"Bella, Dragon Rush!"

"Bella, Hyper Beam!"
"Bella. Knock it out of the way with your tail. Now."

"Bella!"

Another body slams against the wall. This time, it's a Weezing. Noxious gray-yellow smoke pours from its second, tumor-like head, which juts out just off the side of its first one. I watch it with the terrible curiosity of someone watching an atrocity on television. Some sadistic part of me wants this in my head. It burns itself into the back of my corneas, clogs the paths from my eyes to my brain and festers there...

"Are you okay?" asks Lance, putting a hand on my back.

I flinch at the touch, finally looking away. "A-are you?"

Lance laughs in a voice that sounds almost like a desperate goat bleat. It's so unprofessional that it almost makes me smile. "Mew, no. I'm so scared."

"You don't look scared." I point out.

"That's because Bella isn't." He winces. "Then again... You know what? I have an idea." His voice is paternal, condescending even, but I'm in no position to argue. "We should talk. It's the only thing that's going to get this infernal ringing out of my ear."

"About what?" I ask.

"Just imagine we're two normal people on a walk." he says. His eyes narrow slightly and I watch his fists tighten. No matter what he says, we're still both on the alert.

"Okay. So uh... how do normal people even talk? I've only had one human friend in my life." The emphasis on human, while completely unintentional, stings a little more than I meant it too.

"Ask me about myself." Lance suggests, completely ignoring that I may as well have been raised in the wild.

"Right." I struggle to think of a question. The path ahead is dark and the area behind us is covered in blood. "Favorite color?"

"Black and red." he says, swishing his cape upwards. Obviously.

"Music?"
"Classical. Pretentious classical."

"You sound like my OC from when I was twelve." I say, still gazing straight ahead. He puts his hand on my shoulder again and I look over to see him utterly confused, which makes me almost crack a smile in spite of how terrified I am.

"Your what."
"My original character. From a story I wrote." I explain. "He um... he falls in love at the end. With the antagonist. It was really explicit for a twelve year old but I really... really had no idea what I was doing. At all."

"None of us did."

There's another prolonged silence. Bella makes no noise except for the continued thump thump of her feet on the metal flooring and nothing else crosses our line of sight. The world before us is desolately empty. I feel my pulse quicken and then subside again at every noise.

"What's it like?" asks Lance. "I mean... the second time around."

"Great, sometimes. I've been happy occasionally. Sad, generally. What's really scary is when I can't feel anything." I admit. Anything echoes off the walls. I tense again, listening for the screech of some distant abomination of nature, and feel the silence creep into my lungs. "Tell me more about yourself." I struggle to divert the conversation away from me, begging for the quiet to end. "Do you have any family?"

"So many dragon tamers." Lance tells me. "All of them successful. I was lucky enough to be born a Goldeneye, like most of them, and then some more luck landed me in the champion spot. Had I become anything less, I probably would have been disowned."

"So it's genetic." I say, thinking of my mother. I frown slightly, remembering my outburst in Cianwood. Oh Arceus, I've burned that bridge...

"The souls of the dead are drawn to tradition and irony. Best I can explain it." he says.

"They sound like assholes." I tell him.

There's a crack in the distance. I look ahead and there's blood off the walls. Bella has already dispatched a Rattata for us. The ears are screwed up, the front hands' fingers are scrunched up and tipped with claws, but this one seems not only the least injured, but also the least disfigured. Still, my cochleas keep vibrating like hell and the body unnerves me.

"Keep going." I say, turning to Lance. He nods.

"Well, when I was younger, Clair and I used to be closer than teammates, but then... well, she hasn't talked to me since." He clutches his cape. "She thinks I'm a monster. Sometimes I wonder if she's right." 

"Everything we say is going to end up depressing, isn't it?" I ask.

"Seems that way."

"Our lives kind of suck." I laugh. "I'm so... fucking scared... even when I'm not around these things. I just want this to be over. I'm done. Can someone else save the world? What are we even saving, anyways?! There are billions of worlds just like this one and-"

"Trillions of families." Lance mutters. "So much worth fighting for. Never lose sight of that." He sighs, shaking his head. "Look. I know how you feel. You know how I met Bella?"

"I literally just met you. Well, re-met." I say.

"Day after my battle on Mount Silver. I finally hatched an egg from a clutch I'd been breeding between two Dragonairs, both of whom had perished in the fight." My eyes widen. "Yeah. You aren't alone in the Red fight. That bastard has slaughtered more Pokemon than every member Team Rocket combined. Anyhow, I only had the one egg left, and out came Bella. She emerged writhing like any other Dratini, but she couldn't cry out. Not a word, not even in the mental bond between us. Still, the other Dragon Den Pokemon took her in and raised her as their own until she was old enough to properly battle. So I named her after her new family and all the families, real or created, that would came after her. The bond that can not be broken, even in death. We are forever bella, beautiful, and that is something worth protecting until the end of time."

"I miss them so much." I whisper.

"Me too." he says.

"Quite the story you have on the Dragonite. How quaint." says a voice in the darkness. A red-haired woman, her outfit proudly emblazoned with the letter R, smiles down at us with her perfect cherry lips as she walks into the pale light of the overhead lamps.

"I'm going straight for the grid to take the signal out. You and Bella divert her." Lance slips away and Bella snorts, charging right towards the woman as if she, too, was just another Pokemon-human hybrid.

Ariana dodges to the side, skipping over Bella's tail, and sends out a Murkrow. It caws gleefully, its eyes filled with golden light.

"Took us long enough, but we finally figured out how to get your damned powers to work. We were trying to link a human's energy to a Pokemon- but it turns out that somehow, you can link a Pokemon onto itself. Strange, isn't it? Almost as if what you're calling on isn't a link between you two but rather a bond sent outwards, towards some other being. Still, I regret the mistakes along the way. Just science, you know. Nothing personal."

"You bastard!" I yell. Bright green energy crackles around me. The past flickers in and out, a perfect illusion, and I'm at the top of the Goldenrod tower with Bronze.

The first time we ever killed a human instead of a Pokemon- a tally I never planned to add more to until today.

"Two on one, hm? Hardly seems fair. Alas. Looks like I'll have to defend myself from these savage beasts, won't I?" She throws two more Pokeballs upwards and out come a Vileplume and a Houndoom. Both Pokemon have crackling golden eyes. Ariana places a finger to her temple and they shoot forwards, swarming Bella, who slams the Murkrow into the ceiling.

I look over, shocked, and then Ariana rushes at me with a knife. I parry with a blade of light that extends perfectly from my hand, reminding me on Bronze's claws all those days ago. I can feel him guiding me as we swing a leg around to knock her sideways. She's surprisingly agile for her attire, easily getting up and sliding across the floor. I'm hardly able to land a hit, and whenever I get close the noise gets louder and louder. I flinch and she moves back again, brandishing her knife. I feel a stinging sensation in my wrist- I barely noticed that she'd nicked me. I crumble to the ground, bleeding.

She stands just feet away, poised and fixing her makeup.

Bitch.

Lance... we're holding out on you here...

Don't worry about him. This is about you.

A familiar voice crackles to life in my mind. I feel his warm breath beside me, his fire at my back, and time pauses at the last second of the Goldenrod Tower battle.

This time, our opponent is distracted. We have the upper hand.

Taking advantage of her confidence, I swing forwards with all of Bronze's might and kick her over. Before she can get up, I have her pinned and her knife falls just inches away, next to her lipstick.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." she whispers, her voice faint and reeking of perfume.

"Why the hell not?!" I roar, my blade inches from her throat.

"If you turn the machine off, there will be nothing left to control our final subject. His power is far greater than you could comprehend. This machine is the only thing keeping him in check as he awakens."

"I'm not scared of Lugia." I lie. A legendary Pokemon? Perhaps not. However, the subject...

Please don't let it be him.

She watches as the energy blade dissipates. I take a deep breath and she lunges for her knife, however, a triumphant Bella has her foot firmly on top of it. The Dragonite snorts smoke in her face.

"Well, what is it, pretty boy?" she asks, turning towards Lance. "Do you want to watch this world burn?"

"You already have several admins on your way to Goldenrod tower right now to finish the job up." Lance says. He slams a flaming fist into a large, bulky machine, and it whirs before flickering off. I feel like my lungs have suddenly been released from a death grip and Celebi calms down. The universe is stable and I'm okay. Lance's voice cuts through my euphoria, "Tell your teammates to cover their asses, because the entire Pokemon league is going to go down on them before you can say Team Rocket is blasting off again."

"Clever too." Ariana admits. She purses her lips. "Well, if you're going to arrest me, you might as well go at it. Hail Giovanni, you meddling fools!" She puts her arms up dramatically.

No sooner has she done so

"She's unconscious." Lance throws his hands up defensively.

"There's still a way to end this." Lance says. He puts a hand on my shoulder. "We do exactly what Red wants us to do."

"What?!"

"If you get eight badges, you can obtain a Master Ball and we don't have to deviate from Red's fucked up game for you. You may be the only one who can calm Lugia down."

You have no idea... Unfortunately he's right in more ways than he could imagine. I nod stiffly. "How long do we have?"

"One month."

"Game on." I say. The memory of Bronze lingers in my mind, filling me with new resolve.

I'll see you soon, old friend.

Still, walking through the halls of this place with Lance silent by my side and Bella dragging an unconscious Ariana in handcuffs, I can't help but think of other old friends and some part of me wishes they left the machine on.

If it really is you, Ethan- hang in there. I'm coming.