Disclaimer: I don't own Skies of Arcadia Legends.

A/N: I made a promise, to finish this…so here I am…trying to finish this.

A Second Chance

Chapter 5

Ramirez

Pokemon were creatures completely unfamiliar to me. I expressed this concern to Cat, who laughed and said, "You'll get used to it." She explained how this was supposed to get me to learn how to care, to care for something other than myself, but I didn't see it. I saw this as a means to getting out of here, nothing more. Whatever I could learn from these strange creatures was not something I cared to learn. Of course, all arguments fell upon deaf ears as she led me to where I would be first working, with baby pokemon. She introduced me to my area where I would be working and to my supervisor, a young man by the name of Nick. Nick was nice enough, telling Cat to leave me to my work, that he would tell her if something went wrong, leaving Cat to go on her way.

"So, now begins your time with me," Nick said, a smile on his face. Were all people here this cheerful or did the thought of making my torment in this place last long enough to keep them smiling?

I looked at him. "Just what do you want me to do with these things?"
"You'll be reading them stories, taking care of them, making sure they get down to lunch, that sort of thing," Nick said. "Let me introduce you to your group. I'll let you off easy and give you one of the better behaved groups of baby pokemon, but don't expect this group everyday."

"What are Pokemon?" I asked, still not understanding what I was in for.

"Creatures that inhabit this portal," he said. "We have a lot of different ones, a wide variety if you will. I'll talk to Cat about getting you a pokedex; it's useful for getting information about them."

"And what type of pokemon will I be watching today then?" I asked.

"Cleffa," he said, which was as foreign a word to me as pokemon. "Oh, sorry, Cleffa are a normal breed of pokemon, they're the baby form of what we call a Clefairy. They're really adorable."

"I wouldn't say that," I said bitterly, "You would though, you're used to them."

He laughed at me, "Nope, I'm sure you'll be saying the same thing in a while." He led me into a room and pointed at a small corner where white and pink looking masses moved around holding little toys and other things. "Here they are. Cleffa!" The masses looked up and I saw huge black eyes and twitchy little ears. They ran over and huddled around me. Okay…so they were little…and they eyes were big… "I knew you'd think they were cute."

"I didn't say anything!" I exclaimed and his smile grew wider.

"You didn't have to, it's apparent in your eyes. Good first step you know, having you think they're cute." I refused to consider how in his mind he thought it was a first step to think something was cute. "Well, I'll leave you to play with them. I'll come get you at meal times and when it's time for them to take a nap." He left me in the room with the fur balls and then watched as they immediately after saying their hellos ran around the room and back to the corner with their toys. I followed them to the corner and sat on the floor next to them. Watching them play was something else…they shared their toys among one another and I couldn't tell, if there even was one, a leader from a follower. One of the Cleffa approached me. "Cleffa!" Its bright eyes met mine and it offered me a ball.

"What's this?" I asked and took the ball from its hands. Its hands motioned that it wanted me to throw the ball to it and it backed up a few steps, jumping up and down as it waited for me to throw it. "So you want to play?" I threw the ball and it went over the Cleffa's head and landed behind it. It looked at me and its eyes started to tear up.

"Cleffa…" it whispered and started to cry. Um…that wasn't good. I stood up and got the ball, going quickly back to where I had been sitting previously and rolled the ball towards it. It stopped crying and went after the ball, catching it in its little hands, cheering slightly. The other Cleffa were watching this now as the little one brought the ball back to me and I would roll the ball and it would catch it as it rolled towards him. The other Cleffa started cheering and began lining up, each one wanting to take a turn catching the ball and bringing it back to me. I had never seen anything like this before… they were all happy just to catch a little ball, something I had never witnessed. Where I was from…no one was ever this happy. Everyone seemed to want something more.

Cat's words made a little sense, as did Nick's. These creatures that needed care, my care at that did have something to teach me, although I was still a little unsure of what to learn from them.

"Lunch time!" Nick's voice reached my ears and I looked up, as did the Cleffa. "Ah, there you are."

"How long have I been here?" I asked.

"A while," he said with a smile. "It looks like you've been having fun with them. How time flies when you have fun."

"Fun? You think that was fun?" I asked as I stood up and brushed myself off. I walked over to him and was faintly aware of the Cleffa following me. "It wasn't fun; I was just doing some repetitive gesture over and over again for the amusement of a few Cleffa."

"Okay, so maybe then you felt pride that you were able to make the Cleffa happy." How hard was he going to try to get me to feel things I didn't really feel?
"No, that wasn't it either. It's just a job. I'm here for some stupid probation thing forced to learn how to feel and yet nothing's happening."

Nick frowned and then smiled pushing a strand of his brown hair behind his eyes. "Okay then, you didn't feel anything. Well, as they say in some of the other portals, Rome wasn't built in a day."
"What does that mean?"

"It means you won't learn anything all at once," he said, "But enough of that, come on now, we better get you to lunch. Come on everyone!"

"This is still a waste of time."

…

By the end of the day I felt tired. Spending the entire day with the Cleffa had turned out to be tiring. After lunch, they had a nap, but once that was over, they wanted to run around, chasing me around the small playroom and pretending to tackle me to the ground, which I let them do. I wouldn't admit it to Cat, but it was a little fun.

"Ready to go home and have a real meal?" I looked up from underneath the Cleffa and saw Cat staring at me. "Yep, I think you are. It looks like they love you."

"I'm ready to go," I said, picking myself up and setting the Cleffa on the ground. A few of them as I started to walk away clung onto my clothes, the ones I had worn when I had died and Cat helped me gently pry them off. "What do we do with them?"

"Ask them to follow you and we'll take them to bed," she said and I motioned for them to follow me, noting a few of them were yawning.

"Are you sure it isn't too early for them to sleep?" I asked curiously.

"They need more sleep because they're baby pokemon. Other baby pokemon need the same thing too you know," Cat said.

"Well I didn't know," I said, "You should have known that." I knew she was provoking me but into what sort of a trap I had yet to guess.

Cat let out a pleasant sigh. "I'm glad we took away your ability to get angry easily."
"Say what?"
"Before you died, you were rash and came to decisions without much thought. When you were allowed back the spirit council decided it would be better to take away some of your anger. Anger causes rash thinking among other things and so we took most of it away. You can still get mad, and you will have everything back once you get off probation but for now…I can tease you and all you can do is get frustrated with me!"

"I hate you."
"Yeah, that too." She grinned at me as I contemplated her words still. "Anyways now, should I show you where the Cleffa sleep?"

"Whatever," I said, reigning in the urge to call her a number of different things. Cocky little probation officer bitch.

She led me down a hallway and made sure I checked a few times that all the Cleffa were following me as we walked. We arrived at a room that looked like the one we had been in all day, although there were beds everywhere along the sides and some cradles as well. Cat walked in ahead of me and I was surprised to see the Cleffa follow her in, each going to a bed or cradle. "Ramirez, help me help them get tucked in, will you?"

"Fine." I went in and helped her as she tucked the various little puff balls into their beds. It went quickly and I stood up when I finished tucking the last one in. Cat stood in the middle of the room, surveying all the beds. I bet she wanted to make sure everything was perfect.

"Now we sing them a song to get them to sleep." My mouth dropped open and I watched her smile and giggle at my expression. Me…sing? What in the world did she think I was? I was a warrior not a vocalist!

"You have got to be kidding me," I said as I regained my composure.

"Fine then, I'll sing them to sleep and you can watch…but only for tonight. I guess tomorrow I'll have to teach you how to sing." She smiled at me but then closed her eyes. I thought I heard a rhythm from somewhere in the room but I had no idea where it was coming from. Then she began to sing:

"Sleep little one

Sleep little one

The eve has come

Sleep little one

Sleep my little one

See you in the morning

The sun will rise

To a new day

You want to see it

But only if you sleep

Will you awake and

See the dawn

Sleep little one

My little one

Silent lullabies

Your time has come

Sleep little one

Waken when morning comes." She looked at me as she finished and I stared at her. It was such a simple song and yet she sang it with all the life she could throw into it. She hadn't been moving but I could have sworn I felt her touch my cheek as she had sung, a breeze that seemed to blow past me. She beckoned me to silently follow her as she exited the room and we left. She brought me out the front door and back to our horses, where we mounted and headed for home. Such a simple song…and yet it seemed to mean so much to her.

"Hey Ramirez," Cat called out to me as we rode.

"What is it?" I asked.
"Tomorrow we need to get you some new clothes," she said with a teasing glint in her eyes. I almost fell of my horse. What kind of person was she? What sort of lesson was I supposed to be learning from this?

TBC