Eelizabeth's Tale

Epilogue

Jon awoke lying on the floor of an odd house. He was aching and dizzy, so he groaned, although it came out sounding more like a whimper. Ignoring this, he mumbled to himself, "Whew… that was some party last night." He rubbed his forehead with his "hand" to help with the headache he had, but stopped as soon as he felt hair all over his face. He opened his eyes, "Gyaaaah!" He saw his entire body was covered with brown fur.

"Quiet, I'm tryin' to sleep…" grumbled Elizabeth, who was lying next to him. "So you're an eevee… get used to it…" Then it was like a lightning cutting through the barrier around his memories. He remembered what had taken place at the council.

"Oh yeah…" he turned to Elizabeth, who was now fully awake. "How long was I out?"

"Aahhhhh-bout 22 hours." She yawned.

"Twenty-two what?! What happened?"

"Well, after you were transformed, you and Ninet- I mean, Kate, were conked out, so we just crushed Latias's and Flashbolt's pokéballs against a rock. Then they told us all the rules, 'don't leave this area, don't tell people about us' blah blah blah, and they said that if we followed the rules that we would get to keep our memories. After that, several of them escorted us down here to Kate's house.

"Kate came to after about nine hours ago, and we released all your pokémon, but they agreed to stay here. They're all in the backyard. You can visit with them later, but I suggest that you take some time to learn to walk on your new legs. It's kind of odd, but it comes naturally after a while."

Jon rolled over on his belly and pushed with his forelegs to get into a pushup position, and tried to get on all fours, but his hind legs slipped out from under him. "This might be harder than I thought." he said, trying to ignore Elizabeth stifling a laugh.

"Pff, that's nothing! I have to go from four to two!" Jon turned around to see a young woman stumbling toward them. "I'm afraid we haven't properly met. Hi, I'm Kate Haven, a.k.a. Ninetales. And you, Jon, make a cute little eevee."

Jon tried to hide the skin beneath the fur on his face that was flushing beet red. "Oh, h- hello. The tables sure have turned."

"I'll say. The only constant is your little sweetie vixen Elizabeth." she giggled. Now both eevees were red. "Anyway, I know what you're feeling now that you're a pokémon, and I just want you both to know that I'm here to help with whatever it is you need." She smiled softly. "Now you keep on with your walking and I'll keep on with mine."

After about ten minutes, Jon was easily able to walk and run. "I got it in five minutes, so I still have the time to beat!" Elizabeth bragged.

"Ellie, if you keep bragging, I'll take your tail and make you eat it!" Jon joked, his own tail wagging furiously.

"Well you'll have to catch me first!" She sped off through an open door.

Jon sighed. "I gotta' catch 'em all… Hmm, that sounds like it could be a slogan for something." And he zoomed after Elizabeth, finding himself outside, surrounded by his former team, minus Latias and Ninetales of course, but plus all the other pokémon that he had caught but not brought along, such as ditto and a blaziken, among others. They all were so big now. "Wow."

"Yeah, I know." acknowledged Elizabeth, who had come back and sat down next to him. "Everything is so big, I feel so weak."

"So this is what a pokémon feels." Jon said in awe. "I feel so… carefree."

"I know!" Elizabeth laughed in agreement. She ran around a little and playfully chased her tail, which was wagging, now on purpose. "I'm so free! It's like I had a big weight taken from me now that I'm not struggling to change back. And now you're here too." she smiled. "I guess it isn't as bad as I thought it would be. At least, as long as my big strong eevee Jon is next to me."

"Oh, but I won't always be here." he said sadly. "I might be…" he used dig and burrowed underground, "Right here!" he barked as he popped up from the ground right behind her, causing her to jump.

"DINNER!" Kate shouted from inside. All the regular pokémon ran over to where there was a large trough full of pokémon food, while Jon and Elizabeth calmly walked inside to a table. Elizabeth got there, but Jon was stopped by Kate. "Hold on there, Jon. You are covered in dirt, go clean up. The bathroom's that way." She pointed to a door on the left side of a hallway.

Jon walked in and was immediately picked up by mechanical arms and set down in a bathtub, where he was doused with soapy water, and then with water. Then a large hairdryer emerged from a previously invisible compartment in the wall, turned on high, and within a few minute's time, he was totally dry, although his fur was puffed up around him. Another mechanical arm reached down and combed the fur flat. He walked out of the odd bathroom totally clean.

He walked over to a large table and jumped from a chair onto it. "Wow Kate. Your house really is smart. After that weird shower, I feel like a completely different pers- er, eevee." he said to Kate, who was putting plates of spaghetti and lum berries in front of three different spots at the table.

"Thanks." she smiled "A lot of this stuff was originally designed for Flashbolt when he was an eevee, so it should work perfectly for you and Ellie." They all glanced at the food they were given. "I made this just for irony's sake. I do believe it was the last meal you all had before you left. The lum berries are just because I grow them. And I hear that you two eat heartily."

Elizabeth hit herself on the head with her paw. "Ohmygosh. I forgot to tell mom and dad! Wow, déjà vu."

"You can do that after we eat." Jon declared.

"I have a picture phone that you can use." Kate suggested.

"Okay, seriously, can we eat first?"

"Oh Jon, always the voice of reason." Elizabeth joked, "But I submit, we may partake in the consumption of food."

After they took part in the consumption of food, Kate showed where she had self-installed a telecommunications device. Elizabeth told her her phone number to the business teleconferencing machine her father had been given by the Devon Corporation, and she typed it into the keypad.

A frazzled, tearstained face appeared on the screen. "Hello?" the woman said hoarsely.

"Um, hi."

The woman jumped when she heard and saw the eevee talk. But then she leaned into the phone and squinted at the on-screen figure. She gasped. "Elizabeth? Is that you?" she asked hopefully.

"Hi Mom."

"Oh! Oh, Elizabeth, you're okay!" She turned away from the screen. "Nick, dear, come quick!" Elizabeth's father soon appeared on screen.

"Elizabeth! Is it really you? I'm so sorry! I never meant for my machine to do this. I understand if you don't forgive me-"

"Dad, please, it's okay. I'm an eevee now, and I can live with it. Er, you remember Jon, don't you?"

"Oh yes, we remember him." Jess said crossly, "he was the one that stole you from home where we could change you back."

"Hey!" Jon walked on to the screen. "I did not! She called me and came completely willingly!"

Their eyes widened at the sight of another eevee. "Is that Jon?" Nick inquired.

"Yes. We both gave up humanity to give you yours. The least you could do is act civil to the per- uh, pokémon, that gave you your lives back."

"So, you're both little eevees and you're all alone?" Jess said skeptically.

"Nope, that's where I come in. Hello, you must be Mr. and Mrs. Vance. I'm Kate Haven." Kate replied as she smiled and winked at the screen.

"Kate Haven?" Nick asked, "But you dropped off of the face of the planet forty years ago."

"Yeah, she was in kind of a predicament-"

"I was a pokémon." Kate interrupted Jon.

"Oh, well… That makes about as much sense as everything else that's going on." he shrugged.

"Honey, please come home and let us help you." Jess pleaded. "I mean, we love you, Elizabeth, but an eevee cannot be a daughter." Elizabeth shuddered, remembering that last time she heard that. But almost everything that had happened in that dream so long ago had come true.

"Mom, Dad, please. I know this is hard for you, but Jon and I are enjoying our new life together-"

"Together?!" her parents shouted in unison.

"Oh… I really didn't mean to say that. No, it doesn't matter. Please, just let us live in peace. We're… happy, with this. I wanted you to be human more than me, and I really would prefer you be gracious instead of trying to bite our heads off."

"Are you sure this is what you really want? If it is… then I trust you." Nick declared.

"Really? Oh thank you so much daddy!" Elizabeth yipped, and she ran up to the screen and licked where her father's face was affectionately. He smiled at the cute activity.

However, Elizabeth's mother was a bit sterner about things. "No, I will not let you stay there, halfway around the world, as an eevee, in love, being taken care of by someone I've never met!"

Nick turned to his wife. "Jess, dear, let her be. She already told us that she's happy with her new life, and we should respect that. Besides, even if she were to come back, I've already told you a thousand times that I can't change her back!"

"Please Mom, it would mean the world to me." Elizabeth pleaded. "Pleeeeeeeeaaaaassse?" Her eyes got bigger and glistened sadly.

Jess did not say anything for a long time. "… F- fine. If that's really what you feel. Just remember, no matter what, we love you."

Elizabeth smiled sweetly. "Thank you Mom. I love you too. I do have a request, though."

"What is it dear? Do you want us to send you something?" Nick asked.

"No, nothing like that. Just… find some way to dispose that gas. It's nothing but trouble."

"Of course."

"Well, goodbye." Elizabeth waved goodbye with one of her forepaws, and Kate turned off the phone.

"Wow. Do you know charm or something, 'cause those puppy eyes of yours have really gotten you far." Jon admired.

"I don't know, but at least that phone call was less tragic than the last one I made."

***

FIVE HOURS LATER…

It was about an hour after they had all gone to bed. Jon insisted on going to bed early, stating that "being an eevee was hard work". Kate gave him a small lecture on how she had been a pokémon for forty years and had never complained, but she was ignored, and Jon was asleep before his head ever hit the pillow. However, Kate and Elizabeth stayed awake, having a lot on their minds. Not that Jon didn't, he just didn't think it was necessary to dwell on his thoughts when he was a tired puppy.

"It still amazes me that I came all this way to be human," Elizabeth started, laying on her side as not to lie on her tail, while Kate stared at the ceiling, glad not to have nine tails not to lie on, "and yet I'm sure that this life will be happier and, frankly, probably more interesting, than I would have if I had gotten my wish. I guess I'm glad Jirachi wasn't paying too close attention to me, eh Kate?"

"Elizabeth, I may look like I'm in my twenties, but Ninetales have ten times the life expectancy of humans, so forty Ninetales years of aging only equal a few years for a human. And in those forty years of possessing psychic power in seven of my nine tails, I've learned that the council really doesn't do much, unless it's drastic enough to be considered nothing short of a miracle, or gradual enough that no one notices.

"Other than those instances, which are few and far between, things just happen. I think everything happens for a reason, but I don't think anyone knows what that is. Perhaps it was fate for you and Jon to be eevees. No matter what, I don't think the universe is done with you two yet. Pokémon-turned humans tend to usually end up doing something important."

"Maybe," Elizabeth thought out loud, "but right now I'm just happy, and hopefully, fate will keep it that way, 'cause so far on this journey, fate's done nothing but bite me in the butt. I'd like to stay for a while before fate knocks on the door."

"And so ends Elizabeth's tale."

"Yup. But I can't help but think we forgot something…"

***

Amy was lost somewhere in the Eterna Forest. "Hello?" she shouted, "Jon! Elizabeth! I want some answers! This is where your note said to meet you!"

***

"Ah, it's probably nothing." Kate decided.

"Goodnight, Kate."

"Goodnight, Elizabeth, you little eevee."

"And don't you forget it!" Elizabeth laughed. And in her mind, she was not stressed, she only heard one thing; And so ends Elizabeth's tale… Thank Mew.

*The End… and stuff.*