AN: Hello everyone and welcome to chapter 8. This is will probably be the last update for this weekend, picking up family at Heathrow tomorrow (I'll try and right one in the morning). But first a quick reply to some of your reviews.
AnisoulJ93, I can remember watching beyblade a long time ago, but my memory is a bit shit was Ray the one with the tiger bit beast?
Serenity and Chaos, I don't really understand what you mean (in you review of chapter 5) could you explain further please?
But now back to the story! And a quick disclaimer, I don't own Pokemon.
Her plan had originally been to travel back to Pallet Town, talk to Professor Oak, and confirm whether or not Red was the Shadow of Mt Silver. But these plans were ruined by the media. She was just about to leave Silver Town when they found her, in just a few minutes she was mobbed; she could barely walk in a straight line such was the mass of reporters surrounding her. It had been a massive few days for them it turned out, her disappearance had been the hot news topic, and now that she had retuned the story had got even bigger. It was even more evident when she finally got to Viridian, her face was on every newspaper she could see, and she could swear she was in almost every program that was on TV.
"Cynthia, where were you?"
"Cynthia, what happened?"
"Cynthia, will this affect your champion status?"
All she ever heard were these same questions over and over again. At first she had tried to ignore them, hoping the interest would die down. It didn't. If anything it got even worse, they wouldn't let get grab a moments breath. Eventually she caved in.
"I had a small accident on Mt Silver" she answered to the questions posed to her. She hoped that they would leave her alone after this, but no. The scrutiny intensified. And yet more questions were asked.
"What were you doing on Mt Silver Cynthia?"
"What kind of accident Cynthia?"
"Has this affected you in any way Cynthia?" She was getting very frustrated with them by now. She answered their questions hoping that this time they would leave her be.
"I was climbing Mt Silver doing a bit of training. A friend had told me strong Pokémon lived there. I had a small slip and a big storm was coming in so I had to take shelter. That's it. Now please no more questions." But there was to be one final question from one reporter.
"Cynthia did you see or fight the Shadow of Mt Silver?" Almost all the other reporters laughed at this lone reporter, saying that the Shadow was preposterous rumour and fantasy. They had expected her to say no immediately. They were a bit taken aback by her lengthy pause.
Internally Cynthia was fighting with herself about what answer to give. On one hand, the truth bit at her, she had seen and fought the Shadow, losing badly in the process. She had already lied about her accident and telling another lie would make it harder for her to keep to her story if they dug deeper. But on the other hand, telling the truth would result in confirmation that the Shadow actually exists, which would result in more people trying to scale that mountain, which in turn could result in more in more accidents, possibly even fatalities. Also on a personal level, she thought that he probably would not be happy with more people finding him and battling ('and losing to' she thought) him. He would find it hard to forgive her if she did that she thought.
"No, I didn't see or fight him." She said finally.
"Him? I pretty sure the Shadow's gender was unknown?" 'Crap!' She'd slipped up. Hastily she tried to think of something that would get her out of this spot, at the same time trying with all her might not to blush.
"Well from what I hear from most of the stories, the Shadow is supposedly a man. And now I really must go." It was feeble she knew but it was the only thing that she could think of. Hurriedly she fled to her room, she needed to get back to Sinnoh as quickly as possible, she needed to get back home. And so she decided to get the earliest possible ferry back.
She was lucky that she only had to wait a few days for the next ferry to ship her back to Sinnoh. As they departed, she found herself on the upper deck looking back at Kanto. She stared back, Vermilion was quite a sight, even this early in the morning it was busy with smaller ships coming and going from the port. But she focused more on the horizon. The top of Mt Silver still loomed large, the storm at the top was only just visible now, but every so often she would see a flash lightning. Was it legitimately caused by the storm or was it from that powerful Pikachu?
Her mind wondered to that mysterious man who lived up there. She wondered what he was up to. Probably eating breakfast she thought, maybe he had left the cave already. Even after spending that time with him, she still knew hardly anything about him. There were many questions that she had. Why and what was he doing up there? Why had he shunned all contact with the rest of the world? And most importantly is he really Red? Professor Oak could have answered her questions but she couldn't ask him now. There was however another way to find out whether or not he really was Red. She grimaced as she thought about that option. It filled her with anger, thrusting away all the curiosity she had in her mind. 'NO! I swore never to see him again!' she thought to herself. If the Shadow was Red or not would have to wait until she returned to Kanto.
The journey back was uneventful; most of the travellers were businessmen and left her to herself. There were a few trainers on board as well, some were too afraid to talk to her while others challenged her, confidently thinking they would have a chance. It raised her spirits as she beat them easily. It rebuilt her confidence after being crushed by Shadow and the thrill of battle always made her feel better. But her high spirits were dampened as soon as she had arrived.
The media greeted her. She was barely able to get of the boat as they blocked her path sticking microphones in her face. There were flashes of light from all directions as pictures were taken from her. The same questions were asked of her along with some new ones.
"How does it feel to be back home Cynthia?"
"Cynthia what do you say to the rumours that you had an affair with Lance?"
'Shit! Shit! Shit!' was all that she could think of. She had hoping that they would not find out what ferry she was on, and such she would have a relatively quiet journey back home to Celestic Town. She tried to move forward, but struggled against the huge mass of people blocking her path. She looked around, desperately trying to find an opening, until she saw a familiar face. A young woman with short brown hair with matching brown eyes, wearing a green top, long brown shorts and green boots was smiling at her. Gardenia pushed through the crowd of reporters, grabbing Cynthia's hand, and pulled her out towards a waiting car. Cynthia gratefully and quickly got in the passengers' side.
"Drive." Gardenia nodded. And they drove of, quickly leaving the group of reporters behind.
"Where to?" Gardenia asked.
"Home" Gardenia nodded again, before taking a turn in the road. Gardenia was oddly quiet during the journey Cynthia noticed, but at the same time she could tell that Gardenia was bursting to ask her about her trip.
"So? Spill!" Cynthia smiled as Gardenia finally asked her. She retold her tale, from all the meetings and press conferences at the Indigo Plateau, the first time she saw Mt Silver, her talk with Lance about the Shadow, her subsequent decision to talk with Professor Oak about the Shadow (though she failed to mention her talk with the Professor about Red, or anything about Red for that matter), the climb itself; before stopping after she had got to her fall.
"Then?" her friend asked eagerly. She frowned slightly, she didn't want to lie to Gardenia but then again she didn't want to say too much either.
"Well I was knocked unconscious from the fall. Next thing I know, I'm in a cave with a guy sitting near me."
"So the Shadow is real then?"
"Yeah, he looked after me while a really big storm blew over; I had cracked ribs and a small fracture in my right arm. I need to get those checked out actually."
"Go on."
"Well, days went by as I recovered and the storm subsided. Just before it was time for me to go, I challenged him to a battle."
"Then?"
"I lost."
"No way!"
"I was crushed actually; he knocked out all my Pokémon with just his Pikachu."
"But…?"
"He is the most incredible trainer I've ever seen; the raw power was….. Breathtaking."
"So… who is he?"
"I…I don't know, he never gave his name." The rest of the journey was filled with Gardenia telling her about all that had happened in Sinnoh while she had been away, there was not much interesting, just some gossip and some cursing about Flint and Volkner. Cynthia didn't pay much attention, her mind still on the man that lived on the mountain. Her curiosity was nagging at her again.
They finally arrived at a house in Celestic Town. She got out and was immediately greeted by an elderly couple and a young girl. Her grandparents and her younger sister. Her younger sister ran straight up to her and hugged her tightly, she looked just like a miniature version of Cynthia but instead of grey eyes, she had turquoise eyes. Her grandparents were a bit more sedate with their greetings but still hugged her a lot. Her grandmother was quite a bit shorter than Cynthia while her grandfather was a touch taller. Both of them had grey hair while her grandmother had grey eyes exactly like Cynthia, her grandfather had turquoise just like her sister.
"Well I'll be of then" Gardenia said.
"You should come in for some tea." Cynthia's grandmother replied.
"No, I'm been away from the gym for too long already, thank you though."
"Thanks for the lift Gardenia."
"Any time Cynthia." And with that she got back in her car and drove of. Cynthia followed her family inside the house where she was lead to the dining room. She was immediately offered food, which she gratefully accepted. After finishing they talked.
"So care to tell us what the hell happened?" her grandmother asked.
"Carla, Fredrick and I were scared to our wits ends when we saw the news." Cynthia told them her story, once again leaving out her talk about Red with Professor Oak.
"You could have died Cynthia! Why didn't you take better care of yourself?"
"Calm down Carolina. I'm sure Cynthia thought at the time she had taken the necessary precautions, she has after all travelled through some notoriously harsh places before." She was grateful to her grandfather; she was not looking forward to the dressing down that her grandmother was about to give her. She leaned in closer to her grandfather, kissing him on the forehead.
"Thanks, I owe you one." She whispered in his ear.
"Just take better care of yourself next time, for me." He whispered back, winking as he did so.
"If that's all then, I'll take a shower before hitting the sack." Cynthia got up, grinning as her grandmother scowled (she clearly wanted to say more on the subject). She climbed the stairs to her bedroom where she stripped of and got in the shower. After showering and getting into her pyjamas, she re-entered her room to find her sister waiting for her.
"I missed you."
"I missed you to Carla." They hugged each other before they sat facing each other on her bed.
"I can't believe you lost!"
"Neither could I at first."
"Bit you're like unbeatable. You're the best in the world! You're the hero of Sinnoh!"
"Haha, I love you Carla, I reckon Lance or Steven could give me a good battle. But all of us are no where near his league."
"So who is he then?"
"I don't really know, he didn't speak much the whole time we were up there and I didn't ask for his name."
"That was stupid of you."
"Shut up!"
"You must have some idea of who he was though?"
"I have a hunch, but that's all."
"Spill"
"No, I don't want it to get out."
"Come on, I've always kept your secrets. Remember that time when I caught you kissing that Justin guy."
"I paid you like a half years worth of savings to keep that quiet."
"Hehehe, oh yeah. But c'mon, pretty please?" her sister pouted at her adorably.
"Pinky swear?"
"Pinky swear!" they held out their little fingers to each other, joining them when they got close.
"Well I think it's Red."
"You mean the Red?"
"Yeah."
"No Fucking Way!"
"Since when have you started swearing?"
"Quite a while now, I hid it from grandma and grandpa. It's no big deal. It's not like I'm a little girl any more." In Cynthia's eyes she was. She had turned thirteen this year and had wanted to start her Pokémon for the last two, her grandfather had forbid it until she was sixteen, citing Cynthia as an example.
"Pinky swear, you won't tell grandma about me swearing?"
"Sure"
"You're the best big sis! So anyway you really think it was Red?"
"Yeah, that Pikachu was absurdly strong and his eyes… Deep brown with the tint of crimson, exactly the same as Red's eyes."
"Was he good looking?"
"What?"
"I can imagine him being all heroic looking, saving damsels and all that."
"Well…He… was Ok I guess" her sister laughed a little wickedly.
"So what is Red doing up there?"
"I don't know, training I guess. Don't spread that Red is the Shadow Ok. I'm not entirely sure, I need to check first. But…"
"But what?"
"Well the person who can confirm it for me is…"
"Who?"
"Him" she said pointedly, a grimace forming on her face.
"Oh" the happy demeanour on her sister's face vanished. They sat in silence for while, thinking about the man they hated the most. Eventually they started talking again, Cynthia asking about Carla's school life. Carla telling her all the gossip.
The days flew by into months, each day the curiosity built up, nagging at her to go visit the person who had the answers for her. Each day she pushed it back, her anger getting the better of her, but it was becoming harder and harder each time. She also began to bore and get frustrated with her everyday life, her duties as champion, the press conferences she had to tend, the challengers that offered no competition. Each night she found herself looking out her window in the direction of where Kanto was and more specifically where Mt Silver was. She barely knew him, but she missed him and his life.
The simplicity, the straight forwardness and (oddly she thought) the silence of it. There, they were care free, nothing to bother them except nature. She missed the hyperactive Pikachu, the book reading Eevee, the constantly exercising Lucario, the entertaining Blastoise, the tea drinking Pokémon she did not know, and the huge caring Charizard. But most of all she missed the man full of mystery. He was cold yet underneath she could tell that he was warm, she'd felt at ease with him, just being around him was comforting somehow. She wanted to get to know him but she would have to find out more before she could unravel him. 'Fuck! I'll have to go see him.' She spat the word 'him' mentally. Her curiosity had gotten the better of her anger finally; she would go see him tomorrow.
The next day she travelled to Azcatraz, the highest security prison in the whole of Sinnoh. It was said that it was impossible to break out of this prison; apparently no one had ever got out. It was here where Sektor was held and the person that Cynthia needed to talk to. She did not have any trouble entering as she was the champion, but the guards gave her a long talk about security and about what she could and could not do.
"So what do you want here Miss Cynthia?" they asked her after giving her the low-down of the jail.
"I would like to talk to Hector Kenich if that is possible."
"The former world champ?"
"Yes, is that a problem?"
"No, just why would you want to talk to him?"
"I just need to ask him a few questions, alone if that's possible?"
"Hmmm, normally we would not allow such a high security prisoner visits from anyone, but as it is you, we'll allow it. We must take adequate security measures though."
"Of course." They led her to a small room which had thick concrete walls. At the other end of the room there was a chair and a glass panel with a phone on wall next to it, looking through the panel showed another room exactly like the one she was in. She sat down on the chair and waited. A prisoner walked in flanked by three guards, who sat him down at the chair, before chaining his legs and waist. The prisoner had brown hair with grey streaks flowing through it, his hazel eyes were sullen, and he was thin, probably underfed. He grinned when he saw her through the glass, revealing yellowing teeth, some of which were missing. When the guards had thoroughly checked that he was chained fully and that he could not escape, they left the room. Cynthia and the prisoner both picked up their phones.
"How are you my daughter?"
"Don't ever call me that!" she said through gritted teeth venomously. Her dad smiled.
"You can change your surname, refuse to visit me and remove me from your life all together, but I'll still always be your dad." Cynthia glared at him with pure hatred; if there was no glass panel in place she would have been choking him right then and there.
"So why are you here? I can't imagine it's to check up on me." He chuckled as he said this.
"Red" she snarled at him
"What about him?"
"I want information."
"Why don't you get it from Oak?" She continued to glare at him, but he took no notice and carried on.
"Ah well that old fuck is quite protective of Red I suppose. What do you want to know? I'm guessing it's not about my battles with him at the world tournament right?"
"Tell me about his Pokémon."
"Now that is a good question. Exactly how many he had I can't say, but I'll tell you about the ones I encountered. Everyone knows about the Pikachu that moved so fast that it couldn't be hit, the Blastoise that could counter any attack, the Venusaur that would take any and all attacks and still keep coming back at you, and the Snorlax that was most active Snorlax in history. (He chuckled as he said the last part)
"He also had a Lucario, which had a ridiculous amount of fighting spirit, not sure where he picked that up but it was good addition to his team. He also seemed to have all the Eeveelutions, but all of them had exactly the same left spiky ear, exactly the same. When he came to us at Cerulean Cave he let out an Eevee which could transform into any of its Eeveelutions, lucky fuck, where on earth do you get that kind of thing?
"Then of course were the big two, that black Charizard, I've never saw a more ferocious creature ever. It mercilessly took me apart as I tried to stall him from getting to Sektor. And then there was that…thing. I don't know what it was; it had a long purple tail and white-grey skin. It was wearing some kind of metallic body plates or armour of some kind. I'm pretty sure it was a Psychic type though; it just stood there, raised its arms and threw our machines around like nothing. Well that's all the Pokémon that I know of. Anything else you would like to know?"
"What happened to the Venusaur and Snorlax?"
"How do you..?"
"Answer the question." For the first time her dad's face changed from the happy grin to an expression which aged him considerably.
"Just understand this, I never wanted to hurt anyone, I just wanted to have more power. That's what Sektor promised me." Cynthia continued to glare at him, she did not care one bit for him.
"We fed some information about our location to them, hoping to draw Red away from Viridian. Red fell for it and we advanced on Viridian only to be confronted by that Venusaur and Snorlax. There was also a girl there as well. We outnumbered them massively, but they stood their ground even after we had battered them for such a long time. Eventually we got word that Red was on his way back, we had to retreat. The Snorlax and the girl were already dead and the Venusaur was so badly hurt that it wouldn't last for much longer." His voice had become very quiet as he said this, she could see that he was remorseful but she couldn't forgive for what he had done. She contemplated leaving, as she had all the information she needed but again curiosity got the better of her.
"How did Sektor power his machines and how did Red beat him?"
"The machines drew their power through the life-force of Pokémon, you could say that they sucked they energy out of them until they were bone dry but he also had another power source for his personal machine. He never told me what it was, but it was something small but extremely powerful, Sektor's personal machine was more powerful than all the others combined because of it, Red took it of him after defeating him. As to how Red beat him, well that is a question that only Red and Sektor could answer." She nodded, now she had all the knowledge she needed, it was time to leave.
"Will you come visit me again some time?" he asked hopefully. She looked at him coldly, weighing the request up.
"No." she said gently. And with that she put down the phone, turned and left.
AN: Hoped it you enjoyed it. Please once again rate, review and subscribe.
Cheers!
