Me: *raises a glass up punch* To New Years!
Max, Carlos, & Gardevoir: *do the same* To New Years!
Max: *looks at TV* Guys! The countdown's about to begin!
Carlos: *excited* Alright! Here we go! 10...9...8...
Max: 7...6...5...
Gardevoir: 4...3...2...
Me: 1!
Everybody: HAPPY NEW YEARS!
Me: Yes! Welcome 2013!
Max: Hey, did anyone else think this last year went by really fast?
Carlos: *flicks hand* Totally.
Gardevoir: *sweatdrop at Carlos* So what do we do now...*sees me staring at computer* What?
Me: *wide eyes* What. Have. I. Posted?
Gardevoir: Strange...Disclaimer: Eon does not own Pokemon in any way. Happy New Years guys!
Chapter Twelve: Blue
Arceus, if looks could kill, Melany and Amber would have died at least a hundred times now.
Then again, I think I might have already.
I sucked in a breath as I lay on the alley floor, the world layered with a light red haze. Or at least what I could see when I was able to keep my eyes open for more than two seconds. I could feel my stomach growing warmer by the minute and watched with pain-squinted eyes as a river of blood started flowing out onto the pavement beneath me.
"So much for that transfusion," I managed to mutter through clenched teeth.
"Blue!"
I couldn't lift my head up to respond, but I gritted my teeth more when I heard the person's voice and sensed them running over and kneeling in front of me.
"Holy Ho-Oh," Amber breathed out at the sight of my pain-wracked form. "What are you doing here?!"
"What…the hell…are you asking me that for?!" I exploded at him through the red haze. "She was just trying to shoot you for Entei's sake!"
"Shoot me…" he trailed off before shaking his head. "No, you've got it wrong! I-I have a fear of guns…so Melany's been helping me to get rid of it!"
I clenched my teeth as another wrack of pain suddenly washed over me. "In an alley?!"
Amber nodded a bit hesitantly before slowly approaching my bullet wound. I tensed in response, but at the worried look in his soft orange-gold eyes, I loosened myself up and cautiously let him examine it. He touched the bleeding skin for only a second before I recoiled sharply and he pulled back.
"We need to get her to a hospital, Melany," he said quickly with a hint of fear in his voice.
The blonde swiftly walked over and knelt down beside him. Her deep blue eyes bored into my lighter ones, and she could tell I was struggling to stay conscious.
"The hospital's too far away," she whispered lowly, watching as the river of blood continued to pool around me.
"Then what are we going to do?!" He turned to her with hard eyes. "I don't care who we're working for! We're not just going to leave her here!"
"I know, okay?!" She snapped at him, surprising both him and me even as I writhed in pain. "I would never leave her to die!"
Amber's eyes widened sharply, and I managed to open my own and stare at her in shock.
She ignored both of us and gave a huff, slamming the gun into Amber's hands. "Go watch the entrance. Make sure no one comes in here."
He stared at the mechanism in his hands a moment before setting his face and nodding. As soon as he was positioned beside her Heracross, her eyes flew to my face, and I could plainly see the fear in them.
"Okay," she said softly, putting me on back from my side. "We have to get the bullet out before anything."
I coughed a little and struggled to talk. "But…won't that…make it bleed…more?"
Melany shook her head adamantly and brought out her Venomoth. "Don't worry about that. Now, this might sting a little, but you've got to hang in here with me, okay?"
I froze at the strange yet familiar normal tone of her voice. Even battered as I was, I knew I had heard that voice before. It was like when I fought with her outside Yellow's house. I knew those moves then, and I knew this voice now. Arceus, but from where?!
My thoughts were cut off as a burning pain suddenly struck my stomach, and I gave out a sharp cry. Sucking in breath, I opened my closed eyes to see the Venomoth carefully maneuvering its needle thin claws into my wound to extract the bullet. I clenched my teeth and fought to keep the wave of blackness from washing over and taking me with it.
Finally, after what seemed like an eternity of flames, the claws retracted and brought with them a small silver object that Melany immediately threw into a nearby dumpster with unconcealed anger. Putting her Pokemon away, she quickly turned back to me and saw that I was about to pass out from the pain and blood loss.
"It's going to be okay, Blue," she reassured me with a set face. My eyes were starting to droop now so I strained my ears to make up for what I couldn't see.
"I'm not going to let anything happen to you, okay? I promise."
My eyes shot open. Those words. I knew those words too. Every. Single. One.
I was able to push back the ever-pressing wall of darkness just enough to ask one last thing.
"W-who…are you? For real."
I narrowed my eyes, but that little motion was the breaking point, and they slammed shut. The world was becoming a spiraling vortex of nothing, and I managed to catch her last whisper before I hit the bottom of it.
"An old friend, Blue. A very old friend."
Amber was obediently watching the street like Melany had asked him too, but the tense atmosphere was proving too much for him, and finally, he couldn't take it anymore and turned back around.
Blue was no longer conscious, her eyes shut tight beneath her perspiring forehead as Melany pulled back her hand from where it had been resting on the brunette's abdomen. Rushing over, he knelt back down beside her, paying no mind to the blood seeping into his already dark jeans. An eye scanning her stomach to check on the injury, he froze when he realized it wasn't there.
"W-What happened to the wound?!" He asked in disbelief. The blonde beside him said nothing, and he stared at her from the side. "Melany! What did you do?"
She only kept her eyes trained on the girl in front of her before giving a sigh and hanging her head a little. "I think she'll be okay. She did lose a lot of blood, though." Bringing her head back up, she looked up at the sky with wide eyes. "But this is a good thing."
Amber almost smacked her from frustration. "How is shooting her a good thing?!"
Melany held a finger at him to be quiet. They sat there in silence for a few minutes, the tension growing every moment that passed as he waited for something to happen.
In the next second, a certain blond-haired girl slammed down at the entrance to the alley from the sky and answered his question.
His eyes became the size of Pokeballs, and he was only able to get one word out of his mouth.
"Yellow?!"
The Pokegear in my pocket rang, and I held onto Charizard with one hand and scooped it with the other as we made our way back to Fuchsia City from the airport, the setting sun turning to dark orange behind us. We'd run into a channel of high winds on the way and had to detour to Celadon and follow the bike trail back so I had no doubt that Blue had already reached the Pokemon Center by now.
"Green?" came Silver's voice from the other line as I hit the answer button. "Where are you? It's been a couple hours since you left. Did you catch Blue and the others?"
I clenched my teeth. "No. They're on their way back to Unova, and Blue should be getting back to the Pokemon Center any minute now. I'm just getting near the city limits now."
I sensed him nodding. "Okay. Red just laid down for the night a little bit ago so I'll stay up and wait for her."
"Well, don't do anything until I get there," I told him. "I get to be the first one to yell at her."
Silver chuckled. "I believe I've already called dibs on that."
I smirked to myself. "Anything happen over there while I was gone?"
"No. I was about to go check on Yellow though just in case—"
I paused and raised an eyebrow as he suddenly went quiet, and I heard nothing from the other end of the line. "Silver?"
I went from being still to completely frozen as his voice suddenly sounded, high and fearful.
"Red! Wake up!"
I could faintly hear the black-haired boy's response through the phone.
"What is it, Silver?" His voice cut off after that before coming back just as sharp as the redhead's had been. "What happened?!"
"I don't know!" Silver shouted frantically at him. "Come on!"
"Hey!" I yelled at them. "What's going on?!"
Unfortunately, whatever was happening there at the Pokemon Center must have been urgent for the line went dead, and I was cut off.
Taking the Pokegear from my ear, I looked at the nearing buildings in the distance and urged Charizard to go faster. Something was wrong. I just knew it.
As we got closer to the city, Charizard suddenly stopped and gave a loud roar.
"What is it?" I asked him with impatient curiosity, wanting to get to the Pokemon Center yet wondering why he had stopped flying.
Still flapping his wings, he blew a Flamethrower in the direction of the city, and I squinted my eyes to try and find what he was gesturing at. The buildings were too far away for me to see anything clearly, and I gave up after a minute of searching.
"I can't see anything," I sighed at him.
He was persistent though and fired off another Flamethrower. Giving another sigh, I strained my eyes further.
And then I saw it.
Right above the city.
There was somebody hanging from a Butterfree, their flowing white dress whipping around in the wind. Suddenly, they darted down towards the city, and I gasped.
"Yellow?!"
Yellow
There was nothing around me, but darkness.
Deep, black, oppressing darkness.
I had no idea where I was or what was going on. I couldn't sense anyone or anything else here with me.
It was just this dark nothingness.
I tried to say something, but voice wouldn't obey. Or rather it couldn't. And neither could my muscles as I tried to lift a hand. When they wouldn't do anything, I looked around to find that I was just floating in this dark world, unable to move or speak. There was no sense of the time passing here so I just stayed there, watching the swirling darkness with wide wondering eyes.
It appeared as though time and space were both absent in this strange place, and it once occurred to me that I should be trying to find a way out. But the thought was quickly whisked away along with anything else in my head. It was as if this darkness not only wanted to keep me from moving but also thinking. It streamed over my mind like a soothing stream, washing away any thoughts that might have been there.
But throughout this motionless, thoughtless state, I was still there, my consciousness trapped by the dark river that was reprimanding my body of any activity. I fought against its overwhelming power, but my efforts would soon turn to vain as it would flood over me again and rid any thought of protest until I could muster up the strength to bring it back to mind.
This hopeless game seemed to last a lifetime, but then again, I had no idea how long I floated there fighting the darkness as there was no time to speak of here. At one point, I finally gave up and gave into its power, sentencing myself to a world of stillness. My consciousness sat there in my motionless body, watching nothing and listening to the silence with an air of hope that something would break me out of this dark prison.
After waiting for another lifetime, though, even that hope gradually faded.
My mind and body slowly became numb to the point where I couldn't even tell that I was there anymore. This became the normal for me, what I had come to expect would last forever.
But then something did happen.
My mind sprang out of the dark river at it like a Magikarp jumping from a stream, waiting in silence for whatever had just awoken me to appear again. After what felt like a second, I felt it come back.
At first, it was just a warm feeling in my hand, as if someone was holding it. And as if that touch were the signal, the rest of my body awakened to join my mind. Flexing my fingers and feeling the sensation of them touching my palms felt so strange after such a long time of nothing, but I smiled in relish at the realization that I was in control of myself again.
Then came the second sign of my awakening. I clicked my tongue as a strange taste of Cheri Berries and mint washed over it, telling me that all of my senses really had come back. It was a peculiar taste, but I soon forgot about it as a wave of worry crashed down on me, wiping out every other emotion. This feeling of concern was all there was.
And so I floated there in shock, my hand still warm, my tongue still tingling with the taste of berries and mint, and wrapped around it all, the worry that wormed its way through me and made me shut my eyes in protest. It was filling me to the point that I thought I might break down in an anxiety attack.
Strange enough, though, it reminded me of the last scene I remembered before coming to this dark world.
As quick as it had come, the taste and overwhelming worry left in a flash although the warmth in my hand remained. And as if bringing my memory to life, I was suddenly whisked away to the field where Amber had confessed to me that he wasn't exactly who he had seemed.
His arms wrapped around me, and I fell into the same action I had when it had happened the first time. I held onto him with a tight grip, and my tears rolled onto his shoulder.
"I'm so sorry," he whispered through a choked voice into my ear.
There was no fluttering feeling on my shoulders this time, but his arms did tighten around me like before.
"I-I just have to save her," he cried out, a tear running down his cheek.
Suddenly, I was ripped from his arms as the darkness reached out and grabbed hold of him. I screamed and tried to pull him back, but it was too fast, and my fingers missed him by a hair. The field fell away around me as he disappeared into the blackness, and I was left floating again, trembling at his words. The taste of Cheri Berries returned to my tongue, but this time it was tinged with the bitter scent of ferns instead of mint and brought along with it a flood of misery that poured through my mind and would have made me collapse had there been a solid ground under my feet.
Finally, it was too much. I closed my eyes and screamed the first words since I had entered this foreboding direction.
"Her who?!"
There was a bright flash, and suddenly the world turned from night black to stark white.
Tears started falling from the corners of my eyes, but I did nothing to stop them.
"Her who?!" I screamed again. "Her who?!"
"Yellow!"
I paused a second at the voice before going back to shrieking the same two words over and over. It was as familiar as the back of my hand, but nothing was registering in my mind but the sorrow.
Suddenly, the warmth in my hand spread all around me, enveloping my form and bringing back the taste of mint to replace the ferns with the still-present Cheri Berries. And as if the sun were breaking through a blanket of clouds in the sky, I was filled with a sense of calm and tenderness that chased away the gloominess of the misery.
I heard the voice's soothing tone, and gradually, my screams faded to whispers and eventually silence as I let its warmth calm my nerves. I looked up, and through the bright white all around me, I could almost make out a pair of red eyes shadowed by black bangs watching me. However, before I could say or do anything, the darkness took my moment of quiet and peace as an opportunity to strike down again.
Taken completely unaware, the face and white light disappeared in a screen of darkness, and the black river gushed through my mind, wiping away any train of thought and restricting my movements so that I was only floating in space again. The taste of Cheri Berries and mint dissipated from my tongue, and the calming feeling was washed away to be replaced by empty black. The warmth surrounding my body only lasted another second longer until it faded of its own accord, and I was back to being a mindless body suspended in darkness.
My consciousness fought against the tide once more, but it was as futile as the last time. Eventually, I caved in again and returned to my previous state of dormancy.
But it was right then that something else shocked me back into control of myself. Grabbing onto it before the darkness could take over again, I closed my eyes and concentrated as hard as I could to identify what it was that woke me up this time around. As if in response to my intense concentration, another taste swept across my tongue, and I raised my eyebrows in surprise when I identified what it was.
It was a sensation that could only be identified as the ocean. It was salty like the air yet fresh like the taste of water. And like a wave on the shore, I was struck with a feeling of pain that penetrated my heart to its core, centering on the area near my belly. Looking down at it, I didn't find any wound or injury, but the pain was still real. And it hurt really bad.
As I clenched my teeth against the burn that had started in my insides, something suddenly occurred to me that I hadn't realized before. In that flash of white, I had seen a person's face. A real person's face.
Then it clicked.
I had accepted that misery before and fallen victim to it which had brought on that white light and the person's voice.
Setting my jaw, I quit fighting against the pain seizing my abdomen and relaxed myself into it. It hurt more, but I forced myself to take it.
And finally, the blinding flash came again.
I strained in pain to look up for those eyes again, but I couldn't find them. Beginning to panic, I whipped my head around for any sign of help and suddenly froze. Turning my head to the right, I realized that the ocean-like taste slowly got stronger on my tongue. I turned it the other way, and the taste softened in power.
My eyes widened in surprise, and I turned my entire body to the right, the taste growing stronger the farther I went. Following its trail as fast as my pain-wracked form would let me, I squinted my eyes as the light got harsher and let out a scream of pure agony as something like hot metal seemed to appear right in the middle of all the chaos going on inside me.
That final touch of pain must have done the trick for the white started to fade along with the agonizing feeling in my stomach. The last thing I felt before one last flash went off was the shot of fear that streaked through me as I finally opened my eyes.
I took in a sharp breath and felt the cold sweat on my back as my eyes shot open. My breath was coming fast, and I quickly sat up. Quickly looking around, I saw that I was in a hospital room, Red sleeping softly in a chair by my bed. My eyes widened at the sight of him in the room with me alone. Wasn't…wasn't he mad at me?
I glanced frantically at the room again. And how had I gotten placed in a hospital?
Both thoughts were immediately forgotten when I swished my tongue.
The taste of the ocean was still there.
Automatically, my mind reached for it, and I could feel a small pain start in my stomach again but nowhere near as bad as before. Turning my head to see where the taste was stronger, I realized that it was telling me to go out the door. I got up before realizing that there was an IV tube stuck in my hand and carefully took it out without causing myself any problems.
Quietly setting my feet on the ground, my fast breathing soon came back as I snuck out the door past Red and found myself in the many hallways of a Pokemon Center. I swished my tongue again and choose the path that made the ocean taste burn stronger.
Following it, I swiftly made my way to the front doors and out onto the street, my white dress swishing around my feet that still wore the white heels Blue had lent me for White's party.
I almost gasped. What day was it?!
I was about to run for a newsstand, but felt the salty tang on my tongue again and shook the thought away to start running down its trail again. There was no time to waste. This strange event was trying to take me somewhere, and I had a feeling that there was something dreadful awaiting my arrival. The burning pain in my stomach only seemed to confirm it even more.
I hurried down the road in the inferred direction, letting out a huff of helplessness as the evening rush came to town and the streets were suddenly flooded with people heading home from work. The sudden entrance of extra people made it harder for me to move around so I pulled Kitty's Pokeball from a strap on my heel that I had latched it on and released the Butterfree.
He flitted around me in joy, causing me to raise an eyebrow but laugh as he nudged my face and let out a cry of happiness.
"Come on," I said as he took a hold of me. "We need to get up in the air."
He happily obliged, and soon enough we were swaying in the wind high above the city, me clicking my tongue and concentrating fiercely on finding the taste again as he flapped his wings. My heart started to speed up as I couldn't detect it, and my mind reached out farther and harder in search of it. Finally, I got a light trace of it coming from the left and directed Kitty where to fly.
We weaved among the city's tall buildings, gradually getting closer to the ground as the taste grew stronger. Suddenly, it stopped growing, and I had a feeling we had arrived. Looking down, I saw an alley between two apartments ahead and froze at what I found inside.
Blue was lying on the ground, a puddle of blood forming at her side where Melany was just taking away her hands. Amber sat beside her with a worried look on his face, and my eyes widened when I saw the gun in his hands.
My eyes flicked from the gun to Blue's unconscious form and back to the two beside her before narrowing in fury as I realized what they'd done. The pain in my stomach twisted sharply, and I gritted my teeth against it before angrily telling Kitty to land at the alley's entrance.
We touched down a second later, and I watched as Amber's face morphed into shock at the sight of my feet slamming down on the flat asphalt.
"Yellow?!"
I didn't respond, only keeping my face carefully calm and returning Kitty as Melany's Heracross sensed my anger and moved out of my way.
Amber got to his feet and rushed over to me. "Y-You're awake!"
I frowned. "No thanks to you."
The coldness in my voice froze him, and he stared at me with wide golden-orange eyes. "Y-Yellow, I—"
"Don't," I cut him off. There was a quiver in my voice that he didn't fail to notice, and I fought to keep myself from bursting into tears. His face softened at me, and he reached a hand out to which I took a step back. The hurt was plain in his eyes, and I closed my own when I felt the heat coming to them.
"Yellow," he said sadly. "I'm sorry."
My eyes opened slowly, and I saw that he was on the verge of tears like me.
But the gun still shone in his hands.
"H-How could you?" I whispered in disbelief before my voice escalated and I was yelling at him. "How could you shoot Blue?!"
His eyes widened in shock until he looked at his hand and quickly dropped the gun as if it were a hot potato. "N-No! That's not what happened!"
"Don't lie to me!" I shouted, my fists clenching on their own. "I'm tired of the lies, Amber! I-I can't take it anymore!"
"Yellow," he tried to reason with me as I pushed past him to Blue and knelt down beside her across from Melany who had been quietly watching our exchange. Her eyes were wide and blank as I locked my gaze with hers, and I found myself doing the same. Then I saw the pool of blood at her knees, and they narrowed.
"Get out," I said lowly, putting as much menace into my voice as I could—which was quite hard considering I was having trouble holding back tears. It came out more as a hiss but still had the same effect.
Melany silently stood up and walked around to where Amber was watching with glossy eyes of his own. As she passed by me, she bent over so that her lips were near my ear.
"Listen to the signs," she murmured, making me freeze. "Learn how to control them. I'll be waiting to help you."
My eyes widened, and her footsteps sounded as she returned her Heracross and walked out of the alley. I didn't move a muscle until I sensed Amber standing behind me.
Closing my eyes to hold back the ever-present warmth in them, I arose and faced him.
There was an uncomfortable silence between us until he broke it and stepped towards me.
"Yellow, I'm telling you. I didn't shoot Blue."
My breath hitched, and I opened my eyes. "That's not how it looked."
"I know," he said, his own breath catching. "And I know this is harder to believe, but it was an accident."
I bared my teeth as the first tear fell. "It was not an accident."
His voice cracked. "Yes it was! Melany was trying to help me get over my fear of guns!"
My eyes widened. Fear of guns…I thought back to when I had first met him, and he'd explained his life story in Red's living room.
"A-Are we in Fuchsia City?" I asked quietly.
He nodded slowly, his own tear falling.
I bit my lip to the point of extricating blood and held back the urge to run into his arms.
This was the place where his father had died. Right in front of his eyes.
I forced myself to stay rooted to the spot, my shoulders trembling.
"Okay," I whispered. "But you need to tell me, Amber."
I walked forward until I was looking right up into his eyes. "Why are you doing this? Who are you trying to save?" My voice caught in my throat. "Who is she?"
His mouth opened, but no words came out. My fists clenched tighter.
"Amber."
He wouldn't meet my eyes.
"I…I can't tell you," he said, his cracking voice so soft I almost didn't hear it.
My tears started dripping off my chin. "I'm done with the lies, Amber."
He nodded sadly with a cry. "I know."
And then I couldn't take it anymore. I crashed forward into him and felt his arms wrap around me as we both cried. He was tearing me in two. I wished things weren't so complicated between us. It would've made everything simpler. And the fact that Red had been watching over me only made things that much more confusing. I thought he had moved on from me. Which made it easier for me to finally admit my feelings for Amber. But now…now I had no idea what I thought about either one of them.
My tears stained his gold-rimmed shirt, and his dotted my dress as we poured ourselves out to each other. In the midst of it all, the taste of Cheri Berries and fern suddenly sprang onto my tongue, and the misery from my dream came back just as strong as before. But I don't think I felt it as much because my own was enough of a match for it. As the minutes silently went by, I could sense a wanting to confess amidst all the sorrow. To confess everything and make all right with the world. But that want could not be met. The consequences were too dire.
This strange feeling made me cry all the harder because I had a good idea just who it was coming from. My arms tightened around him, and he held onto me like he would never let go. And I wished that he didn't have to.
But of course, he did.
Amber released his arms with great reluctance, his hands resting on my shoulders and making me look up at him.
"Wait for me."
I stared at him with wide, shiny eyes before closing them, another tear merging into the slowly drying river on my cheeks. One more made its way out as I felt him kiss me on the forehead and slowly pull away. I stood there in silence, letting the last of my tears fall off my chin. When I finally opened my eyes again, he was gone.
I looked up at the sky, wiping the corners of my eyes. I had no idea if I was going to fulfill his wish, but for the time being, I would wait. Maybe not for him, but I would wait.
Giving a small nod, my eyes flew to Blue's unconscious form, and I quickly knelt beside her. My eyes widened when I realized that the ocean on my tongue was strongest when I was near her. Remembering the emotions that always came with the tastes, I mentally reached out for the crisp sensation and stiffened when I felt the pain from before in my stomach. Where the blood from Blue was coming from.
The realization made me freeze, but I forced myself to forget about the taste, and as if in response, the ocean tang left my tongue and took with it the slight pain in my abdomen. There were no words to describe my amazement at this development, but I shook my head and lifted Blue's shirt to assess the damage.
There was already a bandage wrapped around her chest, leaving her belly exposed, but it was battered and dirty so I could tell that it was from a previous injury. Moving onto her stomach, I wiped away the blood covering it to look for the bullet wound, but as I continued to clear away the red, my eyes widened as I soon found that there was none.
Befuddled, I let my healing powers wash over her but stopped in shock when I realized that they couldn't do anything.
She was already healed inside.
Looking at all the blood around her, I found that irrevocably unbelievable, and my mind searched furiously for an answer, but I didn't have one. I had absolutely no idea how they'd done it, but Melany and Amber had somehow found a way to save Blue.
Something heavy touched down at the alley's entrance, and I whipped around to find Green returning his Charizard and hurrying over.
"Yellow!" He said shocked. "You're awake!" His eyes then found Blue's blood-smattered body, and the fear that entered his eyes was like the strike of a lightning bolt. "What happened?!"
"I-I'm not sure," I admitted weakly as his knees smacked down, and he instantly scooped her up. "Amber and Melany were doing something with a gun, and she accidentally got shot."
His eyes hardened. "Are you sure it was an accident?"
I froze, a decision wavering as if on a balance. After a minute of silence, I shook my head. "Yes."
He nodded sharply and stood up. "Come on. We have to get to the Pokemon Center now. She just had a transfusion, and now I suspect that it's all gone."
I quickly rose and followed him as he got out of the alley and started running down the street. "A transfusion?"
He nodded again. "You've got a lot to catch up on, Yellow."
I only blinked. "Wait. Why are we going to the Pokemon Center instead of the hospital?"
"That's where Red and Silver are," he told me as said building came into view ahead. "That must've been why they hung up on me earlier. They noticed you were gone."
I frowned lightly when I remembered Red sleeping in his chair and looked up at Green as we ran.
He was staring at Blue fiercely, unconcealed fear in his forest eyes as the world fell into a dark twilight around us. I took one glance at her blood-stained clothes and knew exactly what he was thinking. This was just like the castle in the TR pendent. The place where she had almost died.
We wasted no time barging through the doors and attracting Nurse Joy's attention. The pink-haired lady disappeared through a door behind the front counter, reappearing near the one leading back into the recovery rooms with a stretcher and Chansey.
Green swiftly set her down with great care and looked at Nurse Joy. "She's going to need another transfusion."
The woman's eyes widened in surprise, but she refrained from asking questions until later. Instead, she rushed the stretcher through the recovery wing doors with us right on her and Chansey's heels.
"Get Red!" She shouted at us before turning down a hallway to the left.
Green nodded and continued on, me following him in slight confusion. In no time at all, we were coming to halt outside one of the rooms, and Green opened its door to show that it was the one I had awoken in. Red was no longer in his chair, and the brunette looked around quickly.
"Where did…he had to disappear at a time like this?!" He said in outrage.
"Green! Is that you?"
The two of us whipped around to the door as Silver ran in, eyes widening when he saw me standing near the bed.
"Yellow," he managed to say after a minute. "You…you're awake!"
I nodded with a small smile, but Green quickly strode over to the redhead. "Where's Red?"
"Looking for who we thought had kidnapped Yellow out in the hallways," he said, a little embarrassed now that he saw I was right here and fine. "We saw that she was gone and started scoping out the building."
"Well, come on," Green said tightly, heading back into the hallway. "We need to find him. Now."
Silver and I ran after him as he started sprinting in search of Red. "Why? What happened?"
Green looked at Silver as he quickly caught up. "Blue's been shot."
Both of their faces tensed at the words, and I followed silently behind them as Green huffed angrily. "And she needs a transfusion."
Silver nodded. "Then yeah. Where's Red—"
They skidded to a stop, and I quickly did the same to avoid crashing into them. Peeking around Silver's side, I saw Red panting on the other side of the four-way in the hall.
"Green!" He said sharply. "Have you seen…"
He trailed off into silence as his gaze found mine. For a minute, he didn't say anything until a smile of relief broke across his face and he sighed. "Yellow."
I blushed at how much concern was in that one sigh, and that only made him smile more. His relief was quickly swept away as Green stepped forward. "Go to the blood room. We're going to need another transfusion for Blue."
His red eyes widened. "What?"
Green clenched his teeth. "She got shot."
Red's eyes went from large to narrowed, and he gave a single nod. Green and Silver left to help Nurse Joy, leaving me to go with Red as he went to get a pack of blood ready.
As we ran through the halls, I saw him watching me with an air of happiness and couldn't help the blush that deepened on my cheeks. I tried to avert my gaze as much as possible, but even then I continued to sneak glances at him, too. My eyes locked with his, and I smiled.
It was him. In my dream, when I had lost control, it was him who had calmed me. It had been his face that'd I'd seen through my dark dimension. The ones that had helped lead me back to the real world.
I'd missed them so much. Especially the happy look in them that I couldn't remember seeing for a long while. It was almost like things were back to normal now.
But then I remembered what had happened between us before I'd gone unconscious and looked away with a frown. He tilted his head, scrunching his eyebrows, but then the blood room came up ahead, and he had to focus on finding what he needed for the transfusion inside. I watched from the doorway as he sat down in a chair and gasped as he carefully stabbed himself with a needle.
"What are you doing?!" I asked in shock, running over and taking it from him. I kept it in place as there was already blood running into it but stared at him as he smiled.
"I'm the only one with blood Blue can use," he explained. "There's still some from last time, but we're going to need just a little bit more."
I nodded slowly and soon found myself staring at him. He was doing the same, and again, I found the same naked relief flooding his crimson eyes. They filled me with such hope, but I squashed it out of fear and looked away. He noticed this averting of my eyes again and tilted his head.
"Yellow?"
His voice made me close my eyes.
"What's wrong?"
I could feel the dreaded warmth coming back again and carefully opened them as I turned back to face him.
"I…I-It's just that I thought…I mean, b-before Amber…" I was having trouble trying to find the right words, and it certainly didn't help that my voice was starting to crack up like before. I took a deep breath and closed my eyes tightly. "I thought you hated me now."
His eyes widened in shock, and I looked away as the needle became full, and I gently pulled it out, grabbing a gauze he had set on the chair's arm and placing it on his skin. I put the needle on the counter behind us and froze when I felt his hand wrap around mine.
Turning back, I saw him staring at me solemnly, our hands resting on his arm.
"Yellow," he said quietly, firm affection in his soft red eyes. "I could never hate you."
I paused, my eyes growing even warmer. I tried like never before to hold them back. "T-then why would you…"
His face went carefully blank, and he stood up to grab some tape and wrap it around the guaze before turning back to me. "I-I…I was afraid that I'd lost you."
I froze, his words slowly sinking in. I looked up at him to see if he was lying, but there was nothing in his eyes but honest to Arceus truth.
My shoulders beginning to quake, I breathed in sharply as he silently wrapped me in his embrace.
And for the second time that day, I cried in the arms of the boy that I loved.
Me: *sitting in an emo corner crying*
Everyone else: *watching curiously*
Me: *muttering* I can't believe this. I'm crying, and I'm the one who wrote it! And it certainly doesn't help that I was listening to "Why" by Secondhand Serenade while I wrote it. I swear, Amber and Yellow's song. Forever.
Max: *tilts head* Um, who are you talking to?
Gardevoir: *sigh* Herself probably.
Me: *snaps out of it and stands up* Okay! I"m done!
Gardevoir: Well that didn't take long.
Carlos: Sigh...it never does.
Me: This is going to be a great year! And I know just how to start it off!
Gardevoir: *raises an eyebrow* Oh?
Me: *big smile* We're going to DISNEY WORLD!
Carlos & Max: YAY!
Me, Max, & Carlos: *skipping merrily in a circle cheering*
Gardevoir: *narrows eyes* Shoot. Me. Now.
Me: Happy New Years everyone! Don't forget to make your Resolutions! Lol! Hope you liked the chapter! *tear* Just too much emotion for me. Haha! But that's what makes it good, right? XD Tell me what you guys thought! Review and return!