The Heart of a Dragon

My nostalgia rush had led me to another ROM. This time, it was Silver Version. No matter how many times I owned that game, much like Oracle of Time, it always disappeared when I wanted it to be there.

I'd made it very far, and was at Dragon's Den. I hadn't decided what to evolve my Eevee into yet, so it was still just an Eevee when we entered.
When I surfed out into the water, I was greeted by a massive stone. An exclamation mark appeared, and the evolution sequence played. Eevee had evolved into a blue, serpent-like Pokemon with tiny horns that were barely visible on its head.
"Fang has evolved into a DRACEON!" Was all the text said. It didn't congratulate me at all.

I went to shore as fast as I could, and the noise of a Pokemon coming out of its ball played, and Fang, with the strangest overworld sprite I had ever seen, appeared behind me. I turned to talk with it, remembering Soul Silver.

"Fang is watching you disapprovingly."
I tried to leave. Fang's sprite jumped twice, and he pulled me back.
"Fang doesn't want you to leave."
I tried to fly out of Dragon's Den with my Xatu. Fang jumped again.
"Fang doesn't want you to LEAVE!"

"Why not?" I found myself speaking to it in reality. I pushed A.

"Fang doesn't want you to leave him."
I frowned. Fang looked so cute now, I could never leave him. I tried to interact with him again.
"Fang wants to know if you are alright with this."
I pushed Yes. I was very much alright with Fang as he was. He jumped again.
"Fang wants to know why you want him to look like this."
I didn't understand. I thought he looked adorable! He was the Eevee equivalent of a wiener dog!

"Why wouldn't I? You're better than Espeon right now!"
Espeon had always been my favorite, so I hoped that would reassure him. But what I got in return made me rethink my actions.

"I was never better than Espeon. I wasn't even good enough to be an Espeon, was I?"
He was so upset...
The text continued. "You never loved me. I was nothing to you. Just a bunch of pixels that would never mean ANYTHING! BOX FODDER!!"
I had never used that term before. "Box fodder." I'd used "trade fodder," but never box fodder.
"A tool..."
That I had used. I had several boxes of "tools". Surfers, fliers, rock smashers, rock climbers...and he was right, too. I did this even to my strongest Pokemon. Inferno, my beloved Charizard, who had been with me since childhood, was now being used as a flier, or to train weaker Pokemon until they were strong enough to handle my harsh EV training conditions. And I was never guilty about it, either.

"I'm so sorry, Fang." My voice was shaking a little. "I just thought--"

He cut me off.

"I'll MAKE you sorry!!"

I didn't have time to ask him what he meant. I battled many of my starter Pokemon with my party, and a few other Pokemon from the "existing" generations at the time of Gold Version through Crystal Version. Eventually, it was just the two of us again.

"I can never forgive you."
I could feel the contempt in his nonexistent voice.
"WE CAN NEVER FORGIVE YOU!!"
By this point I was thinking "God help me." I was one of the few people that got upset with their games, especially when they started calling me out like this.

I braced myself for what Fang would do to my character. Would he burn me alive, playing that damned screech noise again? Would he tackle me into the water, where I would drown, or get pulled into a whirlpool? Would all the Pokemon I used simply tear me limb from limb, and I be forced to watched the dismembered mass on my Trainer Card until I dared to shut down my laptop?
But no. None of that happened. When we returned to the overworld, Fang was shaking. I'd seen this in a few early games. When characters were crying, they shook, because it was difficult to animate tears on such a small sprite.

Fang couldn't forgive me for the terrible things I had done. But he wanted to. He wanted me to take it all back, to have never made those mistakes. At this point, I wanted that, too.
"I can never fix what I did...not in the really old games, like this one. They're all gone, now. I can't tell you where..." I was shaking too. Not crying. I couldn't cry. I was just scared. "But I can fix what I've got, Fang. I can try to make things right. Please...give me a chance." I think I was tearing up...

A yes or no box popped up. I had no idea what that was for. I pushed no. No, I would never do those things again. Yes, I meant what I said.
"Fang is calm," was all it had to say. The flying animation played, and I was back at my house. I saved the game and closed out of the ROM.

I had a promise to keep.