Late in the evening, Prince stepped from his team's doorway and into the main hall. In these last few days at the Gold Division, there was much to be done.

He turned his attention to the staircase that would lead him down to the base's main level.

A Scyther stood in the doorway.

"Good evening, Prince," it said. "I haven't heard from you in some time. Are your missions going well?"

"As well… as can be expected," Prince muttered indifferently, approaching the staircase.

As he drew nearer, he saw that the Scyther would not move.

"Then why do I hear that you're going to work for Lucario?" the Scyther challenged.

The Infernape's eyes widened.

"Legend," he hissed. "I shouldn't have told him. He's gone and ratted me out… Scythe… It's very simple. I'm leaving because I must. Do not press the matter. It will not change."

"Very well…" Scythe sighed. "So be it…"

Prince hesitated. The Scyther still blocked the stairway, his gaze burning intently into the Infernape's eyes. The Infernape returned a questioning glance.

"You're right about one thing, my friend, it is very simple," the Scyther said darkly. "You are mistaken. You aren't going anywhere."

"Scythe… move. I don't have time for this."

The standoff held for half a minute, Prince and Scythe refusing to move. Prince scowled in confusion, Scythe smiling evilly back at him.

Finally, Prince decided to ignore the Scyther and push past him. He extended an arm, forcing himself into the doorway.

*Slice!*

A brutal movement. A painful sting. And Prince found his body thrust backward onto the floor, a long, bloody gash opened underneath the fur of his belly.

"If you will not listen to me, then you will listen to my blades," Scythe told him, now in a defensive stance. "You're not leaving."

"Who are you to hold me back?" Prince roared. "This has nothing to do with you!"

"You think that the absence of a good friend and powerful ally such as yourself has nothing to do with me?" Scythe returned, laughing sarcastically. "I know a bad decision when I see one, and this is a bad decision. You're harming the Gold Division by leaving. And you're harming yourself."

Prince slowly picked himself up from the ground, his fist clenched, his eyes tracking the Scyther's tiny movements and twitches. He held his wound with his other hand to relieve the sting.

"Scythe… you've got nothing to prove to me," Prince growled. "Let me go."

"By all means, go," Scythe replied, a gleam in his eye. "Go ahead. You are free to leave."

But the Scyther still did not budge.

In the blink of an eye, Prince dropped his body to the ground and thrust his feet at the Scyther, tripping him up and knocking his back into the wall. The Scyther recovered almost instantly, rushing forth and bludgeoning him in the head at lightning speed with the back of his blade.

The Infernape tumbled back, cartwheeling to his feet and pouncing forth at his assailant. After deftly dodging a counterattack, he swung his fist to connect with the Scyther's belly, but the Scyther had vanished into an agile blur. He turned his head just in time to meet another reverse-blade to the forehead.

Shrugging off the impact, Prince jumped back out of the Scyther's range before leaping to connect his fist with the Scyther's jaw. The Scyther moved to parry the attack, but Prince feinted to the other side and delivered a full-forced blow to the side of his head. The Scyther reeled.

"For your information, Legend did not tell me," Scythe mentioned, jumping away for a moment. "Vallon did. I asked him why he would betray you in that manner. He told me… that was his job."

Letting loose a loud growl of frustration, Prince charged forward on all fours, launching himself into the air to deliver a kick to the Scyther's chest. Scythe pivoted to dodge the attack, slamming him in the back Prince retaliated with a quick blow to his abdomen the moment he touched the ground.

Not wasting a moment, Prince pounced a second time, but Scythe was ready. He swiftly jumped back, swinging a blade in the place he used to be. But Prince jerked his body unexpectedly and grasped his other blade, planting his weight into the ground and slinging him into the nearest wall. The Scyther shrieked in surprise.

"You don't need me," Prince growled. "You pretend you need me, but you know that you don't. You… lie to yourself. You will be fine without me."

But then, just as quickly, Scythe spun his body, forcing an open blade into the Infernape's upper arm. Blood cascaded down upon the silver surface as Scythe forced the Infernape against the same wall. Prince grunted in pain as he found himself pinned in place.

"You take me for an idiot!" Scythe growled back. "I lie to nobody. I would sooner let Alakazam disband the division than you. We are invincible together."

Prince jerked his body to try to free himself, but Scythe held him in place, forcing in his blade deeper.

"Do you find this fun, Scythe?" Prince managed to say in between gasps of pain. "Do you have nothing better to do than harass me? Don't you have some Sandslash to protect?"

"Not when my friend is in trouble with a deluded mind," Scythe said sternly. "You're more important than they are. I need you to stay. I need you to get some sense knocked back into your head."

"I'm sorry to disappoint you, but sense has nothing to do with it," Prince returned.

The fire on Prince's crown flared suddenly, surprising Scythe. Tongues of fire appeared across his fur as he grunted loudly, forcing against Scythe for freedom. He found that he could not easily struggle, as pressing back upon his captor would force the blade deeper into his flesh…

"Or perhaps… maybe it's you who is trying to prove something," Scythe wondered, his hold unmoving. "You want to see if you can work without me, is that it?"

Prince's body trembled. He clenched his fists so tight that he felt his knuckles drained of blood.

"You… are… an idiot," Prince whispered into the Scyther's ear.

Scythe blinked, realizing too late that the Infernape was overheating his own body.

The Infernape's body erupted in a fiery blast, sending the Scyther flying away. Once freed, he pushed himself away from the wall, still covered in flames and his armor shards glowing white-hot.

The Scyther lay on his back, his eyes closed tight as he felt burns spreading over his body. Prince looked down upon him.

"Ergeh…" Scythe grunted, writhing on the floor and trying to shift his weight to stand back up. A flame burned upon his arm, black scorch marks riddled his chest and face.

The Scyther turned an eye to glare up at the Infernape.

"You're not going…" he rasped. "I'll slice off your arm so Lucario will have no use for you!"

The air filled with the sound of Scythe's buzzing wings. Prince blinked, and his form was missing from the floor.

Prince braced himself just in time. Scythe cried at the top of his lungs as he began a furious, open-bladed attack upon the Infernape. Prince ducked and dodged, just barely missing his first attempts, but felt a sudden wave of weakness and distracting pain as Scythe landed a hit across his back, drawing even more blood.

The Scyther's onslaught was like a swarm, buzzing around his figure in circles and attacking erratically from any angle. Prince's heart pounded as he tried to trace the bug's movements and dodge the blows, but Scythe always found his weak points and harassed them, either with an open blade, or with his blades in reverse, or a straight broadside. He leapt and ducked and rolled out of the way quickly, but Scythe followed with ease, evading his defenses and withering down his strength. Prince felt as bruises and cuts accumulated upon his body, as if he had been tossed down a hill covered in nettles…

Thinking quickly, Prince launched himself upward to evade the Scyther's attacks. Stretching his limbs, he held himself for a split second in the corner between the ceiling and the wall.

Scythe hesitated for just a moment, losing sight of his target. Prince acted instantly.

Thrusting himself downward from his position, Prince hit the confused Scyther with the full weight of his body. Scythe tumbled away to evade further attack, but Prince planted his hand on the floor and delivered another powerful kick to his chest. The Scyther slumped into the corner.

There was another fiery explosion as Prince slammed the Scyther in the face with a flaming fist, ending the battle for good.

For a moment, Prince crouched in place, watching the Scyther as it reeled in pain, unable to move.

"Why are you hurting me…?" Scythe asked, halfway anchored in consciousness. "What's the point?"

"You were the one who attacked me," Prince grumbled.

"A betrayal is a betrayal," Scythe uttered. "Just so long as you see… with your eyes… what you've done…"

At that, the Scyther's head slumped onto his chest, his eyes closed.

Prince looked at the Scyther's body for a moment, its burns prevalent, its injuries leaking a thin clear fluid…

…Then, slowly, he stood himself and headed for the stairs, leaving his fainted friend alone.

---

Through the ghastly shadows of the night
We cower in the corner
We hold the candle, safe and near
And keep our eye upon the eastern sky
For there will shine the piercing rays of dawn
To slay the remnants of the past
To light the way another day
And help us carry on.

End of Verse 2

Author's Note

I'm having a lot of trouble writing this story. To be honest, the reason is simply because I'm on the verge of an exciting part in the main story. I'm really dying to write the next chapters, and it's bothering me that this spinoff keeps standing in the way.

That is to say, I still really like this story, but right now, I'm too distracted to give it my all. I realized it was a bit of a mistake to set it up the way I did, alternating between the two stories. Especially on the edge of such a massive turning point for Char and his friends.

So, I've made a decision. Effective immediately, I'm putting Emerald Chronicles: A Frozen Flame on hold, so I can continue on with Silver Resistance… at least until I get to Chapter 42. My apologies to all those who were following this story.

So, onto Chapter 37 of Silver Resistance! See you there!