Pokémon Obsidian | An Orre Fanfiction

Chapter 63: Bright as the Sun

Laila felt like she was in endless freefall. Her senses faded with all awareness of where she was and what she was doing. Everything was white. Her thoughts and hearing began to trickle back, though she wasn't sure if it she was really hearing rattling breaths, like the rasps of an unthinkable monster; or if she was feeling them, beyond the pit of her stomach and in her very soul.

What the actual fuck, Jamie? What have you done? What are you?

She felt something, a firm surface, below her feet. She couldn't see. Even when she tried to move her arms, to wave a hand in front of her face, she saw nothing but white.

Do I even exist anymore? I don't think I'm dead... or maybe I am. Maybe I died as soon as I fell in that hole. And then the question isn't what you are, Jamie... it's why. I know what you are, really... you're my brother. You're my brother who I know loves us all. So why? Why do you feel we let you down so?

Laila could almost hear distant chatter, like a busy airport where every voice was anonymous, yet distinct; or even as if she was underwater and they were fish bubbling by, too close to ignore but too far to touch.

'Charizard!'

In the tumult of her landing, if it could be called that, she forgot she entered the space on Charizard's back. Her shrill cry echoed, like a million mocking Murkrow mimicked her. Then it stopped. Charizard was beside her, in eerie clarity, yet she questioned if it was real or an illusion. Was its smile as kind as ever? Or was it a mocking snarl that would reveal itself as a monster if she took that illusion seriously?

She hesitantly reached for its claws. They were warm and real. It was no illusion. Charizard was there with her. In taking its claws, she finally saw her arms, her feet and... was it solid ground? Maybe all of this was an illusion. Either way... she and Charizard were there.

What did Raidne say?

'He wants to stop feeling. The simulations show that thoughts, fears and desires may manifest there. He hopes–'

I cut her off. Bollocks. But... the deepest thoughts, fears and desires may manifest here?

Is your deepest desire really to stop feeling, Jamie? Are your deepest thoughts really about Cipher, about strutting around in a giant flight sock and telling people they can call you "God?" I don't believe you. But... what is your deepest fear?

Do I even know you at all?

Maybe in that moment, knowing that was Laila's deepest desire, or maybe it was unknowingly Jamie's deepest desire for her to understand. She would never know, but it was something. Pallid colour crept around her like spreading blood, until she could see the 'ground' that held her. Floorboards. Toys and cushions were scattered. The walls were familiar blue. When Laila stepped tentatively towards the materialising window, she expected to see swirling white outside, but found her senses flooded by the restless steel vista of Castelia City. Trucks rushed. Yellow taxis beeped. She knew exactly where she was. It was the apartment where she grew up.

Yet she couldn't be there in Castelia City. Raidne said this space was like an Ultra Wormhole, but it wasn't an Ultra Wormhole. It was caused by damage to space and time. Unless she travelled across both, it was physically impossible that she was there, because another football player redecorated it when they moved out, but everything was as she remembered it... except who was in it.

There was nobody there. It was empty and silent, as if an ethereal veil separated it from the city's visceral pulse. Was it like that? Laila might not have known. If one of her parents wasn't there, a relative or close friend always was. It was never empty. She reached to open the creaky, aged windows. Rust flaked off.