Chapter 21:
The three children jogged at a steady pace through the woods east of Fallarbor for hours after leaving the city. At first they thought it was snowing in the area but it was far too hot and it was the middle of summer. When Drago stuck his tongue out and tasted the powder falling from the sky he choked and spit it back out. The volcano in the area was constantly releasing ash particles that the boy had tried to eat and found utterly disgusting.
Some time around three in the morning, Billy was panting too hard and stopped, resting his hands on his knees and bending his head. "Hold, up," he said between breaths and the others looked back to where the youngest was.
The older boy yawned and looked around at the trees, chances that anyone finds us here are slim. "Let's take more than a break this time," the others looked at him in agreement and sat down all taking deep breaths and pulling out small blankets they bought at the pokemart. It wasn't much but it was mainly to keep the falling ashes from falling on their clothes. "You guys get some rest, I'll take first watch."
"Do you really think anyone will find us?" Lucy asked skeptically.
"No," he responded, "but better safe than sorry." The red headed girl nodded in understanding and laid down on a soft patch of dirt, wrapping herself in the blanket. Billy took one last look at his friend before dropping his head back and falling asleep instantly.
Drago laughed at his exhausted friend and thought Lucy would join in with him, but he could start to hear the deep breathing of a sleeping person coming from the girl's blanket. All alone, he grinned and pressed his hands against his pokeballs, happy that they were all with him.
The boy walked through the trees, making sure he didn't wander too far from the little camp but still looking around the ash covered landscape in awe. It looks just like… an image of a young girl flashed in his head. He stopped smiling and rested his head against the closest tree as he clenched his eyes shut. It looks like death.
Flashback (6 years ago)
"Pikachu use quick attack," the small yellow mouse ran forwards and swiped the Taillow, knocking it backwards and tumbling across the grassy green front lawn. "Haha, I got you," the small seven year old boy with bleach blonde hair pointed at the other boy who was only one year younger.
"No fair, you're older than me," the other kid said and crossed his arms, putting on a pouty face.
Drago called back his Pikachu and nodded to his brother, signaling for the boy to call his own back as well. "Go get your twin and come back, then maybe you'll be able to beat me." The little boy growled and ran towards his brother to tackle him but the older boy stepped out of the way and the younger kid tripped.
He sniffled and grabbed his leg after falling on the ground, "That hurt," tears started coming to his eyes and Drago looked at the small bloody cut on his brother's kneecap.
"I'll go get mom," he assured his crying brother and ran inside the house. Vlad is such a crybaby, "Mom?" he called out after walking in the house but he received no reply.
There were voices coming from the kitchen and Drago walked down the hallway and peeked his head in. He looked at his father who had an arm draped across his mother's shoulder reassuringly. "What are we going to do?" his mom asked in a quiet voice he could barely hear.
"It's alright Mary, we're a small village, no one will come here." Drago looked in further and saw that the adults were looking down at a newspaper.
"If they do come though, we can't let the kids keep training their pokemon." The whole region they say! War, in Hoenn! She continued, "Drago is already becoming pretty good," the boy smiled at the praise when he supposedly wasn't even there but he was confused at what his parents were talking about. "They'll take him away if he's good enough and send him to the battlefield, we can't allow that to happen." She looked up at her husband who waited a few seconds and then nodded.
Can't train my pokemon? Take me away? War? Drago ran back down the hallway in a hurry and out the door where he looked around and saw people outside their front doors talking in hushed voices to their neighbors. His brother was playing with a flower on the ground and saw Drago come back without their mom.
"Where's mom?" the kid asked and the two girls who had finished the battle on the other side of the front lawn ran over as well.
The eldest child looked at the three of them and frowned. He shook his head and removed the one pokeball from his belt, "For now on," It can't just be for me. If the others are too good they'll be taken as well, whatever that means, "No more fighting with our pokemon." The children looked at him with confused and angry looks.
"You don't get to decide that," the six year old twin to Vlad stated angrily. Ora continued, "You're not the boss of me."
The youngest of the group, the four year old girl Ella raised her hand and Drago looked at her, "Why not?"
"I don't know," Drago responded truthfully but the look on his face made the other three children very afraid. They heard someone clear their throat from the front door and the blonde boy turned around slowly to see his father standing there with a solemn look on his face. The man's demeanor made all three other children look down at the floor and try to keep from sobbing as they knew Drago had told them the truth.
End Flashback
The boy had his head resting on the ash covered tree for a few minutes before he realized he was going to fall asleep if he kept his head laying there any longer. Gotta keep moving, he started fast walking in a circle around the area where his friends were sleeping.
As he passed by Billy, he saw the kid smiling in his sleep and holding the blanket on top of him tight. Wonder what he's dreaming about, it seems nice, the thirteen year old couldn't remember once in the last five years when he had dreamt without having a nightmare. He looked back through the trees at the ash covered ground and clenched his eyes closed, trying to forget.
Flashback (5 years ago)
"Heading to the park, I'm gonna meet up with Viktor and Uther." Drago ran to his front door trying to get out as quick as possible.
He heard a low voice call to him from the living room, "Bring your brother with you." Drago groaned and called Vlad's name a few times. The excited boy ran down the stairs and smiled at his brother who wasn't too happy about having to drag his brother with him every time he went out.
"Are we meeting up with Wendy?" The boy asked as they walked down the path away from their house and Drago raised an eyebrow.
"Why do you want to know?" Vlad looked away fast and Drago chuckled, "Do you like her?" he asked in a mock surprise voice.
"What?! She's a girl, girls have cooties," his big brother shook his head at the little boy who was only a year younger than him. "I just wanted to know if she was going to be there is all," the boy looked at his feet and Drago tussled his hair. He never disliked hanging with his brother, it just got annoying having to do it every day.
They got to the park and Drago saw two kids a little older than him playing catch with a football on the open field. "Hey Drago," one of them called out and was hit by the brown ball as he turned to wave to his approaching friend.
"Not cool Viktor," Drago commented as he got there and helped Uther to his feet. The larger boy chortled and pointed to his head, "Always be ready for anything. My dad tells me that every morning," Drago nodded and picked up the ball, throwing it as fast as he could into the bigger boy's stomach.
"Oof," Viktor caught the ball but it still knocked the wind out of him. All three of the other boys started laughing and they tossed around the football for close to twenty minutes before Vlad dropped the ball and the others stared at him funny. Viktor waved a hand from his spot in front of the younger boy and shouted, "Earth to baby, you didn't catch it."
Drago didn't like the way his friend talked to his little brother but he let it slide because Vlad was acting really weird. He watched as the little kid started raising a hand and shaking as he did. Now all three of the others were getting on edge and looked to where the boy was pointing, behind them and above their heads.
Uther stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, shaking like a madman while the other three were all frozen still by the sight. The first thing they saw was the flock of birds, giant birds, all circling the forest beneath them and moving closer to the field every second. It was only a few seconds later that the ground started shaking and the boys could literally see the forest moving.
"Tell me I'm not the only one seeing this," Viktor stated and rubbed his eyes. On the far edge of the field the kids saw some pokemon break through the outer edge of the forest. There were hundreds of them, thirty or forty of each type of pokemon they saw. Finally Drago saw a person in the front of the giant army and stared at the man in the white cape with long bluish green hair.
"W-w-we need to get to the village and t-tell everyone," Uther managed to say through chattering teeth as he turned around and started sprinting towards the path to the village.
Drago grabbed his brother by the hand and the two of them chased after their much faster friend down the path.
"Wait up you guys," Viktor shouted from behind and Drago casted a look back but it only made him more determined not to slow down. An army of quick pokemon were speeding across the field picking up dirt as they did and charging towards the heavy kid who was falling far behind his friends.
"Run Viktor!" he shouted and turned around sprinting faster and making his brother move at the same pace.
"Help! AHHHH!" The larger boy's voice faded from behind them; Drago clenched his eyes shut and felt his brother moving even faster as they cleared the tree line and made it into the clearing that their village was in.
"Everyone! There's an army coming!" Drago started shouting after seeing Uther sprinting up and down the block shouting the same thing. He looked back down the path and didn't see anyone coming behind him, Where's Viktor? He didn't see any other pokemon either and feeling unnerved he sprinted towards his house.
Vlad ran inside first and was already crying as their parents walked up to them. "What happened?"
Drago was panting and couldn't stop thinking about what could have happened to his friend but he looked at his parents and then to his left where his sisters were poking their heads out from the rail of the staircase. "The war is here," the boy said and his mom gasped taking a step back and using the wall for balance.
As he said it, a voice sounded over the entire village. "We've come to draft any and all pokemon trainers for the assault on Rustboro City. Come peacefully and no one will be harmed."
The family ran to the window and looked out to see a man in a red sports jacket standing in front of an amassing army of pokemon. Twenty Growlithes stood around him, bird pokemon all over the sky, Drago didn't recognize most of them.
"Get out of our village!" One of the men from the village ran out of his house and threw a rock at the man in the red jacket. A few others stepped out their front doors and yelled at the man as well. The Svenska family stared out their window in sheer terror as the townspeople started going outside and yelling at the man face to face.
"Honey don't," Mary grabbed her husband by the arm but he shrugged her off.
Drago looked up at his father who had a determined look on his face, "They'll take the children," the woman looked down at her kids and that was all the time her husband needed to slip out the front door and make his way to the crowd in the street.
The children all ran back up to the window and stared outside with wide eyes as the people they knew faced off against the man in front of them. He had a black 'S' printed on his red jacket and the man never stopped smirking the entire time he faced the crowd of angry people.
"Get out of our town!" Drago's dad yelled and the boy felt proud of his father.
The man held up a hand and everyone in front of him slowly quieted down. "If that is your response then I have no choice. If I don't recruit you, the Nimbus will, and our enemies will increase," some of the citizens were backing up, "Kill everyone in the village, burn it to the ground."
"Let's be reasonable," the eight year old boy's father stepped towards the man but a needle stuck into the left side of his body and he glowed purple. "What the?" he fell to his knees.
"Father!" Drago spun to his right and none of the others in his house had seen Ora get up and run to the front door.
"Stop!" Mary shouted after her daughter and chased her. She looked back before exiting the house, "Protect your siblings." Drago nodded at her and looked back out at his father who struggled to his feet and removed the needle. At this point the pokemon were all moving forwards towards the village folk and people started running.
"Fight!" A woman screamed and threw her pokeballs in the air. Anyone who wasn't running started fighting but it was instantly clear how mismatched the sides were. The twenty Growlithes attacked as a group, shooting burst after burst of flames into buildings, people, and pokemon alike.
This isn't happening, it has to be a dream. Drago felt a hand tugging at his pant leg and looked to his left where Ella was tearing up and then looked to his seven year old brother who was staring out the window. "Mom," the boy mumbled and fell backwards away from the windowsill. The older boy spun his head outside to see what Vlad was talking about and saw Ora shaking their mother as she lay on the ground covered in red. Mom, he was about to run for the door when he felt the little five year old's hand tug on his pant leg again.
He made a quick decision, "Go out the back door, I'll be right behind you," he ran for the front and shot through to the outside. It was madness. He could instantly feel the heat of the fires burning all around him and looked through the smog to where he could see Vlad's twin still on top of their mother's body. "Ora!" the girl looked up and her big blue eyes stared straight into her brother's as he ran from the house.
"Drago," she muttered and stumbled to her feet, "help me." As the word left her mouth a giant pillar of fire came out of the sky and enveloped mother and daughter as Drago stood ten yards away. He couldn't even feel the heat he was in so much shock as he stared at the spot where the two of them were before. The fire cleared and nothing remained.
The blonde child turned back towards his house and watched as vines started shooting through the windows and doors and tugging in different directions as Bulbasaurs and Bellsprouts tore his house apart. The building crumbled and the enormous noise that sounded knocked the kid to his senses. Focus, Vlad and Ella are still waiting for me. He concentrated and ran over the rubble of his house, holding his pokeball close to him knowing that if he released Pikachu now, his friend wouldn't stand a chance. I should have been training all this time, not hiding like a coward.
The kid got to the backyard which was less covered in smoke and instead it looked like it was snowing. Ashes were falling from the sky as the entire village was now up in flames. "Vlad, Ella! Where are you?" he started coughing and got lower to avoid breathing in as much smoke.
"Ahh!" he heard a little boy's scream and ran in the direction he heard it from. He got into a clearing where his neighbor's back yard was and there wasn't as much smoke back there. His little brother was on his butt, scooting back towards him as a huge bull type pokemon was stamping its feet on the ground angrily.
"Tauros Tauros," it shouted at the kid and then charged him.
"VLAD!" the older brother sprinted towards the younger kid who squealed and was trampled by the pokemon making Drago fall to his knees and crawl panicking to his little brother. "Stay with me, Vlad please, I'm sorry I didn't want to hang out with you," he was shaking his brother's body but the boy wasn't moving at all.
"Big Bro," he looked up and saw Ella walking towards him.
"You're okay!" he shot up and ran to her, wrapping her in the tightest hug he could. He lifted the tiny girl in the air, resting her head on his shoulder and started running for the tree line, unfortunately, he couldn't see it and knee he should have reached it already. All the trees around the village were on fire too and the amount of ash covering the ground made it look like the entire village was coated in a few inches of snow.
"Where's Ora?" the girl asked sadly and her older brother just held her tighter as he clenched his eyes, the look on Ora's face as she extended a hand for him to take, fresh in his mind.
"Just hold on," Drago continued running before hearing a low growl to his right. He turned slowly and saw a large brown rat pokemon glaring at him and his sister. There's no way we outrun it, he lowered Ella to the ground slowly and turned to her, "I want you to run as fast as you can in that direction and then wait for me once you are far enough away." The girl was crying but she nodded and started running as fast as her little legs could take her.
"Pikachu come out," the little yellow mouse appeared and glared at the Raticate which charged them. "Use quick attack," the boy's pokemon was much faster and could dodge most of Raticate's heavy hitting attacks. "One more time, use thundershock," the bigger rat was zapped and fell on the ground unconscious. "Great, come back," he pulled back his friend and ran, finally seeing the tree line in front of him.
The noises in the village were dying down and he couldn't hear much fighting going on anymore. "Ella," he whispered as he walked around the edge of the trees. Maybe she's further in, he wandered around the forest edge for minutes, which became hours, soon he couldn't hear any more noise coming from his home town but the ash kept falling from the sky.
He decided to go check if she was back in the village looking for him and he walked back onto his neighbor's back lawn. The ash clouds were thinning out and there wasn't as much smoke any longer, so when Drago saw an outline in a spot he hadn't seen one earlier, he ran straight towards it. "No no no no," the size of the person laying in the ashes was exactly that of his youngest sister. He dove down and lifted her from beneath the ashes, immediately seeing the three lines cut into the back of her shirt where she must've been slashed. Please God no, he lifted her face and shook the girl but got no reply, "Ella?" he asked quietly and put his face on her chest, "Please Ella, get up."
End Flashback
"It's over," he said to himself and sat down on the ground, calming himself down and looking to see if the others had been watching him. He was sweating like crazy as he stared at a lump in the ashes but the lump moved and a Zigzagoon started moving away before laying back down and starting to get covered in ash again.
I should tell Lucy and Billy... or at least just Lucy. She already knows something because of what she heard so I need to clear it up with her. The boy looked over and panicked before realizing what had happened and calming down. He walked over and brushed ash off of the two sleeping bodies, making them more visible so he wouldn't lose them again.
How did he know my name?
Flashback (4 1/2 years ago)
"Kid wake up, kid!" Drago started screaming and jumped to his feet, putting his hands over his pokeball to protect his best friend. He was wearing the same clothes he left his village six months ago in, and they were really beaten up. "What are you doing out here?" the boy was backing away from the teenager in front of him and thought about turning and running when he heard another voice behind him.
"Whoa, who is this?" The older teenager reached down and lifted the kid up by the scruff of the neck, "What's your name?"
"Drago," he paused and glared at the boy looking back at him, "that's all."
"Kid doesn't even have a last name," the one who woke him up laughed. "Let's bring him back to the city." Drago looked at the boy holding him and the oldest boy nodded.
"I'm Terrence, you're with me now."
End Flashback
Drago was smiling again and leaned against a tree closing his eyes and reminiscing about his time in Rustboro. It wasn't long before he heard rustling behind him and spun around with a fist outstretched. Lucy stood five feet back and stared at the extended arm before shaking her head and pushing it to the side, "That wouldn't have even broken someone's nose. This is what you want to do..."
"Whoa, whoa, show me on the tree," the girl holding a fist towards him laughed and demonstrated on the tree.
Her hit left a fist shaped indent on the bark and Drago was happy she didn't use it on him first. "Get some rest," she told him, "you've had a tough day."
"Thanks," he responded and went over to the area Lucy was lying before. It had the least amount of ash on the floor and he took the spot, lying on the dirt until he felt comfortable and then passing out.
A/n Thank you Wiz300 for reminding me I forgot to update XD sorry about that. Don't want to disappoint but we've had a bunch of wrestling meets all week and a tournament that lasted all day today. The season is winding to a close in a couple of weeks, plus I've got midterms next week, so I might slow down on the updates ;(. Anyway, hope you enjoyed and tell me what you think below!