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After a long and harsh journey upward, Blue finally finds Red near the summit of Mt. Silver.
Blue is riding on his Arcanine, and Red is seen by a fire within a small cave opening with his Pikachu and Charizard by his side. Both of his Pokemon seem alerted by the familiar trainer's approach, and Red notices as well, eyes widening in surprise towards Blue's direction.
Blue wears the same shocked expression back at him. He gets off of Arcanine and starts running towards Red's direction.
BLUE: Red!-
Red's Pikachu leaps off of his shoulder to almost instantly get into a fighting stance towards Blue - electricity crackling at its red cheeks and tail standing upward.
Arcanine flinches in a way Blue notices, remembering the Pokemon that had defeated it before. Blue stays in place looking down at Pikachu, stunned by its hostility. His eyes dart back up toward red. He breathes out again.
BLUE: Red...
Charizard is calmly guarding its trainer with its wing, and Red still appears just as surprised as him.
Pikachu stays in place, but had calmed down from its immediate alert. Red continues staring, as if he's waiting for Blue to say something.
BLUE: (cold) ... My Gramps told me you've been up here. I heard about that Johto trainer that defeated you.
Red listens intently, still clueless as to why Blue would make his way all the way up Mt. Silver - cold, harsh, and relentless - just to find him.
BLUE: I didn't think it'd be possible for someone to finally defeat the undefeatable... but we were both proven wrong, huh?
Blue chuckles slightly with that remark.
Red still is as silent as ever, seeming unmoved, not seeing his point.
They're both silent through the ongoing harsh wind for a moment further, until Blue speaks again, increasingly more resentful.
BLUE: (annoyed) How long has it been? 3 years?
What are you still up here for?
You don't even call your mother anymore. No one knew if you were even okay until we heard that.
(hurt, sincere) ... Come home, Red.
Blue seems pained to ask that of him. Red furrows a brow only the slightest bit, looking away from him and thinking about it, but not indicating he has any comment on the matter.
Suddenly Blue just can't try to be convincing with gentleness any longer - what he sees as gentleness, at least - and feels the moment his heart can't help but burst into a burning flame. Hot, painful.
BLUE: (openly angry) What is the point? Why do you need to be better?
What will that accomplish? More solitude? You've been beaten. Just accept it.
... Red doesn't look affected, Blue doesn't think -
BLUE: (harsh) ... You've abandoned me to come up here.
He spills his heart out and nearly shouts at Red, falling back into old habits. Childish, full-of-himself habits. Saying things to hurt Red's feelings - but he's not just saying it, he means it. Tears form in his eyes with the awareness of that.
Red flinches slightly and his Pokemon are alerted to it, Pikachu returning to openly crackling it's electricity and Charizard turning a harsh glint to Blue. It rumbles a low, warning growl at him.
The trainer decides to answer the aggression with what they naturally always did as kids, a Pokemon battle, and stands up as he grabs a Pokeball from his belt clasp. Charizard looks ready in union with its trainer and huffs an equally intimidating breath of fire from its nose.
Red signs to blue with his hands, seeming just as angry, "You abandoned me." He looks more angry and exhales through his nose with "me", for giving emphasis.
Blue is shocked again, even more than he was by the mere ordeal of finally seeing Red again, and recognizes the cold harshness Red has returned to that he had normally reserved exclusively for battles. Blue remembered well that Red was often nonchalant to him, even despite how he would taunt and bully Red needlessly as a child. There wasn't any glimpse of that now.
He grits his teeth in frustration and pulls a Pokeball from his belt clasp himself, looking at it and considering, but then drops his arm and holds his head down - in forfeit, defeat. He'd be ashamed to look at himself like this.
This makes red suddenly reconsider as well, stunned by his old rival's sudden retreat from competition. It was startlingly unlike him.
BLUE: There's no point in a battle, Red.
If I couldn't beat that kid, I can't beat you.
Its always been that way.
Red can hear just barely through the wind on the mountaintop that Blue's breathing heavy, and his words are shaky. He is not confident in himself.
Blue looks up at him again, hesitates for a moment as he's thinking of what to say, and sadly smiles just a bit, finally realizing.
He remembers the way Red looked years ago when they were kids. There was a look in his eyes of something heavy weighing over the wordless boy as young Blue ridiculed him at the professor's lab, and there was a sadness Blue could see when he'd lose battles to him.
Red seemed, somehow, just as sad when he won against Blue and became champion of the Indigo League. He never understood it. He just knew that it existed to the perceptive eye, undeniably.
BLUE: ... You're right. I've done this, haven't I?
You wanted to be better than me.
There was nothing else you could do.
Blue closes his eyes and the tears finally stream down his face. He quickly goes to wipe them on his jacket sleeve, audibly sniffling, emotional, but still trying to maintain something.
Red only continues to watch him.
Once blue has got enough water out of his eyes to look at him again, he sighs shakily, and says
BLUE: I just want my friend back.
There's silence again between them. Red is processing Blue's feelings, and Blue can't tell how he's feeling. He's always been so quiet, and that was the only thing Blue never once questioned about him.
Blue looks away finally, sniffling, giving in to receiving no closure, once again defeated. He is ashamed of himself, now. He's been scared to do this, scared to feel the way it hurts to be vulnerable and weak and so ashamed.
He didn't know what he expected, but at least he could try to live with knowing that he was honest with his old friend, for the first time in far too long... because that's just a good thing to do, he thought. His heart wrenched painfully. Maybe he would live with it.
Blue's voice comes out so broken up and awful.
BLUE: Just ... think of it, alright?
Blue mounts his Arcanine again, and gives Red his signature farewell gesture with his back turned to him. If he were to look back, he didn't expect to see any different expression on Red. Arcanine trots off, and soon enough they're out of Red's sight.
...
Red had tears form in his eyes as well as he listened, and Blue didn't see it. He realized that Blue had been cruel to him, and he'd been cruel in return. He didn't mean to do it.
Maybe Blue never meant any of that cruelty, either. It seemed natural. It was different for Red to be cruel.
He stays in his spot by the fire for awhile, his Charizard returning to huddling near him with its wing and Pikachu nestling in his lap for comfort.
They're warm, his outer body is kept warm by the fire and his snug clothing, but his insides feel cold.
Eventually, once Red has recomposed himself, he communicates something silent to the Charizard with hand motions, and steps out from underneath the cavern opening with it. The draconic Pokemon spreads its wings as he climbs up onto it's back, Pikachu carefully settled in his backpack, ready for flight.
Blue had always talked to Red, and Red did again what he always did best; listen.