Epilogue: Home

"You and me, we're a miracle

Meant to be

And nothing can change it

Mountains move

And oceans part

When they are standing in our way." - Christina Aguilera, Mewtwo Strikes Back

Purple eyes. Staring down at me, unblinking. Awed. Then they started crying.

I had no idea why this Squirtle was so upset, or what I could do about it. I tried to push myself up but my body was so heavy that I couldn't even lift my head. Every movement flooded it with pain.

The Squirtle leaned over and put a hand on my arm. "Alex," he said, "are you there? It's me. Your best friend."

I screamed.

"What- What are you- How are you…? Who are you?!"

The Squirtle sat back. He was quiet for a moment, then he started laughing, then he started crying again. He put his head in his hands and just cried.

"Hey, hey…" I said. "… Squirtle… Why are you crying?"

My injury had triggered a relapse. More accurately, it had shattered the Gem buried inside my head that had been holding my memories, erasing them entirely. But the others just called it a "relapse". I'd had no idea what they were talking about.

But my memories were gone. I understood that much.

I remember feeling so guilty. I didn't want this Pokémon to be upset. He'd just held me and told me not to feel bad. That it wasn't my fault. I'm still trying to convince myself of that.

Tobias never left my side. Khan brought us both food and water, and he spent most of his time with us. I'd thought that he was my dad at first.

The others tried to tell me everything, but few of them seemed to realise that after a severe head injury and sorcery-induced amnesia, it's a little hard to keep track of things. I remember at the end of a twenty-minute long "conversation" with Nate, asking him: "Wait, remind me who Dreigo is?" He'd just put his head in his hands and sat there for a full minute. Bonnie dragged him away by the tail.

Asa gave me a diary with a Fletchling quill and asked me to keep track of how I was feeling, physically, mentally, and emotional. He apologised twice every time he saw me, once when he arrived and once when he left, that he wasn't able to dedicate more time to me. One-hundred-and-eight Pokémon were dead and two-hundred-and-one were critically injured. Eight-hundred-and-ninety-nine had minor-to-severe injuries. Sixty-two were still unaccounted for. I saw Asa for ten minutes, twice a week, for the thirty days that I stayed in Grande City.

One day he arrived six hours late. Tobias was already asleep when the Bulbasaur had come racing in through the hospital doors. I was still awake. I'd been counting the wood grains on the ceiling.

He helped me into a sitting position, fussed over some straw that was poking out through the mattress, brought me a drink without my asking, and spent the next fifteen minutes fussing over that painful spot on the side of my head. He apologised at least five times.

"Have you been keeping up with your diary?" he asked.

I showed him. I'd written about the time I woke up and Tobias had cried.

"That's a… good start," he said. "If you need someone to help you transcribe, or if you need another quill, or ink, or a writing table, or anything-"

"Why are you so interested in me?" I asked. I know it was rude, but it had been bugging me for a while. Any besides, my filter wasn't exactly running at full capacity. "Don't you have, like, a ton of other patients to take care of?"

Asa dropped his vines and broke down into tears.

"Oh Moltres not again," I said.

He retracted his vines and covered his face with his forepaws. "This is all my fault…" he said. "This is all my fault!"

And I knew how that felt. So I reached out my arms and held him, and I told him it was okay, it was all right, it wasn't his fault. Whatever it was.

The Gem had been his, of course. It was his idea to implant it into my head, to help my brain store memories like it could before. And the Gem had been destroyed. And the memories had been wiped.

Why had the Gem been necessary in the first place? Well turns out that when you manipulate somebody's brain cells to erase every memory pertaining to a person's entire identity, there are consequences to that. Funnily, isn't it?

"Where did I come from?" I asked the next day, or maybe the day after.

Tobias hesitated. "Do you mean…?"

"Who are my parents?"

Khan had gone to find Braze. The Charizard explained that my parents were still sitting in the cellars beneath Grande City. Most of the Varia soldiers had been exiled from the crownlands, but Octavia had kept them, in case I had wanted to see them. I declined. Hosting hospital visits for everyone else had been exhausting enough.

One the day that I was meant to be released from hospital, Asa asked that I stay for one more. I didn't mind. The hospital was the most familiar place for me at that time.

By his instructions, I placed my hand to the side of my head, just to the right of my eye. There was a flash of green, and then I was staring at red grass and red soil. Red trees. Red leaves.

"Are you all right?" he whispered.

"Yeah," I said, a little confused, "I'm fine."

Red light shining from behind.

My breath caught in my throat.

I don't know how to comprehend what I just saw.

My old memories, he said. I covered my mouth with my hands. I could see it all. From the moment I became a Charmander to the moment that my head was skull was crushed against the wall.

A memory tracker. He'd wiped my memories, and replaced them with this. He had asked my permission, this time, Tobias informed me, although I still can't remember it.

But now I could watch it. I could watch it all from beginning to end.

It took a long time. Asa showed me how to skip. I just closed my eyes, and seconds turned to minutes turned to hours the longer I held them shut. If something significant happened, like somebody speaking or a Pokémon jumping out at me, I'd be jolted awake.

Tobias and I stayed at Markus' house for three weeks. I watched it over and over again. I never experienced these things, I never felt them, the pain or the cold or the heat or the weight of my sword in my hand. I can only tell you how I felt watching it happen in front of me.

The final battle was always the hardest, but I pushed through almost every time. I watched myself cut Dei Varia across the face. It was agonising, every single time. But I let myself be suffer. I let myself be punished. It was the least I could do, I guess.

The Pokémon that I'd met along the way came and went, but I wasn't very good company. All I wanted to do was watch the footage. Eventually, they stopped coming.

The soldiers who'd gathered for the fight were going home. Khan was leaving in a few days. The Academy was waiting for him, and for us. Queen Octavia wanted me to begin training with the Victory Hunters as their "newest" member. They still needed a tenth. It was time to pick a life.

I re-watched the footage again. Team Goldenrod, Ruby Forest, the War of the Dragons. Well then. I guess that was it.

Tobias and I left on the 10th of the Aurora. The Forest Fires came with us. Markus had hugged me tight, trying and failing to conceal the tears in his eyes. It was heartbreaking, but I told him that I had to leave. I couldn't stand being there anymore. He said that he understood.

The Enderpyres and the Victory Hunters saw us off. Even Avalon showed up, although she had to lean on Niamh's shoulder to keep standing upright. Recovery was slow. But she would recover, she told me. She had Asa to thank for that. I had asked her what she meant by that.

And she hadn't gotten angry. She hadn't gotten frustrated. She had just asked that I remember the good he had been trying to do. That he had done none of it out of spite, and that he really did care for me. I promised her I would remember. This time.

Just before the cart drove off, Braze approached to ask me what I wanted to do with my arms and armour.

"I don't care," I said quickly, "do whatever you want with them, just don't give them to me."

"We'll take care of it," he said. Then he directed my attention to the other side of the cart.

Jessie was watching from a few feet away. Teo hovered by her side. I hadn't seen them since the day I'd had my armour fitted. I waved. They turned around and left.

"Hike!" said the Maractus at the driver's seat. The four Skiddo clopped their hooves excitedly against the ground. The cart started with a lurch.

"Are you ever coming back?" Agatha asked me as the wheels crept forward.

We were high up on the hills on the eastern side of the city. I had stared out across the fields, to the north-west, where the sixth floor of the Goldenwater reached up over the hills.

"Maybe," I said. "Maybe some day."

I watched the footage again on the two-week journey home. And then again. Halfway through Alister's betrayal on the third run, the Boldore next to me in the cart pleaded with me to stop. It felt like holding my breath for days and days until we finally reached Emerald Town.

Tobias and I walked home alone together. We stopped just outside our place.

Krabby stood along cliff shelf above our heads, blowing bubbles over the sea.

Tobias held the door open for me. I threw myself down on the bed.

"Ow."

"No mattresses here, guy," said Tobias. "You'll have to get used to the rough living again."

"I don't know how I ever slept on this thing before," I said, trying and failing to find a comfortable sitting position.

Tobias shrugged. "You never really had anything better, I guess…"

"Tobias." He looked up. "It's good to be home."

Tobias smiled.

We were both exhausted, barely still awake. Khan had offered to let us sleep in the Academy, but we'd refused. We'd missed home.

I picked myself up and pushed the tracker.

"Alex, no."

Reluctantly, I turned it off. I didn't sleep well that night. I think I had a nightmare. I don't remember.

"What do you want to do today?" he said the next morning. "Don't you dare say-"

"I want to go into town," I said.

He been pleasantly surprised. "Okay! Where to first?"

I pretended to think about it for a moment. "The Academy. Let's say hi to everyone!"

The Pokémon at the Atlanta Academy had embraced us with open arms. True, some had turned their backs on us after we'd broken their laws; it had been the law, after all; but most of them were glad to see us. While Tobias was distracted with a crowd of Pokémon pestering him for details, I slipped away to the third floor to speak to Khan.

The Professor was bent over his desk with an ink pot and parchment. A Xatu quill stood unused on his desk. He dipped his claw in ink, stopped when he saw me.

"Alex!" he said, wiping his claw on a cloth. "How are you feeling?"

"Great. Never better. Can I talk to you for a moment?"

"Of course!" he said, as I sat down across from him. "What's up?"

I met Tobias in the dining hall.

"Where were you?" he asked.

"Picking up our reward," he said.

"What reward?"

I reached into the bag. I pulled out two Beginner-Rank Badges.

"Best I could do," I said. "But he said we passed initiation with flying colours. I don't remember any initiation when I first joined. Did the mission in Oran Berry Cave-"

Tobias hugged me tight and laughed. There were tears in his eyes. We'd span around hand-in-hand like a couple of kids. So much for our hard-ass reputation.

We spent the rest of the morning and the afternoon in Emerald Town. We hung out with everyone; Piplup the Great, Gloria, Matty, Desiree, Ross, Rhys, Rebecca, the Kecleon brothers, Kangaskhan and Little K, Karas, Eko, Emma, Kyal, Xavan, Marcellina, Hage. It was a rare easy day, which was exactly what I needed.

But that night I sat watching the memories again.

"A Pokémon who was the sole reason for the Flower's existence. Like Miloslav, for example."

My foot caught on one of the crystals poking out on the ground and I fell.

I crawled over to the Flower and rested by hands on it. The petals twisted and peeled away. Then it exploded to life.

Tobias poked his head through the door. "Khan invited us to dinner," he said, "it would be rude to keep him waiting."

"Just let me finish this part."

Staring up with me was a strange creature. It was bipedal, tailless, with a small tuft of hair on its head.

There I am.

Tobias sighed. He came and stood behind me, then pressed hid hand against the side of my head. The tracker clicked off.

"Hey!"

"Alex, this has to stop."

"But I'm almost there!" I said. "I'm almost remembering! I mean really remembering! I think I'm coming back, Tobias!"

Tobias sighed. I ignored him and turned the tracker back on. Tobias sat down in front of me. The projection played across his face. I saw the Incineroar, dressed in hemp wrestler's gear.

"Do you think you really remember, Alex?" said the Squirtle. "Or have you just watched that thing so many times you can recite it all in your head?"

"Well, Asa said that every time you remember something, you're really just remembering the last time you remember, so technically-"

"Asa's telling you this because he feels guilty about what he did to you. But I'm sure even he would agree you're taking this too far. You need to start focusing on what's ahead of you. You need to at least be aware of what's happening now. And what's happening now is we're going to be late for dinner. Can you please look at me?" he said, more agitated.

I pressed the side of my head. The projection switched off.

"You don't understand," I said. "When I woke up, in Oran Berry Cave, I didn't know who I was was. You taught me. And now I've, I've woken up again, you know, not knowing. But now I've seen it for myself. If I'd had this the first time I lost my memory… The point is that I know who I am now! I know who I am!"

He nodded. "Yeah. You're a Treasure Hunter. So come to dinner. We have to be up early in the morning."

I tilted my head. "Why?"

Tobias held up a letter. A personal request. D Rank.

"We're technically not allowed to take these yet, but…"

I smiled. "I think it's a little too late to be playing by the rules now."

"Please don't say that in front of Khan."

I laughed. "I remember enough not to do something like that."

I realised I needed to stop when I noticed the sunlight shining through the gaps in the bamboo. I had snuck home after dinner to watch it again. Tobias had known what I was doing, of course, but hadn't risked causing a scene in front of the Academy Pokémon. We had a reputation now. A good one.

Which wasn't helped by the fast that I was half-dead the next morning. I had lagged behind the whole way, jumped at loud noises, and took out two, maybe three wild Pokémon on my own. When we'd met the thief we'd be asked to apprehend, a Tangela twice the size of other Tangela, I'd been almost immediately knocked out by her Vine Whip. Tobias had beaten her alone.

The mission was a success, and the client couldn't have been happier. But Tobias was furious.

He finally sat down with me and demanded to know why I wouldn't stop watching the footage. To tell you the truth, I didn't even know it myself until he'd forced it out of me.

"Why, Alex?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

"I don't know."

"Why?"

"I don't know!"

He squirted water in my face. "Tell me!"

"I don't want to forget again!"

I wiped my face with my scarf. Tobias waited for me to continue.

"I don't… I don't want to forget. I can feel it, sometimes. Bits and pieces slip away. I wish… I wish I could just remember it all. Then I would never have to look at that thing again. But I can't remember anything without it."

Tobias thought for a moment.

"Maybe it's not your memory that's the problem. Maybe you're just not a visual learner."

"Hm?"

"Personally I've always learned better by reading. Maybe it would be easier for you if you wrote it all down. I do that when I have important jobs I need to remember."

He pointed to a sheet of paper stuck in under one of the lämps. A single sentence was written:

"Learn how to look Desiree in the eye."

"That has been there since I moved in," I said.

"Uh-huh."

"Did you ever learn how to look Desiree in the eye?"

"That's not the point. The point is that you might just be someone who learns by reading. Or by writing. You should give it a try! Even if it still doesn't stick, if you need to remember anything from those days you can always look at your writing instead. It might be less… uncomfortable."

So that's what I did. I wrote the whole story, from beginning to end. I wrote up to waking up in the Grandé City hospital, to where the journal I never wrote in began. I don't know, maybe it was just easier to sit down do it in big chunks, rather than bit-by-bit every day. When I was done, I tucked it away in a chest of drawers. I was satisfied. It might have stayed there forever.

But people kept asking. Tobias told them everything he could, but I was constantly pestered for my own side of the story, my own opinions, my own feelings. I got tired of explaining it to everyone, of all the questions, confusion, misunderstanding, arguments. So I gave it to them. I just prayed to Moltres nothing would happen to it!

Mayor Mortimer had a second copy transcribed. I was happy to let it circulate, just as long as I had my original copy, even thought it was decorated with a few pawprints here and there!

I saw Bucky reading it in the Town Square. He had a white scarf patterned with rainbow-coloured flames around his neck, with a white-and-grey Badge pinned to the side. Of course they got the fancy designs. The rest of us had to do with one colour and a slightly-different-shade of that colour. Still, I suppose they've earned their favour.

Team Spectrum. Leader: Roy. Damager: Bucky. Tank: Eliza. Healer: Alana. Striker had created a new title for himself: Striker.

"Striker Striker?" I asked.

"No," he said, "just Striker."

"Striker Just Striker."

"Shut up."

Asa and Ewan came to visit in the summer, and I told him about the book. Asa was flattered that I'd taken his advice, so I pretended that I had. Ewan was ecstatic. They didn't have books in Ruby Forest. He had only read his first, The Life and Magic of Grande Mage Evron, three months ago. Now he works at the Chandelure library.

He asked me if it had helped, I said it did. He asked me what I had written about him. I suggested he pick up a copy from Creams, Emerald Town's Slowking librarian.

"You can take it back with you if you want," I said.

"Are you sure?"

I shrugged. "People here seem interested. Although I think a lot of them just want to know if I made them look cool. There'll definitively be a market for that back in Grande City."

"Do I look cool?" Asa asked.

"I think so, but you might be too modest to believe me."

We shared a small laugh. Things were looking better between us, all things considered.

We met up with them in the Smeargle Art Gallery a few of days later; they'd already read the whole thing.

"Would you ever consider turning it into a book?" the Furret asked.

"A book?"

"Big stack of paper with words on it," said Tobias.

"Very helpful thank you," I said.

"The only thing is…" he said cautiously. "You might have to polish it up a bit. If you want people to read it."

"People as in…"

"People as in people who aren't in it."

"Is there money in that?"

"Probably not, to be honest."

"You don't have to decide right now," Asa said, "these are your personal… your personal experiences. Just give it some thought."

I did. I gave it a lot of thought. And the more I thought about it, the more conflicted I felt.

On the one hand, these were very personal experiences, and a lot of them were moments I had struggled to share even with myself.

On the other, I could control what exactly went into the book.

On the one, I couldn't control how people would feel about me, or about my choices, or about who I was as a Pokémon based on the way I had acted.

On the other, I could no longer pretend I wasn't Alex Albion. I lost that privilege when I dragged my friends and total strangers into my mission to find out who I was.

On the one, it meant going over these experiences again, watching them and reliving them and studying them in enough detail to write them down as a book.

On the other, it was a kind of catharsis for me. Going over what I went through with my friends, with Pokémon I trust, with Pokémon who had experienced them too. It made everything easier to process. What exactly happened to me. Why it had happened. Why I had chosen to do the things I had done. Who I had been before I lost my memory the second time. And the first.

Most importantly, it gave me a place to start figuring out who I am now. I still don't really have a solid answer for you, but it helps when you know that you aren't contradicting yourself. It helps to feel like the way you act, speak, think, and feel isn't just some lie you're telling yourself.

In the end it was Tina who convinced me. The story was already written, if unfit for publishing in book form. By the end of writing the book I was in a much better place than I started in. My mood was up, I was sleeping better, the nightmares had gone, and I was even starting enjoy missions again.

Like I said, writing it helped me figure out who I was. By publishing it, I could let the world know as well.

So Asa and Ewan extended their stay. The three of us along with Tobias and Khan and started meeting up at the Sunshine Library any chance we could. Together, we turned the rough script of what happened into "prose". Or some semblance of it, at least. It was a jumble of influences from all four of them. But I don't mind. I think it's fitting.

I asked everyone in Emerald Town and wrote to the Pokémon in Grande City to ask for their permission to put them in the book. These are their experiences too, after all! No one objection. Most of them seemed pretty excited about it! Sir Grant even allowed me the privilege of calling him "Bonnie"! So that's what I've been calling him this entire time. It was Sir Grant in the first draft but you said I could Bonnie, you can't take it back now!

Oh, and a quick shout out to Octavia, who raised the Skarsgard flag on the 1st of the Dawn, 152 A.S. We couldn't have done it without you, your grace.

And don't worry about the "secret passages". Since Dei Varia's Pokémon blew the place open, there's been so secrets left in that place anymore. At least not that I know of. But maybe that's a book for another Pokémon to write.

A lot of research went into this book. I wanted to get every detail right, to have a clear roadmap of where I was and what was surrounding me at the time. It helps me to orient myself, you know? And knowing what shade of colour of what species of tree I'm looking at or being slammed into in the moment helps me remember, helps me picture it in my mind. Without using the tracker. It's a good thing Creams has a lot of books about trees! Moltres. So many trees.

I've added this epilogue just so everyone knows that I'm doing okay. Tobias, Khan, the Forest Fires, and almost everyone from Grandé City is alive and well. Almost everyone. Feather is still there, trapped in Goldenwater Prison. Asa's been experimenting on the armour Sapphire and a special operatives team liberated from the first floor. So far nothing has worked. Now I feel guilty for having taken up so much of his time back in Grande City. But I believe in him. Even after every thing that happened, everything I went through because of him, I still believe in him. And I believe in Feather, too.

No one found Fortis or Harriet. The Earthspringers searched the castle depths, the streets the tunnels beneath the city, but came up with nothing. The Skarsgards searched too, at the insistence of myself, Tobias, Khan, and every single Pokémon who had been with them in the Earthspringer Tunnels. But they still came up empty. It feels like a hole in my heart with them gone. I still remember watching it for the first time, watching Harriet fall, watching Fortis jump in after her. I remember how hard I cried. That hasn't gone away.

I don't want to believe they died. I can't believe that. I know that might be naïve, and this might sound stupid, but I don't think I can let myself believe it until I'm ready. So for now, I just don't. Strange as it may seem.

No. I'm lying to myself. Fortis and Harriet are dead.

So I guess it's not a problem if I mention the real identity of "Lord Ayers", is it? Let him come for me instead. I've survived far worse than whatever he thinks he's going to threaten me with. I'd hidden the pages before I'd handed the first script out to everyone, but now I think it's time the tunnel-dweller sees the light of day. I've already sent a letter to Mickey asking him to come and visit. I'm going to tell him in person before the book comes out.

Asa and Ewan are leaving in a few hours. I'd better finish up.

Queen Octavia did reward me in the end. A medal. The Azahar Bravery Award. I was one of six to receive one. I think you can figure out who the other five were.

It's supposed to boost your attack in battle. I keep it pinned to my scarf.

Have I ever thought about going back? Once. It was when the medals arrived by Pelipper. I took it out of the envelope and held it up to the sun. Tobias saw it, and immediately hugged me and congratulated me. I hadn't told him there was a medal in there for him as well. He didn't care. He was just happy for me.

No, I'm never going to leave. This is the life I chose for myself. This is my home. Because my partner is here with me.

THE END.

I just got the hard copy in the mail. I'm going to take it in to you in a minute. This note is just for you, Tobias.

I don't know what's happening to you. Ever since that light appeared on the horizon you've been a different Pokémon. I know you feel like you can't tell me. That terrifies me, Tobias.

But I'm going to figure it out. I'm going to help you. You've been there for me since the very beginning. You've always supported me, no matter what I was going through, and Moltres knows we've both been through so much. You've helped me build my own life here, after my first life was ripped away from me and then my second as well. You've saved my life more times than I can count, and believe me, I've tried.

Now it's my turn. Let me help you, Tobias. Please.

Lance's Notes:

This is it. The true final chapter of Treasure Hunters of the Forest. I hope this ending brings some satisfaction to you, and thank you again for checking in, and thanks for checking up on Alex! I'm sure he'll make a speedy recovery.

But please, stay a while, I insist. There's a short bonus piece coming out over the next few days. I hope you enjoy.

But it's still not the end! The Treasure Hunters series will return! Stay tuned! 3