I Sting (Pokemon Poison Type Specialist)

Virah lifted the chopstick to her mouth and bit down, she chewed in silence, feeling that the reason of her mouth being full was enough to stray away from talking about her problems.

She gulped, then Whitney talked.

"What did you want to talk about?" The pinkette asked, "I'm all ears," Whitney did her best to put up a smile, but Virah could tell she was concerned, "did something happen?"

Virah nodded, a gesture that carried all the weight she was feeling at the moment, "the gang war killed a lot of people, and also Pokemon,"

"Virah…" Whitney trailed off, and Virah waited, curious if the pinkette could muster words of comfort, "… it's not your fault,"

Not even Whitney could reasonably go around her actions.

Virah chuckled deprecatingly, "what do you mean it's not my fault?" She asked bitterly, "I was the reason why the gang war happened," she caught herself and lowered the tone of her voice, "Whitney I- I killed people!"

"I know," Whitney stood up and moved next to Virah, she rested her head on Virah's shoulder and said, "and I'm here for you, okay? And if it means that I need to tell you that it's not your fault over and over again then I'll do it, for you,"

"What does that even do?" Virah muttered.

"To remind you that the reason for why the gang war started wasn't because of you, but the guy who released that Steelix, and the gangs who occupied the slums to begin with, you simply reacted, okay?" Whitney held her hand, "to me, that's the reasonable conclusion to all this,"

"You really think that?" Virah tilted her head to meet Whitney's gaze.

"I believe it with all my heart,"

Whitney's soft spoken words echoed on the walls of the room as silence loomed over the two of them, and Virah, for all her part, found herself thinking about them over and over again, as if somehow, her guilt ridden heart could just forget about what she did and move on because Whitney said so.

She closed her eyes, if she was opening up, she might as well be honest with how she's feeling right now.

"I can't just move on from it Whitney, I killed people, and you saying that it's okay doesn't make it fine, it- it just feels like you're lying," she stammered but managed to bite out the accusing words.

"I know," Whitney's tone didn't heighten in the slightest, it was as soft as ever, "and I am," she said, "but if it means that my lie keeps you safe? Then I'll do it,"

Virah found herself in the darkness of her own mind.

Was Whitney actually right? Was she? No, she was correct when it came to Virah's safety and her personal beliefs but otherwise? She wasn't right, because Virah killed people and in the bigger picture, that's not just a sin she could wash off or a disaster that the rest of the world could forget.

Even the Nurse Joys in Azalea heard about it, that's how big of a disaster Virah wrought to those poor slum dwellers was.

"And you're okay with this?" Virah asked.

"No," Whitney replied, "I'm not, which is why I want to do everything I can to correct your name, we'll find the man who sent out that Steelix and reveal the truth that he was the trainer of that rampaging Pokemon,"

"They're already searching for him," Virah supplied, "and I think that if he ever gets caught, then he'll say that he saw me killing all of those rocket grunts and Whitney, I don't think I can- I don't-"

The right squeeze to her hand woke Virah up and she opened her eyes to push Whitney away only to stop when the pinkette spoke, "we'll take care of it when the time comes, for now, how about we just eat? The food is getting cold,"

Virah nodded, she got the signal, even Whitney wasn't sure what to do when it came to her killing spree inside of the rocket headquarters and decided to put off the topic for now.

And Virah wasn't sure too, because what else was she supposed to do? She killed people and the evidence was against her.

But Whitney was also right in that it's probably better if she deals with it when the time comes, will she be preparing for it? Yes, but her entire life before getting caught wouldn't be full of preparations.

It'll have a healthy mix of stuff, like right now.

"Thanks Whitney," Virah directed a smile towards her friend as she pinched a dumpling with her chopsticks, "I needed that,"

"You're welcome," the pinkette nodded, "I hope you think things through, because it's really not your fault,"

Virah nodded, and that would have been her only answer but she caught herself, she swallowed her food, "I will but that's for tomorrow, let's just eat for now, I want to enjoy being with you,"

"Sure!" Whitney beamed, and Virah, for once, felt glad that she was being honest with her.

Time passed with no conversation being passed between the two of them and as their impromptu dinner came to a close, Virah stood up to prepare for her leave, she looked Whitney in the eyes as she dusted herself.

"I'll take my time gathering information about the tail peddlers, so uhm, don't rush your costume okay? It's better to be safe than sorry after all," Virah warned.

"I won't rush it," Whitney nodded, "I'll be careful,"

Virah nodded, but she knew that protection against harm wouldn't be enough, she needed to make something that'll heal her friends too, not just gadgets that'll allow them to fight.

She's thought about what she wanted to do in the future while eating and the most obvious conclusion was to continue her fight against Team Rocket, not just give up after a particularly bad event.

Once back in her room, Virah pulled out her notebook and started writing, ideas about how she could realistically create a healing device started to form and most of them centered around the Water Stone inside her bag.

There were a lot of healing moves out there, but most of them were either Normal or Grass.

The only exceptions to this were either Leech Life or Dream Eater, but it can also be argued that they're more closely related to leeching moves than recovery.

Given that she didn't know how to change Type Energy within elemental stones, Virah designed something close to the latter.

And the process of healing was rather simple; using the elemental stone, Water Type energy would pour out of the device and into the body of the wearer, and through that, the liquid within their bodies would be consumed to hasten their recovery.

It wasn't a perfect process, but like all things, it can be slowly improved and that's exactly what Virah did, she spent a good portion of the night smoothing out the crinks in her device.

She eventually ended her brainstorming session with a device that had three phases of recovery; the start was the dehydration of the skin as well as the wound itself, preventing bleeding whilst also easing the closing of the gash.

The second phase was to use the water in the blood to recover any damaged cells.

The third and last phase had Water Type Energy nourishing the cells and getting them back at peak function to prevent any scarring as well as to make the recovery easier.

Virah calculated that all three phases would consume a lot of Water Type Energy which meant that using the device would be costly, especially in her current state where she only had one Water Stone.

'But that's fine,' Virah thought as she closed her notebook, if the cost of saving her friends' lives was a single Water Stone, she'd do it without hesitation.

Virah yawned, she closed her notebook and placed it inside her bag.

Her eyes went to the wooden ceiling while her mind wondered up to the clouds, the theory for the process of recovery was sound, but as for how she could build a device with that kind of effect was beyond her, but she's sure that she could come up with something.

Virah closed her eyes and dreamt of a bloodied Grene punching someone repeatedly, her wounds closed with each hit, they reopened when she was attacked by the Pokemon she was punching.

Virah woke up to having no memory of that dream whatsoever.