An Age of Valour
by the Lady of the Mists
Chapter Thirty-nine: An Old Friend
Lydia must have drifted off at some point, because the next thing that she knew, she was being shaken awake by one of the sailors as they were pulling into Olivine, the storm having passed and they had resumed their rightful course.
"Why so early?" Jesse groaned as he rubbed his eyelids, getting to his feet unsteadily. Lydia sat up, Jesse's jacket falling off of her as she stretched and she blinked.
"Uh . . . here's your jacket," she said, embarrassed. Jesse was flushing slightly as he took his jacket. Jennie rolled her eyes, getting to her feet while Lydia recalled Cyndaquil, patting Umbreon on his head as she stood up. "So, did everyone have as good a sleep last night as I did?"
"You two seemed to be pretty comfortable last night," Jennie said innocently, causing both of the older trainers to turn to glare at her. She smiled, giving them both her big, green innocent look before heading towards the dock. "Come on, we should get to the Pokémon Centre and get the Pokémon checked out. I think Smoochum got a little seasick," she said affectionately as she scampered off.
"Remind me to strangle her later," Jesse said darkly, shaking his dark hair out of his eyes.
"Yeah, I'll help you."
As she followed Jennie out of the cafeteria, hoisting her bag higher onto her shoulders as she did so, Lydia tried to make herself look presentable as much as possible, straightening her rumpled jeans and shirt and brushing her fingers through her hair.
"Lydia, stop," Jesse said, catching her hair. "You're just going to make it worse than usual." She stuck her tongue out at him and he smiled, leaning closer to her. "I think you look lovely."
She flushed at the comment, but looked down. "If you say so," she muttered, zipping up her jacket so that nobody would see her wrinkled outfit. "So, what do you think? We should head straight over to the gym or give the Pokémon a day to recover from the excitement?"
"Excitement implies something good happening, Lydia. Last I checked, we were thrown around on a ship during a storm and had our heads bashed into multiple times during the night." He rolled his eyes. "And I think I was the one who got seasick last night," he muttered, looking pale.
"So in other words, you're opting to go to the Centre first and recuperate?" Lydia guessed. Jesse shrugged and nodded as they joined the long line of people that were in a mad dash to get off of the ship. "Which Pokémon are you going to use in the next battle? If fire types are good against steel types . . . maybe we should go try and track down a fire type?"
"Do you realise how rare a find a fire type is?" Jesse asked, sounding exasperated. "Finding a fire type is like looking for a needle in a haystack. No, I'll just make do with Totodile. Maybe used Gastly as a back-up."
"Have you even ever used Totodile in a battle?" Lydia wanted to know, her forehead creasing, trying to remember.
"Of course I have! I used her back at Goldenrod, remember?" Lydia nodded, remembering now. "Plus, I have used her when I've been battling trainers on the road. She even won against Cubone that one time when we were doing some training, remember?"
"Okay, okay, you win! I just think maybe we should get you a fire type, because you never know when one of those are gonna come in handy," she pointed out.
Jesse considered this and nodded. "All right, but where are we going to find one around here? It's not like there's going to be one falling out of the sky and land right in front of us—"
As they were headed towards the Pokémon Centre, they heard yelling and Lydia turned around for the source of it, her eyes narrowing when she saw a redheaded trainer shouting at his Growlithe. The Pokémon in question was cowering underneath the trainer's words, trying to make herself as small as she could.
"I take you in, I train you, and for what? So you could make me look bad in front of gym leaders? It's bad enough that I had to lose at Goldenrod because you couldn't take a beating, but against steel types, which you know very well you're strong against? I'm not going to take that."
Lydia looked at Jesse, whose eyes had narrowed in extreme dislike. What was it with cruel trainers lately? she wondered. It seemed that they had come across more bad ones than they had good ones.
"Well, I've had enough of this," the redhead snapped. "You won't win battles for me, then I see no reason to continue taking care of you. Let's see how well you do on your own."
He held up a Pokéball, which released a blue glow over Growlithe, who backed away from the light as it released her. Without another word, the trainer walked away from the fire Pokémon, heading away from her and walking down the road.
"Poor little girl," Jennie whispered. Lydia wrapped an arm around the younger girl as Jesse, his eyes softened as he looked at the abandoned Pokémon, walked forward towards Growlithe, who gave a soft growl as he was approached.
"Hey there, big girl," Jesse said in a friendly tone. He patted the Growlithe on the head. "How are you doing, huh? Are you hungry? Why don't you come with us down to the Pokémon Centre and we'll get something to eat. I'm Jesse, this is my sister Jennie, and my friend Lydia."
"Hi, Growlithe," Lydia said with a smile, but let Jesse do his thing. Even though Scyther still wasn't listening to him, she had a feeling that Growlithe was going to be a nice addition to his team, if he wanted to come, because ultimately, she knew Jesse was going to let Growlithe make his own choice. "Come on with us. I'll bet you're hungry."
"And you won't find me betting against you," Jennie said dryly. Lydia stepped on her feet, causing her to wince, but otherwise ignored her comment, watching Jesse and Growlithe carefully.
Growlithe hesitated, glancing back towards where her former trainer had disappeared to, but seemed to realise that the redhead wasn't going to come back. With a sad, mournful bark, she fell into step next to Jesse as he stood up, rejoining the girls as they headed towards the Centre.
Once they were inside, they let Growlithe go off with their Pokémon so they could get acquainted and Nurse Joy could take care of any injuries that might've been sustained while the trainers went over to the cafeteria so they could get the first food they'd had since the awful lunch on the ship, which wasn't really that nutritional.
Lydia ate her breakfast quietly before she looked around at Jesse, who looked deep in thought. "What's wrong, Jesse?" she asked him. "You look like you got the weight of the world on you shoulders?"
"It's just that Growlithe," Jesse said softly. "It just . . . hits a little bit too close to home, that's all." Jennie was staring determinedly at her plate, not looking up as Jesse pushed his chair back. "I'm gonna go check on the Pokémon. I'll see you two later." He shuffled out of the cafeteria and Lydia turned to look at Jennie.
"Okay, missy, what was that all about?" she wanted to know.
"Nothing!" Jennie said, almost a little too quickly.
"Yeah, and Alicia's actually my sister," Lydia said darkly. "Come on, what's really going on?"
Jennie sighed, leaning her head back. "Jess's gonna kill me when he finds out I told you," she complained. "All right, you know the whole story about how Mom and Dad split up years ago and Mom tried to ship us off to one of those Pokémon Academies?" she asked. Lydia nodded. "Well, what you don't know is that Jesse had a Growlithe. It was the first Pokémon that he ever caught. And he loved that little girl. But our great-uncle thought that he was too weak and said that Jesse could do better. Jesse didn't want to let Growlithe go, tried to keep him as hard as he could, but when Great-uncle Albert has his mind made up on something, there's little you can do to stop him.
"Anyway, Uncle Albert decided that the best way to teach Jesse that he would obey his rules or suffer the consequences was to watch Growlithe suffer. He had his Blastoise use Whirlpool on Growlithe." Lydia's eyes were wide as she said that.
"And fire Pokémon are weak against water attacks," she said softly, horror running through her. "Poor Jesse. Poor Growlithe. Did he . . .?" Lydia stopped, unable to finish.
"Growlithe survived, barely," Jennie said miserably as she ran her fingers through her blonde hair. "But that was enough for Jesse. As much as he loved Growlithe, he wouldn't take the chance that next time, Uncle Albert might succeed. So he took Growlithe out to Viridian Forest and released her. She's probably still there."
"What is wrong with people?" Lydia whispered, pounding her fist on the table and causing a few people to stare. "Are people so filled with anger that they have to take it out on the weak and helpless?" She blinked back tears of rage before a thought occurred to her. "And how long after this did Jesse leave the Academy?"
"About a week later," Jennie said softly. "He knew that Mom and Uncle Albert would try and track him down, so he didn't dare go after Growlithe. He loved that little girl too much to risk it."
"That explains a lot," Lydia sighed, running her fingers through her hair. "Like why he was so determined not to go back to your mother's and so against Academy training." She shook her head.
"Do you think he'll keep this Growlithe?" Jennie asked, glancing towards the door.
"I think there's a pretty good chance," Lydia answered. Something about Jennie's story tipped her psyche. She didn't know what it was, she didn't know how or why, but she had the feeling that there was more connecting this Growlithe to Jesse's than any of them knew.
As they finished up their meals, Lydia went with Jennie to where their Pokémon were. Jesse was sitting on the floor, just watching the Growlithe carefully, an odd pain in his eyes.
"You told her, didn't you?" he said without even looking up. Jennie made a face, but gave Lydia an exasperated sigh. "Don't worry, I was pretty much banking on you to."
"Jesse," Lydia said softly, moving over to sit down next to him. "It's not your fault. You did everything right."
"I abandoned my Pokémon," Jesse said sharply.
"You saved her," Lydia said gently. "You saved her by loving her enough to give her up. Jesse, there was nothing else that you could have done. You didn't leave her because you were angry with her or she was too weak, you left her because your uncle would've killed her otherwise." She turned his green gaze towards her. "This is not your fault."
"She's right, Jess," Jennie said pleadingly. "You were trying save her life, not feed her to the wolves."
"I just . . . I wish I could see her again, you know? Even if was just one last time. Tell her that I'm sorry and that I love her and that I hope she can forgive me."
Lydia sighed, noticing for the first time that Growlithe was cocking her head at Jesse's words as if testing his voice.
With a quick glance at Jesse, Lydia gently prodded Growlithe's mind, entering silently into her mind. At first, all she saw were images of the angry trainer they had seen her with before she journeyed back, further into the past. And she saw Viridian Forest, where the redhead had captured her. She had been left there, by her first trainer, to save her from his cruel uncle. Lydia caught a glimpse of a younger Jesse before she was pulled from Growlithe's memories.
"Just one last time, huh, Jess?" Lydia asked quietly, slightly shaken. "I think you're gonna have a lot more than that." Jesse looked up at her, confused. "Look at her, Jesse. Does she look familiar to you?"
Jennie gave her a curious look and Lydia shot a half-smile at her before the blonde trainer's eyes widened in understanding. "The scar, Jess," she said, looking at her brother. "The one Uncle Albert gave her on her back. Look, you can see it right there." She pointed as Jesse scrambled to his feet, his green eyes wide with disbelief as he walked over to Growlithe, parting her fur to see the scar. She whined with displeasure, but Jesse just stared at it before looking at her in joy.
"Growlithe?" he whispered and she cocked her head before giving a sharp bark, inhaling his scent before barking with pleasure and happiness. "Growlithe!"
She barked again as he wrapped his arms around the Pokémon, burying his face into her fur as tears leaked out of his eyes as he whispered soft assurances and apologises and promised never to abandon her again.