Chapter One: Threshold to a New Beginning

Emptiness. It's a beautiful place, if you don't mind the everlasting silence and immense boredom. There's no dark or light, no good or bad, no anything for that matter. All there is in this emptiness is sweet, blissful nothingness.

Then, suddenly, out of the nothingness, a large structure rises, piercing through the once peaceful environment. Its dull walls loom above me menacingly. Despite its sudden appearance, I don't flinch. The sight is a familiar one, one I have grown accustomed to over the weeks. As the dust it somehow disturbed settles, I confidently enter inside. I can find any particular room on the bottom floor within these walls without making a single wrong turn, and I believe I know this place better than the back of my hand.

My feet move over the faded blue carpeting on their own accord as I wind my way through the halls. I keep passing all the rooms on this floor, as I already explored most of them thoroughly in the many visits I have made. The ones I haven't were dead ends that led nowhere. I only have one destination in mind: the next floor. I dart up the first flight of stairs I can find. Panting from my sudden burst of speed, I turn left and find myself in front of an unfamiliar entryway. Giddy with excitement, I approach the opening and stare into a room almost as large as the one I had first entered. Upon stepping through the threshold, however, I begin to hear voices. I frown; normally the place was empty and devoid of life, human or Pokémon. Every time I came to this place, it was as silent as the nothingness surrounding it. Until now, it seems. Now on high alert, I continue my way in the new room, keeping instinctively to the darker shadows. I can barely make out any of the conversation, and the one that I hear most is "stone". What's going on? Who is speaking? Why are they talking about some dumb rock?

In the midst of my never ending questions, I have the sudden urge to abandon my search and leave. My gut tells me that up ahead is something, or maybe even someone, that I do not want to face. Before I can ponder more on this, I have already reached the other side of the room. I place my hand gently on the door and nearly jump when it gives way. I scramble away as the creaking sound the door makes echoes around the room. I peek sheepishly around the door frame, dreading what I might find. To my surprise, I don't see anyone, and the voices were eerily silent; this room is just as empty as the one behind me. Maybe it's my imagination? It certainly is possible.

"We will find it," a voice booms, now clear as day. I whirl around but find myself still alone. Shivers run up and down my spine like a clutter of Joltik searching for their next meal, and I swear I can feel a presence looming behind me, though every time I turn it refuses to reveal itself. Something about that voice combined with those feelings just feels...wrong, even without the fact that it is all in my head. "That stone will be ours, and the legends will once again be reality."

"Hey. Wake up."

My eyes fly open as I jolt into reality. I stare groggily at the person who has the nerve to wake me up. The lanky boy leaning against the wall pushes his glasses back up his face while brushing some stray black hair out of his face. "Ugh, don't wake me, Cheren. Five more minutes," I mumble, rolling away from him. It doesn't matter if I have been having that dream more often recently, but dreams are so surreal, and I still want to figure out who that voice is and what they mean by "stone". What is so important about it?

"You know, if you don't get up now you'll have to deal with Bianca waking you," Cheren says, not even trying to make it sound like the threat it truly was.

"Fiiine." I turn back over to face him. I will never want an energetic Bianca jumping all over me again in her attempts to "wake" me. "Why are you here so early anyway?" I know that, according to the clock hanging from the wall behind him, it is 10:10, but I have always been a late sleeper.

"I heard from Professor Juniper this morning," Cheren states as if he is just telling me about the weather outside. That gets me sitting up real fast.

"Professor Juniper? What did she want? Can we finally have our own Pokémon?" Cheren remains silent, and if it weren't for the smirk on his face I would believe he was ignoring me, as per usual. I force myself to my feet, covering the distance between him and my bed in three steps. "Answer me!" I demand, having to glare up at him because he has at least five inches on me.

He stares back down at me, that arrogant smirk still on his face. It's as if he knows he is mentally tormenting me, enjoying every precious second he keeps me waiting. Oh, how I want to wipe that smug look off of his face. "Yes, we can have a Pokémon," he replies after what feels like an hour but is probably only three seconds. "They're in the box over there," he adds, pointing towards a blue box with a bright green bow holding it together. How did I not notice it sitting there? It hadn't been there last night when I went to sleep.

"Okay, I'm going to ask the obvious: how did Professor Juniper get this in my room without waking me up?" I may be a late sleeper, but I certainly am not a heavy one. Even the slightest out-of-place noise could wake me up instantly.

"She gave the box to your mom last night." As if that answers my question. He turns towards the stairs, effectively ending the conversation. It seems as if he is expecting someone to come up them. "What's keeping Bianca?" He sighs, his hand on his hip and his foot tapping impatiently. "I told her to be here by 10:00 AM. And she's late, as usual."

As if hearing her name being mentioned, Bianca comes rushing up the stairs, her short blonde hair flying behind her and that poofy green hat of hers somehow managing to stay on top of her head. "Am I a little late again?" she asks, gasping for air from sprinting up the stairs. "So-oooo-orry!" I chuckle. It doesn't surprise me in the least that Bianca is late, yet again. When we were younger, she would always be late to everything, and it got to the point that we would sometimes have to tell her to be somewhere an hour before the actual event was. She still would manage to be late anyway.

"Bianca," Cheren grumbles, "I've known for ten years that you have no sense of time, but...seriously." He's probably having the same thought process as I am, though he might be a tad irritated at those thoughts. "Today's the day we can get a Pokémon from Professor Juniper, and you still manage to be late!" His voice rises in volume with every word. Scratch that, he is definitely irritated.

"I know, I know," Bianca replies, her voice quivering. Her face is flushed red from how upset she is at being late. "Sorry, Mneme. Sorry, Cheren."

"It's alright, Bianca," I reply. She never means to be late; it just always happens. "Right, Cheren?" I add, shooting a glare his way.

"Yeah, sure." It isn't exactly an apology, but I guess it would have to do. Getting him to actually apologize for something he said is like trying to find a Zorua in the Unova region, which is near impossible due to them being almost extinct.

"OK," Bianca says, breaking me out of my thoughts. Her gaze shifts between Cheren and me, and her expression quickly changes from embarrassed to slight confusion. "So, where are the Pokémon?" she asks cheerfully. Sometimes I envy Bianca for how quickly she can bounce back from being upset.

"They're in the box here," I reply, "or at least that's what Cheren told me."

Bianca looks longingly at the box that supposedly holds our future partners. Surprisingly, she doesn't instantly rush over and pull out the first Poké Ball she can get her hands on. I stare at her questioningly. "They were delivered to your house, so you should get first pick."

"Naturally," Cheren adds, surprising me even more. Who are these people and what have they done with my friends? At the very least, I would have thought Cheren would come here knowing exactly which Pokémon he wants, no ifs, ands, or buts. "OK, Mneme, you go first and take a peek at the gift box. I want to meet the Pokémon right now!"

"OK, I will!" I say, laughing. If there is one thing we all can agree on, it's that we want to meet the Pokémon as soon as possible. Despite that, I slowly approach the box. I notice a letter on top of the box, which I read aloud:

I've brought three Pokémon, one for you and one for each of your friends. Please settle your choices politely. Enjoy your Pokémon!

-Professor Juniper

Hesitantly, I untangle the ribbon and pull the lid off the box. Inside lay three Poké Balls, waiting for their future Trainers to choose them. Seeing the Poké Balls reminds me of when Professor Juniper had been teaching us about the three starter Pokémon that she gave to aspiring Trainers. Her voice echoes in my mind, as if she is there in the room right now:

"The first one is Snivy, a Grass type. Snivy is a very calm and intelligent Pokémon, and it uses its vines instead of its hands for everyday tasks. If it has lots of sunlight, it is extremely fast and agile, but with very little sunlight, it won't feel well and its tail will droop.

"The second one is Tepig, a Fire type. Tepig is a very versatile and energetic Pokémon, and it loves to eat berries it roasts itself. It is able to dodge its opponent's move and shoot fireballs from its nose, but if it catches a cold all that will come out is black smoke.

"The third one is Oshawott, a Water type. Oshawott is a very brave and proud Pokémon, and it uses the scalchop on its stomach to break open hard berries. It also uses the scalchop as a blade in battle and will immediately react to an attack by slashing with the scalchop."

I stare quietly at the Poké Balls resting in the box, three in a line, clearly marked as to which Pokémon is inside each individual ball. This is it. The choice lying before me is the threshold to a new beginning. And...I am still not sure which Pokémon I want. All three of them have their own advantages and disadvantages, as well as distinct fighting styles. There is also the lingering pressure of whichever one I choose will be my partner for the rest of my journey. Yeah, no biggie whatsoever.

"Would you get a move on and choose already? I'm sure the Pokémon are just as excited to meet us!" Yeah, that's real helpful Cheren. Really helpful. I hold my tongue and instead glare at him, which doesn't faze him in the least. Oh well, it was worth the effort.

I turn my gaze back to the box, still unsure which one to choose. You know what? I'll just turn my head and choose one randomly. That's what Bianca would probably do. I turn around and close my eyes. I suddenly feel my nerves tingling again, although nowhere near as bad as in my dream. Do I really want to leave this to chance? Without turning around, I reach back into the box. I have made my decision and I am sticking with it. My fingers brush against the top of a Poké Ball and I firmly grasp it. Inside this Poké Ball is the Pokémon who will be my partner for my journey. Which one have I just chosen? Looking back to the ball I hold in my grip, I notice that my hand is clasped around the Poké Ball in the middle. Picking it up, I notice a fire symbol imprinted on the top of the red section.

Tepig.

It's been 3,000 years...

Okay, not really, but I couldn't resist making that pun, even if it isn't even from this game. Seriously, it feels like it's actually been that long.

Yes, to my followers that may happen to be here, I know I just posted this. But I realized I screwed up on it, so I deleted the first one and put this one up, with one less chapter only because I forgot to proofread the second chapter. Sorry!

Anyway, this is a rewrite of my first fanfiction (well, the two chapters that existed) of the same name. I haven't changed anything as far as the plot goes, but I have fixed some spelling and grammar things from the original and added a bit of embellishment, for lack of better words. I also decided to change it from past tense to present tense, kind of as a challenge for myself. I had started with just having the dream as such, but I decided I wanted to try my hand at a different tense than I am used to.

So, anyway, this story is based on my gameplay from Pokémon White version, which I obviously do not own the rights to in the least. Though I do own a copy of White. The story will follow the basic plot from the games, but I'll be throwing in my own twists, such as the dream at the beginning, to try and spice it up a little.

Also, feel free to write a review! Through reviews, I'll be able to improve as well as see what did or did not work and go from there!

Lastly, a little trivia of sorts:

-The fanfic's title is a line from the first theme song of the Pokémon Black and White anime. I always liked that one, and thought that particular line was perfect for where I plan to take this story.

-Also, each chapter is going to be named after a phrase in each chapter, this one of course being near the end from Mneme. I like trying different naming themes for my fanfics, and since this one didn't originally have that for the first chapter, I renamed it to fit.

Hope you have enjoyed this so far! Next up, battle time!