Broken Souls

Road to Ruin

Eight months earlier...

Reginae pushes another boulder over and the team bursts through like water out of a dam, filling the room and preparing to blast anything that moves out of the way. Aggressive as it sounds, we haven't gone completely nuts- the Pokemon in here are rough, rowdy, and they adore fighting. Ten grapples with a Golbat while Pisces has a Golem wrapped in the massive curl of her serpentine form, blasting water at several other Graveler as she holds him captive. I walk along them with my Pokedex out, keeping careful tabs on their health and PP. It's hard not to get excited about how fast the experience bars are filling up- at this rate, we'll be done grinding within the month.

"Did you hear that?" I ask them. "Within the month!"

"We know, we know. You've only said it a few hundred times." Fang smirks, Not as if we couldn't tell you're thinking about it.

I smile. The mental bond between the team is stronger than ever, and we can exchange thoughts at a moment's notice. The team surges forwards, alive with energy, and they all know exactly what to do before I say a word. We are ready to save the world, we are luminous, and I know I'm just getting caught up in their dizzying adrenaline but I can't help myself.

The only thing that can drag me down these days is on the side of the screen, staring back at me with a plaintive, unknowing sadness. In the bottom-right corner of the team overview rests one full health bar and an empty EXP bar, the small ? icon listed where a sprite should be and one word: Ethan.

Three months.

I haven't taken him out since.

I want to pocket the Pokedex, but for the team's sake, I keep it out. We haven't come close to an accident in eight days, since the time a critical Rock Slide bought Ten down into the red or 'danger' zone, HP wise, but you can never be too safe.

As I watch the numbers shift and stats rise, I notice a green light in the corner. I tilt the Pokedex and the light shifts. Huh. When I turn around, whatever it is is gone, but the whole team is looking my way now.

"Thought I saw something." I tell them.

"Me too." Ten says, walking over.

"Biiiii!" Down in the tunnels, something echoes off the walls, a beckoning cry from the one and only Celebi itself.

I know the team hears this, but if it is Celebi, it wants something and we'd better be there to figure out what it is. "Fine, fine... guess we're going then. Come on."

We know the cave better than I know New Bark's layout at this point, which is no small feat given that Victory Road is specially designed to screw you over each and every way it can. Still, with Pisces and Reginae's combined HM prowess, navigation is a cinch. We enter one of the largest rooms, which is filled with huge drops and even rickety bridges, and I notice that on the far eastern wall, there's a small opening.

"That wasn't there before, was it?" asks Minerva, echoing my sentiments before I can put them to words.

I shake my head. "Wonder what's in there."

"Rare candies. Twenty rare candies." Fang guesses. "Thirty rare candies."

"Arceus, I hope not." Reginae says, wilting a little as if just the thought makes him sick. He's just as big of a pansy as ever, I suppose.

"Legendary Pokemon. Say, who goes out if we get a seventh member?" asks Ten.

Ethan's Pokeball grows hot in my bag, to the point where I can feel its warmth against my side through the thick bag leather, as if to remind me that there's still a living, breathing being in there, stuck in eternal darkness in a place without time or space. Could I throw him into the PC system? Would he even be accepted, or would the digitalization corrupt him even further? Am I really doing him a kindness by condemning him to nonexistence rather than just killing him myself? Feeling sick, and hardly remembering how I keep getting on these trains of thought, I reply, "No one. All of you are a thousand times better than any legendary."