Pokemon: Radiant Ruby and Shining Sapphire

Chapter 16

Our Parting Paths

Sapphire_One Week Later

Sapphire awoke once again in her makeshift cell. She had no idea where she was, only that it had been a week since she was separated from Ruby and captured by Team Aqua. She thought, "Damn it! Why the hell can't I wake up from this nightmare already!"

She groaned as she adjusted her steel bed, only to find herself in a less comfortable position than before. The girl then shot up and yelled, "FFFUUUUUCCCCCKKKKK!" She didn't know why she did this, but it did vent a little bit of our frustration.

"Calm down. It's not like yelling will solve our problem." The soft female voice of her partner echoed through her mind before adding, "Our best chance of survival is compliance at this point, at least until a better opportunity presents itself."

Sapphire sighed and looked at the cell across from hers to see Marshtomp and Silcoon both just sitting there. She said mentally, "Well this 'opportunity' needs to come a lot sooner. I'm worried about what happened to Ruby and Emerald. I need to at least know if they're ok."

Marshtomp responded, "I doubt there's any reason to worry about those two. You've seen Ruby in action, he wouldn't go down to something as simple as a terrorist attack. Emerald should be fine too, although I must admit to having more concerns regarding his abilities than Ruby's."

Sapphire put her back to the wall and grabbed hold of Ruby's hat from her back pocket. It was the only thing on her that she made sure Team Aqua didn't take from her. Then she slid down it before saying aloud, "Why can't there at least be something to do! As far as I know these bastards haven't even put a ransom up yet for me."

"That one's on me. Sorry." A voice came down the hallway. Quickly slipping the hat in her back pocket again, Sapphire looked through the bars to see a woman with short black hair being followed by a Whismur. Her eyes were a deep red color, however, unlike Ruby's mother, he eyes gleamed with malice. She was wearing a Team Aqua uniform, except it was slightly altered, being that she wore a small blue scarf and black shorts with torn up fabric.

Sapphire asked, "What do you mean? Who are you?"

The woman shook her hand saying, "I'm the girl who just indited you into Team Aqua. Welcome aboard Sapphire!"

Sapphire cursed back, "The hell does that mean? You must be crazy if you think I'd ever join your group after what you did! Hell, even before this whole shitshow I'd still have turned you down."

The woman nodded and said, "Yep, that sounds about par for the response I expected. But, I'm afraid I can't take no for an answer. I told Archie about how you held back so many of our men and he was so impressed that he decided to recruit you."

Sapphire scowled, "Screw you, you can't make me…" She stopped because the woman brought a device from her pocket and put it on the wall. Next to Marshtomp and Silcoon's cell.

The woman pushed a button on the device and gave a brief laugh before saying, "Oh Arceus. It appears I've disabled all of the cameras in this room. Now I can speak my mind." She turned to Sapphire with a huge grin on her face and lunged towards her cell. Gripping the bars she started to breathe heavily.

Sapphire backed away from the woman and asked, "What the hell are you doing?"

The woman expressed, "I'm gonna keep it short cause I got about twenty seconds until they get camera and audio back. I'm with Team Skystorm. I need your help to take down Team Aqua from the inside. And I'm going to put a fake bomb in your neck just so we can 'keep you in line'. You can choose when to go rogue, however I strongly urge that you do it optimally so we have the best chance to end Team Aqua after AZOTH is completed and…" All of the sudden there was a beeping noise that came from the device she had put on the wall. She immediately changed back to a more serious tone and said, "... that is why we need you to come along now, not like you had a choice to begin with." She unlocked Sapphire's cell and grabbed her by the wrist as she pulled out a knife and put the tip pointed next to her lower back and started to push the girl out into the hallway.

Sapphire thought to Marshtomp, "She's crazy. She has to be, right?"

Her partner responded, "She is definitely crazy, but that doesn't mean she isn't telling the truth. Just play along with it for now I guess."

Sapphire was brought to an operation room, where there were people in lab coats walking around frantically. One of them said to the woman holding Sapphire at knifepoint, "Put her over here." In mere moments, Sapphire was thrown onto the operation table and was injected with something in her right arm. Of course she struggled, but she couldn't overpower four fully grown men. It only took a minute before the girl had completely blacked out.

Emerald_

Emerald Draconid entered the Team Skystorm home base located in the northern part of Meteor Falls. Following him was Grovyle and about six of his men. He yelled to one of his team members standing at the door, "Anything happen while I was gone all this time?"

The guard shook her head and responded, "Nothing to report on our end. But we heard that you've been through hell and back. Are you alright?"

Emerald spat back, "I'm fucking great, only let a terroritst attack happen unanswered! This whole situation sucks!"

The guard responded, "You're mother left you in charge for a reason. I'm sure you'll figure out the right course of action leader."

Emerald yelled back, "My mother abandoned us! I was just the next to fall in line! To hell if you think I'm cut out for this!" He gritted his teeth and marched on through the caves until he reached a mechanical door that only he and Grovyle entered. He walked over to the bed in the corner and threw himself on it.

A strange staggering tone rang through his mind, "Well thatsss a thing that happened." Grovyle perched itself on the ground net to the boy's bed and continued, "Ssso whatsss the plan? If Ruby'sss unwilling to help usss. We should consider a new ssstrategy."

Emerald took a deep breath in before exhaling incredibly slowly. After inhaling a second time he said aloud, "I can't. I can't do this… What the hell am i supposed to... " He stopped and thought about what Ruby had told him earlier. "A defense." the boy said under his breath.

Grovyle questioned, "A defensssse?"

Emerald sat back up, seemingly enlightened by this memory of Ruby, "A defensive strategy! Ruby said that he wouldn't join us because that would be the approach to the situation we would take. He said this because that would be the BEST approach to take this!"

Grovyle, still not following asked, "What would thissss ssstrategy consssisst of?"

Emerald stood back up and started to pace around. He began with praise, "Ruby, you're actually a genius! If we establish a good defense by positioning units to be stationed around the primary cities, along with attraction sites, we should be able to stay ahead of the game! Units everywhere would deter most of the moves either team could take, limiting them to small scale crimes. And as long as this defense holds, there will be time to come up with a strategy to finally take them both down! This may result in a long drug out battle, which might even take years, but with this waiting game our chances of overall success skyrocket, especially if later on we can recruit Ruby and Sapphire."

The boy's partner now responded, "It'sss a bold ssstrategy. Ssspreading our numbersss thin could narrow down the placesss which they could ssstrike. However, thisss alssso leavesss usss open for another large ssscrale attack."

Emerald snapped and pointed to Grovyle rebutting, "Under normal circumstances, yes. But as far as Team Magma goes, both Ruby and Maxie now have the agenda of taking down Team Aqua before advancing further with their own plans. That also means that Team Aqua will be being held back on two fronts, most likely decreasing the chances of them doing anything big like this for a long while. It might be wishful thinking, but there is a possibility that we could starve them out of this, or at the very least, keep them in check until Ruby accomplishes his goal of rescuing Sapphire. Seeing that Team Aqua hasn't asked for ransom yet, they must have other plans for her, perhaps just keeping her as a hostage to keep us at bay. But that's all fine! Strategically speaking, a defensive approach would put us way ahead of the game!"

Grovyle responded, "You're putting a lot of faith into that boy'sss wordsss. Let'sss hope you don't live to regret it."

Ruby_

Ruby Plake stared up at the towering Mt. Chimney that now laid right before him. He was back in his usual attire aside from the hat that was still in Sapphire's possession. The red rock leading up the inactive volcano was a sight to behold. After taking in the view, Ruby pointed to what appeared to be an entrance into a cave through the mountain. He asked in his head, "Do you think that's it?"

Combusken, who was barely lagging behind the boy snarkily responded, "No Ruby, that's probably another cave that leads to the Distortion World."

The boy looked at his partner with ill intent, but decided not to respond. The two then walked down to the entrance to see that the cave was actually rather well lit They entered and were immediately treated by the smell of soot all around them. Ruby grimaced before shaking his head and continuing onward.

The two continued until there was a path that branched off. The turn was well lit, but the straight path seemed to have no light to speak of. Ruby had thought ahead thinking that this might be the case, so he reached into his bag and pulled out a torch he had made earlier. Combusken ignited the torch and they walked down the dark path together. The cave went on for a good five hundred meters before they reached a dead end.

Ruby thought, "Well that's unfortunate. Maybe Maxie forgot to mention… "

Combusken cut the boy off mid thought, thinking in kind, "No, he didn't forget anything. Look to your left."

The boy did as instructed and saw three stones, roughly up to his knee for each. He then started to lift the first one. Upon seeing nothing he dropped it. However, underneath the second one there was a very conspicuous steel plate with a bright red button in the center of it. Ruby thought, "Well, this is it."

Combusken thought to the boy for a final confirmation, "So you're sure this is how you want to go about this, right? The moment you push that button, the entirety of Hoenn, including your dad, will be forced to see you as their enemy."

Ruby responded, "I've had a week to think about this already, this shouldn't be the time I start second guessing my choice. I know what's at stake, and I know what needs to be done." He then went off in his own thoughts about everything that had happened in the past month. Not only did he find himself in a completely new region, but he found himself traveling with his partner and his new best friend. They traveled around and had already conquered two of Hoenn's gyms together. Along the way they made another ally out of what they thought was an enemy and even grew to calling him friend as well. These thoughts were all light and joyful, but Ruby grimaced at the last bit that had transpired. He remembered his failure to keep the citizens safe. He remembered how hopeless he felt as he blacked out while Sapphire was being taken from him. He remembered the tears in Lissia's eyes as he came to the realization that her partner was taken from her. And the final feeling he felt was his determination to set things right.

Without any sense of hesitation or regret, Ruby clicked the button and spoke, "The Earth will allow us to prosper!"

End Of Part 1

I really hope you enjoyed part 1. I put a lot of effort into this story so far and i really would like to hope that it paid off. Please leave a review and be sure to tell me your compliments and criticism alike. Part 2 will be released sometime next year, hopefully on a more consistent schedule.

Thank you all,

Kaden627