Man work is hard right now. The strain from us trying to refill our supplies is immense. Makes it hard to get these chapters out, but it does give me more time to think about them. So I guess it's a blessing. People seriously need to calm the fuck down about this. When there's videos of people starting fist fighting over toilet paper you know people have gotten stupid. Everyone cool your jets and stop freaking out mkay? A shorter chapter, but this wasn't meant to be a long one. You'll see a decently long one next time.
Logan found himself in a sort of void. He felt ground beneath his clawed feet, but there was no difference between the floor, the walls, if indeed there were any, and the sky. Everything was pitch black, even for his excellent night vision. Yet he could see his own body quite clearly. He couldn't help but wonder, would this be what it would be like when he died? Though that probably shouldn't have been the first thing he thought of. Normally his first thought would rightfully be, 'where the fuck am I?' After a few other thoughts only mildly connected to his current situation, that is what he thought. It didn't take him long to answer it.
"I must be dreaming. I've never had a lucid dream before. This could actually be kinda cool. Having control over a dream. Making whatever I want. That actually kinda sounds like my powers normally, just more powerful."
"You haven't had a lucid dream before," Logan tensed up when he heard a young female voice. He whipped around, got to all fours, and bared his teeth. He was met with a bloody Purrloin. A large gash in its neck. Logan recognized the figure, and his heart would've stopped if this was real. "and you still haven't."
"L-Lavender?" Logan knew he was dreaming at this point, and that this wasn't real, but the sight of someone that he had tried to help, and instead ended up killing, scared him. Especially with how much it had traumatized him. He had tried so hard to forget about this, he'd had many nightmares about it, but he'd felt as if he had finally started getting over it, the nightmares had stopped a long time ago, and he was finally, FINALLY, starting to form bonds again. Why did this have to happen? He knew it was pointless to talk, but he couldn't just ignore it. He was in a dream. It didn't matter how hard he tried, he couldn't escape from this. "L-Look I'm sorry. I-I-I didn't-"
"You killed me. YOU MURDERED ME! My parents were so close to saving us, and you murdered me! For no reason!"
Normally, this is where guilt would wash over him, and he'd start crying. The Purrloin would then berate him for the hours he was in the dream until he woke up, and that was it for that day. He'd be miserable from guilt, and then dreading the next sleep. Not this time though. This time, his mind stayed calm. No guilt, no fear of reliving the events again, no anger. Determination washed through him like a tidal wave. He'd been living this torture for too long. No more. "It wasn't my fault. I thought we were still being chased. You did too. You're the one who asked me to kill you quickly. It wasn't my fault. I'm done blaming myself for it. I know I ended your life, but I wouldn't have if I felt I had any other choice. Now leave. I'm not letting you torment me anymore."
To his surprise, the imaginary Purrloin smiled. A warm smile. A kind one. " Finally, you get it." The blood and gash faded. "You finally did it. You faced your fears."
Logan was taken back to the waking mental fights he'd had in his head. 'Face your fears.' He'd heard that line many times. He'd never been told what he had to face. It would seem that this was it. If that was the case though...
"What are you?"
Logan often listened to music, especially when he was troubled, and it would seem that whatever this was knew that too, as it sang lines from a Celtic song he knew. One perfect for this situation. "Listen my child you say to me, I am the voice of your history. Be not afraid come follow me. Answer my call and I'll seeeeeet yooooou," The void around them lit up. "Freeeeeeeeeeee." Surrounding them was what was once a lush forest. It should have been nice and serene. There were some flowers, trees, and the calming sound of a creek nearby, there were signs of much trouble though. He could see the ashes of trees that had burned, parts of the ground were torn up, and some trees were dead and dying in various states of decay and rot. Logan didn't know what to make of this. "I am your guilt. Your conscience. This place, this part of your mind, was thick with regret and pain. Pain in a conscience is normal. When you do something you regret, you become troubled and guilt ridden." The Purrloin walked over to some ashes where a tree had apparently burned down. "There's a reason why I chose a forest to represent this part of you. It's because like a forest, your conscience becomes better from those troubles. Learning from your mistakes is how you grow as a person. Ashes and decayed plants are good for the earth, for new plants to grow." It ran a paw through the pile of ash, and small sapling was uncovered. "You become a better person when you learn from your mistakes. You weren't learning from yours. You don't bury the past. You face it, accept it, and learn from it. Now that you've finally dealt with your guilt, the healing can begin. You can truly begin to make yourself better. For now though, it's time to wake up."
February 16th, 2019. 6:30 am.
Ben stirred to the smell of cooking meat. He slowly got up, it was a bit early for him after all. He stretched his back and body out. Once his blood got flowing his alertness returned. He opened the tent flap and looked around. He quickly spotted a small campfire Logan had made, and he had some meat skewers over it in his hands. The fox's right ear flicked and he turned around to face Ben. "Morning" He lifted the skewers, which were basically tree branches, blew on them, and took a bite of one of them. "Hm, yep, that's cooked nicely. Made some breakfast for us." He handed Ben a two of the four skewers.
Ben took them and stared at them. He saw some sort of scaled hide laying behind Logan. "Wow... thank you. That looks like Sandile hide?"
Logan nodded as he fired a Dark Pulse from his hand to smother the fire. "Yep. It tastes a lot like normal alligator. All I could do was salt and pepper it, but it should suffice for a campfire breakfast." Logan bit into one of them squares of meat and tore it from the wood.
Ben bit into one of the squares himself, and found it to be decently good. "Mm. Not bad at all." He was shocked that Logan was doing something like this. For a moment he thought that Logan may have poisoned it, but after the previous night, those thoughts were put to bed pretty quickly. "So... is this the new Logan? A kinder gentler Logan?"
Logan scratched behind his ear and looked away slightly. Was he being... shy? "It- it was nothing. Just... thought it would be good to do something nice for you." Ben saw Logan's jaw clench for a moment, before he took another bite a bit too quickly. Ben could see that something was off with that speedy reaction. It was too quick to be normal. 'Why is he shy? Why did a simple compliment make him react like that?' Ben decided to worry about it later, and finish the food Logan had prepared for him.
After the duo had finished eating and packing up, which Logan helped with, they set out. Logan had a small spring in his step as they walked. "You seem to be in a good mood."
"Well, I mentioned I used to live near Nimbasa. It's where I spent 14 of my first 18 years of life, and it's where I set up my first territory, before that fucker Lucario kicked me out, but the point stands, Nimbasa and the surrounding areas hold a special place in my heart. Also I think I saw on my phone that there's some sort of fair going on. Rollercoasters, games, lots of food, good things like that!"
Ben smiled. Some of his sharp teeth showed, but as they were both sentient creatures, Logan knew it wasn't meant to be threatening "Maybe we could go. Just stay away from the games, they're all rigged."
This made Logan show his teeth with a smile that was more devious. "Oh don't worry about that. I know the tricks."
The duo made good progress, beat a few trainers, battled a number of Pokémon for training purposes, and Logan even partook in a few battles. Logan was actually proving to be an asset for once. The desert proved little challenge for Logan, Nito, and the rest of Ben's team. Ben finally felt like he had a real team. Pokémon that would work together if they needed to. Ben was overjoyed at the progress Logan was making. He truly seemed to be coming around. It wouldn't be long before Ben would consider Logan a true friend if he kept this up.
