Pathos「Pokemon Fanfiction」

Fourteen

Chapter Fourteen: Glassy Sky

He couldn't seem to feel his feet as he followed his brother, shoes crunching along the sandy path and eyes focused on the back of the other boy's heather hair.

His heart curled at that. Avis looked far too unnatural like that, with a figure that was automatically poised and tense and a hand gripping at his old sword while he walked. He knew his brother to be someone much more relaxed than that.

Aiden wanted to reach out and talk to him. Tell him that he didn't need to keep up the act and that everything would be OK—but he couldn't and he didn't even know if everything was going to be fine. He couldn't comfort someone with that.

Instead, he settled for following his twin back to Kalos' headquarters. One glance up at the swaying leaves in the night sky told him that it was windy out, but he wouldn't know about that.

After all, he wasn't able to feel anything much now. His senses had melted into a dull puddle of blurred feelings, and such a simple caress like the wind's touch couldn't be felt against his freezing skin.

Would he want this? The boy flitted into a slight state of panic as he reflected on the question. I mean, he never seemed to want me around. If I was alive, I would have been bothering him or something.

He then remembered that the whole issue was happening because he was dead, and that things would have stayed alright—sort of—if he'd just stayed alive.

That made his eyes sting, but he didn't cry. Being in the army made sure that he never cried easily—when someone like him saw something like death so often, it got stuck in his head. Someone who had death in his eyes wouldn't be able to cry like that.

And he was a ghost. Someone who's own emotions should have been wiped into grey along with his life.

The fact that he was dead didn't change anything about them. He was still far too naive and emotional for his own good, and he wondered if he was lucky to still have them inside a cold heart that couldn't beat any more.

Aiden jerked as he realised that his mind was drifting off, and he looked up to see that they were approaching the makeshift building where Avis had wanted to go. It wasn't fancy by any means; no one had bothered to put time into a temporary base, but he was glad for it. He wasn't sure if he could stomach seeing the place where he used to work.

A familiar man was standing at the headquarters' entrance. It took him a few moments to recognise the captain he used to work under, and that alone made him want to turn tail and run because holy shit he couldn't take everything in at once.

Just as Avis opened his mouth to speak to the older soldier, he stopped himself with a sharp intake of breath and turned around. He couldn't do it.

He forced an apology to the both of them as he took a step in the opposite direction.

§

He was almost back at Yan's shop when he noticed it.

The tip of his fingers glowed a little too much to be right. They rippled in places whenever he passed through a surface, more so than what was healthy for a ghost, and the only thing he could conclude from the dim light causing his skin to seem a bit too see-through was that—

—Lacia's spell was starting to take effect.

It didn't hurt, just as she had promised. He didn't know if it made him feel any better, but he supposed that he was relieved. This was how they'd planned everything to work out in the end—it was all up to fate in the end.