The weather was warming in Destiny Village, melting snow and setting trees and flowers to bud. The beach remained cold, though, and bleak, gusts of wind off the water cutting and chill. Nate picked his way over the rocks even more slowly than usual, wobbling unsteadily on his hind legs.
Despite the slow pace, Rocky trailed behind. The good mood he'd had in the forest had evaporated, and Nate didn't seem like he was any happier than ever, despite the evolution. Rocky wished Seyka could have come with them.
Nate came to a halt near the shore, just above where the waves darkened the rocks. There was no one out enjoying the beach on a gray, chilly day. Good.
The marshtomp turned back to Rocky and waited. It took a while for the familiar to approach, but Nate stayed where he was, unmoved. Rocky wouldn't meet his eye, examining the salt-crusted rocks instead.
"Well?" the familiar asked after a long, wave-washed silence. "You said you wanted to talk. Are you going to talk or not?"
"I dunno. Are we? You got something to say?"
"
No." Rocky couldn't feel the wind, but he crossed his arms anyway, hunched like he was cold. "I already said everything I wanted to.
You wanted to come out here. If you don't have anything to say, I'm leaving. I have things to do."
"Yeah? What things? What're you gonna do now, huh?"
Rocky managed to hunch further; his head might actually have drawn back a bit into his ethereal shoulders. "I have to go see Flesh," he muttered. "I was supposed to get him a tree. And I want to see how Cola is doing. Things like that."
"So that's it, huh? Everything back to normal now? Just forget like anything ever happened?"
Rocky's nostril's flared, and he glared at the horizon over Nate's shoulder, tail starting to flick back and forth. "Most people already came back. They took care of everything important."
"What about Deoxys?" Nate said. "Or Vix? I guess she just woke up, but--"
"I'm going to work on that, too! Just not right away. I just got back. Can't I have one day to relax before I have to worry about everything again? I just fell out of the sky, I still
hurt."
Nate held up his hands. "Okay, yeah, I get it. You can take a break. I just want to make sure you got some kind of plan, since you know, people are kinda pissed--"
"I know! I know! I know!" Rocky balled his hands into fists, glaring down at Nate. "I know it was bad! I know people got hurt, and I'm stupid, and I should have listened and everything. You already told me! Everybody told me! I feel bad, okay? I feel really bad. And I'm never going to do anything ever again unless I get permission and make sure that everybody's okay with it and it could never go wrong, ever. Is that what you want?" Dark tears were gathering at the corner of Rocky's glowing eyes, but his expression remained fierce. "Why do you keep telling me these things? Do you just want to make me feel worse?"
Nate didn't say anything. Rocky's face contorted in a snarl. "That's it, isn't it? Well, forget about it! I already feel as bad as I can. You can't make me feel any worse. You're wasting your time!"
Nate took a step towards Rocky, and the familiar retreated, showing his teeth. Nate paused, then held out a hand. "Give me your core."
"Why?" Rocky's hand went unconsciously to his chest.
Nate glanced away, kicking at a rock by one of his feet, which threw him off balance for a second. "You're too big," he muttered. "And, like, squishy."
Rocky spent a long time considering, and Nate waited, silent, looking off across the beach. Finally the familiar pulled his core out of his chest and hesitantly deposited in Nate's waiting hand.
The marshtomp cradled the core between his hands, examining it silently. Then he pressed it against his chest, wrapping both arms around it and hugging it close. "Sorry," he muttered. "I ain't actually mad at you. You know that, right? I ain't trying... to make you feel bad. I'm trying to make sure you understand that you ain't actually invincible. And the people around you
definitely ain't invincible. And most of the rest of the team, at least there's the Voidlands and all, but if you get dusted? Who the fuck even knows?" Nate sighed. "So just, like, don't, all right? I ain't mad, I promise. I just don't want nothing to happen to you."
Rocky was frozen in disbelief. After a moment he stammered, "I'm sorry, I..."
"You don't gotta be sorry. Really. You made it back okay. That's the important thing, you know?"
Rocky sniffled, then knelt down and, before Nate could figure out what he was doing, had pulled the marshtomp into a hug. Nate let him cling on and sob for a few moments before awkwardly working one arm free to wrap around Rocky's shoulder, the other keeping the familiar's core held tight against his chest. Rocky's ectoplasm was only barely warmer than the air around him, and Nate sank into it slightly, almost literally engulfed by the familiar's embrace, but he didn't make any attempt to pull away while the infernape stammered, "It was so scary. We should have been able to get away from that beam, or block it! What kind of thing is that strong, from that far away? It shouldn't exist! But when it was getting close, and I could almost feel it, and when I realized we weren't going to get away..."
"Yeah, it was scary," Nate said when the familiar didn't go on. "We all saw it, you know? Raven was broadcasting the whole thing. And when the picture cut out..." Nate let that thought hang there, tightening his grip on Rocky's shoulder.
"And before we left, nobody would say! Nobody would tell me why it was a bad idea!" Rocky sobbed. "They didn't know! They
didn't know! They're all acting like it was obvious and dumb and we should have listened, but they didn't even know, they just had a bad feeling! How were we supposed to guess anything could hit us from that far away? Especially like that? It should have been fine!"
"I know, I know," Nate said. He tried to pat Rocky on the back, the familiar's ectoplasm sucking weirdly at his hand. "I get it. I'd have been pissed about that, too, if I'd've been there. But maybe the play was to take some time and try to figure out what kinda bad vibes they were picking up on instead of taking off right then to prove them wrong, you know?"
Rocky sniffled and pulled Nate closer. "Deoxys was so brave," he said, hiccuping. "He knew there was something scary up there. He didn't want to go. But he agreed to take us anyway. He trusted us not to... not to..." That really got him started again.
Nate didn't really know what to do except hang on and say whatever comforting thing came to mind. "It ain't all your fault," he muttered. "You're from my memories and all. And who you remember being ain't really who you are. The person you're based on--fuck, I'm sure a goddamn moon laser wouldn't even slow them down. You expect too much outta yourself, remembering being a person like that."
Rocky didn't say anything to that, but in time his sobs grew lighter, until at last he pulled away from Nate, curling his tail around himself and wiping at his face. The marshtomp kept Rocky core in hand, waiting for the familiar to make the next move.
"It is my fault," Rocky said at last, wiping the remains of gooey black tears from his face. "I could have decided to be anybody. I could have decided to be somebody who was actually smart."
"What, now, from what I remember, you're always showing me up. How many times I've said something ain't possible or don't work like that, and you've gone and proved me wrong, huh? Don't go thinking you're the dumbass in this group." He held Rocky's core out, and the familiar received it wordlessly, staring at it for long seconds before pressing it back into his chest.
"You
do do stupid things," he said, his glowing stare suddenly accusatory. "And you were mean.
Really mean. When everybody was mad at me, you didn't help."
"Yeah, I was... You know how I am."
Rocky frowned. "You remember what Mightyena said, don't you? About not being angry at people and saying bad things and then feeling bad about it later?"
"That was a long time ago, Kid."
Rocky's ear flicked, and he turned slightly, peering at Nate out of the corner of his eye. The marshtomp didn't react. "So what?" Rocky said.
"So obviously it didn't work out."
Rocky's eyes narrowed. "Did you even try?"
Ain't nobody around here worth trying for, was Nate's immediate, bitter thought, followed by a wave of horror and shame. Jesus, he was lucky Rocky wasn't in his head all the time like the other familiars. "I mean obviously, yeah," he said, trying to crush the feeling out of existence. Wherever the fuck
that came from. "But--"
"No," Rocky said. "Not 'but.' You can't be mean to me anymore." Nate didn't say anything, wouldn't meet his eye. "You
can't be mean to me," the familiar insisted.
"Yeah," Nate said at last. He didn't look up.
"And I'll try not to make fun of you so much, either." Rocky grinned. "It's too hard now anyway. You're not a mudkip anymore!" Nate didn't return his smile, but Rocky pressed on anyway. "Why do you think you evolved?"
"Fuck if I know. It don't make no sense. But then, when the hell does anything make any sense around here?"
"Well, probably you were pretty scared," Rocky said. "A lot of times pokémon evolve when they get stressed out."
"We been in how many fucking insane fights by now?" Nate said. "Like how about the time a bunch of people literally fucking died? I been plenty stressed, believe me, and it hasn't done shit. We fought that goddamn mewtwo before, too, it ain't even a
mewtwo thing." He shook his head. "Nah. No fucking clue."
"But that means you
can evolve!" Rocky said, eyes glowing bright. "You could be a swampert! And you could probably do all those cool Radiance tricks other people on the team can do! Maybe even, uh, whatever happened to Owen."
"Maybe," Nate said. He stared out over the ocean, and Rocky couldn't tell whether he was feeling thoughtful or sad.
"You can," Rocky said softly.
"Well," Nate said after a minute, "We probably oughta be getting back to town. I know you got a packed schedule and all."
"I have to say sorry to Karat," Rocky said with a grimace. "And see if there's anything I can do for Deoxys. What... what happened to him?"
"I dunno. I dunno if anybody does, really. He disappeared except for some kinda crystal thing. Karat seems to think he's gonna be like that for a long time."
"We have to get him back," Rocky said firmly. "There has to be some way to do it."
Nate smirked. "Yeah. It's fucking Cibus, ain't it? Raise his self-esteem or some shit. I'm sure he'll be fine."
Rocky giggled. After a moment he said, "Will you come with me? When I go talk to Karat? I think he's gonna be really mad."
"Of course," Nate said. "Whenever you're ready."
"Okay," Rocky said. He slumped back on the stony ground with a sigh. A familiar wouldn't really notice whether a place like this was comfortable or not, Nate thought. "Not yet," Rocky said decisively. "But soon. We have to go soon."
"Yeah," Nate said. He was happy to sit, too. Standing on two legs was goddamn tiring. Turned out he didn't really remember how to sit properly, neither. "Soon."
But neither of them made any move to go anywhere at all, not for a good long while.
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