Ziva and her sister had run ahead of their mother and were playing in a tree hollow when they heard several voices approaching. They stopped playing and shrank deeper into the hollow.

"Are you sure this is the way?" The first voice asked boredom evident in each word.

"Yes I'm sure," a second voice said rather annoyed," we were told to take the path past the pond, into the woods, and head for the hills. Then we wait for the core to arrive and..."

The second voice was cut off by a curt "hush!" that came from a third person. Nobody made a noise for a good minute, then they heard Cristina calling out for Ziva and Fraya.

"Sounds like a wild Liepard." The third person stated.

At this time Ziva peaked her head out of the hollow and got a good look at the group of humans outside. They all wore dark grey cloaks with hoods that cast deep shadows over their faces. They each had an insignia of a reddish ash like colored S on their backs. The man who had silenced the others also had gold edges on the trim of his hood, making him stand out as the leader of the group.

A rustling in some nearby bushes drew everyone's attention. Out of the foliage came a distressed looking Cristina who froze when she saw the group of hooded humans staring at her. She instantly knew that these men were here to do no good. As Cristina's eyes darted around the men she saw a scruff of black and red fur sticking out of a hollow close by. She let out a shout telling her daughters to run. The men thought this was a challenge from her and released their Pokémon in response.

Ziva and Freya couldn't move from their spot, they watched as the men released a Metang and Magneton and attacked their mother. Cristina fought ferociously trading blow for blow with the two steel type Pokémon knowing she was the only thing standing between these men and her children.

In a desperate final gamble she managed to take down the Metang only be struck by a thunderbolt from her other opponent. As she fell to the forest floor she looked back to her children with tears in her eyes, knowing that this could be the last time she saw them. Upon hitting the ground she blacked out.

"Finish her." The leader said mercilessly as he sauntered away from the battlefield, not carrying enough to watch any more of the conflict.

The two remaining men stalked towards the fallen Liepard ready to end the Pokémon's life; but before they could reach her Ziva and Freya ran out from hiding and jumped in front of their unconscious mother. The men were startled for a moment not knowing where the two had come from. Not giving them any time to collect themselves Ziva released a volley of shadow balls at the men causing them to jump for cover. This distraction allowed Freya to grab their mother and she half dragged half carried her away from danger.

"You little punk! We're going to teach you a lesson you'll never forget! Magneton use Take Down!"

Ziva braced herself as her opponent came barreling towards her.

[-----]

Freya ran through the woods supporting her mother as best she could. A short time later Cristina woke up and began to panic. "Freya what happened! Where's your sister!"

"She said she was going to distract them and told me to get you away from them." Freya sobbed.

"I have to–Ack!" Cristina cried out in pain and started to fall again, only to be caught by two blue and white amphibian like arms. Cristina looked up and had a moment of panic because Greninjas apparel was strikingly similar to her recent attackers.

"Your alright, I've got you now."

Greninja slowly lowered Cristina to the ground and asked her what happened. After getting caught up to speed he came up with a decisive course of action.

"Alright Freya I want you to take your mother back to the village, tell your father what happened. I'm going to go get your sister back."

He watched the two slowly walk back towards the village until he could see them no more. Turning in the direction the they had come from, Greninja sprinted off in a desperate search for the lone dark type. It took him a less than a minute to find where Ziva was but the sight he arrived at shocked him.

There stood the red and black fox squaring off against the steel type that had just beaten her mother; and she was winning. Ziva's attacks were short but powerful, and left the enemy Magneton with little energy to fight back.

When her opponent did manage to counter she would just roll in and out of its attacks. To an untrained eye it would seem as if she was repeatedly getting lucky with her movements. Greninja, however, was skillfully trained in the art of battling and recognized that this young Pokémon was already an exception fighter.
Still concealed in the bushes Greninja watched as the battle raged on, silently cheering Ziva on.

The battle continued like this for another three minutes. All the while both Pokémon were hammering each other with everything they had. Everyone could see that both sides were being to slow down and that the battle would be over soon. In a last ditch attack Magnetons trainer order it to pool all its power into a thunderbolt.

The magnetic menace shot a powerful thunderbolt at Ziva who formed a Shadow ball to counter it. The moves collided but didn't explode, it was plain to see that whoevers attack faltered first would loose. Ziva held her ground as the thunderbolt continued to slam against her shadow ball; when a curious thing occurred. Amidst all the dust being thrown up from the power generated by the two attacks, Greninja saw a silhouette of what appeared to be Zoruark standing along side Ziva. The silhouette seemed to be adding its power onto that of Zivas increasing the strength in which her Shadow Ball held. With a shout Ziva blasted her shadow ball through the electric attack knocking out her foe.

No sooner had her opponent fainted then Ziva staggered to the ground unconscious; the battle having been exceptionally draining and she had no energy left. As soon as she fell Greninja came out from his hiding place and rushed to her side.

Upon the arrival of Greninja the two grunts turned tail and ran away, but not before giving a parting remark.

"We'll be back and then you and your Pokémon will be sorry you ever crossed paths with Team Shade!"

Once they were out of sight Greninja knelt down to Ziva and picked up her unconscious body. He began to carry the exhausted Zorua back to the village. Along the way she began to wake up so Greninja set her down and began asking her questions.

"Ziva are you alright?"

"Yes, I'm just tired... My mother; is she alright!? I told Freya to take her away while I distracted them."

"Your mother and sister are both fine, I sent them to the village before I came to get you." Greninja paused for a few seconds before saying the next part. "Ziva did anything happen to you during your battle?"

"Well... yes. Before my last attack I was exhausted and felt I couldn't continue; then I thought of my family and how if I didn't win those men would come after them. I knew I had to protect them and then I felt a rush of energy surge through me. I put all of that energy into my attack; after that I blacked out only to woke up to find you carrying me."

("So she doesn't know about the Zoruark that was helping her.") Greninja thought, a thoughtful frown growing on his face.

"Can I go home now?" A sleepy Ziva said.

Greninja quickly replaced the scowl with a kind smile. "Sure, I'll ever carry you." He picked up the half awake Ziva and cradled her in his arms. Carrying the sleeping little fox Greninja made his way back towards the village, all the while thinking over what he had seen.

("She can't, she just can't.") Greninja repeated over and over again in his head; knowing all the same that she could. ("There's no logical explanation for it looks like she has the same metaphoric ability that I have. She has the potential to undergo the Bond Evolution!")

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Somewhat of a hard chapter to write, going from Pokémon talking to humans talking and back to Pokémon was a little weird for me.
Shout out to KawaiiKittyCatLover, TrainerElliora, SawyerHull, Dawnanimations , jey032001, pokemonashxSerena, and sunshine546 for adding my stories to their reading list, (let's me know that you like my work and I appreciate it 😊); if I didn't mention you, you have my sincerest apologies and I will try and recognize you for supporting my work.
Anyway I hope you all enjoyed this chapter and will leave me your opinions on my writing. Until the next chapter, thanks for reading bye. 🤗😁
P.S. I'm going to be alternating between writing/publishing Rigorous Relationships and this book.