Pokemon Ranger: The Hero of Oblivia

The Martyr

Confession time: I wrote this chapter back in September, but I hated how I wrote it, so I never posted it. But that wasn't fair to y'all, so here it is in all its glory.

I darted through the temple, my bare feet hitting against the tile. Though I could never fall asleep with this much adrenaline pumping through my veins, I felt so tired that I could collapse. Urging myself to go on, I suddenly wished that I had brought somebody to support me.

Maybe that little Piplup would've liked to come with me. Well, too late now. I skidded to a halt when I heard loud footsteps coming my way. I hid behind a chiseled pillar, even though the footsteps were coming from behind me, so they had to have seen me, right?

I got my answer when a cold metal hand clamped down on my shoulder. In reaction to the sudden action, I kicked him hard. While I'm weak in all other aspects, I can give a nice kick every once in a while. The man's grip loosened up just enough for me to slip my hand out of his grasp. I panicked, making a run for the other side of the hallway, hoping that the tablet I was supposed to destroy was nearby.

The man yelled at me to stop, to which he got angrier when I didn't. Did he really think that I'd stop running because he said so? He was catching up to me, even with all of that heavy armor. I just wanted to sleep. Is that too much to ask?

The man reached out and grabbed me from behind, pinning my wrists behind me. "Who are you and why are you here?"

"I'm here to kick your ass." I retorted, writhing under his grip.

The Steelhead didn't react to my statement, only repeated his first question. "Who are you?"

I heard Celebi before I saw her. "My Lady, are you alright?" She asked, appearing in sparkle of green light.

I squinted as I spotted her above me, hiding in the rafters. I grinned, an idea coming to me. "Call me Lady Light because you're about to see it." I said before nodding at Celebi. "NOW!"

She dropped onto his head and he instinctively dropped my hands to shoo her away. Taking this as my chance, I kick him away from me and he collided with a pillar, making a loud noise. I heard dozens of footsteps coming from all sides and I grew concerned. My foot hurt from kicking his armor, but I snatched Celebi out of the air and booked it away from that area. I ran past hundreds of guards that were all trying to catch up to me, but I ran and ran.

I wasn't sure how none of them caught up to me, and I didn't care. I was focused on destroying the tablet and then nope-ing the hell out of there. After long last, I found the tablet after going up a flight of stairs, like last time. Unlike last time, however, I was now being chased by dozens of men who were stronger and armored.

And, lo and behold, there sat a steelhead guarding it with his trusty Sandslash. From behind me, I heard one man shout out "Why is someone from the Light Temple attacking us?"

And now I'm confused. Did they think I was one of them? Maybe I could play it off...? It was a million to one shot. But maybe, just maybe they're as stupid as the Pinchers and would fall for such a lie.

"Did my messenger not alert you to my presence?" I asked in a snobbish voice. "Because believe you me I will be having some words with your higher up."

They didn't look fully convinced. "Why are you wearing such a strange garb?" Another asked.

"Do you seriously expect somebody at the Light Temple to where the same clothes as you brutes?" I wrinkled my nose in a prissy way, as if disgusted that they had the gall to speak to me.

"Um, yes." One murmured.

I heard shifting behind me and turned to face the one guarding the tablet as he ordered Sandslash to attack me. The attack never made it to me before Celebi nudged me back. Flashing her light, the Sandslash blindly slashed around, hoping to hit its intended target. I felt a little woozy and had a sudden urge to slash at things, too. I restrained myself, but it would be so easy to just reach out a hand and—

My thoughts ended as I saw that Sandslash, while not hitting his original target, had hit something nonetheless. Celebi's light died down and she fell to the hard temple floors. I belted out an ungodly scream and picked her up. She was bleeding and it didn't look good at all.

I turned to the Steelhead that commanded the attack with tears beading up in my eyes. I gave him a hard glare. "How dare you!" I held Celebi close and got ready to fight.

Who cares that the odds are against me? Who cares that I may get hurt? Who cares that I wasn't a good fighter? Rational thoughts don't exist in this very moment. Only revenge for hurting Celebi.

I ran at one and screamed only for me to be transported mid-scream. I stopped as soon as I realized I was now back in the present and Ben was close enough to hear me screaming.

Confused, I looked down to see Celebi panting heavily in my arms.

I ditched my clothes before I realized that my uniform was back in the past. I remembered my backpack and turned it to face me. I unzipped the bag and took out some of the clothes I bought at the market today and quickly dressed myself, stuffing the outfit Caiya made me into the bottom of the ugly yellow backpack. I pulled out the salve and bandages that Dr. Edward gave to me and pulled Celebi close to me.

"Lady, you must be more careful." She said, attempting to smile through her pain.

I realized that I still had tears in the corners of my eye that refused to fall even after all of this. I realized that what had happened to Celebi was my fault for not paying attention to what was going on around me.

"I-It's not your fault." She insisted.

I scoffed. "I was dumb enough to think I could pull off that act." I said, the tears finally falling. I hugged Celebi close to me and cried. "Am I only going to learn my lesson after people get hurt?" I asked. "You should've just let me take the hit. Maybe it would've knocked some sense into me."

Looking at wound on Celebi's chest made something in me snap and I found myself start to shake. One thought rang through my head on loop:

I can't do this. I can't do this. I can't do this. Oh, ARCEUS, I can't fucking do this.