Long after Cobalt had fallen asleep, after she and the others had gone back into their PENs, after the night had gripped the woods in its clutches, I lay awake in my sleeping bag, crying and trying to stifle my sobs. Brendan stirred uneasily, then sat up.
"Alex?"
I turned away from him, not wanting to talk.
"Alex, what's wrong? Do you want some peanut butter?"
"No."
"Is it Lana?"
"It's not just Lana."
"Is it the Carvanha?"
"His name was Cutter."
"Alex, you can talk to me."
"I don't trust you."
"Why not?"
"Quit it, Brendan!"
I heard him move his sleeping bag towards mine. An arm looped around my waist and with a huff, he dropped his head and went back to sleep.
Beside me, Torrent was sleeping with his arm under his head, facing me. One hand was extended towards me, as it always was when he slept, whatever his position. I put my hands in his, almost engulfed by the tanned fingers. He was instantly awake.
He half-rose, his eyes darting to Brendan, and when he quirked an eyebrow, I merely tightened my fingers. The corner of his lips rose in a smile, his face relaxing.
"Things happen," he whispered, crawling into my sleeping bag, carefully removing Brendan's arm. He lifted my head and put his arm under so that I was nestled against his chest. He smelled like an estuary, the connection between freshwater and the ocean, a balance. "Things will always happen. What happened to Cutter wasn't our fault. And what happened to Lana wasn't our fault, either, not even Cobalt's fault."
I listened to his heart beat for some time.
"I feel so weak, Torrent. In the games, you're always the hero, no matter what. You don't have to work for it. You always save the day. But here... I'm useless. I've grown complacent."
"I don't think you're useless, Lexa."
I pressed the heels of my hands to my eyes.
"But aren't I? I am! It started with the day I screwed up in the battle with Brendan. After that, I just... didn't trust myself to make decisions anymore. I didn't want to hurt anyone anymore. Now, I feel all lukewarm."
"Mm," Torrent hummed. "I trust you to find a way. For now, go to sleep."
With his free hand, he patted slow circles into my back. I could hear the sound of the ocean coming from his headphones.
"How old are you Torrent?"
"In human years? Seventeen. In Piece years, I'm twenty. Go to sleep Lexa, I'll be here."
"That's what Brendan said."
"Hm? It is. But Brendan hasn't quite grown up yet."
I yawned, and Torrent let out a contented sound.
"Torrent, I'm scared."
He opened his eyes, and they were as grey as the sky before rain fell.
"I know."
And I knew he did.
When I woke up, Brendan was gone.
To my right, I heard Briar's shouts and the clash of Foxglove's blades against some unfortunate Piece's throat. Up above, Skyra wheeled lazily, a pinpoint in an otherwise clear sky. Torrent was curled up next to me, sleeping soundly as the sun glinted off his headphones.
"Brendan left his jacket for you, but you looked hot, so I took it off. He also left the USB for the Item Finder. He said sorry for leaving early, but he had to conduct an experiment."
I turned my head to the sound of Cobalt's voice. She pointed at a jacket and a USB next to me and then hurled her shield into the side of a tree, making it dig into the bark. She stretched out her hand and it flew back to her fingers. Again and again, she threw her shield until finally, with a groan, the tree fell. She wiped the sweat from her eyes and repositioned herself in front of a new tree.
"Is it okay to chop down all those trees?"
"Briar fixes them." Her voice was dead. It was unnatural, the way her mouth moved while she spoke, but the rest of her face didn't.
"Cobalt..."
"I'm fine."
At her flat response, I shut my mouth and looked around the field more.
"Can I hold it? Your shield?"
She paused and walked over to me.
"It's heavy for you, I think." I gripped the metal and for a minute, both of us were holding it. It felt warm and alive, more alive than Cobalt's robotic face. Slowly, she let me have more and more of the weight until I was holding in by myself, both arms straining from the struggle of keeping it up. My hands slipped and it fell from my fingers. Cobalt caught it easily. "Are you okay?" she asked.
"I couldn't hold it." I looked at my small, soft hands.
"Your arms aren't strong enough," Skyra piped up, coming up behind me. Her sharp eyes examined my face and her head tilted curiously. After a moment, she grabbed me under my arms, jumped, and flapped hard. Somehow, she hooked both my hands on the branch of a tree ten feet in the air. She perched on top of the branch and looked down at me. "Pull yourself up."
My arms complained in exhaustion as I kicked, trying to gain purchase. But the bark dug into my hands when I kicked, so I hung limply, trying to catch my breath. In the background, I heard the dull thump of Cobalt's shield against the wood again.
"I-I can't do it." I started to look down, looking for a soft patch of grass to land on, but Skyra's wing stopped me.
"Don't look down." Sky-blue eyes bore into mine. "Don't think of ways to quit. Think of ways to win." I struggled again, my arms shaking now.
"I can't!"
"We chose you." Briar's voice rose from below. "We could have escaped. We chose you. That must mean something, right?"
"Why did you choose me?!" I could feel the sting of tears, but I had no hands to wipe it away with. "I can't even lift myself up! If I can't save myself, how can I save you?!"
"Pull yourself up," said Avira.
"HOW?!" I screamed.
"We believe in you," said Torrent.
"I WANT TO KNOW HOW I CAN SAVE YOU!"
"You can do it." Skyra's voice came from above.
I couldn't say anything more.
I heard the chink, chink sound of Foxglove using his blades to climb the tree. He swung out easily to the branch next to me.
"I'm going to show you once," he growled. Keeping his feet together, he swung them neatly, quickly building momentum until he had enough to flip his leg over on the branch. I replicated him, messily, and eventually, I climbed on top of the branch, feeling sick and tired. My hands were sheet-white, covered with bits of bark.
It took a long time for the feeling to return to my fingers, for the breath to return to my lungs. From this high up, I could see over the meadow. Sunlight ran up the sides of goldenrod, ending in pools of dandelions. The light that fell through the trees were chartreuse, ever shifting. I felt like I was at the bottom of my own ocean, staring up into waves drifting above me.
"It's pretty up here, right?"
I glanced at Skyra, who had sat down next to me on the bough. Below me, I heard Foxglove walk away, followed by Avira, who was inseparable from him. If I looked carefully, I could see that they looked similar enough to be twins. Briar had already walked off to see to the trees Cobalt had felled.
"How can I save you?" I asked quietly.
Skyra flipped her hair over her shoulder.
"Why do you think we need to be saved?"
When she looked back at me with eyes full of fire, I couldn't help but smile.
"No, I don't suppose you would need to be saved."
From below, Torrent chuckled.
Skyra rose to her feet, making the leaves rustle on our branch.
"Look at that sky," she commanded, pointing at the pastel, muted azure of the horizon, "Do I need to be saved from the sky? No. But I do need something that will always draw me back to the ground again." Her gaze seemed to focus on something. "A lifeline." I traced her gaze, and saw that she was looking at Briar. "A lightning rod. In this, you are the same. There's no way you can save us, because we don't need saving. However, you can love us. You can cherish us. You can remember who we were, so we don't die needlessly alone. You can understand us with our weaknesses and cover them with the strong parts of yourself, so we are safe. You can fill the chinks in our armor with love and intellect until we are impenetrable. Fix the perception that you can't do anything. Because you can. Don't think that you are useless. You are needed. You are necessary. You are loved."
The road unfurled abruptly, an off-white ribbon, edged by vibrant swathes of grass. Skyra ducked from the sky, landing harder than usual and tucking her wings tightly against her back.
"The air tastes funny," she said and took my sleeve in her hand. "Tinny. I don't like it."
"It's because it's an electrically oriented-"
"No, that's not it. Something is wrong. Something doesn't feel right." She was unusually unsettled.
The casino was the first building that rose up to greet our eyes. Even though the sun was bright in the sky, the radiant light bulbs that dotted the entire building managed to shine and twinkle, pulsing like their own stars. And the closer we got to the town, the more the air started to taste like it had been processed through an air-conditioner.
"This might be the biggest waste of space I have ever seen," Foxglove said, craning his neck to see the top of the gigantic casino. Even from outside, we heard the rattling of the machines and the faint laughter of the multitude of gamblers inside. "But I suppose we could stay inside. They probably have beds and food."
"No," Skyra retorted sharply, eyes wide, "we won't go in."
"We're all tired," Foxglove snapped back. "So unless you have a better idea, we're going in."
Skyra grabbed him by his clothes and hissed through clenched teeth.
"We're not going in, bug-brain, do you understand?" She let him go when I put a hand on her head. "Everything tastes fake here. I can't even fly. I'm not going in there."
"Oh, I'm sorry," he snarled, brushing off his clothes, "I didn't realize you were scared of your own shadow!"
Skyra was straining against my arms when Avira floated over to Foxglove and draped her arms over his shoulders.
"He's just tired," her light voice danced over to me. "We're all tired. Let's just rest in the casino. I'm sure nothing bad will happen."
Foxglove started to walk towards the iridescent casino, towing the hovering Shedninja. But as they crossed from the street into the sidewalk, Torrent cocked his head.
"Do any of you feel that?" he said, looking around. Foxglove stopped in his tracks and backed away from the door before Avira could grab the doorknob.
"Eh?" she said, nuzzling her twin, "What's wrong?"
A bolt of lightning came hissing out of a metal box from a nearby pole. Before Foxglove or Avira could react, Cobalt jumped into it's path, getting hit by the full blast. She started twitching as the electricity boiled through her system, eyes shut.
She did not scream. Neither did I. Instead, we both grit our teeth until the electricity fizzled out. I could hear the pole whine as it charged for another bolt.
"Metal Claw!" I spat out. The Aron jumped towards the pole. Her shield crumpled and covered her hand, smoothing out into sharp claws, which easily shredded through the box. She landed heavily, the metal around her fist un-crumpling and curving back into a shield.
"Cobalt! Are you..." Avira trailed off as Cobalt's pigtails crumbled into smoking dust.
"I'm fine," she said, flicking the ashes of her hair away. "There's something wrong with the building." The casino seemed to flicker, as if it weren't corporeal. The sunlight dimmed like a broken bulb.
"Ah, she's perfectly fine!" My blood froze to ice at the sound of his voice. "Although, I was hoping it would hit you. I was wondering if electricity cooked human flesh like fire."
When I turned, slowly, trying not to tremble, Skyra was already in front of me, her golden daggers drawn. Innocent green eyes flicked to my wrist.
"Oh, what a nice bracelet you have."
My hand jerked to the rope of scar tissue that twined around my wrist. Skyra raised her wings, hiding most of me from view.
"Leave," she barked at Wally. He looked small and cute standing next to his towering bodyguard, much like a puppy. Briar looked at Skyra uneasily, sliding his fingers on the inside of her wrist.
"He's just a kid," Briar said, confused, "Skyra?" The Taillow just shook off the quiet hand.
"Leave!" she repeated, on the verge of screaming. The bodyguard stepped forward slightly.
"Leave?" A small, sad frown placed itself Wally's face and he tilted his head slightly, eyebrows quirked. "Why should I?" Then, his entire expression changed. A smile ripped his mouth and his pupils constricted into small dots. "I own this town." He leaned forward, talking excitedly. "The buildings here? They're not real. They're holograms. Do you wanna see?" His hand went into his pocket to press something, a button, and the appearance of the town changed drastically. The vivid sky was no longer there, but was replaced by the dull grey metal of the underside of a huge dome. The casino, as real as it had looked, flickered out, leaving just the people laughing and talking and smiling, all with dark sunglasses on. The walls of the other buildings had disappeared, too. Only the bright red Piece Center had not. In the midst of all the bland colors, it looked like an open wound. "Nothing is real here! My parents built all of it!" The smugness was apparent in his voice. "Those sunglasses make holographic images. All those people in there are rich and they think they're playing slot machines and eating dinner and having waiters serve them, but it's all fake!" He laughed and his peals of laughter blended with the laughter of the delusional citizens of this town. "Isn't that funny? They even have an IV attached to their arm to feed them! They don't know if they're real or not. I don't know if they're real or not. And who cares if they are? Who cares if nobody remembers them?" His pearly teeth glinted as he flashed his charming smile, pressing the button again. The walls of the casino went back up, along with the rest of the buildings. The sky was restored. "Who cares if people like them exist?"
Suddenly, I knew what I had to do.
Gently, I pushed back Skyra's wing. Taking two calm steps and every ounce of courage that I had, I punched Wally in the face.
The consequence was immediate. I found myself pushed back, on the ground. Foxglove, who was the fastest, had taken the backhand from the bodyguard that had been meant for me. There was a click and the bodyguard was blasted back by a Mud Shot. I got to my feet, shaking out my hand.
"That's for my wrist, you brat," I said, trying to look fierce.
Wally was holding his bloody nose, looking extremely perplexed.
"You hit me." His voice gurgled a little bit from the blood and disbelief.
"And I'm going to do it again if you don't get out of here."
"You actually hit me, you whore. I'm sick. You're not supposed to hit me." But his voice was devoid of nastiness.
"You electrocuted me, you disgusting invalid, and you're crying over a bloody nose?"
"It's not gonna stop bleeding."
"Aw, cry me a trail of tissues."
"I have hemophilia. It's not gonna stop bleeding."
A beat of silence as he pinched his nose tighter, trying to keep the blood from coming out.
"Torrent, pick him up." The Mudkip holstered his guns and easily picked Wally up, holding him upright. "Let's go to the Piece Center. They'll be able to fix him up."
"Let go of me! I can get there by..." Wally trailed off as a wave of nausea hit him.
"It's always been about that," I said, more to myself than anyone else. "A perfect 'eye for an eye', no more, no less. But how am I supposed to kill the person who ran over my brother if he died, too? How do I destroy the Piece that killed Lana if it was in self-defense? How," I looked back at Wally, "can I take revenge for what you did to me if you will die because of it? None of it makes sense..." I trailed off, feeling my shoulders slump, feeling small and very, very lost. "...none of it is fair."
He opened his mouth to say something biting, but he decided against it; after all, Torrent was carrying him. Instead he stayed silent, counting the drops of blood that ran down his hand and splattered on the white-paved ground.
Inside the Piece Center, the nurse took one look at Wally and jumped to her feet. She quickly wheeled out a stretcher that was parked behind her desk and helped Torrent sit Wally upright. Before we had a chance to ask her name and tell her what had happened, she wheeled the boy into the back.
We waited for an indeterminable amount of time, unsure of what to do. Torrent turned to me.
"You didn't scream or cry," he stated. I shook my head. After a while, he grinned. "Good-o," he said happily, sounding like the little Mudkip he had been.
I smiled a tiny smile.
"Good-o," I repeated.
"Cobalt, are you okay?" he asked.
"Fine."
Cobalt walked off to find rooms. Foxglove and Avira followed her less energetically.
The door to the entrance slid open with mechanical smoothness and a girl with a willowy legs and slender wrists waltzed in. Vibrant, pine-green eyes were compassed with a heart-shaped face and a waterfall of emerald hair. A soft charcoal dress hugged her lithe frame.
"Are you Alexandra?" she asked with a voice as light as air.
"Yes...?"
When I answered, she dropped into a deep bow.
"I sincerely apologize for my brother's actions against you, especially concerning the injury on your wrist. I should have been watching him better. Please forgive him and myself."
"Ah, please don't-!" I stopped when Torrent put a light hand on my shoulder. I looked up at him to see that his eyes were narrowed, mouth tight.
"It's a formality," he muttered. He was right, because when she stood up, I could see that her eyes showed no regret or guilt. Her face was apathetically even.
"I am Wynne Arabella Ethel Lytton, that is, 'W', 'Y', 'N', 'N', 'E'. Wynne. But you may call me Winnie."
I didn't answer. I didn't trust her anymore.
"How do you know Wally hurt Lexa?" Torrent asked.
"I was informed by a very concerned Steven Stone."
"Of course he would make you apologize," Torrent snorted, "I didn't realize you knew each other."
"Our family excels in making connections. I was more surprised Steven Stone knew someone like you." Her last words had a slightly condescending edge. "Although the Stone Family is quite odd, they are valuable allies. If one of them desires for me to bow my head to a juvenile child as yourself, then of course," she leaned in closer until I could inhale her candy-sweet perfume, "I will not hesitate."
"Careful there," Skyra said, sweetly, "Let's not make Steven choose between us, shall we?"
Something flickered across Winnie's eyes, and she moved back. We stared at each other.
"I suggest that you do not associate with him anymore," she said softly, almost menacingly. "Your kind - unestablished, rootless, vagrant - do not mix with ours. We are the highest echelons of society, and you are the dregs. Wouldn't you agree?"
We heard a patter of steps.
"Is Dad here?" Wally asked breathlessly when he saw Winnie. In that moment, he looked naively excited.
"Don't be dull, Wallace. You know that he's busy." Winnie started to walk towards the door. "I trust that you will inform Steven Stone that I did my duty, as he seems to be intimate enough with you to have your phone number. Come, Wallace."
With a look of deep misery, Wally followed his sister out of the Piece Center, holding a bloody rag to his nose.
I dialed Steven's number.
"Hello?"
Steven sounded tired. I could imagine him in some dank cave somewhere, comparing mineral specks in the stones underneath him as he cradled a phone in the crook of his shoulder.
"Hey, Steven. It's Alex."
"Oh! Hey, sweetheart. Staying out of trouble?"
In the background, I heart a discordant grinding noise.
"Stavros, stop it!" I heard his Metagross say something. "For the last time, collapsing the cave on me is not funny. You'd think that after ten years, you would finally understand this."
"Steven, Winnie apologized to me."
"Oh, so you're in... Mauville."
I could hear the grimace in his voice.
"Why did you make her do it?"
"Because I couldn't make Wallace do it."
"Did you think that an apology would heal my wrist?"
"No, I-"
"That Wally and I would become best friends-"
"-I just thought that it would heal some of the wounds in your heart. That's it. Alright, Alexandra? Winnie is a nice girl."
"Nice gi-! Give me that!" Skyra snatched the phone out of my hand. "Your 'nice girl' called us trash! The leftovers of society! The dregs of the earth!"
"What? But-"
I quickly took the phone back.
"-I guess she's different around you," I said, cutting him off. "That's not the point. The point is, you interfered in my life, and I am royally pissed off."
"How can I make it up?"
"Dinner with me next time we meet. You buy."
There was silence.
"You are one strange girl."
"It's either that or your Metagross."
"Actually," he muttered, "giving Stavros to you doesn't sound that bad." He cleared his throat when I heard a dull punch. "But dinner sounds fine. It sound lovely, actually."
When I hung up, Torrent smiled at me.
"I know why you did that."
"I know you do," I answered, hugging him. "Let's hope that Steven can turn me into a better trainer."
I felt cagey when I entered the Gym. Knowing that the very walls were holograms did nothing to calm me.
"Oh, no," I grabbed Skyra by the collar. "You're not coming with me."
"What?!"
"Just like the last Gym," Briar said, walking past her into the building, "You will get demolished."
Skyra was on the verge of fighting back when Avira lightly took her arm.
"It's good to know your weaknesses, yeah?"
Skyra grit her teeth.
"Fine," she said, and turned around. "It just hurt hearing that from the guy that usually inspires me."
"Ohhhhhh, snap," Torrent said, snickering when Briar's back stiffened, "Shots have been fired."
Smiling sweetly, Briar reached into his back pocket and withdrew a seed the size of an eyeball.
"Do you want to see where I can shove that, Torrent?" he whispered, gently putting it in the Marshtomp's hand.
"Down, boys. Vent your anger at the gym leader."
Cobalt, who had been silent this entire time, started to walk towards the arena entrance.
When I entered the main area, all I could see was a smooth expanse of tiled floor and the Leader sitting at the far side.
"Challengers! So you've come!"
"How do you say someone's fat without offending them?"
"Shush, Torrent."
But it was true. A porcine stomach merely ballooned into obese thighs and chunky arms. His plump face was covered with a flowing, yellow-stained beard and the dark sunglasses.
"I've given up on my plans to convert the city, I have. And so, I put my time into making door traps in my Gym."
I looked around the room.
"There's nothing here," I whispered.
"I realized," Torrent whispered back, "Do you think the glasses are affecting- ah, wait! Cobalt!"
The Aron started to rapidly walk across the tiling and stopped in front of the Leader.
"Oh? Now, what are you doing here? What's that? You say you've gotten past all my rigged doors? Wahahahah! Now, that is amusing!" He didn't even bother to heft himself out of his squishy chair. "Then, I, Strom, the Leader of Mauville Gym, shall electrify you!" With that, he threw out his first PEN.
"Voltorb, the-" GLaDOS squeaked when I jabbed the mute button and sprinted towards Cobalt and her opponent.
The Voltorb was simply dressed. She had cherry hair, a crimson shirt, and white pants. But before I could see anymore of her, Cobalt launched herself at the Piece and Headbutted her across the room.
It must have been a critical hit, because although Cobalt emerged perfectly fine, the Voltorb did not stir.
"This Gym is mine," she said quietly.
"Cobalt, you don't have a type advantage. Let Torrent-"
"No. Back off."
"Idiot!" Briar said hotly, "Don't you remember when happened last time when you tried to do things by yourself?"
"I do," she responded, already walking towards the Electrike that had been sent out. "And this is my penance." A Shockwave arched towards her, but Cobalt simply deflected it with a shield and threw her shield at the ceiling, which crashed around the Electrike in a Rock Tomb. She didn't wait, but finished him off with a Metal Claw. "Next one." Strom nonchalantly tossed out another PEN, more interested in talking to the invisible people around him.
The battle was happening too fast for me to follow. Whatever Piece that came out of the PEN was immediately buried under a pile of tiles and then mud that Cobalt had scooped from the ground and hurled.
"Next."
This time, Cobalt could not dodge the Thunder Wave. There was a blur as a figure flashed towards Cobalt, electricity jumping out of his hands. I saw the vague outline of bright lemon pants, a flapping sapphire jacket, and sandy hair. Just as Torrent started to move towards them, the Manectric put one hand on Cobalt's head, another on Cobalt's stomach and used Shock Wave.
A waterfall of Mudshot and Water Gun slammed the Manectric into the wall, where he ceased to move.
"Perfect! We are finally done! Here, take your Dynamo Sticker and get out."
When I moved towards him, he held out the Sticker and a TM, not even paying attention to me. What I did instead was jerk the glasses off his face and break them in half.
"What are you-!"
"-IF YOUR PIECES COULD DIE, WOULD YOU BE THIS UNCONCERNED?!" My voice caught in my throat. "WHAT HAVE YOU BECOME?! STUCK IN A VIRTUAL WORD, NOT CARING ABOUT ANYTHING THAT COMES THROUGH! DO YOU CALL YOURSELF A LEADER?! COBALT...!" I couldn't say anything more, but turned from his shocked face and ran to my Aron.
"Don't think of yourself as a bad person because you let me do this." She was oddly calm. "You're not. You're not a bad person." Slowly, she closed her eyes. "I was the bad one."
"Cobalt, it wasn't your fault," cried Briar.
"Maybe not. But I did cause it. It was my effect, if not a fault."
I put my hand in hers, squeezing tightly, trying to squeeze the life back into her. Briar was doing the same, while Torrent sprinted to get help.
"Remember?" Her lips drew up in a smile. "An eye for an eye... I hope you can forgive me." She opened her eyes and I could see the indigo start to darken, but her gaze was courageous once more. "I'm sorry, Lana."
On the cold tiles of a broken Gym, Cobalt died.
Hey guys! So if you haven't noticed, I've been posting updates more or less once a day. However, this is a brand new chapter that none of you have read, which means I have finished rewrites! This also means chapter updates will be once a week now, since it's impossible for me to write everything in a day :D I hope you enjoyed and continue to!