The group of wounded Pokémon slowly shuffled their way back to their village. They all felt humiliated and ashamed for being defeated so easily, not to mention failing to protect Ziva as well. Sesmitoad and Tengla were helping the unconscious Vigoroth along while Ursaring wearily held up the rear.

Another ten steps and the exhausted bear Pokémon lost his ability to stand and fell forward towards the hard ground. He was too tired to try to catch himself so he simply closed his eyes, and waited for the impact to come. He was surprised when instead of earth he felt two strong arms grab him. When he opened his eyes he was extremely confused by what he was seeing. There stood Greninja smiling down at him while holding him up. Then Greninja lifted Ursaring up and onto his back.

"Wh-why are you helping me?" He asked in a weary voice.

"Because we're fighting for the same goal." Greninja responded as he carried the exhausted Pokémon back to the village.

It took them nearly four hours to make it to the outskirts of the village where the village Pokémon swiftly directed them to the infirmary. The structure was a large Oak tree stump that had been skillfully carved out so the inside was mostly hollow. Judging from the outside the clinic was about twenty-eight feet tall eighty-three feet wide and ninety-five feet long.

Upon entering Greninja saw eight Pokémon already inside. Freya and Ziva had apparently arrived just twenty minutes before him and had transferred their damaged goods to an Audino who was busy treating him. Further in the infirmary two other seriously wounded Pokémon were being treated by a Lilligant and Roserade.

"Alright he should be fine for the time being; now tell me girls how did this happen?" The pink and white healer said.

One of the injured Pokémon Greninja had been escorting let out a wet cough that caught the doctors attention. Turning around Audino's face dropped at the sight of four brutally battered Pokémon standing in the entrance of her clinic.

"Oh my stars, Lilly come here I need your help!" Audino called to the Lilligant working in the back. Audio then turned and addressed the three Dark type Pokémon. "Ziva go get your parents they need to know that there's been another attack. Freya go and grab some Sitrus berries from the back. You Frog man go and set Ursaring down on that cot over there."

Greninja followed the doctors directions and set the brown bear down. Ziva started her leave from the Oak structure, but not before exchanged a nervous glance with Greninja and her sister. Receiving a nod from Greninja Ziva dashed off to find her parents knowing that her actions would cause trouble for her Water type friend.

Tough as they looked the Pokémon Greninja had squared up with were in rather poor conditions. The adrenaline rush that had allowed the Pokémon to make it here was starting to wear off, causing them to feel pain that had been unknown to them. The medical staff knew they had to work fast if they wanted to prevent any permanent damage.

Greninja and Freya stayed with the injured Pokémon and tried to assist the doctor and nurses as best they could. Having no real medical training they could only bring supplies and help hold down the patients when they started to thrash from the pain certain medicines caused.

After an hour of treatment every one of the injured Pokémon were resting peacefully. The doctor said the ones Greninja and them had brought in would make a full recovery.

"They just need to rest for a few days then they'll be as good as new." Audino said with a smile.

"I'm glad." Greninja says looking as if a weight had been lifted from his shoulders.

"Wish I could say the same about those two." Audino says as she looks towards two more Pokémon sleeping fitfully in the back.

"What happened to them?"

Audino shook her head, "All I know is they came stumbling in here covered in deep wounds. I've seen some Pokémon battles in my time but never wounds like those. If they hadn't made it to me when they did well..."

Greninja looked closer at the two Pokémon in the back; one appeared to be a Conkeldurr a rather sizable Pokémon that could prove to be a formidable opponent in battle. This one however looked so damaged that a gust of wind could have brought him to his knees.

He had a long gash that started on his muscular left arm and ended just before it reached his heart. His head seemed to have been smashed in and there were various burns across the entire right side of his body. His left leg looked as if someone had dropped an anvil on it and then poured liquid nitrogen over it. It was practically a miracle that the Goliath was still breathing with all those injuries.

Shifting his gaze upon the other Pokémon Greninja took a moment before he figured out what species she belonged to. In the end he concluded that the mess of a Pokémon laying there was a Leavanny; the bug type had practically been .

Her antenna was only being held together by a high quality glue Audio had specifically engineered for her; and she was missing a significant chunk of her leaf headdress. Her limbs were in a far worse condition.

The left arm had been bent so much it looked like it belonged on the right side of her body. The right arm had a nasty burn in the shape of a bite mark as well as evidence of frost burn on her leafy blade. Looking at her legs Greninja gagged a little; both her legs had been burnt to a crisp and now were little more than charred sticks wrapped in gauze.

"When did this happen?" Greninja asked in a whisper.

"About three hours before you arrived."

"Will they be alright?"

"If you mean will they live, then yes they will," Audino took a deep breath and continued, "however, I doubt anyone could ever truly be alright after experiencing whatever they went through. Whoever did this is a heartless monster with no sense of remorse or mercy!" Audino said as she trembled with anger.

"Dr. Audino, what's happened?!"

Ziva had returned with Arthur and Cristina.

The doctor composed herself and turned around to inform them of everything she knew. She had Ziva wait with Greninja and Freya at the front of the clinic; then she walked the two adults towards the back of her medical center and started her explanation of her patients conditions.

"These two here had the displeasure of running into some extremely violent Pokémon. I've managed to keep them alive but they won't be able to do everything they could before. They'll both have to give up fighting altogether and it'll be a few years before they can do any real physical activity."

One of Audino's nurses handed her a chart with more of her medical findings on it.

"Based on their wounds I think it's safe to conclude that more than one Pokémon is responsible for their injuries. Judging from the various moves and the force needed to inflict some of these injuries; I believe Ice type, Fire type and Steel type Pokémon were responsible for this attack."

Audino gestured for Arthur and Cristina to follow her and lead them to her most recent charges.

"As for these five I've only just finished patching them up. Their wounds seem less malicious than those two. Unlike my other two patients these five seem to have suffered only physical injuries and each were knocked out with a single blow. So far I don't know who or what caused this but I'll keep researching until I figure it out."

Greninja eyes open in surprise at the doctors last statement. He thought for sure that Ziva and Freya had filled her in with what he had done. He looked down at Freya and Ziva who gave him an innocent grin and gestured him forwards.

Greninja's jaw hung open and a look of betrayal was etched across his face as he realized what the sisters had done to him. Shooting them an baleful eye he stepped forward to confess to his sins.

"Cristina, Arthur... I know who harmed these five." Greninja nervously said.

"You do! Then tell us at once; this criminal must pay for harming my people!" Arthur said in a aggressive tone.

Greninja bowed his head and crouched down on one knee. "It was me. I am responsible for their injuries, I will accept any punishment that you see fit." He said with remorse.

"You did this?" Cristina said as she looked at the fallen Pokémon once more.

"Yes."

Cristina turned to face Greninja. Her face was turned into a hard frown showing her discontent towards Greninja, and yet her eyes told a different story. Her green eyes shone brightly with admiration towards Greninja, despite the acts he had committed.

"Arthur can I speak with you for a moment." Cristina says her facial expression remaining the same.

Arthur gave a slowly nodded, his face showing the same contempt as his wife's, and followed her out of the infirmary.

Greninja watched their conversation from behind a wall with Ziva and Freya at his feet. Cristina and Arthur seemed to be arguing; no doubt about the course of action they should take regarding Greninja's punishment.

The two children didn't seem at all fazed by the tense discussion their parents were engaged in. After about a minute they stopped and turned their heads away from one another. Following the sudden conclusion to their conversation they walked back into the clinic to hand out Greninja's sentencing.

Greninja and the two girls scurried deeper into the clinic to act as if they hadn't been eavesdropping. Cristina and Arthur rounded the corner, their expressions as livid as when they left.

"Greninja," Cristina began, "After much consideration we have decided on a suitable penance for your actions."

Greninja's only reaction was a solemn nod of acceptance as he waited to receive his dues.

"In reprehension for your crimes we sentence you to 10,080 hours of community service!" Arthur declared.

"Your first job will be to train Ziva and Freya in your way of fighting until your sentence has ended." Cristina said

Greninja, Ziva, and Freya all looked at the two Pokémon as if they had sprouted a second head. Greninja had been expecting a far more serious punishment than the one he'd been given. Ziva and Freya however knew their parents and were expecting them to let him off easy. What they weren't expecting was Greninja becoming their new teacher.

"What?!" All three Pokémon said in unison.

Arthur gave a witty grin,"You see we seem to be lacking a few of our soldiers and since you were the one who took them out of commission it's only logical that their tasks should fall to you."

"Tasks?" Greninja asked nervously.

"What did we do to deserve this!" Ziva whined.

"To start off with we know you two played some role in this dilemma," Ziva tried to interject but Cristina held up a paw that silenced her, "Secondly you two didn't run when I told you to. Instead you went and attacked the very Pokémon I told you to get away from." Cristina said with a feeling of exasperation residing in her words.

"But since you're so adamant towards fighting, you might as well be trained by someone who's obviously been in a few brawls. That way if you do have to protect yourself, or someone you care for, you'll be more than capable. And I won't have to worry about you as much." Cristina said, motherly concern breaking through her scornful masquerade.

"Mom I..."

"Hush, you two have a long day of training tomorrow you need to get some sleep." Cristina said regaining the same false attitude she'd displayed before.

"Yes Mom." The two girls said as their mother escorted them back home.

When they were out of sight Greninja turned to Arthur.

"Alright so what's the real reason you want me to train them. No sane parent would leave their children with a person who just attack his own unless they had a really good reason."

Arthur walked past Greninja and walked until he could see the night sky.

"After you told us the men who had attacked my family would be returning I sent out several scouts to try and get a read on them." Arthur let out a low sigh and continued, "As you can see by those two back there not all the missions were successful."

Greninja looked back at the two horrifically wounded Pokémon. "Team Shade did all that!?" He thought with horror.

"However some of the other scouts reported in a few hours ago. They said they spotted a small army of cloaked men a roughly 500 miles west of here."

"So what? That's a long ways away from here, it would take them forever to find their way here."

"No just one week" Arthur said with dread.

Greninja did some mental analysis of everything he knew about the people calling themselves Team Shade and compared it with the strength of Arthur's villagers. The results were rather bleak.

"Arthur there's no way you can hold off those people; they're just to strong for you to handle."

Arthur turned to Greninja with a hard look in his eyes "Which is where you come in. You will teach us how to get stronger and help us defend our home."

"Alright I'll do everything I can to help you; but I can't promise that I can get them strong enough to stop those people with only a week of training."

"That's alright just make us as powerful as you can. I'll be going now; I've some arrangements to make and it's nearly midnight. See you in the morning Greninja." Arthur said before walking off into the woods.

Greninja watched him leave before heading off to Arthur's home. He stopped just outside the door debating with himself whether to enter or not. In the end he decided to sleep outside to think over what he'd just agreed to.

He stared off into the night sky thinking about how he could possibly get these Pokémon strong enough in such a short amount of time.

"Gah! There's no way I can do it there's just not enough time!" Greninja shouted into the night.

"We never give up until it's over right Greninja" A distorted male voice resonated from the night sky.

"Ash!?" Greninja said wishfully.

Greninja jumped up and looked around for his trainer, but found no sign of him ever being there. He sadly returned to his seat and thought over what he'd heard.

"Here or not Ash would never want me to give up especially if the lives of others were on the line. Alright Ash I'll do it I'll make these Pokémon the strongest in all of Unova!" Greninja swore to the night sky.

"Hey I'm glad you're so awake but some of us have children who need to sleep!" A furious Cristina angrily whispered.

"Ah-heheh. Sorry Cristina I'll be quiet."

"Good!" She responded huffily before returning to her home.

"Team Shade won't know what hit them." Greninja though before drifting off to sleep.

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Whew that chapter took way longer than I expected but its finally finished. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and can wait for the next one. I'm going to be more focused on writing Rigorous Relationships but will still try and get some writing for this story done. As always thanks for reading and see you next time. 😁