Emerald's pov

Light hit my face, and for once in my life, I knew things were going to be ok! Sure, there was a lot I screwed up, but I was a member of society. I could do anything. I looked over at Ray, my Rayquaza. And then I remembered. So many things went wrong yesterday. But today was a new day. Today was the start of a new life! There was so much to show him, so much I wanted to show him about this kingdom and this world. He said he wanted to know how to go back, but he would change his mind once he saw how things were around here. Well, not just here… here was small and cramped compared to the big old world out there, out in the endless sky. The two of us… out in the endless sky.

Ray was still asleep. I got up and tiptoed over to him. I didn't want to disturb his sleep, but my stomach was legitimately about to eat itself if I didn't get some food in there, and I wasn't sure I could physically go to the kitchen without him. I lay a hand on him and gave his head a little rub. He jumped up with a start, his black and gold eyes shrinking from the sudden intake of light. That wasn't all, he roared, frightened. I screamed in response, also frightened, and fell back. It was yesterday all over again, awesome.

"What's wrong with you, can't you see I was sleeping?!" Ray snapped.

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I just… I need to eat. Let's go down to breakfast. They have some good stuff, whatever you like." I said, trying to be cheery, even in the face of his attitude.

"I know." He replied, gesturing over to a bunch of empty plates. Someone must have brought food earlier. They were the dinner plates, with fancier gold trim, so it must have been last night. And he didn't leave any for me, not one bite. Well, I had been asleep at the time. I wasn't sure how I felt about that. There was a moment of awkward silence between us, looking down at the plates.

"So… breakfast? I haven't eaten since last lunch, and I need you to come with me." I said. Without a word, Ray floated towards the door and opened it.

"Well? Lead the way." He said, just as blunt as ever. 'As ever' like I had known him for more than a few hours. Although, in a way, in a weird way, I felt as if I had known Ray for a while. I didn't know anything about him that I shouldn't have… it was just a vague feeling. That might have been because our souls were bonded. A lot of weird things happened because of that. Well, not a lot of weird things, a lot of completely normal things. It was just weird to me, because I hadn't experienced it, yet. I wondered if he felt like he knew me, too.

I walked through the door, under Ray's judgmental eyes, and he floated silently behind me. We walked through the castle. There was Sapphire surfing with Kyogre… there was Platinum floating from dimension to dimension, in and out of the Reversal World. I was supposed to be with them, now, one of them. I looked over at Ray with an expectant smile. He shook his head. Aww… I really wanted to fly. But, he said I should fly myself. So, today, I would ask Lilly about it. Magical prowess was needed to do any magic, but once you had it, you could do any sort of magic, you just had to learn the specific trick to it.

I really hoped Ray would like it here… because I wasn't going to send him back… even if I knew the way how. Only I could sever the bond and send him back… but I was not about to do that, not after I worked so hard… not at the price it took. There was nothing he could do to make me do that. So… I would do my best to make him see his place was here, and hopefully he would not try to go back.

We made it to the dining hall. I was no longer a dull, uncolored dud, so there was that, at least. They couldn't call me magically useless, anymore. I did what needed to be done, I brought Ray here. Now, like the rest of my sisters, we would have a duty to do, instead of being able to wander all day. Now, make no mistake, there would still be plenty of wandering, just… I had to wait until after our job was done. We would hold up the skies.

Our meal was as rambunctious as ever. Apparently, getting my legend did not change their opinion of me as much as I wanted it to. Diamond and Pearl couldn't stop giggling at me. Making me fall during the ceremony was just the latest in their never ending conquest of pranks. Diamond…

"Why'd you do that, huh?" I asked across the room.

"Do what, sister dearest?" She asked, her voice rang clear, like a bell, and old mountain air. She thought she was so great…

"Mess with time so I'd fall." I said. She knew what she was doing. I reached for a small loaf of bread, but before I could touch it, it disappeared. "Pearl." I was… ever so slightly exasperated, but I did not dare let that show. That was what they wanted.

"Yeah?" Pearl asked, lazily chewing on the loaf of bread she had just stolen from me. There was nothing I could do that adequately got back at her. The thing I wanted to do was blast her away with the winds. But, if Ray didn't want to cooperate, and I didn't know the magic, there wasn't a whole lot I could do magically. Physically, however… I stood up, very calmly, walked to the other side of the table, and punched Diamond and Pearl in the face. Then I calmly walked back.

"Emerald!" Archibald yelled. Wow, he truly did hate me, didn't he? All these things going on, and all he cared about was the physical altercation.

"They started it." I said calmly.

"I don't care!" I opened my mouth to protest, but then closed my mouth again.

"Dish duty?" I asked. Archibald nodded, his mouth a stern line. I sighed, off again to dish duty, I guessed. It was me and Crystal once again.

"You wash, I'll dry." Crystal said, as if by route. It was like this a lot of days. Archibald did not like me, I guess having an identity was not going to change that.

"Dry?" Ray asked.

"Use the wind to dry the dishes. I use pure water to clean them. We all have to help out around here, you know? I know it probably isn't what you're used to, but it's just an exercise in being responsible and caring for what we have. Crystal explained, conjuring up some water.

"Hmph. I suppose I see the point in that." Ray said. He wasn't looking at Crystal though, he was looking at Suicune. Did they know each other or something? He looked at Suicune softer than he looked at me, looked at any of my sisters or my mother. Maybe it was because she was a Pokemon and not a human? Who knew?

So, he started to dry the dishes, by bringing wind. It was sort of incredible, suddenly wind was just blowing. He was putting no effort into it. I wondered what kind of thing he could do if he actually make an attempt. A wave of contempt came over me, this was so easy for him, huh?

I wouldn't be like this for long, though. I would learn so many different magics, now. All of my limiters were off. I knew I could do it, now. And if I could do one thing, I could do others. There was no doubt in my mind. That was a lie. There was a lot of doubt in my mind, but I was telling myself that there was no doubt in my mind, so that maybe I could trick my mind into having no doubt.

Why did Archibald think that me doing dish duty so much was actually going to do anything? It wasn't my fault that I was provoked like that constantly. I was… I really wanted to be their friend and stuff. If they didn't blow things up in my face all the time, I would at least just leave them alone. But no, they had to make things hard for me, and in making things hard for me, they only made things hard for themselves. Whatever, we just did the dishes.

"Congratulations, Emerald. I like the name." Crystal said.

"Thank you." I said, though the compliment felt hollow. Maybe it was just me. I knew she was probably trying to be genuine, Crystal didn't have a dishonest bone in her body. There was a reason her power had to do with purity. It was just me. It was always just me, wasn't it?

We finished the dishes. I would have been lying if I said I wasn't at least a little excited. Because now I got my job, my place, and my guess was that it had to do with flying. I would get to fly, I would get to see the world beyond. What was it? How would I be helping to maintain the pillars of reality?

I nearly ran to the throne room, where my mother waited with my assignment. There she was, sitting on her throne, all dressed up in her pink and purple clothes. Cresselia sat next to her, floating gently up and down. She smiled at me gently. Everything about her was gentle, like a good dream.

"Hey, mom." I smiled. She never treated me badly.

"Hello, Emerald. I am so glad to finally meet you as, well, you. It's quite satisfying. I was worried I might never be able to call you by a name, that I would never be able to greet you and a legend together."

"Yes, I know. I thought so too we all thought so." I sighed. Mom held up my face by my cheek and smiled.
"But you did it. I always believed you would." She said. That seemed to contradict what she just said. Maybe she always believed, but couldn't help but have some doubts. I mean, I had doubted myself so much… Lilly was the only one who kept believing in me. I was really grateful to her. And hopefully, if nobody else, she could help me sort out this thing with Ray. She would have some sort of solution, I was sure. My plan wasn't working out very well, unfortunately. Making someone do the dishes was not the way to make someone fall in love with a new home. Oh, welcome to your new home, here, do some dishes. No, that was stupid. That alone was reason enough to want to run away… or fly away, in this case. Wanting to fly away would be fine with me, if he wanted to fly away with me. I wanted to fly, too. More than anything.

"Yes, I did. So… what is our duty? How will we help this world?" I was eager to learn, eager to go and do. She gave me the worst answer she probably could have.

"Nothing yet. You still have to learn." Ugh… I wanted to learn by doing, by going. I wanted to move.

"More lessons?" I asked, deflating.

"Yes." Mom answered. "Now, I know you don't like it, but now that you have some magic, it will be a much more focused curriculum, so that you can go out there and do your duties.

"What will that entail, once we can do it?" Ray's voice sounded hollow, like he wasn't actually there mentally or something.

"You will tend to the skies, making sure the winds flow properly, maintaining balance in the weather. That sort of thing."

"Huh…" He sounded… he sounded like nothing. This guy was notoriously hard to read, and quite honestly, it was annoying. It was like trying to talk to my sister Silver. It was a difficult thing to do and not really worth the effort you had to put in. She was reserved, incredibly reserved, and held the sacred silver flame. It cursed her when she was young, and she ended up burning… a large portion of the kingdom. It was a bad time for everyone. I didn't have much of an opinion of Silver. She didn't bother with me much, and I didn't bother with her, much. There were a lot of us, so ignoring one or two sisters wasn't particularly difficult.

"That sounds amazing. I just need to learn the magic, right?" I asked, and she nodded in response.

"Go to the library. Lilly is waiting for you two." She said, then kissed my forehead and waved me away. I wished my parents would spend more time with me, and I'm sure my sisters felt the same. But… they had important things to do, you know, running the kingdom and all. I understood that and all… just…

I walked off to the library, Ray in tow. I know he didn't want to do this. His power level went down to my power level. So, even if he had once been strong, I dragged him down to my level. I would grow for him, though. I would do whatever he needed… except send him back. Lilly, time and time again, she knew what to do. Plus, maybe Ray could make friends with Guardevoir… or something? I just wanted him to go adventuring with me. We would do that after the lesson. It would be great.

Hope you ave an awesome day