Nightmare's POV 🌙

"Yin, huh? Nice name." I say as I smiled.

"Thank you." She replied. "Also, there's something I wanted to ask you about while I'm still here."

"What is it?" I went.

Then Yin took out two of those things that her kind calls "pokéballs" before showing them to me.

"Would you and Luna like to join and become part of my pokémon team? I travel around a lot around here in Hisui, and I can take you to places you've both never seen or visited before..." She asked as she looked at me.

I went quiet for a few seconds before deciding to say something.

"Yin...I don't really know. My parents and siblings live here and this is where I was born too, along with Phobos before Luna came into the picture next." I answered, feeling hesitant.

"Oh...It's okay. I understand what you meant. But, I'll always have room for you both if you change your mind." She replied before putting them away in her bag.

Seeing that reaction and hearing her response mostly surprised me, because usually when a pokémon doesn't want to be with the trainer, they'd still get caught anyways and added to the team, being forced to battle other pokémon as well.

"However, I'm gonna be honest with you with something...I'm actually about to head over to Lake Acuity and complete Uxie's trial after battling your older brother, to resolve the problem and change the sky back to normal after finding out what's going on at the top of Mount Coronet.

But, I don't want to hurt him at all, since you just told me that you're related to him." Yin mentions to me, which explains why the sky's red.

"And I can't return to the village that I came from, because I was expelled from there and believed to be the cause of it all, even though I never was the source of this to begin with."

After she said that, I had no idea how to respond to this again.

"So, you can't come back to your village at all?" I asked in disbelief.

"Not until I do something about the sky and clear my name. For now, I am suspected to be a danger to the village and someone who cannot be trusted.

They think I had all of this set up to earn their trust and to be praised as a hero since I came here...An attention seeker to put it that way." She replies while shaking her head sadly.

"The leader wouldn't even listen to me or anyone else, when someone tries to defend and say that I'm innocent. I was lucky at all that I was accepted in by a merchant that I know and had a place to stay for now, until all of this mess is cleared up."

"Arceus...Your village is harsh. Just like how mine and Luna's kind are in the territory." I went as I sat down in the snow, while Luna rested on my lap.

"Yeah..." Yin could only say as she looked at her feet.

I could only look at her, not sure what to say or do, until Luna suddenly got off of my lap and went straight to Yin.

As she did, Luna went around and leaped up onto Yin's back, startling her as she pulled out one of the pokéballs from the bag and dropped it on the ground.

"What in the - ?!" Yin could only say, as my little sister got off of her and landed on the ground as well.

Then Luna came over and sat down with the pokéball in front of her, as she looked at Yin.

"Wait...Are you saying you want to be a part of my team?" Yin asked as she looked at Luna in confusion.

In response, Luna nodded as she wagged her tail happily.

"Luna! What are you doing?!?!" I said as I got up and hurried over to her a little.

"I want to be with Yin, Nightmare." Luna says as she turned to look at me.

"Yeah, but if we leave, our parents will be worried sick about us. And if other Zoruas and Zoroarks get wind of our interaction with humans like Yin, it can cause a lot of problems!" I replied as I picked her up and held her in my arms.

"Nightmare, we've been with our parents long enough for a while. You're at the age where our parents believe you can survive on your own without their aid.

Look at big bro, Phobos! He was your age when he left to survive on his own and he succeeded. Not only that, but, he willingly became Uxie's bodyguard on top of that!" Luna says as she huffed a little.

"Yeah, but - " I began.

"But, nothing! You know that well deep down that we're not always gonna be in our parents' care forever!" She continued.

"Alright, alright! I get it!" I groaned. "But, the least thing we can do is tell our parents, so they're aware of that."

"That's fine by me..." Luna went.

Then I looked at Yin and sweat dropped a little.

"Fine. I'll come with you. But, let me and Luna go tell our parents that we decided to leave and survive on our own, like how my brother did..." I say to her.

In response, Yin nodded her head in understanding as she picked up the pokéball from the ground and putted it away.

"That's alright. I'll hide and wait here for you two until you return." She replies.

I nodded in response before reverting back into my original Zoroark form and heading home with Luna.

When I made it, I told our parents that Luna and I decided to survive on our own, like how Phobos did, before we were getting praised by them.

"Just remember to stay away from the humans that call themselves 'pokémon trainers' okay?" Mom says as she smiled.

Me and Luna nodded before mom and dad letted us leave, wishing us good luck, while hoping we both know how to survive on our own well.

-  -  -

When I came back, Yin came out of her hiding spot to see us again.

"They're okay with it, so, you should know what this means..." I wrote down in the snow.

"Yeah." Yin replied as she smiled and took the same two pokéballs, she showed us before, out of her bag.

"So, who wants to take the honor in being caught first?"

Without hesitation, Luna immediately bolted from my arms, obviously wanting to be the first.

Chuckling a little in response, Yin tossed the pokéball at her, before Luna was taken in by the ball.

Once she was in, the ball fell straight to the ground before it shook a little once, twice and a third time until a small firework shot up from the top, giving Yin the message that Luna was successfully caught.

When it was my turn, Yin walked up to me and just lightly tapped the pokéball against my forehead instead, before I went in and was successfully caught as well.

"Nightmare? Thank you..." Yin says as she looked at me, once I was inside the pokéball.

I smiled a little at her in response, before Luna and I were put away with her pokémon team for now.

Yin's POV 🌺

Smiling happily to myself, I climbed back up the cliff again and called out to Braviary with my flute before being taken up in the air, resuming on my way to Lake Acuity until I made it.

When I caught up and got rid of the large rock that was blocking the entrance, I entered in the cave with Adaman, ready to face Uxie's trial.

As soon as we were inside, Adaman suddenly warned me about the alpha hisuian Zoroark that's in front of us, just standing there menacingly.

I nodded my head in response, already knowing that's also Nightmare's older brother, Phobos.

Not wanting to faint him, I started the battle off with my Arcanine and mostly had it use agile style attacks to weaken Phobos.

When I was sure his health was low enough, I stopped attacking and pulled out an Ultra ball before throwing it, in attempt to catch him.

Unfortunately, he escaped from the ball and attacked my Arcanine.

After that, I didn't have my Arcanine attack and tried again with another Ultra ball in my second attempt to catch him, before the same thing happened again, even though I was really close this time.

When it was my turn again, I decided to try using a Feather ball to catch him.

At first, the ball shook once and then twice, making me cross my fingers, silently hoping that Phobos will be caught after the ball shook for the third time.

Silence filled the cave for a moment before the ball shot up a firework at the top, confirming that Phobos was successfully caught.

"YES!" I thought to myself as I pumped my fist down in victory.

Then I went over and picked the ball up, containing Phobos inside it now, before putting it away.

As I did, I suddenly sensed Uxie's presence before it appeared in front of us.

It glowed pink at first, before suddenly talking to me in my head.

"C o m b e e,  Z u b a t,  U n o w n,  M a g n e t o n, D u s t c l o p s...H o w  m a n y  e y e s  d o  t h e y  a l l  h a v e?  T e l l  m e  y o u r  a n s w e r  a l l  a t  o n c e." Uxie telepathically says to me.

Looking at the lake guardian, I smiled and nodded in understanding, knowing this is the pokémon version of a math problem.

"60131..." I answered, easily remembering what the pokémon, Uxie mentioned, looked like.

In response, it made a cry, making me aware that I got the answer right before giving me something to confirm that I completed the trial.

Then Uxie vanished.