Summary: The Battle at Ecruteak ended in disaster and a body count incomprehensible nor unforgettable. Virgil, being the only survivor left from his band of friends finds that he's not alone in this pain or endeavor.

Blackthorn City, 2 days after Ecruteak

Crimson orange burned into his eyes. Virgil grumbled lowly, shielding his eyes in annoyance. Sunsets made Virgil had been making him sick in recent days. Virgil could only frown numbly at the thought. He had always secretly been fond of the things even. It was one of the few things he had taken to appreciating even in his self-inflicted isolation.

Things were still too fresh, too recent for him to think clearly, or at all for that matter. From Viola to Whitney, every single one of them had been burned into his mind. It was impossible for Virgil to even fathom how there could be so much blood in one place. It also lead him back to the single question of how in the world did things come to the way they had? How was it that a boy from a different timeline or wherever he had come from do so much damage? Why did he have to be the one to bring him here?

Virgil cleared his throat and shook his head.

"None of them said it was my fault..." It was a low mumble, and a hollow excuse even to himself. "They said,Viola said that it was just a coincidence..." Virgil sighed sullenly. He had never quite gotten over how Jaret had made an embarrassment out of him at the Silver Conference, and that had been just last year. His team had seemed premier to him, but Jaret had deemed otherwise. It was almost comical that something so small had bothered him so deeply, especially when that same person grew into one of his closest friends.

It was like a strange foreshadowing in hindsight.

Johto had faded away into obscurity as well. Mere hours after Marus had slew the Phoenix and rode off with Juliet, Johto had been struck with calamity, and the entire region had been engulfed in chaos and horrific storm floods. As far as he knew, everything he had known was gone. Blackthorn was the only city protected enough to survive the whole ordeal, and having to remain there for a short was all the more worse.

Maria had even provided hospitality to him, and offered to let him gain his bearings after everything. Oddly enough, after Ecruteak had fallen, there was very little news or traces of Marus, Juliet or Jaret. Virgil had expected Marus to begin his chaos the moment he reached Sinnoh, Then again, there was no telling what could've possibly happened to delay them.

Virgil sat idle in his normal perch, sitting on the roof of the Day family mansion. The twin servants, Emmi and Emma would periodically visit from time to time, though they largely watched him with scorn. To them, it was his fault everything had happened.

As if everything wasn't already his fault already.

But he had tried. He really, really tried.

And the only person that Virgil had to show for any of that effort was Victoria, the same that had dismantled his team without even blinking and the one that had left Juliet and himself reeling with disbelief. She was the one that came to him. She was "on his side" as she had put it. Even so, since he had stepped foot into Blackthorn, he hadn't seen even the slightest trace of her. It made sense when he thought about it. She had attacked the place with Marus. Even after all this time, the people of Blackthorn still mourned one of their elders, and one of the best trainers Virgil had ever seen.

The thought of Will lead Virgil back to Seria, which brought him back to Juliet and everyone else. It seemed like he just couldn't get away.

"I know what you're thinking about over there..." Victoria's voice gave him a slight start, but he kept still. Virgil wasn't quite sure if he could look at her. He felt her stroll up nearer, almost directly behind him, though she appeared in the corner of his eye, filling the space next to him.

"Why would I think of anything else," was Virgil's morbid response. Victoria didn't respond, and Virgil figured quickly that she had the same thoughts on her mind also.

"Do you believe me at all?" Virgil frowned at her question.

"I'd be more certain to believe anything now. You're talking to a person who pretty much screwed the world over..."

"Then that means I helped you do it." Virgil grunted. "Marus used you to get out and I helped him after that."

"All because you wanted to turn back time and have Ryuu to yourself." He turned to Victoria, expecting a glare. Her face was mostly plain littered with traces of resignation. She cast her eyes away, looking over the mansion's edge.

"Not just for me, but for—"

"Cody too," Virgil finished for her. "I know I know..." Silence.

"But still, I gave up so much just for the thought of getting my family back together. I guess..." She stopped for a moment. To Virgil, she looked unsure if how to proceed, more than likely thinking of a way to lessen her guilt. "I guess I never really quite stopped to think if Marus would ever actually give me what I wanted..." Virgil made a face.

"What's that face for?"

"Nothing." He could feel Victoria glaring at him now.

"You think I'm bullshitting don't you?"

"Don't worry about it."

"You really think I'd help Marus if I knew he was going to kill Ryuu and Cody?" Virgil's expression tightened.

"That's bullshit," was all he said murmured really. "You really think I'd believe you when you say you didn't know? Marus was unpredictable! Changed personalities whenever he felt like it, and attacked you for christ sake. You mean to tell me you held out hope that he'd 'grant your wish' with Ho-Oh's power?" For a moment, Virgil was angry, but it had wilted away impressively quickly, and he sighed, turning back to the ruins of Blackthorn.

And then, he dodged to his left, sliding away from Victoria expertly as he fist swung overhead where he had been sitting. He refocused his eyes back onto her, and was almost brought to a morose kind of inner laughter when he saw that Victoria stared back at him, unflinching.

"You wouldn't really want to start a fight here, in Blackthorn, would you?" Victoria frowned.

"What you said isn't funny..." Virgil glared.

"I wasn't trying to be. I was being serious. Besides, if we started a fight here, you would lose, probably even die. Blackthorn hates you, Victoria."

"I know that." Her body relaxed a bit. "It's a little wild that Maria has enough influence to keep Blackthorn from raising mobs to try and kill me." She gave a pessimistic chuckle, but Virgil's frown remained in place. He eyed her closely as she sat back down, ushering him to sit next to her. He obliged.

"She did it at my request. I'm sure she wouldn't have the slightest problem with letting Blackthorn torture you to death. She might be Seria's mom, but there's...something not quite right about her."

"The two of them aren't too different if you think about it." Virgil scoffed.

"They're splitting images and thats about it."

"Seria was a lot like her. She was just...softer."Virgil raised an inquisitive brow.

"You really think so? Sounds like you know quite a bit about Seria's mom. What's the deal with that? Did you try to steal from her back in your thieving days?"

"I did, actually." Virgil felt his jaw drop in shock.

"You did? Did you steal anything?" It was Victoria's turn to scoff.

"Of course not. She sent me running home with a bunch of scratches and cuts. Hell. She didn't even have to use a Pokemon to teach me a lesson." Victoria let out a hollow laugh, but was quick to huddle herself together, her face half covered by her knees.

"You really are sorry aren't you?" It wasn't the best thing to say when he thought about it, but it was probably the only thing Virgil could have thought to say; Victoria furrowed her brow a bit, reminding Virgil that silence was always an option too.

"..Thanks. For all of this I mean."

"For not letting Blackthorn massacre you?" She turned to Virgil with cold eyes, both familiar and a little bit foreign. Virgil was still getting used to Victoria's actual face; most of the time she had been smirking in belittlement. Being brought so low was without a doubt more than a wake-up call for her. She nodded.

"Is it because of the information I had?" Virgil shook his head. "Is it because I'm strong?"

"Don't worry about it." He turned to her. "I got my reasons for doing what I'm doing." Virgil stood up then, with a bit of a struggle and rubbed his chin thoughtfully. His stubble had grown a little, and it felt rough against his fingers. In fact, Virgil had grown quite a bit of hair, giving him a beard and such a shift that he seemed older than he actually was.

"What are you thinking about now?" Virgil shrugged at Victoria's questions.

"Things..." They both knew what that translated into. "But let's worry about everything later. We're both exhausted..."

"We've been here for an entire day," Victoria murmured. "...But I won't argue with you..." Victoria's ginger response had displaced Virgil a bit and Virgil had to remind himself that he was speaking with a different Victoria entirely.

She seems so much more...numb, he thought.

"To be fair," Virgil snapped to attention. "I'd prefer it if we leave quickly. I don't know how much longer you could actually mediate all of this."

"Yeah," Virgil replied. "We'll leave tomorrow. I just wanted to have just a little bit of rest..." Virgil turned away. "But I'm going to head down though. Maria did say that the twins were preparing dinner."

If sitting at the dining room table made Virgil uncomfortable, then he could only imagine how Victoria may have felt. The three of them sat at the table, the smaller one actually, and put them all in close proximity to each other, and Virgil couldn't help but be aware of Maria's restrained hostility, or Victoria guilty conscious.

"I've heard much about you, Victoria," was Maria's start, and it was deceptively calm and inviting. Virgil made sure to note on Maria's acting abilities.

"I'm sure they were quite the stories..." Maria nodded.

"Thieving from a very young age, yes?" Victoria nodded curtly, a little timidly, and the gesture made Virgil feel a little bad for her. Maria picked at the girl from there on skillfully, doggedly and effectively. Most of Maria's conversation topics had been aiming at Victoria's past and the ins and outs of her thievery, and with sporadic hints of Ryuu. Maria was ruthless.

But Victoria remained courteous, if not numb. The girl had been curt and respectful and beyond apologetic in her mannerisms and body language.

It made Virgil hurt for her even more. He tuned back into Maria's questioning again, albeit at a poor time.

"Stealing from Opelucid City is really impressive, and I'm sure you actually made quite a bit of money." Victoria let off a nervous smile, one that Virgil caught.

"Help me out Virgil!" it seemed to say. Virgil went to change the subject but Maria saw through them both, and the next question left even Virgil bewildered.

"There were two of you at Blackthorn the first time. What happened to the little boy?" Virgil froze. He was almost too terrified to look at Victoria's face, but he looked anyway.

The hurt was visible in Victoria's face, and she swallowed hard, as if to prepare herself. Her voice came out slow, and staggered.

"H-he's...not with me...at the moment..." Victoria's voice was shaking a bit, Maria continued falsely concerned.

"Oh...? From what I've heard, you two were like siblings? Did he decide to go his own way?" Victoria found that she couldn't speak then, and Virgil was certain that Maria had seen the tears forming . Victoria stood to her feet immediately.

"I'm sorry, but I'll have to excuse myself from this dinner. I appreciate all of your hospitality, Miss Day."

Then she bowed and sped her way away from the dining room. Victoria was hurting horribly, and Virgil was unaware of how much it hurt him to watch that until that moment. He turned to Maria, stale-faced, but respectful.

"Was that...really necessary?" Maria sighed, a bit of an accepting smile forming at the sides of her lips.

"No, it wasn't. And breaking a girl so young is definitely not worth my time but..." Virgil braced himself.

"Don't let my elegance fool you. I can be a real bitch. Virgil gawked at that for a moment, but Maria was quick to shoo him away. "I'm offering you hospitality to you. You know as well as I do that I would rather have her killed or beaten to death, but you requested that I help you both, so I did..." she leaned in closely. "But still, I want her out of my house as quickly as possible." Virgil nodded obediently and quickly shuffled away. He had always had a feeling that Maria was intimidating, but he never thought that she'd be so terrifying. Virgil made sure to make a mental note of that as well.

Victoria was used to being cold, to being treated like a villain and was used to being the villain. She had learned a long time ago how to kill in cold blood and how to make herself and others less than human. She made room for nothing else aside from Cody and herself.

Until she had met Ryuu. Once that happened, everything else became a cascade of feeling, a whirlpool that she was entirely foreign to. Ryuu had been her first everything and it had crushed her when he left. All of the time spent searching for him and tracking him down she had spent in anger and frustration. She had rarely cried about it, but when she did, it was always in frustration.

Victoria had forgot what it was like to actually cry from being wounded on such a level, forgot what it was like to cry from sheer sadness. And it hurt far more than anything she could remember.

But Victoria was used to being the villain.

She was used to being hated by others.

Used to being the "Monster" of a thief she had come to be known.

But it had been Maria's barbed comments, intentional attack and dismantling that had brought her to tears, and hurt her more than Marus's cut into her shoulder, more than Connor and Ryuu slamming her on her back in sparring matches, more than her ankle that had once been broken.

Victoria had seen the despondence in Maria's eyes when she had first opened the mansion door, seen it even as she had found it in herself to treat her with hospitality, no matter how distant it may have been. But Victoria could also see a similar pain to hers. The Blackthorn Elder that Marus had killed had been her Ryuu.

"I deserve it," she murmured to herself. "I was too busy hiding my own pain...I never wanted anyone to go through what I did..." Victoria wanted to scream. In hindsight, how many people had she stepped on? How many "Ryuus" had she taken from other people? How many people had she placed in the same kind of pain that she had been trying to avoid, or fix by force?

It was ironic when she thought about it. Since Marus had disappeared with Juliet, Victoria had found herself questioning "Why". She was so fixated on Ryuu, destroying numerous other lives with Marus just to get her "revenge" or whatever it was from Ryuu, only to be betrayed and discarded, placed right back to where she had started.

Except this time, Ryuu had died. He was dead and gone, and all of the chaos she had caused to get to him was all for nothing. In fact, Ryuu was actually just another human being, just like her, or Seria or Virgil. It was just that Victoria had made the choice to make him her world, and tried so desperately to make him love her again when he had moved on from her. He had told her he took responsibility for what she had become.

That made sense too. How could he not? She and Cody had basically been his wards, he had looked after them with the utmost care. To see her spiral out of control because of his leaving could only point to him.

No.

That was too one-sided, Victoria decided. Ryuu had left her, his reasoning being that he wanted her to "see what she was becoming", and the more she thought on it, the more Victoria came to realize she knew what she had been doing the whole time, she had deluded herself into blaming Ryuu for everything that happened to her.

She had simply made the choice to become that way.

She had made the choice to make him her world, and in turn, made the choice to ruin everyone else's lives. It frustrated and drained her knowing that she had really came to accept this after the fact. Perhaps that was the biggest reason for her being so crestfallen, so...empathic and sensitive now,

"Ugh...look at you," she murmured again to herself, almost laughing between her sniffles. "Crying because handling everything at once is too much..." Victoria turned to look at herself in the room mirror. Her eyes were puffy and red , her black hair was sleek and straight, a world a part from the disheveled mess from traveling with Marus. She had traded in her ripped attire for something a little more reminiscent of Ryuu, and instead donned standard jeans and a dark shirt. A violet vest sat over the it, like the one Ryuu used to wear.

It was funny to her, and even more ironic. There she was, wearing Ryuu's colors, as if they were still a couple, or something like that. No. Instead, it was more of a commemoration to his memory. There were so many good times between the two of them, and their little family. She had tried so hard to chase them and make them happen.

Her tears had all dried up now, and she was left with red eyes and slight sniffling. She only wished that Ryuu were still there. Victoria did love him after all, but even so, she wished that he could be there, even as just her friend. She wished she could've shown him her newfound growth now, and her understanding of what it was he had been trying to teach her this whole time.

I wish I had been smarter...

There was a rap at the room door, and Virgil voice carried after it.

"Hey, Victoria, You okay...?"

"Y-Yeah..." Her voice was still a little bit staggered, and little shaky." She sniffled as Virgil opened the door.

"W-whoa...Victoria...were you—" She flashed him a genuine smile, and it was the strangest feeling in her face she had felt in a long time, right there next to her first actual kiss with Ryuu.

"Don't say it." She wiped her eyes and looked back at Virgil, who had what Victoria could only describe as the dumbest face of shock she had ever seen. She sniffled, then laughed. "Don't look at me like that..."

"Are you okay...? I...knew what Maria was doing and—"

"It hurt a lot," Victoria interceded. "It hurt a lot...but...I think it was something I needed..."

"Something you needed? She pretty much broke you down with everything that's happened. And I don't care who it is, I don't want to see anyone go through something like that."

Victoria nodded. "Yeah...I think I finally understand that now..." Virgil could only blink at her, still with the same stupid look of shock.

"Go to bed would you?"

"It's only 8 o'clock!"

"We're leaving tomorrow, aren't we?" She smirked at Virgil's loss of words and scratch of his head.

"I...forgot about that." Victoria smiled again, though her face was starting to hurt. She wasn't used to wide smiles like this. "Then we'll make for Celestic Town, Sinnoh then?" Victoria nodded.

"Sounds like a plan."

Virgil had made it back to his room and immediately sank into the bed. He stared at the ceiling for what seemed to be tens of minutes. It the ten minutes he had left Victoria alone, she had changed, and the fact that the change wasn't a violent one had left him all the more confused and on edge.

The way he felt his heart stop when she smiled at him-for real- had also never happened before. Between them. It was only when he had first met the rich girl.

Juliet.

Virgil sighed.

"Such shitty timing..."

A/N: Hey! Long time no see or post! As I've said, I've mostly been working towards finishing "Playboy" though it hasn't been updated yet. I haven't forgotten about Phoenix or it's Sinnoh sequel that is supposed to be in the works (Sorry guys), but I'll be starting "Tales From the Phoenix" as a collection of short stories to try and clear some of the portions that were skipped over (Like Juliet v. Virgil near the end) and stuff like that, so I hope that this will help appease anyone who's looking forward to Phoenix pt.2.