A/N: Sorry for the slight wait, guys! I've been busier during Spring Break than I had thought. Anyway, here's the next chapter! And I probably won't be able to check my e-mails or my account from the 18th to the 21st. I'm going to be in St. Louis for a Robotics tournament.
Also, March 19th is my birthday for those of you who care! I'll be 16! -does happy dance-
Thanks to AzureFlames, Nanashi Chimera, Wings that bring the fate, and ReLeeS for reviewing, and thanks to TJay for beta reading!
And as a side note, I now have a DeviantArt account, and I have posted a few things there. If you are interested, check me out. I'd post a link, but FF destroys links, so I'm not going to try. I go under the same name there that I go by here, so I shouldn't be hard to find.
Chapter Ten – New Start
I was able to explain the entire situation to all of them in a matter of minutes, as well as who we were and why we were here. Around fifteen minutes by my count. Scyther, Gallade, and Gliscor- Wait, no. Takeshi, Tsurugi, and Sasori didn't ask any questions during the time I was talking. They just sat there in front of me, paying close attention to everything I said.
Why did they do that?
It's not that I didn't like it. It's just that I'm not their original trainer. Why would they listen to me like that? Were they just being polite?
Well, for whatever reason, they didn't interrupt me at all while I was explaining.
I thought about asking them, but I figured that it'd be rude to just flat out ask them that. But then again, I'd never been one for being proper and obeying rules. Just ask the principal of the school, the students and teachers that were in the clearing, or the police. They'll probably all tell you that I don't like to obey much anything.
Then they'd ask you if you knew anything about where I was. But that's beside the point.
So, being the crazy rule-breaker that I was, I decided to ask them.
"So, now that I've finished, I have one question for you all. Why haven't you interrupted me? Don't you have any questions?"
They all looked at each other briefly, as if startled by the suddenness of the question. Then Scyt- wait, no. Then Takeshi looked at me and said, "Scyther Scythe."
I looked at Joey, who was laying back on the bed, waiting for his translation. When he said nothing, I nudged him and said, "Translation, please?"
"Huh, what?" he said, sitting up suddenly. "Oh, right, sorry. He said 'Vince taught us to hold our questions until the end of someone's story'."
"Oh," I said. 'Duh, how stupid of me for not thinking of that,' I thought. I almost slapped myself in the forehead, which was a nasty habit of mine, but I resisted the urge.
"So, what are your questions?" I said, getting over my hatred at my own stupidity.
"Gallade?" Tsurugi asked.
"'What happened to the Pokemon League?'" Joey translated sleepily. He looked just about ready to collapse.
"Pokemon League? What the heck is that?" I asked. I looked at Stephanie, then at Lizzy. They both shrugged their shoulders.
"Gallade Gall?" Tsurugi exclaimed. He looked surprised, and so did Takeshi and Glisc- I mean Sasori. 'Man, I have got to stop doing that,' I thought.
"'You don't know what the Pokemon League is?'" Joey translated.
"Nope, not a clue," I said. No use trying to scrounge up any information, because the truth is I had never even heard the phrase 'Pokemon League' before.
"Gall…" Tsurugi said, sounding disappointed.
"'Oh…'" Joey translated.
"Sorry about that," I apologized. "Any other questions?"
Sasori raised his claw. "Gliscor?"
Silence followed as we waited for Joey's translation. I looked down at him, just to see that he had fallen asleep on the bed.
"Joey!" I shouted, promptly waking him up.
"Ah!" he shouted, jumping up. He looked around and saw me with an angry look on my face. "Don't you know to let sleeping dogs lie?"
"Yes, I do," I said. "Unfortunately for you, you're not a dog."
"But I am part Lucario, which is a dog-like Pokemon," Joey argued.
"But Lucario aren't dogs, they only look like them," I argued right back.
"Oh… Damn." Joey muttered, rubbing the back of his head.
"So, did you even hear what Sasori asked?"
"Uhh, yeah?" Joey said, although it sounded like more of a question.
I sighed and said, "Please repeat your question for Joey, Sasori."
"Gliscor?" he said once more.
"Alright, he said, 'So, what now?'" Joey told us.
"Well, we're not too sure," I said. "We can't figure out the best way to reverse what's happened in the past century. The only thing that we have on our 'To-Do List' is to go check out some sort of shrine up on Fein Mountain. Joey saw it while he was escaping his captors, and he said that he saw a symbol there that looked like the one on my medallion."
"Scythe Scyther?" Takeshi questioned.
"'Is that why we're here?'"
"Yes, that's the first reason you all are here. We need your help to get up Fein Mountain and past the territorial Pokemon there," I explained.
"Gallade?"
"'What's the other reason?'" Joey translated.
"Well, I figured that you all wanted to be out of those Pokeballs after being in them for so long," I said. "I know that I wouldn't like being trapped in one of those things for that long."
The three looked at each other briefly before huddling together, whispering about something.
"Um, Joey? What are they saying?" Lizzy asked.
"I can't hear them, they're being too quiet," Joey replied.
"You can't hear them, even though you can hear a cop car coming down a street about a minute before we can?" I questioned.
"Uhh… Yeah?"
Is that his favorite phrase or something? That twice he's said that in the last few minutes!
"Joey," I said, glaring at him.
"Hey, they're having a private conversation! I'm not going to broadcast that to the rest of you! I hate being able to hear it myself!" Joey said.
"He's right, Kyle," Stephanie said. "It's a private conversation, we shouldn't invade that."
I hung my head for a second. "Ugh, fine. Whatever."
A few more tense minutes passed while we waited for them to end their 'group huddle'. Even though I couldn't understand them, they seemed to be arguing about something, and it appeared that it was primarily between Sasori and Tsurugi. Takeshi appeared to be uninterested in the conversation what so ever. He just sat back a little from the other two, listening but not contributing.
After another minute, Takeshi finally said something that made the other two stop completely and think for a second. They looked at each other and then nodded. The huddle broke, and we all sat up, anticipating what they had to say.
Takeshi spoke first. "Scyther Scyther, Scythe Scyther." I saw Takeshi look back momentarily at Tsurugi and Sasori when he said the last part.
"He said, 'We have decided that we will help you to reach that shrine, because you are Vince's great-grandson'," Joey translated for us.
"Scyther," Takeshi added.
"'On one condition'," Joey said.
'And what might that be?" I asked.
Takeshi looked back at Sasori and Tsurugi before continuing. "Scythe Scyther."
Joey looked at them for a second before saying, "That's it?"
Takeshi nodded, while Lizzy, Stephanie, and I looked at Joey, wanting desperately to know what they wanted.
"OK then," Joey said. "They want to stay out of their Pokeballs unless it's absolutely necessary that they do go in them."
I chuckled slightly. "I'd imagine that nearly one hundred years in one of those things would have the same effect on me," I said. "You've got yourself a deal there."
I stuck out my hand to shake with Takeshi, but he just stared at it.
"Oh, right. No hand to shake," I said, withdrawing my hand and rubbing the back of my head with my other. Takeshi smiled as if telling me not to worry about it.
"Alright, now that we've got this all settled," I said, "let's discuss our game plan."
"Can I make a suggestion?" Joey said.
"Sure, go ahead," I told him.
"Maybe we should rest until night falls again…" he said, motioning out the window next to the bed.
"He's right, it's already dawn," Lizzy said.
I looked out the window and saw that they were right. The sun had already started to come up, and the darkness of last night was being banished from the land, replaced by the light of a new day.
"Sounds like a plan to me," I said.
"Besides, I'm exhausted," Joey said. "I'm definitely going to need some sleep before I can carry anyone anywhere."
"That makes sense," I said.
"Hey, it looks like Koyuki's got a head start on us already!" Stephanie remarked, pointing behind me.
"Huh?" I turned around to see Koyuki lying down right behind me, fast asleep.
"Koyuki!" I exclaimed.
They all burst out laughing at Koyuki, while I just tried to understand how he could do that.
A few minutes later, we had all settled down. Somehow, we managed to squeeze Joey and Stephanie on the bed with Koyuki, while Sasori hung from the ceiling. The rest of us were on the floor, covered up by the spare blankets that Joey had under the bed. I was closest to the door, with Lizzy next to me. Takeshi and Tsurugi lay in the center of the floor, on the rug.
I had laid there for about an hour, desperately trying to find sleep. However, it continued to elude my grasp. No matter what I did, I just couldn't. I kept thinking of how things used to be. How my life was when everyone just ignored me.
I couldn't take it anymore. I stood up, shirking the blanket that had been covering me, and walked outside.
I stood on the small platform outside the door and looked up at the sky. The sun had climbed halfway up into the bluish-gray plain, and clouds lazily drifted around.
Every once in a while, a cloud would cover up the sun, sending everything into shadows. But, then it would pass, returning the world to the way it was before.
I don't know how long I stood there, but it felt like forever.
During that eternity, I thought about Granddad and Grandma.
About the house that I used to live in.
About the neighbors.
…About the memories that it stood for.
I felt so hollow during the time I spent on that platform.
"What's on your mind?" I heard a voice come from behind me. Startled, I whipped around to reveal Lizzy standing in the doorway.
"Oh, nothing," I said, returning to the view.
"It doesn't look like nothing to me," she said, walking up next to me.
"Fine, you got me," I said, facing her. "I was thinking about the way life used to be."
"Life as in your life before last Friday, or life in general before the Grand Revolution?"
"My life before Friday," I answered.
"What about your life before Friday?" she asked, digging deeper into my thoughts.
"Well, it's just that…" I began. I was having a hard time trying to put my thoughts into words. "If I had never done what I did in World History that day, my life wouldn't be in this mess."
"What do you mean by 'mess'?" she questioned.
"I mean that this life is just too confusing for me," I said, sighing. "I almost wish that I hadn't done that stupid thing on Friday."
"You can't mean that," Lizzy said.
"Why?"
"If you hadn't done that thing on Friday, you would have probably never met Koyuki, Stephanie, Joey. And you definitely wouldn't had met Takeshi, Tsurugi, or Sasori!" she said, yelling the last part.
"Yes, but I would also not be wanted everywhere by the police!" I yelled back, letting out all of my anger. "I could be living my life the way it used to be!"
"What kind of a life was that?" Lizzy rebutted, shouting. "Nobody outside of your family cared about you except for me!"
After that, I just stood there, thoughts of all the unhappiness that my life had brought me jumbling up inside my head.
"I… I don't know, Lizzy," I said. "…All I ever wanted was to live a normal life." The last part came out, barely above a whisper. I could feel the tears threatening to drip down my cheeks. I tried to force them back, but I was quickly loosing that battle.
Lizzy hugged me, and I hugged her back. "I understand, Kyle," she said, her voice sounding like a mother's. Something that I never had.
The embrace lasted for a few minutes, and I felt the anger and sadness wash away, replaced with something else. It wasn't exactly happiness, but more along the lines of contented. When the hug ended, I just looked at her, and she looked at me.
Lizzy finally spoke up by saying, "Well, I'm glad that you're feeling better now."
"Yeah," was all I managed to say. I was still deep in thought, but about happy memories instead of depressing ones.
We stood there for another few seconds, until Lizzy broke the silence again.
"Let's get back inside and get some sleep."
"OK," I said.
We walked back into the tree house and laid back down where we had been when we first lay down. I pulled my blanket back over my body and buried my head in my pillow, ready for a nice, long rest.
"Goodnight, Kyle," Lizzy said.
"Technically, it isn't nighttime," I told her rather matter-of-factly.
She chuckled slightly and said, "Well, then, good day, Kyle. Sleep well."
"You too, Lizzy."
I put my head down into one of the pillows that Joey had also provided us with and, for the first time in as long as I could remember…
"You too…"
…I fell asleep peacefully.