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The Dark Type	By : Manifest Destiny Category: Pokemon > General Views: 36309 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon. Pokemon is copy write by GameFreak, INC. and Nintendo. I make no money from this story, nor do I seek any.

Chapter List
- 34
- 35
- 36
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Chapter 35: Thin Ice
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Iruni let go of the breath he had been holding, sighing in relief as he watched Rikalia and Celebi put their differences aside—for the time being, at least.
If we can just keep things from falling apart, we can do this…
He rubbed his eyes behind his glasses, letting more of his stress fade away. Being caught in the middle of the two angry Pokémon and the waves of Psychic and Dark energy that they emanated had given him a headache.
“Alright,” he said, grabbing everyone’s attention. “Before we do anything else, there’s something we need to do.”
‘What’s that?’
“You need to meet the rest of the team,” Iruni said, pointing at Celebi. “Everybody needs to be on the same page if we’re going to make this work.”
Iruni walked over to his backpack and pulled out three differently colored Poké Balls.
‘I guess I don’t have much choice, do I?’ Celebi floated up into the air.
Iruni had seen Celebi levitate plenty of times before. Usually, she let her limbs hang down loosely and relaxed as she flew through the air. Now however, the Time Travel Pokémon held her arms close to her body, and couldn’t seem to quiet the restlessness in her legs.
It was obvious that she was nervous.
“Don’t worry,” he told her. “They all know about what happened between us. A couple of them just haven’t seen you yet.”
‘Most of the people or Pokémon that I’ve met have ended up wanting to use me, capture me, or worse. New faces aren’t really my thing.’ Celebi floated around behind the human, hiding behind his back.
‘One at a time, please.’
“Let’s start you off with an easy one then,” said Iruni, pressing the release button on the plain, red and white ball.
Atanya had evolved into a Bayleef while the group had been traveling to Viridian City to meet with Silver. Ever since then, she had grown much more accustomed to the advanced techniques that Professor Elm had taught her as a Chikorita. She would no longer lose control over the plant life that she called forth, and had learned to use vines that sprouted from the bulbs on her neck as adeptly as any human might use their hands.
Herself and Kreen had been the last ones on the team to learn about Iruni’s plot to capture Celebi. Iruni had worried that Celebi might’ve caught on to what he had been planning by reading their minds, so he'd deliberately kept the two of them in the dark.
After their successful ambush, and once Iruni had told the rest of his team what they had missed, Atanya had been surprisingly eager to finally meet the Time Travel Pokémon. When asked—as Rikalia had translated—the Bayleef had said it was because she had very little experience interacting with other Grass type Pokémon due to being raised in captivity as a companion for a Cartographer.
Iruni had also wondered if being surrounded by Pokémon whose types were strong against her own was making her uncomfortable at all, but Atanya always seemed at ease with everybody else around her.
Once the flash of light from the Poké Ball had diminished, Atanya stood on the ground between Rikalia and Karros. She stretched her body out and looked around, fanning the large leaf that sprouted from her forehead from side to side. The Bayleef was trying to learn as much as she could about her new surroundings from the air.
It didn’t take long for the Leaf Pokémon to detect the presence of somebody new; Atanya’s head quickly turned towards Iruni and her eyes lit up with excitement.
“Easy there, Anya,” Iruni smiled at her reaction, putting up his hands in front of him. “Let’s take this slow and—”
Ignoring the warnings of her trainer, Atanya extended a pair of vines out in front of her, slipping them behind Iruni and wrapping around the floating Pokémon that hid there.
‘Hey, this wasn’t what I had in mind!’ Celebi was lifted up over Iruni’s head and brought down in front of Atanya. The vines had gently woven themselves around her torso a few times and held a grip just tight enough that she couldn’t easily slip out of them. Celebi stopped struggling once she realized she was being looked over by the very intrigued Bayleef.
‘So… uh, you’re the friendly one of the group, right?’
Atanya called out in joy, bringing Celebi close against the front of her body in an affectionate hug. She adjusted her vines so that she was cradling the Time Travel Pokémon, holding her just above the ring of bulbs around her neck.
‘I’m not your child,’ Celebi complained, trying to float away.
However, each time that she did, Atanya would pull her back toward herself, not wanting to let her new friend out of her embrace.
“I say just let her get it out of her system,” Iruni suggested. “She’s excited to have another Grass type around.”
‘Really? I couldn’t tell!’ Celebi frowned and crossed her arms, lying back in defeat in Atanya’s vines.
“You really aren’t used to anyone being nice to you, are you?” Rikalia asked her.
‘It’s hard to get used to something that almost never happens to you… Now listen, you,’ Celebi slipped out of Atanya’s vines and brought herself eye to eye with her. ‘It’s nice to meet you and all that, but I already told you I—am not—your child!’
Atanya pouted and shook her head, once again wrapping Celebi in her vines and pulling her close against her body once again.
‘Okay fine…’
Finally relenting, Celebi brought her arms up and hugged Atanya back, even nuzzling the larger Pokémon’s neck a little bit in hopes to placate the overly affectionate Bayleef.
Her efforts appeared to work, as Atanya happily loosened her grip and let Celebi fly free once more, but not without a lone vine reaching up and grabbing hold of one of Celebi’s hands.
‘Is this one just starved for attention?’ Celebi asked. She gave Atanya an annoyed look, but was only met with a cheery grin.
“Make sure you don’t overdo it, Anya. Celebi’s not much of a hugger,” joked Iruni.
Despite her trainer’s light-hearted order, Atanya gave him a very serious nod in response.
“Let’s keep this moving along,” Iruni said, putting aside his Bayleef’s empty ball and holding up the next one in line. “Ready?”
‘Are they all as clingy as this one?’ she asked, holding up the hand that was being held by Atanya’s vine.
“I doubt it. I’ll be surprised if Kreen’ll even stay on the ground for a full minute.”
Out from a Heal Ball, a flash of light shimmered and became the shape of a bird. No longer just a small Pidgey, Kreen was now much larger and sported long red feathers that grew from the top of his head. The Pidgeotto lightly flapped his wings as he settled down onto the ground, looking from side to side at the new environment. When his eyes caught sight of Celebi floating a few feet away, Kreen stared at her for an intense moment. A small snort from his beak was all he had to say about her.
A couple of great flaps of his wings sent Kreen up and into the air and away from the campsite.
‘That’s it?’ asked Celebi.
“Yep. That’s all he needed. Now he’s taking in the lay of the land. He’ll be back in a little bit.”
‘I like him.’
“And for last, we have…” Iruni tossed the Friend Ball up into the air, which split in half and released the large creature inside.
Hadarah’s form condensed and landed on the ground with a heavy thud, a small cloud of dirt and dust rising up around him. He stood up on his four pointed legs, carefully using his tail to help support his body.
This time, instead of waiting to be noticed, Celebi floated over toward the Ogre Scorpion to get a good look at him. Atanya followed along behind her as she moved, not wanting to be too far away.
‘I recognize those arms…’ she said, looking Hadarah up and down. ‘That hug of yours hurt, you know.’
Hadarah slumped his posture, lowering his upper body and letting his arms fall down to rest on the ground. He avoided Celebi’s gaze, only staring down at the ground and grumbling something that Iruni couldn’t understand.
‘Hey… I didn’t mean…’ Celebi turned to face Iruni. ‘Did you force him to help you catch me?’
“No; everyone agreed to go along with the plan. Hadarah just didn’t want to seriously injure you,” Iruni explained. “That night, he was so focused on keeping you from running away that he didn’t realize how hard he was squeezing you. When we were all done, and he saw the damage he’d done to the tree he had pinned you against, he was worried about how much he might’ve hurt you.”
Hadarah growled another word of regret to their captive, who looked down at him.
“He’s been beating himself up over it since it happened.”
‘Um, listen. I’m… not good at accepting apologies. They’re another thing I’m not used to.’
Celebi slowly drifted down and carefully patted Hadarah’s hard body, avoiding the sharp barbs that covered the surface.
‘I don’t hold what you did against you or anyone else. It was just because of what your trainer schemed up. If things end up going sideways because I was captured, it’s all on him. Not you guys.’ She looked over her shoulder at the other Pokémon one by one, before finally landing on Iruni once more.
‘You get all that?’
“Loud and clear,” he said. “But don’t forget who it was that started all of this.”
‘Right. How could I forget that everything is my fault?’ Celebi rolled her eyes at him. Behind her, a gentle claw tapped her on the back.
Hadarah had risen back up from his bow and was taking his turn to curiously observe the Pokémon he had helped ambush.
‘Yeah, I’m fine now. Don't you worry about me,’ she told him. Spinning around, Celebi gestured at all of the Pokémon around here.
‘There. We’re all done now, right?’
“With introductions? Sure, but we still have important business to get to today.”
Iruni whistled for Kreen to rejoin the rest of the group on the ground. He walked over and sat back down on the fallen tree that he had been sitting on earlier. The rest of his Pokémon joined him, taking seats around the fire pit that Karros had dug. Celebi and Atanya sat close together, the latter still holding onto the former’s hand with her vine. Karros took a seat near one of the ends of the log, while Rikalia stood away from the group, keeping everyone in her line of sight.
When the Pidgeotto finally came back down and perched on top of Hadarah’s head, Iruni reached into the backpack beside him and pulled out something. He tossed it to Celebi, who caught it in a small telekinetic field.
“Now that we’re all here, let’s get you caught up on what you missed. Open that up.”
The Time Travel Pokémon inspected the hinged object and opened it up. Inside were five metallic objects pinned to a soft, cushioned material. Two of the badges were scuffed and duller than the rest.
“That’s a new case, by the way.” Iruni told her. “You still owe us for ruining the old one.”
‘Take it up with my future self. I didn’t do that yet.’
“Yet,” he repeated.
Iruni went on to tell Celebi about what they had done after they had captured her. First, eager to leave Viridian City after being found by Sebastian, they had traveled north to Pewter City. There they had spent some time training and challenged the local Rock type Gym Leader. Much like their time in Viridian, they had not stuck around very long after their victory, just in case they were still being followed.
The experience they had gained from fighting against the previous Gym’s Pokémon, as well as their journey through Diglett’s Cave, had done well to prepare them for traveling through Mt. Moon and its cave system. Eventually, they reached Cerulean City. After another victory at the city’s Gym, Iruni had decided to venture back down south, passing through Saffron and then arriving back at Vermilion City.
The Gym there had taken much more effort to beat than the last two. Their first two attempts had resulted in losses—this time, however, due only to flaws in their battle strategies, and not because of any secret psychic conversations with the opponent. Lt. Surge was finally bested on their third attempt, and their fifth badge was well earned. After that, they had boarded a boat from the city’s pier and headed to Olivine City, and finally arrived back in Johto earlier that day.
‘You were busy while I was locked away,’ said Celebi, a cold tone resonating with her voice. She snapped the badge case shut and gently floated it back to Iruni.
“That’s because I wanted everyone to enjoy the ‘trainer life’ for a little bit longer.” Iruni ran his fingers over the badge case, not knowing when it would have a chance to be opened again. “One last bit of fun, you know?”
‘What do you mean?’
“Until Coralis is safely back in his own place in time, we’re going to stop challenging Gyms or traveling the region as part of Project Cartographer. From here, we’ll be making our way back to my house in Mahogany Town and work on helping Celebi from there.”
The idea had been something brewing in Iruni’s head for some time. Ever since Celebi had first appeared to him in that lone cabin in the snow and told him that she needed his help—whether he wanted to help her or not—Iruni had wondered what that meant for his career as a trainer, as well as his inclusion in Project Cartographer. At first, he hadn’t known what to expect from being involved with such a mythical Pokémon, let alone the dangers that came along with such a request.
Every time that Celebi showed up, Iruni’s life moved further away from where he wanted to be. If he was ever going to gain control of his own future, he needed to fix the mistakes of her past. To do that, he would have to sacrifice his present.
He hadn’t told any of his Pokémon about this decision that he had been working toward until now, and Iruni had been expecting the near-unanimous outcry of opposition that now erupted around him. Atanya and Hadarah wore their disappointment on their faces, not wanting to speak out against their trainer’s word. Rikalia and Kreen were more vocal about the idea, the latter hopping down from atop Hadarah’s head to chirp angrily at Iruni.
Karros was the only one who seemed to take the announcement in stride. The Houndoom stood up and walked in front of his trainer, staring down his upset teammates.
“Necessary. Important,” he barked at them.
“Hey now, there’s no need to argue.” Iruni held up his hands to calm the rising tempers of his Pokémon. “I know this sucks, but we have to put everything else aside if we expect to get through this anytime soon.”
“Does it have to be everything?” Rikalia complained. “Why can’t we do both?”
“Because it wouldn’t be right.” Iruni looked down at his hands as he spoke. “I wouldn’t feel like we were really accomplishing anything if we split our time between competing for badges and trying to help Coralis get home. Plus it wouldn’t be fair to him if we were off living our lives while he’s still cut off from his. We should put all of our energy towards helping him, so that the sooner we figure it out, the sooner we can pick up where we left off.”
“Reports?” Karros asked.
“They’ll have to deal with what I send them while we’re on the road. After that, we’ll be stationary for a while.”
‘You think that’s a good idea?’ Celebi asked. ‘Won’t going back home make your family a target again?’
“They won’t be involved; they’re not in the region anymore. My dad talked to some relatives we have up in Sinnoh, so he and Kate are staying with them for now. That’s another reason I want to get this business with you finished as soon as possible.”
‘But what about Coralis? Don’t you think he’ll suspect something is up with you if you just stop what you’re doing and go home?’
“If I have to, I can lie about where we are and what we’re all doing. I doubt he’ll come knocking at my front door to just see if I’m telling the truth. Besides, even if he does find it odd, there’s no reason he should suspect me of being involved with you anymore since we fooled that Sebastian guy. We haven’t run into any trouble these past two months.”
‘I guess… but I actually agree with everyone else.’ Celebi gestured to the other Pokémon around her. ‘If you guys kept up the “trainer life” as you call it, we could keep moving instead of sitting in a single spot waiting to be found.’
“If we did that, all we would do is waste our time and energy,” Iruni shot back at her. “There’s no point in wandering around the region challenging Gyms when we should be focusing on figuring out how to get things fixed! Avoiding what needs to be done is what you’ve been doing ever since you brought Coralis with you into the future and it hasn’t been working!”
‘That’s not true! I—’
“I get it; you were subtly keeping things moving in the direction you needed them to go. But did you even stop to think about how many people might get hurt along the way?” Iruni asked her. “Or did you only care about fixing your own problems?”
‘Well…’
“I’ll admit; I ruined your old plans,” Iruni said, owning up to his actions. “Now we’re going to make new ones. No more sitting back and waiting for things to happen. We’ll figure out what we need to do and go and do it.”
‘But…’ Celebi looked down. ‘There’s… a problem with that.’
“What do you mean?”
‘I won’t be able to be of much help, I don’t think. Before you caught me, your timeline was on-track to line up with Coralis returning to the past.’
“And what about now?”
‘…I don’t know anymore.’ She looked up at Iruni, but her eyes seemed to look past him. ‘It’s all… a blur now. An infinite number of possibilities stem from your every action now. There’s no way for me to tell what your future holds anymore.’
“What? Why would my future be so hard to read now?”
‘Because of me.’ She patted herself on her chest, ‘Because I have the potential to jump to any point in time whenever I might want, it’s impossible for me to see my own future. And now that I’m constantly connected to you, your own future is being obscured by mine.’
“And Coralis? What about him?”
‘Unless I can be close to him,’ Celebi explained, ‘I can’t get a good look at his future path. Before, I would sneak close by and read his future to see if he was still going the right way, but now—’
“Yeah, I get it.” Iruni held a hand up to stop her from repeating herself.
For the first time since coming up with the plan to catch the meddling Time Travel Pokémon, Iruni began to wonder if he had made a mistake. The feeling of being used and dragged around by the manipulative but well-meaning Celebi had driven him to take his fate back into his own hands. After capturing Celebi and keeping her locked away in a Poké Ball, the timeline had irreparably shifted away from where it had been going, for better or worse.
Iruni had been sure of his decision back then; it had been unanimous among himself and his three Dark types to take action against the troublesome Time Travel Pokémon. However, now that he saw how little that Celebi actually had control over, doubt had begun clouding his mind. The thought that he might have led everyone down a worse path than what had already been ahead of them had quickly taken a toll on his confidence.
He felt like he was competing against another version of himself to create a future with less pain and hardships.
Actively working toward our goal is better than just waiting for things to happen.
Isn’t it?
“Do you know of anyone we can ask for help? Someone who might know about your powers?”
‘Not anymore.’ Celebi crossed her arms and glared at Iruni. ‘Believe it or not, I did try to get a few more allies on my side.’
“And what about now? Where are they?” Iruni asked.
‘Where do you think? They’re nowhere. Everything’s been changed since you captured me.’
Celebi looked away from him, staring off into the distance.
‘Besides, you’ve already got experience asking people about me. Why don’t you think of something?’
Iruni sighed, knowing full well what Celebi was getting at.
“Sabrina didn’t have much to say about you. She could only point me to Giovanni’s son. Hell, even Giovanni himself didn’t exactly tell me the key to all of our problems. I’ve been thinking about what he told me ever since we left Viridian City, but I don’t get it.”
Celebi’s eyes widened as she turned back to face Iruni.
‘Wait, what did he tell you? Why didn’t you tell me sooner?’
“Because for all the help he’s given us, he could still be lying to cover himself. It wouldn’t surprise me if he was using me to try and plant some false hint in that Sebastian’s head in case he came back to find me again.”
‘What would that accomplish?’
“Waste their time, probably. Do you really think Giovanni would give away the key to time travel to someone trying to capture you?”
‘Who else would need it?’
“I—” Iruni tried to speak, but he couldn’t think of a response.
‘Just think about it: Giovanni’s a man who respects power. You showed him that you weren’t weak when you stood up against Sebastian. He deliberately chose to tell him he was wasting his time, but he told you something!’
“Why would he tell me anything though?”
‘When given the choice, would you bet the future on a winner or a loser?’ Celebi encouraged Iruni to figure out what she had meant, rather than have to spell it out for him.
“He did tell me after we fought back against Sebastian… maybe he was impressed that we managed to shake him off our backs?”
‘Bingo. If nothing else, that man is a great judge of character. Though, if I had to guess…’ Celebi narrowed her eyes at Iruni. ‘I’d say that he judged Sebastian’s character poorly, rather than think highly of yours.’
“So I’m not better, he’s just worse?”
‘Only way I see it being possible,’ Celebi shrugged.
“Fine then, you tell me what to do with just the word ‘direction’, then.”
‘…’
Celebi looked at Iruni with a blank expression.
‘That’s it?’
“Yeah. Not the best help, is he?”
‘I already know how to control the direction of my time traveling! Forward and backwards are easy, it’s how far in either direction that I don’t know how to do!’
“That settles it then; we’re officially out of ideas. We need to figure out how to use your powers correctly. That’s the only way we can get Coralis back home.”
‘Well, obviously… I just hope he listens to us if we figure it out.’
“So, do you have any idea on what we should do first?” Iruni asked. “You’re the closest thing to an expert there is about this.”
‘I don’t know, really.’ Celebi closed her eyes in thought. ‘In the five years I’ve been in this time period, I’ve only focused on the future where Coralis is sent home. But now that future isn’t possible anymore. I don’t know where to start.’
“I was afraid of that. Well, it’ll take a little while to get to Mahogany, and once we’re there we’ll have plenty of time to think of something.”
“What do you mean you ‘don’t know’?”
The group’s attention came to focus on Rikalia, who was focused and staring down Celebi intensely.
“How can you not know anything?” the Sneasel asked, moving slowly toward where the two Grass types were sitting.
‘Because I’ve never needed to know before now, that’s how.’
“Guys.” Iruni put as much weight behind his voice as he could without sounding immediately angry.
‘I’m just being honest; this whole thing is brand new to me. I have no idea where to begin.’
“But if you don’t know what to do, how can we even help you?” Rikalia asked, her voice rising with every word. “How long do you expect us to just put our lives on hold for you?!”
“Rikalia. Please.”
“No, Iruni! We have to have something to start with before we can make a plan, right? Why doesn’t anyone else see a problem with this?”
‘They do, you angry little knifecat! It’s just that everybody else but you understands that it’s going to take time to get this fixed! If I already knew what to do, I would’ve done it already!’
Rikalia bristled at being talked down to like that and looked to Iruni for any sort of support, but all she received was just a nod toward Celebi.
“She’s right, Rika. We’ll try everything we can think of, but right now we just don’t know what to do. That’s why we’re going back home to Mahogany. We need to go someplace safe so that we can take our time and figure things out.”
“But—” Rikalia looked to everybody else gathered around the firepit, finding no support from any of them. “…fine.” She crossed her arms and sat down on the ground.
“So?” Iruni asked. “Everything good?”
“I said I’d help, so I will!” Rikalia snapped back, not looking at him, but over to Celebi. “She doesn’t have anyone else, does she?”
‘More than I used to have…’
“Shut up.” The Sneasel broke her gaze and stared down at the ground.
Iruni sighed, glad that a worse situation didn’t erupt in front of him.
“I think it’s time we got started on dinner, don’t you guys think?” Iruni stood up, hoping to push past the conflict in the air. “Atanya; why don’t you go with Celebi and the two of you go look for some firewood.”
Atanya nodded and got to her feet, trotting a short distance away before realizing her companion was still sitting on the ground. Celebi was lost in thought, seemingly not even noticing one of her arms being tugged by a vine.
‘Hey, there’s something that’s been bugging me,’ Celebi said as she floated up into the air once more. ‘How exactly did Coralis avoid being hit by that car? Did he tell you? Did anything strange happen?’
“Not that I can think of. When they first told me about it, they just said somebody managed to warn them in time and they got out of its way.”
‘That…’ Celebi floated toward Atanya who was eagerly waiting to go on their little search. ‘That doesn’t seem right…’
“What do you mean?”
‘That doesn’t match the future I saw back then. Nobody warns him, and he gets hit…’
“Well, things have changed. Looks like some of it for the better.”
—————
My first day awake since being “caught” felt like it wouldn’t end. I hadn’t had to deal with so many other lifeforms at one time since the days that I spent with Coralis and his family. It still felt strange to be… seen; to be around others again.
It was also exhausting.
Despite how tired I felt, I was unable to fall asleep. Other than my own active mind keeping me awake, I wondered if my insomnia was also a side-effect of being contained in that capture sphere for as long as I was.
I’ll have to ask about that in the morning.
I was lying on the grass alone, staring up at the stars as I waited for that first hint of sleep to come along. Iruni’s overly-affectionate Bayleef had finally relented in her mission to smother me as she drifted off to sleep, allowing me some privacy. The night’s air still carried some of the warmth of the day, and there was hardly any wind to speak of. A few clouds drifted slowly across the sky, each one only large enough to block out a handful of stars at a time.
It was a quiet moment of peace that, if I were being honest, I really enjoyed. In a perfect world, all of my nights would be like this. In the past, peace and quiet like this never lasted very long. Things always seemed to lead to something terrible happening.
Not this time. Please?
Can things just… work out? Just this once?
…
…
A quiet snore came from somewhere around me, as if to answer my internal struggles with indifference.
In the dead of such a still and quiet night, it was easy to hear the slumbering murmurs of the other Pokémon around me.
Now that Iruni knew just how outnumbered he really was—more people wanted to hurt me than help me, after all—he had decided it would be best if all of his Pokémon stayed out of their Poké Balls at night while we made the trip to his home.
I was sure that somebody other than me was awake right now, keeping watch over this group that I’d found myself a part of. If anything were to attack us in the night, we’d at least be ready to fight back a little bit quicker. In terms of preventative measures, it certainly couldn’t make things worse.
All we could do is prepare for the worst and just hope that it never comes. That’s the worst thing about peaceful times; the fear that one day they’ll be replaced with times of hardship.
I didn’t know whether or not Iruni was still being monitored by Coralis and his allies after Sebastian had shown himself in Viridian City. The fact that he had even been suspected of being involved with me was extremely troubling. For Coralis to have actually considered it enough to try and find out if it was true, he must have had a pretty good reason. Was it something I did? Was my involvement in Iruni’s life that obvious to him?
I suppose that if we were being watched, then everything would have been ruined the second I was released from that ball of mine.
Ugh… thinking about that thing makes me sick. It made me lose so much time like it was nothing…
Iruni said that he had managed to convince Sebastian that he didn’t know me, but there was no way of knowing if Coralis himself would believe it.
I wished that I had the answers like I'd used to. I wished that I knew what to do anymore. I hadn’t known everything before, but at least I'd had something! Everything that I had seen and planned for was useless now.
Everything hinged on whether or not I could figure out how to use my time-travel correctly. How could I even practice when just a single jump in time could mean I would never find my way back here?
…
There had to be some way to control my powers out there. How else could I go on living? The only thing I’d learned about my powers in hundreds of years was how much they could hurt somebody. I refused to believe that’s all they were good for.
I sat up from my spot on the grass, feeling the need to distance myself from the handful of slumbering minds around me and from my own thoughts. I needed to clear my head.
I floated up into the air, taking in a deep breath of air.
That way, I decided.
Before I could begin my little stroll, a low, warning growl rumbled from behind me.
I turned around and saw Karros glaring at me in the moonlight. He had been curled up next to the long-dead firepit, seemingly asleep, but now had his head raised and pointed right at me.
I put my hands up, whispering, “I’m just going down to the beach for a bit, okay? I’m not going to run off. Promise.”
To my surprise, Karros’ expression relaxed almost immediately and laid his head back down where he had been faking being asleep.
“Is… that okay?” I asked. It felt so odd; I couldn’t even remember the last time I had asked for anyone's permission.
A lazy wag of his tail was the Houndoom’s response.
“Thank you.” I meant it. It was nice to know I had at least some small semblance of freedom in the situation I’d found myself in.
“I won’t be long.”
I didn’t actually know how long I would take, but I wanted to try and put Karros at ease. It had become obvious that out of all of Iruni’s Pokémon, his Houndoom was the one most focused on our task at hand. Even in just the short time I’ve been around this group, the Houndoom always took over as leader whenever Iruni might be focusing on some other thing.
But then, why did he let me leave the campsite so easily? I am precious cargo, after all.
I pondered this question as I silently floated down the short distance to the sandy beach, dodging the trunks and branches of trees as I went. Stopping short of the break in the tree line, I spotted what must have been the reason for Karros’ leniency.
The beach wasn’t unoccupied when I got there. Sitting on a large rock that jutted up from the sand was another Dark type of Iruni’s.
Rikalia had her back to me, staring out at the ocean and the waves that lapped at the shoreline. I watched her raise one of her paws to her mouth, only to quickly pull it away a moment or two later.
I couldn’t really tell what to make of that.
As I continued to look at her, that same creeping feeling that I had gotten when I first woke up came back. There was something about the Sneasel that I couldn’t put my finger on that felt wrong or out of place. She made my eyes itch; she almost looked blurry if I focused on her for too long.
When she held up one of her hands and covered her two claws in a thick sheet of ice, proceeding to once again hold it close to her mouth, a realization sparked in my head.
Wait… that’s what it is! She’s still a Sneasel!
It all clicked in my head in an instant; she still only had those two claws on each paw. By this point in the old timeline, she should’ve already evolved. I had been so used to the world and the way that it was going to be before I was captured, that anything that didn’t match what I had seen looked strange and alien to me.
Now I had a new set of burning questions on my mind. Why was she still a Sneasel? Didn’t she get a spare claw from that Weavile she met? If she did, what’s keeping her from changing? What even could? The visions of Rikalia’s future-self that I had glimpsed painted a very clear picture of a Pokémon who wouldn’t let anything stand in her way or stop her from getting what she wanted.
That one also didn’t hate me as much as this one does.
The more I thought about it, the less it made sense. Didn’t Rikalia want to evolve? Didn’t she want to be stronger? She hates being weak. Why wouldn’t Iruni be encouraging her to use that claw? He has to know about it, right? Unless…
She didn’t tell him about it!
She must be holding herself back for some reason… but why?
If the worst were to come to pass, Iruni and I would need her strength. We couldn’t afford to have someone in the group not at their best.
I lazily floated out from behind the tree trunk I had been spying behind and landed on the sand. I made my approach without trying to be quiet, but also not trying to get noticed. I just wanted her to notice me, not startle her.
Unfortunately, I ended up doing the exact thing I didn’t want to.
As I concentrated on calmly walking toward Rikalia’s spot, I stepped on a dead tree branch that had been buried slightly in the sand. The stick didn’t snap under my light footstep, but when I put my full weight on it, the branch suddenly shot up to the surface, and I let out a small yelp in surprise.
“Whoa!”
“Ah!” Rikalia jumped to her feet, quickly righting herself and locking eyes with me below her. Her claws extended, shattering the ice that she had covered them with. She looked over the scenery around her from atop her rock and calmed down, her panic quickly changing to annoyance.
“It’s just you?” Rikalia looked around the beach, checking to see if anyone else had come down to the shore.
“Sorry, I—”
Rikalia sat back down on the rock, facing away from me.
“Did someone ask you to bring me back to camp or something?” she asked.
“N-No. I was just going for a little walk. I didn’t know you were here.” I swear I saw her posture slump the tiniest bit after I gave her my answer.
“Then go walk somewhere else. You’re not someone I want to be alone with.”
“Oh yeah?” I floated up above the sand, closer to her spot on the rock. “Does that mean there is someone you want to be alone with right now?”
Rikalia immediately tensed up and shot a fierce glare my way, causing me to back away.
“Fine! I’ll go somewhere else!” Rikalia stood up and made to walk off, but I stopped her.
“Wait, I didn’t mean to sound like I was making fun of you! It’s obvious something’s going on, you know.”
“Nothing’s going on!” she yelled back, her back still turned to me.
“You can’t really expect me to believe that, do you?” I drew in closer and softened my voice. “I know you hate me, but I don’t hate you. Let me help you out here.”
“What I hate is how you keep pushing yourself into everyone else’s lives and act like you’re the answer to everything!”
Rikalia whipped around and swiped at the air between us with her claws, trying to get me to back away.
“You’ve done nothing but waste everybody’s time and put us in unnecessary danger!”
As she continued to yell, the surface of the rock slowly began freezing around her feet.
“Stop acting like you’re so great when all you’ve done is ruin everything around you!”
“Hey! At least I’m trying to clear the air between us! Why won’t you at least put in some effort? It hasn’t even been a full day since I was let out of that ball and I’m already tired of constantly butting heads with you, but it sounds like you want to be mad at me.”
“I want you out of our lives!”
“Well I’m here, so deal with it!”
I locked eyes with her and matched her stare for an agonizingly long time. Then, when it looked like Rikalia let go of a breath she had been holding, she looked away from me and sat back down on the rock in defeat.
“It feels like I’m the only one with a problem with you, and that makes me feel like I’m the problem.”
Rikalia pulled her legs in close to her chest and hugged them. She looked so much smaller like that.
“Everybody else seems to just… be okay with you and what you’ve done. To Coralis, to us, everything…” Rikalia shivered, anger shaking her whole body. “I can’t stand it. Why am I the only one?”
“I don’t think everyone else is as forgiving as you give them credit for.”
Rikalia looked up at me, confused.
“Everyone else,” I said, “is just being nice.”
“Oh, so I’m not nice? Thanks.”
“No! That’s not what I mean!” I shook my head. “You're just being honest, Rikalia. Everyone else, even Iruni, is only putting up with me because they realize they have to. They’re all hiding how they really feel about me.”
“Not Atanya…”
“…Yeah, probably not her. But you get what I mean, right?”
Rikalia looked out toward the sea, falling deep into thought.
I took a chance and landed on top of the rock. The thin sheet of ice that had formed from Rikalia’s outbursts had already melted in the warm, salty air.
“Is it just me that you’re angry at, or is there something else too?” I asked.
“…” she mumbled something that I couldn’t quite hear.
“That doesn’t sound like a ‘no’…”
“Yes, okay?! I’m…” Rikalia’s face twisted with distaste as she looked at me. “You’re really not who I want to talk to about this…”
“There’s no one else here, is there?” I crossed my arms and sat down on the rock across from the pouting Sneasel. “I think you’ve wanted to talk about it for a while, but you haven’t been able to. So out with it.”
“…why should I? What good will it do?”
“Because you’re holding yourself back because of it. You haven’t used that claw you got from—”
“How do you know about that?!” Rikalia backed away from me, pushing herself to the edge of the rock. She clutched the odd piece of armor that she wore on her left arm. “I didn’t tell anyone about it!”
“Obviously. Otherwise someone else would’ve talked you into using it already.”
Rikalia glared at me for a moment before calming back down. With her right hand, she pulled out the crescent-shaped claw from underneath the gauntlet before quickly replacing it in its hiding place.
My words must’ve scared her into thinking that I took it.
“Don’t tell.”
“Who?” I asked, knowing full well who.
“…Iruni.”
I was a little surprised that she gave me a direct answer, instead of waving me off with some vague response.
Does that mean she’s finally opening up?
“Alright,” I told her. “So why haven’t you used that thing yet?”
“…I’m not ready yet.”
Rikalia raised her right hand up in between us and extended her claws. They seemed fine at first glance, but small nicks could be seen in the dim moonlight.
“I keep biting my claws whenever I… get upset. I promised I wouldn’t use Jallen’s claw until I finally stopped doing this. Normally, I’d try and cover them in ice if I feel like I have to bite them, but sometimes I forget.”
Rikalia looked so disappointed as she told me about her destructive little habit. She does want to be better.
“And what upsets you?” I asked.
“You do, usually,” Rikalia looked away. “But… there’s been something else lately too.”
We were getting close to the core issue, I could tell.
I just was not prepared for what Rikalia was about to tell me.
“S-So… after we captured you…” Rikalia couldn’t keep still as she spoke, clenching her fists and looking around at anything but me as she spat out what was bothering her. “I kissed Iruni, but he’s been acting like nothing even happened.”
I shouldn’t have laughed.
It just slipped out.
“Pfft—” I caught myself too late. “I’m sorry!” I held up my hands in surrender.
“It’s not funny!” Rikalia finally met my eyes again, but with anger burning behind them.
“I mean it; I just wasn’t expecting to hear that!”
“Shut up…”
“You mean you used the ambush against me as an excuse to finally take the plunge and show how you felt about your human trainer?” I asked.
“Shut up!”
Rikalia hid her face behind her paws and turned away from me.
“It… just felt like the right time to. We finally beat you, and we were happy, and—”
“Okay, you don’t need to walk me through it.”
They attacked and captured me two months ago. Since then, from what Iruni told me, it should’ve been business as usual for those two. They were just going around and training, competing for little pins and prize money.
“So, what’s been going on?” I asked.
“Nothing! I thought that it was okay, and that we’d… be together after that, but Iruni just kept treating me like he always has.” The Sneasel brought her legs in close to her chest again. “Any time I tried to do anything like that again, he would act like he didn’t notice or just shrug it off…”
“Other than trying to sneak in some more kisses, have you asked him about any of this?”
“No, I couldn’t ever think of how to. And now I feel like I can’t talk to him about this now that you’re here.”
“Why not?”
“Because you’re all he’s going to be focusing on right now.” Rikalia shook her head. “Not me. And you know what? I know that’s what he should be doing. We need to figure out what to do with you as soon as possible. I get that. I just hate it when he acts like everything is fine between us when it’s not! Then when I try for a little bit more than what we have, he just pushes me away…”
Rikalia looked up at me with tears brimming in her eyes.
“Is it really that bad to want more?”
Oh great. Crying.
“Hey… don’t do that. I’m sure you guys’ll hit it off one day. You know he’s crazy about you, don’t you?”
“No! …I mean, I thought he was, but… if he cares about me like that then why doesn’t he act like it?”
“You’ll have to ask him yourself,” I told her. “That’s the only way you’ll know for sure.”
“I can’t just ask him about this!” Rikalia jumped to her feet and leaned over me. “Why do you always have the worst ideas? Now that you’re out of your ball and we’re focusing on helping your friend get back home, there’s no way he’ll have any time for me now!”
“Look,” I stood up, putting a hand on Rikalia’s shoulder. “Even if you don’t take my advice, doing nothing isn’t going to make you feel better. It’ll at least make it so you’re not spending your nights alone, guessing at what he’s thinking. Then you can stop destroying your claws and finally evolve.”
“It’s not that simple!”
“You’re the one making it complicated,” I offered, crossing my arms. “If I were in your position, I wouldn’t torture myself when the obvious solution was right there in my face. If you love that idiot, stop holding yourself back and do whatever it takes to make him yours.”
“…”
Rikalia backed away from me slightly, narrowing her eyes.
“What’s with that look?”
“…is that why you did it?” she asked, almost in a whisper.
“Did what?”
She pointed her claws at me, “That’s why you took Coralis from his time! You took him away just to have him all for yourself!”
“You shut your little mouth!” My voice sounded strange to me as I yelled. Almost as if my words weren’t my own.
“Don’t you dare compare me to you and your insignificant little dramas!”
“That’s what it is, isn’t it?” Rikalia accused. “Why else would you take him away from the family he loves?”
“Because I made a mistake!”
“What was that? Falling in love with someone who didn’t love you back?”
The next thing I knew, I was alone on the top of the rock. I heard a thud and a grunt of pain, and looked down over the edge. Rikalia was lying face-down in the sand.
“Oh no.”
I jumped off of the rock and floated down to the sand.
“Are you okay?”
I reached out to the Sneasel, but the air around her was shockingly frigid. I pulled my hand back quickly, but frost had already begun to cover my fingers.
“…I knew it!” Rikalia slowly pushed herself up from the ground, growling at me. “I knew you had to have some selfish reason for taking Coralis away from his own time. You don’t deserve our help!”
“You shouldn’t talk about things you don’t know anything about, you little runt…”
“Deny it then!”
Rikalia leapt at me, claws out.
I pushed myself back with a telekinetic blast that passed harmlessly around the Sneasel, leaving her attacks to hit nothing but air.
“I heard what you said,” Rikalia screamed at me. “That you’d do anything to make sure you could have the one you loved! You said that because you already did it!”
Rikalia jumped up into the air and brought her two sets of claws swiping downward toward me.
This needed to stop.
I braced myself on the ground and brought my arms up above my head, catching her wrists and holding onto her arms.
Rikalia leaned into her assault, pushing back against me with all of her might, doing her best to get her claws into me.
“Oh wow,” I said, forcing back Rikalia’s arms with my own strength. “Just think; when you finally learn how to get over yourself, you’ll be an absolutely terrifying Weavile!”
“What?”
Rikalia looked at me in shock as I continued to overpower her. She tried digging the claws on her feet into the wet sand to gain some leverage, but the panicking Sneasel was unable to stop me from forcing her back.
“How are you doing this?”
“I guess you didn’t know, huh? You’re not stronger than me!”
Letting go of her arms, and with a stomp of my foot, I conjured forth a vine that sprouted from the sand between us, knocking into Rikalia’s chest. The impact was strong enough to send the Sneasel staggering back a few steps, but I wasn’t done just yet. I guided the plant to wrap itself around Rikalia’s body and pick her up off the ground. The Sneasel struggled helplessly in the air for a moment, trying to claw and freeze the plant-life I had control over.
“So stop acting like you are!”
I commanded the tendril with a wave of my hand to whip Rikalia up into the air in a slight arc, sending her out over the ocean. The Sharp Claw Pokémon splashed down into the water a few feet off shore.
“Cool off for a bit. You clearly need it.”
I turned around and began heading back to the campsite, but a large and thick icicle came crashing down in front of me.
Looking back over my shoulder, Rikalia stood surrounded by frozen seawater and her fur and claws coated in a layer of ice.
“Don’t turn your back on me!” she yelled, growling through gritted teeth. She reached beside herself with both paws and pulled out two long, sharp spears of ice from the frozen sea around her.
I guess “cool off” was a poor choice of words…
Rikalia leapt at me from her solid platform of ice and threw one of the icicles down toward me. I dove to the right, landing in the sand. I quickly rolled to avoid Rikalia stabbing down with the other icy spear.
“Stop running from me!” She yelled, swiping her ice-covered claws at me, pelting me with sharp chunks of ice.
Each impact sent a terrible chill through my entire body. It was all I could do to cover my face with my arms. When the attacks stopped, I slowly lowered my arms. It looked like Rikalia had simply stopped herself from attacking me as I cowered in the sand, holding her arms still above her head, but a chill in the air made me look up. All of the ice she had created was coming together above me, forming a giant icicle.
“Whoa, easy now…” I held up my hands in defeat. “You got me. I’m sorry, okay?”
“You think I want your apology?”
“Well what do you want?” I glanced back up at my impending doom. “Because I want that as far away from me as possible, if that’s alright?”
“I want you gone! I want you out of our lives! I wish you never bothered with anyone! All you do is—”
A bright light and the roar of flame suddenly caught Rikalia and I off-guard. The flames blasted the giant icicle that Rikalia had been building, melting it in an instant. A wave of salty water came crashing down on top of me; definitely better than that sharp block of ice, anyway.
Rikalia recoiled at the sudden flame, stepping back away from me.
I turned in time to see Karros running toward us from the trees and then take a leap over me to get in between myself and the angry Sneasel.
“Kar, stop it!” Rikalia tried to get around her teammate and get to me. “She needs to—”
Tried.
Karros lunged forward and grabbed her arm with his jaws. With a strong toss, he sent Rikalia flying backwards into the sand away from me.
Rikalia quickly got to her feet and extended her claws.
“Is that what you’re going to do?” Karros asked her. “Are you going to fight me now? Me?”
“Are you going to get in my way again?” she asked.
“No.” Karros shook his head. “I’m here to take her back to camp.”
The Houndoom turned around and walked toward me, nodding for me to get up.
“Follow me. That’s an order.”
“You don’t give me orders, you mutt.” I stood up and wiped some water from my forehead. I wanted to settle things with little Rikalia. She needed to know that she doesn’t get to accuse me of such awful things without a proper response.
But something was wrong. Rikalia had been ready to square off against one of her oldest friends just a moment ago, so why was she backing away and—?
Oh…
Karros leaned closer to me and growled, “I’m not the one giving the order. Now come with me, or you’re getting dragged back.”
Confirming my suspicions, I turned around and saw Iruni standing just past the trees, looking down at myself and Rikalia a few feet away.
“You heard him,” Iruni said. “Camp.”
“Look, I…”
“Now.”
I had wanted to try and smooth things over before anybody overreacted to the situation, but it was obvious that opportunity had already passed. I had lost my temper and Rikalia had responded exactly how she would have. There wasn’t anything to say.
I held my tongue, but not entirely out of respect for the young human’s orders.
As I made my way back towards the trees with Karros by my side, I could tell most of Iruni’s anger, and his disappointment, wasn’t directed at me. As I passed by him standing at the edge of the sand, it was clear his mind was focused entirely on Rikalia.
Karros led me back through the trees and away from the tense silence on the beach. As we continued our way back to where the rest of Iruni’s Pokémon were waiting for us, I could feel something creeping up my back. Like something that was left unfinished, I felt that I needed to go back toward that sandy beach.
Even though that feeling was pulling me back, I couldn’t find it in myself to turn around. Not because I would be disobeying Iruni or my fiery escort, but because I was afraid.
Afraid of what might happen if I made things any worse.
Can any one of us afford to leave things half-said anymore? If I don’t set everything straight, can I count on those two to do it for me?
…
…
…no.
I can’t.
She needs to know.
In one swift moment, I turned and flew back toward the beach, the sound of Karros’ surprise quickly becoming distant.
No more stalling. No more holding back.
Whatever happens, happens.
I won’t run away from it.
No matter how it turns out.
—————
To Be Continued…
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- 34
- 35
- 36
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The Dark Type