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I woke to the sound of an angry growl.

My eyes shot open and I was halfway to the entrance of my den... when I realized in embarrassment that the growl had come from my stomach.

I glanced around the den just to be sure, but I was alone.

I sat down with a sigh and stared at my stomach. I had done too much last night - dragging the heavy container everywhere, all of the running. All the pain from the Poochyena attacks.

I needed to eat something.

There was nothing for me in my den. I slipped into the simple harness with the satchel attached, stuffed the stolen sack of nuggets into it, and jumped out onto the street. I was going to have to keep looking for that Murkrow, and hope I could get a good deal for the stolen goods. I was going to need enough to last for however long it took for the Raticate to be willing to give me new jobs, and I had a feeling that wasn't going to be any time soon..

The Murkrow refused to even speak to me.

So did the creepy Zigzagoon that hoarded everything it could get its paws on, the flock of Pidove that always seemed able to find food somewhere, and even the Kekleon with a legitimate business once I got desperate enough to try him.

The Raticate had spread the word - nobody was going to give me a crumb.

I slunk around aimlessly for a bit, just on the odd chance I might find something edible... but I came up just as empty as I knew I would.

I don't know why I went back to the house - to the Mercers' home. Maybe it was because I thought I could steal something else. Maybe I had been having second thoughts on changing my mind. Maybe I wanted another look at where everything had started going downhill.

Maybe I just wanted to remind myself it was worth it.

Whatever the reason, I headed back to their home. I was a few houses away when I began to smell it - the sweet but acrid smell that made me wrinkle my nose even as it made the flames inside me grow hotter. The same smell I had put up with most of last night, as I was lacing the trees to prepare to trap the Poochyena - that same flammable liquid. Gasoline.

I gave up trying to stay hidden and broke into a run. I heard a Lillipup begin shouting as I dove into the yard and felt a sudden hope. Was that the Pokemon I had snuck by when I robbed the Mercers? Maybe it could wake them up, get them out of the house before anything happened.

I glanced around for the source of the smell, but it was coming from all around. I poked at the dirt under my paws and felt a slick substance covering the grass and dirt there - somebody had dumped gas all over the yard, lots of it. There was an oily sheen on the pavement leading up to the house, and the walls seemed darker than I remembered them being, slick. There was so much of the gasoline all around the front of the house; even the slightest ember would be enough to incinerate the house. Maybe even the ones nearby, if it wasn't put out quickly enough - without the liquid coating them it wouldn't be as easy for them to catch fire, but if it had enough time...

I looked at both sides of the house in a panic, but the smell was just as strong from both directions. I dashed to the closer side, hoping I would get lucky... and I did. A Sentret was visible on the roof from that side of the house, one that looked vaguely familiar, but I didn't have time to try and remember where I had seen it before. It had simply upended a container on the roof, one like I had borrowed the night before, and a yellowish liquid poured out from it to soak down the side of the house. There were other containers farther out of sight - how long had the Sentret been doing this?! - but they were all lying on their sides either on the roof or in the grass. And the Sentret...

The Sentret was holding a small rectangular object in its hand, an object I recognized with a sinking feeling deep in my stomach: the tiny machine humans used to make fires.

The Sentret was an idiot - if it sat that off there, it wouldn't even have to drop the flame; it would spread through the fumes in the air and set the whole place ablaze in an instant. The Sentret wouldn't even have time to get away - something I realized it obviously didn't understand as it frowned and began fiddling with the machine.

"STOP! You're going to se-"

The Sentret was turning to look at me with widening eyes... but his paw had already been moving. The wheel at the top of the machine made a clicking sound that I somehow managed to hear even over the pounding of my heart... and then a wave of fire was rushing towards me.

It washed over and past me in the same instant; the entire yard was consumed with crackling fires in seconds. I heard a scream from somewhere above me and saw the Sentret going flying from the roof - the explosive heat and superheated air must have thrown it clear. Which probably saved his life.

I dashed after the now-flying normal type. He landed about halfway to the street - or more accurately, about halfway to safety. He disappeared in the flames and began screaming louder, obviously panicking as it tried to roll and stamp out the fire - a useless gesture, given how thoroughly the oily fluid had been spread through the yard.

I scooped up the Sentret in my jaws and carried it free of the flames, out into the street. I dropped it and began slapping it with my tails, knocking it over but also robbing the fires of the air it needed. The Sentret was left with badly scorched fur... but it wasn't on fire anymore. I pinned it down with my paws and growled at it. "What are you doing?!"

The Sentret looked up at me with a dazed expression. "Had to hurry... robbery..."

Robbery? I had already robbed the place; what was the hurry? "What? What are you talking about?" I shook the Sentret, bouncing it against the pavement of the street until it looked up at me with clearer eyes.

"Eep! Y-you! I was just... the Raticate said you wouldn't, so he told me to do it instead! Had to spread that nasty stuff everywhere first, so the Poochyena could get out, and had to do it tonight, while the cops were distracted with the robbery! You have to let me go, I have to help..." The Sentret struggled for a bit under my paws... then sagged and looked up at me in desperation, eyes wide with fear. But... not fear for himself. Even through the scorched fur and the obvious pain he was feeling from his burns, I could tell he didn't want to get away - he wanted to get to something. And he confirmed it with his next words. "He took my family."

I shot a look back at the house, feeling sudden dread at my mistake. Of course... if I wouldn't, the Raticate would just get somebody else to do it. And... if nobody else would do it, he would just _make_somebody do it. Just like he had tried to with me.

I thought about roughing the Sentret up a bit more - he had just destroyed another family, with nothing left but the burning, and I was hungry enough to search him for that berry he had stolen - that's where I had seen him before! - but I was interrupted by a sudden yell from the second story of the house.

A child's voice, a young girl, letting out a single terrified scream: "DADDY!!"

I let go of the Sentret and dashed back into the flames.

I hurtled through one of the windows and landed in the living room. I felt stings all over my body from where now-broken glass must have cut me, but there was no time to worry about that. I scanned over the room... fires were consuming the outer walls and pouring smoke along the ceiling, but the center was still mostly clear. A hideous noise shrieked all around me, coming from something hidden up in the growing smoke above me, and it hurt. I lowered my ears in a grimace - it didn't help any but it made me feel better - and I took another glance around the room. It was clear; nobody was in it. One room down, who knew how many more to go.

I ran to the hallway... and hesitated. The stairs would lead up to the child... but there were two other doors in the hallway; somebody might be trapped in them. This was getting rapidly ugly and it was a question now of what would get worse first - would somebody be safer on the ground level as the house started to come apart? This hadn't been planned with any intent; the house was simply going to be consumed from the outside in, so there was no telling what part would go first. Would the house collapse first, crushing whoever might be on the first floor? Or would it hold out long enough that I could safely focus on whoever might be choking from the heavier smoke on the second floor?

No. Not whoever - it was a child on the second floor.

I felt something in my heart break even as I was making the decision, knowing how heavy a cost it might have on somebody... and I turned away from the doors to instead run up the stairs.

The steps weren't falling apart as I jumped up them, but I knew that would be coming soon. They weren't that hot, either, so if I was quick the girl would still be able to get down them safely. I shot onto the second floor and ran towards the doors I had ignored the first time I had been in the home. I immediately began coughing - being a fire type helped with the intense heat of the fire, but the second floor was covered in heavy plumes of oppressive smoke. My lungs screamed at me to head back downstairs... but I ignored it. I was lower to the floor than anybody else up here would be, and they wouldn't have protection against the growing heat.

I pushed on to the door.

It was closed.

I knew some Pokemon had ways of opening doors - paws that were flexible enough, psychic powers, a head that was hard enough to just bull through it - but the only method I really had of getting through a closed heavy door was to set it on fire. And that wasn't going to help things.

I slammed into the door, already knowing I didn't weigh enough to break it... but the thump of my body impacting it attracted attention. I heard a voice from inside - the girl, the one I had heard yelling. "Daddy?!"

I cringed and shook my head. I had to get her out of there, but the door was too heavy. Maybe she could open it? "Open the door!" I yelled through the door, hoping the human would hear me over the growing roar of the fire - and hoping she would understand me.

There was silence for a moment - or at least, there was nothing but the cackling of fire and the shrill yelling of the loud machine somewhere in the smoke above me - then the girl replied in a confused voice. "Spot? Is that you?"

Spot...? Oh. The Lillipup.

I shook my head and slammed into the door again... but it was no use. I glanced down the hallway, struggling to see through the thick smoke. Maybe somebody would be in the other room that could help? I slunk towards it, moving quickly but also doing my best to avoid putting even my small weight on any part of the floor that felt weak. There was no telling how much damage the floor below had taken, and I didn't want to find out by suddenly falling through a weakened section.

I arrived to the other room and found it open. I felt a sudden hope again - maybe there would be somebody asleep inside, somebody who could help me open the other door! I pushed through the smoke and searched the room, stumbling blindly around it... but it was empty. I jumped on the bed to make sure, but there was nobody there.

No...

I ducked back out into the hallway and rushed into the last two rooms, moving faster from panic as I came up empty again, and again. Where was the rest of the family? What had happened to the Lillipup - would they be coming up soon to help me? Or had they made it out already? Did they even know the girl hadn't?

I ran back to the closed door and slammed into it one more time, desperate. "Open the door!"

I heard something shifting on the other side of the door. Somebody was moving... yes! Coming closer to the door! I felt my tails swishing with sudden excitement - I could do this, I could cover as much of her with my tails and body as I could, could help her get through the flames and outside to safety, could... could...

"Daddy... everything's fuzzy..." My hopes flickered at the confusion in the voice on the other side of the door... then died with the sound of a heavy thump.

She hadn't made it to the door - she had fallen over somewhere in the room.

There wasn't much time left. She would do better for a little bit now that she had fallen over; she would be closer to the ground, where the smoke was pushing all the cooler air, but it wouldn't last. It would just be a minute or two. I threw myself at the door again, then one more time, growing increasingly desperate. Why wasn't anybody else here? If the Raticate had distracted the cops... but the family, the neighbors, somebody! I couldn't even see well enough through the smoke to make out the door handle - was it a knob that would slip and fall away anytime I tried to turn it? A handle that I could just pull down on? A bar I had to push on, like I had seen on other buildings? Maybe I could... I jumped up on the door and felt around with my paws. Maybe... no. It was a knob. I tried to turn it, just in case, but my paws rolled uselessly around it, unable to get a grip or make it move any.

I fell back down to the ground. No... there had to be something...

I heard a sudden sizzling sound and looked down, surprised. What had made that sound...?

A second sizzling sound, but I caught the source this time - the fire was growing and was licking at the floor near me... and my tears had begun landing in them.

I struck the door again. And I struck it again, just as uselessly. And...

A sudden heavy crack broke through the sound of the alarm. I opened my eyes in surprise, only then realizing I had closed them.

A jagged hole was in the center of the door. A hole far bigger than I was, and through it I could see inside the room. Smoke, dim shapes of furniture along the walls, a young girl lying on the floor...

And the Umbreon that had bashed through the door.

"Come on! Get her ready to move; I'll get the rest of the door out of the way!" The Umbreon shouted at me, voice somehow louder than even the blaring alarm, and I nodded. I jumped through the hole and moved to the girl. Her breathing was slow and she looked paler than I thought humans should, but other than that she looked okay - it didn't look like she had been hurt from the fall.

I nudged at her hand and it twitched... but that was all. She wasn't going to be able to help any. But... she wasn't that large, maybe I could...

I nudged at her arm again and pushed it up, then tried to slip under it. It fell over me, and I tried to take advantage of that to get under her - maybe if I balanced her just right, I could lift her enough to...

She fell off me and landed back on the floor with another thump.

Okay, that wasn't going to work.

I heard another heavy crash from behind me and looked back. The Umbreon was glowing - all of his rings were bright enough to see even through the heavy smoke, and a hole had been shot from him clear to the other side of the house. The door was gone - and a good chunk of the wall of the other room, and an even bigger chunk of the outside wall of the house.

I blinked at the Umbreon. How...?

He was panting and seemed to be wavering unsteadily on his paws. I felt a sudden worry - if he collapsed here with the girl... I was having enough trouble getting her out; how would I be able to drag him out with me?

One of his ears flicked in my direction and he shook his head, as if he knew what I was thinking. "I'm fine - Hyper Beam just takes a bit out of me; I need a second. Get her to the stairs, I'll meet you there."

I wasn't that confident he would be okay if I left him... but I didn't have many options. I glanced down at the girl and moved towards her head. It took a bit of careful positioning, but I managed to bite down on her shirt, then began to slowly drag her towards the stairs.

I was pretty sure her arms and legs were going to hurt whenever she woke up, given how awkwardly she was being dragged over the increasingly hot floor, even though I tried my best to lift her by the shirt and keep from letting any one part of her rest on the floor for too long. There was only so much I could do - compared to a human's weight, even a child's, Vulpix just didn't have that much strength. I doubted I could have done much even if I had been well fed and in good shape, but starving and still feeling the pain from the Poochyena...

She'd be alive though. That was the important thing.

I reached the stairs... then the Umbreon was there with me. He glanced down the stairs and frowned, his tail flicking in doubt. "Those steps don't look stable anymore."

The fire had consumed most of the walls above the staircase. That wasn't a good sign for the walls and supports below the staircase... but... there wasn't really a second way out from the second story. I glanced back at the Umbreon, then down at the girl. "They aren't getting any more stable."

He flinched, but nodded. "Grab her shirt and try and lift her a bit; maybe if we work together we can both lift her." He moved to the other side of her, and when I lifted her up by the shirt again, he nudged his way underneath her, then stood up when she was at his back. That put her high enough up that I was able to get under her legs, and between the two of us we were able to move her.

Going down the stairs was a nightmare.

Every step felt like it was going to give way beneath us, and every motion I or the Umbreon made caused the girl to sag in between us or shift roll forwards or back, and I learned very quickly that something was wrong with one of the Umbreon's hind legs - every time the girl wobbled and he had to put weight on it to catch her, he would flinch in pain and I would have to try and shift to catch more of her weight. We made it about five steps down before we heard a heavy crashing sound from somewhere upstairs, and the flames all seemed to lean in new directions as if suddenly sensing a brand new opening to the fresh air outside the house - something had given away, and part of the house had collapsed.

I just hoped it wasn't a part between us and the door.

The fires grew hotter as we went... but the air at least got a little easier to breath. All the smoke billowed up the stairs past us, but it stayed near the ceiling, and the farther down we got the easier it was to fill our lungs with air. We made it to the halfway point... then the last step was in sight... then we were back on level ground, in the hallway of the first floor.

We had escaped the smoke, but every wall of the first floor was engulfed in fire. I could feel the heat of it all around me, could feel a sort of energy inside me at being around so much pure fire... but I knew it was a deadly threat to the girl. The Umbreon on the other hand...

He had jumped right through fire last night. Those fires had been ones I had started, and were much hotter than anything the Sentret's machine had managed, even if he had cheated and used so much gasoline. If the Umbreon could do it once...

"Can you drag her and me?"

"Uh..." The Umbreon looked at the bright orange-red walls, then back at the girl. "Guess I'll have to." He grabbed her shirt and began dragging her, the way I had earlier... and I sprawled out on top of her.

My weight didn't help the Umbreon's limp any, and the journey down the hallway felt agonizingly slow - especially when the Umbreon gasped suddenly and I realized some of his fur had begun to burn. It took every bit of self control I had to lay there while he slowly dragged us along... but I knew that the second I did, the fires that were constantly licking at my fur would reach out and consume the girl instead.

My fur was fireproof. Her skin wasn't.

We reached the exit of the hallway... and found the living room still intact. I breathed a sigh of relief at that; it must have been the other side of the house that had collapsed. The journey through the living room seemed to go quicker - or maybe I just wasn't panicking as badly - but we eventually made it to the front door.

The door wasn't there anymore, but the opening in what remained of the walls where the door had been was still the easiest place to get out through. There was a bit of a step to get over, and then we were outside.

Most of the yard had already been burned away.

A few small fires burned in isolated patches, but the yard had been reduced to ashes. Nothing was left of the grass that had been growing there before, and a few lumps of melted plastic were all that was left of the various other items that had been in the yard. The trashcan I had jumped onto the roof from, the post with the box for papers to go in, the strange statue of a Mime Jr. All of it was gone.

Nothing but ashes.

I rolled off the girl and helped the Umbreon drag her out into the yard, then to the sidewalk - without the fire all around us she didn't need my protection any longer. We reached the sidewalk and the Umbreon limped to the backyard, looking for the rest of the family... but I just sat on the sidewalk next to the girl and stared at the inferno before me.

Everything from the last few days... the food that had been stolen from me, the attacks from the Poochyena, the refusal of everybody I knew it the town to even talk to me... all so I could keep this house safe.

There was another crashing sound, and a wave of heat rolled out to me as the house collapsed in on itself - what was left of the second floor folded into the first floor, and then the walls collapsed under the shifted weight. I saw the Umbreon in the backyard, saw a Lillipup running around in panicked circles, saw people with them - a young boy, an older man stretched out on the ground, a woman pressing up and down on his chest before putting her mouth against his, then going back to pressing on his chest.

I glanced down and saw the girl beside me.

I felt a new fire grow inside me.

No.

"I just want to go home..."

The words fell on the silence of the makeshift cave that surrounded the Umbreon. The burning in his left leg was too much. It had been growing steadily worse since Feren... since the Nidorino's horn had stabbed his leg, right there in Sara's yard. The bleeding had stopped and the wound had scabbed over beneath his fur, but the pain had continued to spread anyways. It was poison - it had to be. He had been told there was something in a Pokeball that protected him, that stopped the poison from being too bad... but... maybe it didn't work anymore, since he had been so far away from it for so long? Or maybe it was something horrifyingly simpler - maybe the Pokeball didn't protect him anymore because he wasn't Sara's Pokemon anymore.

Either way, it hurt too much for him to even stand anymore.

The Haunter had intervened before Fer... before the Nidorino could hurt him even worse, and the Umbreon had helped him as best as he could in thanks, but he was useless now. Haunter and the Honchkrow had both gone to try and get something to help him - they had called it an antidote, he vaguely remembered - but that had been hours ago. The sun had set at some point and the energy that always filled him when the moon was overhead had let him block away the pain enough to manage a fitful nap... but the pain had gotten worse as the night went on, and he wasn't able to find any way to make his leg comfortable enough to manage sleep again.

So he tried to ignore the pain and instead stared around what passed for his home now. Him, Haunter and Honchkrow's. It was nothing like the home he had been given by Sara, and he wished for the thousandth time that he could just go back there one more time and sleep on the soft bed instead of the cold, hard ground, or escape into the peace that had been the moonlit clearing of his Pokeball... but no matter how much he wished it could be, he knew what it would mean if he even tried. Being attacked by Sara's dad again. Being chased off by Feren, or maybe Shells, or any number of other Pokemon he had known, or maybe even by...

The ache in his leg was a firm reminder of what would be done to him if he even tried - and by his own friends, too. He owed them more than to put them in the situation of driving him away, or of forcing them to protect themselves from him. He wouldn't hurt them. Even if it meant he was in pain.

A noise somewhere in the distance drew his attention, and he lifted his head to try and spot the source. The Haunter flowed into view, dragging something with him that bumped into the trees or rustled the grass in his path. The Umbreon couldn't help but wonder why the Honchkrow wasn't carrying it - over the last few days the Umbreon had learned that it took a bit of effort for the Haunter to 'materialize' and carry things, and he usually made somebody else do it - and it was only then that he noticed the Honchkrow was nowhere to be seen.

"Here, spray this on your leg." The Haunter got close to the cave and tossed the object in - a small red vial with some writing on it, though the Umbreon couldn't really tell what the letters meant in the quick half-second they were in view. He caught the vial in his mouth and fiddled with it, trying to point the top of it at his leg. How had Sara and other trainers used these? A potion, it was called - something about shaking it a little, and then pressing a button on it...

The Umbreon was left coughing helplessly as his attempt caused the vial to explode in a cloud of foul smelling gas right in his mouth. His vision blurred and he felt light-headed for a long moment... but when it passed, he noticed his leg _did_feel a little better. He finally managed a breath without coughing and looked beyond the Haunter, squinting against the bright morning light. "Thanks... where's Honchkrow?"

"Gone. That Nidorino cornered her and she got caught in a pokeball." The Haunter waved a misty hand dismissively. "Not our problem anymore. Can you get up?"

"Not our problem...?" The Umbreon frowned, not sure how to react to the Haunter's words. It had been obvious that Honchkrow and Haunter didn't get along too well, but still, such a cavalier dismissal like that? "We have to go help her; she was caught helping us..."

"No, we have to get out before we get caught too. Can you get up? Answer me, or I'll leave you here too; we can't wait around for somebody to find..." The Haunter's eyes went wide and he broke off mid-sentence, turning back the way he came.

"Too late." An Espeon stepped into the Umbreon's view, gliding around the trees. No - not an Espeon, Clara. She looked exactly like she did in his memory of their first meeting - her bright fur, the gently chiming bell hung at her neck, and the milky-white eyes that focused on nothing yet seemed to somehow be aware of everything. Flen's Pokemon had found them.

The Umbreon felt a sudden terror wash over him as he remembered the sheer power he had watched Clara unleash on other dark types. The moment he had worried about had finally caught up to him - she had him cornered, and it wouldn't be long before she unleashed that awesome power against him.

He knew he would be lucky if a hurt leg was all he got away from Clara with.

The Haunter ignored the Umbreon's reaction - if he was even aware of it at all - and stabbed an accusing finger towards Clara. "You. Do you have any idea how annoying you've been to me? This would all have been so much easier if Houndoom hadn't been driven off by you!"

Clara simply took a calm step towards the Haunter. "You should take 'annoying' and stop what you're doing, now. Tell us where you put the Eevee - do that and I'll let you leave."

The Haunter's oversized eyes blinked at her, then glanced back at the Umbreon. Confusion was plain on the Haunter's face, and it was reflected in the Umbreon's expression as both tried to make sense of the Espeon's words. The Umbreon was right in front of her; she shouldn't need the Haunter to tell her anything.

Things clicked for the Umbreon first - he remembered back to an innocent question about why her eyes looked strange, and the explanation of how something was wrong with them and that hers didn't work. He had been sad, but she had told him that she could make up for it with her psychic ability, and could even 'see' better in some ways with her psychic powers than if she relied on her eyes. The Umbreon thought back to all the times he had watched Clara fight, and suddenly realized why there was such a difference in her fight with the Houndoom and her fight with the Skarmory. She had unleashed her power on trees and rocks, and lifted them up to throw at the Houndoom... but she had never once touched it with her psychic powers directly, not like she had in other fights.

Her psychic ability didn't work on dark types!

The Umbreon's eyes widened as he thought through what that meant. It meant she couldn't see him - maybe she could hear him, or maybe 'see' what he did to other things, but that if he was quiet, or still, then she wouldn't know he was there. Maybe he could still avoid a fight; maybe he wouldn't have to cause her to fight her friend after all. Even if he wasn't that Eevee anymore, his heart still broke at even the thought of her having to do that. He could just be quiet, just wait for her to go away, and then she wouldn't have to...

The Haunter caught on almost as quickly as the Umbreon did, but he just laughed at her. "And if I don't?"

Clara grinned up at the floating ghost, her expression a fierceness that seemed to ripple around her - the grass angled away from her as if from a sudden wind, and the leaves in the trees rustled. "Then I'll shoot past annoying, rip it from your mind, and make sure it hurts enough to pay you back for each and every cough you gave to that girl."

The Umbreon blinked. What?

"Ha! She's still alive? Don't worry - you could barely hold me off in the middle of the day; out here by yourself, late at night, you're weak, Espeon. I'll take care of you, and then we'll see how long that lasts."

The Haunter raised his hand towards Clara, and the Espeon adjusted her stance. The air between them seemed to ripple and twist as Opal watched. Rainbows of color appeared, then twisted away into darkness, then reappeared in combinations that made his stomach hurt. Something that felt like sound vibrated through him, and through the grass and trees all around, but he couldn't begin to imagine what he would describe them as. They were impossibly loud and barely a whisper, all at the same time. Smells filled the air too - smells that made the Umbreon want to throw up, smells that made him want to get closer and inhale deeper. A riot of sensations filled the space between the two Pokemon, seeming to expand and push closer to them both.

Opal realized as he watched that he had never really seen Clara use her psychic powers directly before, nor had he seen her battle another psychic type, or a ghost. Everything she had done before... it was holding back. Using her power indirectly, using it to affect other things and use them to attack with. But now... now she was unleashing a full psychic attack on the Haunter. And he was responding in kind. The two Pokemon were attacking the mind of the other directly.

And Opal was just feeling what it was like to be on the sidelines of that attack.

The by-now familiar energy of the moon began to fill him, and the disorienting sensation of the psychic attacks faded. He shook his head to clear it, then looked back at the two. Should... should he help one? He didn't want to hurt Clara... but... if he hurt the Haunter, wouldn't Clara just come after him next? Did... did he want to be responsible for that? Did he want to put Clara through that?

A strained sound came from Clara, something like a hiss of frustration and a yelp of pain. She started leaning towards the Haunter, tail flicking through the air behind her, as if she could physically push her psychic attack even harder. Opal saw her grit her teeth... then heard her mutter beneath her breath. "You. Won't. Hurt. Her." Her claws dug into the ground, and the scents and sights grew stronger... though somehow Opal remained unaffected by them. "Opal. Will. Return. And. Find. His. Trainer. Safe."

What.

Opal's eyes went wide with shock at the Espeon's growled words. More power rippled through the space between her and the Haunter, but the Umbreon ignored it. The girl... what had Clara said? The cough the Haunter had given the girl? Sara had been coughing, before... and...

A sudden nauseating wave of energy formed around the Haunter's other hand. Opal recognized it - he had seen the Haunter do it before; a Shadow Ball attack. He was getting ready to...

Opal didn't even realize he was moving until he stood between the Haunter and the Espeon. Before Clara. The rippling in the air just tingled as he dove through it, barely noticeable... then an agonizing pain shot through his leg, causing him to cry out and collapse.

Then the Haunter's attack hit him.

It was a different type of pain from the one in his leg, but it was still just as painful. The pain from both sources threatened to overwhelm him...

...but he focused on the sudden knowledge that the _Haunter_had been the one hurting Sara.

He channeled all of the pain, all of the anger that came with that sudden understanding, all of the hurt from the past nights, all of the loneliness and fear and regret and loss and anguish... he took it all, and he focused it into the move the Haunter had taught him and the Murkrow, with the machine they had stolen from the gym.

The Umbreon's yellow rings flared into brightness as it was all channeled suddenly out of him and into a single terrible wave - Dark Pulse. The energy left him... and Opal fell to his side, the pain in his leg too much to bear.

It was okay, though.

Opal stared up and saw the last bits of the Haunter fade away in the wake of the pulse. The wave had simply torn through it and scattered it away, dissolving it and scattering it to the wind. The Umbreon had enough time to feel an odd sense of fulfillment, and the thought 'My trainer is safe'... and then Clara yelled from behind him.

"Who's there?! What are you doing - are you with that Haunter?" Clara's voice was angry, but... there was also fear in it. The Umbreon's eyes widened in a sudden hurt as he glanced towards her and saw her step away from him. She was afraid.

His friend - the very first friend he had ever known - was afraid.

Because of him.

The soft whine of pain escaped his throat before he could stop it, only a very small part of it coming from the ache in his leg, and Clara focused on it. One of the rocks near her began glowing, a soft purple aura surrounding it. The Umbreon knew what that meant - she was getting ready to hurl it at him, just like he had watched her do against the Houndoom, back when he was an Eevee.

"Answer me! I'm warning you - who are you!"

Everything froze for a second, a long, horrible second where all the fear and worry of the past days caught in the Umbreon's throat and fought back against words. His first attempt was a strained cough, but he managed actual words on his second attempt. "It's me... Opal."

Clara grew still, and a sudden sorrow passed over her expression. The glow on the rock faded, and her tail and ears drooped. "...oh." She closed her sightless eyes and looked down, hanging her head. "It's happened, then... that empty place next to Sara, the thing I could never make out in my visions... I can't see you.... you're... an Umbreon?" Her voice shook when she spoke the last word, as if afraid of the answer, and she kept her head down as if that would protect her from the answer.

Opal hadn't been sure how Clara would react when she learned what he had become... but in all the scenarios that had played out in his head, none had come close to this. He nodded again, dumbfounded... then realized she might not be able to tell when he nodded or shook his head. Not anymore. "That's what the Haunter called me." He looked past Clara, back towards the city in the distance. "What you said about Sara... is she...?" The worry that had driven him to jump in front of the Haunter's attack returned, filling him with the icy dread once more.

Clara opened her empty eyes again... and smiled. "It _is_you... Opal, oh, we've been so worried about you these past weeks..." A tear fell from one of her eyes, and a wave of complicated feelings washed over the Umbreon from her - regret, a sense of failure at not having been able to change something, a deep sadness at not having been there for her friend... and happiness, pure joy at the knowledge her friend was safe after all, and would be okay. "Sara's in the hospital, but the doctors said she'd be okay if we found the cause, and... that's why I followed... but you took care of it. Come on, I'll take you to her - it's time to come back home, Opal."

Doubts rose in the Umbreon's mind - was this a trap, one to get him back to Feren or other Pokemon that could deal with him better than Clara could? Would he get all the way back home, only to be driven back off again? Was this real? Could it be real?

Could he really go home again?

Opal shook his head and pushed the fears away. If... if he could be back by Sara's side... it was worth the risk to find out.

"My leg... it hurts. When Feren attacked me..."

"Oh..." Clara frowned and looked towards him... though Opal knew her sightless eyes wouldn't see the wound. "He didn't know it was you... we all thought you were still an Eevee, and with Sara being hurt... he went there to help protect your trainer, until you could get back. He wouldn't have attacked if he knew it was you."

The final weight fell from the Umbreon. He had thought that might be the case, had been wanting to hope... but hearing Clara say it...

"Come on. Lean against me; I'll help you get home."

With tears of disbelief, hope, and relief, Opal stood up and wobbled towards Clara. The Espeon moved to his left and caught him with her body, helping steady him and keeping his weight off his leg. They started moving together, slowly at first, then faster as Clara grew used to supporting the heavier Umbreon and Opal grew used to leaning against her. It was still agonizingly slow - literally in Opal's case - and took well into the morning...

But the Sun Pokemon carried the Moonlight Pokemon back to his home.