Chapter Thirty-three: Partner

Fighting For Everything

A while later, Ember, Volkner, Oliver and I sat in the Center lobby. The news was on the television there. They were going on about finding Captain Steel's replacement and how a memorial service would be held in the gym later today. They talked about how the island volcano erupting was the end of the raid. Ember agreed with this, he said that the guards, or Callousen rather, were done with their search anyway. When we came in and the volcano erupted, they were done.

That was music to my ears. Until Ember added the 'with the island' part after 'they're done.' Then that made me think of the places they had left. Celestic.

"I better write back home." Oliver said. He stood up. "Everyone's worried. I'm like, the first one to travel away to a big city." He grinned. "I like it here."

"I better go with you." I said. I started to stand.

"I'll go." Volkner volunteered. He got up and walked out with Oliver.

"I should probably get back to the woods, it wouldn't be a basket full of fun if I'm caught out here. Although most of The Callousen are gone now..." He smiled. "So I don't have to lay low." He relaxed back in the chair. "Maybe I'll stay here forever."

"No, you have to go home. Isis needs you."

He frowned. "I don't have to do anything."

I didn't want to continue this conversation. I was afraid that I might talk him into not going home by trying to talk him into going home. So it was silent for a moment. My mind was still a bit hung up on the fact Ember was an ex-guard. It just so wasn't…Ember. He worked with Lea. Maybe not with Lea, but on his side. It was a weird thought.

Then another thought hit, Ember probably knew where the guards were headed next. "Em, do you know where The Callousen are headed?"

He shook his head. "Nope. I'm not a commander, therefore I'm left out of the equation. Just asked to do the dirty work."

I sighed. "Well that plan is down the toilet."

"Besides, you shouldn't chase them anyways."

"And why not?" I was slightly offended.

"Cyn, you're outnumbered, out strengthened, out witted, the list goes on. The Callousen is this, a large group of men who search for something to fill the big, empty gap inside them and join more men with big, empty gaps and become cruel, lawless dudes who work for another cruel, lawless dude with tons of power…And the worst part is, they're still just empty." Pain crossed his face. He closed his eyes. "Just…Stop. The only way you're going to prevail is by hitting the heart of it all, Lea."

"You're really putting pressure on me, Ember. I might not ever get that far."

"I believe in you. Besides, you're Cynthia Marie Everheart, the best person I know who can deal with pressure." He elbowed me and grinned. "You'll get there. Just don't get distracted with The Callousen."

"I know I shouldn't chase the guards…But I feel like I have to. The rebels took on the approach to hurt the guards, and that would hurt the heart."

"But that's not good enough. You need to take it to the next level. That level just so happens to be safe. I mean, c'mon, you beat the next two gyms, the Elites, and then you're face-to-face with Lea. If you win, you'll have to take the title. It's law. The way it goes. There's no sneaking and rebelling and wars. Just battles."

When you look at things from Ember's point of view, everything seems possible. I smiled. "I'll beat him."

He grinned and laughed. "That's my girl!"

I chuckled. Then decided I needed to get another serious matter taken care of. "Ember…I need to tell you something."

He noted my serious tone. "What is it?"

"I…I don't have feelings for you that's more than friendship. I know it may have seemed that way, but it wasn't fully intentional."

Ember smirked. "I know you don't, Cyn."

"You do?"

"Yeah, I know you look at me as just a friend and nothing more. I wish you didn't, though."

"I'm sorry."

"It's alright. I'll get over it. I think the best thing to do is…Leave. Get away from…Well, you."

Yes, that hurt. "I understand." I truly did understand.

"My head still isn't on straight. The problem is…I don't know where to go. I'm not ready for home yet…"

I placed a hand on his shoulder. I could feel his scars on my fingertips. "You'll get everything settled. Trust me." He looked up into my eyes. There was so much sorrow in his brown eyes, much like Volkner's. When I looked into Ember's eyes, it was really like I could see into his soul. His torn down soul. I touched his cheek. "I wish I didn't, too." I murmured. That was the truth. I really wished that I had felt differently, but there was nothing I could do to change how I felt. Ember was one of my closest friends. One of my true friends.

He closed his eyes and tried to hold back tears. I scooted closer to him on the sofa, my hand still on his face. Then his lips met mine.

"I know that didn't change your mind." Ember said.

I looked away, moved my hand and shook my head. "No, it didn't." I heard the door open. I looked over. An overly enthusiastic Oliver and an extra aggravated Volkner walked over.

"The post office is so cool here! And I'll have to come back when the lighthouse is reconstructed, that thing looks awesome!"

Volkner rolled his eyes. "We had to take a tour of the town while we were out."

"Yeah! And it was awesome!" Oliver plopped down next to me on the couch. "You guys must have been so bored. We were out having all the fun!"

I felt my cheeks heat up. "You weren't gone that long."

"Yeah, fun." Volkner scoffed and sat down on another seat.

"Hey, you had fun, just admit it Grumpy Pants."

Ember chuckled. "Nice one."

Volkner scowled. "I think I'm going to get some food then head to bed." He stood up and left towards the Mart.

"Grub does sound good about now." Oliver's stomach growled in agreement. "Yeah, I'm ready for some eats. Do you guys want to find something?"

Ember and I said yes and we went to a small shop on the other side of town. Oliver and I ordered vegetable wraps, and Ember started to order a Magikarp sandwich, but when the two of us gave him strange looks he changed to the vegetable wrap and whispered "Callousen diet" to us. We got our food and sat down at a table.

"I'm going to have to get back into the vegetarian way." Ember commented.

"My sister hates meat. She raised me and my brother hating meat, too. I don't think I could eat meat even if I wanted to." Oliver grimaced. "Too weird."

"I don't know, you get use to it." Ember shrugged. "You feel very powerful when you're hopped up on meat. It gives you lots of energy. That's half the reason why I was so different…There."

"Makes sense. But I'm happy with my leafy-life." Oliver laughed. I laughed with him. I stayed quiet through our little conversation. I was a bit embarrassed over the whole Ember thing, and frankly I was distraught over it. My heart ached to think of it. I knew I was hurting him and…I didn't want to. Not because I had feelings for him, but because he was my dearest friend.

We finished up and went back to the Center. It was pretty late around that time, so we called it a night. Ember bunked with Oliver, so I had my room to myself. I took a long shower and crawled into bed with Roserade. Thumper still pouted over the fact he couldn't share the bed with me, but he happily lounged on the floor. They were really the only Pokémon I could have out. Spiritomb was too…Scary to have out, Milotic was too big, and Gabite, well, was Gabite.

My mind was still revolving around Ember and slightly around the rebels. I also dreaded flying to Snowpoint. My second time flying, alone, over Mt. Cornet and such a long distance…It would be fun.

But eventually I cleared my mind and slipped into a nice sleep.

The next morning I woke up quite groggy. I quickly got ready for the day by changing into my black sweater, long black pants and my black snow boots. I was ready for Snowpoint. I slung my bag over my shoulder and went down to the lobby.

Ember and Oliver were sitting on the couch, laughing and high-fiving each other. Volkner sat in the chair with his arms crossed looking like he would actually kill them in their sleep. I approached them.

"Hey, Cynthia." Oliver greeted.

"Hey!" Ember said in-between laughs. Volkner nodded his greeting. We all walked into the dining room and had a quick breakfast. After, we walked outside the Center.

"So, Cynthia, what are you going to do?" Oliver asked.

"I'm headed to Snowpoint for my next gym."

"Cool, cool. I'll be leaving for Eterna today, I'll tell Annie you said hello."

"Please do, thanks." I looked at Volkner. "I'm assuming you're going to Sunyshore." He shrugged and bit his lip. I hated the way he was treating me, but I probably deserved it.

"I still don't know what I'm doing." Ember sighed.

"Hey!" Oliver jumped up. "I know what you can do!" He was very enthusiastic.

"What?!" Ember matched his enthusiasm.

"Why don't you come with me to Eterna! There are hardly any guards there, and you'll love it. My sister totally won't mind. And, me and Cynthia write each other a lot so you guys can keep tabs. It'll be great!"

It makes perfect sense that they would turn into great friends, they were so alike. And I liked the Oliver-Ember arrangement.

"You know what, that's a great idea." Ember grinned. "Roomies?" He held out his hand.

"Roomies!" They high-fived. I rolled my eyes and laughed.

We walked through the woods and towards Route 218. Oliver and Ember joked around the whole time there, so there wasn't any chit-chat being done. When we got out of the forest, the morning boat had just arrived. Ember pulled me away.

"Well, Cynthia Marie, I guess this is goodbye." He smirked.

"We'll see each other soon."

"I still have to beat you." His smirk turned into a grin.

I scoffed. "You're not going to beat me. I have gym-ready Pokémon, and you don't." I poked his chest.

"You want to bet?" He laughed and reached into his small, green bag. He pulled out a Pokéball. "The Callousen made us have fight-ready Pokémon. I have three. A Staraptor, a Ponyta and this one. They made us train our own, but they gave me already evolved Pokémon, so I was terrible at it. The only one I could train was Ponyta. Staraptor hardly listened, but I got him to work. And this one I never had any luck with. My commander said she was once bonded with a lady, so she only listens to females. You can probably guess my problem." He laughed. "So I want you to have her."

"What?" I was dumbfounded.

"She doesn't listen to me at all…Angry because we stole her from an innocent lady. You could have more luck with her. She's evolved to her last state and is pretty tough. And it's a reminder of me!" He grinned.

I laughed and took the ball. "Thank you so much. What is she?"

"A Lucario."

"Ember!" I looked over. Oliver was waving his hands on the boat. "We're about to set sail! C'mon!"

Ember looked at me. We hugged. "Bye Cyn." He said.

"Goodbye Em." He ran off towards the boat. He got on and the boat started to sail away. He waved and grinned. I did the same. My heart hurt watching him go, but I knew him and Oliver would have a great time together. He was safe, that's what mattered. He would recuperate into old Ember, and then go home…Hopefully. Now, it was time to get to Snowpoint.

I stopped waving and looked over. Volkner stood at the docks, watching me. I sighed and walked over. "Are you still upset?" I asked. Aggravation leaked in my voice.

"I guess not."

"Why didn't you get on the boat with them? You'll have to wait for the night boat if you want to get home today." He didn't say anything. My anger grew. "Do you even have a Flying Type? Are you expecting me to fly you there? If that's the case, get another ride."

"Miss Cynthia, that's not the case. I'm not that big of a jerk." He frowned. "I was going to go to Snowpoint with you."

"What?!" I yelled. "You can't just invite yourself to come with me!"

"You mean I'm not invited?" He smirked.

"No."

"Well then." He continued smirking. "So you're going to fly there alone?"

"Yes."

"Do you even know how to fly?"

"Of course!"

"Really? How many times have you flown, approximately?"

"…Once." I muttered.

"With Professor Rowan, right?"

"I'm a good learner." I murmured.

He chuckled. "Thankfully, I've been to Snowpoint quite a few times. It's a hard trip there. Mt. Cornet is a terrible place to fly over, but there's no other way there. Unless we walk, then it's even more of a suck-fest. I may not have a Flying Type, but Togekiss is enough for both of us."

I scoffed. "Why don't you have your own Flying Type?!"

He shrugged. "I don't like them."

"Why? Flying Type's are one of the most noble Pokémon ever. Just take Champ and Rowan, they're inseparable. And Thumper and I, we're close."

"They're not my type."

"Fine, whatever."

"So I'm going with you?"

I frowned. He would be helpful…And I would hate flying alone. I rolled my eyes. "I guess so."

He slightly smiled. "Great. When should we get on the road?"

I reached into my bag and pulled out my trusty map. I unfolded it and took a look. "We should leave as soon as possible. It looks like we should head in Celestic's direction."

"No, we should head in Eterna's direction. If we go to Celestic's side it'll take longer, be harder and we'll most likely hit a blizzard."

I rolled my eyes. "Fine. We'll head towards Eterna and stop in there."

"Do we have to?"

"It's a good stopping point. We can heal up Togekiss and get something to eat."

"And see your little boyfriend?"

I shot him a mad look. "Volkner, he isn't my boyfriend. They probably won't even be there when we get there. We won't see them anyways. We'll just get food and leave. If we're going to be travel partners, you can't just assume untrue things. Got it?"

He nodded. "Yep. I'll only assume true things."

I rolled my eyes. "How about we don't assume at all and be mature?"

"But that's not as fun." He smirked.

"I don't care. We need to get along."

"I agree. So, let's head to Eterna."

Hours later we stopped in Eterna. Volkner was rushing me, probably because he didn't want to see Ember and Oliver at all. We got something small to eat and gave Thumper a break. Then we started over Cornet.

At first it was fine, but after a few hours we hit fog. That was nerve-racking. Then it got worse. We hit snow. I was pretty used to snow, Celestic got lots of the stuff in the winter, so it wasn't a big deal, but flying through it was awful. Snow and fog was a bad combination.

"Are we going the right way?" I asked Volkner. He was the official map-holder.

"Duh, of course we are."

We continued on. We started having to fly higher. The snowfall turned into blizzards…With hail. Togekiss started to fly slower. "Thumper, we need to get through this, come on." He groaned. "I think he's tired."

"What?! Now?! Can't we at least try to get out of the blizzard?"

"I don't think he can hold off. Start looked for a spot to land." A few minutes later we landed. It was a grassy, and snowy, area. Togekiss plopped to the ground; I returned him. Luckily the blizzard had died down. "We'll let him rest for a bit."

Volkner studied the map. "Well, the good news is the blizzard isn't that bad, the bad news is I have no idea where we are, but I'm positive we're off trail…And lost."

DeathGoblin: Thank you, I try to add in humor...I feel like it makes it a good read. Yes, I'm glad Gabite and Cynthia aren't such jerks to each other, too.

Guest: Volkner is Cynthia's age. I try not to say exact ages, I feel that complicates things. Sorry for confusion there. You know what I think is funny? I sit here and read reviews that say "Oh, I bet there's a back story about that!" "Oh, there must be a plot twist!" And I'm like...No...Hehe...I find it humorous.

Shiro No Kishidan: WELCOME! It disappoints me that everyone thinks this is 'just like' the Hunger Games. That wasn't supposed to be. Seriously. I think I have enough elements of my own, however, so this isn't 'just like' Hunger Games. Anywho, sorry I put you through that rant, thanks for the review!

Here's a fun fact: In chapter three (Silence) Ellena's mother Esmeralda says this: "Sake told me all about the rebels and I completely get it." Did anyone catch that?! I felt so sneaky putting that in. Mwahaha, one point PG, no points readers!

Thanks for reading!