Gentiane lost in the darkness
"Every time ABSOL appears before people…"
Opening her eyes was forbidden, Serena realised even before the film began to unwind. The emulsion crackled, latent, still invisible, giving her time to throw it away here and now if she so wished.
The negative revealed the ghost of the cliff, the clarity of the immense shadows falling and the sky turning to earth. She wanted to scream, but an unspeakable fear came over her, the idea that the film might suddenly melt and drip down her throat (a weight on her chest) until she suffocated.
"As a result, it came to be known as the disaster Pokemon."
Tears began to fall from her eyelids (the weight kept lifting, it kept lifting!), but no big sobs, because that would mean moving, and she didn't know what would happen if she moved.
A wave of fresh air suddenly splashed across her face, like a circuit breaker having tripped. Serena thought nothing of it and stood up, running a hand over her eyes and the tip of her wet nose. I can move, I can move! she exulted. But she was disappointed to find that opening her eyes made little difference to what she had seen before. A dark corridor stretched out before her, and her only source of light was the screen of the pokedex.
She shivered as she noticed three black claws next to what must have been the image of the pokemon they belonged to.
"I'm... I'm Serena."
At the same time, she moved her hand to her ankle and was immediately reassured that it wasn't at an odd angle to her shin. The other good news was that the twinge of pain she felt, which intensified with the touch of her fingers, was more likely to be related to a scrape than a broken tendon or bone. Admittedly, she hadn't leaned on it yet to check that all the machinery was in place, but as it stood, she was confident that she could walk if she had to. The need was of course subject to how the next few minutes went with her new friend.
The pokemon had bent down far enough for its face to be visible in the tiny halo of light, scanning the miniature version of itself, its fangs clenched at what Serena recognised as her gourd. It lifted its head slightly, its almond-shaped red eyes now riveted on the young girl. It wasn't me who said you were bringing disaster, it was him! she sold the object without remorse. But he contented itself with a swipe of his paw, which sent the pokedex back within reach of Serena and made the pokemon invisible again. Refusing to look down, Serena fumbled around on the ground until she was able to grab her belongings and raise the improvised torch in front of her, gaining only a few centimetres of visibility, which proved to be enough in the end.
The metal of the gourd crunched between its fangs, but what worried the young girl most was the horn, only the base of which she could see, but the shape was perfectly recognizable.
"Bsol," it growled.
It turned away after placing the gourd on the girl's lap, its white form fading back into the shadows.
"Wait!" she cried.
She tried to stand, but her ankle quickly gave out and she fell backwards. Her back hit a wall and she felt every rough edge before the gravel fell on her head, a poor sample of what she might have suffered if...
"You..." she suddenly realised. "Thank you," she added in a small voice, even though she didn't know what the pokemon had in store for her.
It remained silent, and for a moment Serena thought it had gone. But then the horn began to glow a soft purple, allowing her to finally make out the walls of the cave, though the back was still invisible.
"Ab, absol," he motioned for her to follow.
That calmed her down and spurred her on. The pokemon seemed to know the place, and more importantly, he seemed to know how to get out. However, the first sting in her leg made her wonder if he'd have the patience to wait for her.
He did, and Absol was kind enough to slow down, allowing the young girl to lean on his back from time to time when he felt her getting too out of breath.
"Bsol," he offered her a break.
Serena didn't refuse, having noticed that her limp was getting worse. She pulled her boots off with difficulty because of her swollen ankle and looked in her bag for something cold to put on it. Huh? A familiar pain rippled through her lower abdomen and no matter how much she replayed her mental calendar, she was sure it was way too soon. She bent over and took a deep breath to ease the cramps.
"Is there something on my face?" she asked innocently, feeling the pokemon staring at her. "I mean, apart from the scratches and the dust."
The pokemon smiled a little before sitting down opposite her, still giving her that strange look... Are you the kind of person who gets into trouble? she suddenly understood.
"It wasn't my fault!" she exclaimed.
"Ab? Bsolab..."
"Charizard," she stated the obvious. "Every time he sulks, I take it too personally and it comes back to bite me, today more literally than usual.
Absol laughed this time and Serena wasn't sure if he was laughing at her or at her witty remark.
"Bsol, a-ab?"
"I don't know... I'll think about it when he apologises."
But more than anything, she'd like him to explain why he'd lost his temper for no reason. And no, she didn't think a charizard's pride was enough to make him shout over an unfortunate wreath of flowers. Not when he was happily setting them aside to cook, sew... Something he did less of now. He had been so diligent in the beginning, but now he seemed to have grown bored. No, not really bored...
"Do you like contests?" she asked.
She thought she'd made a mistake when she saw his head tilt back, but the pokemon finally replied with some enthusiasm:
"Absol, ab."
At the same time, he had moved closer to help the young girl to her feet. She felt the suppleness of the muscles under his hand, the dignified way he held his head, the elegance of the attack that lit their way.
"Have you ever participated?"
The pokemon nodded no, but she had a feeling he wouldn't refuse if someone offered him the experience. And Serena had no doubt that the pokemon would soon come to enjoy the discipline, perhaps even to worship it as he discovered how good he was at it, unlike... She swallowed as she thought of the reptile for whom every move of the competition had seemed like torture. Only FlamHeart was a good master of the style, except that it wasn't aimed at the opponent and was therefore better suited to the first part of the competition. A first part that he was still far from being able to master, if he hadn't already given up on competing. Refville seemed to be enough for him.
The pokemon crouched down, and Serena soon realised why when she noticed the large crack in the ground.
"You don't want to..." she widened her eyes.
"Bsol."
In this case, she preferred to wait for her friends to find her, so she could have a few lifelines like Venusaur's vines or Charizard's wings. But how long would it take them to find her? If they were busy clearing the rubble, she'd be here for days without food or water, and her ankle would probably be the size and redness of a tamato berry.
"Bsol!" he repeated louder.
She wedged herself onto the pokemon's back and barely had time to scream before she was on the other side. A great leap and a perfect landing; if he did it again during a contest, he'd undoubtedly surprise more than one opponent, even at the Grand Festival. The more she imagined it, the more she told herself that yes, it could work, it could work perfectly.
The ravine they had just passed suddenly squawked like a wounded chick. With both feet on the ground, Serena froze, her hand still clutching the pokemon's fur in a reflexive grip. Can you hear that? Can you hear it, or did I hit my head without realising? she pleaded silently to her rescuer.
Absol bristled, the tingling sensation running through the girl's hand, giving her back some connection to what was happening.
The cloud emerged from the abyss and crashed into the ceiling at the same time. Serena watched in horror as the shape compressed, throbbed and then collapsed. Oh, she believed it, she hoped with all her heart that this thing would fall and die on the ground... Only the cloud of wings was alive, and far from stopping, its compact centre broke apart.
Serena's first glimpse of the cloud coming towards her was of sharp teeth protruding from an atrophied face, thousands of atrophied faces. She didn't believe it was zubats until the glow from Absol's horn turned into a violent flash and split the cloud in two, as if he had just sliced it open. She covered her ears, unable to hear the screams of pain as she watched the bodies twist and contort in the light, their skin glowing and reddening with pain as if it were nothing more than the corneas of their atrophied eyes.
"AAAaaab!"
She knew exactly what that meant: Run! Run before Dracula gets up and sinks his fangs into you!
Only Serena wasn't running, she was limping along as the zubats gathered. You are both the person who came into their room and opened the curtains, and the annoying little ray of sunshine they want to get rid of as soon as possible. Somehow she understood them, we were ready to pounce on anyone who stood up on our left foot. And Charizard? Had he got up on his left side this morning? Was that why he had bitten her with his growls? Now is not the time! This is not the time to think about it!
She finally reached the gallery safely, but Absol stayed behind to keep the zubats at bay. Serena squeezed his hand and brought it to her chest, vaguely remembering that the ribbon was no longer there, but that was a good thing because right now... she didn't want to touch it.
"Come on, Absol, please, hurry," she murmured.
Her eyes lit up as she felt them hurt, but it didn't was coming, a beacon of light, the angel in the darkness, a glimpse of what he would be when the energy of the mega-evolution touched him one day.
"You're not hurt, are you?"
"Ab," he reassured her with a small smile.
But the pokemon seemed preoccupied, and not just because of the zubat gang earlier. Serena could feel him staring at her, able to see something she could not. Serena massaged her aching stomach and bitterly noticed her foot scraping the floor. Considering how much trouble she'd been through in less than twenty-four hours, the pokemon's concern was justified.
But while Absol had no doubts about the young girl's ability to get into trouble, there was something else that bothered him. The slump he had felt from afar, the one coming from the cliff, which should have disappeared once the disaster was over. But the fallout lingered on the young girl like dust on someone emerging from the rubble. Maybe it just needed time to dissipate, maybe it would eventually fade as she walked, but Absol had finally come to terms with the fact that this aura, the same one he felt in the air when a storm was brewing or in the earth when an earthquake was threatening, was indeed emanating from the young human. So yes, she did seem the type to get into trouble, but there was a world of difference between making trouble and being trouble.
You don't look like a fire or a tsunami, and yet what surrounds you is heavier than anything I've seen before, he thought with a dry mouth.
"Watch out!"
The shame of not noticing the golbat earlier crossed his mind for a few seconds as they rolled to the ground, dodging the Air Slash thanks to Serena. He recovered quickly, though, and threw a Psycho Cut as he regained his feet.
"Bsol," he thanked the trainer once the pokemon had left.
Tears welling up in her eyes from the claws on her shoulder and all the rolling they'd just done, she couldn't help but smile at him.
"I'm starting to get some reflexes, and I don't know if that's a good sign," she giggled.
"Aaaab?" he laughed. "Bsolab, absol, ab."
He took the liberty of joking, sure that he had put an end to the cloud's desire to chase them, and that the golbat he'd just scared away wouldn't contradict him.
"Ab..."
He was thrown back against the wall, the shock reminding him that other creatures haunted these tunnels, and bad luck, the worst of them had just found them. You, at least, I know why you reek of disaster!
He dodged the Dragon Claw.
Serena jumped to her feet, ready to help her new friend fight the monster. She could slow it down, it wouldn't be perfect, but if she could create an opening for him to counterattack, to divert the attacker's attention...
To divert attention, she diverted it, she even became the centre of it as sighs of relief ran down her neck, a hand stroked her hair and two wings embraced her. It took her a moment to take in the full form of the creature in front of her, to understand what it was doing, as it stepped back and turned back to Absol, growling even louder.
Charizard... It's MY Charizard attacking him!
An unidentified object suddenly hit her from the side and she lost her balance.
"Are you hurt? Does anything hurt? How do you feel? You gave us such a scare!" spat May at full speed.
Serena was happy to see her friend again, even if she felt a little guilty seeing her crying her eyes out. Adele was there too, and although she didn't go into a big emotional outburst, she didn't hide her relief either.
Small explosion. Serena had to be reminded that she was not allowed to relax or enjoy the reunion. She gently pushed May away, whose nerves must have been severely tested.
"I'm fine, but I can't say the same for those two."
"You mean Charizard? Because Absol seems more than fine," Adele remarked admiringly. "Makes you wonder who's the competing pokemon here?"
Ash was too busy with his little fight to listen to the comments, but maybe he didn't need to. He was clumsy and awkward in the face of the pokemon dancing around him, bending his attacks at will and using the flames to embellish his movements. He reminded him of Espeon, except that this pokemon would clearly not collapse from a single attack.
"What were you looking for?" the fake pokemon gasped. "What was your interest in bringing everything crashing down on her?" Ash froze, the look of surprise on his enemy's face unmistakable. But the fake Pokémon raised its guard again and spat: "You're not going to make me believe that it was coincidence that..."
He was knocked to the ground, the tip of the horn under his chin.
"And why not?" glared Absol.
Ash struggled a little, then realised he really was stuck.
"It can't be. No, it can't be," he repeated, his voice shaking. "It must have been you who..."
"Or maybe it was your scream that made the crack too big, what do you think?"
The reptile bared his teeth, ready to rise even if it meant skewering his jaw. But he was held back by the shoulder, and this time not by the claws.
"That's enough, you've done enough already."
Absol had stepped back and Ash inspected the girl carefully, noting that there were no major injuries. But that smell of blood, where is it coming from? Oh! He widened his eyes.
"You've got..."
She put her hands over his mouth, making it clear that he didn't have to say it out loud.
"Sorry, Absol," she bowed. "Come on, Charizard, you too," she tugged on his horn.
The reptile balked, still not entirely convinced.
"Still, I saw you up there, just before the landslide."
"I can sense when something like this is going to happen," Absol sighed, "so I usually check to make sure there are no pokemons around... or humans, for that matter."
Ash turned to Serena to ask if that was true. She puffed up her cheeks and replied in an annoyed tone:
"He saved my life, I'm sorry you're disappointed."
"Serena, you might be going a bit far," May remarked.
The Kalos trainer could see her pokemon's reddened eyes and the fresh traces of moisture on his cheeks. But she was tired, and the pain wasn't helping, not to mention the fact that she was still angry at him for what had happened. All she wanted to do now was get out of the cave and put something on that ankle.
"Char..." he widened his eyes at her limp.
The girl winced. She was in pain, but there was nothing Charizard could do about it and...
"What... Wait Charizard, I can walk!" she struggled.
Ash was angry with himself, but that was no reason to do nothing while she suffered. Serena punched his shoulders again before finally giving up and wrapping her arms around the reptile's neck.
"That doesn't excuse anything," she said sulkily.
For Serena, it was rest, which meant no tent or cooking, just camomile tea by the fire with a little ice made by Glaceon to soothe her ankle. The young girl warmed her hands over the cup as she thought about Absol. He hadn't wanted to eat with them and had gone off on his own, advising them to go a little further and set up camp.
"Cha... chari," he frowned again.
Serena sighed. He'd carried her all the way around the Rusturf Tunnel in the middle of the night, so she knew he hadn't started hating her for no reason. So where had that bloodbath come from?
"Why do you have to make everything so complicated?"
"Char?" he scoffed. "Chari, charizar!" he pointed at her.
"It was just a wreath!" she retorted in despair.
Her eyes stung. At the moment, she felt that everything she offered him was a source of suffering.
"If you don't want to do something, just say so. I won't force you to do anything."
The reptile's features deepened and he lowered his head as if she had just knocked him down. She raised an eyebrow, unsure what could have put him in such a state. Oh, well, Charizard should have been clearer!
"They say Absol is the Pokemon Disaster, but I know someone else who could claim that title."
The pokemon wasn't amused by the joke, and the quivering of his lip increased as he stepped back a little.
"Complicated?" Adele remarked as she sat down next to the young girl.
"It always is. And I'd like someone to explain why," she added more loudly.
"He's not just jealous?" the woman remarked. "You and this Absol looked like you've always fought together, and the way he moves, he must be..."
"An excellent competitor," May added. She stretched, unable to stop herself from wincing at the bad memory this pokemon brought back. "Do you plan to capture him?"
"I don't know if..."
She could have sworn she saw the dragon's wings twitch. And with good reason, Ash couldn't believe that anyone would believe this Absol. He had to be the culprit, the one who had hit the rock, to play the hero and take all the credit. But unlike the trainers, the shapeshifter wouldn't be fooled.
"We're not too far from the flower field, if we leave early we'll be back before noon," Adele remarked.
Her two friends were ready to go the other way, while she had forced them to walk for several hours through the night to get away from the cliffs. At least she could console herself with the fact that it wasn't her fault that they hadn't taken the Rusturf Tunnel, since it was still unfinished - and, according to May, never would be - although she couldn't hide her relief at the news.
"You don't seem too keen on the idea," the mechanic remarked.
This was due to a certain dragon who had raised his head, looking even more lost than usual.
"I'll have to think about it."
Ash turned pale. Why would she...He moved so much better than me.
"I didn't think you were so stingy with your pokeballs," Adele sneered. "I'll gladly lend you one if you want."
"That's not the problem," she replied in a low voice.
"Then what is the point? You need Absol's permission to capture him?"
"Among other things."
Adele rolled her eyes, it was rare for trainers to be so formal about their captures.
"Anyway, the first thing to do was to go back and see him."
Serena continued to stare at her dragon and listened distractedly to what the woman was saying.
"And if we don't find him?" the Kalosian asked.
"Then you'll be fixed."
Adele had bent down to block the young girl's view, determined that she should concentrate on their case.
"She'll catch an Absol, just like the other one," May muttered.
"What are you mumbling about now?" grumbled Adele.
"Nothing!" gasped the coordinator. "An Absol is a very good pokemon, it's very, very good because it can..."
Destroy your strategy? Launch devastating attacks? Make you lose the final by two points? And worst of all, put a smug smile on the face of your annoying, terrifying rival!
"Mega-Evolve?" asked Adele innocently.
"Yes, that's right, Mega-Evolve- Huh?" May choked. "Are you serious?"
"That's what I heard, yes," she replied as a hysterical coordinator crushed her arm.
"Serena..." May pleaded.
The young girl gave a strained smile, she could hardly hide the fact from her:
"I've already seen one."
Drained of strength, May released her grip, her back arching as she came to the terrible realisation that her private club was not so private after all. And knowing him, he must have been in there a long time, and she would be the youngest and...
"It's a disaster!"
Adele shrugged, unsympathetic to her friend's distress and not even wanting to understand what was happening to her.
"So... what are we going to do about your Mega Absol?"
"It's not yet..."
The fake Pokemon had risen, wings folded and rubbed his arms in embarrassment.
"Char... Zard," he said weakly.
Serena bit her lip as she watched him walk away.
"Aren't you going after him?" May asked in surprise.
"I want him to understand. He behaved badly and..."
"And he's been punished severely. Serena, we were all afraid that..."
"Afraid? How could he be scared when... It was a wreath. It was just a wreath! And he... he could have told me, he could have told me he didn't want to do it, but he chose to... And then he'd be worried about me, really?"
"Because he can't get angry and worry about you?"
"Nobody does that!"
"Ah, so you're not angry with him after all," May sneered.
"Not like that! He got angry just to get angry, but I'm angry because he goes out of his way to make me angry! You understand the difference, don't you?"
"That you have a reason to be angry."
"Exactly!"
"And he doesn't."
"Yes, he doesn't!"
"Are you sure about that?"
What was May implying in the end? That it was her fault, that she'd done something that deserved to be yelled at by her pokemon? Well, let's see if the others felt the same way. Why doesn't she start by asking Pancham... who was fidgeting uncomfortably next to Braixen.
What's wrong with you all tonight? Serena despaired as she saw the vixen suddenly move away from the camp. She followed her friend, pushing aside branches to find her, but in the end it was the reptile she fell on first. Serena tried to back away without him noticing her, but someone pushed her towards him.
"Braixen!" she protested.
"A little courage. He behaved like the last of the idiots and he needs to hear it."
Serena puffed out her cheeks, in reality the dragon hadn't noticed her yet, lost in his thoughts. And then...
"Are you going to yell at me if I ask what's going on?"
"Char," he chuckled.
"Good," she sighed. "Because I didn't like what you did."
"..."
"It wasn't really the flower crown that upset you."
He turned his head away and bit his lip. Neither the wreath nor Serena, really, and yet it was Serena who had been used to vent his frustration.
"You didn't help us cook?"
"This is good, isn't it?"
He put his hand over his mouth, realising he was about to do it again. Serena frowned. She didn't look like she was thinking 'that's good' at all, though he was sure she'd had enough poisoned food.
"You're not that far away..."
"Ah? Well, I feel like I'm very far away from everything."
"Have you finished?"
Ash lowered his head. Yes, maybe he should be done with the 'I want to stay with Serena, I want to cook for Serena, I want to sew for Serena, I love...' lies. Everything the pokeball had made him say and believe, without fooling his true self enough to allow him to succeed.
"Now you're going to take a deep breath, come to bed, and tomorrow you're in charge of breakfast."
"What's the point?"
"It's simple: you're demoralised, sad and angry with yourself, so tomorrow you'll do it."
He smiled a little, but not the kind Serena liked. At least he didn't mind following her, although he refused to sleep in the tent in the end. He didn't want the trainer to notice the tears that were starting to well up, his throat tightening under the pressure of the sobs. It was Absol's fault, it was all Absol's fault.
He wouldn't get away with it.
Author notes : Well, I'm a bit tired at the moment, and I haven't been able to write... luckily, I had quite a few chapters ahead of me, even if I'm coming to the end again.
Absol is Serena's signature Pokémon in the video game, and when I first started writing this fanfic, I imagined him being the second Pokémon she captured in Hoenn (if you count Ash as a Pokémon), before eventually replacing him with Minun and Plusle. I'll explain why this change was made at the end of this mini-arc ;-)
Other than that, there was the Tera Leak, which not only talked about the video game, but also revealed a lot of lore about the Pokémon universe and the anime (I admit, it's good to know what goes on behind the scenes...). Including a certain part that was only hinted at without too much detail in the Sinnohh myths, and which I had mentioned before the leaks came out... Bad timing.