Livis

 

’The destined, two as one, to together surpass the limits against the insurmountable, to grow together as they fought to change the world.’

 

Or well, that is how some of the legends did say about the bonded.

 

When I took that choice of becoming one when I had been given the option, I fully knew it was going to be hard, that I would be in constant danger, that I would have to protect someone who would apparently be an eternal friend to me.

 

Honestly, I hardly still believed that it all seemed to have turned out to be real as the soothing feeling towards Silver reminded me of its existence.

 

But… I never expected it to be like this. nowhere even near it, as it seems all the earlier expectations I had when I made that choice seemed to have turned out wrong.

 

I watched the spar that I could only consider as awe-inspiring, as the three that had I had quickly started seeing as my friends were showing me right now just how big of a rift there was between me and them right now that I somehow had to catch up to.

 

It was somewhat bitter to realize just how much Aurora had held back against me, as those seven vines wildly moved around the battlefield, wreaking havoc to his surroundings as the vines occasionally began to glow green or white as they cut through the grass or slammed clear marks into the grassy soil as he tried to hit Silver or Merry.

 

And yet, despite all of that power Aurora was showing, he looked so mobile as he kept running around the battlefield while occasionally shifting his momentum with the very same vines to try to keep up his ideal distance and position to fight the other two.

 

He really had just been playing with her after all…

 

Silver wasn’t wrong that my own fighting style resembled Merry, as she kept a clear distance from the other two as she skated on the grass like it was ice at a comfortable speed, constantly bombarding the other two with endless number of needles and explosive ‘seeds’ as the two kept avoiding her constant precise barrage that made me jealous of just watching her.

 

I watch as she cackled at the other two who looked to be getting increasingly frustrated by her antics as another vine whip misses her as she does a sideways somersault over it while still barraging needles at them with both arms in midair and landing smoothly on the ground again on her stump as she slid away for distance again.

 

And Silver hadn’t been lying when he said that I didn’t have to worry for him, as he dashed around the battlefield dodging the vines and the projectiles with finesse while he attempted to approach the other two, swinging around his ‘Sacred sword’ around and occasionally grabbing on a vine that passed him with his other hand to pull him closer towards either of them.

 

I watched as he parries yet another green sickle coming at him and almost cuts the shining green vine apart before having to give up, having to dodge another stream of needles coming at him while also failing to dodge a follow-up white vine coming from another angle at him as he flies away a bit from the impact of the hit before landing on the ground again, not looking that much worse for wear.

 

Honestly, it still feels a bit unreal to me that I had finally found the one who apparently to me was going to be that partner whose side I would be facing whatever unimaginable threats that made the device show up in the first place.

 

But… I was expecting us to be equals, to be of same standing, to grow together as I would protect the one who would provide me with the strength to protect what I wished to preserve.

 

But… as I watch him expand the sword he was holding in a horizontal manner into something more resembling a shield to block another explosion from a seed, it all makes me realize just who was the one that was actually going to be protected here in the foreseeable future.

 

There was no way around it, she was weak, by far the weakest one in this new group of friends she had quickly become to enjoy being with after the months of solitude of just trying to stay out of sight, moving around in shadows in hopes the device would react to anyone in this unknown world with nothing but her wits to keep her sane.

 

What help could she even give to them? She was more likely going to get them into trouble instead, and then they would have to keep her safe. some ‘destined hero’ she was supposed to be alright…

 

Nothing had changed… she was still being protected, still being forced to run as those stronger than her would leave a path for her to escape as they fought against things way beyond her…

 

…And yet, the fact that I wouldn’t have to carry all that burden I had previously thought I was going to be taking was… relieving, that she would instead have those stronger than her at her side who gave their promise to make her strong as well and were willing to guide me, to give me the chance to achieve what I wished for when I chose to leave my home, to no longer feel so helpless against those way stronger than me…

 

They had given her clear hope, a clear path that wasn’t relying on just vague legends with little to no information, a path where by the end of it she would finally be able to do something, to finally be able to make a difference, to perhaps finally not be forced to just as her home slowly crumbled around her bit by bit when the only thing should do was watch and run…!

 

“For frick sake Merry! stop doing. That!” I heard Silver cry out, finally seemingly having had enough of getting constantly harassed the moment he had tried to do literally anything during the fight to either of them.

 

The guilty party just heckles at him as she once more dodges away from his sword swipe all the while dropping some caltrop like Spikes on the ground while still in midair before landing once more and sliding away with a burst of that ‘grass’ energy under her while beginning to spin to once more to refresh the ground around her with more of that green energy while being chased by one of Aurora’s vines.

 

“AAAARGH!” Silver yells out as his patience had seemingly burned out long ago having to dodge both vines, needles and bombs all around him while struggling to catch either of the sources.

 

It had quickly become apparent to her that while Silver could certainly take the punishment he was constantly being subjected to, it wasn’t going to be of much use if he wasn’t fast enough to catch either of them to use that shiny sword of his as he kept looking more and more ragged with each blow he took.

 

And as another whip was about to slam at him, he dodges away from it as he begins to yell out in fury: “that’s it! I don’t care anymore, you two are going down even if it means I’m going down with you!”

 

 

The Lavender sword he was holding began to surge with power as its size went from a regular sized straight sword into a massive titan of a club three times his size as he began swinging it around like an Ogremon on a bad day, creating shockwaves of energy on the impacts of the ‘club’ as he bashed it around as he began to fight all around recklessly, seemingly having stopped caring about actually winning the fight and more just going out in a blaze of glory.

 

The situation of the spar quickly turned into something more resembling chaos as both Aurora and Merry were now dealing with a raging madman who no longer cared about cautiousness as he just rushed at both of them at full speed with that gigantic ‘blade’ in his hands.

 

Aurora had to call back all seven of his vines to fend away one of his trainer’s charges as they parried the giant blade while all the seven vines of his began to glow white in a big walled stack between him and the lavender club as the two meat each other head on!

 

The impact of the vines and the sword hitting each was strong enough to send both flying back a bit with Aurora seemingly losing a few of his vines in the exchange as they dropped to the ground as the green dinosaur got knocked back.

 

The still berserking Silver landed very quickly back on his feet and began to pursue his now next closest tormentor as unfortunately for Merry, Silver had landed quite close to her as she now frantically began to back away from the giant ‘sword’ coming at her!

 

A Large array of spikes quickly emerged out of Merry's two arms as she held them in front of her as a large of number of spikes formed on them as if to create a shield to protect herself with her arms!

 

She takes the blow from Silver’s giant club and begins to fly a good distance away from the impact and rolls on the ground for a bit from the not so smooth landing before frantically trying to rise back up once she stopped as the berserking swordsman was still coming after her!

 

Things began looking quite bad for Merry as she simply wasn’t fast enough to get back up to speed to get away from her trainer.

 

 But right as Merry was about to give out her concession with the club getting ever so closer to her, the rampaging ‘trainer’s body seemed to have finally run out of the ‘well’ he mentioned as his body seemingly shut down and crumbles onto the grassy ground, with only his silent grumblings of “urrr…” sounding out from the now seemingly out of the fight partner of hers.

 

Out of courtesy for his trainer, Aurora comes and wraps Silver around his currently functional vines before coming to me and moving him right next to me to watch the rest of the fight as the still exhausted Merry waits for their one on one to begin.

 

“Drats… lost my cool again….” Silver mumbled tiredly, still a bit annoyed that he was the first to go down this time.

 

“At least... I managed to land one good blow on both of them…” He muttered as he seemingly tried to think the fight from a more positive side before he turns to look at me and tiredly asks:

 

“You… liking the fight… so far?”

 

“Well, I understood that you were strong considering how you mentioned have faced legends in the past. But… it didn’t truly hit me until now just…. what exactly it truly meant.” I answered him, struggling to hide the doubts about ever reaching that level.

 

“Well, you will get there someday, we will make sure…. of that, we did give our word after… all.” he answered in a positive but tired tone, seemingly managing to read what I was thinking of from my expression.

 

I turned my head away to that answer, not really having an answer to that faith in me, as I began to watch the rest of the fight still happening.

 

It had quickly become apparent that the blow Merry had  taken from Silver had taken a clear toll on her, as Even if Aurora was only using three of his vines now as the rest seemingly were still recovering from the clash between them and the giant blade previously, Merry struggled to avoid even the just the three vines now while trying to keep a level head trying to aim back at the dinosaur assaulting her.

 

And Aurora, being the calm member who didn’t seem to enjoy the battling that much, very quickly began to just turn the rest of the fight into a slow, boring stalemate with no clear blows being exchanged as he waited for Merry to finally exhaust herself as he kept himself at a safe distance without committing too much on the offense as the vines aiming at her slowly whittled Merry out.

 

Merry eventually concedes the moment a single vine whip managed to wrap around her, looking very much burned out as her tormentor began to carry her to the rest of us watching.

 

“Merry, you are out of shape, you really should have moved more and not sit all day at the sewing machine.” Said Silver tiredly but now a bit more recovered to Merry who very much looked like she would punch him for that statement if she had the strength to care enough right now.

 

The very much tired Aurora began to give the last of his strength to at least somewhat help his sparring partners recover as he launches a weak Heal pulse at the two of us before also slumping down to catch his breath.

 

“Thanks Aurora….” said silver to his healer before he continued, “I think we are calling it done today, just need to do one last thing before we go home….”

 

The two others here seemed to know what he meant by that, as they quickly laid down next to each other and began to take a breather as Silver tiredly rose up and began move away and into the forest, towards a direction with a large hillside in the distance.

 

“Where are you going Silver” I asked him as I began to follow him, curious as I was seemingly once more the only one in the dark.

 

“Well…  We do have to get our fifth member of our team onboard as soon as possible."

 

I quickly counted in my head and realized that he didn’t mean my addition with that fifth.

 

“We have another member?” I asked him, very curious what this was all about.

 

“Yes, my oldest friend, Mephis, our ace so to speak. She didn’t exactly like the idea of a peaceful vacation, so she went onto her own trip around the region to achieve something her kind call a ‘pilgrimage,’ as she finally got the chance to do it knowing we would be safe for once.”

 

He briefly paused before looking at me and adding, “Or well, safe for now as we now have a whole new problem to deal with that being your world.” he answered while still being pretty much winded as he kept breathing, trying to recover from the previous case of exertion.

 

“Your…. ace? you mean she is the strongest out of you?” I asked him, trying to imagine in my head someone even stronger than the three I just saw sparring.

 

“You could say that. out of all of us, she was always the one who enjoyed fighting the most, and a dang good back to fall upon when things got dire for us. Not to mention, she is loyal to the extreme towards those who she cares for. I just wished she was a bit less insecure about her… well, somewhat extreme desires. Nothing bad mind you, she just has had some bad experiences because of it and still struggles to feel secure even around us to show her true self.” He answered me, somewhat struggling how to best describe the teammate that I hadn’t met yet.

 

He further adds, “I feel we would very much need her for this if even half you told me about the dangers in your world were true, so we are going to be sending her a message to come back to us.”

 

“And…” -he pauses before giving a smile filled with warmth as he says to me- “I very much like that I now have a reason to bring her back in with us again, and she is going to absolutely love the reason for it.”

 

Even she as the newcomer to the group understood easily just how much that warm smile on his face told her just how much he cared about her and how much he currently missed her.

 

“We are here” he says as we reach pass through the thick foliage and into a small clearing with a gargantuan stone, covered with a line of scratch marks on it.

 

He points at the prominent marks on the stone as he explains to me:

 

“That’s just her way of keeping track on her own progress, and I guess currently now also showing us that she is still doing fine out there, that she is still out there on her pilgrimage doing just fine. “

 

 

Silver began to walk towards the stone, examining each mark as he circled the stone as I followed behind him.

 

I couldn’t help but notice that the marks seemed to gradually sink deeper and deeper into the stone as we kept circling around the large boulder, seeing mark upon mark upon mark, until finally, we came across what seemed to be the last three marks on the stone that were visibly larger than all the previous ones she had seen so far.

 

Silver very much looked pleasantly surprised by the change as he silently said “… So you managed to do it huh… good for you pal…”

 

After having a silent moment seemingly reminiscing about something in front of the marks, Silver turned his back around and began to look around the soil around us.

 

“What are you doing?” I couldn’t help but wonder what exactly he was looking for.

 

“Just looking for something to leave a message with… Ah, that looks good enough” he says as he picks up a small, pointed stone off the ground that fit neatly around his fingertips like a small pen.

 

Very quickly, the same lavender glow began to envelop the stone like the sword he had showcased to her earlier as he began to use that now pebble ‘sword’ to leave a very shallow X on the stone just after the most recent mark.

 

“That should do it, now we just need to wait for her to come back here so we can introduce her to you. Don’t worry, she might be a bit intimidating at first, but she has a good heart, especially for those she deems as her ‘pack’, which I guess you are now with our standards.”

 

I looked at the large but shallow X and the numerous claw marks on the stone, and I couldn’t help but be a little jealous of just how much Silver seemed to look forward to meeting her again.

 

I was supposed to be the destined partner here, but so far, all I had really been to them was just being another member of this group, just the newest addition, just a tagalong that forcefully joined in out of my own selfish desires of getting stronger, pulling them into her mess despite the rest of the group seemingly not minding it.

 

I knew I was clearly being selfish right now to expect anything more with such a brief amount of time with them, but I couldn’t help but feel disappointed that the legends about a destined best friend didn’t turn out the way I wished they had.

 

Some bonded heroic friend I turned out to be… There is nothing heroic about me… I’m just a selfish fool who just took a chance to change what I hated about my life without really caring for anyone else…

 

‘I’m sorry…, Gomamon…’

 

“You coming Livis?” He asks me as I snap out of my thoughts waiting for me to follow him as I turn my head towards his voice.

 

“Ah, coming!” I exclaim as I run to quickly catch up to him, but not before giving another look at the stone before moving on as I pondered just who this mystery member was.

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MEANWHILE, IN THE WIDE-OPEN SPARRING MEADOW:

Aurora

 

“Facing you still sucks; you know that right Aurora?”

 

“Well, not everyone here enjoys hurting their family members.”

 

She shows me her cactine tongue as an answer before resting at my side comfortably again before saying: “You know, aren’t you excited? a whole new world, a whole new place just for us to explore, in an age where everything had already been seemingly mapped out… I can’t wait… A whole new adventure just waiting for us!”

 

While I wish I could have the same enthusiasm as her, all of it just gave me dread about just what was out there.

 

Their newest member, the supposed Digimon and a resident of that place, an all-around courteous girl all things considered, and I could see us becoming good friends in the future. But under that exterior, I could see darkness, a deep bitterness that I was more than familiar with as I talked with her, and the deep desire to get out of it, a sense of low self-esteem with no easy way out of it.

 

The inability to protect those who you cared for, an experience I could sympathize with more than enough from the times when Silver and Mephis covered the best they could for me in that unpleasant place that was the Team rocket encampment.

 

I didn’t blame them for bringing me there, how could I, when they did their absolute best to make me feel safe and welcome with them in that place even at the cost of their own safety as they did their best to be my first real friends I really had, Something the place I was taken from hadn’t ever offered me…

 

I hate having to fight, but I just couldn’t keep watching from the sidelines anymore, watching them get hurt just to keep me safe, I had to do something, anything so I didn’t have to watch Silver get beaten up again, or watch Mephis getting ganged up again as he gave me an escape path to get to Silver, I just couldn’t!

 

What kind of world manages to make someone like Livis so desperate that she decides to abandon the home that she loved for a goose chase to finally not have to deal with anymore loss in that home?

 

That place was DANGEROUS, and now his family were about to go to that same place that drove Livis to such lengths.

 

I bit my lower lip just thinking about it, a world where the strong held all the rights, a place of no mercy for the weak, nothing like the world we lived in now, a world that did it’s very best to very slowly make sure everyone was happy, regardless of their desires, their strength, their race, or their deficiencies. A world that would never allow what Livis had experienced without repercussions to those that had caused her that pain.

 

Merry seemed to have noticed my unease and asked with a worried tone “you alright?”

 

“… Yes, I’m fine, just thinking stuff….” I give a weak answer while still being very much worried for us.

 

Merry, knowing me as well as she does these days, seemed to know exactly just what was currently troubling my mind with that answer as she frowned before she began to say, “You know, you don’t have to keep being worried about us, worried about me. We can take care of ourselves alright, I can take care of myself, partly thanks to you.”

 

She turned her head towards me and stared straight at my eyes before continuing, “I want to help her you know, our newest member, she was looking forward for this training session so much that she couldn’t keep herself steady.  She wants to become strong, just like I did, just like you gave me the chance to make a difference, I now wish to make a difference and give that chance to someone else.”

 

“Just like we helped so many others, we are good at that, helping, making sure that everyone gets to smile at the end of the day. “

 

She pumps her arms as if to encourage me as she finishes, “SO, let’s help our newest teammate and friend out. Let’s make a difference in that world that forced her onto this path. Let’s help it, let’s help her! Because that’s what we do best, help those that need it the most, because that’s what we are best at!”

 

…It’s moments like these that remind me just how much she had grown from the one we took care of, who was so starved for safety that she felt anxiety for even being briefly left alone.

 

I push out a vine to give a head rub towards the little hero who takes the affection in strides as she leans into the vine and once more relaxes on my side.

 

haaah…… I suppose I just have to keep them all safe like I always have to, with that number now having increased by one now.

 

“Hey, do you think they would mind if I ransacked the place for any materials in the wild? a new world like that must have some stuff that I could use for my next cap!... hmm, how do you even work with material that might very well be made of data….”

 

… And also make sure my family doesn’t break the place up at the same time…

 

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SINNOH

CAVE OF ACUITY, HALL OF KNOWLEDGE.

 

“For the the last time Azelf, I am busy, go bother someone else!”

 

“But Uxie… Im bored….”

 

“And how is that supposed to be my problem? Go find someone else to entertain you, I have history catalogs to go through and to proof check. I. AM. BUSY!”

 

But Azelf was undeterred, as her stare towards her sister’s closed eyes didn’t shift even a bit, as the sounds of silent whining echoed from the supposed god of willpower in the halls keeping track of all knowledge in this world, Where all recorded factual information and history was maintained and stored in otherworldly tomes worked on by the psychic thoughts and powers of the being of Knowledge, who recorded the present and the past for the future generations to one day learn from, even if some of that knowledge should never see the light of day again for the sake of a better future.

 

“haaah…” The goddess of knowledge gave a sigh, struggling to ignore her sister’s insistence anymore.

 

“Do you really have no one else you could bother right? perhaps you should go see Mesprit instead?” Uxie asked, being fully ready to throw her current problem to someone else without any remorse.

 

“Gone,” Azelf bluntly answered her sister before continuing, “said she was going to see how the emotions of an old Botanist taste like if she briefly gives them the fear for flowers. “

 

“And you know I can’t catch her, I’m bad at teleporting…” The goddess of willpower whines once again at her sister.

 

“Then Silver?” Uxie suggested to her sister before giving her reasons as she says, “He is supposed to be on a vacation right now, so he should be available for your amusement, “ - Uxie turns her head down back to the notes and begins using her psychic abilities once more to edit the words in them in - "unlike someone here who is VERY busy currently having to record past events that had come to pass or may have at least at one point have come to pass if I were to believe the ones responsible for time.”

 

“Why is this my job and not the Celebi… “Uxie silently complained as she grimaces again at the workload she was currently stuck with.

 

"But he's in Johto, and you know I suck at teleporting!" 

 

"And has something that small  stopped you before? Just take the long way there then, that should keep you entertained and rely less on us for your traveling needs. And no, I’m not taking you there. I AM BUSY!” She answers her overly energetic sister in a loud tone, before silently muttering, “Curse you Ketchum…”

 

Knowing her sister, Azelf realized that this was all she was going to get from her today, and the idea of visiting Silver again didn’t sound that bad of an idea. If anything, it might actually be interesting to visit him just by herself for once, it would certainly be something new.

 

Leaving her sister alone to her work, she silently begins to float away as Uxie doesn’t even notice her leaving as Azelf flies out from the ancient halls of knowledge and out of the entrance of the cave of Acuity, as she begins to discreetly fly towards the closest city, the Snowpoint city.

 

Azelf may not have the skills Mesprit has when it comes to spatial movement of teleportation, but more conventional methods of travel were available in bulk these days, and she was going to make use of those!

 

She flew discreetly towards the northern shores of Sinnoh, traveling across the wilderness and towards the shores in the most northern parts of the continent as flew towards the city from there, until she eventually reached the docks, the Harbor of Snowpoint city.

 

She sneaked around with years of experience behind her as she looked around for a ship to stowaway on to get her to the region her human friend currently lived in.

 

A few times she got spotted, but a quick reactionary touch of her powers made them quickly lose their desire to even register her existence in their minds, as they moved on with their lives as if they had never seen anything.

 

It had been a very long time since she last time did this, and she found the novelty of it all to be strangely entertaining to her, as she hid away into the storage rooms among a few other stowaway Pokémon who looked like they had seen God or something.

 

Azelf was going to Johto, and nothing was going to stop the personification of willpower itself from reaching her friend, much to the detriment and horror of every passenger on the ship, Human or Pokémon, who would tell stories of the ship being haunted in the future, as they would experience one of the weirdest voyages of their life as they tried to puzzle out just why they had so many mood swings over the weirdest of things just trying to finish another routine shipment trip to Kanto.