Pathos「Pokemon Fanfiction」

Seven

"Is this a dream or am I back here?" he mumbled back. His retinas had been starting to fail him, but his vision was a little clearer now, and his head was starting to spin a little less.

Lacia raised an eyebrow. "I managed to drag your spirit back to Heaven for a while," she answered. He cursed at himself for only recognising the smug tone in her voice now. "So you've started to figure out what's going on?"

"Just a little." He let his gaze wander to meet her dark eyes, but he was unable to look at her face for longer than a few seconds. "I suspect, but I don't know anything solid. Are you going to tell me?"

"Thirty days are almost over," the woman replied in an offhanded way. Her eyes stayed on his face for as long as he kept his on the ground. "I have to admit that I could not foresee this. Arceus has his ways that even I cannot get around."

He remained silent, waiting for her to speak again, and the apology in her words wasn't as sincere as he'd liked it to be.

"I'm sorry." Lacia stifled a small laugh. "I ended up using you to get what I wanted. I pretended to care about your friends when I didn't, but I guess you know that."

"As I said, I suspected." Aiden tried his best to keep calm, but a newfound surge of terror prevented him from doing so. "But what do you want? What are you planning to even achieve from this when you're already dead?"

Her lips curved into a smile, and she took her gaze off him for a second to watch a Butterfree's spirit land on her for a second before flying away. "It's not entirely for myself," she murmured. "Then again, that's what I try to tell myself. I'm doing this for a friend of mine."

"Please stop beating around the bush," he muttered. "Just tell me what's going on."

"You know, that expression doesn't really suit you," she mused, causing him to glance up for a moment and blink in confusion. "I was just thinking—you never get angry, do you? You look a bit more like your brother when you do, now that I think about it."

His eyes narrowed, and it was all he could do to bite back an unhappy reply. "Look, I just want to know what's going on."

"And I'm just pointing out an observation," she retorted. "You do seem more like Avis when you scowl like that."

They sat in silence for a few more moments before Lacia spoke again.

"I meant what I said when I told you I was doing it for a friend," she stated. "I'm sure you remember me asking you to stop Avis from going into Terminus Cave—well, it failed, but no matter. The legendary Pokemon Zygarde resides there."

"Zygarde?" he asked. No wonder the witch had been going on about it when they'd gone to Yan's past life. "What does it have to do with anything?"

She let out a sigh. "Zygarde is the friend I'm referring to," she admitted, and that caused his eyes to widen in shock. "Legendaries get lonely at some point. Most of them never die, you know, and a lot of them are confined to carrying out their duties without the privilege of talking to anyone."

His stomach twisted. For all the fame Legendaries received, they never seemed to benefit from it. More than that, however, he didn't like where the conversation was going; Lacia seemed to know more about him than he was comfortable with and—

"At this point, I can tell what you're thinking," she commented. "It's the whole reason why I approached you in the first place. You befriended Zygarde too, didn't you?"

He flinched at it, and the smile she gave him didn't do anything to lighten the situation. "Alright, I'll tell you what's going on. Zygarde is someone who, as a guardian of the earth, thrives on interaction with those he protects. That's why he chooses to make friends for generation after generation."