Chapter 10: The nature of Lilac's past.
From the perspective of Kitsune, the Ninetales"No…" it came as a surprise to me, not even a human could possibly fail to see Katar's importance. Knowledge of an enemy provides a great advantage, and it would be vital if we were to avoid any traps that we could face in the future.
"Wait, Lilac!" I barked; I could feel my tails had gone limp and it felt like the worst of it was yet to come, "we need him for us to give us a good advantage, I promise he won't suffer too much. In fact if it has to be, I'll get him to talk without causing any harm at all by making him fall in love with me. After we've finished with him I'm sure we'll find a nice trainer to give him to and everything… Anyway Omega feels a bit lonely since he can't understand you and I hate him, though I won't hurt him because you wouldn't like that. He could really do with someone to talk with."
"I can't take him with me, Kitsune," she looked as though she was about to cry, "I can't even handle controlling you or Omega, certainly not both of you at the same time. I freeze up in battle becoming hopeless to provide any assistance, and we could have been killed out there against that fiend. At least without me, you wouldn't have to worry about her coming after you. I don't want anyone to die because of me."
I stood there shocked, barely noticing her run out the door, picking up her bag as she went. She had left, and I hadn't even seen it coming. All the power a ninetales is meant to have, and all the power I had already learned to control, failed to give me enough of a door into her mind to spot her suffering like this.
At least Nurse Joy and Officer Jenny were as speechless as me. Tracking Lilac would be easy. Nose to the ground I headed after her. I stopped. A ninetales walking by itself nose to the ground would be an embarrassing situation to be caught in, we are meant to be better than that. My species were meant to wait for prey, not track it down. Omega would have to do the tracking then.
I turned and dashed through the Pokemon Centre, quickly finding Omega lying still sedated on a bed. Waking him could have been much fun, but being quick was more important. Fun and quick was still possible. I bit into his tail, quickly jerking away, thus pulling him right off the bed. The bite awoke him but he was still too dozy to make much of a yelp or brace himself for hitting the ground.
"What was that for?" He yawned as he got up onto unsteady feet, the affects of the sedative hadn't worn off yet. "I was having the most bizarre dream. It was snowing and Lilac, that absol, and I were snuggling together to sleep out in the middle of it. You were no where in sight, and your scent was no longer even on Lilac's clothing… I know it sounds boring but it was about to get good."
There was no time to consider the meaning of dreams, especially of a creature that would never have premonitions of any sort, "Lilac has run off because… well that evil lady upset her, and I doubt seeing that absol again helped. You better start tracking her scent or I'll run off without you too."
He started off slow, warbling towards the door, slowly shaking the remaining effects of artificial sleep. He was still too out of it to question my orders. It'd be hard to look dignified while following him, but I had to try. I stretched my tails out, and held my head high in the air, and took up a very strutting walk style. We soon headed straight out the door unobstructed.
"Let them go and don't send any police to make sure Lilac is okay," I heard Nurse Joy say as we left the Pokemon Centre, presumably to Officer Jenny, "this is a matter best left with her Pokemon, it'll help develop better bonds of friendship between them."
Omega dashed sleepily though the streets with me close behind, though his progress was much slower than I would have liked. The trail led us right out of town, and into the sparse area of trees that covered the local landscape.
"So, how are we going to cheer Lilac up?" Omega finally asked, it was a question that felt too important to be asked by one whose nose was in the dirt but a grubby dog like him couldn't have known any better, "when any of my siblings were upset they usually just took it out on me, but Lilac seems too weak to do such a thing. For one thing she isn't dominant over anyone, so she's more likely to be picked on. You wouldn't drag us after her if there wasn't an easy way to fix the problem."
"First off let me do all the talking," the answer wasn't an easy one to come up with, and it was just something I was hoping I wouldn't be asked. Such questions are always the more important ones, "when we find her you just sit back and try to look guilty about her feeling upset. That should bring some comfort to her, though I'm sure I'll be able to talk to her about what happened to help her out. Afterwards I'm sure she'll be in a playful mood for a bit, giving us both a chance to make a better impression on her than we have in the past."
"For a moment I thought you would suggest one of those barbaric human sports like gym battles," Omega was showing more knowledge on human culture than expected of him, "I have heard rumours about them and how humans crave for the small objects that are given for completing them. It's said that it involves putting a human's Pokemon against several unnaturally strong ones… usually with devastating results."
We continued in silence, Omega picking up that I didn't want to hear more almost telepathically. The pattern of my walk probably went out a bit, and his hearing could have picked this up. There was no way anything else could have tipped him off.
There Lilac was, sobbing under a tree. Pink petals fell from it, drifting harmlessly around her. Oddly enough, the flowers were only in bloom right above her, none of the rest of the tree was. In fact none of the other trees were in bloom either. This probably was no coincidence. Flower petals seemed to have some attraction for some humans and this probably lured her to the tree. How a tree would end up like this was beyond my knowledge but it had to be natural.
It had taken most of the day to find her, but we were probably still heading in the right direction to reach the next town. Lilac was at least smart enough not to lead us off course when running off, right?
Omega lay down silently a short distance from her, faking silent tears quite well for a first time, though he completely failed to stop his tail vigorously wagging. I carefully walked closer too, the petals felt nice under my feet.
"Lilac, please don't be sad…" it wasn't hard to sound sincere, it actually felt like I wasn't faking, but that would be impossible, "it makes us sad too. We can help if you let us, and there is no way that evil human female will be able to harm us if we're together. Please tell Omega and I what is wrong."
"It is always said that espeon would do anything to protect their master, and their very psychic powers are developed to meet that purpose," Lilac's voice sounded sad and quite empty, "what if the danger was not physical, but mental instead? If they desired to protect then they'd just take away all the pain, all the fear, and all the emotions that were undesirable. Logically no harm could possibly come from such tampering, it's not like they would ever stop tampering to keep their masters stable. It's not like anyone would be willing to leave such protection behind…"
"In a way I always knew they did do it, but part of the effect was stopping me, or any of my family from worrying about it," tears began to drip down her face, "I remember when I was quite young, I was right there in the same room as my parents as they were brutally murdered. I know I was too young to do anything to stop it but that was no excuse for what happened next… It was as if no one even noticed they were dead, not even my older brother. Everyone continued with life as normal, we were all prevented from doing anything else. The murder was never even reported to the police and as far as the world is concerned both of them are still alive. It was almost a perfect utopian state of mind we were in."
"…But even the espeon, developing their powers for that specific purpose, had limitations," I stood in a shocked silence, though I managed to catch a glance at Omega. He was being quite quiet considering he shouldn't have been able to understand what was happening, "they are mainly diurnal, so the powers manipulating us were stronger during the day, and during the night it was much weaker, and especially round the time of the new moon. But the biggest problem, and certainly the one that allowed me to leave, is that no espeon uses their powers during the Twilight between day and night other than one. Why that one espeon didn't stop me is something I will never know…"
"I'm no Pokemon trainer, and I can never be one since I'm not used to my emotions like everyone else is," she concluded, "I'm not even sure I can manage to cope with life much longer outside the protection of espeon. I know it was easy for me to accept understanding Pokemon, as, in a way, I always could when the espeon wanted me to, but it is something no other trainer is capable of and thus isn't a skill that is of much use. The worst part is that I'm sure of who killed my parents now, and I can't even feel angry about it or make myself want revenge. In fact I would feel guilt if anything did happen."
"No… you can become a great Pokemon trainer," a sick feeling was in my stomach, and my voice was weak. A memory tried to surface in my mind, though I tried to remember what it was that Lilac had reminded me of. It was beyond my grasp, too painful to remember. All that mattered was cheering Lilac up about her painful past; my past would wait till another day, "we will battle in a gym and earn a badge, it'll prove you're good enough. If we fail I promise I won't hate you if you try to catch me in a Poke Ball…"
I barely managed to stop myself adding the fact she'd fail if she tried anyway, it would not have been helpful. She glanced up at me with her sad eyes, but I could see things were going to start getting back on track faster than I hoped.
"Will catching you be enough to cheer me up," she almost laughed, "it's difficult to decide which would make me happier, giving you a reason to behave or earning a badge. It's not like I'm the type that feels getting a badge is a great achievement, but as much as I need to get control of my life, I'd hate to make you uncomfortable by catching you. Well the duty of a good Pokemon trainer is to keep their Pokemon happy, usually from good victory celebrations, so winning a badge it is."
"Kitsune, you said we weren't going to do that," Omega whined, "I don't want to be battered around by some Pokemon for no comprehendible reason. Win or lose the gym leader is said to stay on top, there's not even a good meal for fighting."
That pushed Lilac into uncontrolled laughter, a successful plan well executed. It was hopefully the first of many to come on the way to my goal. Making promises like that would probably be necessary and keeping a good reputation would require me to fulfill those promises.
"You don't have to participate if you don't want to."
