Sarah spent yet another night running through the forest. This time, nothing harrassed her. She guessed this was due to being huge with sharp teeth. There were some up-sides to this after all.
In the blue hour of early spring twilight, the forest broke for Celadon City. She had never been here before, but recognized it from television. Unfortunately, she had no idea where the hospital was. She ran along the street, suddenly self-conscious of the fact she was, presumably, an unidentified species of Pokemon at the moment, as people in passing cars slowed to openly stare.
Samson was no help, having long ago lost consciousness. She searched for anyone who might help, trying not to panic. Finally, a police officer pulled over next to them and stepped out of the vehicle.
"Hey, there..." the officer said in a soothing tone. "What's wrong?"
Unable to answer, Sarah simply stood still to let the officer approach and inspect Samson. The officer's face blanched at the blood stains. "Oh," she said. "Okay. Come on, let's get him in the jeep." She dragged him into the passenger's seat before jumping into the driver's side. "You're too big to ride," she said to Sarah, "You'll have to follow."
The jeep raced ahead. Sarah ran after it on the sidewalk. By the time they arrived at the hospital, the blue had burned away and the glass buildings gleamed golden. The police officer parked and rushed inside, shortly returning with medical personnel, none of whom took any great notice of Sarah herself. Her ability to play a role now passed, she padded away to avoid potential attention.
For the first time in forever, she finally had a chance to relax and take stock of everything without being rushed, on the run, or held captive. Or fighting for her life. Ugh, other children her age didn't have these problems.
She found a nearby lot sheltered by trees, plopped down, and awkwardly fumbled with her oversized paws until fishing out the Pokeballs containing her parents, and hit the buttons on both simultaneously.
The lights revealed an Arcanine, and an Umbreon with blue rings, and Sarah realized she had no idea which was which. They looked around in confusion, briefly taking defensive stances, before relaxing to stare at Sarah in puzzlement. Great, they didn't recognize her either, and she had no method of communicating. Maybe if she scratched a message in the dirt...
But that was solved quickly, as to her amazement, both shifted to human form, clothing and all (which didn't make sense to her). She suddenly saw the connection between their forms: her mother's buoyant mane of straw-blonde hair and tall stature, her father's short black hair and small, lithe frame.
"Sarah?" they asked in unison. She nodded.
"We are so sorry," her mother said. "We didn't know he'd come so soon."
"Can you change back?" her father asked. Sarah shook her head. "Then we'll teach you."
"Imagine, as hard as you can, what it feels like to be human - " her mother said.
"Force your own body back into its shape."
"You can mold basic clothing too. ... Hopefully. We can."
Sarah concentrated hard on their instructions. Maybe imagining what happened with the Fire Stone, only in reverse... She struggled for a while on the concept, but with their gentle goading, finally became human again, and nearly fell over from the drastic change of weight and shape. She also felt her injuries more acutely now, and the blood drying on her back, and the mud on her hands and feet.
With additional concentration, she managed to materialize the most boring tanktop in the world. Its texture was off somehow, and she wondered how forming clothing was even possible, until she remembered Pokemon like Hitmonchan which were apparently born with clothing. Of course a Ditto would need to adapt to that.
But. They weren't Ditto themselves. "What am I?"
"We... don't know," her mother said. "You were born human."
"Your other form resembled an Arcanine-Flareon mix," her father said.
"Okay." Sarah stood. "Why didn't you tell me?"
"We didn't know you'd ever be anything else," he said.
"We didn't want you to feel different. We didn't want to scare you with stories about a past that might never become relevant," her mother added.
"So you just lied to me! My whole life, about everything! About you and where you came from! About me! I only exist because of some, some scientists, and their breeding program, for what? Just to see if they could do it? To sneak attack people with humans who can breathe fire?"
"We honestly don't know their motives," her father said.
"No kidding! I didn't know anything when they suddenly chased me down! I thought you were dead!" Sarah shouted. "Anthony's probably dead, too! And I have no idea where our Pokemon are, the last one I saw alive was Piera!"
They looked shocked. "Anthony? How - " her mother started.
"Because he saw me get attacked and tried to rescue me, because he had no idea what was going on, or how dangerous it was! Neither did I, all I knew was someone was hunting me down, I didn't know if they were going to kill me or what! I didn't know anything!"
"Sarah, oh sweetie, I'm so sorry." Her mother wrapped her in a hug. "We didn't know either. If we knew what was going to happen..."
"It's too late for that now," her father said. "What happened? Where are we now?"
"Celadon," Sarah said. She closed her eyes, leaning wearily into her mother's warm embrace. "A lot happened."
"Where's Roger? How did you get us out here?"
...Huh. "He handed you over. Right before someone named 'Mabel' shot him. He's in the hospital. So's Anthony... I hope." There was no reason for Anthony not to be in a hospital right now. No good reasons, at least.
"He... he gave us to you? I don't understand," he mother said.
"And what happened to Anthony?"
"Sam- uh, Roger, helped me escape. Because I'm a kid... because Anthony's a kid and they wanted me to kill him." Sarah's eyes stung. She cleared her throat. "He... I... they made me attack him... he's hurt really bad. I don't think he'll make it." Her voice broke with tears on the final sentence. Her mother held her close; her father moved over and put his arms around them both.