Parallel Hearts Chapter 14
After the fighting experience, Breaker carries Mega with Fast Star on his back as everyone is, including Mega's brothers and their mysterious friend, at the hideout.
Zero whistles at the details of the place, "wow, Diggy you've done all this in just a few days, right?" He questions the swinub.
Diggy nods, "Yeah, after I was done; I gave it to Rose."
Knolla interrupts the conversation with a cough, "we have an important matter to discuss: we need to know more about the Neos pokemon," she points to the book in her hand that contains information about what she's talking about, catching Zero's attention.
"Oh yeah... that," Zero grabs the book and looks through it quickly, "well Mega is the Neos of Thunder." Knolla wasn't surprise about that... considering how it explains about his mass production of electric attacks earlier, "anything else?"
Zero sighs and points at himself, "I'm the Neos of Leaf," everyone was shocked to hear that... well everyone who doesn't know.
"Mega never knew that he has the Neos of Thunder because nobody ever told him, but he did start becoming aware of it while he was growing up," he then looks at Rose, "and I know you're the buneary that Mega always hang around with... whenever he's not with us anyways."
Rose was surprise that Zero remembers and Mega doesn't, "Diggy knew it all along... that's why he gave you this place."
Rose spoke up, "Then why didn't you guys tell him this? Or me?" She looks hurt, "I thought he was dead after all this time..." Rose was crying and hugs Mega's unconscious body with her face into his fur.
Mega's eyes slowly open to the sound of crying, his vision was blurry and he couldn't make what he's lying on or what's laying on him. It feels wet, but he can hear weeping coming from what's on top of him. His vision clears up more, and he sees brown fur- wait... brown fur? He looks more into it and sees more bunny-like features on it, he now knows who it is.
He hugs her back, "don't worry... I'm right here, no need to be sad," he softly says, trying to comfort the bunny girl.
She looks up to him with tears in her eyes, "I'm not sad... I'm happy," she says and buries her face into his fur once again, making him confuse at the statement. She looks at him one more time, "Don't you remember me? We used to live together and we loved to play at the hidden flower field in the mountain village. You even made me flower crowns whenever I'm sad.
"It's me, Blossom; you gave me that name when my mom couldn't give me one."
Mega eyes stop all their focus as he tries to process of what she just said... what did she just say? Mega's mind was going blank as he repeats her words over and over again... is she really Blossom? He didn't break his promise after all? Can he truly forgive himself after all this time? And the most important: is this his second chance to still be her best friend?
Rose was getting worried about Mega's blank feature, does he remember? Does he believe her? Did she break him? But her biggest concerns: will he keep his promises to her? All those thoughts change when he starts smiling, hugs her deeply, gets up from the tauros, and jumps uncontrollably.
"It's you! It's really you, isn't it?" Was all he could shout, after jumping around like a buneary would. He stops jumping and calms down to take a breather. The pikachu then looks into her eyes with indescribable happiness, "you will always be my favorite little flower, Blossom."
This makes Rose's eyes to sparkles as he just said her favorite quote, "YOU DO REMEMBER!" She shouts and pulls him into a passionate hug, cuddling into his neck as he returns the hug.
Midori smiles at the happy reunion between two long-lost friends, "aaaww, that's so adorable!" Midori said, looking deeply in love with how they're hugging. This makes Zero and Diggy to look at her with a confused face, "what? I love these kinds of moments."
The other two just look at each other for a moment before shrugging as to what's going on. Midori sees this and couldn't believe that these two doesn't know a thing about love... for a strategic genius, Zero can be an idiot at times.
Beauty and Knolla couldn't believe what they were seeing... Mega is actually giving affection... and to ROSE of all pokemon. "W-What's going on?" Beauty asks wide-eyed about what's she's witnessing.
"I think this is a reunion... they were always such good friends back when they were growing up together," Knolla explain the situation between the two.
They want this kind of affection from Mega... they couldn't help but feel envious towards Rose. However, it's best to keep it to themselves.
Breaker on the other hand is happy for the two, he couldn't see what's going on, but he heard everything and couldn't stop smiling for their happy reunion. He may be a youngling, but he was told what love is about from his tauros elder. He doesn't know if the two love each other or not, but they're so happy together and he thinks their friendship has gotten stronger.
"Mega, there's so much I wanna ask you," Rose says after their cuddling hug was over.
"Ok, Blossom... what is it that you wanna ask?" Mega asks as he still has her in his arms.
"Do you... remember that promise?" Rose asks with the second part with a blush.
"The promise to always protect you?" Mega mainly remembers that one crystal clear.
"No... the other promise," Rose says in a bigger blush, "the one to always make me happy, no matter the cost."
Mega remembers that promise as well and nods, "I want to join your journey..." Rose spoke up, making everyone else surprise about her sudden output on leaving the hideout for good. "Oh, by the way, I'm Rose now." She finishes that last part with a flirtatious wink.
Mega couldn't help but smile at his long-lost friend... he does want her to be happy, and how can he refuse after not seeing her for so long? "Okay, if it makes you happy, you can join... Rose."
Making his brothers to glare at him, he turns to them, "what? She wants to join... and I got Breaker to join us as well," their glare just deepens at that comment.
"Mega, we can't just let pokemon join us... it takes a lot of food and water to keep this team going," Diggy says in a serious tone.
"Then count me in," Knolla shouts at their argument, "I'm very intelligent and I can tell which food is good or bad."
"Count me in too," Beauty says in a happy-go attitude, "I can be a great aspect of the team... I know a little about medical herbs and I'm adorable." She then puts up a cutesy-face to clarify her adorableness, making the other three to have a look of discomfort.
Midori likes the idea about having more girls in the team though, she doesn't want to be stuck with a bunch of boys... it's just plain too unhealthy to keep everything to herself. "I want them to join," she shouts to the gecko pokemon, "and that tauros can be a great help... it looks pretty strong."
Zero pinches his forehead to comfort his nerves, "ok... if they're good of a help as they say they are, they can join this journey."
Everyone but him and Diggy cheers for their big journey ahead of them. "But first," everyone stops when he says this, "we need to go back where I was training at... to get something."
Midori knew what he was talking about, "but going back there is suicide!"
"But we need to go back within a week... or we'll never get a golden opportunity like this again," Zero digs through his pockets, to reveal a large rolled up paper. How he manages to EVEN get that in or out was everyone's question.
Zero unrolls it on the wooden table and makes everyone take a good look it, except the unconscious buizel. "We're right here in this part of the forest, right Knolla?" Who nods in response where they're at exactly, "we need to go to... here." He points at the plains, "we can rest up, and regain food supplies there." He circles it with a pencil that seems to come out of nowhere, "there's should be an abandoned house there... which will take the entire day time to get to," he circles that as well.
"Wait, isn't abandoned houses usually haunted by Ghost-type pokemon?" Knolla asks in concern about that situation.
"Not this one, I checked everywhere before we settled there... great place to explore."
He then points at Mount. Waterfall, "it'll take us five days to go around this... but if we use the hidden tunnel behind the waterfall, it'll take half the time," he circles that location as well, "and finally we'll reach the place we need to be by the morning." He circles the square that they need to be, "any questions?"
Receiving head shakes from everyone, "good, now we should get these containers fill with water." He gestures the canteens he brought, there seems to be just enough for everyone to have.
With that, the newly-formed team begins to leave the hideout and towards the lake. Mega looks at the canteens for a moment, and then begins to twist the tip of it to open the container. It works, and the top seem to hang on around the tip by some strings.
"So we gather water and get out in the morning?" Zero looks at the pikachu who asked that question for a moment, "yup, that's the plan."
When they reach the lake, there's seems to be a large amount of pokemon gathering with a look of rage in their face, specifically towards Mega.
"You!" The leader of the large group, a marill, telling by their instincts its female, not only that, it's the same one that welcomed Mega into the Southern Pokeball Forest.
"What?" Mega asks in confusion, "you and that buizel are no longer welcome in this forest! You have destroyed this peaceful lake area, and for that, you must pay for the consequences."
Zero gets in front of Mega in defense, "what? He was the only one that actually had the guts to fight that monster compare to you cowards," he argues.
The marill wasn't very happy with that statement, "excuse me?" She barks back.
"You heard me! You and your group are cowards! I saw you guys cowering behind a tree while those two were fighting, you didn't even bother to help him when he was pinned against that rock."
That's when the marill gets angrier from that comment, "you're one to talk, you just stood by and let this pikachu fight and wreck this beautiful monument of an area!"
The treecko just crosses his arms in response, "I didn't need to do anything, Mega had everything covered, and plus, if he wasn't there who knows what would've happened to you guys or this forest."
The angry marill looks pass Zero to address her target, "I warn you now, if we ever see you or that monster again: we'll kill you without hesitation!"
The group behind the marill battle cries in agreement, making Mega look down on the ground, heartbroken.
Zero looks at his dearest brother and didn't want to him to suffer like this, "well then you'll have to do the same to me too, considering I was the one who trained Mega!"
Mega looks at his older brother for a moment to see what just happened... did he also take responsibility for his mistake? Then Diggy gets in front of the two of them, "me too, because I'm their brother!"
Marill looks at the three brothers for a moment and looks back at the day when she first welcomed the pikachu, now she truly regrets it. "Very well then, to this day, you three are hereby banished from The Southern Pokeball Forest!" She banishes the three, "you have a day head start until we chase after all of you and kill you."
She then looks at Rose, Knolla, and Beauty, "I'm sorry it has to come to this, I'm only showing mercy by giving these three a head start, I hope you can forgive me..." with that said, the large group leaves the small group alone in the heavily damaged lake.
All the three banished pokemon could do now is gathering the water they need for the travel, knowing full well that there's no going back at this point. Mega truly appreciate to have brothers like them to have his back, he wishes they haven't done that though, because they have to suffer the same fate as him. They soon reach back into the hideout without anything to say and get ready to fall asleep, leaving only one problem left.
Fast Star begins to regain consciousness, "huh?" He looks around goggling at where he's at, "where am I?" He's never been here before... what exactly happened? The last thing he remembers is when Mega hit him with an extremely electrifying attack.
"You got knocked out by Meggy again," Beauty says with a smile to greet him with.
Now fully awake, Fast Star crosses his arms and turns away, "I know that... I said where am I exactly?"
"You're in our hideout," Beauty replies to the buizel's question, making him walk up to the front door, "I wouldn't do that if I were you."
"Oh yeah? Why not?" He glares at her.
"If the pokemon see you again... they'll try to kill you... same with Meggy, Zero, and Diggy."
He stops right at the door, hoping that wasn't true... but he knows that it is true from the damage he's done with Mega at the lake. He goes to sit down on the table and hang his head down. "I have nowhere to go, huh?" He's at the verge of depression, "I've truly lost everything!"
Beauty tries to cheer him up, "no you haven't... you got us now, we need you... Meggy wants to be friends with you."
This shocks Fast Star as what he heard: he got them now? And they need him? Then the last statement makes him question the most... Mega wants to be his friend? After all the abuse and the fighting, Mega wants HIM as a friend?
Beauty can't help but feel sorry for the deeply depressed buizel right beside him, part of her says he doesn't deserve to be Mega's friend because of all the things he's did to him... especially making him a target for death, but another part of her wants to comfort him. She ignores the first part and hugs him with her front paws as he closes his eyes in her fur, hoping for the pain to go away. When she sees Mega walking down the stairs from his room and see Fast Star in a vulnerable position, he rushes over there on all four to get there.
"What happened?" Mega asks in concern about the situation, "Fast Star starts getting depressed because he has nowhere else to go," making Mega feel bad for the buizel in front of him, but he's got the same situation so he knows how that feels.
He wish to talk to Fast Star, so he spoke up, "hey, you have us now and we can leave everything behind us, we can be friends now right?"
This surprises Fast Star as he looks behind him to see Mega in front of him, "what?"
Mega smiles once more, "can we be friends now?" He lends out his hand, hoping that he'll accept it, "you want to join us in our upcoming journey?"
Fast Star looks at his hand and thinks it over: he has nowhere else to go, everyone wants to kill him, and if they leave he'll be alone and most likely starve to death in this hideout... what does he have left to lose? He accepts the offering hand and shakes it, "you got yourself a friend here," he says with a smile, making Mega's smile to become bigger.
It was almost time to sleep, Zero is lying on the nest he made, looking at the ceiling of Mega's room, "I can't believe our dream is about to come true."
He smiles as he looks at Diggy's sleeping body next to him, covered in rocks and dirt, "it's been all of our dreams... for as long as I could remember." He forgot to show Mega a surprise of how much he changed since the last time they were together, oh well, there's still time for that during the travel.
"I hope you don't mind if I sleep here, Rose."
"No I don't mind, Midori, besides I always wanted a sleepover."
There was enough room for the both of them on the bean bag, which is comfortable for Midori, "so what's the deal between you and Zero?" That question causes Midori to freeze in place, giving Rose an idea and smile in mischief, "you're in love with him, aren't you?"
When the snivy doesn't reply but blush instead, Rose already gets the answer, "I knew it!" She pauses at the thought of her being in love with a treecko, "but wait, aren't treeckos and snivies in different egg groups?" Midori nods, "then how are you in love with him? Pokemon's instincts tell them to fall in love with pokemon in the same egg group."
Midori pauses to the facts, "can you keep a secret?" The bunny nods, making Midori sigh, "we were experiments... for the humans," shocking Rose, but she continues, "Zero was their greatest experiment... they've even somehow changed one of his egg groups from Monster to Grass."
She looks back at Rose to see if she's catching up, "there's something else they changed about him... but that's a different story. Anyways, it's not because of the changed egg group I fell in love with him." Rose understands about that, but she wants to listen to the rest of the story, "it's because he changed my life for the better... he gave me hope and dreams when no one else would."
Rose appreciates Midori sharing her story with her, "thanks... your secret is safe with me," she says with a wink, making Midori smile in response.
"Thanks, I'm glad I can be friends with you." With that, they both fell asleep in peace.