Thankfully, this chapter is a turn for the better, because there is less Val in it than the previous chapters. Just a peaceful moment between Ayame and Blake, even if it is a rather short moment. We can only hope that it will turn out okay in the end.
KedharS: We'd lose such a hated villainess though.
Thunder Fire: Yes, that would be quite nice indeed.
JoshGamerV: She only gets worse and worse with every scene. Next she's going to murder some orphans. Or maybe burn down an orphanage.
Aquahaze675: What did Carrie do?
Pokemon Academy: Beginning of Beginnings
Chapter 419
"Blake, are you okay?" Ayame asked quietly, placing a comforting hand on her shoulder. "She kicked you a lot…"
"I'm fine," Blake reassured her. "This bulky coat absorbed the brunt of it."
"That's good," Ayame sighed with relief. Her eyes turned up towards the side of the mountain. The sun had already begun to rise, but there was none of the joy that one would normally feel on Christmas Morning. All it meant was that Blake and Ayame could see the faces of their captors a little closer. Neither one expected this to end well.
"I don't think it's likely we'll be let go," Blake murmured, putting words to the worry that both students had been too afraid to voice. "From what I've heard about hostage situations…"
"No, don't think like that, don't you fucking think like that," Ayame snarled, shaking her head. They were keeping their voices low so that the Children of the Oracles wouldn't hear them, making sure not to draw suspicion to themselves. Blake suspected that the only reason they had been given so much leeway was because of the wounds Val had inflicted on him, and more importantly, the fact that apparently they were getting closer to wherever it was the Oracle was supposed to be hidden, and paying attention to the two hostages was no longer a priority.
Blake couldn't say he blamed them. What were they going to do? Run? Run where? They would be lucky if they didn't get lost and freeze to death, never mind walking the wrong way and getting to the bottom of the mountain far faster than they intended.
If there was one thing that Blake was certain of it was that he wasn't coming back. Wherever it was that Val and the other Children of the Oracles called home, wherever it was that his sister called home, that was where he would be taken. He was too useful to be left to his own devices. It was almost scary how clearly he could see what was in store for him. He would be taken as a prisoner and dropped in a cell, never to see the light of day again. From there, he would be used as a bargaining chip to ensure Gwen's loyalty, and more importantly, her compliance. Only when the Children of the Oracles had accomplished whatever it was they set out to accomplish would he finally be allowed his freedom, to live happily ever after with his sister again.
What else would be left of the world, he couldn't even begin to guess.
"It's okay, Aya," Blake assured her, giving Ayame a sad smile. "I won't let anything bad happen to you or your family, I promise."
Ayame blinked, studying the face of her boyfriend suspiciously. Her eyes widened.
"No, no way," Ayame said, shaking her head in disbelief. "What-what do you mean?"
She closed the short distance between them and grabbed him by the collar.
"Blake, you fucking tell me right now that we're both getting off this mountain together," she snarled, her voice filled with fury as she glared daggers at him. This shit was absolutely NOT going to fucking fly, not today.
Blake couldn't tell her that. His eyes dropped in resignation and that was all Ayame needed for an answer.
"What are you going to fucking do?" She demanded, her eyes filling with tears. "Blake-!"
"I'm sorry, Aya, but it's the only way," Blake said, not feeling any better about it than she did. "We both know that I'm the important one here. Valerie can't kill me because if I'm dead, my sister will absolutely lose it and that'll be the end. She wants me for a prisoner so that Gwen will be easier to control. But you, they don't have any use for you. Knowing Val, once they find the Oracle, she'll take care of you for good. If for no other reason than because she knows how much your death will destroy me."
"That's… but you can't just fucking-!" Ayame fumbled for words, not wanting to accept what Blake said was right. "Then why even bring me here?"
"To give me hope," Blake bitterly replied. "Hope that you and I will get out of here okay. That's why she's even leaving us alone to spend some time in private with one another. So we can reassure each other, spend time together. So I get to have a little bit of hope in my last minutes with you, before she cruelly takes you away from me."
Blake glanced up the path, to where Val was walking ahead of them. She looked back over her shoulder and waved.
"This is all my fault," Blake said, shaking his head. "If I… if I hadn't fallen in love with you, you would be safe in bed right now. I would be miles away, and Val would have just been another houseguest to your family. And you… you wouldn't have to die just to hurt me. I'm certain that's what she wants to make me feel right now. That your death is my fault. That if I hadn't given you that message last night, leading you out of your room, it would have been like I had just disappeared into the night. Or if you and I had never…"
Blake grit his teeth to try and force the feelings of pain and guilt out of his head.
"Say that again," Ayame said, her voice shockingly cold and harsh, making Blake flinch.
"H-Huh?"
Ayame turned to him with a menacing look in her eye as the two tromped through the snow.
"I want to hear you say it," Ayame growled. "Say that the two of us being together was a mistake. Say that you regret your feelings for me and wish we hadn't ever gotten to where we are now."
Blake could hear the pain and anger in her words. He just couldn't bring himself to cause her even more pain on top of them. He never could have.
"I promise, I won't let anything happen to you, Aya," he reassured her. "You're going to be safe. I guarantee it."
He turned to stare at Val's back, matching pace with the two of them as if she was walking side by side. It was eerie, and he knew she must have been staying just out of earshot. It probably wouldn't be enjoyable for her to hear what was actually being said, not nearly as enjoyable as making up some touching speech about hope. What Blake actually felt probably wasn't really a factor for Val, not nearly as much as what she could imagine inflicting on him.
Blake sighed and turned back to the teary-eyed Ayame.
"I'm going to tell Val that I'll go with them without resisting. In exchange, they have to promise to let you go. And if she says no, well, then I'll threaten her that I'll kill myself. And if I'm dead, then that's clearly going to be a problem. It's the only leverage I have, so I'm going to use it to save you. They might not bring you back home, but they'll at least give you a chance to survive, and knowing you, that should be-"
"No!" Ayame hissed, startling him.
"Aya, you don't-"
"I am not going to let you throw yourself away like this," Ayame sobbed, shaking her head. "Do you think I'd be fucking okay with that?! Knowing that you were going to…! All to protect me, I just… do you fucking think I could keep on living, knowing that the only reason I'm still breathing is because the man I love had to sacrifice himself? No, I'm not going to do that. I'm not doing it, not again. You can't ask me to bear that burden, too."
"You have to," Blake said. "Otherwise, it's for nothing. I don't want you to die a senseless death. I'm forfeit either way, but at least this way, you're alive."
Blake raised his hand and cradled Ayame's cheek.
"As long as I know you're okay, Aya, then there's nothing they can do to hurt me. Even if I'm trapped in a cage, as long as you're free I can live with that."
"Well, I can't," Ayame sniffled, swatting his hand away. She stopped walking, nearly falling to her knees. "How can you tell me to just live with the fact that I'll never see you again? How am I ever supposed to smile again, knowing… knowing that you…"
Blake reached out and grabbed her arm to steady her, helping her forward.
"We should have… in my secret base," Ayame whispered, wiping her tears away before they froze in the chilling air. "We both wanted to, we knew we did. We should have, before… before all of this happened."
Blake didn't have any words to say to her assertion. But he felt her pain all the same.
"I can't do it again," she whispered. "I can't bear it a second time. Someone else, losing everything because of my stupid mistakes."
"…A second time?" Blake asked quietly, Ayame shaking her head in response.
"It's nothing," she muttered. "I don't want to talk about it."
Whatever it was, he could hear the weight of it in the tone of her voice. She sounded so fragile, like back when she'd talked out her issues with the track team with him.
"You don't have to talk about it with me if you don't want to," Blake said, taking her by the hand. "But this might be the last time that we have together. Can't you just… put your trust in me one last time? Let me help you, one last time? If there's something that's hurting you, then please-"
"My sister," Ayame interrupted him, shaking her hand free of his grip and walking forward. Her voice was so soft against the blustering winds that Blake barely heard it.
"She's in that wheelchair because of me."
"Wh-what?" Blake asked, stunned.
"It was six years ago," Ayame said. "I told you, remember? My sister was in an accident, and lost the use of her legs."
"I remember," Blake said. "But that… what do you mean?"
"It was my fault," Ayame said, wiping her eyes. "We were in Goldenrod City to watch the Pokeathlon. It was our favorite thing to do, dad saved up a ton just to buy us tickets. He said that, with her talents, Megumi was going to go far as a pokeathlete, that she was even faster than most pokemon were. We were all set to go watch the match. Goldenrod, see, has a long road going right down the center. And like an idiot, I suggested to my sister that we race down it. No, worse, I fucking challenged her to a race, even though I never beat her, ever, even though I knew that she would never turn down a challenge, just because I was a dumb fucking kid who wanted to be just like my amazing big sister who everyone loved."
Ayame had always described her sister with awe and reverence, and Blake understood why. Perhaps, if he and his brother had gone a different path, if he had tried to live up to his brother rather than shy away from him…
No, we're different people, she and I. I could never do something that brave.
"So we started running, making sure to stay on the sidewalk," Ayame continued. "And of course, Megumi was ahead of me, the way she always was. But I wanted to win. Just once, I wanted to win so, so badly. I pushed myself as hard as I could, I ran and ran until my lungs burned and it felt like I could taste blood, but it still wasn't enough. And then…"
"And then I tripped on a stupid brick." Ayame kicked at a chunk of snow in her path, imagining kicking that blasted brick into dust. "I pitched forward, must have skidded ten feet, drawing a trail of blood behind me. And then I began to cry. I cried and wailed, calling for my mom, my dad, my sister, and that's when Megumi stopped."
Ayame shook her head, her voice taking on a tone of bitterness. "She had to fucking stop, didn't she? She had to be such a good sister that when she heard her little sister crying, she immediately had to stop and see what's wrong. She had to rush to her little sister's side as fast as possible, completely ignoring everything around her, even the signal light…"
Ayame closed her eyes and started to tremble, unable to say anymore. She could still hear the screech of the brakes slamming, the sickening crunch of metal hitting flesh and shattering bone, and worst of all were her sister's screams.
"That was it," Ayame muttered, shaking her head. "That was the end of her whole life. She's stuck in that chair, never again able to run like she loves so much, and it's all my fault. Megumi might have been the one who was broken, but… knowing it was my fault…"
"Aya, that wasn't your fault," Blake said. He knew she wouldn't hear his words, and he knew that she'd probably heard them from her parents and sister for years. But she still needed to hear them, because they were true. "What had happened was an accident, it's not your fault."
"Thanks for your kindness," she said, shaking her head, "but I don't care anymore."
What a lie. She obviously did.
"When you said you weren't going to bear that burden, what did you mean?" Blake asked. "You've been living with this long enough, why can't you just let it go?"
"I blamed myself for my sister never being able to run again," Ayame said. "All her dreams were destroyed because of my carelessness and selfishness. And so, even though I was only thirteen at the time, I decided that if Megumi couldn't achieve her dream of winning every pennant in the Pokeathlon, then I would do it for her. It was the least I could do."
Blake gasped, stunned by that revelation.
"I love running, don't get me wrong," Ayame said. "For me, running has always been a fond memory of my childhood, something the connected me to my sister. Since I could walk, we were running together. But honestly… I didn't start loving to run again until I met you, Blake. You remember how I was back then? All seriousness and scorn? I had completely forgotten about everything that I cared about, the reason I loved running. All I was focused on was living up to the expectations that everyone set on me, expectations to live up to myself. And the one who always set the highest expectations was myself. I tried to live up to my expectations to be as good as my sister. That… that's why I never told you about this until now. I knew what you went through, being compared to your brother. The way you always talked about being your own man, not letting yourself be weighed down by anyone else, I was ashamed. I thought… I thought you would think less of me, knowing that my 'dream' is really just a hand-me-down from my sister."
"Aya…" Blake stopped, grabbed Ayame by the shoulder, and pulled her back, hugging her tightly. "Nothing you could do would ever make me think less of you. Bearing with all of that, I amazed by how strong you've been."
"It's hard…" Ayame cried. "I can't bear your burden as well, Blake, I just can't. My sister lost her legs because of me, I can't let you do this."
"I have to," Blake whispered. "I have to keep you safe. Because you have to live, no matter what, Aya. It's the best we can hope for right now."
"I know," Ayame whispered. "But at least… you and I, together here, is it wrong for me to wish that we would have just a little bit more time together?"
"Hey, love birds!" Val called down. Ayame and Blake flinched, raising their eyes up to see the curly-haired girl standing on a plateau above them, her arms crossed in front of her chest. They couldn't make up her face at this distance, but Blake was certain that she was smirking.
Val raised her hand and beckoned them towards her.
Blake and Ayame parted, staring at each other in resignation. It was good while it lasted, but here it had come to an end. They shared a last look with one another and climbed up the rest of the hill onto the plateau.
"Have a nice talk?" Val smiled. She glanced at Ayame's tear-stained face, and her smile widened joyfully at Ayame's pain. "Looks like you did!"
"Are you lot done?!" Preya's voice shouted from across the plateau. He was standing beside a large slab in the side of the mountain, covered with ice. A wide crack ran through the side of the wall, revealing a large gap just barely thick enough where someone might be able to slip through.
"Coming?" Val asked them. Blake and Ayame nodded their heads.
"Is it here?" Rui asked, unable to keep the excitement out of her voice. The ice-type Orica might be close enough to touch!
"I can feel it coming through that gap," Preya said, closing his eyes. "It's calling to my harmonia, such a cold voice."
"Much obliged, Preya," Val said, her tone showing a complete lack of gratitude for the man's effort. "Now, why don't you go first?"
Preya grumbled, slipping through the crack as best as he could, vanishing into the darkness of the caverns within Mt. Silver.
"Me next!" Rui chirped, slipping in after him. Due to her measurements, she had a harder time than he did getting through.
"And then there were three," Val said, glancing at Ayame and Blake. "Well? Go on now, you aren't going to want to miss this."
She turned to look at the sun shining in the distance, brushing the sweat off of her forehead, turning back to the couple.
"Well? Unless you'd rather we just settle things here?" The threat in her voice was obvious. Blake and Ayame were going into that cave.
Blake looked at Ayame, and forced himself to look strong. He was going to sacrifice himself for her, even though it would probably hurt the both of them. It was the only way to keep her safe.
Ayame shared his pained look. She nodded her head in resignation.
"I love you, Aya," Blake said quietly, turning and heading towards the cavern. He took a deep breath and let it go, slipping through the wall.
"Me too," Ayame said, glancing reluctantly back at Val before following after him, the two disappearing into the darkness of Mt. Silver.
Val watched them head into the cave, beaming from cheek to cheek.
"What a lovely couple," she purred, strolling in after the two of them. She couldn't wait to see what would happen in the cave of ice. She knew that things wouldn't go well, at least… well, at least not for the two of them.
With that happy thought swirling around in her mind, even in the cold of the cavern she felt nice and warm and toasty.
This one was a little short, but don't worry! We'll reach the climax next chapter! Hopefully Val will get some comeuppance!