Broken Souls

Little Talks

Rose is fluttering by the window when I wake up. I didn't see her come in last night, although Ten did give me the rundown on what happened.

"Rose made an absolutely stunning speech... she's emotional as she was before, but she's not as childlike. In fact, she's quite eloquent. Never seen evolution make anyone change so fast."

"I don't think it was just evolution. I think she just grew up."

I wonder if Shell would have grown up had he been given time. The image of a glorious Togekiss with his patterns, his coloring... it's almost unbearable yet here I am, thinking about it. I wonder how my early Pokemon would have looked evolved sometimes. With Ten, I get to see him every day, but the others will probably be nothing more than fantasies. After all, I might never see them again and-

You're going to find them you're going to find them you have to.

My head burns. Lately I can't tell if the voice is mine or Celebi's, which means that we're either becoming closer in opinion, in mind, or I might just be going crazy. With my life, I'd say all of those seem like pretty valid candidates.

"Rose." I say.

She turns. "It was a really beautiful funeral, if you were wondering. We had a lot of team members to pay our respect too."

"I can't keep you here, Rose."
"I was born here! I can't leave!" She yells, frustrated. She turns around, her eyes twitching slightly and her smile far too wide to be natural. "Isn't that how it works? I don't know! I don't understand anything anymore." She gestures in exasperation to herself. "Look at me, Ashley! I just grew up in two days. Two days! I can barely handle my own body or my own mind. I'm not even the Togepi you knew anymore and I never wanted to know any of this either. I just want my family to be happy but you aren't and everyone's been dying this whole time and... and!"

"You're still Rose and we still care about you." I tell her, placing my two fingers under her head. Her eyes stare straight into mine, full of childishness still. She looks lost and alone but there's no way anyone but herself can help her. I can only do what I can to help her through it. "It's going to be okay."

She lands quietly. "Thank you."

Suddenly, I'm pounced on from the side, knocking me against the carpet. "Guess whaaaat?" Fang asks.
"For the love of Mew please don't tell me. It is way too early in the morning for this." I say, trying to pull myself off the ground.

Fang pouts. "You'll find out sooner or later."

"What did you do?" I ask.
"I kind of sort of woke up at 2 and trained Pisces up into a Gyarados. I just wanted to tell you before you accidentally tried to use her and broke the hotel." Fang is beaming all the while as if this is some major accomplishment.

"What?! I told you not to go out at night alone!" I get up, knocking him off.

"I wasn't alone. D'spinas helped me!" he says cheerfully. "I would never go behind your back unless I had a scapegoat to back me up, obviously."

"Right. Guess we're going to go then." I say.

"I'm not in trouble?"
"I don't have the energy to care anymore. I can't discipline D'spinas anyways. She's probably more on top of things than I am." I yell, "However, I think that ruined my appetite. Guess we're eating the granola bars again instead of getting breakfast at the hotel!"

The entire team groans. Even D'spinas shakes her head at Fang, who shoots her a look of utter betrayal.

After we've all been filled with the absolutely delicious granola (and a few candied Oran Berries- I'm not that cruel) we check out and head out towards the ocean. Sailors are all clustered around near the bars while the wind blows ominously over the poppies. The city looks less populous than yesterday- in fact, almost no one is here at all. It may be due to the cloud cover overhead, but it's not that much, is it?