He wished that this had never happened.
Everything had gone wrong, shattered at his feet within a few agonized heartbeats. Never in his life had he imagined that his journey to become the best, to become the Champion of Kanto, would become this eternal nightmare of pain and loss. Things had been so simple before they had set out, a three-man band that was ready to take on the world—figuratively and literally. However, he did not even have the faintest idea that those steps out of his beloved town of Pallet would be steps he dreaded for the rest of his life.
Little had he known that when he returned home to that sleeping town, that only two pairs of feet would cross that imaginary border. Those days of dreaming were over so soon. He was not the strongest in the region. He was not the Champion. And now, he was left with less than what he had started with. He had lost the one with what had seemed like an eternal flame, vibrantly lighting the way through the darkness that had engulfed their home.
He was the heat that dried out the dead grasses, making all around him able to ignite. She had been the wildfire that had burned across the land and reset everything, letting the worn-out ground become the fertile land once again. And then there was him. He had been the rains that soaked the soil to allow the new growth to prosper. They had been a cycle of renewal, spreading across the dying land left by those twisted men and women.
If only he had known that those flames would die so quickly, snuffed out by an inner suffering.
"Leaf!" His throat screamed out in pain as the voice echoed off the walls of the frozen mountain. Pokémon raced away as the two boys tore through the dim pathways, their shoes slamming against uneven stone and thudding with every step. His lungs were burning, his eyes felt as if they were being stabbed as the saltwater raced out of his verdant eyes. "Leaf, please wait!"
But she didn't.
Instead, the girl kept on running, leaving the two boys she had once considered her friends far behind her. Brunette locks fluttered behind her, the only sign that she had passed this lonesome way. Footprints left the scars of their plight as the frantic feet dug deep into the earth with every step. These marks would surely fade away with time, but for now, he was grateful for their remains. Without them, he was certain that they would lose her forever.
He didn't know how long he had been running. He assumed that it had been sometime after her choked declaration of assumed betrayal and the sight of her running towards this frigid wasteland. He had raced ahead while the black-haired boy behind him had fumbled and struggled to keep up. Towns of blue, grey and green had faded away into a blur of colorful pain, slowly becoming wild paths of green and brown as they made their way to the bleak grey king that reigned above the Kanto region.
The bitter wind suddenly reappeared as they started to climb the cliffs that lead to the proud peak of white. Rocks, loosened by the girl before them, tumbled out of the face and crashed to the floor what seemed like miles below them. Fear was the thing that drove them forward through this frightful place. The fear of falling, the fear of getting lost and most important was the ancient fear in their minds.
The fear of losing her.
Tears spilled out of his eyes as he covered his face with his hands. All of those struggles had not left him stronger in the least. It had left him crippled, forced to limp through his life with a gnawing pain in his chest that never seemed to leave him alone. The lone pedestal below him took a bite out of the seat of his cargo pants, but he ignored the blur of cold that stabbed his legs.
Here he was, pretending as if he truly was the strongest of them all. He had gained a place among legends, legends that reigned above the region and posed as great masters to be beaten. His friend had become a legend of the greatest sort, the type that were not merely masters but kings, kings that ruled supreme above every other foolish human that dared to tread the path of a Pokémon Trainer. He was a liar, anyone with eyes could see that.
But the truth was, everyone around him was blind.
Snow, white ashes in disguise, swirled around him and stabbed his eyes. The stabbing wasn't simply reduced to his environment, though. The true thrusts of the knife were in his chest as he unwillingly took in his surroundings. The whiteness covered everything, leaving all to be buried in a choking silence. The skies above were nothing but smoke, resting among the ashes of this nightmare. His eyes, despite the painful winds and snow, widened in horror at a lone detail in this perfect painting of despair.
There, resting on the top of a bleak boulder of grey, was her hat.
The boy beside him took the object in his hands and let out a choked sob. He didn't speak. He didn't need to. The footprints on the edge were words enough to him. They had been too late. After all their running and chasing, they had let her slip out of their fingers. That beloved flame had been snuffed out by not an outside wind, but itself. This ironic twist became too much for him to handle.
The second he took the hat from his friend's shaking grasp, he had broken down.
The world had mourned her not as a hero, but as a twisted figure that had desired far more than she had deserved. The mentions of her death being passed off as a desperate attempt for fame made his stomach sick. The boy standing beside him let tears slip down from his cheeks as the two of them alone knew the full extent of this pain.
What those fools did not understand is that she was the hero. She had blazed through this world and rid the populace of a terrible evil, rescuing Pokémon and humans alike from the black hand of a criminal nightmare. She had become the most powerful person in all of the world, standing tall among the elite as a Pokémon Master. She had even cataloged evasive species of Pokémon, providing future generations with the knowledge that would be forever treasured. She was the hero.
The boy beside him had unknowingly stolen all of this from her. He became the hero the world desired.
Despite the candle in his hands, he was cold.
The flame danced under his chin as the service dragged on, the man at the head of the affair blabbing on with utter lies about the beloved girl. It was if that journey had erased the girl from their minds. That sweet girl that ran around in a gown of pure white, chasing Butterfree and gawking at even the smallest of Pidgey had never existed.
Instead, they had seen a girl with an irrepressible hunger. A girl who desired nothing more than fame, power and money. She was a deceiver, set on twisting those around her into believing she was a grand hero and taking the rewards of the brave boy with red eyes. Her past achievements of rescuing a tower of deceased Pokemon, saving a whole corporation from the clutches of a madman, even taking down that lunatic's whole organization, they were never hers to these people. No, they were his wonderful services to the people of Kanto.
He couldn't take all of these lies.
The yellow wax dropped to the grass below his feet and the puddles of the morning's rain put them out almost instantly. Bloody eyes locked on the brunette's face as the boy swallowed his yell of disgust and backed away from the crowd. The boy watched him for a few moments, hesitation swirling in his eyes. Suddenly, a second candle fell to the earth and another flame was extinguished. Without giving a single sound to those blinded around them, they ran.
The rain had never felt so cold as it did that day.
The sound of a bell pulled him out of his whirlpool of memories.
At once, the brunette stood up. He wasn't supposed to be sitting around when he had challengers to face. He wasn't supposed to be this broken. He was a Pokémon Trainer, and the pain that he felt was never supposed to exist. He was supposed to be power in a human form, waiting for the chance to let loose this burning energy inside. This mask that he wore was supposed to be his true face, not something he wore to hide behind.
He soon found a girl with brunette hair standing before him, a powerful Glaceon on her heels. The instant she looked up, panic filled his chest. The girl before him had a fire in her hazel eyes, just as that flame in those peaceful blues had once blazed through his life. He had to lift his chin and look above her head to prevent himself from seeing that girl in every inch of this challenger.
He couldn't start seeing her ghost too.
Author's Note: An accompanying one-shot to "Remember Me", told in Green's view.
LeafGreenHeadcanon!Trio is really starting to grow on me... I might make more for these poor unfortunate souls in the future.