Dill is fidgety in the morning. Of course, the rest of the team ignores it, everyone still filled with the joy of this last week. Every second of this has been too perfect to let go. Sky and Khrys are sleeping together, Sky hanging over his head, her wings fluffed up against her side, and Bronze and Lilly are already up. They're practicing a tango, an awkward one that involves Bronze spinning Lilly until it looks like she's going to throw up. She laughs the entire time.
Toxis is sitting in a corner alone. Dill is sitting closest to the bed where I reside.
Drowsily, I get up. "Morning guys."
"Morning." Dill says blearily.
"Morning." Toxis mutters.
"Morniiiii-" Lilly goes for another loop.
"Morning." Sky cracks an eye open to look at me.
"Morning." Khrys gives me the two antennae salute, then falls back asleep.
"Morning!" Bronze is huffing so hard I can barely make out the one-word greeting.
I get up, have my breakfast, and order a round of poffins for everyone in the team. The thing about poffins- you can order them home-made or all the way from Sinnoh and they're still the most delicious food on the entire planet. I can't get enough of them.
We check out after a while, and enjoy a moment of silence on the beach. I don't want to go. Ever. I want to forget my destiny and just stay here. Is that too much to ask? Then I think of everyone I mean something to. We. Everyone who depends on me.
The Ampharos at the Lighthouse.
Jasmine.
Miki.
Morty.
All the friends who've died for me.
I list their names silently, as if repeating them into the ocean will ease my slowly breaking heart. "Chompers. Gaia. Shell. Dusty. Ferro. Hershey. Peckers."
I withdraw my Pokemon one by one, until only Dill's left.
"Let's go."
The ocean is gentle at first, rocking us back and forth. As we go on, the waves become white and large as I am, with Dill struggling to keep me afloat. He doesn't talk at all, not even panting. The entire ordeal is eerily silent.
"Oh Arceus. Why?!" I yell.
Dill responds with a spray of bubbles as he charges through a wave. There's a screeching noise coming from my Pokegear. Is it broken?! Are my Pokeballs next?!
A crash of thunder sounds. Deep below us, I can see whirlpools forming. It's like Lugia is out to kill us. With my luck, it probably is.
Dill looks for any possible escape plan, but there is none.
"DILL! If we die..." I yell.
"What?!" He growls, trying to keep me up.
"JUST KNOW THAT YOU SHOULD ADMIT YOUR FEELINGS TO TOXI-" Seawater cuts me off. I've made him hesitate too long.
I fall back, down into the murky depths. Dill screams, trying to swim after me, but his form disappears in the froth.
I come to terms with it quickly- I am going to die. I struggle but only for the lives of my team. My own life is unimportant. I think about chucking the Pokeballs upward, but I know with continuous dread that it's too late.
What's going on? The pressure should have killed me already. That's when I hear it. A glitchy melody, almost disturbing in essence. Something is coming. The sound is pouring out from my Pokegear.
A smile appears first, and then the rest of the body. Red.
I gasp in surprise, and the water begins to choke me.
"Hello, Ashley." he says, his voice unchanged by thousands of feet of water. "What a shame, isn't it. Over so soon. I was enjoying your journey so much, too."
My eyes widen. What is he talking about and what does it have to do with me?
"This entire world is so fickle, Ashley. In fact, one could almost just call it... a game. The voices told me all about games. I was their puppet, heading towards a grand destiny. They talked all about me, gave my Pokemon names, and helped me finish the game. I beat Blue. But the thing about games... they end for the person who plays them. Never the one being controlled. They guided me up to Mount Silver. Can you guess what I was supposed to do there?"
I shake my head, slowly being drained of all oxygen.
"I was supposed to die. But I didn't. I got a new team to replace the one they had made for me. I realized that if life is a game... it was time for me to take the controls." The entire world around us is glittering. With... pixels? What the heck?!
"Stop!" I scream, "Please stop it. Let them go free. You can keep me."
Red tuts sadly and tells me, "I'll be free soon. There's only one way to get out of the game." His smile is impossibly wide, "I'm going to delete the save. Only a few days until I can access the data."
I'm both confused and terrified, thrashing and my tears mixing with the seawater.
He strokes my hair gently, and then looks at the Pokeballs. "You know what? It's been so much fun watching you play. Shame for it to end. So I guess... you get one more chance. If they die... everyone does. Everything. I will destroy this entire world."
He's not lying.
He's not lying.
He has to be lying.
He's not.
Data?
No. My life isn't a game.
I am not a puppet.
A wave crashes and he's gone. I'm on the shore of Olivine. My Pokemon are standing over me, worried.
"Ashley?" Bronze asks.
Toxis tries to push the water out of me.
Dill remembers. He may be the only one, but he remembers.
I try to stand up, to say something, to tell everyone it'll all be okay.
I pass out.
