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She paused beneath the rain-soaked bough of some weary cypress, sniffing cautiously at the air. To any lesser ‘mon, the forest was as pristine as ever- marshy soil inundated beneath spring rains, crisp pine-scent gently overpowering- dappled sunlight playing long patterns across the water. She wasn’t normal though, not by any means- and when she caught the faintest trace of something other she was concerned. Here, she was one of those who laid domain to this sanctum of wildlife-
She recognised what should not be.
Cautiously, she followed the almost imperceptible scent through the fen, dark-type energy wrapping around her fur in dizzyingly complex patterns. Night daze that should have lit the forest in furious carmine light burned intermittently as she breathed substance into the immaterial. Psychic energy, only seen not felt delicately forged a link between nothing twice over, an impossibility for a less skilled pokemon rendered a marvel beneath her skilled claws-
An illusion twisted into existence a dozen feet in front of her, and she faded out of view entirely. The construct- a human woman of no particular note- took a step forward, and she smiled proudly as leaves crinkled beneath the simple movement, as her hair caught aflutter on the breeze and she blinked, lifelike in every way but life .
Now. To confront those who would dare trespass. Restraining her snarl of anger with long practice she stalked forward through beneath the canopy’s reaching shadows, pernatural grace in her every movement even as the human illusion trudged through the undergrowth until they reached the scent’s origin. Quietly she braced for whatever she might find- trainers or poachers or that despicable Team Rocket - yet all that was there was a small bundle of cloth.
No. More than that. Her human illusion tiptoed forward, momentarily forgetting its human clumsiness to pry at the swaddling blankets, revealing a shock of black har, pale skin, and too-wide eyes. A kit. Why had the humans left a kit out here, in this sun-seared clearing so far from civilization…
She was a master of illusions. She knew exactly why a mother would leave a child alone in the woods, as much as she hated it. Putting the thought out of mind, she had the human illusion stand to the side as she stalked forward, gently reaching down to trail her claws across the silent child’s face. How fragile, how perfectly innocent. There was something beautiful about kits of all kinds and forms… a soft smile tugged her muzzle as she picked up the baby, soothing it’s squirming with a targeted illusion of a geometric complexities infinite and nonsensical.
A twitch of an art long mastered saw the human illusion step up beside her- then start to unravel, the careful nature of its form picked apart and remade around her fur and arms, eyes and claws, fingers and bones and blood. Layers on infinite layers, energies together until she was almost more human than a human-
Zoroark-who-was-Delia held a child, and pondered the future.
Delia-who-was-Zoroark turned, and strode from the forest.
………
There were very few humans she trusted- few enough that she could count them on a single paw. Well, maybe if she illusioned in an extra claw or two. Amongst those she held dear to herself, Professor Oak was perhaps the one she knew best… she’d been only a zorua when she’d worked with the man, and to her there was no world in which the old man could betray her.
She knew well the vicissitudes of people’s hearts, and even that one friendship was invaluable. For the most part they didn’t interact anymore, but yet again she found herself knocking on the door of Samuel’s lab. She never could seem to escape…
The door creaked open, golden light spilling out over the pale predawn’s radiance as a breath of cool air ruffled the grass around her feet and drew cooly over her hairless skin. How humans could bear this sort of stuff she had no idea. A disheveled looking professor poked his head out, blinking in demure shock as he caught sight of her. “Delia? I thought you’d left for the forests? What do you need- no, no, come in.” Samuel opened the door fully, beckoning her into the lab. “Forgive my impoliteness- I was just surprised to see you, that’s all.”
Delia stepped forward, from brickwork to pristine metal. “Of course. It’s nice to see you too, Professor.”
“Call me Samuel, please. You’re almost as accomplished as I am.”
“In illusions, maybe. You’re the important one.” Samuel frowned at that, but didn’t refute it. It would be pointless, anyways- they both knew it was true. “I’ve… a bit of a problem. I needed some human advice.”
Samuel stiffened, slowly setting down the stack of papers he’d been fiddling with- one of his old nervous habits from when they’d been doing fieldwork together. “I suppose it was too much to expect you came out here for a bit of company. What’s the issue?”
She opened her mouth to explain, then paused. “Perhaps it’s better if I just show you.” She moved a hand to the right- an inconspicuous enough motion but for the faint ripple of illusions unmade- and where there had been nothing before lay a human kit. “I need to know how to take care of it.”
“Don’t leave.” Delia looked at Samuel quizzically, then with a stark frustration- but before she could voice her objection Samuel spoke over her, and she listened. She always found herself listening, even for this oldest argument. “You need to stay close to other humans to raise a child, Delia.”
“I told you before. Master of illusions or not, I don’t belong to human society.” They’d had this argument before, time and time again after Samuel had settled down at the ranch, and her answer had never changed.
“Don’t let your fears ruin you, Delia.” His voice was too soft, too knowing , and Delia hated that he was right. “Plenty of other zoroark live among us without arousing suspicion in the slightest.” She made to speak that stone-set refute, but Oak cut through her words again, a sense of urgency laid over his speech that had never been there before. “You can’t raise a human in the woods. It won’t work, Delia.”
“I’m one of the forest’s strongest pokemon.” If not the strongest. They both knew that- “I can keep him fed and clothed, and teach him everything he needs to know.”
“Humans are social creatures. To isolate him from his own kind would destroy him as thoroughly as those who left him out on the rock to die.”
Delia flinched back at that, a snarl knifing from a hidden maw unbidden. “I’m nothing like those scum, Oak. Don’t ever insinuate that again.” Oak merely nodded- genuinely apologetic, like the sap he was, and Delia felt her rage recede with the burning aftertaste of night daze on the back of her tongue. “I can teach him the tongues of beast, and encourage his aura to burn as brightly as the legends. He will want for nothing.”
“You know it doesn't work like that.” She did. Arceus damn it, but she did. “Studies show that aura aptitude is a large part genetic, and purposefully learning beyond that takes effort and crystal-sharp will - something a young child shouldn’t be able to achieve. Actual moves- the sort of thing that would allow him to live in your domain unmolested- are so advanced as to be the stuff of legends.”
“I could do it.”
Samuel’s voice turned gentle, almost saccharine- “you could. I believe you can do anything you set your mind to, Delia. You’re one of the smartest, most capable people I’ve ever met… but how late? How much of his childhood, his critical developmental period, will have been lost by the time you succeed?”
“Why do you always have to be right?” She could leave. She could . There was nothing stopping her- not even the professor in his championship could have stopped her from simply binding him and the entire lab in an illusion strong enough to lay low legendaries and simply walking out , but Samuel had a point. “Seriously, it gets frustrating.”
“The benefits of age, my girl.” Delia scowled, and Samuel merely laughed. When he spoke again, though, it was with a perfect seriousness. “You have two options-” good options- “here, and an infinite range of choices. You can stay here and raise the child with other humans, or we can put him up to adoption-”
“I won’t abandon the kit.” She held him tighter to her body, almost as though she feared he’d simply disappear… she knew exactly how hard life could be for one left alone. Unless she was confident someone would be taking care of him, the kit stayed with her. “I’m not staying at the lab, either-”
“I’m rich, Delia.” It was delivered with such a perfectly dry tone that it took her a small while to realize he wasn’t joking. “Four years in the elite four, ten years as champion, and decades as Kanto’s preeminent researcher. I can find you a house anywhere in the world and have you welcomed with open hands. Kanto, Paldea… Unova.”
She shook her head. Much as she didn’t hate travel, she had absolutely no desire to return back to Unova. Too many bad memories, from indistinct echoes of her earliest months to that second visit and her legacy’s bitter truth. “I’ll stay in Pallet Town, if you’d really do all that for me. Make sure the house is out of the way… I guess I could help out on the ranch too, every once in a while. It would be good to see Dragonite and the squirmy kids again.”
Samuel snorted softly at the thought. “Those trainer’s upstart pokemon won’t know what hit them. Eight badges and they think they can rule the world- unless someone catches a lugia, I’m sure you’ll be able to easily keep the peace.”
Delia rolled her eyes, feeling a knot of tension unravel, a decision made. “Lacking faith, old man? I could totally take on a lugia.” The professor gave her that look that she’d gotten so many times as a zorua, the one that told her exactly how much he felt like she was overreaching her ability, but she wasn't a master of illusions for nothing . Psychics sucked to trick, but she was probably one of the best dark-type psychics in the entire world. She’d manage.
They sat together, for a moment, an eternal fragment of dawn- talking about everything and nothing at all. A house on the outskirts of town, a renovation, and long reminiscence… it was a bit funny when the professor had to hastily get Dragonite to explain how to feed a kit when he started bawling.
As the sun reached its zenith, there was little more to talk about, and only one thing yet- they’d been avoiding it, but Samuel just had to go and ask the question. “So, Delia- what’re you going to name him?”
She paused, thought racing through her head- a thousand sights, names that could proclaim his strength to the world or carefully hide it… and her first instinct was to call him Zorua. It was a stupid instinct though, so she didn’t. “I think I’ll name him… Ash. For what he isn’t, and for what he could be.”
“The hair certainly doesn't hurt matters either.” Delia glared at the professor, but- as ever, he was entirely, insufferably unapologetic. “I think it’s a beautiful name, Delia. You’ll make a good mother.”
“...I’m a mother now?” She blinked, then groaned . “Right. I’m going to raise him to be a little gremlin. Just remember you were the one that invited me to live in your backyard-” and Samuel just laughed.
“I seem to remember a little fox playing tricks on a poor, young, champion turned researcher. Trust me, I’m well and prepared.” Good.
She hadn’t been joking.
………
Seasons passed to years in time’s endless, subtle march, days evanescent and memories eternal as her life slowly, inexorably transformed into something different. Raising the kit was probably one of the most difficult things she’d ever done- by the end of the first year she was very glad she’d decided to stay around people who could help her when he drove her to insanity and back, and by the fifth leaving Pallet felt almost foreign. It wasn’t a peaceful place, no matter how often humans liked to call it a sleepy, quiet town- they’d never experienced the tranquility of a silent forest, inundated in illusions enough to drive off who dared visit.
It was a busy life, but somehow still tranquil. Samuel and Aurea needled her endlessly when she’d opened up a small restaurant in the town- Samuel with a simple ‘called it-’ while Aurea had gone on and on about how the workaholic genes must have carried true from their shared ancestors. They were ones to talk, with their work…
“Meema! I’m ready!” Her son bounded excitedly into the room, almost bouncing in his eagerness to get out- that endearing smile that always made her heart melt when she saw it plastered wide over his face. “C’mon, I can’t be later than Gary . Pleeeease!”
“Alright, kit. Let’s get going.” Ash cheered as she hoisted him up onto her shoulders, the next best thing to putting him in her mane. He wasn’t a zorua, though- he wouldn’t fit , much less how many questions telling Ash the truth would garner. He could stay ignorant for a little while longer. “We can’t have you be late to camp, can we?”
Ash nodded seriously, as if it were the most important thing in the world, and she had to restrain a chuckle as they raced out of the small house to her son's whoops and cheers. He didn’t even notice how effortlessly she held his suitcase, or the way she kept up the pace long after she should have slowed- because details like that were entirely immaterial to how much fun he was having in the moment.
They slowed down before they reached Samuel’s ranch, eliciting a litany of whiny complaints from Ash as she made him walk the last few hundred feet. A gaggle of children stood around the base of the hill, eagerly chattering about… whatever kids liked to talk about- probably pokemon- while Dragonite stood sternly off to the side. To someone who’d watched him tussle with his kids and kiss them all goodnight, it just looked goofy.
Ash ran off to find Gary while she took a left, making her way over to where Samuel was talking with Cerise about… whatever professors liked to talk about- probably pokemon- while they kept a careful eye on the rambunctious kids. Cerise blinked at her appearance, momentarily nonplussed- “Delia? I thought you’d retired years ago?”
“I’m still retired. I run a diner here in Pallet and help out every now and again.” Cerise looked like he wanted to say more, but quickly thought better of it.
“Illusory or real, today?” Samuel had no such compunctions- which Delia couldn't help but find hilarious. With his daughter’s friend, he really should be much more comfortable around her species.
Cerise sputtered in secondhand embarrassment as Delia held back a snicker. He knew , but he’d never gotten over his nervousness about the matter like Aurea and Samuel had. “Real, today… as far as you know.” She was real, but making Professor Oak run circles around his own mind had been a favorite of hers even back in her zorua days. “If you want to know whether I’m real or not, then get better at figuring it out.”
Samuel rolled his eyes. “Like I’d be able to do that. Your title as master of illusions is no joke.”
“A skill issue, old man?” Samuel laughed brightly, and she took the chance to subtly change reality around them. A good illusion wasn’t just sight- it was every layer of reality and the entire environment around them, a portrait she’d been drawing from the moment’s Cerise had first greeted her to now - she stepped to the side, almost as though she was stepping out of her own body. Night daze’s bitter taste hung faintly in the back of her senses as she made it solid- and when Oak continued on about how he’d been a dab hand in spotting zorua illusions back in his day he didn’t even realize he was talking to a doppelganger.
So she might have used her abilities to hover over Ash just a little bit.
Her illusory double returned halfway home before she found a good spot to dispel it, an effort that left her panting in exertion from stretching so far. It was always good to get a little practice, though- so she diligently followed behind Ash’s little group as they meandered out to their campsite in the forest.
By the end of the first week she was inordinately glad she’d done so- Ash had gotten lost twice . Once he’d been searching for a poliwag she’d… politely… told to not try what he’d been about to do, and another time when he’d ended only a few hundred feet away from where her illusion following Cerise’s kid and her… friend … had spotted a mew.
The second week was far more normal, but there was a pervasive… atmosphere to the air, that prick of subtle awareness that made her bundle tighter into her illusions and watch the forest nervously waiting for the other shoe to drop. It could be anything . That rattata, maybe- or that caterpie on the branch! Or even the pidgey . A threat could come from anywhere… and slowly as the camp drew closer to its end, she started to see patterns .
There was a somewhat well kempt weedle that never seemed to return to their swarm. Spearow that flew alone. Once she was certain she’d caught sight of a kecleon, except those did not live around. She’d practically run a part of the forest- she’d know… and they were all following Ash. It was incredibly subtle, but a master of illusions it was almost insultingly obvious.
There was another zoroark here- one far better than the kid, and they were tracking her son … and that wasn’t something she could let stand. She didn’t battle often- not anymore, at least, but her illusions were better than they’d ever been. She kept a careful eye on everything as she set illusions into the very air, invisible and almost unnoticeable until she’d made a domain from a clearing.
When the rattata who’d been following her son wandered in… she sprung the trap. A moment of blinding light, colors too bright to be real flickering past fast enough to confuse any illusions they could try to make in escape- and she was already there . A hand wreathed in dark energies of night daze slammed the rattata to the ground, pinning it securely enough to interfere with even a teleport. “Who sent you? Don’t lie- illusions can do a lot .”
“ Illusions? ” The rattata’s voice was bright and squeaky, an impressive vocal illusion, but one whose complexity paled to how solid the zoroark in question was keeping the rattata illusion. “ Uh oh, zork. Sorry! I came by myself! ”
Delia squeezed a bit tighter. “I’ll give you one more chance to try again. You know as well as I that I’m the only master of illusions in Kanto- you had to have come from Unova. Did… did he send you?” There was only one thing she hated , and while Aurea had gotten her to show restraint before… if her father was going after Ash, there would be blood -
“ Wowow, you’re really angry! ” An astute observation from someone pinned to the ground beneath her wrath. “ Honestly though, I came alone- a friend told me that Ash was going to be interesting, and I wanted to see it! The kid’s kind of boring, though. ”
Delia snarled. She had had enough of this! “That was your last try, rodent. Have you ever felt a psychic root through your mind- probably not, dark-type as we are.” They had to be a zorua- they would have abandoned the illusion earlier otherwise, and invisibility was one of the hardest to use with how much it relied on psychic-type energy. So someone who’d chosen to keep their pre-evolution, for the benefits of the size most likely. “Let me tell you… miracle eye is very unpleasant-”
Her thoughts short circuited and died entirely when Rattata transformed into something else entirely- a small, pink cat she recognised instantly .
“Mew.” She’d passed rage and had entered sheer, utter exhaustion with everything as she picked the cat off the ground in a tight grip, maybe shaking her just a little on the way up. “Why the fuck were you following my son?”
“ Oh, uh, sorry about that. I didn’t mean to scare you! ” She shook the cat around a little bit, because that didn’t answer the question. ” Okay, okay! Celebi told me he’d be interesting! I guess he’s just not interesting yet .” Delia frowned- worried. No, she wasn’t worried, she was terrified . Why were legendaries taking interest in her kit? Whatever interesting meant, she was sure it was the sort of importance that one got through being particularly important - and importance meant danger… “ um, miss Zoroark, can you let go of me- ”
“No.” Mew pouted, but Delia didn’t particularly care- she’d entered parenting mode almost absently. “Stay there and think about the consequences of your actions.” She’d have to work on her illusions more than she already did taking care of Ash… and training… A few minutes later she remembered about the mythical she'd been holding onto, and dropped it with a warning to never stalk her son again. She had a lot to think about.
When Ash got back to Pallet Town, she was never so glad to wrap him in an embrace and promise him she’d always be there for him, no matter what.
………
Ash squealed with joy as he ran around the open field, a dratini on each shoulder laughing in excitement at her kit’s speed. Delia could see the other two hiding in the grass, ready to enact their devilish ambush and conquer Ash Ketchum for themselves, but she didn’t intervene. Dragonite’s kids were always a joy to be around.
It would have been positively idyllic, had she not come for another reason. Between the two of them lay no illusions, only an image projected to those who watched from the outside, and Samuel’s faithful partner could clearly see how worried she was. “ So. What brings you here? More than letting the kids play with their friend. ” Sometimes, the reason was just that simple, but to say so now would be to lie .
“Ash is going to be in danger.” Dragonite stiffened slightly. “I don’t know when. I don’t know how , but one day my kit is going to face something monumental , and I’m terrified. He’s just a human… what if he doesn't…”
Dragonite gently, reassuringly, placed a claw atop her paw. “ Who told you this? Is it normal Delia paranoia, or… ”
“It’s not him. I ran into Mew.” She snorted at Dragonite’s look of incredulous surprise. “I thought it was my father, but it turned out that Celebi had told her Ash would be interesting in the future.” If words were wishes, the bitterness in that last interesting would have erupted in a frigid malice at the mere thought.
“...well, fuck.” Yep, that about summed it up. “I’d train with you, but we both know you’d kick my ass.”
“Not necessarily.” Dragonite gave her a look , and she rolled her eyes in turn- “ yes, yes, I’d just drop you in an illusion and knock you around the field. Master of illusions. You don’t need to bring it up… but what if I didn’t .” A spark of understanding bloomed in Dragonite’s eyes- “I’m strong, but not champion level strong. My illusions are my greatest asset.”
“ You want to train without illusions .”
“Not exactly. That would be counterproductive.” Illusions were the core of how she fought- to leave them behind would hinder her efforts more than the training would strengthen it. That precious ability to multitask, to weave from energy and will images of might… she would need that if she ever wanted to fight something for real . The dark-type energy she’d been lacing through the air since her arrival shivered as she exerted her dominance over it- and to them alone Oak’s meadow shifted to a beachfront vista, then a craggy mountain top, a dense rainforest, an undersea cavern- “I’ll still practice my illusions, just… less subtly.”
Dragonite trilled in wonder as he reached out a claw to feel one of the fish swimming through the air around them, weak illusion wavering as it passed immaterially through his grasp. “ Damn. You scare me sometimes, Delia. ” He paused, a grin spread across his draconic maw- “ but this sounds fun . I’m in. ”
She merely nodded- gaze rested securely on her greatest treasure, and deepest font of fear as he ran in innocent eagerness, with friends…
She wouldn’t abandon her kit. No matter what.
………
Seasons fled in stolen moments, and time crawled forward. Warm winters spent by the fireplace, kit tucked up next to her as they drank tea and told spooky stories of the cruel kin who stalked the ice. Summer’s halcyon days set in passion’s blaze, racing through forests and playing with his friends. Springtides of flowers and autumn’s falling leaves-
Years passed, and Ash grew up into a lovely, kind young boy eager for his journey. Delia would hold the memories of him proclaiming he’d be a pokemon master- whatever that meant- close to her heart forever, and cherish the look of comical despair when he realized the dratini would be too young to go with him. The cheers when his five hundred and three postcards managed to net him a rare league expo hat.
As he grew, she trained . Never quite enough to defeat Dragonite in brute force, but the frequent, regular battling was enough to really push her. Her illusions, of course… she’d been a master to begin with, but holding a corporeal form for ten years was something else entirely. She was confident not even her father could match her in that category…
Probably. She wasn’t going to ask, and it would be unfair to Aurea to ask her to seek the bastard out to satisfy an idle curiosity. To satisfy any curiosity, really.
That was all immaterial now. She’d told Ash to get some rest for the start of his journey tomorrow, but couldn’t sleep herself. She chuckled mirthlessly, sitting on the ground in the garden, legs tucked tight to herself and every illusion dispelled, just… hoping.
She was scared. Everything had been arranged, she’d practiced her scyther illusion in secret for the last few years, the diner was in good hands and the professor had assured her she didn’t need to stick around for the pokemon on the ranch. Dragonite and the kids knew she’d be leaving for some time…
She was scared . Of the unknown, of what Mew had let slip to her, for Ash… for the family they had, and what it meant beneath the nature of so many lies. Moonlight’s luminescence cast the entire garden in its silvery light, mere reflections of reflection… sighing, she stood, pulling her well used cloak of humanity around herself and silently slipping into the house to get some rest.
If nothing else, there was one thing she was absolutely completely certain of- one conviction held closer to her heart than heartbeat itself-
She loved Ash so, so much.
Evenly, she breathed- curled up to sleep, laden with the knowledge that tomorrow…
Tomorrow, it all began.