Chapter 15
Every Important Moment
The day after witnessing Xerneas's miracle, AJ was up and out of the cabin almost as soon as the sun was. Cap on her head, Pichu on her shoulder, she set off once more into the wild, determined to get back in touch with her roots.
Forget the fact that she was the Champion now, or that she was trapped on an icy mountain with the man she hated most and the monster who was Mewtwo, or that she literally had no idea how to get out of this situation. She had just lost the biggest pokemon battle of her life, but now that her Pichu was back up and on his feet, it was time to stop moping. It was time to do what she'd always done after experiencing a loss, be it in a gym battle, during the League Tournament, or even just against a random trainer on the road.
Buckle down and get to work.
She'd set off alone that morning, leaving Jade snoring on the couch and Sammy curled into a ball in the corner by the fireplace. Now that Pichu was all better, they'd given Cole his room back, meaning the three teens had taken to crashing out in the main room. With only one couch, however, they'd decided to take turns with who got to sleep on it and who had to make do with laying on quilts on the cold, hard ground. Not that the couch was all that much softer.
Cole had mentioned off-handedly at dinner the night before the need to make renovations. Adding new rooms to the cabin, or just building a new one entirely. He made it seem like it wouldn't take that long - just a few months, he said, as if that was no time at all - so long as they enlisted the wild pokemon he'd befriended to help out.
But the conversation had unnerved AJ. Cole had lived here for decades now, and he'd seemingly already accepted that AJ and her friends were going to be trapped here forever just like he was. He was looking ahead to the future - a future in which they never escaped. A future in which she never saw her mother again.
AJ hadn't given up yet, however. There had to be a way out. She was finally the Champion, she had family waiting for her - she wasn't about to accept being imprisoned by Mewtwo.
The problem was, if she couldn't beat Mewtwo in a battle, how was she supposed to get out? She'd seen the way it had effortlessly taken down Sammy's Dragonite and Jade's Gigalith. Maybe on another day, she'd insist on battling it first before conceding that it was stronger, but her battle with her father had dealt a heavy blow to her confidence.
That, and lacking supplies or access to a Pokemon Center, she knew she needed to be more careful when it came to battling. Just because Xerneas had helped her out once didn't mean it would do so again if she deliberately picked a fight with Mewtwo and got her whole team crippled.
Hence her desire to train. To get back in touch with who she really was - a trainer, first and foremost. Clear her head a bit and see the bigger picture. Plus, the more she trained, the stronger her team would become, and the better off they'd be in a potential battle against Mewtwo.
And, well, if she got a rematch with her father, she might just be able to beat him next time. Not that that was her goal. Of course not.
The air outside the cabin was piercingly cold, the weak rays of the morning light not nearly strong enough to lift any of the chill of the preceding night. AJ decided then that it didn't really matter where she trained, so she may as well make for the Sanctuary. There was plenty of open space there to work with, and most of the Legendaries they'd spotted the day before had avoided them, so it shouldn't be a problem.
The mountain did offer wild pokemon she could battle - particularly strong ones, too - but after the avalanche the other day, AJ was more than a little wary about going around picking fights. Especially on her own. And anyway, after spending a few days convalescing, her team needed to get back into the swing of things, too. Get out of their balls, stretch their muscles, get their hearts pumping. Battle practice could wait for later.
The fact that the Sanctuary was actually warm and pleasant to be in had absolutely zero bearing on her decision.
Once in the Sanctuary, she made her way down to the riverside, keeping an eye out for any stray legendaries who might be a problem but not seeing anything too concerning. There had been some sort of tornado-looking thing that whisked by across a neighboring hilltop, but nothing else out of the ordinary. Once at the river, she called her team out and, after leading them all in their normal stretches, set them to work.
She'd discovered yesterday that not only had Xerneas healed Sammy and Pichu, it had also taken the liberty to heal the rest of her team. Most of them had only had minor bruises to begin with, but Milotic's burn was completely gone as well, leaving her whole team animated and fighting-fit.
They started with cardio. She set Milotic to swimming laps up and down the river, Togekiss flying circles overhead, while she, Pichu, and Arcanine got to jogging. Aegislash didn't exactly benefit from cardio, not having a heart or muscles of its own, so he settled down to meditate by the riverbank.
She'd taken a risk and called Hydreigon out, too. There was no one around, after all, and if AJ was ever hoping to use her in actual battles, she'd need to get used to the training regimen as well.
She'd seemed confused at first, but after a moment, lifted herself up off the ground on her ragged wings and followed after Togekiss. She wasn't nearly as fast, of course, being both a much larger, less agile pokemon and also just not being used to the work - but then, they didn't need to move at the same speed, anyway. Pichu ran at AJ's side, but her Arcanine was running laps around them. It didn't matter how fast you went, just that you were pushing yourself.
She wasn't sure for how long she worked them, losing herself in the familiarity of the routine, but once they were all good and sweaty and the sun had made some progress overhead, she let them take a break for a few minutes before lining them all up on the riverbank and setting them up to do standard move repetitions.
That was, three reps of twenty of their 'standard' special moves, blasted off over the water's surface where they wouldn't hit anything or accidentally set the grass on fire. Pichu's Thunderbolt, Arcanine's Flamethrower, Milotic's Water Pulse, Togekiss's Dazzling Gleam, Aegislash's Shadow Ball and Hydreigon's Dark Pulse. Over and over and over, the special moves blasted out across the water in a rainbow of colors, kicking up steam or fountains of water and generally destroying the peace and serenity of the Sanctuary.
This was probably the best workout they could accomplish right now outside of actual mock battles. Back home, her mom had a whole building near the Cerulean Gym dedicated to training, and it had been kitted out with unique equipment or facilities meant to allow water-type pokemon to build muscle or strengthen limbs or flippers or tails.
But since just about every pokemon had a unique body type, most of that equipment had to be specially made, meaning it didn't come cheap. It wasn't exactly the kind of thing you could lug around with you when you were out traveling, which meant that AJ had to make due with cardio and calisthenics.
And while her team worked, AJ was hardly idle. While they focused on maintaining their power and control of their special attacks, AJ got to work behind them doing her own workout. Situps, pushups, squats - it had nothing to do with pokemon battling, but it helped her to keep in shape, and it came in handy when she was out adventuring in the wild. And in any case, it was important that her team see that she was working just as hard as they were, that they were all in this together.
It wasn't long before they started gaining an audience. The wild pokemon who lived in the Sanctuary had begun to gather around, cautious but curious, to see what this human and her weird team of pokemon were up to.
Most of them were the clones that Cole had mentioned yesterday - a Rapidash on a hilltop, a Scyther hiding behind a tree, a Seadra in the river - but a few of them looked to be legendaries as well. Some of them she recognized (was that a Celebi?!), some of them she didn't. But she let them be. So long as they didn't interfere, it was fine - learning to ignore distractions was a good form of training too, and in any event, she didn't want to do anything that could piss off the locals and get her kicked out.
As she watched, a Charmander walked up beside Arcanine, watched it spew its powerful Flamethrower out over the river's surface for a moment, then puffed out its chest and began mimicking it, though with a much smaller, weaker Ember. It clearly had no idea what Arcanine was up to, but the Charmander seemed to be having fun, so what did it matter.
Once they'd done their special attack reps, she had them switch over to physical attack reps, to work out a different set of muscles. Tackles, Flame Charges, Aqua Tails, Aerial Aces - she spaced them out so they wouldn't hit each other and let them at it, making slow laps to examine their forms, correcting them when necessary. The wild pokemon were growing in number, most of them watching with interest, but some of them were starting to play along, practicing their own moves, showing off to AJ and to one another.
While AJ had been distracted, scanning the perimeter to examine the wild pokemon and make sure none were getting too close to her team where they might accidentally get hurt, she spotted a figure on a nearby hilltop. A figure with a familiar hat and a Pikachu on his shoulder.
As soon as she noticed him, he turned and vanished. She glowered, but fought to keep herself calm and focus on their training. There was no sense in letting him get her all riled up. What did he even want, anyway? Was he spying on her? Did he think she was out here abusing her pokemon? What did he know, anyway?
AJ stuck at this for a while, working her team through all of their best and strongest moves. Hydreigon tuckered out first, which was no surprise - she wasn't used to this yet, and she was starting to get antsy with all of the wild pokemon around. Eventually, after a couple of hours had passed, AJ called it quits and ordered her team to take a quick dip in the river to cool off. She ended up joining them as well, because by that point, she was a hot, stinky mess and this was the closest she was going to get to a bath in this place.
After they cooled off, it was time for lunch. She was eternally grateful that they'd found Sammy's backpack and they'd been able to recover some of their food stores. Granted, it was only Sammy's food, but he was a notorious over-packer, always saying he wanted to be prepared for any situation, and while she'd often teased him about being a worry wart in the past, she had to admit - she'd saved them this time.
His food reserves included a wide selection for pokemon of all types - and a healthy serving of human food as well, which Cole had been all too happy to explore while cooking their meals. His food stores weren't endless, however, and how that he was supporting not only his team, but Jade's and AJ's, she knew they weren't going to last long. It would likely be only a week, probably less than that, before they were forced to let their pokemon spend parts of each day hunting and foraging in the wild for food. Another reminder of her need to get off of that blasted mountain.
After lunch, she'd recalled all of her team except for Pichu, and the two had decided to take a stroll around the Sanctuary. Anything was better than returning to the icy cold of the mountain, or the suffocating claustrophobia of the cabin.
It was about noon now, or getting there at least. She wasn't sure how long they'd walked for, Pichu occasionally dashing off in some random direction to examine something weird or strange, but AJ's clothes were mostly dry at this point, so it had to have been for a while. Truth to tell, she was getting slightly lost. The Sanctuary was so big, and everywhere looked so similar. Worst case scenario, she could return to the river and hope she found her way back to the portal or the cave.
Thankfully, before she really needed to consider that, she stumbled into her friends.
Jade was off by herself, crawling around on top of her Metagross, scrubbing him down with a thick wire brush that she must have obtained from Sammy's life-saving backpack. Pichu leaped off of her shoulder and dashed over to their friends, amusing himself by scampering up Metagross's body and chirping animatedly at Jade, who barely paid him any attention.
AJ, however, decided to make her way to Sammy instead, who was resting beneath the shade of a large beech tree. Sitting down in the shade just seemed like the perfect thing after the morning workout she'd had.
Sammy hardly seemed to notice her as she approached, hunched over as he was and working on something in his lap. AJ ended up flopping down on the grass beside him with an exaggerated groan in place of a greeting. Saying hello wasn't worth the energy.
"Good workout, I take it?" he asked absently, clearly only half paying attention.
"As good as I'm likely to get here," she mumbled. Idly, she wondered if she'd be able to get him or Jade to battle with her tomorrow. They were likely the best practice she was going to get, unless one of these legendaries decided they wanted to spar. Neither of them was exactly Champion-level, however, so it wouldn't do much good. At best, she'd probably have to resort to her team practice battling each other - something they'd been doing forever, so there wasn't much more to learn from it.
Sammy grunted but didn't try to continue the conversation. A peaceful sort of silence passed over them, comforting in its familiarity, and she contented herself for a time just lying on her back, arms folded behind her head on the soft grass, watching the distant figure of Jade trying to clean her Metagross while Pichu got in the way.
Finally, getting bored, she turned to Sammy and frowned.
"What are you doing, anyway?"
He was still hunched over, fidgeting with something in his lap that she couldn't see. When he didn't respond, she pushed herself upright and leaned into him to get a closer look.
He was scribbling notes on scraps of bark that he'd apparently ripped from the tree behind him. Using a stick with a burned tip as a pen.
As was to be expected, it wasn't going well. His words were faint and almost impossible to read, and the pieces of bark were so small, he could barely fit any information on them.
"Wow," she said, unimpressed. "You're really desperate, aren't you?"
"What else am I supposed to do?" he grumbled, shooing her away. "The greatest discovery of my lifetime is right here in front of me, but I don't have my pokedex, or any pens or books or… or anything! I tried to use some of my spare shirts, but Jade wouldn't let me. Said we'd need them since you two don't have any extra clothes."
Silently, AJ offered up a word of thanks to Jade for being the voice of reason. She needed to change as soon as she got back to the cabin. She'd been wearing this shirt for days now. Thankfully, they'd found some soap in Sammy's supplies - dish soap, laundry detergent, and just regular soap for people and pokemon, which meant baths were back on the menu, but she'd need to wear his clothes for a while until she could get hers washed. Maybe she could convince Cole's Slugma to heat up the water for her?
Still, she couldn't help but feel sorry for Sammy. Here it was - a Sanctuary filled with legendary pokemon, the culmination of his impossible dream, stretched out in front of him. And unless she could save him from this place, no one would ever know.
She flopped back down onto her back on the grass, feeling defeated. Another moment of silence stole over them, though this time, to her at least, it felt heavy, weighted.
"I'm sorry," she said softly, gazing off blindly into the sky through the thicket of branches overhead. The tiny snatches of blue she saw through the tangles of dark wood seemed almost like stars.
Sammy paused in his meticulous scratchings to look over at her and frown, a bit of charcoal on his nose.
"For what?"
"You know," she grumbled, starting to feel self-conscious. Apologizing always made her feel like she had a horde of Digletts tunneling under her skin. "For bringing you all here. For getting you trapped. It's my fault."
Sammy looked around uncertainly, then slowly set his scrap of bark and charcoal down on his backpack beside him.
"Um… AJ, I don't know how hard you hit your head during that avalanche, but you seem to be forgetting that this whole trip was my stupid idea in the first place. If we're going to blame anyone - and honestly, I don't really think it's anyone's fault, but whatever - then it should be me."
"Shut up," she mumbled, stretching out her legs, letting her heels drag through the grass. "You only suggested the trip for my sake - because I was stressed out about being the Champion and my fight with mom. You didn't do anything wrong."
Sammy coughed awkwardly, looking away.
"Um… Yeah. About that…"
"About what?"
"I, uh.. Well, I didn't suggest the trip for you. I was gonna suggest it regardless. You having had a crappy evening just kinda… played into my plans a bit, I guess."
"You were?" she asked, surprised. It had felt so spur-of-the-moment to her. If he'd been planning it, why'd he wait until that moment? If he'd wanted to go on a trip with her, all he'd needed to do was call or shoot her a text. Why feel the need to 'plan'?
"Yeah. Because, like…" Here, he shuffled around a bit, looking unusually flustered. He kept his eyes averted, arms folded on his knees, but there was a bit of pink rising up his neck that was very unlike him. Admittedly, she found the rare, bashful look on his face somewhat intriguing.
"Cause like…?" she prompted, and he let out a short, irritated breath.
"Just… I mean, we're.. Like, older now, y'know? I mean… Growing up, starting our adult lives… I just… wanted to spend some time together before… Well, life takes over, I guess. Before we start to grow apart."
AJ sat up, frowning.
"Hold up. Who says we're gonna grow apart?"
He shot her a flat look.
"I mean, how long has it been since we last saw each other? How long until we see each other again, assuming we get out of here? Once you're bouncing around the country performing Champion duties twenty-four-seven and I'm locked up in a lab or spending months at a time camping in the Viridian Forest studying the mating rituals of Parasect or whatever. We just don't have the time that we used to when we were regular trainers, y'know?"
"Sure," she said dismissively, "but I mean, that doesn't mean that we're gonna grow apart-"
"Everyone grows apart, AJ," Sammy said, and there was a surprising note of defeatism in his voice. "Especially when they rarely get to see each other anymore…"
It struck her then that this had been weighing on Sammy much more than she'd realized. During her travels, after he and Jade had decided to quit, AJ had more than felt their absence. She'd missed them every day and it had started to drive her a bit crazy before she'd met Hilda. But she'd never said anything to either of them about it because they'd both decided to take the next step in their lives and she didn't want them to feel bad about pursuing their dreams just because those dreams were different from hers.
But now she wondered if maybe she should have said something. Not asked them to keep going with her, but just… let them know that she missed them and that she valued what they had. Sure, she'd always sort of believed that some things went unspoken, that if your friendship was strong enough, it didn't need to be said. But maybe…
Maybe sometimes, the things that so often go unspoken deserve to be said.
And maybe Jade was right about her being an emotionally stunted little troll doll who needed to learn to open up every once and a while, but she wouldn't be conceding to that out loud where Jade could hear her.
"Sammy," she said softly, and if the note of genuine tenderness in her voice surprised him, it surprised her even more. "We're not ever going to grow apart. You, me, or Jade. You're too… Important. To me. Our journeys are connected. They always have been, and they always will be. And no amount of your emo Sammy pessimism is going to stop that."
She said the last bit with a smile and a teasing twist in the hopes that it would undo a bit of the embarrassment of how sentimental that had gotten. She meant every word, but that didn't stop her insides from squirming. She really wasn't good at this sort of thing.
Sammy, for his part, merely shook his head in mock disdain and said, flatly, "That was so unbelievably corny-"
She tore up a clump of grass and tried, unsuccessfully, to shove it in his mouth. He managed to fend her off, but he was laughing along with her, which was a good sign.
"Ugh. If this is what 'being connected' to you means, I think I can do without," he whined, wiping dirt and grass off of his face.
"Shut up," she laughed. "We're bound together forever and I can prove it. Empirically, with scientific evidence that will satisfy even your cynical little mind."
"I doubt that," he said, leaning back on his elbows and stretching his legs out further than hers as though just to taunt her with the fact that he was taller. "I also doubt that you know what the word 'empirical' means in this context-"
"Sammy, literally every important moment of my journey as a trainer is connected to you in some way."
"That," he said disbelievingly, though there was a smile on his face as though he thought she were joking, "is a load of Tauros dung. Though I appreciate the sentiment."
She undid the latch on her belt and yanked until it slid out from around her waist and dangled in the air between them. All six of her pokeballs glinted in the sunlight, most decorated in a multitude tiny scratches and dings from years of adventures that they had all shared.
"Every pokemon on my current team," she began, adopting an obnoxious, lecturing tone that she knew would annoy him to no end, "arguably my best team, some would say, is related in some way to you. Because we're connected."
He stared for a moment, watching the belt sway in the breeze, then turned back to her.
"Um… I wasn't even there for like, half of these, though?"
"Pichu," she began, ignoring him and pointing down the hill toward where Pichu had apparently given up on helping Jade and was instead busy running circles around Metagross's legs, "goes without saying. I mean, you were there. You know that."
He nodded, a funny little smile on his face. Of course he knew that. They'd both showed up to the lab in Pallet on the same day to get their starters and had both been pulled aside by his great-grandfather, Professor Oak Senior, who had apparently set aside special starters just for them. A Pichu for her, because of who her father was, and an Eevee for him, for the same reason.
She'd been furious at the time, but looking back on it now, that was where it had all started. Her and Pichu, and her and Sammy.
"Both of us received our starters on the same day, in the same way, and for the same reason."
"Right. Except that I got two starters, remember?"
"Shut up," she said again. "We all know you're a spoiled little rich kid whose favorite aunt got him a Raltz before he'd even left home, you don't need to rub it in-"
"I'm pretty sure this spoiled little rich kid also beat you in our first ever pokemon battle," Sammy continued, sounding smug. "Not many people can say they defeated the illustrious Champion AJ in a fight, and yet I was the first-"
"Next," she said, raising her voice to drown him out. He could be a real brat sometimes. And here she was, trying to cheer him up out of the goodness of her own heart! "We have Growlithe. Do you remember that one?"
"I think so," he said, furrowing his brows and looking off into the distance. "That was in… Johto, right? Near Azalea Town?"
"Yup, that's the one. The day you saved my life."
"Growlithe saved your life," Sammy corrected. "I just… happened by."
There'd been an electrical fire in an old building on the outskirts of Azalea, and it had gone up in flames faster than the town's fire fighters could react. Due to a miscommunication, AJ had thought that her Pichu had run inside, and like an idiot, she'd dashed in after him, only for the ceiling to collapse on top of her.
The Growlithe had been a wild one who lived in the woods nearby. AJ had battled it the day before with Pichu but had failed to catch it. He saw AJ rush in, calling Pichu's name, and when the roof collapsed, tried to dig her out. When he realized he wasn't going to be able to do it on his own, he ran for help and found Sammy on the road, who'd been following the rising column of smoke. Sammy, thankfully, decided to follow the frantically barking Growlithe and, together with his Kirlia, managed to teleport into the burning building to rescue her.
Pichu, as it turned out, had run off to try and act cute to get free food from strangers and had never been in any danger in the first place. A rather embarrassing realization for her, but Growlithe had been impressed by her dedication to her partner and had decided to let her catch it, so it ended well enough.
"Did I ever thank you for that?" she asked lightly, leaning back on her elbows and mirroring his pose.
"Yes," he said. "And then you got embarrassed and shoved me into a river."
"Oh yeah…" she said, remembering that perfect way he'd squawked - surprise and indignation balled into one ungainly shout - just before his body hit the water. "Anyway, next is Feebas."
"Who I was not there for," Sammy said. "Thus proving my point."
"Nope. Only my Aunt Daisy was with me for that one. It was right after I'd suffered my first loss at the Pokemon League Tournament, right after I'd finished the Johto Circuit. I got knocked out in the first round, but you'd made it to the second, remember? I was so mad."
After losing, she and Jade had separated briefly to go home and visit their families for a couple of weeks. While in Cerulean, her Aunt Daisy had invited her on a fishing trip up near the cape so they could catch up and she could tell her all about her journey thus far - but instead, AJ had ended up spending most of the day ranting about Sammy Oak and how unfair it was that he'd gone farther than her when he was 'nothing but a spoiled little rich kid' who was 'born with a silver spoon in his mouth' and she'd had to work 'ten times as hard as he did', and so on, and so on.
Daisy had listened patiently for a while, being a good aunt and letting her niece rant, but eventually, she'd decided to drop some of that good old-fashioned adult wisdom on her by reminding her that she shouldn't judge people based on preconceptions, and that a person's true worth was usually hiding inside for someone to uncover.
AJ had been thoroughly unimpressed by Daisy's fortune-cookie level advice, but almost as soon as she'd said it, there was a tug on the line and, seconds later, to her and her Aunt's dumb surprise, she was reeling in a Feebas. An actual Feebas - in Kanto! Impossible! Her luck had to have been off the charts!
But while both AJ and Daisy had been derailed from their conversation over their need to celebrate AJ's catch - and take multiple selfies with the pokemon to send to Daisy's sisters and brag - the appearance of Feebas had unknowingly cemented in AJs mind the reality of her aunt's admittedly cliched wisdom. It repeated in her head over the rest of her break every time she pulled Feebas out to show off or begin training. Over and over again, on a loop. If ever there was a pokemon who embodied the ideal of not judging a book by its cover, it was Feebas.
So, a couple of weeks later, as AJ and Jade boarded the ferry to begin their travels through Hoenn, when AJ saw Sammy leaning against the guard rail and staring out into the ocean, alone, she moved without thinking and finally asked him to officially join her and Jade as the third member of their group.
Sammy blinked in surprise once she'd finished explaining.
"Wow," he said slowly. "I never knew…"
"To be fair, Feebas's fishy face probably would have been enough to connect the two of you together…"
He gawked, then straightened up, indignant. If there was one way she knew of to rile up Sammy Oak, it was to poke fun at his appearance.
"Excuse me?" he said, mostly joking - but only mostly. "Do you see this face of mine? I'm stunning. I'm downright gorgeous. How dare you compare me to a fish! We look nothing alike!"
She repressed her urge to smile - maybe he wasn't as much of an entitled brat as she'd thought when they were kids, but he was certainly vain, that was for sure - and turned to carefully scrutinize him.
Slowly, she reached a hand up and grabbed his chin, pressing her fingers and thumb into both of his cheeks, making his lips pop out like a fish.
She gasped theatrically.
"Feebas! It's you!"
Sammy jerked his face away with a groan of theatrical disgust.
"You are just so…! Do you have any idea how many ladies have tried to date me over the years?!"
"Next," AJ said, ignoring him, "is Togepi."
"Which I actually was there for," Sammy said, settling back down beside her. "That egg I won in that archeology competition in Celestic Town."
"We won."
"I won," Sammy repeated emphatically. "I did all of the work while you shouted at me to go faster and Jade ate all of our snacks."
"Um, yeah? I was the moral support and Jade was lightening our load so we could move faster and destroy the competition."
"Ok, well - leaving aside how dumb that is - explain to me again why you got the egg and I didn't?"
"How do you not remember this? I saved you from that Bronzong you pissed off and then you got all weird and said I could have the prize as thanks."
Sammy groaned and shook his head.
"That's right… That's what I get for trying to be a gentleman-"
"Gentleman?!" AJ repeated, outraged. "The second you found out the prize was a Togepi egg you tried to renege on your promise! I had to battle you to get you to back off! You whined for days!"
"Well it was a big deal!"
"More like you're a big baby."
"Shut up. You're the worst."
"I should've shoved you into another river."
They glowered at each other for a moment, then both broke out into grins and looked away.
"Alright. Well. We done with this trip down memory lane yet?"
"Nope, two to go. Do you remember how I caught Honedge?"
He frowned, tilting his head up to stare up at the clouds.
"Um… It was a dare, right? Something about a haunted house?"
It had been a haunted mausoleum, actually. Some old museum in Snowpoint that was supposed to have historical artifacts collected from around the world, but that had closed down years and years ago for one reason or another. Sammy and Jade had been fighting about something, like they always did, and it had somehow resulted in them sneaking into the museum at night so Jade could prove she 'wasn't scared of ghosts'.
The particulars were lost even to AJ, admittedly - it had been a long time and they'd had a lot of misadventures. But while Jade and Sammy had gotten separated and had learned some lesson about friendship or teamwork or whatever while trying to escape from a gaggle of playful ghost pokemon, AJ had stumbled across, battled, and subsequently caught her Honedge.
"That was also where you caught your Haunter, right?"
"Yup. The ringleader of the whole troupe." A wicked smile split across Sammy's face as he leaned in and said, conspiratorially, "It was his love of messing with Jade that won me over."
AJ laughed. Of course that was the reason. Her friends were idiots. She wouldn't trade them for the world.
"Which brings us to Zweilous," she continued, and Sammy shook his head, still looking amused.
"Yeah, which happened all the way in Unova after we stopped traveling together. How are you gonna spin this one?"
This cocky prick. He was so full of himself, all the time. How did she put up with him?
"Do you remember, back when we were still ten years old and hadn't left Kanto yet? We'd met up in Fuschia by happenstance and I challenged you to a contest in the Safari Zone?"
Sammy frowned, but nodded.
"Yeah. You were pissed that I was one gym badge ahead of you, so you wanted to one-up me by proving you were better at catching pokemon."
This had been a downright lie, of course. AJ was absolutely not better at catching pokemon than Sammy was, and they both knew it, but she'd been so annoyed at being behind her rival that she had to do anything she could to try to regain the upper-hand.
Thus followed one of the most humiliating defeats of her young life. She'd gone into the contest guns blazing, determined to hunt down something exceedingly rare, like a Pincer or a Chansey, and had instead spent the entire allotted hour stomping through the swampy grass and catching nothing. She kept passing up the 'common' pokemon because she didn't want to miss anything better. She never even spotted anything rare.
Sammy, however, had meticulously caught every pokemon he'd come across, and while they were mostly common pokemon like Nidoran or Pidgey, catching twenty common pokemon was still more impressive than AJ catching a whole lot of nothing.
Toward the end of the hour, he'd given up on searching for pokemon in the grass, content that he'd handily destroyed her at their contest, and had decided to spend the rest of the hour fishing and taunting her. Frustrated, she joined him, thinking that if nothing else, she knew she was at least better at fishing than he was.
So when both of their lines tugged simultaneously, she was sure she was about to win and pull up something wonderful like a Seaking or a Slowbro.
Instead, she got a particularly small and pathetic Magikarp. And Sammy had somehow managed to snag a Dratini.
"You know, I don't know that I've ever hated you more than in that moment," AJ said, humming to herself.
"I don't know about that," Sammy said. "I can think of a dozen other moments, easily, that come close. But none of this has anything to do with you fighting poachers in a traveling menagerie in Unova."
"After our contest," AJ said, patiently, "we met back up with Jade at the Pokemon Center, and you were just being so insufferable. Just… gloating, so bad, and I was so mad, and Jade was completely unsympathetic because I was the one who'd challenged you in the first place."
"Don't act like you wouldn't have been the one gloating if you'd won."
"The point is, you said something to me then. Something like, you were glad that Dratini had come to you instead of me because I'd never be up to the task of raising a pseudo-legendary."
Sammy pulled a face.
"I did? I don't remember that…"
"Well, you did, and it stuck with me. I don't think I ever said anything about it, but I took it like a personal challenge, and I was determined to one day catch a pseudo-legendary pokemon and add it to my Champion Team just so I could prove you wrong. But in all of our travels together, I never did. Not until we'd separated. Granted, me coming across Zweilous like I did was just random chance, but…"
She shrugged. Truthfully, she still didn't fully feel like she'd accomplished that goal. She had a Hydreigon now, sure, but with how temperamental she was, AJ didn't use her in battle which meant she still wasn't really part of the team. But she'd get there. One day. And on that day, she'd finally be able to tell ten-year-old Sammy he could eat his words.
They stared at each other quietly for a moment, letting it sink in.
"Did you just make all that up?" he finally asked, and AJ laughed.
"Listen - we already know what the future looks like for us, so there's no need to stress. One day, you're gonna take over for your dad as Kanto's professor. You'll send all the little kiddies off on their adventures with bright eyes and bushy tails, and I'll leave them crippled and broken at the end."
"And Jade will torment them in between," Sammy finished, smiling to himself. It was an old joke, one the group had used to make back when they still traveled together, when AJ becoming the Champion was still a pipe dream. But now it was a reality. And nothing had changed between them.
"We're a unit, the three of us," AJ said simply. "You're the brains, Jade's the heart, and I'm the muscle. And together, we form one large super robot who can protect the world from aliens or whatever."
"Alright, I think we're getting off topic."
"But no matter what we do or where we go, we're always going to be friends. We'll always be connected. And we'll share in every important moment."
Something burst over the hillside, startling the duo, soaring high into the sky on the sound of flapping wings. It took AJ a moment to realize that it was a flock of Articuno, some of the pale blue Kantonian variety, and a few lavender Galarian forms. She counted maybe five or six fully grown adults, and a smattering of smaller forms that had to have been newly hatched babies.
It was a surprise to see them in the Sanctuary, though. Of all of the legendary pokemon here, she'd have thought that Articuno would have no problem with the icy cold of Mt. Silver proper. Maybe the Galarian Articuno were resting in the warmth before continuing their migration back to Galar? Or maybe even ice-type pokemon needed a break once in a while.
As they watched, hands shading their eyes as the giant birds made their way across the skies, two figures broke free from their ranks, swooping down low in a wide circle, rapidly descending until, suddenly, it became very apparent that they were heading straight for them.
They landed on the grass in a rush of icy wind, the older of the two - the mother - landing some distance away and folding her wings with an austere sort of grace. She gazed at them in silence, watching, carefully, as the baby Articuno landed somewhat clumsily on the grass just a few feet away from AJ and Sammy, nearly pitching forward onto its face and needing to hop a few times and beat its wings to maintain balance.
The baby Arcticuno was, for lack of a better word, adorable. Tiny in comparison to its mother, it still stood about as tall as AJ's kneecaps would have been if she were standing too. The bigger surprise were its feathers, however. Unlike the pale sky blue of its mother or the rich lavender of their foreign counterparts, this baby's feathers were all a soft white, like freshly fallen snow. The feathered crest on its crown was shorter as well, and fluffier, as were its tail feathers, which at the moment were barely longer than her forearm.
No one had ever seen a baby Articuno. Or at least, no one had ever been able to document the encounter. Its feathers must change color as they age. A relatively simple and uninteresting fact to most, but the first real, concrete fact about the life cycle of an Articuno to have been revealed in centuries. Sammy must be having conniptions.
She snuck a glance in his direction and found that he was outright gaping, his jaw slack, his eyebrows nearly vanishing into his hairline. This was officially the closest he'd been to a legendary pokemon since regaining consciousness, and for a wonder, it looked like he had no idea how to react.
The mother was still watching them silently, but the baby let out a soft, musical cry and hopped closer, eagerly examining the two humans with clear interest. It leaned down to examine AJ's pokemon belt, which was lying across her lap, the metal capsules glinting in the light, the baby tilting its head this way and that as though it had never seen the like before. Which, given how small it was, and how obviously young, was no surprise.
A bit late, it finally clicked in AJ's head. This must be the baby Sammy had rescued!
She reached out a hand to stroke its feathers, but the baby hoped away, out of reach, instead circling around to Sammy's other side where it began examining him, searching his legs, his lap, his chest, until it found his belt still strapped around his waist.
The baby leaned down and began pecking at the balls on his belt.
This seemed to finally snap Sammy out of his stupor. He straightened up a bit, hovering a hand over his belt to protect his pokemon from this inquisitive baby and asked, his voice noticeably tremulous, "W-what's up, bud? You… wanna meet my pokemon? I guess… I guess they were there too, huh? When we, uh… Helped you. H-hang on, I'll… I'll call them out."
So he had noticed this must be the egg he'd rescued. Well, he was the smarter of the two. He'd probably caught on right away. The baby was still trying to peck at his belt, however, and the mother was still standing guard, watching in silence.
Something about this moment felt different for some reason. Important. Portentous.
AJ let her gaze bounce back and forth, from the baby to the mother, and finally, it hit her.
"Sammy," she said softly, placing a hand on his leg to get his attention. "I think… I think it wants you to catch it."
"What?" he yelped, too loudly, glancing frantically from AJ to the baby. "N-no, no, I'm not-! I would never-!"
But the baby was hopping up and down now, clearly excited, chirping energetically, confirming AJ's guess.
Hesitant, Sammy let his gaze drift over to the mother, who was still watching them from a distance.
Their eyes met, and for a long moment, neither of them moved.
Finally, slowly, the mother bowed her head. Then, a moment later, it was off, launching back into the sky on powerful wings that sent gusts of chill air and flurry of snowflakes billowing in their faces. They watched in silence as it soared away, vanishing in the same direction as the flock from before.
"I don't understand," Sammy said softly. "It's still just a baby… Why would she…?"
But he let the thought die out. Some pokemon were just like that. Some lived their whole lives in packs, never separating from their parents or their young. Some would raise their young until they'd reached maturity and would set off on their own. And some never spent any time with their offspring, kicking them from the nest at birth or else just leaving their eggs to fend for themselves. Such was nature. Perhaps Articuno were the same.
The baby didn't seem bothered by its mother's absence. Instead, it began pecking at Sammy's hand, clearly annoyed that he wasn't paying it any attention.
"Ah- ow! Stop! Hold on, just- Hold on a second! Geez!"
Trying and failing to fend the Articuno off, Sammy quickly grabbed his backpack and began rummaging through the front pockets, pulling out a single pokeball that, with a click, expanded to fill his palm.
He held the ball out in front of him, palm facing upward, then hesitated.
"Are… Are you sure this is what you-?"
But the baby pecked the center of the ball, not listening, and in a flash of red, dematerialized and vanished. The ball rattled for a moment, then stilled, the capture indicator blinking red and letting out that familiar, satisfying hum.
The two teens stared for a moment, stunned, then Sammy let out a single, disbelieving laugh.
"I did it," he said, breathless. Then, again, louder, "I did it! I caught a-!"
In a bright flash, the pokeball vanished, leaving Sammy empty handed.
He gawked for a moment, utterly stupefied, before understanding seemed to finally steal over him. Then that elation from before seemed to melt into embarrassment.
"I, uh…" he said, suddenly sheepish, running a hand through his hair. "I forgot for a moment there that I already had a full party, so… uh…"
So the ball vanished and the pokemon he'd just captured was sent to the lab.
AJ tried to fight it - she really did - but it was no use. She snorted, slapping one hand over her mouth, the other arm wrapped around her midsection as she tried to hold in her giggles, but within seconds, the both of them were overcome with peals of laughter.
The moment hadn't been that funny, not really. But sometimes, when something so strange and wild and wonderful happens, there isn't really anything else you can do but laugh.
"You did it, Sammy!" AJ cried, once she'd regained a bit of her control, though they were both still giggling and feeling a bit high on life. She threw her arms around him, hugging him from the side. "Even without your pokedex or your research tools, the intrepid Professor-Oak-to-Be still manages to get it done! You caught a baby legendary who you can study! Proof - physical proof - that they reproduce just like regular pokemon! You're finally making your crazy dream come true!"
"Ha, uh… Y-yeah…" was all he could say, red rising up his neck and coloring his ears and he flashed a lopsided grin down at her. "And to think you were trying to apologize for us coming here."
"Well, I can't take credit for this," she said, beaming up at him. She should probably let go, but for some reason, she didn't want to. It was nice, being close like this. "But this does prove me right. About before? Every important moment."
"Every important moment," he repeated, his smile and something in his eyes beginning to soften.
Then, it was quiet. Too quiet. They were sitting really close and she was hugging him and he was smiling and his eyes were very green and this all felt very strange but not necessarily in a bad way and maybe it would be ok if they got even closer-
"Am I, uh… Interrupting something?"
Sammy practically leaped out of his skin, jerking away from AJ so suddenly that she lost her balance and fell forward into the grass. When she pushed herself back up, confused, Sammy was already on his feet, straightening his clothes and brushing the grass off of his pants, looking flustered.
"Jade!" AJ cried, brightening up again, the strange feeling from before all but forgotten. "You'll never guess what just happened! It's big news! Huge! Tell her, Sammy!"
"Oh?" Jade said, and she bit her lip, fighting back an amused smile as she turned Sammy, whose face just seemed to be getting even redder. "Big news, huh? Should I guess, or is it patently obvious?"
"N-no," Sammy choked out, averting his gaze, his voice tight and stilted. "I-it's not… We didn't…"
"Sammy caught that baby Articuno!" AJ shouted, throwing her hands into the air, not able to hold back any longer. A second later, she slapped her hands over her mouth, looking horrified. "Ah! Sammy! I'm sorry! That was supposed to be your big reveal!"
Jade's expression changed to one of genuine surprise and excitement. For all that she and Sammy bickered from time to time, they really were best friends and she knew how big this was for him.
It was her turn now to congratulate him and give him a hug, which he returned, still a bit awkward. While she gushed over his achievement, AJ pushed herself to her feet and slid her belt back around her waist.
This was a good day. A marvelous day. A day to always remember. Nothing could shake this feeling of triumph and elation.
"Sammy - would you give me and AJ some space. We need to have a chat."
AJ blinked, looking up at her friend in surprise, but Jade had her eyes locked on Sammy with an expression that clearly said that celebrations were over now and he was dismissed.
Sammy, however, hesitated.
"Wait… I mean, you're not-?"
Jade rolled her eyes.
"Ugh, no, that's not what we're going to talk about, geez. You're so paranoid."
"Right, but it's just-"
"Goodbye, Sammy! Take my Metagross and go spy on some legendary pokemon or whatever. Bother someone else for a bit."
He scowled, obviously annoyed that she was pushing him around, but the idea of riding her Metagross while he tracked and observed the legendary pokemon who lived in the Sanctuary was clearly too tempting to ignore. He stomped off with a huff, though didn't actually argue back. Within a minute, he was up on Metagross's back and zooming away.
AJ, who had been watching Jade curiously, finally spoke once Sammy was out of earshot.
"We have to chat?"
Jade sighed, walking over under the shade of the beech tree and sitting down. She patted the spot next to her, inviting AJ to join her.
"Yeah, girl… We need to have a talk. Only… I've gotta brace myself, cause I know you're gonna be pissed."
AJ let out a short breath in lieu of a laugh. She was making her nervous, now. Is this karma getting back at her for thinking things were going so good a moment ago?
"What, more bad news? I can't imagine things could get much worse than they already are."
Unless she was going to say they'd run out of food or something - but they could always go foraging. Not ideal, but not impossible. Or maybe someone was sick? But they all looked fine last night, and nothing had seemed off this morning…
But Jade was shaking her head, looking antsy.
"No, not… It's not like that. It's just…"
"Just…?"
Jade bit her lip, then lowered her hands to the ground and dug her fingers into the grass as though she were anchoring herself in preparation for a storm.
"I think… I think you should, maybe… I dunno. Talk to your dad?"
For a surreal moment, AJ felt as though liquid fire and ice had surged through her veins simultaneously, leaving her skin feeling prickly and plastic. She turned away from Jade, letting a moment of silence pass between them as she tried to work her way through the surge of confusion and anger and denial that had passed over her at the mere idea of willingly speaking with her father.
After a pause, letting her eyes fixate on some flying pokemon too far in the distance to see clearly, she asked, trying to keep her voice as neutral as possible, "...Can I ask where this is coming from?"
Jade, it seemed, was fully aware that she was swimming through a sea of Overqil, but she pressed on anyway, clearly suicidal.
"It just… feels like the right thing to do."
"The right thing to do," AJ parroted, voice full of venom. "Funny. Here I thought that abandoning your wife and child didn't seem like the 'right thing to do', but hey, what do I know?"
Jade took a deep breath.
"We don't know that that's what happened-"
But AJ was suddenly up on her feet and stalking away. Her entire body was trembling as though her blood had been literally set to boil inside her veins.
Jade was up and hurrying along behind her in a flash.
"AJ! Wait, hear me out-!"
"How dare you?" AJ snarled, whipping around and turning on her friend so suddenly that Jade nearly pitched forward in her sudden attempt to stop. "You, of all people - you know how I feel about this! You're supposed to be on my side!"
"I am on your side!" Jade insisted earnestly. "AJ, I am always on your side! But this- this whole situation is crazy insane and I feel like there's a good chance we're missing something-!"
"I am not going to him for help," AJ cut in, turning around to walk off again. "I don't need him! I've never needed him!"
"Girl," Jade said, exasperated, jogging along behind her. "There's clearly so much more going on here than we ever imagined before. Don't you think you owe it to yourself to figure out the truth?"
"I know the truth!" she shouted, turning on Jade again. They'd hardly made it more than two dozen paces from the beech tree, but from how hard AJ was breathing, you'd have thought she'd been running laps. "He left me! He left me and mom and grandma and that's all that matters! I don't care about anything else! That's all I need to know!"
"I know you're upset," Jade said, clearly trying for a consoling tone, but her sentimentality was getting to her, and her voice was beginning to choke up with emotion. She reached out and took AJ by the upper arms, bracingly. "And I'm sorry - I am. I really, really am. But AJ…"
AJ jerked herself free and stomped off again, literally seething. How dare she… Jade was supposed to be her best friend. She was supposed to be supporting her. Not siding with Ash. Placing him before her, just like everyone always did.
"AJ, please don't run away," Jade moaned, still scurrying behind her, and AJ snapped.
Whirling around again, finally feeling the tears of frustration and anger start to show, she bellowed at her best friend, "Why are you pushing this so hard?"
To which Jade responded, mirroring AJ's anger with unexpected ferocity, "Because you've been given the opportunity to meet a parent you thought was dead and you don't even care! Some of us would kill for that chance!"
And then everything got very quiet.
For a moment that seemed to stretch out indefinitely, twin looks of surprise adorned either girl's face as the shock of Jade's words seemed to echo hauntingly in the air around them.
AJ felt all of her poorly restrained anger and hurt at her best friend start to deflate unexpectedly inside of her, replaced by a rush of sudden comprehension and sympathy and grief.
She could see from Jade's face that her emotions were also rapidly changing - only her surprise was quickly morphing into embarrassment and confusion and guilt. And then suddenly it was Jade who was turning away and hurrying off, fleeing from AJ just as surely as AJ had been trying to flee from her.
"Jade!" AJ called, all of her previous anger forgotten as she hurried after her friend. "Jade- stop! Hold on!"
"I-I'm sorry," Jade called disjointedly over her shoulder, still rushing away. "I didn't… That wasn't-"
But AJ had caught her - literally, arms around waist from behind, she pulled her much taller friend into a tight hug, halting her in place.
Jade was trembling. Not from rage like AJ had been before, but from the tears that she knew were pouring down her cheeks, even as she hid her face behind her hands in shame.
"I didn't mean to…" she started, voice choked, still sounding confused and hurt.
AJ pressed her forehead against Jade's back and shook her head.
"I know."
"I wasn't… trying to- T-to guilt you, o-or…"
"I know, Jade. I know."
She hadn't meant to say that. Those words she'd shouted in anger - AJ had the sneaking suspicion that Jade hadn't even known she'd felt that way until they'd come erupting out of her mouth of their own volition.
Jade had lost her mother when she was still a toddler.
She was approximately two years old at the time. Too young to actually remember anything about her. AJ herself had been a newborn, so she didn't know much about her either outside of things she'd heard from Brock or her mother. But she'd been a researcher, an associate of some old colleague of Brock's who lived out on the Orange Islands, and they'd met up at some seminar or another and had instantly hit it off.
It was funny. To hear her mother or Uncle Tracey or Gary Oak speak of it, Brock had apparently been something of a playboy in his youth. Or an attempted one, at least. He apparently had a habit of hitting on basically anything in a skirt, and was almost unanimously rejected by every woman he'd ever spoken to. That had never seemed to deter him though, apparently, and he'd just pick himself up off the floor after every rejection and move on to the next girl.
That behavior sounded a tad creepy to AJ, but according to his friends, Brock simply had a big heart, one that was looking for someone to love and for someone to love him in return. And eventually, he'd found her. Their relationship had been a wildfire, passionate and all-consuming, and if his friends had sometimes found the couple embarrassing to be around, well… That was just further evidence of how much they loved each other.
But that Brock who was a playful flirt, the one who hit on every girl he met or who loved his wife so openly and honestly that it embarrassed everyone else in the room - that was a man AJ had never met.
The Brock she'd always known was kind and patient and caring, yes, but also reserved and withdrawn. According to her mother, he'd changed after losing his wife. It was like some of his spark was just… gone. And he'd never gotten it back.
Her death wasn't a mystery, either. Not like Ash. She hadn't vanished without a trace - she'd simply gone on a trip into Mt. Moon one day to perform a routine inspection on the Clefairy population and never come back. She'd been accompanied by a small group of Rangers, so Brock hadn't thought much of it at the time, but as the days stretched on without hearing from her, he began to grow worried. He contacted the Rangers, but when he learned that her team hadn't reported in, he set off into Mt. Moon himself to find them.
The Rangers sent people in as well, and they were helped by members of the Pewter and Cerulean gyms, as well as volunteer hikers who knew the mountain well. They scoured the caverns, looking for signs of the team, evidence that they'd passed by somewhere, some indication of where they might have gone.
Four days into their search, they pulled her body out from the wreckage of a rockslide. They never knew what had triggered it - whether it was caused by a battle or wild pokemon or just a natural phenomenon.
Brock fell apart, then. He'd lost his best friend Ash only a few months before, and now he'd lost his wife, too. It took months for him to pull himself out of his grief enough to function again, but he had to. He had a little girl who needed him, after all. Needed him to be her father and her mother, both. It took some time, but he did manage to pick himself back up and put himself back together - for Jade's sake more than anything else. But according to her mother, it had been ages before she saw him smile again.
Jade rarely talked about her mother, and AJ had always sort of assumed that that was because she didn't have much to say. After all, she'd been so young when she'd died, she hadn't even known the woman. AJ had always thought that Jade had simply accepted it and moved on.
But now, in this moment, it occurred to AJ that maybe Jade wasn't as alright as she let on. That maybe she'd avoided discussing the topic of dead parents for AJ's sake, because she knew how naturally that topic could segway to Ash and how triggering that was for her. Maybe she'd always just… bottled it up to spare AJ's feelings. And just that thought alone made AJ feel like maybe she hadn't been the best 'best friend'.
They stayed still for a time, AJ hugging Jade and Jade struggling to calm herself down and stop crying. The wind in the Sanctuary was pleasantly warm, the scent of grass thick in the air.
After a time, Jade removed AJ's arms and turned to face her, a crooked, sad smile on her tear-stained face.
"Thank you," she said, sniffling. She wiped at her eyes again, then wrapped her arms tightly around her middle like she was hugging herself.
"I'm sorry," she said finally, and AJ nodded.
"Yeah… Me, too."
"I didn't…" Jade hesitated, staring blankly over AJs shoulder. "I didn't mean to project that onto you. I… I didn't even know I felt that way until I said it."
"I know."
"And I'm not going to force you," she continued as though not hearing AJ. "I won't bring it up again after today, I promise. But I still think you should talk to him."
AJ took a deep breath.
"Jade, I don't-"
"I'm not asking you to suddenly forgive him," Jade interjected. "He still abandoned you, even if it wasn't his fault. Even if he was just trapped here like we are, you still had to grow up without him and with everyone always comparing you to him. I know. But AJ…"
Here, it was Jade's turn to take a deep breath. And then she stepped forward, pulling AJ into a tight hug.
"Girl," she whispered into her ear. "You are not ok. No matter how much you pretend like you are, I know you better than that. Someone who was ok wouldn't have blown up at your mom like you did, or lost control in that battle, or even flipped out at me. I don't know if talking with him is going to help, but… I think there's a good chance it might. It's worth a try, even if it's hard."
She pulled away, but held on to AJ at arm's length and tried for another smile that was still too crooked and watery to be real.
"And hey, if nothing else - even if it doesn't help, even if you don't feel any better… Maybe the next time you blow up, you can direct your anger at the right person. Because we both know who it is you really want to scream at."
Jade left, walking off alone deeper into the Sanctuary. She needed some alone time, AJ knew. Time to process her feelings about her mother and her envy toward AJ.
AJ, for her part, slowly walked back beneath the shade of the beech tree and settled back down on the cool grass.
The morning had started out so well, too. And now once again, here she was. Sucked right back into this impossible drama.
She didn't have the energy to think about her father right now. She still wasn't sure that she wouldn't simply slug him in the face on sheer impulse if he even tried to speak to her.
Something chittered up in the branches, scrambling down the side of the tree until he was down at her side. Pichu. She'd lost track of him there. The last she'd seen, he'd been messing around on Metagross, but then Sammy had taken it and left and she'd had her fight with Jade, and…
Pichu examined her face for a moment, floppy ears swaying in the breeze, then came over to nuzzle her cheek with his, sending her a few weak shocks. She winced at the pinching pain but otherwise didn't comment. She was used to his ways of showing affection. Instead, she reached one arm up in a half-hug and kissed him on the forehead. If nothing else, Pichu always had her back.
Closing her eyes, she settled back against the grass and tried to think of anything other than her father. It was a pleasant afternoon. A warm breeze, soft grass, and cool shade in a verdant paradise, and with her body still sore from her morning workout, a nap seemed well in order.
Even still, sleep was a long time coming.
