He'd been fine when he was younger. He was friendly and outgoing; he always had a smile on his face.

But then he turned 11, and he went to go get his first pokémon from Professor Oak.

Leaf said she'd catch up with him in Viridian City, told him and Blue not to go too crazy with their silly "rival battles" - she always had to look out for them and make sure they didn't hurt themselves when they were younger. Yet as she travelled along Route 1, she heard rumours from other trainers along the route that there was something wrong with a boy matching Red's description.

She tried to shrug off the worries, however they returned once she entered Viridian City; she couldn't find him. She found Blue, who was confused at the inability to battle the gym leader - they later learned of the League order of the gyms, which helped them realise that Viridian Gym couldn't be challenged immediatly, to Blue's annoyance - and at the fact that Red wasn't there, like he said he would be.

There were more rumours spreading about that odd trainer, however Leaf chose to ignore them as she and Blue parted ways to follow their separate goals; he headed to Pewter City while Leaf decided to tackle the challenge of the PokéDex for Professor Oak, since Red and Blue would most likely be more focused on challenging the League and each other.

Yet with each route and city she visited, she heard more and more about that one trainer, though she refused to believe it was Red that was acting so strangely. She'd known him nearly all her life, she knew he wasn't crazy! However, she began to think that the rumours might just be true after she encountered a rather disturbed Blue in Lavender Town.

He was holding his battered Wartortle as he muttered eerily, "Leaf...there's something wrong with Red."

She didn't want him to elaborate, and instead, she helped him heal up his pokémon. Besides, it didn't seem as though he wanted to explain further. They both stayed in Lavender Town for a few days more before they continued on together - in uncomfortable silence - to Saffron City, where they parted ways again as Blue made his way to Celadon City to challenge the gym there, leaving Leaf to wander around the city, torn between continuing her current task of completing the PokéDex and her sudden want to find Red.

She wanted to know he was okay. Even if she knew he wasn't, she wanted to see him and to maybe help him.

She got her wish a few days later once she arrived at Cinnabar Island. Everything she'd heard didn't quite prepare her for what she saw. If anything, she was horrified when she saw him staggering around outside the Cinnabar Gym. He stumbled left, then right, before he quickly turned back around and walked in her direction for a few steps. He stopped however to remove his bag and look inside it, only to then drop it at his feet as he turned around again and walked back the way he'd just came.

While his general behaviour was frightening, what scared Leaf most was the blank look on his face, like there wasn't even any semblance of life or control in the boy. The boy stopped again and made to remove his bag, only to realise he'd left it on the ground behind him, which prompted Leaf to run to him.

"Red!" she shouted, however he ignored her as he lifted his bag again and looked inside it. The girl reached him just as he threw his bag back over his shoulder. He turned away from her although she quickly ran back in front of him, wherein she grabbed his arms, forcing him to stop, and asked, quietly, "Red...Red are you okay?" He didn't answer.

She bit her lip before trying again, "Are you okay? I've been worried about you, I-" she paused, unsure if she should mention the rumours she'd been hearing throughout her own travels. She then decided against this - besides, she could see for herself that they were pretty much true - as she continued, "I haven't heard from you in weeks, since you went to go get your starter pokémon." She forced a smile onto her face, as fake as it was, as she jokingly said, "You said you'd wait for me in Viridian City. You'd wait for me and Blue. I guess you were pretty impatient." She chuckled weakly. He still didn't answer. Her chuckles faded; there was a pregnant pause between the two. Red made no effort to move, despite his erratic behaviour from before Leaf had stopped him.

"So," she began, attempting to start up another conversation, "how's your Charmander? Or is it a Charmeleon now? 'Cause Blue's Squirtle had evolved into a Wartortle when I met him, so I'd assume your Charmander would have evolved as well. And if Blue picked Squirtle and I picked Bulbasaur, I sort of guessed that you...picked Charmander." She trailed off as she realised that Red wasn't even paying her any attention; his arm struggled in her grip, which she only realised then had gotten tighter to the point of her nails digging into his arms, and it looked like he wanted to reach for his back pocket.

She released his arm and immediately, he removed his PokéDex. Bulbasaur's cry resounded from the machine several times before he pocketed it again, then without a word, he turned and entered the gym. Leaf didn't even try to stop him.

Instead, she ran to the Pokémon Center and got herself a room, where she stayed for the rest of the day. The one instance when she decided to turn on the tv and fill the room with sound, it was quickly turned off again; a news report about that strange, yet powerful trainer conquering the gyms of Kanto, and how he'd managed to defeat Blaine with a Zapdos, of all things.

With the room silent again, Leaf simply curled up under the covers of the bed and sobbed quietly, with all sorts of thoughts running through her head; what happened to Red? Why him? Why couldn't things go back to normal?

When will it stop?

...

It did eventually stop.

She got the call from Blue. The second call that is; the first had been to tell her that he'd done it, he'd become champion. The very next day, he'd called her to tell her that he wasn't champion any more.

Red had become champion. Somehow, in his muddled up state of mind, he'd managed to beat Blue. And the minute he did, he'd collapsed.

When Leaf got the call, she was in Saffron City, the complete opposite side of the region from Indigo Plateau. However she quickly flew to Pallet Town on her Pidgeotto, where Blue said he and the Elite Four had taken Red.

He'd been unconscious when she had arrived, but she couldn't be happier to see he was alright. Blue also seemed more at ease, and it was while wearing a look of relief that he said, "He said something before he collapsed. 'No more voices'." Neither Blue nor Leaf really wanted to know what that meant, but if Red was at peace, then they were too.

...

When he recovered some days later however, he was gripped with paranoia. He wouldn't go near his champion team, and anytime more than one person spoke, he would quickly shush them. It was soon established that in his presence, it was best to speak one at a time.

Nevertheless, he went about his duties as champion, and everything seemed to be alright.

Until about two or three months after he became champion, he disappeared. He ran away.

Leaf feared that the 'voices' had returned to haunt him, that maybe they'd led him somewhere where he couldn't get help. Even if she couldn't be sure of this, with each search party returning unsuccessful, she grew all the more certain that that was what had happened.

Eventually, the search was called off. The Kanto region was forced to continue on, with the life of that tortured boy assumed to be lost forever.

...

Three years passed.

Lance filled in the roll of Champion. Lorelei and Agatha retired, with Lorelei choosing to return to her home in the Sevii Islands while Agatha had crawled off to whichever corner of the region, never to be heard from again. With three empty spots in the Indigo League's Elite Four, three highly skilled trainers were brought in to fill them; Will and Karen, close friends and trainers from Johto, were picked out from a pool of trainers while Koga, the Fuchsia City gym leader, was promoted into the final position. His daughter took his gym leader title in his stead.

Blue also became a gym leader; he took over Viridian Gym after it was revealed that Giovanni, the previous leader, was also the leader of the evil Team Rocket.

Everything seemed normal.

Except for the fact that a despairing mother stood waiting on her porch nearly every day, waiting for her son to come home. Leaf hated to be the one that forced the poor woman back into her house, especially since she was also waiting for Red's return, however she wouldn't eat or sleep otherwise without someone to make her.

The young trainer rarely left Pallet Town; she'd completed the PokéDex and she had nothing else she could do. She didn't want to try searching for Red. Because why search in vain for someone who might not even be sane or, at worst, alive?

But then, the news came in. In the next region over, there was a boy in a similar state as Red had been. Normally, such news would be ignored, since it was simply strange behaviour and nothing more. However after Red had been able to accomplish what he had while deemed insane, people were suddenly curious if this young boy could also achieve great things.

Whereas Leaf was simply relieved.

Sure, she was worried for the boy and his family; they were no doubt concerned for him, considering he would "repeatedly return to his room as soon as he had walked down the stairs", according to an interview with his mother. But she couldn't help but be relieved. Because if this wasn't a disease that was quickly spreading, and it was just one ailment that affected one person at a time then...

That meant Red was finally at peace.

And for Leaf, she'd rather if he were alone and at peace, even if it meant never seeing him again.

I just wrote this up really quick one night. Not long after TPP had moved from Red to Crystal.

I think you can get the general gist of what I was going for here, not much else I can say really. Except that if you feel you've seen this before, let me just point out that I did post this on tumblr before I got to posting this here.

Also, I've been thinking of writing one extra piece for this. Thinking about it; I've got the story but I haven't gotten to writing it yet. But I probably will.

So I'd suggest keeping an eye out for that.

Thanks for reading. :)

Angel-chan x

Ps. RIP Red's sanity. Good luck to you Gold/Ethan/AJ Downs.

And then to Brendan/May, whoever gets picked when TPP reaches RSE.