Chapter 25 - Memories of the Fallen

Saffron Town – Year 1481

It was the year 1481 with a war that lasted for nearly 40 years known by so many people and Pokemon over all regions of the world. Many called it back then the end of the world war, the war of fate, or the war of doom. But in modern times the war was later known as 'The Regions War' a war that involved all regions of the planet, and all species of Pokemon fought to fight against an emperor so sought after total control over all regions of the world.

Saffron City was once called Saffron Town from the early 13s to late 15s. Obviously over time, the town expanded and buildings were built higher than before and more people from the hundreds to the thousands lived and worked with in or around the city.

The portal had dropped us off on a beautiful hill just outside of Saffron overlooking a large meadow and even more trees and mountains in the distance. What was over the mountains at that point in time, I wish I knew. I wish I could just explore the timeline and learn how these people lived during those times, a time without electronics, how they worked with the equipment they were limited to, and what they did for fun. I knew that with the portals, the anomalies and the Time Crisis we would have little time to rest, we needed to hurry before this 'Infinite' guys plan succeeded.

So when it came to moments when 'No Anomaly detected within area' came along, we would return to the Time Dimension back through the portal and enter a new timeline and retry from there. So today, we didn't go back immediately, we stayed in this timeline… for a short while.

Sitting down on the grass me, Espeon, Lisa and Brent in one circle and our Pokemon talking in the other, Brent was feeling pretty bad about Rick. "The guy worked at the very same building as me on the same floor, I passed by him a couple of times but I never spoke to him."

"When Rick died in that weird facility, I thought about the times that I did see him in the building, where I could speak to him, get to know the guy… but I didn't. He said something along the lines like that he treated his co-workers and just workers and nothing else. He said he wished he could have another chance at that."

Espeon turned around from our small circle to face the other larger circle with our Pokemon laughing at something she couldn't hear from here. None of the Pokemon from the circle had asked her if she wanted to join in within the circle, or waited for her to join with them. She didn't mind, instead she stayed with us to talk about Rick, something that confused her, something that was on her mind ever since they first met. "It was strange, meeting with Rick." She said turning and facing us now. "It was strange seeing him back at HQ, then at the same place after a few returns from the portal, and then finally back at the facility."

"What do you mean?" Lisa asked. Espeon shook her head and raising her paw to scratch her cheek.

"I'm not sure… it was as if I had met him before, nostalgia I think it was. From his pale skin and blonde hair, how his voice sounded… I could've sworn I've seen him before, back when I was still living with my previous owner Eliza."

"Do you remember if anyone like that ever entered the mansion for like parties or gatherings?" I asked and Espeon shook her head.

"Elliot and his wife used to hold parties, seasonal parties for co-workers, friends and family. I'm not sure what they did for careers. Me and Eliza stayed in our room for the most part of parties held at night, while sometimes we left to attend them if we were allowed to." Espeon paused and turned her head down facing the grass to think. Espeon after a short while turned her head upward. "Then I remembered overhearing some guy talking to Elli-Uh, I mean Requiem, something about hating the weather in Kanto, going to Lavender Town about some Pichu… I don't know. When I heard his voice when arriving at the Savior's building, I wasn't sure it was him or not, but after a while I kind of felt that it was him who I saw at the mansion, but…. How old is Rick?"

"Beats me," Brent sighed. "From his appearance I'm guess' about a little older than Zack and a little younger than Lisa. Why do you ask these questions anyway? Is something up with Rick that we don't know?"

"I'm just saying that I…" She sighed resting her head on my lap. "You know what; forget that I brought it up. I thought I saw Rick at the mansion, but I'm guessing it was some lookalike, same blonde hair and all. And anyway, he would've been a young child no older than 10 if we did meet back then…"

Me, Espeon, Lisa and Brent remained silent in our small circle, our Pokemon continued to talk amongst themselves in their own large circle, often laughing together at what Espeon said were jokes. Looking down from the hill we were on I noticed Saffron city or town… or whatever suits you during this moment, with so much light gray smoke gathering together like it was coming from a large bonfire from many of the buildings below. Cooking food, blacksmiths creating new weapons and armor for soldiers for the Region war, families staying warm inside their homes, I wondered what their culture and lifestyle was like, what they talked about, their food, and since this timeline was free of anomalies I wanted to go down into that town and see.

Saffron Town – Market Street (Or later known at main street)

Before we entered the very first portal into the new timeline, we were all given a watch-like device we had to wear to blend in with the timeline, the device would create a holographic set of clothes around us matching the style at the current time, so that way no one would ask us questions or assume we were in the circus drawing any unwanted attention because of our present clothes. I wasn't sure what I or Brent or Lisa were wearing in this timeline and the other times we had visited, Espeon herself could not see what we were wearing for some reason.

Many of the stalls were selling items for travellers to use on their travels to other towns or regions. There weren't any Pokemon items or food sold here, only at a corner store located just near the north exit of the town selling food, medical supplies, leashes, and battle armor. In war, Pokemon were used on the front lines for the most part.

There weren't many Pokemon on the streets probably most of them were sent off into the war with the humans, the people we passed didn't seem to mind Espeon walking with us, although some glared at her, others gave her a strange look, and three or four children began to pet her before their parents pulled them back.

We found ourselves inside the restaurant, an obvious recurring location on our travels through time. The restaurant was called 'The Oak Tree' built 25 years prior to our visit, but it was closed down in the year 1627 during a raid at the same year. The restaurant was burnt down and was never rebuilt; only new buildings were built over the burnt rubble 6 years after the riots.

The restaurant was large and made entirely out of wood from floor to roof, except the glass windows obviously. The restaurant was once a popular place within Saffron serving many meals throughout the morning, evening and night. Today when we had just entered the restaurant, we had entered on one of the busiest days 'Sandwich Day' on that day they sold obviously sandwiches, but these sandwiches were said to be the popular choice when coming here. The documents detailing the popular sandwich said that it was delicious, filling and warm… not much information about that, what it tastes like or what ingredients are put inside each sandwich.

The crowd or line to order for the sandwich almost reached the entrance of the restaurant; people argued and shouted amongst each other claiming that someone or more cut in line or stood on their foot, yelling that the line was taking too long and the continuous shoving and pulling until the line had moved by a step or more.

"Welp, don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna grab us some of these sandwiches to fill up on." Espeon said walking towards the back of the line, but as she did she was unexpectedly pushed back onto the the floor in front of us by the crowd. Espeon gasped at this and said, "THIS IS KANTO LUNCH TIME RUSH!" She said shocked at the crowd before her still trying to push their way towards the front of the line to get a sandwich still. Espeon made a few more attempts to get in line, but the large crowd became too much for her, so she gave up.

"Hey guys, I'm gonna go for a little walk around town by myself." Brent said walking with his hands in his pockets as he walked towards the front door. "Later then…"

"Brent, a-are you sure?" Lisa asked walking up to him and placing her hand on his shoulder stopping him. "Is something wrong?" Brent looked over his shoulder at her smirking,

"Yep, I just need some me time for about 10-15 minutes or so. You guys go grab some grub or somethin'."

"Oh um… okay, we'll meet up later at the hill, Brent." Lisa said letting go of Brent's shoulder walking out of the restaurant. Espeon's ears dropped and frowned sadly as she watched Brent leave the restaurant.

"Is Bent disappointed that we didn't get him a sandwich?" Espeon asked, "Before we came in here, he seemed pretty happy that we were planning on getting one for all of us." Espeon turned back towards the line, it was almost shorter than it was, yet the pulling and pushing and shouting continued on. So Espeon returned to the line and waited.

Saffron Town – Church – Brent's POV

I had said that I wanted some me time, somewhere I could relax and calm down, but it took me a short while to realize that my apartment complex, favorite comic book store and café hadn't existed yet. The streets were similar in a way, just a little emptier and quieter than they usually are.

I remember walking past down a short street that I saw the city park… or what will be a city park in time and I remembered standing somewhere here waiting for my friends so we could play together here.

"Brent, race ya to the swing set, ready in 3, 2, 1, GO!" I remembered hearing one of my friends Drake shout as he and I would both raced towards the only swing set in the park. Every week, two of us out of the 5 would stop at the entrance, count from 3, and race to the swing set, and then whoever wanted a turn would do the same.

I hadn't been back here in a long time since they died. Walking away that empty space in this town with my hands in pockets down an empty street, I finally ended up at the church at the edge of town. It was a newly built church built 4 years ago in this timeline. I had only been in it a few times during my childhood years, not for service but for a 'field trip' the school made us go, not sure why we did that, but we did.

The church was built by stone, I entered and inside the church were wooden benches set up facing the front where the priest guy would be during sermons or services or whatever they are called. Up front on the walls were 4 stained glass windows lined up together all with unique designs and colors on each one. Inside with me were a few others sitting down on the wooden benches in silence faces down to the cold stone floor.

I sat down at the back away from the others and stared at the floor in silence with my thoughts, until…

"Come to pray young man?" I looked up from the floor to see an elderly man sitting down beside me. No hair since he's bald, curly gray moustache, wearing glasses that don't look right (crooked) if there was an anomaly here in this timeline I'd be guessin' it was him. "Today is a busy day at the church, don't you agree?"

I looked around and counted, there were only 6 other people in here with us, from the looks of these benches, they could hold up to about 80 or so. "Are ya kiddin' me old timer? Busy? Better go and get some new glasses, this ain't busy."

"I take it your in mourning then?" He asked facing forward towards the stained glass windows. "Every week I see about this many to 20 people either alone or with their families here. All because of this war…"

"The 'Fate of the world war' or whatever this war is called? And who did you lose?" I asked, the old man's eyes shut as he looked down.

"I lost my idiot son. Killed in a battle a month after he left home for this war." The old man's eyes remained shut. "How stupid…"

"Whoa, wait a sec pops, don't ya think you're bein' too hard on ya son? I mean, why are ya callin ya son an idiot for?"

"Because he is an idiot! He was young, your age maybe. He thought this war would be an adventure, that he thought he could be the one to stop the war, him and his friends all thought this right until they died."

Hearing this old man saying how he lost his son in the war, how the war was like an adventure, that his son wanted to be a hero with his friends, comparing his life to mine when I was younger. Me and my friends joined the savior's together thinking the same as this old man's son. Our missions we had together were fun, but I don't think we ever did think of it as serious… man we were immature.

"I must've been too strict with him, maybe that was why he left. He was a good boy growing up, I just never told him that often…" the old man sighed now staring at the ceiling. "S-sorry for this, crying like a fool and telling you all of this when you have your own problems."

"Nah, it's alright, talking helps. There was this colleague who worked in the same building as me; he had worked in the same building as mine for about a year. I later learnt that he never really had any friends. There were a few moments where I could've spoken to the guy, but for some reason I never did. Then recently, me with my friends had to work alongside him during a couple of missions, b-before he was killed he… he told us that he wished he could've changed all of that, and not too focused on work all the time…"

"I felt bad after that, I believed I could've talked to the guy before all of this, and maybe we could've become friends…" I turned to face the old man, his gaze still set on the ceiling above us. "I also some friends before all of this, friends I grew up with and joined the sa-… the army together. We thought too it would bring us adventure and excitement. During a mission, me with my friends had to infiltrate an enemy base, we were ambushed and so we fought back. I… I had a choice on calling in for the heli- uh ship to assist us, or stay and fight alongside them… I chose to call for a ship… after the call, I was injured and knocked out cold, woke up in hospital weeks later to discover all of my friends had died while I survived. I always wondered what would've happened if I didn't call for that ship and stayed to help my friends, would they still be alive today? Or would I have died with them?"

The old man turned and faced me, staring at me in silence for a short while before he spoke. "Questions we may never be given an answer to. Overtime since my son's death I like to see the brighter side of things by saying that he died so we could be free of the war, his death allowed others to live to fight for our freedom. Right or wrong, helping your friends or staying with them fighting side by side, do you think you made the right choice? Isn't this a good life what you have now? Friends, a family and a future to look forward to?"

Saffron Town - Hill

Returning back to the hill where the portal was, I saw Zack, Espeon and Lisa waiting for me just right outside the portal. Upon approach, Espeon happily hopped up towards me and using her Psychic she handed me a sandwich no doubt it was from that restaurant we were at not too long ago.

"Sup Bent, I stayed in line after a few knock backs, but with plenty of patients and determination, I successfully managed to get us some 600 year old sandwiches before we head on home." Espeon giggled looking back over to the others with their own sandwiches in hand. "So give it a try you'll like it, it's pretty tasty… if you don't want it I'll have it." She sad grinning

I took a bite out of it… it had some kind of chilli sauce in it, lettuce, tomatoes and meat. It was a bit spicy, but still pretty tasty. "Woo! This is pretty dang good!" I whooped continuing to devour the rest of the sandwich,

Espeon huffed and lowered her eyelids and said, "Ah man! I wanted to that… even though it had some mysterious meat product in it… it was tasty but… what meat was it?"

"C'mon guys, lets head back to HQ, we've met our quota for the day." Zack said walking with Espeon and Lisa towards the portal.

"C'mon Brent, let's go!" Lisa called out to me nearing the portal. I stopped and stood there for a short moment and thought before I smiled and ran up to them to walkthrough the portal together.

"You know old timer, I have something to look forward to. I know I can't change the past, my friends may be gone, but I will continue for them. With my friends beside me, Zack, Lisa, and especially Espeon, I know I can walk forwards the future without regret. Even though this line may be cheesy in a way, at least it made me smile."

To be continued...

Trivia:

This chapter was originally meant to be chapter 26. This chapter was originally about the 4 travelling to the past (probably old western era I don't know!) in some kind of Back to the Future part 3 parody. This was then changed to the 4 travelling to the past a few hundred years from the present at the start of a war which I called the Region war… yeah.

AN: When it comes to naming chapters, i'm pretty average at them so i might change the titles on certain chapters some time in the future. So anyway thank you for reading chapter 25, chapter 26 will be up soon, reviews and oc requests are still welcome just PM me the details. So with that being said... until next time.