His lips skimming mine, the twisted wing-beat in my stomach burnt to a morose bubbling as my hands moved up to Blue's broad chest. My fingers sensing the frost on his silk shirt, beginning to itch underneath the jacket. My jaw softly pulled down to scarcely suck in a breath.

I gave a soft push so that our lips no longer touched with an exhale, my shoulders drooping as if a weight was being pressed onto them, "No, you don't," I left my forehead still rested against Blue's as my words dragged out with pain. "Chemicals are racing through your brain, they've been. Chemicals caused from stress, worry and sadness with this Glitch swallowing your world. I am the cause and I am the only one who can fix it. Whether it is distain or hatred you bare for me, in the point of a state with your friend Lorelei looking for help, your emotions are rampant. You kissed me once, which sets off endorphins and more chemicals. Whatever you feel for me right at this moment is a like placebo effect in the mind. You tell yourself you love me to explain the hatred and fear. But really, it's just a lie."

"It's not," Blue tried to reassure either me or himself.

I believed him. I really believed him. I wanted to scream that I believed him. I wanted to blurt out what my heart had manifested towards him.

But something put the metaphorical duct tape over my mouth.

I wouldn't believe him. I wouldn't let myself.

"It is," My voice struggled not to break as I sundered from his grasp ignoring the denouncing cries of my heart. "Now, we have to find Lorelei," I breathed, forcing all my anxiety out into hot puffs that vapored off in the icy cavern.

Blue's face was like a crystal glass that had just been hurled into a stone wall. Though he seemed to pick up the pieces quickly as he went back to his player-esce façade and nodding. He trudged ahead, hands jammed into the pockets of the returned coat. I would have followed behind if a sudden scuffling from behind didn't snap my attention.

I sent a look to the ginger who seemed unfazed as he skated across thin patches of frozen earth. I turned back and chose to follow the subtle change, "Mmn---" a cut off voice seeped out from behind a pillar of stone.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed locking eyes with a pair of red ones.

Eos was glued to Red's leg, his red and white coat-shirt draped around her petite body as she shook. Red wearing a simple black tee while he rubbed the little girl's back

"Why did Big Sis kiss a stranger? Why did Big Sis kiss a stranger?" a young voice cried out, not knowing the notion of being quiet, "I thought Big Sis and Big Bro liked each other!" Eos seemed utterly displeased, especially after I flung my hand over her mouth in an attempt to quiet her. In retaliation, she licked my palm.

Retracting my hand quickly, I shook it out, "Ew, and he isn't a stranger to me. That's Blue, a friend from Red's and my home town." I explained in a low tone, the cold finally sinking in as it plucked at my skin to pull out goosebumps. "Plus, Eos, Big Bro and Big Sis are just friends."

Eos's face was utterly heartbroken hearing "just friends", Red's expression simply twinging with a minor twitch before returning to his solemn state. "No, no." she rejected in a teary eyed state, "You're in denial!" she wailed, Red restraining her from trying to punch me weakly.

"Red," I affirmed, dismissing the devastated kid, "why are you here?" I grudgingly repeated.

"We didn't find her parents."

"You could have emailed me, Red," Even though I never would've received it. I shot a look to Eos, letting out a breath, "Your parents are elusive."

"And when Big Sis screamed, Big Sis screamed, Big Bro took off running, running towards cold cave."

In the freezing cave, a drop of sweat still managed to drip down my face as I wondered if I really was that loud. But my worry to shock as I gawked at Red, "Really?" the trainer simply looked off into the corner of the cave ceiling with his lips puckered while he was whistling innocently under his breath. I shook off the astound feeling before speaking again, "You need to get out of here before Blue sees you, or he'll send you back to Mt. Silver."

He shook his head.

"Look, I don't have time to argue."

He again just shook his head.

"Oh my Arecus, Leaf!" Blue's shaken holler snapped my attention on a dime.

My body was already spinning down the corridors of Icefall cave as I called in a hushed echo, "Just stay hidden you two."

Red nodded, pressing his ashy white palms against Eos's mouth before lipping words to me, "Good luck."

My stomach couldn't help but do a backflip as heat prickled up my neck before I turned away to hide a rosy blush, "Idiot," I muttered without even realizing it. The frost-painted rocks glittering off in digits, my words mimicking Blue's. "Oh my Arceus."

The room was being eaten away like metal by rust in a long abandon building. The patches of the Glitch spreading, trees and barrels randomly thrown in. A woman lying against the back wall. Her bare left arm entirely swallowed by constantly changing sequences that creeped their way up her neck and tickled her face. A pair of broken glasses sat on the bridge of her nose as her business woman outfit was tattered. The woman's auburn hair tumbled out from a yellow ponytail holder, the only sign of life was her moaning. Blue was knelt beside the crumbled elite four member, his hand fearing to touch her. He was afraid of his own friend.

"What happened?" I instituted with bewilderment. But as I sat beside her, I knew I couldn't lay a finger on her. I wasn't afraid, but I couldn't risk it.

Lorelei's portrait shuttered before forcing herself up. She shrieked out inhumanly with pain. Blue began to scold her, "Don't! You-You-you'll make it spread! You saw what happened to A-A-A-Agatha!"

"Agatha?" I breathed, recalling vaguely the ghost-type elite four member. An old woman with a wooden cane, "What happened to Agatha?"

"Not the--- t-time," Lorelei croaked as the sequence of numbers that nipped at her sped up at their buffet, "I-I came home and wanted to check o-on the cave. On Lapras's family. This is where I-I met Lapras. B-But when I got here the G-G-G-G---" Her entire body seemed to shutter like the flashes of a camera, fading in and out of this world. Sometimes, she would turn into the player avatar before returning back to herself. "Glitch! It was--- everywhere. I took out my pokemon and we used our ice-type attack to slow it. It worked. For a while. And I-I-I-I-I-I watched," tears purged on the edge of the woman's rusted eyes. "I watched as one-by-one my pokemon were eaten by this-this disease. It took each of them. Even Lapras... Now me. I couldn't stop it. Now-now-now-now my home is going to be nothing. My mom. My little sister-r-r-r-r-r-r."

It was pathetic and aching to watch even her tears sizzle away off into the drifting numbers.

I was helpless. I could do nothing as a grown woman broke down in fear not for her own life, but for the ones around her. Only desperation could strike flint in my mind and create a spark, "Blue. Give me my laptop. My real one, I know you have it."

"What are going to do?"

"Just trust me,"

Don't. Don't trust me. Because this might result in even worse devastation.

He hesitated. "Fine." From his bag (yes, not everything fits in that damn bum bag) he tugged out a silver cased computer. The company insignia printed right on the dead center of the covering.

Snappishly, I jerked it from his grasp and flipped it open. Jamming the power button as quickly as I could, my head sung about in a way to work this, "Alright. I need to plug in my adapter to the game," from my own bag I pulled out an outside-technology-to-computer adapter which I used mostly to upload videos for people to the internet back in Pallet. Turns out my mom was a vlogger.

"How are you going to do that, genius?" Blue said sarcastically, his eyebrows crooked as he tried to piece together what I was doing. "You're in the game."

"Wow. You admitted this is a game," I chuckled as I unhooked Vulpix's pokeball and let her out, "Dig a small box in the ground," she followed my words obediently, her claws barely penetrating past the icy surface of the ground. Though once finished, she cuddled close and watched as I jammed the adapter end into the small hole, covering the dirt back up around it, "Now it's plugged into the game. Hopefully."

"That's probably not going to work."

"There is a small percentage that it will, though." I responded, opening up my programs. The game made it in. I really didn't think that was going to work.

Blue from behind me nearly coughed up his lungs as he stared at the screen, "You're hacking? I thought you were done with that!" I brushed off his extremely truthful comment and observed the codes. I was right.

"Within the programming of this world, the codes are actually re-writing themselves do to a foreign object entering the system. They are corrupted. But I might be able to un-corrupt them." My fingers flew across the keyboard as if I had never missed a day of programming and reprogramming locked away in my room. But now, I have a driving force. I've never really had that. Some other motivation that was just to entertain myself. This was really no laughing matter.

"Lorelei..." I heard Blue mutter in a sadness, "Leaf, stop."

"I can do this," I assured, typing even faster, sifting through other rotting calculations to find our precise location. Since I had never seen it before, it was terrifically more difficult. My eyes moving faster than they have before, the muscles that controlled them exclaiming with pain. I was sure they were bloodshot from only a few moments. "Gottcha," I buzzed once I believed I had locked onto it. My fingers bouncing from key to key like a very inspired writer.

Blue was blurred from my vision along with the rest of the world, his white-noise voice telling me to stop or whatever. I hastily did what I knew best.

"Leaf."

"Stop."

"Just stop!"

"She's gone!"

The world was suddenly frigid once more, the screen turning to the obscured one as I looked up. Sure enough, there was no longer a woman there who cried about the people she loved. Just the senseless numbers breaking apart in the air. For once, I was going to use my "powers" for something good. And it didn't work.

Why do I keep losing?

Blue's hand tugged at my shoulder, "We need to get these people off this island."

I was numb. Just staring. Why can't I do something good? Why can't I fix my own mistake?

Because you're not good, Leaf. Mewtwo's voice uttered within my mind. You did this to the world. You are the villain. And villains, try as they might, can never become the hero.

"Shut up! Leave me alone!" but I realized, his presence wasn't taking over to speak to me. He wasn't there. It was my own voice. I knew Blue had already run away, he couldn't have heard that. If he did, he left me alone, "I can play hero once," I retorted. Quickly I entered in a new command to the program. I will re-build this cave. Trap the glitch. I can't stop it. But I will slow it down so the residents can get away. Walls upon walls made of stone and ice manifested into the world, spun by the corrupted numbers which thought they'd escape.

I was already on my feet with laptop balanced on an arm to input the walls. I had been able to copy the came into my computer and connect wirelessly. Oh, technology is great. A bit weird, but great. "Red, Eos, get into town and on the Ferry to Fortune Island. Skip Chrono island in case the Glitch spreads up the chain," a motion in the corner of my eye moved, Red carrying Eos fireman style from the room. He was swift and already ahead of me, leaping onto that patiently awaiting Blastoise of his. They tore across before bolting out.

When I came to the icy pool, I cautiously bit my lower lip. I inputted a temporary bridge for crossing before deleting it. Upon exiting Icefall cave, I typing in a bolder the color of steel to block the entryway. The bright sun being a harsh change to the dim-lit cave straining my eyes further.

"Everyone onto the ferries, take only what you need! We need to move quickly!" a voice that melted my bones called above a crowd's uproar. Blue had already put every into motion. I blended though the swarm of people to where Blue organized the cattle. Once his beautiful eyes landed on me, he seemed to become more at ease, "Hey, thank Arceus you're alright! Don't do something stupid like sit in a Glitched cave again, pesky woman!"

I let out a half laugh, closing my laptop to tuck under my arm, "Thanks to me, these people have a sliver more amount of time to get the hell out of dodge. I entered in a few walls to slow it down. I don't want to push all these people to skip an island, but you should. Just in case it reaches Chrono."

"Why don't we go together then?" he smirked, snapping me by my wrist. Once most ferries had departed, we were far on our way to Fortune Island. We had been placed on the same boat with Red and Eos, who diligently knew to hide when they saw me. Blue was a constant tag along. I knew it was risky to skip an island with efforts to find Eos' parents but for her safety, we had to keep moving back then.

The day pasted into night, Blue staying awake to keep a constant check on the passengers.

He and I were standing at the bow of the ship, our shoulders brushing one another as I smiled to myself. "Who knew you cared so much about these people."

"Of course I do," He responded curtly. "As former champion, I have to take care of them."

With the waning moon dangling above, he and I weaved to the peak of the ship were the rippling waves were first spilt to guide around the boat's body. Blue and I standing shoulder to shoulder, neither tearing eyes from the churning sea, "If--- when the Glitch is gone, will you all rebuild?"

"..."

"Blue?"

He tch'd in a sort of amusement, "Sure, sure," From under his breath, I could hear his dark tone breathing to himself. "You still don't get it."

I wasn't in the mood for arguing, "What happened? To Agatha."

A sullen silence dropped onto Blue like a brick. His mind probably reeling to find words and once he spoke, it was like speaking to a whole new person, "It's gone... It's all gone."

"The Pokemon League?" I broke out in shock.

He shook his head yes, "Agatha and her pokemon created a blockade for us to escape. Even if we rebuild. I'll be in Viridian, Lance will be Champion. But that leaves only Chuck, to rebuild the actual elite four is impossible. The five of us were a family, living together, eating together, talking jovially with one another, sleeping under the same roof. We'd have to replace them with new people. Our family is broken..."

I had no clue how to respond. I only began to think of my family. Who was that? A mom who I didn't understand until far after it was too late. A dad I never knew? A fake mom conceived into this world? No. My family was Eos. Red. Daisy. Blue. They were my family, "Well, what about Daisy? And Professor Oak! Red is your childhood friend, that can count as family."

"It's all gone," He repeated. "When I said all, I meant it."

"What?"

"When the Indigo Plateau was swallowed, I fled to the skies with Pidgeot. Mt. Silver was gone. Just thousands of pixels and numbers. Trees not in proper places. Everything was screwed up. I flew as fast as I could to Pallet and when I got there, it was already in Viridian... Pallet was nothing. I came to the Sevii Islands to find Daisy and gramps."

His brisk following silence said it all.

My hand slowly pulled over his shoulder, the side of my head softly crashing into his. Daisy. Her smiling face flashed past, her constant bubbling energy and cheery disposition. Mom. A mom I almost wish I had flashed though. How she beat me with a broom when she thought I was a criminal. Home. No, it wasn't that. My home was where I needed it to be, neither this world nor the other. My fingers tightened around Blue's arm that they rested on. I have to hold onto the ones left with everything I've got.

"I still love you," Blue's voice quivered.

I'm sorry.