(A/N) Hello everyone! I know that it took me a little longer than usual to update, but there was a weird problem with my computer that took forever to fix. Anyhoo, here is chapter nine, and a couple of interesting things will happen, thus finally initiating the main plotline! Wheee! Ahem... anyway, just as a forewarning, this is a more serious chapter. Tone-wise, I mean.
Thank you to kilala223 and Suzurin for reviewing! Don't worry, Suzurin, the origin of the names will be revealed in time. As will the reason why Cain used that Charizard...
Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. It would be awesome if I did, but I don't. I don't own the characters either, with the exception of Anna, Cain, Damian, and Amy. There might be other minor characters that I create as well. Oh! The plot is mine too. If there is semblance to someone else's plot, it was completely unintentional.
Chapter 9: The Meaning of Loss
The reporter was merciful, I'm glad to say. She could see I was tired. She mostly asked only 'yes' or 'no' questions, so I mostly only had to nod or shake my head. I was exceedingly exhausted. I just sat, moving my head around, but making no effort to leave the stadium. I would have fallen asleep on the spot if it wasn't for what happened next.
I heard it before I saw it. The reporter had just started to ask me another question when a peculiar sound attracted my attention. The sound was... nothing. The entire stadium had fallen silent. The crowd made no sounds at all. Not even the rustle of people shifting in their seats could be heard. Even the announcer had stopped jabbering. Now the only person speaking was newswoman. She realized this after a moment and she too fell silent.
All attention was turned toward the red box on the other side of the field. I pulled myself to my feet, my legs screaming in protest. I ignored them. I had to know what everyone was looking at. I stared over at the place where Cain had been standing a few minutes before. Now, instead of a twelve-year-old boy standing there, an adult woman stood. She wore a trench coat. And a hat. And very dark sunglasses. She was the woman member of the 'trench coat trio,' as I had taken to calling them. Oh, great. What now!?
"What do you want?" I called to her. No response. "Really, the last thing I need right now are more members of Team Rocket, so can you come back some other time?" Still no response. "Do you wanna battle or something?" She began to laugh now. What was so funny?
"I'm not in Team Rocket, kiddo. You have the wrong person. Ex. TR member is somewhere over there," she said, gesturing towards the other members in her trio. They didn't look too thrilled. She continued, "I don't want to battle, either. I want to tell you something. Congratulate you." I raised an eyebrow.
"On what? On the battle?"
"No. On opening up." What did that mean? She wasn't done talking though. "I'm glad that you are finally coming out of the shadows. I've been hiding in the shadows for far too long now. But, what I need you to do is to go back to Shadow for just a little while longer." Umm... cryptic much? I was about to ask her what she meant by all that when she vanished. That was it. She just disappeared. The rest of the trench coat trio was gone too.
I didn't know why, but what she said haunted me. I was afraid again. I spent the next few days while the quarter-finals (or whatever they were called. There were sixteen people left) were being organized wandering around. I barely saw anything of Ash, Misty, or Brock. I saw nothing of the trench coat trio, the Team Rocket trio, or Cain. It was all pretty boring. The entire time I did nothing but ponder the message that woman had given me. There had to be something hidden in it. Did she just have bad grammar, or did she say 'shadow' without an article for a reason? And why was it singular? I was tired of thinking, so I decided it was time for a nap. I would wake up before Ash's battle that day.
I missed Ash's fifth round battle. I had been dead tired from all my worrying, and slept through it. Oops. I would have to go apologize for that. I got up and began to walk to the place where Ash and his friends were staying. It was dark out. I wondered if they were even still awake. I got my answer when I arrived. The lights were on. I knocked and entered.
"Hello," I said, striding in and sitting on the arm of a chair. Brock stood up and greeted me back, then introduced me to Delia Ketchum (Ash's mother) and Professor Samuel Oak. We were having a normal discussion and I was about to ask where Ash and Misty were, when I heard Misty shout from the other room.
"Alright, then! Fine!" She stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind her. I flinched.
"Did I come at a bad time?" I asked. She blinked at me and shook her head sadly.
"No. It's actually a good time. Maybe you can talk some sense into Ash." Misty proceeded to explain to me that Ash had lost his fifth round battle to a new friend he made not long before because his Charizard refused to listen to him. Ouch. Poor guy.
"What makes you think he'll listen to me though? If he ignored you, and you've known him way longer that I have..."
"He admires you. You're a great trainer, and he looks up to you as a role model." I thought about that for a moment.
"I'll try my luck," I finally muttered, standing up and heading toward the room. I paused before entering, wondering if I should knock. I decided not to and walked right in.
"Go away, Misty," Ash spoke up before I had the chance to open my mouth. He was lying on his side on the bottom bunk of the bed, facing away from the door. He sounded really dejected. It almost hurt to hear him like this. He was normally so high-spirited.
"I'm Amy, genius," I replied. No response. Oops. Sarcasm probably wasn't the best way to start things off. Oh well. "Misty told me what happened," I continued, trying to remedy the situation. "I'm sorry." No response. "But hey, everybody loses sometimes, right?" No response. Now I was getting annoyed. "Alright, Ash. That's enough! You lost one stinking battle, so what? There are gonna be loads others-"
"But none like this." Finally! I got a response out of him!
"Ash, there are other leagues-"
"This was the most important battle of my life." Oh, goodness. He's playing the woe-is-me game.
"You're gonna say that about another battle at some other time, I can assure-"
"How would you know?" I really wish he would quit interrupting me. I was about to speak again, but Ash wasn't finished. "You've never lost a battle in your life. You told me so. And if you have lost a battle, you'd be a liar." I sighed.
"You're right, I have never lost a battle, but-"
"No. You've never lost anything in your life. You don't know what it's like to lose. Go away."
"Battles aren't the only thing you can lose, Ash. And if battles are the only thing you've lost, then you don't know the definition of the word 'loss.'" This seemed to catch him off guard, and for the first time since I entered the room, he rolled over to face me.
"What do you mean?" he inquired, his confusion evident.
"Would you like me to list all the things I've lost, Ash? Because I will. I lost both my parents, and with them, my home. I lost all the Pokémon my parents had that I had considered my friends." I paused now and reached up to touch the corner of my eye. "I was born blind. I made a sudden miraculous recovery, but my sight has been getting worse again." Ash's eyes widened. I continued, "I've even lost my best friend for crying out loud!" He turned away again. "Now tell me I don't know what it's like to lose," I hissed. "At least you have a mother."
I didn't know what it was, but when I said that, something seemed to snap inside Ash. He stood up sharply and faced me. He looked really ticked off. He marched toward me and gave me an angry shove toward the wall. I stumbled backward, and found myself afraid again. I hadn't known him very long, but Ash struck me as the kind of guy that rarely got mad. Seeing him this angry was creepy.
"At least I have a mother, huh?" he said quietly, backing off a little. He was shaking. And for the first time since I entered the room, Ash raised his voice to a shout. "Well at least you had a father!" He pointed to the door. "Get out." I blinked at him. So much for trying to help. But the shock from the things he had just said caused me to turn toward the door and pull it open. I looked back at him once and could have sworn he was crying, but I didn't want to stay in there any longer than I had to. So I left.
I strode through the main room toward the front door, ignoring the shocked faces of everyone else in the room. They had heard everything. I pulled open the front door and stepped outside, slamming it behind me. I sat on the front step and screamed in frustration. I hung my head, pondering the argument. Who was right? What did it really mean to lose something?
I clicked a Pokéball off my belt and examined it. It wasn't an ordinary Pokéball though. The top half was blue instead of the regular red. There were two raised red stripes leading away at an angle from a white 'G' etched onto the surface. It was a Great Ball. I used them to contain some of my more powerful Pokémon. This one held Terra, my Aerodactyl. I thought about other Pokémon that I had used Great Balls to capture. There was my Onix, Anya, and my Gengar...
That's when it clicked. I thought back to what that woman had told me after my match. And now, staring at the Great Ball, I knew what I had to do. I snapped it back on my belt and stood up. I looked to Alice, and she nodded. She knew it too. We both took off in the direction of the registration building.
We returned a half an hour later. We strode back inside and I plopped down on the sofa, pretending to sleep. I could feel the others staring at me, but I ignored them. Soon, I really was asleep. I had no regrets. I did what I had to do, and when I woke up the next day, I was finally going to figure out what the heck was going on.
There we are! It has finally been explained why she keeps crashing into things! Hmm, what did Amy do at the registration building? What did she figure out about the message the trench coat lady gave her? You'll have to wait for the next chapter. Review, please!
