Chapter Text
Aya turned the black and green cube over in her hands, tossing it just over her head (which even with her rapid healing rate, it wasn't very far) and catching it again. Her fingers closed over it wetly, almost falling due to the weight of the bag now with the heft of the shrunken golden hammer along with the water.
(She really didn't want to ask for a new bag but this one was just too waterlogged.
She couldn't lie and say it wasn't convenient. HMs and TMs were bullshit at worst and powerful moves at best. And they were gated behind a badge lock that was worse here anyway so she might as well just do it herself and save her pokemon some energy.
Now she had no clue what this thing was aside from a cell cube that had no controls, but that weird guy had said if she kept it around while traveling it'd fill up with cells and they could create a zygarde. A new zygarde at that.
Or maybe the one in Kalos had gone missing. She wouldn't be surprised. Tanis would know probably, Tanis knew darn near everything and Aya wasn't going back to Kalos any time soon to find out. Not even to see her best uncle ever. So she'd just keep the thing on her. What harm could it do, really?
She rehooked it to her bag and made her way to the train station. Three hundred poke later, she was off, staring off at the passing trees.
I'm just sayin' there's a difference between choosing to do something and someone choosing to do it for you.
"Easy for you to say," Aya said to herself, tossing the cube again. "Everything's been chosen for you even when it was by you, you don't even know it yet. That's what good parents are for."
That was the main difference between people from Ecruteak and cities like it from the rest, who put everyone through some list of rites of passage that took you away from your parents a lot and those that just put them in school or work until they were old enough to bunt off the property. Nothing wrong with those it was kind of a money issue and Aya loved the freedom of Pallet Town more than she loved almost anywhere else. Ecruteak demanded its expectations be followed. It was the only way they could survive.
"Let me go! I can save them! Let me save them and I'll help! I promise! I promise!"
"When we're ready, when we're ready. There's time. We have all the time in the world."
That didn't mean she forgave them for it, mind, but the point was made.
Pich popped out of his ball and settled on her lap without delay. He took up more of it now but she didn't mind. "Feeling okay after all that?" He chirruped a reply and her hearing aids translated as pokemon cries rather than what they usually were, so she took it well. She stroked his fur, then his ears, then-
She caught her hand brushing towards the other seat beside her, the cheerful voices thrumming in her bag.
It's okay, Aya-chi. We're here.
Aya forced herself to breathe, and closed her eyes as she leaned against the window. She didn't feel its chill in the slightest and simply slept on, content this train wouldn't explode. Likely because Melia wasn't on it.
She was right.
As she slept, her cybernav pinged with a message. Pich saw it but seeing as he couldn't read, it meant nothing to him.
Route Two was coated in the smell of cherry blossoms. Her body ached with the weight of it, looking down to see wasted cherry pits and stems and the smell of it was just above cough medicine. She took a deep breath, pulled the knife from her boot-
Then replaced it just as quickly. No she didn't need to regenerate her sense of smell over something like this. This was minor, not important-
What bothers you is important to us, Aya-chi.
Aya ignored this one, and that was the only reason she wasn't bowled over by the person who slammed into her and her bag-
And suddenly there was a tug, reached into her bag and the most important, the most necessary like a lung, torn out from her-
They cried out in confusion, in pain even. And the person laughed.
"Whoops, sorry!" But they couldn't have been sorry, because they were leaping the rocks and their hand was glinting with-
Aya-chi! Help!
gold and silver.
Aya did not even stop to breathe, to remember the pain, to remember, remember-
No!
Hands kept her away, bodies, a dead one, a familiar one, kept her to the side even as they screamed-
No.
Aya leaped after the thief. Pich squeaked on her shoulder, then her head but Aya barely heard it the only thing that registered in her brain were four voices screaming for her help and by the gods who had abandoned her she was going to save them. No one else would, no one else cared, they just cared she was alive and-
Never again. Never again.
If there were scorch marks left behind, she didn't notice them or care to start.
Nim honestly was having a blast today.
Well, correction, this week was pretty okay. She was alone and that wasn't fun but she got to watch Venam pretend she was a tough gym leader when she wasn't. Well, okay she was super strong because she was clever. She wasn't smart but she was clever and everyone underestimated her because she was the first challenge, the first threat. Even her friends really, and if they weren't destined for Nim to destroy her on the battlefield she was pretty sure they would be great friends too.
But then… oh then. She'd seen Aya. Was she a powerhouse or what? And she'd looked into it, little brushes, not much. She wasn't a dab hand with computers, no one of her village was really. But Jenner left his files out, she could easily lockpick a drawer while he was out with something.
Well, at least until yesterday when there were creepy Xen grunts everywhere. Also the entire password system had been changed for someone else, which was weird flex but okay.
Still, she'd found something. And she had to see it for herself.
After all, someone who had a folder with one redacted version and one unredacted but impossible to open with psychic power folder (and some weird tape too!) had to be at least a fun battle.
Now to look at what she'd grabbed to get the girl's attention. Most people were smart and kept their money at the bottom of their big items stuff. It was a lot of work (for someone without psychic powers obviously, for her stealing was like eating cake!) but it was supposed to be worth it.
Except she hadn't pulled out a wallet or a change purse at all. Instead, she picked up a shrunken gold and silver pokeball. And it was much, much heavier than it should have been.
Well, that explained why she was a redacted trainer. This girl was loaded. Oh she was gonna have to sell this if she got to Sheridan scott-free.
Her nose twitched and Nim threw herself to the left and a fireball the size of her head shot past. Huh. A one-badge trainer couldn't have done that.
Except another showed up. and another. They were getting annoying to dodge. And terrifying because they kept-
Getting-
Closer.
Nim vaulted over a rock and seconds after she hit the ground again the rock exploded into molten, burning stone that hit the dirt and almost scorched some trees. Some aipom fled, shrieking their terror. Well it wasn't her fault.
Nim made the mistake of turning around.
And promptly ran like hell.
Blood and fire chased after her, moving at a pretty fast speed for someone so damn small.
"Give it back," hissed in her ear, almost in her brain, if she didn't know better and know her defenses were top notch. "Give them back. Give them back."
"No thanks!" Nim shot back, spinning with laughter again. She ducked. "You snooze, you lose!"
The noise that came in response to that was definitely not human.
Nim made a face. Honestly it was just a joke, what was she getting so worked up about? Still, if she was gonna be such a pain about it, she'd have to turn the tables back on her.
She made to concentrate, imagining the place she liked to call home some of the time. The steady thrum of the mind, some people would call it. Others would call it hocus pocus. But it was just a place, a place that existed. Who needed words to justify existing? That seemed stupid.
The terrain wavered behind her eyelids. simple enough. Now all she had to do was reach and pu-
Pain raced up her hand, her arm, her shoulder. The smell of smoke and roasting meat filled her nose.
Oh, she realized, the thoughts struggling through molasses. That's from me. I'm on fire.
Then the panic set in and Nim pulled on the world around her just as a slim hand grabbed her burning wrist and
They collapsed in the comforting thrum of purple. Nim only had time to take a breath before the girl was on her, fingers sinking in and single-mindedly shoving her wrist down and pulling her prize from her fingers.
Then the girl was gone, bolted to the other side of the field, clutching it tight. At once, it felt like a great weight had been torn off her shoulders and back, like the ball had weighed more than the old gods themselves. Which was great, but it didn't stop the burning. Instead she rolled in the dirt, scrounging and shaking until only the pain and smell remained.
And then footsteps, skitty light and quicker than feathers. The girl -Aya- was on her again and Nim made to twist away. But the hand grabbed her again, no less firm but much gentler. Nim however, twisted, and jerked and failed to move.
"Hush."
The single word echoed across her domain, her place of power, and the power did not come to her like she demanded of it, pulled through. It even seemed to ignore. "I can't fix it if you keep moving."
There was still something hoarse in that voice, raspy and old, but there was a little kid in there again, intent with gentle, small fingers. "I shouldn't have burned you for that, even though that's what we're taught to do." She made a quiet noise, like a flower opening its petals to the sun. A word that Nim knew from her sister by name and spirit.
We Who Walk With the Gods.
All in capital letters, all pronounced and heavy and knowing. There wasn't a real translation of the sound or the phrase, possibly in what the old tongues called Aramaic, but the phrase passed down Sashila from end to beginning to end again. Not the Garufa so much, perhaps the people they worked with at times, the old ones, but even they were nothing compared to the First of Sinjoh. Those who stoked the fires and made the contract. Climbing unbearable trials without capsules and with armors and blades and souls bound, reaching the healers. Those who walked on in the old times.
Well, Nim thought through the deadening pain. That explains a lot.
Finally, the pain fell away, everything around her much more purple and a little less white-hot. Nim forced her eyes open and once again met that vivid red. Immediately Aya scrambled backwards towards the closest wall. Her small hands clenched tight around the large sphere, eyes narrow and cool.
Nim settled in her semi-sitting up position. "I, uh… sorry about that."
"You should be," said the girl, looking at her like spearow at rattata. "Why would you steal it?"
"It was there." And just saying hello, nice to meet you is boring. And I'm tired of boring.
"And you had no idea what it was." There was something barely level in her voice. "This means, they mean so much to me and you did this because you could."
"Yeah I did." Nim scratched her head. "My bad, I guess."
For a moment, red fire flickered at her feet. Then it slipped away. "Where are we?"
Nim let herself grin. "My turf. And I'm not letting you leave without a battle." Getting to her feet, she almost slipped again, her head starting to throb. Note to self, she started again. Bringing more people with you is more energy than usual. Should have been obvious really. "This is my turf, you can't just win on my territory."
She meant it more jokingly than she probably sounded, based on the way that Aya rolled to her feet in a single smooth motion, pokeballs raised, it fell flat. "Let's go."
Nim's shoulders eased and she grinned.
Aya was really, truly not in the mood for this girl. All the good will she'd been trying to build up, all the energy, everything, was gone to be dramatic.
We're okay, Aya-chi, one voice assured, steady as ever. Kick her ass and keep moving.
Don't curse, Rit-si, chimed another voice.
Aya suppressed a grin and whistled. Isaiah bwarked and smacked hard into the nearby solrock, followed by the lunatone. Which in turn threw her brionne to the ground. Eevee twitched from by her ankle, having released himself at some point again, when she'd returned him so she didn't accidentally burn him on her rampage through the route. (Hopefully she didn't burn down the blossom tree).
She glanced at him. "All right," she said softly. "Go on."
Eevee took off like a shot, barreling into the solrock face first and shining purple.
"That's a cheat pokemon!" called her opponent. But she was smiling, a manic smile that would have made Aya feel homesick if she wasn't so gosh darn tired.
"Only because you don't have one," Aya replied. "Shadow Rush!"
Her eevee made a noise that could have been a cackle, and he took off running again. His fur blurred from shrouded in purple to red.
"Be careful!" she shouted as instead of actually being careful, he ate a psywave full force to the face and bounced off the wall. He made a growl of discontent and raced back into the fray, barking and growling in one spot as Isaiah danced through the air cloaked in water.
"Get the weird one!" the older girl called, pumping a fist that also seemed to shine.
The solrock and lunatone obeyed, swooping around her eevee surprisingly without immediately knocking into each other despite going in opposite directions. Eevee ducked underneath, rolling away and bolting back to Aya without even being told.
Aya stared at him. "You're cheeky." But she accepted it because her eevee was at least crazy, and sent her barky, big, now very orange dog into battle. Her fangs still sank into rock for very little, but it distracted the solrock enough for Isaiah to shoot bubbles at it hard enough to make it drop.
Sadie yowled her delight, running circles as their mystery opponent returned her solrock and a second later her lunatone. Probably to be safe. In their place she released a grey cat with a thousand yard stare and a… squid.
Oh, it's an inkay. Her mother had made passing comments about malamar who liked brainwashing humans for food and blood sacrifices. Then again, in that same sentence, she had commented that they also tasted rather gross without pasta. Again, one of those things she hadn't wanted to know.
Ignoring the ache in her chest, Aya instead focused on the important thing her mother had told her: how to defeat them.
"Isaiah!" she ordered. "Scream!"
Isaiah did so with relish, and Aya felt a piece of her heart come down from the guilt and anger high.
They could have easily not been okay. They could have easily been gone from her forever or until she murdered this stranger or until the ball was broken or she was gone, gone gone-
We're here, Aya-chi, she heard and Aya made the knot untie, made her heart slow.
Rocks fell around her as her no longer a puppy barked at her opponent, sinking her teeth into the tiny cat and shaking him about like she was at play.
A blast of purple-pink energy threw Sadie off with ease, grabbing onto her paws and pinning them to the floor. Sadie yelped, barely heard between the breaths Isaiah took to scream in what Aya assumed was fairy.
"Call it off, call it off!" called the girl, and she was laughing of all things. "You're a riot, you know that?"
Aya returned her pokemon. "I'm the riot?"
"Yeah!" The girl leaped and floated down in front of her like she was carried by a giant fan. "I'm Nim by the way. What's so important about that old relic?"
Said relic shivered in her bag and Aya opened her mouth to lie, then stopped. A lie would only bring more curiosity and mistrust and issues. This person did something stupid but… surely they didn't have to be an enemy.
Surely, she could make them a friend.
Aya gave herself a mental pat on the shoulder for not saying as her mentors would have, and took an extra second to think of a better answer.
"It's the best chance I have at saving my friends. And if I don't have it with me, my da's pokemon will knock it over or break it or my cousin will hide it and tell me to leave it to them. And that didn't do me good back then, why would it now?" The words fell out of her mouth more bitter and acidic than she meant them to, she loved her Deli-libird after all, and she resolved to mess with her at the next opportunity, but she was sometimes too protective for her own good. "And, it's a reminder of some mistakes I made, and how hard I'll work to make them right."
The girl - Nim, she could remember her name - tilted her head. "You're pretty young to have mistakes that serious."
Aya laughed. "Don't I know it?" She curled her fingers over the smooth surface of the GS ball and smiled at the warmth that ghosted up her fingers in reply.
This was close enough to the truth that it would make sense.
"Well, if that's the case." The girl reached into a pocket of her patchy robe and pulled out a silver spoon, warped and twisted into a knot. "Take this! So you have something to remember me by like your other friends!" As it landed in her palm, Aya watched the world warp around her and disappear, leaving her staring at the mouth of a cave that glittered purple inside.
Aya stared down at it a moment, then slid it into another pocket of her bag.
"I guess that makes us friends," she murmured.
Taking a deep breath, Aya stepped into the cave to try and save another one.