54. The Burdened


The world was a dizzying swirl of color. All the images flitting throughout my mind didn't match the snowy environment I was shivering in, but somehow I was able to distinguish between the two. Words whizzed in and out of my ears, like bullets being released from guns. They were excruciating intrusions—like a knife that was being pulled in and out, stabbing the same area, deepening the wound.

"You're our bravest one, aren't you?"

"You think I'm unfeeling?"

"I should have known. Psychic pokémon can't be trusted."

"Then don't leave me."

"Keane, please don't leave me. Please. I…I didn't mean to…"

They were memories—words that were once real but had no further meaning. The images danced in front of my vision, flying by in unidentifiable shadows. Dusty, devoid ruins. The swaying pillar of Sprout Tower. A radiant, scarlet sun. Incisive, black feathers.

As the images came and went, my surroundings changed. I stared down into an unnerving abyss, drifting near the edge of the cliff. I was aware of Keane cradled in my arms, but the memories were intensifying, blackening my vision, merging with the abyss I stared down into.

"I just…push them. And then everything's fine. That's fair. Don't tell me it isn't."

"They did this to us! They deserve it!"

I reached into my pocket while my other arm held onto Keane. I pulled out my cell phone and started dialing Corwin's number. If I could reach him in time, he could teleport to the hospital and save them before anything bad happened.

In a flash, I was elsewhere—staring at a glistening ocean as light circled from over my head. A lighthouse. I wobbled and practically fell forward, grabbing onto the railing. My cell phone slipped from my hand and fell over the railing to the ground below. Keane started giving this low, dull screech that slowly elevated to something louder, sharper, as if it was ascending from the ground to our current height.

"You may like the sun, but I like the night. This lighthouse is one of the most beautiful things the humans have made. But that's it."

"Keane!" I cried. I didn't know if he could hear me. The screech had heightened to the call of a siren—an earsplitting shriek that bellowed of agony. It was in his skull, and yet he was still living. Was it because he was a psychic pokémon?

"Make it stop! Keane!"

The memories reached a terrifying end: claws that stretched and slashed my eyes. In the blackness of those final memories, the screech went on. I looked down to see the blood ebbing from his skull, blotting the colorful pattern of his wings, which hadn't stopped twitching. Then I heard the sobbing in my head. It matched the heaviness of my own.

"I'm sorry, Keane...I love you…I didn't mean to…Please don't go…"

I stood now before a great tree, with roots as long as me and a trunk thicker than the hide of a mamoswine. I felt so small staring up at it and so vulnerable with the gravely injured xatu in my arms, bleeding onto my gloves. For once there was no disgust at this spillage. I was too shocked, inhibited by the realization that Keane wasn't just bleeding in my arms. He was dying.

I was probably carrying a corpse.

I didn't let these thoughts disrupt me. I stared at the tree for a solid minute—it looked familiar; I thought maybe I had seen it in the flashes of Keane's memories—before I turned and immediately started shouting, crying for help, begging anyone who happened to be nearby. What I learned very quickly, after staring at seemingly hundreds of crooked trees and misshapen bushes, was that this place was deserted. It was as barren as I felt. Desolate. Alone.

"HELP!" My voice sounded higher than usual. I hoped it was heard somewhere.

I wandered for a long time. Keane had stopped twitching long ago and continued bleeding idly. When I was looking down at him, I had to see my tears mix with his blood before I even registered that I was still crying. His eyes bore an emptier glassiness. They seemed foggier, and I knew that more than his eyesight was lost.

"Keane…Keane, please…Don't leave me, ya freaking featherbutt…Please…" I found myself mirroring the pleas I had heard in Keane's memories, begging him through my tears.

But even as I looked down at him, I kept walking. If I stopped, it was over. If I stopped, there was no chance of getting Keane back. I had to keep going. Searching. Yelling. I had made it this far. I could keep going if it meant it would save Keane, the xatu that I used to be so annoyed by and was now halfway to grieving him. And what about Sophie? Bundy? Poona? What about them? I didn't want to think of what had happened once we had disappeared.

After a while, my voice wore down, weathered from overuse and drowned by the recurrent tears. I felt like I was breaking as much as my voice was, disintegrating into rubble with no hope of being put back together.

Between my broken cries for help, I kept whispering Keane's name, trying to make him stir or react in some way. There was nothing.

I didn't stop walking because I knew that I couldn't. If I did, Keane was undoubtedly going to die. There was a chance that he wouldn't and that he would keep living. I wasn't going to let that chance slip away. I had to get help for him. I had to get back to Sophie, Poona, and Bundy.

It felt and sounded as if my vocal cords were bleeding. My words seemed as if they were doing more damage than help at this point, but I was not going to be silenced. Not even up to the point that I collapsed on the ground from complete exhaustion.

It had gotten dark, but I still managed to stare down at the xatu in my arms. I had cried so much that I couldn't anymore. Now there was just a pathetic numbness with an unmasked disbelief toward everything that had happened. Unfortunately, it didn't mask the growing headache I had gotten from crying so long.

A bright light fell over me. For some reason, it made me think something or someone was about to take Keane away from me. I held him tighter in my arms, pressing him into my chest, refusing to let go.

"Hey there."

I looked up so fast at the person standing over me, but I couldn't see into their face because of the flashlight they were using. All that I knew was that they were a tall boy. I couldn't imagine how I looked to them with my tear-stained cheeks and bloodied clothes, as well as the motionless xatu in my arms…but at that moment, what did it matter? When did it ever?

"Here." The boy offered his hand, covering half of the flashlight in the process.

I hesitated, but after a while I managed to cradle Keane in only one arm as I reached with my other. The hand was smooth and calloused and only a little bigger than my own.

As soon as I was standing, I tried twisting the guy's arm, but he snapped it back so fast, as if he knew that was about to happen.

"Get away! Who are you? I can stab you, you know. Gouge your eyes out." I didn't know what I could stab him or gouge his eyes out with, but I was going to find something soon enough if I could.

"Is that how you say 'thank you'? Yeesh, I'd hate to see you while you're offended. I'm sure you could gouge my eyes out, but I'm a big fan of seeing things these days. Speaking of which, do you want to go somewhere where we can both see so that I don't have to use this old flashlight?" On cue, the light flickered and sputtered out, putting us in darkness.

I scurried to the side and fell to the grass with Keane still cradled against my chest, searching blindly for anything I could use as a weapon in case this guy turned out to be a nutso.

"I think you're making me out to be creepier than I am. I'm attractive, if you were wondering, so that ought to tell you I'm at least a little safe."

"Thanks for the heads-up, but—" I didn't even finish my sentence because I thought it would increase the element of surprise. I grabbed a rock and followed through with my threat, crushing the jagged end into what I assumed was the dude's shin. It wasn't his eyes, but it was enough.

He gave a cry of pain and cursed, dropping his flashlight.

"Shit! Shitshitshitshit—"

"Get away from me!"

"Fine, if you and your xatu want to die, be my guest!" he cried vehemently in response.

"Are you a trainer? Who are you? What do you want?"

"Yes, I'm a trainer! You didn't have to break my leg to ask that."

"I didn't break your leg."

"We'll let the doctor decide that." He groaned after taking in a sharp breath. "I know you've got a mean arm, a pet rock, and an injured xatu. Do you got a name?"

My defensive walls were sliding into place with the realization that I was alone at night with a guy I couldn't even see clearly with no pokémon around except Keane, who was collapsed in my arms with no sign of life. I couldn't idly chat with this guy even if he was the only contact I had gotten with someone in hours. Still, he could answer a few questions.

"Tell me where we are or I'll break your other leg."

"Weird name. Kind of long. Got any nicknames?"

"Tell me where I am or I'll do worse than what I did to your leg." I wasn't in the mood for games. I could feel Keane slipping away in my arms. It was sending jolts of panic through me.

I guess he heard how panicked I was, despite how much I was trying to subdue it. "You're in the dragon's den, alongside Blackthorn City. I can lead you to the city, if you want."

"Look, my xatu teleported me here. I don't know how to get around, it's really dark, and I don't trust you because I don't know you." He could have been a Tamer for all I knew, though I imagined he would have mentioned that by now.

"Oh really? I just assumed where you were from everyone greeted people by breaking their shins. I didn't think you were scared or anything."

"Listen, smartass—" I didn't get to finish my retort because I started sobbing as the word made me consider the smartass that was dying in my arms.

"…Uh. Okay. You have a lot of emotions. Let's go. I can lead you to the city. I know you might not trust me, but your xatu didn't look too good. Do you have his pokéball?"

Even if Keane didn't have a pokéball, I wouldn't have been much help for him, anyway. This situation was looking completely dismal.

"I…no. He's not mine. He shouldn't belong to anyone. I don't e-even know if he has a…" I started crying harder.

"Hold on." A bright red light appeared a few feet away from me, and for a brief second I saw the illumination of a big bird with a frame very similar to Preen's. At the sight of the fearow, I felt a pang of sadness, wishing Preen was here to comfort and guide me. "Aggro, I'm going to need you to take her to the pokémon center. Come back for me once she's there." I heard some shuffling and a hand reached toward me, making me instinctively back away. "Sorry. I wanted to give you this pokéball. If he doesn't have a pokéball, it's worth a shot getting him in there, but if you don't know, we'll have to see. This is Aggro, he's a big softy. Do you have a phone? Someone you can call?"

"I dropped it."

"Then you can just use the phone whenever you're at the pokémon center. Enough talking. I'll see you there soon." He guided me over to the fearow and latched me onto the bird with some kind of harness. "It might be a little uncomfortable, but it'll ensure you both stay on. Hold on tight to your xatu."

I positioned myself so that I was more comfortable and continued pressing Keane gently into my chest. The harness was holding me in place fairly easily on the fearow. I wondered if it felt as comfortable for him.

I could tell the guy was struggling with his words at this point. I didn't think he was used to seeing a sobbing and traumatized person on the daily.

"It'll…be okay." And then Aggro the fearow launched into the air, and my face was awash in tears yet again.

The entire time I was in the sky I just kept murmuring and speaking to Keane, whispering solace and words of healing. I knew it wasn't doing anything, but it made me feel like I was able to do something. I had tried putting him in the pokéball, but the pokéball hadn't responded to him, which meant nothing good. I could feel the fur growing on my hand in protest as I grasped it. My heart ached in protest at what this lack of response meant.

When we landed, I immediately made a grab to unbuckle myself so that I slid off of the fearow. I darted into the pokémon center without delay, nearly throwing myself over the counter as I yelled and showed them my xatu. The nurses went into a practical panic mode, taking Keane from me instantly and taking him into the back through emergency protocol. They kept asking me if he had a pokéball and I told them I had no idea. I just kept crying and begging them to save him.

My next plan of action was exactly what the dude had told me. I used the pokémon center phone and first called my parents since I couldn't remember Jacoby's or anyone's number from memory. I told them everything that had happened and could barely stop sobbing through the story. They told me they had gotten in touch with Jacoby, who had gotten calls from Corwin once Sophie had rushed to the pokémon center with Poona and Bundy. I asked my mom how everyone was doing and if anything had happened to them, but I didn't miss how hesitant she sounded.

"Sophie's fine. She isn't hurt."

"And Poona?"

"Just fine, Rochelle." She fell into a silence.

"Just spit it out, Mom," I demanded. "What's going on?" I couldn't eliminate the panic from my voice. The day had been a whirlwind of hell and emotion. I just wanted her to rip the band-aid off and tell me exactly what was going on.

"Your aipom, Chelle…he…" I almost wanted to stop listening, but I wasn't going to let myself tune out at the risk of not learning the truth. She continued, her voice thick with emotion. "Sophie said he was brutally attacked. He doesn't have his tail anymore."

In that instant, everything froze. I didn't think I could cry anymore, but I was wrong. Tears pricked at my eyes. I didn't say anything, but my mind was rushing through every thought that was possible. He used his tail for everything. Picking things up, waving, turning pages. He used it more than his arms. Now he wasn't going to have a tail?

"Sophie said that the man's lucario attacked him. They didn't attack her or Poona since the aipom practically threw himself at the pokémon. He isn't dead, but he doesn't have a tail anymore, and he's in critical condition, being treated by pokémon nurses. There's a chance it can be reattached…but it isn't likely."

I released a few tears, took a breath, and asked with a voice that surprisingly didn't shake, "Is he still in Goldenrod?"

"Yes, but he isn't alone."

Mom told me that Galilei and Virchow had teleported Sophie and Poona to Sprout Tower and people had started a search party for me whenever Keane and I had disappeared. Trevor, Lillian, and Meredith had stayed in Goldenrod to wait for Bundy's surgery and recovery. The events that had transpired in Goldenrod were being investigated and we were going to be questioned as witnesses as soon as everyone was safe and secure, although I feared what that meant for us if we were going to report against the guy at the hospital.

Once I told my parents everything, they said that Jacoby was going to come with Preen to pick me up and take me back to the tower, where everyone else was staying right now as a safe haven. When I hung up with them, I sat back on the couch in the lobby and just stayed there, not moving or saying anything. Just staring straight forward.

Keane. Bundy.