Emerald's POV
I woke up somewhere completely different from where I fell asleep. This was the second time this had happened in a very short amount of time, and I did not like it. Now I was in a brown tent with sunlight streaming through. This was… different. A tent meant people, though, didn't it? Were we among people now? Had I slept so late Strider and Ray decided it was time to go without me? They would get a stern talking to from me. They couldn't just move my sleeping body wherever they wanted to. It wasn't ok. It was creepy, at best. At worst, it was a violation of privacy and there was some sort of law against it… not that having any sort of law would help me now that we were fugitives in my own kingdom.
There was bedding in here, bunk two sets of double bunk beds, four mattresses in total. Was this for the four of us? But these were not big enough to handle a Rayquaza or Flygon. They were even a little too small for me. Where were we, and what was this. Nobody else was in the tent, and nothing else was really in here either. The flaps of the tent were closed. Ray had to be nearby, at least, even if nobody else was. I got up, out of the bunk bed, off of the mattress, and went through the tent flaps. I yawned and stretched, but I could not shake this heavy tired feeling in my chest. What was this feeling, I wondered.
Oh there was Ray, he was literally right outside the tent. Why was he outside, why not just go inside the tent? He sat there his demeanor frozen like a statue. Was he, uh, was he ok? I put a hand to his skin. He was warm, he was still alive. There was no doubt about that, so why was he so frozen, so still. His eyes stare blankly ahead. I was a little worried. This could not be a normal thing. I hadn't known him for a long time, but there was no way this was a normal thing. The real questions, however, were, was this something normal for him, and did I need to be worried.
He wasn't hurt, I knew that much. If he had been hurt, I would be hurting right now, a deep aching that affected my soul. I hadn't felt it yet, but I would know it when I felt it, and he was not in any physical pain. He looked to be in some sort of psychological pain, though. Or, was he just tired? From flying at night? It was pretty early in the morning. Yeah, they would have had to be flying when the sun was still down, when it was still dark out. I thought the whole point of making camp for the night was to not fly through the night. No, it was more than exhaustion, though. I could see it in his eyes. Something was very wrong, and I was going to find out what it was. I couldn't just let my Pokemon suffer, even if he didn't like me very much. If there was something I could do to help, I would do it.
"He'll be alright." Strider said, putting a hand on my shoulder out of nowhere. I flinched. He came out of nowhere, and it was not ok that he did that.
"What happened?" I asked, the worry could not help but creep into my voice. Just looking at him, he was not himself. I could tell, something deep inside told me, or maybe it was just common sense, who knew?
"He asked me not to say." Strider said. He seemed a lot less… he had a lot less bravado than before. Whatever happened last night, whatever made Ray like this, it had affected him too. I felt a little guilty that I sort of… liked him better this way? He seemed a lot more humble. Something had humbled him, humbled them both, perhaps? Something they tried to fight but had to run away from instead.
"Anyways, we're here." Strider said, and gestured outwards. For the first time, I looked beyond Ray to my surroundings. There wasn't just this tent, there was a whole encampment of tents like a community of people living in tents. If that was the case, it was really rather strange. I had seen nothing like it before. Then again, I hadn't seen a whole lot of anything before. Things looked very different out here the whole aesthetic was different. There were synthetic materials, everywhere, and it seemed people came to rely way more on man made things than what nature provided. We weren't in caves, but we were in a synthetic substitute for a cave… outside a synthetic substitute for a cave. The tents went on for a long while, and then opened up into a field of grass and small yellow flowers. It felt… at least somewhat safe here. The multitude of tents, the promise of some sort of community assured me.
But… what kind of community was I going to be dealing with? Strider said it was one that was super seedy, a community of outlaws. A lot of them were probably also on the run from the law for much worse and unforgivable things than I did. This was an isle of monsters, if Strider was to be believed, and he was one of them. Is that what happened? They ran into a monster? But these guys knew Strider, I was pretty sure he had said at one point. That was why we were going to be safe here, at least for a little while.
"Where are we?" I asked.
"Den of thieves, isle of the damned. There's a lot of names for this place. There's a lot of criminals. You'll be alright for now, but be careful with these guys. They have the same wanted poster I do. And some of them are a lot less eager to make a deal, you know. You're sort of stuck here until your guy here snaps out of it. He had a rough night. Stay with him, alright? I'll see it I can bring the teacher here."
And with that, he walked off, a strange, stilted walk that told me he wasn't all there. Neither was Ray. I turned my attention back to him. He was hurting. Something awful had happened. It almost looked as if he were missing some of his color, but that was a trick of the light. That sort of thing did not happen to a Pokemon.
I rubbed his head, to see if he was respond to my touch. Nothing. I knew he was aware and awake. I could tell. So why wasn't he responding? Was he so inside himself, was something going on inside his mind to keep him from me? I wished I had a way to go in there and help him out, but I did not know how to do that. Hopefully, this teacher Strider was talking about could actually help me with my magic. Would this teacher do any better than Lilly? Would they have any patience with me, or just give up after a few tries, like so many of my other teachers? And what about the fact that they were on this island in the first place? That meant my teacher would be some kind of criminal! That was not ok… that was not ok… but, what else was I going to do now? There wasn't a whole lot I could do to change the situation. I rubbed Ray's head until I felt it relax a bit, then moved on to other parts of his body, arms and back, until he was at least somewhat more relaxed.
He made a small grunting noise. He was back with the living, good. He still didn't look like he wanted to talk, though. That was alright with me. I could wait. Maybe, if he saw that I cared about him, which I did, he would stay. He wouldn't try to make me send him back… I gently rubbed his head some more until he fully woke up. Everything would be ok, I would make sure of it.
"What happened?" I asked. In lieu of a response, Ray fell asleep. At least he had a little more peace than he had a few minutes ago. Even if he didn't admit it or didn't look any better, I was helping him. Something happened while I was asleep, and it had to do with this heavy feeling in my chest, and it had shaken Ray and Strider up pretty bad. Now that Ray was asleep, I was kind of stuck where I was. I couldn't exactly drag him off. I wondered what Strider was up to… no, I knew what he was up to, he was trying to get my new teacher to come here.
What kind of teacher would it be? Some rugged guy trying to look cool, like Strider, but in his thirties or forties or fifties… or something? I was basically just imagining an older Strider. Or maybe… maybe it wasn't even a human? It seemed counterintuitive for a Pokemon to teach a human to do magic, considering a Pokemon should not have known how to do a human's magic. They were affected by it, and its strength, but they could not do it. Still, who could say? Some rather strange things were happening, so who was to say a Pokemon could not teach me?
Ray started cringing in his sleep. I pet him some more until he relaxed again. Whatever it was that was bothering him, it had followed him into his dreams. I felt bad for him. I felt like… something inside me knew what was going on, but it wasn't telling my conscious mind. Did I even want to know what was going on? Something inside told me… no, I did not want to know. But at the same time, I felt that I needed to find out. This was quite the conundrum, huh?
I wanted Ray to be comfortable, and I wanted the two of us to get along. I was keeping him from his wife… he was a chosen one. No Pokemon had ever come to this world before and been so crabby about it. They seemed to have nothing big they were missing when they came over here. Or maybe they were just acting like they didn't and they all had lovers and family we were taking them away from. But then why would they agree to do this? Why was this the first anyone was hearing about it? Or did other people hear about it… and just not care? I guess I had no way of knowing, unless, of course, I just asked Ray about it. Oh, and told him about my plan to help him feel more at home here, to help him start his new life here.
The skies were a bright blue, the clouds few and puffy. It was pretty humid out, so we were near the ocean? But there was also an open field. There were a bunch of tents around in grid or clump formation, I guessed based on how organized the individuals here were. This was the den of thieves, the isle of the damned. That was what Strider said, but there was nobody around, not a soul in this bright daylight. Something about that seemed off to me. Well, yeah, it was obviously not normal for nobody to be around a living quarters, unless they only used these tents for sleeping. I wondered, if they were thieves, did they steal from each other while they were out, or was there some sort of code they adhered to so they could live together without living in constant paranoia… or maybe they just always took their things with them, or didn't really have a lot of valuables in the first place.
Seriously, not a single person to be found here in broad day's light. Another option was that they were just all inside, unable or unwilling to get out and enjoy the sun. I was getting a little sweaty, actually. It was a sensation I was used to from being very active, but I wasn't being active now, I was just standing. My home, my kingdom, was very much a tropical place, but the heat was off-set by the shade of the high white cliffs. Here…we were out in the open, a totally open field, save for the multitude of tents. I had to admit it frightened me a little. I knew I wished to be out in the open, to be free, but now that I was here, no walls to contain me… it was a little bit unnerving. It was something I would get used to, though. I had no doubts about that.
Get used to… used to not being home, used to being out in the open, and on the run? I was on the run from my own family. It was so… surreal. A part of me could not connect the two, that dark court. Everyone in the robes, taking orders from some guy in a darker cloak who would not show his face. His voice stayed with me, though. My father… sure I didn't get to see him a lot, but it was ok because he was out being a good king. But no, he wasn't even the king, apparently. He took his orders from some malevolent force, some dubious figure, and for what? Something about magical power? Stronger magical power? That was what they had tried to sell me on, but perhaps that was only because magical power was something that I in particular was lacking. Maybe it was something different for everybody?
Seriously, how did all my sisters join something like that, that was so obviously toxic and suspicious? Why was I only hearing about this just now? Especially Crystal, out of everyone else, I was most surprised that Crystal was a part of this. She seemed too nice for something like that. The rest… I could believe it for some more than others. Silver surprised me quite a bit, too. She was quiet, but she had spent so many long trying to control her powers, just to use them for evil? And Sapphire… she was all chill and philosophical when she wasn't fighting or competing with Ruby. I refused to believe everything I knew about my sisters was a lie. There was no way they were good enough liars to make up an entire set of personality traits contradictory to their own and keep it up. So, where did that leave me? They were lying about the one thing, but their personalities were more or less the same, so why and when did they join something like that?
Maybe… well, when did I find out about it? Just a little while after I got Ray. They gave off the impression that they had not been expecting me, but I was pretty sure mom said something about 'now that I had a legend', so whatever this was, maybe you needed to have a Pokemon familiar and a certain magical prowess in order to be indoctrinated into the dark court, or whatever. That was supposed to happen much earlier in life than it did for me, the average age for the ceremony was twelve years old. At that point in life, people are more than a little impressionable. The age I was supposed to have been indoctrinated was an age where children were very easily swayed and influence. All the rest of my sisters were indoctrinated at that time, and I was sure they were pressured into joining and justified whatever they had to do as a part of that court to themselves, or else changed their moral compass entirely.
Actually… that made sense, something made sense in this new light. Crystal had told me many times that I didn't need magic. Maybe that was because she wanted to keep me safe, because she knew as soon as I did manage to create a beacon and use it to call someone, the dark court would try to recruit me, and since I was old enough to know it was wrong… I would be in danger. Maybe she regretted joining them, but Crystal valued harmony over most other things. Honestly, I could imagine Crystal agreeing to join the family in this morally questionable endeavor just to avoid any sort of conflict with them. And she was trying to protect me? She was trying to make sure I wouldn't have to face that sort of decision? If that was the case… I felt bad for getting mad at her. She was just looking out for me and I took my anger out on her. Of course, I was only making these deductions based on what I thought I knew about my sister. If, by some chance, they were infinitely better liars than I gave them credit for, then all of this went out the window, now didn't it?
"In the name of justice, I arrest you!"
I raised my eyebrows as I felt something metal clack against my wrists. There was suddenly some dude in front of me. He had shaggy black hair and dark skin. He also wore weird clothing like Strider. He was smiling widely, a knife in one hand and the other holding onto the chain between my handcuffs.
"What?" I asked, dumbfounded. I… what was going on? Arrested in the name of justice? What justice? How was arresting me justice…? Who was this guy? Was this one of the criminals, one of the residents of this place? Where did he come from? Was I so out of it, so lost in my thoughts, trapped in my head that I hadn't noticed this guy comer right in front of me and slap some handcuffs on me?
"You are. Under arrest. In the name. Of justice." The strange man said, enunciating in a much exaggerated manner, taking pauses to make sure I understood every syllable coming out of his mouth. Yeah, I knew what he said, I just had no earthly idea what it meant.
"In the name of justice?" I asked. I was still very confused, and a little pissed off and a little scared, just because I had no idea what was going on with this guy, and he just had this huge smile on his face, like he had said something very clever.
"Yes. Now, don't fight if you want to stay alive." He said, and traced the dull side of his blade along one of my arms, just to illustrate what would happen if I were to defy him. At least, I was pretty sure that was what that was supposed to be? There was no telling with this guy, with the people outside. I took for granted that intuitive gestures meant the same thing, but that could not be the case at all.
No, I could not get so off track like this. This kind of off topic, rambling musing was what opened me up for this capture in the first place. For the love of Arceus, I had to focus.
Speaking of Arceus-
No! No! I could not entertain that line of thoughts right now! I could think about that late, for now, I had a crazy guy with a knife to attend to. Something about justice? What was his angle, exactly? There was no way he was really a good guy. He was pulling at the chains on my handcuffs, but no matter how much he pulled, I would not move. Ray's will to stay and sleep was stronger than mine to go… the strength of my will to go being zero.
"What?" The guy asked, his voice had a weird lilt to it that screamed danger. He tugged at me, I would not move. He lifted me off the ground and pulled me, and still I would not move, because I couldn't move.
"Oh… I see what's going on. Sever the bond. Sacrifice in the name of justice!" He called out to me, pointing his knife towards me. Sacrifice in the name of justice? What in the world did he mean? What in the world was he talking about?
"…Um… If I'm not going to do it for him, why in the world would I do it for you?" I said, gesturing to Ray. I worked too hard for this bond, I wasn't going to give it up for anything.
"Maybe… for your life?" He brought the knife closer to my neck. I gulped. This wasn't good… So I had to make a choice… my physical life or a life of shame and despair, still on the run but without Ray. When put like that, dying seemed like the right option, but the idea of dying sounded awful as well. The other option was to beat this guy up or disarm him or something. Cool thing that I didn't know how to do that and also didn't know magic to do that at all.
And then there was a knife against that guy's throat. I sighed in relief. I wouldn't have to make that choice, at least, not today. It was Strider's knife to this guy's throat. I never thought I'd be this glad to see him. He pressed his knife so hard on the man's neck that it actually drew a small amount of crimson blood that stood out against his darker skin. I was fascinated by it for a moment, transfixed… the world faded out and I just saw the blood.
"Back away slowly. She's mine." I heard Strider, but it seemed almost muffled to me, like my ears were filled with cotton. Then, just in case the guy didn't want to actually listen to Strider, he started backing up, with the knife still to the man's throat. So now, the man had a difficult choice to make: Submit to Strider's will, or have his throat slit. I found myself secretly hoping Strider would slit his throat anyways to see the crimson blood, spurting, pooling… draining the life from this man who had threatened me. It was what he deserved.
Wait… what?
The man did not get his throat slit, he backed up with Strider, and then Strider swung him around and kicked him away. The man turned and ran.
Hope y'all have an awesome day