With a Broken Heart

by Chibi Lovely

What if the kiss between Serena and Ash had happened on a different time and circumstances? And what if Misty had seen it? Causing her both, one of the biggest heartbreaks of her life but also the awakening of new powers and abilities that she'll need to navigate in order to go on and heal herself until the time her and Ash meet again. (Pokeshipping week 2024)

6. Pr6- Ocean-The Ballad of Queenie & Sissy

Prologue pt6. – Ocean (aka. The ballad of Queenie & Sissy).

A year had passed since that fateful day when Misty had her heart broken but ended up discovering her psychic powers. She'd continued training under Sabrina and mastered 2 of her abilities, the subconscious reading through music and the multiple visions. Telekinesis though was still a problem, she had managed to move some objects to an extent, but the movement is still erratic and not very precise, it's improved, but definitely not mastered yet.

Misty certainly made the best out of her situation, she became a sort of Maverick for reading people, just one initial shake of hands and she'll be able to tell that person's state of mind and whether their intentions were harmless or ill intended, based on the tune she'd hear; in a way, it gave her a shortcut to know who she could trust, and that's something she'd grown used to and grateful to have.

As for her ability to see multiple futures, fortunately after the Rocket incident at Saffron, it's been mostly appearing in battles, and as she was basically devouring all the books and material Tracey gave her, it made her a really good fighter. Most times she was completely able to predict out of the multiple scenarios what was the next move a challenger would do based on their previous moves. In the past year she'd only been defeated three times in official gym battles, Sabrina still held the best winning record for a Kanto gym at only 1 defeat, but Misty was getting there.

Being a gym leader, as Misty would find out, would provide a faster way if she wanted to get a degree in Pokémon battling sciences from University. She previously thought that taking a theory approach to battles was futile; she certainly did when she met Giselle and the other obnoxious students at the Pokemon-tec years ago, but she was also stuck in Cerulean with no real chance to take a long trip in order to experience a more organic way to catch different Pokémon and participate in battles against different trainers that are not just novice challengers, so she had to be pragmatic, and besides, now that the training sessions with Sabrina were not as regular, she needed to fill her time somehow.

Daisy, Lily and Violet all agreed Misty was insane and overdid it when she applied for University, because not only she applied to get the degree on Pokémon battling, she also decided as she was already learning music (she actually got quite good at the piano, and was now fully able to read and write music) to get a music degree as well, and when both those schedules still seemed to leave a gap in her agenda, on a whim she went and took on a second language as well just to keep busy, and decided on Paldean.

Here is where everyone thought she was insane, not only she was picking a language from a region she'd never stepped foot on, but one she had not even had friends or anyone to practice with. Sabrina did point out that was curious her selecting the language for the region Ash happened to be at, but Misty just brushed her off saying Ash wasn't even learning the language there, and she only picked it because since having her new connection to music she started hearing new genres, and she just happened to like a lot the music from Paldea.

Juggling her class schedule of three simultaneous degrees wasn't an easy feature, but she got quite crafty with it. Once as she was going to have her song composition trimester final on the same day as the Paldean poetry test, she managed to convince both professors to let her combine the tests by letting her compose a song with the lyrics in Paldean and have both professors at the room to evaluate. By this point, she'd basically separated all the individual songs she heard on the first day, and would go on writing all the additional ones she would hear on her daily life, and have the music and lyric written in a purple notebook that she'd always carry wit her, so would be an easy feature to get one of those songs that she'd completed and work on a Paldean translation (to be honest, she did think most things sounded better in Paldean, so in most cases that applied to her songs too). Well, there was still one song that she couldn't find lyrics for, no matter how many times she heard it, but that's not important now, she had plenty others to choose from.

By the time she went to her final in front of the piano and played the ballad from the time she saw Serena kissing Ash translated to Paldean she could barely hold her own tears, but she somehow managed to finish the song, and when she looked to both the music and Paldean professors, they were both in tears as well. At that moment, the music professor told her about a contact he had with a music label, and how she had the potential for her songs to be picked up and sang by different artists, or by herself if she was interested to pursue a singing career as she had the voice for it.

Misty adamantly refused the idea to sing her songs, it was already well out of her comfort zone having performed it for the test, but singing to the whole world her feelings for Ash… no way. But the professor strongly recommended her to at least reconsider the idea to work with the label as a songwriter/ composer, because otherwise it would be too much of a waste of talent.

Curiously enough, it was Sabrina who convinced her otherwise, telling her that in a way, letting the songs being sung by a different person could be cathartic, and a way to release the burden of those feelings, and besides, as Misty would find out, most gym leaders could not make a living out of "gym leading" at all… Sabrina got her neuroscience degree and was part-time teaching at Saffron's university, apart from the funding she got from the psychic society for her school; Lt. Surge had a good pension fund from his military service days, Erika had her perfume emporium, and even the mysterious former gym leader of Viridian whose identity might or might have not been a façade was rumoured to have run a massive front of money laundering through casinos all over Kanto, so one way or another she needed a way to make money.

It now made even more sense to Misty why her sisters came up with their silly show, and as she hadn't fully decided on a different career path, maybe getting money for the songs, and for those to become "someone else's feelings" wouldn't be the worse thing, so she agreed to meet with the record label, and very quickly became quite highly regarded by the executives there, as all the songs they've picked from her for a few artists mostly in Paldea had become massive hits. Misty was mostly relieved the revenue form the songs had more than covered her student loan, and she was actually getting some extra while still being a student, and so far, Sabrina had been right, the songs were linked to the artists singing them, so there wasn't much pressure on her just being there on the writing credits.

She and Ash had both maintained their pact to talk the first of every month, no matter what each had going on. Ash was halfway through getting the necessary Paldean badges to participate in the league. He'd actually come back to Kanto once to visit his mom and had organised another big gathering with all his friends, but the moment Misty confirmed Serena was coming (Tracey was helping with the invitations and got the RSPV by mail) she decided to say she had a training session with Sabrina out of town that weekend and couldn't go (then she had to convince Sabrina to go out that same weekend for which she had to come clean on the reasons why, as there was no fooling Sabrina, but that was the lesser of two evils).

Misty wasn't even sure anymore what the situation between Ash and Serena was. She found out they were not traveling together, as few months ago Serena burst into the idol scene and was being quite successful all across Kalos with her show, but there was no way Misty was going to risk being at another gathering where she suddenly walks into those two kissing, so she missed that reunion. Tracey mentioned everyone but her showed up, and they all had a good time before wishing Ash farewell again.

But this weekend was different from that, this time she really had plans with Sabrina. They'd been talking for a while on how would be beneficial for Misty to catch more psychic Pokémon, and as Misty was on Spring break from Uni, they decided to go a particular archipelago in the Orange Islands famous for being a nesting site for Slowpokes (and both their evolutions), as it would be the perfect overlap between water & psychic for her to train next… well, that and according to Sabrina, something about slowpoke's slow nature but multiple possibilities, made them quite a good match for Misty, which Misty wasn't sure whether to take as a compliment or not, but coming from Sabrina, at least she knew it was probably true.

The trip would also serve as a small celebration on Sabrina winning the gym leader's global tournament, which is held every 4 years, and to which Misty should have gone to, if only her sister Violet hadn't kept the invitation secret from Misty and showed up herself, in hopes to meet gym leader Falkner who Violet had a massive crush on (And according to Violet, was destiny, because Falkner was the leader at Violet City). Needless to say, Violet did not do well in the tournament, as soon as she arrived she saw Falkner arriving with his fiancée, and then Violet was knocked out in the group stage after 3 consecutive losses. Normally Misty would have been more upset at her sister for causing Cerulean's reputation being so damaged, but part of her felt sorry for Violet and related to the heartbreak, and truth be told, Misty was in the middle of finals at Uni during the tournament, and part of her hated media attention, so in a sense, Violet might have done her a favour this time; besides, it was probably meant to be that Sabrina went on to win the whole tournament. There will always be a next time.

For the trip to the Orange Islands Daisy and Tracey decided to join; as a local, Tracey knew well the area and the best Slowpoke nesting spots, but also, he'd just been admitted to an internship at a Pokémon Wildlife institute in Unova for the next 2 years, which meant him and Daisy would have to go long distance, so they were trying to spend as much time together as possible before that.

By the time they went on the Orange islands trip, Misty had her driver's apprentice license, but as she hadn't yet taken the final test, Daisy was the designated driver from the airport. Lily and Violet hated driving, but Misty took after Daisy and was growing to love it, she couldn't wait to get her full license which meant she could do more traveling during the weekends to catch Pokémon while still being able to be back on time to Cerulean for her Uni and gym duties.

That Saturday the 4 of them arrived to the Orange Islands by plane 8AM, and Daisy drove the rental car to the harbour where they would board the yacht stopping by the archipelago. The plan was to get off there, walk to the nesting site, camp through the night and come back to board the yacht on the next day.

During the flight and the yacht trip, Misty used the time to reply to some of the song requests from the label and a few artists that had heard the other songs she composed and were desperate to meet her and see if they could do a collab. One emerging artist from Paldea was very insistent and wrote a few emails to try arrange a meet- up as she felt she'd be a perfect match for Misty's songs. Misty had checked her existent repertoire, and thought her style was a bit more urban and club-like, rather than what Misty had written so far, she felt flattered for the artist to be that keen on her songs so she wrote back to arrange a meeting after her trip.

Other than Sabrina being recognised and asked for pictures and autographs by some of the other passengers at the plane and the yacht for her victory in the leaders tournament, the initial part of the trip went quite smoothly until they were hiking on their way to the nesting site.

- "This is very unusual, normally this time of the year we can see more slowpoke, Slowbro and Slowking arriving to the Island, but we've only seen a couple, and they were all on the way out rather than in" – Tracey mentioned quite puzzled.

- "In every book I read said they don't miss the yearly visit to this archipelago, it is indeed odd to see only a couple on the way out. You think maybe because of the weather they came earlier this year?" – Misty answered.

- "Could be, but this year's temperatures haven't been that different from last couple years, it still makes no sense" – Tracey replied.

- "Let's just try heading towards the caves showing in the map, maybe most are gathering there" – Sabrina mentioned showing the particular spot in the map.

As the group was heading towards the caves, they couldn't help noticing there was an alarming degree of devastation around, some of the trees and flora were knocked down, but did not look like the effect of a natural disaster, more like from man-made machinery, and though very faint, Misty kept hearing a soft and sad ballad, almost to the rhythm of the ocean with lyrics that she was barely able to listen, as if very distant.

" And if I'm gone and something happens to you,

Remember, everything in this life will move on,

but no matter what, I promise, my spirit will never leave your side.

I feel big and strong for you,

Even if I tried, I would not be able to move on without you,

All of my happiness, I owe it to you,

And even if I die, I promise I'd still be there just for you."

The song was making Misty really sad, but she had to follow the direction she felt the sound was coming from, but it happened not to be the cave spot on the map, but slightly more west than that, in a seemingly deserted area.

- "Guys I know it sounds weird, but I hear a really sad song coming west, I think we should head there instead" – Misty pleaded to the group.

- "The spot seems deserted in the map, but you're usually right when you hear things, we might find an explanation for all this destruction around" – Sabrina agreed.

As they headed west, they started seeing more and more groups of Slowpokes, Slowkings and Slowbros fleeing the area in panic (judging by the fact they were not even moving in their usual slow motion), and soon after, Misty's group heard an explosion.

- " What on earth is happening here? Does this place have like, active volcanoes?" Daisy asked scared.

- "I don't think so, there was not supposed to be any volcanic activity in this area, that sounds more like man-made explosives" – Sabrina answered still on her newscaster tone, girl really knew how to keep her cool even on the strangest situations.

- "I'm not sure explosives make me feel any easier though" – Daisy answered still anxious.

- "If they're man-made explosives we can make them stop. That must definitely be what is causing the slowpoke families to run away" – Misty commented, and as they were getting closer to the area where the explosion came from, the song was also becoming louder.

"There are really not enough words

to express how grateful to Arceus I am for your presence.

I'd like you to know, that I love every bit of your essence.

And when I decided to stay with you, it means forever"

This was bordering on absurd for Misty, she was at the brink of tears unsure why, but the song was just tearing her heart apart, she had to find where it was coming from.

She made the group go in a very weird direction, there wasn't a proper path through it, they kept cutting through some of the knocked down trees. Soon enough, the whole group stopped in surprise, when they spotted a couple caves that were nowhere in the map Tracey was holding, but they were there in front of them, they just had to come down the small hill they were on and border a slim shore leading to the caves just next to the ocean, but by the shore as well, they noticed what looked like a couple submarines parked.

- "I thought this area was deserted, I cannot find anything about those 2 caves here" – Tracey mentioned in surprise.

- "The song's definitely coming from there, the sound keeps getting louder the closer we get to it" – Misty said in conviction, something in her just urged her to go where the song was originating.

- "Wait! Are those… Rockets?" Daisy asked pointing near the entrance to the second cage, just before they were about to go down the hill, 2 Rocket members were leaving the cave, and all over the shore you could see the groups of Slowpoke families swimming out of the area.

- "That would certainly explain the destruction around, they must be doing something illegal here which is getting in the way of the Slowpoke's nesting season" – Sabrina just calmly said.

The Rocket members went to one of the submarines, and came out of them holding what from the distance looked like shovels.

- "We need to go there see what they're up to" – Misty proposed.

- "We don't really know what kind of weapons they have there, we need like, backup" – Daisy pointed out.

- "Does anyone have phone signal here? I have nothing " – Tracey asked the group

- "Not a single bar" – The three girls replied at unison

- "According to the map there should be a lighthouse in this area, it will likely have at least a phone" - Tracey said while pointing at the map – "but from here, walking would take at least half an hour"

- "We need to split, someone needs to be around here to stop them in case they are getting away, and all those Slowpoke families seem to need help.

- "It's too dangerous for like, either of us to be on their own, we don't know if there are more Rockets near the lighthouse, but we're only 4" –Daisy mentioned still concerned.

- "We're 4 people, you and Tracey can go to the lighthouse, and Sabrina and I can stay here"- Misty proposed.

- "Unless… Would you be able to like, teleport there?" – Daisy asked Sabrina

- "Unfortunately I can only teleport to places I'm directly seeing or previously been at, as I've never been to the lighthouse I wouldn't be able to teleport there. There are some restrictions in terms of distance as well" – Sabrina said as those scientists explaining facts to kids on TV shows.

- "That's why it makes sense for her to stay with me here, if something happens she can teleport us out of their reach at least, so could our Pokémon. Tracey is the better of us at reading maps, he'll find the lighthouse sooner than any of us; there is really no other possible split" – Misty added to her previous proposal.

Daisy really grew up to have a strong and protective maternal instinct for Misty, she knew the proposal was the most logical, but still she was uneasy to let her baby sister with just 1 friend facing a potential army of Rockets; however, time was of the essence, so she reluctantly had to accept.

Before letting Tracey and Daisy go, Misty took one of her Pokeballs out and called out for her Pokémon. It was a Swanna, Misty caught it as a Ducklett some months ago, on a weekend Lily and Violet had to go to Unova for a quick photoshoot and Misty decided to tag along to catch some Pokémon from the area. Needless to say, the fact the only thing she could catch that weekend was a Ducklett, caused a few sarcastic comments form Lily, but Misty was actually happy with the catch, she was trying to catch more dual Pokémon, and Ducklett was water/flying, even though at this stage he couldn't fly very well, when evolving, she knew Swanna would be able to cross the skies so the day during a gym battle when Ducklett evolved, Misty was over the moon to say the least.

- "Take Swanna with you, he could fly above where you are and alert you if there's danger ahead" – Misty said to Daisy and Tracey, and following that she added – "Swanna, take good care of them for me please" – to which the Pokémon nodded.

Once Daisy and Tracey were on their way to the lighthouse, Misty and Sabrina were left at the scene where they saw the Rockets that by now were inside the cave again.

- "I don't even need to read your mind to know you were lying to your sister when you said we'd stay here, so... which of the 2 caves you want us to go to?" – Sabrina went straight to the point.

- "The song is coming from the same where those 2 Rockets went back in" – Misty was trying to be apologetic, but Sabrina was just right, it was always Misty's plan to get to the origin of the song.

- "OK, I can at least teleport us to the entrance so we avoid going down this hill and all along the shore, once there, we'll both get our Pokémon out and go" – Sabrina proposed pointing to the entrance clearly visible from where they were.

If Misty was massively frustrated at not being able to control well her telekinesis, not being able so far to teleport was definitely at the top of her frustrations list, she always thought that was likely the most useful of the abilities a Psychic user can have, and to add to her frustration, a big number of Sabrina's students could use it (and Sabrina's dad as well, which Ash found out as a kid, and now that Misty was training under Sabrina's tutelage, she got a few pointers and advice from her dad too), it was not supposed to be a rare ability within that community, yet it felt unreachable for her.

Once Sabrina teleported them next to the cave's entrance, she took her Alakazam and her Gardevoir out, while Misty took Starmie, and as usual, Psyduck came out on his own.

When both girls entered the cave it was completely dark, so Misty took her Chinchou out of a pokeball and held it in her arms; she'd caught it on a weekend trip recently, and was really excited on the possibilities a dual water/electric could give her in battle. The lights in Chinchou's antennas certainly came handy to help the girls make their way inside the cave.

Once the light from Chinchou allowed them to see, the view sent both girls shivers down their spines, there were still a few confused Slowpokes either trapped between rocks, or just terrified at the previous darkness looking for a way out, some of them looking bruised as well, most of them in tears.

Misty was still hearing the song, but they also needed to do something to help the Slowpokes along the way.

- "We need to help them out of this cave" – Misty said.

- "Gardevoir can teleport them out in groups, but she'll need light in the area, problem is we'll need it as well to move forward and there's only one Chinchou" – Sabrina replied.

- "I still haven't been able to teach Starmie teleport, but Starmie could use light screen and stay here to help Gardevoir see right? Will that be OK guys?" – Misty finished directing the last question to Starmie and Gardevoir, to which both Pokemon nodded.

- "That's not a bad shout, we can move forward and Alakazam could send any other Slowpoke's we find on the way here, so they can get out with Gardevoir too" – Sabrina added.

Both girls kept their way inside the cave, whenever they encountered other confused Slowpokes on their way, Alakazam would take them to the spot where Starmie was and then make his way back to Sabrina.

Soon the girls encountered that the cave split into 2 further entrances, but from one of them they could see a faint light, so that would likely be where the Rockets were "working", it was also where the song seems to be originating from.

- I guess is a no brainer, the one with lights right?" – Sabrina asked.

- "Yes, the song comes from there too" – As Misty said this, both girls continued their way, but before entering Sabrina stopped abruptly.

- "Poor thing, I don't think this one made it" – Sabrina said pointing at what looked like a dead Slowking trapped under rocks.

Feeling her heart heavier than she ever did, Misty's eyes started to fill with tears, she approached the rocks and was trying to get them out of the Slowking, but they were heavy; maybe it was fortunate that the whole situation gave Psyduck a headache too, so he was able to use levitate and lift a few of them, Alakazam was quick to come to the help as well; once all rocks were out, the girls confirmed their previous suspicions, that the poor Slowking indeed had passed away crushed by the rocks, which seemed to have fallen from the cave's ceiling, maybe as a side effect of one of the explosions the girls heard earlier.

- "He was facing towards the light, not out, I think he was the one helping the rest out" – Misty said in tears.

- "If the rocks fell from the ceiling on him we should be alert, Alakazam, you'll need to use barrier if we hear any sign of explosion" – Sabrina ordered to her signature Pokémon.

Both girls started to make their way with more caution towards the Rocket site, they were starting to hear human and machine sounds, so the Rockets would definitely be gathered there, and it would not be a great outcome if they got caught.

Didn't take them long after that to see a few Rocket grunts gathered and what looked like drilling equipment all over. That area was well lit.

- "Thank you Chinchou, come back to your Pokeball, better if they don't notice your light" – Misty thanked her Pokémon and collected it back to the Pokeball.

- "There's at least a dozen of them, we are way outnumbered" – Sabrina said.

But Misty just kept moving her head looking for the origin of the song until she spotted it, in a corner not far from the machinery, what looked like an injured Slowbro was in the floor trying desperately to hold something with her hands.

- "I can hear it now too, that Slowbro is actually singing to something, I can't hear the music, but I hear what she's saying and it does sound like a song" – Sabrina said in surprise, well, surprised mostly of the range Misty had been able to hear the Pokémon's plea, as Sabrina was used to understand Psychic Pokémon's language.

- "I hear a tune as well as her singing, she seems to be trying to soothe whatever she's holding, but she looks injured" – Misty said in concern, still with the teary eyes from the fallen Slowking earlier.

- "If we get there, the Rockets will definitely see us, they seem to be doing some sort of mining here… Illegal most certainly" – Sabrina said unsure what step to take next, she didn't want to leave that Slowbro suffering either, but there was still the concern of them being greatly outnumbered by Rocket members.

- "Alakazam, Could you bring Gardevoir and Starmie here please?" – Sabrina asked her loyal starter, and added to Misty "We'll need them".

As Alakazam came back with the other Pokémon, the girls were trying to decide what to do next.

- "We need to get where that Slowbro is" – Misty said in conviction

- "That will leave us at plain sight to those Rocket grunts, there's no way they'll miss us even if we teleport" – Sabrina pointed out.

- "So we'll need to be ready to attack, they're using all that drilling equipment to extract something from this cave, plus that massive excavator they somehow got inside here, I think our Pokémon should target the tools and leave them empty handed before they can react" – Misty suggested

- "They also have loads of Ground-type Pokémon with them drilling the site, be ready to fight them too" Sabrina added, noticing there were many Excadrill on the site as well, until suddenly both girls land eyes on the only non-ground type the Rockets had with them… a Salamence, who was standing next to someone now the girls realised was familiar.

- "Is that… the fake inspector from a year ago?" Misty said in Surprise.

- "Certainly looks like it, now there's someone I'm sure won't be pleased to see us here" - Sabrina said, on her usual newscaster tone.

- "OK, still makes no difference to the plan, you teleport us there, and the Psychic Pokémon will target all the tools and send them away from the Rockets, Excadrill are ground-type, Politoed and Chinchou can use water-type attacks on them, I'll get them out of their Pokeball as soon as we're next to Slowbro, you order the attacks on all the psychic Pokemon including Psyduck, and I'll do the water ones on the Excadrill"

And as Misty said this, she heard louder the music and the ballad Slowbro was singing

"Even if I tried, I would not be able to move on without you,

All of my happiness, I owe it to you,

And even if I die, I promise I'd still be there just for you."

As planned, the group teleported next to Slowbro. As soon as this happened, Sabrina ordered Alakazam, Gardevoir and Psyduck to use Psychic attack and send all the Rocket tools flying to the other side of the cave, while Misty took Politoed, Chinchou and ordered them and Starmie to use hydro-pump on the many Excadrill, luckily a few of them were knocked out by the hydro-pump impact, but there were still a few standing.

Even though the psychic attack got rid of most of the tools team Rocket was holding, there was still the big excavator on the site, and the grunt still operating it.

All the Rockets were in shock, particularly one of them

- "You have got to be kidding me! What are those two doing here?" – The lead, and former fake inspector shouted in anger.

Misty just had time to order another Hydro pump attack to the "Water-team", but she rushed to help the Slowbro, which now was painfully clear what her situation was. It was badly injured and bleeding profusely, likely caused by one of the tools used by the grunts, or even the excavator, but despite her injury, the Slowbro was holding two eggs as best as she could.

Misty ripped her T-shirt to try and stop the bleeding near the Slowbro's stomach, and used a potion she had, but the amount of blood already spilled was too much, the Pokémon looked really weak, yet somehow there was an expression of relief in Slowbro's face, who locked eyes with Misty to them turn them to the two eggs.

- "They'll be OK, I promise, you need to make it through this too please" – Misty said almost begging to the Slowbro.

Misty couldn't hold the tears at this point, but she did notice a couple Excadrill coming her way, and was quick enough to ask Politoed to use Liquidation on them, which the Pokémon quickly obeyed, knocking out both Excadrill.

Meanwhile Sabrina and the "Psychic-team", kept throwing grunts, tools and a few Pokémon to one side of the cave while Alakazam held them with a barrier move. Sabrina herself had to use her own Telekinesis to fight those grunts who managed to get closer to them and make their bodies unable to move until Gardevoir could send them into the barrier with the rest.

- "Chief, what do we do?, we don't have many men left" – The grunt operating the excavator shouted.

- "Just keep digging, we need as many stones as we can take, I'll get rid of the girls" – Shouted the chief.

The grunt obeyed and kept the excavator going, the way it was digging into the ground and causing devastation just made something snap in Misty, she could deduct that it started excavating near where the Slowpoke families buried their eggs for hatching and that's how Slowbro got hurt protecting hers, and likelihood is the Slowing making his way back was the dad.

Misty felt so much despair, frustration and sadness all at once, she couldn't stand the feeling of guilt for not making it to the cave earlier, and kept feeling powerless as the cave where the Slowpoke families should have had as safe shelter for nesting season kept being destroyed by the greed of the Rockets, is like she wasn't controlling her own actions anymore on one side, but on the other she just kept having an impulse for making the horror stop, and even though previously all her telekinesis attempts only ended in small objects trembling or falling from a table, she somehow felt how she remotely gained control of the excavator with the grunt still inside, and how she started to crush the excavator with her mind to the point where it couldn't harm the cave anymore.

The Rocket chief looked in horror as the excavator was about to crush the grunt as well, but at that moment when Misty could only hear a rage tune in her head, an "elevator-like" tune suddenly interrupted it. It was Sabrina grabbing Misty by the shoulders.

- "It won't make things right even if you get rid of him… trust me I've been there" – Sabrina pleaded to Misty, it was one of those rare occasions where the newscaster tone wasn't there, and there was raw emotion in her voice.

Psyduck also got near Misty and was holding to her leg, as if joining Sabrina's plea; as the excavator stopped being crushed, the grunt barely managed to get out of it, and as he was doing so, Gardevoir tossed him to where the rest was within Alakazam's barrier.

The chief took the coward escape again, riding Salamence few past the scene outside of the cave, when he got out he saw Daisy and Tracey who were about to enter the cave with Jenny and the coast guards that they managed to get a hold from the lighthouse. That group rushed to the cave.

Back to inside the cave, as Misty was still in tears and shivering, the two eggs Slowbro was holding started to hatch to reveal 2 healthy Slowpokes, but tragically as she saw her babies been born, Slowbro's strength gave in and she had her last breath. As she collapsed she revealed underneath her 2 stones, one that Misty recognised as a slowbronite, and she couldn't tell what the other was, as even though she basically devoured all of the books and Websites from Tracey, that particular stone didn't seem to be in any of them.

- " I think she was keeping these for her twins" – Sabrina told Misty

As Misty was barely regaining consciousness and control, she had a rush of scenarios coming to her head, of a Slowbro and a Slowking, and somehow she could tell which twin was which in all of them.

- "Twin sisters, they don't deserve having lost their parents like this" – Misty said in tears.

- "I'm quite certain Slowbro trusted you to take care of them, if it hadn't been for you hearing her song, Arceus knows what would have been of them. Slowbro was just holding until someone could come help her babies" – Sabrina added in empathy.

- "I couldn't help her" – Misty just replied in despair.

- "Not even my father knows this, because at the time I was too young to be able to explain, but when my powers got out of control was when I was a toddler and saw my Grandpa dying hit by a car, even at such a young age, I felt as frustrated as you're right now that I couldn't stop that car, I had the urge to make things right with my power, and is when things got dark for me to the point of dissociating to the estate I was when you met me, but you cannot go the same path… believe me I know what you're feeling right now all too well" – Sabrina explained to her friend, at this point even though they were still mentor and mentee, Sabrina could feel Misty was perhaps her first true friend.

- "For a moment I wasn't able to control myself, I basically didn't care there was someone inside that excavator" Misty admitted.

- "I know, been there, but you snapped out of it just on time" – Sabrina said as Psyduck kept hugging Misty, and then Sabrina added "Can you do me a favour and see if you can use telekinesis to hand over to me those 2 stones?" – Sabrina patiently asked Misty.

What before would have been a nearly impossible task to Misty now felt like nothing, she was quite skilful to telepathically hand over the 2 stones to Sabrina

- "Well, not how I would have prepared the training, but looks like you're getting the hang of it now" – Sabrina added, part of her wanted to congratulate Misty on the achievement, but the whole situation was just too traumatic.

Misty held the two baby Slowpokes and Sabrina handed her the 2 stones for safekeeping. At that moment Daisy and her group made her way to where they were, with the coast guards quickly heading towards the grunts trapped in the barrier.

- "Get me out of here! She's a psychopath!" – The grunt that was operating the excavator shouted.

When Daisy heard that, she automatically assumed it was about Sabrina, she knew her and held her in great esteem now, but for the longest time, Sabrina did have a "psychopath" reputation all over Kanto.

- "You should lock that redhead" – The grunt continued shouting, which shocked Daisy and Tracey who were both now rushing where the girls were.

- "I don't think Kanto could take on having two leaders with a psychopath reputation, so you need to promise me you wont get there again" – Sabrina teased Misty.

As the coastguards were taking the grunts to custody, Sabrina explained everything to Jenny, Daisy and Tracey. Jenny mentioned the press would likely want the story but seeing how traumatised Misty was, Jenny agreed to be the one talking to the press later based on Sabrina's statement.

Before leaving the cave though, Misty went to bury the bodies of Slowbro and Slowking outside of the cave, and piled some rocks to make a tombstone for them. They both died protecting their colony, so it was the least she could do for them.

Turned out the Rockets knew that cave was rich in Slowbronite stones, and the non-recognised other one, so they were mining them for profit, regardless of all the damages they were doing to the Slowpoke population.

After the group was out of the cave, and in an attempt to lift the mood a little bit Daisy was the first to speak.

- "And who are these 2 cuties?" Said the blonde about the 2 Slowpoke babies.

- "Queenie and Sissy" Misty just answered.

- "Oh, other than Caserin, you normally don't name your Pokemon" – Tracey commented

- "I saw many scenarios of them, and in all the same becomes a Slowing and the other a Slowbro, but given that they're sisters, maybe "King" and "Bro" aren't the most suitable nicknames" – Misty admitted.

- "Well, I like the nicknames" – Daisy added.

- "I need to get home to my piano to try get the tune their mom was singing to them, I'm sure she would have liked them to keep hearing it" – Misty mentioned still in tears and sadness.

She'll have to deal with many things, but for now, Misty just wanted to be back home and for all her Pokémon to be safe.

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Ok, I finally managed to complete this one, between life getting on the way, and it being more tragic than the previous ones, it took me many rewrites.

It might be a bizarre choice, but I got inspired by the song "Ocean" from Karol G, so the lyrics are a close translated adaptation from that (note, I don't own the rights of the song, just got inspired by them as a fan, and I'm not making profits out of the fic, is just for fun). If you haven't heard the song, take a look on youtube, spotify, amazon, apple... Is a really sweet one, and the sound of the waves is always in the background, which gave me the idea of it coming from a water Pokemon. The song is in Spanish which is my native language, but the tune is just lovely but just so slightly sad, worth to listen to it.

Oh before I forget, might have also seem like a weird choice to have Paldean as a different language that now she's learning, but I swear there will be a point for that later on. For the time being just assume that in the Pokemon world "Kantonian" is English language and "Paldean" is Spanish, which is not so crazy really, a lot of the Paldean Pokemon have Spanish names :)

Hope you liked the episode, always grateful for comments (I'm so happy on the latest I received). I'll need a short episode after this to wrap this storyline (Sort of a bonus track), and then fingers crossed will be timeskip time :)