Hey everyone. I'm finally back after not writing fanfiction for over a year and a half. This is my first Pokemon fanfiction based on the Nintendo games, Pokemon Scarlet and Violet. I played both games, including the DLC. This fanfiction is based on the Indigo disk portion of the DLC. Slight spoilers, this takes place after Terapagos was captured. Just as Kieran acknowledged his faults, his mental really took a toll on him to the point where he literally and figuratively fallen low.

I play the female player character, so I'll be using Juliana.

Disclaimer: I don't own Nintendo

"Is…Is it over?" Carmine asked slightly in shock.

Juliana caught it. She, Ms. Briar of Blueberry Academy, and Carmine and Kieran, all witnessed the hidden treasure of Area Zero known as the Tera Pokémon, Terapagos go inside the red and white pokeball.

The young girl with the side braid gently picked up her poke ball and held it in her hands as if it was fragile. She looked at it for a few more seconds and placed it in her pocket. Everyone gathered around her.

"Is everyone alright? Anybody hurt?" Briar asked with deep concern.

"We're fine. Don't worry!" Juliana replied.

Briar sighed with relief. "Oh, thank goodness… What a relief…" Her expression quickly changed into remorse. "I let my obsession lead you all into a very dangerous situation… it's simply inexcusable. I'm so sorry, everyone…"

"You should be!" Carmine angrily chastised her with her shaking fists. She nearly turned red like the under lights in her hair. "You're completely fixated on this Terastal stuff! You gotta keep your obsession in check!"

Briar did not disagree on that one. "Yes… You're absolutely right…"

"I…I messed up too…" It was now Kieran's turn to admit his faults, knowing he played a role in what had occurred. He turned to Juliana. "I looked up to Juliana for so long. I wanted to be like her so, so badly. I didn't know what else to do…"

Suddenly…

ACK!

Kieran clutched his head and breathed rapidly.

"Kieran? What's wrong?"" Juliana asked, very worried.

"Kiki. Are you okay?" Carmine asked just as worried.

"I-I don't feel so good…" Kieran felt his head going numb and hurting. All he could hear was a faint high pitched ringing as he looked at his teacher in a blurred vision, then his sister, lastly Juliana, all looked worried. "Ohhh…" he moaned and began to stumble backwards. His eyes started to close and his body swayed and then…

"Kieran!" Everyone shouted.

He collapsed to the ground. Everyone had let out a horrified gasp.

Carmine immediately ran to her unconscious little brother, followed by Juliana and Briar. Carmine knelt down, picked him up gently, and tenderly held him in her arms. "Kiki! Wake up!" She called to him in despair. "Please! Wake up!"

Kieran, having heard his big sister's voice, barely responded. He weakly opened his eyes and looked at Carmine. "S-Sis?"

"Oh thank goodness." A tearful Carmine was relieved and choked up.

Kieran started breathing weird again, his heart racing, and his body shaking. "Ow…" His stomach started to ache. "W-What happened?"

"You fainted." Juliana answered. "Have you eaten anything?"

"No…" Kieran admitted. "Nothing…at all…" he started to lose consciousness again.

Fueled by determination to save her friend, Juliana formed a plan. She first spotted a crystal pillar tilting at an angle. "Ms. Briar, Carmine, lay Kieran against that pillar. We need to support him so blood gets flowing through his head." The teacher and teenage girl nodded as they carefully picked him up and placed him laying on the crystal on his back. Briar stayed on his right side, and Carmine stayed on his left.

"So…dizzy…" Kieran moaned again in agony. "Stomach hurts…"

"Hang in there, Kieran. You'll be okay." Juliana assured him. She reached for one of her poke balls. "Meowscarada, come out." She released her bipedal green and black cat pokemon. "I need you to make a sweet scent to ease Kieran."

"Meow." The Magician pokemon replied, nodding in understandment, and knelt down in front of the sick boy. She rubbed her paws together and a light green scent wave came out of her paws. The scent floated over Kieran's head. As he inhaled and exhaled, his rapid breathing slightly settled to slower deep breaths.

"Just breathe nice and slow, okay?" Juliana instructed him.

"O-Okay…" Kieran answered weakly. His body still shook a bit, but he took some deep breaths.

Juliana searched her Blueberry Academy backpack, and reached for a banana, a water bottle and a straw, and passed the items to Carmine. "Feed him this banana and water. I'll make a tea that will help his stomach."

"You got it," Carmine understood and affirmed.

"We're counting on you Juliana," Ms. Briar wished her luck.

"Thank you." Juliana stepped away momentarily to work on the remedy. She dug into her backpack once again. She pulled out some charcoal, a kettle, a metal grate, another water bottle, a white cup, an oven mitt, a bag of tea leaves from her Kitakami school trip, and three sprigs of Herba Mystica; sweet, salty, and sour. She also pulled out two more poke balls from her pocket. "Cinderace. Ninetales," she called. Out came the bipedal red and white rabbit pokemon and the ice/fairy fox pokemon. "Kieran's sick and we have to help him." Juliana turned to Cinderace first. "Cinderace, gather some rocks. We need to get a fire started."

"Cinda." The Striker pokemon got the message.

Juliana turned to Ninetales next. "Ninetales, be on standby."

"Ninetales." The Alolan regional fox pokemon also understood.

Meanwhile, Ms. Briar lended a comforting hand on Kieran's shoulder as he continued to breathe deeply while letting out the occasional moan. Carmine peeled the banana and broke a small piece. She held fruit over Kieran's mouth. "Here Kiki, eat this." But she struggled as her brother resisted due to his stomach pains and headache. "C'mon, open your mouth!" He tilted his head to the side to avoid eating. "Kieran! Please! You have to!" She pleaded distressed.

"I-I can't…" He complained sickly and shut his eyes in pain. "My stomach and head hurts… so bad…"

Carmine wasn't gonna back down. "That's not an option." She gently laid a hand on his forehead. "Look at me." Kieran shifted his face back towards his big sister. It took a few more seconds for him to open his eyes, but once he did, he looked up to see worry in her eyes. "I know you're not feeling well, and we're doing all we can to help you through it, but if you don't eat now, it'll get worse." She begged tearfully as her voice strained.

"Your sister's right," Briar added. "It will restore a little bit of the strength you lost. Please eat."

After listening to their reasoning and seeing the worry in his sister's eyes, Kieran complied. "O-Okay." He opened his mouth and let Carmine feed him the piece of banana.

"Take it slow. Small bites." Carmine told him. Kieran took her advice and chewed slowly for a minute before swallowing. He opened his mouth again and another small piece went inside. After the second bite, Carmine opened the water bottle and placed the straw inside. She brought the bottle to her brother's mouth, getting the straw to touch his lips. "Drink some water."

Kieran slowly sipped through the straw for ten seconds before Carmine pulled the bottle away so he could catch his breath. "Where's Juliana?" he asked, noticing she wasn't around.

"She's making a remedy right now to help with your stomach. Just hang on for a little longer," Carmine answered and fed him another banana piece and rubbed his head to comfort him. Meowscarada rubbed her paws again and released another sweet smelling scent to alleviate Kieran's headache.

Speaking of Juliana, she and her pokemon went to work. Cinderace looked on the ground briefly and picked up a bunch of small gray rocks and built a ring on the ground. Juliana placed the charcoal inside the ring, and the metal grate on top of the charcoal. "Alright Cinderace, use pyro ball on the charcoal." Cinderace kicked up a small stone with his feet, lit it on fire, and carefully kicked it into the charcoal. The fire was now started and Juliana placed the kettle over the fire, she poured water inside and let that boil for a bit. Once the water reached a quick roaring boil, Juliana got started on the tea that will hopefully help Kieran's sickness.

She began by adding a small handful of tea leaves into the hot water and let that steep for five minutes. Next, she gathered the sprigs of Herba Mystica. She had learned about these rare ingredients during her quest with Arven to heal his Mabosstiff when it was badly injured. If the Herba Mystica saved Mabosstiff, it could save Kieran too. As she sprinkled in the herbs, she could hear Arven's voice in her head, describing the different effects of the herbs.

First was the pink sweet Herba Mystica.

Check this out Juliana. It's the sweet Herba Mystica! It's good for gut health and it helps aid digestion.

Since Kieran was dealing with a stomachache, it made sense including that herb in.

Next was the white salty Herba Mystica.

This one is the salty Herba Mystica. It helps with aching hands and feet. It's also good for neuropathy injuries like numbness and muscle weakness.

Kieran could barely move at all, so that herb's essential to curing him.

Finally, she added in the yellow Sour Herba Mystica, a little bit more than the other two.

We found the sour Herba Mystica! It's chock-full of nutrients and is great for boosting your overall health! Says here it works wonders whether you're tired physically or mentally. Perks you right up!

Juliana hoped that herb would work in her favor considering Kieran's mental health wasn't in a good place for quite some time. She didn't doubt that all the training Kieran did for the past three months wore him down since their last encounter.

"Juliana! Are you done yet?" Carmine asked from afar.

"Almost there!" Juliana answered. Carmine felt relieved hearing that.

After a minute, the kettle whistled, indicating the tea was ready. Juliana put on an oven mitt over her right hand and very carefully lifted the kettle off of the fire and poured the tea into the cup. She looked at Ninetales. "Alright Ninetales, put out the fire with blizzard. Gently though."

"Nine." Ninetales replied affirmatively and blew out the fire with a small blizzard from her mouth to extinguish the flames.

Juliana gently held the mug with both hands and closed her eyes for a prayer. Please work… Kieran needs us… I can't lose him again…

That's part one of the story. I chose Meowscarada as my starter pokemon in both games, in addition, I pictured Juliana choosing Sprigatito as her starter. Cinderace and Ninetales are two pokemon I used while playing Indigo Disk. The three-month gap was the release date between teal mask and indigo disk.