Problems on a Galactic Standard (Pokemon Diamond/Pearl/Platinum Remake)

Chapter 20: Atone

While Solaria, Terra, and Sylveon all walk down the street, making a few occasional turns, it takes them about ten minutes to finally get to the source that Solaria was smelling. Coming up to a few warehouses on both sides of them, they eventually come out to a large opening. Nothing seems obvious as the three of them walk out, then Terra looks at Solaria.

"You sure this is the place?" Solaria nods her head.

"Yeah, the smell is definitely getting stronger...." Solaria winces a little bit as she shakes her head. "And it's getting rather repulsive." Terra chuckles softly, then relaxes.

"Yeah, if history repeats itself, that'll probably be Rio." Sylveon looks up from Terra's shoulder and turns her head. Terra notices her move and follows her stare. "What is it Sylveon?" As Terra looks, he sees a man surrounded by a Grotle and a Helioptile with a Lucario sitting under a broken window. Solaria looks over and sees this as well, seeing Zatel doze in and out of falling asleep.

"Yeah, that's them, but why do two of them smell like they dropped themselves in a garbage chute?" Terra just stands there, getting uncomfortable the longer he stares at them. Solaria notices this, then starts walking forward, grabbing Terra by his left arm and starts dragging him over with her. Helioptile, glances up thinking she heard something, then stumbles backwards as she sees Solaria dragging Terra along with Syvleon on his back.

"Helio?" Helioptile says tilting her head, confused by the position Sylveon has taken. Grotle hears Helioptile say something, causing him to look up then grow wide eyed as he sees Terra.

He came back?! Grotle quickly snaps himself out of his daze, as he starts nudging Zatel's leg. Zatel only moans.

"What... is it... Grotle...." Zatel says slowly raising his head he sees a couple of blurry figures approach him. "Whaa.?" Zatel blinks his eyes, trying to get a clearer view. After a couple blinks, he throws his head back recognizing the figure's as he slams it into the yellow container behind him before he clutches his head. "Oww......" Zatel looks up again, after rubbing his head for a minute. "Terra...? Is that really you?" Zatel says slightly dazed from hitting his head so hard. Grotle by this point is standing between Zatel and Terra in a defensive stance, eyeing Terra's every movement. Terra looks away as he's being forcefully dragged closer to Zatel before Solaria stops.

"Hey.... Yeah, it's me alright." Terra said. Zatel wipes his eyes of any remaining tears before standing up.

"So... Why are you here?" Zatel asks cautiously, still not trusting Terra completely. "Did you come to actually apologize? Or to just say goodbye." Grotle starts growling softly.

I hope it's the latter... Grotle thinks that its best if they split up. Solaria looks at Grotle and narrows her eyes for a minute before looking up at Terra and pushing him forward a little bit, snapping him out of his nervousness. Terra flinches a little bit, then sighs as he reaches back into his backpack, pushing past Sylveon a little bit until he finally grabs what he wanted and pulls out the shiny stone. Zatel notices the shiny stone, then eyes Terra, waiting for him to say the words.

"Look... I'm not proud of what I said. I'll admit, I got out of hand when I started yelling, but... I'm trying not to be like that anymore." After seeing Zatel just stare at him, Terra gives another sigh before lowering his head. "I bet you can guess where this is going but... I'm sorry, alright? I shouldn't have snapped like that, and I shouldn't have done what I had done to Rio." Zatel's expression changes to shock, before a mix of emotions come across his face as tears start falling.

"......Thank you......" Zatel says as Grotle looks up even more shocked at Terra's decision. "Apology accepted..." Zatel says holding his hand out to Terra. Grotle tries standing up to get in the way only for Zatel to push him down.