~(D)~
Night had fallen, and none of the Pokémon had returned yet. If they weren't back by sundown tomorrow, Weavile would relocate the camp without them. An army was marching their way, and they needed to be long gone by then.
The bitter taste of the buckwheat lingered on his tongue. The smell of rotting feces began to settle in the air. Kangaskhan was a loud snorer.
And he was stuck here.
Dewott was still glad that Weavile was impeded by Charmander's removal, but at the same time, it ended up removing his one avenue for escape. If Charmander hadn't escaped, then Dewott would be outside of this cage by now. Now that he was gone, Dewott would be indefinitely locked up.
He seemed to have found the crevice of his brain that offered him sleep. He lay down and tried to let it overcome the rest of his body, awaiting the next uneventful day to finally come and go….
But then he heard something. It was an agitation from the northern woodlands. A rustling in the trees too broad to be a bird or young bug. And it was a steady sound. And it was approaching him.
Dewott sat back up and looked out at the woods behind him. The nearest tree shook. And down from the branches emerged…
…a Snivy.
Dewott knew who this Snivy was. He remembered seeing him with Charmander when he had stolen the compass. He remembered seeing him with the rest of the old Training Camp members before the Minun was killed. This was Charmander's old partner. What was he doing here?
He was about to ask that to Snivy, but he placed a hand on his lips, urging silence. "There are guards on the other side of this cage," he whispered. "Where exactly are they?"
A wave of perplexion befell Dewott's mind. He was going to break him out, wasn't he? Why, though? The two of them had never even spoken before. What did he gain from letting him go free?
He decided he'd ask those questions later. He needed to make sure that whatever plan this Snivy had, it was going to work. "How are you going to get the keys?"
Snivy revealed that he was holding onto one with his vine. "Someone on the inside helped me out. Your cage has a different lock than the others, so you're the only one I can break out. Now, guards. Where are they?"
Dewott turned around and surveyed the area. "There's a Scizor and a Shiftry standing in front of your old platoon's cage and a Kricketune circling the inner perimeter. There's also a Loudred and an Electabuzz by the bell tower. They can see my cage from here. I don't see anyone else."
"I'll go take care of the guards by the tower," Snivy said. "If I gave you this key right now, would you be able to disable the Pokémon guarding the cages without them calling for reinforcements?"
Dewott sized up the two Pokémon and ran through scenarios in his head. "…No," he finally concluded. "Not without my scalchops."
"Okay," Snivy said. "Then take this key and wait until I've gotten everyone out of our way."
Snivy set the key down inside the cage and scurried off.
Dewott picked up the key. It was made of copper, and it was so smooth that it felt like it had been cast just yesterday. Was it the right size? Was it the right shape?
He waited for the Kricketune to get far enough away from his cage, and then, with slow and subtle movements, he inserted the key into the lock. The size was right. That was a good sign.
As he brought the key back to his side, he heard a low thud from the bell tower. Dewott looked over to it. The Electabuzz and the Loudred looked at one another, and then the Electabuzz walked into the tower by himself, leaving the Loudred to continue overseeing the cages.
Another thud.
After a brief hesitation, the Loudred slowly walked in as well, his arms raised cautiously.
Another thud.
Dewott glanced at the three guards still around him. None of them seemed to take notice of anything. This was…this was actually happening. Only a handful of minutes prior, he was lamenting over how long he would continue to be confined in this cage. And now he was being set free. He did have to rely on Snivy knowing what he was doing, though, which might be problematic. He might've been a former Training Camp member, but that didn't mean he's capable of taking out—
—wait, where did the Kricketune go? Did Snivy already…? Dewott looked over the area three times. Yes, the Kricketune was gone. Impressive. This Snivy definitely had experience with this sort of thing.
A few moments later, a pair of vines wrapped tightly around the necks of the Shiftry and Scizor. Snivy jumped over the cage and landed in front of them. He knocked their heads together with a loud whack, and then dropped them both to the ground.
Without waiting for Snivy's approval, Dewott opened his cage and ran out. He was free! And this time, he was free for good.
He stopped before Snivy and bowed to him. "I am thankful beyond words for your aid," he said. "Why did you do this for me?"
"You and I are both looking for someone in Chesto Forest," Snivy said. "We may as well work together to find them." He looked briefly over at the unconscious guards. "We have to go. Do you have any ideas where they might be?"
Ah, so he wants to go after Charmander. He was disturbed by how Snivy knew that he wanted to find Masquerain himself, but now wasn't the time or place to pester him about it. He'd ask him when they were a safe distance away from here. "Who do you mean?" he asked. "Masquerain or Charmander?"
"Either of them."
Dewott thought for a moment. He only saw the general direction that Masquerain had gone. "We should search the central and eastern regions of the forest first. That's where I last saw Masquerain."
"Good," Snivy said as he walked towards the forest. "That's where I was going to look for him as well. We should probably run, at least until we're far enough away. You take the lead. I'll follow you close behind."
Without a word, Dewott went down on all fours and pushed himself ahead of Snivy. He ran into the forest and navigated around the natural obstacles without hesitation.
Running felt incredible. His longstanding confinement had left his muscles hungry for movement; his feet longed for the crunch of the outdoor ground. A euphoria washed over him as he pushed his body through the woods, and he had to keep himself from laughing out of pure bliss. He ran for several minutes without a passing thought of the precise direction he was going, or how his body was feeling. He leapt over the fallen trees, scurried around the rocks, slid down the cliffs and scaled the steeper walls.
After about twenty minutes, Dewott stopped. Snivy had to be getting tired. They had covered a couple of miles of ground as well; they were probably safe from immediate threat. His feet were a bit cut up from the run, but they scarcely bothered him.
As expected, Snivy caught up beside him panting heavily. "You…you've got some impressive stamina," he said between breaths. "So, now that we're away from them…I think there's a path a bit to the east. At least…there's one nearby. It's how I got to the Training Camp in the first place."
Dewott faced Snivy. "Listen, before we go any further—"
"I know," Snivy said. "This is all probably very confusing to you. Here, let's keep walking; I'll explain everything I can."
Dewott nodded and strolled forward.
"So," Snivy said as he stayed beside him, "I was Charmander's partner before the attack on Cherish happened. I'll take it you know that he's a human, right?"
"That's right," Dewott said. "I don't know how you know that I know that, though."
"I'll get to that. I met Charmander…well, I met him the moment he first woke up. I was there when he discovered the world around him. Eventually, we formed a partnership and joined the Training Camp to fight against the Arashi. But one day, me and my platoon ran into Weavile. He basically gave us no other option than to listen to his commands and turn against our own friends. So…we did. Shortly after that, Weavile kept a close eye on us. I was able to run away, but everyone else stayed behind. I hid in the forest north of Cherish, and ran into a Pokémon named Absol."
"You ran into Absol?" Dewott spat. "Do not trust that Pokémon. You can never know what she's up to."
"It's interesting you say that," Snivy said. "She was the one who told me about you. She was the one who gave me the key to your cage. You have her to thank for your freedom."
"I have her to thank for my imprisonment too," Dewott said.
"Really? She told me that it was Weavile that locked you up in the first place."
"And my guess is she didn't tell you that she knew about what Weavile had planned and supported him when it happened."
This was clearly news to Snivy. He stopped walking at those words and stayed silent for a while. "Okay, well…I don't plan on running into Absol anymore. We don't need to trust her. What matters is that we're both free." He ran back to Dewott's side. "But why would she help me let you go if she—?"
"—Because that's what Absol does. She helps you, she hurts you, she tears you apart, and in the end all you can do is wonder what it is she wants. Don't try and figure it out. You're never going to, no matter how hard you try."
Snivy didn't answer.
"Anyway, what else did she tell you?" Dewott asked. "Charmander escaped after you left the town. Did Absol inform you of that?"
"She did," Snivy said. "She said that an insider named Abra turned against Weavile and set Charmander free. She…she also told me about what happened to Flux." He shook his head sadly. "I can't imagine what Charmander's going through right now. He really cared about him."
"Are you talking about the Minun that Weavile killed?" Dewott asked. "That was a brutal thing that Weavile did. But in the end, it was just a kid. The Arashi have destroyed entire villages before. I'm sure Charmander will eventually get over it."
"I know, but…it's a lot harder to cope when it's someone you cared about."
"So. You ran off into the woods, ran into Absol, and she told you that you should rescue me in order to find Charmander and Masquerain?"
"I personally don't particularly care about Masquerain. I just want to be with Charmander again."
"Then why did you free me, Snivy? I'm the opposite of you: I don't particularly care about Charmander. I just want to be with Masquerain again. What business do we have together?"
"By that reasoning, you really shouldn't keep following me right now, should you? Absol and I figured that if you had any clues that could point to Masquerain, then those clues might also point to Charmander. And if I had any clues that could point to Charmander, then maybe those clues could also point to Masquerain. Since you're still here with me, my guess is you're hoping for the same thing."
That's a fair point, Dewott conceded to himself. Our goals might be different, but they're certainly similar. "So what's going to happen if one of us finds who we're looking for?" he asked. "If I find Masquerain before you find Charmander, then are you going to stay behind and and look for Charmander by yourself?"
"Of course I will," Snivy said. "And if I find Charmander before you find Masquerain, I expect us to go our separate ways then as well."
A troubling thought entered Dewott's mind in light of this. "What if Charmander doesn't want to go with you?"
Snivy shook his head. "I told you, Charmander and I have a long history. I mean—we both agreed that one of these days, we were going to go our separate ways, but I don't think that day has come yet."
"I overheard him talking with some old friends of yours," Dewott said. "He was very upset with them. He should be very upset with you as well, shouldn't he be?"
"I was still there the first time the platoon spoke with Charmander. They told me he actually took things pretty well. After they had explained everything, they said he calmed down a lot. So…yeah, I bet he's still a bit upset with me, but we've been through alot together. We won't part ways that easily."
"Don't underestimate how powerful a breach in trust can be," Dewott said. "You might be right, but make sure you know what to do in case he denies you."
"I understand," Snivy said with a solemn nod. "If he truly never wants to see me again, then…so be it. I can go my own way, and he'll go his. But I really don't think that's going to happen."
"If you say so." Dewott looked around. "Now, where do you think Charmander might be?"
"The area where it all began," Snivy said. "Charmander came to this world here in Chesto Forest. The very spot where he woke up should be somewhere along the path up ahead. I don't think it should take us any longer than a couple of hours to finally reach it."
"In the likely event that Charmander's not there, what are we going to do?"
"We can rest for the night in the old base camp that we made when we were stuck here. After that, we'll just keep looking."
"And how long are you going do you plan on looking before you give up?"
"Oh, no. I don't plan on giving up."
"The longer we look, the further away they can end up being."
Snivy thought for a little while. "Before the attack, Charmander planned on leaving the Training Camp behind. But that was before everything happened. I know for a fact that Charmander left with Victini, and I know for a fact that Victini is going to do what she can to save everyone in the Camp. That means Victini is eventually going to come back to Weavile. If we find her, then either Charmander will be with her or she'll know where Charmander went to. If it takes us too long, then I'll know where to find Victini after she's ousted Weavile and his forces."
"Masquerain is also probably interested in taking out Weavile," Dewott explained. "He has an important object that we need. He also probably thinks that I'm still imprisoned. However, Victini has a potential resource that Masquerain doesn't have."
"King Lucario's army," Snivy said.
"Right. That army might just be the only thing that can wipe Weavile out once and for all. Victini can actually go to Suntower City and speak with the king. Or rather, she can safely run into the army that will be marching to Cherish to take on Weavile. Masquerain is a wanted criminal, though. He can't cross paths with any group of trained soldiers without having to either fight them or run away."
"So where do you think Masquerain's going to be? Is he going to stay in the woods and wait for you to find him?"
Dewott sighed. "I'm…not entirely sure. That's what I think I would do if I was in his position."
"So…what about you? What are you going to do if you don't—"
"—I'm going to find him," Dewott said sternly. "I'm not giving myself any other choice."
Snivy looked at Dewott for a second, then nodded. "Alright, then. I suppose that settles that. Oh, look! There's the path."
Up ahead was a long line of dry dirt bereft of any vegetation. It was only barely wide enough for the two Pokémon to walk side by side. When they stepped foot upon it, the shadows of the brush and trees waned away, and the dimly shining gibbous moon brought a soft light to the way ahead of them. "Does this look familiar?" Dewott asked.
"I've only been on this path once before, so not really," Snivy said. "But I'm confident that this is the right pathway. Eventually we should find a hill to our left with a circle of rocks on it. Another 20 minutes down will be the crater that Charmander woke up in. There's a mystery dungeon about 15 minutes further down from that. We should check there first."
Dewott nodded and let Snivy lead the way. To Dewott's relief, Snivy was right: after a brief hike, the remains of his base camp showed up on a hill to their left. Snivy explained that there had once also been a pair of handcrafted tents in which he and Charmander had slept, but they must have gotten torn apart by the storm. Nothing more remained of them save for two slightly deadened patches of grass.
"You'll be okay with sleeping here if we have to, right?" Snivy asked.
"I've been sleeping in a cage for the past week," Dewott answered plainly. "This will be a welcome improvement."
"Okay, good," Snivy said. "I know it would probably make more sense to sleep in the mystery dungeon up ahead, but I've kinda been afraid of falling asleep in those things ever since I got trapped in one overnight when I was a kid."
"Like I said, this will be fine," Dewott said. "We can sleep in the trees; they'll have a tougher time finding us there. Now, let's keep going. The sooner we check this dungeon, the sooner we can turn back and rest."
And so the two continued down the dirt road, hastening their step slightly to compete with the falling moon.
"Where do you stand on the Arashi, now that you know why we do what we do?" Dewott asked to pass the time.
"I'm—…I don't know," Snivy admitted. "It's hard to digest, I suppose. You guys have brought a lot of grief to this world. The amount of pain that you've caused me and Charmander alone is enough for me to never find a way to forgive you. But…." He sighed. "All I can call myself right now is a skeptic. If the world really is in danger of destruction, then I understand. I can't forgive, but I…I can understand. If we start seeing Kyurem falling from the sky, then I'll stand by the Arashi and I'll do what I can to find the Fountain. Until then, though, I will defer to what Charmander wants. He's my partner and my friend, and his goals are my goals too. I thought at first that we were never meant to stay together in the end, but after everything that's happened, I'm starting to realize just how important our friendship means to me."
Dewott's ears glossed boredly over Snivy's last few words. All he had asked was what he thought of the Arashi: he didn't care to hear about his lifelong relationship with his old partner. Dewott let it go, though: Snivy was clearly tired and weary, and he probably didn't mean to say as much as he did.
He suddenly noticed that the air smelled a bit foul. He sniffed a couple of times. It was rank: like spoiled meat. "Do you smell that?" Dewott asked.
Snivy took a whiff of the air and soured his face. "Oh, yeah. What is that?"
"It smells like something's rotting," Dewott said. "Maybe something died in the—…oh."
"What?"
"We're approaching the crater that Charmander woke up in, right?"
"Yeah. Actually, we should be pretty close right now—" He hiccupped suddenly. "Oh, man, it's getting worse."
"I would imagine," Dewott said as he started covering his nose. "There are seven dead bodies near that crater."
"What?! What do you mean?"
"Masquerain and I have been here before," Dewott said. "Some of King Lucario's scouts ambushed us after we found the crater ourselves. There was a fight. Some Pokémon died. We didn't do anything with their bodies. That was about three weeks ago, so this smell is probably the aftermath of that."
"Well, if it smells this foul from here, it's probably worse up close."
"Meaning Masquerain or Charmander would have to be masochistic to stay here for any longer than a few minutes. They're not here."
And so they continued. Not long afterwards, the odor started to recede, and they journeyed into the woods to find the mystery dungeon. Soon enough, it showed up: it looked like a smooth hole in a cliff dug out by Excadrills. Moss latched onto the cracks of the walls, and darkness peered out from the heart of the cave.
In the back of his mind, Dewott was expecting Masquerain to actually be inside. It would have been miraculous for him to find him so quickly after being freed, but sometimes miracles do happen.
In Chesto Forest, however, there were no miracles that night. They crawled through the entire cave and found nobody. Not even the ferals inside were interested in bothering them.
There was a wide open cavity with a ravine at the end of the dungeon. They lingered there for a short while (apparently Snivy had some fond memories of the place and had to let nostalgia grip his heart) and then they turned back. The neglected base camp welcomed them before the early break of dawn, and they perched themselves within the trees to take their rest. They almost got two hours of sleep before the morning sunlight brought them back to their senses.
~(C)~
As they walked upstream beside the river, following the map's instructions, Charmander kept his head low. He had a dream last night that was eating at his mind. They had found the entrance to the Fountain at the top of a tall, snowy mountain. Articuno had appeared and she flew them to a castle in the sky. The floor had black and white checkerboard tiling. The floor was very cold too: Charmander could feel his heels turning to ice as he stood there. There were pillars along the edge but no walls, and the gods Zekrom and Reshiram were there.
In his dream, the Fountain was apparently just called a Fountain for aesthetics purposes: it was more like a glass bubble stuffed with floating blue ghosts trapped on the inside, trying to get out. Charmander remembered seeing Flux in the Fountain: he was reaching out to him, looking out with longing eyes.
"Do not try and save him," Zekrom then said in a low, booming voice. "We need these souls to save the world."
Charmander remembered those words making him feel very angry, and he reached into the glass and pulled Flux out anyway. But the second he escaped the orb, his spirit dissolved into nothingness.
"You fool!" Reshiram shouted.
"Now we need another soul to replace it," Zekrom said.
"It should be Victini," Snivy said. "She's been fighting against you this entire time." In retrospect, Charmander didn't recall Snivy being in the dream at all up until that point. He just suddenly appeared right there.
His statements had made Charmander even angrier. "No: it should be you!" he spat.
But then Absol appeared behind Snivy, and she said, "Snivy is right: it should be Victini."
Charmander had looked at Victini to make sure she wouldn't take this sitting down. But then Snivy bound his arms with his vines. "Sorry, kid," he said as Absol approached Victini.
"No!"
Victini backed away and Charmander kept struggling. Absol was about to kill her. He couldn't let it happen.
After a meticulous struggle, Charmander broke free of Snivy's hold. Immediately he ran towards Victini and covered her in his arms, tackling her to the ground and shielding her from harm.
But then Absol's scythe stabbed into his chest. It didn't hurt, but it felt very cold, and he couldn't move after it penetrated. As he was dying, he felt himself returning to the human world. In fact, his eyes never closed: his vision just changed from the orange fur on the back of Victini's head to the fluorescent laboratory lights in professor Oak's laboratory.
He was finally able to see his own Pokémon—an indication that it was still a dream and not a memory. It was a Minun. He was sleeping soundly at the edge of his bed, his head completely attached to his shoulders.
Professor Oak was standing at the edge of his bed, smiling. "Welcome back to the world of Pokémon," he said.
And it was then that he had returned to the world of Pokémon.
The dream bothered him in several different ways. Seeing Flux die again was bad enough, but by this point Charmander had the feeling that he would be seeing that happen every time in his dreams. The mind worked in mysterious ways. It coped with meaningless sorrow by making it a common occurrence within the subconscious.
And, reluctant as he was to admit it, that dream was a pretty sharp indicator that he did, in fact, have faith in the Arashi's story. Perhaps on an implicit level, he did believe in Articuno's Fountain, and in the clash between Kyurem and the other gods.
Victini was in danger in his dream again. Did that mean anything? Charmander looked at her as she walked ahead. He couldn't lie to himself: he knew that he was starting to grow attached to her. Heck, she probably figured that out before he did. But…why was he? Did he just need someone to care about now that Flux was gone, or was there something more about her that made him so interested in her? She was really kind, but so were most Pokémon. He did respect her as well, that was for sure. She was one of the only Pokémon left that he still respected and trusted. Maybe that was it: he trusted her and needed her, and he didn't want to lose her to anything or anyone.
In fact, in his dream, he died saving her. And he woke up a human again. That…that wouldn't actually happen to him, would it? Obviously, he wasn't going to experiment around to try and find out, but it did lead him to think a bit further ahead. He might soon find out what it was that brought him to this world. When he discovered this, would he also discover a way to go back to his old world?
Would he even want to go back?
…Yes….No….Maybe? How was he supposed to answer that? He still didn't know everything that he was leaving behind by being here. He knew that his mother was probably missing him a lot, but…what else? Did he have any friends? He did have his Pokémon, but according to Absol, that Pokémon was somewhere on this planet now. What was for him there? Was it better than what was left for him here? Were there any responsibilities that he had left behind?
He'd have to decide that when he got there. And he simply had to hope that he'd know everything he needed to by then.
Victini suddenly stopped. "What the…?" she said as she looked down.
"What is it?" Charmander asked.
Victini bent down and pulled something out of the water. Everyone got a closer look at it.
It was a pot. The entire surface was tarnished and scratched, and a number of dents adorned the sides.
"What's a pot doing here?" Victini asked to no one in particular.
"I don't know," Charmander said. "It doesn't exactly seem like something that someone would lose in the…." Wait a minute.
A small school of magikarp swam by, and vividly, the memories returned.
This was Snivy's old pot—the one that Charmander had lost in the river the day they got rescued. This was the same river that he had found the day he woke up.
"Well! Ours now!" Victini said. "It looks like whoever lost this lost it a long time ago. We might as well put it to good use."
Charmander's mind was now buzzing. He continuously scanned the forest on the left side of the river as they continued forward. A pathway leading to their old base camp was bound to show up soon.
"…Do you smell something?" Masquerain asked.
Charmander looked up and sniffed. It was faint, but there was an aroma of bad cheese lingering in the air. Perhaps it was the mightyena that he had killed all that time ago. "Maybe a wild Pokémon recently died somewhere around here," Charmander suggested.
"Yeah, that's probably it," Victini said. "We'll pass through it soon enough."
And so they kept walking for another fifteen or so minutes. The smell faded. In the back of his mind, Charmander feared that he might've missed the pathway. It was fairly narrow after all: it wasn't too easy to spot even from a short distance. He shrugged it off. He didn't need to find it; it just would have been nifty to see his old base camp again.
But then a very familiar pair of bushes appeared, and between them was a long patch of dirt. It…it felt like home, in a weird, nostalgic way. He needed to visit it. If only for a brief while.
…And he needed to do it alone. He didn't know why, but it felt like it would spoil things if he brought Victini and Masquerain with him.
"Hey, guys, I need to go…to the bathroom," he said. "My feet are also starting to get cold. You go on ahead. I'll meet you up at the waterfall."
"What waterfall?" Victini asked.
"There's one up ahead," Charmander said. "Uh—I can hear it from here."
"Wait, did you say your feet were cold?" Masquerain asked. "You're not even in the water."
"No, but the ground is still wet, and it's starting to get to me. Can you wait for me there if I'm not back yet?"
"I have no problem with that," Masquerain said. "Actually, my wings are starting to get tired. I need to rest soon anyway."
"Okay," Victini said. "Just don't get lost, alright?"
"Shouldn't be too hard. All I need to do is find the river."
Charmander parted from them with a smile on his face. Yes, this was definitely their old base camp. There was the Chesto tree with the weird leafless curling branch, and there was that root that Charmander had always tripped over until he had gotten used to it. And there was the short snag that was only a few feet from the pathway. And there as the prismatic rock that jutted from the ground. And there was that circular opening in the tree branches where the sun would shine through for a brief time in the mid-afternoon. And there was the other prismatic rock that Charmander bruised his shin on that one time. And there was that empty patch that Charmander had created when he was experimenting around with his fire.
…And there was the end of the path that Snivy had created, which opened up to the camp on the hill, where there was a ring of rocks.
Wait a minute…. There was firewood inside the ring. Was someone—
"Charmander!"
He looked at Snivy from up in the trees. Snivy lowered himself with a wide smile on his face and ran full-force towards him. It was only after he started hugging him that Charmander's anger overpowered his surprise.
"I can't believe I—woah!" Snivy fell to the ground after Charmander pushed him away.
"What are you doing here?" Charmander asked. His tail flared behind him, and his claws seemed to grow longer all of a sudden.
"I—I came looking for you," Snivy said as he got himself up.
"Well, cut it out," Charmander snarled.
"Charmander, listen," Snivy said. "I know you're angry with me, and you have every reason to be. But—"
"—Are you actually going to try and justify yourself?" Charmander growled. "Do you actually think you have a good reason for everything you've done to me?"
"Charmander, I never wanted to hurt you."
"Yes you did. You grabbed me from behind in the middle of a bloodbath and imprisoned me with the enemy."
"But you know why we had to do that, right? The others in platoon 4 talked to you about everything we did."
"Why weren't you there?" Charmander took a couple steps forward, but Snivy didn't move back in response. He just looked guiltily at him, letting him speak. "When they came to talk to me, how come you weren't there with them?"
"I was…I was going through a tough time. I was confused and—"
"—You were confused! How do you think I felt?!"
This time Snivy took a step back. "I know, I know! Listen, Charmander, I should have faced you. I should have talked to you. I should have shown something to you. I was a coward, and I was wrong. I'm sorry. Please, listen to me. I don't want to fight."
Nope, he wouldn't calm down. He knew that he wouldn't be able to calm down until Snivy was out of his sight. "What do you want from me?" he asked. "I was enjoying myself just fine until you showed up here. So what do you want?"
Snivy was silent for a few seconds. "…I want to be partners again. No more selfishness, no more compromise, no more going our separate ways. After everything that's happened, I…I've seen how much you mean to me. From now on, I want to support you no matter what. What you want, I want."
Charmander didn't have any pity left in his heart. He didn't have an ounce of respect left for this Pokémon. He would not be his partner again. "I can't forgive you for what you've done," he said. "If you really want what I want, then leave me alone."
"But Charmander, I never wanted to—"
"—Well, you did!" Charmander shouted. "I don't care if you didn't want to hurt me: you did. You hurt me in ways that I didn't think any Pokémon could, and I'm not just going to let that go."
"What else was I supposed to do?" Snivy asked. "If I had just let you go that day, then things would have been worse for everyone else; you know that."
"No! That's absolutely not true. Because of what you did to me, Flux is dead. Did you even know that? You weren't there with the rest of platoon 4 when they tried to fight back and stop it from happening."
"Yes, I know about what happened," Snivy said. "And Charmander, I am so sorry. I…I had no idea anything like that was going to happen. But you can't let that cloud your judgment. Flux was just a kid, and—"
"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Charmander tackled Snivy to the ground and held tightly to his neck. "He was not just a kid!"
"…cha…" Snivy croaked as he tried to pull Charmander's arms off of him.
Charmander held tightly, his claws digging into the snake's neck. Fury took over his mind: no matter what, he was going to make sure Snivy didn't walk away unscathed.
A pair of vines violently whipped at his arms, forcing Charmander to let go. Snivy squirmed himself free from Charmander and backed up. There were puncture marks on his neck that started to bleed. "Charmander, please, you don't have to—"
Snivy didn't realize that Charmander had picked up one of the campfire rocks after he got off of him. The rock just barely whizzed past his head. As Snivy dodged, Charmander charged at him with his claws. He slashed into his skin under his chin and eye, and pushed him down the hill and into the woods, where he landed feet-first in front of a thin fallen log. There was fear and indecision in his eyes.
Charmander wasn't done with him. He ran at Snivy and grabbed at his shoulders, trying to push him over the log.
"Stop! Please!" Snivy begged as he pushed back against Charmander's hold. "I don't want to hurt you, Charmander."
"Then keel over and let me kill you!" Charmander pulled Snivy in close and rammed his knee into his chest. He then swung his body over the log, carrying Snivy with him. With the momentum of the fall, Charmander whacked the side of Snivy's head onto a rock.
With a flurry of leaf blades, Snivy tried to get himself free from Charmander's grasp. The leaves dug into his skin and slid through his tissue, but Charmander held on. As he continued to struggle, the two gradually rose to their feet, tossing each other around along the way. Snivy finally got Charmander off after delivering an energy-filled punch to his head.
After the split second of being stunned, Charmander looked back to see Snivy had turned around and began running away into the woods. Oh, no you don't. At once, Charmander unleashed a ball of fire at him. Snivy screamed in pain, and he tripped over himself. Through the receding flames, Charmander grabbed at struggling Snivy's tail and pulled him closer. He squirmed and struggled, and when Charmander flipped him around, he tried to shield his face, but his arms were too small. Charmander punched.
And he punched.
And he punched.
And he punched.
And he punched.
And he punched so hard that his claws started to dig into the palms of his hand. And when he was done punching, Snivy was just barely holding onto consciousness, holding a futile cringing position as he whimpered in fear and pain. His face was matted and crooked, and blood was coming out of his head and nose.
Charmander stood up and kicked him in the ribs before slowly unclenching his fists. He took a few deep breaths, which only seemed to get him more riled up. Tears were welling in his eyes; he felt like he was about to explode.
In fact, he nearly did. With a giant scream into the sky, he released the biggest ball of fire he had ever produced. A heat wave radiated, shaking the bushes and sending distant birds into the sky. And then he turned back to Snivy. "Ever since the day you betrayed me," he began with a sniff, "I have never felt more confused, more frustrated, more unhappy, more afraid…more meaningless, and more hopeless in my entire life." He sniffed again. "Because of you, everything that I loved was taken away from me. I had nothing. Nothing! And now that I'm finally starting to get something back, you show up here and ask me to let you come back. It's not happening. It's never happening."
Snivy feebly tried standing up. He ended up leaning heavily on the tree beside him. He wasn't able to express himself, but he was able to show that he was listening.
"Today, I'll be going back to Chide," Charmander said. "Just like the last time we said goodbye. And just like last time, I don't expect you to come with me. If you can walk, walk away. I never want to see your face ever again."
As he walked back to the river, Charmander looked at his hands. His knuckles were turning brown, and his palms were filled with blood. Victini was right: his human punching instinct had gotten him hurt. The leaf blades, stones, and sticks had made their mark on him as well, covering him in lacerations and contusions that probably would be better off healed with oran berries. He found the pathway leading back to the river and mulled over how he would explain himself to Victini and Masquerain.