To Wage the War 3: Ghosts of the Past, Aiming to the Future!

"Naomi! Thanks for picking up. You mind heading out to blackthorn with me, you know, since we're expected there soon anyway? Zeke is quite Distressed again, and Rui's afraid he wont even leave the house to go out to the Cemetery." Falkner responded, petting the Altaria that was now beside him.

"That's fine.. I'll have to bring the kids though. Sayomi will want to come and we can't leave the kids alone..." replied Naomi.

Falkner sighed.
"That's perfectly fine, I'm going to Bring two of my Birds and pick you guys up alright?" He asked into the receiver.

"Hold that thought! I have to ask Sayomi first!" said Naomi as she pressed the hold button on the phone. She dialed the number.
"Hello?" asked Sayomi.
"Hey, Sayomi! It's Naomi! We're all going to see Alli's grave and wondered if you wanted to come along?" asked Naomi.
"Of course, but how long will it take us to get there?" asked Sayomi.
"In posts, like, 4! The person writing this is too rushed to make it into 6 or 7 posts."
"But in hours...?"
"Hours...?"
"Yes, hours! You know, 24 hours to a day?"
"Oh, right!"
"Yeah..."
"It should take about a half hour."
"Okay, I'll come too!"
"Great, see ya!" said Naomi, hanging up and picking up the call from Falkner.
"Okay, the kids are coming and so is Sayomi!"

Falkner was taken back by Naomi's voice suddenly hitting his ear again, but regained composure.
"Okay, I'll be there soon." He said, then hung up. He hopped on Altaria and called out Pidgeot, making their way to Goldenrod. About twenty minutes later, he landed in front of Naomi's house and waited. He soon grew tired, and hopped of Altaria, going up to the door and knocking a couple of times.

Naomi walked to the door and opened it. "Falkner! I've been waiting for you! Let's go over to Sayomi's house, okay?" she said as she walked off without waiting for an answer.

Falkner watched her Walk past him.
"O-Okay." He followed after her, stuffing his hands into his vest pockets casually. Altaria called out
"Altarr!" Falkner turned, quieted her, and continued to walk with Naomi.

Naomi hurried over to Sayomi's house and knocked on the door hurriedly. "Come in!" said Sayomi. Naomi stepped into the house and looked around. "Hey Sayomi. Falkner is here!"

Falkner looked around ,his hands shifting uncomfortably in his pockets. He pulled them out in order to cross his arms.
"Hello Sayomi, haven't seen you in a while." He then turned to Naomi.
"Is everyone ready to go?" He asked.

"Yeah.. we're all ready... except I forgot to tell the kids..." said Sayomi.

Falkner nodded to his bird Pokemon.
"I'll be over by Altaria and Pidgeot when your ready." He said, walking over to the birds and stroking Altaria's head affectionately/

Naomi and Sayomi walked into the house. "Kids, could you come here for a minute?" asked Sayomi. "Coming!" said the kids, walking into the room and sitting down. "We're all going on a trip to Blackthorn City, okay?" said Naomi. "It's really important... we're going to visit Alli's grave." Sayomi added. "Okay." said Yuki, but Hitoshi and Naoki said, "Who's Alli?" Sayomi looked at Naomi questioningly. "You didn't tell them about Alli?" "No.. I didn't think it was necessary..." replied Naomi. "We'll tell you the WHOLE story later, but for now, let's go!" Naomi said as she and Sayomi walked outside and found Falkner. "Okay Falkner, ready to go!"

Falkner nodded to them, and then directed them onto the bird pokemon.
"Hold on tight. Let's go Guys!" Altaria and Pidgeot took off with a start, very careful of the passangers on their backs. In less than twenty minutes, Falkner got them to blackthorn and helped the others off the birds, Rui, who was leaning against the house, sighed.
"Hey." Falkner responded with a hey of his own, and Rui led them all inside.

Kate flew on Luke's Swellow to Blackthron, lands, and hops off. [i[Hope I'm not late, made sure I got up early enough to make the trip...[/i] She walks up to the door and knocks. "Hello? It's Kate, can I come in?" She then waits for the door to be answered.

Falkner opened the door, and led Kate inside.
"Falkner, in all of this where is Larken anyway?" Rui questioned, locking the door after Kate was safely inside. Momo, who had just come into the room, hid behind Falkner, a small blush strewn across her small face, gripping at the man's shirt. Falkner patter her head, he knew she wasn't used to so many people in her home.
"Larken's already at the cemetery, cleaning up Alli's grave." Rui blinked.
"What happened to it?"
"Some guys were there last night, and they messed it up. You bet
Larken was upset about that, but he's pretty silent himself most of the time now anyway. there wasn't too much Damage, but he thought he'd clean it up anyway." Falkner explained.

Kate sighed. "Jerks, what are you gonna do? Now where's that brother of mine? Hope he isn't crazy, who knows what's been going on with him?" She looks around as silence fell on the group.

Rui shrugged.
"He's probably curled up in a ball somewhere. I don't know." She answered quietly. Falkner rolled his eyes.
"He knew Alli about only Six or Seven years before she died. Larken knew her all her life and i knew her for a good 14 years or more. So why's he like this every year? Larken's silently but surely worse off than he is. The guy hasn't said a word all day, he never does on this day." Rui once again, shrugged her shoulder's.
"She was his wife." Falkner sighed.
"I know...but..." He looked down at Momo, and Rui caught on to what he was going to say.
"I know...he should maybe try to think about-" Rui looked down at Momo.
"Other people." Momo further hid herself, burying her face into Falkner's shirt.

Kate sighed again, "Oh Zeke, the wannabe, he ALWAYS needed someone to help him up. To just say, 'It's gonna be OK.'. I don't know either, I want to agree with you, Rui, but knowing Zeke, if he did pull himself together, which would be a feat in of itself, he just might be too crushed to get much past how he was before he met Alli, lonely, and brokenhearted. Despite that he was very good at battling, he immersed himself in it when he wasn't hitting on girls." She shook her head. "I shouldn't say that, more like...trying to find love..." Kate look off into space, thinking about her ruined brother.

Momo looked over to the door, and ran to it, quickly opening it and running out.
"Hey Kiddo! Where are you going?!" Falkner shouted after her.
"I'll be back!" She assured him. Falkner just sighed, telling the others they should go find Zeke. Momo slowed her run to a walk when she reached the cemetery.
"Go, PaoPao." She sent her balloon pokemon from it's pokeball.
"Driff!" Momo grabbed onto PaoPao's strings, until she found Larken hunched over at her mothers grave.
"Uncle Larken?" Larken looked up, drying his eyes. PaoPao looked from Larken to Momo. Momo had never seen him cry. In fact, no one but Alli ever saw him cry. He didn't cry the day Alli died until the moment he was by himself. Momo ran to him, wrapping her arms around his neck. It was a silent comfort, yet all Larken needed.

Kate shruged. "Well, where else would he be?" She goes to Zeke's room and bangs on the door. "Hey, Kong! Don't be a lazy Slaking and get out here!"
"I'm coming darn it!" Zeke roared as he opened the door, "I HATE that joke so much! I'm not like Dad, Kate! I'm never in the frickin' mood for that crap, either!" Kate was silenced with that, and brought Zeke to the group.

Naomi, Sayomi, and the kids started looking at the house. "This is a nice house!" said Naoki. "Yeah... I just feel like I'm forgetting something..." said Naomi, frowning. "Where's Hitoshi?" asked Sayomi.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Meanwhile~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Hitoshi followed Momo to the grave, hiding all the way.

Rui growled, and stamped her foot.
"Zeke, you know, you could try being a bit nicer to people, especially since Al spent all that time trying to help you along with being nicer to people." She shook her head.
"You don't even realize who's missing do you?" She asked.
***********************************************
Larken pulled away from her so he could see her face, and gave her a half smile.
"Hey Kiddo. How'd you get out here?" He said, his voice soft from a full day without a word. Momo leaned closer into Larken, taking in the fresh scent of his cologne.
"I ran here....Uncle Falkner said you were out here." She mumbled. Larken nodded, then looked up.
"Who's there," He asked.

Zeke looked at Rui. "I'm nothing without her, and it's obvious..it's ju--"
"SHUT UP HEZEKAH!!" Kate glares at Zeke, and Zeke looked at Kate, taken aback by Kate's boldness, and the use of his full name. "Look, the man who married Alli, doesn't say that he's nothing! The man who married Alli doesn't curl up into a ball and cry! The man who married Alli is a CHAMPION!! The man who married Alli, is my BROTHER!!! Now, Zeke, where's that Champion in you!?" Zeke takes a few steps back from Kate, grabs his hair, and screams at the ceiling at the top of his lungs, when he calmed down, he leaned against the wall and cried. "I-I-I'm sorry..."

Rui growled.
"and you see, it's things like screaming like that that probably make Alli roll over in her grave. And don't even yell at me for using that terminology, Alli would have said it too. She hated it when you became out of control and that's exactly what you've become. Do you know how many times she came crying to me because you lost it over something stupid? Do you know how many times Momo has come to me, crying her eyes out because her father won't even come out of his room to play with her?" Purin pulled her ears back.
"We have no more time to speak of this. it's time to go visit her. I'll go get Gabe" She leapt up and ran to Gabe's room. Rui turned back to Zeke.
"I don't even think your own children have a clue who you are anymore." Falkner stepped in front of her.
"Okay, Zeke, look man, you may be upset right now, but we really have to go visit Alli and show her how much we all still care, so let's drop this all now and go." He suggested calmly.

Hitoshi tensed when Larken sensed him hiding. They're onto me... I hope they don't find me!