Regrets

There was a small moment where that sentence stunned Mark, but after that, he ran off, almost knocking over the chair he was on.

“I’ll see you later, Lily. Gotta make sure he doesn’t rush Simon too hard.” Lily signed off with a smile.

This time, there was another Pokémon in the medical area aside from Simon, something akin to a mole? But with metal claws and a metal plate over their head. Mark looked at them for a second before immediately going for Simon.

“Mark?” God, he missed that voice. “Mark… Please tell me you’re okay.”

“I-I’m fine, I got out fine… B-but what about you, are you alright? Does it still hurt?”

“It… it does, but I’ll survive.” Simon looked around for a second. “Where’s Rose?”

And there it was. The question Mark was dreading to hear. How would he answer? He needed to know, but also how in the world was he supposed to say it? At the Cubone’s hesitation, Simon’s expression shifted.

“Mark. Where is Rose?” The tone changed as well. It wasn’t a question anymore, it was a demand.

But he was having difficulty speaking. His mouth opened, but no sound was coming out. It wasn’t until he let some tears fall that his throat allowed him to talk.

“Rose… Rose isn’t coming, Simon…”

Simon was stunned for a second. “She… where did she go?”

“She’s dead.”

Silence. The Squirtle could only stare vacantly at the nothingness in front of him. Mark could swear his blue skin tone was getting lighter. His breathing was becoming more and more rapid until being replaced with hyperventilation.

“No… No, you’re joking, please… Please tell me this is just a joke…” The way Simon grabbed the sheets on him made some veins show from the strength alone. “S-she can’t be… she can’t be dead, no, I refuse to believe that…”

There was a tense moment where nobody was saying anything. The mole was looking at them, with a concerned expression. Same as Charlie, who was on his desk to give them some space.

“Where are they?! Those bastards! Where the hell are they? I’m going to kill them!” Simon was shouting, making the notion of getting up but flinching at his injuries. He wasn’t giving up, though, his intentions were clear.

“Simon, stop! Zigg is dead, okay? You can’t go off on a rampage like that, you’ll hurt yourself!”

“I. DON’T. CARE! The other four! The ones that helped him! Where are they?!” At that point, he was close to getting out of his bed, even if Mark was in front of him, making sure he didn’t get any further. It wasn’t until Charlie appeared with a bag of… something, and sparkled whatever the hell that was over Simon. His breathing was getting calmer and calmer, and Mark didn’t have to make that much opposing strength against him. “P-please… It can’t… she can’t…”

The Squirtle said those words struggling, there were some wet spots on his face, like his muscles couldn’t put on the facade of him being okay. Until eventually, he lost consciousness again.

“W-what was that?”

“Sleep powder. Don’t worry, he’ll be fine, I just needed to calm him down before his wounds ended even worse.” Charlie moved Simon back into the bed and tucked him in. “I’ll have to stay awake during these nights just in case he wakes up and goes on a rampage again.”

Mark slumped down against the wall. It hurt a lot to see the one he got so close to in such a grief-induced fury. He knew Simon wasn’t going to take the news well, but he wasn’t expecting the rage.

“What are you going to do?”

“I don’t know…”

The Drowzee sighed. It was obvious he was worried as well. “I think taking your mind off things for a bit might help you. Have you thought of joining a team temporarily for some missions? Even if you can’t fight, I think the change of scenery and company will let you think clearly.”

He didn’t respond, it felt wrong to just substitute his team like that, but also, what was he supposed to do while he waited for Simon to recover? He only did two things here, which were eat and cry. And even though he felt the need to cry, he was tired of it.

“I… I’ll talk with Gren. I’m not sure if I’ll go through with that, but I’ll consider it.”

Charlie put a paw on his back. He didn’t say anything, just patting him reassuringly a couple of times before going back to his desk. 

Mark took a deep breath, and went downstairs.

Finding Gren was easy, since they were right in the middle of the room, hanging new posters for missions. There were very few teams around, most of them just idly chatting. He guessed they were either done with the missions today, or they were taking a day off.

“Hm? Oh, Mark, what can I help you with?”

“Do you mind if we have a talk? Charlie told me something I could do and I wanted to run it by you.”

“Sure, give me a minute to finish this and we can go to my office.”

Luckily, they were almost done. He followed them to the Guildmaster’s room, feeling a bit weird to be here again after last time.

“Alright, what’s the matter?”

“I wanted to ask if there was any way for me to join a different team, temporarily, only while Simon is recovering.”

“Sure! We have programs for that. Not the first time a single member has been without anything to do due to the rest of their team being out of commission or on break.” They rummaged through the drawers, getting some papers out. “So, what team do you want to join? We have… Let’s see… There’s Chorus, a Frogadier, with Graff and Ott, a Meowth and an Oshawott, respectively. The three of them are very… let’s just say they like to tease newcomers… There’s Luka, the Glaceon, with her partner Nikki, the Cinderace. Lily told me you already met them so it would be simple, though those two girls can get very mushy… There’s-”

Mark was letting them speak out of courtesy, but he already knew the team he wanted to join. He didn’t want to waste their time, so he spoke directly.

“I wanted to join Verm’s team.”

The sudden cut made Gren stop in their tracks, but immediately continued. “Alright, you’ll have to ask them first to see if they will accept you. If they say no, you can come back here and we’ll go through the list again.”

He nodded, he doubted Verm would decline. His whole reason was simple, he wanted to check on the ghost, as he hadn’t seen him ever since the incident happened. Besides, it’d be a good excuse to finally meet the rest of his team.

“You are free to leave, I hope Simon recovers soon enough.” And so he did.

He sat on one of the cushions of the lobby, waiting. He hadn’t seen Verm’s team yet, so he thought they’d be on a mission, considering they lived in the building. Mark took this moment to reflect. The conversation with Lily helped a bit, even if it was only because it allowed him to vent to somebody. He was still sad, obviously, but he felt a little more composed.

The conversation with Simon, though… That broke his heart. He had to resist the urge to hold the Squirtle tight, telling him that everything would be okay, even if he himself was doubting that. He wanted to help Simon as much as he helped him.

As soon as he started to overthink everything again, a sound of a Breloom greeting someone snapped him back to reality. Sure enough, there was Verm and his team.

The Gengar was carrying an item, which seemed like a stone or something. And of course, there was a Pokémon near the entrance which took the item and gave them a bag in exchange. A successful mission, he guessed.

Once they entered the building proper, it didn’t take long for Verm to notice Mark. There was some hesitation, but Mark approached him before he could say anything.

“Hey, can I… can I talk to you for a second?” The ghost looked at his team for a moment, signaling them to get going without him.

“What’s up?”

“So, first of all, update on Simon. He woke up, and he almost went on rampage when I told him about Rose.” Mark noticed how uncomfortable Verm was after he said that. “Charlie had to put him to sleep again to calm him down, but at least he’s healing properly.”

“That’s good…”

“And also, I wanted to ask something of you.” Mark shifted on the spot, he didn’t feel confident to say it, but he said it anyway. “Do you think… Do you think I can join your team for a while until Simon is back into action?”

“O-oh…” Verm was thinking about it, not giving an answer just yet.

“It’s okay if you don’t, I just… You’re the one I can trust the most at the moment, and I feel useless standing around doing nothing. I won’t be of much help, but… I really need company right now.”

“I’ll have to ask the other two and see what they think. If they don’t mind, we can start tomorrow.”

Mark gave him a small smile. “Thank you, Verm. I really appreciate that.”

“And by the way, sorry for freaking out like that last time we talked. I don’t think I’m over… you know… just yet. But you literally saw it happen, and I ran away when you needed me. So yeah, sorry.”

“It’s fine. Really. I didn’t blame you for that.”

The ghost sighed. “I… okay. We’ll see each other tomorrow morning, alright?” Mark nodded, and saw him go upstairs.

He fell back into the cushion, staring at the floor. There were no thoughts right now, he felt numb to everything.

‘I hope you’re okay with this, Rose. I’m doing all I can to keep going.’