II: Everything's Different

"Oh, young man, when your father finds out!"

The words echoed in a young Dakota Rupple's mind. He was fourteen years old, lowering a knotted up set of bedsheets out his bedroom window on the second floor of his home in Myrtle Village. His blue and black backpack slung over one shoulder, he carefully walked himself down the salmon colored paneling of his family's two-story house. Just as he had nearly lowered safely to the ground, the knot tied around his bed's leg in the room above came loose and he fell into the purple rose bushes laid out in a hedge along the side of the house.

Dakota gasped in pain. He dared not yell out as the thorns slashed over his arms lightly, drawing blood in thin lines where they had scratched him. Crawling out of the tall brush, he heard the sound of a startled rat, probably a Raticate, and watched as the hedge behind him moved. Brushing off his white and red shirt with the three Prinni starter Pokémon shown on it in a circle from Fire to Grass to Water and back to Fire, he lifted his head up into the air and looked up into the early morning sky.

The sun's light creeped up over the horizon, lighting the surface of the Pacific Ocean an hour before the system's star itself would be seen in the sky. Picking out the constellation of the finned serpent, Gyarados, in the night's sky, he reached up and wiped the last of his tears away from under his eyes. It wasn't the thorns which caused Dakota pain, but instead a fight still lingering in his mind from earlier in the night. Biting his lip, he heard is mother's voice yell "when your father finds out" all over again, new water pooling at corners of dark brown eyes.

A light turned on behind him and he hopped to the other side of the pink picket fence, looking back towards his purple roofed house at the second story. It was the bathroom light, and it was too early for his mom to be awake. Rupple considered for an instant to start running right then and there. He had enough supplies in his backpack, and it had been his plan... If one could call throwing together a hastily chosen bundle of cloths, vacu-sealed sea rations, a sleeping bag, and his drawing tablet in an attempt to run away from home a 'plan'.

In the next moment, the light turned off. He had heard her do this before... she would lay back down and try to fall asleep, then fail to do so and get up and make breakfast. Would she make him breakfast? Would she even knock on his door this morning like all the others? A part of him suspected not, and that same part of him didn't want to stick around to find out. A 'no' to that last question would probably hurt more than simply not knowing...

Standing up from where he had crouched, Dakota wiped his young eyes once more and headed towards the east side of town up the main drive and into the direction of the coming sunrise. He let a sigh escape his throat as he kicked a stone up the path, his head down in shame as he walked without a destination in mind. My own mother, he considered. I mean... I never thought she'd react this badly, but I certainly... I mean I never... I knew it might be bad, but--

"Hey, watch it, Dakkery," a familiar voice shocked him out of his thoughts before he had time to start crying again. Turning his head to the south, he could see his cousin Riley Naroge hurrying up the wooden bridge that lead out to her family's home further out in the Prinni Keys. Smiling, she kicked the large stone he'd just knocked her way back at him. "Yer no Rock-Type," she giggled.

"Dakkery?" he asked her, sure the blush in his cheeks had to have been seen even in this dim early light, giving away that he had been crying recently. However, his cousin didn't seem to notice. "Like the Strawberry Daiquiri?"

Riley nodded, smiling a bit, glancing over her shoulder towards her home in the distance. It was a big house, almost a mansion, and took up most of the land of it's own little island. Myrtle Village itself was situated on one of the many islands that made the up a coral archipelago named simply the Prinni Keys which extended from the southeastern tip of the much larger island of Prinni. The Naroge Family--which technically was part of the Rupple family--had the nicest plot of land out of all the other families. The three story home was circled in a beach and had the most unobstructed view of the sea of any of the small town's homes.

"How do you even know what a Strawberry Daiquiri is?"

Riley frowned a bit at that question. "Let's not bring up my mom on a day like today," she said, sticking out her tongue as if to answer his question without elaborating. "Out of the house and out on my own," she said with a grin that looked like it might reach both her ears. It was that moment that Dakota took in all of his younger relative's appearance. She was wearing an black bandana tied over her head, orange shirt, red shorts, and had a black and orange travel bag slung over her shoulder.

For an instant Dakota wondered what her mom might have done to cause Riley to pack her bags and leave. Maybe yell at the help, again, he considered. But then, he realized that he'd been too consumed with his art for the past few days to notice how far into the week he even was. His own bad experience this night tinted what he'd thought of his cousin ready to go on a trip as some more troubled event than it really was. The truth, instead, was that it was Riley's birthday and she was heading out to be a Pokémon Trainer this very morning... a day he'd been sure earlier must be further away.

"I'm still up from last night, so I almost forgot what today is," he said with a straight face, kneeling down and unzipping his backpack. Riley's eyes lit up, expecting a big present with as full as Dakota's backpack was. Her hands went up in front of her, shaking, and she almost let out a 'squee'. Bitting his lip a bit, Dakota pulled out a very small plastic card that was only about as big as the flat of his thumb. Her face dropped a bit at the sight of the small item in the dim morning light. "What's that look?" he ask with a smile, trying to win her back. "I thought you said you liked my art."

"Art?" Riley asked, reaching out for the card. Dakota moved his hand back so her swipe missed, playing with her like he often did. Smirking, she reached for it again, snatching it from him. Holding it up, she turned it over in her hand. "This is... this is a PMU," she blinked. "What's on it? I don't want to cheat my Pokédex... I wanna fill it all myself," she nodded, looking up at him.

"Well, kiddo. You know I'm all poor and stuff... so I made made you a gift 'by hand'," he explained, doing finger-quotes in the air. "This particular Pokédex Memory Unit contains upon it a Skin. You know what that is, right?"

"I... uh. No. No, not on a--no," she blinked, holding the unit up as if shinning it in better light would help her see a difference. "What does it have to do with your art?"

"I reskinned the Pokédex OS. All the menu bits, and all the illustrations of all the Pokémon," he told her, "I redrew everything in there, just for you." Dakota smiled for the first time in hours as Riley stopped looking at the card and turned to face him, her mouth agape. "All of the over five hundred known Pokémon, in my own style, just for you," he beamed. "Happy Birthday."

Riley's eyes sparkled with the joy that the personalized gift had brought her. "Oh, Dakie," she called out, wrapping her arms around his sides, hugging him. Looking up, she stepped back and held the little PMU in her hands, "I can't wait to see it... C'mon," she said, turning to run up the dirt path into the direction of the laboratory on the way out of town. "I'm sure Professor Birch is waiting on us!"

Dakota blinked, glancing behind him towards his house one last time before turning and hurrying after Riley. "What do you mean 'Us'?" he inquired, unsure what conclusion his cousin had drawn from him being out so early in the morning. "I mean--"

"Yer not foolin' anybody," she giggled, looking back at him as she looked over her shoulder. "Backpack full of travel gear, meeting your little cousin as she departs to become a great Pokémon Trainer--I'm on to you!" Riley laughed and nearly tripped on one of the loose stones as the path turned to cobble ahead of her.

She thinks I'm setting off to become a Pokémon Trainer like she is, Dakota realized. He picked up the pace and continued up the path after her. Well... I did pass my entrance exam... but that was a long time ago. I never showed up to get a starter, he remembered. Frowning, the other part of the equation fell into place like a long lost puzzle piece to some unfinished jigsaw. My mom didn't want me running off... she wanted me to join the service like dad. Dakota bit his lip. The words "when your father finds out" banked off the inside of his skull again, lodging in the middle of his brain. Dad wanted me to be happy, he recalled. Mom wanted me to be safe...

As the two youths of Myrtle Village jumped the S-curves of the walkway in order make it up the winding path more quickly, Dakota realized that he didn't know anymore what would make him happy. He couldn't go home, he believed. If he was already going to set off on his own, it might as well be doing something interesting...

Riley quickly ran at the doors of The Myrtle Observatory and they 'swooshed' open as she approached, the two glass panes sliding apart and allowing the young girl in red, orange, and black into the building proper. Dakota followed behind her, waving at the lime-haired girl behind the counter as he hurried after his cousin down the long hallway. "No running in the building!" the woman called after them.

Heading up the stairs at the end of the short hallway, Dakota came to a slow stop at the very top, looking around. There was the giant telescope over to one side, but otherwise there were mostly white tables with computer screens placed atop them with a few lab technicians pouring over data. Looking forward, he could see the counter in the back of the room where he knew that Professor Birch liked to stand and work. The last time Dakota had been here, it had been to take his exam years earlier.

"Miss Naroge, I expected," came a voice from behind Dakota, "But you, Mr. Rupple... why, this is a surprised." Turning around, Dakota saw Professor Birch, a man who must have been in his late forties but maintained a solid amount of blonde on his aging head. Poking his glasses with a finger to push them back up onto his noes, Birch stepped to the side the young boy as he moved into the lab itself. "Albeit," the professor considered a thought, rubbing his chin, "not as big a surprise as one might expect."

Dakota's eyes narrowed a bit and took a deep breath. Mom called him, he realized. She said she was going to try and find out what was wrong with me... but I thought she would wait until morning, Rupple thought, biting his lip.

"Oh, Doc Birch, you don't have to keep it a secret. I figured it out!" Riley laughed, hurrying over to the rolling island cupboard that she knew contained three very special Poké Balls. "Dak's an awful liar... I know he's gunna start his great journey with me!"

Birch looked from Riley, to Dakota. He smiled to the boy, "Ah, so you've figured it out," the professor said with a grin that Dakota knew not what to do with. "I spoke with his mother just last night and everything is prepared," he said, looking the young man in the eyes. "I told her not to be concerned," Birch explained to Dakota, though his words were tinted with some other meaning. "She'll be upset, sure, as all parents are when their children... leave," he nodded, "But a Trainer's journey is a Rite of Passage... and it is time for Rupple here to become a man."

Dakota ran a hand through his black hair as he took a moment to understand what Professor Birch had just said. And here I thought there would be a straightjacket prepared for me, he mulled over, taking a breath. I can't tell if he really understands, or if he just thinks that mom is overreacting. Blinking his brown eyes, Dakota nodded to the Pokémon Professor of Myrtle Village. "Maybe she'll come around in time," the young boy said to the older man in the lab coat, trying to fake a smile.

"I she will," Professor Birch said simply as he patted Dakota on the back. "A new life, a new opportunity, a new set of challenges and adventures," he said, putting his hands into the air with a big smile on his face for the two children. Turning, he walked towards Riley who wiggled in place, her hands on the side of the counter as the professor stepped over and pulled the cover off of the three Poké Balls containing Prinni's starter Pokémon.

"I can't wait!" she grinned, reaching a hand forward to wiggle over the top of the one that she had wanted for all these months, her choice already made. "Today, I get to start the path to'be'a Pokémon Master and a whole new beginning. No mom, no dad, no big brother to try and ruin everything. Get'a be my own person."

"I guess things do change," Dakota said, giving a sniff as he felt that some tears were coming if he wasn't careful. They were both right. He could take this bad event and leave... but not just leave, he could start over. Nodding to himself, looking to the two other Poké Balls laying on the plate. Of Squirtle and Charmander, he'd always seen himself more as a Fire-type kind of person and he reached for the orange lizard's resting place.

"It's just like your father use to say," Professor Birch said, looking into the young Rupple's eyes with a smile. Blinking at the mention of his father, Dakota was about to ask what the professor meant and even started to open his mouth to do so when Birch waved a hand to the side. A smile made its way across his aged face as he looked right to Dakota and said simply, "Once things change... everything's different..."

For the second time in his life, Trainer Rupple's entire world was upside down. Or, rather, it was laying on its back under the big Prinni spindlewood tree atop Mount Fiesta that stretched easily fifty feet up into the air. The canopy shaded a wide swath of the normally chill Route 22 some distance north of Gregoria Falls and Atlantijug City. The afternoon's sky had shifted from blue to purple as the giant spire of black space rock started to gather deep gray clouds up around its tallest reaches, an ominous reminder that what caused his startling transformation probably hadn't been done with his best interests at heart... simply a very welcome surprise in an otherwise frightful set of circumstances.

Beneath the giant tree were two half-human, half-Lucario creatures. The corruption from the meteorite had altered their physical forms and they were now nearly mirror images of each other. Changes to Dakota arms and chest were incomplete and he still had all his fingers. Lucia, meanwhile, had experienced the fewest physical changes, though the throbbing in her head acted like a beacon of pain, reminding her that external alterations were not the only kind one could experience...

Dakota would be a Trainer three years, tomorrow. The women beside him would have simply been his strongest Fighting-type Pokémon and loyal friend. Now, who knew? The tingling like electricity dotted over their furred forms as they remained tied with his knot inside of her, his red canine cock still hard.

He'd been quite for a few minutes, mulling over the events of the afternoon as best he could through the warm fuzz of his mind. The heat inside his skull was mildly painful. Just moments after the two had climaxed, he felt dizzy and worried about falling asleep beside her. Licking his short muzzle with his new lengthy tongue, Dakota could taste the iron of blood as it dribbled from his nose.

"Lucy... Oh," he gasped, ending his thought as her name grabbed her attention and a tug at his swollen hilt. "Can't help think," he said slowly, having trouble focusing on each word, "if we don't move... we'll literally... die happy..."

"Can't go. We are tied," she said, glancing over to Dakota. "How long last?" She squeezed her muscles around his length, teasing at his shaft. "This too long."

"Never done this," he said, then coughed lightly. "Never thought I would...tie knot," he chuckled then stopped, swallowing hard to try and keep whatever was in his throat down. His eyes fell partly closed, then reopened as he tried to smile and act like nothing was wrong.

"Feel dizzy," she agreed. "Less after... mating--" She shook her head, turning to focus on Dakota's muzzle as he laid beside her. The steel spikes from their chests were touching as they laid adjacent to each other on the ground, the heat of the metal could be felt through their fur. "You can talk," she suddenly exclaimed.

Dakota thought that statement was strange beyond compare. Of course he could talk... he had been talking to her since they had met. He was going to reach up and rub his forehead when he realized that the two of them were still holding hands... his five fingers each still wrapped around her three. Focusing on her comment and the confusion it gave his fuzzy mind, he slowly realized the backward idea of her statement.

"Wait," he began. "I can talk," he said, turning to look at her, "So can you. You're talking full sentences... and," he watched her muzzle carefully for a moment. "And... talking aloud. First telepathy. Now human? That is... I don't know. Don't know what."

"Look at me," she said, even though he was already looking at her. "I am talking human?"

He blinked, trying to focus on her dark blue lips. "I... you must. I... I am hearing you. Understanding you... you must. I... I think..." His head throbbed and his blood pumped so loud that it was beating in his skull. She asked him if he was sure, and his eyes had trouble focusing. "No... maybe not... but," he coughed again, tasting iron in his mouth. "You aren't... then I'm speaking--"

"Lucario," she nodded, trying to sit up but her groin tugged against his blub. "We need to move... get you healed," Lucia realized, trying to focus. Blinking, she thought about herself, aloud: "Still hot, but... better now... clearer, but... not helpful."

"How to get free?" Dakota wondered, trying to focus on the issue at hand. "Blood flow, right? Can feel blood... pumping inside... no help," he tried to shake his mind clear. "The heat, the warmth... buzzing inside me," he coughed. "Need to expel." Lucia nodded. "But how?" he asked.

Her red eyes glanced towards the meteorite and then back to Dakota. She didn't think telling him his brown eyes were ringed in the same violet glow as her own would help him focus. Still, taking a breath, she leaned her face towards his and licked his muzzle lovingly. "Go again?" she asked.

Dakota's head bobbed forward as he tried to wrap his mind around that request. "Expel some... warmth?" he wondered as he felt his insides quiver. "Will that work?"

"Options limited: lay here, warmth devour; release energy, maybe get untied," she offered to him as a thought, her tone revealing that she was partial to the second option regardless. "Think you can? Hear males cannot."

Dakota blinked. "Maybe. I have... more than once... uh... alone," he said, squinting a little as he rolled to his left, moving himself so that he was over the top of Lucia. He let go of her hands and moved his own so that they were under her knees as he pulled her legs a little so that he was a little lower than her waist was. Smiling, he forced a chuckle, "Sex might save my life."

Lucia didn't say anything, the look on her face some combination of concern and desire. Dakota didn't want to ask. He felt her fear in the air. He tasted her guilt on his tongue. Just like my own blood, he thought grimly. She's blaming herself for what's happened to me. Shaking his head Rupple smiled and looked down into her red eyes, feeling of her vaginal muscles wrapped around him as he began to thrust back and forth inside of her, held against her by his knot.

Pulling back and forth against her wasn't quite the same experience as there was almost no distance for him to move. Lucia wrapped her legs around his back and put her hands on his shoulders as he knelt and wrapped his hands up under each side of her ass. Energy danced in the air around them, and he didn't know what it meant. Closing his eyes, he could almost feel their movement like liquid, two forms moving back and forth against each other... a cyan glow surrounding them as they moved in darkness.

Dakota couldn't be sure when he had decided to move them but he could feel the pain in his new legs as he stumbled up onto the balls of his feet and moved the two of them against one of the half walls made by the thick roots of the giant tree. He set Lucy back onto the surface of the smooth bark and released his hold upon her, moving his hands so that one was just above her tail while the other was just below it.

"Almost... almost," Lucia grunted as she leaned her head back, the feeling inside herself reaching fevered pitch. Her mind raced with the idea that Dakota had never done this before as he was rubbing against exactly what he needed to with each thrust. The light blue energy rippled through her vision and she closed her eyes, almost wishing she couldn't see it. It didn't help, though, as the form of both her and her Trainer bubbled in through her closed eyelids, lighting up a darkness that filled her being.

Purple energy, she finally realized at this moment of all moments. She could see it. It was beating in Dakota's chest at his heart and glowing in his head as well. Lowering her head just enough, her eyes moved down behind their lids and made out a deep velvet color at each of their groins. It pulsed to magenta with each thrust they made, and as she grew closer to climax, the colors struck whiter and whiter. "It's working!" she nearly howled, her head lurching back. She reached out with her innate sense of the aura of all life and felt around in it, picking out the good from the bad, and knowing that expelling all this corruption would free them both.

Dakota growled softly, a urge, a need to have Lucia completely as his own. Not as Pokémon and Trainer, but as one mated Lucario to another. His mind couldn't begin to argue it in its current state. Mate for Life, his head roared, the white glow sparking up at the edges of his perception like a blacksmith forging a perfect blade. Two Steel-types together as a single force, striking against each other in the fire of a great kiln that sought to heat them to their cores.

Lucia gripped Dakota's shoulders and pulled him towards her. Her head up next to his, she moaned in pleasure directly into his tall, blue, pointed ears. His hands gripped into her back, steel nails pulling against her as he rammed his shaft up into her so hard that she couldn't hold back. A wall of energy crashed out from her as she shudder and came, coating his length in her juices once again. Her cackle of lust reverberated through his form as she leaned her chest just to the side of the spike coming out of his as she shook against him in time with his remaining thrusts.

Mind lost in the moments, the male Lucario knew that the female had been serviced, his own needs remaining. As she shook over him, he pulled at his knot inside her, then pushed back deeper inside her. Another time, and then a third after her release. He growled his lust, his need, his right to this moment, and just as he couldn't give it one more strike of the iron, he struck again. His lips curled back into a howl that might pierce the sky, but his new instincts demanded another outcome--

Slanted just to one side in front of him, Lucia's face was just alongside his own. The white ripples through the air pulsed so hard the branches of the tree above them blew in the gust, bending away from them. His last thrust shook inside of her, ready for release. He held on one extra moment, the human part of his mind being shoved out of the way by this aggressive Lucario instinct. It was that moment, as he came inside of her, that his muzzle reached forward and pressed over her shoulder, gripping down hard enough to draw blood.

Lucia's mind raced away, the sensible and serious Lucario warrior was wounded on this carnal battlefield. She could feel Dakota's release inside of her, filling her with his seed. His teeth in her shoulder drawing her life force into him, demanding to take her as his own. Never before had she experienced him as a dominant male, only as a sound strategic mind. In that moment of instinct, the combatant inside her rose to the challenge, her muzzle lowering from his ear as she sank her teeth into his shoulder as well. Her life blood filled him and powered the storm around them as his own blood filled her throat, bringing his aura within the temple of her body.

A third climax that night for the female Lucario as she felt her body give in once more over the length of the male, his form strong within her as his shaft jerked again and again. She clamped down against him, pulling with her insides to take everything he could give her. As the two of them rocked as one life force, they each lifted their muzzles upwards, brushing against each other as they howled up into the night's sky together, daring any human or Pokémon to question their dedication to each other.

The two blue and black forms rocked against each other many more times as the sun set, the corruption that powered their transformation giving them a stamina that would damn them both if they let it build. Remaining tied, it was as if the dark energy of the skyscraper-sized space rock in the distance demanded its pittance for the gift of unity it had bestowed upon them.

Cream colored fur blew against Dakota's chest, his shirt and jacket gone at some other moment before the sun had begun to set. His shoulders were filled with thick muscles and coated over in black fur just as Lucia's own were. The steel spikes reaching up from the back of his hands, piercing up behind the metal plates of his gloves, had been the precursor to the loss of his pinky fingers as they merged into the ring finger on each hand. The end result left him with black paw pads and only four digits apiece, including his thumbs.

Dakota's new tail wagged softly behind him as he held himself just to Lucia's side, their chest spikes unable to keep the two of them very far apart. They were panting, each, and he honestly couldn't say how many more times he had left in him. He had the energy, he thought, but his body was sore and raw from the exertion. As good as all this sex had been, his throbbing length was in pain, his knot surely bruised from all the tugs as they had tried to free themselves over these many hours.

"Lucari... car-lu... u-ari," she said softly at his side as they were once again crumpled onto the soft grass beside each other. "Arlu... luarcar."

Trainer Rupple's mind felt more clear these last few times, but her words confused him. Were they words or had somehow broken her? He blinked and turned to face her as she lay just to his side, their arms wrapped around each other. Muzzle curled back into a grin, her tongue was lolled out the side of her snout as she panted softly. As she put one hand to the side of her head, he had to wonder when she'd gained another finger on her hand. Still his attention returned to her deep blue lips which continued to mumble nonsense.

"Please tell me... you're OK," he said, listening to himself to make sure he was speaking human once again. Oh, good, he sighed and winced at the pain of exertion through his new form. "Lucy... Lucy," he repeated as she was partly in a daze, talking to herself. It sounded like disbelief, as if she were admitting something profound just for him to hear. Dakota frowned at that, and her eyes looked into his brown ones, the purple glow nearly faded. "Lucy... speak to me."

"Ari, car? Cario, lu-ari. Lu?" It was a question, but he wasn't sure what it meant. It could have been 'you can understand me, right?', and that's what he took it to mean.

"O," he said, and he meant 'no' just as he thought she would. He almost knew her words. They were at the edge of his mind, but he couldn't quite make them out. "No," he said again, tapping his head. "I can't understand you anymore."

"Hear now?" her voice chimed softly into his skull for the first time in hours. He nodded to her with a smile, happy that at least that much progress in communication had been maintained. She glanced away, with a face full of sorrow for a moment. Taking a long breath, she seemed to calm and collect herself, her eyes dropping more narrow as her next words inside him were more serious. "Heat soft," she said, pulling against his sore bulb as she tried to move away. He winced and nearly yelped, a look of apology reached him from her eyes. "Dakota soft?"

He nodded softly, a smile unable to leave his face. "Soft. I'm becoming soft, yes. I feel it. Let's just... just lay here for a moment... we don't want to wake it up again." He wanted to laugh, but his belly hurt. Turning his new canine head to the side, he looked at the bite marks over his shoulder that seemed to fill in with new skin already, the breaks in his fur dotted with purple.

Lucia's were just the same. He had bit her. It felt right at the time, but now... with his mind restored, he couldn't help but feel some concern for what had happened. Surely it had hurt just as she had hurt him... but it felt so good at the time, he wasn't sure what to make of it. Reaching out, he ran a hand over her fur, parting it to look at where she had little violet teeth marks already healed over atop her navy blue skin. She reached up and put a hand to his wrist, moving his palm up to the side of her face. Lucia licked his hand as if to say 'It's OK', and then she reached down with her other hand and slid it between the two of them. Index finger and thumb circled around his shaft above his balls, she gave a simple pull to try and separate them.

Dakota could feel himself move out from her just a bit and sink back in. The two Lucario looked at each other with a seriousness that could not be mistaken. Each taking a breath, they resigned themselves at once to removing this knotting right here and now. Pushing towards each other, Dakota nodded softly to Lucia who returned the motion in kind. Together they pushed against each other one, two, and then three times. On three, they grabbed the grass and tree root nearest to them and pulled as hard as they could.

A lurid slurp was distinctly audible as the two of them pulled apart. Lucia's moderately extended stomach dumped excess out her passage and onto the earth between them. Her insides as well as his shaft were covered in a mixture of solid white, clear, and deep purple bodily fluids. Dakota winced at the pain, but not as much as he did at the sickening sight. Purple?

"Purple," Lucia seemed to repeat in his head. "Human seed purple?"

"N... No. O," Dakota shook his head. Reaching the tree beside him, he pulled himself to stand on his new toes. Reaching down towards his crotch, he reached towards all the sticky mess in his new fur but stopped himself. Wiggling his hands, he reached up with one and pulled hard at the glove on the other, ripping it backwards across his new metal spike. Looking at it, he tossed it to Lucia, then turned to rip off the other one. "Wipe off if you can," he told her.

Catching the torn glove, she gave it only a quick and questioning look. Raising an eyebrow at her Trainer, Lucia shook her head. "Too small," the feminine voice spoke politely in his head. Motioning down at her legs, her fur was coated in a great deal of what could no longer fit inside her. "Much mess." Looking around at his discarded cloths, his mind seemed to congeal around the idea that he'd have more cloth to use to wipe clean with if his backpack were still with him. That thought caused him bite his lip, and he reached over to pick up his white shirt and toss it over to Lucia as well. "Thank you," she said inside his head.

"We should find the others."

"No," the voice came clearly inside him. "Lucia unwell. Dakota unwell," she said, coughing lightly to the side. Looking back to him, she added, "We heal. Then, we save_." Her tone was serious, and she met Dakota's purple-ringed brown eyes. "We _save."

He nodded his head, his face turning stern as he looked off to one side of the large tree and into the direction of Atlantijug City. Blinking, he stepped out from behind the root walls to look in that direction. A giant plume of black smoke was wafting into the air far to their east, near to the city. "No!" he yelled. Hurrying dress himself in his remaining cloths. His urgency was apparent, but she knew not what was wrong until he found a moment to exclaim: "I think the city is on fire!"

Lucia glanced over her shoulder towards him, then reached down to continue wiping along her matted fur with his torn shirt. "And?" she asked simply, her calm returning to her as she focused on what she was doing. Making an effort to appear less worn, she pulled her tongue back into her head and took a deep breath. Just touching her own form danced with lingering energy and the pain of exertion, her flesh raw beneath her fur.

"What if what's happened to us has happened to them?" Dakota's tone was concern, and she admired that. It wasn't the first time he sought to do something to help after a disaster. Still, she chided him a little in response.

"Wounded," her voice came into her head. "Neither us Water-type. Neither us fast," Lucia communicated to him, her words having a painful truth to them. "Can't help us, can't help them," she said simply as she balled up the purple-spotted white shirt and tossed it over towards Dakota's discarded shoes. "We heal, then we save," she repeated.

Trainer Rupple frowned, his eyes locked on the smoke in the distance. She was right, but... it was strange to him. This whole year had brought the two of them an understanding of Trainer and Pokémon. Her faith in him had brought faith in himself, but now... now she could speak to him. She could disagree with him. It was refreshing yet also somewhat concerning. Looking over to her, her smiled a little. "A head full," he said with a smirk.

She had been in the middle of picking up his dark blue bandana when he made that simple statement to her. Lucia recalled earlier in the afternoon where he'd said something like that to her and now she understood it. Now able to communicate with him, she could make her feelings more known rather than just deferring to him. Was that a good thing? A part of her didn't think so. Her place was as his Pokémon, and she needed to remember that. Nodding simply in response to his comment, she went quite and handed him the cloth.

The rocks of Mount Fiesta were all around them, the cold night air blowing in from off the ocean to the far north, beyond the great Falderan Cliffs. In the dangerous outside spaces of the island, she would walk in front of them in case a wild Pokémon were to attack. Considering how many had launched themselves into the space rock far to their northeast, she couldn't help but think the chances of an encounter were low.

Looking to Dakota, she caught him focusing on the big tree as they walked around it. Seems important, she thought. Dakota wanted tree, got me, she nodded and sighed. Taking a long breath, she calmed herself and tried to focus on the task at hand. Human and Pokémon, no, Lucia insisted. Not possible. Not order. Not right.

A hand went to her firm abs as she considered the future. Were she with egg, she should know. Pokémon lay quickly, she nodded. Dakota not Lucario. No egg, she determined. Tapping her hand over her stomach, her mind considered what it would be like to be a mother. Eyes glancing down to the side, she wondered who her own parents were and what they might have meant to her if she'd ever known them. Thinking about it, she realized that she'd never met Dakota's parents either. Where Dakota's parents?

They had reached a large wooden bridge that crossed in the middle of Route 22, just north of Gregoria Falls. Of course, she hadn't know the name, but she had known it was place the humans had named. Stopping, she looked out towards south of the island far beyond, the edge of the high earth ahead, the forest and swamp down below, and the ocean way off towards the horizon. Putting a hand on the wooden railing of the crossing, her muzzle shifted into a frown as she realized what she had been thinking about.

Thinking beyond me, she considered and took a breath. I fight. I get stronger. I learn, I fight better. Dakota stepped up beside her, not saying anything at all. His wonder pressed against her, and she knew that he wanted to ask what she was thinking but chose not to. What am I? I am Lucario, she nodded to herself, but the affirmation didn't convince her. Looking over the mark her Trainer had left on her shoulder and in her spirit, her red eyes shifted up toward Dakota. If I am Lucario... what is he? But, Lucia failed to discern an answer as she took in his new lithe body, his tail wagging behind him softly in his content mindset.

Kneeling down close to the edge of the walkway, she reached off the bridge and down into the rushing water. Cupping her hands in the cold mountain spring, she brought it up and poured it over her fur. Trying to use it to clean out some of the gunk along her inner thighs, she found the stickiness didn't want to leave. A moment later, another pair of hands were there doing the same, and Lucia's eyes met Dakota's once more. Grinning, he leaned in and licked her muzzle just as she had done to him earlier, his eyes and spirit revealing he wasn't sure if he was doing it right.

What is right? Lucia wondered, leaning against his face and licking at the the dried blood under his nose. Words in my head. Thoughts in my mind. Questions in my spirit, she nodded, allowing herself a breath of calm at his attention. I am changed. What does it mean? Too many minds...

As frightening an experience as the meteorite crashing into the island had been, the destruction of Atlantijug was not a damage that would be added to the list. At least, it didn't look that way from Route 21 where the two human Lucario hybrids now traveled. All around them was charred devastation, a swath of forest to either side of the wide path now lay burnt to the ground. The most interesting scent of burnt timber flooded Trainer Rupple's new nose, a grin forming along his snout despite his true feelings about the scene.

In addition to the destruction was the presence of those that were trying to get the situation under control. A squad of Water-type Pokémon comprised of a Blastoise, a Wartortle, and nine Squirtles were all being led by a single police officer in a blue outfit. The group was spread all over the wounded stretch of land, but that didn't stop the officer from taking note as the two humanoids hobbled down the path in the direction of the Prinni metropolis.

"You two," said the teal-haired police officer as Dakota and Lucia were walking by, "Trainers, stop." She held up her hand to the and the two stopped walking. Officer Theta's title was stamped into the penguin-shaped golden badge in the center front of her indigo cap. The badge was ringed with a silver edge to indicate Atlantijug City as her precinct. Moving to them in her short sleeved, white gloved uniform, she stopped just short of them, her left hand at her side near to the black bag on her waist. "Explain yourselves."

Dakota blinked, sure he had met this official before, yet sure she hadn't been quite so tall. Putting his hands behind his back, he took deep breath as he prepared to explain what had happened to the two of them. His cream-colored chest puffed forward, steel-spike straight ahead, he thought of the best way to explain while also excluding their activities in the hours it took them to make the trip to town. Rubbing his hand over the shoulder of his jacket where Lucia bit into him, he considered what to say.

"Well, officer," he began, "we had just finished a Solo Battle on Route 22 when... that," Dakota said, taking black-furred hand and pointing a steel claw out towards the tall black, purple-glowing space rock far to the northwest, "fell out of the sky, almost on top of us. It's taken hours to come to our senses, but now we--"

"Why hours?" She asked, crossing her arms under her breasts. Lucia tilted her head silently at the authority figure, glancing down at her own pair of mammaries. Raising an eyebrow, she reached up and crossed her arms. They were low, and she tried to pull up her arms to their old resting place, but her new flesh was in the way. Huffing, she resigned herself to a less intimidating pose, crossing her arms behind her back like her Trainer. It hadn't gone unnoticed, though, and Theta wasn't sure if she was supposed to take insult as the smaller female showed off her larger assets without realizing it. "And what are your names?"

"I'm Trainer Rupple, and this--"

"Rupple? Dakota Rupple?" the woman enquired, her tone indicating surprise and distracting her momentarily from Lucia's nudity. The brown-shelled, blue skinned, five foot tall, shoulder cannon-mounted tortoise not far from her turned its head and began to stomp towards the three humanoids. It had a light cross-shaped scar on its left chest plate, and its aura glowed a specific color combination that Lucia's violent-rimmed eyes caught as a familiar Blastoise.

"Tikoloshe," the female Lucario spoke in Rupple's head.

That name grabbed his attention away from Theta for just a moment as he quickly turned look at the thick mon with the cream plastral armour. Blinking, his eyes a little wide, he looked back to the officer and nodded. "Yes, mam."

"Have you seen Riley Naroge?"

Rupple's hand dropped to his side, clenched into fists. A new part of his brain jumped immediately to the end of whatever story Officer Theta could be about to tell him... as if he'd somehow tripped the energy connecting to the knowledge and pulled it into his lap. Shaking the feeling, he swallowed hard. "Not since our battle on Route 22," he answered honestly. "She's missing, isn't she? She came back to town, healed up her team, and headed out to find me after the meteorite struck... didn't she?"

The officer squinted a bit, trying to read the Lucario's jackal-like face. "Yes," nodded, "How did you know that?"

"I don't know," he admitted, glancing to Lucy, then back to Theta, "Just a... feeling I had." Lucia's muzzle shifted up a bit as she scented the air, her red eyes sliding to look over Dakota's as she tried and failed to sense what he was feeling. It took effort to find lines of spirit energy that a Lucario was unfamiliar with, as finding lines of association came easier with a connection to another's spirit than simply feeling around blindly. Since she had only met Riley the one time, Lucia could not pick the other Trainer's aura out from all the others that had passed along this road.

"That was over an hour ago. I'd ordered her to stay in town like everyone else... she took off up the trail you just came down right before an enraged Charizard lit fire to the woods here," she shook her head and placed her hands on her hip. "Priorities what they are, I was forced handle this situation before chasing after a single girl." She shook her head at the thought, "And you didn't see her, so that'll be my next task."

"Mam, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but we... the two of us," he said, looking to Lucy and then back to the officer, "have been through a lot in a short period of time. We very nearly died... multiple times." Dakota got vivid image in his head for an instant of one and his and Lucy's 'multiple times', his knot still tying them together in the moment in his mind. He shook the image and swallowed hard. "We would really appreciate it if we could see about getting a check-up. We're very sore, and, well... this," he said, holding up his hands and motioning to his face.

Looking up Route 21, then to the Blastoise, then back to Dakota she nodded, "Of course. I will look for your friend, but I will need to speak with you later," she said.

He nodded, "Thank you," and started to walk forward towards the city's red brick streets. Pausing, he looked back to her. "Officer," he called as she had begun to walk back towards one of the Squirtles to redirect its efforts. "Don't you or any of your Pokémon get anywhere near to any glowing-purple rocks," he yelled. "Else what happened to us will probably happen to you."

Her eyes widened only a little bit as she took in that knowledge. "Good to know the reports are true," Theta nodded. "Tell the Pokécenter so they can spread the word. I'll call the other precincts and let them know mutations are confirmed," she said, reaching for a device strapped to her right shoulder. "That was important, so thank you." Before he could turn to continue into town, she called after him again. "And Trainers," her voice came. He looked back to the officer, and Lucy flinched at being called a Trainer again, turning to look as well. "I know PETAP's been stealing Trainer P-Gear and other equipment, but see that your friend there ends up with some cloths!"

Trainer Rupple nodded, glancing to Lucy. She didn't appear to understand what had been said, or didn't want to. Smiling a bit, he and turned to head into town. He felt a little heat in the fur of his cheeks. "C'mon... walk beside me," he said to her, glancing back as she trailed behind him like she usually did when they entered a town. He motioned to his side and she took a few quick steps to walk in stride beside him. "So... that was Tikoloshe?"

"Scar new. Aura same," her voice explained in his head.

"Means Larry is in town... Officer Theta probably commandeered all the Water-types she could find to help put out the forest."

"More clear. Not clear," she spoke in his skull. Dakota blinked and looked to her. She looked over at him and waved one of her hands as she sought the right words. "Understand more, not all."

"Oh," he nodded. "So, I've been wondering. If you don't really understand me... when I am talking like I am now... how do you know what you are responding to?" he wondered.

"I say nothing; you know what I mean," her voice spoke simply in his head. "How?" she wondered, raising an eyebrow at her Trainer, though her muzzle slowly slid into a smirk. The idea that they had been communicating for as long as they had known each other and only now had he asked how... it amused her.

"Point taken," Dakota nodded, grinning that his inquiry had entertained her like few things did. "I'll teach you human if you teach me Lucario."

"Dakota knows Lucario here," she explained, pressing a hand to her chest so that her steel spike was between her two middle digits. Taking her hand away, she stared at it for a moment, frowning at the weird shape it was now. Shaking her head with a sigh, she finished her thought by tapping her head. "Not here."

"So... I knew earlier because Lucarios know on instinct?" he guessed. "Do you think that means I almost became Lucario and now I am less so?" Dakota bit his lip, his tone revealing the same thing his aura did as Lucia watched him. He didn't like the idea that he might be becoming more human again.

"Lu," she nodded, though the action seemed unsure to him as she made it, as if she was thinking of someone else. "Not like," Lucia said looking forward up the road. Dakota thought the turn of her head indicated that she meant 'towns' since they were entering an actual city street now. She didn't usually like them because there were so many ill-trained Pokémon and no way to deal with them. It was illegal for Pokémon to fight in town except at the Gym, Colosseum, self-defense, or the defense of their Trainer. Owners weren't even allowed to have more than one mon out of their Poké Ball and walking around with them.

It wasn't simply that being Fighting-type meant other strong Pokémon wanted to fight Lucia... Lucario were not indigenous to the island nation of Prinni and so they were a unique encounter with which to help to fill young Trainer's Pokédex. Too many towns and cities around the island had Trainers, young and old, lined up in the routes between town ready to claim a fight with such an opponent.

"I know," he said to her after a moment, "but you've changed, and your eyes are still glowing. Maybe I can't even have you Return." He sighed, "Or worse, what if storing you did something to you... or made it so I couldn't bring you back out again?" Dakota looked to her as he walked passed a small set of apartments at the edge of town. "You're part human now... it might be dangerous to put you away."

Lucia nodded her head. He was right, of course. There was no way to know what a half-human would perhaps feel from being confined to a Poké Ball. A single hand went to her chest again, her two middle fingers splitting around her metal spike once more. Looking up at the night's sky, she was reminded of a story she heard when she was very young. One of those grim fairytales that parents might like to tell their children, though... she didn't actually hear it from her parents.

Lucia put both her hands over her muzzle as she took in a deep breath and stopped walking. She closed her eyes, trying not to dwell on what she was just thinking, but she couldn't help it. Growling softly to herself, she moved her hands so that her black palms were flat against each other above her chest spike and below her snout. Taking another deep breath, she focused on her own aura to center herself.

The energies around her danced outside the temple of her body, her skin acting like a shell to protect her thoughts from these outside influences. Looking deep inside, Lucia focused on one of the points of power in her body, her heart, and was frightened not to find what was supposed to be there. Instead of her own aura that she knew--that she had known since she had first broken her literal shell and opened her eyes to the world--she found a place of power gone wrong. The white and blue a Lucario creates for many attacks might be drawn from the surrounding space, but the visible light onlookers are greeted with are the physical manifestation of the spirit of the Pokémon channeling that energy. For most all aura users, that energy is white into blue... for Lucia her blue was now dark. Indigo. Violet. Purple.

Her hackles rose, the four thick locks of fur at the back of her head were waving in the wind of her own spirit energy. Tears welled up at the edges of her eyes and she knew not what to do with what she had found. There was no greater show that she was not her self than this. The stoic resolve she had learned to maintain was ripped free of her, as if her aura had been what kept it in place since her birth and it was now gone, worn away by corruption. She growled loudly, angry at no one in particular, the entire situation infuriating her. Her true aura was gone!

Now was not the appropriate time for her Trainer to touch her, but he didn't know that. She had gone still, quite, and he had turned to look back upon her. Her hands shut in front of her, he could feel the wind kick up around them both even though he saw no trees blowing in it, no leafs or twigs or anything moved but her fur. Not knowing what it was, and seeing the grimace of pain etched across her face, he placed his hands upon her wrists and spoke her name just as her anger had risen.

Lucia was spooked to say the least. She had been deep within herself, but a touch of reality in her state shocked her awake as Dakota's life force briefly touched her own and broke the shell keeping outside energies away. Anger and fear bubbled up. Her first instinct was to fight against the outside force that called to her, and she shifted the energy--whose it was, she didn't know, but it could not be her own!--and focused it into her hands. Eyes opening, she saw the shock on Dakota's face when he realized she was about to hit him with Force Palm... a move quite likely to paralyze him if only for a time.

Normally so full of control, these last few hours of this frightful day had worn away her resolve. Unable to simply swallow the energy back inside herself she chose to redirect it. Only one way to go, she concluded in disgust. With her hands shut like they were, held by her Trainer, she could not simply throw the energy away. Angered by her own lose of control once again, she pushed the energy against herself, the white and purple gust blowing up like a spiritual bomb right in her face...

The walls of her cage were white and blue. An older self would know the owners of this place by the name Petap, but this little Riolu lacked not only an understanding of her captors true purpose but indeed anything of the world beyond these walls. All she knew was that 'the pink ones' brought her food and drink every since she was hatched, and that they did not actively treat her with any disdain.

All around her were other Pokémon in similar enclosures, but those were not the focus of this memory. In the cage beside her was a very old, very wise Alakazam. The brown hide over his chest scratched and worn, his long mustache reaching beyond his knees. He rarely opened his eyes anymore, nor did his hands unclench any longer from the old spoons he held in his hands. His tan skin wrinkled with age, it was said he was kept only for breeding stock as Petap had seen to it that his psychic powers had either been suppressed or removed.

"You have a strong spirit," the old mon would say into her head. Her will to fight became greater with each passing day after her birth, but she was confined to this tiny space. He had said the same words to her each day she practiced, drawing upon the innate knowledge she were born with. Today, though, his mind added something more, something that grabbed her attention by being different: "Perhaps your spirit is too strong."

The little blue and black Pokémon turned her masked face and those bright red eyes to her side to see that the Alakazam was not simply speaking to her from his cage, but actively leaning towards the glass and staring at her intently. Though the Lucario she would become could contain herself, this Riolu lost her stance and fell onto her butt at the mere stare of the older Pokémon.

He chuckled at this response, but his reaction did not suit her. Getting to her feet, she glared at him. She demanded in her child-like words that he explain what he meant... how could someone have too strong a spirit? That's what she wanted! She would be Lucario! Her aura powers would be the strongest there were!

"Nay, I say to you child. Nay," he said simply, twirling one side of his mustache with one his spoons. "You will not be a Lucario in this place... and you should never strive to be greater than as great as you can be."

The unnamed Riolu huffed and placed her hands on her hips. She wanted to know what that even meant! One could only be as great as they could be and no more. His words confused her young mind, and she turned her head away.

"Let me tell you a story," he began, but she crossed her arms and shook her head. "It is a short one," he said enticingly, but she would have none of it. Flicking his mustache off his spoon, a broad smile creased his face as he said to her all she would need to hear: "It is a Lucario story." The two triangular peaks on her head pricked up at attention, and she turned her head over her shoulder to look up at the old mon once more.

"Legend tells of a young Riolu who had many friends. Sometimes the story claims a brave and strong male. Sometimes it claims a lithe and quick female. Whatever the beginnings, the ending is always the same, you see," he nodded.

"He or she had many friends--Oh so many friends. Of all the other children, she was the first to reach their adulthood as a Lucario. She trained and trained," the Alakazam said, keeping to the female pronoun to keep the Riolu's attention, "and became quite strong in the aura... the spirit of all things, living and not, which weaves its way through the world." She knew that much, and nodded, listening intently.

"She could create strikes to paralyze, toss aura spheres left and right, or even pull two hands over her head to make a grand ball bigger than her whole body to catch an opponent in full," he smiled, moving his spoon-holding hands over his head. "Even tales, they say, that when the lands ran dry, she could call upon the spirit energies of the sky and bring about rain, ending a great drought."

"This power might sound impossible," he said with a big grin, then looked down to the child. Her eyes were ablaze with the possibilities. The Alakazam feared that look, but did not show it on his face. Her head was shaking to say 'no, that sounds possible'. "But, it was quite possible," he finished after a pause. "It was said she climbed to the top of a great mountain with nothing to eat or drink but the spirit of the land around her. Lifting her hands into the air, she pulled down the water of the mountain clouds... commanding it to chase her along the range and down over the forest of her people, allowing the trees there to grow their fruits and berries in full for another season."

The Alakazam took a breath, focusing his thoughts. The young Riolu was enthralled, hanging on each word as he spoke. "Skilled, and powerful as the Lucario was, she was not happy with her place. Strongest of her people, her land, her nation, and the entire known world was the ability of this aura warrior and yet she sought to be more." The tan-skilled Pokémon lost some of his resolve as the young Riolu's eyes twinkled with the desire for so much strength.

"She had a family, and had many young Riolu... said to be of the strongest children of the land, and what mother could not be more proud?" he asked her, but the Riolu knew no answer to that. She had known no parents, only cage. Clearing his throat, the old mon went on, "She was, of course," he said. "'If I can reach the spirits atop the world, perhaps I can reach beyond them!', she declared. 'Perhaps there is more strength I can attain to help those I care about most!'."

The Riolu had moved up to the glass, listening intently as the wrinkled old Alakazam spoke in her head. "For you see, young Riolu, this Lucario sought not power for its own sake. No!" he said, more harshly than he had meant and the child blinked. "You will not become a Lucario in this place, because to be Lucario requires a deep friendship. The knowledge of a community and the strength of spirit of a people... only that can bring out one's true potential!"

"The warrior had it all!" he proclaimed. "Good friends, great teachers, a sense of loyalty and justice and a dedication to her fighting prowess... and she used every last bit of what she had learned to better not herself, but all those around her. All her friends and family," he nodded to himself, taking a deep breath to focus.

The young Riolu wanted to know why being too strong of spirit was a bad thing. To reach into the heavens and bring the rain for a whole people... to have so many friends, family, and teachers... to give back like she did. How was this a bad thing? It sounded great!

"Not every Lucario, nor Pokémon, nor human being has the same limits," the old mon said simply. "What the sky was to this Legend might be the top of a tree for you," he smiled, showing a few white teeth. "One must know their limits and live within them... push them, extend them, but never break them," he said, tapping a spoon on the glass between them.

"When next she climbed to the top of the mountain, she looked up to the clouds above and knew she could surpass them. What great power for her people would await her beyond where only the Flying-types could reach, she knew not," he said. "For each Pokémon has its place, not just the Lucario... and while their strength was of spirit, the birds had not the strength of the rock and the stone like the Geodude, or the afterlife like the Gengar. Each has their place, and that is where they should stay."

The Riolu didn't like that thought and frowned, her red eyes narrowing as she shook her head. "So she jumped!" the Alakazam said. The child gasped, "But she flew! Reaching beneath herself to the land, she used her spirit to glide higher and higher. When she thought she might fall, she reached to tap the mountain. When she next felt herself waver, she pulled from the clouds beneath her. Up, and up she flew, her aura so strong as to project her up almost to the stars!"

Listening with rapt attention, the Riolu waited for the old mon to keep talking, but he instead closed his eyes and took a breath. She couldn't take it! She demanded to know what happened! The old man shook his head, and finished his tale:

"When she reached above the clouds, she reached to where she could no longer feel the warm spirit of the planet itself. Floating there, her aura powered her in the cold. She needed not food nor water, remember, as she knew she could carry herself to the stars. She needed not air, for her spirit would power her. She needed not warmth for her aura would warm her. All these things and more were true, but not!"

"You see, the Lucario had lost her ties with the planet, her lands, her people, her family, and her friends. In her striving to be greater than herself, greater for her people, she had lost them all. Her spirit energy was not her own. All the power she had gained was not just hers, but all of those connected to her. For, you see, all things living and dead... their spirits are all connected as one... and though she had great control over that energy--could do many fantastical things--in truth not all that spirit was her own, and in so losing sight of that--losing her own spirit--she lost sight of the world she had lived within!"

The Riolu's mouth dropped open very slowly as the message sunk into her. Of course it was true! With direction, she could already feel the aura of everything around her... the floors, walls, people, and other Pokémon. They were all connected, every one of them. Ignoring that, ignoring what her place was to be, meant that she could lose herself... then, all that power she had gained to fight for the ones she cared about... it would mean nothing, because she would be... gone.

The young not-yet-Lucia had never experienced death in this cold place before, but a small part of her child-like innocence was now gone. She enquired if the Legend was ever seen again, and the Alakazam nodded softly, winding one side of his mustache up with a spoon as he considered the final statement.

"One night, a season later--while her mate was still in mourning--her family was preparing a meal in her memory," he described. "They say the Lucario people looked up into the night's sky, sensing that their old friend was with them once more," he nodded, breathing steady. "A shooting star appeared, purified aura in its color, and fell towards them all. It split into the tiniest pieces, the long lost warrior's spirit returned to them and became part of each of them and all the people and things of the land," he nodded, trying to express a joy in his sad smile. "For though her greatest mistake was reaching beyond herself, her dying act was to rejoin her people. Using all of her spirit, it took the whole season to reach them, though what was left was only a memory of who she had been and those she had loved," he explained. "All things' spirit returns when it is their time to do so and the time had come for her experience to be a lesson to her people."

It wasn't quite the present and Lucia had been laying, tied with Dakota and thinking about her parents. That's what it was. She was speaking something about where they might be and if they would be proud of her that she had found a Lucario mate of her own, human or not. In her delirious state brought on by so much corruption and alteration of her mind, she had confessed her love for Dakota, asking him if he felt the same.

He did, of course, but he said "No." This shocked her to her senses, brought a chill to her spine. _How could this be? After all these times--_But Dakota kept speaking, and said something about 'understanding'. She realized at once that his words made no sense and that he was speaking human once more. When he had said 'no', he was referring to something else. Wasn't he? Surely they had not spent an afternoon making love under the giant tree that Dakota was so interested in... brought about the pure aura... and somehow he didn't love her. He did, didn't he? Surely he did.

She looked away, a sorrowful thought etched into her face, No, she realized. He was human, and she was Lucario and nothing about this afternoon would change that. As her blood cooled from their last coupling, she knew she had to free herself of him... and that thought persisted in her dream-state. She knew what they had could not be real... as a Pokémon could not have the mingling of pure aura with a human as she had experienced. The evil of the rock must have fooled her... altered her mind just as it had her body.

Perhaps, she feared, it had altered her spirit. The idea stuck in her mind as new and strange thoughts plagued her for a time to come. In all the moments that passed from under the tree until the red brick streets of the grand human city, Lucia had a nagging feeling that something was changed within her mind that she couldn't explain. When she reached inside and viewed the corruption of her spirit, her fears broke down her protective walls. The shock of losing her own spirit--of what the old Alakazam had warned her of all that time ago--was now true. She had flown too high, and now she would be as nothing but a memory for all those she cared about...

The male of the partly human Lucario couple rushed through the front doors of Atlantijug City's northern district's Pokécenter. Covered only in a blue, black, and white jacket and torn indigo jeans, he took note of the unusual number of people standing in line for the counter as he rushed forward carrying his mate. The dark blue bandanna tied over his forehead and under the four thick tuffs of fur behind him fluttered in his approach as he came to a stop at the front of the line.

"Miss," he said loudly, stepping in front of the young man who was there before him. The man was ready to be upset, but one brief serious look from the large Lucario's eyes told him to keep quite. "I need a doctor! Now!"

The young woman with the pink hair in looped ponytails didn't even look up from her computer screen as she seemed intent on whatever was upon it. "Sir, please... I realize that the PSS connection is down, but that is no reason to panic. Please return to the back of the--"

"Transfer PC is down?" he asked, confused, looking over to a corner where the blue and red Pokémon Storage System kiosk was located. Blinking, he shook his head and turned back to look at her, his brown eyes shifting to her name tag as he spoke. "Nurse Joy, this is an emergency. A real one!"

"I'm sorry, sir, but all Trainers must wait in line to be seen," she said courteously, but a little agitated as she continued reading the message in front of her.

"Do I look like a Trainer?" the Lucario roared. Papers flew off the desk in front of him as his spirit flared in the woman's direction, the overhead lights flickering as he held himself back from lashing out. A little boy screamed, but his attention was on the person over the counter. His eyes intent, the shocked young lady lifted her own to meet those brown, glowing violet-rimmed orbs that were surrounded in a black mask of fur.

Putting her hands to her face, her voice trembled as she responded, "N-no. No, you don't."

Dakota muzzle twisted up, his sharp white teeth showing as he growled softly. "Exactly," he said, holding up Lucia's limp form for the woman with the white hat to see better. "She needs medical attention... Now!"