Author's Notes
Important note: These first two chapters are a re-write of something that has already been posted on here by me. I am reposting these in a new thread because while the overall plot is the same, the individual chapters have turned out quite different, and if you jump in to the later chapters not having read these re-written chapters, you'll be confused about a thing or two.
And the obligatory notes:
I use "Blue" to refer to the girl and "Green" to refer to the guy, as in the Japanese Pokémon Adventures/Special manga.
I probably don't even have to mention this anymore, but spoilers for SM if you still haven't finished the campaign.
Content, including language, should generally stay within what you'd expect from a PG movie, but it could go a bit beyond depending on your point of view.
Prologue
"You don't even have the strength of a trainer. The only thing that you've ever done on your own is steal someone else's research material!"
"If trainers believe in their pokémon to the fullest extreme, as you do, their pokémon partners will also give everything they have!"
"I love the sunset here! It gives me courage to go on, you know?"
"Lillie."
"I'm sure that we and pokémon have helped each other and enriched the world since ancient times. These memories have been engraved in each pokémon's heart!"
"And I'm going to keep on hoping and believing that y-you'll be OK out there, Brendan. Because... Because you... You're the best friend I have!"
"The pokémon you have been entrusted with are unfamiliar with the world. In that regard, they're much like you. As fellow newcomers to the world, I hope you'll all do well together."
"We're here in Vermillion City. It's time to get up."
"I enjoy every day so much that I really think I finally found where I belong. I…I'm going to keep getting stronger!"
"I don't care what the reason is. If you take other people's stuff, you're nothing more than a dirty thief!"
"There are truths that I have learned because of the mistakes I have made. They pit me against others who are not like me and against ideas that differ from mine. They tell me the importance of understanding these others, even though we may continue to cause pain to one another."
"Oversleeping… this isn't a very notable way to start your big adventure, child."
"'Though love may lose, kindness wins.' I find that philosophical and, at the same time, compassionate."
"But...but...I haven't gotten to say any of the things that I wanted to say to you! So...so... Arghhh! I'm gonna send you a letter! A really, really long one! You'd better wait!"
"Wake up."
"I never give up, no matter what. You must be the same?"
"As long as pokémon and trainers have the kindness to care for each other and give each other courage, the world will be full of smiles!"
"I raised you better than this… I thought."
"You don't have to worry about the future all alone... Shouldn't everyone work together to make a beautiful world?"
"But, boy, don't think that this is over. I won't abandon my dreams!"
"I'm about to go get the ice bucket, this is ridiculous."
"I was shocked when I heard what your pokémon was saying. I was shocked because that pokémon said it liked you. It said it wanted to be with you."
"ENOUGH!"
A sudden intake of light assaulted her senses and sent a jolt of adrenaline down her spine.
Chapter 1: Does A Lamb Cry Out
"What's the matter? What is the yelling about?"
"It's the only thing that could get you up! The boat has come to a stop! We're here!"
"OH!" Lillie immediately got up from the chair she was in, and started trying to put the book she had been reading, History of the Entire World A.C.E., back into her bag. She felt as if she had already traveled the world in her sleep. She could only remember hearing the voices of people, a few of whom she recognized, but most of whom she didn't.
Lillie slung her bag around and rubbed her eyes. "I'm sorry, I… I was having a pretty crazy dream."
Lusamine looked her down, and then closed her eyes. "Hmph. It must have been one hell of a dream to make you that deep in sleep."
They had started to go out the door and into the crowded hallway, when suddenly Lusamine stumbled and had to catch herself against the wall.
"Mother!" Lillie said, running over. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine," said Lusamine, who had regained her balance. "Let's get out of here quickly; it's already afternoon."
Lillie sighed. Her mother was unstable in more ways than one, and she suspected that the long boat trip worn Lusamine down to the cranky end of her emotional Wheel of Fortune. It made it challenging to tell how much she had actually changed from the events of the past few weeks.
As it had been, Lillie noticed some held glances from people in the crowd as they got off the boat, which made her want to jump into the Pacific Ocean and swim away. She knew that what had happened at the Foundation was international news, and that some people might not be happy to see the two of them there. But she tried to forget about that and enjoy the sight of the bustling harbor, and the string of hotels, houses and odd shops along the shoreline.
As they stepped off of the dock, Lillie's previous fears were confirmed.
"Being on that boat for several days made me sea sick," Lusamine explained, after taking a deep breath. "If there's a pharmacy around here, I'd like to task you with getting some anti-nausea medicine."
Lillie was somewhat taken aback. "M- me?"
"Why of course," Lusamine said, turning to Lillie with a grin on her face. "You want to go on an adventure just like your friends, correct? You're going to have to get used to doing tasks of this sort."
"W-well," explained Lillie, as she observed what was around them, "there's a pharmacy over there, with the blue roof- but there also seems to be some sort of demonstration happening around it, I'm not sure how I'm going to get in."
Lusamine got out her wallet. "You're going to have to learn how to… experience all sorts of different personalities as you grow up," she said. She gave Lillie 500 dollars. "Stay out of trouble. I'm going to go check us in to the Tourist's Bureau. A blue wooden building across the street from Pokémon Center." She grinned again. "I'm sure the locals will be willing to give you directions if you get lost."
And so Lusamine walked away, and Lillie was honestly dumbfounded. This was probably the first time ever that her mother had actually trusted her to do something like this, and she wasn't sure if it was just the mood swings, her general psychological unsteadiness, or if it was all some sort of sadistic test.
She got closer to the crowd around the pharmacy. There were like 30-40 people there, all of them standing resolutely. She saw that all the signs seemed to be in disapproval of some sort of weapon, but she couldn't glean many details.
They were all so tightly packed that Lillie couldn't even get to the door. She asked, "Excuse me, could I please get through?", but they didn't hear her, or at the very least they didn't react or acknowledge her.
Lillie sighed. She took out Vulpix, her first pokémon, given to her before her departure from Alola by Professor Oak, and looked at him through the top of the poké ball. On the way there, she would sometimes release Vulpix to get to know him better. However, her mother discouraged her from battling any of the trainers out on the dock, arguing that the trainers were probably a lot better than her and that she should wait until they get to the mainland and fight some wild pokémon first. So even if she were so inclined, she figured that fighting her way through may end badly.
Thankfully, at that very moment, she heard a low, female voice say, "Hey little girl, you need to get through?"
Lillie turned around and saw a woman who was taller than Lillie by three or four inches and had long, auburn hair. She was wearing a white poké ball pattern hat, a light blue shirt, a red skirt, and long white stockings.
Lillie was made nervous by the sudden appearance of a stranger. "Um… Hello! My name is Lillie! Yes, I… I was hoping to get my mom some medicine because she got seasick."
The woman smiled. "I think I can help you out. My name is Blue, by the way," Blue said. She took Lillie by the arm and dragged her along through the crowd, saying "excuse me guys, out of the way, we're coming through." The crowd parted like the Red Sea before Moses.
How did she do that? wondered Lillie. That's the same thing that I tried!
At last, Lillie had gotten into the pharmacy. It was surprisingly crowded given that there were people blockading the entrance.
"Thank you very much for helping me!" Said Lillie.
"No problem!" said Blue. "You said that your mother is seasick. By any chance, did you guys just get here by boat?"
"Yes, we did," said Lillie. She started towards the aisle, which was easy to find because it was a small store. She was surprised to find that Blue was still keeping close to her, but after how helpful she had just been, she wasn't about to protest.
"Where'd you sail in from?" Blue asked.
"I'm from Alola," Lillie said. She was unsure as to how much she should say, knowing how others in public had reacted to seeing her mother.
Blue looked at Lillie pensively. "You related to someone famous?"
Lillie couldn't help wondering how much she already knew, as she took the medicine from the shelf that seemed to be a reasonable price. She figured that she might as well tell the truth.
"Yes. I'm Lillie Aether. Lusamine Aether's daughter."
"Oh! I thought you looked familiar." Blue started biting her lip. "I wasn't going to say anything because I am sometimes a guest speaker at the schools here, so I could've easily been mistaken."
Lillie had several questions, such as why Blue was still talking to her when they were now in the line for checkout, but she started with this one: "You… y-you recognize me?"
"Yeah! They showed your picture on TV once. I'll be honest, I was only still tagging along with you because I was gonna offer to pay for you, but…You might want to stick by my side for a while. People might not be too happy to know you guys are here."
Lillie suddenly felt a very cold sensation. "You don't think people would bother us, do you?"
"I'd think that people wouldn't bother a little kid, but it's better to be on the safe side. Some people have a hard time separating the child from the parent."
Lillie finally got to the front of the line and paid for the nausea medicine. They walked back out to the front to dig through the crowd, and Lillie was very grateful that this mysterious stranger was helping her out.
"So, you know Sun, right?" Blue asked.
This question really caught Lillie off guard. What were the chances that Sun went to school in Kanto and happened to give his name to this woman while she was visiting?
Suddenly a voice called out: "Hey Blue!"
The two turned, halfway through getting out of the crowd. Lillie observed a red-headed women with an angered look on her face.
"Hey Misty! What's up?" Blue responded.
"You know 'what's up,' Blue! You know who this is who's trailing behind you?"
Lillie looked around and saw heads turning, and suddenly she heard her mother's voice in her head: "Stay out of trouble." Her innards turned icy.
"Some little girl, how old are you, like eight? Something like that."
"I'm not concerned about the little girl. It's been reported that Aether took her daughter with when she left Alola, so if that girl's here, so's her mother!"
"So?"
"SO! You know what she did! Don't you think it's just a little suspicious that a wealthy women commits all of these atrocities, and sets these world-ending monsters to spread havoc across a whole region, and then mysteriously isn't imprisoned or anything and is now traveling to other regions? Fishy business if you ask me!"
"Oh, you can go piss off! Innocent until proven guilty really is dead around here!"
Lillie gasped, not expecting the sudden anger on her behalf. It seemed as if nobody knew the reasons why they came to Kanto, and she admitted that, without that information, the presence of her mother might be concerning.
However, Misty only became angrier. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Look around! You're out here with all these people yelling about some weapon that doesn't exist! Yeah, that makes sense, they're building uranium-powered death robots right here, underground, right under our noses! Listen to yourselves!"
The conversation only got nastier from there. The two were now screaming vulgarities and gesticulating wildly at one another, and they seemed to have completely forgotten about Lillie. The crowd that was watching the two girls was also getting rowdy, and Lillie heard a lot of mumbling and shouting. She decided that it was probably best to try and leave the scene while everyone else was focused on the cat fight…
But then she turned around and saw, towering over her, a pokémon that was like a shaven, more rounded golem. Next to them, a little man with flashing black glasses and a dorky hairdo.
"What do the Aethers have in store for Kanto, huh?" He asked threateningly.
"N- N- Nothing! Leave me alone!" Lillie said, the pitch of her voice high. The icy fear from before had turned into outright panic, and she started trembling uncontrollably. She would've given her left leg away to have Sun, or Moon, or Hau or Gladion there with her at that moment.
"You expect us to believe that?" he said. The golem took a step forward.
In a fit of panic, Lillie reached into her bag and pulled out the one poké ball. This isn't how I wanted you to be introduced to battling… I'm sorry… but you're my only hope…
Vulpix came out of the poké ball and jumped to see its huge foe.
"V-v-vulpix! Use… Powder Snow!"
Vulpix let off a flurry of snow at the golem, and Lillie saw them turn away-
the attack had a surprisingly big effect for being what Lillie thought was a neutral matchup-
but the golem turned back and started charging-
when it was met by a granbull, who picked the golem up and threw the pokémon that had to be three times its size a distance of about ten feet-
Lillie closed her mouth and was surprised to find that she had screamed-
"Leave the girl alone- that was out of line, Howard."
Lillie turned and saw Blue- she looked furious, but oddly there were also tears rolling down her face-, and she felt a flood of relief that she didn't think was possible.
Blue put her hand on Lillie and pushed her forward. "Walk away. Slowly now."
Lillie returned Vulpix to the poké ball and walked forward. Then, her terror suddenly came back when she saw her mother in front of her, who promptly grabbed her by the ear.
"I'm learning new things about you every passing week, my child. I never pegged you as one to go start a street fight."
Lillie was frantically opening her mouth to say something-
what, she had no clue of- but
"You've got it wrong, Madam President," said Blue as she quickly wiped her face on her sleeve. "Your daughter was being attacked."
Without letting go of Lillie's ear, her mother looked at Blue as if she were sizing her up. Lillie took the opportunity to wipe her own face on her sleeve, as she hadn't noticed how wet it was until then. "To whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?" Lusamine asked.
"I'm Blue Jasmine." Blue had returned her voice to the same calm, clear voice she had back in the mart, but her face was still red and puffy. She also returned her granbull to their poké ball.
Lusamine let go of Lillie's ear. "And who are those people?"
Lillie looked over and got to see the glasses man who confronted her getting smacked by Misty, and the crowd seemed to be dispersing.
"Some old friends," said Blue. "Can we talk inside or something?"
They were sitting inside the Tourist's Bureau, next to a painting. It showed an old man next to two machop, and was captioned simply Our Founder.
The trio were sitting at a table, the adults sipping tea.
"If you don't mind me asking, why did you guys come here to Kanto?"
"Well, it's a long story," said Lusamine, "and one which I'm not really inclined to want to tell… but suffice to say, I had a pretty awful experience, and we did some digging and thought that Bill might be able to help us out."
"Ah yes, say no more. Bill's a great guy, if a bit of a goof," Blue said. "Lillie, have some of my tea, you're shaking still."
She pushed the cup over, and Lillie took it without thinking. It was white tea, so it was sweeter than she expected.
"So, you were one of the great trainers who helped bring down Team Rocket ten years ago," said Lusamine, smiling slyly but also looking across the table with intensity. "It's amazing when ten-year-olds can accomplish in this world, isn't it? How'd you get mixed up with this racket that's happening here?"
Blue sighed, and leaned back in her chair. "About a year ago, my husband (we had just gotten married at the time) and our childhood friend used our celebrity status to raise awareness of some shady business practices going on in Kanto. We've been experiencing a lot of economic growth recently, but the newly growing companies were using pokémon as a labor source, and given the lack of laws on the subject they were being treated… not so well," she explained. Her chair slid forward and she put her arms on the table. "And some of them were destroying their natural habitats, which… well, I shouldn't need to tell you what's wrong with that. The League, of course, has refused to do anything about it. And a lot of the people who were on our side got a little… wild, and started coming up with these crazy conspiracy theories about the new leader of Unova, Ardos, wanting to take over other regions and steal peoples' pokémon, and Kanto developing some big death weapon to fight them. And now… the two boys are traveling to Alola to celebrate the opening of the pokémon league, so I've been trying to clean up the mess."
"It's a shame you couldn't head over there too," Lusamine said. "I bet some people would've been really happy to see you."
Blue scratched her back. "Honestly, I'm surprised that anyone outside of Kanto even knows my name." She then turned to Lillie. "You've been super quiet this whole time, are you doing alright?"
"She's usually quiet," Lusamine explained, "and she's probably pretty shocked by today's events."
"Well, I'll quit running my mouth and let you two get a good night's rest," Blue said, standing up and grabbing her bag. "It's dark out already!"
"Thanks for standing up for Lillie back there, by the way," remarked Lusamine as she and Lillie also got to their feet. "She's still a rookie trainer, you know."
"Oh don't mention it," Blue said. Suddenly, she put her hand on Lillie's shoulder and ducked her head to Lillie's height. "Remember this: the best trainer's in the world? They're the ones that are totally in sync with their pokémon. You seem like a sensitive gal; treat your vulpix like an equal, not a tool or a slave, and you two will be nigh unstoppable."
Lillie was rather taken aback by the sudden lecture, and didn't know what to say in response, so she simply nodded.
Blue smiled. "We'll meet again, maybe when you least expect it." Then on that enigmatic note, she walked out of the room.
Lillie and her mother walked into their room for the night. There was a cozy living room with a TV and two doors which led to small bedrooms. Everything was wooden or green, and it had a treehouse aesthetic.
"Take the right room," Lusamine said, as she strode across the room. "Don't stay up; I want to be out of this town ASAP. We leave in the morning."
"Y- Yes mother," Lillie said, and Lusamine closed the door behind her to the left bedroom without looking back. Lillie walked into the bedroom and looked down at her neat, white sheets. She could only see the weird golem stepping towards her in her mind.
Suddenly, she had an idea. She released Vulpix from his poké ball. Vulpix came out on the bed, and Lillie began petting him along his back.
In a whisper, she said this:
"It's… It's time to stop being so afraid. It's time to get tough! It's time to stop relying on someone bigger and stronger to protect me!"
"I had the best friends a girl could ask for. But I chose to come all the way here without them. I did it to help my messed up mother. But also I came here because I already knew; it's time to take my future into my own hands. I saw my friends and their pokémon and I saw that anyone with pokémon by their side can make their own future for themselves."
Vulpix looked back at her with wide eyes as it was pet. Lillie honestly had no idea whether or not he knew what she was talking about, but saying this all to herself was cathartic anyway.
"Speaking of which… I've been thinking of giving you a nickname. I've heard that giving nicknames helps the bond between a trainer and their pokémon grow, by symbolizing that the two have a relationship which is uniquely theirs. I have also heard that some of your species can create a snowstorm just by entering the battlefield. So… I've decided to name you Snowy. Do… Do you like that?"
Snowy the vulpix nibbled on her fingers, which Lillie took as a sign of approval.