Author's Note: This began as an old RP I was involved in. This story takes place many years after that RP and is a much more dark look at the Pokémon world. Feedback appreciated!

Waking from my sleep, I was in a sweat. I felt a soft and furry hand reach out and grab my own, and I remembered where I was. Home, or at least what was left of it. Greeting my beloved partner Charmy, a Lopunny I had hatched from an egg, I forced myself to get out of my bed. It was clear that she was worried about me, so I stroked her ears and laughed quietly. If it weren't for her, I would honestly be dead. The very nightmare I relive every time I sleep, only happened two years ago. That was the day that my life changed.

Two years ago, I had just turned eighteen years old and successfully hatched my sixth egg that I was free to keep for myself. It was a Rockruff egg that a trainer decided he didn't want, and I named the cute little dog Axle. At the time, Charmy hadn't evolved yet and was prone to wandering off. Since she always came back, I never bothered to look for her. My Fletchinder, Flare, however always made sure to take off and keep an eye on Charmy whenever she went off on her adventures. So when a group of six men showed up, I was down two of my six partner Pokémon.

At first, I wasn't aware of what was going on. I was out in the fields gathering berries for my mom. When I finished my harvest, I returned to the house to find that it had been set ablaze. I let out Fin, my Floatzel, to put out the flames. My dad staggered out of the house and collapsed in front of me. I didn't understand him at the time, but with his final breath he told me to run. At this point, I was terrified and trembling. The six men I had seen earlier came out of the house next, carrying bats and knives. As I fell on my butt terrified, my remaining Pokémon forced their way out of their balls and appeared in front of me.

Axle gave a defiant bark and growl towards the men. Beside the tiny rock puppy stood my beautiful Alolan Ninetails, Blizza, who was snarling at the men as they approached. And the final one to stand in between the men and me, is my stubborn Absol, Midnight. To the make the description of events short, the men challenged my Pokémon to a fight and managed to win until they got to Midnight. Midnight stood his ground and protected me, wounding both the opposing Pokémon and the men who tried to grab me. But eventually Midnight grew tired and was knocked out by a bat to the face. Unable to defend myself, I had my clothes ripped off of me and heard their plans to have their way with me.

But before they could act, Flare swooped down and distracted them. Charmy was crying as she hugged me tightly, even as she began to glow and evolve. After finishing her evolution, she moved to stand defiantly in front of me. Flare flew off with a cry and disappeared from sight, while Charmy proceeded to beat up the men who damaged my house and wounded my partners. After that I had passed out and woke up in a hospital bed.

Now I spend my nights struggling to sleep, and when I do manage to sleep I relive that day over and over again. Every time, Charmy is awake and waiting on me so she can calm me down and I can start my day. Stopping my stroking, I moved to the bathroom and took a shower to rid myself of my the sweat and nasty feeling. Picking out my outfit was arguably the hardest decision for me. I didn't particularly care about how I looked, since the only person I was interested in was in another region. But, today was much different.

"Wait," I kept a hand on the hem of a tank top that I had just slipped on; I was on the phone with our region's Pokémon Professor, Sakura, as I was getting dressed. "Say that one more time."

"Rin," she let out a sigh. "Blake is heading to the farm later today. He's gonna take you with him on his league challenge here in Valon, since we just got it set up."

"He's back?!" I let out a giddy scream. "Professor! Tell me sooner next time! Gotta go bye!"

Hanging up, I tossed the phone onto my bed and quickly removed the tank-top and began to comb through every piece of clothing I owned. If I wasn't going to wear it, I took it out of the closet and tossed it to the side into a large basket. I'm not sure when, but Charmy had sat on my bed and began watching me curiously. When I did notice her, I let out a frustrated groan and stomped the ground.

"I have nothing to wear! I want to impress him!"

"Lop?"

"Blake is coming back!"

"Lop!" She jumped to her feet and grabbed my hands; before I knew it she had dragged me into a happy jumping dance.

"Sol!" Midnight had a black colored dress draped across his back, and was staring at me and pawing towards me.

I took the dress and smiled; it was perfect. I thanked him and quickly put it on in front of the full-body mirror. My hair was long, reaching to my middle back. For the most part, I kept it loose, but I did braid part of the left and tied it off with a ribbon. The silver color of my hair complimented my purple hued eyes, as well as the black dress that had been chosen for me. The dress itself hugged my body tightly, which is something I didn't particularly mind. The skirt of the dress was short, coming to my thighs. The sleeves were long and slightly puffed at the shoulders.

I spent the day only doing light work since I didn't want to look nasty and sweaty to Blake when he arrived. Trickster Fields, the farm my parents started and died on, was a place where Pokémon could live peacefully. We offered many services, such as breeding or taking care of eggs for trainers. Old or permanently injured Pokémon found their way to the farm, and even abandoned and abused Pokémon can be found here. My light work consisted of making sure that the berries were fully stocked for the Pokémon to eat whenever they came close to the feeder.

"Hey Rin," his voice came from behind me.

I let out a startled yelp and dropped some of the berries I was holding, "You scared me!"

"Sorry," he laughed. "You ready to go?"

"Not yet," I shook my head and picked up the berries. "I need to finish up this last feeder, then I need to grab my bag from the house."

"Here I'll help," he took the berries from me. "Go get your bag."

"T-Thanks."

I hurried off to the house and rummaged through my room to find a large bag I had invested in eight years prior. I took a quick little tour of the house, but there wasn't any reason to mope around anymore. And I sure as hell wasn't about to let Blake catch me being mopey, so I stopped in front of a picture of my parents and gave it a sad smile. I rejoined Blake outside and returned all of my Pokémon to their balls. I noticed that the Pokémon on the farm were sad when they saw me, I guess they could tell that I was leaving them. I stopped in front of a Zoroark and it was obviously uncomfortable with my leaving.

"Hey there," I smiled and gave it a pet on the head. "I need you to do me a favor Joker. Professor Sakura is gonna stop by every day alright? But when she isn't here, I want you to protect it for me. I'll be sure to catch lots of helpers for you so you don't get overwhelmed. Please?"

"Ark! Zor ark!" it gave me a triumphant cry and grinned devilish grin.

"Rin," Blake interrupted us. "What happened here?"

I felt sick when he brought it up, but I guess it was to be expected since he had traveled to the other regions for the past eight years, "Two years ago these six men showed up. I was out picking berries when they started to...Burn everything. My parents were killed, and if my partners hadn't been around..."

"Sorry, I shouldn't have asked."

The truth was all around us. The fields used to be beautiful and vibrant, full of vegetation and berries growing everywhere. We had many ponds, full of water types. But, for the last two years, the fields are patchy where the soil is ruined beyond repair and the ponds are dried up. Only a handful of places can support the growth of berry trees. Even the amount of Pokémon that are in the area has decreased, but the ones that did stick around have worked hard to rebuild the paradise they once knew. I appreciated them all, and they knew it. So it was sad for me to leave them, but it wasn't like I wasn't ever coming back to them.

The walk into town was silent, but luckily I lived close by. The town I lived by was called Solaris, and happened to house the first Gym in the league. The town itself was large, being a valuable source of tourism. It was beautiful, with paved streets and sidewalks. Parts of the town were residential, while the remaining were shops and businesses. The Gym in the town doubled as a public pool, which meant that it was indeed a water type Gym. Blake wanted to head straight to the Gym, since he had experience beating them. But I dragged him to the Pokémon Center so I could check out his Pokémon, and make sure that they were ready for a tough battle.

Entering the large Pokémon Center, we were immediately greeted by the sight of Nurse Joy frantically running around with her partner Lucario. From the looks of things, she was trying to draw out several scared and hiding Pokémon. Lucario was pointing out the hiding spots, but they were too far back for either of them to get them free. Blake looked confused, and was the first to say something.

"Excuse me? Can we borrow a room?"

"Just a moment please!" she was frantic. "Luca they won't come out~!"

Not being able to stand it anymore, I decided to stand in the center of the room where everyone could see me. Then, I closed my eyes and let the world disappear around me. This was how I could calm down terrified Pokémon and get them to at least come close enough to me so I could check them out. I put a hand to my chest and took a deep breath, since I was definitely going to need it.

" Listen to the sound, the beauty of the truth. Children of the world know I am here. Tell me your worries; of your past and of your dreams. The river of life may be coarse, but know that at the end there is refuge. If you fall, if you stumble, stand up and push on. Come to me now, come to me now. Children of the world know you are safe. Children of the world, know you are loved. "

One by one, the terrified Pokémon came out of their hiding spots as I opened my eyes and smiled at each and every one of them. There was a Zigzagoon, a Rattata, an Ekans, and even a Pichu. The Zigzagoon had a bad burn on its tail, the Rattata an open wound in its side, the Ekans seemed fine, and the Pichu had a piece of its ear missing. I took out a Rawst Berry and fed it to the Zigzagoon, then ushered him towards the awestruck Nurse Joy. I didn't have anything to give the Rattata for his wound, so I ended up giving him a rub on the head and an Oran Berry before sending him over to Lucario. The Ekans coiled up against my leg, and the Pichu was crying for my attention. I picked up the Pichu and let it ride on my head.

"That...Was amazing," Blake clapped.

"Sh!" I shushed him. "Loud noises will scare these little ones. They all hatched recently, aside from this Ekans here. He's just a shy one."

"Thank you for helping out," Nurse Joy was holding the Zigzagoon. "You really know how to get along with Pokémon. The rooms are down the hall and to the right. I'll be to the left helping these guys get better."

I thanked her and handed off the Pichu and uncoiled the Ekans; then I dragged Blake back to one of the rooms and tossed out my Pokémon. They were all fully evolved, except for Axle. Then I turned to face Blake with a curious look. He looked at each of my partners, then pointed at himself. He wasn't understanding the situation, which frustrated me. We used to be able to communicate silently, but I guess now that we were twenty instead of twelve it was much different. Hell, I didn't even know if he knew how I felt.

"Don't...Don't judge alright?" He turned his face so I couldn't see his embarrassment, but I had much sharper eyes than he thought.

When he tossed out his Pokémon, I was shocked. They weren't evolved at all, and more than that he was specializing in one typing. A Swablu, a Dratini, a Bagon, a Trapinch, a Gible, and finally a Charmander. He spent eight years in other regions, and this was all he had to show for it. It made me wonder if whether or not he was prepared for the harshness of this journey. It was honestly funny to me; here I was, a farm girl who never battled and stayed primarily on the farm, and my set of partners were clearly much better trained than the guy who spent so much time away.

"...You're judging me. Hey stop laughing!" he was mad at me. "Damn it Rin come on!"

I managed to stop laughing after a minute, then I looked over his Pokémon before saying something to him, "You aren't ready. The Gym is a Water Type, and yes the Leader has ice type moves. You are at a serious disadvantage; that being said, it isn't impossible. Let's sleep here for the night, then tomorrow I'll teach you a few tips on how to eliminate that disadvantage."

"I appreciate it," he sighed. "I'll use the room next door, so rest easy yeah?"

I gave a small wave as he left the room, and then I sighed and plopped onto the bed. I felt exhaustion suddenly overcome me, so I didn't bother changing into my sleeping clothes I brought with me. Charmy patted my shoulder before returning to her ball. I watched each of my partners look at me, and they either nodded and touched their head against me before returning to their respective balls. I closed my eyes and rolled over onto my other side. Tomorrow would be the day that Blake challenges the Gym, and I would have to prepare him to think outside of the box to win. I just had to make it through the nightmares first.