Another chapter comes today. Which is a bad idea on my part, considering that college finals are, like, now.

Disclaimer: I own a strange sort of insomnia, it seems...but no pokemon.

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A lot of time in the darkness can put one on edge.

Especially Hiroshi, who by now had taken to pacing endlessly, just out of sight of the entrance to the cave. How long had they been there? It could have been a few days. Or weeks. Or months. Okay, most likely days.

Even Mimi was acting almost civil under these conditions. Still subdued from the shootout shock, she sat quietly with Lily most of the time, sketching aimlessly on paper.

"When's Neptune coming back?" she muttered, filling in the shading on a fearsome looking pokemon's face.

"Eventually…" Lily soothed. "…she will. We'll be patient."

When night fell, Hiro and Lily talked more in depth. Mimi had the convenient habit of falling asleep at the same time every night, giving the two time to discuss their secrets.

Tonight was no different. Lily sat near Hiro, carefully inspecting the gunshot wound on his shoulder. Amazing as it was, there was no more than an old scar left by now. As she traced her fingers over it, she shuddered with the memory of how it had been.

"You're amazing, Hiro-chan."

He glanced up at her, crimson eyes amused. "You're delusional, Lil."

Sighing in exasperation, she flopped down onto the smooth rock beneath them and listened to the distant cries of pokemon deep within the mountain range. Mount Coronet was truly a mysterious place. She took one of Hiro's hands and toyed with his claw like nails.

"Hiro-chan? Do you still have that book?"

"Mm? Yeah."

"That's good." After a pause, she whispered, "Do you think that Morph Kingdom really exists?"

The Umbreon morph looked towards the ceiling with a thoughtful look. "Well, Fiore exists, we know that. And there are a lot of forests there. Who's to say if it does or doesn't exist?"

Lily released his hand with a laugh and rolled onto her stomach. "Saying that, you almost sound optimistic."

The boy chuckled, one of his ears twitching under his bandana. He eventually sighed, "But Fiore is far away. We'll have to find a port town to even have a chance."

"Pastoria isn't too far from Hearthome, and that's where Neptune is taking us." Lily muttered, "If only we could have escaped from Canalave."

"There's nothing to be done now." Hiroshi replied firmly. "We'll be free Lily, just wait."

Senko suddenly appeared from the shadows, sitting patiently at Hiro's feet with expectant eyes. The morph smiled and petted the Umbreon's head.

"Hello, Mother. Any news?"

'Yes, actually. I heard a helicopter in the distance.'

They both sat up straighter, shocked at these words. Lily's hand went unconsciously to her tattoo.

"A Team Galactic helicopter?" Lily squeaked.

Senko nodded curtly. Hiro interrogated her for a while longer, talking too fast for Lily to decipher, and then was on his feet in a flash.

"They'll be here in about ten minutes. Get Mimi."

-- -- --

"You're lucky that Neptune cares about you brats." snarled Jordan.

Hiroshi rolled his eyes and continued to load a few things from the cave. Neptune had specifically requested that they bring back most of the food they were left with, as the store holds in the Hearthome HQ were pathetically low.

Lily was spending time trying to get an uncooperative Gale into the helicopter, but the Raichu was adamant. Lily really wanted him on hand in case anything happened, but the electric mouse seemed to abhor the flying machine.

Mimi, for her part, was half asleep on the back seat of the helicopter.

"Mimi! Wake up and help, dammit. We don't have all night." Jordan barked.

"Ugh, shut up. Waking up to your voice is positively disgusting." Mimi sighed, fitfully rolling around on the uncomfortable couch.

Lily and Hiroshi laughed as Jordan scowled and rubbed his forehead in irritation. Damn, it was too early in the morning for this. It was a good thing that he was paid like he was…

Hiroshi loaded the last bit of food and said, "Well, that's all of it."

"Good. Ryan, May, get on the copter and don't antagonize me. It's at least an hour to Hearthome – don't make me make this unpleasant for you." The admin muttered, climbing behind the controls.

The ride was quite. Mimi fell back asleep quite quickly, taking up most of the seat space. Lily sat in the remaining space while Hiro sprawled on the floor, jolting with every instance of air turbulence they hit.

"Um…Ryan?" Lily murmured, unsure if Jordan could hear them.

"Nn?"

"What do you think Cyrus wanted with us? Neptune said that he was interested in us…about the Red Chain, right? That's why we alone were saved."

"…Yes, that is troubling." Hiroshi mumbled, careful to keep his voice low. "But I'm sure Neptune will tell us what we need to know."

They lapsed into silence, thinking the same thoughts. How had they, runaways, become weaved into the web that was Team Galactic? Was there anywhere they could go outside their reach? Could they ever be free of Neptune?

…was May still looking for them?

Hiroshi shuddered, then bounced as the helicopter touched down. Mimi begrudgingly got up, holding onto her teammates for support – her legs were weak with disuse. Now that Hiroshi thought about it, the pink haired girl had stayed mostly stationary, hadn't she?

They more or less stumbled into Neptune's office, led by Jordan. This office was considerably smaller than and not as put together as the one in Jubilife, but it had all the necessities. The charismatic navy haired woman stood up at their entrance.

"Ryan, May, Mimi! My, it's been six days, hasn't it?" she called.

Hiro helped Mimi onto a couch – it was, after all, about four a.m. – and turned to address Neptune. "Has it been?"

"Ah, yes, it's been nearly a week since I brought you to your humble abode in the mountains." She swung her legs childishly as she sat on the edge of her desk. "I trust you were fine?"

Mimi groaned, "Fine, except for the deep and utter boredom and those freakin' pokemon that kept bothering us while we slept. Ugh!" She twitched and shuddered as if she was having a bad dream.

Neptune smiled sympathetically. "Well, yes, I am sorry about that. But it is the safest place in a fifty mile radius. You didn't hear one human voice, did you? But! Onto business…"

The admin shuffled through some papers on her desk, finally withdrawing a little chart and holding it up for the three to see.

"This is the Team Galactic hierarchy. At the top is the leader, Cyrus, followed by the four main admins – Saturn, Mars, Jupiter, and I. Next are sub admins, like Jordan here. Then follows executives, section leaders, and finally grunts."

The three nodded slowly – what did this have anything to do with them? They knew that they were grunts – the lowest of the low.

Neptune smiled, tracing a path from grunt to executive. "Cyrus decided to promote you three. Congratulations, Executives Ryan, May, and Mimi."

There was a stunned silence, especially from Jordan. Then, all of the sudden, Mimi shrieked.

"EH?! For real? Oh my god! Oh my god, that means we get, like, three times our current salary!" She grabbed Hiro's and Lily's arms excitedly. "Don't you get it? We're going to make a freakin' 80,000 P a year! And we don't even have college degrees!"

Neptune laughed, "Yes, Cyrus was quite happy with you three. It's like he discovered a new spark, a new will to go on with our plans. He wanted to make sure you all were rewarded appropriately."

Hiro's insides squirmed uncomfortably. It was one thing to be a grunt – it was another thing entirely to be an executive. Executive Ryan of Team Galactic. Just thinking about it made him feel sick.

Lily, too, had paled, and reached for Hiroshi's hand when Mimi left their sides to do a bit of happy dancing. Once she was able to hold his hand, though, she felt a little calmer.

"Alright Mimi, calm down. Jordan, if you would leave us to discuss their new responsibilities…" Neptune said, waving off the sub admin. The man scowled but left as directed, shooting the teens a resentful look.

Neptune laughed, "Oh, he's jealous, just like a little kid. It's so amusing…" She finally rounded her desk and sat down, pulling out a pair of reading glasses as she studied a thick folder of papers.

"So, now that you're executives, you have a few more things to oversee. To start –"

She was interrupted by the door slamming open, ricocheting off the wall behind it and breaking the hinges. The four of them looked sharply up to see a furious looking young man stomping in, a Gabite in tow. The dragon pokemon was still snorting steam from using Dragonbreath on the destroyed door.

"Neptune!" the man snarled. His uniform looked torn up in a few places and he generally looked unkempt.

She sighed heavily and placed her glasses back on the desk. "Executive Elliot."

"Don't act so casual with me! You left us to be arrested in Jubilife! You waited a week to send people to bail us out! How…how could you?!" Elliot replied.

"You must understand, Elliot, that Cyrus had other priorities…"

"More important than his team?! Cyrus would be nothing without us! How can you treat your support system like trash?!"

Neptune's response was only a cool stare from her unsettling sea green eyes. The man's face flushed in anger at her obvious disregard.

"That's it! I quit!" he screamed, throwing a golden badge to the ground and shattering it into a million pieces.

"I can't allow that, Elliot. You were one of the few that signed a contract. You still have to serve Team Galactic for eight more months." After a pause, she added, "It would be a shame if anything happened to your little girl… She's five now, isn't she? Living with your sister in that nice little cottage in Twinleaf."

The executive's face was shocked and appalled. "How…how did you find out…?"

Neptune didn't respond and shuffled through her papers again. Just when Hiroshi thought that the situation had diffused, Elliot screamed, "Gabite, Dragonbreath!"

Hiro responded in an instant, grabbing Lily and Mimi and pulling them back to the other side of the room. Neptune glanced up as the blue-green flames approached, but then an orange shield materialized around the admin.

"W…what?"

Neptune smiled. "Good timing, Gallade. Your Protect shield is perfect, per usual."

Indeed, the white and green blade pokemon had appeared before his trainer, holding the force field around her. The pokemon's crimson eyes were narrowed in seething rage.

Elliot snarled, "Gabite, don't let it intimidate you! We can still fight!"

Neptune mumbled something incoherent under her breath, causing the Gallade to dash forward quickly and engage the dragon in combat, matching blow for blow without any direction from his trainer. The battle raged, quickly rising in intensity.

Mimi whimpered and hid behind the couch that Hiroshi had placed her near, clutching Lily's arm. Hiro, for his part, was sitting on the edge of the couch cushion in a tense, animal-like stance, fangs bared in anticipation. The conflict ran deep in his blood.

What to do? The battle could easily expand into their area, hurting Lily and Mimi both. There was no way he could protect them under any sort of pretense of humanity. His nails dug into the woven cover of the couch, most likely tearing it up.

Lily held Mimi and prayed that Hiro wouldn't have to do anything. Crammed between a couch, a wall, and a terrified sixteen year old, she was feeling claustrophobic and literally sick with worry. Why did these things happen to them? Why couldn't they have avoided Team Galactic that first day?

The land shark seemed to be reaching the end of his rope against the neat, efficient moves of Gallade. The dragon was visibly exhausted, sluggishly evading various slash attacks.

"Gabite!" Elliot called, a hard, nervous edge to his voice. "Use Draco Meteor!"

"You idiot!" Neptune suddenly screamed, leaping to her feet. "You'll destroy the whole room!"

"But at least I'll take you out!" Elliot yelled back as Gabite began to glow a deep orange.

Mimi's scream was the last thing that Hiro really heard before the sound seemed to shut off in his head. There was only ten feet between him and Gabite. There was still at least thirty seconds before the attack was launched. He could make it. He had to make it.

So he did.

The morph dashed across the room, bashing his skull into the Gabite's neck and disrupting the attack. The pokemon's rough skin shredded his bandana, making his Umbreon ears glaringly obvious. His head ached only slightly from impact.

The sound was still gone. Elliot had a face of disgust mixed with shock, screaming and pointing from Gabite to him. Neptune and Mimi had roughly the same expression, staring at him incredulously with their mouths agape. Lily was crying in terror and worry, wanting to run to him and stay far away at the same time.

A low snarl penetrated his sound barrier – the Gabite was on his feet, now focused on its new opponent. Hiroshi instantly took that familiar stance, crouched into a tense state. His secret was already out. He might as well give them a good show.

The dragon lunged forward, but he was already gone in a dark shadow, reappearing behind it and grinding the shark's skull into the ground. Hiro instantly proceeded to bare his fangs in a glowing purple snarl, snapping them together swiftly to complete the Bite attack.

Gabite threw him off, slamming him into a wall hard enough to knock plaster off the ceiling. His vision flashed white, and the next thing he knew blood was pouring down his face and the dragon was approaching fast. His body reacted for him, melting him into the shadows in time to 

cause the shark to hit the wall. Hiro appeared some ten feet behind the now unconscious pokemon, staggering and bleeding.

The room spun, and suddenly he was on the floor. Pathetic. He was so out of practice. But as the adrenaline drained, the voices came back.

"Hiro-chan! HIRO-CHAN!" Lily was screaming, abandoning their pseudonyms in her concern.

She ran to his side and propped him up, but his head merely lolled back. Although he wanted to sit up, respond, tell her that everything was okay, his body wouldn't do it. And that terrified her.

"Hiro-chan, say something! Hiro-chan!"

Neptune slowly stood, her legs weak from shock. A quick glance confirmed that Gallade had properly disabled Elliot and deposited his unconscious body near Gabite. The weary admin then trudged towards the morph and the girl, extremely cautious.

"Um…May? Although, that's probably not your name…hey, let me help you. Ryan, er, Hiro needs help…" She hesitantly reached an arm out towards them.

"DON'T TOUCH HIM!" Lily screamed, holding Hiroshi closer. "WHAT DO YOU KNOW? LEAVE HIM ALONE, YOU'LL ONLY HURT HIM! PEOPLE ONLY EVER HURT HIM!"

Neptune took another step closer. "Even you?"

Lily froze, then broke down into hysteric sobs. Neptune gingerly moved Lily's arms from around the bleeding morph and laid him on the ground. She spoke soothingly as she attended to the wounds as best she could.

"What's your real name? Don't worry, I won't tell Cyrus."

"Lily. He's…Hiroshi. But that's all you'll get." she sniffled, wiping her eyes with her arm.

"Okay, thanks." Neptune leaned over the morph. "Hiroshi? Can you hear me?"

He twitched a little upon hearing his name, then struggled to open his scarlet eyes. The thin, catlike black pupils stared back, so alien and exotic to her. Neptune was caught up by the strange beauty of him.

Mimi now edged closer, oscillating between fear and intrigue. She knew Ryan. She most certainly didn't know Hiroshi. Blood splattered against a thin pale boy with jet black hair and dark Umbreon ears…

The morph suddenly sprang to life and was ten feet away in a flash, regarding them carefully from his crouched state. His eyes quickly scanned the room – the first threat was gone. Now, to deal with the repercussions…

"Stop staring." he snarled at them. "I know, okay? So stop it."

Lily carefully went to his side and helped him up with one arm, supporting him. He leaned on her and assayed the exit points – smashed door, which led to a whole building full of witnesses, or window on the fourth floor. The window was looking good at the moment…

"Wait."

Hiroshi paused for just a second, halfway to picking up Lily and making their escape. Neptune and Mimi watched them with bewildered expressions.

"You're going to leave Team Galactic, just like that?" Mimi asked, her voice very small. "The only people I could actually stand around here?"

Neptune pleaded, "You don't have to leave. Elliot will be taken care of, and we'll never say a word –"

"Didn't you hear me? Stop it." the Umbreon morph growled. "I didn't want to have anything to do with either of you on the first place. I don't want your kindness nor your pity. I want to leave and never come back."

They had nothing to say to that. He picked up Lily and put her carefully over his shoulder. She stared back at them with a strangely sad expression, tears in her hazel eyes.

"Please…please act as if we never met."

And then they were gone from the window.

Mimi whimpered and collapsed onto the couch, burying her face in her hands. "You're…you're gonna let them leave? Just like that?"

The admin sighed. "What could I have done? Attack him with my pokemon? How would I fight a being like that? How would I know what he could take without killing him? How could I know how powerful he was?" She rubbed the back of her neck. "I faced the unknown and was caught off-guard. Acting rashly would have only made things worse."

The pink haired teen remained silent for a while, then replied, "Then, should we forget?"

Neptune stared out the window with a faraway look. "How could I forget? That boy…"

"He was the most beautiful thing I've seen in my entire life. Both the most beautiful…and the most horrifying."

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Ah, a lot of things happened in this chapter. It's a turning point, of sorts. Ah, I think I'm having too much fun with the titles, but it helps me think.