The battles are not just between two Pokemons, but between two trainers' visions of training. That's why I have a bit of a problem with Ash's last fight: it's a clash of power without any real ideals behind it, since they share the same vision of things.
What else can I say about this chapter? That I wanted Amelia to bring something to the story, and so she ends up giving the first warning signal about Ashrizard's identity... And I'll have to delay things in the next chapters because there's far too much to do before Serena learns the truth. A small balancing act ahead
It's not an amaryllis, it just looks like one
Did perfection exist? At the moment, Mos was convinced that it did. Curled up on the sofa, his trusty zapette on the armrest, a few aperitifs on the coffee table, and his son busy with his new friend, Treecko. Lost in the city, far from his native forest, this gecko had quickly become an indispensable member of the family. Good pokemon, Mos smiled to himself as the commercials ended. It was time for an afternoon of Battle Frontier!
"Hey!" Mos annoyed. Barely enough time to see the tip of the Battle Pike's tail, and here he was in the bloody Direct Contest. As if he hadn't eaten enough of it the rest of the year! With a stiff neck, the man turned to the woman who'd just grabbed the remote. "Anne, darling..." She sat down beside him without saying a word, her stiff posture speaking volumes. Mos swallowed, knowing exactly what she was accusing him of: the Fallarbor contest, literally ten minutes away from home, for which he hadn't been able to get a seat... he hadn't gone looking for it, but she wasn't supposed to know that. "I know you're disappointed, and believe me, I'm sorry I didn't do it sooner. But I've wanted to see these fights for a week now, and..."
"And you have a chance to make it up to me, so don't waste it."
Mos gritted his teeth. Was he really going to miss the Pike Queen's fight for a beauty contest? But if he dared to complain, he could already imagine what his wife would say: "Wait for the second part, you'll get your fights." Great, cheap fights, when he could have seen the real fight. One year, just one year, without seeing this contest, was that too much to ask?
The door was ajar, Treecko crawled over the wall, didn't their new friend want to help him? You're the one who's affected, I don't care, he guessed the green monster's words. Mos swallowed, a new courage stirred inside him, something he had to suppress... But Frontier Brains...
"Missing a contest won't kill you."
He let the silence linger, worried and curious at the same time to see how she would react, the same unwelcome desire that made you turn your head to get a better look at the accident. Anne cracked a piece of cake between her teeth, and Mos thought she'd just ignore him.
"It's the only thing I want you to do," Anne grumbled. "The only one."
"The only one with dishes, housework and a few gifts to boot," the man sneered. "I'm not an exceptional husband, but you can't say I don't do my share of the work."
She bowed her head. Her brown curls fell to the middle of her back, as lustrous and silky as when they first met, when Anne won contest after contest.
"Sometimes I wonder if I made the right choice."
Her murmur, as she fidgeted with her wedding ring, made Mos pale. He'd expected her to throw a slipper in his face for being a smartass, not life introspection for a TV show.
"Wait, wait, what are you doing to me?"
"Sometimes... I feel like all I've done is sacrifice myself for you."
Anne loved her family, loved Hector. She'd given up her life as a coordinator. Not with a smile, of course, it was always like that in the beginning, but with time she'd come to... Accept it? In any case, she had no choice. Not when you have a bun in the oven for your mistake! his conscience scoffed. Treecko approached, golden eyes riveted on him, on Anne, on them, waiting... judging?
"Maybe it was a mistake," his wife whispered, "but does that give you the right to kill me?"
"What are you talking about?" the man stammered.
The TV was buzzing, unless it was his own eardrums shaking from the violence of the words she was inflicting on him.
"And I just let myself go, I was so... stupid, so stupid." She pounded her fist gently on her forehead, the fine lines drawn by bitterness, regret, and pain. Treecko had jumped up on the cushions, smiling as if he liked Anne's answer, eager to hear more. "I shouldn't have accepted it. I should have changed, evolved, lived on. To refuse... it was unfair."
The litany found its way out, and Mos thought he remembered that it was he who had sung it. He thought he was seeing it again, hearing it! A hopeless being, motionless, prostrate, having already accepted. Unbearable, he had to act, change him, metamorphose him! Egoism, he replied. That's the one thing I can't become. The door slammed, bouncing off the wall. His daughter brandished her creation: a mask... and stickers. His daughter? No... his son! It was his son, approaching the pokemon and offering him the grotesque object.
Faster, faster. He had to hurry. His will. His will, which his creations inherited and which allowed them to live, to not stand still. But without his help, it would be nothing, and her daughter... her son... Oh... Finally, the pokemon (Treecko! City Treecko!) took the mask. He smiled, thanked, thought, perhaps loved... The man's temples pulsed. He fell from his seat, thick beads of sweat trickling down his chin.
"Hector!" he gasped.
He picked up the child in his arms, something he hadn't thought he was capable of since he felt his back bending dangerously under the child's weight. Your mistake!
"Daddy?"
The golden eyes stared back at him. His reflection in the irises, but it was someone else the pokemon saw, even as he collapsed in the hallway, the arms of his child (his daughter? his son? a charmander?) wrapped around his neck.
"Anne," he moaned.
His mouth was dry as he begged her for help, but she was so engrossed in the images on the small screen that she didn't bother to turn to him.
"Not now," she repeated. The pokemon (Treecko?) slid into the woman's lap. Docile, adorable, harmless as she stroked him. "I don't want to miss this contest."
"Anne! Please, I beg you!"
"Soon, soon."
They smiled in unison as a young coordinator and her Charizard entered the stage.
Espeon's pelt felt the air. The calm before the death knell, the peaceful warmth of the dragon beside his trainer, the fear Amelia tried to hide.
"I'm counting on you."
Espeon had not forgotten: their first defeat, the incomprehension and frustration, the failures that followed, forcing them to be mere spectators at the tournament of their dreams. At the sound of the bell, the two pokemons were released onto the field. Espeon greeted the crowd with an elegant pirouette, while the dragon presented himself in acrobatic flight. It was a masterful performance that drew all eyes, including Serena's surprised ones.
"When did you learn to do that?" the girl stammered.
"Char," he reminded her.
They only had five minutes, far too short for explanations of where, when and why. However, he wouldn't have her believe it was unimportant, not after all the work he'd no doubt had to put in... alone, without his trainer.
"Thunder Punch!"
He didn't rush at his opponent, but let the lightning slide over his fists and spread around him, illuminating the scales. It was a move worthy of a contest, but one that Serena had no part in, as she, along with the audience, was discovering her pokemon. Espeon, however, easily escaped the monster's clutches. She repeated the feat a second and then a third time, laughing and openly taunting the fire monster.
"Charichar!" growled Ash.
The forked tip of Espeon's tail quivered: the attack would come from the right. It continued to dodge effortlessly, its movements dictated by its fur, which was far more sensitive than the reptile's rudimentary scales. Ash quickened his pace; beautiful attacks were all very well, but it was still necessary to hit your opponent with them. He'd seen enough contests to know that. But his legs were too short and his body too heavy to hope to keep up with the pokemon's agility, which was beginning to make him seriously dizzy.
"Don't play its game!" Serena begged him.
The circle of light had already darkened by the time the fake pokemon looked up. He wouldn't be able to keep up the "keep going until it works" strategy much longer. Think, Ash! You can do better than that... Well, think in contest mode. If he couldn't hit Espeon directly, he would make his attack inevitable.
"Zard!" he indicated his idea to his trainer.
Serena blinked. Zard? Zard what?
"Zarzard!" the former trainer repeated.
"Flamethrower?" she tried.
Ash nodded and inhaled deeply. He had his human mind to control his instincts, a new, more powerful body, not to mention his experience with May and Dawn. He would be the pokemon she had been waiting for, the pokemon she needed, the pokemon she wouldn't give up!
No matter how wrong he was.
The flames stopped dead in his throat. A flick of paw at the tip of his snout and he was defenseless, at the mercy of the Psychic, who threw him straight into the wall. He heard Serena call his name through the dust and debris that rained down on his head.
"Chari," he answered to calm her.
Still, how could he have lost his concentration so easily? He wanted it to be the effect of surprise, but he was usually more inclined to release his flames than to hold them back.
"Here it comes! Charizard, don't just stand there!"
He jumped aside just in time, but it wasn't as if Espeon was hoping to hit him, at least not with Swift.
"Flash!"
Ash groaned. Tears streaming down his face, his eyes red, his sight shattered, Serena was completely overwhelmed by her pokemon's pain. Charmeleon was sensitive even then, but now as Charizard... Amelia already understood.
"Serena?!" the fake pokemon implored.
"To your right! Use Flame..."
His flames returned to his belly as his head recoiled in pain. But why? It was just a flick, and Ash had never seen his Charizard, or any of the others he'd faced, recoil from a flick!
"Chaaaarrr!" he shouted.
The words "show" or "contest" were no more than a vague memory. His vision blurred, his throat still tightening, his instincts overflowing to stop the pain, the human word lost in the tumult.
"No..." Serena stammered. "Charizard, calm down! I know you're not..."
What did she know about him? She had assured both Flannery and Amelia that he belonged with her, with a coordinator. She believed it, she wanted to believe it, even though the fear of being wrong had never really left her... never left her at all. And the result? The conclusion? There it was, right in front of her eyes, the out-of-control beast she'd been warned about so many times. Theory and high hopes quickly dashed by practice. Her scores plummeted every time Espeon dodged a blow draped in the light of a Morning Sun it had just summoned. No need to do the same. Amelia had already won, so there was no need to show off the slender silhouette, the gorgeous mauve coat, the glowing orb. Espeon was beautiful, so beautiful in Serena's eyes, in the audience's eyes, in Amelia's eyes...
The coordinator raised her head sharply, as if she'd just been hit by a jolt - and she had experience with jolts, given her background at the power plant. This is it! The way you see Espeon, the way you make me see her! And it's not just your pokemon, but mine as well... You really are amazing, Amelia, but I'll take over!
Espeon had just slipped between the shapeshifter's legs and jumped onto his back as he tried to turn around. Bingo, between the impulse and his feet bumping against his tail, the poor monster couldn't keep his balance much longer.
"Charizard."
The soft murmur brought some reason back to the former human. Reason that was soon drowned out by his fears.
"I can do it, I will do it, I must do it!"
Don't give up on me. I'll be what you want, I'll do what you want, but don't give up on me, I won't, I won't!
"Okay, if you don't need me," she sulked. She had hoped for a reaction, but she hadn't expected him to stop so quickly, his mouth open in astonishment. The girl crossed her arms. She was used to acting offended when her mother made a remark, and today it was time to put all that training to good use. "No, it's okay, you can continue. Anyway, you've learned a lot without me, so I'm a little too far behind to be of any use to you," Serena grumbled, not quite sure if she was acting this time.
At least her little trick was working. A little too well, in fact, as the dragon had already returned to her and grabbed her shoulders, his features drawn with remorse.
"Char! Charichar, rizarzard, char, chari... Charicha!"
Serena felt a little guilty for panicking him like that. And she had no doubt that he was doing everything he could to encourage and reassure her right now. After all, he was Charizard, the one who didn't give a damn how a charizard or even a normal pokemon was supposed to behave, the one Serena had gotten to know.
"So, what do you think? Do I have a place at your side?" she asked with a slight smile.
Of course she did! Of course she had a place! And why did she think that she didn't? It wasn't as if he... Oh... Oh! No, no, no! Don't tell him that he lost his temper again! And in front of that girl, at that!
"Charizard, come here," the girl offered him with an outstretched hand.
"What? But the timer, your points, you'll be eliminated if..."
An unfortunate rumble of pleasure escaped him. She was scratching the back of his horns, right in the middle of the confrontation they were about to lose.
"I don't know what Amelia could have said to put you in such a state, but everything's fine, okay?"
The fake pokemon's jaw clenched so tightly that he could feel the muscles at his temples tensing. What had Amelia said to him? Actually... nothing mean, nothing really said, and maybe he'd imagined a good part of it. You never lied to her, did you? Even as a pokemon, even... as a human?
"Serena, if... If I wasn't... Not quite, not quite what you thought."
She came and caressed his cheek with her other hand, doubling the rumble. He felt good, simply and perfectly good in that promise, a simple caress, that he could stay.
"And if we show them..."
Her fingers had slipped from the scales. Free once more, the dragon didn't move, trapped in a spell he didn't want to break. Espeon did it for him. His jewel shone, two purple moons with the desire to end it here and now. It wouldn't just hit the reptile when it released its power.
"The Charizard I saw," the girl murmured.
He stood before her, his claws draped in green, his scales bristling, his whole body screaming that he would protect her, while Espeon in the distance struggled to get to her feet, a wave of pain taking her side with every breath.
"What's gotten into you?" horrified Amelia.
"Espe..." the pokemon gasped.
She flailed on her paws, short of breath, she had been overconfident and she had just paid the price.
"He's not made for contests, but that's what makes him so dangerous! You can't attack on a whim and think you can take it!"
Espeon's ears perked up in shame. Her trainer's fist trembled, a gesture she knew well by now, the one that signaled Amelia's fear.
"Es..."
She spat out her pain and Amelia was surprised to see nothing but a puddle of saliva. It wasn't just the damage to her pokemon that worried her, but also the reptile, which stayed close to its trainer despite its scales vibrating with anger. Serena knew how to calm it down, an undeniable fact, even a feat considering the ease with which she did it. For him to be so docile and protective of her, the trainer must have raised him from an early age, and Amelia could think of no other explanation.
"I'm fine, Charizard! You protected me, you protected me perfectly, as you always do!" What she had taken so long to see, she was more eager than ever to show, starting with this pokemon who never hesitated to carry her on the wind and calm her when she was afraid of falling. She leaned into his ear and whispered softly: "Fly away."
His shadow now dominated the field, and Amelia already understood the danger. Without missing a beat, she ordered her pokemon:
"Join him with Psychic, we need to take him down quickly."
The pokemon jumped more than it flew, but Espeon wouldn't get to him that easily, Serena knew. She remembered the power of the muscles moving under her hands when they flew together.
"Spin, then Flamethrower!"
It was Ash who had invented this kind of dodging in Sinnoh. A fighting secret that he had demonstrated to his trainer without the slightest hesitation, much to her dismay, who would have preferred him to wait until she was off his back. Ash couldn't help but laugh at the memory, a laugh adorned with flames as Espeon was paralyzed with surprise just above.
"Now!" cried Serena.
"Swift!" shouted Amelia.
That's it, Charizard, what we admired together, the beauty I could only see because you stayed with me. The stars exploded against the flames, leaving fine flakes shining in the dawn light for all to see. Volcanic ash under the moon, Ash admired.
"Sublime."
The only thing Amelia could say in her asphyxiation.
"Dragon Claw!"
No moan as she suffocated.
"Espeon is out of the fight! The victory goes to..."
Amelia didn't hear the winner's name. She just stared at the board, her points high while Serena's were hanging by a thread. So why was it her face that disappeared? Exhausted, she knelt down beside her unconscious pokemon, unconcerned about the ash soaking into her dress.
"Amelia, I..."
"Not now, Serena." At least let her rest in her ordeal. Espeon's dull jewel had begun to glow again, jerking briefly before she regained consciousness with an apologetic groan. "You did well," Amelia reassured her. "You can rest now."
"Eon," the pokemon refused in a hoarse voice.
"Worry about your wounds instead of thinking about me," she implied as she called Espeon back into her pokeball.
Her eyes burned as she made her way to the locker room, but she could hear footsteps following her shadow down the narrow corridor.
"You're not going to let me go without saying anything?" she said, giving up on the idea of losing her pursuer.
Serena tensed, hesitant to speak, but finally her gaze regained confidence:
"I'm not asking you to answer me, but... at least listen to me," the coordinator breathed behind her back.
"All right," Amelia relented and turned around. "But don't act like you want me to answer you, because we both know you're hoping I won't!"
Serena looked at her feet for a moment, gritting her teeth and clenching her fists against her dress, before taking a deep breath.
"I know you're not going to like this, in fact it's going to upset you, but I wanted to thank you. Because without you, I wouldn't have understood how to show how Charizard could be..."
"Cute?"
Serena recoiled, not expecting yesterday's mistake to come back so suddenly.
"Unless it's sweet?" Amelia sneered unconvincingly.
She didn't have the energy to get up, and at this point, why hide it anyway? Sitting against the wall now, legs crossed, listening to Serena would be more bearable.
"You should stop blushing," she advised once she was settled.
"I'm not blushing."
"It's too dark to be sure," Amelia observed.
Serena respected the silence, punctuated by the coordinator's inappropriate laughter. By the time it was over, Serena wasn't sure she wanted to stay, and Charizard might come to check on her if she stayed too long.
"What I wanted to say is that I would never have been able to show Charizard's beauty if I hadn't seen you with Espeon. You..."
"That's fantastic," Amelia exhaled. "What beauty, Serena? What beauty is it when you win by K.O. when everything else was... Go on, I'm listening, tell me it was a real contest match!"
Her voice was high and his icy gaze pierced the young coordinator, the winner of this fight.
"I won't deny what he did."
"Of course," Amelia spat. "Well then, congratulations, Serena, congratulations on this magnificent victory. Really, it was well deserved," she snapped her disgust on the tip of her tongue as she rose to her feet. "Ah! And glad I could help."
"Do you really want it to end like this?"
Amelia froze, her lips tight and her whole body tense.
"I have to change."
But she didn't refuse Serena, who was sitting next to her cabin, rewarding her dragon with a pokepuff.
"Serena. I'm having a little trouble with my dress. Would you mind..."
"Are you sure?" the trainer wanted to be sure before entering.
"I have no choice," Amelia admitted.
Serena was surprised to see that her rival had only taken off her gloves and was staring at the mirror with reddened eyes.
"You're annoying, really annoying," Espeon's trainer finally said. "You're having fun shopping while we're struggling in training, and yet you're the one who wins in the end. Don't you think that's unfair?"
"Is that how you see it?"
A thin smile played on Amelia's lips. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"That's what you're showing me."
"Amelia, just because it's not visible doesn't mean it hasn't been... difficult," Serena shuddered. "I told you you didn't have to talk to me, but don't invent a life for me that suits you."
Amelia shrugged, unmoved by the sudden blush or the stiff hand that opened and closed as if repeating a movement it had forgotten.
"I'm not you and I don't want to be, that's all," Amelia decided.
"But..."
"And so I don't expect you to understand me or know what to do. Simple, isn't it? Just leave me. You had no trouble doing that in Kalos, so why should it be so hard here?"
Serena swallowed. Amelia rolled her eyes, took off her earrings and threw them in the trainer's face.
"You can go, I'll be fine."
"Amelia, I..."
"You should be taking care of Charizard instead of wasting your time on me."
Serena frowned, the question on the tip of her lips.
"You want to know what I said to him, don't you?" the girl in purple guessed.
"Yes," she said without hesitation.
"Bring it back."
She had held out her hand, her eyes shining with the secret she possessed and would not give up without just retribution. The victor bent to her will, took the earrings and placed them in her palm, but as she stepped back, the fingers tightened on her hand, cutting off any possibility of escape.
"He's lying to you, Serena. I don't know what exactly, but your cute and sweet pokemon is lying to you."
Serena scanned her rival's eyes, looking for the slightest hint of mockery, but nothing, Amelia was sure of herself.
"I don't know everything about him, but in time I'm sure I will..."
"That's not what I mean," Amelia smiled broadly.
The young trainer pulled away faster than she would have liked. It wasn't because he'd had trouble talking about his past before they met that he was lying, it was just... Serena's heart froze, as if she too knew exactly what Amelia was talking about: this pokemon so special, this impression that he wasn't quite what he was supposed to be. But that's because it's Charizard, and Charizard never does anything like the others.
She left the stuffy cabin to find her pokemon. He quickly noticed his trainer's restlessness, and with a few worried grunts, he made sure she was okay. The voice, the appearance, the flames, everything was perfect for a Charizard... Except for the way he smiled.