The Path of Destiny
Chapter 68 – Across the Desert


“Oh come on,” Spark grumbled as he watched Katie’s pidgeot circle lower and lower until he and his rider were close enough that the jolteon could see Katie’s disappointed expression. “We have to be close by now.”

“Be patient, Spark,” Stormblade responded. “It’ll only be a couple more days at most. And we’ve got plenty of food and water with us.”

“Arrgh! I wouldn’t mind so much if this place wasn’t so boring!” the jolteon cried. “Couldn’t this legendary have picked a better hiding place?”

“Shh!” Rosie hissed at him. “Katie’s going to say something.”

Just as the three turned their attention to the trainer again, she and her pidgeot had landed on the dusty ground. “There’s nothing up ahead for miles,” Katie announced. “But we’ll just have to keep going.”

A few of the pokémon gave exasperated sighs. “Are you sure we’re even going in the right direction?” one of them called out.

“Look, if there’s anything up ahead, we’d see it from miles away,” Wildflame answered, knowing that Katie wouldn’t be able to understand the question. “It may be a big desert, but it’s not like we’re going to miss a giant cliff.”

There was a thump as Fernwing’s feet landed on the ground. “We’ll let you all know when we spot something,” the tropius told the other pokémon. “Trust me, we won’t miss anything from the air.”

From his position strapped to Fernwing’s back, Blazefang peered out at the pokémon gathered on the desert ground. “At least the air’s clearer up there,” he muttered with a cough as the wind blew a cloud of dust over the huddled group.

“We’ve got plenty of supplies; no need for anyone to panic,” Katie called, sensing that the pokémon were uneasy. “Damian, does your pokégear still work? Been a while since I checked mine.”

Damian lit up the screen on his device, waiting for a moment before replying, “Yeah, it’s fine. Not much use for it without a map of this area, though. But according to the map in your book, we’re still on the right course for the cliffs. We’re actually making pretty good time, considering the size of this desert.”

“Right, well…let’s keep going, then,” Katie said with a weary shrug as she mounted her pidgeot and took off into the air.

Snowcrystal tried, unsuccessfully, to shake the dust from her fur. “I wonder where those cacturne go to during the daytime,” she mused.

“Don’t even talk about that,” Rosie said with a shudder. “I’m still creeped out about it.”

“Well, we haven’t seen them since the first night,” Spark said with a shrug. “Too many fire types.”

“Doesn’t mean I want to think about it,” Rosie muttered under her breath.

As the group carried on, following Damian and the others, Stormblade paused. He sensed something was amiss, and as he turned around, he realized what it was. Thunder had stopped, glowering at the group ahead of her with a hateful look.

Stormblade knew that, physically, Thunder was fine. She had no problem demanding food or water from the other pokémon whenever she needed it, and there was always someone willing to get it for her. She was also much healthier than Stormblade could remember her being, and she had taken the grueling journey far easier than most of the pokémon, even to the point of being annoyed when they stopped to rest too often for her liking. But he knew that she was troubled, unwilling to trust the others and desperate to get to wherever their destination was, both for herself and for Nightshade’s sake.

As soon as Thunder noticed that he had stopped, her attention snapped to him. She narrowed her eyes, speeding up so that she could pass Stormblade and trail behind the rest of the group. “What are you looking at?” she snapped at him as she went by, but there was hardly any animosity in her words. If anything, it felt forced, like she was tired or had other things on her mind.

Stormblade wanted to ask her what might be wrong, but he thought better of it. Thunder still didn’t seem to be in any mood to talk to anyone; she hadn’t even spent much time around Nightshade when they’d rested.

He followed the others, hoping that once they got out of the desert, Thunder might warm up to the rest of the group a little. He also hoped that the others would be willing to do the same for her.

-ooo-

Yenn was exhausted. It was not even midday yet, and the heat was already weakening him. He occasionally had to pause in his flight, purely because it felt like his body was overheating. It was becoming painful to beat his wings, and his muscles seemed to have to strain harder to keep him airborne with every passing hour.

The lone yanmega flew against the hot wind that battered his body and forced sand into his lungs, trying not to think too much about what he knew was following behind him. The sun beat down overhead, and in the distance he could see a strange shimmering that almost looked like water. However, he had learned earlier that day that it was nothing but an illusion brought about by the heat waves.

Yenn had never been in a landscape so hostile before. It felt oppressive, and it scared him to think that he had flown so fast and so far, yet had still not found a way out of it or come across water or shelter. In his home, his old home before the humans locked him in that horrid building, he had been used to being able to fly wherever he wished. He could remember flying to the tops of the tallest trees as a yanma, just because he could. He remembered how he had long awaited the day when he could finally evolve, and fly even higher. He remembered when the day of his evolution had come, how happy he had been. It had been back in the days when he still felt happiness like that, when the world had seemed bright and welcoming. He had been ready to search for new lands, to see more of the world than just his territories or the migration path. He had felt like he could go anywhere.

...But there was nowhere for him to go here; he could only keep flying and hope he found something.

At least out here, he wasn’t in a cage. Yenn knew he had a chance. It was a slim one, a chance that depended on him stumbling across water or the desert’s end, but a chance all the same.

Yenn shook his head as another wave of dust was blown into his face, stinging his eyes. He had started to get used to it, as there wasn’t much he could do, and he had grown too tired to try to wipe the dust off his face every minute or so. Worriedly, Yenn noticed that it was also getting increasingly hard to ignore his thirst. It felt like something was clawing at his throat every time he breathed, and his longing for water was starting to overpower everything else in his mind. He had also started getting dizzy, sometimes badly so, and he knew that was not a good sign.

Normally on a hot day, Yenn and other yanmega would dip their bodies into the water as they flew to cool themselves down, but there was clearly no source of water here. He had not seen a drop of water nor any native pokémon since entering the desert. He hadn’t even seen plant life. There was nothing but dry, cracked ground as far as he could see.

In spite of his ever-worsening fatigue, he had not dared rest for longer than a few minutes. He could already see the telltale sign of pursuers on the horizon, flying types – and large ones from the look of it – just where he could barely see them. Even when he tried to avoid it, he kept finding his attention drawn to them.

He started to get light-headed, and realized that he had to land again, if only for a moment. There was nothing to perch on, so he simply lowered himself to the ground. He stumbled as he landed, having to take a moment to make sure he was standing sturdily enough before he stopped moving his wings. The hardened earth felt painfully hot beneath his feet, but he was too exhausted to care much. He gasped for air as he lowered his wings and let them rest against the ground, trying not to breathe in too much dust.

He could feel a headache coming on, and he lowered his body to the desert floor, resting his head on the cracked earth. He willed himself to feel better, thought about how the rest would help, but the pain didn’t leave him. It was not even the hottest part of the day, and already the lack of water was starting to put him in danger.

At least the dizziness faded quickly, and Yenn found that his vision and mind were once again sharp and alert. And with that, he could make out the pokémon on the horizon, just barely within his sight.

Another look at his would-be killers spurred him onwards. He had hardly rested a few minutes, but he took to the air in a panic, fearful of giving the other flying types – who were likely used to flying longer distances than he could – even more time to catch up. He knew his only chance of safety was making it to the end of the desert before they did, and finding somewhere he could hide. If he didn’t keep enough distance between himself and Cyclone’s pokémon, he would never get that chance.

-ooo-

Thunder was growing to hate the journey through the desert more and more. She had no idea where the other pokémon and the humans were taking her, and she didn’t think they knew either. All she knew – and all she cared to know – was that they were searching for a legendary, just as Snowcrystal had in the beginning. Only this time, they didn’t even know which one they were looking for, or if the ‘portal’ they had been talking about actually led anywhere. Thunder was doubtful they’d find out anything about the Forbidden Attacks, but she hardly cared. That wasn’t her fight.

She hated that they had managed to drag her into the lifeless wasteland, where she was completely at the mercy of the humans and the pokémon who carried supplies. It wasn’t that she was afraid of them; even though she had promised herself that she would not attack them, she was not afraid to defend herself in the unlikely event that they attacked her first. However, she was afraid for Nightshade.

Even once they got out of the desert, she didn’t want to leave him, not when he was so badly injured. He couldn’t fend for himself, and she didn’t trust the humans to take care of him if she wasn’t there. She was stuck.

She also hated that Stormblade and some of the others would glance back at her as they walked, looking like they wanted her to talk to them or walk closer to the group. She glared at them every time. It bothered her that they worried about her, but she knew it wasn’t for the reasons they thought it did.

Thunder did not hate being seen as weak because she thought it was shameful. Being tortured and beaten most of her life had left her unable to care much, if at all, about shame. She hated weakness and vulnerability because it felt hopeless, like being trapped in a cage. She hated when other pokémon acknowledged it, and knew about it, because she was never sure what they’d do. In the past, pokémon that knew she was weak had used it against her, made her a target. It was something she felt she should never show anyone, and concealing it was a way she had learned to protect herself.

She had lashed out at Stormblade and other pokémon who had tried to show her sympathy in the past, remembering all the false kindness Master and his pokémon had given her in order to manipulate her, to lie to her. To give her hope only to send it crashing down. She had long believed that Stormblade and the others were doing the same thing.

But Nightshade was different. She hadn’t even been sure why she had begun to trust him, why she had given him a chance in the first place. She had been very weak at that time, ravaged by illness and her wounds. Maybe she had simply thought there was no hope, not much of anything to lose. So she had opened up to the heracross, the way she had with Stormblade that one night long ago. Only with Nightshade, she’d had a much harder time convincing herself to stop trusting him.

Thunder did feel shame about one thing. She felt ashamed that it taken her attacking and almost killing Nightshade to fully realize that he was different, that he was a friend. It was something she knew she would always regret, but she was determined to make it right. She was Nightshade’s friend, and she was going to show that.

There wasn’t much she could do for Nightshade for the time being, but she could make sure the humans gave him what he needed, make sure he always had enough food and water. She could do that, and that was something.

The scyther followed behind the others until the afternoon arrived, and with it the worst heat of the day. The humans stopped and scrambled to put up tents while the pokémon sat or lay down to rest. Redclaw stood to his fullest height, letting some of the smaller pokémon gather in his shadow. Thunder glowered at them; the fact that they so readily trusted the arcanine and weren’t afraid to show that they were tired made her almost hate them, as irrational as she knew that was.

She didn’t understand why Redclaw was so trusting and friendly to pokémon who were strangers. He’d had a taste of Master’s cruelty, even if it was just a small one. A few months ago, she would have said that the arcanine hadn’t learned anything from his experiences. Now, after what Nightshade had taught her, she wasn’t so sure. It was hard for her to admit it, but maybe he had learned something…and learned more than she had.

“Thunder, do you want to rest in one of the tents this time?” Snowcrystal called out to her. The tiny white growlithe was standing in Redclaw’s shadow. She was such a weak and unintimidating figure, yet she looked at Thunder with confidence. “You can rest with Nightshade, if you like.”

“I’ll be fine out here!” she snapped, and Snowcrystal sadly turned away, realizing there was no point in arguing with her.

Thunder watched the trainers put up the tents, watched them let Nightshade rest inside one of them with a small portable fan to keep him cool. She watched the fire types, minus Snowcrystal, gather together in the center of the makeshift camp and prepare to sleep. Thunder did what she had done each day in the desert, and made sure that Nightshade was safe and had what he needed. Then she walked away from the group and found her own place to sleep.

As she slowly drifted off, she thought about Snowcrystal’s offer, the same offer the others had given her every time they stopped to rest. She still felt that it was right – and safer – not to accept.

Yet a large part of her wished she had.

-ooo-

Yenn could not avoid it any longer. He had to take a longer rest, or his body was going to give out. He had been flying for hours during the hottest part of the day, and the heat had sapped his strength far faster than he’d expected. It seemed to take every ounce of willpower he had to beat his wings; he was going on pure adrenaline.

When he landed on the ground, his legs collapsed beneath him before he could steady himself. Struggling to stand, the yanmega gasped for air, soon going into a coughing fit for what seemed like the thousandth time since that morning. He lifted his head as soon as it was over, keeping an eye on the distant signs of his pursuers. His vision swam in front of him, making it difficult to make out the shapes of the pokémon.

He shook dust from his body and weakly tried to fan himself with his wings to keep cool, fearful that the heat would bring him down before the night came. The wind he had been flying into had seemed to get even hotter the higher the temperature climbed, making him feel almost like he was flying into the depths of a fire mountain instead of traveling across open plain.

Yenn had been fighting back panic for quite some time. He still hadn’t found even the smallest sign of water. The landscape never changed; it was unusual to see even a large rock that stood out from the blankness. He hadn’t even been able to find some sort of plant or berries he could try to eat for a small amount of water. The only moisture he had been able to get since the previous night had been the blood from a tiny fennekin he had caught and eaten a few hours back, and he hadn’t seen another one since. At least, he thought, it had boosted his strength for a while.

He let his wings hang limply at his sides as he lifted his front pair of legs, trying to wipe the dust from his eyes as he fought off an overpowering urge to sleep. He could still see his flying pursuers on the horizon, and he knew he was taking a risk by stopping for longer than a few minutes. But he had to; he wasn’t going to make it if he kept going like this.

As the day had worn on, he’d found that he’d had to stop more and more often. He knew he had found himself in one of the worst environments for a yanmega. His kind starved quickly, needed a lot of food and rest to fly well, and certainly needed water. He could only be more ill-suited to the desert if he were a water pokémon.

Still, he refused to let himself give in or give up hope. He had covered a huge distance in under a day, moving far faster than a pokémon could walk. He could still make it, he told himself. He had to try.

As he rested, not yet able to will himself to keep flying, he found his thoughts drifting back to Itora and Ashend, the friends he had left behind at the army. The army that he now knew was run by a twisted pokémon corrupted by a Forbidden Attack.

A sudden thought sent terror through his mind, and his thoughts began to race. Ashend…Itora…? Were they safe? Did Cyclone suspect that they were involved in his escape?

He knew he couldn’t panic, not now. He thought of Ashend, and how wise the misdreavus was, telling himself that she would never let Cyclone find out anything about what she had done or put her and Itora in danger. However, it was still so hard not to imagine his friends being found out and punished, and Yenn was having trouble convincing himself that they’d be all right.

He wasn’t sure how long he stayed there, fighting to will himself to keep flying and going over every possible scenario in his mind. What finally snapped him out of it was the sudden realization that the winged pokémon following him had gotten much, much closer.

Alarm flared through his mind as he took to the sky, forcing his exhausted wings to move. He wondered how he had gone without noticing that his enemies were moving faster for so long; it wasn’t like him to miss things in his surroundings. Now they were frighteningly closer, and fear alone gave Yenn the strength he needed to fly off in the opposite direction, hoping he could somehow make up for the distance he’d lost.

He wasn’t sure how, but around an hour later, he found that the gap between him and Cyclone’s pokémon had widened again. However, he didn’t dare slow down in case they started to catch up once more. It took all his effort to keep moving, and with his worsening thirst and weakening body, he felt like he was driving himself to his death.

But if the desert didn’t kill him, the pokémon following him certainly would.

-ooo-

The clear desert skies turned from blue to brilliant hues of red and orange, then finally, to black. Despite the fact that the temperature had dropped quickly with the coming of night, the trainers and pokémon were tired enough that they decided to stop and take another break.

“Hey, Rosie! Redclaw!” Spark shouted over at the group of pokémon who were beginning to settle down. “Light us a fire. It’s already getting chilly.”

“Sure thing,” Redclaw replied eagerly, and bounded over to his pack, which was now lying on the ground, fetching a few logs of wood and bringing them over to the jolteon.

“Hey, wait!” Justin called, watching the arcanine bound past. “We don’t…have…much of that left.” Seeing that the pokémon weren’t listening, he gave up, merely sighing and rolling his eyes.

Soon the pokémon had a small fire going, and the weary trainers, along with the rest of the group, gathered around it. Thunder was the only one who hung back, staring at the others disdainfully.

“Wow,” Spark breathed, staring up at the star-strewn sky. “A few months ago, I never would have thought I’d end up in a place like this.”

“What, this boring old desert you keep complaining about?” Rosie teased.

“Well, not really,” the jolteon replied. “I just mean...everything we’ve seen. Articuno’s mountain, especially. I even met up with Justin again. I never thought that…”

“That you’d lead us into a combee hive?” Stormblade interrupted with a grin.

“Hey, don’t bring that up! I was young and naive!” Spark cried.

“That was only a couple months ago.”

“Yeah, well pokémon change, okay?”

Rosie had to lower her head and place her paws over her muzzle to keep from laughing.

“Okay, I’ve gotta hear that story,” Redclaw said eagerly, shifting his paws in the dust as he settled beside the fire.

“Trust me, it’s not that interesting,” Spark protested.

“You’d better tell!” Rosie said with a grin as she looked at the jolteon.

“Yeah, come on, tell!” Alex urged him.

“No!”

“If you won’t, I will!” Rosie shouted playfully.

From where he was resting on a heap of blankets, near where the fire was warmest, Nightshade grinned. “I think I’d like to hear this story too.”

“Nightshade wants to hear it! That settles it!” Rosie cried excitedly, bounding up and down a few times. “You have to tell now.”

“All right, all right,” Spark conceded. “It goes like this…”

The pokémon listened, and laughed, as Spark recounted the harrowing misadventures in the combee hives. Snowcrystal and the other pokémon who had been there as well soon put in their sides of the story. Even the humans, who could not understand the words, smiled as they watched the pokémon enjoying themselves. It was refreshing to see them in such a lighthearted mood.

“I kinda wish I’d been there to see that,” Wildflame chuckled.

“Yeah, you were missing out,” Spark replied jokingly. “Almost becoming slaves to a tyrannical vespiquen…those were the days.”

“You make it sound so dramatic,” Rosie laughed.

“Hey, you were just as scared as I was!” Spark protested.

“Well, that’s quite the adventure,” Nightshade laughed. In spite of his annoyance, Spark beamed at the heracross, glad that the story had brought Nightshade some happiness.

“Hey, Night? Did you ever do something crazy like that when you were young?” Spark asked.

“Nah,” Wildflame interrupted, pushing the jolteon’s shoulder with her paw. “He’s not as dumb as you! Oh come on, I’m joking!” The houndoom laughed at Spark’s mock-angry expression.

“Well, actually,” Nightshade began, shifting himself so his injured arm rested more comfortably on the blankets, “there was a time when I tried to steal some beedrill honey. Turned out about as well as you could imagine, and I’d flown around half the forest before I managed to lose them. I screamed the whole way, too.”

Spark and Rosie burst out laughing at the image, and there were quite a few chuckles from the other pokémon as well. “Really?” Spark gasped as he managed to compose himself for a few seconds. “You?”

“Yep,” Nightshade answered with an amused nod.

“Oh, what about that time Spark got stuck under the fence when we went to rescue Thunder from that old town?” Rosie asked, still grinning widely.

“Hey!” Spark cried. “That….that was…okay, pretty funny, actually. I’ll admit it.”

Rosie crouched down so that her body was almost flat against the desert floor. She scrabbled with her hind legs and clawed the ground with her forelegs, making an imitation of the trapped jolteon. “Help, I’m Spark! I can battle Articuno’s elite flying types but I’m helpless against a fence!”

Even Spark couldn’t help but laugh at the scene. The other pokémon stood up or raced around the fire eagerly, their tiredness forgotten as they each recounted amusing stories of their own.

“You know,” Stormblade began once the talking had died down. “I’m really just glad all of you stuck with me for so long back there. So…thanks, for not giving up on me.”

“We’d never have given up on you,” Snowcrystal replied, nuzzling the scyther’s leg. “We didn’t want to leave you behind at that scyther forest, even though it was what you wanted. I missed you even after Katie caught you.”

“I missed all of you too,” Stormblade replied. “Now that I’m back, I only hope I can repay all of you for what you did for me.”

“Heh, you’re not the one who needs to do any repaying, Stormblade,” Wildflame told him warmly. “You did your best…more than your best, it seemed like at times.”

“Well, I want to help you out as much as I’m able to, now that I can,” Stormblade replied. “And I want to put a stop to the Forbidden Attacks just as much as any of you.”

“Speaking of which…” Rosie mused, “Spark, what did that story you told us about the Forbidden Attacks say again? It’s been so long since you told us.”

“The one my parents used to tell me?” Spark replied. “Well, they heard it from their trainers and I guess it’s been pretty accurate so far. The name Shadowflare was right…and the story described the attacks corrupting the minds of pokémon, being harder to control…” He looked at Blazefang and flinched. “It also talked about them being sealed away into stones. I think just about everything in the story was proven to be true. It’s so weird…”

“I never heard it told as a story,” Redclaw began. “Did this story give you any idea where the Forbidden Attacks came from?”

“Yeah,” Spark replied. “Basically, it said that there was a powerful group of pokémon long ago. They weren’t legendaries or anything really special, but they ruled over some sort of sacred land. In the story, it’s said that some of the young pokémon in their land just started developing the Forbidden Attacks and it got worse and worse. Then it just became chaos. The pokémon who ruled the land somehow managed to take the powers away and seal them up into stones.”

“Really?” Redclaw mused. “They can be…taken away?”

“I don’t know,” Spark admitted. “I mean, I hope so, but I-”

“Spark, that’s wrong!” Alex interrupted.

The others turned to look at the floatzel, shocked at the look of determination on her face.

“Spark, the Forbidden Attacks didn’t just spring up out of nowhere!” Alex continued. “They were created. On purpose.”

“What?” Spark cried. “By who?”

“A very powerful, very vengeful pokémon,” the water type continued. “Or at least that’s what it said in the version I heard. I had a trainer once, remember?”

“Conflicting stories…great,” Blazefang muttered. “The Forbidden Attacks might have been created by a sentret for all we know.”

“Yeah,” Alex sighed. “It was just a story. I guess either of the ones we heard could be right. It’s weird, though, because the one I heard mentioned the attacks being sealed away into stones, too.”

“That is weird,” Wildflame mused. “I guess the humans wanted to be consistent about some things.”

“Not just consistent,” Redclaw agreed, turning his head as sparks from the fire settled in his mane. “But right.” The others paused, watching the arcanine, who looked deep in thought. “It’s strange that these stories could end up so different, yet so similar at the same time. I know the humans found several short versions of the story in the library, and they had the same basic information we already discovered to be true. Where all the stories seem to get muddled up, though…is when they talk about where the Forbidden Attacks originated from.”

The pokémon pondered the thought, and Snowcrystal remembered the fruitless days of searching the Stonedust City library. They hadn’t found anything useful, but there had been multiple books that had a brief description of the Forbidden Attack legend. Damian, Justin, and Katie had disregarded them because their details conflicted with each other. Snowcrystal hadn’t thought about it much at the time, but now she was starting to realize how strange it really was that parts of the stories were fact, and other parts held no definite answer.

“That is weird…” she mused.

“Well, it’s not going to get any less weird by sitting around here talking about it,” Scytheclaw muttered. The scizor was sitting at the edge of the group, further back from the flames than the others. “Personally, I think we’ve been travelling too slow the past few days. We should get moving.”

“Easy for you to say,” Spark muttered. “You don’t have to walk.”

“Scytheclaw’s right,” Wildflame sighed as she stood up. “Redclaw, put out the fire and bring those logs with us. We might still need them.”

Redclaw nodded and swatted at the burning logs with his huge paws. Alex stood beside him, managing to create the smallest of water gun attacks to help him extinguish the blaze.

The trainers, who had been quietly conversing among themselves while the pokémon talked, sensed that the others were ready to leave and stood up as well. Snowcrystal proudly slipped on the pack containing the first aid kit she had carried for the entirety of the journey. The other pokémon did the same with whatever they had been carrying, and Blazefang limped back over to Fernwing as the tropius kneeled down to make the climb onto her back easier for him.

As they all got ready to leave, Rosie glanced back the way they’d come and shuddered. It was clear that it wasn’t the cool air that was getting to her. “I’m still worried those…uh, cacturne...are coming after us,” she muttered.

“Hey, don’t worry, Rosie,” Spark responded jovially. “We scared ‘em off, remember? There’s nothing following us, trust me.”

“Yeah…okay,” the ninetales replied, turning around to follow Spark as he and the others began to head off. “I sure hope you’re right about that.”

-ooo-

Yenn wasn’t sure how he’d made it through the day. At least the desert heat had faded, but he still did not dare rest, not after how fast he’d seen his pursuers start to catch up to him when he’d stopped before.

He was beginning to grow desperate; he had traveled through the desert far faster than the army usually traveled, and yet he hadn’t come across anything that could help him. There was no sign of an end to the wasteland – or even landmarks – and now that night had fallen, Yenn found himself growing paranoid.

It was hard to keep track of the pokémon following him. He wasn’t sure how far behind they were at the moment; he could often make out their shapes moving in front of stars, but he had little way of telling how close they were.

In spite of all that had happened, and though nothing could ever make him go back to serving under Cyclone, he found himself missing the comfort of the army, where food and water was brought to him whenever he wanted, and when pokémon would do what they could to warm him up during the nightly chill.

It was uncomfortably cold, something that had surprised him. He wasn’t sure if it got colder the further out in the desert he was, or if the previous night had just been milder. It still struck him as strange; everything he’d heard about deserts had told him about how hot they were, but he had heard nothing about how cold it could get at night.

The things he’d heard about deserts had also told him that plants grew there. Tough, spiny plants that would be of no use to most pokémon, let alone a carnivore like him, but it was something Yenn was starting to wish he could see. He wished that he could find something – anything – that could break up the monotony of the desert. Something that gave him a sign he was actually getting somewhere, so he could at least say that he’d passed a certain cactus or rock formation. But everything looked the same, making him feel like he wasn’t actually going anywhere and that he’d been staring at the same bit of ground since he’d begun. He was almost starting to wonder if he was going crazy.

A strange smell reached him, interrupting his questioning thoughts. He tried to bring himself back to full alertness as he scanned the surrounding area, but it was a hopeless feat. He almost missed the source of the smell as he flew past it in the darkness.

He headed over to it, peering down at what had once been a trapinch. It was missing two of its legs, and what was left of it had certainly been festering in the desert heat.

Yenn jerked back. The smell completely disgusted him, and he knew that all his instincts were screaming at him to leave it, that he needed to eat fresh prey and stay well away from carrion.

He also knew that he couldn’t keep going the way he had been without some source of food. His energy was completely spent, and he had been going on sheer willpower for more than half the day. He needed energy from somewhere; he wasn’t going to keep ahead of Cyclone’s pokémon without food, and if he didn’t find something, he’d soon be unable to fly at all. He knew he was left with little choice; if he was likely to die either way, he decided the better option was to at least try and get some sort of nourishment.

Reluctantly, he landed beside the trapinch carcass and bit into it. He forced himself to swallow every mouthful and willed himself not to be sick.

The thought that Cyclone’s pokémon were still behind him, likely even closer with all the resting he’d had to do since the sun set, made him want nothing more than to keep flying, as painfully exhausting as it had become. He remembered what Solus had said, back in the army on the night Articuno was killed. The espeon had threatened to torture him, Forbidden Attack or not, and Yenn felt a new burst of panic at the thought of it.

He knew, in the back of his mind, that it was probably an empty threat, but thinking about what those pokémon could do to him gave him enough fear that, as soon as he had finished eating the last of the trapinch’s remains, he launched himself into the sky again. He had to remind himself not to try to fly too fast, to conserve what little energy he had, but it was hard not to imagine that the army pokémon would catch up to him if he dared slow for even a moment. He hoped that at least the small meal he’d found would give him enough strength to go a little further.

...Yet as the night hours wore on, Yenn found himself growing weaker rather than stronger. It wasn’t even the rotten food that weakened him most; he knew that it was lack of water and inability to rest that was starting to bring him down. He wasn’t sure how much longer he would be able to fly, but there was nothing he could do but keep going.

After what felt like an eternity, Yenn noticed that the sky was brightening. He dreaded the coming of a new day, and the heat that would come along with it. He had traveled so far, and he could only hope he would make it to the end of the desert before the worst of the heat set in. He didn’t think he would make it through the day otherwise.

-ooo-

Snowcrystal knew that they were getting closer and closer to the arch Katie had seen on the television in the city. By Damian’s estimates, they would arrive sometime the next day.

The rising sun sent splashes of color across the sky, which made the growlithe smile. In spite of the dreariness of the landscape, the sky had looked beautiful every single day they’d walked through the desert.

She felt strange about the journey, however. In all the time they’d been walking, they still had no idea what they would do once they reached the cliffs and found the arch Katie was looking for. They didn’t know how hard it would be to activate the portal – or whatever it was – that might lead them to a legendary. They weren’t even completely sure there was a legendary involved at all. The growlithe suddenly started to feel doubts, stronger than ever now that she knew they only had a single day’s worth of walking ahead of them.

She noticed Stormblade walking nearby, and bounded over to him. “Stormblade, can I talk to you?”

“Sure,” the scyther replied happily, giving the growlithe a pleasant nod.

“Well…” the growlithe began, keeping her voice down as she walked side by side with the tall bug type. “Do you really think we’ll learn anything from this? I mean...is this what we should be doing?”

“What do you mean?” Stormblade asked.

“I mean…I’m just wondering if trying to find the legendaries is what we’re supposed to do. Maybe we need to be doing something else.”

“Like what?”

“I’m not sure. I’m just worried this isn’t going to help us.”

“Snowcrystal,” Stormblade began, “we aren’t ‘supposed’ to do anything. All we can do is think things out and try to find answers. And personally, I think this idea of Katie’s was a good one. If we can find a legendary, we’re more likely to learn from them than from some library. We’ll find a way to work something out, somehow. We didn’t come all this way for nothing.”

“I guess not…” Snowcrystal began with a small smile.

Before Stormblade could reply, a screech from Katie’s pidgeot cut him off. The winged pokémon circled lower, but didn’t land, flying in a loop around the traveling party instead.

“I can see it!” Katie was shouting excitedly. “Straight ahead. The desert just drops off. We’re almost to the cliffs, and I think we can make it there by tomorrow morning. Then we’ll reach the arch.”

Most of the pokémon looked so relieved that they didn’t seem concerned about what they would do when they got there. The mystery of the stone arch was a puzzle they could worry about the next morning.

“Well, whatever’s on the other side of that arch better have grass or something soft,” Spark muttered, lifting a scratched paw.

“Or water!” Alex cried hopefully.

As the pokémon cheered, Snowcrystal began to feel a sort of apprehension. She couldn’t pinpoint why, and she wasn’t sure if it had anything to do with the arch mystery or the rumored legendary at all. Some sixth sense was telling her that something else was wrong.

She glanced at Stormblade, who at first smiled back at her, but then paused, noticing her worried expression. The scyther leaned down closer to her while the other pokémon were distracted.

“Something wrong?”

“I don’t know,” the growlithe whispered honestly. “I just…have a bad feeling about something. And no, it isn’t what we were talking about before.”

“I’ve been getting it too,” a quiet voice interrupted.

The two of them turned to see Rosie, who was crouched not far from them. Neither Snowcrystal nor Stormblade had even realized she’d been listening.

“I just want to get out of this desert,” the ninetales anxiously continued. “It gives me the creeps. I feel like something bad is going to happen. I almost wish we didn’t have to rest during the afternoon. I just want to put this place behind us.”

“Well, we haven’t run into any trouble yet, have we?” Snowcrystal replied, trying to sound hopeful and comforting, the way Stormblade had been for her. “And Katie can see for miles around. I don’t think she’s seen anything, or she would have told us.”

“Maybe,” Rosie muttered, “but how do we know that’s going to last? I’m telling you, something’s wrong here.”

Stormblade looked at Rosie, realizing that the conversation he’d been starting to have with Snowcrystal must have aggravated the ninetales’s worry. He had noticed her acting nervously before, especially when someone mentioned the cacturne.

“Is it about those cacturne that were following us?” Stormblade asked. “Or…Thunder?” he added more slowly.

“No,” Rosie mumbled in response. “I guess Thunder hasn’t done anything wrong, and it’s not the cacturne, it’s…I don’t know. Maybe you’re right. But I’ll be happier when we get out of here.”

“As will we all,” Stormblade replied as the three of them turned to follow the others.

-ooo-

The high temperatures of the afternoon were upon them, sooner than any of the journeying pokémon had hoped. Thankfully, they still had plenty of water, and would not be running out anytime soon. Katie ordered a halt, and the trainers went about their routines of setting up the tents to provide shade from the sun.

“Hm…pokégear still works,” Justin said contentedly after the tents had been set up, browsing the features on Katie’s device as he sat in the shade. The pokégear didn’t provide a map of the lands north of Stonedust, but looking at it somehow made Justin feel better about everything.

“It should work for a while,” Katie replied, flipping the switch on one of the portable fans they’d brought. “Hopefully going through that portal won’t scramble it. I know teleportation wouldn’t, but if this has something to do with a legendary…who knows.” She picked up the book she had brought with her, going over the map of the desert she had found within it.

Justin didn’t reply, still focused on the pokégear in his hands. “So, uh...you don’t think this legendary can rewrite people’s memories? Or...fix a library?” he mumbled nervously.

“I don’t know,” Katie replied. “We’ll figure out something about the police, though.”

“It’s not like I can just turn myself in and hope for the best,” Justin continued. “They’d take Spark away if I did. I’m not supposed to have pokémon-”

“I’ll catch Spark for you, if it comes to that,” Katie interrupted. “His poké ball may not be registered, but the machine to deactivate it will still work. I can take him to the city and release him first. Then give him back to you once everything clears up.”

Justin looked at her in surprise, seeming at a loss for what to say. “...Thanks,” he finally whispered.

“I think the pokémon were telling the truth though,” Katie continued, causing Justin to glance at her in curiosity. “I mean about the reason you lost your license. I don’t think Stormblade killed the girl. I’ve been watching how he acts and he doesn’t seem like a pokémon that would murder a human for no reason. Just the opposite, actually. Something else had to have happened. Maybe...if we can figure out what, you could be a trainer again.”

A hopeful look came to Justin’s eyes for a split second before he forced it away, turning to Katie with a skeptical look. “Well, how are we going to do that?”

“Did the people in your town ever examine Stormblade closely? Have a powerful psychic type read his memories?”

“It doesn’t work that way,” Justin muttered. “Pokémon can sometimes create false memories, and it takes a really strong psychic pokémon to even find them, let alone with any real accuracy. I mean, sure, there are some that can, but there’s no way to prove to anyone else that it’s accurate. And even they get things wrong sometimes. It’s not exact or easy enough to use for things like this.”

“Still, didn’t they at least have a police pokémon talk to Stormblade himself and get his side of the story?”

“No,” Justin replied.

“You’d think that with something that serious-”

“Nobody cared, okay?” Justin shot back. “Nobody cared that I’d lose my license and my pokémon. Everyone was too focused on the girl that died. I mean, I know that was horrific, but...”

“But what?”

Justin sighed. “I grew up in a small town. You know I was back there when it happened. I didn’t know the girl’s family but I think they had a lot of power there. So no, the police didn’t question my pokémon. I don’t even think they investigated it properly. The girl’s father wanted my license gone and he saw to it that it happened.” He paused, taking a shaky breath. “The police listened to him.”

Katie was silent, and the few pokémon in their tent that weren’t asleep did nothing but give Justin a glance or two.

“That’s not what bothers me, though,” Justin continued. “The thing is...I think you’re wrong. I think the scyther did murder the girl.”

“Why?” Katie asked.

“I know he’s been fine since he came back from the hospital,” Justin continued, “but I mean...that’s kind of a scyther’s instinct, right? To prey on the weak? Maybe he’s finally got it under control now, but back then...”

“Just like it’s a jolteon’s instinct to zap small bird pokémon and eat them?” Katie interrupted. “Did Spark ever do that to someone else’s pokémon, when you guys were walking through cities or towns? Somehow I doubt he did.”

“Not the same thing,” Justin muttered, turning away from her.

“Yeah it is,” Katie replied. “All pokémon have instincts, but that doesn’t mean they don’t know right from wrong, or that they have to act on them. You had Stormblade a long while before the incident, right? It sounds like nothing ever really happened before that day. And even that other scyther, Thunder, hasn’t hurt anyone. I really think this is all in your head, this stupid irrational fear of scyther thing. If you don’t want to try to get your trainer license back...”

“I do, all right?” Justin snapped. “I’m just not sure how I’m supposed to do that. Look, if you think the scyther’s innocent and can prove that, then great. I’m just not so sure he wasn’t guilty. Now can we stop talking about this?”

“All right, fine,” Katie sighed.

From the next tent over, Snowcrystal heard the two humans getting ready to sleep. Her own tent was fairly crowded, so she had offered to sleep near the opening, where it wasn’t as cool. The past few days, the other pokémon had always offered her a nice sleeping spot, and she thought it was time she returned the favor.

She lay by the tent entrance, feeling the hot breeze sweep through her fur. She thought about her tribe, back on the mountain. She hoped there was still enough snow to sustain them, or that their leader had found a way to a better place. As much as she wished she could help them, she knew she was of more use to them here, where she could try to help find a way to protect the lands from the Forbidden Attacks. She would need to find a way if she wanted her tribe to be safe in the long run.

In the distance, she watched the shimmering heat waves as they flickered across the desert ground. The temperature was still climbing, and would steadily rise until it finally began to cool off in the evening. Snowcrystal covered her face with a paw as she turned away, shielding her eyes from the brightness. She still felt the heat scorch her back, heat that when combined with her own internal fire made her feel very uncomfortable, reminding her that she wasn’t like the other fire types. She curled up, glad that she could at least sleep it off as she listened to the sound of the wind sending pebbles rolling across the ground, back in the direction she and the others had come from.

-ooo-

Yenn had traveled so far and so fast that he had managed to keep ahead of his pursuers for almost two days. But in the afternoon of his second day in the desert, after flying for nearly two days without water, the yanmega’s strength was truly running out.

His mouth and throat were completely dry, and his tongue was so swollen he could hardly speak, not that he had a reason to speak at all; he was completely alone. He had desperately searched for water during his near-constant flight, but had found not even a drop. At one point earlier that day, he had even grown desperate enough to try to drink his own blood by piercing one of his legs with his fangs.

He was moving slowly now, his wings flickering at a fraction of their normal speed. His head hung, and he was flying so low to the ground that his tail dragged in the dust. He no longer had the strength to use it for balance, so he kept drifting listlessly to the side. After a few minutes of this, he would realize it was happening and correct himself, but it was never long before he started to drift again.

His vision, usually so sharp and clear, was muddled and blurry, and he was having trouble focusing on any one thing. He couldn’t even pay attention to the shapes of the pokémon following him in the distance, and he was no longer sure how close they were.

A blurred movement to one side caught his eye, and he managed to force his exhausted mind to focus just long enough to see a lone vibrava fluttering past him, not even paying him the slightest heed.

Yenn couldn’t even summon up the strength to try to catch it. He could barely manage to keep going forward and force his wings to keep beating. He thought about calling out to the vibrava, wondering if it knew where water was or even where he could go, but when he tried, he couldn’t get his mouth to form words. All that came out was a wheezing gasp, and the vibrava had already flown far past him.

Yenn forced it to the back of his mind. He told himself that he was sure to find some sort of water or shelter soon, and that all he had to do was keep trying. He knew Cyclone’s pokémon had to be catching up, and whenever he could summon up the strength, he would fly a bit faster in short bursts, still heading toward the distant horizon.

He carried on in that way for several hours, until the sun began to set and the temperature dropped. ‘I made it...’ he told himself. ‘I made it one more day...just a little farther...and I’ll see something...’

He focused on the setting sun, and the promising glimmer of some relief from the heat. Even as he did so, a part of him still knew it was likely hopeless. The army pokémon were sure to catch up with him, and he knew he probably didn’t have much time before they did.

As the sky grew dark, he told himself that it would soon be easier again, that he wouldn’t have to worry about the sun, but it did little to bring his hopes up.

He knew he must have been flying for a while longer in some sort of half-conscious state, because the next thing he knew, the sky was almost completely black, only a thin sliver of reddish orange where the sun had been. It was already much cooler, but he could tell it was too late for that to help him much.

As he focused on the fading sliver of light, he kept having to jerk himself awake. He tried to keep his attention on the way ahead, unsure if he could make out the smudges of landmarks or if his mind was playing tricks on him. Then, when the light of the sun had almost completely faded, Yenn’s entire vision started to fade to black. Even the stars disappeared. He couldn’t tell if he was moving his wings anymore, and barely felt it when he struck the ground.

In that brief moment, his thoughts drifted to the army pokémon still trailing him, closer than ever.

‘All right,’ he thought bitterly. ‘Fine, you win. I give up.’

With that thought, he faded into unconsciousness.

To be continued...