Pokemon Virus Version Chapter 79: It Can't Be Helped

Author's Note:

So, this is an arc I've really enjoyed, as I've said before. First of all, this is what I call a 'Freestyle', the location AND story is all MY idea, using Pokedex entries to exaggerate a few 'average' Pokemon into what could possibly be the darkest arc so far. Second, I've decided to take my time a do a good job with this, which is probably why I feel the Typical Situation and the Rising Action drags on just a little bit. Rambling aside, I REALLY hope you enjoy this.

Alone, under the grey-black clouded sky, in what was after called the final valley before the town of Mahogany, wandered just a floating, transparent spirit. It was the spirit of a person who was once alive, but now wanders in the shadows of this cruel, cruel world, as a 'ghost'. This Pumpkaboo looked at one of the two traveling trainers. Blonde hair and deep blue eyes...the girl that Pumpkaboo's friend went with looked a lot a guy that just so happened to passing through the final valley. The long black haired, aqua blue banged girl called him by the name of Seth. Seth, you have her eyes, the eyes of Rose...Would you happen to know this Rose?

Two days ago...

There she was: Rose, walking beside Chapel and a silver furred Eevee. But they weren't alone. Kashius, Marina, and Vincent were just a few feet ahead. They were all on their way to Mahogany Town, while escaping the city that used to be Ecruteak at the same time.

Rose's POV

A large sigh came from me. My arms were wrapped around myself, and my eyes fixed on the dirt path that moved backwards with every step I took forward. It was cold, but that was something I did not care for at the moment. Even though Chapel, Mawile, Eevee, and the three strangers were with me, I could not help but feel...lonely.

I have been lonely for what has felt like the longest time, despite the reality of only a couple of days having passed by me. It was Brother...Since he struck me, in between us has been a growing rift in place. But, what could I do? For the first time, I did not even want Brother to be present. I have felt as though I was not loved. Though I wished to be alone, at the same time, I I did not want to be alone.

"Mahogany Town isn't far now. We should be there first thing tomorrow." Marina said with an optimistic smile while looking at the Pokegear Vincent was holding.

"And then what?" Vincent asked.

We were already well aware of Marina going to participate in the Lake of Rage Pokemon Contest.

"Rose and I will stay in Mahogany Town for a couple of days," Chapel answered, "We'll be waiting for a reunion with Seth and Yumi when they make their way."

The thought of possibly having to face Brother some time soon caused me to sigh. Is he even alive?

Chapel looked at me with a concerned face for what felt like the hundredth time over the last three days.

"Oh?" Kashius said as he faced me. I only realized he was looking at me when I picked my gaze up off the ground. He was looking into my eyes, and I immediately ran behind Chapel, hoping the 'stranger' would look away. "Is she okay?"

"She's just very timid around strangers," But of course Chapel knew I had more than one problem. "But still..." Chapel knelt down to me and grabbed my gloved hands, "You're more silent than usual..."

"Why are you so timid?" Marina asked, her face suddenly full of worry as she took half a step closer to me.

"..." I...I did not fell comfortable saying anything to these 'strangers'. So I slipped my hands out of the hands of Chapel and wrapped them around myself once again as I turned away and closed my eyes.

"She doesn't like to talk about it." Chapel answered for me.

This was the first time in what felt like forever, that I have been this close to stranger. I-I...I did not know how to talk to other people...I did not WANT to talk to other people. If the world were to find out who I truly am-a nameless, worthless tool of a human- every last one of them would scorn me as they did once before. As someone born into Team Neo Snagem, I was hated by the world outside the organization, or so I thought. And as a traitor of the organization, I was also hated by Neo Snagem itself. I was branded as an anomaly AND an enemy by both sides. I was-I AM unnecessary...

Brother Seth, Brother Zero, Mother...I miss you all, and I wish we could all be one big happy family for the very first time. I wish not to be alone, I just wished to be loved.

...

Longing to be loved was the only thing that was on my mind throughout the rest of the day. Deep into the night, we were all sleeping on a grassy plain in the valley under the starry sky. I was all that was awake, for I could not sleep. Feeling the need to get away from the three strangers, without sound, I ascended off the ground and started to float. Around and away from the camp...

"Oh!" It was a meadow that I just so happened to come across. The meadow was decorated with roses! "Wow..." Since I have started traveling Johto, I have not seen as many roses as I used to. But this meadow, it reminded me so much of the one I used to call home back in the nights of Violet City.

Like any five year old crossing paths with their most favorite thing in the world, I rushed to the meadow of roses with much excitement and energy.

The many minutes that followed my arrival involved me just sitting down and enjoying my starlit surroundings. I picked just one rose from the flower bed, and slowly held it to my nose to sniff. "It smells very much like Roselia..." This particular red rose...It reminded me of Mother and her Roselia. "Mother..." Thinking about Mother caused my mood to sink in a matter of seconds.

For a moment, I looked down, before leaning back and laying to face the starry sky. The roses were brushing slightly on my face.

...When I left Team Neo Snagem, I never said goodbye to her. She was never even given the slightest of hints. It was just so sudden, my departure from the organization left so many cliffhangers in the relationship between Mother and I. Leaving her made me feel lonely again, just the memory...

"Why must I be so lonely?" I asked my self as I looked at my held rose once more. "I wish...I wish this feeling inside me would just go away."

Hmm...How IS it possible for so many roses to grow in a place like this?

"Huh?" After asking myself that question, I heard the sound of footsteps in the roses. "Chapel?" I though it was probably somebody from the camp. I did not wander off too far.

"A-Amy?" said a transparent voice

I froze at the sound of the unfamiliar. It was so sudden, it sounded as though it was right behind me.

Did I dare to get up and find out who or what was behind me? I started to quiver, and my breathing started to become tight and tense. I was going to have to turn around, and face a 'stranger'. But how? I-well, there WAS a part of me, deep inside myself that desired to NEVER let strangers into my life. What was I to do now?

"Amy, you're here?" The transparent voice asked.

"..." Was the voice talking to me? It seemed that I was also a stranger to whomever was speaking. Did I have anything to lose by addressing the speaker? We were alone, in an open field, in the middle of the night. Chapel and Mawile were not even too far away. "Tell me who you are..." I told the voice without facing it.

"Amy, it's been too long...Do...do you recognize me? Do you remember who I am?"

"My name is not Amy," I said while staring into the night sky, "I was hoping you would tell me your name though."

"Look at me..." The voice suggested, ignoring not only my suggestion of giving me a name, but ignoring me saying my name is not Amy as well.

After feeling lonely over the past few days, it honestly felt nice to have someone to talk to, no matter how small the talk felt to me. Though I still felt 'empty' inside, it was to a lesser extent compared to when Brother struck me. I continued to stare into the night sky for just a few seconds. I hesitated to move even the slightest of an inch. It was as if I was bound by shackles and chains as I tried my hardest to get up. But when I turned around to face the voice...

"...Gone..." There was nobody there. All of the effort trying to get up in hopes of opening up...

"Gone?" It was the voice again, "Do you not see me? Do you really not remember who I am? Are the memories of you and I really gone?"

"How can the memories of you and I be gone when they never existed in the first place?" I asked, "Please, show me who you are. Maybe then I'll recall."

"Do you remember? We used to plant countless roses here in this meadow. You..." My request was granted, but my eyes were not prepared for who, or what would appear in front of me...It was a doll...A damaged doll...It reminded me much of a Mime Jr, except that it was stained blood red all over the body. The head of the Mime Jy was almost ripped completely off, and stuffing was hanging out of the large hole in the neck. But the most disturbing part was still to come. The face of the Mime Jr, the mutilated one that was just barely hanging off the body, the eyes of the doll were bloodshot red and wide open. The doll had a disturbing smirk, where the lips were poorly sewn shut and STILL smiling from one end the the other. "And me! Hehehehehe. Hyyyuck! Hyuck hyuck hyuck hyuck!"

I-I...I was horrified by such a disturbing laugh. That thing looked as though it was having some sort of seizure each and every time it chuckled. The head of the doll was quivering with excitement as the lips desperately tried to forcefully snap off those restricting stitches.

"Hyyyuck hyuck hyuck hyuck. Now do you remember me, Amy?"

I...I..." I could not find it in me to reply. Eyes and body quivering, I wanted to turn and fly away as fast as I could from the disturbing doll, but something kept my body from moving. Was it fear?

"We used to spend every waking moment of our lives together, hand in hand," The doll said, "I love you Amy. I love you, even after the death of our friendship. Hyuck hyuck hyuck! That's right, Amy, I love you...to DEATH! To death and beyond. There's one more question I wish to ask you though: Amy, do YOU love ME?"

It was as if I was frozen within some sort of glacier. Paralyzed in fear, now my lips were unable to move.

"You...You don't love me, Amy?" The Mime Jr doll whispered before chuckling again. "But of course. You DON'T love me! After all, you're the reason I was broken in the FIRST PLACE!"

Just thinking about whatever it was the Amy did was enough for the ripped doll to lung itself at me. And the threat of the living doll was enough for me to get over my paralysis and swiftly dodge.

I was now floating as the doll landed on the grassy,, rose filled ground. Eyes still wide open, I floated just a couple of inches closer to the doll. It was flat on the stomach, and the hanging head of the doll had been flung forward.

"...Hello?" I attempted to answer to the downed doll.

"...LOVE ME!" And it was then, as the head of the doll suddenly faced me and screamed those two words, that it started to float off the grassy ground. When I caught sight of the eyes of the evil doll, I suddenly turned around and began to fly away as fast as I could.

...

Through the dark, starlit path decorated by many trees, I believed I had lost the evil doll, so I slowed the pace of my flying by just a little. But when I turned around, my belief was sorely mistaken, for the evil doll was right behind me. We quickly passed by a couple of Hoothoot and Noctowl before I face the front again, and as soon as I was looking at what was in front of me...

"Ow-ah..." My eyes grew wide, as in front of me, there was a floating Pumpkaboo looking me right in the eye.

"Vooooooo..." The cry of the ghost Pokemon was long and dragged out. The eyes of the Pumpkaboo began to glow a pale blue color. I was not sure about whatever Pumpkaboo was doing, but I had not any time to react in the first place. Looking into the eyes of the ghost pokemon, my eyes became heavy, and I began to feel drowsy.

"Ngh..." It felt almost impossible to resist the urge to fall asleep...My resistance was futile, to say the least, as my eyes went from seeing a starlit rose path, to seeing just black; the inside of my eyelids. I slipped into a deep sleep.

Location: The Dream Of Rose

It felt nice, and soothing...falling into such a deep sleep. Taking shelter within myself, I felt like I could just let go of all the problems and anomalies of a few minutes ago. The ghost pokemon...the living doll...the void inside of me, created by Brother of all people...

"But even after what you have done to me, I still wish you were here to love me right now, Brother," I said to myself.

This void of mine, it was very cold, and it was as fragile as glass. Fragile...Yes, I was well aware of how emotionally fragile my character was, but it cannot be helped. I needed the love of Brother, or the love of anyone to keep my emotions secure.

"Love..." I said to myself as I landed on an all white platform. I closed my eyes and clasped my hands together as I entered a prayer-like stance. "Love me, please..."

"Do you love me?"

"Oh?" It was not I who asked that question. Taken off guard, I opened my eyes, with my hands still clasped. Immediately, I was at a loss of breath when I saw who was speaking to me.

It was the doll from before, only this time, it was perfectly pieced together. The doll itself was transparent, and a frown was being worn. For some reason, I felt like I could speak to the doll, my fear all but contained here in my dreams.

"You look so innocent now..." I said to the doll.

"You hurt me, Amy," The doll said to me, "Even if you DO still love me, what happened back then...it makes me wanna..." Tears were making their way down the face of the doll. But how? How was it possible for an inanimate object to show emotion.

With my emotions now calm, now was the perfect opportunity to try and reason with the doll.

"What did I do?" I asked.

"You don't remember?" The doll asked, "All you need to do is open your eyes."

"Open my eyes?"

The transparent doll nodded. "Yes, open your eyes."

Open my eyes...

Open your eyes...

Those words echoed from the inside AND outside of me. Was it my time already? Was it time for me to face the evil side of the doll once more?

...Did I even want to wake up at all? In my dreams, anything I wished for came true, like the evil doll not being evil, or Mother and Brother giving me all the love my heart desires. With an endless amount of possibilities I could wish for, there was just one wish guaranteed not to come true: Wishing for the dream to never end. Why?...Well I guess it cannot be helped...

Waking up...

To Be Continued...

Author's Note:

Another cliffhanger...If you know your Pokedex entries, you might be able to figure out the concept for the doll before the arc's Climax in posted. This chapter is slow though, especially early on. Realize that Rose has a tendency to overthink things, that's just her character. This arc, while enjoyable, is supposed to develop Rose in a way that affects the entire fic as a whole from here on out.

Who is this Amy girl? Well, stay tuned, for EVERY chapter in this arc is crucial.

Oh, and sorry if you were disappointed about last chapter's build up. The shipping comes IMMEDIATELY after this arc.