"Do you have a name?"

"Everyone has their childhood quirks now and again."

Protector of Silence

Chapter Eighteen – Frightened Memory

'I didn't want to! I didn't! I didn't!'

He wasn't sure how this kept happening to him. Fait and her sister Destiny seemed to hate him. Or Dialga for sure. At least, that we how it felt.

He lay circled up amongst the crusting autumn leaves in a foetal position, whimpering softly to himself as he gripped the dark hair on the back of his head tightly. Around him lay the unconscious forms of four men, their two pickup tucks overturned. Police, maybe rangers, he wasn't sure. What difference did it make? They all wanted to destroy him.

He'd never asked for these powers - he never wanted them. Apparently he'd inherited them from his biological father when he was killed in a Tauros stampede. It made him think of the Luxray King every time he thought of that, but this was no Disney movie. There was no happy endings in real life. This was a perfect example. His adopted parents hadn't known about these powers when they first adopted him, neither did he for that matter.

Things had started happening when he was six. Things would move without him touching them, light bulbs would turn on when he merely looked at them and some other things would just go missing and turn up a week later. It was like one of those cliché ghost stories. It was seven when he knew something was wrong.

He'd been mute for as long as he could remember, he could never remember being able to speak, yet there was no sensible answer why he shouldn't be able to. He'd been bullied constantly about it; pelted with stones, tripped in the school corridors and many other things, quite simply because he couldn't scream for help or tell the teacher what had happened.

It was during one of these bullying sessions it first happened.

He'd been pinned up against a wall by three boys who were many years older than him. Punch after punch, blow after blow. Suddenly, something snapped. Like all the angry emotions inside him had just blown out all at once. One second he'd been scared and terrified, the next he felt a burning fire start to burn inside him, and finally he found himself slumped at the base of the wall, trembling as he stared at the three unconscious bodies lying in the snow around him. He hadn't touch them, they'd just been thrown back by a wave of his own energy. A few days later, the bullies came back to school. It was a relief to him as, being only seven, he had feared they were dead. Two had broken arms, another a fractured leg. Their mumbled excuse was they'd fallen down the leader's stairs at home, but he knew better. He had caused those injuries.

After that, his powers began acting wild. At one point, three students and a teacher had been put in hospital, but they couldn't prove it was him. But people seemed to know he was different, that he was dangerous. He was now nine, but they hadn't stopped. His powers had only got worse. Only three days ago, he'd found himself scared and alone, and had caused the school's corridor to cave in. It was too suspicious for him to call it a coincidence, that he'd been standing in that corridor panicking when it collapsed. And then there was today. He'd just be walking to school, clutching his teddy bear for comfort, when the discovered two shiny black cars were following him. The sudden cracking of bullets was all he needed to hear. His natural instincts forced him to flee, even though that only made him seem guilty. His backpack on his back and his teddy bear in his arms, he'd ran to the woods, where he lost himself amongst the trees. Night had fallen; he'd been knocked to the ground and found four rifles pointing at him. Staring down the barrel of gun only made him even more nervous; he could feel the flame stirring inside him, ready to be released in an act of self-defence. He tried in vain to talk to the ones surrounding him, squeaks and grunts begging them to stop. But they hadn't, they just kept barking orders at him. Curling into the position he was in now, he felt the wind roar and expel itself outwards from him. He heard the whooshing of flying leaves and the cries of pain as the four were sent flying, but he daren't looked up.

Slowly, he removed his hands from his matted hair and wrapped his fingers around his teddy bear that had been sheltered below him. He froze as he heard the rustling of leaves. Had backup come? Was he in danger again? He looked up, his blue eyes wide with fear, but it wasn't a policeman.

Above him was a ranger. He appeared to be mid-twenties with wild green hair - some sort of complicated headset was tangled in it - and soft mint eyes that didn't quite meet his. On his shoulder was a Fearow, and at his feet a Minun. The Minun scampered towards him, and the boy immediately shuffled backward, his heart racing. His flame was exhausted from the previous explosion so he knew he wasn't able to essentially blow himself up, but he could probably send one of these Pokémon or that man flying if he got riled up about it.

Slowly, as if not to frighten him, the man raised his hand.

"You have nothing to fear" he told the boy "I'm not here to harm you."

The boy looked at the sleeve of the man's red jacket. A black, white and orange badge was on it. He was a ranger.

"My name is Spenser" the man explained "This is my partner Fearow," he patted the head of the bird Pokémon on his shoulder "And that's Minun." He turned his gaze to the Pokémon investigating the boy's shoelaces, then turned his green gaze to match the boy's blue one "Do you have a name?"

The boy hugged the teddy bear against his chest tightly, staring down at the ground. Normally he would never trust a ranger, but something seemed...different about this one. Like he was actually suggesting he would help him.

He coughed and he almost gasped at how his throat seemed to loosen a lot more than normal. He looked up at Spenser and did something he had never done before. He spoke his name.

"Lunick."

As the occupants of the Pokémon world slept, it was a different story elsewhere. A boy of about fourteen or fifteen sat upon the edge of a walkway, letting his legs dangle into the endless expanse of darkness below him. He brushed a lock of midnight-blue hair out of his aqua eyes, his hand irritating the scar across his left eye and causing him to flinch. After the short pain had subsided, he turned his gaze down to the item in his hands. An old worn teddy bear that had definitely seen better days. About half-a-foot in length with black buttons for eyes, a brown button for a nose and stitched smiling mouth. It had probably been covered in fur completely at one point, but in a lot of places the fur had pulled away, leaving the thin brown netting visible.

"We've been through a lot together, eh Lennie?" the boy smiled.

"You didn't strike me as the type to talk to stuffed toys, Lunick" The black, red and gold serpentine Pokémon known as Giratina hovered into view behind him in its origin form.

"Everyone has their childhood quirks now and again" Lunick shrugged.

Giratina scoffed. "I don't even remember my childhood" he mumbled, then looked back down at Lunick "What 'quirks'? You have the mentality of someone of over fifty, yet you act like a child almost constantly."

"Not my fault I was killed at fifteen" Lunick shrugged.

Giratina merely grunted in response and directed its gaze elsewhere. The human let out a long sigh and gently rubbed his thumb over the bare netting on the side of the teddy bear's, Lennie, forehead.

"He's in danger, I know it" he sighed.

"Still worrying over that human?"

"Yes. Him, and the others" Lunick nodded. His aqua eyes hardened and his gaze seemed to pierce through the endless darkness "Times are difficult now Giratina. They're all in danger, all of them. Not just Kellyn, all the ones I hold close."

"Does this mean you've unravelled those two prophecies?" Giratina asked.

"Yes" answered Lunick in a small voice.

Giratina gave him a look that plainly said 'Keep going'. He sighed and explained:

"The first shouldn't be of any concern, at least, not yet: 'Lightning strikes the forest, a ray of warmth shall absorb it, at Ho-Oh's Howe. Fire burns the seasoned earth, a ray of warmth shall smother it, at Ho-Oh's Howe. Water floods the swaying fields, a ray of warmth shall evaporate it, at Ho-Oh's Howe. Eons soar across the darkening sky, a ray of warmth shall sooth them, at Ho-Oh's Howe. Birds fill the sky with dread, a ray of warmth shall bring hope to them, at Ho-Oh's Howe. A legacy is born, a child is lost, a ray of warmth shall bring peace to all, at Ho-Oh's Howe.'" Lunick took a deep breath and looked up at Giratina to show he was done.

The Renegade Pokémon blinked. "Ray of warmth? Ho-Oh's Howe?" Giratina shook his head "What's the last one?" Lunick looked away, staring over the endless expanse of darkness "This is the prophecy that worries you. Am I correct?"

Lunick gave a small nod. "'A child with two colours of eyes, with the gift of ancient Pokémon, shall by the snow-drawn Espeon, decide the fait of all the regions of the world'."

Giratina's eyes widened. "You don't mean... You can't be serious!"

"It wouldn't be the first time Dialga has chosen to put the fait of our world in the hands of a teenager" Lunick reminded him "First Spenser, then Solana and I, why not a third time?"

"This isn't a well-trained teenager Lunick! This is a trainee and a child at that! Not even an apprentice! And above all he's mute and we all know that—"

"I was once mute" Lunick cut in.

Giratina was about it say something, then realised what he had just said and tried to cover it up. "I mean, mutes aren't all that bad! I mean, they're often kinder, more sensitive, great friends, shy and...wait, shy as in a good way okay! I mean I—!"

"Giratina, how many times must I tell you?" Lunick sighed "When at the bottom of a very deep hole..."

"Yeah, yeah. I know. Stop digging" Giratina finished with a sigh "So, you're worried about what the future has in store for this boy?"

"In short, yes" Lunick nodded "And I'm going to help him face this."

"But you're dead."

"Yup, nice detective skills Sherlock."

"So how are you going to help him whilst stuck here?"

"I have my ways. Plus, he won't be completely alone. He has them."

"You seriously think a bunch of kids, an Umbreon with confidence issues and a shiny Espeon with ADHD can take this on?"

"Why not? A bunch of kids, a Plusle and Minun and a shiny Espeon with 'ADHD' was all it took to take down the Go-Rock Squad."

Giratina said nothing, just staring off into space and ignoring Lunick's presence. After an awkward minute of just sitting there, Lunick stood up, Lennie in one hand, and walked towards the end of the walkway.

"Wait" Giratina's voice stopped him and made him turn around "I still don't understand. Why are you so worried about this child?"

Lunick raised his aqua gaze so to take on Giratina's black and red one. "Why else? He's my only brother."

And with that he turned and disappeared into the shadows of the Christmas dawn.