46.
Sleepless, Pt. I
Abra only wanted something called "boba," as it turned out, and refused to stop kidnapping Volkner until he finally bought it some.
Now the spoiled creature sits on the edge of the bed in the hotel room, muzzle smack-smacking as it chews on a mouthful of rubbery pearls it's just sucked out of the bottom of a cup. A pointed tongue darts out to lick creamy bluish liquid off its lips. It peers up at Cyllene without even opening its eyes, then wiggles its tail and offers her a sip.
She glares at it tiredly, then flicks her gaze back to Volkner, lingering in the darkened doorway. His hair is a wild, blond, staticky mess from the battles they shared this afternoon. His Alolan Raichu is almost as quick with Thundershock as Abra's teleportation, and it made Volkner go from manic to straight-up feisty. If his leg wasn't sore, he says, he could go on through the evening.
"I guess this worked out," he tells Cyllene. "As long as you're Flint's guest, you can stay in this swanky hotel. Try to get some sleep for me, okay?"
Cyllene shakes her head, indignant. The pillows on the bed are huge and puffy. There's a box beneath the window that spits out cold air. A clean white robe hangs on the back of the bathroom door. She's seen the swimming pool through a window on the first floor. A swimming pool. The water is utterly translucent and turquoise.
"Don't leave me here by myself," she pleads.
Abra spits a boba pearl that smacks the back of her neck. She wants to snatch that cup and stuff it down the porcelain throne, but she can't bring herself to move.
Volkner comes closer. He almost puts a hand on her shoulder, then thinks better of it and settles with giving her a serious look.
"Cyllene, you're shaking. You need to go to sleep. I promise you'll be safe. There's nothing scary or dangerous in Sunyshore. No giant death snakes. Just a comfy bed and complimentary breakfast tomorrow. Besides, you're under a Gym Leader's protection."
"I still don't really know what that means."
Volkner shrugs. "Of course you do. You just didn't know the word for it. I'm still… well… if it helps you to think of me as Ginter, then I'll have to live with it. Someday I'll turn into Ginter again anyway. The old coot's cooking."
He doesn't smile as he says this. Doesn't look at her at all. He seems just as confused about the clean white robe as she is.
"Don't leave," Cyllene demands, and it's all she can manage.
Don't leave. Don't die. Don't even think about it.
And yet, that's what she wanted, right? To never see him again? To forget him as soon as his fragile heart failed and continue on miserable in the waste for eons?
Not to get dragged into his world. Not to tangle their fates even further. Not to see the way he looks here — the way he is here. Not to know things like safety or comfort. These don't exist in Hisui. These things aren't for her. They're for someone else. She was supposed to die a long time ago. Like Zisu. Like Flint's ancestor.
Ginter isn't dead. Out of everyone in Hisui, the sickly old coot in the cap pulled through.
She's under his protection.
Young Blond Ginter is pressing a little red-and-white capsule into her hands, that wrinkle in his forehead barely developed.
"Pokémon aren't allowed out of their balls in this hotel. However… if you get scared during the night, press the button once to engage it, then again to let Luxray out. He knows my heartbeat. As long as I'm alive, he can find me and let me know what's wrong."
"Ginter—"
"If you don't sleep, you won't be able to function," he insists. "Tomorrow we'll have to face a whole new world of nonsense… together. Goodnight, Captain."
And then hurriedly, he leaves the room.
He leaves her be.
For a long time, Cyllene lies on the bed. The world outside has gone gold, then blue, and now the gentle sound of ocean waves and the whirr of the cold-air-box become one. Sometimes a voice rings out in the hallway. Sometimes a little red light flashes in the claw-looking device on the ceiling. There's an oversized bathtub against one wall, just like the one in Flint's bedroom, but when she runs herself a bath it's scalding hot, and she can only bear to dip her feet in.
Abra's fiddling with something it found in the bathroom. It tears open the plastic wrapper, and a pale pink chip drops into the water.
"Will you be careful?"
She retrieves the object with her toes. Soap. It's slippery and flowery.
"We're in the Land Where No One Dies of Consumption. Everything is so extravagant. It's like there really is no strife here. Soap whenever you want it. How much soap is in this building? Is there a new piece of soap in every room? And it's all wrapped up neatly?"
She shouldn't have asked. Right away Abra pops out of sight, and when it returns, its arms are full of more plastic packets that it dumps all over the carpet. Cyllene lifts her feet out of the tub and goes to take inventory, stacking soap in uniform piles and then stashing them all in a pillowcase.
"Can you get me more?" she asks. "What else can you find? Is there food?"
There's food. There's endless food. Abra brings her a package of rainbow-colored candies covered in sour sugar. Then a flat box that unfolds to reveal a disk of hot, salty bread covered in melted cheese. A silver can that sprays fizzy brown sludge when Abra's claw pulls a tab off the top. Then a clear bottle of sickly sweet orange fluid that bubbles and burns as it runs down Cyllene's throat.
"This tastes just like the Fall Harbor Dark Lager from Ginter's caravan!" she exclaims. "It must have distorted and transformed into this… 'Sunkiss' drink! I hate it!"
And she drinks it all because it's free and refreshing. Abra's stuffing more silver cans into another pillowcase, along with another few packets of soap. Then it pops away again, bringing back a package of bell-shaped things in pink foil. They melt on Cyllene's tongue, and she pops them one by one until her whole mouth has gone numb from the sweetness.
"Abra," she says, when it flashes before her eyes, dropping colorful packages all around her and stuffing the pillowcases until they're as fat as the bags of clothes in Flint's penthouse. "Is this what it feels like to transform into a Snorlax? I feel so full."
Cyllene puts a hand on the curve of her belly, amazed, and a bit horrified, when it gives a sudden, painful lurch. She can eat more if she wants. Everything is delicious. Everything is right at her fingertips.
"Please. No more," she tells her partner, who's holding another box of steaming bread and cheese. "I'll retain my dignity."
So Abra disappears, and Cyllene clambers up into the bed again. Full, sleepy perhaps, but feeling sick and anxious all the same. She clutches the final pillow to her chest and breathes it in. The clean sheets glide over her legs, smooth as a breeze, and the nervousness turns into laughter. And then eventually a tight throat and tears that soak the pillowcase.
She is a Wurmple in a tangle of stardust and silk. Her plump body wriggles helplessly around — stuck fast. She searches for the spikes popping out of her hands, then pleads for them when they don't appear. Her wrist is bare. She's powerless.
"Why wasn't I born here?" she whispers, her voice raw and growing weaker. "Maybe then Volkner and I could just be friends… and I wouldn't feel so strange around him…"
Abra cups her cheek with its claws. It shakes something jingly and glittery, and when she wipes her eyes, she sees it's a silver bracelet threaded through with a dozen mini diamonds.
She's between Wurmple and Snorlax now, and her insides start to squirm in confusion.
"Where did you get that?"
It flicks its tail. Obviously somewhere on this very floor of the hotel. It takes her left hand and wraps the chain around her wrist, struggling with sharp claws to get the clasp secured. Cyllene shakes it away, and it drops to the mattress, thankfully lifeless.
"This has to belong to someone else. Candy and soap are one thing, but I can't steal a bracelet. Put it back."
Abra makes an odd, squeaking sound, discontent, but scoops up the bracelet and disappears…
Only to return again minutes later, six other priceless bracelets dangling off its claws. It grins, a thick, platinum ring snug between its tiny fangs. Its tail swishes proudly as it drags each gift over her wrist to test the chains and gems against her pale skin.
Cyllene sniffles. "You want me to have one of these to replace the Red Chain. Is that it? Oh, Abra…"
Abra strokes her hair — still spiky from the Sunyshore Gym — and picks its favorite out of the bunch. This bracelet has both diamonds and pearls strung along its chain in a pretty little arrangement. Cyllene's heart flutters in realization, and then she truly starts feeling queasy.
"But I don't want any of these," she whimpers. "I want the Red Chain back. I want to tear a hole in this universe and make my own, where I don't have to feel like this."
Her mouth waters. Her swollen stomach gives up the fight. It's the One-Eyed Merchant all over again, only this time instead of throwing up in the grass, it's a magnificent bathtub, and she can wash it all down the drain and never see it again.
Make my own universe.
Now that's an idea. Cyllene doesn't know why she said it out loud. She was delirious. She was afraid. She's still afraid now, wearing the clean white robe over her sweatpants and wandering around the hotel at some ungodly hour of the morning. More afraid, because Abra refuses to return the bracelets, and she doesn't want Volkner to find them when he comes back for her.
Ingo's knowledge returns: The Red Chain can create a new universe. It did, a long time ago. And if Volkner can fix it, and she can unlock its full potential, who's to say she can't create a Time and Space just for herself to be alone, at least for a little while?
"She hɅs powers like ours," said one of the gods, when it reached inside to inspect her very being. "Could it reɅlly be?"
Could it be what? she wonders, passing by the door to the outdoor swimming pool. It's locked, but one nod to Abra, and she's standing on a cold, hard gray floor, gazing down at the water softly churning.
"Who am I?" she asks the full moon, glowing soft and white over the ocean.
The water ripples in the pool. Something is alive and writhing beneath the surface.
"I shɅll finish whɅt I stɅrted, howeVer long it tɅkes… Someone sɅid thɅt… eons Ʌgo…"
The robe can't keep her warm. She flings it off into the pool and throws herself down on top of it, shocked senseless by the water shooting up her nose and down her throat. She's sinking. She's thrashing in nothingness. Surfacing, she spits salty water everywhere, then hacks and flails and pulls herself to the edge of the shallow end to recover.
"Who am I? What did he mean, 'powers like ours?'"
When six rings are tripled
The world is begun
A riddle in her sleep. A clue. Was that it? Something about creating a new world?
"SolVe the riddle I gɅVe you, Ʌnd you shɅll leɅrn my nɅme…"
There's something she's not quite grasping, and yet Cyllene's heart is throbbing in her throat. The Red Chain wasn't supposed to fall into her hands. She wasn't supposed to find it in Ginter's pack. But it's awakened something within her. Something to anger that serpentine demon and intrigue the golden ring even more than before. Is there a secret she's still missing?
"Who am I? What do you want with me?"
And then Cyllene shrieks as someone bursts out of the water right beside her, almost falling on top of her before she can swim swiftly out of the way.
"You ever done that before?" asks a suave male voice, in between heavy breaths.
"No, never," moans someone else. A woman, by her slender silhouette, clinging tight around the man's body in heated pleasure. The moonlight takes full advantage of his silvery hair and the slick, shiny outline of his muscles.
"Hoenn has plenty of water to practice in."
"Oh… oh, Mr. Champion, yes!"
"Call me that again."
"My Champion!"
"Guess who's hard as rock right now?" Mr. Champion growls, and then there's the sound of wet smack-smacking and a whole lot of splashing as they force themselves up against the shallow wall of the pool.
"INDECENT JACKASS!" Cyllene shouts, already halfway out of the water and onto the cold, hard floor. But she's wet and shivering and topless herself, and when the man's eyes fall on her, she's fishing in the corner of the pool for her robe. Precious gems faintly twinkle in the depths as they fall out of the soggy pockets and sink to the very bottom.
"Who are you?" says the silvery stranger, dumping his lover off into the sloshing water and sliding over.
Cyllene swipes her hand and splashes him right in the face. The robe is too waterlogged; she can't reach it without diving back in. She calls out for Abra, but not before she feels the man's hot, moist lips nipping at her knuckles.
"Hey…" he whispers. "You're freaky."
She throws a punch. He submerges, completely unharmed. Whatever he learned in Hoenn, he's at it again with the skinny girl, and Cyllene's screech fails to ring out when she teleports again.
She tries to sleep. Her eyes stay open. Maybe it's the constant cold air whirring, or the salty stink of that pool water, or the stomachache that won't go away. She clutches the pillow, and Abra rubs soft circles between her shoulders. The bracelet with diamonds and pearls is the one she didn't lose in the pool. It goes unworn on her nightstand while she stares at the wall.
"I don't want to be here. This place scares me."
The claws close over her mouth. She clutches Luxray's Poké Ball in one hand, thumb hovering over the button for at least an hour as she tries to decide.
"There's no use finding Volkner and waking him up at this time of night. For what purpose? Because I'm hysterical? I'm just tired. He said I'm tired."
Her breathing slows. Her body starts to lighten as the first strands of gold pour over the open sea.
Suddenly the world is a void, and an entire newborn galaxy hovers beneath her. Stars are murky — concealed within hot, spinning whorls of dust and gas. When she looks down at her hands, they've grown. Her whole body has grown and transformed. She's something else now. Something shining and glorious. Maybe something she was meant to become all along.
Abra tugs at Cyllene's hair. She rises, twitching, and climbs out of bed completely senseless.
"My new world," says something profound, as atoms glitter for the first time. Space begins to swell. Time begins to flow. A heartbeat pulses within the radiant heat.
"It's just Ʌs I imɅgined it. Except… No… NO!"
Cyllene buckles right in the middle of the hotel room as the sheets trip her. She stumbles to her knees, then kicks in her sleep, like something much more sinister has her legs bound.
"Get bɅck," Cyllene moans, as Abra approaches, pawing at her shoulder. "GET BɅCK! WHɅT ɅRE YOU DOING!? Why did you come to interfere…"
Abra pokes the button on Luxray's Poké Ball, and the big cat bursts out in a flash of blue light. Luxray takes one look at the woman writhing on the floor, and his ears pull back in worry.
Cautiously, Luxray pads forth, placing a steady paw in the center of Cyllene's chest. She stares up at the ceiling, unseeing, as tears slide down over her cheeks.
"My new uniVerse… WhɅt hɅVe you done…"
Luxray purrs, mane ablaze with sparks. His claws dig in, and an electric pulse flickers around the room. Cyllene's body seizes. Her hands clench, then loosen, and her cries quiet to soft, frightened sniffles.
"What've… you done…"
She rests peacefully, sprawled out amidst empty pillowcases and soap packets and rainbow candies melted and ground into the carpet. Abra opens its eyes, dumbfounded, while Luxray nudges her pale, moist cheek with his nose.
~N~
FFN is testing my patience with uploading new chapters. Must be the curse of Steven...
Published by scrivenernoodz on FFN and AO3 October 20th, 2024. Please don't repost. Please do review!