Interlude – Knowledge

Interlude – Knowledge

A/N: Version of the chapter with no colored text if you want:

Spoiler

INTERLUDE - KNOWLEDGE

Maeve would hate it here.

Mira shivered, looking at her wispy breath escape her mouth with every exhale. A fire lit by that abomination called Mags crackled nearby and although she had her hands hovering so close to the damn thing that the flames nearly touched her, she was still cold. The frigid wind seeped past her coat and through her skin, chilling her down to the bone. Unfortunately, she had deigned gloves to be a waste of money and time, especially when one of her hands was still broken from the raid and covered by a thick cast. At least that one's warm, she sighed with a slight smile, staring at all the drawings on her cast. She'd practically forced her Pokemon to come up with things to draw, though Gardevoir was the one who'd done the actual drawing.

Magnezone had decided on some kind of tower that resembled a tesla coil with a stick figure on top that was supposed to be Mira waving at the world below. Alakazam had taken a while to convince, but he'd written a 'get well soon' message that was a little too boring for her tastes, so Gengar decided to add some evil faces by the end to turn the vibe behind the message into a sarcastic one. He might have evolved, but he still loved annoying others like it sustained him. These days, he lived in her shadow more than his Pokeball for protection, as Fantina had advised her, and he was practicing to stop feeling cold to people who got too close. Yeah, maybe that isn't helping with the cold.

Though it wasn't like anyone could tell the difference on route 216. It was Spring time, but a blizzard constantly battered the entire route.

Porygon2's idea had been to draw Mira as a five-star pull from one of her gacha games, but Gardevoir wasn't that great of an artist and it ended up looking half-assed, so now Pory was giving her the cold shoulder. Gardevoir herself had drawn at least fifty little hearts all around the cast while Exeggcute had fought themselves for so long they decided they would rather not draw anything at all rather than let one of themselves win. They were a hassle to handle, but on the whole they would be an excellent psychic to add to her collection. At least she was getting some peace and quiet for a while now that it was too cold for them to be out for more than a few minutes at a time. Porygon2 was in her phone and Gengar in her shadow, but Gardevoir, Alakazam and Magnezone were all next to her, both for the fire's warmth and to watch over her.

On the other side of the flames, Lauren sat on a rock her Rhydon had raised. Mira was pretty sure she was wearing two coats atop one another, which ended up giving her a lot more volume and looking hilarious and oddly charming. Her jet-black hair was hidden beneath a thick winter cap, and she had a neck gaiter that actually went up to her nose, so the only thing Mira could see was her dark eyes and thick, circular glasses. Her team trained in the background in some kind of horrifying free-for-all with no order to it inside of Reuniclus' barrier.

Rhydon slammed Magmortar's gut with an elongated hammer-like arm he had sculpted in seconds, and with each strike, shards of sharpened debris would explode out of it with a small burst of glowering rock. All of the snow inside of the shield had vaporized, giving way to solid ground that was currently slowly melting. It must be hundreds of degrees in there, Mira thought, halfway between horrified and awed. While Magmortar was on the defensive and losing, he was going down swinging and blowing flamethrowers out of his cannons that were so hot they were blue and slowed even Rhydon down. Seismitoad, Aggron and Sceptile were stuck in some kind of three-way— heh, three-way— but it was Sceptile that was truly struggling to keep up due to currently being on fire.

There was no helping it. In an environment this hot, he was going to catch on fire, and yet he kept fighting thanks to continuously sustaining himself with Seismitoad's energy using a close-combat form of Giga Drain and having used Leech Seed on her at the start of the battle. He wasn't hitting her enough to finish her off, but enough to stay alive while Magmortar was focused on something else. Mira sent Gardevoir a straying thought telling her to keep the conversation they'd been having going with Alakazam. Parallel thinking came in handy, these days, but sometimes a girl just needed to have a break and hone in on a single one.

Plus, she was feeling less miserable than she'd been in weeks, so she might as well spread that around.

"Shouldn't you have them training against the cold?" Mira asked.

Lauren frowned. "What? I don't have access to any ice tactics as powerful as Candice will use, so I'm playing to my strengths. I know what I'm doing," she said in an offended, muffled voice.

Anyone else, and Mira would have gotten miffed at that retort, but she'd gotten used to Lauren after spending nearly a week with her. She hated anything that even sounded like advice, for one, even though Mira had genuinely been curious and not trying to force her to do anything. Battling was her thing, and she wanted to do it her way. There was a moment of silence as another gush of cold wind blew past them. The sun was setting in the distance, though it wasn't as if Mira had been able to feel any of its warmth anyway.

"Sorry, I was just wondering. You know, I appreciate the way you've helped me and my team train up. I was slacking a little with all the shit that was going on."

"Your fundamentals were terrible," she deadpanned, much to Gardevoir's annoyance. "You're an incredibly lazy battler. Your Gengar was fun and tricky, at least." Mira's friend stopped, cocking her head to the side to get a better look at her. "Are you cold?"

"A little. It's the wind."

Lauren sat up and slowly shuffled toward Mira, who'd been sitting on Gardevoir's cold lap. "Why didn't you buy gloves?" she asked, clasping her hand so tightly it nearly hurt. "Frostbite is a serious risk, you know? You can even get gangrene in the most extreme cases, I looked it up."

Mira shrugged. "Yeah, I messed up. That's a common theme with me, I'll have you know."

Lauren brought her hand close, pulling down her gaiter to breathe some hot air into Mira's hand. Her cheeks were flushed due to the cold, as were Mira's. She could barely feel her fingers, even when someone was touching them.

"You haven't messed up during our travels, at least. This has been fun," Lauren smiled.

Yeah, it has been. Chasey being here would be great too, but unfortunately he was too busy on his quest for revenge against Byron and badges. Too bad you needed those to be taken seriously as a trainer, because she would have killed to have him here to tell her to get her head out of her ass. It was unfortunate that he was so uninterested in girls. Well, not just girls, but uninterested in anyone. Mira had given up on him by now, though he still remained her best friend. Plus, she was too fucked up to date anyone, at the moment. She'd been too fucked up for a very long time, really. Arceus forbid she subject someone to her antics.

"Are you alright?" Lauren asked. "Warmer now?"

"Uhuh. Just anxious about stuff."

"You say sorry a lot in your sleep," she said. "I'm worried about you."

"I did warn you about that, and you said it'd be okay—" Mira stopped herself, realizing she'd gotten loud. "Sorry."

The coming meeting with Uxie had her shitting bricks. From what Grace had finally sent, Mesprit had been a real prick, even worse than Azelf, so Uxie should theoretically have been the nice one, but she was wondering if she could even qualify a power beyond her comprehension as nice. Gardevoir ran a smooth hand through her hair, and she leaned back into her. This had indeed been fun, but only three more days and they'd be in Snowpoint, and then the full weight of her responsibilities would come crashing down.

Lauren let go of her hand and looked at her cast. "How's your other hand feeling?"

"The pain is kind of numb. I think it's because I've grown used to it," Mira said. "Wanna draw something on my cast?"

She ignored Gardevoir's jealous complaints in the corner of her head, focusing wholly on this conversation.

She frowned. "There's not a lot of space."

"Come on, we can find a spot for you, that way, it's like you've left a permanent mark on me. How good are you at drawing anyway?"

"Decent. Better than all of these, but drawing on a cast is harder than doing it on paper."

"Woah. You actually draw?" Mira said, eyes widening.

"Only sometimes when I'm taking a break from training. Like now. Usually I just draw a scene from a battle I really liked."

"Oooooh. Wait, why don't you just draw something right now?" Mira suggested with a grin. "Not just on my cast, but on paper."

"Well, I can't do it with gloves, and my hands will get cold. The wind will blow the paper around, too."

"Let's just do it in our tent, then. It should be warm by now."

Lauren silently nodded, putting her gaiter back up, and Mira stood up from Gardevoir as well, who would remain by the fire with the others. Her footsteps did not crunch in the foreleg-deep snow like Lauren's, but it was just as difficult to walk in it. She had to admit, it was fun to see her fumble around. Maybe Mira just enjoyed watching people eating shit like she was constantly doing, but in a wholesome way and not a 'my life is collapsing' way. It was at times like these, where none of her concurrent thoughts were running, that the screams came back in full force. Harrowing, ear-piercing, begging to be spared or killed. To be relieved from the pain. Mira's entire body shook at once, and it wasn't because of the cold. Never had she seen a man scream until his voice was completely gone and he was spitting out blood. Every time she closed her eyes, he was there. He. Not saying his name was how much of a coward she was. It gave her distance, a way to pretend that hadn't really been her, in that basement. Yet it had been. Arceus, tomorrow couldn't come soon enough. Every day was a trial to see if she'd be able to hold on to the next time she could see her therapist, and while he was very good, she was supposed to be making progress like she'd told the others, not stagnating.

"You go in, I'm going to get Gengy to stay out. He'll make us cold."

Her friend nodded without even looking back, thank the Legendaries. Otherwise, she'd have done that thing where she asked what was wrong and Mira had to say it was private. There was no way she could tell Lauren about this, not when she was having so much fun in the Circuit. It'd be like showing someone what lay beyond the world's veil when they hadn't even asked. She was too innocent to ruin in such a way. Mira had screwed up, with Emi. She never should have told her about what Gengar had done to him.

"Gengy, up."

Mira shivered when her shadow moved. A pair of red eyes materialized above her, followed by a grin filled with layers upon layers of sharpened teeth, each a different size and dripping with poison. Gengar's body detached from her shadow, and Mira suddenly felt lighter, like she'd been carrying weights the entire time. The air seemed to grow more frigid, blowing against her neck as continuous chills traveled up and down her spine, and the glow from the setting sun dimmed. Gengar's body rippled, a mixture of toxic gas and poisonous liquid without a solid form. He looked terrifying to anyone not used to him— hell, he even looked a little scary to her, but that was nothing compared to what he could do when not chained by the rules of battle.

"Stay out, but don't annoy Lauren's team, okay? They'll kill you and we can't afford to waste any more time. Other than that, you can do whatever you want so long as you don't prank nearby trainers," Mira said. "If you behave, I'll get you a treat."

The ghost cackled, purple smoke emanating from his mouth as he slipped into the ethereal and disappeared, his voice echoing in the distance. Alakazam and Gardevoir could still control him, but they were worse than she was at it. Having evolved meant that Gengy had urges. Urges to haunt and prank, which sounded innocent enough until Fantina had told her that new Gengar could grow so obsessed with a victim that they would stalk them until they died from the numerous methods ghosts could use to kill. He would grow out of it eventually, but right now, it was like he was going through puberty. If something goes wrong, Gardevoir or Alakazam will tell me, she reassured herself as she leaned into the tent. I can be allowed a break... can I? They'd cleared some ground here to nail the tent into the earth, and there was a stove burning a block of wood at its center, with the smoke going out of the tent through a chimney. Lauren was taking off her second coat, revealing a gourd of water she'd been keeping inside her clothing. She'd been wearing a thick, creamy, long-sleeved cotton shirt below them.

"Huh. What's that for?" Mira asked, pointing at the flask.

"I have Mags warm it up for me and keep it inside. It helps with the cold," Lauren explained. "You can also put it inside your sleeping bag for a few minutes before you sleep to warm it up."

"Nifty," she said. "Uh, can you help with my coat again...?"

The agreement was wordless. Usually it was Gardevoir or Alakazam, who helped her put clothes on or off, but if it was just the coat, Lauren was fine. The amount of shit you couldn't do with a broken hand was astonishing, and Mira hated feeling that useless. Already, her Pokemon were behind the others. They had utility, of course, but the gap between her and her friends had never been wider. Her good hand slipped past the first sleeve, and there was something to admire about how delicate Lauren was when handling her broken hand. The girl liked nothing more but to see shit blow up, and yet here she was, going inch by inch over the cast and continuously asking if this was okay.

"Yeah, it's okay," Mira exhaled. She did not deserve such care. Not right now. "Thanks for the help."

"It would be weird if I didn't help."

Mira snorted. "I've seen worse behavior from teenage girls." She sat, using her good hand to undo her pigtails and let her pink hair flow freely. "So, how're we doing this? You wanna draw me like one of your Kalosian girls?" she asked, striking an exaggerated, lavish pose.

Lauren frowned, taking off her gloves. "Kalosians don't look that different than you do, but I'm not drawing you in that pose. We never even established that I was drawing you."

Mira wanted to feign a pout and pretend to be hurt, but didn't, because she was pretty sure Lauren would take it literally. "It was a joke, but a pretty shitty one, so don't worry about it." Mira scooted over to her while she grabbed a pen and a thin notebook. "So you said you usually draw battles? Like, your battles?"

The drawings themselves were decent. Not great, but not terrible. The proportions were off, there was no color and it was hard to tell what was in the foreground or background, but it was something she'd made from her heart. The current page depicted an Aggron jumping over an enormous crater to get to a Zweilous.

"These look cool! Wait, I recognize this one, that's your battle against Cece in Hearthome!"

Lauren smiled. "Yeah. It was a fun one. I draw some other battles I wasn't involved in sometimes. I started a few years ago when I was drawing Craig's battles."

Aw, drawing her big brother's fights. How cute.

"Obviously, I threw the notebooks out, though. This one's new," she finished.

Nevermind.

"This is your latest drawing?" Mira asked.

"Hmhm. I haven't done it in a while, so I'll be rusty. I was too focused on actually training, and there wasn't enough time."

"So what are you drawing?"

"I guess I can draw you if you really want me to."

"I was fucking around. You can draw whatever you want, Lauren."

"Then I'll draw the battle between your Gengar and my Sceptile," she agreed. "Can I put some music on?"

"Hmhm."

The scritching of the pen against paper was a comforting sound, especially when combined with the wind continuously battering against the tent. They did well when they decided to buy a tent for two. It was a bitch to assemble and tough to carry, but they had space for a stove to keep things warm and they could just relax here. Mira leaned toward Lauren to get a better look at what she was doing, though her friend was completely focused on the task at hand. Narrowed eyes and a strained left hand. We're both left-handed, so that's cool. The music itself coming from the phone on the floor was okay. It was some rock group that Lauren had been obsessed with since they'd begun traveling together, and she'd been listening over and over during the long stretches of silence that involved travel with her headphones. Some popular Unovan band... something Twins. Mira always got sick of music after listening to it for that long, but Lauren didn't. She'd had their stuff continuously on loop and liked to time stuff to songs or the entire album ending.

And Arceus forbid she had turn it off mid-way through. That was a cardinal sin and wasn't allowed.

"I don't know much about you," Lauren said, still drawing.

"Huh?"

"I don't mean the stuff you're keeping hidden, I mean what you were like before being a trainer. I know about your uncle, your parents and stuff, but I mean more like normal stuff. You know about me."

"Lauren... are you by chance... asking to know more about me!?" Mira beamed. "I thought the day would never come. Miracles really do come true."

"I like to know more about someone when I draw them battling. What's your favorite song?"

"Favorite song? Uh, that caught me off-guard a little, hold on... maybe Nocturno by Silencer—"

"Awful."

"What? What's so awful about it?"

"It makes me fall asleep."

"That's the entire point!" Mira scoffed. "I like chill songs."

"This drawing isn't going to come out very good, I think."

"Are you holding me hostage over my music tastes?"

"I'm just stating a fact, is all. I listen to music to get myself pumped up, so I think you're a little strange," Lauren said, pressing down her pen on the page to accentuate the contours of Gengy's form. "I guess you still have some redeeming qualities that make up for it, though, so who knows."

"Redeeming qualities? Like what? Please praise me."

Her friend chuckled. I made her laugh, holy shit. It wasn't the first time, but she could count the amount of times that had happened on her fingers.

"Well, you might be a bad trainer, but you work hard. You persevere even when you've been having a tough time, you're smart and good at teaching stuff in an easy way to understand," she listed. "You're easy to talk to. Sometimes I'll try to talk to someone and the conversation just dies, so I just leave. You're good at preventing that, and even when we aren't talking you're fun to be around."

"O—oh. That's very nice of you," Mira said, suddenly teary-eyed.

"But you also know when to screw off and let me be alone, so that's a plus."

"Well, after a week together I learned some of your quirks. You know, I've always wondered why you never did ask to travel with some of us. They'd learn to know you that well too."

"I'm not great with big groups, and there are too many of you. I think traveling with someone else other than you would get annoying. Grace's birthday party was already a lot. You did good with the planning, though, even if the music left something to be desired."

"Well, had I known, I would have tapped you for the playlist," Mira smiled. "Thank you, though. I really appreciate you, you know? You help to keep my head on my shoulders."

Lauren's drawing grew slightly quicker. "I haven't really done anything."

"I think just having a friend around helped a lot. It made me feel normal for a while, which I think was what I needed. At least my Pokemon think so."

"Gardevoir keeps staring at me."

"She gets jealous," Mira said with a dismissive handwave. "She won't actually do anything, don't worry."

"I wasn't worried. I could dismantle her in a multitude of different ways. Volis could use X-Scissor to break free of any Psychic hold and—"

"Let's not get into another 'here's how I could beat your team' rant," she interrupted.

Lauren bit her lip.

"Or, you know, maybe we can!" Mira quickly added. "Just... later. I'm not in the mood, currently." The pink-haired teen breathed a sigh of relief when Lauren nodded, seemingly fine with what she'd said. The last thing she wanted was to fuck up with her. "We're good, right?"

"Copacetic."

"Great. You know, I never did want to be a trainer," Mira muttered, listening to the crackling of the fire. They'd neen to replace the block of wood soon. "I thought I'd just graduate from school and get my uncle to get me a job at his own place. Nothing like some good old nepotism to get me going," she said, laughing at her own joke. "Then, he kept getting crazier, and eventually, he just left with everything. I was graduating in a few months, so I wasn't going to get money from the government for much longer and finding foster families takes months that I didn't have. I wanted answers and needed money, so it was the quickest path. Killing two birds with one stone. I guess to truly be good at it, you have to want it and not do it for convenience."

Lauren shifted in her seat. "I don't understand how you couldn't like battling," she said, raising her tone slightly. So from barely a whisper to actually audible. "What will you do when you find your uncle?"

"Tell him how much of a piece of shit he is," Mira said. "And try to fix him."

Fix him. In the previous months, Mira had sensed a pattern, with the gift given to the Shards. Willpower gave Cecilia and Chase the ability to have anyone listen to their orders, ergo, stripping people from their willpower for a set amount of time. Had they not been halves, there was no doubt they would have been able to do more, like what Grace could do. Mold someone to her liking by using emotion, along with stripping one of whatever part of them she wanted to make them into a puppet. It was a pattern. A pattern of thievery, of stealing what made people people. She had guessed that Uxie would give her the power to alter knowledge in some way. To steal it, and to pass it onto others.

That meant that Charon— uncle Ernie— could have all memories of her mother stripped away. Everything that had happened with Team Galactic would have to go, too. It wasn't really fixing him. More like wildly cutting at parts of him that only hurt him. Maybe with his memories gone, Cynthia could delay his execution further, or even free him entirely.

"Yeah," Mira whispered, hugging her knees. "I can try to fix him."

"Do you want a hug?"

"Huh?"

"A hug. Do you want one?"

"S—sure. Why not?"

Dropping the notebook on her lap, Lauren wrapped an arm around Mira's shoulder and brought her close in a gentle, yet brisk motion. Not exactly a hug, Mira mused, but it feels good nonetheless. Warm. The squeeze around her shoulder was nice. It was stupid, but it made her feel safe anyway. Out of Mira's closest friends, Chase wasn't a hugger, Cece didn't hug anyone who wasn't her girlfriend and Maeve only occasionally hugged. While Grace herself loved to hug, and they were of damn high quality, they hadn't seen each other in a while, and she suspected things would be quite awkward when they did. All of that to say, she'd missed these, and it was difficult now to want a little more. She hadn't realized she'd been craving physical contact this way.

"Can I keep the drawing when you're done?" Mira asked.

"If you really want it, I'll give it to you."

"That's nice of you," she smiled.

"Are you done? You're holding onto me more than I to you, and I won't be able to finish this."

Mira begged, surprisingly only half-joking. "Just one more minute."

Lauren gently pushed Mira off, and she was hugless for the rest of the night.

—

The way Lauren had grown more angsty the closer they got to Snowpoint was cute. She could barely contain her excitement and had been hyper-focusing on training. Mira had thought Grace was crazy for her training hours, but Lauren was even more so. Sometimes she'd go twelve hours straight training her team with only a few breaks in between. Her Pokemon fought while traveling, essentially battling along the route in pairs until they were too exhausted to move. When her team was taking a break, Lauren played out battles in her head and talked to herself about what she'd do or how she'd win against imaginary opponents and continuously asked Mira for her input about it. It wasn't really that interesting, but it was fun to see her talk about something she enjoyed so much, so Mira listened and bounced ideas with her. She'd even suggested a few moves that Lauren hadn't dismissed out of hand and was looking into implementing, one of them being useful against Candice's ice types.

Good times were unfortunately coming to an end. They'd made it to Snowpoint in all of its ugly glory. This city was nothing but dull, gray concrete blocks rising a few stories into the sky. It was a cloudy day, and every breath made the inside of her mouth and nose feel horribly dry. What Mira saw, however, was that there were far more trainers here than she'd already expected. There were thousands of shoeprints embedded in the snow, heading toward and outward of the Pokemon Center's direction. There were whispers of there barely being enough room to fit all of the influx of trainers Candice expected to get this year, with it having so many more people than usual. Some years were just like that, with a larger proportion of fifteen-year-olds deciding to give this training thing a try. The Pokemon Center stood as an island of warm colors in the middle of frigid cold. A dot of red where it didn't belong. Mira turned toward her friend with a sigh, ignoring the hushed whispers of her fans starting to gather around. Luckily, her Rhydon was out and keeping them away. Mira never really did get to know her team like she had her friends'. They kept even more to themselves than Grace's, save for Reuniclus.

"Well, here we are," she said. "I guess I'll be... leaving, then."

Lauren frowned. "You're not spending the day? You look tired. You have bags under your eyes."

"That's because I haven't used Hypnosis to make myself fall asleep in the last three days because I wanted to give sleeping normally a try," Mira said, wiping her nose. The damn cold was making it leak. "And yeah, I haven't had much success."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I should have noticed sooner," Lauren said. Though her voice or face wasn't very emotive, there were still quirks in her tone that Mira had learned to parse through. It was the eyes, too.

"No worries, I'll deal. I didn't want to have you worrying over me when you have your Gym Battle coming up, but evidently, I failed," Mira shrugged. It was why she always hid her bullshit problems deep, really. She hated being a burden and having people pity her, but here she was having screwed up again. "Again, I'll be fine! Um, just focus on getting that eighth badge, yeah? I'd say I'll watch, but I'm not sure I'll be able to."

Lauren's feet shuffled in the snow. "Watch the replay, then. I want you to see me use your move. I think it's sellable to Silph Co. Sirris has said we should share the profits, but I can give it all to you if it works."

Mira patted her on the arm. "Don't offer that much to people, Lauren, they'll take advantage of you."

"I really meant it."

"No, keep your money," Mira said. I don't deserve it. "Take me out for a fun day sometimes and we'll call it even."

"I don't really know what that would be."

"We'll just wing it, then."

"...I can't wing it. It has to be prepared, or it'll go wrong," Lauren muttered.

"We'll figure it out, it's still nebulous. I don't even know where I'll be in two weeks," Mira said, her eyes downcast and staring at her feet. "But yeah, I should go. You were fun, Lauren. Good luck in your Gym Battle."

"You were fun, too."

Mira released Alakazam, asking him to Teleport her back on route 217.

"And be careful. Don't take any risks," her friend added.

"What makes you think I'm taking risks?"

"Don't think I'm an idiot. I can tell you're going to do something like the raid again."

Mira's legs suddenly felt heavier, like she was sinking in quicksand. "Not too loud, people are looking—"

"I don't care about people!" she yelled, before turning her head all around them. Rhydon flexed an arm, and stone cracked loudly as his body seemed to sharpen. Nasty technique, that one. It essentially made him mold his entire body into something sharper, losing defense in exchange for heightened offense. "Fuck off! All of you."

Should I Teleport you before this turns to a fight? Alakazam asked. I suggest otherwise. You've picked up a nasty habit of running away, Mira.

"No. I'm fine," she whispered.

"Why are you doing this?" Lauren asked with a clenched fist. "It's bullshit. You're risking your lives for no reason."

"You said you wouldn't ask..." Legendaries, her words were so weak and full of shit. Every time she played this song and dance, her resolve seemed to weaken. "I can't involve you in this. Just trust me, okay? Can you do that?"

[collapse]

"Lauren... are you by chance... asking to know more about me!?" Mira beamed. "I thought the day would never come. Miracles really do come true."

"I like to know more about someone when I draw them battling. What's your favorite song?"

"Favorite song? Uh, that caught me off-guard a little, hold on... maybe Nocturno by Silencer—"

"Awful."

"What? What's so awful about it?"

"It makes me fall asleep."

"That's the entire point!" Mira scoffed. "I like chill songs."

"This drawing isn't going to come out very good, I think."

"Are you holding me hostage over my music tastes?"

"I'm just stating a fact, is all. I listen to music to get myself pumped up, so I think you're a little strange," Lauren said, pressing down her pen on the page to accentuate the contours of Gengy's form. "I guess you still have some redeeming qualities that make up for it, though, so who knows."

"Redeeming qualities? Like what? Please praise me."

Her friend chuckled. I made her laugh, holy shit. It wasn't the first time, but she could count the amount of times that had happened on her fingers.

"Well, you might be a bad trainer, but you work hard. You persevere even when you've been having a tough time, you're smart and good at teaching stuff in an easy way to understand," she listed. "You're easy to talk to. Sometimes I'll try to talk to someone and the conversation just dies, so I just leave. You're good at preventing that, and even when we aren't talking you're fun to be around."

"O—oh. That's very nice of you," Mira said, suddenly teary-eyed.

"But you also know when to screw off and let me be alone, so that's a plus."

"Well, after a week together I learned some of your quirks. You know, I've always wondered why you never did ask to travel with some of us. They'd learn to know you that well too."

"I'm not great with big groups, and there are too many of you. I think traveling with someone else other than you would get annoying. Grace's birthday party was already a lot. You did good with the planning, though, even if the music left something to be desired."

"Well, had I known, I would have tapped you for the playlist," Mira smiled. "Thank you, though. I really appreciate you, you know? You help to keep my head on my shoulders."

Lauren's drawing grew slightly quicker. "I haven't really done anything."

"I think just having a friend around helped a lot. It made me feel normal for a while, which I think was what I needed. At least my Pokemon think so."

"Gardevoir keeps staring at me."

"She gets jealous," Mira said with a dismissive handwave. "She won't actually do anything, don't worry."

"I wasn't worried. I could dismantle her in a multitude of different ways. Volis could use X-Scissor to break free of any Psychic hold and—"

"Let's not get into another 'here's how I could beat your team' rant," she interrupted.

Lauren bit her lip.

"Or, you know, maybe we can!" Mira quickly added. "Just... later. I'm not in the mood, currently." The pink-haired teen breathed a sigh of relief when Lauren nodded, seemingly fine with what she'd said. The last thing she wanted was to fuck up with her. "We're good, right?"

"Copacetic."

"Great. You know, I never did want to be a trainer," Mira muttered, listening to the crackling of the fire. They'd neen to replace the block of wood soon. "I thought I'd just graduate from school and get my uncle to get me a job at his own place. Nothing like some good old nepotism to get me going," she said, laughing at her own joke. "Then, he kept getting crazier, and eventually, he just left with everything. I was graduating in a few months, so I wasn't going to get money from the government for much longer and finding foster families takes months that I didn't have. I wanted answers and needed money, so it was the quickest path. Killing two birds with one stone. I guess to truly be good at it, you have to want it and not do it for convenience."

Lauren shifted in her seat. "I don't understand how you couldn't like battling," she said, raising her tone slightly. So from barely a whisper to actually audible. "What will you do when you find your uncle?"

"Tell him how much of a piece of shit he is," Mira said. "And try to fix him."

Fix him. In the previous months, Mira had sensed a pattern, with the gift given to the Shards. Willpower gave Cecilia and Chase the ability to have anyone listen to their orders, ergo, stripping people from their willpower for a set amount of time. Had they not been halves, there was no doubt they would have been able to do more, like what Grace could do. Mold someone to her liking by using emotion, along with stripping one of whatever part of them she wanted to make them into a puppet. It was a pattern. A pattern of thievery, of stealing what made people people. She had guessed that Uxie would give her the power to alter knowledge in some way. To steal it, and to pass it onto others.

That meant that Charon— uncle Ernie— could have all memories of her mother stripped away. Everything that had happened with Team Galactic would have to go, too. It wasn't really fixing him. More like wildly cutting at parts of him that only hurt him. Maybe with his memories gone, Cynthia could delay his execution further, or even free him entirely.

"Yeah," Mira whispered, hugging her knees. "I can try to fix him."

"Do you want a hug?"

"Huh?"

"A hug. Do you want one?"

"S—sure. Why not?"

Dropping the notebook on her lap, Lauren wrapped an arm around Mira's shoulder and brought her close in a gentle, yet brisk motion. Not exactly a hug, Mira mused, but it feels good nonetheless. Warm. The squeeze around her shoulder was nice. It was stupid, but it made her feel safe anyway. Out of Mira's closest friends, Chase wasn't a hugger, Cece didn't hug anyone who wasn't her girlfriend and Maeve only occasionally hugged. While Grace herself loved to hug, and they were of damn high quality, they hadn't seen each other in a while, and she suspected things would be quite awkward when they did. All of that to say, she'd missed these, and it was difficult now to want a little more. She hadn't realized she'd been craving physical contact this way.

"Can I keep the drawing when you're done?" Mira asked.

"If you really want it, I'll give it to you."

"That's nice of you," she smiled.

"Are you done? You're holding onto me more than I to you, and I won't be able to finish this."

Mira begged, surprisingly only half-joking. "Just one more minute."

Lauren gently pushed Mira off, and she was hugless for the rest of the night.

—

The way Lauren had grown more angsty the closer they got to Snowpoint was cute. She could barely contain her excitement and had been hyper-focusing on training. Mira had thought Grace was crazy for her training hours, but Lauren was even more so. Sometimes she'd go twelve hours straight training her team with only a few breaks in between. Her Pokemon fought while traveling, essentially battling along the route in pairs until they were too exhausted to move. When her team was taking a break, Lauren played out battles in her head and talked to herself about what she'd do or how she'd win against imaginary opponents and continuously asked Mira for her input about it. It wasn't really that interesting, but it was fun to see her talk about something she enjoyed so much, so Mira listened and bounced ideas with her. She'd even suggested a few moves that Lauren hadn't dismissed out of hand and was looking into implementing, one of them being useful against Candice's ice types.

Good times were unfortunately coming to an end. They'd made it to Snowpoint in all of its ugly glory. This city was nothing but dull, gray concrete blocks rising a few stories into the sky. It was a cloudy day, and every breath made the inside of her mouth and nose feel horribly dry. What Mira saw, however, was that there were far more trainers here than she'd already expected. There were thousands of shoeprints embedded in the snow, heading toward and outward of the Pokemon Center's direction. There were whispers of there barely being enough room to fit all of the influx of trainers Candice expected to get this year, with it having so many more people than usual. Some years were just like that, with a larger proportion of fifteen-year-olds deciding to give this training thing a try. The Pokemon Center stood as an island of warm colors in the middle of frigid cold. A dot of red where it didn't belong. Mira turned toward her friend with a sigh, ignoring the hushed whispers of her fans starting to gather around. Luckily, her Rhydon was out and keeping them away. Mira never really did get to know her team like she had her friends'. They kept even more to themselves than Grace's, save for Reuniclus.

"Well, here we are," she said. "I guess I'll be... leaving, then."

Lauren frowned. "You're not spending the day? You look tired. You have bags under your eyes."

"That's because I haven't used Hypnosis to make myself fall asleep in the last three days because I wanted to give sleeping normally a try," Mira said, wiping her nose. The damn cold was making it leak. "And yeah, I haven't had much success."

"Oh. I'm sorry, I should have noticed sooner," Lauren said. Though her voice or face wasn't very emotive, there were still quirks in her tone that Mira had learned to parse through. It was the eyes, too.

"No worries, I'll deal. I didn't want to have you worrying over me when you have your Gym Battle coming up, but evidently, I failed," Mira shrugged. It was why she always hid her bullshit problems deep, really. She hated being a burden and having people pity her, but here she was having screwed up again. "Again, I'll be fine! Um, just focus on getting that eighth badge, yeah? I'd say I'll watch, but I'm not sure I'll be able to."

Lauren's feet shuffled in the snow. "Watch the replay, then. I want you to see me use your move. I think it's sellable to Silph Co. Sirris has said we should share the profits, but I can give it all to you if it works."

Mira patted her on the arm. "Don't offer that much to people, Lauren, they'll take advantage of you."

"I really meant it."

"No, keep your money," Mira said. I don't deserve it. "Take me out for a fun day sometimes and we'll call it even."

"I don't really know what that would be."

"We'll just wing it, then."

"...I can't wing it. It has to be prepared, or it'll go wrong," Lauren muttered.

"We'll figure it out, it's still nebulous. I don't even know where I'll be in two weeks," Mira said, her eyes downcast and staring at her feet. "But yeah, I should go. You were fun, Lauren. Good luck in your Gym Battle."

"You were fun, too."

Mira released Alakazam, asking him to Teleport her back on route 217.

"And be careful. Don't take any risks," her friend added.

"What makes you think I'm taking risks?"

"Don't think I'm an idiot. I can tell you're going to do something like the raid again."

Mira's legs suddenly felt heavier, like she was sinking in quicksand. "Not too loud, people are looking—"

"I don't care about people!" she yelled, before turning her head all around them. Rhydon flexed an arm, and stone cracked loudly as his body seemed to sharpen. Nasty technique, that one. It essentially made him mold his entire body into something sharper, losing defense in exchange for heightened offense. "Fuck off! All of you."

Should I Teleport you before this turns to a fight? Alakazam asked. I suggest otherwise. You've picked up a nasty habit of running away, Mira.

"No. I'm fine," she whispered.

"Why are you doing this?" Lauren asked with a clenched fist. "It's bullshit. You're risking your lives for no reason."

"You said you wouldn't ask..." Legendaries, her words were so weak and full of shit. Every time she played this song and dance, her resolve seemed to weaken. "I can't involve you in this. Just trust me, okay? Can you do that?"

"One day, I'll wake up and half of you will be dead," Lauren said.

How could she salvage this? Mira didn't want to ruin the friendship they had going, but the last thing she wanted to do was involve more people in this... pit of continuous harshness that had become her life. Could she imagine Lauren, storming his mansion? Yes, yes she could. She was a better trainer, though maybe that would have been a handicap with all the hostages. Imagining her fighting Team Galactic? Yes. But she didn't deserve any of this. Mira couldn't bare to look at Lauren in the eye, instead staring at anywhere but her face. She shied away from the intense glare of her dark eyes, feeling the pace of her breaths quicken. What do I say? All this knowledge bullshit and I have nothing to show for it? Pathetic. Awful. Piece of shit.

But then, Lauren's look softened when Mira was on the verge of asking Alakazam to run.

"I'm sorry for yelling. Just be careful and don't die. Please."

"Yeah..."

"And sleep. You need eight hours per night, but I'll settle for six. And you need to eat properly. That Gardevoir makes some good points even if she's weak."

Mira sorted Alakazam's protest to the back of her head as she smothered a grin and wiped the corner of her eye.

"Thanks. Hug it out?" she asked, outstretching her arms.

"We already made up."

Her arms drooped back to her side. "Yeah, that's fair. I'll be on my way, then?"

"Goodbye."

"See you, Lauren."

—

Mira had felt the pull of the Lake while traveling through route 217. It had been faint, but felt like a word on the tip of her tongue, for lack of a better expression. Something she was supposed to know, but didn't, and that would have driven her halfway to insanity, had she not had her Pokemon and Lauren with her. It was like an irresistible force pulling her inward, like the planet's gravity as she wandered the snowy plains. Alakazam kept Teleporting her forward in multiple jumps as far as he could see, but it was tough with how the blizzard had picked up. Her free hand was shoved deep inside of her pocket, holding onto her phone for some semblance of company or warmth. The frigid winds seemed to slice through her coat and through any barrier Alakazam conjured up in a way the psychic couldn't explain, but that fascinated both him and her. It was as if the state of the world up there was cold unless you had a fire to help near you. All of these, still helped, including the barrier, but you'd be hard pressed not to feel uncomfortable up here.

"K—keep going North," Mira said through chattering teeth. She could barely feel her legs and fingers. "We're close. Almost there."

It was like her soul wanted to jump out of her skin. Like she wasn't meant to be here. Yet Mira persevered, alternating between trudging through snow and having Alakazam Teleport her for the next thirty minutes until finally, a League Trainer patrolling the surroundings found her. The lucky fuck was dressed like Lauren had been, but with a Camerupt to keep him warm to boot. Part of her pitied him a little, for having to be stationed in what was no doubt the worst of the three lakes. Mira dragged her feet through the snow, leaving trails behind her that wouldn't last the next five minutes.

"Mira Compton!" he yelled through the blizzard. "May I identify you, just to be safe!"

"I can't feel my fucking hands!" she screamed back.

No amount of begging would have him just lead her in, so she mustered her courage and grabbed her ID from her wallet, fumbling around and trying to open it with one hand until she managed to present it to him for a split second before she had to put her hand back in her pocket. Yeah, he was just doing his job, but he was still a fucking asshole. At least Camerupt was sharing some of its warmth with them, but they'd just gotten there. It would take a while for that heat to actually seep in.

"Follow."

Mira nodded, dragging herself through the snow and totally not wishing she was back in that tent with Lauren and shooting the shit. The snot that was continuously streaming down her nose froze within a minute of being exposed to the air, with how fucking cold it was getting, but she and Alakazam persevered. The psychic tried to alter the path of the wind with some of his fancy tricks, and that helped a little. They entered some kind of thick forest, which was hell to navigate, and apparently Teleporting forward was impossible from now on according to Alakazam. As they kept going, she finally got warm again thanks to the huge Camerupt and she began to feel her extremities again. Grace said she wanted one of these before finding her Turtonator, the teenager hummed with interest. She shared few words with Alakazam, because her thoughts lay elsewhere. How should she approach talking to Uxie? She was terrified, even though she knew what to expect the most. Cece and Chase hadn't known what would happen, when they touched their lake, and yet they'd done it anyway.

"Come on," she whispered to herself. "You can do this."

Having to pump herself up while not even being near the damn Lake was somewhat pathetic, but at least no one could hear her thanks to the blizzard. It took another twenty minutes for them to step through some sort of forcefield. The feeling of crossing a threshold was subtle, but it had been there, and suddenly, a fortress lay in front of her and the snow stopped falling immediately. That was the Lake doing that, not the League, Mira knew. Its influence was more powerful than whatever the fuck made this route and its surroundings hell and Uxie kept to a smaller size— the smallest of the three lakes. She was identified and let into the military base. It was just like Lake Valor's, except more compact and smaller. Only two layers of walls instead of three, and fewer people on site in general, which made sense with how inhospitable this place was. Mira found herself reinvigorated as she walked onto the base's paved roads, which were only blanketed by a thin layer of snow. She could think even faster here, and she felt like she'd have the answers to any question she asked. Alakazam's eyes widened as the same feeling overtook his brain, no doubt.

"We're staying a single day, so don't get too excited," Mira preempted.

A shame. I could have many breakthroughs here if we stayed longer, Alakazam said with a sigh.

Part of her wanted to head back to Snowpoint as soon as she was done, but there were responsibilities, and again, involving Lauren with this would be foolish. No, instead she would head back south to Jubilife. Back in her old apartment that she still owned. There, she would spend the rest of the one month she had while training and brace for the worst. She wanted to see the others, but they all knew about her, every single one of them. They'd judge her. Think she was a monster. Grace watched, but she was the one who ordered Gengy to actually kill.

No, it would be best if she stayed on her own.

Mira was taken into the main building, which was only slightly larger than the others. It was a mixture of different whites and greys that made her eyes hurt due to the light getting reflected everywhere seeing as the weather above the lake was clear without a cloud in sight, like she had entered a different world. Some kind of big-shot leader spoke to her, and she had the conversation with him while thinking of a dozen different things, mostly about Uxie. She told them she was going to be touching the water now, and not wait. Better rip the band-aid off and get it over with before she could chicken out.

On the way to the Lake was a modest home made of wood, and not steel and concrete. It looked hilariously out of place, and a grumpy-looking woman in a thick, wooly shirt and pants with arms that looked like they could snap Mira like a twig. Must be Savika, she thought. She sure looked unhappy to have had an entire military installation forced upon her home. There was a tiny Sneasel by her feet, which surprised Mira considering she was supposed to have no Pokemon. Maybe she'd caught something recently, then. Mira wasn't really in a mood to converse with a pissy old woman, so she just nodded at her, which Savika promptly ignored, and kept going until they reached the Lake. It beckoned her. The surface was crystal clear, and she wanted nothing more but to plunge inside of it, clothes and all.

Instead, as around eight League Trainers stood behind her, she plunged her hand into the scorching Lake—

—

It was an endless expanse of dark.

Mira had fallen to some kind of soft, wet ground that was difficult to stand on, with how uneven it was and given the fact that it was impossible to actually see. The water only touched the soles of her feet as if she was walking on it, which was different than how the others had described theirs. Terrified of angering the Legendary, Mira stared at her feet, though she couldn't help but enjoy moving her hand again. There was a little relieved sigh when she realized it was painless, but she could only ignore her problems for so long. There was a weight in front of her, a weight that was looking at her every move and yet that stayed silent. Should I look up? Talk? They usually talk first, don't they?

Silence. Uxie was deafeningly quiet, and Mira couldn't help but start thinking something about her wasn't worthy. What if it had gotten a good look at her now and was thinking of how to rip her gift out of her? Then what would she even be for?

"Come forth, Mira Compton. Look at me."

Holy shit, the girl swallowed. The voice was a child-like quiet, barely a whisper, and yet she caught onto every single word and felt compelled to listen. Mira glanced up at a literal God. Its body was a pale, almost fading blue with two tails embedded with small red gems, but what caught her attention was Uxie's head. Starting from the middle of its face, yellow skin extended upward until it grew into a helmet-like structure that covered the entire top of its head. On top of the yellow growth sat its gem, glowing slightly red, and its eyes were permanently closed. A constant pressure pressed on Mira's chest as she listened to the concept of Knowledge and approached it with heavy steps. Her mind raced with a thousand different scenarios, yet she stayed quiet. Everything here was quiet, far more than what was normal. She kept walking, as if she was in a daze until their faces almost touched and she knew she was close enough. There was no doubt in that, as if someone had planted the knowledge in her head.

Then Uxie opened its eyes—

Mira blinked, not remembering what had happened or what she'd just seen. Uxie's eyes were closed again, but then she slowly started to know. She knew how her powers worked. The fact that she would be able to think faster when she was out of here, or steal and hand out knowledge however she pleased, so long as it wasn't too much, otherwise she would get tired and pass out. While Grace's power was subtle and slow, and Cecilia and Chase's was fast and sudden, hers was in the middle of that. She would not be able to affect Grace or vice versa, but Cecilia and Chase were halves, so they would be possible to steal and insert memories into, not that she was actually planning to do that. All of this had just been knowledge forced upon her head, like it had crawled its way into her brain and forced her to think this way despite her not wanting to. Absorbing too much information at once would give her a headache, and giving too much in a short amount of time would also give headaches. Taking, though, would be easy and without pain.

"You now own a piece of me," Uxie whispered. "A passenger that will aid you in your quest to save His Creation. Yet I worry for you, child. Thoughts of guilt, inadequacy and fear cloud your mind, and I know you to be quite the sensitive Shard."

Mira winced. "That won't stop me from helping save the world."

Knowledge nodded. "I know. But what about what comes after? In many of the futures where the line is not cut, I see you battered and broken. A shell of your former self. You plan on saving your uncle, the one who is a blight upon Creation, but perhaps it would be better to have you forget the fact that you care about him."

"W—wait!"

Her heart lurched in her throat, and she felt herself stumble as dread crept up her skin, covering every single inch and making it hard to breathe. It had said this so nonchalantly, like it was doing her a service, but there was no outrage that rose within her. After all, she was planning on doing something similar to Charon already.

"No. No, I'm okay," she said, the selfish fucking prick. "I'll deal with anything. I've been dealing my whole life."

Uxie just stared— well, not exactly, since its eyes were closed.

"What do you mean by the 'line is not cut'?" she added.

Uxie opened its eyes.

The world line they currently resided in. While Uxie could not travel between lines, it could look and infer knowledge from them and delve into the future. That is how it warned its siblings about the impending doom. Her throat suddenly felt so, so dry. The damn thing wasn't even bothering to talk to her, and she still couldn't remember the color of its eyes. That meant that there were futures where the line was cut and everything ended.

"Fret not."

A psychic bubble enveloped her like a warm, thick blanket. Mira's eyes fluttered, suddenly feeling tired, but she knew better than to think that she was getting hypnotized. She was just genuinely exhausted, and the damn concept of Knowledge was hugging her.

"I worry for you, Shard. Willpower looks at his own with disdain and disinterest. Emotion desires to be entertained for a moment in existence, but I? I worry for you."

"I— how? I'm just some human who'll die in like what feels like an hour to you."

"Does that mean I cannot worry? Should I curse mortals just because I am not? I gifted your people Knowledge, Shard, not only because He asked me to, but because I love you like He does. You are, after all, His creation. It would not do for me to think you lesser."

Ah. Not genuine love, then, but an imitation of what Uxie thought Arceus would be like, and Mira believed the concept loved humanity as a whole and was only treating her differently because she was a Shard. It was genuinely trying, though, which was more than what could be said of the other two.

"Well, I had a few questions about Team Galactic. Um, if they complete the Red Chain, which it looks like they'll do, how close will they need to get to the Lakes to grab you."

Uxie did not deign answer, instead using its eyes to update the knowledge in her head in an instant. They would have to breech the walls, but not get to the shores of the lake itself. Still a difficult endeavor, but not impossible.

"Will they be able to use you to actually attack? Like, use your powers to destroy cities or fight back against League forces?" Mira continued.

Again, it opened its eyes, and she forgot what she'd seen. The Red Chain is made of only Mesprit's gems, and replicas at that. Its hold on them would be tenuous enough that they would probably keep them in a dormant state until the time came to summon Dialga and Palkia, but Uxie was sure they would use them to chart a path to reach the top of Mount Coronet, because the mountain would open itself up for Uxie and its siblings and lead them to the summit. His throne, once radiant and where He sat while He created the world with His uncountable number of hands.

Mira gasped as she was pulled out of the... not vision, but something akin to it, her head throbbing rhythmically like a heartbeat. "Wait, so Mount Coronet would just stop its fuckery if you were there? No time dilation? No moving parts?"

That gave them so much less time to work with. The League had been operating under the assumption that if they wanted to get to the summit with good numbers, they would need to spend weeks brute forcing their way up Mount Coronet. That changed things and shortened the timeline. Fuck.

"Why?"

A system built to keep any but the most dedicated worshippers away from His throne, yet able to be stopped with Uxie and its siblings.

"Fuck me," Mira sighed. "Fair enough. Could you possibly tell me what Team Galactic's plan once the Red Chain is completed is? Or when they plan to strike?"

"Sometimes, they wait. Sometimes, they strike right away. Sometimes, they fail before they get to the lakes. Sometimes, they succeed and His Creation ends. They do it in numerous ways, and no plan is more credible than the other, but I will transfer the knowledge to you."

She knew. She knew everything, and her head felt like it was about to burst. It was important to note, though, that for all its power, Uxie was not omniscient and could be caught off-guard.

"I have one last question, though, Uxie. How would I kill a true ghost permanently?"

Uxie's lips twitched up before returning to their perpetual frown, and it opened its eyes. There is only one way, and it was to kill them a second time in the Dusk. Finding a ghost willing to do so would be impossible, because they were compelled not to do so by a covenant forged by the first ghosts who ever came into existence, so a human and their non-ghost Pokemon would have to enter the Dusk themselves and do it.

"And is there a way to enter the Dusk?" Mira asked, leaning forward.

Uxie smiled again. "Only if you are let in by its ruler," it said. "Goodbye, Shard. I can tell you have no more questions. We will be in regular communication, once you are back. And if what happens during the war to save His Creation proves too much for you, come back and I will fix you."

Fix her. Similar wording, there.

Mira nodded.

Maybe she'd been the choice between her friends for a reason, after all.