An Age of Valour

by the Lady of the Mists

Chapter Thirty-five: Stopping the Fight

Lydia was sitting on a rock by the ocean, watching the waves come and crash up onto the beach as the sun was lowering itself onto the horizon. Umbreon was on the rock next to her as his red eyes watched the Pokéball that she held in her hand, cradling it carefully. With a small sigh, Lydia looked down at the Pokéball that now held Seel.

After she had gotten out of surgery, Seel stuck so close to Lydia that she finally gave her the option of going with her or not and Seel had happily agreed to go with. As happy as she was to have Seel on her team, Lydia couldn't help but feel guilty about the events that had occurred. If she had just done something different, then maybe . . . maybe those Pokémon would still be alive. Maybe Seel would be happy and safe with her family . . . with her family, where she belonged . . .

"Is it my fault, Umbreon?" she asked softly, glancing down at her Pokémon, the one who had started her journey and had given her the courage to leave her home behind. "Am I the reason why all this bad stuff keeps happening?"

"Bree! Umbreon! Um!" Umbreon was shaking his head wildly as he spoke, telling her what she probably needed to hear. She wasn't to blame for all of these things; if it weren't for her, then maybe of her Pokémon wouldn't even be alive to tell of her kindness and courage. Umbreon would have died from his injuries back on Rosewaters Isle. Cyndaquil would still be waiting for his former trainer to come back and would most likely have succumbed to some sickness or something. And now Seel . . . who most certainly would have died from those injuries if she hadn't rescued her from that wreckage that Alicia had caused. She was the reason that half of the team she'd brought together were still alive and well cared for. If anything, it was her uncle who was to blame for these things that kept happening.

Lydia sighed and nodded as she stroked Umbreon's ears carefully as he laid his head onto her lap. "Maybe you're right," she admitted, "but it's gonna stop. If I have to take them down myself, then that's what I'm going to do. I won't sit around and watch them hurt innocent Pokémon."

"By yourself?"

Glancing up, Lydia saw Jesse and Jennie walking towards her. Jennie, too, had a new addition to her team. Cloyster had chosen to battle with her after his wounds had recovered and she'd captured him, earning her second ice Pokémon.

Jesse climbed onto the rock next to Lydia and Jennie sat down by the edge of the water, releasing her Pokémon so that they could go play in the water. "You're really going to try and take down your uncle?"

"I'm going to do what I have to do," Lydia answered quietly. "I am so sick of them trailing me all of the time and Alicia trying to hurt me and my friends just to impress her boss. I want this over with."

"And I can understand that, I do," Jennie commented, glancing up at her. "Believe me, I'm getting really tired of them coming after us all of the time, too, but . . . can it wait until after we go to the Ice Path?"

Both Lydia and Jesse laughed, breaking the tension that had settled on Lydia's shoulders ever since she had found Seel. Jennie joined into the laughter, her green eyes twinkling as their laughter carried over the beach. Jesse was the first one to recover and he looked at Lydia.

"She's kind of got a point, though. I mean, we have travelled all of this way to go to the gym here and I don't think that we should put all of our efforts on hold. We both want to get into the tournament. And you don't want to miss that, do you? I mean, your dad put all of his efforts into stopping William and look what happened to him."

Lydia smiled ruefully, knowing what he was talking about. His wife murdered by his brother, his brother desperately trying to get revenge against him for trying to stop him, his son sent far away from him, his two daughters taken away from him and one was still missing to this day . . .

"No, I don't want to miss out on the tournament," she agreed. "But what if something bad happens while we're trying to stop them?"

"You can't right all the wrongs in the world by yourself, Lydia," Jesse pointed out. "And if you put all of your energies into trying to stop them, then eventually, I think you're just going to become a hardened trainer who will stop at nothing to achieve her goals . . . like Alicia."

Lydia froze as he said that and turned towards her best friends. "You think so?"

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure," Jesse said with a small chuckle. Lydia smiled at him before looking towards the horizon.

"So I guess then we're heading towards the gym tomorrow, sound good?" she asked.

"Sounds like a plan," Jesse said cheerfully. "I was talking to some trainers earlier who took a pretty good beating from the leader here. And when I say beating, I mean literally. It's fighting types here. And the leader is no pushover. This is going to be a tough one."

"I'm not worried," Lydia said with a smile. "The tough ones . . . those are usually the beneficial battles, the ones where we have to fight our hardest to win. And I love those battles."

Jennie sighed. "I don't get that much out of battling. Personally, I like the spectator part of it. So, any idea what Pokémon you're going to be using? I think I heard it's two on two."

Lydia shrugged. "Well, I think I'm going to go with Poliwhirl, since she's part fighting. And Umbreon, if you're up for it," she added, looking at Umbreon. She saw the disbelieving looks that she was receiving from Umbreon, Jesse, and Jennie respectively. "What?" she asked. They were all looking at her as though she had lost her mind.

"Uh . . . you are fully aware that dark Pokémon are weak against fighting types?" Jesse asked her.

She looked at him pointedly. "Natu," she said calmly, "Azalea gym, psychics weak against bugs . . . am I ringing any bells here?" she asked and he smiled ruefully.

"Okay, so I'm not the most conventional trainer either," he said, accepting the jest gracefully. "But that doesn't mean that you have to follow my lead. I was lucky then. Plus, I'd been training for a lot longer than you have, even now."

Lydia smiled and shrugged. "We'll see."

Jennie shook her head. "As much as I would like this to continue, if we're going to go to the gym early tomorrow, I think we should head back to the Centre. Besides, curfew is in a few hours and I'd like to get some food before the cafeteria closes."

It was only when Jennie mentioned food that Lydia realised how hungry she actually was. They hadn't had a decent meal since the ferry and that was the day before yesterday. She got up and slipped Seel's Pokéball into her pocket before all four of them headed towards the Pokémon Centre, all of them talking and jousting about the battles tomorrow.

--

Lydia brushed out her hair as she sat in the room she'd rented at the Pokémon Centre with Jennie and Jesse, both of whom were fast asleep on their beds. Umbreon was asleep as well, curled into a ball at the end of her bed. But not Lydia; no, she couldn't sleep. Every inch of her was wide awake as she returned her brush to her bag before standing up and heading into the lobby. No one was there except for Nurse Joy, currently checking on the status of some of the Pokémon.

Walking past her onto the patio, Lydia sighed as she sat down at one of the chairs, breathing in the cool autumn air. Winter was on the way, she noted as she leaned back, staring up at the stars, tracing them with her finger, a familiar feeling surging through her. Didn't Hayden say that their mother used to take them out to look at the stars once?

Almost at once, memory swept through her mind. She was a tiny baby, sitting on her mother's lap with her big brother nearby, looking up at the stars as her mother traced them with her tiny hands.

"See if you can find them," her mother whispered as she sat with her two remaining children. "See the Pokémon up there in the stars? You can trace them there. Put those two together and then line them up with the ones to the left of them. What do you see?"

Lydia giggled at the game, seeing the pictures that were traced in the sky, images of Pokémon appearing in the sky as Hayden laughed happily. "It's an Eevee, Mum!" he said, his blue eyes lit with laughter and joy. "I can see an Eevee there! Look!"

"That's my boy," their mother said proudly, ruffling his hair affectionately. "Do you see them, Lydia? Can you see them, my girl?" Lydia nodded as she traced them with her finger, swirling all around, finding Pokémon everywhere she could see.

It was a time of happiness, it was a time of laughter, and it was a time of love. But even though she was less than a year old, Lydia knew that it wasn't going to last.

"Lydia?"

Startled out of her thoughts, Lydia glanced up to see Hayden climbing over the balcony, jumping down and slipping on the recently mopped floor. "Stealthy," she said in amusement as he tried to regain his composure. She stood up to greet her brother, hugging him. "What are you doing here?"

Hayden put on a mock hurt expression. "What, are you not glad to see me?" he inquired.

Rolling her eyes, Lydia shook her head in exasperation. "Let me rephrase that," she said with a sigh. "What are you doing here this late? Shouldn't you be asleep by now?"

"Could say the same thing about you," Hayden pointed out as they sat down at one of the tables. She gave him a pointed look and he shrugged. "I just wanted to check on you, make sure that you were all right. I had a bad feeling." He paused, looking at her carefully. "Are you all right?"

Lydia sighed, turning to look at her brother directly in their identical blue eyes. "In the cave on the Whirl Islands," she said quietly, "you and Alicia seemed to know one another." Hayden looked down at her comment, refusing to meet her gaze. "How do you meet her? Where do you know her from?"

"Mostly? Just crossed paths with her before, back in Kanto," Hayden replied with a sigh. "That was before I found out who my parents were and about you and Alison and . . . this whole thing with Jack and William. Back then, she was just some arrogant, conceited trainer that didn't know when to back off. I don't honestly know a whole lot about her, other than the fact that she was recruited very young by William."

"How young?"

Hayden looked at her. "So young that she doesn't even remember who her parents are," he said quietly. Lydia's blood went cold; William had abducted a little girl from her home to serve in his army or whatever he wanted to call it? "So she was raised without any recollection of her family and the only life she knows is the one he taught her. And I don't need to point out that he did a much better job with her than he did with you." He paused. "I'm glad that he didn't succeed with you."

"She's done terrible things before, even before the Seel incident," Lydia said quietly. "Things that I can't forgive her for, but . . . when you think about it . . . it's not really her fault. She knows no other life."

"It still doesn't make it right," Hayden replied as he leaned back in his chair. "William's twisted her so badly that she has a very warped version of what's right and wrong. And she won't rest until she's accomplished William's needs for the war to start up again." He looked at her. "If it does . . . Lydia, I want you to stay away."

"No, Hayden."

"Lydia, this is serious—"

"Yeah, I know that." Lydia stood up to face her brother. "I know this is serious and that it could very well mean life or death for both of us and my friends. But I won't just stand by when innocent people and Pokémon are going to get hurt. It's because of this that we weren't raised together and that we have no mother. It's because of this that our sister is somewhere out there, unfound and alone. And I'm not just going to let it happen again. If this war starts up again, then I am fighting. Not on Jack's side, not on William's, but to put a stop to it once and for all. This is my fight. It's our family's fight, Hayden. And we have to end it, before it destroys us all."

Hayden sighed, looking away. When he finally looked up, he was wearing a half-pained, half-exasperated expression. "If you get killed," he finally said, "I'm telling."

The statement was so unlike Hayden that it sent both siblings into laughter and Lydia finally said, "That goes for you too, big brother."

"We're gonna end this," Hayden agreed as he looked at her. "And we're gonna find Alison."

"Or she's gonna find us," Lydia said softly.