Chapter 24: Settling in, part IV
Paleolithic Era, in the area that will be known as Kalos
The snow reached up past her knees as Chalo made her way through the forest. Every time that Turo visited, when he would leave in the evening, Sada would leave with him on the back of her red dragon. His tribe supposedly lived far away, south from here, but the guy had probably found some other place to spend the night. Why didn't he just move to the village permanently without all that back and forth, Chalo had no idea.
Sada's spear had been found quite some distance away from here. Now she had taken the weapon with her; she was forced to carry it by hand, since her bow was already slung over her shoulder together with her quiver and the rest of her supplies for the trip. Food, mostly dried meat and hard berries for Fluffyhead, roots, a couple of spare strings for her bow.
The spear sat heavily in her hand, but she had been determined to bring it with her: Spark Tails didn't exactly have a keen sense of smell from what she could tell and didn't have the instinct to track a scent, not being predators, but it was still better than hers for sure. Just having the creature sniff the weapon sometimes and watch his reaction was better than nothing. Maybe the spear could hold some other clue to where Sada had gone.
« If she really ran away to the south with Terg without saying anything, I'm going to kill her.» She whispered to Fluffyhead as they stopped for a break. She liked to talk to the creature; it definitely listened, even if it didn't really give any signs of understanding most of what she said that wasn't about food or orders to attack things.
« I mean... Usually when you find a mate in another tribe and leave, there's a big celebration! Members of the other tribe come to bring gifts! We decide what things we can trade! You can't just leave!» She grumbled as she started chewing on a root.
« I wanted to try new food... And berry juice, the strong stuff... And dance with some guys from Terg's tribe... As long as they're not all spindly looking like him.» Fluffyhead listened silently, looking more interested in digging up the snow with his front hooves looking for food. Chalo reached out and patted the creature on his head, stroking the portion of fluffy wool on his head.
« You're so lucky... Not having to worry about anything. » She sighed. Sada's spear was laying on the ground next to her, and the woman stared at it somberly for a moment.
A part of her couldn't help dreading finding out what happened. Sada would never lose her spear willingly... She must have been separated by it by force.
But what could have gotten her to abandon it and just... Disappear? Why not fly back on Winged King? The dragon had to be with her. What could even attack her when she was protected by that creature?
... She had the bad feeling something horrible had happened.
« ... Let's go. The spot where they found the spear should be around here.» She said, getting back up.
---
Sada was happy to see that despite her initial clumsiness, Kim was smart and quick to learn. She couldn't rely on just brute force like Winged King did; still small, there were many wild Pokémon that could still easily beat her. Sada had quickly realized that the Litleo learned by experience, and by watching someone else, so now she was walking in front of the fire type as she followed along. The tracks of the bug Pokémon kept going, but something about them seemed... Strange. Sada frowned as they passed more of the scattered powder, together with some translucent scales, and something else that caught her eye. She crouched lower to look at it better; she had thought it was just how the scales looked, almost like incredibly little shards of crystal, but together with the scales was something else that looked out of place: a couple of bright pink feathers, similarly encased in crystal.
Kim mewled at her side, rubbing her cheek against her leg before turning around. She followed the Pokémon's gaze, which fell on what was definitely the footprint of a large bird. Only one, though.
« That's not what we're after, Kim» Sada shook her head, only for the Litleo to meow again, and go back to sniff the footprint. Sada furrowed her eyebrows; the Pokémon's senses were obviously sharper than hers, so... Was she saying the bug scales and footprint had the same smell?
Could a Pokémon be both a bug type and a... Bird type?
Clavell's biology lessons had taught her the names of the various "types" people used to differentiate Pokémon. "Bird" wasn't really a true type, it was more of a... Group of Pokémon that all shared the same physical characteristics. A beak, wings, feathers. Like fish Pokémon or "felines" was used for all Pokémon that looked like Kim.
And while she knew from experience that Pokémon could be pretty much anything... Certain things didn't seem to mix. And a "bird" Pokémon that had both crystal scales like a bug and feathers struck her as one of those.
But Kim looked quite sure.
« All right. Let's go.»
She started following the fire type, watching the little tuft of red fur on the Litleo's tail appear and disappear among the vegetation.
When the Pokémon suddenly stopped, she knew she had found something. She crouched next to her, peering through the shrubbery.
It... It did look like a bird. A big one, with a very long neck, bright pink feathers, strong clawed feet but also... Its feathers looked strange, encased in crystals. They shimmered with a faint green glow, and some of them actually looked like they were made of tiny scales, like bug wings. It also had a couple of antennae growing from its head, which it seemed to be able to move freely.
So... Was it a bug or a bird? A... Bug-type bird Pokémon? It reminded her a bit of the Triple Runner she had faced with Turo some time ago.
She got out her new school notebook as silently as she could with the intention of writing down some details about this Pokémon and attempt to sketch it, but Kim suddenly jumping out in front of her with a challenging roar towards the wild Pokémon made her gasp out loud.
« Kim! No, come back!» She whispered.
Her hand was already halfway to her shoulder before she stopped herself with a frown. Why didn't Clavell allow her to bring her bow? She felt defenseless without it; was she really supposed to just... Stand around and watch Kim fight all alone? Giving her orders?
« K-Kim! Use your fire!»
If it really was a bug, it should be effective... The Litleo opened her mouth, breathing out a little ball of flame that shot towards the wild Pokémon. It reacted fast, jumping to the side with its strong legs... Only one leg, actually. But it definitely had two. Why only use one?
The wild Pokémon screeched, spreading its wings, before charging towards Kim. The Litleo braced herself, eyes fixed on her opponent as a furious growl resonated from her throat. When the bird attempted to kick her with its raised leg, she darted forward, passing under the wild Pokémon... Only to let out a cry of pain when the Pokémon quickly switched the leg it was standing on, kicking her with the other and sending the Litleo tumbling away.
Sada flinched, looking around. She couldn't do this! She couldn't just stand aside and do nothing.
« Hey!» She yelled to get the Pokémon's attention as she picked up a rock, throwing it. She aimed at the Pokémon's belly, aiming to just get it distracted as Kim got back on her feet. If nothing else, she could buy time... Clavell and Turo were hopefully behind her.
The rocked bounced off the Pokémon's crystallized skin, barely chipping it, but the bird still squawked in pain, shaking its antennae wildly.
Now that she thought about it... Both flying and bug type were weak to rock, were they?
« Kim! Hit its legs! The legs!» She yelled, throwing a second rock to point at the right spot. The Litleo growled, planting herself firm on the ground as she let out a roar; her fur seemed to fluff up, the Pokémon suddenly looking bigger and stronger before she charged her opponent. Crashing into the bird from behind, she headbutted it and sent it toppling down, more pieces of crystal shattering away from it.
« Yes! Good! Now use your fire again, quick!»
The bird started to furiously flap its wings as it lay splayed on the ground, trying to right itself up. Kim quickly ran away from its legs that were blindly kicking the air all around, opening her mouth to pelt it with quick fireballs. At each hit, more and more shards cracked away from its body. One fragment completely fell off from its right wing, and she saw that underneath its pink feathers actually looked completely normal.
It was almost like... Only the crystal all around was what made it look like a bug. But it had antennae, so... What was happening?
Kim closed her mouth and back off, panting heavily with the effort of breathing fire repeatedly.
« Well done. Now-» She got interrupted by the wild Pokémon managing to get back up on its feet and launch itself against the Litleo again. The little fire type shivered, trying to dodge the double kick that was coming her way-
« Miguel, Wing Attack!»
In a flurry of dark feathers Turo's Murkrow burst out from behind her, its two jet-black wings striking the Pokémon's long and twisty neck, stopping it midway from hitting the Litleo.
Sada turned around, watching as Clavell and Turo arrived running... Well, Clavell was running, to be more exact.
Turo was more or less shuffling after him and was now panting trying to catch his breath, hands on his knees. She immediately moved to his side, half covering him and ready to tackle him out of the way by instinct.
« What is going on with that Pokémon?» Clavell's surprised voice made her turn back towards the fight. The older man had released his Houndoom again, and the Pokémon was helping Kim by breathing a steady stream of fire towards the bird as the Murkrow flew in circles around it, pecking it on its head.
« What Pokémon is it? What's wrong with it?» She asked.
The older man looked amazed, and he pulled out what Sada had learned was a "camera" from his bag.
« I... I don't know! It looks like a Flamigo, they are usually a Flying and Fighting type... I've never seen one like this one! Is it the first of a new variant? Another convergent species, maybe...?» the older man looked more busy taking pictures to answer her in more detail.
« Throw Ball... catch it...» Turo gasped behind her, and Sada mentally berated herself.
Right! A Poké Ball. She still had to get used to the whole idea of... just being able to catch Pokémon in them.
« You're right...» She got one out of her bag, and took careful aim before throwing it in a wide arc. The Ball hit the wild Pokémon on its stomach, just to simply bounce off with a little pinging noise on its crystalized skin. The bird screeched, enraged, and kicked it away with one leg.
« That's... impossible... is that crystal not part of its body, then?» Clavell wondered out loud.
Sada pointed to the damaged wing, where the crystal had completely broken off, and the older man's eyes widened again.
« No! It's like... clothes it's wearing!» She tried to describe what she had seen as best as she could.
« The crystal feathers have little scales like bugs, but under the crystals, they look fine-» She added.
« We have to... break it all.»
By her side, Turo seemed to have regained his breath somewhat, or at least enough to talk. Sada looked at him with some concern; running out of breath was normal for him, but... he looked a little pale.
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Well... paler than usual. She nodded, turning back towards her Pokémon.
« All right. Kim, keep attacking with fire!»
The two fire types took turns barraging the Flamigo with flames, while Turo's Murkrow kept flapping around its head, mostly distracting it and striking it with his wings. More cracks kept forming on the crystals around the wild Pokémon's body, until finally, with a resounding shattering sound, they fell off completely.
« It really is... just a normal Flamigo...» She heard Clavell comment.
The Pokémon staggered back, stunned.
« Now!»
Sada's second Poké Ball flew in a wide arc and struck the Pokémon on its head, capturing it.
A brief silence fell between them until the Poké Ball stopped shaking.
« That Flamigo... were you interested in training it?» Clavell asked as he moved to pick up the Poké Ball.
Only now did Sada take a deep breath and consider what had just happened.
« Um... No. Kim just attacked it. B-but... I want to study it. » She said. Those crystals looked exactly like the ones in the Crater.
« I'm also interested in those crystals. We could keep it at the Academy if you aren't interested in training him... Or her. » Clavell answered, kneeling to examine one of the many broken off shards. Sada did the same.
« Those shards... are the same as the one in Area Zero.» She said after a moment. Clavell looked pensive.
« ... Around 120 years ago, during one of the expeditions following those of the Scarlet and Violet Books... people reported finding "glowing Pokémon" in the crater. » He said slowly.
Turo approached the two of them, copying them in crouching to pick up some of the crystals.
« ... So you think this Flamigo flew away from the crater? » He asked. Clavell didn't look particularly convinced of his own idea.
« ... No, I don't think so. Let's take a break and discuss things while we have a picnic.»
---
Clavell, and most people of 21th century Paldea as it turned out, tended to always have all the necessary equipment for a picnic with them at all times. Somehow. And picnic tables and spots were pretty much everywhere.
The whole thing struck him as a bit strange: had historians missed the whole Paldean picnic craze, or did they simply not consider it important enough to mention? Whatever.
« Can't we just go back to the city and eat something that's actually cooked...?» Turo asked as he helped set the table.
Sada was busy tending to her Litleo's wounds, but she still threw him a little scowl over her shoulder.
« Turo, we always ate outside... why don't you like it here?» She commented.
Because that had been out of necessity, while here, he technically had the choice of all the comforts of civilization, so...
« I just want to eat something nice and warm...»
She pouted, then gave him a wry smile, a little glint of mischief shining suddenly in her eyes as she finished spraying a potion over her Pokémon.
« ... You're just embarrassed at making sandwiches in front of Clavell because you suck at it.» She gleefully added after a moment, making him grumble unhappily.
« Y-you also suck at them! You always make the lettuce fall out!» He shot back, making her laugh. He should have never taught her the meaning of that particular expression!
... Then again, if he hadn't, she would have probably learned it from Raifort in no time anyway.
Clavell, bless him, remained perfectly impassible as he took the various ingredients out, even if he was clearly trying not to smile. Turo often found himself appreciating the man's quiet discretion. He briefly wondered how things would have gone had anyone else from the Academy rescued them instead.
« So... you were saying that that Flamigo couldn't come from the Crater? Couldn't it just fly out?»
Even as he said it, Turo knew it couldn't be true: he himself had watched various flying Pokémon glide around the crater, but never quite leaving. Granted, it had been Corviknight, but...
« Impossible. Because in that same expedition the researchers tried the same, of course. All the Pokémon that were brought with them stopped glowing and became completely normal Pokémon the moment they got too far from the Crater...» Clavell answered, quickly preparing multiple sandwiches and offering the first one to his Houndoom.
« Define "too far"» Turo casually swatted Miguel's beak away from his meager sandwich prepared after much effort, making the Pokémon caw and perch on his shoulder. He sighed, and threw the little bird a slice of bacon.
Technically, Area Zero wasn't too far away from any other spot in Paldea, so...
« Literally as soon as they stepped out of the Crater.»
Ah. Well, that was...
« That's... worrying. It clearly happened here. It's almost like...» He took a bite out of his sandwich.
« What makes the Pokémon all different is starting to work here too. » Sada interjected, happily and messily stuffing her sandwich with an ungodly amount of things before biting into it with gusto. Did it really need an entire block of bacon...?
Turo fell silent for a bit, slowly chewing as he thought.
« Sada... you said the Pokémon was... Like a bug Pokémon?» He asked after a moment, before frowning and looking down at his food.
He... he was still a bit out of breath from running after Miguel. Sada being in so much better physical condition than him was obvious, considering how sedentary his life was, but... realizing how seriously out of shape he was compared to everyone else here had... stung a bit. Shouldn't it be the opposite? Sure, people... barely needed to walk in his time, especially in space, but... he had had access to better medical practices his whole life! He was protected against stuff that didn't even exist yet here! Was advanced medicine really the only thing keeping the people of his time upright?
Or were all those at the Academy just stupidly fit because they trained Pokémon and traveled a lot?
He didn't like it. He sighed, and focused back on the conversation.
« It was effectively acting like it was a bug type... Fire type moves seemed to be much more effective than usual against it.» Clavell was saying, as Sada nodded.
« But that's impossible... the only way that some Pokémon can change types temporarily is by mega evolving, sometimes... This Pokémon almost looked like it was used to being in that... state.» Clavell added.
« Yes. It moved those antennae... It doesn't have them normally. It... It really was a bug type at that moment.»
Clavell looked at a loss for words.
« Something in Area Zero... can make Pokémon change their type.» he said.
Sada didn't look particularly impressed at the implications; while she was learning fast at the Academy, for her this may as well be just another impossible thing that Pokémon were simply able to do. In that, she was a lot more... open-minded than most, probably.
Turo, meanwhile, was as amazed as Clavell, even if for a completely different reason. He ... had never heard of this, and that was... a bit strange. If someone had studied this, it would have become a big deal. A revolutionary discovery. Pokémon completely changing types!
For the Scarlet and Violet Books to fall into obscurity was one thing, but for a discovery of such magnitude... he wasn't sure. It was true that during history lessons they had focused a lot more on the advent of Hadron energy, and how it had sparked the greatest change in their technology and Pokémon the world had ever seen. And it had started "only" 1000-something years after this, so... Maybe, somehow, this... phenomena in Paldea had ended up completely overshadowed and forgotten?
... Why was he even worrying so hard about how it all fit into his time? It wasn't like he could do anything about it.
Turo sighed, finishing his sandwich with little enthusiasm, before looking back towards Clavell with a tiny smirk.
« ... I bet you're interested in getting us back into Area Zero now.»
---
Bringing back the Flamigo to the Academy had been a bit of a disappointment. It never crystallized again, looking just like a perfectly normal Flamigo. Clavell had even asked all of his students if some of them wanted to volunteer their own Flamigo to compare to the newly caught individual, with no results.
Whatever it was that triggered that state, it had come from outside, not something unique about the Pokémon itself.
« That is... good in a way, right?» Sada asked Clavell after they had released the Flamigo back into the wild.
« It means it can happen to any Pokémon... not just Pokémon that have something special.» she added, and the man begrudgingly nodded, before checking his watch as they made their way to his next class.
« Turo is...? »
« He's coming. He didn't... feel really well after that picnic. » Sada frowned.
She was a bit worried about him, he had looked pretty tired for the last couple of days. Maybe he just needed to get used to having to move around more than what he was used to in his time, but... he usually just had to sit down a bit and he was fine. He hadn't fallen sick, had he?
They entered Clavell's classroom, and Sada took a seat near Raifort, leaving a spot open to her other side. Raifort's eyes gleamed when she noticed she was alone.
« He's not here?» she asked in a rather hopeful tone, making Sada smile a little.
« He's just a bit late.» she answered, to which Raifort looked a bit disappointed. Sada was used to the two not really getting along. Or rather, neither of them seemed to want to miss an occasion to quip a little joke to the other's expense from their very first interaction.
Turo was the last one to enter the classroom, right as Clavell was about to start, and he shuffled towards his place before sitting down. Sada looked back at him in worry, and squeezed his hand under the table.
« "Are you all right?"» she whispered. He had heavy bags under his eyes, a runny nose, and was breathing a little heavily.
He nodded and smiled a little, the effect a bit ruined by having to sniffle and suppress a sneeze immediately after.
« "Y-yeah. I will go to the doctor after this lesson."»
He sat down near her, pointedly ignoring Raifort's side glance, as Clavell started the lesson.
« Right, so last lesson, we stopped at one of the first researchers that started an attempt of classifying Pokémon based on their "type". In ancient times, this was usually limited to the obvious elemental types like fire and water, while everything else was classified as "normal type". There were many different attempts to further classify Pokémon in the following centuries, by different criteria...»
« You should go to the infirmary.» Raifort leaned almost over Sada to whisper towards Turo, who didn't bat an eye.
« Nah. I'm fine, thanks. How cute, are you worried about me? » he whispered back, to which the woman huffed.
« Ah! I just don't want to catch anything from you.»
« Just admit you want me out of the way-»
Sada let out a soft sigh as she tried to ignore the two's continued bickering and take some notes.
Clavell turned the "projector" on and the lights off, as he usually did when he wanted to show some pictures to the whole class. The fact that you could just make images appear on a wall immediately, even if she had seen it in Turo's time already, kept amazing her... Especially because someone had to have taken those pictures first! Her biology books were full of incredibly colorful pictures of Pokémon, taken from incredibly close, and in their natural habitat! To be able to get so close to even the most ferocious creature... That would have been impossible in her time.
Clavell switched to a specific slide, and Sada froze in her seat. All around her, the whole classroom slowly fell completely silent, everyone turning to look from the picture on the wall towards her, except for Turo and Raifort who kept hissing to each other, not paying attention to the lesson.
« The woman depicted here was Professor Albora Olim, who was the first to study-» Clavell trailed off, squinting at the screen before he too raised his eyebrows in surprise.
« Um...» she slowly said, trying to get the only two still oblivious to it to turn around.
« I'm just saying, you should-UGH»
Tired of their bickering , she lightly elbowed both of them, making Raifort jump a little in her chair as she scooted backwards to dodge her and Turo hiss in pain, grumbling a "why...?" as he curled up on himself.
His "why" was immediately answered when they both finally looked towards the picture. And, like anyone else in the room, fell completely silent.
There, displayed on the wall for everyone to see, was a portrait . An incredibly realistic one, but still quite old from what she had learned, from a time where people would sit still for hours as someone else painted them. Sada had seen quite a lot of them by now, even at the Academy. Painting from teachers and Directors of the past.
What had surprised the entire class was the subject of the painting: the woman in it, from the color of her eyes to the long hair that fell around her face, was a mirror image of herself. She had been painted from the neck down, like a lot of people did at the time, so her clothes were not visible, but she had what looked like a little diamond as an earring, and a neutral expression. She wasn't smiling, but had an air of calm focus as she stared forward.
« Wow! She's your spitting image!» Raifort said out loud what everyone else, Sada herself included, was probably thinking.
« Is she an ancestor of yours?» she added, making Sada frown in confusion.
« "An... Ancestor"?» she whispered.
« Ah, right... Someone from your family, in the past.» Raifort added. Sada's frown didn't disappear as she looked at the face of the woman in the painting.
« M.. maybe...» Sada answered as she turned a hesitant look towards Turo, looking for his reaction.
That wasn't possible... Her actual ancestors were from much earlier than this "Professor Olim"... And she obviously didn't have any children. There was no way they could be related.
But the resemblance was uncanny; was it really just a coincidence?
Turo's expression, however, wasn't what she was expecting to see.
She thought he would be as confused as she was. Instead, he looked triumphant, his eyes almost shining as he looked at the portrait.
« "That's you. It has to be. You know what that means?"» he whispered as he turned towards her, ignoring both Raifort glaring at him as she couldn't understand them, and Clavell who had been staring at the both of them really closely as he tried to resume class.
« "It means we find a way to... Travel. A way home."»
Sada felt her heart skip a beat as she looked at her own face in the portrait.
Could it... Could it be? Was it really proof that they would find a way through time? She could see herself deciding to visit that era, admittedly, but... pose for a painting? And... Become a professor there, apparently?
Or... Or it was just a massive coincidence that the woman in the painting looked exactly like her.
Turo seemed convinced that it was her... Sada wasn't quite sure what to think. But now she was even more determined to find out what was happening in Area Zero.
---
47th century, Moon
Ortega hated silence. It made him uncomfortable; he was always looking for a way to fill it. It didn't always work; there were occasions where silence was required. Like the one he was currently in.
It was customary for funeral rites to take place where the person had been born, so the day before he, Vega and Moreau had stepped into a shuttle to leave Earth.
Turo had never really talked much about his early childhood on the Moon, so Ortega wasn't quite sure if he would have liked... how things had been done.
He knew that he didn't like it.
Turo's parents had been inconsolable, both looked in complete shock.
His father had approached him after the ceremony, where everyone had stared at the coffin being cremated and the ashes released into space, painfully aware that it was empty. Maybe that was why it still didn't feel real, the fact that he was just... gone.
« Did he... suffer?» he had asked, which had made Ortega want to run away.
He didn't want to lie to him, but the alternative was telling the man that he had no idea. After finally managing to knock Porygon 568 out, they had tried to trace where he had gone: they had no idea where or when he had ended up. Statistically, Ortega was painfully aware that it was much more likely that Turo had ended up somewhere dangerous than anywhere safe. Just... Anywhere in the middle of the ocean would have been a death sentence in any era.
« He... he didn't even notice.» he answered, hoping that it was the truth, and the man nodded.
« Last time I saw him, he... looked enthusiastic about his research. Funny that he decided to become a time traveler... it's right in his name, you know?» the man said.
« "Romero" meant "pilgrim" in an ancient language... I choose that name from an old scientist of the past, something I read about ages ago... Can't remember what it was he did, but I always liked how it sounded. »
The two parents were now talking with other relatives and old friends of Turo, and Ortega moved out of the room to join back up with Vega and Moreau.
Vega loudly blew her nose as he sat down near her.
« His Miraidon is gone.» she said, making Ortega furrow his eyebrows, taken by surprise by the randomness of the topic.
« What?»
« Turo had a Miraidon. His mother said that they managed to break into his apartment, they wanted to take it back home with them, but it was just... Gone. No trace left. I wonder if he somehow realized what had happened to his trainer and just... left.» she sniffled again.
Ortega didn't know what to think. Moreau, who had been silent the whole time, sighed loudly.
« ... a tragedy. I never thought it would happen like this. » he said, making Ortega freeze.
He thought that Moreau's silence was due to the fact of feeling partly responsible for the incident; he had been the one to come up with the time-anchor that should guarantee people could come back safely. But the way he had worded it...
« "It"...?» he slowly repeated, feeling his stomach drop at the words.
« You... you knew?» he asked, suddenly thinking back to their trip to the future. Turo's ID wasn't working... And Moreau had hurried them back home...
There was a long silence, as Vega now also looked to the two men, eyes wide.
« W-what...?»
Of course she would have no idea what they were talking about, the three of them had to sign NDAs about that trip.
« I... knew that something would happen to Turo sometime in the future. I had no idea it would happen this soon... Or this way. » Moreau answered, eyes closed.
Ortega kept staring at the man, feeling sick to his stomach.
« But that makes no sense... That kid knew Turo! Why would they know about one random guy that disappeared decades before they were even born?» he said, suddenly remembering the very last interaction they had had in the future.
« ... You know why, do you?» Vega suddenly asked.
Moreau kept silent for a long moment, before he drew one last sigh, opening his eyes again. Ortega felt a chill at the way the man's icy blue eyes stared at them both.
« Knowing the future can be a terrible burden. » he simply said, before turning their back on them and walking away.