Broken Souls

Bleeding Black

"Ashley," asks Reginae, his voice shuddering. "How did she die?"

Dill passes across the ocean in my mind. I remember why he did it. I remember Red on the side of the ocean. There's no way this was some accident.

Dill. You have to find Dill. You have to you have to you have to-

I place her body down and ignore my Pokemon's concerned gazes.

"Ashley-" Ten reaches out with a wing and I bat it away. I turn around with narrowed eyes.

"Don't." I say. "Don't touch me."

Luna's body lies heavy in the sand, turning with the waves as if she was still breathing. As if there was something still tangible and real heaving the carcass of what once was an ally and now has rotted all the way through.

I feel breath on my neck and get to my feet numbly. I hold out a Pokeball. "Everyone back."
"Ashley, what the hell is wrong with you? First Luna dies with no warning and now you want us to leave?" Reginae asks, grimacing. He takes a step back into the sand and I withdraw him. Four flashes of light silence the rest of my team.

Reginae's Pokeball squirms in my hands and in a blaze of blue he exits furiously.

"You don't control me." he tells me. I recognize the aroma in the air- Overgrowth. As he calms down down, the aroma goes from overwhelming to mildly pleasant. In the dusk air it's clear that he's grieving as much as I am. "I don't want to be alone in there right now. I want to help. We can find what killed her. We can-"

"Go on then." I say.

"What?"

"Alone." I reach out a hand. Celebi's power flashes cruelly about my fingers. If I wanted to, I could reach out with the force of every vine in Illex and strangle him alive. I haven't tested the upper boundaries on my powers yet. There are no ceilings on what I am capable of.

"Is this how you treated your other team?"

I scream, pain drenching my body and anger lighting up every last nerve. Celebi's might drains away from me and I can feel breath on my neck again. I know he's there I know it I know it and there's nothing I can do and Reginae is staring at me like I've gone insane.

Eyes brimming over with tears again (weak, weak, weak) I run the other way, a silhouette against the bright lights of Olivine pubs. My feet carry me over the city borders and past the poppies, past memories and the sun goes up over my head again.
Time blurs around me. Multiple universes collide overhead, the streets full of young poppy flowers and Morty, two years younger than I, and still completely alone. At his side walks a handsome Croconaw. He's holding an egg in his arms.

"Can you believe that kitsune hatch from eggs like normal Eevee?" Morty says, clutching it tightly to his chest.

"Can you believe we have one?" replies the Croconaw. "We're going to take Jasmine DOWN."

Morty nods. "Yeah, but we can't do it with her. She's going to be so young."

"Then I guess we'll have to protect her. It's not like we can baby her forever, though."

Morty holds the egg tighter against him. "You just want another fighter on the team. We're a family, Galabros."
"Whatever. Jasmine's still going down."

Snip.

A twelve year old girl wearing a green hoodie and an obnoxious smile races her Pokemon through the trees. They soar over her and by her side, the lot of them just as dizzy with enthusiasm as she is. Among them is a Nidorino and an Eevee, the two of them so close by each other's' side that they are almost touching. Further up, a child who has not yet learned to love is about to find out what it means to hurt.