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Met only by a blur of darkness, it was Mew's unique color and shape that Lucario was able to distinguish first as he opened his eyes. Her presence was beaming like usual, and everything around her seemed like an uninteresting grey mess. As Lucario regained more of his vision, he realized that this was because her background really was a grey mess, finding himself inside of a cave.

Mew was hovering above his stomach with her back was turned towards him, and it did not take long before her squirming tail began to swish around. It came to rest directly in front of his face, obscuring most of his vision with its fine pink fur. Lucario felt irritated by the long appendage, eager to see if Mew had recovered since the last time. He reached out in preparation to give the annoying tail a harsh tug, but the instant he moved his arm she was alerted to his consciousness. The tip of her oar-shaped tail jumped up and lightly smacked him on the cheek as Mew drew in a breath, turning around to face him with a dash of surprise across her face.

"Are you awake?" Mew asked with a somewhat nervous tone, "If so, could you tell me what your abdomen feels like?"

"Abdomen..." Lucario repeated hazily while noticing something like a draft running through his upper body, "... Breezy?"

"Oh... Good!" Mew exclaimed as she sunk down towards his stomach, "It seems your nerve endings are in proper condition, after all. Let me just close this up, then..."

Lucario threw his head back as a very painful sensation suddenly spread throughout his chest; a dozen needles poking into it. Doing his best not to scream like a little girl, he clenched his teeth together as Mew worked extra quickly and finished stitching him up.

"There. Tell me should it become infected," Mew said as Lucario's pain disappeared as quickly as it had appeared. Shaking his head as he sat up, he was able to get a better look at Mew. Graceful and otherworldly as always, the stark contrast between the being currently in front of him and the dying legendary in No Man's Land made itself known. Her innocent eyes almost made him lose nerve before remembering just how long he had chased after her, feeling the urge to grab onto her so she would not try to escape once more.

"You weren't easy to find," Lucario muttered, not sure on what to say even after all this time. Feeling conflicting emotions stir up inside of him, all he was sure of is that he wanted answers.

"So I have been told," Mew said as she closed her eyes in a solemn gesture, curious as to why Lucario would assume otherwise with someone as secluded as her, "Why did you follow me?"

"... Why? I thought you wanted us to do this thing together," Lucario explained in an attempt to clarify himself, "Why did you ditch me back at the Seafoam Islands?"

Mew suddenly looked at him with an expression of confusion. It melted into relief for a split second before she shook her head.

"I did not 'ditch' you..." Mew replied with an unfittingly cheerful tone, "... No Man's Land was an unnecessary obstruction for our plans of uniting Pokémon and humanity. It was something I was easily able to handle on my own, and as such I saw no reason to bother you about it, leaving you more time to train, learn or simply relax after our long journey together."

"Yet still, I'm the one who had to come save you," Lucario pointed out stubbornly, remembering how she had not been able to talk the last time they met and was definitely not in any shape to give him lip. This time, Mew looked at him with a somewhat offended expression.

"For your information, I revived on my own and Zoroark had no intention of hurting me in the first place," Mew defended herself with pride, "In fact, I believe we would have resolved our differences faster had you not been there to drag me away."

"... What, that's the thanks I get for risking my ass for you?" Lucario asked sternly while feeling his temper start to rise. After all he had gone through, from running and fighting to getting captured and shot, the last thing he expected was for her to be ungrateful. Their eyes locked together in a moment of bitter conflict before Mew's eyes suddenly eased up and she slowly shook her head.

"No. I appreciate it. Under different circumstances, you really would have saved my life," she said while politely bowing her head, "Thank you."

Her respectful display quickly drained the hostility out of Lucario, and even the animosity he had built up over a long period of time was beginning to phase out. Instead he was suddenly feeling surprisingly good about himself. Mew's appreciation felt special, especially since such long time had passed since their last meeting. She smiled when she saw him scratch the back of his head in modesty, but after a few seconds her expression became troubled.

"Now, why did you follow me?" Mew asked curiously, "Did you want to tell me something?"

Lucario was certain that he did, but could not think of much at the moment. His earlier concerns seemed so distant. As he sat and talked to the earnest and kind Mew, he wondered why he had ever worried about her lying and trying to keep away from him. The memory of a deceivingly gentle smile five times the size of his own suddenly ran through Lucario's mind, and the forgotten mistrust came to light once.

"What did Lugia say about me?" Lucario asked bluntly, trying to read Mew's expression. He quickly realized this to be a useless endeavor; the legendary's large sapphire eyes containing more depth and wisdom than he could ever hope to analyze.

"Lugia?" Mew repeated and suddenly felt slightly homesick, wondering how the other legendaries were doing, "What would he have to say about you?"

"I know he told you something," Lucario insisted, "What was it?"

"Hmm... I think..." Mew whispered to herself while digging through the past conversation, "He claimed that he would make sure you had a pleasant stay. He also implied that you would be too stubborn to sit and wait for my return should you have learned of my highly temporary absence."

"Of course I wouldn't-" Lucario started, instantly halting himself as he realized that was exactly what he had done, "I mean... Uh..."

Lucario fell quiet as Mew looked at him for a moment. Then, she started to giggle. It was a meek, gentle and very unusual sound.

"Worry not, what is done is done," she said with an amused tone, "Your actions here will be far more valuable than playing games with Azelf and Mesprit."

Her response caught Lucario off guard, both in what she had said and the way in which she had said it in. For a composed and refined creature like Mew, Lucario knew how rare it was to hear her voice in such a frivolous manner and doing something like giggling. Not only that, but the idea that there even was a "here" suddenly entered his head and suddenly made him realize that he had no idea where they were. Remembering his bout with the Blaziken which had been in close proximity to his and Zerobi's destination, he could only assume that he had been transported to the revolutionists' base of operation. A swirling mass of powerful aura all around supported his idea, and there even seemed to be one or two familiar sensations among them.

"... Since you're here, I'm guessing you've heard about the virus already?" Lucario asked in an attempt to see how far his assumptions would lead him, "Have you forgiven Zoroark?"

"Yes," Mew replied as her fit of giggling trailed off and her face suddenly looked a little embarrassed, "I... Might have overdone it a bit, but... You saw the state he put me in! I was not eager to take a risk like that again!"

"... Wait, what?" Lucario asked worriedly, not used to see Mew anything but self-assured and proud of her actions, "Did you... Hurt him?"

"No, no! I simply..." Mew started as she sunk further into chagrin, obviously remembering something she was hoping to forget, "... Opted for a slight amount of intimidation..."

"Quite the understatement, I'd say," a voice suddenly sounded from a few feet away. Lucario turned his head right, seeing a familiar figure standing by what looked to be the entrance to the room he found himself in. A massive bush of flaming red hair and a face not entirely unlike his own, the owner of both was none other than Zoroark. Although he was confidently leaning against the cavern's walls in an attempt to look collected, Mew knew the cool and calculating leader of the revolution was simply afraid to come near her, nervous to be put into another situation he would not soon forget. The feeling was mutual, Mew not willing to be put into stabbing distance of his sealing claws once more.

"Congratulations on your victory, Lucario," Zoroark said with a quick nod, "How are you feeling?"

"Don't really know," Lucario muttered as he tried to run a hand through the fur on his chest, a bit surprised when he was unable to find it, "How... Do I look?"

"Well, nothing worse than those scars you already have," Zoroark replied as Lucario looked down at himself. The sight of pink skin instead of a sea of blue and yellow hair was both a familiar and unfamiliar sight at the same time.

"... What the..." Lucario stammered as he touched his naked chest, suddenly realizing why everything felt so breezy, "My hair! It's been burnt off!"

"It will regrow soon..." Mew whispered, her eyes locking with Zoroark's for a moment. Lucario was too busy staring in awe at his leathery skin to notice, but Zoroark was aware of her intentions and took the moment into action.

"Hmm... Do you mind?" Zoroark asked, "I would like to speak with Lucario in private."

Mew continued looking at her for a moment before nodding, hovering away through the exit as Zoroark moved away from it and towards Lucario. Seeing Mew depart brought Lucario back as he opened his mouth as to say something, stopping himself as he was instead met by Zoroark's stern gaze.

"... Oh, right. The virus," Lucario said, wanting to talk more to Mew but realizing that there were higher priorities at stake, "I... Don't suppose you took the liberty of fixing that whole mess while I was asleep?"

"No..." Zoroark responded, obviously thinking of something else. The Dark-type kept still a for a few more seconds before turning around to make sure the legendary was no longer there, finally exhaling in relief and visibly calming down.

"Man... What did she do to you?" Lucario asked and thought he could see Zoroark's hair stand on end, slightly poking through her illusion.

"... It happened right after our talk over that videophone..." Zoroark explained quietly while remembering everything as vividly as if it had happened only minutes earlier...

---

Zoroark exhaled as she fumbled with the convoluted control panel, taking an awfully long time in finding the button that made the big screen go dark. Hoping she was still not visible on the other side, she wished she had brought the technician who had reactivated the videophone in the first place to handle everything.

She knew the call needed to be private as she had expected to discuss many secrets with Lucario, and so she had decided to come alone under the guise of illusions to remain undetectable by anyone. The Whimsicott and Sigilyph were the only ones to know of her presence here, inside the inconspicuous wreck of an old human vehicle that neither man nor Pokémon would ever look at twice. Still, even though all the windows and been barred to deter anyone from taking a peek inside, she could not help but feel a bit uneasy as it was not buried underground and therefore still within visible range.

Speaking with Celebi had served to calm her down a bit. The powerful legendary had been gentle, wise and nowhere near as arrogant as she had expected. Celebi was what Zoroark had hoped Mew would have been. However, Celebi insisted that Mew was just as kind, and Zoroark wondered if maybe her own hasty actions are what served to agitate the living legend.

Ready to send an envoy to summon the legendary trio, Zoroark stopped as something like an explosion sounded all around. All the lights in the vehicle went out as it began to shake. Worried she had somehow activated the crashed machinery with her reckless mashing of buttons, Zoroark ran up to the control panel and started pressing buttons again, desperate to find an OFF switch. After a few moments everything calmed down, and she sighed out in relief. Feeling slightly nervous from the ordeal and not wanting to stick around should anything else go wrong, she pressed down on the handle and opened the door outside.

The ground was not there to greet her step, but instead laid several hundred meters below. Zoroark gave off a terrified gasp and grabbed hold of the door she had just flung open as a cloud passed by underneath, hating herself for not having had the time to locate another parachute after the last one broke. Knowing that the old vehicle should have all the airborne qualities of a metallic lump, she looked around to determine what had happened.

Above her hovered the legendary Mew, holding the truck airborne with her psychic powers like it was a leaf carried by an upward draft. She seemed to have recovered fully since their last encounter, looking down at Zoroark with the same unfazed and serene expression as always. In contrast, Zoroark was panicking at the thought of the legendary exacting revenge and dropping her, thereby ending the revolution.

However, a fraction of a second before losing her mind to fear, Zoroark grasped hold of her rationality and refused to let it go. Celebi had guaranteed that Mew was not the type to go around killing people, and had that been her intentions Zoroark would have been dead by now. The more obvious purpose behind this charade was to scare, and to show that she no longer held any power over the legendary she had nearly killed earlier. Zoroark sighed out as she calmed down, and looked up at Mew while doing her best to hide her nervosity.

"I surrender!" Zoroark said loudly with a clear voice, not wanting to be misunderstood while in such a vulnerable position.

"Smart," Mew replied almost immediately, apparently not at all surprised to see her intimidation tactic working. What bothered Zoroark was that Mew's intentions seemed unchanged from their meeting back in No Man's Land while the situation was now all but the same.

"Listen! I have spoken to Celebi!" Zoroark shouted, not sure of why she was yelling but fairly certain it had to do with being suspended hundreds of feet up in the air, "The world is in danger! We need your help!"

Mew's expression suddenly changed, showing a hint of concern at the sound of her fellow legendary's name.

"Celebi...?" Mew repeated carefully, "Truly? What has happened?"

"C-Can you put me down first?" Zoroark could not help but stammer as she made the mistake of looking down once more, "We have a few things to discuss, and I feel rather... Unsafe..."

"If you were to come down, then I would be the one feeling unsafe!" Mew exclaimed with an agitated tone. Zoroark realized Mew had not forgotten what she had done, and knew she was in a bad position for bargaining. It was then that she realized that bad positions came in great variety, and she was ready to supplement the current one for just about anything. Letting go of the vehicle and taking a few unsteady steps back, she held her hands up in a display of submission.

"I never meant to harm you, Mew!" she yelled at the top of her lungs, "But you need to hear what I have to say, and I cannot think straight like this! Freeze me solid or tie me up if you must... I will pose no resistance!"

---

"A poor choice of words on my end, I believe," Zoroark muttered as she grabbed a hold of her right wrist with a pained expression, "Sure, it is not a free fall without a parachute, but... Do you have any idea what it feels like to be held in place by icicles?"

"Actually... Yeah," Lucario admitted as Zoroark finished her story, her surprised expression telling him she did not know the details of his initial encounter with Suicune, "Don't ask. But... Mew hadn't figured out anything about the virus? She just came to hunt you down?"

"... And I met her inside of a truck, as well..." Zoroark whispered as a sardonic smile crossed her features, "Should I have expected truth from an urban legend regarding an urban legendary?"

Something about the whole situation struck Lucario as weird. With all the new information from both Zoroark's and Mew's end circulating his head, he was unable to properly analyze everything right at that moment and decided to just go along with it.

"But hey, Celebi's right. You've got no need to be afraid of Mew," Lucario assured her while thinking of his own argument with Mew regarding the dog, "She only wants what's best for everyone, and probably feels bad you had to see her like that."

"Perhaps..." Zoroark sighed before shaking her head, "My feelings are irrelevant. For the sake of the bigger issue at hand, I will ally myself with anyone."

"Could you tone it down a bit? I'm trying to get some sl-" a familiar voice sounded by the entrance as the drowsy figure of Zerobi stpped inside, her face and features perking up in an instant, "LUCARIO!?"

Zerobi immediately jumped into a sprint but stopped herself just as quickly, seeing a vast amount of blood around the makeshift operation table where Lucario was sitting. Most of it had dried up, but she refused to take another step and instead looked at Lucario with a longing expression. He nodded as he tried to get up while Zoroark viewed Zerobi pensively, taking note of her actions.

"Hey, Zerobi," Lucario grumbled as he stood up and walked towards her, not noticing all the blood in favor of his cold and furless body. His skin looked a bit more leathery compared to when he was human, and the scars over his chest were definitively visible.

"You were great!" Zerobi exclaimed, impressed to see Lucario on his feet after only a few days out of commission, "But... What the hell were you thinking!? Where'd that ExtremeSpeed come from!? Come on, you've got to tell me everything..."

Zoroark stood still and watched as the two of them left the room, Lucario turning his head back towards her in confusion. She knew he would assume that she had left, too busy to talk with someone like him all day. Instead, she upheld an illusion that made her camouflaged against the cave wall behind, invisible with eyes not for him but rather the new arrival.

Seeing the Weavile's excited demeanor as she chatted happily brought about a nagging feeling in the back of Zoroark's head, suddenly forcing her to question her decision to ally herself with anyone. The voice of Astrid quietly echoed through her head, nervous and meek like always but carrying a hint of determination in it. It was at that moment that Zoroark rearranged her priorities, realizing that there was an even greater threat than the impending biohazard, and one that was within her immediate grasp. Before destroying the fearsome virus, she knew something had to be done about the ruthless killer Zerobi.