I always have to be listening to something while typing, so this chapter was written under the steam of Linkin Park, Green Day, and…a Disney compilation CD…a very odd mixture…Anyway, a lot more on Aria's family this chapter (yes, the other characters will have more appearances, but I need to get this out the way first!)
Oh, Haru? You're staying a 'fishy freak' for good. So stop complaining. It makes you unique.
I don't own Pokèmon (Or Legend of Zelda…)
The skies turned grey rapidly, with the sudden ferociousness that only a tropical storm can seem to muster. Cold, fat droplets lashed down from the endless grey expanse, drenching all that hadn't sought shelter. One such person was Aria – on her way home from her first day at Saralli Caira High.
The strong wind whistled round her, chilling her and sending her hair tossing wildly. She had decided to run the short distance back home, rather than wait for the storm to blow over, which may take several hours. Draigas tailed her happily – apparently the slim, serpentine dragon enjoyed the rain.
Eventually, Aria burst inside, out of the rain and into her warm, dry house. She stood inside the porch for a while, catching her breath as she shed her wet shoes and her small bag by the door. She was about to go into the kitchen – where her mum was bound to be waiting – when she heard voices inside, and paused out of curiosity.
She knew the importance of being quiet when spying on her mum – it had been a constant, yet unsuccessful hobby of hers when she had been younger. This had armed her with the knowledge that her mother and father could hear far better than any other human Aria knew. So, she knew to hardly breathe, and to hope that they were far too engrossed in the conversation to notice her.
There were three voices – her mother's, a loud, yet restrained alto; a deep melodic male voice that she barely recognised, much to her embarrassment, as her father's; and another female voice Aria didn't know. They were speaking in the foreign language that Aria had thought she knew well, but the were speaking so far and fluently that she was straining to recognise any words. She heard her name a few times, as well as 'celwydd' – lies.
Her mum sounded more and more distressed the longer the conversation went on for, while her father and the other woman were calmly speaking back. Eventually, the speech halted, as the other woman pointed out – in the language they were all fluent in: "Nia, your daughter's come in."
Aria froze – this woman, it seemed, could hear as well as her parents, except she hadn't been as engrossed in the conversation as the other two. She only moved when invited in, but the sight of her father revived her fully. She ran to him, giving him a big hug.
"I missed you, Dad!" she exclaimed.
When she had been younger, her father had been awkward with hugs – a habit that the young Aria had felt duty-bound to break. Now, he only carried a trace of the old awkwardness.
Her father chuckled. "So I've heard."
"So, Kratos, Nia, this is Aria?" the woman said, drawing Aria's attention to her.
She had long silver hair and green eyes, reminding Aria of Wraith, but her features were far softer than the child's.
"You don't remember me, do you? I'm Jade Lucrecia Cruxis Silverwind, an old friend of your mum, and an even older friend of your dad. The last time I saw you, you were only a toddler…"
Aria was still boggling from the long name to truly recognise that she had seen the woman before.
"Time flies, doesn't it?" Nia said sadly.
The other adults nodded.
"Talking of time flying, I'd better get home," Jade said. "Wraith'll be home any minute, even with the rain."
"Wait…you're Wraith's…mother?.." Aria asked hesitantly.
Jade smiled. "You met her today, then? Yes, I am."
And on that revelation, Jade disappeared in a flash of light.
"How…how did she do that?" Aria asked.
"She has her ways," Nia replied, not answering the question in the slightest. "So, how was your first day?"
Aria noticed the change in subject, but didn't argue, and told them all about the school, its grounds, some of the people she'd met, and of course, Draigas. She chose to gloss over the battle with Haru – if Draigas had forgiven her, that was good enough for her.
And then, she remembered what she had been promised that morning. "Mum, you promised to tell me-"
Her father cut her off.
In a slightly gruff tone, he said, "You've been worrying your mother to the point of tears with this. Do you think we'd keep something from you if it was important?"
The reprimand from her father hurt, but Aria stayed brave, and Draigas growled lightly at him.
"If it wasn't important you'd have told me already!" Aria reasoned, tears forming for the second time that day.
"Stop it, Kratos," Nia said wearily. "You're upsetting her…"
Aria quickly wiped away her tears. "I just don't like secrets!" she insisted, and her faithful dragon nudged her face in support.
Her father – Kratos – kneeled down to get near Aria's eye level.
"I'm sorry. It seems I'm still not that good a parent…"
"Dad," Aria started gently, "you'd get more practice if you were around more…"
"That's what we were talking to Jade about; whether it would be possible…" Nia started.
"Why would it not be possible? Dad just has to live here with us, right? What does Wraith's mum have to do with any of this?"
"She's a bigger expert on this than we are…"
"On what?"
"On different worlds, Aria. Neither of us two were born in this world…just you."
"Different…worlds?" Aria echoed numbly.
Nia smiled – a smile of relief; she'd wanted to say this for so long…
"There are an infinite amount of parallel worlds – universes – that it is near impossible to travel to. Because of this, many people in my home world believe most of these worlds to be fictional…like this world. In my world, there aren't any Pokèmon…it's quite boring really…"
"So…Mum, you come from a world with no Pokèmon…but what's it like? And…oh my god, do I have family there? And in Dad's world and…"
Aria almost collapsed with excitement. Nia and Kratos exchanged smiles at their daughter's reaction.
"So, we were talking to Jade and-"
"Can Dad stay? And what was the problem?"
"Yes, your dad can stay!" Nia interrupted, before her daughter could ask too many questions.
Aria leapt and gave her mum a hug, before running to her dad and giving him the same treatment.
"There are so many questions I need to ask you…"
"You haven't had anything to eat, yet. Can't it wait until I've put something on to cook?" Aria's mother wondered.
"I'll cook something," Kratos offered.
"Are you sure?"
"Nia, you won't be eating it, so it wouldn't be fair to ask you to cook."
Aria's mother wound her arms delicately around her husband. "You're so sweet…"
Aria rolled her eyes – it'd be hard getting a word of sense out of them as they were at the moment. They were always like this when they had the chance to be together, but normally Aria didn't mind. Now, though, when she was trying to get information out of them…
Aria noticed Draigas slithering off her neck.
"Where are you going?"
The Dratini lifted her head, looking at her trainer with wide eyes. Aria got the message – this was something the dragon had very good reasons for doing, even if she couldn't understand them.
Draigas found a corner of the room, and there was Seren - Nia's small, lilac dragon. Draigas hissed at it in fear, but the other dragon didn't move. In fact, Seren offered a forepaw in greeting, only to be rejected. Seren made a slightly indignant noise, which seemed to reign in the younger dragon. Draigas experimentally poked Seren with the tip of her tail, and Seren seized it, shaking it as humans would shake each other's hands.
Draigas, with a bemused air, but more at peace than she had been before, returned to her trainer, taking her usual perch wrapped around Aria's shoulders.
Her dad turned to her to ask what she wanted to eat.
"Spaghetti Bolognese!" Aria said with a cheeky grin – she knew her Dad loathed tomatoes with a passion.
"Aria…"
"Alright, alright…curry?"
"I think I can do that. …But…are you…okay?"
"Of course! Why wouldn't I be?"
"I thought you might be annoyed with us for keeping things secret for so long."
"But you're telling me now, so there's no need to be annoyed."
"You have a very forgiving nature…you didn't get that from me…" her father said sadly.
"Why? Is there someone you wish you'd forgiven?"
"It…doesn't matter. I'll cook dinner now."
Aria retrieved a book from a shelf and curled up on the sofa reading it, while waiting for dinner. Nia smiled at her daughter – she made quite a picture, sat with the dragon reading over her shoulder.
"It's about different ways of raising Pokèmon. It's a little dry, though," the girl told her partner.
Aria reached for a different, well-worn book, this one having colourful, glossy pictures.
"This…I've read it so many times. Even as a little kid, I'd just look at the pictures… It's on travelling around the world. I'd love to go on a real journey, but it's just not possible right now. Someday, though, Draigas, we will go on our journey, I promise. Even if we just have to wait for the ferry…we will go."
Tani, the Growlithe, bounded in just then and greeted Aria enthusiastically, before sniffing Draigas thoroughly.
"Tani, come here," Nia commanded, to have her faithful Pokèmon obey.
Nia stroked the fur on Tani's head, which was a facade to kneel down and whisper something, but although Draigas and Aria strained to hear it, neither of them caught a word of it. Tani did, though, from the tail-wagging the whispered comment caused.
Aria rolled her eyes – what happened to the secrets rule?
It seemed no time at all before Kratos was dishing out a delicious smelling curry into two bowls for him and his daughter.
"Mum, why don't you eat?" Aria asked, savouring the spicy taste.
"It's complicated. In short, my body doesn't use food for fuel – it has another source. When I was your age, I got a bad illness. I didn't know it at the time, but that was my body changing. I don't need to eat or sleep. I just need to have flammable things…like oil, or petrol or wood. It's like…I'm made of fire, and I need to keep it stoked up, but apart from that, that's it."
Aria thought, slowly chewing her food. "Is that why you avoid water?"
Even the smallest tasks that involved water, like washing the pots, had been given to Aria at a young age.
"Yes, it is…you worked it out?"
"Yep. But…how come you're made of fire and I'm…normal?"
"Well, in our family line, only every other generation goes through this transformation. So my Grandma did, but my Mum didn't. There is only one other family like ours. Our family has a power – a demon – with fire and air, and the other family has a demon with water and earth. It keeps the balance between elements in my home world. In this world, the Legendary Pokèmon take care of that."
Although this was a lot for Aria to take in all at once, it made so many things make sense. All the way through her life, she'd noticed these little things her mother hid and they'd made her worry. Now, it was somewhat a relief to know what they were.
She continued eating her meal in contemplative silence, until her father spoke.
"Maybe Lloyd should come over to this world sometime. He's still such a child in his head – I'm sure he'd like it here."
"Who's Lloyd?"
"Your half-brother, Aria. And speaking of Lloyd, how is he?"
"He settled down with Sheena in Mizuho not too long ago…"
"That's brilliant! What took them so long?"
"Mum, who are all these people?" Aria broke in.
"They're friends, from your father's world. Sometime, we'll take you there…"
"Mum, what about your home world? Do we have any family there? Could I meet them?"
Nia's gaze dropped to the floor. "I…ran away from home when I was your age. I wouldn't even know where anybody lives anymore."
"But…I bet you could find out, Mum. And what if…this is your last chance to see them or something? And I'd like to see them…"
Nia looked at her daughter sympathetically. "You've never known your Grandparents…I suppose…how about I take you this weekend?"
"Really?"
"Yes…be warned, I haven't been there for fourteen years, so…things might have changed. It could be so different from how I remember it…"
"I should come with you, too," Kratos said.
"Yeah, they'll want to see this amazing man in my life…" Nia said, grinning.
Aria rolled her eyes. Parents…
"Anyway, Aria, you'd better go to bed."
"What? But can I ask-"
"There'll be all the time in the world to ask questions. Besides, don't you want to get up early for school tomorrow?"
Aria nodded earnestly. "Yeah, I'd better thank Mrs Hurtz properly in the morning."
"What for?"
"Oh…I got into a battle with Haru – he's this strong trainer who is two years older than us – and I lost pretty badly. Mrs Hurtz kindly healed Draigas."
"Are you alright?" Nia asked the dragon.
Draigas nodded enthusiastically.
"Oh, yeah, earlier today, Haru...he said he wanted to talk to you…" Aria said, slightly confused. "He said the name Atkinson…or something…"
If Aria had to describe her parents' faces in that one moment, she would have used the old phrase 'they looked like they had just seen a ghost'. For her mother had a fearful, disbelieving look on her face and her father wore a stony, unreadable expression.
"Stephen?.." her mother whispered. "No, it's impossible – he'd have been too young; he can't have…"
"Genwyn?" her father questioned.
"It could be…one of hers…but…"
Aria thought hard – she knew she'd heard the name Genwyn before, too… "Wait – he mentioned her name too! He said I shouldn't trust her…"
"Genwyn's here? Absolutely, positively here? There's no doubt?" Nia sounded positively terror struck now.
"...What's going on?" Aria asked slowly, picking up on her parent's tension.
And so, they explained.
The other family Nia had mentioned – the family with the demon of water and earth – their family name was Atkinson. But there was another family who hunted these two – the Genwyn's. Their name meant poison, for every sweet-sounding word they uttered was insincere and lulled those that listened into a dangerous false sense of security. Traditionally, the two families would team up against the Genwyn, but when it had come to Nia's generation…
"Aria, there are some things I am still ashamed of, even now. In a way, I was partly responsible for Stephen's death…he was the Atkinson back then. He was only fourteen…"
"Mum…" Aria started weakly.
"Jade – Wraith's mum – she was possessed by a curse…she manipulated my memories…I thought she was the only one on my side…I thought Stephen sold me out to Genwyn…she killed him…and I just stood back and watched…I did nothing…"
Kratos enveloped Nia in a loose hug, and she sobbed uncontrollably on his shoulder.
Aria was stunned – she'd never seen an adult, much less her own mother, crying before. It was a scary, unnatural sight and Aria never wanted to see it again.
"It wasn't your fault," Kratos assured her gently. "If you'd have got in her way, she may have killed you, too, and then where would I be? You did the right thing..."
Nia didn't argue, but continued quietly crying in her husband's arms.
"I…I thought I had managed to escape Naois Genwyn, but if she's followed us here…we're all in danger. And this Haru…what was he like? I don't know if we can trust him…"
"He looks really weird – he has blue skin and fins…"
Nia frowned at the description. "Did he look anything like this?" she asked, digging out an old, crumpled, black and white photograph of a Zora that she'd taken on her travels.
"Yes, he did! But his face was a bit more human looking. And his ears were more rounded. And his…head-fin? That was shorter."
"I think I can explain it then. Before our first trip to Symphonia, Stephen and I went to Hyrule. At one point, he stayed in Zora's Domain for a number of days. At the time, I thought nothing of it, and went to the desert – the Gerudo people welcomed me with open arms seeing as I was female and a fire-lover. But it seems that Stephen may have…um…"
"Sired a child?" Kratos suggested, halting the awkward silence.
"Well, um, yes…anyway, Aria, it's far past your bedtime – go on, get some sleep. Let us worry about this."
Aria yawned and staggered off to her warm bed. It was only lying in bed, looking back on the day, with Draigas curled on a cushion on the floor, that Aria truly realised what a mixed day her first at Saralli Caira had been. Little did she know that the rest of the year would be just as, if not more, eventful than that fateful first day.
I've decided – the first section will be centred on Aria, then I'll move on to another character and so on. That way, my OCs won't completely dominate the story. Can I have a vote on which character to feature next? (It'll be at least four or five chapters to go, first, though)
Your choices are: Ebony, Wraith, Rhiannon, Tegeirian, Rydia, Pasqua, Fossil, Seig, Latto, Haru or Zero. Vote in a review or PM!