#silverlining.wip

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Silver blinked away the static at the corners of his vision, dimly aware of the blood coating his upper lip. His breath caught in a cough, the strange atmosphere of the Ghost gym clogging his lungs and enveloping his body like an unwelcome embrace. Hazy red eyes blinked in the fog, and he could hear Ruby’s ragged breaths as she tried to stay standing. 

They both knew the stakes if she were to fall. 

The cloying smoke made it hard to speak, but he pushed through it, feeling needles slide down his spine with the effort. “Ruby – confusion!” 

The Slowpoke seemed to need no instructions, and he could see her outline in the fog generating a cloud of pink energy. He readied a super potion, knowing she’d need one soon. He watched as her frame launched the attack–

And then… nothing. 

Where…? Silver, all at once, became aware of the pure, utter silence in the arena. The fog did not move, not even in the flickering of the candlelight. He tried to look up from Ruby’s silhouette, to look at Morty, but every cell in his body buzzed with one instinct: 

Play dead.

There was a sudden explosion, forcing him back into the present as he was flung backwards from the spot he’d been perched at. His back smacked against a pillar, forcing the breath out of him, but the energy continued past him, rattling the remaining structures within the shrine. He let out a few coughs as he forced his aching joints to rise, and he put a hand over his chest. 

Something wasn’t right. He could feel it. 

Maybe it was the static in the air, or the lack of cackling. Maybe it was the dust kicked up from the center of the arena, mixed with the gym’s natural fog. Maybe it was the sudden heaviness of the pokeballs Silver kept securely tucked under his coat. Or maybe it was the familiar sensation of a ghostly spike stabbing through his brain, forcing him back to his knees, head in his hands. 

Silver forced his hand down, ignoring the bits of hair that went with it. He shoved himself up, propping up against a pillar. It didn’t matter. His pokemon could survive a critical hit, even a super effective one. They weren’t weak. 

The sentence rang hollow in his head. 

He just had to find Ruby and heal her. League rules stated that Morty couldn’t attack again until the gym leader verified his safety. She just had to last out to finish out the battle. Distantly, he felt Beryl’s pokeball rattle, but Silver shushed him. 

Silver tried Ruby’s recall, but her ball stayed dim, the center blinking at him, as if it were confused. Figures. With a huff, he approached the main arena. Even if he flew, she was sturdier. 

The center was decimated. With how fiercely Citrine, Beryl, and Ruby fought, it was a given. But… his eyes flicked around. He went to take a step, but he stopped short. To his right… 

Silver felt himself lurch towards her, tripping over his feet. He readjusted, but still all but collapsed as he knelt before his pokemon’s prone form. Gently, carefully, he gathered her into his arms, mindful of her stump out of habit. Her body was unnaturally warm, burnt from the strength of the spectral energy launched at her. 

Beryl broke from his pokeball as Silver lowered his head over her cradled body. The Croconaw let out a grunt, likely feeling his own injuries, but he stared down the Gengar in Silver’s stead. He didn’t need commands. Morty wouldn’t stop, anyway.

The sounds of the two fighting hardly registered in Silver’s mind.  All he could focus on was the dull feeling of his Slowpoke going cold in his arms. 

–

Ruby was buried behind her well. It took hours to walk back to Azalea town, hours that his screaming body did not want to handle. His living team had, of course, been healed at the pokemon center, but… he had to keep going. He couldn’t stop.

Only weak things couldn’t continue. That was why… 

He shook his head. Her final resting place was to lay alongside her favorite flowers. He didn’t know why he cared. “She was weak,” Silver murmured, and Beryl leveled him with a look. He was too tired to try and understand, though. After a moment, the Croconaw grunted, tugging his sleeve.