After Being Blue
Poke-Ball 18: Unheard
Blue had no more direction than before Sabrina had found him, but he'd wandered into Silph co before he'd realised it.
That place… He hadn't set foot in there the last time, pouring with Rocket Grunts, but Red had. He'd trampled all of them, freed the president and earned himself a prize and released the monopoly grip they'd had on poke-ball supply. Now it was sparse - or perhaps it looked that way when he imagined it littered with black.
It wasn't littered. There was scientists going about their daily jobs and barely looking at him. They only acknowledged him to step out of his way to the elevator and once inside, he wondered which floor he wanted to go - or why he wanted to go at all.
Another worker got in and decided for him.
They rode in silence all the way to the top floor.
The scientist, in her white coat and hair and face covered by a cap and mask, led him down the hallway and to the President's office. 'Inside,' she said, her voice muffled.
Blue followed.
Evidently, he'd been set up. He wondered if that was Sabrina's doing as well - or if he gave her too much credit. Maybe they all gave her too much credit. Maybe people expected too much of the greatest psychic they knew of.
Maybe they expected too much of the Champion too, when they only saw the chains that kept them trapped once they were in that role. Maybe that was what Red was thinking. How could he answer the cry of the people when they'd backed themselves into a corner and wouldn't crawl back out by themselves?
The president sat behind the desk. Blue only knew him because he'd seen his face on the news, announcing the Ultra balls. He looked older now. Maybe that was a side-effect of getting tangled with Team Rocket and going on with his life afterwards.
'Blue Oak,' said the president.
'Blue Oak,' the scientist echoed – and then she removed her mask and cap. Her short black hair tumbled forwards. Her red-rimmed brown eyes stared at him sternly.
'Erika…' Blue breathed. He could hardly believe it. So she'd escaped after all.
'Are you happy?' she asked. 'You don't know me; you've only battled me once and gone on your merry way with my badge in your case. And my girls that died… You don't know them, do you? Or those Rockets… Or maybe they're one and the same. Do you know?'
'Red would do something stupid like that.' Blue couldn't believe it hadn't occurred to him earlier – because the playacting had been too good.
Erika smiled bitterly. 'They were real. This time, at least, they were real. But that didn't stop them from dying. That didn't stop my garden from burning, or being stained with blood. I didn't sign up for that.'
She moved past the president and to another door at the back. 'Follow me,' she said. 'Father?'
'I'll wait here,' the president replied.
Blue followed here, up to the roof where a battlefield awaited.
'I have only one pokemon,' Erika said, facing away from him. 'The rest of them burned.'
'I'm… sorry.' Because what else could Blue say? What else could he do?
'Send out your Arcanine.'
His heart jumped into his mouth at that. 'W-why Arcanine?'
'It and you both…' She turned to face him. 'Did you hear the screams of what you turned to ash? Did Red?' In the wake of his silence, she added: 'I ran, because if I did not, I'd burn as well. I'll go back, one day, probably when the world has settled into its new normalcy and the ash and blood have blown away. When I won't get roped into something again. 'Maybe I won't be a gym leader. Maybe it won't be Celadon I go back to. But still, fireworks in the sky and beautiful petals at my feet – it could have been a wedding but you and Red have turned it into a funeral instead.'
Blue didn't understand. Not at all. 'Do you hate me?'
'Hate a trainer's inability to control a confused pokemon?' She laughed and it sounded just like Sabrina's laugh. Was the whole world so disillusioned? 'No, but you played a role in it anyway. This will be laying those ashes to rest – or the memory I look upon when those ashes are ready to rest.'
Erika was too whimsical, too metaphorical. He was sure that some of what she meant was going over his head. But that didn't matter. She wanted him. And Arcanine, against the one pokemon of hers that survived the flames.
He remembered the shadow he'd seen on Celadon's streets.
Erika released her Vileplume from its poke ball.
Blue released his Arcanine.