Sorry for the delay on Chapter 5. I got busy and was LITERALLY done with this one and just had to post it. This chapter... is very special to me. It's a message that hits a little close to home for me is all.

I have 3 chapters left to finish. Hope you all will take a look at them as well

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The group has split up. Cherry’s half was already slinking through the city streets with Cain’s cloaking spell to keep them hidden. Kajex’s group however was walking through the streets, cautious and ready for anything that could come their way. They already knew Atrimel had been waiting for Kajex’s awakening and was more than eager to get his hands on his most prized weapon.

“Are you two ready for this?” Kajex asked as his heart beated irregularly in his chest as he summoned his Keyblade for some moral support.

“As ready as I’ll ever be,” Naomi sweated, trying to calm herself with deep breathing.

“Same here,” Lilith said as she took a deep breath, a purple glow forming in her palms. The streets felt both chaotic, yet calm at the same time. Their bodies subconsciously began to quiver in place with each step they took. They knew it was only a matter of time until any still functioning street cameras would pick up their location. Unfortunately for them however… Atrimel was waiting just for this moment, noticing his prize nervously glancing every which way on several cameras.

“It was about time he woke up,” Atrimel grinned as he reached for a device in his pocket and brought it to his face, “Go after him my pet and bring him to me.” Thorya was sweating bullets now as they looked at Kajex’s face. Their heart was beating wildly in their chest, thinking that Kajex was signing his own death sentence with this… but still remaining hopeful.

“Come on Kajex…” they thought as they tried to break free from their restraints once more, “Save your sister…” The earth and air began to tremble. The sounds of crunching stone and swooshing wind began to echo around them, drawing closer, growing louder with each second. Kajex began to ready himself for what was to come.

“Just need to tear it off before it gets too bad,” Kajex thought to himself as he began to use his powers to grow himself. Naomi and Lilith soon spotted half of Atrimel’s army coming from their right side, while the deranged Kaja began to crash through buildings on their left. The battle had already begun.


“Good luck Kajex,” Naomi said with a somber smile before they charged into their own battles head on. Lilith would immediately begin her and Naomi’s fight by using her magic on the two to increase their reflex speeds, allowing them to more easily dodge attacks as they dished out their own damage. Kajex however managed to reach Kaja’s size and immediately tackle her into the ground, her claws slicing his sides and right through his jacket. They were in a full on kaiju battle.

“Kaja it’s me!” Kajex gritted, tears forming in his eyes as the scratches burned off of his fur, “Let me help you!” Kaja kicked Kajex off of her, sending him crashing into the neighboring buildings before she pinned him down by his shoulders. Her saliva would ooze from her mouth and soak his shirt before she began to headbutt their skulls over and over again together, blood gushing from each impact. Kajex was already becoming dizzy, feeling as if he was developing a concussion. Atrimel was watching in pure glee as Kajex tried to fight back.

“Now get the launchers ready to apprehend him,” Atrimel smirked as he talked into the device again.

“Just wake… up!” Kajex gritted as he kicked her off of himself, as she fell to the ground punching her directly into the stomach. As the two giants were going at it however, there were a few soldiers taking aim at Kajex’s neck with unusual firearms. Naomi however caught wind of this mid dodge and figured it was best to warn Kajex.

“Kajex look out!” Naomi exclaimed as one fired at the lucario as he grabbed Kaja’s collar.

“H-Huh?!” Kajex stuttered before he let go and dodged the attack. It fired several of the nanochips at him. If he got hit with them, he knew that he’d be forced under Atrimel’s control. He was too big of a target now and made it far too easy for them to land a shot on him. He knew he couldn’t fight like this.

“Sh-Shit!” he exclaimed as Kaja decked him in the face, making him fumble back into another city block, “I-I can’t fight her using my powers!”

“Exactly,” Atrimel grinned with a small cackle in his voice as Kajex began to shrink down to normal size, “And I won’t let little miss witch there take you away from me this time.” The others quickly realized what was going on, but neither of them could get past all of the guards, nor could Lilith prepare a warp spell to retreat with all the energy she had already used up. They were stuck fighting an army and Kajex was stuck fighting against the kaiju of a zoroark before him. Atrimel had the upper hand before the fight even began.

“I-I have to fight her like this?!” Kajex stammered as he brought back his Keyblade.

“Kajex run!” Lilith cried out between spell uses, “I need to get us-” She got decked in the face with one of the many guards. There were just too many to focus on Kajex for even a moment. Kaja would fixate her gaze at her brother and tried to stomp down on him like a bug, himself barely able to dodge even with Extreme Speed. The debris would stab through his body like bullets as he tried to find an opening to fight back. He just had to get that collar off to save her.

“Come on Kajex!” he gritted as blood trickled through his fur, “Just get to the collar! It has to have a weakness!” He dodged a punch from Kaja barreling straight for him by leaping into the air and landed on the back of her hand. He began to rush up her arm using Extreme Speed again, herself unable to squash him under her palm as he was moving too fast for her to react. He’d get to the back of her neck and right at the spot where the chip was held on the collar. He had one shot to get it off.

“My sister isn’t your puppet ya bastard!” Kajex cried, hacking away at it with his Keyblade like he was using a machete to cut through bramble. Kaja would try and get him off as he clung to the threads between them, each slice almost instantly healing… until he noticed something about it. It was only healing one slice at a time. He saw the path to freeing her in his head.

“There’s a weakness!” he exclaimed with hope before it was suddenly yanked away from him as Kaja finally managed to grab him, squeezing him in her palm just like when she was first captured. He was feeling every bone in his body crack as he screamed in pain. Atrimel on the other hand, was now cackling as he watched Kajex’s expression went from pure hope, to utter terror in mere seconds.

“YES YES MY PET BREAK HIM UNTIL HE CAN’T MOVE!!!” Atrimel exclaimed in utter jubilation as he watched it all unfold, “Now finish him and bring him back to me for proper assimilation!”

“Kaja stop it please!” Thorya cried, tears soaking their shirt collar as they gave up trying to break free, “H-He’s… he’s your brother!” Kaja would reciprocate Atrimel’s wish against her whim. She’d throw Kajex through dozens of buildings at full force, each one crumbling behind him. Naomi watched in horror as Kajex eventually fell to the ground, every bone now trying to repair itself at once… but she already knew what was coming out now.

“Kajex don’t let your bad thoughts win!” Naomi cried as she kicked some soldiers coming after her at top speed. Kaja was already barreling towards him, the voice once again taking hold of his mind as he felt his bones snap back into place. He didn’t have the strength to fight back the words.

“Those who hurt me will feel everything tenfold,” the voice muttered as dread began to sink through Kajex’s heart, “No exceptions.”

“No…” Kajex mumbled before his eyes grew hollow one final time. Kajex would immediately jump back onto his feet and bolt towards Kaja, not even caring that he’d hadn’t fully healed. He’d spiral up Kaja’s arm, dragging his Keyblade behind him like he was carving a corkscrew spiral into her arm before stabbing the blade into her cheek in the blink of an eye. She’d roar in pain as the cuts burned off of her body and punched his side, sending him flying until he landed on the rooftop of one of the buildings. He was now planning to kill her.

“We need to get to Kajex and get him outta here!” Naomi cried out as she dodged attack after attack, “He snapped again!”

“I’d love to if Atrimel didn’t keep me too occupied to use my magic!” Lilith gritted as she used fire spells to keep some of the soldiers at bat. Kajex however… was once again in the void, the memories once again flooding through his mind as he looked upwards, tears streaking down his face thinking about how he couldn’t stop his body from killing his sister. He felt trapped.

“I-I…” Kajex cried as he continued to look up, thinking back on everything in his past, both the good and bad. His body would be dodging blow after blow from Kaja as it awaited for a moment to land a lethal blow.

“Grrrrrh!” Lilith gritted as she glanced towards Kajex in frustration, “Atrimel played us for a fiddle! Now I’m worried for their safety too.” Kajex would slice through Kaja’s stomach as he descended to the ground, her blood soaking this fur and what remained of his torn clothes. She’d try to stomp on him, but he’d evade every attempt.

“You asked for all of this to boil over now,” the childish voice echoed behind Kajex in a malicious tone, “You ran away from everything and you paid the price with me.” It was at that moment the pieces of the puzzle finally began to click with Kajex, where he was and who the voice truly was. He’d clench his fist as his heart began to skip beats.

“Nobody is safe from you,” the voice continued in tune with Kajex’s body stabbing Kaja’s palm, “What we are is a monster born from the darkest parts of society.” Kajex would clench his fists tighter, taking in every word the voice was saying but… not rejecting them this time. This time, Kajex decided it was time to accept them.

“You’re right,” Kajex finally admitted to himself as he wiped away his tears, “I kept all the pain locked away, never did anything to properly heal from it. I ran away from the problem using those around me to help pretend everything never happened.” The voice was flabbergasted. It didn’t know how to react to such a statement and Kajex wasn’t even done.

“But… I shouldn’t have,” he continued as he began to turn around with confidence, “All it did was make the pain worse when it would finally resurface… and in turn I created you.” What stood behind him was the riolu, now clearly shown as a battered and scarred version of a young Kajex. He clung to a stuffed teddiursa wearing nothing but shorts and a black hoodie. Tears were filling the riolu’s eyes as he came face to face with his older self.

“Just shut up!” the young Kajex cried at the top of his lungs, “Y-You… you left me to rot! You never cared about me or even yourself! No different than the white coats!” Kajex felt the words sting, knowing that they were at least partially true, but he wasn't going to run away.

“Deep down I truly did,” Kajex replied back, walking closer to his young self, “When I was your age all I did was wallow and mope even around those I considered my friends for days, weeks on end. It took years for me to suppress you… you’re the embodiment of the me who suffered through those experiments. My younger, naive, hurt self.” The battle outside was getting bloodier by the second. Kajex’s body was enduring full on blows from Kaja as she continued to get sliced and diced. She was slipping more and more.

“But… I should’ve come to terms with you instead of locking you away,” he continued, confidence sparking behind his words, “And for that, I’m sorry to both you and myself.” His young self was bawling his eyes out now, the older Kajex now standing before him before he took a knee before the riolu.

“Y-You’re just trying to win me over!” the riolu cried as he clung the teddiursa tighter, “Y-You’re just saying what I wanna hear! Not like they didn’t try that between tests!” Kaja was only forced to endure more and more bloody attacks from Kajex as he continued to face himself.

“No I’m not,” Kajex assured the riolu, clenching his knee tightly as his whole body felt like jelly, “I mean what I say. You should know that since… you are as much of me as I am as much of you.” The riolu was hiding his face behind his teddiursa now, hardly able to look his older self in the face.

“I truly did only make things worse for the both of us,” he remarked as tears once again welled up in his eyes, “But… we still can’t hurt those who have helped us try and put it all behind us. They’re the people who deserve us at our best and hate to see us at our worst.” The lucario held out his hand for the riolu as the two finally made proper eye contact, “And especially now that we can finally enact justice for the one who hurt us the most. We can finally give that bastard his dues.” The riolu’s heart was skipping beat after beat, wiping away his own tears on the teddiursa as he shakily began to extend out his free hand.

“There are more people who care about us now,” Kajex continued as he let confidence wash over him, “Naomi, Rhys, Jade, hell Throya’s doing everything they can to help us heal from what happened when they were barely an infant when it happened.”

“M-Mhm…” the young Kajex nodded, slowly lowering the teddiursa away from his face, his left hand shaking as he came to terms with his own actions, “And… now I’m hurting them.”

“All because I wanted to pretend that you never existed,” Kajex cried as his heart began to visibly race in his chest, “But now I need you, more than ever in my life.” The riolu didn’t know what to say. They merely… finally felt accepted after being locked away for 15 years. They were ready to help.


“You’re right,” the riolu sniffled as his hand reached mere inches away from the lucario’s palm, “I… I can’t let him get away with this.” The two had finally come to terms with each other, ready to move on and be a stronger person.

“So, let’s fix that,” Kajex smiled as they extended their hands a bit closer to each other, “You and me…” he said as they grabbed each others’ hands and the black void dissipated around them, “... together.” In that instance Kajex closed his eyes in reality, backing away from stabbing Kaja into her neck before quickly evading backwards. She gritted as all of her injuries burned off of her skin and Kajex landed on a rooftop, his eyes still closed. Naomi would look up at him in confusion, not knowing what had gone down in his own mind as Atrimel gritted his teeth in his seat.

“What happened to him?!” Atrimel exclaimed as the footage zoomed in on the calm, collected Kajex, “He shouldn’t be able to slip out of that state mid combat!”

“... Kajex?” she asked as he opened his eyes. His eyes had completely changed color. It was neither the normal purple his eyes shined nor was it the hollow purple they just were. They shined with a lavender light behind them. Fear wasn’t permeating his body now, it was pure confidence in himself and his ability to save his sister.

“This time I’ll save you Kaja,” he muttered to himself as Kaja lunged for him. He dodged it effortlessly, landing on the ground once again. She’d try to stomp on him one last time, but this time he didn’t run. As if it was second nature only his arms and legs swelled in size, catching her foot with the increase of raw strength keeping her at bay. He’d push her foot into the air, making her lose balance as she crashed into another building. They all watched in awe as Kajex’s limbs returned to normal in a second.

“When did he learn how to do that?!” Lilith exclaimed in pure awe as he dashed towards Kaja.

“This was NEVER in any research documents on K-4J3X!” Atrimel gritted as he clenched his armrests, rage filling his single eye, “How is this possible?!” Thorya finally felt hope and enough courage to finally bite back against their father.

“Maybe trying to subjugate him wasn’t the smartest move you made!” Thorya exclaimed in pure confidence before their father glanced at him in rage, his blue eye turning red in an instant.
“SILENCE!!!” Atrimel demanded of Thorya in an outright malicious tone, “This is merely a setback! He will still be MINE!!!” Kaja would try and grab Kajex as she’d reach for him, but he barely dodged, sparks flying off of his Keyblade as he guarded himself from the blow.

“I’m not afraid anymore,” Kajex said as he took a deep breath as Kaja stood up, debris falling off of her body like hail as she prepared a counterattack. Kajex however, was ready for everything she had. He wasn’t afraid of who he was anymore. He was embracing who he was going to be.

“Go get her Kajex!” Naomi cried out as she blocked several attacks in all directions.

“I’ll get you outta there in one fell swoop,” he stated as he blocked another blow by growing his hands tenfold, “I promise!” He’d shrink his hands back down and summon his Keyblade once more. Kaja would try and swat him off as he once again scaled her body like a mountain using Extreme Speed. He deflected every blow she’d try and hit him with. Before he landed on her shoulder.

“Just need a few seconds!” he exclaimed before leaping into the air with all of his strength. Kaja would try to pinpoint him to no real avail. He was at least several stories into the air as he readied to throw his Keyblade. He locked his aim right onto the back of her neck and prepared to finally free her.

“Sorry I took so long sis,” he said as he took a deep breath, memories rushing through his mind before throwing the blade like a boomerang and tears being shed from his eyes. The blade spun through the air like a saw blade before it stabbed right into the collar, but not piercing through to her neck. She was trying to rip the blade out, but her size made it like trying to pluck the tiniest splinter from her back. Atrimel didn’t have the time to tell her to shrink.

“Hang on!” Kajex gritted as he enlarged his hands to match Kaja’s in size, his fingers slipping through the collar and gripping onto it firmly as it continued to try and heal the slice made by the Keyblade lodged in it. Kajex had one shot to get it off.

“He’s got the collar! Naomi cried in pure joy, “And she can’t get him off!” Kaja tried to rip Kajex off of her neck, but his grip was too strong. He was already beginning to tear the collar off bit by bit to Atrimel’s dismay. He was FURIOUS.

“EVERYONE GET THAT LUCARIO OFF OF MY WEAPON!!!” he exclaimed in a pure growl, almost feral sounding to Thorya. Kajex was pouring everything he had into freeing her. More and more every tear he made as he continued to tug on it grew vaster, closer to freedom. His heart was racing in his chest as Lilith and Naomi did all that they could to keep the soldiers at bay.

“Atrimel!” Kajex gritted as he was flung every which way as Kaja tried to shake him off, “You’d better know that you’re next on my hit list!”

“NO!!!” Atrimel growled as he watched Kajex tear the collar apart bit by bit. Kajex just needed to tear off the extra durable edges of the collar. No matter what Kaja did he wasn’t gonna let go. He was determined.

“Now stay away…” Kajex gritted as he neared the final threads to tear, “... from…” he felt something snap in his mind, no more restraints left on him “... MY SISTER!!!” The collar shredded apart with a final push from Kajex, its remains falling to the ground with an earth shaking thud. Kaja would h\howl to the heavens as the connection between her and Atrimel was finally severed before she fumbled in place for a moment and fell face first into the ground. Kajex would dodge backwards before plumes of dust enveloped him, and a good chunk of the soldiers. Kaja was free and Atrimel was NOT happy about it.

“SOLDIERS GET A NEW COLLAR ON HER AND APPREHEND KAJEX RIGHT NOW!!!” he exclaimed in a visceral rage, the ends of his armrests being ripped off of his chair as his eye turned red.

“F-Finally…” Kajex wheezed as he finally managed to catch his breath, his eyes reverting to their normal color. Kajex would rush up to his sister’s face, trying to push and nudge her awake so they could hurry up and get out of there, but she wouldn’t stir.

“Kaja…” Kajex gritted as tears welled up in his eyes, “Please wake up sis… please…” his eyes flashed lavender again subconsciously as he just wanted to at least make her shrink. Oddly enough… she was, despite being out cold. Kajex gasped for a moment, noticing he was the one doing this.

“FIRE!!!” Atrimel exclaimed at the top of his lungs. Kajex had to pause what he was doing however as soon as he realized chips had been fired, quickly rushing up to deflect the blow to protect his sister. Atrimel was now trying to wear him down and all the soldiers dashing straight for the two was only making it more apparent.

“Barrier!” Lilith’s voice echoed as she dashed towards Kaja’s stomach. The mystical veil blocked out the majority of the soldiers and Naomi would fend off against the few that got trapped inside with them. The delphox was sweating bullets as she tried to maintain the barrier.

“Whatever you were doing to get Kaja to shrink, keep doing it!” Lilith cried out as her body began to shake, “I can’t keep a barrier this big up for very long right now!”

“R-Right!” Kajex replied as he sent away his Keyblade and placed both hands on Kaja’s back. He took a deep breath, focused, and felt as though Kaja’s Dynamax energy in her body was being drained out of her. She continued to shrink away and Lilith would shrink the barrier around them in unison. Naomi would swiftly take care of any guards that got too close to Kajex, her own body beginning to tremble from exhaustion.

“N-Nobody hurts my lucario!” Naomi wheezed as she fell to her knees, her body battered and bruised after all the fighting. Kajex would keep this up, his heart thumping uncontrollably as it felt his body take in way more Dynamax energy than it knew what to do with. Soon enough though, Kaja was normal sized and unconscious in his arms. Tears welled up in his eyes as they once again returned to normal.

“G-Get us outta here Lilith!” Kajex wheezed, his tears soaking into Kaja’s hair as he tried to keep himself composed.

“Done and dusted,” Lilith said as she snapped her fingers, causing the four of them to disappear in the blink of an eye. Atrimel however, was MORE than just furious, grabbing his chair and throwing it into the monitor he watched it all unfold from, causing it to explode and crumble onto the ground. He couldn’t bear losing such a prized weapon like that.

“Oh OH HE’S MINE!!!” Atrimel shouted at the top of his lungs, so loud Thorya’s ears were ringing, “AND SHE’LL BE JOINING MY RANKS ONCE MORE AFTER I FINALLY HAVE HIM!!!” Thorya was on the verge of tears, not just in fear of seeing who they’re father truly was… but also joy in the fact that Kajex managed to save Kaja and conquer whatever it was holding them back.

“You can win this war Kajex…” Thorya thought as their tears splattered against the floor like rain, “You can save Orrei…”