Chapter Text
Little by little, the trio inched closer towards one of their last destinations from their journey in Johto. That journey is close to completion as they finally make their way to the mountains that hold Blackthorn City.
"This sucks. I can't believe we have to walk this much to the next gym." Winter kicked some dirt with her red sneakers and huffed while leaning against a tree.
"We're pretty tired too. Remember, you're the one keen on getting a badge." Marie rolled up the sleeves of her hooded jacket.
"Man, and I thought by the time we'd get here there would be snow or something." Aya raised her cap and brushed off some stray hairs sticking to her face.
Their grumpy friend slowly turned serious and raised a brow. "What do you mean I'm the one keen on getting a badge? Aren't you guys in on this too?"
Aya and Marie exchanged nervous glances. Surprisingly, Marie was the first to speak up.
"There's something we need to tell you-?" Her statement came out short and sounded more like a question.
Marie's shaky laughter couldn't be controlled due to her nerves so Aya decided to step in. "We- uh don't plan to take on the league. I still wanna do the last gym and try though. But Marie's not going to. Yeah."
"When did you guys talk about this?" Winter's current expression was unreadable, but they could tell she was upset in some way.
"Right after Jasmine's gym." Marie blurted out.
For a split second, her eyes narrowed and her face darkened. "That was 2 weeks ago. Why didn't you guys tell me? We could have taken some time off instead of forcing this tight schedule."
The other two withered under her stare. Aya looked down at her feet. "Well, we didn't know how to bring it up to you."
"If you guys had told me earlier, I wouldn’t have planned things out this way and taken more time before heading here. Am I seriously not worth the honesty? Did you think I wouldn't feel something off with the way you guys were acting in the past week? Ugh . That explains the weird looks you guys keep giving me." She rambled with a tinge of anger arising in her voice.
"Hey, Winter-" Both Marie and Aya winced as they tried to appease their friend.
"..... Yeah. Okay. J-just let me cool off for now I guess. I'm still upset so- Argh ." Winter tossed a pokéball into the air; Dragonair looked at the three questioningly but its owner just climbed on and they flew off.
Aya and Marie begrudgingly continued to walk on through the mountain path, trying to figure out how to deal with their friend.
In the air, Dragonair stubbornly held its stare at Winter. They almost bumped into a tree, while its owner held on for her dear life.
"Stop looking at me like that and focus on floating! I don't wanna talk about it right now." She sulked and sighed heavily.
The concerned pokémon paused and gave her a sympathetic look. All of a sudden, Espeon popped out of its ball then landed on a thick branch next to the spot where Dragonair floated.
"Why are you guys doing this to me?" Winter whined and released her Vulpix since she might as well let the whole gang out at this point.
Vulpix plopped on her lap looking confused, Espeon somehow managed to explain what was going on and the other two pokémon nodded as if they finally understood what had happened. Winter tiredly stroked her pokémon as they communicated with each other.
"I just care about them, okay? I expected a huge degree of honesty and trust. But they kept it from me until we were actually heading to the last gym. Like, what the hell? They’re giving me false pretenses which suck ." She gritted her teeth in frustration. It was one thing to give such huge news but it was another to keep something because they were afraid to tell her or even worse- they weren’t sure to even bother informing her. That hurt more.
On any normal day, she wouldn't spend this much time into talking about herself but today was not that day. Espeon closed its eyes in affirmation and returned back to its ball; Vulpix pawed its ball to go back inside. Dragonair nudged its head on hers and carried Winter towards the city.
With bubbles of rage and turmoil still simmering inside her, she did something unexpected. Winter went ahead to the gym by following the rocky path. Alone.
"May I take the challenge?" She inquired as she entered the final gym.
A dragon tamer with an exhilarated expression approached her. "Sure, but before that, can I see your badges?"
Winter carefully opened a sleek black case containing all seven gym badges that she earned… with her friends.
She shook her head, now wasn't the time for such thoughts. 'I need to concentrate.'
"Wow! Kids these days are something else. Our leader will be with you shortly. Would you like to have a practice battle with me in the meantime? I can heal you guys up before the actual battle." The tamer politely offered.
“Sure. Why not?” The preteen meekly accepted while dusting off what seemed to be a smidge of ash on her black shirt.
“Great! Let’s get started.” The smile of the trainer before her suddenly felt cold and aggressive, the ground they stood upon arose to reveal a layer of lava underneath the gym.
“Wha-” Before Winter could continue her outburst, a woman that had pale hair, dressed in blue from head to toe, landed on the field to smack the tamer’s head directly with her elbow.
The older woman was seething with irritation and proceeded to scolding the younger trainer. A Seadra stood next to him, sighing at the situation as if it had happened before. “What did I just tell you the other day? You’re not allowed to practice without my permission if it’s under the roof of this gym . It’s absolutely unbecoming of our gym if you continue to act this way. Just go outside and practice when it isn’t your time of duty.”
“ Come on , boss Clair! Back then the others were allowed to challenge the trainers that entered the gym at any time to help them practice.” He grumbled.
“You know what? Fine. But if you lose this battle, you can’t train here for a whole week. Miss challenger, what do you say?” Gym leader Clair turned to Winter. A few other tamers crossed over to try and ease them from fighting any further.
She looked at the two and felt the tension continue to heighten then simply sighed. “Alright.”
‘What a pain.’ Winter mentally sighed to herself. It didn’t matter anymore, she needed to crush this opponent to move on to the gym leader before Aya and Marie would catch up to see how aggravated she really is.
She took one look at her device, tempted to call out to her friends to watch her battle, but that didn’t happen. Instead, a wave of frustration, uncertainty and sadness washed over her, causing her left hand to reach for a pokeball instead. “Oh just- shuckle it, stupid mind.”
Things definitely weren’t going to be the same after this.
The fight with the trainee may have been quick but soon after, Clair proved to be a formidable opponent. Winter was pretty confident in her Dragonair but that all changed when the gym leader brought out her final team member: Kingdra. Her dragon pokemon put up a good fight, leaving the water dragon pokemon a bit tired from the continuous onslaught of dragon-type moves from Dragonair. Vulpix didn’t last long but luckily was able to land a Confuse Ray just as the little red fox fainted from a strong Bubblebeam.
“Espeon, let’s end this with Psychic.” Feeling the aggression of its trainer, Espeon harshly gripped the Kingdra and slammed it to the ground with full force. In the Kingdra’s state of confusion, it blew up a Twister that caused both sides to have recoil.
The psychic pokemon emerged victorious, but Winter didn’t feel any joy from her win, all that remained was pure exhaustion.
Claire stared at her inquisitively. “Hey, you won. What’s with the long face?”
“I mean now that I’m here- I just thought things would feel right. I was always sure that this was the… direction to head in, I guess?” She stroked Espeon’s fur while deep in thought.
“Maybe it is, but maybe there’s something else too.” The gym leader coolly replied. She handed a wrinkled paper with directions and pressed it into the young trainer’s hand. “Go talk to the elder, it’ll be worth your time.” Clair winked.
Before departing, the staff healed her pokemon as thanks for putting up with the unnecessary battle. Sure enough, there was an intricate frame surrounding the entrance to another cave near the gym. It looked more daunting than the entrance to the gym itself.
“I’m too tired to deal with this crap.” She murmured to herself.
An elderly man made an appearance by the entryway, forming a puzzled expression as he saw Winter draw closer to the cave.
“You seem more lost than you actually let on, challenger.” He gave a weary smile.
Speechless, the young girl’s hands slowly began to tremble. “I…” She trailed off.
The elder sat on the wooden ledge and patted on the space next to him. The preteen took a seat on the space offered then eyed him warily. “I don’t know how to move forward.”
“These old bones of mine can feel that you know the answer. There’s never one way to come to a solution, child. Your pokemon are a testament to that, aren’t they?”
From recovering an injured Dratini, to a newly hatched Eevee in her arms, and encountering a hungry Vulpix, Winter felt her memories flooding causing her grief to uncover what she no longer can stop from telling herself.
“I want to be more than just a challenger. I want to protect my pokemon too.” She whispered.
The old man gently offered a few coupons to a quaint-looking cafe within the city. “Seems like you and your friends will enjoy these better than I would.”
She turned her head and saw two figures meekly approaching the path, Winter mouthed one sincere ‘Thank you’, to the elder before she ran back to her friends. They had a lot to talk about.