Sapphire took a deep breath before entering the tunnel. A sign on the outside warned that there was a blockage preventing travellers from getting to Verdanturf Town, but she assumed that Ruby had no interest in going to the little village at the foot of Mount Chimney. She knew, like so many others, that deeper in this cave was a hidden entrance, leading to the crime centre of Hoenn, where the rough banded together and stood by one another, the most dangerous place for a girl to wander into alone.

Upon entering the cave, she saw an irritable Ruby tapping his foot. Clearly he had been waiting for at least a minute, after that amount of time he became restless and developed little twitches to outline his irritation. She found this to be one of the many things that she had never known before, but irritated her beyond belief now. Sapphire couldn't believe that she once liked Ruby, fancied him even, knowing how much of a spoiled brat he really was made her despair at her former thoughts of him.

"I thought you'd never turn up, come on. There's some business I have to deal with." He had started walking away from her, but apparently had a second thought and turned back. "You say nothing; once we enter there I don't want to hear a single word out of you." She glared at him darkly, but kept her mouth shut, her teeth grinding away at her inner cheek.


"So how much are you willing to trade? My father is eager for this deal to go down well." Sapphire was sat beside Ruby as he spoke with a rough-looking man who smelled of sea salt, it was overwhelming and quite off-putting. Why was she even here? It was clearly just another trade, probably drugs of some description, but still it had nothing to do with her.

"Well, the merchandise you present is quite fine; quality is so hard to come by these days. How much are you waiting for her?"

'Wait…HER?' Sapphire's attention was caught, seeing how the man's blue eyes were sizing her up. No, ohh noooo! Ruby would have been crazy to think she'd simply sit by and let him sell her!

"Fifty thou's worth." Ruby's eyes connected with the larger man's, the two seemed to be challenging one another. Sapphire really didn't want to be involved in this.

The large man laughed loudly, catching her by surprise. "Fifty thousand?! Listen kid, she's good quality, but not that good. I'd say ten, but I'll go fifteen for you."

"And if I were to mention she isn't an obedient one? Would you bump it up or down?"

"That depends, what are we looking at?"

Sapphire had had enough. She slammed her hands down on the table and stood up. "I'm sick of this! I'm leaving! You can take your deal and shove it up your ass!" She stormed off, drawing the attention of all the merchants lined up in the cave, most of who moved to stop her from exiting.

"I thought you'd learned by now, you can't just leave the underground, you made your bed here and now you must lie in it." Ruby swaggered forward; the cocky aura emanating from him boiled Sapphire's temper to the breaking point. She stepped towards him and finally punched him, square on the nose, and watched him teeter and fall, knocked clean out.

But this only infuriated all those around her; she had just struck one of them! So now they would repay her a thousand times over! "Shit…" Sapphire looked around, there were tons of them! Merchants and their customers, all lined up blocking every exit available to her, all sharing the same demonic grin, all more than capable of snapping her clean in two.

Sapphire pounced forward, rushing towards the smallest of the thugs, dodging his fist quickly and pushing off his shoulder to hurtle herself towards one of the large tables with items strewn across it for sale, not caring about breaking someone's merchandise, she ran along the high shelf-like table, leaping over large obstacles and dodging away from the fists thrust at her.

A line of rough men were blocking off the stairs leading up to Rusturf Tunnel. Sapphire slowed her pace, wondering how she could possibly get past them. Without warning, they flew across the narrow cave, startled yells breaking from their lips. Sapphire leapt off the high table and saw a little glimmering Pokémon floating above her. It was familiar, she knew this Pokémon from somewhere. She grabbed onto its blue body, it hurtled towards the stairs, taking her up them at a speed she thought it would not be capable of while carrying her.

The two burst out of the tunnel moments later, the little thing took her high into the air and only let her feet touch the ground once they had returned safely to Rustboro. She collapsed onto the ground, her adrenaline rush wearing off turning her legs into jelly. "H…" She found her lungs incapable of sucking in enough air to make words for a short time. The little metallic Pokémon landed in her lap, staring up at her with its big red eye. "Hey, thanks little guy!" She finally made her sentence, patting the Pokémon on its metallic head. Her eyes revealed her deep gratitude as she glanced down at the little Pokémon. "Beldum right?" She remembered seeing the Pokémon in textbooks, it was a very rare Steel-type Pokémon seen rarely here. So how did this little guy just happen across her and decide to help her? "So… Who's your trainer?" She mused, grasping the fence behind her, looping her other arm around the little Pokémon as she yanked herself to her feet.

The Pokémon seemed to settle in her arm, the use of both its Psychic abilities and overuse of its magnetism had worn the little guy out for the day. She patted it gently and hugged it closer to her, letting it snuggle in her arm. She owed her life to this little one; it was the least she could do to make sure it was comfortable. But where could she look for its trainer?

Her phone rang; she checked that it wasn't Ruby before answering it. "Hello?" The number was unknown to her phone, who could it, being?

"Um... hello?" She recognised Wally's voice immediately, but what phone was he calling from? And why?

"Wally? Whose phone are you calling from? Where are you? I hear traffic! Why aren't you at school?"

There was a little jostling of the phone, it sounded as if someone else had taken it from Wally. "Your friend was with us, Ruby rang not five minutes ago to tell us that a disobedient little wench had made his life a misery. So we've been told to take good care of your little friend." Sapphire vaguely recognized the rough voice as one of the morons who always bullied poor Wally.

"If you hurt him I swear to Arceus..!" She yelled into the phone.

"I'm sorry, but I don't see you around here, so what threat would you like to issue?"

Sapphire felt hopelessness sweep over her suddenly, "Let him go… Let him go… please. Ruby's problem is with me not Wally… Punish me, deal with me! But please… Let him go, he's not involved in any of this!" She felt pathetic pleading into the phone like this, but there was nothing else she could do. Where was there always a lot of traffic? Wherever it was she needed to get there and now!"

She began running down the street, a fresh jolt of adrenaline forcing her legs to move faster and faster. "I'm sorry girly, but he's tried dealing with you directly, but sometimes you need to hit them where it hurts in order to get a point across. And you let us know very early on that this little boy means a lot to you." She felt tears stream down her face now.

She turned onto the main road in and out of Rustboro, cars streamed quickly in and out of the city. There! She spotted the thug and Wally! They were standing on the curb of the pavement, Wally's face was white as a ghost and the thug wore a victorious grin. Why wasn't anyone slowing down?! It was clear as day that two boys were standing on the very edge of the curb.

Sapphire hurtled along the pavement, she was on the other side of the road to them, and there was no way to cross from here. "You'd better stay here little Beldum! This could get nasty…" She prepared herself for what she was going to do next, it was crazy - she knew it was the most idiotic thing she had ever thought of - but it was the only way to save Wally! And she would not let him get killed because of her.

She turned abruptly, letting the Pokémon float out of her arms and ran into the road. Screeching breaks and honking horns split the normal noises of traffic. She focussed only on reaching the other side, ignoring the near misses that zoomed past her.

As if the world had slowed to a standstill, Sapphire watched the thug push Wally. Watched as the boy slowly toppled, his arms flailing out to try and prevent himself from falling into the road. Watched as a red car zoomed towards him, its breaks blaring as it shot towards him. She wasn't moving fast enough! What was wrong with her legs? The car would reach him before she did! "Wally!" She heard herself yelling as she saw many cars around her closing in, metallic screams closing in around her.

Something else, a call over the horrific screams of the breaking vehicles, a shadow passed across the road, something grabbed her arm, yanking her into the air, something shiny and silver swooped down and swept Wally up as Sapphire watched the cars passing the places where the two had just been, her heart and stomach had been left on the road.

Something warm wrapped around her body - arms? - And she watched the world drifting below her, her brain not yet functioning properly. A little Beldum floated in front of her, its red eye seemed to contain a look of relief. She reached out a numb hand and touched it gently, wondering what was happening. Did she die? Was she being dragged into the afterlife? She wasn't expecting anything fancy, a nice little cell in hell perhaps. She had dragged Wally into this and gotten him flattened.

There was something her ears were trying to pick up. A noise just out of focus, she looked down, seeing the arms around her waist, wrapped in dark sleeves with a purple line on each, she knew those sleeves. Below her was a gigantic shining silver-white Pokémon with a golden cross cresting its face. A metallic bird flew besides them, a horrified looking Wally clasped in its talons, shocked but safe.

Her ears buzzed back into working order, she heard the sound of the wind whizzing by her and a voice, soft and concerned. "What the hell were you thinking?" She turned her sapphire gaze over her shoulder, seeing the horrified face of Steven. "You nearly got yourself killed!"

All her adrenaline had worn off; her body was exhausted from the events of the last hour. She couldn't face more torment, she wanted to just go home and sleep. But even in her fatigued state she found a flare of anger bubble to the surface. "I was trying to help my best friend! I don't care what happens to me! So long as he is safe I'd face hell with a smile!" She tried pulling away from his semi-embrace, but found her balance was somewhat lacking and resigned to letting him hold her up.

"You both would have gotten run over if I hadn't been there! Why didn't you call for help? What the hell happened here anyway, why weren't you at school?" His questions hit her like the speeding cars from moments before.

"Because I failed! I failed as a friend! Because I was stupid and cocky and overly confident and dragged everyone I know into my shit!" She yelled into the sky, her tears angrily pouring down her face. "All I wanted to do was help! All I wanted was to do something right for a change! Yet I just dug my own grave and one for everyone I know and care about!" She made eye contact after checking that her friend was okay once again, he had seemingly lost consciousness sometime after the Skarmory had picked him off the road-surface. Sapphire felt all her anxieties pour from her in one great torrent. "Now I'm stuck, my fate today was going to be being traded for drugs! But because I ran away Wally got dragged into it and nearly killed! How the hell do I fight the underground on my own? They all stand by one another and I've got no one! If Beldum wasn't there - I still haven't found out exactly WHY Beldum was there - then I wouldn't be here, I'd have been beaten to a bloody pulp down in that godforsaken cave!"

She lowered her face, her anger subsiding and only sorrow replacing it. She cried and buried her face in his chest. Her mind briefly flickered and told her that she shouldn't be crying into his jacket like this. But a louder voice yelled at the first telling her that she felt safe here. Sapphire felt him draw her closer to him. "You're very brave to have faced this alone. Yes it was foolhardy, but brave." He patted her head gently, "Beldum belongs to me. I was worried about you and sent him to follow you and make sure that you didn't get hurt. He sent a signal to Metagross, and Metagross led me to you, Beldum must have sent it after you encountered those from the underground, as it was about ten minutes ago that Metagross burst out of his PokéBall and demanded - in his own way - that we fly somewhere."

"Well then…" Her voice was muffled in his jacket. "You've been my guardian angel today. Thanks to you and Beldum, I'm still alive, for what it's worth."

"Sapphire Birch, you need help. I can help you if you want me to do so. You can give a statement and we can arrest those who've tried to harm both you and Wally. If you go through with it we can take you, your friends, and family into a witness protection scheme where they won't find you. You don't have to face this alone anymore Sapphire. Let me help you."

"…" Sapphire stared up at him through her teary, deep blue eyes. "…Okay…" She hugged him in deepest gratitude as they soared over Rustboro City, Sapphire finally felt safe… For now…


A/N: Thank you to everyone who has favourited/followed this selection of stories! I appreciate every single one of you! I'm eager to hear absolutely any opinions you guys have! Since these stores are primarily for you! Suggestions, requests, criticisms absolutely anything you can think of. Every review makes my day and I take into account every idea posed or point which needs working on! Hope to hear from you and see you next chapter!