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Chapter 6: Gone
Spark's POV
For the first time in weeks, I woke up to no nightmares. All I woke up to was the wooden roof Conkeldurr made for me so long ago staring back at me from above. The room was almost serene, inviting me to sit around and forget about what I wanted to do today.
But I knew I needed to go so I got up, sighing at the sight of Riley's empty bed. I could have just removed it, and gotten the constant reminder that I was one of the few people who still had memories of Riley out. The memories I was not supposed to even have in the first place, yet I decided to retain by chasing that stupid Snivy with that stupid photo.
The memories that stupid, stupid me decided to chase after fervently, causing all of this to happen.
Despite all of this, I could not bring myself to actually throw out the bed that used to belong to Riley; instead opting to leave it there to silently rot away as I went on my trip today. The sun was starting to rise out of the sky, signifying that I had awoken at the right time for once.
The time I would go fix this entire mess I had gotten so many people in Post Town involved with that should have never happened. Me, along with Dunsparce, who I could not leave behind after seeing what had happened to him mentally last night, would go fix all of this.
Or be captured together, depending on how it went.
Sighing, I started walking towards where he lived in the Paradise; the house near the edge of the entire place. Both he and Emolga lived in a house I had asked Conkeldurr to build for them after they decided to stick around. Thinking back, I am not even sure Riley ever went to go see it, oddly enough.
But that was not what mattered right now. What mattered was that I needed to fix my mistakes. I needed to find Emolga. I needed to stop Dunsparce going through what I had went through the days after Riley left.
I needed to stop this seeming unending cycle that had been occurring for the past few days.
As I approached the house I noticed that the door was slightly ajar. Unlike my house, they had gotten a door due to fears of something coming in at the middle of the night due to the place being a fair bit away from the Paradise, far enough where you could find wild pokémon still roaming. I waltzed in and looked around trying to see if he was anywhere to be seen.
When he found he was not, I said, "Hey, Dunsparce, you there? We have to get going, every second we wait is another second they can get further away you know." I thought maybe he was just hiding not wanting to be spotted prematurely by someone since I said I wanted us to go alone.
But all I received in return for the shout was silence. Silence that was scarier then any sound you could ever hear. Silence that showed you were all alone.
Of course he would disappear right before we left. Of course everything would go wrong at the last moment and make it impossible to ever find Emolga. Of course this all happens right now.
Of course everything I ever built up collapses right in front of my face like it did all that time ag-
"Oh… I… I didn't know you were here already." I heard him say behind me.
I turned around to be greeted with Dunsparce standing at the doorway, having returned from what I could only presume was a quick walk outside or something of the sort. Sighing, I said, "Oh, sorry, I was worried for a second that you…" I sighed,"Look, it has been a long week, my mind is everywhere, I was just worried."
Worried was a understatement and a half, but in reality, I did not think he needed to know how I really felt for those last few seconds before he showed up. I did not think anybody needed to know.
I saw him waddle into the building, before saying, "Yeah… it… it has been the same for me too."
He took some time to get his stuff he needed for the trip, mostly composing of a small bag he had full of stuff. After a while, I asked him, "So, are you ready?"
"Ye… yeah, I guess…"
"Fine then, I don't see a point in really letting them get another foot ahead of us, so let's go."
Both me and him started walking towards our destination, the southern pathway. We were more then likely going to have to go through that water dungeon again, but I did not care about that at the moment.
What I cared about was maintaining this face everyone knew me by and not have another freak out session like I almost had in Dunsparce's house. Ever since Riley left, I had thought I was constantly going to break down since he was the only one keeping me afloat for a long time. Fortunately, the constant unfortunate situation has given me a excuse for some of my behavior recently, so they still think I'm the same person I was around Riley just going through bad times.
But what would happen when I did not have that excuse anymore? When the facade was finally revealed for what is was, a facade?
What was gonna happen?
Snivy's POV
Deep inside, I was starting to realize he was not coming back.
I had been waiting in the forest for what felt like hours at this point, watching the leaves go by and thinking about the past few weeks. Usually when I gave him a hour he would be back, yet here he was, nowhere to be found at the camp. I guess he was serious this time about being done with it all, and actually walked away for good.
In a effort to try to find him, despite how much I knew he hated me interrupting his business, I walked towards the passage he had went down to only be greeted with foliage. Green, leafy, encompassing foliage.
Foliage that only seemed to be there to taunt me. Foliage I knew Pansear hated walking in due to the sheer difficulty it was to walk through it. Foliage I knew I would not be able to find him in.
Foliage that I swear was not there before yet was standing right in front of me.
Sighing in defeat, I started walking towards the main pathway to Scarlet City. If he did not care and wanted to go wallow in his misery, that was his concern. But I could not afford myself the luxury of doing something like that right now. I needed to find Emolga, otherwise this would all be for naught. She was our one lead, our one surefire piece of information that would have lead us to him and maybe even Hex.
Until something or someone set the entire place on fire of course.
Someone who might be still there.
My body slightly shuddered at the thought that this was a ambush of some sort, but if it truly was, then what did I have to lose at this point. This all would have been much better had Pansear just stayed around, but he did not. He ran off, and was now probably crying in the woods somewhere, blaming himself for Tyrunt's death like he did for everything that went wrong in the group, under the mentality that he had no excuse to let it happen. I knew it was a unhealthy mentality for him to have, especially in a situation like this, but I was not one to tell someone off for how they lived their life.
My chain of thought was interrupted when I felt a branch snap underneath my foot. I found myself back on the pathway leading to the town I would have preferred not to go into alone, but was forced to due to the fact that the longer I waited the further that Emolga could be. She was probably already long gone, heading back towards Post Town, but there was always the chance.
The chance she was still somehow there. The chance all of this could be alright again. There was always the chance.
It was a chance I had to take.
The now half burnt gateway still stood up as I walked into the town, seeing the damage that last night's fire had caused. Oddly enough, Tyrunt was missing from the pile of rubble that had been created from the fire. Unlike his probably burnt body however, the buildings were somehow still standing, acting as extremely effective hiding spots for anybody who was still around after last night.
Sighing, I began to look through each one of them, in a hope that maybe I would be able to find Emolga hiding or collapsed in one of these buildings. It was a small hope, but large enough to the point where I could not ignore it.
So I searched, with my mind constantly finding itself back on the subject of Pansear's whereabouts despite me having no way to figure them out. There was always the chance I might find answers I desperately needed here.
There was always the chance.
Spark's POV
It was a surreal feeling, being back at a place I had not been at in months nor ever truly planned on being back at again. The landscape around me stretched on for what felt like miles, encompassing the entire surrounding area except for the forest behind me. Knowing this was getting to the edge of where my old northern map showed, I put it away and got out the one I had gotten yesterday from Kecleon.
I looked at the map and located Forest Grotto near the north-eastern part of the map, having just spent hours walking through what was represented as a tiny little area. Based off the pathway, it looked like we needed to continue going south from where we were and then eventually reach a crossroad that split off to go towards Scarlet City. Mentally sighing at the large distance, I put away the map and started walking again, under the hope we could get there as fast as possible.
Dunsparce, after noticing I had started to walk again, asked, "Oh, did… did you find where… where we needed to go?"
"Of cou-," I stopped myself mid-sentence, dropping my earlier stern tone, "Yeah, I did, it wasn't that hard to find."
Of course I almost snapped at him. Of course I keep on slipping up. Of course life spits on me when I am down. Of course this all happens to me and not that Snivy that abducted Lillipup who is probably having a grand old time doing whatever she pleases to Emolga.
I shook the thoughts out of my head and attempted to fix the situation I got myself into. "Uh, long week, just… please, disregard me."
He still seemed a bit freaked out by my sudden outburst but at least stopped acting freaked out by it, thankfully enough. That did not mean it was all good, however, with it being another time I accidentally broke the persona I had been holding up for months, causing more cracks in it to form. To further break the lie that I had been keeping up for the last few months.
The lie everybody in Paradise believed. The lie I wished was not a lie yet was. The lie that I needed to desperately stay a lie, yet was starting to unravel more and more every passing day. The lie I feared everyone would hate me for after they discovered what it exactly was covering up.
The lie that had defined me for my entire time in Post Town.
Attempting to get the thought out of my mind, I said, "So, how have you been?"
"Uh…" he was taken aback, "I… I think you… you know. How… how about you?"
"I'm… fine." I said with a small fake grin.
He stopped walking. "Your fine? After… after all of this… your fine?"
Of course I had to say I was fine, and not something else that Dunsparce would not hitch on to. I tried to think of a idea as to what to say and then had a idea that I thought might work.
Plastering a small fake grin on my face, I said, "Well I mean, Riley would not want me to be down right now, would he? The same could be said about Emolga, she would hate to see you like this, wouldn't she?"
I hated having to use Riley's name in vain but in this case I deemed it necessary. If I did not say anything fast, my facade would crack even further, and Dunsparce would start to realize I was not mister peppy peppy happy all the time. He would realize what I truly was.
And I could not have anybody knowing that, otherwise I would have to leave behind Post Town forever. No one could know.
No one at all.
Dunsparce seemed conflicted about what I said. On one end, it probably made sense to him. But on the other, he was probably in self denial and was not going to accept it anytime soon. I could have just said that maybe I was wrong and brought him out of it, but that would be me speaking, not my facade. And he did not care what I said, he cared about what my facade said, since that was his friend. I was just a outsider in all of this, playing the part of the person who everyone was friends with; a actor in a world of non-actors.
To him, I never have ever even existed.
"No she… she wouldn't… she would understand… that… that tragedy can't…" I heard him say in self-denial behind me.
My mind was instantly brought out of my internal rant to be greeted with Dunsparce not accepting what my persona had claimed to be the truth. I was hoping it was going to work, and that this situation I had gotten myself into would be resolved without my persona having to say another word about it, but that obviously did not happen. So I was stuck there having to quickly think up another thing for my persona to say.
Eventually, I came up with a idea I knew I would hate saying, but I did not see any way around it. Knowing every second I waited was another moment that made me seem more suspicious, I internally sighed and said, "I mean… that was what she told me when we whispered to each other before the Snivy fight, where she told me Riley would not want want to see me in the state I was in."
I hated every moment my mouth was saying a word in that sentence, but it was finally done. Dunsparce seemingly put his head down in disbelief or just pure melancholy. In actual concern this time, I said, "Hey, is something wrong?"
He acted like he did not hear me. I was about to walk towards him to see if he was fine but then I heard him start speaking under his breath.
"She… she always… told me to… to never box… box up emotions like little… little monsters. She… she said that's… that's why her… her brother…"
"That's why her… brother… why he… why he…"
"Why he…"
After it dawned on me what I had truly accomplished, my mind was filled with harrowing, clawing regret, regret I had to keep hidden behind my mask, my facade.
"She… she…"
"Dunsparce, is there a issue or…"
"No… I'm… I'm fine, I just… just need to… to think, that's all."
Hating myself, and everything I had said a few moments prior, I slowly started to walk forward again; Dunsparce trudging along in silence behind me. I occasionally glanced back at him to see him looking down constantly almost in tears.
I knew I could end all those negative emotions he was feeling right now if I only told him the truth, that I lied. All it would take was one measly sentence, one small, tiny sentence.
Yet I knew if I said it, all that anger towards either himself or Emolga or both would be redirected at me the second I said the sentence. As much as I wanted to say it, I knew if I did, the friendship he had developed with my facade over the last few months would be broken instantly. So, for as much as I hated doing it, I walked along, holding my facade closer and tighter then before, hating myself and hating everything that I have had done the prior week more and more with every step.
All I could do was tighten my facade and pretend like everything was okay.
Just keep on pretending.
Snivy's POV
All of this could not be happening.
Right in front of my eyes, I had witnessed everything I had worked towards over the last few weeks collapse within a day. Tyrunt was killed by something that was able to overwhelm him, presumably the same thing that set the city on fire and caused me and Pansear to run out. Pansear ran off to go blame himself for all of the stuff that had occurred. Leaving me alone to try to fix all of this and find where Emolga had run off to.
Needless to say, this situation was unfix-able, with Emolga being nowhere to be found within the city nor Pansear anywhere to be found either. All I could manage to bring myself to do was walk in the town, staring at the damage from the fire last night. This once grand city turned ghost town had burned up completely within a night, completely erasing it from existence. Just like everything else I had worked towards for weeks, it disappeared without a trace.
Trying to get myself to calm down, I laid down on the grass looking towards the slowly sauntering clouds in the sky. I always had found looking at cloud calming and peaceful, with them managing to float without a worry or care in the world. Unlike the rest of us, they could float in the sky without fear of being pulled down the second they let their guard down. The second they let everything collapse around them.
Unlike the rest of us, they were living the dream.
I sighed, and closed my eyes, realizing that looked at the clouds was not helping, only causing my mind to relate my situation to clouds. Instead, I tried to think about the better times, the ones before this week. The ones where we were still searching for clues on Riley's and Hex's whereabouts.
It almost felt like a century ago that the chain reaction that lead to all this starting happened, although I knew it was only less then a week ago. We had heard some rumor of a giant location functioning like a guild having formed in the north. Not having any luck finding him ourselves, we figured we would go check up there if anybody had seen him and possible try to see if anybody had any leads. Going in, I had no clue that there was a chance he was a leader of the place, although knowing how much of a overachiever he was, I should have known.
When we arrived there, I told Pansear and Tyrunt to stay back until later that night, while I went and asked around to see if anybody had seen him. I was expecting to hear everyone say no, but the first town member I found, a rather peculiar Quagsire, blew that out of the water when he, with a fairly odd amount of hesitation, told me he was the leader of the guild he referred to as the Paradise. Looking back, that 'was' might have been the first indicator something was wrong, but I was too overjoyed to care.
Of course, in the end, it all turned out to be for vain. When I walked into his house later that night, I got chased out by who I could only presume took over in his stead. I do not know why a psychopathic Pikachu would have any merit running a place like that but for all I knew he forcefully took over the place or something. Maybe he was trying to erase every sign that Riley was there, causing him to chase after me the second I entered. Either way, Riley was not there and I had no idea where he was. Maybe he was not even here anymore.
For all I knew, we were both doing the exact same things right now. For all I knew, me coming here was entirely pointless. That was the core issue of all of this, that I just did not know, and I was starting to doubt there was a way for me to ever truly know.
That was when I started hearing pounding footsteps behind me. Presuming this was the ambusher and that I was going to die, I slowly got up and turned around. Who turned out to actually be behind me caused me to stop dead in my tracks.
"Ty… Tyrunt?"
"You're alive?"
Spark's POV
We had been walking in silence for a while, with only the sounds of the plains to accompany us. We had been going so slowly due to Dunsparce's sudden onset of self-denial due caused by none other them myself. I felt like trash for the entire time we had been walking since that interaction, yet I still could not bring myself to admit that Emolga did not say it. Besides, feeling like trash was not anything especially new for me, with it basically being a daily occurrence.
That does not mean it was not especially bad today, but it was not the newest thing in the world to me. Of course, I could not express it, lest I blow my facade. Instead, I suffered quietly, occasionally looking back at Dunsparce to see if he had gotten any better. For the most part, it was a big no.
One, giant, big, red glaring no.
Any hopes I had of getting to the close vicinity of Scarlet Town were out the window, due to the sheer distance between us and the crossroads and the fact that evening was starting to come. That was not to say we were done walking yet, but I knew in our state we could not continue walking through the night. So, we did need to stop at some point, but the question was more when then if. I still wanted to go much further but I was not sure Dunsparce was keen on doing so, with his condition right now being evidence of that. I got out the map to see how much further we had to go, so I knew what else we had to go through after this.
I looked at the map, and saw that the road branching off from the crossroads only real obstacle was a small stream and a short forest walk to the town after a long pathway out of the Great Plains. No mystery dungeons, no long winding roads, nothing that would take a giant amount of time to traverse.
Right as I was about to put the map away, I heard Dunsparce say, "Oh… did… did something… something change involving our route?"
"No, just taking a quick peep at it." I said, raising my voice in a attempt to sound happier.
I did not know whether he bought it, with him going back to looking at the local scenery the plains provided in the distance. If I were just walking through here, exploring, it might have actually been pretty relaxing. But, nothing was relaxing right now, after the last few days. I was not sure if anything would ever be relaxing again. Of course, that was a over exaggeration, but it seemed to get more and more merit every passing second.
In a attempt to get my mind off of the cynical thoughts in it, I said,"Beautiful scenery, isn't it?"
"Yeah it is… it… it reminds me… reminds me of… of old times. Back when… when… everything was much… much better." As much as I wished I did not, I heard slight sobbing from him behind me, with that itself being a giant under exaggeration I made in order to keep myself feeling worse then I was right now.
Internally grimacing, I immediately quieted down and just continued walking in peace, scared of the reaction that had just come from Dunsparce. I thought he would have gotten a little better by this point but he sounded worse. His condition was starting to concern me more and more yet I could not do anything without going back on what I said. Without breaking my facade in half and showing my real self, something I knew I could not do.
I knew I needed to try to say something at least thought, so I said, "Hey, I'm getting concerned for you, Dunsparce, are you alright or…"
He looked down towards the ground. "I… I think… I think you know the answer."
I did, as much as I did not want to admit it, I did.
"Are you sure I can't help at all or…"
"N… no… I… I just want to… to be left alone right now," he went silent for a minute, looking at the endlessly rolling plains, "If you… you can give me that… at least."
I sighed, "Fine then, sorry I bothered you."
We continued to walk in utter silence through the endless rolling plains, hoping we would be better by the end of the trip. But we both knew that was not going to be the case. Everything in this world crashes and burns at one point, and this situation was no exception.
All I wondered was when.
Snivy's POV
Before I even had a chance to say anything else, he instantly said, "Snivy, you need to go, now."
My mind ignored his warnings as I started walking towards him and said, "Look, I just thought you were dead for the last half of a day, what could be so urgen-"
"That would probably be me."
Three shurikens made of water came flying out of the nearby alleyway, hitting Tyrunt directly and leaving 3 long gashes along his sides. He came crashing down as I saw a Greninja emerge from the alleyway, smiling dementedly in my direction as Tyrunt tried and failed to get back up, probably due to the giant pain he was feeling on his sides.
She started to chuckle. "Oh, who do have here, the other friend of that pest Pansear. Well, I guess I should introduce my real self before anything else."
What I had previously thought was a Greninja instantly was bathed in a coat of white light as I saw his form shift into that of a Zoroark. That was when the events of last night all clicked.
All I could hear was her demented laughter as she glanced around Tyrunt's collapsed body on the ground. "Oh, such a sad sight, to see someone once so threatening fall like a domino," she circled around him, "Such a very sad, sad, sight."
Feeling brave, I said, "Who are you? Why are you doing this?"
She slightly hesitated before saying, "Oh, so that Pansear you call your friend did not tell you about me, let me inform you then," he started to slightly laugh, "So, you may refer to me as Achlys."
"O… okay," I started to back away, with all the earlier bravery I had felt instantly draining out of me the second I heard the way her voice changed when it was directed at me, "Well, it was nice to uh… meet you and all, but I have to get goin-"
More demented chuckling came out of his mouth, "Oh, but your not going anywhere. We are just getting started."
I backed away as I saw her grin grow larger and larger, "No one gets away from me or the Five Thieves, no matter how hard they try."
"No one ever gets away forever."
I saw her lunge at me as I attempted to rapidly back up before tripping on a rock. Knowing she was not going to hesitate, I closed my eyes expecting it to be over in seconds.
"Snivy, you have to get away, now!"
My eyes opened to not the afterlife but to sky. I quickly got myself up and saw Tyrunt was barely managing to hold down the Zoroark that was just about to kill me.
Despite all of this, and everything inside of me screaming to take the opportunity to run, I could not bring myself to just leave Tyrunt here.
"But… you'll… you'll die."
He rebounded as the Zoroark transformed into a Greninja and escaped his grasp, throwing more shurikens made of water at Tyrunt, leaving more gashes. He looked at me, "Do I… I look like I care about my own mortality at this point," he was visibly having trouble speaking due to the injuries the Zoroark had inflicted on him, "Just… just find them, please."
"Find him… don't… don't let this all be for vain."
Seeing no reason to argue with him, I quickly dropped my large bag that slowed me down and ran as fast as possible, ignoring the pain-filled screams that echoed in the air behind me. He was right, I needed to find them. But that did not stop one fact sticking with me throughout that entire night, one fact that was confirmed when I heard the screams abruptly stop behind me as I ran into the woods illuminated by the last lights of day.
Tyrunt was gone.
Spark's POV
The campfire slowly raged less and less as we settled down for the night on the side of the road. It had been a long day, and I nor Dunsparce felt like talking much so we spent the night in pretty much utter silence. That did not mean my brain stopped thinking about the horrid things I inadvertently managed to do today. I had somehow, only with one lie, managed to cause Dunsparce massive amounts of pain I never wanted or intended for him to feel. So much of me still wanted to go over and tell him I was lying but I suppressed it, still not willing to crack the facade I had formed over the last few months.
Instead of talking to Dunsparce, like so much of me wanted to, I found myself staring up into the unending night sky. When I was young, I was always told the stars hid the stories everyone has forgotten. The stories of brave heroes and of disasters that almost came to be. It was like history, where the oldest stories are only implied by later events but are never truly written down or found anywhere.
In my head, I knew I was only thinking about these things to distract myself, but that did not matter to me at the time. All that mattered was getting my mind down from the pit it had managed to fall in over the last week, and preparing myself for the inevitable encounter I was going to have with Snivy and her band of criminals when I entered Scarlet city.
I knew doing this was completely insane and stupid. I knew we were more then likely going to fail and share whatever fate they had for Emolga, but I did not care about that when I left Post Town earlier this morning. What I cared about was not letting Dunsparce going further and further down the depression cycle I see him going down right now, to get him back Emolga so that he did not have to go through what I went through after Riley disappeared.
But this was not some happy story you would find in a children's book and I knew that. I knew we were more then likely not going to get back Emolga. I knew that we were not going to get vengeance on Snivy. I knew we were not going to set things right. I knew this was all some stupid idea made by my stupid self in a attempt to stupidly set all of this right. But deep down I knew one thing much, much better then the rest. One thing I hated to admit to myself yet knew was going to turn out to be the truth in the end of this giant ordeal.
Emolga was gone.
Achlys' POV
Come out, come out, wherever you are.
Come out, come out, and play.
Come out, come out, wherever you are.
For you can only hide so long.
