A/N: This chapter is the longest chapter yet so as with last time, I do apologize for the sudden leap in chapter length.
Jaret King belongs to aggies2015
Viola Almach belong to Ariesbird
Juliet Grey belongs to Dolcebrio
Seria Day belongs to Kittynip.
I own only the plot and Virgil Mathison
Dewott sighed as he trailed behind the trainer. She was a bit bubbly and frankly, all over the place. She would be timid but then at other times she would be interactive, paying special attention to him. Dewott grunted. Why did she even take him anyway? The otter thought of Virgil then and a small snicker came to his lips. It was more than likely the same old story. Someone would see how Virgil "treated" him and attempt to take him off his hands in a battle which always ended with himself, Lucario or Ampharos making a mockery out of the challenger.
Except this ditz had actually pulled it off, albeit not through battle, but snagged him all the same. Dewott sat down at the thought and Seria threw a glance over her shoulder.
"Oh, Dewott are you tired?" He said nothing and only leveled her with the same stern stare he had given her earlier. Her eyes fell away then. "Well… are you hungry?" There was only silence. The girl murmured something to herself softly as though she had been wounded. Dewott gave her another grunt and walked ahead of her, arms folded. Her eyes followed the Pokemon as he sprinted towards the gates of Ecruteak City.
Seria ran after the Pokemon, her eyes lighting up with relief. She had been on the move faster than she would've liked. She felt beyond guilty for what she had done.
"I guess there's really no way getting around it…" Seria frowned inwardly as she came to a halt next to Dewott. She sighed again, her hand reaching to scratch under his chin but drew her hand back hastily as a sting of pain spread throughout her hand. Dewott's eyes found hers again, this time the disdain was replaced with open hostility. Seria winced as she felt the trickle of blood run down her hand. Dewott watched the trainer as she took another poke-ball in her hand. It snapped loose with its customary light to take shape of Slowking. Dewott grinned. She was going to battle him; this was more like it.
"I say," King gave a few whiffs of the air before turning to Seria. "There's blood in the air…" The Pokemon trailed off as his eyes immediately caught Seria's pitiful attempt to cover her wound. "You're bleeding…"
"It's okay King. It's just a small c-" King held a paw up to silence her. He turned to Dewott with piercing and observant eyes but Dewott grinned all the same. Dewott's placed a hand to a scalchop at his waist. "King, don't hurt him. He's…just not used to us yet. I had to take him from his trainer…" Her voice quieted then. King turned to her with an incredulous look.
"And you mean to tell me that that scrappy otter has no idea what he's doing? Everything amidst him reeks of violence."
"But King-"
"I will not allow the trainer of my queen to come to harm. What would my dear beloved think of me?" Seria nearly fell over. Dewott gave a clearing rasp of his throat and the two turned to the otter. King stood ready then. There was another rasp from Dewott and King felt the tug of a frown reach at his corners of his mouth.
"King, can you understand him?"
"He claims he'll be able to defeat me in under five passes."
"Passes?"
"Lunges and the like with those weapons of his…" That was all she heard before Dewott made his first lunge, backed by a small pocket of water from under him. Slowking grinned. "It'll take more than direct force to get through to me…" Around Slowking, a small collection of whitened rock began to swirl around him in a protective cover. King threw a paw forward and the sharpened rock followed in a storm toward Dewott.
Dewott felt something slice by him once, twice and then a third time. The otter gave a spin and a fourth sliced by. Dewott's scalchop hummed to life. The pocket of water ceased from under him and he went about cutting through the tide of rock. King gave a miniscule tap of his foot and the earth yielded again as he formed them into spires. Dewott felt the shards chip away at him. Every shard that had done so little as clip him was a part of the total force that was slowly driving him back.
He had to get closer. Suggestions raced in and out of the otter's mind as the shards of rock began to kick up a puddle of dust around him. The rocks became harder to see and he felt them whiz by, some cutting into him, others falling short. Adrenaline flowed through the Pokemon and he relished in this test of skill.
Seria watched agape. She would have never thought King to be so strong. Never would she have even thought that King had truly held such skill to back up his title as king. King's paw fell back at his side and the shards halted. A shade of brown dust had completely obscured Dewott from sight. Seria only stood there in awe, so palpable that it would've been no different if the emotion had been its own person.
"Are you simply going to gawk at the sight? I won't be able to hold him forever, Seria." Seria shook her head. A bit of guilt had leaked through and she found herself hesitant to look at either one of the battlers. "Seria? What is it?" There was a roar from in Dewott's direction then and the otter emerged riding a current of the small pocket of water, a scalchop in hand bursting to life as the otter did. Dewott slashed and King stepped back, just out of reach. Dewott landed expertly and turned on his heels and leaped high with another strike. King ducked as the scalchop passed over him, his helmet just barely out of reach of the blade.
"That's two dear boy." Dewott snarled in rage and as he landed, sprung forward with a third slash that had caught King's leg. Seria grimaced but did nothing else. Dewott fell away then. The otter frowned in frustration as the wound began to stitch itself together. King remained still, almost lazily. King's still piercing eyes locked onto Dewott. "Do you still believe you'll beat me in fewer than five passes?" Dewott gritted his teeth but grinned all the same with the same nod from accompanying it.
Viola flinched a bit at the sheer difference between the sizes of their Pokemon but second thoughts reassured her that her worry was immaterial, if not downright unnecessary. Swellow arced left and right, dashing from all direction against Charizard. This Juliet, whom the contest audience had called "prestigious", was far less so.
"You would order your Pokemon to kill another's!?" There was no response from Juliet, who only gave Charizard another tap. The lizard banked to the right as Swellow sped past them, just inches from clipping a shrugged her shoulders then.
"You do what you gotta do." Juliet tapped to the left and Charizard went, honing in just behind Swellow. "Use Flame…" Her voice trailed off and she gave a subtle glance to Viola, who only looked forward to Swellow. It clicked then; Swellow was her Pokemon. The bird zipped by her again and Juliet clumsily stepped aside to the right; her Charizard suddenly went to the right.
Viola was hit by an epiphany then. It was all related to Juliet's footwork. Quite simple, yet the Juliet was subtle enough to have the motions look as though they were unintentional.
"Swellow is obstinate and inflexible. I would rather have it that he didn't do this, but still…" Viola felt Charizard's grip tighten, wringing the breath from her. She sputtered a bit and she felt a slight twinge of panic at the edge of her thoughts. She pushed it away, almost embarrassed that such a feeling would come over her. Still, she would need to find a way to slip from Charizard's grasp.
"Juliet!" She looked below her, finding that Jaret and his Pidgeot flew below them. Juliet frowned. "Let her go right now!" Juliet sighed.
"Just think of all this as a way of me helping you around town!" She chuckled a bit. It might not have been a legal way of doing things, but it was a way, more so her own nonetheless. Juliet ducked again as Swellow swept by her, arcing yet again in another shower of speedy dives and attacks. She had felt Casanova wince a bit as the bird flew by. He was being picked apart little by little. Swellow's sheer speed made him an overpowering opponent.
Swellow arced by again and irritability began to set in. She reached for one of her poke-balls. Gardevoir would do the trick. Swellow glided above them and as Juliet pulled the poke-ball loose, the agile bird was upon her again, this time sporadically jabbing at her hand to knock it away. Juliet's steps became clumsy and erratic and Charizard began to exhaust himself as he struggled to keep up with her footing. Viola heard Swellow's wing strike the poke-ball and it plummeted from Juliet's hand and into the brush of the route below. Viola inhaled mightily, preparing to give Swellow a command over all of the noise but instead she heard a flustered Juliet attack first.
"That's it! Casanova, hit him with Blast Burn! Anything to get him out of my hair!" All of the air caught in Viola's throat.
"Blast Burn!?" Jaret flew in close. Charizard's claw tightened further around Viola. Her breath rushed from her lips. From the tightening of Charizard's claw around her, she knew she would be on borrowed time. She felt a trace of burning sensation rumbling from within the Charizard. The air around Charizard pulsed once and Viola watched as Jaret's Pidgeot stalled from the power. Swellow drew back just beyond the range of the fiery pulse.
"Spiral through Pidgeot!" Jaret gripped onto Pidgeot's feathers as the bird threw himself into a spiral. Jaret felt his hands instantly become thick with sweat. The flames bit at him but were cooled through Pidgeot's fierce rotations. "Use Air Slash to carry the flames!" Pidgeot continued his spiral and Jaret nearly lost his grip as Pidgeot spread his wings abruptly. A single, large blade of air wrapped the flames within itself as it was flung back toward Charizard. Viola's eyes widened as she began to feel light-headed.
"Just… a little longer…" Viola saw her hopes dashed when a second, even stronger pulse was emitted from Charizard, wiping away the emblazoned Air Slash and throwing her Swellow away. She saw the bird pick himself up just before it landed into a brush. The bird flew low before picking himself back up. In the distance, she saw Virgil with the strangest look on his face, some cross between indignation and what seemed to be emasculation. He must have had not a single flying Pokemon.
Viola sputtered again as her vision began to blur. She had hoped for a little more time but it seemed that the lack of air wouldn't allow it. She herself felt some slight indignation for being caught in such a situation in which she couldn't wriggle free from. Where she had fallen short with her perception was always covered by one of her Pokemon in particular.
"Grovyle would be able to think of something…" There was black at the edges of her sight and she felt the world around her become heavy. She shook it off. She had to stay conscious for whatever reason. Perhaps she would be able to figure something out, some weakness that allowed her to slip free. It just so happened that Swellow's speed wasn't enough. Charizard's controlled pulses of Blast Burn kept the bird from getting in close. She caught sight of Swellow again, albeit flying much less fluent; she knew the attack had hit him hard. "If…only…" Her own thoughts were a mesh of garbled language and she hadn't even been aware when her vision went black.
Jaret and his Pokemon spiraled down toward the earth. He gave a fierce tug and immediately, he felt the bird's eye snap open and Pidgeot veered upward and back toward Charizard. Pidgeot was tough that was certain but even Jaret had grimaced at the brutality of Blast Burn. A few of the bird feathers had been singed away and blackened scorches painted the brown with splotches of black yet the Pokemon was willing to fight. Jaret saw Viola's Swellow turning arcs in the sky. Jaret brought his attention back down to Viola, who hung lifelessly in the lizard's arms.
"Viola!" Pidgeot sensed the distress, bursting with speed to wrench her from the lizard. The sudden commotion from Pidgeot caught Swellow's attention, who turned his eyes to see his trainer hanging over Charizard's claw without the slightest hint of life. A pang of rage swept through the bird. It sped high into the air faster than what could be seen. Juliet looked to the bird, shielding her eyes to see the silhouette against the sun. It only took her moments to realize what the bird was doing.
Swellow, with a livid cry dashed down toward Juliet and Charizard, his force so great that Juliet knew that she would be dead on the spot if she didn't act fast. At the same time, she hadn't forgotten about Jaret behind her. Both were closing in from both sides. Juliet had quickly assessed the damage. Both birds had dodged a first stage Blast Burn directly, while both Swellow and the stubborn one's bird had taken Blast Burn at its second stage. Neither was in a condition to fight. Juliet felt her stomach drop.
"Perhaps Blast Burn was a little reckless…" But she could do nothing to change that now. She had to do what needed to be done if she were to get them all to where they needed to be, which was anywhere away from Violet City. Nowhere did she plan to fit "dying" into her plans. Both birds closed in and Juliet gave a distraught sigh. Casanova sensed it and gave her an attentive huff.
"Casanova…Do it…." Swellow had been right before her just as Pidgeot had been. A third burst of flame jutted outward in every which direction, each arrow of fire triple pronged and exploding as they reached their range limit. Both birds and Jaret were blown away. Swellow had been thrown to the ground incapacitated, attempting again to take to the skies again before collapsing.
Jaret had felt Pidgeot's body slack like lead; Pidgeot's conscious was gone again. Both trainer and Pokemon landed a little ways from Swellow. Jaret lay on his back in exhaustion before attempting to stand but winced as pain shot through his arm. His eyes trailed back to it, discovering that his arm had been painted with splotches of black that adorned Pidgeot. He cursed quietly, then aloud.
"Jaret." It was Virgil. His tone was different. The open disdain was not present in the least. Instead, there was only a flat, monotone feel to his voice. "I-"
"Damn it Virgil! Why didn't you help!?" Jaret slammed a fist into the dirt. "Now that 'Julio' or whatever her name is has Viola for whatever reason! She's up there in that damned Charizard's hand being wrung dry! And you just sat there!" For a long moment, Virgil was only quiet and that only served to intensify Jaret's already scalding anger. "Don't you feel the least bit responsible for any of this!? We could've gotten her back if you had done something!" Virgil looked past Jaret with something similar to nonchalance but Jaret, even in his rage, had managed to see something was vastly different in Virgil.
Juliet looked down at both of them. She took note as Virgil pointed toward her. Jaret's neck craned over his shoulder to see her before turning to face her completely. There was nothing to read through her face. She and Virgil locked eyes but she looked away. She was wrought with sorrow.
"Drop her." Juliet had nearly forgotten about Viola being clasped in her Charizard's claw. She gave a tap of her foot and Charizard landed, placing her figure on the earth before them. Charizard gave a haughty exhale of smoke through his nostrils as if to frighten him; Virgil remained in place. His plain expression was wired now with taut, leashed anger. Jaret had seen the expression, his own anger subsiding to make room for his growing curiosity. What had happened to him? Juliet stepped off from Charizard.
"This isn't…" She looked to Swellow and Pidgeot. She kept her gaze averted from Jaret and swallowed before continuing. "This isn't what I meant to happen…" Jaret only let his eyes flick to Virgil for the boy's response. It was silent for a moment before Virgil clicked open a poke-ball.
"Lucario, attend to Swellow and Pidgeot. Be quick with it; we can't have them being worse off than what they already are." Lucario nodded and went to the birds in silence. Virgil's eyes went to her Charizard, who was visibly exhausted before letting his sight drop back to his trainer. Juliet shifted nervously under his watch.
"So," she started. "I suppose you're going to chew me out for what I've done?" Her tone was drab and matter-of-fact, as if she was used to it all before.
"No, I won't." Her eyes widened in surprise along with Jaret's who gave him a peculiar glance.
"This is beyond unlike you, Virgil..." Virgil paid Jaret's comment no mind. Virgil stepped in close to her, leaning in so close that their noses nearly touched.
"You're going to tell me where the hell you were taking Viola." There was a knives edge to Virgil's voice. Jaret only watched. A part of him told him he should be ready to stop Virgil should something possess him to strike the girl, but at the same time, forgiving her for what she had done, even for Jaret, would've proved a colossal task. It seemed there would be no way that Virgil would be able to get past it. But the outspoken, crude vagabond Virgil he had known was replaced by a laconic, forceful and subtly courteous double. As far as he was concerned, anything was possible.
Juliet at first fumbled for words. Virgil was so different than when they had met in the alley. He had his own way of wit, but hers was just that much sharper. She had actually enjoyed his company because of their snide remarks at each other.
Instead, he was near on par with some kind of drill sergeant. His features were twisted in a stern manner that made his face seem aged beyond his years.
"From the way things were going, I thought I'd get your two friends out of there. Violet Jenny has a reputation as Violence Harpy Jenny." Virgil remembered the Jenny at Violet City. She was a very dominant, not to mention outspoken, enforcer. Ryuu had wiped her memory clean with his Pokemon. Juliet's words had made him wonder exactly what could've happen had he not done that.
"Do you really believe that Jenny would do something like that?" Juliet shrugged.
"People are different. I'm a bit surprised you wouldn't really know about her." Virgil muttered under his breath.
"That aside, you would put Viola in danger to 'get her to safety'?" Juliet felt a rush of wit that she couldn't resist.
"You'd make a wonderful Officer Jenny with questions like that." She had expected some steely retort instead she only received silence, making what she thought to be witty awkward. Juliet let out a breath of air. "Listen, Blast Burn was an impulsive choice on my part, I admit it. But nothing would've happened if that Swellow had never shown up. Attention can only be broken into so many things…" Virgil turned away from her when he heard Jaret wince with pain. Virgil's voice was directed at her again.
"You caused the burn, now fix it." Juliet glared reached into her bag, shuffling around before finding a small bottle of fluid.
"It's a burn heal. Just apply it and you'll be fine." She saw Jaret's gawking expression and she reassured him. "It's not the medicine used for Pokemon. This is the best burn heal money can buy." She tossed it to Jaret. Juliet looked to Viola. She could see the slightest movements of her chest rising and falling. Virgil traced her eyes to her as well. He gave an exhausted sigh before turning back to Juliet.
"Get out." The words were so blunt that she was taken aback for a moment.
"What do you mean?"
"Go away. You nearly killed a friend of mine and wounded the other." Jaret caught wind of the word "friend" as Virgil went on.
"But I also gave one of them the option to get rid of it and the other is still alive and well." Virgil frowned again. "Just hear me out. I already admitted that what I did was stupid and blah blah blah."
"Why do you feel so bad about it?" The question caught her off guard.
"What kind of question is that? I caused some pretty bad stuff." Virgil raised a brow skeptically.
"Not many rich girls know how to brawl in a figure-hugging dress. I would think you have some kind of history. Riches like you are terrified to leave their mansions for even a couple of hours." Juliet gave a half-smile. A little bit of Virgil was coming back. Nonetheless, he had brought of something that hit her hard. She swallowed and forced her sweet smile at him.
"That's for me to know and you to never find out." It was Virgil's turn to half-smile, a failed attempt at attempting to stifle one despite himself. Jaret glared; Virgil was flirting. It had seemed as though in those moments before he had gotten through to Virgil, or something did. Instead, he was back to flirting with good-looking girls. There was some part of Jaret that believed Virgil to truly be vagabond, or a lecher at best.
Jaret looked to Viola, kneeling by her. The ointment that Juliet had given him stopped the burning in its tracks and the splitting pain had receded into nothing. He knew he would be fine but Viola seemed to be a different story entirely. She was lying prostrate in the earth. Jaret sighed. Virgil was flirting with no city seemingly near. He would need to set up camp. Jaret unstrapped his bag and went about busily setting things up. He looked to Viola once more, seeing her chest rise and fall in a subtle manner; Jaret let out a sigh of relief.
Viola gasped as crisp air filled her lungs. For a few moments, she coughed and sputtered as if Charizard's claw was still locked around her. She ran her hand by her waist, reassuring herself that she was indeed free of Charizard. She had looked around her surroundings. She was in a building of some sort. Nearly every building in Johto held some form of history behind it, whether it was big or small. Wasting no time, she quickly located a flight of stairs that took her to the next floor.
She raised a hand as she stepped up and onto the first floor. Sunlight poured in from the numerous tower openings. The sunlight reflected from numerous panels of brass, creating a seemingly golden atmosphere. Slowly, Viola wandered the first floor in interest, moving from wall to wall, running her fingertips along the cool-to-the-touch brass. Something possessed Viola to glance toward the front of the room. There, she saw an entire wall composed of brass.
Illustrations of ancient Pokemon long gone were scribed into it and she could seldom make out what modern Pokemon could've descended from them. Some of the scriptures were of ancestors of common Pokemon such as Rattata, others were of rarities. Her eyes hovered over each and every little detail. She had never seen anything like it. Not a single text she could find on the history of Johto said anything of a tower coated in brass.
One illustration struck her in particular. Two towers sat across from one another. The peeking sunlight had made the illusion that one of the towers was made of gold, the one that she deduced to be the tower of brass in which she stood; the other gleamed rich silver. The sunlight brought each one to life and sitting above each tower was a bird deity of some sort. One perched above the tower of brass and the other atop the silver tower.
The inscription of the deity atop the silver tower was seemingly bathed in flames. Its expression seemingly carved in an eternal glower. Prongs of the fire exuded from the god as if they were the dancing rays from the sun. She looked to the other Pokemon, who seemed to be its complete opposite. The deity perched at the top of the tower of brass was coated with the caress of wind, three of them painted around the bird in funnels. Intricate detail was put into the funnels, something that Viola read interpreted to be water. She looked for a solid few minutes before finding the names of the Pokemon on each of the tower: Lugia of the Brass and Ho-oh of the Silver.
She felt the wooden planks of the tower rumble beneath her then. It had been a subtle quake, but enough to jolt Viola from her observation. She looked to the wooden planks, finding that nothing had fallen through. Another quake ran through the planks and that one was followed by another one. The quakes pulsed through the tower in rhythm, as though they were live heartbeats. The fact was un-nerving, and fearing that she may have tampered with something she knew nothing of, Viola went to find to next flight of stairs.
As she climbed, the heartbeat of the tower grew only stronger, faster and more potent. Viola had felt a sudden chill in the air as she climbed higher. Viola knew that she was only on her way to the third floor yet she was able to see her own breath. She felt her teeth chatter slightly. She had no fire Pokemon to warm her and even if she did, such an idea would be dangerous. Viola gritted her teeth and trudged on climbing step after step.
A great deal of time was spent that way. Viola continued up the flight of stairs, one step after the other. The stairs curved sharply in a never-ending spiral of darkness. She was certain she was getting nowhere but still the temperature grew colder. If the air grew colder, then she had to be moving.
Viola knelt on a few stairs to huddle herself together. She was freezing and the feeling in her toes and fingers had long been gone. She had climbed far enough to where the very air she exhaled was frozen in little time. Frost had perched itself on her eyelashes and on the edges of her nose. She was so very cold. Viola stood then, looking forward and up as the stairs stretched even higher, dwarfing whatever "progress" she had made.
"I will get there…Wherever this tower of brass goes…I will get there…" Her teeth chattered violently and when Viola would consciously force them shut, they would start up again against her will. She had wondered then. Why was she walking this tower alone? What had happened to Virgil? To Jaret? Had either of them been present, perhaps she would've been able to avoid the frigid air. She clenched her teeth then to stop the chattering. It had come to her that she had been trudging along in the dark. Perhaps the tower of brass was a riddle in itself? Invigorated by the idea, Viola went for a poke-ball at her waist. During her fumbling, she had noted that only two out of three poke-balls were present. She would have to turn back later. With a click of the poke-ball button, her Manectric took shape.
"Manectric, I'll need you to… light up the area using D-Discharge… Is that… okay?" Manectric gave a worried whimper, opting to stay close to Viola to warm her up. It wasn't until then that Viola realized that she had been shivering incessantly. "It's… okay… Go ahead." Manectric stepped back then and with a sharp howl, cackled with electricity that burst in every direction. The bolts of lightings went about the stairway then. Every surface from which they bounced was lit with energy. They ricocheted uncontrollably, all somehow missing Viola whilst lighting the entire stairway.
Upon the lighting, she had found that she had never walked upon a stairway. Instead, she had simply trudging in place. She was up to her waist in the crystal water and it seemed upon that realization, it roared to life, quickly submerging Manectric before she could call the Pokemon that to her ball. Viola opened her mouth for a desperate plea to Manectric but water filled her mouth, ears and lungs. She felt something familiar creeping up her spine. It was panic.
Viola wrestled with the feeling, finally managing to subdue it. For a moment, she and Manectric hung there in water suspended. Viola went to move toward Manectric but instead felt something freeze her on the spot. Two piercing red eyes glowered at her just beyond Manectric. If she attacked with Discharge, she could possibly be able to defeat it in one go but at the cost of her life. She shook her head; it was too much of a gamble.
Manectric had swum towards her side. It was strange to the Pokemon as she there was no surface to place her head above her paws swiped through the water clumsily. Trainer and Pokemon stood beside one another as the red eyes began to take shape. The flooded room had abruptly began draining, swirling into a small orb of water in front of them. Both Viola and Manectric fell to the ground clumsily.
With each of them sputtering and coughing, Viola had heard such a fierce growl from Manectric that it she had at first thought she was protecting the young again. The frigid feeling in the air had returned, sending a chill all the way through her. Beyond the cherry colored eyes was a body the color of water, spotted with flecks of white. It adorned a strange looking crown and a violet mane flowed freely with grace.
"Suicune…" She could only out the Pokemon's name before she felt the recognizable cool of water at her feet tug her down, down into more darkeness. Her eyes flicked around furiously to find something that she could tie to reality. There was no more Manectric. Virgil and Jaret were nowhere to be seen.
This must've been a dream.
Again, Viola inhaled voraciously as she swung up and again she immediately observed her surroundings. As her eyes scanned over the landscape, she realized that there was nothing. No tower of brass, or any sign of Virgil or Jaret. She heard Manectric bark with concern. She turned to the Pokemon to give her a pat.
"It's okay. I'm definitely fine now." Viola stood with Manectric to her side and scanning over the land a second time, she became aware of the smell of death. She gagged at first and shuddered as she forced it down. There was a part of her that longed for the fresh air of Fortree again, but even the smell of Violet had been more refreshing. The putrid smell made her head spin and she nearly buckled. As she expected, Manectric ran to her side to help balance her. Viola shook away her second bout of nausea and spotting a small town, she trekked onwards.
The village had been no better. Viola looked from shanty to homes and even on the outskirts. She had found no trace a life anywhere. Instead, she had found countless bodies of people, some done away with brutally, others dead without a single scratch. As she sifted through the ruins, she had come face to face with one of the deceased. Viola's eyes widened for a moment and panic surged through her yet again, attempting to seize her at every turn.
There was no face.
Viola vomited.
She wiped away the bile from the corners of her lips. Another whimper from Manectric brought her to.
"If this is a dream, then why had that hurt so bad…?"
Manectric nudged her and Viola stood. Why couldn't she wake up? There had been no explanation as to why she was still here in this dream world. There was something that inflamed her curiosity. Why did these people not have faces? Why was this even a dream of hers anyway? Where had Suicune gone? Her hand was inches away before she drew it back.
A small bit of frost licked her arm despite the bursting warm sun and Viola turned to the direction from which it came. She had expected to see Suicune but saw only two silhouettes in the direction of the wind. There was a stark size difference between the two. One of which was unmistakably human. Viola took off toward it with Manectric at her side.
Viola came to a halt as she came within reach. There was a young muscled man cradling someone else in his arms. Viola saw her eyes glazed over under the curtain of death. Viola unconsciously ran a hand through her own hair. Their hairstyles would've been identical but the girl's was matted up and clumped with dirt; she must've been extraordinarily beautiful. She chuckled.
"I'm afraid that'd be the key difference in us…" She watched distantly, despite being so close to the young man. He held her close, screaming what must've been the girl's name.
"Mira! You have to get up! Mira!" She watched as he shook her in vain. She was dead and he simply continued to shake her hoping that it was all just a dream. Viola stood quietly. He had to know that she and her Manectric stood there. Instead he kept about it, screaming "Mira" in denial.
Viola felt something gaze onto the scene as she did. Looking beyond the young soldier, she had found the Pokemon from the inscriptions in the tower of brass. The sun seemed to coil around it. Its stare seemed to be a permanent scowl or glare, but it simply did as she did, watching in a distant manner. Ho-oh of the Silver was perched before her.
The soldier placed her on the ground then. Viola heard the god's thoughts.
"They are fickle. Foolishly bold in the most inconvenient of times, then at others, emotionally and mentally weak. They are complex creatures…" Viola understood that he was referring to humans and for a reason that she didn't know, she thought of Virgil.
Frost licked her face from the direction of the Phoenix. Turning there, she caught the cherry-eyed Suicune sitting at Ho-oh's right. It inhaled.
"Wait! Suicune!" Suicune exhaled and the blizzard swept Viola from her feet. The dawn colors were fading then. They grew brighter and brighter until they ultimately gave way to white.
Again, air filled her lungs but it tasted of charred coal and burned fire. She coughed violently for a few moments. Her vision focused to the inside of a small home.
"Viola, how are you feeling?" Viola wiped her eyes, finding Virgil sitting in chair over by the room windowsill and Jaret standing over her. She went to speak but her voice croaked. Her throat burned with pain.
"I-I've been better." Virgil gave her a boyish grin and she raised a brow at that.
"Well," Jaret started. "It's good to know you're alive." There was a quizzical look on her face and Jaret figured that she wouldn't have been able to tell the difference. "You nearly froze to death." She eyes widened.
"I…did?" Virgil nodded.
"Yeah. If one of us went to see how you were, the air around you would get pissingly cold." Viola looked to Virgil and then to Jaret, then back to Virgil. "Not even Arcanine could warm you up enough. We thought you were done for." She blinked before speaking, lying her head back down. She simply stared through the window for a moment.
"Then how am I still here?"
"You're welcome." Viola didn't bother to look; she had managed to memorize Juliet's voice in a small span of time, given that not too many people took her persona anyway. Swellow came to Viola's mind and she shot up, but Jaret placed a hand on her shoulder, gently laying her back into the bed.
"Swellow will be fine."
"What happened to him?" She remembered the maelstrom of Blast Burn and she couldn't help but pass a glare at Juliet, who looked away in what seemed to be shame. Virgil scratched his head uncomfortably, as he always did.
"Anyway, after all of that commotion, you probably want to know where we are." Viola kept quiet but turned to Virgil in acknowledgement. "This is the Charific Valley."
"Charific Valley?"
"It's a place where Charizard fight in the wild so that they can improve their skills and get stronger." Viola turned to Juliet then.
"And you know of this place how?" The words were said with a little more than Viola had thought but refused to take them back. Juliet gave another one of her sighs.
"I have a Charizard. I had figured from that definition you would've figured out how and why I know that." Jaret cleared his throat awkwardly, sensing that tension was rising between the two girls. He looked to Virgil. Giving a quiet mutter, Virgil got up from his seat.
"We don't need this…" He looked to Juliet. "Come on, I got something I'd rather talk to you about anyways." Juliet gave one last look to Viola, something that was both apologetic and challenging before she disappeared from sight.
Jaret sat down in Virgil's seat.
"You two already seem like you'll get along." Viola said nothing instead, staring at the door. "Viola?"
"Jaret."
"What?"
"Do you remember back in Violet City?" Jaret raised a brow. "You had gone to sleep and woke up bleeding." The recollection formed a lump in his throat.
"I remember."
"What did you see?" Jaret was suddenly at a loss for words.
"I didn't see anything. I had been sleeping." Viola gave him look of sarcasm. "Well… alright. It may seem a bit farfetched, but I… I had seen a legendary Pokemon." Jaret looked to her face to gauge her reaction; it remained the same.
"Which Pokemon." Jaret didn't say. "Was it one of the legendary beasts?" Jaret still said nothing but gave a subtle nod. Viola felt herself grin. "Just making sure. You had told me already and I was just making sure you didn't make it up."
"Why would I make a dream up? They're random enough in themselves."
"Not in this case…" Jaret took note of the perplexed expression that donned her features.
"There's something more to it. You and Virgil had told me that I had nearly died in my sleep. In my own dream, I saw Suicune and nearly froze to death to get there. For some odd reason, Swellow wasn't at my waist…" Jaret felt to familiarity where he had saw Ho-oh and the ruined village.
"What else did you see?" So Viola divulged everything to him the ruined village, the youing warrior and the common theme of Mira's deat. Little by little, Jaret had found himself forgetting about the Silver Conference.