An Age of Valour

by the Lady of the Mists

Chapter Two: Rebellion

It took the space of about two seconds for the doors to the recovery room to slam open and Lydia jumped to her feet, putting herself between her father and Eevee, her heart starting to race with fear. She had always been slightly afraid of her father, especially when he was angry, but this was beyond his usual temperament. He looked as though all common sense had gone from him and he'd lost some of his sanity.

"Just what do you think you're doing here?" he hurled at her, looking as though he were about ready to knock her senseless. "And with that thing?" he added, noticing the Eevee that was behind his daughter. "What do you think you're doing? I told you that you weren't allowed to go anywhere near those vile creatures! How dare you disobey me!"

"He was hurt!" Lydia snapped, her own temper starting to rise. "Eevee needed a doctor otherwise he would've died! If I hadn't done something, then he would have!"

"Then it should have," her father said dismissively. "One less of those things to worry about."

Lydia felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach at those words. She'd known for years that he'd held a grudge against Pokémon that border-lined on hate, but she'd never imagined that he would be capable of uttering those words.

"How . . . dare . . . you," she whispered. "How can you be so cruel? How can you just stand there and pretend that a Pokémon's life doesn't matter? It does matter!" Her voice was starting to shake and she could feel tears threatening to spill from her eyes. "They're no different from us; they're all living creatures! They deserve to live just as much as you or I do."

William shook his head. "You're just as foolish as your mother. Those creatures are insignificant, not worth enough to be meddled with. They should just be dropped off the nearest cliff, the whole lot of them."

"You ought to be ashamed of yourself!" Nurse Joy had arrived, looking towards William in extreme dislike. "Mr. Talon, your daughter did a noble thing in bringing Eevee here. Pokémon are not slaves or insignificant. They are the balance of nature and all living things. We must all work together if we are to live in peace."

With a scoff, William glanced at her. "We can never live in peace," he said coolly. "History has proven that over and over again. Wars have almost destroyed people. Pokémon are just as bad, if not worse, then men."

"You're wrong," Lydia insisted. "If we just become friends with Pokémon, if we can just believe in each other, if we believe that there can be peace, then we can work towards a common goal." She took a deep breath, ignoring all signs that this was a bad idea. "And you know, I'm tired of trying to convince you otherwise. If there was any good in you, it died right along with Mom. I want to become a Pokémon trainer."

For a moment that contained an eternity, William stared at his daughter, something flickering behind his eyes as he looked at her, straight into her blue eyes. And Lydia stared back, unknowingly, in the image of her mother.

After a long, tense moment, William finally turned away. "Do whatever you want," he said coldly. "I'm sick and tired of having you in the house anyway. But hear my words, girl, if you disobey me, if you leave this place for those creatures, then you can never come back. Do you hear me? Never." The final word had the sound of finality in them.

Lydia felt her rage building and without her noticing it, things around the room started to shake slightly. Nurse Joy glanced at them, then at Lydia, frowning slightly, a thoughtful look on her face.

"You can't be my father," she snapped at him. "Not my real one, anyway. You haven't done anything right by me. First blaming for Mom's death—and trying to convince me that it was my fault—and then trying to make me fear Pokémon?" She shook her head. "I can't believe that I'm even related to you, Mr. Talon." Lydia put emphasis on those words. "You're not my father and you never were."

"For once, I agreed with you," William retorted. "It was a complete lie from the beginning. You never should have had the name in the first place."

Feeling her throat constrict, Lydia didn't say anything as William walked out of the room, the doors slamming behind him. They all heard the doors to the Pokémon Centre follow them a few seconds later, along with furtive whisperings of the trainers who were in the lobby, having heard everything that went on behind the closed doors.

Nurse Joy sighed, looking towards Lydia. "Are you all right?" She nodded once, not speaking. "Well, then, I'm going to go make a call to a friend of mine, Professor Oak. He lives in the Kanto region. I think he'll be able to get you a Pokédex and send it right over. It'll register you as an official Pokémon trainer."

"Thanks," Lydia said, glancing up at her at long last. "Should I come and get you when Eevee wakes up?" The Pokémon, surprisingly, hadn't stirred despite the commotion that had been occurring around him. Then again, considering the amount of damage that had been dealt to him, maybe it wasn't so surprising.

"Yes, come get me immediately," Nurse Joy said, leaving Lydia alone with Eevee again. She sighed, sitting down next to Eevee, reaching out and touching his brow tenderly.

"Poor thing," she murmured as Eevee gave a soft yawn, turning onto her hand. "Not even that could wake you up, could it?" She smiled slightly as she crossed her arms, leaning onto the bed. "But, you see, the thing is, you have to wake up soon, because I really would like to be your friend. Your last trainer didn't treat you too well, did he?"

If Eevee heard her, then he didn't make any response. But Lydia didn't know what else to do, so she kept talking.

"You know, I know what that's like. My dad didn't treat me too kindly either, so we have a lot in common. Maybe we can help each other get through it. We could travel together and make new friends. Human and Pokémon alike. Don't you think that'd be fun? And you don't even have to battle, not if you don't want to. I won't make you."

Lydia rubbed her tired eyes as she glanced at Eevee. "Just . . . please wake up soon, Eevee. I really want to be your friend," she whispered. Her eyelids started tugging and before she knew it, she was lying asleep on the chair, her head lying on her arms on the bed.

--

The first thing that Lydia registered was that there was a fair amount of commotion in the lobby beyond her when she woke. Not quite all the way awake, but she could still hear the sounds of people talking and moving around, too loud for it to be early in the morning. Lydia had to guess it was probably close to noon. That was strange, she thought sleepily as she slowly returned to the waking world. She rarely slept past ten and ten was a rarity in itself.

Once Lydia realised this, she noticed that there was something pressing a cold nose against her cheek, nudging her awake. She groaned slightly, blinking her eyes open.

All at once, she remembered what had happened the previous night, because Eevee squealed happily when he saw her awake. She smiled as she sat up straight, wincing slightly because moving so fast after sleeping all night in a chair isn't such a good idea.

"Eevee!" she said, thrilled that he was awake and attentive. "How are you feeling? Are you okay?"

"Vee! Eevee-vee!" The Pokémon looked better than he had the previous night and he actually sounded better as he spoke. If she hadn't known that just last night he had been in a serious life or death situation, then she wouldn't have guessed.

"I'll take that as a yes," Lydia laughed. "Oh, wait, I was supposed to tell Nurse Joy when you woke up." She began to get up when Nurse Joy's voice spoke up.

"No need." The nurse smiled at her as she approached. "I checked on him a few hours ago, while you were asleep. Eevee's much better, thanks to you. And I talked to Professor Oak and he's taken a great interest in you, I'll have you know. He'll be sending a Pokédex over as soon as he can. He just needs some personal information about you, so if you could just fill out these forms, I'll send them right over." She smiled. "Don't worry, I've got to give Eevee another check-up to make sure that everything's all right. If things look all right, then he should be free to go this afternoon."

"Okay." Lydia turned to Eevee. "So, how would you like to go travelling with me, Eevee?"

Eevee squealed happily, rubbing Lydia's arm as if to confirm what she'd thought was his reaction.

"All right, then." She grinned. "So, I'll get this paperwork done with and you go with Nurse Joy. I'll see you in a little bit. Be good for her, okay?"

The look that Eevee gave her clearly told her what he thought of that, but only gave her another rub on the arm before leaving with the nurse. Lydia smiled before leaning back in her chair to look at the paperwork.

Most of it was simple. Name, Lydia Rosemary Talon, daughter of William and Rosemary Talon. Born and raised on Rosewaters Isle, schooled there at the Rosewaters Academy. Age, thirteen, born on December 20th. But she paused on the contact information.

She no longer had any contact with her father, so she couldn't put him down. It wasn't like he would even care, if he was still talking to her. Other than her father, she only had one relative and that was her uncle.

Jack Talon was William's younger brother, but around the same time that Lydia was born and Rosemary had died, they'd had a falling out. Lydia wasn't even sure what it was about, but in the end, Jack had moved away to Cherrygrove City and Lydia hadn't spoken to him since she was about three.

But she was still his niece, wasn't she? That still had to mean something. Besides, from what she remembered, Jack was nothing like his brother. He wouldn't turn away when she needed something. With a small sigh, Lydia stood up and headed out to use the phone.

She had to call the operator first to find out her uncle's number and when she finally had it written down, she dialled it to ask him permission for her to use him as a contact.

On the second ring, someone in Cherrygrove City picked up. "Hello, this is the Talon residence," a male voice answered. Lydia's heart stopped with remembrance at the sound of it.

"Don't worry, Lydia," her uncle told her gently as he hugged her goodbye. "No matter what happens, you can always come to me for help, all right? I promise you, I'm not abandoning you."

As she got caught up in the memory, she forgot to answer for a minute and the man asked, "Hello? Is somebody there?"

"Yes," she managed to say. "Is this Jack Talon?"

"Yeah, who is this?" Jack sounded bewildered, not recognising her voice. But then, how would he? She'd only been three years old when he left, just a little kid.

"This—this is Lydia," she said softly, swallowing, her heart beating fast in her chest. "Lydia Talon . . . your niece."