"We're going to be doing what?" groans Reginae, throwing his leaf back.
"Good. I can't wait to test this out on the native fauna." D'spinas slices her drill downwards and and a spray of poisonous needles seem to appear from nowhere, landing on a nearby tree. She gives me a dry look, pleased with her performance, and I move back away.
"Alright. D'spinas, you need to calm down and everyone else needs to be a tad bit more enthusiastic about this. It's just one day of grinding for Whitney, and it's only because we're all going to die otherwise." I say, surveying my entire team with a stern glance. Their recent lack of enthusiasm has been aggravating, but then again, it's not like I radiate happiness either.
"Come on, it'll be-" Sunny pauses, then adds, "- uh. It could be interesting? Maybe we'll make some new friends! Don't we need a sixth member?"
"I withdrew Clay, but he still hates me for no reason whatsoever."
"Does 'no reason' mean 'because you're the reincarnation of a legendary Pokemon and have already failed to save the world once'?" asks D'spinas. "That's a fair reason."
"Alright, we're going to not talk about that. Can we please just get on with the grinding now?" I ask.
"Really, though, we should probably get a new member." Sunny suggests kindly. Her yellow eyes peer up into mine, sad but resolute. "We don't know if he'll come around."
Rose cooes in her arms. The tiny Togepi hasn't spoken at all since its hatching, but it still seems to be the team's new favorite.
"I'll try to bring him out later." I say, gazing away boredly. Of course, by later I mean maybe once in a blue moon but that's not entirely fair, either. "Are we ready or not?"
"Ready." call the assembled Pokemon, and with a single nod from me, they're off.
I watch in excitement as they pace the grass, with D'spinas leading the charge. Sunny hangs back with Reginae, who has lifted Rose up onto his back. The Togepi calls excitedly as Sunny and Reginae slice through the grass with razor-sharp leaves. Sunny is making obnoxious cooing noises and calling the baby sickeningly sweet things like "sunny side up" and "the best little bundle of joy in all of Johto."
D'spinas is being... well, D'spinas, and Ten is using his stick to spar with a Nidorina. He seems to be fending her off, or at least prodding her slightly further away, but then she snaps the fragile twig in two with a single harsh kick. Ten calls in alarm and indignation, but she's already retreated into the grass.
He turns away to tend to the broken pieces and the Nidorina launches out of the bushes again. "You really don't know the terrain, do you?" she teases, sharp teeth curled into a teasing grin.
"N-no!" Ten winces, "Please don't hurt me. I rush forwards to assist. As I draw closer, I see that all of my other Pokemon have clustered around as well, all of them ready to attack if the situation escalates. I beam with pride.
The Nidorina backs up, holding her hands in the air. "I'm not tryin' for a conflict. Just a friendly spar."
"You broke my stick!" Ten cries.
"Relax, kid. It's a stick. I'm pretty sure we're surrounded by them."
Ten pouts, looking at the grass with mild indignation. "I'm not seeing anything."
"Radishes." she swears, as if uttering some terrible curse and not a vegetable name, "I'll get you a stick myself." She sniffs as if she's really and truly offended, and then backs away only to run into D'spinas. "I'm not your enemy here. Just a Pokemon trying to keep herself alive, and sparring so happens to be the best way to do that. If you're travellin' round here, you'd better be wary. The Pokemon trainers in these parts are nasty."
"I'll make sure to watch out for that."
"Watch out for what?" A trainer tromps through the grass, and I find myself only a few feet away from him. I back up and he takes a few more steps. "Got a problem? I'm a trainer." He presses his Pokeball against my stomach, which looks ridiculously stupid but I'm sure is an attempt at intimidation. "We're supposed to fight now, you know."
I groan. A quick sweep of the area reveals that the Nidorina from the earlier has already disappeared back into the grass. It's a shame, really- she seemed nice enough, even if she came on a bit strong (Arceus knows I'm good at that). "I accept," I tell him, teeth clenched.
He nods, backing up to give us a nice wide battlefield. "Pikachu, go!"
"Who volunteers?" I ask from the team.
Electric type, electric type... Clay.
Nope.
My Pokeball clicks open and out comes a resentful Geodude with his arms crossed about himself. "Need me for something?"
"Yeah, actually. We're kind of about to fight here-"
The trainer speaks up, "Can we start now?"
"Yeah, no! Give me a second!" I call, considering flipping him off, and then return to speaking with Clay, who looks absolutely elated about the entire situation.
"Can someone else please do it? I want no part in this. I told you that."
"Alright, do you know anyone else on the team who has an immunity to Electric-type attacks?" I ask.
"Well, Sunny seems to want to fight. Isn't that half the battle right there?" He emphasizes the last sentence with a veiled glare upwards.
I turn to see Sunny waving in the background. She does look excited, but Sunny always looks excited. It's not really the best indicator.
"Sunny is weak to Ground-type moves. She's a Flying-type." I explain, aggravated that this is even a problem.
"Grass-type! Grass-type and Electric-type. So it should only be normally effective." calls Sunny, immensely proud of herself.
"Can we start now?" asks the trainer. "I really do want to kick your ass and take your money, but I don't have all day."
"No!" say all three of us at once. The trainer throws his hands up in the air, but his Pokemon makes no move.
"Both of you are the worst." I inform them, burying my hands in my palms.
"I can handle it! Promise!" Sunny chirrups.
"Okay, but as soon as your health goes under half, I'm going to pull you out."
"Deal." She springs forwards and Clay draws himself back out of the battlefield. Sunny's leaves twitch and the Pikachu strikes like a bolt of jagged lightning. She throws herself out of the way, retaliating with a spray of leaves, and they burn up in the air around it as it deflects them all with an angry spray of small bolts.
The Pikachu dashes forwards again, this time far to the right of her, and I call, "PoisonPowder!" Sunny obeys and as the Pikachu moves forwards for a Quick Attack it is covered in the venomous purple powder. It still hits her like a truck and a golden bond pulls at me, almost yanking me sideways. I'm surprised by how painful it is.
"That's it, you're going out-" I say, but Sunny uses Synthesis and shakes her head.
She hops up for another offensive and the Pikachu lets out a feral cry and shoots a thunderbolt straight downwards, hitting her straight out of the air. She falls like a leaf and Reginae cries out. My Pokedex dings a thousand warning signs.
Critical.
Damnit damnit damnit-
From the Pikachu's large mouth rise the huge rodent incisors with which it could tear her away from us forever, but another rodent flies from the shadows.
"Get-" The Nidorina kicks the Pikachu across the face, "- away!"
The Pikachu cries in panic before lying back on the ground, its face bloodied. The purple poison is still eating away at its skin and fur. It looks almost as much of a mess as the scorched body before me, which is missing an entire leaf from the head. The beady yellow eyes are still open, but the expression is glazed and lifeless.
Reginae rushes forwards and so do I, brandishing a Potion. My hands are numb as I spray them on but it's not working. Rose begins to cry.
Sunny. Poor, sweet, innocent Sunny.
"Oh Arceus." I say, cupping her in my arms. The body is still warm. In fact, just from the heat of the strike, she's as hot as if she had a fever. "Sunny. Sunny please-"
I reach out for her but she's already gone. The golden energy that bound us has already dissipated into nothingness. I lay her down gently, tears bubbling up in my eyes, and back away slightly.
Rose whispers, "Sunny." She drags out the 'y', then repeats, "Sunnyyyyyy..." She stumbles forth to touch the body and D'spinas holds her back with a single outstretched arm.
"Name's Luna." says the Nidorina. She dips her head ceremoniously, mournful eyes gazing back up towards the sky. "I apologize for the loss of your comrade."
I just nod, and Reginae whispers, "She's not dead."
I can't say anything to him. I get to my feet slowly and realize that one of my Pokemon is missing. I touch the body once, mutter "I'll be back," and slip away to where Clay sits at the edge of the forest."
"You could have saved her, you know." The reproachfulness in my voice gets him to turn around when nothing else will.
Clay folds in on himself slightly. His stone hands grasp around his own body. Although he's unable to truly shiver because of his composition, he shakes slightly. "I didn't ask for this."
"That's fine," I say. "I'll release you."
"You'll go all the way back to Dark Cave?" he says, incredulously.
"Absolutely not. Backtracking is an amazing way to waste time and get more teammates killed without accomplishing anything. There are several offshoots of Dark Cave around the region. I believe the next one is near... Blackthorn? How does that sound?"
He leers. "How will you be getting me to Blackthorn, exactly?"
I hold out his Pokeball. "Nothing can hurt you in there."
"It's terrifying in there. Would you want to spend entire months in a startling abyss, unable to feel, breathe, or think?" he says. "Not like you'd know."
While I still don't truly grasp all the memories of my past life, I feel quite firmly that he's right. Anyways, people generally don't capture legendaries. As far as I know, Celebi has never been subdued by anyone. "No," I reply curtly, "I wouldn't."
"You'd still put me in one of those for months." He swivels around with a stone fist and turns back to me.
"This isn't my decision. It's yours." I state.
He grumbles, "One heck of a choice. I assume you want me to thank you for your generosity next."
"Damn right I do."
"I'll do you one better. I'll try to come out and help every so often." When he sees the edges of my mouth lift, he adds, "Not for you. For her."
"Good enough." I say, and he disappears in a flash of scarlet.
When I return, Reginae, Rose, and Ten are still sitting by the burial mound we made for her.
"Where's Luna?" I ask, crouching near to the ground.
"Who cares? She's not even sad." Reginae mourns, then adds, eyes filled with chlorophyll, "Neither are you."
I glance away. The tears still boil beneath my eyes, but I don't contradict him. "I had to take... take care of someone." My fingers clench around a Pokeball.
Luna nods. She holds up one of my empty Pokeballs. "Consider it two someones. If you need help beating Whitney, I'm going to make sure you don't lose anyone else along the way."
I want to feel some relief in this, but I'm still too numb. "Thanks," I manage to say, but Reginae glares at her.
"You could have interfered sooner." Reginae snaps.
"I know."
"You could have saved her."
"So could you." she retorts.
Reginae draws back, and for a second, I think he's going to attack her. He takes a deep breath and mutters, "It's never happening again."
"Never ever," Ten confirms.
I think of Bronze, the solitude at which he once stood at funerals like these. I think of his silent anger and more than anything else, I remember with pain how many times we both failed.
The tears break loose in earnest and this time the team doesn't stare at me because we're all sobbing.
((WELP THIS IS A CHRONALILLY BOOK DON'T SAY I DIDN'T TELL YOU SO BECAUSE I TOLD YOU SO. REMEMBER TO COMMENT BECAUSE I GET LONELY IN THE SECTION. NO ONE IS SAFE. GOOD NIGHT.))
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