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AJ woke up in his bed, his mind blessedly clear. He wasn’t sure how long it had been since he beat Lance, or how he’d gotten from there to here, but it didn’t matter. What mattered was that the voices were gone, finally, truly gone.
The only noise he heard now wasn’t the constant screaming of the voices, but the sound of his Pokegear ringing.
AJ reached for the Pokegear and saw that it was Joey calling. He smiled and picked up the call. He was more than okay with Joey being the first person that he told about becoming Champion. Maybe now AJ could tell Joey about the voices, and that they were gone now, and that he wouldn’t have to move on from their battles to trek from town to town again.
It took a few seconds for Joey to speak. In hindsight, that itself was probably a warning sign, given that Joey never let anybody else get a word in edgewise. “…AJ?”
"Joey! I’m glad you called, because actually, I-"
"AJ, I need to talk to you right now."
The statement that was all too obvious, combined with Joey being much quieter than his usual loud and boisterous self, made AJ suspect that something had to be up. Family troubles again, perhaps, or bullying. Or, probably the worst case scenario, something bad had happened to his beloved Rattata…
"I can talk now. What’s going on?"
"I… I don’t understand… what’s happening to me…"
"Tell me what you can, and we can figure this out together, alright?"
"It’ll sound crazy… it IS crazy…"
AJ sat up in bed, a sinking feeling in his stomach. “Trust me, whatever it is, I’ll believe you, okay?”
"O-okay. I woke up, and there were… voices in my head. Lots of- of voices…"
AJ clutched his Pokegear so tightly that one of the buttons on its side beeped at him. No. No no no no no. Why Joey? Why did they have to choose Joey?
"They asked if I was a boy or a girl, and the time, and then they made me walk around funny, all in circles, and now I’m up against a wall… AJ, I’m scared."
"Don’t be scared. It’s going to be fine, you hear me? Everything’s going to be fine." Maybe it was. Maybe they’d set Joey free after a couple of days, too. Maybe… maybe…
"But AJ, now that I’m on the phone with you… I can’t hear the voices."
Without thinking, AJ immediately responded, “That’s how it always was for me too.”
"That… wait, what? You, for you too? What do you-"
AJ got up and started pacing around the room. There had to be something he could do. He couldn’t just let Joey stand by and suffer like he had. “I’ll do everything I can to help you, Joey, okay? I’ll call you every minute if I have to, but I won’t let them get to you, no matter what.”
"But wait, I still don’t understand, why do you…"
AJ flopped back onto his bed, set the Pokegear down beside his ear, and closed his eyes. There was one thing he had to do.
It was utterly ridiculous to even attempt, of course. He’d spent days trying to coax the voices to leave, begging and pleading and bargaining, without so much as an acknowledgement of his efforts. Just because he wasn’t their target this time didn’t mean the task was any less impossible.
But, futile or not, he had to try.
So AJ lay back and tried to relax, still hearing the stream of words coming from the Pokegear but not fully catching their meaning, as he directed his thoughts towards the voices.
After over a week spent with them, he knew how they worked, and what their weaknesses were. They were arrogant, ambitious, always trying to rush from one gym to the next.
So, AJ thought, why would they bother to go after Joey? Joey was just a youngster, an amateur Trainer. Okay, he hadn’t even been a Trainer when they’d taken him, but that had made the victory all the greater. Why bother with a Trainer who’d been training for years but still didn’t have a gym badge to show for it?
AJ was Champion now- if they wanted fame, glory, great deeds, shouldn’t he be the obvious target? Why switch? He’d proven himself, hadn’t he?
After getting no response from the logical approach, AJ let his emotions take over, their power all the stronger after that initial restraint. It just couldn’t happen to Joey. AJ couldn’t bear it- and, if they had raised him up to be Champion, didn’t that matter? He’d much rather it be him instead. He was used to it, he could handle it, but Joey had enough going on, he didn’t need to deal with this, they didn’t need to ruin another life…
And, as his train of thought ran on, AJ began to notice a rumbling sound.
He sat up and looked around, but the bedroom was perfectly still, and the sound wasn’t coming from any particular direction. As he listened closer, though, he realized that it wasn’t a uniform rumbling sound as he’d first thought. It was murmurs. It was whispers. Words and words and words all smashed together, still too quiet to be made out clearly.
AJ broke out into a smile as he turned back towards his Pokegear.
"AJ, are you still there? I know you’re quiet and all, but you were talking before, I just want to make sure you’re still on the line, so they-"
"They shouldn’t bother you anymore. I took care of it."
"You-"
The rumbling was growing louder by the second.
"It’s not your fault, don’t ever think it’s your fault, okay? Because I chose to take them back. You deserve to stay free."
"But wait… you said you’re taking back the voices? So they’re… you’ll have them now?"
"Yes."
"And you had them before?"
"Yes."
Joey didn’t speak, and AJ started to worry that the voices were going to overpower him before he could hear what Joey had to say next. But finally he spoke up. “Is it… always like this? With the noise, and the spinning, and the chaos?”
"Yes."
"…then why would you take them back?"
AJ grinned. “Because when you call, the voices go away.”
"…I’m sorry. I’m so sorry that I- that this- that you’re doing this…"
"Don’t be sorry, Joey, I-"
B.
He hung up, and the voices filled his mind once more.
Up right right start b left up down up right a start b…