Chapter Thirty: When I'm No Longer Needed

"What?"

Avis hated how, despite the countless emotions and thoughts scattering through his mind, his lips could only part to form that one word—a pathetic, lone syllable that trembled from the back of his throat in utter confusion and disbelief.

It felt as if the rest of his world had melted away, and all that was left was a tiny stage where he and the two Legendaries remained. He got the sudden feeling that it was bright; far too bright, and that he couldn't breath and he wanted to leave.

"I am quite sure that you have understood our words." Yveltal's words held no trace of pity for him, and he didn't know if that was a good or bad thing. "I know that this comes as a shock, but everyone around you—including us—feels the same way."

Not giving him a chance to argue back, Xerneas stepped forward, her gaze kinder than her brother's, but those cobalt eyes still held a look of firm steeliness.

"Based on all the knowledge we have of this world's situation so far, your twin would be more useful if he was to be alive," she stated with no remorse in her eyes. "Please do not think that our decision is one of bias. We have just taken into consideration every logical reason we could think of."

The silence remained, a brittle force that lay between them like poison creeping into his skin. His parents didn't speak, and the Pokemon watching him from the corners of the room didn't dare to move an inch—and he found himself being the first to break the silence.

"So you're saying that I'm not needed in this world." His voice didn't hold any trace of anger, but the blank look in his eyes contained more than enough tension needed to fuel the atmosphere.

Before Yveltal could speak again, his sister cut in, eyes narrowed as she glanced at her subject, a well-hidden spark of flustered panic gleaning her face. "We are not saying that," she protested. "Lord Arceus has created all beings for a reason—"

"You don't follow Arceus now, do you?" The sentence was spat out like an accusation laid bare, and the Legendaries before him couldn't even begin to guess if he was still in shock from the announcement.

A ghost of a smug smile ran across his face—the words kept slipping out of his mouth before he could even consider speaking, and he was only able to stare at them with that same, stony expression—but he tried his very best to calm his mind and speak what he wanted to.

"I don't care." He meant it; he meant every single bit of it because none of this had any meaning in the first place—then, why was his voice so bitter? "I mean, I don't care if I die. Kill me if you want to."

A look of surprise ran between the two beasts, prompting a bout of telepathic chatter before Yveltal chose to speak up. His voice was wary, as it should have been, but the apathetic edge that solidified Destruction's personality remained. "We had assumed that you would be...more reluctant about this matter."

He liked to think that he was similar to the red-and-black monster in a way; both of them had such hostile exteriors that almost dared others to try and crack them open. "I'm used to being a conduit for Aiden," he reasoned. "There you have it. Your reason."

"You..." For a moment, he thought that he had managed to crack the Legendary's wall, and the sadness in the Pokemon's onyx irises seemed to pierce through him like a knife. "Very well. You have made a decision that will benefit the greater good."

What greater good? he wanted to laugh, what greater good would this death benefit when Hoenn is always being so aggressive?

But he suppressed those thoughts—the Legendaries would able to see straight through him anyways, so what use was there in putting in effort?

He almost missed Xerneas' next words, and the creature's voice caused him to startle. "We would not be able to bring Aiden back right away," she confessed. "There will be a month of intermission while we gather the necessary means and power needed."

Of course. He had forgotten that the two Legendaries had gone rogue, working on their own in order to survive the chaos of the world; that it was natural for them to take a longer time to be able to reincarnate someone.

It was fine. All he needed to do was live for thirty more days, and everything would be over. It was just that simple—

That very thought was interrupted by an official's harsh voice, and he flinched at the rough tone in which he spoke in—like small, invisible stones that thudded dully against his heart. "This is a forbidden practice, but Xerneas and Yveltal have deemed it a dire enough situation—so, you will be taking Aiden's place for the next month."

"Your name from now on is one with his," the man continued, ignoring the shocked look on the boy's face. "And to the public—you, Avis Ichor, are dead."

"I'm sorry," Xerneas muttered, a downcast look on her face.

"No, you're not," he spat, not bothering to glance at anyone else as he turned to leave. "You're saying it so that you won't feel as guilty killing me later. So that you'll convince yourself that it's not your fault. I get it."

(On his way out, Yveltal stopped him and told him that he was interesting; that he hadn't seen someone who displayed so much nonchalance towards his life in a long while, and he could see nothing but disapproval on the Legendary's face.)

§

"If it isn't an inconvenience, could you pass me my sword?"

It was just a simple sentence; yet, his lips still seemed to tremble at the first word, refusing to move in sync with the fluid phrase in his mind.

If. It. Isn't. An. Inconvenience.

He wished that he had a recording to help him, but such technology was available in Unova and Arceus knew what kind of disarray they were facing from their surrounding nations.

His mind was good enough, however—he had spent enough time trying to become his brother, and he had heard Aiden's voice enough times to be able to form any sentence in his mind. It was just that simple—his voice was just another memory burnt into him like a permanent scar refusing to fade away.

The way Aiden said "if" was intriguing, and he wouldn't have found that out if he hadn't been forced to do a complete analysis of his brother. There was a lilting edge to his tone, and it was just a tad softer and more whispered than the rest of his sentence—like he was unsure whether to speak or not.

He parted his lips to try again, but his voice was far too flat and monotonous to ever reach the kindness-filled timbre that the knight seemed to always possess. His "if" was louder and more brusque than he had meant to, and the rest of the sentence was spoken in such a manner that Avis—Aiden—might as well have been dead.

Which he was, but everyone was trying to fool themselves into believing the opposite and they were forcing him to play along as well without any time to let the truth sink in.

"Why should I listen to you?" He still remembered his reply, tone hard and reluctant; yet, he still recalled his fingers curling around the cool surface of the blade's hilt.

But he was dead now, dead to everyone he knew, and the officials had told him to forget about the fact that he was pretending to be someone else.

"You're much closer to it—please?"

A smile had formed on the boy's face, purple hair messy and getting in the way of his eyes as he accepted his weapon from his brother, the expression widening as he muttered a hasty thank you! before disappearing out of the door.

Avis stared into the small mirror in the bathroom, trying to push his mouth into the same upward curve that Aiden had always carried with such poise—and even with the new shade of purple his hair had been dyed in and the loose cloak around his shoulders, the tiny grin he saw in the glass lacked something.

After all, copies weren't supposed to be as good as the original. They were a step down, but they worked for whatever purpose needed of them. No one would notice the slight droop present in his expression or the lacklustre spark in his eyes.

With the annoying thought out of his head, he rewound the scene playing in his mind, letting everything start all over again so that he could mutter these self-destructing words one more time.

"Please." It came out more like a statement than the question it was supposed to be, and his mouth ached from the dozens of times he had practiced this scene.

"P...lease." No, that wasn't good enough; it was too unnatural and too stretched and Aiden always said the word with a certain succinctness.

"Please." No, that was far to short—it was as if he was cross and that wasn't what he was trying to aim for.

"Please."

He shook his head and took a few shaky breaths, his heart thudding in his chest as if it had been jolted to a start—and as the little hurricane in his mind calmed down, he dared to glance back up at the mirror.

"Please," he repeated to himself, not knowing where the word was directed at. Was he just trying to create a passable excuse of an imitation, or was he apologising for something that even he was unsure of? He wasn't sure, and he didn't have time to waste on such thoughts—and with that, he started once again.

"If it isn't an inconvenience, could you pass me my sword?"

§

Avis was late for his shift.

The rose-haired girl looked up from her position at the counter, noting that fact down and reminding herself to deduct that day's pay from his salary.

Perhaps he had fallen sick due to the early-morning rain from yesterday. That wasn't an entirely invalid reason, and he wouldn't be able inform her of the reason either way—not with Hoenn soldiers scouring the village.

That was why she continued on with her work as per normal, greeting regulars with the same smile on her face and passing them their order and laughing it off when some of her customers asked where her coworker had gone.

She couldn't blame them for the playful confusion that they had expressed. The boy was, after all, a regular worker in the store who didn't seem to be fazed by the danger of walking to work every day.

Jumping at a slight sound beside her, she turned to glance at the Budew hopping onto the counter's smooth surface, the small creature nestling herself under the palm of her hand and almost demanding to be petted.

Yan laughed, glancing at the empty shop before her before caving in to the Pokemon's request and running a hand along the uneven lump atop her head. The creature closed its small eyes in contentment, only signalling its happiness through the occasional grunt.

She was too distracted to notice a door creaking open, and when she did, a surprised tremor ran down her spine as she recognised the tone of the footsteps made—after all, she was used to hearing the same sound that struck the wooden floors of her shop almost every day.

"Avis?" She spoke while setting her Budew on the ground and letting it back out into the garden, but she was just able to look up at the figure midway through her sentence. "You do know how late you—ah," she corrected herself, hiding a flush as she ducked beneath the counter for a moment. "My bad. Sorry, Aiden."

The purple-haired knight looked almost unrecognisable in regular clothes, and she cursed at herself for mixing the the both them up. Of course their footsteps would sound similar; they were twins, for Arceus' sake, and she should have remembered that.

"Oh, it's fine. You don't need to worry about that." While she had never talked much with Avis' brother, the difference in their demeanours were easy to tell. Aiden was more polite and meek with his words, and he had a certain quality to his voice that made him seem ethereally soft, as if his words were always just above a whisper.

She let out a nervous chuckle, unsure what to make of the situation. "Why are you here today?" she queried, trying to start a conversation. "You don't come here very often. Are you picking up medicinal supplies, or—"

"I'm afraid it's something more serious," he mumbled, cobalt-hued gaze shifted to the side and focusing on anywhere but her. "I had to come here in person because the Fletchling mail is experiencing interruptions due to another Hoenn attack, but..."

Yan interrupted him, breaking his apprehensive ramble with a glare. "What's wrong?" she asked. "I'd prefer it if you went straight to the point."

"I'm sorry." Aiden bit his lip, unsure of what to say, and it was then that she noticed the red circling his eyes—had he been crying? "Avis won't be able to come to work anymore. He was killed by a Hoenn soldier last night."

A few moments of anxious silence passed—she knew that her mouth was open, but she couldn't be bothered to fix it—and her brain formulated no thoughts except for the words that Aiden had just spoken. Her eyes fixed their gaze on the ground for a split-second, seeking solace in the familiar, blank tiles before glancing up to meet the boy's tired irises.

"He..." She tripped over her words, aware that her hands were on the counter and her voice was shaking, and she just slammed her palms harder over the hard surface, hoping that the sound was enough to block out the knight's voice. "Why? How?"

"We're still looking into the matter, but I think he angered a drunk Hoenn soldier." He backed away, pitch dropping to a sorrowful whisper as he curled his fingers around the door.

"Anyway, his funeral is tomorrow." With a well-hidden tremble of his shoulders, he pushed the wooden frame open, his words almost inaudible and threatening to be swallowed by the passing breeze. "I'd appreciate it if you could come."

§

Yeee I started from chapter 30 because wynaut :> Avis has a month, right? I'm pretty sure a month has?? Around 30 days??

Thank you guys so much for 386 reads and 63 votes!! :0 You have no idea how much this means to me! <3

As always, votes, comments and critiques are very appreciated °˖✧◝(⁰▿⁰)◜✧˖°

~ nyxia ☆