Love in the Time of Trepidation

Chapter 12: An Abyss

I think I might have a problem with throwing my characters into water. I did it in Turbulence. Then again in Tenacity. Definitely did it in Tomorrow. Almost did it in Temerity. I even did it in The Soul Saga (please read and give thoughts). Now I've done it to Akari. Ah, well, Chapter 12 time!

Chapter 12

An Abyss

The lightning flashed as quick as could be, but everything else felt as if it was slow-motion. The fall took forever, and every jolt traveled at a snail's pace through the air, bringing with it more images. Akari's eyes were wide, taking all of them in during her descent, her hands still moving at her own speed to clutch the flute and stow it away. A cry rent the air, but none of it stopped her, the water getting closer.

It bubbled and churned, as if rising up to meet her. She braced for the impact, expecting all her body to shatter into a million pieces.

Nothing of the sort happened. Akari hit the sea, sucked under the surface and gasping for air. The feeling of familiarity rose inside her gasping chest, and she once more tried to claw for the surface. All of it was like that horrible nightmare when she had met Mesprit, the shadow closing her off from the light as she sunk further into an abyss.

Opening her eyes, Akari was assaulted by the salty sting of the ocean, but she refused to close them. Her body continued sinking, and a cough rising from her lungs sent bubbles towards the surface. Her chest burned, struggling and screaming against the fate coming to her, but the weight keeping her down was too much. She was drowning.

Yet, in a bizarre moment, she wasn't alone. There were people all around her, things she was seeing like a reeling slideshow that played across her retinas.

A meteor fell from the sky, like the one she'd noticed above, and there was a creature like golden light, radiating. And the plates were there, too, larger than ever. But they were mere pieces. Akari knew it. Something told her that, even though there was no possible way that she should have known it in the first place. It was something deep within the recesses of her memory. A shared experience.

I don't understand... Tell me! Tell me the answers! Akari coughed again, still trying to swim for the surface. She tried kicking, but another hacking cough assailed her, causing her body to double over in the sea.

"This is Adaman. One day he'll be chief of the Diamond Clan." Akari barely registered what she was hearing in her head, or what her eyes were seeing. Her breath was stilling in her body, unable to do anything but watch, the young Adaman behind a man that looked like his father. "You've not decided on yours?"

"We are not so quick to rush to judgment."

"Evui!" The sound of Eevee frolicking caused Akari to lift her head, and the sad cry of a flute followed. Akari's eyes threatened to close. The young Adaman and Irida looked so close. Or at least, at peace with each other.

More lightning flashed through the sea, causing a wave to rise within the ocean. Akari had no strength to fight it, and it rushed over her, pitching her body to the side in a mighty spin she had no control over. At the same time, it felt like it was taking her from one memory to the next, an older Adaman and Irida glaring at each other, some irreconcilable difference between them.

"You always just do whatever you think."

"Well, you've been no different, ever since we were children! Have you ever stopped to think you were wrong?!" Irida shouted. Glaceon hung her head by the woman's feet, and Leafeon, too, looked melancholic. "I don't need you to tell me how to lead my clan. And I don't need you to tell me what Almighty Sinnoh is. So just go, Adaman!"