- V -
The next thing Siane knows is that she's sitting in the passenger seat of a car. Every muscle in her body is so heavy - so weak. She struggles to keep her head up and her eyes refuse to stay open. It's somehow an even greater effort to shift her legs so that they don't lie uncomfortably open as she sits almost ragdoll-like in her seat.
The dots aren't connecting in her head; she can't quite comprehend how she's made it from the couch to the car.
Siane reels her thoughts back, trying to recall what's transpired in the last few minutes. For a moment she thinks she's got it, but then she pauses. She feels like she's mixing up an old memory with the present; the passage of time liquidating more and more. But she doesn't feel any pain; no rushing survival instinct, nothing.
She turns her head at the sound of the driver's side door shutting, watching the older man as he buckles himself in. She takes into account his greying hair; the sharp lines of his furrowed brows; the fierce red of his eyes. A part of her can't help but think that she's seen his face somewhere before, but that can't be right. It's a trick of the light, she tells herself; a sentiment conjured by her delirious state. It's no different to the way dreams create people that seem like lifelong friends, but in reality have never existed.
Siane is still locked in her memory from when she was nineteen; being carried to the hospital by a man she never learned the name of, with a bullet in her right shoulder from a poacher's gun. It had been a reckless act to protect some wild Pokémon which resulted in an unnecessary injury and a permanent scar. But she would never regret it, even if no one had been there to help her and she succumbed to blood loss. Saving those Pokémon would always be worth it.
She catches herself mentally spiralling.
There aren't any poachers or gangs now, no. She's in Alola on Ula'Ula island - oceans away from her home in Aedis.
The man is talking to her but she's not focusing on what he's saying. The words are going in one ear and out the other. It's a terrible thing, Siane laments a little wearily. For all his generosity she can't even muster the strength to listen to him properly.
He has a name, she repeats in her head for the umpteenth time.
His name is Nanu. Officer Nanu. A strange man with many Pokémon living in his home, with a family of Meowth named after the phonetic alphabet. What a funny quirk. Officer Nanu who has carried her all the way from the couch to the car, she realises. It's less a bright epiphany and more a dim recognition of circumstance - echoing in her brain that can't seem to maintain a coherent train of thought before it derails.
She feels bad; it must've been a burden to carry her so much.
Siane feels the inertia now; they're driving. The car's engine rumbles under the low sound of the radio and in its own way it starts to sound like a lullaby.
She is exhausted and she can't fathom why. She slept so well the night before, despite everything that's happened to her. She's certain she would've been overwhelmed by her panic and been unbearably restless that night, but one moment she was trying to coax a curious Meowth over and then suddenly it was morning. Siane ruefully considers whether she ought to have the right to feel surprised about this. She can't even remember how she got to Alola in the first place, let alone recall the apparent two weeks that have gone by since her most recent memory.
All of it is slipping away. Time is becoming a nebulous, unknowable thing - gliding through the minuscule gaps between her fingers, escaping her faster the more she tries to grasp it.
The blur of tropical greens is replaced with open sky and rugged slopes that twist and converge high over the landscape. A great mountain rises outside of her window, capped white with snow. The sky is so blue above its frosty peak it doesn't look real. It's like she's caught in liminality - locked between waking and sleeping with no way out.
She's so tired - tired of being lost, confused. Helpless.
Her lashes flutter and Siane wonders if she even woke up at all.
"Hey, stay with me," Nanu urges, reaching over with one hand to squeeze Siane's arm. She's dozing off again and he can't let her, lest she never rouses again.
She blinks and shakes her head like she's trying to rid herself of her fatigue.
"I'm sorry," she breathes her words out. "I don't know what's wrong with me…"
He doesn't either, but whatever's going on he'd prefer it if she didn't suddenly lose consciousness again. He has to keep her talking. They haven't much further to go - the roads have been astonishingly clear for the most part. He's expected the mountain road to have sustained more damage from the storm, but a few loose boulders on the edges of the bitumen are the worst of it so far. And if that's truly all there is to worry about, Malie City would only be a few more minutes away.
So what the hell does he get her to talk about?
"Tell me about your Pokémon." It's the first thing that comes into his head, but it'll have to do. "You said they were birds."
Siane makes a soft 'mmh' in affirmation, but doesn't say anything further.
"What kind?" He presses.
Arceus, what he wouldn't give to never be the carrier of small talk ever again - even if it is for emergencies.
"Big ones," she finally says. "A Braviary, a Talonflame…"
"What else?"
She's silent and after a few more seconds Nanu glances over to her. He gives her shoulder another squeeze when he sees her nodding off again.
"Bongo," she yawns out.
Bongo? That's not a Pokémon - at least as far as he knows. Thankfully he doesn't have to ask.
"He's my Dodrio… I also have a Fearow." In his peripheral he can see that she's looking at him. "Did you know that Dodrio and Fearow look different in Aedis?"
A memory tickles the back of Nanu's mind. He does remember something vaguely about that from the one case he had in the region; something about their unique feathers. Luckily he doesn't have to draw the conversation out much longer as they begin to pull into Malie City. The hospital isn't too far and very soon he's parking right outside the doors to the ER.
Siane is more alert when the hospital staff come out to them, but she's unable to stand up. She wasn't able to earlier either and Nanu had no choice but to carry her to the car. He's almost thankful his Pokémon have kept him somewhat in shape with their rambunctious ways, otherwise he'd have no idea how he would've managed that whole manoeuvre. The intrusive thought of dropping her is unusual to him in how terrifyingly unpleasant it feels and he snaps his attention back to the present to avoid thinking about it.
After this morning, the staff are expecting them. Already aware of some of the details, Nanu need only fill one of the nurses in as to what's just taken place whilst the remaining staff help Siane onto a stretcher. This nurse is older than the rest of her crew, with blue hair tied in a tight bun; her eyes weathered with experience but still filled with tenderness. She seems satisfied with Nanu's report, noting it down for their reference.
"We'll keep her overnight for observation while we run some tests," she says. "Does she have any family that can be contacted?"
Nanu shakes his head. "Currently investigating that."
"I see." She smiles somewhat sadly. "In that case, we'll contact you with the results then, kahuna?"
He nods in reply. There's no other option really.
Siane is watching him as they begin to take her indoors. He can't leave the car parked in the ER's driveway so there'll be no following her. The bustle of the medical staff around them softens to an indistinguishable drone as he notices that she looks scared.
"They're gonna keep you overnight; find out what's wrong," he repeats to her. "You're in the safest place you could be."
She processes this and lightly nods. The fear is still there, but her gaze is full of trust and faith in his words. As she's whisked away inside, Nanu feels a knot in his gut; radiating cold tendrils that chill his very bones. A tiny whisper in the back of his mind says he shouldn't be allowed that trust. Not since he'd failed to uphold it once before.
He can't stay here. He needs to leave before memories of that Faller can take hold. He thinks about heading straight back to the station, but perhaps a drive would help clear his head.
It's not a bad idea - he's brought Big Boss and Krooks in their Poké Balls and he can survey the island while he's out. Flag any potential damage on the routes to be attended to by the local clean up crews.
For once, work will be a good distraction.
Siane is shocked by how coherent she's managed to stay in the last few hours since arriving at the hospital. She's gone from hardly staying awake, deflated and feeble to feeling uncomfortably wired and restless. She tries her best to keep still so that the nurses can do their job.
After an initial assessment, they find that she's a lot better off than they anticipated. Remarkably her condition is stable. They read over the notes from the check up with Eadie that morning and ask Siane a few questions. There's some back and forth for a while until they're thoroughly stumped by the results being as normal as they are.
When weighing her for their records, she confirms for them that she has lost a few kilograms since her last recollection. To add to the mystery, there's nothing in her blood test to suggest any significant nutrient deprivation. While the numbers are on the lower end for a healthy person, it's not enough to cause her to lose consciousness or experience this kind of muscle weakness.
When they ask about the possibility of her being in hospital prior to arriving in Alola, Siane has no answer for them. Anything could have happened in that blank two week period. The marks in the arms bring them to the consensus that she's been on some kind of intravenous setup and that it's likely she was sustained by it, but it's purely speculation that still leaves plenty of other questions unanswered.
In the end, they issue some more tests, along with an MRI scan to rule out any sort of head trauma for good. Once it's over, they bring her into a small room some floors up in the building. It's private and relatively quiet compared to the other wards she's been wheeled past. The hospital bed leaves a lot to be desired in terms of comfort, but she's glad that it's near the window at least.
It's a big window too; three glass panels that take up nearly two-thirds of the whole wall. She need only lean a fraction to get a view down at the city. She isn't able to look for long though, as the nurse comes around to finish hooking her in.
Siane watches as the nurse removes the bandages around one of her elbows; the small puncture wound there is surrounded by a dark, mottled bruise. For some reason, seeing it makes Siane's heart pound and it hurts when the nurse attaches her to the IV. She's a little embarrassed when the machines kick into gear and her heart rate reads over 150bpm. She's been fine the whole time, so why now over the sight of the mark, she wonders.
The blue-haired woman attending the device makes a perplexed face and looks down at Siane, tapping her pen against her clipboard thoughtfully.
"Not feeling any pain, dizziness or shortness of breath, are you?" She asks.
Siane feels none of those things. If anything she feels acutely aware of how alive she is, like she could climb out the window, scale down the building and run a few blocks through the city.
Where the hell is this instinct to flee coming from?
"I think I'm just nervous," Siane replies sheepishly. "I dunno why. I'm not normally nervous about this stuff. About hospitals, I mean."
The nurse resumes whatever checks she was doing, jotting down notes with a few decisive pen strokes before turning back to Siane with an easy smile.
"From what the kahuna has told me, you've been through quite an ordeal," she remarks. "Try to rest. We'll take care of everything."
Siane is puzzled. She's heard a few people refer to Nanu as 'kahuna', but she has no idea what that is or what it means. Is it some kind of title? Or is it just something people in Alola call figures of authority? She'll have to ask about it later; the nurse has already left the room.
She lets out a sigh as the tension in her body releases. It's quiet now, save for the soft beeping of the machines beside her and the distant sound of activity in the corridors. She shimmies herself into a more comfortable position on the firm mattress, leaning just enough to the side so that she can get a proper look out the window.
Siane would never have guessed there'd been a storm the night before. The sun is so warm and bright and the sky is almost totally free of clouds. Sunlight bounces off the golden trims of the numerous green-tiled roofs down below and her eyes follow the grey stone roads that separate the city blocks. She admires the gridded layout of the streets, zigzagging her gaze through the city until finally her sight settles upon the azure expanse of the ocean.
Then she sees something brilliant; a massive verdant lot filled with trees, ponds and speckled gradients of what must be flowers, all surrounded by what appears to be a wall. The area is quite far away and extends beyond the view of her window, but from what she can make out, there's a tiered golden tower situated amidst the greenery.
Siane can't help but stare in breathless awe; her heart swells at the sight. A small rush of inertia jolts through her muscles and she feels the need to launch herself to take flight.
Flight.
Her excitement extinguishes.
What's happened to her Pokémon?
She remembers Nanu saying she had no personal belongings with her when he found her and a sickness settles in her gut as she considers whether they've been stolen. But what if they haven't been stolen? What if they were lying somewhere, lost and undiscovered. Are they afraid? Are they wondering whether she's decided to abandon them? Siane's eyes begin to sting, her worry turning into dread when she realises the Pokémon she's left at home have been without her for two whole weeks. Some of them may have been able to fend for themselves, but there are several rescued birds that needed proper care.
She doesn't want to cry, but it's fruitless to try and keep the tears in. She tries to do it quietly.
But oh, by the stars, she's left them to die all alone, scared and pondering why she's deserted them. She chokes back on a sob, mentally scrambling for anything that will abate the despair swallowing her.
Surely her friends will have noticed her absence and have checked her Pokémon? Once they discover she's not there they'll be looking for her too, and with Nanu reaching out to make contact with Aedisian authorities, it'll only be a matter of time before she can go home.
Yes, that's right - that has to be right.
Siane breathes and scratches at the patch on her neck. She thinks about the enigmatic police officer now that she's on the tangent. She couldn't be more grateful for his help; in just one night alone he's done more for her than any officer in Aedis ever had. She's been so used to the complacency back home that Nanu is a breath of fresh air, even if he is a little… odd.
Not that he's odd for living alone with a horde of Dark-Type Pokémon, of course. Siane would be a hypocrite to think that, especially since she herself lives alone with more bird Pokémon than she has fingers and toes. If anything, it's his attitude that's unusual. The older man carries himself with such a stern no-nonsense demeanour that when he's being light-hearted it blindsides her. Like when he demonstrated to her how much of a lap-lizard his Krookodile is. Or when he gave her a jive comment when she'd fallen over that morning. Furthermore, he's shown a lot more care for her than she'd expected, first aid aside; lending her his shirt while her clothes were hung up to dry; refilling her glass of water overnight; helping her to walk instead of simply getting his Pokémon to.
She senses there's a lot more to him than meets the eye.
Siane sucks in a shaky breath through her mouth - wiping her eyes with the back of her hand. Her nose is congested from crying and her throat is dry from having to inhale through it. At least the tears have stopped.
She lies back against the pillows, head tilted so that she can see the sky outside. She isn't really in the mood to look at the city anymore, it makes her long to get up and explore and right now she needs rest.
A pair of small bird Pokémon fly by the window. She's never seen them before; their white, red and black plumage not matching up to any birds she has knowledge of. She watches as they chase one another, twirling around and looping in the air all the while.
Time once again seems to stretch out indiscernible. But for now she's content to be mesmerised by the playful Pokémon outside.
The drive around Ula'Ula has done Nanu some good.
Fortunately the island has been spared from any catastrophic damage from the storm, but there's no shortage of work to be done. As he left Malie City he could see that clean up had already started and much of Route 11 was clear. He passed the groups of workmen halfway through Route 12; teams of Machokes and Machamps were helping their humans shift boulders and debris from the road. The road around Blush Mountain was bumpy to say the least, but it's definitely been worse in the past.
The trailer community south of the Haina Desert bore the brunt of the weather, however, and while there were some crews already attending the scene, they were in need of a few extra hands. Nanu made a couple of calls and it wasn't long before fresh workers arrived.
By the time he makes it back to the Po Town police station he's only had to flag a handful more locations requiring maintenance.
Nanu steps out of the car and locks the vehicle as he saunters to the station doors. He's starting to feel the effects of his poor sleep and considers taking a nap once he gets inside. He still needs to contact the Aedisian authorities, however, and he's pretty sure their timezone places them a few hours ahead of Alola so he can't leave it too late.
The misting rain is cool on his skin and it helps to wake him a little. It's more overcast here than elsewhere on Ula'Ula - as per usual - but the sun is starting to break through the clouds again. He examines the sky for a rough read on what the weather could hold for the next few hours.
A shadow circles above.
He squints, trying to make out what it is as it passes through a ray of sunlight. In the second that he's blinked away, the shadow makes a sudden change of direction. It banks sideways until it begins to make a sharp descent.
Feathered wings tell him it's some kind of bird Pokémon.
But it's huge and it's flying straight for him.
