Chapter Text
Unova - Spring 2022
The lights are off, the curtains are drawn. There are soothing rain noises playing from the speaker next to the bed, and a heavy blanket laid over his body. Despite all of these things, Emmet is staring straight up at the ceiling, wide awake. Galvantula is laid across him as well and she shifts occasionally, seemingly trying to make herself heavier in an effort to soothe him to sleep. It isn't working.
Emmet closes his eyes. It doesn’t help. Eelektross floats over and joins Galvantula in her efforts. He hears Haxorus moving around as well. If she tries to get on the bed he’s going to have to put a stop to this. He appreciates the thought, but he doesn’t want to buy a new bed because the Pokemon broke it under their weight. Again.
He lays still for a few more minutes, willing himself to sleep. He doesn’t have to work in the morning, thankfully, but he’s still too old to be pulling all-nighters. Eventually, he sighs and rolls onto his side, disrupting the Pokemon on top of him. Maybe if he faces the problem head on, he’ll be able to sleep.
He grabs his phone off the bedside table and unlocks it. He hesitates for just a second before pulling up his contacts list. The number is still saved as one of his commonly used contacts, despite the fact it’s been out of service for nearly two decades. He knows his therapist wouldn’t approve of him doing this, but he taps on the contact anyway and quickly composes a message, then sends it before he can second guess himself.
I love you, brother. I’m sorry.
He doesn’t know why he added the last part. He doesn’t have anything to apologize for. It’s not his fault his brother dropped off the face of the planet, vanishing without a trace and leaving behind his family and Pokemon alike. It’s probably not Ingo’s fault, either. It’s probably no one’s fault. But Emmet still feels like he failed somehow. So he apologizes.
It’s not like Ingo is getting the messages he sends, anyway. If he did, he would probably tell him not to apologize. At least, he thinks that’s what he would say. It’s becoming disturbingly difficult for him to be sure what his brother would have thought of anything. He knows that’s to be expected. He’s been gone so long that it’s hard to remember the details of what he had been like. Emmet hates it. It feels like a betrayal. Maybe that’s why he apologizes.
He sighs again. He shouldn’t be worrying about this. He knows why he is, but it shouldn’t bother him enough to keep him awake after all these years. He should be over it.
Today was the anniversary of his twin’s disappearance. Or death. Whatever you want to call it, it’s the day that it happened. As he does every year, he took the day off work and went out to visit Ingo. He used to visit more often, but now it’s only once a year. It hurts too much to see the headstone sitting over an empty grave, marking an assumption.
But today, he visited his brother. He brought flowers. Ingo never cared much about flowers, but it’s what you do for the dead, so Emmet brings him flowers every year. He laid the flowers out, then sat and talked, catching Ingo up on anything and everything he could think to. Talking has never been his strong suit, but he knows that Ingo loved listening to him, so he does it.
He spent most of the day there, then came home to his apartment, the same one the two of them had bought together so long ago, and made dinner for himself and their Pokemon before going to bed. He has been in bed since, trying desperately to sleep and failing miserably.
Part of him wants to just get up and find something to work on if he’s not going to sleep anyway, but he’s well aware of what that leads to, so he doesn’t move. He picks his phone up from where he had laid it on his chest, staring at the bright screen in annoyance. The clock reads 2:34AM. That’s a terrible time to be awake, especially since he hasn’t actually slept yet.
The message screen is still open and his eyes flick down to it, reading his last few messages. They’re each several months apart, and each have the same basic contents. He used to write a lot more, but every single message has been returned with an out of service message. He knows his brother isn’t receiving them, and he knows holding on to something like this isn’t really healthy. So he only does it rarely now. The last message reads, Happy birthday. I love you. Below it is the automatic flag telling him that the person he’s messaging isn’t in service range. And below that is his most recent message, with the same…
He sits up, sending Galvantula tumbling to the other side of the bed. She makes an annoyed chitter, but he ignores her, staring at the screen, certain that he must be hallucinating.
It says it’s been delivered.
He fumbles with the phone, quickly navigating away from his messages and to a different function. Tracking. They had both enabled their XTrans to be tracked remotely by each other in case of an emergency. When Ingo vanished, the tracking had failed completely, simply saying that he was out of range. But the message didn't say that. Maybe now it will work.
He pulls up the screen with the information he had transferred from his old XTrans when he finally replaced it and activates the tracking. The screen is blank for a moment, and then it makes a cheerful chime and displays a location. The location of his brother. Emmet shakes his head. He doesn’t know that. All he knows is that his brother’s XTrans is there.
That’s more than he’s ever had before.
He calls Elesa. While it’s ringing he gets out of bed and turns the lights on, then grabs the nearest clothes he finds and starts throwing them on.
Elesa answers, to his surprise, though her voice is thick with sleep. “Emmet? What’s going on?”
“Ingo.”
That seems to wake her up. Her voice is noticeably clearer when she says, “Oh, Emmet. I know today was the anniversary, but-”
”No, not that.” He waves his hand dismissively even though this is an audio only call, completely ignoring the fact that he’s only awake right now because of the anniversary. “His XTrans is active.”
There’s a few seconds of silence while she processes that, then, “shit, are you serious?”
“Yep. Verrry serious. It’s on the other side of town. Can you drive?”
There’s a lot of shuffling as she presumably throws herself out of bed much like he had done. “I’ll be there in five.”
She hangs up and Emmet goes back to getting hurriedly dressed. He apologizes to the Pokemon as he recalls them, then clips their pokeballs to his belt. He throws on a coat, grabs his keys, and rushes out the door. He reaches the street level just as Elesa’s sleek yellow car rounds the corner. She lives nearby, but he’s pretty sure she was still speeding to get here that fast.
He gets in the passenger side and pulls up the tracking on his phone again, showing it to her. The little dot has moved a bit, he thinks, though he hadn’t paid attention to the exact location before. Elesa just nods and floors it, tearing through the mostly empty streets. She’s wearing her headphones and a thick coat, but otherwise appears to be still in her pajamas.
“Thank you.”
“Hmm?” She glances at him for a second, before focusing on the road again.
“For coming so fast. I am…” He shakes his hands out, which helps the feeling of vibration under his skin only a little. “Verrry anxious.”
“I know. I’m anxious, too. Let’s just get there and see what we find before we draw any conclusions, alright?”
He nods, staring out at the streets flashing by far faster than is safe or legal. “Yes. That’s good. Smart.” He means it, but his mind is drawing conclusions, whether he likes it or not.
Hisui - Spring 1653
When Akari wakes up, her dad is gone. That’s not unusual, and she quickly gets out of bed and dresses for the day. She scratches Gliscor, who’s been left to watch over her, behind the ear as she walks to the cabinet to find the bread from yesterday. She takes it and several slices of cheese to the low table and sits cross legged, chewing the hard bread slowly.
Once she’s finished with breakfast, she tidies away her futon, cleans the dishes from last night using the leftover water, sweeps the ashes out of the fire pit, and readies the wood for when they will need it to cook tonight. Then, she pulls on her woven sandals, tying them securely, and heads outside. Gliscor silently swoops out after her and perches in a nearby tree.
She picks up one of the water buckets her dad left outside before he went to patrol this morning and brings it inside, replacing the empty bucket. Chores now done, she sits in front of the loom, which she left beside the tent yesterday since there wasn’t going to be any rain to ruin her hard work. She starts where she left off, trying to make the resulting cloth as smooth as she can. Melli had taught her this particular skill, and she’s been practicing for months with little to show for it. Her dad keeps telling her to be patient, but it’s hard when every attempt ends in failure.
She sighs and focuses on her task, letting the sun warm her back and trusting Gliscor to warn her of any potential threats. He does not warn her when her dad returns, and she jumps nearly out of her skin when he lays a hand on her shoulder.
He steps back, covering his mouth, though she can still tell he’s laughing. “I apologize, Piglet. I didn’t mean to frighten you.”
Her retort dies on her tongue when she actually looks at his face. There’s a bruise forming around his left eye and a cut on his cheek, which is slowly oozing blood. “You’re hurt!”
He lifts a hand to gently touch the wound. “It’s not that bad.”
“What happened?” She grabs his hand and drags him inside. He laughingly follows along.
“One of those Galaxy Team folks got in over their head with a couple Graveler. I got them away safely, but one of them got a lucky shot in.”
She pushes him down at the low table, which he once again complies with easily. “You shouldn’t put yourself in danger to help them.”
He gives her a sharp look. “Why not?”
Why? Because he’s going to keep getting hurt. Because…
He reaches out and runs a thumb over her cheek, wiping away the tears that she only now realizes are falling. “Akari… I can’t just stand by when someone is in danger. I know it scares you, and I’m so sorry for that, but you know I do everything I can to stay safe.”
She sniffles. “Safety checks. I know. But… but what if you get hurt? Bad, I mean. What if you-” Die, is what she can’t quite get her mouth to say.
Obviously, her dad understands, because he pulls her into a gentle hug. “I wish I could promise you that nothing bad will ever happen. I really do. I always do my safety checks, and I won’t involve myself in something I know I can’t handle, but there is always danger.” He lets go of her and sits back with a sigh. “I’m sorry. I know that isn’t comforting, and… this isn’t how I wanted to bring this up, but I have a surprise for you.”
She looks up at him, still sniffling slightly. “You do?” Before he can answer, she waves her hands. “Wait, let me take care of your face first.”
He chuckles, but nods. “Ok. Thank you.”
He sits very still while she carefully cleans the small wound with a wet rag, then applies an ointment to it that will help it heal and prevent infection. When she’s finished, he takes the rag, which is still cool from the water, and holds it against his eye for several seconds. It’s probably soothing to the bruise.
He smiles with his eyes. “Are you ready for your surprise now?”
She nods enthusiastically, the weighed down feeling from before having evaporated in the wake of her curiosity.
“Do you know what day it is, my Piglet?”
She tilts her head in thought. “I… don’t? Why?”
His eyes crinkle again. “It’s your birthday!”
She blinks in surprise. “It is? It is! I’m twelve!”
He laughs. “Yes, you are! And I have a very special surprise for you this year. I’m… not sure why, but it feels like the right time.”
Now she’s very curious. She bounces slightly as he reaches into the interior of his kimono, making eye contact with her before withdrawing-
“A POKEMON!!!”
He laughs again and holds out the pokeball.
She reaches for it, then hesitates. “My own Pokemon…” She can't help but feel a little anxious. Can she really handle her own Pokemon?
“Is something wrong?” He asks softly.
She shakes her head and takes the ball carefully, bringing it back to her chest and cradling it like the most precious thing in the world. “What kind is it?”
“Why don’t you let it out and find out?”
Her excitement is rapidly returning. She turns the ball over in her hands a few times, then flicks the clasp open. There’s a flash of light and a small Pokemon appears between the two of them.
She stares at it. “What… what is it?”
Her dad reaches down to pat the little creature, then gently turns it to face Akari. “It’s a Cyndaquil. Fire type. Evolves into Quilava, then Typhlosion. It has a timid nature. If it’s startled, the flames on its back burn more vigorously. Typically they’re native to Johto, so I’m not sure what it was doing here. I’ve never seen one in Hisui before.”
She’s not surprised by the wealth of information. Her dad has a seemingly encyclopedic knowledge of Pokemon, with a few strange exceptions. She knows if she asked, he could probably tell her the Pokemon’s typical movesets and battle strategies. He has no idea why he knows this, though.
She reaches out her hand, offering it to the little creature to sniff. He said it was timid, so she knows better than to try to just reach into its space, even if it seems friendly with her dad. It sniffs her hand cautiously, then bumps its little head against it. She laughs and pets the top of its head.
“He likes you.”
Akari continues petting him, moving down his neck. “And I like him. He’s very friendly.” She runs her hand across his back and he squeaks happily.
“Be careful there. Those spots are where his flames come out. I don’t think he would try to hurt you, but he’s young and may not have good control of them yet.”
She nods and moves her hand to his belly instead. She’s in agreement that he wouldn’t intend to hurt her, but that doesn’t mean he isn’t dangerous. He squeaks again and trundles towards her, pawing at her other arm. She laughs and lifts it, allowing him to crawl into her lap, where he curls up and promptly goes to sleep.
Her dad laughs too, then looks her in the eye. “I need to make sure you understand. Cyndaquil is yours now. Your responsibility. You’ll take care of him and you’ll train him. I’m happy to help, if you need it, but you’re taking the lead on this one, alright?”
She nods vigorously. “Yes! I’ll take very good care of him, I promise! And I’ll train him… I don’t know how to do that.”
“I’ll show you.”
Another thought strikes her. “If I have my own Pokemon, does that mean I can go out on my own?”
He gets a worried furrow in his brow. “Not yet. Not until he’s a little stronger and I’m sure he can protect you.” Before she can protest too much, he adds, “but, for that to happen you’ll need to train him and you can’t do that without going out and battling some of the other Pokemon around here. I’ll accompany you at first, and then once he’s a little stronger, I’ll ask that you take one or two of my own Pokemon to keep you safe in case something goes wrong. Does that sound ok to you?”
She nods, despite the impatience she’s feeling. She knows he’s right. It’s too dangerous for her to go out alone with only one inexperienced Pokemon, but she wants to be able to explore the region without having to be accompanied by her dad. Not that she minds traveling with him, but he’s not able to leave the Highlands very often and he rarely allows her to come along on his patrols.
But now she has her own Pokemon. If she’s patient for just a little while longer, she can train him to be strong enough that she can go wherever she wants.
Hisui - Spring 1656
Ingo takes a deep breath, savoring the cold, fresh air for a moment while he surveys the land below him. Everything appears to be calm, which he's glad for. His morning has been very busy. Between guiding some Galaxy Team folks who were looking for some specific type of stone and breaking up a fight between two Golem that was threatening to cause a landslide, he’s feeling unusually tired.
A small part of him is tempted to not bother with the patrol on the lower part of the mountain and just head home for some lunch, but he ignores that temptation and sets off down the trail. Gliscor glides silently over his head and scouts for him so he won’t be surprised by anything. Probopass and Magnezone float alongside him as he walks as well, so he’s safe to let his mind wander.
It’s late spring now and the weather is finally starting to warm up, which Ingo is thankful for. His joints don’t handle the cold as well as they used to. This last winter, he’d struggled to reach Lady Sneasler when he needed to check on her. He knows they don’t have to stay on the mountain during the winter, none of the other Wardens do. They go home to the settlement during the harshest months. Still, he’s resistant to the idea of staying in the settlement for an extended time.
He sighs. Perhaps it would be for the best. Akari has become quite close with Irida, and she would probably appreciate the slightly easier living conditions if they wintered in the settlement. Especially with his physical ability becoming limited, she’s having to do a lot more work when it’s cold. He should ask her the next time she comes home.
That may be some time, though. When she left for the village this morning, she told him that she and Rei are planning on surveying the coast for at least a week, perhaps more. That’s alright, he supposes. They have until next winter to figure it out.
Gliscor calls out a warning. He recognizes the noise as meaning there’s something ahead, but it’s not overly dangerous. So probably not an Alpha or an outbreak, then. Could be someone in danger. He picks up his pace, following Gliscor off the trail and down to the edge of a nearby cliff.
Ingo looks over and immediately spots the issue. It’s that Ginkgo Guild merchant that’s been hanging around the ruins. Volo, he thinks his name is. He’s been cornered by a pair of Ursaring. There’s a little Teddiursa behind them, which is probably why they’re acting more aggressive than usual.
Ingo sees Volo reaching for a pokeball and remembers that he’s one of the few people he’s seen with more than one. A distant part of his mind wonders if he would be any good in a battle. He ignores that thought and whistles sharply.
Volo flinches and looks up, meeting his eyes as all three of the Pokemon he has with him currently go on the attack. Ingo doesn’t bother giving them actual direction. They know what to do. Instead, he turns and climbs down the cliff face confidently, landing beside Volo in seconds.
The battle is ongoing, but he doesn’t pay it much mind, instead asking, “are you alright, sir?”
Volo blinks at him. “Yes. Thank you, Warden Ingo. I’m afraid I got lost in thought and didn’t notice those two approaching.”
Ingo nods. “I understand the feeling, but please try to practice caution in the future. This area is quite dangerous, so it’s best to stay aware of your surroundings.”
Gliscor appears at his side and chitters, looking very proud of himself. Ingo turns to see the other Pokemon fleeing into the woods. He reaches up and pats his partner on the head. “Good job.”
He looks back at the other man. “Are you in need of any further assistance?”
Volo shakes his head, smiling sweetly. “No, I’m quite alright. Thank you again, Warden.”
Ingo nods and turns away, walking down the hill toward where the trail snakes around. He pets Magnezone and Probopass when they return to his side, praising them for a job well done. It’s a good thing he didn’t decide to skip patrolling. Volo could have gotten seriously hurt, or worse, if Ingo hadn’t been there to help.
He carries on, paying slightly more attention to his surroundings since he’s off the trail now. His route will take him through the woods and down along a small stream until it meets with the larger river. He knows the area well, having lived here for so long and spent most of that time as the Warden of the Highlands. He takes his duty seriously, perhaps more so than any of the other Wardens. But then, the other Warden’s don’t have to prove their right to remain a member of the clan.
He supposes that’s not entirely fair. Things have been much better since Irida took over leadership of the clan. He no longer worries what will happen to him and Akari when he eventually has to retire. He knows that Irida won’t send them away. But that doesn’t change the way the rest of the clan thinks of them. Outsiders. Suspicious. Strange. He hates that these things apply to his daughter by association with him. She was born into the clan. She shouldn’t be treated any differently than anyone else, but that’s not the way the world works, he well knows.
His train of thought is derailed when he notices something on the ground as he passes through a clearing. He approaches with curiosity, but that withers and turns to horror when he sees what it is. A belt, with a small satchel attached and six pokeballs clipped to it. The leather is severed cleanly and the ground nearby is disturbed in a way that implies a scuffle of some kind.
He knows this belt. He knows it because he made it. He spent hours working on it, doing his best to replicate the one he’s had since before he arrived in Hisui so that his daughter could easily keep her Pokemon close by at all times.
He feels cold with fear as he picks it up off the ground. He takes the first pokeball and flicks the release. Typhlosion appears in a flash of light and looks around, seemingly searching for his trainer in confusion. When he doesn’t find her, he approaches Ingo with a soft whine.
Ingo rubs the top of his head. “Do you know where Akari is?”
Typhlosion shakes his head. He looks a bit distressed, so Ingo scratches behind his ear and murmurs softly. “It’s ok. We’ll find her together.”
One by one, he releases all of her Pokemon. They seem just as confused as Typhlosion does by their missing trainer. Whatever happened, she must not have had a chance to fight back. He feels a bit sick at the idea, but ignores it. He can panic later. Although, the fact that none of her Pokemon seem to have even an idea of the direction to search is a bad sign.
Akari had shown an affinity for ghost types early on. The fact that Typhlosion had ended up dual fire/ghost type had only reinforced that love, so now every single one of her partners is at least part ghost type. He’s not sure how he knows, but he’s certain that ghost types are supposed to be able to sense their trainer and find them easily. The fact that they can’t either mean he’s wrong, which is possible but he’s usually correct when it comes to Pokemon, or she’s not close enough for them to sense her. Which can’t be good.
He shakes himself, and focuses on the Pokemon before him. “Akari was on her way to Jubilife this morning, so I think we should start there. If something happened, she may have gone there for help or medical attention.”
They seem satisfied with that plan, so he recalls most of them and loops the belt through his own to keep his daughter’s Pokemon secure until he can locate her to return them. He leaves Typhlosion out and the tall Pokemon walks alongside him as he heads off towards Jubilife Village.