"You know, the superior officer is supposed to debrief their subordinate," Brock said. He was sitting in the infirmary of the airship that had been used as a mobile command post. His arm was in a sling and someone had bandaged up cuts and scrapes on his face and neck.
"Just be glad I'm writing the formal report for you," Tory told him. "And I think she qualifies as a superior officer," she gestured over to Karen, who was leaning against the wall, arms folded and a smirk on her face.
"She's not even in my chain of command," Brock said.
"Not yet," Karen said in a sing-song voice.
Brock sighed and continued recounting the events from his perspective, including the orders he had given and the reasoning behind them. Tory would occasionally ask for more details while she typed up the formal report for the Kanto League.
"And then SAR got us off the roof of the Silph building," he finished with a sigh.
"Reckless of the kid," Karen said. "I could've kept Sabrina dancing for a few more minutes."
"Preaching to the choir," Brock said, rubbing his forehead. "What are the causality numbers?"
"Forty percent," Tory answered.
Brock looked up aghast.
"But most will make a full recovery," Tory continued. Brock let out a sigh of relief.
"I forgot that those numbers include the injured too," Brock admitted. "What's the breakdown?"
"Sixty percent of our casualties consist of injured pokémon," Tory informed him. "Fifteen percent consists of dead pokémon, twenty percent dead trainers, and five percent wounded trainers."
Brock nodded. Humans who had been hit by full strength attacks from pokémon tended not to make it to infirmaries.
"Most of the fatalities occurred during Sabrina's initial deployment," Tory continued, glancing at Karen.
"I hadn't figured out the lay of the land yet," Karen replied to the unspoken question/accusation. "I was still extracting information out of a Rocket patrol. I made my move when I knew what was up."
"A dramatic entrance where you personally saved members of the gym community?" Tory's voice was calm, but Brock thought that he could detect some tension.
"Got a problem with that?" Karen raised an eyebrow.
"I'm just noting that your entrance was politically…. convenient."
"That was what I was going for. I said as much to Brock." Karen said, still smirking. Then her expression became stern. "But if you're implying that I didn't bother saving trainers outside of the gym community, you can stuff it. Me and my crew did our part behind the scenes."
"That's what everyone who plays gym politics likes to claim."
"Then you can collate reports from all the poor bastards me and my crew saved instead of accusing me of maneuvering like some two-bit villain," Karen shot back.
"Tory, this can wait, '' Brock asked before his temporary subordinate could continue the argument. "Do we have enough medical supplies for our casualties?"
"Fortunately, we do," Tory answered, turning away from the Elite who was now shooting her a smug look. "We had been preparing stockpiles for the evacuees. We'll be running low after today, but Vermillion City sent a shipment so we'll be completely restocked tomorrow."
"That's conv- lucky," Brock switched words to avoid restarting the argument.
"Surge personally pushed for it," Tory explained. "He sent a message ahead of time, claiming that our causality rate would be much higher."
"He was expecting a fight from the bad old days," Karen added. "All the old trainers did. The world's changed; major battles don't result in sixty percent casualties anymore."
"That's what he was expecting?" Brock paled.
"Retreat usually was much harder back in his day," Karen explained. "The world wasn't tame enough. Big wild pokémon would be driven into a frenzy by nearby battles. You try to escape into the wilderness and you have to fight your way through rampaging tauros, rhyhorn, what have you. Tended to make scraps bloodier."
"Is that going to be an issue now?" Brock asked, half rising. "Do we have to deploy squads to quell the local wild pokémon?"
"Nah," Karen examined her nails. "You're not going to have pokémon who rampage around a big city. The wild pokémon around Saffron will probably lay low for a month and then they'll be challenging trainers and scavenging garbage again."
"However," Tory spoke up. "We will need to change our focus. We need to 'reverse' the evacuation for a lack of a better term-"
"Should be easy enough," Brock said.
"-and provide disaster relief while ensuring that the citizen's homes are safe," Tory went on. "At a rough estimate, about fifteen percent of structures within the city were damaged during the battle, closer to twenty five percent in the western quarter of the city. Damage ranges from cosmetic to severely impaired structural integrity."
"Great," Brock moaned. "So much for easy."
"We're moving supplies from the planned refugee camps to the city, but it will take a few days," Tory went on. "In the meantime, we'll need to either share the supplies meant for us or let the city starve."
"Well, that's a no-brainer at least," Brock sighed. He turned to Karen. "Anyway, can you, I don't know, pull a few strings or put the fear of Darkari into some bureaucrats to get the supplies moving faster?"
"If only, kid, if only," Karen rolled her eyes. "But Kanto's a mess. Your legislative assembly is trying to handle this crisis, but I don't think there's been a legislature in history that was able to handle a crisis; it's just not what they're designed to do. Lorelei should be rushing back and she should be able to put the house in order, but until that happens, I don't know who to threaten."
"I'll reach out to the gym leaders," Brock sighed. "Maybe Surge can send some food too."
"We have a little time," Tory reassured him. "You should get some rest first."
"That's… not a bad idea," Brock said, getting up.
"Bring a pillow with you if you're going to visit that kid!" Karen called after him as he left. "Your neck will thank me!"
Ash woke in an unfamiliar place, looking up at an unfamiliar ceiling, with a pressure on his leg and a regular beeping coming from beside him.
Of course, there weren't any ceilings that the pokéraised child was actually familiar with. Maybe the ceiling from his fifth-grade classroom? Or maybe the generic pokémon center ceiling, but they all tended to have unique patterns of wear and tear.
The closest thing he had to a familiar ceiling was the sky and Ash wished that he could see it so he could know what time it was. It took him a moment to remember that humans kept clocks inside to tell the time when they couldn't see the sky and that he should probably look for one of those. Or just check his pokédex.
A jolt ran through the boy- His pokémon? Were they alright? He tried to sit up but pain radiated from his side and arm. Ash drew a sharp breath through his teeth and awkwardly levered himself up using the arm that didn't hurt.
He looked down at his leg where the pressure was and found a yellow lump that rose and fell as it breathed. Pikachu, bandaged and whole. Ash let out a sigh of relief at the sight.
Next the boy turned to look at the noise. On his right he found Misty slumped over in a chair, gently snoring. She was still wearing the clothes she had on during the battle and her hair was messy and dirty.
"She's been here since the doctors got done with you," a familiar voice said from his other side and Ash turned to see Brock in a chair on his left. The boy had large dark bags under his eyes and he was slouched against the wall.
"Brock!" Ash said. "How are my pokémon?"
"Stable," Brock told him. "Pidgeot, Squirtle, Butterfree, and Magikarp just needed some potions. Primeape needed to be treated for the poison, Pikachu for blood loss. Bulbasaur needed surgery to fix his left foreleg. He'll have a limp for several months, but is expected to make a full recovery."
"That's good," Ash said, letting himself sink back down into the pillows on the bed. "We won, right?"
"Of course, you'd ask that," Brock groaned, dragging his hands down his face. "Yes, Aaron, we won."
"Good," Ash sighed.
"And we would have still won without you trying to get yourself and your pokémon killed," Brock hissed, keeping his voice down.
"I wasn't trying to get us killed!" Ash protested. "I thought of a way to get past Team Rocket without needing to fight and I almost got out of there after I took out the antenna."
"Almost doesn't cut it!" Brock growled. "They caught you and almost killed you!"
"Wait-"Ash blinked at the news, his mind going blank.
"You had massive amounts of internal bleeding, half your ribs were broken, your arm was broken, and the doctors were amazed that your organs hadn't been crushed," Brock was still growling. "And you got off lucky. You personally tangled with a nidoking-"
"I didn't mean to!" Ash muttered in protest.
"Which could have torn you quite literally in half," Brock continued, ignoring Ash's muttering. "And your incredible luck didn't end there. If you hadn't had your armor then you would've been impaled."
Ash could vaguely recall the feel of something poking him when he had been laying there. He felt a little queasy at the thought of being impaled.
"And what do you think would have happened to your pokémon if you had gotten killed!" Brock continued, in his whispering growl. "I don't think Team Rocket would have exactly prioritized treating them, at the very least. You're lucky that they didn't end up dead… or taken."
Ash felt nauseous. He looked down at the bed, clutching the blankets in his fist. He couldn't think of anything to say to that.
Brock waited for a response and then when it was clear that it wasn't coming, he leaned back and sighed.
"We'll talk more about this later," he said in a gentler tone. "You hungry? I'll go bother the nurses to get you something to eat."
Ash just nodded. Brock sighed and then got up and left the room.
The café window had been shattered, the doorframe knocked out, and the front wall was rubble. The front of the interior was covered in dust and debris, painting it in dirty white, like a mud-stained ghost, but further in the cafe there were tables, booths, and chairs still clean and standing as if nothing had happened. Jim, the café's owner, was nowhere to be seen.
Sabrina huddled in one of the rear booths, knees drawn up to her chest, arms around her legs, hair falling forward over her face. She was silent and still, but for the occasional jerk of her shoulders and soft miserable noise.
There was the crunch of someone stepping on glass and Sabrina peeked up to see Torch standing in the front.
"So, this is where you've been hiding," the mystic said, making his way through the rubble.
"I'm not hiding," Sabrina said shortly, her voice tight. She put her head back down. "My pokégear is on if anyone needs me."
"I see," Torch said evenly. He sat down in the booth across from her. The two sat in a silence that lasted minutes, in the café that reminded Torch more of a broken tomb than of a restaurant.
"I've heard that you've been helping with the rescue and reconstruction," Torch said evenly, breaking the silence.
"Yes," Sabrina said quickly, quietly.
"Just keepin' busy?"
Sabrina's hair moved in a way that indicated that she was nodding.
"Hmmm…" Torch hummed noncommittally.
More silence.
"We found the last of their tunnels," Torch said conversationally. "Turns out they dug just below the detection radius for our sensors. I've got no idea how Team Rocket knew the radius and placement of our sensors though."
Silence from Sabrina.
"We've got the hospital back up and running already," Torch went on. "And the League force was able to get the civilians in critical condition out in time."
Still silent.
"There was an issue with civilians with persistent and chronic health problems. The Rockets sent some medics and supplies door to door, which helped, but there were plenty of people who were too scared to answer."
No reply.
"Well, most of 'em had medicine stockpiled and will recover at least," Torch sighed. "The rest…. Well anyway, we got a donation from a bulk goods trader. I say donation, but really, the crisis disrupted their shipping so they're sending a shipment to us since they've already written it off. Just grains and starches, but it'll keep us from starving."
Still nothing.
"The Legislative Assembly's been passing emergency measures left and right. A few of them might even come in handy. Lorelei should be back soon, so we won't have to worry too much about the politicians."
Torch sighed when there was no response.
"What are you planning to do next?" He asked the gym leader.
Sabrina gave a half-hearted shrug.
"Are you just waiting to get a call about the next thing the construction crews need?"
Another shrug.
"Oh, well," Torch said, "I hate to spoil the surprise, but Brock and Karen have both given orders that they're not to call you for anything else."
"What?" Sabrina's head shot up and Torch could see her face through her hair. Her eyes were wet and bloodshot. "They can't do that!"
"Well, given that you were in a state that left you unable to fulfill your duties as gym leader, Brock is in charge," Torch explained. "And will remain so until he's relieved of duty or you pass an evaluation that states that you're fit for duty."
"Why would they-"
"They seem to think that you should get some medical attention," Torch said. He coughed. "And they may have asked me to see that you receive it."
"I'm- I'm well enough to work," Sabrina protested, sitting up in the booth. "There's so much that needs to be done!"
"Everything that required your help is already done," Torch said gently.
"No," Sabrina shook her head frantically. "I've got to fix everything that- I've got to help fix everything."
"You're not the one who broke it," Torch replied. "And you of all people should know that people under controlling psychic influences can't be held responsible for their actions. The responsibility lies with the controller not-"
"I know that!" Sabrina snarled. The café vibrated and Sabrina's face went pale. She drew back, letting her hair fall over her face again.
"Sabrina-" Torch began.
"I don't remember it," Sabrina said quietly. "If that's what you're worried about. I don't remember what it was like being caught in that helmet. I can only recall flashes, just sensations."
Torch looked relieved.
"That's what makes it so painful," Sabrina gasped. "Every time I'm near someone who saw what happened, those memories, they just- jump out. I can't help but read the memories, I see what I did through their eyes."
Torch froze.
"And the fear," Sabrina said in a broken voice. "Everyone's afraid of me again. I can't be near the League trainers without tasting their fear. I can't go near the evacuees who saw me and I can't go to the hospital where people I hurt are being treated."
"Pushing yourself to help with reconstruction…. Was that your way of trying to get them to stop being afraid?"
"It's all I can think to do," Sabrina admitted and Torch could see the tears running down her cheeks through the veil of her hair. "I won't erase those memories, so the best I can do is to do the opposite of what I was forced to do. Through the actions I choose to take, I can replace those memories, at least in part."
"Oh, Sabrina…."
"Go back to Brock and Karen and tell them I need to do this," Sabrina was almost pleading. "Tell them that I have to do this for everyone's sake."
"That's not true," Torch shook his head. "And fear is hard to overcome. Just helping with construction won't be enough. What you really need right now is medical and psychiatric care. Come on, let's just go to the League infirmary-"
"No!" Sabrina shouted and the café trembled again. She froze again and then shot back and huddled into the corner of the booth. Torch regarded her silently for a moment.
"Atsushi would like some company," he said evenly.
"No!" Sabrina shook her head. "He's the worst of all! The memories… his pain… what I did to him…. I can't take it!"
"He can't be afraid of you-" Torch began, but Sabrina was frantically shaking her head.
"Every time I see him, I can see myself trying to kill him, played through his eyes," Sabrina said. "I can feel his pain as if it were my own! And the time he spent hovering between life and death after-"
"After you managed to do the impossible and saved his life?" Troch interrupted. "I heard the story from him. He should have died right then and there, splattered all over the wall. You found a way around Team Rocket's control to save his life!"
"And he spent days in agony!" Sabrina shouted back. "I don't know how he survived-"
"You were the reason he managed to survive," Torch said. "I don't know what power or move you used, but it was thanks to you that he managed to last until I could find him! If you're thinking about everyone else's memories from the time you were under that helmet, at least remember the good you managed to do despite all the odds."
"I can't," Sabrina shook her head frantically. "Not without seeing how much I hurt him."
There was another period of silence.
"You must think I'm horrible," Sabrina said finally. "I can't even comfort Atsushi because of the unpleasant thoughts of others."
"The unpleasant thoughts of others are a legitimate worry for non-telepaths," Torch said, leaning back in his side of the booth. "Let alone telepaths who have gone through a traumatic experience of their own."
"I didn't go through a traumatic experience; I was the traumatic experience."
"Cut the crap. You wouldn't say that to anyone else in your position; hell, I've seen you say the opposite to people who've been in your position," Torch said. "So why do you think it's okay to say it to yourself? Even if you don't have clear memories of what happened it was still an experience that affected you deeply even before you started picking up on the memories of the people who had lived through it from the other end."
Sabrina was quiet.
"Come on, you know I'm right," Torch said. "I've seen you give this talk to plenty of people before."
Sabrina closed her eyes and shivered. Torch was quiet.
"I want to say that it's different," Sabrina said eventually. "I want to think that I should have been able to fight it, whatever it was they used on me. Because it's easier to pretend that I know that there was something I could have done and didn't, instead of facing the truth, which is that there may have been nothing I could have done at the time. Because, then, if I'm ever in the same situation again, then I'd be guaranteed to be able to do something about it."
"But there may be nothing that you can do," Torch said quietly.
"Yes," Sabrina said, gulping. "And because I'm a gym leader. It's my job to save people from situations like the one I'm in…"
"Being a person who helps others doesn't mean that you never need help yourself," Torch said. "You know that. I'm not saying anything that you haven't said before. It's just harder to apply this wisdom to yourself."
"Yes," Sabrina said finally. "I'll go check in at the infirmary. But I'm going to ask that they transfer me to Celadon City first chance they get."
"Thank you."
"But there is one other thing left to do," Sabrina said, uncurling from her seat. "And I'm still the only one who can do it."
AN: I'd like to thank Amationary for beta reading
Finished writing the arc on my end, it's in the buffer and ready to be published.
Don't forget to review! Concrit is welcome!