Realgam Tower;Time:UnknownProfessor Fennel sat alone at her desk in her room in Realgam. She'd sent Lacey away hours ago to go get some rest, since she'd been working hard for days on end going over Fennel's past research notes. In truth, Fennel had been hiving her busy-work so she herself could focus on her latest studies on the Cosmic Drive and it's immunity to starburst.
"Ugh!" She groaned in frustration before balling up some more notes that had led nowhere. SHe sighed and lay her head down on her desk.
Looking over all of her old notes and studies and the original blueprints for the Drive ended up being a dead-end. Of course, it wouldn't have been that easy.
She sat up and stretched her arms over her head. Fennel turned and to look at the clock. 2:36 AM. She'd been officially up for over 48 hours straight, running only on coffee and frustration.
Fennel got out of her desk chair and decided to head to showers, since she hadn't taken time to shower either, before getting some much-needed sleep so she could get a fresh start tomorrow.
She let out a deep breath as the hot water fell on her, washing over her tired body. She ran her fingers through her long violet hair, twirling it. It'd been so long since her last hair cut that it was only a few centimeters off being knee-length.
She closed her eyes, just letting herself relax. Then she was back in Lumiose, before Kalos had been wiped off the map. She'd decided to go on vacation with Amanita since it'd been awhile since either of them had just relaxed. Kalos certainly was beautiful enough and the food in all the quaint little cafes was simply to die for. Fennel was disappointed that the famous(and infamously hunky) Professor Sycamore was away and she wouldn't get a chance to meet him. She never had any luck with any hot guys. Unlike her old College buddies, although Juniper didn't really seem interested in romance. Juniper had always teased her for being "guy crazy", and would even team up with Amanita to make jabs at her her when both of them were in her presence. Burnett would just laugh to herself and say things along the lines of,"Maybe our girl will finally land one." Burnett, of course, always had some hottie around her finger.
Fennel opened her eyes and felt her cheeks. Tears had begun to stream down them as she'd daydreamed of the distant past with her friends and family... The once steamy water had gone cold. She turned off the shower and grabbed a towl, wrapping it around herself and heading back to her room.
Outside Goldenrod;Present DaySomething was wrong.
Austin disregarded the noise coming form the city and the impact of some shock-wave. He was kneeling over Jacqueline, who was lying on the ground, writhing in pain.
He grasped her hand tightly. It was hardened solid. Most her body had been crystallized. It was spreading pretty rapidly, towards her head.
"Jacque! Jacque! JACQUE!"
She turned her head to him. "I-I'm fine... It must've been a sort of defense.... system. When I started hacking the computer... released some.... gaseous crystallizing agent... Diancie...." She looked up at him and smiled, despite the fact that now even most of her neck was diamond.
Austin squeezed her hand with so much force it hurt, clutching the grass with his right. Tears had begun to run down his face, dripping onto Jacqueline, his lap, and the dirt.
"Jacqueline... Please... Please. You're gonna be fine *sob*.. right...!?" He choked on his words, knowing the answer to the question.
Jacqueline gazed into the younger boy's eyes. He'd been hurt and hurt himself. Now there was so little of the spark she knew had once been there. So little innocence and joy like there should be. Why? Why could the youth of today not grow up in a peaceful world. She'd give everything if she could give even just him a world like that. Not perfect, but peaceful. Normal. A place where kids like him could be kids. And didn't have to watch each-other die.
Striaton City;Time:UnknownThe bullets flew fast and furious, and the soldiers were far too many for the two of them. Musharna could only do so much on her own with Reflect and Protect. The Protect wouldn't last forever so they'd decided to make a dash for cover behind some rubble of the fallen building. On the count of the three they were both supposed to run across behind the shield and take cover behind the rubble. One... Two... Then it happened. Fennel could barely register it as she zoomed past her. Time slowed down as the she realized what was happening. Amanita had panicked. She'd dashed forward prematurely and was almost there. Almost to their goal. Almost safe.
Almost.Then it hit her. Some bullet from the side hat hit her hip, sending her off-balanced to the right a bit, stumbling. Then more. All Fennel could see was her sister's back as she was torn apart, shredded to pieces by gunfire. HEr body convulsed in an inhuman way and slammed into the ground, blood spilling out into a puddle.
Fennel's eyes grew wide and she screamed so loud, hard, and long that her throat hurt.
Outside Goldenrod;Sometime in the PastAs a ship exploded near the sky over Goldenrod, he stood in a field outside the city. It hadn't been easy getting them, but he'd managed to steal Ethan's pokeballs from where they'd been locked away.
Ethan's Espeon had concentrated, it's eyes glowing a neon blue as it located its master and teleported him to their location.
Ethan landed on the ground and shot up, adrenaline rushing through him. 'Wha-?Where?" He was cut off by the telltale sound of and explosion. They both looked up to see the ship Ethan had just been on falling into fiery pieces out of the sky.
"What just happened?" Jira asked confused.
"I...", Ethan began getting his bearings.
"I set off the self-destruct sequence.... to.. to.. destroy the ship... so I wouldn't go to...", He looked up at Jira. "How did you...?"
Jira stared at him dumbfounded. He explained that he had been planning to teleport Ethan to freedom from the ship and they both just stared at eachother.
Jira stayed in Nova undercover even after Dawn left her position. He kept in touch with Ethan as best as he could, giving him all the information he could whenever he could. Mostly just times and dates of Nova supply ships and small operations. He wasn't ranked high enough to learn any super-useful intel.
After awhile, Jira managed to get transferred to a rarely used base on a remote island, since Ethan had wanted him to so he could investigate the memory rewriting that had been used on his friends before.
It wasn't a bad island, but it was definitely boring. He had a ton of leisure time since the base was barely still in operation since the method wasn't widely used at all anymore. He mostly spent his time exploring the island with Mimi.
It was one day that he had contacted Ethan to give him a report on the current prisoners(there weren't many) and his status that Ethan had some news for him. It wasn't unusual for Ethan to tell him about the going-on's elsewhere, with himself and Whitney, and Dawn and his other friends and allies.
"Jira.. I checked on your parents like you asked me to and...", He paused, taking an audibly deep breath. Jira tried bracing himself for the worst, his heart pounding with anticipation at the words. He was filled with a sense of dread. He could barely hear the words as Ethan spoke them. "Mansion... burned down... bodies... I'm so sorry."
Jira had sleeping that night, amongst his enemy as always. Mimi had tried to comfort him, but he'd insisted her was fine and continued to do his work for the rest of the day. As he lay in the dark in his bed, silent tears shivered down his face and he clenched his fists under the sheets. Tonight was so, so much worse than any other was.
This was just another reason for him to be here. To sabotage them however he could. To rebel against them. To hate them. They killed Jessie and Giovanni of Team Rocket. They'd killed his parents.
"....Amanita..."
Fennel slowly rubbed her eyes and got out of bed, glancing at the time. It was 4:30 in the afternoon. She still felt exhausted, but she doubted she'd be able to sleep anymore. She was determined to her work. Her research never ended. Still, she'd find a way to end this war. Even if she could only help a little.
'I'll keep going... I have to... For Mu-mu... For Nelson... For these kids and hopefully my own someday... and for her... With that, she returned to her desk and began jotting down some notes.
He shook uncontrollably. This girl, not much older than him, that'd he'd only recently met, and grown to love in that short time, was lying here, her body almost entirely crystal, dying. It didn't make sense. None of it. None of it was fair. Maybe it was his fault. If she'd never met him. Never interacted with him and helped him and been harsh on him only because she cared for him. Only because she knew she had to. Because he had to grow up. Now more than ever.
"Jacque.... Jacque... Please.... PLEASE!"
He hugged her heavy body tight against him, the cold hard diamond sending shivers down his spine. Her face was rapidly crystallizing.
"Aus..tin... please. It's fine... Just.."
Her mouth about to be covered he didn't let himself think. HE did the only thing a kid in love could when there was no time left. When there would be no life left in her.
He clenched his tear-soaked eyes closed and pressed his lips hard against her, holding onto to her with all his might. As if he could hold her here in this world. As if there was nothing left worth it but her. As if they'd known eachother for a lifetime and had done this a million times before. And perhaps, in another world, they had.
The feeling of her soft lips and sweet taste faded and soon there was nothing but a cold hard taste of rock.
Silently, he opened his eyes, on the edge of a breakdown. He wiped his face only for more tears to flow. He picked up Carbink and Diancie's pokeballs and turned to the mysterious Toxicroak that had stared in silence. doing the best he could as he stumbled along, his body feeling heavy and tired from fighting and being wounded, yet lighter than ever.
He didn't glance back at the crystallized body behind him as he walked towards to Toxicroak. Doing all he could to keep in mind the words she'd said to him over and over and over again when he'd acted childish and tried to reject himself, the world around him, adn his circumstances.
"...live."
