We're only a yard away from the edge of the lake when Reginae gives out.
He buckles and falls over as if he was punched in the face. "Reginae." He's not getting up.
The four of us still remaining rush over. His face scrunches up and his breathing fades in and out, marked by periods of hyperventilation and then times when it cuts out altogether. It's as if he's choking on his own air. "They're in my head. I'm so scared."
"Who?" I ask him, both profoundly curious and interested in buying some time. Despite the urge to run away and the blood still coating my fingers, I stay by his side and begin to get out my Pokeball.
"I'm okay. I'm okay. I'm f-fine. I'm going to be- He's coming, Ashley. I can hear him! He's coming for us. Both of us. We need to hide and-"
"Just breathe." I tell him, stroking his leaf. I try to steady my hand but it's shuddering so hard I'm afraid I'm going to yank it of of his head. "Whatever you're seeing, it's not real."
"Not yet it isn't." he says grimly.
"Do it." Rose tells me.
Reginae looks up into my eyes. "I can hear his voice. Ashley, this isn't even about us at all. It's worse. We have to stop them or they're going to awaken him."
"Awaken who?!" I ask.
Rose presses a fingerpad against my back. "It doesn't matter! He's losing control!"
I have one hand on his neck now. The blood runs down his scales like soft rain down a window pane. "Please tell me more. I need to know. I-"
Rose snatches the Pokeball and throws it at Reginae. I look up at her.
"He knew something." I tell her.
"He was in pain!"
"Whatever Team Rocket is up to, we need all the information we can get. If somehow the waves they're sending out triggered some repressed memories, I need to know about them because-"
"Because what? Because you need to save the world? Look. You've already put us all in danger in the long term. You don't need to needlessly endanger us in the short term whenever it suits your damn agenda." When I have no response, she finishes, "Now let's go kill a Gyarados."
Fang whispers something like "Tough luck" to me but even he seems cold. Ten is equally distant and his glassy stare reminds me a little too much of the endless dead faces I've had to contend with over the past few months. When we make it to the edge of the lake, the Gyarados is right where it was last time, but this go around the sky is clear. The little cabin on the lake where the team and I stayed the night before is vacant and the lights are off.
The Gyarados bays above us.
"Ten! Take to the skies. Fang, I want you to engage it from the lakeside. I'll take the midsection and try to do some of the heavy hitting. Are we clear?"
Fang nods.
"Yes'm." Ten says, taken aback.
"Right! Go!" Rose snaps. The move off and the Gyarados turns to Ten, as planned, and its massive column of Dragon Rage hits just under his wing, barely scratching him.
Rose stares up at the beast with utmost contempt. She looks at me from the corner of one eye and breathes, "Lugia."
"What?"
"When you were talking to Reginae. They're going to awaken Lugia."
With that, she takes off into the air.
No. They can't.
It makes too much sense.
I'm too overwhelmed to process the repercussions of the idea. Instead, I watch in awestruck terror as my Pokemon dive and soar around the head of the massive and incredibly enraged Gyarados, which bellows and without warning, curls in on itself. I'm too late to call out as its jaws clench around Rose's waist.
Crunch.
The world jolts around me and I'm thrown back into my past self. The air around me grows even colder and the time of day is unclear, hidden behind storm clouds. I'm wearing a green hoodie, my hair is far better groomed, and the ringing in my ears is gone. I feel some relief but then I grow cold with shock. The rest of my team is clustered around the lake, watching something above us and then I see the body.
She falls onto the ground just past me, bleeding from the teeth marks of the behemoth. Her eyes are not panicked, rather, she looks peaceful, almost sleepy. She smiles as I approach and I want to fall into her arms, to embrace her, to hold her one last time...
"Lilly." I whisper. The hysteria of the situation begins to set in as the blood stains my clothes and my fingers. I get out a Hyper Potion and spray until my finger is numb, then begin to rub it in. "You have to be okay. I'm not going to lose you again." I focus on her waist area and keep trying to apply pressure to the wound, to wipe the blood off, to do anything to stop the unceasing reality of the deep punctures.
The Hyper Potion grows sticky in my hands as I rub it in, uncapping another and almost pouring it into the wounds. Blood darkens my fingers and I finally look up at her face. It's not Lilly at all. It's Rose.
"I'm not Lilly."
I snap back to the present and look into Rose's dark and emotionless expression. Her breathing is calm and though the bites are deep, she seems to still be completely conscious and even-headed.
"Something happened to you when you started over, didn't it? Whenever I feel through your mind, I know there's some kind of empathy there, but it's never for us. You were more excited by the notion your team might be out there than anything we've ever done for you. Do I really mean that little to you?"
"Rose." I say quietly. "Please don't do this. You're hurt. I just need to-"
"Shut up! You don't even understand how lucky you are! You're human. You get to train a team and grow up and live a life outside of training and battling and fighting and-" her breath shudders. "You know no Pokemon would even get a second chance. None here, anyways. We're just toys for humans to throw away! Just weak-minded, disposable toys." Her breath shudders again. In the distance, I hear Ten's battle cry. They're holding up.
"You're not disposable." I swear, my eyes welling over with tears from the pain from her injury and from her words alike. "I'm going to save you. Just hang on. I p-promise you won't die."
"I'm not going to die, Ashley." Rose's eyes are cold. "But I'm about to go completely nuts and if you don't put me back in my Pokeball I will kill you."
Her wings flutter erratically as she struggles to break though my grip. I feel her wounds tense and my eyes flicker gold as we share in a moment of pain. When I blink, I've pulled out a Pokeball and I'm holding it against her head.
She falls away in a blaze of red and I turn to see the last two members of my team still fighting. Ten is going for the Gyarados's eyes and fins in order to provoke it while Fang bounds along beneath him, hurling powerful shadow attacks at the Gyarados before dashing away from the Gyarados's jaws.
There's a painful thunk as Ten's stick embeds itself in the Gyarados's eye and a well placed Shadow Ball hits it in the gut seconds after.
With one last mortified roar, the Gyarados falls across the radius of the lake, its head sideways in the shallows just feet from where Rose was sitting in the bloodied grass. As I turn I look into its one empty eye staring out at nothing and I think of Rage, wondering if this could be the same Gyarados by some odd coincidence. I wonder if this could be like The gash on my face stings and I feel the thick covering of blood and potion grow heavy on my hands.
Pained, I kneel over on the ground beside the Gyarados, my last two Pokemon flanking me like phantoms. We don't move out of fear that if we break the silence another one of us will fall to the madness. I'm just as suspect as them at this point and it makes my blood cold as ice water. I know there's something to do but I can't remember what or why.
I don't realize I'm crying until someone taps my shoulder.
I swing around to see a man standing there. I can barely make him out and I have no idea who he could be. Human names have deserted me in the hellish buzzing that still pervades my ears.
"I'm Lance of the Elite Four." says the man before me, his outline familiar in an incomprehensible way- I feel like I should remember him from somewhere but my brain is a mess of static and unanswered questions. He holds out his hand and I take it, only for him to push me upwards so that I'm standing just below his level. He's about a head taller than me and has on a distinctly professional (if a bit outlandish) uniform, all dark colors complimented by a blood red cape. His hair is almost the same shade of red and it sticks up like a brand of fire on his head. "You must be Ashley, correct?"
I nod again.
He smiles sadly. "Our last hope, it would seem. I don't usually come to Johto, but Morty was highly insistent that I come here. I admit this is worse than I could have imagined, but between the two of us we may yet be able to stop the signal before nightfall." When my expression fails to change from pure fear, he kneads his his forehead between his thumb and pointer finger and says, "What I'm trying to say is that you're in good hands... but we have to hurry. Now, keep your wits about you- Team Rocket is about to have a date with destiny."
(A/N And that's our night. Is Rose being unfair? What the hell is Team Rocket up to? Will Morty ever be free of the closet? Feedback is heavily appreciated as always.)
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