[FIN] Meet and Greet

[Suudonym]

How was he to begin to approach Asch's pokemon? From the phrasing of the letter, it seemed safe to assume that Saber and Tyke had been with their trainer for the majority, if not the entire duration, of their lives. Luke couldn't shake the feeling of responsibility for the events that had transpired, and with it the suspicion that the Zoroark and Zorua wouldn't accept him as a trainer. He couldn't just assume that, though; he had to confirm it before he had any right to consider giving up. And so he waited until night, until after Yuri was asleep (not that he wasn't by now well aware of and resigned to the fact that Yuri tended to wake easily), separated himself a little ways from the campsite, and reluctantly pressed the releases on the dark-types' pokeballs.  

[BlackPidgeot]

With the pressing of the buttons on the balls, a pair of figures appeared. One much larger than the other.

Saber, the Zoroark, blinked a couple times as he materialized before a red head that strongly resembled his master. He looked at Luke for a moment before tilting his eyes down and dipping his head in a show of submission. He already knew what was happening, as Asch had explained it to him before hand.

However, when Tyke appeared, the little Zorua blinked and looked around in confusion. Then up at Luke with a furrowed brow. This... wasn't his master. "Zooor?" he asked, looking around for the red head that he belonged to.  

[Suudonym]

Saber seemed to understand what had happened, leaving Luke to assume that Asch had given an explanation. He was grateful for that much, but it didn't seem that Tyke had a similar understanding. Frowning, he crouched down in front of the confused Zorua, trying for any words he could manage. "He's not here, Tyke," he said, his tone tense. "…He's not anywhere."  

[BlackPidgeot]

Tyke stared up at Luke with wide green eyes as the boy bent down and spoke to him. The little Pokemon still looking confused, although fear crept into his expression. He didn't understand, and said as much in words Luke couldn't understand.

"Zrrrk zor," Saber spoke quietly, gaining Tyke's attention. Tears then started to well up in the small Pokemon's eyes as he looked back to Luke.

"Zor! Zor zor!" he cried out, after studying Luke's expression again. With the tears now streaming down his fuzzy cheeks, he quickly turned and ran away.  

[Suudonym]

His posture and expression harshened as he watched Tyke's comprehension. He was startled, however, when the Zorua suddenly took off, and he called after him, "Tyke!" Part of him remembered wanting badly to be alone with his denial after learning of Asch and understood the reason the little fox had fled, but that part was quickly overshadowed by the knowledge the forest was too broad and unfamiliar to let him just run off unsupervised. He looked to a Saber with an expression that requested assistance despite his voice refusing to do the same - the Zoroark would certainly move faster and with greater precision, but Luke was unwilling to ask anything as a trainer. Regardless of whether or not Saber lent his aid, Luke moved to follow the Zorua, determined to keep it in his sight.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Tyke neither stopped nor looked back as he ran into the woods. Saber looking on in alarm before he glanced at Luke and quickly pursued his little "brother".

In the dark of the night, the two dark types easily vanished from Luke sight, but he could still hear the rustling of foliage up ahead. Although that started to fade as well as the two Pokemon moved with a speed that put a growing distance between them and the human.

However, Tyke didn't go far. In a moon bathed clearing, there Saber sat next to what appeared to be a young man with long red hair. He was on his hands and knees, sobbing bitterly.  

[Suudonym]

Luke followed as best he was able, though he understood from the volume of the sounds he followed that he was trailing quite some distance behind, until he cleared the brush and emerged in the clearing where the pair of dark-types had taken respite. He paused and recoiled as he recognized the human form, unable to prevent the trembling that readily took his hands. Zorua could cast the illusion of being human. This certainly wasn't the first time he'd seen it, but it was still…

The noble drew in a long breath and released it shudderingly, advancing slowly from the tree line to join the two, fighting his own anxiety as he did so. It was only recently that he had been able to accept the fact that Asch was dead, and facing the image of his brother as though he were alive was still cruelly difficult, even - or perhaps especially - after the encounter with Izaya. He didn't want to run, though. He knew too well the pain the Zorua was experiencing to simply let him bear it.

Luke sat on his knees before the crouched figure, unable to raise his eyes to it. "Tyke, I--" You what? How many times had he heard the empty apology, the seemingly heartfelt 'I'm sorry' that better translated into an inability to express any deeper sentiment? How often had he tried in vain to understand the promise that it would be okay someday? The words he found came in a voice that was quiet and tense, "It's my fault. I made a choice that should have killed me, and he chose to bear that consequence for me." He bowed his head in a halfhearted effort to hide the pained grimace that took to his features at the memories. His voice was just a bit smaller when it resumed, "Asch asked that I look after you, but I understand if you hate me. I want you both to live lives that you're happy with, and if that's not with me, then I'll do what it takes to find where it is."  

[BlackPidgeot]

The image of Asch whimpered and cried pitifully. The sounds only ceasing when Luke spoke. Tear stained green eyes looking up at him.

Luke would also feel a clawed paw resting on his shoulder. The Zoroark reassuring him that he didn't hate him, and would be willing to stay with his master's brother.

Tyke however, wasn't ready to accept this as readily as his older counterpart.

"Zor! Zorua!" the fake Asch shouted, now looking at Luke angrily. ""

"" Saber snapped at Tyke, causing the image of Asch to look at him in shock before the illusion soon faded. Leaving a miserable little fox.  

[Suudonym]

Luke inclined his gaze in the direction of Zoroark, relieved and grateful at the absence of ill will he found. His attention was pulled sharply back at Tyke's angry tone; he didn't need to understand the language to grasp the intent of the message, and he retreated inward unto himself. "For what it's worth," he said, the words small and on the verge of revisiting agony, "I'm sorry. I know it doesn't mean much, but still. This isn't… I never would have asked for this. Never." He leaned back on his heels, grasping loosely at his elbows, his tone faint and distant, "But we can't change it, no matter how much we want to. No matter how much we try. All we can do is keep living." Painful as it was at any given moment.  

[BlackPidgeot]

Tyke listened to Luke's words once again, but turned his face away angrily. Squeezing his eyes shut to allow more tears to work their way out.

Saber moved to his younger brother and scooped him up, holding the Zorua as Tyke buried his face into the other's fur.

The larger Pokemon then looked to Luke, his own eyes filled with grief. But also with pity for the brother his master had left behind.

However, the two Pokemon would stay with Luke. And Saber sat down next to him. This boy was now his charge, and he would be just as loyal to him as he had been to Asch. Tyke would take more time, but would go where Saber went.  

[Suudonym]

Though Luke was grateful for Saber's ease of acceptance, it still weighed on him heavily. What he had taken from the dark-types, regardless of his intent, was something precious and irreplaceable. "I'm sorry," he said, unmoving. "If I'd known this would happen, there are a thousand things I could have done to prevent it…"  

[BlackPidgeot]

There was silence from the Zoroark as Luke spoke, the Pokemon merely staring off into the distance. With Tyke still whimpering lightly, though starting to calm a bit.

However, after a moment or so, the area in front of them seemed to shift and change. The foliage of the forest melting away into instead a small room. The living quarters that the two Pokemon had a short time ago called home.

Another illusion, this time created by the larger of the dark types. And in that room stood another projection of Asch.  

[Suudonym]

Luke was passingly familiar with a Zoroark's ability to create illusions, but this was far beyond what he would have expected from that; had he not just recently witnessed Tyke's prowess with illusions, the explanation for the sudden and dramatic change of scenery wouldn't have even occurred to him. Even with a logical explanation faintly present in his thoughts, the appearance of the room was startling and confusing. This definitely wasn't a place he had ever seen, though there were obvious clues that this was the room that had been Asch's in… wherever the Rockets gathered. His eyes fell upon the projection of his brother with a disposition that was strangely calm, almost fascinated by what seemed like an opportunity to know more about the sibling he had only met less than two years prior.  

[BlackPidgeot]

The illusion of Asch was of a recent image of him. His hair of slightly longer than shoulder length, and wearing his typical outfit. He appeared to be serious, calm but with a bit of apprehension. There was certainly something odd in his eyes as well.

"I know you will find this hard to accept," the illusion then spoke, as if addressing someone in particularl.

"But I'm counting on you to help carry out my last wishes."  

[Suudonym]

Rather than an illusion, this was like some kind of recording, like existing within a video. It was disorienting, all the more so when the image of his brother began to speak. He listened unwillingly to the words spoken by the illusion - or projection, or whatever it was - and was taken by a bitter anger that Asch could have said such a thing so calmly. Last wishes were reserved for people who had lived to the end of their years, or people who were already beyond the reach of medicine. Luke, who had been given so strict an ultimatum for his survival that he had for a time given up entirely, had never thought in terms of last wishes. It was Asch's right to live, as it had been from the time he was born normal and healthy, and he had given up that right to correct a choice he had had no hand in making.

But Luke wouldn't argue with someone who wasn't actually there, and he wouldn't again allow himself the pleasant respite of believing in the possibility that Asch was indeed in front of him.