Rapture

Eclipse

Darkness… Darkness with nothing but the sound of water entered the senses of the two girls who were still tied and left in this underground labyrinth.

It had been over an hour since Red had received the retreat order and he gathered his Pokémon and ran, leaving the two girls stranded in this place. Neither had spoken a word since their defeat at the boy’s hands.

Finally Misty had enough of waiting in the silence, “Erika… please tell me… what happened? I… I thought you said…” The girl sniffed hard, “I thought you said you’d be able to knock Red out of the hypnosis he was under…”

It was Erika’s turn to release a few sobs, “Oh Misty…” Erika couldn’t quite find her voice, “It’s horrible… it’s so horrible… it’s…” She couldn’t speak straight as just thinking about it was making her emotional.

Misty was trying to be patient with her friend, “Please tell me…”

Erika nodded to herself attempting to regain some composure, “He… he… Red… he’s gone Misty… Forever… There’s no way to get him back…”

Misty’s eyes clouded over as she struggled to not give in yet, “Why?”

“Three years ago… Team Rocket… they captured him…” Misty had always thought something like that might have happened but didn’t say anything waiting for Erika to continue. “Misty… they… t… t… tortured him… He was strapped to a machine… for days… was left being electrocuted by Magneton…” Misty’s heart broke a little bit more… imagining the pain Red must have endured…

Erika weighted whether she should tell Misty the next part or not, “…Misty… then…. then they…” Erika swallowed hard, “He was raped Misty…”

Misty’s stomach suddenly knotted and she thought for sure she was going to throw up. “noooo…” Misty cried weakly.

“I… I couldn’t see who the man was that did it… but… the trauma destroyed the person Red used to be… it’s like every person truly is made of glass… We do everything we can to protect our glass selves… we put up defenses and barriers… but if something gets through and shatters the glass… it’s impossible to put it back together. And Red… he was shattered…”

Misty did her best to roll over to face Erika and leaned her head against the girl. The two of them cried to each other for a while longer.

“But why… after all that… why would he join the ones who did that to him?” Misty couldn’t understand that part.

Erika thought of how best to put it, “…Where that glass self once was within Red, something new has taken its place… and… as wrong and impossible as it may seem… that new being has fallen in love with the one that destroyed the original…”

“You mean… he’s with the one who raped him?! In… a relationship?!” Misty asked in shock.

Erika nodded in the dark, “Yes… and that’s why Red is now a general in Team Rocket…”

It was so much to take in. Misty just couldn’t believe it… “He… He left us to die down here… didn’t he?”

Erika sighed, “It is possible those were his intentions…”

The two huddled together as close as they could, not speaking anymore. Time passed and they fell asleep on the stone floor.

Misty started to dream. In her dreams she saw what could have been. She saw Red wearing his bright colored clothes and smiled as they played in the grassy fields outside of the city.

The two of them playfully battled their Pokémon, knowing each other’s tactics very well by now. From there they lied in the grass and just talked for a while staring up at the slightly cloudy blue sky. The two poked at each other, and ended up wrestling enough to start rolling down the hill’s soft grass. They landed laughing, Red on top. The two stopped, and in a mystifying moment of seduction, looked into each other’s eyes becoming awestruck in the beauty they saw in each other. Red closed the distance between them, pressing his lips against Misty’s in a tentative kiss which Misty accepted and deepened. Wrapping their arms around each other, the kiss became more passionate as the two expressed how they truly loved each other.

Red quickly turned away and rolled off though. Misty reached out to Red but her hand was gently pushed away. Red stood and walked away from her giving her a sad look as he left. Misty was left not understanding what happened. She felt as though she was going to cry. A few tears escaped her eyes when a hand reached around her face from behind and wiped them.

Misty turned around and was pulled into Erika’s comforting embrace. Misty was confused but felt at ease here. Erika pulled Misty’s face to her and shared in the same kiss she’d had with Red only moments before. A heated, passionate... yet sad kiss.



Misty’s senses started to return to her as she found herself waking from her dream. She was still tied and lying next to Erika in this underground aqueduct. She groaned and struggled against the binds a little. She struggled harder feeling as if a voice was calling to her and she had to try fiercely to get free.

As the fogs of sleep lifted from her mind she realized she really could hear faint voices calling her name and Erika’s. Someone was down here looking for them!

“Erika, Erika wake up!” Misty nudged her friend to wake her from her sleep.

“What?” Erika’s eyes opened weakly.

“Someone’s looking for us, help me call them, OVER HERE!” Misty started yelling.

“Misty, Erika, where are you?!”

“HELP!!” Misty and Erika started yelling together. The voices came closer

“We’re coming! Hold on!”

“Oh thank god!” Misty and Erika laughed to each other. Misty realized she was laughing… actually happy to be getting out of this place. Remembering her dream she looked at Erika and smiled. She wasn’t ready to give up on Red… But having Erika by her side made life so much more bearable.

Footsteps were coming closer to the room, “Over here!” Misty shouted again.

Several people ran into the room with flashlights, “Oh my gosh, Misty! Erika! Are you two alright?!”

Misty recognized Brock’s voice, “Yes, just please get us out of these things…”

Eyes adjusting to the light from the flashlights, Misty saw that Brock was here with Blue and Green, along with several of their gym members.

Brock quickly cut the vines off of the girls and released them, “What happened here?” he asked.

Misty immediately jumped up and hugged Brock, thankful to be released. “It was terrible!”

Blue kneeled down and inspected the vines that were holding the two immobilized. It only took a moment of looking at the vines under the light before he said, “These are Venusaur vines…”

“What happened to the gym?” Misty asked quickly trying to avoid the confrontation she knew was coming.

“The gym is fine Misty!” One of her senior gym members spoke up, “Things weren’t looking good we were being overrun pretty badly. But then Blue showed up and reorganized everyone. He took charge of the battle and beat back a lot of Team Rocket’s men all on his own!”

Misty nodded and smiled at Blue, “I owe you a lot for that… Thank you Blue.”

Blue looked up at the girl with a scowl on his face, “And what was going on down here that was so important to draw you away from the battle in front of your gym?”

Misty looked away for a moment, knowing everyone was about to take this pretty bad.

“We saw Red…” Erika answered for her.

Everyone became deathly silent and stared at Erika making sure she wasn’t making some bad joke.

Misty nodded, “It’s true… I saw Red and followed him down here…”

“And he battled you?” Blue asked already knowing the answer from seeing the thick Venusaur vine.

The two gym leaders nodded.

“Where did he go?” Blue asked sounding almost threatening.

“He left down that tunnel, but it was hours ago…” Misty explained.

Green looked from face to face, “This doesn’t make any sense, why would Red battle you?”

“It wasn’t just a battle…” Erika got up and walked across the room, kneeling by the ashes that still remained there.

“Oh no…” Misty covered her mouth remembering the attack that killed Erika’s Bellosom.

“What?” Green asked kneeling by Erika.

“These ashes are all that remains of Bellosom… She was killed by Red’s Pikachu…” Everyone’s eyes widened in disbelief.

Brock ran over to Erika’s side to examine the ashes, “But Erika… plants are naturally grounded… electricity should have little effect on them… how could a Pikachu have done this?”

Erika nodded, “Normally so… however the sheer intensity of the heat from Pikachu’s attack caused Bellosom to combust and leave nothing but this…” Erika’s hand reached into the ashes and clenched some in her fist, “…So as I said… this wasn’t a battle… it was a trap…”

Green shook her head trying to comprehend, “What do you mean?”

“Red lured us here specifically. If it hadn’t been for Blue showing up to turn the tides at the gym then Red would have taken both Misty and myself captive for Team Rocket…”

Green gripped Erika’s shoulders tightly, “No! There’s no way Red would do such a thing! This has to be some kind of trick… an imposter or… or… Maybe it was him and he’s under some kind of mind control! Isn’t that possible?!”

“This is going to be hard to understand…” Erika started, “but believe me when I say he’s a part of them now…” Erika stood clenching her Bellosom’s ashes in her hands, a few tears shone off her shadowed face. “I looked into his mind and saw glimpses of the last three years… Red has been put through horrors I can’t even describe. They’ve changed him. Changed him from the gentle loving boy we all once knew… into an extremely dangerous enemy…”

Blue turned away in thought considering everything the girls were telling them, “If this is all true…” He finally spoke, “then all of you are in grave danger…”

Misty cocked her head in confusion, her eyes not moving from the back of Blue’s head, “All of us? You’re making it sound like you’re excluding yourself from our group? Don’t you think you should be working with us to solve this…? Together there might be something we can all do to help Red!”

Blue crossed his arms. With his back to the others he remained silently pensive for a few more moments, “There may not be anything anyone can do…”

“What do you mean?” Green asked.

Blue walked over to Erika and placed his hands over hers, “If Red truly did this to Bellosom…” Blue gritted his teeth, “I just don’t know…”

The others understood. Red never would have intentionally hurt any Pokémon before… It would have devastated him knowing he actually killed one.

Peering into the darkness Misty made out the slightest hint of color. Reaching for it she picked up Red’s cap. Bringing it back into the light everyone saw it truly was the same hat Red had worn all those years ago.

“So what do we do…?” Green looked saddened down at the cap.

Blue grunted and turned angrily heading toward an exit.

“Blue, where are you going?” Green called to him.

Stopping for a moment he turned his head just enough to see the group of them over his shoulder, “The way I see it we have one option… And that’s find Team Rocket…” Blue fist clenched so tight he began to noticeable shake even in this dark light, “AND MAKE THEM PAY FOR WHAT THEY’VE DONE!” He violently threw a Poké Ball releasing Charizard who formed with a ferociously angry howl to match its master’s. Blue jumped on its back and flew through the tunnels before anyone could try and react. The glow from Charizard’s tail phased out of sight down the hallway.

Brock shook his head taking everything in also, “Wow… what do you think he’s going to do?”

Erika sighed sadly, “There’s really nothing he can do… Team Rocket’s base is very well hidden. The only lead we have is that the attack originated from Saffron City which makes Sabrina, who is the Gym Leader there once again, look very suspicious… But she wasn’t among the attackers… nor did I see anything in Red’s mind to prove her continued affiliation with Team Rocket… And we can’t very well wage war on Saffron to demand someone give us information on Team Rocket either…”

“I don’t know what he’s going to do…” All eyes turned to Green in response to her trembling voice… “I… I’ve never seen that kind of emotion from Blue before… He’s so angry…” She blinked and looked at the others trying to make them understand, “He’s never angry! He’s never anything besides calm and sometimes pensive.”

Brock nodded, “It’s understandable though… They were almost brothers you know? Rivals from the same town, in constant competition with each other. They may have had many rough run ins with each other… but deep down they share a bond like family… Believe me… I felt the same way just hours ago when Koga threatened my little brother… I don’t know what I would have done had Koga actually… hurt him…”

Erika solemnly started walking back out of the room also, “It does us no good to remain here… Let’s get back to the gym and we can assess the situation better from there.”

Everyone nodded in agreement, and Brock led the way back.

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