Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Drowning.

Kieran was drowning as his lungs screamed for air that wasn't available, and he failed, with a baby Sentret in his arm, as his vision became more blurry with the passing seconds.

He didn't remember how he got there. All he knew was that he was following a Sentret, and the next thing he knew was that he was falling into the Fellhorn Gorge off of a small cliff into the water, with his sister running at him with her horrified face, her arm outstretched but never reaching him. He tried to swim up, but he didn't know how to swim, instead falling deeper and deeper into the cold water, no, ocean of the river.

But then, just when Kieran thinks he's done for, he spots something in the corner of his eye. A shadow. At first, he thought it was a Pokemon that would come and attack him, maybe eat him, but as the shadow got closer, Kieran swore that he saw pale skin and dark brown hair. He wouldn't give up, not now when there was help, so he stretched his hand for the shadow, and right before he closed his eyes, he thought for a second that he saw two stars in the figure's eyes.

Twelve years earlier….

As Ogerpon was walking around the hall, making sure that she was far away from the humans so no one would see her, her eyes spotted a big brown basket just floating in the river. A small cry came from it, intriguing Ogerpon's interest and curiosity. She went forward, trying not to think about the festival happening in the only town in the region. 

She tries not to think about her Chosen, who died at the hands of the Lousy Three while trying to retrieve their precious masks, a traitorous part of her brain whispered. Tries not to think about the townspeople, who see it all as her being evil and the Lousy Three coming out of nowhere to save the village. Tries not to think about the fact that the village worshiped the Lousy Three, that they didn't know their true colors.

Ogerpon shook her head. Now was not the time to wallow in memories. As she came closer, she saw something that surprised her.

Inside the basket was a human, a baby human. The baby, most likely a girl, Ogerpon deduced, was recently born, and had dark brown hair, sort of pale skin, and half of her body was wrapped in a blanket, giving soft whimpering cries. But there was one thing that shocked Ogerpon, as the baby looked at her curiously.

This baby girl had slate gray eyes, just like her Chosen had before he died.

It had been about 186 years since her Chosen human died. 186 years since she had been seen by humans. 

186 years since the mask maker gave her the masks. She wondered if they were alright, if they had descendants that knew the truth.

Not only that, but this newborn child had a mark. Reshiram's mark, to be exact. 

“What is Reshiram's Chosen doing here? Last I knew, Reshiram was asleep,” Ogerpon muttered to herself. “But if this was Reshiram's Chosen, then why is she abandoned?”

One option, and the most likely, sadly, was that this girl's mother had died and left her here in the basket. Another was that the gods had placed her here, but why? Unova was far away from Kitakami, so that wouldn't make sense. Another was that she was the Alpha's Chosen, but an evil soul found out and accidentally sent the girl here.

The baby babbled, now calm, and stretched out a tiny hand towards Ogerpon. She tilted her head, her wide eyes full of innocence, her face smiling as if this was normal.

“You are mine now,” Ogerpon decided. She gently picked up the baby girl and the blanket in her hands, smiling when the baby cooed, but stopped before she went back to her den. “You need a name,” Ogerpon decided. “You are a child of the stars, if I remember correctly. A child worthy of a mark of Truth.”

“Your name is now Astra Hoshiko.”

Chapter Text

“And then the Ogre realized

What treasures she had

When she knew how idolized

She was, all of her was glad”

Ogerpon looked at her new child carefully, trying to figure out what in the name of Giratina she was supposed to do right now. She had gotten the child home safely, but now Ogerpon had absolutely no idea where to start. Not only that, the newly named Astra had been glowing blue a couple of times during Ogerpon’s trek to her cave.

“Hello?” A voice asked, and Ogerpon pulled out her cudgel, smacking it against the intruder in her cave. She put herself in between her daughter; she was not going to let her new Chosen die quickly.

As the intruder groaned, Ogerpon took a second to see who it was. A bundle of blue and black fur was across the cave and groaned.

“Sorry. I shouldn't have sneaked up on you,” the Pokemon said as it stood up. Two bipedal legs made it tall, and blood-red eyes looked across the cave. 

“Who are you?” Ogerpon asked her cudgel still raised. She wasn't taking any chances, not like her last human.

“I'm a Lucario,” the voice, which was feminine, said. “Ever since I felt the Aura pulse, I knew I should come.”

“Aura pulse?” Ogerpon asked, tilting her head a little bit. “What do you mean by that?”

“If you check her eyes, you should probably see it,” Lucario said.

“Why would anything be in her - wait what?” Ogerpon asked as she looked at Astra's eyes. They now had two six-pointed stars, one in each eye. “Why does she now have stars in her eyes?”

“Because you adopted her. From what I heard, whenever a Legendary or Mythical adopts a human child, the child has a sort of watered-down ability of their parent. For example, they have a symbol in their eyes, Psychic abilities, etcetera, if I use that human term correctly,” Lucario answered. “Because you now consider her your child, she has your star eyes to mark her as your child.”

“So because I adopted her, she now has star eyes?” Ogerpon wondered out loud.

“Correct. Us Lucarios can feel Aura, and I felt that hers was stronger than a normal human Aura. Perhaps she will be able to make friends with Pokemon she just met, meet Legendaries of Legends, and reach higher than the stars,” Lucario added. “I also noted that she has the potential to utilize Aura.”

“So she could also use Pokemon attacks if she needed to with enough training?”

“That's why I came here. I want to help you train her and raise her,” Lucario proposed. “It's okay if you don't need help or if you don't trust me - I've raised a Pichu, Riolu, and Eevee from Eggs before they left for the world.”

Ogerpon thought for a minute. Should she accept this help, who claimed to know how to raise a hatchling? She didn't know how to raise a child - her species could only reproduce once at old age, and she was still in her teenage years as a species.

“Okay. I accept. I'm Ogerpon, and this is my daughter Astra Hoshiko.”

“You're welcome. I'm Luka.”

Five years later…..

“Memaw!” Astra shouted excitedly, bounding over. “Memaw! Guess what!”

“What is it, Astra?” Ogerpon asked, turning from the Berry Pile she was sorting.

“Aunt Luka found an apple tree! And then she gave me the biggest apple there!” Astra told Ogerpon excitedly. “It was really yummy!”

“Well did you say thank you?” Ogerpon asked. One of the first things that she had taught Astra was to always be kind.

“Yeah, she told me that several times,” a chuckle came. Luka then caught up to them. “Don't forget that you wanted to tell about what happened.”

“Well, what happened?” Ogerpon asked, a bit worried. Did something bad happen?

“I can use Aura!” Astra cheered. She held up her arm, and then her hand glowed blue for a bit until it faded.

“Congratulations!” Ogerpon exclaimed, hugging Astra. “You've grown so much!”

“Yeah!” Astra replied. She then started making her entire body glow and stop glowing.

“Astra! Astra!” Amber, one of the Vulpix from the local Arson, yelled as he ran over to her, the rest of them not far away. “Do you want to play hide and seek with us!”

“Yeah!” Astra exclaimed. Astra then ran over to the rest of the Arson.

“You know, I think with the progress she's been making, she might be able to wield an Aura cudgel like you,” Luka said as she sat down, eyes on Astra as she closed her eyes and started counting. 

“Really?” Ogerpon asked as she too sat down and started munching on an apple.

“You know, I've been thinking of teaching Astra some phrases of human English,” Luka stated. “Even though the chances are low, I think it'll be best to teach her in case she ever sees a human.”

“I'm pretty sure that she'll never be seen by one,” Ogerpon said. “But it wouldn't hurt to learn a bit.”

“Okay,” Luka responded, and for a while, they sat in silence, the only sounds filling the air being Astra's giggles and the sound of the Arson playing and squealing when they were found.

“I'm grateful you're here,” Ogerpon said, breaking their silence. “I would have been a whole mess if you weren't helping me raise Astra.”

“Think nothing of it,” Luka said. “It always brings me joy when I get to see hatchlings grow up.”

“But still, thank you. I didn't really know how to raise a child.”

“It's a hit-and-miss experience. If there's something that doesn't work, try it a different way next time,” Luka exhaled a breath. “I was wandering. My previous Trainer had passed from old age, so I was just going wherever I felt like.”

“Trainers huh?” Ogerpon mused, as a new round of hide and seek started.

“And so, Mossui Town celebrates the Loyal Three every year with our festival,” Grandpa said as he finished his story.

“Again! Again!” Kieran asked, jumping in place. “Can you go back?”

“Sure. To which part?” His grandpa asked.

“To the part where the Ogre beat the Loyal Three!” Kieran said. “I wanna hear it again!”

“Why do you want to hear how the Ogre beat the Loyal Three? Why can't we hear how the Ogre left?” Carmine asked.

“Because the Ogre's cool! The Ogre managed to defeat three Pokemon all on their own! With no help! The Ogre's strong!” Kieran replied. “I wanna be as strong as the Ogre one day!”

“So then people can beat you?” Carmine asked. “The Ogre was defeated, you know.”

“But only because it was tired from defeating the Loyal Three,” Kieran countered. “So the Ogre isn't weak. It just couldn't battle all the villagers, too.”

“Well, it's time to go to bed now, I can tell you the story tomorrow,” Grandpa replied, and as Kieran went to bed, he couldn't help but think about how cool it would be to battle alongside the Ogre.

“Memaw! Aunt Luka!” Astra asked the next day. “Can I go to the apple orchards, please?”

“Okay. Just, before you go, you must promise me one thing.” Ogerpon said as she took a deep breath.

“What is it, Memaw?” Astra asked.

“You must promise me that you will try never to be seen by a human.”

“Why Memaw?” Astra asked, eyes round with curiosity as her stars grew a little bit. 

“Because - wait, how do I explain this,” Ogerpon said as she held her head, a small headache forming. “So you know how you're a human?”

“Yes, because you told me that you found me one night and adopted me,” Astra replied. “What does that have to do?”

“Well, there are some humans who are very bad. There are other humans who try to do good things but end up doing bad things,” Ogerpon started.

“Ok?” Astra questioned.

“However, you must know that Aura is very rare in humans. So rare that there are some people who ask others to hunt Aura users for them so they can claim them as theirs and ‘study them.”

“Ok?” Astra asked again, this time her voice was much quieter.

“So that is why. Even if you can read Auras, it's still dangerous to be seen by humans unless both of you trust each other. You must also be careful and never show your Aura to a human. Okay?” Ogerpon finished. Astra was looking at her with wide eyes.

“I promise, Memaw.”

Chapter Text

“ Whatever conflict that had risen

Had been resolved and forgiven.

For the hearts of kindness

Had resolved with brightness.”

“Whew,” Ogerpon said as she wiped her nonexistent brow as she sat down. “That was a close one.”

“True,” Luka replied, making sure Astra didn't crawl over the waterfall as she too, sat down. “True.”

“I did not think she would try to do that. I think I might try to teach her how to swim later on,” Ogerpon said. It had been five months since Ogerpon met Luka, and Astra had learned how to crawl. Both of them thought of how when they just took their eyes off Astra for a minute, she had wandered over to the waterfall at the Fellhorn Gorge, nearly falling over. “But I think she sensed something there.”

“You think?” Luka asked. “What do you think she sensed?”

“If I remember correctly, I heard rumors of a secret cave behind the waterfall.” Ogerpon's eyes locked with Luka's. 

“I think we found a new cave.”

Five years and one month later…

Ogerpon sighed as she swam in the Crystal Pool, content with the feeling of water in her cloak and toes as she floated like a Staryu. It had been six months since Astra promised her to try to not be seen by humans, and so far, they hadn't been spotted. 

Luka had hung back, not wanting to get her fur wet, while Astra simply dipped her feet in the water, reaching to her knee. Astra still didn't get wet much, especially since the ferns she used for covering her private parts weren't made for water. Astra also still couldn't swim, needing something to cover her up.

“Memaw,” Astra called. “Can we go get some more ferns please?” She asked.

“You can go with Luka if she wants to,” Ogerpon responded. She held her breath and turned over, allowing her face to get cooled with the fresh water. She didn't know how long she had been there, but when Astra called out to her Ogerpon jumped in surprise and had to quickly hold her breath so she didn't swallow up any water. The water was fine, but it wasn't good to swallow up too much, given the energy radiating from the pool and the unknown reason behind it.

“What is it, Astra?” Ogerpon asked, and when she looked at her daughter, she was wearing something… different.

Instead of the ferns that covered her, she now had a white sort of covering on her breasts, and when Astra had turned around because she was spinning in a circle trying to outlast Ka Moi the Jangmo’o, it came in an X-shape. It didn’t cover her arms and looked comfortable.

She was also wearing what seemed to be shorts if Ogerpon’s memory served her correctly. Both of her clothes were white like a Bug Type has used String Shot.

Wait, why didn’t I think of that? Ogerpon thought. She mentally facepawed, but then realized that alongside Luka, Ka Moi, and Astra, there was someone else. The Pokemon was bipedal, and had a sort of leaf-like cloak on its head, alongside a sort of leaf dress on its body. In the yellow insect-like hands was a small bundle of what seemed to be String Shot, but rapidly growling, until the finished product was a small white silk cloak. Now that Ogerpon paid attention, there were several small Pokemon, mainly some of the local Arson and a couple of Sentret, who were crowding the Pokemon.

“Here you go!” The Pokemon said cheerfully, and now Ogerpon could tell that it was a female. Blister, one of the younger Vulpix, received a tiny silk cloak that covered her back. She looked even more adorable.

“Thank you, Miss Vea!” Blister responded, and then started running around with her new silk cloak, yipping with excitement.

“Alright, who else wants one?” The now revealed to be Vea asked. Most of the Pokemon around her started shouting “Me! Me!”

“Calm down kids, you'll get one,” Ogerpon found herself saying as she finally entered the group. The Vulpix realized she was there, and Ember ran up to her.

“Aunt Pompom!” Ember cried out, and Ogerpon felt a surge of happiness when she heard that. “Astra found Vea and Vea can make silk cloaks that look like yours!”

“Memaw!” Astra shouted and stopped her spinning to greet her mom. “Vea made me silk clothes! And now I can swim!”

“I mean, they are waterproof,” Vea said, seemingly nervously. She held her hands together as if she was trying to shy away.

“But they're awesome! I'm gonna be the first in the entire Arson to have a silk cloak!” Blister said. 

“Leavanny like me are supposed to make leaf clothes, but I was never able to master the art, so I make silk clothes,” Vea responded. “I've been traveling for a while, trying to find where I belong.”

“You can stay here!” Astra said. “We all like you! And you can belong!”

“Yeah!”

“Stay here, please!”

“Don't leave!”

As more of the Pokemon began voicing their support, Vea began looking more interested.

“Okay. I'll stay.”

“YAY!”

Six months later……

As Kieran trudged through the mountainside, his breath was rough. He might have only been six, but six years old was old enough to go by himself to Oni Mountain! He could go find the Ogre! By himself!

“Oof,” he whispered as he tripped and nearly fell on a rock. He managed to dust himself off, but then he heard a noise.

“Vul?” He heard, and as he turned, he saw a Vulpix with what seemed like a silk cloak. The Vulpix neared him slowly until it sniffed his hand and rubbed his leg with its head.

“Hey there,” Kieran said and started petting the Vulpix. “Are you a girl?” He asked, and the Vulpix nodded its head. So a she.

“Are you lost?” Was the next logical question. A shake. “Why are you here?”

The Vulpix started pawing him. “Are you here because you were worried about me?” A nod. “So you want to stay with me so I'm not attacked by a wild Pokemon?”

Vulpix nodded again, and Kieran decided to get up and continue. 

As Kieran kept on walking, he felt braver than ever. Even if Vulpix wasn't his, he had a Pokemon to protect him! No Pokemon decided to attack him in his entire hike!

When Kieran reached what he thought was the Dreaded Den, he decided to enter the den and see if the Ogre was there. But to his sadness, it wasn't there. All that Kieran saw in the den was a black circle in the ground.

Disappointed, Kieran went outside, where he decided to wait outside for a while. A while turned into a long time, and somehow that turned into hours, because Kieran had somehow dozed off, and the sun was setting. He heard voices, and when he turned, he saw his sister and grandpa coming towards him.

“Kiki!” Carmine yelled. “There you are! Do you have any idea how worried we were?”

“You shouldn't have gone off like that, we were very worried about you. Do you know how dangerous it is?” Grandpa said. “You mustn't go off without a Pokemon.”

“But there was a Vulpix with a silk cloak that made sure I didn't get attacked!” Kieran protested. He looked around, but the Vulpix was no longer there.

“You shouldn't go to the Dreaded Den, Kieran. You'll understand when you're older,” and with that, Kieran's Grandpa picked him up, and started carrying him back home.

“I'll be back soon,” he quietly said as they went back down the mountain. He didn't know if he was telling himself, or hoping that the Vulpix could hear him. “I promise.”

(Over the course of the next six years, Kieran would continue going to Oni Mountain by himself, always trying to find the Ogre but always failing, until the Incident took place, where everything changed.)

As Astra was rough-housing with Ka Moi, Vea couldn't help but think how innocent Astra still was. She didn't know the hardships of the world, and that was a good thing.

“Hey Astra,” Luka said beside her. “Come. I want to tell you something.”

“What is it, Aunt Luka?” Astra asked. 

“It's a song I'm going to sing to you,” Luka said. She took a deep breath. “ Ohhhhhh ohhhh oh oh ohh. Ohhhhhh ohhhh oh oh oh .”

Astra blinked as she sat down, and Vea thought she recognized this one.

“ They told him, ‘Don't you ever come around here, don't wanna see your face, you better disappear. ’” Luka started singing slowly. 

“ The fire's in their eyes and their words are really clear, so beat it, just beat it .” Vea now recognized this one, Beat It. The song reignited her memories of when she was smaller before she was cast out of her group.

“ Don't wanna see no blood, don't be a macho man, you wanna be tough, better do what you can.”

Vea thought back to when she fled from her group, knowing she couldn't take them all on.

“ No one wants to be defeated, showin' how funky and strong is your fight, it doesn't matter who's wrong or right. ”

She remembered how she didn't give up, even after she didn't have the safety of the group.

“ They're out to get you, better leave while you can, don't wanna be a boy, you wanna be a man, you wanna stay alive, better do what you can .”

Vea thought of how she was able to survive, how she foraged for food and stayed dry during storms.

“ You have to show them that you're really not scared, you're playin' with your life, this ain't no truth or dare. They'll kick you, then they'll beat you, then they'll tell you it's fair .”

She knew they shouldn't have cast her out because she couldn't do the most basic thing about their species, make leaf clothing. They didn't like her the moment she made silk clothes instead of leaves.

“ Beat it

Beat it 

Beat it 

Beat it 

Beat it

Beat it. ”

She knew Astra was going to have to learn about the world's cruelty, but Vea could make sure she didn't learn like herself.

“ No one wants to be defeated, showin' how funky and strong is your fight. It doesn't matter who's wrong or right, just beat it, beat it, beat it, beat it.”

And as the song concluded and Astra was about to stand up to rough house some more, Vea found herself saying something.

“Astra, wait.”

“What is it, Aunt Vea?” And even though Vea felt a rush of happiness and pride wash through her, there was something she needed to do.

”I also have a song I'm going to sing,” and with that, Vea began.

“Once upon a younger year, when all our shadows disappeared, the wild Mons inside came out to play. Went face to face with all our fears, learned our lessons through the tears. Made memories we knew would never fade.”

Vea thought back to when she was a Sewaddle when her mother sang her this song.

“One day, my mother, she told me, ‘Girl, don't let it slip away.’ She took me in her arms, I heard her say, ‘When you get older your wild heart will live for younger days, think of me if ever you're afraid.’”

Vea’s mother was the only one in her group to not chase her out, and for that Vea was thankful. Even if it hurt to have her group cast her out, it would have hurt a lot more if her mother helped them.

“She said, ‘One day, you'll leave this world behind, so live a life you will remember.’ My mother told me when I was just a child, ‘These are the nights that never die,’ My mother told me.”

Vea knew that one day, she would leave this earth, but for now, Vea wanted to make the most of it.

“‘When thunderclouds start pouring down, light a fire they can't put out, carve your name into those shining stars.’ She said, ‘Go venture far beyond the shores, don't forsake this life of yours, I'll guide you home no matter where you are.’”

Vea’s mother was always by her side, up until the point where she was the only support she had when she was cast out. Her mother found her and taught her the skills needed to survive.

“One day, my mother, she told me, ‘Girl, don't let it slip away, ’when I was just a kid, I heard her say, ‘When you get older your wild heart will live for younger days, think of me if ever you're afraid.’

She said, ‘One day, you'll leave this world behind, so live a life you will remember.’ My mother told me when I was just a child, ‘These are the nights that never die.’ My mother told me.”

As Vea finished the song, she opened the eyes she didn't realize she closed and saw practically the whole Arson there, alongside a few others. All of them were silent for a while until they started cheering.

Later that day, Vea vaguely heard Ogerpon say something along the lines of “Astra! Don't beat up Ka Moi with your fists!”, Vea thought back to where all of the Pokemon had cheered for her. She thought back to when she decided to stay.

“Yeah, I think I’ll like it here.”

Chapter Text

“ But when two souls meet

Part of them complete,

Separate worlds collided

And two hearts united.”

As Astra was sleeping, Ogerpon decided that now was the time to tell Vea about what happened 192 years ago, given that earlier that day, Vea had decided to stay in Kitakami.

“Oh,” Vea said after Ogerpon told her the story, and for a moment, Ogerpon was afraid that she would have scared her off. “That's okay.”

“What?” Ogerpon couldn't help but ask. “You're not scared?”

“To be fair, I was chased from my group because I couldn't make leaf clothing. This is not as shocking,” Vea said.

“But I ended up killing them,” Ogerpon said guiltily. “My rage got the most of me.”

“ But you didn't mean to. They didn't show that they meant to kill your human, but you show compassion. That's what separates you from them.”

“Have you told Astra yet?” Luka asked suddenly.

“No. I'm going to tell her once she's older,” Ogerpon said, and all three of them continued watching the stars in silence until they fell asleep.

Six years later…….

As Astra submerged herself back into the water, she couldn't help but think how nice it was. She was the only human who could swim, given that Memaw said that humans needed a Pokemon’s help to swim, and Memaw was always right. She would say humans are silly, but since she’s a human, that would be the Crawdaunt calling the Ariados red.

She swam back up, and the Fellhorn Gorge was beautiful. No humans, nice water, warm sun, what else could she ask for? Astra then caught sight of a few aster flowers growing in a small nook and swam towards it. Moon Bear would like those, she thought.

Ever since Astra had nearly fallen off a cliff when she was a baby, Memaw and Aunt Luka had discovered a hidden tunnel system stretching throughout Oni Mountain, and ever since Blister had spread word of a human kid walking up to their cave and even entering, they had moved to the tunnels. Astra could walk from Fellhorn Gorge to the Timeless Woods, where Astra first met Moon Bear, an Ursaluna. Moon Bear had been Astra’s idea because Luna meant moon in some weird human language called Paldean , and Ursa meant bear in the same language. So Moon Bear. Astra would also like to remember that she was seven newleafs at the time, sadly Memaw always told otherwise.

As Astra was picking the aster flowers for later, in the corner of her eyes, she saw a big shadow fall over the cliffside. A second later, a shout came from the same part of the cliff, and the shadow crashed into the water five seconds later, and it didn’t come back up. Astra turned and thought that the shadow was a human.

In the next ten seconds, five things went through Astra’s brain.

1. Humans can’t swim.
2. This human just fell into the water.
3. If humans can’t swim, then this human couldn't come back up to get air.
4. If humans don’t breathe, then they drown.
5. This human was going to drown.

Astra stayed back for a bit. She did promise Memaw seven new leaves ago that she would try not to be seen by humans. But if this human drowned, Astra couldn’t just stay there and do nothing.

So against her better judgment, Astra went towards the human, placing the aster flowers in her hair right before she swam after the human. Sorry, Memaw, Astra thought as she swam to the depths of the river, searching for the human.

As she found the human, who looked unconscious with a stretched hand, her star eyes started glowing a bit. She liked that part. It helped her see in the dark better than normal humans, who apparently needed something called a fla-sh-li-ght to see. The human had white clothes, and there was a brown and black bundle of fur in its arms, and there was a thing in the fur.

(Astra would later wonder if things would have gone differently had she noticed the fur bundle earlier. But then had not been the time to think about it, she always reasoned with herself.)

As she wrapped her right arm across the human’s chest, Astra began swimming upwards. She could hold her breath longer because of her Aura. But this human had most likely swallowed water, and too much water was bad for humans.

Astra managed to bring the human to the surface, and once Astra poked her head out, she saw that they had wandered a lot from the cliff. She searched for the river bank while making sure the human didn't get washed away, and at that moment, she finally noticed the baby Sentret that was in the human's arms, holding a zinnia flower. A small smile came across her face before she started swimming the human and Sentret to the river bank.

Once she got there, she hauled them up and separated them, and decided to help the Sentret first. Pressing its baby stomach, she pushed it a couple of times until the Sentret started coughing up water. She turned to the human but paused.

The human, presumably a girl, looked….. weird. But also pretty, for some reason. She had long black hair that covered her eyes, and it was tied with a weird yellow thing. For clothes, the human girl had a sort of white clothes, and Astra could vaguely recognize an Applin on it.

The human girl also had pale skin, and somehow Astra's right hand was touching the human's right cheek. She was also somehow on top of the human girl, now that she realized it. Astra managed to stop herself from doing anything else disastrous and got off of her, wringing her hair a bit. She then repeated the same process that she used on the baby Sentret, but this time with her face burning as she pressed down. 

Astra was going to enter the cave system that was close by, but she heard and felt footsteps racing toward her. She could go by the river, so Astra dived into the river and swam upstream until she reached the secret waterfall cave.

“You know what,” Astra murmured to herself as she dried her hair out, thinking about the human girl. “I’m gonna name you Zinnia.”

Only after Astra had dried herself and already walked to the Timeless Woods did she realize she must have dropped her aster flower with Zinnia.

As Kieran woke up coughing, he could barely see his sister in front of him. “Carmine?” he asked weakly, before coughing up more water.

Wait, water? He thought before all the memories of what happened came back to him. He followed a Sentret, and he accidentally spooked the Sentret and caught it as it fell off the cliffside. He fell off the cliff himself, as Carmine tried to catch him. As he fell through the water, failing to get to the surface, and then-

“Did you save me?” he asked, before coughing up more water. He turned and saw the baby Sentret right beside him. Kieran immediately picked it up and started rocking it in his arms.

“Save? No, I came to the riverside as fast as I could. Do you seriously think I would jump off a cliff? I can’t swim, remember?” Carmine said, and while Kieran felt disappointed, a part of him felt intrigued by his savior. Whoever saved him from the raging river was strong, so most likely a boy. But if not many people were here at this time, then who was it?

As Kieran looked around to find some clues, other than the trail of water that came from the river right beside them, he didn't find anything except for an aster flower.

“What’s that?” Carmine asked when she saw the flower he now had in his hand. “An aster flower? What’s that doing here?”

“I don’t know,” he said, and for a strange reason, his right cheek felt hot. He touched it, but the moment he did, the hotness faded. “But I think whoever saved me left this here.”

“Maybe. Come on, let’s go home so you can change your clothes. Wouldn’t be good to get sick,” Carmine said, and as they both walked home, Kieran had an idea about what he was going to call his savior.

“I'm gonna call you Aster,” he whispered as he put the flower in his pocket.

As Astra, Aunt Luka, Aunt Vea, and Memaw were all eating their dinner, Astra decided to say what had happened earlier.

“Memaw?” Astra asked. All of them turned to her, with Aunt Luka chewing a Sitrus Berry while Aunt Vea was eating a Charti Berry. Memaw had just finished her Berry.

“What is it, Astra?” Memaw asked.

“I saw a human and helped her because if not then she would have drowned in the Fellhorn Gorge,” Astra blurted out. A moment of silence came, and then all three of them started talking.

“Are you okay? Did the human see you?”

“Do you know if the human was with another human?”

“I’m sorry, what now? ”

“WAIT!” Astra shouted. “Can you ask one at a time, please?”

“Are you okay? Did the human see you?” Aunt Luka asked, using the opportunity to ask first.

“No. She passed out because she swallowed too much water,” Astra replied.

“Do you know if the human was with another human?” Aunt Vea then asked.

“Probably, but the other human didn’t see me,” Astra responded.

“So what happened?” Memaw finally asked. Astra took a deep breath.

“I was swimming in the calm part of the Fellhorn Gorge when I saw a human fall off a cliff. I don’t know why she was there in the first place. I then heard a shout and saw the human crash into the water. Since all humans except for me can’t swim, I knew that she was going to drown, but I wasn’t going to let that happen,” Astra said and paused to breathe. “I managed to swim the human to the surface and rag her to a nearby riverbank alongside the baby Sentret.”

“Baby Sentret?” Aunt Luka asked.

“I think maybe the baby Sentret was going to fall off the cliff so the human caught it but also fell off the cliff,” Astra said. “Which sounds about right. I then did the water-expelling technique you showed me on both of them, the human girl and the Sentret.”

Astra very pointedly did not tell them about the close call with the human girl.

“Human girl?” Aunt Vea asked. “How do you know?”

“Human girls have long hair, this human had long hair, so this human was a girl,” Astra explained quickly.

“And then what happened,” Memaw asked.

“Then I went back into the water before the human girl woke up,” Astra said. “That’s all.”

A while later, after Astra had play-ambushed fistfought Ka Moi, now a Hakamo’o, and his cousin Deku, (Astra! Don’t beat up that Hakamo’o with your fists!) Astra was trying to dye some of Aunt Vea’s String Shot in the colors of the zinnia flower that Zinnia had, which were blue and black, for some reason. 

Ka Moi had figured out how to make sounds with his scales and not destroy anyone’s eardrums, and being the cheeky little Dragon he was, he clanged his scales to the tune of Smooth Criminal , a song by someone called ‘Michael Jackson’. Astra already knew the lyrics by heart, Aunt Luka would have disowned her if she didn’t. ‘Michael Jackson’ was also the person who made ‘Beat It’, which was one of Astra’s favorite songs.

As Aunt Vea and Aunt Luka were sort of dancing (and touching each other’s cheeks with their own, but they didn’t need to know that Astra saw them), Astra thought of Zinnia. For some reason, Astra felt warm whenever she thought about her, and at this point, it felt like what Aunt Luka had told her once about ‘love’.

“It’s like, when you feel really happy and warm in your chest and you’re with the one you know is perfect for you,” Aunt Luka once told Astra.

And at that moment, with Astra remembering what she knew of ‘being gay’ (also being that you liked the same gender as yourself) Astra realized something.

“Oh Masks,” she whispered to herself. “I think I’m gay.”

Arc 1 of ??? complete.

The Before- Prologue One, Three Chapters

Next Arc Title- The Now

To be continued…..

Chapter Text

This was it.

As Kieran stepped foot into Blueberry Academy, he took a deep breath. This was it, he thought. This was the day he began getting stronger, the day he would look back to when he was as strong as Aster. He still remembered him, not by face but just by name, even two years after the Incident.

He ended up catching the Sentret he saved, alongside a Yanma he befriended. He, no, they, would become the very best.

As a girl with a pink coat, pink hair, and crystal hair clips was walking towards him, Kieran knew this was where he would prove himself to the boy with stars in his eyes.

Two years ago……

As Carmine headed to Peachy's to buy supplies, her mind just kept on reminding her of what happened a week earlier. Kiki had nearly drowned, only to be rescued by an unknown person. According to him, it was a boy, because the person had to be strong to pull him out of the river current, so it was a boy.

“I need to be stronger,” Carmine said to herself as she picked out items to buy. “I couldn't protect Kiki, so I have to get stronger.”

“̵̢̡̛͚̞̳̝̗͇̜̲̦͙̝͗͐̿̉̾̀͆̽͒̊́̏̏͆͐͌͊͝Ÿ̶̢̢̡̛̳̬͉̤̬̭̙̰͕̮̩̖͇̗̩̘̣̞̺̫͓̖͖̝̮͕͔̇͑̆̈́̏̚͜͠ͅͅè̶̡̡̢̛̘̖̘̞̳͕̫͓̹͍̪̺͓̣͍̝̲̫̖͔͍̥̞̟͒͐̌̈́̑̄̎̾ͅs̵̡̟͖͍̙̩̳̠͙̳̥̲̜̙̖͚̦̄̔̆͆̃̈̄̈́̿̌̾͗̆̀̂͗̿̄̋̿̀̑͒̕̕̕͠͝͝͝ ̷̡̧̨̠͓̠̩̠͖̱͕̭̰̙͕̺̝̬̝̳́̆̓͐̓̃̃̈́͋̍̃͌́͋̎͒̓͗̀͆̚̚͘͠͠y̸̢̢̢̢̧̢̧̪̱̱͔̹̞̭̳͈͇̻̩͚̟͚̭͈̲͎̣̥̹͖͍̳̜̮͚̱̪̲̫͓͔͓͈̲̟̠̯͉̯̖̯̝͍̼͍̙̺̖̆̾̉̏̒̈̀̿̓̍͜ę̷̧̝͕̯͔̖̻̟̰̝̯͉͔̹̯̝̜̫̻̯͎̣͕̘̝͙̊̐̀̎̇͆̑̒͑̀̽̅̓̊̀́͌̌̽͋̒̉͒̈́̊͂͗̐̈́̀͆̅̀̈́͋̄̎͛̊̕͘̚͘͠͝͝s̶̢̢̩̰̲̻͙̙̫̰̙̗͎̽̑͂̄̽̓̐̀̌͛͐̊̊͆́̍̍͐͑͋̈́̾̿́͆̀͛̾͗͂̂͑̐̾̉̆͋̈́͒̕͘̕͘͘͝͠͠,̵̨̧̡̛̛̛̛͙̲̗̬̺̰͍̯͈̰̟̯̤͓̺͔̳̞͍͎̟̱̲͖͍̖̜̝̲̟̳̍̿̀̏̃̏̃̅̈́͑̽̃̈́͒̈̐̍̈́̽͂̃̊̉̑̓̆͗̀͛͊̈́̓̏̑̀͌̾̂͗͆̿̀̽̂͑̚̕͘͝͝͝͝ ̶̨̨̡̢̨̧̧̢̮͇̥̯̹̞̞͙͔͎̥͍͇͎̫̥̠̯̮̪̦͚̫͓̲͔̙̙̻͚͈͉̼̱͖̲̝̬͇͓̺͔͊̑͋̋̒͋̈́̂́̈́̽̂̕͝͝ͅͅt̸̢̢̡̬̟̯̼̖̥͔̱̰̼̱̯̖̪͈͓̞͈̒̐̊̽̇̍ͅͅḧ̵̡̛̛̩̜̼̤͙̣͈̼̟̝́̇̐̍͛̔̋͌̈́͛̔̈́̆̄̈͂̈́̉̎̀̓̿̀́̐̾̚̚̚͠͝͝ͅį̷̢̢̧̛̣̗̠̺̠͈̼̜̘̩̪̞̮͓͕̥̗̭͉̱̗͇͔̻̙̯̬̱̠̲̣͇̯̖̟̱͌̀̾̅͊̊̐̎̅̑͋̄̂̈̄̎̓̊̂̂́̐̉̋̉́̀͐͑̕͘͜͝͝͠ŝ̸̡̛̹̼̤̘͍̺̜̫̠̻̰͓̹͍̟̫̗͖͖̥͚̫̳̗̪̼̖͔̣̻̥̣͇̥̝̳̙̫̼̞̳̹̿̌͆͒̊̍͐̈́̀͋̄̉̈̆̓́̉͋̈́̈́̂͑͗͌̑̍̓̄̎̕͜͝ ̸̡̡̨̨̢̢̧̛̛̫͕̬͙̪̯̗̱̳̹̹̜̠̥͔̍̑͂̽͂̿̀̓͂͐̀̋̒͗̍͌̎̉̽̃͌͂̐́̅͊̾̑̍̔͋́́̅͊͊̀̎̍͗̄͑͗̐̉̃͊͘͝͝ͅo̷̧̧̡̨̹͔͚̰̭̺̲̻͕̞̪͉̞̳͖͐͛͋̔̄̊͑̑͒̄͆̀͒̑̅̂͂̓̎̌̇̄͑̔́̆̊͒͋͗̐̓̈́̉͑͛̒̚͜ņ̴̨̧̡̢̧̡̛̦̯̺̞̩̞̳̲̥̪̦̖̪̫̠̹͈͎̞̰̙̝̗͓̗̗̟̞̺͕̹̝̰̭̠͓̗̖̤̱̭̙̹͎͍͕̓͋͆́̈́͋͜͠ͅe̸̢̫̱̞͙̤͍̪̟̗̻̼̱̪̖̾̆̌́́͆͐̐͋̃̉̊̈́̀̽̑̀̿͗̆̈̚ͅͅͅ ̷̡̢̜͉͉͇̣̬̥̟͓̙̠̩̜̩̺̠͔̠̘̪̼̤͓͈̗̬̻͕͕̓̾͐̽̍̊̈́̓͗̚͜͝h̶̢̨̡̢̛̛̲̩͙͔͈̮̯̱̜̤͖͎̙͙͈̥͖̪͚͈̤̦̺̘̦͔̺̗͎̻͔̯̜͚̯̱͇̮̜̱̰̬̠̱͙̦͎̟̥͉͕͈̫̊̿́̃̅͗̈́̈́̂̐͘̕͜͝͝͝a̸̧̡̧̝͔̘̟̖̤̬̰͓͇̳̗̖̱̣̤̖̺͉̩̬̫̝̭̬̲̩͉̺̫̪̝̖̜̜̻͓̼͚̝̣̜̙͐̈́͆̑͌̓̉̾̇͊̒̍͒̄̎̐͝ͅͅs̷̨̧͈͔̭̱̻̰̗̮̼̖̣͖̲̘͉̮͇̭̿̉͐͆͗̿̂̔͛̅̈́͘͜͜͜ ̴̢̢̢̢̢̲͉͉̱͈̺̜̞̻̝̙̥̥͓̭̯͓̪̪͎̠̱̪̤͕̜̤̝͕̜̪̱̪̬̫̩̮̼̜̼̱͉̺̯͉̪̳͖̩̑͜͜͜ͅp̶̡̮͕̪͎̦̮̟̝͚̺̘̰̩̮̗̜͔͚̟̦̩̪͖̩̬̱̘̟̝̬̦̪̲͓̲̀͊͛͆͆͐̾́͛̀̂̽̍́̇͛̔͋̒͗̀͂̀̂̀͘͜͝ͅͅͅơ̸̧̡̼͈̪͕̻̞̟̠͙̭̪͇̜͉͕͓̩̭̰͈̤͇͌͒̆̈̔͋̃̾͌̂̃̑͑̃̎̏̇̂͑̿͆̒͌͊̓̏̈́̉͘͜͠͝ͅț̵̨̧̢͍̭̮̙͖̞̰͉͖̯͙̻̤̠̼̬̘̹̪͈̘͍̳̖̖͕̰͕̟͔̙̥̝̟͚̩̦͚̗̞̘̱̣͂̾͆̏̍̀̇͐͝ė̵͕̼̰̯͚͚̪̼͕̗̟̖̘̯̖̑͐̌̍̆͑́̓̽͂̕ņ̵̢̘͇̝͕̦͉̳͚̜͍̜̯͙̣̬͉̩͇͙͚̫̗̙̭̇ͅṭ̸̢̧̢̗̯͇͔͈̣̦͇̖͙̼͕̲͍̭̪͓͎͖̱͎̳̖̮͎̩̮̞̟̟̞̓͆̌̓̏̃̓̔̄̀́̐̋͂͐͛͒̏̎̐̈̇́͂͋́̌̀̊̅̊̀̋͒́͋̊̎͑̎̃͋́͛̄̎̍̀̃̂̚̚͘̕̕̕͝͝͝ͅͅi̴̢̡̢̧̺̙̙̬͖̬͖̪̺͖̟̮͈͈̭̱̗̤̖͖͎̹̮͎̭̅́͛͒̃͜ą̴̢̢̢̧̞̹̟̲̰̜̘̪̗͕̖̼̝͔͖̘̼̪̝̗̻̠̣̼̫͖̬̥̣͕̹͈̱͓̱̭͈̗̝̮̱̗͓̦͚̩̺͓̙̒̅͑ͅͅͅl̷̢̛̛̛̜̯̬͉̣̭͉͔̊̉͂͌̌̉͂̉́̈́̀̉̊̀́̑̐̓̍̋̉̉͛́̎̽̀̀̀͐͋͆̅̊̀̑̈́̓͋͌̀̓̎͗̈́̒͛͘̚̕̚̕̚͘͜͠͝͠.̶̨̛̼̤͉̭̘͍͇̙̻̭̺̞͚̳͛̔̓̽̈́̋̓̃̇̌̓̇͛̆͆̎̌͋͛̑̃̐̽̋͒́͛̚͝͠ ̷̡̧̧̡̮̳͔̜̲̦̲̞͔͕̖̎͋̊͆̏̀̀̓́͋̾̍͋̀́͌̆́̓̈́̉̿̓́͘̕̕͘̕ͅͅG̵̡̧̡̛̭̬̭̜͍̝̤̤͇̺̰͍͉̥͍͙̼̟̞̬̜̥͔̪̘̲͇͍̲̹̼̣̻̱͖͉̠̝̀͊̀̔̂̎͋̉̀̃̂͌̈́̿͌̓͒̈́̈́̄̿̒̐̽̓̒̅̐̔͌̊̿́̍̀̓́̍͆́̎̾͌̌̿͊̚̕͘̚̕̕͜͜͝͝r̶̡̧̡̝̳̭̭̭͙̪̫̠̺̺̞̖̭̙̗̺͙͕̗̺̖͚̺̀̌̋́̈̅́̆̽́͆͊͜͠o̴̹̞͉͙̗͎̜̮͎̥̤͙̺͖͈̦̯͇̯̐̋͒̀̑̄́͒͊̊̄͑͊͛̊̈́̀͊̈́̈́̓͛̏̈͐̽̏̏͝͝͠͠ẅ̴̢̢̨͎̳̘̥̤̼̦̹͎̩̪̗͙͔͚̗̦̬̰̫͎͓͈͔͈͎̱̤̖͇͍̙̲͓͚͎͖̥͈͙̦͓́̈̌͑̋̔̏͆͊́̎̎̄̌̀̀̐̂̌̍͂̂̾̐͛̄̊͛̈́͒̇͌͋̉̀͊̂͘̕̚͜͠͝͠ ̶̨̢̧̛̛̞͎̠̜͙̮̯̖͍̻͙̫̯̘̹̞̰̜̮̖̲̤̰̬̤̗̗͙̣̗͖̤͙͚̝̳̖̘̠̹͍̳̗͗͗̉̿̐̏͐̽͆̎͑̓̎̌̐̑͛͑͛̓̊̑̈́́̆̎͗̈͋̐͛̽̄͋͆̆͘͜͝͝͝s̷̨̢̡̧̢̨̡̨̛̛̞̤͕̣͉̦̲̫̝̣̯͕͙̱̖̬̣̰̲̗͙̺̟̜͇̻̰̘̗͓̟͚̻̺̯̠̖̬̝͕͙̳̙̻̗̘̘̣̰̬̔̿̈̀̌̌̎̊̊͐͒̋́͌̽́̉̍̌̕̚̕ͅt̶̡̨̡̛̛̤̫̩͚̝̜̟̪͓̤̮͙͚̬̼̻̤̺͓͉̝̱̼͇̣͚̮̰͙̹̓̒͐̈́̔̾̌̅̆́͑͂͗̈̉̄̇͌̒̏̈́͌̔̃̉̋͗̒̎̍̑̆̕͘͜͜͜͝r̶̨̧̡̛̛͎̠͈͖̯͇̩̜̯̣̟̫̭͕͈̦̱̹͔͉͔̼̻̥̪̭̞̞̤̲͉̭͍͔̮̦̺̯̤̯̺͚͎̖̺̻͔͚͍̪̯̳̥̀̈́̅̏̿̔̀̎͗̎̔̀̃̃̀̀̍̎̎̾̈́̈́̑̽̿̀͗̈́̽̈́̔͑͋̑͑̌̐͐̋̈̓͊͊̐̂̅̕̚͘̚̕͘͜͝͠͝͠͠͝ͅͅȏ̴̡̢̙͎̘̤̬̞͍̮̤̟̣̼̪͎̜̪͔̟̥͚̦̮̤̼̙̱̥̭͙̒̄͂́̂̿͆͌̀̀̈́̂͂̈́̃̿̓̂͛͌͐͛̑̅̀̔̓̆̐̀͗͆̈́͋̔͆̒̐͗̉̚̚͜͝͝ͅņ̴̧̛̺̤̤̻̣̘̦̻͈̪͖̺̝͕̱͕͇̱̤̥̳̣̪̪̗̫̆͊́̌̾̇̇̿͆͂͂̈̈́͗̐̓͋̈́͆̀͂̈́̿́̓̏̎̓̀̐͒͛͛̈́̒̏̀͂̅̎̋̒̎͂̓̆̆͘̚̕̚͘̚͜͝͝͠͠ģ̸̛̛̰̠͍̙̖̯̠̱̼̦̭͓̲̪̲̳̺͓̩̳̞̣͔̳̪̙̫͎̙̙̺̪̄̀̅̎̓̐͗͆̉̌͗̿̏͋͛̒́̈͛̂͂̋̈́̽̔̂͋̅̇͘͘͜͜͜ͅe̵̢̡͉̤̼͚̬̬͚̫͇̙̙͇̺͓͔̦͍̗̼̭͔͓̪̪̭͖͎͓͎̺̮̮̟̟̲̪͍̟̺̐̇̿̋̓̋̓̉̾̂̀̊̋̑̈́̏͐͗͋̍̚͘̕͜ͅr̸̨̢̢̨̻͚̳̮͎̫̠̗̳̜̖͚̥͍̟͙̜̥̫͍̣̳͉͍͉̮̱̳̱̼͆́̌̌̊͂͒̈́̿͛̈́͋̉̉̏͐̎̇͊̂́͒̾͌̀̽̅ͅ,̸̨̧̡̡̥̣̘̠̪̻̙͓͉͎̞͕̻͖̤̒͋̐̑̆̔̉̂̒͂͆͛̈̐͌̄̈́́̔̌̎̋̾͆̇̀́̈̎͗͒̇͗̓͊́̒̈́͛̒͑̾̒̀̽̆̔̄͘̕̚͝͝͝ ̶̧̨̨͉̤̮̣̪̪̹͍͔̞̜̳̯̭͙̪͙̲͉͕͕̯̺̯̬̳̺̗̼̹̟̻̱̒̽͌͋͋̉͒̎͌̂̈́͑͒̒̔̄̄͂͋͌͋̾̌̄̔̒̍̃́͑̈̓͒͒̉̈́̿̾̚̚͜͠͝͝͝s̶͓̤͚̳͚̦̙̬̰̳̘͕͔̰̈̓́͛̉͒͒͋͐͐̽̋̾͐͐͘̕̚̕͝ţ̴̨̡̧͇͉̫͉̪̜͕͎͔̭̺̱̲͖̟̩̱̮͔̤͉̜̮͎̱̳̜̏̍͋͐̊̈̽̎͐̇̒͆̏̏̈͗͋̏͗́̐̏̒̃́͋̄͒̊̎͗̈́̀̈̉͜ŗ̷̧̨̫̳̰͇̲͚̻̦͕̩̮͈̥̟̮̫̳̰͖̙͙̹̗͖̯̥̺̰̪͍͙͓̯̜͕̱̪̲̞̳̼̣͈̄̀̍͌̓̐͑̑̆̈́͂̊͌̈́͋͂̀̐̋̅̾̒̌̈̀͂̇̄̓̄̌̌͋̚͝͝ͅͅọ̵̩̘̉̌̏͐̃̒͆͊̊͛̓͛̃̇͆̈́̓̽́̃̈́́̀͐͆̌̊̾́̎̚͝ͅn̶̨̘̘̳̮̣̼͇̤̯̞̹̐̔͋́́̊̈́͌̓͌͋͜͠͝͝ģ̷̳̺̹̳̩̙̩̖͖̠̯̯͎̺̠̲̙͙̣̤̄̐͑̈͌̈́͋̅̂̍̇̚̚͜ē̷̛̛͖̹͇̳͓̪̙̥̅͐͌̅̉̈́̏̓͛̈̒̓́̇͂̊̋̾̂̽͊̋́̾̕͘͝r̶̨̼͎̟̩̳̜̟̲̫̯͕̫̲̜̦̹͖̟̼̥̼̖̯̗͙̺̳͇̜̠̙̟͚̻̱̙͉̆̑̋͐͆̎́̾̊̄̈̐̾͑̂̋̈̎̈́͗̐̑̏͊́̔͜͝͠͝ͅͅ,̵̧̧̡̢̢̥͓͇͔͎̱̜̭̦̜̱͓̹̪̠̖͇͍̯̯̼͉̹̹̩̤͖͇̜̘͕̙̲̮̹̪̗̍̂̾͋̓͊͂̀̓̇͜͝͝͝ͅͅ ̶̡̢̡̨̡̛̣͍̜̪̰̗͈̜̟̘̥̟̹͕͚̜͔̼̯̟̤̱̺͌͑̓̄̋̉̇͂̎̂̓̈̓̈̊̽͋͌̆͌̋́͘͘̚͜͝͝͝͝͠S̷̢͔͖̺̬̗͈̤͚̮̪̤̬̥̦̪͙̟̭͕̤̼͙̪͓̎͛̎̎̏̆̓̎̎̈́̈́̈́̈́̅͆̾̓̇̋̆͑̎̒͛͋̐͑̏̀̉̆̍͋̚̕̚͘̚͘͘͜͝͠͝Ṫ̷̢̢̧̡̡̝͙͍̬͕̣̻̥̪͎̝͈̗̮̤̯͖̻̟̬̟̟̳̰̜̮͉̰̻̗̪̦͉̠͙͈̂͐̓̍̊́̉͒̄̀̎͆̒̓̔̑̃̕͜͠ͅR̸̡͍̥̻̫̦̬̺̈̌̅̈́̈́̇̒̈́͑̅́́͛̈́̀̈́̽͛̀̀̓͛͗̕͠Ö̸̢̘͈̥̖͕͈̻̫́̎͑̔̈́͗̓́̌̽̒̌̔̋͜ͅͅN̵̨̨͙̬̻͈͇̯̣͖̄̔́̆̓̊̆͆̒̓̅̊͂̈̔̽͋̅͌̉͂̓̇̈͘̕͠G̵̣̠̥̫̬̥͖̖̘̱͕͕͓̻̱͉̖̝͎̘̭̜̰͖̖̱̻̦̹̣͉̟͎͑̑̏̾̃̚Ȩ̵̛̗̫̼͙̮͇̺̹̥͚̤̭̫͖̞͉̰̑̂̎̒̋̓̀̈̃̐͆̔̑̇̈́͜͜͠Ŗ̷̡̨̛̛̟͍͔̮̮͉̭͙͍̬͎͍͇͚̰̘͓̯͔͙͎͔̳͇̹̠̗̠͉̣̯̼̦̖̣̠͍̠̲̝̦̹͖̬̟̭̯̪̪̹̫͍̄̾͋̍̾̓̆̊́̊̾̐͑̇̀͑̽̈́̇͝ͅͅ!̷͔̺̘̩̬̣͇͔͔̻̙͇̖͉̼͓̘̤͕̩̖̖͓̞̙̟̲͚̥̘̮̦̬͚̲̙̗͕͕̝͕͖̲̟͍͓͖̲̗̎̇̾͐̈́͒ͅ”̸̨̢̺̥͎͍͙̝͚̝͓̟̗͇̙̫͈̱̩͖̖͙̑̒̏̀̍̈́̀̄̀̿̽͑͊̆̑̈͒̓͐̄͂́̕͘̕̚̚͜͜͝͝ͅͅ

“Um, what was that?” Carmine turned, but she didn’t see anyone. However, her eyes caught on a pamphlet. “Wonder what’s this,” she murmured to herself.

“Blueberry Academy. The place to go to if you want to be the strongest,” Carmine read. “Huh, this seems interesting.”

And as Carmine kept on reading, she didn’t notice the small amount of energy seeping into her body.

“You alright dear?” the shop lady asked. Carmine kept on forgetting her name, so she just nodded. “Oh? You’ve found the poster for Blueberry Academy! I’ve heard it’s got quite the reputation for having strong battlers.”

“Where is it?” Carmine demanded, before realizing her impulsiveness. “Sorry, I just wanna know.”

“It’s in Unova, if I remember correctly. Now, what would you like to purchase?”

After Carmine finished her trip, for some reason her body led her to the Loyal Three Monument, all the way to the very statues that the village had in honor of them. Carmine sighed and decided to at least wish for good luck, as Okidogi, the strong one, was said to make things okay.

“Hey,” Carmine began. “I don’t know if you’re listening to me, which you probably aren’t, but if you are, can you help me get stronger? I couldn’t help my brother from falling off a cliff or nearly drowning, so please, give me your strength,” As nothing happened, Carmine sighed. “It was worth a try, at least.”

(If Carmine noticed the pink energy leaving her body and going into the statues, she would have wondered what that was, and if she wondered, she would have found out a part of the truth: the subjugationer of the trio, the one who really made them ‘loyal’. But she didn’t, and that would cost her later down the road.)

Later that day, Carmine decided to ask her grandparents about Blueberry Academy while Kiki was in the bathroom.

“Grandma? Grandpa? I wanna ask you something,” Carmine said nervously as she fiddled with her fingers.

“What is it, dear?” Grandma asked. Her face was in a sort of frown, but not really.

“You know how I told you about this Blueberry Academy at dinner?” Carmine asked, remembering when Kieran had sort of perked up when she mentioned getting stronger.

“Yes. But what does this have to do with what you want to tell us?” Grandpa asked, his head tilted.

“Well, you see…..”

“I want to go to Blueberry Academy.”

Chapter Text

“And when the two did

They made ripples in wind, and

Opened the world's ways.”

It was two weeks after Carmine had told her grandparents about Blueberry Academy, and right then she held her breath. In front of her was the letter that would tell her if she was accepted.

“Just do it,” she told herself for what felt like the thirtieth time. “Just open it-”

And this time, she finally opened the letter.

“Dear Carmine, we are pleased that you chose our wonderful academy blah blah blah,” she read out loud, skipping the ridiculously long parts that were talking about how grateful they were or whatever. Finally, she found what she was looking for. “We are pleased to tell you that you have been accepted into Blueberry Academy.”

She did it. She was in. She made it. But now…..

“How do I tell Kiki?” She asked herself. She didn't tell him that she applied, only telling Grandma and Grandpa. “What should I tell him?”

“Tell me what?” Kiki asked, and Carmine spun around so quickly she nearly lost her balance. Right in the doorway of her room, Kieran had opened the door. His eyes just screamed ‘What are you hiding from me?’ which for some reason reminded Carmine of some of the lyrics from The Pretender by Foo Fighters.

“So you know how about two weeks ago I told you about Blueberry Academy?” Carmine asked. Kieran nodded, his eyes showing a level of confusion. “Well, I asked Grandma and Grandpa if I could apply to attend it, and just now, I've been accepted.”

Kieran stood there for a moment in silence, before whispering in a small voice. “Does this mean you're not gonna come back?”

“What?” Carmine asked, shocked. Of course, she forgot that Kieran had a small version of abandonment issues. Ever since their parents had died in a work accident overseas, when Kieran was three and Carmine was five, Kieran had never been good at accepting that other people had to leave sometimes. “No! I'm still going to come back during school breaks, and I'll video call you every weekend!”

“Does this mean you're still gonna come back?” he asked shyly.

“Yes! Not only that, but when you turn fourteen you can apply to Blueberry Academy as well! If I'm there, I can put in a good word and you'll get accepted! Don't you wanna be as strong as the Ogre and your crush Aster?” As Kieran blushed at the mention of Aster, probably thinking that he shouldn't have put the aster flowers he drew on top of his desk, Carmine couldn't help but feel a little guilty. She was trying to convince Kieran to let her go by appealing to him what he wanted.

“Do you promise you'll come back?”

“I promise. Always.”

Two years later……

As Carmine stretched from the long Flying Taxi ride, she couldn't help but smell the sweet scent of apples drifting from the orchard. 

It had only been about three months after Kiki joined the Academy, and he had been doing great. He was doing okay in all his classes except for science, which he was always confused by, always preferring to focus on history, mythology, and nature, for some reason. The girls in the Gardening Club were also sort of surprised, but they got along well with him, especially after seeing his knowledge of plants.

Speaking of plants, Carmine turned her head to see Kiki munching on an apple he somehow got out of nowhere, while looking over to Oni Mountain and the Fellhorn Gorge. He was probably thinking of Aster or something like that. It was hard to know what he was thinking sometimes.

“Alright, we’re here!” Mrs. Briar said, clasping her hands together. She then turned to Carmine and Kiki. “You two can go to your grandparent’s house, we’re gonna go buy some supplies.”

The ‘we’ in question turned out to be Mrs. Briar and Perrin. Perrin was practically bouncing in excitement, her Growlithe jumping around. “I can’t wait to photograph some of the native Kitakamian Pokemon!” She grinned.

Perrin was probably one of the only adults in the entire academy who was competent at their job, alongside the lunch ladies. Perrin had the job of being the ‘school photographer’ but the students called her the school counselor, in which last month Perrin said that she would be trying to get a teaching degree or something along those lines by taking online courses.

Overall, the school wasn't that bad, the only bad things were the sketchy and incompetent adults that taught them. There was even a Study Group Club, where those who understood what the teachers were trying to teach them helped those who didn't. 

As Carmine and Kiki walked to their house slowly, to see if anything changed, she spotted a sort of teacup on the ground. She approached it, but when she touched it, what seemed like matcha inside the teacup sprang to life, making her jump back in surprise.

“What's that, Sis?” Kiki asked, noticing the teacup. “Is that a Pokemon?”

“Maybe. Let's see now, Pokeball go!” She said quietly, gently throwing the Pokeball. The teacup went inside, and after three shakes, the Pokeball chimed, signifying the capture.

“ Poltchageist has been registered to your Pokedex, ” Carmine's Rotom Phone said. “ Poltchageist looks like a regional form of Sinistea, but it was recently discovered that the two Pokémon are entirely unrelated. It sprinkles some of its powdery body onto food and drains the life force from those who so much as lick it. It has taken up residence in a very expensive tea caddy. ”

“Huh,” Kiki said, finishing his apple. “So you have a new Pokemon?”

Carmine already had four Pokemon, Pikipek, Scraggy, Vulpix, and Poochyena. She has decided to take Vulpix and Poochyena with her to this trip, because she received Vulpix's Egg from Crispin, and Poochyena was her first Pokemon.

Kiki, though, hadn't caught many Pokemon, only a Poliwag. He wasn't sure if he wanted to bring him to Kitakami, but after asking Poliwag he decided to leave him so Lacey could open a ‘nursery’ for the younger Pokemon that the students didn't have time to care for. She needed at least ten Pokemon, and his Poliwag was the tenth Pokemon.

“Yep,” Carmine said, pocketing the Pokeball. She then stood up. “Come on, let’s go home.”

As Kieran walked into his grandparents' house, he breathed in the smell of his grandma's cookies, and the smell of carved wood from his grandpa's workshop. He knocked on the door, and after a few seconds, his grandma came to the kitchen.

“Ah, hello Kieran. Welcome home,” she said, a warm smile on her face. “I made cookies earlier, they’ve just finished cooling. Chocolate with milk chocolate chips, just how you like it.”

“Hey Grandma,” Kieran said, waving, then hugging his grandma. “How’ve you been?”

“It’s been quiet without you two bickering every five minutes,” Grandma said, laughing a bit while she grabbed two cookies. “But we’ve been fine. Where is Carmine, though?”

“I think she went to see Grandpa first thing,” he replied, taking a bite of the cookie after he finished talking, letting the chocolate chip flavor remind him of when he was younger. “I saw her race to his workshop to show him the new Pokemon she just caught. I think it’s called a Poltchageist.”

“I’ve heard of the Pokemon. It’s said to possess a tea caddy, right?” Grandma said after taking a bite out of her cookie. “I never thought she would have caught one. Dealing with them can be dangerous.”

“How?” Kieran asked, feeling intrigued. 

“Poltchageist's matcha powder can drain your energy, and Poltchageist uses that energy to fix things,” Grandma replied. “I remember back then when a Poltchageist nearly put the entire town to sleep to fix something. I was the one to catch the Poltchageist, but I ended up giving him to a friend of mine who specialized in Ghost Types.”

“Ohhhhhh,” Kieran said. He knew his grandma was a Trainer back then when she was younger, but he didn't know this little story. “I think we were lucky Carmine caught it before it caused some problems.”

“You probably were. I'm going to Peachy's. Say hi to your grandfather, will you?” Grandma asked and got up to leave. Kieran nodded.

“Bye Grandma!”

“I'll see you at dinner.”

Kieran then decided to take the opportunity to go to the Dreaded Den and see if he could find the Ogre. He never did before, but he wanted to see if he still could. He then got up, grabbed another cookie and ate it, fixed his bag, and headed out to at least say hi to his Grandpa.

“Hey, Grandpa! Grandma said she's going to Peachy's! I'm gonna go train! See you!” He yelled, passing through the workshop. Carmine had her Poltchageist out and turned to him.

“Kiki! Wait up!” She was yelling, but Kieran had already raced out the door.

As Astra grabbed and swung on top of the tree branch, she breathed in the smell of fresh apples coming from the orchards. She almost never went there, always afraid of being spotted by a human, but over the years she had been growing stronger and more capable of defending herself if needed to. She wrestled with Ka Moi every day! And had a 68-64 win count over him! 

Thinking of humans, she wondered how Zinnia was doing. Was she hanging out with human friends? Was she eating weird human foods? Sometimes Astra would wonder what a human life was like, but she always shook it off.

Don't be silly Astra, why would you want to go to a human's life and leave everything behind? She always told herself. Besides, it wasn't like anyone knew about her not-so-small crush on Zinnia.

Yeah, now that Astra thought of it, there was only one Pokemon she trusted with that secret, that being Moon Bear. It wasn't like Astra didn't want to tell Memaw, she just didn't want Memaw to worry about a little thing like that.

“Astra!” Ka Moi called, snapping her out of her thoughts. “Come on! I heard a rumor that there's a ghost in the Wisteria Pond! Let’s go battle it!”

“Coming!” Astra called and looked back to the Fellhorn Gorge. Stay safe, Zinnia, and then jumped off the tree, and started sprinting. “Race you there! The last one is a dirty Vulpix!”

“Hey! Get back here!” Ka Moi yelled, and even though Ka Moi was fast, Astra had the power of thumbs, meaning that she could grab some vines or branches and help her regain the lead. She also just pushed Ka Moi sometimes, although he did the same to her.

When they got there, it was extremely close, but at the last second Astra tripped and fell into the pond. As she resurfaced, she could hear Ka Moi laughing.

“Yeah! I win!” He cheered.

“No, I won. I'm in the Wisteria Pond. You're not.”

“But you know how long it takes to remove all the water from my scales!” Ka Moi whined. Astra grinned.

“Then I win! Come on, Ka Moi, can't you just put your feet in?”

“No! Remember, we're gonna beat up this ghost, we can't be wet!”

“Why? What if this ghost hates water?”

“That's a good point.”

“See?” Astra yelled triumphantly, having long since gotten out of the water. “Tackle!”

“Hey!” Ka Moi yelled as Astra jumped on top of him, and started play wrestling. Both rolled into a weird ball of sorts, each trying to pin the other down, but as they rolled neither of them paid attention to where they were going. It wasn't until a shadow was looming over them that both of them stopped, and realized what was right there.

“Uh, Ka Moi? What Pokemon is that?” Astra asked, slowly creeping away while focusing on the glowy red eyes.

“I…… don't know….. let's get out of here…..” Ka Moi replied, also creeping away.

“ Get away, get away GET AWAY! ” The Pokemon yelled, waving its red and white arms at them. They screamed and started running. “ DON'T COME BACK! ” 

And then, when Astra turned her head back, the Pokemon was shooting globs of purple toward Ka Moi.

Without thinking, she lunged.

“ASTRA!!!!!”

Chapter Text

“When they met once again

Neither knew of the bond between

Souls, forever and ever.”

As Carmine stepped foot in the Blueberry Academy, she breathed in a big breath. Here was where she got stronger, stronger to be able to protect Kiki.

“Hi!” A girl wearing pink said, snapping Carmine out of her thoughts. “Welcome to Blueberry Academy! I'm Lacey!” She exclaimed.

“Hi,” Carmine said a bit quietly. “I'm Carmine. Nice to meet you!” She said the last part with more confidence.

“Nice to meet you too! Come on, I'll show you everything!” Lacey said and motioned for Carmine to follow.

As they entered the elevator, Lacey began talking about how the school was and what classes they took. There were regular classes, such as math, science, and history, but there were also some clubs, like Gardening Club, Art Club, and most importantly, the League Club.

The League Club was a literal league, but instead of defeating Gym Leaders or whatnot, you had to climb the ranks while battling your way up. Then, the top five students were the Blueberry Elite Four, with the strongest one being the BB League Champion.

As Carmine and Lacey entered the League Clubroom, a boy was eating a bag of chips, the bag sporting a yellow color with a red logo on it. Lacey sighed and walked up to him. 

“Drayton! Will you please stop eating snacks all the time? It’s just not right!” She said with an exasperated voice, crossing her arms in an x shape.

“Calm down, Lacey. Having a snack every once in a while isn't so bad, right?” Drayton said, munching on another chip. “Who's the new hotshot you got there?”

“This is Carmine. She just transferred in. Carmine, this is Drayton. He's the current Blueberry Champion, lazy as he might be. I've been telling him he shouldn't eat so many snacks, but he never learns,” Lacey shrugged, making Carmine stifle a giggle. 

“So, Carmine, how about we get you in the League Club?” Drayton said, crossing his arms while pointing his head towards the PC. “I say you got what it takes to be one of the top ten, and that’s the Drayster take.”

Two years later………

(A/N: mentions of poison, burns, mention/implied potential death throughout the next three POVs. If you don't want to read it, scroll to the end of the chapter, and I’ll summarize it for you)

Ogerpon yawned as she finished sorting the last Berry, shaking her head as her belly rumbled. Now wouldn't be the time to start eating. The sun would be setting soon, and it would be time for dinner. She was just sitting down to watch the sunset when Luka nearly ran into her at full speed.

“Hey, sorry Pon,” she breathed out, panting. “Have you seen Astra or Ka Moi?”

“No, I haven’t,” Ogerpon replied, blinking. “Why?”

“There’s an extremely dangerous pissed-off Pokemon near the Wisteria Pond,” Luka growled. “It must have been because of that weird light that a human was flashing at some of the Pokemon. It’s Toxic spores can be extremely poisonous and -”

“AUNT POMPOM! HELP!!” A voice rang through the woods as heavy footsteps raced from the forest floor. Ka Moi ran in, panting heavily, and in his arms was-

“Astra!” Ogerpon cried out, running to her daughter, which Ka Moi handed to her. She then turned to him. “What happened?!”

“There was a giant Pokemon….” Ka Moi started. “With glowy red eyes….. and red and white arms…. And it had a white body that looked like a mushroom….”

“That sounds like an Amoonguss,” a new voice said, the voice gritted. Vea entered the clearing and took one look at Astra. “She got poisoned?” 

“I think so. She fell unconscious as I raced here,” Ka Moi breathed. “I had to stuff Oran Berries in her mouth so she would regain some health… but…..”

“That wouldn't be enough. Humans have an entirely different response system to poison and burns than us Pokemon do. I've heard stories of humans that still have burn scars from years past, and some humans have passed into the sky from poison,” Vea said grimly.  “One of my group was poisoned by a Foongus once, and they barely made it. If even that's only the pre-evolution, then how much worse would it be for humans?”

“Does that mean that Astra will need human medicine?” Ka Moi asked in a small voice, causing Vea, Luka, and Ogerpon to look at him. “I mean, human medicine can cure anything! I’ve heard that they have these weird mist thingies that can cure poisoning!”

“That just might work,” Ogerpon said, making Luka in particular jolt in surprise. “The mask makers’ family is still alive, I think. So we can probably trust them.”

“It’s better than just sitting around here,” Luka sighed. “Alright. So while Pon gets ready to go to the human village to get Astra healed, we,” she said, signaling Vea and Ka Moi, “can make a mixture of Pecha, Sitrus, and Oran Berries so Astra will regain some strength.”

Quickly making the mixture and feeding it to Astra, Ogerpon then put her on her back and started making her way toward the human village.

Please make it Astra. Please.

“Kieran!” someone called, and Kieran turned from where he was munching on an apple again. He’d just finished training Sentret and Yanma, and they had taken a break.

“What is it, Perrin?” Kieran asked, fully turning to face her. Perrin had a worried look on her face, and she kept glancing at a Pokeball in her right hand.

“I just wanted to warn you to be careful around Wisteria Pond. There's an angry Amoonguss there that's using Toxic on whatever it sees,” she said. “Leafeon got poisoned, and I'm going to the Pokemon Center, but I need to make sure you have some Antidotes or Pecha Berries on you.”

“Why is the Amoonguss angry? No, wait, why is there even an Amoonguss here? They're not native to Kitakami!” Kieran exclaimed, shocked. He had never heard of a Pokemon appearing in a region it wasn't from unless the Trainer released the Pokemon, which was then caught by someone else.

“I accidentally spooked it with my camera flash,” Perrin said nervously. “And I don't know why it's in Kitakami. I was too excited over the glowy red eyes and the giant size to wonder why.”

“OK. I'll be careful,” Kieran promised, nodding to Perrin.

“Thanks. Pass the message to Carmine, will you? I'm going to get Leafeon healed, ” She said and continued running towards Mossui Town.

As Kieran decided to make his way home, since the sun was setting, Sentret stopped walking and started running towards the direction of Oni Mountain. “Sentret? What's wrong?” He asked, but Sentret ignored him and kept on running.

Deciding to follow Sentret, Kieran hurried up so he wouldn't lose her, but stopped when he heard one of the bushes rustle and absolutely zero Pokemon. Kieran then had absolutely zero time to do anything because just then, a green Pokemon had what looked like a green poncho on, and stars in its eyes came in front of him and stopped running while blinking, but that wasn't the most surprising thing.

The Pokemon, if it even was one, was carrying what seemed to be a human girl. She had dark black hair and was probably unconscious.

“Umm… do you need help?” Kieran blurted, causing the Pokemon to take a step back. He threw his hands up. “I don't mean any harm, I just wanna help.”

“Ponpon?” The Pokemon asked, slowly putting the girl down on a tree root. It then gestured to her, and a few seconds later, the girl groaned a bit, and small purple bubbles floated. She's poisoned , the Pokemon was probably trying to say. Please, help her.

“Do you need some Pecha Berries?” Kieran then asked. The Pokemon shook her head, and Kieran then remembered that the one poisoned was a human, not a Pokemon, so normal Pecha Berries wouldn't work. “What about an Antidote?”

At that, the Pokemon tilted its head, appearing a bit confused at what an Antidote was. “An Antidote is a Healing Item used to cure poisoning from Pokemon,” Kieran explained, and the Pokemon started nodding quickly. “Um, I don't have one, but my grandpa or grandma should be able to help. Can…. Can I carry her?”

The Pokemon nodded, and Kieran slowly picked her up bridal style. He then put her down, wrote a note, and put it on his Sentret. Sentret nodded, and then quickly ran to his house, while Kieran went a little slower given that he didn’t have four feet and that he was carrying a girl.

As Kieran was walking, the girl’s dark black hair reminded him of what Kieran swore he had seen when Aster rescued him. But this isn’t Aster, he thought. Aster’s a boy. This is a girl, and unless she’s trans, then this obviously can't be Aster.

When he got back to his house, his grandparents and Carmine were there in the living room. Carmine was pacing back and forth while his grandparents were talking amongst themselves. “I’m back,” he said, and they all rushed towards him.

“Kiki! There you are! You had the absolute audacity to leave and not bring me along!” Carmine said while clutching her fists. 

“I mean, you were too busy. Let me guess, you didn't figure out Grandma baked cookies?” Kieran countered. Carmine did a double take.

“Wait, there were cookies?!” She asked outraged. “And you didn’t tell me?!”

“Now, now,” Grandpa said, breaking up the sibling squabble. “The girl?”

“Right,” Kieran said, and let the Pokemon actually step into the house. He thought he heard Grandpa gasp slightly, but with Grandma putting the girl on the couch he couldn't hear well. “I know she’s poisoned, but nothing else.”

“Well, that looks like she’s badly poisoned,” Grandma then turned to Kieran. “If you had waited at least ten more minutes, she probably wouldn’t have made it. I'll make an antidote, and move her to the guest room.”

“Okay,” Kieran said, and alongside Carmine, moved the girl to the downstairs guest room. Grandma used to be a herbalist or apothecary, as she liked to call it, when she was younger, even keeping some diaries of remedies and cures of things. Grandma was most likely in her storage room, getting the things for a poison cure. 

“Who do you think she is?” Carmine asked, the topic of cookies completely forgotten. “I don't think I've ever seen her before.”

“For some reason, she reminds me of Aster, but Aster is a boy, not a girl,” Kieran said. “But let's hope she gets better soon.”

…..

…..

The next morning

…..

…..

As Astra blearily opened her eyes, she immediately closed them because of all the bright sunlight on her face.

Wait, sunlight? She asked herself, before covering her eyes and then opening them slowly, letting her eyes adjust to the strong sunlight while feeling everything around her.

She wasn't in a cave, that was for sure, but she wasn't in a tree either. A weird sort of leaf cloak was covering her, the cloak thing being extremely soft and fuzzy. Kind of like Blister's or Amber's fur, then, but even softer than that.

And then, a few moments after she opened her eyes to see a weirdly colored cave with weird things all over it, the realization hit her.

She was trapped in a human house.

Looking around, desperate to find an exit after removing the weird cloak from her body - why did she have new weird clothes on that weren't her silk clothes?! Part of her mind screamed - she didn't notice the human that entered the cave.

“Ā, oki teru ne*,” the human said, approaching her. Astra hissed, causing the human to throw its hands up.

“Who are you?” Astra growled. “Let me get out of here!”

“Oi! Ochitsuite kudasai!**,” the human said again in their weird human language, trying to get close to her. The human stretched out an arm, but Astra slapped it away with her really sharp nails-

  Wait, why weren’t her nails sharp?! They were cut! Really small! Astra just kept on growling, trying to look for a cave entrance. The human had to have come in from somewhere, unless the human teleported, which they couldn't do. Finally, Astra found a cave entrance, just right near where the human was. So this human was trying to keep her in? Astra would show them.

Crouching up, and drawing her body close so she could pounce and get out of wherever she was, she narrowed her eyes, waiting for an opportunity. The human tried to come close again, and right then, Astra prepared to pounce -

“Astra!” She heard a voice, and right there at the cave entrance, Memaw was there. Memaw jumped to the weird rock Astra was on and immediately hugged her. “Thank distortion you’re awake, you had us all scared.”

“Memaw,” Astra whispered and hugged her back. “What happened? Where’s Aunt Luka and Aunt Vea? Where’s Ka Moi?”

“You got badly poisoned, Astra,” Memaw said in a small voice. “If I didn’t find that human boy, you wouldn't have made it, because Pecha Berries were not working. Aunt Vea and Luka stayed behind to warn everyone, and they chose me to bring you here because I sort of remember this place. I don’t know where Ka Moi is, though.”

“So that’s a human boy?” Astra asked, looking at the human again. He sort of looked like Zinnia, with his black hair, but his hair wasn’t as long as Zinnia’s was back then…. Right? She couldn’t remember, Zinnia's face had long been blurred from her mind, but Zinnia was a girl, not a boy, so unless humans had a thing that allowed them to change their gender then that wasn't Zinnia.

“Kon'nichiwa, ē to, watashinonamaeha keirandesu. Anata wa dōdesu ka?***” The human boy asked and when Astra turned to him, he was scratching his head. Astra turned back to Memaw.

“So why am I here?” Astra asked quietly. “Can I leave now?”

“I wish you could,” Memaw said while shaking her head. “From what I understand, you need to be on human medicine for six more sun-ups, and the humans said that you had to stay here for that time too.  I'm going to get some Berries, okay?”

And as Memaw left the room, with the human boy trying to talk to her, Astra curled up in the weird cloak, the feeling of despair growing and growing. She was trapped here, in a human place with humans, forced to take human medicine. She ignored the human's attempts to talk, but the human didn't leave. 

“Why can't you just leave me alone?”

Chapter Text

“And during the stars’ align,

One wondered and the other knew

That nothing was the same.”

As Lacey showed Carmine the rest of the school, they decided to pass by a vending machine to grab a snack or two. Just as they were about to choose what they wanted, a granola bar for Lacey and either a bag of cookies or chips just like the one Drayton was eating, they ran into two teenagers, both of them looking exhausted. “Hey Lacey! Who’s the new kid you showing around?”

“Hey Azelma, hey Eponine! I’m just showing Carmine around, she just transferred in from Kitakami. Watcha doing?”

“We just finished doing a bunch of Tera Raids, we got some Fairy Shards, want them?” Eponine said, while inputting some change into the vending machine to get some chips from the machine, watching the bag fall down and grabbing it, and throwing it to their twin, who caught it with one hand and grabbed some weird-looking crystals from nowhere and gave them to Lacey. “We don’t need them, we already have several. I’m pretty sure I saw Nova leading Sundew around and also battling Tera Dens too, but I think they took a break from that.”

“Thanks!” Lacey said, and put the crystals somewhere, before inputting some change in the machine. “What do you want, Carmine?” She asked, and Carmine had a quick scan before she saw a bag of cookies, but couldn’t tell what they had in them.

“Uh, are those choco chip or raisin cookies?” She turned, and asked Azelma, who was unscrewing their soda and taking a sip. She was pretty sure it was Azelma though, who raised two fingers, given that Eponine still had the bag of chips in their hand before they placed it in their bag. Carmine turned back to the vending machine, imputed some coins, and waited patiently for the bag to fall down. Once it did, she grabbed the bag, opened it, and savored the raisin cookies in them. “These are good,” she said after eating some bites.

“Yup. If you want more of that brand, you’re better off checking the vending machines in the Terrarium,” Eponine said. “We got some things to do, so we’ll probably see each other during classes. Bye!”

As they both left, Lacey and Carmine stood there for a moment, finishing their snacks, before Lacey started walking, and motioned for Carmine to follow. “So you see, here in Blueberry Academy, we have an underwater Terrarium. It takes about five minutes to get there by elevator, because it has to get accommodate to the pressure from deep down,  although I know Sundew swore she managed to get from the auditorium to the first level dorms in less than an hour when she got lost, that’s the current record for the stairs. There are several elevators, like the one we’re in right now,” she said, taking a pause to breathe and to get in the elevator. “But for the absolute top of the school there are only two, but that’s because they’re absolutely giant. There’s also several places where you can plug in your Switch and play some quick rounds of SSBU in the meanwhile, just to drive out the boredom. I know someone once tried to put mistletoe or something like that over the doors, trying to get one particular couple together after they were so sappy or something like that, so it’s been banned to put anything over the doors that isn’t a sign.”

“Huh,” Carmine said, somehow understanding every word of what Lacey said. “Wait, who’s Sundew?”

“You’re probably gonna meet her soon, but she and her sibling Nova are really nice! Or well, I’m pretty sure Nova is Sundew’s sibling, I could have sworn I heard Nova with a bit of a Galarian accent once, but they thought I heard wrong.”

“That sounds cool,” Carmine said, before she thought of something random. “Wait, does the fact that Nova might have a Galarian accent mean they can’t say ‘bottle of water’?”

“Honestly, I never thought about that, so I don’t know myself. You’re better off asking Nova themself,”

“Ok,” she said, and looked at how far deep they were currently, and felt her eyes widen when she saw how much. “How much longer are we gonna be here?”

“Not much longer,” Lacey said, before looking up. “We should be getting right about now-”

“Woah,” was all Carmine could say, looking at the absolute enormity of the place.

“Welcome to the Terrarium.”

Two years later……

Apparently, Astra was not stuck in the same cave all the time.

After the disastrous experience that was what humans called a ‘shower’ (which helped her get her ears clean and understand humans a little better, apparently poison muffled hearing in humans or something) the tall human girl helped (forced) Astra to take, Astra managed to find something to call her by.

And that name was Scarlet.

Scarlet’s hair was half red, half black, which seemed a little cool, like the human boy’s hair, which was half purple half black, leaving Astra to call him Violet. Astra wondered if they used the colors of Berries or flowers to make that, but after several tries, Scarlet finally understood (why was it so hard for them to understand her?), Scarlet took out this thing that was called something like ‘hair die’. Which was weird, why would you want your hair to die? But it actually changed your hair color, which Scarlet showed her. Astra eventually decided to just think that it was your hair color that died, not the hair because humans were weird with weird naming things.

Speaking of naming things, they had weird clothes on all the time . Astra wasn’t sure of what to think of the new ‘cott-on’ clothes that humans had, but they were kind of soft. The yellow head thingy that they have her to make her sort of long hair less poofy was also worn by them, but instead of having choppy haircuts like Astra because Aunt Vea cut them with X-Scissor, their hair wasn't choppy.

Right then as Astra was rolling around in the ‘bed’ that she woke up in, she looked out the ‘win-dow’ to see where the sun was. Given that she immediately looked away she knew it was sun-high, when the sun was at its highest point and it was time to eat.

Walking out on all fours, she ran into Sentret in the cave entrance. She had only seen Sentret once, and that was after the shower thing Scarlet forced her to take. Scarlet didn’t get out of there without a few scratches though, as Astra made sure to do as she hissed at her. Sentret noticed her and waved a paw.

“Hey Astra,” Sentret said as Astra lay down on her back so she could be a little more comfortable. “How are you doing?”

“Better, now that Scarlet isn’t trying to put that weird white thing on me,” Astra replied. Sentret tilted her head. “What’s this thing that Violet gave me?”

“Who’s Scarlet and who’s Violet?” Sentret asked, confused. “Oh wait, are you talking about Carmine and Kieran?”

“Scarlet is the human girl with half of her hair red,” Astra said. “And Violet is the human boy with half of his hair purple.”

“Scarlet’s name is actually Carmine, and Violet’s name is Kieran,” Sentret responded while stifling a giggle. “But it does make sense that you call them that.”

“Do you know why humans can't understand us?” Astra said, the question popping into her head. She now wished that she had actually remembered the few phrases Aunt Luka had taught her when she was younger, but back then that had been thrown off the cliff and had fallen into the Gorge.

“You're a human,” Sentret said. “But I'm assuming you mean the other humans?”

“Yeah. Like, why can't they learn our language? I could do it, why can't they?”

“Maybe it's the same as asking, ‘Why can't we speak their language’. I know I heard stories of a Meowth that could speak human, but they're only stories. You're a human, so you might be able to learn.”

“Yeah, but I forgot the few words Aunt Luka taught me,” Astra frowned. “How do humans learn to speak?”

“They learn by others teaching them, but I think in the story of The Talking Meowth, he learned from books. I know there are some old books Carmine and Kieran don't use anymore, maybe that will help you.”

Astra smiled. “Can you bring them please?”

“I think I want to learn human speak again.”

Ten minutes earlier…....

As Kieran sat there in shock about the true story of the Ogre, Carmine took a deep breath.

“So you’re telling us that the Loyal Three were the actual bad guys?!” She asked as she stood up, her fists clenched really hard. “Those jerks! Come on, we gotta tell the entire village about this!”

“Carmine, no,” Grandpa said sternly. “If our ancestor wasn’t believed, do you think you will be believed either? Especially with your reputation?”

“I think Gramps is right, Sis,” Kieran blurted out, causing Carmine to look at him in surprise. The entire story was really surprising.

Ogerpon traveled with a human here from a distant land but was chased out because the villagers were scared of them, most likely the human. Ogerpon was absolutely adorable, and Kieran couldn't understand why they were scared of it. The mask maker, taking pity on them, made them four masks, so they could blend in. However, the ‘Loyal’ Three heard stories of these masks and came to Kitakami to steal them. They ended up killing the human since Ogerpon wasn't there, but Ogerpon still had the Teal Mask, and when it came looking for the human, it found the three with the masks. Ogerpon ended up going on a rampage, killing the Loyal Three but ended up weakened and fled to Oni Mountain, but the villagers all thought Ogerpon was a villain and the Loyal Three as heroes. “Think about it: even on the slight chance that they might believe us, we’ll essentially be telling them that everything we knew was a lie.”

“Kieran’s right,” Grandpa said, nodding seriously. “I was going to tell you later, but please, keep this to yourself, okay?”

“Fine,” Carmine muttered, and Kieran silently nodded.

“What about her?” Kieran asked, referring to the girl he found. His Grandpa sighed.

“I don’t know. I’m assuming Ogerpon found her and took her in. I’m also assuming that she hasn’t seen or interacted with another human yet, given how she was going to attack you, Kieran, and how she almost bit Carmine during the shower.”

“What should we call her?” Kieran asked. “I don't think she understands me, but I don’t want to just call her ‘her’ forever.”

“Maybe we can ask her? Or spell out her name with pictures or drawings?” Carmine suggested. Kieran nodded.

“You do that. I'll go start preparing lunch,” Grandpa said, and Carmine and he started walking toward the girl's room.

“You know, I wonder if that girl was abandoned,” Carmine said. Kieran stopped.

“You think her parents left her?” Kieran asked. He was a bit surprised at Carmine suggesting that, but now that he thought about it, it sort of made sense. “What if they didn't choose for her to be there?”

“Well right now we don't know, and until either she speaks to us in a way we can understand or we ask here,” Carmine said as she poked her head in the room. “Although that might have to wait. Look.”

As Kieran did the same, he saw the girl and Sentret on the bed, talking together while facing the window. He sort of wished he knew what they were talking about, right then, so he could join in on whatever they were talking about.

Carmine nudged him, snapping him out of his thoughts. She gestured to leave, and with one more look, Kieran left the room for lunch. 

Several hours later, Kieran found himself outside watching the sunset from the apple orchards. He munched on an apple content until his eyes found the girl hanging on a tree branch, also looking at the sunset. 

For some reason, Kieran's body moved him towards the girl, and when he sat down, she finally noticed him. “The sunsets are beautiful, right?” He asked, trying to make a conversation but knowing he would fail.

“Mmmmmmhhhhhhhhmmmmm,” The girl said, and Kieran couldn’t help but be a bit surprised. 

“You can speak?” Kieran asked. The girl shrugged, but then suddenly grabbed a stick, and started drawing something on the ground.

“Lihhhhh-tlehhhh,” she replied, clearly trying to pronounce the words correctly as she frowned. Kieran tried to see what she had drawn on the ground.

“A star?” He asked, confused, seeing three lines join together at the center. The girl nodded and started pointing towards it and her repeatedly. “Is your name star?”

“Uh uh.” The girl said, fiddling with the stick again. She wrote what looked like an A next to the star, and continued pointing at her and the drawing.

“A star?”

“Uh uh.”

“Astar?”

“Nnnnnnnooo.”

“Aster?”

“Huh?”

“Astra?”

“Uh uh- Mmmhmmm! Ye-es!”

“So you’re name is Astra?”

“Uh huh,” the now-named Astra replied. She put the stick in Kieran’s hands and pointed to the ground and him. “Yyyyeou?”

“Oh me?” Kieran couldn't help but ask. Astra nodded. “It's K-I-E-R-A-N,” he spelled, writing his name in letters. Astra frowned and took the stick. She then started drawing something right next to the letters. “A… violet?”

“Yeou. Byeolett,” she said, pointing at Kieran. He understood, even if the pronunciation was extremely off. “Mmmmeee. Astra.”

“So you’re saying I’m Violet?” He asked, and Astra nodded. Kieran couldn’t help but feel a little happy at having a nickname, even if he didn't know why Violet, specifically. Astra then proceeded to touch his hair, grabbing a little part of it, and trying to show it to him, but given that he had a haircut recently, it was hard.

“Hair. Byeolett. You. Byeolett.”

Oh. Now Kieran couldn’t help but feel a little stupid at not realizing that his hair color was the reason Astra called him Violet. “What about my sister? Carmine?”

“Car…mine?” Astra asked, a bit confused, until she connected the dots. She then used the stick to spell out Scarlet as best as she could. “Scar-let. Car-mine.”

“So I’m Scarlet?” A new voice asked, and Astra and he turned to see Carmine right behind them. Kieran moved instinctively to make some space, while Carmine looked at the drawing. “So I guess she gave us nicknames?”

“Yeah. And I figured out her name is Astra,” Kieran said, pointing to the star drawing. “I’m Violet, you’re Scarlet. I think it’s because of the color of our hair other than black.”

“Yeah. Astra was pointing at my hair after the shower for a while until I understood that she wanted to know about my hair dye.”

“Sun!” Astra yelled, pointing somewhere, and both of them looked to the sunset. The sun was almost gone, but the colors of the sky were absolutely beautiful. “Moon. Moon calm.”

“I guess she’s not the only one that likes to stargaze,” Carmine said as they watched the stars slowly appear in the night sky, one by one.

Deep in the Paradise Barrens, a Pokemon was training.

Many other Pokemon watched from afar, concerned about the Training Mon. Some of them were even scared at the brute determination and duration of the training, for the Mon had been training nonstop ever since he got there one day ago.

Some of the younger ones had tried to make the Pokemon take a break or even eat, but the Pokemon always responded with, “I can’t rest. I need to be stronger to protect my friend!”

So they just watched, watching with worried and confused and wonderous and proud faces, and they all thought, ‘ What made that Pokemon need to be stronger? What happened to it, to train until his body will crumble underneath him? ’

But what they did not know, as the Pokemon crushed the boulder he had been punching for the last several hours into pebbles, was the overwhelming guilt that the Pokemon felt in not being strong enough for his friend.

“I can’t go back,” the Pokemon said to himself as he punched another boulder again, panting while his legs threatened to collapse from exhaustion. He shook his head. “Not until I can get strong enough to evolve all on my own! Not until I can make it up to her, for taking that hit for me and putting her own life in danger!”

For the training Pokemon was a Hakamo’o, and his name was Ka Moi.

Vea! In black and white!

Chapter Text

“And then he knew, that

If he wanted to get stronger,

He would have to try.”

As Carmine looked at the Terrarium in wonder, Lacey chuckled. “Awesome, right?”

“Yeah,” Carmine said, speechless. She could see snowy mountains on the far left, and a sunny river on the far right. “It’s awesome, seeing how there’s a literal mountain of ice right next to a beach.”

“Well, the reason for that is the Terrarium Core!” Lacey exclaimed, pointing to a green glowy ball hanging from the ceiling. “The Core keeps everything stable! Come on, I wanna show you something!”

As Lacey ran on a weird crystal block thing towards the center, Carmine took one more look towards the Core in wonder, but then shook her head and followed Lacey to wherever she was headed.

When Carmine caught up with Lacey in a sort of plaza, a battle was occurring. It was a Double Battle, by the looks of it, and there were two people on each side of the field even though only one Pokemon was out on each side, and one person on the sidelines acting as a referee. Currently, there was a girl with short, wavy brown hair, wearing the uniform, commanding a yellow spider-like Pokemon. “Galvantula!” She yelled. “Finish Skarmory off with an Electro Web!”

“Skarmory, let’s finish this battle on time,” The girl on the opposite side of the field said, stretching her arm to command a tall gray bird Pokemon with metal-looking wings. She had gray hair that was styled in the shape of bolts and had a sort of watch out in her hand. “Dual Wingbeat!”

As Galvantula spread out the Electro Web, Skarmory used one of the Wingbeats to destroy half of it, and the other hit Galvantula, knocking it out.

“And the winner of this match is Elite Four Amarys and League Club Nova!” The person being the referee said. “But that was a good battle!”

“Thanks Galvantula. Have a good rest,” The girl on one side of the field said, and the other person on her side, who was a girl, collapsed. 

“Aww, I really thought we could beat them, I even asked the Joltik to do that little emotional support cheer earlier,” she said. The other person came up to her and helped her up. “That was a good battle. Let’s battle again soon, Nova!”

“Yeah! Just let me spin  my Miitopia OC Alexis in cycles again, I haven’t put them through enough trauma, and let my Pokemon rest, then we can battle again, Sundew!” Nova said while shaking Sundew’s hand.

“Hey guys!” Lacey said, turning everyone’s attention towards her and Carmine, for some reason. “That was a good match! You were all really good!”

“Thank you for the kind words, Lacey. It was a tough match, and anyone could have won,” the girl who Carmine now knew as Amarys said. “And who is this?”

“Right! Guys, this is Carmine. She just transferred in!” Lacey said, gesturing towards Carmine. Sundew and Nova waived. “Carmine, these are Sundew, Nova, Talo - although everyone calls them alottalotta as an inside joke - and Amarys! Sundew, Nova, and Talo are members of the League Club, but Amarys and Grace are one of the Elite Four!”

“You are too, Lacey, in fact, you’re stronger than me,” Amarys said while pushing up her glasses. Carmine then turned to Lacey, not expecting that.

“YOU’RE WHAT?????!!!!!”

Two years later……

“Alright,” Carmine said, opening the curtains to Astra’s room. Astra groaned and tried her best to bury her face in the pillow. Carmine sighed and proceeded to pick up Astra bridal style, with Astra still half asleep. Ogerpon was on the floor, peacefully sleeping. She then walked into Kiki’s room, opened the door slowly then kicked it open, and dropped Astra on top of him. “Rise and shine, Slakoths! It’s training time!”

“Sis! What did you do?” Kiki groaned until he realized Astra was on top of him. “Seriously?!”

“Mmmeehhhh?” Astra yawned, until realizing she was on top of Kiki. However, she curled up even more, her legs wrapping around his and her arms clinging to him, using part of his shoulder as a pillow. “Mmmhh sleep.”

“A-astra?” Kiki asked, surprised as a furious blush came to his face at the sight of a girl clinging to him. He turned his head to Carmine, unable to remove the blush that was threatening to make his face a Tomato Berry. “Did you give her something or make her drunk?”

“Is that something from your anime that you watch, what was it, Apothecary Diaries?” Carmine asked, snapping her fingers. “But no, I didn't give her anything. I thought she would wake up after I dropped her on you. I guess she's a deep sleeper?”

“Yeah, but why, Sis?” He practically screeched, but he didn't move. Carmine snickered and wished that she had her Rotom Phone with her so she could take a picture. Oh wait, she did. “You're not gonna….” Kiki said in shock as Carmine got her phone out. “Sis no!”

“Pon pon?” Ogerpon asked blearily, rubbing her eyes as she walked in. Carmine quickly snapped a photo and turned to her. “Pon! Ponya?”

“Hey Ogerpon. Today, we're gonna go train! Do you know how to wake Astra up?” She asked, crouching down until she came face to face with Ogerpon. She shook her head.

“So she's not a morning person?” Kiki groaned, trying his best to bury his face in the pillow the other part of Astra's head was on. “I'm gonna be stuck here forever. ”

“Well you can stay until she wakes up, I'm gonna go train,” Carmine said, heading towards the doorway. “Tell Grandma I'm going to the area around the orchards.”

Wiping the sweat off her brow, Carmine quickly collected all of the things that the Tera Den gave her, but the thing she grabbed the most quickly was the Exp. Candies, placing them in her hand while her newly evolved Mightyena was panting happily. She gave him a pat on the head and headed out of the den.

She managed to find Kieran, Ogerpon, and Astra, who still looked half asleep. Kieran still had that blush on his face, but it was much smaller. He caught sight of her and then started running. “Sis! There you are! Wait, where'd you get those Exp. Candies? It's almost like you made them appear out of nowhere!”

“I just came from the Tera Dens, I've battled five of them in the area,” She explained. “And it's almost as if you make apples or any kind of fruit appear in your hand! By the way, how'd Operation Wake Up Astra go?”

Kieran blushed again. “I don't think she understands normal humans aren't as touchy-feely as she is,” he whispered as she caught up to them. “I'm pretty sure she thrives on contact. I think I was able to make her understand that sometimes humans don't like someone clinging on to them.” 

“Scarlet,” Astra said, finally fully awake. “Buhh-tleh?”

“See? Astra gets what we're going to do! We're gonna go train!” Carmine said triumphantly. She then grabbed Kiki and Astra by the wrists and dragged them to Oni Mountain.

When they got there, the first thing Carmine did was send out Vulpix and Poltchageist. “Alright, let's train!”

Kieran collapsed on the couch, breathing heavily. He, Carmine, and Astra had been training for several hours, but they all had different approaches to it.

Astra, upon even getting near Oni Mountain, had run, leaving the siblings to catch up to her, finding her in the middle of a group hug with a Lucario and Leavanny. They talked for a few more moments, and Ogerpon also jumped in the group hug. He and Carmine just hung back, until the Lucario separated and started snarling at them, only for Astra to calm it down.

She somehow managed to summon a whole bunch of Pokemon, which were so. many. Vulpix! Kieran thought she probably summoned the entire local Arson! Carmine decided to battle against them, while his Pokemon sparred with Ogerpon. Astra was kind of against this, but after Ogerpon explained something she changed her mind.

Astra herself, meanwhile, had been sparring with Lucario. Using her own body against Lucario’s, which Kieran now knew to be female. She kind of was feral, he’d thought back then. But still! He got to battle against THE Ogre! He even got a new Pokemon, an Applin Astra found and given to him by placing it in his hands.

He was brought back to reality when Astra jumped on the couch, snuggling with the pillows. Carmine sat down a lot more gracefully but still fell down. “Wanna chill down with some Mario Kart?”

“Can we please not play that,” Kieran groaned, not wanting to face his sister in the game she was best at. “Can we play Super Mario Party or just watch some anime?”

“If we watch anime you're going to end up watching the entire season, so let's just play SMP,” Carmine said, getting the Switch out. “Here. Teach Astra how to play.”

It turns out playing Super Mario Party was a mistake, as they figured out when Astra destroyed the stress ball Kieran gave her after Carmine stole all of her coins in a duel. Astra then nearly shredded a pillow after Carmine stole her only star using a Large Strawberry. Kieran had to hold her from scratching Carmine after she got last place.

“Astra! Please, don't scratch or bite her!” Kieran said, trying his best to prevent Astra from going feral. He sighed. “Teaching her how to play Super Mario Party was a mistake on my part.”

Carmine glared at him, trying to get out of range from Astra. “I'm glad you understand that, at least.”

“Rrrrrrghh,” Astra growled. “Rgh rrrrrgggh.”

“Hey, how about we get a snack? I got some apples,” Kieran said awkwardly. Surprisingly, that got Astra to stop growling and turn to him. 

“Ahhh-pul?” She asked. Kieran nodded and got two of them from his Item Capsule, one red and the other green. Astra immediately picked the red one and started munching on it.

“Guess I got this one then,” he said, taking a bite out of his apple until he winced. “Oof, this one's sour.”

“How do you even have that many apples in your Item Capsule?” Carmine asked. “Do you have a banana?” 

“You can get your own,  I don’t have one, at least I don’t think I do,” Kieran said, checking it. “Nope. You’ll have to go to the kitchen for one.”

“Fine,” Carmine said and did so. The first thing Kieran did was open Crunchyroll and scroll through the animes he liked, to show one to Astra. 

“Hey Astra, how does Frieren sound?” he asked, but didn’t get an answer as Astra was eating her apple. She turned to him confused, but didn't say anything. “Not sure Oshi No Ko would be a good first anime, even though you got the star eyes and all. Frieren’s actually kind of sad, I don’t think that one would be good. One Piece is confusing if you have no context, Kaguya-sama: Love is War would be difficult because you have no knowledge of school, Spy X Family might be too weird for you considering the entire family is a bag of Mixed Nuts, pun not intended, let’s just watch Apothecary Diaries.”

As he clicked the first episode, dubbed, of course, so far that was the only version on Crunchyroll, Astra looked interested when the opening started. She slowly moved along to the music, and then the episode truly began.

Astra watched with so much interest, that when Carmine came back, she just went to her room, apparently not wanting to get on Astra’s bad side again, and they just watched the episodes until Astra fell asleep.

On his shoulder, that was.

Even though Kieran was pretty sure he was gay, or maybe bi, he blushed like crazy as he paused the show, turning his head slowly to look at her. He was pretty sure Astra knew about personal space, but he didn't want to wake her up even though she was so close to him. She even looked kind of cute, with her head on his left shoulder and her arms grabbing his left one like a Komala grabbing its log that Lacey and Sundew liked to hug.

Snap!

Dread filled Kieran as he turned and saw the source of the noise. Astra mumbled a bit, wrapping her arms tighter around his. Carmine was snickering, her Rotom Phone having taken a picture of the sight.

“Hehehe,” Carmine giggled. “Now I have some blackmail material!”

“Sis! Please, delete that!” He couldn’t help but say as his eyes widened.

“Nope,” Carmine said. “Good luck even moving without disturbing her.”

And she was right. With a sigh, Kieran resigned himself to his fate.

As Astra blinked slowly and rubbed her eyes, she yawned. The poison might still be taking a toll on her, given she was sleeping more than she thought she used to.

“Oh good, you're awake,” someone said beside her, and it took Astra a second to realize Violet said that. Astra then realized that she had been clinging to his arm like a Spinnerak to a fruit and had been using his head as a pillow. She blinked, breathing in Violet’s scent of apples, flowers, and…… Sentret? She looked down and saw that Sentret was in his lap.

“Uh, can you eru off me,  kudasai?” Violet asked, looking slightly uncomfortable. “I hitsuyō to go to basurūmu.”*

Astra removed her arms, and Violet left quickly. Astra sat there for a few more seconds before Scarlet sat down in his spot. She was quietly giggling, touching a weird flying red thing while trying to stifle her giggles. She tilted the red thing towards Astra and showed her what was there.

It was Astra trapping Violet with her arms and making it so that he couldn't move, and for some reason, Violet’s face was sort of red. But what confused Astra was that the moment had already passed. Astra pointed at the thing. “What's that?” she asked.

Scarlet tilted her head in confusion, and Astra resisted the urge to facepalm. What was so difficult about understanding ‘what's that?’ 

“What's that? I'm asking, what is that?” Astra said, pointing to the thing again. Scarlet still didn't understand. Astra finally facepalming. “This! I'm asking what this is!” She almost yelled, grabbing the thingy.

“Ohhhhhh,” Scarlet said, finally realizing what Astra was trying to ask. She took the thingy back. “Sono a  denwa.”

Astra groaned. Why were some parts of human speech weird? She didn’t know what sono or denwa meant. She pointed at the thingy yet again. “ Sonno ?” She was going to ask what denwa meant but then realized something. “Let’s see, when someone asks ‘what’s this’ you usually respond with ‘this is blank’ or ‘that is blank’. So sono must mean this or that in Human, now I just need to figure out what denwa means.”

By the time Astra finished her conclusion, the moment in the denwa was gone, and now there was …. Just white, and the denwa was bigger. Scarlet touched the denwa, and a black dot appeared. She drew a mini denwa, and pointed to it. “Denwa. P-H-O-N-E.”

Scarlet also wrote out a third thing under the phone and denwa. Astra mentally groaned, there was another human language? How many existed in the entire world? Never mind, so a denwa was a phone. And a phone was the weird red thing that floated, could capture moments as if time was paused, could make drawings as if space was changed, and could expand as it distorted the time and space around it. Huh.

“Ī ne?” Scarlet asked, a grin on her face. She touched the phone thingy, and now it was….. Another moment? There were six other humans apart from Scarlet and Violet, eight humans in total. Violet was shying away from the moment, while Scarlet was hugging two of the human girls with one arm and holding two of her fingers up alongside another girl. There were three other people that Astra couldn’t identify as boys or girls, but they were all smiling. Scarlet pointed at each human one by one as she said their names. "Those watashi no friends Dewey-tan, Nova-chan, Grace-kun, Azelma-senpai, Eponine-senpai soshite Tola-senpai.”

“I’m back!” Violet said, coming back into the room. He sat down right next to Astra, and the moment he did, Sentret jumped on his lap, her tail on Astra’s lap, and started glowing.

“Sentret! You’re evolving!” Astra said, smiling. As Furret’s new long tail came on both of their laps, Furret then hopped down and fetched Applin’s apple in her mouth.

“Here you go!” Furret said somewhat awkwardly, given that her mouth was full of Applin apple. Violet said something but stopped as Furret dropped Applin on Violet’s hand. She then nudged Violet to pass Applin to Astra. Astra had him in her hands, confused, but she decided to give him back to Violet. Violet shrugged and grabbed the thingy that controlled the big-phone. He did something, and then the screen was back to where Astra remembered falling asleep.

“You shiru time it is, anime time!” He said, pumping his fist in the air. Scarlet decided to stay, and together they watched the ‘anime’ until they all fell asleep.

Chapter Text

“And when the diamond

And pearl came together they

Created a pebble.”

“So you're a member of this school's Elite Four?” Carmine asked when they had all gotten back to the cafeteria. Sundew and Nova were on vending machine duty, getting everyone's orders. Tola nodded and caught the Mountain Mew Sundew tossed at them, opened it up, and took a sip.

“Yep. There's also Crispin, from the Cooking Club. Since all of the Elite Four graduated last year, at the beginning of this year there was a giant tournament to see who would become the next Elite Four. Amarys, Lacey, Grace, and Crispin won,” Talo said. They had already explained that they used they/them pronouns alongside Nova, Azelma and Eponine, so Carmine wouldn't use the wrong pronouns.

“So how long has Drayton been the Champion?” Carmine asked, opening her Dr. Piplup.

“From what we know, three years. But there are even more important questions,” Sundew said, approaching the table with the rest of the drinks in her hand. She got close to Carmine and grabbed her arms. “Do you like gossip? Are you the kind to get close to drama, or shy away from it? Are you a good secret keeper? Are you -”

“Sundew!” Nova said, gently removing Sundew’s hands from Carmine's shoulders. “That's not an important question. I have an even more important one,” they said and paused dramatically. “What do you guys in wherever you live call duvets?”

“Nova, my question was even more important! I was going to ask her if she's good at Super Smash Bros Ultimate!” Sundew said, trying to shove Nova out of the way, but since Nova was at least ten centimeters* taller than Sundew, it was kind of hard.

“The real question is have you finished the homework we had for science?” Grace said. Several moments of silence came, before Sundew paled.

“We had homework?” She asked, and Grace nodded. “Crap,” she said, turning to Nova. “When’s it due?”

“I think tomorrow,” Grace responded, calmly sipping her juice. “Wait, you two didn't do it?”

“No?” Nova asked, shrugging. “I don’t really do my homework. What is it?”

“Filming a Tera Raid. It’s really easy,” Grace said, taking a sip of her soda. “And it’s for extra credit.”

“Seriously?” Sundew asked. “Both of us were doing those for an hour!” She said. 

“I mean I might do it but I’m not really sure,” Nova said, taking another sip of their soda.

“Whoever deals the most damage gets all the stuff?” Sundew suggested, shrugging. Her eyes met with Nova’s. Several moments of silence came across them once again, before the duo bolted out the room.

“Wait!” Grace said, but it was futile, as they had already left. “They do realize that there might not be easy Tera Raids to do as they’ve probably beaten them all by now?”

“Nope,” Talo said. “But I do. I was gonna go to the Terrarium later to see if I could grind BBQs, but might as well go now and get more of them finished while getting them their bags,” they added, pointing to where Nova and Sundew had left their bags on the chairs. “See ya!”

“Well, at least all they have to do is document how a Tera Raid happened…..” Lacey said. “But that’s not important right now. I’m pretty sure you know about what a League is and all that, but there is another question: how much do you know about Terrastilization?”

Two years later…..

Astra sighed, stretching on the weird bed thingy. She was a whole lot better, but she still slept like Ka Moi did, which was a whole lot. Maybe she and Memaw could go and see if Ka Moi was back. He was probably in the Timeless Woods like he always was if he felt upset. Yeah, she would find him there.

Barely managing to open the weird wall cave opening that wasn’t a cave opening, she managed to get out. “Memaw?” Astra asked. “Can we go to the Timeless Woods and see if Ka Moi is there?”

“Sure. I know there are some Berry trees on the way there, we can get some Pecha Berries so you can heal faster,” Memaw said. Apparently, humans couldn't heal quickly from poison like Pokemon could, meaning that Astra had to frustratingly wait seven sun-ups until she was finally better and could return to like she was before. “Can you help me get up? Sometimes I wonder why Arceus decided to not give me more fingers.”

“Who knows? Why did Arceus decide to throw Giratina in the Distortion World?” Astra asked as she helped Memaw get through the wall cave opening thingy. Memaw had taught her all that she knew about other Legendary Pokemon because the others might sense the energy or Aura that Astra had and come over to investigate. Memaw shrugged, her leaf cloak shaking as she retrieved her mask.

“I don’t know. All that I was taught were their names, and what they did at the bare minimum, nothing else,” Memaw said as they walked down the path to their home. “I'm going to get Aunt Vea and Aunt Luka. They’ve been worried about you, Vea threatened to Hi Jump Kick that Amoonguss that poisoned you after I left. Luka had to stop her from getting Moon Bear to join in.”

It was no secret to the Pokemon from Kitakami that Moon Bear, although she looked grouchy, actually had a kind heart and cared for those she was close to. So the fact that Aunt Vea tried to have Moon Bear destroy the Pokemon made her burst out with laughter.

“Aunt Vea did not ,” Astra said, barely managing to keep the image of Aunt Vea Hi Jump Kicking the Pokemon and the image of Aunt Luka having to restrain Aunt Vea out of her mind. They still invaded, and Astra cackled even more. They separated, and Astra decided to see if she could jump scare Blister or Amber.

As she crouched in front of their sleeping forms, given it was morning and the entire Arson were late sleepers, she smiled. From what Memaw had told her yesterday, they were all worried, but they had decided to catch up when other humans, that being Scarlet and Violet, weren’t there. She readied herself, eyes on her target.

And she pounced.

Kieran yawned, totally oblivious to the surprise that Astra was a thirty-minute walk away from his house. He turned a bit, before realizing that Carmine had not dropped Astra on top of him again, and sighed with relief.

He continued with his regular daily routine, not once noticing that Astra wasn’t anywhere to be seen. She’s probably still sleeping, he thought, seeing Carmine’s note that she had gone out and was probably either training or talking with Miss Perrin. He quickly wrote a little note to that note, saying that he would be with his teachers after a few moments of thought.

Exiting his house, he walked up to Peachy’s to see her putting out a few items for sale, and Perrin chatting with her.

“So what you’re saying,” Miss Perrin was saying. “Is there a mysterious Pokemon in the Timeless Woods that only comes out during a blood moon?”

“That is correct,” Mrs. Peachy said as she sold some healing items to Miss Perrin. “It’s been a folktale since ages long past, but many of the townsfolk have believed it.”

“Great! Thank you for the info and items!” Miss Perrin said, and left the shop, but not before running into Kieran. “Oh hey there, Kieran! How’ve you been?”

“Pretty good,” he said, choosing to remove the existence of Astra right now. “Is your Leafeon alright?”

“Yeah, he’s pretty okay now. The Nurse Joy healed him back to full health!” Miss Perrin grinned. “Wanna come with me and help me photograph some ‘mons?”

“Sure!” He said. “Where are we gonna go?”

“I heard there’s a bunch of Vulpix near Oni Mountain, and I wanna photograph them!” Perrin said as they started walking there. “From what I know, they’re really friendly, so I’m gonna try to see if they can pose too!”

“Yeah, the Arson is really friendly!” Kieran couldn’t help but smile as he thought about the Vulpix that always went with him when he went to the Dreaden Den to see if he could find Ogerpon. She always was nice, and always there when he climbed it. “I’m pretty sure they’re near the entrance to the Timeless Woods.”

“Yeah, and I think I found a bunch of them!” Perrin said, crouching down as she readied her camera, pointing to a bunch of bushes where a bunch of yips could be heard. “Over here, if we can get to a position where the wind blows against us, we can take a whole bunch of pictures without them disturbing them!”

“Sounds okay,” he said as he also crouched down. They slowly moved to the bushes, careful to not step on any leaves so they didn’t spook the Arson, because some of them were jumpy. “Now?” he asked as there were only a few bushes hiding the Arson.

“Three, two one-” Perrin said as they moved the final branches. “Huh?” she asked, as the first thing they both saw was Astra covered with Vulpix.

Five minutes earlier…..

“Aha!” A voice yelled, and for a moment Blister just wanted to roll over and scream, “NOPE! NOT TODAY!” But when she did, the Pokemon that yelled was not one she expected.

“Astra!” She yelled, not caring if she stepped on any of her siblings as she bounded over to Astra. “You're safe!”

“Of course I am!” Astra said, a smile coming to her face. “Now time for tickles!” She shouted as she grabbed Blister, and started tickling her.

“Nooooooo!” She shrieked with laughter as Astra started tickling her paws. “Stop it! It’s too many tickles!”

“Don’t worry Blister! I’ll help you!” Amber said, jumping on top of Astra. The rest of the Arson followed, trying to help her. Blister just kept on laughing, knowing Astra was safe.

As they stayed that way for a while, Blister could have sworn that she heard something in the bushes rustle. That could just be her imagination or her excitement at the fact that Astra was back. Probably the last one. She managed to get free, but something caught her eye as she turned towards the bushes.

“Huh?” She and someone else said as some branches moved, the smell of humans hit her nose. She froze, as well as most of the other Vulpix, before Astra realized what happened. 

“Violet!” She said cheerfully, fully ignoring the fact that there were two humans right there. She then practically leaped at the smaller human, tumbling him over.

“Wait, who's Violet?” Amber asked, before she looked again at the smaller human and seemed to realize something before shaking her head. “Nevermind, that’s one of the humans who helped Astra I think. Else she would have whipped out her cudgel.”

“Oh,” Blister said, as she looked back at Astra and this ‘Violet’ person, who now managed to get out of Astra’s infamous tackle-leap. “Well then who is the other human?”

“ Um, Kieran? Do you know her?” The other human asked. Astra perked up her head, her eyes blinking in confusion, before Amber jumped to translate it, as Astra didn’t remember any of what Aunt Luka had thought her of Human before, as she, in her own words, ‘had thrown it all over the giant cliff near Fellhorn Gorge and watched it drown’. Astra frowned a bit more, before she seemingly realized that ‘Kieran’ was probably ‘Violet’s’ real name, and shrugged. 

“ Yep. Er, can you please keep this a secret? ” ‘Kieran’ asked, and Perrin nodded. “ So I found her, poisoned by something, took her to my grandma, who gave her something to heal her, and she’s living with us until the poison fully fades away. Grandma said something that some of it landed in her eye or mouth, which was why it had a bigger effect and entered her system, meaning she was affected more. She was raised by the legendary Ogre of Kitakami, which is why it needs to stay a secret until Astra, Carmine, and I can figure out how to tell the truth in a way that won’t get us hated by the village. ” Blister blinked. She didn’t realize how much of a secret Astra’s existence was, but she ran up to her friend to give her some hugs. Astra looked confused, until Amber translated everything, to which she went to hug ‘Kieran’. He looked confused, but accepted the hug regardless. 

Perrin smiled, and threw what looked like a Pokeball in the air, where a Pokemon that looked like a Growlithe if a Growlithe had a human wig on appeared. She said something that Blister didn’t remember, before turning to speak to Astra. “Who are you?” Blister asked, slowly walking towards the maybe-Growlithe, who had been looking at Astra with interest. “What kind of Pokemon are you?”

“I am a Growlithe descended from those of long ago. My grandmother’s mother was the pup of one of the Ancient Nobles of Hisui, and she was tended to by the chosen Wardens, who gave my grandmother’s mother to the child of the leader of both Clans in that era, “ Growlithe said. “Long story short, I’m descended from the Lord of the Isles Arcanine, who was one of many Nobles in that era.”

“Okay?” Blister said. “Why are you telling us this?”

“Because that young girl over there,” Growlithe said, pointing with his snout at Astra, “has the Mark.”

“The what now?” one of Amber’s numerous siblings asked.

“She is raised by a Legendary, right?” Growlithe asked. All of the Vulpixes who heard the question nodded. “My mother told me the tale of a girl who saved the Hisui region, who had the Mark of the Alpha. There are several Legendaries in this world who have at least once taken in a child, whether that be a human child or a Pokemon, and said child then had a mark in their soul, and took on traits of the Legendary that adopted them. Sometimes the Alpha chose several children to befriend one Legendary, but given that a child had already befriended the Legendary, the others would be found by minor Legendaries.”

“I have no idea what you’re saying,” Astra said, making everyone look in surprise. “But I do guess Memaw had mentioned something about a mark of Truth?”

“Then you were chosen in case, but since the Legendary had a partner already, your Aura drew you to your current caretaker,” Growlithe said. “Also, I can practically hear you all use male pronouns for me. I’m a girl.”

“Ah. So basically because some other person got adopted by another Legendary I got to stay with Memaw? Cool!” Astra said. She then proceeded to lay down on the grass and somehow fall asleep.

“So that’s why she somehow always falls asleep in the sunlight, she’s practically part Grass Type!” Blister mumbled to herself.

Extra scene 1:

“So Kieran, I meant to ask you something,” Perrin said as both of them were walking back, Kieran carrying the still-asleep Astra.

“What is it?” He asked, looking up from where he was looking back at the Vulpix tribe.

“Is she your girlfriend?” At that, Kieran nearly tripped. 

“No!”

Extra scene 2:

“Hey guys?” Amber asked the group after Kieran, Growlithe and Perrin left. “Do you think Astra wouldn’t mind if we claimed Kieran?”

The group thought for a couple seconds, before they all somehow said “Nah,” at the same time.

“She won’t mind.”

Extra scene 3:

Somewhere in Paldea, a student got a call.

Somewhere in Paldea, four teenagers had a sleepover in one room as they reminisced about their adventures, knowing that in two days, their little group of four would become three.

And somewhere in Paldea, a student sighed, knowing they would probably get into some sort of trouble.

Chapter Text

Astra hummed as she sat on the weird soft rock, and the weird small smooth rock was in her hand. She was trying to figure out how the TV worked, and was failing successfully. 

Kieran walked in, and blinked several times before sitting right next to Astra and gently removing the TV remote from her hand. "You want to watch anime, right?" He asked, and she thought for a moment before shaking her head.

"Yu....tuv" she said slowly. "Scarlet show.... thing."

"A TV show?" He asked. He thought of the shows he and Carmine had been binging with Astra to try and introduce her to modern media,  or at least what they thought as gems. ATLA, Amphibia, Ouran Host Club (Sunny recommended that one), Noctowl House, and several others. "You wanna watch it again?"

Astra nodded. "Food," she said, whilewaving her arms around, trying to make gestures that resembled what she remembered. "Say.... yes?"

"I'm not sure any of the shows had food in them," he said. "Hey Carmine, do you remember any food shows that we showed Astra?"

"Sorry what?" She said, entering the living room. Her Rotom phone was on. "I'm in a call with Sundew, what's up?"

"Astra’s trying to find a show we introduced her with food, any ideas?" He asked. "Also, hi Sundew!"

"Hey Kieran!" Sundew said. "Have you showed The Great Galarian Baking Show? It's a good one, even if it's just beggining."

"Not yet," Carmine said. "We've been busy training, so we haven't had the chance."

"Ah ok. I gotta do the homework that I've been procrastinating on, bye!" Sundew said.

"Bye!"

About half a minute later, Carmine was also alongside Kieran and Astra as they were trying to find the show Astra was looking for. "Hm, why is this so COMPLICATED!" Carmine said, clenching her fists on anger. Astra halfway shrugged, and somehow made a banana appear in thin air as she bit into it.

Ogerpon, Lucario and Leavanny were all watching, and had amused smiles on their faces as the kids couldn't find the show. Luka and Vea were thinking of helping the kids, as they remembered what the name was, but Ogerpon decided to let them figure it out by themselves.

Somehow half an hour passed, without any good results. Carmine had come to start backtracking on her phone, when her eyes widened. "Wait! I think I remember what it was. Pretty sure I showed Astra a TikTok of two Italian cousins watching people make food and saying 'approved' or 'not approved'. That's it, right?" Astra was then nodding her head rapidly. "Yes! We found it!"

Then Kieran remembered something. "Wait, Carmine didn't you uninstall Tiktok cuz it got banned or something?" He asked, and they both groaned. "And now it got deleted from the app store, so we can't download it again!"

Astra frowned, before grabbing the Switch and putting it in Kieran’s hands. "Play!" She said. "Smash Ultimate!"

"Or we could do that." Carmine said. "But I won't lose this time!"

Chapter Text

“Once the story began,

Friends came to know each other,

And they became intertwined.”

Carmine blinked, before thinking more about what Lacey just asked. “Don’t think so. Is it like Gigantamaxing?”

“No, although it’s a good guess if you’ve never heard of it,” Amarys said, pushing her glasses up. “Terrastillization is when a Pokemon is able to change into its innate Tera Type. Think of it like Hidden Power, but a Type, and you can change it.”

“So, would my Pokemon be able to have any Type then?” Carmine asked. “Like, could my Vulpix have a Steel Tera Type and I could change it to a Dark Tera Type whenever I want to?”

“Not quite like that,” Grace said. “You need to have about 50 Tera Shards of a Type and have your Pokemon come in contact with them for about a few minutes before they have their new Tera Type. And usually a Pokemon’s Tera Type would be close or similar to their actual type, but there have been reports in Paldea that some Pokemon have a Tera Type that is strong against Types they themselves are weak to.”

“Huh,” Carmine said, before realizing something. “Wait, doesn’t this happen only in Paldea then? Like how Gigantamaxing only happens in Galar?”

“Well usually that’s what happens, but we’ve been able to have Tera Dens pop up in the Terrarium! One of our teachers, Mrs Briar, she’s been able to have a mixture of Paldean soil and a whole bunch of crystals to make it so we can have Tera Raids, but she hasn’t been able to figure out the formula to make Terrastilization happen in battles yet,” Lacey said. “Miss Briar is kinda weird though, but I don’t think you’ll have her. As long as you don’t mention Terrastilization, then you're fine, else you’re gonna see one of her long rants.”

“Cool. Any other teachers I should avoid?” Carmine asked, knowing it would be easier to know the general opinion on the teachers.

“Miss Perrin teaches photography and I think she’s trying to have a Pokemon Watcher class too. She’s really nice, and she also has a really cute Growlithe!” Grace said. “Miss Gloria is also cool, just make sure to turn in your assignments on time, because she handles two classes, Pokemon Care and Battle Training.”

“I’ve heard in the hallways that Director Clavell is trying to find a teacher for Battle Training, because he doesn’t want Miss Gloria to be way too overworked,” Amarys said. “I hope that he can find a good teacher for that class.”

“Right. Thanks!” Carmine replied, ready to go check out her dorm room, before even more questions popped in her brain. “Wait, would you mind answering more of my questions?”

“Yeah! What are they?” Grace asked, standing up to throw away her soda.

“So on the scale of one to ten, how good are the school lunches?”

Two years later…..

As one of the smaller Vulpixes bounded into the clearing, Salu could feel another headache coming. “What do you want,” she said grumpily, ready to bat yet another annoying Vulpix spawn out of her forest.

“SoapparentlybecauseAstraisadoptedbyAuntPompomshehasasemiGrassTypewhichis-” the Vulpix which she now identified as Bonfire said. She cast a glare to make Bonfire take a breath, and softened her gaze once Bonfire looked a bit scared. 

“Say that more slowly,” she said, secretly wanting to get more information on Astra’s wellbeing.

“So apparently because Astra is adopted by Aunt Pompom she has a semi Grass Type which is why she got very affected by the poison as well as being a human, which also is why she always uses cudgels with her Aura,” Bonfire explained a lot slower, and Salu stuffed an Oran Berry in his mouth. She sat down, leaning on her front legs for what seemed like the first time in ages. Probably moons.

“So the poison would have been quadruple times effective, right?” Salu said, racking her brain on whether poison was deadly to humans or not. “Kind of like throwing fire at a Paras.”

“Yeah!” Bonfire said. “Apparently she’s in the care of some humans. I know one of them is a male, I don’t know about the other human, but there was a caretaker with the male. She took these things called ‘pictures’ of us, and we looked cool!”

“Astra’s what now?” Salu asked, turning from where she had sat down. “She’s with humans? ”

“Yeah, it’s because if not, the poison is still in her system or something like that. Humans have a weird defensive system,” Bonfire said nonchalantly, almost as if he didn’t know that he panicked her. “She’s gonna be fine in about five sunrises, maybe six.”

“Are the humans caring for her nice?” Should I go scare them senseless? Went unsaid, but most of the Pokemon knew that if she was angry, she would not stop in her rampage until she was done.

“They’re pretty good. I know the grandma of them is a healer, and I know she uses plants and all. I’m pretty sure she’s the reason Astra isn’t worse,” Bonfire said, and munched on another Berry that Salu had practically stuffed into their face.

“That’s acceptable,” she said. “Now scram, I have things to do.”

“Fine, but thanks for the Berries!” Bonfire said, and left. Salu decided to sleep for some time, but then someone woke her up.

“Now have you finally gotten Luka to leave you alone?” Salu asked, turning to where she knew Vea would be. She nodded.

“Luka’s gone to the house where the humans are in, pretty sure it’s only to translate or to check if they’re okay. Or to see if there’s any info about Ka Moi, no one knows where he’s gone.”

“Before you ask, no I haven’t heard anything about him. Nadekuna was here yesterday, and I had to scare her away to get some peace and quiet,” Salu grumbled. “Annoying little brat. Though I suppose if your cousin goes missing after a friend gets attacked, it’s kind of normal.”

“Didn’t she tell you to call her Deku though?” Vea asked, munching on a Berry.

“Ever since Luka told her that story about the boy who rose to the top while being in the bottom she's been going by that name. Even though Deku means zero, she’s convinced that if she’s at the bottom, she can only go up,” Salu grumbled. “She’s been obsessed with that ever since.”

“Well at least it’s helping them?” Vea asked. 

“Still wish Luka didn’t open that mouth of hers with that story,” Salu said, and readied herself for the classic argument that Vea always used to defend her partner. Honestly, practically the entire region of Kitakami knew that they liked each other, and yet the two were completely oblivious to it. Even Astra knew, and she was mostly oblivious to love most of the time if it didn’t involve them. “Are we going or not? If you’re gonna spend this time chattering about your girlfriend then I might as well throw you out.”

“Luka isn’t my girlfriend! She’s a really amazing friend, okay? And fine, we’re going! Geez,” Vea said, slightly blushing, and the two started making their way to the spot quietly, so they wouldn’t alert any other Pokemon that would tattle on them. Phoenix found them, but shook his head, and knowing that the little Vulpix wouldn't say anything, they trekked on, slowly but surely getting to their destination. 

Most of the lake had cleared out the moment that the Pokemon had mysteriously shown up, either in terror of the new strong Pokemon or in distrust of the spores it left around it. The few Mons who had approached were all chased away or put to sleep, and after Astra got poisoned, no one dared to come close.

As they neared Wisteria Pond, the atmosphere shifted to a cold one, especially as more paralytic spores started appearing on the floor. Salu and Vea were careful not to step on any, for even a single sound would alert their target, and there was also a chance that they would get either poisoned or put to sleep.

Once they were there, Salu crouched in wait as Vea prepared a String Shot, ready to fire. The moment she shot it, Salu prepared a beam of red power. She looked at Vea in the eye.

“Now, Moon Bear!”

As Kieran met up with Carmine inside their house, she was practically squealing in delight at all the Vulpix pictures Mrs. Perrin had taken and sent to her Rotom Phone. In her opinion, they were all adorable, and Kieran couldn’t blame her, she certainly cooed over her own Vulpix.

“I wish I could have been there! They look so cute! Argh, Kiki, you should have told me about it!” She said as they were eating their lunch, Astra was still sleeping on the couch. “I bet my Vulpix would have loved seeing others of her kind!”

“Yep,” he said, swallowing some katsudon. “What were you doing?”

“I challenged a really hard Tera Den, but the rewards were worth it!” She said grinning, as she pointed to a bag of loot she got. There were a few Tera Crystals poking out.

“Are there any chocolate bars in there?” He joked, finishing his food. “I’m kinda hungry for some candy or sweets. The Vulpix were really nice, giving me several Berries, but I wanted some sugar.”

“Didn’t you get several burned Berries though?” Carmine asked, putting her plate in the sink.

“Kinda. One of the Vulpix just ate all the burned Berries though, so I didn’t eat any. Wonder if they taste good.”

“Probably not,” Carmine said. “They’d probably taste as good as brussel sprouts. Seriously, who on earth made those abominations?! ”

“Same. Like, I know there are some people that can make them delicious, but still… I hate those green things…. When do you think Astra’s gonna wake up? She’s gotta eat at some point, right?” Kieran asked, standing up to check on her. She was still sound asleep, snoozing gently. The Lucario that followed them to the house was also sleeping, but rolled over, likely to grab something, and fell from the couch.

Lucario growled as the impact woke it up, and rubbed its side with its paw. It looked at Astra, concluded she was still sleeping, and got up to the kitchen. Carmine tilted her head. “You want food?” she asked, and Lucario nodded, before grabbing some Berries from the table, eating one, and tossing an apple to him, while Carmine got smacked in the face with a banana.

“Hey! What was that for?” she said, clenching her fists. Lucario gave what Kieran would describe as a smirk to Carmine, who was confused (and somewhat angered) even further as she clenched her fists. He fought to hide a small smile as he took a bite.

“Thanks Lucario, but I don’t think Carmine wanted a banana,” he said softly. “We just ate, but I do like the thought.”

Lucario grunted in agreement, before turning back to Astra and dropping a Pecha Berry in front of her. Astra still didn't wake up, instead moving a bit, and Lucario went back to its spot. “I’ll get you back,” Carmine whispered, and Lucario laughed.

“Hey Carmine,” Kieran said, making both Carmine and Lucario quiet down. “I just thought of something. Given that Astra is a wild child, wouldn’t that mean that she doesn’t exist legally? As in, she has no birth certificate? Or ID?”

“That…. actually makes a lot of sense. Especially if Astra was abandoned by her birth parents,” She said, and Lucario’s head snapped up. Lucario growled something, before pausing and saying something else. “Uhhhhh what did you say?” She asked, and Lucario shook its head and growled something more.

“Anyways…..” he said, trying to change the topic. “Which region would Astra be from? Like, I don’t think she’s Alolan, or Kalosian for that matter.”

“She could be either,” Carmine reasoned, and Kieran tilted his head. “If Astra spent loads of time in the sun, she would be pretty tanned, and any skin can become tanned with enough sunlight. Well, any skin that isn’t white Unovan skin. Still have no clue why their skin turns red like a Corphish whenever they spend time in the sun though.”

“Oh. I didn’t think of that,” he said. “Wait, on the topic of Astra’s birth region, what about her birth parents? Do you think she was abandoned? Or maybe her parents put her in a cradle in the ocean because their ship was sinking or something like that?”

“Well, maybe there are any articles about missing people or disappearances we can search?” Carmine suggested, getting her Rotom Phone out. “If we can find something in the time or age range, that has to be at least a lead, right?”

“Yeah,” Kieran said. “So, maybe any missing babies from that time range? I have no idea how to do this though, detectives do this best.”

“Uhhhhhhh yeah?” Carmine said, loading some articles. “Hm, missing person about 17 years ago, too long ago; missing woman about 16 years; that's not it…………… how do detectives do this again?”

“I have no idea,” Kieran responded. “So……………….. What do we do?”

“Battle Tera Dens?” she suggested. Both of them looked outside, where the previously sunny sky was halfway filled with clouds. “Nevermind, I’m not risking my hair for that.” She then looked at Astra, and decided to put another blanket on her. Astra clung onto the blanket, shifting slightly. “Is there a tropical storm out there?”

“No clue, but I hafta say that it won’t hit us, it’s gotta just be winds from a storm somewhere else,” Kieran said. “If it does hit us, it won’t be during the festival.”

“Oh Arceus, I forgot about that!” Carmine stood up, pacing for a bit. “We gotta find our masks!”

“Do we have an extra mask?” he asked as the siblings and Lucario walked towards the shed. Carmine opened it, but as some dust moved Lucario decided that it had better things to do than search a shed and left. “Maybe Astra could join us in the festival? I think she might like it.”

“Maybe,” Carmine said, removing a sealed box full of something. “But if we don’t find a mask, then she can't join us, the townsfolk will notice that she's not one of us and ask questions.”

“Ah..” he said, opening the box and removing some old toddler masks that didn’t fit them anymore. “Wait, aren’t there some students coming from Paldea? Maybe we could say that she’s one of them? I mean they’re all gonna be wearing masks, right?”

“But that won’t matter if we don't find a mask for Astra,” Carmine said, unpacking another box. “Come on. If it’s gonna be raining, might as well do this now rather than at the last minute, okay? Besides, I think I might have an old star-patterned jinbei that could fit Astra.”

“Why star-themed? Why not with other prints? I think she’d look good in the green jinbei, I’d say it fits her,” Kieran asked, setting the box aside.

“Because it fits with the unintentional star theme that she has. Her name is Astra, she’s got six-pointed stars in her eyes,” Carmine grinned. “Don’t know if it’s even intentional, but it also fits with the five-pointed stars in Ogerpon’s eyes. And it’s not like there are other people with star themes that we know,” she said, shrugging.

[Somewhere across the globe, a DJ, a mechanic, an artist, a wrestler, a ninja, and an anime nerd all sneezed. “Great, seasonal allergies,” they grumbled.]

“So how long will this take?” Kieran said, opening a second box. “How many boxes are in this shed?”

“Hopefully not seven hours.” she said. “That side of the shed is yours, and I’ll check this side. You better not take too long!”

“I’ll try not to,” Kieran said, looking at his side, and got to work.

Some hours later…

Astra woke up because of the sounds of something. She rubbed her eyes, felt the weird cloth thing that humans covered themselves in, before remembering that she wasn’t in the wild. 

As the sounds only continued bothering her, she saw Aunt Vea and Aunt Luka sleeping together, and the TV thingy had something on it. She searched around for the control-box-thingy, and turned it off. 

Before leaving, as Astra glanced through the see-through box, she had a silly idea. Grabbing some string she still had that Aunt Vea gave her -you never know when you need string shot- she slowly tied Luka and Vea’s arms together. Maybe this will get them to finally start courting each other, she thought, before leaving the house-cave. It was some time to sunset, and she was feeling like visiting some of the Arson again. Maybe she might check in on the younger ones, like Phoenix, Agni, Sera, Aine, Anala, and Solei, she knew they were worried, and they weren't there last sun-up when the older Vulpix like Blister and Amber. 

She started trekking through the mountains, enjoying the fresh air, but also making sure that there were no humans that she didn’t know watching her climb up the mountain.

Then, finally, she found her destination. Slowly walking through the mountainside, Astra found what she was looking for.

Sera was alone, probably trying to find some Berries to roast and eat, when suddenly Astra ran and picked her up in her arms. Sera squeaked, before realizing who it was, and let herself relax. “You could have warned me!” Sera said, getting comfortable in Astra’s arms. “You know I like being warned when you’re gonna pick me up.”

“You’re the one waiting for me to give you scratches under your chin,” Astra said, slowing her pace down. “Besides, I was cold, and I wanted someone to talk to.”

“Ah,” Sera said, and the two were in silence for a while. “Can you give me scratches under my chin please?”

“Only because you asked nicely,” Astra said, giving Sera her scratches. Sera relaxed, before sighing in happiness. “Yeah yeah, I’m gonna stop soon. We’re going to the Crystal Pool.”

“Wait what?” Sera yelped, nearly jumping from Astra’s arms. “Why?”

“Because I feel like it,” she replied, placing the three-year old Vulpix on her head. “Feeling comfy?”

“I like this perch,” Sera said, stretching her legs. “Wait please don’t tell me you’re gonna-”

“WOOHOO!” Astra yelled, not caring at all. She sprinted up the mountainside, jumping on any rocks that would help her speed up. Sera was grabbing on for dear life, her paws squeezing Astra’s head tightly. The exhilaration of just running as fast as possible up a mountain with the wind in your face was amazing. “THIS IS AWESOME!”

“PLEASE PUT ME DOWN!” Sera screamed, not enjoying much of what Astra was enjoying. She reluctantly slowed down, then got Sera off of her head and continued carrying her in her arms as she continued up.

“That better?” she asked, keeping up a decent pace that wasn’t too fast nor too slow for Sera. “I keep on forgetting that you aren’t used to being on my head like the older Vulpix. Blister loves it when I go all fast, so does Amber and Phoenix.”

“I like it when you go slower….” Sera muttered, nestling herself in her newfound arm carry. “So after going to the Crystal Pool, what are you gonna do? You’re wearing human clothes, you know?” Sera asked, and Astra looked down to see the cott-on clothes she currently had on. They were kinda comfy, softer than silk but it still felt a bit weird. Humans couldn’t swim in cott-on clothes, so Astra would be unable to swim in the Crystal Pool as she didn’t have anything else.

“You know the poncho I was making with all those ferns I collected?” She asked, and Sera nodded as Astra walked up to a rock. “I might finish it, and then use some of Aunt Vea’s string silk to tie it all up and be able to wear it! Then I’d have a poncho like Memaw!”

“That sounds cool,” Sera said as the two reached the Crystal Pool. Some of the Pokemon dispersed immediately, but returned when they saw Astra walk in with Sera. Loti, the Guardian Milotic of the Crystal Pool, approached them, and Sera hopped off her perch to go hang out with some of the Salandits.

“Hello, Assstra. How have you been? I’ve heard that you were,” she paused, looking both ways before whispering, “ poissssoned. Are ssssaid talesss true?”

“Yep,” she said, remembering the impulse that drove her to push Ka Moi out of the way. Shivering a bit, as she could feel the poison slowly creep up her body again, even though she wasn’t poisoned. “I can’t remember much, but I feel unconscious after I got poisoned. I think Ka Moi got me out, but now no one’s heard from him after he got me to Memaw.”

“Interessssting,” Loti curled herself around Astra, who let the older Milotic preen over her. “Sssso the young Dragon hassss not returned. Have you tried sssearching the Paradissse Barrensss? I have heard rumorssss passssssing from Vullaby to Sssalanditsss to othersss about a ssstrong Pokemon training there.”

“Wait really?” Astra’s head perked up, and Loti slithered back to the pool. “Ka Moi might be there?”

“Perhapsss, but I do not guarantee anything. I have also rumorsss about a dangerous feral Mon sssporing everything in itsss path, I am certain that it isss the one who poisssoned you,” Loti looked around, before murmuring “I am pleased that you are sssafe.” Astra opened her mouth to ask, but she was cut off. “Other Monsss have been put to sssleep by thisss feral creature, ssso I advise you to take care. Goodbye for now, Asstra,” Loti turned back, before diving back in. Astra stood up, before wading her feet for a bit in the crystalline water, waiting for Sera to finish conversing and sharing info with the Salandit. There seemed to be fewer than Astra remembered, but she knew that some of them might be sleeping and soaking in the sun.

“You ready?” She asked after Sera had left. The Vulpix startled, looking up at her, before something flashed in her eyes and quickly left. Sera nodded, and Astra picked her up to carry. “You wanna go to Oni Mountain?”

“Sure,” Sera said, and even though Astra thought it sounded a bit forced, she kept on.

Going down Oni Mountain was faster than going up, so the pair reached the Den fast. Stopping there, it was already sunset, and they both snacked on a bunch of Sitrus, Oran, and Pecha Berries, alongside three baked potatoes and a semi-crispy apple. Sera took a bit longer to eat than Astra, so she decided to go around and see if she could spot any other Mons from her vantage point. 

Looking around, it was all calm, but as she strained her ears, she swore that she heard some sounds coming from somewhere near the bottom of the mountain. She ran back to the Den, and saw Sera finish her food. “I’m ready,” she said. “Can you carry me please? I’m tired.”

“Sure,” Astra said, before trying to remember the location of where she heard the sounds. “Can we stop by the base of the mountain? I wanna check something out real quick.”

“As long as I get dropped off with the rest of the Arson I’m fine,” Sera said, yawning a bit. “I’m sleepy…. Way past my bedtime….”

“Aww,” Astra smiled, a tease on her face. “I guess I won’t be able to hug you when I’m sleeping. I might as well get Blister, or Aine then, if they want to warm me up while sleeping and be a heater for me.”

“What?!” Sera shot her head up, worry and panic written all over her face. “No! Don’t drop me off! Lemme stay! I wanna hug!”

“Okay, okay,” Astra chuckled. She knew Sera loved getting pets and hugged, one thing human hands and opposable thumbs were good for was giving pets and scratches, and held the Vulpix closer to herself. “I won’t drop you off, promise.”

“Good,” Sera said, fully nesting herself into the warm arms of Astra. She closed her eyes, and Astra smiled.

About a few minutes later, they both got to the base (courtesy of Astra running and climbing onto things like the feral child she was) and walked around for a bit, turning around ever so often to see wild Pokemon scurrying around, going to bed. The sounds were getting louder, and Astra braced herself for a fight as she slowly walked towards the human place with a bunch of rocks on them.

She didn’t expect to see Memaw there, very angry and cursing so much that she had to cover Sera’s ears so she didn’t hear any vulgar language. Astra blinked a few times, before slowly approaching her. “Memaw?” she asked, slowly reaching her hand out. “What are you doing?”

“Oh,” Memaw said, turning around from facing the giant rock with more rocks inside of it. “I was yelling at the bodies of my dead rivals who murdered my former human, not much else.”

“You…… what now?” Astra said. She knew what Memaw had done, about two hundred summers ago, but it still surprised her by how much nonchalance was present when talking about it. “Wait, what do you mean their dead bodies are here? Were they turned to stone?”

“No, but these are statues, rocks made to look like them by slowly chipping them away. They’re worshipped here as savoirs, apparently,” Memaw huffed, looking away. “I know I killed them, but it still hurts even all this time that they’re worshipped, instead of being known as the dirty thieves they are.”

“Hold on,” Astra said, her brain trying to remember some info. “Don’t Pokemon turn into dust when they die? That’s what you told me, right?”

“Yeah, but these Pokemon were some of the few who still left corpses, I guess,” Memaw replied, bounding over the the back of the giant rock sta-tue. “Back all those years ago, there were still some Pokemon that hadn’t undergone that biological evolution that changed their bodies into nothing, especially the long-lived ones. Why do you think fossil Pokemon exist? Because their bodies left corpses, and those corpses were turned into rock after millions of years and summers."

“Oh…” Astra said, her brain connecting the dots. “So…… the humans buried their corpses in these rocks? Is that why you were yelling at them?”

“Sorta. I was just angry that they got to be buried,” Memaw got her cudgel out, and smacked the back of the giant rock. A few cracks appeared, but not many, and they weren’t noticeable. “I just grew angry, and I was yelling at them for many things. Why they killed my former human, why they stole my masks, why they even came here. But I’ll never know why.”

“Because they’re all dead,” Astra said. She placed a sleeping Sera on top of Memaw’s head, and focused. A cudgel of her own, made of Aura, appeared in both of Astra’s hands, gripping it tightly. “What you did seemed like fun. Let me try!”

She swung,  hitting the rock as hard as she could. The first hit, nothing happened, but once she poured more energy into the cudgel, the second hit expanded upon the cracks. She would have hit a third time had memaw not interrupted. “Wait,” she said, causing Astra to stop and turn to her. “That’s enough. I already cussed them out for a century, you don’t need to do more. Here, take Sera, I know she’s gonna wake up if you hit once more.”

“Oh. Eh, ok,” she replied, letting the Aura used in making the cudgel flow back into her body. “I’m gonna go back to the cave-house, not sure if Violet and Scarlet would be worried if they saw me gone. Apparently humans are more strict about others leaving suddenly.”

“I’ll go with you,” Memaw said, and the two walked in the clear night sky, the brightest star twinkling kindly at them.

OMAKE 1:

Luka walked into the house, not interested in helping with the shed. She decided to sleep for a bit, and after closing her eyes, she opened them again to Vea panting and ruffled up. “Vea, you okay?” Luka asked, clearly worried for her friend. 

“Yep!” Vea said, smiling a bit. “Me and Salu managed to make sure that the Amoonguss will never hurt anyone else again. Took a bit of time, but we made it out alive!”

“You actually fought that?” Luka exclaimed, worried. “At least you’re alright,”

“I’m really tired now,” Vea said, sitting on the couch. Luka followed. “Do you know how to use this? It seems like it works for something, but I don't know what for.”

She was pointing to the TV remote. Luka reached for it, and after a few tries, successfully turned the TV on. Vea lightly gasped in wonder as Luka managed to find that dramatic human show she used to watch with her former human. “Humans have a form of entertainment called ‘television’, which they either use made-up stories or real stories to show to others. I remember watching a series when I was a younger Riolu, living with an elderly human, I think I remember what it’s called. I can show you, if you want-”

Luka broke off, when she saw that Vea had already curled up to her, using her arm as a pillow. She sighed, made the episode start, and sat back.

OMAKE 2: several hours earlier/later

Briar looked around the entranceway, already excited. One of the Paldean students she had been tasked with taking care of during the trip to Kitakami was supposedly a strong Trainer! She couldn’t wait to marvel at the strong Pokemon they might have, alongside the knowledge they might have about the illustrious Crater of Paldea!

A few students had walked up to her already, but none were the ones she was searching for. Redheads, pinkheads, silvers, blonds, dark-haired people, none of them were the final person who had yet to check in, as the other three had.  She walked around a bit, fiddling with her gorgeous Terra Earrings, before finally spotting who she was looking for. She waited for them to approach her, before clasping her hands together and smiling. “Hm? Are you……? Oh, you must be! You’re one of the students chosen for the school trip, aren’t you? And your name was…?”

“Avery,” the teenager said somewhat nervously, fiddling with some of their long brown hair that was tied and somewhat braided. “They/Them pronouns, please.”

“Well aren’t you a polite one! You’re positively dazzling!” She exclaimed, before her eyes spotted the Tera Orb. “Oh, and you even have Tera Orb! I guess Paldea is rich enough in resources for that sort of thing to be a common sight at school… Unless that’s not the case? Are you perhaps an especially exceptional student?” She paused for a moment, letting Avery blink a couple of times, opening their mouth to respond to her, but she cut them off. “Oh, but here I go on and on, and I haven’t even introduced myself! Call me-”