(27.1)
Sasha stared out of her cage within Team Rocket's warehouse on Five Island – Chrono Island, the golden-hued pidgey had informed her – and sighed.
It had been over a week since her arrival and while the Rocket members let them out to exercise within the island's meadow, the various Rocket pokémon stationed around the edges of the meadow to keep them from leaving were a grim reminder that they were captives in a gilded cage.
Her ears pricked at the sound of a door opening and she lifted her head as a tall thin man with blue hair came into view. His crisp white uniform seemed to glow in the dimly-lit room as he looked down on the rows of caged pokémon.
Sasha heard the Zangoose hiss and a quiet murmur from the Seviper she couldn't make out.
"Exercise," the man said. "You have two hours."
At the far end of the room, a large door rumbled upwards, shortly followed by all the cage doors springing open.
Sasha was swept along in the crush of pokémon, balancing precariously on a ludicolo who seemed to be dancing to a tune she couldn't hear, but involved an uncomfortable amount of spinning.
"Here!"
Sasha glanced up to see the golden pidgey flying towards her, talons open.
She leaped up and grimaced as the bird's claws dug into her scruff, carrying her out of the warehouse.
Once free, the pokémon spread out over the large meadow and began to amuse themselves.
The pidgey dropped Sasha beside Songbreeze, who was lying on a small outcropping of rock, chin lifted, eyes closed, as she enjoyed the breeze coming off the ocean.
Below her, Rocket-trained Carvanha swam, alert for any possible pokémon trying to escape by water while a flock of Fearow circled overhead.
"Nice day," Sasha murmured, taking a seat beside the absol, who opened one eye to stare at her for a moment before closing it again. A chuckle escaped the absol's mouth and her tail flicked behind her, cutting the grass and sending the blades over the edge.
"It is," Song agreed. "Not many more before a storm though."
Sasha glanced at her, then at the blue sky, dotted with a few puffy clouds.
"Really?" the eevee asked, curiosity piqued.
Song tapped her paw against her horn and winked. "Helps being able to sense disasters."
"A storm is a disaster?" Sasha asked, raising an eyebrow.
"If it's big enough, yes," Song replied, examining her claws before idly carving shapes into the dirt.
Sasha watched her for a few minutes as the absol drew an image of herself before adding in wings.
"Does that look silly to you?" Song asked, brushing away some errant clumps.
"Can't say I've seen a winged absol, but it doesn't look awful," Sasha said. "You like to draw?"
"On and off," the absol replied, starting on a new drawing. "I find it's a good way to keep myself distracted from my current situation."
Sasha nodded and the two lapsed into a comfortable silence, occasionally broken by Song growling when she made a mistake and corrected it. After a few more minutes, she let out a soft grunt.
"That'll have to do," she said, blowing on it gently. "How'd I do?"
Sasha stared at the bust of herself, startled by how much emotion Song had managed to coax out of the ground.
"Too good," Sasha said, ears heating up. "That's an eevee I barely recognize."
Song let out a pleased hum. "That's good."
She refused to elaborate on that and playfully chased her off to hang out with the other pokémon.
(27.2)
Sasha's paws tangled around themselves and she collapsed with an irritated growl.
Shaking her limbs, she got back to her paws to meet her friend's worried gaze.
"Are you alright?" he asked.
"I'm fine, Green-Eyes," she muttered. He tilted his head, ears twitching as he did a little two-step prance.
"You keep getting distracted and lose your rhythm. What is it that's bothering you?"
Sasha tried to match his gait, keeping her eyes on his paws, lips pressed together in concentration. Her red eyes darted up to meet his green ones and her paws once again twisted around themselves.
"You are," Sasha said, scrambling to her feet, shaking herself.
The eevee blinked slowly. "I'm distracting you?" he asked, sounding crestfallen. "I'm sorry-"
"It's not your fault, it's mine," Sasha said, cutting him off, causing him to step back in surprise.
"Yours?" he said, now sounding amused. "How so?"
"Erm..." Sasha said, fidgeting. Steadfastly ignoring him, she once again ran through the paw steps he had shown her.
"Have you tried closing your eyes?" he asked. Sasha came to a stop with a thoughtful frown. "I mean, not being able to see me-"
"I get the idea," Sasha said dryly. "Then I'd be worried about stepping too far or leaping who-knows-where."
The green-eyed eevee looked around at the empty clearing they were practicing in with a raised eyebrow.
"Don't even start," Sasha warned, baring her teeth playfully. The other eevee stuck his tongue out at her and she crouched, wiggling her hips before leaping at him.
He danced backwards on his paws before lightly batting her flying form past him. As she landed, she pivoted on her front paws before launching herself at him even faster than before, bowling him over.
Pinning him, she nipped his ear before jumping off him and pranced away, tail flicking proudly.
He rolled to his paws and licked his ruffled fur. "See? You're learning," he said with a smile. "Just keep practicing and you'll get the hang of it in no time."
"Thank you. Wanna go hunting?"
The eevee's stomach responded before he could and Sasha bit back a snicker.
"I'll take that as a yes."
(27.3)
Citlali swam through the ocean, lost in thought.
Waking up in a new world had been a shock, which had worn off quickly. The following revelations concerning the fate of the world and the antics of humans that caused it stirred irritation in the diminutive legendary and Citlali had been startled at the intensity of the emotion.
Part of her - him, he chided himself absently - was tempted to ask Giratina if he could spend time with Cyrus, but what little he had glimpsed of the human showed that it would be a waste of time. The man was so far gone it was a surprise his mind hadn't shut down.
Darting around a school of startled feebas, Citlali perused a few of his new memories. Being a girl for extended periods of time was nothing new, as he had done that several times in the past, usually in pursuit of a particularly alluring partner to spend a few weeks with before he got bored - not distracted, as some of the new memories seemed to suggest, much to his irritation - and went looking elsewhere for entertainment.
Breaking the surface of the ocean, he did a few twirls to dry himself off and he shot skyward like a reverse meteor and turned to admire the planet she - he! - had helped populate.
A scowl crossed the mew's face and he rubbed his head tiredly.
He understood why his cloned brother despised humans and he wondered if the replica had picked it up from him.
Now if only he could find the elusive feline and ask him!
Sighing once again, the mew began circling the globe, searching for powerful psychic signatures.
Citlali was astounded by the volume of human psychics with power that rivaled the likes of gardevoir and alakazam, and wondered if Arceus had Chosen more humans to keep an eye on things...?
Yet another question he'd have to ask once he finished Arceus' request, he mused, before resuming his search.
(27.4)
Mewtwo and Sasha sat in the Saffon suite, the former staring at the latter, who tilted her head.
"So you'd like to take a look through my mind for possible psychic tampering?"
Mewtwo nodded. "You said you had a sense of meeting a psychic, but don't remember it."
Sasha nodded. "Whenever you're ready then."
Mewtwo gently placed his hands on the eevee, stroking her neck slowly before moving his fingers to her temples.
Sasha closed her eyes and relaxed as she felt Mewtwo's presence enter her mind. It brushed past her recent memories, and Mewtwo slowed as he reached the time he had found the eevee on Mount Silver.
A huge void greeted the replica and he moved past it, taking note of the damage with a wince. A huge chunk was missing and smaller bits and pieces beyond that were tattered, as if someone had torn through her mind with a claw.
He withdrew and Sasha let out a sharp gasp, blinking slowly, focusing her eyes on Mewtwo.
"Well?" she asked promptly.
Mewtwo let out a breath. "Yeah, someone has definitely tampered with your mind. They didn't just suppress them, they erased them completely."
"Oh," she murmured. "But…why?"
Mewtwo stroked his chin in thought. "I couldn't say. But…"
Sasha raised her eyebrows as his voice trailed off.
He shook his head. "It's such a small period of time and the damage beyond it is superficial at best – those areas can be filled in by the memories around them."
"So it's someone covering their tracks?"
Mewtwo nodded. "And there's only one psychic I can think of who may have run into you. One who's not a fan of variant-colored pokémon."
"Citlali?" Sasha asked.
Mewtwo dipped his head and shrugged. "We could find him and ask-"
"Nah," Sasha said, cutting him off. "He didn't permanently harm me and he's been perfectly polite in his visits to us. If he had wanted me dead, he'd have killed me during our first encounter. If he wants to talk about it, I'll let him bring the topic up rather than confront him on it."
Mewtwo crossed his arms and shook his head. "If that is what you wish."
His eyes glinted with amusement and his voice took on a teasing edge. "I saw that eevee friend of yours during my dive. I can see why you like him. He moves very well."
Sasha's ears heated and she looked away. "Dare I ask how much you saw?"
"I saw movements that were a dance of another nature," Mewtwo said. "He was quite tender with you."
Sasha turned to meet Mewtwo's eyes and smiled coyly. "You remind me of him sometimes."
"…Thank you," Mewtwo said, causing the eevee to stare at him oddly. "I'm glad you're that comfortable enough around me to admit that."
At Sasha's baffled look, Mewtwo continued. "Sometimes, when someone has multiple partners, they're drawn to others like them, which leads to strained relations between partners because they're worried the other will react poorly when compared to another."
"Has that happened to you?" Sasha asked.
"No," Mewtwo said. "I have never had more than one romantic partner simultaneously. Well…not until time was twisted into a pretzel, anyway," he added, tone thoughtful.
"Sabrina and Rei?" Sasha prompted.
"Rei was a special case. I was helping her get a handle on her powers and one thing led to another. Then you came along and she urged me to go after you before she left to find her own way," Mewtwo said, gaze distant. "Sabrina…we were drawn together by our similar backgrounds. Once we sat down and talked over drinks, we came to the amusing realization that we had been lovers in other timelines."
"And I told you that I didn't mind if you had other partners. In fact, I'd say I'm the secret mistress you keep on the side in this scenario," Sasha said with a smile.
Mewtwo snorted. "Don't sell yourself short."
He stroked over Sasha tenderly, scratching her head as she sighed, leaning into his touch.
The two lapsed into a comfortable silence and soon dozed off.
(27.5)
Sasha peered around the gloomy bowels of the abandoned apartment building where she was currently staying with Mewtwo.
The replica had told her about the pokémon living below, saying none of them were outright hostile, but had warned her to stay on her guard all the same.
So far she hadn't seen any pokémon she considered dangerous - mostly rattata, zubats and other small urban pokémon. A few growlithe were curled up beside an arcanine in one room and a family of shinx, luxio and luxray had claimed an entire floor for themselves.
Sasha paused in her exploration as a pair of voices - one clearly female, the other more androgynous - reached her ears and she poked her head around a corner.
A pair of absol were curled up together, murmuring softly to each other.
Sasha was startled she recognized one of them.
"Songbreeze?" she called, causing the reddish-pink furred absol to perk up.
"Sasha!" she said happily, getting to her paws. She gave the other absol a quick nuzzle and trotted over to embrace the eevee. Pulling back, Song gazed at her with a smile. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"
Sasha nodded, wagging her tail. "Not since the Warehouse. I'm glad you got out safely."
"I can say the same for you! We were wondering where you had gotten to in the chaos, and then when the roof fell in-" Song's gaze flicked over Sasha's body and she tilted her head. "What happened to you?"
"Divine intervention," Sasha replied. "Or something like that, anyway. I...ran into Archer's houndoom, who...didn't take kindly to my escape attempt and he decided to see how fireproof my innards were."
Song's eyes went wide and she nuzzled the eevee comfortingly. Sasha nuzzled back and gazed past the shiny absol to look at the other.
"So who's he?"
Song turned to gaze at him proudly. "He's my mate."
"Congratulations," Sasha said. "Or should that be 'my condolences'?"
"He said the same thing," Song said wryly, trotting over to him, Sasha tailing behind. "But he's perfect in all the ways that matter to me, so I'm happy."
"Hello, hello; my name is Aiedail," the absol said, blinking politely in greeting. "It's nice to finally meet the eevee my mate has told me so much about."
"All of it good, I hope?" Sasha asked.
"Heh," Aiedail glanced at Song. "I can see why you like her."
"What brings you here?" Sasha asked.
Aiedail and Song exchanged glances - the former more reserved than the latter. Aiedail relented under his mate's steady glare and he sighed, rubbing his head.
"I was assigned to keep an eye on you," he said. Sasha arched an eyebrow.
"By who? Why?"
"Do you know who Arceus is?" Aiedail asked.
Sasha nodded slowly, then again sharply.
"That explains that other absol," she muttered. "Said I was Blessed."
"Mhh," Aiedail said. "I'm sorry I wasn't able to keep you safe."
"Mewtwo saved my life," Sasha replied, glancing up at the ceiling with a small smile. "So I don't blame you for not doing your job."
Aiedail winced. "That hurt," he said with a pout. "Can you believe how ungrateful some pokémon are?" he asked Song, who rolled her eyes.
"It was nice to see you again," she said, turning to face Sasha. "Feel free to come visit in the future. We'll probably be here for a few months before Aiedail gets another job."
Sasha bid the two farewell and went back upstairs.