Epilogue
Pokémon: 1 Deaths: 20
After five days of travel through the caves, Saylee was nearly blinded by the brightness of the sunlight when she took her first step into Johto. She'd never seen such a clear sky, nor such a bright shade of blue.
"Look at the water, too," Vera said, hopping off of Chaz's back and skidding down the slope to a lake. "You won't have seen anything like this before."
Saylee followed her and gasped when she peered into the water. She could see the white sand at the bottom. She could see every Goldeen and Poliwag that was swimming around in the water. She could barely even see the water itself at all.
"That was how it used to be," Chaz said, peering over her shoulder. "So full of life…" he looked across the lake. Further down the mountainside was a small village.
"That's a small, unimportant little place," Vera said. "It's called New Bark Town. It isn't even on a lot of maps. Team Rocket's never bothered to have any presence there. It'll make a good, safe base of operations. Plus, drifters move in and out of the little houses there all the time. We won't really stand out."
"I probably shouldn't go down with you," Chaz said sadly. "You might not stand out, but I probably will."
Saylee hugged him. "I'm really going to miss you," she said quietly. "I know I've been planning this for a long time, but…" she laughed shakily. "It was like this the day I left. I'd been thinking of going for months and months, but it didn't feel real until I first met you. I didn't want to show it, but I felt so scared…" she hugged him tighter. "I felt safe, no matter where I went or what happened, because I always had you with me. But now I'm saying goodbye…"
"He could stay, so long as he doesn't leave his pokéball," Vera suggested. Chaz nodded, but winced. Saylee didn't miss his expression.
"Chaz doesn't like spending long periods in his pokéball," she said, leaning back and stroking Chaz's snout. "After all, you were once put away for a long time, and you didn't get out again until after Armageddon…"
"It won't be long, anyway," Chaz reassured her. "You have the portpad. Your mum will write you letters, and I'll try to get Blue's head out of his ass so he can, too. Bill's back out here somewhere to, installing phones that'll connect… Anyway, soon you'll find Team Rocket and we'll fight together again. It'll be no time at all…"
"Or I might get lucky and find Red and Ben," Saylee said. "If I do, you and Sam will be the first to know!"
Chaz nodded, stepping back and spreading his wings. "Whatever happens, just make sure you come back, Saylee," he said. "No matter what… it'll be fine, so long as we at least get you back."
"I promise," Saylee said, holding out his pokéball. "I'll see you soon!"
She returned him and set his pokéball into the portpad. It sent to Pallet easily enough, and Saylee was alone with Vera.
The stood silently for a moment, Saylee with her back to Vera and hunched over her Pokédex.
"…Hernan taught me to throw a good punch," Saylee said eventually. "If you've lied to me or tricked me in any way, you'd better get used to a life with no teeth."
Vera laughed. "Come on, it's about three hours' hike down to New Bark," she said. "We'd better get our stories straight." She stretched, rolling her shoulders. "It's been a long time since I've breathed such clean air… makes me wish I had a cleaner conscience, so I could deserve it."
"I hope Kanto gets to be like this one day," Saylee said, following her down the slope.
"Setting yourself another big goal?" Vera said. "You've got plenty to be getting on with."
"You're right," Saylee agreed, taking one last look back at the mountains that separated her from Kanto. "Right now… better deal with the job that's in front of me." She turned back to Vera. "So. Stories… We probably need to make up names, right? What's an unremarkable Johto name? I'm trying to blend in, after all."
"Lyra's nice, if maybe a little common…" Vera said.
Summer was coming to an end, but the weather was still warmer and brighter than Saylee had ever seen. It felt like a good omen to Saylee. Maybe, just maybe, the fresh start of Johto was just what she needed to finish Team Rocket once and for all and solve the mystery of Red's fate.
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So I realized that tomorrow, my 20th birthday, will be one year since I started posting this. Neat, huh? Perhaps 20 is too old for Pokémon. Perhaps it's time to grow up and…
…oh who am I kidding, I need to go preorder White 2 and I need to do it NAO.
Saylee will return quite soon in Nuzlocke:Revelations, based on my SoulSilver run. Before then, I'm planning to do some edits to this fic, so sort out some early instalment weirdness in the early chapters and make some changes based on plot points and themes that I decided on later in the fic. So expect that on a random basis, and the SoulSilver fic sometime around the new year.
Thank you all, and I hope to see you again in Johto! :)
