A/N

I'm not even going to bother with excuses. All I can say is that I'm sorry :(
ENJOY!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Recap!

I rubbed my bandaged arms softly as I watched Red.
What was I going to do? He was acting like he hated me... What if he did hate me? If that was true then I knew I would take it a lot worse than anyone else would. I felt like I had become close to Red in those past couple of days though I doubted that he felt the same way.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A hand-made fireplace took up most of the space on the floor. The creepy thing about it was that the coals which should have long ago gone out were still ablaze with fire. All of a sudden, the giant blaze of fire in the middle of the fireplace shrunk into a tiny little flame.

I stood there gaping at it. What the heck was going on?!

End of Recap!

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Gold's POV

I had been lying there, staring up at the roof of the farm-like shed for what felt like hours. My mind kept on replaying over and over again what had happened that day. Every time my mind reminded me of Red's cold, steely tone when he had spoken to me, I would be filled with guilt and fear. Fear of losing a possible friend.
To be completely honest, I didn't have many friends when I was younger. People had usually steered clear of me. There was one group of people who I had thought were my friends, but it turns out they had only kept me around for a laugh every once in a while. I had run home crying during the middle of school and I didn't show up the next day either. From then on, I was known as gullible and easily fooled. I had stopped trying at that point.
When I started my Pokémon journey at aged twelve, I had vowed to changes my ways and become a better person. It didn't really work.
While travelling through Johto for two years and Kanto for two years, the only company I ever had was my Pokémon. Ever since I was born I had gotten along better with Pokémon than people.
I might be clinging on to false hope, but I believe that Red and I can become friends. I can't and will not give up on this chance.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I was in total darkness.

It was so dark that I couldn't even see my hands in front of my face. The air surrounding me was thick and heavy, almost as if I could cut through it with a knife. The air reeked so heavily of soil and rotting vegetation, I felt as if I had been pushed face-first into compost. I could feel the ground beneath my sneakers, but I had no idea how stable it was.
Suddenly, almost as if someone had trained a spotlight on me, a circle of light was around me. It made me very weary of the fact that anything in the surrounding darkness could see me, but I couldn't see it.
A silhouette of a person slowly emerged from the darkness but stopped right before my circle of light.

"Hello?" I called out to the mysterious person.
"Gold." The person hissed in distaste.

The voice sounded awfully familiar, but I couldn't put my finger on it. But most of all, why were they saying my name in a way that made it drip with hatred?

"Who are you?" I questioned carefully, not wanting to enrage the already angry sounding person.
"Why are you still here?" They asked in a please-go-die-in-a-hole way.

Why am I still here? I didn't even know where 'here' was, let alone know why I was there!

"Who are you?!" I asked again.

Where the figure was, red eyes suddenly started glowing. The person then stepped into my circle of light. I would have gasped, but all the air in my lungs seemed to have disappeared.

"Gold." Red hissed. "Why are you still here?"
"Red, I have no idea what you're talking about!" I said, terror rapidly taking over me by the second.
"Why won't you just leave me alone?!" Red shouted and took a step forward.
"What are you talking about?!" I yelled and took a step back. My little circle of light seemed to follow me.

Red looked extremely intimidating. His blood-red eyes were wild and his face was pulled into a snarl. One wrong move and I would be as good as gone.

"You follow me around wherever I go!" He took a step forward and I took a step back. "You won't leave me alone!" Another step forward, another step back.
"You know that's not true!" I cried and continued to back up.

Suddenly, my foot hit the edge of what appeared to be a cliff. My breathing sped up, quickly realizing the position I was in.

"Red. Stop." I pleaded, but Red just continued to step closer and closer to me, a look of pure hatred on his face.
"Why can't you just realize that I want to be alone?!" Red was right in front of me now and I cowered in fear. "I hate you!"

It felt like my heart had just stopped beating. Red hated me? My foot was dangerously close to the edge.

"No..." I whimpered. "It can't be true... This can't be happening!"
"I've always hated you! I hated you from the minute I first saw you!" Red screamed. "NOW, LEAVE! ME! ALONE!"

Red pushed me hard in the chest and I went toppling over the edge of the cliff. Everything felt in slow motion as I tumbled through the darkness, my arms and legs flying everywhere. I tried so desperately to grab onto something but the realization hit me hard and fast. Red hated me. What was the point in trying? I guessed that is what hopelessness felt like. All I could do was close my eyes and scream until my end came.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I woke up screaming.
I bolted right up from my make-shift haystack bed, stood up and frantically looked around. My screams were echoing off the metal walls, only amplifying it and making them louder.

"Gold!" Red ran into the room. "What's wrong?!"
I tried to move away from him, but Red grabbed my wrists. "Gold! Tell me what happened!"

Red stared deep into my eyes and I just kind of broke down. I grabbed fistfuls of Red's t-shirt and just cried into his chest.
Red seemed taken aback at first, but then wrapped his arms around me. He whispered soothing things into my ear in an attempt to calm me down.

"Come on, gold. It was just a dream." Red said when my body began to tremble. "None of it was real."

I knew that it was just a dream, but it had really shaken me up. Not even the nightmare where I encountered that red-eyed monster had scared me as much as this one had. Why was that?

"I can see that your nightmare has really freaked you out, but you need to believe me. It wasn't real."

Slowly, my breathing returned to a normal pace and sobs no longer racked my body. When my tears had finally dried and all memories of that dream were no longer fresh in my mind, Red took my shoulders and pushed me back so I could look into his blood-red eyes.

"You're okay, right?" He asked and I nodded silently. "You scared me." He sighed in relief.

I scared him? Does that mean he actually... cared about me?

"Does that mean you care about me?" I sniffled quietly.
"Of course! Why wouldn't I? I know that we were arguing last night, but that doesn't mean I should stop caring about you all together! Come on, Gold. You know I'm better than that, right?"

I looked deep into Red's eyes as a small smile tugged at my face. "Definitely."

Red really did have nice eyes. Most people would have been intimidated by them, but there was a caring and welcoming look in them that only I was able to see.
I hadn't even realised it, but I had slowly begun moving closer to Red. Once I was right in front of him again, I had to crane my neck to make eye contact with him. I slowly inched my face closer to his, until I was mere inches away from his lips. I was about to shut my eyes and close the gap, but a sudden nightmarish roar from outside shook the walls of the shed.

I pulled away from him, my heart beating fast and blushing furiously.
What the Distortion World was I doing?! Was I seriously just about to kiss Red?! He didn't really seem intent on moving away though... No. That's no excuse! We were just friends!

"What the Distortion World was that?!" Red said, completely brushing off what had happened.
"I don't know, but it came from outside." I croaked. My throat hurt from screaming so much.
Red ran over to the entrance of the shed and peered outside. "Uh, Gold? I don't think you're gonna like this."

I joined Red over by the entrance and took a look for myself. Floating over by the rusted swing was a Gengar and two Haunter.

"Not them again!" I shouted. "I thought we defeated them when that cottage burnt down!"
"I guess we were wrong. Gold, go get our backpacks. We're gonna defeat these guys and then leave."
"Okay." I said and went back inside to retrieve our bags. I went back out and saw the three ghost types approaching us. "Here." I said and gave Red his bag. Red then took out a pokeball I recognised as Charizard's. I took out one of my own pokeballs.

"Go, Politoed!" I yelled and sent out my trust-worthy water type.

The green frog appeared in front of me and Charizard appeared soon after.

"Use Water Pulse on Haunter!"

Politoed opened its mouth and let out a forceful gush of water straight at the two Haunter. It hit them both and they went flying away somewhere.

"These three couldn't possibly have been the ones to make that horrible roar!" I shouted at Red who commanded his Charizard to aim a Flamethrower at Gengar.

Gengar clearly wasn't going to beat beaten as easily as the Haunter, as it sent Charizard's Flamethrower back using Psychic. Red and I yelled in shock as we went diving off in different directions.
As I hit the ground, I looked up at the shed behind us. It was completely engulfed in flames.

"Why do we always set things on fire?!" I yelled and pulled myself up off the ground.

I was on my feet for a matter of seconds before being forced to the ground again when another roar sounded through the area. This time it was even louder. My ears rang and everything around me shook.

"Gold! Look out!"

I looked up and saw Gengar readying a Shadow Ball and it was aimed right at me.

"Politoed! Use Protect!"

Politoed jumped right in front of me and set up a glowing barrier around us both. Gengar released the Shadow Ball but the barrier withstood it.

"Thanks buddy." I smiled at Politoed and stood up.
"Croak!" It responded.

I looked over at Red and saw Charizard unleashing Dragon Claw on Gengar. Gengar's energy was clearly being drained as its movements became sloppy and slow.
I was about to go and help Red out, but yet another ear-piercing roar sent me to the ground again. This time I landed on my side and onto my still healing arms. I winced in pain and slowly brought myself into a sitting position. Why was I so weak?!

As soon as it appeared, I knew I was doomed. Almost as if it had come straight from my nightmare, the beast with the glowing red eyes appeared in front of me. The beast took on the appearance of a serpentine with three gold half rings circling the back of its neck. It had six black ghostly streamers on its back with red spikes at the tips. It had three spikes on each side of its body and four additional golden spikes appear near the edge of its tail.

"I know this Pokémon..." I said as I stared up at it with terror in my eyes. This thing literally came from the depths of the Distortion World. "Giratina."

As soon as it had appeared, it vanished.

I stood up from my spot on the ground and brushed the dirt off me. Red came running over to me. Gengar was nowhere to be seen.

"Gold! Are you okay?" Red cried and fretted over me like a mother does over her child.
"I'm fine, Red." I smiled.
"Okay, good. Now what was that thing? I've never seen it before."
"It's the Renegade Pokémon, Giratina. It's the Pokémon of the Distortion World. There's a whole story on it in the Sinnoh region, but I thought that it was just a legend."
"You've been to Sinnoh?" Red stared at me in awe.
"No, but my mother has. She brought back this big book filled with Sinnoh legends. It had the story of the Lake Trio, Shaymin, Darkrai and Cresselia, Manaphy, Dialga, Palkia and Giratina. They say Giratina was banished to the Distortion World for violence."
"What a pleasant sounding Pokémon." Red said and got out his pokeball to return Charizard.

Right before Red was about to return it to its pokeball, something huge appeared in front of him and sent him flying, pokeball falling from his hand. Red landed just a distance away, his body limp like a ragdoll.

I was going to call Red's name, but my breath caught in my throat when I saw what it was that sent him flying. Giratina was back and right in front of my face this time. It stared down at me with its menacing red eyes. It was so quiet that I swear I could hear my own heartbeat. I desperately wanted to run over to Red and see if he was okay, but the look in Giratina's eyes made me stay put. It looked at me as if saying: 'Move an inch and your head will come off. And then your friend's next.'
Giratina drifted over to Red and eyed him. A cold, horrible voice spoke in my mind.

"I was going to use you as my sacrifice, but this boy will do just fine. Stay out of my way and you'll live to see another day."

Giratina and Red were suddenly enveloped in a dark mist and when it cleared, they were gone.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

A/N

I finally finished the chapter! It took me so long to write!
Your begging finally got through to me and I wrote this chapter, so hopefully you liked it :)
I'm really sorry if this chapter wasn't worth the two month wait though :(
I'm a bit late but... HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE! I hope the year to come is filled with Pokémon joy :D

Li xx