CHAPTER 84

Cecilia was sitting next to me, dozing off against the cave’s wall, but she snapped back awake when she saw that I had opened my eyes.

“Grace,” She smiled. “You slept like a log. We’re almost ready to head out.”

“Huh?” I said, still half asleep. I pet Togetic’s head as she chirped softly.

Chase was seemingly training, doing some situps with Riolu, and Denzel was packing.

“Why didn’t you wake me up?” I asked as I hurried out of my sleeping bag.

“You’re more tired than you know, Grace,” she said. “I worry about you.”

I smiled. “You sound like Amanda.”

“Well, she’s good at her job then,” Cece said before pulling me close and softly kissing my cheek. “Did you finish your planning last night? I fell asleep.”

“We did,” I said, ignoring the fact that I was blushing. Cece obviously noticed since she grinned. She enjoyed seeing me be shy in front of her. “I talked about a lot of stuff, but I think we covered all of our bases. Denzel didn’t tell you?”

Cecilia shook her head. “He said you’d enjoy explaining it more than he did. You do like talking about plans,” she teased.

“Erm, not that much,” I lied. “Let me get ready then.”

I folded up my sleeping bag, brushed my teeth, and quickly ate. I smelled terrible, but I had gone through all of my clothes already. I sighed. I couldn’t wait to get out of here and take a warm shower. After around ten minutes, we were all ready, and I released Elekid and Tangela, who had been resting in their Pokeballs. I explained the plan to Chase and refreshed Cece’s memory, probably in a more convoluted way than was needed. She caught on and understood quickly, and Chase… Chase had gotten the gist of it. He was just irritated and wanted to get out, which I definitely understood.

Soon enough, we were on our way with almost all of our Pokemon out. We quickly made work of any enemies foolish enough to attack us, which at this point weren’t many. It seemed that the wild Pokemon living in this region of the cave had learned who we were, and that we should be avoided at all costs, which meant that we progressed faster. As awful as our experience through Mount Coronet had been, I would be lying if our Pokemon hadn’t improved at a much faster rate in here than they would have outside doing normal training. As Cece had told me during our first training in Floaroma, Pokemon improved the fastest in tough situations, and there was no situation that was more difficult than being stuck in this death trap with no potions to heal their wounds.

We stared up at the cave’s ceiling and noticed that there was a sudden lack of crystals like we had theorized yesterday. In fact, it was so egregious that it was incredible that we had never noticed.

“How did we never notice this?” Chase said, enunciating my thoughts.

“I heard a saying once,” Denzel said. “Humans rarely ever look up.”

I slowly stepped forward and squinted at the ground. “That looks to be it,” I said. There was the smallest, tiniest fissure that demarcated the area that shifted us backward so many times.

“That’s basically invisible unless you know exactly what you’re looking for,” Denzel said. “And incredibly unfair.”

“Well, we found it, so do your thing,” Chase stressed, clearly impatient.

“I’ll do it,” I said.

“No, you won’t. Not alone,” Cece interjected. “Let’s all step on and run back at the same time, just in case there are any… mishaps.”

I nodded.

“Okay, let’s recall our Pokemon for this,” Denzel said. “Much easier to make sure none of them are separated.”

“Good thinking,” I agreed.

We recalled our Pokemon, and I labored to lift Larvitar into my arms. Then we jumped into the shifting zone and immediately scrambled back to safety.

“Now what?” Chase asked.

“Now we wait and hope that we were right,” I nervously said. “Should take anywhere from… a few minutes to a few hours.”

We released our teams again as we waited. It was slightly underwhelming to have to wait so long. I wanted to have confirmation that the plan was working now, and I wouldn’t be able to relax until it did.

It was honestly astonishing that I had somehow learned to relax in Mount Coronet. The human mind could truly adapt to anything if it was given enough time.

Two hours had passed, and the area ahead of us just… suddenly changed. There wasn’t even a sound. No shaking ground, no rumbling, no wind, just nothing. It was disturbingly fast and silent. Teleportation was one thing, but to see it applied to such a huge chunk of the cave was just terrifying. It made me feel so tiny, so insignificant, that I felt my palms start to sweat. There were forces at play here that had been implemented by beings I couldn’t even begin to understand.

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“Holy shit,” I breathed out.

We stared at the new terrain ahead of us in silence. It was smoother than the previous one had been, and now that I could take a good look at it, it definitely fit more. Rock formations stuck together properly, and the crystals on the roof were at an appropriate number, shining more light onto us.

“You said it,” Chase said. “Let’s get out.”

I nodded. There was a chance that this spot would shift too, as Denzel and I had theorized late last night, but we had come to the conclusion that it was likely for one reason. We had never seen this area before, which meant that at some point, they always switched back together for some unknown reason. That might have meant that we could have waited it out and swapped back here, but I didn't want to waste the only chance we might have. Luckily for us, this fact came with a silver lining. Since the two areas would swap back, that meant that the shift had a downtime of some sort that would last at least a few hours at most.

Which meant we only had a few hours to get past this. We all broke into a frantic run, recalling our Pokemon who couldn’t run as fast as us. Larvitar could barely keep up, and I feared that she would fall behind. She was too heavy to run that fast, her legs were too short, and she was just a baby, so she tired out quickly. I tried carrying her for some of the way, but all that did was exhaust me. She was too heavy. I couldn’t run with her in my hands.

I stopped in my tracks and looked at the rock type.

“Grace, we have to go,” Denzel said.

“No. I’m not leaving without her.”

“Then fucking catch her already!” Chase yelled.

“Shut it!” I yelled before grabbing an empty Pokeball and crouching. “Larvitar, you can’t run. I have to catch you if we want to make it out of here.”

“Larvi!” She yelled back. “Tar!”

“I’ll care for you. I know you’re hurting, and you’ve been so strong this entire time. You haven’t cried since we found you. If you don’t come with me, something in here will get you.”

“Toge!” Togetic cried out. “Togetic!”

Larvitar hissed, looking sideways.

“I’ve had time to learn about you in our short time together. You’re a tough girl, Larvitar, but you’re hopeful too. You’re hoping to find your parent back, aren’t you? That’s why you don’t want to leave.”

Larvitar’s eyes widened, and she stared right at me.

“I… I’m sorry. You know deep down that it’s not possible. I haven’t told you this because I didn’t want to hurt you, but your parent is… gone.”

The rock type shook her head as small tears began forming in the corner of her eyes. Frillish hovered over her and let out a comforting hum.

“Tyranitar sacrificed herself for you. Don’t throw your life away. I know it hurts to let go, I know it hurts that you won’t see it again, but I promise you that we’ll take care of you. We’ll be partners, we’ll travel together, we’ll support each other, and you’ll grow to be strong. Stronger than you can even imagine,” I said, pausing to wipe away some of my tears. “And I won’t say that we’ll ever replace your parent, but we sure as hell will be your family. And… it would really hurt me,” I sobbed. “If I left you here to die.”

Larvitar hesitated for a few seconds, but she lowered her head and rubbed her rough horn on my leg.

“Ow,” I said before letting out a sad laugh and sniffling. “That hurts, but I still appreciate it.”

I placed the empty Pokeball in front of her head.

“Last chance,” I said. “If you want to come, bump your head against the Pokeball. It’ll take you inside, and if you don’t try to resist, you’ll be caught.”

Larvitar took one last look behind her— back deeper into Mount Coronet— and then hit her head against the device. The ball shook three times in my hand before chiming.

“Thank you, sweetheart,” I smiled, clipping the ball to my belt and standing back up. Chase was turned away from us and rubbing his face. “Are you… crying?” I asked him.

“Shut the hell up. I don’t cry,” he snapped. “Her story just resonated with me, alright?”

I ignored his lie, and we began running again. Pokemon were attacking us again, but that was because they had never actually seen us before in this section of the cave, and they probably believed us to be vulnerable. Instead, we completely battered them, especially since they were actually weak in this section of the cave, because this was the part that was supposed to lead to the exit. Geodude, Zubat, Bronzong— no matter what they were, they fell one by one. There was no actual way to know when the shifting zone began and where it started anymore, since the areas were actually in the right spots now, so that meant we could only run. Our sprint slowly turned into a more sustainable jog and then a fast-paced walk when we were too tired to go on. We had been running for more than an hour, having been on a diet of crackers and energy bars for more than a week, and we were battling at the same time. This was taking everything we had.

I gasped and my heart jumped when I saw light. Not light from the cave, but from the outside world. It was debilitating to look at. I had spent so much time without so much as a lick of sunlight that just seeing some blinded me. I squinted and placed a hand in front of my eyes as I redoubled my efforts and broke into another sprint. We were out! We were out—

Snow.

The world was draped in a blanket of pure white that almost reached up to my knees. Trees were covered in a pristine, untouched coat of snow, and their branch sagged under the weight of the icy flakes. It was actually slightly less cold than it had been inside of Mount Coronet, but whenever the wind blew, it pierced through my coat and chilled me to my core. The air was crisp and clear, however, with not a single sound to be heard.

The silence was deafening.

The sun was high up in the sky, and there wasn’t a single cloud to be seen. Its light was bouncing onto the snow and back into our eyes, blinding me further. Togetic dove into the snow and rolled in it, laughing like she was having the time of her life. Eevee did the same, and they began playing together.

“Where the hell are we?” I finally said. I could see my breath.

“We’re definitely somewhere off-route,” Cece said.

“Told you we’d end up stranded,” Chase groaned.

“Yeah, we’re off route,” Denzel said. “Snow would have been cleared to manageable levels if we weren’t.”

“So where are we?” I asked again.

“This much snow at this time of the year?” Denzel started. “This has to be… somewhere near route 216.”