Metamorphosis (Pokémon Watties 2017)

8: Yveltal's Call

Kaden and Houndoom continued down the tunnel, weaving the twists and turns until it expanded into a large, open cave.

The cave was much larger than what Kaden imagined it would be, allowing for the light from Houndoom's flame to spread throughout the entire area. There were a few more tunnels feeding into the cave leading to different areas. The room as a whole was empty except for one tall rock sitting in the middle of it.

"Hello? Yveltal? You here?" Kaden asked mockingly. He continued to look around before shrugging to Houndoom. "Well, guess that was all just a dream. Honestly I'm not sure why I even bothered."

Kaden turned around to head back from where he came, only to hear a sharp voice.

"It would have been a foolish thing to avoid the call of the only one you ever connected to."

Kaden whipped his head around to see that the rock was starting to glow a deep red with a few black veins crawling up the side.

"Who's there? Show yourself!" Kaden remained confident as he spoke, staring at the rock. It continued to glow, growing in intensity until it let out a small explosion, knocking Kaden and Houndoom down.

As soon as the debris cleared, Kaden found himself on the ground, looking straight up at Yveltal. "Oh. Yveltal. H-Hi." There was an awkward sort of laugh behind the remark.

"You've been avoiding me for the past month and now you've finally come to seek me out? Why did you wait so long?"

"Oh, yeah. About that... I'm still kinda recovering from all of that." Kaden slowly spoke, a small tone of lying in his voice. "Not to mention I got thrown into another battle without proper equipment and took a pretty ugly hit. Fighting hurts, you know?"

"You really don't know when to stop, not even when it's for someone who's so unimportant."

"Yeah, I'm nothing special." Kaden laughed a bit. "What's your point? Didn't you realize you were picking a nobody when you picked me?"

"I wasn't talking about you, I was talking about that new travel companion of yours!" Yveltal almost hissed. "He's not even trained properly and you insist on even attempting to train him when you're not even close to being a good teacher, not to mention that partner of yours can't kill a fly, even if it means someone he knows will die."

"Woah, that hurt. Besides, Isa's not all that bad. He's got a lot of talent where I fall short. I'm a little hot-tempered and rash, but he's a slow thinker and much smarter than I am. Not to mention I might not even be alive if it weren't for him taking me in. Our differences balance each other out, and it makes for a pretty nice team."

"Whatever. You do realize that you lost four good fighters on that last battle, right? Everyone in Axiom thinks you're dead. You abandoned your Mercenaries and they ran the group into the ground."

"Well, psyche, because I'm not dead no matter what people think. And if the Mercenaries couldn't handle themselves without a leader or even try to organize themselves, then they didn't deserve the respect of Axiom in the first place. " Kaden started to get a bit more irritated as they continued speaking. "What do you even want with me?"

"Isn't it obvious? You messed up miserably, but you're still the only person in the region who can handle my kind of power."

"Well, did it ever occur to you that I might not want your power?" Kaden yelled. "Whatever it is you want with me, I'm done. I want to live without your stupid curse for once." Kaden turned around again. "C'mon, Houndoom. We're leaving."

The two of them began to head out, stopped when Yveltal let out an attack towards the wall they were heading for. "I don't think we're done yet."

"What is your problem? Can't you just let it go?"

"I know you want to rid this world of Valencia even more than I do. It's the main reason you chose to take that boy on his journey, isn't it? By going to Luminia, especially with someone to use as a bait, you can freely go after her. Stop her reign once and for all."

"That's not true! Not anymore!"

"So you admit that you once only thought of him as a stepping stone?"

"Yes! I- No! I mean- I don't know, okay?" Kaden screamed, refusing to look up at Yveltal. "It hurts. I know that Isa's just one of many people I could use to help me reach Valencia, but I've never felt so awful about it before. All those fighters that I went with last time were just faces and names, and now I feel like I'm actually meeting a person, someone who has their own goals and their own personality. I'm finally getting someone in my life who doesn't just want to use me for their own selfish reasons, and I can't do anything but feel like I'm using him for my selfish reasons. I don't even know why I'm screaming at you about it, this is a human thing." Kaden finally looked back up at Yveltal, failing to keep a look of dread from his face. "Everyone was right, there's no reason to get attached to people. It all just backfires in the end."

Yveltal was silent for a moment. "It seems you've learned. Your mistakes in the past are ones that you won't make again. Now accept your role once again."

Kaden started to refuse, but found himself being quickly cut off by a screech from Yveltal. The Pokemon rose into the air, a dark aura forming on the ground around it. The aura let out a glow of red before rising in the air around both Yveltal and Kaden. It faded out quickly, resulting in Kaden kneeling on the ground. "What was that?" He mumbled, slowly pulling himself up from the ground.

"I've given you back the full usage of your power. I trust that this time you'll be wise about it?"

"Yeah, like I'm irresponsible." Kaden laughed a bit, but stopped when Yveltal made no response. "Okay, maybe I act a little reckless. But I know my limits this time. Besides, I'm not just looking out for myself or a few people that I don't really care about, I'm looking out for Houndoom, Sandshrew, and Isa as well. You said it yourself, I've learned, and I'll keep learning."

"You did learn. You'd make your predecessors proud. Now, continue to learn, but always keep your end in mind."

"Not like I want to make them proud." Kaden smirked as Yveltal sunk to the ground. It curled its wings inward before touching the ground, forming a cocoon-like body that camouflaged itself into a rocky texture. He approached the cocoon, rubbing a hand against it. "Thanks for being better than the rest of them. I won't let you down this time."

Before leaving, Kaden noticed two stones on the ground. One was rainbow colored and attached to a string like a necklace, the other was set on a collar, colored with black and red. "Looks like the curse wasn't the only thing we got back, buddy." Kaden grinned a little as he picked up the rainbow stone, hanging it around his neck before fitting the collar around Houndoom's to match. "Come on, let's go find Isa."