Green has always thought he's invincible. He shouts it from the top of the trees he climbs, yells it as he jumps into the lake. Nothing is impossible for him; there is no limit to how high he flies. He's undefeatable. He can do anything.

He tells that to everyone in Pallet Town and most of them laugh in his face. A few people give him pats on the head and say patronizingly, "Of course you can." They don't really believe him.

Green vows to prove them wrong.

There's one person who doesn't laugh, who listens to what he says with rapt attention and nods seriously when Green tells him about his dreams. That person is his next door neighbor: Red. There is an element of admiration in their friendship, but it's nothing near the relationship he has with the other kids his age, like that girl Leaf. They're more like sidekicks. Red is his friend.

The day before they receive their Pokémon, Green turns to Red and says, "We're both going to become famous trainers and everyone's going to know our names."

Red looks him straight in the eye and replies, "Yeah."

Green's prediction turns out to be right, but not in the way he thinks.

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As his last Pokémon hits the floor, Green stares at Red in shock.

This isn't the way that it's supposed to happen. He's just become champion. He just achieved all his dreams like he said he would. He isn't supposed to lose only minutes after gaining the title himself. Why is this happening?

He wants to scream. He wants to destroy the League building. But nothing inside of him is working right and all he can do is whisper, "You beat me," in a dazed voice.

He completely tunes out his grandpa's fifteen minute lecture. He's still trapped in the dull hazy memory of claiming the title and the surreal feeling of reality that says it's all just a dream.

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The coughing starts soon after he loses the championship. He ignores it. Figures it's just the result of a common cold.

He doesn't worry either, when the coughing becomes violent and there are drops of blood on the floor. It'll sort itself out, he figures.

And even if it doesn't, who's going to care?

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"And we are proud to welcome into our ranks Green Oak, the new gym leader of Viridian . . ."

Green tunes out Lance's speech. He doesn't really want the job anyhow, he just need something, anything to do to stop himself from going insane. He ran into Leaf in Pallet, and she suggested he travel. She was leaving for Johto herself. But he doesn't want to see new things, he likes the way things were before. Lance called him up and offered him the empty position, so he decided, why the hell not?

People smile at him and applaud. Just a week earlier, some of those very same people wouldn't even look him in the eye. The lighting in the League building is awful and dyes the world in washed out color. But ironically enough, that adds a touch of realism to the scene because everything here, everyone here is so fake.

This is supposed to be in his honor, but he leaves in the middle, slipping out behind the building and calling out his Charizard to bring him back. Screw the League and their fancy dinners. He's sick of being fake.

When he gets back to his apartment, there's a card lying on the kitchen table. Congratulations, it reads. There's no signature, but Green doesn't need one to know who it's from. He was there when Red learned how to write, after all.

He scowls and drops the card in the trash. He doesn't want nor need his rival's pity.

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"I hope you don't think this will bring you closer to Red . . ."

Green slams the phone down in its crib. Screw his grandpa. Does he really think he's still caught up in that rivalry? He took on the post of gym leader for himself, and only himself. He's not trying to catch up to Red anymore. If anything, he's trying to escape Red's legacy.

He's a freaking gym leader, for God's sake! He has one of the most distinguished and coveted positions in all of Kanto! Why does everyone still only see him as the boy who was defeated by Red?! Why can't they see that's he's grown past that?!

Why doesn't anyone realize that he's his own person?

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He ends up going to Mt. Silver to make his peace with Red. He hopes this will show everyone that he's not the same boy as before. He hopes they will begin to separate Green the gym leader from Green, Professor Oak's grandson, because really, Professor Oak's grandson is just an impression that people have of what Green should be.

He hopes they start to see him for himself.

Mt. Silver is bitterly cold, and the wind rushes past him in an icy whirl. Visibility is near zero. It's a miracle Red hasn't stumbled off the edge of the mountain. Or maybe he has. No one's seen him in so long, after all.

Crimson drops on the white snow, just like Snow White. They're there for a second and then covered by more snow.

He's tired. All he wants to do is rest.

That's the last thing he remembers.

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He wakes up with Red's face peering over him, lying on cold stone instead of his warm, soft bed. He briefly wonders where the hell is he before remembering he decided to climb Mt. Silver.

"I found you in the snow," Red explains. "So I brought you up here." Then he turns around and goes to stoke the fire burning in the corner.

Green studies his former rival. His expressions and mannerisms haven't changed at all, but physically the difference is drastic. He's still wearing the same clothing from when he first went off to Mt. Silver, but now they're worn and tattered to the point that even a beggar would reject those rags. He was thin before, but it was always a healthy thin. Now he's skin and bones. His mother would cry if she saw him like this.

He looks around the cave and sees a small pile of food and medicine, shoved into a corner. He sincerely doubts that's even enough to last the rest of the week.

"Red," he says out loud, and the other boy turns to him. "How do you get food up here?"

Red shrugs. "I don't," he says, by way of explanation.

"Then what are you going to do when you run out?"

He shrugs again. "Who knows?" he says, and turns back to the fire, signaling that their conversation is over.

Are you just going to die like this? Slowly wasting away on a mountaintop in Kanto? Faint vestiges of anger rise up, and from then on, he brings up supplies on a weekly basis.

He tells himself that it's only because he doesn't want to have lost the championship to someone so pathetic. He repeats it over and over inside his head, like a mantra.

Green is remarkably good at lying to himself.

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Leaf has slowly managed to sneak her way into his life, by way of constant letters that bounce halfway around Pallet and part of Viridian before they get to him (she can never remember his current address). Letters because she's an old-fashioned romantic who abhors the detachment of email. She makes sure to send them on a regular basis to a) remind him of her existence and b) make sure he doesn't become a complete recluse. So she says.

Green can't help but wonder if it's because she feels guilty for usurping his position as Red's best friend.

The messages come from all over the world, from Johto and Hoenn and Sinnoh and some new region called Unova. There's always half a dozen pictures enclosed of Leaf posing at various monuments and various people, with bright captions written underneath.

Here's the Sandgem Pokémon Lab! Isn't it so cool?

This is the Contest Hall in Lilycove! I met Wallace, the sorta-Champion here!

This is Whitney! She runs the Goldenrod Gym and specializes in normal types!

I competed in a Pokémon Musical today! Doesn't it look like a blast?

Leaf, for the most part, is spending her time playing tourist. She catches a few Pokémon, of course, to send to his grandfather back at the lab, but she doesn't challenge Gym Leaders. She has never been much of a trainer. She doesn't have the fierce competitiveness that he and Red had shared.

Then, for whatever reason, she decides to drop a bomb on him. It's in a cheery side note mentioned at the very end of a cheery letter.

Oh, and by the way, I'm in love with Red.

It's not like he didn't see this coming, but it irks him that Leaf is so blase about such important things. He ends up taking the anger out on the day's challengers and absolutely demolishes them. He's brutal enough to make his toughest, most merciless trainer wince as he watches another poor fellow being decimated by Charizard. So while they're closing up, he asks Green if he's alright.

"Everything's fine," Green says brusquely. And when he goes home, he tries to ignore the vermillion stains that by now cover his desk.

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It's his tenth trip up to the mountain. He's long given up climbing like a normal person and just flies up on Charizard, who's kept warm by the fire burning within him.

Red usually isn't in the cave when he drops off the supplies, but this time he's inside by the fire, watching the flames flicker. Green wonders if maybe he's a pyromaniac as he dumps the food in the corner pile. There seemed to be enough potions and freeze heals the last time, so he isn't bringing any today.

Red turns around just before he leaves and asks, "Why do you always come?" His eyes are dull and lifeless and Green can tell he just wants to know someone cares.

It would be wrong to take advantage of his lonely state. Like convincing a delirious old lady to rewrite her will in your favor.

So instead he throws out the first name he can think of. "Leaf". He swallows. Takes the lie and runs with it. "Leaf made me." He forces out a scowl. "She's so pushy. It's a pain in the neck." Because Red already knows she cares a lot, right? So he's not telling Red anything he doesn't know. Nothing will change, right?

He's doing a good deed, isn't he?

But something in Red's eyes changes and Green realizes he was wrong—horribly wrong. There was no right answer to that question. Things aren't going to stay the same. He wonders if maybe this will make Red fall in love with Leaf, the one who's there for him when no one else is, even if she's in a different region (so he thinks).

Green's almost certain it will.

"She did?" Red asks.

He has a chance to undo his mistake.

"She did," Green confirms.

He tries to ignore the bitterness he feels while he's setting up his two friends.

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The phone rings one day as he's doing paperwork. Green scowls at it before picking up. "Hello?"

It's Lance. "Green, you've been doing fine work so far, but I have a . . . concern. It's nothing major, don't worry," he says hastily. "But all the same, I'd like an answer."

"What?" he asks impatiently, because there's too much to do, too many things to take care of, and his mind isn't working today. All he wants to do is sleep.

"Why has your paperwork been coming in covered in drops of blood?"

There's a beat. Then the phone slips right out of his hand and clatters onto the desk. It's just another sign of how screwed up everything is that he didn't even notice that there was blood on the pages. He pictures the contrast in his head, one he sees no beauty in, but someone must've, or they wouldn't have made it into a story. Red against white, red against white, red against white.

"Green? Green?" Lance's voice is still coming out of the stupid device. "Hello?"

Green's not processing anything. His mind is so fuzzy, so hazy. The ringing in his ears gradually fades into an odd buzzing and everything spins, spins, round and round like a merry go round. And he feels giddy like a small child, but in the strangest way.

Some noise that's not quite human escapes from his mouth. It sounds a little like a scream.

Red against red, red against white, red against white.

Somewhere in the recesses of his mind, he wonders what the hell that phrase even means.

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Green's standing in the fields of Pallet Town. Lance insisted he take a few weeks' vacation, said to go get checked out by a doctor. He's not going to. His grandfather and the stupid research that he always pays more attention to than Green has turned him permanently off people in white coats.

He coughs again. Blood splashes all over the grass. Red and green, like Christmas, only this is far from a present. Dimly, he recalls that Red is also the name of his former best friend and he's Green, so isn't funny how they match like that? Of course, green is also the color of leaves, but he's talking about grass, not trees, so what's with the image in his mind?

He stumbles away from the field and into the forest, hoping he can lose himself in the endless shades of green. He's Green, the grass is green, the trees are green, they're all green. There's too much green here, so no one will notice him among it all, right? There's so much green, everything's green, so this is where he belongs, right?

He doesn't know when he collapses, but he does know the ground is dirt, brown dirt, and it's all wrong. Just like the rest of his life.

Hours pass. He doesn't have the strength to get up. At some point, he notices there's crimson on the ground, and he wonders if it's his blood, but he dismisses the thought. He can't remember coughing.

Then how did those splatters of crimson get onto the daisies over there?

Red against white, red against white, red against white.

A shadow falls over him and he looks up at the silhouetted figure. It's Red. His mind is foggy, but dully he remembers that Red is supposed to be on Mt. Silver. Why isn't he on Mt. Silver?

"I talked to Leaf," Red says, and Green closes his eyes, waits for a wedding announcement or something of the like. He's too numb to care anymore.

"She says she didn't even know you were visiting me." Red's voice is accusing, and his crimson eyes bore into him like a drill. He can't see them, but he feels the heat of Red's gaze.

"Why did you lie to me?" Red asks, and the words reverberate, reverberate in Green's fuzzy head. He can't think, can't remember, his brain is melting, and he's trapped in a sea of nothingness. He wants to scream and scream he does, but the scream never makes it out of his mouth. It stays inside his hollow cavern of a head and echoes around the walls, bouncing around until it fades into the bones of his skull.

"Green?" he hears. Red's voice isn't accusing anymore, but concerned now. It barely penetrates the darkness of his mind.

"Green, there's blood all over my supplies, but it's not my blood." His voice is shaking. "It's yours, isn't it? What's going on?"

He's falling into an eternal abyss and no, he doesn't want to listen to Red, because whenever Red talks, it makes him sad. Why does it make him sad? He vaguely recalls an image of someone's back.

Oh yeah. It's because Red always leaves.

But for this moment in time, Red is here, Red is his, Red cares, and wouldn't it be nice to stay like this forever?

Green thinks he wouldn't mind if he were to die right now. Then everyone gets what they want. He can spend his last moments alone with Red, with time reset to the way things used to be, back when Green was honest and Red wasn't out of his reach like he is now. Then once he's gone, Leaf and Red can get married and live happily ever after. It isn't ideal, but he lost after all, and the loser only gets a consolation prize.

"Green!" Red screams his name, and Green opens his eyes for a split-second. He gives Red a slight smile before his eyes close, perhaps permanently this time. He feels someone grab his shoulders and shake him, shake him, but his body is a limp rag doll and it no longer responds to touch.

Something cool falls onto his face, and he thinks it's funny that he can't move, can't move at all, and yet he can still feel. Is it raining?

"Green! What's wrong?! Say something!"

He wants to, he really wants to, but his mouth won't open.

"Stop, this isn't funny, you're not allowed to be sick. You're Green Oak, you're invincible."

Does Red really believe that or is he just trying to get Green to?

"Please, just look at me. I need you. I love you."

Wrong person. He isn't Leaf.

"I won't go back up the mountain, just be alright."

Why can't he breathe?

"How long have you been sick? Why didn't you tell anyone?"

Who was there to tell?

More wetness falls on him, gentle, gentle, like a ghost's touch.

He wonders if the crimson is swallowing him.

I'm . . . not actually sure what this is myself. This sorta isn't lucid after a certain point, but that's because Green's delirious. Unfortunately, I haven't got an explanation for the other parts.

I don't know whether Green survives. My mind says yes, but it also says, "This story doesn't have a happy ending, so that can't go in there." So basically, Green is supposed to survive, but I can't make it work. I spent about twenty minutes staring at the screen trying to make it work without ruining the rest of it. In the end, I decided to leave the last section as it was.

Let me say that, for the record, I have no idea what the hell red on white is either.