"Save yourself the trouble. Red has gone to find Sird."
Sird. The name rang a bell, but Yellow could not quite picture who he was. Like her, most of the dexholdes seemed confused, staring at Green with a blank look on their faces. Blue and Silver, however, had reacted with alert, batting their eyes knowingly with foreheads knitted into reflective lines.
"Who is he?" said Yellow and Gold together – Gold was just as eagar as she was to know more about Sird.
"It's a 'she', mind you," replied Green rather gruffly. "Sird was the right arm of former Team Rocket boss, Giovanni, and she's the one who petrified us all. Now that Giovanni has disappeared, my guess is she has assumed full control over Team Rocket. What's left of it, that is."
Noticing that Yellow still looked rather bemused, Green added, "You were asleep the whole time, Yellow. You won't understand much of it."
Green then turned to Ruby and Sapphire, who were listening in intently. "I assume she was behind the Guile episode too. She must have put him up to it."
"Yes, yes," said Blue, flapping around her hands impatiently. "Not that we all want to know more about our delightful lady friend, but let's move on to the main topic, shall we?"
Green pursed his lips and frowned. Silver in turn, rolled his eyes at Green.
"What makes you say Red went after Sird? Did you hear him talking about this?"
"No." When Blue opened her mouth to protest, Green quickly shot back, "I am just giving you my opinion. So could you, for once in your life, just listen?"
Blue looked displeased, but did not say anything.
"Thank you." Green shut the book he had been reading with a snap and began to speak. "You remember the day we all got back from Hoenn together, and decided we grab a bite to eat while we're in Vermillion City?"
Blue and Yellow nodded.
"Ever cared to wonder why Red was not there with us?"
"He told me he was heading home early because he was tired," said Yellow queasily. After a moment of pause, Yellow added, "He didn't, did he?"
"No, he didn't," answered Green as matter-of-factly. "And he gave me a quite different reason for leaving early. He told me he had to train himself more and that he won't be in contact for a while."
"Strange," said Blue, fiddling with her long strand of brown hair in a subconscious kind of way. "Why would he give us two different reasons for such a trifle matter? And why are you telling us this now?"
"Red asked me to not to tell, at least until it became necessary. Said he didn't want to worry you."
"I can understand that," said Blue, looking in the direction of Yellow with a small grin on her face. "But there seems to be nothing wrong with training Pokémons, so much so as it is Red. What made you think Red went off to find Sird?"
"When I asked Red where he was going to train, he told me, rather quickly I should add, that he would be going to Mt. Silver first. Red never was good at hiding his real intent, and the way he told me just seemed contrived," explained Green. "He also seemed to be somewhat keen on shaking me off before leaving, so I pretended to go back, and hid myself to watch him fly off.
Green had his audience. He went on. "Red did not fly to the west of Vermillion, which we all know is where Mt. Silver is at. He flew off to the south, in the direction of the Sevii Islands. Where everything began."
Yellow gave an involuntary shudder. She had never been there herself to help out Red, Blue and Green out in their last encounter against Team Rocket, but she had heard afterwards the frighteningly narrated tale of Blue; how Team Rocket abused all the islanders only for their own gain, and how they left behind only scenes of destruction in their paths.
"But why go back to Sevii Islands?" Silver questioned. "There's nothing there. Everyone was relocated to the mainlands after the last incident with Team Rocket."
"Presumably," answered Green. "Red went to find clues about Sird's whereabouts. That's where she and Team Rocket were originally based on, remember."
"So that was why Red was acting particularly strange that day. He was not his usual self at all…" Yellow's voice trailed off.
Nobody spoke for a moment. Green opened up his book again and began to read as if nothing had happened.
"Let me get this straight," said Gold, nudging Silver in the back. "So you're saying this woman named Sird is trying to raise hell again by rebuilding Team Rocket, and senior Red's gone to stop him?" Gold quickly corrected himself. "I mean, 'her'?"
Silver gave a small nod.
Gold spread his arms and shouted. "Well, now we know whom we should be fighting against! We gotta help senior Red out!"
Yellow nodded her head in strong approval. But most of the dexholders were lost in their own thoughts, content to keep their opinions to themselves.
When it became evident nobody would be responding, Gold pushed on with his plea. "Well...? What are we going to do?"
"Red did not ask for any help, did he now?" said Green in a flat, impassive voice. "If Red wants to go after a dormant foe alone, it's his business."
Gold's eyes widened in disbelief as he tried to register what Green had said. "I can't believe this." He blurted out angrily. "Your partner is fighting a formidable enemy alone and all you're going to do is just sit back and watch him do everything by himself?"
Green raised his eyebrows.
"You heard what I said." The words were pronounced so curtly that every of it dripped with outright venom.
If Gold was intimidated by Green's aura of nonchalant coldness, he did not show it. Instead, his fingers tightened around a poke ball he had pulled out of his bag, his gold eyes flashing omniously. Green had not moved an inch, but it was apparant he too was tensed and on guard.
"Please...!" Yellow, sensing a sure harbinger of a needless scuffle, thrusted herself between Green and Gold and pleaded. "It's our foe we should be fighting against together, not ourselves!"
"Hmph," Gold snorted and tossed his poke ball back into his bag. "I am not gonna waste my time battling this poser."
Gold veered round and turned away from Green. "If you are so afraid to do anything, I guess I'll have to take this matter into my own hands. C'mon, Ataro."
With his Ambipom toddling behind him, Gold casually walked away and prised the door open.
"Watch me. Coward."
Then he was gone.
Gold's Ataro turned around and glared at Green with as much disgust as it could muster. It jabbed its finger into its open mouth, and stuck out a tongue.
"Thbttt!"
The door clang shut, and it too, was gone.
"What manners," grunted Green, his eyes blinking furiously in what seemed like constrained rage.
A moment of silence ensued with no one making a sound. The tension had yet to die out; Gold's abrupt departure had obviously made its mark. Crystal was looking particulary perturbed, staring at the door as if expecting Gold to burst back inside any second.
Blue broke the silence.
"Did you really mean what you said just now?" Blue muttered quietly, looking at Green as if she was seeing him for the first time.
Green sighed deeply in frustration. "I am not going to explain this twice, so hear me right this time," said Green. "If Team Rocket wants to make a fool of themselves by experimenting with Pokemons and carrying out their asinine operations, I really could not care less. But if they encroach upon my interests, that is when I choose to get myself involved."
"Sird has not yet done anything, at least nothing that gets in my nerves. As for Red, if he had requested for help, I would have been more than happy to lend him a hand. But that is not the case here. If Red wants to do this hide and seek job alone, I say let him be."
Green suddenly stood up. "I had better get back to my gym now." He turned to Yellow. "I apologize, Yellow. I have overstayed your welcome."
Yellow frantically waved her hands no. "Really, no..." Yellow stammered.
Ignoring this, Green rummaged through his back-pocket and pulled out a small packet wrapped in a blue cover.
"Here, hold out your hand."
Green dropped the packet onto Yellow's hand. It was tiny, its width much shorter than that of Yellow's palm.
"Open it later when you are alone. Consider it my birthday present."
With that, Green swept out of the room. Yellow heard the door thud as Green made his exit.
"The guy's full of himself," said Blue with an odd look on her face. "But he certainly does have his own philosophy."
She turned to Yellow. "I am sorry it hasn't been the best birthday for you, Yellow. Things really didn't go as planned."
"It's okay, Blue." said Yellow gently. "It's not your fault this didn't turn out for the best."
"I know. It's all because of that stupid Green and Gold," said Blue tentatively with a slight smile. "We'll leave you in peace now."
Blue looked out the window and announced, "My, it's really gotten darker than dark! Let's go, everyone!"
"I need to see Professor Oak tomorrow morning anyway," said Crystal, who had been looking sullen since Gold had gone. "I had better get some rest."
One by one the dexholders exited the house, offering a rather lax good bye to Yellow. Not after long, Yellow was left alone, a quite solitude pervading her room as she fell into another lapse of deep contemplation.
Green's voice telling her of Red's whereabouts again echoed inside her head, playing out the biggest fear of her that always coincided with Red's disappearance.
Was Red safe? What if he was hurt?
Breathing in deeply, Yellow kneaded her forehead as she tried to straighten out her thoughts. Her inside was clogging up again, and the constant reminder that she could do nothing to help Red was now worsening the pain.
Thinking about Red was without partiality. If Red was near her, she would delight in the thoughts of getting to spend time with him. However, if Red was away, as was the case right now, pain would take over as her concern about the trainer would overwhelm her in entirety. But Yellow was no stranger to pain. She had suffered through it many times, each time Red disappeared at his whims without her knowing. Red would not know about this. No, he could never know about it. She had no wish to be a burden to Red's propensity for adventure, and for whatever costs, she would make it stay that way.
She could bear the pain, if it was for Red.
Yellow scrunched her eyes open, and realized she had been holding the packet Green had given her the whole time. Yellow weighed the small packet in her hand. The thought of opening it now hit her, but in the end, exhaustion got the better of her. She had had a long day, and it was not like the packet would go away overnight. Yellow ultimately decided she would open it tomorrow. It could wait until next morning.
Yellow slowly pulled herself together and plodded her way to her bedroom. Chuchu was already there, cuddled up into a small ball on the edge of her bed and sleeping soundly. Yellow carefully stroked the yellow rodent's gold-like fur, and chuckled appreciatively when it made funny, bubbling noises.
"Red will be back," repeated Yellow to herself, as she gradually dozed off to sleep.
Little did Yellow know that a tall, lanky figure who had been spying on her since the beginning of the day was now smiling a sinister smile outside her bedroom window.
