Taming The Dragon

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A single hand... a trail of embers... a body hitting the spikes. A body carrying me upwards. Warm hands around mine. Someone is reaching for me.

Morty's expression. The end. Blistering pain.

The darkness.

Has it been seconds or millenia? Why can't I breathe? Do I even exist?

Nothing. Nothing at all.

This is the end of all worlds.

I want to curl into myself but I have no body. No form. No voice. No-

There's fire in the distance.

It draws closer, turning into a blinding light, and suddenly I have lungs and they are filled with smoke. The world around me is burning, all of my appendages are melting like wax, and I call out for help but the smoke is suffocating me from the insides.

"Make it stop." calls a voice inside my head. "Make it stop! Please, please, please-"

***

I wake up and it's not quite dawn. The room is dark but I'm so numb that I don't care. I stumble out of my bed shoeless and out of our cabin, which overlooks the route and river instead of the gym and the Dragon's Den because I'm a coward.

Taking in a deep breath of night air, I sit down at the cliff edge that leads down to the river far below and beside me sit a woman and her Flygon. The Flygon's wings vibrate rapidly, making a steady hum, but it stays in location.

It kind of sounds affectionate. Regardless, it makes me feel better. I try to smile only to feel the smoke in my lungs and begin coughing again.

"Something the matter?" asks the woman. Her Flygon stops buzzing and fixes its strange eyes on me.

"Just allergies." I lie.
She takes another moment of silence, then continues, "Lovely morning, isn't it?" she asks. "Not one to spend alone- even if you are a trainer."
"It's a solitary life." I grumble, slightly unnerved.

"Not really. You have your Pokemon, don't you?"
"Yes." I yawn.

"You consider them friends?"
It's kind of prying, but I answer, "Far more."

"Well, with a good friend, you laugh twice for good times and cry half for bad ones. Find solace in that even if you walk the loneliest road, your burden will be lightened by the bonds you have made."

Now even I know that was way too deep to be orchestrated right on the spot. "Okay. What do you want from me?!" I snap. "It's literally four in the morning."
"Your Pokemon are right over there." she points a finger to the other side of the bank, just out of my line of sight. Sure enough, there's a small gang of shadows gathered near one of the trees.

"Damnit!" I yell, throwing my arms up, and then I get to my feet and dash across the wooden bridge. Reginae and Fang turn at once, and all of them notice me once I get going: "Are you kidding me? This is the last night before the most dangerous battle yet and you're all up at four in the morning doing who knows what. You're breaking all the rules we've set up for the team right now and endangering our future this morning. What the hell-"

"Speaking of people who aren't abiding by the rules at all, who do we have here?" Rose replies. I meet her gaze and know that she's not going to be fooled if I tell her I was out here looking for them. "You came out here to cool off after a nightmare. At least we're doing something productive."

"You didn't even notice we were gone?" Fang whines.

"It was worse than usual." I hiss, mildly embarrassed. "Not the point. What the hell are you doing?"

"Strategy." Reginae chirrups. "Okay. Here's the plan- Clair opens with a Gyarados. We take that out with Thunder, courtesy of Pisces, and then Pisces takes care of another Dragonair with Blizzard. Now, because Pisces's health will be pretty low by now, Rose is going to Yawn and then Drain Punch the next one, which will use pretty minimal health and doesn't stand a chance of missing like Hypnosis. Then, for the final battle against Kingdra, I'm going to Petal Dance the thing to death!"

Ten peeps up, "I helped with the strategy too."
"Right. You plan to do all this how? We've only given Rare Candies to Reginae and Pisces."

"Not quite." Rose holds up the satchel. "The three of us took some extras over the last few days, spaced out so we didn't completely lose it. The bag's empty now."

"Are you kidding me-"

"Reginae took them way better this time." Fang cackles.

"H-hey!" Reginae complains.

I sit down, still incredibly tired, and murmur, "You guys are the worst."

"You're welcome." Ten says, draping a wing around me.
"We didn't want you to stress any more than you already have." Rose insists. "This isn't your last team. This is us- and we're honestly far more prepared, sorry to break it to you. Between the candies from hell and the extra difficulty this run has supplied thus far, according to you, and our better type coverage, this should be easy."

I want to argue but at the same time I just want this to be over. "Okay." I say. My eyelids grow heavy. "If you really think so..."

***

I wake up that morning well past nine and there's a berry syrup drizzled heap of pancakes lying on a plastic plate in front of me. Ten is still sleeping but the others are up and arguing. I look up to see the sun risen high in the sky. "Mfff. It's so hot." I say, squinting upwards directly into the sun. "Isn't it supposed to be winter or something?"

Ten opens his eyes and flashes me an owl smile, eyes shining and ears perked. "You're up!"

"Where's everyone?" I ask. "They're okay, right? I-"
"We're fine." Rose's face is smeared with berry juice. "Just finished breakfast. Having telepathy really helps when you're trying to get a meal for your trainer. I don't know why all trainers aren't league mandated a powerful psychic companion for any potential League challenger."

"Over my dead body." Reginae calls in the distance.

"Uh huh. That's a distinct possibility, Reginae. Just warning you now." When Rose sees my distress, she backtracks. "I was just joking. Seriously, don't give me that look! I'm stressed as it is."

"So." Pisces's low grumble of a voice is filled with anticipation. "When do we begin?"

"It's almost time." I sigh, getting to my bare feet and noticing the soreness . "Alright... just let me get my shoes."

The second we walk into the gym I almost immediately turn around and walk back out of the gym, but Fang nudges my leg. Pisces barely fits through the tiny door but she can almost float upright, her whole body undulating above the lava. Ten cooes something that sounds more like a series of vibrations in the back of my ear (because I'm too busy screaming internally to hear anything else) but then gives up and whaps me on the head with one wing.

"I have an idea."
"Go on." I say, barely paying attention, but then I feel a light humming like that almost sounds like that of the Flygon from earlier. My breathing slows slightly and my eyes burn gold, reflected back in Ten's gold irises. Pisces's and Fang's eyes light up, and though I can still see through my own eyes, all of their visions appear any time one of them notices something out of my field of vision. It's just as simple as looking slightly to the left.

Ten cooes. Team's been working on that too. You feel better?

That's incredible! What did you even do? I ask.

There were these golden strings... and then I tugged on them a little bit.

"What's going on over there?" Reginae asks. I hear his voice four times out of everyone's ears (or whatever Ten and Pisces have) but Rose shakes her head.

"Nothing I'm going to be part of, that's what. What matters is that Ashley isn't panicking, right? Now let's... let's wreck this gym."

Rose turns away, clearly upset, but she says nothing. We watch Reginae butt her on the head affectionately. She rolls her eyes with a cold scoff but afterwards, once she's turned away, I can see her smiling.

I so ship it. Fang's voice fills my mind.

Pisces glares at him.

As we move forwards, the other Pokemon trainers move back, fear reflected in their irises as my golden gaze passes over them. The platforms in the lava just so happen to fit us all. The team moves as one unit, the four of us and Rose and Reginae alike all sharing the same heartbeat.

My vision falls away as I approach Clair but I can still feel the team around me like a shield.

"Not bad, not bad." Clair gives me a slow clap. "You must be the trainer my cousin has taken a fancy to. Makes sense that he'd be trying to replace me, but still, this is practically jailbait. A twelve year old is going to 'save the world' how again?"

"I didn't come here to discuss your family issues. I came here to fight." I reply smoothly. My heartbeat jacks up a few beats.

"Right. Don't expect any nepotism over here, freak."

"Don't expect any mercy either." I reply, my pitch raising.

Clair's face contorts into a snarl. "Koi, go!"

"Pisces!" I call. The two massive snakes collide on the pitifully small battlefield and Koi takes a good bite out of Pisces's side. She roars in pain and a bolt of white energy rises skywards, freezing the ceiling. It condenses into a massive chunk of ice and sticks there. Koi moves again and knocks Pisces sideways. She grimaces, falling back with her gill bent at a terrible angle, only to lunge up with her fangs ready. From her maw comes a blast of electricity and Koi screeches in pain. Once it stops, the rival Gyarados lies defeated on the ground.

Pisces looks smugly at the body. Clair takes it back and sends out a Dragonair. While smaller, the Dragonair is also faster- it slithers around Pisces's Thunder blasts and avoids an entire blizzard. It rounds on her and with a crack of its tail, covered in electricity, Pisces's whole body shudders. SHe falls down, paralyzed.

I try to look around, terrified, but I can't see what's going on. There's a roar of agony and another bolt of lightning strikes upwards and the ice on the ceiling falls to the ground with a sickening thud. Impulsively I withdraw Pisces, who the Pokegear describes as "paralyzed" but not "fainted", and see that the ice has impaled the Dragonair, which lies dull-eyed on the field.

Clair's incredulousness turns to rage. "Tybalt!" Another Dragonair takes its place.

"Rose. This is on you." I say, staring my Togetic dead in the face.

She nods.

This Dragonair is faster still, and the second I blink there's another crack and Rose falls back, bleeding. She grimaces and opens her mouth, breathing out a cloud of white smoke. The Dragonair moves through, clearly lethargic, but still mean as hell.

"Do you want us to switch you out?!" I ask.

"One more turn? I have full health, of course I can take another turn. Tell the cavalry to take a hike." Rose replies.

"Why did we call Pisces the 'cavalry' again? She's not even a horse." Fang asks. "Codenames are cool and all, but still, I just-"

"Shut up!" I snap.

The Dragonair lunges for Rose only to fall in midair, fast asleep. Rose moves out of the way and uses Extrasensory to knock it against the ceiling again, hitting the remains of the ice.

Another Extrasensory sends it soaring past Clair, whose face contorts further as it hits the fall behind her, just missing the spikes only to fall into them and slump just past them, still asleep.
Rose turns. "Wait, is it out?" she asks.

It's eyes snap open. The Dragonair's mouth fills with fire as it spits out a perfect star of hellish flame. "Rose, look out!" I call. I feel my body lighten and suddenly both of us dodge out of the way, perfectly flashed.

We look down at our hands for a second and I feel Rose filling with shock and excitement.

I can see everything! she yells in the inside of our mind. It all makes so much sense now. These memories.. these feelings...

This battle. I reply.

Our battle. we agree.

The Dragonair shoots a purple blast of strange light and it just misses us. We soar over its attacks, invincible in our perfect harmony, and then lunge down to hit it with Drain Punch. We feel energy growing within us, only making us more powerful, and we try to resist laughing over the heat of battle.

The Dragonair dashes forwards and swings around, and we counter Aqua Tail in midair with a perfectly timed Drain Punch.

Both parties move apart, hardly injured, and the Dragonair rounds on us, its eyes full of vengeance. It winces and crimps up as it does so. Smiling smugly, we rush towards it for a final strike, all of our energy packed behind a single, golden punch.

For the team.

Our team!

Both teams as one!

For all of us with Hearts of Gold-

The Dragonair's horn darts downwards and with one jagged strike, runs all the way through our body. We gag on blood and fall, all the energy suddenly vanished. The Dragonair faints around us, a perfect arc, and I feel our vision darkening.

"Rose!" We hear Reginae yelling in the distance.

Rose struggles to escape but the blood is everywhere. I can't escape and I'm trying to crawl towards the rest of the team, towards Ashley, towards myself...

We go under together, the darkness enveloping us and Rose's voice suddenly silent. The panic of the last gym battle overwhelms me and the blood is everywhere now, dark maroon staining the back of Rose's vision as her heart gives out.

You're going to fail you're going to die you're going to fail you're going to die they're all going to die.

I feel smoke in my lungs again and open my eyes. I'm on the battlefield with all of my Pokemon dead around me. Toxis in the lava. Dill, sightless, lying spread on the spikes. Sky and Khrys burned to husks. I rush forwards to shield Bronze from that final hit of Hydro Blast and-

Darkness.

I don't know how long I'm there but the weight of my failure is crushing me again. I can't breathe and the smoke is so heavy and suddenly the light pours in again, but it's not burning or overwhelming.

Something grabs my back. Someone is pulling me upwards out of the void. I stare around in panic and finally see what appears to be a pair of wings behind me out of the corner of my eye. No, it's not a pair of wings.

It's Rose.

I'm thrust into my own body with the force of Bella's Dragon Rush and I take in a breath of pure air. My vision is blurry with tears and Rose's blood caked body lies still in my hands. My shirt and pants are both covers with blood but I can barely make out a single detail on either. Overhead the screaming grows to a high wail and then it stops. Someone crumples in the distance.

"Ashley! Get up. We need to go." the brown shape says. My mind leaps to Hershey but then I notice that the horns are curved and the figure's feet are far smaller. I clear my eyes out and see Ten standing there, his wings large, beautiful, and unmangled. He's okay.

"You're still alive?" I ask. "I'm not... I'm not dead, am I." I feel my own body with numb hands. Rose falls to the ground. I pick her up defensively. She's still warm. "I failed. I failed again."

"No." Ten says. "Ashley, we won."


(A/N: Three chapters left.)

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