Chapter Text
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?????'s PoV
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"I can't say for sure what is happening to me. Death by hypothermia or starvation, maybe? The light is blinding white, almost everywhere I look. Even now, I start to see flashes of things that occurred earlier in my life..."
A young boy about five years old running through the fields near Ecruteak City, in the shadows of the Burned Tower. His hair was a semi-natural silver-white, like that of a old Kalosian queen who's hair was bleached white from tragedy and stress. His blue-gray eyes like two shining jewels.
Some of the more tame pokémon getting close to the child, even ones otherwise a bit skittish, as a calm air of love and curiosity was seemingly present around the human boy.
A man of the Ransei region, possibly the boy's father, trails in the distance calling for the boy to be careful. But curious... no mother figure is present.
"My eyes sting with tears, even as I behold what was my beginning, knowing full well where such an innocent beginning took me. Another flash..."
The boy, now eight and a bit more restrained, watches a dark-shelled pokémon egg in an incubator slowly beginning to crack open with tears of happiness in his eyes.
He'd been nurturing it for months, trying to prove it wasn't dead or "just a lava rock", and when it was all done, a little female shiny Houndour pup was staring at him with eyes like two amethysts.
The connection of trainer and starter, no; of bipedal brother and quadrupedal sister was made.
"The joyous moment when my most loved of all my life partners entered my existence. Cerberus was my first, and she often "told" me she'd protect me to the end..."
The next image is of a now ten year old boy with the same Houndour training in the nearby woodlands, and his first pokémon catch - a rare one indeed, as it was not native to that region at all - a male Rowlet.
His Houndour only flushed the Grass-type bird out, her trainer tamed him with love and an offering of some fresh berries, and a promise to always care for the little one.
The little owlet chose to peck the activator button of a pokéball himself, tying himself to this rarity among humans.
"May King... my first "capture". He was the silent advisor, always guiding my choices with patience and an eye to the middle path. I am so sorry, my dear friend..."
The now eleven year-old boy and his pokémon partners, now including a female shiny Ralts and a male Murkrow, battling several trainers in a montage style.
Standouts include a Kantonian male shinobi with a Zubat, Spinarak, and Venonat;
a young blonde girl with a tough Gabite, a Feebas, and a scrappy Riolu;
a stately Johto man from the dragon-town of Blackthorn wearing a cape, with strong partners - an Aerodactyl, a young but potent Gyarados, and a strong Dragonair on the cusp of it's evolution to Dragonite.
The boy joyously adds a female Riolu of his own to his team through patience and a few lucky steps in a "war dance".
"The connections I made... with my life partners Alluria, Yatagarasu, and Ageha... and my fellow trainers... where did I stray from my path..? Why can't I see where I am? And why... why is it so cold?"
The boy and his team, now including a male Eevee that loved swimming that leapt into his arms, winning his first regional championship in the Johto Silver Conference before it folded in with Kanto's Indigo League.
"My rise to champion's standing, and the first taste of regional (and soon world) fame. My energetic life-partner Rillet joining me. Curious, I still seem innocent and loving here..."
The evolutions of some of his pokémon, due to his care and seeming instinctive knowledge of their needs and desires.
Rowlet to Dartrix, and then a sagely Decidueye.
Ralts to a Kirlia who acted like a baby sister to her trainer and life-partner, only to stave off her evolution further, as her trainer did not force her to go through with it.
Riolu to a gorgeous and powerful Lucario.
A happy Eevee chose to become a proud and show-worthy Vaporeon.
Murkrow to a willful Honchkrow.
And finally and most treasured - a caring and curious Houndour to a beautiful and sinister Houndoom, amethyst eyes shining with love for her "pack", and menace for her foes.
"Here I witness the first time my gift for pokémon husbandry manifested, my pokémon and their incredible growth, in response to my love and devotion to them... how much a fool was I..?"
A small ranch in rural Johto, several years later with two more Silver Conference and one Indigo League trophy on a mantle.
The now fifteen year old young man helps the man from the Ransei region with some chores. The man and the boy are clearly related, it is plain to see now.
A picture on the mantle near the trophies is of the older Ransei man from a much younger time, with a frail but radiant white-haired Kalosian woman holding an equally white-haired baby boy. In the distance, a memorial stone was seen, with offered flowers near it.
"The tears flow unfettered now. Remembering my dad, a proud man of Ransei, and the grave of my mom, who died before I even was two years old to a freak hurricane... was this it? Was this my tipping point?"
The young man is now sixteen. His second Indigo championship, a successful breeding ranch established, a second memorial stone out with the first, and talks with a man named Giovanni about joining his "team" of trainers.
"Taken in by the honeyed words of a man that only was out for himself. And just after my dad's death too... I was a damned fool... a damned fool unworthy of the glories I had earned to then. Glories I wasted in my next endeavours..."
The young man, seventeen now in the uniform of a Team Rocket grunt with an added domino mask for anonymity, works with a few "borrowed"(stolen, unbeknownst to him) pokémon to "liberate" (steal) some valuable pokémon from a researcher and his assistant. Unbeknownst to the young grunt, a pair of sad amethyst eyes watch him from the shadows...
"I could not bear to taint my life-partners with this early work, so instead I hid that I was involved, and left them home. Cerberus, though... bless her, Arceus... she always hated staying in the ball, and found me..."
Back on the breeding ranch, a teary-eyed and confused Houndoom baying at her trainer, while he tries to console her and explain himself, without completely questioning what he is letting himself become. Looking on is the Lucario, Kirlia, and Decidueye...
"She told them all... Rillet decided to go for a long soak in the river and could barely look at me, Yatagarasu was watching the farm but I felt his disappointment, the others... Cerberus's baying was unintelligible to most, but... I knew what she was screaming at me. Ageha or Alluria didn't need to translate as she had to with a few pokémon. 'Why, my beloved brother? Why are you doing something so evil?! Please explain it to me, that I might know your heart...'"
A year later, in a secluded area outside of Cherrygrove City, south of route 29, another breeding ranch is in operation. The young man, now eighteen and wearing the charcoal-gray uniform of an elite Rocket still with his domino mask, stands overlooking the ranch's operations with only handpicked personnel. His Houndoom at his side, stoically looking on, her amethyst eyes sad but dutiful.
"The Boss, as we were told to call him, set up a breeding ranch that could never be tied to anyone, even me. He appointed me in charge of it, and I was given leave to pick and train my personnel. Naturally I sought those who were new and idealistic, that truly had decent hearts. Together we raised and nurtured pokémon to be strong in both body and in heart, even if we knew they'd be used as little more than tools or weapons..."
"Arceus, why do I feel warm? I was... where was I, again? Somewhere ... cold..?"
Another year passes, and a child of eleven, with help from the reigning Indigo League "champion" - a familiar dragon specialist of Blackthorn City, finally found and ousted Team Rocket from Johto.
Many Rocket execs already fled, but the domino mask wearing man remained, seemingly resigned to his fate. He does not even put up a fight, as he forcefully tells his faithful and loving pokémon to stand down, and not protect him from the boy or the dragon master.
His pokémon were stunned, he'd almost never 'ordered' them to do anything. He is remanded to International Police custody, his pokémon confiscated and taken off to be either euthanized or "given to good trainers"...
"I knew I had made a deal with a devil I could never satisfactorily serve. Giovanni, wherever you are... why me? Why pick me, of all people? I was no one special... I was... oh! Oh. That's why... no one would miss me... I was disposable... nothing but... ... trash to be thrown away... when I was... not useful..."
"I ... feel ... emp-ty......."
~To Be Continued...