Chapter Text
At first, Emmet felt… nothing. Not the sensation of touch nor the taste of the air around him. He couldn't see anything other than blank white or even hear the pulse of his own blood. Everything was so unnaturally quiet that if someone could, they would have been able to convince him he was a ghost.
Then suddenly, a flash of color surrounded him completely. A sharp, tinglingly pain shot down his spine and through his nerves and past his joints. It felt like awareness had hit him like a brick as his feet nearly collapsed under him upon touching actual ground. Then, the nausea hit him.
He ran straight through the nearest door, down a hall, and into another room entirely before he fell onto his knees. On impulse alone, he gagged into the rim of a toilet bowl and emptied whatever remained in his stomach. A few minutes of blinking later and he was able to take in his surroundings properly.
The former warden sat on the tiled floor of a bathroom, looking more than a little dazed. To the left of him was a bathtub with a shower and to his left was a sink with a nicely sized mirror hanging above. The room looked hardly big enough to accommodate two people but there were two sets of hand towels, cups, toothbrushes, and toothpaste on either side of the counter. Though, there was only a single bar of soap to the left of the faucet.
These small, insignificant details rang familiar to Emmet but he couldn't place them.
He stood up, flushed the toilet, and washed his hands. Did he feel verrrrrry embarrassment for puking in possibly someone else's home? Maybe. Though, he couldn't discount the familiarity he felt being there, at that moment. Perhaps he needed to look around more to confirm his suspicions…
He walked through the doorway and back into the hall. There was a door on the other wall and opening it revealed a standard closet. Inside were bins and boxes stacked nearly, labeled with what he presumed were the names of holidays on the sides facing him. Not finding anything of importance, he quietly closed the door so he didn't feel anymore invasive than he already was.
He walked back to the place he had appeared in. It was a standard sized room with a bed placed along one of the walls. There was a silver and white plaid comforter spread neatly onto it with dark blue pillows at its head. Beside it was a nightstand that had pokeballs and their stands resting on top. Latched to the side was a hook and a belt attached. There were clips on the belt, likely for the pokeballs.
To his right was a bookshelf with books on trains, Pokemon breeding, and computer programming. There was even an old model train on one of the shelves. In fact, there was other such memorabilia around the room. Including a child's rug in the middle of the floor that had train tracks running along its edges.
That's when reality had struck him. This was his room or rather, the room he had left behind. Though, there was no collection of dust or heavy staleness to the air. Despite being gone for ten years… in present day, he had not vanished for more than five minutes.
The dizziness from earlier had returned and Emmet found himself on his knees again. He wasn't sure what to do next. There was no schedule for this or at least, not one he followed so religiously in years. So he sat there, like a puppet cut from its strings. Unable to do anything until–
"Umbrella at your side, it’s raining but you close it tight." This was the sound of a ringtone coming from his right wrist. His xtransceiver was now functional again, playing a song he only just remembered existed. "'And how are you?' purred a cat just passing through. Those heels that you like are soaking, but is that alright?"
"Let out a sigh for another day the same as the last. Come on let’s try, dye it blue and change it up from the past." A name flashed across the screen and the former warden froze in place. It was his brother calling. Ingo.
"Reflecting up from a puddle but then gone in a flash–" He dumbly answered it before it was too late to do so. Despite not even knowing what to say.
"...Ma… Morning Ingo." Wow, he stumbled hard. It must have been bad enough to leave his twin in shock because he could only hear the sound of his breathing from the other line for a moment or two.
"... Emmie? Are you alright?" Fuck, he was supposed to be going to work, wasn't he? That's why he was in uniform before he disappeared. Ingo had been waiting for him to come in and here he was, on the floor of his bedroom. Not doing that.
"I am Emmet! I am… uuuuhh, alright! Yup!" He lied through his teeth as he nearly lost his balance again.
"...Emmet. Please, tell me what's wrong." Damn, he was seen right through. On top of that, his brother spoke with an emotion he couldn't place but it still rang alarm bells in his head. He felt immediately guilty for lying.
"I… I don't actually feel too well." That was the closest thing to the truth anyway. "My suspension is a little on the… rocky side. I don't think I'll make it in."
Which is probably for the best as he didn't exactly remember how to do his job.
"Have you done your safety checks? Did you check for a fever?" Ingo's voice was riddled with worry. "Are you unhurt?"
"Uh…" Fuck, he was bad at this. He just needed to improvise. For now. "Engines are slow… but not overheating. I expelled some waste earlier."
"... Alright, maybe it's just a stomach bug then." He could tell how much his brother was relieved by this. "Go lay down, I'll be home in a bit."
He probably needed it with how unsteady he was on his feet. Still, something confused him. "Don't you have to work today, Ingo?"
He checked the time on his xtrans and it was nowhere near his lunch hour. While he wasn't familiar with Unovan terms of phrases as much anymore, he was in a bit didn't mean in little less than four hours.
"I'll work from home the rest of the day." Past him probably could have called bullshit on this. Presently, he could not. "Besides, I'm not running the battle trains today. The depot agents should be fine handling the regular lines."
"...Okay, I'll see you home soon." There was a sudden lump in his throat. "Love you, Ingo."
"Love you too, Emmet." If a few tears had slipped down his face– well, no one else would know.
—
Ingo woke up with a groan.
His body was screaming at him for the uncomfortable position he was in. He wasn't laying down but sitting on a chair, using the presumable table in front of him to rest head. Strange, he remembered going to bed the night prior. It didn't make sense for him to go to his office in the middle of the night only to fall asleep again.
Sure enough, he opened his eyes and saw a computer keyboard in front of him. When he looked up, though, he didn't see the desktop he had at home. This was the computer he had at work.
Huh.
Well, he wasn't exactly present most of the time nowadays. He likely just woke up on autopilot and got ready for work. Still, it was strange that he fell asleep at some point and that no one tried to get a hold of him by now. His workers probably thought he needed the rest.
Oh well, they were probably right. His computer was on sleep mode so he moved the mouse to wake it up. He was about to put in his passcode when he froze at the date.
11/09/202X
Someone must have changed the date on his desktop because that day was ten years off. Of all times to do this though… What a cruel joke. Whoever thought this was a good idea was getting fired. No question.
Whatever. He put in his passcode before bringing out his xtransceiver and turned it on, only to see the same date. 11/09/202X.
Well, bonus points for consistency to whomever was behind this.
This was, however, turning into a security issue. At this point, he'd have to reset all passcodes on all the systems and even do an investigation on what else might have been tampered with. Great dragons, he was not looking forward to that.
First and foremost though, he was going to change the date back on his computer. He brought up the web browser and looked up the current day.
11/09/202X
What.
Okay, he must be hallucinating. It was possible that a worker could have seen him log into the system with his username and passcode in the control room. However, any sensitive document was locked with another code. Even his xtransceiver didn't use the same key as those folders. He assumed that someone must have taken his passcode journal and decoded it to get all his login information.
As improbable as that sounded, at least it was possible.
There was no conceivable way that someone hacked an entire company on the Internet to change the date back ten years. They would have to be some kind of super genius to manage all that and get the timing right, let alone only do it to spite him. That was just simply impossible.
So he went to the next best reason. This was just a very bad, very vivid nightmare that he was in. This wasn't the first time he had a dream about his brother coming home or never even missing in the first place. He just hadn't had one… in years.
Still, it would hurt less to check than go through this deranged fantasy that his brain conjured up.
He took a hold of his left wrist and gave a hearty pinch. A twinge of pain went up his arm but nothing more. This was no dream.
That left only one conclusion: time travel.
There were Pokemon gods that ruled over time and space so this wasn't out of the realm of possibility. Historically, there were a number of instances of person or pokemon involving such. In fact, societies in times passed were even aware of this too. Though, time going back ten years was still rather staggering, since it was usually a singular entity going backwards or, sometimes, forwards in time and not the fabric of the world being rewritten.
Ingo stared dumbfounded at this revelation. This was even above his pay grade as a member of the League, as a facility head. Only the Elite Four and the Champion could tackle a problem such as this. Even then, what could they do? Ask the pokemon gods to go forward ten years?!
Besides, wasn't this a good thing? People would finally get the chance to relive part of their lives and fix their mistakes. Even he might have the chance to–
Oh.
Ingo turned back on his xtrans and went to his brother's contact. Sure enough, all the messages he sent him throughout the years were gone. What was left though was the final text that his twin sent him that previous night.
'i'll be fine ingo. get some sleep and i'll see you in the morning.'
Without any more thought, he hit the call button.
Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
Come on, pick up. Please.
Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing.
He couldn't do this again. This had to be some sort of cruel joke or nightmare. Why bring him back to the day his brother vanished if he could do nothing about it?!
Briiiiiiiiiiiiiing. Briiiiiiiiiiiiii– Click.
"...Ma… Morning Ingo." The voice was small and quiet but it was most definitely his twin. He must have just woken up or he was sick. It could be possibly both too.
"... Emmie? Are you alright?" He almost hated how feeble he sounded. Still, he needed to know that his sibling was safe. That he wouldn't go missing this time.
"I am Emmet! I am… uuuuhh, alright! Yup!" Ingo could hear him lose his balance on the phone.
"...Emmet. Please, tell me what's wrong." He could always tell when his twin was lying. Despite his flat voice, he was rather terrible at it. The inflection in his speech always betrayed him.
"I… I don't actually feel too well." He believed that at least. He was being too quiet for it not to have been illness or nerves. Due to their shared Autism, it could have very well have been both. Breakdowns often have physical symptoms to them- nausea or even passing out depending on the severity. "My suspension is a little on the… rocky side. I don't think I'll make it in."
"Have you done your safety checks? Did you check for a fever?" However, Emmet had yet to share if this was the case. He needed more information. "Are you unhurt?"
Honestly, he should have started with that question. "Uh… Engines are slow… but not overheating. I expelled some waste earlier."
"... Alright, maybe it's just a stomach bug then." Hopefully, that's all this was. They weren't out of the woods yet. "Go lay down, I'll be home in a bit."
"Don't you have to work today, Ingo?" Of course Emmet would call him out on this. They were both very serious about their job as subway bosses, at least in the past.
"I'll work from home the rest of the day." It wasn't like the battle subway ran the day his brother disappeared anyway. "Besides, I'm not running the battle trains today. The depot agents should be fine handling the regular lines."
"...Okay, I'll see you home soon." A lump had grown in his throat at that. "Love you, Ingo."
"Love you too, Emmet." After the call ended, Ingo burst into tears. His twin was okay, for the time being. He had to be fast lest something further befell him.
Still though, he took a minute or two sobbing in his office. Recomposing himself, he then called one of his depot agents, saying that he was leaving due to a family emergency. Without anything else to do, he packed his belongings and left.
Ingo ran as fast as he could home.
—
Scrap. Scratch. Sizzle.
Noise woke Emmet from an uneasy sleep. It sounded like someone was cooking something but his mind hadn't woken up enough to process it. Then, the smell of scrambling eggs brought him to further consciousness. "......Mmmmmnggh," he groaned.
"Sorry, did I… wake you?" That was Ingo's voice. His inflection was a little strange- hesitant almost. It was like he was cut off guard by something.
The former warden still didn't remember his brother enough to call him out on this either. All he could do was lay on the couch with his eyes closed. "Hmmm….. maybe."
He heard his twin audibly sigh. No memory was required to know which one of them was snarkier at least. His quips will be put to good use, he supposed.
"You know that you forgot to feed your pokemon this morning?" This got Emmet to open his eyes real fast. He sat up so quickly that he immediately became dizzy from the sudden motion, nauseated even. Still, he was less concerned about that.
"Shit, really?!" It didn't feel like he was asleep for a significant amount of time– an hour, maybe. He had just gotten back and he was already fucking things up.
"Don't worry, I already fed them out on the porch." The former warden looked outside, noticing the snow. "I didn't want them to crowd you while you were sleeping. Also, this was done before it started coming down, so they wouldn't get cold."
"Alright. Let them out of their pokeballs for now then." There was an ache in his chest. Great Dragons Above, did he miss his original team. Even with no proper memory of a single one.
Without hesitation, Ingo brought out five pokeballs from his pocket and threw them in the air.
What followed was a cacophony of cries and screeches from his pokemon. They immediately swarmed him on the couch, all wanting attention.
An electric type eel coiled under his neck, almost choking him. This was the beloved partner he missed so much. "...S… Socket! B-be careful!!"
The name came out naturally, as if he had never forgotten it in the first place. He would have paused at that if he could. Currently though, Socket had finally settled only for a giant fluffy spider to jump on his midsection. Ouch.
Charger the Garvantuala used its pedipalps to knead into his stomach much like a Purrloin would, making biscuits. This wasn't normally a behavior associated with this Pokemon. It had come from her mother, who used to do such with his own.
He wouldn't have minded this, if not for the bile building in his throat. Thankfully, she stopped almost immediately after her limbs started twitching. She then climbed onto the back of the couch and remained there. Emmet was able to swallow the nausea down, even if he shouldn't have.
Then, something crawled onto his left arm and he nearly slapped it off. Almost. Hanging into his wrist was a small, metal ant. It chomped its pincers in the air at him. This was his Durant, Nail.
From above him, he heard a metallic whirring and saw his KlingKlang. Wrench was floating just above him. It seemed to be happy but he wasn't sure.
Then, last but certainly not least, a feathery bird squaked loudly before jumping into his legs. The pokemon then decided to nip at his toes. "B-beam! Not my toes! Please!!"
Overall this experience had been… uncomfortable. A little painful even. Even still though, he loved every minute of it. He missed each and every one of his team. If only he could actually voice it, though.
Well, he could at least settle for showing how much he loved them at least.
"Emmet, are you alright?" Oh, he almost forgot that his brother was there. Oops.
"I am Emmet! I am just fine." His brother looked at him like he didn't believe a word he said. "Why do you ask?"
"You don't usually cry while laughing." Shit, was he? He brought a hand to his face and sure enough, he felt warm tears running down his cheeks. Damn.
He couldn't help it though, he was almost overwhelmed with emotion. Quickly, he wiped at his tears and did his best to breathe normally. A few coughs sputtered out but he managed to calm down.
That's when he decided that he was definitely going to spend the next couple of weeks spoiling his pokemon. Definitely.
Especially since his new team wasn't….
…
No, he shouldn't think about that either.
His twin still looked like he wasn't convinced. He opened his mouth to say something only for the sound of toast popping out of the toaster to cut him off. "You should eat before sleeping some more."
"Alright." Ingo brought him a plate of scrambled eggs on toast. A light meal so it didn't upset his stomach more. He grabbed the platter before fighting off his pokemon trying to steal his food.
What would have been a comfortable silence fell over the two. Emmet ate his breakfast slowly while his brother had set up his laptop next to him, in the arm chair. The clicking of computer keys bothered the younger twin but he made no effort to speak up.
It was strange for his older sibling not to set up in their home office. They had it for a reason, after all. Then again, it's not like he knew which one of them was more clingy. This could have been normal behavior for him.
Still, the noise was doing nothing to settle his stomach.
After eating, Emmet put down his plate on the nearby coffee table. He laid back down and his pokemon got comfortable again. It wasn't probably the best for them to lay on him when he wasn't feeling well but he didn't have the heart to push them away either.
"Do you want me to put on a documentary to help you fall asleep?" The former warden didn't exactly like the idea of more sound in the room but still. He had only returned home and… he couldn't say no to his brother either. Especially for something as simple as this.
"Sure," he said, despite the slight dread build up in his head.
Ingo stood from his chair and walked over to a nearby shelf. He pulled out a DVD case and walked over to the TV, opening the box. Then, he pulled out the disk inside and put it into the DVD player after turning on the television.
The program started off calming. Soothing music played as scenes of picturesque nature was shown on screen. A particularly dedicated trainer would probably be able to pick out the wild area of Galar in the background. He didn't know how he knew that but he remembered something, so he was going with it. That's when the sound of a train running down tracks started playing.
Emmet could feel his stomach twist in his abdomen. Bile started rising up his throat again but this time, he wasn't positive he could swallow it down this time. "Bucket."
"... Bucket?" Ingo repeated in mild confusion before it hit him. His expression changed into an urgent look before he ran down the hall to get the requested item.
The younger twin did his best to not puke on the couch.
—