Her breath was caught in her throat as she stared wide-eyed at her worst nightmare unfolding before her very eyes. The sound of a bullet being shot out was deafening to her ears, but not as much as the sound of her older brother's body collapsing onto the pavement. Smoke emitted from the freshly used barrel of the gun, the perpetrator pulling the weapon back when he was certain his victim was down for good.
Crimson spatter stained the pavement and it was then that the girl realized the severe injury in her brother's situation. His left eye socket became a bloody well that flowed over his face. Small gasps left his lips as he began to twitch violently from the shock of what just happened. Snapping out of the ghastly trance, the girl made her to her brother's side and provided whatever aid she could.
The owner of the gun, a man in a black coat, lowered the weapon and put it away. His emotionless grey eyes watched as the girl frantically yet hopelessly tried to stop the bleeding of her injured brother. That poor child had no idea what kind of sins her brother committed behind her back. She shouldn't have been here to see this; she should've been left in the fog of ignorance.
Tears rapidly fell from her eyes. She brought a hand up to wipe them away, but stopped when she realized how utterly bloody her hands became. Her eyes widened in horror upon realizing just how much blood her brother lost.
"Z-Zane...?" she mumbled, the panic now rising. "No... no no no!"
"Ada... leave..." her brother huffed as he looked up at her with his only good eye. "Leave... before he-"
"Let this be a lesson, Belhayre."
Ada looked up at the mysterious man that was responsible for all of this. The fear she felt before became stronger at the thought of him pulling out the weapon and ending what he started. Zane rose his head with whatever energy he had left, holding onto the now blood-soaked handkerchief Ada used to stop the bleeding and gritted his teeth. The girl helped her brother, but worried even more when she caught sight of that vengeful look on his face.
"Taking destructive matters into your own hands has dire consequences."
The attacker turned his back on the siblings. One more tear fell from Ada's violet eyes, and she wiped it away quickly. Zane growled under his breath, but hissed when the pain shocked his entire body. The man in the black coat looked over his shoulder, his gaze cold and unforgiving.
"There's a reason rules exist. Recklessly breaking them because you believe it to be right is pathetic. You're lucky I didn't kill you when you deserved so much worse."
He walked away after that, leaving behind a stunned Ada and an angry Zane. Ada's eyes lingered on the man's retreating back, watching as his figure became smaller and smaller with each step. Many questions rose in her head, but they were all stopped abruptly when a loud groan of pain rang in her ears. Ada looked to her right, her eyes widening when Zane suddenly collapsed onto her lap. She could feel the unpleasant warmth of blood beginning to stain her clothes.
Ada quickly pulled out her PokéGear and began to dial the emergency hotline. It was hard for her because of how much her hands shook with the anxiety and fear for her brother's safety.
"Johto Emergency Hotline, what's your emergency?"
"M-My brother's been shot and he's losing a lot of blood!" Ada frantically explained.
"Please calm down, ma'am," the voice o the other line advised. "Tell me where you are and I'll immediately dispatch a team of medics."
"We're just outside of Azalea Town's entrance. Please hurry! He's... he's not awake!"
Once she heard that help was on the way, Ada hung up and tried to tend to her brother as best as she could. She only prayed it wasn't too late.
She anxiously sat in the waiting room for word of her brother's condition. Her long black locks of hair remained in a messy style having been combed with her fingers, a habit she often did when she felt stressed. Her hands tightly clutched the bloody handkerchief as the anticipation slowly ate her patience away. Worried, stressed, and scared were only a few things she felt regarding her brother's life. Her violet eyes remained glassy from the tears she held back. All she wanted was to see the doctor who tended to Zane and hopefully give her good news.
Ada's worry blurred the world around her that she hadn't noticed two of her friends entering the Goldenrod Hospital. The ambulance had come to the rescue minutes after she called, which she was thankful for. Zane's trainer license admitted him immediately because the doctors were able to obtain information about his health status: allergies, vaccinations, medications, and more. Ada had no idea how she'd react if they took him somewhere else, but it was best not to dwell on what never was.
A tap on the shoulder snapped Ada out of her trance. She looked up, only for her eyes to widen when seeing the two familiar faces she knew were her friends.
"Gold? Silver?" she mumbled, rubbing her eyes to make sure she wasn't hallucinating.
"Are you blind? It's us, you idiot," Silver replied in his usual snarky tone, earning him a glare from the other trainer.
"Now's not the time, dude," Gold scolded.
"Oh, come—"
Silver had no chance to finish whatever retort he was going to deliver as Ada jumped from her seat and pulled the two boys into a tight embrace. Their presence alone overwhelmed her enough for those tears to finally fall. She buried her face into their shoulders and sobbed away, her entire body shaking. Gold didn't hesitate to wrap an arm around her, rubbing small circles on her back as an attempt to calm her down. Silver felt uncomfortable, but tried to soothe her as best as he could.
He felt bad for her; she never cried this much before. The redhead muttered what he thought her soothing words into her ear, anything to calm her down. Soon, her sobs became muffled and finally stopped. Ada pulled away from them, her eyes red and puffy from crying twice today.
"S-Sorry... I just didn't think y-you two would make it," she hiccuped.
"Ada, we'll always come to you whenever you give us the word," Gold assured her with a friendly smile.
"I can't believe you'd think we'd blow you off at a time like this." Silver shook his head and flicked the girl's forehead. "When are you gonna learn that we're here for you?"
The black-haired girl sniffled as she rubbed the spot where Silver had flicked her. On a normal occasion, she'd scold him for doing that, but now wasn't the time. Ada wiped away the lingering tears before smiling at her two friends.
"Thanks, you guys," she said.
Gold nodded and playfully ruffled her hair, earning him a slap to the arm by Ada. She hated when anyone messed with her hair, friends and family included. Silver smirked at the sight of Gold flinching back as she lightly glared at him. Typical Ada.
His smirk dropped when he caught sight of her red-stained hand. He had a feeling it was what he thought it was, but didn't want to believe it because of how much it stained. Silver called out her name, catching her attention. Ada looked up at him, her expression faltering when she saw his stern exterior.
"What's up?" she asked.
"What happened to Zane?" he asked. "You didn't exactly fill us in when you called."
Ada frowned when she recalled what happened almost two hours ago at the entrance of Azalea Town. Her saddened gaze dropped to the tiled floor, her eyes lingering on her red hands.
"He got shot by some psycho. I couldn't see his face, but his voice is still easy to recall. By the time I found Zane, his attacker had already pulled the trigger," she explained.
"Did you tell the cops all of this?" Gold asked. Ada nodded and shifted her gaze to him.
"They're investigating as we speak. I've already told them everything I know and they want to talk to Zane when he recovers." If he recovers, she thought to herself. "They said... I saved his life by calling when I did, but... but..."
"But what?" Silver questioned.
"Zane... he lost so much blood..."
Ada held up her now red-dyed piece of cloth, taking her two friends by surprise. Silver's eyes widened in shock as Gold gasped in disbelief. She always kept her handkerchief clean, even going to extreme lengths to remove tough stains, and now it was stained with the blood of her brother. It now became a reminder of what happened today.
"My god..." Gold mumbled under his breath.
His reaction mimicked the one Ada had upon realizing her handkerchief would never go back to being that pure ivory color she loved. She had gone to the restroom and attempted to clean it, with intentions of also washing off as much blood off herself as she could, but found it futile after twenty minutes of harsh scrubbing. The sight alone was enough to make her feel sick to her stomach. All she saw was red, and it wasn't going away.
Silver gulped, his eyes lingering on the tainted piece of cloth. Ada put it away when she believed it was enough to show and sat back down in her seat with both Gold and Silver joining her. Now, they had to wait for who knew how long until they had an update on Zane. It could be minutes, hours, maybe even the entire evening before anything was answered.
Another hour passed and the three trainers were still waiting for a doctor to fill them in on Zane's condition. The longer Ada waited, the more the anxiety and stress began to eat away at her. Being paranoid wouldn't do her any good, but the worst scenario kept playing in her head. It wasn't her fault, for she had never been placed in a situation like this. How many people could say they've seen someone they knew get shot by a stranger?
Who wouldn't be freaking out at that point?
An hour and a half passed with no word on Zane. Ada crouched over, placing her head in her hands as she tugged on her hair in anxious frustration. Gold noticed how troubled she was, so he placed a hand on her shoulder to keep her assured. He hated seeing her so stressed, so beaten up, because he knew she would blame herself for not protecting him. She was a close friend and hated seeing her suffer this way.
Silver began to doze off a bit, but did everything he could to fight off the sleep that tried to consume him. He tried to keep busy in order to distract himself from the situation because, even though he didn't want to admit it, he was very worried about Zane. That man was the only one to get through to him back when he had issues with his father; Silver basically owed him his life. How could a man so kind be the victim of such an attack? Most importantly, who was responsible for this?
He tried to think of any possible suspects, but none came to mind. One thing he could say was possible was that this attacker of Zane's might be in a group of some sort, a group that doesn't let their members walk away so easily. His train of thought was interrupted when the double doors leading to the operating rooms burst open. All three trainers whipped their heads in that direction and saw a doctor walk out with a clipboard in his hand.
"Family or friend of Zane Belhayre?" he called out.
Ada wasted no time jumping out of her seat and jogging toward the doctor with Gold and Silver trailing behind her. The doctor faced them, his eyes landing on the black-haired girl that shared similar features as his patient.
"I'm his younger sister, Ada. These are his other friends, Gold and Silver," she introduced quickly.
"Nice to meet you all. I'm Dr. Troyard." The grin on his face turned into a thin line as his eyebrows furrowed. "Would you like the good news or bad news first?"
"We've had some bad news all day, so some good news would be nice," Gold answered for Ada. Dr. Troyard nodded and read over information from the clipboard.
"Zane was in critical condition, so we rushed him into surgery right away. We tried to salvage his left eye, but there was nothing we could do. The good news is that we were able to safely remove the bullet and stop the bleeding," he informed them. Ada sighed with relief, but prepared herself for the worst.
"What's the bad news?" Silver asked, knowing the other two didn't have the guts to ask for the worst.
Dr. Troyard pushed up his glasses, the lends illuminating from the hospital ceiling. The calm atmosphere was fleeting as it grew uncomfortably heavy. Ada gulped, gripping Gold's hand as she awaited the unfortunate news she had yet to hear. Her violet eyes met Dr. Troyard's grey optics, holding stern expression as the next words left his mouth.
"The bad news is that Zane never woke up as the neurosurgeon predicted. He slipped into a coma and we have no clue when he will wake up."