TPP [C29]: The Fall of Red

Red's Pidgeot returns to its ball as AJ screams to the heavens in joy. The Unown dance about his head, rejoicing, laughing, and celebrating in their own buzzing way. Red, now standing alone on his side of the bluff, shifts his hat over his eyes and turns away silently. He steps behind a tree, out of sight, as AJ rejoices and yells at the Unown retreating up into the heavens.

AJ: "GOOD BYE, YOU ANNOYING UNOWN!! GOOD RIDDANCE!! I'M FINALLY FREE!!!"

AJ happily hugs his Feraligator and lets the rest of his pokemon out of their balls to dance in celebration as well. AJ looks towards where Red was standing and finds him gone. The smile across AJ's face falters ever so slightly, but he turns back to continue celebrating. After a moment, AJ looks back again, and his smile falters more.

AJ steps away from his pokemon, who were starting up a line dance in jubilation. His smile still present, but slowly fading, he investigates where Red was once standing. He spots food supplies and crates of various sorts behind the trees, out of sight from where AJ had stood during battle. And he spots a little ledge to the right, behind a bunch of trees, before a large cliff down the mountain. Here, AJ found Red sitting, staring at the valley below, playing with a pine cone absentmindedly.

AJ slips down onto the little ledge, his walking shaky and overly careful. Red didn't look at him as he sat next to him, the smile now completely gone from AJ's face. They sat for a while, listening to the makeshift music behind them that AJ's pokemon were making to dance to.

AJ: quietly "I'm sorry. I had to beat you. The Unown--"

Red stops AJ, placing his hand flat upon AJ's knee. He looks at AJ and nods in understanding. Red withdraws his hand and picks at the pine cone again.

AJ:  "You were under the control of the Unown too, weren't you?"

Red closes his eyes, and nodded.

AJ: "That's what everyone was saying, in one way or another..."

Red plucks a brown ridge off the pine cone and flicks it off into the distance.

AJ: "Why'd you come here?"

Red drew in breath, and let a single word slip from his mouth. The voice that spoke it was low, quiet, and broken, as if the voice hadn't been used in years, and the efforts that the vocal chords had to go through to make the sound strained them even from the simple word, and might cause them to bleed.

Red: "_Silence."

AJ was quiet for a long while as Red went back to picking at the pine cone. AJ's pokemon in the background were now talking excitedly amongst themselves and laughing.

AJ: feebly "I'm sorry I broke your silence. The Unown wanted me to crush you, or rather, your Omastar. The Helix."

For the first time, a smile split across Red's face. He looked up to the clouds above, almost laughing.

AJ: "No, really! There were a whole bunch of people all across Kanto and Johto who said I was the chosen slayer of the Helix, God of Chaos! That the balance was thrown off by the return of the Helix!"

Red now openly laughed, his voice hoarse and his laughter infectious. When he spoke next, it was as if the laughter had cured him of many of his ills, and his voice, though still hoarse, could be used once more without fear of rupture.

Red: "Kid, the old religion is dead. It died when I went back and resurrected the Dome and Amber fossils years ago. Nothing changed after I did that, and yet the people of Kanto still believe. Maybe my defeat, maybe the slaying of the Helix will finally show them the error of their ways..."

AJ: "But what about the tales of the Helix bringing great strife in its name?"

Red: "People cause pain and death in the name of lots of things. You've heard of Team Rocket, right? The rise of Helix was just another thing to attribute to either pain or joy. My Omastar was just the relic worshiped as 'the Helix', and evil was done in its name." Red looked into AJ's eyes "Believe me, I thought the same as them when under the influence of the Unown. It was only after, when I had a free thought to myself, that I could finally step back and see the truth." he turned back to his pine cone "I once heard it said: 'There are no Gods, nor Kings. Only 'Mon.' I fully believe that to be the case."

AJ: "I've said the same thing, but... what about the Unown? Where do they come from? What's their purpose for taking over some kid and torturing him like they did us?"

Red contemplated this for a moment, picking his pine cone nearly bare, flicking each piece off the cliff into the snow below. Red and AJ watched each piece fall until they could see it no more.

Red: "We may never know..."

The celebration was dying down behind them, and the pokemon were now calling out for AJ.

AJ: "Your mother worries about you. She almost killed me for information when I mentioned your name."

Red: snickers "I'll pay her a visit. You should go now."

AJ nods and very carefully gets up, leaning back, wary of the ledge.

Red: offhanded "I used to be afraid of ledges too. But now I know they can't hurt me anymore."

Red looks up at AJ, who smiles back after a moment's thought. And AJ stands upright and moves quickly up the ledge and back towards his pokemon.