Hello there! Welcome to my first Pokemon oneshot! I'm surprised that I haven't written one sooner...

Anyway, this story is partly based off my Leafgreen version, and partly based off my old Red version. The girl and rival being used here are from Firered/Leafgreen, but Leafgreen is a stupid name for a char, so I'm using the name I actually have for my Leafgreen game. As for the rival, his name isn't mentioned, partly because it's not needed and partly because I can't remember the name of my Leafgreen rival XP.

Also, I'm treating the rival as a separate character from Gary of the anime series. Just as the male player in Firered/Leafgreen isn't quite Ash, the rival isn't quite Gary, so I don't consider them the same. So I don't want to hear "But Gary wouldn't say that!" because this is not Gary.

The concept itself isn't that new, but I'm trying to do it in a different way.

Her Rival, Her Guardian

She sat there gazing at the sea, unnaturally silent.

That's where I found Sorreah, watching the ocean's edge lapping at the shore of Pallet Town, watching it trying to reach her feet. Grandpa told me she was here, but I could've figured that out by myself. I've done this often enough. Her long, light brown hair was being tossed about by the impish winds, usually into her face, so she often had to push her hair out of the way. She's always hated that.

A long furry striped creature ran over my feet, a Pokemon known as a Furret that wasn't native to this area. It was wearing Sorreah's white wide-brimmed hat, which covered its eyes and most of its little head, which meant it couldn't exactly see where it was going. It was bumping into everything at full speed like a runaway wind-up toy, stopping only briefly after each collision before it charged ahead once more. I tried not to laugh, I really did.

When she heard me she turned around, her brown eyes mildly surprised. She noticed that poor old Furret zipping around blindly, gave it a half-amused, half-annoyed look, and called to it. Ringo, that was its name. The living fur scarf dashed over to her without hitting a single obstacle, which was pretty amazing considering that all it could see was the inside of a hat. When Ringo had arrived back safely, she took back her wide-brimmed hat and put it back on her head.

"Hey there," she greeted with her quiet voice, smiling slightly, just slightly.

"Hey," I replied, walking over and sitting down next to her on the shore. "How's the team?"

"They're in Ophelia's care now," she answered, almost casually. "I've heard they have all kinds of tournaments and trade circuits in Sinnoh. I'm sure they'll love it there."

I felt that pit in my stomach open up again. It was a familiar feeling.

"Is it…really that close? That time?" I asked, though I knew what she would say. I knew it was coming. I knew that it was coming since she started transferring all her Pokemon to that Sinnoh girl, that Ophelia.

"…Yeah," Sorreah responded, turning her sleepy eyes to the masterless sea before us. "It's almost here, that time."

"…How much longer, do you think?" I questioned, though I already knew the answer to this too. She was in Pallet Town, without her favorite Pokemon, after all.

"…Tonight," Sorreah stated, her eyes closed as she stroked Ringo's fur slowly. The striped hairball was curled up asleep in her lap, oblivious.

With her free hand she gave me her travel bag, quite worn and weathered. It was unusually light.

"There's not much left, but there may be something you could use," Sorreah explained, drawing her hand away. "My Trainer Card is in there too, so you can access my Pokemon Storage PC. Take anything you want and use it as you wish. Oh, and make sure Ringo here gets a good home."

I studied the bag in my hand silently.

She looked at the ocean, the faceless ocean, silently too.

"You're scared, huh?"

"…Not really," Sorreah replied, keeping her gaze on the mass of blue water, now turning red and orange under the sunset. "I mean, it's nothing new, right?"

I couldn't help but smirk.

"Don't give me that. You're always scared."

Then she looked at the water nibbling at her feet, and she squeezed her eyes shut.

I put my arm around her. She fell against my shoulder like a doll.

"It's okay, Sorreah. It's okay."

IIIII

I'm not sure why it happens, or how. Me and Grandpa are always debating about that. The memory loss.

It's not like she forgets absolutely everything. She always remembers the first ten years of her life, our time before Pokemon training, our time of bitter rivalry. It's weird, really. Well, at least she remembers me. Or maybe I wish she didn't.

She would act just like she used to, brash and competitive as ever. She'd hurry over Grandpa and demand her first Pokemon, all over again, never noticing Grandpa's tired and shaded expression. Then she would go to all the gyms again and battle the gym leaders, ignorant of their confused looks and remarks. Back to catching Pidgeys, back to collecting badges, back to raising the best team ever to face off against the Pokemon League. And so it would go, until her memory gave way once again. Then it was back to choosing her starting Pokemon.

Her teams are always different, never with the same Pokemon, but they would always be strong, always be successful. She acts differently each time, sometimes arrogant while other times timid, but she still has the same heart in the end. She even changes her name each time she starts over, and calls me something else too, but she's still Sorreah, no matter what she says.

But I play along, like our last journey never happened. I pick a new starter too, and raise a team based on that starter. And I refight the gyms too with my new team, further confusing the Gym Leaders, but I think they're getting used to our rematches now. And then, when she beats me at the Pokemon League, it's only then that I go back to raising the rest of my Pokemon and go back to my real journey. But I guess it doesn't hurt to take a break every now and then anyway.

Grandpa says I don't have to do it. But I want to do it. I want to be with her on her journeys, to see what Pokemon she'll choose this time, to see what her new name would be, to see how she would be different, and yet the same. And besides, I want to find out what keeps resetting her memory. I can't just ignore that.

I've had all kinds of theories about it, the memory loss, most of them pretty stupid. There was everything from hitting her head to Team Rocket doing something to her to an elaborate conspiracy involving the Pokemon League. Like I said, most were pretty stupid. Drove poor Grandpa up the wall with them. He has amazing patience with me sometimes.

But I think I know what's going on now, though. Sorreah told me about it herself, the last few times before her memory gave out. It does explain a lot.

It's called MissingNo, she said. Some call it a Pokemon, others refuse to. It lives on the coast of Cinnabar Island, a strange thing that floats in the air and is made up of metallic-looking boxes. Each box is reflective, but when it reflects something each box reflects the wrong image, like one box should reflect your hand but somehow it reflects your foot instead. So any image it reflects is scrambled like shattered glass, and you can't make sense out of it. It's supposed to be very disorienting.

Anyway, this MissingNo is known for doing two things in particular. First, it can duplicate your items in mass amounts, which is why most people seek it out in the first place. Its second ability is that it can wipe out people's memories completely, leaving them wandering aimlessly on the island for the natives to find. I've heard it can even make people disappear altogether, but I dunno about that one.

Anyway, Sorreah has been looking into MissingNo and other stuff like it. I think she called them glitches, which is a kinda weird term to use outside a computer or video game, but whatever. What I'm trying to get at is maybe MissingNo or one of those other glitch-things has messed with her head. I dunno how long she's been doing this, but it could have been on her first journey. I wouldn't put it past her. But maybe if I can investigate these glitches, maybe I can find a way to stop the reset. Even if they didn't cause it, it wouldn't hurt to know how to use some supernatural power to help fix her memory anyway…

Grandpa's absolutely livid about the idea, though. He went off on me when I said I was gonna go check out these glitches. He said that there was no better way to ruin your life than to go after unnatural things like them. And he said he thinks Sorreah's memory loss doesn't have anything to do with MissingNo or any kind of glitch.

I know what Grandpa thinks it is. He thinks she's been doing it to herself all this time. But how could she do that? I mean, I can understand making yourself forget stuff all the time, or blocking out a certain memory after something really bad happens, but making yourself forget everything all at once, instantly? I don't see it happening. Besides, I know Sorreah. She's not that weak.

But it doesn't matter what it is that's been screwing with Sorreah's memory, I'm gonna take it down. I will save her. I will save her yet.

IIIIIII

She's asleep now.

She fell asleep a little while ago, a bit after nightfall. I fended off her drowsiness for as long as I could, talking loud and shaking her whenever she began to nod her head, but now she's in her deep slumber. I could scream into her ear with a megaphone and she'd never hear me. I wonder how much she still remembers, if anything. The sea is licking at our legs.

I guess I better take her back now. We can't stay out here all night. And besides, her ten-year-old self doesn't like me anyway. Soon it'll be back to being bitter rivals again. I'll need to tell Grandpa that me and Sorreah are gonna want new Pokemon tomorrow.

Here's my Arcanine now, a towering dog with fur like a tiger's and a mane like a lion. I'm putting Sorreah on his back as he kneels down. Ringo the Furret scampers on too, looking at me with confusing blue eyes. I give him a couple of strokes before I climb aboard as well. It's time to go back, back to the beginning.

But I guess it doesn't hurt to start over every now and then.

Well, I hope that made sense. It's pretty much referring to whenever a game is restarted. Leafgreen is due to restart soon, which is what kinda inspired this.

As a "translation" note, the part where the rival is talking about how MissingNo scrambles reflections refers to something in the game. Basically, the picture of MissingNo itself is made up of scrambled bits from your player's picture (they share the same colors). Likewise, if you send out MissingNo into battle, its back sprite will be made up of random broken pixels from the enemy sprite. I've heard sometimes it even mimics the enemy's backsprite completely, but I've never had it happen to me myself.

Well, I hope you enjoyed! Please leave a review and tell me what you think.

Cya!