AN- I've decided to try to publish a new one-shot every week from now on. The first one was supposed to be a Madoka Magica/Smash Bros crossover, but plans changed. So instead, I wrote a story about one of my Pokémon, and also kind of about my new OTP that apparently only I ship. (Really, though, I feel like I was the only one who thought Zinnia was completely in love with the player character.) So, I only own my own ideas and my actual Pokémon, thank you, and enjoy! –Twilight Joltik

Thinking of an Absent Friend

By Twilight Joltik

My trainer caught me from Meteor Falls, after a great deal of frustration. She claimed she had been searching for a female Bagon for ages, but never said why.

She named me Aster, but she didn't say why at first. She simply trained me and congratulated me when I reached my next form, and again when I had fully evolved.

After I became a Salamance, she gave me a stone. There was a distant look in her eyes as she handed it to me, and I suddenly desperately wanted to know where she had received it. I asked one of her older Pokémon, her Blaziken she had trained for ages, and he told me the stone had belonged to someone who's name was Zinnia. I had heard the name before, but I couldn't recall where until our trainer brought her great, green dragon out for battle once more.

"Zinnia", it was what she called the green one, so I asked the Blaziken if that was who had once had my stone. He said it wasn't, and that she had named the great beast after that person, and me after someone dear to that person. I asked who, and he said he didn't know.

Eventually, I got to try out that stone in battle. It filled me with such great power that I could easily crush the strongest of enemies, but I could sense my trainer holding back tears every time she used it. I tried to ask her why this was, but she couldn't decode my cries. I feared I was somehow making her sad, but I was afraid to ask any of the others what I had done.

We returned to Meteor Falls one day after a long chain of battles, and my heart started to pound wildly. I really had failed her, and now she was releasing me, wasn't she? Her Breloom heard my panicked cries and assured me this wasn't the case. She didn't touch my Poké Ball for the entire time we were there, in fact. Rather, she repeatedly asked, and then ordered, and then begged an old woman to tell her where "she" was. I didn't need to ask who "she" was, the stone I was holding was answer enough.

The woman didn't know, but proposed she might have gone to a place called "Sinnoh". Five seconds later, my trainer was being yelled at in the Fallarbor Town Pokémon Center for withdrawing too many Pokémon from the PC. She claimed she just wanted to have all her friends with her when she went somewhere she'd never been before, and that she probably wouldn't come back any time soon. The attendant didn't say another word after my trainer's first sob.

My trainer asked me to fly her to Petalburg City after that, where she told the gym leader very firmly that she was going away, and she wouldn't see him for a while. He embraced her and told her to take care, and that he would tell someone named Wally hello for her. Something very similar happened when she ran all the way to Littleroot Town, and told someone that could only be her mother the same thing. The results were just the same, and then she asked if Sinnoh was close enough to fly.

She was told it wasn't, but she decided to anyways. Thankfully, she flew on a violet Pokémon this time that I was sure was a different color when it exited its ball. We had never been in the air so long, and the sun set long before we saw land. Even then, after a half-hearted meal and uncomfortable sleep, we still had a very long way to go before we reached our destination.

Even when we finally got there, we still seemed to wander endlessly. She had no idea where she was going, or where she might find this person she was looking for. That started our eternity of wandering, looking for someone who never seemed to be there. I wanted to stop, I wanted to go home, but my trainer had seemed to forget where that was or how to get there.

Sometimes, after long days with no progress to whatever insane goal we were aiming for was made, my trainer would ask me to Mega Evolve and then hug me tightly and sob. Normally, she wouldn't say a word, but on one of these nights, she gave a humorless chuckle and asked "Hey, Aster, did I ever tell you where I got your name?"

Tilting my head to one side, I beckoned this story forward, eager to hear the whole of it at last. "Well, there was this girl named Zinnia. She was… amazing. Really, really amazing. Brave and daring and she never would relent on something if she thought it was right, even if everyone else didn't."

With a sigh, she looked up at the stars. "She wanted to use Rayquaza to save the world, but she couldn't master it. Somehow I could, but I knew if we failed, everything would be gone. I thought if I named it after the greatest hero I could think of, maybe that would give it the strength to save the world, so I named it after her. We managed to save everyone, but after that, she just sort of vanished."

Tears were falling from her eyes onto my skin now, and she held me tighter. "I really didn't want her to leave, but I thought maybe if I waited she'd come back. I should have known she wouldn't whenever her grandmother gave me her Mega Stone, but I still wanted something to remember her by, so I caught you and named you after someone she told me about. I still don't know who the first 'Aster' was. I mean, it was her Whismur's name, but she definitely named it after someone. I don't know if it was another Pokémon, or a family member, or a friend, or who, but I know the name must carry some power, considering how well you've worn it."

My question had been answered, so I just let her silently sob for as long as she needed to. Perhaps, I hoped, one day I would get to meet this person.

AN- Today, I got my first (seven) Level 100 Pokémon. Considering I have been playing these games for most of my life, I think it's a bit sad it took this long, but I'm proud of the accomplishment nonetheless. This was sort of originally a Zinnia-centric one-shot and a story about the nicknames of my Pokémon separately, but I sort of combined them, and this happened. I actually do have a Salamence named Aster, though, and a Rayquaza named Zinnia. Next week's one shot should be the one I mentioned above, unless something changes or I don't feel like writing it. So, thanks for reading! –Twilight Joltik

PS, the title is the meaning of the Zinnia flower in flower language whenever in a bouquet of several different varieties. I guess that makes sense, since there are two Zinnias in this story.