So. I'm not gonna try to scare y'all, but the coronavirus is running rampant in my hometown. There are a couple of confirmed cases. All the schools are closed, my student teaching is currently suspended, I don't know if I'm going back, our university not only went remote for the rest of the semester, but as of now, is completeldy quarantined. None of these students can leave that are still on campus. I was sick yesterday with a fever.
I was tested for the virus earlier today, on March 20th. I will be receiving results within a couple of days. My main problem is that I am diabetic, so I am at risk. As of today, I have had no fever, and I feel better… But I'm not sure.
Irregardless, in this stressful time, we should all try to find times to alleviate the boredom that is being quarantined. So, enjoy the chapter!
Amy47101 does not own pokémon, only her OCs, Vale, Sara Knight/Agent Blitz, and the Bennet family.
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The Adventure Saga
The Truth Behind Us
o.0.o.0.o
Start Date: June 2nd, X017
Current Date: October 30th, X017
o.0.o.0.o
"N… N, listen to me. An ideal… it's not something you can force onto another. It is something you find within yourself… something you alone are content with. That ideal world you spoke of, it is out there. So please… Find it, for the both of us."
…
…
...
"I promised… I promised you… I'm so sorry…!"
o.0.o.0.o
N was drifting in and out of consciousness. He faintly heard someone calling him by his nickname, as well as two chattering, worried voices right next to his ear. He blinked open his eyes, everything blurred and dark, but he immediately recognized that he was staring into two worried, bright blue orbs.
"N?" Vale's voice was obviously worried, brow furrowed and a frown evident on her face. The serious facade threatened to give way to the anxiety and worry, if the trembling hand holding his was any indicator. He blinked owlishly. "Are you awake?"
"You're pretty."
N was certain he had thought that, but the way that Vale reeled back made him wonder if he said it out loud.
"I've always thought that… But it makes me sad when pretty things get hurt… It's always people who hurt them, though…" his eyes drifted to the ceiling. "I… will create a world… where nothing will ever hurt you again. We will live happily… you, me… and all our pokémon and the pokémon we save… together."
"N, are you awake?"
Vale was giving him an extremely strange look, like what he was saying was completely foreign to her. He yawned a bit, blinking a bit.
"Yes… I believe in that…" he trailed off, sleep fogging his mind. "Vale… You can be saved… I will prove it, I will… And you… will be…"
He trailed off, drifting back to sleep.
o.0.o.0.o
Hilda was heaving in every breath of air she could, struggling to real in her wild running emotions and her own fear as she stared down at Black.
"Black. Black, please. Give me your other hand."
She wasn't sure what happened on that phone call, but she saw… she practically felt the shift in emotion. But even still, she didn't see this coming at all. She knew she sensed something under that smile, a sadness or an anger or something that made that smile never meet his eyes… but she never saw this. She never would have thought that he would have hurled himself over a bridge.
"Please, Black!" she begged him now, arms trembling. She had no clue how he managed to hold onto her with only one hand back in Castelia. "Please! Your other hand! Now!"
Black wasn't looking at her. She couldn't see his face under the brim of his hat. If she didn't know better, he was already somehow dead, just dangling there. But his pulse gave him away, it was running rampant in his wrist.
"Black-"
"Touya."
His whisper was so quiet that Hilda almost didn't catch it. She stared at him, waiting to see if he would speak again.
"My name is Touya Kazama-Burns. I figured you at least deserve to know it before it's all over…"
"Black, shut-"
"In my bag," he spoke over her, continuing. "Is all my information. Anything in my account, take it. I'm sorry I dragged you into this bet, I can't hold up my end of the deal anymore… But even still, you're probably the only girl who would have managed to resist my game for so long… Probably would've been the first to win! Aren't you proud of that, Hilda?"
Black lifted his head at that, and though there was a plastered on smile, tears were streaming down his cheeks, not stopping. Hilda only tightened her grip around his wrist.
"What bullshit are you spouting?!" she suddenly shouted.
"You don't have to pretend, Hilda. You hate me… You always have, and it's okay. I know there's not much to really like… All you really stuck around for was-"
"The fucking bet?! The Arceus-damned, motherfucking bet?! Is that what you think I put up with all your bullshit for?!"
"I don't see…"
"Fuck the bet! Fuck all of it!"
"What…?"
"I don't give a fuck about the money anymore! It doesn't fucking matter, and you wanna know why?! Because you're a person, and not just any person, but you're the traveling companion of Hilda White, her fucking friend."
Hilda felt her eyes burning, and she turned her head to the side to clumsily scrub her eyes on her jacket.
"Dammit… Black, I'm not good at shit like this… I'm probably making this worse… But whatever the fuck it was that pushed you to this, I'll kick their ass! I'll figure out what caused this and I'll make them know pain! But I don't wanna watch you fucking die… I don't want anyone to die!"
"But I… I failed. I always… always fail. What's the point of living if you're a failure…?"
"Don't you fucking look down! Look me in the eye, dammit!" Hilda felt more tears well up as Black's gaze drifted down again. However, upon her shout, his gaze shot back up. "I… I'm a failure too. I've failed so many people… I've failed in protecting my friends from Team Plasma, I've failed my pokémon in battle, I've failed in picking up on shit that I should've noticed, with my Dad, with my Mom, with Vale, with Bianca and Cheren and Team Plasma as a whole… But I probably failed you worst of all. 'Cause I knew since the beginning that smile didn't meet your eyes."
"Hilda…"
"I knew that smile didn't quite reach your eyes… I knew it since the day I met you, the day we made this stupid bet. And I should've stopped being so selfish for a fucking minute and asked what was wrong, even if you sure as hell weren't gonna tell me… Maybe it would've helped… Maybe you would've trusted me more to tell me what was wrong instead of walking off a bridge…"
She sniffled, tightening her grip.
"But even still!" Hilda glared down at him through her tears. "No what ifs or buts or whatever is going to change the fact that you have promises to keep up! You made a bet with me, and if you can't keep mine, then you owe me an explanation! And if that's not reason enough to keep on trucking, then think about your little sister!"
"My… sister…?"
"Yeah, remember? You mentioned her to me in Nimbassa… You went buck wild on those arcade games for a bunch middle-schoolers. Remember? One kid reminded you of you when you were a kid, running around trying to win prizes for their little sister? I don't know what happened… I don't know why you two aren't in contact, but I know this, from a little girl who hasn't seen her father for years and years 'cause he was out traveling,"
She paused, readjusting her grip. Black's lip was quivering a little.
"She's waiting. She's waiting for you to come home. Maybe she doesn't understand, fully, why you left. But irregardless she's waiting for you, Black, and I'm not about to be the one who has to call her saying her big brother is dead! Now give me your other hand! I don't have the strength to keep holding onto you!"
She felt herself beginning to slide a little over the edge. Immediately, she heard several pops, not just from her waist, but from Black's too.
"Touya, grab her hand!"
"You revived me, but there's no way to revive you!"
"Grab the stupid girls hand!"
"I won't let you give up!"
"Don't make me wrap you up in my vines!"
"Can't you see, Black?" Hilda asked, forcing herself to grin as his pokémon continued to shout words of encouragement, pleading with him. "Can't you feel it? Minccino, Archeops, Simisear, Siesmitoad, Ferrothorn… They don't want you to leave either… No one wants to see you go at all."
"I… I… But I…"
"You asked me if I trusted you back in Castelia, remember?" Hilda was pleading with him now, begging. "Please, Black, give me your other hand. Do you trust me?"
"I-"
"Black. Do you trust me?!"
Black's entire form seemed to be trembling. Hilda's arms were shaking as she struggled to keep her grasp. Then, with tears streaming down his face, Black reached up and grabbed her wrist.
However, the slight movement seemed to be just enough for her gravity-defying position to slip. Physics, at this terribly inconvienent moment, had started to kick in, and now Hilda was fully slipping over the edge
Almost immediately, she heard several pops from her belt, along with her pokémon screaming her name.
"Hilda, I'm so sorry!"
Those words tore from Blacks throat in an agonized scream at the same time she heard a pokémon let out a howl of desperation, a howl she never heard before. Black was full on sobbing at this point, holding her tightly in a hug as he apologized over and over again, probably planning to apologize until this was over and even after they had died.
It had all happened so fast, that Hilda barely saw the shining glint of blue from the bottom of the cavern.
Then, the wind was knocked out of her system as she and Black landed over the back of a pokémon. Without pausing, the pokémon kept bounding up and up and up, until eventually, they stopped by the stony rock that they were resting at earlier.
"Black, hey, are you okay?!"
She pulled him off the pokémon, but he just fell to his rear and sobbed, trembling uncontrollably, gripping her hand like a lifeline.
"Cobalion!"
Hilda glanced up at the unfamiliar voice, eyes widening a fraction as she saw a Keldeo galloping towards them. Then, she registered what he had said, and glanced up. Before her was, in fact, Cobalion, leader of the Swords of Justice.
"Thank you. Thank you so much for saving them."
"This young man," Cobalion spoke slowly, looking at Black. "Keldeo. You know we choose those who fight to help pokémon, and yet he so willingly threw his life away, or was willing to?"
"What are you trying to imply?!" Hilda suddenly shot up, shaking her hand free of Black's, threatening to stand nose to nose with the legend. "Are you trying to say that he doesn't want to help others?! Or are you trying to say he's not strong enough to do it?!"
Cobalion widened his eyes a fraction, staring at her with a serious gaze.
"Hmm… Very strange. It's not every day there is one who can understand us…"
Hardly even acknowledging that she spoke, he turned.
"Keldeo, best not be foolish. You have been with this boy for approximately a decade at this point, and you've yet to earn your blade."
With that, he walked away, leaving the cryptic message in the air as he walked away. Before Hilda could ask what was going on, she heard frantic crying, and was suddenly tackled by Lilligant, followed by Dewott and her other pokémon. Black's pokémon hesitantly gathered around around him, except for Mincinno and Keldeo. Mincinno leapt into his arms, crying, while Keldeo knelt beside him, resting his head on Black's thigh.
Black, in the meantime, held Mincinno close to his chest like a lifeline, and sobbed.
o.0.o.0.o
Black wasn't sure how long they sat there in that solemn circle while he cried, but no one dared to say a word after the expressed relief. His crying was a haunting sound, like some thing he wanted to for so long, but never got the chance to do. To him it felt like he finally had this one, singular chance to unleash everything after years and years of being told to suppress it.
He wasn't sure why he stopped, maybe he just ran out of tears to cry… So he sat there, still rocking with Mincinno. He felt something cold through his jacket. Glancing out of the corner of his eye, he saw Hilda, quietly holding out a bottle of water to him.
"You've gotta be thirsty after all that…" Hilda muttered. She was quiet, very unlike Hilda. But then again, maybe she wasn't sure what to do. He wasn't exactly the type to attempt suicide and then wail like a child for who knows how long. Irregardless, he took the water, whispering a quiet thanks.
The silence was unbearable. His hand shook violently as he chugged the water.
Calm… Calm, calm, calm, Black. Calm yourself down…!
"So, uh… should I call you Black or, you said your real name was-"
"Touya." Black finally answered, thankful for the break in the silence. If he had to be stuck in the silence, he wasn't sure where his thoughts were going to go. He leaned back against the rock. "Kind of a terrible time for me to tell you that, huh?"
"Probably wasn't exactly the best circumstances…"
"Yeah… Well, my name is Touya Kazama-Burns."
"So is that first, middle, last?"
"No," Black shook his head. "Touya is my first, Kazama is my mothers maiden name, and Burns is my fathers name."
"Kazama-Burns… If I remember right, don't they hyphenate names like that 'cause your parents weren't married? Or something like that?"
"Not entirely." Black responded. "My parents were married… They're divorced now. And it wasn't as nice and clean cut as your parents divorce supposedly was…"
"You didn't believe me when I said that?"
"I couldn't fathom it, because when it came to my parents…" he trailed off, then let out a heavy sigh. "Hilda, I don't ever talk about this, so you're never going to hear me talk about this again, but you need to know why I took a walk off a bridge… especially since I almost took you with me."
"I'll keep my yap shut and listen, but only if you get rid of that guilt." Hilda met his gaze with fierce honesty. "I wasn't gonna let you go, understand?"
"… Understood." he nodded. No point in arguing with her. "Anyways, my mother is Johtonese born and raised, but she moved to Unova to become a pokémon center nurse. She wanted to study to help others… but then she met my father. She lied to me and my sister at first. She said they got married, then had kids… But I was always a bit of a sneak. I found their marriage certificate and my birth certificate. I was born two months before their wedding."
Black remembered that day, finding that information. He was about five years old, and thought it was strange, and thought it was even stranger when he found the wedding video. His mother seemed perfectly happy, if not a little somber, all dressed in a huge wedding dress in a big huge church. His father seemed utterly miserable… and baby him wasn't anywhere in sight.
He had asked his mother about that. Why she was getting married in a church and not in front of a shrine, like she talked about in Johto. Why he wasn't in the video. Why her family wasn't there. She never answered the questions, but as he grew he connected the dots…
"When you're a kid, you kinda brush it off a bit… But I connected the dots pretty quick. My paternal grandparents were pretty big religious figures in Hearthome City's church."
"Hearthome City, Sinnoh? You mean like the place where Arceus supposedly touched down on and shit? The whole 'Arceus is the great, good God of pokémon' shit?"
"Yep. Figured out I was a thing before they were officially a thing, and my grandparents didn't like that very much, so I'm guessing they forced my father to make it right by marrying my mother."
"Okay, then… Doesn't sound to different from me, then. My Dad knocked up my Mom to and had a little ho-dunk wedding with a shit ton of beer and pokémon."
"Sounds quite a bit different from communion wine and sour old people."
"Okay, maybe a little different." Hilda cracked a smile. Black knew that she was trying to humor him a little, and to an extent, it was working. All those people in the wedding video may as well have been at a funeral procession, they looked so miserable.
"Anyways, I'll give my Mom some credit… she tried to make it work. Even had another kid with the man. But my father is…"
He trailed off, bouncing his knee a little.
"It's hard to talk about this, because my father is really good at putting on a show, even his occupation would make it hard to believe that he was as terrible as he is…"
"I'll be the judge of your honesty or not." Hilda said simply, turning towards him fully, and sitting cross-legged. "… Got it?"
"Yeah…" Black sighed. "My father, as of today, is the boss of the international police force, IPF for short. He's above all the police officers you see on the streets, above the police forces in each country. While he doesn't see any action, he's in charge of coordinating and giving orders to almost everyone. His branch handles the most notorious of criminals, the most heinous of cases…"
"Sounds like a hero."
"That's what everyone thinks." Black said bitterly. "But he was a terrible father and an even worse husband. He could never pronounce mine or my sisters names properly, and I'm almost certain he did it to insult my mother. He just called us 'boy' and 'girl' whenever he was around."
"What was your sisters name?" Hilda asked quietly. Black glanced down at Mincinno, smiling bitterly.
"Mai."
"Okay, so how do you fuck up the pronunciation of Touya and Mai? It's not that hard!"
"He was never a fan of my mothers culture, and I don't think he was very happy about her naming us what she did. He probably wanted more… I don't know, "normal" names? If I could explain it, I would. I just don't think he wanted to be married to my mother, so he would do anything he could to spite and insult her… He was always cold. Always harsh and cruel too..."
"Okay, now he sounds like a dick." Hilda muttered bitterly, crossing her arms.
"Well, yeah…" Black averted his gaze. "He hated it when we cried. He hated listening to it, and he especially hated it when I cried. Because boys aren't supposed to cry. And I remember…"
He trailed off, shutting his mouth tightly. He remembered when Mai was just a little girl, she had to be little because it was when their father still slept in the same house as them. She had woken up sobbing, having a nightmare, then scurried to their parents room. Black had woken up and called her name as quietly as possible, but she must not have heard him.
However, instead of hearing his mothers soft footsteps, comforting Mai, Black remembered shooting up horrified at the sound of his fathers footsteps marching down the hall, clearly upset. He wasn't even carrying or tugging Mai along when he returned, he was instead dragging her by her teeny-tiny little wrist. Sometimes her feet touched the floor, sometimes they didn't. He approached their shared room, clearly livid, his grip so tight on Mai's wrist that the tips of her fingers were turning bright red.
"Dad what are you-"
"Keep your sister quiet."
The words were cold and scathing, striking fear into Black's very core. But what he did next still haunted Black to this day. He had lifted Mai by her tiny little arm, and hurled her across the room like she was a doll. She slammed into their dresser between their beds, falling to the floor in a crumbled heap.
Black didn't dare to move, not with their father still there, staring at them, glaring at him. Their father only turned when Black heard their mothers footsteps running towards them, an argument erupting immediately upon meeting their father in the hall.
Than and only then did Black shove his quivering, terrified sister under his bed, and he scrambled under there as well, trying to comfort her as best as his eight-year-old self could.
"Black?" Hilda had placed a hand on his shoulder, calling his name. "You got quiet…"
"I was just thinking about… something unpleasant…" he muttered, shaking his head. "Our father hated it when I would cry. So when I did, or when Mai did… he would grab us."
He reached out with his right arm to emphasize it, roughly shaking the invisible arm back and forth in front of him.
"And he would scream and yell and demand that we stop crying. Then, when he didn't, he'd stoop down, right in our face, and whisper that we were embarrassing him. We didn't want to embarrass him… that was the worst mistake we could ever make."
He dropped his arm again, staying quiet for a minute.
"Then, right around when Mai turned four, he left."
"So he divorced your mom?"
"Oh, no." Black let out a demeaning chuckle. "He was to smart for that. He figured he'd need one or both of us kids one day, so he never divorced my mother, but also never left a forwarding address for my mother to deliver divorce papers to him. Around this time, Mai was starting school, and was struggling. She would constantly get sick, would cry and cry for our mother, never could concentrate, and always, always scared… Turns out she was diagnosed with a conglomerate of mental issues. All sorts of anxiety, depressive symptoms, paranoia… and she was absolutely phobic of pokémon."
"Phobic of pokémon?" Hilda cut in, sounding utterly baffled. "Like, she's scared of Galvantula, or…?"
"No, all pokémon. It doesn't matter what species or type… if she saw one, she would hide in the corner screaming and crying until she either found a means to escape, the pokémon left, or our mother came for her."
"I mean, I understand kids being afraid of pokémon, but this just sounds so extreme… How the hell did that happen?"
"If I knew, trust that I would've stopped it." Black sighed. "She couldn't be away from our mother. We tried putting her with different counselors and such until Mom just ran out of money… and kept her home. Homeschooled her while I went to a public school. But even still…"
Black glanced down at Mincinno, who was snuggled to his chest, listening just as attentively as the other pokémon. At that point, he actually smiled, stroking Mincinno's head.
"Though he was gone and we lost our primary source of income…It was probably the happiest two years of my life. We were poor, Hilda. Dirt poor. I used to sneak out at night to steal change from the fountain in our town because I thought I was helping my mom… Then I started making bets with kids at school for lunch money and allowance money. I never, ever made a bet I didn't think I could win. Until, of course, I made our current bet."
"We're at day one-fifty-one. I made it past the halfway point…"
"Not many managed to do that. But I think you might be the first who I'm actually scared of loosing too."
He shot her a smile. Hilda grinned herself.
"Got a little cocky, didn't ya?"
"Maybe a bit."
There was something… almost warming to this tiny bit of humorous interaction between his depressing monologue. It certainly made things much, much easier had it been absent.
"Looks like that's something else we have in common, as begrudging as it is to admit it." Hilda crossed her arms. "I used to challenge kids with my Eevee when I was in school to make money for my mom. I would challenge every single brat… I thought I was the coolest little brat, bringing home about ten dollars in change…" she laughed under her breath, meeting his gaze. "I was like eight when I found out that they held official tournaments with big, big prizes. Like, I think the grand prize for the first one was two hundred and fifty dollars? I went through a week long training with Eevee to toughen us up for the fight, but when it actually came down to it, you had to at least be twelve to qualify. I was so pissed."
"Mai and I would pass time counting my fountain collection." Black also chuckled. "But she always got confused with some coins, so she would just tell me she had seven dollars, even if she only had two coins. Always seven dollars. I ended up counting it all for her later, but it made her so happy, thinking she was helping..."
"So what happened?" Hilda finally asked the big question. "Your Dad left, and despite your problems, the three of you seemed happy…"
"Well, they say peace never lasts for a long time, and it didn't. My father suddenly knocked on the door one day. I don't know how he found us, since we moved into this extremely small… almost a shack. I answered it, because Mom was doing some schoolwork with Mai. I think every single bit of joy, peace, maybe even positivity shriveled up on the spot when I met his gaze. So I slammed the door in his face."
He saw Hilda grin at that. He smiled to himself, bowing his head. He figured she would've gotten a kick out of that, probably because Hilda would've done the same thing.
"Of course, he didn't just go away. He began pounding on the door until eventually Mom had to go and answer. He tried being cordial, but just kinda… demanded me or Mai."
"You or Mai?" Hilda echoed. "Not you and Mai?"
"He only wanted one of us."
"Why?"
"I'll get to that in a minute." Black waved it off. "Anyways, he threatened my mom. It was either one of us, or he was going to get both of us through legal means. And as much as I hate to admit it… he could. Easily. At that time, I was nine-ish and Mai was five. We couldn't choose to stay with our Mom, and we were living in squalor. No money, barely enough food, barely paying bills… Even though my mom had government support, she just… couldn't keep up. And I remember mom receiving those papers… and she just cried over them because there was nothing she could do."
His voice started to shake a little at the memory. He's seen, felt, and been through a lot, but he wasn't quite sure why this simple memory of seeing his mother crying over official divorce papers and a court date tore him up so much. He wished he could explain it, but he just… didn't know how."
"And I remember sneaking back into that tiny little room I shared with Mai, knowing my Mom would be sleeping on the couch… and I remember this was one of the nights Mai actually fell asleep. She was to scared to even sleep anymore, so usually she was awake, just staring at the ceiling… and I just… felt like I needed to keep them safe."
"So you went to live with your Dad?"
"Not overnight, but eventually… I wished I had handled it differently. I was such a little brat… but my stupid kid head figured if I could get Mai and Mom to hate me enough, then they'd be happy to see me go. Make the choice easier on our mother, you know? So I acted out. I broke stuff, I screamed, threw tantrums, didn't help at all, started fighting at school, and always, always fought with my Mom."
"Touya, please! Why are you acting like this…?! What happened? Is it school? Is it your father? Is it me? Please, just talk to me, Touya…!"
"But she never stopped loving me… She blamed herself. And while I was acting like an asshole, she was fighting tooth and nail against father for me. And then, just before my tenth birthday… she just ran out of money."
At that, his voice cracked, and he bowed his head, crying again. Hilda placed a hand on his shoulder, squeezing in order to reaffirm that she was still there. Black… he found himself thankful for that. At this point, it felt like Hilda was the only thing really keeping him grounded. Even still, it didn't stop the flood of words coming out of his mouth.
"There was nothing left, and she had to agree to my fathers terms, because I have no doubt he would have stretched this on forever and ever. So when the lawyers mediating the custody battle asked who was going to live with who, I jumped up and said that I was going with Dad. I just wanted it to be over… I just wanted my Mom to stop looking so sad. So she signed off on her custody of me, and I went to live with father. The last thing I remember is her just crying as she was trying to explain to Mai that I was leaving… And I haven't had contact with them since."
"… I knew that, but why?" Hilda sounded a little confused by that, dropping her hand. "Does it have to do with why your father only wanted one of you?"
"Yes." Black nodded once. "And it has to do with why I don't use my real name in public… Though I suppose that doesn't matter anymore, huh?"
"Well, no need to hold back." Hilda settled against the wall. "I'm listening."
"My father dedicated his life to unraveling Team Plasma. He would do anything to stop it. As turns out, Hilda, Team Plasma is much worse than just a group of activists."
"Well, duh." Hilda rolled her eyes. "Shall I reference exhibit 'kidnapping Bianca for steel' or exhibit 'electrocuting Vale to near death'?"
"Yeah…" Black leaned back against the rock as well, staring up at the ceiling of the cavern. A bunch of the floating rocks had actually gathered towards the top, shining with electric blue, casting light over the stoney walls. "Team Plasma is an organization that has been found connected to numerous crimes globally. Kidnappings, illegal research testing, murders, attempted murders, taking environmental risks and dangers, poaching… There's so much. To much to explain. Hilda, you're aware of why there are age restrictions region by region, right? All the DNA requirements to get your license?"
"Yeah, everyone knows why. The kidnappings that happened almost fifteen years ago. Or at least, that was the catalyst of it… I think around that time, a lot of newbie trainers became victims of terrible crimes because they were easy targets, but mostly everyone cites the kidnappings because of Leaf Green and her missing sister."
"Right, well, the international police has evidence that Team Plasma is responsible for a couple of those kidnappings, supposedly of children with special abilities."
"… Like being able to talk to pokémon?" Hilda muttered under her breath. Black raised an eyebrow in surprise.
"Well, yes, I would suppose so. There were others too. A girl with healing abilities, a girl who can see visions of the past, some boys who are able to jump in and out of shadows… All sorts of strange things. But what my father was most interested in," Black inhaled, exhaled, then continued. "Was a child whom was rumored to be a 'force of destruction'."
"… How?"
"We couldn't get much information about the child from the spies we had infiltrating the organization because it was so well under wraps. Ghetsis, the leader… he didn't want a single soul to know about this child, probably because whatever they went through was so wildly out of human bounds of morality and ethics that it would make him appear as nothing short of a monster. But from what we understand, this child was brought into the organization when it was just four years old, and during their time there, it was relentlessly trained to destroy everything. It's strength, physically, mentally, and battle-wise is unmatched. It is hardwired to destroy anything, given the order from the leader. And the scary part of it was, well, it would and could. There was evidence of the strength… our spies said that should this "weapon of destruction" turn on anyone, there would be no stopping it short of killing it, and even then it might take a fight…"
"And you're saying this… thing is human?"
"Yes, it was a human child. We cannot determine if the child was male of female though, because there was a child of each gender in his…" he trailed off, trying to think of the right word. Custody was definitely wrong, care was not the right word at all…
"Grubby asshole hands?" Hilda threw out.
"Yes." Black said, slightly humored with this. "One female, one male. We're not sure who was this 'destructive force' or perhaps both were being trained to be as such. However, we are aware one escaped and the other didn't, so whomever was left behind either continued training or picked up where their… counterpart left off."
"Okay… so what does this have to do with you?"
"My father, upon finding out about this force of destruction, thought the best way to fight it… was to make his own. Fight fire with fire, so to speak." he said this flippantly, but kept his gaze averted. "My father referred to it as his… pet project. He took funds out of creating tracking devices to be distributed to trainers so it was easier to find them, to create… me. To create Agent Pitch Black."
To prove his point, he pulled out his ID card, now useless. Hilda took it curiously, staring at it. The picture was from two years ago, but otherwise was the same. His full name, birthday, and codename… as well as his occupation. In truth, there wasn't an occupation or title for him. So under his code name was a title unique to him; Specialized Agent of Dominic Burns.
"My father told me that I had a lot of catching up to do… so at ten years old, it started."
"What the hell is 'it'?" Hilda asked. There seemed to be a bit of a tremble to her voice.
"… My father called it training."
"Black," Hilda met his gaze, insisting. "What the hell was this training?"
A pin could have dropped, it was so quiet. Black's leg began bouncing at a more rapid rate.
"… My father put me through a lot. But I think what I hated the most was the physical parts of training. The mental stuff was fine, learning to sneak and the gymnastics was fun. But I had to be indestructible…" he finally met her gaze with a self-deprecating smile. "You'd be surprised what the human body learns to adapt itself too. Extreme heat, extreme cold, electricity, poisons… I'm pretty sure he fried most of my nerve endings, I just don't feel pain anymore. If I were to start bleeding, I wouldn't know it. Like when I was in that crate, Hilda, I didn't even know I messed up my fingers that badly."
"You were missing fingernails, Black." Hilda looked positively sick. "How do you not feel that?"
"I just… didn't feel it." Black shrugged, staring at his still gauzed hands, and turning them over. "… I'm mostly immune to poisons. I don't feel the hot or the cold… I used to feel pain, a lot of it. But I guess just one day…"
"One day what?"
He didn't remember what caused him to collapse, but something did. His father was not pleased the he fell. So dragging him by his shirt, limbs against the ground, he threw him back in his room and just let him fester and lay there. Black just stared at the wall.
He was sad. He was in pain. He was tired.
"… I think I heard a sound like a snap, and just never felt pain again."
Then, Hilda did something he didn't quite expect. She grabbed his hand, squeezing it tightly.
"Black, what the fuck? What the fuck?"
Black felt his heart skip a beat. Was Hilda crying…?
"Why?" he finally asked under his breath.
"Why what?" Hilda asked through sniffles. Her head was bowed. She didn't want to meet his gaze when she cried.
"It has been exactly one hundred and fifty one days since I met you, yet I've seen you cry more in the last week than I have over the course of those days. And every time you start crying, it's because of me…"
"You dumbass!" Hilda snapped her head up, shouting at him. "I'm not crying because of you, I'm crying for you!"
"What…?"
"Do you not understand how fucking fucked what happened to you was?"
"I understand it's not normal, but-"
"Black." she suddenly grabbed his face, forcing him to look her in the eye. "Tell me right now, are you bullshitting me at all? Look me in the eye and answer yes or no. Please…"
Hilda's voice trailed off, almost as if she was begging him to answer something different. At this point, he figured, Hilda would poke through any lie or act, and it would just aggravate or upset her more. He wasn't sure what she was searching for, but irregardless, he knew how he had to answer.
"No, Hilda. I didn't lie about a word."
Black was pretty certain he never saw a persons expression crumble so fast. Tears welled around her eyes and fell at a faster rate.
"What the fuck?" she seemed to be asking no one in particular. "What the fuck? What the fuck? What the fuck?"
Black wasn't sure if he was expected to answer her or not, but he did wrap his arms around her. Seeing Hilda cry just… bothered him. It was like seeing a legendary pokémon cowering. Someone as strong and loud as her shouldn't be crying, especially not for the likes of him.
"My father fired me today." Black finally answered the question that he knew Hilda still wanted an answer to. "He fired me because I compromised the mission by letting Team Plasma learn my real name. I failed my mission Hilda. I learned that, without my status as an agent, I was useless. Worthless. So there was no point in me continuing on if I didn't have my job… The one thing that I thought made my life somewhat worthwhile."
Hilda muttered something into his jacket. He pulled back a bit, not quite catching it.
"What was that, Hilda?"
"Prove him wrong." she hissed under her breath, snapping her gaze to meet his. "You made it this far, Black! Don't start quittin' on me now! You and I have the same end goal, to end Team Plasma!"
She grabbed his left hand in her right, almost like she was preparing to arm-wrestle him in mid air.
"You need to do this, if not to shove it up his ass, then to get closure for all this shit. And I'll help you because I guess my new side-hobby is kicking Team Plasma's ass. We need to rip apart their ideal world they're trying to shove down our throats, show them the truth! And we're gonna do it together! You help me, I'll help you, got it?!"
Black just blinked at her for a moment. He never thought, on the first day he met Hilda, with her thorns and words sharp as knives, would be sitting here declaring they were going to do… anything together.
"Touya Kazama-Burns, you listen up and listen up good!" Hilda suddenly stood, tears still around her eyes, though she quickly wiped them away on her sleeve. She pointed in his face, continuing. "You have one hundred and forty nine days left of your current bet! I will raise the stakes!"
"Raise the stakes?" Black echoed, a grin playing at his lips.
"Your current rules still stand… But here's my two cents. We destroy Team Plasma in that time period."
"And if we don't?"
"I think we both have bigger things to worry about than what would happen if we don't."
"And what happens if we do?"
"Then we move on, and find your sister and your mom, together."
Black fell silent at that. He hadn't had contact with his mother or Mai since he left. Of course, at one point, when he was about fifteen, he called their old phone number, but a young sounding guy answered it. Probably some new family who moved in, trying to make the best of their meager beginnings.
"Are you sure you're up for that?" Black shot her a good-humored smirk. "It's been about eight years since I last saw them. I have no clue where they are now… Might take longer than that year to track them down… Are you ready to uphold that end of the deal?"
"Hey, I've gotta find some way to motivate you." Hilda suddenly grinned back at him, holding out her hand.
"Even if it means traveling with, oh, what was it you used to describe me? I believe it was 'unbearable asswipe'?"
"Hey, give me credit! I was handcuffed in a room with Ghetsis for about fifteen minutes. If I could live through that, pretty sure I can deal with a bit more time with you."
"You don't say…" Black's gaze trailed away from hers, quietly contemplating.
"Hey, Black." he glanced up at the sincerity in her voice. "It's not fair, what happened to you… and you probably know that. But I personally think that it's bullshit that your dad just tossed you like you were nothing… 'cause you aren't. We've come this far together, even if it was under the excuse of a stupid bet. So we're gonna prove him wrong, and I promise you, I'll help you find your family. It's time for a new page… I don't do well with words, always been more of an action type of gal…"
She flexed her fingers slightly, as if gesturing for him to take her hand. Black just stared at her hand, slowly trailing up to her face.
"Let me prove it."
Deep down, I always knew I was a terrible person… my own mind doesn't miss a beat to remind me of that. Constant, every day… Nothing was ever good enough, it felt like.
I've created a fortress to keep me safe, lies piled as high as bricks on a wall, to hide each consecutive failure and each moment of weakness. I will never escape the mistakes I made or the choices I made or how I've hurt other people all for my own gains.
But even still…
"It's time for a new page… no, a new book." Hilda said, gripping his hand. He had expected her to be rough, or to squeeze it tightly like she had something to prove, but she was… uncharacteristically gentle. Pulling him up, she held up his agent ID, his code name still brazened proudly on it. "Lets close the story of Agent Pitch Black once and for all."
Black took that ID. He remembered when his father gave it to him. He was so proud, so happy to finally have it in his grasp, like all his work, like his whole life finally meant something. He was the only one with this title, but looking at it now… "Specialized Agent of Dominic Burns" just made it feel like he was a disposable item that his father owned. It may as well have said "Property of Dominic Burns", for all he and his position was apparently worth.
With the visor of his cap shading his eyes, Black threw that ID like it was a frisbee, the little piece of plastic spinning through the air and over the edge of the very canyon he had tried to walk off before.
"Now see!" Hilda slapped him on the back, grinning. "Isn't that a lot better then taking a long walk off a short bridge?"
There was humor in her voice. For Hilda White, it was always so easy to just move on to the next goal. He would always be hung up on every mistake, on every way to make things better… But today, he smiled back at her.
I took your hand today, Hilda, because no one ever gave me a chance before. You were the first one to make me a promise that I actually thought I could believe. As long as you keep holding that hand out… I'll hold onto it. I'll keep reaching, over and over again…
"So, uh… should I call you Touya now, or…?"
"Are you gonna care to follow it either way?"
"I'm trying to be respectful here!" she snapped back, hands on her hips. "I don't wanna call you 'Black', and then have you get all twisted about your asshole father!"
"No…" he trailed off, staring ahead at the place where Agent Pitch Black had died. "Black is fine."
"… You sure?" she sounded uncertain.
"I'm sure." he reached over, grabbing the brim of her own cap, and yanked it down a bit. "I feel like I'm talking to my Mom whenever someone calls me Touya. Black is fine."
"Hey! Black, you asswipe!" she exclaimed, shoving her hat back on her head with a look of righteous fury on her face. He had already walked away to start setting up camp. It's been to long of a day, and for now, he just wanted to take a nap. "Here I am trying to be respectful, but you're over here being a disrespectful little shit…"
When I would walk the halls of the international police, people always referred to me as Pitch or Pitch Black. It was only when I came to Unova that I adopted the name 'Black'. At the time, it was convenient, and I was prepared to drop it alongside so many other psydonyms.
But now, the name is important to me. Because it was you who yelled, screamed, cried, and laughed out that name, Black.
Agent Pitch Black is gone. Touya Kazama-Burns is also dead. Today marks a new day, something new being born from the old.
It is time for the story of Black Kazama to begin.
o.0.o.0.o
So it is March 24th when I finished this, and I did not test positive for the virus. So yay!
But hot damned, this was way longer than I wanted it to be. Twenty pages long? Like that was not in the original plan at all, but count this as an "official" turning point for Black and Hilda. I think from this point on, their relationship is going to go from being less of a "trying to piss one another off" to actually being… maybe fluffy? As fluffy as Hilda can be? IDK.
Irregardless, reviewers, stay safe and clean out there and enjoy the chapter!
Amy47101 signing off! ^.^
