, but she was the only one who didn't seem to care about me. Simple, my ass. I stopped thinking completely at that point. It was too painful.

For the next fifteen minutes, I felt like a worker Beedrill in a colony. I vaguely recall tearing a guard apart. I might have knocked down a wall. I don't know, nor did I care. Everything seemed like I was watching a movie or something, where I wasn't controlling my own actions.

Until I reached that one guard.

The man was just standing there, not even trying to lift his weapon as I approached. He seemed to be mumbling under his breath. I raised one claw to rip him open, and he closed his eyes, still mumbling.

"...not fair. I'll never get to tell Amy how much I love her again. Why did I..."

Those words snapped me out of my trance just as I was about to strike. It had occurred to me that the people we killed had families, but until that moment, I had never really realized what that meant. This "Amy" would be just as devastated to lose her boyfriend or whoever this guy was as I was when I lost Chelsea. More so, actually, since there would never be a chance to say goodbye.

I lowered my arm. I couldn't do it. I couldn't inflict that kind of suffering on another being. I just looked at him sadly. The guard seemed to sense my hesitation and opened his eyes. We both stood there, looking into each other's eyes. Somehow, I got the feeling that he understood exactly what I was going through.

"Get out of here," I told him. "Now."

"I hope it works out," he replied.

I looked over my shoulder at Chelsea. "So do I. Now go."

"Aggron!" X's voice cut across the room.

I turned. 036 finished off the last of the guards and turned to look at me, wondering what was going on. Spark and the others rounded the corner and stopped, also confused. I didn't even remember getting separated from them.

X continued. "What are you doing? Kill him and let's move on!"

"No," I answered. Over my shoulder I saw the guard edging toward a doorway.

"Your orders are to kill anyone in your way!" X persisted.

"I don't care," I answered.

X frowned. "I'll have to report your disobedience."

"I don't care. What are the Creators going to do to punish me? Nothing they can do can hurt me!"

"Very well," X told me. He looked at Zero. "Kill the guard."

Zero nodded and fired a Hyper Beam straight at the guard, who had just reached the door and was opening it. Realizing he wasn't going to get through in time, I moved into the path of the beam and fired a Hyper Beam of my own to meet it.

The two attacks met in a large explosion. I had to take a step backward from the force of the blast, but the shockwave knocked Chelsea, Eclipse, Spark, and X to the ground. I heard the door slam behind me and turned to see the guard was gone. He must have made it through the door. I watched as X climbed to his feet.

"I'm going to have to report this, you know," He said, frowning. "You'll probably be punished."

I just smiled, wondering how they could possibly hurt me.

"I'm fairly disappointed in you, Aggron," X continued.

"See how much I care," I retorted. "Let's just move on, shall we?"

"That's them!"

We all turned at the sound of the unfamiliar voice. At the end of the hall was a group of Rockets. One of them looked like he must have been our primary target, Giovanni. He wore a black suit rather than a uniform and gave off an aura of command. His face was in the shadows, but I could just tell that he was the boss.

He reached into his pocket and drew out two pokéballs. He threw them to the ground before us, releasing a Nidoking and a Rhyperior.

"Take care of the intruders," Giovanni told them before he and his goons fled.

"Zero," I called without turning. "get up here."

"Finally," he growled.

I heard X giving commands to the others as Zero joined me. He was looking eager for this fight. I looked over my shoulder and saw that the four of us were now alone in the hallway.

"Look, you two," I called to them. "either you get out of our way, or you die. It's your choice."

The two ground-types looked at each other.

"Sorry," Nidoking said. "We have to obey our master."

"Besides," Rhyperior added. "the latter option isn't very likely."

I looked at Zero. "Sound familiar?"

He grinned. "It's like you and Spike. Well, you on a good day."

I ignored the last comment and faced our opponents. "You asked for it."

Their response was a dual Earth Power attack focused on me. I watched with a grin as the twin streams of energy raced towards me, the floor cracking. I braced myself when they reached me, erupting in an explosion of energy that almost looked like lava. When the smoke cleared, I saw the two of them looking speechless as they saw me standing there unharmed.

"H-How did you survive that!?" Rhyperior demanded. "Aggron are extremely weak to ground attacks!"

I smirked. "I'm no ordinary Aggron."

I felt my mouth grow cold as I spoke, and punctuated my sentence with an Ice Beam aimed at Nidoking. He dived to the side to avoid the super-effective attack, but he wasn't counting on what happened next. Neither was I, for that matter.

My Ice Beam attack suddenly curved back around. The blue beam of energy split into five beams identical to the first, and they homed in on our opponents.

"I'm assuming that's your doing," I asked Zero.

He just grinned.

"Head's up, then." I fired a Flamethrower and Hyper Beam in rapid succession. I then watched with interest and some awe as they, too, split and began to stalk the panicking ground-types opposite us.

A Hyper Beam was the first to strike, crashing into Rhyperior's back and knocking him to his hands and knees. In the short time he was down, the remaining Flamethrowers and Hyper Beams crashed into him, instantly knocking him unconscious.

Nidoking hesitated briefly at the sight of what had happened to his partner. That one moment was enough to allow the many Ice Beams to strike him, freezing him in a block of ice.

I turned to Zero. "You didn't even get to attack."

He laughed.

Drake suddenly materialized next to me.
"All our targets have been eliminated," he said. "Turns out those guys he had with him were the other executives we were looking for."

"They gathered all together for us." I laughed. "How nice of them."

"You seem to be in a better mood than before."

I frowned, shutting my eyes. The moment he said that, Chelsea returned to my thoughts. The love I felt for her...the happiness I had felt when she'd asked me to mate with her...the pain of losing her...

"Let's go," I growled.

---

The next day, X called and told me to prepare for my punishment. I was summoned to the chamber across from my own room. The same one Dark Dusknoir and his followers were dragged into when they rebelled. The same one they never returned from.

I, however, had every intention of returning. I entered the chamber, which was pitch-black apart from a single beam of light. Out of some instinct, I stepped into it. Cliché, right?

As I did so, the room lit up. It was extremely plain. Except for the various, cruel-looking, bloodstained instruments hanging on the walls. And the pile of bloody bandages and bones lying in a corner. With a shudder, I realized I'd just found out what happened to Dusknoir and the others.

"Aggron!" I whirled at the sound of an all-too familiar voice.

Chelsea was bound to a pole, her wrists chained above her head. The chain itself connected to a small device with several lights on it at the top of the pole.

"What are you doing here?" I demanded, sounding a little harsher than I intended. I wasn't sure whether it was out of that irrational anger or concern.

"I don't know," the Gardevoir answered. I saw tear streaks down her cheeks. "They just said something about a punishment."

"That's right." A strange voice echoed from around the room. It sounded like several people talking at once.

"Who are you?" I demanded. "And why is Chelsea bound like that? I thought I was here to receive my punishment, not her."

"We believe you Doomsday Pokémon refer to us as 'the Creators'," the voice answered with a chuckle. "And you were right. DDP-062 is not the one getting punished today."

I went cold and froze as the meaning of the Creators' words sunk in. This was my punishment, not Chelsea's. They might not be able to hurt me, but they could hurt her. I looked at her in horror.

"This is why I didn't want us to get involved..." Chelsea murmured, fresh tears forming in her eyes. "Now they have a way to force you to obey them."

"Chelsea..." As I looked at her, I felt tears of my own beginning to show. "So...you do love me?"

She nodded. "With all my heart and soulâ�""

Chelsea was cut off as the device flashed some yellow lights a few times. There was a loud buzzing, and the chain suddenly gave off a few sparks. She screamed in pain, her body visibly stiffening as she was electrocuted.

"Doomsday Pokémon don't have hearts or souls, you silly girl," the Creators said, a sick amusement filling their voices.

"Chelsea!" Fury and hatred directed towards the ones who created me filled my body. I shot a Hyper Beam at the machine in an attempt to destroy it. When the smoke cleared, the device remained intact. The lights flashed again, orange this time and Chelsea screamed louder.

"The device is programmed to increase the power of the electric charge it gives off if it is attacked," came that horribly calm voice. "You don't want to do that again."

"Damn you!" Tears were starting to flow freely as I helplessly watched Chelsea being tortured. "Stop this! Now!"

The device ceased to flash. Chelsea hung by her wrists, trying to catch her breath.

"Will you obey all orders without question?"

"A-Aggron...n-no," Chelsea breathed. "D-Don't do i-itâ�"AAAAGH!!!"

"I-I will not," I told the Creators, my voice cracking with the anguish of seeing Chelsea like this.

"Very well, then."

The machine flashed once more, but this time all the lights were red. Chelsea's limbs started to jerk as she let out another, louder agonized shriek.

"STOP!!!" I roared once more.

"Will you obey?"

"Agg-Aggron, p-please..." Chelsea managed between shrieks. "N-no..."

"The device is reaching maximum voltage," the Creators commented, sounding rather interested. "Any higher and DDP-062 will die."

"I-I can't...I can't lose you again," I told her. "I'll do it."

The infernal device ceased flashing, and Chelsea suddenly went limp, sobbing uncontrollably. I rushed to her side, holding her slender frame against me.

"How romantic," the voice commented in the same manner a scientist confirms a hypothesis. "DDP-100, you know what will happen if you ever question orders. Now go."

The cuffs binding Chelsea's wrists snapped open, and her arms fell over my shoulders as she slumped against me. I gently picked up the Gardevoir and brought her with me to the door.

"Oh, one more thing." I stopped at the sound of the Creators' voices. "If you ever disobey orders again, your 'mate' will die."

The door slid open and I exited the chamber, still holding Chelsea's slightly steaming body. Tears continued to roll down my face.

I heard a gasp. I looked to my side and saw that the others had been right outside the door. It had been Eclipse who had gasped. Drake was embracing her tightly. Spark, Spike, Zero, and even 036 were there as well. All eyes were fixed on the unconscious Gardevoir in my arms.

"Oh, Arceus..." Spark murmured.

Even Spike had nothing to say.

Zero put one paw on my shoulder. "Everything will be alright."

I tried to smile, but couldn't. I carried my mate across the hall and into my room, laying her on my bed and sitting on the floor beside her. I wept as I gazed at the burn marks around her wrists.

"This is all my fault..."Chapter End Notes:This is probably the most emotional piece I've ever written. Considering the fact I'm still new and not that good at writing, it shouldn't be a big deal, but you never know. On the upside, it's got an actual Pokemon battle...of sorts.

All characters belong to me with the following exceptions:
Drake & Eclipse belong to 1nick2
Sage belongs to Dominicu