FOREVERMORE

~Part Three Of The Forever Trilogy~

Chapter 53

Silence

June 16, 5001.

(Goldy's POV)

A month ago, my very good friend Rubin Senri was violently murdered by President Obsidian Synis. A month ago, one of the two girls I loved had her heart shattered because of this. Both girls were connected to him, but the one I was closer to was apparently stronger emotionally and could handle it. And a month ago, the Resistance sped up its campaign to defeat the Government.

I made a promise to that very good friend of mine that I would take care of his wife, the first girl I loved (in a completely platonic way; that is possible, you know) whose heart had been shattered. And I was keeping it, no matter how difficult she was making it.

Topaz refused to leave her room, or even to get out of her bed. She only ate when I asked her to, and then she barely ate at all. The only way she got clean was if Diamonda bathed her. She had lost all her tan, and now was so pale. She had lost a lot of weight, which was just adding on the worry. She was listless, and refused to talk. Cerise used to help Diamonda and me, but eventually she couldn't take seeing her sister like that anymore and stopped coming.

The atmosphere in N's castle was heavy. No one seemed to laugh or smile anymore. I was too tired from helping Diamonda with Topaz and doing my duties as commander to crack jokes.

I sat with Plato in silence, bouncing a ball I had found the other day. He was modifying some new tech blueprints, improving it. It was quiet, except for the sounds of the bouncing ball and the writing of Plato's pencil.

Silent. That was how we were now. That's how Rubin's murder and Topaz's depression affected us.

"Why?" I said suddenly, breaking the silence.

Plato looked up at me, raising an eyebrow. "Why what?"

"Why us?" I asked, bouncing the ball off the floor.

"I don't know," he responded.

"Why even this?" I asked. "Why did we do that was so important?"

Plato stayed silent, stopping whatever he was writing.

"I don't understand," I said darkly. "I want to, but I can't figure it out."

Plato sighed, and pulled off his reading glasses. "I don't know what to tell you, Gold."

I threw the ball at the ground as hard as I could, and it skyrocketed into the air. It hit the ceiling, and ricocheted off, crashing into a vase full of flowers. The vase shattered, sending water, flowers, and shards everywhere. Neither of us moved.

"What does Synis gain from all this?" I demanded. "There has to be more to this than an empire."

"Maybe Topaz found out during the confrontation," he offered. "We know Synis is after her."

I was quiet for a moment, processing what he had said. I scowled, and gritted my teeth.

"But why?" I asked. "Why her?"

...

(Diamonda's POV)

I knocked lightly on the door before opening it up. It was dark inside, as she liked it. I flipped the switch, and the lights flashed on. I heard her complaining groan, but I ignored her. I walked over to the window, and pulled back the drapes to let sunlight flood in.

I walked over to her side of the bed, and looked down at her. "Do you feel like getting up today?"

She shook her head, and rolled onto her stomach, staying silent, as always. I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair. I looked around the room. It was virtually unchanged, except for one thing—a little memorial of sorts set up for Rubin. It had framed pictures from over the years, both his hats—Ruby's old one and the newer blue and white one, still stained with blood—his wedding ring, and the two Poke Balls of the Pokemon she got from his will. Lady and Joy were out, as usual; the Mightyena was laying at the end of the bed, and the Pikachu was snuggling with Raiden.

"Topaz," I said gently. "You can't keep on living like this."

No response, as usual. Just silence.

"Am and Grey need your help," I continued. "Grey's all stressed out now, doing both your duties, and he has almost no time for Fiori or Cade. You can't stay like this."

Silence.

I sighed heavily. "I'll bring your lunch in an hour. With Gold, of course."

I gave Lady a scratch behind her ear before leaving. Fiori was watching Aqua, Cade, and Hyacinth, so I still had some free time. I wanted to see my husband. I needed to see him.

So I headed where they had set up headquarters. Luckily, only Am and Grey were in there when I arrived. And Grey was getting up to leave when I stepped inside. He nodded to me as he walked by, his eyes tired. Am looked up at me from his chair.

"How is she?" he asked.

"The same," I replied with a sigh. "I feel like nothing will get her out of this..."

"Figured," he said, leaning back in his chair. "It'll take a while. You don't get over something like what she went through overnight."

I nodded, and walked over to him. I moved behind the chair, and wrapped my arms around his neck, leaning down close to him.

"How is everything?" I asked.

"Fine," he replied. "No current threats."

"That's good. But it's been a month... What are they waiting for?"

"Who knows," he told me. "This is just the calm before the storm. Enjoy it while it lasts."

"Well, I hope it's nothing too bad... Like what just happened..."

He was silent for a moment. "We'll have to wait and see. But I'm sure we can handle it."

I smiled, and kissed him on the cheek and then let go, standing straight up. He turned his chair around to face me.

"I'm glad to see you're confident," I told him. "We need you to be that way. Especially right now."

He nodded, and stood up. I didn't move back, staying right where I was. I looked up at him, into his mismatched eyes. In a few days, he would be turning twenty, no longer a teenager. It was a strange feeling knowing he would be a man, and I would still be a girl. Legal aspects didn't really matter. I would still be a teenager.

Am smiled at me—an actual smile, though it was lopsided. My own smile widened; just being here with him made me happy. He slipped his arms around my waist and pulled me close, leaning down to press his lips to mine.

I would enjoy this while it lasted, because we barely had any time like this alone anymore. And something told me things were only going to get worse.

...

(Cerise's POV)

I hated the silence. It reminded me of the pain all of us were suffering.

So I usually spent my time with Shirou and whoever he was with at the time—Alan, Kate, or sometimes Professor Willow who insisted I call her Liz. And I noticed as I hung out with them that Magnus spent a lot of time with Liz, and acted differently around her. He just couldn't say no to her, I guess. He was always helping her with stuff. Maybe he liked her or something.

Anyways, today Shirou took me to the lab. Liz wanted to show us all something. Alan and Kate came, too, and Magnus was there when we arrived, which wasn't surprising.

"Hey, Liz, we're here!" Shiu announced as we walked inside.

"Hold on!" she called from the break room.

Moments later, Liz appeared, with Magnus. She was dressed like she always was, with her lab coat on and her hair pulled back in a high ponytail. Magnus's hair was starting to grow out, and he was wearing a simple t-shirt and jeans.

"Thanks for coming, guys!" she exclaimed, grinning. "This is a little project Maggie and I have been working on."

Magnus nodded. "Yep."

I still couldn't believe he let her call him 'Maggie'.

"Oooh!" I exclaimed, intrigued. "What kind of project?"

"You know how you and your friends are descended from the Pokedex holders?" she asked, and I nodded. "Well, I got the idea to see if I could find any more descendents. So we took your DNA and tested it. Then we checked the data base that Professor Oak created centuries ago to track the descendents of the Pokedex holders. Viola helped, too, but but she's too busy with work for Professor Pine today to come over. You'll never guess what we found."

She walked over to her computer, and the screen popped up on the wall. A DNA sequence appeared.

"Kate, I talked to our parents about if we were descended from anyone important," Liz said, catching her sister's attention. "It turns out we're descended from Caitlin. That explains the psychic powers, huh?"

Well, the Willows were rich, so that made perfect sense. And it was kinda ironic since Kate was now a member of the Elite Four, just like Caitlin had been.

"Oh..." was Kate's response.

"And Shirou," she continued. "You're descended from the Pokedex holders Cheren and Bianca. Directly from their son Finley! Apparently he married the daughter of N Harmonia so you're related to him, too."

"Oh my gosh, Shiu!" I exclaimed excitedly, looking up at him. "That's so cool!"

"Oh, well, I already knew that," he said with a shrug.

"What?!" I gasped in shock. "Why didn't you tell me?!"

"You never asked."

I sighed. "Nevermind..."

"Now the really freaky thing we found is about you, Alan," she continued.

"Which is...?" he asked.

"You're apparently descended from Gold and Crystal," she told him. "From their daughter Iolite and some guy named Navy."

Wait a minute...

Oh my Arceus, this was bad, really bad.

"You're also descended from Blue, Green, and Silver. Because Iolite and Navy's son Marine, your ancestor, married Sky, the daughter of Cyan and Jade."

I squeaked.

"What in the name of Arceus is going on?!" Liz demanded, crossing her arms over her chest. "There is no way all of the rebels just happen to have the same names as all these people. But you're here. So how is Alan alive?"

All of this was directed at me. I was frozen. I had no idea what to do.

"I found all of you," she said. "Detailed information about your families and lives."

She walked back to her computer. "Cerise Kimu, born Cerise Rosso. Married Amethyst Kimu. Had five children with him: Ridley, Pembe, Brick, Chrysocolla, and Magenta. Was member of the band Judgement, the drummer under the alias Charlie. Second daughter of Red and Yellow."

Oh my Arceus oh my Arceus there was no way in freaking hell that I would marry Am much less have five freaking kids with him! This was just insane-

My Pokegear rang.

I flinched at the sound, caught by surprise. I pulled it out of my pocket, fumbling a little. I answered it without checking who it was.

"H-Hello?"

"Hey, Cer," came the familiar voice of Diamonda. "Could you come down and relieve Fiori of the kids."

"Diamonda," I just breathed, still in shock.

"...Cerise? Is everything okay? You're not... pregnant, are you?"

...What?

Wait, WHAT?

"No!" I yelled, alarmed. "What kind of question is that?! Look, everyone needs to come down to Willow's lab right now. Something freaky's happening and I have no idea what's going on and I'm freaked out here and-"

"Cer, calm down," Shiu told me gently.

"-just get everyone down here!" I hung up.

"Dear Arceus," Alan sighed, rubbing his eyes.

I let out a strained laugh. This was so not happening to me. Kate looked like she wanted to get out of here.

"Could you please tell me what's going on?" Liz asked, her arms still crossed over her chest.

"Well... Um... I-It's a long story... Wait, I'm starting to sound like—nevermind! I'm not good at explaining stuff, okay?! Um... A—I mean Grey is! Or Topaz... But she's out of it and all..."

Alan grimaced, and Shirou pursed his lips. Liz sighed, and lowered her arms. I took a deep breath to calm myself down. I was almost eighteen, I could handle this maturely. Yeah. I could do it.

But as soon as the others arrived I nearly lost my cool again.

"What's going on?"

I flinched at the sound of Am's voice. Jeez, I needed to get a grip on myself. I mean, we couldn't be the only ones. Our ages, after all, were different in the past.

"Have you heard of the database that contains information about the Pokedex holders and their descendents?" Liz asked, walking up to us so she could be closer to the others.

"Oh, yeah, I know about that," Fiori said. "What about it?"

"You accessed the database here, didn't you?" Indi asked.

Liz nodded. "Yeah. And I find it extremely interesting that when I found all of your names you turn out to be the Pokedex holders' kids. But that's impossible."

"Not necessarily," Alan said, and she looked over at him. "Time travel is possible through certain Pokemon."

"And, well, um... We are from the past," I said, and she looked at me, her eyes widening in shock. "Shiu and Alan know because we told them. Kate found out through her psychic powers. We didn't tell you because we want it to be as secret as possible..."

"I take it we're dealing with another delayed time ripple effect," Am said.

"The database must have us down as what happened to us if we never were kidnapped," Grey said. "Am I right?"

"It must be that then," Liz said, frowning. "You all have a lot of explaining to do."

"Wait a sec," Gold said, speaking up for the first time. "So... You found out what would have happened to us if we never time traveled?"

Liz nodded. "That's right."

His eyes brightened up. "I wanna know!"

Liz snorted. "All right. Everyone, come closer to the computer."

A few minutes later we were all gathered in the area around her computer. We waited for what she was going to tell us. She had to do a little searching first.

"All right, Gold Kimu Junior. Married Topaz Rosso. Had six kids with her: Xanthe, Cadmium, Maize, Vanilla, Beige, and Buff. Was member of the band Judgement, the lead guitarist named Romeo. Second son of Gold and Crystal."

We all looked at him. His eyes were wide with shock. He let out a strained laugh and rubbed the back of his head.

"Ah, well... Good thing we went to the future! That's just crazy! Six kids is a little over the top, don'tcha think?"

"I don't know, I'm not the one who had six freaking kids," Crimson growled at him.

Oh, Crim, he didn't like that, did he? "Well, good thing it didn't happen!" I said, giving my younger brother a look that said Don't start any trouble.

Crimson scowled. "Good thing a lot of things didn't happen."

"Anyone else?" Liz asked.

"They should know," Alan said, crossing his arms.

"Oh yeah. Fiori, Navy... Apparently Alan is your descendent."

They both stared at her like she was crazy. The silence was awkward. I just wanted this whole thing to end... It was so embarrassing.

"Me and... Navy?" Fiori asked incredulously.

Goldy snickered. "That means Alan here's a Kimu!"

Alan shot him a death glare. I couldn't help but giggle a little too. Alan was most definitely not happy with the current turn of events. Though at least Fiori and Navy made some sense, unlike Am and me... I could see them.

Liz proceeded to tell everyone what happened to them in the past. Most of it was shocking. I mean, I never thought Rubin would ever get with Esmeralda, or Sapph with Grey. But it made me wonder if our personalities were different. If we were different, like our younger selves or something, I would understand.

That had to be the case.

Now that we knew what would have happened, it was kinda sad. I mean, I didn't want to be with Am or anything and have six kids, but still. It was just a reminder of how much all of this had changed us. I wondered what would have happened if we never were kidnapped.

But I guess we'd never find out. And I was okay with that. I was happy with Shirou and all my friends, even if one of us was dead. Soon the war would be over and we could live in peace with Pokemon. I wanted that normalcy back so badly. And even if we didn't win, we could live in Unova with Pokemon in peace, unless the Government didn't relent.

But we had to win this. Rubin had died because of this mess, and we had to win for him.

And I prayed to Arceus that we would.

EARLY UPDATE BECAUSE I FEEL LIKE IT

Sorry for yet another short chapter, but there wasn't much I could add to make it longer.

ANYWAYS THIS IS THE FIRST CHAPTER OF THE CESSA ARC YEAAAAAAAAAAH

It's time to get serious.

Next chapter will be the introduction of the PMTTS kids, so it may be a bit confusing at first considering the POV is one of theirs.

As for the special, I still don't know what to do, considering barely anyone gave me any suggestions.

So.

Be prepared for COMEDY

There will still be angst and sad feels

BUT THERE WILL BE COMEDY BROUGHT TO YOU BY THE PMTTS CREW

SO GO AND REVIEW