Chapter 09: Back to Black
The sky above was clear, the road ahead was winding and the Crosstransceiver was ringing. What more could Delaney ask for?
She was just past Striaton when she noted a daycare on her right, but shuddered at the thought of small children as she grabbed the ringing Crosstransceiver. Children made her nervous- it was part of the only child thing. It was her goal to get past the daycare unnoticed, because with her luck, somebody would've had the insight to give them pokemon and they would want to battle. She ignored the tots out playing on the playground completely as she answered the call with a smile, assuming it was her father checking in after their talk (and her freakout) yesterday. Instead, a much younger male with wiry blonde hair and electric blue eyes filled her screen, and Delaney squealed. "Dax!"
"Delaney Christa Caldwell!" he chirped. "That in the background does not look like a house in Nuvema Town… Not like I've been there, but I'm assuming it's like Twinleaf. Where the hell are you?"
"Shhh," she said, looking around to make sure nobody had heard Dax. "Delaney Christa Caldwell is not supposed to be in Unova. It's Christa White that you're speaking to. I'm, um… travelling. I just left Striaton City, if you know where that is."
"No clue," he admitted. "But wow! I'm excited you finally listened to me! I knew you would eventually! Any new friends yet? Or cute boys?"
"Not a single one of either," Delaney chuckled, deciding to let Dax continue to think his insisting had been the cause of her new journey. "But I did just get my first gym badge. Arceus, it's been so long since I've said that."
"Think of it as your ninth," Dax suggested. "That will probably make you feel like less of a newbie."
"No," she said quickly. "I don't want to think of this journey as anything like the last one. This is new." She paused and then burst out into another grin. She was so excited to finally be talking to Dax. "How's the Frontier? And what happened to the guy from last time?"
"Oh, we happened to meet again at the Battle Factory," Dax said with a sigh. "It was there that I also met his girlfriend."
"Bummer," Delaney said as she turned the corner past the daycare… Only to see three people on the path up ahead, and the straight black hair on one of them was a dead giveaway on who she was about to be dealing with. "Can I call you back this evening when I get to Nacrene?"
"Not a problem," he said with a grin. "It was nice getting to talk to you at all. I miss flying to your house and interrogating you."
"And I miss being questioned by the firing squad," she said with a chuckle. "Call you later." She hung up just as she reached the group. Cheren was looking serious as usual, while Bianca had her arm around a much younger girl who was in hysterical tears, much like Bianca had been the last time Delaney had seen her.
"Oh Christa, thank goodness it's you!" Bianca cried, despite the fact that she had been all but cursing Delaney's name last time they had battled. "We need your help!" And with that, she turned to the younger girl. "It's okay, Christa can help us. She's a really strong trainer, maybe even stronger than Cheren."
From the looks of it, Cheren resented that remark, though Delaney was hoping he wasn't about to freak out and yell at her, since she wasn't the one who said it. "What do you need help with?" Delaney asked carefully, making sure not to agree to this without knowing what she was heading into.
"A couple of guys in weird costumes just came by and stole this little girl's lillipup," Cheren said pragmatically. Delaney felt her breath catch in her throat. No. Not again. She was not doing this again. "They said they were part of Team Plasma. They ran into the cave over there. They can't have gone far, so if you and I both go after them, we should be able to beat them and get the pokemon back in no time."
"No," Delaney said before she could stop herself. Cheren and Bianca turned their heads quickly to look at her in utter confusion. "I can't. Cheren, you're a great trainer. You can take them."
"Christa, please," Bianca said, pleading with her eyes. Judging by the look on Bianca's face, Delaney might as well have just hit her, or stolen the lillipup herself. The blonde girl looked absolutely wounded at the thought of Christa not helping.
With his friend close to tears (yet again), Cheren struck out at her. "What kind of person are you?" he asked disgustedly. "How can you be so selfish?"
"Bianca, why don't you go in there and get the pokemon back?" Christa asked, desperately fishing for an out.
"I don't think I'm strong enough to battle them," the blonde said, a blush rising in her cheeks. "And somebody needs to stay with this poor sweetheart. Christa, you're strong. I know you don't like us, but this isn't about us. This is about this little girl, and it's about not letting those people get away with this. We need you."
Delaney wished she could tell Cheren and Bianca that this wasn't about how much she did or didn't like them. It wasn't about her dislike of children (not that they knew about that anyways, but still). It wasn't even that she just didn't want to. There was just no way that she was letting her journey turn into that again. She was done with the evil organizations, done with the pressure, done with the expectations. She was a fairly good trainer, yes, but there were plenty of trainers who were good that didn't get stuck in these kinds of situations. Why couldn't she be one of them?
Because nobody asked them.
Delaney sighed, as she looked from person to person. The child was wailing. Bianca looked woebegone. Cheren looked angry. Finally, he turned his back on the three females and said, "I'll go alone then. I'll be back."
"Cheren, you don't know if they're dangerous or not!" Bianca called after him.
He turned around and scoffed. "They're just losers in costumes, how tough can they be?"
And against her better judgment, Delaney sighed and said, "Wait! I'm going with you!" Because despite the fact that Delaney really did not like Cheren, and despite the fact that she had just proposed the idea of him going in alone less than five minutes before, this was a burden that nobody deserved to take on alone.
Wellspring Cave was damp and a bit dark. The sound of fluttering wings filled the air, reminding Delaney of the zubats and golbats who filled Sinnoh caves- but there were no zubats here, were there?
As if on cue, a blue, shaggy creature with a piggish nose and fairly small wings darted through the air, screeching loudly. Delaney jumped back a bit- she didn't know it was possible for her to dislike any one pokemon more than she disliked Zubat, but as she was learning here in Unova, really, anything was possible. Cheren glared at her, as if to mock her for jumping out of the pokemon's path. He was more focused on the task in front of him- and now, the people in front of them. Two people in costumes like the ones she saw in Accumula stood in front of them. With them was a lillipup, smaller than any of the ones she had seen previously, shivering behind one of the Plasma members.
"Can we help you?" asked the red-headed Plasma member on the left snidely.
"Yeah, we're here to get Lillipup back!" Cheren said, glaring at the guy in the costume. Despite the very serious situation at hand, Delaney nearly laughed at Cheren's very cliché choice of words. The boy was a good trainer, no doubt, but he lacked creativity. But then Delaney remembered that she was in a cave with a stupid team that stole pokemon that she had to fight, and the urge to laugh was gone, and she was left feeling all too familiar.
"Yeah right, kid," the second Team Plasma member sneered, crossing his arms. "But we can take your pokemon off your hands too, if you'd like."
"You'd have to beat me first, and that's not likely to happen," Cheren said with a smirk. With that, he grabbed a pokeball out of his bag and released the pokemon that she had once seen him battle Bianca with, the snide reptile with a smirk mimicking the one currently on Cheren's face. He shot an expectant look at Delaney, waiting for her to release a pokemon. Biting her bottom lip, as she tended to do when she was nervous, she called out Perry, who looked rather happy to see her. Both members of Team Plasma released small, twitchy rats that looked eager to pounce on Cheren's pokemon, as well as her own. She remembered from battles along the route to Striaton that these pokemon were called Patrat, and had a pretty vicious bite, even though they were of the normal-typing. She also remembered that even though they were fairly quick, they often failed to be able to defend themselves, so they were easy to take down in just a couple of hits. The two Team Plasma members would be simple to take down, just as they all were.
Attempting to focus on the task at him, Delaney called for a water gun from Perry just as Cheren ordered his pokemon to use his vine whip (apparently Delaney had correctly guessed that his pokemon was a grass-type). The Team Plasma members looked surprised that their opponents were not so weak. The snarky member on the left glared at them, his blue eyes shining with determination… And fear.
"Tell me this isn't what it looks like."
It was a demand, not a statement, because Delaney wanted him to contradict every thought running through her head at the moment. The cave was empty, Azelf was gone and in the middle of it all stood Alex in the stupid fucking uniform with the stupid fucking hat. "I'm sorry," was all he could say. She had never hated anybody so much in her life. She had raced to get here, truly believing that in this cave, she would find Mars, or Jupiter, or even Cyrus. He wasn't capable of this. He couldn't do this. "Del, I'm sorry," he repeated, a little louder and more clearly. Those blue eyes were begging with her, but Delaney wasn't about to give in.
"How do you apologize for something like this?"
The same burning sensation in her chest that she felt in the Lake Valor cave was burning now as she stood in Wellspring Cave. Perry looked up at her, more worried about his trainer than the situation at hand. Cheren was holding the battle well even without her help- the patrats were no match for him. And though she could hardly breathe, she still choked out a halfhearted "tackle the patrat on the left, Perry", though she could honestly care less about the battle.
She hadn't even realized that she had dropped to her knees until he had gotten down onto his to embrace her and try calming her down. Sobs wracked her small frame, her platinum fair falling into her face as she pulled her head to her knees and cried. How had she gotten herself into such a mess?
"Del, I'm sorry," he repeated again, this time pleading with her. "I didn't have a choice."
"Is that your go-to excuse?" Delaney asked coldly. "What's your next one? Cyrus made you do it?"
"You know he did!" Alex argued, clearly hurt by Delaney's anger. "I wouldn't choose to do something like this!"
"But why you? Why couldn't Cyrus have done this himself? Or why couldn't Jupiter or Mars do this? Arceus, Alex, you're better than this!"
Delaney hadn't noticed the patrat duo had fallen. She hadn't noticed the redheaded member shove money into Cheren's hands and stare at her awkwardly, as if she were completely crazy (well, she kind of was). She hadn't noticed that the lillipup had been placed in Cheren's temporary custody, or that even the lillipup was shooting her questioning looks.
She hadn't even realized that she had fallen to her knees, staring blankly ahead, lost in thought.
"Delaney, you don't understand. I can't just tell him no," he said pleadingly.
"And why not, Alex? Because you're a a coward!" she said angrily, nearly yelling. There were dead pokemon outside the entrance to the cave, injured people unable to leave because of Team Plasma's presence, a legendary pokemon stolen to be used in some nefarious plot, and all Alex could say was that he couldn't tell Cyrus no?
He had nothing to say to that.
Cheren had placed an awkward hand on her shoulder, not really sure what to do with this crying girl that he despised. Delaney looked up blearily, her blah brown hair clinging to her wet face and for just a second, just a split second, Alex was standing there looking down at her and for a second, just a split second, Delaney thought her head might just explode.
But then of course, she began to see a bit more clearly, and she realized that even though the black hair was right, it was too long for Alex and that the eyes weren't Alex's bottomless blues, but stoic brown instead. And instead of the look of concern that Alex would have worn, there was a look of sheer awkward and confusion. It was most definitely Cheren, and she was most definitely disappointed.
"I just wanted to make sure you got your share of the prize money," Cheren said evenly, as he held out a hand of money. "It's not much, but I thought it was only fair."
"You keep it," she muttered. "I don't care about the prize money."
"I'm going to go return that girl's pokemon," he stated, clearly not willing to argue. "Are you going to be okay here on your own?"
"I'm going to stay here for awhile," she said quietly, more to herself than Cheren. And though she expected him to just leave, he stood there, not saying a word, deep in thought. After a long silence, he finally spoke. "I don't understand why Team Plasma scares you. They're a bunch of idiots in costumes."
"That's what you think at first," she muttered. "Then everything changes."
"What?" Cheren asked, puzzled.
"Nothing," she said with a sigh. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her nerves. "There's so much you just don't understand."
"Try me," he challenged.
But instead of trying, Delaney just shook her head, and without so much as a goodbye, the bespectacled boy was gone, and Delaney was alone. She pulled her head to her knees and cried.
"Alex, stop. We have to battle. This is how it goes. I can't stop fighting Team Galactic just because you're on the other side of the battlefield. Everybody is depending on me to beat Galactic Commander Saturn," she stated, scowling at his official title. The name left a bitter taste in her mouth. "So that's what I've got to do."
A small pair of arms wrapped around her shoulder. Delaney looked up, startled, as she had forgotten that there was but still one entity in the cave, one small blue entity that didn't like people crying- Perry.
"I'm sorry, Perry," she said softly. "I blew it back there. It's a good thing you're good enough on your own to not need me to tell you what to do." And with that, she recalled the small blue otter with a sad smile on her face. She needed to be alone. "I'm not doing this again," she said (to no one in particular). "Not again."
"So you're just going to leave then," he said quietly. "That's it."
"Yeah," was all Delaney could say as she turned her back to him and headed for the mouth of the cave.
"I'll see you soon, Del." His voice echoed behind her with a sad ring to it and she left without so much as a goodbye.
She wasn't at all sure if she would see him again, or if she wanted to.
In her pocket, the Crosstransiever began to ring. It could be a number of people, for all she knew- either one of her parents (she wouldn't be surprised if Bianca or Cheren had informed her mother of Delaney's freakout in the cave), or possibly Dax wondering why she hadn't yet called back. But no matter who it was, she couldn't explain what had happened to her as she battled Team Plasma, and even if she could, there was nobody for her to tell.
There was too much that they didn't understand.
Author's Note (12/08): Well, look at this! I have finally ceased to stop sucking at updating, and actually made two updates within a week! Aren't you proud of me? (: The Team Plasma member mentioned with the red hair is a brief OC appearance- Josh, submitted by ej92. You'll be seeing more of him later, pinky promise.
I'm sorry that this chapter is rather brief, but the next one will be better, I promise. At least one more OC will be present in the next chapter, so keep a lookout!
As always, thank you for reading and reviewing! The wonderful words I get to come home to inspire me to no end.
~DarkAngelTorchic
