Yandere Lyra Part 1

Table Of Contents because this bitch is real damned long

PART ONE: The one with Milkshakes: Page 1
Author: Milkshakes
PART TWO: Burnt Tower: Page 18
Author: Rapin” OP
PART THREE: Shopping Mall Christmas Special: Page 26
Author: Blake
PART FOUR: Lyra”s Point of View: Page 37
Author: Blake
PART FIVE: Olivine City: Page 48
Author: Rapin” OP
PART SIX: Olivine City Gym Battle: Page 57
Author: Uh, I dunno. Some anon.
PART SEVEN:  The Filler from Olivine to Mahogany Town: Page 65
Author: Rapin” OP
PART EIGHT: Celebi: Page 73
Author: TsundereKris
PART NINE: Another Christmas Special: Page 82
Author: Rapin” OP
PART TEN: Kris”s Point of View: Page 99
Author: Rapin” OP
PART ELEVEN: Oh god what the hell : Page 120
Author: Rapin” «Why the fuck are half of these mine" OP
PART TWELVE:  Red P127
Author: Links

PART ONE

Goldenrod City...a bright, energetic city full of bright, energetic people. Gold probably would've still been feeling the overwhelming culture shock of such big city congestion if his brain still wasn't awash in the pleasant afterglow of victory. Three badges down. Wholesome satisfaction. He felt good. The orange sky and setting sun felt appropriate...like a curtain slowly falling after his stellar performance.

He waited with a broad smile outside the city's main Pokémon Center...hopelessly distracted by the well-polished fruits of his labor. He held his badge case in front of him, all three of those precious little trinkets twinkling invitingly...though, most of his attention was on the Plain Badge, freshly plucked from an emotional competitor's fingers. His thumb traced smoothly over the glossy coating...occasionally giving a firm tap simply so he can treat his ears to that weak, musical 'tink!' the badge made.

He had to admit, he had a poor first impression of Whitney...one which was worsened by the tear-soaked fit she thew as soon as the battle had ended. But, after that tantrum, she evened out well. They'd talked a lot before he left the gym. She was even kind enough to exchange phone numbers with him, a luxury usually unknown to victorious gym-challengers. He took that as a sign that he must be better than he thought.

His Pokégear suddenly vibrated, sounding off with a repeating 'brrrng brrrng!'. A phone call. He slipped his badge case away, tucking safely into the handy pack that he kept slung across his shoulder. A quick flick would unveil his cellphone...'WHITNEY <3' spelling out in bright, blue letters (she'd entered her name into it...he'd been debating about editing out the playful heart. The capital letters also clashed with the rest of the names on his contact list). He hadn't expected a call from her so soon...but then again, she seemed like the chatty type. He nearly answered when he saw her...

Immediately, he smiled and waved as his traveling companion approached. Lyra...back in New Bark, she had felt like his only friend in the world. Small town...not many kids. On occasion, something about her still made him shaky and nervous...but for the most part, certain aspects of their relationship felt like a distant nightmare.

...He liked her. She was nice...a good listener...always standing up for him...a girl full of bright smiles and boundless enthusiasm. They spent enough time to together that he'd memorized her mannerisms...that extra spring in her step when she was happy...or the way the tugged on her suspenders when feeling ready to take on the next challenge...or the way her left kneesock, for whatever reason, had a habit of bunching up when she wasn't paying attention. She had something in her hand as she half-skipped towards him...a paper cup, he assumed. She'd gone to go pick up a drink or something like that from one of the city's food vendors before they all closed shop for the evening.

Mom always told him to always answer his phone. After all, it could be important. The young trainer wasn't quite sure what could be so important coming from someone he barely knew, but you always had to be safe.

He stopped Lyra before she could even speak, raising his free hand to her as he flicked open his cellphone. She stopped dead in her tracks before she could even speak...lips immediately folding from that typical smile to a forced pout.

...A familiar blue ball followed in her wake...pudgy Marill that seemed to be her constant companion waddling tiredly at her heels. That happened often. She knew that Marill couldn't run as fast as most with those stubble little limbs, but she seemed like the type who had a difficult time controlling her walking speed. Feeling the squishy water mouse bumping against the back of her heels, she bent down and lifted the little creature up into her arms while mumbling some apologetic baby talk and offering it a sip on the straw coming from her drink.

The Marill recoiled...Gold knew why. He didn't even have to ask to know what was in it...a milkshake from a rising, popular train of 'build your own milkshake vendors'. He'd never tried one of Lyra's, but he knew he didn't want to. She always ordered the same thing...strawberry shake, extra-extra syrup. In fact, there was probably more sugary, intoxicatingly sweet syrup floating in that beverage than ice cream itself! He didn't see how she could stand it.

While Lyra playfully nudged the moist tip of the straw towards her unwilling pet, Gold ignored the situation...turning around and putting an ear to his phone.

"Hello?"

"Hey! Haha! Gosh, almost thought you wouldn't answer. Whitney here! How ya doing...umm..."

"...Gold?"

"...Right. Gold. I almost wanted to say something else...started with an E?"

"...Y-yeah...that's just something a friend calls me. So, is something the matter?"

"...Hm? No. Why?"

"...Well, you called...so..."

"...You don't get many calls from friends, do you?"

"...I do...it's just...they're usually about a Rattata..."

The conversation continued for less than five minutes. Lyra gave up on having her Water-type friend sampling her drink, content to slurp at it herself while rocking on her heels.

"Anyway, Goldy...I gotta gooooo. Haha...got some other people I have to ring up! You should see me sometime!"

"Well, we're leaving Goldenrod tonight..."

"Awwww...shucks. 'Nother time then. Kissies!"

"...Y-yeah...'kissies'...I guess..."

The conversation ended with a high-pitched giggle at the other line. She'd managed to cram way too much conversation into five minutes. Gold flicked his phone closed, feeling inexplicably exhausted...and slightly humiliated from the words he muttered into the phone before he hung up.

"...Ethan, who was that?"

"O-oh, it was..."

He wasn't looking at Lyra...couldn't see her expression...but her tone seemed innocent enough. What should Gold say?

"O-oh, it was...my mom..."

"...Your mom?"

"Y-yeah...no big deal. Just filling her in on the badge situation."

Gold suddenly felt an unusual presence...a suddenly warmth near his back. Turning, he'd find himself nose-to-nose with the quirky young lady he'd known from New Bark Town. Her eyes squinted, lips knotting...standing on the very tips of her shoes just so she can get eye-to-eye with him.

Gold stammered, recoiling slightly. "...Wh-...what? I have something on my face?"

"...She called you, right?"

"...Uh-huh."

"...For what? Wouldn't YOU call HER to fill her in on something?"

"Yeah! Yeah, of course! She called about something else...but, I was planning on calling her later anyway, so..."

"...What'd she call about?"

"Huh? Oh...just...keeping me updated on how my money is doing."

"...And kissies? When's she ever said that?"

"..."

Lyra stepped back, arms crossed snugly across her chest. Her Marill caught on quickly, immediately waddling beside its trainer and imitating the position with comically scrunched face...though, its arms couldn't quite cross all the way.

"...Mr. Ethan, are you being entirely honest with me?" Lyra spoke in her absolute best imitation of an uptight substitute teacher.

"...Yeah...why would I lie?"

"...Then let me see your phone."

"...What!? Why?"

"The battery on mine is low and I want to make a call."


"...It...wasn't my mom who called me."

Lyra's strong-shouldered stance fled rather quickly. Her shoulders slumped...her lips softened...eyes blinked rapidly and eyebrows raised in the most nonthreatening way possible. "...Ethan...is something wrong? Someone's not bothering you, are they?"

"No, no! I was just...I'unno, nervous. I can't really tell you why I sa-...it was Whitney! The gym leader, she called me."

Lyra's lips parted slightly, a single eyebrow arching in quizzical fashion. Her eyelids sank to half-mast, frowning. "...Kissies?"

"Haha...well, she's kinda bubbly, y'know? She said it, not me."

...Gold's tension lowered as soon as he saw Lyra giving him a wry, teasing smirk...toying with her suspenders as she took a confident victory sip of that horrible, sugar-soaked concoction. "Suuuuure she did, Ethan."

"...Ugh...seriously, I-"

"BUT...I am glad you were honest. Can't help it if someone else is bugging you like that, huh?"

"Well...she wasn't really 'bugging'. I mean, she's n-"

"Here! Drink up!"

She pushed her drink-holding hand forward, the straw she'd been sipping from dangling mere centimeters from his relatively dry lips. "H-...errr..."

"Go on, you can have a sip! S'good! I mean, four times the normal strawberry syrup doesn't SEEM like a good idea, but it gives it a kick, y'know?"

Gold's stomach turned. He could SMELL the diabetes frothing from the innards of that cup. He'd gag on it for sure. Should Gold...

The young trainer's limbs shook as he stared down at that strawberry-scented porthole to Hell. He steeled her nerves...psyched himself up, mentally sorting through any inspirational lyrics he may have picked up from every song featured in every inspirational sports movie he'd seen.

Lips wrapped meekly around the offered straw...giving the most gentle of sips. Lyra beamed broadly the entire time...expectantly...examining his reaction and, for some reason or another, even developing a faint hint of red color across her sun-drenched cheeks.

The unhealthy mixture of syrup and dairy dropped innocent on Gold's tongue.

...This had been a mistake.

He snorted suddenly, pulling away and just barely swallowing down the throat-cloggingly thick, hyper-sweet mucus. Every single one of his physical senses were assaulted by it...by golly, he could FEEL the strawberry-flavored sugar coarsing under his skin. "GEEZ! Lyra, how do you even...uuugh!"

Lyra blinked softly...immediately bringing the drink back to her own lips and guzzling a good chunk of it down. She smacked her lips, staring upward as if judging whether or not Gold had just gotten an unlucky taste. "...Ethan, you big baby...it's not THAT bad..."

"No, it's worse..."

"...Hmph. More for me, then..."

Her mood had soured. Gold ventured into the center momentarily, grabbing a drink of water to neutralize the tongue-numbing barrage of chemicals sizzling at his taste-buds...like if sugar cane and high-fructose corn syrup had a baby and that baby was bitten by a radioactive package of living artificial sweetener.

Gold returned a minute or so later...only to see Lyra patiently sipping the last few ounces of her beverage while casting her eyes at the rapidly setting sun. "...Hm...say, Ethan...are your Pokemon ready yet?"

"Oh, yeah...I was just about to tell you. We can go now. We're still setting up camp north of Goldenrod, right?"

"...Uh-huh...say, you can go on ahead, okay?"

"...What?"

She turned, lips curling into a mischievous little sneer. "...The milkshake vendor might still be open. I'm gonna see if I can grab one more...y'know, for the road."

"...Ew..."

"Shush. Just go set up the camp where we agreed on, huh? I might also check out the local mart for supplies. If one of us doesn't go set up the camp now, it'll be super late when we do. Gotta do it before the sun goes completely down..."

How should Gold respond?

"Sure! It'll be ready when you make it up there."

Lyra's smile, as unlikely as it seemed, actually managed to get wider. A big, wholesome smile...the kind that made others smile, even if they had absolutely nothing to smile about. Lyra's hands raised...but she paused...almost as if she had no idea what to do with them. Finally, she settled on a firm, chest-quaking pat-on-the-back. "Haha! Ethan, you're so dependable...also, you're the one with the Fire-type. Have fun getting the fire set up!"

And they parted ways. Gold retrieved his good-as-new Quilava and exited the hustling, bustling city northward. He was happy to have a companion like her. She'd evened out...mellowed...he began to doubt if any of those previous events had even happened at all. Everything felt...consistent and unchanging...a good, stable, warm sensation.

...Four hours later, camp was set up. Lyra hadn't come back. She also wasn't answering her phone.

...That never happened. She might've ignored calls from other people...but she was always answered when it was him. Like clockwork...only a single ring would hit Gold's ears before that chirpy, energy-filled voice was ringing excitedly through his skull.

He was pacing at this point...to and fro, back and forth in front of the fire that Quilava had so kindly made. The sleeping bags were out, both untouched. He should've been asleep by now. His mom would kill him if she knew he was staying up so criminally late.

He'd removed his hat out of nervousness...something he never did in public. Slightly self-conscious about the way a single tuft of dark hair fell forward front of his forehead...it was an odd trait.

The steady crackling of the fire and the rapid beating of his own footsteps were suddenly interrupted...by a second set of footsteps. He recognized them immediately...quick, slightly off-beat...the sound of a girl with a hop in her step. "Lyra!"

Gold turned frantically towards the sound...greeted pleasantly by the girl with the puffy hat that he knew so well. She was smiling, like usual.

Marill wasn't following her. That was odd.

Something was hanging from her hand that he never saw before. A suitcase? No, a cooler...

Her hair was ruffled...usually slick, tight pigtails showing odd frays and appearing loose. Her kneesocks were wrinkled, and splattered with...dirt? Not surprising, really, considering the walk. A single suspender had been unbuckled...no, broken. The clasp had been snapped off.

And something else...around one of her wrists. A bracelet? One he'd never seen before...bright pink.

"...Where have you been? You had me worried!"

Lyra seemed genuinely surprised, giving a meek jump in response to Gold's sudden outburst. She couldn't be upset with it though. The dusty footprints left behind by her friend's nervous pacing was evidence enough that she'd spent too much time away.

"...O-oh...Ethan...has it been that long?"

"YES! It's been over four hours! What have you been doing?"

"...I lost track of time. Sorry...stupid me, huh? Stupid...stupid...stupid!"

This would be the part where Lyra playfully stuck out her tongue and gave herself a fake 'bonk' on the side of the head...but it was more than that. She took the time to ball up her free hand strongly, giving herself several knuckle-ramming strikes to the temple. Her hand shook...the redness that came before bruising already forming on the skin that she'd punished. "Sorry, okay? Sorry...sorry-sorry-sorry...I would've called you, Ethan...Ethan, I would've called, but...my phone? The battery was low, I told you...eheh...heh..."

Her spirit brightened unnaturally...bounding towards Gold as soon as her cheeriness had recovered, shoving the cooler towards him with both of her hands wrapped weakly around the handle!

"Here, Ethan! Got you somethiiiiiiing."

"...Is it...?"

"Guess!"

"...Is it a-"

"MILKSHAKE!"

"IT-...wait, what?"

"Hahaha!"

She took a skip and a half way, scooting down to an uncomfortable seat near the fire while planting the cooler on the ground. In the glow of the fire, Gold saw more of what had been hidden from the heavy gloom of the shading forest.

There were scratches on her face...scuffs and scrapes on her arms. She hummed merrily as she opened the small, convenient cooler that she had, Gold could only assume, purchased for the sole purpose of transporting a frozen, dairy treat.

"Ethan, I didn't know what flavor what you liked...so I just got vanilla, okay? No one doesn't like vanilla, right?"

"...Yeah...vanilla's fine..."

Gold squinted...joining his close friend in a seat near the crackling fire. That bracelet...he took a closer look at it. In the revealing glow of orange flames, he could make it out much more clearly.

...Wrapped loosely around her wrist, tied with a cheap bit of pocket string. It was hair...a clump of bright pink hair...

"...Lyra, are you sure that everything's okay?"

It took every ounce of self-worth that Gold had simply to mutter that line without stuttering.

There were no distant nightmares...no cloudy memories of lives he's never lived. This was Lyra. This was a girl who frightened him. His limbs were weak...lips quaking as he forced himself to stare squarely into the giggling girl's eyes.

Even if she was staring at the cooler, all he could see where flames...hot tongues of bright orange fire that spoiled the calm, pleasant brown.

...Times like this, she didn't blink. It was no exaggerating. He swore, he could stare at her as link as he liked right now...she would not blink.

"Everything's fine, Ethan! Why wouldn't it be?"

"...But...Lyra...Lyra, listen, you're covered in-"

"THAT'S...not important right now, Ethan, okay?"

Her voice wavered...shaking momentarily with seemingly random bouts of poorly veiled giggles that marked and punctuated the beginnings and ends of her straight-forward sentences. "What's important is...drink up!"

She removed the milkshake from the frosty cooler as if unveiling a fabulous new contraption that the world had yet to become familiar with. She held it with both hands...as if dropping it would spell the end of the world, shoving the still-cold cup and bobbing straw towards Gold's panic-dried mouth. Gold leaned forward...perfectly willing to take a drink, if it kept her calm. "Wait, wait, wait, Ethan! One more thing, okay? Haha...okay..."

She pulled it away...taking a split moment to wrap her own parched lips around the straw, taking a big, noisy slurp before hurriedly wiping her mouth and offering it back!

Gold stared at her for several tense moments. She was wide-eyed, battle-scarred...still breathing heavily, in fact. That bright pink 'bracelet' never left Gold's vision. Something had happened...

"L-Lyra...your...your bracelet..."

"Drink, Ethan."

"Where did you get it?"

"Ethan, it's gonna melt and it won't be as good. Drink."

"...I want to know where you got the bracelet."

Lyra's heart-twisting smile never wavered...but it didn't need to. Gold could see the whole thing nestled in the back of her eyes. Her eyes twitching...a kind of distinct 'emptiness' interrupting the usually consistent, pale earthy color they had. Slowly, she drew her hand away. She stood...leaving Gold seated on the ground, staring up towards her. She stared dimly at the moist tip of the straw in front of her...her own lips twitching and twisting at random intervals, as if she were attempting to taste the inside of her mouth.

"...Why...?"

"...Why?"

"Why, Ethan...why...?"

"Lyra...you're acting li-"

"I AM ASKING YOU A QUESTION, ETHAN!"

Her voice raised...not a scream, but a shriek. It pierced the seated trainer's ears, stirred the local fauna. That smile was gone...replaced with only bare, exposed teeth and bitten lip, trickle of fresh blood streaking down the young girl's chin as she chewed away at her own mouth.

"...Am I gross, Ethan?"

"What? No!"

"You gagged, Ethan!"

"...I...g-"

"YOU GAGGED! As soon as your lips touched that straw, you gagged and winced and you hated it, RIGHT!?"

"...W-"

"Because I touched it, huh? I'm gross, right? You just HATE HATE HATE the idea of...of touching anything that I've touched!? Can't drink after me!?"

"..."

She breathed heavily...hard, labored breaths, the air seething between the slits of her teeth.

"Lyra...I swear, that's not it. That's not the reason. Give me the drink, I'll take a sip."

Lyra pulled her hand away...holding the still-cold drink away from the boy's grasp. "...Not good enough now."

"...Huh?"

"You'll think 'Ooh, it's just a little bit of dirty, disgusting spit from that dumb pig I hang around with! No big deal!' You'll force yourself to not think about it...and you won't react like you should. You can fake it, Ethan. So...so...it has to be different."

Without warning, Lyra removed the lid from the aging milkshake, tossing both it and the straw away before setting the thick, creamy beverage directly in front of the cowering boy. Her face had become stern...stone-cold serious with hot, steamy murder boiling in her eyes. She reached swiftly into her front pocket and unveiled it...

...A knife. If it was recently used Gold couldn't tell. The handy multi-knife's largest blade gleamed as if brand new. Lyra slipped to her knees, unblinking...almost robotically.

Shaking hands hovered above the frothy drink. Her free palm wrapped around the exposed knife.

She squeezed. Hard.

She didn't flinch. Immediately, her fingers were soaked in thick, dark red. She was cutting in deep...her knuckles shading white as she quietly grunted, gripping as hard as she possibly could. Fresh globs of nauseating red stained the pure white of the ice cream.

"...Lyra...LYRA! LYRA, GOD, STOP! You're gonna hurt yours-OOPH!" Gold lunged forward to try and stop her. She struck him with the side of her elbow, clocking his jaw and sending him to the side before continuing. She removed her grip from the knife...finding the cut to be deep knife. She raised her profusely bleeding palm above the open container...gripping hard, milking herself of every nasty drop of crimson that she possibly could. Quickly, she began to look faint...skin losing that rosy coloring as she emptied herself into the cup. Finally, she seemed satisfied...sinking the knife into the drink and giving it a stir.

It was no longer white. Red. The most disturbing shade of red. Holding the cup with oozing, injured hand she moved to where Gold lay on the ground, prompting him to sit up before pushing the drink towards his hands.

Her expression was blank...unfeeling, no longer teasing. Her words were a blunt, cold order.

"...Drink. It."

It stunk. Any sweet aroma that could've been offered by high-quality vanilla was replaced by the harsh, almost metallic scent of warm blood. His skin crawled...his stomach churned. He felt ready to vomit, the horrible mixture sloshing just beneath his nostrils...the tip of the cup leaning dangerously close to his lips.

"...N-no..."

"...Ethan, drink it."

"...No, Lyra."

"...Ethan. Drink it for me."

"...I can't.

"I didn't ask whether you could or you couldn't, ETHAN! I am telling you to drink this."

"...No."

Gold stared shakily upward. He gulped down what trepidation had lodged itself in his throat, attempting to rile up some amount of conviction within himself. He wasn't wrong. Lyra was the one acting like this. She was wrong, not him. She was wrong...

...Lyra did not respond well. Without much warning, expression unchanging, she pinched sharply at Gold's nose and violently shoved the blood-drenched beverage to his lips!

Globs of cold, bloody liquid splashed across his exposed face, splattering across his shirt. He held has breath as long as he could, thrashing about before his lips were forced to part. A sudden rush of iron-flavored red pooled about his tongue. He didn't relax his throat, but a good amount of the nose-curling, pus-thick drink still managed to swim past his tonsils and pool uncomfortably in his stomach.

His head swam...he felt sick.

His lips finally sealed shut, hands pressing at Lyra's shoulders in a vain attempt to get her away. Like a person possessed, which unable to shove it down his throat she simply crammed the mixture into his face. The paper cup crinkled and broke.

A sharp pain suddenly assaulted the pit of Gold's gut...the girl's knee spiking harshly into him. That was enough for him. He turned over, coughing violently before retching onto the ground with a sickly grunt. He spat dark, bubbling sick onto the ground while Lyra, panting through her teeth, stood back up...tossing the empty cup at the boy's head.

...She smiled...some hint of sick sweetness hiding in the back of her throat as she spoke. "...Ahh...Ethan...it's okay, it's okay. It gets better, right? Over time...yeah, the more you do it, the better it'll be, right? RIGHT!?"

She wobbled...slightly woozy. However, not once did she drop the knife...the messy blade still hanging from her strong hand.

She giggled softly...reaching up to dig the tip of the knife beneath her hat, sighing as she scratched at what was apparently an annoying itch just beneath the puffy, ribbon-tied hat.

"Ahhh...okay...it's settled then, right? I'll just have to do a lot more cooking for you..."

Gold stood...wiping hurriedly at his nose, having dipped directly down into that pool of his own blood-tinged vomit.

"...I hate you."

Lyra stopped...paused, frozen. She inspected Gold's facial expression from afar...eyes squinting before her lips curled into a wobbling smile of disbelief. "Ha...hahaha! No...no...no, you don't, Ethan. Yo-"

"MY NAME! IS NOT! ETHAN!"

Lyra recoiled...for once, she was the one with the shock-widened eyes and gaping, surprised mouth. Gold puncuated each statement with a hard punch to the ground...digging his dirt-caked knuckles into the dry dust, pounding them down hard enough to bruise. He stood, spitting to the ground...cleansing the back of his throat from the taste of this person's blood.

He strode forward.

She sank back.

He grapped her by the shoulders. Hard. Fingers dug into her sore skin through the fabric of her shirt. He pushed her...forcing her back until she met with resistance, pinning her against a tree. "...Gold. Got it?

"...E-"

"GOLD! G-O-L-D!"

"...I-I..."

"SAY IT!"

"...Gold..."

He removed his hands. She was shaking. Eyes reddened, tears visibly formed and threatened to flow over and stain her already soiled cheeks. She hiccuped...half-sobbed...continuing to grip the blood-soaked knife to her petite chest, fingers toying nervously with the lock of hair tied shamelessly around her thin wrist.

"...I hate you, okay? I. Hate. You. I hate you...and I'm not scared of you."

That was a lie. He didn't care anymore. He also didn't care if he hurt her feelings. Sometimes, they had to be hurt.

"...Whitney's dead, isn't she? We're going into town and yo-"

"She isn't."

"..."

Lyra perked up...a delicate, hopeful expression...the kind of face to be seen on a child who had been scolded after refusing to share with others. Her lips shook as she sniffed loudly, hot tears mingling with the thin layer of dirt and dried blood that blotched along her face.

"She's alive! She's alive, I swear! I didn't kill her, please. I said to myself...I said that 'He wouldn't like it...or like me if I killed her'...so I didn't, really! I...I hurt her, yeah...and I scared her...but I just....I just, I just I didn't think it was right, okay!? She was bothering you! She called you without even...without even thinking about you. She called for herself E-...she called for herself, Gold. She called to hear herself talk...and she had to be taught...that she couldn't do that. Okay?

"...Where is she, Lyra?"

"She's not far! I just...she's still there! I tied her up, yeah...but she'll be okay! I'll show you, alright? If...if you promise not to hate me...I'll show you where she is...okay? Please? Please? Please please please Gold please please...please..."

"Take me to her and everything will be okay."

Lyra heaved a massive sigh of relief, hands cupping at the area directly over her heart. Like a young lady whose long-term lover had popped the question...or like a worried daughter presented with the news that her father would make it through surgery. A kind of unrelenting, unchained, deeply fulfilling joy.

She dropped the knife. It fell with a dull 'thud!' to the ground beside her dirt-mottled shoes. She reached for him with the one hand that hadn't been brutally carved open...like a sick, abused animal begging for some kind of affection, her fingers hovered warily above Gold's own.

Without changing his expression, he grasped her hand.

She squealed happily before immediately bounding off into the woods, dragging him with her. She chattered incessantly...talking more to herself than to the boy behind her. "You'll see! You'll see! Everything's fine! I can fix it! I can fix it and everything will be fine and we'll be back to normal, right? Right right? HAHAHA! We'll...we'll both be laughing about all this later, you know. Laughing...laughing laughing..."

Her movements were sharp and seemingly random. She twisted him this way and that...that way and this...winding through sparse trees with an ungraceful determination and committed memory.

...Whitney was farther away than Gold would've thought.

...Lyra knew what she was doing. She hid her well.

A small grove, a single unsuspecting tree...there she was.

As bad as Lyra had looked, Whitney looked a thousand times worse. Her hands were bound behind her...looping her to the tree with whatever rope Lyra had apparently purchased in town. Her socks were torn away...one used as a blinfold, the other torn in half and shoved into her ears. Lyra wasn't delicate. Twin streams of blood pumped from the edges of her ears, showing just how deeply they'd been shoved in.

Her clothes were torn...entire body riddled with lacerations. Not the kind to be gotten in a simple scuffle either. Purely intentional...knife wounds. Shallow cuts marred every exposed inch of her below her neck. They bled horribly...slight bruising around each cut proving that the knife had been somewhat dull. Lyra used force.

If she'd been freely flailing around, the cuts wouldn't be that precise. She'd been tied down and slowly, patiently sliced from collarbone to toe.

Her nose was red, her breathing hard 'n heavy. The noise from Lyra and Gold approaching was enough to catch her attention. She couldn't hear that well, but she could get a vague idea of someone was near her.

...Whitney panicked.

She screamed, weak arms tearing uselessly at the cloth that bound her to the tree. Sobs were hysteric...deep, stomach-shaking, coughing sobs as she screamed and flailed and begged to what she couldn't see or rightfully hear.

"PLEASE! Whoever's th-...nnngh...whoever is...whoever's there, I'm sorry! I'm sorry, sorry! If you let me go...please, if you let me go I WON'T tell anyone, I swear to God. Don't kill me...God, don't kill me...please, don't kill me...I'l do whatever you waaant, PLEASE!"

Gold flicked his eyes over to Lyra. His eyebrows narrowed, his stomach turned. "...You..."

Lyra's hands flew up defensively, persona immediately melting down to childish, tear-soaked panic. "She shouldn't have called you like that! It's her fault...her fault! I...I couldn't help myself...okay?"

Gold refused to dignify Lyra's reasoning with an answer. He pushed her aside, striding purposefully forward before kneeling near Whitney's feet.

...He didn't see it before, but it looked like parts of her face were injured too. He could see the edges of a black eye peeking from beneath the striped sock serving as her binding blindfold.

His hands reached for the back of her arms. She flinched. He backed away. It was understandable, wasn't it? Tied up, cut all over, blindfolded...possibly even left for dead. There was no telling what would've ultimately happened if Gold hadn't stepped in.

"...I'm going to untie you now."

He glanced towards her face. She didn't acknowledge what he said. She still couldn't hear him. He was worried about simply tugging out the socks from her ears. He was no doctor...and at the same time, however selfish it sounded...it was probably a good idea for her not to hear his voice. He assumed she didn't know Lyra had done it, considering the blindfold and earplugs. As chivalrous as he was...a person could get the wrong idea after being tortured in the woods for about three hours.

He began with her wrists, untying the socks. Lyra was apparently very, very good at tying good, stiff knots. The restraints loosened...her hands were free.

...In a blind, fear-enduced panic, the first thing she did was swing at the air. Long fingernails glanced the edge of Gold's cheek, fingers tightening and clawing at exposed flesh.

...She was weak. It wasn't even enough to leave any marks, let alone draw blood.

Lyra dashed forward, foot raised...perfectly willing to slam the bottom of her sole into the poor, pink-haired girl's pearly-white teeth.

"LYRA! STOP! That's enough!"

"Ethan, she was trying t-"

"No!"

Lyra stared begrudgingly towards Gold...face suddenly flushed with a newly instilled, angry vigor. Her foot lowered, however...lips quaking as she, for once, avoiding staring him right in the eyes. For once, she was the one walking on thin ice. The threat of taking away the only thing she seemed to care about was enough for that.

She fought back a childish sob, like a toddler having just been refused a shiny new toy. "...E-...Gold...if she sees or hears you...what if we get in trouble?"

Despite Lyra's protests, Gold removed the wrapping around her eyes as well as the crumpled socks stretching the interior of her ears. She blinked feverishly...eyes quickly adjusting to the gloomy lighting of a quarter moon.

...With her full face in view...Gold could definitely tell that, if Lyra had been succesful a moment or so ago, it would've have been the first time she had stomped on the gym leader's face this evening.

Whitney's dimming, dejected eyes widened as soon as Gold's face became fully visible to her. "...Y-...you...IT WAS-"

"OHGOSH, are you okay, Miss Whitney?"

Whitney was interrupted, Lyra quickly bouncing to her side and taking a gentle grip of her arm. Gold caught on almost immediately.
...It was obvious, right? Lyra herself showed the obvious signs of having been attacked...and Gold himself was still stained with chokingly thick splatters of blood across his face and shirt.

Lyra wasn't stupid...and if Gold's own experience was anything to be believed, this wasn't the first time something like this had happened.

Whitney had no idea who it was that attacked her...and as far as she knew, Lyra and Gold had both been attacked as well.

It could've been the looming stress of the situation, but Lyra put on a heck of an act. She fought back debilitating waves of harsh sobs, stared in forced shock and horror at the many lacerations that coated the pink-haired girl...shoved her hands across her open mouth to keep her from crying out on terror and disgust.

"Oh...ohgod, I'm so glad you came, Gold! I-...if it weren't for you...I could've been next! Both of us could've been dead right now! Right, Miss Whitney? Right? Come on...we've all gotta get to a hospital, now."

She was covering...if not for just herself, then for both herself and Gold.

...Gold had known about this. He was close enough at this point, in terms of evidence, to be deemed as an accomplice if an investigation turned that way.

Gold stared at Lyra for an uncomfortably long amount of time. This was his chance. He hated her, didn't he?

He hated her. She was cruel and jealous and possessive and he hated her. He was frightened of her...and he hated her. She was a compulsive liar, a sociopath, a bipolar vat of horrible murderous intent...and he hated her.

...But...no matter how he thought about it, he couldn't convince himself of that. He was being stupid, he knew. She was gonna end up doing something unspeakable someday...and as long as she was around, there was absolutely no way of getting away from her.

...But he didn't hate her...not enough to send her away forever. He should've hated her...but he didn't. Even if the decision was a horribly short-sighted one, it wasn't a difficult one to make.

"...Y-yeah...we're all okay now. The guy that did this is gone..."

Disturbingly enough...he said this all as Lyra was frantically hiding the lock of hair she'd ripped from Whitney's scalp, stuffing it hurriedly into her back pocket.

It didn't take long for the paramedics to find them. They were rushed to the most highly-rated hospital in Goldenrod, courtesy of the city's gym leader and economic meal ticket.

Whitney was treated for mild bloodloss and multiple contusions...she was then committed to the hospital for a minimum of one week to ensure there would be no infections.

Gold and Lyra were treated for much less severe injuries and subsequently released the next day.

Everyone was questioned by police. Lyra and Gold had fabricated a fake description of the assailant beforehand, laying the blame on an 'unidentified man of medium height with purple hair, dressed in white'. Gold's mother threw a fit...and it took an hour of phone discussion/convincing to finally discourage her from marching all the way to Goldenrod to comfort her baby boy.

Lyra's father was much less enthusiastic. The conversation between him and his daughter lasted less than two minutes.

The investigation of both Lyra and Gold as suspects was sickeningly short. After all, they were just a bunch of kids, right?

Gold met Lyra outside the hospital. They hadn't spoken since the authorities had arrived on the scene. She stared at him expectantly...akin to some eerily calm animal waiting for a master's command.

Their eyes met and refused to budge...and for once, Gold seemed to be the calmer of the two. She stood firm...Lyra picked at the thick bandaging wrapped around her delicate palm from where the assailant had forced the knife into her hand and squeezed her dainty fingers around it.

Lyra's stern expression didn't last long. Her defenses melted...eyes flicking to the ground with lips securely shut to suppress any resulting sobs.

"...Well?"

"..."

"...Lyra? Let's go. We've lost a lot of time, right?"

Lyra's eyes lifted...expression one of absolute, heart-rending shock. "...We're...leaving?"

"...Yeah."

And everything was 'normal' again. Lyra was as peppy and clingy as ever.

Gold removed Whitney's number from his phone.

Lyra kept the loop of hair...he pretended not to notice.

Ignorance is bliss.


PART TWO

After beating the Ecruteak gym leader, you, Gold, and your traveling companion Lyra were setting up camp on the outskirts of town. It was getting dark, and after such an exhausting battle earlier you wanted to call it a night and go to sleep.

However, as you lay out your sleeping bag, it became apparent that Lyra was not intent on sleeping. She bounded over, still energetic despite the late hour, and crouched down in front of you, rocking on her heels impatiently. While her energy level wasn't too unusual, something else about her was...

"Goooooold" she coos, her wide eyes fixated on you. "Let's not go to sleep yet, the night is still young! Besides, I have something I want to show you."

Her long, toothy smile gleamed at you, as did her eyes, but something was weird about them. Of cours,e something was always off when it came to Lyra, but tonight there was something especially unnerving about her appearance.

No, no, that was nonsense. She looks the same she always did. Anything odd that you see is the work of your exhaustion. Besides, everything looks creepy when illuminated only by the yet-to-be-extinguished campfire. You shrug off the thought.

"Well?" She asks, still rocking. You are awfully tired, but with Lyra it's best to keep her happy... and what was the worst that would happen? Lyra had probably just seen an interesting flower, or an odd footprint. Silly things like that were always captivating her. Your sleep would probably just be delayed a few minutes, and then you could both go to bed.

Of course, after a few choice incidents a month ago... Lyra isn't exactly trustworthy.

You figure it's best to just go along with her. She likes you, so atleast she won't hurt you, you know that.

Taking your pokeballs (better safe than sorry, right?) you begin walking behind her. You find it odd that she did not do the same, or atleast call her Marill out to walk with her... there's only one other instance where it wasn't walking with her.

...no, she just wants to let it rest. Of course. It is late after all.

Lyra leads you in to the city, towards the Burnt and Tin Towers. The towers? You had visited them before, why is she taking you back?

You feel a wave of fear wash over you... this can't be good. You want to get out of there. Then again, you're in the city now, what could she possibly do?

No, don't run. You need to stay on her good side, act like you trust her...

She leads you in to the Burnt Tower. Down a set of stairs, off in to a corner... then she lays on her back and gazes at the charred ceiling.

"Come lay down next to me Eth- I mean, Gold!" she calls. There she goes, slipping up with the name again. You reluctantly do as she says, laying next to her, but not too close. The ceiling isn't exactly the most interesting view, and what with your exhaustion you're soon drifting off into sleep...

That is, until you feel the fabric of your shirt moving. Opening your eyes, you see that Lyra has placed too knive through your sleeve and into the dusty floor, effectively pinning you to the spot.

"LYRA! What in the world are you up to now?!" You shout. Great, just great. You're pinned to the ground next to someone whom you know to be more than a little off their rocker.

"Oh Ethan, it's okay... just calm down! You'll be fine. Trust me." Fat chance of that happening, especially since she's messing up your name again.

"Ethan..." Lyra whispers, "there's something I always wanted you to know..."

Oh god, what is it now? Knowing her, something... awful.

"Ethan..." she says with a sickening sweetness about her. The crazy is bad enough, but you wish she could get your name right.

"I love you Ethan. I've always loved you... you're so nice to me, we've known eachother so long..." she continued. It figures that such a lunatic loves you. You just hope that this means she intends to atleast keep you alive.

She's expecting a response. What should you tell her?

"I... I love you too, Lyra" You stammer, hoping she doesn't see through the lie.

She lets out a squeal. "I always knew it Ethan! Why do you have to play hard to get you silly?"

Well, she's happy, and that should do you some good.

...or not. Soon she's crouched over you and you fear what she has in mind. Her smile is wider than ever before, and yet that hint of malice remains.

"You know what people do when they love eachother, right?" Lyra asked in a low voice, a strange, foreboding look on her face.

You think you know what she means, but you really hope you're wrong. You try your luck.

"They... they take the knives out of the other's shirt and let him go free?" You ask nervously, feeling sweat build on you forehead.

"Silly Ethan, you're so cute... like my mom always said, if you care about something you don't let it get away! No, when people love eachother..."

Lyra leans down so her face is right next to yours, and mashes her lips to yours. They're sticky, and a disgusting kind of sweet. She moans, and you resist vomiting on her. Anybody else, anybody else kissing you right now...

She forces her tongue inside your mouth. It tastes even worse than her lips. Is there any point of fighting this anymore? At this point your shame doesn't matter, you just need to survive.

Then again, you don't want to know what will happen if you let this continue.

If everything you're afraid is going to happen is going to happen, you may as well enjoy it. You close your eyes, and try and convince yourself that Lyra is someone else. Somebody else is kissing you..

Kris. It's Kris. The girl from so long ago... where is she now? She was so sweet, so nice... you can remember how she smelled, how beautiful she was. You were young then, and you never told her how you felt. You loved her, as much as Lyra seems to love you... no, don't think of Lyra.

Think of Kris. This is Kris. She's the one kissing you. You can see her now, her blue hair is swaying over you, and she tastes sweet, not like Lyra does, but nice. And she's warm, and she loves you, and you love her.

You begin kissing Lyra back, convincing yourself that it truly is Kris.

This pleases Lyra. "I knew you would love this" She says to you. She removes the knives from your sleeves and puts them beside the two of you, figuring that she doesn't need you pinned there anymore. You wrap your newly freed arms around her, enraptured in the fantasy.

You're completely entranced in your fantasy. Lyra removes her mouth from yours for a second, to catch her breath. "Oh, Kris..." you moan.

"...What?" Lyra asks, breaking you from your trance. Your eyes snap open. "What did you say?" She repeats with a hint of suspicion.

Well now you've done it. Now she knows you've been thinking of someone else. Of course, maybe you can save yourself.

"...Oh Arceus, I said." you tell her, hoping she believes you.

"Ah, I see. I agree, oh Arceus indeed..." she purrs, locking her lips with yours again.

Phew, you barely missed that one. You close your eyes and continue your fantasy. Not crazy Lyra, but Kris, beautiful Kris.

As you hold "Kris" close to you, you feel yourself growing hard. Lyra also notices, and once more breaks your trance.

"Is that a pokeflute in your pocket, or are you enjoying this as much as I am?" Lyra moans. With your mind back in reality, panic mode sets in. Dear god, what's going to happen now, you wonder.

Lyra answers that question quickly. Crawling backwards, she grips your waistband, pulling your pants and boxers down and off of you.

Your fully erect member is now entirely exposed to her. Great, just great, now you get to be raped by a psycho.

Dear god no, if you're going to lose your virginity it's not going to be to a girl like Lyra. She probably has a disease.

Your arms are free, you can run. But where to? You head in the first direction you see, but it turns out that that is even farther into the underground of the tower. Something whizzes past your neck. A knife. She's throwing knives now? You spin on your heel to face her. "Lyra, what the hell are you-" your shout is cut off by her coming up to you and tackling you to the ground.

"Oh, Ethan... you don't have to be afraid! Sex isn't scary, let me show you!" She giggles.

Sex isn't exactly what was scaring you, atleast not when compared to the fact that she seems to have an entire cutlery set stashed in her pockets.

She's laying on top of you now. "Don't worry about that knife... it wasn't even that sharp, I just wanted to play your little game with you!" A little game, sure. But nevermind that last knife, she seemed to have picked up the second before she chased you, and now she had it in her fist, her knuckles white around the handle.

"Lyra... what are you..." you stutter.

She answers your question with just a smile and gets to work. You make an effort to stay as still as possible as she glides the tip from your collar to the bottom of your shirt, effectively slicing it in two, and leaving dark red lines on your abdomen as well. "I want to see all of you, Ethan"Lyra explains.

She then sticks the knife in one sleeve, and, retrieving the other knife, does the same on the opposite.

"No more running away now!" She says with her usual psychotic grin.

You're now trapped, bleeding, and a little nauseous

"Now, are you going to be a good boy from now on, Ethan?"

"Don't do this to me, Lyra" you plead.

"But why? I thought you loved me... you said you did. Why do you look so... afraid, Ethan?" Lyra asks you, with a hint of anger in the last sentence.

You can only stare at her. Why did I tell her I loved her, how can I get myself out of this, you wonder.

"...you didn't... lie to me, did you?"

You know the answer to that question easily. She's already mad, to know that you don't even love her, that you hate her...

but of course you hate her. She attacks your friends, she feeds you damned bloody milkshakes. How could she think you love her?

She's staring at you for a response. You can't tell her nothing... but at this point what should you even tell her?

"Of course I love you Lyra. Why would I lie to you?" Please Arceus, let her believe me, you silently pray.

"So... why won't you do this with me then?" She frowns. "why would you run away? You shouldn't run from people you love... you shouldn't betray the people you love, Ethan. And you love me. And I love me. Now let's do this." she sneers. If this is her version of love, then you completely understand why her enemies have it so bad.

"I- I'm just-" you begin to stammer, but you're cut off by her.

"You're just WHAT?!" she yells, her words echoing in the room as she puncuates the last word with a blow to your left shoulder with her fist.

Wincing, you try to continue. "I'm just.. I've never done this before."

Her gaze suddenly softens. "Oh, you're so cute! You just have cold feet, is that it?" She sure has a way of going for crazy to sweet pretty damn fast.

"...yeah" you squeak, afraid you'll say something wrong again.

"Well don't worry, I can take care of that"

She notices you've gone soft again due to the fear. Her sickening smile flashes at you once more. Then she stands up, and removes her suspenders. Then her pants. Then her shirt, and her underwear...

soon she was completely naked, save for socks and shoes, with you staring at her. You it funny, realizing that if you didn't know her you might actually find her attractive. Of course, any chance of that was shot now, after seeing the crazy she was capable of.

She lays on top of you yet again, and presses her mouth to yours for what seems like the hundredth time. You've almost become used to the disgusting taste.

Soon she moves back down to your penis, and looking up at you once more, slips her sticky, slimy mouth over it. It almost feels... good, quite honestly. Of course, any pleasure derived is counteracted by the fact that Lyra is giving it to you.

But imagining it was Kris worked once, right? Until you were almost caught, that is...
And yet, this is so offputting... how could you just ignore the reality?

You figure you may as well enjoy this as long as you can, and close your eyes. Lyra's gone, the Burnt Tower, gone... you're somewhere, anywhere else, with Kris. She's the one down there, not the psycho with the knife obsession.

Soon you're hard again, and Lyra-- no, Kris-- is crawling back up your body. And now she's kissing you again, and you're kissing her back. And she's slipping herself over your penis, slowly rocking herself on to it... her pussy is so tight around you, and she's obviously a virgin. You can feel her hymen.

You thrust upwards quickly, breaking it. Kris squeals- no, no, that isn't Kris's voice. Your eyes snap open, and you see Lyra. You'd completely forgotten it was her. And.. you just took her virginity? You shake your head and try to say something, not knowing why, but the shock at what just happened..

Lyra quiets you. "Silly, that's supposed to happen, don't worry. The last one I was with just... didn't do it." Lyra wasn't a virgin? But who else... she was what, thirteen? Who could she have been with... hell, knowing her it was your Quilava or something.

No, that's a crazy thought.

Yet the thought that not only are you having sex with Lyra, but also taking her virginity... is a bit much. You want to run away from her and try to forget what happened. Or you could just stay there, how could it get worse from here?

Well, running has only gotten you used for target practice in the past. You stay there, and Lyra continues rocking back and forth on you. You try to keep fantasizing about Kris, but with the reality of the situation setting in on you, it's becoming harder to focus. Lyra was probably going to stab you any minute now anyways, or something else crazy like that.

"Ethan... you look scared again. Don't be, just sit back and enjoy this..." she trails off, still rocking back and forth on you. You decide to take her advice, close your eyes once more, and continue on with Kris. She's kissing you again, moaning against you again, and... removing knives from your sleeves? No, why would Kris have knives. Yet now you realize you can move your arms, and squeeze her closely to you as you roll on top of her. This is obviously what she wanted, and she whimpers into your lips. You then feel her reach with one arm, towards something... what though? Oh well, doesn't matter. You push in to her more and increase your pace. She feels so good, so warm, she smells so good too, and-

something on your back is awfully cold. And... suddenly something stings.... no, no just your imagination. But then, more... in different directions?

Your eyes snap open. "Kris!" you shout "What the hell is that?!"

Lyra's eyes darken. Not... Kris. Not Kris at all. There's a knife in her hand. She... cut your back. Why did you cut you? You want to ask, but she has her own questions.

"...Kris?" She asks "You didn't say Arceus at all before, did you? Kris..." she spat. "You never loved me at all, did you?!"

She threw her knife, grazing your shoulder with the blade. It lands in a post behind you and you jump up in the pain from your back and shoulder. That was a mistake. Now Lyra could get up. And she was angry.

"...What did you do to my back?" you ask her quietly.

She smiles, but not in any way that means good things for you.

"You're mine now, Ethan. Forever. And now everyone, forever... will know it."

You're afraid of what she means. You feel up your back until you reach the cuts, tracing them. An... L? No. But next... a Y?

You realize what she meant. In the second she had the knife to your back... she had spelled out her name. In your back, etched in cuts, was "LYRA"

You almost wonder how she could have done that so fast, but your anger at what happened overcomes you.

"...Lyra, you..."

"...Yes, Ethan?"

That throws you over the edge. "I've told you, dammit! My name is GOLD! I thought we had that clear, but no, today, you decide to go changing it again, and then you take me here, and then you..."

You can't continue the sentence. You don't want to admit what she did to you. Instead, you pull the knife from the post near you, and throw it as close to her as you can. Unfortunately your aim needs work, and it misses her.

Soon Lyra has the knife in her hand again. She's walking closer to you... And mad as you are, you're honestly too afraid of the look in her eyes.

"I'll show you... I'll show you to lie to me!" She screams, swinging the knife in front of her wildly. It slices in to your chest, and you stumble backwards, but now you know enough to atleast not fall down again.

"And I'll show you to tell me you love me when you don't, and to talk about.. that woman to me!" she takes the knife and drives it in to your shoulder.

You don't care about vengeance anymore. You just want to live through this. "Lyra, please, I..." She tackles you to the ground.

"Don't you mean... Kris? Kris, Kris... stop living in the past, Ethan. Your name is not Gold, and Kris is not here anymore. She's gone. Forever."

"...What did you do to-" She pounces on you and grabs your neck.

"I told you to stop talking about her, alright? But it seems you can't... so how about you join her?" she says, and begins to squeeze. You try to tell her to stop, but your breathe has left you. The outside of your vision goes dark, you're woozy from suffocation as well as bloodloss. Lyra presses her sticky lips to yours as they turn blue, and before you know it, your world is dark...

When you finally wake up, you're in a bed... a hospital bed? Someone is hugging you. Your.. your mother. She's here. "Oh, oh, my poor baby, I'm so glad you're okay." she cries. You shakily hug your mother, and your eyes shift to the left, and you see... Lyra. Smiling at you. Her same, sickening smile...

"So, so glad you're okay... Lyra found you in the burnt tower, you were bloody and unconcious... nobody knows who did it, but if she wasn't there..."

If she wasn't there... you would be fine. But atleast you're alive now, right? Lyra must have decided to keep you alive...

...

After everyone has headed out, including Lyra, you head to the bathroom. You're covered in scars... but there is one you want to see. How does nobody know who attacked you, if Lyra carved her own damn name in to your back?

Turning around in the mirror, you see a series of lines through where "LYRA" once was. She is awfully good at covering her tracks...

you just hope this is the last you're ever one of them.


PART THREE

Hey guys, here's another rousing Yandere Lyra story. Hope this one's renews some interest in our favorite psychopath.

With his breaths giving birth to puffy, white vapor, Gold trudged back along the well worn path from Eckruteak to Goldenrod City. Today was another brisk, refreshing day in Johto, but the temperature had definitely dropped overnight. The chill wasn’t unexpected, considering the Christmas was only a few days away. But days like this reminded Gold of his carefree youth and of the long awaited snowfall for the season. Of hot chocolate and of toasty fireplaces. Though, the clouds of steam he expelled with every labored breath also reminded him of why he was out in the woods instead of sailing to Cianwood…

A push of a button on his Pokegear brought up his bank account, signed under his mother’s name and privy to her discrete withdrawals. He let loose one long, exasperated breath. Gold swore she bought him the worst presents. Just how many berries did a guy on the road need? The display did show a number that tugged Gold’s mouth tight; he could hardly contain a grin. He had been so successful in battling over the past few months! This year, he could afford a designer hand bag for his mother – Skitty Vuitton bags imported from Sinnoh were all the rage this year…according to some Lass on Route 38. Jeez, some girls could just go on and on about handbags. Dana, that was her name right? Maybe he should call her and get a woman’s opinion on this present…

Another chill radiated down his spine. He felt colder than the previous night which he spent shivering in his sleeping bag and surrounded by frost.

“What would Lyra do to me if I didn’t get her something…nice?”

After the milkshake debacle, as he referred to it, Gold had been awfully wary of Lyra’s demeanor. She seemed so nice… Before the journey, she was perky and a great travel companion…if you put behind all of her… idiosyncrasies. All that changed a month back. Neither of them spoke of the events. He was too scared to bring it up, and she acted as if nothing ever happened. Best to leave things as they were, he supposed. God only knew what went on in that twisted head of hers. He was just grateful that all had been relatively normal since…

But when Lyra went to visit New Bark Town, after his match at the Ecruteak gym, Gold was thrilled.

“Hey, don’t you go having too much fun out there, mister!” she cheerfully said.

On the inside, Gold was sweating bullets. He unconsciously rubbed his hands inside his hoodie’s pockets before hugging her goodbye. As she embraced him, the scent of strawberries wafted into his nose – tart, sweet, and oh so innocent. It took all his strength to suppress gagging.

“Lyra, I’ll be heading to Olivine after this, but… um, we should … probably … meet up again before taking on the gym. I…can’t win without your support, right?”

“Oh Ethan, you’re too sweet! Yup, let’s meet back in Goldenrod in a week. That way we can make our way to Olivine. Just the two of us… ”

The week had gone past quickly since their parting. Unfortunately, Gold learned Olivine’s gym leader was a young woman named Jasmine. He needed to tread past that battle with the utmost of caution… A guy could only have so many regrets in his life, and throwing Jasmine into this…this situation was more than he could stomach.

But she refused to battle him then and there. It was complicated, but Jasmine promised a match if Gold could retrieve an elixir from a pharmacy in Cianwood. Leave it to him to get sent on an ocean-crossing trip just to battle a gym leader… He bet Balto got a better reward than a planchet of metal for running across the wilderness for all those sick kids… In any case, the week was up and he shuddered to think what would befall him for missing Lyra at Goldenrod.

“Also, she’ll expect a present…and I don’t want to imagine how upset she’ll be if I don’t deliver on that…” After knowing someone for years, you’d think gifts would come naturally. How sorely mistaken you’d be. Gold had never gotten her anything, but she always…always brought him a present, whether it was the newest Dragonite doll or a game for his Gamecube. After that night…would things stay constant or should he appease her…keep Lyra from…cracking.

Something rustled in the bush! A hint of blue broke through the shrubbery!

Gold’s shoes lifted a cloud of dirt into the air as he halted in his tracts. What could that have been? No way to know unless you took a gander.

Tiny step after tiny step, he inched towards the bushy evergreens. The clouds of vapor evaporated from his mouth. Can’t breath too hard or you’d scare it away. Fingers twitching above Quilava’s pokeball, he craned his neck up to catch a glimpse of the creature burrowing through the thicket. He saw a ball…a glorious blue ball attached to a blue body.

“A marill? Should have known not to get my hopes up.”

All of a sudden Professor Oak’s voice emerged from your wrist. The marill’s pupils constricted, focused solely on your crouched figure and the noise stemming from your Pokegear. It jumped backwards with gusto – surprising considering its stubby limbs – leaving only but the afterimage of blue and snowy sparkles in your eyes. Gold had brushed his Pokegear the wrong way. It had tuned into Professor Oak’s rousing Pokemon appreciation hour…

“Hey, who’s scaring my Marill out there?!” a boisterous voice boomed.

Spearow and Pidgey evacuated their trees no soon after that outburst. Through the pine needles and bare branches Gold saw a feminine figure emerge. Thin and slightly shorter than him. Wearing a black peacoat (stylish choice he thought) and…a poofy hat…

There’s no mistaking, Gold had run into her. Lyra’s terse countenance softened after identifying him. The lines of anger in her forehead relaxed as did the snarl gracing her mouth. Now she bore wide, open eyes, contrasting the frightened ones’ of her Marill clutched to her chest.

“Ethan! You’re so sly, searching for little ‘ole me out here!” Lyra retorted. She eyed Gold down as she approached him. Her eyes…when had they been so…devoid of feeling? Gold blinked, dispelling his fears. Things were fine; they had been for the last few weeks. Nothing was out of the ordinary, right?

Chest puffed out and hair brushed backwards, Gold said, “Hey Lyra, here’s lookin’ at you, kid.”

Silence filled the air. Perhaps it was the pose of his left leg brazenly sitting atop a small boulder, or maybe his attempt to deepen his voice… Either way a breeze picked up and rustled the barren trees breaking the awkwardness. Her eyebrows raised in confusion, Lyra finally threw her head back.

“Hahaha! Ethan, you’ve been watching too many movies!” A slender finger wiped away the laughter-induced tears Lyra shed. “I knew you’d like my new coat! Thanks…”

Gold breathed a sigh of relief. Thank God for torrents, otherwise he’d never have been able to watch all his favorite film noirs. What possessed him to go Humphrey Bogart? Who knew, but at least Lyra enjoyed noir as much as he did….apparently. He would have imaged that she fancied Hitchcock films…

The duo stepped onto the road and continued south towards the city limits. Poor Marill hobbled behind the two, his master too engrossed in talking to Gold to notice its straggling. Gold felt relieved for once. All the anxiety built up in him had started to dissipate. This was how things used to be…how he wished things could always be. Though the moonlight turned her eyes into vacant pools at night and she laughed at the most morbid jokes, Gold admitted to himself that Lyra was something special. Charming girl when you got past the…you know…insanity.

She reminded him so much of another girl. She had lovely blue hair…

“You’re looking mighty cold there. ‘Cuz I’ll tell you right now, I can see the goosebumps on your legs…haha!”

Gold bit back embarrassment while trying to drop his shorts slightly down his legs. His hairs were standing on end like a frightened meowth. Spooked he was not; freezing he was.

“..heh, you got me Lyra. That’s actually why I…was planning on going to the department store…yeah”

“Hey! That’s great…that reminds me that I have a special present for you, Ethan…”

“…you wouldn’t believe how excited Professor Elm was to see me…he said someone finally adopted his Totodile…don’t you feel sorry for that guy, haha…they’re so gross!”

Gold nodded his head absent mindedly as they gravitated towards the Goldenrod shopping plaza. She seemed pleased just to prattle on about her trek. Professor Elm this…top percentage that. Hmm…what about her family? Maybe she liked to keep family business to herself.

With any luck they wouldn’t run into Whitney while shopping. He knew he might break down if he saw the scars on her face, indelibly etched by his duplicitous traveling partner. Gold could only cross his fingers that things would be uneventful today.

The couple was assailed by glittering lights and blaring sounds upon entry into the department store. Like a school of Remoraid, shoppers flocked in groups up and down the elevators. It made Gold feel almost like he were in a perverse human aquarium of sorts…and he was swimming along with a Sharpedo…

“So, uh, anything else interesting happen to you this week?”

Lyra’s right eyebrow arched high, accenting the lopsided grin she bore. “I spent some time pickin’ out presents before heading home, y’know? They have a great selection of just about anything you can think of…” Here we go again...

“Don’tcha love the coat? …it’s Empoleon Armani. Made with the finest Mareep wool…” No staring, no blood…no milkshakes. Things were looking pretty normal. Now that Lyra was fully engrossed in detailing all the nuances of shopping, from fabrics to sweatshop labor in Unova, Gold’s mind was free to wander.

Lyra had unconsciously driven them to the women’s department. The dizzying array of products on this floor just about overwhelmed him. Not to mention how noxious those perfumes were…a Koffing could suffocate out there. Though, in the corner of his eye, he saw something…interesting. How stereotypical, the department store just had to stock housewares on the same floor as with women’s clothing and accoutrements.

The gleam of silver knives penetrated the air. Their shine reflected the holiday merriment, as if trying to disguise their true shapes. Well, there was one thing that she might like…and silver was certainly pricey… But the sparkle of jewelry outclassed these implements of destruction, er..homemaking. Why ruin a perfectly normal day?

“Hey…my mom..loves jewelry. And I haven’t gotten her a Christmas present yet! Mind if I stroll over there…you know, to find something nice?” Gold stammered in passing.

She gazed back, almost knowingly, “Oh! Hehe, sure thing. But would you be a dear and take care of Marill and my bag while I go to the little girls’ room?” So demure…even cute. Moments like these made Gold wonder if he imagined all the insanity that happened…like a vicious cycle of nightmares.

“No problem, Lyra.”

After taking off into the crowd, Gold felt a little..fruity holding Lyra’s purse as if it were his own. He knew he should have taken his baggier hoodie and shorts…the ones he wore now just screamed out ‘flamboyant’. Of course his mother wouldn’t have him looking like a hoodlum out on the streets of Johto…

He placed her bag on the display. The purse was surprisingly light; maybe it held a handful of items and no more. But upon making contact with the counter, a resounding ‘thunk’ emanated from the bag. Gold noticed the zipper binding Lyra’s purse was wide open and a smooth, handsome box lay inside. His fingers twitched. He never thought Lyra would be one to own a fine jewelry box!

What would be tackier than getting a girl something she already owned?

Gold, a fool he was not, decided to do some firsthand ‘research’ on this item. Scooping the items up again, he set towards the stairs. This was monumental, something akin to opening Tutankhamun’s tomb. Though, some secrecy would be in order…if Lyra saw him opening this, well…he’d rather not imagine what would happen.

He moved from the first floor down to the lobby taking notice that no one bothered going down the stairs leading to the storage basement. He’d been there before, and most certainly enjoyed bossing around the Machoke to get some ‘free samples.’

Gold appraised the item. A solid wooden box, constructed sturdily and with a fine grain wood. It was rectangular and very dark…maybe made with rosewood or some other exotic lumber. Its golden latch beckoning him, Gold opened the box.

Gold inhaled sharply. His eyes focused on a stained photograph of himself and Lyra, taken in the Goldenrod underground weeks back…before all this…this…happened. Their Team Rocket attire was completely ironic considering what transpired only days later… Oozing and fresh ruddy blotches were impregnated on the photo’s glossy surface. But underneath were strands of something fine, arranged into the grooves of what appeared to be a microscope slide box.

Pink. Holy shit. Pink strands. They still carried the smell of lavender and lilacs… the same scent of shampoo Whitney used. …But they weren’t alone. A brilliant blue and two brown bundles surrounded Whitney’s hair. To his dismay one of the brown hair ‘bracelets’ was freshly coated in a dark syrup. A new victim…

Gold brought the blue tuft to his nose and cringed at the coppery scent that they carried. He only knew one person who had a shade this color – Kris. His old friend..maybe first crush. They had dreamed of going on a pokemon adventures all those years ago…until she vanished. Two years ago, without a trace, she was gone…and around that time Lyra’s family had moved into town…

Footsteps grew loud near him. A shadowy ball with horns on either side was cast above his own silhouette on the far wall. Gold swallowed hard as he swiftly closed the box.

“Ethan, is something bothering you? Why are you sulking down here by yourself?”

“What did you do to Kris? I’ve seen the…evidence…” Gold hasn’t the heart to finish the statement.

“I’ve always had my eye on you…since the moment I saw you, Ethan. After I moved into town, I knew I my best friend Ethan would join me…we were…inseparable…”

“What? Answer my question!”

A beam of bright red light cut through the air. Marill, who had been just as curious as Gold, now sat isolated inside his tiny pokeball.

Panic was building in his heart. Calm yourself, Gold, we’re in a public place. Though each step Lyra took towards him erected more and more hairs on his neck. Turning to face her, Gold saw her body eclipsing the store’s merry lights. Too bad the sounds of consumerism and joy faded away as her steps became louder.

“She was in the way,” Lyra responded tersely. The steadiness of her eyes was disquieting. They were unmoving. Gold imagined the moisture escaping her orbs, a foul stickiness left in its wake. You could touch them with a pole and she wouldn’t bat an eye lash.

“I..I remember her spending so much time with you…Ethan. Like she owned you. Ha..hahaha!” Of course there was nothing mirthful about the way she guffawed.

“You and I were destined to be together. Nothing would stop that…not me moving away from you…not this…this…SLUT!”

“Lyra! Please, I don’t know what your problem is but we only met two years ago! My name’s GOLD not Ethan…and you need serious help...”

She interrupted him before his plea could be finished. “Sorry Ethan.” Her head shook as if reprimanding a rambunctious child.

“No one’s leavin’ till we get everything settled… You’re Ethan. And you belong to me…and Kris won’t ever come in our way…” A shadow extended from the corona of light that blinded Gold. Her fist cracked against his temple, and the last thing Gold remembered seeing was the light fading as he fell down the stairs.

He opened his eyes only to notice blackness everywhere. Of course, the pressure around his face…it was a blindfold… His breathing quickened, becoming more shallow with every passing moment. The moldy stench of basement reeked and pervaded Gold’s nostrils. All of a sudden he felt the strangest sense of déjà vu. Maybe he was dreaming this all up. The insanity of it all was just too much to bare…even Lyra…that crazy psychopath…wouldn’t do something like this.

Step. Step. Soft pats on the concrete floor echoed throughout this confinement cell. Gold tugged as hard as he could on his restraints, but to no avail. The harder he pushed, the louder he groaned, the more useless he felt. Finally, the clang of steel on cement rang out, the harbinger of two more sets of drips. Blood from Gold’s cut wrists trailed onto the moist floor.

“You know you’re mine…ETHAN.” Lyra’s sharp voice penetrated the stagnant air. Her light footsteps drew nearer and the panic in Gold’s heart rose. She must have been face-to-face with him for he felt a thick, hot breath invade his nostrils.

“I.. I thought you cared about me, Lyra.. Why? Whitney..Kris..and..and…”

“What do you see in those…in those…WHORES? Can’t you see that I…I…I’d do anything for you? WHAT’S WRONG WITH YOU? Are you blind…”

Her points were accented by the globules of saliva now gracing his face. But she trailed off, backing away from Gold. Like ripping off a bandage, the blindfold was yanked off Gold’s face. His pupils grew tiny in response to the solitary light bulb now casting Lyra’s silhouette on him. Though he couldn’t see her face, Gold could imagine it. Snarling, wild, soulless.

The sub-basement of the Goldenrod department store. It connected to some secret tunnel…he remembered that much. Shit, this was worse than he imagined.

“She’s dead isn’t she?”

A delighted smile crossed her lips. Though still woozy from the fall and blinded from the lights Gold could tell she was pleased with herself. Sick bitch.

“Let’s just say that what you don’t know can’t hurt you..” She drew nearer. Her body now looming over Gold’s.

Lyra pressed her lips together and she finally closed those demonic eyes of hers. Gold squirmed as he watched with indignation as she drew near his face. But he decided to make contact first. Hard contact. The sort where one’s forehead smashed into another’s face.

“My. Name. Is. GOLD!” he cried out.

She moaned out in pain before clutching her nose between her hands. The satisfying crunch Gold felt as bone struck cartilage elicited old memories of his fist striking that very spot. Served her right to even think of doing something like that. The dripping of blood from Lyra’s face joined the three others in a frightening, sanguine symphony. Their heavy breaths mirrored the roaring of violins, nearing the climax of this morbid movement.

Lyra peered out between blood soaked fingers. Those eyes of hers narrowed to show the spark of feeling. Too bad there wasn’t any mirth in them. Whatever happened to the Christmas spirit? Well, Gold’s musing were answered swiftly...

The further rattling of his chains served little if any effect to shake Lyra’s demeanor. She closed in to his face, taking hold of his cheeks with her left hand. The daintiness of her hold was contrasted sharply with her follow up. And with a crack of her right hand, Gold’s head was sent careening into the cinderblock wall.

The stars clearing from his eyes, Gold felt the cuts her fingers had dug into his cheek. He despaired. Lyra was insane. She couldn’t see that whoever this Ethan person was most certainly not him. Shit. She must have killed Kris. The ocean was a hop away from New Bark Town, and that scent of blood on her hair… Lyra’s been at this all along, ever since coming to his hometown. How did he not see this shit coming? How naïve could he have been…

He was going to die here, wasn’t he? Well, he might be wearing capris but he was going to get her for this…he just needed a plan.

Shaking off the pain he pressed, “I saw the others…you won’t get away with this shit, LYRA.”

“You knew about those a long time ago, ETHAN. Don’t you remember your ‘journey’ in the woods before we got our pokemon?”

“I got lost out in the tall grass, no pokemon, so what of it?” His head pulled back onto the cool concrete as his body slumped down. He winced as the manacles dug even deeper into his wrists’ cuts. The steel was slack on his wrists. Maybe she would come to him again…

“Heh, you really are a gullible one. That’s why I love you so much…I knew I could mold you into just the guy for me…Ethan…”

Her hand stretched out again. Lyra gingerly stroked the cut she had created on his cheek. Although still stinging, the initial fire of the blow had receded. She withdrew her hand, licking the blood it had accrued. The satisfied sigh of delight she exhaled deeply chilled Gold to his core. He could see her eyes were now wistful, cool, and doll-like.

“Remember now? My..mother. Oh, she thought I was crazy. Kept calling you “Gold” not Ethan…telling me Ethan was back in our old hometown. Well, she kept you company in our basement for a while. Didn’t you have some quality time together…hahaa?!”

"Well, I meant it when I said...no one stands between us..."

No knives yet. He had a shot. Just needed her to get closer. A hair closer. He’d wring her neck and then rip his fucking hands out of these manacles…like that guy who cut off his arm…under a boulder....fuck. This plan sounded more foolproof in his mind.

“Kiss me…”

“What? Did you just say..” Lyra’s head was spinning. She thought it would have taken another two weeks until he’d say that if the last time were any indication. How she dreamed that this day would come. She always wanted Gold to sweep her off her feet…and this wasn’t ideal but at least he wanted it.

“I’ve loved you…ever since laying eyes on you. I thought you would eventually fall for me too…”

She strode up to his slumped body and unbuttoned her peacoat. As he thought, those suspenders and red shirt of hers were underneath…but they were splotched…dark red like in that photo…

Lyra pressed herself onto his body. The curves of her torso intimated rolled over his, transferring every single splotch of blood onto his clothing. Pushed firmly onto the concrete wall, Gold tightened his muscles in reflex…a vain last attempt to ward off her seduction. Too bad she knew exactly how to tease every single bit of him. Despite his bewilderment, Gold couldn’t help but blush as Lyra wrapped her free arm around his shoulders and pressed her forehead into his, eyes half shut. The bleeding from her nose having recently stopped, she licked her lips and spoke slowly…

“We can have lots of fun…just show me you love me…”

Their lips met tenderly at first. Though circumstances were unique, the romance was still inchoate...young. Gold moved his hands around her body, trying to get a clean angle. But she retracted, the excitement plain as the red on her face. Too bad he was only a boy, strung along by his hormones and a puppet to them at the moment. His hands stopped, favoring the nap of her coat to the desire to grab her neck.

“I guess…you did deserve a present after all…”

Watching through careful eyes, Gold saw her reach into her coat pocket. Out came a silvery shine. A knife!? No…keys…

The sharp snap of the locking mechanisms unloading was the sweetest sound Gold had ever heard. They rattled on the concrete wall, replacing the sound of dripping blood.

Her mouth, previously gaped wide from surprise, now contorted into a grimace and then into a smile. Maybe it was the poor lighting, but Gold swore her canines were elongated…feral…like some rabid animal.

In her left hand was a silvery knife, extracted from her coat’s breast pocket. Her trusty carving knife. Just the perfect tool for stripping the meat off a rack of Tauros ribs… The rage and honor of revenge seemed to evaporate instantly in Gold’s body. No self righteousness was worth dying for this…not in this fucking hole in the ground.

Through dark-adjusted eyes Gold witnessed a miracle. In his periphery was a dim light, far away from the single spotlight in this room. Do or die. Out of options he spang into action. His legs carried him for all he was worth. He felt them engorging in blood, the individual muscle fibers stretching and contracting at hard as they could. Morbidly he thought he could win a Pokeathelon with this level of athletic exertion…

This time Lyra was caught off guard. In all their adventures, she would have never guessed that Ethan would make a run for it. Never! They were going to be together…for eternity…and no distance, no person, no force would ever stop that from happening. She took off after him but the weight of her thick coat anchored her down. She couldn’t ditch the coat…it was too nice. And, she mustn’t leave evidence…

Gold flew past the doorway and into the basement of the Goldenrod department store. The shadows of holiday stock played games with his already frazzled mind, but he saw salvation – the stairs. Bounding two steps at a time, with reckless abandon and no attention to the pounding in his muscles and bones, Gold reached the lobby.

After hours! How long could he have been unconscious!?

The blood finally returned to his brain, and Gold developed a brilliant idea.

“Go! Quilava! Melt through the steel gate on the front door!” Not one to question his master, Quilava did as told, though wimpered and cringed upon seeing Gold’s condition. Heavy footsteps could be heard echoing through the stairwell…and Quilava took this as a sign to bust out of there. Flames encircled the gate. The heat sweltered and crackled in the air, warping the appearance of items in the store as if they were in a desert. How fitting that this place resemble Hell now…blazing and dark.

Through the clean hole, surrounded in melting globules of glass and steel, the two males bolted. Another flash of crimson and the party was reduced to one. It was well after midnight and not a decent soul walked on the avenue.

Goldenrod’s sprinkler and alarm system immediately sprung into action after the boys made their hasty retreat. Drenched now in failure and water, Lyra calmly stepped out their makeshift exit and retreated into the somber night. She wasn’t even mad anymore. Heck, this whole ruse was fucking hilarious. Her saccharine laugh penetrated the night, to which Gold doubled his efforts in running.

She’d get back to them…it was what she did. What she was created for…after all, she knew her only purpose in life was to be with Ethan, whether he liked it or not…

Next day:

Police units and firefighters had responded to the scene of the crime within ten minutes of the alarms tripping. To their surprise nothing had been stolen or damaged beyond the door. However, an eerie blood trail led them into a sub-basement no one, not even the Goldenrod deparment store’s owner, knew of. Two cells were riddled with bloodstains and one contained the body of a young woman, barely clinging onto life. Identified as one Dana Lass, she informed the police of being kidnapped en route to Goldenrod for some Christmas shopping. A bag was placed over her head and she had been knocked out.

Surprisingly, the Goldenrod police chanced upon units of Team Rocket members storing supplies in these chambers. Taken into custody, they remarked that Neo Team Rocket would rise and that Giovanni needed to come back and lead them. No one admitted to Dana’s kidnap, torture, and imprisonment.

PART FOUR:

I slowly paced around the room, marring the hardwood floor with scuffs from my shoes. It was cool inside; the fireplace was barely crackling with activity. I stopped for a moment to gaze at the flames. The feeble fire cast long, sharp shadows along the floor.

Above the mantel our family portrait hung, along with a carved wooden dragonair. Its body undulated up and down, forming three round sockets, clearly filled with dust from my vantage point. Mom needed to start dusting more often.

Hmm, the lights were still off. I guess Mom couldn’t pay for the electric and gas bills this month. No surprise there. Ever since we moved here, life just hadn’t been the same.
My feet stopped as my eyes focused on a frosted window. Beyond the layer of obscuring ice I saw one window in another house brightly lit. It was a warm beckon in the night darkness. I glanced at my Pokegear—10:24 P.M. Looked like Ethan’s mom was still awake.

Then a mass bumped into my leg, snapping me out of my reverie. Marill tugged at my overalls and shivering…must be really excited to go on an adventure now.

My fingers traced the contours of his pokeball…smooth, cool, flawless. The aquamouse disappeared in a flash of crimson leaving me alone in my home. I’ve always liked these pokeballs. I could always keep Marill by my side…he’d never abandon me…

I needed something… My room was pitch dark, but I knew my way around. It was my room, of course I could walk around it without lights on…everything was where it was supposed to be, nothing misplaced, nothing missing. Then I saw it, glinting with the light from Ethan’s home. My binoculars.

Christmas. Dad certainly wanted it to be magical for me. He’d gotten me a telescope and these binoculars one year and my hat another time… Then he told me he’d get capture the rarest pokemon for me…just so I could start my adventure with a real champion. That was six years ago.

Walking back downstairs I remembered Mom crying so much when he left. I remembered many nights when we sat around the fireplace. It was hard not to remember the mascara rivers running under her eyes. I wonder if she would do the same if it were me…

I guess Mt. Silver was a bigger adventure than Dad anticipated. But he’ll be back… He’d never break a promise to us.

Oh, there went the fire.

Well…I felt awfully toasty already…but ya couldn’t go on an adventure on an empty stomach!

Moving past the residual smoke, I came into the kitchen. Pitch black as well. Hmm. How about this? The faint glow of my Pokegear display helped light my way now. Everything was awash with its blue LEDs.

The refrigerator…oh Arceus…Mom couldn’t clean anything around this place! It was filthy! The stench of rotting food filled the kitchen air…w-what would Ethan think?! He couldn’t see this place looking so..so..disgusting… He’d think I’m…a… a PIG…wallowing in my own filth…NO…no… He wouldn’t notice.. When we came back, he’d just…we’d…we’d order something. Yes, this wasn’t a problem at all.

I tried to calm my breaths. I rubbed my eyes—got to keep it together, Lyra…

My stomach growled, pulling me out of my thoughts. I suppose a Protein bar or something will do…we always kept those in stock in one of these cabinets. Shifting boxes, squealing hinges…the we go! Mmm..strawberry, my favorite.

Glints of metal caught my eye on the way out. Hmm, I did break my last one… Let me grab a few for the road. Short, long, serrated, matte finish….which to choose? Heh, why not all of them?!

Now I felt the drafts sneaking in under the doors and windows, but they didn’t bother me much. My thoughts were on Ethan. I saw his beautiful face whenever I closed my eyes. He’d tell me wonderful things…how he loved the bounce of my ponytails, how gentle my eyes looked…how we’d get married one day…and grow old together. But as soon as I open them, he vanished… These moments drove my blood pressure higher and my pulse quicker. A reminder of failure… they were…infuriating… But Ethan would see how much I loved him…I just haven’t shown him yet…

“I’ve got to get him back…” and I knew exactly who would help me. I put on my pink earmuffs and billowy hat. Next my new designer coat…lovely how easily the stains came off it. Where did I put my bag?

Ah there it was…one black uniform and matching hat, check. Some persuasive tools, check. Jewelry.. case…check! Lipstick and eye liner, check…hehe all ready to go!

There wasn’t a single living thing moving out there now—unsurprising considering the hour and the recent snowfall. But there was one person I knew who didn’t give a damn about the weather or hour. I had seen him training his pokemon in the forest south of Ecruteak…at least a day’s walk…from here.. shit.

What now?! H-how would I ever get him back if I couldn’t find him in time! I knew deep down..a gut feeling..that if I couldn’t find him soon, he’d be gone forever. And I couldn’t wait for him to return…then..oh Arceus…I’d be just like Mom….

No, no, no, NO! There had to be a way to get there faster! Breath. Breath… My jaw clenched…not like THIS!

…and then it hit me. Father…

Catching my breath, I ran back into my home and scrambled to the fireplace. The dusty dragonair figurine stood soberly on the mantel. Almost two feet long, handcrafted of handsome ebony. He was so found of it, said it was a gift from the Dragon Master himself—he forbade us from touching it. Of course, how stupid could I have been?

My fingers wrapped around the dragon—searching, feeling for a crack. My lungs were clogging up with the wretched dust released…but there it was! My instincts were never wrong. A small notch at the base of the head. With a small pop, I separated the head from the body of the figurine. Flipping the body over I slapped the tail end..hoping, waiting for something to come out.

A clatter of metal and plastic. CDs and badges strewn all over the mantel and floor, their polished surfaces glinting in the moonlight. Tokens from my father’s training days…exactly what I needed to get going.

“Noct-owl!”

“Noctowl, you need to fly me to route 37 pronto! It’s an emergency!”

“!!” He was confused. Well..silly bird, you just learned the technique Fly…you should be ready to go, damnit!

“We have to go now! Don’t dare question me…you can do this.” I stared into his eyes. He better flap those damn wings of his now..

A beat passed before he nodded his head in concordance. Heh, he knew better than to get between me and Ethan…they knew what he meant to me. Then he was in the air, flapping his wings so silently I could only hear the sound of my breathing and the wind. I twirled my scarf around my mouth and nose, fastened my gloves, then grabbed his legs. This was going to be a rough ride.

Within 20 minutes I saw the lights from Cherrygrove City. Perfect…now..we needed to keep our eyes open. A hint of red in those woods, maybe a fire…anything…

When I saw him earlier, he was berating his Haunter for sluggish movements in the snow. All the yelling…at a loving…pokemon…an innocent….pokemon… It made my skin crawl. I barely noticed how hard my teeth were clenched or the cracking of my fingers as I clenched my fists tightly. Noctowl groaned as I dug into his ankles. Relax, Lyra…Silver could be of use to us.

The smoke rising above the tree canopy. His Pokegear was on DJ Ben’s station…Pokemon Lullaby playing…how..cute. Thanks for making this so easy, Silver.

I could smell the stench of his failure…I felt his anger… When you grew up to the music of screaming and shouting, well, it became all too easy to sniff it out.

He must have just fallen asleep. Flames still licked the air from his fire and his breaths weren’t very shallow yet. Must be careful here, Lyra…we don’t want him to get up yet. So I crouched in the brush, staring at his red hair and his chest rising and falling. Up and down, rhythmically.

My body slithered towards his, arm over arm, clutching the dirt and moving in…quietly… As I crept closer I thought of all the times I watched Ethan sleep. He must dream about me…whenever I cooed his name he’d smile. Wonder what Silver would do..

His pokeballs…I threw his belt of them into a tree. How pathetic this kid was. Nothing like Ethan. Not strong or compassionate. Pure filth…trash I would take care of after he led me to my love.

“Silver…Siiiiiiilveeer…” My face was inches from his; the fire cast my silhouette over his face. Finally his eyes fluttered open, registering my presence.

“..wha..who..! Get off ME! GET ..mMrhh!” he blurted out.

“Shush you. You’re going to help me… You’ve seen my Eth..an..Gold, haven’t you?” I told him, while my left gloved hand smothered his mouth.

His eyes flashed with understanding. Of course he had seen him. Why would he have been training so vigorously if not for my Ethan beating him senseless?

He shook his head and struggled. He was bucking as hard as his body would move. I could barely stay atop him…he’d throw me off any second! Arceus, Ethan...the things I do for you.

I was a Pokemon Ranger riding on a mad Tauros… Well, even a beast like that can be brought to reason! My hand tightened its grip on his mouth. More pressure…my hand was shaking as I pushed back. The strain on his jaw..when would he QUIT it!

My right arm slid swiftly to my coat pocket. A little ‘persuasion’ never failed, right??

My hand returned with a partner…a bit unassuming looking. But he got the point. A short, stout blade was easiest to conceal. It certainly would make nice work of his neck.

“Stop that NOW, and tell me where he is..or I’ll have to slice you up…. Wouldn’t want that, right??” Our breaths were sharp and labored—his from fighting, mine from aggravation. My blade rested atop his neck. Not a believer, eh? Of course..allow me to demonstrate...with a little slice here...not too deep.

Every one of his muscles relaxed as he settled down. What a weakling. His eyes no longer snarled and stared through my head…no, they were fixated on my friend here. Heh, at least he had some sense in his thick skull. Good, that’s how we negotiate things… I removed my hand from his mouth.

“H..hey relax you psycho bitch! I don’t kn..know what your deal is, but I’ll tell you where..where he went! Just hop the fuck off.” Oh, look at Mr. Badass here. Such a snippy attitude—but the panic in his eyes. It was the same look they always gave her…always brave til the end….

…Sleeping in Ecruteak then headed to Olivine and across the sea. On an errand for the sweet little gym leader…well, then. She had to be on her way to catch him before he set off in the morning. She’d deal with Jasmine later… But one last thing…

His eyes…I saw my reflection in them… When did I start smiling? Was this how…this was what Ethan saw in me… I blinked as rapidly as I could, but the visions of Gold’s face grimacing in terror wouldn’t budge. Swiftly the blade rotated in my palm before I pressed the blunt side brutally into his throat.

“Thanks for everything…”

Silver passed out. Anyone would with that much pressure on a key point. Replacing the knife into my pocket I held my face between my hands. I massaged my temples, slid them under my hat. Squeezed my eyes flat… Anything to get Ethan’s pain out of my head..

No…he was confused. He wasn’t ready for my love… but I’d protect him..from anything… He has done so much for me..even all my love wouldn’t be..enough retribution. Of course…protection…I would show Ethan that I wasn’t crazy..no..quite the opposite..

Silver’s Pokegear was easy to locate, resting atop his change of clothes. Pokemon lullaby…who would have thought he was such a softie. Well, what else is on.

I searched through the stations, mostly static. The late night talk with Professor Oak, 4.5. Lucky Number Hour, 8.5. Oh…what’s this station…21…this was beyond the normal range for the radio.

The voices…what where they saying? It was like a police scanner or something. Grabbing it, my feet pushed me off the floor. Then another sensation…a knot in my stomach.

The radio static cleared. Clearer now…it was coming in crystal clear.

“..all available units, all points bulletin for suspicious individuals in black around Ecruteak. Team Rocket suspected to be mobilizing. Movement spotted in Olivine, Ecruteak and Mahogany. I repeat…all available units…”

Well, Silver. Never thought you were this resourceful. Team Rocket, eh? Ethan would stop them...he got caught up with them at the Slowpoke Well. I knew it, my gut knew it…maybe I could show him..show him that I could protect him, from anyone and anything…

We touched down outside the city, near the water leading to Meteor Falls. From that report, it looked like Team Rocket was moving east…where to? Who cared, all I knew was I’d find some dumbasses to follow there.

My binoculars helped me survey the travelers entering and exiting the city limits. Noctowl returned to its confinement long ago, leaving me alone…thinking and reminiscing while I waited. Lying there I could scarcely contain myself. A broad smile stretched over my face.

Ecruteak was such an old-fashioned place. Everything from the people to the architecture was antiquated. Good…the sparseness of lights in the town made it perfect for viewing the stars.

Ethan and I gazed at the stars many times. It was the only time my Mom ever let me sleep over at a boy’s house. We sat there, under a tree in his backyard. Our sleeping bags were open, waiting for us, but we chose to look up. We saw Ursaring Major and Minor, their tails stretched looong by Arceus as he lifted them to the sky. There was a brave warrior saving a maiden on a cliff from a vicious Wailord. But I remembered gazing at Ethan the most. He was so knowledgeable, so sweet…

Motion! Two guys were leaving the city pretty hastily. A glance to my Pokegear…already 3:04 A.M. I guess my excitement has kept me going so long.

I’ve got to join them. I needed someone to vouch for me when we got to wherever we went to. They’d know something was up if I just appeared. That wouldn’t do. Not at all.

My binoculars flew back into my purse swiftly…now, open my coat a bit…and step out there. They stopped momentarily, probably to get a better look at this random figure in the road. They better not run away…

“Hey! Hurry up! We don’t have all that much time guys!” That got them moving again. Two grunts I saw, a tall one and a short one. Dressed identically, save for their winter coats. Their eyes widened when they came up close…what a bunch of pigs…

“Who’re you? I’ve never seen you at any of the meetings,” the taller of the two blurted out.

“She’s with us, can’t you see her uniform, dumbass…” the second replied.

A bit of sneer gracing my lips, I uttered, “Look, I just joined up a while ago. Now, are you two going to ogle me or are we going to get moving?”

“Just wait a minute, are you a cop or something?” the taller said. His partner slapped him in the back of the head. “Shut up! Don’t incriminate us or anything.”

“Don’t worry, I’m no Jenny. Can’t you see my hair’s brown…?”

With a shrug of their shoulders, they continued on, “…yeah, okay let’s just move it already. The bosses have something special lined up at Lake of Rage.” They appreciated the moxie, fools.

Jeez, no wonder Team Rocket got the brunt of so many jokes. They’re a bunch of imbeciles…all of them. No shit a zubat or rattata can’t drag your dumbass over the water or air. My head might have rolled off with how hard I was shaking it side to side. I had to force Noctowl to fly us over, one by one, to the opposite shore. At least they were thankful. Not suspicious one bit...

“Why do you have a noctowl? Most of us are only given koffing or zubat, poison pokemon.”

“…like I said earlier, I just joined. I trained pokemon before this, you know.”

“Oh, good point I guess…”

I resisted the urge to facepalm. No wonder a child dismantled their operation three years ago. Then the shorter figure spoke up, “We’re pretty late. We should have been at the base in Mahogany yesterday…they might have already set up everything at Lake of Rage by now.”

“Well then, let’s just go to the lake then. We’ll just catch a heap of flak from the higher ups for this,” I told them. They were pretty fearful of some Petrel guy. Sounded like he was a total whackjob..him and some guy named Proton. Suppose that explained their midnight adventure. Suppose I would be scared of ending up at the bottom of Lake of Rage or something…pfft…yeah right.

“Let’s rest at the Pokemon Center until the morning. No sense in hiking anymore in the wild, right? And it’s not like they could tell we were doing anything wrong…” They concurred. Why wouldn’t they.

“So, you think your rattata is in the top percentage? I bet mine is, just look at his teeth. Damn, he could cut right concrete with the Hyper Fang attack of his.”

“No way your rattata is. He’s so small, fragile looking. I could probably stomp on the guy before he could do anyting.”

“What! Take that back you sonavabitch!”

“Fuck you!”

Fuck me. My right hand squeezed the hilt of my knife hard. My knuckles had to be turning white by now. They were pissing me off more than that trash Silver. No..stop it…stop..the…mindless arguments! My eye would start twitching any minute now…thank Arceus the center was only yards away.

Ding. Swoosh. The Pokemon center’s doors welcomed us with a courteous greeting. Nurse Joy was still awake, too. Though the bags under her eyes told me she was retiring soon enough.

“Hi! Are there any rooms available for us?” I smiled as genuinely as I could. Any more of their nonsense…and I would just snap.

Her drooping eyes traveled to a control panel and then to a rack of keys behind her.

“Yes, there are quite a few rooms available. Not too many trainers come during this time of year…but what brings you here at this hour?”

“Heh, we just hiked in from Ecruteak…took time exploring Meteor Cave, and I guess we lost track of time, haha! Isn’t that right guys??” My arms wrapped around their shoulders, forcing their torsos downward. Thankfully my coat was buttoned shut. Happy smiles on each face…

“Yeah! It was like zubat country in there…we could barely get through!”

The keys for rooms 203 and 204 lay in my palm. With a flippant toss the one for 203 flew into the taller grunt’s chest. He barely caught it as it slid down.

“See you bright and early at 8 guys! We’ll get moving then.” Nods in return. Finally…I can ditch these idiots…but..but I didn’t like that look in their eyes. It was disquieting, seedy…from the very get go. Something was wrong. Arcrus-forbid I sleep in this shithole with those lechers next door.

Ethan wouldn’t mind, right? If he never knew..well then nothing happened. 4:35 A.M. Still plenty of time to fly to Lake of Rage. Now, let me set this up nicely.

After 20 more minutes, I was sure they were asleep. The sounds of frivolous conflict long gone now, and soon to be gone forever. Two road bumps out of Ethan’s way. He’d approve of it. Nothing of value would be lost. It was fine. Absolutely fine.

I bent a coat hanger straight, keeping the hook on one end. Under the door it went, quietly grasping for the door handle. A light click told me I was in. My body slipped in between the rays of hallway light bleeding through the door jam. Both were sleeping soundly, snoring and drooling on their bunks. I snorted.

It was like déjà vu. True, I let Silver go…but tonight was the night. I couldn’t control myself any longer..especially after enduring that insanity for the last few hours.

“Thanks for everything…”

At that moment I pressed the blade into the shorter grunt’s neck. His snoring stopped. His eyes opened. I sliced quickly, pulling the blade to my side. He lay there, mouth agap while I sat on his chest…whoops…it went right through. Heh. Ha..ha..ahahahahaha. Oh Arceus…look at the blood! It’s….everywhere!

No ‘you’re welcome!?” I was sincere enough. I guess he couldn’t see my smile.

Creak. Wood creaking…the one up top was waking up! Shit. So much for discreteness.

“Wh..hat’s that noise?” he sighed. I hid in his buddy’s bunk, my weight slowly draining his body of blood. Drips…sickening drips splattering all over the floor. His counterpart looked over the side of his bed—the darkness hid the growing blood stain. Hehe…stop snickering Lyra..he’ll hear it..

“Hey..do we have a leak in here?” He saw the stain…maybe he had no sense of smell…maybe he thought it was a dream. I certainly was reveling in the coppery aroma. Oh well. Let’s finish up.

My hand darted from underneath, grabbing hold of his hair. I yanked hard. The wooden frame of the bunk bed gave me an anchor to pull from. And so he went down, face first into the ground. Ever hear a thud when you drop a ham? Well…hehe.

Unconscious. Perfect. One more swipe! And…we’re done. Different styles every time…that’s how not to get caught. Mother..Whitney…Kris…the MOs…the styles…all different..no connection. No time to do any more…as long as I leave no tracks or blood, well, who’s going to know I did this?

I ran out a backdoor after pulling my coat lapels over my face. Can’t be too careful with these security cameras all around. A flick of the wrist and Noctowl appeared in the air. He smelt the blood. He was anxious, but he knew not to get on my bad side. We were so close! The sun was going to rise soon…and Ethan would be mine again!

The sun was up by the time we touched down on the lakeside. And..there he was…Ethan…fighting a monstrous red gyarados out on the water… Oh Arceus, what have I done? He needed me out there! I wouldn’t let him die to some mutant …

A crowd of pathetic grunts amassed on the lakeside beside me. At least a dozen of them. They hooted and hollered, taking bets on who would win. What to do..what to do? Before anything, I’ve got to take care of this trash…

“Noctowl! Use Hypnosis on the Rocket grunts!” He was hovering above the lake front, eyes glued to the battle on the water. Not now, Noctowl! You’ll be in a world of shit if you don’t…

He must have read my mind or felt the anger boiling in me… After that bit of mental persuasion, my lovely Noctowl’s head rotated 180 degrees around. It revolved like one of those doors at a fancy hotel… so cool! Then he craned his head to the left and hooted. I saw the waves of psychic energy forming concentric circles and radiating from his eyes. Pulses of violet streamed from his irises. These grunts were no match for our skills.

Their eyes drooped, darkening under their black caps. Within seconds of the attack, they all dropped to the ground. They were puppets and I was their puppet master. I controlled what they did and I could just as easy sever those lines. I couldn’t help but chortle then. Thankfully Ethan couldn’t see the wicked grin that spread over my face.

I frantically clawed into my purse, pushing aside my belongings in search of my pokeballs. Ah! Underneath my jewelry box laid Marill’s ball. Oh damnit! I forgot my souvenirs…well..it was less incriminating this way…

Marill would be excited to get some fresh air after all this while.

With another flash of crimson my blue partner splashed down in the water. He wasn’t disoriented…hmm, would have thought he might be confused after…oh whatever. At last he wasn’t shaking anymore. Time to put him to good use..for Ethan’s sake.

“Float on the water and use Defense Curl! Then use Rollout! Rotate as fast as you can and glide on the surface towards the gyarados!”

He complied and then spun off. He knew better than to resist…

Through my pocket binoculars I saw Ethan struggling to keep above the water on Quagsire. The gyarados was thrashing about on the lake! Each time its tail slapped the water my heart sunk…just hold on Ethan! Shit! Hurry up, Marill…I..I don’t know what I’d do if..if that beast dragged him to the lake bed…oh Arceus!

Only my common sense kept me from diving into the water now. My eyes were tearing up just THINKING about…oh…sniffle..Arcues… Anything to save him. I’d give just about anything for him to come back to me…

He must have heard my pleas…there was a miracle. My Marill careened down the lake like a little rocket. Just as the gyarados emerged for another flailing attack, Marril connected the blow right on the back of its head! A direct hit…so powerful..must have been…a critical hit! That thing was down for the count!

As I focused my binoculars on the scene, I made out a grin spanning across my Ethan’s handsome face. There was no hiding his excitement either. Then, he blindly searched his capris for something. His hands were shaking…excitement no doubt.

From under his water-logged pants Ethan grabbed…another striped yellow cap? How silly! Ah! An ultra ball! He tossed it with so much force that both he and Quagsire rocked in the water like buoys in a storm. Then the red monstrosity disappeared…replaced by a calm little sphere floating on the lake.

Marill helped tug the two worn out boys back to the shore side. His eyes were glued on me the whole time. Ethan took in my handiwork – no less than a dozen Team Rocket grunts passed out on the lakeside. He shook his head…maybe in disbelief, maybe in bewilderment. But he didn’t run.

“Can you forgive me...Gold? I’m so sorry…for everything..I just wanted you to like me…”

“…”

Good thing I threw away my Rocket disguise. The scent of blood would have given me away.

I took a tenuous step towards him. He remained firmly planted as I edged closer and closer. My eyes locked with his, but neither of us said another word. We were only a foot apart… I jumped…all my anxiety and fear evaporated as I hugged him…he stood still. I knew deep down he couldn’t hate me…he’d appreciate me now for all I could offer him…

He just needed time to let that soak in. He was shaking now…probably in excitement…

PART FIVE


You, Gold, are hiding behind the lighthouse in Olivine City. Hiding from Lyra, that is. Ever since she tried to feed you her blood and carved her name in your back while raping you in the basement of a tower, you weren’t exactly keen on being around her. You wish you could stay away from her, but she had a tendency to find you wherever you went. Besides, telling a girl with a cutlery set and an obsession with you that you wanted her to leave you alone was never a good idea.

But, you’re alone for now, with no sign of her or her marill. You flip open your pokegear and open the internet browser. Maybe today will be the day you get doubles on 4chan. Hell, being off by one is better than being assaulted by your psychotic friend.

As you tap away at your pokegear, you hear a familiar squeaking. Sweet evil Giratina, you say to yourself, not already.

But your fear is confirmed as Lyra’s overweight watermouse waddles up to you. “Mari-Marill!” it cries. Whether it’s greeting you or giving your position away to its trainer, you can’t tell. All you know is that where Marill is, Lyra is sure to follow.

Well, if Lyra can’t hear it squeaking, maybe she won’t find you. Besides, Marill like the ocean, right? It waddles closer to you, but you’ll have none of that. You kick out your foot and launch the pudgy pokemon into the ocean. It lands in the water with a large splash, considerably far away from your hiding place. Good, you think, That should throw Lyra off of-

Your train of thought is cut off by frantic footsteps and a far too familiar voice screaming for her Marill. Soon Lyra appears next to you.

“Gold! Gold! What happened... what did you do to Marill!?” She shrieks, her worried expression making her look yet more psychotic. It’s obvious she saw it flying through the air, but you can’t tell if she saw you kick it or not. You may be able to make an excuse... then again, she’d be even more angry if you lied to her and she knew the truth.

You don’t feel like dealing with Lyra’s bullshit today. Without looking up from 4chan, you tell her “I taught it the move ‘Fly'". You realize you may be stabbed for this, but that was probably in her daily planner anyways.

Surprisingly, she doesn’t seem angry. In fact, she starts to giggle. “Oh Goldy, you’re so funny. It’s so nice to know you like to play with Marill!”

Well that was unexpected. Perhaps she’s gone a bit loopy from all of the collective bloodloss. More loopy, anyways. Atleast she isn’t mad at you, though you would honestly prefer Ethan to 'Goldy’. As Lyra continues giggling, her Marill waddles back on shore, and she picks it up.

“Marill and I have been looking everywhere for you, we got you a milkshake!" She hands you a cup, and you try your hardest not to show your disgust while wondering how you didn’t notice the cups in her hand before. You peek inside, and notice it’s pink. Presumably strawberry flavored, possibly blood-of-her-enemies flavored. You give her a half-hearted thank you, and set it to the side, hoping she doesn’t notice.

“Sooooo, what have you been up to, sitting behind this lighthouse?"She asks, turning her expression comically quizzical.

Well, you’ve been lucky so far. “Hiding from you, crazy pants" you tell her. This is apparently hilarious to her.

“Ha, crazy pants, oh you’re so silly Gooooldy” Lyra giggles, along with her marill. At this point it seems that not insulting her will turn out worse for you. Or, perhaps she’s not in murder mode today.

...no, definitely not that. Your internal debate on how likely she is to try and stab you today is interrupted as she gestures towards the milkshake she bought you. “Well come on, it’s hot outside, drink up!” she chortles. You figure that you may as well drink it before it does become blood flavored, so you take a small sip. With the excitement she shows when you do so, you begin to fear that there’s a decent dose of rohypnol in there. You decide to throw it away at the next possible chance.

“Well! I checked on the gym on my way here, and it turns out that it’s closed today. Phooie.” She pouts. “So! What do you want to do today Goooooldy?”

You really don’t want to do anything with her, but there isn’t much of a chance of that happening.

And yet.. the sea is nearby, isn’t it? People get lost at sea all the time. Maybe Lyra can be one of them.

“Let’s go swimming, Lyra. There aren’t many beaches at home.”“What a wonderful idea!"She says, clapping her hands, her Marill soon mimicing her. “You know, Goooooldy, you know what you should have said when I asked you why you were behind the lighthouse?”

You groan. “No, what?”

She giggles. “You should have said ‘Learning how to shine bright for you!’ It would have been soooooo cute!" with that, she runs off to the shore, Marill in tow, and jumps in, clothes and knive collection and all.

You contemplate the phrase she had just told you was ‘Soooo cute’ and decide to take a large gulp of the possibly-poisoned milkshake, overcome with the desire to die at sea. You then wade in after her.

“Well, better now than never." you think to yourself.

You swim over to where Lyra is splashing with her Marill. Realizing that trying to drown a trainer with a water pokemon by her side may not be easy, you call her over.

“Hey, Lyra, come over here for a second!”

Your plan works, and Lyra comes over alone, with Marill distracted by her own game. Before she can ask you what you wanted, you grab the top of her head and push down hard. Not expecting to be pushed underwater, she goes under easily. In fact, she barely seems to be struggling at all. Bubbles rise from between your arms.

...

When the bubbles stop for a while, you decide to let her go. Much to your dismay, the minute you do, she pops right back up, a little blue in the face but somehow still laughing despite her lack of air. You are dumbstruck by the fact she thinks this is a game, even more that she’s still breathing. Before you can push her under again, she’s behind you, and shoves you down. You flail around, choking on water as you listen to her singing “GOLD IS A GOLDEEEEEN, GOLD IS A GOLDEEEEEN!" above the surface.

At this point, you’re seriously considering stealing her knifeset and going axcrazy on her. Unfortunately, Lyra does not seem to understand how long you can survive underwater in comparison to her, and doesn’t seem to be letting up soon, if at all. You keep asking yourself what you’re going to do to get back up. You see Marill’s tail bobbing near your head.

As a last ditch effort, you grab Marill’s bobbing tail, hoping to pull yourself up or it under. You tug hard, and manage to pull it under. This throws Lyra off, and you’re able to resurface, trying to catch your breath while Lyra retrieves it. This doesn’t take long, however, as Marill float by default. Soon Lyra is in front of you, pouting.

“Hey! Marill wasn’t a part of the game! Why did you pull her tail? She better not be hurt." Lyra whines, snuggling the water mouse. As you regain your breath to speak, you try to think of what to say.

You realize that nothing you say will be any good. You grab her head again, trying to drown her once more. However, this time you’re considerably weak, and you can’t manage to hold her under. She pops up after no time at all and grabs your arm, pulling you downwards. She drags you towards the sea floor with an impressive amount of strength and determination. It’s an awfully long ways to go without air for someone non-immortal like you. You begin to wonder where she’s taking you, but, completely breathless, you pass out.

...

You awaken in a strange room. It’s dark, and cold, and wet. Looking to your left, you see what appears to be a rock wall, and to your right is... water and more rock? Then you look directly above yourself...

Lyra is crouched over you, wide smiled as always. “Goodie! You’re awake! You passed out on the way here. I swear I was giving you mouth to mouth for like, ten minutes!”

You throw up a little in your mouth, staring at the crazed she-beast looming over you.

You have a lot of questions, where to begin?

You decide it doesn’t matter where you are, just why you’re there.
“Lyra, why the hell did you take me here?!" You shout, your voice resonating in the damp walls. Before she can answer, you, in a rage, decide to try to punch her in the cunt. You manage to hit her, but she laughs it off, and now you want to burn your hand.

“Oh Goldy, I took you here because you just wouldn’t answer my question!" She puts her hands on her hips and pouts. “Now tell me, why were you picking on Marill?”

“...I was mesmerized by her ball, I had to touch it” you tell her. She gives you an odd look, obviously not convinced and a little confused.

“I just wanted to resurface so I could tell you how beautiful your singing is?" You go for a second try.

 For a minute she clasps her hands together. “Oh Goldy, you’re so romantic-" she stops, realizing that you’ve lied to her again. “Oh well, I guess you just aren’t in the mood for being honest today, are you?"

There isn’t any point with reasoning with her now, so you’re stuck having to decide whether to fight her off, or try to escape.

Well, you have no damn clue where you are, so fighting is the best bet. You grab her shoulder and swing at her face, narrowly missing her. She stumbles away, and looks up at you, upset. You really have trouble understanding how after dragging you into some secret base, she can be the one upset, but Lyra has never been one for logic. You go at her again, this time hitting her nose. You can hear an audible crack, and when she looks back at you you can see a trickle of blood on her upper lip.

“Ethan-”

“Gold!" you shout at her. You swear that if she starts screwing up your name now you’ll bash her head into the wall.

“Gold, why... why did you hit me?" She whimpers.

You glare at her.  “Why? What do you mean why? Why did you drag me down into a damned... wherever the hell we are?!”

“Well, I- I don’t-" She stuttered. However, before you can ask her what she means, she breaks down crying. You don’t understand what she has to be crying for, since you’re the one she tortures regularly. Still, she does look pretty damn pathetic right now.

You glare at her. “Stop crying, you crazy bitch.”

Surprisingly, she does stop crying. “But, but, what do you-”

“What do I mean? I mean stop crying, you psychopath. Does it really surprise you that somebody would defend themselves after you try to drown and kidnap them? You have a history of attacking people, why the hell should I trust you?”

“I just wanted you to love me too Goldy!" She whimpers.

“Love you too? I’ve already told you, I hate you. I’m only hanging out with you so that I don’t wake up some day chained to a wall in your basement!”

She looks up at you, trying out her best puppy dog look. “But Goldy, you know I’d never do that... what makes you think I would do that?”

“I have plenty of reasons to think you would do something like that. You’ve already done way too many insane things, Lyra”

She squints her eyes at you. You’re just saying that. I’ve never done anything crazy!”

You cross your arms across your chest. “Really now? So then... whatever happened to Kris?”

At the mention of Kris’s name, Lyra glares at you. “I thought I told you not to talk about her anymore”

“You think I don’t remember? The last time I... mentioned her, you carved your name into my back and sent me to the hospital. I think it’s sort of obvious that you’re hiding something.”

Lyra doesn’t respond, instead choosing to glare at you silently. You run over to her and grab her shoulders, shaking them. “Tell me what you did to her, dammit!”

She continues to glare, but decides to respond. “I didn’t do anything to her. She did everything on her own free will.”

You slap her, hard. “What did you do?”

You’re tired of her beating around the bush. And with that last comment... now you’re even more suspicious.

“Nothing! I told you, nothing!” she yelps.

“You’re lying, why do you have such a problem with her? I know you did something to her. You wouldn’t be acting so defensive otherwise.”

“Why do I have such a problem with her? Because it’s obvious that you love her more than me, and I want you to love me the most!"She says with an odd amount of happiness. She attempts to hug you and you get out of her way, letting her fall forward.

“Lyra, I love everything more than you. I hate you. Now tell me what happened to her!" The last sentence echos on the walls as Lyra shoots you one more glare.

“Fine. I’ll tell you. It was about three years ago, and I saw you, and I fell in love with you at first sight. The end." She mutteres. It unnerves you quite a bit, since you had only met Lyra earlier this year, but that was besides the point. She isn’t answering your question.

“That’s not what I asked. Get to the part about Kris.”

Lyra pouts, but continuse. “Anyways, I saw you with her and I knew I had to get her out of the way." You’re overcome with dread at that part. Knowing Lyra, getting someone out of the way involves strapping them to a tree and leaving them to die, but you let her continue on.

“So, I found out where that ‘Kris’ girl lived, and learned her families schedules... and one night when I knew only she was home, I introduced myself to her.”

“And?" you ask, afraid of what ‘introducing’ meant.

“And I told her she needed to stay away from you, or there would be trouble. She didn’t believe me, so I had to make her...”

Lyra pauses for a moment, and digs through her pockets. Much to your horror, she produces a bracelet- one much like the one she... ‘acquired’ after attacking Whitney.

However, this bracelet is blue. The same color blue, you realize, as Kris’s hair. She shows it to you. “See? I had to prove to her that I wasn’t to be messed with.”

You grab her shoulders and toss her against the wall. “Are you trying to tell me you- that Kris is-" you have trouble asking her if she had murdered Kris. Luckily, after recovering from being tossed at the wall, she has an answer.

“Kris is still alive, chill out. But she doesn’t live here anymore. Nowhere near here. No, after I was through with her... last I heard, she changed her hair, dyed it, changed her clothes, her name... everything, and moved to some other region, quite a ways away from here. I’ve even heard she started a whole new pokemon journey even though your first one with her had just ended. And then... when I found out you would be facing the gym leaders again? I changed my hair to be just like hers... and told you I was going to come with you. And now, now I’m Kris. She’s somewhere else, gone.”

you aren’t entirely sure how to feel now. For one, you know that Kris is alive. However, Lyra is the reason that she’s gone in the first place.

You’re tempted to murder her, and yet you know that she’s your only way out of this... place.

You are, for the most part, just relieved that Kris is still alive somewhere. Maybe Lyra does take jealousy to a new level, but she doesn’t seem to have murdered anyone yet. Besides, you have no clue how to get out of this place, and you need Lyra on your good side to get out of wherever she has taken you. And... maybe you were a bit hard on her. She’s normal for a decent percentage of the time, right?

You walk up to her and hug her. “Fine, you know what, I’m just glad she’s alive. Let’s get out of here, okay?" you suggest. She smiles at you, and hugs you back.

“I’m so glad you love me again Ethan!”

“I- wait, what, I just- just get me out of here Lyra!" you panic, realizing that it’s obvious that Lyra would take forgiveness and turn it in to you loving her. She pushes you to the ground.

“Lyra, what are you-” she stops you. “I don’t-”

“Ethan! don’t worry, I forgive you for being so mean earlier, now I understand that you really do love me!”

You really wish you had just chosen to murder her right about now. You could have died in this cave, stranded, or done what you did. Now you get to be subjected to whatever Lyra has in mind.

You decide to lie perfectly still. You stare up at your crazy friend, mortified. Maybe if you don’t move, she’ll forget you’re there.

...nope, she definitely still knows you’re there.

“Gooooold, why are you being so quiet?"She asks. You decide to stay quiet. She looks at you, confused, but then turns away and giggles, obviously finding something funny.

She turns back to you, and pounces on top of you. God dammit, not this again, you think to yourself. Why can’t you get raped by someone who doesn’t probably have herpes and doesn’t murder people?

You think to yourself for a moment. This wasn’t so bad the last time, was it? Lyra may be psychotic but she isn’t that bad looking, right?

And if you play along you alteast won’t be pinned to the floor again.

“I love you Gold. you love me too, right Goldy? Tell me you love me too.” Lyra says.

Well, she doesn’t have any knives out yet, right? “I love you too, Lyra.”

With that she sticks her mouth on to yours, trying to stick her tongue between your lips. You let her, and distract yourself with attempting to get her shirt off of her. This isn’t exactly easy when she’s wearing suspenders, so she breaks off from you and stands up, allowing her to strip more easily. She crawls back on top of you, and you run your hands down the middle of her back as she grinds in to you. Really, once you’ve gotten past the fact that she does have a bit of a crazy side... she’s not that bad.

Apparently your body agrees with you too, as you soon feel yourself growing hard against her. Any other day you’d be repulsed, but right now it feels... pretty good.

Lyra can tell that it does too, because before long she’s at your waist, removing your pants. Before you know it, she has them off, and she’s kissing you again as she slides herself on to you. You roll over so that you’re on top, thrusting in to her, no longer caring that it’s Lyra. After a while you speed up your pace, moaning into her mouth, as she screams out your name- Gold, not Ethan, surprisingingly.

You feel like you’re near climax, and it sounds like she is too, when she suddenly stops you.

“Gold, want to turn it up a notch?" She says, smiling wryly.

You consider it for a second. Lyra doesn’t like to be disagreed with, but... maybe if you choose your words carefully... besides, this is going too well.

“No... Lyra, this is... perfect how it is" you tell her.

To your surprise, all she does is... smile at you. “Alright then, Goldy”

You continue pushing in to her, and she begins moaning again. You break off your kiss with her for a second, realizing that you’re still wearing your shirt, and remove it. Rubbing your now bare chest into her breasts, you kiss her harder, legitimately enjoying the experience despite the fact that the scars she gave you the last time something like this happened were showing. But, that was the past, and you begin to realize that... perhaps having a girl this obsessed with you wasn’t a bad thing. If, of course, you kept her happy, and if it meant this, then that was fine with you. For a second your mind flirts with the possibility that she had slipped something in your milkshake to make you want this, but you truly don’t care.

You realize that you can’t go much longer, and neither can Lyra. As she moans and grinds herself in to you, you lose any restraint you had and orgasm inside of her. She screams your name one more time as you continue kissing her, and soon you’ve fallen asleep next to her, not even aware or caring that you have no clue where you are.

It certainly wasn’t what you expected for the day, but for once, an encounter with Lyra didn’t end up with somebody at the hospital or in the police station.

So, for that you can be happy.

ALTERNATE ENDING

You consider it for a second. What’s the worst that could happen if you let her ‘turn it up a notch’?

You kiss Lyra once more. “Sure, why not" you tell her.

Lyra rolls the two of you over so that she is on top. She moans into your mouth one more time, and crawls off of you. She reaches into the pockets of her discarded pants, and pulls something... silver out? Whatever, she wouldn’t pull anything crazy right now...

“Close your eyes" she tells you, “I have a surprise”

You do as she tells you, and groan as you feel her warm body mount yours once more. She gives you another deep kiss which you return with ardor, but breaks it off quickly. Soon you feel something... warm, drip on to your chest as she rocks back and forth on top of you. You ignore it the first drip, assuming it was condensation from the ceiling of the cave. You hear Lyra moan... or hiss? Whatever, that doesn’t matter. You put your hands on her hips, trying to ignore any doubts you have as you rock her back and forth. But then... more dripping? And it’s so warm... too warm

You open your eyes, and see Lyra cutting a gash into her hand, with blood dripping down the blade and down the handle, to drip onto your bare chest.

“Lyra! Stop it, what are you... stop doing that!” You shout frantically.

“Gold, I told you... no peeking!" She giggles, unphased. “But... I suppose, this is enough”

She turns the blade around in her hand, so that her cut grips the handle, and smothers it in her blood. You open your mouth to ask her what she’s doing, but she shushes you, pressing her uninjured hand to you mouth.

“You’re inside me, I want to be able to be inside you, Goldy" She coos. Despite your muffled protest, she reaches behind herself. You suddenly feel the sticky, wet handle probing your ass as she tries to work it in. You’re mortified at this point, squirming from the discomfort as she finally slips it in. As much as you want to escape right now, you’re afraid of what might happen if you make a sudden move.

She finally takes her hand from your mouth. “Lyra, what the hell, get that thing out of me!" You scream.

“No, Goldy, I can’t! It’s supposed to be special!” she says as she continues to rock back and forth on you. You’re at a loss to explain how you’re still hard, but atleast, judging by the sounds she’s making, she’s almost done.

Soon you feel her pulsating around as she moans, and as she removes herself from you, she removes the knife too. Luckily you’re able to escape to the farthest corner of the cave now, as she soon falls asleep.

You don’t believe you’ll be sleeping anytime soon.

PART SIX

Well, maybe it isn't so bad, eh? Being you, you mean. Or, being you, while being around HER. But hey, everyone has redeeming qualities. And Lyra's just happens to be wild, awesome sex. Though, you can't seem to decide whether or not this outweighs the fact that she's psychotic, but you've decided you can deal with it for now, at least in the short term.

Despite having fallen asleep with Lyra last night in "wherever the fuck that cave was", you find yourself washed up on a beach, dressed in your soaking wet clothes. Your bag, with all your pokeballs and items, is laying next to you, so you pick is up and swing it on your back. You find it strange that Lyra kicked you out of the one place she could probably keep you forever. Your mind wanders to the possibility of her enjoying "the thrill of the hunt", and that keeping you in one place was no fun. You shake the thoughts from your head, because fuck it.

You walk up from the beach onto the pavement, and realize you're now on the shores of Olivine City once again.

You decide it's best to take a short trip to the doctor's. Couldn't hurt, right? You stroll through town, and despite your damp clothes, nobody else notices anything unusual about you. Good. So Lyra didn't carve her initials into your forehead like you figured she would. You reach the hospital, situated right next to the Pokemon Center, and walk inside.

You feel fine, but you wanna get yourself checked out, just to be sure. Because fuck yeah, free healthcare.

"Hello?"

A nurse, not unlike the resident Nurse Joys, looks up from her desk. Instead of greeting you, she merely acknowledges your presence with a grunt.

"Uhm, yeah. Here to get an appointment for a check-up?"

The nurse, rather than say something helpful, simply looks you up and down and remarks, "You look fine to me. Goodbye." And looks down at her desk again. Annoyed, you try again.

"Uh, I think I may have caught something is all... ya know?"

The nurse only mumbles, clearly annoyed. "We don't treat the cold here, little boy. Ask mommy for some NyQuil and a tissue."

"Well, I was thinking more like... uh... you know. Herpes or something." This catches the woman's attention, and she stares at you wide eyed. She shakes her head a few time, and begins filling out paperwork.

"Please go wait in the lounge, sir. I'll get you checked in right away..." You comply, and turn to go find a chair. But from across the street, you see... Oh no.

That fucking Marill again.

Thinking fast, you clench your chest, and do your best impression of your grandpa at your seventh birthday party. Poor, poor grandpa. Good thing it was burned so deeply into your mind, so that you could replicate it now!

"Hunnngghhhhhh...." You collapse to the floor and start convulsing, as if you couldn't breathe. The nurse takes notice, and suddenly an entourage of nurses, doctors, and Chansey surround you. You release unintelligible babble, hoping it helps your facade, when you are stuck with a syringe. Soon enough, you pass out.

---------------------

You wake up some time later in a hospital bed, a disgruntled doctor hanging over you. He stares, giving an "Mmmhm." as you wake up. "You weren't in cardiac arrest, were you, son?"

"Uh..."

"This is no laughing matter. We wasted precious hospital resources on your little stunt. Why, if you didn't have someone coming to pick you up we wouldn't even let you LEAVE until the police got here."

"S-someone's coming to pick me up?"

"Yes, young man. She'll be here to pick you up shortly."

'She'. Oh Shiiiittttttt. You hear hear footsteps. "Ah, that must be her now. You lucked out, troublemaker."

You watch in terror as the figure steps through the door. You grip your bed covers like a frightened child, and... A brunette girl in a bright blue blouse comes though the door. "Jasmine?"

"Hi there! You must be Gold? The other gym leaders have told me a lot about you. When I heard you were in town, I just knew I had to battle you! I've been looking for you since yesterday, weird I find you here, faking cardiac arrest. But hey, forget that stuff. I can't wait another minute, we're getting to the Gym right this instant."

A battle was just the thing to take your mind off of your psychotic stalker. "Hell yeah. Let's go!" Jasmine agrees, and as soon as you change out of your gown and grab up your stuff you're out the door.

After a short interlude of walking, you both win up at Olivine City Gym. You enter, and you are greeted by a massive, dirt floor arena, dotted by artificial rocks. Suddenly, for the first time in a long while, you feel at home again. You turn, and See that Jasmine has skipped happily to the other side of the field, pokeballs in hand.

"So, a Two-on-Two good with you?"

"Yeah, sure."

She smiles. "Good!" Cheery as ever, she releases her first pokeball into the air, and from it erupts a small burst of white light. The light slowly fades, revealing the iron-orb cyclops, Magnemite. It emits a low, droning humm in place of a battle cry, and like the robot it resembles, it stares emotionless at you.

Now it's time to send out your Pokemon.

Electric types ain't got shit on ground types, so you bring out the only one you've got.

"Go, Quagsire!"

You toss your ball into the field, and from it also coems a white light. This one reveals a dopey, blue pokemon. "Quaaagg..." It blurts slowly, keeping it's derpy-eyes fixated on Magnemite. Jasmine giggles.

"Aw, it's so cute! Too bad I'm gonna have to knock it out! Magnemite, use Sonic Boom!" "Maaaaagggg...."

The small electric type begins shaking violently, static electricity erupts from its sides. Suddenly, it releases a burst of energy in a massive vibration, which sweeps through the air at blistering speeds, hitting your Quagsire. The attack connects, but does little damage, prompting you to smile.

"Alright Qaugsire, let's show her what she's dealing with-"

Feeling like setting your troll level to maximum, you let out a surprise command. "-Now Quagsire, use Yawn!" Jasmine lets out a surprised look, but nonetheless, your dopey pokemon lets out a huge, deep Yawn, which emanates through gym. Magnemite is hit, but ignores it at first. After all, it is.. a ... machi..ne...righhht...? Magnemite suddenly feels the urge to go on temporary shutdown, and starts to falter.

"Uh!? Oh no! Magnemite, use another Sonicboom!"

Magnemite attempts to draw in energy for an attack, but can't... It instead falls to the ground, drained of any will to fight. Seeing his opponent deep in sleep, your Quagsire hobbles over to the unconscious orb, and examines it for a moment, before punting it like a soccer ball across the field to Jasmime. Seeing her Pokemon was unable to battle, Jasmine begrudgingly returns it to it's Pokeball. she frowns, but the frown soon disappears as she pulls a second pokeball out, and tosses it.

From this ball erupts a massive burst of white light, which illuminates the entire field, before slowly settling into the shape of a massive snake. It fades, to reveal a terrifying, gigantic metal wurm. The beast, roars at you and Quagisre, almost knocking you down. Quagsire is unphased, and only releases a "...Quag?" in response. Which move do you use now?

You shrug. "Pff, so it's a big metal snake. Quagsire, use Amnesia!" Quagsire looks at you quizzically, before movign it's hands up to it's head, forcing out useless information and shutting down unused nerves to raise its tolerance to pain. Jasmine doesn't quite understand your move choice, but figures it works to her advantage.

"Steelix, use Crunch!" Steelix complies, and dives down upon your Pokemon with it's jaws open. It snatches Qaugsire, and chomps down-- only to find that it cannot. Shocked that for once in its life its jaws cannot break or sever something, Steelix lets go of Quagsire, who's body proved to rubbery to break through. Qaugsire's visage is a mixture of confusion and amusement.

You grin as wide as possible. "Alright Quagsire, Hit that thing with an Ice Punch!" Quagisre hums to himself, as blue energy begins to collect around his right flipper. He pulls back his right arm, and, with amazing speed, charges Steelix. He strikes, delivering his icy blow.

Steelix roars as the surprising force almost knocks him down. A patch of ice an frost forms where he was hit, and his entire armored body is chilled. Jasmine is quick to deal a new order, however. "Steelix, IRON TAIL!" As she says this Steelix recovers it's stance, and suddenly the lower 1/4 of its body glows in a harsh, white light. Before Quagisre can react (not surprisingly) Steelix brings the powerful attack down on him. The massive tail strikes, smashing into the pokemon and sending him hurtling into the wall.

"Quagsire!" You yell, but as the dust clears, Quagsire is seen clearly unconscious. Unable to battle further, you return him. You are now stuck with two choices, and one pissed off Steelix.

Okay, now it's motherfucking go-time. You toss your second and final Pokeball. "GO, Typhlosion!"

From the ball comes none-other than your first Pokemon, a black and yellow badger. "TYYYYY!" Its back flares up in a burst of flame, and flexes it's arms and jaws in a display of strength. Before Jasmine or Steelix can react, you order your first move:

"Alright Typhlosion, let's win us a Gym Battle. USE ERUPTION!"

Typhlosion begins building up fire energy, the flames of its back becoming larger and larger. Steelix roars, attempting to intimidate the Fire-type, but to no avail. Typhlosion rears back, and then lets loose a powerful stream of fire, smashing directly into Steelix. Encompassed by fire, the metal snake roars in pain, it's insides being coked alive inside their steel shell. Steelix falls to the ground, out of the beam, its skin red hot. Jasmine, worried about permanent damage that could come to poor Steelix, returns him.

"Wow, that was an intense battle! You and your Pokemon did great!" She says, walking over to you. She reaches in her dress pocket, and fumbles around in them for a bit, before a frown comes to her face. "Oh no, I don't have a badge on me! Don't worry, I'll go get one from the backroom." And with that she leaves, and you nod while petting your Typhlosion.

"Great job, boy. With moves like that, we'll win the league in no time." You tell him, and he purrs (or does that closest thing he can) before you return him to his ball. Now to sit and wait for Jasmine. So you wait.

And wait.

And wait. Damn, she's taking a while.

You decide to go to the backroom and check up on Jasmine. You go through the halls of the gym's interior not sure where to go. "Jasmine? Jaaaasssmine?" You start calling, but get no response. You see a room marked "Badge Storage" up ahead. She must be in there, then. You go up to the door and open them, but it's pitch black inside. As you step in, you her a splash. There must be a leak in here or something, then. you feel up the walls for a light switch, and find one. You flip it on...

...And nearly soil yourself. What you were stepping in wasn't water. It was blood. Looking across the floor, you see the corpse of the young gym leader, eyes open wide in fear, throat slashed, a badge laying next to her. You quiver, chills running up and down your spine. The sight of the pretty young girl lying in her own blood makes you want to hurl, but as you look up the message on the wall is what does it for you:

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE, GOOLLDYY?"

Written in blood. You are too fixated on this to notice the warm, wet spot forming in the front of your pants.

Your instincts take charge, and you instantly turn on your heel and start running. The hallways seem almost longer now as you make your way out into the stadium area, which has now been deprived of light as well. You run to the door, and try to open it, but it won't budge. Try as you might, it stays solid.

"Oh, COME ON, you piece of shit! Please, please, op-"

"Where do you think you're going, Gold?"

You turn, and see just who you expected to see. "L-lyra!"

Unlike most times when she sees you, your stalker is noticeably upset. Her hands are bloodstained, and in her pocket you can clearly see the bloodstained handle of a knife.

"Why did you come here Gold? Huh? To hang out with that little fucking TRAMP that runs this gym? You didn't bring me along, did you? Aren't we traveling partners? Don't we go everywhere together, Ethan?" She barrages you with questions, practically dripping with almost as much insanity as virgin blood. She approaches you, hands trembling.

"Aw, Heeeellll no!"

You half-yell it loudly, and start jumping around like the most nig-nogging monkey-fuck you can. Lyra stares at you half-bemused, half-annoyed, as you leap around and run past her. You start looking for a back exit, sprinting through the maze of hallways. You eventually come a a T-junction... and in the middle is an emergency exit! And if there's ever been a need for that!

You run straight for it... when Lyra steps calmly from another hallway, and raises her bloodstained knife to you. You avoid being skewered, you come to a dead stop only inches from the blade. She looks angrier than you've seen her, and start walking towards you.

"Why are you runnnning, Ethan? HUH? WHY? WHERE DID YOU THINK YOU COULD GO!?" She starts thrusting out her arm, stopping short only fractions of an inch from your neck and chest. You try to turn to run, but you trip over your heel and fall backwards. On the ground you look up to see Lyra looming over you.

"Well, ETHAN. I'm waiting for an ANSWER."

Unsure of what you do, you start coughing for air, and clenching at your chest. Hey, it worked earlier, and Lyra isn't a doctor. Lyra is looking at you skeptically. Obviously she doesn't appreciate the works of a true False Cardiac Arrest artist. You manage to eke out a very faint sentence:

"Ehh--Akk...hhhhaaaaaarrtttt aaatttccccaaakkk"

And then you start the fake convulsing. Bitches love the fake convulsing. You roll your eyes into the back of your head, and start panting. Lyra drops her knife to the ground and grabs you by the arms.

"Oh, Goldy, you poor thing! I'll get you an ambulance right away!"

'Hook. Line. And Sinker.' You think to yourself

She stays at your side, and starts dialing her Poketch, while you start foaming at the mouth.

Seeing an opportunity, you stop faking death for a moment, and sit up, snatching the Poketch out of Lyra's hands before she can finish dialing the Olivine City Emergency Hotline, which so happens to be 20-characters long. She looks at you and gasps, and is about to speak before you put your finger to her lips.

"Shh, shh, don't worry about that Lyra, I'm fine, it's just that..."

She looks at you now, full of confusion.

"...You make my heart stop whenever I see that cute face of yours."

Lyra stays still for a second, and you're not sure that your evil plan has worked yet. Then her mouth bursts into a huge smile, and you'd swear it was bigger than her actual face.

"Oohh, Goldy~" She squeals, and embraces you tightly. It is now you are short on breath, being reminded of her Ursaring-like grip on everything. "You're sooooo romantic..." At this moment she loosens the hug, allowing you to breathe, only to force you back down to the ground. She puts one hand behind your head, and locks you in and unbreakable kiss. Once again, you can taste her sweet, yet sour saliva drip into your mouth. It's not as bad as the first time, of course. Part of you likes this, you know. That half being mostly your lower half, which has long since decided that Lyra is the greatest thing to ever happen to you. Still, you remember the reason you were running in the first place, and now you ware at an impasse, even as she kisses you deeper, her tongue invading and exploring your mouth.

Hell, why not. Jasmine's corpse way in the back of your mind, you begin again to feel Lyra up. She responds positively to this, and begins to unbutton her suspenders. Aw yeah, that's what we're talking about. You forcefully kiss her back now, your tongue starts mingling with hers in her mouth. You open you eyes slightly, and look into hers, still closed. She was kind of cute for a psychopathic, stalker/murderer. Still, you know that you're going to have to break this cycle fast, or else every girl in Johto save for her is going to wind up dead. But that can wait.

Lyra strips herself down to her underwear, and gets off of you to allow you to get your pants off. You quickly pull them down, underpants and all, and before you can do anything else Lyra is once again on top of you. She begins grinding her panties into your bare crotch, rubbing your chest through your shirt with her hands. Normally you would find this quite sensual, but this is when you realize again: her hands are covered in blood. Blood which is now smeared over your shirt. Lyra notices too, and promptly begins to take off your shirt. Feelings about this are very mixed but damn are your hormones convincing. You're willing to let her continue, and she does, kissing you and grinding. You reach your hands up around her back, up to her bra straps, and grip them. You realize you don't know how those work, when Lyra stops you. She breaks away, leaving you confused.

"Gooollldddyyy...." She says, in that sweet, innocent, non-murderous tone.

"Yeah?" You say, slightly irritated she had stopped, slightly afraid of what she's planning now.

"I know you wanna do this with me... I know you do..." You nod quickly in agreement. Of course you did. Especially when the other option was 'mutilation'.

"But we're gonna get in trouble..." She says, confusing you. Before she can say anything, she finishes: "I gotta 'clean up' a little... and we'll finish later."

Before you can do anything else, she rears back her head, and brings her forehead full force into your face, knocking you out cold.

----------------------------------

When you wake up, you open your eyes to see the white tiled ceiling of...

A fucking hospital. AGAIN.

"Oh good, he's waking up!" You hear a familiar voice beside you, and you turn. It's the rude nurse from earlier! Well you were safe. To tired and weak to say anything first, she continues, grabbing your arm.

"Young man, I can't imagine the ordeal you've gone through. What must be going through your head right now, it must be terrible."

'You can say that again..'

"But I just wanted to tell you: You're a hero!"

"A wha!?" You ask, stunned.

"It's alright, it's alright, we know. Your girlfriend told use everything. How the killer got to Jasmine first. And then how you moved to protect your friend, told her to run while there was still time, while you fought the killer."

You stare wide-eyed at the nurse, unsure of what to say.

"Incase you don't remember, he stabbed you twice in the left arm, once in the left leg, and then he punched you in the face, knocking you out and breaking your nose... you're VERY lucky he didn't finish you off. But while you held him off, you girlfriend got a chance to call the police, and we got there in time. They're out looking for the killer now."

You want to say something, but she gets up to walk to the door. "Oh, and your friend is here to see you, darling."

You sigh, knowing who it is. As the nurse walks out, none other than that white-hatted, brunette of a monster walk in. As she does, she attains the speed of a Scyther and quickly shoves a finger up her nose, whips it out, and smears it over the skirt of the nurse as she walks past. Stupid bitch was never given HER permission to talk to Gold.

She walks over to your bedside, and sits down in the chair. You have no words, but she allows herself to speak first.

"Gee, Goldy. We barely got out of that one, huh?"

"You killed a person. And then you headbutted me in the face, breaking my nose-"

"You broke mine, too! Remember?"

"Yeah, but I didn't stab you, did I?

She giggles. "Well, I had to make it look convincing, didn't I? Don't worry, I held your hand all the way here while we were in the ambulance!"

You sigh again. Fuck it. It just can't be helped.

"Oh, but I managed to snag you something before we were picked up by the policemen!" She pulls from her suspenders a small object wrapped in a white handkerchief. You look at it briefly, before she gets up. "Doctors said you'll be okay in a few days." She points her finger at you and winks. "So you stay in bed and get your rest, Goooooldy!"

She then playfully skips out of your room, waving to you as she leaves.

With nothing else to do, you unwrap the handkerchief. Inside you find a post-itnote attached to a small metal object. Upon examination, the object is the Olivine City gym badge, it's corners stained with red. You are surprised, but decide to read the note, which reads, quite simply:

'Love Lyra'.

PART SEVEN

It’s late at night, and you’re fast asleep, lucky to have found a Pokemon Center with an open room for the night. Sleeping in an actual bed, in an actual building, certainly beat sleeping in a sleeping bag, especially when that sleeping bag was in the middle of a forest, and in close proximity to your psychotic friend, Lyra.

You’re dreaming of your next gym match, when you suddenly wake up. You open your eyes slowly, still tired, and see that the room is dark. You look around, wondering why you’ve woken up when it’s still so early in the morning. As you open your eyes fully, you see a dark figure looming over you. Your still-sleepy brain begins switching to panic mode, when suddenly-

“GOLD! You’re AWAKE!” A familiarly effervescent voice chirps at you.

“Ack! I- ah- what are you- get OFF of- Lyra, what the- why did you wake me up?!” You stutter, as though you were crazier than she. But, in your defense, itis some ungodly hour of the morning and you’ve just woken up to something staring at you from above.

“Why did I wake you up? Because it’s morning, we should go set off to the next gym now!”

You rub your still tired eyes. “How can you possibly not be tired? And what time is it anyways?”

“Oh me? I’ve been awake for a while, I was watching you sleep for the past hour or so! And what do you mean what time is it? It’s adventuring time!”

That wasn’t exactly a good answer for the time. Still, it couldn’t be any later than 4 AM. You would really love to go back to sleep, but you aren’t sure you’d be allowed to sleep.

"Fine, let’s go I guess.” you mumble.

She jumps off of your bed, dragging you along with her. “Come on, let’s hurry!” She squeals. You try your hardest to not fall asleep while getting dressed, as Lyra checks her backpack, pokeballs, and herself in a mirror what seems like twenty times.

“Alright, I’m ready, let’s-” you’re caught off guard as Lyra bounds out of the door. Rushing after her so as to not be left behind, you catch up to her, but also find a disgruntled looking Nurse Joy giving the two of you a disapproving look in the hallway.

“It’s three AM! You kids should be in bed, it’s way past your bedtime, both you and your pokemon need rest!” She scolds, her frazzled pink hair adding to her angry demeanor.

“Yeah, try telling her that.” You say, gesturing at Lyra. The Joy simply sighs, and walks off, holding her head in her hands.

Lyra sneers at the woman. “What right does SHE have to tell us what to do? I should really-”

Not wanting to deal with Lyra doing anything crazy this early in the day, you grab her arm, cutting her off midsentence, and drag her with you until you’re outside.

It’s still dark outside, and you would like to get to sleep. However, Lyra’s already excited to go.

“Well, we could take the road, but we’ve slept so long we might as well just take a shortcut through the National Park. Which way should we go?” She asks you

”Let’s just take the regular route” you tell her. You don’t feel like wandering a forest with Lyra as your tour guide, not at 3 in the morning. You set off down the road, with Lyra all but dancing circles around you as you trudge along, exhausted. This is going to be a very, very long road.

About halfway to Ecruteak, Lyra becomes bored with dancing around. She incessantly tries to talk to you, and you’re barely concious enough to think as it is. She prattles on about how boring it is walking, and how you should have taken the shortcut, and how she thinks that all Nurse Joys and Officer Jennies are out to get her, and how she thinks that if she put her pigtails in front of her mouth she would look like she has a mustache, and various other things that you don’t care to know or truly never wanted to hear.

“Hey, Lyra, how about you don’t say anything unless something really important happens?” You tell her. She pouts, and decides to give you the silent treatment. Well, that worked out nicely.

...for a while anyways. Soon you hear her exclaim “Goldy! Look where we are!” and look up to see...

The Burned Tower?

It figures that she would find that interesting.

“Let's go check it out one last time!" She giggles.

“Oh hell no” You tell her. It takes a special kind of crazy to think that that would be a good place to reminisce.

Lyra stomps her foot. “Come on, I want to go see it!”

You sigh, and figure that this can’t take too long. “Fine” you mutter to her. She immediately grabs your hand, giggly again, and leads you to the towers.

And... upon closer inspection, there’s some woman at the tower. It’s a bit odd that someone would be there at this hour sightseeing, but maybe she lives in Ecruteak and couldn’t sleep. Who knows. All you could tell was that Lyra had also noticed her, and was giving her a sour look.

“Pfft, Gold, look at that stupid girl standing there all alone.” She sneers.

You think quickly, knowing that Lyra’s prone to going overboard on jealousy. “She's nowhere near as attractive as you, Lyra..." you say, as you brush hair from her eyes.

Lyra squeals in delight. “Oh Goldy, you’re so cute!” She tackles you with a hug, and you breathe a sigh of relief. “Come on, let’s keep going, Mahogany Town won’t wait for us!”

You don’t quite understand where an entire town would be going at this hour, but on the bright side, you aren’t pinned down in a burned building again.

Before too long, although it seems like forever due to the fact that Lyra has taken up non-stop chatting again, you’re at the lake by Mount Mortar.

“Looks like we have to surf across here!” She says, sending out her Marill. You decide that she can figure out how to float across on a mouse if she wants to, and look for Quagsire’s pokeball. Calling him out into the water, you climb onto his back and tell him to take you to the other shore.

You get there much faster on Quagsire than Lyra does on Marill. While you wait for her to reappear, you see something moving in the bushes. It’s orange, with two tails... a pokemon? If it is, you’ve never seen it before. You take out your pokedex, which tells you that it is, in fact, a pokemon- Buizel!

You’ve never seen one of those before. It runs off, but you still want to catch it. Of course, Lyra isn’t here yet... but she may not be for a while.

Of course, this won’t take long, will it?

You run after the orange weasel, hoping to corner it before it gets away for good. It certainly is good at running away... and getting the people who decide to chase it lost in the woods.

Before long you have no clue where the buizel has gone, or, more importantly, where you are.

Lyra probably won’t be happy to find you missing. You try to search your way back to the shore, maybe you can get back before she knows you’re gone!

...or, maybe not. Each of these trees looks the same, and you can’t tell heads or tails of them, especially not when the sun has only just risen.

You slump down against a tree. Lyra will find you eventually, it’s near impossible to get away from her for long. You just hope she doesn’t bite your head off when she does.

Before long, you hear footsteps, and a familiar voice calling your name. You look around for where she is, and eventually run in to her.

Just as you expected, she doesn’t look too happy.

“Gold! I’ve been worried about you, why did you wander off like that?” She shouts in a wavering tone.

It... couldn’t hurt to be honest, right?

"I saw this really cool pokemon, and wanted to catch it!” You answer her, hoping she accepts it.

Lyra steps closer to you. “But... y-you... left me there. You left me there, E-Gold, Gold. Why did you leave me... for a pokemon?”

She puts her hands on your shoulders, tightly, digging her nails in. Obviously, honesty is not the best policy.

“Was it.. was it- r-really a pokemon... G-Gold? Are you... you lying to me? Don’t lie to me Gold, it was that woman from the Burned Tower, wasn’t it? Tell me.”

You can hear her teeth chattering and her arms shaking. This wouldn’t be so alarming if it was actually cold outside.

You try to think of something to say, but it seems that your brain defaults to Rick Astley when set into panic mode.

“"Never gonna give you up!" You say weakly.

You may not be out of the woods yet, but atleast you know how to bemuse people into submission. Her grip on your shoulder loosens, and her teeth stop chattering, most likely because she’s too busy trying to comprehend your meaning to be angry at you. “...what is- I don’t even-” She begins to say.

Seizing your opportunity, you cut her off. “I meant that I would never give you up for someone else, you know that! It really was a pokemon!”

You pull out your pokedex and show her Buizel’s entry, further proving your point. “See? That’s the pokemon I saw. I swear.” you tell her. She takes her hands off of your shoulders, and shakes herself as though she were imitating a wet dog.

“Fine, then, I just- a girl’s got to be careful, you know?” She says in an attempt to justify herself. You... quite honestly don’t know what she means, but that’s fine. “Let’s just keep going, we’re close to the national park now I think, we can take the shortcut I mentioned before!” She continues.

Well, that’s fine with you. Atleast you won’t be crossing any more rivers.

After not too long, Lyra is back to her cheery self, bounding along in front of you. You trail along behind her, when suddenly, you feel something sticky on you. All over you, in fact. Looking up, you see that you’ve walked right in to a massive Spinarak web. You attempt to keep on walking, but end up stuck more than before. Lyra doesn’t notice that you’re stuck. You could always ask her to help you out, but she might go crazy and decide to murder all spinarak. It may be better to just try and get out of there yourself...


No, you shouldn’t make Lyra think you don’t trust her. You call out for her, and she comes running up to you in no time.

“Goooold, what are you doing in that web?” she asks, attempting to pull it off of you.

“What does it look like? I walked in to it and got stuck, can you help me out of here?” You wonder what other possible reason you could have for being in a spinarak web. She giggles at you, but alteast she’s helping you get out of it now.

You’re finally free of the web, when the two of you hear somebody laugh in the background.

Upon closer inspection, you see that it’s some young kid, wearing shorts, with a rattata on his shoulder. “Wow,” he snorts, “I didn’t know there were trainers stupid enough to actually get caught in a web that bad!”

You’re annoyed with the kid, and Lyra moreso. She sneers at him. “Hey, kid, what do you think you’re doing laughing at my Goldy?”

He finds this funny. “Ha, so, Goooooldy, you have to have a girl fight your battles for you?”

Before you can even wonder if this kid knows how stupid he’s being, Lyra is after him. She grabs him and slams him against a tree. “Listen, kid... I’ll show you to make fun of my Goldy in front of me!” She shouts, her voice back to wavering and stuttering. You can see her grasping at her pocket for... something. A small, brown rectangle. She presses a switch, and a blade pops out. She holds the pocketknife up to the young kids face.

You know it would be wrong to let Lyra attack a young kid like this, but then again... do you really want to interfere?

Well... there’s no saving the kid now. You decide to walk along and pretend you don’t care. Maybe Lyra will catch on, and spare the kid.

As you walk you can hear the kid, screaming something about how his rattata was in the top percentage of all rattatas, and that she had better leave him alone or his rattata would save him. Slowly the voices begin to fade, and eventually you were entirely out of earshot. You sit down and flip open you pokegear, hoping to distract yourself with 4chan. You open the internet browser, but to no avail. The most interesting thread is some “choose-your-own-adventure” thing, and for some weird reason the conversation is almost entirely irritable bowel syndrome, suicide, and why every other poster is wrong in their choice. This is weirder than Lyra, you think to yourself, and close the pokegear, waiting for Lyra to appear.

Before too long you hear footsteps... rapid footsteps... running?

Lyra stops only long enough to grab your arm and pull you along.

“Lyra, what the- why are you- what happened to- why are we running Lyra?” You gasp between breaths.

“That stupid kid, his rattata- it got his pokegear and dialed the police station while I wasn’t looking- I guess he wasn’t joking about it. I had to get out of there, now run!” She shouts. Great, just great, now you have the police on your trail. You and Lyra finally find a place deep in the forest and take a rest.

“We should be safe here” Lyra sighs. Now that she’s still, you can see her more clearly. Her hair is frizzy, and she has splotches of red on her, as well as some open cuts, and what look like tooth marks from the rattata.

“Lyra,” you say once you’ve caught your breath, “Why do you have to go around attacking people like that?”

She frowns. “Well, he was laughing at you! And we can’t have that...” she trails off.

“I don’t care what they say about me. I have you. Isn’t that enough?” you ask her. At this point it’s best if she’s just not mad at you.

She rushes over to you and hugs you, crying, getting her blood on your clothes. “Oh Goldy, I’m sorry I attacked that kid, I’ve gotten us into so much trouble now!” She sobs. You honestly weren’t aware she could feel bad for anything she did.

“Come on, let’s just keep on walking, we need to get to Mahogany Town, right?” you say. She picks herself up, still sniffling, and the you continue on your path.

...for a while, anyways. Soon you hear sirens, and a motor. Great, just great, the police are here.

An Officer Jenny steps off of her police motorcycle. “Stop right there, you two!” she yells. “We’ve had reports of somebody attacking a youngster in the woods, and you, young ma’am... you look awfully similar to his description.”

Lyra’s eyes widen, and the Jenny narrows hers. “Well, what do you have to say for yourself?”

You feel like you should atleast try to help Lyra. Of course... how can you help her now?

There isn’t much you can say at this point... you stand there, dumbfounded, as the police officer grabs Lyra’s arms. Lyra realizes that you’re not going to help her, and begins acting as though she’s been possesed, screaming and thrashing in the Jenny’s hands.

This confuses you as much as it does the Jenny. She shouts at Lyra, asking her to calm down. As you stare bewilderedly at the scene in front of you, you wonder what motive Lyra could possibly have by attempting to act as insane as possible. Finally, the officer gives up on getting a response out of Lyra, and turns her attention to you.

“Young man, do you have any idea what’s gotten in to her?” She shouts, exasperated. “You... you wouldn’t know anything about what happened to the youngster, would you?”

Well this is good, now you’re in for questioning too. Maybe staying quiet wasn’t a good idea... but, maybe you can create an excuse now, right?

Then again, what excuse could you possibly make? “I have no clue what’s gotten in to her, Officer” you say.

She accepts your response, probably because she can’t tell what Lyra is up to either.

Lyra continue to thrash about, when suddenly, she stops, staring into a tree. “Look!” she shouts, pointing up into the branches.

You and the officer look to where Lyra’s pointing. “An Abra!” the officer shouts.

“That psychic type must have been controlling my mind, I’m so sorry officer! I would never attack another trainer like that!” Lyra cries, bursting into tears as the Abra teleports away.

“Oh, I’m so sorry young girl! I should have known better than to accuse a little girl of attacking somebody!” She says. “Keep an eye out though, there’s somebody crazy in these woods”

You watch in disbelief as Officer Jenny rides away. If the police around here are truly that stupid... and how in the world did Lyra manage to pull that off?

“Lyra, how did you... how did you do that? How did you know that an Abra would just... be there?” You ask her.
She snorts. “Well I’ve had to get used to thinking on my feet, since SOMEBODY didn’t want to help me out back there!”

“Well, it was your fault for attacking that kid.” You tell her.

She stops dead in her tracks. “But... but... I told you, I was... sorry. I have to protect you, Ethan.” She says coldly.

“Well, it’s true, what could I have possibly told that officer?” You retort, now more annoyed with her seeing as she was forgetting your name again. You continue walking on. Lyra grabs your shoulder.

“Ethan, are you- don’t- don’t ever leave me, Ethan,” she whispers.

“Look, just stop going after people, and stop calling me that, alright? I don’t know how many times we’ve been over this.” You shrug her hand off of your shoulder.

She grabs your wrist instead, squeezing it, hard. “Ethan, I have to- I have to be sure you’ll never leave me, Ethan.” she says, her stuttering voice growing dark. She pushes you against a tree. “Stay- stay right there.” she says between gritted teeth.

This... definitely wasn’t going to turn out well, not at all. You desperately want to get out of there, but... Lyra will just be more angry at you. Then again if you can get away fast enough...

Well, it was worth a shot trying to get away. You break into a run. Unfortunately, Lyra expected you to do that, and before you’ve barely gotten anywhere,  Lyra jumps on to you, tackling you to the ground and pinning you there.

“Ethan... why- don’t, don’t try to run, Ethan, you- you can’t ever leave me.” Her voice is wavering now more than ever, and she has tears in her eyes. “You have to be with me for- forever, Ethan. Why are you trying to run away?” She has one arm holding you down along with her entire body, and her fingernails are digging into your skin... deeply, breaking the skin.

“Lyra? Lyra, get off of me. Calm down, I’m not going to leave you- just- what are you doing, Lyra?" You feel something around your arms- grass? No... a vine. She begins wrapping it around the arm she has pinned down, and pulling you up, only to push you against a tree. She takes the vine around the trunk, trying to secure you there.

“Lyra! What are you... you can’t do this! Let me go!”

“But... but Ethan, you always- you always try to get away from me, and I can’t... can’t let you do that. I can’t let you run away from me, Ethan. I can’t let you do that.” she tells you shakily.

You have to convince her to let you out of here.

“You know, if you actually loved me, you wouldn’t do things like this to me” You tell her cooly. As you say this, you can feel the vine slackening in her hands.

“But- Ethan- I- Of course I love you, Ethan, that’s... that’s why I have to always be with you, forever, and- I- I- can’t just... let you leave me. You can never leave me. I have to keep you here. You can’t just leave me here.”

“Look, I’ve already told you. I’m not going to leave you.” It was true, after all, you would have to be insane yourself to think it was a good idea abandoning Lyra. She certainly wouldn’t take well to the idea. “And I’ve told you, my name is Gold. Stop calling me Ethan.”

“I... Ethan- Gold, I mean, I- but you tried to run from me, Gold, you tried to run away! And you were mad at me, mad at me- for attacking that kid, that kid who had the nerve to make fun of you! And you- and you left me, you walked right on like you didn’t... didn’t even care about me when I was trying to defend you against him. You... you’ve already tried to run before... what- what if- what if you try to run from me again? And then, then I’m alone- forever. Forever alone, E- Gold, Gold.” Tears fall from her eyes as she recites her psychosis-induced speech. “I love you- you- know that, right? Gold?” She finishes, tightening the vines once more between her tears, until they’re cutting into your clothes and your skin, with small thorns pricking you, drawing blood.

You aren’t sure how to get out of this now. Anything you tell her could be the wrong thing, and if she intends on tightening those vines any more...


”Look, whatever, just untie me, and we can go to Mahogany Town. Together. Okay?” You tell her. She looks at you, still crying.

“Are you sure... you won’t... leave me again, Gold?” She says between sniffles, still tightening the vines.

You wince at the vines and thorns, still cutting in to you. “Of course I won’t leave yo Lyra. I told you- I love you, you know that, right?” You tell her. Please Arceus, let her accept that answer, you think to yourself.

Her only response is letting go of the vine to hug you as best as she can. “Oh, Gold, I’m so sorry, I should know better, I- I know you love me!” She cries.

“Yeah, so.. just let me out of these, and then we can go on our way, okay? Mahogany town isn’t that far away. We can be there soon. Just let me out of these vines.” You plead.

Lyra tearfully obliges you, taking the same pocket knife from earlier to the vines holding you in place. As she cuts through them, they fall away from you, leaving thin trails of blood in their wake. As you step away from the tree, Lyra jumps at you, kissing you deeply as if it was her way of apologizing to you. You honestly would have preferred a regular ‘sorry’ right now, but atleast you weren’t entirely at her mercy anymore.

You walk until you reach Mahogany Town, with Lyra being uncharacteristically quiet the whole way. There is still time to check out the gym today... but it’s been an awfully long day. Lyra trails you like a sad puppy as you walk to the pokemon center, hoping that they’ll have some vacant room you can stay in. Nurse Joy gives you an odd look and inquires over why you’re bleeding, and you simply tell her you fell into a patch of thorns on the way through the forest. Lyra looks up when you say this, obviously surprised that you didn’t blame her. The Joy leads you to a vacant room in the center, and after thanking her you climb into a bunk wordlessly, hoping to fall asleep without having to acknowledge Lyra.

As you drift off to sleep, you feel something on your bed, and realize that it’s Lyra, who apparently decided she was going to sleep on top of you. You consider telling her to get off of you, but you’re so tired at this point...

Whatever, you think to yourself as you fall asleep.

PART EIGHT:

Route 34 was tranquil as our young trainer walked along the road. The wind whispered through the leaves quietly, giving the impression of a crowd, though the only other people on the road seemed to be a few kids and a police officer.
It wasn't long until you saw a roof peeking over the grass. It was a cozy little place, with an old man standing outside the door. The old man noticed you approaching, and smiled broadly.
" Hey, youngster! " he called out.
" Hey, " you said back. " How's my Quilava doing? "
" Just fine, I reckon. My wife should know for sure. "
" Alright."

You continued on, the door jingling as you passed inside.
The jingling stopped as suddenly as you had. You couldn't believe what he was seeing. Why did this always happen to you?

That fucking Marill.
" Mmmmarill! " It called out, grabbing it's trainer's ankle. The girl looked up, and a placid smile spread on her face as her eyes locked onto yours. Forcing yourself to move, you walked up to the counter, albeit slightly stiffly.

The old woman behind the counter looked up, and nodded. " Hello young man, are you here for your pokemon? "
" Heya, Ethan, " Lyra cooed. " H-hey... Lyra, " was all you could manage.
" Oh? Lyra, you know this boy? " Lyra smiled inocently. " Oh yes, of course I know my Ethan. " The woman chuckled. " Really now? Are you her boyfriend, youngster?"
Lyra's eyebrows raised slightly, before she looked at you with the slightest smile. You couldn't decipher the look in her eyes.
WHY would she ask that?
Why was all you could ask yourself.

" W-well..." You stammered. In your breif pause, Lyra had found the need to wrap an arm around your shoulders.
" I wouldn't call myself that, exactly..." Your voice cracked slightly at the end of your sentance, so it almost sounded like a question. Your eyes were pinned straight foward, too mortified of what Lyra might do. In a moment where you were sure you might just piss yourself, Lyra's arm stiffened ever so slightly. Your eyes flitted to her face for the breifest moment, where you saw that same indescribable look.

You thought you saw her eye twitch.

Dear Arceus, did her eye just TWITCH?!

Before you could have a heart attack, Lyra recovered... from whatever that was with a small giggle. "Yeah Gran, we're just the best of friends. Isn't that right Ethan?" She smiled, though Gold swore it was forced. " H-ha ha, yep! " You stammered out.

Apparently this display was enough for the old woman, who grinned. " How cute. Let me go check on your pokemon..." She said, as she shuffled out the side door. You watched the door swing shut on it's hinges, and winced when it thumped closed.

Alone, with Lyra.

This never went well.

" Soooo~ Ethan! What're you up to... here? " Lyra mused. She detached herself from you, and leaned against the counter in front of you.

" I don't think that would work, Lyra. " You laughed nervously, almost wishing you could go along with it, just to please her.
"Oh." Her tone was so odd, neither positive or negative, as if your answer didn't matter at all. Lyra puffed her cheeks out, then proceeded to smother her Marill in a hug. " It's okay, Mar-mar, I still love you! " She squealed, the blue pokemon nearly passing out in the process.

Stepping around the girl, you quickly handed the old woman the pokeball. " Here you go! " You turned quickly, determined to get out of there as quickly as possible. " Bye Lyra, it was nice bumping into you! " You walked- more like scurried- towards the door as fast as possible while saying this.

Of course, Lyra would have none of this. Her fingers clamped down on your wrist at the last second. " Oh c'mon Ethan! We should hang out! Hmm, I know! We should go for a walk in Ilex Forest! It's right down the route..." She continued dawdling on, though you drowned out her voice.

You felt your shoulders sag, there was no use in trying to escape. Lyra would probably just punish you more later. Forcing your head to turn, you managed to pull your lips into a smile. " Yeah, I guess a walk would be nice. " Lyra's eyes lit up, and she threw herself onto you in a hug. "Yay! This is going to be so. Much. Fun!" Her annonciated words made her wonder if she was the only one going be having the fun.

But when she looked up at you, face so much like an innocent angel, you couldn't help but hug back. She turned back to bid goodbye to her grandmother, who merely chuckled before they set off on the very trail Gold has walked to get here.

As soon as the day care was out of sight, her hands clamped down on yours. Your palm was already sweaty, and you hoped she didn't notice.

"So." Her voice came so suddenly that you nearly leapt out of your skin. " What've you been up to, Ethan? " Again, the tone turned to emotionless. Jeez, couldn't she make up her mind on when she wanted to go insane?

"Ah... nothing much. Just training my team up for the next gym, is all." You struggled to keep your voice even. Suprisingly, it sounded normal. Maybe you were getting used to her crazy.

Was that even possible?

Nonetheless, the dark shape of the trees soon swam into view. Lyra's grip tightened, and she tugged you along as she began to skip. " We're almost there! " What the hell? Now she was enthusiastic. The whispering of the trees now turned to murmurs encouraging you to get away.

Your indecisiveness got the better of you, as you ended up under the shroud of the trees. The shadows limited your view, so you could hardly see past Lyra. She was pulling you along faster now, to the point where you were almost jogging.

It was significantly colder in here, without the sun on your face. Instinctively, you gripped Lyra's hand tighter, if only for the body heat. She looked back fleetingly, as if to study your expression. It was too dark to make out her own.

The running was beginning to get to you- Lyra has eventually brought you up to that speed. Growing more frightened as the trees whizzed by you, you tried to call out to Lyra. The words were snatched away by the rustling wind through the insurmountable number of trees. You wondered where she was taking you, if she even had a destination in mind.

Lyra braked so hard, you nearly tripped over her. The two of you had come to a clearing in the woods. Your eyes adjusted to the darkness, to find a small shrine in the middle of said clearing. A question formed in your throat, though you couldn't voice it due to being winded after running.

" Here we are, Ethan, " her tone seemed measured, to elicit some sort of reaction.
" Here... where here? " You managed between breathes.
" The shrine... there's supposed to be a legendary pokemon here. " Her voice was rushed, as if she couldn't be bother to explain it.

Her nails dug into your hand violently, causing your head to snap up to hers in a flash. Too quickly, she shoved you into a tree, effectively pinning you.

An all too familiar gleam of silver flashed in the corner of your eye, but you didn't need to look to see it was Lyra's favorite knife.

Lyra's face was close to yours, and again her sickly sweet breath assaulted you. However, her voice came out in choked sobs. "W-why, Ethan? Why aren't you my boyfriend?! " She blubbered. Her face was wet with tears.

Oh god, you KNEW you were going to have to pay for that.

" I-I'm sorry! I didn't mean it, I swear..." She looked so pitiful. Was this really the psycho who fed you blood? " I'm just... shy about dating, is all. I really am your b-boyfriend. " Your hands were shaking, though you brought them up to her face, carefully avoiding the knife. Either hand cupped her cheeks, brushing away her tears with your thumbs. " I didn't mean to upset you. I mean it. " Even you weren't sure if those words were genuine, or at least not just meant to save your hide.

Her eyes light up and she inhaled deeply, giving you a moment of grace from the sweet stench. " R-really? I'm so sorry I overreacted- I didn't wan't to scare you- I... I..." Unable to find words, she simply gazed at you in some sort of revenential wonder, before mashing her lips onto yours.

Once again, you found yourself trying to force yourself from gagging. Trying to keep her from murdering you- oh no, you hadn't forgotten about that knife- you kissed her back cautiously.

She bit your lip, causing you to gasp slightly. Lyra took the opportunity to slip her tongue into your mouth and press her soft body closer to yours.

Here we go again....

Falling into old habits, you forced yourself to think of Kris. Lovely, sweet Kris. Hopefully still alive Kris. Your eyes nearly fluttered shut- when suddenly, you saw a light green flash through the leaves above you.

Your head snapped up, pulling away from Lyra. She made a very unhappy noise, though you ignored it for now. Again, the flash, now in a different tree. Your eyes flicked back and forth, trying to keep track of the damn thing.

And then, it was there.

A small... onion looking pokemon. It floated directly above you and Lyra's heads, looking down at you. It cocked its head to one side, curiously. "Bii?"

"Uhh..." You stared at it, uncomprehendingly. Lyra followed your gaze, and gave the small thing a murderous glare. "How DARE you interrupt us, you mutt!" She swung upward, and the knife sailed out of her hand. Luckily, the pokemon darted at the last second.

The world tilted dangerously, and you stumbled. Your vision swam, as though the colors of the forest were blending together. Lyra became a smudge on the trees... until she grabbed onto your arm forcefully. Her outline straightened out immediately, as the rest of the world- beside the pokemon faded to a swirling color pallet, and you managed to spot a spick of silver in green- which you hoped to be the knife. Lyra's grip on your arm was extremely painful, and you pulled back from her. She began flailing, and smacking you with her one free hand.

At the last moment, your arms tightened around Lyra, keeping her from tumbling into the swirling abyss. She ceased struggling, and wrapped her arms around your waist. The world around you seemed to be taking shape, ever so slowly.

You saw building come into shape, one by one. There was ground beneath your feet, and you realized as you touched solid ground that your legs were shaking terribly. The sky remained dark; it was night. A moon took its place in the sky, as the image came together around you.

" No... way..." The words escaped as little more than breaths.

You were in New Bark Town.

Lyra seemed to realize this the moment you did. She pulled away from you ever so slightly, gazing about the town. It was quite, no one was outside. It was odd... for some reason, it seemed different than you remembered it. You stepped away from Lyra, who didn't oppose, surprisingly. Your eyes widened as it hit you.

Where were the windmills? They had been constructed within the last year. What had happened to them? The ground were they stood hadn't even been marred. You couldn't believe it. Had you... actually gone back in time? You slipped your pokegear from your pocket quickly scanning the screen. The screen was on the fritz, the numbers not making any sense, much less forming a date.

" Ethan? " Lyra looked at you, eyes wide. " Did that thing just.. teleport us? "
Teleport? Oh, shit. She didn't realize they had traveled through time... or at least, you thought you had.

" I think..." you started, not quite sure how to explain it. " We traveled in time. " Lyra looked at you increadulously. " Actually, I'm sure we did, " you continued. "Now that I think of it, when I was passing through Azalea Town, I was told of a rumor about the pokemon Celebi. That green thing earlier was Celebi. "

Lyra continued to stare at you, making you think that this had pulled the final straw, and snapped the final shred of sanity in her mind. At the moment you might've just run, she finally muttered a small " Okay. " Her voice was tiny, and blank. Behind her eyes, a puzzle piece seemed to click into place. Arceus knows what she was planning.

The soft sound of footsteps interrupted your thoughts. Immedietly, you ducked around the side of the building- realizing Lyra hadn't followed you. You peeked around the edge to hiss at Lyra to hurry, no telling what they'd fuck up if they meddled in the past.

Your breath stopped short.

There she was. Kris. In all her beauty- albeit shorter. She looked sleepy, and annoyed. " What are you two doing out here? You idiots woke me up..." Her childish body was adornded in equally childish pajamas.

The thoughts clicked in your head suddenly. Lyra came to the same conclusion you did, seemingly. As if in slow motion, her fist curled. Her other hand slipped to her pocket, where you saw a small glint in the moonlight- a pocket knife.

" Hey, Kris. " Lyra cooed. " Come here, I have a suprise for you. " Her fist uncurled, beckoning the child towards you.

Time nearly stopped. You couldn't think. Your legs thrust you forward of their own accord, as you threw yourself onto Lyra. The two of you tumbled to the ground harshly. You hear Kris gasp, followed by a small thump, before Lyra screeched.

It was the most horrible sound you had ever heard. You rolled off of her, and pressed your palms to your ears. You saw that she was in the fetal position, cradling her hand.

It was streaming blood. The knife had gone straight through her hand, near the base of the palm. The grass beneath her grew dark with the blood. There was so much of it. The smell of it reminded you of the horrible things she had done to you.

You couldn't help but feel the tiniest spark of happiness at the thought of her suffering.

You looked up, to see Kris staring wide-eyed at you. Thinking quickly, you scoop her up in your arms. You run as fast as your legs will carry you, as far away from the monster as you could.

Instinctivly, your found yourself heading home. You remembered you had a key underneath the mat, and you used that to unlock the door. Heading inside, you nudged the door shut with your foot.

The stairs stayed quiet, thankfully, as you whisked Kris up the stairs as quickly and quietly as you could. You turned the doorknob to your room carefully, only slightly wondering what would be waiting inside.

Again, you pushed the door closed as you clammored the the furthest corner. Kris curled into your chest, whimpering. You petted her back soothingly, trying to get her to calm down. Your eyes adjusted to the darkness, scanning the room.

You saw yourself, sleeping in the bed. Drooling slightly, even. You sighed, not knowing what to do now. A red glow caught your eye- your alarm clock. Sitting in the same place you left it; or.. put it. Who knows.

Anyways, it read a date that seemed familiar. You thought for a moment, before you realized it was the day before you left on your journey. And it was 12:40.

You remembered waking up at 12:41. Sure enough, just as the clock struck the time, the smaller version of you tossed. There was a thump from downstairs. Shit.

You didn't lock the front door.

After a moment, he sat up looking slightly unhappy. He rubbed his stomach before slipping out of bed. You gripped Kris closer to you, begging that he wouldnt see you; begging that he would see you and not go downstairs.

Time decided for you as he headed downstairs, leaving you and Kris alone. She wriggled slightly, and you set her down next to you. With her at the same level, you realized she was older than you had first imagined. She was the same age you remembered her being before ... she left.

Voices floated upstairs. You immediatly picked out Lyra's, and your own frightened voice. This... made sense. Memories of this night floated back into your head, and it made sense.

Lyra always did imply she had previous sexual experience.

She never did mention who it was with, though.

Kris tugged on your shirt, clearly unhappy. " Gold! " she whispered urgently. " What's going on...?" As she looked up to you, your heart skipped a beat. Even now, she was simply heavenly.

" Don't worry, I'll protect you. " You said assuredly. She smiled up at you slightly, nearly causing your heart to burst.

A muffled groan from the younger you caused a cold sweat to break on your forehead. What should you do? You couldn't let you get raped... could you?

Determined to save yourself, you crawled to the door. You motioned for Kris to follow you, which she did. As your head peeked around the stairwell, you saw Lyra in her bra and panties. She was grinding against you, who was groaning, almost as if in pain. You were wearing only your pokeball-print boxers.

Kris made a soft noise of disgust, which you couldn't decide if you felt the same. A plan formulated in your head, though you weren't sure if you would enjoy it. Boldly, you stepped away from the wall. Kris backed away into the hallway, frightened.

"Lyra, how could you! " you said desperately, trying to mock her earlier tone. Immediately she looked up, her eyes full of guilt. " You're cheating on me!"

Her eyes flitted between the two of you. " I-I don't -is it really- I'm sorry!" She stood up, leaving you- the little you- gasping, and scuttling away. He grabbed his clothes and ran past you- utterly bewildered now. He nearly ran into Kris.

Your eyes focused on Lyra, bent on fixing all of this. "Lyra, I... I can't believe you." She fell to her knees in front of you. "I thought it was you!" She blubbered. " Well..." you murmured, stooping on one knee. "You can make it up to me, I guess."

For the second time that day- or whatever this was now; you kissed Lyra. The sweetness wasn't as overpowering, thankfully. She sighed into your mouth, making it slightly worse. You pressed your hand to the back of her skull, and leaned against her. She seemed to get the point, and leaned back. You grinned into the kiss, glad the plan was going well. You managed to keep going by imagining Kris- who was so close, it was hard not to be excited. Her head was pressed against the floor, your body aligned with hers. You pulled away to smile at her.

And promptly smash her head against the tile.

Immedietly, she blacked out. Her hair grew slightly damp... maybe you hit her too hard. Oh well, payback. You stood up awkwardly, and turned back.

You were looking back at yourself, and Kris. You looked sternly at yourself, and grabed his chin.
" This is a dream. Go to bed. " He nodded eagerly, and ran upstairs. Finally, you turned to Kris.

"Kris... I love you. Stay away from Lyra. She's watching you. Even if you leave her. Dye your hair. Stay safe... please. For me. " You looked at her desperately, and decided you couldn't help yourself. You pressed your lips to hers for a breif moment, though it seemed an eternity. She kissed back, albeit hesitantly. You forced yourself to pull back, and you stroked her cheek. "Go home."

She nodded, and ran past you. Her eyes were blurred, and you pray to Arceus she'd be okay. Back to business, you hauled Lyra onto your back. You followed Kris out the door, and placed the key under the mat again. Thank god. That damn green thing was outside, and you made a beeline for it.

It flew to you, wary of the beast on your back. As it did, the familiar sense of the world churning came over you. The colors blurred, and the ground disappeared. Kris faded in the corner of your vision, saying something that was caught in time.

You think she said she loved you.

Her blue hair was replaced by a patch of dark green, which was coming quiet quickly towards you. You slammed into the ground, and Lyra rolled of your back. The world swam, but no longer because of Celebi. Your hand clenched, and you were suprised to find something there.

A soft piece of ripped cloth. From Kris's pajamas.

PART NINE:

The past month had been... weird.

You and Lyra had decided not to face the Mahogany gym earlier the last month, seeing as the holidays were closing in quickly. And now, thanks to a quick and uneventful journey home, you were almost back in New Bark Town.

...Ha, that was a lie. While it was certainly true you were nearinghome, your journey ever since you left had been nothing but troublesome, thanks to your psychotic traveling partner. It had taken you a little over a month to make it from Mahogany Town back to route 29, due to a detour along the way. Quite the detour indeed...

Your mind trails off as you turn your focus to Lyra. She was her usual self, cheery, skipping along next to you as she hummed some Christmas tune. Well, atleast one of us is in the Christmas spirit, you think to yourself. She must really have no memory of the events that unfolded just weeks before, in the Ilex forest. Of course, you had knocked her out pretty well... and the lie you told her seemed to have worked pretty well. You, on the other hand... you remembered those events vividly.

Thanks to Lyra deciding to take a diversion into the Ilex Forest, you had been transported back in time by Celebi. Three years backin time, when you were just about to set off on your second pokemon journey, subsequently witnessing the events that unfolded the night that Kris decided to leave town. Upon finding Kris and disarming Lyra- who was ready to attack her- you had taken her into your house in order to protect her. Lyra was never down for long, and soon she was in your house, attacking the you of the past. Of course, you were able to stop her, and convince your past self that everything was just a dream... and also tell Kris how you truly felt about her. Then, as suddenly as you had appeared in the past, you were back in the future.

Lyra had regained conciousness not soon after reappearing, and luckily, had no memory whatsoever. You told her she had slipped, hit her head, knocked herself out... she believed you. Thank Arceus for that, if she had known what had gone on that night...

You reach into your pocket, feeling the small piece of fabric. The same fabric that had ripped from Kris’s pajamas that night. If Lyra knew what had truly happened... she would have found it. She would have taken it from you. You couldn’t let her do that. It was your best memory you had left of Kris, small as it was. Lyra... wouldn’t be glad to find it, and you have to keep that memory.

Of course, it wasn’t an entire perfectly memory. You bite your lip in an attempt to appear emotionless in front of Lyra. That memory was bittersweet, if anything. You were able to tell her how you felt, but you were also the reason she left. If you hadn’t made her leave, though, who knows what Lyra might have done. Still, you couldn’t help but wish you had had a little more time with her. You would have had time, in fact, if it wasn’t for Lyra.

Lyra, still blissfully unaware of anything that had happened. Her only indication that anything had happened is that ever since that night, you’d been feeling down. She had inquired over it a few times, but after telling her you were just feeling under the weather, she decided to believe you,  and that was good. Having Kris so fresh in your mind had reopened some old wounds, and you would rather Lyra didn’t know about them.
You’re snapped back into reality as you see the familiar sight of Professor Elm’s lab. All of that thinking had really passed the time, and now you were back home, back in New Bark Town.

Lyra rushes past you, towards the mailbox. “Gold! Let’s see if we have any Christmas cards!”

You follow her, less enthusiastically. It certainly is hard feeling festive when your mind is miles away from the topic of Christmas.

“Goldy, you have mail!” Lyra coos. That grabs your attention, not necessarily because of an interest in whatever you could have been mailed, but more because you didn’t want Lyra going through your things.

You snatch the envelopes away from Lyra. “Open your own mail!” you tell her.

She sticks her tongue out at you, and goes to open her own box. As she’s distracted, you thumb through your letters. Something about a subscription you didn’t care about, a letteradressed from your Aunt, a card from your grandparents, and...

What was this? An envelope, from an adress you didn’t recognize, all written in blue ink... you start to tear it open, curious at who it could be from.

“Goldy! Let me see! What did you get?” Lyra squeals, bouncing up and down, reaching for your pile of mail. You still don’t want her to read anything you could have gotten.

“Chill out, it’s just some Christmas cards from my family and some junk mail” you say, tucking your letters into your backpack.

She pouts and makes an indignant “Humph”, but her angry act doesn’t last long.

“Well! As much as I hate to go Gold...” Well, that gets your attention, Lyrais leaving? “I need to go visit my family! I’ll see you soon Goldy!” and with that she prances off, leaving you bewildered.Is she... gone? Really? You’re actually free! Maybe just for an evening, but hey, that is half a day you aren’t going to spend as her victim.

You head to your own home. The minute you walk in the door your mother is all over you, telling you how much she’s missed you, asking you how you feel, what you’ve been up to... everything question under the sun. After filling her in on every step of your journey, save for certain encounters with Lyra, you manage to excuse yourself up to your room. You missed your mom greatly, but after the last year with Lyra, the ability to be alone was sacred.

Dropping your bag to the ground, you flop on to your bed, burying your face into the covers and reveling in the fact that Lyra was gone, if only for a while. You reach into your pocket, feeling for the little piece of cloth, and retrieve it, holding it to your nose. It smells just like her, just how you always remembered her, just how you would probably remember her forever.

Despite your best attempts at staying emotionally stoic around Lyra the past month, you can’t take it anymore, and soon you feel tears welling up behind your eyelids. It’s... it’s not fair, you think to yourself, as one tear rolls down your cheek.

“Why does Lyra get to ruin my life like this?” you whisper to yourself. “Why isn’t there anything I can do to stop her?” Another tear.

“Kris... I don’t even know where she is anymore... but she’s safe, right? I told her to keep herself safe...” unless, Lyra got to her before she could get away. “No, Kris... Kris has to be alright. She has to.” You wipe away yet another tear.

You sit up, biting your lip. “This is silly,” you say to yourself. “I’m nearly sixteen, I shouldn’t be crying over... oh who the hell am I kidding.” You lay back down. Living with Lyra really was hell, there was no denying that. It was just awful. You had gone through so much... watching people be attacked, finding people murdered, and Kris... poor Kris, where could she even be now? Somewhere safe, far away. Very far away, where Lyra would never see her again... and where you would never see her again, of course. It had to be that way, didn’t it... anyone who was around you was around Lyra, and therefore they were in danger. You would never be able to see Kris again without putting her life in danger, and you’d be with Lyra.. forever. You could never escape her. You bite your hand, hard, attempting to subdue your crying, grateful that you had decided to close the door.

Your mind flirts for a moment with just ending it all. You would go to Kanto soon, and there was a cycling bridge there... relatively high off of the water. Never again would you have to deal with Lyra. You would never, ever see her again... or Kris for that matter. Or your mother. No, you couldn’t do that... as bad as Lyra was, it wasn’t worth putting everyone else through that.

You turn over, shaking those thoughts from your head, only to replace them with worse ones. What if Kris had already moved on? She probably had. It had nearly been three years, surely she had found somebody else...

No, no, you couldn’t think like that. You press the fabric to your nose, distracting yourself with just remembering her, squeezing your eyes closed as yet more tears rolled out.

Suddenly, you hear the doorbell. Oh no, probably Lyra. You had hoped you would have more time...

Well, better to accept your fate sooner than later...

You  trudge downstairs, desperately trying to think of anyone it could possibly be besides your psychotic friend. Doesn’t she have anything better she can be doing that doesn’t involve you? Surely her family is doing something... if they haven’t all been murdered. She really did need to find some other way to occupy her time. Even if she was obsessed with you, surely she had other hobbies, right?

Of course, maybe it was just the mailman. Or some delivery service... or one of the neighbors, one of mom’s friends! It could even be Elm, coming to say hello.

...oh who were you kidding, of course it was Lyra. Everyone else was surely busy right now, she’s the only one who would randomly decide to show up.

You open the door, not bothering to look up. “Hey Ly...” You trail off as you shift your gaze upwards.

Not Lyra... definitely, definitely not Lyra.

You’re speechless for what feels like forever, your mouth hanging partially agape. This.. can’t be real. No, it... it definitely... isn’t... no, no, this is definitely real.

You search for words and find nothing. As a last resort you manage to quietly eke out just one word.

“...Kris?” you whisper. She smiles at you.

“Long time no see, Gold” She says in a sweet voice that you had been dying to hear for weeks- hell, in the long run, years. With the sound of her words, reality crashes over you.

“Kris! Oh god, Kris, I... Kris!” You give up on trying to find anything else to say as you leap forward, embracing her in a tight hug, taking in everything you can about her. The way she looks, the way she sounds... everything. Everything about her. You’re having trouble belieing this isn’t a dream, but even if it is... you want to make the best of it. As an afterthought, you pull her inside, closing the door after her and locking it. You don’t need Lyra of all people seeing her right now, or Arceus forbid, barging in.

Kris laughs, hugging you back. “I can tell you’ve missed me, Gold.”

“You have no idea...” You tell her, squeezing her tighter, “no idea at all...” you repeat, quietly.

Her voice becomes slighty sad, but still as sweet. “I’ve missed you too.”

You both stay that way for a moment, silent, simply glad to be in eachother’s presence. Soon, of course, your silence is broken, by the sound of your mother walking down the hall.

“Well would you look at who it is!” She says in surprise. “I didn’t know you were coming to visit Kris! What a pleasant surprise.”

Your mother was right. It was certainly a surprise, and definitely a pleasant one.

“Well, I wish I could stay and talk, but I actually have some Christmas shopping to do, and then I’ll be at a Christmas party all night... I can trust you to watch the house, right Gold?” She asks. Well, you’re certainly not going to object to a chance to spend a night alone with Kris in your house.

“Sure mom, I can watch the house, go have fun at your party!” You tell her, perhaps a bit too enthusiastically. But, it pleases her, and soon she’s out the door.

Kris turns to you. “Well, we have a lot of catching up to do, don’t we!”

You‘re still slightly dumbfounded “I, uh... yeah! Yeah, we do. Come on, no point in just standing here! Let’s go up to my room.” you suggest.

She follows you to your room, and you sit down on your bed next to her. The conversation starts out on the two of you and how you’ve both been, pokemon-related adventures and such, but soon it’s shifting more towards you. You and Lyra, in particular.

You tell Kris about everything. Everything Lyra had done to you over the past year, barring a few choice incidents. You tell her about when Lyra attacked Whitney, and tried to feed you her blood, in milkshake form. Kris’s face is a mix of abject shock and disgust.

“Oh, Gold, you poor thing... I... are you... I... are you okay?” she whimpers, lost for words.

“I’m fine, Kris, that’s...” you sigh, not wanting to continue, “That’s... honestly, it gets worse.”

She clings to you as you continue your stories, cutting out the events of the Burnt Tower entirely, and removing a few key events from your story of Olivine City. She looks at you with horror as you go on.

After what seems like forever, your stories bring you up to the present day. Kris is silent for a while, obviously trying to mull over the series of events you had been through since she had been gone. You’re fine with that; retelling the past wasn‘t exactly joyous for you either.

Eventually, though, she breaks the silence.

“So... Gold. That night, three years ago...” She begins. You should have seen this coming, of course she would want to know what happened that night. “There was... you, there, but then, another you... and that... that weird Lyra girl. I’ve always tried to make sense of it, but nothing had ever explained it. What exactly... happened that night?”

 And so you tell her about what had really happened that night with Celebi. She says she had had her suspicions about Celebi being involved that night; after all, while she hadn’t seen much, she had seen enough to know that it certainly wasn’t the Gold of that time.

She seems satisfied with your story, and relieved to finally have it explained.

“You know, Gold... there was a part of me that always wondered if that was real. Of course, I would have left town anyways... the next day this Lyra girl came up to me, telling me to do the exact same, or...” she shuddered, not completing her sentence. You know why, judging by Lyra’s description of how she got Kris to leave, it was probably far more unpleasant as all of the things you went through. You hug her close to you, and she hugs you back. “...anyways, I always thought that no matter if all of that was real or not, there was one thing that was.” She looks up, her light blue eyes shimmering at you. “Do you remember... do you remember what I told you that night, Gold?” she whispers.

You could feel your face growing red. You certainly could remember what she had said, but to say it now, to her... “I, ah, I-” you stammer, searching for something to say.

She smiles. “I love you Gold. Even after all of this time... I still do.”

You blink a few times, not entirely sure that you aren’t in a dream right now... or that Lyra isn’t spying on you from the closet. No, that’s silly, and- wait, what are you doing, staring like a fool!

“I... love you... too... Kris” You finally manage to choke out, your voice cracking from nerves.

And then, in an instant, Kris is there, pressing her lips to yours... and it’s nothing like Lyra, not even like when you pretend Lyra is Kris. It... it really was Kris. Kris, who’s wrapping her arms around you. Kris, who you’re holding on to tightly... and who is making quiet, whimpery-sounding moans. Who you’re pushing down onto the bed, not the other way around like it is with Lyra.

Soon you’re laying on top of her, and she’s running her hands up and down your back, and then up your shirt, which you either don’t care about or don’t notice, mostly due to the fact that you’re too busy focusing on doing the exact same thing to her.

But soon you feel her hand brushing over a scar.. a certain set of scars, that you recieved from a certain Lyra in a certain tower. You pull away from Kris, recoiling partially in pain and a little in shock.

Her crystal eyes stare up at you, confused. “Gold, where... what are...?” you bite your lip and do your best to avert your eyes from her, dreading the question of where you got that scar. You hear her voice, and yet not the question you expected, just a quiet “...Lyra?”

“Yeah...” you reply, sitting up as she does the same, still trying to avoid looking in her eyes.

There’s silence for a while, and then Kris breaks it. “She really did a number on you, huh?”

“She certainly did...” You say, rubbing your eyes in a futile attempt to calm your nerves.

Kris just hugs you, and then, tries to kiss you again. This time, however, you hold her back, and from the corner of your eye you can see that she looks confused. “Kris, I...” you start, trailing off in thought.

you just... don’t feel right doing this right now. Not with Lyra around, anyways. It just wasn’t safe for Kris. If Lyra even saw her here... much less if she saw the two f you together... who knows what she would do. Even if she spared you, she wouldn’t spare Kris. Jasmine was killed just for battling you in a gym match, Kris would have a far worse fate than that.

Of course... this may be the last time you see Kris for years, and if you didn’t take your chances with her now, who knows when your next opportunity would be.

Then again, if Lyra catches you two, that opportunity would be never.

“Gold... what?”

“...You need to get out of here”

Kris looks up at you. “But Gold... I thought you would be glad to see me.” she says, her voice a whisper, if that.

“Kris, of course I’m glad to see you.” Indeed you were. Even though you had spent most of her time here revisiting the events of the past year, you hadn’t been happier in a long time. “I’m very glad you’re here. But... I don’t want this to be the last time I ever see you.” You leave your statement vague, if only to keep yourself from thinking of what you were truly afraid of.

“Gold, I don’t understand... I don’t understand what you mean, why would this have to be the last time I see you?”
You know why. Right across the street was a psycho who hated Kris, and already had a few murders under her belt. In a perfect world Lyra would stay away, but knowing her she would show up any minute, and then it certainly would be the last time you saw Kris.

But... you can’t say that. Your mind and your voice don’t want to work together, as though if they did then your fears of Lyra would come true.

“No, you don’t understand.” you say, sounding far meaner than you intended. Kris appears shocked, insulted even. She looks like she wants to say something, but doesn’t know what... you can’t blame her. She came all of this way to visit you... and here you are acting annoyed with her. Even if she was in danger just being here...

“Kris, just... I’m sorry, I just... can’t say. I don’t-”

“Don’t what, Gold? Come on, tell me, why are you being so... so-”

“I just don’t want anything to happen to you.” You say, cutting her off. “Lyra has done awful things to people who were nowhere near as close as you to me. If she so much as suspects that you’re here, Arceus knows what she will do. Besides, she could show up any minute now, and then... who knows.” You pull your knees up to yourself, and bury your face in them.

“Gold... Gold? Are you... crying, Gold?”

“No.” You lie, despite the fact that you know she won’t believe you. Kris puts her hands on your shoulders and forces you to look at her. Dammit, you had been hiding your face for a reason. You bite your cheek as you try your hardest not to actually look at her.

“Gold, when I decided to come here, I knew what the risks would be. I knew Lyra would be around you... but I didn’t care. I just wanted to see you, while you still... remembered me.” Kris says softy as she wraps her arms around you, pulling you into a hug. “Just... forget about Lyra, just for a while. If anything happens with her... we can cross that bridge when we come to it.”

She kisses you again, and you can’t much resist this time, because you really don’t want to. She had a point, after all... you can’t spend your life afraid of Lyra. Of course, Kris didn’t know Lyra nearly as much as you did...

...No, no, she had a point. You wouldn’t see Kris again for a long time most likely, you couldn’t spend this chance worrying about Lyra. Like she said, something with... crosses, and bridges... and...

What were you think of again? Ah well, who cares. You had kris here, and Lyra wasn’t anywhere to be seen. Eventually you end up on top of her again, still pressing your mouth to hers, as her hands find their way up your shirt, conveniently skipping your scar. Soon, you have no shirt, and... would you look at that, neither did Kris. “Gold, I- ah-” She sighs between breaths, eventually giving up on speaking, deciding that moaning as you kissed her would suffice.

Before long Kris is also lacking pants, and underwear for that matter, and after breaking off from her for a moment so are you. You’re more than ready for this after making out with her for the past ten minutes or so, with the only semblance of conversation being her moaning your name periodically, and you doing the same, glad that this time you weren’t having to say you had said something else. You push in to her, and she winces- it takes you by surprise, after being with Lyra for so long you hadn’t even considered the fact that this might be Kris’s first time. She bites her lip, and you can see that she’s on the verge of tears.

Caring considerably more about Kris than you had about Lyra when you were in the same situation with her, you stop yourself. “Kris, are you-”

“I’m fine, don’t worry, Gold.” she says, managing to smile. With that, you kiss her again, and push into her fully as she lets out a small shout... and this time, it doesn’t turn out to be Lyra, and you don’t freak out and try to escape. “Ah, I- I love you, Gold” Kris moans.

“I, uh...” You mumble, considerably too distracted to respond very well at first. “I love you too, Kris.”

. . .

You wake up the next morning under the covers of your bed, rays of light shining through your window and into your eyes. Looking next to you, you see Kris, still sleeping, and the events of the night before come flooding back to you...

Until you hear the door downstairs open and close, followed by a familiar voice calling your name. You panic. “Kris! Kris, wake up!” you hiss, attempting to shake her awake. After what seems like too long given the situation, she opens her eyes, and sees your worried expression. “Gold.. Gold? What’s wrong?” She asks.

“My mom just got home.” You say quickly.

“Oh." She breathes a sigh of relief, obviously having thought Lyra was downstairs. “...Oh. Oh, I, uh...” She stutters, grasping for her clothes as you hear footsteps ascending the stairs. Your mother was the second most likely person, next to Lyra, to murder both you and Kris should she find the two of lying in bed together, naked. You, too, begin clamoring for your clothes, and not a moment too soon. You only just pull your shirt on as your mother barges into your room, failing to knock.

“Hi, Sweetie! I’m home! Oh, and hello there Kris, I wasn’t expecting you to be here!” She calls out in a giddy tone, adding on the last sentence as she notices Kris sitting next to you, also just barely dressed. “What have you two been up to since I’ve been gone?”

Well gee, you could tell her, but Kris would be tossed out the window and you would be locked into the basement, in true Arceist-mother fashion.

“We, uh, we were... just... uh-”

“We were just... talking about Pokemon... stuff!” Kris says, interrupting and therefore saving you.

“...Yeah, like... badges and stuff. Yeah.” You stammer, doing your best to play along.

Your mother giggles. “How cute! Well, you two have fun, I’ll be downstairs if you need me!”

With that, she left, and you sigh in relief. Looking at Kris, with her clothes disheveled and her hair frizzy, you were shocked that your mom actually believed you.

...and upon examining yourself in the mirror and finding half of your face, as well as your shirt, covered in pink lipstick, you resolved that she may just be too stupid for her own good.

But hey, you were alive, Lyra was nowhere to be seen, and you had an entire day to spend with Kris.

“Well... come on Kris, let’s go for a walk or something. No use just staying around the house all day.” You suggest.

Kris seems a bit surprised at first. After all, just the night before you had been worried that Lyra might find you in your house, not to mention outside. “I, uh... well, sure, let’s go!” She says after a while.

You comb your hair and try your hardest to wash Kris’s lipstick stains off of your face, and switch out your jacket with another one, this time with fewer pink smudges, as Kris fixes her clothes. Soon you both look considerably more presentable and less suspicious, and you head downstairs and out the door, yelling a quick goodbye to your mother, who has passed out on the couch.

The coast is clear outside. No Lyra, no... anybody, for that matter. You head down the same route you walked home on. You and Kris quickly pick up a conversation on the better parts of both of your recent journeys, and then on reminiscing about the past.

You’re both lost in the conversation when suddenly, you heard footsteps behind you... running. And a voice.

“Goooooooldy!” Lyra calls.

You and Kris both stop dead in your tracks. You should have seen it coming, you should have known Lyra would be outside, that she would look for you, that she would find you...

“Kris, run! Get away from here, I don’t care where to, just... shit, Kris, run!” You tell her, trying to be as quiet as you can. She hesitates for just a second, but nods, and sprints off into the trees.

Within seconds Lyra is upon you.

“Goldy! There you are! I’ve been looking all over for you!” Lyra coos. She comes up to hug you, but as she does, you can see her expression... change. She looks suspicious. Please no, don’t let her be suspicious, no, Arceus, no, you plead silently to yourself.

She looks up at you, her eyebrows cocked and her lips pressed in a firm line. “What’s the matter Goldy?”

Only, judging by her expression... she didn’t ask because she was worried about you. She sniffs your shirt.

“Something... smells different about you, Eh-, Goldy. What have you been up to?” She says, her tone cold and dark. “I never should have left you alone... never. Now.. won’t you tell me, Gold?”

“...Tell you what?” You say in a meek voice. You know what she wanted you to tell her, that Kris was here... but maybe if you played dumb, she might not believe you... but you could buy Kris some time.

“Don’t play that game with me...” Lyra growls, as she pressed you against a tree. “Tell me what you’ve been up to.”

“I, uh... I’m busy, Lyra. My mom, she... she sent me on an errand. I need to go.”

She only presses you harder against the tree. “That doesn’t answer my question, Ethan. Now tell me... tell me why you’re being so secretive.”

There isn’t anything you can say at this point, but you search desperately for something, anything that might convince Lyra to leave you alone. She digs her nails into your jacket, as if to ask her question yet again, and you wince as you feel them squeezing into you.

“Lyra, nothing... nothing has happened. Nothing. After you left yesterday, I went home, talked to my mom some, and then went to bed. Believe me.” Went to bed with Kris, that is, but that’s a detail that Lyra really didn’t need to know, despite how much she seemed to expect it.

“...You’re lying to me, Ethan. You’re lying, I can tell. I know you... I know how you look when you lie, and I can tell that you’re lying right now.” She sneers through gritted teeth.

“I’m not! I’m not lying, Lyra, I wouldn’t lie to you!”  In hindsight, it probably isn’t a good idea to lie to someone about whether or not you’re lying, when they’ve already seen through your first lie... but any time, any time you could stall her... any more time you could give to Kris...

“...who is it, Ethan?”

You suddenly feel... cold. Very cold, as though you had the hope drained from you. So she knew, she knew, somehow... what had happened with Kris.

...or maybe she didn’t. You still had your chances...

“Who is-”

“Dammit, Ethan, you know what I’m talking about!” She shouts, bringing her face closer to yours as she clenches her fists tighter, to the point that you could swear she was drawing blood...

“Lyra, stop!” you shout out, your voice echoing through the foresy and disturbing the pidgeys in the trees

“Quiet, Ethan. Tell me. Tell me who it is... who were you with?”

It was times like this you actually missed the Lyra that fed you the bloody milkshakes... that dragged you into the Burnt Tower and raped you. Over time, be it from the repeated head injuries she had suffered, or just her mental state declining on its own... she had become far meaner.

“Ethan?” She repeats.

At least in the past, you could tell that maybe, just a bit.. she was human, and there were times when she showed other emotions besides hatred. Now, she was becoming less and less caring about your wellbeing when she was-

“ETHAN!” She shouts. “I asked you-”

And then in a flash she is whisked away from you, jerking you forward as her hands detach from your shoulders, leaving both of you shocked.

You try to see who did it, who pulled Lyra away from you... it’s all going quite fast, with Lyra struggling left and right, but to no avail, as she has her arms pinned behind her, by... someone. Someone with... blue hair?

“Kris! What are you- how did you get here?!” You shout. You had told her to run... how could she be back here? Why would she be?

You can just barely make out Lyra snarling, annoyed to have been caught off gaurd, and Kris smiling wryly. “I heard you yell- What was I supposed to do, just ignore you?”

Well, yeah, you sort of wish she hadn’t come to your rescue, for now she was in danger too. You stare, dumbfounded, at the scene in front of you... Lyra, disarmed for what seems like the first time ever... by Kris. You don’t even understand how Kris was possibly keeping Lyra subdued, it had never occured to you as possible. Perhaps Kris was just the first one to strike first, or it was just because Lyra wasn’t expecting her...

“You warned me about Lyra, Gold... she might be psychotic... but I guess I have an advantage, being just as crazy about you.” Kris says, as if in reply to your thoughts. Your mind is mulling over whether or not you like the idea of Kris describing herself as just as crazy as Lyra, when Lyra interrupts your thinking.

“Psychotic? I’ll show you psychotic!” She shouts as she throws her head back, hitting Kris in the chest and knocking her backwards, effectively freeing herself. Kris stumbles to the ground, ending up on her back, with Lyra ready to leap on her.

...and you realize that this whole time, you’ve been standing there doing nothing.


You rush to Kris, attempting to help her up. Maybe, just maybe, you can run, and get away...

“So Ethan, you want to side with her?” Lyra laughs as you head for Kris. “I thought I would never have to deal with her again... I thought that that little tramp girlfriend of yours was gone for good.”

You ignore Lyra, too worried about helping Kris off of the ground, who in turn was too worried about her fight with Lyra to get off of the ground.

“Tramp? You’re one to talk. Gold has told me stories... stories of everything you had done to him. I’ve seen the scars on him, that you caused!” She shouts, starting to push herself off of the ground with your help.

“Kris? Kris, forget about it, we-”

“...what?” Lyra says quietly, yet with just as sinister a tone as before. It dawns on you that she must have put two and two together, realizing why Kris had found those scars in the first place. “Don’t even tell me, you...” her eyes grow narrow, and soon there’s a streak of silver, and you and Kris go toppling back to the ground. Yet... you feel nothing, and open your eyes...

a silver blade and black handle stick out of Kris’s thigh. lines of blood run down her leg at an alarming rate.

You aren’t sure what to do. Do you... pull the knife out, it isn’t so deep in there... but no, Kris is reaching for it, and you can see tears forming in her eyes... but she pulls it out, and then pushes it into the ground... and, while shaky at first, manages to get up, and then she’s saying something... talking to Lyra.

“You... how dare you. You think you can go around tossing knives? I’ll show you...” She chokes out despite her tears and the obvious pain she is in. She takes a step towards Lyra, who is obviously surprised, not use to her victims getting up and fighting back, and apparently, now knifeless.

“I left my home, where I had lived for thirteen years...” another pained step, this time with the bleeding leg. “It ruined my family, I couldn’t even explain why we needed to go so quickly...” another “It ruined my life as a trainer... and you separated me from Gold. You ruined my life, Lyra. I’m not going to go down that easily.”  She lunged at Lyra, scratching her face and leaving her stumbling backwards towards a tree. Lyra struck back, and then Kris, still bleeding, leaving droplets of blood in her wake...

Kris’s blood... you had hoped you wouldn’t ever have to see that. You had hoped you could just spend your time with Kris, without having to see her hurt, injured... and then here she was, bleeding, attacking Lyra... while you sat here, doing nothing... you couldn’t do anything, not to help Kris, not to help anyone... Kris was in danger because of Lyra... no, because of you. If it hadn’t been for you... Lyra would have nobody to be jealous over.

Maybe... maybe you should have just let Lyra murder you a long time ago... or hell, just gone and killed yourself. Kris wouldn’t be here... wouldn’t be here fighting with Lyra, wouldn’t be hurt, bleeding... they could both just move on, and...

No, you can’t think like that. Not right now. Kris needs you. You have to help her. Except you can’t. There isn’t anything you can do to save Kris now. Lyra is going to murder her. It’s your fault. You can’t save Kris...

The fighting around you stops for a second, but you don’t notice, caught in your cycle of guilt and blame.

You hear Kris’s voice. “Gold? Gold, you’re shaking-”

“DAMMIT, shut UP!” You shout, holding your head in your hands. You aren’t sure who you’re talking to, Kris, or the voices in your head that won’t leave you alone. Everything is just... blurry. And confusing. You can feel a hand reach for you; you slap it away, not caring whose it is. You think you can feel tears on your face, but you aren’t sure. Your head just... hurts. And you hear Kris and Lyra talking again, but can’t tell who.

“Look what you’ve done to him, he’s a nervous wreck!”

“Me? Maybe if you hadn’t shown up-”

“If I hadn’t shown up? Everything was fine until you appeared!”

You can’t tell which voice belongs to who, too busy concentrating on making sense of everything going on in your own head. It’s all just your own thought, two female voices... but one of them is Kris. One of them is Kris and she’s fighting with Lyra. You need to help her. But... you can’t. You won’t do any good. Unless... it’s worth a shot. No, you might just end up helping Lyra out.

You squeeze your head in your hands and bite your lip, hard until you can taste blood in your mouth. Dammit, you need to be able to think!

You... you need to do something, anything to help Kris.

Your mind still swimming and your vision still blurry, but you open your eyes despite your headache, and look around, for something, anything, anything that can help you...

You feel the grass around you, your hand trailing over Kris’s blood, causing you to wince... but you move your hand along, and then you feel something... cold? Like metal. Sticking up from the ground... You open your eyes, trying to see what it is as best you can...

The knife. Lyra’s knife. It was the best chance you had, if you could just get over there, close enough to pull it out... your shaking hands reach for it, missing the handle the first time, and leaving quite a gash along your fingers. You wince... no, nevermind that, there are more important things. You feel for the handle again, and this time you find it... you wrap your bleeding hand around it. It’s not lodged too tightly in the ground, but gravity feels... weird, and you can’t get any kind of good leverage, and you taste blood in your mouth, and feel it dripping down your chin with your tears, as you hear the heartbeat in your head, and you know that no matter what you do you won’t be able to save Kris, you couldn’t save Jasmine, couldn’t even save yourself all of those times, you’ll probably just make things worse, and... damn, shut up, stop thinking like that. You tighten your grip on the handle and pull as hard as you can.

It eventually frees itself from the soil. You squint your eyes, wishing that you could just see clearly, just for a second, just long enough to get a good aim... but they’re both moving so fast, and the world is moving back and forth, and you can’t even tell who is who, and you’ll just end up hitting Kris, and... no! Stop thinking, you just need to do it, just try, just...

You toss the knife at the two figures moving in front of you and close your eyes.

You hear a feminine shriek.

You open your eyes... the world is still swimming, and your eyes still sting from tears, and... it’s over. You know that. Whether you hit Lyra or Kris, it’s over. The world calms down as you do, everything stops moving so much, and the pain in your head gets just a little better...

There’s one figure on the ground... another rushing towards you.

You blink a few times. You want to be able to see who is who...

The one running towards you is saying something...

Calling your name? Saying something. Something about hitting someone...

The person running towards you... has pigtails.

Blue pigtails... blue hair. It’s Kris. It has to be Kris.

You blink again, you want to really see everything. The entire world is colored weird right now... you could just be hallucinating, and it’s Lyra...

And now whoever it is... she’s shaking you. And you blink again. And her face comes into focus.

No matter how dizzy you may be right now, you would always recognize that face. Always.

Once your find your voice, you speak. “...Kris. Kris! You’re... Kris, you’re okay!” You shout as best as you can, your voice cracking. You make your best attempt to stand up and hug her. Unforunately you’re still lacking in stability, and as soon as you’re up you’re falling over again, with Kris catching you. It’s... Kris. There’s no doubt about it. Lyra is the one on the ground. You look over to her... the knife is in her wrist. The same place it was when you travelled back with Celebi, and saved Kris then...

And Lyra was still alive. You could tell. She was reaching for... something. Her pokegear... trying to call for help? Whatever. It didn’t matter. You just needed to get away... away from Lyra.

Your vision still wasn’t great, but you were at least able to stand now, despite the fact that you were still shaking.

“Come on... Kris, we need to get out of here, before she manages to get back up.” You say, still shakily. You grab her hand and pull her along as you attempt to run, and she follows.

As you grow closer to New Bark town, your senses start to come back to you more fully. You can hear Kris talking to you.

“Gold, your hand... your hand, it’s bleeding gold!” She cries.

“I know, it- I couldn’t see the knife very well.”

Kris is obviously still worried, but also still running. You aren’t the only one still bleeding, you realize, as you catch sight of Kris’s leg. Covered in red streaks... covered in her blood. You look away. You can’t think about that right now.

Soon you’re at your house. You want to go inside where it’s safe... but you don’t want to talk to your mother, and have to face her looking like this... not yet, anyways. You could always just stay out here... but Lyra may not be gone for good.

...wait, what were you thinking? You are bleeding, and more importantly, so was Kris. You can’t just stay outside. Both of you need to get inside and at least get some bandages on your wounds before Lyra pops up again.

You lead her to your front door, and open it, slowly. You peek inside.

...Good. Your mother is still passed out on the couch. That’s one awkward conversation you get to avoid. You and Kris head up the stairs, and into the bathroom to clean yourselves up. The sight of yourself in the mirror is... shocking, to say the least. Your hair is sticking out every which way from your hat, which by some miracle is still clinging to you. Your cheeks are stained with tears, and there is a deep red line of blood trickling down your chin. Your clothes... are spotted with blood from different sources. Your collar was obviously victim to your bleeding lip, whereas the rest of your shirt was flecked with blood that must have been flung from your hand... and from Kris’s leg. It was an awful sight, almost as bad as Kris... the blood from her wound had not only streaked her leg red and orange, but cuts and scrapes covered her face and arms, leaving her speckled with her blood and, more than likely, Lyra’s.

After the two of you finish cleaning yourselves up as best as possible, you go to sit on your bed. You don’t know what to think... Lyra will surely be back soon.... but you couldn’t focus on that.

Kris sits down next to you, resting her head on your shoulder, not saying anything. Your mind flitted through so many different topics- what to do now, what to say... what happened back in the forest with Lyra and Kris just now. Mostly that.

“I just can’t believe it...” You say finally.

Kris looks at you, confused. You continue.

“Back there... when we were fighting with Lyra...” The events flood your mind as you speak those words, overwhelming you.

“...yes?”

You shake your head, trying to snap yourself out of thinking too deeply about it. “I was... I was so out of it. I was confused... scared. I couldn’t think. My mind was just racing... I kept telling myself so many different things. Like... how I couldn’t do anything- anything to help you. I hadn’t been able to help anybody else that Lyra attacked...”

“But Gold, you did help me!” Kris say, placing her hand on your shoulder. You shrug it off.

“No, I mean... that’s all I could think about. And how... how all of this...”

“All of this is what?”

You sigh. “All of this is my fault.”

“No!” Kris shouts at you. “No, it isn’t your fault Gold, none of this is-”

“It is my fault, it is! If I wasn’t here, Lyra would never had any reason to try to attack you. If I had just killed myself a long time ago, when Lyra first started torturing me, you never would have come here. You never would have had to deal with Lyra. If I had just made you leave the second you got here-”

“Gold!”

“Well it’s true! I could have prevented all of this. But I didn’t. And while I was there, watching you bleed, watching you fight with Lyra, it’s all I could think about. And everything... everything was so blurry. I couldn’t see anything. The entire world was distorted, and I couldn’t see anything. When I reached for that knife... I could barely even see it. I couldn’t see it. I couldn’t see anything at all. I couldn’t even make out your voices... I could hear you, both of you, talking about something, and I just couldn’t tell which was which. And then I had the knife, and all I could see was too dark figures in front of me, and I knew one of them was Lyra... and so I threw it. You were all moving around so fast. I didn’t even know who I was throwing it at.”

“But you hit Lyra, Gold.”

“Yes, but I could have hit you. I could have hit you, and I could have killed you. I nearly did, Kris. I nearly killed you, because I was stupid, and I threw a knife, just hoping it would hit Lyra, and it did... but if it hadn’t... if it hadn’t... I just, I don’t get why I couldn’t think. I just couldn’t. I felt... crazier than Lyra”

“Gold.” Kris says as she puts her hands on your shoulders. “You’ve been through a lot.”

“I know, but-”

“Gold, you’ve been through a lot more than anybody I know. You’ve seen your friends attacked, murdered... you’ve been living the past year walking on eggshells so that she doesn’t go and attack somebody else next. I don’t know how you even managed to last this long staying perfectly sane. Back there, I guess... I guess it all sort of just hit you at once. You couldn’t help it. But... now you’re fine. And I’m here, and Lyra... Lyra is gone. I don’t know for how long, but for now, she is.” With that, she wrapped her arms around you and hugged you close to her. You hugged her back, holding on tightly as though you weren’t entirely sure she was real, not wanting her to slip away from you.

You spent the rest of the day at first talking about Lyra, but then shifted the subject to more pleasant things... the upcoming Christmas, for one, and memories from your pasts together, before Lyra showed up. At one point, your mother came up to your room, and informed you that she had recieved a call from the hospital. Lyra was in the hospital, more or less stable, but she wouldn’t be out until quite a while after Christmas. Your mother was devastated to hear the news... you were overjoyed. You didn’t have to worry about her popping up, and you would be able to spend your Christmas with Kris... something that you hadn’t been able to do for a long time.

You knew that eventually Lyra would be out of the hospital, and for the sake of remaining alive Kris would have to leave and you would have to fabricate some lie to get back on her good side... telling her that you had been aiming for Kris, or something, and had been so worried about her that you missed. And Lyra would go back to normal; She always did.

Once Kris, who was planning to stay at your house while she was here, thanks to your mother being far too innocent in her perception of you, fell asleep, you remembered the letters in your pocket. Figuring now was as good a time as any to open them, you did so. Your first, of course, was the envelope, adressed in blue ink...

A letter from Kris, telling you that she was coming to visit for Christmas.

After reading it over and finding yourself overjoyed that you hadn’t let Lyra open your mail, you stuck it into your desk drawer, along with the piece of fabric from Kris’s pajama’s you had kept.

And then you remembered something. The envelope. You picked it up, and flipped it over, reading the blue ink.

The address... Kris’s address.

PART TEN:

This past week had been the best you had had in a long time. Coming back to New Bark Town for Christmas, getting to see Gold... and, stay in his house. It was such a welcome difference from your regular life. You were so used to being all on your own... this was a nice change.

Of course, you had always had your pokemon, and without them you probably would have gone crazy from loneliness, not to mention that the prize money from your battles paid most of your rent. And yet... even with pokemon, it was difficult living on your own. When you’re thirteen, you’re supposed to be living with your parents, hanging out with your friends... not learning to fend for yourself, not so soon. It was hard on you, and so being with Gold, even if it meant being around Lyra, was more than worth it.

Even if it meant being around Lyra... thinking about her causes a wave of dread to flood your mind. Your hand instinctively reaches for the bandage on your leg, a painful reminder of why you had to leave New Bark Town in the first place. And yet... you can’t help but be amazed at how lucky you had been. A little more to the left, a little deeper... the knife Lyra had lobbed at you could have easily nicked a far more important blood vessel, could have easily...

Nevermind that. You don’t need to be thinking about such things, things that hadn’t happened. Lyra was in the hospital, and she would be for a while still. You had time to be with Gold, time you wouldn’t have to hide. It wouldn’t last forever; as much as you hated it, the reality was that when Lyra was back, she would be hot on your trail again, and you would have to leave. You couldn’t spend this time worrying.

You move closer to Gold, who had long since fallen asleep next to you. It would probably be a good idea to do the same- the clock on the wall was reading 2 AM. You had been up for two hours, just thinking about everything... mostly Lyra. It was hard to keep her off of your mind.

Of course, laying there just hoping you can forget about her won’t do much. You’re never going to get to sleep like this...

“Gold? Gold, wake up.” You say as you shake his shoulder. If you’re going to lay awake thinking about Lyra, then you’re at least not going to do it alone.

“Kris? What do you want?” He mumbles, still mostly asleep. “It’s two in the morning, and I’m tired.”

“I can’t sleep, I just can’t stop thinking... about Lyra.”

Gold sighs. “Come on, Kris, really. She’s in the hospital. She’ll be stuck in there for a while now, stop worrying.”

Of course you knew that. You kept telling yourself that; that there was no point thinking about her, and that you should just be glad you were free from her for a while. “I know, it’s just-”

“Seriously, stop worrying about her. There’s no point, just... go back to bed.” Gold says, rolling over.

Well fine, if he’s going to be that way...

Of course, he has a point. You’re not going to get anywhere by not sleeping. You close your eyes and try your hardest to fall asleep.

When you wake up, it’s still dark. You could swear you hadn’t slept entirely through the night for months now. Oh well, no reason you had to stay awake. You place your head on Gold’s shoulder...

only he isn’t there. Huh. Maybe he just went downstairs to do something, and him getting out of bed woke you up. Yeah, that’s it, you think as you turn over, closing your eyes. Now, to get back to sleep...

Only, you can’t sleep. You’re tired enough, but for some reason... you can’t. Something feels off about the room... very off.

Wait, that’s just silly. The room looks the same way it always does. You just still have Lyra on your mind. It’s all psychological. You close your eyes again.

...Dammit, psychological or not, you do feel weird. Ah, hold on, footsteps! Must be Gold, coming back to bed, and you could see that everything was perfectly normal. Lyra was in the hospital, and you had nobody else to be afraid of.

Except... the footsteps stopped.

“Gold?” you say quietly. No response. Weird... oh well, he didn’t hear you. He’d be back in a few seconds, might as well just close your eyes. In fact, maybe you hadn’t heard him at all. It was probably just the clock, and in your tiredness, it had sounded like footsteps. That was it.

Closing your eyes, you attempt once more to fall asleep. But after a while of laying there, you feel... weird. Your can swear your ears are ringing. Something definitely isn’t right.

You try to speak again, but your voice makes no sound. You try again... still nothing. You try to shout, worried now; nothing.

Damn, this was not the time to lose your voice; You always got like this- too scared, and you simply couldn’t speak.

But what were you afraid of? The room is empty. Entirely empty save for Gold’s furniture. Entirely. Entirely empty, save for a very, very wierd feeling. It’s as though you aren’t really alone, as if someone else is here too... not Gold. You get out of bed. No use staying in there.

It makes you feel paranoid, but you decide to look around. If nothing else, seeing that there’s nothing in the room will calm your mind. You check under his desk. Nothing. Behind the bed, nothing. In every corner you can think of... still nothing.

And yet, your uneasiness is just as strong as ever, despite knowing that you are entirely alone. You close the curtains on Gold’s window- perhaps that will help.

...no dice. You can feel yourself trembling now, still unsure as to why. Everything just feels... wrong. Unstable. Scary. Maybe you’ll feel better if you turn the light on.

You head to the switch on the wall and flip it, slightly afraid of what you might see when the room is illuminated.

Nothing.

The switch isn’t working. Funny, you think to yourself, the lightbulb must be burnt out. It was working just yesterday... It couldn’t have possibly just gone out. This is an awfully inconvenient time for it to decide to stop.

Oh well, Gold has other lights. You try the lamp on his desk.

...still no luck. Alright, two suddenly burnt out bulbs is just a bit weird, but not too impossible.

You try a third light, and when that too fails, you groan. The power must have gone out. It figures that it would do that right now. If you could just see, you wouldn’t be anywhere near as freaked out as you are now.

Then again, this would explain things. Gold woke up, got out of bed, realized the power was out, and was looking for a flashlight now. He would be back any minute, and you should just go back to sleep. Everything is fine, everything is explained, nothing to be afraid of. You crawl back in bed.

Unless, of course, this was something Lyra had done. Cut the power, kidnapped Gold... no, that’s silly. Just like Gold had said, she was in the hospital. She couldn’t possibly...
Suddenly, you hear another strange sound, not dissimilar to the one emitted by magnemites. You close your eyes tighter. Just because someone has their magnemite outside doesn’t mean you need to be awake. Yet it grows louder, louder, until you can’t think- you certainly can’t sleep either. You sit up, and open your eyes- everything is blurry. Squinting them closed again, you grit your teeth. Damn this horrible noise. Trying to block out the noise, you press your hands to your ears. It only grows louder. You squeeze your head tighter, clench your jaw more... only more shrill. A throbbing pain grows in your head, the awful screech inducing a migraine. This is no pokemon, it can’t be. You just can’t block it out, can’t get it to leave you alone. You feel tears in your eyes, the pain in your head unbearable. You attempt to scream out, if only for there to be another sound besides this horrible metallic ring. Your voice still fails you.

...and as suddenly as it began, the screeching is fading away, as is the throbbing in your head. You allow your hands to fall away from your head, but keep your eyes closed. You’re afraid... afraid of what is beyond your closed eyes. If you just sit here, with your eyes closed, and wait for Gold... you’ll be fine. But... you can’t keep your eyes closed. You’re compelled to open them. You don’t want to; you’re afraid of what you’ll see. There’s a horrible foreboding sense in your heart, and yet you don’t feel comfortable keeping your eyes closed. You open them, slowly...

...

The lights are on. The power must have come back; the screeching was some strange electrical thing. You look to the floor.

Red... shiny. As you do so a nauseating smell assaults your senses. You look to your feet- also red, covered in a viscuous liquid...

Oh Arceus, no, no, this isn’t possible. The room... it can’t be. It isn’t possible. Not at all... but you can swear the room, the entire room, is covered with blood. And on top of that... your leg hurts.

You check your bandage... dark, wet, soaked in blood. How... it didn’t make sense. How could you be bleeding so much? You were nearly entirely healed...

You unwrap the bandage, and recoil in shock- what was once a small gash has split, become a long, red line spanning your thigh. More blood oozes out- more than you thought you had. You sit there, shocked, not knowing what to do.

“Kris?” A familiar voice calls to you.

Gold’s voice. Gold is back. You leap from the bed, ignoring the pain in your leg to hug him, ridiculously glad to see him.

“Gold, I...” You begin, looking up at him.

...or... what? You could have sworn... could have sworn you heard Gold’s voice, but instead...

Lyra was staring back at you.

“Kris.” She says with a smile. You push her away in disbelief, but end up toppling backwards, into the pools of blood. She walks closer to you... you can feel yourself shaking in fear. Closer now, holding a knife... the knife that she used against you in the first place. Suddenly, she leaps for you, and you close your eyes, and-

“Kris, wake up!”

You open your eyes to a dark room, but you can still clearly see Gold, hovering over you. “Kris, thanks Arceus you’re awake, you were shaking, and crying.” He says. “Were you having a nightmare or something?”

That’s... that’s what it was. Just a dream... a nightmare. That was all. You reach for Gold, and pull him into a hug. “Oh, Gold, I’m... I’m so glad you’re here, it was horrible, just horrible... I had a dream I had woken up, but you weren’t there, and it was dark, and none of the lights would turn on, and then suddenly there was this horrible, horrible pain in my head, and this awful noise, and I opened my eyes... my leg was bleeding, and there was blood everywhere, and suddenly, Lyra was here... and it ended there. But... I’m... just so glad you’re here now Gold.” You say between sobs, shaking as you cling to Gold. You’re cold, sweating, strands of hair clinging to your face, wet with sweat and tears.

“Kris, it’s... stop crying, don’t worry, it’s fine... Lyra is still in the hospital, and she won’t be out for a while. You’re safe. Trust me.”

“I... I know, but... it was just... so real. And scary. And you... you weren’t there, but she was. It was horrible.” You whimper as you continue to cry. “Just horrible.”

“I know, Kris. Just... don’t cry, Kris. It’s fine.” He says, giving you a kiss on the forehead. “It was just a dream. You’re fine now. Don’t worry. Go back to sleep.”

“No!” You shout, possibly a little too loudly, judging by Gold’s surprised expression. “I... I just don’t want to have that dream again, is all...”

Gold lays back down. “Well fine, but I’m exhausted, and my mom is going to kill me if I sleep until noon again. You should try to get back to sleep too, eventually.”

“But, I... Gold, please stay up with me, atleast for a while. Please?” You beg him, putting on your best sad expression. You don’t want to be alone, and you’re not above messing with his mind so that you aren’t.

He sighs. “I should have figured I wasn’t going to get away with that one.” He says, smiling at you. You curl up next to him under the covers, resting your head under his chin.

“It’s just... I don’t know. I can never seem to get Lyra off of my mind. Even though I know she can’t get here... I can’t stop worrying.” You whisper.

“Trust me, I know how you feel... even though I guess I’m close to her, it was always weird being around her. I never knew what she was going to pull next. Whether it be going after somebody because I battled them, or attacking me when I’m asleep, or... nevermind.” He says.

You press yourself closer to him. You don’t like to think about something happening to him... because of her. That horrible girl, attacking numerous people, driving you out of your home... terrorizing Gold. You hate her. But... what can you do? Of course, you could go to the hospital right now, when she was weak, take one of her knives... finish the job. She’s weak right now, probably even unconcious still, she wouldn’t notice, nobody would... not until it was too late for her. Then, you and Gold could live in peace, no more nightmares, you would sleep through the night, and Gold would never have to worry about her again...

No, no.. How could you even think like that? As evil as Lyra was, you aren’t a murderer. You could never do that. It just wasn’t right... you shake your head, trying to clear out your thoughts.

“Kris? What’s wrong?” Gold asks.

“Nothing, just... nothing.”You tell him. You can’t say you were thinking about going off and murdering an unconcious Lyra... he hates her too, but... he would think differently of you. He would think you were just as bad as her. Or, maybe not just as bad, but... still pretty bad. He wouldn’t want to be with you.

“Nothing?” He asks again, obviously doubting you.

“Nothing.” You say. Shit, you really wish he would just stop asking. If you tell him, he’ll just be freaked out by you, and then he’ll leave you... you’ll be alone again. Forever. Of course, maybe he would be better off without you... you caused a lot of problems for him. Lyra wouldn’t have attacked him on route 29 if you hadn’t come to visit... and you saw how he was when you were fighting with her. He was entirely out of it, having a complete nervous breakdown...

“Kris, come on, I can tell you have something on your mind.”

You roll over and scoot away from him. If he can’t see your face, he can’t tell what you’re thinking.

He pulls you back to him. “Really, why won’t you tell me?”

You sigh. “I just... I don’t want you to think badly of me, is all.”

“What? Come on, what could possibly make me think badly of you?”

You still don’t want to say. Then again... he could have a point. Maybe you were just overthinking things. “I was just... thinking about Lyra.”

“And?”

Damn, you had hoped he wouldn’t ask that. “And I was just thinking. I just wish there was something we could do about her. And I was thinking about how if given the chance, I would murder her without a second thought. It just... it makes me feel bad. Horrible even. It makes me feel like I’m just... stooping to her level. Like I’m as crazy as she is.”

Gold laughs. “What? Kris, you think it’s crazy to hate someone who’s ruined your life? Trust me Kris, you’re not crazy.”

You wish you could believe him. “Then why can’t I sleep through the night? Why do I have those nightmares? Why can’t I stop worrying about her, even when I know she can’t get to me?”

“Kris, you’ve been through a lot because of her... probably more than I know.” He says, wrapping his arms across your stomach and resting his head on your shoulder. “But that doesn’t make you crazy. You would be more crazy if you weren’t affected by her. I’m not going to think badly about you just because Lyra’s gotten to you. Now come on, let’s go to sleep.”

Maybe he had a point. He certainly did about getting to sleep, anyways. “Yeah... you’re right. We should get some sleep. Goodnight, Gold.”

“‘Night Kris. Love you.” He mumbles, already half asleep.

You close your eyes. “Love you too, Gold.”

You wake up the next morning, this time with the sun up, and Gold still there. Good, no more nightmares. You snuggle up under gold, who is still asleep, as well as half on top of you. Maybe you can get a few more minutes of sleep, before-

False alarm. The door swings open as Gold’s mother struts into the room. “Come on kids, it’s 9 o’ clock, time to wake up! And Gold, get off of that poor girl, you’re going to suffocate her!” She says, laughing, as Gold’s eyes snap open and he rolls off of you to sit up and stammer a response. You still aren’t sure what she thinks your relationship to Gold is. On one hand, she is allowing the two of you to sleep in the same bed without even blinking an eye... and yet she’s always so happy to wake the two of you up in the morning, and yell at Gold in any instance where she felt he wasn’t far away enough from you.

...Oh well, maybe she's just crazy. She had left now, anyways. You get out of bed, stretching, and get dressed in your regular clothes.

“So, no more nightmares last night?” Asks Gold, who is now laying on his bed, fully dressed and browsing through something on his pokegear.

“Nope!" You say as you pull on your shirt and flop down next to him. You’re glad of it; another dream like that certainly wasn’t welcome, not now, not for a long time. You want to spend what little time you have to be with Gold happy- not having nightmares and worrying about Lyra. She had ruined everything else already... this was something that you wanted to be good. No more being attacked, no more running, no more seeing Gold have nervous breakdowns and having to convince him he was fine... no more of him having to do the same to you because you were having nightmares. None of that. Those things were all Lyra’s fault, and she was gone right now...

“Kris? You okay? You’re sort of staring off into space.” Gold says, interrupting your thinking.

“I... yeah. Yeah, I’m fine. What are you doing on your pokegear?” You say quickly, hoping to change the subject.

“Nothing, just reading about how some kid in Hoenn named Ruby got caught in a plastic bag and suffocated.” He says. “Doesn’t sound like a very bright kid. Now, stop changing the subject. You sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I was just... thinking.”

“...Lyra again?”

You nod.

Gold sighs, sounding slightly annoyed. “Kris, come on, don’t think about her.”

“It’s not like I want to, it’s just...”

“hmm?”

“...I don’t understand why we just stay here.”

Gold looks at you, confused.

“Well I don’t!” You cry out. “We’re just waiting here, for her to get out of the hospital... then what? Then you go back to being terrorized by her, and I have to leave, and I...” You feel tears in your eyes. You try to blink them back.

“...and you...?”

“And I don’t want to leave you, Gold. I never want to, ever again. I did once already, and I hated it. I hated it! I was all alone... but now I’m not. And I don’t want to have to go back to that.” You say as you lose the fight against your tears.

“Kris, I don’t want you to have to leave either. Come on, don’t cry. It’s just... how it has to be. I hate it too, but you’re just not safe here. Not while she’s around.”

“But why do we put up with it? Why don’t we just do something about her? Why are we sitting around here just waiting for her to get out of the hospital?” You cry. It just didn’t make any sense to you. You’re both just sitting around, not doing anything, waiting for Lyra to reappear and ruin your lives. You felt horrible letting her do that, letting her take away your happiness... she couldn’t. She couldn’t just do that to you, force you out of your home a second time. Your mind wouldn’t be able to handle it.

...hell, maybe just visiting Gold in the first place was a bad idea. All you had done was get the two of you injured, and made it harder for you to get over him. Maybe if you had just stayed away, you would have eventually forgotten about him. Maybe he could have forgotten about you too. It probably would have all turned out better for Gold too. Gold... he still hadn’t replied to you.

You look over to him, and he’s staring off into space, obviously contemplating something.

“...Gold?” You say quietly.

He’s silent for another few seconds. Then; “I don’t know.”

He sighs. “I don’t know why we... why I don’t do anything. I’ve had so many chances to turn her in... and I never did.”

You can’t help but feel slightly bad for bringing it up now. He had to deal with Lyra far more than youever did, atleast personally. “Look, Gold, I’m... I’m sorry I brought it up. I was just-”

“But you have a point, Kris. I’ve never done anything to stop her. And now you’re having nightmares over her, and I just can’t help but think, if I had done... something...”

“...you okay, Gold?”

“Yeah, I just... I need to be alone for a while, I think.” Gold says after a short pause.

Oh no... no, no, he couldn’t mean it. “But... Gold, why-”

“Just... leave me alone for a while, Kris.”

He did mean it... he was finally tired of you, tired of you making him feel bad about Lyra. All you did is cause more problems, it was true after all. He had been a mess ever since your encounter with Lyra. You should have just left him alone. You should have. When you were first here, he had told you... he had told you that you needed to get out of there. You should have listened, you should have know he didn’t really want you there.

...maybe it wasn’t too late. Maybe you could leave now, and at least spare him a few problems. “Fine, Gold, if that’s what you want... then I’ll leave. I knew i would just cause problems for you, I should-”

“What?! Kris, no, please don’t leave for good... you haven’t caused any problems, what are you... no, no, please don’t leave.” He shouts, obviously taken by surprise. “I... I didn’t mean it like that. I just... I need to think. Just for a little while. Okay? It’s nothing to do with you, trust me it’s not, I just need to sort through everything.”

Well, he said so himself... it wasn’t anything with you. He hadn’t had much time on his own, had he? Everyone needs time to be on their own...

“I... alright, Gold, I’ll just... go for a walk or something.” You say, trying your best to sound happy despite not wanting to leave.

“That would be good...” Gold says, still not sounding entirely with it. You get up to leave, giving him a hug as an afterthought, which he returns halfheartedly.

You walk out of his door, considering saying something but deciding it was probably best if you were just quiet. You walk down the stairs, and his mother is nowhere to be seen. At least you won’t have to tell her why you’re leaving...

It’s nice outside. Cold, but honestly, you could use some time to think also, and the air was refreshing. Absent-mindedly, you head down route 29. Itisn’t exactly where you wan to visit right now, but it’s not like there are very many other ways out of New Bark Town. As you go down the trail, things start becoming... familiar. You remember the first time you and Gold walked past these trees, and smile... and yet, this is also about where Lyra attacked you and Gold. In fact... oh no.

You can see- just barely, but enough- you can see darkness... darkness on the ground. And on the trees. In splotches, in lines... footprints etched out amongst trampled grass, lined and shaded in brown. And then... you can hear things. Everything. Everything that happened that day. It comes back to you, quiet at first, and then loud, roaring, like you were on the tracks of the Magnet Train...

And then it hits you. All of it, the entirety of the situation, the horror that there was that day, and the smells come back to you... and the sights. It’s too much. You close your eyes. You lean against a tree. It’s too much, just too much... You slump down, until you’re sitting on the ground, instinctively pressing your ears to your head again. Too much... but you can see it all beyond your eyes. You can hear it all. Gold’s scream... and then, how you wer suddenly running, compelled to run, not knowing where to except in the direction of his voice. Lyra, pressed up to Gold... her nails, digging into his shoulders, digging into his skin. His expression... and his words. What he was saying to her...

You feel tears, suddenly on your cheeks. You hadn’t realized you were crying, and yet you were now.

What he was saying to her... she asked him, who were you with? Who was it?

All he did was play dumb, and it was hurting him, she was going to kill him, you know it... he could have said, he could have said where you were, he could have been fine. But he didn’t, to protect you... you. You know what you had been thinking. You got him into that mess... and so you didn’t think. You went up to her, grabbed her arms, pulled her away. Gold stood there, shocked. And you want to remember what you said to Lyra, you know you said something to Lyra, but what it was... you couldn’t think. It was a daze, you felt on top of the world, and yet so low, so horrible... your only thoughts were destroying Lyra, like a monster, a complete monster...

And then you were on the ground, and Gold was helping you up, and you barely noticed. And then Lyra, a knife, she was going for one of you... and then you were on the ground again. A horrible pain in your thigh... a warm, wet feeling running down your skin. Gold was silent.

You can hear, faintly, screeching in your head... like the one in your dream. Your nightmare. It grows louder, and maybe it could block out your thoughts, maybe...

No, you could see it still, suddenly a knife in your hand, and then it was in the ground, and though your leg was screaming at you, and it felt as though you were being torn apart... you stood, and you went at her, and she seemed afraid, but you didn’t care.

But something was wrong. Gold... he was just sitting there, looking... you didn’t know how. Like he wasn’t completely there. Staring off into space, and shaking... and Lyra had noticed too. You couldn’t fight her right now. You went to him, but he barely responded to you, smacking away your hand. Lyra shouted at you. You shouted back. You don’t remember what was said. And then something whizzing past your side, and Lyra was on the ground. Blood was coming from her hand. Gold was still shaking, but you knew... he had thrown it, he had hit her. You ran for him.

The screeching is louder, but only added to the dissonance in your mind.

You tried to talk to him, do something, and you remeber him blinking a few times as though he couldn’t see. And then he was hugging you, albeit while barely managing to stand, and he took your hand, and you could feel that it was wet, bloody...

The noise is so loud, the smell of blood still fresh in your mind, so overwhelming, everything, everything since you had been here. Loud screeching, blood, Gold injured, Lyra, running. This damned screeching. So much, so much, too much for-

“Excuse me ma’am, are you alright?”

You’re shaken back to reality by a sweet voice. Oh good, somebody else here, sweet reality, sweet...

Pigtails... a hat... no, oh no. Lyra. She couldn’t be here. No. This couldn’t be real.

You shriek and try your hardest to back away from her, despite being against a tree. “I- I- Go away! Get away from me! You can’t be here, you’re-”

She looks confused. “What do you mean? I don’t-”

“No! You’re not real! This is a nightmare, a nightmare is all!” You shout.

A purple... thing, appears next to Lyra. “Oh no, no, no, no, you aren’t real either, I’m hallucinating! Just hallucinating, I’ll wake up soon, next to Gold, and he’ll tell me how Lyra isn’t-”

“Lyra? Kid, this isn’t Lyra.” Says the purple creature.

“Stop talking, stop talking, you can’t- can’t... wait, not... Lyra?” You ask, confused.

The pigtailed girl smiles at you. “No, I’m sorry if I scared you... Lyra is my sister. I know I look like her... but trust me. I’m not her.”

You try to adjust your breathing... not Lyra. Not Lyra. “I’m... I’m sorry. I just... I’m sorry. I could have sworn... who are you?”

“My names Kotone. This here is DENNIS.” She says, gesturing to the purple creature.

Kotone... yes, you remember that name, ever so slightly. The name of a girl who moved in when Lyra did.

“Hi... Kotone. I think... I think I might have seen you before. My name is Kris.” You say, slowly, still trying to regain your breath.

Kotone’s eyes change. You can swear they become just a little wider... just a little. “Kris, you say? And you mentioned somebody named... Gold, is it?”

“Yes, Gold, he’s my- he’s a friend of mine.”

Kotone sighs. “I know. She talked an awful lot about you before I left... Gold, too. I met Gold, once, I believe. It was such a shame that Lyra decided to become so obsessed with him. Nice kid, doesn’t really deserve Lyra.” She looks over to you. “I suppose you’ve been victim to her, too?”

You’re a little surprised. “Yeah, I... how did you know?”

DENNIS laughs. “You kidding me girl? You should hear some of the stories Kotone has told me about her. Glass in her cereal, stuff like that, all because she though Kotone would get between her and Gold. Heck, I’ve dealt with her a little myself. If you’re close to Gold, of course she’s gotten to you.”

You’re rather amazed. So it wasn’t just you and Gold who were subject to her. These two also... and apparently others.

“Anyways, Kotone here and I were just up at the hospital she’s at. We couldn’t believe the news that she was actually down and out for a while. We had to hear it for ourselves. But, we’re busy, so we gotta go now. See ya, Kris. Good luck.” Dennis says, as he walks off with Kotone. Part of you doesn’t want them to go- they were two people who understood Lyra too. And yet... they had given you a fabulous, fabulous idea...

Maybe, it was time to pay Lyra a little visit.
You know where the hospital is. You head in that direction, thinking of what Dennis and Kotone had said. She had many victims... she caused many problems. Maybe you could deal with her yourself, and save both you and Gold the trouble of ever dealing with her again. Yes.

You come upon the hospital. In one of those rooms... was Lyra. You head in the doors, and to the front desk.

“Excuse me, nurse?” You say, adressing a bored looking middle aged woman. “I’m looking for a friend of mine, came in the other day for a stab wound to the wrist, name is Lyra? Could you tell me what room she’s in?”

“Oh, eh, yeah, sure. Somebody else came in just a while to see the same girl. Here’s the room number.” The nurse says, scrawling a number on a slip of paper and handing it to you.

You take it, and, barely remembering to thank the nurse, head for the elevator.

It seems as though it’s taking forever. Luckily nobody else is inside, or they might have looked at you strange as you pushed the button for Lyra’s floor frantically.

Finally the elevator grinds to a halt, and you walk out, quickly. Nobody in sight in either direction. For some reason, that made you feel... relieved. That scares you, slightly... why should you feel relieved that you were alone? Because... you were doing something wrong. Very wrong...

No. Stop it with those thoughts. There, signs, telling you where to go for certain rooms... you head left, scanning for Lyra’s room number...

No... no... ah. Yes, there. Instinctively you look around again, scanning the halls. Still empty.

You reach out, slowly, ever so slowly, for that silver handle. It’s cold in your hand, and for a second, you doubt it’s real. Lyra was right beyond that door, weak, incapacitated... your turn the handle.

And there she was. She looked... quite normal, save for the IV in her arm and the bandage on her wrist. And yet, so pathetic.... your mouth twitches into a wry smile.

She still hasn’t noticed you’re there. Time to fix that. “Hello, Lyra.”

She turns her head to you, but doesn’t say anything. For a second her eyes are wide, then narrow, then dark.

“...you.” she says after a pause. Her voice is feeble, and yet she still tries to make it sound sinister. You walk up to her bed.

“Yes, Lyra, it’s me. Remember me? I bet you do.” You say, smiling at her. You don’t feel like yourself. You’re scaring yourself. Nevermind that.

“What are you doing here?” Lyra says.

“Me? What am I doing here?” You say, holding back your urge to laugh. What should you tell her? That you were here to kill her once and for all? That you were living at Gold’s house at the moment, sleeping in his bed? That he didn’t want her to come back, ever? That Gold hated her, yes, that Gold never wanted to see her again. Yes, use Gold, Gold...

...Gold. Shit. Had you really even thought about Gold? What would she do if you told her all of that? She would go after him, murder him... murder him for sure.

...No, she wouldn’t have the chance, you could kill her, easily. But... no, you aren’t a murderer. You don’t kill...

Not even killers? Not even someone who deserves to die more than anyone you can think of?

Lyra sneers. “I asked you a question. Why are you here?”

Well, looks like it’s time to decide...

“Why am I here, Lyra?” You repeat her question, leaning over her, placing your hands on either side of her shoulders, reveling in the shadow your figure cast over her face. “Why do you think I’m here, Lyra?”

She looks up at you, narrowing her eyes yet more, thinking about something.

“...you smell like him.” She says finally, coldly. You can’t help but laugh, quietly... and yet she hears you. In a flash her hand is at your face, striking you, leaving a scratch where her nail caught your skin. You back away from her. “Why do you smell like him!?” She shouts at you as best she can.

“Ha. Lyra... you’re awfully bad with logic, aren’t you?” You say, enjoying the expression on her face. “You tend to smell like someone if you sleep in the same bed with them every night.”

With that, Lyra attempts to jump out of her bed and attacked you, but she’s held down by her own weakness and the tube still attached to her arm. She suffices with a glare. “You... you’re lying. You’re a liar. My Ethan...”

“What about... Gold?” You put an extra emphasis on Gold’s name, as if to insult her with it.

“As soon as I’m out of here, I’ll... I’ll...”

“You’ll what, Lyra? What can you do?”

She gives you a smile. “I’ll make sure he never sees you again... no matter how I have to do it. I’ll make sure of it. I’ll remind him that he loves me, only me... no matter what it takes.”

...you want to keep taunting Lyra. Really, you do, but... now, with what Lyra’s saying, you’re afraid you’ve said too much. Now, now... you’ve endangered Gold. She’s going to go after him, going to attack him... going to hurt him.

...of course, she’ll go after both of you anyways. You step up to her. “You’ll do no such thing, Lyra. I’m not going to let you get between us again...”

You lean over her again. She snarls up at you. “No! You can’t keep me from my Ethan. Ethan is mine...”

“Lyra, I’m tired of you. You’ve caused too much trouble already. I’m not going to let you out of this hospital, Lyra. You’re awfully weak right now, aren’t you?”

Your words shock you, just a little. You sound... different. Vengeful... that isn’t you. Right? This is wrong... attacking someone, taunting them... when they’re weak. It feels wrong, horrible, like you’re just as bad as Lyra. Gold hates Lyra. Gold would hate you.

You see a glint of mischief in Lyra’s eyes... but then she pouts, looking up at you with big eyes. “Yes. I guess I am rather weak right now... I would probably barely be able to fight back.”

She has a point, she wouldn’t be able to fight back. It should be so convenient for you.

But damn, why is it so hard to just kill her already?! So much trouble she’s caused you, it would be so easy... but you can’t. You’re not Lyra, you’re not a cold blooded killer. You can’t do this, it’s wrong.

Wait... no, dammit, Lyra was trying to trick you! You couldn’t listen to her...

“Come on Kris, you couldn’t really hurt me, could you? What would Eth- Gold, think of you, Kris?”
Damn, no, don’t listen to her...

“What would he think? How could you hurt a poor, innocent little girl...”

Poor, innocent, ha. Lyra wasn’t poor or innocent. Just grab a pillow, smother her, something...

“Gold would probably make you leave forever, he would never want to see you again. You would be alone.”

She knows too much, she knows how you think... how the hell does she know how you think?!

Your head hurts, you can’t think. You hear that same ringing in your ears from before. Metallic, shrill... no, not know, you have something to do!

“Going to cry, Kris?”

“Dammit, Lyra, shut up!” you scream at her. “Just shut up! Everything needs to be quiet, I need to deal with you, just shut up, shut-”

Suddenly you feel a sharp pain in your stomach. Very sharp. You look at Lyra’s face- it’s smiling, laughing. Your shirt feels warm. Wet, even. You look down to Lyra’s hand... your side. Something small, silver, in her grip...

Something awfully sharp. And your head... that ringing... you’re awfully dizzy.

You recoil away from Lyra, eventually finding yourself against a wall. Grasping at the wound in your side, you attempt to pull out whatever has been lodged inside you. You grab the cold handle of the scalpel. Luckily, the blade is short, you should be fine. You pull it out, wincing as you do so.

Suddenly you hear a woman shout, and open your eyes to see a nurse looming over you.

“Miss, are you okay? You- you’re bleeding! How did that- how did you-” She stammers, obviously not having anticipated finding you on the ground. Your head is still overcome with pain and ringing, but you try to think of something to say. Something she would believe- telling her that Lyra had stabbed you when you came for a visit wouldn’t sound true or, for the record, sound good on your part.

“I- I just-”

“Oh nurse, it was awful! My friend here was coming to visit me, but she slipped, and she knocked off a scalpel that the doctor had left here, and suddenly- suddenly-” Lyra tops off her lie by bursting into tears, as if she was truly worried about you. The nurse rushes for gauze as Lyra glances to you, giving you a sinister look. You turn your head away. She may not realize it, but she had saved you too- if she had just told the nurse she stabbed you out of self defense, you would be in some hot water.

The nurse bandages your wound, and despite her protests against you refusing stitches, you’re soon out of Lyra’s door. You walk as fast as you can despite the pain in your side. All you have to do is get to the elevator, get out of the hospital, get outside, go back to Gold. When you get there, you will be fine.

You step inside the elevator. Lucky for you, it’s entirely empty. You watch the display impatiently, wishing it would just hit the ground floor already. Then you can be out the door, out of this hospital, away from Lyra.

The doors open; you see the lobby, full of people, feeling their eyes on the red stain on your shirt. Nevermind that. You walk with as controlled a pace as you can, wanting to run but knowing you shouldn’t. The automatic doors slide open, and the cold air hits you, nowhere near as refreshing this time. The wind nips at your skin as you quicken your stride. The way home wasn’t very long, you can be there soon, be with Gold, not have to worry. You will be fine. Perfectly fine.

Or will you? What will Gold say? You have blood on your shirt, that’s not something you can just hope he ignores. You told him you were just going for a walk, not that you were going to go get in a fight with Lyra, and get yourself wounded.

“What if... what if Lyra was right?” you whisper to yourself, stopping to lean against a tree. “What if she was right? What if I was wrong to attack her? What if Gold really doesn’t want me around anymore...” you sit down, feeling tears behind your eyelids. “No, Gold will understand. He has to understand. I was just trying to protect him from her. But... it was wrong. It was wrong. Attacking people like that is just... awful. It’s just like something Lyra would do.”
You pull your knees up to your chest, burrowing your face in them. Even if Gold doesn’t hate you, you surely hate yourself. “Even if Lyra has done horrible things to me... that can’t make it right to go out of my way... out of my way to hurt her.”

Your wound aches as you sob, as if to remind you that you deserve it. “I can’t go back to Gold. I don’t deserve Gold. I should have never come here. He would be happier...”

Suddenly you feel a buzzing at your pocket. Your pokegear; someone must be calling you. You pull it out and groan at the name. Gold... you couldn’t talk to him right now. What would you possibly say?

Of course you had been gone a long time. He must be worried. It would be worse of you to ignore his call.

You answer the call.

“...Gold?” You say quietly.

“Hey, Kris? Where are you? You’ve been gone an awful long time.” He says.

“I’m... I was just on a walk. I guess I got carried away... lost track of time... I’m on route 29 right now, I’ll be back... soon.” You stutter. It was all true, getting carried away and losing track of time... true, except you hadn’t just been on a walk.

Gold takes a while to reply.

“...are you alright, Kris?” You hear him ask over the phone.

Something... you have to say something. No, of course you weren’t okay... you couldn’t tell him that though. But... but you couldn’t lie to him, no...

"Nothing Gold, it's really nothing."

“Are you sure? Because you sound sort of freaked out.”

Your hand tightens around the pokegear. Of course you’re freaked out, but he can’t know that. You can’t let him know what happened. He can’t know. “Gold, I said I’m fine.”

“Kris, seriously, what’s-”

“I’m FINE!” You shout as you toss the pokegear away. It hits the tree across from you, breaking in half with an electric crackle.

Shit, shit, no more pokegear, no more communication... no more having to talk to Gold. You were only going to make things worse if you talk to Gold.

You look up. The treetops are awfully tall... and it’s incredibly cold out here. And you have no pokegear. You broke it. That wasn’t a very good idea. But now Gold can’t call you... can’t make you feel bad about yourself. And he can forget about you.

“...who am I kidding. I just shouted at him over the phone and then as far as he knows, hung up. He’s not going to forget that. He’s going to come looking for me, find me bloodied up, acting crazy... I am crazy. Dammit, I know I am! Look at me, I’m crazier than Lyra!” You shout, hoping nobody is around to hear.

“I’m talking to myself now, great, just great... Gold is going to find me with a stab wound and talking to myself. I should just go home, get back home... fuck, where is home?! Hiding from Lyra, either alone or with Gold... I don’t want to be alone, I can’t be with Gold...” your voice trails off. You have to go somewhere, you can’t just stay here.

For some strange reason... you’re compelled to go to the Indigo Plateau, visit the Elite Four. Gold would never find you there, Lyra would never think to look there, it’s perfect. It wasn’t that far away, you just have to go through...

New Bark Town. Past Gold’s house... you would have to get past Gold’s house. He would be looking for you, he might see you, stop you...

Maybe you could take a different path, or try to keep yourself hidden... that should work.

You head down the route, and soon you’re greeted by a familiar sight. The lab, the houses... Gold’s house. Familiar... but unwelcome. This would be the last time you saw any of those houses if you had your way. That way nobody would ever have to deal with you again, and Lyra just might leave Gold alone.

You slip behind houses, through trees, trying your hardest to stay out of sight. You’re so close to the water, so close to being able swim across, be gone...

And then you realize that you’re right by Gold’s house. You want to go inside, talk to him, atleast say goodbye...

And what was the point, anyways, of hiding out in the Indigo Plateau? Spending your life alone... it wasn’t worth it.

If you’re going to have to live in hiding, there isn’t much of a reason to live at all, is there?

“No, I shouldn't be thinking like this, I shouldn't, I shouldn't..." you hiss to yourself.

...You had to end this. You had to end it now.

...there.

The water by New Bark Town. It was so cold this time of year... the water had to be just freezing.

You head over to it, dip your finger in... and pull it back quickly. Very, very cold.

Now... where...

Yes, over there. the shore was high over there. Almost like a cliff.

...what are you doing? What in Mew’s name are you doing? You... you can’t be thinking about this. You aren’t this sortof person. You had too much to live for. You had Gold... what would he think?

And yet your feet still carried you. Up, up... then no more.

You stand at the top, looking down... it looks so far. Water crashing against the side of the overhang. It looks so cold, so uninviting... and you feel cold.

You wish Gold was here. He would talk you out of it, because he wouldn’t want you to do this. That was right, he wouldn’t want it. You shouldn’t do it.

...but what if it was still for the best? Short term he wouldn’t want this... long term he would be better off. He would forget about you eventually. Lyra would leave him alone. He would be better off...

No! No! Dammit, you can’t do this!

You try to move your feet away from the edge... but they don’t move. They won’t move for you. So scared... they don’t move. They’re shaking now. Oh, no, you don’t want this, you don’t want this! No, no, please move... shaking too much. Too much.

The ledge... the ledge is shaking too. The ground is cracking, cracking, oh no...

You have to get away, the ground is cracking, you were too close to the edge. But... so cold, so scared, shaking... shaking... and now you’re moving, but not away, down... down.

The water is getting closer. Closer... you fell, you fell and now you’re falling into the water.

You try to scream out, for Gold... but you’re in the water. You open your mouth, but only water comes in. You don’t know what to do. You look around you as best you can despite being freezing cold. Nothing... it’s all just blue, and cold...

...and it’s dark. It’s getting darker. You feel a tightness around you, around your chest... loss of air... and it’s just... dark.

...

suddenly... a light. Definitely lightness. It was... it felt so bright. Was this... were you dead? People always talked about seeing light... maybe that meant it was over. Finally over. You open your eyes, slowly... something looming over you.. something...

“Kris! Kris, thank Arceus... Kris, you’re alive!”

...Gold?

...Gold.

You were... alive. And Gold was here...

Despite still being freezing and wet, you reach up to hug him. You’ve never been so glad to see him.

“Kris... what happened, Kris? I saw you up there, and all of the sudden you... I...” He says, not finishing his sentence.

You realize his clothes are wet... he must have seen you, gone in after you... what were you supposed to say? That you were trying to kill yourself? That you had thought he would be better off without you? Something, something... you have to say something. You have to start somewhere.

“I was... I was up there, and...”

Gold looks at you, obviously worried, obviously confused... obviously had been crying.

“And I slipped.”

PART ELEVEN:

AND NOW FOR SOMETHING COMPLETELY DIFFERENT.

---

It was a cold winter day in New Bark Town. Gold and Kris were out, walking down route 29, reminiscing about the better days spent there, not the ones ruined by Lyra. It was as good a time as ever to do so- after all, it was probably going to be their last day together, for a long time.

Gold’s mother had told them both earlier that morning; Lyra was entirely recovered after her visit to the hospital, and tomorrow she would be released. Gold’s mother had been glad- she looked at she and Gold as friends. He and Kris on the other hand... not as happy. Kris could only stay in Johto as long as Lyra was away. As soon as she left the hospital, Kris would be leaving to.

Of course, neither of them wanted to think about that. It was the last day, and...

Gold turns his head suddenly. “Kris, did you hear that?”

“Gold, you’re paranoid, it was probably just a rattata or something.” Kris replies, laughing. “Come on, there’s something I want to show you!”

Kris grabs Gold’s hand, pulling him in the opposite direction.

Only... his hand falls out of hers.

Kris turns to look at him... then recoils in shock.

“Oh... oh Arceus, this... can’t... this is a dream, what the hell, oh no, I... I...”

Suddenly, footsteps. Kris looks over and sees a familiar figure... white hat, brown pigtails...

Lyra crouches over Gold, who’s now on the ground, bleeding... not saying anything. Lyra too, is silent, and so is Kris.

Finally; “I... I missed.”

Kris blinks, her stupor broken by Lyra’s words.

“I missed! I... I had been aiming...” She turns her head to Kris. “For you! For you, you blue haired whore...” She lunges at Kris. “If you had been just a little farther away, my aim would have been perfect! Perfect! I would finally have you dealt with... finally... but no!”

Kris stumbles away, still awestruck and confused.

“You killed him, it’s your fault!” Lyra sneers.

Kris is shocked by her words... but can’t stay silent. “...me? I did? You’re the one throwing knives! What the hell were you-”

“I needed my revenge, you had caused so much trouble for me already, and now-”

“Now you’ve gone and... you’ve...” Kris still has trouble finding her words, not entirely comprehending the fact that Lyra had just killed Gold.

“Hey you two, what’s going on in this-” a voice rings out from the forest. A youngster had walked up... and was now quite silent.


Kris decided to stay silent too. What in the hell was going on?

“I, uh, I... I’m calling the police!” The child shouts.  Kris has no objections to this- of course, Kris is mostly entirely muted by shock.

Lyra on the other hand, was busy. Grabbing the knife  that had lodged itself in the back of Gold’s neck, she turns to the youngster. “You... you need to be quiet.”

“What are you talking about, I’m getting the cops, you’re- you’re crazy!”

He turns to run, but Lyra is too fast for him. In a flash she throws the knife, effectively hitting him the  same way she hit Gold. He falls to the ground.

Kris is frozen in place, trying to process what in the hell was going on.

Lyra had no time for this. She grabbed her hand, and started pulling her along, in some direction...

“Lyra! Lyra! What in the hell is going on, where are you taking me, what just happened?!”

“Be quiet, somebody is going to find us! We have to be quiet, we need to get out of here, get out quick...” she hisses. She drags Kris deeper into the forest... and soon she isn’t recognizing her surroundings.

Kris jerks her hand away. “Lyra, what is going on?! You just... you... you killed Gold! You killed him! And... you killed a little kid! And then you grabbed me and we’re running, and I’m incredibly confused!”

“Look you dumb bitch, I hate you. And I’m sure you hate me. But right now, do you know what we are? We’re accomplices in murder. So you need to just chill out and let me handle this.” Lyra sneers.

Kris blinks a few times. “We? We are accomplices in murder? No, you’re just a psycho, alright? And I... I want to go home. I really want to go home!”

“Hey!” Lyra shouts, slapping her. “I am not a psycho! Look, we both had some things in common, right? We both loved Gold, and now we are both royally fucked. So can you just-”

“I’m not going to ‘just’ anything! You’re a killer! you’re crazy! I will fight you! I will! right here! I WILL KICK YOUR ASS, HAND TO HAND, IN THE SUNSET WITH NO SHIRTS, I WILL FUCKING END YOU.” Kris shouts, foaming at the mouth.

Lyra stares at Kris, open mouthed. “...what?”

“YOU HEARD ME! You... you have caused so much trouble for me, and now? Now you have ruined everything. EVERYTHING! Do you hear me? DO YOU?” Kris grabs Lyra’s shoulder and throws her to the ground, knocking the wind from her.

Lyra kicks up at Kris, knocking her down with her. “What’s the big idea bitch? I try to help you for once, and this is how you repay me?”

Kris attempts to stand, but only manages to fall back down, shaking with anger and confusion. “Help me? You tried to lob a knife into me, you think not trying to do so again after killing Gold constitutes help? Well, it doesn’t, and I want my damn revenge.” Kris attempts to pull Lyra towards her, but only ends up snapping the strap of Lyra’s suspenders she had grabbed. She suffices with punching her in the jaw. Lyra recoils as a trail of blood begins leaking from the side of her mouth.

“You...” Lyra whispers, and grabs Kris’s shoulder. She flips her over as best she can, Kris eventually landing onto her back and wincing, feeling dizzy from the impact.

Lyra leaps on top of her, but Kris grabs her arms, stopping them from reaching her throat as Lyra intended.

They wrestle on the ground, fingernails and thorns tearing into skin and fabric. Neither is a clear winner for more than a second- one instant Kris is looming over Lyra, the next Lyra has her tumbling over.

Then, suddenly- a camera shutter.

The two bloodied girls look up- there’s a man there, giggling to himself, looking through the pictures on a digital camera.

“Hey, what the hell are you doing?!” Lyra shouts, pushing Kris off from on top of her.

“Oh, me? Just getting some... pictures, of your little catfight.” He says, grinning slyly.

“Doing WHAT?!” Kris shouts, now considerably pissed. She already had to deal with Lyra, not some weird pervert too.

“Ooh, does kitty have claws?”

Kris decides to just sit back and watch. Lyra can handle it...

Indeed, she can.

“You think this is funny? I can do the same thing I’m doing to her dude, only ten times worse. Why don’t you take that little camera over here?” Lyra shouts, threatening him.

“Aww, little kitty wants to grow up to be a lion!” He laughs, sauntering over. “And what do you want little girl?”

Kris laughs in the distance, amused despite herself at what was about to happen. Lyra grabs the camera, and with a wry smile, tosses it into the distance. The snapping of metal can be heard.

“H-hey! That is expensive... expensive photographer equipment!” He stutters. “You better know how to-”

“Oh I’ll pay you back.” Lyra says, and as she does she kicks him in the crotch. He doubles over, coughing, giving Lyra an opening. She knocks him over, and proceeds to kick him. And kick him... and kick him more. At this point Kris’s adrenaline rush is wearing off, and she’s mortified by what she’s watching. Lyra... was going to kill him.

She runs over. “Lyra, hold on! Lyra! Stop!” She shouts, grabbing Lyra’s shoulders and trying to pull her away. Lyra only pushes her off, but as she’s distracted the main scrambles to his feet,coughing. Flecks of blood fly from his mouth.

“I... I’ll get you for this! Both of you!” He said, backing away, attempting to run. “I’ll make you pay, I’ll-”

At the phrase “both of you”, something snaps in Kris. Lyra was right, they were in this together. They were accomplices, this man was going to ruin her life even more...

Kris jumps to him, tackling him. She claws at his face in a rage, getting skin and blood under her nails. The man screams in pain. “KITTY GOT CLAWS? KITTY IS GOING TO TURN YOUR BODY INTO A SCRATCHING POST!”

Lyra laughs. “Never thought to see that side of you, Kris...”

Kris ignores her, continuing to tear into the man. She goes for his throat, digging her nails into it as she tries to strangle him.
...soon, he’s stopped his struggling. Kris backs away, gasping for breath...

Only to look at her hands. Covered in blood... someone else’s blood. “What... what have I done? I’ve... I’ve killed someone. Today is just... what...”

But Kris’s confusion is cut short as Lyra leaps onto her back. “Now... you’ve done my dirty work, but I have a score to settle with you.”

They tumble through the grass, clawing, biting, pulling hair- until they finally reach a cliff edge.

“Here, Lyra... all of this time you’ve been ruining my life. I... I have nothing left to lose. I’m ending yours, I’m ending you right now.” she mutters. With one last swift kick she sends Lyra toppling towards the edge. It’s so close to being over...

And then she manages to hold on. Her fingers are straining, but Lyra is still clinging to that cliff.

Kris takes a second to breath. In a second it would all be over, all of it...

And then, something in her head... was this really her? Could she really... really kill someone again?


“No... I’m not a killer.” Kris whispers to herself. She goes to grab Lyra’s shoulder, pull her up...

Lyra smiles and grabs the collar of Kris’s shirt. This causes Lyra to fall, taking Kris’s shirt with her. In an instant Kris is pulled downwards, and they’re both tumbling down the side of the cliff. It isn’t long enough to be fatal, but they spend quite a bit of time grappling with eachother, biting and clawing. A sharp rock jabs Lyra in the shoulder, and she winces as it takes her other suspender strap with it. They tumble further, now rolling in patches of grass.

Finally they stop rolling, both gasping for breath, Kris straddled over Lyra. She attempts to lift herself off of Lyra, struggling to do so in pain. She looks at Lyra- her shirt nearly torn entirely off, her skin bloody and bruised- and realizes she must look as bad as her. She attempts to stand again, when Lyra suddenly brings up her knee, hitting Kris in the stomach. The force propels her to her feet and she struggles to stay standing, nearly toppling back over as soon as she’s up. Lyra gets to her feet and throws a punch at the stumbling Kris, who barely manages to dodge. The momentum of her arm sends her tumbling, and Kris follows her as she tries not to fall to the ground. She grabs her from behind, pinning back her arms, but only manages to open up a chance for Lyra to rear her head back into her bare chest. Kris stumbles backwards, and finds herself...

...by anither ledge? It was almost like... the base of a mountain. “What the... there are not mountains in Johto... unless...”

Kris is distracted by thinking, shocked at how far they both must have gotten in their fight, and Lyra lunges at her again. thinking quickly Kris jumps back behind her, clinging to a ledge with the best of her ability. From here she could fight Lyra, finally get her revenge...

Or maybe, just run.

...Kris had to end this. She had to kill a bitch.

Kris grabbed Lyra’s shoulder, pulling her up onto the ledge, only to slam her into a nearby rock. Lyra gasped with the impact, but was soon as Kris’s throat. She clawed into it, tearing at her, snarling. Lyra tried to lunge again, but Kris ducked, sending Lyra forward. She climbed higher onto the mountain, trying to gain a good position to attack from, but was followed too quickly by Kris, who tackled her to the ground, pinning her under her. She took Lyra’s collar, and attempted to bring her up to slap her, but only succeeded in tearing off the last remnants of her shirt that remained. Lyra swept her hand across Kris’s face, leaving red marks where the nails hit her, causing Kris to recoil backwards. In response, Kris grabbed Lyra’s arm, flinging her yet higher onto the mountain.

They continued to climb, growing yet more tired and bloody. Eventually it was getting colder, much colder. Lyra lunged at Kris, but slipped on ice that she had yet to notice. Soon she was toppling forward, eventually pressing herself up against Kris, who in turn was being pressed in the side of the mountain, which, they now were realizing, was covered in snow.

It didn’t phase them. They only continued to wrestle, until they finally got to a large, flat area. A ledge... almost near the top of the mountain. The sun was setting, and their bodies were nearly silhouettes in the orange glow. They were bleeding, and breathing heavily, but weren’t worried about that- or, for that matter, their lack of shirts. They were too busy, too busy fighting,in hand to hand combat, in the sunset, with... no shirts. The sun glinted off of the ice as they lunged for eachother again.

They tumbled yet more, drawing more blood from eachother. As they rolled they noticed little else, just eachother, just planning, just their attempts to murder the other.

....and then they both realized the presence of one other person. A boy, not much older than themselves.... seemingly unphased. His expression was one of disinterest, and if nothing else, vague bemusement.

“Hey! You there! What do you think you’re doing, just standing there?!” Lyra called out. He said nothing in reply, simply stared under his black hair and red and white hat. Kris, too, was staring.

“...I’m talking to you. Don’t ignore me! I don’t like being ignored!”

More silence.

She leapt to the boy, Kris following. This was her chance, her chance to catch her off guard. Lyra swung her arm towards him, and with a simple movement to the left he avoided her. She swung again, and he evaded and calmly as before. Kris grabbed her arm as it swung back, and clung to it. This was her chance, she could just toss Lyra off the side of the mountain, right there.

“Ha! I finally have you Lyra, I’ll throw you off right now, you’ll be over with, done! I’ll be free, I’ll be-”

Kris’s speech was cut short as Lyra jerked her arm away, pushing Kris towards the edge of the mountain. The boy stood stoic as she stumbled towards the edge of the cliff, slipping on the ice... falling. Falling towards the ground...

And just barely catching hold of a rock on the edge.

She looked up at Lyra, her face darkened by the lowering sun.

“...Please, Lyra, pull me up, I’ll forgive you, I’ll-”

“You, forgive me? I’m the one who should be forgiving you...” She purred, taking a step closer.

“Oh, shit, no... no... come on, kid! Whoever you are! You’ve gotta help me!”

Silence from him.

“Come on, what are you doing?! Please, please-”

Lyra put her foot on Kris‘s hands. “Kris... Kris... Quiet.”

With a twist of her ankle, Kris’s right hand was gone. Her left was pinned in place by Lyra’s shoe.

“Oh... oh fine! Fine! Just do it already! You’ve already destroyed everything... everything I’ve had  to live for! I don’t care, just-”

Lyra smiled and kicked out her foot yet again, sending Kris falling...

falling....

and then she was gone.

Lyra turned to the boy.

“You must be Red... the famous Red.”

Silence.

“You’re silent now, sure... but you’re also a witness. I can’t have that. You’re going the same place she did.”

Silence.

“...well? Anything you want to say? Any last words?”

Silence.

“...anything?!”

Lyra was fed up now. Her hand flung out to strike him.

He caught her arm, and as he did, a single word escaped his lips.

“No.”

In a single movement, he threw her away from him. Stumbling to the edge, over the edge, down, through the air...

And then she was gone.

The boy didn’t say anything else, or acknowledge the crash at the base of the mountain.

He simply turned back to face the mountain path.

...

And then  Gold woke up. Wow, what aweird dream.

PART TWELVE

How long has it been since your last climb up this mountain? A day? A week? A month? You really can't remember. You're not even sure why you are following her. She has done so much to you this last year... Raped, maimed, and probably killed a few people along the way. But for some reason, you don't care. You couldn't care any less. She has crushed you, physically and mentally. You can barely keep up with her, she is practically gliding up the mountain side. Along with her is that blue menace, Marill, bouncing up and down, a stark contrast to the nearly pure white snow of Mt. Silver.

"Come on Ethan! Don't be such a Slowpoke!" yells out Lyra. "We have to find that Red!" You simply nod and start climbing faster, not even bothering to correct her on your name. She has a knife in her hand, the others stowed away on her person. Your partner Typhlosion looks at you with a face of disgust, as if to say "What has happened to the great Champion of Johto?" You wish you could answer him back, but you have no answer.

After what seems like hours, the snowstorm finally lets up as you and Lyra enter a large cave. Sure enough, standing in the middle of the massive cave is the legend himself. Torches, no doubt set up by him, cast a dim light on his face, and all you can see is his eyes staring into you. He is searching you, seeing if there is anything left saving.

He is quickly interrupted by a loud scream. "RED! Ethan and I are here for our revenge! We're gonna beat both you and your Pokemon! Literally!" cries out Lyra, her Marill shouting out its name in agreement. Red turns his gaze to Lyra, who is pointing her knife at him. His eyes narrow at her, and then looks back at you, as if he is waiting for some sort of verbal challenge. You reach for your Pokeball slowly, without any thought or emotion. "Champion Red..." you whisper. "I... I challenge you."

Something deep inside of you is beginning to build up. A small part is screaming "This is it! The moment we've worked so hard for! Ignore the psycho bitch! Do it for yourself!" However, the pain, the anguish, the torment has taken its toll on you.

Red shakes his head. "I do not accept this challenge. I will not battle some fool who cannot think for himself." The Pokemon Champion of Kanto turns back to Lyra, with the faintest hint of a grin on his face.

Lyra's face instantly contorts in rage. "HOW DARE YOU!!! I'LL KILL YOU FOR INSULTING ETHAN!!!" she screams, quickly charging the teen from Pallet Town. You, Typhlosion, and Marill stand there as Lyra begins to swing her knife wildly at Red. His three years on this mountain are clearly showing as he quickly dodges each thrust, swipe, and jab she throws at him. "I'LL KILL YOU! I SWEAR I WILL KILL YOU FOR EVERYTHING YOU HAVE DONE TO ME AND ETHAN!" Red's face turns to one of disgust, and with a swift move of his leg, kicks Lyra hard in the chest. She stumbles back towards you and you catch her before she can hurt herself from falling. She takes deep breaths, but looks up at you with puppy-dog eyes and whispers, "You are such a gentleman Ethan. Thank you so much. I'll make sure to be quick here." That part of you that wants to drop her is growing, but is still suppressed by the mental barrier you have set up. It is, after all, best to do what she says. Going against her will only make her hurt you more.

Red, who once again is staring at you, furrows his brow, almost deep in thought. Suddenly though, his face lights up, and a grin is painted across his face. "Lyra!" he shouts, his tone smug. "You say that you truly love Gold-"

"IT'S ETHAN!"

"-Ethan... but I wonder how true that statement is. Prove it to me. Right now."

Lyra finally catches her breath and looks at Red, then back to you. "Alrighty then." she giggles, her mood taking another 180 as is common for her. The knife she was holding in her hand has been tossed to the side. She inches closer to your face, her hot, sticky breath invading your sense of smell, a smell you've become used to. "Pucker up, Ethan. Let's show him how it's done."

Her lips crash into yours, and once again she is attempting to force her tongue into your mouth. However, you do not stop it this time. You've accepted the fact that nothing will change with her. She will control you forever, and perhaps- "No! No this isn't right! Fight it Gold! FIGHT IT!" You hear yourself scream inside your head, but it's not working. Lyra's hand has already found it's way to your crotch and has begun stroking you from the outside.

Suddenly though, Red speaks up. "Gold. Remember who it is that you are kissing. Remember, this is the woman who has made your life a living hell since you met her." Lyra is too caught up in the moment to notice Red standing right next to you. "Remember... she hurt the people you truly love."

Kris.

You snap your head back as a sudden rush of emotions flood you. Fear, Anger, Sadness, Happiness, emotions you haven't felt in weeks are there again. Lyra, disappointed that you two are no longer kissing, looks at you. "Ethan?"

However, there is one emotion that rises above all else.

"What's wrong, Ethan?"

Disgusting.

With a power you did not know you have, you deliver one of the strongest punches you have ever thrown right into the side of her mouth.

You're pretty sure you saw some teeth get knocked out as she does a twirl and lands flat on her face. Red is smirking. Marill is shrieking in terror. And Typhlosion, the one who has stuck by you throughout the worst of it all, is cheering loudly. Quickly, Red kicks the knife Lyra tossed aside away from her, and pats you on the back. "It's good to see the real you, Gold. I'm sorry I had her do that to you, but it was the only way I could think to get through to you."

"Thank you, Red. I'm not sure what came ove-" is all you manage to get out before Lyra's cries assault your ears.

"ETHAN!" she screams, her mouth filled with broken teeth and her own blood. "WHY?! WHY ETHAN?! I LOVED YOU!! I THOUGHT YOU LOVED ME!!!" She is back on her feet, and you see your handy-work. The entire right side of her face is bloody and bruised from the face plant she took. A mixture of white chunks and red blood is flowing from her mouth. Her trademark hat was ruined from the dust and blood, and her hair was a complete mess. The look in her eyes was not one of anger, but one of hurt. It was this look, this look of "I'm innocent here!" that finally causes you to snap.

"FOR THE LAST TIME YOU FUCKING PSYCHOTIC BITCH! MY NAME IS GOLD! AND I HAVE NEVER, EVER, LOVED YOU! I LOVED KRIS, AND YOU TOOK HER AWAY FROM ME!" you scream, all the anger and rage pouring out of you. "Fuck you Lyra. Fuck you. If I was just as crazy as you are, I would make you feel the same pain I've felt for the last year. But I'm better than that. Better than you. You are a freak... and I can only wish the worst for you. I'm done." Arceus, that felt good.

The torches allow you to see her face, and you are expecting it to come. She begins to breath heavily, her face changing from shock, to sadness, to denial, and then finally, rage. Pure rage paints her every being. She shakes, and you can almost taste the fury she is expressing. Finally she can't control it any longer and snaps. "I HATE YOU ETHAN! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU! With a speed even you weren't expecting, she pulls out a knife from her shirt, and charges at you. Before you can even react, the blade is thrust into your hand, the cold steel sending massive pain throughout your body. You cry out as she retracts the blade, ready to aim for your heart.

Typhlosion though, comes to your aid, headbutting Lyra into the wall of the cave. He quickly runs back to you, blood gushing out of the wound she left you. There is a loud rumble, almost as if there was an earthquake. Lyra looks up along with the rest of you, but it's too late. A large rock was knocked loose from the force of Typhlosion's Headbutt and falls on top of Lyra. You hear a sickening crunch as he left leg is crush between the rock and the ground. Her bloodcurdling scream fills the cave, quickly followed by her sobs as she tries to push the massive rock in vain. Marill runs up next to her, also trying to push, but to no avail.

Red is by your side, quickly pulling out some medical sprays and gauze to tend to your wound. He asks if you are alright. "It stings, but it is nothing worse than what she has put me through before." you reply through the pain. After a few minutes, you are able to stand up and the three of you walk towards Lyra, who is reaching out to you.

"G-G-G-Gold... I-I'm so s-s-sorry!! Pl-Please... help me!" she manages to choke out in between sobs.

"What do you want to do with her Gold?" asks Red. "It is your choice. I do not blame you if you decide to end her here and now." But you've already made up your mind.

You shake your head. "Nothing. I plan on doing nothing." you calmly answer as Lyra's face sinks in. "You will stay here, and I will not give a single fuck what happens after I leave this cave. You can starve to death, or eat that little blue mouse for all I care. You mean nothing to me anymore Lyra. You can't control me any longer. I hope Arceus above sees what you have done, and reserves a special place in Hell for you. But I bet you would like that too, wouldn't you? Feh, I don't care anymore. Good bye Lyra. I hope you rot." Your final act is spitting her in the face before turning around to leave the cave. Typhlosion quickly kicks Lyra, though you are not sure why. No doubt she did something to him when you weren't looking probably. Red simply shakes his head and turns to leave as well. All the while, her screaming and sobbing can be heard, with the only intelligent thing coming out of her mouth is "I'M SORRY GOLD! I'M SO SORRY!!!!"

~~~~

The snow white peaks of Mt. Silver fill your vision, and for the first time in a long time, you smile. A great burden has been lifted off your shoulders. Lyra will never haunt you again. No longer will you always be checking your back, expecting her or Marill to come running at you with milkshakes, or trinkets she 'found' from trainers. Then, you do something even more strange than smile: you laugh. Red looks at you with a broad smile. "What's so funny?" he asks.

You look down at Typhlosion and pet him on the head. "It's nothing... I just haven't laughed in forever. It felt... right, ya know?"

"Indeed." Red walked a bit back, putting some space between the two of you. You look at him questioningly as he grins. "Now... isn't it about time we finally got down to business, Gold?"

Typhlosion looks at you with determination. He is ready to do what you set out here to do. Of course! The battle! You nod at Typhlosion and he quickly runs in front of you. You point at Red, that smile never leaving your face. Win or lose, you didn't care. Today was already one of the happiest days of your life. The snow storm has begun to pick up. "Champion Red of Kanto! I, Champion Gold of Johto, challenge you to a Pokemon Match!"

Red takes a hold of his signature red hat, and turns it backwards. "Challenge accepted, Gold. Let us begin!"

As he reaches for his Pokeball, the snow begins to blur the scene. As he tosses the ball high into the air, the scene becomes white, until finally nothing can be seen.

No one would see the fight between Champions.

~~~~~

Epilogue:

You take in a deep breath, the salty air filling your lungs as you take a step off the S.S. Anne. Your first step into Hoenn. Slateport City fills your view as you step onto the dock. It was only 6 months ago that the events at Mt. Silver accord. It was only 1 month ago that Professor Elm had contacted you with news that the S.S. Anne was going to be sailing to Hoenn for the first time ever, and that there were many more Pokemon and trainers to fight, as well as another league with Gyms and everything. You quickly jumped at the prospect of learning more about Pokemon, expanding your team, and meeting new people. No doubt Red would also go, though you hadn't seen him since Mt. Silver.

Typhlosion seemed less enthusiastic, most likely because Hoenn was largely filled with water routes, but that wouldn't stop you! You run to the nearest Pokemon Center to check up on Mom. You promised you would video chat with her as soon as you reached the city. You quickly dial in the number and sure enough, your mother's face appears on the screen. She looks excited, more so than usual. "Oh honey! I'm so glad you called!"

"Geez mom, its only been a few weeks since I left." you jokingly reply. "What's got you so excited? Did you find a new boyfriend?"

"Gold! You're lucky I'm not there to smack you upside the head mister!" You laugh at the outburst. "Anyways, I've got some great news! You'll never guess who I just got off the phone with! It was Lyra! They found her Gold! Shes badly hurt, but still alive! After six months on Mt. Silver, can you believe that?! Anyways, she asked me where you were, I told her, and she says she's gonna be on the next boat over as soon as she can! She can't wait to see you again Gold! Isn't it exciting?! Gold?! Gold...? Gold? Hello?"

"Fuck me."

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Oh thank sweet Jesus it's over!