Forest of Secrets; A Pokemon Fanfiction

Chapter 3, Part 7

Sparkle 

“I found Riff alright. I found him lying under a charred bush, half conscious... his leg wasn't right... it was a nightmare. All I call recall with clarity from then how I wanted to look away.”

Mentally, I flinch. Gore wasn't something I'd expect from this tale, and certainly had not wanted. Even if I first though Riff has blown up. Well, he still was blown up, but not exactly... For once, I am glad Lotus never really goes into detail, just roundabout bush-beating.

“I was scared, Riff was in unimaginable pain, and to make things worse, Team Galactic had already begun to creep back into the area. They headed for some pocketed cave where the bottom of the lake once was, but as far as I could tell, it was only a matter of time before they found Riff as well. “Stay where you are,” I said, “I'll get help. Joy will know what to do.”
If I thought the run to the lake was nerve-wracking, you can only imagine how it was on the way back with that grim experience fresh in my head.

"There's more. Much more to the tale. But I fear our time may be running short, so I shall wrap this up. When I got Joy-joy and everyone back to the lake, he was gone. Just like that. I saw one footprint in the dust that made me suspect... a Gardevoir. You see, Riff had fallen in love with a wild Gardevoir a few seasons back, and she had been following us. I had only caught him with her once, catching her name at the same time; Laurel. It was the first secret I learned. With the footprint and his absence, I tried to tell the others that Riff had probably been taken in by the kindly thing, but they thought I was stressed from the... and then, they had never known that he courted a wild Gardevoir, so they thought I had been hallucinating or something. We searched the forest for him, regardless of my account of what happened. Officer Jenny and the Pokemon Center and the whole communities around the Lake were noted of the missing Gallade. Eventually, months later, we gave up. I told them he was still alive, he was really, but Rascal told me I needed to face the facts; he was gone.

"We never exactly forgot about Riff. It was just that the subject was never spoken of. And so vanished the welcoming Gallade who had been such a good friend.”

He stops for a minute, catching his breath. Something still is funny about this story, forgetting how abrupt and messed up it gets at the end. “Where do I come in? If he is gone, how can I be his daughter?”
Lotus gives a wry smile. His eyelids droop in fatigue slightly and he lips a petal, but still speaks to me. “That was through eventual deductive reasoning on my part. First off, a few days after your capture, Roku remarked that you aura was vaguely familiar. Like Twirla's, but not quite. Twirla's aura was similar to Riff's quite a bit, was what a Lucario we battled long before the incident said.”
“We're practically the same species; wouldn't that account for it?” I reason.
“Species never accounts as much for aura than individuality and parentage, with the exception of Legends, or so Roku has told me. Then there's Psycho. Even being Bashful of nature, he still acted a good deal like Gentle Riff. Never able to really to understand the subtle. Dasher showed Riff's enthusiasm in everything, before evolution ruined him. And you, you walk with the same grace he once did.”
“That's still not proof,” I argue. “You sound an awful lot like a madman right now. Crazy conspiracy theories, and all that.”

“What if I also said that there was an old Power Bracer that Riff used to wear in Joy's bag?” Lotus says slyly.
“I don't know what I'd say to that.”
Lotus looks up at me benignly. “I showed it to Roku once. He thought the lingering aura felt practically like Psycho's, and Psycho is the most like Riff out of all of you.”
With a sigh, I run my fingers through my hair, a habit that Mother (well, make that Twirla), does when she's disturbed. I guess I must have picked it up from her. “You're not going to take no for an answer. You are convinced this Riff fellow is our father.”
“Was," he corrects. "We never knew what happened to him.”
“Dialga darn that!” I huff, “Does Roku know? From what you've said, he's been in on your investigations.”
Lotus shakes his head. “Nuh-uh. It's surprising, how no-one questions anyone they think might be crazy.”
This takes a bit to digest. “Do you play the part of the ignorant fool on purpose?”
“Ignorant fool? I've long since stopped wondering why everyone else thought so strangely. Not even my closest friends think like me. Perhaps the world is crazy...” Yeah right, Lotus. Everyone else is insane, and you're the only one with common sense. Nice try. Still, I think he's being genuine here. If I am to believe Lotus, Riff is my father. Lotus himself has been steadily dropping off further and further into some state of dreaming. He seems really, really, tired. I wouldn't mind a nap myself. I guess we could just sit down and rest under the tree for a bit.
Something shakes the brush to my right. Instead of sitting down to sleep, I stand up taller and wonder wearily what it is. Oh my Giratina, it'd better not...
Dasher steps into view from behind the bracken. His eyes have taken a vacant glazing, and are luckily not aimed at me. My breath catches in my throat. Uh-oh.
Slowly, I move back. Maybe I can slip out of here before he notices me. How ironic, that my brother may come at the moment I least what him to, instead of earlier when I was searching for him! Silently, I send a plea to Palkia. Why did you put him in the same place as me now? As obviously expected, there's no answer. And, in place of the silent retreat I hope for, my gown brushes with a whisper against the tree. Instantly, Dasher darts to look at me. No, no, no. I take another step back. He takes one step forward.

“Dasher?” I gasp out. He gives no reply.

Loppily

I just kind of hang back, and watch the show that comes next. What to do about it? For now, nothing.
Spark stiffens after a look at the empty couch. Her fur bristles and sparks at the ends. She looks so strange, with all her fur standing up like that. Spark may not be empathetic exactly, but she like Roku better than most Pokemon, excluding the Five. At the least, I've never seem her give him a snarly comment. So, there she stands, seething a minute over the injustice. Belatedly, she curses. “Dialga-darn you, Darkrai. And may Giratina choose to take your side to help you when I tear you apart for this! You've broken the last straw!” She lowers her fur, and makes a magnificent leap for the broken window. A magnificent leap stopped short when Rascal grabs a hold of her tail star.

Flailing like a beached Magikarp, Spark squirms to get her tail free of the vise Rascal's wings prove to be. “Gerroff! Rascal, I've got to-”
“As much as you need to find Lotus and Bright, and as much as you so subtly want to pay back Full Moon for this, you're staying here.” His cool authority seems to me as that of one who has weathered many things. Going through one more trial will not deter him. With a grinding of teeth, Spark ceases struggling, and turns to face him. She gives a snort of annoyance. “Please tell me you're joking. Why are you the one to force me to stay behind?”
Rascal sneaks an approving glace Joy's way. Joy, by the way, is biting her lip and looking at the floor. “I'm keeping you here for Joy's sake. It's not fair of you to force her to make a choice.”
“What possible choice is there in the matter?” drones Spark tonelessly.
“Joy may have mentioned it earlier. Something along the lines of, 'is it fair to risk the lives of more to save a few?' If you would go out there, Joy would have to antagonize about following you to keep you safe, in which turn we would all follow her. This would put a lot of Pokemon at risk.”
For once, Spark is both quiet and solemn. She looks up at the rest of us blankly. “You guys wouldn't have to come. This is my own feud, and you wouldn't understand it.”

“What do you mean, Spark?” Twirla avers softly. Her gaze sweeps up from the floor, and locks onto the quarrelsome one herself. “I've got just as much family Possessed out there as you do, and I lost another one when Sparkle went after them. Is it fair of you to take away one more by going yourself? You were at the battle yesterday. I believe you'd agree when I say it is a... a death wish to walk out there, dear sister.” A firm emphasis is put on the term, 'sister'.
“You guys ask if I'm being fair. Ask yourselves if it's fair to chain me up here. Of my own free will, I wish to go, and with no bad affects to you in specific.” A longing eye is turned to the forest. Silently, I decide that if Spark goes, I'll go with her. If she's looking for Bright, then I'll come too. Bright... the anguish on his face, as he antagonized over his skirmish with Dasher, and the way he talked to me... right before we started the rock smash training, we talked for a while. He asked me if I'd keep an eye on him the in the night, keep me away from the Darkrai. It was a very furtive, desperate thing for him to ask, not something of the rational, and yet I agreed. When Joy-joy found the Lunar Wing though, I thought it was safe enough. I hadn't taken his Pokeball to my room as he'd wanted. Foolishly perhaps, I had thought the Wing would protect us. This is my fault.

When I come back to the present, Spark lies stilled on the floor, in submission. Disappointing, since I had hoped that I could come with her. Going out to look for Bright was one thing, doing it alone like poor Sparkle and Dasher was another matter. She mutters darkly to herself about Twirla cheating with a whole 'guilt trip' thing, forcing her to stay home. “Unfair guilt-trip or not,” Twirla tells her, not without amusement, “think of it as, 'I'm staying here to protect everyone else in case Darkrai or one of the Possessed comes back'. That should be sufficiently heroic enough to convince your pugnacious mind that it's not cowardly.”

“With all due respect Twirla, go to the Distortion World. Bug Giratina about it,” the Luxray spits out sourly.