Past and Present
Saylee sat by the side of the pond, watching Molly and Manami swimming around happily. Teddy was sitting behind her, leaning against the side of the gym and dozing. She reached out and stroked William’s wing; he was sitting next to her, morosely staring into the middle distance.
“You miss Wanda, don’t you?” she said, gently stroking one of his feelers. He nodded.
“It’s weird,” he said. “I thought we were invincible one we’d evolved. You’re really vulnerable as a Wurmple, and I’ve seen plenty of others die before ever evolving. But you’d never see a Dustox or a Beautifly die. I thought they were invincible. Now... I just kinda feel scared.”
“Nobody’s invincible, William,” Saylee said gently. “Everyone dies. We just have to try to do what we can while we’re still here.” She lifted her hand away and fiddled nervously with her glasses. “You know, I could put you in your pokéball and send you to my mum in Kanto. You can hang out with Yvonne. She’s a Yanma, a bug-type like you, and she flies all over. You don’t have to stay with me if you’re scared.”
“I don’t want to leave!” William said quickly. “I don’t not feel safe with you, or anything. I guess I just noticed that I can die for the first time and it’s kinda freaking me out.” He fluttered up onto her shoulder. “I like you. You’re a nice trainer and you make the best food I’ve ever eaten, and you take such good care of my wings!” He flapped said wings a few times to underline his point.
“Key said that you told her about Raphael.”
Saylee looked back to see Norman wandering out of the gym. He nodded at Teddy, and then sat down at the side of the pond, watching Molly and Manami play. “She did,” Saylee said. “After Wanda died. It explains a lot. She really exploded at me when Winnie died...”
“It was a very bad time for her,” Norman said sadly. “She and Raphael were inseparable, and they hand a bond in their mind that was shattered very violently when Raphael was killed. She actively refused new Pokémon for years. How did you get her to keep Thomas?”
“Me?” Saylee said in surprise. “We were just both there when Professor Birch needed help. Two people, two Pokémon. The Professor encouraged her to keep him afterwards. I don’t know... maybe I encouraged her to as well. I didn’t even know her, we were just both there when there was trouble and we both responded. Then we were both going the same way...”
“Well, however it happened, I’d like to thank you for it,” Norman said, shaking her hand. “Even losing another Pokémon, Key seems a lot more alive with the rest. She’s a lot happier. And she’s getting to see the world. It’s wonderful.” He scratched the back of his neck awkwardly, looking out across the water. “You’ve lost Pokémon yourself, she said. How did you get past it?”
“I didn’t, sometimes,” Saylee said, also looking away. “Sometimes I just ground to a halt. Sometimes I just wanted to run home. Part of me will never get past it. I can’t ever forget any of them. But all of them died for something. All of them died fighting for something that both they and I believed in. I learned to push through my grief because I had to finish the fight that they died for, otherwise they died for nothing.” She frowned. “I guess that’s why I’ve been so unsettled by the three I lost here, more than any other. I thought Hoenn was so much more peaceful, nobody like Team Rocket here. But two died in stupid, avoidable accidents, and then there was Team Aqua and Team Magma...”
“I’ve heard rumours about Teams Magma and Aqua,” Norman said, scowling. “I don’t know what they think they’re up to, but if either of them try to start trouble around here, I’m not letting them get away with it like Roxanne and Flannery did. Don’t know what those girls were thinking...” He smiled at Saylee. “I really don’t know whether to be proud of you girls for kicking their asses, or to yell at Key for doing something so dangerous!” He laughed. “But you’re both alright, and I feel like she’s safe, with you looking out for her...” he patted Saylee on the shoulder and stood up. “We’ve got a bed set up for you in Key’s room. Don’t be out too late.”
“Thanks,” Saylee said, watching him go.
“Something wrong?” Teddy asked. He hopped over to sit next to her, frowning at her pensive expression.
“Just jealous of Key, a little,” she sighed. “She’s grown up with both her parents, knowing for sure who they are, and who their parents are...”
“And you didn’t?” Teddy asked. “Why not?”
“Because nobody can, in the Indigo region,” Saylee sighed. “Collective memory in Indigo goes back no further than twenty years, eleven months and...” she checked the calendar on her pokégear. “Six days. With four human exceptions and a small number of Pokémon, nobody remembers a thing before then. Psychic ground zero.”
“...How?” Teddy asked incredulously. “How can everyone forget everything?”
“It’s... both complicated and highly classified,” Saylee said, shivering a little. “The point is, one morning everyone in the country wakes up in a wasteland without any personal memory. Functional memory, yeah- everyone can walk and talk and brew tea and so on- but nobody remembers their name, where they live, their family, nothing. A nation of people who are having to deduce who their relatives are on involuntary emotional responses and things like photos, diaries, matching wedding rings...” She rubbed the back of her neck, looking, to Teddy, far too old and tired. “Some people found matches. Some people didn’t. Never found out where we lived, originally. My mum woke up standing on a dockyard, as if she’d just gotten off of a ship, with a baby girl in her arms and a little boy sitting by her side that she didn’t know for certain were her children. We looked like each other, so we’re almost certain we were siblings, but neither of us look tremendously like her so for all we know she was... I don’t know, an aunt, a nanny, a woman who found us in a bin. Used to cause her some upset, but since she raised us she’s our real mum, at least as far as I’m concerned. Never got to ask Red.”
“And you had no idea about your father?” Teddy prompted. Saylee shook her head.
“We had no idea where we lived,” she sighed. “Don’t know for sure if we’re from Kanto- we were at the docks, after all. We didn’t have any photos or identification or anything. Mum had a ring, so she must’ve had a husband...” she sighed again. “But she doesn’t remember him, and whoever he was and wherever he was, he probably doesn’t remember us.”
“So your mother never remarried?” Teddy asked. Saylee shook her head again.
“There was so much chaos and confusion in the early days, Mum said,” Saylee explained. “For a while, she tried to stay in Vermillion, hoped he’d come looking for her. Didn’t work out, we didn’t have a home or anything, and we ended up with a bunch of other folk who didn’t have any homes at all. Spent a long time wandering and camping, and Mum never really met anyone. She prioritized looking after Red and I, anyway.” She pulled off her headscarf, combing her fingers distractedly through her hair again and again. “She keeps busy, now. Teaches in Viridian City. She never did find him. Neither did we.”
“You looked?” Teddy asked.
“On and off,” Saylee said, nodding a little. “I spent more time looking for Red. Now I’m just...” She looked up at the clear night skies, at the stars that you couldn’t see through the Indigo air. “I’m looking for a way to make my home look like this. I really wish I could make it feel like this, too.”
She looked down from the stars when Zac and Polly both leaned on her, Polly licking her cheek comfortingly. Saylee buried her hands in their warm fur, scratching their heads in a wordless thanks. She could see Manami and Molly watching her from the pool, picked out from the water by the light out of a window.
“Hey, Saylee?” Steele asked, a little nervously. “There’s... something I want to ask you.”
~
Since Key had been given the Hoenn version of the Surf HM by Wally’s parents, grateful to hear about how much better their son was doing, they decided to swim from Petalburg to Dewford. It would only take them half a day, plus a little time to practice swimming with Manami and Molly. Saylee was mostly quiet, which Key likely put down to Steele leaving the night before. The timid bird had confessed that he wasn’t really into travelling and fighting, and would much rather settle down. Saylee had offered to send him back to her hometown thorough her pocket matter transporter to meet her female Skarmory and previous teammate, Sheska.
“I’m afraid that the connection’s only one way,” she said, juggling the strange technology, which always looked to Key like an oversized blue pokéball. “We’re not entirely sure why. We’re not even entirely sure how it works; Bill created teleportation technology of his own, but it isn’t portable like this, and it doesn’t seem to have a maximum range. I can put things in it from anywhere- well, anything that fits,” she added wryly, snapping it open to reveal the disc of light within, “and it will go back to the connected device back in Pallet, but we haven’t found out how to change the settings to send things back the other way. If we could, I’d have Chaz and Chip with me, at least.” She sighed heavily. “But I digress. The important thing is that I can send you back, but I can’t bring you back to Hoenn.”
“I’m not cut out to be a fighter, Saylee,” Steele said, ducking his silvery head. “Never have been. Your training regimens are good exercise and all, but I can just tell that they’re for battle. You’re a fighter, Saylee, and I respect that and all, but... I’m not. You need to work with fighters, and that’s not me. Besides,” he added shyly, “Sheska sounds like quite a chick.”
“I’m sure you’ll just love her,” Saylee laughed, stroking Steele’s head. “I’ll miss you, Steele. Be happy.”
“Be safe,” Steele said, nudging her hand. “If at all possible.”
“We’ll work on it,” Key promised. Steele bowed his head to her, and Saylee returned him to his pokéball, pausing to give the pokéball a little kiss before sliding it into the light of the transport ball. Key watched Saylee snap the transport ball closed and bury it back in her bag. “Are you alright?”
“Fine,” Saylee said. “I think I’ll give Lanette a call and retrieve Skye, that sweet little Swablu I caught near Meteor Falls. If I can evolve her, she’ll be part dragon, you know? Should come in handy.” She stood up, straightened her blue bikini- it looked handmade, all knotted cloth- and dived into the surf with Molly. She didn’t speak much for the rest of the day, although holding a conversation would be difficult while swimming anyway.
That night, she focused on starting to train and care for Skye, whose cottony wings required a lot of maintenance. Key hoped that she would be cheerier tomorrow. After all, as much as nobody liked losing Pokémon, at least Steele was definitely alive and safe, not dead like Winnie, Nina and Makoto. Not like Wanda and Raphael...
~
“Key and Saylee, right?”
“Mr Wattson?” Key called, recognizing the old man striding up to them with a broad grin. She couldn’t summon up one to match, and neither could Saylee, she noted when she glanced back at her friend; hardly surprising, considering that the last time they’d seen Wattson, Makoto had died.
“You girls are just the kind of help I’ve been looking for!” He said brightly, clapping his hands onto their shoulders. “Listen, girls, I need some help.”
“And nobody else in the city can help because...?” Saylee asked, looking at the hand on her shoulder.
“Because I need a couple of powerful trainers, and the only ones here are all electric trainers,” Wattson said, winking at them, ignoring their frosty looks. “This is very important. I need someone to go in and shut down New Mauville.”
“New... what?” Key asked. A card key was pressed into her hand.
“South of here, out on the water,” Wattson said, steering them back down towards the Mauville Lake. “There’s an entrance to New Mauville. There’s a power complex down there, supposed to send this town into the future!” He laughed boisterously, but abruptly grew sombre. “But it’s running out of control. Driving electric Pokémon nuts, there’s a bunch of pissed-off electrics roaming around down there. It needs shut off, now, before it goes critical. I’m begging you, girls, help me out here.”
“By critical...” Saylee asked quietly. Wattson nodded, all joviality gone.
“The blast radius will take out the southern part of time at least,” he murmured, looking back at the houses, the shops, the casino. “Please, girls, you’re the only ones I can ask.”
“Fine,” Key agreed, releasing Manami again. “Get outta here, we’d better get changed. I’m not swimming out in my clothes.”
“This was clearly a bad plan from the start,” Saylee muttered, watching Wattson jog back to Mauville City and beginning to strip down to her bikini. “New Mauville, I mean. Having to swim to an electric power complex never ends well.”
“You’ve done something like this before?” Key said incredulously. Saylee nodded.
“Fingers crossed for no pissed-off titans,” she said, releasing Molly into the water and diving in after her.