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His master’s avatar had turned away, shifting her attention from him to the newly hatched Pokemon, one of Dwiin’s hatchlings, an oddly colored Honedge. The Gallade could still sense his master’s focus, though. The avatar, Sizaan, may have looked away but she had not. He made a slight bowing motion towards the section of empty air he was certain she was watching from.
The sudden burst of excitement and happiness he could sense from her made him smile. None of the Pokemon around him saw, though. It would have looked strange, he knew.
None of the others could sense her, the being that controlled their trainer. Not as far as he knew, anyway. Sometimes, with how she acted, he got the feeling that maybe Dwiin knew as well, somehow. He had never been brave enough to ask the Aegislash though.
As a Ralts he had asked about it, though. Asked about many things, actually.
Even newly hatched he was certain it was... strange. The presence that watched them, controlled the avatar’s actions at times, often in important matters, gym battles, all through the Elite Four as well.
The team had been small, then. Vokun, just a Froakie at the time, Toorviing just a Fletchling. Strunmah, Golsivaas, and Dwiin weren’t even with them yet. There had been a Torchic with them at that point, he believed, though he had permanently taken his place somewhere along the way.
“Vokun?” The Ralts had stared at the Froakie. “Why haven’t I been given a nickname?”
“Same reason Torchic hasn’t.” He sounded bored. “It’s an unspoken rule. Can’t give nicknames to Pokemon you get in trades.”
“Oh...” Even back then he couldn’t really remember what his first trainer had looked like. He believed they were male, but knew no more than that. He had barely hatched when he was being traded.
“Something else?” Vokun sighed. Ralts hadn’t moved.
“Sometimes I... I sense something. With our trainer.” He started slowly. “Like... Something’s controlling her. A presence.”
“‘Like something’s controlling her.’” The Froakie had snorted, rolling his eyes. “You’re crazy, kid. Get your senses checked.” The Ralts had frowned, looking over at where Sizaan was feeding Toorviing. Maybe he had just...
He hadn’t been wrong though. Now the Gallade knew better, though he wouldn’t know for sure until soon after he became a Kirlia, he’d had the sense to not bring it up again though, the first time he had heard his master’s voice.
‘Maybe I should give Nonvul an everstone, just to be sure...’
The Kirlia had started at the voice. That wasn’t Sizaan, but it was a human’s voice. No one else was around. And who was Nonvul?
‘He shouldn’t become a Gardevoir just because I’m not paying attention.’
Gardevoir? Whoever this Nonvul was, he wouldn’t want to be a Gardevoir either, he wanted to be a Gallade. Always had.
“Kirlia, come here.” Sizaan spoke then, crouching down. He had quickly moved toward her, of course. As he did, she placed something around his neck. The Kirlia glanced down. An everstone?
‘There, you’ll keep that until I can figure out where in the world a Dawn Stone is, Nonvul.’ Was Nonvul... him?
He could feel the presence again, and the Kirlia’s eyes sought out the point it had originated from even as Sizaan turned away.
‘Hopefully you won’t mind being a Kirlia for a bit longer than usual, so I can find one.’
Slowly he had shaken his head slightly. If it meant he could be a Gallade, he’d wait as long as needed.
‘Huh? Did he just-’ The feeling of surprise faded as the voice did. He had lost whatever connection he had had with the being.
The Gallade liked the name. ‘Nonvul’. It had a nice ring to it, even if Sizaan didn’t call him that. Probably because that stupid rule. His master called all the others by the names the avatar had given them, after all.
‘You’ll take care of Ahraan, right? He’s young, and shiny Pokemon are rare and sought after.’ Of course he would. He gave a small nod. Though he doubted Dwiin would allow any harm to come to her son anyway. ‘Thank you, Nonvul.’
There was a sense of finality in the voice that he found he didn’t like. It must have shown on his face, because he heard the soft laughter.
‘Can never be too sure, you know?’
“You look crazy, you know that?” The Gallade started as Dwiin spoke. He had thought she’d be with Sizaan and Ahraan. “Vokun already thinks you are.”
“And you?”
Instead of responding, she made her own version of a bow.
‘Dwiin!’ She sounded delighted at this turn of events. ‘I was wondering what had distracted Nonvul.’
“Nonvul? Is that your name?”
“Mm-hm.” He gave a small nod.
“Fitting. I like it.”
‘I hope you’re very proud of Ahraan. He has a lot of potential, and a shiny as well.’ Dwiin bobbed up and down slowly as the gem that served as her eye winked out before relighting. Of course she was proud of him.
“I don’t understand, you can hear her too? All this time?”
“Only through you, child. The ability is yours alone.”
“And you like her?”
“I’d want no one else training my son.” Was all she said before making her way back towards Sizaan and Ahraan. The Gallade watched them for a few seconds.
‘He won’t replace her. Dwiin means too much for him to do that, no matter how special he is.’
He nodded. He had never thought that would be the case. The six of them had all taken on most of the gym leaders and the entirety of the Eilte Four, as well as the champion, as a team, after all. They had fought off a group of humans who had... they had been planning something bad.
She suddenly laughed quietly. ‘My friends think I’m crazy.’
Something they had in common, apparently. Although he used the term ‘friend’ loosely with Vokun. He was pretty sure the Greninja was a bit jealous of the attention he had gotten from Sizaan over their journey. Maybe more than a bit.
It wasn’t Sizaan’s attention the Gallade had ever wanted, though.
‘I was stupid enough to mention you to them. “It’s just a game, you’re delusional.”, blah blah blah.’ He tilted his head slightly. ‘Ah, guess it doesn’t matter, does it? I suppose you don’t really know, huh?’
A small shake of his head made her chuckle again. He liked that he was able to do that. He liked being able to communicate with his true master.
Really he just liked her . She was different than Sizaan, though there were similarities as well. Whether the similarities were why Sizaan acted as her avatar, or they were caused by it, he didn’t know. There was so much he didn’t know about her, really.
But he knew her voice, her laugh, he knew what she wanted from him in battles, and how to act to cheer her up when she was sad.
He knew she was lonely.
It was as obvious to him as the fact that Vokun was jealous of the attention he got. It was always lurking under the surface, veiled by other emotions but not hidden. It pained the Gallade that he was unable to help her, that he had never even seen the truly remarkable trainer he was proud to call his own.
Maybe someday he would be able to help ease that loneliness more, just as, maybe someday, she would explain what she meant when she would mutter about her ‘scratched screen’ or ‘sticky buttons’ on occasions when Sizaan would fumble, make a mistake that should have been too obvious for someone with her experience to make.
Someday.