Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon or its characters.
"Getting the others up to speed is the easiest option, are you sure this is what you want to do?" Ethan eyed his friend warily as the other boy slowly climbed down from Lugia's large body, only when Spiegel stood with both feet on the short grass that his apprehension faded away. "This will be difficult if the last time was any indication… Maybe I should be the one doing it."
"No…" Spiegel replied, his breathing slightly shaken. He walked over and stood next to Ethan on the top of the small hill at the green garden at the top of Ever Grande. His eyes darted to the small house sitting lonely at the scenery, making his heart ache a little. "I have to do this, even if she will hate it."
A light snort escaped the young golden-eyed trainer. "If you say so, buddy." As Ethan said if last time is any indication of how things will work, saying that Zinnia will not be happy seeing them is a huge understatement.
"Ethan…" Spiegel called out to his friend, who turned his golden eye to him in response. "You're hiding something aren't you?" The question was not said in an accusatory fashion, nor did the words carry any type of ill intention to them; yet Ethan felt a sharp jab at his side after hearing it.
"What makes you say that?" Ethan asked back, his gaze profoundly studying his friend's reaction.
A low sigh came out from Spiegel, turning his head to the side; he 'revealed' his duo-colored eyes. The blue and red he carried before his massive fight against Brendan, returned to him few days after the incident, leaving him even more confused about his state. "When you were explaining your idea to Flannery and I. You had this guilty look in your eyes, like sharing that plan with us… with me, was tearing up from inside out."
"Sheesh, was I that obvious?" Ethan shook his head, messing with the back of his hair with one hand.
"Flannery didn't say anything, but I'm pretty sure she had her suspicions as well." Spiegel added.
"Poor Cutie, she looked devastated when we left her in Lavaridge." Quirking up one brow, he looked back at his friend, a clear observation now creeping up inside his mind. "That's why you were so adamant about leaving her there?"
"Flannery, she is…" Now Spiegel sighed deeply, his face breaking down from its cold-stoic mood to a very soft and warm one. "Amazing is one easy word to describe her. I am not dumb, nor I was oblivious to what I have forced her to go through. Even locked inside that room, I could feel her on the other side of that door, always looking out for me. She didn't need to, the day I showed up on her door she could've just pushed me away. Instead, she took me in, cared for this broken piece of crap that I am right now… she deserves more than that."
Ethan firmly frowned, taking a more firm stance closer to his friend. "You want something to go wrong?" He asked outraged. "If something goes bad and you die, then she will be free of you. Is that it? That is your reasoning for coming with me?"
One flared glare was Spiegel's immediate response to the question. His duo-colored heated gaze was like a piercing blade, poking a hole through Ethan's chest. "No… never. The opposite in fact." He replied calmly, a wild contrast from his initial reaction. "Living with her was nothing short of bliss. She gave me so much, much more than what I could put in words. But I am not dumb, Ethan. Flannery was always enamored with Brendan, not me. I can tell why she has chosen to stay with me, deep down she still clings to this image of him, that one day I will just turn around and be what he was."
"Isn't that unfair to her? You're basically saying that she is only with you because of how you look, who you resemble." Ethan said in a disagreeing tone, his head shaking slightly and slowing. "Flannery doesn't seem to be a shallow person, someone who would lead you in, wanting to be with someone else."
"I know she isn't, I know that. But the look in her eyes, that hopeful glint in her gaze, it always tells me how much she wants me to be like him… I get it. Before I was just like that. In a way, I am Brendan, right? It should not be that hard for me to act like him, to talk like him, to be him." With trembling fists swinging at his side, Spiegel crouched on the grass, closing his eyes in a pained manner. "You don't know how much it broke me, the day I finally understood I could never be him. It was naïve to think otherwise. Brendan lived through a lot; he did so much, traveled to a lot of places, got to know various people. What did I do? I got his memories, but that is it. I came to exist in less than one year; I did nothing, lived nothing. Doesn't surprise me how easy I broke down without him here."
Ethan stared at his friend with an understanding but concerned gaze. He doesn't know what it is like to be inside Spiegel's shoes, no one could. Yet, Ethan knows a bit how following blindly after someone's legacy destroys you, slowly and painfully, showing in the cruelest manner how you will never be more than yourself. "You don't need to be him." He tried to comfort his friend, something that work in part, as Spiegel looked at him with attentive eyes. "Brendan is a pretty great guy, even for the little I got to know him. But you're something else yourself too. Without you, this entire place would be gone. You lived something, and I can tell that with all certainty because you saved everyone this time, not Brendan, not me… You did it."
Spiegel lowered his gaze to the grass in a thought-lost manner, he pondered over those words for a moment and then raised his head again, this time giving Ethan one wide and bright thankful smile. "Thank you. That means a lot coming from you."
"Don't worry about it, buddy. I meant every word." Ethan responded with one wide smile himself.
Spiegel got back on his feet, but remained in place, just letting his gaze wander back to the house a bit far in the distance. "I will leave." He said quietly. "The reason why I left Flannery back on her house, is because I will go away after we do this."
"What?!" Ethan practically shouted his confusion loudly in the air. "What about we just talked? How you like her and all that?"
"That's why I will leave." Spiegel replied seriously. "On this little time I spent with Flannery, I fell in love with her. I want to spend my entire life with that girl, but I cannot; not in the way that I am right now. I want to grow, I want to travel to different places, and I want to discover who I truly am. I told you that Flannery deserves more, so much more. I will become that, not this mess that I am right now, but a person who can truly stand at her side and make her proud of having me with her."
Ethan scratched his head with a conflicted look in his face; he was ready to yell his friend back into his senses, but now he is just too confused to know how to proceed. "What if she just finds someone else? You'll be leaving without notice and then expect her to wait for you? That's a little hopeful, isn't it?"
"That could happen… and I would hate it. But that is a risk I need to take." Spiegel then cleared his throat with a low cough, his cheeks getting a small tint of red in them as he slowly rolled his eyes to the other side. "B-But, I will not be leaving her in the dark. Before you showed up today, I was already planning in doing this… that's why I had written a letter to her. I left it with Linoone and asked him to give it to her when I finally mustered enough courage to leave. Knowing him he has probably given it to her when we stepped out of the town."
"Geez, another letter?" Ethan rolled his eyes up, but his lips slowly twitched into a teasing smirk. "I bet that your only way of flirting with her was leaving small notes spread around her house." He snorted a short laugh. "Imagine, she walks up to the fridge and finds a note 'Cutie, your smile is brighter than the sun.' And then she finds a little chocolate taped to the thing; Oh the romance."
Spiegel fell silent in his embracement. In a way, because Ethan has this gift of being obnoxiously rude when he wants to, but also because he painted the scene way too close for comfort; Spiegel once made Flannery a short poem and left it on her bed, she told him that it was cute but a little tacky. Watching Brendan making fun of this only exacerbated the feeling that maybe Flannery was just being polite with him, which left the young Doppelganger mortified.
"N-never mind that!" Spiegel loudly proclaimed. "We should get going… there is a lot left to do after this."
"Sure thing, Romeo." Ethan's laughed his way after his friend, who had to hasten his pace after this other jab. "Oh, I know!" Announced the golden-eyed jester. "Maybe you should write a letter and slide it down the front door. That might do the job."
Luckily for Ethan, he is now quite a few steps behind Spiegel or else he would have heard a few not very polite names that his friend was throwing out his way.
Soft little feet tiptoed quietly from the living room and past the open door of the bedroom, in her little play of sneaking closer to her mom, Aster stood next to the wardrobe with just her long ears popping into view. Before; anytime the curious Whismur tried to catch her mom by surprise, Zinnia would somehow jump at her and surprise Aster instead. Today Aster has already climbed her way up the large bed, making a great number of noises in her clumsy movements, yet Zinnia didn't even make a motion to turn and gaze at her.
"Mommy…" Aster called out to Zinnia, only them the bronze-skinned girl raised her head a little and gazed at the pinky ball.
Snapping her attention away from the box sitting in front of her, Zinnia brought her bright emerald-glowing eyes to her little girl. Her eyes are puffed and her cheeks marked with a small bruised line on them as if she kept rubbing it again and again. "Aster…" She replied, her voice filled with nothing more but motherly love. Every time Zinnia hears her little girl's voice, now a proper one instead of her cute little cries from before, her hearts warm up and yet aches a little bit.
Skipping in little jumps her way closer to Zinnia, Aster moved to her side and poked her curious little eyes to the box in front of them. "Why are you looking at the box again?" She asked a bit worried.
Zinnia looked down at Aster climbing up her lap and a soft smile broke her lips apart. "Because it makes me feel better." She explained to Aster. "I miss him, I miss Brendan so much. But when I touch one of these…" Her hands went inside the box, pulling up with them the old and battered white cap Brendan used to wear on his younger days. "It just…" A harsh sob cut her voice; a tinkling spot appeared on her eyes as her head slowly sunk. "Like touching a part of him."
Suddenly keeping her eyes open was too much for the young draconid woman. Bringing that silly hat closer to her chest, she failed completely to hold the tears back any longer. Like many more times before, she held onto one of his mementos and cried without restraints; her sadness fighting to leave her body through those tears.
"Mommy!" Aster said in distress. The little pink ball pressed strongly against Zinnia's belly, her own little eyes getting wet with rolling tears. "I don't want you to cry… Please don't cry…" Aster eyed the white hat and her mouth began to swirl sadly. "Mommy, when is daddy coming back?"
Seeing her own little precious girl turn into a mess of tears and sobs, Zinnia took Aster into her arms and pressed her into a tight, loving embrace."Oh, Aster…" She thought of saying the truth, that Brendan is never coming back, but just thinking about it is enough to make Zinnia's heart-break three times more.
While mother and daughter shed tears together in that small bedroom, three others felt their grief escalate with the sound of those loud sobs. Naito and Layla both are sadly resting at the corner next to the couch; the smaller bird is resting her head on the fluffy plumage of the bigger Honchkrow. They all miss their friend dearly and watching Zinnia crying occasionally every day only makes their own pain worse.
However, from the trio of Brendan's old team the who is having it the worse it's Ekkisu. Stoic, strong-minded and always the caring leader; Ekkisu is always sharing comfort with both his team partners and the strange woman he came to like as a close friend. But inside the thick layer of reliance and strong appearance, lies the heart of a little Trecko, who for all his life shared aspirations and adventures with someone, someone that is now gone. While Ekkisu doesn't cry, not in front of anyone here, in the inside he is an even bigger mess than anyone else.
Intruding on the low choir of Zinnia and Aster sobbing voices, a flow of three knocks sounded on the front door. Layla and Naito stared at the ringing wood, while Ekkisu growled quietly and got up from his spot on the floor. With an unfriendly scowl already plastered on his face, the big Sceptile stood in front of the door and pulled the thing open. Right then, his heart stopped for a moment.
"Ekkisu!" That ever so familiar voice called out to him. If it was not for his body being stuck in place, Ekkisu would have lunged himself forward and embraced that man in front of him. "It is… good to see you again, friend." The blue-red eyed boy brought his arm up and messed up the backside of his long brown hair, this unconscious movement highlighting his arm properly, its light-grey color, blue glowing lines, and red gems sticking out.
Only then it dawned on Ekkisu that this person in front of him is not Brendan, not really. Then his overly excited expression shifted to an extremely unhappy one. The tall Sceptile thought of saying something, anything even if rude, but decided to just grunt a response back to Spiegel.
Being under the scrutiny of those sharp yellow eyes is an unnerving experience, one that Spiegel never imagined he would be in. "Can I see Zinnia?" His voice getting a bit rougher and his words stuttering slightly. "This is really important."
Ekkisu grunted again, not in a positive answer but neither a negative one. Just one neutral acknowledging grunt. Shifting his eyes to the left, he also noticed a second figure standing there, the trainer with shining golden eyes. As Ethan waved him a simple greeting, Ekkisu felt a bit more loose and less angry at the moment, making him consider stepping aside and letting the man with his friend's face walk in.
"Ekkisu?" Zinnia's voice called from behind the Sceptile. "Who are you talking to?" She asked with a deflated tone, almost as if she was just concerned about Ekkisu's safety and not really interested in the person standing outside. That is until she got a glimpse of that long brown hair swinging to the side with a gush of wind. First, her legs almost gave out, it was like a scene from one of her dreams where Brendan would just show up on the door and greet her with a big smile. Then her chest flared up in heated anger because this is not a dream and Brendan did not have his long hair anymore, someone else did.
Seeing the dark-skinned girl stepping heavily in her way to the door, Spiegel shivered but remained steady. "Zinnia." He called her. "I know this is not what you wanted, but we need to tal-" Her right fist came flying from behind Ekkisu's left side, she practically jumped out of the house with a powerful uppercut slamming its way onto Spiegel's right cheek.
Getting hit so suddenly like that and with his body being weaker than before, the young doppelganger went flying down to the grassy ground, gasping loudly as his back crashed down heavily. Right then, in the most ridiculous and cinematic fashion, Zinnia leaped from her spot and landed with her bums on top of Spiegel's chest and her knees pressing against his arms, tightly pinning him on the ground.
The next hit was unconscious, her left hand just came flying from the side and slapping him so hard on his face that his head did an ugly bash against the ground. "How dare you show your face here?!" She yelled angrily, her right-hand curling into a fist and dangling dangerously above his face.
After getting hit on the face once and then slamming his head on the ground right after, Spiegel is having a hard time distinguishing what he can see and what is just a blob of shadow in his vision. "W-we need to talk!" He said in an erratic response, trying to free his hands and protect his face from any other punch, but the pressure of her legs is too much for him to do anything.
"Like I want to talk with you." She spat with a tingle of venom in her words. "You… You… He should not be the one gone, not when there is an impostor wearing his face." Gritting her teeth with the turmoil that she is right now, Zinnia pressed her lips, a new wave of tears appearing on her eyes. "That day… the one who should've gone-"
"Stop." Ethan grabbed her right hand, making Zinnia stop her words and look at him. "You don't want to go there, no matter how angry you are, that is still too far."
Zinnia lowered her head a little, her eyes getting hidden from everyone, her body shivering like a green twig against the wind. "Shut up…" She said weakly. "What you want here anyway?"
"He told you already, didn't he?" Ethan replied back. "He wants to talk with you."
She snorted, her emerald glowing eyes going back to Ethan and then down to Spiegel again. "Why would I ever talk with you again?"
"Because I want to bring Brendan back." Spiegel's words were short, pained and not very loud. Yet the strength and impact they had on her were more massive than the size of the once-great Sky Pillar. Zinnia fell into a deep, contemplative silence. She looked at him with a different kind of light in her eyes, not one of disgust as moments ago, but one of pure curiosity and hope. Seeing that she would not react until he gave something more, Spiegel continued. "But I can't do that alone, we can't." He pointed with his head to Ethan. "Zinnia… I know that looking at me is not easy and that we parted ways in horrible terms, but… I need your help. Please, work with us."
Landing on the outskirts of Littleroot town is never an easy task, doing so while ridding Lugia of all Pokémon is just a bombastic mess. To make matters slightly 'worse' Ethan had chosen a secluded spot deep in between large trees, but if only by chance one Professor Birch was right there at the moment doing his wild Pokémon studies and almost got squished to death by some falling trees.
Ever in high spirits and good mood, Birch didn't let his near-death experience shy his curiosity away. As soon as Ethan jumped into the ground, the old professor was all over him or more precisely all over Lugia. The silvered-bird did the unthinkable and pleaded with his eyes for Ethan to take this intruding man away, too bad for Lugia that Ethan has this borderline sadistic teasing nature to him, in the end, Lugia was left to 'fend' for himself, against the curious pokes and awe-struck gazes coming from the chubby man.
"Papa, are you okay?!" May's distressed voice echoed from behind the tree line.
"Professor? Are you here?" Following right closely by Wally's own voice.
Ethan chuckled, shaking his head softly as he watched the hustling of leaves around the brushes. "He is here too. Quite the prediction you had there." He eyed his friend standing at his side.
"Be my fami… Brendan's family or May, Wally has too much that is dear to him in Littleroot. It is easy to see why he would spend his spare time here." Spiegel replied.
"Isn't she, your ex-girlfriend or something?" Ethan raised the question in a bit silly manner, but his gaze is as sharp as ever. "Don't you mind Wally being with her all the time?"
"W-What? O-Of course not. That is in the past, it has been so long. If they end up together, I will be happy for them." Rubbing his face with one hand to hide the red tint in his cheek, Spiegel casually looked away in his reply, but not missing the sly smirk he was getting from Ethan. "What?" He asked the golden-eyed boy.
"You backtrack at any mention of what 'is Brendan' and what are you. But so casually you admitted that you had something with her, even though that is not really true." Ethan saw his friend frown and motion to defend himself, so he just raised one hand to stop him. "I am not accusing you. It is only natural that you feel this way, in some way or another, you both are the same person. So, stop pushing yourself, no more 'his family', just embrace the fact that you are Brendan too."
Spiegel lost his blush but gained a deep look on his face as he turned to face Ethan again. He considered, frowned and then snorted. "That's easier said than done." He relented. "If I start 'taking' his role, even if it is to play along… How long until I start to get dumb ideas in my head again?"
"Scared of reverting to that need of being Brendan?" Ethan eyed him curiously.
Spiegel shook his head and sighed. "I'm scared of becoming like that Josh guy. He wanted so badly to be something that he was not, that he lost sight of what was right and what was wrong. Ethan, even I get pushed and shoves away by everyone, even by you. I don't want to… I will not become a monster."
A reassuring smile appeared on Ethan's lips, he walked closer to Spiegel and gave him a soft slap on his back. "You're not a monster, buddy. Neither will you become one. Someone who puts other people above their needs, they are nothing but a hero in my book."
Hearing that was so weird for Spiegel, weird but so comforting. He turned his gaze to the side, in a bit of a shy manner, the most innocent but glad smile ever shining on his face. "Thanks."
"Brendan!" May gasp echoed below the tree branches blocking the sky, her eyes widening quite a lot with the sight of the long-haired boy. "Oh…" This same ecstatic gaze followed down a trailed to his odd arm, it was impossible for her to hide her disappointment, which hurt the young doppelganger even if she did not intended to.
Wally quickly appeared from behind the green path of tall grasses, his eyes widening just as much as May's but instead of getting deflated with the quick realization of who this is, he looked even more happy than before. "Spiegel! Where in the hell have you been? We looked for you everywhere."
"Hiding…" Spiegel said curly. "Feeling too pathetic to get out of my room and feeling too ashamed of showing you how pathetic I am."
"Pathetic?" Wally gave him one odd look, followed by a scolding frown. "I understand taking your time to cope with all that mess, but feeling pathetic?" Changing his expression in a snap, the green-haired boy let his lips spread into a grin as he shook his head in playful disapproval. "You are too much of a Brendan… I swear. How come you two always feel like crap when you were the one saving everyone?"
"I agree with Wally." May stepped forward, any signs of her disappointment completely gone from her face. "Why do you two always tries to push everyone aside when you're hurting? We are your friends, friends can help heal this type of thing. We want to help you heal the hurting in your heart." She glanced at the young man at her side with a firm stance. "Right?"
Wally quickly nodded, taking his eyes back to Spiegel and getting very serious again. "That's right. I… feel especially responsible for you now, kinda. My friend had been hurting all this time and before I could make up my mind and help him… he was gone." His green-tea hair swings like soft feathers in the air as he slowly shook his head, biting his lips in deep emotional pain. "There's no way that I repeating the same mistake with you."
Feeling her own emotions resonate with Wally's words, his regrets; May brought one of her hands to his shoulders, taking back his full attention to her. She gave him one sad small smile, and that glint in her eyes showed him how much she feels the same way, that his mistake is one that she shares as well. "As Wally said. I don't want you escaping from our lives too, I won't accept it. Even if I have to lock you up in my house."
Wally chuckled, raising both hands up in the air. "I will not go that far, but I share the same sentiment."
Spiegel had made his mind to confront May and Wally, he had steeled his nerves for anything. Surely, he didn't expect either of them to lunge at him with fists trembling as Zinnia did, but any sort of resentment was more than expected in his mind. Imagine his shock when he found only the opposite. He has cried in front of them, share laughter and joy in the smallest of occasions and the silliest of talks. However, never in his dreams, he imagined Wally and May to share any kind of love for him, not for a freak like him.
"Goddammit…" Spiegel brought his light-grey hand to his face, rubbing his eyes with the soft inner side of his claw-like fingers. "Why are you two this nice to me?" Despite his best efforts, trying to hold in, one loud and long sob escaped his lips.
"Are you stupid?" Wally asked, a light frown taking over.
"It's maybe a Brendan thing?" May added with a giggle.
"We are your friends. Put that inside that thick-Brendan-head of yours." Wally stepped closer to Spiegel, punching him lightly on his chest and leaving his fist there. When Spiegel opened his eyes, he only saw his green-haired friend smiling warmly to him. "Don't forget about that."
Barely containing the happiness inside his chest, the blue and red eyes young trainer just nodded, giving back to Wally one sincere and grateful smile.
"That was so cute. Friends sure are the greatest treasure." Ethan waited for long enough, finally jumping in as the trio of friends locked themselves into a messy hug. "Can I count this situation as under control or you still need my help?" He asked the smiling doppelganger.
"It's okay… I will tell them." Spiegel replied, never leaving the clutches of May's and Wally's demanding hug.
"Fine by me. I will get our last member of this ragtag group, and then I will go to the meeting place." Ethan turned on his heels, raising one hand and waving to the other three. "I will try and get mister angry-eyes as quickly as I can. You try to be hasty yourself, Spiegel."
Taking away Professor Birch's happiest moment of the day, Ethan climbed once more on Lugia's wide back and took a flight to his next destination.
As the golden-eyed boy left, May and Wally parted themselves away from Spiegel, looking at him with inquisitive eyes.
"You came here to tell us something?" Wally asked.
"Maybe we should go to my house, we can talk properly there." May quickly suggested.
Before any of the two could drag him back to Littleroot, Spiegel pulled back and shook his head. "No, here is fine…" He said quietly but with a firm tone. "I came here to ask for your help."
May and Wally traded glances with each other, a little wary of why he was being so secretive about it, yet in the end, they nodded to one another and looked back to Spiegel.
"Ask away." Wally said.
"I want your help… I need you two to help me bring Brendan back."
They traded glances yet again, this time with wider eyes and racing hearts. May outright could not believe her ears as she looked between Spiegel and Wally, never more lost in her life. Wally was a little more composed but still shocked all the same. For the past month, they have been mourning Brendan's passing in secret, not having the courage to tell others what befell to their selfless hero. Now all of a sudden their entire world just flipped upside down. Spiegel wants to bring Brendan back.
Back from where? How he intends to do that? Has he lost his mind over grief? One current of thoughts flooded in, one wild flurry of guesses and ideas that will never stop flowing in overtook the young pair.
Just from their perplexed gaze alone, Spiegel has the notion that he will need to do a lot of explanation to shake them from their daze. On the bright side, at least he has their full attention now.
"Is this some sort of joke?" Were the first words flying out from Steven's mouth as soon as he entered the dimly lighted cave.
Ethan never sighed so heavily his entire life. He expected some kind of resistance on the other man's side, but Steven is starting to grind on his gears. Demanding answers at every minute, complaining that he has no time to be playing games and even stating very clearly his distaste of Ethan's company.
Contrary to some people's beliefs, or right on in their expectations, Ethan is not a patient person. Dealing with Steven is taking a lot more tact than he cares to have. "Can you please shut the hell up?" He finally snapped, snarling his words at the man walking behind him, only to make Steven scowl at him. "Just endure for a few more minutes, jeez. It would be a pain in my butt having to explain this more than one time, so just wait until we get to the others."
Steven was not happy, be with the reply he got from this annoying person or the fact that he got forced to come here. Still, there is this faint pull inside his chest telling him that even if Ethan was lying about what he said, all of this would be worth somehow. Grabbing to this feeling, Steven relented. He just took a deep breath and closed his mouth shut, pressing his lips into a thin line. Giving or taking any more words with this man would be useless and deeply infuriating, so he just led Ethan to guide them through the darkened and dump maze that is the Rainbow Rocket's ruined base at Lilycove City.
Splashing sounds echoed towards the dark paths of these hallways, each step making a louder noise as the puddles of mud and water seem to increase in size and frequency the farther they get in. Steven dared take a quick look at the flooded rooms surrounding them, heavy glass windows shattered with its shards peacefully floating like sparkling stars above those dark waters.
"What… happened here?" Steven asked, his words coming out on their own as he studied the damage around him.
"Brendan happened." Ethan replied with a twisted little smirk. "I found some footage of the time when Groudon wreak havoc on this place. Luckily, Giovanni is one careful bastard or a lot of people would have drowned down here."
A freezing jolt ran across Steven's body. He remembers the state he found Brendan here that day, the day he first lost his mental battle against Groudon. Strange as even a dark memory like this one brings a little warmth to his heart.
"We're here." Ethan said, getting Steven out of his daydream.
They both stopped in front of a large metallic door, different than the other rooms, this one is mostly intact; the door working perfectly fine in its slide motion and the two foggy windows at the wall on the side holding firm in their place.
Pressing the button on the box beside the door, Ethan opened their way in and walked inside. Steven followed closely, getting surprised by a whole group of people that were already in this room, most likely waiting for them.
Wally and May were easy enough to greet, as they just walked over to Steven and addressed him on their own volition. The red-haired boy named Silver just ignored Steven, for the most part keeping his gaze locked on Ethan. Zinnia, that was a complete failure, she just stared at him from her corner, holding closely the little pink ball that is the Whismur on her arms. If the look on those emerald eyes of hers is of any indication, she has little interest in talking with Steven. Now, as hard as it is to endure Zinnia, even on her best days, it pales in comparison to how he feels meeting the owner of those red and blue eyes.
Even after all this time, it is hard for Steven to believe that there is a 'copy' of Brendan in this world. If Brendan himself had no taken a little time to talk and explain to Steven what happened and who that was, the blue-haired scion would just think this entire thing was just one massive joke on his friend's part. Still, Spiegel is right here and looking at him. A shame that Steven cannot bring himself to look back at him.
This room is a wild contrast compared to the rest of the underground building. It is completely lit with bright lights, the floor is as white and clean as it was on the days it was being used, and most of the electronic equipment installed in here is in perfect condition, especially that massive flat monitor at the back wall which covers most of that side. The only sign that indicates that this is an abandoned place is the numerous office chairs scattered on the floor, probably by the crazed rush all the people working here had to get out before the flooding had begun.
"Everyone is here, right?" Zinnia was the first one to raise her voice as the heavy door closed them in. "Now you can stop being so dodgy and explain exactly what is floating inside that head of yours."
If attention, in general, was scattered around the room and its occupants, now every bit of spotlight is focused on Ethan. Being the way that he is, Ethan felt little to no difference with this overwhelming amount of attention, more correctly would be to point that he felt more at ease as everyone's gaze fell upon him.
Casually strolling inside the room, Ethan took one of the office chairs from the floor, brought it up to its four-wheeled legs and dragged it in front of a giant monitor resting at the wall opposite to the entrance. "I guess it is time." After taking his seat, Ethan fell in silence, but his hands waved all around in front of him. Took some time but everyone understood that he, in the apex of his weirdness, would not continue until everyone had taken a seat of their own.
"Listen… while you may not believe what I am about to tell you, please just leave the questions and comments to after I am done explaining this. Is that okay?" Ethan made sure to look at everyone even for a split second, then he waited.
"Sure, okay!" Zinnia snarled. "Just get going already."
"I swear… even If I am trying to help, the only thing I am getting today is a rude attitude and angry stares." Ethan started in a way that no one expected him to; he crossed his arms in front of his chest and pouted.
"Ethan… please." Spiegel pleaded softly.
"Fine, I'm not doing this for myself anyway." Another shift in his mood and Ethan is back with his serious face yet again. He leaned forward in his seat and pressed his elbows against his thighs, both hands resting against his chin. "First, I want to make something very clear. Brendan is not dead."
A long round of gasps followed his words, not even Spiegel escaped the brunt of this unexpected news.
"Not dead? What do you mean with that?" Steven was the first one to truly raise his voice.
"Where is he?" Wally soon followed suit.
"Is he safe?" May asked too.
Ethan could not hold the urge to roll his eyes, just as he asked everyone to not do, they started bombarding him with questions the minute he shared that with them.
"Let him speak!" Zinnia said loudly. Despite how cool and collect her tone may have sound, her face is already a mess of doubt and hopes. She glared at everyone until they quieted down, and casually looked back at Ethan, pleading with her eyes for him to continue.
Which he gladly did. "Ignore the implication of this bit for a moment, but. I can travel within time. Something was off in the coming days after the battle against Giratina, I felt like an important piece to the puzzle was missing. I went back there, back to that day, just to discover that Brendan was not there."
Refraining from letting their voices out again, the group eyed Ethan with a suspicious frown. Even if they wanted to believe anything to see Brendan again, this talk of time travel was feeling a bit too far fetch for all of them, except for Spiegel and Silver.
"After going back further, I found out that Brendan was gone from every past. I watched people listen to nothing as he was not there to give his speech on Ever Grande. Groudon rampaging on this very beach of Lilycove, and Wally there fighting against the wind. It was like Brendan simply vanished from every moment he was in, but things played out exactly the same." Ethan rested his back against his seat, taking a deep breath after talking non-stop.
"What… What does that mean?" Zinnia was the one to ask this time.
"It means that when he used that orb to try and banish Giratina, its power grabbed onto Brendan. Affecting him, taking him in. Sealing him somewhere in time." He said with a saddened tone.
"This… theory of yours. If it is right, how do we fix it? How do we change it back?" Steven asked, his way of speaking with Ethan getting softer as the conversation goes along.
"It's not mine." Ethan replied with a short grin. "It's hers." He pointed with one finger toward the electronic panels attached to the giant monitor. As their eyes traveled to the side, everyone saw one small green onion head and two little round feet dangling at the edge of that square grey desk. "Celebi was the one that cracked the mystery. She is the one with the ability to travel through time, and I can't go very deep with her. She worked very hard to the point of exhausting herself just to find a small trace of Brendan, stuck inside the infinite ley lines."
"Bi…" Celebi greeted them with a soft cry, waving her little hands at everyone watching her.
"Well, as to how we fix this mess. That's why I called you all here." Pulling himself up, Ethan got out of his chair and walked over to Celebi. "Celebi explained to me that she can't reach Brendan, not in the way he is now. But she can lure him to us, guiding him into that infinite space until he breaks through the barriers and comes back to this dimension."
"How would they be able to help with that?" Silver surprisingly enough decided to take part and talk, he crossed his legs and folded his arms on his chest, giving Ethan one fair but critical gaze. "Save for her and the long-haired one there, we are all normal people. We can't connect with Pokémon as you do."
"It's quite simple actually." Ethan replied, walking away from the panels and over to Spiegel in his seat. "When I ask Celebi to take me somewhere, we use my memories as triggers. The concept we found this time is almost the same, using the strongest memories of those closest to Brendan, we will reach to him and pull him back to us." Right then a wide smile crossed his face as he clasped both hands on Spiegel's shoulders. "That would be almost impossible, seeing as we don't have Brendan's body here, for us reach to him. Thankfully we have Spiegel, that in many ways works as a mirror of Brendan."
A pondering silence washed over the room. As much craziness as this all sounded to them, they all had this glint of hope in their eyes. What Ethan shared with them is nothing short of amazing, like a ray of sunshine scaring away the grey clouds that have been plaguing their lives for a month. Still, even in their euphoric realization that Brendan might be so close to them, one lingering question was left in the air.
"How is Brendan coming back?" Zinnia asked. "If we are using… 'his' body to reach for Brendan, what will happen when he comes back?"
Zinnia only voiced the doubt that everyone else had, but even if they all were thinking about it, they couldn't help but look at Spiegel with a conflicted gaze.
Spiegel sighed, then smiled. "The most likely scenario, he will be back in my body and I will just disappear."
"And you are okay with that?" Zinnia asked in genuine curiosity, no ill-intention in her words.
However, the punch she gave him earlier is till bruising the skin of his cheek and more than a grazing mark on his face, it left a ringing sensation of her distaste toward him. Taking her words as a cynical remark at him, Spiegel just snorted and smiled at her. "Why wouldn't I? This is the best outcome, right? Brendan gets to be back, you have him with you once again and the freak is gone forever. A perfect win, isn't it?"
For days now Zinnia has been an unstable mess of emotions, she gets sad quickly and starts crying; then with the same volatility, she gets furious out of her mind. When it involves Spiegel, she mostly gets angry, it is not truly at him, but more the fact that seeing him reminds her of Brendan and she gets angry at everything because he was taken away from her.
Right now, knowing what Ethan just shared with them. Zinnia doesn't feel the same type of anger she felt before, even if it is hard for her to show anything else but a frown to the people around her. She knows that she had hurt Spiegel, more than in a physical way, and hearing that coming out from his mouth only makes her feel even worse about it. She had to avert her gaze away from him, cuddling her arms and pressing her face against the soft body of Aster, to hide away the immense regret eating her from the inside.
"Don't spout that stupid crap again!" Wally yelled as loudly as he could, his voice even bounced on the walls and echoed on top of itself. "No one wants you gone, and if the price of doing this is losing Spiegel… I don't think I can be a part of it."
"Calm down everyone, no one is disappearing." Ethan made sure to raise his voice above all the others, his hold on Spiegel's shoulders getting tighter, the young doppelganger noticing the hesitation on Ethan's part as he shouted those words. "I don't know what will happen, no one knows." He sighed deeply once more, pulling himself away from Spiegel.
Still a bit dazed and overall conflicted about what to do, the people gathered inside this little room just watched Ethan in silence as the golden-eye guardian walked to the center of the room and fiddled with something inside his pocket.
"Ho-oh, if any of you are familiar, is a powerful deity watching over Johto and Kanto. But, there is one legend about the golden phoenix that still lives in people's beliefs." Ethan carefully brought his hand out of his pocket, showing a bright rainbow-colored feather resting within his fingers. "Ho-oh, the phoenix of miracles. If the lord over the skies graces you with one of his feathers; any wish you may have will become true." He held the precious little thing close to his face, closing his eyes as he did so. "Ho-oh gave me this on the day we went to fight Giratina. He said to me that only one big miracle would make everything go back to normal. I believe he foresaw this somehow and gave his blessings for this very moment. I only ask that you believe in me because I believe we will be able to bring Brendan back."
"I believe…" Spiegel said in a hush between his breath. "If you're the one saying that this will make everything better again. Then I will trust you."
"I do too." Zinnia said calmly, her eyes tingling with droplets of tears threatening to slid down to her cheeks. "I want everyone to be happy and safe… Everyone." She made sure to look at Spiegel as she said the last part, her words reaching deep inside of him. A small gesture of kindness, like any other gesture coming from her, has a heavy impact on his entire being.
"Hoenn has spent too much time without its champion." Ethan said with a sheepish grin. "Let's bring Brendan back."
For the past twenty minutes that small white room, deep within the ruins of Rainbow Rocket base, has been nothing short of a huge agitated mess. People running everywhere as they tried to accommodate an appropriate space for this… thing they need to do. By Ethan's orders, they gathered every chair and placed them on the other side of the room, most of them resting against the front wall.
After doing every little change they could to make things easier, Ethan made Spiegel lay on the floor at the center; Steven helped him settle down and even took off his grey coat to serve as a pillow to the red-blue eyed boy. Spiegel who was feeling like his heart was about to explode in agitation, felt the little body of Celebi landing at his chest and just like that his consciousness faded away, making his chest go a lot slower and smother in its breathing motion, a deep sleep taking him in seconds.
"Now what… we just wait?" Asked a worried Steven, his gaze focused on the sleeping face of the boy next to him.
"We wait, yeah. But, not in complete darkness." Ethan took one of the chairs and against what he said before, dragged the thing all the way over to the giant monitor. "Celebi and I spent too many days investigating the past, I would never be able to travel so much, it would kill me. Then we devised something to let me see the events without going to the past myself." Getting way too comfortable in this place, Ethan sat down on his chair and brought both feet up, resting them against the darkened panels. "Please, put us in Celebi."
"Bi, Bi!" After some excited and affirmative little squeals, Celebi closed her eyes and her little antennas began to twitch and dangle, little sparks of light coming out of her. Then, the dark monitor flared up to life, showing nothing more than an endless stream of white.
"We will be watching everything?" May asked with an awe-struck expression.
"We already are." Ethan pointed to the screen. "Right now, Spiegel is sharing his senses with Brendan. That is what Brendan is seeing. But I don't know what is all that white stuff, though."
"The infinite ley lines." Celebi corrected her friend. "That is the flow of time, where he is stuck."
"Oh…" Ethan looked at the screen with some fascination, just forgetting one tiny bit.
"They didn't hear her." Zinnia jumped in, making Ethan look at her and show a stupid little grin. Zinnia shook her head and sighed. "She said that this white thing is where Brendan is stuck, some sort of infinite lines or whatever."
"Ley lines!"
"Ley lines!"
Both Ethan and Celebi corrected her this time.
"Now, everyone to your seats. I don't know if you will pass out or not by letting Celebi interact with you so directly." Ethan commanded from his chair, as always liking a bit too much the fact that he is bossing people around.
One by one, they have chosen their sits around the room. Wally next to May close to the door. Steven at the corner of the wall by himself with his arms crossed. Zinnia at the left side with Aster sitting at her lap and Silver just standing at his own corner at the right side.
"Since only one of you can understand Celebi, I will be the one guiding you on the first steps, okay?" Warned the golden-eyed boy, seeing Steven slight discomfort at it, just made Ethan wink at him and smile. "You will feel a soft pull, line a gentle string moving your thoughts. Don't fight it."
Following his narration, faint glowing lines suddenly appeared from everyone's body. A thin sparkling string going out from their chest and slowly drifting down to Spiegel's unconscious form.
"With the link, your memories will fight you a little bit. Don't push it away. Celebi is drawing your strongest experiences, the one with enough connection to your very soul that defines you as a person now. These will be the blocks from which we will build a bridge for Brendan."
From every little line connecting Steven, May, Wally, and Zinnia to Spiegel a small burst of light came through. Four glowing balls, sparkling glittering white dust on the floor, slowly traveled in their path, following the string until they just dropped onto Spiegel's chest and vanished inside of him.
Even in his sleeping form, Spiegel gritted his teeth, his body jolting upward in a violent motion, his fingers curling into a ball and making a fist. A raging outburst took over him, making him trash on his spot, scaring everyone around him. As Steven was preparing to jump from his chair and throw himself at Spiegel's side, the young doppelganger calmed down. His face softened up, his hands loosing up and resting freely on the floor again. Whatever reason caused him so much stress and pain disappeared as fast as it came to be.
Watching the first drops of color tint the screen in front of him, Ethan rested his head against the chair support. He could not hide the child-like anticipation for this, and as the first clear figures began to appear, he smiled. "I wonder who will be the first?"
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Mallory S. Nocturne chapter 36 . Jan 9 – Pardon me if I am wrong, but didn't you have a certain aversion to Spiegel at the start of the story? I find it a bit amusing that you like him so much now. What made you change your mind about him?
Guest chapter 36 . Jan 11 – Something like that. Stuck inside time itself, not really existing but still alive at the same time. I wonder if he will be able to return and how...