POKEMON RANGER, OUT OF THE DARKNESS - Chapter Seven: Articuno.
The next island was covered with blue ice, and they had to make better use of their Fearow before they could land. Keith's sharp eyes scanned the isle below for some kind of cave that they could hide in, but the island refused to accommodate them. Kate's Styler beeped and she opened the screen while Keith continued searching.
"Voicemail, Voicemail! Kate, report." Rhythmi's voice came through the Styler, her face across the connection tense and tired. Kate's tired eyes were similar to Rhythmi's as she glanced over to Keith.
"Still fighting." She muttered in response, "Still alive. Got a bit of a bad burn from one of the pokemon we faced, but it's fine now. We're still working on what we're trying to do. What about in Almia?"
"Well, er… Elaine…"
"Damn, not her too?"
"Barlow and the others were on a 'mission' on Nabiki Beach, you know that this time of year is their annual picnic to fool the students. Elaine chose to stay behind this year. When they got back, she was gone."
"Tell Barlow, Crawford, and Luana to be on their guards. I have a feeling that they're in trouble." Kate muttered back to Rhythmi, "You be careful too, you hear?"
"Will do." Rhythmi's tired eyes were torn from the screen as Hastings' voice floated through the Styler.
"Is that Kate that you have over the connection, Misery?"
"For the last time, Professor Hastings, it's Rhythmi!"
"Kate!" Hastings called through the connection, ignoring Rhythmi. "Things are getting a bit worse off in Almia region. I know that you two are busy, but are you sure this isn't just some wild goose chase?"
"We need to find this Pokemon, whatever Pokemon it is. The sooner we find it, the sooner we can come back." Kate answered tensely, watching as Keith flew back over. "If things are getting a bit worse off, perhaps it's best if you started taking some other Top Rangers. Rhythmi mentioned that the students are on their One-Day Internships. Find out which students are the strongest at capturing or being operators, or mechanics, and recruit them. Great need begets great warriors."
Keith nodded as he watched her relay her suggestions for Almia. He knew that some things weren't going to be entirely the same when they got back, and he had a feeling that Kate realized it too.
---
"…Great need begets great warriors."
"Right," Rhythmi called through the connection as Professor Hastings started to pace again. "We'll get right on that. The Ranger School will be contacted and Principal Lamont will be asked about possibly training the students more intensely."
"God, I hope things turn out right." Kate's quiet mutter was the last thing that she said before calling, "Right then, Kate, over and out."
Rhythmi closed up the connection with a sigh, before turning around her chair to face Erma. "Well, you heard her. Her thoughts are that we take more rangers."
Erma nodded, a frown marring her face, before she turned to one of the younger Rangers, who had been called in from Haruba Desert, John. "Jonathan, dear, would you go out to the Ranger School? Every class has their high achievers, so I want you to scope them out."
"Yes Ma'am!" he saluted and moved to the escalator to go down to the second floor, disappearing a few seconds later.
"Sven. Wendy." Erma called without turning around, making the two top rangers look up, "I want you two out rounding up all the top rangers we've got and bringing them back here. Kate and Keith may say that they're doing fine and that they'll be back soon, but that doesn't change the fact that we need stronger rangers here. I'm calling a meeting in an hour, and I expect all our rangers to be here."
"Yes Ma'am!" Sven and Wendy both said unanimously before striding toward the escalator to the ceiling, two Staraptor following after them. Erma looked up at the screen, which had a special smaller screen revealing where Kate and Keith were in Kanto. The Orange Islands, it seemed.
So far away.
Erma sighed and moved toward her usual position in the center of the Operations Room, closing her eyes as she went. First a year where Kate disappeared completely off the map, now some time where she seemed so out of reach. Shaking her head, Erma thought, 'Someday, eventually, we'll get it right!'
---
"KEITH!" Kate called into the sudden blur of whiteness, covering her eyes as she yelled and leaning into the slightly warmer feathers of the anxious Fearow she was riding. The storm had come from nowhere, and it was so intense that it was blinding her. Her old ally the wind had betrayed her and turned against her, and she couldn't see Keith, or hear him over the howl of the wind. "KEITH!" she yelled out again, flinching from the burst of cold and having to hold on tighter with her knees to the now annoyed Fearow. It looked back at her as if she were crazy to try and keep flying, and she gave it an annoyed look as if to say, "I didn't plan this, you stupid bird!"
She called out Keith's name twice more, looking through the whiteness like she was looking into a bright light from all around. She shivered again, this time with worry as the wind began knocking her around. She swerved the Fearow as she continued yelling, a frantic and panicked edge entering her voice, as she didn't hear a response.
"KEITH!" she screamed, tears beginning to fall out of her eyes as her stomach flipped and something moved through the whiteness, something she couldn't see clearly, which made her start to panic completely. She felt totally and utterly alone, more alone than she had felt in all her life… but no, she had felt this kind of loneliness before… she remembered this feeling, the feeling of helplessness, being unable to do anything… Her eyes widened as the wind blew harshly from the right, sending her sprawling on the side of the Fearow. She regained her balance as she realized just where she had felt so alone.
'Shit!' she shook uncontrollably as she leaned into the Fearow, which was fighting to stay airborne. The helpless feeling washed over her again, full force, as the wind knocked her off of the Fearow.
"KEITH!" she yelled at the top of her lungs as she fell. The wind died away, expectantly, as her arms flew out above her, and she fell as a rag doll would fall. Something collided hard with her back, but she didn't feel all the pain that she supposed she should have. She felt a gentle hand wipe her forehead and a terrified voice ask her, "Kate? Are you alright?"
"Keith…" she shivered, "I was alone… panicked… couldn't think straight…" she felt the wind dying away and she knew they were losing altitude. Keith wrapped his arms protectively around her as they descended, finally landing in a small cleft where ice couldn't reach. He flew his Fearow right into the cave before hopping off with Kate in his arms.
Kate sighed softly as she set up for a small fire, calling her Chimchar out from one of the very few Pokeballs that rangers used for their partners. She smiled weakly at the Chimchar, who chattered at her happily before setting the few pieces of wood in the crevice alight. Kate and Keith huddled together near the flames, their eyes dancing with the flickering light. Keith's turned a light golden color from the skipping flames while Kate's blue eyes turned a greenish red. Keith couldn't help but glance over at her as she shivered and held her hands before the flames.
Eventually, she looked up and sighed, "It's getting late. Better to sleep now and be ready tomorrow than stay up any later." He nodded silently as she lay down close to the fire, fingering something in her hands.
They were the small crystalline stones. One clear, one with smoky purple curls inside, and one a bright red and orange. Her eyes still glowed from the flames, but he could see the deep-in-thought expression on her face. She was thinking about something, what it was he wasn't entirely sure.
He smiled slightly at her as she finally replaced the stones in her pocket and closed her eyes, before lying down himself. It was going to be a long cold night if the fire went out, so he threw a few extra pieces of wood on it to keep it going strong. Then, he curled up into a small ball and closed his eyes, listening to both the wind outside and the calm breaths of Kate, trying to decipher exactly which one was louder in his ears.
---
Long, controlled breaths lead into a semi-simple dream, but she didn't trust it for a second for not turning into a nightmare. As she looked around the grassy expanse, she smiled very slightly as she recognized one of the meadows in Vien Forest… the very meadow that she had gotten her Cranidos in, if she recalled correctly, which she was sure she did.
She walked out of the meadow and over to the bridge, crossing it and looking around in confusion at the lack of Pokemon. Despite the fact that she realized that it was a dream, she felt oddly disturbed at their absence. Crossing the familiar log bridge, she smiled at the very realistic creak that the plank gave out. She couldn't help but feel that maybe she'd see more Pokemon in a few minutes.
The lush, emerald green turned into a darker hunter green, and shady areas appeared in the path. She enjoyed the coolness of them after the blaring heat of the sun, and felt herself relax. Her stomach flipped as she looked around, realizing with a jolt that, even though there were no charred branches or anything, a few of the trees were missing irrevocably from her line of sight. It was before Celebi helped her fix the forest, but without the charred ruins of some trees…
"No, no, NO!" she heard a familiar voice yell in a panic as flames started flowing out of a small clearing, and a young man ran out of the clearing, racing the flames, only to trip.
'Shit!'
She looked at the man, who she had known for most of the time as Ollie, and realized he couldn't see her. That was why there hadn't been any pokemon; they sensed the coming disaster!
She felt the flames creeping toward her and coughed when she smelled the smoke, turning around and searching for a way out as the flames closed in on her. She coughed again as she felt smoke get caught in her lungs. She closed her eyes.
When she opened them again, she saw nothing around her but the all too familiar darkness. A small frown appeared on her face, 'Why would I see the Vien Forest fire? That was… my first mission with both Luana and Crawford…'
"You have a choice this time." The familiar voice came from the gaunt figure in the darkness that stood before her, next to Darkrai in her flaming chains. "It doesn't really matter what you choose," the Dark-Kate whispered into the folds of black, though Kate could hear her words as clear as day. "Whichever one you choose to save is only spared for a while."
"Why are you doing this to me?!" Kate's voice broke on the last word, "Why are you letting him control you?!"
"I think the question you should be asking, Kate, is 'Why am I letting him control me?'" the tired voice called back to her, before the darkness consumed her again. She heard the voice again as Crawford and Luana appeared in the darkness, tied by dark bonds. "Now, choose while you still have the choice."
Kate's will broke as she looked at both of them, looking around in confusion before seeing her, then trying to reach for her, then realizing they were bound and calling to her to save them. She looked from one to another for a second before sighing and letting her tears go. She finally said, "Let… Let h… h… h-her g… go. Please." She pleaded, locking eyes with Crawford, who set his mouth in understanding. She hoped he would forgive her for saving Luana for the moment instead of him, but she felt in her heart that Luana wouldn't last as long as Crawford would. She mouthed a sad 'I'm sorry' to him as the darkness began wrapping around him, and Luana disappeared from sight, though she knew that Darkrai had spared her… at least for now.
Crawford called out to her, "Kate, I just want you to know, I understand! Tell the rest of the team, tell Barlow and Luana if she doesn't remember, tell them I have faith in you!" the darkness wrapped around his mouth, cutting off anything else he was going to say, and tears burst more freely from her eyes. She reached toward him as he disappeared, then lowered her hand in misery.
"I promise… I won't let you down!" she whispered.
---
Her eyes blinked open slowly and she stared up at the bluish rocks, before shivering and looking over at the fire, which had gone out. Wondering how early it was, she sat up and looked around toward the mouth of the cave, surprise etching over her face as she realized that a certain red headed boy was sitting there, staring out into the storm.
"You were talking… in your nightmare." He informed her without looking around at her, his voice quiet and controlled. She wondered why he seemed so closed off. "About Crawford." He clarified, and Kate's eyes widened in realization.
"What did I say?" she asked softly, lowering her gaze.
"You said… 'I'm sorry, Crawford, I'm sorry… I won't let you down.'" His tone was slightly broken as he said this, and she felt her stomach flip slightly. She cleared her throat, but he didn't look around.
"Keith." She said softly, "Look at me." He turned tired brown eyes on her, and she stared at him for a few seconds before starting to shake. A small frown appeared on his face as he recognized the uncontrollable shaking that had taken hold of her body, and she fought back a smile. Almost a second later, she burst out with a chuckle and shook her head, "You're a dork, you know that?" the small smile disappeared, "I had to choose between him and Luana, who would go in the darkness first… I couldn't make that choice… I couldn't stand having to decide who would face the torture initially… I knew he was a bit hardier than Luana… I…" her shoulders were shaking again as she held back fresh tears that threatened to flow freely down her already stained cheeks.
Keith looked at her tiredly before crawling back over to her and pulling her gently into a hug, whispering in her ear, "I'm sorry… No one should have to make that choice."
For a few moments they simply sat there, holding onto each other as Kate cried and Keith breathed, feeling awful for thinking that maybe she preferred Crawford over him. The morning grew warm and they looked out into the sunlight that shined down on them for a moment before both realized that they would need to begin the day, and their search for Articuno.
Kate climbed out of the cave, offering her hand to Keith for him to use to climb up with her. As they climbed together to the peak, both were immersed into their thoughts.
'When this is all over… I hope… we can go back to Almia happy… and everything will go back to normal… but what is normal now? It's not like we can go back to the way we were when we were in Ranger School…' Kate sighed as she climbed, pulling herself higher at an easy pace as the sun advanced in the sky.
'Why do I feel so protective of her? I felt completely and utterly out of whack when I heard her talking about Crawford, and then I couldn't help the thoughts about if she liked him better than me…' Keith bit his lip as he continued after Kate, pulling up next to her as she paused. He offered a small, weak smile and moved ahead of her, hearing her laugh and start to climb after him.
Their thoughts were a jumble of words that neither could make sense of, and the focus they ended up placing on the scaling was more than enough to distract them from the confusing thoughts. No matter how hard their situation would get, they would have to worry about the then and now… or they might not get to the next minute.
---
Cold spread through her legs as the ice crept upward toward her waist, finally settling around her hips, and she continued directing the capture disc with a little difficulty. She never really realized how big a part the legs played in the capture of any kind of Pokemon. Keith was in a slightly similar condition to her, his ankles having been latched down with ice. Articuno was proving to be a bit of a problem in their journey. The cold made her legs go numb and she couldn't feel anything. With a sigh, she whistled to her Chimchar, who ran over to her and sent a small flamethrower on her legs, melting the ice; he then went over to Keith to release his ankles.
"Just a little more!" she called to Keith, checking the gauge on her Styler, which was nearly full. Articuno, sensing that defeat was approaching quickly, raised his wings in anger and sent out a blizzard attack, surrounding them with swirling bits of ice and snow. Keith yelled out in shock, as the air suddenly got colder. Kate flinched as the snowy white bits got into her eyes and landed on her burn, which was still healing.
With a howl of pain and rage, she set her disc to charge, watching as the power got to four times as much as usual before sending it at the infuriating bird. The blizzard slowly came to a stop after the loud beep of 'OK!' from her Styler. She ran over to Keith, who was shivering.
"Cold!" he cried out, his eyes wide in shock.
Kate chuckled and shook her head, "What did you expect, it's an Ice pokemon. I suppose you'd want to share body heat?"
Keith's face turned an amusing shade of red at this, and he muttered something unintelligibly as she turned toward the Ice Titan. Articuno hovered a few feet before her and held a small round stone in his mouth, one that she had started expecting. She sighed as she took the bluish white stone and looked it over. She shook her head before turning to Keith, "Lightning's next. Better head to that other island."
Keith nodded and quickly caught a few stray Pidgeoto, which seemed to be strong enough to carry them at least till the last island. Kate's hair was wet from the ice that was clinging into it, and she sighed as she pulled her fingers through it. "Hopefully, since the last island is pretty good in size, there will be a town where we can stay." She continued muttering under her breath, "And I can get a shower."
Keith pretended he didn't hear the last part, even as he felt his face warm up and his palms start to perspire. He chuckled slightly before climbing onto his Pidgeoto and taking off. Kate quickly followed him into the air and they flew off into the rapidly sinking sun.
---
Luck played them a good hand and they DID find a small town, and as they lay awake in the room they shared in silence, Kate having showered and Keith having gotten all the food he could eat, both found themselves once more sucked into their own thoughts. Kate looked up at the tiled ceiling and mindlessly started counting the tiles as she thought over the events of that day. She felt her stomach flip slightly when she recalled her statement about sharing body heat. Something about that statement just… wasn't the way she was right now. She'd never been like that with Keith before. They were friends, and partners, not…
She derailed that thought and shook her head slightly, speaking up blandly to the also thinking Keith, "You know, there are seven thousand, four hundred and fifty-two tiles on this ceiling." The random multiplication of eighty-one and ninety-two hung in her head as she focused on it, and she nearly missed Keith chuckling.
"You do math faster than me, I just got that myself." He muttered, also having tried to focus on anything but his thoughts. He heard her turn her head and turned his to look at her. Blue eyes met brown for a moment and both smiled.
Keith's thoughts had been wandering from action to action that day, finally settling on the same statement that Kate had been thinking of. Share Body Heat. The words sent a tingle up his spine and he wondered what she could have meant.
They fell back into comfortable silence as the room grew darker and eventually both fell asleep to their own dreams. Keith heard Kate stir a few times, but she never woke, and it didn't seem like she was having a nightmare, so he let it pass. It wasn't every night that she slept completely through.
He woke up in the middle of the night and looked over at her, still asleep, before smiling and again closing his eyes. For now, he'd just enjoy her presence.
A/N: SO! Another weekend, another chapter. School is getting really demanding lately so the only real time I have to write these chapters is on the weekends. I wrote half of this chapter in one day (last Sundayish) and the other half last night :P
More of the insufferable fluff. It's trying to take over the world, I tell you! One story after another, it's infecting the writers.
Also, I've discovered that I have what can be called 'talent' in writing both angsty/depressionish stuff along with inner thoughts. MIGHT do a diary-themed sequel that would be THE MOST ANGSTY THING I HAVE EVER DONE! Again, MIGHT. The things that I happen to start typing up when I'm bored. IT STARTS WITH A SENTENCE, THAT'S IT!
---We interrupt this angsty rant with a message from Kate---
Kate: WILL YOU JUST STOP MESSING AROUND AND TELL US WHAT POKEMON WE'RE GOING AFTER?!
Me: ...But that would ruin the story!
---
And now the random saying of the chapter: "I'm not even at Pilates class yet, and I'm already in pain." (Me, Thursday morning)
We hope you have enjoyed this Author's Note. (LOL 'We'. Sounds like a fricken CULT, yo.)
