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Chapter 21

TheBuizel

I let out a big breath when I awoke. Thankfully the stabbing pain was gone, though I felt very numb in almost my entire body.

"You've got a lot of scars," I heard Cindy say.

I blinked open my eyes to the beautiful darkness of nighttime. Cindy was on a computer against the wall, her side facing me, tapping something in. I noticed how pretty she looked, her silver fur lit with moonlight. "I do."

"Who was it that carved a game onto your chest?" she asked. She stopped her quiet typing to look at me. Her eyes gleamed with a touch of anger.

"A skuntank," I answered. "It doesn't matter right this moment in time. Did you sew me up?"

"Yes," she said, and the anger in her eyes faded into relief. "Just in time, too." She turned back to the computer and continued typing.

"Thank you, Cindy," I told her.

"Please. Call me Ashy," she asked politely. She had a small smile, but I could tell she was masking something.

"I'm curious as to why," I told her.

Ashy stopped typing and stared at the computer with a grim look on her face for a moment before answering. "I'm named after my mother. She did some terrible things, killed some pokemon. I feel like I am destined to follow her in footsteps, and I can't stand the thought of that."

"I understand, Ashy," I told her.

"Thank you," she whispered, and closed her eyes and calmed a little in relief. "Chimecho says I should learn to accept my name, that your name is nothing but something to call you."

"You will accept it in time, but calling you Cindy against your will won't help or speed it. It may even delay it," I said.

"Yes," she said softly. She opened her eyes again and walked over. "I should check on your wound."

I watched as she removed the bandages that wrapped around my chest and upper back. Underneath was an ugly, jagged array of stitches.

"Sorry about the mess," Ashy whispered.

"What's another scar on the barren, broken land that is my body?" I asked. I shut my mouth. I had never complained about my scars before. Where on earth did my self-control go?

"I think they're beautiful," Ashy said as she bandaged me back up. "They tell your life story. They show all your battle marks. You're so brave."

"Thank you," I told her. "But I'm not really brave. I do what needs to happen, that's it."

"You almost got yourself killed a hundred times over, it looks like," Ashy said, nodding at my chest full of scars. "I would have let myself die already if I wouldn't have to suffer through that anymore. Sometimes, you know, just being alive counts for being brave."

"I never wanted to be brave," I told Ashy honestly. She finished tying the bandages and sat back. "Being brave always meant I would have to do something stupid."

"'Something stupid' is saving your friends, helping the world?" Ashy asked.

"It depends on how you look at it," I answered. "It's stupid because I put myself in physical danger, but really not because if I didn't I'd put myself in mental danger. I couldn't live with myself if I'd have let someone die when I could have saved them."

"I've never heard it put that way," Ashy said to me. She was staring at the floor, thinking. "I've heard about your past. About your brother. Is he still alive?"

"I don't really know," I answered. "It doesn't really matter to me, though. I just hope he's happy."

"I love that you hope he's happy. Everyone else I know would wish him burning in the depths of Hell," Ashy told me.

"What would you wish?" I wondered.

"Well, I would wish they'd realize their mistake and never do it again," she answered.

"Do you wish they would suffer?" I asked curiously. "Give me an honest answer. Austin wishes my brother would die horribly, but I don't think him any less. I think him a little more, even, since he'd admit that to me despite my beliefs."

"For a while I wish they'd be ashamed. I wish they'd find a way to make things a little better, or at least try. I hope that only then they'd be happy," Ashy told me.

"Your fairly neutral, then," I said.

"Yes," Ashy nodded. "You know, you're very different than everyone else I know. I like that about you. I like it alot."

I smiled, feeling warmed. "Ashy, honestly, you are, too. I feel the same way."

Could it be that I was in love with this girl already?

I hoped not. Whenever I liked someone, they usually didn't quite like me back. To add on, I'd just met her.

TheBuizel

The next morning I woke up to some chatter between Celebi, Austin, and Ashy.

"Hello," Austin said when he noticed I was awake. "Glad you're not dead."

"Me, too," I commented.

"We were discussing your new power," Celebi said. "You know you need to have a child now, correct?"

"What?" I wondered, my eyebrows scrunching together in confusion.

"You are now basically Uxie," Celebi explained. I noticed a hint of sadness in your voice. "Uxie eventually has to have a child in order for there to be another Uxie. That now falls upon you."

"So my child will be Uxie?" I wondered.

"That is correct," Celebi answered.

"What about Azelf, then?" Austin asked. "Drowsee's going to die obviously since Wylie hit him, and I do not think someone's going to want to touch him."

Celebi breathed in a sigh. "One of the female Chosens will have to volunteer."

"That's disgusting," Austin gasped.

"Yes," Celebi responded. "But it is a must."

I noticed Ashy look away, and I wondered what she was considering doing.

So, children, I've been working at this a whole lot, but haven't been posting... Yeah... so here are the next two chapters!

Hope you enjoyed... and will enjoy the next chapter :3