The sky was overcast, pouring heavily outside the Naranja Academy, with thunder and lightning accompanying the downpour. Everyone was forced to stay indoors, and the atmosphere was tense as they knew they would be confined to the indoors for the next few days. They were all getting their things ready and settling in for the long haul, as the thunderstorm was expected to last for at least a week.
Amidst all this, there was one person who couldn't sleep. She was pacing up and down the dimly lit hallway, lost in thought. After contemplating for a while, she finally decided to speak up about something bothering her for quite some time.
With a deep breath, she started walking down the dorm room hallway, her footsteps echoing in the silence. As the lightning storm finally started up, she felt a sense of urgency and determination to speak her mind. She eventually reached the door where she needed to be and knocked gently, waiting patiently as the person on the other side opened it.
When he opened the door, Arven was ecstatic to see his best friend, Destiny. However, he immediately noticed that something was off when she gave him a small smile. He welcomed her inside, opening the door wider to allow her to walk in. "Come on in," he said happily.
Arven remembered that Destiny had challenged La Primera, and he was curious to know how it went for her. He tried to lighten the mood with a smile, "I heard you re-challenged La Primera. How did it go?" However, even with his little joke, he could see that Destiny was still upset.
Destiny walked further into the room, and Arven's pet, Mabosstiff, greeted her with a wag of its tail. Arven noticed that Destiny had nothing with her, not even her bag or belt, which usually carried her Pokémon. He also saw her phone was missing but didn't mention anything. Arven was worried about his friend and asked her, "Is everything okay, Destiny?" She sat down on his bed and began to speak.
The two friends sat silently for a minute amidst the chirping of Arven's Pokemon and raindrops hitting the glass window. Arven's puzzled expression was evident, while Destiny seemed lost in deep thought. Suddenly, tears started to build up in her eyes, and she looked up at her best friend. Mabossteff, his partner Pokemon, tried to cuddle up to her, but she hugged him tightly and started sobbing uncontrollably.
Arven immediately got worried and went to her side, shocked that she was crying out of nowhere. He asked her what was wrong and tried to comfort her with a gentle pat on her back.
"Just tell me what's wrong," Arven said as he held her tightly, concerned for his best friend.
"I'm so sorry," she sobbed into him. "I hope you can forgive me for what I've done," she cried.
Arven was taken aback by her words and wondered what she could have done. He asked her to tell him what happened, reassuring her that everything would be okay. He quickly told Mabosstiff to return to his Pokeball and held his best friend tightly as she cried even more. Their friendship was strong, and Arven was determined to help Destiny through whatever she was going through.
Destiny starts to speak and beg for forgiveness, as she explains to Arven. What he heard next shocked him as she described her journey throughout Kitakami and Blueberry Academy, her discoveries, and the great creator. But that wasn't what shocked him. It was what happened after. As she sobbed and cried on to him, begging for forgiveness, she explained how the Pokemon she found in the depths of the great creator of Paldea gave her a chance to speak to his mother, who at some point traveled to that specific moment and talked with her. From what he could gather, it was only momentarily, but she spoke to him in great detail in that quick conversation. She revealed that she gave his mom the book and the idea to create her time machine.
At first, he was shocked at the revelation, and it got even worse as Destiny revealed that when she went back into the area where she got the mysterious Pokemon from and read through his mother's old journals, she found out that Destiny was the reason that she was motivated to create the time machine that ultimately ended with her death was because of her. It didn't make sense at first, but when he started to place things together in his head, he just couldn't stop as Destiny continued to sob in his arms.
"Please forgive me. You have to understand that it wasn't my intention for her to die or even for me to give her that journal. If I had known that it was my fault, I would have never given it to her." she sobbed and begged Arven to try to think but couldn't think clearly as she continued to cry, and the raindrops continued to hit his window along with the thunder rolling outside.
" you have to believe me... I didn't know... If..." She tried to form a sentence, but nothing came to her except for more pleas for forgiveness.
" stop," he told her, but she didn't stop and continued begging for his forgiveness. " shut up," he said Softly As the rain got louder outside. She continued to cry to him and cling to him, but he pushed her off. " stop," he snapped at her silently until finally he had enough and pushed her out of his arms and away from him. " shut up already," he told her as he tried to process everything.
" so you're saying..." he started. " after all this time..." he said as he was in deep thought as he continued to look through his childhood and the look in his mother's eyes of motivation as she secretly built a time machine even under his own nose... " after all this time she was doing this because of you... You gave her the idea..." he asked her as Destiny silently cried. " how long ago did this happen... That you talked to her."
" I..." dressed, and he started but paused as she looked Arven in the eye and silently gave her answer. He looked at her, annoyed, making her speak up even more." Before you end, everyone else went to Kitakami," she told him.
Arven paused momentarily, trying to process what he had just heard. "So you're telling me that you met my mom... In the Katikami region... In the crystal pool that they have over there... You're telling me that you knew before I went over there, and you didn't even bother to tell me... Better yet, why didn't you tell me as soon as it happened" he asked her as the anger started to roll out of him. " you had so many chances to tell me that you spoke to my mother and... You didn't tell me, not even when I was there you could have... You could have taken... Get out," he said as he pointed to the door. Lightning struck outside of the window as he did so.
"Arven, I'm sorry," she started.
" get out. I don't want to see you," he yelled at her.
"Arven, there were so many things going on. I... You know I wouldn't keep this from you if it wasn't..." she started but was cut off again.
"How could you not tell me this. You know that my mother... You know what my mother meant to me, yet you didn't tell me this as soon as it happened. I could have... I could have grieved for my mother... I could have asked so many questions, and why did you get for that book knowing... Knowing how she ended up... This is all your fault," he tells her as she finally stays quiet and sobbed silently. "This is all your fault... You're the reason my mom is dead," he snapped at her. "Get out," he yelled at her, repeating his words to get out repeatedly, scaring her until finally, she got together enough to get up from his bed and run out of the room.
She wasn't thinking clearly as she ran out of the room and the hallway. She continued all the way to the school entrance hall. Not even then did she stop or look back as she ran to the main doors. As she ran, however, she missed looking over to the side by the library where Ortega had quickly spotted her and tried to follow her. She didn't seem to hear him as she continued to run out of the building into the pouring rain.
"Wait, destiny," he yelled, but the door was closed before he could call her again. He opened the door but didn't see her outside, and the pouring rain was worse than when it first started, as the thunder continued to strike throughout the area. Ortega called out to her a couple of more times to see if maybe she was nearby, but she never came, and he didn't hear her anymore. He continued calling for her throughout the city but found that she wasn't there, and he was already drenched to the Core.
He took out his phone quickly, dialed the group chat number, and promptly informed everyone of what he had just seen. When he returned to the entrance hall, Penny, Giacomo, Mela, Atticus, and Eri rushed to his side with a towel and a change of clothes. The entire area was empty of people because it was already 1:00 at night, so hardly anyone was outside them.
" what happened? You said you saw Destiny running out of here," Penny asked him.
" I was just doing research for my English paper, and I was turning the corner when I saw her run out of the dorm room area," Ortega said as he dried his hair and clothes. " I was going to check up on her, but I saw that she was running out really fast, and I could hear her crying, so I went after her. I was going to stop her before she went out, but she was already too far ahead of me," he mumbled.
" why was she crying," Mela asked concerned
" I don't know, but it really bothered her. I didn't see her anywhere in the city," he told them.
"All right, I'm going to go get my umbrella. You. You guys .. I'm going to go out there and look for her, " Penny said. Usually, she wouldn't want to leave her dorm room, but she had been very concerned about her closest friend since Team Star disbanded.
"What? You're not going out there on your own," Eri cried.
" yes, it would be better if we all went out there looking for her. I have multiple umbrellas in my bedroom. I'll go get them," Atticus said as he rushed to his bedroom on the first floor.
"Guys, it would be better if I went by myself," Penny started but was cut off by Giacomo, who held the hand on her shoulder and gave her a soft smile.
"Whatever is going on, she needs us. We're also her friends, not just you. Remember that, okay?" he told her Softly. " And if anything, it would be better if all of us were out looking for her instead of just one person, so either way, I'm pretty sure you're going to need us," he told her.
" yes it's very late at night especially for a young lady such as herself," Eri confirmed." and it also seems like she wasn't in the right state of mind she might need a group of friends out there for her,"
Penny thought about it for a moment and quickly nodded her head in agreement. When Atticus came back with a bunch of umbrellas and raincoats, they all rushed out after putting on the raincoats. They searched all over the city and even the gates to the town, but they couldn't find her. It had gotten so bad that they stayed up all that morning searching for her in the surrounding area.
Penny and Eri went to her Countryside home to look for her in her mother's house but didn't find her there. They quickly informed Destiny's mother about what had happened and told her they would find her and report back to her as soon as they had her inside the dorms. Destiny's mother was concerned but knew that her daughter's friends would find her and bring her back home safely.
They continued throughout the morning until 9:00 when they returned to the Academy's entrance hall.
" I think it's best if I ask Nemona and Arven for help," Penny said, getting everyone's attention. They were all clearly worried now, and Considering Namona and Arven knew her better than I did, I didn't know where she might have gone.
"That's a great idea," they all agreed. Penny quickly took out her phone and dialed her other friends' numbers. Nemona instantly answered the phone, and in her own concern, she bolted out of her bedroom, half asleep, wanting to look for her friend immediately. Arven didn't pick up the phone or open the door when they called for him, so they decided to leave him alone and tell him later.
Throughout the day, they traveled all over Paldea looking for her up in the tireless mountain and around the most profound sea areas, but they didn't find her. It got so bad that they thought she might have gone to her friends in the other region, causing Namona and Penny to call Destiny's two other friends from Katikami and that one friend she made at Blueberry Academy. Kieran and Carmine didn't hear anything from Destiny and told them they would stay in touch if they heard anything about her returning to their region. Her friend Drayton instantly told him he would look around the entire Academy and get back to them as soon as possible before hanging up the phone.
They were all worried and assumed that she needed time to herself after a while. They texted and called her as much as possible, but she didn't respond. Nemona even entered her room with her spare key and found nothing out of place. She even found Destiny's Pokemon inside their Pokeballs, sitting on her bed with her phone and other things. It just got her even more concerned as she knew that Destiny had an old version of the phone that did not allow for a Rotom to enter it, and those things were very laggy and unreliable. She knew that she had it on her because, over the time she had known Destiny, she had known that Destiny kept a playlist specifically for that phone that she carried around everywhere, so hopefully, she still had it on her.
After checking Destiny's room, Nemona quickly rushed over to Arven's room but got no response from him, even if she banged her hand on the door countless times throughout the day. It got so bad that for the next two days, he still didn't answer, and she still didn't appear. It wasn't until the third day that he finally answered the door with a grim expression and red puffy eyes.
"What happened to you," Namona asked, concerned. That was when Arven explained everything to her. He told her about how Destiny had supposedly been lying to him this entire time and was actually the reason that his mother had died in such a brutal way. Namona listened intently and got angry at the situation as she listened to Arven explain what happened that night.
" I get what you're mad but... You shouldn't have told her any of that stuff," Namona told him, getting his attention back to her and finally stopping ranting. " like yes, I understand that you're upset and that she should have told you as soon as it happened, but you should have never said any of that stuff to her. The leaders of Team Star... They told me she had left the school crying and nobody had seen her in the last couple of of days. All of her Pokemon are still here along with her Rotom phone..." Namona explained
Arven felt guilty as he returned to how he had talked to her. He, of course, still felt betrayed, and it was bothering him that his best friend would not tell him this information as soon as it happened, but the more he thought about it and the more Namona lectured him about not speaking to his best friend in such a manner and call him out on his ignorance the more he started to realize how wrong he was for blaming Destiny. How could she have known that she would have been the reason that his mother got this crazy idea to create a time machine that ultimately ended in her own demise?
Arven started getting overwhelmed with all this new information and sobbed into Namona's arms. He wanted to apologize to Destiny and have a clear conversation with her about what had happened and why she hadn't said anything as soon as it had happened.
"You can have that conversation with her as soon as we find her, but for now, come help us look. You know some of those hideouts that you guys used to have? Maybe she's there," Namona pointed out.
" I do know of a couple. She might be hiding in the old Titan hideouts we had to go through to get through the path of Legends." From then on, they went to look for her in every location that Arven gave, but they still couldn't find her.
It had been a week, and she still hadn't returned. She didn't come back for her Pokemon, her phone, or anything else. All her clothes were still in her closet in her dorm room and the bedroom in her Country home. It had gotten so bad that the gym leaders, along with some of the Champions gath, erred around to go into the crater of Paldea to find her, but even they came out empty-handed.
She was nowhere to be found, not even in any other region they knew she could be in. They even searched her Unova and Johto home region, but they still came up empty-handed. Arven was Beyond guilty, but all of his friends told him that he was just under a lot of stress, that so was she, and that she'd come back in her own time.
Months passed, and they still never heard a word from her.
All her friends took care of her Pokemon, but they would sometimes disappear to look for her, only to come out empty-handed without a trail insight.
During those many months, many searches were conducted among the different agents for her, but nothing came up. It wasn't until one day, a man from Unova stepped forward that something similar had happened to him many years ago.