PART I: THE ARCHER

Who could stay? You could stay.

“Eva…”

“Eva…”

“Eva!”

With a sudden gasp, her eyes flew open, quickly adjusting to the darkness of the tent. The ground was hard under her, rocky and uncomfortable. Her belly ached with hunger and her mouth was dry, parched. She smacked her lips together, adjusting to the discomfort she once learned to live with as she sat up. The rough woolen blanket fell, letting the sharp chill of the night air sting her bare shoulders.

“Eva! Get up!” there was a sense of urgency in the deep voice that called to her. The flap of the tent roughly flew open and MATIAS SILPH stuck his head in. Even in the dark she could see the grime and dirt that stained his cheeks, the matted salmon hair that jutted out wildly from his head. He probably hadn’t showered in days, maybe weeks. Neither had she.

It all came back to her, washing away the fogginess of her memories like a tidal wave. The scent of burnt pine wafted into the tent as he crawled in, “Snap out of it, they’re coming, Eva.”

Rocket. She just knew that’s what he meant. She knew where to reach for her clothes, her boots, her pokeballs while he maneuvered around her to collect a few things they couldn’t do without, “There’s no time, c’mon,” he grabbed her hand and led her out of the tent with an unmistakable urgency.

White smoke curled up over the extinguished fires and the few that remained of their company scrambled with similar urgency.

She remembered this night. They’d come out from . . . She turned to the West.

“Blade!” she smacked a pokeball on her belt, cracking it open to release the Gallade that immediately threw up a PROTECT just as a wave of suicidal VOLTORB rolled into camp. She clutched Matias tight, forcing him beneath the PROTECT she had preemptively raised. It saved them from the shrapnel that would have otherwise separated them, forcing them to lick their wounds alone in order to split the attack and survive.

The ring in her ears drowned out the agonizing screams of their friends. She didn't know how, but she knew only two made it out alive that night.

Instinct kicked in, and they fell into their rolls like a practiced waltz. She knew exactly what he was going to do, what she needed to do. What made them dangerous. ASH emerged from the black smoke blanketing the small camp, a raging INFERNO that burned through the advancing RATICATE, ARBOK, and OTHERS. Their high pitched screams died under the bright SUNNY DAY brought forth by the Gallade to amplify Ash’s power. His PSYCHIC halted the advance of the other, keeping them still enough for the Charizard to tear them apart. All the while, a humble LIFE DEW and well-timed HEAL PULSES helped them outlast the Rocket attack that was supposed to separate them.

“We’re ok,” Eva spoke softly and with a sense of awe.

“Of course we are,” Matias retorted, kicking over a burned body to see if there was anything they could salvage, any information they could glean.

She stood there, staring at him, emerald eyes burning a hole through the back of his head. This was supposed to be the last time she saw him until Hoenn. Two weeks from now the rebellion would die. There would be no united front to keep it alive, no force strong enough to defend the defenseless. The death toll would reach a record high and Rocket would solidify its hold on a region that submitted to their vice grip. They would tear apart families, killing loved ones of any lingering rebels, holding false trials that convicted even innocent civilians of treason. Eva would be alone, Rocket hot on her trail and her own hope would turn to ash.

To survive, she’d run. To protect everything, and every one she loved, she’d run to Hoenn.

“I know where we need to go,” he reached down, offering her a hand to climb up onto Ash’s back. The black Charizard shifted to adjust to the two riders and they disappeared into the night, rewriting a story she thought was etched in stone.

INTERLUDE

Ice, Fire, and Thunder

Once upon a time, a long time ago, Kanto was a nearly uninhabitable region. Only the strongest survived the unpredictably harsh winters, the earth-shattering thunderstorms, and the wildfires that scourged the land. The three gods that roamed the skies were not merciful.

One day, a hero emerged. They were no one special nor did they believe themselves to be. They had a dream and the will to make it reality. The dream was simple: a safe Kanto. This hero wasn’t the strongest or the smartest of them all but they inspired hope, and in turn, the people inspired them.

They challenged the gods, and one by one they were sealed away: Articuno in their own ice, Zapados in a tomb of stone, and Moltres in the world’s core.

They never returned to see their dream come to life but the people never forgot them. Their sacrifice earned them the title of Champion, the first in Kanto.

PART II: HOPE

Rebellions are built on hope.

It felt like a dream. Was it a dream?

What was real? The blood on her cheek she washed away gently with the washcloth, or the fading memories of a life in Hoenn? It felt crazy to consider either option.

He was real. This had to be real.

“Are you ready?” she glanced over her shoulder to see Matias dressed in street clothes, freshly showered, and impatiently waiting. They burned their uniforms. Things had quickly escalated for people like them. Kanto was a dangerous and hostile place.

She stayed because she wasn’t alone. It’d been two weeks and they had found others that still shared their ideals and hatred for Rocket. It was a pitiful rebellion but all it would take is a little gasoline to set fire, “Yeah, right behind you,” she offered a small smile in assurance but didn’t move.

“Tch,” she could feel his eyes roll away from her as he paced the room like a restless ghost.

“Just go without me, I’m right behind you,” she couldn’t stand to hear the rhythmic beat of his boots on the small safehouse’s creaky floor. That comment stopped him in his tracks, another ”Tch,” dismissed the idea. He wouldn’t let her go alone, not when the streets crawled with spies and henchmen with their faces burned into their memories. They scoured the streets for them: Kanto’s ‘Most Wanted’.

“Alright, alright, let’s go,” she tucked her dyed brown hair into the hat and they slipped out of the apartment and down to the pub on the outskirts of Vermillion City.

---

“This is getting more dangerous,” Ivan grunted, clearly restless with the idea of their gathering. It didn’t help that they had been at this for hours already. There were about a dozen of them in total, idealists who refused to accept Rocket’s recently proclaimed hold of their home region. Their little group was a mix of civilians and soldiers, some more radical than others.

“There isn’t enough of us, how can this reclaim all of that,” they motioned vaguely, and frustratingly, at the region as a whole drawn out on a map on the table. Strategic pieces were scattered over the map like a chess table with Matias hunched over it all playing General. He’d had enough of Ivan’s cynicism, and it showed in the whites that blanched his knuckles and cold glare that rose from the map to look across the table at him.

“It’s not a numbers game,” Eva quickly injected before the tension in the room snapped like a guitar string. She rose from her seat in the corner to stand between them, “We just need the right pieces. A pawn can take down a king,” she reminded him, “ . . . With the right sacrifices.” Her fingers traced over the Seafoam Islands, moving along the map to Mt. Ember. She stayed because she wasn’t alone, but perhaps being alone was her fate. Especially if it meant Kanto’s freedom.

Matias knew that look. The one she got before she did something incredibly stupid, “Eva, a word.”

---

“You can’t go chasing fairytales, Eva. Don’t be stupid,” it wasn’t like him to be so blunt, not with her. The weight forced on their shoulders made them both unpredictable, “We need you here,” what he really meant was ‘I need you here’. He’d never admit it, of course. Neither of them would, not even now while they stared death down, waiting for it to strike. It was easier to pretend they were nothing so when they inevitably lost one another, it would be easier. At least, that’s what she told herself.

“What we need is something for the people to believe in. A symbol. Hope. Without it they’ll never be inspired to fight back. They’re not all like us,” she would hold her ground on this, a mountain he couldn’t move. Which, naturally, frustrated him. Even as he stared her down, looming over her with an equal stubbornness, “They need you here, not me. Keep this alive until I get back.”

“If you come back.”

“I’ll come back, I promise.”

She wrapped her arms around him, embracing him in the shadows of the pub’s hidden hallway. He returned the gesture, breathing into her hair.

“You better.”

PART III: TRIAL OF ICE

Strength of the Soul

The air grew colder, intensely so. She leaned into the Pidgeot’s back, trying to hide in their down feathers to keep warm. The black sea stretched out in every direction below them, in front of them, and behind them. She could feel the bird’s wing beats growing stiffer as both exhaustion and freezing temperatures slowed their progress. The pillars of the Seafoam Islands broke across the horizon, and the Pidgeot collapsed on their shore, unconscious.

Eva crawled through the island’s caves, hardly finding any respite from the cold behind protected walls. Every inch of this place was a victim to the freezing winds and hail that never stopped falling.

It was atop the tallest mountain she finally found what she was looking for. Hope.

The legends were real. Encased in a crystal clear sheet of ice was an unmistakably slumbering ARTICUNO. Against the rocks that rose around the ice were men, pale, blue, and frozen solid. Perfectly preserved.

“Hestia,” she called forth her RAPIDASH who bellowed FLAME THROWER after FLAMETHROWER at the ice that sealed the legendary bird away. Blade’s SUNNY DAY was even masked by the never-ending storm. The Rapidash tried until she too was frozen solid by the hail. Syah, the MACHAMP used her strength to beat the ice until her knuckles were bloody, and she could no longer move her arms.

“Impossible,” despite all of her efforts, the sheet of ice was as solid as it was when they started. Her brain moved slower and every movement felt like she was fighting against a current. Hypothermia was fast approaching. Her tears froze on her cheeks and she fell to her knees, wondering if her fate was to be the same as the others that had tried before her. It didn’t matter how strong they were, death came for them like it would for her.

But strength isn’t everything is it? She had never been strong. She paled in comparison to the likes of Matias and even the Rockets she stood up against. No, you didn’t need to be strong. Even the smallest drop of water could make waves.

Eva grabbed a stone shaped like a chisel and struck the ice with as much force as she could muster. To her surprise, the small chunk feel to her feet, leaving a divot in the previously solid face of the wall. She had to do it herself, until every small strike carved a path to the bird’s outspread wings.

It took nearly a day. There was no sun here, no light, no darkness, just a world of white. She was nearly beyond saving when the final piece fell ands he touched the sliver of the sapphire wing that peaked out. She couldn’t move her fingers anymore nor could she feel the soft rays of the feather. All at once, the ice turned to snow, and ARTICUNO emerged. Her fingers burned terribly as the first breath of warm sun washed over them. They god stole the ice from her fingers and toes, letting feeling rush back into her extremities.

When she could feel her lips, she finally told her story, “Help us. Please.”

They could see it in her eyes. Sincerity. She didn't seek to chain them down to use them selfishly. They may regret it later, but they accepted her plea, allowing her to clumsily climb onto their back. They took her back to the mainland to find their brother.

PART IV: TRIAL OF STONE

Patience and Persistence

Eva had never known anyone that had traveled this far into the desert. It was quite the opposite of the Seafoam Islands. The air was terribly dry, and the sun felt like a roaring fire. She could already feel her skin blistering from the burns.

ARTICUNO brought her here, landing at the mouth of a tomb carved into a rocky mountain she didn’t recognize. It wasn’t on any map she’d ever seen, nor was it easily visible. As soon as Eva slid off the ice bird’s back, the real heat hit her and Aritcuno was nowhere to be found.

“Great,” she feared for the worse, abandonment. The only way was forward no, into the darkness.

It felt like she had walked for hours. Even in the dark of the rock tomb, the heat prevailed. It was blistering, like an oven. Sweat poured from her brow and sucked the hydration clean out of her. Even her bones ached by the time the tunnel emptied into an impossibly tall cavern.

Thes harp cry of a distress bird echoed across the walls making it sound like Zapados was everywhere all at once. Pale electricity crackled through the darkness from above, marking it’s location, “Finally,” she released the Pidgeot, healed and healthy once gain, “Up there, Zeph,” she pointed towards the cavern’s ceiling and they were airborne in rush of wind.

THUNDER cracked down, this time in a concentrated bolt that knocked them clear out of the sky. The Pidgeot shrieked, scrambling to catch their rider and try again. With the help fo a TAILWIND they raced up for second time. Zephyr attempted to dodge the THUNDER but the bolts were too accurate.

It only took a third time to knock the Pidgeot unconscious, effectively grounding Eva.

“Damn it!” she slowly rose, peering up along the steep rock face. There was a path, but she couldn’t imagine climbing it, she’d never make it. She could barely hold herself upright after that last fall and the effects of the intense heat were taking their toll. She almost called forth her Gallade to TELEPORT her step by step, but the lessons learned from Articuno’s trial echoed in her head. She’d have to do it herself. The easiest road is not always the one that should be tread.

By the end, she was crawling. She dragged herself over the edge, her fingertips bloody and vision blurred. It all felt like a dream. Her Alakazam tore down the walls of the tomb that trapped the god. Thunder clapped all around her and she could feel the talons gently dig into her skin. The world turned white and they traded the arid heat of the desert for the burning lava of Mt. Ember.

PART V: TRIAL OF FIRE

Rebirth

She didn’t have to struggle or suffer to reach the summit. Zapados brought them here without hesitation. Articuno watched them land beside the mouth of Mt. Ember’s maw. The siblings shared a look as Eva rolled from her back and onto her knees. There was no respite between these two trials and no instruction manual to follow. Moltres was nowhere in sight, but it was clear this was the third legendary’s resting place.

They waited patiently for her to rise and offered nothing but expectant glares. It wasn’t hard to deduce what they wanted. Eva peered over the edge of the maw and into the abyss that glowed red and orange from the boiling magma. The pool was so far down it was only a speck of color in an otherwise dark cylinder.

Her heart pounded in her ears like thunder. It was madness. Absolute suicide. There had to be another way.

“You’ve got to be kidding me,” her voice trembled, tears budding at the corners of her eyes.

A pawn could take a king, with the right sacrifice.

“Promise you’ll help them. Promise me.” Eva unclipped her belt, leaving her pokeballs with Aritcuno.

They each nodded in turn. The release of their brother, for the freedom of Kanto. That was the price they would pay.

“Ok.”

Without hesitation, she ran, leaping off the edge and diving into the bowels of Mt. Ember.

Moltres screeched and the ground shook. Magma boiled out of the cracks in the earth and the final bird rose from the ashes, reborn and revived.

All our heroes die all alone,
But they live forever in the legacy they leave,
In the lives they save,
And the inspiration others perceive

PART VI: FREEDOM

Eva didn’t come back, not like she promised.

He hated them at first for it, but sometimes he thought that he could see her in the emerald eyes of the phoenix that chose him to lead the liberation. And that was enough to get him by.

Together, they inspired hope. They purged the land of the villainy that poisoned it. A new Kanto rose from the ashes and Rocket disappeared into the shadows to plot and stew in their defeat.

When it was finished the birds fled West, towards Hoenn. Something new was coming.

EPILOGUE

“Morales.”

“Morales.”

“Eva.”

She jolted up with a sudden urgency, eyes wide and terrified. Her skin prickled as if it was peeling off after a bad burn. In fact, her skin burned. She reacted accordingly, swiping at her bare arms, scratching at her neck until he seized her wrists and tethered to their reality.

Eva was back in her office. The League screensaver bopped around the sleeping computer in front of her. She looked up at FERNANDO SILPH whose eye peered down at her with an unreadable stoic concern.

“What’s wrong, Morales?”

“Nothing, I’m fine. What time is it?”

“3:30AM. You’re going home.”

“It was just uh . . .” she wiggled free and bumped the mouse to wake the computer back up. Her face paled under the white light of the computer but was amplified by the messages still open over the report she was working on, “Uh . . . bad dream.”

Right?