Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon or its characters.

A/N: I'm sorry to everyone who was waiting.

Chapter 6

Sixth Songstress

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"Hold still," he hissed at the pig-tailed Songstress, as he shoved her back down onto the window seat of the house car. In Gold's fantasies, shoving a beautiful woman down always meant a night of passion and fun. With Crystal, that wasn't the case. The woman continued to scream and struggle as he tried to check her shoulder.

A fist whooshed past his cheek, and he caught it and pinned it above her head as she struggled to kick him. "Get off of me!" she yelled. "Let me go! Get off you damn kidnapper!" She was still wearing her ripped kimono from yesterday, and Gold knew that her shoulder was throbbing underneath. He wouldn't be able to treat it if she kept struggling. Gold grabbed her other hand and forced it down by the other. She hissed, probably due to her shoulder.

"I can't help you if you keep struggling," he said. He leaned back and observed the girl below him. Her face was flush with the effort with which she struggled, and her hair and kimono were a mess. Her eyes were focused on him, only him, and the glare she shot him sent a shiver down Gold's spine. He bent down to Crystal's ear and slid his mask up just enough to reveal his lips. "Stop fighting me," he whispered as he licked the shell of the Songstress's ear.

Crystal wouldn't give him an easy catch. She didn't want to fall victim to this man, like she knew many other women did. She forced her knee up, into his stomach, with all the force she could muster. He fell back and curled up into himself as he coughed. She got up from the long seat and backed away, watching him with wide eyes. She panted with panic and looked around for an exit. She found none, and whispered into the thick air, "I will never submit to you… Just leave me the hell alone!" She cradled her hurt shoulder and turned away from him.

Gold coughed as he watched her. Although her amount of seriousness bothered him (even if he thought deep down that it was kind of cute), he still needed to make sure she was well cared for. It was just more than the girl's attractiveness and more than Blue's orders. He was drawn to her. The boy wiped his mouth on his sleeve, pulled down his mask, and stood up. Crystal watched him and he responded, "I wouldn't have had to trap you if you just showed me your shoulder." She looked rebellious, but Gold could see in her eyes the fear and sadness. He slowly walked towards her to grab her hand, and was upset to see her flinch. He slowly dragged his hand up her arm. Goosebumps followed his touch and he couldn't help but wonder how her skin stayed so soft. He slowly reached her shoulder and ghosted over the expensive cloth that covered it. He knew that she was struggling to keep back the instinct to pull away and he reassured, "I won't hurt you," I promise. He carefully pulled down the cloth and his eyes met swollen, bruised flesh. He looked up at Crystal's face and found her looking away, her mouth a thin line. When she noticed him staring, she glared back.

Gold pulled out the medicine Blue had given her and twisted off the cap of the tube containing the gray cream. Crystal's eyes widened at the common medicine. "Wait," she said slowly, "I know that cream is nationally recognized for its healing properties, but the pain it causes is-"

Gold smiled gently and said, "Yeah, I know it hurts, but just trust me." He squeezed some of the medicine onto his hand, already feeling its burn, and gently touched her shoulder.

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Blue leaned back on her bunk and examined the files in front of her. The Songstress of Life and Time had been successfully captured, and that left three more. She took the printed data on the two Songstresses and pushed them aside to look at the other profiles and a map. She took her quill and held it to the paper, measuring the distance from Johto to Hoenn and then Johto to Sinnnoh by the pen size. Hoenn was closer by a quill and a half. Blue silently cursed to herself and went back to the files on the other Songstresses. The Sinnnoh and Unova Songstresses had been easy to locate. They were both princesses to their respective kingdoms. On the other hand, there were no records on the Songstress of Beauty. Avoiding Hoenn and going to Unova would lose a lot of time, but searching for a girl with a secret identity without any hints could lose even more time. "Shoot," Blue complained as she threw her quill at the map, leaving a black dot on Hoenn. They didn't have time to be sitting around! Every second she spent hesitating was a second more that Green could use to catch up to her.

Green… Her mind wandered to the spiky-haired knight. She was curious about him, but he was a threat to her plan. He acted cold, yet calm, but Blue knew it was all an act to make his precious noble friend and princess feel secure. She believed that he should just leave them behind. He had so much potential to be greater than a measly knight! Her mind was starting to wander to their conversation in town when Gold dropped down through the ceiling door and hopped onto Silver's bed, boots and all, so that he could stand and rummage through his own sack of belongings. Blue was about to scold him when she noticed a large, red mark on his face. "What happened to you?" she asked with a smile. Probably another woman, she snickered internally.

"Crystal got kind of angry and spazzed out," Gold answered with a smile as he continued to look for something. He growled in frustration when he couldn't find the item, and jumped to sit no his bunk as he continued his search.

"Crystal? Who is that…? Oh…" Blue's confused face melted into a frown. She couldn't have her crew referring to the Songstresses by first names. She picked up the files on her bed and studied them again. Blue had predicted this happening, and she had to stop it now. "Gold," she warned coldly, "be careful. Don't grow attached to her." Blue had been in his position, she knew how these stories ended. She didn't want him getting hurt, and having him fall in love with the Songstress of Time would only complicate her plan.

He didn't look up as he answered, "What are you talking about? You told me to administer the medicine, didn't you? I did it. It's not like we're getting married, Blue."

"I'm serious, Gold," Blue said. He stopped his rummaging to see her staring intensely at him.

"Well, I am, too!" he yelled at her. What the heck did she take him for? He wouldn't just fall for any old girl. He was the one that had the girls falling for him. "What the heck's your problem?"

"I'm just reminding you," Blue said, her ocean-colored eyes falling back to the map as she traced her hand over it, "that girl is a part of our plan, and we'll soon be getting rid of her."

She noticed he hesitated before angrily whispering, "I know that." He crossed his arms and quietly stared down at his boots.

"Don't forget your promise. Don't forget Silver, Emerald, Ruby, White and me. We agreed on building a more fair world together. You yourself said that you wanted to show your family back in-"

"I know, Blue," he said. He grabbed something from his pouch and jumped down from his bunk. She saw that his gold eyes weren't the soft amber they were before, but a hard gold that was cold and heavily guarded. It made Blue smile. "I'll never forget that, no matter what gets in the way," he told her.

She smiled at him. It was good knowing that he wouldn't waver from their plans. She relaxed on her bunk and folded the map of the kingdoms delicately. "That's good," she said. "Don't ever forget your past. It makes you stronger." The brown-haired woman held out the folded paper to the boy, and he took it and waited for instructions. "Give it to Silver," she said. "Tell him we're setting out for Hoenn as soon as possible."

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A/N: Hey guys, I'm not dead. Woo~ This chapter was more on feelings and stuff, so yeah, more action next time. Sorry I took long to update. I know, I'm mean… But if you'll still have me, I love you! Also, this chapter was more of a warm up for me to get back in the game.