Chapter Sixteen: The Curse

Sapphire was sure she would die. The air had whipped around her, the sky had let her go, the canopy was coming - she could not escape this.

Still, though the beast could not fly, she fell with style, and stowed her burden tenderly. Brellia saved Sapphire. Through crash and carry and days spent unconscious, the Charizard took care of her.

Awake and asleep, bleeding and healing, dragging and carried, Sapphire had been in Brellia's care for… Or perhaps she was dead… She had thought as much, many times. Everytime she did, it was not long before the Charizard cradled her, fed her, or told her some story she could no longer recall, anchoring Sapphire to life.

In time… however much time it was… the haze of tree trunks and shifting roots passed; her bones and muscles became her own; her eyes finally fixed upon the waking world. Deep within the forest, lent against a boulder, a fire's warmth caressing her face, Sapphire gripped that anchor. She had not felt so certain or so strong in… she was not sure when… since they had fallen.

Still, all she could see were the oozing lesions, black as tar, across Brellia's flesh.

Sapphire winced, pulling herself up. "What's wrong?"

The dragon smiled to see her. "You have finally returned to yourself."

Sapphire tried to stand but failed. "I'm… I'm getting there… What's wrong with you?"

Brellia snarled, dropping the woollen weave she had been working on. "I have been cursed."

Sapphire had never heard the word curse and taken it seriously. Superstition made it known to her, still, superstition it remained.

"Cursed?"

Brellia chuckled, a small gout of flame punctuating. "Indeed."

Mustering what strength was in her, Sapphire stood and stepped forward; she rejected this sudden esotericism. "What about the others? Where's Drex? Where's Crimson? Who's Al?" Her mind began to regain focus, it began to remember. She thought of her home, of Cerulean City, of how she had gotten here, of what she had left behind, of what was at stake. "Why are we just waiting here? We-"

Brellia straighted her back, cringing as her black wounds cracked. "I can go no further. You are welcome to try. I believe our best option is to wait for… someone who can help. This…" Brellia grimaced at her blistering wounds. "I will not heal without help."

"And who is going to help us?"

Brelia tried to sigh, but the pain made it a growl. "Al."

Sapphire groaned in response. "Who is Al?"

"It matters not, unless he finds us."

"So…" spat Sapphire, her stomach turning once again "We're stuck?"

"We are stuck."

Sapphire tried to filter through the last two months of her memory, to pick out the pieces that had led her here. It was all such chaos. Her mind felt soft, her body pained, her spirit weary; it all felt unreal. So instinct made her sputter, "And what if I just leave?"

"You leave," replied Brellia. "You are welcome to leave… Such, I have already said." The dragon coughed, staining its fangs with inky discharge. "Prove loyalty is so much wind to humans… Go, Sapphire of Cerulean City, if you can…" Brellia wiped her mouth against her arm. "I await allies or annihilation."

Confusion and agony battled within Sapphire's flesh. She had never heard a Pokemon speak like this, or felt so many of her bones cringing. Brellia seemed like a creature of legend, a dragon, and yet… Sapphire's wounds pleaded for her to remain in reality. Brellia had saved her, had nursed her, had brought her this far… and now she would go no further. Now the dragon was giving up. She was dying.

Before Sapphire could answer, something flashed within the darkness. Two frantic, glimmering stars stabbed the forest's shadow.

"Behind me!" commanded Brellia.

"You can barely move!" Sapphire responded.

"Flee then! Go. I will set the treeline ablaze. Flee!"

A moment's hesitation.

A voice from the darkness:

"That will not be necessary."

They both froze.

The words came from the stars.

No more words came. Silence and uncertainty foreshadowed the creatures's coming; its eyeline held the starlight, breached the shadow of their distance, stepped slowly, staring and strange. It was small and angular with purple skin, wore a suit with no shoes, and gazed with two diamonds fixed into its face.

Sapphire thought it more object than animal, more puppet than Pokemon.

Holding a briefcase in its right hand, it pressed towards them with mechanical precision. Saying nothing and giving no gesture of welcome, the creature placed the briefcase on the ground - some thirty feet away. It clicked the lock on the briefcase and stepped briefcase flipped open. Inside was nothing but a small yellow stone.

Brellia roared through broken lungs, trying to draw back. Sapphire did not move an inch, transfixed by the stone, growing colder by the second.

Then it came - a swirling maelstrom of dawn and dusk, darkness darker than the night, rays as strange as half remembered dreams - all pouring out the stone.

"Sapphire?"

The stone, inside the briefcase, a twisting horror of shifting void and neon glow, inspected her. Crackling plasma and whispering gloom formed a monstrous face of dreamlike contusions; she could not look away. The stone, inside the briefcase, made the trees crack, the ground rupture, the sky fracture; it twisted all toward that static scene of nightmare - everything converged upon the face - the smile within the storm. The stone, inside the briefcase, a poisoned light and infectious shadow carved into the fabric of reality, grinning between dimensions, awaited her reply.

"What are you?!"

"I am one who knows your friend is Cursed."

Sapphire looked over at Brellia, their eyes exchanging agony.

"Do you know The Curse?"

"No…" murmured Sapphire, inching closer to her saviour.

She could hear Brellia moving to meet her, her breath heavy and pained. "It-" The dragon coughed, black bile spattering the ground. "It kills."

"You were about to set the treeline ablaze, and you did not. Why?"

Brellia drew a wing around Sapphire, pulling her close. "If violence had been your intention… you would have remained silent."

"It must require great confidence… to take so great a risk."

Sapphire scoffed. "All we have left are risks." Her fear and pain shifted into anger; stepping forward, adrenaline and Technical Machine flared. She was sick of this: too tired to be tired: too broken to be beaten: too far gone to let go.

Clenching her fists, Sapphire began to generate two spheres of dark and unstable energy. "The last Ghost who fucked with me I killed."

Brellia tried to match her aggression, but crumpled before any flame could catch.

"Your friend is Cursed."

The nervous spheres of burgeoning oblivion dwindled. Sapphire wanted to hold her battle stance but she let her instinct pull her to Brellia. Embracing the dragon, one hand brushing against blackened ooze, her eyes locked with the pain it caused.

"You said that already!"

Even whilst broken, Brellia tried to draw her wing around Sapphire. "Who are you?" the dragon strained.

The nightmarish maelstrom settled to a smaller, stable swirl of emerald, amethyst and obsidian. The angular creature with diamond eyes shifted behind it, straightening its tie with a violet claw. All became a strange and awkward quiet. Sapphire wanted to laugh.

"I am Colonel Inspector Soumaoro Kante, and your friend is cu-"

"Is cursed! Yes I-"

"No, you do not understand." The nightmare and the manakin somehow exchanged a look. "It is our duty to locate those who have been inflicted with and destroyed by The Curse. Two days ago we found you. Two days ago we reported you were dead; your corpses had been torn to pieces by local scavengers."

Sapphire shot a glance at Brellia, but the mighty beast could no longer open her eyes. She was on her own.

Suddenly she missed Drex, which she hated. He'll flip when he hears this, she thought, hating less. He'd know what to do, she followed, hating more.

"Why would you report our deaths?"

"Your friend is cursed."

"I swear, if you say that one more-"

"They should not be cursed. None of this should have happened. The Ghosts should not be here."

Sapphire cocked an eyebrow and gripped Brellia tighter. "Should not be here?"

"You are lucky. We were not the only unit sent to locate you."

"And you reported we're dead?"

"We did."

"Why?"

The whirlpool hesitated. "Because your friend is-"

"Cursed." Stroking the ridge of Brellia's wing, Sapphire felt her ragged breath. "You're not doing a good job of explaining yourself."

"This is why I asked if you knew The Curse. It is not a thing used with careless abandon. It is not for trespassers, not for thieves, not for troublesome journalists."

"Then who is it for?"

"Those The Ghosts deem a threat."

"And we're a threat?"

"You saw something you were not supposed to see."

"And what was that?"

The nightmare winced, "I was hoping you could answer that."

Sapphire turned to Brellia; the dragon was in agony, struggling to stay conscious. Desperately, Sapphire longed for her to lend some wisdom, or strength, or anything, but her lesions were growing and her breathing was slowing - Brellia had no wisdom left. "Then… If… So…" Sapphire mumbled, "What is The Curse?"

The purple creature in the suit shifted nervously, taking a few steps forward, glancing at Kante and then stopping. The spectral maelstrom shrunk somewhat, slowly growing dimmer. "Do you believe in the Gods, Sapphire?"

Sapphire felt an old knot reform in her stomach. "I don't know."

"No one does. But I know one thing, I know The Curse."

"You're not making any sense!"

"It does not make sense. It cannot be resisted. It cannot be cured. It inflicts all the same. Except for humans. Humans cannot are immune. Only Pokemon can suffer The Curse... and only we Ghosts are born with the power."

Sapphire stepped forward, all her muscles ridgid, her heart nearly bursting. She could take little more of this. "What the fuck are you trying to tell me?"

"There is something rotten in this world, and we have only made it worse. The Curse is not a gift or skill, it is not a developed method of self defence, it is a punishment - a punishment laid upon us all. There are secrets Sapphire, there are scraps and hidden pieces, that tell a wretched story. And that your friend was Cursed, for this, for nothing, for being near Drex Dreagle-"

"Actually it was me who put the pieces together and staked out the bank and worked out that you are paying Hank to pay yourselves to kill his-"

"Hank does not pay The Ghosts for their services."

The purple creature rubbed its brow with an anxious hand. Sapphire furrowed hers.

"But this is-"

"So then the money… Its being kept? No. It's being used for bribes. To keep the murders quiet." She looked over at Brellia, secretly wishing it was Drex stood next to her. The dragon had fallen unconscious, but she was still breathing. "You're funnelling money…" Then it snapped together. Her eyes swung away from Brellia and locked onto the nightmare. "You're creating a scandal. If the story breaks… it will look like top military brass and Cerulean City officials are in the pocket of corporate interests… which they technically are, but the money is coming from Special Operations… But why are you… Unless you're trying to get a bunch of people fired so that you can replace them with your own-"

"This is not what we must speak of."

"Oh, I'm sure you'd rather speak of your quasi-mystical nonsense. But this is the truth, isn't it? And-" Brellia began to cough, black bile sputtering between her lips. Sapphire rushed to her head, unable to help. The dragon struggled to roll onto her side, shaking sporadically and breathing haggard breaths.

"Your-"

"My friend is cursed…" she winced, holding back a handful of tears and a thousand thoughts.

"Sapphire, I come to you and to your friend to share a close kept truth, before there are none left willing to share it. I told you The Curse is not used lightly. That you saw something The Ghosts did not want you to see."

Brellia groaned, it almost sounded like she said don't.

"So what did I see? The Technical Machine?"

"How did you meet your friend?"

Brellia groaned a second time, making the same sound.

"She was at the warehouse… I… I thought you had some close kept truth to share."

The ghostly maelstrom spread once more, glowing brighter and turning faster. The face within it carved deep, quivering shadows splitting a smile. "I do. But first I must know. How did you and this Charizard meet?"

Sapphire couldn't help but hesitate, her words got caught in her throat, she nearly stumbled. Brellia fell into a coughing fit, her wings twitching as it subsided. This time it did not sound like she had tried to say anything.

"I don't… Why are you asking this?"

The purple creature fidgeted, looking back and forth between Sapphire and Kante. The nightmare flared, spitting emerald sparks. "I hold something desperate and terrible, something you must know. Once known Sapphire, it will change everything. It will give you the power to save us all. I cannot save us all. But you can."

Sapphire squinted against the blaze of Kante's maelstrom; it was not heat she felt surging from it, but not cold either - light and something strange, an ache, a drunkenness, a quiet deconstruction. "But first you need to know where I met… What happened to The Curse? You said you reported us dead. You let slip about Hank. You're-" The rage of Kante's wretched whirlpool swarmed around her, beaming sickly emerald light. Sapphire dug her heels in, gripping one hand to Brellia's scales. "WHAT DO YOU WANT?!"

"I want you to know The Curse, Sapphire, to comprehend the gravity of your situation. I want you to tell me where you met this Charizard. I want you to trust that I have come here to help you."

"I do not feel…" cried Sapphire, Kante's presence beating her down. "I do not feel very helped, at this current moment."

"You will Sapphire, you will when you understand. All you need to do is tell me who else was present when you met this Charizard. Who else was present?"

Sapphire felt her strength slipping. She tried to conjure a shadow-ball in retaliation, but straining herself, she fell to the ground. Tears welled in her eyes. Her chest tightened. All thoughts of the future fled her mind. "There was a guy, a guy with a red cap."

"A red cap?"

The purple imp pulled a notepad from its jacket. "Gnarl Corn Co. Red caps are part of the uniform. Close by. Could have escaped in the reclamation."

Sapphire gritted her teeth, pulling herself off the ground, even though her body felt like it was made of lead. "All of this," she growled, "All of this was just an interrogation?" She stumbled, trying to move forward but falling back into the dirt. "And all of that shit, about The Curse, was what? Just preamble? Good salesmanship? What gets you off?"

Brellia groaned behind her, the dragon's pained breath quickly clogging with wet chokes. Sapphire tried to turn around but Kante had her under his power. The forest had become a nightmare, the nightmare had become a tomb.

"Why do you care who was with-"

"I care because it was not just preamble, not salesmanship, or what as you so gracefully put as 'gets me off.' I care because there is something rotten at the core of this world. I care because The Curse, if you knew it, would prove to you that there are some who belong here and some who do not. And their existence… the rotten ones, the mistakes, the wounds… their existence has forced the Gods, forced them to punish us with such a curse. And you, Sapphire, and your friend, you do not deserve to die. Not even for your spying and scheming. There is nothing you or Drex Dreagle could do to harm The Ghosts, or disturb the natural order. But you… you and your friend, you know, you have seen him, you are the one road we must take, and we will take it with as heavy boots as needed… to find him."

Sapphire could hear Brellia choking behind her, it was soft and desperate against Kante's storm. She began to cough herself, spitting up blood. "I have no fucking idea what you're talking about, you glowing green fuck."

The coursing nightmare flinched. It was not much, but enough to give Sapphire some satisfaction. She rattled him, the glowing green fuck.

"Do you know the one thing worse than being dead? It is being reported as dead. Because-" CRACK

CRACK

CRACK

Three flashes of light and three air splitting shocks invaded and conquered the clearing.

The purple creature's head split open - pale slime spraying from its ruptured flesh. A second hole burst open at the centre of its chest, and its right leg came apart at the knee, milky blood showering the ground.

"Seems to me that death is worse," spoke a deep and slurring voice.

Before Kante could react a beam of neon pink and purest white descended from the sky, cutting the maelstrom in two. Kante struggled to maintain his form, screaming with garbled horror, but a second and then third beam fell into him. Wailing with craven rage, a fourth and final beam smashed into the stone that lay inside the briefcase. The stone erupted and Kante vanished.

Sapphire felt her strength slowly returning. She turned her head and saw an old man in a dirty coat holding a gun in one hand and a bottle of whiskey in the other. Before she could speak, her eyes saw something else; slowly descending from the upper limits of the night's darkness was a creature, an angular and strange creature, with yellow and brown flesh, large pointed ears, glowing eyes, and two spoons clutched in two three-fingered hands.

Sapphire felt sick with shock and awe. She knew what this was, who this was, who it had to be - even though it couldn't be. But it was. It was an Alakazam. It was the last Alakazam. Al. It was Al.

"Brellia!" The Alakazam's eyes stopped glowing, it dropped to the ground, and rushed to the charizard. "Brellia! What have they…"

"She's cursed," spat the old man, who took a long swig from his bottle and wandered over to the purple corpse.

Sapphire pulled herself up and stumbled over. "She is cursed. But she said she was waiting, that if we waited, someone… You're someone… You're the someone she…" Sapphire found herself light headed, nauseous, and mildly star struck. She could do nothing to help, she couldn't even support. But she could not watch as Brellia died. And she could not leave her alone. Brellia had not left Sapphire alone.

Al had his hands on Brellia's cheeks. He shook her, then he shouted. "Brellia, look at me! Brellia, open your eyes! Look at me!You need to sit up Brellia, there is liquid in your-" The dragon coughed as Al tried to sit her up, black ooze staining both herself and him. "Brellia, have you been cursed?" The Alakazam turned to look at Sapphire, "Are you sure she has been cursed?!"

Sapphire choked on her words. "Yes. Well, that's what Kante said."

"Kante?"

"The Spiritomb," growled the old man. "Was this fucking Soumaoro Kante?" He kicked at the briefcase and the shattered stone within. "You know he was involved in the Goldenrod massacre-"

"Not now, Oak!" snapped the Alakazam. "This Kante, the Spiritomb, he told you Brellia is cursed?"

Alakazam continued to force Brellia into a sitting position and the dragon continued to cough.

"He did."

"You can't cure The Curse," Oak sputtered. "Even you can't cure The Curse."

One of Alkazam's eyes began to glow and he turned, with what felt like an intention to attack. But Alkazam turned back to his dying friend, and back to Sapphire - who was watching her die.

"Do you have any medicine?" asked Alakazam.

"What? I…" Sapphire froze.

"Well, do you?"

"You're the… the Alakazam, can't you…"

"I am not all powerful!"

"Al…" Brellia spoke through deep congested wheezes and cracked strain. She had opened one eye, and had turned it on Al. "Look at me…"

"Brellia, you need to-"

"No, you need… You need to listen."

Alakazam drew closer, his eyes desperate.

"It's over, Al. I'm done."

"Brellia-"

"I'm done. Keep your promise."

Alakazam held his hands to Brellia's cheeks. "And you keep your eyes open. We will find-"

"Keep your… promise."

And without a sound, she left.

Sapphire felt it. A quick and careless emptiness. A strange kind of silence.

But she saw it too. She saw Brellia go limp in Alakazam's hands. She saw the dragon's chest go still. She saw the flame at the end of her tale go out.

Alakazam stepped away from the body, wiping a tear from his eye. He raised a hand and Brellia's corpse began to rise from the ground.

"What are you doing?" asked Oak.

"Keeping my promise." Higher and higher, Alakazam lifted Brellia, sending her into the sky. "Do not let them find me dead. Turn me to dust and give me to the wind. Make starlight of my flesh. Fling me into the void. But do not let them find me dead. Let them fear every overcast sky, every warm breeze, every distant shadow. Let them think Brellia still flies. And that she remembers all the sins they wish they could forget."

Alakazam aimed a spoon at the high distance and released a blast of devastating energy.

Somewhere far above, a dragon became myth.

Sapphire felt a tear falling. "When did she make you promise that?"

"The day she saved my life." Al looked to the ground and sighed. Then turning his eyes on Sapphire, said, "I would not be the last Alakazam, if it were not for Brellia. And now she would be alive if it were not for me."

Sapphire swallowed. "You don't-"

"It matters not. Come, we have other friends to find, and other promises to keep."