9. For my dreams and the promise I made

Guilt, overwhelming guilt. That's all Robert could feel right now, like a boulder covered in thorns pressing down on his chest. Every breath hurt and seemed to get harder, he soon started to feel weaker. His mind felt foggier, and it was getting harder to think. His vision was starting to blur but never once did Roberts's eyes waver. Staring straight ahead pushing past his failing senses and foggy mind, as if to burn the image ahead of him into his mind, his very soul. Kurt's headless, dead body laid out on the floor with that pool of crimson still slowly growing. Robert swore he would never forget this scene and that he would get revenge! Swore that even if he had to tare through the whole of Team Rocket, he would find him and he would pay! With what little strength he had he looked at this member of team rocket and burned every detail of him into his mind, then he passed out.

The man from Team Rocket looked gravely at this young frail boy, passed out on the floor. At first, he was quite pleased with himself, he rather relished in toying with people's emotions. The more traumatic the better. All seemed to be going well and the kid seemed like he was going to pass out at any moment. That thought quickly changed when the kid looked up at him just before he passed out. He had been in Team Rocket for a while now and been through his fair share of dangerous situations, sometimes he only barely made it out alive. Through these situations, he's developed a certain sensitivity towards danger and that sense was telling him that this boy could not live. there was something about that last look, something about those eyes that seemed to scream danger. No longer hesitating he looked to his Scyther and nodded. Scyther understood that it was time to end things. It quickly appeared in front of the boy and raised its scythe high to deliver one quick, decisive blow. It just got to the peak of its windup when it suddenly paused and looked out the window. Completely ignoring the boy it was meant to finish off, it jumped back like lightning and stood in front of its trainer, crossed its scythes in front of itself

CRASH!!

The moment it got in position a Tauros come crashing through the wall and smashed into Scyther. Scyther took most of the force but couldn't take the full brunt of the blow and was pushed back, crashing into the Team Rocket trainer. Dennis came swooping in through the hole in the wall and picked up his son off the floor. After checking Robert and seeing he was somehow uninjured, Dennis felt like a mountain had been lifted from his shoulders. He quickly looked around and saw that the Miltank was gone, and Kurt was dead. It turns out the patrolling worker that found Robert sneaking around wasn't completely convinced by him as he thought. The worker made his way to the main house and informed Dennis of his sons sneaking about. Naturally, Dennis was furious. He swore that when he found him, he would lecture him till his ears fell off! When he got to Kurt's cabin though, the sight that greeted him chilled him to the bone.

A Scyther standing over his only son about to deliver a finishing blow. Dennis didn't hesitate at all, he quickly sent out his old partner and told it to stop that Scyther. the flash from the Pokeball got the Scyther's attention and it quickly retreated. Tauros was already charging when Scyther retreated and proceeded to crash through the wall as if it was made of thin paper!

After Dennis took in the surroundings, he quickly understood what happened. He knew of Team Rocket and knew their ways well. He saw the guy was about to say something with a taunting expression but Dennis couldn't give a damn. Dennis simply looked at his Tauros and said "go". Tauros mooed loudly and charged over ferociously. The team rocket trainer's expression drastically changed, he called out "Scyther time to go" as he ran as quick as he could. He could tell this Tauros was not like the others he had seen on the farm before, and its level was definitely higher than his Scyther. if he didn't leave now and that Tauros caught him, he might not ever leave.

About five minutes later Denniss' Tauros come back. The Tauros was mostly unhurt, a few nicks and scratches here and there. One of its horns however was dripping with some blood. Dennis didn't look happy or sad at this and simply muttered "as expected, he got away". He turned around and looked at the workers that had long gathered from the commotion here. Further back was Mariah running over with a panicked face. Dennis took one last glance where the Team Rocket trainer ran in, then headed in the direction of his wife with his still unconscious son in his hands.

End of flashback

Robert looked closely at his sisters after he finished his story, minus the parts about his talent seeing skill of course. He was a little worried that this story might have been too much for them. Unfortunately, he didn't have many options and he desperately needed someone to confide in. He couldn't talk to his parents as they didn't want that night to be discussed and he couldn't go around telling the farmhands what happened. Dennis had said Kurt found a high-grade evolution stone in the jungle on the east side of the farm and that a thief had come to steal it and Kurt got attacked when he tried to stop the thief. Dennis was worried that if news got out about the shiny then other trainers would come here and cause trouble looking for more shiny's.

Robert himself didn't wake up until three days later and was in a muddled state of mind for two more days after waking. A week after the incident Dennis and Mariah felt Robert was finely clear-headed enough to explain what happened. It was mostly as they already expected but they wanted to confirm. Something else to note is that Dennis insisted Robert not talk or ask about Team Rocket even if what is being asked is unrelated. It seems that Team Rocket isn't as open or common a topic as he thought

Sasha and Stephanie sat there blankly in the clearing for a while and Robert didn't say a word. He let all the information he just dumped on them sink in. after a while both sisters came back to themselves and looked at their cute little brother with unshed tears. They couldn't imagine what it was like all this time keeping it all bottled up. He even still had the strength to face the trauma made from that horrifying experience. As Robert looked into his sister's eyes after they finished digesting his story, he could finally feel relieved, they still seemed fine. Robert once again looked at his sisters with a determined gaze, "I may be scared of Pokémon now but I will not be forever. I will not give up on my dream like that and swore that I would find that bastard and make him pay. So for the promise I made and for following my dream, I will face this fear and I will defeat it". Right after he finished his heartfelt speech, he felt something weird inside him. Like something that had been tightly knotted up had suddenly loosened.