It's raining when we enter Pallet Town for the third time. Daisy Oak's windows gleam with light, but after the battle with her brother, I have no desire to enter her house again. Instead, I take in the city, the rain touching my face and pooling around my eyes and chin. The weak lighting and dreary homes remind me of New Bark, though the air is stiller here. The waters to the south are calmer than the ones to the east of New Bark, to an almost unsettling degree. It's as if the world is falling asleep.

My Pokemon are quiet around me... too quiet. I sense their absence in the way one might react to suddenly having all the oxygen stolen from the atmosphere around them. Panic fills me as I swing around to come face to face with Red.

"What did you do?" I ask.

"I don't want them here." he says.

"Your mother is in her house. Oak is in his lab. I can run for safety." I warn him. "I still have Celebi's powers. You can't corner me here. You can't cheat. I-"

"She's not, he won't hear you, and that really won't be necessary, Ashley. I've come here before. This part of the world is easiest to change." He doesn't even need to pull up the interface. Instead, he weaves his fingers through the air, like he's trying to pull the damp air around, and the world responds to his command. The sun comes back up in the sky, pushing through the clouds, which dissipate beneath its cruel grasp. The air grows warmer around my skin, but the sunshine is fake, with an unsettling, glaring tint to it that makes it feel more like someone fixing a hot lightbulb on my skin.

"I'm ripping the world apart, Ashley, and all I have to do is fix it. Get rid of anomalies. Remove shortcuts. It's like pulling out weeds that have grown in between the cracks of a sidewalk. Just a small touch-" he gestures towards his house, fingers glowing with the reflection of light from an invisible screen, "and the roots come up. Just like that. Now, care to go inside?"

It's not a question. I cast him a pointed glare but follow him into his house. He treats every item he touches with an almost playful, mocking respect, taking a good few seconds to open the door, holding it open for me and bowing as I go inside.

The house is similar to Daisy's from a construction standpoint, and even some of the furniture items are close to the same, but while Daisy's house bustles with signs of life, Red's is close to empty.

"Where's your mom?" I ask, my voice echoing through the empty house.

"I moved her out of the way." he tells me. "Wouldn't want any witnesses. I've been missing for years, you know.

"You're disgusting."

"I'm not the only one who cut their mother out of their life," Red says. "I seem to remember a certain someone cutting off all contact with her until it was convenient for them. Had Elm not dangled the Master Ball over your head, you might have never talked to her again."

"I would have come back." I reply, though Red's noted every second that it took me to come to the realization.

"Sure you would," he says. "But you'd be like me. A ghost, too dangerous and vengeful to inhabit her house or her world anymore."

I stay silent, half in the hopes that he'll go easier on me while he's gloating and half in the desire to get this whole ordeal over with. I know he's not here to judge my life choices, although picking on me does see to be a kind of hobby.

"No one's coming for either of us." he says.

"Blue's still looking for you."

"Sure he is. Blue's a jackass. Always was. I considered knocking him out of the way around the same time I got rid of that kitsune bitch who kept sending people up the mountain after me, but..." Red narrows his eyes. "Well, now that you've bought it to my attention, I guess I could 'talk' to him again before the end of the world."

It takes all my self control not to punch him. I hold one arm with the other, hoping it'll keep me steady. "And we'll be there." I say. "I might not have been able to protect Miki's mother, but I'll be able to protect anyone else you go after. Don't think we can't find you."

"Just like you, too. You don't have to play the hero every time, Ashley. All you're doing is putting your loved ones in danger. What are you defending, lines in a code? This is all fake. Fabricated."

"So that gives you the right to destroy it?"

"It's not about destruction. I'm cutting open a hole in a fabric woven by gods who never gave a crap about us, and I'm getting myself out of this game. I'm sending a message to them- you don't own me. Whatever plays at the edges of this world, the voices that compelled me through my journey, that manipulated me like a marionette- I'm not theirs anymore. I'm destroying this whole fucking thing. Now, you tell me, what's your cause?"

"The weeds in the sidewalk, Red. Everything that grows between the cracks." I say.

"That's pathetic." Red says, "Have fun martyr-ing yourself to death up on Mount Silver. Bet it'll do you a whole lot of good there."

I close my eyes and exhale. I keep my center best I can, like a Baltoy spinning on its axis. The faster I go the less likely I am to topple over. Luckily, I know I'm not the only one who's flustered here. There's a tilt to Red's voice I recognize, even though I've never been very good at reading people. It's a bitterness colder than the snow at the top of the mountain he's made his home.

Red is undeniably jealous of me.

Why would he go through all the trouble to talk to me, anyways?

I've had years on years of loss to temper me, to cool down the impulsive and often violent twelve year old who left New Bark. He spent his whole life building up to his own journey only to wake up after everything was over, played like a puppet by some higher cause and left to die. He found the answers he did because of a deep, simmering hate that refused to let him go.

I admit, "Well, I have one other reason to keep going."

"I'd love to hear it." Red says.

"You." I say, pressing a finger against his chest. To my surprise, he doesn't move. In fact, he looks as if I lodged an arrow straight through him. "You killed my boyfriend, my mother, my best friend, and millions of innocents. You forced my team out to some other dimension and hell, I might never see them again. You gave me nightmares, anxiety, who knows what else, and set the mantle of 'saving the world' on a thirteen year-old girl just to play out a parallel with the life you never had in some sick, twisted fantasy. You refuse to accept you're not the only person who's been screwed over by the legendaries and this whole, ridiculous ordeal because you can't accept that I went through as much shit as you did and I'm still fighting for something besides my own, sorry ass. You ruined my fucking life."

Red drops my shaking finger from his chest, looking directly into my eyes. His cocky smile is all but gone, but rather than looking shocked or even angry, there's something cold and hard in his gaze. He doesn't look eighteen, but 'older' or 'younger' than that doesn't really cover it either.

"I don't want to sit around and talk for the sake of humoring you. You're not going to convince me I'm anything like you, you're not going to feel less alone, and I'm not going to break down crying anymore. I'm already playing your game, Red. You set the rules. Now stick to them and leave me alone."

"I'll see you at the top of the mountain," he says finally, and Red opens the door. When I follow him back outside, Poke Ball in hand, I find there's no one where he left. Rain dapples my clothes again. The sunlight has faded (thankfully), but now I'm standing outside in the cold alone.

Almost alone, that is.

In my peripheral vision I sense a bright, glaring light and turn around to squint straight at it. Sure enough, the town is still empty and an eerie portal floats in midair, like a blue-tinted sun. The elliptical nexus glimmers at the edges with mist, which seems thematically appropriate for Suicune, but I was under the impression that they weren't able to open portals due to Red's interference.

Could Red have done this?

No. This isn't his work.

I almost throw out my Poke Ball, but the portal makes its move first. It widens, slicing downwards into the grass, and fans out on either side to take up the center of the town. I take a cautious step back, hand still ready to throw out Reginae at any moment, but the next sign of movement stops me dead.

A blur of deep azure and gold passes through the portal, falling into the grass before me with a thick thud. As other Pokemon fall through on either side of it, I keep my eyes on his, the realization enough to send my mind reeling. I would recognize those eyes anywhere... but none of this makes sense. I expected never to see them again. To see him again.

Bronze.