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Follow Me

A Pokémon Heart Gold/Soul Silver Story

Chapter Twenty-One

Unburden

An autumn wind coming in from the sea washed over her body, contrasting her increasingly-warm cheeks, and Soul tucked her bangs behind her ear as they blew in her face. Was he going to explain what had bothered him? Was he going to apologize? She withheld a small gasp as something in her stomach dropped, the full weight of realization upon her: was he going to confess first?

"I should've explained what was wrong at the time, but there were so many people around..." Silver said, scratching the back of his head, trying to figure out where to begin. "You see...well..." He turned to her. "You know what Red's famous for...right?"

"Of course," Soul said with a nod. "Everyone knows that about five years ago, Team Rocket was controlling Kanto through extortion and brute force, and it was thanks to Red that they were taken out of power. It was all over the news, and they used him as an example that any trainer can be a hero, or something like that."

"And how do you suppose he took Team Rocket out of power?" Silver asked, folding his arms.

"Well, he infiltrated each of their operations, I heard, and in the end he—" She stopped. Her eyes widened. Suddenly, everything became clear to her, in a huge rush of information. Jealousy? No. That wasn't why Silver was mad. How...How could she have been so stupid?

Silver grinned a bit. "Figured it out?" he said with a snicker. "Red ended up defeating my dad, Giovanni, when he came to face him at his Gym in Viridian City. After that battle, my father left, and went into hiding. Which meant that I..." He stopped and turned away, looking up at the gray sky.

"...Got left behind..." Soul said quietly, her body numb.

Silver closed his eyes and cleared his throat. "My mom, she...she died when I was pretty small. She got sick, but it wasn't something she should've died from. But...there were complications, and she ended up passing away. My father started Team Rocket shortly after that...I think he blamed society for what happened to my mother." Silver sat down on a nearby rock and motioned for Soul to do the same, and she sat down beside him, eager to listen. "He said something about how the doctors didn't do everything they could have done for her because of some kind of political battle about health care at the time...I was only four or five, so I barely remember any of it. After that, he was hardly ever home, and he spent the next few years building Team Rocket as a gang and a name, until the point that they were a full-blown mafia, with him at the head."

"And what about you?" Soul asked, hugging Chocobo closer to her chest. "You were too little to be on your own, weren't you?"

Silver sighed, scratching his head. "I was shoved off on relatives for a while," he said with a small shrug. "They didn't know what my father was up to; they just assumed he was off training for his Gym, since he'd closed it down once Mom got sick. A year or so later they figured out what he was doing, and...none of them wanted to take care of me. They pretty much disowned us as their family and told my father they wouldn't look after me any more. So, he was forced to look after me, but saying it that way gives him far too much credit...He took me with him sometimes, if he was going to be gone for a long while, but I pretty much was put in a room with food and left there while he managed other parts of the organization." He laughed. "I was still so naive then. Thinking back on it now...I hate who I was then...As I got older, I realized he was into some bad things, but I didn't know what I could really do about it. After a while, I just learned to accept it...Anyway, long story short is, when my father went into hiding back at the Viridian City Gym, I went with him. But...I think he knew going there was a mistake, and that he would have to face Red again eventually. And he was right: two months later, Red showed up at the Gym. I watched from the sidelines as my father was defeated by a boy not much older than I was then, and I watched as my father fled, defeated, like the coward that he was." He sighed and looked up at the sky. "He left me behind on that day...or should I say, I let him go. I was furious with him. Furious that he lost, furious that he left, furious that he was such a coward. The news started to spread about how Giovanni, the great and powerful leader of Team Rocket, had been defeated by a boy, and that he'd gone into hiding. The police came looking for him, and I was forced to leave Kanto or risk getting taken into custody...

"For a long time...I blamed Red for all of it. After all, it was thanks to him that my father became such a coward, and it was thanks to him that I was forced to live on my own. But..." He sighed and looked at the sky again. "I've learned as I've gotten older that I can't blame him for the choices my father made. Hearing that you met him struck up old feelings, I guess, and I got kinda pissy about it." He turned to her. "So I guess I'm sorry about that. Sorry if you thought I was mad or whatever."

Soul stared at her lap, her eyes concealed by the brim of her hat. Of course. It made sense. What made her ever think that jealousy was the problem? For a moment, she felt like cursing Leaf, who'd lead her to believe that lie, but in the same moment, she stopped herself, because it wasn't Leaf's fault. She was just misinformed, that's all. With all the information about Silver's past in perspective, his blaming Red for his abandonment was the logical choice. It made sense. So why...why was she starting to cry? Why did she feel so betrayed and deflated? She hugged Chocobo a bit tighter, who looked up at her and chirped in concern.

"Soul?" Silver asked, tilting his head a bit to try and catch a glimpse of her face.

"Right, right, don't worry about it!" Soul said cheerfully as she looked up, hoping the tears that played at the corners of her eyes weren't noticeable. She stood up and casually brushed them away. "I was just worried that I did or said something to upset you, but now that you've told me that, it makes more sense." She turned to him. "I am...sorry, though," she said, looking at her feet. "It sounds like you had a rough life."

Silver eyed her for a moment and then stood as well. "Nn, nothing you can do about it. You kind of just have to roll with what you get, I suppose." He shrugged and started walking with her again. "I learned to be more self-reliant because of it, so it all works out in the end." They walked along a good ways down the lengthy beachline in silence, the winds from another upcoming storm threatening them with its bitter chill. "...So, what about you?"

"Hm?"

"I told you about my family baggage, so what about you?"

"Why do you want to know?"

"Because it's effing cold and I need something to take my mind off it," Silver said frankly, rubbing his hands together and sticking them in his armpits for warmth.

"Oh, nice to know you're so genuinely interested!" Soul said with a laugh. "But...there's not much to tell, I guess. My parents are divorced, and my mom and I moved to New Bark Town from Hoenn about...four years ago? It's just been me and her there ever since. Nothing too special to report on my end."

"It must be nice to live a boring life," Silver said with a snide grin.

"Well, we can't all be tragic sob stories, now, can we?" Soul said, returning the expression.

The two laughed; they were nearing Olivine now, the city limits just on the edge of the horizon. Soul would be grateful when they got there, because her cheeks were stinging in the cold wind; perhaps it was time to ask her mother to send her winter coat to her...

"After all the loud people we've been around over the past week, it's nice to be alone again," Silver said. "Well...I guess you're still here, so I'm not entirely alone. I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, though."

Soul scoffed. "Trust me, if I didn't have such a huge crush on you, I would've left a long time ag—"

Selected quote from the next chapter:
"Everything was different now."