Chapter 1. The next Rift that appeared in this world brought with it its next visitor, a crimson and large Midnight Lycanroc with crusty looking fur. Stepping out from the black tear in space, his awareness only sank in as his body slipped into the world as if on autopilot. Fifty feet in the air. Rook flailed and shouted in shock as he plummeted to the ground, the grassy field under him barely cushioned his impact with a resounding crash. The tear in space closed up above him before he’d even hit the ground, a small ‘blep’ the only noise that ever signified it’s being there. “Ow! Fuck!” Rook snarled, as he rubbed his snout with a paw, his nose getting squashed by the fall while his rocky fur had bunched up to protect him from the rest of the impact, spiked out to catch him like metal claws. The ground was torn up and destroyed as some parts of his fur had spiked into it, but relaxed shortly after the impact and the immediate threat was gone to let him flop fully onto the ground. Picking himself up, Rook knelt while rubbing his nose and taking a quick glance around of the flowery, grassy field he’d fallen into, his gaze quickly falling upon a small Turtwig who was watching him, the little turtle stunned as he’d just witnessed Rook falling from the sky, but hadn’t seen him fall out of the Rift before it had sealed up and vanished. To him it had been as if the Lycanroc had suddenly just plummeted and slammed into the ground before him like a meteor from above. It was late evening, and the sun was just about to begin dipping down into that twilight state upon the horizon it seemed. “You okay?” The Turtwig said carefully, “You hit the ground really hard…did you get flung by a psychic and teleported?” Rook chuckled somewhat as he gave his nose a final rub and lowered his paw, it still stung a little and would for a bit. “That’s…kind of what happened. But uh…I’m from another world…” The words fell out of his muzzle before he could think to stop them, but just after they did he regretted it from the grass type’s reaction. At his sentence, the Turtwig’s eye’s had widened, “A-are…are you from S-Satoru’s world…?” He asked the question carefully, while taking a few steps back at the same time. The action told Rook that to say yes would be bad, but he shook his head readily anyway, “I don’t know anyone by the name Satoru in my world.” He frowned further, “You seem to get pretty nervous thinking that though…who is Satoru?” Instead of explaining or even cowering further, the Turtwig ran forward and he grabbed onto the Lycanroc’s hand with his jaw and began to pull him away from his impact sight, something the Lycanroc didn’t stop because he sensed the other pokemon’s intent wasn’t malicious. He began to frantically speak, his words only slightly muffled as he held Rook’s hand and tugged him up the hill. “We gotta get you hidden before he comes here! If you just dropped out from some kind of portal or whatever he’ll sense it with his machines! My dad can help hide you!” Rook narrowed his eyes, he didn’t fight back and just followed the little grass type turtle as he responded, “I uh…I’m pretty sure I’d be fine, but…sure, take me wherever.” Not like he had anywhere else to go. He just got to this world. ________ About forty minutes later, Rook followed the turtle boy, who had eventually let go of his hand so that they could move faster, into his village. They ran there at his insistence, so it had been quite a long sprint. Rook panted slightly while the boy seemed just as full of energy still too, and this surprised Rook. The pokemon here were strong…even when young. The Turtwig had ran with speed that matched his own. That kind of excited him. Would he be able to find what he needed here, he wondered. As he stopped in front of one of the many wooden houses, their lights soft in glow of the night that was now encroaching, thoughts filled Rook’s head while the boy fetched his father. Looking for a source of power…he had to just…trust what Enzlo had told him. He would have a purpose in every world he’d be in, through the magic of the Corsova mark he’d given him. Other marks from his “uncles”, Palkia, Dialga, and Giratina would ensure his existence could not be harmed. As long as his world remained waiting for him, he’d exist. Though he could be killed, he understood he’d return a few days later. He wondered…what might death be like…? Enzlo had told him many of the other realms would lead him to things that might be suitable. It was up to him to try and get it and bring it back, once he found it, he’d know how to return with it…It had been frustrating for Enzlo that he didn’t know -what- it was he was sending Rook to seek, only what they needed it to do. Bring order to chaos. Until then his world was at war with itself, but they’d survive. They already knew they could. He knew they could. They survived Jack’s resulting calamity, he had failed, they could continue to keep things in order. Eventually, Rook was pulled from his thoughts by the Turtwig’s parents, his mother a large Torterra and his father a Tropius. Rook told them his name, but they did not return the courtesy, something he understood well for pokemon. You only shared your name to those you expected to stick around, but Rook tended to be very open about his name. There were always only so many pokemon of all the same species, and it was unlikely you’d find another like yourself in any one place, typically calling out someone by their species name was fine if you weren’t familiar with them. But Rook was a stranger here, he told them when asked about what the boy said about him being from a different world that his world had sent him on a mission to look for something, something with which he could bring back to his own to bring order to chaos. He explained that he had no control on what world he’d visit. At this, he received blank stares. “I somewhat fail to find reason in your being here then. We have nothing that could do what you say. Do you have a means of leaving? Visitors from another world wouldn’t generally be seen favorably I’d say…” The Tropius regarded Rook with somewhat passive, if still apprehensive eyes. “Your son asked me if I came from the same world as “Satoru”,” Rook nodded, “His reaction seemed to show that whoever that is, they are not good.” “Satoru is a killer, a tyrant, an abomination against nature.” He said sharply, “To say he is “not good” is like saying water is wet. It is obvious to everyone in this world he is. I would keep the knowledge that you’re from another world to yourself if possible.” Rook simply nodded, his ears flicking slightly and his eyes narrowed in thought, looking away from the Tropius a moment as he did. The pure sharpness of the way the big grassy dragon spoke made him frown in recognition of his seriousness. “Tell me about him…” Rook said carefully. The Tropius began to give Rook many thoughts, an explanation of what he thought about Satoru and how evil he was. He told the Lycanroc a tale of how, about 20 years ago, he’d killed the son of a village elder and then somehow brought him back to life. He told him that now he and this other pokemon were far different than any other, their bodies unnatural and mutated. They did not age or bleed, and pain did not seem to register upon them. “What worries me the most, is that according to my son, you are much like him.” He finished by giving the Lycanroc a stare. Rook furrowed his eyes again and tilted his head, “I’ve given you no reason to think I’d be as horrible as you say…” “You fell from the sky and impacted it like you’re solid…like he is.” The Turtwig followed up. Rook wondered what exactly he meant. He made his fur bunch up around his body, and as it took on its metal and shiny like state the other pokemon in the room jumped. Standing still, Rook simply tried to explain, “This is one of my moves, Rock Coat. It protects me from damage really well.” He relaxed his fur with his explanation, shaking his head as it became fluffy once more. “I’m…different too, yes, but I’m not like him. I don’t want to hurt anyone, at least not outside of battle.” The Lycanroc growled, “And I certainly don’t kill…not unless necessary.” The Tropius stared at Rook for several seconds, “Forgive me…for I can only think of several things that make you just…untrustworthy. Your story is hard to follow and you are strange.” Rook snickered, “I’m just me. I can’t get you to trust me, but I’m not afraid of you and have no reason to attack you. I am simply acting normally, I came here knowing I have to just try and make due.” The Lycanroc considered then, “If you’d possibly be okay, I may need a place I can return to safely, for now though just to stay for tonight, would this place be okay?” “I was worried that you may ask to stay…but I had thought you’d ask for more than just a single night…you may stay a night, but no longer…if Satoru’s machines did detect your coming into our world…” Rook narrowed his eyes and he gripped his paws. “If I bring trouble upon you, I’ll handle it myself.” The thought of this person doing anything to the pokemon of this village who’d just happened to be the first to greet him wouldn’t be brought to harm over himself, he pledged. Rook was given a room where he took to meditating, as he reviewed to himself again what his goal was, what had led him to being here at that moment. This world seemed familiar to his own, much how Enzlo mentioned many of them would. His body hadn’t seemed to change like he’d been warned it may. He’d been told there would be several possible things, several possible reasons why he’d be in the world he’d be placed in, he was told there’d either be some amount of time that needed to pass for him, or he’d need to find and do something in particular, but that if there was a purpose for him, that it would come to him on its own. As a Realm Jumper, a realm knows when you aren’t an original part of it. It sets a path for you to take that eventually leads to you leaving it. He just needed to follow it. So he believed that Satoru was probably his path here, being the first apparent threat this world had to be brought right to his attention. Despite the calmness of night outside in the village, Rook could feel it in the air of this house. The training Ruli had given him on Aura let him feel it. This entire world was quiet…but it wasn’t at peace. Tension hung in the air in silent waves. The Lycanroc smirked to himself suddenly in his thoughts, opening his eyes from where he’d been laying in the bed. “Hehehe…normal pokemon are far easier to read than gods.” Rook stared up at the ceiling and his smile slowly faded as he sighed, “Damn it…and now I’m already regretting that I left…hah, don’t even know if this is the first world I’ve been in.” It was true, the magic and power that brought him there required him to forget all other worlds he’d ever visited whenever he entered another. No matter how hard he could think it, Rook couldn’t see beyond his own world and this one. He lifted up his paw and flexed it closed and open. The moment he’d discovered what his power actually was played back to him as he recalled what Palkia had revealed to him. “You’re the reincarnation of the Bright Star, what Enzlo suspected about you was true…you don’t recall anything about your previous existence because it's not possible to.” The space lord had growled at him, “I trusted your previous incarnation because he stayed within the borders of Space! Now though, -you’ve- gone and acquainted yourself to that Abra and now have someone like him behind you…” Palkia had paused, his eyes narrowed dangerously at the Lycanroc, who at the time had been floating helplessly locked in place by the Space Lord’s power, “the fact that you hold the Bright Star’s power in of itself is a danger. -you- aren’t him and -I- knew him. I question which one of you may actually end up proving more destructive…” All of their conversations eventually boiled into Rook seeing that Palkai worried quite a lot about Rook’s level of power, but he often giggled and laughed it off, eventually just saying, “If Space is as infinite as you claim it to be, what does it matter how large my own power grows? You and I both know…if it wasn’t for Enzlo’s mark letting you control me right now…I could defeat you, but I don’t -want- to harm you. I like to fight…for the battles…I’ve already done my killing…I don’t want to have to do that again…” Rook had fallen silent, the more recent events of the battle he had with Jack fresh in his mind. Palkia oddly approved of Rook a few days after this conversation, and sent him off to the Lord of Time. Dialga had been less aggressive. “If there was one thing I knew the Bright Star for, it was his impatience. Meditate with me…let us see how patient you are willing to be.” And they’d spent what felt like years in relative silence together. The occasional break in silence as Rook couldn’t help but speak a thought ended up resetting the clock on a week long timer that Dialga had set, it wasn’t until Rook managed to stay silent for an entire week of time that Dialga cleared him for his journey, and he explained then what his test had been to Rook. Everytime he spoke he reset the timer on the clock, unbeknownst to him. They had held casual conversation about several topics, and he’d not let slip his test at all to the Lycanroc. However, he did stipulate in telling Rook that he appreciated his conversations, and commented that this was one difference to his previous incarnation he did not at all mind. Rook had never even thought of this test as a possibility. He had honestly kind of liked the moments of long silence and the company of the Time Lord when he did engage him in conversation, his thoughts on the problems their world was facing were welcome even though he could not offer a clear solution. The time had also given the Lycanroc plenty of focus to sort out his thoughts about what it was he was going to be doing. The only reason that week had ever passed at all was because Rook became lost in thoughts about the kinds of places he -might- have to visit that he had been trying to mentally prepare for even the most outrageous of possibilities. The realization that the possibilities were endless; and that therefore Dialga wouldn’t be able to advise him, had been what both made him lose track of time and also keep quiet entirely. Dialga stated that based on the kind of personality he had known of the previous Bright Star, he had thought Rook would never pass it. “The Bright Star loved challenges, and hated remaining still, but if you’re unaware of the challenge being presented to you, are you fine just being anyway? That was the test I wanted to give of you. At first, you seemed just as restless as he was, but it seemed that, as the time went on, you calmed until you were like a still puddle waiting to be rippled.” Rook had giggled and rubbed his head, “Actually I just kind of realized that bothering you about any of my thoughts wouldn’t matter cause you wouldn’t be able to help me solve them, so I decided to just not talk anymore and stop bothering you from your meditation…how long has even passed?” Dialga had blinked…and then laughed for a good long minute. And so Dialga had cleared him, “That was the best moment of laughter I’ve had I think.” And then sent him off to Giratina. Giratina had welcomed him, even called him a “brother”, and instantly challenged him to battle. Rook had been surprised in this change of pace at first, but was quick to eagerly welcome it. And then screamed as he had very essence ripped in half, and Giratina laughed as Rook screamed in the sense of pure pain assailing him before setting him back together and apologizing. All that pain just vanished and left the Lycanroc shocked, shivering at what had just happened to himself…having his very essence torn apart was not pleasant. “Sorry Rooky~ Had to make sure you were the first “you” before we started the “Test” Hah! Like you need that! Go out there and destroy things for me! Boy when you came here with that huskyyyyyyyy~” He paused suddenly before tilting his head down low into Rook’s face quickly as he rambled on quickly to a shocked Rook, “Our score is 0-1 now! Beat me 50 times before I beat you more than three times! That’s your test!” He had been strange…they held conversation in the middle of battle with no pause. These conversations were mostly made mute by Giratina’s own seeming madness that Rook failed to follow his meanings, as the Realm Lord continued referring to several other beings and creatures that Rook had no knowledge of. However, the battles in his realm of realms themselves, the chaotic energy provided a way for Rook to renew his energy level within minutes rather than hours or days…It had been fantastic training. With Giratina resetting the score every time he’d beat him a fourth time, it’d taken him five years compared to the one he’d spent with Dialga to finally beat the Lord of Realms with a 50-2 score, at which point Giratina revealed, in a fit of rage over losing at all, that he could just outright destroy Rook if he so wished it…before he rapidly fixed him back together and apologized profusely once again. “As your previous self, you taught me that just because I -can- doesn’t mean I -should-...and now I try to return that favor to you. This is not the last time you will fight me…and when you do again, I will not be the same. It will be a different me you face, yet also not...a madness consumes me that only you will be able to break. Remember it when you face me. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.” Rook was sad that Giratina’s desire for pure destruction needed to have him trapped in his own realm… Or…was that sadness the Bright Star’s…? “You’ve been in me the whole time…” Rook mumbled as he flexed his paw closed and open again, and he called upon that power he knew of now, his paw glowing yellow as he made a trio of small rocks float in from the window from just outside. His power over the elemental forces of earth and stone was through his typing, like many pokemon, but the -absolute- control he had over it was because of the Bright Star, a being that once existed beyond existence...and then forced into an existence by the necessity of existing. He’d thought he’d been super charged by Jack. That was what he had always believed for a long time. This power wasn’t because of what Jack had done to him, it had always been in him, now he understood that. Jack had believed he had created something, and that egotistical believe had driven him down a path of trying to recreate something that could not be recreated, and subsequently destroying and decaying his very world’s existence. All he had done was unlock what was already there within Rook; the power of the Bright Star. Rook’s soul would never melt. That was why he had survived Jack’s experiments while all other pokemon died. The trio of pokemon lords were all so cryptic, despite knowing who he had been in his past life, they refused to tell him anything about what -he- as the Bright Star had been like beyond minor details…he only gathered little bits and pieces of what he felt from them about his previous incarnation. The Bright Star had craved challenges as a means of becoming stronger, but had been restless and without cause or purpose, and had begun to become destructive, before it found itself before something that stopped it. Existence. Enzlo’s belief in what Rook was that he had told him on The New Era had turned out to be true, he had been forced to accept that fact. This power had never been normal, and for some reason it’d been given to him. The existence the Bright Star was forced to take in order to exist within existence itself was as Rook’s own power, yet Rook himself was his own existence. He watched the stones with his eyes and started to twirl a claw in the air as he thought further, watching as how the stones simply followed his desire for them to start spinning slowly in the air in slow circles, each pebble on its own orbit to recreate what Rook knew to be like an atom. Rook understood how his power worked now…it was simply following his desires. If he tried to force his will upon it, he couldn’t mold it well. That was why he had struggled so much in trying to form a “weapon” from it before. He had to desire and request its help, and every time, it responded to that. Back on the island, when Enzlo had been being crushed by that Steelix…he pleaded out in his mind without realizing, “I need a weapon!” and his power had responded, and gave him one. But what did that make it? What did that make the Bright Star? “What is me and what is you, Bright Star? Wish I could speak with you.” Rook let out another little sigh, while he would grip his paw. The rocks came together and grinded down into small dust particles as if crushed in a pulverizing, grinding grip and then floated down into his coat of fur. Rook lowered his paw as he looked back up at the ceiling. About five minutes of silence went by, sleep slowly inching through Rook’s thoughts as he relaxed, before his ears suddenly picked it up. Rook knew what this sound was…from his original world. A helicopter…? “Women and Children run! It’s Satoru!” Someone would shout out shortly after, and lights began to flick on rapidly through the village as more shouts repeated it. Rook jumped up from the bed and looked out the window as several pokemon were already running out into the fields and woods around the village. Others were helping them to evacuate. There was a knocking at the door Rook was in, and Tropius opened it to peek inside at Rook as the sound of the helicopter rapidly grew closer. “Satoru…he’s here.” “I will-” Rook began, but the big grass dragon interrupted him. “Stay here, stay quiet, if he finds out you’re here I’m not sure at all what he may do.” Rook narrowed his eyes, but the Tropius continued to speak, “If his attention can be avoided from my village, I prefer that. You can leave in the morning, but making sure he doesn’t look here at all is more important.” Rook nodded in resignation. “I will remain here and quiet…” He held the thought to himself. ‘If you get in danger because of me though, I’m jumping in there.’ The Tropius left to go outside, to wait with the other males of the village. The bright lights from the helicopter poured down upon them when it finally arrived, its fan blades filled the night with noise. It settled upon the flat ground just outside the village. Rook was able to peek just out the window while sitting at the bed to see the machine. It’d been ages since he’d seen something like it… Satoru came from a different world as well, he was told. What kind of world did he come from that his contraptions looked like this…? The helicopter was very…advanced looking compared to Rook’s mental picture of a helicopter from his or Enzlo’s memories of their original world. Its lights were bright, but now that it was set on the ground, the dark and dramatically angled looking copter was easier to make out for the Lycanroc from his window. It was large and bulky, probably meant to carry far more than just a few individuals. It lacked smoothness to its edges and was built in a more triangular design, the blades emerging from the pointed tip. The side of the flying machine popped open, a door sliding off and into a panel and then a ramp slid out from the opening as well, forming stairs that locked into place just as the pitter patter of feet came from inside the large copter. The fact that the sound was still hearable over the still lightly buzzing blades of the copter was potent, but the figure producing them wasn’t as expected. A Buizel appeared at the opening at the top of the steps and began to make his way down the stairs, as a few of the male pokemon that had gathered at the bottom of the stairs approached. Rook wasn’t close enough to hear them over the sound of the still moving blades…but he watched as they seemed to talk to each other for a short moment, before another figure appeared at the top of the stairs with more pitter pattering footfalls. A Riolu…the Lycanroc’s heart skipped a short beat as he narrowed his eyes and focused on him. No…he could already tell, just from Ruli’s training in the Aura. That wasn’t a normal Riolu. He was there…but he wasn’t…he had no Aura, no emotion. The Riolu’s head scanned across the houses of the village at the top of the steps. Rook immediately regretted himself as he reeled back his senses, as the Riolu’s eyes fixed upon the window he was at just before he ducked down. Aura…it worked so strangely. The Riolu had almost seen him there.. “That must be Satoru…” Rook determined quietly. The emotions he felt from the other pokemon in the crowd as the Riolu came to the final step made that pretty clear. Their sense of danger towards the Buizel was tame in comparison… “So!” The Riolu’s voice suddenly boomed, and the Lycanroc’s eyes widened as he kept talking and he heard the metallic tang there was to his tone of voice. It was coming -from- the helicopter itself, not the Riolu. Rook was quick in peeking back up over the edge of the window in surprise and bewilderment. “I detected some strange stuff in the fields near here! I just wondered if anyone here’s seen anything?” The Riolu’s friendly tone only seemed to grate upon the pokemon of the village. Someone in the group began to respond to Satoru and the Riolu snickered, which drowned out the rest of the answer once he started doing it. “Oh come on…I don’t think I need anything from any of you…least…I don’t…” The Riolu began to look around rapidly, and it was then that the Buizel began to say something to the other two next to him as he stepped towards Satoru, but the Riolu had started to shake his head. “No no Miraz, something has to be here somewhere…it -has- to be. After so long I finally sensed a spacial rift open and it could be from my world!” He frantically pounded at his chest, and Rook’s ears flicked as from where he was he could hear it, the pounding of metal upon metal. The voice suddenly made sense to him then too. The Riolu was a robot. Enzlo had heard voices like that in their original world, the shared memories he had imparted to him before he left were close to this. Over TVs in movies, even from other electronic pokemon like Magnamite, all sparky and electronic sounding. The Buizel began saying something to the Riolu again, but it was then that a buzzsaw suddenly flew out from within the Riolu’s arms and its buzzing filled the air before he pointed it at the gathered pokemon there. “Someone tell me something that I want to hear…now…” Rook growled and he flexed his paw tightly on the window sill as he watched, unable to hear whatever responses the other pokemon gave, but several of them bristled, while from where he was, he also saw the head of the Tropuis turn towards him, tall among most of the pokemon there. The Lycanroc snarled and he narrowed his eyes as he made a decision. He opened up and began to jump out of the window, before starting to run down the clearing towards the gathered group of pokemon. The Tropuis’ reaction to the Lycanroc getting out of the window was felt by Rook, the big leafy dragon’s emotions roiling both in relief and worry. Rook understood the situation here anyway, he was the target, him being here put these people in danger. The Tropuis’ worry about Rook’s well being was nice, but Rook knew better, he’d only -just- arrived there. The Tropuis owed him nothing. He slid in behind a few of the first ones at the back, who all somewhat blinked in surprise at seeing him there, since only one or two families had even seen him, a Lycanroc, enter the village to start with. Satoru and the Buizel both noticed him shortly after Rook began to wedge his way through the crowd of gathered pokemon. The Riolu smiled, “Ah…see now…who’s this?” Rook finally reached the front of the group of pokemon, pushing his way to stand in front of the gathered pokemon. “I’m Rook…” The Lycanroc readily stated, as he stared at the Riolu with just a few other pokemon standing between them at the front of the group, the ones who’d been speaking with the Buizel, anyway. “I’m who came out of the spacial rift you sensed.” “You?” Satoru’s eyes narrowed as he looked the Lycanroc up and down, his eyes clicking as the eyelids slid shut and clattered mechanically to simulate a few blinks. They were realistic enough in how they fluttered closed and open, but the distinct sound they made this close betrayed the mechanical nature. The rest of his body was metallic looking, smoothed out far too much to be natural, with coarse, carpet looking fur all over his body. Up close like this, it was far too obvious to Rook how artificial the Riolu’s body was. The Buizel whispered something, the Lycanroc just barely hearing him but unable to make out his words. The Riolu’s eyes flicked to somewhat glare at the Buizel, which let Rook look towards the Buizel enough to realize as well from looking at him, he was also a robot; his voice, even though he couldn’t hear what he had said, also had that slight buzzing, metallic tang to it as well, and his tail had several notches and folds to allow it to shift and turn behind him. His body was similarly too perfectly smooth to be true flesh and fur. Satoru’s eyes returned to looking Rook up and down, as much as he could while he was in the crowd still anyway. “Lycanroc…Midnight formed.” He paused for a slight bit, “Though you look slightly different huh…longer tail…bigger mane. Definitely only a few larger than you that I’ve seen.” Rook blinked idly as the robot Riolu listed off his observations. This…-was- a robot, right? “You’re a robot…right?” Rook questioned out loud instead. “Robot?” Satoru tilted his head. “What’s that?” “It’s…what you are.” Rook narrowed his eyes. “You’re a robot.” “No. I’m a Riolu.” Satoru huffed as he held out his arm, which awkwardly bent and made clicking noises as it fell into different kinds of sockets in order to bend. “My bodies are…shells.” The Buizel besides Satoru was looking at Rook in wide eyed wonder. Rook frowned again. What was going on here…? The robot didn’t realize it was one? “In my world.” Rook began, “They’d just begun making things like you. A machine, a creation. You run off the soul of a pokemon, but you are not a pokemon.” Before his island had vanished and brought him to Ruli’s world, Jack’s research of pokemon energy had begun showing its fruit. Many things were made beforehand, all with their source being the energy of once living pokemon, molded into new form. But these robots ran directly off the energy of a pokemon and gave it a body that it could interact with the world through. Rook’s world, at least during his and Enzlo’s time there, wouldn’t see these robots come to be, but it was what had eventually set the rage of Arceus off and ignited what had come to be called the Event of the Gates. Rook only now knew of these facts because of the information Enzlo himself imparted to him before he’d left on this journey to other worlds. Rook himself had been secluded upon a remote island during the event. At his words, the other pokemon looked back and forth at each other and mumbled several things. Rook heard several of them. “What is a robot?” “Is that something that just kills without thought?” “Fits him, the word itself just -sounds- cold.” “SHUT UP!” Satoru’s booming voice snapped, while a slot opened up in his forearms and two, footlong blades snapped up from within his arms and into his paws, gripping onto them as if they were swords. The few pokemon between him and Satoru shuddered wearily. Rook narrowed his eyes and he shoved the few other pokemon next to him out his way, his fur bristling and making a chattering noise. “You won’t hurt these pokemon.” “I -might-” Satoru glared at the Lycanroc, and he pointed one of the blades at him, leaving about four feet of space between the tip and Rook, who just calmly tilted his head, but narrowed his eyes. “No you won’t. It’s me you want, yes? You came here because you sensed the energy through my portal. Take me, leave these pokemon alone.” Rook affirmed. Satoru’s eyes narrowed for only a few seconds, whatever process he had to go through in reaching his decision was quick though as he suddenly turned and began to walk readily back to his ship, the blades slipping back up into his arms with a loud snap. “Fine. Miraz, put him in cuffs, and then bring him along. We’re going back home before I realize I’m missing something and change my mind.” Rook held up his arms and paws towards the Buizel when he came forward, holding a pair of metal linked cuffs that clicked into place as he closed them around Rook’s wrists. His eyes locked onto Rook’s and in them, Rook saw something…there was light behind the lenses of his eyes. There was no such light in Satoru’s. ______ About thirty minutes later, Rook was watching the forests just about a hundred feet below them speed along as the helicopter carried them across the land. Rook saw multiple small villages and somewhat medium sized towns along the way, roads etched out through the trees. There did not seem to be any organization to where they were though. There had been little said, as Satoru hummed to himself just in front of the Lycanroc, the robot’s eyes kept scanning along the Lycanroc’s body as he sat just opposite of Rook in the flying copter, but he hadn’t yet said anything to him. Other questions and thoughts were buzzing through both of their minds, too loud for Rook and too many for Satoru to focus on. The Lycanroc was overwhelmed in realization of how -absolutely- different this world could be compared to his, while Satoru struggled in trying to settle upon what things he wanted to find out about this visitor from another realm first. The landscape as it flew by, steadily shifted from forest to plain to forest and a few mountains in the distances shone eerily in the darkness of the night. Eventually though, he began to see the sparkling glow of the sea in the distance as they neared a coastline, and shortly after that, they crested over a final mountain to come to the sight of Satoru’s Factory, approaching from the west. Rook’s eyes widened in surprise at the sight before him as the heli approached the large building on the coast, perched up across the overlooking hillsides. Rectangular and alien looking upon the naturalist forest and coastline it rested on, carved into the cliffs to somewhat overlook the sea beyond the mountains like some kind of, and Rook realized it must be the case, command center at the north edge. As they drew closer to the building, the heli lifted up higher into the air momentarily, and it allowed Rook to see the even more bizarre sight that the large factory had hidden from his sight on their approach. Towards the east in front of them there was a huge ravine, several cliffs and dark tunnels with railways…minecarts…and several pokemon, many of them appeared to be even more obviously robots even from the distance he was at, the way that they walked. Made in the image of Bisharps, hundreds of them milling about living pokemon who appeared to be swinging pickaxes at the stone… Just out past the ravine he could make out the buildings and towers of a small sized town, within sight of Satoru’s factory but far enough away to avoid eyes from anyone there. Without touching the ground directly, Rook couldn’t sense how deep those mines went, but he suspected they went far, given how big the factory that overlooked the ravine was. In wonderment, Rook peered over at Satoru as the thought went through his head of how the Riolu possibly had achieved this. It seemed the Riolu bot had already been peeking at him too, and when he caught the Lycanroc focusing onto him Satoru beamed, those electronic eyes closing over, “Impressive huh? I built it all, with some help from Miraz later on.” “If you believe it is impressive to unnecessarily destroy the earth.” Rook huffed at the robot Riolu, his eyes looking back instead towards the ravine. It wasn’t necessarily destroyed…he noticed, the ravine had been dug down into neat waves, the deeper he had dug the wider he had opened it, to prevent collapse of the tunnels he used to dig deeper still, to depths Rook wasn’t aware of. This close to coast land, there were precious things in the earth around here that made for a very malleable but strong metal. “Tell me about your world.” Satoru smirked then, it seemed somewhat knowingly. “I’d assume you know it already.” Rook said, his eyes looking along the large factory as the heli began to descend onto the landing pad. “You’re emulating it well…” “I built this.” Satoru said, a tone of proudness in his voice. “It’s been twenty years, but I started really small.” “Yeah, but what did you use to inspire it?” Rook frowned, looking at the robot. “This is purely unnatural…to need this.” “Well…I mean…don’t you like castles?” Satoru asked back, to which Rook blinked in confusion and he continued on with, “I mean that’s what all kids like to do too yeah? Forts, Treehouses…Sand castles even. Everyone likes to have their own space. It's just that uh…it appears that my space needs to be large…to avoid things…” The Roilu shook his head while growling a little. Rook frowned further, “Are you okay?” The way the Riolu’s voice trailed off bothered the Lycanroc. “It’s important to ensure that I can protect those I care about from -anything- beyond the factory.” His voice suddenly shot out, before his head turned sharply to Rook. “You ask too many questions! I just had to write a whole new line of code for that response…you’re from another world…of course this stuff is probably normal to you.” He huffed in annoyance then, arms folding with clacking clicks as they curled together. “You are a strange robot.” Rook huffed. “There you go again, using that word…” Satoru said lightly, “If that is what I am…then please, educate me on it.” “Well…that is more difficult to explain…the word itself doesn’t matter. You are a conscious entity powered by and facilitated by machinery instead of biology and nature. Your mind should be fake, dictated by code, and yet you’re capable of such thoughts to point out how children are capable of imagination and to apparently have a fondness for castles… What is the first memory you remember?” “Memory means nothing to me, and what is a biological creature but a machine itself? Groups of organs and cells cobbled together in some strange amalgamation of “Life”?” Satoru answered, and this made Rook frown further, but their conversation paused as the helicopter sat down on the roof of the huge complex and then the landing pad began to sink down into the building, the pad slowly turning as they entered a small, rectangular room, the circular landing pad fitting neatly before a set of four staircases leading up to different doors. “The first memory I remember…is waking up in a cave.” Satoru answered him, once the door to the copter opened up. The Riolu bot was quick to jump down from it, his feet hitting the metal floor with a loud clatter. Rook eyed the Riolu again as he followed out. In the way that he said it, he could sense there was more to the point than he let on. “Really? Waking up in a cave? That does not appear strange to you? You do not have a mother, or a father?” To this, Satoru shrugged. “Amnesia? A lack…of need to know? Does it matter? You are here with me currently.” However, the Roilu’s arms squeezed together in front of himself as he answered, betraying again, that the question brought about thoughts. Rook took a moment in his thinking to reflect. So, this Riolu was like Ruli, or like himself even. Another visitor, their memory of any time prior to coming there erased. It was explained to him that the memory erasure was a typical rule of being made a Realm Jumper, at least, that was what Palkia had claimed. To be aware of what other worlds held that others did not was to invite madness upon the residents of that world; they risked a lot just letting him remain aware of his own world. He had his mission, and that was all he would need to know of going into any world. “How do you power this place?” Rook asked. “I’m this place’s power.” Satoru answered, before swishing his paw back and forth, “I’m not letting you see the generator, heck no. In fact - Miraz.” The Riolu bot snapped quickly as he turned towards the robotic Builzel who had been following them just a few steps behind. “Sir.” Miraz quickly nodded, his two tails clacking slightly as they would both point at Rook, just as the Lycanroc would finish turning to look at him. “Follow me.” With this, the Riolu robot suddenly slumped forward, his eyes going dark and Rook blinked in confusion. “What’s going on…?” “You’ve asked enough questions…” MIraz said lightly as he walked past Rook, his tails pointing forward again as he repeated, “Follow.” Rook growled, narrowing his eyes but he did resume following, only looking back briefly at the Riolu robot that was left just standing in the middle of the hallway, before Miraz led him around a corner and deeper into the facility. _____________________ Satoru couldn’t believe it. Finally, finally a sign that the worlds beyond this one were still functioning and it had to be this newcomer, telling him he was something he’d never known before. The Riolu, now in a different shell entirely; its body bulkier and more thickly platted with no fur, was in a different part of the facility now, a dark room with a large screened computer. Redoubling his knowledge, at least what he had, on the world he had come from. He tapped away at a computer, one that he himself had built using the metals he’d mined, going over the vast knowledge he’d poured into its database over the last several years. Lines of text scrolled across the screen in rapidity, yet the Riolu robot read it all with ease. Unfortunately, the amount of knowledge he had on his own world was very, very limited. For one thing, the term Rook had used towards him, “robot”, wasn’t included among it. What did that mean?! If that was what he was from his own world, why wasn’t that word something his creator had given him knowledge of!? What did that -make- him?! The explanation Rook gave to him was inconclusive, it felt like an impossibility. His mind was artificial?! How could life be simulated like he had stated?! Too many questions now rattled about in his head with no clear cut answers. Something he’d already learned was a far too dangerous thing. Already they were inching into his thoughts. ‘How different was this Lycanroc?’ ‘He had a much longer tail and mane, and his confidence betrayed an amount of experience…’ “No no no…” Satoru huffed, hitting both of his hands at his head as he already knew what the thoughts would eventually lead to, and it did, just like always. ‘How did he function biologically?’ ‘There’s only one way to really find out.’ That same thought had come to him in the helicopter as well. He had to write a whole new line of code regarding the Lycanroc to avoid trying to see into his chest then and there. ‘This Lycanroc is important somehow, I must find out how.’ And for that, he needed him alive, unharmed! That had gotten those thoughts to disperse for the moment. Their conversation about what he himself was had triggered it. He knew though, like others…once that line of code could no longer redirect his thoughts it’d lead him right back to what many others did. “A…robot…” Satoru growled, lowering his paw to stare down at it. To himself, as obviously metal as it was, it was normal, it felt normal. But…was that why everyone looked at him so oddly? What he did wasn’t normal for Riolu of this world, he knew that, but he always thought that was simply because his world was different than this one. What he could do was surely normal at least in some other place! Perhaps that was still the case…his world was different, but there he was normal…yeah…that had to be it, everyone there was like him…This place was just different. This Lycanroc…from another world, couldn’t possibly be his own world even if he did speak of similarities. It had to be some other world. If that was the case…he was using psychology against him, knowing how it would confuse him. ‘He’s a threat…’ “He must be eliminated…I have to figure out the best course to do so…” He said it out loud, unaware of how his own programming had purposefully led him to this conclusion, and then he began looking up information about the Lycanroc species that he’d already amassed throughout the years. ______________________ Miraz frowned while he watched Rook. As he was connected to the system alongside Satoru, he could see the lines of code also scrolling across his eyes, unseen by the Lycanroc. He was linked as well to the computer that housed Satoru’s knowledge and therefore shared his revelations and thoughts while being capable of his own. He sighed deeply. He had hoped…but of course somehow, the programming…it always only ever wanted one thing and it twisted whatever it could to get to that result. The few bits of data that separated Miraz’s knowledge apart from the Riolu was that he was once biological, but now mechanical. A key difference in their cognitions that for some reason, allowed Miraz to maintain control over himself. He tried very hard to constantly give Satoru outs in his logic to avoid harming others. His own programming urged him to find more knowledge too…yet he was able to refrain from the desire to kill to find out what the inside of a pokemon looked like…it was something that Miraz had desire to fix for Satoru, so that perhaps his friend could finally have peace in their existence. Trying to find the difference in their code though was like trying to find needles in haystacks. Satoru had practically copy pasted his own coding onto him in order to create this new body and mind for him. Whatever actually allowed this difference in action was not apparent. Placing a paw over his chest where his essence was housed within the metal body he held, Miraz looked down at the counter he was sitting at, his own computer screen scrolling with lines of information he was pouring over himself just a moment ago about spacial travel, but at that moment not paying attention to it. When he thought about it, the idea of seeing inside another pokemon…both reviled and appealed to him. Reviled because he hated to see a life be so destroyed, appealed because it fed the urge for more knowledge that he now had as a mechanical being. Time was no longer seen as much of an enemy, he had all he’d ever need now. Knowledge had become…almost…all that mattered. Except for his still living mother, Satoru, and the pokemon of his home village, Miraz felt little for much anymore. “You sigh like you’re upset.” Rook commented then, the first thing he’d said in the twenty or so minutes that had passed since Satoru had transferred from his other shell in the hallway. He’d taken the Lycanroc to his lab, a place that was somewhat of his own within the factory Satoru had built. Machinery lined the walls and tables with glass tubings where he assisted his once friend in this life in creating chemicals and elements that before, Miraz would never have thought existed as a normal Buizel. Miraz just nodded. Looking up then towards the Lycanroc. Quickly, Miraz disconnected himself from the system, his computer screen clicking off. He only had little time to do this… “Satoru is likely to try and kill you.” The Lycanroc in front of him pulled his head back at the words, eyes going wide and then his muzzle forming into a look of scrupulous thought shortly after. “Uh, he would be welcome to try. I have a mission of my own, until that’s finished, I can’t die.” Before Miraz could rebuttal against him, Rook continued, “Well, I suppose that’s not true, I can die. I’ll just uh, come back?” He ended it with a question, but Miraz could tell it was because he was unable to word it in any other way for it to make sense. This made Miraz pause for about ten seconds as he stared at Rook, trying to detect any hint that the Lycanroc was lying, but unable to see any indication. His heart rate remained normal, he didn’t begin sweating more…Even his now virtual mind froze up a moment. “That doesn’t make sense.” Miraz stated, the Lycanroc’s attempt at making it so failed. “Don’t think too hard about it. I have the marks of the Lords of Time, Space, and Realms upon my soul, that’s the only way I can try to really explain it. I have no idea what actual process happens with it.” Rook shrugged with a rather laid back giggle. “I’m special in my own ways, like you both. Either way though, he’d have a rough time trying to kill me. I’m not exactly a push over.” “Upon your…soul…?” Miraz repeated, “What do you mean…soul?” Rook blinked. “It’s…what makes you…you.” He shrugged again. “You really don’t understand what a soul is?” “You mean ‘essence’?” Miraz provided. That was what made pokemon themselves here; at least as far as Buizel understood that concept. He knew a word was just a word, one thing could also mean the other or the same thing in this sense. Soul though…just thinking it felt a little more pointed than essence. “Essence is what you infuse into the land around yourself or in the elements in order to use a move.” Rook quickly rattled off, waving his paw and shaking his head. “It’s your will and energy. No, your soul is yourself, your actual self. With life, your soul is given existence.” “You speak nonsense.” Miraz grumbled, more outright errors blaring within his mind as the computerized code he now had tried to make sense of what Rook was saying and failed. “No, you’re just limited in your ability to let yourself understand it, because you’re a robot.” Rook said back, but then lifted a claw to scratch it at the side of his face as he looked away, “But I’d admit that I’d probably have difficulty getting even others here that aren’t robots to understand what I’ve been taught to know. Heck, you two break that rule right off the bat. You don’t live, yet you exist. How?” “Of course I live!” Miraz snarled, his paws clenching up. “You…you speak in riddles, perhaps you might answer this one, what is the definition of being alive?” He snarled it out, the same question he knew Satoru often snapped at the pokemon of the towns when they called them abominations. Rook blinked. “It means to be able to feel yourself…but “Living” is different from being “Alive””. His eyes went wide a few seconds after saying that, as if realization had come upon himself. “You aren’t living…but you are alive...Just what are you…?” He mumbled it out, and his act of surprise and his question only upset Miraz further. “You called us ‘robots’...” Miraz growled at him. “We don’t have a word like that here. As much as I understand that a word is just a word, that you have something to define what I am bothers me, cause afterall…” Miraz stood up, his paws flat on the desk while his two tails clacked up over his shoulder to open up at the ends, a pair of guns revealing themselves, which he pointed right at Rook’s head. “You don’t know what I am.” ________________________ Rook blinked at the Buizel robot, trying not to become defensive as he watched those two weapons appear from within its tails. Did it not realize that that itself was not normal? Then he mentally shook himself, closing his eyes for a moment in thought and looking away with a frown. No, it was not an ‘it’...clearly this…being…both of them, were somehow living creatures. Enzlo’s knowledge and his memories echoed through his head. Such robots had only just begun coming into use within their world, or at least, on the other side of their mirror…human creations that housed the soul of a pokemon. Enzlo had never seen one himself, he’d only known of their being developed by Jack. He’d just accidentally insulted them, he knew that, so he tried to bring back the previous calm as best he could by opening his eyes carefully and turning his head back to the Buizel and looking into his own, trying to overlook how obviously mechanical they were to himself. “I’m sorry…you are right. I do not know what you are, and a word is indeed, just a word. From where I came from, things…creatures such as you are…not seen very well, but there are many, many reasons and I’d have to spend too much time explaining the whys for you to understand my point of view. So instead, perhaps you might help me understand yours, why is Satoru likely to try and kill me?” “He has become convinced that you are a threat. Your apparent knowledge of what we are has caused him to deem you one.” “Why would-” “Satoru is dominated by his thoughts; I ask that you avoid confirming if our code has anything to do with us being, as you call us, robots.” Miraz continued. “For us both, existence has always been like this. We are dictated by logic. He built me after he killed me.” “He…killed you…?” Rook repeated, now it was his turn to be confused. The Tropius back in the town had told him a story about that. So Miraz was the pokemon Satoru had killed… “Satoru’s programming desires knowledge above all else.” Miraz explained, “My own does as well, yet there is something about the knowledge of my previous life that prevents me from falling prey to those same commands. We have both spent years trying to find the difference between us. I…cannot even recall what my mind was like when I was biological, yet the knowledge that I once was, being the only difference between us, appears to be the key.” “Wait.” Rook said, holding up his paws, “Hold on. He killed you?” Miraz growled, his two tails slinking back behind himself and the guns sinking back into them. The Buizel looked down as he huffed, trying to calm himself. “Yes, twenty years ago, Satoru killed me. He didn’t…mean to.” Miraz’s voice trailed off into a sigh as he looked back up, “I don’t expect you to come to understand it. He truly never meant to…He had…just wanted to know more about me. When he realized what he’d done, he built me this body, and now, I…I only remember of myself that which Satoru knew of me. From the time that he’d met me, two years of being friends.” Rook blinked, “You don’t remember your life before meeting Satoru?” Miraz shook his head, “No…there’s a reason for that too. One both of us can’t seem to explain but we know there is. I…I -know- I am Miraz…” The Buizel looked at his hands, metal and metallic, clenching them into tight fists. “Yet when I think about how I was before he had killed me…I know something is missing from that moment…” “What happened?” Rook asked. Miraz frowned at Rook, moving one of his paws to his chest, “He ripped out my heart.” ____________________________ After revealing that shocking bit of information to the Lycanroc, Miraz received a signal from Satoru to lead Rook through to another part of the facility. An awkward ten minutes of walking through corridors and past a few clattering drones in the visage of Bisharps. The Riolu met them there, his new shell momentarily also surprising Rook. “You and I are gonna talk alone in here.” Satoru stated while waving his arm to a metal doorway that then opened up. Rook’s thoughts were stunned as the smell hit his nose. Decay, death, blood… His face scrunched up into a grimace on reaction while lifting his paw to cover his nose up, trying his best to resist the smell and the urge to gag. He’d not smelled something like this since the aftermath of Jack’s catastrophe… Rook growled, “Smells more like you’re going to kill me in there.” He snarled at the Riolu. Satoru’s eyes narrowed, “What? Smell? Oh…I suppose that is something that I can’t sense…” But even after saying that, the Riolu’s paws shrugged up into the air dismissively as he walked into the dark room. Miraz shoved against Rook’s back from behind and the Lycanroc growled again as he followed into the chamber, before the doorway snapped shut behind him, leaving Satoru and Rook alone. The darkness inside was lit only by a set of two lamps hanging above a metal table. It was clean, almost meticulously so. Rook turned his head to his right and found the source of the smell…a pile of bodies…all various pokemon…hidden in the darkness in the corner of the chamber but still sizable enough of a pile to be seen in the dim light. They decayed and rotted there. “You…this…” How thick were the walls here that he couldn’t smell them before the door had opened? “Got something to say?” Satoru growled back. “You’re a horrible pokemon…to…to do this…” Rook’s eyes began to glow as he fixed them back onto the Riolu, his paws flexing tight into fists. “Not only do you kill, you even deny their bodies to go back to the world?” “Don’t know what you’re talking about. Pokemon kill other pokemon here all the time. Before I came here, there were battles and wars fought between villages for power, influence, and even the right to mate.” Satoru huffed back at him, unperturbed by the glowing eyes. “Seems the files about you were true afterall…” Rook blinked, “Files?” “Files on the database given to me by my creator!” Satoru grinned, “R-00-K! Rook! The first to have their lifeforce unlocked by Jack! I started with looking up information on Lycanrocs and they led me to files about a certain Midnight Lycanroc who was his first great success. They’d been locked behind some silly passwords, but those had been pretty easy to break. Of course, there’s no proof you’re the same Lycanroc, but well, that’s what we’re in here for now.” Rook’s eyes widened, “You…what world do you…no…” Rook stepped back once as now, fear did grip over his heart a little. How much about him did the little robot now know?! Did this mean…? Could his world and Satoru’s be the same, except that Satoru came from its distant future while he from its far flung past!? “Who is your creator?” Rook asked, trying to find clarity. “Don’t know. They sent me here with the objective of cataloging and learning about pokemon! I’ve been very busy doing just that as best I can; I’m pretty sure I know nearly everything about all the pokemon of this world. That’s why I was so excited when I finally got a reading of a spacial rift opening! I thought my creator was finally coming to take me back from this place!” Satoru’s grin opened up, his metallic muzzle opening to show sharpened metal teeth, and his own red eyes started to glow. “This…this place that…the pokemon here, they hate me!” He waved his arm at the pile of corpses in the corner. “All those pokemon you see there? Assassins!” Assassins? Rook peered for a short moment towards the pile, but this was a mistake, as suddenly Satoru jumped. Rook barely had the time to react, lifting up his arm as his fur clustered into its defensive state. Bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzctcttctctttt! The noise drowned out both Satoru’s and Rook’s growling snarls as the Riolu landed, still trying to dig down the buzzsaw that had sprung out from his left arm. The buzzing changed into sharp clicks as chunks of metal broke and were flung across the room as it dug down upon Rook’s arm. His Rock Coat had stopped the blade from cutting into him, and now slivers of metal clattered around them soon after this, with Rook feeling a rattling sensation in his arm as the tough metal like state of Rook’s defense outdid the quality of the buzzsaw’s metal and broke off the sharp points. “Yes! Just like the files said!” Satoru shouted as he pulled his right arm back behind himself, his left armed blade stopping its spinning. He looked at the broken points of the buzzsaw with his electronic eyes wide with excitement. “A defense strong enough to withstand all but the most destructive of forces!” There was a clicking noise behind him, and then he thrust his right arm forward instead, aiming it up and under Rook’s raised arm. The fur around Rook’s chest clustered together at reaction, and- Shlck! Pain radiated up from his chest. Rook’s eyes were unable to hide his shock, even as they now glowed bright enough that his irises could not be seen. His breath broke, restarted, broke again, and returned ragged as he managed to look down towards his chest. From Satoru’s right wrist, just a few inches away from his chest, a black blade had emerged, now buried into his chest about five inches, piercing Rook’s right lung. The fur around the blade had seemed to part open, exposing his flesh to the pointed blade of what, this close, he could tell was not metal, but just rock, shiny, smooth and glasslike… Rook felt fear grip his heart. Obsidian. No…then it had to be true. His and Satoru’s world were one and the same…and of course, if that was the case… “D-damn…so that information was on there too…” Rook spat out, as blood started to run down from the wound and down his chest, streaming down his body quickly as the metal like quality his fur had taken on allowed it to run more fluidly down himself. “I avoided your heart cause I still wanna ask some things.” Satoru giggled, his smile changed into a more cynical kind of friendly grin as he continued, “Like, what the heck? These files about you…they’re thousands of years old, so just what the heck? What are you? The more I looked up and learned, the -less- sense you made.” Rook sputtered, tasting copper on the back of his tongue. They both held still for a short moment. “I’m Rook…” The Lycanroc growled, moving his paw to grip onto Satoru’s arm. Satoru had Rook pinned, they both knew that, and each of them were reacting to that in different manners. Rook knew that if he wanted to, Satoru could slide that blade through his body like it was butter, cutting into him wherever he wanted. However, Rook began to realize; if Satoru’s knowledge of this weakness came from those files he’d found, he wouldn’t know everything about him. “Just because your creator knew about me, that doesn’t mean you know everything about what I can do. Just the same way that Miraz just said to me a moment ago, I know you as Robots, but I don’t know what you both are…that’s just a word…” Rook growled, baring his teeth and his eyes flashing into a brighter glow that finally made Satoru’s grin falter, staring up into the Lycanroc’s eyes. “You have a word, or a file name, to call me by now…R-00-K…but that doesn’t mean you know -what- I am.” As he said this, the fluffy fur on his chest reached, wrapped, and grasped tightly around the Obsidian blade embedded in his chest. The sound of crunching metal came as Rook’s paw squeezed upon Satoru’s arm followed next, his strength easily snapping his own claws into the metal and then, he shoved Satoru away. Sparks flew as, with a gasp of his own, Satoru fell backwards, wires and hunks of metal falling onto the ground between them, crushed blades and other unidentifiable pieces of weapons falling out from the now open cavity of his arm with a few dangling wires snapping apart from his wrist. The fur of his chest had held the blade in place as Rook had pushed, but now it relaxed for Rook to reach to the Riolu’s disconnected metal hand, now loosely connected to the Obsidan blade buried in his chest. With a wet splatch, he pulled the Obsidian stone free of his body, leaving a hole in his chest. Blood poured quickly from the wound once more, and Rook covered it with his paw as best he could and pressed down on it while he threw the Riolu’s paw away across the left side of the room. It clattered along the ground to come to a still just as Satoru shot back up to his feet, grasping onto his broken appendage with his still intact hand and arm. “What!? How can you…you are far stronger than other pokemon afterall too…” Satoru growled, but he only grinned again, as suddenly several pairs of eyes glowed in the dark behind him. “But that’s why I made sure to cover for variables like that.” He lifted up his paw and gave a short wave forward, the sound of clinking metal followed as the eyes came closer. Seven Bisharp drones entered the dim light, their usual metal blade-like arms appearing to have very recently been replaced with Obsidian stone, which also looked very recently carved and chipped into crude looking blades as best they could be on short notice. Rook panted as he held his paw over the wound in his chest. The glow of his own eyes had filled the room and had shown him the drones waiting in the dark prior to this, but now that they had activated he grimaced. “You caught me off guard with this…” Rook snarled, blood still dripping onto the ground from the wound. He knew what was about to happen, and with this wound, given to him by one of his weaknesses, wouldn’t heal quick enough for him to stop it. However, Rook just smiled. Satoru’s eyes narrowed suspiciously from behind his seven drones. “You smile in the face of death?” Satoru asked slowly, “You’re more brave than all those assassins, they screamed in anger when they realized they couldn’t kill me the way they thought they could.” Rook chuckled dryly. “I told Miraz this too, and now I guess I’ll say it to you as well. You can kill me, but I’ll be back. Much like you, I am far different.” With his other paw, Rook channeled his power and he reached out to the pile of bodies that was just behind him, the yellow glow of his energy started to shine from it. “I’ll warn you of this though, that body of yours…” Rook coughed just once, “Won’t survive this either.” A wide, mad grin started to form over Rook’s muzzle as he said this. With his power, he channeled his will and thoughts into the remnants of iron that existed within the coagulated blood of the pile of bodies. “Existence…is held in the moment. And you shall feel the last moments of rage these pokemon held…” Rook rumbled, his grin still wide with bright light pouring from his eyes. Rook knew exactly what he probably looked like to Satoru, who’s face had fallen from his own smugness to a more shocked and thoughtful expression. He’d only seen that look once before so far…on Jack’s own face… Several things happened all at once. Satoru ordered his drones to attack, while about a dozen thin but sharp spikes of iron suddenly burst out from the veins of the bodies, too small and silent among the sound of the drones attacking him that Satoru didn’t notice. The drones all jumped upon Rook at once, the Lycanroc unable to successfully fight them back, critically wounded as he was by Satoru’s previous strike, but before he felt the several Obsidian weapons plunge into him, Rook clenched his paw tight into a fist, and the twelve spears shot into Satoru’s body, there, they begun to spin rapidly, tearing up wires and tubes that made up the inside of the robot Riolu. “Wha-” Was the only utterance the shell Satoru was controlling got out before it seemed to lose power or connection, its red eyes blinking off as the the iron spikes shredded through the headcasing, tearing it apart like a piece of fruit to shatter down upon the floor. After this however, the twelve needle like spikes fell to the ground, falling apart into nothing but black looking dust. The enraged voice of Satoru shouted through the ceiling, “Tear him apart! Keep his limbs intact!” But Rook had already died. The very moment the spikes had fallen to the ground had marked the moment of his passing. Thirty seconds after, as the drones were sawing their Obsidian blades through Rook’s right shoulder to cut off his arm like they had just done his left, a bright yellow light suddenly erupted from within his chest to engulf his body; and even though his left arm was disconnected it too glowed with the light. In a following burst, Rook’s body exploded into a mess of sparkling, blue, purple, yellow, and red sparks, leaving the few drones that had been working on him to clatter to the floor in a moment of confusion as they slowly faded away. The door to the room opened up to show Miraz and Satoru within another similar shell staring at where Rook’s body had vanished. Miraz’s eyes were wide in wonder, while Satoru’s were clenched narrow in anger. ________________________________ Twelve hours later, in the middle of the day, a gathering of purple sparks began to grow within the field that Rook had been found by the Turtwig boy earlier that very same day. Under the sun, as the multicolored lights gathered their glow flashed into a bright yellow shine, and that light then expanded outward to form the distinct body shape of the Lycanroc, before it flashed and exploded out in a shower of bright yellow sparks that dissipated into the air. Rook remained unconscious for the moment, his body now uninjured, remade by the magic that had been imprinted upon his soul. A few dozen seconds after that though, Rook’s eyes opened up, and he knowingly grinned while gazing up into the blue sky above him. “Existence…is held in the moment.” He repeated, before he sat himself up with a stretch. His body felt just as normal as it did. He had never doubted the words Enzlo had told him. He couldn’t die, not until his mission was complete. The Riolu finding out his weakness to Obsidian hadn’t been at all expected though. Afterall, who goes about telling their weaknesses, especially such a specific one such as that. However, that just meant he now knew he couldn’t afford to let himself get hit… For some odd reason though, Rook was excited. He could die again and again and again before this was over. This challenge… “Bright Star…is this how you felt when up against something like this…a daunting challenge? Or this shimmering anger at the audacity of him…” Rook asked out loud, though a wide, somewhat sinister looking grin had formed upon his muzzle. His eyes started to glow bright again while he reached up into his mane of fur, and then as he pulled them back out, two swords made of rock formed and he gripped their hilts tight within his paws, their edges starting to glow a bright yellow as he held them towards the ground, and then turned in the direction he remembered Satoru’s helicopter had taken him prior. It would be a few days of walking perhaps to cover the same distance it had taken him, but it’d be okay. He had nothing but time. Just as he had said to Jack before they had begun their three day battle, Rook rumbled, “Then let us let our anger out.”