Galen's Story: Prologue
"Ah! What the hell Tamash??" Galen scowled as he looked up at Valor and Tamash?, the latter of whom had just roughly pushed him down onto the bench he now found himself seated upon. "What was that for?"
Valor crossed his arms. "It's really quite simple Galen. We don't know you, and we're sick of being kept in the dark about you. I've known you most of my life-"
"And I've known you all of mine-" Tamash? interjected telepathically.
"But we don't know more about you than if we were close to strangers." Valor finished.
Galen rolled his eyes. "Really? What do you want me to do, sit here and tell you my life story?"
They both smirked as they took seats on the bench across from his own. "That would be a start." Valor replied.
"Look, believe it or not, I have more important things to do than act as though I in any way want to share about myself. I have a house to finish moving into, and an increasingly pregnant wife to tend to." Galen said, becoming a bit exasperated. He had after all, spent the better part of three months trying to make up for all the time spent dealing with Tahnokk's machinations, and more importantly he had spent the last week moving everything he owned from his old home in the Resort Area to his new residence in Twinleaf. He was really in no mood to deal with Valor and Tamash?'s requests or questions.
Valor sighed. "Look, I know you have a lot going on, but we're only gonna be in Town for a week or two, and we don't know when we'll see you again. So could you just humour us?"
"Valor, you both need to understand that I don't talk about my past for a reason. There's a lot of stuff I prefer not to think about."
"We understand that, but we just have a few questions Galen. Can't you at least handle that much?" Tamash? asked.
He shook his head in response. "I would really rather not."
Valor and Tamash? exchanged a glance, then both looked back at Galen, both smiling slightly. Tamash? shrugged. "That's really too bad. Guess we have no choice. We happen to be prepared for that response."
Valor nodded in agreement. "Yep. If you won't do this willingly, we'll have to break out our secret weapon."
Looking over to a nearby patch of tall grass, Valor raised his voice as he said, "Zyle, Koinu, come here you two!"
Two Riolu heads immediately popped out of the grass in a rather adorable fashion, looking slightly miffed over having been interrupted at...whatever it was they had been doing. The two young Pokémon exchanged a brief glance, then came running out of the the foliage over to their parents.
Galen raised a brow. "How are they a secret weapon?"
Tamash? smirked. "Like this." Looking down to her children she said, "Sit down you two. Uncle Galen is gonna tell a story."
Galen's eyes went wide. The two Riolus looked briefly back and forth between their parents and a now rather stricken looking Galen, then Zyle immediately sat down in front of Tamash?. Koinu looked expectantly up at Valor, who rolled his eyes with a smile, picking up his daughter and setting her on his lap; she was most undoubtedly a 'Daddy's Girl'.
Galen looked back and forth between the two wide eyed little Fighting-types, both looking at him so expectantly. He sighed. "Damn you. Using your own children like that...who even does that?"
Tamash? snickered. "Ask Valor. It was his idea."
Valor nodded. "They ARE adorable. I figured you would be hard pressed to say no."
Galen became a bit sombre then. "Just...don't use them like that too much, alright? You should value the relationship you have with them."
Valor quirked a brow at Tamash?, who seemed as confused by the sudden parenting advice as he was. Looking to Galen she asked, "Is something wrong?"
Galen hesitated for a moment, then smiled ruefully. "Dammit, stop being able to read me that easily, would you? I don't like bandying my emotions and feelings about, and you make it hard to keep them hidden. As for what's wrong...envy I suppose. I envy the relationship you two get to have with your kids."
"This is about Kasai, isn't it?" Valor asked.
Galen nodded. The two of them already knew that he had confirmed that the Ninetales named Kasai-who had in fact once belonged to Valor-was the product of Galen's own relationship with a Ninetales roughly eleven years earlier. "Unfortunately, our relationship has been a bit...rocky. She can't seem to decide whether or not she hates me, even though she would appear to have accepted my version of what happened between her mother and I."
An awkward sort of silence fell then, as no one present really knew what to say about the topic. After a moment Galen cleared his throat and said, "Well, you may as well ask your questions. I'd like to get this out of the way quickly."
Valor nodded. "Well, we have five things in mind really. First, we'd kinda like to know what led to your...apparent friendship with Giratina."
Tamash? nodded. "We also want to know how you learned to use that white Aura of yours."
"We'd like to hear about any other times you've dealt with Dark Guardians as you appear to have had at least some prior dealings with them."
"And we want to know who exactly it is that was pulling Tahnokk's strings, as you seemed to have a pretty good idea on that." Tamash? finished.
It didn't take more than half a second for Galen to realise that something didn't add up. "You said five. That was only four. What else did you want to ask about?"
Valor seemed nervous and Tamash? looked away when he asked. After a moment, her now rather quiet voice rang out through their minds. "Valor thinks I shouldn't ask...but I kind of...well I want to ask about what happened between you and Lawrence."
Another awkward silence fell, this time infused with a fair amount of tension as well. Galen hesitated for a moment then said, "Tamash?, you shouldn't hold on to the dark parts of your past if you can avoid it. It's not healthy. I'll answer that question, but I want you to promise you'll stop dwelling on it after I do."
"I...alright. I promise."
Zyle and Koinu both began to fidget impatiently, apparently not caring much for the slow pace of things at that moment. The three adults smiled slightly at the sight. Galen sighed. "Well, I guess we should get started. I think I'll give you your answers in chronological order. Makes the most sense that way. Which means I'll also be starting with your first topic: how I met Giratina. It all started ten years ago, about two weeks after my fifteenth birthday. My whole life changed-or at least started down the path to massive change-on the day I got my first Pokémon...