Lost Cause

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Each step was made with hesitance, but he was fairly certain that this path was the safest. The only problem was that it was a guaranteed safety. His eyes darted about to and fro with a growing sense of dread and anxiety. He was alone, out in the open, in the place he'd last seen Voix. For all he knew the damned Zoroark lived here and yet he was coming back. It made his skin crawl and fur stand. He honestly looked adorably fluffy more so than terrifying. He swallowed his fears as he stepped along, uncertainty kept him from making much progress.

He came with the intent of collecting some items, a sack strapped around his side. The light crystal blue necklace dangled from his neck as he walked on all four legs. It was much more comfortable this way. It kept his stomach less exposed, far easier to run from danger as well. Zadira needed more items though. Not only for his own protection, but to hopefully sell them to the local merchant back at Grassveil, maybe an explorer or two. The debt he needed to pay was big and the lawyer made it perfectly clear what would happen if he couldn't keep on his payments.

It was understandable, considering the pachirisu saved what was essentially the rest of his life, but the lawyer's expectations were brutal. He could either pay up or he was going right back to where he was found.

More confusion was pushed against Roi. His eyebrow couldn't raise any higher and his head couldn't tilt any further. "A debt? I don't remember him ever saying anything about a debt," Roi shook his head in further disapproval, "Besides, I-Caritas should be able to help with something like that without resorting to this." An uncertain frown crossed him as he took a few seconds to process this information. It was easy to presume the mawile must have been attacked with Zadira around-given what she added on at the end.

"I'll have a word with him," the breloom declared decisively after some thought, "He's a stubborn one, but Caritas and I can usually reason with him." He stood up straight and with confidence and certainty. "Down where your friend went, right?" he asked, though he didn't exactly wait for an answer as he started on his way back down the path in the direction he saw the zangoose leave in.

----

His claws met air again. He missed his mark by a long shot. Out of the corner of his vision, he could see Mocha being assaulted by Mocha. There was blood. His eyes focused on the scarlet color, but he was far quicker to rip his attention away. This wasn't real. None of this was real. His eyes flashed around in search of where his duplicate ran off too, but it seemed as if he had disappeared all together...that was until he noticed that "Mocha" was currently fighting "himself."

His eyes widened. This was absolutely a work of the illusion, but his rage-clouded mind didn't quite think about that. Wide frenzied eyes focused on the image of "him" placed over the true Mocha. He wasted no time. He flung himself at the zangoose with his claws stretched out to strike. The dark energy crackled around them as his own Night Slash unknowingly threatened to strike his friend.

Meanwhile, False!Zadira was behind the true Zadira, cowered against a rock as he clung to his wounded shoulder. The fearful look shifted into a mortified stare as stared right at Mocha's wounds. He was not visible to the true Zadira, but definitely to Mocha if she bothered to search for him. At the very least, he "managed" to call out, "MOCHA LOOK OUT!"

Mocha: [Energy: 0 + 1 (Page) = 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 0 + 1 (Page) = 1]
==================================================
Mocha’s head swiveled rapidly to see what other threat was coming at her. She saw Zadira warning her. She saw another him charging her, ready to attack. Attack who? Her? Or the other her? She was pretty sure he was aiming for her—the real her—herself. She felt all too lost, all too overwhelmed by everything. The pain, the danger, the confusion. It was all far too much.

She could have Quick Attacked away, or maybe Double Team. She could have gotten out of the way. She didn’t. What if it was fake? What if it was just a distraction so the other her could get her again? What if whatever this was, it wanted her to try to run? What if it was just another trick? A trap of some kind? What was real? What was she supposed to do?

Her ears went flat against her head. She made her best attempt at curling into a ball. She tried to make herself as small a target as possible. She wanted to hide herself, and she didn’t want to look at the others anymore. She tried to ignore it all. But the pain wasn’t something she could ignore—it was very real. Her trembling was real. Her whimpers were real. The blood—her blood—was real.

…

Maxie didn’t let the breloom leave without her. She made her best effort to keep up with him as she answered. ”Mocha, yeah. There was a big fight involving a steelix and—” she paused for a moment as a thought occurred to her. The breloom must have been a pretty heavy sleeper to not wake up to that chaos—she was pretty sure the whole mountain had been shaking.

”... Er, anyway, the fight shook Zadira up pretty badly. Mocha was helping him calm down, I suppose. We should have headed back after that whole thing but we didn’t want to risk crossing paths with the steelix or tyranitar involved again, so we were going to head up the mountain a bit further and wait a while.” She wasn’t entirely confident in that decision when she had made it, and she was growing less confident in that decision as time went on.

"Whaaaat?! He didn't have an escape orb with him?" Roi questioned with disbelief. It didn't really need a answer, however, as the breloom shook his head in disapproval. "Somehow that both surprises me and doesn't surprise me at the same time. I'd be willing to bet 100 poke that he forgot he had one-"

His steps slowed down to a stop with his attention turned away from the mawile and towards the path before him. He could hear something up head, something that sounded like the opposite of some pleasant interaction. Once the sounds fully registered, his casual demeanor switched off "Something's wrong." He started off again in a far more hurried and urgent pace. If the mawile couldn't keep up, then she would be abandoned by the breloom as he hurried to the scene.

----

Flesh. He felt flesh. The whimpers he heard weren't his-they were different. They were Mocha's. With a blink of an eye, the cowered shape of blue, red, and white lost its blue. He instantly recognized what happened. His original plan was to continue to assault the form, but now that he was aware that this was Mocha, he hesitated. His wide panicked eyes flicked down to his claws. His movements were quick-he couldn't risk precious seconds. He ran one bloodied claw along his paw. He could feel it this time. He couldn't deny it.

The look of shock contorted into horror. His prior concern for time was pushed aside and replaced with a whole new realm of problems. His stomach squeezed in on itself. His paw covered his mouth as he staggered away from Mocha. Blotches of red were left around his face as he struggled to keep his lunch down. Unpleasant imagery returned with a vengeance. The anger that blinded him was gone, but now he was frozen to the spot. He stared on at what he'd done to Mocha, uncertain of whether that even was her or not. He couldn't look away.

In the midst of his hesitation and confusion, the alternate him took this as an opportunity. While the image of himself remained behind, the true culprit behind the horror show bolted forward. Pebbles and rocks along the ground were visibly disturbed by nothing in particular in a sparse trail that led straight towards Zadira. A powerful force smashed him in his chest. Zadira was blasted off to the side with the sheer force of impact, fortunately away from the cliff side with no threat of being sent over the side...but that didn't stop solid rock and ground from hurting.

The air near Mocha shimmered as the aggressor's cloak wavered briefly. It was difficult to upkeep the illusion with the intensity of the move it just used, but it didn't seem to mind the fact that Mocha could potentially see it. It looked back at Mocha through the wavering illusion, its form nearly invisible as the illusion steadily worked back up to obscuring it. The zoroark grinned.

"What's the matter, Mocha? You look tired... Hey, maybe you should, uh, wait here?" said the mocking voice of "Zadira."

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 1]
==================================================
The concern the breloom seemed to have for Zadira seemed genuine, albeit critical. Maxie was beginning to get the impression that Roi thought Zadira should really just stay back in town, which made her wonder just how unift he really was for such adventurous thing such as this.

Maxie picked up on the fact that something was up the moment Roi paused. She listened for signs of danger, and was about to confirm the breloom’s suspicions that something was up when he himself announced just that. His sudden increase in pace was difficult for the short-statured mawile to keep up with, but not for lack of effort.

…

"What's the matter, Mocha? You look tired... Hey, maybe you should, uh, wait here?"

Mocha went wide-eyed—though her face was still covered by her forelimbs. That’s like what she had said to Zadira, before she had left him alone. But then, she hadn’t left him alone, she had left him with this Pokemon—whoever it was that was torturing them both. She should have let him come with her. Maybe they would have avoided all of this, or at least there’d have been more people to help deal with it.

A panicked glance in the direction the voice had come from—it was Zadira’s voice, but she knew it couldn’t have been Zadira—showed her very little, just the fading image of some Pokemon, dark, but too far gone for her to identify. But she knew where it was, she needed to do something. She needed to attack it, stop it somehow.

She tried to stand, but the slightest shifting caused the claw wounds in her back—both old and new—to feel as if they were ablaze. She whined again, teeth gritted, eyes squeezed shut. She stayed where she was. She’d been in fights before—she’d lived with other zangoose. She knew what it felt like to catch a claw. So, she knew that the Pokemon that had sunk it’s claws into her just a moment ago wasn’t the one taunting her right now.

She forced her eyes open again, frantically searching for Zadira—the real Zadira. The one that had just attacked her. She found him a distance away, on the ground, blood on his face—her blood? It didn’t matter.

She tried to force herself up again, doing her best to ignore her body telling her not to move. She was making progress—slow, suffering progress—until she felt something push her back down by shoving her back right at the worst of the wounds.

"Wait. Here."

…

Roi reached the point where the scene ahead was in sight before Maxie did. When Maxie did finally see what was going on, her heart sank. She didn’t get to take in the entirety of the scene—the moment she saw Mocha she got tunnel vision. ”MOCHA!”

She moved as fast as possible to reach her friend. She didn’t seem to notice Zadira ahead of her, or the other Zadira off to the side, with blood on his claws and face. She only passingly noticed that there was another zangoose near Mocha. The fact that it was identical to her friend didn’t register.

She just had to reach Mocha.

The breloom was on guard. He expected the mawile to be cautious as well, but that hope was snuffed as Maxie instead bolted towards the form of her friend. Roi's eyes darted about with quick and analytical thought. There was certainly more than one zangoose here, two of Zadira from the looks of it. His wary expression focused on the scene the mawile ran towards. His claws ticked together as his body lowered defensively.

He could see the duplicate, but the presence of the two felt different. The Mind Reader move was quick to reveal the true nature of who was who, which kicked him into action. Momentarily after the mawile overtook him, he bolted forward with the intent to surpass her. His attempt at heroism was put to a stop as a flash of white slammed into his side. His claws dug into the ground as he met the sudden force with his own strength. He was hardly even moved as he easily twisted the movement and momentum against his aggressor.

He slammed Zadira's body to the ground and pinned him there. The bristling zangoose hissed and spat at him, desperately trying to strike the breloom with the same bloodied claws he'd struck Mocha with before. The breloom wasn't left with much of a choice but to wrestle with the zangoose, which left Maxie with the threat he wanted to deal with himself.

"Ack-Zadira, you idiot it's me!" Roi fumed at the zangoose. While he easily overpowered Zadira, it was still difficult to keep from being scratched by the scarlet razors attached to the ferret's paws. He looked back to the mawile running back and cried out, "Maxie! Zoroark-" He had no idea if the mawile would understand or even hear him, but he provided the opportunity to say much more as Zadira nicked him right on the mushroom cap. "Knock it off you insane bastard-ugh!"

----

The mawile approached. This pleased the zoroark-the one that pretended to be Zadira as there were two masterminds at work here. While he held the zangoose down, the scene the mawile would see played out far differently than how it truly was. The form of "Mocha" was crippled and on the ground, with a tad more blood placed here and there to exaggerate the severity of the zangoose's condition just a little.

"Mocha"-not the fake one that stood beside them, but the image of Mocha on the ground herself, looked to the mawile with a pained look. The zoroark that pinned Mocha down's voice shifted to a much more effeminate tone. While it wasn't nearly as spot on as Zadira's mockery, it was strangely close, "M-Maxie! I-It's Zadira-He attacked me!" Any attempts for the true Mocha to speak would be met with further pain inflicted upon her. The goal would be to prevent her from speech, but there was always the possibility that she spoke despite it.

The form of the false zadira he upheld by the rocks vanished, while the zoroark gestured for its partner to cut the illusion of the false Mocha duplicate with a wave of his claw over his neck. The breloom spoke out, but the zoroark was late to trying to cut the voice of the grass type off with a feigned cry of pain from Mocha as she "attempted" to stand up. The zoroark glanced back to the companion before he nodded towards the breloom in a silent command to take care of it. If the mushroom could figure that out just by looking at them, then he needed to go.

----

Zadira was quick to try to pick himself up, mostly out of instinct. The process was as slow as Mocha's attempt, but he held far more success without a foe actively pushing him down. His paw was placed on his chest as he struggled for air. As he gradually remembered what just occurred, he looked back up to see Mocha's predicament-or rather just her being unable to get up with no obvious outward resistance. His stomach twisted and turned in direction he didn't even think possible.

His attention was drawn away by the sound of Maxie's voice. Slowly, his head turned in their direction. He could see Maxie running towards Mocha...and then Roi running towards Maxie. The fury returned in an instant. He knew that wasn't real. Voix was taunting him. Movement was painful, but the new wave of adrenaline helped him to ignore it. He smashed into the side of the breloom, but in the blink of an eye, he was the one being pinned to the ground.

Blindly, he lashed out. He could see that Roi spoke, but all he heard was a steady ring in his ears as even his own cries seemed to fade into the background of it all. He refused to give up. He wasn't about to lose another friend to Voix. Even if this looked like Roi, he was going to do everything he could to take him down. "This isn't real" his mind repeated to itself.

Except it was. Just like with Mocha, this Roi was no illusion. This realization never struck him, even as small puffy bits of gren steadily drifted down from the cap and into his face. His movements quickly became weaker and slower, as the Spore attack worked its magic.

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 1]
==================================================
Maxie was about halfway to to Mocha when she heard her name. By the time she turned back to Roi, though, he was occupied with trying to handle Zadira. Zadira was attacking him. She turned back to Mocha.

Zoroark. Maxie had heard Roi, despite the noise. She knew what a zoroark was, and more importantly, what they could do. She turned back to Mocha, just missing the illusionary duplicate fading. She approached Mocha. ”I’m sorry, Mocha. I shouldn’t have left you with him.” She leaned down to examine the damage done to the zangoose. Taking great care not to touch the worst of the wound, she felt around it, as if searching for something.

She decided to take a low-risk gamble. ”I know you’re there.” Without any further warning, she turned away from Mocha, swinging her iron-shearing jaws speedily towards the seemingly empty space on the other side of the wounded zangoose. She felt the impact. Now glancing behind her, she could see the zoroark recoiling, losing its grip on it’s illusion. She saw Mocha properly—still badly wounded, and terrified like Maxie had never seen—but not nearly as bad as she had looked just a moment ago.

”Sorry, Mocha. Just hang tight, okay?” Maxie got up and stepped around her friend, standing between her and the zoroark. She allowed her bag to drop to the ground next to Mocha. ”I know how your game works. Let’s see how well you do against a player who knows the rules.”

The zoroark looked surprised. It was about to say something, but Maxie didn’t give it that chance. Her jaw-like horns lashed out at the trickster, forcing it to backpedal to avoid the chomping jaws.

Mocha was relieved to feel the pressure against her back fade. She didn’t bother trying to stand this time, though. She did, however, open her eyes and look about. After a moment, she began to sit up. She suddenly became aware of how the situation had changed since she had retreated into a terrified ball of fur. The breloom was wrestling with Zadira. Maxie was fighting a new Pokemon—the thing that was tricking them, she had to assume.

She wanted to shout out to Zadira, tell him that the breloom wasn’t a trick, but she couldn’t. For one thing, the idea of trying to shout at all seemed exhausting—she felt as if she didn’t have the energy in her to do so. For another, she wasn’t sure the breloom wasn’t a trick. She hadn’t seen him arrive.

She felt faint, suddenly. She watched helplessly as the breloom subdued Zadira; watching the zangoose’s movements grow sluggish. She felt the same way. She laid back down on her side, dazed.

While Roi was careful not to put Zadira totally asleep, the zangoose's bloodied claws fell to his sides as the resistance subsided. Despite the size and weight of Zadira, Roi was able to lift the semi-unconscious body onto his back. His attention was switched over to the mawile, who fortunately understood his message. It was a relief to see the fae stand up against the zoroark, but they were still far from safe.

Another presence approached. While he saw nothing, a single thought popped into his mind. Fire. He was quick to pivot and leap from the spot just as jet of fire spewed from seemingly nowhere onto the stop he stood. There were two of them. This wasn't in his mission statement, but he wouldn't be a very good explorer if he was shaken up by every wrong detail in his job. Instead, his arm released its hold on the zangoose and reeled back. The landing from his first jump resulted in another twist back to the direction he'd come from.

He bounced towards where the flamethrower sourced from just as it ended. His fingers curled into a fist as he shot is arm forward into apparent nothingness. A burst of force from the Dynamic Punch was created as his attack struck something. The illusion of the zoroark collapsed in on itself and revealed the tricky pokemon. His punch landed straight on the zoroark's jaw line, which made quick work of the fox as their face suddenly became trapped between the ground and a breloom's fist.

He didn't stick around and confirm the zoroark's status as fainted. He was confident it was more than enough. Instead, he'd twirl on his toes back in the direction of Maxie and Mocha. First order of business as an explorer no matter the mission: Evacuate the injured and helpless. He had a plan to get them all out of here, but he needed to get back with Mocha and Maxie, get the warp seed out of his bag, and then gather them all together.

At least he was pretty sure a Warp Seed would teleport all of them if they were touching.

That was normally a question for Zadira.

...

On second thought maybe he should warp the zoroark instead of himself. First things first: regroup.

moveset notes:

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 1]
==================================================
Maxie didn’t let up. A bite at the zoroark’s foot, then another at the neck, then the other foot—never touching, but always threatening. She kept up a regular pattern—easy for her opponent to catch on. Eventually, the zoroark did. When Maxie left an opening, the tricky Pokemon struck out with a Shadow claw—only for it to get caught by the jaws that darted right in their path. They held the zoroark’s arm tight, but not dangerously so.

”You use dirty tricks to pick on others. Two can play that game—deceptive tactics are a mawile’s specialty.” Her voice was low and completely humourless. With not another word spoken, the mawile’s metal jaws jerked downard, pulling the zoroark by the arm down to the ground. A series of punches and kicks from the mawile directed at the zoroark ensued, empowered by a subtle pink glow. It was very effective.

…

Mocha watched Roi with barely open eyes. Picking up Zadira, carrying him, getting attacked by—Mocha turned as quickly as she could—which was not quickly at all—back to Maxie. She was fighting the other Pokemon, still. The same kind that Roi had just taken down. There were two of them. Two of them that they had found—that they could see. There could have been more, right? How would they ever know?

The steady thump of the breloom's hurried hops grew close to Mocha. A quick survey of Mocha informed Roi that she could survive another few moments without immediate medical attention-if not more. He was still split between which side to remove from the equation-them or the zoroark. Maxie bought him plenty of time it seemed as she kept the zoroark that acted as Zadira occupied. He glanced back in the direction of the zoroark he attacked as he shifted the burden on his back onto the ground near Mocha. The dark type lay still on the ground, but he didn't trust his eyes.

His trust was placed in Mind Reader, which helped him determine that what he saw there was the truth. That zoroark was definitely down and out. Which meant there was only one problem child now-the one Maxie snapped onto. He glanced down to his bag, but then looked to the position of the zoroark. A split-second decision resulted in the abandonment of his original plan. If one was down and the other was stuck, then perhaps he wouldn't need to use an item after all. His fingers curled into a fist as it charged up with the same powerful attack that clocked out the prior opponent.

"Keep it there!" his command rang out for Maxie. He didn't wait to see if she heard or acknowledged the plan. He launched himself in their direction with a fist reeled back and ready to deliver another Dynamic Punch with a landing straight onto the zoroark-which he presumed would be held to the spot by the mawile.

The fox panicked. Each tiny strike of the mawile seemed to pack a harsher punch than he anticipated. He could hear the breloom's command as well as the approach. He tried repeatedly to tug himself free and force the mawile to release him, but waited until just the last moment to try something different, "Let go!" a mockery of Roi's voice sounded, though desperation and pain tainted the tone. It also probably wouldn't help that the voice sounded as if it came in a different direction. Who knew? Maybe the mawile would think illusions were at work. If the mawile released the zoroark, it would retaliate against the oncoming Breloom with everything it had.

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 1]
==================================================
The mawile let up on the pummeling, but she didn’t let the zoroark go. She wouldn’t, even if Roi wanted her too. She wasn’t going to let it get away from her so it could go after one of her allies again, or set up a new trick. So long as she had a hold of it, she could be sure she knew it was real. When she saw Roi coming in for the punch, she used her horns to jerk the zoroark right into the oncoming attack.

Once she felt all resistance leave the Dark-type, she finally let it go. Then, after a moment of thought, she grabbed one of it’s legs in her powerful jaws. A light blue glow emanated from them as frost, then ice began to form around the limb. A safety precaution, just in case it got back up anytime soon. She considered doing the same to the other one, but she didn’t want to leave Mocha’s side.

”Excellent job, Roi.” Maxie said as she hopped off the back of the unconscious zoroark. She returned to Mocha’s side, to make sure she was still okay—or rather, not getting any worse. ”Hey,” she practically whispered the word, although she wasn’t sure why. ”We’re good now. You’re gonna be alright.”

Mocha mumbled something unintelligible in response. ”What?”

Mocha spoke up. ”You’re not allowed to pick hiking sites anymore,” she deadpanned. She proceeded to reach for Zadira. With a bit of hesitation, she touched one of his paws with her own, squeezing a bit, as if to make sure he was real. She was pretty sure it was real.

Maxie looked up at Roi. ”Well? What now?”

The moment his fist struck the fox, he knew the fight was done. With the zoroark already weakened from Maxie's attacks, it didn't have a chance at standing after that. The fox fell and Maxie ensured that it wouldn't be getting away any time soon. He was satisfied with the fight. He left Maxie to attend the others while he surveyed the zoroark and analyzed them.

Mocha and Maxie spoke with one another while he moved the zoroark about with his foot, checking the body both to make sure it was still alive and for something a little different. With a disappointed groan, he sighed. It was only then that he realized he was spoken to. He paced back towards the group with a contemplative hum. He thought for a moment before he spoke up, "Well, I know for a fact Zadira needs to leave or else Caritas is going to throw have a fit. It looks as if your friend Mocha might appreciate it too. I don't know about you, but she'd probably going to need someone to help her and I have to stay here. None of these zoroark were my target. I also can't just leave without regrouping with my teammates."

He reached down to Zadira's body and scooped up the bag. He slid it over the zangoose's dazed head and pulled it off completely. He ruffled through the bag and its contents momentarily before he huffed with agitation. "No Escape Orb...and I don't have my team's on me either. Careless."

He closed the satchel up and dropped it by Zadira's side. "Well, I can either escort you back down the mountain myself for you to walk home or look around to see if we can find Couper-he's in charge of item management so he's bound to have at least one in the bag. We're going to be able to handle this mission alright without any real problem, so we don't really need it."

"It'd probably be safer to try and find Couper even if it's a bit of a gamble, if we get an escape orb you all won't have to walk as far and risk being jumped again once you leave the mountain. Hell, might even be able to fly at least one of you back if we find my other teammate...all after we bandage up your friend of course." His jolly attitude seemed to return now that the threat was finished. A smile returned to his expression despite the injured parties in front of him.

---

The world felt as if it were spinning. Zadira couldn't keep up with what was going on. He felt tired-really tired. He couldn't sleep though, not with what was happening. He could feel himself be picked up, moved, and then dropped again. Some more movement. Then, a squeeze on his paw. The squeeze was enough for him to slowly turn his head towards whoever held onto it.

It was a zangoose. Just as always, his mind jumped to Caritas. Just as always, he was immediately punished with a harsh reminder that it wasn't possible. It was Mocha. Instant guilt struck him as he remembered what he'd done. The threat of the zoroark was still very real to him and the reminder helped in breathing some life into him. His eyes widened as the fear returned. He bolted upright, eyes shifted about in search of the threat while his paw remained held with Mocha.

"Annnd there's sleeping beauty." An all-too familiar voice caused his blood to turn cold. His attention snapped to the breloom, who smiled back at him. "Have a nice nap?" His fur bristled. His eyes narrowed into a glare at the "illusion" as his ears pinned back. He hissed at the breloom, who responded to the hostility with surprise. "Ooookaaay you're still grouchy," the breloom stepped back, away from the zangoose, with caution.

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 1]
==================================================
Something wasn’t right. Mocha knew something wasn’t right. Something about Roi, something he had just said. The names sounded familiar. Couper—that was one of his teammates, a scyther, she remembered from Zadira’s story.  That wasn’t it. It took her a moment, but then it finally clicked.

”Caritas is dead.”

The thought just came out, quiet and emotionless. Mocha was still looking at Zadira. She realised she had vocalized the thought after a moment, and whispered an apology at Zadira. ”Sorry.” She didn’t intend to remind him of something so painful, but she imagined he never really forgot it anyhow.

”Sorry, who’s Caritas? Roi you’ve mentioned the name a few times now, and it appears we have a big discrepancy here.”

Mocha sat up—or rather, tried to, but stopped herself after only a second, wincing. Maxie proceeded to help her up to a sitting position. The entire time she kept hold of Zadira. The zangoose looked at the other, sensing the distrust he had toward Roi. She was pretty sure Zadira thought Roi was another trick—and she was beginning to get the same feeling. If Roi knew Caritas as well as his reference to her impied, he should have known what happened to her. There was no reason, as far as Mocha could figure that Zadira would lie about what happened.

A nervousness overtook Mocha’s expression. She didn’t take her eyes of Zadira. She kept her wounded back turned away from him.

Maxie, after helping Mocha sit up, turned to Roi expectantly. She didn’t know why Mocha said what she did, but she assumed Mocha had learned it from Zadira. She, too, didn’t know why Zadira would say something like that if it wasn’t true. All the same, she didn’t have any immediate reason to distrust Roi, either. There was a breakdown in logic here, and it bothered her. Explanations were in order.

Roi was wary of the hostile zangoose, but not all that surprised by him. What really surprised him was what the other zangoose had to say. "What?" his immediate response snapped at the wounded party member in disbelief. His eyes flicked back to Zadira, who's eyes focused on him with an unnerving sense of hatred he wasn't familiar with.

His smooth and confident demeanor crumbled, "B-But I spoke with her this morning...? I would know if she-" he looked to Zadira. He had an idea as to why Zadira would be here now, but he didn't understand that look in his eyes. It was possible that Zadira still considered him an illusion...but there was another possibility that seemed just as likely as the other. He paused as he tried to recollect his thoughts.

"Were you coming here to tell me?" he asked Zadira, careful to keep his hands up and available for all to see.

"Quit your bullshit," An angry and downright nasty snarl sounded from the respondent. A deep growl rumbled as his claws extended once more. He didn't quite release Mocha's hand, the sliver of desperation to keep in contact at least one real thing hooked him to her. He backed onto his hind legs and brandished the claws of his other paw in front of him. Mocha's apology may as well have fallen on deaf ears, as the breloom reached higher on the list of priorities. At the very least this meant that the reminder did as well. "They're both dead. They've been dead. I saw them. You're not going to be able to trick me with this!" Zadira hissed.

The cap of the breloom tilted off to the side as his brow raised in confusion, "They?" the mushroom pokemon questioned.

"Caritas and Roi!" he sneered almost incredulously, "Don't play dumb with me."

Roi, meanwhile, was met with...a whole mess of confusion. He stared at Zadira in sheer disbelief. He struggled to make sense of this as his mind desperately struggled to fit in the pieces that just didn't match up in some great puzzle. His gaze drifted over to the mawile, who'd so far been ignored in her question. He got the feeling that Zadira wasn't going to answer. In one way, he was relieved. The worst case scenario was untrue. For a moment, he had to wonder if Zadira came out here to attack him. Well, it was still a concern, but not for the same reason he thought. "Uh..." he mumbled, unsure of how to respond to this declaration of his status as "dead."

"I'm right here," he stated, "And Caritas-his girlfriend," he glanced over to Maxie to indicate that it was an answer to her question, "Seemed all right to me this morning. I can get thinking I'm an illusion, but-this? Are-...Are you okay Z?"

"Shut up and beat me already."

"N-No????"

Mocha: [Energy: 1]
Maxie: [Energy: 1]
==================================================
Maxie assessed the situation. Zadira was certain that Caritas was dead, that Roi was dead, and that the Roi here in front of them was some kind of trick. Roi was certain that he wasn’t dead, and was relatively sure that Caritas was okay. Based on her appearance, Mocha seemed to trust Zadira more than Roi—but she was obviously inherently biased. Maxie herself, on the other hand, had reason to trust Roi over Zadira, but she was sure to try her best to be impartial.

”Alright, everyone just calm down,” she said everyone, but she meant Zadira. ”I’m relatively certain that Roi is not an illusion, or a zoroark in disguise. That said, there’s definitely something odd about all this.”

She reached into Zadira’s bag and withdrew his medkit. ”Mocha, I’m going to patch you up.” She briefly considered making a teasing, humorous comment, but opted against it, given the confusing and generally terrible situation they were in.

Mocha whispered a short affirmative and adjusted slightly to accommodate Maxie’s work, but otherwise remained still and quiet.

”In the meantime… Zadira, please refrain from trying to kill Roi. Roi, I trust that you have no intentions of hurting Zadira. In an effort to try and make some semblance of sense out of all this, I’m going to ask a few questions.” She started to work on dressing Mocha’s wounds, being as gentle as possible. Mocha squeezed Zadira’s hand on reflex at the contact of the dressing material with her back.

”Roi, why are you here, and why is your team split up?” She figured he was searching for a zoroark, based on the fact that he was investigated the one they had just knocked out. The fact that he was split up from his team, and napping all alone in a relatively dangerous area, did strike her as fairly odd.

"Oooh dear-" Were the first words out of Roi's mouth as mawile attempted to take control of the situation. While he was more than willing to cooperate, Zadira's growls only grew deeper.

Calm down? Calm down? Zadira could hardly believe what the mawile was suggesting. How could he possibly calm down when "Voix" was right there in front of him? His muscles tensed as his grip on Mocha's paw grew tighter. It was during this moment that Zadira's mind crafted an idea. It wasn't really a good idea, but it certainly made him feel smarter. Voix was trying to undermine his trustworthiness with his new friends. With the way the "zoroark"-who were just more illusions crafted by Voix-tried to get him to attack Mocha, the idea must have been to try to get his friends to attack him. It had to be!

Well, he wasn't about to let him do that. Oooh no-no-no. He had to show them it was Voix. Show them that this was just another zoroark messing with them. The best way to do that, was to take down the illusion. If he could get a good hit off, then they'd know. He could last a little while against Voix-he was confident. He wouldn't win, but that wasn't the goal.

He let go of Mocha's hand. Both claws now pointed at the breloom threateningly. "Z don't-" He didn't give Voix a chance to finish whatever lie he was about to spew. He launched himself forward in a flash of bright white in attempt to slam into him with everything he had. The breloom stepped back and shifted its arms as he came in close-

He saw stars. Something smashed right into his face and sent him back to Mocha's side, tumbling to the ground and falling onto his back. He was still conscious, but a small stream of blood began to leak from his bright blue nose. His look of anger dissipated as the world began to spin around him. Little black dots danced in front of his eyes, they taunted him over how easily he was defeated...was it just him or were there birds twittering about?

Roi, after smashing Zadira's face in, didn't seem all that pleased with what just occurred, but not exactly regretful either. He gave his hand a loose shake, as if it began to sting from its excessive use for the day, though the punch he delivered to Zadira was nowhere near what it could have been in power...somehow that punch felt good. He wasn't going to say that though.

"I don't want to hurt him, but it's not going to stop me from defending myself," he explained before he began to relax a little again. He straightened himself up as he began to speak in a more informative and orderly fashion, "Breakout's on a mission to capture an outlaw that's been sighted around these parts. A Zoroark funnily enough. We split up to search for more ground. We have a rendezvous point, but we're not set to meet up again until tomorrow morning."