Broken Souls

Born Again

 The next morning, there are puddles all over the town in the places where not long ago, rain fell and washed the blood out of the earth. Right now, the blood-colored mud and pale silver rain combine in the earth and the Slowpokes wallow in them, ignorant of death and fear. Their classification as psychic type still baffles me. Aren't psychic types supposed to have high mental abilities? Yet somehow, the creatures rolling around just feet away from me in the dirt are more apathetic to the world than any other being I've ever seen.

What if they're the smartest Pokemon of all? Perhaps they evolved to be so intelligent that giving up just seemed like the best option.

I bite my lip, tears returning to my eye. Half of me is begging to give in while the other half berates myself for even thinking about it. If I give up now, they died for nothing.

Reginae asks, "So, are we going to get out of here or what?"

Sunny hops up and down by Ten and D'spinas, both of whom are quiet. While I'm used to D'spinas saying nothing, Ten's silence is another kind of disturbing. He never saw a death while he was on the team.

I sigh. "I don't know. I was just waiting for someone."

"He's not coming back," Ten grieves.

Time turns in my hands. As if I was standing there myself, I see this place about a week ago. A red-haired boy leads a gang of savage looking Pokemon through, kicking away a tailless Slowpoke as he does so. He turns back to his team and swears in a voice that sounds like it's underwater and reversed. The Quilava, oh so familiar, begins savagely beating up one of the other Pokemon on the team, a Zubat so small that it's barely distinguishable from the grass. It squeaks and covers itself, crying for mercy.

"I wasn't waiting for him," I tell them. Silver is gone. I won't have to fight him this time. Disturbed by the images that still flash across my mind, I pace into the forest. The trees close in around us, the shimmering red and gold leaves forming a canopy of dappled light and shadow. These trees are some of the quickest to turn, but just the knowledge that it's already fall is somewhat disturbing. Has it really been that long?

A lumberjack waves to us. "Ey!" he calls, "Mind catchin-"

"Your Farfetch'd," I call back, giving him a weak thumbs up. "We're on it."

"Ashley, has anyone told you you're a little terrifying?" Sunny asks.

I shiver, glancing away.

"I didn't mean it in that way!" Sunny insists, seeing that she's hurt me. "I just meant... I can't believe you can see the future like that. It's so cool!"
"I can't see the future," I tell her. "I can only see the past. Generally things like that are best left where they were in the first place. Bringing them up does more harm than good."

"But-" she opens her mouth before I cut her off.

"It's... it's not really a superpower." I insist. I'd trade all my 'abilities' just to see my team one more time. I'm terrified of myself and who I am, what I could become, what I've done...

"It is if you can use it to help people!" she blurts out. Reginae rolls his eyes but there's a conviction between the two of them that seems powerful. I wonder if they've discussed something like this before.

You could save an entire world.

There's a shuffle of grass and D'spinas appears with a Farfetch'd writhing in the grasp of her drills. She has one around its stomach and another just under its neck.

"We got one!" Ten calls.

"There we go," I say, snatching the angry duck away with a slightly confused smile.
"Sure would be faster with five Pokemon," Ten says quite loudly, hopping along after the second one.