Me: Hello everyone! To celebrate this long-awaited climax, let's have a silly conversation with a dead Pokémon! *Rather aggressively yanks a standing microphone closer as spotlights swivel aimlessly across the stage* Introducing the luxio that no one has really liked before, give a hand, or paw, or hoof, or- give it up for Lobo!
Lobo: growls - Ugh. Hello. -
Me: HOW ARE YOU TODAY? *Swings the microphone downwards and it swishes through his ghostly form*
Lobo: eye twitch - I'm immensely irritated. -
Me: Great! I see you're not cuckoo wacan berries anymore, and it seems you're talking weirdly. Talking differently than me, anyways! Care to explain to our viewers?
Lobo: - I'm dead. This is telepathy, and I guess my sanity was restored from getting this spirit form...? I dunno. This is strange. - ~_~
Xatu: *Spawns randomly*Ahem. Insanity cannot be dragged into the afterlife. A victim of a cranial or instinctual malfunction, or any sort of mental or physical damage, is restored upon attaining their spirit form.
Me: ...You were nOT INVITED XATU! *Kicks him down a garbage chute*
Lobo: - Anyways, yeah. That's why. I guess. - shrugs
Me: WOW, WHAT AN INSIGHT! *Boring silence* You gonna do something?
Lobo: - No. -
Me: Why not? Aren't you excited for ghost pranks and stuff? That's what I want! Don't you consider MY FEELINGS in all of this?! D:
Lobo: - I am dead, not a zorua. Selfish snivy. -
Me: You could take a lesson or two from one! *Cracks knuckles*
Star: I'M READY FOR SURGERY. *Pulls out toy doctor tools*
Lobo: scoffs - Please. I'm not letting that thing come anywhere near- -
Star: HYAAAAH! *Uses mad dark-type skills to grasp tightly onto his ghostly back*
Lobo: - Ahh! Get it off me! GEEETTT ITTT OFFFF! -
Star: *Chops a darkness-cloaked toy saw through his neck, cutting his head clean off*
Lobo: - OOOkkaayyyy, where did meh body go? I'm dIIIZZzzyy. - x_X
Star: *Picks up the head* FANG, CATCH! *Chucks it*
Lobo: - AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! -
Fang: WOOOO! *Catches it in his maw, slobbering everywhere*
Lobo: - THIS IS DISGUSTING. SHADOWWWW! -
Fang: *Spits the head out and kicks him towards Star*
Me: Mm, this is very entertaining to watch, but I think we've tortured him enough. ^^ *Snaps snivy fingers*
Lobo: - I HATE YOU. - poof
Fang: Aw. Where did he go? Q.Q
Me: Somewhere to un-decapitate himself and regenerate. :3
Star: AWWW, THAT'S NO FUN!
Fang: *Howls in misery*
Me: Hey, look. *Points at the setting sun* A special cookie.
Star/Fang: WHERE?! *Races off into the sunset*
Me: Mmkay, that worked better than expected. Hope you enjoy the climax chapter, everyone! :D
Scarlet's POV
Although I tried so hard to be sneaky, despite being so small and heedful and silent, and no matter how long I held my breath as I moved stealthily... I was horrible at hide-and-seek tag. I couldn't stop being a klutz. Right whenever I found Copper and Fawn, I almost always squeaked in surprise, and the two would run off giggling and shush themselves in a better hiding spot. When I called out the unfair odds, they only continued having their fun, silently mocking me with their nimbler paws and kicking dust into my mouth when I managed to run close enough.
They eventually decided to be merciful, and-way too dramatically-they pretended to trip and fall, clutching their paws and screaming in agony. Just satisfied with the round over, I slowly dragged myself over to Fawn, limply and tiredly poking her flank. "Uh, tag," I rasped, rather unenthusiastic, and she howled at the touch like a relentless Bullet Seed pelted through her. I dully observed the comical display until Joel, our clan's qualified chieftain, promptly stomped over and berated us for such a ruckus.
He usually overreacted to our foolery, his all too serious expression very laughable. As Joel stared us down with such a stern face, I finally regained my sense of humor and laughed alongside my best buddies. "You three," the sage fennekin began, glaring, "have been unnerving the peace of the clan with your antics. I've received a dozen complaints already, and everyone is scowling at the noise!" Copper and I snickered at the exaggeration. He used that with fancy dialect when frustrated, and it made it even harder to take him seriously. Could anyone truly scowl at playing cubs? "Can't you three just settle down for once?"
"Never!" Fawn declared triumphantly, and Joel's frown deepened. She stood tall, ears shoved forward, tail held high, and her entire figure radiated with arrogance. "We have looks of fennekins, but hearts of pyroars! We're smaller than shrubs, but we reach for the stars! Our paws may be tiny... but we can leap the Treacherous Chasm, because our friendship is so powerful. Only death can separate us!" She gazed challengingly into the aged fennekin's irises, and when I expected an eye roll from him he instead returned Fawn's stare with a hardier one.
"Treacherous Chasm?" he echoed dubiously.
Fawn gasped, eyes glittering with realization and worry. She anxiously shrunk into her pelt a bit, and she halfway shielded her face with her slightly bristled tail. It made lying on the spot easier, but Joel narrowed his eyes instantly from it, knowing she would lie. "Uh, yeah, from that one bedtime story. Y-ya'know, the one with, with... the riolu, and the vulpix, and they're running away from their kingdom together. They leapt a giant gorge called Treacherous Chasm to escape an evil timburr tyrant. M-Mom told me it's a common bedtime story! I'm s-surprised you haven't heard of it... yeaaah..."
After a moment of concerning silence, he shook his head, his suspicions confirmed but patience melted away. He had too much on his mind for protecting the clan and couldn't afford to ponder and be skeptical for long. "I'll deal with your lying later. All I'm requesting for you three now is to quiet down. Many of our clanmates need rest from laboring all day, and unnecessary noise isn't welcomed too much. It makes others grumpy. How would you like it if I woke you up from a nap because I didn't care about being loud? You wouldn't like that, would you?"
"If you were bored from being grounded, I would totallyunderstand."
Joel's tired eyes twitched. "You're grounded because you run off, never sit still, and disrespect the clan rules. You earned this."
"What are you talking about? I'm sitting right now!" With a rebellious twinkle in her eye, Fawn abruptly dropped to her hindquarters and pouted up at him. Joel narrowed his eyes, far from amused, and I resisted shrinking down into my own pelt from the fright of his stare.
"Fine, you know what?" The aged fennekin surprisingly cracked a grin, and Fawn's eyes brightened at it. "Instead of being unable to leave clangrounds for two more sunrises... it shall be five more sunrises." Fawn leapt back onto her paws almost instantaneously, her eyes dimmed again and her jaw hung ajar.
"Chieftain, how is that fair?" Ignoring her, Joel turned tail without another word, padding back to his never-ending work and duties, and Fawn childishly stomped a paw in frustration. "Joseph, c'monnn! Joel, Joey, please? Josie! Josh! Joe, Josephine-"
"Summer, Violet! Keep an eye on your cubs!" the fennekin of a thousand names barked out. The mentioned fennekins dozing in the sunlight beside each other raised their heads slightly and glanced between us. Copper and I cowered, smiled sheepishly at Mom's stormy gaze, and so did Fawn at Summer's tired, irritated one. Their disappointed stares were enough to bring us from our crazed happiness and they knew this, noting our regretful expressions from a distance, and also knew we would behave again. So, thankfully, they didn't bother walking over and giving us a real scolding.
Fawn faced away from our mothers and kicked a random pebble, ears lowered. "Geez, he's a stickler. Why should we hang around when no one likes the noise? If we're unwanted that much, we should be allowed us to roam around the forest, or something that doesn't waste time!"
"Yeah, but we're just cubs," Copper said, stating the obvious. "Besides, it's a dangerous world. What if something bad happens to us?"
"Pfft!" Her ears shot upright again and she flicked a paw dismissively. "Yeah right. Nothing bad ever happens to us."
"Remember Treacherous Chasm?"
"True, but that's because we were reckless." She sat again, suddenly staring at her forepaws in a forlorn sense. The happy, airy conversation faded as Fawn spoke with a more serious note. "Guys, it feels like I'm just wasting time here. There's this new thing I overheard Joel talking about recently, and I've really wanted to visit it... but he's keeping an eye on me, you know. It's not exactly a little jog away and around the shrubbery either, so he'll definitely notice if I leave."
"U-um..." I started weakly, uncertain if I wanted to ask, but I voiced my question anyways. "What is this new thing, exactly?" There. As if on command, Fawn beamed and opened her mouth wide to share, something I soon wished she didn't share, but she caught the eyes of Mom and Summer and so she kept her voice at a whisper. Copper and I leaned in close.
"Frosty Hills. There's a fabled ice rock there, in some underground cave thing. It's said even the biggest and hottest Flamethrowers could never melt it! At least, that's what Joel said." The adventurous fennekin sighed. "Ever since I've met Shard, I've gotten a little addicted to the ideas of water and ice. To me, they're just so... mystic? I mean, we need to drink water to live, yet having a lot of it hurts us, and merely breathing on snow and frost melts it so fast. Also, Shard is always so faint-hearted around me because of the heat I give off, and I'm not even full grown!"
Her steady rise in voice attracted our mothers' wandering gazes again. Copper raised a paw to his lips, shushing Fawn, and she sighed again before continuing. "Whenever I venture off, I've been searching for bodies of water and, not too long ago, I found these cool lakes of saltwater. I'm hoping to visit them again when I'm un-grounded because the water is usually warm, so it doesn't hurt to swim in it, and the only downside is that it kind of irritates my pelt... Nonetheless, I can finally swim. I want to be able to interact with ice as well, so I want to visit this ice rock, maybe chip off a shard or two to keep." Seeming tired, she closed her eyes and hung her head. "I wish I had bit right now. I've touched ice without it melting."
After a moment of uncomfortable silence, Copper stepped over, placed a paw on the dejected fire-type's shoulder. "Maybe another round of hide-and-seek tag will get your mind off it?" She nodded once. "That's the spirit. And remember, you're it!"
So, another round had begun. Fawn lied down and shielded her eyes with her paws, counting to thirty heartbeats, and Copper and I sought out our hiding spot together. As we passed Mom and Summer to hide behind a den, they reminded us to be good sports and not annoy any clanmates. We nodded agreements and when Copper darted behind the rocky structure, I paused, glancing back at our friend as she whispered those numbers, but then my brother whisked my forepaw in two of his and yanked me behind the den with him. I ended up sprawled on top of him and shivering from the sudden pull.
"Copper, ouch..." I got off of him and we shook ourselves off. A grin fixed itself onto Copper's muzzle, and it was so wide and happy and strange that it was almost creepy.
"You know what I'm thinking?" Silence ensued as he awaited a response. I thought for a few heartbeats before shrugging, and he gestured a paw northwards, towards Frosty Hills.
I gasped. "No."
His smile deepened. "Yes."
"We are n-not going there," I insisted.
"There's only one way to truly cheer her up," he claimed
I narrowed my eyes. "Yeah, but that's to convince Joel to un-groun-"
He shook his head. "That won't work! Scarlet, we have fetch a shard of that ice rock. We'll be real quick. No one will notice we-"
"Copper, this is stupid."
"C'mon! I know if you don't go with me, you'll either tattletale to Mom or spill the secret to Fawn, so please do me this solid. Pretty please?"
"M-Mom will know we're missing!"
"Not if we're fast. Like I said, we'll be real quick. Real quick!"
We just stared at each other for a moment "...Do we have to go?" I don't think he ever nodded in response quicker than right then, and so I groaned while face-pawing. "The things I do for you two..."
To my disappointment, no one pursued us. Mom and Summer probably thought we were in a good hiding spot before noticing we disappeared, or Fawn caused a lot of trouble and Joel was distracted, or most of the clanmates became busy and there wasn't enough for a decent search party, or... Whatever the case was, we made it to Frosty Hills without any trouble.
Copper lead the way as we left very noticeable tracks in the slushy snow, and I nervously dragged behind, constantly glancing behind us for a dot or two of yellow fur in the distance. Of course, no one else showed except for the occasional passerby, and the rapidly descending dusk made each moment tenser than the last one. If Fawn had been guiding and pushing us as we moved, our time spent searching would most likely be halved; Fawn was that skilled at travel. It was her greatest talent.
"C-Copper, are you sure we can find this underground thing?"
"I'm sure," he reassured. "I mean, it should be easy to spot in all this sn- ahh!" His scream surprised me so much that my tail became a chaotic mess of fur and I instantly fell into a sit, glancing around hectically for danger. But, there was no one around to cause any, no one at all, and that was the problem: Copper disappeared. My heart sprung into my throat, worried tears burned my eyes, and I shouted for the missing fennekin, fearing the worse. There was no reply for a petrifying moment but then his voice shakily echoed from... somewhere. "Scarleeeet?"
Blinking my tears away, I wobbled up to where Copper had been standing, where the voice seemed to originate, and I glimpsed over a pile of hardened slush to see a hole twice my size in the ground. It looked like a tunnel with a heavy downward slope, and with the rocky floor slicked in ice, Copper must've slipped far, far down until either the ground leveled out or the slippery ice ceased. Skeptically, I stepped out into the hole's entrance, nearly slipping myself, and sat while grinding my paws into the ice. Slowly and cautiously, I slid into the shadowy depths after the clumsy fennekin.
Stalactites jutted from the ceiling, thin strands of frost strung across them, and startlingly jagged stalagmites spiked out from the floor. Ice no longer coated the ground when the tunnel flattened out, my breath fogged aplenty, and I spotted my headstrong brother by a magnificent pillar of ice with an unnatural, brilliant glow like an aurora. It dimly colored the otherwise darkness-filled cavern and its stalagmites of life-threatening sharpness, and the only light not radiating from the vivid mass were tiny, almost unnoticeable streaks of moonlight and starlight from the entrance. I could hardly see the nose in front of my face, it was so dark, until I edged closer to my brother and the colorful ice.
"Cool..." he drawled, vapor mystifying with his words. Heedfully, he raised a paw and gingerly rested it against the permafrost, but he retracted it almost instantly with a yelp. "Yikes, it's so co-o-old!" On cue, my sneeze reverberated throughout the cavern. The slight shuddering of stalactites and stalagmites alike slipped an icicle of fear into my heart. "And terrifying," he added in a whisper, stifling giggles.
We began our attempts at scratching off a piece of the ice rock. As Fawn mentioned, no amount of fire power could dent the frosty structure, our flimsy Embers like a spat of water on impenetrable steel. Our clawing hardly left marks and so Copper tried gnawing, but his tongue accidentally touched the ice and stayed there. We resolved the problem in a timely manner, but pulling his tongue off the permafrost wasn't exactly nice and he rubbed his sore tongue for a long while before helping out again.
We returned to clawing and continued at it until, as if the cavern showed mercy so we'd leave, my dull claws dug in enough, scraped a little wedge off, and it gently fell to the icy floor. The shard captured a bit of the boulder's dim glow, glistening a glacial pink. I scooped it into my forepaws and stored it well into Copper's thick pelt. It fit snugly, and despite his pelt's stuffy heat, the bead of permafrost remained polar to the touch. "This really will never melt," Copper remarked with a chuckle.
Eventually, after more toil and effort, we stumbled up and out of the frost-glazed tunnel. Spotting the stars splashed across a dark-teal sky struck me with a long, squeaky yawn. "We were in there... way too long..." And no one's come out to find us, I added on silently, sadly.
"Oh, geez. Mom and Fawn would be crazy not to worry. Ack, I hope Fawn didn't sneak away to find us..."
I wanted him to not worry, because if he didn't keep his cool then I wouldn't stop panicking. So, I mimicked him from earlier with a curt, "We'll be real quick," and he playfully nudged my shoulder from the slight mocking. In better spirits, we began trudging home the way we came, which was evidently marked from our paws burning imprints in the slush. We really took our time heading back, exhausted from our extensive efforts and somewhat hoping a search party will emerge and carry us back instead. I kept sighing as we walked; Joel and Mom would have a big punishment in mind once we made it ho-
A massive, black-furred, blood-crusted paw thrashed through a shrub directly to my left, startling my poor heart and having me stumble into Copper. Almost four times our heights, a beast staggered out of the frost-trimmed vegetation, bits of snow and slush spraying us from the jerky movements but that didn't matter to me, my attention hooked exclusively on the savage luxray. Fawn mentioned this monster and horrid stories about her too many times to count; she murdered Shard's parents, almost killed Shard throughout the seasons, and the lives stolen from that massive, black-furred, blood-crusted paw were innumerable. She was a heartless, blood-thriving predator that stalked from shadow to shadow, using the sharpened ends of her victims' bones to pick out flesh from in between her rotten fangs, probably looking at us cubs like bite-size snacks... I was surprised I didn't pass out on the spot.
Ruby didn't notice us right away, surprisingly. She crashed recklessly through the undergrowth as to not hunt for prey, but her eyes swiveled attentively around the snowy fields, indicating the luxray still sought out something, or possibly someone that wouldn't run from or outrun her. Copper hurriedly pressed a paw against my back and forced us flat against the slushy floor, and we both silently hoped she'd trample past us.
Unfortunately, her nose twitched upon catching our scents and golden, pricking irises speared through us. A yowl ripped out of her throat and she coiled her head back, ready to strike like a famished arbok-we were not the thing or one she was searching for, and she was enraged because of it.
Heartbeats away from death, my head about to be smashed in or something equally as brutal, my thoughts went blank. I could've reflected on my family, Copper, Fawn, the clan, or maybe my stupidity, regrets, or exhaustion... but nothing flashed through my head. No memories, no notions for escaping the situation: absolutely zilch. If anyone asked on this experience after I escaped the ordeal, I would most likely lie, not wanting others to know I was a pathetic Pokémon even near-death.
Copper, one of the only two I could confide to in the universe, lunged boldly-foolishly-at the luxray. Her head snapped forward, but he pounced just high enough to avoid the quick, painless death, securing his tiny, adorable canines into Ruby's nose. Blood trickled from the almost nonexistent marks he inflicted, but Ruby sure felt the stinging pain, and her neck twisted at an angle so her jaws slashed through his midsection and ripped him off her snout. I could only watch numbly, paralyzed as he died.
My dear brother screeched an abnormal, animalistic cry with everything his little throat allowed until it cut off with a pitiful squelch, and I robbed a final glimpse at the horrifyingly loud emotion in his eyes. Panic begged for life, sadness marveled dying thoughts, and concern bellowed for me to run. Then, as at least half his bones shattered with one gruesome bite, I watched life snap out of his normally bright, enthusiastic eyes and leave blank, blank orbs, hollow like the ice in his fur, hollow like the beast's heart in that moment.
I listened to his eyes, and my legs carried me faster than Copper and Fawn's ever had. My ending should've been by the luxray's jaws as well, but I did escape-only because the monster was searching for something or someone, not running around mindlessly to kill.
I whirled by the landscape, his dead eyes stuck in mine, never pausing, the deafening noise of shattered bones stuck in my ears. My brother had such a brighter future than I had, and I wish I sacrificed myself for him instead of standing and staring pathetically at the luxray. Thus, my blank thoughts finally found something to rant about as I ran: regret for letting him save me. But, he wouldn't want me to think like this, so as my adrenaline nearly ran dry my self-hatred did as well. I decided to keep happy memories of him alive inside of me instead of grieving.
And so I ran, and ran, and ran, so no one would steal my memories of him.
Due to the jolteon's speedy gait, my tears streaked terribly from the wind, wetting the fur right by my eyes but mostly dampening Thunder's dirty scarf. My sobs were dry and empty by that point, having no more tears left or none willing to shed yet. I lifted my raw eyes from the maroon fabric to try and glance at the electric-type's expression, his silence concerning me-he might've not heard me, and I didn't want to retell any of the story again-but he replied soon enough, right as he slowed down considerably at a faded curve in the scent trail.
"I'm so sorry, Scarlet. No one should experience something like that." His ears couldn't be flatter against his head. "So, does that mean you're not sure if Fawn left the clan?" His voice was worn and raspy, almost painful to listen to. However, my distraught voice was undeniably worse.
"F-Fawn, even if grounded... sh-she has to be wandering so-omewhere to find u-us... I, I-I'm certain, she wouldn't stay at the c-clan if we disappeared, n-never. She l-lo-oves us..." I paused to compose myself, but I failed to steady my whimpering voice. "I d-do-on't wanna go home w-wi-without her... I-I-I... C-Cop-pp-er... ahhhh..."
Thunder stopped pacing and sniffing around, glancing back at tear-streaked me. "We'll find her," he stated confidently, oh so hopefully. No, not hopefully: certainly. Because we would. "Also, karma will strike Ruby hard, and after she caused so much death and turmoil, I can't imagine how bad it'll hit her."
This cheered me up slightly, but I hated whenever anyone suffered. If I watched the insane, monstrous luxray about to endure something like a dragged-out death, I... I would try and stop it... even if it made me just as insane. "L-let's save A-Aqua, Thun-nder." He hummed an agreement. With that, he confirmed the scent trail's new direction, and we were only a few moments away from the den with two glaceons and a luxray.
Fawn wasn't there.
Shard's POV
When I stirred from fitful, restless sleep, I acknowledged the stiffness of paralyzed limbs. Memories of events before losing consciousness emerged from a sleepy haze, but in patches. My unresolved conflict with Thunder first consumed my thinking-not what happened after, not when I suffered a worse dose of electrical pain by a horrid luxray-and I wished drowsiness would lapse me into dreams again. However, it didn't, and my exhausted, stunned body detested all notions towards standing just yet, so I couldn't do anything but stay still and tough out the torment of thinking.
I reflected on my thoughts and feelings and responses at the time. When Thunder zapped me, I wasn't mad, which was already an emotion I scarcely harbored. I wasn't sad, either, which seemed more like me, but I was just fearful. Using this fear for fuel, I had run from the jolteon until my legs shook unstably and I collapsed with exhaustion, and I realized he neglected giving chase. I wasn't sure how to accept that; did he think we needed healthy time alone, or was I unwanted?
A glimpse at the jolteon before fleeing suggested the former, because pure panic and regret had riddled his expression and no one could fake it so well, not even Ruby. So... most likely, he wanted us to be alone temporarily, to reflect. I... I was okay with that.
Instead of musing over our fight furthermore, my thoughts revolved around a different, seemingly trivial detail from long ago about us. It'd been a while since it happened, but the same feelings from back then, strong sensations, was knotting so tightly in my chest right there, as if I flashed back in time to the day. This feeling came up after the announcement at the Great Sequoias for Sugarcane's first ever Spring Festival. A strange pulse of doubt had rippled through my thoughts while I simply enjoyed my relationship with Thunder, and I couldn't pinpoint its cause at the time.
In my paralyzed position a week and a half later, stuck marveling over the recent, numerous revelations in my life, I firmly confirmed the source of my doubt: a lack of knowledge on Thunder. I memorized insignificant facts about him-favorites, friends, likes and dislikes-but I never heard the influences of those things, the stuff that made Thunder who he was and the things affecting how he lived through life. I didn't know about anything actually important until the night before, when I learned of his past, his family, his fears and faults and secrets... I finally knew who Thunder was, and it would never leave my head or memory from then on. My small inkling of doubt whenever we cuddled or kissed wouldn't resurface again.
With this old sense of doubt at ease and a few other things figured out, I had a choice: Would I give into my fear and calmly part from our relationship, letting it end, or would I accept the substantial depths of his character, beautiful and ugly things alike, and forgive him?
If any other girl but me were in my paws, they probably wouldn't rush their thoughts and consider the decision longer, thoughts raging on with at least with a smidgen of anger, but I couldn't be a typical girl. That wasn't me-I couldn't hold Thunder accountable for the fight, couldn't hold anyone accountable and couldn't be angry, since I never managed to hold a grudge. My closest thing to a grudge involved my interactions with Ruby, but if anything, it worked vice versa for us: she governed the grudges. I didn't know exactly what I thought of her in return except that she frightened me, but I did know she hated my guts and consistently reminded me of it, grudging being the perfect word to describe her.
All in all, it wasn't much of a decision, so it didn't make sense to me to let my thoughts go wild for sometime longer-I chose to forgive. I didn't judge others and their actions for long if at all, and this warm, tender feeling in my heart for Thunder only felt like it blossomed since the fight.
With that, my head thought back to Ruby and the grudges. For the longest time, she snared me in an anxious, forever-cycling spiral of terror, ever since the death of my parents, and I hadn't reached out and disturbed the spiral until Thunder entered my life. There, another reason why I loved and forgave Thunder: I was strong with him. All times before, Ruby deemed me as a spineless runt and I meekly accepted that. She still labeled me as such, just a pitiful runt, but I learned to rebel against the demeaning title just the slightest, and I grew a spine with the jolteon by my side. Maybe, just the slightest chance, I could've learned to fight aga-
No. That's impossible.
Brushing off my rambling thoughts, I wanted to find Thunder and conclude my forgiveness with him. I struggled up on numbed paws while pondering my slightly stunned status for a heartbeat, but then I breathed in sharply, almost squeaking as the rest of my memories draped over my head like a smothering cloud-the things that happened after the fight, suffering a worse dose of electrical pain by a horrid luxray.
The memories played hazily, a blur of events, but I understood everything overall: after sulking by an aged, vine-strewn tree stump somewhere near the Great Sequoias for the majority of the night, drenching my paws, fur, and the grass with raw emotions, Ruby abruptly lunged out of the surrounding vegetation and swamped me with a jarring Discharge. My thoughts blanked after that. From this restored memory, I realized the place I was in, a rotten den reeking of carnage, was the place Ruby resided since banishment. She was nearby, so was Aqua, Thunder wasn't...
My eyes profusely watered upon my surroundings. Carcasses mutilated beyond recognition occupied too much space, nauseous crimson colored the ground, and the same hues of blood dried onto my fur in rough patches since I slept on the sinewy remnants of an audino. Too late to avert my gaze from the scene, the snapped spines and rived tissues and blood, all of that blood... the vivid images pasted themselves to my brain. It was revolting: a party of corpses. I moved my doused gaze outside and started for the hopeful sunshine, but I halted upon spotting a burly mass of death-colored fur and a more a slender, tinier figure of powder blue. The two sat among a rowdy field of overgrown, arid grasses and flowers growing up to the blue's shoulders, and I decided to hold off escaping the atrocious environment just yet; I would only encounter a creature ghastlier than the morbid environment.
I observed my vile vicinity for a dreadful moment longer, and a grisly realization on my whereabouts struck me, tightening up my nerves and encouraging hiccuping sobs. Faster than a blink, my emotions doubled in intensity-never had I been so mortified so quickly, not even when the Luxray Clan slaughtered my parents' right before my eyes, and that said plenty in and of itself.
But, to be fair, I was in the same place where they died.
I stood within my sleeping quarters as a cub, and my heart ached staring at the meadow of white daises that once looked so pleasant. Bright and dark memories throbbed in my head and it was impossible to reject my thoughts. M-Mo... Gem, Phantom...
The place had been reduced to utter shambles, my old home, the last place I still saw life bubbling inside my parents. It couldn't even be considered a home anymore-if anything, it was a graveyard with no graves, just disrespected bodies, or the things that used to make up bodies. I definitely couldn't take this awareness lightly, numbly stepping backwards with unnaturally wide eyes.
My paw stepped on a hollow, frail bone and snapped the sickeningly pale thing in two, and the little splinter of sound fractured the final, fragile wall that restrained my emotions. My legs crumbled beneath me and my wail shook the den, tears dripping through my fur and dappling the already wet-with-crimson floor.
It took a few moments of unrestrained howls and yelps of my bawling until the blue figure outside walked over and entered the gloom, evading bodies the best she could. I hadn't noted it before, but the Pokémon was the rare sight of a glaceon like me, eyes sparkling with hues like the sea, and I promptly realized Aqua had evolved. However, seeing a younger, shorter reflection of me in the blood-bathed den only worsened my cries. After she made it over, Aqua settled a bloody-flecked paw on my shoulder, and it required all of my inner strength to not meet her aquamarine irises, instead crying into her shoulder. She sat silently in shock before timidly sliding her azure paw onto my back and slowly, awkwardly patting it, but no amount of consoling gestures would ease up my plaguing sorrow.
My eyes finished draining themselves of despair, at least for the moment, and I separated myself from the cold embrace. Our eyes locked, hers a conflicted marsh of emotions mostly with distress and concern, and I merely sniffled at that before we drowned in heavy silence.
She broke it first, tentatively. "Are you okay?" Her voice was gentle, light, reluctant; like one wrong word and chaos certainly followed. In response, I weakly shook my head, biting my tongue to choke down another sob. The silent negative sparked confusion in her expression, and so I stuttered hoarsely:
"I... I-I would never be okay in this den, not after- n-not with..." I couldn't finish.
"Um, Ruby isn't so bad, you know," she obliviously replied. "If that's why."
I stared hard at my paws. If even a single thread of anger dwelled inside me at that moment, I would tie it into a questioning glare for the naïve eon. Instead, a pathetic hiccup bounced out of my tired throat, and I couldn't lift my eyes from the ground. "Wh-what does that... mean?" The words honestly struck me clueless. They made no sense. They couldn't make sense.
"We've been talking. She's really making an effort to be a better Pokémon, I swear." Noticing I wasn't convinced in the least, she prattled onward. "She cried earlier because she's so regretful, and she's even been, uh... fetching berries." The glaceon glanced pointedly at a couple of Rawsts and Orans in the center of the den, the fruit unappealingly mushy, browner than bluer, and far from fresh. I almost missed the decaying berries amongst all of the eye-catching red and other decaying remains.
"Yeaaaah, she's not exactly good at finding good ones, but she's trying." Forcing a grin that came out strained, Aqua established eye contact, and I stared disbelievingly into her fraught irises. She wanted me to believe this? There were bodies everywhere; the luxray almost murdered me countless times; I never saw a hint of good will aside from Ruby's façade since cub days. I wasn't at all convinced. "Hey, I-I'm serio-"
A thundering yowl reverberated outside, and we both fretfully peered at the source: a deranged, outraged luxray baring blood-rotten teeth. "U-um... She, well, um..." She quickly became flustered, and so she took immediate action instead. Aqua whirled on her paws and urgently dashed out into the tangled mass of meadow, and I anxiously pursued to settle my curiosity and discover the disturbance's stimulant.
Once we exited, I spotted electricity arcing in snapping, crackling bolts off two pelts, one midnight black, one flaxen yellow. Golden, empty irises lanced through sapphire-tinted ones suffused with fury and neither glares relented in the slightest. I glanced away from the hatred to spot a sphere of delicate, marigold fluff quivering besides the jolteon that tracked me down, and I first presumed the fennekin to be Fawn but realized by the scrawnier size it was the timid Scarlet. At the electric eon's dour command, she scurried into nearest strip of undergrowth and observed anxiously from beneath leafy, thorn-laden twigs, and I couldn't look away from the spiky-furred jolteon after that.
"Thunder," I murmured, the word breathlessly trickling past my lips, and that's all I could say or do. My thoughts were numb; I had not a notion on how to respond. Just... Thunder.
"What is that?" Ruby scoffed. I nervously followed her sharp, studying gaze to find berry juice matching his eye color smeared sloppily across his face. I almost giggled at how silly he looked, but the circumstances were grave and my thoughts were vacant and Ruby's sinister smile was greatly deterring.
He returned with grim silence and gritted teeth, which almost stirred fear inside me again, and the luxray darkly chuckled. "Fine. If you really want to battle, we shall battle." Her paws spread far apart, and she swept her tongue around her reddened muzzle as if starving for prey. "It's time you suffer for that one day at Forest Grotto, anyways." And a heartbeat later, the electric-types lunged into battle. The panicked screech of Aqua couldn't hope to compete with the bursts of fizzing energy consuming the newly appointed battlefield and the highly skilled battlers.
Ruby and Thunder mainly interlocked claws at first, but streaks and volts of goldenrod, cosmic white, and transparent blue still exploded off respective pelts as they brawled, claws parrying claws, electricity cancelling electricity. As they both accustomed to the match's rhythm, advances began to vary with spectral Shadow Balls and spine-crushing Thunder Fangs and root-snapping Digs, and their dynamic agility blurred their cloaks of sparks as they dashed about and it almost stung to watch. They effectively chipped down each other's low stamina as the fray wore on, and during the heat of the spectacle, I tottered over to Aqua's awfully bemused form and nuzzled my tearful eyes into her tensed shoulder; it just somehow felt comforting to touch another glaceon. She didn't shrug me off, not even acknowledging the dolorous gesture with her eyes so intensely concentrated on her sibling and supposed friend, and neither of the two succeeded the other for quite a feared while.
At one point, the turning point, Thunder tackled heftily into the frigid-hearted luxray's stomach and she left the ground for precisely two heartbeats, landing on her massive, crimson paws closer to us than with her opponent. Aqua immediately claimed the opportunity and desperately rushed to the beast's side. I vainly reached a paw after the immature ice-type but my body refused to clamber after, once again petrified with just as immature fears. "Ruby, Brother!" she shouted, sliding in front of the luxray and swiveling watery eyes between the two adversaries. "Stop hurting each other, please! Please! This doesn't have to ha-"
It was like Ruby couldn't hear the glaceon's. The luxray's foreleg slithered around the Aqua and hostilely yanked her closer, pressing the disoriented glaceon against her bruised stomach, and claws specifically designed for slicing life away positioned themselves lethally by the neck. When Thunder attempted to race over, the life-leeching claws edged closer to Aqua's neck, and he desperately skidded to a halt: deadlock. Nothing happened as the electric-types faced each other and the ice-type struggled to stay still.
Despite Ruby's savage, low-volume cackling and threatening claws, Aqua dared to speak. "R-Ruby, wh-why are-" The claws began digging into her neck, not enough for bloodshed but Aqua's muzzle still clammed shut.
More silence prevailed.
Thunder glanced at me for less than a heartbeat before refocusing on his endangered sibling, and he eventually spoke. "Ruby, let Aqua go." He must've figured his goofy sister occupied the glaceon body right when he laid eyes on her. When she didn't respond, he cautiously stepped forward. Ruby merely stared. He moved a hind leg forward, then a foreleg, his other hind leg, delicate step after step, after step after step-and she finally snarled, the narrowest line of blood crossing Aqua's neck, and tiny beads of crimson leaked down the cyan fur of the flinching cub.
Stalemate still reigned. Uneasy, insanity-provoking stalemate.
If I coalesced any of the fibers of courage that were scattered inside me, I would've snuck over and possibly freed Aqua from a cold slice of death-very doubtful, however. If anything, reckless interference would only hasten the process. Since I labeled myself as useless in that moment, I only watched with worsening sniffles as Thunder stepped forward again and the luxray's crushing paw suddenly clenched Aqua's thin throat with vigor, but the serrated claws had fortunately flipped around, scratching wounds into the thicker, more durable skin on the back of the neck. "R-R-Ru-ub-y-"
Ruby's blood-stained muzzle floated by Aqua's fearfully twitching ear. "Fooled ya," she whispered silkily, scaring the cub witless. Finally aware of being balanced between life and death, the poor glaceon rampaged feebly for freedom but it only deepened the claws into her nape and more beads of blood drooled down her back. Thunder gasped and his nimble legs ripped at a new speed through the weeds to reach his little sister, but the paw with Ruby's victim pulled back, and she lugged the literally breathless glaceon into the jolteon.
Thunder couldn't redirect his dash or evade whatsoever. Aqua was thrown forward into him, and the siblings' heads inevitably smacked together; an alarming crack split in one of their skulls, and they didn't rise from the grasses and daises after the fell. Thunder's head was the one that cracked slightly, hence the reason he instantaneously traversed into unconsciousness, and Aqua woozily rolled around while trying to think away her physical and emotional pains: the stings of bleeding cuts, the aches of cold betrayal. As they wallowed in their suffering, Ruby casually strode over with an eerily sinister, demented smirk and the intent to bleed out two more lives, and I was the only one left to do something. Anything.
My thoughts stormed with panic. I couldn't fight, I couldn't stop her, and I couldn't, couldn't... What can I do? my thoughts started, almost uplifting, but then they rapidly spiraled away from all traces of hope. I can't do anything, not here. No, I'm just a... a runt, a pitiful runt with a pitiful life, and I can only watch, pitifully, pathetic... as my brave friends die-even Aqua is braver than me. I'll never be anything more than a coward, and now Thunder, Aqua... Phantom, Gem! I'm sorry, I'm horrible, I can't do this. I... I can't... I'm just a, a...
Somehow, strangely, my thoughts clicked-they changed. All with a simple question, a choking question: Are you that selfish?
I... My attitude towards all fights and danger was always the same, piteous thing: distancing myself from the peril as much as possible. I always either watched helplessly or fled from Pokémon battling for varying reasons with diverse motivations. But me? My motivation for avoiding fights and attacking-it never changed. It was always fear. I succumbed to petrifying fear each and every time, scared of hurting others but mostly scared of hurting myself, because any day I could end up like my parents with my heart shocked to a stop.
So, yes, I was selfish. I chose to watch others hurt themselves, sometimes for the sole purpose of protecting me when I should've done it myself, and I was almost going to let my love and his innocent sister die for many reasons, one of such being me, instead of trying to prevent their tragic fates. If I didn't help them, if I ran... I was better off dead. But I could've just made it worse-it could all be for vain, and Thunder would want me to live if he died instead of wasting my life. But... but...
I... I can do this.
"R-Ruby!"
My solid voice convinced her to glance my way, her expression honestly intrigued, somewhat infuriated, completely bloodthirsty.
I actually captured her attention. I could hardly believe it; I could do something...
Unwilling to lose it, I fell into the most challenging, hostile stance I could manage, but it had to appear flawed and gawky since I never attempted an offensive position since my eevee days. Ruby's faint snicker wasn't exactly reassuring, either. Her eyes flickered with amusement and I almost crumbled under the pressure, almost reduced to a wailing, woeful, hope-deprived soul once again, but I held on.
"Are you joking with me?" she yowled, sounding delighted, and I tried a growl. It came out weak, pitchy, and unconvincing. "Oh, this is gonna be fun." Her distorted smirk wrung from ear to ear, pupils shrunken beneath its golden, bellicose film, and I did my best not to cower at a real growl from her.
She deprived all attention from Thunder and Aqua and pounced over, covering daunting distance in one swell leap. Almost mockingly, she stood before me and stayed there and stared. An expectant stare, beckoning eyes drolly encouraging me on. At least she no longer concentrated on the siblings, but... what would I...
My thoughts and instincts never felt so foreign. With limited, sketchy knowledge on attacks, I repositioned my paws so they weren't spread so far apart and tried to recall TMs I learned a long time back. Lily once insisted I learned some ice-type moves to upset my generic eevee moveset, but I refused to raise a claw, so she bought two expensive TMs behind my back and I had to use them. One of them was Ice Beam, which cost an absurd total of Poké, yet I only ever used it once on a boulder in Frosty Hills to test it out. I might've forgotten it...
"Are you too inept to attack, runt?" Despite the distance between us, I smelled her noxious, death-scented breath and the sizzling of electricity, and I didn't want any of it to drift closer, so I nervously attempted to battle.
I searched down into the untouched depths of my core, seeking to unlock the mistreated frost in which generated my special attacks. When something like cold bile frothed in my chest, I knew the attack began to manifest and struggled to continue. A chill seeped up my throat at a suffocating pace, intense enough to burn my throat more than freeze it, and when I gagged on the sensation I rushed the ice too hastily. I hacked up dry, grating chips of ice in which whipped my throat raw, it possibly bleeding, and it even stung to breathe.
Ruby had quaked with little titters before I tried, but she erupted in unrestrained, raucous laughter as I coughed and spluttered. "Are you dying on your own?!"
Failure, my thoughts chanted. Failure. The word smothered my mind in blinding doubt, but with a more calm-centric approach, I concentrated again. No, I can... I gulped. Patience is key.
An Ice Beam should've instantly crystallized from a sphere in front of my muzzle much like a Shadow Ball, but neglecting to use the move caused it to rust up and it needed to thaw from its dusted remnants. When I all but gargled the enlarging energy bleeding up my pipes, I imagined the ray of ice and, to my undying relief, the natural processes of my body took care of the rest. A thin, frail streak of permafrost streamed past my nose and struck Ruby's paw before she noticed it fired. Ice instantly webbed over the appendage like poisonous, translucent ooze but she leapt backwards, ripping herself free of the fragile coating.
Disgusted but entertained the slightest, she glared gleefully. "Oho, you ought to know better, runt. Something that pathetic wouldn't hold back a crippled rattata." She no longer opted for waiting; she stalked forward, fur sparking, eyes narrowing, and teeth far from shining. I attempted another Ice Beam, which formulated quicker this time, but Ruby easily moved her head out of its finite range. "Pathetic."
A blinding illumination submerged her ragged pelt and she launched a rampaging, uncontrolled roar of electricity. I flattened myself against the bountiful daises and grasses without a second thought and it surged straight pass me, striking the inside of the den and steadily diminishing within the stony structure. Before it even dispersed halfway, however, Ruby pounced for me, and I aimed an Ice Beam for her neck but missed by far and she tackled me into the body-littered cave.
I slipped past her before the luxray crazed on bloodlust reacted promptly enough to pin me. I hastily dashed back into the meadow, racing up to the painfully squirming glaceon and stiff, unconscious jolteon. From there, I had no idea what to do. I wanted to flee if at all possible but I couldn't carry them and Ruby would murder the two if I left. Scarlet still held her position in a remote shrub, red eyes teary and unblinking, and she definitely couldn't assist with any of this. I couldn't request for aid from any of the three, yet I spoke, futile and fear-powered words stumbling off my tongue.
"Th-Thunder, what do I do? I can't attack! I, I need help. I'm no match. She has t-t-too much expertise and I'm so weak and-" I shuddered in my skin because, as Ruby yowled a bone-shaking roar, a more threatening cry rumbled from newly collected, slate gray clouds above beginning to swirl together too unnaturally quick. I instantly expected the monstrous luxray to be the cause of this, but the tiniest ball of ice bounced off my forehead. Ice. Ice.
By panicking, awakening my rusted attacker instincts, and horribly misfiring an Ice Beam, I had accidentally triggered the other TM I learned and my body used Hail on its own. A mixture of whirring rain and ice pelted us at a vigorously increasing rate, and the vicinity's temperature had considerably dropped. "Ice..."
A frustrated hiss tore out of Ruby and I squeaked, ducking into the rapidly dampening weeds beaten mercilessly by the gelid assault I summoned, and darted away with uncanny light paws. It felt like treading on air or ice, as if no substantial muscles and fat weighed me down while I skidded elegantly across the storm-afflicted meadow-like a ghost. I whirled and rushed through the worsening hailstorm and felt as nimble as my sweet jolteon. "This is... m-my ability," I voiced, whispering in a baffled sense. Never before had my Snow Cloak ability activated except for select moments in winter, when I bounded across bales of wintry fluff dusting the landscape amongst natural hail. Never within a clove of seasons, however, especially not so near the season of sun and heat.
Before I knew it, I giggled at the thought of how strange Pokémon were for things like this. We were considered a part of nature, yet many of us accomplished feats such as hailstorms near summer, and nature would detest these feats if nature could feel. We were strange creatures... Nature probably could feel in some way or form, actually. Grass-types probably knew; Petal would know. My mind reverted back to the battle-I wished Petal was there to help, wished someone was with me to battle alongside with, and my confidence started to crumble. Even with bolstered speed I couldn't, couldn't... What could I do?
"Sweeeetie, I'm right by your sweet, rotten jolteon~" No, her voice was far from him and Aqua. Or was it? Was it echoing? To halt my dithering, I located a hazy, indistinct cloud of midnight fur within the silvery flakes, and I sighed in relief as it meandered away from the spot with my friends.
Nonetheless, if I didn't reveal myself, she'd eventually stumble back to the center of the field and her bluff wouldn't be a bluff, and they would be slaughtered, and it would be my fault for relenting to such frustrating reluctance. Observing a moment longer, I noted she evidently struggled in this weather, hissing almost louder than the pelting. She clawed vainly at the hail as if she had the power of halting the frigid gales and icy drizzle, but the world does not follow you, Ruby. Nature isn't your puppet. I am not your puppet, and I... I am done cowering.
With some of my fickle confidence remaining, I squirmed through the unruly meadow as grass seemingly parted just so I could easily slip through, and I crept up to the luxray while charging another Ice Beam. It required only heartbeats to do so, no choking sensations furthermore tripping me up, and the frigid spray splashed across the tensed length of Ruby's spine. Tiny icicles tipped an ominous black spiraled onto her pelt along with a thick layer of permafrost, and I propelled another flare of particles at a foreleg before electricity sliced through the first beam's effects and thawed her pelt free. She aimlessly swiped a paw, but I backed out of its range and continued moving consistently with a balanced blend of attack-and-dodge, chipping away her warmth and energy until my throat flared with overexertion and I retched from the dry, scraping air that materialized my attacks.
All the ice on the luxray melted into water from the electricity and saturated her untamed pelt. It greatly reduced control over her fierce element, but I still failed to sidestep a gushing torrent of uncontrolled electricity due to exhaustion. It would've struck dead on the right side of my face, but I raised my paws and shielded myself-yet it only took half of the blunt and my face suffered the rest.
It zapped away any spheres of hail within close vicinity and jarred my sensitive nerves, roasting my icy fur, stimulating spasmodic movements, and mercilessly cleaved through me to dreadfully burn my face but not enough to kill, not enough to completely mince my skin and life away and blast it into oblivion. However, it was just enough to frame my vision with foreboding, dreary black and blur the rest of my impaired sight, and to cause my muscles to not correspond with my thoughts. It rendered me immobile and helpless, tossing me on the ridge of a dreamless, ceaseless sleep that no one ever awoke from.
Yet I stood. Kind of. Frosted claws gripped my terribly twitching foreleg and yanked me up by it, and I used the virulent momentum to shakily fasten my other three paws to the soil, electricity draining into the ground. I glanced at my pain's originator for a split heartbeat, noted the disturbing, daunting, psychotic ferociousness in her eyes, and my mouth twitched into a frown: I never saw her so angry before.
My slight stability lasted very shortly as more electricity traversed from her paw to mine. It flooded my body, burning and spreading rapidly like a powerful toxin poisoning my muscles and numbing my nerves and killing me off. Killing me off. Leeching my life, and once again, I was back to being worthless. I was a vat of inferior blood and meaningless life only worthy of being obliterated at the searing, merciless, cutting fingers of a luxray's always famished electricity. All of this electricity wasn't healthy... I needed to stop being so critically intolerable, so electricity didn't feel the strong need to devour my energy and dice me up.
She threw my paralyzed figure to the side, almost far enough so I tumbled into the dry interior of my parents' old den, and I rooted myself as much as possible to the earth again. I'd dropped heavily against the ground, unable to stand despite any strength my will harvested, and convulsed horribly on my side as electricity fed away at my skin and muscles, sadistically cutting them up. Before it was too late, I leaned enough into the moist soil and the avid, ravenous energy steadily transplanted their raw fingers and claws from my body to the ground, fortunately bleeding into the miry soil and freeing me from the trenchant pain and erratic quaking of my muscles and singed nerves. Most of it left my body, but the right side of my face felt numb and scarred, and it was worse with my left foreleg, much worse. I couldn't even feel it, almost like the appendage wasn't there, and even twitching my eyes to stare at it didn't reassure my instincts of it actually being there. The rest of my body compared to the two severely numbed areas merely felt tired-although a majority of my muscles had endured catastrophic damage, none of this should've been taken lightly.
I couldn't think. It hurt so badly. I almost thought I wouldn't survive the injuries, and I would've died right in front of the home my parents perished in themselves. I panicked as my head blathered about blood possibly stopping its pumping into my leg and that's why I didn't feel it whatsoever and it wouldn't work anymore, or maybe my brain was drastically shocked and I'd never think the same again. But, of course, if my thoughts managed to ramble and panic, I wasn't too impaired. There was no more electricity still slicing at my insides, but everything burned and my thinking rapidly slowed down and... it hurt...
This was what happened whenever I fought, exactly as I feared. Pokémon were hurt-but at least Thunder and Aqua were alive. Or maybe Ruby would slit their throats while I squirmed along the ground in pain. No idea. Maybe we'd all die together. No idea.
As I lied beneath heavily showering orbs of ice, a limb and face so devastated by the luxray's greedy element, paralyzed once again, I fluctuated between states of mind. Only a few heartbeats seemed to pass when blackness first dominated my sight and mind, but I flimsily retained consciousness when hail no longer bombarded me, but the rhythmic thrumming of it still rampaged on in the distance. I was being sheltered from the weather and, since my thoughts stuttered, it took a while before I realized I was in the den.
I felt things pressing against my numbed face and leg, cold and chunky and slick: it was ice, a sphere of collected hail. Right as it wasn't being shoved against my severely numbing injuries, mushy fruit was shoved into my mouth and I sluggishly chewed. I blinked a few times drowsily, weakly, and my teary vision refused to focus, so if I couldn't do that then I couldn't rebel the force-feeding of rotten Rawst and Oran berries in which Aqua pointed out earlier.
I wondered if Thunder or Aqua had recovered enough to stand, find me sprawled in the grass, drag me into the snug chamber, apply ice to my worst injuries, and force berries into my mouth, but no, of course not. However, I couldn't register that a mass of black fur treated my roasted leg and face because that seemed even crazier. After my thoughts started to become coherent again and my vision semi-focused, I began accepting that a luxray helped to heal me from the pain and the hurt and the numb, but that's far from saying I liked it.
Since her pawsteps constantly faded into the blizzard before stomping back into hearing with some hail, roughly pressing it to my head and leg until it melted and her pawsteps rapidly faded again, I knew she diligently strived to mend my injuries. I started feeling my leg again and my vision focused a little more, and her pawsteps strangely didn't return for a while when that happened, but then they did and the mushy texture and succulent tang of Orans were scooped into my maw.
She vanished again for another lengthy while before the spicy taste of Cheris burned my taste buds and its juice was sprinkled over my leg and head. She had fulfilled my hankering hunger with the first few Orans and I loathed the idea of more, but I was forced to eat and should've felt grateful instead of uncomfortable with it-after all, if not for Ruby's consistent assistance, I would've been dead. She was... She had saved me. I should've been more cooperative. I was alive because of her-but I still nearly died because of her. But she had saved me, she had saved me, saved me... Why did she...
Eventually, Velvetleaf veiled my leg and the right side of my face, and all I heard was Ruby's panting. The hailstorm long since subsided and neither Thunder nor Aqua nor Scarlet entered the cave. Scarlet must've been too frightened to approach, and the damage Aqua suffered must've tallied up and she fell unconscious in the field alongside Thunder, and neither had awoken from their restful slumbers. They would in a while, fortunately, but just not yet.
Thoughts on the two siblings and fretting on their own conditions occupied my exhausted mind for a while until I thought about Ruby, flicking my vision to her. She sat on the opposite side of the den with a vigilant glare, doing nothing but watch me while she grumbled to herself. My gaze wandered a bit, and something felt off as I glanced about the blood-riddled chamber, but despite it being so obvious I failed to recognize it.
My gaze flitted back to the luxray and I reluctantly stared into her golden irises, too weak and blurry-eyed to decipher any emotion in them, but I did see her wince. She fixed her expression from that so she appeared stiff and stoic, but that wincing still greatly concerned me. Something was horribly wrong besides being electrocuted; I just couldn't place it. I didn't realize that I could only see out of one eyes, and that wasn't because half my face was swathed in Velvetleaf.
Then, with a somewhat dole, regretful tone, she muttered, "All of this is because of you."
Those golden irises hardened and she seemed expectant of a reply. My voice grated out of my throat and my tongue barely managed to form words, far worse than the first time I regained consciousness in the bloody den. "Wh-what do you mean?"
For whatever reason, she sniffled, and that evolved into light sobbing and whimpering. If my vision healed and focused just a bit more, I would've seen her watery eyes in all its entirety, but the only confirmation of her tears was sorrowful gasping and some dripping against the dusty, bloody floor. I never saw Ruby cry, not even when she was a shinx kit and accidentally stepped on thorns or sharp rocks. In the den, among her strained sobbing and sniffling, she no longer could feign a nonchalant countenance, and Aqua's earlier words sunk deep into my mind. She was changing, starting to embrace emotions and morality, and she truly wanted to repent for her sins.
But, at the moment, all she could do was weep on and mumble the same things over and over:
"This is all your fault... runt... all of your... fault... runt..."
This was excruciatingly emotion to write. Like, really really. I feel numb. This hurts. I feel tears coming on, and this is all because I know the reasons for everything happening-why Ruby's doing SUCH WEIRD THINGS, and how badly Shard's hurt, and a lot of stuff and ahghhghghgh. Lots of emotional pain and feeeeels.
A-anyways... *Shakily composes self* Dang, so why would Ruby betray Aqua like that, drastically injure Shard, and then collapse into tears while mumbling that stuff? What game is that devious luxray pulling, mmm? ;) . All's revealed next chappie: the final legit chappie. Another week wait, hopefully not more. Then the epilogue, then... somethinggggg. *Cackles* Ugh, this took five hours to revise. I don't know why it's more tedious than normal, but I've powered through with some soda and sunflower seeds. Somehow? *Wipes brow*
(On a happier note) Gaaaaaasp! Thunder and Ice has reached a hundred favorites, and we're nearly at 300 reviews?! THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH, AGHHH! THIS IS AMAZING, I LOVE YOU ALL. It's spectacular that this story could've reached so far. No matter how many times I marvel about it, my mind's always blown and I'm sure I've repeated or rehashed the same sentences expressing my thanks so many times but it's because I'M JUST SO GRATIFIED. ^w^ I remember being so excited for reaching forty reviews and twenty favorites, and everything's escalated so much since then... Thank you guys. So much. :D
Gosh, the title of this chapter has SUCH A DOUBLE MEANING. Eye of the Hailstorm represents the ending when Ruby drags Shard into the den amid the hailstorm and everything was at peace, kind of like the unnerving nothingness in the eye of a tornado or hurricane. Also, it also refers to Shard being the hailstorm (SHE ACTUALLY FOUGHT GUYS CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?), and this mentions the EYE of Shard... a-and... I AM SO SORRY SHARD, I HAVE NO COMPASSION (if you didn't catch it this chapter, it'll be shown blatantly next one). I brutally killed off Copper and rushed Lobo's death and now Shard finally stood up to Ruby after not doing so any of the past times-character development! :D-but now she's drastically injured and could've died and... WHAT HAS THIS FANFICTION BECOME, SERIOUSLY? From fluffy-duffy romance to bloodshed and death and mind-boggling plot twists, wow. This fanfic has really evolved, and I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing. .~.
*Tries to turn up music playlist to drown out my feels*
*When You're Gone by Avril Lavigne plays*
WHAT. UNIVERSE, THIS IS THE WORST SONG TO PLAY RIGHT NOW! ;w; NonononONONONONONO- *Drowns in tears*