Hey guys! It's been a while since the last chapter, hasn't it? I've been very busy with school and stuff, and from the looks of things, I'll continue to be busy with school stuff for the next few months or so. Ah, but time sure goes by fast, so surely I'll be done with all this school stuff before I know it. Anyways, before getting to the chapter, I guess I can share that trivia I promised last time.
- First of all, Erebos' original backstory had him as a Pokémon who was executed for the crimes he performed using his dark magic. Returning as a dark spirit, he continued to cause all sorts of trouble until Pandora provided a way to seal him away.
- Also, I had a lot of difficulty deciding on a species for the main villain. I ultimately decided to make him the same species as a character who was on the side of good, and since dark magic was involved, I figured a Mismagius made the most sense. Thus, he became Pandora's twin brother. The two of them were originally not related, which leads into...
- Pandora's original character concept. Originally, she was going to be a stoic character who didn't show much emotion, who Cassandra sought out when needing to find a way to stop Erebos. With the changes to Erebos' backstory, Pandora ended up getting an expanded role as well.
- Simon was created as someone for Cassandra to confide in, and... well, considering that two of her descendants are major supporting characters in the story, it was kind of a foregone conclusion that Cassandra must have had a boyfriend. :P
- This one isn't quite about the backstory, but Era kind of reuses some of the ideas I had for Frederick, who I intended to have evolve into a Zweilous at some point. His two heads would've been similar in personality and wouldn't be entirely sure which one of them was the original. However, realizing I already had a lot of subplots and such, I decided to scrap the idea and so Frederick will be staying a Deino throughout the rest of the story. I did enjoy writing for Era, even if writing for a character with multiple heads felt a bit weird at times.
There, I think that's all I wanted to say. Interesting how much the story has changed since the early planning stages, isn't it? Anyways, sorry for the wait! Here's chapter 41! Hope you all enjoy it, and feel free to leave a review/comment! I'd really appreciate knowing what you guys think about the story so far!
Chapter 41: Some things will never change.
No matter how different things seemed, the fact that tomorrow would come still stayed the same. Another new day had begun, and while most rescue teams were probably already on their way into the main part of town to make their preparations for today's missions, Sera had not even gotten out of her bed yet. She was awake, though, unlike her oldest brother Yoru, who was still asleep in his bed. Sera was quietly thinking about what Stella had told them all yesterday, about who Erebos was and when this had all started.
She kept thinking about Erebos' sister, Pandora, and how she had ultimately been forced to magically seal away her own brother. Sera felt sorry for her. Pandora had really cared about her brother a lot, yet she couldn't do anything else to stop him. Sera glanced over at Yoru, who was still snoring and seemed to be trying to ignore light of the sun shining into the room as a way of telling him that it was morning and time to get up.
While watching the sleeping Umbreon, Sera heard light footsteps coming into the room and turned to see Flare standing in the doorway.
"You're still in bed, Sera?" Flare asked, tilting his head slightly. "You're not feeling ill, are you?"
"No, I'm fine," Sera responded, getting up. "I was just thinking about some things."
"Ah, I see," Flare replied, nodding his head. "As you get older, I guess you tend to start doing that more often."
"Oh? Did you think about a lot of things when you were my age?" Sera asked.
"I suppose I did," Flare responded, nodding his head slightly. "Anyways, it's time for breakfast."
Flare then looked over at Yoru, and walked up to him. He then started lightly shaking the Umbreon with his paws.
"You need to get up too, Yoru," Flare said.
"Why…?" Yoru muttered, opening his eyes slightly.
"Because it's morning and it's time to eat breakfast," Flare responded. "You can probably take a nap later this afternoon, if you want to."
"Okay, fine…" Yoru replied, yawning and stretching.
"… And even though it was an accident, Irvin still gets a bit nervous around Svanhild," Sirena explained, having been telling Amethyst about some of her friends while helping prepare breakfast. "Other than that, they get along just fine."
"I see," Amethyst responded, nodding her head slightly. "It's nice to hear that you have such good friends."
"I could introduce you to them sometime," Sirena suggested.
"Ah, sure," Amethyst responded, smiling at Sirena. "I would like to meet them."
"Did you have any friends like that when you were my age?" Sirena asked.
"Hmm… Not really," Amethyst responded, shaking her head. "I think that when I was your age, I spent most of my time with you and Yoru."
"Oh, I see," Sirena replied, nodding her head. "I remember those times… Back when I was an Eevee, I thought you were like, the most amazing big sister ever."
"Yes, I remember that," Amethyst said, smiling. "You were always following me around, asking me questions and wanting me to show you my powers…"
"Yeah…" Sirena replied, smiling sheepishly. "I must've been really annoying back then, huh?"
"No, I didn't mind it at all," Amethyst responded, shaking her head. "I really enjoyed spending time with you."
"You did?" Sirena replied.
"Of course," Amethyst responded, nodding her head. "I spent a lot of time with you and Yoru, not just because I had to look after you while our parents were at work, but because I loved spending time with my younger siblings."
"… I see," Sirena replied, nodding her head slightly.
"I haven't been able to develop quite the same connection with Flare or Volt, though," Amethyst said, sighing. "And while Sera seems to be quite fond of me, I don't really feel like I've really gotten to spend enough time with her either."
"Don't worry about it," Sirena responded, smiling at Amethyst. "There's still plenty of time for that, isn't there?"
"… I guess so," Amethyst replied, nodding her head.
Volt soon entered the room, and shortly after, the other three siblings joined them as well. While the six of them were eating their breakfast, Sera kept quietly observing her older siblings. As she looked around at them, she thought that something seemed different somehow. Her gaze lingered on her two older sisters for a while.
"Sirena has a really pretty smile," Sera thought to herself. "Come to think of it, she hasn't complained as much lately… and Amethyst seems to be happy as well. It's nice to see them get along…"
Sera thought about how she cared about her older siblings, even if they could be annoying at times. She knew it was the same for them. Even if they didn't get along at times, she didn't need to worry about it. There was no way any of her siblings would end up as enemies the way Erebos and Pandora did.
"Yoru, perhaps you and Volt can go for a walk later?" Amethyst suggested, looking over at the Umbreon.
"Uh… Why me?" Yoru asked, tilting his head slightly.
"Because you need more exercise," Amethyst responded.
"What do you mean?" Yoru replied, looking down at himself. "My body looks just fine…"
"But you won't be able to keep that figure of yours if you don't start doing some more exercise!" Amethyst responded, giving Yoru a stern look. "Not to mention all the possible health problems you might develop if you just lay around doing nothing all day every day when you are capable of doing something."
"Um, but… I doubt I can keep up with Volt," Yoru said, glancing over at the Jolteon. "He's so fast, and I'm… not."
"It's not a race, though, is it?" Volt commented, looking over at the others. "In that case, don't worry if I outrun you."
"… I don't think that's the problem here," Flare said, looking over at his younger brother.
"Besides, Sera manages to do fine without supervision when she's out with her friends on missions and stuff, right?" Yoru said, smiling at Amethyst. "So, surely Volt would be fine on his own since he's older than Sera, right?"
"Whether that's the case or not, you're still going with him," Amethyst responded. "If you're not going to help me and Sirena with the daily chores, then at least spend some time with your younger siblings and get some exercise!"
"Listen, I really do appreciate your concern," Yoru replied, still smiling. "But keep in mind that I'm a Pokémon that prefers staying up at night. The day… is really not my thing."
"Yoru, when you move out and get a place of your own, you can manage your own sleep schedule," Amethyst responded, sighing. "But as long as we're all living together, you have to try to sleep at night like the rest of us do."
"I know," Yoru replied, nodding his head. "It's because mom and dad have to get up early for work, isn't it?"
As she listened to the conversation between her two oldest siblings, Sera realized that Amethyst was bringing up something that she hadn't thought about all that much. She, her siblings and their parents wouldn't all be living together like this forever. At some point, Amethyst and the others would leave and find their own places to live. Even Sera herself would probably be leaving this house someday, as hard as it was for her to imagine.
Soon, her train of thought led her to think about her friends.
"I wonder… just how long will we all be together?" Sera thought, staring at nothing in particular.
How long would Blitz be staying in Fenix Town? Would he eventually have to return to Lightning Plateau and become the leader of the Luxray pride? And what would happen to Chiaki? Would he eventually get his memories back, and go back to wherever he lived before? Did Azure or Frederick have any plans for the future? As more and more questions came to mind, Sera wondered if she'd have to pay a visit to Stella and ask her about the future.
"The future is… kind of scary, when you think of it like this…" Sera thought, her ears drooping down slightly. "I guess this is why Blitz doesn't like to think about it…"
Once breakfast was over, and Amethyst finally convinced Yoru to take Volt with him for a walk, Sera wondered what she was going to do now. She wasn't sure if she felt like joining her teammates on a mission today, but if she didn't go, they might worry about her. They already had worries of their own, so they probably didn't need another thing to worry about.
"Sera, are you okay?" Flare asked as he sat down next to her. "Still got a lot on your mind?"
"Uh… Yes…" Sera responded, nodding her head slightly. "Hey, Flare? How long do you think we'll all be living together?"
"Ah, concerns about the future, is it?" Flare replied, giving her a friendly smile. "You know you're growing up when you start thinking about these things. However, I'm afraid I don't know the answer to your question."
"I see…" Sera responded, sighing.
"Sera, even if we can't be together forever, we'll always be siblings, right?" Flare said.
"Uh… Yes, of course," Sera replied, nodding her head slightly.
"Some things will never change," Flare explained, smiling at Sera.
"So… Even if we move to different places, we'll still be a family," Sera responded, thinking about it for a moment. "And… even if Blitz and Chiaki were to leave somewhere, we'd still be friends…?"
"Exactly," Flare replied, nodding his head.
Sera thought about it for a few moments, before a smile crossed her face.
"Yeah, that sounds about right!" Sera said, beaming. "Thank you, Flare!"
"No problem," Flare responded, smiling back at Sera.
"I guess I'd better go see my friends now!" Sera said, grinning.
"Yes, go do that," Flare replied, nodding his head. "They're probably waiting for you."
Sera hurried outside and made her way towards town, feeling a little better now. However, things seemed unusually quiet in the town plaza. Normally one could hear the confident voices of rescue teams chatting with the friendly shopkeepers as they made their preparations for their next mission, but today neither the rescue teams nor the shopkeepers seemed to be in the mood for talking as much. Sera could hear hushed voices of rescue teams talking about how distortions in space had started appearing in more locations. Just how far would they continue to spread? Some of them were also talking about what Stella had explained to everyone, and seemed frightened at the thought of Erebos' dark magic.
Wade the Lombre seemed to be trying to go about his business as usual, greeting customers to the shop with a smile and asking what he or Vic could do for them today. Vic the Nuzleaf just sat there next to him, absentmindedly polishing a wonder orb with a distant look on his face. Then again, this kind of behavior was pretty normal for Vic. Over by the item warehouse, Lionel the Linoone kept checking and double-checking the lists over everything the rescue teams were currently keeping stored with him. Sera assumed it was his way of trying to relax in this current situation.
Marietta the Ledian was just sitting there with her four arms resting against the counter, not really seeming to be paying much attention to the Pokémon walking past the bank. It seemed as if her thoughts were elsewhere. Sera wondered just who or what Marietta was thinking about? Hopefully she'd be able to focus on her job if any customers were to show up.
Zap the Rotom seemed to be more fidgety than normal, although Sera wasn't sure if it was because of the current situation, if was because he hadn't had that many customers lately and he was getting impatient, or if he simply had too much electricity built up within his body at the moment. Then again, considering Zap's body seemed to be made of electrical energy, was it even possible for him to have too much electricity stored inside of him?
Bijou the Sableye didn't have any customers at the moment either. She was currently just sitting there, rolling a round rock back and forth over the counter with a bored look on her face. At least Sera assumed it was an expression of boredom, since it was kind of hard to tell with Bijou due to her gem stone eyes and the fact that her mouth wasn't visible when it was closed. As she walked past, Sera noticed that the rock that Bijou was playing with had a bite taken out of it. While she knew it wasn't good manners to play with ones food, Sera decided not to comment on it.
Celio the Togetic was checking on one of the eggs he was looking after, smiling as he felt it move slightly in his small arms.
"You're going to go grow up to be a strong and kind Pokémon, I just know it," Celio softly whispered to the egg.
Celio didn't seem to be worried at all. Since it was in his species' nature to spread happiness, he was probably one of the few Pokémon in town who had absolutely no doubts that things were going to turn out okay. As far as he was concerned, there was nothing to be worried about. Sera wondered if Pokémon that had yet to hatch could feel anything that was outside of the egg? If so, then surely Celio's feelings would reach them and let them know that there was nothing to be afraid of.
"I hope they find a way to stop Erebos from causing any more trouble," Sera muttered to herself. "And that we find the remaining four crystals soon…"
Sera left the town plaza and continued making her way up to the rescue team HQ. Inside, rescue teams were standing around as usual, checking the bulletin boards and discussing which missions to take. Sera looked around for her friends, and spotted Chiaki standing outside of Giselle's office, leaning against a wall with his arms crossed and his eyes closed.
"Is something on your mind?" Sera asked as she approached the Mienfoo.
"Huh?" Chiaki said, opening his eyes and smiling as he noticed Sera. "Oh, hi Sera!"
"Hi," Sera replied, waving her paw. "Is Blitz here too?"
"Yeah, he's currently checking up on Hercules," Chiaki responded, nodding his head. "Hercules is still asleep because of that spell Erebos put on him…"
Soon Blitz came out from behind the pink curtain and joined his two friends.
"He's still the same…" Blitz muttered, sighing.
"Don't worry, Blitz," Sera said, trying to give a reassuring smile. "Stella said that Samara is working on a cure for the ones Erebos cursed, right? She'll probably have it ready soon!"
"I hope so," Blitz responded, nodding his head.
"Soon, Azure, Hercules and the others will be back to normal…" Chiaki said, holding his paw to his chin. "… I wonder if this means that I'll be getting my memory back too."
"Oh, right!" Sera exclaimed, looking over at Chiaki. "Erebos is the one who caused your memory loss, isn't he?"
"I think so," Chiaki replied, nodding his head.
"Actually, I wouldn't be so sure about that," Blitz said.
"What do you mean?" Sera asked as she and Chiaki turned to Blitz.
"It's about our encounter with Erebos when we went to rescue Bow," Blitz responded, rubbing his forelegs together. "Back then… Erebos didn't seem to react in any way to Chiaki being there, not even just a quick glance over at him to suggest that he recognized him."
"Huh, you remembered something like that?" Sera asked, tilting her head slightly.
"Yeah," Blitz replied, nodding his head. "Erebos doesn't seem like the type who would just ignore someone he had cursed like that…"
"But…" Chiaki said, looking somewhat confused. "I'm sure that I must've met Erebos somewhere before…"
"I'm not saying you didn't," Blitz responded. "However, I think we may have to consider the possibility that Erebos isn't the one responsible for your memory loss. There might be another reason."
"Another reason…?" Chiaki muttered, staring at the ground.
"I'll admit that I can't really think of anything else that might've caused it," Blitz responded, sheepishly rubbing his forelegs together. "But I felt that I had to tell you my thoughts on the matter anyways."
"… I see," Chiaki replied.
"… Maybe Elina knows something?" Sera suggested.
"I haven't seen her since we went to rescue Bow," Chiaki responded, shaking his head. "I want to talk to her, but I don't know where she is."
"Ah, I see…" Sera replied, sighing. "That Elgyem… She's a tricky one to track down, isn't she?"
"… Maybe Kala knows where she is," Blitz said, looking over at Chiaki. "Didn't Elina say that Kala was the one teaching her to communicate via telepathy?"
"Oh, that's right!" Chiaki exclaimed, grinning. "She did tell me that Kala was the one giving her telepathy lessons!"
The three of them walked over to Kala's room, and found that the Abra, as usual, was asleep on her pillow. Chiaki walked up to her, and began shaking her by the shoulders.
"Kala, wake up!" Chiaki said as she lightly shook her. "I need to ask you something!"
"We're out of purple…" Kala muttered in her sleep.
"Come on, Kala!" Chiaki said, continuing to shake her.
Kala eventually opened one of her eyes slightly, looking up at Chiaki.
"Oh, it's you guys…" Kala said, yawning. "All right, where do you want to go?"
"Actually, we haven't decided on a mission yet," Chiaki responded. "We just wanted to know if you know where Elina is."
"Elina…?" Kala replied, rubbing her eyes. "Haven't seen her today…"
"Oh…" Chiaki responded, looking down.
"Was that all you wanted?" Kala asked, lying down again on her pillow. "If so, then get out and don't disturb me again unless you need to teleport somewhere…"
"Okay, understood," Chiaki responded, nodding his head slightly. "Thanks, anyways."
"Yeah, sure, whatever…" Kala replied, turning over on her side and going back to sleep.
Blitz, Sera and Chiaki left Kala's room and returned to the main area within the rescue team HQ.
"So… Should we just try to look for Elina ourselves?" Sera suggested.
"Surely she has to be somewhere in town," Blitz said. "If the three of us split up and search, one of us will probably find her."
"Ooh, good idea, guys!" Chiaki replied, grinning. "Let's do that!"
Meanwhile, Yoru was doing his best to keep up with Volt, who kept excitedly running ahead of him on the path. Yoru wished that he could be at home taking a nap about now, but Amethyst had insisted that he get some exercise. At least Amethyst wouldn't worry about him as much if he did this, and Volt seemed to be pretty happy to be running around like this.
"Need me to slow down, Yoru?" Volt asked, glancing over at his older brother.
"Nah, just do whatever you want," Yoru responded.
Volt grinned and ran back over to Yoru, deciding to walk next to him.
"You know what I like about you?" Volt asked, grinning. "You never tell me to not do this or that, or get angry when I accidentally knock something over and things like that!"
"Uh… Thanks, I guess," Yoru replied, shrugging slightly.
"I think it's really cool how you're just so okay with everything," Volt said.
"Cool?" Yoru commented, blinking a few times. "I don't know if that's the word I'd use to describe myself, I mean… I don't really have any talents or anything I'm good at, really."
"I don't believe that," Volt responded, shaking his head. "Surely you must be good at something."
"Oh, I'm perfectly okay with not having any talents, really," Yoru replied.
"… Really?" Volt responded, looking skeptically at Yoru.
"Yeah, really," Yoru replied, nodding his head. "I've never really been especially good at anything, but I don't really see any reason for why I need to be."
"… And you're really okay with that?" Volt asked, leaning in closer to Yoru's face.
"I am," Yoru replied, nodding his head once more.
"… I don't believe you," Volt responded.
"Well… I suppose I'd be pleasantly surprised to find something I'm good at," Yoru finally admitted. "But I don't see the need to worry about it too much."
"Maybe I can help you find out what you're good at?" Volt asked, smiling at Yoru.
"Oh, that's really not necessary," Yoru responded, chuckling.
"And I could ask Flare to help too!" Volt said, grinning.
"Uh, I appreciate the thought, but…" Yoru replied, but Volt didn't seem to be paying attention.
"This is going to be fun!" Volt said, excitedly running in circles around Yoru. "With our help, I'm sure we'll be able to figure out what you're good at!"
"… Just what have I gotten myself into?" Yoru said, chuckling a little. "Well, I suppose he's already made up his mind, so might as well just go with it."
Sera, Blitz and Chiaki had been looking around for a while, but none of them had found any signs of Elina. Considering that Elina could sense their presence with her psychic power and teleport away if she didn't wish to be found, they eventually decided to give up on finding her for now.
"I wonder why we couldn't find her…" Blitz muttered. "Why would she not want to tell Chiaki the truth now that she can…?"
"I'm sure she has her reasons," Chiaki responded, shrugging slightly. "Don't worry too much about it."
"Weren't you the one who wanted to talk to her about your lost memories?" Sera asked, looking over at Chiaki.
"Well, the whole thing about Erebos is kind of confusing, but… I've waited this long, I can wait a little longer," Chiaki responded, nodding his head.
Noticing that the sun was starting to set, Sera realized she had to hurry home and said to her teammates that she would see them tomorrow. They didn't handle any missions today, but maybe tomorrow. Sera didn't pay much attention to her older siblings telling their parents about how their day was as they were all eating dinner together. She found herself wondering what could possibly have caused Chiaki's memory loss if Erebos was not the one responsible.
Chiaki seemed certain that he had met Erebos somewhere before losing his memories, but Blitz's observation about Erebos seemingly not recognizing Chiaki during their rescue mission… She couldn't make sense of this.
"Sera, how was your day?" Sera's mother asked, smiling as she looked over at her youngest daughter.
"Huh?" Sera replied, snapping out of her stupor. "Oh, um… I've been thinking about a lot of things today."
"Oh?" Sera's mother asked, tilting her head slightly.
Sera continued to stare off into space as she continued to think about things, her parents and siblings exchanging some concerned looks. Flare, however, just smiled.
"Isn't it nice?" Flare said, looking around at the others. "Deep in thought like that… It's a sign that Sera is growing up."
"Our little Serafina is growing up…" their mother said, blinking a few times.
"Huh, time sure flies," the father commented, tilting his head slightly. "It's been going by so fast that, I guess we hadn't really noticed…"
"Hold on, what do you mean?" Volt asked, looking somewhat confused. "I don't get all deep in thought like that… Are you saying that Sera is more grown-up than me?"
"Well, some do say that girls mature faster than boys," Sirena commented, smirking.
"No way!" Volt exclaimed, shaking his head.
"Volt, relax," Flare said, trying to calm him down. "There's no need to be in a hurry to grow up."
"Easy for you to say," Volt responded, looking over at Flare. "Ugh, you're not even that much older than me, and yet you're so mature compared to me… I don't get how this works at all!"
"Volt, really, it's not that big a deal," Flare replied, chuckling nervously.
After dinner, Sera returned to the bedroom, still deep in thought. She kept staring out of the window while thinking about everything until she fell asleep. After all of the siblings had gone to sleep, their father noticed that his wife seemed to have something on her mind.
"Summer, is something wrong?" the Leafeon asked, looking over at the Glaceon.
"… It has been a while since all eight of us did something together as a family, hasn't it?" Summer said.
"… Yeah, it has," the Leafeon responded, nodding his head.
"… Next time we have some time off from work; we should do something about that, shouldn't we?" Summer asked, smiling at her husband.
"Yes, we should," the Leafeon replied, smiling back. "For now, we should get some sleep. Good night."
"Good night," Summer responded, laying down next to her husband and quickly falling asleep.
In Silver Woods, a young Misdreavus watched as her mentor placed a few vials containing different colored potions into a basket, telekinetically moving a quill and crossing off items on a list as they were placed inside the basket.
"All right, that's everything," the Misdreavus said, giggling.
"Good," the Mismagius responded, nodding her head.
"So, should we get going now?" the Misdreavus asked.
"No," the Mismagius responded, shaking her head. "I don't think Erebos knows about me yet, but I don't want to risk getting caught in an ambush on the way to Fenix Town."
"So, how are we getting there, then?" the Misdreavus asked.
"Hand over the quill," the Mismagius responded.
The Misdreavus nodded her head, and levitated the quill over to the Mismagius, who grabbed it with one of her sleeve-like arms.
"Time to let Stella know that I've finished my preparations," the Mismagius said with a smirk as she conjured up a blank piece of paper and began writing a letter.
End of Chapter 41