Alright, and here we have chapter three!
I made up a few details about Hannah's life and the abilities of the Ralts here (again), such as the location of Hannah's room, Hannah's mother's name, and some other things about the Ralts that you'll find out for yourself as you read. If there are any discrepancies anywhere (and I don't mean whether or not I put a hyphen to link "dark energy/dark energies/etc." together) please, please point them out to me! I really, really hate discrepancies.
Hmm...I think that's about it. Oh, I do not own Pokemon, I only own the characters - but their respective species are the property of whoever owns them. Okay, have fun reading!
The Shadow of Fame, Chapter Three
Hannah's mother was… well, the word to describe it hadn't really been invented yet.
The best Hannah could come up with was chillingly furious.
"I see you've finally decided to come home, Hannah." Her mother was sitting on the revolving, wheeled chair in front of the computer table that was just inside the door of their house. She used it now to smoothly spin the chair around so that it faced Hannah and her two new-found companions. Actually Hannah's mother could only see Hannah; the two Ralts must have sensed the epic fury emanating from her mother and were now relatively invisible, hiding as they were behind her legs.
"Uh, mom, I can explain that, I swear –" Hannah started to say, but her mother cut her off.
"Hannah, what time is dinner in this household?"
"Around six-thirty, usually, mom, but there was a reason –"
"And do you have a watch on you, Hannah?"
"I always do, mom, but if you'd just let me explain –"
"What is there to explain, Hannah?! You weren't home for dinner! You weren't home even after the food got cold! You weren't home when the stars and moon came out, and now it's almost midnight and you expect to come in here like nothing happened? Hannah, I can't believe –"
Hannah cut her mother off.
"Mom, I was trying to help these two Ralts! They were going to get attacked by a pack of Houndour, and they were acting strangely – the Houndour, I mean! Look at them!" Hannah stepped aside suddenly, leaving the two Ralts exposed to her mother's glare. They winced and moved behind Hannah's legs again.
"How could you have helped them when you don't even have a Pokémon to call your own, Hannah?" her mother retorted coldly.
Hannah's gut dropped and her throat dried, became itchy. Her eyes started to hurt, and for a moment her vision blurred. Hannah's face reluctantly twisted into a snarl. "Mom, Pokémon aren't the only way to get things done in this world!" For a moment she paused. "You'd never be having this conversation if I were Cynthia! You expect me to follow her like I was her shadow, but I'm not! I'm me, I'm Hannah, and you've never thought of that! You never thought for a moment that maybe, just maybe, I want to be something other than the eventual Champion of Sinnoh! You can't even look at me for a moment without reminding me that in the future I have to be exactly like Cynthia, only I can never lose! What's wrong with you, mom? Why can't you just accept me for me?" Tears started to stream, gush down Hannah's face as she ran out of the door she'd just come in. "This is it!" she screamed to Celestic Town. "I can't take it anymore!"
Hannah left.
Good-bye, Celestic Town!
Good-bye, family!
Good-bye, mother, Grandma!
Good riddance, and fare thee abysmally!
The two Ralts had felt this coming and had tried to warn Ha-nah's mother, but she wouldn't listen to them. The brother Ralts had not wanted to use his gift, and the sister Ralts's Feeling that he shouldn't only reinforced that. After Ha-nah ran out of the house, though, both of the Ralts's Feelings of don't-use-the-gift had dissipated, and the brother Ralts had approached Ha-nah's mother and put his hand on her leg.
:She is truly distressed, mother of Ha-nah.: the brother said sorrowfully to her.
The big-walker flinched visibly, then frowned sadly. "I won't even ask how you can talk to me. Trust Hannah to find some weird kind of Pokémon like that."
The brother Ralts thought he should maybe take offense at this, but he let it lie. His sister took his hand and, using him as a channel, spoke to Ha-nah's mother.
:We are not weird, mother of Ha-nah. We are outcasts – as you have made her. Any type of thing, living, dead, not-living, big-walker, or Pokémon, will search for someone to compliment them. They will search for like kinds, even if they do not realize they were doing so. This was true for us – although we did not know that we were looking for anyone, indeed, we were looking for your Ha-nah.:
"Outcasts? My Hannah isn't an outcast. Her big sister is the Champion of Sinnoh – how does that make her an outcast? She should be grateful, popular. She should want to follow in Cynthia's footsteps. But she's so stubborn. She's almost thirteen already, and she doesn't even have her own Pokémon! Unless – did she catch you?" Hannah's mother asked. She sighed.
:We were not caught. Ha-nah told you the truth when she said that she was helping us escape the Houndour. Indeed they did have strange energies around them, which we would investigate if we could. In point of fact, if Ha-nah had not appeared when she did and woken us, we would be dead now. So too, most likely, would your Ha-nah.: the sister Ralts said.
"But she doesn't even have any Pokémon of her own," Hannah's mother grumbled stubbornly.
:Ha-nah was also telling the truth when she said that Pokémon are not the sole way to accomplish things in this world. She is living proof of that. Even though she had no Pokémon, she tried to save us and herself from those Houndour through her own ways. As we watched her we saw how well she handled them, even though they were not normal, and we Felt how terrified she was. Yet all the same she stayed, because she wanted to protect us and herself. She knew that panicking would not help the situation, so she didn't. If we were you, mother of Ha-nah, we would be welcoming her back to her homing-area with much gratitude and relief, not fury and hatred,: the brother Ralts said, then paused.
:Also, she was correct in being upset that you were so rigid in your ways, forcing her to be someone she is not. Although no one knows who the real Ha-nah is, she is willing and eager to find out. She wants you to be just as eager, mother of Ha-nah. But alas, she will need us in the days to come more than you, and thusly we bid you adieu.:
Before the two Ralts Teleported away, they both moved aside their fringes to show the sadness in their eyes.
Then they left, to follow Ha-nah.
Lucille hung her head in her hands. Where had she gone wrong? Her first daughter had certainly turned out well… but now that she thought about it, Lucille wasn't really the one that had raised Cynthia. It had mostly been Lucille's mother, Carolina, who raised Cynthia – little Cynthia had spent so much of her time in the lab her grandmother had run. That was where she had learned everything she knew about Pokémon – not from Lucille.
Her daughters were barely hers.
And those Ralts weren't helping things, either.
As she tried to sort her thoughts, Carolina (Lucille's mother) came hobbling into the room.
"Lucille, dear, what are you moping about?" she asked bluntly.
"Mom, I can't raise kids. You raised Cynthia, and I maybe helped a little bit, but – I guess I tried with Hannah. I tried, and I failed. I wanted her to end up perfect, like Cynthia, but… she just hates me now. She just ran out of the house – that was her screaming before. I want to be mad at her – but I just feel guilty."
"Poppycock, dear. You just made a few mistakes that any mother makes. You just had the experience a little too late. It was my fault, too, for letting Cynthia work in my lab at such a young age – I should have asked you what you thought about it, too. Because she worked in my lab you didn't have enough of a chance to raise her, and what can I say – I'm not exactly sorry. I love kids, Lucille. You love kids, too. You just haven't realized it yet. And what do you know? Maybe Hannah will end up going on an adventure now. Cynthia was twelve when she started out, isn't that so?"
"Well, yes," Lucille mumbled.
"And were you happy about her leaving?" Carolina prompted.
"No, mom," Lucille whispered stubbornly.
"So it's almost the same. And again – who knows?" Carolina laughed. "Maybe she'll turn out greater than Cynthia, in her own way. I have high hopes for the both of them."
:Ha-nah, where will you go from here?: the brother Ralts asked her.
"I'm not sure, actually. I just… can't go back there anytime soon. I have enough food for me to last maybe a day, and water for less than that. I have some money, so I can buy some things… I'll probably want to stop back home sometime tomorrow night. Very late tomorrow night, when everyone is sleeping. My room is easily enough accessed from the outside. I have a window," Hannah mused.
"Oh, hey. Do you two have names or anything? It might get a little weird to just call you Ralts and Ralts B."
The two Ralts looked at each other momentarily, holding hands and frowning minutely.
:We think, Ha-nah, that since you are a most trustworthy big-walker, we will include you in our sibling-hood. Since we have no homing-area of our own to offer you, nor anything else except our company and abilities, we are not sure that you would want to accept. Nonetheless it would be our honor to call you Big Sister, Ha-nah. If you accept you would call me Brother; my sister you would call Sister.:
The other Ralts used her brother as a channel to talk to Hannah now. :Ha-nah, my brother does not mention how rare this is. Those who are not Ralts, Kirlia, Gardevoir or Gallade – be they Pokémon or even big-walker – are almost never offered a place in the extended family of those who are Ralts, Kirlia, Gardevoir, or Gallade. He extended the invitation both on his intuitions and my own strong Feeling to that nature.
:Generally when a Pokémon has no homing area they do not extend invitations to sibling-hood, because the lack of a homing area is – disgraceful, to put it mildly. If this were any other case we would also be shame-faced in asking you to enter our sibling-hood like this, but we think that you will understand that we mean you no disrespect by offering our sibling-hood to you without a homing area.: The two looked at each other again, then came a bit closer to Hannah.
"Guys – I'm sure that this is a great honor – but – I only just met you two, and you haven't exactly seen me at my best. I mean, I just ran away from home! If it's as much an honor as you say, then – shouldn't we both get to know each other a little bit more?" Hannah asked, worried. She did not want to rush into anything that she would perhaps regret later, and she also did not want to seem rude by accepting too quickly (even though she didn't know exactly how it might be considered "rude," her gut just told her to hesitate a bit on this one).
The two Ralts peered at her a bit more, probably speaking to each other. Finally the brother Ralts spoke.
:My sister believes that we do not have the time to get to know each other by – conventional means. We simply cannot waste the time to sit around and talk about our pasts, hobbies, and pet peeves. However, since this is a special case, the – conventional means – are not the only way around this. We Ralts – as well as Kirlia, Gardevoir, and Gallade, to a somewhat greater extent – have an ability which we call a "melding-of-minds," which is rather self-explanatory in that the two or more persons who wish to participate almost literally meld minds, learning and experiencing everything the other person has gone through in the past, the person's feelings on the matter, as well as the person's personality and deepest thoughts and secrets.
:It cannot be done with an unwilling participant, from what we know, Ha-nah, and we would not, ironically enough, ask this of someone not in our sibling-hood, normally. But – we must ask you. Will you participate in a melding-of-minds, and share our deepest thoughts with yours?:
Hannah was, not surprisingly, dumbfounded – dumbfounded that something like this existed and was possible, dumbfounded that they would be willing to do it with her, dumbfounded that they were even asking.
"Guys, you shower me with honor after honor after honor, I'm sure – but what's the hurry, what's the rush? Why are we suddenly moving a mile a minute like this? Pardon me for not having sensing-the-future abilities, but – I don't really work well without reasons," Hannah said slowly. The two Ralts before her nodded.
:This, Ha-nah, we understand. We would be acting almost exactly the same way in your place.: the sister Ralts said through her brother, mind-voice full of sympathy. :The Feeling I had that encouraged my brother and I to make haste to the clearing where we dealt with the Houndour – it gave way to another Feeling, which in turn gave way to several other Feelings. The one I have now insists that we make you our sib, and although the reason is not entirely clear, I think it has much to do with the energy that was sucking the life-energies from the Houndour. If you become our sib, I believe that the next Feeling I will get will be to find out where the being that cast the dark-energies onto the Houndour's life-energies is located, and why it did what it did. This is just a guess, mind you, so I would not put too much stock in it, Ha-nah.:
:Pah,: the brother Ralts snorted derisively, :My sister's guesses are nearly as good as her Feelings. If she thinks that she'll get a Feeling telling us to find out about the dark-energies that were on the Houndour, you can almost guarantee that that is what will happen.:
:Brother,: the sister Ralts admonished her sibling, :You put too much faith in me. What would happen if I were not here? If my ability ceased to work one day?:
:I won't think about that, Sister,: the brother Ralts replied, :Because I don't think it's liable to happen. As it is, if that did happen, we would just amble through life like we did before you knew about your Feelings.:
"Um, either way, guys," Hannah said carefully, "I think that if you," Hannah addressed the brother Ralts, "put so much faith into your sister's Feelings and guesses, then I would be a daft fool not to listen to them. I also think that if your brother," Hannah now tilted her head to look obliquely at the sister Ralts, "puts so much stock into your guesses and Feelings, you should probably believe him and put on a tiny little bit of ego. But not too much, because if I start traveling with someone with an ego the size of Mt. Coronet, then there are going to be problems," she said lightheartedly.
Hannah looked closely at the two of them for a moment more, then took a deep breath. "Also, if you think it's necessary, I would be most honored to participate in a melding-of-minds with you two."