Part 7: The Grove

Chapter 54: Intermission (2)

Cruce and Vay got some hots for each other, but also Alli is pissy with Cruce and there's drama.

Character interactions, ahoy.

I don't own Pokémon.


Cruce

I wasn't sure when, but some time after I looked through the backpack, I saw Al wearing it. I knew I was dreaming, but I wanted to see everything I could about this dream. Even If my subconscious told me that dreams were a distraction and blocked me out from them, I forced my way through, and it ended up showing me Al, clad in his jacket, donning his backpack, and walking away from us. I didn't know who – I had an identity in the dream and it was 'us'. I didn't get to see Al's face, just his neatly trimmed blond hair.

A groggy, nauseated conscious, scents, hazy sights, and noisy murmurs – all of this input told me that I was waking up or being woken up. How long did I sleep? Where was I sleeping again? For as brief as the tranquility was, I had honestly felt like I'd forgotten how detached I had become from the rest of the world. It wasn't the first time. All those, er, 'nights', huddled up to Vay, I awoke the next day expecting a bright sun and a snugly partner, and sure, I had those, but they were the wrong shape and color.

Where was I, I thought again. I felt gross. My nose felt hot and wet, but every other part of me was cold. Was I getting sick? No, I always felt this way now. I was a Flux, but I was still okay. I opened my eyes – even before they were open, I could see, like some other part of my face owned a functioning eye or two. Just, they couldn't see all too well.

Flicking firelight, orange glow, bouncing shadows. Wooden walls, clutter, lockers, furniture, scent of dust and pollen; a lived-in space that I never knew until now and some 'now' before now was... the tree. I fell asleep there. Of course I did. I had a fuzzy blanket over the fuzzy body that was still here – it didn't heal up over that short rest. I was in perfect health already, and this was what perfect health looked like. Maybe sans the Flux.

I was hugging both of my tails together, laying on my side, having cast the pillow away and decided it best putting those tails under my head served that purpose much more nicely. I let the tails go and blinked to adjust to the light. I closed my eyes again, letting the fuzzy vision instead guide me. It didn't hurt – like, it still felt nice to keep my eyes closed and free from the gentle sting of the air, but I could see while doing it now. I didn't know how to feel about it. What I could see was a figure about my size and stature – maybe somewhat stockier – walking toward me on stubbier legs. He'd called my name twice, once calmly, once interrogatively. He smelled of flowers, but that of a particular type I didn't know.

"Cruce, up you get," he said again, but with a stricter tone – something parental. "Let's go."

My head was heavy and pounding. My body had only just registered that I was sore all over, especially in my feet. I got up and sat on my butt and tails so I wouldn't topple back and pass out again.

"Mnnhnm..." I groaned, trying to make my mouth create words. Failed. I tried again. "Mmnuh?"

Failure.

"I know, I know," his voice came closer. I focused on him, eyes still shut tight, but I was getting details. He was actually smaller than me, round head, round ears, round body, round... flaps under his arms, and a really neat looking zappy tail... thing. He had patches on his cheeks, too. "You can go back to sleep after this. Maybe. We'll see what happens."

Huh? Was something the matter, I wondered. I let my real eyes open up softly, a layer of fuzzy film peeled away from my 'closed-eye' vision, making everything as lucid as could be, and somehow even more when I opened my eyes all the way.

Puny paws on hips, he was standing near my pile of bed commodities, looking down at me like I had done something wrong. But I was okay. He spoke like it was okay for me to be here.

I was up, but I wasn't happy about it. Having let it sink in, I'd only gotten what felt like an hour of sleep. Give or take. Since 'time' was on vacation, I had to wonder if I had slept at all. I wasn't familiar with this body, so I couldn't say that I knew how much sleep my body needed. Maybe I needed less, actually. In that time spent with Vay, we didn't sleep for long periods, but that was because we had to be on the move. Well, I would've had time (or something) to analyze myself later and really get my bearings.

I sat atop my blanket, legs crossed, body waving to and fro like it hated me for denying it the shut-eye it deserved. Young was here now, walking back and forth with papers in his paws, moving folders and packets from one pile of clutter to another, a bluish gray filing cabinet at the forefront of the clutter near an operating computer. I didn't know what he was doing. I didn't really care. He was talking to me all the while.

"Cruce Maximilius," he started. "You're a kid with some heavy files, y'know."

Kid? Who was this little Pokémon calling a kid when he was smaller than me? Weeell, wait, he was the leader of the Grove. I didn't need to argue with him about age. Probably'd've beaten my nuts in, if I still had any. I was just tired. Kind of hangry, too. Not a lot of food around.

"You're supposed to be asleep in the hospital." he said.

"I wish I was..." said my tired self, while at one point I remembered hoping I would never fall asleep again. Once that came to fruition, I rubbed my eyes, felt my chest seize up, and I coughed. "N-no, wait, I don't. I... I don't."

I didn't want to go back to sleep now. I could hear ringing in my ears. When I shuffled, I could hear ringing beneath my chin. My bell – I should've stayed awake. I didn't need to sleep anymore. Not without somebody to wake me up.

"Thank you." I told Young. He might not have known why.

"Mm," he grunted. Familiar gesture, I thought. "That bell you're wearing caught me by surprise. I was stuck looking at it for a while before I could say a thing. Reports suggest that it was also worn by Edge."

The next time he turned to face me, I found that he had markings beneath both of his eyes. Just then, I caught a metallic scent. I pinched it somehow, held onto it, and considered it, and then it was gone. He looked away.

"E-... Uh, Edge?" I asked, just to move away from the thought.

"Was kind of hoping that Champion boy would've told you some things," he sulked. "Tha's fine. Sorry. I'm pressed for time."

It seemed that way, I thought. Though, after going back and forth between spots in the room and taking care of business, he slowed down, took a breath, and came up to me, picking up the pillow that I had abandoned and leaning it up against the couch by my side, before he sat into it, took another breath, and forced a smile at me. I felt the muscles in my chest and hips lose tension. I forgot about my fear of sleep.

"You know, you shouldn't have run off from Paige and Caden. You might've been able to stay human and..." he looked to the floor. "We might've had a cure for the transformations. Just a thought."

"Paige saaa..." I yawned, ears folding back for a moment. "Sorry, uhm; Paige said I wouldn't be welcomed."

"The girl's not good with humans anymore. She saw them do all sorts of bad things. Surprised she even trusts me, but that's a different story," he explained. He looked at me with those tear-marked eyes. "It's not your fault. You poor damn thing – you woke up and had nothing. No idea what happened. No... clue. Not one."

He froze, searching for more ways to tell me how clueless I was. He closed his mouth.

"I want to know everything." he suddenly said, smiling bleeding off of his face.

"Uh...?" I mumbled.

"You're going to tell me everything," he commanded, the former gentleness now a memory. "I've waited too long. I need to know everything about you: where you come from, the state of your family, what woke you up."

"I-I don't..." I chirped, raising my shoulders and rubbing the back of my aching head.

"I need to know where you went. I need to know what you did with that Champion. Who did you meet? Where did you Trip to? I KNOW you Tripped – No. Not now." he suddenly stopped me – he saw my mouth open to try and stop HIM, but he was that fast. There was a paw hovering inches from my mouth. It was his. He even shushed me, once harshly, twice quietly, almost relaxing.

I asked him a question with only my eyes, and given the black markings underneath his, he should have understood me loud and clear. We both spoke a lick of that language – in this case, a blink of it.

"You're still tired, and I'm not going to interrogate a sleepy child. I'm above that," he claimed. Well, he sure was comforting. "Stanley told me you needed a better place to sleep, and..."

Another pause. What was it this time?

"We're out of tents," he simply said, blasé and stony. "But... but..."

"Is there, like, any-" I squeaked when his gaze met mine again. Goddamn, his eyes were sharp for being little beads. They skewered me like an arrow.

"Mm," he grunted at my silence. "I know you have friends here – one of them is... getting popular around the Grove. I'd think it best if you asked to share a space with her, but she's... not in a good condition now."

"What happened? Wh-who is this? Alli?" I asked. It had to be Alli. I could see it behind Young's face.

"That's her. You catch on quick. I like that," he smiled again. "Go meet with her. When you leave the tree, take a hard right and keep going straight. One of those tents are hers. You'll run into other people – important people. Make friends with them, alright? You've done a good job of that with... Rinavay. Whatever his name is."

Young sighed, leaving the image of Vay stuck inside my head. Vay, and that jeweled girl who used to be Atti.

"You kids are gonna end up being our last hope." he said, damp with melancholy.

I wanted to ask what he meant by it, but I thought it best to dodge any questions that wasted his time. My guts tightened when I depicted a world with 'us kids' and nobody else. Who did he mean? Me and Al? Vay and the other Champions? I couldn't live in that kind of world. The things that made me Cruce were the people I'd grown up around and cherished, and the people I'd lost. Had I lost so many people all at once, 'Cruce' was going to look a lot different in the near future.

But that was the point, wasn't it?

I was out of the tree and on my way across the Grove to some tents about a hundred yards forward. I didn't have Al's backpack with me, since it was more suited for somebody actually bigger than it. I did have that blanket though – I loved this thing. It was small enough for me to fold up and hug against my chest while I walked, ready to move in to my new place with nothing but this and the Bell – not even the clothes on my back. Not even my back. I walked right by a few other folks' places. Some were around, some weren't. Derrick gave me a wave by his own tiny tent. Ericka wasn't with him. I was kinda grateful, since it seemed like they owned two totally different personalities and she was the crazy one. Derrick was the quiet one.

I sniffed into the blanket. It still smelled unfamiliar and I wanted to correct that. It masked all the other scents of the Grove while it was so close to my face, blocking my mouth. Looking over the blanket like it was the only thing I had to cling to while watching a horror movie, I could see the pairing of tents get closer and closer. A tiny creek actually separated me from the two, and I had to wonder if I'd gone too far. I stopped at the bank – well, it wasn't so much of a bank, but more of a muddy ledge. I didn't want to get dirty. There were a few stones dotted around the flowing water, but my legs were tiny. Jumping that with a blanket didn't seem like a good idea. I bit the bullet and went in. The water was shallow, but colder than the look Young gave me when he said he wanted to know my life story. I shut my eyes and pranced through it, little splashes trickling up to my legs and my waist.

"Cold, cold, cold, cold!" I chattered over the jingling of the bell, before biting into the blanket with my front teeth.

I took some number of steps before one of them disagreed with me. I kicked against something harder than just mud or vegetation. A pulse of pain shocked me from the foot up, shaking my whole leg with icy soreness. I couldn't tell if the cold was taking away from the pain or adding to it. More icy chill struck my face, as I toppled forward, the fibers of the blanket moving in fast to greet my face with a thump and a little ring, courtesy of the bell.

I fell. I tripped and I fell. I told myself that a few times as I lay there face-first in the blanket, breaths heating my face back up. I wasn't pulling in much oxygen, so I could only enjoy the warmth for a little bit. My leg was still hurting. Was the blanket all ruined and wet now, I wondered. The sound of the rushing water was behind me. Did I make it?

"Pfff," somebody scoffed at me. I hoped they enjoyed watching all that. Not like I could've used any help or anything. I just stayed in that spot. I could smell them approaching. It was Vay. "I can't let you do anything on your own."

Something bit into my neck. It hurt, but only for an instant, and then the pressure was gone. The skin on my neck felt tighter, and then it hurt again. I was being dragged somewhere – no, I was being lifted. I clung to my blanket, letting it drift back down over my mouth so I could see the ground getting further from my face. I was put to my feet. My left leg hurt, but it was okay to stand on. I was still.

Three warm, wet laps combed across the fur between my ears. I let my ears down, and three became three more, followed by a gentle smack of the lips, a puff of warm breath from mouth and nose drifting into my skin. I tried to look up, but Vay's head was over mine, so I gave up and let it happen. Somewhere out of the corner of my eyes, I saw his leafy tail flick around me. The warmth of his whole body stood behind me, both of his larger forelegs putting my body between them. My whole waistline tingled with a sinful desire. Twofold. One of the sensations was so familiar that I felt my right hand clench up instinctively. The other was alien, divine, forsaken, and in a region that challenged me to search. It all felt so wrong right now. It all felt so filthy.

"And why am I totally okay with this?" I asked both him and myself through the blanket. Honestly, man, any other guy but Tophs I would've just shoved off'a me, and even Tophs got that treatment from time to time.

"Flopping over like a dummy or having to depend on me for everything?" he asked, topping it with soft, moist nibble against my right ear. I flicked the other one thinking I could bait him out of biting me. My heart fluttered.

"Sounds like you want me around more often." I told him, pulling my face from the blanket and forcing his head up a little.

"Tch," he scoffed again, moving his head away and walking to my side, tail still coiled around me, keeping me from leaving. "I've not had nobody but you 'round, Cheeks. Ain't nobody else want me around, either way."

"What'cha mean? You talked with that other Champion, didn't you?" I recalled.

"Who, Diancie? Sure, we talked," he said, letting his tail leave me. I faced him. A little bit of heat had been restored to his face, but he didn't look a whole lot better than how I'd seen him off. His cheeks were still sagging with regret, eyes milkier, with less shine. "Don't worry. Ain't nothin' you can do. You did miss a damn good show, though."

"Uh-oh. Drama?" I ventured.

"Nah-ah, not really," he shook his head, then looked high. "Big 'splosion in the sky. You're on your way to the people responsible for it."

I looked wherever he was looking. Nothing special about the sky – actually, hold up. It was less cloudy. I remembered the clouds were completely still, so something cleared them? There was so much more red up there than the last time I looked. Did this explosion have anything to do with why Young was all over the place, I wondered. Vay didn't seem as bothered by it as he was by Diancie.

"C'mon," he prompted me, walking ahead like and taking lead like he loved to do. "Those people wanna see you."

"Oh, okay?" I mumbled, blinking. He was headed for the tent on the left. It was speckled with tears and wrinkles, while the other beside it was picture perfect – like something you would might've seen in a camping brochure. I shook my legs dry, reminded of the sting of kicking that damn rock, before following.

Vay appeared tentative. He was standing outside the tent. Voices could be heard within, primarily female, with a single boy's voice in there. It seemed pretty crowded. Even through the fibers of the the tent, I smelled at least two scents I had only come into contact with once or twice, and one scent I had nothing on. It was ashy, yet somewhat mildewy. Those two came together to create something muddy and somehow pleasant, despite what... 'mildewy' may have suggested. Blech.

Vay didn't want to go in there. He was scared. That face looked more like it belonged to his eevee self than his big boy leafeon form. It was cute, but horrible, like something was pulling him down to that Flux state, afraid of everything, running from those... 'faces', he'd always described as looking somewhat like his sister. He gave me his eyes and they spoke. They told me he couldn't hold my paw for this one. They told me that I was alone here, but only for as long as they were willing to accept me. I assumed one of them was Alli, who punched Vay in the face back there. He wasn't afraid of her, though. He was afraid of somebody else. Somebody in there, the bulges in the tent outlining the shape of somebody sitting against its wall.

The entryway flap stirred. Somebody was pulling the zipper. Seconds later, the flap came forward. It hit the grass, and I had a flashback from the base of the hollow tree, just a hundred times more cramped. So many colorful, different faces were looking Vay and I back. Each individual one of them carried a mixed bag of looks for us. The most emotional of them all came from that Fluxed girl sitting in the back, blankets piling around her, creating cover of sorts. That girl had the Crossblade, too. She was looking directly at Vay, shaking, with eyes so wide it looked like it hurt for her eye sockets. All... three of them, the eye on her forehead half-concealed by a badly damaged cloak. Was she this mutated when I saw her before?

Vay sighed loudly through his nose and walked away. I watched him go, feeling the pressure of all those eyes on my left cheek. His head was low, as he left me to the crowd. Diancie was over yonder at the other end of the Grove, waiting for him with her arms crossed. Was she watching us? Was she not done with him? Was he not allowed in this tent?

I looked back to the group. Jirachi was here. Caden was here. Rayse, I imagined, was the scared girl in the back. That skywisp was laying in the middle of it all, a bandage around her neck. She was laying on her back, watching me with skepticism more loud and colorful than her sky blue scales should have been. She looked beaten. She was Al.

One of these faces was only familiar because I knew the Pokémon she was, but I didn't ever remember them standing on two legs like that – well, she was sitting, but it sure looked like she could stand up as well as I was doing, if not better since my feet felt sore as shit and I tended to trip over things. Mudkip, right?

So I... I guess I can go in?

I took a step...

I was sitting next to Patricia and Rayse, shoulders touching both girls. Tight fit, but we were all here because of Al, or Alli now. She was hurt, and, well, Vay was right. I missed a show.

"I can't believe it," Patty said. She was talking at me. "You're... just awake and here all of a sudden."

The words stung like hot coffee. They woke me up all the same, contrasting the cold that kept me on my feet earlier. I wanted to say something back, but my tongue felt burnt. I hugged my blankets. I was pathetic.

"I heard Edge wanted to use you to beat Laza." said Caden. Those words didn't burn, since they didn't have any meaning to me. I raised a brow at the orange kid.

"Er... Aza, Caden," Rayse corrected. "Brudder's name is Aza. Laza isn't who you think."

"Huh? But who's Laza?" he asked.

"Laza was somebody who mimicked Brudder Aza. Her real name is Luna. I think she's lost in the Paradox. She's also got something big to do with the Crossblade," Rayse explained, much less alarmed to vocalize her thoughts now that Vay was gone. "Now that we have the Bell, we can go to the Paradox and save her and Aza, but..."

Rayse was looking right at my bell.

Hold up, what? Is this thing so special that the Champions need it?! I mean, no shit, Vay wanted me to hold onto it and the guy hardly lets me out of his sight.

What is this thing? Why is it... what it is?

And that mention of Luna. It'd have to be the same Luna from Topher's storybook.

I kinda get it now, I wanted to say, if I wasn't so outspoken.

"We're not gonna get far if we don't have Secany, and I think Vay's... I-I don't want to go yet. We need everyone at their best." Rayse continued.

"Uhm, we need everyone here, don't we?" Jirachi queried. "We're still missing so many Champions. Plus, I don't think Gamma's spread far enough for us to remember very much. I'm still so hazy... everything's fuzzy when I try to think back."

Caden looked like he wanted to interject. He put his hand up, then back down, proceeding to cross his arms and frown.

"Gosh, I was hoping we could get your memories back, but we still have to work on that, too." Patty commented.

"And now we gotta fix Alli. I'll feel so much better if she feels good, too. She's my wispy, after all," Rayse chirped, lowering herself to Alli and poking her white belly with a red-tinted paw. She squirmed, then wheezed out a squeak. "My mute wispy..."

"Al? You can't talk anymore?" I asked, leaning in. She looked at me, at first with innocence, then with a glare, and looked away. I felt some serious animosity crawl underneath me, shake my spine, and strike me as speechless as her.

"That would be my fault. If Emi were here, she'd ream me, and-"

"Nooo, Pat, it's okay," Jirachi interrupted, pointing to Alli as she shook her head and smiled to Patty. "Look, Alli says it's okay! She knows you didn't mean to."

What happened out there between them, I thought? They must've bonded over some real rough times. So, did Alli get muted by Pat? I thought something happened between her and Jirachi's Crossblade. Was it okay for Pat and Jirachi to do that and NOT okay for me to come back to my hometown and check on my friends?

That's not how Al sees it. Al must think I abandoned him. Him, and the Circle.

It just wasn't in my power. I can tell Al that, but he won't care. He's stubborn. And now, he can't even tell me how he feels. He doesn't need to, though.

Besides, Patty seems okay with me. Rayse seems fine with me, despite me being so close to a brother she... kind of hates?

I still don't feel welcome here.

"I know a way to make Alli all better," Caden said. "Mari's weapon thingy can heal him. She calls it her Symbi."

That other skywisp Vay fought off had a Symbi. I didn't think her name was Mari. Vay was trying to protect me, but I wish I had a moment to talk with the skywisp. Maybe there was a misunderstanding.

"That's right! Oh, you're so right," Rayse exclaimed. "If there aren't any bad side effects, we should try that. What do you think, Alli-buns?"

Alli looked at Rayse, a little black-scaled hand over her throat. She rubbed it lightly and shut her eyes all the while, nodding. Seeing her this way made my heart sink so low that it felt like my stomach was eating it alive. Her eyes had so much color – the color the sun should've been. It was such a shame that the only voice she had came out of them and not her mouth.

"Okay, we need to find Mari?" Patty asked. "I'll come with whoever wants to do that. I'm obligated to help Alli. None of you may agree, but I feel I am personally responsible for what Cryhex did to her, so it's in my name."

"Mmgh, Patsy," Jirachi groaned, folding her little hands together. "Anywhere you go, I'll be right with you."

"Naturally! I guess it's time you and I made a difference for people in need." Patty said.

"Oh, of course," Jirachi cheered meekly. "No more Delta Meadow to chain us down."

"Nuuu, but'chu'll have me instead," Rayse chirped, sticking her tongue out and winking. "I got errands that need'ta be done, don't'cha know? For mine and Alli's sake – oh, and yours too, Jira."

"That's right. We're both related to Zatch in some way. What exactly can we do in that regard, Rayse?" the star-headed Champion asked.

"Gee, I'm not so sure anymore. At first, Alli and I wanted to look for Xima. I think we still should. I'm still trying to find Secany too, but my biggest and baddest master plan was to get rid of this nasty Crossblade once and for ever-ever; though, if it helps us fight off the Flux better, maybe it's good to have around... even if it's just for a liiiittle while." Rayse explained.

That's right. Vay told me about this. About Rayse and Zatch.

"Uhh... Rayse?" I started. Suddenly, it all went my way – all the attention and the demand for answers. It wasn't as subtle as I'd hoped.

"Uh-huh...?" she mewed, weary.

"Vay told me that you went from being Zatch Hummings to who you are now." I said.

"I'm Zatch, but I had a makeover," she asserted. "It's okay, it's okay. Zatchy's not mad. We're harmonious and stuff!"

"I'm Zatch, too..." Jirachi reminded me. "Zatch got split into three, all because of the Crossblade."

I set the blanket down over my lap and crossed my arms on top of it. What didn't make sense here was that Jirachi and Rayse were both Champions. I got how the Crossblade split one person into three, but how could it...

Well, it could've split Zatch into two people that just so happened to get taken over by Champions. That leaves the third one, but the third one shouldn't be around anyway.

"Well, all of you are here then." I mumbled.

"Huh? What do you mean?" Jirachi asked.

"All of the Zatches are here." I clarified.

"Bwhaa?" Rayse uttered. "But there be three! Cruce, are you Zatch, too? Is somebody secretly Zatch in here? Patty-kip?"

"Negative." Patty declined.

Oh shit, of course they wouldn't know how the Crossblade works.

I'm the only one who Tophs ever shared his story with.

And everyone else has had to figure it out for themselves.

I scratched the side of my head and let my tails lay apart, one each seated behind Rayse and Pat.

"I remember what you told us in the Down, Cruce," Jirachi began. Caught my attention! "You said that there were three kinds of Crossblades. There's one for each fragment of the body that gets split, but... you said one of them doesn't even have a body."

"Huh?!" Rayse clamored.

"She's got it," I nodded to the starry head girl. "Yeah, I mentioned a thing or two back then. Naphal, Icarus, and Daemon – that's what happens to you when you get split. You get those three, and two get a body, but the Icarus is the one that goes without a body. It's just a Crossblade hidden somewhere – well, uh, unless you have an extra body to wield it. That only happens in... the story—er...

S-so hey, anybody know where Topher is, by any chance?" I asked.

Nobody had the answer. More spiteful, confused looks, except for Alli, who wasn't looking at me at all. Rayse was the most confused. She seemed so taken by her own legs, lost in thought, watching them hold her upright in that seated position, back bulging the tent's wall out some.

"Topher is..." Patty began, silence striking her tongue sooner than she would've wanted. "I don't think I remember what happened to Topher. Alli might! ...Oh, right, you're..."

Alli gave a loud huff through her nose, shaking her head with it. Me, on the other hand – I felt sick to my stomach hearing Pat's hesitation. If anything happened to Tophs, I might as well've thrown myself back out into that town to look for him. Vay needed me, though. Alli needed me. I wanted to hear her talk – that voice I must've heard on the phone before all of this. I needed to at least hear her forgive me for... not being there. I was so glad Patty was here. She was the only one who made me feel like I had any Circle left. So, yeah. I needed to stay. On top of that, I needed to be Topher, for Topher. I needed to tell them a story only he should have known: The Crossblade.

"He'd do much better at tell you all the Crossblade's story than I would," I said. "Maybe it ain't right to go against the promise I made to him – I... he didn't want me telling anybody else. Self-conscious or something."

I felt a near-murderous glare suck all the color out of my face from Alli. So, she could bear to look at me, and she did it with her fangs and snout bent and curved with as much aggression as possibly, like she was going to rip me apart. She shuffled, sitting up quickly, curling her hands into small fists.

"Hey, heeeey...!" Rayse cooed to her, moving a red-edged ribbon thing from under her hood over to Alli's chest. She pushed the skywisp back down. Alli gave no resistance. The way Rayse moved the ribbon implied she not only had full control over it, but that it was part of her body and not her clothing, which... sounded as redundant in my head as it would've aloud, but still weird to think about. "What's'a matter? You can't go berserk with an ouchie like that."

"She's mad at Cruce," Caden told everybody. "Since he left her twice. Now he doesn't even want to tell her what she's been trying to find out. Why she's... like this."

"Wha—it's not that I don't want to tell you! Wait, 'twice'?" I asked, chest burning with enough frustration to make me forget that the air outside was freezing.

"Guuuuys, this is not a nice reunion..." Rayse pouted. "I think Alli should have a say. She's tired and she's lost her voice."

"We're all in here, crowding her private space," Patty observed. "What do you say we do our duty for her, then we can come back, rest up some more, and come to terms?"

"It's a date," Rayse agreed. "L'il Caden, wanna come with us? You know Mari better than we do. Think she'll come running to ya?"

"I kinda wanna watch over Alli..." Caden rumbled, not so much with disobedience or anger, but with a soft-hearted disagreement. Alli's snout moved over to point at him. She worked up a puzzled smile in his direction. "She doesn't like the cold, and I can keep her warm."

"D'awww, he's a good'un, in't he? Okie-dokie, you make sure we don't have a wisp-sicle when we get back – aaaaaaalthoooough, Mari's a wisp, too, and she's ALWAYS out in the cold, so I hope we don't have two wisp-sicles. Anywhose, this is a plan! Do we all think this plan is dandy?"

"I'm all for it, but what about our new friend? Huh, I don't even know what kind of Pokémon she is." Jirachi expressed her concerns, concerning myself. 'She', huh? I blushed and whispered under my breath while somebody spoke over me.

"'She'? Is it really that hard to tell?" I whimpered quietly. I crossed my legs more tightly and let my head sink.

"Alli doesn't want Cruce here." Caden boldly stated. Wasn't too hard for me to figure that out for myself. Whatever. Al was pissing me off anyway.

"Ugh. Alli, Cruce... I hope you two get along soon," Patty spoke up. "We're all so speckled and torn apart, but we should try to remember how important we are to one another. I respect your situations, but none of this needs to be harder than it already is."

"I mean, look, I just got here," I sighed. "I woke up in the hospital, walked around, met Vay, got screwed somewhere underground, then went on scary-ass journey with my new Flux buddy. That's me. That's my game – my history. Before that, I was laying in bed at home or something. I don't know."

I felt myself stirring my own anger, mixing it around as I spoke. My head pounded with a pitiful need to vent. My mouth tingled with hurtful words that I was too afraid to raise my voice for. Instead, I acted. I crumpled the blanket up again, hugged against my chest, and stood up. I searched for the tent's opening, found it, then looked around at everybody else.

"I'm too tired to care, and I'm too scared to sleep anymore," I said. I thought I had more than that, but I decided this was already more than enough. I faced away from everybody, eyes flicking across the tent's entrance in search for the zipper. A little shiny metal bit in the bottom left corner told me where I needed to reach. I sighed again, dropped the blanket, and bent down, pulling the zipper along its path. I had to transfer it from my left arm to my right arm when it got too high for my to reach. The loose material flopped out, opening the interior to a depressing red glow of the Grove. I stopped. "See you all later."

And that was it. I left them alone, because that was what Alli wanted. I thought I was gonna come back to a set of dumb, loving faces, catching me while I fell backwards out of exhaustion. Mistaken, I thought. That was too idealistic. I thought there was something to balance out the shitshow that Autumnridge turned into. I thought some good people had come together somewhere to make the lining as silver as it could get, and maybe they did! Maybe these people were great and I was overreacting! But the bags and tears under my eyes told my story well enough. I could fall asleep, but I damn well didn't want to anymore, because if I did fall asleep again, it could've gotten worse. I could've missed more. I could've been mistaken for the bad guy just 'cause I didn't show up to make it all a fraction of a percentage better.

Or maybe it was Al's natural temperamental bitchiness, because he was a spoiled little shit who got everything from his picture-perfect 'cop dad' and his mother who couldn't make up her mind. The more I thought about all the times he considered me a piece of garbage friend because I didn't do what he wanted of me – lift weights when he wanted, called him Sanders when I wasn't allowed to – the more I thought about it, the more I wanted to squeeze my fingers into my fist. And the more I tried, the more I was reminded that my fingers didn't work that way anymore. All of me – this fluffball squirrel thing that looked puny and goofy was angry and I would've bet it looked no more intimidating than a cartoon character steaming out the ears.

I took a deep breath, squished the blanket to my chest and bell, and walked away from the tent. I couldn't think this way, I thought. The bags under my eyes felt heavier when I did, the tears thicker, my heartbeat stickier, pulsing with a sweet sucrose desire for more. More emotion, more outrage, more 'red'. Now, I had so much food for it. I had more than, 'My family's gone somewhere, I've turned into a Pokémon rodent, my hometown's been destroyed', 'oh waaaah waahh boo-hoo fuck you'.

Underneath it all, there was happiness somewhere. It was because of the sun, which decided not to even work. I looked high and searched for it behind the treeline. I could see its fragments poking out, glittering through what shady glow from the horizon I could see bubbling off of the distant leaves and murky pollen pollution. Why there was happiness somewhere, I didn't know. I didn't answer it for myself. I just needed the ice-glow shed from our sun to color my skin and fur and remind me of my body, that there was nothing I could do about it, and that it shared the same color with somebody else who I'd become intoxicated with.

I looked for him, but he was nowhere to be seen. I checked back at the far end of the Grove where the stream bent into the thickets, hiding away from the view of an already hidden land. The sound of tranquil spray of water trickling by told me I was, once again, at the edge of the stream, where I had done my leg the injustice of kicking a rock the size of me, I would've guessed. I looked into it. There was no reflection. There couldn't be. It was flowing too quickly.

Every two or three minutes, I had to yawn. I inhaled strange, dusty tastes and scents when I did. They belonged to Derrick and Ericka, two students (well, one student) I'd not ever bothered to show appreciation for, yet he and she both let me stay under the pointy, tidy roof of their oversized tent.

It was good enough for me, and even better when Ericka went out to fetch my crush. She didn't even give me a choice on the matter. She told me I needed to stay here, wait for her to get my 'boyfriend', and then they were going to talk about things – I dunno. I was busy yawning, and, for what it was worth, I was already satisfied. I found a nice space to stay and think, settle down, lay down, and try to keep my eyes open.

Vay found us. Ericka was still out, so either he'd smelled me out before she found him or she was still off being... Ericka? Crazy little one, I thought. Derrick thought the same. He even let Vay stay in the tent, and I got to learn a lot about what went down before I showed up to 'grace' Autumnridge with my presence. The Wave, they called it, hit them when they were still a club at Metedia called the Stand, and it struck hardest right after Danithan was turned into a Pokémon.

I learned a lot, now with my big red leafeon here wrapping around my whole body, buried in a blanket with only my head sticking high, leaning into his side, letting him lick my ears and forehead, the infrequent flutter of his tail against my chin. My own two puffs were somewhere under him, giving him more cushion to appreciate then the uneven surface of the tent's floor. What was more, I always wanted to return the favor and experiment with him – lick back and see what it felt like. It was natural for me, wasn't it? I was pretty much an animal, and part cat at that, so licking was a thing now. Still, whenever I worked up the affection to lift my head up to him, all I could to was smile, close my eyes softly, and let him rub his nose into mine, then our cheeks together, and that was just fine. Fine by me.

I gotta be more appreciative. I can still get mad, but thinkin' I don't have people to lean into makes me feel like a big dickhead.

'Stead, I got this big dickhead sharing laughs with me whenever we bump our noses too hard, or thoughtful nods whenever we share stories about Pokémon and human cultures.

"By the way, Derrick," Vay addressed the minun, who was politely folding blankets of varying color and size. "What's goin' on with John and Joel?"

"Oh, you were never told, huh?" he started, finishing a quick fold, then sitting down on the blanket he'd just fixed up. "It's the Symbis. John became a different person because of somebody called Astraea, and Joel's been after her ever since. I don't think they get along very well. It's... uh, you know, something we don't like to get involved with."

"Sucks... Those Symbis, man," Vay dismissed, shaking his head, his chin rubbing over the top of my head while he did it.

"Sounds like Symbis and Champions work the same way. They take over a human." I speculated.

"Well, ain't it like what that wisp told us? What was her name? Fausti, er some'in'?" he asked me.

I thought back. Did she tell us that? Crap, I couldn't remember. Maybe she'd monologued to Vay while I was off looking for a spot to hide. Seemed like something she'd have done.

"Dunno, but..." I froze, reminded of Danithan. I was technically laying with him right now – you know, all gay and stuff, but that wasn't the point. Point was, Vay still knew he was Danithan, right down to the friends he made before becoming Vay. He cared for Derrick and Ericka, even for John an Joel. So, what about people like Zatch? "Vay, hey, don't you still like Zatch?"

"Yeah, I reckon I'd do fine with him. But he's turned into Rayse. What about it, Cheeks?"

"Just this stuff about John – I mean, Astraea – and Joel I guess. Makes me think, like, what if you tried talking to Rayse as Danithan instead of Vay? Maybe she'll let you get closer." I suggested, recalling the fear in her three eyes when she saw Vay.

"You-..." he breathed out, into my fur. "Ya think it'll get us somewhere? I ain't want my sister being so scared of me."

"Right? I get that," I said. "I mean, like, it can't be coincidence that Danithan and Zatch, two good friends, got turned into Champions. Maybe Zack and Vince are out there, too."

"Awh, Cheeks, y'know, I'll give it a hustle, but sometimes siblings and friends have their fights. 'Sides, I don't want her Flux getting any worse 'cause of me. Diancie said it's my fault she's been so warped like that. Y'know, sylveons ain't supposed to have three eyes." he explained.

I pushed his head off of mine as gently as I could. I wanted him to look at my face, and he did. He called me 'Cheeks', so maybe he was picking up on the idea. I had four eyes, kind of, and they could communicate pretty damn well with his two eyes. They said things that I couldn't say with my words – stuff I wasn't ready to say yet, but carried less impact, different emphasis. 'I love you', they told Vay. 'I love you, too', his eyes told me. But it wasn't as contracting as vocalizing the thought. It was one 'tier' beneath that. Something to store in your head and prepare for when it was really ready. Just knowing it was there in full was one of the most comforting things I've found in Gamma – in 'Red'. It applied for everything, not just love. 'I'm happy for you', 'Don't talk to me right now', 'I'll always protect you', or 'I'm angry'.

"You can use those eyes," I said, after letting my eyes say it to him all the same. "Make her stay in one spot. Call her Zatch with your eyes. Won't she listen?"

"She might. But..." he sighed again. "Dammit, it's no easy thing to use Flux-speak with someone like her."

"What'd'you mean? You do it with me all the time!" I said.

"She's different. In two ways, she's different," he said. "Ya know who us Champions are, Cheekies? We're folks who tried'n fought the Flux with everything we had in our heads. Flux was a sick taint that ravaged whole landmasses, divided Pokémon, 'n tried to come 'cross the whole planet. It developed its own 'way' in life. We had ours, it had its own, and... surely y'gotta understand how demeaning it is to treat somebody like Rayse as a Flux – something she was chosen as a Champion to fight against, find new ways to fix, and... and now she's like 'em."

I nodded. He had more to say. As much as I wanted to, I didn't interrupt him.

"And you, Cheeks – you too, Derrick. You're both humies. You can't help changing. Gamma's gonna do whatever it wants with y'all. Us Champions are here to make sure it happens quicker, 'cause that's what we get put on this world to do.

Then we protect you, 'cause you're all like our handiwork. Our creations 'n stuff. At least, that's somethin' Aza would say.

But when Gamma gets the better of us and turns US into somethin' we don't expect? Like with that Crossblade. Boy, it really messes with the rhythm."

"So, you're saying we're inferior beings?" Derrick asked. I anticipated a 'yes'.

"Ye-..." Vay froze solid. Maybe it was easy for him to carry through with it in any other circumstance, but now he was with friends. 'Humie' friends. "Ob...jectively. I got—see, I got this bias 'gainst humies. It ain't the point, though.

We want this world to be better than the one that got busted. Better than ours, y'hear? But we also want it to LOOK a little like ours, so we can do it the most justice it deserves. We don't want it lookin' ugly with Flux. We don't even want it crawlin' with foreign Gamma. But I'm Flux. Rayse is Flux."

"Sooo, be Flux buddies?" I suggested, grinning up shyly at the big-shot.

"I can't, Cheeks – that's you and me." he dismissed.

"No way. It's Danithan and Zatch, too." I said.

"Okay, okay," he said, closing the distance between our faces, until my vision became dark, the only light in his eyes. Our muzzles were touching, scrunched, but he wasn't rubbing. He was just locking us together that way. His breaths were so flavorful, warm, peaceful, but I knew he was mocking me. "I'll do your silly plan."

"I think it would really help everyone else out," Derrick began. Vay lifted his face from mine to attend to the minun. "Ericka's not here, so I'll say it: we need the Champions to teach us how to be real Pokémon."

"Damn right," Vay proudly proclaimed – proud of Derrick. "That's the kind of spirit I want to hear. You guys hang in there. Once I get back on Rayse's side, we'll shape this place up. We'll make you all into examples for the rest of the world to follow. It'll be great."

"Better be. I came all this way with you and stuff still sucks." I teased him. I said it quietly, but it didn't matter. He looked down at me again, smirked, and I felt his tail tighten around me.

"This ain't no fairytale, Cheeks," he stressed. "Tell ya, I never wanted to put you next to all my problems, but you're bringing Zatch and Danithan into this, so I want you to come with me when I talk to Rayse. Three Fluxes are better than two—no, wait, that's not right..."

I chuckled, worming one arm out of the blanket larva I'd become, then reaching up to his right cheek to pat it a little, tails twitching under him.

"'S okay. I know you need someone who's better with words than you." I mused.

"Oh, hell no," he smiled wide. "And who solved all your problems 'till now? Or, what, should I just reward myself and eat you now? I'm not above that, but I AM above you on the food chain."

"Oho, I'm SURE you wanna eat me," I said, biting down longingly, letting my claws sink into the fur on his cheek. Felt all tingly downstairs again. This was a million times more interesting than anger. I could've lived for this!

"You got some fiery flavor, babe. Don't tempt me," he told me. Felt like I was pulling his head closer, but he was leaning in. Phew, it was getting hot in here. I felt my heart goin' a hundred thousand miles an hour, wondering what he was gonna do or say next. "No, really, I'll actually rip you limb from limb and eat you."

My ears went flat and my heart slowed down.

"'The fu—dude..." I groaned, my paw slipping off of his face, back into my blanket.

"I-I... don't know if Ericka's... old enough to see any of this." said the poor Derrick, hunched over, paws on his cheeks holding his head up.

I was okay now. I could go back to sleep. Vay was here to make sure it wasn't for as long as a hospital bed would've had it. I was laying against him the same way he was laying around me, two different sizes of Pokémon sleeping in the same position, even if my tails were so much bigger and more adorable than his. These things were the best. I lay with them curled the whole way around my body, paws tucked under my head, head tucked under Vay's. For a while, I was hangin' out like that, just looking at the whiter fluff of my tails, thinking at one point I didn't have 'em there to keep me warm. Maybe not that – no. Maybe it was still the fear of asleep. I stalled sleep away, just like how it stalled me away. I thought I could be all set with somebody here. Maybe I could. I was back and forth with this. Fear sent me all over the place, made my legs hurt. That was how it was for this here big boy once upon a time.

The gravity of sleep was something I couldn't battle. It pulled my eyelids down eventually, but like before, I could still just about see everything through a film of fuzziness, something to which I owed my extra set of 'cheek eyes', I s'pose. I matched the slumbersome rhythm of Vay's breaths, his chest pushing against me with each inhale, his near-silent snoring quite literally tickling the fur at my ears with each exhale through his nose. A reminder, I thought. Everybody slept. Even these MVPs called Champions – they slept. Couldn't tell if they were just doing it to humor us, but even then, that was enough. Vay didn't like humans that much, but here he was – he'd been here all along, humoring me on my way back home, and even at home, he wanted to stay with me, when things were kind of shit with everybody else.

Hey, hope you know I'd be more than happy to come with you to get Rayse back on your side. Anything you need – I wanna be here for you guys. You Champions.

I know you can be here for me, too. Can you be here for the Circle? Can the Circle and the Champions scratch each others' backs?

I'd love that.

Heh, if you... do that – if you help me get everybody back together and I help you get your folks back in one spot, we...

We might as well... stay that way... Rinavay. Together.


To Be Continued...