Broken Souls

There Is No "I" In Team

Reginae looks back at me reproachfully.

"Really? We fight and then you want me to do the dirty work for you? Unbelievable. You trainers are completely nuts."
    "Shut up and fight." I snap.

"Ashley, you can't just-" Ten says, ruffling his feathers, but looks at my expression, noting the smile that indicates that I know exactly what I'm doing and he nods. "Oooooh."

"Yeah, that's right. Let me work." I say quietly before calling to Reginae, "Tackle!"

Reginae doesn't move.

"Lumis, use Tackle!" Silver yells.

His Cyndaquil cheerfully cries, "Yes, sir!" in response.

After racing forwards to build up speed, the Cyndaquil slams into Reginae, pushing him back. He falls over onto his side, leaving skid marks in the dirt from the impact before getting up, bruised on the impact site near his head. He grimaces, legs shaking, but remains almost completely immobile.

"Oh for Celebi's sake, stop being stubborn! Razor Leaf!"

Reginae closes his eyes and stills himself.

"Tackle again!" calls Silver.
    He doesn't move as far this time, though the second bruise is already blistering an ugly dark green under his skin. It makes me feel sick even though we're in no way connected.

"Finish him with Ember!"

"Reginae, move!" My voice is shrill as I say it.

Reginae turns his face a little, the hot stream of fiery embers sizzling as they hit their mark. His every breath is raspy now, and the wounds look far too severe for something a level 5 Pokemon should be taking, but his eyes narrow and he ducks his head and brandishes his leaf.

"Reginae, you just have to trust me!" I yell so loudly that it makes my throat sore, although my hand is on his Pokeball as I say it.

"It's not going to listen to you. People like you were never meant to speak with your Pokemon!" Silver yells, his eyes alight with savage fire. Why is he so vengeful? In my timeline, he was a rebellious teenager and little more. I'm decently sure most emo teenagers are usually incapable of conjuring up emotions this strong unless they relate to how miserable their lives are.

The Cyndaquil rounds on him, fire brimming from its back and embers blazing everywhere as its shrewd eyes stare down at Reginae.

"Ember!"

A burst of flame shoots out and Reginae takes a step forwards into the fire and I feel something faint yank at me, a golden string binding us both about to tear him away forever. 

My eyes burst a bright gold, searing my retinas as my soul merges with Reginae's.

My own mind recoils as he pushes me back. Even at this young age he's insanely stubborn and he's determined to keep me out of his mind.

"Cut that out!" we yell, a single unified thought in the chaos.

Get out of my head! S-stop!

I try to make myself less intimidating, a radiant light, although I imagine just having someone else in there must be terrifying to him.

Although I've never had a Pokemon actively fight me...

The fire washing over his body proves to be a good motivator as he relents, and both of us take equal control.

Using his anger and my previous experience, we drive forwards and cut the Cyndaquil with our leaf, ignoring the searing pain all over our body as the stronger embers begin to slowly sputter out on our skin. We shake them off best we can and turn again for another attack.