She might curse herself for being stupid, arrogant, selfish, and feeling self-important, but knows that she is all those things and more. There is little point telling herself what she already knows, and kicks the man in front of her in the knees, as he's too tall and she can't get a proper view. He glares, grumbles, and shifts begrudgingly to one side.
She sees a luxray fall to the ground, swiftly returned in a flash of red light, the owner's face belying a beaming grin that she detests, thoughts of her own missing pokemon fresh in her mind. She scowls, crosses her arms, and moves to leave in the amazed hysteria in the crowd, despising her reason for coming here when she knows full well it is- well. Her eyes touch the floor for a second, shadows rising before her frown returns, as she pushes past over-excited fat guys, cheerleaders and all number of people who look like they've never seen a gym battle in their life.
Mars risks one, single look back at the field before she leaves, and freezes, her eyes set on the challenger. A too-well-known blue-haired girl, just as confident as she but strong to back it up, and it grates, even as hot embarrassment fills her.
Grey eyes distastefully watch her, the noise of the crowd all but disappearing in the rising dread she doesn't like to admit is always there. Dread about being caught, about being imprisoned, no longer able to see the night sky and escape from all her mortal crimes.
And then everything comes back, she blinks, and blustering, she flees, running for far longer than required, feeling like her heart might burst from the strain of everything. The weight of it all, the lack of reason to live, the necessity to keep running, the undercurrent of shameful need to see the girl who beat Cyrus (eventually killing him, and Mars doesn't think she'll get over seeing his body just hang there-) knocks the breath out of her, collapsing into a muddy field, refusing to think.
And even then, she has to deny the searing drops that fall.
She pretends she wasn't looking for the information.
August 23rd, at 9:00 sharp, Miss Dawn Berlitz will be formally challenging Aaron-
On that morning she is awake at six, prowling the mostly deserted streets of Sunyshore, fervently chewing her fingernails as she tries to resist it. One match can't hurt.
She sighs, then screams her defeat, sighing once her feet turn determinedly toward the League building.
Just one.
The hall is packed, even as Mars shoves, kicks and scratches her way to the nearest seat to the exit, furthest away from the ring. The green-haired runt enters looking surprised at the number of people, and Mars snorts. The crowd are not here for him, he is merely the opponent of Dawn, the saviour of a nation, the young hero. Not even sixteen, she is bearer of the people's hopes, and all that trash that is said in the papers Mars sees occasionally. She thinks back to her own fear-ridden exile from her home nation, a cursed system and disappeared people, and scowls at her own folly, having turned another nation against her. Why she stays, she does not understand.
Dawn walks out as she thinks that, and for a milli-second, Mars' heart stops. It's over before she can blink, but internally she groans. She thought she'd sorted that, pursuing Saturn until he'd given up on her, and she'd had to quit, and then the sleeping with men who pursued her in clubs. Particularly not for an idiotic gods-cursed fifteen-year-old who probably couldn't tell a beer from water. It wouldn't happen, she'd leave Sinnoh after this match, and that would be that. Leave the rotten legacy behind and an identity, she'd just start life over again (for what, the fifth time, she's so fed up of moving on).
The match starts and ends before anyone can really draw breath. A temperamental but loyal looking rapidash decimates most of the Elite's team, with a quick change here and there to deal with slightly trickier members.
With a sudden chill, Mars realises that Dawn is looking methodically through the crowd, and finds herself immeasurably glad of Dawn's supporters, dressed in red, and so slips away from the notice of the challenger.
She hasn't seen many people with quite so red hair as her, and she's never been sure whether that's something to be proud of, or a curse, knowing her history.
Despite her promises of just one match, she goes to the next match, the next day, (Mars doesn't do promises, recalling so many broken and shattered at her feet) but it's cut short. A suspicious woman watches her intently, begins whispers of isn't that the one who- and Mars gets out of there quick.
She's not ready for a concrete sky.
The next match is postponed; something about an earthquake and repairs needing doing, and Mars finds herself lost with the sudden time.
Not that she ever has anything to do, except run from laws she knows that she's broken, and reality.
But nobody really cares about that, do they?
She lays back, grass bending under her weight, and watches the clouds go past for a long while, mind as empty as the sky she watches, and she's happy for that. For all she is pursued by the law, she can never outrun her own mind. But now, devoid of any meaningful thoughts, she is happy, so long as she doesn't dwell on that fact.
"You were at all those matches, weren't you." It's hardly a question but a statement, and she is simultaneously drowning and clamouring to run. She shouldn't like this woman/girl. (She doesn't, not really. She just loves her instead, which is even worse.)
Mars, as ever, recovers quickly, and wonders whether anyone notices things amiss.
"How else do I research my enemies? You might just join one of those police patrol squads and then I'll know how you fight." Mars drawls as languidly as she dares, body tensing as she readies herself for escape. She peers at Dawn, staring down at her from a standing position, hands on hips. (It's a pretty good angle actually, she can see how slender Dawn is, how short her skirt is- (she really does detest this side of herself, a lot. She'd push it off a cliff if she could.))
Sitting up, hiding her trembling hands by pressing them to the ground as leverage, she stands, crossing her arms firmly, smirk still evident, lazily hanging on her lips. Out the corner of her vision, Dawn doesn't look impressed.
"But you-" Mars sprints off, ignoring the furious curse that follows her, picking up speed. Perhaps she should take up running as a sport in her next region.
At least until she gets kicked out, she thinks, and sighs slightly, sneering up at the ever-more cloudy sky. Everything is so complicated, here and elsewhere.
But she'll still go to the match tomorrow.
To her credit, she actually buys a ticket for the next match, with money she doesn't have any more though. She supposes that maybe it's getting better - only one criminal act involved, as opposed to several, including trespassing to get into the stadium the past few times.
Dawn doesn't even wait for the end of the match, searching the crowd from the moment she sets foot on the field, and Mars curses her place behind kids, behind which she cannot easily hide, and Dawn quickly finds and holds her gaze for an unnerving length of time. Mars feels herself shrinking, wishes that the girl would just give it up already. There's only a certain amount of that piercing gaze she can cope with before her mind starts glitching, clearly explaining her folly to her.
The entire crowd seems to go silent, and then loud as Dawn appears to realise this, and looks away, smiling confidently at the red-headed afro man of the elite four.
Mars looks on, somewhat frazzled, a conspiratorial voice somewhere whispering you don't come for the match, do you?
And she doesn't like to admit it's the truth.
Dawn grins wickedly as Mars hangs her head, knelt before the law courts of Sinnoh, hearing the long list of crimes to her name read out, before she finds herself in a cell, watching nothing change but Dawn's voice telling her she deserves nothing good, nothing at all not even food, how disgusting she is...
And then she wakes up, a local pikachu group nudging her curiously. Out of impulse she grabs one, holding it before her as she sits up, watches it squirm helplessly while the others cry out, then appear to discuss.
She lets it go with a heavy sigh, thinking of her dream and the pokémon that left (one act of compassion, she thought: releasing them into the wilds to stop them being incriminated alongside her. She doesn't like to remember the tears that followed that act). The pikachu scamper quickly away, unwilling to allow a repeat of it to occur. Mars spots a raichu further in the distance, and thanks anything that they are mild natured creatures, (unlike the ones she grew up with, unlike the ones she used to know) and won't seek revenge. But just in case, she stands up and leaves, walking back towards town, hoping to get there before the threatening sky makes good on that threat and soaks her.
She doesn't.
Dawn's battle with the psychic man lasts longer than the others. Mars had purchased (mostly lawfully) a hooded jacket so she could hide her hair, though as she hadn't been one of the 'faces' of Team Galactic to the media, she was getting surprisingly little attention. Although she was sought by the entire nation, the entire nation did not know what she looked like (Cyrus was gone, they already had Jupiter and Charon, Saturn had pled innocent and was reforming the team into something respectable. She didn't hate the thought as much as she would have) and so she could go mostly undetected. However, just because she knew this was no reason to be overconfident.
There may have also been the fact that it shadowed her eyes, making her harder for Dawn to pick out.
She was actually able to watch the match this time, glimpses of Dawn's skill showing through easily, proving that this man was more of a challenge, but she still went on to win, though with a lesser margin than before. The pride was evident in how Dawn thanked her pokémon, even from where Mars sat, the stadium slowly emptying around her, and the ex-team member remained somewhat transfixed, confused at how someone could love these creatures quite so much. Sure, she missed her own pokémon, but that was... different, somehow. Like someone might miss a useful weapon, or a good friend... (Or maybe she missed them because she'd treated the only proper friends she had with snideness and derision, and was sad because she knew releasing them was genuinely the best option for them. She despised the vulnerability.)
Mars came to her senses, scowled at her idiotic thoughts and joined the stream of people leaving the arena, and hoped that no one, not least Dawn, had noticed her presence.
How, in such a massive stadium, she did it, Mars would never know. She hadn't even scanned the crowd, she just seemed to find Mars, even with her hooded jacket, just a merest tuft of red hair poking out of the gloom, and yet Dawn appeared to know it was her, staring for a moment before closing her eyes, shaking her head as she turned to face Cynthia. It left Mars confused, but she remained anyway (she'd paid, fully legally, if only because the black market for tickets was extremely expensive.) to watch what promised to be a blinding match. The current Champion led off with her Garchomp, Dawn retaliating with the fastest Empoleon Mars had ever seen, severely wounding the dragon with a lightning-speed ice beam.
The match continued on for hours, equally powerful teams trying to get the upper hand, the stream of commands, attacks and retaliations never stopping or slowing for a moment. Even the crowd went mostly silent, unsure as to who had the advantage or not, Cynthia's fans looking somewhat worried. Few people had even got to fight her officially, and no one had looked this strong against the reigning Champion.
Mars had to admit to herself that it was worth staying in Sinnoh for, worth flouting the law and the people who pursued her for this. It was better than watching Dawn fight Cyrus (mostly because then she had a side to support and wasn't sure if she wanted to support the side she was supposed to).
Eventually, it ended up as one-on-one, neither trainer having a type advantage against the other, the tension building in the stadium as the pokémon got progressively more tired, Cynthia's Spiritomb getting slower in teleporting, and Dawn's Rapidash becoming more frustrated, dodging attacks thrown from all direction by the ghost. But then Dawn obviously noticed an opening that no one else appeared to see, ordering a flame-thrower in one spot - where the Spiritomb was not -revealing a web, the fire leading directly to the ghost pokémon and causing it, completely unaware, to faint due to the shock.
The crowd were silent for a long while, unable to comprehend, before a huge roar of amazement went up, echoing into every corner of the stadium. Even Dawn looked a little shocked, as she returned the fire pokémon to its pokéball and tucked it back onto her belt, looking bewildered as Cynthia crossed the field to shake her hand, leading her to the Hall of Fame. Mars, unable to stop herself smiling slightly, pattered down the steps and out of the stadium without haste, quite sure that Dawn would be busy enough with reporters and duties that she would forget her entirely, leaving her at ease to choose whichever region she could get to from Sinnoh. There was some news of an uprising in a place called Unova, but she'd also heard 'Pokémon Liberation' being mentioned, and decided it wasn't worth it. She'd seen her male doppelgänger who seemed to live in Johto, and had no desire to meet him, so that was out.
Perhaps she'd go for a southern region, since it would be warmer than Sinnoh. It was summer at the moment, but it was turning, and it would turn amazingly cold soon.
That was as far as she got before she was roughly grabbed, dragged to a nearby bench and forced to sit. Mars readied herself to kick her attacker, but instead frowned in confusion as Dawn's face filled her view, calm, if somewhat annoyed.
"How did you not get eaten alive?" Mars asked, still somewhat stunned by the speed of it.
"I climbed out the bathroom window," Dawn explained gravely, as the ex-team member spotted leaves in her hair and on her clothes. That must have been something to see, she thought, hiding a smile. "Why were you watching all these matches?"
Mars sneered, taking advantage of Dawn's no longer strong grip to stand up. "Shouldn't you be getting back to your adoring fans?" She expected the new Champion to leave her alone, but after a few moments, she heard footsteps catching up with her, and the caw of a pokémon behind her. Glancing back, Dawn's Empoleon was padding easily after them, holding her gaze for a moment, in what seemed to convey, Don't even think about hurting her.
"They won't miss me for a while. Why were you there?" Dawn asked quietly, while Mars glared at her. Why was she being so stubborn on this point?
"I already told you. Unless you didn't hear the first time, of course. Then it's too bad for you." At least she was on the harbour road, ships looming in the distance. She was sure one of them would be going to a region untainted by her presence. The further away it was, the better.
"But if you're leaving Sinnoh, why would that bother you?"
Mars cursed internally. This girl was quick. Still, she wouldn't be found out yet.
"Don't you paranoid types chase people around the world?" She glanced at the first ship they were passing, read that it was going to another place in Sinnoh, and dismissed it. Empoleon was still following behind the two of them, surprisingly quiet in its motion.
"You did know you were pardoned a while back, right?" When Mars shot her an incredulous look, Dawn smiled. "You don't have pokémon, and you were under the influence of a gang. Of course, you're not forgiven, to most to people. They don't like people messing with the legendaries. Most of Team Galactic is gone, you probably know. Jupiter and Charon are locked up, Cyrus is dead and Saturn got pardoned too. But I think you've changed."
Mars laughed, frowned sadly at the distance and tried to make her tone acid. "You do-good types, you're all the same. You'd let someone off with murder if you thought they'd 'changed'. No one changes that much, idiot." She was about to continue, before hearing an odd sound from Dawn. Looking back at her, she realised that the new Champion was laughing quietly, behind her hand, amused eyes fixed on Mars. "What are you laughing at?" she demanded.
"You! Honestly Mars, do you think I didn't see? You released your pokémon, even though they meant something to you. You came to all of my Elite Four matches, so you were obviously interested in how I was doing. The fact you're even speaking to me now shows me you're different."
Mars stared at her openly, only regathering her senses to remark that Dawn was the weirdest person she'd ever met.
Dawn simply smirked.
"That destination might be good for you. It's really far away, south-west of here across the ocean." Mars looked where Dawn was pointing, to a large ship close to them, reading the information given, nodded absentmindedly and went into the office to buy a ticket. "I'll go with you. I've always wanted to go to other regions."
"Seriously? Dawn, you only just become the Champion of this poxy region, why leave?" The younger woman brightened, smiling genuinely as Mars wondered what had caused it (but internally, stupidly, happy that it was probably due to her).
"So I do have a name! I was beginning to think it was 'brat' or 'idiot'." Dawn grinned brightly, before rummaging in her bag, still speaking. "Anyway, you make a good point. I'll probably follow you in a year or so. I like moving around." She then held out three pokéballs to Mars, who took them cautiously, commenting that Dawn was easily amused as she inspected them.
And when she recognised the pokémon inside, she almost dropped them. Her very own purugly, bronzor and golbat, returned to her. She felt like she shouldn't have felt quite as much happiness as she did; only just refrained from hugging Dawn on the spot.
"They were causing trouble, so it's my duty to return them to their rightful owner. I trust you'll treat them much better this time."
Mars thought about telling her how bad a liar she was, and then decided against it. What did it matter? She had a second chance, a way to put things right this time, and she wasn't going to throw it away. Maybe, she thought somewhat cynically, she could come back and challenge Dawn at some point.
"T-thanks," she murmured, knowing it couldn't really cover Dawn's true gift of forgiveness. Mars was still confused as to why she was being trusted, but a loud honk from behind her told of the boat's departure, cutting off any questions she might have. If she was perhaps deluding herself, there was a pinch of sadness in Dawn's expression.
She was going to leave saying nothing, Mars realised. Nothing to tell Dawn the real reason why she was there, for all those matches, nothing to explain her postponing leaving the region. The thought itself almost made her frown: was there nothing she could say to Dawn, despite everything she had made the girl go through, to convey anything?
Then Mars remembered that she was a thief. She stole things, and she now knew exactly what she would steal, despite her mind readying itself to give her a scolding, and for a split-second, she didn't care at all.
Dipping down to Dawn's eye level, she smirked, placing a hand on the new Champion's neck and pressing her lips to Dawn's. However, she lacked the courage to take it further, instead stepping away, turning and ascending the ramp onto the ship while placing the three pokéballs onto long empty spaces on her belt. She would have dipped straight into the innards of the ship, chiefly a container vessel with some passenger holding capabilities, but for a voice floating over the bow.
"Why d'ya do that?" Dawn didn't sound annoyed, just intrigued, and so Mars slid to the front of the deck, waving slightly as a certain buoyant feeling overtook her.
"I might like you, just a little!" Mars called, causing Dawn to grin and blow a kiss, even as the ship began manoeuvring out of the harbour.
Once they were a little way out, she heard a tune waver from her pocket, and saw a text from an unknown number. Opening it, her query was solved.
I like you too. You treat me like im normal. : )
Whether Dawn interpreted her swearing as a wave or not, she couldn't tell, but Mars left Sinnoh with a small smile on her face.
She might enjoy returning, or at least seeing one Sinnohese person.
For the record, Mars was swearing because Dawn got her phone number, not because of the contents of the text.
Yet another kink meme fill, for Mars being a bitt of a stalker for Dawn, although this became much longer than I thought it would be.