Chapter 38

(Note: This chapter is slightly shorter than usual due to my excitement to get straight to a certain point. I've been waiting to write this for at a year at most. I advise caution if you have don't like parts of stories showing the darker side of a human.)

"So how long have you known Sky Blue again?" Danny asked Amos irritability as he leaned against the cave wall.

"More than a year, almost two," Amos replied.

"And has he always been this excitable? I always thought that once you hit eighteen you become less excited."

"I think the problem is that the rules of life don't exactly apply to Sky. He goes by his own rules of aging," the younger trainer explained with a small grin. "I think Sky goes by the rule of never growing up."

"That explains quite a lot, actually..."

It was the day after the Geosenge Town Pokemon Showcase, and the group had decided to move on to the next city. The first team was White, Leia, and Mira. The second group was N, Margaret, and Fiona (Fiona seemed to have grown quite fond of N since first meeting him). The third and final group were Amos, Danny, and Sky Blue.

The third group had already passed the first obstacle, which was Route 11. They were now trying to figure out how to get out of the Reflection Cave. And then there was the final obstacle that required a lot of patience; struggling through Sky's weirdness. Amos and Danny were now waiting for the older trainer to come back and hopefully have found a way out of the cave.

The two boys turned around at the sound of quiet footsteps behind them. Deborah had been sent out to scout the cave as well since they didn't trust Sky Blue's sense of direction. The Gardevoir knew full well that she was the last hope for the group, and she understood that they wanted to get to Shalour City as soon as possible.

"Did you find a way out?" Danny asked her as she reached her trainer's side.

"I believe so," the Gardevoir told them in her usual neutral voice. "There is a floor below us that leads to another part of this level. I believe that leads to the exit."

"Did you see anyone else while out there?" Amos questioned curiously. He assumed that the other two groups were ahead of them since they didn't have Sky Blue holding them back.

"No, but it's safe to assume that they are beating us."

"Deborah, this isn't a race."

"Race or not, I hate being last. I say just leave the madman down here and move on. Just let him run wild and he'll be happy."

Amos couldn't help but laugh at this remark, but Danny told Deborah sternly, "That actually sounds sad, so we're definitely not leaving him here."

"Fair enough," Deborah said with a bow of her head. "But you are missing a great opportunity."

"Even White wouldn't take that opportun... heck, I can't even say that like I believe it..." Danny admitted with a snort while Deborah responded, "Exactly."

There was a loud pop as Shane teleported right next to Amos while the Gallade carried his trainer on his shoulders.

"Hey, I came back all in one piece, did ya miss me?!" Sky Blue asked them in his annoyingly cheerful voice.

While Amos and Danny both answered, "Sure...", Deborah replied flatly, "Never."

"Well the feeling's mutual, believe me!" The one eyed trainer said a less enthusiastic voice while looking at Deborah with dislike.

"As it should be," the Gardevoir sneered, though she looked at Amos and Danny with an expression that said 'you had your chance, now you're stuck with him'.

"So I'm guessing you found a way out too?" Amos started, bringing the conversation to the more important matter.

"Oh yeah, there's a whole 'nother floor under this one that leads to the exit on the other side of this floor!" Sky Blue explained, gesturing toward the tunnel ahead of them.

"I already told them about that exit," Deborah told him with a hint of pride in her voice.

Sky looked very disappointed at this and said sadly, "You stole my discovery?"

"It was never a discovery to begin with, but yes."

"Alright, well you guys can argue later," Danny interrupted, picking up his bag and beginning to walk down the tunnel. "You both just proved that there is one main way out, so let's go find it."

With that said, Deborah blew a raspberry at Sky Blue while Danny wasn't paying attention. She then followed her trainer while Sky scoffed and Shane teleported ahead of the rest. Amos let out a sigh before following pursuit.

He felt uneasy about being alone with Sky Blue after being told about all of his issues. He felt even more nervous sense neither White, Margaret, or even N were there. White and Margaret had a connection with Sky, and N scared the crud out of him (then again he might make everything worse). Amos had no connection with Sky, except that he hated that the older trainer had a relationship with White. Or at least, he thought they did, but they had a close bond after everything they went through.

Amos did, however, feel somewhat comforted by the reminder that White had given him and Margaret permission to call her if something went wrong. If something unexpected happened and White or N had not said anything to prepare them for it, than they were required to called White immediately. Sky was apparently too dangerous for them to face if he had full power, but White could at least handle him... at least they hopped so.

For the next twenty minutes, they had to endure Sky Blue and Deborah's bickering while Danny tried to stop them. Everything Deborah or Sky did, bothered the other. Listening to them made Amos want to leave the cave as soon as possible.

"Would you stop teleporting everywhere?!" Deborah snapped as Shane teleported a few feet away in front of the Gardevoir while the Gallade still carried the one eyed trainer. "Surely you can walk by now! I think you're pretending to be hurt!"

"I would never do that!" Sky retorted angrily, though Danny snorted in disbelief. Amos didn't really believe the older trainer either.

"Then prove it! Prove that you actually can't walk! I've seen you walk recently, I'm not stupid!"

"Well you sure act like it!"

Sky hit a nerve. The Gardevoir shrieked with frustration and rage and lunged at the Gallade and his trainer. The Psychic Fighting Pokemon yelped with pain as Deborah tackled him, sending Sky flying off his shoulders.

Amos gasped with pain as inhuman noises suddenly echoed and screeched around them. A flock of what looked like purple tissue ghost crafts floated down from the ceiling while giving off eerie wails. The Shuppet horde did not attack, but they did look furious as they floated off to find a quieter area to rest in.

However, not all Shuppets left. A small bluish gray Shuppet floated down toward Sky Blue with great curiosity. When making a happy wailing noise, the one eyed trainer yelled with fright and scrambled away from the Ghost Type Pokemon.

"See?!" spat Deborah as she pushed herself off the ground while leaving behind poor Shane. "You can use your legs!"

"Get that thing away from me!" Sky shouted angrily, not taking his eyes off the blue Shuppet.

"What? Are you scared of a little Shuppet?" Danny asked as he approached the tiny Ghost Type.

The Shuppet turned around to look at Danny. The Ghost Type made another wailing noise before floating in circles around the newcomer. It seemed to be a rather cheerful Pokemon for a Ghost Type.

"It looks like it likes you," Amos told Danny as he watched the blue Shuppet zip around.

"Yeah, I guess. But isn't Shuppet supposed to be gray?" Danny asked uncertainly.

"It is a Shiny Pokemon," explained Deborah as she observed the Pokemon with some curiosity. "They are alternate colored Pokemon that are extremely rare. You have a one out of four thousand and ninety six chance of finding one. A Shiny Shuppet is blue instead of a gray. I suggest catching it before someone else does."

Amos had never seen a wild shiny before. He had seen a very small number of caught shinies, but the odds of finding a Shiny explained why he never saw one in the wild before.

Danny looked down at the Shuppet, who sounded like it was humming while circling him.

"Hey, little guy," Danny started, making the Shuppet look around at him. "Do you want to come with me? I could use you one my journey."

The shiny Shuppet tilted it's head at Danny. After a moment, the Shuppet gave a happy cry and nudged Danny's bag. The rookie took a pokeball out of the bag and tapped it on the blue Shuppet's head. It was sucked inside and the pokeball began to shake and blink red. After three clicks, the pokeball stopped shaking.

"That was easier than I anticipated," Deborah said while breaking the silence.

"I guess he was a little more friendly than we thought..." Danny replied, putting the pokeball on his belt and turned around. "Hey, where did Sky go?"

Amos looked around as well. Sky Blue and his Gallade were nowhere to be seen. This made his heart sink. Sky would never had left without saying something.

"Did you see or hear him leave?" Danny questioned Amos.

"No," Amos answered, feeling uneasy as he looked around the area of the cave there were currently in. "He must be behind us, he couldn't have gone ahead. We would've noticed."

"The madman might have gone back to the entrance," Deborah suggested as she looked back across the cave area to the tunnel hey had just exited.

"Well then me and you can go back and check the entrance," Danny told Deborah and then telling Amos, "Amos, you should stay here. Sky might come back this way and we don't want to get too separated."

Amos nodded and watched as Danny Deborah ran off back toward the tunnel that led toward the entrance of Reflection Cave. Once they were out of sight, he took out two pokeballs of his own and pressed the buttons. They opened and his Watchog and Arcanine came out once the flashes of red light vanished.

"Packs, use Flash to light up the area," Amos instructed his two Pokemon. "Lilliana, try and see if you can catch scent of Shane or Sky, they just went missing!"

Lilliana barked and began to sniff the floor at his command. Packs, however, gave Amos a sneering look.

"Why should I?" Packs asked shrewdly.

"Because I need you right now!" Amos snapped, not wanting to take his most unhelpful Pokemon's comments. "People in this cave might be endanger right now, and so could we!"

Fortunately, Packs didn't seem to want to be in trouble either. His eyes lit up and caused light to flood over the cave walls. Amos could see nothing around that was living.

Lilliana's ears perked up and she growled as she stopped sniffing the ground.

"Something powerful is here," Lilliana growled, tossing her head toward another tunnel to their left. "I heard something loud down there."

Amos's heart sank as Lilliana told him this. Without another word, he ran down the road that Lilliana had heard the noise. He heard his two Pokemon trail behind him.

A few minutes later, Amos came across a flight of man made stairs with rubble scatter all over it. The rubble looked like it came from a boulder the same size, if not taller than Lilliana. It had been pounded to pieces.

The rookie stared at the rubble, fear welling up in his chest. Something told him that no Pokemon had done this. No Pokemon in the cave had that power or physical strength.

He immediately reached for his pocket and pulled out his Xtransceiver. With shaky hands, he looked through his contacts and found White's name and pressed it.

The phone rang for a few seconds before White's voice asked exasperatedly, "What did he do?"

"What?"

"Sky Blue, what did he do?"

"White... He's gone, and I-I think he lost his mind..." Amos stammered, panic taking over his voice. "Sky went missing a few minutes ago without telling us where he was going, and I found the rubble of a boulder that was just smashed. Aren't all the Pokemon here Psychic Types or small Rock Types?"

He got no response. When White spoke, her voice was very harsh and serious.

"Amos, stay where you are. Do not, I repeat, do not leave that spot! Stay there until I find you! Stay on the line, do not hang up! If what you say is true... Sky Blue has just crossed the threshold into insanity, and with that, he has the power to kill someone!"

*~*~*

Amos did everything that White told him to. He explained everything over the phone while she made her way to him. Apparently she and her group had already left the cave and she left everyone at the Pokemon Center. Where he was currently wasn't far from the exit, but the boulder had blocked the path out.

The rookie jumped as Lilliana and Packs growled at the sound of footsteps. He turned around to see White moving swiftly down the stairs. She looked more pale and anxious than he ever seen her.

"Do you think he left the cave?" Amos asked immediately after she made it to their level.

"No, I would've seen him," White said dismissively, calming Amos slightly. "There is a path up the stairs that goes to the left. It leads to stairs that go to another floor. I don't think anyone is down there since it's a dead end. That's the only place he could be, he will want to be alone in the dark."

He did not ask how she knew this. He just wanted to get out of this alive, yet he felt reassured that White had some idea about what should be done.

When he returned his Pokemon to his pokeballs, he followed White back up the stairs. Amos kept glancing at White's face as they walked at a quick pace. She was sweating, and he noticed that her real hand was gripping the metal one as if trying to wring it out. Whatever she had seen Sky do in the past was clearly haunting her.

"White, why would a Shuppet evoke such a reaction in Sky Blue?" Amos asked nervously as the tunnel grew darker ahead of them.

The older trainer looked at him, as if she just realized he was present. She then turned away and growled, "Sky's caretaker when he was a little boy, Missy, had a mate. He was a Banette, the final form of Shuppet. He despised Sky, and well... He made Sky's time a living hell..."

She gritted her teeth and continued, "He tortured Sky emotionally and mentally for the few days he was there. When Missy found out, she was furious to put it mildly. She threw him out of the grotto and made sure he never came back, but the scars he left on Sky still remain. Not even Gardevoirs scare him as much as Banettes do. It's understandable why a Shuppet would remind him of Bane."

"When you say torture, what do you mean, exactly?"

"I don't know, I was never told... I'd imagine that he got into Sky's mind, brought up memories he hated to relive. He might have sent him images that he couldn't block out. Ghost Types can have similar abilities as Psychic Types, but Ghost Types can be more malicious. Well whatever he did it, I'm sure he was one of the reasons Sky is the way he is."

Amos fell silent for a moment. He could only imagine what Sky Blue went through at the hands of the Banette. He thought about the terror he would feel if stuck with his least favorite Pokemon for several days, unable to admit to the only Pokemon that could save him that he was being abused.

Now that he thought about it, Sky had to be the bravest person he ever met besides White. To spend several days with a Pokemon that was torturing him as a little kid had to be traumatizing. Amos would have never lived through it, even if he himself had actually gone through the same as a child. But his father hadn't been a Pokemon with abilities beyond those of a human.

A few minutes later, Amos almost bumped into White as she stopped in her tracks. She had stopped right before they stepped on a black belt with several pokeballs attached to it. A few of them had rolled off and were shaking violently as if the Pokemon inside were desperate to get out.

"Are those Sky Blue's Pokemon?" Amos asked as White pulled out her Pokedex and knelt down to examine the pokeballs.

"I think so," White answered, scanning to pokeballs with her Pokedex. "There's Galvantula, Squritle, Eevee, Chatot, Alakazam, Empoleon, Aerodacyl... They're all here, even Shane."

She picked up one of the pokeballs and pressed the button. It opened in a flash of red light and Alan the Alakazam appeared in front of them. The Alakazam looked anxious and worried as he looked around at who was present. He looked lost and terrified.

"White, thank goodness!" Alan gasped, fallen on his knees and clutched at White's overcoat. "He cut me off, a-and I couldn't get out! He lost his mind! He's reliving every horrible memory he's experienced!"

"It's ok, Alan!" White reassured him sternly. "We'll get him back!"

"No, you don't understand!" Alan almost roared, shaking White. "It's a trap! He's waiting for you! He, he..."

He trailed off, unable to voice what Sky was planning. Amos looked from Alan to White. He didn't understand. White was the only one who had any control over Sky. Did this mean that she just lost this advantage?

"White, what's going on?" Amos asked seriously as White forced Alan's hands off her jacket and she took a step forward to look down the tunnel. "What does he mean by a trap?"

She didn't answer. She instead turned around and told Amos, "Take Sky Blue's Pokemon and leave this cave. Call Danny, tell him I'll find Sky and that he should leave immediately. If I don't come back, try and get N to come down here. If something has happened, you are to tell Mira everything I have told you."

"White, I'm not leaving you here-" Amos began, but White snapped, "Oh yes you are! I will not have anyone else come between this!"

"I want to know the truth! What's going on?! What is Sky Blue planning?! You made everything sound simple, but now it's clearly more complicated than you made it sound! Why can't you stop lying and for once be totally honest with me?!"

"Because this is between Sky Blue and myself!"

"Well he isn't here right now! He's losing his mind below us!"

For a second Amos thought White was going to punch him. He saw her real arm twitch as if she was going to swing it at his head. But she seemed to realize what she was about to do and held herself back. Alan also seemed to feel the wave of rage that washed over White because he leapt away from her and hid himself behind Amos.

With a growl, she whirled around again and snarled, "Fine, you can come! But you will not make your presence known, you will stand by with Alan! Whatever happens, you will not interfere! You will not approach Sky, do you understand?! You are only their to observe! If something happens, use Alan and Shane!"

"I-"

"Good, now let's go!"

As she stoked off, Amos exchanged looks with Alan. The Alakazam gestured for Amos to move on while he levitated the pokeballs and the belt, and placed it over his red toga.

Both the younger trainer and the Pokemon kept a great distance between them and White. They soon found that the trail slopped and turned into stairs. They trail led down to the button level. It was not as well lit like the other floors, which had lights being bounced off crystals and mirrors.

"Alan, try and hide yours and Amos's aura, and try and hide yourself," White instructed the Alakazam quietly before descending down the stairs.

Amos felt Alan grab his wrist and mutter, "You may feel a slight tingling sensation. I'm going to hide your aura and try a method of camouflage to keep us hidden. In this state, Sky Blue can sense people and Pokemon's aura. It will not matter if he only has one eye or none, he will be able to pinpoint our exact location through our aura."

The trainer did indeed feel a tingling sensation as Alan's eyes glowed pink. He felt as if something was being pulled inside him, like water being absorbed into a sponge. He then noticed that when the Alakazam let go of him, the area around them seemed disturbed, like rippling water. It was like being in a bubble.

When seeing that the Psi Pokemon was waiting for him, Amos removed his gaze from the rippling effects and quietly made his way down the stone stairs. On the last step, he stopped so he wouldn't be too near to the room. The floor seemed to be one big loop. One side turned left before going straight, while the right was the same way. White was standing a few feet ahead of him. Her back was facing him as she glanced around the dark area.

"Skyler?" She called, looking both ways as she spoke. "Skyler, where are you? Please come out, I want to help you!"

In a flash, a blur shot out from the left side of the tunnel and darted straight past White. Amos heard her gasp with pain as she collapsed. The blur swiftly ran back the other way while leaving behind a faint hiss.

"Well now we're on equal footing, aren't we?"

The voice was Sky Blue's but at the same time it wasn't. It was dripping with venom and spite, negative emotions that Amos never heard in the older trainer's voice. To his horror, when White whirled around to see where Sky had gone, Amos saw that Sky had scratched close to her right eye. It was close enough that she was unable to open her eye without feeling pain.

As Amos was about to run out to help her, he felt a firm grip on his arm. Alan had stopped him and hissed, "He can not know we are here! We must wait for them to move to a different part of the area before leaving!"

"How can you sit and watch?!" Amos snapped quietly. "Your trainer just hurt White and you're ok with this?!"

"Of course not, but I'm not going to let you get hurt either! White is strong and even if Sky no longer sees her as a safety valve, she still has an advantage!"

Alan stopped as the voice of Sky echoed along the tunnel and cooed, "Why do you act so surprised? Didn't you know this was going to happen?"

"I don't understand!" White huffed, managing to calm her voice. "What have I done to deserve this?! I'm trying to help you!"

"You're lying! You want to take me back!" The voice bellowed, and with a whoosh, the blur came back and stopped in front of White.

Sky Blue was on all fours, stalking back and forth in front of White. He was like an animal stalking his prey. His pupils were dilated, and his eyes were blood red.

"I was the one who helped plan your escape eight years ago!" White argued defensively.

The one eyed man spat on the floor before snarling, "And then you killed me right afterwards! You wanted me to be miserable, and you're going to pay! You're going to pay for all of that!"

He then lunged at White with a screech. Even if White could no longer see as well, she knew well enough to dodge the attack and run to right side of the loop. Sky Blue instead hit a wall with a cringing thud, but he quickly recovered and shoved off to chase White.

Once White and Sky Blue were out of sight, Alan beckoned Amos to follow him and stepped onto the main lower level. The Alakazam checked one last time before running out to the opening, the rippling effects following them.

"Alright, I have a plan," Alan told Amos sternly. "I want you to go down the right path while I go down the left. There is a small darker room straight ahead from us where both paths meet. We will corner them there. But until I get there, Sky must not be allowed to leave from your way! He also most be distracted so I can changed him back!"

"I got it," Amos agreed, grateful that Alan at least had a plan. He knew he was much faster than Alan on foot, so if he got there before the Pokemon, he would be forced to listen to the dialogue and watch White get hurt.

Once Alan started to quickly move down the path by levitation, which was quite fast for his normal slow speed, Amos ran full out down the right road. He was straining to hear any noise, but it was too quiet. But soon he heard Sky's wicked voice as he turned a left on the road.

"Why do you try to hide in the dark?" the voice sneered as Amos saw a pitch black opening ahead. "You would have been smarter to hide in the LIGHT!"

A scream cut through the air and Amos felt like a knife had just been stabbed through his heart. There was another roar from White and the young trainer was just in time to skid to a stop before Sky Blue slid out, but enduring the attack for he was still on all fours.

"Naughty, naughty," Sky Blue crowed, stalking back into the dark. "That's not how this game works, Whitney."

Amos approached the mouth of the dark room cautiously. To his surprise, the cave seemed to light up. From what he could see now, Sky Blue was pacing on right side of the room, his glowing red eye fixed on White. Amos felt fearful as he saw his friend try and stand up. Her face was still bleeding from the scratch Sky gave her, and now her real hand, which was no longer gloved, was bleeding from a human bite mark. Nobody seemed to notice the light, so he must have been the only one able to see it.

"It's not fun a game when the rules only benefit one player," White panted, though she looked around the cave to catch sight of Sky.

"True, but you fight back well enough," Sky replied sneeringly. "Do you really need a pity point?"

"I think I deserve one for participating in this sick game of yours!" White growled. "Or at least explain what I did to deserve to be the next contestant!"

Sky Blue roared furiously at this, causing Amos to flinch. White too cringed at the noise as the one eyed trainer continued to snarl, "You kill my soul, rip my heart, and ASK WHAT YOU DID TO DESERVE THE SAME TREATMENT?!"

"You never it brought up!" The female trainer snapped. "You never said there was a problem!"

She gasped with pain as Sky rushed her swiped at her bitten and bleeding hand. Amos gripped the side of the cave wall to try and keep himself from staying put. He wanted nothing more than to give Sky Blue a hard punch in the face.

"You want to know the truth? Fine," Sky spat out, moving back to his spot at the opposite side and began pacing back and forth. "When they took me away, you were my only escape from the pain both inflected by myself and others! You were the only thing keeping me from becoming a full animal!"

He paused, his eye still fixed on his prey. It was like he was longing to lunge himself on her, but he was holding himself back.

"When you came up with the plan to help me leave, I gave you my full trust and confidence. Once we escaped, I was still recovering from those restraints your Pokemon inflected on my mind. I was emotionally exhausted, and I was traumatized by the whole experience!"

"But all the pain I was feeling was nothing compared to what you did to me after I had been through so much! Remember what happened after we KISSED?!"

White didn't say anything. It looked as if it took her a great deal to answer that question.

"I told you I didn't feel the same..." She whispered, nodding her head. "So this is all about that? We were nine and ten years old, Skyler. We were young!"

"My feelings were and are the same!" Sky bellowed, looking more deranged than ever. "Do you know why I left to Sinnoh?! TO MEND MY BROKEN HEART!

"I thought you would miss me, but I was wrong! You ran off with that Professor's grandson, and eventually met that brute with the long red hair! And then there was Blake River, I despised him! The way he treated you disgusted me! I would've tore his limbs off if I had my full power then!

"But then there was you, Whitney! You were so lovesick, like a drunken Lillipup! You kept crawling back to him and he would break you every time you met! He broke your heart and abandoned you every time! And who was the one who put you back together?! ME! IT WAS ALWAYS ME!" Sky screamed with rage, causing the ceiling to shake and several crumbs of rocks to fall.

"Skyler-" White croaked, but Sky Blue roared over her words.

"I WAS THE ONE WHO TOOK CARE OF YOU WHEN YOU WERE DEALING WITH ALL THAT STRESS! I WAS THE ONE WHO LOOKED AFTER MIRA WHEN YOU RAN OFF ON YOUR LITTLE ADVENTURES! I WAS THE ONE WHO WAS THERE FOR YOU WHEN N OR BLAKE GOT YOU DOWN! I WAS THE ONE WHO LOST AN EYE FOR YOU! IF THAT ISN'T DEVOTION, I DON'T KNOW WHAT IS! 

"DON'T YOU UNDERSTAND, WHITNEY?! I LOVED YOU, AND YOU NEVER RETURNED IT! I WAS TEN TIMES THE MAN AND BROTHER BLAKE AND N WERE! BUT YOU KEPT RUNNING BACK TO THOSE WHO TREATED YOU LIKE DIRT! I TREATED YOU BETTER THAN ANYONE EVER DID!"

"I-"

"WHY CANT YOU LOVE ME, WHITNEY?!" Sky shrieked running up to White and shouting in her face. "LOVE ME LIKE YOU LOVED BLUE, SILVER, AND BLAKE! PLEASE!"

The female trainer seemed lost for words. She instead lifted her shaky, bleeding hand and wiped the spit, blood, and tears away from her eyes.

She then looked Sky dead in the eyes and said tearfully, "Sky, remember that time when Missy died and you ran away? I remember feeling so worried about you, so worried that I couldn't even bring myself to morn for Missy."

Sky did not reply. He was watching White closely, as if expecting her to jump up and attack him. But she didn't, and continued to speak.

"You were in the tall grass near Celestial Tower. You wouldn't let Junior or Chatter near you, and not even Blue Moon. But you didn't chase me away, you let me try and console you. But then when I said things would get better, you got mad and...and you hit me."

She gulped before saying, "You were so filled with guilt and anger at yourself that you stayed away from me for weeks. You couldn't look me in the eyes. You were scared of hurting me again."

"This is pointless!"

"No, it's not. I want you to remember how you felt those weeks as I tell you this. I love you, Skyler Azul. You are my older brother and best friend. You are my advisor and my partner. I hope that relationship continues to exist. But I cannot be your lover. I do not love you the same way."

Sky let out an angry hiss and White rushed on hurriedly, "Sky, whatever you may feel, whatever you want to do, don't act on it! You will regret it, just like you did that time! You will never forgive yourself, and you will go back to that place, and I won't be able to help you!"

Amos was shocked at what he saw next. He saw tears falling not from White's eyes, but Sky's one eye. He backed away from White before whispering in a hoarse voice but full of spite, "I hate you!"

"NO!" Amos bellowed, his body no longer camouflaged as he ran to block White from Sky Blue as the man roared and leapt toward her. He wouldn't let Sky make the biggest mistake of his life, even if it meant himself dying in the process.  But what scared him was the aura that flashed around Sky, especially around his eye. The colors were black, red, purple, and blue. The aura was wild and deadly.

There was a yelp as Sky suddenly collapsed at Amos's feet. Two dark yellow hands suddenly materialized on each side of Sky's head. Then the rest of Alan's body reappeared, standing over his trainer.

"Oh Alan, what did you do?" White asked, in a slight whimper, clearly breathless.

"I snuck up behind him and placed the barrier back," Alan said simply. "I might have overdone it a bit, I had to sedate him heavily. He won't wake up for a day at most."

Amos looked down as Sky Blue. He wasn't moving, yet he was alive by the way his chest rose and fell. The young trainer  was shocked at what he had just witnessed. When White had told him about this, he never thought Sky would be this bad. If he hadn't called White, she would be alright, but he or anyone else in the cave might have been seriously injured if not killed.

"Amos," White gasped, grabbing the younger trainer's arm. "Check what color his eye is, please..."

He looked down at Sky before bending down and pulling up the man's eye lid. While a minute before it had been blood red, it was now a regular dark violet.

"It's purple," Amos told her as he let go and stood up again.

White nodded before moving herself slowly next to Sky. Amos couldn't bear to look at any of her wounds. It pained him to see them. To know that her best friend had inflected them on her was horrible.

"I'll go look for his bag," Alan offered awkwardly and quickly departed the dark room without another word.

White didn't seem to hear him. She had lifted Sky Blue's head and moved it into her lap and began to stroke his shaggy back hair. Amos felt uncomfortable being there, as if he was watching something private.

"White?"

"Yes...?"

"If this all started because of the memories of that Banette, why did he attack you?"

White did not look at him but continued to stroke Sky's hair. She then answered, "Bane isn't here, and it's possible he isn't even alive anymore. When Sky lost control, he relieved all his worse memories and negative emotions, not just memories from Bane. Since Bane wasn't here, I guess Sky decided to take his rage out on the next best thing...me..."

She looked up and Amos and said tearfully, "I love him so much, Amos! But he was right! He was right about everything! I wish I could love him the way he wants me to, but I can't!"

"White," Amos started, sitting next to the older trainer and putting his arm around her. "The real Sky understands that. He loves you very much."

The female trainer shook her head and bent over Sky and whispered to him, "W-Why didn't you tell me any of this, Skyler...? W-We could've made it work... W-We could have been true friends again..."

White broke down sobbing as she continued to mess with Sky's hair. With nothing else to say, Amos just sat with her. He had many questions, but he would wait for later. White needed to recover from the shock of learning about all of Sky's deepest horrors before anything else.

And hopefully she would recover soon.

~~~

Sooooo... It's been ten days since the last update, right? XD I've been waiting to write this chapter a long time. I might have rushed the beginning so I apologize. I was just too excited. I wrote almost 3,000 words all today. To be honest, I knew what I wanted to happen here, but I didn't know how to get there. These upcoming chapters will be entertaining for me to write and I may work so fast that I don't think things through. If I get sloppy, I do apologize. I've just waited so long to get here.

Well I don't have much else to say. The next chapter will take slightly longer because of it being another flashback chapter (yay...). I guess the only new thing is that I must inform readers of "Unattainable Control" of a title change. It is now called "The Definition of Being Human."

So good bye until next time!

(Audio Video: "Treat You Better" by Shawn Mendes)