Idiots Afoot

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His head was high, his eyes were closed, and each step was taken in sheer confidence. The grass around him reached higher than he stood, but the path he followed made sure he had an easy walk. His loud mouth could be heard for practical miles with how little he cared about being silent, "I promise you Em, you're gonna LOVE it here! It's WAAAAAY better than the library. It wasn't even that hard to get to."

The zorua opened his eyes to the world ahead of him, a few rolling hills in the distance caught his eye. A single tree stood upon it, but it looked as if the plant fell long ago. It was such a simple piece of nature, but the prospect of investigating it excited him. With an excited wiggle of his body, he leapt forward and dash towards it. The wind in his fur felt absolutely amazing; This was so much different from boring ol' Grassveil and Shadowhue!

He slowed briefly before he jumped up on top of the log of the elderly fallen tree. He looked on at the expansive flat lands before him as energy that rivaled the static charge that floated in the air around him coursed through his veins. Was this what his father felt like when he went into dungeons? Probably not considering he looked like an alcoholic deadbeat last time Chance saw him, but there had to be a reason why the glaceon became an explorer in the first place right?

"Wooooow, Em come look at this!" he encouraged his sister. He waited to hear the sound of her paws scratching against the bark to hop up alongside him, but he heard nothing. "Em?" His stupidly wide grin faded into curiosity as he turned around to look at his sister for the first time in literal hours. There was no sister in sight. A concerned shout escaped his mouth briefly before he started to look around more fervently, "Em? Emmelyn? Emmy?" he called out for his sister in vain as he turned in circles. He half expected her to simply materialize behind him and ask him to stop shouting, but nothing came.

"C'mon Em this isn't funny!" he shouted, his tone slightly offended that she dared to hide from him. He sprang towards one end of the log and peered into the inside of the hollow innards, effectively looking inside completely upside down. "Em?" She wasn't there. His heart sank. He lifted his head back up while his hind-legs failed to support him. He sat upon the log with lowered ears. "Where did you go?" he asked in a much quieter tone. Did...did she stay back at Grassveil?


Lost, hungry, and most of all desperate. He decided that it would have been fun to visit the one place that seemed friendly to electric types such as himself, but instead he simply became lost for days. The jolteon struggled to hunt in these parts, unable to familiarize himself with the prey and enact proper strategies on top of being unable to find any edible items to fill his stomach.

Fortunately, however, he was given a stroke of luck. As he trudged miserably through the tall grass of the electric field, the shrill sound of someone yelling caught his attention. His bitten ear twitched before his head swiveled in the direction of the source. Yes...it was definitely somebody. Somebody small from the sounds of it. His stomach growled. It was time for the circle of life to continue its cycle.

The electric type lowered his body to the ground and quickly-yet quietly skulked forwards. His yellow color blended in with the golden grass that rose out of the ground higher than he stood. He headed towards the sound of the voice, up a hill and closer until he came across a small clearing at the top of the hill that held the log and stump of a fallen tree. He could see the form of a small zorua at the top of the log who looked a little depressed about something.

Erebus smirked, food. Easy food. Finally, he could get his stomach to leave him alone. He took a step forward, however, hesitated. He could run forth and pounce on the fox the old fashion way...or he could use his new abilities as a Jolteon to his advantage. He had not tried hunting with his powers, but it could not have possibly been any different from average combat. With how weak the zorua looked, he could not imagine it would take more than a single Thunder to deal with it.

The Jolteon's body began to crackle with electricity as he steadily stepped out from the grass, his eyes focused on the dark type. He was behind the zorua, so it did not yet see him. There was no way it could smell him from there either. His plan was simple: get as close as he can to the Zorua. If the prey showed any sign of noticing him, then he could unleash the charge onto them and claim his dinner...

The jolteon flinched and averted his gaze once the paw came down. He waited for the burst of pain that would be more than enough to distract him from the shattered leg. This glaceon was crazy strong, he wouldn't doubt that the ice type would have been able to plant it all the way through into the ground and pin him there. He didn't have the strength to resist or pull away.

It didn't come. He could vaguely hear the sound of the spike impaling something but he didn't feel any different. Did the pain-nerves or whatever those smart pokemon call it in his paws die? He dared to open an eye and take a look. Instead of seeing his paw, he saw the glaceon's face.

He was threatened. He was terrified. In that moment, he could do nothing more than give a dazed nod. He wasn't entirely sure what the glaceon said exactly, but he got the gist of it. There was a small part in the back of his head that was...angry. All of this because he was trying to live? Because he wanted some food? That didn't at all seem fair! Not only that, but he was totally and utterly humiliated by the glaceon. He was angry, but he lacked the courage and energy to express it.

The most he could do was pass back out as he was released from the pin.

----

The question asked wasn't answered. Something knocked the vision off to the side ever so slightly. The view shifted to the skitty once more. They spoke out to Chance again, asking if he wanted to hear some swear words. She didn't seem all that happy about it though. She acted happy, but she cried. The view shifted back to the scene where the jigglypuff had front row seats to whatever it was the glaceon was doing. The pink puffball wasn't happy either. Nobody but the glaceon seemed happy. He was doing something bad, wasn't he?

The zorua stood up and left the skitty's side. Should he be like the others right now? Crying and scared? He approached the glaceon's side and looked down at the broken paw of the Jolteon, his eyes drifted up to the bloody mouth before his sights were set on the tormentor. Without a moment of hesitation he spoke, "Hey... what are ya doing?"

The ice type's answer wasn't direct. His inability to focus only contributed to it. Everything felt so light and dare he say even fluffy compared to the moments that lead up to this. The ice type moved to do whatever he had planned, but missed. His head tilted off to the side as he connected the pieces on what the glaceon wanted to do. "Your aim sucks..." he found himself mumbling, not in any particular disappointment or even excitement. It was just a statement of what he presumed to be fact.

He could hear every word the eeveelution said to the other, but it all went in one ear and out the other. Sova broke away from the jolteon and started to walk back towards Darcy. He wanted something. Something called a "Lum" or-oh...the berry? He glanced back to the jolteon, who was also passed out. His legs seemed to walk on their own as he abandoned the jolteon and strolled back to the Glaceon.

"My lum" he said. There was one in his bag...right? Like a good obedient little boy, the zorua fished out the Lum berry. It didn't necessarily feel like he was being spoken to, but it also didn't really feel like he was there at all either. He just did it. His paw pulled out the lum and batted it close to the glaceon's snout.

...How was either of them supposed to use it?

Darcy was crying in earnest now, and truthfully, she was a bit thankful that the Zorua had decided to stand up and walk away. She didn't want him to see whatever was going on, but she didn't want herself to see it either. This day had just been... Some psychopath had tried to eat a kid, and Sova had acted in turn, and then beyond, and... It was all so horrible. And all so much. Darcy lay down on the ground, whimpering. She'd seen more of the world today than she ever could have dreamed of... She'd always grown up with pleasant stories and an idealistic world in her mind, and it felt like someone had snuck away with the cornerstone of her world-view's foundation.

She continued her crying, silently noting how much the tears were flowing down her face. She vaguely heard the Glaceon requesting something from her, but she was hardly in a state to do anything to help him. A Lum something? Berry... She knew what that was, but she could hardly force herself to get up. She felt sick. She jumped as the Glaceon collapsed quite near her. He fell to the ground with a loud, solid thump.

Lum berry. She should help find the Lum berry. She began to pull herself to her feet, but the Zorua seemed to have it handled. He set the Lum berry down in front of his dad, pushing it forward towards him. "O-O-Open his mouth..." She managed to stammer out, her voice choking up with all the unreleased emotion. She wanted to scream. Or hide. Do something... But if the Glaceon passed out, she was the only one left who they could look to for responsibility and guidance...

At least, that's what she was telling herself. She laughed softly, her eyes slowly drifting towards the jolteon before snapping back to the berry in front of her. Was he dead? She didn't know. He looked awful. He was a horrible person, that much was certain but he still looked so... pained? He was suffering, certainly, and Darcy didn't want to see anyone suffer...

Why were people so quick to inflict pain on one another...? "O-Open his mouth, and put it in..." Darcy said, her voice trembling with a new emotion, that she didn't recognize at first, as she so rarely felt it. Anger. How dare he do all this with Chance, and Alki and herself there... How dare he torture someone, and almost kill them, with a bunch of innocent pokemon there, watching... How dare he enjoy it? Cause that's what that had been, hadn't it? Those Oh-So-clever little one liners she'd been trying so hard to ignore...

Oh, that's cute,

You wanna be the victim here...? Wish granted.

He'd been enjoying that. And she wasn't just angry at that thought. She was furious. She hated that. Her voice began to shake with this emotion, her tail swishing from side to side in anticipation for what she was going to say. Her ears flattened as she nodded, her voice almost entirely calm now, save for her anger. "Just open his mouth and put it in, Chance. Maybe that'll wake him up."


She didn't know. She didn't know why people were so quick to cause each other pain. She had every intention of asking him. Sova had done it to someone who clearly didn't pose a threat anymore, in front of all of them, and the sounds and smells and emotions she'd felt replayed in her mind, over and over, and she felt sick.

She just wanted to know why...


~

Alki cried out loudly as the sound of ice crashing down met her ears. She heard the ear-splitting cacaphony of the icicle shattering, and it was this sound that finally broke her. All the staring, all the tension that built up, all her fear and dread finally came crashing down over her, as the sound of a chunk of ice shattering filled the passage. Her own cry was small, meek and fragile, and she quickly jumped back from her location, as though a spell had been lifted.

There was no action for her to take anymore. No thievery, no fighting, no... nothing but emotion. Everything burst out of her, as a loud, pathetic sob escaped her. She'd been watching torture... Hadn't she? That's what that was. The bone breaking, the thorn hovering over his paws, and then the icicle, even larger than the thorn... He'd been torturing the guy.

She didn't care for the jolteon at all. She looked at his paws out of a morbid, dreadful curiousity. He hadn't stabbed the chunk of ice into him, she could tell that much, but after everything that had happened... she still half expected blood to be spilling out, the shard embedded into two sets of limbs, the ice stained red and the smell of metal that came with blood...

But there was nothing. She heard words. She didn't care. She simply curled up into a ball, her ears twitching at every harsh sound that they met. And she began to cry as well. She hadn't wanted any of this... Was this what guild members were like? Sova was accomplished, she knew that much, and... Was this what they were all like? Those thoughts were quickly replaced by other, new ones. Whether she should run away. Tell the police about this, or perhaps simply quit the guild and try to hide from all of this...

...What if Sova hated her for what she'd done? She'd stolen the thorn from him, and he'd quite clearly been wanting to use it... The jolteon had passed out, and the Glaceon was on the verge of doing so, but Alki didn't notice either of these things. She simply curled up into a ball and let herself cry. That was the worst thing she'd ever seen, easily, and now that there was no more immediate threat, the immensity of the situation washed over here. She'd seen torture and almost watched two murders that day. And the only reason it had stopped was because Sova had changed his mind.

She began to cry harder.

This had all started with her, hadn't it? With those simple, stupid, meaningless words. She'd caused all this by telling the Jolteon to... What had it been? "Off" himself? And that had prompted all of this... If she hadn't said that, he wouldn't have attacked her, and if he hadn't attacked her, then Sova wouldn't have had any reason to escalate this...

"It's all my fault..." She said softly, closing her eyes as she reflected on the truth. Just as always, it was her fault yet again... Maybe she was the one who should go off herself? That was the worst thing she'd ever seen in her life, and... and it was all her fault.

Black.

...And then white. Instantly, Sova knew where he was. "Paradise, right?" he muttered as he got up and shook the dust off himself... Oh, no, there was no dust. Right. Empty dreamscape.

"You're pathetic, you know that?" he heard a voice respond from behind him.

Immediately, he whipped around and swung his tail at the twisted mirror-image of himself. An entertained look came over Senya as he stepped out of the way of the attack, if it could even be called that.

"Oooh, Sova wants to fight now? Okay, I'll entertain you," the darkly glaceon spoke once more, crouching into a battle-stance. He relaxed after a moment of waiting, however. "...Well?"

Sova made no further moves to attack. Despite his momentary lashing out, he wasn't interested in fighting. "It wouldn't make a difference... besides, we wouldn't have time. I should be waking up soon," he explained.

"Tch... Good for you," Senya spoke, words laced with bitter sarcasm as the grin faded from his face. "Hate me if you want, but he deserved everything he got and more."

Sova glared at Senya. "It wasn't about him... You made Darcy cry, Alki was begging you to stop, Chance seemed traumatized... Hell, you even had the asshole apologizing and that still wasn't-"

"Enough? No... it wasn't. Not for me. And it never will be, because I'm a monster," Senya interrupted. He took on a sarcastic, mocking tone at the word "monster," as if he was quoting someone who had insulted him.

Sova opened his mouth to respond, but found that his voice was escaping him. Actually... he suddenly couldn't even breathe.

"Oh, there's your cue."

Sova's eyes opened suddenly as he coughed; Chance had put the berry in his mouth alright... and then practically shoved it down his throat. "Akhggg, not-" he cut himself off with another cough, "N-not like that..." His voice was hoarse and his body was in immediate pain, but he seemed fine other than that. He looked around to see everyone was still here, including the half-dead jolteon, so not much time had passed.

More instructions were issued. The paws moved a bit slowly, opening the glaceon's mouth before rolling the berry in. In no time, the glaceon coughed and hacked awake. His actions immediately scolded as far as he knew. This was normally the point where he would avert his gaze in shame, but he didn't really feel ashamed. It all felt so unnatural and void of anything.

His view became strangely fixated on Sova's paw, as if it were going to burst into flames if he stared at it long enough. His thoughts drew a blank as he effectively did and thought nothing. He wasn't here, none of this happened, and any moment now he was just going to disappear.

Darcy trembled as the Glaceon woke up, his first words being one of complaint. Not like that... Not like what...? They were helping him... Chance was helping him, after everything that Sova had done in their presence, the bone breaking and the snapping, the threat of the thorn, and then the icicle spike, the way he spoke, his taunting... After everything that Sova had done, he had the gall to complain? Darcy's fur bristled as she stood up, wiping away the tears with her forepaw as she let out a bitter laugh.

"...Sova..." She began tentatively, her voice lower and quieter than it usually was, but it lacked its usual pleasant lilt. Her voice was shaking with barely concealed rage. She felt so many emotions, and she didn't even know what to say... "Y-You do realize, you're stronger than most Pokemon around... You didn't have to do all that... We could've just arrested him and brought him to jail..." She pawed at the ground, replaying the sounds of the experience she'd just gone through over and over again.

"But you enjoyed it, didn't you?" She remarked, her voice lowering in volume, but the fury in her voice becoming more apparent despite that. "His s-screams, and my sister begging you... You enjoyed watching me cry, I bet. You enjoyed all of that because... What? You're stronger than us? We can't stop you? You just get high on that kind of power or something...?" Her voice began to rise, her ears flattening as she scowled.

"That's the only thing I can think of... You enjoyed watching him suffer, didn't you? Even though there were a million options you could take before you started... You chose to torture him." She paused, her whole body shaking with emotion as she thought about what to say next. "That was psychotic... And it was wrong. The way you taunted him, those little clever words you threw in... You enjoyed that. Don't even lie to me and say you didn't... How could you be so cruel? That's not rhetorical, I really want to know...  What about the blood and the breaking bones and... and..." Her voice had risen to practically a yell, and Darcy didn't even notice. She paused, flustered and unsure of what to say... "What made you enjoy other people's suffering so much Sova? You tortured the jolteon, and you made me and Chance and Alki watch..."  

She stepped forward, practically in his face. She quit her yelling, before lowering her voice, yet again. "Explain to me, why. "

~

Everything was unimportant to Alki. She was stilll crying, although she was a few metres away from the rest of the group, and was rather silent about it, so perhaps they wouldn't notice. Why should they, anyways? She'd screwed up again, and even worse than last time. She vaguely took in the sound of Darcy yelling at Sova, but it was disattached and unimportant to her. She was the one who'd brought this all on, with that simple, poisonous verbal jab she'd sent the Jolteon's way which, in the end, she couldn't even stand by. She didn't want anyone dead... She didn't want anyone to suffer, except, perhaps, herself.

"I-I'm sorry..." Alki said, but no one could hear. And if they could, she doubted they'd care, and she knew it wouldn't matter. The damage had been done already... Was this all she was good for?

Sova glued his eyes to the skitty as she approached him looking like she had something to say. He didn't know exactly what to expect, but Darcy spared no time in making it clear to him. He wasn't surprised that she wanted to address what had just happened, but... the detail she put into it... the emotion... He had never seen anything like this out of Darcy. Granted, he didn't know her well, but it still wasn't at all what he would have expected out of her. She went into a fair bit of detail describing all the ways in which what "he" had done was wrong, and even went so far as to accuse him of enjoying every part of the situation... which he knew was untrue, even for Senya. Neither of them had enjoyed seeing Darcy cry, but he couldn't even begin to express this in any believable way. What was he supposed to say?

He opened his mouth, but no words came out. He felt weighed down on the ground, unable and unwilling to get up. It was all he could do to look away from Darcy.

...Then he heard another voice. An... apology?

"It's not your fault, Alki," he spoke, his voice hoarse and low, "It's mine... and in a way, it's someone else's."

Slowly, he stood on his uneasy legs, forcing himself to get up despite the pain and the weakness and the desire to just lay on the ground and sulk. He knew he would be putting himself at risk with what he was about to do, but they deserved it. They deserved an explanation... especially Darcy, being so bold as to confront him. She knew he was stronger than her, and now she thought he was... something that would probably be okay with hurting her. But he wasn't. Honestly, he was pretty sure Senya wasn't either. He took one last look around at everyone, including the thoroughly incapacitated jolteon, before setting his gaze back on Darcy. There was a hint of concern on his face that he couldn't quite hide.

"Darcy... I'm... not whatever you idolized me as... and I'm sorry you saw what just happened... but that wasn't me," he hesitated, impulse telling him to shut his mouth before he said something he couldn't take back. He'd gone this far though, and he was sick of keeping it all a secret from everyone, especially those who deserved to know. "This isn't a metaphor. I share my mind and body with someone else. His name is Senya."

At this point, he decided to stop. It wasn't that he didn't want to explain further, although he really didn't. He just felt like he should pause and give Darcy and anyone else who cared to listen some time to process, maybe ask some questions. He certainly felt better about the idea of answering questions than continuing to explain everything on his own.

Darcy narrowed her gaze as the first thing that came out of the Glaceon's mouth did not seem directed at her, but instead, at her sister. Truthfully, under different circumstances; in fact, most other circumstances, she would've appreciated that. But at the moment, Darcy did not quite feel at all like her usual self... She still cared for Alki, of course, and she wanted her to feel better, but... Her anger towards Sova seemed to override any other emotion she might've been feeling at the moment. It certainly wasn't Alki's fault, that much was obvious to everyone involved. Alki included, once enough time had passed, and once Darcy got to talk to her later...

...Someone else's... Those words stuck out to her, and she mulled them over as the glaceon busied himself with rising to his feet. Who else could he possibly refer to? The jolteon...? He couldn't possibly be blaming any of the other three pokemon present, could he? Her scowling gaze softened, if only a little, when she made eye contact with Sova. He seemed... worried? Upset? ...Sad? She wasn't quite sure, but whatever it was, it was a far cry from the actions he'd been displaying only moments ago. Of course, this didn't quite let him off the hook, but it made her more willing to hear him out...

Although she quickly found herself losing patience with the older guild member. It wasn't him?  So who was it? Cause it certainly looked a whole lot like Sova... Sure, he'd sounded a bit different... But she figured people wouldn't quite sound like themselves when they were relishing in the bending and breaking of limbs... It made her sick. Did he expect her to believe this crud?

"...Ok," Darcy began, more so thinking on how to express herself rather than agreeing with anything the Glaceon had to say. "Sure, I'll keep that in mind. I guess, y'know, worrying about morals, and doing the right thing, and... being a good person just doesn't matter at all, huh? It's ok to do whatever you want, so long as you make up a name on the fly and say you're sharing a body with that person, huh? I wonder who my inner buddy might be? I wonder what we'll get up to!?" She said, laughing bitterly. Senya...? "Oh, I know! My mum needs money! And don't they put a whole lot of money in the banks? I'll go take some! After all, if the police catch me, I'll just tell them I have somebody else in my head, and really, it's their fault!"

Darcy laughed louder, quite clearly still upset. She wasn't the one in any danger, but she could still hear the sounds of the fight, the snapping bone, the smell of blood and ice in the air, and she felt sick all over again. She could hear her sister's voice, and Chance's curiosity towards the 'fight', she could hear her own whimpers, and she felt like crying all over again. Maybe she was crying all over again. She was too out of it to really know.

"Whaddya say, Alki?" She called out to her sister, all while keeping her gaze dead center on the glaceon. "Wanna go rob a bank with me? Mum needs the money, and if we make up some fake names before hand, we'll be fine! Her cynical running joke ended with a half laugh, half cry, whereupon she sniffed and held a paw up to her face.

She looked over at the jolteon, who was, as of right now, seemingly unconscious. His form was battered and bloody, and Darcy could still see a piece of half-melted ice stuck into the ground, only a few centimeters away from the Jolteon's paw. … What was it Chance had said? Your aim sucks?

Darcy shuddered.

Even confronted with these sights, however, Darcy still felt some traces of lingering guilt. She remembered something her mother had always told her, in her younger and more vulnerable years. Whenever you feel like criticizing someone, Then she'd pause and look Darcy right in the eye, then she'd fall completely still. Just remember that not everyone in the world has had the advantages you've had.

She didn't know what sova's life was like. He was right… She had, in a kind of way, idolized him. He was the most successful guild member she knew, and she wished… well, she wished she were that capable. But now, she didn't know what to think. At the very least, however, she could try and hear him out.

He'd seemed so… earnest before. Whatever that emotion had been… it made her want to believe his words.

"... I'm sorry, Sova. That was rude, and… uncalled for. It's just… Her eyes traveled back to the jolteon. He was motionless. "...a lot. I want to believe you… really, I do. It's just… um… is there any way you could prove it?" She had her doubts, of course, and it was quite possible that he was merely lying to her. After all, if someone was capable of torture, they were surely capable of lying… but at the very least, she was giving him a chance to explain himself further…

~

Alki scoffed, half-laughing, and half-crying, as the glaceon began to patronize her. Was he dense? Hadn't he noticed that it was always her fault? Even after she'd been the one to ruin his leg, all the way back on that day at the guild, even after she'd been the one to provoke the jolteon, and start this whole… whole bloody affair, he still seemed to think it wasn't her fault.

But it always was.

The Jigglypuff sat down, nodding without really understanding what the Skitty was talking about. She hadn't been listening. Something about robbing a bank. Did they know about her secret? She didn't think Synd'r was planning to rob a bank…

Truthfully, she couldn't even bring herself to care about the phantom thieves. All she could think about was the blood. The glaceon's blood which she had failed to heal all those months ago, the jolteon's blood, which she'd indirectly had a hand in spilling, and her own blood, which she wished had been spilt instead. She deserved it. Why hadn't sova attacked her too?

"... It's always my fault…" She said, her voice trembling as she forced herself to stand up and walk closer to the jolteon yet again. It was horrible. His leg was twisted all wrong, and it was bloodied, and there was a piece of his ear gone, and blood all over his face when sova had struck him with his tail…

She didn't want to see this. But she forced herself to observe her own handiwork. "... I'm sorry…" Alki apologized again, this time directly to her victim. She held both her hands together, crying silently. She was horrible… a horrible waste of air and of space.

Sova visibly flinched at the bitter spite that overcame Darcy's aura as she began responding, ranting, criticizing, doubting... He sat down and frowned, ears flattening at the sheer emotion and aggression in the skitty's words. She was so hateful... so distrustful... This was the first time he had ever tried willingly telling someone what was... wrong with him, and the response was so, so negative. Was this what he had to look forward to in the future, if ever he were to try again? Would everyone react like this to his claims that he was not the only one in his body? It was everything he had feared, everything that had motivated him to be silent all this time... Even on the rare occasion someone learned about Senya the hard way, it seemed things were better off like that.

Now he wanted to cry. His child was sitting in some silent traumatic daze, Alki was blaming herself, and Darcy was definitively blaming him. It was his fault, just the validation he needed for his own thoughts. He knew it was. Even if Darcy thought he was lying... that didn't matter. He should have had a stronger will, more fight in him to resist Senya's violent desires. Maybe he just didn't want to. Maybe Darcy was more right than she knew, saying that he just used Senya as an excuse. He could recall some times, mostly before Senya was a common presence in his life, when he had been... just like that. In fact, he could remember threatening to do what Senya had just done to the jolteon, and in his case the victim was someone who definitely didn't deserve it.

...It was just some weak, terrified sneasel who had gotten himself into a bad situation and was trying his best to get out of it. Sova had threatened to break his arm for trying to flee. Sure, he was a criminal, but he had done nothing to warrant that kind of treatment. He was scared of going to jail, and probably scared of Sova himself.

Was this... what he was? Was he the same as Senya? Was that how everyone would view him if he tried to be honest? Darcy was beginning to change her tune now, apologizing, but it only made him sulk further. She didn't believe him and wanted proof. She was only asking out of her own good nature, which he had driven her away from if only for a moment. He couldn't prove it. The only way he could even try was to let Senya out again, and he was mad on top of being himself and would surely do something to hurt her just for the sake of-

Look around. I can't possibly make this worse, unless you really think I'm gonna hurt any of them.

Sova's heart skipped a beat as the familiar malevolent feeling crept over him. Always watching... more and more lately, it seemed. Always here... but normally, Senya was okay with just watching. Now he wanted out? The only thing he ever wanted out for was expressly to hurt someone, but Sova had truly never known him to hurt anyone who didn't "deserve" it. Senya had his rules, whether out of fear for repercussion or... some kind of moral compass. He didn't hurt anyone without being given an excuse first. He was violent, sadistic, unpredictable and hateful, but Sova had no doubts that he wouldn't hurt any of these three. He probably wouldn't hurt the jolteon now that the mood had passed, either.

Sova took a slow, careful look around. His head was beginning to spin. He wasn't sure if he wanted this.

Your subconscious is. You've already passed control to me again. No use fighting it now.

Alki was staring at the jolteon, blaming herself. Chance was so eerily silent that he couldn't possibly have been doing alright. Darcy... didn't even seem to know how she wanted to feel about any of this. Sova knew he couldn't fix it for any of them. Could Senya fix it? Could he do something good? Did he even want to?

Well, Senya was right about one thing. Sova no longer had a choice. His vision began to blur and he stumbled, struggling to hold himself upright. He hung his head and closed his eyes, trying desperately to just keep his composure. The total lack of control over this situation was getting to him. He couldn't help anyone, and he couldn't even choose whether he wanted to submit control to Senya or not.

Tears began to stream down his face as he took in a deep, terrified breath, and did the only thing he seemed to know how to do.

...He gave up.

The glaceon then released the breath in a ragged, but calm, sigh. He opened his eyes; the tears had suddenly stopped. His white pupils began to shrink as they trailed up from the ground toward the nearby skitty, a look of judgment on his face. His body no longer moved unless he wanted it to. He didn't stumble or bat an eye at neighboring sounds, and his expression was unwavering. When he next spoke, his voice was deeper, scratchy, his tone some mix of bitter and indifferent.

"Okay, Darcy," he slowly brought himself up from his sitting position until he was standing tall, stepping right in front of Darcy and looking down on her with the same unamused, judgmental gaze that said she wasn't worth his time. The only reason he wanted to be here was to prove a point he happened to care about. He stepped closer to the skitty despite how close they already were to each other, leaving so little room to make sure that she could feel his breath, and he whispered to her.

"Do you really think I'm Sova?"

Darcy fell silent shortly after her apology, her glare of anger softening piece by piece as she noticed the Glaceon's reactions to her words. He had flinched as she spoke, and while she was far too upset to pause in the moment, having apologized, she played back her one-sided conversation in her head. He'd been flinching, and his ears flattened, and... Perhaps it was just her imagination, but he had even seemed ready to cry. She'd been... As far as Darcy could remember, she had never been that upset... But then again, she'd never seen something that bad either...

Darcy cleared her throat softly as she looked up at the Glaceon. She had idolized him. He hadn't been wrong... When she saw him, passing by in the halls of the guild, when she'd been in his room when he'd been wounded and Alki had been attempting to heal him... Every time she saw him, she saw someone she wanted to be like. Brave, and strong, and confident, and... successful. It wasn't something she wanted to be like, it was something she needed to be like. For her family, and for her mom...

Except everytime she'd see him from then on, in the halls of the guild, she'd see this, and a jolteon would be with him... Darcy sighed. It wasn't fair, she supposed, to pretend that he was perfect. No one was perfect. But it'd been nice to imagine...

Darcy watched as the Glaceon seemed to survey their location. He slowly turned to look at everyone in the vicinity, first her sister, then his child. And then finally, her. He seemed... confused? Puzzled? Darcy sniffed as she took in his emotions. They were so different from what they had been earlier. It was like he was a different person... He was certainly acting like it. But it was possible that that was all it really was. An act. Weren't some people capable of that? She'd read a book about a guy like that, who was really good at changing his personality on the fly. He was the villain of the book. He'd been scary. She didn't remember much else.

Her thoughts were interrupted as she noticed tears beginning to fall in earnest, unmistakable. They seemed to glisten in the soft, muted light that filtered through the clouds above. For the first time since the... since Sova had stopped, she registered just how cold she felt. Cold and tired... The Skitty awkwardly sat back down. She didn't know what more to say. She wasn't sure if there was anything more for her to say.

She looked over at her sister for a moment, making a mental note of where she was and what she was doing. She needed to console her too, after this... It was all so much. She just wanted to sleep a bit...

She jumped back to her feet as a voice, which certainly did not belong to Sova, seemed to address her. It was scratchier, deeper, and much more menacing. She looked up in bewilderment, noting how much the Glaceon had changed in just a few moments. He was... so stoic. Stoic, yet she couldn't help but get the feeling from him that, in his eyes, she was unimportant. Nothing more than an annoyance...

Do you really think I'm Sova?

Darcy took a step back as the Glaceon stepped up to her, closer and closer. She was really cold now... She wished she'd brought her scarf. However, even if the Glaceon had suddenly taken a much more intimidating aura, she wasn't about to be cowed into silence. This was her chance to see if Sova had been telling the truth, and if he was... well, if he was telling the truth, she wanted to help him!

And if he was lying, then she was going to turn him into the police... It was that simple. She wasn't just going to let this whole thing go!

"I mean, you could be..." She said, her voice quiet but firm. She was scared, certainly, but her voice also carried a tone of resolve that she wouldn't lose easily. She wasn't going to decide one way or the other until she could be sure she was absolutely right. "I read a book once, a while ago. It was about some police guy, a detective or a lawyer or something, and he was investigating a bunch of weird cases... Bad cases. Murder... Torture... The dark kind of stuff. In the end... the villain was a lawyer. A real nice, real popular lawyer. Everyone liked him. But he'd been committing those crimes for years. Nobody ever suspected him because he was so nice. But he'd just been faking it... Faking it the whole time... I hated that book."

Darcy paused, mulling it over. There had been another book she'd read when she was younger too... There was also a criminal, but he hadn't been faking anything in that one. He really did have multiple people in him. A good one, and a bad one, and they'd been fighting during the whole book...

"I'm not saying you're wrong, and... and if you're right, then I suppose I'm talking to Senya, huh?" She shuddered. She was talking to the one who'd done all those things...

"...If you're right, and Sova really has multiple personalities... Well, then I trust that he wouldn't hurt me." She took a deep breath. Did she really want to do this? ...Yes. She wanted the truth. No matter how painful it might be. "So. I just need a bit more proof." Darcy stepped back forward, placing one of her front paws directly in front of the Glaceon, maintaining eye contact with Sova -- Senya, actually -- the whole time. "Hurt me. Cut me. And look me in the eyes while you're doing it. I hope you can do it, Senya. For Sova's sake..." That wasn't a lie either... She trusted Sova enough to tell the truth, she'd decided. She just needed a bit more proof.

~

Alki simply stared. Stared and stared, until she was sick of staring. It was horrible. She wished she still knew Heal Pulse. She would've used it on him. Not too much, mind you, she wouldn't exactly exert herself too much, but... she couldn't help but wonder if maybe he was going to die. The broken leg and the blood... She'd only seen something this bad once before, at the guild, and she'd been responsible then too...

She should apologize to Sova. Directly. She turned away from the Jolteon, her eyes shut as she attempted to steady herself. Ready herself for this. Just... Darcy was talking with him right now. They were busy. She'd apologize later. Maybe... Maybe she'd just run away. They were so fixated on themselves, she could probably get away with just... teleporting away. Deeper into this dungeon.  Deeper and deeper until she was so lost she'd need a guild team come find her... But she didn't want to do that to Darcy. Darcy would suffer if she did that... likely, she'd suffer a lot. Maybe some other day...

Instead, the jigglypuff walked some meters away, to the outskirts of the clearing, and sat down. She pulled out her guild badge from a small bag she'd brought along, and quietly contemplated it. It was shiny... Kind of pretty too, honestly... She didn't really feel like she deserved it though... She wished she did. But she knew she didn't... She turned it over and over in her hands, observing every minute detail. Maybe she'd ask Sova... Darcy was always patronizing her. Pretending she was better than she was... Sova would be honest about it to her though, right?

But that would have to wait... She wasn't important right then. Then again, was she ever?

It felt so out of place. The glaceon's paw moved, yet he continued to stare at the ground. The pokemon around him spoke with one another, but they were distant. The glaceon's mannerisms changed again...then the skitty asked to be hurt? This didn't seem all that right. His gaze finally looked up to the duo and focused on them. At least, as much as it could focus.

There was a brief shift over to the pink puffball who moved off to the outskirts, but eventually the look just moved back to the main duo of the event. A nagging thought in the back of his head told him that he should probably say or do something, but his body didn't move. He didn't exactly feel urged in making some sort of action either.

All he did was sit back and watch the show that played out before him.

Senya had, of course, expected this skitty to cower and admit the error of her accusations through the influence of fear. Generally, that was how it worked; fear was a wonderful motivator, as Sova had shown him. Sova liked intimidation more than he did, in truth... He liked action. But, he knew he wasn't allowed to take action against someone who didn't "deserve it," and he didn't have much interest in hurting someone innocent in the first place. It didn't appeal much to him.

But when his attempt to intimidate Darcy failed, he suddenly didn't know what to think. A look of curiosity overcame him. She was still standing in front of him, and she was obviously scared, but... fighting it. Facing him. All of a sudden, she became a great deal more interesting in his eyes, and this trend only continued as she spoke up once more. She started off by refusing to believe him, citing some book she'd read as a reason why, but he somehow doubted the truth to this. He knew how she looked at Sova, and he could tell she didn't feel like he was Sova, regardless of what he wanted to say. She just wanted something to prove it, to give her more justification for believing him... and her request was...

...She wanted him to hurt her.

"I have rules," he responded, knowing Sova would never allow him to hurt someone like Darcy.

Isn't that right?

He waited for Sova's inevitable response, but... nothing came.

...Sova?

But he didn't even feel Sova's presence, and he was quite sure he would have been able to. Sova wasn't here. Ever so slightly, a faint smile crept onto his face. "...But it looks like Sova's not around to stop me right now..." he continued, raising his functioning paw as ice began to collect around it. He had been left in charge of this situation, and for once, it felt more personal to him than to Sova. If only for a moment, he was being given the opportunity to choose to do something on his own, for himself, without needing to care about Sova's input or approval...

"Just so you know, I wouldn't normally hurt someone who doesn't deserve it. But... I'll make an exception for you," he added on as the ice around his paw formed into claws, similar to earlier. However, instead of creating an ice spike, the claws simply grew larger, sharper... and then he slowly lowered his paw onto her shoulder.

Senya expected the skitty's facade of bravery to crumble the second he toucher her. He expected her to chicken out and decide she didn't want him to hurt her after all. He figured she was just trying to bluff him, maybe hoping that he really was Sova; and even if she wasn't, he just couldn't see someone like her being so... badass. He hoped he was wrong. He hoped Darcy was secretly the biggest badass he'd ever met. This would be the first time he had personally proven his individuality from Sova to someone, and it was someone so... surprisingly interesting.

True to the terms of their little agreement, he kept his eyes trained on hers as he placed the clawlike shards of ice against her. She wanted him to hurt her... so he was going to hurt her. He would drag the claws down her chest, slowly, methodically, and firmly. He would make sure to extend the event as long as he could, to give her as much time to flinch and back out as possible, because he now wanted to see how long the little skitty could handle this pain she had practically begged him for. If she even allowed him to start, he wanted to see if she could handle it long enough for him to get from one side of her chest to the other... and if she would.

She wouldn't. There was no way someone like her could possibly handle that, Senya was certain. No matter how much she tried to act brave and defiant, she wasn't. But he could hope.

Rules, huh? Darcy cocked her head, shaking her head as she bitterly smiled. She doubted that. There certainly hadn't seemed to be any rules, or any form of restraint when the Jolteon had been a part of the equation. If he had rules, they were pretty crappy ones... But she said nothing. Not yet. She could tell that there was a but coming. There always was... Darcy sighed, laughing softly, the sound bitter and cynical, indicating exactly what she thought. He was lying. Although... the more he spoke, and the more she sat before him, the more and more convinced she became that Sova had been telling the truth.

But it was far too late to back down now, and ask for him back. The chips were down, and she wasn't about to fold. She'd double down, if need be. She watched as a look of confusion, and then of quiet, creepy contentment overcame not-Sova. And then his words... Darcy sighed. Honestly, she was quite fed up with all of this. She'd just wanted to come to a place like this to go sight seeing with her sister, try and cheer her up, and this happened? ...Alki had seen even more of the torture than she had, hadn't she...? Could they even afford a therapist right now? Talk about bad luck...

That only left her, then... She was the only good guy in the clearing. Well, not the only one, but the only one she could accept stepping up to this bully... She heard the soft sounds of water rapidly condensating from the air, and then solidifying into ice. If Sova wasn't here to fight this... Then she was the only one who could...

"Look, I don't really care." She said softly, her voice fragile and soft in comparison to the raspiness of the Glaceon beside her. She didn't trust anything Senya had to say. By this point? She didn't doubt Sova at all. She wished he'd come back, but at the moment... It didn't seem very likely. In the book she'd read, so long ago, once the bad guy came out to play, it took quite a while for the good guy to re-emerge... but as far as she could remember, they always had. Right?

"Can you just do it? If you're going to, anyways. I kinda want to get home as soon as possible..." Her voice still quivered, and even she wasn't sold on the fake bravado. Truthfully, she didn't feel like saying anything. But for some reason, it felt appropriate. She wanted to feel big, and strong, even if she knew, and he knew, and everyone knew that she was nothing compared to the monster in front of her.

She maintained eye contact even as she noticed the paw slowly descending... descending, until it landed on her shoulder. For a brief moment, she could almost pretend that he was a friend. A friend in the market, putting a paw on her shoulder, and all that was going to follow was a friendly Hello! or possibly, a how do you do? Something nice... Pleasant... But those hopes were dashed as the paw angled downwards, into her shoulder... The feeling of ice mixing with her warm blood was heart-stopping, and Darcy couldn't help but let out a rather undignified squeal of pain as she felt it settle in, and stay.

She was nothing like the heroes of the books she'd read as a child. It was stupid to pretend she was... But it would be even stupider of her to pretend she could live with backing out. She never would have expected to find someone like Senya in the world at all, let alone in someone like Sova. Someone she looked up to... And now that he was here? She hated his guts. She'd hated his guts even before his claws had dug into her, and were now travelling slowly... So, so painfully, slowly, across her chest, ripping into her, everything felt like agony and pain and she wanted to run away, dash away, or maybe fight him..? No! He'd kill her if she did that... Run away, then! Run, run...

"N-N-No..." She moaned, more for her own ears than for anyone else. She could feel patches of fur and of skin tearing, so so slowly... Her eyes were tightly shut, and she could feel tears forming, clustering, pouring as she resisted every urge in her body that told her to run away.

If she ran, he won... She hated bullies. And that's all Senya was... A bully. A very, very strong, very very sadistic bully... If she ran... Alki was there... If she ran, what message did that send her? That the bullies won? That if you were nice, you were nothing more than a pushover... That if you believed in anything more than violence, your fate was controlled by those who cared for nothing but violence? ...What message did that send Sova? If he wasn't around to stop Senya... Surely, even if he was quiet... If he was hiding... He was still watching? He could still see her...

Honestly, she couldn't even blame him too much for wanting to hide. If she had to share her head with someone like this, she'd probably want to run away in a situation like this too. Not that that helped her at all, but... She understood.

But if she won. If she stayed... Sova would see her. She didn't want to impress him, really. Not anymore. Maybe before all this, she would've loved to impress him... But no. This was something different. More important.

She wanted to inspire him. Even if she was weaker... So, so much more weaker... Even if all she could do was take it. Then dang it, she was going to! She was going to show Senya that he couldn't scare her away... And she was going to show Sova that he shouldn't be scared. Not of someone like Senya... Never someone like Senya! People like that... They didn't deserve fear. They deserved nothing. Senya was no better than the Jolteon he'd tortured, in her eyes. They were just different sorts of cowards... And she was going to show that people could be better than that...

She was going to announce the truth for all to see, no matter how much it hurt! No matter the consequence...

"Crapcrapcrapcrapcrap" She muttered softly under her breath, repeating the most obscene word she knew to get her through this. "FrickyoufrickyoufrickyouIhateyousomuchSenyafrickyou..." She went on like this as his claws traveled, trying to drown out her pain and suffering with the sounds of her voice. Tears were running down her face, freely, but she didn't notice. All she felt was blood... Her shoulder was bleeding, and blood was dripping, oozing down her chest as the fissure went diagonally down... Where was her stomach...? Her organs...?

Was Alki going to watch her die?

She couldn't think...

The chips were down... And she'd made her play. She was never going to fold against someone like him... She was doubling down. If Senya doubled down too, then that was her fate... She wasn't going to run away from fate, whatever it might be...

She just wished her sister... her best friend, weren't there... Nor Chance. They were both so young... And she wished that they could just forget about all this... But that couldn't happen. And there was nothing she could do for them now...

"S-Screw you..." She moaned out, trying her hardest not to scream. She wasn't going to give him that satisfaction... Crying? She couldn't control that... But she wasn't going to let him hear her scream. She was tougher than him... Maybe not stronger. But better.

She couldn't live with herself if she didn't prove that... People like Senya were the worst. She knew it. She wasn't going to let him win.

~

Alki turned over the guild badge. She heard sounds of a conversation in the distance. Probably something that didn't matter. She knew she was irrelevant to it. Darcy and Sova were talking about something... Something important. She didn't want to be there... She didn't want to know what they were talking about. Alki's eyes wandered, briefly, over to Chance, who seemed to be doing a whole lot of nothing. She heard a squeal from her sister, and... Was that pain...?

The jigglypuff didn't want to fight... She couldn't fight... Was she a coward? ...Yes... Yes, she was. She watched, as the Glaceon put a paw on her sister's shoulder... And started cutting... Cutting, going down, down, down... blood was dripping...

Alki felt herself cry, powerless, just like she always was. Even when she'd been an igglybuff, living by herself, at the pond... She'd been bullied, and there was nothing she could do... Now, she was watching her sister get hurt by a much, much more powerful bully...

And again, there was nothing she could do...

Alki rose up sharply, and she took one step towards the duo, unsure of what she might do... And she saw her sister. Crying... Bleeding... Dying...? "D-D-Darcy, d-don't... d-d-d-don't d-d-d... D-Don't die... " Alki managed in a quiet, imperceptible tone, before collapsing to the floor, her world going black.

Alright, now he was starting to feel like he actually should get moving. The zorua got up and approached without any particular haste in his step. He watched the skitty take the abuse, but he didn't exactly feel anything particular about it. He probably should, but everything felt so disconnected that he wondered if this was all just a dream. He didn't understand what exactly was going on even with a moment to think about the events. That glaceon was Sova, a guild member...who was also supposed to be his dad. Yet, these two referred to him as Senya now.

Did he have some secret outlaw identity? That'd explain why he got with Mirage a lot more...

Normal circumstances would have made him excited about this prospect, but instead the thoughts drifted away just as easily as they came in. One thing that did cling to the little bubble he found himself in, however, was the fact that this skitty declared hatred against the glaceon.

"That's not fair..." his voice spoke out to the skitty in the same matter-of-fact way as he did before with his comment to Sova earlier. "You asked for it." He spoke as if there was absolutely nothing at all wrong with this situation and the events leading up to it.

Senya couldn't help but be surprised when he pressed the makeshift claws against the skitty, and she began to bleed. She didn't recoil and flee, and she was... doing her best not to beg him to stop. He was thrown further into disbelief as he began to drag the claws over her and she still stood her ground, despite how obvious it was that she was terrified and in more pain than someone like her was built to handle. Sova still wasn't showing up to try and stop him, nor was anyone else, and Darcy was actually facing the punishment she had requested with... dignity? Maybe that wasn't the right word, but the fact that she was going through with it at all was impressive.

The slight smile on Senya's face wavered, as if he couldn't decide whether it should grow... or shrink. As he dragged the claws over weak flesh, he could feel the sensations in the ice as if it were an extension of himself, and it thrilled him. Thrilled? That was right, wasn't it? It made him feel... something. Was this, possibly, better than usual experience of hurting someone? Normally, it was someone who deserved it, or at least someone who had provoked him. This... was a different feeling entirely. He had someone he could truly call a victim, and she was willing, all just to prove some point to him. Surely he had demonstrated that he was not Sova by now, so she was just sticking it out on principle at this point. What a personal moment, and he had this moment all to himself, without Sova to interrupt it...

His ears flicked at the sounds of voices; the jigglypuff, and "his" child. One afraid of Darcy dying, the other criticizing her for being upset. Sova's kid was actually starting to look kind of cool too... but for now, the center of attention was Darcy, and all the voices served only as motivation to keep going. Keep doing what he was born to do, making someone suffer... and finally without having to worry about doing it for some higher purpose. He didn't need "justification" here. It was a free pass.

Darcy seemed upset about it. She was insuting him and saying... things that were probably meant to be more vulgar than they actually were. She was lashing out at him in the only way she could, and he actually respected it. He respected everything about this skitty.

His icy claws stopped in place. The look on his face shifted to a frown, if only for a moment. This... felt weird. Maybe he was going too slow? He had never tried that before; normally his violence was very fast-paced and... action-y... Deciding a change of pace was what was needed, he suddenly whipped his paw across the skitty's chest, finishing clawing her in an instant. He had also lessened the pressure, and thus lessened the resistance, so that he could cut through her skin faster... obviously. It resulted in the severity of the wound significantly lessening from what he had previously been inflicting, but... it was faster! Faster was better!

He stared at the wound... then redirected his gaze to the bloodied ice coating his paw. His eyes flitted around from side to side at nothing in specific in confusion as he tried to process this feeling. It wasn't good. This definitely didn't feel good. He hesitantly placed his paw back on the ground and looked back to the skitty, an agitated glare coming over him for a moment... before fading. "I... like you," he spoke quietly, still trying to process the odd feelings. He was confused, but he surprisingly didn't feel like taking that out on her, and he wasn't going to let this strange sensation get the best of him and stop him from giving due credit.

He liked her. She was interesting. And... he had never felt so... odd about hurting someone before. That last part was bothering him. It bothered him so much, in fact, that he didn't realize he was putting pressure into his paw again, instinctively trying to cut someone.

The sound of the ice cracking against the ground caught his attention. The bloody icicles coating his paw had been broken by the force of him pushing down against them. He hadn't even realized it. He looked down to confirm this, then trailed his gaze back up the skitty. He couldn't bring himself to look happy, or even mad. Instead he just stared at her, as if trying to analyze something complex and confusing about her.

He felt... guilty. This wasn't fun at all.

Darcy watched through gritted teeth and a sea of tears as the Glaceon's mood shifted. His smile first began to waver, trembling as if uncertain about something... What was there to be uncertain about? He'd certainly felt very, very confident earlier... His comments before this whole thing started simply confirmed that to her. He'd been looking forward to this, and now... now he was doubtful? She wanted to speak,  but... She was too pained to form a coherent sentence. She knew that, so she didn't even try. She'd wait until this was over, and then... Then she'd have something to say.

She vaguely heard voices, and she could identify them as Alki and Chance. But she couldn't understand what they were saying. Everything was screaming at her in her head, drowning them out... Run away, Run away, Run away... And she was screaming back, in her own mind: No. The Skitty was quivering, standing on shaky legs as she took the punishment. ...She was going to need a hospital. How expensive were hospitals...?


Darcy felt the claw stop, motionless, still inside her chest... What was he doing? Taunting her? Drawing the moment out even more...? It was Freezing. Her chest was freezing, and the blood that poured down her chest was the only warmth she was afforded. He frowned... What the heck was up with him...? The Skitty was still shaking. She knew she wasn't built for something like this... She hadn't even evolved yet... She couldn't take something like this, but she knew she had to... For herself, and for Alki, and for Sova...

"W-W-Wha-" She began quietly, her voice trembling as she tried hard not to faint from the sudden additional exertion of talking... But she didn't get to finish her sentence. Senya finished cutting her, with one, fast swipe across her chest.

"Nghhh..." She grunted, stumbling backwards at the sudden impact and surprise of the speedy attack. And then... it was over. She fell onto her rear, and then fell forward, lying down, resting her head on her forelegs, panting. It was over... He was done, finally... Done...

She took a moment to rest, to try to consolidate her pain and get it under control... That... This was the worst thing that had ever happened to her. Bar none... The worst day of her life... She opened her eyes, weakly taking in the sight before her. He was staring at his paw, the sickly red liquid that was her own blood coating it. It was more red than blue... Then his eyes started to look around, back and forth, back and forth... For what? What was he searching for...? Finally, a look of guilt came over his face. Guilt...

"Y-Y-You... l-like me?" Darcy panted out, even in her current state of pain, still wanting to stick it to the Glaceon. "W-Well, you sure have a funny way of sh-showing it... What do you s-say that next time, we... w-we grab a c-coffee, or tea, and a biscuit, a-and just... chat? I know a good place in Grassveil!" She paused, mostly to collect her breath and get her breathing and pain under control. Then she continued. "A-Actually... N-Nevermind... I hate your guts, Senya. Screw you. People like you... Y-You're nothing more than a bully... A-And I beat you! You were taunting m-me... Y-You probably expected me to r-run away, o-or hide, or... s-something..."

She paused, shaking violently now... She was furious, and she was in so much pain... She felt  black splotches beginning to fill the rim of her vision. But she wasn't going to pass out... "B-But i didn't... I-I'm just a-as tough as y-you are, S-Senya... Just as tough... B-But... I care for people... I-I try to be a good person, I... I-I'm a better Pokemon than y-you... And I win... I-I'm not afraid... afraid of y-you... A-And I won't ever lose to the likes of you... S-Screw you."
Darcy fell silent, unable to continue her little speech, however much she might've liked to. She was in too much pain, and talking so much had only exacerbated it... She could feel the blood sliding down her chest, falling onto her paws, but... There was nothing she could do... If she died, she just hoped that Alki would be able to find her way home... Her eyes began to slowly fall shut, and she felt herself on the verge of passing out. Truthfully, she didn't want to die yet... She hoped that's all it was, fainting...

But she didn't want to faint yet either...

"A-Are you d-done..." She managed to mumble... That was an important question to ask...[/color]