A/N If any of you haven't, read Koukou Debut. It is the cutest shojo manga I've ever read.

Of a Darkness Fortold

Chapter 7: Broken Bonds

It was barren and dry. Not a sign of life anywhere. The only thing that was there was herself.

Cynthia looked around the desert-like landscape, hoping to find someone or something. She took her first step and clearly heard the gravelly ground beneath her crunch crisply. Surprised, she looked down at her black high heel boots and saw nothing but soft sand underneath them. She cautiously took another step and heard the loud crunch of gravel once again.

'You've failed us, Cynthia...'

"Who's there?" she asked to the vast space. She saw nothing but a dim darkness mixed in with swirling clouds of purple dust all around her. Before she called out again, a figure emerged from the darkness. It was her grandmother.

'You've failed Cynthia, to think...my dear granddaughter...'

"Grandma...please don't...I didn't fail! I...it's just a set back!" She attempted to approach the elderly woman when she was abruptly stopped by a hand on her shoulder. She immediately recognized the gentle touch to be that of Steven's as she turned around to meet him. He looked at her as if he were pitying her.

'Haven't you done enough?' he asked her softly. 'You've hurt everyone enough already. Your grandmother, me, Lance...'

"I haven't given up yet! I haven't hurt anyone yet!"

'Quit kidding yourself.' This time, Lance emerged from the shadows, standing beside Cynthia's grandmother. He glared at her intensely. 'It's your fault that the world we knew...ended.'

All of a sudden, dozens of people began to appear all around her. They threw their questions at her in their voices filled with despair.

'Why didn't you save us, Cynthia?'

'Why didn't you?'

'Why, Cynthia? Why?'

The blonde shot up from the couch. She breathed heavily as if she had just surfaced from being underwater for a long time. Sweat coated her forehead thinly as she cleared away her golden blond bangs away from her face. She looked around and sighed in relief when she saw that she was inside the house and not in the middle of an arid desert.

"Bad dream?" her grandmother asked.

Cynthia turned around and saw that her grandmother was still up, researching once again. She smiled tiredly and whispered, "a little."

"You're too stressed," Carolina remarked, flipping through a book and making notes.

"I saw that everyone was mad at me for letting the world end," Cynthia let out a dry chuckle. "I'm sorry grandma. I guess these are just one of the little pressures on becoming champion."

"Lance and Steven have that pressure as well. They are willing to share the burden with you Cynthia. Why don't you let them? Even though they seem quite incapable compared to you," her grandmother said haughtily. All Cynthia did was laugh.

"Grandma...don't say that just because they're not here. I value them but, this was a problem that was my burden in the first place. They both have their own regions to take care of." Cynthia smiled gently as lied back down on the couch. She stared up at the ceiling for a long time before whispering, "I'm not quite sure what will happen now. It seems like a fantasy that Palkia and Dialga will be summoned." She crossed her legs and let out a rather melancholic sigh.

"If you were younger, you would be excited by these events. You said you always wanted to see them," Carolina chuckled.

"But, back then I didn't know it would cause a whole bunch of problems." Cynthia laughed softly as she closed her eyes. "My parents always warned me never to wish for something like that. Of course I didn't know what they were talking about."

"And now you know."

"Yeah..."

"It's late, dad. Shouldn't you be getting some rest?"

Steven watched as his father gave a hearty laugh. "Of course not. When I heard you were finally coming back, I told myself to be awake and fully energized when I meet you!"

They were both in a small, high class restaurant. Steven felt it to be a little overbearing, but he couldn't just say no after his father insisted upon eating dinner there. "You're leaving tomorrow! You should at least have a nice meal before you go!" he remembered his father saying a few hours before.

"Here are your waters and wine, sir," a waitress said as she gently placed two water filled wine glasses on the table, one in front of Steven and one in front of Mr. Stone. Lastly, she placed a heavy bottle of red wine in the middle of the table. "Your meals will be out in just a few more minutes, sir." She politely bowed.

"Thank you," Mr. Stone replied.

"Dad," Steven said in a warning tone. He waited until the waitress left their table. "You're not planning to get drunk tonight, are you?"

"This is just a refreshment, Steven!" his father exclaimed, taking the wine bottle. "I just want to have a drink with my son, just for old times sake."

Steven stared at him for a while with a slightly surprised look. He finally let out a wry chuckle and let a smile decorate his face. "I have such a weird father."

"And that's what she said to me! Ridiculous, isn't it?"

"Very," Steven laughed uneasily as he helped his father back to his penthouse. He quietly walked beside him, listening to the middle aged man talk about all sorts of things that happened while he was at work. Most of it was nonsense for he was very drunk.

'And I told him not to be,' Steven thought to himself, sighing inwardly as he tightly gripped his father's arm that was slung over his shoulders. Luckily for both of them, Rustboro was a particularly quiet town despite it being big. No one was out at night. Mr. Stone didn't have to worry about staining the clean slate reputation he made for Devon and Steven didn't have to deal with the fact that his father was just being plain embarrassing in front of other people.

"You seem to talk about your secretary a lot, dad," Steven said, commenting on what has been the topic of Mr. Stone's conversation for the last few minutes. "Do you like her?" he asked, vaguely remembering the middle aged woman that sat just outside of his father's office all day, filing and making phone calls.

Mr. Stone shook his head. "No, no..."

"Oh, I see. You don't have to hold back just because of me, dad. I told you I'm fine with you dating other women." Steven laughed light heartedly.

"That's not it." His father let out a heavy sigh and smiled softly. "I can't bring myself to love anyone else like I did your mother. She was brilliant, beautiful, funny," Mr. Stone chuckled, reminiscing back to his memories of her. He turned his head slightly upward to meet Steven's eyes. "You'll know if you fall in love someday, Steven. That person becomes irreplaceable to you." Mr. Stone chuckled when he saw his son's confused expression.

"Maybe," Steven replied, smiling.

By the time they got up to Mr. Stone's small penthouse, he was already wiped out. Steven managed to haul his father all the way to the bed without waking the drunken man. He sighed and grumbled under his breath, "jeez, getting yourself drunk..." His expression softened as he watched his father sleeping. "'night," he whispered as he quietly left the room.

Steven left the penthouse and walked down the hall towards the elevator. He decided to take a walk through Rustboro since there was nothing else he could do. He didn't feel any incentive to go to sleep even though he knew he had to rest up for tomorrow and the remainder of his lingering injuries.

A cool night breeze hit him head on as he exited the apartment building. He tilted his head back and looked up at the clear night sky, filled with a countless number twinkling stars.

"Steven? Is that you?"

He turned his head towards the direction of the voice and saw, much to his surprise, that it was Tanya. He widened his gray eyes when she came running up to him. "Tanya? What are you doing all the way in Hoenn?"

"Oh, I'm just here paying a visit to my parents. They get so worried about me! Say, hasn't it been a week since we met at the Pokemon Center?" Her voice was full of energy as it was before. "Are you all done exploring the caves in Sinnoh already?"

"Huh?" Steven was confused for a minute before remembering that he had lied to her before in order to cover up his real reason on why he was there. "Ah, yes there wasn't much to explore in the first place," he replied back smoothly. "I guess Hoenn just has a lot more caves that hold my interest." He laughed lightly.

"Oh...and I wanted to explore one with you." She looked rather downfallen as she shuffled her feet on the ground.

"I'm sorry, maybe next time?" he kindly offered.

"Promise?" she asked, pouting slightly.

"I promise," he said, holding out his pinky to her. She giggled and wrapped her pinky around his. "It's a promise then!" Her mood seemed to be quickly enlightened. Steven flashed her a warm smile and asked, "it's a little late for a girl like you to be wandering around by herself, isn't it?"

"I don't think Rustboro's all that dangerous. Look how quiet it is around here!"

Steven chuckled, "I guess you're right. But, your parents must be worrying about you right? After all, if they worry about you so much that they interrupt your journey, they surely wouldn't let you go out at night by yourself."

"H-Huh?" she asked, looking a bit frightened. "Ye-Yes, I guess you're right."

He took note of her sudden change in behavior, but brushed it off. "Come on, I'll walk you home."

"No, it's fine!" She laughed, taking a step back away from him. "I can walk there by myself!"

"But, I won't be able to forgive myself if something were to happen to you. Let me walk you home," Steven insisted. He looked surprise when Tanya suddenly lowered her head and held her hands tightly above her chest. "Tanya...?" he asked softly.

"Everything's fine...everything's fine." He heard her voice cracking.

"It doesn't sound like it." Steven stepped closer to her. "I'm sorry, did I hurt you?"

She whimpered softly and shook her head. "I'm sorry I lied to you, Steven. I'm really sorry."

"Lie?"

Tanya raised her head and looked at him with her soft green eyes that were filled with tears. "I lied to you. My parents...are both dead. I came to Hoenn to visit their burial site," she sniffled, "and the only reason I came to Rustboro was because this is where I lived before they died. I just couldn't let go of all the wonderful memories. I just felt sudden nostalgia that I-" She stopped when she felt Steven wrap his arms around her. "Y-You're not mad at me?"

"Of course not," he replied in a gentle whisper. "How can I be mad for a little lie like that? I'm sorry that I pried into your life too much. It was rude of me."

The sun bleached blonde shook her head. "You can't be rude. You were never rude. You couldn't have known from the start." She felt tears welling up again in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I'm crying too much."

Steven raised a hand and placed it on the back of her head. He stroked her hair gently and let her cry into his shoulder. "Shh, it's alright." They stood there for a while like that. When Steven no longer heard her crying, he heard her ask him, "so, you don't hate me?"

"No," he answered with a gentle smile.

Tanya fully embraced him by wrapping her arms around his body. She buried her face into his chest and let a sly grin tug at the corners of her mouth. "Thank you," she said in a voice that dripped of honey. "You're much too kind."

There was a hurried knock at the door.

Cynthia opened up her eyes and lay there as she heard another series of impatient knocks. She sat herself up and yawned. "The door's open!" she yelled tiredly as she rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

The front door clicked open and Lance strode in. Cynthia turned her head and looked rather surprised to see him standing there. "Oh, why are you here? I told you, you could take a little break since Steven's not here as well." She yawned again as she got up from the couch and walked over to the kitchen.

Lance let his red eyes follow her. He let out a sigh and replied, "it's been a week already. If Steven feels like he wants to take his sweet time, let him. I for one, am someone that lost his pokemon to Team Galactic. I wish to get them back as soon as possible."

Cynthia took out a small glass bottle of milk from the refrigerator and took off the cap. She drank the whole bottle in one go and placed the now empty bottle on the kitchen counter. "We won't do anything until Steven gets back from Hoenn, alright?" She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Grimacing in disgust, Lance followed her out the house. "You're disgusting for being a girl, you know that?" he asked as they left the house.

"Hm, tell me something I don't know." Cynthia shot at him a cocky smirk, for which Lance returned with a glare. She locked the front door and headed down the street.

"And what exactly are you planning to do?" Lance asked as he followed closely behind her. "You said it yourself that "we won't do anything until Steven gets back."" He tried mocking her by imitation. Cynthia pretended to ignore his childish taunt.

"I'm going to check up on the Lustruous Orb. I have to make sure nothing's been tampered with and that there's nothing suspicious around."

The red haired champion followed her silently until they got to the building that housed the orb. He was stopped abruptly by Cynthia when he attempted to enter the building with her. "Sorry, no one else is allowed to see the orb besides me and my grandmother."

"Fine."

Lance crossed her arms over his chest and leaned against the walls of the building. As he waited by the entrance, he noticed someone standing just a few feet away from him. He looked at them and saw that it was the same girl that he had seen a while back. She noticed that she had gotten his attention and so she began to walk towards him. Her dark teal swayed slightly and her eyes remained fixated on him. Lance narrowed his eyes at her. Perhaps it was time for him to confront her.

"Why are you-"

She cut in rather abruptly. "Following you?" she asked, finishing up his sentence for him. "You didn't heed my warning."

"Must I?" Lance questioned. He glared at her and she returned his glare with a unexpressive stare of her own. Finally, it was him who had to break the thick silence with a sigh. "You're a pokemon trainer, no?" He geastured to the pokeballs that were clipped around her waist.

She looked down at them and gave a slight nod.

"Then you shouldn't concern yourself with what is going on in my life right now. But, if you really want to see me so badly, come by the Indigo Plateau. I'll gladly accept a challenge."

Lance felt a slight chill when he saw her eyes narrowing at him. She didn't seem at all amused by his snappy response. "...Why are you telling me these things? And how do I know that you're not lying?"

"I never lie," the girl replied in a monotone voice. "I have no reason to lie to someone that I just met." She stood there stiffly as if she were a mannequin. Her neat, white laced black dress made Lance think of a typical, dull maid outfit.

"Do you by any chance...work for anyone?" he asked, judging her purely on her outer appearance.

"No. You assumed earlier that I was a pokemon trainer and you were right. Are you questioning yourself now?"

A sharp scoff left Lance's mouth as he turned his head away from her. "Go home. I don't know who you are and why you're telling me such cryptic messages. If your objective is to try and scare me, it isn't working." Lance heard nothing but silence and thought she had left. Just as he was about to confirm, he heard her flat toned voice.

"Why would I try to scare the only people that could stop Team Galactic?"

"What?" Lance whispered as he turned around. An expression of shock was written all over his face when he saw the girl no more. It was as if she had vanished into thin air. "What the hell?"

"Lance? What's wrong?" Cynthia asked.

The red head turned around and met the female champion's steel gray eyes. "Did you just see a girl there? She's about two heads shorter than me, has long dark hair, a long black dress and-"

Cynthia raised an eyebrow. "What are you talking about? It sounds like you're describing a ghost." She laughed. "It looks like you're starting to hallucinate. We'd better hurry and get your pokemon back if this is the result of that." She walked away before Lance could say anything else.

He took a look behind him again and didn't see the girl still. Lance shook his head and chuckled, "I must be tired..."

As he walked away, the girl in the black dress watched him. She peered out from behind a small building and continued staring at him with her inky gray eyes. "But, will you be too late?" she whispered, looking down at the ground.

"At least the Lustrous Orb is safe still. It seems that there were no threats made by Team Galactic to steal it." Cynthia expected some type of verbal response from Lance, but when all she heard was silence, she looked up at him sitting on the couch. He seemed to be deep in thought again. "Lance, I'm sorry that I'm boring you."

"Cynthia...you told me to be on the lookout for suspicious characters, right?" he asked in a rather ominous tone. He raised his head and faced her. "That girl I met earlier. She's been following me around everywhere. I've seen her a week ago on my way from the Pokemon Center and then a few minutes after that, she was standing right outside this house. If that doesn't make someone suspicious, I don't know what else will."

The blonde champion sighed tiredly. She stood up from the chair she was sitting in and placed her hands on her hips. "You're really something, aren't you Lance?"

"What?"

"I told you, it's just a hallucination. You're just tired and stressed out that your pokemon were stolen."

"I'm not! This girl is real! She had a conversation with me! She gives me all these cryptic messages about death and the universe!" Lance exhaled sharply. He began to speak again, this time in a calmer, lower tone. "I'm past the fact that Team Galactic has my pokemon. It doesn't matter to me anymore. All that matters is that we stop them."

Cynthia sighed as she crossed her arms over her chest. "I'm sorry...Lance. I just," she paused for a short while before continuing. "I can't believe what you're saying."

"What part of it is so unbelievable?"

"Well-"

"Is it the girl? Is it the messages she's giving me?" When Lance heard no response from her, he let out a huff in frustration. After a long period of silence, he finally muttered, "if this came from Steven, would you believe it then?"

"What?"

"I bet if Steven told you the same thing, you'd believe him in a heartbeat." Lance whispered lowly.

"No, I wouldn't! Quit making things up by yourself!"

"I'm not making anything up! I'm right about everything! You and Steven always agree on things, you believe every word he says-" Lance was suddenly cut off by Cynthia grabbing his shirt collar. Her hand shook as she held the black clothing tightly in her hands. She glared at him and all he did was look at her with an air of smug confidence. "Are you really going to hit me?"

Cynthia clenched her teeth and looked away.

"I knew it," Lance scoffed as he hit her hand away. He strode towards the door and opened it. By sheer coincidence, Steven stood at the front steps. His hand was raised in a loose fist as if he was about to knock on the door.

"Oh, Lance, how have you be-?" Steven stopped when he saw Lance's red eyes glaring hatefully at him. The red haired champion roughly pushed past him and walked away. Steven looked on after him and peered into the small house where he saw Cynthia standing there silently by the couch. "Uhm, did...something happen?"

The blonde raised her head and looked at him. She looked annoyed as she yelled, "I don't know! Why don't you go ask that asshole that just walked the hell out of here?" She too, walked over and brushed past him as she left the house. He saw her walk angrily away, right past her grandmother.

"Oh, Cynthia! I've decided to turn my research back to the ruins again!" The elderly woman looked confused when her granddaughter ignored her. She turned towards the house and saw Steven standing there at the front steps. She went over to him and asked, "you didn't do anything to hurt my granddaughter, did you?" She sounded a bit hostile.

Steven shook his head and looked out into the direction where Lance had walked off to. "No, I didn't. I have no idea what happened here."

A/N Sorry, another short chapter.

I hope to post another chapter soon. Maybe when I get some more reviews. Like I've said before countless times before, it shows that people are actually reading this. Hits are not accurate counts in my opinion. Basically, I won't update this story if I don't get reviews. Personally, I'm fine with that.

Read & Review (Seriously)