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The World of Arceus

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Only the idea and OC's.

Author Notes:

-X-This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.

~xXx~ This will identify where each paragraph breaks.

"Human Speech" 'Character Thought' {Pokémon Speech}

The following is a side story taking place in the same world as the story "Watcher of Arceus".

~xXx~

Side Stories

Rick : Part 3

Time seemed to pass even more slowly then Rick would have wanted. He only spent a day at a time in the Lucario Kingdom, sparing it when he was able to try and do what he could working to awaken his aura. Mana, Morag, and even a few others had frequently commented about his supposed status as a potential prodigy of an aura user, but for Rick seven weeks later, he was still in doubt. Sure he had missed two weeks, but after six sessions in the waters of the cavern under the Lucario Kingdom, nothing felt different yet. The only thing that might have felt different any time was when he was aiding Sarah.

Thinking back on those moments during the attack, he still wasn't sure if it just wasn't his feeling whatever Sarah was doing, Rick just giving her direction and helping to keep her aware of the environment. She was somehow able to manifest something that was helping her block attacks from the Team Galactic pokemon that before seeing it, he would thought no human would have been to block.

Regardless, they kept saying he could, and Balkor did not question the request for training. In fact, it almost seemed like she was eager after the third session. Still, he wasn't sure himself. He also wasn't sure about how they kept referring to him as riolu, but he understood that it was their preferred term for a child.

Deciding a slightly different approach for the last hour, Balkor got up and told Rick that she was leaving him alone for a while. She told him that it was to see if being alone might help him meditate better since she could feel his agitation. Rick tried to make the best of the situation, but part way through he swore that Mana was nearby.

He spent the last hour of his training actively searching for Mana, but never found her before Balkor returned. 'I thought I had asked you to meditate here. There is no treasure to find here.' Balkor stated as she walked down into the chamber again.

"I'm not looking for treasures. Where's Mana, I know she's here. I can feel her eyes on me." Rick grumbled, only for Balkor to laugh a little.

'This is good, this shows progress.' Balkor smiled.

"Me being paranoid does not show progress." Rick stated very annoyed.

_'Mana's not in the cave. She is in the temple under the teachings of Arceus tonight. I can assure you, she would not miss her lessons.'_Balkor stated, but Rick was having serious trouble believing that.

~xXx~

Rick showed back up to work a little annoyed in the afternoon the following day, but as soon as he was in, his name was already being called out for. He was just about to sign in when he was called for and looked over, seeing his manager waving to him through the office door.

He clocked in, then quickly moved to the office of the crypt, the only more normal room in the entire place. "Something up Nikita?" Rick asked as he walked, looking over the older woman, who was currently rubbing her ankle. "Ankle acting up again?"

"It never did fully heal from that collapsed stage, but can we ignore that for now." Nikita stated as he walked in and with a nod to the door, Rick closed it.

"Not in trouble am I?" Rick asked turning back to face her.

"Not exactly. I just wanted to check in on that training you've been doing." Nikita stated, not realizing what all that entailed or why Rick was really doing it. Once more, the feelings of being unable to see any kind of improvement compared to what Sarah had told him of her trials with aura so far rushed into his head. "You... okay there Rick?" Nikita asked, seeing a noticeable change in Rick.

"Its... complicated." Rick quickly stated, clearly not going to explain what all was really going on, and hoping to avoid most of it.

"The place not as promising as you thought? They aren't any surprise fees or anything is there?" Nikita asked.

"No no, cash is never going to be a problem. That's covered for as long as I want to train there." Rick replied.

"Is there a problem with how your doing the training. Or what they have you training with?" Nikita asked.

"I'm fine with it okay. I..." Rick stated, only to take a few deep breathes. "I'm working with a few different lucarios there, and a few... well a lot of other pokemon, too many to remember all of their names. Its just... I'm not sure I'm seeing the results alright."

"Is that all?" Nikita asked.

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm just not seeing the results that I want... well would have hoped for. They talked me up a lot, but I watched someone else do a hell of more then I could a lot faster." Rick stated, still trying to be picky with his words, but knowing that Nikita had known him long to tell if he was lying too much.

"Let me assure you that I've seen some improvement. You're working with your assigned haunter a lot better. I'm not sure if you'll pass the strict requirements I've recommended for your next promotion with your review coming up next month, but its still a huge step up from the last one five months ago." Nikita stated. As she got up to shake his hand however, she noticed something on his hands.

"Rick... what's with the hands?" Nikita very pointedly asked now, now gripping and his hand and not letting him pull it back.

"Training..." Rick stated slowly, his knuckles just barely bleeding still from the day of training he had done, his own training just to try and take his mind off things and let out some frustration.

"Your pokemon partner training?" Nikita asked, immediately needing clarification.

"Personal training. I... well didn't like what... how Team Galactic tried to mess me up." Rick replied slowly. "I'll get some gloves or something while I work tonight."

"Not with open sores like you won't. I expect better from you Rick. You're too good to just let go, but you should know better then to show up at work with those kind of wounds." Nikita stated. "Go, clock back out, and then go home. You can come back in two days, and only after I check your hands. Any blood, and I'm sending you back home. And don't go trying to destroy your body anymore." Nikita stated very firmly with him.

Rick wanted to argue, but a hard glare from Nikita was all it took for him to give in and give a slow nod. "I'll take care of it and come back after a few days..." Rick stated slowly, before turning to leave. He quickly checked out again, and just rode home in silence and annoyance.

-x-

As Rick got home again, a bit annoyed about it, he decided to just try and take the chance to relax. As he pulled back in, Annabelle quickly met him at the door, a worried look on her face. "Hey Anna... don't worry about it, just got two days off unexpectedly." He stated, only for Annabelle to know that wasn't the whole story.

Already use to just taking off their coats, gloves and other outdoor gear, Annabelle just instinctively reached for his gloves that he had on after he closed the door and before he react, she had gently taken the tip of fingers to pull it off, and nudged his sore knuckles.

Although Rick didn't physically react much, he snapped a little in his head in pain, and Annabelle looked up to him immediately. "It's nothing, don" He started, but Annabelle teleported his gloves off while glaring at him for lying to her again. Grabbing his hand, she looked over his open sores, pointing to them.

"Really Annabelle, its nothing okay." He started, only for Annabelle's glare to grow, before jabbing a finger into one of the sores to make her point, and then grabbing his arm and pointing it towards Luke, showing easily that while she couldn't talk, she knew Luke would have the same questions she did.

"Woah, hey hey, calm down..." Rick stated. "I'm telling the truth, I know what happened, its not a maj-" Rick started before Annabelle jabbed his open sores again to try and make him talk about it.

"Fine... fine, but not now. After Luke goes to bed, he doesn't need to worry about this okay." Rick started, quickly swapping to a pair of smaller more comfortable gloves as Luke still failed to notice that Rick was home even as his alarm for his allotted amount of game time went off.

"I need a few more minutes Anna! I'm almost done here!" Luke called out, Anna sighing some as she turned back to where Luke was in a boss fight. Rick however couldn't help but feel that something was off, a little wrong. Rick didn't know what, but he still moved inside and then Luke noticed him.

"What... Rick, you're back already? Did something happen?" Luke asked, pausing the game and turning to look at Rick.

"No no, its fine. Scheduling mix up. I'll be back to work the day after tomorrow okay." Rick quickly replied glancing at the screen. "You didn't start anything too big did you?" Rick asked.

"No, just a boss. I can beat him!" Luke called out, quickly turning back to his game.

"Can you do it in five minutes?" Rick asked, knowing that he had set the alarm to give Luke early warning that his allotted game time for the day was almost up and he shouldn't start anything too big.

"Yeah... yeah I think so." Luke stated, and once more Rick felt something was wrong. Not sure what, Rick moved up into the living room and looked at the screen.

"Isn't that a multi-phase nightmare boss... I've heard a lot of your friend yell about that his emperor guy and how it took them hours to beat..." Rick stated.

"I-I mean he's hard... but not impossible." Luke quickly stated.

"Can you do it in five minutes?" Rick repeated.

"I hope so?" Luke replied, already hard at work trying to take it down.

Rick just watched for the moment though, watching Luke expertly taking down the boss, countering it blows, avoiding larger attacks, and swiftly getting in combos where he could while Rick kept an eye on the clock. As far as Rick could tell, with the boss swapping weapons and using different elemental attacks, maybe those were the phases that were being talked about, so when the boss fell to Luke's attack, Rick smiled. "And look at that, you did it. Thought he would have been bigger and meaner from how much yelling I heard about him. Now find a save..." Rick started, only to fall silent as the boss slowly got back up, the screen flashing a few times as the boss transformed.

"Luke... how many phases..." Rick stated rather bluntly.

"Three..." Luke said sheepishly, and Rick just looked down to him.

"How many phases Luke... The truth." Rick stated.

"Seven..." Luke whined, not sure how Rick could catch his lie so easily.

"Annabelle. Has Luke used up all of game time today?" Rick asked, Annabelle coming up and giving a nod.

"But he's the final boss! Come on, you just got me this dlc two weeks ago. I can't stop now!" Luke whined some.

"Dlc?" Rick asked.

"Down Loadable Content. Its like extra missions for games, and this one was huge!" Luke whined.

Rick sighed, shaking his head. "You get one chance today. You die, that's it for today. However much time you go over will be taken from tomorrow." Rick went to the kitchen and grabbed a stop watch from the door and made sure Luke saw it. "When you unpause, the clock starts."

Annabelle even came into to watch now, a little unsure of what to do. As she moved and took a seat beside Luke, letting him play, Rick turned to a little towards Annabelle. "So Anna... Since Luke lied once about this and clearly didn't expect me to be home and know about it... I gotta ask how many other times has Luke done this?"

Almost instantly, Rick would swear that he felt Annabelle starting to cringe a bit, and even swore that Luke was a little worried. "Ya know... I really don't like this silence..." Rick stated after a minute of not being answered.

"Annabelle Kinetics... honest answer. Was this a one time event?" Rick asked, and Anna slowly shook her head.

"Anna!" Luke whined, distracted now and then got into a bad combo from his distraction. He quickly died, the game announcing his death with an ungraceful screen and sending him back to somewhere else.

"Five minutes, fifty-seven seconds... That's six minutes reduced from tomorrow's game time if I let you play tomorrow for lying to me." Rick stated checking the stop watch he had.

"I-I was distracted! I can do it, I swear!" Luke tried to call out, but Rick just shook his head.

"I've given you a very generous amount of time every day to play video games. With a little extra as long as you keep giving me report cards with high grades showing me that its not too big of a distraction for you. If you have some time left over each day, I even let you carry over up to twenty minutes a day extra." Rick responded before turning to Annabelle.

"And because I now know that you've been cheating that time while I'm at work and Annabelle doesn't know to do about it, let's fix that. Annabelle, if Luke goes over his allotted time for the day, I want to know about. I can forgive a few minutes here and there as long its not a regular thing. BUT!" Rick very clearly made sure that he was heard and there wasn't room for an argument.

"If you go over by more then five minutes, Annabelle you now have permission to stop Luke from playing... If he can't save, then he loses whatever progress he made, and if he won't save, then you just flip this button right here." Rick stated, moving over and pulling up the power strip that was hooked up to the television, Luke's game consoles, and the stereo in the room.

"What, hey careful! You can't just flip the power switch like that. It might crash the 360!" Luke called out, Rick looking over and seeing the game still on, Luke's character just kinda standing there.

"Have you saved yet?" Rick asked, Luke looking down a little.

"It... autosaves on death to prevent save scumming." Luke stated slowly.

"Then turn it off." Rick stated, but Luke went to say something else. Annabelle, now knowing exactly how to treat this situation just moved up to the power strip and held it up, a finger on the switch now.

"Got it! Careful careful... Doing that can corrupt the game!" Luke quickly stated now, in a rush to power the console off correctly now.

"Hey hey! Look, listen. I'm not trying to play more, there's an update that it wants to start before it powers down okay!" Luke quickly stated pointing to the screen. Rick didn't feel anything bad this time though, and just gave a small nod.

"Just computer updates? I'll allow it, but don't start another game." Rick stated, before looking to Annabelle who gave a small nod. "Look, since I've apparently got the next two days off, I've got some phone calls I want to make. There's some things I want to check up on and I'd like some privacy about it so I'll be taking them in my room. Don't make Annabelle turn off the console herself." He stated, before heading back to his room.

Changing back out of his work clothes, he grabbed the phone and dialed up James. It took a few for James to get connected before speaking at last.

"Rick, what's up. I thought you had work tonight." James asked a bit confused.

"Got two days off, scheduling mix up. Listen, I need to get in contact with someone like Balkor." Rick replied, taking a seat on his bed, looking off into the living room through the wall, still kind of feeling an agitated Luke and maybe relieved Annabelle.

"What's going on? I'm not sure I like that tone you're hinting with." James asked, now a bit worried in addition to confused.

"My tone? Look, I just need to have someway to ask our mutual friends some questions." Rick stated, shaking his head a little, trying to straighten his voice out wondering what James meant.

"Yes, you're tone. That's the voice you use when something is going on and you don't want others to know about it, when you're trying to cover something up. What's going on Rick?" James asked firmly now.

"I caught Luke in a lie, and to be honest I have no idea how. It was just feeling, and I pressed it, and turns out he was lying to me, right to my face." Rick said slowly.

"Nothing serious I hope. He's not in trouble is he?" James asked.

"It was about the amount of time I let him play video games every day. Turns out, he's been cheating my trust on that, playing longer then I let him. He's in trouble over it, told Annabelle that if he makes a habit of it, she can just flip the switch the power strip. I think she's kinda relieved that she knows I told her what to do about it now." Rick explained.

"Wait... video games? This is... Let me get this straight. You called me, asking me to connect you to our mutual friends, who don't exactly do well with phones... the friends who I'm going to remind you again can't exactly even use them and will need help to even have a conversation over the phone at all... you're asking me to contact them because your brother was caught playing more video games then you want him to?" James asked, very annoyed now.

"I'm just asking you to connect me to our mutual friends because I'm having weird feelings. Something's wrong, or well different with me and I need to know what. I don't know exactly what's happening, but maybe they can help." Rick stated.

"Weird feelings like what? You're non-descriptive vague answers lean me to believe you're doing what you should be already, but otherwise I don't know what to say. Its not quite an emergency worth getting a secure line set up for." James continued.

"Look, I just need to ask them a few questions okay. Its late, I can't get out there. That thing we've been working on. Maybe its working, maybe I'm going mad because its not." Rick started.

"Rick... I know I said I would help you. And because our mutual friends like you and you already helped out so much, I'm happy to help you a bit. But setting up a secure line from a random office is... an out there request. My unit already has enough issues right now, even without the office move. Ever since that mass bust on Team Galactic, we've been hounded non stop and we can't tell vengeful Galactic personal from overly eager reporters right now. Do you have any idea how hard it is to move what's turning into a dozen trucks a week without someone trying to follow us?" James grumbled loudly, only to give a loud sigh, before taking several deep breathes.

"Look, I'm sorry about nearly yelling. My hands are full right now, the stress of knowing what's supposed to be happening and trying to prevent another incident that needs your help again is taking its toll on me. If you want my help, maybe I can help. I'm sorry, already distracted here. Why are you calling again? Slowly, and maybe I can help." James said after a moment.

"I don't know if I'm going mad over here okay? I'm just trying to ask you to connect with them because I caught my brother in a lie, based purely on a feeling I've never had before. And its not just that." Rick started, annoyed himself but also understanding the situation that James was through a bit. Still, he couldn't help anyone if he couldn't even help himself and right now he needed to know what was going on this him. The lucarios have explained that aura would enhance his senses, but had been vague about it, telling him that he would just grow into it.

"Could you explain in any kind of detail of what's going on then? I don't claim to be an expert on this whole thing, but you need to tell me more then its just a feeling. What kind of feeling, how does it play it out, what does it ... just tell me what you can about it okay?" James asked.

"Right now I swear I know how relieved Annabelle feels about this situation, like its been going on for a while now behind my back, and she was feeling bad about it but didn't know to do. Like she feels more confident about caring for Luke in this weird si... and now I think she knows that I know what's she feeling even though I'm in my room and she's in the kitchen... walking right towards my room and is about to knock on my closed do-" Rick started, before there was a questionable knock on the door, Rick slowly getting up and letting Annabelle in.

"I'm trying to figure out what's going on right now. Please, believe me. I'm not trying to be intrusive with your thoughts, I don't even know what's going on right now." Rick stated quietly as Annabelle looked up to him very much concerned right now. "Just let me try to make this phone call and I'll explain things as best I can later after Luke goes to bed okay?"

Annabelle looked him over slowly, before giving a slow nod, and then turning, letting Rick close the door again.

"Sounds like aura to me." James finally stated hearing the door close.

"Look, I n-" Rick started, before James spoke up again.

"I said, it sounds like aura to me. And they are going to tell you the same thing. You've been training for almost two months to pull out aura right? Well it sounds like it worked." James stated.

"All this is aura?" Rick asked slowly.

"Listen, aura is complicated. But I guess congratulations, you're now a human lie detector. I've got another call to take though, so I need to cut this short. Its aura, it does things, get use to it. You'll be there next week, ask your more direct questions then." James stated, before abruptly hanging up on Rick.

Rick just slowly lowered the phone and then hung up himself with a shake of his head. Getting up, he put the phone back in place before going to just continue the day.

Rick could feel Annabelle's growing worry though the whole time though. He just waited until after Luke went to bed though, and waited for Annabelle to join him after Luke was fully asleep.

Rick set up the table just for them, a large hot pot of tea feeling Annabelle coming at last. Pouring both of them a cup, he finally took off his gloves, and looked over the sores on his knuckles. Annabelle just took her seat, and slowly starting sipping her tea waiting.

She could feel that Rick was trying to get the words together, sorting himself out and just sat waiting for several minutes before Rick finally spoke. "I'm sorry for worrying you, but I really am doing all of this for Luke. Things are happening, and I can't exactly explain what. Luke just can't know about this right now though, its safer for everyone." Rick started.

"I... kind of got dragged into a few things because of James, that Ranger that gets along with us so well. There were some bad people who got involved in things and now I'm worried for Luke. Against a person, I trust my martial arts to defend myself, but as I learned when James asked for my help that week I was gone a few months back, there's a lot I can't defend myself against." Rick continued slowly. While he picked his words carefully, he also focused heavily on the events back in the Lucario Kingdom, of how he had met Morag and her kingdom, Arceus and the legendary pokemon, and so much more.

"The truth is I don't know how to defend Luke if I can't even defend myself. That's why my knuckles are like this." Rick held one of his hands up a bit. "I know training using certain... methods like punching down trees is brutal, but I need to do something. And Luke can't know I'm doing this okay." Rick finished, still thinking hard about what all had happened.

Annabelle just listened to his words, but his emotions and his mind told a different story. She expected him to continue, but when he didn't, she glared at him a little bit and Rick could feel her growing annoyance now. She tapped the table a few times, and then held her hand out towards him, making a small circling motion to encourage him to continue.

"That's all that there is to it Annabelle. I need to get stronger to protect Luke, but please don't tell him." Rick stated.

Annabelle just repeated her motion however, but Rick stayed silent. He even just tried to get up before Annabelle grabbed his hand and jerked it forward onto the table. "Hey! Annabelle..." Rick started, before Annabelle repeated her motion again. "That's all that th-" Rick started before Annabelle just lifted up the still steaming pot of water, and began to tilt it over his hand, namely the open sores on his knuckles.

"Don't. Look, I need to get stronger for Luke okay... I know its rough, and it won't get better, but I need to do something." Rick started, trying to move his hand, but he couldn't. Annabelle just shook her head however. She reached over, pointed to his sores, and then very clearly shook her head and shook a finger, the same scolding motions that she had done with Luke a few times when he got into more then just a little trouble or did something clearly wrong.

Images of Luke flooded Rick's head for a moment, and then images and feelings of a very upset Luke from a time when he turned down from a school trip because he had been having a severely bad week constantly coughing appeared in Rick's head. A few more images appeared in his head, and Rick quickly got the idea. "That's why I can't tell Luke... He doesn't need to know I'm doing this to myself okay. Yes, he would be upset if he knew, but this is all for him, so I can defend him." Rick tried to explain, but Annabelle just turned his around and kept him stuck in as it slid into the corner.

She walked up behind, made him look at her, and then shook her finger in a scolding motion again, before walking away to clean up the table and do a few chores before the night was over. Rick tried to get up, but he found himself firmly planted, something holding his backside and upper legs in place. "Annabelle... this is uncalled for." Rick stated, very slowly starting to rise up out of the chair despite Annabelle attempting to him.

It took him a minute, but he was almost fully standing up despite the pressure before Annabelle walked up behind him, grabbed his shoulders and sat him back down, before strapping a belt around his waist and the back of the chair. "Annabelle, no." Rick tried to state, managing to get himself forward enough so that Annabelle couldn't put the belt around the chair. The struggle wasn't easy on either one, Annabelle constantly trying to push the chair up against him.

"Annabelle, you stop this right now!" Rick grumbled loudly, managing to grab the belt now, before his arms were pulled to his side and Annabelle got the belt around both sides of the chair, just barely buckled. Rick quickly managed to get an arm and hand free though, immediately reaching back to undo the belt, before Annabelle roughly grabbed his hand.

Forcing his hand into his face, making him very clearly look at his sores, another image of Luke was forced into his head. Annabelle then tugged on Rick's hand, beginning to drag him and the chair towards Luke's room now. "Annabelle..." Rick stated again slowly.

Annabelle stopped, looked him straight in the eye with a hard glare, and tilted her head a little as if daring him to argue again. She let got of his hand, firmly pushed his hips back down in the seat with one hand, and then pulled out her ten minute hour glass, setting it on the table right next to him. She firmly planted a finger in his chest, took a step back, and then crossed her arms in front of him. A very clear image of Rick staying seated appeared in his head, and then an image of Luke and Annabelle "talking" about something replaced it, a clear choice presented for Rick.

Rick was unfortunately forced to concede this argument right now and sat there. "If I stay here... you don't tell him at all." Rick warned somewhat loudly, Annabelle giving him another small glare. It was clear that they had very different opinions about this, and Annabelle was not happy with it. They just seemed to glare at each other for a moment though, before Annabelle returned to doing a few few chores. She finished up with the table, washed what few dishes were left, and then came up and checked on her hourglass. It was almost finished, and Annabelle seemed to count down the last bit of it, before undoing the belt.

She grabbed his hand again, made him look at his sores, and then appeared to scold him once more. Before he could argue, she teleported his telescopic bow staff into his hands and made him hold that, and even put in a few images of various combat gloves in his head. Boxing gloves, weighted self defense gloves, sports gloves, her solution was clear as she slowly turned towards the book shelf and even pulled out a magazine. A full catalog of various personal defense gear that he could buy from the group he bought his bo staff from, she forced that into his hands to make her point well known, she put a few images of Rick holding different items from the catalog in his hands.

~xXx~

As the next week came and Rick was finally able to return to the Lucario Kingdom, Balkor seemed to rush up towards as soon as he once again walked through the portal that Palkia had made for the rangers to moves supplies into the kingdom. Her smile was so much larger, and even Mana was there, walking up in her usual outfit of a kimono and umbrella.

Both of them seemed delighted to see Rick, and it kind of worried Rick a little bit as they approached him. 'Ah... there is my lovely future aura guardian. How bright the future looks for you and your aura. A few more weeks like this, and I can't call you a riolu in the ways of aura anymore.' Mana smiled, her voice filled with glee as she moved up eagerly towards Rick.

_'I told you that you were making progress.'_Balkor said, moving up and circling him a bit, inspecting him. She quickly focused in on his hands and Rick quickly got annoyed wondering just how many people would chew him out over his decisions. Balkor took his hands though, removed his gloves and noticed his sores, only to apply a glow to them. The pain eased up a bit and just looked at him a bit confused.

_'This type of training is unsuited to you at this time. Trying to draw out aura with pain is a bad idea, such brutal methods usually serve to hinder and harm, not give advancement until you are ready. Also, pick your tree more carefully. Until you can use aura more properly, you don't want to risk severe physical harm and breaking a knuckle will force your aura to focus on trying to heal itself, when are you ill suited to such tasks yet.'_Balkor stated, looking over his sores carefully.

'There is some sign that perhaps aura has helped healed these sores however. They do look clean, and yet I can tell how bad they were at one point. But don't get ahead of yourself, not that quickly.' Mana added.