Daughter of Villains
Chapter 1
Adopted
I was at Lake Verity when I was found by a staraptor. Its call scared me and I backed up quickly into the bushes, scared that Ghetsis was coming back for me. I was only 10 years old at the time but I knew I should fear the man who had come from Unova with me. I couldn't go back to Ghetsis, not after what I had done. Not after N had fled.
"Who's there?" A deep, stern sounding voice called from the waterside. It didn't sound like Ghetsis, but it could easily be another villain coming for me. I began shaking as another being started to rustle through the bushes. A fluffy brown face of a bidoof poked out from where I was staring at, hoping and praying it wouldn't be a Team Plasma or Team Galactic pokémon. It cocked its head to the side and looked at me.
Is she okay? I heard his thoughts clearly and I nodded to him weakly, pulling out the small pouch I carried my pokeball in to show him I had my own friend.
She could be a threat! He perked up at the sight of the pokeball.
"No! I'm not a threat, please, just go." I whispered quickly, scared of the footsteps coming closer.
You can hear my thoughts? I nodded as I scurried farther back into the bushes until I backed into a tree.
"Bidoof? What did you find?" The voice echoed with authority. The bidoof disappeared for a moment, and then an older man came into sight with the pokémon next to him. "Hello there. What's your name?"
He certainly wasn't a criminal, but I couldn't be sure if I could trust him so I stood and pulled my young body onto a branch. I braced myself for an attack and grabbed my pokeball, ready to let out my trapinch to help me.
"No, no. I won't harm you." He held out his arms for me. "Come on down. You look pretty hungry."
It was true, too. I hadn't eaten a full meal in a few days at that point. My dear trapinch had brought me some berries, when she found them. I couldn't take them all from her, and only took maybe a third of what she offered. I had pulled her into her ball an hour before when I thought I'd heard Ghetsis returning.
"I'm Professor Rowan. Where are your parents?" He was patient, obviously since I hadn't budged.
"Can you speak?" His arms were still raised, and finally, I nodded. Maybe not everyone was like the people I'd grown up around. He wasn't worried or scared of my appearance, but he didn't recognize the purple braid or the red eyes either.
"Can you tell me your name?" He stepped closer now and the bidoof climbed onto his shoulder.
Come on. You can trust the professor.
"Zana." I didn't tell him my last name, it didn't matter anymore.
"Well, Zana, come down here with me. I can help you find your parents." He was right under the branch with his arms ready to catch me, despite him being older. He was kind of scary looking, but in the sense that he was obviously someone with a standing in society.
"No. They're gone." I whispered, looking down. I knew he'd think they were dead, but I considered them to be.
"I'm sorry, Zana." He used my name again, as if trying to make me comfortable. "Still, come with me. We need to get you fed and a bath wouldn't hurt."
"If I come with you, you could be in danger." I prepared myself to run, to protect this kind man but thought better of it.
"Why would you cause me any danger?"
"No. Not me, I couldn't hurt anyone." I furrowed my brow. Why couldn't I have been born a normal child? "People are after me."
I still didn't tell the whole truth. The fact that my mother was Jupiter, from Team Galactic and my father was Ghetsis. I didn't tell him that I was Ghetsis's back up child.
"Who is after you?" His bidoof looked at me with worried eyes.
"Just mean people. They chased me from Sunyshore City." My legs were tired from the crouch I was in and I finally let my legs hang down from the branch.
"You ran all the way here?" He looked astonished that I hadn't been attacked or no one else had found me. "You can't be any older than 8."
"I'm 10 years old!" I argued, crossing my arms. It was a sensitive spot, the fact I looked much younger than I was.
"I'm sorry, Zana. Will you come with me to my lab?" He motioned for me get in his arms. I felt bad. His arms must be tired.
I let myself fall into the professor's arms and he held me tightly. I felt safe for the first time in a long time. He took me quickly to his lab in the nearby city of Sandgem and got me situated. His aide, Dunstan, was shocked but hastily set to calling the authorities about me. They found almost no record at all on me. They found only a birth certificate, which I nearly cried over when Professor Rowan looked up at me, knowing who my birth parents are. He suddenly understood my situation and he began the new process of adopting me. Somehow, he did.
He raised me for years at a large sanctuary he owned with many different ecosystems for pokémon to live in, and I loved it. I went to school, befriended pokémon and lived. Though, I only spoke to two people during this time: the professor, who was rapidly aging, and Dunstan. Dunstan specialized in ghost pokémon and taught me every aspect on them, and brought in other trainers who loved one type. I was taught everything known, besides what I had learned already with my private tutors in Unova. I loved the professor, though he was a strict guardian. He never allowed much noise, which I was fine with. As my trapinch grew into a vibrava and then a flygon, however, he grew to be a bit more lenient on the noise rule.
On my 20th birthday, I got a phone call as soon as my flygon touched ground in Pastoria City. When I hung up, even my pigheaded fraxure seemed to sense the sadness filling my heart. I called fraxure back to his ball, even though I had just sent him out.
Back home in Hearthome City, I was greeted by a nurse with a grim look. The call had said the professor wouldn't be joining me at the safari zone and I fought to deny the reason. I couldn't fight it any longer when I saw the man lying in his bed looking fragile.
He was just strong yesterday. Flygon reminded me with her head hanging down.
"Zana, come here." The professor motioned me forward and sat up. He wrapped me in a weak hug and whispered. "Your parents stopped by, but I refused to hand you over."
Tears came to my eyes, and I nearly screamed. They'd done this, I knew they did.
"Do they know of what you can do?" He said when he released me from the hug. Dunstan stood in the corner with his head bowed. He knew that I could hear the thoughts of people and pokémon, though it hurt me to hear people.
"Yes." I nodded and a tear slipped down my cheek.
"I'll be fine, Zana. Please, don't worry about me."
"How could I not? Every night, I've wished that I was born your daughter instead of who I was born to." I clenched my fists and flygon touched my back with her head.
"It doesn't matter who you're biological father is, because you will always be my daughter here." He touched his chest with one hand and mine with his other. I threw my arms around him with a mixture of sadness and joy.
He loves you very much. His bibarel sat next to him with anguish on his face.
"I know he does. I love him too." I reached over to touch the pokémon's head kindly.
I sat by the professor's side all day and into the night while he slept. Dunstan told me that the pokemon here at the sanctuary were affected by this event as well. Many wouldn't leave the hallway outside the professor's room. Not until the morning when finally, the professor drew one last strong breath.
Bibarel threw himself at the professor and cried until Dunstan pulled him off and helped the distraught pokémon while he too struggled with tears. Dunstan never cried, for as long as I knew him.
"Wake up, please." I whispered, suddenly wishing I had never left that tree ten years ago. If I hadn't, he could still be alive. I grasped his hand tightly and wept.
He was poisoned, Zana. I can smell it. My flygon looked ready to kill, as she felt the same sensation spread through me.
"They killed him?" I questioned to no one particularly.
"What?" Dunstan looked up at me, but I just shook my head. The medics came in and took the professor's body away an hour later, and I called my college to tell them I wouldn't be there for about a week.
The professor had gotten me into the best college in Sinnoh, since I had decided not to drop out at 11 to become a top trainer. Instead, I had stayed here to train and learn. He taught me that one could have the best of both, if you set your mind to it. I sniffled at the memory of that lecture.
I nearly decided to drop out of school, but Professor Rowan wouldn't have wanted that for me. Instead, I'd try the best I could to get the revenge I planned in the upcoming vacation in the school's schedule. I knew it would take me the whole month between that moment and the first day of summer break to prepare to see my parents once again, but for now, all I could do was mourn.