Chapter Fifty Eight – Despedida
As the Hydro Cannon attack reached its crushing conclusion, Adelina collapsed onto her knees in despair as she saw Carter's unconscious form lying limp on the ground before her. That was the first time since the battle started where everything fell silent, which felt very strange to everyone; they had gotten so used to the constant chorus of battle cries and raised voices that they'd almost forgotten what any other atmosphere was like. Hailey, without uttering a single word, recalled her equally distressed Swampert back into his Poké Ball; though the war was victorious for her and her family, her triumph failed to put a smile on Hailey's face. As a matter of fact, nobody was smiling; Lily and Naomi were still disturbed by Carter's mistreatment and hid their eyes in their husbands' embraces, while Hayden, Harvey and Colin all watched Hailey worriedly, wondering what she was going to do now that the war, for lack of a better term, had finally reached its end. Soon, the silence was delicately broken by Adelina as she quietly roared in exhausted anger and slammed her fists weakly on the dried mud beneath her; she kept her eyes shut tightly as she fought against her tears.
"No...! No...! I-I can't lose...! I-I SHOULDN'T have lost...!" Adelina's voice was cracking and sounded ever so slightly strained; she'd raised her voice countless times since she first ambushed Keith and Keenan that her vocal cords were likely to be sore. "I don't get it...! ...why...?!" Hailey began to walk over to Adelina, giving Carter a very quick and apologetic look along her way. Seeing her approaching Adelina made Colin apprehensive in particular, but it only served to worry Harvey and Hayden further. "...why...?! ...after EVERYTHING I've done...why did I lose...!?"
"You were so caught up in trying to win that you were oblivious to your Pokémon's lack of stamina," Hailey said carefully, somehow managing to put her own anguish aside. Adelina's fists clenched tighter as she heard Hailey talking to her.
"Y-You shut up...!"
"You didn't notice how reluctant Carter was to continue the battle; you pushed him and your other Pokémon to their limits and beyond."
"I said shut up!" Adelina screamed as she looked up at Hailey furiously; she was livid beyond belief, but tears dripped from her eyes, carrying traces of her black mascara along with them. "I don't need to be patronised...!"
"How long have you been feeling like this?" Hailey asked out of legitimate concern. "Like...like you have to defeat me at any cost?" Adelina lowered her head as she fought against her sadness again.
"Too long...! Y-You've...you've always made me feel inferior...ever since we first met...! I'm...I'm sick of it...!" Somehow, Hailey found it in her heart to feel sorry for Adelina all over again.
"Why didn't you tell me, Adelina? I could have helped you...or, at least, disprove your sense of inferiority..."
"Didn't see the point," Adelina replied crabbily. "You wouldn't have listened to me anyway...!" Hailey looked down at her in shock.
"Adelina, I...of COURSE I would have listened to you! What makes you think I wouldn't have?!"
"I don't know," Adelina admitted. "It...it was just an assumption I had as a child..." She returned to a more relaxed kneeling position and sighed despondently; Hailey felt even worse when she saw the look of utter defeat on her face. "I...I hated you...for the longest time...you always defeated me...it was never anyone else; just you...I hated you for being the only one I couldn't defeat..."
"Adelina, I-I never meant for you to feel ANY of those things!" Hailey said woefully. "A-And I certainly never meant for THIS to happen!" she added, looking back at the fainted Malamar. She suddenly lowered her head in shame and held onto her left arm nervously. "...or anything to happen..."
"Hailey..." Colin began to feel even more sorry for his wife.
"Alexa...Keenan...Troy...Peggy...Daniel and Daphne...!" Hailey clenched her arm as she successfully choked back a sob, but a tear fell from each of her eyes all the same. "I-I'm so sorry...! E-Everything that's happened to you...it's all my fault...!"
"Now, that isn't true!" Harvey said defensively.
"He's right," Adelina said in a grumble. Hailey looked down at her with distraught. "It's because I hated you so much that I wanted your whole world to fall on you...since your family's essentially your whole world...I sought to make it fall apart..."
"A-All because of how you lost to me so constantly...?!" Hailey asked tearfully.
"Yes..."
"Adelina, I..." Hailey wiped her eyes with her fingers. "I am so, so sorry if I've made you feel like dirt... I-I want you to know that was NEVER my intention..."
"Hmph..."
"...but...I never became a Pokémon Co-Ordinator to get famous...I became a Pokémon Co-Ordinator because I adore the creative possibilities behind Pokémon attacks and displaying such imaginative choreographies for everyone to enjoy... It never felt like a competitive sport to me...not even once..." Adelina suddenly looked up at Hailey in terror.
"What?!"
"I just have so much fun during Contests that I forget that it's supposed to be a competitive thing," Hailey confessed.
"There's nothing wrong with that," Colin smiled timidly.
"...but...you were the opposite, Adelina; somehow, you let your competitive streak consume you like an incurable disease – and it drove you to lengths so extreme that you were willing to murder a child just to get what you wanted..."
"A child? But Alexa's not-"
"She's seventeen; by law, that makes her a child until her next birthday." Adelina was left utterly speechless. "But do you know what's worse about this whole thing for me? Everything could have been avoided if you came clean to me about your feelings as soon as you started having them all those years ago!" By now, Hailey was more angry than upset, but only slightly.
"Hailey, I...I had no idea...!"
"You never thought to ask me about ANYTHING, that's why! You were so caught up in your own frustration that you stopped caring about everyone around you!" Hailey cried in frustration. "It even drove you to virtually abuse your own Pokémon! I mean, look at Carter!" she yelled as she held an arm towards the motionless Malamar. "LOOK AT HIM!" Reluctantly, Adelina did so; however, seeing him only saddened her further. "I didn't WANT to have Joshie use Hydro Cannon! I didn't want that! But you kept pushing him to the point where his old wounds started to bleed again! Your behaviour towards him was so deplorable that it disturbed BOTH of my sister-in-laws! And believe me when I say that Lily isn't so easily disturbed in that way!" Adelina looked over at Naomi and Lily; as she watched and observed their lingering anxiety, she caught Hayden nodding at her, as if to confirm what Hailey said about his wife as the truth. Shakily, Adelina finally retrieved Carter's Poké Ball from her purse and held it weakly at the Overturning Pokémon.
"...return..." As Carter was recalled into his Poké Ball, Hailey used one hand to hold her quirky ponytail and the other to forcefully pull all three hair ties out of her hair; despite a few strands of her bleach blonde hair having been plucked out as she removed her hair ties, her hair soon hung freely and loosely from her head, reaching all the way down to her lower back. "Hailey...I-I-"
"I wouldn't bother apologising; it's too late for it – the damage has already been done and it'll take a while to fully recover from it," Hailey said rather coldly as she pocketed her hair ties. Adelina stared sorrowfully at Hailey, but it wasn't until her tears and mascara fell from her eyes more constantly and her sobs were starting to catch up to her that Hailey began to feel even more guilty.
"I know...! I-I just...I-I didn't think...th-that you saw Contests differently...!"
"That's not the only thing I saw differently," Hailey said hesitantly as she searched her other pocket for something. She tossed the item in front of her, landing just in front of her knees; it was a hand-made bracelet, made with plastic beads with the colours of a rainbow and a plastic string. Diffidently, Adelina took the bracelet and held it in both hands, staring at it with watery eyes as she tried to figure out...where she'd seen it before...
"...this..."
"That's the bracelet you made for me after we became friends," Hailey explained. The revelation of the bracelet's origins made Colin, Harvey and Hayden even more sympathetic towards Hailey; Lily began to tear up, but Naomi was far closer to breaking into sobs. "I made one for you, too, remember? We exchanged them in Slateport..."
"Oh, my God...!" Adelina held one hand just over her lips as she remembered the moment in question; it was possibly the very last time she harboured no hard feelings towards her fellow Co-Ordinators, not just Hailey. "Y-You kept this...!?"
"Of course I did; I saw it as a sign of the friendship I thought we had..." Her tears threatening to get the better of her again, Hailey looked away from Adelina. "But what's the point of a friendship bracelet if the friendship it signifies is a lie...?!"
"A l-?! Hailey, it wasn't a lie!" Adelina cried despairingly.
"Not at first, maybe," Hailey said tearfully. Harvey held Naomi even closer as he heard a small sob escaping the back of her throat; she'd finally succumbed to her sorrow. "A real friend wouldn't have ruined your Contest appeal out of spite...or flirt with your husband and your brothers...or try to hurt your children... Or anything else you've done of note..."
"Hailey...!"
"Goodbye, Adelina," Hailey said simply as she began to turn and walk away from the down-trodden Adelina. Adelina watched Hailey walking away from her as her anger faded away completely, replacing it with an overwhelming sense of remorse. She felt her eyes stinging her as more tears and more of her mascara ran down her face.
"Hailey...! Hailey!" Adelina called shakily, but Hailey continued to walk towards her family with no intention on giving Adelina any more acknowledgement. Adelina, however, felt even more devastated the further Hailey walked away from her. "HAILEY!" That final scream before Adelina broke down into loud sobbing brought tears to Hailey's eyes as she choked back a sob of her own. She soon walked passed her entire family and walked down the forest path in front of her. Without giving Adelina another thought, Colin, Harvey and Hayden walked away from the clearing in gradual pursuit of Hailey, Lily and Naomi continuing to hold onto their respective partners as they, too, followed her.
By the time she was no longer within hearing range of Adelina's cries of despair, Hailey eventually slowed her walking pace until she came to a complete stop, allowing Colin, Harvey, Hayden, Lily and Naomi to catch up to her just in time for her to finally break into her own tears. In that instant, Colin quickly and gently caressed his sobbing wife as he held her in a comforting embrace; secure in her husband's arms, Hailey began to cry unrestrictedly.
"I know, Honeybee...I know..."
"That was...God, that was hard," Harvey sighed quietly. "Are you okay?"
"Does it LOOK like I'm okay...?!" Hailey wept, keeping her face buried in Colin's chest. "I'm the reason Adelina acted up the way she did...!"
"That's not true; it was miscommunication on her part – it wasn't your fault," Harvey said gently. Hailey sniffled as her sobbing quietened.
"...m-maybe... ...w-what if I-I could have done something...?" Hailey looked up at Harvey from the security of Colin's cuddle; Harvey pitied his little sister as he saw the look of guilt in her lavender eyes. "M-Maybe I could have prevented all of this sooner...?"
"Hailey, you had no way of knowing what was going on in her head," Hayden said gently. "Whether or not Adelina thought she could handle how she felt on her own is something I doubt we'll ever know, but don't feel like you have to be responsible for what she does and has done..." Hailey looked disappointed as she retreated back into Colin's chest.
"Easy for you to say...!"
"He's right, though, sis; you're not responsible for her life like you are for those of your Pokémon," Harvey said worriedly. Colin was the first and only adult to crack a loving smile.
"I'm proud of you, Hailey..."
"Hm...?" Hailey looked up at Colin, who, at the same time, looked down at the woman resting on his chest.
"I can only imagine how hard it was for you to end both the battle and your friendship with her...you did it."
"I-I didn't want to, Colin...!"
"I know, hun," Colin said softly as he stroked her hair. "But I'm proud of you for it; it was for the best." Hailey nodded slowly in reluctant agreement as she wiped her eyes again.
"...t-the kids... Peggy a-and the twins... ...t-they-"
"It's okay, Honeybee; I'll fill them in once our Pokémon are getting treated at the Centre," Colin said generously.
"Thank you...!" Hailey said appreciatively as she nestled in his embrace.
"Should we head to Nimbasa or...?" Hayden began to wonder.
"Definitely Mistralton," Harvey said quickly. He looked over at Lily, who'd only just calmed down enough to pry herself away from her husband. "Lily, can Cheryl take us there?"
"Y-Yes, she took Alexa there yesterday," Lily replied shakily.
"Think she can take us there now?" Lily nodded at Harvey as she slowly took out a Poké Ball, encased inside a Ball capsule with a seal of a small pink heart sitting on the top half of the capsule. She silently opened the Poké Ball, releasing her Gardevoir with a cloud of small pink hearts surrounding her as she appeared. Cheryl faced Lily courteously, awaiting her instruction, though she couldn't help but feel worried about how rattled she appeared to be.
"Will you take us to the Mistralton Pokémon Centre, please?" Lily asked politely. After observing how tired and shaken up the other adults appeared to be, Cheryl nodded.
"Gardevoir," she said compliantly. She relaxed her stance and closed her eyes as a rainbow aura surrounded the outline of her whole body. She suddenly opened her eyes, shining in the same white light that flashed around her and the six adults; as soon as the light faded away, Cheryl and the adults had completely vanished.
To be continued...