Another chapter, eh~? Well, o' course! This one's kinda' just filler, so there's not so-so much stuff like there usually is. Kinda' needs to take a break, to be honest :P

So here it is! Enjoy-ish!

SUGGESTED TRACK FOR THIS CHAPTER: C418 - Living Mice

Chapter 20 – Rain

Rain, huh?

A drop spot itself onto my right cheek, causing me to take a finger and rub over the wetted spot as my eyes stared upward. A gray sky reflected off the dark-brown lenses I would call "mine," an assortment of raindrops trickling into my frizzed, dirty brown hair, and a sigh slipping from my lips as I looked back down.

I had been walking for a day. I haven't stopped walking since . . . hours ago. I felt like I was going to pass out.

A cave had been nearby, to which I took upon and stepped on over to. The rain began to harden in pattern, matting the outside dirt with wetness.

My back pushed up against the wall of the cave and held, eventually letting my body slide down to sit along the ground.

And throughout this all, my eyes could only hold at a half-lidded form. My expression was blank—I would think—and my body was limp.

Rain would just fall. There wasn't much else to it. The ground turned soaked, while I was dry inside this cave.

I searched eyes around to the inner-depths of the cave, finding it to be poorly lit and rather dark.

The only thing on my mind was what happened in the last time I was in a cave. Who I was with.

My legs took up and stood higher, an exhale pressing against my depressive form. A step forward would be followed, taking me deeper into this cave.

No voice inside my head—something I didn't expect. Yet again, what would this voice say? . . . The voice was feminine in tone, so I could refer to it as a "she."

All I was left with was my thoughts and my thoughts alone.

And my thoughts were about how much I just . . . hate . . . myself.

Not Latias. I can't even feel anything towards anyone but myself. Could there be anyone else to blame? Had I not taken Flygon into this whole thing, she would've still been alive . . . and if I didn't even go after Latias . . . Starry would still be around to talk me through stuff like this.

Yet, I wasn't upset. I didn't have any motive to turn emotional; I was just broken, it seemed.

I held my palms along the cave's walls and dragged them along, slowly trudging in.

Starry is dead . . . Flygon is dead . . . Latias killed Flygon . . . and Giovanni killed Starry.

And I still can't figure out what makes me more upset.

For now—however—I would trip forward a bit, without falling, and stumble into a larger room. I looked about, finding it to be quite similar to that one . . . back in the desert.

Memories. Memories I don't want to remember. That's what my head is filled with right now. If I could just forget . . . and get back to my life.

But I couldn't do that—never again. With Starry and Flygon gone . . . parts of my life are gone.

. . .

Just like the prior cave, a Pokémon had been inside it. Though not encased in a tomb-like spot as the other had been, there was a rather huge, golem-looking form in the middle of it.

Red lights lit up, leaning around to face towards me. They obviously belonged to the Pokémon, which wouldn't be hard to identify as another "Regi."

It took slow steps towards me, thumping against the ground in a display of its weight. The closer it came to me, the more I saw of it. Steel plates surrounding its darker body were all I could make of it, however. With large arms reaching down to the ground, shorter legs holding firm, and a rounded shape claiming the spot as both its head and torso, it looked down to me.

The steel it had, though. That Rhyhorn was all that came to mind. I only stared, before taking my lenses up to match the red lights above.

"Jared Lupo," it called.

No other reaction was taken by me—other than a slow blink.

Its expression took taller, stepping back a couple feet's way, yet still close to me.

"I take it that the end of your first journey is over," it stated, body unmoving.

I only let over a slow nod.

"Then I must apologize . . . for your loss." Its body shifted some. "But you're not done yet."

This thing obviously knew what was going on—unlike the other golem—but its last statement almost made me uneasy.

"If you would like to separate your journeys into parts, you may call this 'part two.'"

It had my attention.

"I am Registeel, the second legendary golem for you to encounter. Like Regirock, I offer you foresight and a gift."

"He didn't tell me all of this was going to happen," I told, a raspy tone to my phrasing.

"For good reason. Had you known that you would have lost everything in such a way, you probably wouldn't have gone over for Latias."

With an exhale and small shake of my head, I stared down this creature.

"He could have told me what the function of this necklace was. He could have told me to avoid anything with Flygon—albeit the fact that I wasn't even with Latias. . . ."

I cracked my neck to a side.

"Yet, here we are."

"It is all your fate, Jared-"

"Stop with that bullshit. Fate is nothing more than a way for you idiots to justify the future."

It turned silent.

"Wouldn't it just be easier for me to not do anything? This 'second part' of my life thing . . . sounds pretty risky. In fact, it's probably riskier than what I just did-"

"It is."

"Then why would I go?" I asked, notching my head over with a blank expression.

"That . . . is something I cannot tell you."

More of this bull—just like the Regirock.

"That is something you must find for yourself," it added.

My thoughts took to a cease, my head tilting over.

". . . I think I would prefer if I were to just stay back at my apartment. . . ."

"Then that is your choice."

The mood held its silence, leaving me to look up to this "thing." Soon after, it would retrieve some long-shaped object from behind itself.

It offered it forward, left for me to take into my hands and hold.

Leather was wrapped around something somewhat heavy, but not necessarily weighted. The form was just around four feet long—altogether—and at the end of it was a pole-like protrusion.

The Registeel just watched me.

I placed a hand on the end of the object, before pulling on that spot and slipping out a length of metal. The leather fell to the ground while I tilted my head, examining the item.

It was a sword.

The reflection of myself was almost too clear, with a white shade to the blade. The handle was wrapped in some fine material that I couldn't identify, being topped off with a guard—not being much of a guard as it was just about the width of the blade—that had a dark-blue gem in the middle-part of it.

My eyes continued to look over and over the thing, before I leaned down and picked up the leather piece—a sheath—and slipped the weapon back into its original place.

After, I would place the sword back into the Regi's grasp.

"I'm not interested," I told, having my hands flop to my sides as I took a step back.

". . . Jared, this is something you must do."

"Says who? You?"

I waited for a response—one I wouldn't get.

"I'm sorry, but my fate doesn't lie with any of this. Whatever stuff you have going on . . . I don't want a part of," I continued, eyeing the creature whilst turning my body around some.

". . . So be it."

It took its steps back into the darkness, leaving me to go back to the front of this cave.

I leaned against the side and watched the rain—watching it lighten up at a slow pace. I had all the time in the world to wait, so it was fine.

No thoughts of my own would trail back to that Regi, even if it was still inside the same cave with me.

My expression held still, keeping a definite blankness to it throughout the rest of the day.

Depression! Swords! Legendary golems! Just a ton of fun for Jaroodle over here~!

Please drop a review on the story~! Any criticism is openly accepted and welcomed!

Love yahs~!

-TCX