DISCLAIMER FROM 2024

At the encouragement of my readers, some of whom have followed me for twenty years, I have decided to reupload my old fanfiction stories. I do this with some reservations. I wanted to revise them before posting them again, but the sheer amount of words involved means that that would take me years to accomplish, and it would be better for me to focus on writing new stories instead. Maybe someday I'll go back and make the edits, but for now, I'm reposting everything, warts and all. So expect characters to be out of character, expect nonsensical sections, and expect there to be many grammar, punctuation, and spelling mistakes.

In addition, please understand that the story you have in front of you was written by a very different person. I was a teenager who was raised on 90's media, who lived in an abusive household and in a white conservative town. I was steeped in problematic beliefs and had an equally troubling sense of humor. Anything I wrote before 2010 will reflect that.

However, my understanding of the world has grown since then. I'm an adult now, out of the closet and firmly politically left. I'm also much better at my craft these days. It makes me cringe to think about how my earlier writing must have hurt some of my readers.

That being said, these stories were also ones that people loved and missed. If they can still make someone's day brighter, that's worth something. Maybe they can even inspire others by showing them how much someone's writing can grow with time and practice. Plus, my younger self worked hard on these. Even the darkest ones comforted her during a difficult time in her life. So maybe I owe her something better than burying her words.

So, without further ado, welcome to my old fanfics! You're in for a messy and melodramatic experience. As always, I hope you enjoy the read.

BRIAR

CHAPTER 1: DEATH AND REBIRTH

The fiery light of dusk cast the forests and mountains around the remote Purity Village in warm, sensuous tones of amber and scarlet, adding to the faint warmth leftover from the early autumn day. The wind off of the distant Mt. Quena was gentle for a change, caressing those who wandered along the nearby dirty roads, and creating a whispering melody in the boughs of the deciduous trees whose leaves were just beginning to alter in color. Some had even begun to fall, floating in the now golden-red waters of the rivers flowing from the guardian canyon, which many had compared to the Andes Mountains of a different continent in both beauty and treacherousness. During this time of year, the mellow scenery could change drastically, the firmament filling with deadly storms that could easily kill any unprepared traveler.

To one lonely and forlorn young woman, this concept seemed far from frightening—in fact, the idea was rather alluring, to die in a fit of nature's fury. It could be swift and cold, soothing the burn marks across her beige skin, and giving her mind and heart peace in the darkness of the next world. At seventeen, the young human had decided that her continued life was meaningless. She had many reasons behind her beliefs, not the least of which was that she simply had no place in the world—she did not belong. It was not as if anyone would miss her when she was gone…no one ever had. As she began to ascent up Mt. Quena's outer wall, the wind whipping her short, auburn hair into her eyes, she wiped away her futile tears, determined to accomplish one simple dream before she welcomed death to take her into its embrace: she would gaze upon the lake of Purity Canyon and swim in its waters, and once that wish was fulfilled in her soul, she would breathe in her demise.

It would not last long, dying, or be any more painful than living—of that truth she was certain.

As the light of the sunset faded and died, the moon rising and casting its own ghostly glow, she struggled to climb the rough, steep stone, her heart racing as she used her internal reservoirs of energy, her lungs heaving for oxygen in the thin atmosphere. The swiftly plummeting temperature drove knives into her throat, cutting through her light clothing and making her body shudder with cold. Yet she drove her body onwards, not willing to surrender to her discomfort and weakness. After hours of enduring the pain and fatigue, she reached the crest of the mountain range and gazed into the vast valley blow. Thick, lush forests within steep protective cliffs, the pristine air and water flowing throughout them, encouraging life to thrive. This was a Garden of Eden, a natural paradise. No humans could survive long up here, nor could many pokémon species thrive. Yet no matter how harsh, she felt that it was a heaven. She would not mind resting in this place for eternity in the least.

Smiling grimly, she began the descent, managing to maneuver several hundred feet before the sky darkened with cloud cover, the ethereal mist thick and heavy. The wind picked up, splattering rain into the geological basin and into her face, with shadows weaving before her in an erratic, drunken dance. The sought to blind her, to harm her, to make her fall…and in a moment of confused miscalculation and a lack of vision depth, her foot attempted to step onto thin air. Off balance on the slick stock, her other foot slipped, her hands clutching at the ledge about her for one moment…before muscle exhaustion made them release their fragile holds. Her stomach plummeted as she fell, terror rising in her throat…yet something inside of her was calm and peaceful as she gazed up at the sky that rose from her view. For it was a beautiful sight, giving birth to an even more wondrous feeling inside of her.

As the air howled in her ears and she closed her eyes, she thoughts that this must be what it was like to fly.

Then she hit the river and plunged into its icy depths, and knew nothing more.

Mew had advised them well on where they might find a haven, appealing to the desires and instinctual comforts they held deep in their hearts. Mt. Quena was far from the prying eyes of humans and kept all in its metaphorical arms hidden and relatively safe. It was a beautiful place, sheltering the clones from the outside world. Here, far from the judgement and prejudice and general misunderstanding of others, they could have a home. They could live, and perhaps even begin to form their own legacies to leave in this bright yet cruel world. Mewtwo was already well aware of just how comfortable and settled his group of outcasts had become in this place. Some had even made steps that indicated a will to stay here indefinitely. After a couple of months in Purity Canyon, he was willing to agree—there had been no major conflict to break their peace, and none of the wild pokémon had expressed a desire to drive them out. This place, he supposed might just be a place where they could belong…a place that they could call their own.

Yet even as he began to relax his guard, trust that humans would not come here, fate reared up in defiance. The wild pokémon had found a human woman near death on the shores of the river and pleased for the powerful newcomers to help her recover from the battering her body had taken. Few could conceive of how she had arrived in their midst, invading the paradise without detection…and they might in fact never know, for it was more than likely the exposure to the horrendous elements would finish her off. For a few moments as clone Blastoise brought her to the island, laying her to rest in the sand before him, the feline leader considered allowing that to occur. A human would only bring trouble here, especially if she had told others of her race where she was going. If she were to perish, surely, after enough time had passed, those people would search here to "rescue" her, or at least find her body.

No, he must help her, despite how loath he was to do so. He needed to know the reason behind why she was here to judge the level of danger she represented to them all. Once he knew, he could always teleport her back to her own kind with her memories of her time in Mt. Quena erased. With reluctance and those thought in mind, he lifted the woman into his arms and brought her inside the caverns of the island. He would see what he could do to preserve her life….

A month passed while the woman recovered under his care and that of the others. Hypothermia had held her firmly for several days, even with the fire pokémon of the group keeping her naked, shivering body warm with small outputs of their energy. When finding the small burns across her skin once her clothes had been removed to be washed and dried, they had even found that their care might have actually harmed her. Yet Mewtwo, sensing the despair in her aura and seeing the images from her wispy dreams, knew better. He had them find Rawst Berries, feeding the jelly of them to her in a liquified form made from mixing them with water, and even used some to make an ointment to smear on her burns. Among her possessions he found nothing to identify her, but he did discover one clue as to how she'd received her injuries—a lighter in her jacket pocket. He set it aside, and continued to try to coax her to drink more of the healing concoction he'd made for her use.

As she slept fully, he turned his eyes towards the nearby human towns, searching for hints as to whom she was.

The woman awoke slowly, as if emerging from a sea of tar. She had no idea where she was now. Though the memory was fuzzy, the last thing she recalled was falling from the cliff. Distantly, she was aware that it was a miracle that she'd survived the fall, and sighed out a quiet breath as she felt her heart beating, confirming that the strange area around her was not a produce of the afterlife. It was real, the sun shining through the rectangular openings in the stone wall, warm against her skin. It took her a second to realize that her clothes were gone, replaced with a brown, thin cloak the color of tarnished steel. When she did realize that, she found she cared very little, only wondering vaguely how she had gotten into this cave, and how long she had been asleep. Another curious thought joined that one—what had awoken her in the first place? She no longer had smarting burns, nor were her muscles considerably sore. She was not hungry or thirsty, and she didn't need to relief herself. She usually slept too deeply to be aware of anything outside of those most basic needs and feelings. So what had it been?

It took her a second to sort out her sensory intake, and when she did, she heard what was bothering her—the clicking of a lighter top flipping open and snickering shut. Her brow furrowed. That was her lighter being toyed with. Her gaze drifted to where the aggravating noise was originating from…and she sat up in surprise at finding that she was not alone in the room. Self-consciously she clutched the cloak over her chest, and her eyes narrowed as she gazed upon the strange creature—a pokémon, she was certain, but of a type she couldn't identify. The was mammalian, and of the feline genus, though the bipedal, humanoid form seemed like an evolutionary anomaly. Its sinewy, lashing tail was violet like its sharp eyes, while the rest of its light, velvet fur was a snowy lavender in hue. Hearing her stir, it glanced at her, frowning slightly, and tossed her the metal lighter. She caught it in one hand, clutching the concealing fabric to herself with her other arm. Different species though they might be, she still didn't want to be exposed to him. Having been raised around pokémon all of her life, she'd learned how to judge their personalities and feelings from minute movements, certain tiny indications of what the creatures were like. From this one, she sensed intelligence and hostility.

To her surprise, the pokémon spoke in human language. "How do you feel, Rose?"

He was using telepathy. And though she might have guessed his gender from his build, his voice was a low, masculine baritone. She blinked at him. "You know my name?"

He stood, the screen positions on the wall coming to life with a flick of his wrist. Digital newspaper articles, confidential files, and identification records were drawn up one by one. He looked at each one before speaking. "Rose Yew, daughter of Mary Yew, one of Johto's most renown pokémon breeders. You opted not to pursue the usual course of pokémon training at age ten, opting to pursue your education in the fields of pokémon physiology and medicine instead, in order to better follow in your mother's footsteps. You had an advantage over the others in your class, having helped your mother with her work since you were old enough to walk. Recently, you were taking college-level courses, and were thriving in them.

"According to faculty and peer reports, though, your academics were the only thing you were thriving in. Socially-speaking, you preferred to work alone, sometimes rejecting friendly overtures. You also showed signs of depression and a tendency towards self-harm. And since you have now been missing for over a month, many believed that you either ran away to some remote corner of the wild or committed suicide. Undoubtedly no one believed you would travel this far on your own—otherwise this area would be swarming with your kind as they searched for any sign of you. As of yesterday, though, the search for you was called off."

She sank back down on the ledge, stunned by not only having had her personal life spewed out at her in such a way, but also by the fact that this creature had managed to acquire such information. Obviously, her knew many of the things she hadn't thought a pokémon could learn—a grasp of human language, written and spoken, and the technical sciences they could refer to, and an ability to replicate and manipulate her kind's technology. It shouldn't have been so surprising—pokémon were sentient after all, and there were several kinds who could speak human languages. Furthermore, to think that they couldn't learn how to operate machinery and understand advanced materials was foolish—they had been around for longer than humans had, and one shouldn't put such boundaries on free entities. In general, you would be proven wrong to do so—such as now.

She closed her eyes to shut out his image. "Should…should I be alarmed by how much you've pried into to find out who I am, or please that I've interested you enough to encourage you to do that?"

He gave her an indiscernible look. "Neither. Finding out who you are is essentially in deciding how to deal with your presence here."

She did not understand what he meant, and her expression must have shown that plainly.

He turned his back to her, shutting off the screen with a silent command. "You have three options. The first is that you return to your home without your memories of your time in Mt. Quena and of me, which will almost certainly put you back on the path to self-destruction. The second is to go forward with your intended purpose here and end your life, since no one is coming for you and no one would stop you. The third is that you stay here and make yourself useful to the group I am a part of."

That last part about making herself useful threw her. "Excuse me?"

"Your knowledge and experience in taking care of pokémon, medically, would be assets to me. I know a great deal about genetics and organic chemistry, but I do not know how to help an ailing pokémon. I may guard my group and defend their lives, but I cannot heal them if they are injured or grow sick. Furthermore, I have recently been made aware that two of the creatures under my care have…decided to have children. And due to the circumstances surrounding their own births, I am concerned that there may be complications during the pregnancy and the childbirth itself. Since I know little in matters of progeny, having a pokémon breeder here would be a benefit."

He didn't sound like he enjoyed explaining so much to her, nor did he seem to like the idea of letting her stay near him and his group. Mulling over his words, she wrapped the cloak around herself and rose without a word, going down the steps out of the cavern. She spied some dark, adjoining spaces as she went down the hallway and eventually the chamber opened up. She gazed down from a ledge and watched crystalline water flowing into the pool below her, the grasses and fruit trees huddling around it swaying in the breeze. A nidoqueen and a rhyhorn, clearly close from their proximity to each other, munched on fallen apricots; a pidgeot preened its feathers in a tree; a vaporeon took a sip from the spring, its eyes gleaming afterwards. Such powerful, varied creatures—were they a part of the male's group? She wondered what had drawn them all together, but moved on when they looked up and stared at her.

Eventually, she emerged from the caverns onto the rocky shore of the island. She sat on the smooth, hard ground, with the water of the lake lapping at her toes. The water felt cool and blue. How could something feel blue? She wasn't certain, but it was what came to mind as she let her thoughts wander. They circled back to her original musings. She began to contemplate her options again.

She did not wish to return to her own kind. She had accepted that her departure from them had been her final goodbye. As for suicide…the idea still appealed to her. She would be lying if she tried to deny that. She'd been prepared for it and the idea of it still made her feel peaceful. The only thing that bothered her was the weight of the lighter in her hand, the only thing that disturbed her thoughts cradled in her palm. Distantly, she heard the male from before walk up to her, coming to tower to her right side. In her peripheral vision, she watched his tail swish through the air, which smelled of the coming frost.

She knew what would happen if she took the first two options. But the third remained, rife with potential emotions she had forgotten how to feel: purpose and contentment in her work, and some sense of self-value, even if it was only in doing a task for someone else. There were numerous cons to this that she could already discern, yet when she got down to those core feelings, she realized she cared very little about what she might have to endure in serving these pokémon. Better to be helpful to someone in life than useless in death. And she could always go the other way if this didn't work out.

"If I serve you all…will I be able to call this place home?" It would be nice to have somewhere to belong again, even if it only ended up being for a little while.

For a moment, he didn't answer. Then he said, "If you wish."

She stood and gazed at the sparkling wave which wetted her feet. "Then that's what I'll do."

He bowed his head in acknowledgement. He turned from her and began to walk away. Yet before he was ten feet from her, his voice rang out again. "One more thing, human."

She turned towards him, listening.

"The night you came here, you drowned while you were being brought to the shores of this island. Against my better judgement, I resuscitated you. Yet you perished all of the same, even if it was only for a few moments." His eyes met hers, amethyst on golden-green. "So Rose is dead, if you wish her to be. You have the chance to be someone else here, if that is your desire. For that, you would need a new name."

The breeze swirled around them, causing her cloak to flutter in the wind. "I don't care what you call me," she told him.

He nodded. "If you don't, then I will name you." And his mouth quirked at he said. "Briar, I think. You name will be Briar."

With that, he left her at the shore, contemplating what a strange fate had befallen her. Her old life and name were gone now, replaced by and entailing things she could not begin to guess. The road stretched on, dark and unknown before her, bringing about things she could not begin to foresee…but at least there was a path for her now. She took comfort in that thought.