Chapter 21: Harvest of Screams
September 4, Route 5, Kalos, 12 am…
"Release me!" Platinum yelled at her two juniors who continued to drag her away. "I am ordering you to release me!"
"We can't!" Black said.
"I know how you feel, and I'm really sorry," White said between breaths. "But… we just can't let you go right now. Diamond's trying his best to save you from Yveltal, and if we go back, we're all doomed."
Platinum still struggled, but wasn't trying her absolute hardest. She knew that they were right, but just couldn't bear the thought of losing Diamond.
"Once we're safe in the morning, we can try to look for him again," Black said. "When it's bright, it'd be easy to spot him from the distance, and it'd be easier to detect trouble ahead of time and escape."
Platinum struggled one last time before she stopped. "… Fine… But the first thing in the morning, I will look for Diamond." She looked behind her in the direction of Diamond and let out a long sigh. "… Diamond… please be safe…"
"Hey look, there's a house up ahead," Black said abruptly.
Platinum and White looked ahead and spotted a small abandoned house. Upon arriving, Platinum took a look around the area while Black investigated inside.
"I recall reading about this in the Kalos maps," Platinum said. "There was a small building that was to be used as a small restaurant. Route 5 of Kalos had many rollerskating rinks. The restaurant was to serve them. But as the rinks became abandoned, so did the restaurant. That house is probably that restaurant, and this grass field was what became of the abandoned rinks."
White looked down at the ground and felt around with her foot. Underneath the thick foliage was… pavement. Or at least pieces of them.
"We'll rest here for the night then," Black said. "We're far enough away from Yveltal and the cemetery, so we should be safe for now. As long as one of us remains on watch duty…"
"I will be on watch," Platinum said. "You two get some sleep."
Black and White glanced at each other before looking at their senior. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. I will not be able to sleep anyways," Platinum answered. "If you are afraid that I may leave you to look for Diamond, you have my word. I will not abandon my juniors."
"Okay then. We'll trade roles in a few hours," Black said. "That way, we can all get some rest."
…
Several hours later, outskirts of Snowbelle City, 6 am…
…
Y jumped awake when she heard an extremely loud whistle. She quickly sat up and noticed that there was an active campfire right next to her. Sapphire must've restarted it to fight the cold. Speaking of which…
Y looked around her and spotted Sapphire standing next to the fire, looking off into the distance with two fingers in her mouth. She let out another ear-splittingly loud whistle.
"Ah! What are you doing?" Y asked as she clamped her hands over her ears.
"Oh, sorry," Sapphire said as she looked at her. "I was just wondering if Tororo could hear me. If we're not that far away from Santalune or Lumiose, it could hear me and come to me. We do it all the time in Hoenn."
"Oh, I see. Good idea." Y put a hand over her heart and let out a quick sigh. "… You could've warned me still."
"Well… you were sleeping, and I didn't want to wake you. So I took a chance. Maybe you'd sleep through. I guess not."
Y put her hands over her stomach. "Oh… I'm starving…"
Sapphire reached into her bag and took out two small berries. "This is all I found around here. I guess it's kind of hard to find food when the whole place is covered in snow. I'm not hungry right now, so you can have them."
"Thank you."
Y slowly ate the two berries while Sapphire kept scanning the skies above. No wild Pokémon have attacked, and there weren't any around either. Y checked over her injuries while she ate. They still hurt, but… not nearly as much as before. Blue had really helped her out a lot. … Definitely something to tell the other Dex Holders…
"Oh! There it is!" Sapphire suddenly exclaimed.
Y quickly looked up, but she couldn't see anything. She squinted and scanned the skies above, and soon spotted a tiny dot in the distance. … How did Sapphire see that? … Then again, she was told that the Hoenn Dex Holder had superior eyesight and hearing. And other senses. That's so cool…
The tiny dot quickly grew larger and revealed itself to be Tropius. The Tropius quickly landed and happily dashed towards its trainer. Sapphire gave it a tight hug.
"I missed you too! Thanks for coming!" Sapphire gave her Pokémon a gentle pat and quickly climbed on. "Now let's get going. We have no time to lose. We have to get Ruby's Pokémon and go to Hoenn right away." She signaled Y to get on as well. "Come on, Y. I'll drop you off in Lumiose City on the way. That's where X should be, right? So let's go!"
…
Meanwhile…
…
Black and White woke up from their sleep when Platinum shook them. At first, the two Unova Dex Holders thought that they were about to be attacked and quickly sat up, but soon realized that everything was peaceful, and it was morning.
"It is time," Platinum said. "It is morning. We must go back and look for Diamond."
Black and White glanced at each other before slowly nodding. A promise was a promise, so they had to accompany their senior to look for their other senior. Platinum didn't wait for them and left the abandoned house, with the Pokédex Scanner in hand.
For a few hours, the 3 Dex Holders made their way back towards the cemetery. Platinum focused intently on the scanner, only occasionally looking up and around to see if she could see something that the scanner could not. White walked right next to Platinum, looking ahead for signs of trouble. Black followed them from far behind, making sure that there were no enemies behind them.
Platinum's expression turned darker and darker with each passing minute, and White felt horrible whenever she looked in her direction.
"I'm sure we'll find him, Lady Platinum," she said, unable to watch any longer. "And I'm sure he's happy to see you're safe."
"I should have stayed with him," Platinum said, her voice shaking a little. "… I should not have left him…" She practically glared at the scanner for failing to pick up any signs of a Pokédex ahead, and frantically looked around her for a glimpse of Diamond. Surely he had to be nearby?
She was near the cemetery, and still, no signs of him. And she was starting to get more and more worried. … She shouldn't have left him alone. She should've stayed with him and fought together, regardless of what he said or what was happening. What was the point of staying safe, if she lost all of her friends? She had to fight to protect her friends, damn it…
There was a sudden blip on the Pokédex scanner.
"Lady Platinum!" White said abruptly. "Look!"
The heiress looked where her junior was pointing and spotted Diamond and his Torterra in the far distance, facing away from her. She gasped in surprise and joy, and for a few seconds, simply stood staring at him. She soon burst out running towards him as fast as her legs could manage. White smiled at her senior and followed, relieved to see that Diamond was okay. From afar, Black saw the two girls running and followed, while still keeping a close eye on the surroundings to make sure there were no enemies.
"Diamond!" Platinum called happily as she rapidly approached him. The relaxed Dex Holder slowly turned around. "Diamond!"
Diamond pointed at Platinum's direction. The heiress glanced backwards, wondering what he was pointing at, when she suddenly felt a sharp, excruciating pain right below her breasts, as if someone had stabbed her with a knife. Platinum gasped in pain and doubled over, her hands pressed over where it was hurting.
Platinum lowered her hands and she could see blood. With her eyes open wide with pain and surprise, she looked up at Diamond… and realized that the boy was pointing at her, and not her direction.
She collapsed onto her knees and coughed in pain as she realized what had happened. Diamond's Torterra had hit her with the "one and only" Razor Leaf. … But… why?
"Lady Platinum!" White cried out as she hastily ran towards her senior.
Diamond ignored White and stepped towards Platinum, who was struggling to breathe. She looked up at him in disbelief, but Diamond showed no emotions as he kicked her in her wound. The girl shrieked in pain as she fell backwards onto the ground. She grunted and gasped as the kick had knocked the wind out of her and the pain was too much to handle.
White arrived by Platinum's side and quickly sent out her entire Pokémon team. She had no idea what just happened and why. Diamond… attacked Platinum? It didn't make sense. But White knew that she had to protect her wounded senior until Black arrived. If Diamond kept trying to attack, she'd have to fight him.
…
Snowbelle City…
…
Blue snapped out of her thoughts when her Pokégear began to vibrate. Normally, she'd be asleep at this hour, but… she couldn't sleep today. Too many thoughts… and she didn't have the means to force herself to not think about anything.
She had tried to draw something in her sketchbook, but she hadn't made any progress. Instead, her mind had drifted towards the thoughts about the whole situation regarding Peter. And as if he had read her mind, he was calling her now.
Blue didn't want to answer. What if he knew about her abandoning him? Would he be angry?
With a light curse, Blue answered the Pokégear. If Peter wasn't suspicious of her, he would be if she didn't answer.
"Hello?"
"Blue, I could use your help again," Peter said calmly. "The other Dex Holders are holed up in Santalune City, and I'm going to go hit them. I could use your help to make sure that no one escapes this time. You're not in Terminus Cave anymore. So… where are you right now?"
'He doesn't know…'Blue quickly checked the map of Kalos. "I'm in… Aquacorde Town," she lied, not wanting to give away her actual location.
"Great. Then you can come up from the south while I hit them from the north. Make sure no one gets out." There was a pause before he continued. "I'd like to know what you're doing in Aquacorde instead of Terminus Cave and with Sapphire."
"Sapphire escaped while I wasn't looking," Blue lied again. "I chased after her, but I lost her. Sorry."
"That's all right. We'll get her next time. If all the other Dex Holders are holed up on Santalune, Sapphire will go there sooner or later. Anyways, I hope to see you there. I'll be hitting them right now."
Peter soon hung up. Blue cursed again and put her Pokégear away. … What now? She didn't want to fight the Dex Holders anymore. Most of them were her juniors, and the junior Dex Holders didn't deserve anything that was going to happen to them.
… Maybe… she could secretly help the Dex Holders again? And allow them to escape?
'Maybe I should just help Peter like I originally wanted,' she thought. She frowned and shook her head. … There was that thought again. Thoughts that she didn't want or think about that kept popping into her mind every now and then. Was it related to her eyes turning red? Hmm… She had to be careful with her thoughts then.
Blue slowly rose to her feet and exited the little secret base that she had built inside the city. And with her Wigglytuff, she slowly headed towards Santalune City. She was going to take her time getting there, and allow the Dex Holders to escape.
She was a little relieved, though. Since Sapphire and Y were with her, that would mean that some of the other Dex Holders would be looking for them. And not clumped up in Santalune City. So there was a chance that the Dex Holders were actually scattered all over Kalos, leaving only a small number in Santalune.
But Peter thought that they were all gathered there. … Which meant one of two. One, the Dex Holders had regrouped, or, his information was outdated…
An hour later, Blue reached Santalune City. And as expected, there had been a battle. And also as half-expected, the battle didn't seem to be nearly as big in scale as before. Which would mean that there weren't many Dex Holders participating. … Good.
Blue scanned around the battlefield from high above. No signs of Peter or his Pokémon. They probably left already, after realizing that Santalune City was a dud. But the battle here had been definitely one-sided. Worse than before. And as time passed, it would get worse and worse. The number of Dex Holders would decrease due to injury or being scattered, which would make the battles much more difficult for them.
And… everyone would eventually die. Blue cringed at the thought. But it was true, wasn't it? The Dex Holders couldn't beat Peter before. Now with Xerneas and Yveltal joining in, and more and more Dex Holders scattering around, there would be no fight. Just a one sided slaughter.
But would Blue be able to do anything to change the inevitable? … Perhaps. But… she didn't like the possible side effect to that. A choice between an inevitable death of all other Dex Holders (but not her), or an outcome that may negatively affect her. … Should she be selfish for once? It's what everyone else thought anyways… but…
Blue snapped out of her thoughts when she spotted something that caught her eye. Her eyes opened wide in shock and quickly got her Wigglytuff to land. She hopped off before the Pokémon even finished landing and ran over towards him. Silver…
The Johto Dex Holder was leaning against a large tree and looked to be awfully tired. He had his head lowered and was barely moving. Upon hearing her approach, he slowly managed to look up. Blue quickly crouched in front of him and put trembling hands on his shoulders.
"Silver…" she muttered as she examined around him, checking for injuries. A particular section of his shirt seemed overly dark. It was difficult to see, since Silver wore almost complete black, but a particular section by his ribs seemed even darker. Blue pressed a finger on it and noticed that it was… wet. She pulled her finger back and saw dark blood. She looked at the dark spot on his shirt and then realized that this spot was… big. And it was growing.
"Sis…" Silver said between breaths. "… I'm glad to see you… one last time…"
Blue looked into his eyes in shock. "Silver… what… how did…" Her voice was shaking badly, and her hands were trembling. "How did this…" She began to check over his body for other injuries. Silver grabbed her hands to stop her and looked into her deep red eyes.
"Sis, please," he said quietly.
Blue began to shake her head as she realized what was about to happen. "Silver, no. No… you can't…"
Gold and Crystal arrived just then and froze for a moment upon seeing Blue. Gold glanced back and forth between Blue and Crystal, as he was aware of the one sided confrontation between them. He knew that Blue had attacked Crystal and knocked her unconscious. But Crystal had assured him that it was a… misunderstanding. As a result, he wasn't exactly sure on Blue's position. Was she an enemy? She was seen fighting with the enemy, but hadn't participated in this battle. And she didn't seem like she was about to attack anyone either. So was she an enemy, or something else entirely? He wasn't sure.
But right now, he could see Blue looking as if she was about to cry at any moment as she watched her "little brother" rapidly bleeding out. There were no hostilities here, and there shouldn't be.
Silver glanced over at his two friends and gave them a slow nod. Blue paid no attention to the other two Johto Dex Holders and just focused on Silver. To her right now, Gold and Crystal did not exist.
"You… you can't do this to me," Blue said as her tears slowly rolled down her cheeks. "Silver… you can't…"
"I'm sorry," Silver said as he struggled to keep his eyes open. "But sis… please. Come back to us… We all missed you… We don't want to fight you… We're all your friends."
"… Friends?" Blue said, narrowing her eyes. "… Don't you say that to me…"
"I can prove it to you," Silver said between breaths. He reached into his pocket and took out something circular. A Mega Ring. He carefully put it on Blue's left wrist. The girl looked at the thing and spotted her name inscribed on it. "Green wanted me to give it to you," he said weakly. "He said that you would accept it if it came from me."
Blue trembled as more tears fell from her eyes. "… Why now? … Why not last year? Why did he wait until now?!"
Silver glanced over at Crystal. "She would know." He gathered his strength and looked into Blue's red eyes again. "Sis… we never forgot about you… We always… cared for you…" He grabbed her hands again. "… So please… come back to us." He slowly looked over at Gold and Crystal, who were coming closer. "Gold… Crys… take care of sis."
"Silver…" Crystal managed to say as she clamped her hands over her mouth to prevent herself from crying loudly.
Silver's eyes slowly closed and his head fell forward as he lost the strength to hold it up. "Sis… just… come back to us… That's… all I want…"
"… Silver?" Blue said as she shook him with trembling hands. He didn't respond. "Silver?!" She shook him harder and harder, more and more desperately, but he still didn't respond. Instead, his slumped body slid to the side.
"He's…" Crystal started, but was unable to finish. "Oh…"
"No… no!" Blue cried out. "You can't do this to me! … Silver… Silver!" She clenched her teeth rather angrily as tears streamed down her cheeks. "I – I… spent my life looking after you! Taking care of you! I… I got kidnapped so I could look after you! I escaped with you so you could have a brighter life!" She began to sob as she furiously shook him. "I… I stole things and… got hated by everyone… just so you wouldn't have to steal to survive! … And… you… died on me?! H – How… how can you do this to me?! After… after everything I did for you… how can you die on me like this?! Answer me!" Blue began to uncontrollably break down into sobs as she slowly stopped shaking the deceased Dex Holder.
Gold gently embraced Crystal as she began to cry as well. With a long sigh, he put a hand on Blue's trembling shoulder.
"… Senior… the least we can do is give Silver a proper burial."
Blue ignored him and began to mumble out the things that she had kept hidden deep inside herself for her whole life; things that she would never say out loud under normal circumstances. The anger in her voice was gone and instead, she sounded as if she had used up all of her energy. "… I… ruined my life… all for you… and you died on me… How dare you, Silver… How could you… throw away all of my sacrifices like this?"
"Senior," Gold tried again. But again, Blue ignored him.
"… You never liked it when I watched over you too closely," she whispered. "… Is this… my fault? … Should I have stayed closer to you and watched over you better?"
"… Blue…" Crystal started as she forced herself to calm down.
This time, Blue didn't ignore her juniors. She suddenly seemed to have remembered that she had junior Dex Holders and calmed down. She gave Silver one last long embrace and kissed him on the forehead before setting the body down.
"… Do as you will," she said to Gold and Crystal afterwards, her voice very quiet and cold.
…
Blue watched with a blank look as Gold and Crystal added more tree branches around Silver. A simple cremation… Silver died as a fighter, so he would be sent as one.
Once it was all done, Gold took a wooden stick and ignited the tip with the help from his Typhlosion. He looked over at Blue, as he felt that she should be the one to do this.
Blue slowly took the burning stick and approached Silver. She stared at his peaceful expression for a while before she set the burning stick next to the pile of branches all around his body. The wood all caught on fire shortly, covering Silver in flames that would burn his whole body into ashes.
Silver's Pokémon looked from the side as their trainer burned. Gold and Crystal gently embraced each other as they watched their friend disappear. And Blue stood right in front of the flames, looking up at the sky as dark smoke rapidly ascended. Memories with Silver flashed across her eyes and it was unbearable now. Blue closed her eyes and felt her tears rolling down her cheeks again.
With a long sigh, she reached into her pocket and took out a cigarette. She opened her eyes now and saw nothing but flames in front of her. She moved her cigarette close to the flames until it ignited and then took a long drag.
"… Goodbye, Silver," she muttered quietly.
She then moved around the flames and stood on the grassy hill nearby. She simply stared off into the horizon, occasionally taking a drag from her cigarette. She looked as if she no longer had any care in the world.
Gold and Crystal silently watched her from behind and thought about what they had to do now. Crystal wiped away the last of her tears and looked up at Gold.
"… We have to talk to her," she said quietly. "We have to convince her to fight on our side, or at least comfort her enough that she won't attack us."
"I don't think she'll be attacking us anymore," Gold said.
"And we should keep it that way." Crystal let out a short sigh. "… I'll talk to her then."
"Whoa, wait," Gold said as he grabbed Crystal by her wrist. "The last time you faced her, she attacked you. Even if she won't be attacking you now, that has to have an effect."
"We all know that she doesn't hate me or anything," Crystal said. "She just… attacked me because of a misunderstanding. That's all. More the reason for me to talk to her."
"Look, Crys, just stay here. I'll talk to her. You should talk to her when she wants to, later." He gave her a gentle pat on the shoulder and approached Blue.
The former Dex Holder must've heard his footsteps, but didn't acknowledge them as she kept staring into the distance. Gold suddenly realized that he didn't exactly know what to say right now, and ended up watching his senior for a while.
"… What do you want, Gold?" Blue asked eventually, her voice very calm and cool.
Gold cleared his throat. "Senior, I know it hurts," he began, choosing his words very carefully. "But… we should move on. Silver wouldn't want you to be like this. He'd want you to fight."
Blue slowly turned to face him, but with an icy glare that sent shivers down his spine. Her red eyes made her glare even scarier. It felt as if she was containing her burning rage in her eyes, leaving the rest of her body in ice cold. She didn't even blink either. She simply glared at him and exhaled the smoke.
"Really? You know what he'd want?" she asked, her voice now ice cold. "And you think you know how I feel? Who are you to say such things?"
Gold stood there for a little bit, thinking of what to say. He soon slowly opened his mouth. "All right. You're right. I wouldn't know. There's no way that I'd know how you'd feel. You never really expressed your feelings, ever, so who would know, right? But what I do know is that you and Silver have known each other for your entire lives. So I do know that you would know Silver better than anyone else. Better than his dad, better than me or Crys. Probably better than old man Pryce or Lance. And maybe even better than Silver himself. So if anyone would know what he'd want, it's you. So… just do what he'd want you to do."
Blue slowly took another drag. She exhaled the smoke and looked off into the distance once more with a blank expression. Gold saw the effect of his words and thought carefully about what he was going to say next.
"We all want you to come back to us," he said eventually. "I know that senior Green still has your Pokédex, just waiting to give it back to you. We're all waiting for you to return to us. Even Silver told you to return to us. So… please come back. Fight with us."
"… No matter what I do, I have to lose something," Blue said slowly and quietly. "… Peter was a friend to me. A… good friend… in my time of need. If I fight with you, then I have to betray his trust in me. But… if I continue to side with him, I'm ignoring Silver's last request." She let out a long sigh. "… If I fight you, I'm also betraying your trust. You Dex Holders, who I once considered as friends. I don't want to betray Peter, but I… don't want to betray you either. And I certainly don't want to ignore Silver's last request."
"… I'm sorry to hear that," Gold said, suddenly wishing that he had agreed to let Crystal handle the talking. She'd probably be able to comfort the distressed Kanto Dex Holder. But he was worried about a potential clash between the two. "So… what will you do?"
"… Nothing," Blue answered at last. "… I won't fight you. I won't fight with you either. I won't betray anyone." She cast a glance over at Gold, and the Johto Dex Holder could see the severe pain in her expression. "… Tell the others that I'm no longer a concern. And tell them to leave me alone."
"Senior…"
"That includes you, Gold," Blue said as she sat down on the grassy hill. She looked off into the distance once more and took another drag. "Just leave me alone and let me be. I don't want to have anything to do with the world anymore."
Gold wanted to say something but no words came. Blue slowly lowered her head and sighed, and Gold could feel a hint of the pain she was feeling in her heart. There was nothing he could do about this. … There was nothing anyone could do.
He soon left her alone as she wished. Blue heard him leave and let out a quiet sob. She looked up at the darkening sky and let her tears roll down her cheeks.
"… Silver… I'm so sorry…"
Hey, a first death! And it's a Dex Holder who I don't really care about, but is key as the death affects someone much higher up on the Preference List!