Chapter Nineteen: Tag Along

They were back in the portal.

It was ironic—the first time they'd been trapped in this space, floating, falling, unable to do anything, she'd been downright terrified. Now, however, she was more than glad to see the fiendish rip in space that Celebi had managed to conjure.

She remembered the last words that the carrot-haired girl had spoken—"she did it." That meant success. Whatever it meant, she was almost certain that they were on their way back.

No one else was in sight—she couldn't see any trace of Ryou or the mysterious child around. Then again, it could have been a trick that the void was playing on her—maybe her friends were here, just veiled from her sight.

Still, the dizzying vastness of the expanse scared her—it mirrored the black void that her replica had trapped her in, except that large streaks of white were painted over the dark canvas—seeming to reassure her that this portal wasn't bad in any way.

The feeling of pure, hollow emptiness remained, though—her heart provided the one source of sound with a dull, monotonous thunk, and she could feel the panic bristling at the back of her mind as she fell.

For now, it stayed obedient, Celeana having kept it in check and pushing it to a room of her brain that she hardly accessed, but it wouldn't stay that way forever.

She could feel it like a pair of scales that balanced out the two ends—two "halves—of her emotions. If she wasn't careful, the general happiness in her heart would disappear, anxiety all too eager to devour her soul. If she fought too hard to dispel the negativity, it wouldn't result in anything pretty—thus, she and her panic maintained a level of grudging acceptance.

That acceptance, however, wasn't easy to maintain, and all it needed was a small push to send it over the edge. And she could tell that right then, the scales were tipping ever so slightly in the other's favour.

Calm down, she ordered herself. We're safe—all I have to do is wait and we'll be back in Sapphire's house. It's OK. It's alright...

Her eyelids drooped, and despite what common sense spat at her—awake equals alive, awake equals alive—she felt an inexplainable urge to close her eyes and take a quick nap. Perhaps it was the hypnotic, rolling motions of her surroundings, or the heaviness that her body had acknowledged from all the timelines—she didn't quite know; and she didn't bother to know as she slipped into the blissful world of sleep once more.

• • •

Celeana awoke with a start.

The sudden jump back into reality, no matter how welcome it seemed, was a little too jarring for her mind to process, and she startled as she was met with the familiar sight of cream walls that was accented with a bold touch of dark ruby and sapphire.

Her limbs ached, and her brain was muted—it took the girl a few long moments for her to register that she was in the room that she'd found the comatose child in.

Still, her head throbbed with a dull ache, still spinning from the minutes—hours?—that she had spent in purgatory—at least, that was what the portal had felt like. It was far more refreshing, though, than the black space she'd unwillingly remembered—at least this world wasn't going to melt away.

Where are the others?

As if on cue, a mumbled noise sounded out above her, and the coordinator pulled herself into a sitting position—albeit with much reluctance—and stared at the carrot-haired girl peering back down at her.

She was still gaunt, her eyes sunken with dark shadows circling the rims—and the crack-like mark marring her skin was still present. The child, however, looked much more alive than she had lying in the bed asleep, and Celeana was relieved for that.

The door creaked open, and dark blue eyes met her own tired amber, the veteran trainer halting in shock as she saw the two awake girls. Sapphire's hand gripped the cold metal of the doorknob for support and she froze. "You're awake?"

The trainer's voice was soft and stammered—much like the tone that the teenager tended to use most of the time—and contained a trace of disbelief.

As the blue-haired girl managed a nod, the elder female continued staring at them—as if she couldn't bring herself to believe that they had woken up.

The brunette then managed another sentence, her tone having regained some form of composed professionalism. Her cobalt-hued gaze landed on a point somewhere behind her. "Oh...so Ryou's still unconscious."

Blinking, the coordinator twisted around so that she faced the still figure behind her.

The light-haired boy was asleep, his eyes closed and his delicate features spread into a rare array of relaxed looseness—he looked different from his usual self. At least, he wasn't the happy teenager that he'd looked like, with a grin so large that it was a wonder it didn't hurt from smiling so much.

His face was free from that usual happy expression, instead overcome with an aura of peaceful serenity that made him look like nothing more than an innocuous child. Messy, pale hair formed some sort of abstract halo around him, the exact shade now identifiable as having the barest tint of bubblegum-pink.

A series of quiet breaths were the only sounds that he made, and the boy didn't even respond to any of their voices as he slept.

"Should we, um..." Sapphire paused, unsure of what she was going to say. "wake him up? I really don't want to, but..."

Celeana glanced over at her friend once again—she understood what the veteran meant, but the boy had to come to sooner or later. Moving over, she gave her friend an awkward on the shoulder, hoping that it would be enough to stir the teenager. "Ryou, wake up." There was no response, and she held back a sigh, opting to try again. "Please."

This time, there was a reaction—the light-haired trainer moved, but his eyes were still closed in a stubborn protest, refusing to open and proceeding to ignore her request.

She waited a few moments before shaking him yet another time, shooting her two awake companions a helpless glance when he didn't respond.

Another period of time lapsed—and she almost jumped back as the younger boy gave a violent shudder, fidgeting to the side and having some sort of seizure on the ground as he gasped, breaths shallow and rapid.

Eyes widening, the coordinator froze—is he having a nightmare?—and her suspicions were confirmed as the slightest hint of a tear glaring at her from the corner of his eye, the teenager shifting back and forth and muttering incomprehensible words under his breath.

"It's a—alright," she stammered out—she wasn't Miss Enya, but she was trying her best to help. The boy looked vulnerable in his current state of childish fragility, and she was overcome by the urge to just protect him like how she would protect a little brother. "Ryou, it's just a nightmare."

With a muffled, sharp intake of breath, Ryou jerked upwards, manoeuvring himself into a sitting position as his eyelids flew open to reveal panicked violet.

When he settled down, his eyes softened, the cloudiness in his optics changing to that of bleary tiredness. The boy was frozen in the same position for a few moments—back tense and arched over, hand reaching for his throat.

"Are you OK?" Sapphire glanced over with a look of mild concern at the expression on the boy's face. "Were you having a nightmare?"

Heaving, the silver-haired teenager nodded, a waning smile sliding onto his lips. "Everyone gets nightmares," he joked. "It was just a random one—sorry for worrying you. At least it did wake me up, though."

Celeana simply looked at him, not even trying to hide her concern—if it was just a nightmare, he wouldn't have looked so frazzled. Ryou wasn't the type do be startled—but it didn't look like he was going to be admitting to anything anytime soon, and thus, she pushed the matter aside.

"Right. Now that all of you are awake..." Sapphire sat down, a look of fierce authority locking them in this conversation. "Would you mind telling me what happened?"

The pale-haired boy was the first to speak, his even tone hilariously calm—well, it was laughable, recalling the circumstances they had been thrown into.

"Oh, nothing," he stated in that affable tone he kept for polite banter, as if recounting nothing more than the events of a normal day. "We were just thrown into the future and watched the world's end over and over again, ran into several Legendaries, and were almost killed. Fun."

A few minutes of awkward silence ensued as the veteran tried to process the unreasonably large chunk of information, and Ryou spoke up once again, supplying his previous speech with what he deemed to be helpful information. "If you need the details, we saw a Primal Groudon, a Dialga, some Celeana clone and a Celebi."

Sapphire replied with a stiff nod, as if the action was an unconscious motion of forced politeness as she struggled to come to terms with what the youth had just explained.

"You guys just disappeared when you were thrown into that strange portal," she frowned, trying to summarise her side of the story. "Except for the girl—she just remained comatose. Several hours ago, I heard a strange noise coming from this room—and both of you flew out, unconscious."

"So our whole selves did disappear into that weird void." Celeana frowned. "But what about the other girl? She was already there before we arrived, wasn't she? Why was her body still here?"

A thin, stringy voice sounded from above, and the carrot-haired child peered at them warily, the Celebi still in her arms.

She hissed out her words as if they were limited and she had to use them sparingly, sentences coming out short and fragmented. "Connected," she replied. "Me and the Celebi. I touched her. A portal opened, and I was dragged in. Celebi says it was just my soul."

"She is correct," the Legendary replied in a calmer voice. "Because my powers were out of control, a Link was formed between the two of us, linking our souls together. When she touched me, it triggered the portal, and our spiritual selves were dragged in—precisely because I was there."

Celebi took another breath before continuing. "I know what happened was confusing," she apologised, "but I think beating the Celebi was a ritual of sorts that Arceus set. Perhaps the Link with the girl interrupted it—I am not sure."

"I...see." The blue-haired teenager below them replied with a slow bob of her head—in fact, she didn't actually get anything, but she didn't want to embarrass herself. "Oh, yes—what's your name...? You never told us..."

"Mave," she shot back. "No. That's my last name. Quinn. Quinn Mave."

The veteran trainer across them just shook her head in an act of incredulity. "When I first found the both of you, I tried to drag you back," she admitted, inclining her head to the frail child and the Time Travel Pokemon. "The portal almost swallowed me, and it was fortunate that my Pokemon were around. I had to bring the two of them back with a Psychic attack."

Ryou tilted his head. "No wonder you tried to warn us about touching them," he laughed. "Anyway," he lowered his voice so that the girl couldn't hear them, "what are you going to do with the girl now?"

The trainer's eyes hardened. "I'm not sure," she whispered back. "There hasn't been any reports of runaway or missing children—it's like she never existed. I—"

"Could you whisper softer?" They were interrupted by the unidentified girl. "I can hear you. Do you want to know the answer? My family is dead. Three months ago. Fire. I was assumed dead."

Celeana tried to keep herself from blanching—how much had the poor child been through? She'd lost her loved ones because of a freak element—even worse, she wasn't even thought to be alive, and she had been thrown into yet another scarring experience mere months later.

Flushing in embarrassment, Sapphire leant in, lowering her voice to an even quieter mumble. "I know this is sudden, but would you be willing to take her with you? The poor kid needs therapy—she thinks the world is horrid. You two are going on a journey—I want you to show her what the world really is."

She turned to Ryou. "You're leading, right? Then can I ask this of you?"

"Leading...?" Amused, the light-haired boy tilted his head. "You're mistaken—we're travelling at the same pace. But...I guess we can take her along."

His tone had shifted into one of hesitance as he smiled at her. "Is it OK with you? I mean, it might slow us down. I'm fine with it, but—"

"Yeah, it's fine," the coordinator reassured—and she meant it. If there was anything she could do in her power to help the girl restore the youthful innocence that was expected of most children, she would do it. "I'm not in a hurry, a—anyway."

"Well, that's settled." He raised an eyebrow. "We'll do our best to take care of her—and we should be leaving now. How long have we been in there?"

The brunette jabbed a finger in the general direction of a nearby calendar. "It may not have seemed as long—I honestly don't know—but you were in there for about a week and a half. And one more thing: stay for a while. I saw the blood on your jacket, Ryou—you're injured."

In a jesting manner, the boy shrugged, wincing as she pointed out his wound. "It could be Celeana's blood," he quipped. "I'm kidding. Yeah, I got hit by a flaming stone—that, and Giratina was kind enough to strangle me for a while."

Narrowly avoiding slamming her face into her palm, the older trainer instead opted for a drawn-out sigh. "Come with me," she exhaled. "Bandages are in the next room."

• • •

The trio had left.

Sapphire peered out of the window, smiling as she saw the three children make their way down the bumpy path that she'd shown them to. It did bring back a plateau of good memories—back when she and Ruby were kids and didn't have a care in the world.

This was no time to reminisce, however—she had something to do, and it was something that she should have done earlier.

A suspire escaped her lips, and she playfully noted how she was behaving like an old woman jaded from the years of life—and she picked up the phone with a tinge of reluctance, dialling the number with practiced swiftness and sending a mental apology to Ryou.

"Hello? Is this Mr. Stone? Joseph Stone?"

Her mouth curved into a sad smile as the voice on the other end confirmed his prescence.

"This is Sapphire Birch speaking. About that missing boy you've been looking for a while..." she lowered her voice in regret. "Ryou Imizu, right?"

"Yeah, I found him...I believe he's heading towards Fortree now."

• • •

Whew. You have no idea how much I have been looking forward to this orz mawile_xoxo Demoniscy I can finally stop ranting about writing about a sleeping Ryou now ahhhh

I've also been thinking of a ship name for them. CeleRyou would be a tragic play on celery, so... um... Celyou? Ryona? Ryoulena? Celeanyou? And I need a legit name, like JesterShipping or something. Idk.

Besides that, thank you SO MUCH for 4.4K reads and 531 votes! That's about a 300+ increase in reads :o My next goal is 546! :)

Critiques are most certainly welcome, and don't forget to read, vote and give your thoughts in the comments! Please be 100% honest!

~ nyxia ☆