8 - The Backstory

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-Your POV-

After waking up with bright daylight spewing through the glass-paned windows and spilling my face, I stumble out the door and into the Pokemon Center hallway, feeling incredibly dizzy and nauseous. My legs were unsteady and I fell to the floor once or twice, and I only got a few feet down the passageway before I gave up entirely.

"Where is Gladion?" I whimper, head throbbing with an awful headache I couldn't shake since I stood up.

I can't call for a nurse, the car accident didn't physically harm me, so I didn't need that kind of medical attention, but what is the cause for my insistent sneezing and increasingly weak feeling throughout my body?

My breathing intensifies as I draw in hurried, ragged breaths. I must've caught an illness in the pouring rain.

Taking another tentative step forward, my vision blurs, and I trip. Bracing for the fall, I fully expect to hit the wood flooring.

Instead, a pair of arms caught me in a tight embrace. I look up wearily.

"Gladion?" I whisper.

"So it's true," Was the low response, as I started to pass out again.

"What...?" I faded into a dose of sleep before I received the answer.

-Gladion's POV-

"So it's true," I caught her from falling at the last second.

"What...?" She murmurs, eyes fluttering, then slumps to the ground.

I rest a hand on (Y/N)'s forehead and confirm my worries. She was burning up with a dreadful fever.

And as for the thing (Y/N) that Team Skull desired, it made sense. It was true... she had it. Around her neck was a necklace, with a pendant hung on it.

The charm wouldn't catch just anyone's eyes, but it was something that would be beneficial to Team Skull indeed.

A trial captain charm. The trial captains can be identified by the flower-shaped adornment they wear, each with a different colored jewel to represent their specialized type. This one was a pale blue, which I assumed was an ice type.

This makes no sense. A trail captain was usually chosen by the kahuna, and hadn't (Y/N) just moved here? There was no way she could've met one already, and been deemed worthy of being one. So why does she have it?

I lifted (Y/N) up carefully and walked back to her assigned room. After setting her down on the crisp white sheets of the firm bed, I called in a nurse, who looked utterly confused.

"What's the matter?" She asked politely but appeared intimidated by my presence.

"I think she's fallen ill," I muttered and began to leave the room.

(Y/N) stirs on her bed and says in a hushed voice, still asleep, "Trial of... Ice,"

I continue out the door and scowl. I'd have to ask Sun about how in the world (Y/N)'d have a trial captain charm.

It's all rather suspicious.

Once in the main lobby, I see Sun nodding off on the bench. I walk up to him quickly and pinch his arm.

He shoots up, alarmed. "Holy Arceus, Gladion, I'm so gonna kill you-!"

"Cool down," I frown down at him, annoyed by the boy's irrational temper, "I have a question."

"What do you want?" Sun says, still frustrated.

"Why the heck does your sister have a trial captain pendant if she's from a foreign region?" I ask, not restraining any skepticism from my tone.

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