The Zorua threaded her way through the forest and stopped in one place.
She looked back around her. Sure enough, nobody was following her now. She was free.
The Zorua let out a breath. Free at last — and then came the blankness.
Where was she to go after this?
Home? That good home of hers?
But she did not know where it was. And the fact that she and several of her companions had all turned up in that place said enough.
She did not seem to have a home any more.
In the middle of that blankness Vance's kind face came back to her, and the hand he had held out, and she half regretted not staying.
"Yes — I'll go and have a look there."
Something had come to the Zorua. She changed into a blue Pokémon, took to the wind and ran off into the distance.
"Oooo—"
A north wind blew past, and a Pokémon in the shape of a Suicune appeared above a field of ruins, looking all around and finding nothing whatever.
This place had been destroyed in the fighting too.
The Suicune shimmered and turned back into the Zorua, who set off at a run towards the inside.
Broken glass, instruments, buildings collapsed all over the ground. Nobody had been here for some time; everything was thick with dust, and there was a strange smell in the air.
A pure power spread out from her, and everything in her path was purified.
The Zorua had a purifying power of her own. It was not strong, but it was enough.
"All gone, then."
In this place she knew and hated she had not found what she wanted to find. The Zorua sat down limply on the open ground, at a loss.
It was the only place in the Kanto region she knew.
"Rustle, rustle—"
A sound of something dragging over the ground caught the Zorua's attention.
"Oh, ha ha ha. And who might this be? Why, it's you, Zorua. Welcome back."
Out of the shadows came an enormous Arbok, its vicious head showing, its eyes all blood-red, its voice a rasp — and speaking in human words.
This Arbok could talk, and by the look of it, it knew the Zorua.
"Hssss—"
The Arbok drew in another breath, its body struggling a few times.
"Ksss—"
"Shut up, Arbok. This body is mine now. Curse the League's people — but for them I wouldn't be this, neither man nor Pokémon. If the experiment could have been made to work, it would never have come to this."
"Ksss, ksss—"
The Arbok went on hissing, and human words came mixed in with the hissing. In that dark place the sight of it was chilling, and thoroughly uncanny.
"Oo-oooo—"
At once the Zorua changed, into a Pokémon crackling with lightning, shaped like a sabre-toothed tiger, with golden fur, powerful limbs and sharp fangs.
This was one of the Legendary Pokémon: Raikou, of the Electric type.
"Roar—"
Dazzling thunder shot out and came down straight at the Arbok.
"Parlour tricks."
The Arbok gathered a Dark Pulse without effort and sent it straight up to meet it.
"Boom—"
The two powers struck each other and burst.
The Arbok's attack overwhelmed the Zorua's and came down on her, and the dust it raised covered the ground.
"Hssss— running, are you? And can you?"
The Arbok came winding along the ground, not slowly at all, close behind her.
It knew perfectly well that the Zorua carried several kinds of Legendary power in her. That was rich fare.
It would have her.
It had been racking its brains for a way to grow stronger, and here was the Zorua delivering herself to its door. Heaven itself was helping it.
It had been unlucky. At the critical moment the League's people had interrupted, and it had ended like this — neither man nor Pokémon.
In the confusion of that day it had survived, and afterwards it had come back here to look for anything it could use.
And to build itself up quietly in the dark.
So far it had gone well enough. The power bursting out of this body was better than a human body by an order it could not measure.
Only there was the "rejection". That "rejection response" was not merely of the flesh but of the soul as well, and it was growing worse by the day.
The way out of it was to go back to the organisation, or else to take in more power — gentle power for preference.
And as it happened, the Zorua had exactly that.
Having taken part in the research itself, it knew that better than anyone.
The Zorua was frightened out of her wits. She could not beat that Arbok, and if she stayed she would die. There was naked appetite in its eyes, and there was no mistaking it.
The Zorua knew about the research on the Arbok and its kind. It had been savage beyond words. And the man in it felt familiar to her — one of the researchers, she thought.
"Fwoosh, fwoosh, fwoosh—"
The air whistled behind her. The Zorua threw up a hasty defence, and it was not enough.
She was driven down to the ground.
"Ksss—"
The enormous Arbok reared up, spreading the terrible pattern on its belly, and moved it slightly.
The moment it met the Zorua's eye a wave of fear went through her and her legs shook.
*Run!*
The Zorua screamed it inwardly, but her legs would not obey her, and neither would the rest of her; she could not bring her strength to bear at all.
Only then did she realise it was not only fright. There was a Poison Sting lodged in her shoulder — the needle was venomous!
She was a lamb waiting for the knife.
"A Raikou. Heh heh heh. Slurrrp—"
The Arbok laughed darkly, and gave a slurp, its saliva running down.
Who would have thought that one day it would eat a "Legendary Pokémon"? It was in luck.
As a man it might have found the idea revolting, but it was an Arbok now, and under the bloodlust in this body it seemed perfectly natural, and very welcome besides.
"Hssss—"
With the whole thing in hand the Arbok was in no hurry. It came crawling slowly on, dripping saliva.
Despair came over the Zorua. She was going to die. There was no running this time; it would not let her go.
So it was true after all: that man was the only one who had been good to her, the only one who had meant it.
When struggling proved useless, the Zorua let it all go.
If she died, she died. Perhaps after death she would go home, to the flowers and the grass she knew, to everything she knew.
She was only sorry that she had not stayed with that man. It would have been good, she thought.
So the Zorua thought.
And at that moment the man she was thinking of appeared in front of her, and put out a hand and stroked her.
"It's dangerous out here, Zorua. Come with me after all."
The man was Vance, who had come in haste, and he was saying it to her with a quiet smile.