Chapter 80

"Umm…it's kind of…uhh…ugly…"

Those were the first words that Rachel had ever said about Teardrop.

At twelve years old and eager to follow her grandfather towards becoming a great Pokémon trainer, a Feebas was not her idea of a good Pokémon to start with. It was not pretty or cute to look at. She was also well aware that Feebas was one of the weakest Pokémon known to exist.

As she crouched down on the riverbank, peering at the ugly fish swimming back and forth aimlessly, she wondered if her grandfather was teasing her. He had been a strong, well-respected Pokémon trainer. Was this really the best he could give her?

"Is that so?" he asked, "what if it thinks you're ugly?"

Rachel thought about that for a moment, but couldn't quite understand what he was trying to tell her. She stayed quiet, hoping he would say something else.

"You don't like it?" her granddad asked.

She didn't want to hurt his feelings. He wasn't teasing her, he was serious. This was her first Pokémon. Again, she didn't answer, but stayed quiet, hoping that there was a catch.

"Rachel…" her granddad sighed. Gingerly, he sat down next to her, grunting as he strained his tired body. "What do you know about Feebas?"

"They're ugly and weak and hard to take care of," Rachel recited what she had heard many of the fishermen at the docks say about what would be her first Pokémon, "most people just throw them back when they catch them."

"Is that so?" her granddad repeated his question, "I suppose they do the same with Magikarp, then?"

"Mmm-hmm," Rachel nodded in confirmation.

"I see…" he said. He adjusted his hat as he looked up into the sky. "Rachel…do you know what Magikarp evolves into?"

"Umm…" Rachel had to think for a moment, "It's Gyarados, right?" She never liked Gyarados. It was huge and ugly and vicious. It was strong, but it certainly wasn't the kind of Pokémon she wanted.

"Right," he nodded, "then, do you know what Feebas evolves into?"

At this, Rachel shook her head. Everything she knew about the ugly fish came from those same fishermen at the docks. Most of them only knew about salt-water, fish-Pokémon. They might have heard of Feebas, but they didn't know much about it.

"Then I want you to find out," he told her, "Pokémon are very strange and mystical creatures. We can learn many lessons about life and ourselves from them. So, I want you to take this Feebas and care for it. If you love and nurture it, then, someday, when it's ready it will become something beautiful."

"Oh," Rachel nodded, still doubtful. Her fish didn't seem to be paying much attention to her.

Her granddad sighed again and stood up.

"Here," he grumbled, "call it back. I want to show you something."

"What is it?" Rachel asked, not hesitating a moment to recall her Feebas.

"I want to show you how to bake Poffins," he went on, "I was never very good at it, but your mother tells me you're becoming quite a good cook."

"What's a Poffin?" Rachel asked.

"You'll see."

They were in for a messy afternoon. There was something of an art to making high-quality Poffins. For every good one Rachel made, there were three failures. It may have taken all day to make one he said was good enough, but her granddad assured her it was worth it. He gave her careful instructions for giving her new Feebas only her best Poffins and to give it at least one a day for the next month.

It was a long, boring month for Rachel. An entire month of her summer vacation disappeared as she cared for her Feebas. When she wasn't baking it Poffins, it had to be outside of its Pokéball as much as possible. She took it back to the river, at the southern edge of Palkia's Woods every day. It swam back and forth over the same boring, empty stretch for hours and hours.

It couldn't even fight. The only thing it could do was Splash. If another fish Pokémon happened to swim by, Rachel had to either hope it would ignore her Feebas or she would have to call it back to avoid a fight it couldn't win. It was no wonder people usually threw them back.

She hated it, but her parents and her granddad insisted on keeping it. She tried to look up online what Feebas evolves into, but her granddad forbade that too. He told her that she needed to be patient and learn what hard work and dedication, even to something as ugly as a Feebas, could accomplish. So, she kept doing it.

She thought of naming it Bugeyes after that stupid look on its face, but she knew that would only make her granddad mad at her. He was usually nice to her, but one time she had seen him fight with her dad when she was little. Back then, he yelled so loud that one of the neighbors had knocked on the door to see if something was wrong.

After a month of nothing but baking in the kitchen or watching her stupid fish lazily swim in the river, her granddad told her that it was time.

"Here, take this," he pulled out what looked like a small piece of candy wrapped in blue foil.

"For me?" Rachel half-groaned as she asked. It wasn't much of a reward after slaving away for a month.

"No," he said as he unwrapped the foil, "this is for your Feebas. It's a special kind of sweet meant for Pokémon. It's called a Rare Candy, for good reason."

"What does it do?" she asked.

But, as he often did while teaching her, his response was "You'll see."

Rachel took the Rare Candy from her granddad and peered at it. It looked like a regular piece of chocolate candy to her. There was nothing special about it. It made a light plopping noise as Rachel tossed it into the river.

Her eyes widened in surprise when her Feebas did something interesting for the very first time. As soon as the Rare Candy broke the surface of the water, her Feebas immediately turned around and swam as hard as it could towards the bit of not-really-chocolate. It gulped the Pokémon treat down, swallowing it whole.

But, after that, nothing happened. The Feebas went back to swimming around in circles.

"Is that it?" Rachel asked.

"Watch."

She turned back to the river just as her Feebas began to glow white. Its body grew larger and longer. It became sleek and slender. No longer short, stout and ugly.

Rachel had seen pictures of Milotic before. She never understood why it was considered to be a beautiful Pokémon. It reminded her too much of an eel or a snake. However, seeing the real thing changed her mind completely.

The red and blue scales on its tail as well as its cream-colored body gave off a brilliant sheen underneath the early afternoon sun. It swam through the water with grace and ease, dashing here and there with elegant turns and twists. It was baffling to think that this beautiful creature had been something so ugly just moments ago.

"Have you seen a Milotic before?" her granddad asked.

"Only in pictures," Rachel shook her head, too mesmerized to look away from it.

"It requires a great deal of love, care and devotion to evolve a Feebas into a Milotic," he went on, "I never had the patience or the talent to do it."

Rachel looked back at him. She could never be sure, because he lowered his head too quickly, but she thought she saw tears in her grandfather's eyes. It could just as easily have been her imagination or how the sun reflected off of his face, so she didn't ask.

"We'll start training tomorrow," he added.

The sixth day of the third Evolution Cup may have been covered in gray skies from dawn to dusk, but it was a pleasant day compared with the seventh.

The rain that had threatened the concert the previous night became steady and persistent into the morning and showed no signs of stopping. It never poured, but remained steady. Some of the tournament-goers might not venture out in it. However, most of them were Pokémon trainers. And all Pokémon trainers had been through weather much worse than a light rain. It might be an annoyance, but it would not stop any true Pokémon trainer.

Teardrop sat in her usual place, letting the rain wet her long red hair, matting it against her shoulders. Like most water Pokémon, the Milotic-woman loved the rain. She had woken up earlier than usual to bask in it and watch the droplets make tiny ripples on the surface of the river. A small part of her wanted her old body back so she could glide through it the way she used to. But she would have to content herself with her memories. The others needed her the way she was.

Though Astral did not take steps when he moved, it was not difficult for Teardrop to notice his approach. The human Bronzong emerged through the trees. He hovered less than an inch over the ground, just enough to allow him to flex his psychic abilities. He also projected a kind of transparent field around his body. Any rain droplets that landed on his body bounced off without wetting his robes.

"Good morning, Astral," Teardrop greeted, "you're here rather early."

"Good morning, Teardrop," he returned formally, "I trust you're well."

"Yes, thank you," she smiled at him, knowing full well that he could simply read her mind if he wanted to know. However, the rain's effect on her mood was so obvious that reading her mind was unnecessary.

"Astral," Teardrop began, "I have a question for you."

"Why I subject myself to the whims of the Meadow Sisters?" Astral asked rhetorically, pulling the question out of Teardrop's own mind, "I suppose I just want to be helpful."

"I see…" Teardrop nodded.

"I know," he sighed, "petty gossip is not exactly the best use of my talents, but I simply can't get through whatever it is that's down at those docks," he paused before finishing, "the screams are too horrible, I can't concentrate."

"Isn't that proof enough to investigate?" Teardrop asked. Her question was one of curiosity. Thanks to Astral, any of the Four's human Pokémon that cared to know was well aware of the Leafeon-girl, Maple, and her trainer, Mark. The two were in search of any kind of help to uncover a base of operations for Team Deus but had been thus far ignored. As a result, they were ready to abandon the idea. Teardrop and Astral weren't the only two that worried if it was a mistake, but they were certainly in the minority.

"We don't know what's down there," Astral admitted, "no one does. I've been looking for agents, but so far I haven't found any. If there was one aboveground, maybe competing in the tournament, then I'd have a lead to follow. I don't like it either, but we need to wait."

"I know…" Teardrop sighed. She turned back to the water.

"Is there anything else we need to discuss?" Astral prompted.

Teardrop turned back to the human Bronzong. He watched her without any outward emotion. He didn't ask because he needed to know. He was offering simply to give her the chance to speak.

Talking to a mind-reader was strange enough to start with, but Teardrop found it very difficult to understand Astral. Possessing the knowledge and abilities that he did placed an immense amount of pressure on his shoulders, yet his emotions were always firmly in check. He never wanted anything for himself. It was difficult to say whether it was a blessing or a curse.

"Thank you for looking after them," Teardrop smiled as she accepted Astral's offer. Talking to a wall was exactly what she needed.

"It's not much, but you really do help," she went on, knowing Astral wouldn't respond, "they know it as well as we do…this could be our last tournament with River."

Astral waited patiently as Teardrop began to pour out her emotions.

"We're losing her. She…she doesn't need us anymore. She has a new life and there's no place for us in it. She can't take care of six people…all we can do is fight each other and pretend we're people like her…but we're not. We're…"

Teardrop said the words calmly and quietly. She tried to keep herself in check the way Astral did. But it didn't help and her namesake rolled down her cheeks anyway.

"We're going to have to change," she nodded, struggling to gather strength, "we can't sit out in the woods and pretend the world can't touch us. If River's growing up, then we'll have to do the same.

"So, thank you, Astral. I'm sure that Briar and Pixie and Cashmere already know what's coming. But thank you for helping them forget about it. Even if it's only until the end of the tournament."

Astral was silent for a few more seconds, allowing Teardrop the time to process her emotions. She was losing her best friend and felt responsible for every single human Pokémon RiverofTears had ever trained. She carried a heavy burden for someone who had been human for only seven years.

"Do you know why River says she loves the rain?" again, Astral asked rhetorically. He only wanted Teardrop to remember.

"Of course," Teardrop nodded before saying it aloud, "it's because it renews everything. It washes away the bad and replaces it with good. It may be unpleasant, but it means things are changing for the better."

Both human Pokémon watched the droplets in the river for a few moments.

"Tragedy and hardship can often bring friends closer together," Astral spoke next, "if my fears are correct, you may not have to lose River."

"Tragedy?" Teardrop asked him, "What do you mean? You think this Team Deus is going to…" She didn't want to finish.

"I can't be certain," Astral replied, "but something is about to happen. I just hope that we're ready."

"How bad?" Teardrop asked.

But Astral only shrugged. As powerful as his psychic abilities were, he couldn't see the future.

"So, either we lose River and live peacefully…" Teardrop mused, "or we stay together but have to fight off Team Deus…I don't know which is worse…"

"Neither do I," Astral admitted.

AN: I never actually made Poffins in Gen. IV. I made Pokéblocks in Gen. III but I never got a Milotic in that generation either. If I remember correctly, you needed some kind of special berry to actually stand a decent chance of making good ones…

Anyway, I decided to go with the old method for evolving Feebas just because it makes better storytelling (and Poffins over Pokéblocks because Pokéblocks just seemed weird and Poffins are, you know…food).

So, Day 7 is officially underway! I'll admit, there's not a whole lot going on in this chapter besides some more back story for the Four (which will come out more and more as the tournament goes on and they spend more and more time in the spotlight). I think that's something I'd do for editing the story as a whole. Make the chapters longer and fewer in number (80 chapters and counting?! BY GOD!). for now, though, it's just…my thing…

Anyway, I'll do my best to be back soon.

Thanks for reading!