This story is co-developed and edited by Titan127.
Disclaimer: Pokémon is a registered property of Nintendo, the Pokémon Company, and GameFreak. This work respectfully uses the world and characters of the Pokémon series, with no intent of harm on the original creators. Please support the official releases of the Pokémon franchise.
Chapter 34: To the Light (8,248 words)
"Anything I want, huh? Sounds like a pretty sweet deal."
So high in the mountains, on an afternoon in late January, Ciel stepped past the final threshold into Blackthorn, the location of the last Gym in Johto's Gym Challenge. He rested his front foot on a raised rock and stared into the valley below. The village was shaped like a jagged claw, as if a primordial giant had once torn into the mountainside—from that disaster sprung a life of thatched dwellings, so quiet and still as if no time had passed since the mark was created.
Even with so much time on his hands, Ciel couldn't process what had happened. In the heat of the moment, he'd joined a crusade that toppled a criminal empire. An empire that had stood for decades. The version of him from his first day in Mahogany, when he was still floundering in his own head about what being a Trainer meant, wouldn't have been able to fathom the lifetime between now and then. The answer seemed so easy to the current him. A Trainer is a guardian with the power to protect everyone's smiles.
He chuckled to himself. He'd complained, whined even, to Brent about not being able to throw himself into the unknown. Yet when he spoke for himself, even against his mother's wishes, to face the Rockets head on, for a single moment he felt like that hero he looked up to. It was all so fast and crazy.
Raven hopped onto the rock and dropped to a lay. Ciel placed his hand on the surface, feeling the sun's warmth despite the chill in the air. His partner pointed one open eye into the valley below. She was resting, but only in anticipation of what was to come.
"How about you, Raven? Anything you'd want?" he asked.
A low purr escaped her, which could have meant anything. He ran his fingers across her back. "What about a vacation? We could go stay at some resort somewhere and relax a while."
This time, she answered with a shuddering growl. He nodded. She wasn't one to sit on her laurels and let time tick away, which was curious for a Pokémon with such an abnormally long lifespan. It was over a hundred years on average, even longer depending on how much time she spent in stasis. No matter her reason, they had that in common. They both wanted to keep moving.
Slipping off his backpack, he retrieved his copy of The Eighteen Types: Advanced Biology. He'd used some of his recent battle winnings to replace his lost novice edition. Flipping through it, he came to the section about the Dragon Type, suspiciously the thinnest section of the book, smaller than even the recent Fairy type or those two theorized types in the back.
"Dragon is pretty strong," Ciel said, scanning through the book. He'd read it cover-to-cover already. Twice. Still, he wanted to keep his facts straight. He tapped his finger against his temple. "Not many biological weaknesses, and most Dragon-types are just powerhouses in general. Mantis and Hector are probably our best bet, and Arden's a no-go. Dragon resists Fire."
As he read, he started making headway down into the valley, occasionally glancing over the book to keep an eye on his steps. Raven followed close behind and brushed his legs.
"I read online that it's three-on-three, so that that leaves either you or Clovis. You're better for direct damage, but if we're expecting dangerous attacks, his mobility might be more strategic. Hit and run tactics, that kind of thing. Yeah. I'll go with Clovis," he decided.
A bad choice. While his eyes were on the page, he felt Raven sweep out one of her forelegs. It caught his ankle, he tripped, and though he almost corrected himself, his other foot met a hidden rock. Ciel went tumbling down the hillside with a yelp, followed by successive grunts and cries as he slammed into other stones. He tried his best to reel in his somersaulting descent. Scraping his hands along the ground, he grabbed hold and righted himself back to his feet, but there was too much momentum going in. With one final flip, he landed squarely on his back, covered head-to-toe in dust and dirt.
Ciel stared skyward, where the sun retreated behind overlapping wisps of clouds. He coughed. "Okay, message received. Very funny."
Raven hovered over him in a devious hunch. She couldn't laugh at him, but her eyes angled downward to express her superiority. He lifted a finger and tapped her on the nose, which made the Pokémon twist her head away just to let him know she was aloof, independent, and not-at-all affectionate.
"If you're so eager to battle, then fine, you big baby," he said as he stood and brushed himself off. "But I'm pulling you out if things get dicey. You're the most at risk in a battle like this."
They continued into the village. It may have even been smaller than Mahogany, and that was a milestone. Ciel marveled at the earthen dwellings dotting the valley. They didn't look durable, made of ash and soil and branches and leaves, but their position nestled between the mountains was a natural stronghold that allowed their simple life to flourish.
An elderly woman with a soft smile waved to the partners as they walked through town. She wore a swallowing, patterned shawl and navy clothing underneath trimmed orange in a familiar design. He approached to ask her for directions to the Gym.
She threw at him unfamiliar words in an unfamiliar language, leaving him mystified. She was certainly verbose. After an awkward pause, and reading his hesitation, she spoke again in that strange tongue with more enunciation. He asked in Johtoan if they could try that instead. Thankfully, she could manage a few broken words, and she pointed in a vague direction across the village.
The dwellings seemed to be strangely empty. While there were a few residents around town, it was mostly young kids—two boys that chased each other across his path couldn't have been older than five—or those as old as the first woman. He and Raven stepped through rising stones lying about the soil. They were as tall as him, and at first he thought they were uneroded elements of the valley. However, when he leaned close to one, he noticed they were unnaturally smooth, like crystals. What their relative placement meant was unknown, though he tried to sketch a rough estimate of an aerial view in his notebook. It was only a minor distraction as he neared the edge of this glimpse of civilization.
The Blackthorn Gym peeked over the water's edge at a lake north of town. It was the most modern building in the village, towering over the small huts, its sharp, contemporary edges invading a haven of time. However, its exterior was in worse condition than any of the other Johto Gyms, Chuck's included.
Ciel made tracks to the door. Brent would be in Cianwood and challenging Chuck for his final Gym Badge, since he'd already gone east to Mahogany and Blackthorn. This last challenge would signal the end of the Johto Gym Challenge for them both. Where they chose to go from there was an infinite possibility.
He pushed open the doors to the Blackthorn Gym and was overcome by boiling air. The cooling winter was cut off by the doors slamming shut behind him, leaving him suffocating and itching and drying up under the sudden temperature. He could feel his own strained heartbeat through his jacket. This was a Dragon-type Gym, right?
The building extended in front of him a long way. He and his partner were on a stonework platform, fenced off by a spiked railing, opening to a bridge that appeared to connect the far end of the chamber. All around them, an odd red light clawed its way from below, but he wasn't close enough to the edge to see what was casting it.
"You holding up back there?" he shot to his partner.
She was already panting, trying desperately to vent the excess heat trapped under her layers of fur. When he offered her Poké Ball, she bared her teeth and trudged forward.
"Remember, this is just to psych us out. We aren't in danger until we tell ourselves we are," said Ciel. She grunted and continued walking, kicking a leg up to itch her hide every few steps.
"Who says?" asked a person ahead. Standing in full regalia was the Gym Leader. She wore a skintight, spandex-like blue ensemble that he could only describe as a costume. A similar cloak to Lance fell around her shoulders and circular bands hugged her wrists and calves. Somehow, even hugged tightly by that getup, she barely faltered under the heat.
He'd caught glimpses of her at the Showdown and had seen her before on television. Aside from how skilled she supposedly was, his only other frame of reference was that his mother was not fond of her.
"Are you Clair?" he asked.
"What's it to you? If you're here to challenge, I suggest you turn back. You don't look like much," she said. He waded through the heat until he could meet her face-to-face, where she stared at him in distaste. Her hair was an almost identical color to her clothing.
She had been speaking with an aide—clad in a two-piece bathing suit, surprisingly the most sensible clothing of the three of them—when he walked inside. She stepped back to make way for their conversation.
Rather than answer her taunt, he flashed his Badge case and the seven symbols inside. Clair eyed them for a few seconds.
"Whatever. You can take your best shot, if you—" She flowered with surprise. "Wait, you're the Mahogany kid. You fought Whitney!"
She exploded in laughter, bending backwards and almost tipping over. Her continued howling echoed on the chamber walls. Ciel put up a finger to speak only for the woman to suck in a breath and burst into even more whooping shrieks. He looked to the aide for help, but the woman only had an apologetic shrug to offer. conversation.
When Clair's senses finally returned to her, she looked up at him, still bent over and supporting her torso with her hands on her thighs. A hiccup escaped her. "Sorry, sorry. Seeing Whitney get whipped like that is priceless entertainment. Thanks for that, kid."
"If you're really looking to battle, you won't win." She returned to proper posture and cracked her neck into place. Every single grin, every flick of her eyelashes, it was all tailored to get a rise out of him. "I'm related to the Champion, that should tell you everything you need to know. Let that be your final warning."
Raven brandished her blade at the woman and sounded a savage growl. The eye roll in response only made his partner angrier.
"I'll take my chances," said Ciel. He was starting to understand where his mother was coming from.
With a flip of her cloak, she motioned for him to follow and led him across the stone bridge, and the aide followed behind them to act as a referee. He kept side-glancing, the red tint creeping into his periphery from every angle. Moisture slipped down from his forehead to his cheek to his chin. His energy sapped with every step.
The railing on the bridge stopped but they continued beyond, where the flooring transformed from stonework to a fine black granite. She threw out a hand that halted him in his tracks.
A rumbling stirred beneath them. Whipping his head around, he watched the sections of the bridge before and beyond the granite retract, the aide standing on the retreating piece behind Clair. He finally got a good look over the edge. A bubbling, viscous pool surrounded them, burning red with heat, and to make things worse, the unsteady granite platform wasn't just shaking. It was sinking.
"Well, kid, if you're so tough, let's see you beat me before this platform reaches the bottom. I'm sure you don't want to find out what happens if it does," said the Gym Leader, wearing her arrogance on her sleeve. She stacked everything in her favor. A time limit in which she won by default, stifling heat that barely touched her, and the home-field advantage.
Raven took position immediately and faced the Gym Leader with silent contempt. Ciel took just a few moments to orient himself. He wasn't going to let it get to him, and even as he felt the platform slipping slowly beneath him, the timer already ticking, he closed his eyes and drew in a breath. That spare moment wasn't wasted. He calmly regarded Clair when he returned to life. Ciel grabbed his jacket and flung it behind himself, where it soared gently to rest on the retracted bridge.
"I'm ready," he said. Raven growled in agreement. A red flash revealed Clair's first Pokémon, and without missing a beat, the aide declared the battle to begin using her green flag.
Raven launched forward without command, intent on stealing the first strike. She hopped effortlessly across the marble and lunged for the attack. The materializing Pokémon raised a giant object towards them, and when the swung sickle connected, a piercing clang cut through his ears
The creature faced backwards, presenting its plated shell, and craned it's long neck over its shoulder to keep its attention on the battle. Raven's blade was wedged between the protruding spikes. Bright yellow and red painted its body, though by focusing his eyes, Ciel could see sickly grey where its underbelly poked out.
"Pentolite, Incinerate!" The peeking head's circular snout came alight with fire. An explosive blast discharged overhead.
"Keep your head down!" he shouted.
Raven barely managed to wrestle her weapon free and dropped down to let the flames pass. They whirled around the arena, splattering in liquid, burning pools around the platform. Raven hopped between them to return to her side of the field. Though she could dodge the flaming spots with her mind focused, Clair would no doubt try to make them slip up.
Whatever the creature was, it was Fire-type, and probably Dragon too, the former canceling most of Dragon's weaknesses and countering its one resistance. Was Pentolite a nickname or the species itself? Didn't matter. Mantis was out for now until they figured out how to put this thing down. The smart move was to switch to Hector—Rock resisted Fire, if he remembered correctly—but they couldn't take advantage of most of his moves on the granite platform. Unlike Jasmine's Gym, the arena wouldn't resettle if it was destroyed, and that'd be bad for both parties.
"Approach and wait for my order," he said. She stalked forward, shaking from the heat. and Clair regarded him patiently. Her obvious strategy was to stall behind such a defensive Pokémon. The Gym Leader expected her opponents to forfeit when the heat overcame them, or the platform fell low enough to scare them. His waist was already on the same level as the bridge.
His partner dropped lower to the ground as she closed in. Her opponent merely puffed smoke from its snout in anticipation and made no effort to dodge. With that heavy shell, it was probably mostly immobile. Ciel shouted, "Now! Night Slash!"
She leapt at the opponent. Clair wasn't shaken. "Incinerate down!"
"Detect!" he countered.
Fire ruptured from the creature's head, but by the time it launched, Raven had vanished into her own afterimage. The creature turned its head around, where the Absol was already swinging her blade. It fazed through its neck in a clear swipe—the Dark-type attack dealing no physical damage but exhausting the creature—and it let loose another blast in response. Raven vaulted over its head to dodge again, delivering another strike between its head and shell, and landed back in her original position.
When Raven touched the surface, the ground beneath her swelled. Ciel's eyes went wide. He hadn't noticed, but the second Incinerate blanketed most of the space between Clair's Pokémon and himself in that viscous liquid, and Raven had absentmindedly landed right amidst it. The Gym Leader had planned on turning their fighting space hostile. He hadn't been paying attention, himself too focused on landing the next hit.
The goo exploded. Propelled backwards by the blast, Raven slid to his feet. She absorbed too much force from the explosion and could barely stand, plus she was already drained from the oppressive atmosphere.
He'd intended his partner to be the scout this battle. She could evade attacks easily and feel out what an opponent was capable of. Even though Raven had taken more damage than they expected, her short exchange was informative. He was writing a mental notebook. The unknown Pokémon couldn't easily move, preferring to hide behind its shell, could only attack at range with its snout, and used some kind of explosive mucous with reckless abandon.
After examining Raven, whose struggles prompted the referee to ready her yellow flag, he said, "I declare my Absol unable to battle. I'll use my next Pokémon."
The flag flew to halt the battle while he handled both her Poke Ball and Hector's. Raven conceded to her capsule as there wasn't an easy way to clear her from the isolated battlefield.
"I told you. You're not gonna beat me, kid," said the woman. "I'm the best Gym Leader in the Region and probably beyond."
A thought came to him while a materialization beam built the new arrival. "I'm not sure that's right. As far as I'm aware, Jasmine beats you in ranking and win percentage. So does Falkner."
For once, the heat struck her, but it wasn't from the Gym—it was her own. A gnarl rose from her throat, stopped by her clenched teeth, but she had nothing to retort. Instead, she called her next attack with extra fervor, not even waiting for her opponent to fully materialize. "Flamethrower!"
The referee quickly flew the green. Hector's body came to be, and he rose from unconsciousness just in time to turn on his heels and absorb the column of fire with his side plating. His typing allowed him to weather it without so much as a flinch, and the diminutive Rhyhorn prepared to charge his opponent, scraping his front claws on the granite.
"Use Shell Trap, Pentolite."
Her creature craned its head down and spit up the flaming substance onto itself. The incendiary fluid slipped between the spikes until it coated the entirety of its armored shell. The Gym Leader put out two fingers and moved them in a "bring it on" motion.
He ordered Hector to charge full speed ahead. The Rhyhorn was more than happy to oblige.
"Any contact is going to set off the detonation!" shouted Clair as Hector tracked towards her. "You can't beat me without a plan!"
She was really getting riled up, especially after letting his comment stew. If she assumed he had no plan, the execution would be all the more surprising.
"Short hop and Bulldoze!" Ciel ordered.
Mid-charge, Hector pushed off his back legs and jumped in a clean arch. Ciel dropped to a knee and placed a hand on the platform to stabilize himself. The weight brought down by the leap rattled the platform, making it sink further into the mysterious substance around them, burning up the time they had left. It threw the creature off balance, and with the weight of its shell on its front, it almost tipped over.
"Use Dragon Pulse and stop that thing!" Clair's realization cast over her face. Now she was sweating, her own heat about to consume her.
"Do it again!" Ciel said.
Her Pokémon fired a violet ray from its snout, but Hector was already in the air. Clair was irritated enough that she forgot to lead her shot, and the Rhyhorn passed clear over the ringed stream of draconic energy. Ciel felt a smile creep onto his face. He slammed down with enough force to sink Ciel's head below the bridge, but the rumbling finally tipped the opponent clean over. Once its massive shield hit the ground, it bulged, glowing molten hot. It exploded.
Its body protected through the shell, the creature blasted sky high, screaming and croaking, in a trail of smoke.
A beam leapt from Hector's Poké Ball and the Rhyhorn vanished from the battlefield. Ciel performed a quick switch and tossed his third Poké Ball skyward. Emerging from a flash of red, Mantis took flight.
His exoskeleton, once chitinous green, was plated in a sleek red metal that reflected the light of fire. The sections of his body locked together with masterful biological engineering. Replacing his blades, his arms—one side still lacking armor—now terminated in dexterous, sharp pincers.
"Grapple and toss it to the ground!" he commanded. There was just a moment of hesitation as the Pokémon noticed the lingering flames and explosive goo below him, then he launched. Mantis passed through the dispersing smoke to meet the opponent at the apex of its flight. Completely stunned from the explosion, there was nothing it could do to counter or shake off the clamps that grabbed hold of its shell.
With powerful beats of his wings, Mantis spun both himself and his foe mid-air, building momentum with each rotation. Ciel realized that, though completely improvised, Mantis was using a new move. He shouted, "Seismic Toss!"
Mantis released. The opponent rocketed down the ground even faster than the explosion had sent him up. The reptilian creature blew a dent in the surface of the granite, knocked completely out by the force of the throw. Its gangly head hung limp above the shell on which it landed.
After both parties touched the ground, the referee waved a yellow flag, announcing that the Pokémon, what she called a Turtonator, was unable to battle. Mantis clicked his pincers and admired himself in his few spare moments. That gift from Jasmine had allowed him to evolve into Scizor. Unlike most Pokémon, the change between Scyther and Scizor didn't offer an objective advantage. Instead, it was an equal exchange, trading some of the previous form's speed and mobility for massive defense and even greater attack power. It was no less permanent, however. Ciel had left the choice to Mantis, who had sat on the concept for weeks before finally making his decision to evolve.
Clair recalled her Pokémon. She huffed, face the same red-hot hue as the pool surrounding them. "Don't think this is over. You needed three Pokémon to defeat just my one."
"Maybe so," said Ciel, Mantis snapping his pincers in anticipation, "but I'll bet that was your only Fire-type. You expected to shut down Steel, Fairy, and Ice with your leader, but what happens when that fails?"
"You little—" She cut herself off with her teeth again, clearly trying to withhold some unsavory words and save her image. She was sweating and suffocating just like him now.
She sent out her next Pokémon, a levitating serpent covered in sky blue scales. He recognized it as Dragonair, the previous form of Dragonite. It was able to use various elemental types, but her reaction to his probing excluded Flamethrower from that mix.
He wiped some sweat from his forehead and told himself not to get too confident. The platform was still sinking, over halfway down from its original position. The rumbling and impact of the throw had driven it much further, Raven was out, and Hector had been torched by fire. No one was in peak condition, but a grin still creeped on his face. He'd busted a hole through her strategy and carved his path to the light.
He nodded to Mantis and the Scizor readied his battle stance. The green flag flew.
Clair threw out her arm and shouted in desperation. "Hydro Pump!"
Her Kingdra unleashed a torrent from its barrel-like snout. The normally aquatic creature kept itself propped up by its trail and the recoil from the attack nearly threw it off the platform. It had little stability, its body nothing more than a singular curved shape protruding with wavy, branch-like horns and fins.
"Dodge and use Bullet Punch!" called Ciel.
Mantis was already mid-flight across the arena. He ceased the movement of his left pair of wings, sending his flight spiraling away from the stream of water. Ciel himself dashed to the side, his feet stopping at the corner, where his vision was filled with that bubbling unknown fluid. The platform was only a few centimeters above the surface. Something about it made him raise an eyebrow.
Mantis was upon the Kingdra, which twisted its head to try to align the continuous stream with its target. The Scizor clamped shut his pincers, using them as makeshift knuckles to deliver a flurry of blows. A shock through his nerves caused him to cancel the attack—he had been paralyzed by a Thunder Wave from Clair's Dragonair—and hop backwards across the platform while the Water-type righted itself. Without its Trainer's order, it took advantage of the sudden respite and fired an Ice Beam that struck Mantis square in the chest. The ice overtook him. It crawled around him as it crystalized and overtook his right shoulder and three of his four wings. He couldn't muster enough strength to vibrate them, and without that kinetic energy, the covering would only melt with time.
Ciel kept a level head. With his advantageous typing and Clair's deteriorating attitude, Mantis had been able to defeat her Dragonair and last well into her Kindra, which seemed to be her most powerful Pokémon. Despite the heat drying its scales into a sickly greenish color, and despite the beating it had endured by Mantis's repeated punches, the Water-type Pokémon was miraculously still conscious. It wouldn't last much longer, and Ciel didn't have the spare centimeters to let it.
"Close in. We need to finish this, now," said Ciel. He felt the ground slipping beneath him. The ooze splashed over the edges of the granite, urging him to stay towards the center.
Sensing the urgency in his voice, Mantis trudged forward despite both the internal paralysis and the external freezing. He raced across the platform on his thin legs.
"Hydro Pump, again!" Clair called. Her hair was in disarray, strands of blue falling over her eyes and curved with moisture. The woman nearly screamed in irritation when the attack emerged as barely stream. "Water Gun! Bubblebeam! Use anything!"
A pitiful spurt was all it had to offer. No way to dodge, Mantis took it right in his chest, dropping him to a knee. But, the pressure of the water combined with the atmospheric heat cracked the ice around his chest and shoulder. He rose to his feet and crossed the rest of the distance, bringing up his armored pincer for a final blow.
"Hold it! Battle over! Kingdra is unable to battle!" shouted the referee, frantically waving a blue flag.
Clair turned up to the referee, now meters above her on the retracted bridge. "What? Why?"
"Look at your Pokémon, Clair," she called down.
Her Kingdra was ready to fall over. Its entire form shook, not only from the repeated punches, kicks, and grabs by Mantis but also its expenditure of water. Its body had lost almost all its moisture through repeated attacks and perspiration. It needed to be returned to a body of water and taken to a Pokémon Center, and Clair quickly recalled the Pokémon to its capsule once she realized The stasis would keep it safe until then.
The referee disappeared above the bridge, and soon after, the platform lurched, coming to a complete stop with only a centimeter and a half to spare.
Ciel stepped up to his Pokémon. The insectoid creature, tall enough to meet him at eye-level, scanned him with fierce eyes. With his permission, Ciel turned him around and gently cleared away the dripping ice from his wings. They beat in his face reflexively once they were freed and he shot back, sputtering a laugh.
"Thanks for your help, Mantis. You carried this one," he said, holding up his Poké Ball. "We'll get you checked up at a Pokémon Center, alright?"
Mantis was dematerialized by the beam after he bid farewell, leaving Ciel to step up to the center of the platform amidst the cracked indentation. Clair begrudgingly met him in the center.
Clair stood silent as his mind raced. He kept on as professional an appearance as he could, but the anticipation was getting to him.
"You defeated me in battle," she began, causing him to let out a tense breath, "but I won't concede this. You're not worthy of my Badge."
"W-what?" he asked.
"As Gym Leader, I have sole discretion on who receives qualification for beating me. And I say you don't qualify," she said. Falkner had used the same logic but had bestowed a Badge despite a loss. "For one, you recklessly disrupted the platform and put your Pokémon in danger from the lava."
Determined, he took a step back. He tracked right to the edge of the platform and kneeled before the bubbling substance. Without hesitation, he thrust his hand through the surface despite a frantic plea from the Gym Leader behind him.
Withdrawing his arm, the oil-like liquid coated his arm, and though it did feel hot, it wasn't any more dangerous than water. Ciel shook it off as best he could. He turned back to Clair with a challenging stare. "It's not lava. My Pokémon weren't in danger."
"You had no way of knowing that!"
"It's simple convection, isn't it? If it really was lava, the rising heat wouldn't be bearable, and it didn't get any hotter the further the platform sank. It's just supposed to ward away challengers, not kill them," he said.
The woman scrambled for another response, but then something dawned on her. She fell to a calm cross-armed pose and met him with a raised eyebrow. "You also used a Pokémon with a near-fatal weakness to Fire against my Turtonator. That was completely irresponsible."
He opened his mouth to counter, but he stopped. Sure, he'd known that Mantis couldn't be used against a Fire-type Pokémon, but that Turtonator was completely stunned by the blast and it was the force of a throw was his only option to deal enough damage. No, that was wrong. Hector could have pushed the creature off the platform and out-of-bounds when it landed. Choosing Mantis was a split-second decision that had paid off, but he couldn't argue her point—if the Turtonator had completely absorbed the blast by its shell, one well-aimed Flamethrower would have threatened Mantis's life.
The platform rumbled again and rose from the fake lava, and as it neared its peak position, the bridge extended to meet it. The entire assembly clicked into place.
"You're not worthy of my Badge. You'll need to try again, and only then will I consider your… challenge complete…"
The woman trailed off, head angling upwards, and Ciel felt a shadow cast over him. He hadn't even heard approaching footsteps. Slowly, he turned around and stared up at the Champion of the Indigo Plateau.
No matter how familiar Ciel had gotten with the man through the Indigo League's campaign against the Rockets, he still wasn't adequately prepared to speak to one of the greatest Trainers in the world. Lance brandished a smile at him, and then at the Gym Leader, forcing the latter to bow in his presence. His clothing was even more ornate than usual. Golden jewelry hung around his cloak and his normally wild mane was tied back for a formal occasion.
"Let us not be hasty. I think this young man has more to him than you've seen, Clair," said the Champion.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, rising from her bow.
"I'm collecting you. The elder has summoned the village in ceremony, and who should I find lazing about?"
The woman checked a band on her wrist, which came alight with a digital clock when it was tapped. She cursed under her breath and called to the aide to close up the Gym.
Lance hid a laugh behind his authoritative face, his mouth curling just slightly before returning to neutral. "If you'd join us, we could discuss your appeal for the Rising Badge after service with the elder."
"You can't do that," said Clair, who hurried to his side after setting her hair back into place. "You know that outsiders are forbidden."
He ignored her. "This outsider has an important connection with our people. I'm sure the elder will make an exception."
Ciel looked down at himself, wondering exactly what the man meant. The aide returned him his jacket, which he curled up and held under his left arm. He felt the Poké Balls in his pocket, rolled them between his fingers, and let out a sigh.
"I'll have to pass, sir." Ciel had to reinforce his nerves to rescind the Champion's invitation. The look he received almost killed him, that blank intrigued stare. He had to justify himself. "My Pokémon need care at a Pokémon Center. They're more important."
Finally, the smile managed to creep its way onto Lance's face. He nodded. "That's the right choice. I'll be here for the rest of the day, anyway, so come to the lake whenever you're ready. We'll be waiting."
Ciel opted to leave his Pokémon to themselves at the Blackthorn Pokémon Center once Mantis and Raven received their checkups. The former was mostly fine, his metal coating dampening most battle damage—though he'd only recovered from the evolution shock a few days prior and the nurse recommended additional rest—while the latter had some bruising from the explosion. Glad as he was that they turned out okay, Clair's criticism hung in his mind; he was confident in his decision in the heat of battle, but it was just one wrong move from endangering Mantis's life.
The Center was humorously more modern than the one in Mahogany, though still miniscule. He grabbed the only unoccupied room of three. It sported a fenced-off outdoor habitat for his Pokémon to exercise, and after telling everyone to come and go as they pleased, he pushed his way out the door and beelined for the north side of the village.
He pulled his jacket a little tighter around himself as he passed the darkened Gym and traced the shore of the lake. It was still late afternoon, but the evening chill was creeping in. The towering mountains approached and swallowed the lake hole. The beach began to disappear, a simple dock at the end, while the crystal-clear water continued flowing into a wide cavern.
Ciel stepped up to the dock. Just as Lance had said, they were waiting. Technically. A well-constructed wooden raft was anchored to the dock by a rope. He stood unmoving for a few minutes, casting glances over the water. Eventually, he took a hesitant step off the dock and planted one foot firmly on the planked surface of the craft. It hardly moved underneath his weight, which reassured him enough to step entirely on. He grasped tight to the pole in the center and slid down to a sit, then untied the rope on the raft itself to let it free.
It floated gently away from the dock into the cave. Ciel realized that there was a slight downward flow into the mountains, and he let the water take him to an unknown destination, keeping himself hugged tight to the pole. This time he didn't have Crystal and Gold to help ease him, but he could see the bed through the clearness and tried to convince himself there was no danger.
The stream coursed deeper into the mountain. Rays of sunlight reached through where the roof of the cavern had fallen away. He tried to imagine what it would be like after sundown, the stars and moon stealing glances into the mountain, a passenger holding their breath for their next glimpse into the shining night.
On its natural course, the raft fell in line between two rows of posts. Atop each was a torch, like lights on a runway but far more ancient. A building, constructed of fine wood but in a foreign architectural style wrought with sharp edges and random protrusions, rose from the water at the end of the path. Its own small dock awaited.
Ciel's raft lurched when it made contact and he quickly jumped for the wooden platform. It felt rough under his hands and knees as he stayed low to the floor for a few seconds too long, and once he stood, every footstep was accompanied by a wooden creak. He glanced at the tapestry hanging in place of a door. A breathtaking age-old depiction of a Dragon-type Pokémon, mouth lined with teeth, adorned its surface. Ciel was unsure whether to push through unannounced.
He didn't have to decide. The fabric was pushed aside by none other than Clair, who said with an unamused face, "The Champion is waiting for you."
He stepped inside the single room building. It was large enough to hold the entire village as Lance had implied, laid out with cushioned mats in a semicircular audience around a carving on the far wall. The Gym Leader didn't join them, and once Ciel was inside, she let the tapestry fall and left him to his devices. Across the room, the Champion was speaking with a kneeling elder. He cut away from his conversation and presented himself with regal poise.
"I formally welcome you to the Dragon's Den," he said. A short pause, no doubt to let him take in this ethereal space. "Do you know why I invited you here?"
Ciel thought for a moment, caught off guard. He felt out of place in this sacred world, far away from the prying eyes of greater civilization. "I have a connection. What does that mean?"
"This place only welcomes those of the Dragon Clan's blood, their family by contract, and those of extraneous circumstances related to our people. You're the one who told my wife about the incident at the Ruins of Alph, correct?"
The memory came back to him, that odd hazy dream, if it even was a dream. He felt a phantom itch in his shoulder. Slowly, he nodded. The elder sat unmoving behind Lance, but he was listening in. This was a matter that concerned an entire people.
"You've helped protect the secret my wife passed to you, simple as it is, and for that I'm thankful."
"What's so special about those ruins?" Ciel blurted out. He realized that doing so directly contradicted the gratitude, but keeping it bottled up made him more anxious to learn more.
The Champion was silent. He refused.
"What did the Rockets want to do with it?"
"The Rockets?" Lance asked. His face contorted, unable to process what was asked of him. He cleared his throat and addressed Ciel again. "Explain."
"Right after I talked to your wife, a purple-haired woman attacked me. She said she was working for the Rockets and we reported her to the police." Just as the shoulder pain went away, he felt an urge to scratch that thin line on his neck. He yanked down his hand as soon as he realized, which made Lance raise his eyebrow. "I saw her another time. She was watching me for some reason. Did you catch her when the Radio Tower was cleared?"
He put a hand to his chin. "Purple hair? Not a common feature, but one of their higher-ups looked like that when we captured him at the Indigo League. He was an older man though."
The man shook his head to clear his own thoughts—something was racing through him, Ciel was sure. He continued, "I cannot tell you more. I am a keeper of my people's secrets, and no one else should need to shoulder matters like this."
Ciel reluctantly accepted. He needed to put his trust in the Champion, even knowing that she was still out there somewhere. With the Challenge Sigil in his palm, and knowing his father had his back, he convinced himself that if the time came, he had the power to keep his family safe.
"I apologize for the questioning. That was only part of our business here and I don't want to end things on such a sour note," Lance said, then he pointed past Ciel towards the doorway.
He turned his head. Two familiar faces held open the tapestry. It took him a few moments to recognize them, as he hadn't seen their faces since the weekend they first met.
"Heeeeeeeeey!" Christine Masuta rushed forward, crossing the space instantly, and planted herself in front of him with a smile and a raised hand. He blinked. He didn't even register the motion. "How's it going, Ciel? Did you beat my dear old cousin once removed?"
Her ecstatic mood was overwhelming. It was almost the same energy as Gold—though maybe put to more constructive use—and he wasn't as qualified as Crystal to keep up. His head looked to the hovering hand, then to her head, then to the rest of her body below.
"Weren't you, uhh, critically injured?" Ciel asked, looked her body up and down. She was in a robed ceremonial getup as well, though she clearly didn't put much thought into it. It wasn't secured or tied in the same professional manner as her father's.
"Huh?" She tilted her head, though her hand never moved. "I said it was just a scratch. It was fully healed in like two days, tops. What, did you not believe me?"
"I, err, maybe? I kind of thought you were just playing it up over the phone, like you were trying to act cool," he said.
"You made some calls without my permission, young lady?" asked Lance, but the girl brushed him off with a weak laugh.
"Well I am cool, but no. Top condition." She continued shaking her hand, still floating in place, until in a moment of insight, he realized what she meant. He slapped his hand against hers, after which she spun on her heels.
"And before you ask," Ciel said, "no."
"Darn. One day you're gonna say yes, mark my words."
The second person thundered over to them, reached out his giant hand, and grabbed Kris by the collar to hoist her into the air. She gasped in surprise and threw out a fist to her brother's chest, but she was powerless due to the sheer difference in size. Saber said, "Now, if we're done with embarrassing ourselves in front of the elder, I was told there were important matters to discuss."
Ciel could only swallow the lump in his throat. Saber carried his squirming sister back into position by their father and the two put themselves into some semblance of order. Said elder had remained silent, the short, elderly man merely continuing his observation, though with slightly more relaxed posture. Lance stepped forward.
"Though I respect the Gym Leader's decision," Lance began, Ciel noting the odd emphasis, "in light of your contributions to the Pokémon League, and of my own judgement of your battle, I believe you've earned a victory today."
"But Clair—sorry, the Gym Leader—said that I'd made some mistakes. And, to be honest sir, I kind of agree with her," Ciel said. His priority was to keep his team out of danger, to let them battle safely, and to help both Pokémon and Trainer improve in doing so, especially after his lapses in the past. That slipped during the battle, even if only for a moment.
"Battling is about making poor decisions." The Champion said this with such resounding confidence that it paralyzed him.
"Sir?" he asked.
"You can only make decisions based on what you know. Often, you'll be almost or entirely wrong, and that's when you improvise. In your eyes, you incapacitated the Gym Leader's Turtonator to the point it was no longer a threat. Do you think your Scizor would have charged ahead if it didn't trust your judgement?"
That's right. There was a short moment before Mantis took off that he surveyed the situation, and that was the decision that reinforced his trust. He hated that he kept forgetting it. Pokémon Battling could never be so simple, so one-sided. It was a beautiful performance between teammates. Partners.
"You'll always make mistakes, some crushing. If you decide to walk away and ignore what needs to be fixed, I wouldn't blame you. But if you face them head-on, you're a Pokémon Trainer."
Ciel stood with his back straight, firsts curled at his side, and met the Champion's eyes. The man nodded.
"With that in mind," he said, "I bestow upon you the Rising Badge."
His arms were twitching, and not just from the heat that had soaked his shirt in sweat and made his breathing heavy. After almost a year, he had completed the Johto Gym Challenge. He wanted to burst right then and there. It took everything in him to not hop up and down, shaking with unbridled excitement, letting loose a child long gone, but he kept himself grounded.
There was more to it than childlike celebration. It was force of will that let him improve after those first two losses to Falkner and the realization that he was still so much smaller than what he opened the door to. It was grueling acceptance of his biggest mistake, one that caused a rift between himself and his Pokémon, one that even mended would leave a permanent scar like the one adorning Arden's stomach. It was trying every day to be a better person, and to see when other people were climbing to their own best.
Maybe it subdued his accomplishment. But he understood that resting on his success, rather than viewing it as a steppingstone, would only hold him back. That extended to his wish. He didn't want a prize; it was better that it shined a new path.
The man held out his hand. In it lied the Rising Badge, as claimed, a small black object with a vague shape of a face. Two searing red eyes shined atop it. Next to it was a larger symbol. The golden crest of the Indigo League lied dead center, encircled by nine multicolored sections.
Ciel took them both and examined the larger one. "This is…"
"The Johto Challenge Sigil. Just like a Badge, it's physical proof that you've conquered the entire Johto Region."
He clenched the items in his hand. He stared at them through his fingers, unable to pull away.
"And, as we've discussed," continued the Champion, "I do have one more thing to give you. Have you decided yet?"
"I want to be as famous as you."
He'd said it to Chuck, and before that to the one girl in Goldenrod. To be able to protect people and Pokémon he cared about, he couldn't stand by just growing stronger physically with his team. He needed real power to influence people, to carve smiles on their faces with his every word, every movement, every battle cry.
Cynthia and Lance had a power he wanted to grasp with his own hands. From atop the Pokémon League, they told the world that everything would be okay. And everyone believed them, because they had the ability to make the future happen. Getting to speak to them in person and join them in battle only reinforced to him the role they played in holding up the world. Ciel was going to keep his sister smiling—and his friends, and his family—by standing in that same spot one day.
The man put on an amused face and leaned forward, just slightly, to overlook him. "That's not a wish I can grant. But if I were to suggest, you'll need to challenge the World Trial, and that requires two Challenge Sigils. Plus, service to the community at large."
Ciel knew this, of course. One Gym Challenge wouldn't match him up against the greatest Trainers in the world. If he was going to chase Cynthia and Lance's legacy, he might as well train as they did.
He looked to Kris, who seemed to realize his thought process. She whispered something in another language.
"I have my wish, then." Ciel issued his demand. "Take me to Sinnoh."
The Champion smiled. He motioned to his children and said, "You two, we'll be leaving soon. Wait outside and get ready to go."
They both grunted and walked past Ciel on both sides, Kris pointing an accusing finger at him as she passed. They left beneath the tapestry.
"Now, about the wish," Ciel said, suddenly losing his firmness, "I know it's Sinnoh, but no boats please."
"I can work out the details of a special trip with the Indigo League, and then we can organize when you're ready. What will you do for now?"
He fell silent for a moment, though the answer rested on his lips. He said, "I have a meeting, sir."
The tower was calling to him. Four months had become six months for them both. In his eyes, his Challenge Sigil meant nothing until he faced one last battle. One he'd promised all those months ago.
The penultimate chapter. It's a recurring gag at this point that chapters are "longer than expected". I claimed this one might be short in the author's note for Chapter 32. Nope.
I guarantee the next one will go long and might take an extra week. I'm planning on going back and doing a round of edits as I did at the end of the first arc, which will help me tie everything up and put any finishing touches on this story.
I have nothing more to say. Only one chapter remains — Chapter 35 [Finale]: A Lifetime Ago. Until next time.
