College is killing my brain…
Disclaimer: Pokemon belongs to Nintendo and Shogakukan Comics. This non-profit, non-copyright infringing fanfiction belongs to me under international copyright laws and taking it is plagiarism. Thank you. *Phantomness bows*
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks
Chapter 8
“Catelyn? I feel so tired.” Red told her. They had been chasing a Flygon for several hours and now Red’s legs were getting tired.
Lance nodded. “Maybe we should have expected it.”
“Wait! I have Aerodactyl!” Red released the fossil pokemon and both trainers climbed on as they took after the Flygon. “Aeroy, Hyper Beam!”
The Flygon faltered and began to fall. Red pressed his advantage. “Aeroy, use Ancientpower!”
As rocks trapped the ground dragon, Lance threw a poke ball.
Flygon was caught!
“See?” Red smiled happily. “I don’t break my promises, Catelyn!”
“Thank you very much.”
“Oh, it’s nothing1”
“You don’t break my promises… I won’t break your promises… ah, what fools we are…” Catelyn sighed softly, and Red blinked.
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t break my promise, and you can’t break yours, so how does this situation work out?”
“Catelyn? You’re not making any sense. Maybe it’s the heat.” Ash pulled out another bottle of cold water. “Drink up.”
Lance gave him a sad smile and drank the water, but didn’t say any more, leaving him to think it was a hallucination or something.
Well, now that they had a Flygon, where to head next?
“Catelyn?”
“Yes, Red?”
“Um… we’re friends, right? Until the End?”
“Eien.” Catelyn said, and they pinky swore.
It was dark, so he didn’t see the tears in her eyes as she turned away. He was too busy rescuing his marshmallow from the hungry flames anyway.
Ah, how foolish humans are, how false emotion is.
Is all love an illusion then?
“Gyarados! Use Hyper Beam!”
“Counter…”
“No! My Gyarados!”
“Sorry, kid, but you lose.”
“That was wonderful, Red. How did you teach her Counter?”
“Oh, that’s my little secret…”
Time End
“Catelyn, you seem sick to me. What’s wrong?”
Lance shook her head. “It’s nothing.” If only it were nothing. Two guardians sharing the burdens of three, and one already burnt out…
“It’s not nothing. You seem sick. Are you anemic?”
That excuse would work well enough. “Yes. I think I forgot to take my vitamin iron pills though….”
“Oh no!”
“Don’t worry, I’ll take them today and I should be back to normal soon.”
“Really?”
“Sure.”
And he watched as she swallowed the white tablets and smiled and felt better, but if he had known what they really were, perhaps he wouldn’t have.
Still… we all do what we must to live, even if this pitiful existence is a half-life…
“Catelyn. You are sick!”
Red was slightly unnerved when he saw her with only a t-shirt and shorts on, but there were horrible mottled bruises up her legs and arms. “Where did those come from?”
“I don’t know.”
“What if you have Leukemia? That’ll be bad!”
Oh, how to tell them that they were the remnants of the injuries Yellow had inflicted at Cerise?
That would mean revealing her true identity and she could not do that…
Even if one switches bodies, some scars remain, and these are on my soul, failure for what I did not accomplish…
I’m sorry…
And until my promise is fulfilled, they will not vanish. That is why I wore long sleeves and hid it with illusion and glamour and concealer…
I wish…
I wish this were not the case.
I wish you weren’t here to stop me…
But I don’t wish to not love you…
“Catelyn…”
“Red, it’s time you got it straight. Catelyn is not real. She never existed.”
“Nani desu ka? But if you aren’t Catelyn, then who are you? Or is…. Or are you a Ditto?”
Foolish child. “Catelyn was simply a cover.”
“A cover?”
“To see what I was – to see what I will be up against now that Yellow are that blasted Pikachu are gone.”
“I don’t understand…”
“You will soon enough.” And then the Viridian Power flared to life in her eyes, bright and blinding and wonderful, and she seemed to glow and fade and change…
Red staggered back. “No! It’s not true! We’re friends!”
“Ah, I bought your friendship for a suitable price.” The Dragon Master laughed. “You trust too easily.”
“Stop it! I won’t believe you! You never hurt me!”
“How else was I to get you to trust me?”
“Then… then those two years we traveled together meant nothing? I thought we were friends…”
“Oh, but I shall not let our friendship stand in my way. I have a prophecy to fulfill and a debt to pay, and I will pay it!”
“C-Catelyn…”
With a flash of light, the Dragon Master vanished, leaving Red feeling hollow….
End Chapter
Lance: Damn, you wrote angst again? *Chains Phantomness up*
Phantomness: *Hangs limply* Uh, college has fried my brain… I can’t write anymore….
Completed 9/26/05
Stupid Oceans Midterm…