Finding Red

5

"Get back!" Crystal shouted. "This isn't funny. I don't know what you're trying to pull, but you literally just came out of a photograph."

He laughed at her. "Oh man! I know that new trainers are a little crazy, but you take the cake here, darling."

"Don't you darling me," Crystal snapped back. "I'll have you know that I'm 18 years old and a proper lady. And I'm most certainly not a trainer."

Red looked down at Nuria, who ran by and took the photograph from the ground and handed it to Crystal. "Yet, you own a Pokémon. How in the world are you not a trainer?"

"Don't give me that thing!" Crystal shrieked at her Pokémon. "This...idiot came out of it!"

The battle legend cocked a hip. "You shouldn't be so rude to your Pokémon otherwise they'll dislike you. Now, I don't know if you're as directionally impaired as you are mentally, but I'd like to know where we are. I have to find Professor Oak and about the Pokédex. We're so close, only one away from completion."

"We're in Johto, Route 29," Crystal replied, somehow feeling as though the world around her were spinning.

Red scrunched his nose up. "How? I was in Vermillion City yesterday. I talked to the Professor just yesterday?"

Crystal froze, feeling her Pokémon tap her on the leg with the photograph. She took it in her hands, and examined it again, looking for some sort of clue where there clearly was none. It was such a grayscale image. Her mind reeled up questions, as if searching for something at the bottom of the pool of her conscious. She tried to think. Red had been missing for a year. But she couldn't remember the details, or where he'd last been seen. And why here? Why now? It didn't matter. It wasn't her problem. She wanted to get to Cherrygrove City by dark.

"Nuria let's go," she said, placing the photograph on the ground.

Her Pokémon tried to give it back to her. "No, girl, I'm sorry but we're going to leave it here. It's not our responsibility. Clearly, he has himself figured out."

"That's right, and don't you forget it, novice," said Red.

Despite the protests of Nuria, Crystal left the photograph in the dust. The curious part of her screamed to stop, to go back and grab it, but mentally she just didn't want to. Crystal didn't want to be a trainer, nor did she want to be on this journey in the first place. She didn't care what she was walking away from. To her, all it was, was simply the Primarina's call trying to beckon her towards a fate she resented.

But then, as she continued to walk on, she heard screams. She turned around, to find Red on his knees, crying as if he were in a deep kind of pain. Without thinking, she ran back, her pack jostling rough against her as she did. He was gasping and coughing until Nuria ran up and gave her the photograph. And then, he stopped. Crystal was a leaf on a tree, shivering and shaking, the sound of paper thwapping in the wind as she clutched the photograph in her hand.

"What was that?" Red gasped out.

Crystal shook her head. "I don't..."

She stared at the photograph, until Nuria nuzzled it trying to push her hand over. "Cynda!"

Crystal flipped the photograph over and looked at what the back had to offer. She was shocked to see the black writing all over the back. One look at her Cyndaquil told her that the fire mouse was disappointed in her for not listening. She began to read, and as she did her pulse raced and she felt like the world was falling around her. The sky of her life was dropping. This was not good for her.

"What is it?" Red asked.

She looked up. "I don't know what everything means, but it's like there's some kind of contract on the back of this photograph."

"What does it say?" Red asked.

Crystal read aloud.

"May it be seen here by the will of Arceus that this cannot be undone. The keeper of this photograph shall be the bearer of the soul of its subject, trapped until this binding is reversed by duty or death. The keeper shall surpass the soul in skill and heart, following in his footsteps and allowing him to beg for forgiveness to clean the slate of his sins. May it be known that there can only be one keeper for one soul, and this photograph shall stand as testament to the oaths to be fulfilled in Arceus' name. By light shall this be bound, unbroken and unspoken by the keeper until its sacred purpose is fulfilled."

"I assume this means that I'm stuck with you until we fufill whatever stupid agreement has to be seen," she sighed. "And obviously it can't be undone and I can't tell anyone so they can fix it, unfortunately."

"I don't understand," said Red, distracted. "What sins are they talking about? I've never done something bad. How can I have done something bad?"

Crystal gazed at Red. He kept straightening his cap, looking everywhere but her and Nuria. His eyes darted like the hopping of a Scyther. She felt bad, and wanted to reach out, just to put him out of his misery. But he was a mountain, cold and distant, and she felt as if summiting his thoughts were an impossible task. Not that it mattered. There was something that was missing. It was as if he didn't realize that he had been gone for a year. That he had been missing.

"Red," she said, after clearing her throat. "How long has it been since you beat the Pokémon league?"

He looked up and started laughing hysterically. "That's on odd question. What, do you think I lost my memory or woke up in a new timeline or something?"

"Humor me," she said. "You literally just came out of a photograph, may I remind you, so I'd wager almost anything is possible at this point."

Red rolled his eyes. "Alright, it was a year ago, about. Which is a decent time ago, I guess."

"Oh my," Crystal gasped, in shock. "Red what happened to you?"

"What is it?" He replied.

She took a deep breath and looked at Nuria, before looking at him again. "Red, I hate to break this to you, but you're missing two years of your memory. Not only that, but you've been missing for almost a year now. Nobody knows what you've been doing or where you've been."