(A/N: Sorry for the short update D:)

Chrona is panting hard now, the blood streaming down the open side of her mouth, her face fixed in a bloody glare.

Pich flies back, wings beating by Rune's side.

Rune sits there with his stick, slapping it down against his paw in disappointment. Chrona looks up at them, scared and shaking as the blood pours like waterfalls from her wounds, slashes up and down her body.

Pich's bloody talons grip instinctively, and I realize something that shocks me. I'm afraid of them.

No.

I hold up a Super Potion and begin to spray Chrona. The team watches in awe as I look her in the eyes, and her weary, bloodshot eyes plead forgiveness. I'm not ready to extend it yet, unfortunately for her.

"Just tell me what happened." I say, eyes fixed on her wounds as I rub the potion on.

"I went to go train so I could evolve. Stella followed me because she said I looked sad and I guess she can't take seeing Pokemon depressed. So I let her tag along, and when I had my back turned some Furfrou jumped out of the grass... and she ... she took the hit..." Chrona looks down at her feet, rendered mute just by retelling the story.

"This is why we don't wander off." I mutter to myself, dabbing the wounds with potion and part of my shirt, ignoring the greenish tint of the blood that makes it look like acid.

Chrona scowls as I press against a large bruise, which obviously wasn't made by Pich's whirling talons.

Juliet isn't singing, which is a first. She just sits there, eyes wide and fixed on the corpse of Stella, whose deep blue-black eyes are now blank slates gazing up at an endless sky of stars, refracted a hundred times.

It makes me sick. Something empty is curling up in my stomach, and the tears run down my face like fire.

Juliet watches, and finally, she steps forward and brushes a patch of flowers away to dig the grave.

"Rest my child

safe and sound

below the moon...

The sun goes down

and all that remains

is a sea of shining stars.

And I

would bring them down

to warm you

even if I burned alive

And I

would keep you here

a thousand years

if you could stay...

safe and sound..." Juliet finishes the song as she puts the last bit of dirt over the makeshift grave, the flowers blowing in a brisk night wind.

"Are we going to set up for the night?" Rune asks solemnly.

I shake my head. "I... don't want to. Let's just make it to Camphrier Town by tonight. They'll have some hotels there."

The team trudges on in utter silence, Chrona stopping to look back towards the grave every now and then. This, I can already tell, isn't the obnoxious, cocky Bulbasaur who started out with us. Loss breaks everyone.

Even me.

I didn't think I could hurt anymore, but the truth is that at home I didn't see anyone die. I was the first death on the team since the poor Pokemon I replaced. (I think it was Peckers. Wonder where he is? Hershey, no, Shika, seems quite worried about him.)

We arrive at Camphrier Town so late that most of the lights in houses are off and the guy who lets us into the hotel is practically asleep.

No time to waste- I fall onto my fluffy sheets, my team settling down to rest with me. Chrona sits alone by the fire, her green skin flickering with pain, regret, and scars that will never heal again.