Oh man, what'll happen next!
Layke is gone?! Will we ever hear from him EVER AGAIN? I DON'T KNOW (no that's not true, I do know haha)
Well at least we still have Lucaro... right?
Also, dang, thanks again for your continued support, OMG! You are so kind! I greatly appreciate it C:
Chapter 4: Hopeless Guidance
Once we've rented one of the open rooms of the Oreburgh Pokemon Center, Lucaro flops his dead-weight chimchar-stealer onto the bed, and we awkwardly scrunch together on its edge, sinking into the sheets.
"So... that was, uh..." Drawing off, I tuck my hair behind an ear. My fingers twist around a small braid—and the violent memories come flooding through my mind. Frantically I drop it and scowl, glaring at the floor. "That... D-Dang it, Lucaro, what are we supposed to do now?"
"Wait for the girl, Keebae, to recover," he responds, his paw against my shoulder in that place where—my best friend... put his hand.
"D-D-D-Do you think Layke's—"
"No." His voice is hushed, softer, and his head leans close to mine. Bright amber eyes hold me, steady me. "I did not sense his energy. My aura, when I used it to search for any living beings as we made our escape... saw nothing. No Team, ah, G? None of them, save Keebae. No Layke, either. They must have found another way out."
Leaning into the lucario, his soft fur rubbing against my skin, I whisper, "I wonder how he even found them... I-It was so dark, Lucaro. I couldn't even see my freaking piplup, let alone a secret tunnel leading to wherever that awful chimchar stealing idiot girl came from! Rrggghh..."
"She would not like it if you called her a chimchar stealing idiot."
I blink. "Y-Yeah. Well. I didn't like it when she was an absolute snob to me." Flushing, I mutter, "I don't know if your talking was a good idea either... everyone gets so weird when you do it, which I guess makes sense, but... it draws so much attention..."
"Do... you think I should stay silent?" Lucaro pauses, a fist against his mouth. "You may be correct. I notice, now, a pattern of mistakes that resulted from revealing my humanese to the humans. For all we know, Layke could be safe right now, in another world where you and I did not..." Bites his lip.
"Oh—Don't say that, Lucaro." I nudge him, like he's a person—like he's Layke. Gosh, this is weird. "I'm happy you're here. You're strong." He's... by no means a replacement, but—
Hey, at least you won't fall in love with this one, right?
He has a terrible habit of chirping in at the worst times. Go to sleep, Lup. You zonked yourself out real hard on that giant rock.
Okay, that was the fault of the rock who pushed me into the other giant rock. I take no blame.
Whatever, Lup.
I'm just tired. Tired and...
There's this hole in my chest. I sense it, try to touch it, try to pinch it shut, but it refuses my prodding and stays. All I can do is meaninglessly wonder if it'll ever go away.
Shifting on the bed. I go alert, my body tensing, eyes dipping into our hostage's direction. Hostage? Can she be a hostage if she's from some sort of evil organization that, either way, kidnapped my best friend? This makes us even, doesn't it? Not that Keebae's any amount of competent at pokemon battling. The image of Lucaro punting her flameball of a chimchar across the dark chamber returns vividly to my mind, and I swallow my laughter.
A shady bruise raised around her forehead from where the rocks struck. Her narrow, jaded gaze widens as she pieces together her memories from earlier, and a sharp edge overcomes her features in a shadowy snarl.
"Oh, great. Still stuck with you punks." She doesn't bother to move from the bed, just morphs her hands into fists and throws a glance at the door. "Not gonna let me go free, are you? I—I have a job, okay, a job that I have to do."
I snort. Lucaro's presence leaves my side, and I break eye contact with our snot-nosed hostage to watch him slouch over the door's frame, one aura-lanced paw held out in front of him. He mutters, "Not a threat. A, ah, a promise, if you don't tell us what we need to know."
"Ohhhh, great, great great great great..." Keebae flops, seething, into the pillow. "You're mean. Just let me go already. I did nothing wrong, and Dad's gonna be mad if I take too long." She—freezes—when the word escapes her mouth, Dad.
Who's Dad?
Something tells me that asking her won't garner us an answer, but I really don't have much else to lose. "Dad?"
"Y-Yeah, my dad, duh." One of her eyes peeks out over her arms, curled up around her face, and she squints it as narrow as possible to craft a thinly sharp glare. Accidentally blinks—stiffens—tries again. Settles on a weak stare. "He's not my real dad, but he's as close to a dad as I'm getting, okay. And the longer I stay stuck here, the more disappointed he'll be in me when I get back. I already told you what I know about your dumb boyfriend, so just... let me go, okay. I have no more uses to you anyways. I'm not a, a Commander, or anything." Commander... where do I know that word from...
Lucaro comes alert at the door. "Which Commander destroyed the Oreburgh gym, Keebae?" Ah, that's where. That grunt overhead had referred to their companion as one—the one who must've made the decision to destroy the gym.
She turns to face him and scowls. "Freaking... talking lucario. This thing wasn't around when I saw you last."
"Yeah, well, none of your business," I jump in. "You're the one who kidnapped the chimchar—"
"Shut up shut up shut up," her cheeks fume, blazing hot, and her voice squeaks emphatically, "no I didn't, I'm giving him a better life, don't even think about taking him back from me because I'll bite your face off before I let you do that!"
I scoot closer to her, just out of her hands' reach. "Bite my face off? Geez, what are you, an animal?"
"E-Excuse me!" She launches up and lurches my way, then curls up into herself before she even tries to touch me, tucking her hands protectively around her knees. "Who threw rocks at my face, okay? That was very mean of you. You're mean. I thought you were cute, but you're just, just, just mean."
"Ahhh... do not say such things, Keebae!" Lucaro chimes in, his weirdly emotional eyes welling up with bright color. "Niri is merely upset that your organization kidnapped her friend, and you are the one she has decided to take out her anger upon! I promise you she is rather much kinder than she seems, for she let me join her own organization!"
"We—" I flush. "Lucaro, we're not an organization. We're a team. We work together, not... take orders from some elite, elusive bossman who most likely sucks."
Alert again, Keebae reveals her dark face from behind her knees. "Excuse me, but we're also a team. Team Galactic, duh. And our 'elite, elusive bossman' is actually my dad, okay—and he's cool. That's why I let him be my dad." Then she looks up from the bedsheets and stares into me. I—hesitate, as her eyes soften and face opens up and the tenseness evaporates from her narrow, harsh mouth.
"Y-You don't have to be so mean, okay. I'm just doing my best. I'm not killing anyone, not hurting anything. I'm just doing what Dad wants, so at least one person in this stupid, cursed world will like me."
Her mouth opens to continue, but I intercede. "No. Noooo no no no no. You do not get to cry to me about your sad, sad story. You blew up a freaking gym, probably killed some pokemon that couldn't escape in time, and now my best friend is missing. Say whatever you want, but that's not cool, and you're not convincing me otherwise, so we're not letting you go." I-I mean, I don't know what we're gonna do with her, but the thought of releasing this animalistic thing... makes my stomach curdle into knots.
Her eyes seek further into mine, then frantically dart back. She hides her face behind her hands and mutters, "Let me go see my dad... I didn't blow it up, Commander Mars did... He already likes Mars more than he likes me, okay... this is just gonna make everything so much worse..." As she whispers, she curls further into her self, her words softer, weaker, heavier.
I get up. To—To hit her, shake her, hurt her, snap her out of her stupid sappy stupor, I'm not sure. But I get up and I march over there—only for a hand of blue aura to hold me back. My head snaps up and I growl, "Lucaro, what are you—" and he zips past me, crouching in front of the girl.
"We will let you go." He must miss the scowl of disgust on my face, because he continues on like it's not there. "We will let you go, but only under one condition—but we will let you go." His paws gently cup around her face, and he tilts her tear-stained chin up to face him. "My one condition is this: that you tell us everything you learn about the boy, Layke, who was with us. He has... he looks like this."
His amber eyes shut, and his head bumps against hers; with a gasp, she wrenches her suddenly bright gaze open and shudders around his grip. "H-How did you..." But she draws off, as if in fear, and she gazes upon the lucario.
"I have established an aura link between us." Blue aura drips from his paw and solidifies around her arm like a bracelet. "I will know if you are lying, Keebae, and I will sense when you, in particular, are near. The next time we find you, you will tell us what you know." Then he steps back, distancing himself, grappling my arm with a paw.
"Now please, reunite with your father."
She stares at me, mouth agape, then darts to her feet, standing woozily, shaking, panting, checking for her poke balls, checking for her chimchar, and she's gone from the chamber, the door slamming behind her.
Once she's gone, I turn on him. "Lucaro, what the heck? She—"
"She did not know anything. Could you not tell, Niri?" His great amber eyes meet mine; his whole body radiates of an inner focus that I most certainly lack, and it's never been more clear to me than now. "She merely wished to see her father once again. It would be cruel of us to imprison her here, whether or not her people did the same to Layke. The cycle of suffering only ends when one party has elected not to continue it—and I am doing just that." And I—well, I can't really say anything to that.
My heart chills, and I stumble against him, letting my head rest on his shoulder. "I'm very mad, but I'm also very tired." Sigh. Breathe. "And I guess you're a lot smarter than I am, because I wasn't thinking through my emotions, just, uh, just feeling them. S-Sorry, Lucaro."
His paw pats the side of my head once, and he says, "It is alright, Niri. I am also worried for the sake of our friend, but... now at least we have a way of learning more. Keebae will meet her father, and she now has an incentive to discover what they did to the boy. And we have a way of accessing her once again."
"You... urrrggh, you stupid smart lucario, you're right..." Something about his actions and me, his nasty mirrored opposite, just... boils my blood. He knows what to do, has known this whole time. I can't help but doubt myself, then lash out at this poor freaking little girl who just wants to see her dad. How old is she—fourteen, fifteen? Gosh. Who am I to judge, really?
Who am I, indeed...
Dragging my hair behind an ear, I mutter, "Well, now what?"
"We could continue the search for ourselves. Perhaps the more experienced gym leaders will know more entailing the feats of this Team Galactic."
"H-Haha..." I shake my head. "Roark did not. That... man, he was so awkward. I'm embarrassed for him. I guess he's probably never had a run-in with, who are they, Team Galactic, what a name. But... geez, he was a mess. Just gave us the freaking badges and walked off...
Lucaro pads over to the door and tugs it open, gesturing my way. I start to walk until I hesitate, until the hand is around my throat and I can't stop it from spilling out, slowly until I can't stop it. "I-I... Lucaro, what if they come for me next? They—They just... gone, with Layke, I... I d-d-don't feel safe... I'm kind of... I mean, I'm not strong. My piplup isn't all that strong. I mean, he is, but he also really isn't yet. And it's not like y-you'll be around every single time I need help. L-Like who knows when I'll be in danger? Wh-Wh-Wh-What does Team Galactic even want? I-I... I... I'm scared... I'm really scared, Lucaro..." The floor shudders, and I crouch, and I breathe, but it's never fast enough.
"Niri..."
I look up and he's gone on his stupid silent toes. Frantically I force myself back to my feet and stumble after him, out the door, beyond the pokemon center, into the muddled town of Oreburgh. It's practically unchanged save for the kidnapped traveler who none of them would even recognize if they saw him again. I clutch at Lucaro, and he—he glances back.
"Oh I... sorry. I was planning to return shortly. I just wanted to find... I thought I saw..."
He leads me along, through the small village, past rock-walled houses and over rock pathways, until we reach the entrance of the once-gym. The sign for it has snapped over, hit by a rock or fractured by the quaking earth below.
Lucaro eyes this sign, the sharp metal rod that once held it up, and he crouches in front of it. His paws intercept its edges, then he tugs at it, fractures of concentration breaking out along his forehead.
With a grunt, he forces the rod out of the ground. He returns to his place in front of me, gesturing to open up my hands. Then he deposits this giant cold rod into my palms. "There. Now you will always have protection."
I bite into my lip. "Lucaro, this thing's cold."
He shrugs. "Your body will be colder if its corpse is left..." draws off. "I said nothing."
"D-D-Did you just make a death joke? Geeeeez, Lucaro, a-a-aren't you just full of surprises!"
"I-I-I do not mean it. Please do not judge me. I am just trying to help."
"No it's... It's..." I stop, look back, struggle with the smirk on my face. "You're fine, Lucaro. I was just surprised." Of all people, why am I the one with the talking lucario?
We make our way to a small outcropping and forge our way up it with the wonderful assistance of Lucaro's aura powers. I find added help in my giant cold pole, which I wedge into the ground like a walking stick and awkwardly shimmy my way up the path. As we leave Oreburgh behind us, the sky begins to darken, the sun sinking into the horizon.
Layke's bag had my sleeping bag. Our first-aid, our extra clothes and poke balls and berries for when we were too scared to heal at Nurse Morrow's. Pretty much everything.
Chuckling softly, I finger the braid he tied for me just yesterday. "I guess we'll really be roughing it out here in the wildlife, huh? Layke had all our supplies..."
"Ah... really now. That is... unfortunate." Lucaro... frowns. "We will have to find some pokemon trainers to fight and earn money from them."
"Oh. Right."
Really pays off to have an overly developed lucario on the team. I'd lost a lot of my battle money already due to a certain piplup's inability to fight. And of course, if he was awake, he'd blame it on my lack of experience...
But this isn't so bad. The fresh, outdoorsy breeze, the bright plants and the hushed whisper of pokemon feet and pokemon voices, just outside of our periphery. The darkness settles in a dreamlike serenade, and the nighttime orchestra resounds around us, overwhelmingly slow and nuanced, wholly enamoring.
Trees' boughs quiver above us as if in laughter. I reach out and pluck a berry from one, then another, proffering it to the lucario at my side. He takes one and tries it, then sighs in soft pleasure, berry juice splattered across his snout.
As the darkness beckons, we forge our own path through knotted trees' roots and bushels and the quiet reminder that we are not alone in this world, that hundreds of breathing beings rest at our feet and overhead and sing just so softly in the moonlight.
He's lost in it. He can hear it all, of course, and whatever it is, it compels a winking tear in the edge of his gaze.
Maybe it's just the peace. Peace after whatever he lived through to make it to here.
