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[Pokémon] The Surprising Adventures of a Glaceon in Unova (T)

79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
Selene talking in her sleep is...very very creepy... o.o


Heh, most people seemed to find it funny or just weird.

Also, during the battle with Sage Zinzolin, wouldn't his POKéMON be shivering from the cold as well, or have they got used to it?

Well, they haven't been in the cold very long (presumably Zinzolin has a heated office attached to the cold storage), so it hadn't affected them as much yet.

Lucius, though his behaviour is annoying, somehow surprised me that he retreated and left them there.

Since you've read the next chapter already, I don't think it's much of a spoiler when I remind you he didn't actually abandon him; he just went to get help.

And oh, before I forget... Seviper bit Black... o.o
That snake's fangs are almost half the size of humans (after looking at how Jessie beaten a Seviper up)...
That would... I'd rather stop imagining things now...

I was thinking more of a small prick with the tip of its tooth than it impaling him on its teeth.

All in all, a great chapter, and it was a long one, too. ^^

Thanks. It's indeed very long, but the next chapter is even longer! In fact, it was the longest chapter of the story until yesterday, when I finished the seven-and-a-half-thousand words long chapter 50.

The pipz in fanfic are really giving you a lot of nice reviews. And I can't blame them, for you're an awesome writer~
I also finished reading the latest chapter you put up on fanfic. I'll put my review about that later when it reaches here~ ;)

Yeah, they really are giving me amazingly nice reviews there. I hope you liked the story. Anyway, now for the end of the flashback:

Chapter Thirty-Three: Full Circle

Boreas struggled in panic against the stomach's tight embrace. He had already tried to open both exits with all his strength, but hadn't stood a chance against the powerful muscles. If he pressed hard on one side, he could feel the ground outside, which the Seviper seemed to be slithering over. His breathing was very fast and ragged as he struggled.

I'm going to die in here! He thought, I'M GOING TO DIE IN HERE!!!

He tried to get himself under control. Calm down.

No, I'm going to be digested alive!
Not if I stop panicking and think my way out of here!
He tried to get his rapid shallow breath under control and stopped struggling. He noticed the parts of him that were submerged were getting very itchy, but tried not to scratch because that would probably only make things worse. He realised there was little chance he would manage to get out on his own, so he would have to try and appeal to his enemy's better side, if it had such a thing, for a chance of mercy.

"Hey!" he said loudly, hoping Seviper would be able to hear him, "Seviper, what is your name?!"

"None of your busssinesss," a hissing voice sounded far away.

"Uh... Well, hi anyway, my name is Boreas!" Boreas thought that if he could make her see him as a person, rather than prey, maybe she would spit him out, "meeting you is a... let's call it a unique experience."

"Could you be quiet and ssstart sssquirming around again? That ticklesss very nicccely."

"I just want to tell you a bit about myself, if that's okay with you."

"I don't care," hissed Seviper, "I'd rather you were quiet, becaussse I'm going to take a nap to digessst you."

"Are you sure? I mean, I'm not just any prey, I'm a sentient being like you! I have hopes and dreams like you, and have friends like you, and I really, really like to live, like you. So, um, could you please show how good a person you are and spit me out?"

"No."

"Please? Don't you realise how cruel this is? You're sentencing another sentient being to a very slow, painful death. Won't you please let me out? I surrender, so you might as well let me out."

"No! You are nothing but food, and I eat food!"

"But I'm not food! Can't we solve this like fellow civilised beings?"

"You tassste like food and you fill my belly, ssso you are food."

"Imagine the pain I'm going to go through!"

"Yesss, they alwaysss sssquirm delightfully for hoursss before finally sssettling down."

"They? You mean you've done this to someone before?"

"Oh yesss. Not often, but occasssionally. Live prey tassstesss very good and isss niccce and sssquirmy."

Boreas was horrified by the thought that others had been eaten alive by this Seviper before, in part because it meant his chances of negotiating his way out were very tiny. "Please let me out? I have a mate and sixteen cubs, what will they ever do without their father? I can already imagine poor... Stephen crying for his daddy, and how will little... Marina cope with her father's death? And what about young... uh... Flapdoodle? Can you live with the idea of him growing up without his father? Please don't don't do this, for my kids if not for me."

"That'sss what all prey sssaysss if they get the chanccce."

"Do you want sixteen grown-up Eevees coming after you to avenge their father?"

"If they come after me, if they exssissst at all, I will welcome them. They can go the sssame way as you."

"Spit me out right now! If you don't, my friends will cut you open to rescue me!"

His fleshy prison shook with the snake's laughter. "Your friendsss are either dead or dying. I didn't even bother continuing the battle, becaussse my friendsss were winning ssso overwhelmingly. I've gone outssside, where it'sss warmer."

"Let me out! Don't you see how unbelievably cruel this is?!"

"No. Ssshut up."

Desperation was setting in now as Boreas was beginning to see the snake would never let him out. "Please!" he begged, "I... I will turn to your side! I will help you kill my friends if you let me out!"

"Too late."

"Please!" he begged, "I- I don't want to die!"

"Ssshould have thought of that before fighting Team Plasssma."

The horror of the entire situation threatened to overwhelm Boreas as he realised he would never get out. "O-okay," he said glumly. "You win. I will be your prey. If you spit me out, I will let you kill me without resisting. And then you can eat me."

"Why ssshould I ssspit you out? I like you where you are now."

"Because it will be unbelievably painful for me! If you're going to kill and eat me, at least give me a quick death."

"Too late. You ssshould've thought of that before I ssswallowed you. Now let me sssleep."

A last bolt of desperate fury went through Boreas. "You complete evil monster! I will freeze you from the inside once the paralytic wears off!"

"It won't wear off for hoursss."

Boreas tried to make cold in a single, focused point, and found it was incredibly difficult, but with titanic effort managed to. He aimed right for where the heart was, and shot the Ice Beam from his forehead. The snake shook with laughter. "Hey, that ticklesss, do it again!"

But Boreas couldn't. He had managed to overcome the low dosage of paralytic coursing through his veins through sheer force of will, but it had taken him an effort as if he had run a marathon up mount Everest. He just lay in the stomach panting. His final hope had been blown to smithereens. His skin was horribly itchy, and was beginning to sting with pain in several spots already. He realised that soon he would be in similar pain all over, which would grow worse and worse until he would lay there screaming in agony while his skin dissolved slowly. He wondered if he would die once his skin had dissolved, but realised there was little chance of such a quick way out, as the veins in the skin were tiny and would almost immediately close themselves, so he would lose little blood. Once his skin had been digested, the gastric acid would continue its horrifying job as it began work on the tissue underneath. He was pretty sure the major organs were all deep within the body, so he wouldn't die of damage to them. He realised he would probably die of blood loss after many hours of torment when the acid finally began destroying his major arteries.

As the horrifying realisation filled his mind, he sat there hyperventilating in panic. Then he just burst out struggling and screaming. "NO! Please! Kill me quickly, anything but this! I don't want to die like this!"

He stopped the useless struggling and cried. The tears streamed through his fur as he thought of the terrible fate that was already happening to him. He let out a loud wail for himself.

Then a grim, cold determination set in. Enough self-pity, justified though it is, he thought. I have one final option to save myself from that: I'm in a room mostly filled with liquid; I could drown myself.

Drowning himself in the acid would be quite horrible, especially when he couldn't stop his breathing reflex any more and began breathing the acid, but it sure beat being digested alive.

So this is it, he thought with complete calmth. This is how I die. I drown myself inside a Seviper.

He couldn't help but chuckle with gallows humour at the irony of having escaped being eaten by Zangeese only to be eaten by their arch nemesis eleven months later. At least those eleven months had been fun; with the exception of a few days he wouldn't have wanted to miss them for anything. He took a deep breath and prepared to plunge his head under the horrid liquid, but then realised that was a bad idea, as he was trying to give himself a quick death. He breathed out, collected his courage, closed his eyes, and sunk his head under the surface. He felt himself rapidly running out of breath and shifted positions so it would be harder for him to get his head back above the surface if he lost courage.

Suddenly the entire stomach shook violently, he heard Seviper scream in agony, and a light shone past his eyelids. He almost opened his eyes to see what it was, before realising that would be an enormously bad idea. He resurfaced, wiped the acid away from his closed eyes, and opened them as his meaty and dangerous prison moved violently. He couldn't believe his eyes: light was streaming in through a minuscule hole in the wall.

The entire stomach jerked fiercely along with its owner. "That wasss the lassst missstake you ever made!" Seviper roared furiously. "I'll make you sssuffer for that!"

"No!" A furious voice came from outside, "eating Boreas was the last mistake you ever made, you fiendish creature!"

Boreas put his eye to the hole. Though tiny, it was bleeding massively and hard to see through, but his heart jumped with joy as he saw Octa on its other side, with his Leaf Blade drawn and covered in blood, dodging the Seviper's attacks like a master swordsman. He looked far more furious and impressive than Boreas had ever seen, his eyes ablaze with furious determination and a single-minded purpose in every move. "Octa!" Boreas called, "Octa! You're a sight for sore eyes!" he tried to widen the tiny hole that Octa had cut all the way to the Seviper's stomach, but found the flesh was far too strong to tear.

"Boreas, my dear fellow!" Octa said, his voice soaked with joy, "how joyful I am to hear you are still alive." Boreas was thrown away from the hole as the snakes battled each other.

"If you like your friend ssso muccch," Seviper seethed, "you can join him inssside my ssstomach and ssspend your final hoursss being digesssted together! After I bite your limbsss off for what you did!"

"You, milady, are a cruel monstrosity and a barbarian, and do not deserve to have your name capitalised. Your Mephistophelean maliciousness brings a black mark of shame to all those who have the misfortune of sharing a species with you."

"Do you think you ssstand a chanccce againssst me with that puny leaf?"

"I have already demonstrated it has the required attributes to stab into your stomach. That is all I shall need to deliver this planet from your vileness and rescue my dear friend."

Boreas tried to follow the battle by looking through the hole Octa had carved, but most of the time it wasn't facing Octa, and it was too small and too filled with blood to see much anyway.

"Ssstabbing sssomeone in the gut while they're asssleep... Zssinzssolin warned usss our enemiesss were evil, but thisss isss an unexsspected low."

"Do not speak to me about low actions. Your own actions are so low I'd imagine mining companies would be willing to pay you generously to have them mine metals from the Earth's co- ARGH!"

Octa yelped in pain. Boreas pressed his eye to the bloody hole, and saw his friend was backed against a stone wall, bleeding from a large cut and trapped.

"Hehehe," Seviper laughed, "time to join your friend inssside my tummy!"

As Seviper was about to strike, Boreas decided he had to do something. With another outpouring of titanic effort, he created another Ice Beam and fired it straight at the wound Octa had made. Seviper jerked back in pain, and Boreas pushed himself against the stomach's dorsal wall. Just in time, as a razor-sharp Leaf Blade sliced the stomach open lengthwise. As he was flushed out the opened stomach in a flood of gastric acid and blood, he heard Seviper scream. He landed on grass, panting heavily and exhausted, but happy to be out in the air again.

"To leave you to bleed to death would be a merciful thing to do," Octa said grimly, "compared to what you tried to do to Boreas. But I shall be even more merciful and give you the quick death you never had the decency to grant my friend."

Seviper, lying flat on the ground with a large part of its front side cut open, hissed at Octa and tried to bite him.

"We both know a wound of this extent is impossible to survive. You shall bleed out within minutes."

Seviper paused, then exposed its throat to Octa. "Make it quick."

Boreas looked away and heard a loud slash and gargle. He tried to stand up. "Octa... You saved me!"

He was about to hug the Servine when he got to his feet, but thought better of it because he was still drenched in acid and blood. Then Octa surprised him by hugged him instead. "My dear fellow, I almost lost hope when I came outside and saw the bulge at its stomach had stopped moving."

"Both of us," said Boreas, "I was trying to drown myself to avoid being digested alive."

"I apologise for not being here sooner, the guards gave me a bit of trouble."

They stood there embracing each other, when Boreas really began noticing the burning sensation on his skin again. "Octa? I think I'd like to wash myself right now."

Fortunately the cold storage was right next to the river, so they could jump straight in. Underneath Boreas' fur, his skin was red and sore, but it seemed he had escaped with nothing worse than that. The wound Octa had received didn't seem to be poisoned either.

"Now, my dear fellow," said Octa, "I'm afraid we shall have to go back inside to help the others."

Boreas had completely forgotten about the battle in his joy to be alive. "Of course! But, Octa, Seviper poisoned me with something that is inhibiting my powers. I can make Ice Beams, but it's extremely tiring."

"Then you shall just have to use that quick mind of yours instead," Octa said as they ran inside, "It seems the only way we are likely to defeat the remaining five pokémon in the first place."

"Well, I'm glad you don't put me under any pressure," mumbled Boreas.

In the inner part of the cold storage, Boreas found the guards were all knocked out. "Did you do this on your own?"

"Yes. They attempted to obstruct my way as I came to rescue you."

Their friends had clearly lost the battle. Capella was writhing on the ground in agony, every vein in her body clearly visible under her skin in an obvious and disturbing black. Selene was buried in a mound of sludge, heavily struggling against its pull to keep her beak in the air. Toxica, who was missing one of the leaves on her head, was clutched in Drapion's death grip. Black's still body lay were Seviper had left it, so at least he was out of direct danger for the moment.

"Octa, I've got an idea, but it'll probably result in broken bones and/or necks for both of us," said Boreas.

"Do tell. If it can help us save our comrades, we should execute it."

"Look at that high stack of containers there, it looks very unstable. If I climb to the top, I bet I could make it fall over just by shifting the goods in the top container. You would have to draw all five of them to the spot under it and keep them there for as long as possible. Only, there's a large chance either or both of us would get crushed along with them."

Octa nodded. "I shall give you a few minutes to climb to the top, my dear fellow. Be quick about it, for I shan't be able to hold all five of them off very long. And just in case we shan't see one another again, I want you to know it's been an honour to consider you my friend."

Boreas nodded. "It has."

He ran to the unstable stack of containers and saw just how hard it would be to climb them. Each container was three metres high and made of solid, smooth metal. The only grabbing point on the containers was the heavy handle on the doors, which was about halfway up. Each container's front side was in the same direction, so Boreas decided to climb that side of the stack.

He pulled himself up on the handle of the first container, carefully placed his rear legs on it, and stood up on two legs. He still had almost fifty centimetres to go before the top of the container. He jumped up, and just managed to grab the edge. He pulled himself up and managed to stand on the thin ledge the second container left because it wasn't stacked evenly. Six more to go. He was beginning to wonder if Octa might have the easy half of the plan when he saw that the third and fourth container were stacked evenly, without leaving ledges to stand on between them, and that the sixth container even overhung the fifth. But he would tackle those problems when he got to them, first he had to climb the second container.

When he pulled himself up to the door handle halfway on the third container, he took a look down and saw he was very high already. Falling from this height would probably mean breaking bones, even without the containers falling as well. But he also saw that his impression of the fourth container being evenly stacked on the third had been faulty: it left a tiny ledge of only a few centimetres on this side, actually. It would never be enough to stand on, but he could probably hold it and climb to the side of the container. Since the fourth container was placed too far to the right there was a wider ledge on the container's left side. He jumped to the edge, and held on to it. He tried not to look down at the depth of nine metres gaping under him.

Cautiously, he shifted his left paw further to the left, then followed with his right. Like this, he climbed to the left corner, where he could pull himself up to the ledge. He looked for a way to scale the fourth container, but the only place to grab between the top of the container and the ledge was the door handle, which was on the front side, while he was on the container's right side. He realised he would have to make an almost impossible jump to grab the handle. He prepared himself, then made a jump that just allowed him to clear the corner. For one sickening moment he thought he wouldn't make it and would break all his bones on the ground, but with a grunt of pain his left paw managed to grab the handle. He quickly joined with his right. He was getting exhausted after climbing eleven metres and was in desperate need of a rest. While pulling himself up on the handle, he heard Octa's voice echo through the vast hall:

"A good morning to you, brutal fiends. Take a good look at this blood on my Leaf Blade. I'm afraid I shall have to inform you it's your friend the Seviper's. I killed her myself, and I believe I could dispatch all five of you with similar ease."

Boreas wanted to shout at him that it was too early, that he was only halfway, but that would give away the plan, so he just climbed faster despite his exhaustion as he heard the five poison types run after Octa. By the time he scaled the fourth container, the sounds were beginning to approach him. But there was a big problem: since the sixth container overhung the fifth by a good forty centimetres, there would be absolutely no edge to grab once he scaled the fifth. He tried to see if there was any ledge on the sides, but the containers were evenly stacked there. Of course there would be a ledge on the backside of the fifth, but he had no way of getting there. The sounds of running stopped and he heard Octa fight with all five opponents down below him. He climbed on the fifth container's handle and pulled it as hard as he could. To his fortune he found the container wasn't locked and swung open in a wide arc with him still hanging from the handle.

Octa's voice sounded from far down: "I can handle you all, just you wait, though a little help from above would be very convenient if it hurried up!"

He climbed on top of the open door and then lost his balance as it moved under him. He fell down and for one horrifying moment it seemed he would die fifteen metres down, but he managed to grab the handle. Despite his sore muscles' protests he pulled himself up to the top of the door. This time he was more prepared for the door's shiftiness and managed to keep his balance. As he heard Octa yelp in pain, he jumped up to the sixth container's handle. Completely exhausted, he noticed the stack wobbled with each step he took, so poorly balanced was it. He opened the seventh and highest container's door and found it contained heavy crates. He began shoving them all to the door's side of the container and felt the stack heave more and more with each crate he moved. Finally, when he moved the third crate, the entire stack lost its balance. The effect was incredibly scary, as the entire container began falling with him in it.

In freefall, he opened one of the crates and dived into it, landing in a heap of fish. He wanted to close the crate, but then a massive impact made him lose consciousness.

-

A part of Boreas' consciousness returned to him and he opened his eyes. He saw a white roof.

"You okay, pup?"

"Lucius?" he mumbled, "you filthy traitor."

"Hey, no need to thank me or anything, I only got the help that saved your ass and your boyfriend's from the mess you made."

"Octa?!" Boreas exclaimed, "is he alright?!"

"You nearly killed him with that stunt, but he got lucky and was only lightly crushed."

"Capella? Selene? Toxica? Black?"

"Nurse Hate thinks they'll all recover. Of course, you'd all be dead from either being crushed or poisoned if it wasn't for me and the help I got."

"Lucius, I can't believe I'm saying this, but thank you. And I'm sorry for calling you a coward and a traitor. So what happened to Zinzolin and his pokémon?"

"When we arrived, he was trying to rescue his pokémon from that pile of containers you buried them under. He agreed to come with us as long as his pokémon would get to go free once the pokécenter healed them."

"So he's been arrested?!"

"Yeah, he's kept in Clay's Gym because Clay thinks the police aren't strong enough to keep him locked up if Team Plasma comes to save him."

-

On an unseasonally sunny and warm day two weeks later they were on their way to the Gym to make an appointment for a battle with Clay. All of them were fully healed once again. Capella had been the closest to death, she almost hadn't survived the poisoning, and Boreas had broken a number of bones and suffered a bad concussion. But now they were all healthy again, and taking a walk through Driftveil's market on their way to the Gym. All sorts of goods from all over the world were on display.

"Oy, shir," the deep voice of a salesman cried out as they passed his stall, "wanna buy an evolushunary shtone? I've got all kindsh, and they're only 2000 pokémoney! Your pokémon will love them, I'm shure!"

"Sorry," said Black, "but none of my pokémon evolve with a stone."

"But what about your Oddish, shir? When it evolvesh to a Gloom, it can ushe one of my shtonesh to
become a Vileplume or a Bellosshom!"

"Shorry-" Black blushed at his inadvertent imitation of the man's speech impediment, "Sorry, but I don't think she wants to evolve at all."

Boreas suddenly became aware of an awful stench of rotting meat that hung in the air. A Gloom ran past him. "Yes I do!" she piped, "Come on, give me the Leaf Stone!"

"Your Oddish jusht evolved, shir."

"Huh? Oh, so she has!"

"Sho do you want a shtone?"

"Yeah, I do!" said Toxica.

"I guess she does. Toxica, do you want to be a Vileplume or a Bellossom?"

"I want to be a Vileplume!" she said, grabbing the Leaf Stone. A bright white light enveloped her, and her body transformed to a Vileplume's. When the light stopped, the flower on her head had become huge and shadowed her face rakishly.

"Hey, I like this," she said happily, "how do I smell?"

Boreas sniffed the air and noticed the rancid odour of rotting meat had disappeared, and instead there was now a quite lovely smell. "Fine."

"Really? How about now?"

Suddenly Boreas began to cough at the disgusting smell. "That's the most disgusting thing I've ever smelt, and that's coming from someone who spent some time inside a Seviper!"

"Hee hee, I can control it now that I'm a Vileplume," Toxica laughed, "and Octa, don't I look lovely now?"

"I... um... can't deny you possess a certain amount of attractiveness."

Suddenly a light tremor shook the ground and flashes of light came from the Gym. Black and his pokémon ran there. When they arrived at the Gym, they saw Clay was standing in the door to his Gym, which was surrounded by Team Plasma, led by Ghetsis, the Sage they had first seen in Accumula.

"Clay," Ghetsis spoke. "It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm Ghetsis of Team Plasma's Seven Sages. I've come to pick up my friend who is in your care."

"Ah don't need no thanks," Clay responded, "yer buddy here stole people's pokémon, kidnapped some young'un, an' then tried to kill him an' his pokémon."

"What's this? There seems to be a misunderstanding... We never steal pokémon, and we only free pokémon from wicked people. And if evil people fight against our noble cause, we will occasionally use extreme measures against them."

"Well, that sounds real nice if it's true. Ah may not talk purdy, but at least Ah'm an honest man. You talk real nice, but what yer sayin' kinda sounds like lyin'. So tell me plain, what are ya tryin' to say?"

"Team Plasma's goal is to liberate all pokémon from humans. This is a noble goal, and to achieve such a noble goal, occasionally it can be necessary to do quite unnoble things. All servants of our king are necessary to achieve our goal. Give your prisoner up, or I shall be forced to do quite unnoble things."

Scowling, Clay shouted some things inside, and then Zinzolin walked out the Gym. "Ghetsis... Merci beaucoup."

"Well, Ah reckon you've won this without a fight. Take 'im and git!" Clay said.

"Not so fast!" Black interrupted, "Clay, the odds aren't as bad as you think! Those grunts are pretty poor fighters and Zinzolin's pokémon aren't here. Ghetsis is the only real threat."

Ghetsis laughed, a very unpleasant laugh that sounded as if he'd learned it from a book. "Well, well, the trainer who's been giving us so much trouble. Get out of our way, boy, or I will do what my friends could not and teach you never to interfere with Team Plasma again."

"Ghetsis," said Zinzolin, "please don't. There 'as been enough death already. Three of my pokémon were killed while doing their duty."

"I see, my friend. Very well, in that case, I expect we will all meet again sometime."

"Hold on!" shouted Black, "I haven't agreed to just let you go!"

Ghetsis nodded, and the grunts threw their smoke bombs. Boreas blew away as much of the smoke as possible, but there was an awful lot of it and most kept hanging around. It seemed Plasma was spreading out: most of the grunts were staying here and throwing their pokéballs to fight, while Ghetsis, Zinzolin, and three of the grunts were running off. Boreas couldn't let them get away and ran after them. He heard Black shout behind him:

"The Sages are escaping! Octa, you and the others stay here and get these guys while Boreas and I go after the Sages!"

Boreas ran faster than Team Plasma, but they had a head start and were quite a bit ahead as they ran through the docks. They reached a pier on the river and jumped into a boat that was waiting for them. Boreas cursed and jumped in the water to swim after them as they speeded off, but found out he could barely even stay afloat, let alone keep up with the boat.

Boreas splattered around in the water, feeling like a total failure, when suddenly he was lifted into a passing boat. Black was steering the motor boat. "It's not over yet, Boreas! I hired this boat to pursue them, we may still get them!"

The other boat was far away by now, but this boat was even faster. They pursued Plasma up the river for many kilometres, very slowly approaching the slightly slower boat. Boreas was full of hope that they might still catch them, when they reached the thinner, meandering parts of the river. Now Black's inexperience with steering a boat became very obvious, and they nearly crashed into the riverbanks or rocks several times. Black was forced to take it very slowly, and pretty soon no sign of Plasma remained. Though they kept going for a while, both eventually had to concede that they'd lost Team Plasma and Black turned the boat around.

-

Boreas yawned as he stared off at the passing riverbanks, bored out of his skull. There was absolutely nothing to do on the small motorboat except to be bored. Now that Team Plasma had escaped all exitement had worn off and Boreas really noticed how long and boring the way back to Driftveil was. He could not even play with Black, as he was too busy steering the boat. Maybe I should just ask him to return me to my pokéball, Boreas thought, at least I'll be out of the direct sunlight in there.

Boreas sighed and stared off at the riverbanks again, but this time something caught his eye. They were passing by a small rock in the river, and on the rock a very cute Vaporeon was sunning. Her shapely body was covered in blue fur that sparkled in the Sun, her finned tail was about as long as her body, and when she looked up as the boat passed her Boreas saw she had a lovely face. She smiled and winked at him, and Boreas felt as if his heart had stopped and his blood was boiling. He tried to greet her back in some way, but only managed an awkward nod and something that was supposed to be a charming smile but probably looked more like two fishermen had caught their hooks in each of the corners of his mouth and were now trying to haul him in. It had been a long time since he had last seen another Eevee, let alone one as pretty as this Vaporeon, so Boreas yearned to go talk to her, but the boat had already passed and they were moving away.

"Black, stop the boat, I want to talk to that Vaporeon," Boreas said to Black, who didn't understand a word of it as usual.

"Not now, Boreas," he said, "Let me just focus on steering, or we'll end up on a rock."

"C'mon, just look over there, and you'll get it!" Boreas said, pointing to the Vaporeon.

Unfortunately, Black's back was turned to him while he steered. "If you're hungry just get some berries from my backpack."

Boreas sighed, looked at the shapely Vaporeon again, and jumped off the boat. The water was cold, but that was quite a relief after sitting in the unseasonably warm Sun for a while. He managed to resurface and began swimming clumsily to the rock. Though his swimming was bad, he managed to keep himself afloat and slowly made progress against the river's calm current. After a few minutes of the clumsy swimming while the Vaporeon watched him amused, he finally arrived at he rock and held on to it with his front paws to keep afloat. He looked up into a pair of gorgeous black eyes looking at him expectantly, and realised he had no idea what to say.

"Uh... Hi," he said.

"Hi there," said the Vaporeon, "my name's Aqua."

"Hi, Aqua," Boreas said awkwardly.

"So... Do you have a name?" She asked.

"Uh... Y-yes, it's Bors. No, Boreas!" He kicked himself underwater for making a complete mess of this. He realised that though he had planned to be really charming and witty, he was currently displaying all the charm and wit of a spoilt carrot.

After a highly awkward pause of a few seconds, she said: "So um... Can I help you, Boreas?"

"Uh, well... Y'see... I just wanted to tell you that though my Blizzard is usually powerful enough to freeze a Heatran, with someone as hot as you nearby I couldn't even manage a cooling breeze."
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
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This chapter, at first, was very sad. Boreas inside that snake's belly was really really eewy to imagine... x,x
Octa rescuing him was really a great scene in this chapter.
Their plan was very very suicidal though. Lucky for them to have survived such a dangerous event. o.o
And Lucius calling for help was a great idea, but what took him so long? x,x
Sad that Toxica didn't spent much time being a Gloom, though I couldn't blame her, after what Octa told her about her evolving. I just wished she turned into a Bellossom though...
And so that's how they ended up on that boat! xD

This chapter's a great read. It was long as well. :)
Keep at it~ ;)
 
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  • Seen May 24, 2013
This chapter, at first, was very sad. Boreas inside that snake's belly was really really eewy to imagine... x,x
Octa rescuing him was really a great scene in this chapter.
Their plan was very very suicidal though. Lucky for them to have survived such a dangerous event. o.o


Yes, it was. But at least it saved their friends.

And Lucius calling for help was a great idea, but what took him so long? x,x

Well, it was very early in the morning, the police or the Gym Leader or other help was quite far away, and it isn't exactly easy for a pokémon to make themselves clear to a human.

Sad that Toxica didn't spent much time being a Gloom, though I couldn't blame her, after what Octa told her about her evolving. I just wished she turned into a Bellossom though...

I don't really like Bellossom as much as Vileplume myself. Certainly not as a Gloom evo; I think it's fairly obvious it was designed as an unrelated pokémon, but eventually got shoehorned into being an alternate evo for Gloom.

And so that's how they ended up on that boat! xD

Yes, that's what happened before. And so ends the flashback.

Present

"...And I believe you know the rest of the story already," finished Boreas.

"Yes, I think I might have the rest before," Aqua grinned, "That lovely Vaporeon laughed at our plucky Glaceon hero's cute pick-up line and invited him to join her on the rock, taking pity on his awful swimming and already finding him and his intelligent cyan eyes quite intriguing. They talked and talked, and ended up falling completely in love, and one evening eight days later they were walking through the glade together when our charming and witty Glaceon hero finished telling his tale to her as she listened in awe to the amazing tale being told in his sexy voice."

"Eight days?" asked Boreas, walking closer to her so their sides brushed together, "surely it can't have been only eight days."

"Incredible, isn't it?"

"I can hardly believe I didn't even know who you were nine days ago. Or that I wasn't in love; in hindsight it feels like I wasn't even really alive then."

"I know just what you mean." She approached his face for a kiss, but suddenly water began pouring down from the sky like they were walking under a waterfall.

"Kyogre's crotch," Boreas cursed, "I don't like getting wet... And it's an hour back to the pokécenter."

"I do like getting wet," said Aqua, "but not by rain. I think my burrow is somewhere close by here, though, follow me."

Boreas followed her as she ran. "What d'you mean you think it's here?"

"I never approached it by land before, I always come by the river."

They ran to the riverbanks, though by this point in the river they were five metre high cliffs rather than banks. They ran along the cliffs for a while, until Aqua announced: "This is it. My burrow is down there, by the water."

Boreas peered down. "How are we supposed to get there?"

"I don't know, I told you I've never come this way before. But I guess we could try to climb."

Boreas saw there were indeed footholds and small edges to climb down on. They grabbed each other's paw to help them climb. It was a scary climb, but easier than it looked. Once you were on it it seemed less like descending from a sheer rock face and more like a ladder. They arrived at the bottom of the cliff safely and entered a burrow in it.

Boreas had never really imagined what Aqua's burrow would look like, but he had expected something warm, soft, pleasant and lovely like her. But the only pleasant thing about it seemed to be that it smelt of her. For some reason, it felt like a sad, lonely place, though it looked like any other burrow.

"Well," said Aqua, laying herself down, "now that we're here, I can finally lie down. My feet hurt from all that walking."

Boreas grinned, "What, that short hike tired you out?"

"Short?!" Aqua exclaimed, "it was very far."

"It wasn't. Besides, we had breaks at several points, usually when we started kissing and just wouldn't stop." He blushed at the memories.

"It was far for me, I'm not used to walking."

"Aww, poor you..."

"Hey! Don't make fun of me, I don't make fun of your swimming either!"

Boreas arched an eyebrow.

"Okay, I guess I do. But only rarely."

Boreas arched it a bit further.

"Okay, okay, I do that quite a lot and have no real right to complain. But could you massage my feet for me? They're very tired."

Laying down next to her, Boreas did so with pleasure. "So... um... you live here all by yourself?"

"Of course I do!" Aqua said defensively, "you didn't think I was cheating on you, did you?"

"No, of course not, that came out wrong. What I meant to say was that it seems a bit... I dunno... Lonely."

Aqua's face suddenly seemed wistful and sad, but then it disappeared in favour of a smile. "Nah, not at all! I may be alone, but there's a big difference between being alone and being lonely. Besides, I'm only here at night, at day I'm usually outside."

"So what do you do outside?"

"Well, I go to see you."

"Aside from going to me, I mean before you knew me."

Aqua smiled another smile, but it seemed fake. "Oh, you know, I fish... I sun... I... uh... swim? And I... well, I visit my friends of course. Yes, I visit.... Marie? And um... Josephine?"

"Are you okay, my love?"

"Of course," she said far too jovially, "I-I'm fine."

"No, you aren't," Boreas pointed out, "I can clearly see the sadness you're hiding under that pretty smile. You know you can tell me everything, right?"

"Okay," Aqua said with fake joviality, "so maybe I don't really have that many friends here, and maybe on occasion this burrow can be a tiny bit lonely, but that's no problem."

She paused, and the fake smile on her face disappeared as she looked into Boreas' eyes with great sadness. "Actually, you're right, I feel lonely here quite often."

"It's strange, but I can feel it... I could the moment we entered here. You don't really like this burrow, do you?"

"I didn't say that," she said with more fake joviality, "It can just be a bit lonely, I didn't say I don't like it..." the fake smile disappeared, "but you're right. I don't like this place at all. I-I'm..." to Boreas' surprise, Aqua's voice began breaking up and tears glistened in her lovely eyes, "so-so lonely here. Y-you just can't imagine how lonely this place is."

Boreas wasn't sure what to say, but he stopped massaging her feet and took her in his arms instead to give her some emotional support. "Hey..." he said kindly.

"I-I've been here for six months," the tears were beginning to stream now as her shoulders shocked in his arms, "and I don't even have a s-single friend... Everything he-here is either prey, predator, or just doesn't se-seem to like me-he! I-I hadn't seen a friendly face in months before I met you."

Boreas embraced her tightly. "Oh, my love, I didn't know... I'm sorry. But now you have me, at least."

Aqua cried onto his shoulder. "Bu-but only for now. T-tomorrow, you'll defea-eat Clay and the-then you'll have to lea-eave with Black, and I'll s-still be here, all alone."

"No, dearest," Boreas gently rubbed her back, "it doesn't have to be that way... You could come with me when I leave!"

"N-no, Boreas," Aqua sniffed.

"We could still be together, my love, forever if we like! And you wouldn't be stuck in this lonely burrow any more."

"B-Boreas, I can't," cried Aqua.

"Of course you can, what binds you to this place?"

"W-well, nothing, but-"

"Then join me, love! You would never have to be lonely again. Not only will you be with me, but you'll have friends in the others. I'm sure you'll like them all very well once you get to know them... Well, except for Lucius, you probably won't like him, but that's pretty common."

"No, Boreas, listen to me, I can't join you."

Boreas felt his heart sink while it was pounding against hers. "Why?"

"B-Black," Aqua said sullenly.

"Oh, him? There's nothing to be afraid of, my love, he's-"

"No, I'm not afraid of him. I just- can't travel with a human. Not after what they did."

"Oh, but Black isn't like the humans that hunted you, he's kind and loves his pokémon and he'd never harm you, and will always take good care of you. Black is different."

"I know!" Aqua surprised Boreas by yelling this angrily, "I know. But tha-that doesn't matter. Even if he's a g-great guy, I hate him. Don't you see? I hate all humans. I have to hate them. I can never forgive them for what they did, Boreas, don't you see?"

"But-"

"Listen, my love, I lied to you. When-when I told you how I evolved, it was more or less a made-up story. I wasn't there to fish, I was there to meet someone. A very good friend. In-in fact, he was my lover. Lothario was his name... I loved him, Boreas, and the humans killed him! I-I saw his corpse... That's why I fled, not because the humans would come after me with harpoons, I mercilessly drowned both of them and their pokémon like the miserable insects they were, so who would ever know I was there at all? B-but I just couldn't return... I couldn't announce to his family that he had died, and that it was because he wa-was meeting me... And I couldn't face all the memories; everything would remind me of him. I-I fled down the river wi-without saying goodbye and never even t-t-told anyone what happened to him... My family and friends must think I've been dead for months... I feel like I've been dead for months..."

A pang of jealousy had clouded Boreas' mind for a moment, but he had stuffed it away carefully. Aqua needed his support now, above all. "Oh, my love, I can't imagine how hard that must've been for you," he said gently as he rubbed her back and held her tightly.

"N-no, you can't... At least you had Octa after your parents died... And all kinds of th-things to distract you... I-I've been here for s-six months, all by myself with only painful memories to keep me company. Y-you have no idea how that feels like, and I hope you never will. Do you see now, Boreas, do you see why I can't help but hate Black, even if I know he's not like them?"

Boreas thought of Thomas. "Yes. I do. But- but if you stay here alone, it'll only make things worse. You'll be alone and miserable again, and I couldn't stand the thought of travelling on while you're still here like that."

"It wouldn't be as bad as it was, my love, because now I have the happy memories of you to keep me company besides the sad ones... And I would have hope, hope that I would see you again one day."

"But you would still be miserable, even if you were less miserable than you used to be. There must be a solution... You could travel along with us, but not actually with us. You could travel on your own and just sort of follow the same path, and we could meet every evening, as far away from Black as you'd like."

"I-I don't know... I would have to follow you pretty closely to follow the same path, and it would still feel like travelling with Black. P-please understand, I want to like him, I honestly do, but seeing a human... It reminds me of that horrible day... I can never forget it, or forgive them. And I would have to come close to human-infested places... I know I never showed this, but going into Driftveil with you really hurt and scared me, it's just that at those moments I was able to drown that out with my love for you, but at night I felt horrible about it. But I have another idea: stay with me! Not here in this miserable place, of course, but we could travel together to wherever we'd like! Just you and me and the world."

"Ye-"

Aqua interrupted him, "No, I don't want you to answer this impulsively, because as much as I want to travel with you, I don't want you to become unhappy with a rash decision later on. Just... think about it carefully. I don't want an answer before tomorrow."

"I could never be unhappy if I was with you."

Aqua brought her face in front of Boreas' and smiled while tears still twinkled in her eyes. "Maybe. Maybe being together would be enough, but you'd miss your friends and your ambition, and that might make you very unhappy in the long run... I want you to be happy, I couldn't live with the idea that I made you unhappy, so think about it carefully, okay?"

She kissed him while salty tears continued to stream from her eyes. "But whatever you decide and whatever the future may bring, stay here with me tonight, o-okay? I've never told any of this to anyone, and I-I feel like it's opened all the old, barely healed wounds... I-I just can't face loneliness right now..."

Boreas thought about the Gym battle tomorrow morning, then decided he didn't care if he missed it. If Aqua needed him, he would stay with her for as long as she needed him. "I will," he whispered.

He felt her cry on his shoulder again. "Thank you. I-it must be strange, t-to suddenly see me become so... weak and-and sad and lonely when I must normally seem so strong and jo-jolly and flirtatious..."

"You're not weak. Crying after all that isn't weakness, in fact I'd say it shows how strong you are that you are even sane at all after half a year of being vexed in loneliness by your memories."

"Th-thank you. B-but I want you to know that when I'm jolly and flirty and all that, it's not just a mask or an act or anything, I act like that because of how happy you make me feel.

The way I felt when you jumped out of the boat and began talking to me... I can't describe how glad it made me... It was the first time I had really felt joy in half a year. I mean, when I saw you come by the first time, about an hour earlier, I had thought you were cute, and I had seriously considered swimming after you to talk to you, but I didn't because you were with a human and because I didn't know what to say anyway... So I just checked out your tail and bum as you boated past," (Boreas blushed deeply at this), "and then I went back to sunning, which was sort of my only pleasure in all that time alone... But I found I just couldn't put you out of my mind, that I was wondering what would've happened if I had gone to talk to you. It was very nice to have something non-depressing to think about for a change, really. And then I couldn't believe my luck as I heard a boat pass again and saw you were on it. So I smiled and winked, and tried to collect my courage to go talk to you, and to my surprise and joy you came to me! And, well... the eight days since have been the happiest of my entire life. You made me feel things I haven't felt since Lothario died, Boreas."

Boreas had a momentary urge to ask her whether she had loved Lothario more than him, but he resisted it, recognising that would be a very cruel question, and exactly what she didn't need from him right now. He didn't want her to be unhappy, and he decided to be a good, supportive boyfriend for her. "I didn't know I made you so happy... That alone makes me happy..."

They lay silently in each others' arms. Aqua's sniffing and whimpering on Boreas' shoulder soon stopped, and a while later her breathing became very slow as she went to sleep in his arms. Boreas was in a daze of love for the gorgeous creature in his embrace, as her sharing her anguish with him had only made him adore her more. He was only snapped away from his blissful adoration for her by a momentary pang of annoyance as he pictured the faces of his friends when he returned to them the next morning and they would draw the obvious conclusion. At least he figured Selene might be clueless enough that she wouldn't jump to that conclusion, and maybe some of the others would believe him if he told them there had been no horizontal dancing involved. Lucius would certainly make himself incredibly annoying, though.

But after that momentary pang of annoyance, he found he didn't really care as he cradled the soft, finned head resting on his shoulder. And then he knew it for certain: tomorrow he would tell his friends that he would leave the team. He would fight one final battle with them against Clay, and then he would leave with Aqua. He would miss them all, of course, but he wanted to stay with Aqua more then anything else in the world.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
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16
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
I need to tell you that, even if I already read the chapters ahead, I wrote down my comments for each of them on Notepad, so I just need to copy+paste+edit some little things before posting 'em here. :P

---ooo---

Somehow, I really felt really sad after Aqua told him the truth as to why he hated humans.
But she's really a great Vaporeon. It was really nice of her to give him time to think about her offer.

---

"...So I just checked out your tail and bum as you boated past..." (Boreas blushed deeply at this)

lol xD
that was really funny, but I was still feeling sad, so I couldn't really laugh out loud, but at least it was enough to break those sad feelings a bit.

---

Aw... He's gonna leave? :(
Well, at least he's with Aqua. :)
 
79
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12
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  • Seen May 24, 2013
I need to tell you that, even if I already read the chapters ahead, I wrote down my comments for each of them on Notepad, so I just need to copy+paste+edit some little things before posting 'em here. :P


Handy.

Somehow, I really felt really sad after Aqua told him the truth as to why he hated humans.
But she's really a great Vaporeon. It was really nice of her to give him time to think about her offer.

Yeah, it's quite a sad backstory. And I'm glad you like her so much.

lol xD
that was really funny, but I was still feeling sad, so I couldn't really laugh out loud, but at least it was enough to break those sad feelings a bit.

I'm glad that little pervy Aqua joke had the intended effect. I didn't want the chapter to be too sad.


Chapter Thirty-Five: The Underground Boss

Future

The flying mountain suddenly began turning as they climbed it. Boreas' paws lost all grip and he nearly fell into the depths, but he managed to grab hold of a small ridge, trying not to let go and reach the plateau just above him. Below him the vast, forested vista the mountain was flying over was breathtaking, but kilometres down. If he fell, he would certainly be dead. But he just couldn't reach the plateau above him.

"Need some help?" Aqua's pretty finned head looked over the edge.

"Aqua!" Boreas said happily, "there you are, help me up!"

"Of course, my love!" she said as she extended a paw over the edge.

Boreas tried to grab her paw with his free paw, but something heavy was hanging on to it. He looked down and saw it was Octa, dangling above the depths. "Octa? Are you here too?"

"Obviously," spoke Octa.

"Look, it isn't that I'm not glad you're here too," Boreas explained, "but I can't grab Aqua's paw while you're hanging on to mine."

"Oh, I shall just let go and let myself fall into the depths then, shan't I?"

"Yes. Since this is obviously a dream, I could just let you fall without any problem."

"Very perceptive, my dear fellow. However, have you paid any attention as to what this dream is trying to tell you?"

"It's not trying to tell me anything, because dreams are a product of the brain, basically thoughts had while you're asleep. Since it's a product of my own brain, it isn't going to tell me anything. I was just having a fun, albeit far-fetched adventure with Aqua when you had to enter my dream and start having this silly discussion with me. So why don't you just let go, if I know my dreams lately, the real fun starts when I get up there on that edge." He giggled in anticipation.

"You are right, of course, this dream is merely your own brain thinking while asleep. But perhaps that means you are trying to tell something to yourself? Maybe your decision to leave the team to go adventuring with Aqua isn't the right choice?"

"If it's trying to say that, it's not being very convincing. Because if I don't let go of you and grab her paw, I fall to my death in this dream. While if I do let go of you and grab her paw, not only am I safe, but I'll have... fun with her right there if the pattern of my dreams the last days holds."

"Well, don't blame me, we've just established you're the one dreaming all this, including me, up. I can't help it if your metaphorical thinking is awful, I am not even real and even if I was you'd still be the one dreaming this, not me."

"Just go away, okay? Just let me have my fun in my dream and save the lessons for when I'm awake. Now since this is my dream, I'm just going to pretend you weren't here, climb up there, and have some fun."

"You might want to direct your eyes upwards once again before doing that, my dear fellow."

Boreas looked up and saw the grinning face of Diego instead of Aqua's. "AAH!" he yelped as he lost his grip on the mountain.

Boreas tumbled through darkness. "Octa, you bastard, this dream was going awesomely until you had to show up and poke your haughty nose into my business!"

Flames erupted in the darkness and coalesced into the shape of a gigantic Zoroark head. "Hehehe," laughed Diego's fiery face, "it's not his fault, you know, but yours!"

"And as for you!" Boreas yelled at the flaming Zoroark, "Get out of my dreams!, unless it's so I can practise killing you, which, by the way, I'm still going to do next time we meet!"

"But if you leave the team, you'll get to kill me, because you'll never meet me again!"

"Even better, I wish I had never met you in the first place! I still have occasional nightmares about the night you hung me from that Ferris wheel, or at least, I had them before I met Aqua and all my dreams, aside from this one, sort of started following a similar theme."

"But what I meant was: the team will have to continue fighting Team Plasma without you. What if they die?" suddenly a watery silhouette of Octa drifted past and evaporated as Diego slashed at it, "What if Team Plasma wins?" a mount of dirt shaped roughly like Black drifted by and was immediately melted by Diego, "Could you live with that?"

Boreas pointed angrily at Diego and saw his own paw was made of air, as was the rest of him. He was not invisible, though, he looked more like a Glaceon-shaped cloud. "You. Get. The. Hell. Out. Of. My. Dream. Everyone except Aqua, sod off! It's my dream and I don't want any of you to bother me!"

Diego began to talk, but was suddenly interrupted when starlight coalesced into a shapely Vaporeon who kissed him. The madness all around him disappeared as he felt her lips caress his.

-

Present

Boreas was aware of nothing but the kiss waking him up and Aqua's body pressed against his. His eyes opened when their lips parted and he was greeted by Aqua's gorgeous visage. "Good morning," she whispered.

"Good morning, gorgeous," said Boreas, "and thanks. I was having a really annoying dream."

"So I heard," she smiled.

"Oh. Was I talking in my sleep?"

"More like mumbling, I couldn't catch most of it. But you sounded very annoyed."

They kissed each other again. "Aqua," said Boreas, "I've decided my answer to your proposal."

"Don't tell me yet," said Aqua, "don't decide yet. I want you to spend the day with your friends first."

"But why? It's not going to change my mind."

"It may. It just seems unfair since I cuddled you all night. That's got to be very persuasive, but your friends haven't had any chance to convince you. I just don't want you to make a mistake you'll be unhappy with."

"Okay, fine." I will need to tell them anyway, thought Boreas, might as well do it today and get it over with. "You will hear my decision tonight. Oh, that reminds me, I need to get to the Gym for our battle!"

"No problem, love, I'll swim you there."

Boreas should really be enjoying holding on to Aqua while she swam, but his mind was preoccupied. The dream had been annoying, but it had alerted his mind to the downsides of leaving the team. Then again, what difference would he make in the fight against Team Plasma? In the end, he was just a single Glaceon, and he wouldn't really make that much difference. Besides, even if he did and Team Plasma succeeded because he left the team, that was no problem to him any more. Without a trainer, how much did he really care about pokémon and humans being separated? Sure, other pokémon might not always like it, but he could hardly be putting their happiness before his own. He was going to choose what made him happiest, and as his mind drifted back to Earth, he realised that was Aqua. He began covering her neck in kisses as she swam.

"Mmm," Aqua hummed in delight, "you know you'll make me lose concentration like that..."

"I know, but how could I resist it?"

When they arrived at the city, they kissed and said goodbye. Boreas would've asked her to come watch the battle, but he realised now that asking her to enter a human building would be out of the question.

He ran to the Gym, where he arrived just as Black and his other pokémon arrived too. Boreas was greeted by six grins that made him want to sink into the ground with shame. Though, when he took another look at Selene he saw her grin was more of an absent smile then a grin.

"Ah, Boreas," Black grinned, "glad to see you found some time in your uh... busy schedule to join us."

"'Ow'd it go?" beamed Toxica.

Boreas felt his cheeks burn with embarrassment as Octa, one eyebrow arched, started talking. "I suppose 'twas only a matter of time before you two engaged in carnal knowledge, given your respective personalities, but for you two to move so rapidly was quite rash. Regardless, you have my congratulations, my dear fellow, and I do hope you had fun."

"Just listen to the guy," Lucius sneered, "cropped up with jea-"

Octa interrupted him. "No, I am not jealous of Aqua. No, 'tis not just a phase he's going through. No, he does not love me more. There, I made the jokes so you can do us all a favour and keep your mouth shut. In fact, don't ever open it again if you want to do the entire planet a service."

Boreas spoke up. "Would any of you believe me if I told you that what you think happened didn't actually happen?"

"You mean you didn't sleep with 'er?" Toxica asked incredulously.

"Well, if you put it like that, yes I did, but not like that."

"You mean, without rumpy-pumpy?"

"Yes, that's pretty much what I mean."

A couple of sarcastic grins and looks showed how much they believed him. "Fine," he said, "then I'm not going to tell you what really happened either."

He wondered if he should tell them he was leaving the team, but he figured he'd rather tell them one-on-one then to just throw it into the group. Black looked on his watch and entered the Gym. Inside was a deep pit with a mining elevator. Since Clay wasn't there, Black stepped on the elevator and it sunk down into the shaft. They travelled down into the depths, through layers of earth and past the occasional fossil. Finally a light from downwards became brighter than the sunlight from upwards. They reached the end of the shaft, a large enlightened cave. In the middle of it was Clay in his cowboy costume.

"There ye are, boy!" he said, "Ah think it's about time Ah saw for myself what it is about yer skills that makes a Gym Leader like Elesa take such a shine to ya! We'll be usin' three pokémon each! Krokorok, yer first!"

"Toxica," said Black, "show him what you can do!"

As Toxica and the Krokorok began their combat, Boreas noticed with a twitch of annoyance that Octa was looking at the battle with a bit of an absent smile on his face. "Octa," said Boreas, "I have to tell you something."

"Oh?" Octa answered without even looking at him, "nothing unpleasant, I hope?"

"Well, that depends on how you look at it. I'm leaving the team."

That got Octa's attention. He immediately turned to Boreas, a startled expression on his face. "I beg your pardon? I believe I might be suffering from a slight aural impairment today."

"I'm leaving the team."

"You... are... what?" Octa enunciated.

"I'm leaving the team to stay with Aqua, Octa. We're going to travel the world together."

"Don't you think this is a bit rash, my dear fellow?"

"No, she suggested it last night, actually, and told me to think it over carefully because she didn't want me to make a rash decision. So I decided this morning."

"Even a decision that one took quite a while to make can be rash, my dear fellow. And this decision is rasher than a rash on you on a day you are both inebriated and enamoured. Surely you must realise the idea of leaving your friends, whom you've known for most your life, to go gallivanting with a lady whom you've known for barely nine days is a truly silly and frankly wrong decision. But fortunately I have a much better idea that shall allow you to stay together with her even as we leave Driftveil: Aqua can join our team. I know 'tis unorthodox for a trainer to have more than six pokémon with him, but that needn't necessarily be a barrier. Besides, Capella still insists she is not technically a member of Black's team, so if Aqua joined he would technically have six pokémon in his team."

"I already thought of that, Octa, but she didn't want to join us."

"Oh, and quite obviously if 'tis an inconvenience to Aqua, you should just leave your friends. My dear fellow, I had rather hoped our friendship was strong enough that you wouldn't break it because 'tis a minor inconvenience to some strumpet you barely know."

"Look," Boreas was getting pretty angry at Octa's attitude, "it's not like that. She really has a very good reason why she can't join us, and there is absolutely no way she could without feeling horrible. And I know her very well!"

"Yes," said Octa with a mirthless grin, "you "knew" her all night long, didn't you?"

"Shut up, I told you nothing happened between us last night!"

"Don't lie to me, my dear fellow. And what might this compelling reason she has to ask you to abandon me be then, hmm?"

Boreas realised there was no way he was spilling Aqua's secrets to Octa. "I can't tell you, that's between me and her."

Octa gave him a cold stare. "Fine. Evidently our friendship is not as close as I thought it was. I would've thought you would feel by now you could confide any secret in me, but perhaps I was mistaken. I would've thought our friendship would be worth more to you than the whims of a lady you met a week ago, simply because she has brought you sexual pleasure, but evidently I was mistaken."

"I told you!" Boreas yelled, "We did not have sex!"

All pokémon eyes in the room turned to Boreas, who felt embarrassed as well as angry now. After a momentary pause, the battle continued. Boreas saw Krokorok was on its last legs, and Toxica finished it with a single Energy Ball. "Woohoo!" she cheered, "being evolved is awesome!"

"Well, Ah'll be, young'un," said Clay as he returned the Krokorok and sent out a Palpitoad, "Sure didn't see that coming!"

A Palpitoad appeared from the pokéball. "Ha, that's both a water and a ground type!" scoffed Black, "Toxica, you'll easily handle this!"

But as a bright green Energy Ball formed in Toxica's hands, one of the big blue bumps on Palpitoad's forehead burst open and a disgusting blob of purple sludge fired out at great speed and exploded all over Toxica before she could react. Toxica screamed in pain as her skin rapidly dried out and yellowed wherever the sludge touched her. It seemed for a moment she was going to continue the battle, but she was covered in a great amount of the horrid sludge and her flower was hanging limp and turning a sickly orange. Black forfeited and immediately rushed over with an antidote to help her.

"Ya don't become a Gym Leader without coverin' for weaknesses, boy," said Clay.

"Octa," commanded Black as he cleaned the horrid sludge off Toxica, "you take over."

Instead of making a remark or saluting his opponent as usual, Octa grimly nodded, drew his Leaf Blade, and stepped forward. He and Palpitoad carefully circled each other, both realising that whoever made an aggressive move would probably get hit first: if Octa attacked, he would be too close to his opponent to dodge a Sludge Bomb, while if Palpitoad fired a Sludge Bomb, the lithe Octa could dodge it and attack him, and both combatants could probably be defeated by a single attack from the other. They eyed each other cautiously, not daring to break the stalemate. Boreas hoped Octa would get one of the Sludge Bombs right in the face.

"Boreas," whispered a kind voice next to him.

"Capella," Boreas nodded, "I take it you want to talk to me about the little disagreement I just had with Octa?"

"Not really," said Capella, "it's hardly the first time you argued and you'll work it out in a few days as usual. I just wanted to ask you if it's true that you didn't have sex with Aqua last night."

"Yes, it's true," Boreas said frustrated.

"Okay," Capella nodded, "then I believe you."

"You do?" Boreas asked in surprise, "That's so unlike... Well, everyone else."

Capella nodded.

"Thanks, you've got no idea how frustrating it is that no-one believes me, even if it doesn't really matter."

Suddenly the stalemate was broken. Boreas hadn't seen who broke it, but Octa was dodging Sludge Bombs left and right, but didn't run at Palpitoad, instead dropping his sword and extending his vines. The vines slammed Palpitoad and left nasty red stripes, then they wrapped Palpitoad and seemed to dehydrate him within moments. Octa had to duck under one last Sludge Bomb before it was over.

"Givin' up's the easy way out!" said Clay, "If Ah wanted, Ah coulda given up any ol' time!"

He threw a pokéball, unleashing an Excadrill. Octa picked up his Leaf Blade once again and began battling the badger, but his every strike was parried by the massive metal claws.

Boreas was feeling a bit disappointed. "So... Aren't you going to ask me what happened last night if it wasn't what everyone thought it was?"

"No. Unless you really want to tell me, of course. But otherwise, I figure whatever may have happened was between you and Aqua."

"Well... I think I'd like to tell you. I asked her to join the team, but she can't. You see, human hunters killed her previous boyfriend and she's still very shook up about it. She can't help but hate humans and so there's no way she could join the team. And she can't just stay where she is either, because she is incredibly lonely and has absolutely no-one in the world, except for me. And so she wants me to leave the team and travel with her. And so do I."

"I see," said Capella, "that explains the argument. Well, I will miss you and so will the others, but I hope you'll be happy with her."

Boreas sighed in relief. "I'm glad you take it so well. Octa... He was furious! Why can't he just react the same way? Why does he have to start meddling and try to hold me back?!"

"Because he's very fond of you," Capella said earnestly. "He likes you a lot, Boreas, and doesn't want you to leave."

"Why?" Boreas seethed, "why can't he just be happy for me?"

"You do the same thing, you know. When you try to stop Toxica's attempts to win his heart, it's essentially the same behaviour. You are scared of the thought that Octa might like Toxica more than you at some point, aren't you?"

"No, I'm not! That's ridiculous!"

"You are, aren't you?"

"Well, not as such. I mean, I just don't think Toxica is right for Octa and I want to protect him from her."

"Maybe, but the main reason is that you're afraid he might like Toxica more than you if he ever falls in love with her."

Boreas sighed. "I guess. What does it matter anyway?"

"Well, put yourself in Octa's position. He is not just having to face the fact that you like Aqua more than him, but now you are leaving with her too, meaning he would see you only very rarely any more. You've got to agree, having your best friend suddenly disappear from your life like that is pretty horrid, and you would likely react even more possessive of him if the roles were switched."

Octa ducked under a powerful metal claw as Boreas grudgingly had to agree. "Maybe. So you're saying I should try to make things up to him before I leave?"

"That might be a good idea, yes."

They watched the battle in silence as Boreas grew more and more annoyed. "Well?" he snapped, "when are you going to talk about Team Plasma?"

"Team Plasma?" Capella asked quizzically.

"Yes, Team Plasma. I know you're going to mention them next to convince me to stay, but I can already tell you it's not going to work."

"I'm not trying to convince you of anything, Boreas. And what does Team Plasma have to do with it anyway?"

"You are trying to convince me, you're just being subtle about it. And what if I was just the one person who might make the difference between Team Plasma winning and Team Plasma losing?"

"The chances of that are minimal," replied Capella, "it's very unlikely you're that special person who might make all the difference, or that such a person even exists."

"Yes, but what if I'm just the drop of water that makes the bucket flood over? It doesn't necessarily have to be because I'm special, but I could just be the one extra person good needs to defeat evil."

"Again, what are the chances things are so close that a single person would make the difference? Is it worth that tiny chance to give up your own happiness?"

"Okay, but what... What if one of you dies while fighting Team Plasma and I've left? What if you died, Capella? Or Octa? If I hadn't left, you might still be alive because in a single battle there is a good chance I would've made the difference! I could never forgive myself if that happened."

"But what about yourself? Isn't your own happiness worth more than all that? Why should you care what might happen to us if you're happy? We are old enough to take care of ourselves, and even if one of us died you would eventually get over it."

"But I-" suddenly Boreas' thoughts caught up to him and realised something very strange was going on. "Hold on, this is really weird. You tricked me into arguing your side while you argued mine!"

While Boreas hadn't been paying attention, Octa had been defeated. Black looked unsure of whom to choose. "Uh... Bore- no, wait, steel weakness... Luc- no, ground weakness... Uh, Capella, finish it!"

Capella threw Boreas a friendly smile as she slithered forward. "Believe it or not, but I'm not arguing either side. I just want you to make the best choice, so I voiced the arguments you already thought of. You've essentially been arguing with yourself."

She began using water and fire to battle her opponent while Boreas rushed over to help the unconscious and wounded Octa regain consciousness. But his thoughts weren't there, they were raging through his mind in a storm of conflicting thoughts and emotions.

-

Future

Alder stood in silent awe as his last pokémon was defeated. Finally he spoke the words: "...It's over. But it's an odd feeling. I'm not angry that I lost, in fact I feel happy. Happy that I witnessed the rise of a great new Champion!"

Boreas couldn't believe it. He looked at his friends and they all had the same dumbfounded expressions on their faces. Then he began laughing in victory, and before he knew it they were all hugging each other happily. Their journey was finally at an end, Team Plasma defeated and now the Elite Four and the Champion too, but... Yet, Boreas felt empty inside. He was glad they'd won, but he realised he had had to give Aqua up for it. He remembered her lovely smile, the soft touch of her lips, how he had stayed with her for a whole night to help her deal with her loneliness and just felt dead inside despite his superficial joy. He had achieved all he had ever hoped for, but at what cost?

-

Present

"Never," mumbled Boreas.

"Whuh?" mumbled Octa, slowly waking up, "Oh, 'tis you." He looked at Boreas as if the Glaceon was a very foul insect that had somehow found its way into his sandwich.

"Yes, it's me!" Boreas snapped. "But I'll go stand over there if I'm in your way, my lord."

Boreas bowed sarcastically and stood a bit away. He was convinced now that leaving the team was the right choice. And yet...

-

Future

Boreas thought the kiss would never end, and would've been quite happy if it never did. But eventually they broke apart and looked into each other's eyes. But Boreas saw the reflection of something unsettling in Aqua's gorgeous black eyes: six gravestones. He tore his gaze away from her and saw all six. He was filled with horror at the thought that he'd let this happen. He hardly dared read the names on the graves, even if he knew what they said.

LUCIUS

???, KNOWN BY HER FRIENDS AS SELENE

TOXICA

CAPELLA OF THE HOUSE OF DRACO

BLACK H. TOUYA

OCTAVIANUS OF THE HOUSE OF EQUINOX


How could he have let it happen? How could he have left them? Even if they hadn't met their premature ends he would never have seen them again. He looked back into Aqua's eyes with nothing but sorrow and hate.

-

Present

"Never," Boreas mumbled even more vehemently. This time, his mind was made up. As much as it pained him, he couldn't leave with Aqua. He realised he had to go tell her and sneaked onto the elevator while the others were too busy watching the battle to notice. When he reached the top of the shaft he pressed the button that sent the elevator down again and ran out of the Gym.

He had to search by the river for a while, but eventually found Aqua fishing and called for her. She surfaced with a radiant smile on her face that evaporated when she saw Boreas' grim face. "I see you've decided."

"Yes, I have," said Boreas glumly. He had no idea how he was going to tell her his decision, he couldn't bear the thought of telling her.

"You... Didn't choose for me, did you?" Aqua said flatly.

"N... No. I'm sorry, Aqua, I'm so sorry, but I just can't leave now... When this is all done and Team Plasma has been defeated, I will happily join you, but I just can't now.... Please forgive me."

Aqua's pretty eyes found his and she kissed his forehead sorrowfully. "You don't need to be sorry, my love. I think I already knew this would be your decision if you really thought about it. It's why I gave you a day to think about it..."

Tears shot into Boreas' eyes as he hugged Aqua. "I really wish I could stay with you."

"I know. So do I. In a perfect world, I would join you and your friends on your surprising adventures in Unova, but we don't live in a perfect world. But that doesn't mean we'll see the last of each other tomorrow, my love. Your next stop will be Mistralton, won't it? I can get there by myself and meet you there."

"B-but..." Boreas stammered, "it'll be ages before we reach Mistralton... We won't see each other for weeks, if not months..."

Aqua kissed him. "But we will see each other again, my love, and that's what's important. We'll spend as much time together as we can in Mistralton. And I won't even have to stay here, because like you, I'm leaving tomorrow. I'll probably reach Mistralton before you, so maybe I'll make some new friends there." She said it all in a cheerful voice, but Boreas could hear the sadness under it.

"Well," he said, "at least we've got one last day together."

-

Late that evening, Boreas arrived at the pokécenter.

"Well, well," Lucius laughed, "look who decided to spend the night here."

"Shut up," said Boreas, "Uh... Capella, Octa, can I speak to you two?"

Capella looked at him with an encouraging smile while Octa coldly stared at something a bit above his head.

"I... Well, I've changed my mind." A happy smile flashed over Octa's face for a single moment before his scowl returned. "I've decided to stay with you. I've already talked it over with Aqua, and we decided to meet in Mistralton. And I'm sorry for upsetting you, Octa. I didn't mean it that way."

"It's great to hear you're staying," Capella smiled.

"Hmpf," Octa sniffed haughtily.

"Come on," said Capella, "we all know you're incredibly happy about this and he's already apologised. So just make it up and be friends again. You know you want to."

Octa stared haughtily for a bit longer, and the a smile spread across his face. "Excellent, my dear fellow, 'tis most agreeable that you decided this way. I knew you'd come to the right decision eventually."
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
Posts
16
Years
  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
I just finished re-reading this chapter. It's as good as always. ;)
Anyway...

----------

I wonder how it feels that you're aware that you're dreaming... =/
Never felt that before. Must be awesome doing everything you can possibly think of.

---

Even Black gave Boreas 'the grin', eh? xD

---

I laughed when Octa silenced Lucius up. xD

---

I read the reviews about Toxica being poisoned. That made me remember that a Vileplume is also a poison-type. I guess it's one of those errors, eh?

---

Capella is a really nice Dratini. :)

---

"BLACK H. TOUYA"

May I ask what the middle initial means, and where did that surname came from?
Just curious.

---

That was sad, but at least she can get away from that lonely burrow of hers. And though it's really sad, he did made the right choice, and besides, after it's all over, he can go back to her. :)

---

Nice to know Octa and Boreas are friends again. :)
 
79
Posts
12
Years
  • Seen May 24, 2013
I wonder how it feels that you're aware that you're dreaming... =/
Never felt that before. Must be awesome doing everything you can possibly think of.


It's less awesome than you'd think, because "everything you can possibly think of" usually isn't all that much, as your mind is still asleep and incredibly groggy. In my case, I generally don't even realise I could do anything when I realise I'm dreaming; the only thing I usually manage to do with that knowledge is waking myself up when the dream takes a nightmarish or annoying turn.

Even Black gave Boreas 'the grin', eh? xD

Yes; it wasn't too hard for him to put two and two together.

I read the reviews about Toxica being poisoned. That made me remember that a Vileplume is also a poison-type. I guess it's one of those errors, eh?

Yeah. It's just a silly mistake.

Capella is a really nice Dratini. :)

Indeed. She's very nice.

"BLACK H. TOUYA"

May I ask what the middle initial means, and where did that surname came from?
Just curious.

Touya is Black's name in the Japanese versions of the game, and Hilbert (which is what the middle initial stands for) is his name in the English versions of the game.

That was sad, but at least she can get away from that lonely burrow of hers. And though it's really sad, he did made the right choice, and besides, after it's all over, he can go back to her. :)

The question of whether it was the right choice will keep haunting him for quite a while, actually.

Nice to know Octa and Boreas are friends again. :)

And they will always be. Though they may argue a lot and are sometimes slow with forgiving each other, they'll always be friends.

Part Six: Blood, Magnets, and Tears

Chapter Thirty-Six: In the Broad Daylight

Heavy raindrops poured down from the sky. They were at the riverbanks at Driftveil's northern edge, about to leave, and Boreas could feel his friends wishing he'd hurry up as they waited for him to say goodbye to Aqua.

"Well, I guess this is goodbye," Boreas said awkwardly, not quite sure how to handle it.

He was about to turn away and walk off with them when Aqua's lips suddenly interlocked with his. Boreas could feel his legs give away as his mind was enveloped by the highly sensual kiss. He rubbed Aqua's back lovingly and felt her rub his back too. They lay on the ground firmly entangled as they kissed for what seemed like ages. Boreas felt Aqua wrap her legs around him as they kissed passionately.

"Hum-hum," Octa scraped his throat.

With a stab of disappointment, Boreas slowly ended the kiss, reminded of the world. They kept hugging each other very closely, though, relishing in the physical contact. "Well, my love," said Boreas, "I'll see you in Mistralton, then." He jocularly added: "if you still want to, that is."

"I want you right now, Boreas," Aqua whispered in his ear, "but I'll settle for waiting until Mistralton."

Boreas began kissing her again, but this time they let go of each other after a while. After winking one last time, Aqua jumped into the water and swam away. Boreas followed Black in a happy daze as they left the city while he chilled the rain above him to give himself a very cold shower.

-

Boreas usually enjoyed travelling and seeing new, unpredictable places. In fact he loved it and had a tendency to get annoyed and bored whenever they stayed in the same place for a long time. The horizon would seem to beckon for him, to invite him to come see what was behind it.

But not this time. Boreas pined for only one thing, and it was Aqua. The only part of the horizon that seemed to call for him was the part behind him, where he had left her. He could barely appreciate the forest they travelled through as they journeyed over Route 6. Instead he would spend most of the time thinking of Aqua, thoroughly lovesick. If he wasn't thinking about Aqua for a moment, he would soon be reminded of her by basically anything. Any amount of water would spark happy memories, and though he knew she wouldn't be passing through these rivers on her way to Mistralton, his heart jumped at every shadow in the water and every wave. In fact, anything blue would make him very joyful for a single moment, only to feel disappointed next. It seemed even the clouds conspired to remind him of the forked shape of her tail, or the finned shape of her head, or the pointed shape of her ears, or the curved shape or her hip, or the round shape of her eyes...

He was beginning to have a lot of second thoughts about choosing not to leave the team. He couldn't help but think he would've been much happier if he had chosen for Aqua, at least for now. Of course he might be unhappy eventually in some distant future, but he wondered if it had been worth sacrificing his current happiness for.

"Did you ever wonder how Capella can move without legs?"

"Wah!" Boreas startled, "Oh, Selene, it's you. Uh... Can't say I did."

"It's just weird," Selene croaked, "she doesn't have any legs or wings, yet she moves... I wonder how she does it."

"It's not really that strange, you know," Boreas explained. "Just look at her, she sort of keeps the front of her body on the ground and then slightly lifts her rear and-"

"Are you talking about my rear?" Capella suddenly asked.

"No, no, no," Boreas blushed, "of course I wasn't. I mean, I was, but only because I was explaining how you can walk without legs to Selene, who didn't understand that."

"Why don't you ask Lucius?" Capella suggested, "I'm sure he'll be glad to enlighten you."

"Okay, I'll go ask him," Selene flew off.

"So... How are you holding up?" Capella asked.

"Oh, fine," Boreas said with as happy a smile as he could muster, "A bit lovesick, I guess."

"That's very understandable. You two really seem to have something great going on between you."

"I can't wait until I see her again... She's so lovely."

"She certainly is," Capella agreed. "I hope the thought of her waiting for you in Mistralton cheers you up a bit."

"It does, it does. Also the fact that you're with me helps a lot too. All of you, I mean, but you in particular. You always seem ready to support me with kind words or wise advice, and I want you to know I really appreciate it."

"Thank you," she smiled.

Boreas sighed. "I can't wait for Mistralton... How long d'you think this route will take us?"

"Well, the route won't take very long, but we'll have to cross Chargestone Cave afterwards. You weren't there, but Clay gave Black all kinds of advice and information about it after our battle. Apparently it's a cave full of powerful electromagnetism, with many electric and steel types calling it home. Clay talked about floating stones, held afloat by sheer magnetism and gigantic electric arcs like lightning. It'll be quite a spectacular place if even half of it is true."

Boreas would normally love the idea of exploring such a bizarre place. "I guess," he sighed, "but to me it'll just make the journey to Mistralton a few days longer."

"More like a few weeks, if Clay is to be believed, actually."

"Weeks?!" Boreas exclaimed, "Aww, I wish we could just skip it."

It is a well-known fact, of course, that most prophecies and expectations turn out to be mistaken. It is probably a good thing too, as it means our universe is an unpredictable, interesting one. But on occasion, someone says something so uniquely and thoroughly mistaken that it becomes a deliciously piece of hilarious irony in hindsight. When Bill Gates said "There's nobody getting rich writing software," or when Napoleon told the inventor of the steamship "you would make a ship sail against the winds and currents by lighting a bonfire under her deck? I have no time for such nonsense," they were these kinds of situations.

Capella said: "Cheer up, Boreas, I'm sure we'll all have a great time in the cave."

-

It was clear that winter was coming to an end. The snow had already disappeared before they reached Driftveil and temperatures were pretty warm now as well. But only at day; it was still frigidly cold at night so Black and all his pokémon would sleep in the tent, underneath all of Black's spare clothes and coats to keep them warm.

On one of these nights, most of them had gone to bed already. Only Toxica was still outside. Boreas was nearing sleep, his brain a soft, empty pillow of sleepiness inside his head, when he was suddenly snapped awake by a voice whispering: "Psst, Octa? You awake?"

"Yes," Octa whispered back, "I believe I am quite awake."

"Well, come on out 'ere!" Toxica whispered, "The stars are gorgeous tonight, you really 'ave to see them!"

There was a bit of a pause. Then Octa said "Yes, I believe I shall go outside," and Boreas could hear him sneaking out of the tent.

Boreas considered just going to sleep for a moment, but then rejected it and sneaked out of the tent himself. It was indeed an unusually beautiful night. Hundreds of stars glittered in the sky, and all five moons were up. There wasn't a single cloud in the sky. Octa and Toxica were sitting on a small slope, uncomfortably close to each other for Boreas' tastes. He walked up behind them and suddenly sat himself down between them, though there wasn't really enough room left between them. "Hey guys," he said cheerfully, "nice night we're having, isn't it?"

They made a bit of room for him. "Yes," Toxica spoke with a withering glare.

"Quite," said Octa. "My dear fellow, could I have a word with you in private?"

"Uh, sure." They excused themselves and walked some distance away, until Octa stopped, apparently satisfied Toxica couldn't hear them any more.

"My dear fellow," Octa asked, "Why do you exhibit this behaviour?"

"Uh... What do you mean?"

"Do not obfuscate stupidity, my dear fellow. I know you're doing it on purpose, and I ask you what the reasoning behind it is, for your interference makes me feel quite glim-flashy."

"What do you mean?"

"Fine, if you want me to spell it out for you: you have systematically been attempting to interfere in the friendship between Toxica and myself for a long time now. Why do you do this? Do you honestly believe I would ever consider her more of a friend than you? And even if you do, what makes you think you have the right to interfere?"

Boreas felt very embarrassed. "Well... I don't know how to put this, but... Um... I think she might be interested in being more than just a friend to you."

"Well, obviously."

"What?" Boreas asked flatly, "You mean you knew that?"

"Do you think me blind and stupid, my dear fellow? Evidently I knew it, it has been quite obvious for a long time now. But that is completely irrelevant."

"Well... I... Huh? But..."

"You have such a way with words, my dear fellow. I anticipate your next syllable with great eagerness."

"But you always seem not to notice... I just thought you were oblivious to it or something."

"Quite, yes, because obviously a disinterest in obvious romantic advances showcases obliviousness towards them, rather than simple disinterest. Isn't it quite obvious that I am in no way romantically interested in Toxica? Honestly, for one so smart you can be quite stupid, my dear fellow. Yet all this is entirely irrelevant to the discussion we're having. Whether I consider Toxica a friend or a romantic interest is not the issue, the issue is your apparent belief you have the right to interfere in my relationships to others."

Boreas felt very embarrassed and rather silly about it now. "Uh... Yeah, sorry. I shouldn't have, you're right. But-"

"No, you shouldn't have. And I would appreciate it if you ceased this behaviour at once."

"Okay, I will. I suppose it was rather childish of me. But, you know, on occasion it really seems as if you like her too in that way."

"Total codswallop. Poppycock. Nonsense. Utter balderdash and cobblers. Rubbish, tosh, tripe. An utterly mistaken impression, my dear fellow. I am not in the least romantically interested in her, and even if I were 'twould not matter, for she is neither of my species nor of noble birth."

"So?"

"Therefore, even if I was romantically interested in her in some bizarre kind of alternate universe, I could never allow myself to mingle with her in such a way. After all, thirty-five generations of my ancestors were properly bred to give me the great gift of a noble birth, so I could hardly deny that gift to my own descendants, could I?"

While Boreas had liked to hear Octa wasn't interested in Toxica, he didn't like the sound of this at all. "I thought you said that whole idea of not mingling with non-properly bred pokémon was outdated and only your great-aunt Galaxia still believes in it?"

"Oh, evidently I consider that rubbish, otherwise we would not even be friends. But this is just being friends and socialising, 'tis hardly the same as squandering the noble Equinox blood running through my veins willy-nilly by procreating with non-pure-blooded, non-well-bred pokémon."

"You've got your priorities in a very weird order, you know? First of all, just because you're in love with a girl or romance with her doesn't mean you're automatically going to have cubs with her." He shuddered at the thought of suddenly having cubs to care for due to his relationship with Aqua. "Also, it seems to me you're kind of limiting yourself to a very small group of girls there. I mean, how many female Snivies, Servines, and Serperiors of pure blood can there be who aren't related to you? What if you don't like any of them?"

"'Like' doesn't enter into it, my dear fellow. When my breeders and my family decide 'tis time for me to procreate, I shall do so, regardless of whom they choose."

Boreas was shocked by this. "But that's disgusting! They're just gonna choose some girl they want you to breed with and you have to sleep with her to make little Snivies without even knowing her?"

"Now, do not denigrate that which you do not understand, my dear fellow. I would know her, as we shall of course be properly introduced and given time to woo one another before the matrimonial ceremony would be conducted. After that, yes obviously 'twould be our duty to produce progeny to make sure the noble blood of Equinox flows into the next generation, but our union would be a loving one, my dear fellow."

Boreas still thought it was completely ridiculous. "But what if you don't love her?!"

"Love shall grow eventually even if it may not be present at first. Our respective personalities shall be taken into account when my mate is chosen, my dear fellow, don't worry."

"But what if you love someone else? You can't even choose for yourself, that's so horrible!"

"I suppose 'tis the downside of being of noble blood, my dear fellow. I have a duty to both my ancestors and my descendants, therefore 'tis irrelevant whether I love another than my chosen mate. You see, my blood is quite a lot more precious than yours, or that of most pokémon, for 'tis not just mine, but that of my entire family. 'Tis my duty to ensure my descendants shall be able to claim the same birth that I can."

"To hell with your 'duty'!" Boreas shouted angrily, "You can't let them do this to you, it's totally unfair!"

"To. Hell. With. My. Duty." Octa slowly and coldly articulated. "I know you do not view duty and honour as very important matters, but I do. I would consider both of them more important than my life, and frankly I find the suggestion that I should just ignore my duty deeply insulting."

Boreas was about to argue with Octa, but recognised his friend was adamant about this and if he argued it would turn into a very nasty argument. "I still disagree, but I'm not going to argue about it. Anyway, back to Toxica, if you don't like her in that way, why don't you just tell her so? It seems kind of mean to let her think she has a chance for so long instead of just breaking her heart quickly and getting it over with."

"Well, she has never admitted her feelings towards me. The day she does I shall be forced to tell her the truth, but until that day I see no reason to unnecessarily complicate our relationship with a sudden declaration that I see her as no more than a friend, and couldn't consider her more than a friend even if I did. And now, my dear fellow, I'm going to return to Toxica to gaze at the celestial panorama. I would appreciate it if you didn't interfere."

Boreas returned to the tent, but he just couldn't get to sleep. What Octa had told him seemed horrible, and he didn't wish it to anyone, let alone his best friend. He reminisced about how he had fallen in love with Aqua, spent so much wonderful time with her, kissed her; and felt horrible when he realised Octa could never allow himself something as wonderful as that. Octa would never be in love, when he kissed someone it would be because he had no choice, and he would only ever be with a girl for the rest of his life because he had to. Boreas trembled with the unfairness and with annoyance that Octa himself, who could easily just ignore all that nonsense and love whomever he liked, would proudly continue that idiocy.

He also felt sympathy for Toxica. He might have found her obsessing over Octa annoying, but now he really felt sorry for her. When she finally collected enough courage to admit her feelings to Octa, all she would get would be a refusal and the same cold-hearted story Octa had told Boreas. It would feel far worse than when Febby had shown up with a boyfriend, Boreas realised.
 

destinedjagold

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Aw...
You forgot to add what Lucius said to Selene... :(
Anyway, it was a great re-read. :)

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I loved how Selene suddenly broke Boreas' lovesickness... xD

---

Five moons? o.O

---

Anyway, that was a nice read, sad about the end-part of this chapter, though.
Boreas has made a lot of good points, but different people do believe in different things and beliefs, so...yeah.
All in all, a great read. :)
 
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Aw...
You forgot to add what Lucius said to Selene... :(


"How can you fly around without a brain? Some things no-one can answer, you crazy bird."

Five moons? o.O

Yes, five moons. Though the pokémon planet has its similarities with Earth and is also called Earth by its inhabitants, there are also massive differences with Earth. Whether it's an alternate Earth or an entirely different planet, I liked the idea of giving it multiple moons.


Chapter Thirty-Seven: Into the Shadows

"...And so his family and breeders will choose his mate... He will never get to fall in love, he'll never kiss a girl a really loves, he'll live unhappily ever after with someone he doesn't love. And the worst thing is, he thinks it's just great... He thinks it's his duty to his ancestors and descendants and is very adamant about it."

Capella nodded. "I see," she spoke back softly, so the the others didn't hear the conversation. "I didn't know things were like that for Octa. I suppose I should be lucky my family never went went around telling me whom I could and couldn't love, despite our claim to great ancestry. I can really understand why you'd feel so bad about it."

"It's just... I've had all that joy of falling in love with Aqua, her falling in love with me, kissing her and all. The thought that Octa won't ever get to experience that... I want him to experience the same kind of happiness I have. I mean, he's my best friend, and he really deserves that sort of thing. But you know, I can tell if I argued about it with him, it'd just turn into a really nasty and bitter argument and he wouldn't be convinced anyway... But I can't just stand by and let him throw his happiness away either."

Capella surprised Boreas with a quick, friendly hug by wrapping around him. "Cheer up, Boreas. Remember that it's not an immediate problem right now. While he isn't actually in love, and probably never has been, it's easy for him to just write it off and assume he can go without it. But when he actually falls in love, it'll be a lot harder to keep to his 'duty' and there's a good chance he'll depart from family tradition."

That would cheer Boreas up, if not for one thing: "But surely his ancestors show he won't? If they did it like this for 34 generations, surely many of them have fallen in love with others than their chosen mate, and yet they ended up with the one their family and breeders chose. Why would Octa be any different?"

"First of all," said Capella, "Octa is not his ancestors. He likes to pretend he is, but he isn't. It's not his ancestors who are relevant, but him. Secondly, his ancestors didn't have you and me as friends. Because when Octa falls in love I'm going to do everything in my power to convince him to jump at it and not let family tradition stand in the way of his happiness. I'm sure you'll do the same."

That made Boreas feel much better. "Yeah, yeah, I will. But do you think we could convince him? He's very adamant about this kind of thing and you know he doesn't change his mind quickly."

Capella nodded. "True, his convictions can be as strong as a mountain's foundations. But surely you've realised by now that love is powerful enough to move mountains? Especially when we give it a bit of an extra push."

"Are you sure?"

"Of course I am. Love conquers all, Boreas. I'm sure it can even melt our friend's cold heart with its flames. We can't do anything about it now on our own, but I guarantee you that when he falls in love we only need to give him that little extra push he'll need to make the right choice."

"Yeah, we will. You really know how to give someone hope, you know? You're such a great friend."

"Thank you. That's a very nice thing to say."

-

"We're being followed," Selene whispered in Boreas' ear.

They had been in Chargestone Cave for a week now, and Boreas still marvelled at everything in the cave. The rocks held afloat by electromagnetism were only the beginning of the wonders of Chargestone Cave. The walls themselves glowed with a weak, pulsating blue light making flash lights unnecessary. Electric charges ran through the rock, and on occasion they would jump out in massive lightning bolts. The charge in the air made Boreas' fur stand on edge more often than not. The cave was quite rocky too, and they had to climb up and down rockfaces often. It was easy to forget his lovesickness in such an exciting surrounding.

"Followed, eh?" Boreas asked the floaty-brained Murkrow jocularly, "by what?"

"I'm not sure," she whispered, "but I think they're invisible in a way."

Boreas smiled at his silly friend. "Invisible in a way?"

"Yeah, I'm not sure how to explain it... I think they really are as visible as you or me, but are just very good at seeming so uninteresting our brains just ignore them as somebody else's problem... The only reason I even noticed them at all was that I just happened to be surprised by one in the corner of my eye, but when I looked at it directly I couldn't even see it any more... I've seen them in the corners of my eyes a couple times since."

Boreas smiled disbelievingly. "Invisible people who are not really invisible? Oh, those guys. Don't worry, they're just here to see if I would make a good member for the Invisible People who are Really Quite Visible club. I sent my application in a few days ago."

"Really? Can I join too?"

"I'll tell them you want to join if they accept me."

"Oh, that'd be so- Hold on, you're not serious, are you? I think I've heard of this... It's called saw-cast-him, right?"

Boreas nodded. "Yeah, I was being sarcastic."

"So no club for invisible people?" Selene said sadly.

"I'm afraid not. But why don't you go warn Lucius about the invisible people?"

"I'll do that, thanks! He'll want to know this." She flew off.

"Heh, invisible people," Boreas chuckled, "this magnetic field must be making her brain even fuzzier than normal."

But then he had to swallow his laughs: three very visible masked people were suddenly around Black, one of them with a knife on his throat.

"Ah!" Black yelped, "Who are you? What do you want?"

Boreas wanted to help, but realised he couldn't do that without risking Black's life. He saw the same helplessness in his companions.

"Come," said one of the masked men. Black had no choice but to follow them. They walked him around a corner, where a huge TV-screen was built in the wall. Suddenly the masked men were gone.

"Wow, you forced me to walk five metres I would've walked by myself anyway. That was so incredibly useful."

"There's a TV in this wall," remarked Boreas. He frowned. "Why is there a TV in the wall?"

The TV turned on seemingly by itself. Boreas startled, seeing the faces of the five Sages they had met and two others. Ghetsis stood in the front, smiling like a car salesman about to rip you off, and the other six stood in a row behind him, their coloured robes looking like a rainbow.

The goateed Zinzolin stood on the left of the screen in his purple robes. Boreas shuddered at the memories of his Seviper eating him alive. Next to him stood the bald old Gorm in his blue robes. Boreas remembered how he had nearly been executed under water by his Kingdra. All the way on the right of the screen was the greying blond Rood in his red robes. Boreas remembered the pain as flames consumed his flesh during the battle against him. Next to him stood the moustached Bronius, in his brown robes (though they seemed more of a dark orange now). Boreas was reminded of the time he'd spent locked up with his legs broken and how Thomas had breathed his last breath in front of him, his neck broken.

The final two sages stood in the middle. The one on the left was thin as a skeleton, had a long beard and wore green robes. The one on the right was very fat, had a sleazy moustache, and wore yellow robes. Standing next to each other, they looked almost exactly like the number 10.

Six of them were grinning maliciously, while Zinzolin simply stared in a mixture of anger and sorrow.

"Hello, Black," spoke Ghetsis. "I believe you know most of my friends already, but let me introduce the two you have never met. These are Ryoku, master of the grass-type, and Giallo, master of the steel-type. We are the Seven Sages. I believe it's time to tell you how I created Team Plasma."

He began pacing in front of the other Sages. "It's thirty years ago by now... I had a dream. I saw a world where pokémon and people were free to reach their full potential. Free to develop themselves to the fullest, without interference from the weak humans, free to use their power however they liked. You see, our world is a very imperfect one... Worthless humans hold back both pokémon and the few worthy, intelligent, powerful humans from reaching their full potential... Pokémon and some people have great potential, but the other humans... They're weak. They have no ambition, no spine, no drive, no dreams! They capture pokémon and use them for futile contests and fake battles, stifling their potential forever. And they do the same to humans who show potential, they are forced not to use their power to their fullest, but to consider the wishes and needs of the weak... This is evil. It was a terrible realisation. The mighty should rule, be revered by the weak! They, or should I say we, should be in charge of the planet, not the weak! We alone can make our dreams and ambitions true, and rule in the best way possible. In the end, it would even be better for the weak.

I realised I was one of the mighty... But by myself, I could never change the world. I would need to seek allies worthy of my friendship. And so I travelled the world for years, seeking out the most powerful trainers on the planet... Sadly, most of them didn't agree with me, brainwashed as they were by the weak... But I forged a powerful friendship with the six who did agree with me. I convinced them their various positions as Elite Fours, Champions, and pokémon masters were not worthy of them and their pokémon, so they all left their posts... To join me. We realised that even with the power the seven of us wielded together, we were still not powerful enough to bend the world to our will... So we planned. We found a perfect plan to allow pokémon and people to unleash their full potential! And we realised we'd need the legendary pokémon of Unova for it. But the legendary dragon would only appear to a 'hero'. Unfortunately our ambition, our might, our very potential disqualified all of us for it... We needed someone pure of heart, someone weak, yet strong in a way, with ambition like us, but willing to waste their ambition on others. And so we decided on a plan: I would concei-"

Suddenly the skeleton-like Ryoku stepped forward. "Ghetsis, I think you had better not tell him of this yet. Just in case."

Ghetsis nodded. "You are right, my friend. This information is too valuable." He turned back to the camera. "I will not tell you the entire story today. You will likely never hear it, but I may tell you the rest later. If there is a later for you, which I highly doubt. You see, after more than twenty years of planning, we initiated the penultimate stages of our plan a year ago. All seemed to go well... But then Rood here returned from his operations on Route 3 with startling news... He had been defeated. Defeated by an outnumbering force using foul trickery and cheating, but it was still defeat... A hard hit to all of us. And soon, Gorm followed. We realised you, who were involved in both incidents, were a threat. A very minor one, but still a threat. So Bronius decided to take care of you when you reached his city... Sadly, he had mercy on you and it led to the temporary downfall of our operations there... Zinzolin made the same error when you reached Driftveil, and three of his pokémon died for it. It is clear by now, you are not be an ordinary trainer. It seems you mainly won through luck and trickery, but it is still impressive. We have decided to take you seriously.

And, at the same time, our lord N reported he had met you, and he thought you might be the other hero... He wanted us to test you. N is what I raised him to be, naïve and dramatic. He believes you will defeat any threat we send your way, because it's destiny that you... Well, I can't tell you yet. But we take another view. Even if you are the other hero, that will not save you. We have the power to change any destiny we want! Therefore, I want to inform you this is the final day of your life. Ryoku is waiting for this recording to finish to attack you. He will not show you, or your pokémon any mercy. There will be no cages or wounds involved this time. Only graves. This is regrettable, but necessary. Farewell, Black."

The TV turned off by itself. Footsteps approached after a moment. Ryoku looked even thinner in real life than he did on the recording. He looked like a green-clad, bearded skeleton, very spidery. Behind him followed six pokémon; a Ferrothorn, a Lilligant, a Cradily, an Exeggcutor, a Tangrowth, and a Shiftry. There was no mercy in any of their eyes, just determination.

"It is useless to flee," spoke Ryoku in a Japanese accent, "there is no escape. The Shadow Triad would stop you."

Black's pokémon formed a protective line before him. "So, you're just planning to kill me?" Black asked.

"You gladuated from a minor annoyance to a major threat when you murdered three of Zinzolin's pokémon, Black. We have no choice but to eliminate you and your pokémon."

"And for what? For your ridiculous idea of allowing yourselves to reach your full potential? I thought you were simply misguided before, but now I see you're just seven egomaniacs who thirst for power. The whole pokémon liberation business is just a distraction from your real goals, isn't it?"

"Silence, boy. I won't argue with you about this. There's no use, as you'll soon be dead."

"Why not simply get your invisible guys to kill me, then?"

"Because we believe you deserve to die like this. You have a promise of power. That promise deserves to be extinguished in a worthy manner; by one even more powerful, namely, rather than by a knife in the back or a cut throat. Secondly, because this is a personal matter. You have interfered with our plans and murdered three pokémon of a very close friend of mine, it seems only fitting I should be the one to end your interference for good. Sayonora, Black. Kougeki Kaishi!"
 

destinedjagold

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I just finished re-reading this chapter. It was a great read, as usual. :)
I also finished reading the latest chapter on fanfic. I'll share my thoughts about that when it gets here. ;)

Anyway, onto my comments...

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Sometimes, warnings from someone who we know who are a bit off sanity are really difficult to believe in, eh?

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"Wow, you forced me to walk five metres I would've walked by myself anyway. That was so incredibly useful."

Lol! My brothers said the same thing the first time he played the games! xD
Well, not really the same words, but having the same thought, at least.
(I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't even thought about how stupid it was when I first played the games)

---

smiling like a car salesman about to rip you off

I'll yet to experience this sooner or later...
If I'll trouble myself with it, anyway...

---

Standing next to each other, they looked almost exactly like the number 10.

I don't get it... =/

---

All-in-all, a great read, a bit short for me, but it's good.

edit: (Erm... The next chapter's gonna be a bit off from a T-rating. Should you censor it, or maybe put a warning on your next post, perhaps?)
 
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Lol! My brothers said the same thing the first time he played the games! xD
Well, not really the same words, but having the same thought, at least.
(I'm a bit embarrassed that I didn't even thought about how stupid it was when I first played the games)


Yeah, the Shadow Triad make a habit of doing that. It is really silly, so I felt compelled to make a joke about it in this fic.

I'll yet to experience this sooner or later...
If I'll trouble myself with it, anyway...

Same here, but it seemed a good and familiar metaphor.

I don't get it... =/

Ryoku is long and thin, much like the 1, Giallo is fat and round, like the 0. If they stand next to each other, they look just like the number 10.

All-in-all, a great read, a bit short for me, but it's good.

Thanks.

(Erm... The next chapter's gonna be a bit off from a T-rating. Should you censor it, or maybe put a warning on your next post, perhaps?)

Well, I wouldn't really call it that much above a T-rating. It might be a bit more adult than usual, but I certainly wouldn't say it crosses the border to an M-rating. But fine, here is a warning:

WARNING: The next chapter contains a pretty gory bit.

Chapter Thirty-Eight: Penumbra

Though they were all powerful grass-types, not all of Sage Ryoku's pokémon battled in a similar way to Octa, the most powerful grass-type Boreas knew. Some of his enemies fought like him, using speed, agility and finesse to rapidly dance over the battlefield, but did so in a much more powerful, rapid sort of way. Lilligant and Shiftry were a lot like this; they rapidly and agily danced over the battlefield, unleashing powerful blasts of energy as they drained their enemies. Others, like Ferrothorn, fought without any finesse or style, simply unleashing mighty attack upon mighty attack while seeming entirely impervious to damage. To his luck Boreas was finding the type advantage he had over all Ryoku's pokémon, except Ferrothorn, very useful. Though they were far too powerful to be simply taken down by his attacks, he could hurt and distract them.

Tangrowth was somewhere between the two styles. As a whole, it walked like a powerful, dangerous force of nature; but its vines were nimble and agile. It walked around over the uneven battlefield like a massive storm of vines trying to grab Boreas. He nimbly dodged some of the vines, and when one came too close he would quickly Ice Beam it to make it jerk away in reflex. But with dozens of vines attacking him at the same time, he found himself backing into the cave wall. He focused entirely on his defence, and remembered a trick he had used in the battle against Zinzolin: he could quickly parry an attack by unleashing a very small, but very cold blast of cold from his paw, rapidly freezing and sublimating the air so it created a small, but powerful shock wave that interfered with most attacks. He found that if he timed it right, it was very useful for fending off the vines trying to grab and beat him. He parried vines left and right, but it still wasn't enough. Eventually the inevitable happened as a vine caught his hind paw and lifted him in the air. Boreas used Ice Beam on Tangrowth's hidden face, but it still whipped him with the vines. Boreas screamed in pain as the vines left long whip-marks on his back.

Suddenly flames burnt on Tangrowth backside. It roared in pain and dropped him. "Yeah," Boreas heard Lucius' voice call out, "and how did ya like that, ya nimrod? Why don't you pick on someone strong like me instead?"

Tangrowth turned to deal with Lucius, so Boreas immediately attacked. Burning Tangrowth from one side and freezing it from the other, Boreas and Lucius were giving it quite a hard time. The battle seemed to be going well for them, but Boreas saw something he couldn't ignore: Toxica lay writhing on the floor in front of Exeggcutor, whose eyes were glowing an eerie purple. She was entirely defenceless and apparently in pain.

He broke off combat with Tangrowth and ran through the battlefield, passing Octa duelling Shiftry with moderate success and Capella and Black fighting Lilligant together, Black wielding a big rock and Capella spitting flames and nets of electricity at it. As soon as he came close, Boreas struck the Exeggcutor's egg-heads with Ice Beams. The eyes dimmed as the Exeggcutor broke off its attack, only to turn on Boreas.

Suddenly Boreas felt something touch his mind... A powerful will attempting to enter it. He tried to repel it somehow, to focus on stopping it, but it easily penetrated his mind. He heard a voice in his mind and felt it probing his memories. "Well, well, Boreas, you've been through a lot over your short life, haven't you? Combat... Friendship... Tragedy... Love..."

Get out of my memories! They're private.

"Hahaha, silly Boreas... Do you think me looking at them is the worst that's going to happen to you? Maybe I should alter them a bit, hmm? How would you like to have a memory of Black snapping Thomas' neck? Or Octa raping Aqua? You'd never realise they were fake..."

No, you-you can't!

"Oh, but I can. I could make you hate all your friends forever, but I won't. It would take far too long and wouldn't be productive. I'll just overload your nervous system with blasts of psychic energy to kill you instead. Sigh, it's a shame to have to destroy your mind, it's a very good mind... There is much intelligence in here, and also powerful, fiery, passionate emotions. It's a shame you sided with the wrong side. I think we could've become friends in another life. Hehe, listen to me getting melodramatic; it's not easy to kill someone whose mind you've seen."


Exeggcutor's glowing purple eyes were all Boreas saw as powerful energy coursed through his body, overloading his nerves and making him scream as his entire body was in severe pain.

"Oy, not on my watch!" yelled Toxica and the pain disappeared, as did Exeggcutor's mind, as Toxica had covered it in toxic pollen. Before Exeggcutor could attack her, Boreas got back to his feet and began attacking too. Fighting two pokémon at once, Exeggcutor had no chance to probe their minds and instead tried to overload their nervous systems with psychic pulses. But the poison Toxica had used and Boreas' own ice attacks were quickly getting to it.

Toxica suddenly grabbed Boreas and dragged him to the ground. "Get down!"

An intense beam of pure white light, like the Sun itself, blasted past just above his head. It was thick enough to have completely enveloped Boreas if he hadn't ducked, and Boreas could feel its incredible intensity as it raged past. It hit the cave wall, where it created a massive, smouldering crater as the cave was showered in debris. "That's Hyper Beam!" Toxica yelped.

"Thanks," said Boreas, staring at the smouldering crater, "that'd have vaporised us if it hit..."

But then, the spiky, steel-clad Ferrothorn attacked. It swung its powerful, thorny seed pods around like maces, shattering rocks as it hit them. Toxica and Boreas both tried counter-attacking, but its powerful steel armour seemed to make it impervious to damage. Boreas' Ice Beams just left a slight white snowy residue that quickly disappeared, and Toxica's Energy Balls seemed to do nothing at all.

Boreas ducked behind a rock to hide from Ferrothorn's powerful pods, but the rock shattered as the mighty steel-type hit it, showering Boreas in painful stone splinters that made many small cuts. He realised only the fire attacks Lucius and Capella could use stood any chance against the Ferrothorn and began withdrawing to Capella (as Lucius was still very busy fighting Tangrowth). The mighty pods hit the ground with Earth-shaking impacts behind him as he ran. As he passed Octa, who was still fighting Shiftry, his friend suddenly tackled him to the ground as another Hyper Beam blasted overhead with the intensity of a solar flare.

"That beam's devastating," Octa pointed out, "dodge it at all costs!"

"Thanks, that's the second time someone- LOOK OUT!" he grabbed Octa and rolled them both away, just avoiding Ferrothorn's seed pod crashing down to crush them both.

They quickly got to their feet and continued fighting. Capella was fighting Lilligant, who had given Black a nasty cut and was trying to keep attacking him. Boreas shot Ice Beams at Lilligant to give Capella some freedom. "Capella, some help with Ferrothorn would be very useful!"

Momentarily not busy with Lilligant, Capella had a chance to spit flames at Ferrothorn, who really didn't seem to like that. The flames left nasty marks that kept smoking. After several flames, it actually retreated to its trainer. "Awesome, Capella!"

"Thanks, now let's get that Lilligant, together we may be able to defeat it!"

The dragon and the fox battled Lilligant, and it quickly turned into a very defensive battle. Boreas would parry attacks by making a short, concentrated pulse of cold with his paw; Capella would use a spark of electricity from the jewel on her forehead; and Lilligant would neutralise attacks with a blast of energy.

They circled around each other firing attacks that were either dodged or parried, all trying to find an opening in the enemy's defences. Capella and Boreas outnumbered Lilligant and they were both at a type advantage, but Lilligant was phenomenally fast and powerful. Even though she had to spread her attacks between him and Capella, Boreas was still having a hard time parrying all the energy balls and barely had time to Ice Beam his opponent. They tried to outflank Lilligant, but the nimble way it danced around as it battled meant they often ended up next to each other anyway.

"Keep putting pressure on it, Boreas!" Capella encouraged him after ending up next to him again, "I think we can win this battle without casualties!"

Suddenly Boreas felt something wrap around his tail, and before he could do anything Tangrowth lifted both him and Capella up. They dangled from the charred, smouldering mass of vines upside-down. Boreas used Ice Beam against the Tangrowth, but it actually seemed to like that as it put the flames it smouldered with out.

"Cradily," Ryoku commanded. "Execute them with Hyper Beam!"

The next second seemed to last for an eternity. Cradily's head glowed with a white, solar light. Boreas and Capella both realised her flames were the only thing that could save them. They looked each other in the eyes. A friendly smile tugged on the corner of Capella's mouth as a grim fatality entered her kind eyes. Boreas realised what she was going to do and wanted to tell her not to do it, to save herself first, but it was too late. She spit a string of flames at the vine Boreas was hanging on. Tangrowth yelped in pain and let go of Boreas as it retracted its vine. Capella spit fire at the vine holding her own tail as Boreas began to fall, but it was too late: a blinding light blasted just over Boreas and his tail burnt with pain. Capella's thin, serpentine form was slightly visible in the beam, like a wisp of smoke.

Boreas fell in a shallow hole on the ground, the pain in his tail far outweighed by the pain in his heart. But when Capella dropped into the hole too, her back turned to him, he was happy again. "Oh, Capella, you're still alive! I thought you'd been vapo- GAH!"

He almost gagged as he embraced her and turned her around and saw the Hyper Beam had blasted most of her flesh off her front side. There was no skin left on that entire side of the body and most of the flesh underneath it had been destroyed too. He could see most of her organs, at least the parts that were left, and could see all the way to her spinal chord in various places. Blood squirted out massively, soaking Boreas' fur within seconds. He realised what was left of her heart still beat and the one lung that remained still breathed and looked into her face.

It was horrible to see his friend like this. Her face looked as gruesome as the rest of her body, but in a way even worse because he could still recognise her kind features in it. Her cheeks and snout had been blasted away entirely, resulting in a bloody skeletal grimace. In fact, little flesh remained on her skull. But parts of her kind eyes were left in her sockets.

"Capella, evolve, right now!" Boreas desperately shouted, "Please! You will survive if you evolve! It will all be better!"

Capella looked into Boreas' eyes with the remnants of her own and exhaled her final breath as the heavily damaged remains of her heart stopped beating. "No!" Boreas cried, "no, you can't die! Please, just evolve! Everything will be alright... Please..." He cried softly as he fully embraced her horribly damaged corpse. "...please... Capella..." She was gone forever.

Boreas sat there in the hole for a while, crying for his dead friend. Then a furious, burning rage worse than anything he had ever felt before came over him and set his mind alight. "I... will make them pay for what they have done!"

He jumped out of the trench, looking like a ferocious werewolf or hellhound that has just committed unspeakable acts of horror, between the blood he was soaked with and his furious, vengeful face. His enemies stopped fighting in horror as he appeared from the ground looking like this. Boreas screamed with burning rage and attacked them. He fought his way through the battlefield in blind rage with massive clouds of snow and ice waving around him and attacking while he bit, clawed, and kicked his opponents, trying to inflict as much pain and death upon them as he could. He was screaming in inarticulate fury. His entire body was ablaze with hate as he tried to avenge Capella.

-

"My dear fellow, calm down please," said Octa as he grabbed Boreas, stopping him from continuing his rampage.

"Let me go, Octa! They killed Capella!" Boreas roared.

"I know," Octa said with a grave face. "I saw her body. Calm down."

"How could I calm down?! I have to avenge her!"

Suddenly Octa slapped his face. It served to partially wake Boreas from his rage. "Yes, you do, and you shall be far more useful to that end if you just alm down and think."

"THINK?!" Boreas bellowed, "I'm going to kill them all!"

"Do - so - calmly!" Octa hissed, "Put your cunning mind to avenging her, not your stupid rage! Revenge is a dish best served cold!"

"I'm serving it just fine hot! Capella sacrificed herself to save me!"

"Then don't throw her sacrifice away along with your own life! They'll easily kill you if you don't calm down!"

"It's been going just fine like this before you interfered!"

"Only because they were terrified of you! But they have realised by now you are just a mortal, albeit very angry, Glaceon. So get your emotions under control if you don't want to follow Capella!"

Boreas tried to breathe normally. His fury was still very present, but at least he was no longer ablaze with it. "Okay! I am calm!"

Ferrothorn, Shiftry, and Lilligant chose that moment to attack them. "We need to think of- gah!- something fast, my dear fellow!" Octa said, dodging seed pods and parrying attacks, "We are the only ones left standing, while we took only two of them down. Don't worry, the others are merely wounded for now."

"Where's the fourth?" Boreas asked, parrying an Energy Ball and jumping away under a crushing seed pod.

"Defending Ryoku, it's that Cradily!"

The Cradily that had fired the Hyper Beam... But Boreas tried to focus, to keep calm. There would be time for mourning and rage later. The three enemies surrounded them now and formed a circle as Boreas and Octa fought them back-to-back, Octa with his Leaf Blade and Boreas using Ice Beams and parries. "If we can get past that Cradily," Boreas whispered as they fought, "we could take Ryoku hostage, like we did with Gorm." Or kill him for what he did to Capella.

"But these- argh- three will - never let us do that," Octa said, "and we can't- just have one of us distract them, because they'd never keep fighting one of us with the three of them, and we'll need someone to battle Cradily as well. We can't do all of that with just the two of us."

He was right. In fact, it seemed they could only lose. They were thoroughly outmatched by three stronger opponents surrounding them.

Suddenly Lilligant screamed as Black dived upon it, stabbing it with the long bread knife he kept in his backpack. "Run!" he commanded Boreas and Octa as Ryoku returned his wounded Lilligant to its pokéball, "run for your lives!" he began attacking the other pokémon, wielding the knife like a dagger.

The other two would defeat or kill Black within a minute, Boreas realised, but he actually had an idea now. "Octa, you heard him, run!"

"Never! We shan't leave our trainer behind in combat!"

"I've got an idea, c'mon!"

Jumping over an attack by one of Shiftry's branches, they ran and got some distance between them and the two pokémon battling the human. Boreas unleashed an icy stormwind, not on the battlers but on a stone floating nearby. He channelled all his anger into the wind and the sparkling stone moved, kept accelerating it rapidly, until it arrived by the battle between Black and the two pokémon.

The two had just knocked Black down with some nasty blows and were about to kill him when the stone reached them. Though only Boreas had noticed it, a charge had been accumulating in the ground under them. When the floating magnetic rock approached, that charge suddenly found a way to go and arced through the air, using the bodies of Black and the pokémon as easy conduits on the way. Boreas thoroughly hoped Black would be okay, but he didn't have time to worry about it now.

Boreas and Octa ran at the Cradily, jumped out of the way of a Hyper Beam, and began fighting it. They synchronised their attacks so one of them would hit Cradily even if it defended. Though Cradily seemed slow, lumbering, and passive, it proved itself a powerful and agile battler as it easily battled the two friends with Energy Ball and Ancientpower. Ryoku watched the battle with interest. Boreas couldn't wait to get the human. He imagined knocking him to the ground, jumping on top of him, then freezing his head until he died. This little lapse into fantasy cost him dearly: Cradily slashed at him and he dodged too late. Terrible pain went through his head and he felt blood flow through his fur, but he kept fighting.

The attacks, which kept hitting Cradily soon had their effect on it. It was surprising how soon it was unable to stop them from running on to Ryoku. The human returned his pokémon to their pokéballs. "Very impressive," he said. Then he suddenly disappeared, probably with help of the Shadow Triad. They tried to find him as best they could, but were soon forced to concede that they'd lost a valued friend and the ones responsible had escaped.

-

"Today," Octa spoke solemnly, "we acknowledge a terrible loss. For this morning, Capella of the house of Draco died. Incredibly brave and selfless to the end, she gave her life in battle against her enemies, so that her friend might live. The manner in which she died was cruel and brutal, but at least her suffering was over soon.

Yet despite our terrible loss and the premature ending of a wonderful creature's life, this is not just a tragic occasion. 'Tis an opportunity to appreciate the time we spent in her presence, and to be grateful we were her friends. An occasion to celebrate her life, while we mourn her death. For Capella lived a life I believe we should all strive for. She was loved dearly by all those who had the pleasure of knowing her, and with good reason. Capella was wise, kind, friendly, loveable, sweet, honourable, brave, hard-working, fair-minded, and most importantly, a fierce friend. Capella graced this planet with her presence for a hundred and eight years. This is longer than any of us are likely to live, yet 'twas far too short. She was, despite her endless wisdom, still young. She could have made the world a brighter place with her presence for centuries. But death intervened."

Silent tears streamed over Boreas' cheeks as Octa delivered his solemn eulogy. He heard Toxica cry loudly next to him and embraced her to support her and himself. Lucius was scowling furiously, while Selene looked at her feet sadly. Black looked at the motionless corpse he held in a blanket with a trembling lip. All of them were wounded or hurt in various ways, but it was nothing compared to the gaping wound in their hearts. Toxica cried on Boreas' shoulder as he cried into her flower. When Octa described Capella with words like wise or brave, they sounded so empty. To Boreas, Capella was the memories to the kind words she spoke, the gentle hug she had given him, the friendly way she could smile, and the hope she could fill him with.

"The pain we all feel at this dreadful loss reminds us that though we may not always agree with one another, our hearts beat as one. The bonds of friendship between us celebrate a lady who was kind and brave and honest, to the very end. Though the world may seem so much darker without her light, that light is still present in all our hearts. We shall never forget Capella, and I feel honoured to have called her my friend. Farewell."

"She was good and kind," Lucius growled, "and I'll get the bastards that did this to her."

Black slowly lowered Capella into the grave he'd dug for her. "Farewell, Capella. Rest in peace."


Boreas wanted to tell him to stop as he threw the dirt back into the shallow grave, but he knew it would change nothing. Octa walked back, his face a calm mask, but Boreas knew the pain he had to be feeling under it and included him in the embrace as well.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
The first time I read this chapter was very, very heartbreaking...
At first, I had doubts whether or not to re-read it, but I ended up re-reading it anyway, since I was bored at the time...
Anyway, onto my comment

----------

Boreas' self-created move is really useful. ^^
I won't be surprised if one day, Nintendo will make this move... :P

---

"Hahaha, silly Boreas... Do you think me looking at them is the worst that's going to happen to you? Maybe I should alter them a bit, hmm? How would you like to have a memory of Black snapping Thomas' neck? Or Octa raping Aqua? You'd never realise they were fake..."

OMG o.o

"It would take far too long and wouldn't be productive."

phew...

anyway, the way you wrote how these psychics work are really scary... o.o
hm... I wonder what that egg-head was telling Toxica... probably about Octa, huh?

---

She was gone forever.

I really hate you for killing such a great character.
But hey, I guess that's what makes the story more...interesting...
I almost shed a tear, y'know... :(

---

"Yes, you do, and you shall be far more useful to that end if you just alm down and think."

That's suppose to be 'calm', right?

---

Though only Boreas had noticed it, a charge had been accumulating in the ground under them. When the floating magnetic rock approached, that charge suddenly found a way to go and arced through the air, using the bodies of Black and the pokémon as easy conduits on the way. Boreas thoroughly hoped Black would be okay, but he didn't have time to worry about it now.

No matter how many times I try and read this part again and again, I couldn't understand it.
edit: and even now that I'm re-reading this part, I still can't understand it. =/

---

Cradily slashed at him and he dodged too late.

How can a Cradily 'slash' him? o.o

---

Ryoko returned his pokémon to their pokéballs. "Very impressive," he said. Then he suddenly disappeared, probably with help of the Shadow Triad.

W-what!? Just when they can KILL him!?

---

"She was good and kind," Lucius growled, "and I'll get the bastards that did this to her."

Somehow, this made me kinda start to like Lucius a little.

---

Anyway, this is a very sad chapter... :(
Capella was a really really great character. Sad that she's gone. Sigh...
 
79
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12
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  • Seen May 24, 2013
The first time I read this chapter was very, very heartbreaking...


Yes, it was a very hard chapter for me to write as well. Though I'd known Capella's fate since before I'd even introduced her, I had gotten rather attached to her.


Boreas' self-created move is really useful. ^^
I won't be surprised if one day, Nintendo will make this move... :P
If they did, it'd probably just be an ice-type Protect.

OMG o.o

phew...

anyway, the way you wrote how these psychics work are really scary... o.o
hm... I wonder what that egg-head was telling Toxica... probably about Octa, huh?

It's a good thing it'll be a while before they encounter a psychic-type specialist... In fact, it won't be until part ten, where they'll first battle Caitlin.

I really hate you for killing such a great character.
But hey, I guess that's what makes the story more...interesting...
I almost shed a tear, y'know... :(

Sorry for killing her off; I didn't like doing it either, but there were several reasons why it happened.

No matter how many times I try and read this part again and again, I couldn't understand it.
edit: and even now that I'm re-reading this part, I still can't understand it. =/

There was a big electric charge building up in the ground where they were fighting, and when Boreas moved the floating electric stone closer, that charge connected to the stone, using the bodies of those fighting as conductors (air is an awful conductor) and shocking them heavily in the process.

How can a Cradily 'slash' him? o.o

They may look like pretty smooth, edge-less creatures when drawn, but they are based on crinoids, which are echinoderms, like sea stars. Those kinds of animals have incredibly rough skin, which feels stony and very rough. In real life, echinoderms move very slowly, but since this is pokémon, Cradily can move very fast and use its rough skin (particularly that on its tentacles) to attack and wound opponents.

W-what!? Just when they can KILL him!?

Yes. It seems he and all his pokémon have escaped any consequences for killing Capella. For now, at least.

Somehow, this made me kinda start to like Lucius a little.

He may seem like a complete jerk, and he is, but he's not heartless nor evil.

Anyway, this is a very sad chapter... :(
Capella was a really really great character. Sad that she's gone. Sigh...

I am always happy to hear of people being sad from her demise.

Chapter Thirty-Nine: Umbra

Black and his pokémon walked through Chargestone Cave in a sombre silence for several days. With the loss of their friend a crushing wave of despair had overcome all of them. Before Capella's death, Chargestone Cave had seemed like an adventurous, mysterious, and bizarre cave full of strange mysteries. Now it was like a dark, sombre, and Sunless tomb. Without the Sun, the darkness n their hearts was matched by the darkness of the surroundings. They rarely spoke to each other, and when they did it was a short, shallow conversation; all of them were too preoccupied with Capella's death to talk about something else, yet they couldn't talk about that either because it hurt too much.

They progressed slowly because of all their wounds and broken bones. With no pokécenter in sight for weeks, it was likely most of the bad wounds would become scars. Octa was the only member of the team without broken bones or bad wounds. Toxica had had a large part of her flower cut off (though that would fortunately regrow in spring) and a broken arm. Lucius had broken two legs and had several ugly cuts. Selene had had her wing crushed, a bit of her beak chipped off, and cuts on her belly. Boreas had lost the tip of his tail from the Hyper Beam that annihilated Capella, had a nasty gash on his face that promised to become a quite prominent scar, and the whip marks on his back from where Tangrowth had flayed him might become scars too. Black had a broken leg and cuts all along his arm and torso.

Black had treated all wounds and set all broken bones, including his own, with skill, but it didn't compare to the cares of a proper nurse and a healing machine.

Just a day earlier, the thought of having to go through the rest of his life with the tip of his tail missing and a disfiguring scar on his face would've horrified Boreas, but now he just didn't care. He'd happily have his entire tail chopped off and his face disfigured much worse if it'd bring Capella back. He had to fight his tears as he remembered the smile she'd given him before she sacrificed herself to save him and the skeletal grimace after the Hyper Beam had killed her. The horrific image of her ravaged body's final moments would stay burned onto his eyes forever, he was sure of that.

Why did she do it? he thought morosely. Why did she sacrifice herself?

Because that's what she was like. Saving herself before me was something she could never have done.

But she should have! I will die in seventy years at most anyway... She had a whole millennium ahead of her.

She would never have made such an important decision so calculatingly... She'd never choose herself over a friend based on simple arithmetic.

I should never have put her before that choice.... If only I'd helped Lucius finish Tangrowth off before I went to save Toxica...

"Then you'd probably be mourning Toxica's death now instead of mine,"
a kind voice spoke in his mind.

Boreas felt incredibly happy for just a moment before he realised it was just his imagination. Great, now I'm imagining dead people's voices in my head. Couldn't be better.

"Yes, you are, I'm afraid. But that doesn't mean you're going crazy. After all, you know I'm just your imagination trying to cope with a loss, not actually Capella's spirit."

I wish you were Capella's spirit... I so want to talk to her. But I know I'll never talk to her again... She's dead, and there's nothing I can do about it any more. It's horrible.
He couldn't hold his tears back by now and cried as he walked.

"You're right. But you can talk to me instead."

Oh, perfect. A good round of talking to myself, I'm sure that'll be a great substitute for Capella.

"Talking to your memory of me. I may be dead, but I am still in your heart and mind."

But I can't talk to you, that's the problem! I wish I could, because you always gave me hope and I could bloody use some right now. But you're dead, it's over! Not only can I never talk to you again, but you don't even exist any more! Sure, your body still exists, buried in the ground, and your blood still exists, drenching my fur, but your thoughts, your feelings, your personality, the things that really made you you? They're all gone forever!

"But all those things are still here, in your memories! If they weren't, we wouldn't even be having this conversation."

But that's not real! Those are just memories inside my head!

"Of course they're just inside your head, but why would that mean they're any less real? Think of all the good times you had with me, were they not real?"

Of course they were, but those good times are gone!

"Not in your mind. You remember them, don't you?"

But that's not the same! They're over!

"Yes, but you still remember them and me. That is important."

What does it matter whether I remember them? Capella is still dead, and whether or not I remember her won't change anything about that.

"It changes your feelings. I may be gone, but I'm not gone for you, not really."

But you're gone for yourself! What do my feelings matter?!

"What makes you think I mind being dead? The very fact that I'm dead makes it impossible for me to have any emotions about the matter. I probably didn't want to die while I was alive, but now that I'm dead I don't want anything any more. Whether I'm dead or not, like all other things, is something I don't care about any more, on account of being dead. Your feelings are more important than mine right now, Boreas, because mine don't exist any more."

No, they aren't! So maybe you don't literally care about it any more, but think of all that could've been! You could've lived happily for a thousand years... All the things you missed... Nine hundred years of happiness gone, oh Giratina, I could cry about it... And am, in fact. I remember when you were trying to cheer me up after Febby showed up with that prat Esper, and you mentioned you might find a girl you really loved and would spend the rest of your life with during my great-great-grandchildren's lifetime... And now that will never happen...

"Yes, that is a shame, but I lived a hundred and eight years, Boreas! I lived a very long life, much longer than you're likely to live."

Long for me perhaps, but it was short for you! You shouldn't have had to die!

"But the reality is, I did. What do you think I would tell you if I was here?"

Why don't
you tell me? You're supposed to be my memory of her!

"Don't mourn for me. This is my destiny. Hold your head high and remember my life with happiness, not my death with sadness. I was nothing before I was born, and now I am nothing once more. Overall I lost nothing, I just got a hundred and eight great years of life as a short break between endless seas of non-existence."

You expect me to cheer up and be happy when you were so brutally taken from my life? How could I ever be happy again?

"Bleak though things may seem right now, you will eventually get over my death, like you got over the deaths of your family. Then you'll remember my life with happiness, instead of focusing on my death."

How can I be happy for your life if it's my fault you're dead?! If I hadn't allowed Lilligant to let us end up battling next to each other, Tangrowth could only have caught one of us, and you could've saved whomever it was!

"You might as well blame Lucius; if he hadn't burnt Tangrowth so badly your Ice Beams would've hurt it enough that we could each have saved ourselves."

But I've done so much more! If I hadn't lured Ferrothorn towards you we would never have ended up being caught by Tangrowth together! If I had listened to Selene we might've detected the Shadow Triad before they caught Black! If I had come up with a plan earlier we might've defeated Ryoku before it was too late! If I had left the team and gone with Aqua...
His thoughts trailed off as he came to a horrible realisation. I made the wrong decision. Oh, Rayquaza, I made the wrong choice! I should've gone with Aqua, but I didn't and now Capella died for it!

"That's not-"

Enough! I don't want to pretend Capella is still alive by talking to memories! She's dead and it's my fault!
Something in him recognised that the only ones who were really to blame for her death were Ryoku and his pokémon, but he wasn't really interested in thinking sensibly now. The image of Capella's face, still alive but with most of the flesh blasted off her skull, was burnt in his mind forever. His fur was still drenched in her blood after three days; because of all the wounds that had needed cleaning, Black simply didn't have enough water to clean Capella's blood out of Boreas' fur too and now he walked around in her blood as a horrific reminder of her death.

Boreas felt as dark and gloomy as the tomb-like Chargestone Cave itself. Depressed, mournful, guilt-torn, and with gruesome images stuck in his brain of the death of the one person who had been best at cheering him up, his morbid mood was enlightened by only one light of hope... Aqua. He wanted to see her again more than anything now. He wanted to hold her, to cry on her shoulder, for her to whisper consolations in his ear with her sweet voice, and for her soft lips to restore his joy with a kiss... The thought of Aqua was all that kept him from just giving up out of pure misery.

-

They reached a three-way split in the cave. Black was about to lead them into one of the other directions when they heard sounds of other travellers come from the other way. Black curiously shone his torch into that way, and all thoughts disappeared from Boreas' mind. He ran at the most beautiful creature in the universe, by some miracle right here in the cave, pounced her with joy, and kissed her, letting all the sorrow disappear from his mind for a moment.

"Aqua..." Boreas happily spoke.

"My dear fellow," Octa gravely spoke. "Tear your gaze away from her eyes for one moment and look at her companions.

Boreas hadn't even bothered to look at her companions until now. He took a few steps back as he felt as if he'd been lost in a desert for days, then found a jug of water just as he thought he'd die of thirst, only to find out after drinking it that it was sulphuric acid, not water. Behind Aqua stood a human in white clothes with long green hair and a Zoroark grinning cruelly, as well as some pokémon Boreas didn't know. The human and the Zoroark were all too familiar to him, though: N and Diego.

"No." Boreas could almost hear the sound of his heart shattering. "No!"

Aqua looked at him sadly as he stepped backwards. "Boreas, I'm sorry."

"No! You-you're with them!"

"I can explain, Boreas."

"Can you?" Boreas spat, "Let me just ask you one thing: are you with N out of your own free will?"

"Yes, but-"

The dust that was left of Boreas' heart burst into a burning flame of pure hate. "No buts, Aqua. How could you?" He asked as he stared furiously into her treacherous eyes. "You betrayed me!"
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
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16
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
Just finished re-reading this chapter.
It was short... Too short. =/
But it was a good read. I learned a thing of two about Boreas talking to himself through his mind.

Anyway, I only have one comment bout this chapter...

----------

Well, that was totally unexpected, and something Boreas didn't NEED right now... o.o
 
79
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12
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  • Seen May 24, 2013
Just finished re-reading this chapter.
It was short... Too short. =/
But it was a good read. I learned a thing of two about Boreas talking to himself through his mind.


Oh? Now I'm kind of curious what these things are.

Well, that was totally unexpected, and something Boreas didn't NEED right now... o.o

Indeed, it is pretty much the last thing he needs right now. Sadly, as you've read the coming chapters already, you know things will get worse before they get better.
Interestingly, it didn't come totally unexpected to all my readers. A few mentioned they had partially expected it, and one of them had even sent me a private message containing lots of speculation, including of this event, around chapter thirty. (that message also contained lots of speculation that was completely wrong, but half of it, including the bit where she speculated about Aqua being in Team Plasma, was right)

Chapter Forty: Eclipse

"I didn't betray you, Boreas," Aqua said ruefully.

"You joined Team Plasma!" Boreas roared furiously. "You're here with N and Diego! Of course you betrayed me, N is Team Plasma's leader and Diego... Diego is an all-round bastard who went out of his way to torture me!"

Diego interrupted Aqua's response. "How's the tail, Boreas?" he grinned.

Boreas really wanted to kill Diego. He had sworn to after the Zoroark had hung him from the Ferris wheel by his tail, after all, but he had more important matters to deal with right now. "I'll deal with you later," he spat.

"Listen Boreas," Aqua explained, "I know you're upset and-"

"Upset?!" Boreas exclaimed. "Upset?! No, how could I be?! After all, the only thing that happened is my girlfriend betraying me to the people who murdered Capella!"

"Capella is dead?!" Aqua asked at the same time as N, who had been talking to a similarly furious Black.

"Yes." Boreas spoke furiously. "Murdered by your Sage Ryoku. Truly a man as pleasant as he is fat. He had his pokémon execute her. This blood in my fur is hers. The same blood is on your paws now, Aqua."

Aqua looked very sad. "Boreas, I didn't know-"

"You didn't know?!" Boreas bellowed, "Didn't know what?! That Team Plasma is a gang of filthy murderers?! Because I distinctly remember telling you all about them and the things they've done! They tried to kill me many time, set me on fire, broke my legs, and had me swallowed alive among other things! Don't lie to me, you knew all about them but just didn't care!"

"Boreas, there's-"

"And don't you dare give me that Leppa metaphor! There's not just one rotten Leppa in this basket, all of them are filthy and rotten to the core! And so are you, you traitor! Let me guess: you joined those bastards to get your revenge on the humans for killing your darling Lothario?! Because clearly you loved him enough to mope about him for months and hate a whole species for him, while I can just be thrown away and betrayed like a piece of rubbish!"

Boreas could see anger rising in Aqua, but so far she managed to keep calm. "No. This has nothing to do with Lothario, and I wish you wouldn't talk like that. After you and I separated, I became incredibly lonely again-"

"Oh, what a convenient excuse! You were lonely, so you joined those murdering bastards! You're a pathetic traitor!"

Aqua looked angry now. "What if-"

"What if nothing! You betrayed me, you *****!"

Suddenly Aqua burst out furiously. "BOREAS!" she roared, "now you listen to me! I didn't betray you, I just made a different choice than you! I'm not a servant you can order around, I was your girlfriend! I have a right to make my own choice!"

"You chose to side with those murderers, and now you're an accessory to Capella's death! That is not a choice, it's treason!"

"N is not like the Sages! N is a very good man, and would never harm anyone! He's a true hero, and if you knew just what he was planning..."

Boreas laughed a fake, hollow laughter. "He's the leader of them all, so he's responsible! Besides, he's helping the Sages' plan by working with them! You know, their plan to satisfy their thirst for power under the pretence of liberating pokémon?"

"The Sages are only human. Yes, they are evil people, but they're on our side. We work together with them, but they're not N! I did not join them, I joined N!"

"He is responsible just as much as they are. And what about that git Diego, I take it he's just a friendly, good person too?! I'm sure he only hung me from the Ferris wheel to give my back a nice stretching! How could you join them after all I told you?!"

"I didn't even know who they were for ages! Diego used his illusion to mask them both. And yes, he's a much better person than you think! I told him what a bastard he was for what he did to you, but now I see you probably deserved it! I would never have thought you were such a hard-headed, oppressive fascist! What makes you think you have the right to decide my opinions?! I thought you'd accept my choice after some initial misgivings, but you're much less flexible and considerate than I thought."

"I should be considerate of you betraying me to those egotistical, murdering bastards?!"

"I-did-not-betray-you!" Aqua seethed, "I didn't tell N anything you told me! This is my choice! Mine! Not yours! Just because I kissed you and thought we had something together doesn't mean I'm yours to command!"

"'Had something together', hah! You were just winning information from me, using me, you filthy ****! And all this, just to avenge Lothario and not to go lonely! Boohoo, well if you're lonely maybe it's just that no-one likes you, and with good reason!"

"I was such an idiot to believe you would support my choice! You're a blind, inconsiderate fascist, and pokémon like you are the reason humans keep treating us the way they do! I thought you loved me and would support me no matter what, but now I can see what you're truly like! When you looked at me or complimented my looks I always thought you were actually interested in me, but now I can see you just liked my looks. You couldn't care less about me, it's just my body you want, isn't it, you heartless bastard?!"

"Oh, I see, I'm the one who betrayed our relationship now, how silly of me to think that was you for siding with my enemies! Maybe I was fooled by your looks! They made me think there was a beautiful person underneath them, but now I see that pretty face hides an evil mind! You're an evil, treacherous heartbreaker, Aqua!"

"How typical. You never even considered another point of view, did you? Just because you've had good experiences with a human makes you think you're his friend, and humans are good! Let me tell you, humans are evil! N is the only exception, because he was raised by pokémon instead of his own disgusting kind! Humans will keep oppressing pokémon forever if it was up to you! Even after I told you all the humans had done to me, you didn't care! I always accepted your opinion of matters, because I thought I genuinely liked you and you liked me. But now I see you never liked anything beyond my beauty, and I just liked you because you were the first meaningful contact I had had in months! But now I have real friends, and we will change the world for the better, without you!"

"What about you, then?! No matter what I told you, you kept supporting Plasma, and now you're one of them!" Boreas, blinded with hate, only now noticed N and Black were battling: Toxica was fighting a Ferroseed. "But that's enough talk. You are my enemy, and I fight my enemies."

"Fine!" spat Aqua, "There's no way I'll ever get through your thick skull with words alone!"

Both stepped forward, about to attack each other, when Octa suddenly stepped between them. "Enough! My dear fellow, I shan't allow you to destroy what's left of your relationship with her like this."

"Get out of the way, Octa! She's with Team Plasma and I'm going to get her for it!"

"I wouldn't get out of the way if she had personally killed Capella. 'Tis my duty as your friend not to let you do something you'll regret for the rest of your life. I shall battle her in your stead."

Maybe something deep in Boreas recognised Octa was right. If it did, it was completely drowned out by the roaring fires of hate incinerating his heart. "Keep your haughty nose out of my business, you inbred twit! If you don't step away right now, I'll Ice Beam your arrogant face until your meddlesome brain literally freezes in your skull so you can personally go tell your idiotic ancestors of the trouble you got in for being a meddlesome nuisance!"

Boreas realised as he shouted it that he'd gone way too far. Octa's deeply insulted face told him the same. He realised he shouldn't have talked to Octa like that, but his anger was just far too great to contain.

"Fine," Octa spoke icily. "Do it, then. Why should I care if you ruin your life with your own stupidity?" he stepped aside.

They were about to battle when N commanded: "Aqua, switch for Jacob! Nothing good will come of this fight!"

"No way!" Aqua yelled, "this is between me and him! Don't you dare interfere! Any of you!"

"Ready then, traitor?" Boreas sneered.

"Ready to destroy you," Aqua replied.

The battle erupted at incredible speed. Beams of water and ice hit each other in mid-air, narrow parries and absorptions were executed, wind and water gyred through the cave furiously. The fires of love that had once burned in their hearts now burned as brightly with all-consuming hate. They wanted nothing more than to hurt and kill the other. Boreas used ice-attacks so cold they liquefied bits of air into a horribly painful rain that was much colder than ice and Aqua used Scald to blast boiling water at Boreas in an attempt to burn him. So far neither of them had managed to hit the other, but it was only a matter of time before they succeeded.

"I can't believe I let you even touch me! How could I have been so blind not to see what you are really like?!" Boreas raged.

"You're blind about many more things, Boreas!" Aqua sneered as she blasted boiling water at him. "Like which side is in the right, and which side is going to win! Your dogmatic adherence to the evil and the losing side will be your undoing!"

Aqua shot a beam of boiling water right at Boreas, and he immediately countered it with an Ice Beam. But she didn't stop, she just kept firing it and Boreas kept stopping it with the continuous Ice Beam. Massive clouds of steam formed with terrifying hisses at the point where they connected. That point approached Boreas, so he put more power into his Ice Beam to stop it. The power of both their attacks rose, and soon they were both fully concentrating on bringing even more power into their attack. Boreas realised this wasn't going to work and used slightly less power, so he could make a freezing wind of ice to blast Aqua from the left.

The Icy Wind hit her at the same moment that Boreas' Ice Beam gave up under the blast of boiling water. They both screamed in agony as their attacks hit their targets.

Diego was watching their battle with a wide grin. "Boreas, did she tell you she's now my mate yet?"

"What are- Yes, indeed I am. That hurts, doesn't it, Boreas?" Aqua grinned.

"How could you?!" Boreas asked as he summoned more and more cold.

"After how you treated me, you dare to ask that?"

"No," Boreas grinned, "I meant physically. How did it fit in? He's twice as large as you! Unless of course... either or both of you has parts that aren't to scale."

Diego roared in fury at that and tried to attack Boreas, but was caught in the crossfire of boiling water and Ice Beams burning and freezing him.

Since Diego had absorbed both their attacks they both had an opening in their defences for a moment and a chance to approach each other. Boiling clouds of steam and freezing clouds of hail collided at the same moment that the two Eevees did. They tore at each other, using tooth and claw as their weapons while clouds of steam and ice scalded and froze them. As he bit Aqua's flank, drawing a lot of blood, Boreas finally heard the voice in his mind that asked him what in the name of all legendaries he was doing, which told him that this was deeply wrong. But only for a moment, as he let his hate flow through him, incinerating his every fibre, and he listened to the voice that told him to hurt Aqua physically as much as she'd hurt him mentally instead.

The pain caused by the steam and the wounds Aqua inflicted only increased Boreas' hate for her. Even more so than when Capella had just died, he was a mad, hate-driven cyclone of revenge. They were entangled, trying to bite each others' throat, for several minutes before they somehow broke loose and stood facing each other.

"Enough playing around!" Aqua yelled, "Let me show you my true power!"

"You're right, time for the gloves to come off!"

A massive river of water flowed into the cave at the same moment that Boreas summoned a ferocious Blizzard he couldn't even control properly. Boreas was caught in the wave of water as the Blizzard made it rain hail and liquid air. The wave bashed into and around him several times with impacts like powerful punches. It whirled around him, grabbing him and attempting to break his bones with its phenomenal power. Boreas saw the furious Aqua swim in the water a few metres away, trying her very best to control as much of it as she could.

He made the Blizzard lash out at and she screamed in pain as she was pelted with hail and liquid air and her skin began to freeze. But then the water pulled Boreas under with a mighty current. He struggled and tried to swim back to the surface, but it was far too powerful and he soon began running out of air. He saw Aqua's elegant form under water, no doubt grinning as she drowned him.

He burnt with rage and he channelled it into an intense pulse of cold that rapidly froze the water around him into ice. It was easy to make the rapidly freezing water push him back to the surface and allow him to breathe. His body froze in, but he hardly noticed as he continued letting Neptunian amounts of cold freeze more and more of the water. It froze so fast the waves and currents that had flowed through it were still visible in the ice. Aqua looked terrified at the freezing perimeter rapidly approaching her. Freezing all this water cost Boreas incredible amounts of energy and he couldn't control it, but he didn't care, only having thoughts for freezing Aqua.

Aqua tried her best to stop the advancing ice. A pulse of boiling water expanded from her and met the perimeter of freezing water. Boreas concentrated on freezing the water while Aqua tried to boil it with all her might. The water on the perimeter boiled and froze at the same time, making the most incredible noises. The edge slowly crawled to Aqua, but Boreas was increasingly getting exhausted, and soon the edge began moving back. He looked at Aqua's firmly concentrated face and realised just how much he hated her for all that she'd done to him. The hate empowered him, and the ice's edge moved back to Aqua. But now he was getting so exhausted that black spots danced before his eyes and he felt his consciousness slipping away rapidly.

He gave one last massive pushed and relished in Aqua's screams of pain as the water around her froze. Boreas tried to freeze her with his final bit of power. But she launched another counter-offensive. This time Boreas had no strength and almost no consciousness left to fight her, yet he tried. As his vision went black he heard noises approach him closer and closer, and then he felt a terrible, boiling pain. But only for a moment before he blacked out.

-

Boreas awoke in pain all over. Then he wished he hadn't woken up at all as he remembered the fight with Aqua. He hated her, and yet he felt like he had done a horrible thing in fighting her.

"Boreas, you're awake!" Black said happily.

Boreas sighed morosely and with self-loathing. They were still in the same place, but N had left. Boreas' skin ached, but it seemed neither the burns nor the wounds were very bad. Aqua's water had also washed most of Capella's blood out of his fur.

"That was the same Vaporeon you met in Driftveil, wasn't it?" Black asked sadly.

Boreas said nothing.

"I'm sorry. I should've returned you to your pokéball, prevented you from fighting her..."

"You couldn't have stopped me," Boreas said flatly.

"About an hour. Toxica stepped in when you fainted to prevent that Vaporeon from boiling you to death. She defeated her, and in the end we won..."

Boreas just said nothing. He caught Octa's eye for a moment and immediately wished he hadn't. Octa gave him such a withering, furious look. With terrible despair, Boreas realised the three people he cared most for where all lost to him in some way. Capella was dead, Octa was so furious at him he might never forgive him, and Aqua had betrayed him.
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
Oh? Now I'm kind of curious what these things are.

Well, to start, I liked the part where his mind tells him that we are from nothing, and so we will return to nothing. Borrowing our life is kind of like taking a little vacation from our state of being nothing. I really liked that part.
Also, I find it an eye-opener about her death, that, instead of grieving for her death, we should instead think of the times we were happy with that someone.

Anyway, I could go on, but meh...
As usual, it was a great re-read.
Here are my comments about this chapter. ;)

----------

Just curious, but did N 'caught' her, or did Aqua just 'joined' him?

---

Wow... There...gonna battl---kill each other...!? o.o

---

Diego roared in fury at that and tried to attack Boreas, but was caught in the crossfire of boiling water and Ice Beams burning and freezing him.

Well, that was stupid of him...

---

He, lost?
Aqua is a strong Vaporeon, huh?

---

With terrible despair, Boreas realised the three people he cared most for where all lost to him in some way.

I don't think I can handle a situation like that...

---

It was yet another great chapter~!
Keep at it~! ;)
 
79
Posts
12
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  • Seen May 24, 2013
Well, to start, I liked the part where his mind tells him that we are from nothing, and so we will return to nothing. Borrowing our life is kind of like taking a little vacation from our state of being nothing. I really liked that part.


I think I first heard that interpretation in a latin text by Seneca I had to translate on my exam. I find it a very comforting way of looking at death.

Also, I find it an eye-opener about her death, that, instead of grieving for her death, we should instead think of the times we were happy with that someone.

Thinking that way when someone close to you dies will still make you sad, but it's more of a melancholic, almost comfortable sadness than the naked despair you're more likely to feel if you only think about how that person is dead and you'll never see them again. At least, that's how it worked for me.

Just curious, but did N 'caught' her, or did Aqua just 'joined' him?

Well, she joined them out of her own free will. Whether N battled her and lobbed a pokéball at her: probably not. While that is common in most pokémon stories even if the pokémon wants to join, I've always found it rather weird, and binding a pokémon's ownership to the pokéball it was caught in leads to some logical oddities if you think about it.

Well, that was stupid of him...

Indeed; stepping into a crossfire isn't really a smart thing to do.

He, lost?
Aqua is a strong Vaporeon, huh?

Yes. Aside from the type advantage she has over Boreas, she's also a few months older, meaning she's had more experience, and she has lived on her own in the wilderness for a long time.

I don't think I can handle a situation like that...

Neither can Boreas:

Chapter Forty-One: In the Dead of Night

Boreas woke up in sweat, feeling nauseous and horrible. He trembled with fury, self-loathing, and guilt. He had barely slept the past week because of the way his dreams tormented him, and tonight was no different. The dreams were of course about Aqua, as most of his dreams had been since meeting her. But for the past week what used to be a source of very pleasant dreams was now a source of nightly torment. The dreams by themselves weren't even that bad, except for the one where he relived their fight. In fact they were quite similar to the ones he used to have before finding out she had betrayed him. But the way they made him feel was completely different. They only reminded him of what he'd lost now.

Boreas wanted to be alone. He stood up and silently sneaked away from the camp where his companions were sleeping peacefully. The eternal semi-darkness of Chargestone Cave was the same whether it was day or night. He pointlessly walked for a bit until he reached a deep gorge. Down in the depths mighty sparks flared occasionally. He sat down at the edge to look into it.

He felt as if his life had fallen into a deep, black gorge of despair, much like this one except more metaphorical and with less lightning sparks. Just ten days ago, his greatest worry had been Octa's silly determination to let his family choose his mate. Now his best friend was furious at him, his second-best friend was dead, and his girlfriend... Well, she was his girlfriend no more. He still couldn't believe the girl he loved had joined Team Plasma. It was treason of the worst kind, and he hated her for it, yet he cringed in shame and guilt when he remembered the things he'd said to her. Now that the fury had disappeared he felt horrible about his words and deeds. He realised he would never have reacted like that if it hadn't been for the fresh wound of Capella's death. Of course, he would've been furious at the treason regardless, but never in such a horribly nasty way. And Capella would've stopped him, and she wouldn't have gotten angry and given up even if he had insulted her like he had insulted Octa.

The horrible things they had both said during their fight kept echoing through his mind, even when he was awake. And it had only gotten worse as his sleep deprivation caused him to be only half awake at best. There was nothing he could do to take his mind off it: most of his other memories just weren't powerful enough. Those of Octa and Capella were quite powerful but only made it worse because they reminded him of what he had lost; memories of the blissful days he had had with Aqua were even worse. There was nothing he could do in the present to take his mind off it either: the dark environment of Chargestone Cave offered no distractions and neither his companions nor he were in the mood for conversation. Even the future offered no relief: his hopes and dreams seemed to have shattered or become hollow. Becoming the Champion would never bring back Capella or make Aqua's treason, or at least the things he'd said to her, undone. The awesome glory of helping Black become the most powerful trainer in Unova seemed empty and bleak. Stopping Team Plasma seemed impossible. Even getting revenge for Capella and his destroyed life didn't seem to hold that much appeal now that his anger was gone. It didn't matter anyway: he realised now how much luck they'd had not to lose any party members before, and that they should really all have been dead five times over already. Team Plasma was just too mighty, there was no stopping them. Aqua had probably been right when she had said Team Plasma was the winning side.

Aqua had said she had joined N out of loneliness. The realisation that she was lonely because Boreas had chosen not to go with her crushed him with guilt. She would never have joined N if he had been there. He had made the wrong choice, and it had destroyed his life. He'd gladly give up what little was left of it to have made the right choice. The things that had happened since he made his choices, the things that had been said could never be reversed. Aqua would never forgive him, and he would never forgive her. And he wouldn't forgive himself either.

Everything seemed to be gone now. Happiness, joy, hope, and love. Anger and hate had taken their place at first, but now even they had gone. Boreas was left with nothing but mountains of sorrow, guilt, and despair. He stood up and looked into the depths of the gorge. He'd jump in without hesitation if it meant undoing all this. In fact, as he looked into it those depths felt very attractive even if they didn't undo anything. He longed for his despair and guilt to be gone, and couldn't help but think that just a small step forward would take them away forever.

What did he have to live for? He had lost everything, and there was no way to get it back. A shiver went through him as Aqua saying he had only been interested in her looks echoed through his mind, and he cringed as he remembered his reply. Was he really only interested in her looks? She was gorgeous, there was no doubt about it, but Boreas was sure he'd been interested in more. He loved talking to her, listening to her, and had supported her when she was at her weakest... How could she say he was only interested in her looks?

With regret he knew exactly how she could say that as he remembered his reaction to her choice. He had called it treason and yelled at her for it, deeply insulted her. Yet, though he still thought it was treason, he had to agree that it was typically her choice. It was something she really believed in, and he had hated her for it, despite his claims of loving her.

The memories to the happy, carefree days he'd spent with her in Driftveil made him feel even worse, if such a thing was possible. The gorge seemed to beckon. Just one step forwards, and it would all be over. No more despair, no more guilt, no more sorrow, no more horrible memories. Just one step, and gravity would take care of the rest. He'd never even feel the impact, it'd be quite painless.

He lifted his paw, but something in him held him back. But he asked that something what he had to lose. His life was over and he was dead inside, he might as well make it official. He stepped on, put his paw into the empty air, and tumbled into the gorge.

-

Aqua trembled with anger as she remembered the names Boreas had called her. She had made the choice to fight for what's right with her friends, and he dared call her a traitor for it? She couldn't believe she had once loved him. Clearly that had been a complete mistake, and she'd only liked him because he was the first person she'd talked to in ages. Obviously she had never really been in love at all with him, so what did she care about his opinion? He was just some annoying, close-minded Glaceon who had joined the wrong side. She didn't care at all about his opinion or him.

So why was it she trembled with fury and had to fight tears whenever the things he'd said echoed through her mind? Clearly it must just be that she was sensitive to others' opinion of her. She would've reacted the exact same if Octa had said that, or-

Oh, who am I trying to fool? Aqua sighed, obviously I was completely in love with him, before I found out what a bastard he really is.

She remembered the happy days she'd spent with him with pain in her heart. After all those months of sad loneliness, she had been completely mesmerised by the cute, witty, charming and kind Glaceon. She remembered how happy and flattered she had felt whenever she'd caught him staring at her. She had been so sure she would have a wonderful future with him... She had thought he felt the same way about her, but now she knew better. He had been interested in nothing but her looks. If he really loved her, he would've accepted and supported her choice, as she'd expected him to do.

Or was he right? Maybe I did betray him... A small voice inside her said.
Never! He just couldn't accept my choice, accept me! He wants to dominate me and direct my choices, but I won't let him! She furiously silenced the voice.

It had taken her just one day, one single day, to become miserable after she'd said goodbye to Boreas when he left Driftveil. She'd been utterly mistaken: loneliness felt even worse with lovesickness added to it. Her feelings told her to get to Mistralton as soon as possible, though she knew it would take Boreas more than a month to get there too.

Three days after they had said their goodbye, Aqua had stopped at the riverbanks for the evening when it had all become too much and she'd cried.

-

Past

"Hey, beautiful," a voice said sympathetically, "don't cry, I'm sure whatever it is will get better."

Aqua turned around with start and saw a Jolteon grinning at her charmingly. "Don't sneak up on me like that! Who are you and what do you want?!"

"Sorry. My name is Diego, and I want to bring a smile to those pretty cheeks. Surely whatever it is will feel better if you share it with me."

"Diego?" Aqua frowned.

"Yes, that's my name. If you don't like it, feel free to think of a nickname."

"Oh, no, it's just that name reminds me of someone. Some bastard Zoroark who once hung my boyfriend from a Ferris wheel by his tail."

The face Diego made caused Aqua to burst into laughter. "Yeah, I know it sounds bizarre, but there's a long story behind it."

"Yeah," Diego grinned, "It certainly does sound bizarre. So, that sounds like it was painful to your boyfriend. I mean, he could lose his tail that way..."

"Oh, not to worry. His tail was still attractive. Uh, I meant attached." Aqua blushed at her little slip.

"Well, that's great. So, where is your boyfriend then? I'd love to hear this story from him."

"He's travelling to Mistralton with his trainer. I'm travelling there separately because I don't like humans."

A cunning grin flashed over Diego's face, but was immediately exchanged for a friendly smile. "Don't like humans and headed for Mistralton? Well, isn't that a coincidence, I don't like humans either, and I'm travelling by Mistralton with a friend - he's a pokémon, of course. Why don't you travel with us?"

Aqua's heart brightened at the chance of travelling with companions, especially the nice Jolteon. "I'd love to! I hope your friend won't object..."

"What, object to such a pretty girl joining us? Never. C'mon, let's go to the place where I agreed to meet him."

-

Diego took her to a clearing nearby where they waited for his friend while they chatted amicably. Finally a Slowking entered the clearing.

"Norin," Diego immediately greeted the Slowking, "great to see you again!"

The Slowking frowned in puzzlement for a moment, then greeted Diego. "Hi, Diego. I see you had more luck with finding new friends than I did."

"Yeah," Diego grinned. "This is Aqua. Aqua, this is my friend Norin."

Aqua greeted Norin. "So... You two were actually looking for new friends? Why?"

"Well," Norin explained, "we are on a mission. A mission to make a perfect world. Did you tell her yet, Diego?"

"No, you tell it better."

"Okay. Well, Aqua, have you ever heard of Zekrom?"

"Of course," said Aqua, "it's one of the legendary dragons that were created when the original dragon of Unova was split into two."

"Yes. The original dragon was split into two by the foolish humans commanding it. Humans are unlike pokémon, selfish and evil, and so they caused the dragon to split by their enmity. Zekrom embodies ideals, and I have a dream of a perfect world where humans and pokémon are separated. An ideal world, where pokémon can finally be perfect beings. But I won't achieve that by force: I will reawaken Zekrom, and together we will defeat the most powerful human trainers. Then everyone will see how perfect free pokémon are and liberate their pokémon."

"But what about people who don't liberate their pokémon? And why do you need me?"

"You underestimate Zekrom's power. And I need you to help me become friends with Zekrom and to get to Dragonspiral Tower, where we can summon it."

Aqua thought it was great she could actually do something about the humans in this way, and very much wanted to help Norin, but there was one problem. "I can help you along, but I have to stay behind in Mistralton. I promised my boyfriend I'd wait for him there. But I'd be delighted to help you until then."

-

Present

Aqua had thought for two weeks that N was a pokémon, before Diego finally dropped the illusions masking the both of them. Aqua had been furious and attacked both her new friends. But she realised that even with the deception they were still the only friends she had at the moment. She didn't want to go back to being lonely and alone. Besides, Boreas hadn't really told her anything bad about N, and she couldn't help but agree with him, and he really had a good plan. She had a very hard time to trust a human, though. But N explained that he had been raised by pokémon ever since he was a child. He believed his parents had been pokémon, and he had been born in the form of a human to be able to convince the humans their ways of treating pokémon were wrong. Ghetsis and the other Sages had decided to help him and created Team Plasma to fulfil his dream. He considered the Sages as wise, good men, though flawed and on occasion too cruel. Aqua wasn't sure whether N's parents could really have been pokémon or that he had just been abandoned to pokémon as a child, but either way he wasn't raised by humans but by pokémon. His behaviour was very inhuman, and it was easy to think of him as a fellow pokémon.

Diego, on the other hand, had not really been able to explain his behaviour satisfactorily. Apparently he hadn't even told N about what he'd done to Boreas, and the human was as angry as Aqua at him for it. Aqua had scolded and Scalded him furiously for the way he'd tormented Boreas. But of course forgiveness came a lot easier to N, as Diego had been his lifelong friend and he didn't love Boreas like Aqua did.

"Hey there, gorgeous," said Diego as he sat down next to her.

"What do you want, Diego?" Aqua snapped.

"I just want to cheer you up a bit. You know I rather see a gorgeous smile then a gorgeous frown on that pretty face."

"Save it, Diego. I'm not going to cheer up, not after what happened."

"I think you will if you place it into perspective: you lost your boyfriend, but he was a git anyway. He joined the evil human oppressors and called you a traitor for joining the right side. He even tried to kill you, I saw it with my own eyes. You've got your friends to help you through this. Maybe I can even be more than just a friend to you..."

"What?"

"Well, when we told Boreas we were mates, it was just a lie to hurt him like he'd hurt you, of course. But why don't we make that lie a truth? It's over between you now, after all, so we can both give in to the natural magnetism that's been between us ever since we first met."

Aqua felt pretty uncomfortable at that proposal. On the one hand she wanted to say yes. Diego was attractive, powerful, fighting for what was right, and strong. He had always treated her well and supported her, even when Boreas didn't. But another part of her realised she felt nothing for him, while her heart had burnt and in a way still burnt, for Boreas. Because even though she hated Boreas now, part of her was still immensely attracted by him. "No. Sorry, Diego, but I think we're better off as just friends."

"Okay. I understand, it is rather short notice, isn't it? I never asked you before, because I knew you had a boyfriend, but now that you're free I figure we can hook up. But of course I'll give you a while to think about it."

"Diego, that's not what- You had better take that paw off my hip right now or I'll take it off your arm," Aqua said only half-jokingly.

Diego quickly retracted his arm. "Okay, sorry about that. It's hard to resist touching such beauty."

"Well, you'd better learn resisting it, because I'm not at all interested in you in that way."

"Then what're you going to do? Go back to Boreas?"

"Never!" she exclaimed, though part of her wanted to. But she recognised that even if she forgave him for some unfathomable reason there was no way he'd want her back after the things she'd said and done. Maybe she had really betrayed him... Joining N after all that Team Plasma had put him through was very inconsiderate, she had to admit, even if it was the right choice. She trembled as the way he'd called her a traitor echoed through her mind. His voice had really ringed with the deepest sound of betrayal. She realised that maybe he really did love her, and had just felt incredibly betrayed by her choice.

"Hey, are you alright, handsome?" Diego asked.

"Yes," Aqua lied. "Yes, just leave me alone for a bit. I... Need to think about some things."

"Of course," Diego grinned. "You shouldn't rush into a relationship."

As Diego left her, Aqua remembered how Boreas had supported her when she'd needed him most. Falling asleep in his arms had been wonderful and she really began to question her sanity in questioning whether he really loved her as she remembered his passionate kisses. Of course he did. He loved her, and now she had destroyed any chance they might have at being together happily.

But, another part of her angrily brought up, even if he really did love her, he had still been horrible to her. She was a traitor, was she? A ***** and a filthy ****, and Capella's blood was on her paws? Even if they had loved each other, that was unforgivable. But then she realised just how it must've felt for him to have Capella, who he liked very much, die at Team Plasma's hands and then find out his girlfriend joined N. And then the things she'd said to him... She had tried to remain calm and explain the situation to him, but his words had infuriated her, and she had said some really mean things herself. She felt horrible and ashamed as she remembered it.

-

Boreas suddenly felt like his inner organs were being squeezed out through his mouth and arse as rope-like things caught him around his belly and heaved him up. He reached the top of the chasm and stood eye to eye with a furious Octa.

"Have you gone stark raving mad?!" Octa shouted.

Boreas was dumbfounded. In the year he'd known Octa, the Servine had never yelled at him. "O-Octa, I-"

"Yes, you! That's who it's all about with you, isn't it?! You!"

"That's not-"

"Just because things aren't going your way for a bit, you decide to top yourself?! I have never heard of such a despicably selfish act, and am tempted to push you into that gorge myself!"

"I-"

"The thought of how your suicide would affect us never even crossed your egotistic mind, did it?! Capella gave her life to save yours, and you would just waste her sacrifice by throwing your life away?! You would give us another friend to mourn?! How is Black supposed to deal with that?! How am I supposed to deal with that?! Hmm?"

Octa was right, Boreas hadn't tried to see it from that side yet. "I-I hadn't thought of that..."

"No, you hadn't, had you?! You stupid, inconsiderate, selfish nincompoop!"

"Octa, I'm sorry. I didn't realise you still cared..."

Octa took a deep breath. He stopped shouting and returned to his normal angry state: icy, snide, and calm. "You think just because you gravely insulted me and my family your death wouldn't affect me?Honestly, 'tis a shame such a smart mind is wasted on one as stupid as you."

"Sorry. Sorry for everything, I didn't mean what I said to you. And I shouldn't have tried to kill myself, you're right. But Capella's death and Aqua's treason just affected me so much... You don't know what it's like, the emotions blind me and fill my entire being. I-I wish I was like you, without these emotions bothering me!"

Octa's eyebrows raised in surprise. "You think I have no emotions? I am no emotionless automaton, of course I have emotions. I just have a far better control over them than you, my dear fellow. I am as sorrowful as you are about Capella's death, but I don't let that sorrow control me and make me a depressed wreck. I am furious about your attempt to kill yourself and the insults you hurled at me, but I do not let that anger control me and make me a raging maniac."

"Can you teach that to me?"

"Well, 'tis not like an easy trick one can simply be taught. 'Tis a form of self-discipline that requires a lot of effort and time to learn. I can only advice you to breathe deeply and try to calm yourself whenever your emotions threaten to overwhelm you. Always listen to your mind, not to your heart."

"I guess... Octa, what should I do about Aqua? I mean, she betrayed me and said all kinds of horrible things."

"Well, I do have some advice on that subject."

"Yes?"

"Get over yourself."

"What?!" Boreas snarled angrily.

"Do you think your world view is the only valid one? Just because Aqua doesn't agree with you doesn't mean she betrayed you. I doubt betrayal was in her mind for even a moment."

"But she joined Team Plasma, the people who killed Capella!"

"Yes, she did. But let me ask you something important: how much do you love her?"

"I don't," Boreas lied.

"Poppycock. How much do you love her?"

"Fifty kilohearts!" Boreas sarcastically replied. "How am I supposed to quantify a feeling?"

"Close your eyes. Try to feel the full extent of your adoration for her. Now imagine it as a flame. Tell me how warmly it burns."

Boreas did so and resolutely stated: "It'd burn Moltres-wings to dust."

Octa whistled in amazement.

"And it's a bit too big and warm to be called a flame. More like the nuclear fires of a star, really."

"Well, if that is how you wish to characterise it, let me continue along that metaphor: if nurtured and allowed to prosper, a star can illuminate an entire solar system, and sustain biospheres of life on nearby planets. However, if not nurtured, a star dies. It does so in a supernova of unmatched catastrophic proportions, annihilating absolutely everything in its vicinity, vaporising entire solar systems. If your love is truly like the nuclear fires of a star, you seem to have two choices of how to handle it. Now I am getting tired, therefore I shall go to bed. Be warned that I shall never forgive you if you decide to make jumping into gorges a habit."
 

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
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I just finished reading the latest chapter available in fanfic.
As usual, I'll let you know my comments about it when it reaches here in PC. ;)

Re-reading this chapter made me feel sad. :(
Still, it's a great chapter, as usual.
Here are my reactions for this chapter.

---------

Diego flirting Aqua really feels very eewy... x,x
Glad Aqua declined.

---

Somehow, I felt like Octa was gonna rescue Boreas.
And somehow, you made me realise how selfish suicide really is... o.o

---

Octa's eyebrows raised in surprise. "You think I have no emotions?"

lol! xD

---

"Be warned that I shall never forgive you if you decide to make jumping into gorges a habit."

o.O

---

All in all, another great chapter, and it was a really really nice one as well. :)
Keep at it~!
 
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  • Seen May 24, 2013
Re-reading this chapter made me feel sad. :(
Still, it's a great chapter, as usual.


I'd say it contains the darkest bit of the story, though the latter parts slowly begin lightening things up a bit already. And of course, I'm glad you like it.

Diego flirting Aqua really feels very eewy... x,x
Glad Aqua declined.
Yes, it is. Especially since he is not really interested in her, but simply trying to make his victory over Boreas even more complete and crushing.

Somehow, I felt like Octa was gonna rescue Boreas.
And somehow, you made me realise how selfish suicide really is... o.o
Heh, well it would've been a weird ending to the story if he hadn't anyway. And yes, suicide is really a quite selfish thing to do in most circumstances.

Chapter Forty-Two: The Highflying Girl

When they finally emerged from Chargestone Cave it felt like a huge blessing to them all. Capella couldn't have been more mistaken when she had said they would have a great time in the cave. Now that horrible place was her tomb, and the site of the violent breakup between Boreas and Aqua, two events that kept haunting Boreas. Seeing the Sun for the first time in weeks was simply delightful. While it didn't really solve any part of the mountain of troubles and horrid memories plaguing Boreas the light at least made them seem slightly less overwhelming than the eternal darkness of Chargestone Cave did.


It had been winter when they'd entered the cave, but by now spring had clearly started. Flowers grew, birds sang, and trees had regained their leaves. Seeing life go on everywhere made the pain of Capella's loss easier to bear. But not the pain of Aqua's treason. When Boreas saw two Pidgeys courting, he felt so incredibly jealous he was just about ready to kill them both. Spring brought many such reminders to Boreas, and it made his mood the worst in the entire team.


They arrived in Mistralton on a beautiful day in early April. They walked the last part of the journey to the pokécenter, through Mistralton, exhausted and limping with various wounds and broken limbs. Their walking the streets so battered up and exhausted caught the attention of a pink-haired human woman in revealing blue clothes and a middle-aged man with an odd greying-brown haircut and beard. They rushed over to help Black and his pokémon. The woman threw Black's arm around her shoulder to help him walk, as the deep cut on his leg had got infected and gave him a limp now.


"Are you alright?!" the woman asked with concern.


Black was looking at her with a stupid, mesmerised expression on his face. "I... I am now," he spoke.


"Don't worry, boy," the man said in a pleasant baritone voice, "Skyla and I'll help you to the pokécenter. What's your name?"


Black didn't respond but kept staring straight into Skyla's eyes. "Hey there. My name is Black."


"Right, Black, my name is Cedric Juniper, and this is Skyla, Mistralton's Gym Leader. And you are obviously exhausted and wounded, so we're bringing you to the pokécenter."


In other circumstances Boreas might have giggled along with his friends and Lucius at Black's obvious smittenness, but instead he felt ice cold jealousy freezing him, and he could barely resist freezing Black as well. "So, what's you name?" Black asked.


"Professor!" said Skyla, "I think he might have a concussion or something!"


"Heh, 'or something' indeed," Juniper chuckled, "I don't think the pokécenter can cure that, but at least it can heal their wounds. I wonder if he's the same Black my daughter has been talking about..." He inspected Octa for a moment. "Yes, he must be. That Servine clearly comes from Crimson Breeders: look at its pentafurcated tail- and backleaves and its long arms. I'm pretty sure only they have bred Servines looking like that."


"You're right, Professor. Did Minerva give a Snivy from Crimson breeders to this Black? That's a generous gift!" Octa basked with pride at this.


"Yup. Always gave her friends big gifts for their birthdays when she was a kid too. Well, boy, if your brain is still working, you're probably wondering if I'm related to Minerva Juniper. And I am: she's my daughter."


Black seemed to notice Cedric Juniper for the first time. "Oh, hello sir. I know your daughter, actually; she gave me Octa, my Servine."


Juniper chuckled as they reached the pokécenter. "Did she? Well, what a small world it is. As Skyla here just showed me with her plane. Skyla, I'll let you know if something comes up again."


"Professor, my plane is a cargo plane! You can't keep treating it as your private jet!"


"Aww, Skyla. If you keep frowning, your face might freeze like that, and that'd be a shame. We all have to help each other out, you know, both people and pokémon. Well, see you later. You too, Black."


"Sheesh," said Skyla as Juniper walked away, "it's hard to believe a happy-go-lucky guy like that could be a renowned pokémon professor. Well, Black, I take it you'll want to challenge my Gym, but first I want you and your pokémon to get a good check-up and rest at the pokécenter. I won't accept your challenge beforehand."


-


Boreas awoke from the first good night's sleep he'd had in weeks. When he had told Nurse Armageddon's Audino he couldn't sleep she had given him some pills that had sent him into a dreamless sleep. That, coupled with the pokécenter's cares and the soft room meant Boreas awoke in a better mood than he'd been in since Capella died. It was still darker and fouler than the average Garbodor's stool sample, but at least it was an improvement.


Boreas looked at himself in the mirror that hung in the room. A grim, sad Glaceon looked back. The cheerful, intelligent gleam in his eyes was gone, replaced by a frown and a sad stare. A large scar marred his left cheek and the tip of his tail was missing. The fur on his lower jaw was darker than it used to be. It was quite a change from the last time he'd seen his reflection. He tried to smile, but it looked awfully fake and just as gloomy as before.


When Black awoke he woke his pokémon and told them to gather round. It was clear he was going to say something, but he didn't seem to be able to start.


"Um," he explained. He was silent for a moment. "Guys, I have to talk to you about something. I... uh... basically, I'm not sure if I want to continue our journey. Capella's death made me think... It made me think about many things, but most of all about being Champion. It's what I've always wanted, but now I'm not sure any more... Capella's death made me think about the things that really matter, and I wonder if power is worth the chance of losing another on of you... So I'm considering returning to Nuvema. You can all come with me, of course. But I'm not sure, that's why we're going to continue until I decide and challenge Skyla today."


Boreas didn't know what he thought of it. Getting away from it all by returning to Nuvema sounded great. But on the other hand, that would also mean stopping their fight against Team Plasma. Which was probably a good thing, now that he thought of it. No more death, no more fighting, no more danger. There was nothing they could really do against Plasma anyway, and the chance of losing more friends or running into Aqua again...


"Black, old chap," Octa spoke, "as much as it pains me not to pursue our chance at glory, I agree we should most definitely consider returning to Nuvema, at the very least for a long break and perchance to retire from our endeavour entirely. Capella's untimely demise has affected us all severely..."


Boreas nodded.


"Yeah, I-I guess you're right," said Toxica. "It's just not the same without Capella. I don't know if I can continue like this..."


Lucius scowled and looked at each of their faces in turn. "That's funny," he snarled, "I didn't notice all your balls were cut off during the battle!"


"What?!" Boreas exclaimed.


"You're a bunch of weakling cowards! Did your spirits die with Capella?! Is your ambition suddenly gone?! You're just gonna go home to whine about her being dead?! Well, if that's the way y'all think, I'm done with this team! You guys may be ready to give up, but unlike you Capella's death has only made my resolve stronger! I will find Team Plasma, and make them into a funeral pyre for Capella. Sages, grunts, pokémon, N, that lovely girlfriend of yours, pup. And I will get to the ****ing pokémon league, and enter that ****ing Hall of Fame! And if you guys are too wimpy to do that, I'm leaving the team the moment you give up, and I'll let myself be caught by Cheren, or another real trainer!"


It was silent for a moment, then Boreas, Octa, and Toxica started arguing with him. They fell silent, however, when Selene said: "I agree with Lucius."


It was so rare that Selene said something that both made sense and was directly connected to the situation at hand that they all stopped arguing. "You... You have an opinion?" Boreas blurted out.


Selene looked as surprised as Boreas did. "Yes... I believe I do. I agree with Lucius. We can't stop now, I want to defeat the Champion. And stop Team Plasma. I think this must be important."


Lucius laughed. "There, that crazy old chicken is being saner than all of you together. Good job, you crazy bird!"


"But Selene," Toxica argued, "you can't really agree with 'im. I mean, what's becoming Champion going to get us?"


"Power," Lucius spoke, "and glory and honour and recognition and all that. The entire region looking at us reverently, because we proved we are the most powerful pokémon in all of Unova! If we continue we can have enough power to avenge Capella and much, much more!"


"We shouldn't give up," Selene nodded. "I think I'm certain of this. We can't give up just because we've hit a little trouble. If I'd done that when- uh, never mind. So anyway, I agree with Lucius."


They began arguing again, but Black interrupted them. "Okay, I see not all of you agree with me. But I haven't decided yet anyway. Let's go challenge Skyla first."


-


Though Mistralton was only a small city, the Gym was quite hard to find. It turned out to be inside an aircraft hangar on the city's busy airport. From the inside the hangar was quite unique: the huge hall contained two platforms raised high up in the air on poles. A huge blue cannon stood on the middle one and on the ground. The cannons were large enough for a human to fit in, and pointed at the platforms. Skyla stood on the highest platform, waiting. Black tried shouting at her, but she was too far away to hear.


"Selene," Black said, "go to Skyla and try to find out if I'm really supposed to fire myself out of these cannons."


Selene flew up and came back a while later. She simply nodded.


"Well," Black said dubiously, "I guess it must be safe... But I'll return you all to your pokéballs for a moment."


-


Boreas was released from the bizarre world inside his pokéball on the highest platform. Black looked quite bruised up.


"Hee-hee," giggled Skyla, "did you enjoy flying with the help of the cannons? They're my pride and joy!"


"Well, they are quite a nice pair of cannons," said Black.


"Well, the cannons may be fun, but battling is even more fun! We'll use three pokémon each, no switching out. Amelia, go!"


She threw a pokéball with a graceful pirouette, and a Swoobat appeared, soaring through the air. "Selene," Black commanded, "you're up first!"


Selene looked up quizzically. "Am I? I don't see myself there..."


"He means you have to kick that Swoobat's ass, crazy bird!" Lucius barked.


"Oh, I see!" Selene took off and pursued the Swoobat. Boreas thought Selene was a very wise choice for the battle here. Just like with Elesa, their immobility was a big disadvantage, but Selene's wings solved that problem. Her type advantage was good too.


Neither Selene nor Amelia the Swoobat was a very graceful flyer. They flew around the large hangar flapping their wings loudly in powerful, rather than dazzling aerial combat. Still, they raced through the hangar, trying to get the better of each other. They pecked and bit each other, bashed into their enemy, hit the other with their wings.


Suddenly Selene plummeted down, falling to the ground like a brick. She was too far away for Black to return her to her pokéball, so it seemed she was going to crash into the ground. The Swoobat dived down even faster, using her wings to catch up to the plummeting Murkrow and rescue her. As soon as she caught up, Selene suddenly regained complete control of her flight, powerfully hit the Swoobat with her wings, circled around her and dug her claws into Amelia's back and wings. Lucius and Boreas cheered for her, but Toxica seemed unimpressed and Octa frowned disapprovingly.


The battle continued with low swoops and high flies, but after the powerful dark-type attack Selene had unleashed on Swoobat she had such great advantage that the battle was practically over. It wasn't long before Skyla recalled her pokémon.


"When I think about a match with a fabulous trainer like you, it's like walking on air!" Skyla said as she threw another pokéball. "It's your turn, Orville!"


With a flash of light a gleaming metallic Skarmory appeared. "Uh oh, that's a steel-type..." Boreas mumbled, remembering Ryoku's Ferrothorn that had been nearly impervious to damage thanks to its type.


"No problem, pup," Lucius said, "my flames'll easily burn through that armour and roast the bird inside."


"Well, that's not much good to Selene, is it? And besides, you'll have to catch it first. That won't be easy without wings."


"Yeah, well, why don't you go give up and cry back to Nuvema, huh?"


Boreas' emotions were already stretched to their limit and the urge to attack Lucius was very hard for him to resist. "What is your problem, Lucius?!"


"What's my problem, pup?" Lucius scoffed, "I could ask you the same thing. We have an opportunity at power, fame, fortune, and glory and you just want to throw it away to go crying like a newborn?!"


"If you like power that much," Boreas hissed, "why don't you join the Sages? Their plan sounds just like your thing!"


Lucius was furious at the suggestion. "Because they killed Capella, you dipshit! So maybe their cause is surprisingly good, what does that matter? I'm still gonna kill them all and everyone who helped 'em along."


"Lucius," Black commanded as he recalled Selene, who had just got badly beaten up by the Skarmory, "it's your turn!"


Lucius turned his furious glare away from Boreas and instead paid attention to the big metal bird that was rapidly swooping to the platform. A gigantic wave of flame erupted from his mouth. The Skarmory tried to avoid it, but it was too big even for a pokémon of its speed and it was caught right in the wave of flame, yet it emerged still flying though its conductive metal armour had to be baking it on the inside. Lucius breathed in to produce another inferno, but Skarmory's speed paid off and it swooped over Lucius, leaving long, deep cuts in his back with its metal claws.


But Lucius jumped at his opponent, his teeth ablaze with intense flames, and bit into its tail, leaving a red-hot mark before Skarmory managed to shake him off, nearly dropping him over the edge. They began a powerful, rough melee combat. Under normal circumstances Skarmory's metal armour would give it an immense advantage, but Lucius' teeth and claws were ablaze with flames, heating the metal bird's armour up with every hit and roasting the creature's flesh inside.


For a while the battle seemed to be going to Skarmory's side, as the cuts it left on Lucius forced him ever nearer the edge. But then the battle's tide turned as Skarmory's armour heated up further and further. In the end Skyla was forced to retract it as it began screaming in pain, being baked from the inside.


"This is my last pokémon," she said, sending out a Swanna, "but I never give up hope!"


The moment Swanna appeared from the pokéball it unleashed a beam of bubbles on Lucius. The speed at which the bubbles moved meant the barraged Lucius powerfully with lots of water and soaked him as they blasted him back. The fire-type roared and yelled in pain, but there was little he could do any more.


"Boreas, it's all yours!" said Black.


Boreas pounced at Swanna to pin it down before it could fly away, but it took off immediately, recognising a faster and more agile opponent. Boreas almost jumped over the platform's edge as he missed, but managed to catch himself. His opponent, now soaring through the air, blasted him with the Bubblebeam. Though they were only bubbles, the force behind them was immense and it felt more like a beam of golf balls blasted at him with great force than bubbles. His skin was bruised by the great force, which felt as if it left marks on his bones. Boreas disrupted the Bubblebeam with a pulse of cold, then jumped out of the way, hit the head of the beam with an Ice Beam, freezing the nearest bubbles and turning them into a beam of hail the size of golfballs instead. He tried to let the cold spread up the beam to its user, but that was impossible due to the air between the bubbles and the speed at which they flowed. So he quickly stopped doing that, as the last thing he needed was for those bubbles to be solid and thus do even more damage.


He tried to hit his opponent with Ice Beams, but it was too far away to be hit by them. On the other hand, the small platform allowed him little space to dodge the Bubblebeam.


He tried to control the copious amounts of air in the large hangar, to whip it up into an icy storm, but that was not easy. The air was standing still here, lazy and stagnant; quite unlike the stormy, busy air he had used the last time he'd tried to control it. It didn't want to move, but he prodded it on with Icy Wind, slowly getting it to get off its lazy arse and start moving about, first as a calm breeze, then as a stiff cool wind that gyred through the Gym. Boreas found it increasingly easy to control and use it. He directed the winds to his opponent to interfere with its flight. Of course, he couldn't precisely control the unpredictable, chaotic air, but giving it a nudge and a suggestion for the general direction of what he wanted it to do worked just as well.


The bubbles stood no chance of survival in the roaring winds that now howled through the hangar and Swanna was having heavy troubles staying afloat. Skyla shouted commands at it, but it couldn't even hear her over the rapid winds. This was amazingly easy, Boreas thought. The air itself seemed to want to move and make a storm, all it needed was some encouragement to actually do it.


His opponent swooped to the platform, battling the fierce winds. But it didn't even have the mobility to dodge the five Ice Beams Boreas shot at it as it struggled against the winds and was hit by all. Thoroughly weakened, it managed to land on the platform, only to be taken down by two more Ice Beams.


"Wow," Skyla cheerfully spoke as she almost lost her balance to the storm, "you're an amazing pokémon trainer! Being your opponent has been a new source of strength to me, as you won an amazing victory. Here, you earned the Jet Badge!" she handed Black a badge shaped like a feather.


"Thanks," said Black.


"Y'know, I heard some things about you from the other Gym Leaders!" Skyla continued. "Six badges already, eh? Brycen and Drayden had better watch out..."


"Actually..." said Black. "I'm not sure if I will continue my quest."


"But why?" Skyla asked with concern. "You're a great trainer, you have real potential. I'm sure you could make it to the pokémon league, and then who knows?"


"I just... Don't know..." said Black.


"Well, don't you want to continue for your fans, then?"


"Fans?"


"Yeah, that guy with the long green hair standing in the hangar's doorway, he watched our entire battle. He must be a fan of you."
 
Last edited:

destinedjagold

You can contact me in PC's discord server...
8,593
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16
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  • Age 33
  • Seen Dec 23, 2023
This was a great re-read. Finally, a break from all those sad-things inside that cave. =/
Selene was full of lols on this chapter. xD

Anyway, onto my comment.

---------

Lucius was furious at the suggestion. "Because they killed Capella"

Wow, Lucius really liked Capella, huh?
That's an eye-opener!

---

The battle was good. Great to see/read that Boreas managed to perform a great match, despite the things they ran into. :)

---

All in all, a great chapter, as always. But this time, it's even greater, for finally, they're out from that cave!

Keep at it~!
 
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