Chapter Two The Girl Who Was Raised From The Dead "Hey, I'm home. Ria?" Marina nudged the front door closed with her foot and pulled her backpack off of her shoulders, dropping it with a sigh. She slipped the trenchcoat off and hung it on a nearby coathanger without looking around. She stopped and listened. A scuffling noise made her raise a tired eyebrow. The noise came again, this time quieter. Marina guessed the sound was coming from around the lefthand corner of her apartment, just a bit ahead of the hallway she stood in. Suddenly, a flash of long, ginger hair and bright hazel eyes erupted from the corner and tripped on its own feet as the dark-haired woman blinked slowly. "You okay, Ria?" The brown-eyed girl stood up and shook her head, her hair falling in tangled waves around her flustered face. Marina narrowed her eyes and pursed her lips, too weary for this kind of hyperactivity. Ria Scintillation was her friend's name, and it suited her a bit less than most thought it should. Ria was the kind of person that was an optimist about almost everything and this feature always bugged Marina to a certain extent. Her spindly limbs made her look slightly anorexic, and her smooth, tanned skin mentioned a childhood spent in the company of Fire-Type Pokemon and hotsprings. Her hometown was Lavaridge Town, and prided in the fact that her cousin was the famous Gym Leader, Flannery. Marina always told her that, if she practiced, she would become a great Trainer like her cousin. Ria, only 15 years old then, had met Marina when she had beaten Flannery and had decided to tag along with her as she progressed. Four years had passed since then, and the two girls were almost inseperable. That trait was kept firm, and they had insisted that they worked together at the same job. She picked herself up and brushed away a few lintballs that clung to her shirt and shorts. She straightened her legs and unclipped a notepad from a belt across her waist and leafed through a few pages. She stopped on one page and scanned down a list with her left index finger. She poked the page at one point and said, "A-hah!" Clearing her throat, she announced, "You got a couple of calls today. One was from the insurance company; they said they'd have you insured for the Gym within about twenty work days. One was from your dad; he says his studies are doing great and he wants to chat. Another was from our boss. He says Matt's not going to be in on Thursday and that we'll need to work a few extra hours then." Marina groaned. The last thing she needed was more work hours. "And the last one, just a few minutes ago, was from Steven." She said his name with a teasing tone of voice that one might expect from a younger sibling making fun of their older sister about some boy she liked. "He said he's gonna visit soon and wants to spend a little time alone with you. Oooh!" Ria waggled her fingers and cooed at Marina. Marina reached out and grabbed Ria's puckered lips with her index finger and thumb. Her friend crossed her eyes and stared down at her roommate's hand. "That's enough out of you. Did you eat some dinner?" She released Ria's lips and walked out into the main room of the apartment....and nearly tripped over a short Pokemon. She yelped and sidestepped the Pokemon just in time for it to squeak "Cleffa!" and scuttle forward under Ria's feet. Marina lost her balance and fell down to the floor, her nose inches from the foot of the coffee table. She stared at the coffee table's leg, which she had narrowly missed falling upon, and let out a scared squeak that meant she had held her breath. Her left eye twitched, then she shivered and pushed herself up on her right arm, the one she had landed on. Looking at Ria, she raised her eyebrows and took a deep breath through her nose. "Ria, goddamnit. I thought I told you to keep that damn cotton candy ball with legs in its PokeBall. I've nearly tripped over that thing four times this week. If this happens again, I'm gonna end up cracking my head open on something hard." She ended her short rant and let out the excess breath, running her fingers through her hair. The Cleffa at Ria's feet cowered a bit at Marina's loud words and clung to its master's feet, snuggling its face into her ankle. Ria reached down and cupped a hand around her Cleffa's back, looking back up at her roommate. "It's not her fault, Marina. She likes to be free. A PokeBall's just too cramped for her." The Cleffa turned and clung to Ria's hand instead, rubbing her face into it. Her master slipped her fingers under its feet and picked it up. Marina snorted. "Right. It's definitely much more cramped in a nice, soft PokeBall than a small, hard egg banging aroung in someone's cluttered backpack. So, you never answered my question. Did you eat dinner?" Ria shook her head. "Well, then, where do you want to eat? Somewhere without coffee, I hope." She pulled herself up onto the couch and yanked her boots off, placing them under the table and leaning back, propping her feet up. Ria considered this and petted the soft fur of Cleffa, sitting down in her favorite reclining chair. Marina spoke in a quiet voice. "I met the most interesting person today." She tilted her head back forward to meet Ria's hazel eyes. "Yeah?" She set the notepad on the table next to her chair and cuddled Cleffa closer to her chest. "Yeah. I thought he'd be more handsome than he was. But it has been years since I left." She stood up, walked to the hallway, and grabbed her PokeNav from her trenchcoat pocket. Flipping it open, she scrolled down the list and stopped on her newest entry. She requested his picture and walked back to Ria, putting the PokeNav screen before her. She stared at it and said, "Ew. You're right. He IS ugly." "I didn't say he was ugly. I said I thought he'd be more handsome. I mean, look at Daddy. See what I mean?" "I guess so. But, hey, at least you got the good looks, not him." Marina closed her PokeNav and settled back down on the couch. Not long after she sat down, the phone rang. Everyone jumped. "Aw shit! Cleffa pissed on me!" Marina burst out laughing, then got up to answer the phone. When she picked up the receiver, the video screen blinked on. Ash's face showed up. But there was another face on the screen. This was a three-way call. ************* Ash and his companions walked through the Fortree City Pokemon Center door and stopped at the front desk. They pulled their PokeBalls off their belts and put them onto seperate trays with six circular indentations. Three Chanseys strolled through the main door leading to the Recovery Room and took the trays. The Nurse Joy behind the desk slipped a piece of paper in front of Ash, who leaned over to read it. It said: "New! Recovery Room is now equipped for quick healing. A few scans from a pure light will fix all status problems and physical injuries. Free to every Trainer." Ash ignored this flyer, mostly because it was nothing new, seeing as how he'd seen it when he'd stopped in the Rustboro Center. He thanked Nurse Joy and turned to take the tray holding his PokeBalls. They were still warm from the "pure light". He clipped them back onto his belt and walked toward the video- phones. Choosing one that wasn't in use, he picked up the cold receiver and dialed his house number. A few rings later, the video screen flashed and his mother's face appeared. "Ashie! Hi! I wasn't expecting you to call. What's going on, dear?" His mother's bright, happy face soothed him and made him think of home. Made him think of her warm, delicious food and his old, familiar bedroom. Her sunkissed skin was faintly lined with wrinkles and her lovely brown hair was beginning to show a gray hint of her worry for him. Her eyes were still the same chocolate hue, but they had the same lonely look they always had whenever he called. "Hey, Mom. Nothing's going on. Just thought I'd call and see how you were doing." He was interrupted by a disgruntled "Mr. Mime!" in the background, and a white face with blue crinkley ears popped onto the screen. "Oh, yeah. Sorry, Mr. Mime. You doing okay with Mom?" The Pokemon nodded and disappeared again. The sound of running water and dishes clinking told him that it was just after dinnertime in Pallet Town. "Nothing much has happened around town, sweetie. But there's a new baby coming around sometime this summer. The Johansons' are going to be proud parents!" She beamed, and the lines on the corners of her face and mouth deepened. "That's great! Tell them I said congratulations!" May, Max, and Brock had finished talking to Nurse Joy and reclipping their PokeBalls to their belts and had appeared behind him. His mother waved at them; they waved back. "Mom. There's something I have to tell you. It's a message.....from someone else." His mother's smile lines receded a bit as the corners of her mouth slightly dropped. She could sense the troubled tone in her son's voice. "From who?" Ash took a deep breath. "From someone I battled earlier today. She told me to tell you that 'Marina said hello'." There was a silence on the other end of the line. Mrs. Ketchum's face was lined with shock and faint horror. A slight look of remembrance and hope shined in her eyes. "Ash.........." "Yeah?" ".........There's something I have to tell you. I've been hiding it for years, but....." Her voice was punctuated with the beginnings of tears. "Keep going, Mom." "Show me what she looked like, dear." Ash held up his PokeNav, after finding Marina's ID picture. "..........." "Do you know her, Mom?" Mrs. Ketchum took a deep breath as well. A tear ran down her cheek, and she bowed her head. "Mom?" "Sweetie, I know I shouldn't have kept it from you for so long, but.......that girl is....your older sister." "WHAT?!" "It's true. When you were three years old, you can't remember this far back, she was ten. She had left our home, and your birthplace, for her first Pokemon." "Mom, are you telling me I wasn't born in Pallet Town?" "I'm afraid so." "Then where...?" "New Bark Town." "..........." "But, when she was going to meet Professor Elm's associate, Mr. Pokemon, she was waylaid and killed by two Team Rocket members. Her body was found three days after it happened. Her Pokemon was dead too. Their bodies were buried in the New Bark Town Cemetary." "Then.....she's a zombie?" His mother laughed tearfully. "No, sweetie. Somehow, she came back. And here I was worried that she wasn't killed at all. But I saw her body. I just can't believe she's alive." She let a few more large tears fall down to her lap. "Mom? I've got her number. Do you want a three-way call?" His mother considered this, then nodded, a warm smile spreading on her weary face. He put her on hold for a moment, pushed the three-way request button and dialed the number on the bottom of Marina's profile page. He pulled his mother's line back up as they listened to the tense tone. It was ringing. ************* Marina smiled. "Hey there, Ash." She looked at the other speaker. She had greying brown hair and deep indentations on her face, formed from age. She was crying, sniffling inbetween sobs. She held a hankerchief to her mouth and nose to stifle her sounds, but it didn't appear to be working. "..........Hi, Mom." Mrs. Ketchum wailed and buried her face into the rag. For a few minutes, the only sound on the line was her crying. Ash and Marina kept silent, waiting for their mother to wear herself out. The Mr. Mime from before appeared on the screen and held his master's shaking shoulders. "......I'm sorry I never called." Marina's voice was thick and sounded unstable. Her watery eyes betrayed her emotions. She seemed proud, but she was on the verge of tears. Mrs. Ketchum regained her breathing and sighed. "I-It's all right......sweetie." "Mom, if I were at home with you, I'd hug you." Her mother's face crinkled again, and a fresh wave of tears dribbled down her cheeks. "I....I love you." "I love you too, Mom." Oh, how she missed calling her mother that. She remembered all of Mrs. Ketchum's recipes, all her little tricks for making food taste just the right way. She missed all this, and she missed her mother's warm, enveloping hug, as well. She remembered the time she had run too fast and tripped, gouging her knee on the dirt path on her way to their neighbors' house. She remembered going home, crying and limping, and falling into her mother's arms. She remembered the stinging pain of the rubbing alchohol, the band aid her mother had placed over her aching knee, and the kiss that had been placed over it. The last hug she'd ever gotten from her mother was that day. Marina had been without her mother and her love for fourteen years. All the years she'd spent acting tough and unbending, resilient and strong, were falling apart, crumbling away. She felt a tear dash down her face. Then the dam she'd built up to prevent the tears from bursting out broke. ************* A half-hour later, Marina and her mother both had dry eyes. Mrs. Ketchum refused to be without her first-born baby again and demanded that both Ash and Marina came home for a little while. Both her children had agreed. They set a date, then said their last goodbyes. Marina swallowed another barrage of tears, then set down the receiver. The video screen died. Ria had been listening to all this from her chair, but she finally got up, set her Cleffa down on the floor, and walked into the kitchen where Marina stood, trembling. She tapped her roommate on the shoulder and wrapped her arms around her in a tight hug. The raven-haired woman bent down and squeezed her friend, digging her face into the junction of her neck. She let the tears come, and, for once in fourteen years, she felt like a paralyzing weight had drifted away with each new tear.