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Rukario heard someone coming up the stairs and hastily pulled the bedsheets up to her neck. Not because she was cold, in fact adding cotton to fur would soon make it quite unbearably hot for her, especially now that winter had departed. Instead it was to keep up the appearance of a meek, badly hurt woman, for the aura approaching her was someone she hoped to get as much sympathy from as possible.

To her surprise, there was a soft knock on the door. Surely he knew she could sense him from miles away?

"Come in," Rukario said loudly, and Lucario started fiddling with the doorknob on the outside. He found the enormous hands of a Pokﾃｩmon incompatible for the task, and eventually had to resort to using his forearm to open the door.

Lucario's heart sank as he saw Rukario, bedridden nearly two years after their last meeting. It had been dreadful to find out how much the Piplup had changed, but with Rukario it was equally saddening to see she had not changed at all. Rukario had to make an effort to keep from gasping, faced once again with her lost love. She quickly studied his body and to her dismay noticed a few new scars added to his already generous supply.

But with that, she had her evidence. She had doubted herself and promised to move on with her life for a long time now, yet still a strangely triumphant feeling filled her heart when she realized she had been right about him being Cyon all along. This new information overwhelmed her, and she had no idea how to go about using it. Lucario mistook her stunned gaze for impatience, as if waiting for him to start the conversation.

"Y-Yo," Lucario stammered, losing his cool from the sudden oppressive atmosphere, "How are you, uh, feeling?"

An awkward silence filled the room as Rukario regarded him quietly. She could tell that he was nervous, and it surprised her. This behavior was much more reminiscent of his old self. Had he regained some of his memories? Is that why he was here? Left hanging without a reply, Lucario figured he should just get things over with before any more misconceptions could take root.

"I found out what happened to Cyon," he spoke while trying to remember the speech he had fabricated earlier during his drinking binge. Perhaps not the best origin for an explanation, but in a case revolving around body abduction and ghosts, the wild tales of a drunkard were more reasonable than the truth. Not that Rukario was someone who normally adhered to logic, but outright admitting that he was Cyon would only continue their pointless waltz towards mutual despair. He figured that giving any reasonable explanation would be a better idea, enough to rid him of guilt and help her to move on.

"Uh... Are you ready?" he asked, worried by Rukario's silence. If she was giving him the silent treatment, her sweet expression failed to show. In fact, it looked as enamored as when she had first thought him to be her husband.

"... Go on..." Rukario answered, surprisingly uninterested in hearing what he had to say. She wanted to confront him with her evidence as quickly as possible, but did not want to appear too forceful or even giddy about it.

"You... Probably already expected this, but..." Lucario explained while looking down at the floor in a feigned attempt at sorrow, "... It was Deoxys. I spoke to a legendary Pokﾃｩmon who fought Deoxys and found Cyon's body nearby. She left it together with the other victims."

His simple yet somewhat unlikely tale did not sound quite as convincing now as it had after 12 beers, but he opened his eyes hoping for an expression of acceptance quick resolution to this awkward situation. He felt so relieved when he saw Rukario looking at him with a gentle smile that he was forced to give one in return.

"Liar," Rukario replied with a sweet voice, and Lucario froze up. With Cyon's voice, Cyon's aura and while covered in Cyon's scars, this Lucario still had the gall to tell her there was no connection. Granted, he did speak in a very different manner, and it would not be completely impossible for two Lucario to share similar voices or similar aura. But...

"Your scars are precisely the same," Rukario presented her evidence with a soft, enchanting voice, "And no spikes... That cannot be a coincidence."

Lucario turned away from her, trying to suppress his panicked expression. He hadn't thought about that - There was actually no way of denying that whatever scars Cyon had, he had as well. He had always relied on logic being his strongest weapon against Rukario, but now it was somehow being used against him. He suddenly realized that she had been right all along in thinking that he was Cyon, and was in fact not the unreasonable spouse he had always thought of her as.

"Please, Cyon..." Rukario spoke up while trying to figure out what his shunning reaction meant, "You are in denial, you must have simply forgotten-" "I got these scars the same way Cyon did," Lucario interrupted her, hinting at the only explanation with even a shred of plausibility to it. He prepared himself for further probing, but had a feeling bluffing would not get him much further. He had no idea how Cyon got his scars, and even if he did, Rukario would never believe the inane notion of two individuals ending up with the exact same scars.

But there was no retort. He turned back to see Rukario looking very surprised, an expression he unintentionally copied.

"You mean... You were also a part of...?" Rukario whispered in astonishment as she felt her mouth drying up. Lucario realized he was on to something and quickly wiped any trace of befuddlement from his face.

"You... Know about that?" he asked with a frown while brushing past the scars on his chest in a seemingly meaningful way, "Yeah. I feigned memory loss because I hate talking about it. These scars... They start to ache when I do."

"... There were... More...? But you... I..." Rukario spoke quietly in defeat, Lucario keeping up his charade and cursing himself for ruining his only chance to find out just how the hell Cyon did get those scars. He quickly thought up more lies to cover himself, but it seemed Rukario had at long last given up.

And with that, Rukario's undeniable evidence was ripped away from her. She had been so sure this time. Her newfound hope fell to pieces almost immediately and was replaced by a strong feeling of doubt in herself.

"... Deoxys...?" she whispered to herself in disbelief, the name of the feared one suddenly sounding a lot more menacing than before, "Was it... Really that simple...? I... Oh my god, I..."

Rukario grabbed the sheets hard and stared blankly at foot of the bed. Of course Cyon was dead. Why had it been so hard to admit? He would never abandon her like he did out of his own free will, ever. This Lucario was obviously nothing like her husband, yet she had tried clinging on to a random stranger based only on his appearance, fervently ignoring reality to desperately pursue a mere fantasy. Was she really that desperate? Had she completely lost her sanity?

"Ruined your life, didn't I?" Lucario said after a while with a guilty tone. Rukario looked up at him in dumbfounded silence, and Lucario found her endlessly longing eyes particularly painful to look at.

"You know... Gave you false hope about Cyon being alive..." Lucario continued while looking off to the side, wondering if he at least could make her realize the kind of internal distress he suffered from mistreating her, "Made you sacrifice yourself to help me defeat Blue..."

"Must you take credit for everything?" Rukario suddenly asked with a stern voice, forcibly choking down her sorrow. Lucario sighed out loud, staring up into the ceiling.

"... Alright, fine..." he groaned agonizingly, "... You beat Blue... I was just in the way, like usual..."

"Not that," Rukario clarified. The innocent Lucario she had led on with her denial and desperation looked back at her, and she suddenly felt both amazed and grateful that he had not taken advantage of her weakness.

"The one responsible for ruining my life is not you..." she admitted quietly before looking back at the foot of the bed, "... It was me."

A pressure lifted off her chest and left her body through a very deep sigh. The Cyon she knew had been gone for a few years, but the notion that he would one day return, that she could reawaken his memories within the spikeless Lucario or at least find a clue as to what happened had always stayed with her. But now, all that was but a feverish dream of the past. Her obsession was over, and it was time to move on.

Rukario rubbed her face to dispel any forming tears before sitting up and flipping the bedsheets away. Lucario flinched in shock as he was flashed by her naked body, forgetting he had witnessed naked Pokﾃｩmon on a daily basis for the past 2 years. This one was particularly jarring though, because she was not wearing her trademark pants. However, her undergarments had not been hiding anything he had not seen before, and he quickly composed himself as to not stir up any unwarranted feelings in either of them.

He was glad to see that she was not hurt in any visible manner. In fact, going by the last time he looked at himself in the mirror, she seemed a lot healthier than his malnourished self. Her arms and legs were visibly strong yet slender and flexible, something Lucario would liken to a toned feminine gestalt were it not for the fact that it was a spitting image of his own. The color of her fur is what signified her as a shiny, but Lucario found it difficult to see how it would make her stand out in a universe where nearly inhabitant was painted in screaming, garish colors. Any admiration of her womanly chest would ultimately divert to the enormous spike protruding between them, and Lucario had to remind himself that no matter how emotional things get, hugs were out of the question.

"Hey, take it easy... Can you walk?" Lucario asked as Rukario slowly got out of bed. She looked at him for a moment before straightening her back.

"I am fine. I was just trying to evoke pity," Rukario admitted with a hint of shame before looking out of the only window in the room, "I can't believe I almost... No, this ends here. I am done with this silly game."

She bent over and picked up a yellow piece of clothing - Her pants, newly washed and even more sparkling clean than before. Faced with her posterior, Lucario decided this was a great time to look outside the window as well, noticing a line of peculiar footprints in the melting snow just outside the window. Almost looked like pawprint, the kind of pathetically simplistic writing Pokﾃｩmon used and he had no idea how to read.

"... I need to work out. A lot," Rukario suddenly said, not taking very long to put on her only article of clothing, "Join me."

Hesitating, Lucario realized he had nothing better to do at the moment, and that he could use some training after doing nothing but sleep and drinking for so long. They went downstairs, getting a dirty look from the grumpy owner behind the desk. Blue was nowhere in sight, and Lucario understood that he was effectively stranded in Snowpoint City with Rukario until the aged champion returned.

Rukario led him through the crowds of humans and Pokﾃｩmon to an empty area just at the edge of town, a place Lucario remembered running through with Zerobi with police hot on their tail. Thinking Rukario had some secret agenda with bringing him back there, Lucario was a bit surprised to find they were actually going to train. Both too strong for activities like pushups and jogging, they were forced to find creative ways of training, such as lifting heavy rocks, jumping several feet into the air and, of course, the inevitable sparring. Lucario figured it would be a lot safer compared to sparring with Zerobi and her unwieldy claws, or Mew and her inherent ability to very easily crush him like a bug. Withholding his strength in fear of hurting her and causing more distress, Lucario was quickly reminded of how Rukario had soundly trashed the Skarmory and Arcanine despite being at a severe type disadvantage against both. Rukario proved to be absolutely nothing like the frail bedridden woman he had first gotten the impression of, and soon Lucario found himself with his arms forced behind his back.

"Don't hold back. I can take it," Rukario requested between gasps, annoyed she had won in such a simplistic manner.

"O-Of course I'm going to hold back, we're only sparring!" Lucario growled in equal annoyance as she released him, but still decided to put in some more effort. Although his muscles had deteriorated a bit from his long inactivity, it was clear who the superior fighter was. Rukario was both fast and powerful, but not to the horrifying extent of Torana, and lacking unpredictable attributes like Darkrai, Lucario was easily able to dodge, block or parry her physical strikes. When the time came to go on the offensive, he held back the bulk of his strength, as he assumed she also did since he was not being barbequed by her expert use of blue fire with every blow.

"Aura allowed!?" Rukario asked in a hurry as they clashed together, as if reading his mind.

"Hell no!" Lucario shouted back, having suffered more than enough of the painful and bile-inducing aura during practice sessions. Rukario huffed in frustration as she stepped back, only to put her whole body into a tackle. Lucario did the mistake of blocking it instead of avoiding it, a flash of pain shooting through his arms as he realized it had been a serious attack. Rukario delivered several fast punches, and although Lucario was able to deflect most, anyone else would have been turned into mincemeat by her assault.

"Whoa! Hey!" Lucario yelled to interrupt her, "Find someone else if you want a real fight!"

"Ten... Seconds...!" Rukario panted with exasperation as she stepped back, "Fight me... For real... Even if... Only ten seconds... Please..."

Obviously low on stamina, her expression was pleading yet full of determination. Lucario had no idea what she hoped to achieve with this, but then again he never seen her this fired up before either, not even when they had been fighting Blue together. The memory of how she had taken a few nasty hits and come out fine resonated within his mind, and he decided to at least partially fulfill her wish. Had it been for real, he would have used Extreme Speed or an Aura Sphere. Instead, he decided to give her the brawl of a lifetime.

Lucario dashed towards Rukario, pretending to go for a full-on tackle yet dropping low for a leg sweep in the last second. Falling for his feint, Rukario was fast enough to step back from his attack anyway, exploiting the opening by bringing her fist down like a hammer upon his exposed shoulder. Lucario groaned in pain as the force pushed him closer to the ground, but the next second used the very same arm that had been struck to retaliate with an uppercut. Caught off guard by his resilience, the blow struck Rukario's chin with perfect accuracy, causing her to lose balance, stumble away for a few paces before falling flat on her back.

Adrenaline soared, but quickly diminished as Lucario exhaled and witnessed Rukario's immobile form on the ground. It reminded him of his second battle against Zoroark, who had been utterly defeated by a single one of his uppercuts. He ran over to see if she was still conscious, and was surprised to find her staring up into the sky with a very rare smile across her face.

"Amazing..." she whispered quietly, a trickle of blood running down her chin. She was dizzy and cold uncomfortably crept up her neck, but the chilly soil made for a perfect ice package against her headache. Her smile rid Lucario of whatever guilt was building up inside him, wondering why punching her in the face had not provided this pleasant result when he had done it earlier. As she was apparently not in any hurry to get up, Lucario decided to sit down beside her, the frozen soil making him glad he was at least wearing pants.

"You're way stronger than you appear," Lucario mumbled, scratching his buzzing shoulder. He hoped it was not simply because she was a Lucario, as it would belittle his own achievements.

"All free shinys are strong. Or very good at running," Rukario said with clear pronunciation, proving she had withstood the blow considerably better than Zoroark. Lucario decided not to point out that technically she was captured by Blue, because if the old trainer was a man of his word he would release her whenever she was ready, and the lingering pain in his shoulder proved that she was definitively more than ready.

"Did you and Cyon, uh, 'work out' like this often?" Lucario asked with genuine curiosity, wondering if maybe he was on to how Cyon got a few of those scars. Rukario's smile faded, and Lucario realized he had unintentionally brought up a painful subject.

"... No. I stopped after we became a couple," Rukario answered bitterly, "He always hated it. Training. Fighting."

"Yeah... Nothing says romance like punching each other," Lucario muttered as he used his hand to wipe away some of the blood from Rukario's chin, a habit anyone familiar with Zerobi would eventually develop. To his surprise, her smile returned as she suddenly started to giggle.

"What?" Lucario asked, rubbing his hand against the ground to replace the blood with dirt.

"I suppose I used to be a bit of a... Brawler," Rukario admitted before closing her eyes, "Guess I never stopped enjoying some things about it."

"Used to be...?" Lucario repeated quietly, twisting his shoulder around and noticing it still wasn't feeling quite right. Rukario felt the dizziness receding and coldness increasing, finally sitting upright.

"Like I said, Cyon hated violence," she elaborated while wiping some of the outdoor filth away from her back, "I was fighting on a daily basis when he appeared and spoke of a different way, that strength wasn't everything. He used to say there was a peaceful resolution to every problem."

Lucario withheld any attempt to point out Cyon's sentiment sure didn't save him against Deoxys, especially respectful of the dead when they possessed the ability to occasionally pop up and chastise him.

"I quit battling after we became a couple, and figured that it was because I matured..." Rukario explained while looking up at the sky, her eyes squinting in the sunlight, "... But I've been thinking... What if I only changed for his sake?"

Rukario thought back to her days as a Riolu. Punching and kicking, scratching and biting almost since birth to stifle those wanting to capture or simply challenge a shiny. Cyon had always felt so sorry for her because of it, cursing those who would force someone into a life of endless battle at such a young age. While her friends had spoken of these times with contempt, she herself had never truly understood why. She did not mind fighting, because she was good at it. It was an excitement found nowhere else, an endless source of thrill which yielded both prestige and rewards.

Of course, there were many other things in life she enjoyed, so giving up battling did not seem like a big deal at the time. She and Cyon had fallen deep in love, but realized many of their habits were quite incompatible for a relationship to fully work out. Rukario had been forced to evacuate the area whenever Cyon cooked up one of his revolting human meals, as he was incapable of eating berries without choking in disgust. Meanwhile, he had become increasingly distressed with her perchance to accept any challenges, returning home with bruises, fractures and a far too narrow escape from capture. To nurture their relationship, they had decided to both make sacrifices - He would learn to eat like a Pokﾃｩmon, and she would learn to stop fighting.

Flooded with memories of the past, Rukario felt her eyes grow a little tired from the strong light. She bent her head down and saw Lucario staring off into the distance, and suddenly realized she really knew nothing about this person she had been chasing for so long.

"What about you? Have you ever met someone who changed you?" Rukario asked while patting him on the shoulder she had previously attacked, making one Lucario's long ears twitch.

"A couple," Lucario answered honestly without really pondering the question. Seemed reasonable - Ivy had made him hate Pokﾃｩmon, Zerobi had made him stop hating Pokﾃｩmon and so on.

"A... Couple!?" Rukario repeated in shock, wondering if Lucario realized the gravity of her question, "No, I mean... Someone who changed your life forever. Someone so important, your life would have been radically different without him."

This time, Lucario thought hard to himself. The list of people and Pokﾃｩmon who had affected him in some way was innumerable, but had any of them fundamentally altered his course in life?

"Yeah... Like I said, a couple," Lucario insisted as he turned to face her to prove he was earnest, "Honestly, I never had a decided path in life to follow. I just keep moving in whatever direction people push me in."

Rukario stared at him in silence with a confused expression.

"Never...? Really?" she whispered after a few seconds, "No childhood dreams? Just... Letting the spur of the moment decide...?"

It sounded less than admirable, but Lucario knew that whatever childhood dreams he once had were gone with his departure from the world of humanity. If his dream was to become a Pokﾃｩmon Master, he had already fulfilled it long ago. What kind of ideas for the future did he have after that? It bothered him that he could not remember, did his life really revolve around Pokﾃｩmon to the point where even his future was occupied by them?

"I knew it. You are nothing like Cyon," Rukario said before visibly choking down what sounded a little like a laughter, "But... I think you are a lot like me. Letting yourself get swept away by someone."

"Hey, don't make it sound like that!" Lucario burst out with annoyance from being judged, "I've never been forced to do anything. What, I'm not independent just because I followed a suggestion? If the suggestion sucked, I would've done something else."

"So... You only agree to good suggestions?" Rukario asked while taking a gander of disbelief at the Lucario's dreadfully thin body, "Then, want to go eat something?"

"Sorry, not a big fan of berries," Lucario answered while shaking his head, although the Tofu from earlier was hardly a filling meal. Suddenly, Rukario's smile disappeared as she gave him a strange expression.

"... Oh really?" she exclaimed with curiosity before looking back towards Snowpoint City, "Well... I'm certain they have something else in town. My treat."

Not one to turn down such a rare chance, Lucario nodded eagerly as they went back into town. And even though he knew he should be feeling overjoyed at the prospect of finally getting some real food, he could not shake the feeling that Rukario was planning something.