From Everland to Reborn ~ Episode 63
Ok I lied again, this episode also goes pretty close to Reborn's story line. It's the next episode that will deviate a tad bit more than usual uwu
I was returning the way I’d come in to leave the WTC, when just as I was going to cross the exit, a dark entity pushed me away. The sudden appearance of Shade, the ghost gym leader, made Pikachu squeal in fear. It seemed that becoming a ghost type himself didn’t change his scaredy-cat nature.
“Forget not: Four screens foretold four souls’ fortune forsaken,” he said. “For, forsooth, from foreshadowed, only two will be taken.”
He said this much and disappeared without a trace. That was the most I had heard him talk, was my first thought. My second thought was, what the hell was that?
I knew he was talking about the edited videos he had shown in his Gym. There was no other thing that he could be referring to, that I could think of. To be sincere, I had actually forgotten about those videos because I took them for granted: at most, I thought they were spooky videos just to fit the spooky atmosphere of his Gym. However, now that they were brought back to my attention, I tried hard to remember what each of them had shown.
Corey’s death wasn’t a prophecy, for he had already leaped to his end long before I even saw that video. Then, there was an old woman… it took me a moment to remember what she looked like, but the garchomp on the video was so striking that I realized the video had foretold the death of Kiki. It hurt a little, to think that had I perhaps paid closer attention to these recordings and interpreted them as prophecies, I could have warned Kiki or Victoria of it and saved both a tragic separation. Alas, it was useless to cry over spilt milk.
Those must have been the two souls that were taken, according to Shade. The other two videos I barely remembered, but if they weren’t going to foreshadow anything, then I figured they were not important.
I headed out of the WTC, where I found Titania waiting right in front of the cascade. She was still holding Amaria’s limp body in her arms, sitting on the shell of Amaria’s lapras, which I recognized from that time we snuck into an abandoned factory together. I noticed that she was watching Amaria’s sleeping face closely when I approached her.
“It appears that Team Meteor had her stay asleep for this long. I found scars from maybe an intravenous drip or injections. There are no other signs of mistreatment, however.”
“She will probably wake up soon, now that the drugs were suspended.”
Titania looked at me and nodded. Was it my imagination? In the midst of all the exhaustion that was obvious from miles away, her expression seemed to have a tint of fear. However, the suspicion was quickly wiped away, when she shifted her gaze from me to the waterfall in front of her.
“Deliverance will take us up, so you don’t have to send out a water pokemon for us. Yeah, I didn’t need you after all,” she said. “And I’m not even sorry.”
She left me standing and Deliverance climbed up slowly but steadily, against the strong downward current.
Once they were out of my sight, I patted Pikachu’s head.
“I finished my business with Titania. Whatever she says, she cannot complain,” I said. “And now, I think I have a new business to attend to.”
Pikachu tilted his disguise’s head, which I interpreted as a sign of puzzlement.
“I have to… go to Calcenon. I told Shelly I would go once I finished this business. Yes, that’s it. That’s all there is to it.”
I sent Prince out of his pokeball and carefully held on to his back as we also went up the cascade. Once we were at last at the top, I hesitated in front of the entrance to Ametrine Mountain.
Ametrine City… no, Calcenon was there, through the mountain, to the east. When I thought that, I sighed because of my own stupidity.
“No. I shouldn’t lie to myself. There’s no one around that warrants lying,” I shook my head.
Pikachu said not a squeak, and so I confessed what embarrassing thoughts I had bottled up in my chest.
“The truth is, what Candy said about Aladdin has left me with discomfort. Similar to the feeling when you wear a button-up shirt that is too tight around the neck,” I said, but then chuckled. “I guess you wouldn’t have experience with any shirts.”
Yes, and now I was facing the mountain through which I could return to Ametrine City, the place where he had spent his last moments of life, and the only place where I knew I could access his lifeless body from. And yet, I could not deny my apprehension. As long as I did not find him, I could pretend he was still alive somewhere, still looking to hunt me down. The fact I felt such illogical fear made my blood boil, for it was, as difficult as it was for me to accept it, a proof that I still had some attachment to him. Candy’s words in the treatment center had only made that sense of attachment worse.
“But really, whatever the truth is concerning Aladdin and my escape from Everland… it’s no longer something I could figure out, and moreover it’s not something that should change my opinion of him either. He betrayed me in the worst possible manner, and nothing would redeem him.”
Pikachu looked at me and his squeak suggested a question. I then realized that I had been reflecting inside my head all along, so he most surely could not follow my thought process and why I was suddenly so angry. I apologized and patted his disguise’s head again.
Right then, I saw a shadow pass next to me on my left and make a U-turn towards my right side. The shadow’s movement was followed by a loud greeting.
“Vanini! Hello!”
The voice was Julia’s. She was still airborne when she shouted, but damn her voice was recognizable even though I hadn’t seen her for so long. Her ride pokemon, a large dinosaur with leaf-shaped wings, made a nice landing and as soon as she was earthbound, she ran over to where I was reaching the riverside. She jumped and hugged me tightly, almost pushing me to the ground. I was amazed that my back didn’t snap in two in the process.
“How have you been? It’s been so so so soooo long since we saw each other!”
I pushed her away, and agreed that it had been a long while. My eyes focused away from the green-haired cheerleader towards the dinosaur, which was called back to its pokeball by another familiar face. I wasn’t happy to see who it was.
“Florinia,” I said. “Now, what brings you two here?”
Perhaps Florinia sensed the animosity in my tone, but if she did, she showed no signs of it. Before Florinia could explain why they were there, Julia cut her short.
“We saw Amy and Tania riding up the waterfall, and so we were filled with big question marks. But seeing you climbing up too was like a giant exclamation point, so we had to come up!”
“It’s a long story, and I believe I’m not the best person to narrate it,” I shrugged, and started walking with them up the hill.
“It’s okee, we’re literally here so I’ll nullify my question marks with Amy and Tania. Oh oh wait! Rini! I think, didn’t Vanini leave the city before the renovations?”
“Indeed.”
“Oooh yes! Let me tell you all about it! You’ll be sooo surprised when you come back! I’d love to see your face when you see what we’ve done with the place. It’s done a head to toe makeover, except it’s a city, not a person!”
“Hold it. Candy already told me about that,” I quickly said, before I could be caught in Julia’s incessant blabbering.
“Candy! You mean the breeder? I didn’t know you were friends.”
“We’re cousins.”
Julia looked flabbergasted.
“What? I didn’t know. This is such a huge news! Rini! Did you know this?”
“Affirmative,” Florinia replied, but when we saw a helicopter fly by us in the direction of Amaria’s house, we all fell silent for a moment.
“Wow, it’s not often we see helicopters. Everyone being able to fly on top of pokemon and all,” Julia said, breaking the silence.
Florinia squinted her eyes and when she saw what she did not really want to see, she twitched a little- the biggest sign of emotion I had seen her express.
“Team Meteor confirmed,” Florinia said.
“Whaaat? They’re here too? I’m gonna boomboom their faces off if they try and do anything to Amy and Tania!”
Julia shook her pompoms vigorously and started climbing up the hill. Florinia and I followed her closely. I figured they had come to get the Sapphire bracelets that were under Titania’s possession. Taka… that coward must have radioed his father to drop everything and come for them, because otherwise it was way too soon for them to even know that she had taken their precious key. In any case, I wasn’t going to lose the chance to fight Solaris and humiliate him once again.
I reached the house, the air current from the helicopter which was suspended in the air close to the house’s ceiling, blowing up my long hair. I made a mental note of their location, since I presumed they’d have to come in through Hardy’s room and down the stairs.
Julia was already in the middle of alerting Titania about the situation when I entered the house.
“We knew they were coming,” she said with her usual indifferent tone. “I just didn’t expect it to be so soon.”
“I have an idea! Let’s lure them in and blow the whole place up on their faces, so that the rest of us can sneak out unharmed,” Julia suggested, because of course she did.
“Amaria was injured. She’s in the room in the back, but the drugging- I mean she’s still asleep. We can’t move her.”
Julia seemed genuinely concerned for Amaria and inquired after her health so much that Titania had to remind her that she had to focus on the Team Meteor situation.
“Well then, I don’t think there’s anything else to do,” the cheerleader said. “We gotta fight, fight and fight; we’ll win the day! We’ll send those Meteor jerks away!”
“Understood. Analyzing structure,” Florinia commented, and then looked 360 degrees around the house.
“There’s nothing to analyze. Take up defensive positions at the house exits. We won’t even allow them in,” was Titania’s suggestion.
Before I could remind her that Team Meteor was upstairs, Florinia upstaged me.
“Incorrect,” said she, and moved to the north side of the living room. “I hypothesize that Team Meteor will create additional entrance routes.”
“You ever gonna stop talking like that? It’s been how many years, and you’re still overreacting?”
Titania’s allusion to some event in the past that may have triggered Florinia’s robotic ways picked my interest, but I checked myself. It was the definition of not my business.
“Now’s not the time for that,” it was Julia’s turn to say. “Let’s listen to her plan.”
Florinia’s plan was to have her and me take the first line of defense. Since Team Meteor would likely come down the stairs, our positioning ourselves close to the room Amaria was sleeping in was optimal to protect what they were after: the sapphire bracelets. She then indicated to Julia to remain close to the healing room, because the large windows there posed an easy entrance route for the enemy. Lastly, she told Titania to be in the room with Amaria, so that she could be the last resort, in case we weren’t strong enough to stop them. Over my dead body, I thought, would I allow the likes of Solaris to defeat me. It would be unnecessary for Titania to do anything.
Just as we had finished taking our positions, Solaris came down the stairs as I had predicted.
TEAM RECAP
VANILLA RATES: REBORN CHARACTERS
Heh I wanted to get this episode out before I went to Japan for a week and missed yet another week without uploads
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