Sapphire Aura: Prelude

and here's a (depressing) chapter

It came as a total surprise when Sapphire whipped out Gecko's Pokeball and dropped it onto the floor. No one knew what she was doing until she raised a foot and stomped on it, crushing the red and white sphere into smithereens. Instantly, Gecko felt a surge of something through his body, and he only realised that the bond he felt between him and Sapphire was gone, evaporated into thin air. 

He had been released. He was free. (Not that Sapphire was abusive in any way...)

"Sapphire..." he whined. Sapphire only nodded. It was noon by them, and the sun was shining directly overhead. "You let me go." Gecko's voice quivered a little. "Why?"

"Because I know how you feel about me," Sapphire answered. She was smiling and crying at the same time when she said this, but her voice was chilling to Gecko, a stab in the back. His heart hurt. "I know your personality. When there is trainer and Pokemon, there is a bond. If I had kept you any longer, you would feel that the bond between me and you has been threatened. You would harm Lucario, and I would not allow that. So for everyone's safety, I don't think I have much of a choice."

Sapphire turned and sprinted into the forest.

~~~

This isn't her, Lucario thought. She's usually calm and nothing would ever seem to shake her. But this... something is making her upset. It's likely Gecko and how unwilling she is to part with him, but her aura tells me otherwise. Whilst I can't read the reason because of her aura blockade, I know that it's not mainly Gecko. It's something else. Something else, mixed with her parting with Gecko, that's making her upset. Something big.

I have to find her. I have to protect her. That's my responsibility.

Her father entrusted me with her. 

I will never let Sir Aaron down.

Never.

~~~

Sapphire ran on, not stopping, until she tripped on a tree's root and fell. She wanted to get up, to continue to run, but her ankle refused to move. Frustrated, angry and sad, she yelled, breaking the calm exterior she usually wore. "Move!" She screamed. "You're my ankle! Move and let me run!" She knew, her ankle wasn't stuck under anything, but it just didn't budge, dragged along behind her like it was dead.

Tears blurred her eyes and slid down her face, stinging the bloody scrape on her right cheek. She swung one arm out, grabbing a tree root and pulling herself forward, but it was only for a few seconds before she collapsed onto the ground completely, sobbing loudly. No, it wasn't that she had a crush on Gecko as well, but she knew the pain, the pain from one of her past experiences.

And there was something much more than just a simple friendship between her and Gecko. From the day she had met Gecko, they had been inseparable, not as friends, but as the sibling that Sapphire never had. Spark was merely a friend, a good Pokemon that accompanied her, but Gecko, she saw as family, someone who embodied the spirit of a brother.

And yet again, family was being lost.

~~~

1000 years ago, near Cameron Palace

"Come on, Lucario! Let's play hide-and-seek!" Young Sapphire giggled and threw a leaf at the nearby talking Pokemon playfully. The Pokemon brushed the leaf off his fur easily and grumbled, but there was an evident smile on his face and a slight blush on his cheeks.

"Fine," he said. "Amazing how you never get tired of the game though." He put down the book that he was reading. 

"Because it's fun!" Sapphire squealed. Lucario sighed and shook his head. "You're it!" Sapphire commanded and ran off. Behind her, she could hear Lucario's counting grow softer and softer as she dashed towards the ginormous Cameron Palace. She counted the seconds mentally.