Sky Blue hadn't felt this alert and alive for what felt like years. The constant thudding of foot and paw steps, the loud noises made by the Pokémon, the feeling of his own pounding heart against his chest, and the suddenly vivid colors of aura that reflected off living beings. His senses were sharper than ever before as he and Leia ran down hall after hall with their band of fellow prisoners.

"Sky, how are we even going to get out?!" Leia hollered of the barking and cries from the liberated Pokémon behind them. "We must be underground, there are no windows here! We don't know how people come and go!"

"We'll cross that bridge when we get there!" He shouted back. "We still need to find our own Pokémon before finding an exit! We can't leave them here! Do you have any idea where they could be?"

"I'm not exactly sure, but one place they might be would be the scientists' office. I was only there once, but I can try to find our way there from here!"

Sky was about to reply but he had an odd sensation run through his body like a shiver. He suddenly sensed several different presences surrounding them. Some were behind them a short ways back while a few more were coming around the corners.

He heard Leia squeak with surprise as he skidded to a stop. A few of the smaller Pokémon even collided with the back of his leg.

"We're being surrounded, we gotta find another way around!" Sky hissed urgently.

"There isn't another way, there's only the doors here but we'll be just as cornered!" Leia said, her eyes widening in horror.

Sky looked around at the Pokémon that had followed them. Many of them had weak auras from depleted strength and depression, but there were a few with strong auras.

"How many of you all can fight?!" The young man called to the larger Pokémon. "We're being surrounded, and if we want to see the light of day again, we need to fight back! To any that can't fight, partner up with anyone that can!"

A few of the Pokémon gave barks or cries of support while others were already running off to take on their captors. Some of the other larger Pokémon came beside the humans like guards. The smaller Pokémon that couldn't fight for themselves huddled close to a bigger Pokémon or to one of the humans. Sky heard the young creatures whine and push closer to his leg as red clad guards armed with high tech weaponry ran around the corner and bellowed, "Stay where you are and freeze! Don't move or we will shoot!"

"I'm fed up with you people!" Sky Blue hollered, his pent up rage finally fuming out. "I'm done with being the thing you push around for sport!"

Leia's scream and the Pokémons' howls of terror were drowned by the crash of Sky pounding his fist into the floor. His mixed aura blazed brightly as he punched the tiles. The force was so powerful that the area around them shook violently like an earthquake. Even the walls cracked from the force.

"Sky!" Leia cried out as the guards cocked their weapons and pointed them straight at the rouge escapee. Three of the larger Pokémon, a Diggersby, Sawk, and Throh, all roared and came to their defense. The three of them also punched the ground and caused spikes of rocks to erupt from it and block the guards view.

For a second Sky thought it actually worked until the spikes shattered from a sphere of light shot from the firearms. He could see the guards through the dust, moving closer to their position while aiming their weapons at them all the while. Sky thought he would at make them back off, but they instead got a whole lot closer. He quickly consider making an Aura Sphere, but there was a chance it would blow up in their faces. Still, it was worth the shot.

Before Sky could begin to form his last line of defense, a blur of an aura zipped around the corner behind the guards and bounced off the walls. The guards yelled and slid to the floor as the shell slammed into the back of their legs repeatedly with great force. When they did not get up, the shell skidded to a stop and the creature inside popped its head out with a loud, "SQUIRT, SQUIRTLE!"

"S-Scotty?" Sky said with disbelief as the Squirtle spun on its shell and zoomed to its trainer happily. "How the heck did you get here? Don't take this wrong way, I'm over the moon you're here, but how did you get this far?!"

"He must have got out of his pokeball, but we must not dwell on that right now!" Leia added hurriedly as yells echoed from behind them. "We need to find the rest of our Pokémon and get out before we're caught again!"

"You're right; you all, get out while you can and trample anyone that stands in your way!"

The rest of the Pokémon howled and roared as they began to bolt into different directions. The shouts of pain from the fallen guards filled the halls as the Pokémon either attacked or purposely ran over them. Sky continued to keep his senses sharpened however as he bent down to his Squirtle and told it, "I'm so glad to see you're safe, but we need to hurry and find the others. I can't understand you anymore, but I know you can still answer this; do you know where the other Pokémon are?"

To his surprise, the small Water Pokémon hopped up and down and squeaked, "Squirt squirt!"

Scotty then scurried on off down the hall where the guards lay unconscious. The Squirtle bounced up and down and beckoned for the two humans to follow him before bounding around the corner.

"Are you sure it's safe to follow him?" Leia asked nervously. "I mean, isn't it a bit strange that he's the only Pokémon of ours to come? How could he get this far without being noticed? What if it's a trap?"

"We don't have a choice either way, he's all we have," Sky told her in response, taking her hand as they both followed the Squirtle. "Besides, I highly doubt one of my own Pokémon would betray us."

Leia still looked unsure, but she nodded all the same. The Squirtle led them down the dark hallways before it suddenly stopped at an air vent. Sky was about to urge his Pokémon to focus on the task at hand but it already knocked the covering aside with its tail. It ducked inside and dragged out the two trainers belts with the pokeballs still attached.

"You managed to smuggle them all out?" Sky said slowly as he bent down to take his belt. The pokeballs were shaking energetically as if they knew they were once again in the hands of their trainer and not a villain's.

"Squirt!" Scotty replied happily as it lifted up the other belt to Leia.

"But how did you..."

But Sky's voice trailed off as he realized something. There was no empty pokeball on either of the belts to signify Scotty's pokeball. All of them were shaking to show they were still inhabited. However, there were three clips to show that three pokeballs were missing.

"You don't have a pokeball anymore, do you?" Sky Blue said to the Pokémon. "I thought it was on here, I thought you all were..."

"They must have fell off the night you, well, lost control," Leia suggested. "You might have had them in your last memories, but you were still running around in your...darker frame of mind. Is that what happened, Scotty?"

"Squirtle!" Scotty replied with a nod before drawing a circle in mid air and miming an explosion.

"So your pokeball broke," he translated with a frown on his face. "You followed us here instead of going back to the city. But that doesn't explain what happened to the other two..."

Distant shouts suddenly echoed through the halls before Leia said hurriedly, "I understand you're worried about the rest of your Pokémon, Sky, but we need to leave! We have to find a way out of here before we're caught again! We have to trust that they're safe and that which ever Pokémon are gone are taken care of!"

Sky was about to argue, but he could now sense the auras of the guards heading toward them. He begrudgingly agreed as he quickly scooped up Scotty and took Leia's hand and ran. Leia was right, he couldn't do anything about the missing Pokémon now. They had the leave before they were taken back to the hell hole.

"So Sky, just wondering, do you by any chance have any other useful abilities you haven't disclosed?" Leia asked while gasping for air as they reached a dead end with a password locked elevator in front of them. "Something like x-ray vision or mind control would be nice! It's not like your aura or something can break down a door like this!"

"None of that's going to help us in this situation!" He snapped as panic rose inside him at the oncoming auras. "My aura isn't strong enough to break it, and I don't think I can break it myself! There has to be another way up in cases of emergency if the elevator fails!"

"A staircase!" his friend suddenly blurted out with enthusiasm. "They must have an emergency staircase around here that leads all the way up! It has to be close by here!"

"Of course! Let's get back before-"

"It's thankfully too late for that."

The two trainers swiveled around and Sky heard Leia gasp with horror. A woman with blue hair and wearing a Team Flare was blocking the way back. Two guards were at her side, each aiming the same high tech fire arm at Sky. A Houndoom was positioned in front of the woman, growling furiously and flames leaking from between its jaws. He noticed that one of the hound's eyes was tightly shut, and scars and bite marks covered its body. He had seen the woman and Houndoom before; in a living nightmare that happened what felt like decades ago. 

"Haven't you two been naughty," the woman tutted calmly with a sneer across her face. "Didn't I tell you specifically, little girl, that we would have no funny business? And you, madman, I see you've decided to join us in reality. Shame it has to be cut short like this. Now, allow us to come over, keep your hands where we can see them, and no one gets hurt."

"I don't take orders from you!" Sky Blue snarled as he moved in front of Leia to block her from harm. "My days of playing as your lap dog are over! Get out of our way before I make you!"

The woman laughed as she replied, "So cocky now! Well, it doesn't matter, you're about to be even more outnumbered! Backup is on its way! You can't fight us all alone, and your powers ar still raw and uncontrollable! I see you somehow got your Pokémon back, but they were all drained of power, so they won't help you either!  The girl is useless too, so I highly doubt you will be able to leave this place alive! Now, put your hands where we can see them."

The young man gritted his teeth and his hands curled into fists. He was shaking with fury more than fear. He could feel his anger bubble and boil like acid. He wanted to rip them all apart and show them a sliver of the horror they put him through.

"You people disgust me!" Sky suddenly spat out venomously while looking the woman straight in the eyes. "You don't care about anyone, do you? You don't care about who you hurt as long as you get what you want! You rip apart families and friends just to get a few extra bucks, and you put us through hell for what?! For fun?!"

Blue, black, and red aura began to blaze around Sky's fists as he shouted, "You call me a monster and a madman for what and who I am! I am a monster, but I'm not the monster you people are! A real monster is something or someone that's in control when hurting others! They know they're causing pain to others and they enjoy it! I'm not like you monsters at all!"

"Sky-!" Leia began to squeak but her small voice was drowned out by Sky roaring, "YOU WANT THE MONSTER?! I'LL GIVE YOU THE MONSTER!"

He howled with rage as he pounded his fists into the floor. He had blown a crater straight into it, and his aura was going wild. He could sense everyone backing away from his fury, and even Scotty leapt off his shoulder and into Leia's arms for protection. The blue, black and red aura twisted and turned before their eyes as if it was molding into a sculpture. First came the hind legs, than the cloak of fur and arms with thorns on each back side of them. The aura twisted into the creature that lived inside Sky Blue for as long as he could remember.

Blood Red was kneeling in the crater Sky created as the aura finally finished by twisting on the last petal of the blue flower covering the Mega Lucario's empty eye socket. The last of the power drained from the human and Sky stumbled back to lean against the elevator door. Leia was rooted to the spot, staring at the Lucario with absolute horror while mouthing the words, "Oh mother of Mew..."

The aura creature looked up at its surroundings, a toothy malicious smile spread across its snout as he saw the enemy. Blood Red remembered them very clearly, for his blood red eye was fixed on them. He knew what they did to him. 

"Remember me?" The beast hissed as it stood up and began moving with a slight swagger toward the Team Flare members. Neither of them spoke, all three were gaping at the aura monster. The Mega Lucario smirked and growled, "I remember you. You hurt me- no, you tortured me. You loved seeing my pain. I like seeing pain too, especially from people I despise."

"Shoot it!" The woman suddenly yelled with fear in her voice. "Shoot it, you idiots, SHOOT IT!"

However the spheres of light shot from the firearms were absorbed in the blue and black aura. The Mega Lucario roared with fury and began beating the ground with its paws. It startled Team Flare and the Houndoom so much that they all broke into a run to flee the beast's wrath. But the aura creature lunged after them without any instructions from Sky. Sky Blue felt that Blood Red deserved to have this small bit of fun.

"What...what just happened?" Leia gasped as the howls of Blood Red became more distant. "What was that thing?"

"I should've probably formally introduced you two, but that was sorta your real cell mate," Sky grunted as he forced himself of the wall and shakily straightened up. "I don't really know how he got out like that, but hopefully Team Flare will be too busy with him to notice us. Come on, let's find that staircase. I'll explain everything once we've gotten out of here."

He once again took Leia's hand and they both half ran down the hall once more. His energy and aura had seemed to drain out of him now that a majority of his aura was making up Blood Red's body. He was still in a state of shock that the Lucario was somewhere in the HQ, in reality, bringing down his own rage on the people who imprisoned and tortured him. The thought that the monster inside him was roaming around was frightening.

They deserve it, Sky told himself forcefully while shaking his head. They deserve to have him hurt and scare them! They don't deserve mercy! They deserve the monster!

"Sky, I see it! Look, that door is completely caved in!"

Sky looked up at the sound of Leia's voice. Indeed, a scratched up and dented metal door at the end of the hall was hanging off its hinges. The freed Pokémon had clearly found the exit too and had brought it down. A few of them were still in the stairwell, and there were many howls and cries echoing around as the Pokémon communicated to each other. Sky leaned against the railing to see the top of the stairwell and immediately regretted it. He felt dizzy as he saw how much they still had to walk.

"I don't think we can make it to the top without being caught!" He said anxiously. "This will take a lot of time that we don't have!"

"We have to try!" Leia encouraged him as she began climbing up already. "I don't know about you, but I'd rather start climbing than wait for a second option!"

"Squirtle squirt!" added Scotty as he leapt off Leia and began climbing at his own speed.

However both Scotty and Leia made yelps of shock as a Midday Lycanroc and Dodrio ran down the stairwell toward them. The young trainer and Squirtle ducked behind Sky as the two large Pokémon approached them, but the two Pokémon didn't attack. They instead bent low to the ground and gave a few barks and squawks. It was if they were waiting for them to mount on them.

"I think they want us to ride them," Sky told them as he approached the Dodrio. "They're gonna give us a lift, right?"

The Pokémon nodded and made cries of consent.  Sky looked back to Leia and Scotty and told them, "You two take the Lycanroc, I'll take Dodrio, and quickly! We got a lot of ground to cover!"

The moment they all got on their ride, the Pokémon reared and burst into an extreme speed. Sky gripped the Dodrio's feathers for dear life as the two Pokémon bolted up the staircase. The smaller Pokémon were able to easily duck under the two, while the larger Pokémon dove aside and made way for the humans.

A trip that would've been at least thirty minutes was done in five minutes thanks to the speed of the Dodrio and Lycanroc. There wasn't a door, but what at some point must have been a ladder. A large hole was now in its place from the Pokémon attacks. Dim sunlight was filtering in to greet the prisoners. 

Before Sky could get down, the Dodrio gave a cry of longing and jumped through the large hole. Sky yelled with shock at the sudden movement and ducked down so his head didn't hit the ceiling. He squinted in the bright light, the natural light he had not seen in weeks. He ignored Leia yelp of fright as the Lycanroc jumped out of the hole as well.

They were in a forest with dying trees. The exit they took seemed to have once been a trap door on a concrete platform. The HQ appeared to be hidden under a route, which route Sky didn't know. Team Flare must have had some sort of cover for it being there since no one had found or reported it. 

"Thanks for the lift, I owe you one." Sky told the Dodrio breathlessly, patting the bird Pokémon's back before sliding off. The Dodrio made a chirping noise before moving to help the Lycanroc lower a large thick tree branch down into the hole for smaller Pokémon to climb out. Leia seemed to have collapsed on the ground while Scotty pranced around her. When noticing Sky looking at her, she looked him dead in the eye and said slowly, "This is the last time we're ever traveling together." 

"Aw, don't say that," Sky said teasingly, forcing a tired smile onto his face. "I think we make a great team, our next adventure just has to be under better circumstances. Anyway, how are you feeling?" 

"Like I'm about to vomit, so I highly recommend backing up. How about you?" 

"Roughly the same, but we got to keep moving. They're going to catch up to us and the grunts will be swarming this place."

"But what about that Lucario? Isn't he, like, a part of you?" 

"He'll come back,"  He assured her, reaching out and helping her onto her feet. "He is a part of me, he has to come back. He doesn't have a choice." 

Just as if on que, a blue, black, and red aura rose of of the hole and the Mega Lucario landed in front of the trainers. The large Pokémon and Scotty fearfully backed away from the aura creature, which was staring down Leia. 

"Leia, this was your cell mate," Sky told Leia as she stepped back from the Lucario. "This is Blood Red, he's, well...like my alter ego. I think he already knows you."

"Charmed, as always," Blood Red said in his gruff voice, surprisingly bowing his head to Leia respectfully before turning to Sky and saying, "I unfortunately didn't manage to kill them, but I believe I did a good job scarring them emotionally. However, I found out something rather...disturbing..."

The Mega Lucario looked Sky in the eye before saying, "Team Flare didn't want you at all. All this time they were torturing you, they only wanted one thing the entire time; me." 

*~*~*

"Ne-Ne, are you ok?" Fiona called down the tunnel, looking down at N from her perch outside the exit. "You look greener than usual."

"Very funny!" N snarled as the little girl's giggles echoed down while attempting to crawl out more. "I suppose you think calling me that ridiculous nickname is funny too!"

"It never gets old," came White's voice from above with a hint of amusement. "The very thing I clung to in that pit was the hope that we lived long enough to have kids and I will be an amazing aunt that tells the stories of daring Prince Ne-Ne, and my one legacy is that when I die, the kids, grandkids, nieces and nephews, and grand nieces and nephews continue to call you Great Grandpa and Great Uncle Ne-Ne. Right now that's all coming true, starting with living to see tomorrow."

"If I had the power, I would disown you before you do any such thing!" He snapped as he finally pulled himself out of the tunnel and into the dim sunlight.

Fiona giggled a little harder and even White snorted with laughter. Despite being thoroughly agitated with the two girl's, N was glad to see that they were feeling a little better, especially now that were free from Team Flare's control.

The surrounding environment was of a lush forest. They must have been fairly deep inside since he could not see any signs of Pokémon. If they had been easy to find, the tunnel would've been more lively or had been covered up fully ages ago. This proved Team Flare didn't know their exact location.

"Where are we now?" Fiona asked as she too took in the scenery with curiosity.

"Probably some route," White replied as she slung her bag off from over her shoulder. "Amethyst said the HQ was somewhere in Lumious City, right? That means we're probably on one of the connecting routes."

"If that's the case, we can't linger here for long," N added seriously. "They'll be searching the city and nearby routes for us, so we should start moving as soon as possible?"

"And go where?" The young girl questioned with some stress. "There's nowhere to go! Père is gonna find us no matter where we go! I don't want to go back to him!"

White and N exchanged concerned looks. They hadn't really thought of where to go after escaping. Everything had been on the spur of the moment.

"We'll find Danny and the others," White told Fiona reassuringly, putting her arm around the young girl. "We had to the nearest city other than Lumious and find a Pokémon Center. We can try and contact them from there. If Sky Blue and Leia do the same, I expect them to do the same. It's at least a start."

"Do you really think they're still there? We've been gone a really long time..."

N sighed as he put his hand on Fiona's shoulder and told her, "They would never leave without you two. You all were one big family, and families don't give up on one another."

At least, they shouldn't, N added to himself, cringing at all the mistakes he made in the past with White.

"What about you?" Fiona persisted, looking up at the man innocently. "Aren't you family too?" 

N opened his mouth to speak, but instead looked to White for help. She came to the rescue by telling the girl, "N is that really weird brother that nobody tells Danny about because he has better moral behavior than the rest of us. We wouldn't want to complicate things for him. Actually, when we find them, we should probably let him know about that."

"You think?" N said with annoyance, remembering all the hiding and stalking he had to do to avoid being seen. "You know it's exhausting to continue hiding for his moral compass!"

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," White snorted as she stood up and swung her bag over her shoulder once more. "Lecture me when we don't have to run for our lives. Let's get moving now."

"How long will we be walking?" Fiona asked suspiciously as everyone began standing up. "It's gonna get boring."

"I'm glad you said that, for you now have volunteered to use the Pokedex to check and make sure we have the right Pokémon!" The older female trainer added unnaturally (and probably sarcastically) enthusiastically, pulling the Pokedex out of her bag and handing it to Fiona.

N listened to Fiona complain to White about the assigned duty as he rolled a nearby stone over the exit they came from. It was time to leave the horrors of Team Flare behind them and aim to finding a way back to the people that mattered. He only hoped they would find their friends before Team Flare found them.

~~~

I said "hell" a whole lot more in this chapter than I thought and I'm sorry if it was out of place. I wrote at least half this chapter today, I really cut it close I'm sorry T-T Writing is tough when you're trying not to fall into the abyss like last semester.

I don't have much to say, just that because I'm caught up on TDOBH updates, I'm going to stop the TDOBH Saturday updates for the semester. I want to only worry about updating once a week instead of twice while I'm doing school. If TDOBH is still going on in the summertime (it should be but you never know), I will add that Saturday update back on. By then I'll have a heck of a lot less work and more writing time. 

Ok that's it. Next week is a TDOBH update, again, I'm not doing a Saturday update anymore. It gives me more time to make longer SWS3 chapters and less worrying during school. I post art on Instagram weekly if not daily, so you can see that stuff under pureheartneko. I apologize for any mistakes here and I'll see you all later.