Echoes of the past

Let me tell you the story of the day the sky spoke.

It was a hundred years ago, or somewhere close to that. On that day, a voice echoed across the world. It radiated through the sky and through the sea. Through the hottest volcanoes and the coldest mountains. It interrupted thousands of battles, from dozens of small training matches to a massive raid on a villain's hideout. It talked to the lowliest of Sunkern, and it spoke to Arceus itself. First, the voice spoke a single word.

Listen.

The world grew quiet. From mountaintop to mountaintop, the world grew still.

The voice was unknowable. It came from nowhere and everywhere all at once. After the fact, nobody could agree on what it sounded like. The age, species, and even gender were difficult to discern. Some thought it was many voices, some only heard one. But any pokemon that heard it felt the unshakable urge to do as it said. All at once, the world listened.

It spoke again.

Deep within this cursed earth,

A cataclysm resides

One day soon, or maybe late,

It will deftly rise.

Brimstone, fire. The end of the world,

The cataclysm births.

To you, there is one single hope,

To defeat this curse.

I will call a human here,

Body and mind unwound.

To their side, a soul untouched.

Their friendship keeps them bound.

In the end a god will face,

2 souls, pure and fair.

Who will win? I know this not.

And-…

And the prophecy cut off without finishing the final line.

When the prophecy ended, there was absolute silence. For a minute, the world grew still. Nobody spoke a word. Nobody moved at all. Not because they couldn't, but because they didn't. Not just the various pokemon were silent, but the world itself. The wind stopped blowing. The Sea's surface was motionless. Raindrops stopped still in midair. The world was absolutely silent. Waiting. Waiting for the final rhyme. Waiting for someone to say it was all a joke. Waiting for another verse. Waiting for something. But nothing came.

When the minute passed, the world started again, bit by bit. First, in a seaside town, a raindrop fell on a Baynet's head, and they screamed, kickstarting those around him to do the same. An instant later, in the depths of the ocean, the currents began again, and all the pokemon of the sea swam frantically, asking one another what it meant. Over the next few moments, movement cascaded throughout the earth. Elders called for town meetings. Hundreds of people wrote the prophecy down. Thousands of people asked their legendaries what was going on. There were so many questions asked on that day. But there were no answers.

The prophecy shook the public on that day. Nothing like this had ever happened before. Most pokemon weren't panicked. Just confused.

They would be panicking if they knew what damage the prophecy would bring.

The first sign something was seriously wrong: fortune tellers. They all tried to channel the spirit of prophecy and ask about the rhyme. They asked, what was a human? What kind of pokemon would their partner be? What was this great calamity? When would it come? And what was that final line going to be? But they received nothing. Not an irrelevant prophecy, but nothing at all.

One particular Xatu was known for having an accurate prophecy daily at 8:30 sharp. Yet it, along with every other pokemon, never had a prophecy again. Any prophecy-based business fell apart. Some prophets lied. They made false prophecies and told people they were still connected. But sooner or later they all came out as quacks. Soon after the crash of the prophecy market, other industries fell. Many companies used prophets to help them, and without them, they had no idea what to do. Within a month of the prophecy, the whole economy crashed.

Even more significant was what happened to the legendaries. Arceus held a meeting a day after the prophecy to try to find out who broadcasted the prophecy, or discern it's meaning if they couldn't do that much. However, the meeting ended poorly. Dialga blamed Darkrai. Darkrai blamed Yveltal. Yveltal blamed Hoopa. Hoopa blamed the 3 lake spirits, each of whom blamed one another. Everyone denied sending the prophecy and accused everyone else. Nobody was willing to consider it might have been none of them. Arceus tried in vain to call order. But in the end, the legendaries all stormed away in distrust. Many long-lasting friendships were severed.

Each legendary had a town they called home. To that town, they were a guardian. In exchange for their housing the legendary, it would become protected from any sort of danger. Natural disasters always conveniently went around the cities. The stories of bandits stupid enough to attack them scared any other bandits away.

In this case, like the legendaries themselves, any "Legendary town" became distant from other towns, protected and otherwise. When the legendaries returned, they ordered their towns shut off trade routes and close their borders to immigration. Some towns became distant in the literal sense. A few legendaries used their power to float their islands into the air or break them from the mainland and float them into the ocean. 49 towns and cities were isolated from the world.

And after all that… everything began to settle down. A year passed, and no evil came to destroy the earth. In this time, the world tried to recover. Following the economic crash, the companies not reliant on prophecy began to lift the economy up again. Brave pokemon attempted to reforge ties between those towns isolated from anyone else. Some friendships lost between the legendaries began to improve again. All in all, the world was improving.

And then, the storm came.

Nobody knows how or why it happened. But on the anniversary of the prophecy, at late in the afternoon, it began. One minute, it was a bright, sunny day out. And then, all at once a hundred things went wrong. Every volcano on earth erupted. An earthquake shook the entire earth. Thousands of tornadoes touched down across the land. It rained so fast that it began to flood within 60 seconds. Everything set on fire and it refused to go out through the rain. Jagged rocks erupted from the earth in random locations. Everyone knew this was what the prophecy spoke of. They never knew it would be this bad.

However, there was one hope. There were no heroes, but there were still the legendaries. Any town that had a guardian legendary was protected, even through a storm such as this one. But even for the strongest of legendaries, it took all the power they had to keep the storm at bay over their town or city. They could do nothing for the rest of the world.

As for the thousands of towns and cities without a guardian legendary… the pokemon living in them searched for help. They prayed. They tried to protect their town themselves. They hid in places they hoped were safe. They waited for the heroes. But nobody came. And nowhere was safe from the storm. With every passing minute, it all got worse. Any pokemon outside of those few safe zones was eviscerated. Erased without a trace that they existed at all. A city with 100,000 pokemon living in it: the next day, it was a wasteland. There was nothing anyone could do. Any pokemon caught in the storm couldn't survive.

Sure, some pokemon lasted longer than others. Those that were lucky or strong enough to survive the initial onslaught, they held out hope. Just a few minutes, and it would be over. They knew the hero would come. They could make it through this. Just a few more minutes and they would live.

The storm raged on for a week.

When the storm finally subsided, the world looked very different from the world before. Mountains were eroded away and new mountains rose while deserts formed where forests once stood. The world's population was concentrated in around 49 cities and towns across the now unfamiliar earth.

From the 49 cities, Pokemon were sent out to look for survivors. Of course, they found none. But they found something else entirely.

One group of explorers was startled to find a massive forest. How could so many trees survive the storm? But when they entered, everything seemed to twist around them. Staricases lead to more forest above and below them. The trees contracted to form narrow pathways through the rough. This wasn't a unique occurrence. Across the world, expolorers entered canyons and mountains to find the same outcomes there as well.

Thousands of pockets of unknown activity were left behind by the storm. Places where every time you entered, it would subtly change. Places where time seemed to flow differently. In them lay both danger and treasures the world had never seen. And weirdest of all they had… pokemon? Although the world was destroyed, these pokemon lived. Yet they seemed… broken. They fought any other pokemon on sight. They didn't speak the common language, in fact, they seemed to speak no language at all. Were they specters of darkness? Were they the souls lost in the storm? Nobody knew. The strange pokemon couldn't leave their dungeons, and they left no body when defeated. These strange rifts were later called mystery dungeons. This new world was a world of mystery dungeons.

A few days after the storm ended, the prophecy sounded again. And again, it cut off just before the ending. Most pokemon thought they knew what it meant. This storm wasn't even the cataclysm, just a light rainfall compared to the thunderstorm to come. The world barely survived this. How could they possibly survive the next storm?

Before any second storm could hit, however the world had to rebuild. It took time, but a new culture rose out of the old one. Nobody built new settlements in fear that another storm would grow. Further than that, the weather was far harsher than it was before the storm. It was difficult to say if a town could survive without a legendary's protection. So instead of making new towns, they expanded their old ones. Meloetta's tiny village grew to be a sprawling cityscape. Those legendaries like Rayquaza who already had a chosen city expanded to become a sprawling metropolis. It was a world of isolation… and also exploration. Pokemon wandered the new world to chart it, to find all of the other towns, to find mystery dungeons, and to reestablish trade. The new world stood as a monument that the pokemon world could always overcome adversity. The world could be destroyed, yet pokemon would live on. But deep within the survivors' minds, they all still wondered. When the prophecy came true, would they be ready?

The elder finished speaking. It was a hallowing note to end on. Sure, it had been 90 years or so since the storm or any other mention of the prophecy, but it was still harrowing every time Tris heard it.

"So? Ya satisfied yet?" asked Krow, an elder Monferno.

Tris nodded fiercely. "Of course! You tell the story so well!"

He rolled his eyes. "I was flattered the first 5 times you said that. But this is getting ridiculous…"

Tris was a young budew at that point. He was a bit different from the other kids. While they all played and had fun, Tris liked to hear stories of the past. Of great adventurures who found great treasures, of great cities across the globe and their sprawling landscapes, of the time before the storm. And of course, of the storm itself, like the story Krow was telling today.

Tris smiled. "What can I say? You tell the story the best! I mean, you were there, right?"

"Oh, hush. I'm sure some of the others tell it just as well as I do. It's not as if I remember it happening, I was 2 when the storm hit."

"You still remember it, though, right? Don't you? Don't you?"

Krow sighed. "Sure, bits and pieces."

"Can you tell me what you remember?"

"When you're older. Now, shoo. Go play with the other children."

Tris groaned. "Come on, can't you tell me one more?"

Krow rolled so his back faced Tris. "You need exercise if you're ever going to evolve. Now get out of here."

Tris slowly made his way out of the tent. Sometimes Krow was so unfair. Was it so much to want to learn? Krow sure seemed to think so. But Tris didn't care what he thought. He knew that the prophecy was still relevant. He didn't care that nothing had happened yet. He didn't care that there were so many fakes roaming around. The prophecy was still real. He wished that he could be one of the heroes. He sighed. But he was far too weak for that.

Tris lived in Meloetta city. Since every city had a guardian now, it was only convenient to call the cities by their guardians' names. It was a seaside city which, unsurprisingly, had a booming music market. Jazz musicians lined the streets. The cityscape was incomplete without a distant or not-so-distant trumpet heard across the sky. At a distance, the skyline was dominated by massive cinindrical glass buildings, reflecting the sun's bright light. Literally, the skyscrapers were built from pure glass. There was a short section of concrete or stone for a foundation and so the sun's glare wouldn't be everywhere, then glass spires all the way up. If you didn't know any better, you would think Atlantis rose from the ocean and settled right next to the sea.

Most of all, it was a place of artisans and craftsman. There was a booming theatre market, with plays new and old. It was the kind of place any pokemon would migrate to if they wanted to get a book published or a painting sold. In Meloetta city, the arts were a priority. And if you didn't like that, you had 48 other cities to choose to move to!

Living in Meloetta city, Tris grew up with a mentality that it was okay to follow your dreams. And that mentality struck him at that moment. What was his dream? He wanted to be a hero. And he couldn't do that unless he was stronger. And as he thought about it, something clicked in his mind. The elder was right. It made sense to play with the other children. In fact, he would play with the other kids until he was the strongest there was!

He ran off into the city as the ambient music of the city seemed to pick up, acting as a background music to his life.

5 years later

Tris ran through the town square with a smile on his face. As a Roselia, he clenched a notebook tightly in his flowery grasp. Two pokemon chased him from close behind, a Sableye and a Delphox. He glanced back and kept running. He passed by several other pokemon, who looked at the group of them strangely as they raced past. As the intersection forked in front of him, he swerved left. He'd been in this part of town long enough to know the right path lead to a dead end.

In an instant, a bright light engulfed his vision as a wall of flame erupted before him, completely obscuring the left path. He pivoted and scurried to the right, slightly singing the petals adorned in his hands.

"Cheaters!" he called behind him. The path narrowed into a dark alleyway. While the spires at the top of the city were built from glass, the bottoms were still a harsh concrete. Even though the sun was close to straight above, the sunlight didn't reach the bottom of the alley. Tris could see the sunlight, but he couldn't feel it.

"If you're allowed to use moves, you can't expect me to hold back!" He held his hand behind him as he ran and allowed a few seeds to drop from the palm of his flower.

As the two pokemon ran forward, Sableye noticed the seeds and was quick enough to dodge to the side. Delphox, however, didn't see them at all. As he stepped on one of the seeds, a puff of sleeping powder emitted from the earth. He breathed in just a whiff of it and was out like a rock.

Tris didn't see the either of them fall, just the fact that only one pair of footsteps followed him. His eyes were busy looking ahead of him. Just up ahead, the road reached an end. He scanned the apartments lining the end of the road for an open door, but he wasn't that lucky. He searched his head for ideas as he ran, getting closer and closer to the end of the road. Finally, he thought of something. It probably wouldn't work, but if it did, it was gonna look super cool.

Tris slowed his pace to allow Sableye to catch up, careful to not let her know it was intentional. He heard her footsteps grow louder and louder. When he reached the end of the alley, the two of them were a few feet away.

When Tris hit the back wall, he planted a foot into the concrete and launched himself upwards. He kicked off the wall and sailed over the Sableye's head.

The world seemed to go in slow motion for a moment. The Sableye reached up and lashed out with a fury swipes. However, Tris was prepared. As he leapt into the air, the shadows of the buildings above gave way to the sunlight just above them. Tris's vision was flooded with light as he leapt into the air. In a point just ahead of him, he saw a point of especially blinding light. The city's glass buildings concentrated the sunlight like a magnifying glass into a spot just before him. As he felt the light course through his body, he reached towards the spot where the sun was most magnified with a single hand.

He closed his eyes and channeled that area of harsh sunlight to instantly charge and fire a devastating solarbeam.

He launched it not at Sableye, but at an angle into the sky. He used it like a jet propulsion mechanism. The burst of momentum from a single hand made him spin wildly, narrowly missing the Sableye's fury swipes and sending him crashing to the ground just behind her. He quickly scrambled to his feet and began running down the alley.

The Sableye finally spoke up between gasps of air. "Dude… cut it out… already!"

Tris slowed down and looked back towards her. "What's wrong?"

"What's wrong? You stole my notebook! That's not cool."

"I said you could have it back when you caught me. That was the deal, wasn't it, Kallie?"

Kallie scowled. "I didn't make a deal or anything! You just took it and told me to keep up!"

Tris scoffed. "I thought you wanted my training."

For the past few years, Tris had been getting stronger. He'd gone from being a bit of a shut-in to the best soccer player in the school, maybe even the high schooler in the city! People told him getting a scholarship for college was going to be a shoe-in.

The two pokemon chasing him, Kallie and Thomas, each approached him saying they wanted his help training for the PCL, or the Pokenn Champion's League. It was the most popular and respected sport in the world, a straight-up fight with no restrictions other than special items that nullified type weaknesses and resistances. There were plenty of leagues, but the pair of them wanted to enter the tag team division. They were each surprised when Tris agreed. However, his training methods were… unconventional.

Thomas, the Delphox, ran up to the scene at full speed. However, he slowed when he saw the other two weren't fighting anymore.

"Come on, you're giving up? You almost had him! I was still here for a pincer maneuver!" he said.

"We weren't even close," Kallie said. "Don't try to be coy about it."

Noting the bitterness in her voice, Delphox hesitated. "What happened back here exactly?"

"Oh, nothing. I was a few inches from touching Mr. Perfect here and he runs up a wall and fires a solarbeam out of what I can only describe as nowhere whatsoever. I had him cornered in a dead end and I couldn't so much as touch him."

Tris saw the two of them looking downtrodden and spoke up. "Come on, don't look so blue! That wall of fire was pretty sweet, Thomas. And that reaction time, Kallie! I jumped above you, and you were completely prepared to attack directly above you. And just the fact the two of you were able to keep up means you were super fast. Seriously, you guys did fine. Give it a month, and I know you'll be so much better."

"Or maybe a little bit of a heads-up, and we'd be better…" Kallie muttered.

"Hey!" Tris said. "You don't get preparation in a real battle. If a pickpocket grabbed that notebook, you would need the skill to get it back."

"Pretty sure most thieves can't do what you do," Thomas said. He was snickering under his breath.

Tris was happy Thomas was feeling better. But Kallie still seemed bitter. "So you're saying that you would fare better when faced with a sneak attack!?" she muttered.

"Of course," Tris said. "I'm just trying to help you guys be the same way."

Thomas held in another laugh. Kallie ignored him and raised an eyebrow at Tris. "So you would notice if someone stole from you? One hundred percent?"

"Of course."

"You would never, ever get stolen from. It's an impossibility."

"What are you trying to get at here?"

Thomas let out a guffaw that echoed through the narrow alleyway. Tris turned to him. He was still laughing out loud. "Okay, what's so funny?"

Between his fits of laugther, he managed to say, "Your hands."

He looked at his hands. They were empty. "What about them?"

Thomas just laughed harder. He turned to Kallie in confusion. She now had an evil grin on her face. In her hand, she twirled a notebook.

"Wha-…oh." The notebook. Sometime during the conversation, Kallie had taken it back. Was her "giving up" all a ruse? He wasn't sure. But it was clever, he had to give her that. Tris grinned. "You're never gonna get me on that one again, you know."

Kallie smirked. "So you would 100% notice is someone stole from-"

"Oh, shut it," Tris said. "You got me, fair and square. I admit it. Now can we move on?"

"Gladly," Kallie said, smiling far too wide.

Tris directed the three of them back to the alleyway.

"Now," Tris said, "I get that you "Won" in the end. But most thieves wouldn't stop if you told them to. I want to show you exactly what I was able to use to escape."

The two of them were at the edge of their seats, figuratively. Tris might have been annoying sometimes, and he'd just stolen from them without their permission, but he was still a powerful pokemon. They were each interested in what was going on.

"You see-"

A bright flash of light emitted from a point in space between Tris and the other pair. A powerful shockwave emitted from the center of it, blasting Tris backwards. He crashed against a nearby building and barely retained conciousness. Thomas resisted the hit, while Kallie was unaffected by the blast.

For just a moment, there was silence. When everyone's senses returned, a pure green shape lay at the center of the blast. Kallie hesitantly approached the figure while Thomas ran towards Tris.

And a few seconds after the first wave, a second wave hit. Thomas and Tris were each around 10 feet away from the blast and while Tris was mostly okay, Thomas was hit hard. He barely stayed on his feet. Kallie… she wasn't immune this time. Being so close to the point of origin when the impact went off nearly tore her apart. She tumbling 20 feet across the pavement. She coughed up a bitter black liquid and lay still.

Thomas got up on steady feet. He glanced between the two figures on the ground. On unsteady feet, He faced the figure. "I-If you want to hurt them, you're gonna have to go through me!" The two of them stood off at one another, an amorphous green shape and an orange magical fox.

Thomas heard a heard a cough come from Tris. Thomas glanced over and saw him rise. He was munching on a round, blue berry. "Rule number one," Tris said. "Always pack a few Oran berries." He tossed 2 Oran berries to Thomas. "Help your friend. Heal yourself, too. Then get out of here. I'll take this thing down."

"But-" Thomas said.

"JUST DO IT!" Tris snapped.

Without another word, Thomas ran down the alleyway towards his friend.

Tris took a deep breath and turned to face the green shape. It slowly began to take shape. Bits of red and white sprouted from the green. Two red horns sprouted on its head. Two red dots appeared in the section that would become its head. Its arms and legs elongated to proportions akin to some fighting types, like a Machop or Medicham. A white light grew from its midsection, covering it in a white sheen. The light shaped itself into a white dress, fully covering its arms and cascading down its body. A Kirlia emerged from the light as it faded away.

Tris dropped his arms in awe for a moment. The figure faced away from him, but it's beauty was apparent. Then, he remembered who this was. It hurt his students. Beauty wouldn't make him forget that.

"Face me, you coward!" he shouted.

The figure turned, startled. Its red eyes met his black ones. He blinked a few times. "Who…" she stammered. She fell to one knee. Tris took a step back, startled. "Where am I?" she said.

Annoyed at his own trepidation, Tris took a step forward. "Don't play games with me. You hurt my friends. Who are you?"

"W-what? I…" she trailed off again. "Who am I?" she said.

Tris saw her unthreatening form. Could she really have been the one who attacked him? "Why did you hurt my friends?"

She didn't say anything. She collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

Tris released a breath he hadn't realized he was holding.

He considered running and telling the police. But he shook his head. He couldn't just leave her there. He leaned down and tried to pick her up, but she was far too heavy. He tried knocking on a few nearby houses, but nobody answered. He didn't want to go any farther than that and leave her all alone.

Why am I being so protective of someone who tried to kill me? He thought. He shook his head. When she arrived, she didn't seem to have malicious intent. And besides, he'd already made up his mind. He dragged her over to a wall and leaned her against it. After that, he supposed he didn't have much choice but to wait.

It was only a few minutes before the Kirlia stirred. Tris heard a light moan come from Kirlia. He turned over and reflexively put up his hands in a fighting position.

The Kirlia rubbed her eyes and came face to face with an angry Roselia. She sighed. "Not a dream, huh?"

"…What?"

She worked her way onto unsteady feet. "I'm sorry. My name's Aria. You know, the type of song? Like that. My point is, maybe the two of us can trade notes on what happened today."

He stared at her. "Could you start by explaining why you attacked me?"

She stared off into space. "I… I don't know. I don't remember much of anything…"

Tris got more and more confused. "What do you mean?"

"Well, obviously I remember my name, right?"

"Yeah…?"

"That's…it."

"What?"

"That's all I remember. My name."

Tris's mind was spinning. "You're joking, right?"

Aria shrunk a bit. "I…well, I remember a little before I got here, specifically. I don't remember attacking you. And before that…I don't know. That's why I fainted earlier. When you asked me who I was, I realized I didn't have a clue."

Tris got up and began pacing. "I need to know all the facts. Let's pretend you aren't joking or lying, you truly forgot who you are. What, exactly, do you remember?"

Before Aria could continue, Tris' ears perked up. He heard a group of footsteps racing down the alleyway. He held up a hand towards Aria. She stopped talking.

As the footsteps grew closer, two officers came into view, an Arcanine and a Lucario dressed in police blue. The Arcanine spoke. "I spoke with your friends. They told me everything. Where's the intruder?"

Tris glanced towards Aria for just a moment. "I-it's weird, actually. Just as Thomas and Kallie left, the green blob disappeared into nothingness. Aria here heard the commotion and exited one of these buildings just after that. I've been talking with her about what just happened here. I've been standing guard to see if it reappears, but so far, nothing else has happened."

The Arcanine turned to Aria. "That's true?"

She nodded quickly. "Yeah. I heard a huge commotion and went outside to see what was going on."

Lucario nodded turned back to Tris. He took out a notepad. "Anything you saw in specific before it disappeared?"

"Well, of course, I was expecting another blast of energy after the other two left, but no more came…"

The questioning process was long, but Tris made it through without giving anything about Aria away. He explained everything from their chase through town up until what happened with the two blasts of energy. Aria was shocked at what she'd done, but she kept it in her head. The police thanked him and asked the two of them to leave the premises to avoid any other potential shocks.

As the two of them walked down the alleyway, Aria spoke up. "Thanks," she said. She paused for a few seconds. "Um, I'm sorry about…you know."

Tris shook his head. "Don't apologise. Just tell me what you know."

Aria took a deep breath. "Right." She began telling her story.

20 minutes earlier

Aria woke up on a cold, hard floor. She shivered and pulled herself upwards. She had a massive headache. Where… where was she? As she opened her eyes, her vision was unfocussed for a few moments. As the world slowly came into view, she came face-to-face with a massive floating metal beast. "Are y…" the figure paused. "Are you okay?" it said.

Aria scampered backwards to find a wall a few feet behind her. She looked around frantically and saw two giant red eyes adorned on greyish-silver body. It was a Metang.

"W-who are you? What's going on?"

The Metang spoke slowly. "I…don't know. You just…appeared." The voice was monotone. Robotic.

Aria held her head in her hands. Then, she saw her own hands. They were pure white. She looked over her body, and her legs were green. And what happened to her hands? All she had were a few nubs? She felt a pressure build deep inside her.

She saw a door behind the Metang. She sprinted out of it with a speed she didn't know she had. "WAIT!" the Metang said, but she was too busy running away.

She looked around the city. Nothing looked familiar. Buildings stretched high into the sky in strange spirals of grystal. Pillars of light shot into the sky in the center of the spirals. She pushed past so many unfamiliar shapes. A yellow dragon that towered over her. A bird twice the size of her. Still she kept running. All the while a pressure built in her gullet that she couldn't explain.

And finally she found a puddle of water on the ground. She saw her whole body. And it wasn't her body. It was white and green and her proportions were all wrong. Still the pressure built.

She stared into the reflection for a few more moments, stunned. A voice snapped her out of it. "Stop! It's me, Emir!"

She saw the metal monster chasing after her. She ran away again, pushing past pokemon after pokemon with her eyes blurred with tears. She didn't know what was going on, she just needed to get out of here. She took a final step and touched nothing. And she was falling. Falling through the air, or maybe through nothing at all. The pressure built and built. There was a bright flash of light and she was gone.

And the next thing she knew, she was in a dark alleyway. Tris said, "Face me, you coward." Soon, he said, "Who are you," and she realized she didn't know.

As Aria told the story, she left out a few details. Most of all, she didn't say she was a human, or that she was in the wrong body. She didn't know how Tris would react. She didn't know what kind of person- no, pokemon he was. She didn't think he would believe her.

Tris thought over the story Aria just told. It was unbelievable, yet for some reason it sounded entirely plausible to him. He saw no malice in Aria's eyes. He began pacing. "So why did you panic like you did when you saw your reflection?"

Aria blinked a few times, trying to think of a plausible excuse. "Uh, sorry, I thought it was obvious. I realized I didn't know who I was."

Tris narrowed his eyes. "Wait. I thought you realized you didn't know who you were when I asked you about it."

Aria's heartrate increased almost imperceptivity. "Right. That was when I realized I didn't know who I was. When I looked myself in the puddle, I just realized I didn't recognize my body. I wasn't thinking about other memories at the time."

"You didn't recognize your body?"

"I guess? Maybe my mind was just hazy…"

Tris looked at her again in disbelief. "Who are you?" he said.

"I wish I knew," Aria said.

The two of them exited the dark alley and entered the streets of Melloetta city, and the wider world of Pokemon.

A/N: Sorry for the exposition dump at the start of the chapter. Hope it didn't turn too many people off. Since the short description drops some of the mystery the story could have with the amnesia plotline inherent to the PMD games, I thought it made sense to go all the way and have the story spoil itself, not the short description! Not to say there won't be intrigue. Even in the past, parts of the story are gonna be revealed. But for the stuff that's common knowledge to the citizens, it felt to me that it would work better to bring it out here instead of Tris having to spend a chapter and a half explaining it to Aria. Hopefully the world's interesting enough and my voice is good enough to make it work well.

Second note: First time writing a story in soley third person! Hope it fits the story well. Not much to say about it, just a new style.

Third note: Been a while since I posted, huh? I blame writer's block. But I'm back with this story! Depending on the reception and how much I'm feeling the burnout, I'll continue it at a rate that works for me. I don't want to frontload 12 chapters in 3 weeks and never upload again!

If you liked the story, don't forget to favorite and follow it! Me too, if you want. I have another pokemon centric fic I might update sometime, as well as a few Steven Universe fics. Just a subtle suggestion. Also, I always appreciate reviews! Whether you like the story or not, I'll try to take criticism to heart.

Next time: The two of them dig into Aria's memories to see what they can figure out, and I develop the world a little bit, too. See you guys then!