Archive of Our Own ^beta

Converlia City
Where lines of fate cross!

So boasted big signs around the city’s main entryways for those arriving on foot or by vehicle.

Indeed, there were two lines of fate, once tightly intertwined before coming undone, that were about to unexpectedly cross again in this very city.

-----

At the train station and pulling a suitcase behind her was a Vaporeon walking through the crowds of humans and Pokemon coming or going. Some walked and some ran (making her resist the urge to playfully blast “Eye of the Incineroar” from her phone as they hurried past her), but she was in no hurry. Indeed, getting on a 6 AM train ride due to arrive in the afternoon had given her time to drift in and out of sleep during the train ride, which helped alleviate the boredom, and she had nowhere she needed to be until...when was it again...?

5 AM? she thought as she checked her phone. Ugh, get your head in the game, Val; what would Vanny say if you missed your ride because you misread it? Again?

Shrugging off the accidental near-miss, Valerie made her way out of the station and onto the sidewalk.

Ah, the big city.

So different from the also bustling but less industrious port town where she lived, and not just because there was no sea breeze to smell but instead there was the collective exhaust of all the vehicles or whatever that puddle of...she was going to charitably assume someone had spilled a bowl of salsa on the sidewalk. She was already ready to leave tomorrow.

Valerie didn’t know how Vanessa could stand living here, but then again, maybe it suited her, given her private life’s lack of color, scenery, or most importantly clean air.

She shook her head, her mood souring at her implication that Vanny’s poor health choices were anything to make light of. Besides, tomorrow she’d be meeting the wonderful Alex she’d heard so much about, mostly from Fuyuki but Vanessa herself had high praise for him the last time they’d talked.

Thinking about that made her tail and fins perk up as she stopped at a crosswalk.

So...Miss Work-Herself-To-Death actually got herself a boyfriend, she mused in her head, one corner of her mouth turning up in a skeptical but satisfied half-grin. Miracles are real, after all.

Val’s grin faded as she accepted another realization once the light changed.

He got any brothers needing a Winter’s Eve date? 24 y/o Vaporeon F right here, we’re all the rage, or so I keep hearing.

Soon enough, she reached Vanessa’s apartment building and let herself in, already bracing her nose for the oh-so-sweet smell of city air to take on that not-so-faint hint of nicotine, which she’d be smelling like by the time she left.

But as she walked in and braced herself to take a first breath...

sniff sniff

Huh. The smoky smell was unmissable, yes, but while “faint” wasn’t the word for it, it was...better.

“Still not good,” she remarked to her elsewhere relative as she kicked her shoes off, “but...I thought you just didn’t want me to tease you about your smoking again. Alex really got you to start quitting smoking and you’re sticking to it? Damn...I haven’t even met the guy but what a man already.”

Once she had rolled her suitcase by the couch, which had already unfolded into the bed she’d be sleeping in, she saw a note left on it by Vanessa, along with some money.

Hi, Cousin V!
You know the routine, but if you need anything to do, you might want to go check out the Winter’s Eve festivities at the mall, I read they’re pretty big this year.

The food you like’s in the kitchen, you know where to find it, but I left some money for you if you want to go buy yourself some takeout or see any good shopping deals you want to spring on.

Can’t wait to see you at Fuyu’s! :3

Happy Winter’s Eve <3
- Cousin V

That brought a smile back to her face. Even in Vanessa’s writing, Val could pick up how much more spirited she was. She’d always looked forward to the Cousin V and Cousin V Winter’s Eve fun, not missing a year since as far back as she could remember (aside from one year when she was too sick to travel), but seeing that the light really had returned to Vanessa’s eyes was the only present she could ask for this year.

And that was more than worth spending an evening going out and an evening coming back staying in this strong-smelling but undeniably nice apartment to see for herself.

This apartment...that was still kind of...lonely. Or maybe that was just her. Yeah, if this Alex guy was responsible for all of that, he was definitely spending a lot of time here even if he didn’t live here.

Yet.

So it was definitely her.

The thought made her go out on the balcony and take a seat on one of the chairs, twisting her tail to rest it in her lap as she ran her finger up and down its ridges and looked over the downtown buildings out in the distance.

“Even Vanny has a special someone in her life now,” she mused out loud. “Way to go, Vanny, way to go.” She raised her hand as if toasting her cousin with an imaginary glass. “May your time together be happy and bright. Now...why don’t I?”

You know why.

She didn’t frown, she’d stopped getting mad at herself for this years ago, but she couldn’t stop herself from sighing and nodding.

And it’s as much “you know why” as “you know who.”

Now her eyes narrowed when her anger wasn’t at herself.

Still, it was almost Winter’s Eve, she would be surrounded by people she loved tomorrow, and there was no sense in dwelling on the past. Urban life didn’t have much appeal for her, but maybe she should break tradition this year and go see how Converlia City celebrated the biggest holiday season.

After all, Val had slowly but surely been putting together some plans of how she would defeat the past that kept popping up and stopped her from moving on and being truly happy.

She got back up and gave the skyline a nod.

“All right. Let’s see what the lines of fate have in store for me.”

-----

Getting off the bus and pulling a suitcase behind her was a Gardevoir who glanced at her unfamiliar surroundings, ignoring the passersby. Just more nameless nobodies that she happened to share a world with. However little she thought of them, she knew she had eyes on her wherever she went with how rare shinies were, let alone shinies with Mega Stone chokers.

Her cyan hair lightly swayed in the afternoon breeze as she went on her way with an air of purpose and quiet but firm determination, having memorized the route to her destination in this new city. Spending most of the bus ride here withdrawn into her own mind made it easier to focus and sharpen her psychic powers during the monotony, and she was already thinking up plans in her head about how she’d go about reaching her goal.

Be afraid and amazed, Converlia City, she thought, Mandy has arrived.

Ah, the big city.

She was used to living in enclosed spaces. As a little girl, she and her parents had spent most of her life going from place to place wherever they could find work that would support a child and adults without a permanent home. That meant spending a lot of time in different cities and shelters where unhoused people like them could more easily blend in. She’d gotten used to scavenging for survival while giving fake names and watching her parents do the same, never knowing why their true names were such a special secret. But while they had precious little they could give her beyond her name and their love...those didn’t last either.

Not after “They” found her, imprisoned her, enslaved her, destroyed all but the last glimmer of her soul, and robbed her of her very name to brand her with that codename that defined her from then on. And then, years later, they finished the job and killed that girl, leaving this woman behind.

She’d seen for herself what lurked in the shadows of the tallest buildings and what could be found where nobody wanted to look.

A smug grin spread across Mandy’s face as she stopped and waited for a train to pass by.

From now on, I’m the thing to be feared, she boasted in her head, chuckling to herself. Stylish, sexy, and ready to mark a few more tallies on my kill count. My way.

Her grin widened enough to show some teeth as the train passed and she continued on her way.

All while working my way up to the big finish. Assuming you don’t get so broken that you kill yourself first.

Soon enough, she reached the small motel she was looking for in the dingy part of town and headed to the front desk. An overweight Weezing sat at the counter tapping on his phone. His small head was the only one that bothered to flick his eyes up at Mandy when she entered.

And then he looked again with much wider eyes and a hoarse gasp that brought his full attention to her.

“Heya,” she chirped as she sauntered up, the Poison-type’s four eyes looking her over in unison. “You still got my room ready?”

“Y-Yeah, ya goddit!” he croaked as he scrambled for the key, “an’, uh, ya got de goods?”

“Mm hm,” she hummed. “Just let me in my room first.”

His brows knitted on both foreheads. “Dat wasn’t de deal,” he reminded her.

“I got shit to do. You’ll get it on my way out.”

He grumbled before he produced her room key. “Jus’ don’ bullshit a bullshitter,” he warned as he handed it to her.

Mandy just gave him that same smug grin as she glanced past those dull eyes to see what trivialities were running through his head.

And all she heard was a frantic stream along the lines of, “Need it need it need it.”

She took the key and strutted out, bragging to herself, As if you could bullshit me, you bottom-feeding garbage.

Once she was in her room, cramped and only sort of clean but very livable compared to the cells she didn’t so much live in as she was kept in them, she closed the curtains and opened her suitcase to rummage through her clothes and produce a small bag about the size and shape of a fist that had some give to it, as if it was full but whatever was inside wasn’t something solid. A handful of much smaller bags sat beside it, and upon removing one, she opened the larger bag and, with practiced skill, tilted it so it gently poured its contents into the smaller one.

She had to close her eyes when, even in the dimmed sun, the green-white powder glittered with uncomfortably bright light as if it shone with radiance all its own even during the short time it was visible being poured from one container to another.

She held her hands steady, having plenty of experience with handling the stuff, as her (fake) battler ID would show anyone who asked, and quickly finished and sealed the bags again, pocketing both.

She didn’t have much time to relax, though. She had to get to work and familiarize herself with this new city.

After inputting some directions on her phone, she stopped by the front desk and came up to the irritated and impatient Weezing.

“Enjoy, gas bag,” she quipped as she took out the tiny bag and casually flicked it his way as if flipping a coin at him.

He caught it and looked down at it before grunting at her. “‘Ey! What de shit’s dis?!”

Mandy ran her hand through her hair as she answered confidently, “One hit of BrightPowder, as agreed.”

He grunted again, longer and more threateningly. “De deal was de whole bag, bitch!” he barked.

“And that’s what you’ll get...by the time I leave,” she said. Seeing she was getting to him already, she just smiled wider. “You’ll have to get the stuff to mix it with yourself, I’m not your errand girl.”

Both his heads started fuming, or at least they would in the literal sense if he had any powers. “Long as you’re here, I know where ya sleep,” he warned.

That made Mandy’s heart beat just a little faster, not with fear but with anticipation, and her Mega Stone shine just a little brighter.

Ooh. You really wanna pull back the cloak on this?

She set her hands on the edge of the counter. “Are we gonna have a...”

vrrrm

CRACK

In short order, a glowing pair of telekinetic hands manifested over hers and, mimicking their motions, clamped down on the counter hard enough to leave cracks in it.

“Problem?” she finished with a wide-eyed, narrow-pupiled grin.

The Weezing flinched and hastily shook both his heads, leaving her to turn and go on her way feeling pretty good about herself as she headed to her first destination.

“Okay. Let’s see what happens when I stop resisting fate and embrace it instead.”

-----

The mall was, as expected, a riot of holiday cheer. Maybe a little too much.

Seasonal music played on the loudspeakers in the halls and in every store, from songs that put a little more pep in Valerie’s step to songs that made her want to scream with how much she hated them. Crowds of people bustled about. Posters offered seasonal deals. And Winter’s Eve decorations were everywhere.

Everything was bigger and louder in the city, all right. Not that her home was any slouch when it came to the holidays, but it was possible for celebrations to be “a lot” without being “too much.”

Still, she came here to cheer herself up, so she let some of the atmosphere filter its way into her spirit. Besides, she’d already done her gift shopping, so if she saw something she wanted, she’d be happy to make use of Vanessa’s donation to the Bank of Valerie.

If only there were something she wanted for herself...or at least something that would last longer than the ice cream with which she was currently satisfying her sweet tooth. And that’s what she told herself she was doing: Satisfying her sweet tooth, not indulging in comfort food.

One store’s sign caught her eye, even though the store was decidedly not geared to her.

Little Cup Stadium, the store was named.

Today only: Give the greatest gift to the greatest gift! 40% off all items for infants aged 1 and under! boasted its holiday sale.

She let out a thoughtful “hmm” as she took a bite out of her ice cream and headed in.

Baby clothes, baby toys, baby books, baby supplies, baby plushies, baby this that and the other thing were laid out for all new parents and all those with little ones of every shape and species in their lives, taking up half the store. The other half was similarly stocked with things for children of early toddler age up to just before kindergarten.

She’d already bought presents for her niece and nephew (forget that “first cousins once removed” fluff, Fuyuki might be her cousin, but her kids deserved something that made them sound like family), but maybe she could find a little something extra for the right price.

Sooo what do you get for the baby who has everything? she mentally asked no one. It was a valid question considering how Fuyuki’s kids had, for years, been the only family babies and had consequently been the targets of plenty of gift-giving spirit on their birthdays and Winter’s Eve.

As the Vaporeon examined the rows of plushies, her tail twitched thoughtfully. Fuyuki’s kids had enough stuff that it was a struggle to get them anything, and she was pretty sure her gifts were counted among the “my family got me this, but I don’t do anything with it” pile. Not that it bothered her; it was a source of comfort to hear that her once-self-hating cousin’s life had turned around so much.

And she would never forget when, as burned out in every way as Vanessa was now (or maybe not now, she sure seemed to be on a big rebound nowadays), she was there to see how Vanessa was so, so happy on Fuyuki’s wedding day when the bride and groom exchanged their first kiss that she evolved into an Espeon at that moment of the ceremony, like she was personally blessing their union from her relief and certainty that, after too many years, Fuyuki would never feel alone or unloved (especially by herself) again.

That made her nod, although sadly. Longingly.

You two have been the babies of this family for way too long, she observed of her niece and nephew. What are Malon and Kiwi waiting for? Especially you, Malon. Aren’t farmers supposed to have a ton of kids so they can make ‘em do chores and pass the family farm to them? Plow that field and plant that seed, already! she asked her provincial relative.

Of course, that only brought her own private life around full circle.

She was the only one of her relatives not in any position to make that happen.

And it wasn’t from any lack of interest.

She kept moving through the store, although now more in the sense of going through the motions than actually looking for something she already knew her young relatives didn’t need. She never thought she’d be this old, single, and childless. As a kid, she always said she’d get married and have kids as soon as she could when she grew up. For a while, she said that because...that’s just what grown-ups are supposed to do, everyone knew that. Her way of thinking changed as she got older, but her goal was not.

“24 isn’t old,” whatever, I’m still behind schedule. Even that sourpuss Bibi has a better track record than me.

Val left the store empty handed, barely noticing how fast she’d eaten her ice cream.

She went on her way with a new resolution: Don’t bring this self-defeating mindset to Fuyuki’s.

There had to be some holiday cheer she wouldn’t reject around here.

-----

The city was, as expected, a familiar blend of clean and safe places everyone went alongside dirty and dangerous shadows nobody went willingly. Maybe a little too familiar.

The jingle of an occasional Winter’s Eve tune played on loudspeakers outside the stores did nothing to pull Mandy’s focus away from the task at hand. She glanced around unobtrusively as she went on her way, looking for potential ambush points and especially quiet alleys, mainly around a particular office building. So far, it wasn’t looking good: No easy point of attack if things came to that, at least not without having some variables to deal with like security cameras, which she could manage but every new thing she had to account for was an opportunity for something to go wrong.

She had time to figure this out, but what she didn’t have much of was patience.

Entering another alley, she noticed it was occupied not with someone making a delivery or just passing through, but by a few huddled-together figures. A Hoennian Linoone, a human, and a much younger Zigzagoon, all shabbily dressed, were in the middle of the alley, and the human was digging through someone’s trash.

She hadn’t just seen this many times: She’d lived it as a child. It almost made her empathetic for them.

Or at least it would if she had any capacity to feel empathy anymore, other than in the sense of “I know your pain, which means I know how to use it.”

The point of “using it” came to her mind as she approached them, doing nothing to pretend she was just passing by. When she got closer, the Linoone’s head turned to watch her, then they pulled the child closer when she reached them.

“Unless you want to help, we’ve got enough problems,” the Linoone, who Mandy could now see and hear was a she, said as the human took note of this newcomer.

“I’ll help you if you’ll help me,” Mandy said as a calm matter of fact.

The human, meanwhile, wiped his hands on his pants and regarded her with suspicion, moving to stand between Mandy and, she could only assume, his family. “We’re hungry. Talk fast,” he stated simply.

She got more of their attention when she pulled one hand out of her pocket with money held between her fingers.

“First, let’s see if you’re selling what I’m buying,” she said, rubbing the cash temptingly. “I just got here. I want information.”

“...About?”

“How long have you been in this city?”

The Linoone spoke up, “A while. Enough that we aren’t new.”

“So how well do you know the alleys?”

“We know ‘em fine, why?” she asked.

“I’m gonna need more than ‘fine,’ but if that’s the best you can do...” she trailed off, closing her hand around most of the cash but leaving a little bit uncovered, as if showing them what she had to spend vs how little they stood to earn at this rate.

They hesitated, which gave Mandy a chance to peek inside the human’s head.

*What is this lady up to? Not like we can say ‘no’ to something free, not when Maren’s sick.*

Whether Maren was his child or his partner, she knew she had them in the palm of her hand. Obligation to family over self; another thing she had lived through.

Another thing she very well knew how to weaponize.

The Linoone asked, “Fine, what do you want to know about them?”

“Hold it, hold it,” she said teasingly as she pulled her hand back. “That’s not the only thing I want. If you don’t have information, I can buy your help,” she added as she uncurled her fingers to reveal the money again.

“That depends on the help,” the human answered.

“Ooh, getting choosy are we?” she taunted. “You think you’re in a place to haggle?”

The Linoone moved the Zigzagoon behind her and took a step forward, baring her teeth. “Just tell us what you want.”

As much as Mandy would have loved to beat them into submission if she couldn’t buy their submission, she couldn’t risk attracting attention even if they attacked her first and she could claim she was acting in self-defense. At least, she couldn’t risk it here, where anyone could find out. “The short of it is, I want you to help me keep an eye on someone. Go where I tell you, when I tell you. Tell me what times you saw them and where they were when you saw them. Other parts of the job will be decided as I feel like it.”

The human raised an eyebrow. “And...who is this ‘someone?’”

“We’ll talk about it tomorrow. Be here at 5 AM. I assume you won’t be busy,” she quipped, pocketing most of the cash but leaving a small amount in hand. “One part of the job is that I expect you to keep your mouths shut. Always assume I’ll know if you don’t.” She held it out to them. “Consider this the first payment in advance.”

He eyed her warily but ultimately snatched the money out of her hand. “Be grateful,” the human warned, pointing a finger at her, “that I have a family to look out for.”

His words bounced off her heart, and she answered with a smirk and a remark, “Here’s something for free: Advice, and that advice is...” she leaned in slightly, her hands on her hips, “don’t.”

“What the hell would you know about us?!” the Linoone demanded.

“Heehee, you’d be amazed how often it’s not just the good guys who crawled their way up to the top from the literal gutters,” she teased with a wink before turning around, keeping her mind’s eye on their thoughts in case they decided they were taking what they wanted now. “Think about how good it feels when you and people you love have enough to eat. See ya soon.”

She walked away with that smug self-assuredness that came from keeping people beneath her.

Once she was back on the street, she noticed the signs on the streetlights boasting: You’re only two blocks away from the center of holiday spirit! --> This way to Converlia Mall!

She quirked her lips thoughtfully.

“Holiday spirit?” Feel the power of my apathy, she dismissed it, although...I’m feelin’ pretty damn good. Time for a cinnamon roll!

She went on her way with a new resolution: Keep adding onto the chain of things going how she wanted.

There had to be at least one baked goods store she could indulge herself in around here.

-----

Valerie’s further excursion through the mall wasn’t much more productive than how it started.

No stores selling things she wanted or needed, nothing extra to buy her family, and she didn’t know enough about Alex to have a clue what he liked, so she’d just have to give him the gift of her sincere gratitude for pulling her cousin out of the self-destructive cycle her life had become.

And she would give that gift from the heart. After all, wasn’t that what was most important?

Still fighting the holiday blues, and now without ice cream as her held item for that battle, she drifted away from the stores and closer to the center of the mall where all the family attractions were set up.

It brought a small smile to her face as she strolled around and looked at all the stuff from a kid’s make-believe land. Animatronics decked out in bright lights, people in gaudy and colorful costumes, Father Winter’s workshop in the center of everything...it gave her a wave of nostalgia that eased the stresses of being an adult who was only spending Winter’s Eve with anyone because she was traveling to see them.

She remembered being a kid and always looking forward to these big events. Every year, she wondered what would be the same and what would be different, and it was always so much fun no matter what.

The Vaporeon walked to one side of the workshop and looked inside, her smile growing at seeing an Abomasnow dressed up as the big man himself, Father Winter, with a very uncooperative human toddler on his knee. And by “very uncooperative,” Valerie more meant “the archetypical crying and screaming kid ruining the Winter’s Eve family photo.”

That still didn’t wipe the smile off her face. Hey, if Fuyuki could joke about her oldest being like that the first time they went to a mall for the Winter’s Eve festivities, she could get a kick out of it, too. Hopefully that kid’s parents could do the same.

It wasn’t quite the holiday spirit she was looking for, but she’d take all the smiles she could get. She was already looking forward to seeing more of it at Fuyuki’s in the coming days when they took the kids to see Father Winter.

Just with less drama this time, she mentally noted.

Feeling a little jollier in her heart, she kept meandering through the crowd and looking at the displays. It was funny: Not long ago, the weight of not having a family of her own to be here with was pulling her down, and yet now that she was in the thick of it, it felt natural to open her heart and let the good feelings in. The smile remained steady as she passed one display after another, and she couldn’t help but feel warm inside as she watched one of the “elves” offer a candy cane to a grateful child.

Yeah, this feeling, that was a lot more like it.

When she reached the last attraction, it wasn’t anything related directly to all the Father Winter festivities, but instead it was a corner of the atrium where a group of children and their families were gathered around a woman about to start reading a story.

Just from looking at the decorations adorning the area, set up to look like the cozy corner of a house in which anyone could easily get lost in a good book, Val already knew what the story was going to be.

“Jirachi: The Guiding Star,” she said to herself, noting the cutouts of the titular legend and the other characters from the story. It was a nice story, one she fondly remembered from her own childhood. Good to see some things never aged out.

That made a lightbulb go off in her head.

As much as she wanted to stay awhile and listen, she pulled up her phone’s texting screen as she walked away to find a mall directory.

Hey-u Fuyu! Do your kids have that book about the Winter’s Eve Jirachi story from when I was little?

-----

Mandy hummed to herself as she walked through the mall, the mix of cinnamon, sugar, and warm bread delighting her tastebuds. So far, it had been a productive day, so she decided she had time to see what else this city had to offer while she was here.

And this mall wasn’t bad. The stores had a nice variety, and she added a reminder on her phone to stop by one of them for some office clothes if the next part of her plan went as expected. It even had a good patisserie, from which she was currently munching on her well-deserved cinnamon roll.

In her wandering, she ended up in the center of the mall, and all the showy “Father Winter’s Workshop” decorations concentrated in the atrium did nothing to grab her attention. If anything, they only annoyed her with all the fake, forced “holiday spirit,” leading her to enjoy the sight of everyone meandering about in the same way she enjoyed looking down on as many people at once as possible.

“You never stopped by my house on Winter’s Eve,” she muttered as she looked at the dressed-up Abomasnow in the workshop’s window. “Or did I need to have a home for you to stop in?”

Whatever, she’d just stay here long enough to finish her food and then get back on her way.

That was when a speaker nearby crackled to life and a woman announced, “Attention, everyone! We’ll be reading Jirachi: The Guiding Star now! Gather around for the story!”

Unfamiliar with that story, she looked aside and noticed the families gathering in what looked like the reading corner of someone’s house. Her eyebrow rose a bit, but she stayed in her spot, unwilling to let stupid shit like a kid’s fairy tale shoo her away.

The story began.

It started with the usual “once upon a time”-style introduction. Three children had gone out to play in the woods on the Winter Solstice, and they, unmindful of the time, went out too far to find their way home when dark clouds rolled in and the year’s earliest sunset blanketed the land with shadows.

Living in a world of shadows. How relatable, she sarcastically thought.

The children tried to get home, but they only got more and more lost. What once was the forest they played in so often got harder to get through. Landmarks like the big dead tree by the bend in the river, the rock pile that looked a little like an Onix if you looked at it in a certain way, and the moon and stars themselves that the children used to navigate, all were hidden by the darkness.

As their fear grew, they hurried faster and faster, and suddenly they realized that somehow, they had split up and they couldn’t even see or hear each other anymore. They were lost and alone in the gloom of a world they no longer recognized.

The Gardevoir turned her head back to the speaker again, just a little. This was hardly the first time something had stirred up a bad memory, but...it reminded her of...

That day. The day she had gone from having parents to take care of her to being a child nobody knew and nobody wanted...and the world’s color was lost, along with her parents.

The story went on, with the children losing hope, and they looked up to the sky for anything that might guide them. The tiniest break in the clouds to see stars to navigate by, the moon shining down to illuminate something they could follow, anything at all.

Then they saw something: A point of yellowish light flying around. Not unlike the shooting stars they’d made wishes on during clear nights. But...a shooting star under the clouds? That was impossible!

But “impossible” was all they had left.

Separate, but united, the children all clasped their hands together, bowed their heads, and spoke...

And at this point, the reader set the book on her lap and did the same, getting just a bit more of Mandy’s attention...

“I just wish we could all go home.”

Mandy felt a very brief and very unwelcome tension in her heart when she heard that.

Picking the book back up, the reader continued by saying that the point of light stopped moving, then glowed brighter, as if it was coming closer to the world. Then, it stayed still. The three of them followed its glow, and in doing so, were brought back together again. No sooner had they rejoined each other than the light moved, but now that they could see the forest around them, they had no fear of stumbling in the dark or losing each other again as they kept following it.

And, when the light stopped again, it stopped over their home, and they could see who had saved them: A tiny starlike Pokemon shining at its center with a smile as bright and welcoming as its radiance. It said to them...

“A wonderful wish, indeed.”

Then, it flew back up into the sky, and in the blink of an eye, it was gone, leaving the grateful children behind.

“The End.”

The gathered humans and Pokemon all clapped as the story reached its conclusion.

All except one.

While Mandy wasn’t driven away - she’d endured far more torture in every way for a children’s book to hurt her - she suddenly felt out of her element. She turned away, her brows knitted.

Father Winter, Jirachi...Arceus... she thought as she stuffed the rest of the cinnamon roll in her mouth and stiffly threw the plate and napkin away, must be nice having someone who’s always looking out for you...even if they’re higher powers who aren’t in this world.

She pulled up her phone’s reminders as she headed to the clothing store, determined to regain control of her day by taking one more to-do item off her list and buying some office clothes.

Not that any of them ever stepped in when I needed them...if they fucking noticed at all.

-----

As Valerie left the mall with a shopping bag with her newly bought book in hand, she definitely felt more cheered up than when she arrived. Sure, Fuyuki’s kids had plenty of books, but somehow, they missed this one. She couldn’t wait to read it to them and watch their eyes light up. Her niece’s, at least; her baby nephew, maybe not so much, but he’d grow into it. Even if it ended up being just one more book among many on their shelves, she’d do her part to pass on a tradition that mattered to her.

Now that the sun was setting, she checked a map on her phone while she walked down the street and asked herself what to do next. She still had some time to kill before going back to Vanessa’s and winding down the evening, and she was eager to make the most of her renewed spirit.

Then she paused when she zoomed the map in on her location. No way...

Looking across the street, she spotted the perfect outlet for all that positivity. It was adorned with images of a Jigglypuff, Loudred, Primarina, and a couple humans, all dressed to show off and all singing into microphones, plus a bright sign that identified it as what she thought it was:

“Vital Spirit Karaoke Bar,” the Vaporeon read the sign, nodding. It’d been a while since she’d been to one of these. “Sure, why not?” she mused out loud as she headed over.

Once she was inside, she looked over the pricing options. Hmm, “Show ‘Em your Hyper Voice: Discounted Hard Rock and Heavy Metal?” Nah, I wanna be happy, not just loud. “The Insomniac Special...After 10 PM?” Heh, no thank you, I got a train to catch before dawn tomorrow. “Perishable Songs: 2-for-1 on Emo Punk?” Who the hell goes to a karaoke bar to sing that?

Well, whatever, she figured plunking down enough for five songs would be enough; she just wanted a quick mood boost, and yeah, she could sing to herself just fine, but no one would interrupt her here.

Paying up, she walked to the private rooms and set her stuff down before picking up the mic and skimming the song list.

Okay, “Too Good to Stop” by Serena Adams, that was a good one to start with.

The big monitor flickered to life with the accompanying music video, showing a dark-haired human onscreen as the Vaporeon tapped her foot and flicked her tail to the beat as the intro started playing. Music for bouncy teens, the kind she listened to some ten years ago, filled the room as Valerie sang the words without needing to watch them. Once she got into the feel of it, she let the rest of her body move, strutting back and forth like she was onstage and performing for a crowd.

When the song ended, it was onto the next, from her parents’ generation: “Dancin’ All Night” by Colors. Old electronic instruments, heavy basslines, and horns predominated this one, bringing back the sounds of the nightclubs of yore. Funky. Groovy. Old but still good.

Again, she danced with the song, this time swaying her hips and tail in wide arcs, sometimes spinning in a circle over the course of several swings. As gaudy and outdated as they were, it was kind of fun to imagine herself in one of those old places, the floor cycling through multicolored squares while wearing the hottest fashions of her parents’ college days. She loved a good outing with lots of people as much as the next person, but she was really not a “party all night” kind of woman. Still, maybe she could give it a chance someday.

Her next choice: “In It to Win It” by Ned and Sons. On second thought, maybe it was time to go ahead and be loud with some hard rock.

This one was as much music as...well, just noise. Electric guitars and drums slammed so hard that it was a wonder they didn’t break were accompanied by her not so much singing as shouting into the microphone. Not much dancing this time, either, just headbanging and giving the rock-horns finger gesture. It didn’t exactly make her feel better; it just made more use of the goodness she already felt.

Okay, what was next...

Whoa, they even have video game music here? This place knows what’s up. I might have to take Vanessa here the next time I visit, she thought with a smirk as she made her fourth selection. That’s still a thing corpo types do after work, right? Or is that just in my animes?

“Seviper Eater - Vocals/SFX Only” from Steel Bolt Solid 3: Seviper Eater.

This one was nothing like the others, and not just because it was from a video game. This time, the monitor didn’t show a music video, but footage from the game and a countdown to when the vocals started. As the character Naked Snivy started the famous (some would say infamous) nearly two-minute-long ladder climb, Valerie counted down:

“3...2...1...”

Again, the differences were clear when there was no music, only the in-game sound effects of the ladder being climbed and the occasional ambience of wind rushing or water dripping. The Vaporeon started singing the iconic vocals, softly at first, building up to the soulful tune that turned what would normally be one of the most meaningless and monotonous sequences in all of video games into a memory that fans of the game still talked about decades later, some more jokingly than others but it endured the test of time nonetheless.

“Seviperrr Eaterrr...” she half-sung, half-whispered as both the lyrics and the climb finished.

Aaah. That felt good.

Just one more. Which one, which one...

She went back to the categories and started browsing again. Hm, speaking of “my animoos,” let’s see what the “Anime” section has for me.

She scrolled down the list, then her finger just happened to stop on one option that made her freeze.

“All-Time Hero” from Fairy Dust.

That used to be a song she heard with some regularity back at the academy, and it wasn’t so much because she watched that show as it was because someone else did, someone who really liked its theme song enough that she loved to sing it when they went out for karaoke together.

Needless to say, Val had avoided everything to do with that anime for years.

Taking a deep breath, she selected it. One more thing about you for me to get over, she encouraged herself as the music began. “‘Love has winners and losers, but it isn’t a game; We may all be players, but we don’t play the same, uh uh, uh UH UH!’” she sang along with both the words and the beats of the melody.

As she went through the rest of the song, she had mixed memories of her ex-friend telling her, “Val, you’re missing your cues, come on, you know the words!” Her rejuvenated spirit fought to stay upbeat as past and present merged in her head, and for all she’d done to overcome her past and all the progress she’d made, any revisiting of that time was going to be a struggle.

By the time the song ended, she felt like she’d won the struggle by getting through the whole thing without stopping, but there was a creeping glumness that had filtered into her spirit.

Fine. That was fine. She was done anyway.

Getting her things back together, she gruffly stepped out of the room...

“Oof!”

“Ugh!”

...And right into another patron heading her way.

“Ah, sorry, my ba- whuh- YOU?!” Valerie started apologizing, started asking what she was seeing, and then escalated it to angry disbelief in only a couple of seconds.

Standing up from being knocked off-balance by the Vaporeon in something of a hurry was a Gardevoir. Specifically, a shiny Gardevoir. Which instantly set Valerie’s temper, which was already getting testy, on fire from remembering her.

“Of all the places we meet again, it’s here?!” Val barked, her fins and tail standing stiff.

“Agh, the fuck?!” the Gardevoir asked as she turned to face the Vaporeon.

“I’m gonna straighten your shit out RIGHT NOW and...and...?”

Valerie’s sudden change from pleasantly calm sea to slightly choppy waves to steaming hot was cut short when she saw the Gardevoir’s face and not only didn’t see a distinct lock of cyan hair that was her ex-bestie’s constant style, but also saw that her eyes were pink, not orange.

Her attire covered enough of her that it was hard to see whether her skin was blue or green, but that more than likely meant, her hair and head spikes were dyed.

“I, uh...” she stuttered as she tried to force herself to calm down despite the fresh rush of fight-or-flight adrenaline.

The Gardevoir brushed herself off and set her hands on her hips. “The fuck are you?! You wanna fight, bitch?!” she threatened.

“N-No, it’s...sorry...thoughtyouweresomeoneelsebye!” she blabbed before she hurried up front and out the door.

Once she was outside, she leaned against the door and took a few deep breaths. Good one, Val. Just because she’s on your mind, you made that jump to conclusions. She shook her head at herself. Better hope you don’t see her again if you bring Vanny here or you’re going to have a real awkward explanation to give.

After the rush left her system, she checked her phone again for other things to do. Hm. Maybe that’s enough. But...it’d be kind of nice to see the city’s Winter’s Evergreen light up. I got time to drop the book off at Vanny’s and check it out. Then I’ll just go back for the night.

With a new plan in mind, she went to do just that and set herself up for what was, if all went well, the last bit of holiday cheer to share with her family.

-----

As Mandy walked out of the store with a shopping bag with a few newly bought work outfits in hand, she definitely felt more in control than she did a little while ago. Sure, she might have lost her composure for a bit there, but she was back to her sexy and confident self. She couldn’t wait to start turning office workers’ heads while they had no idea of the monster that lurked beneath the luscious exterior. Even if they ended up more broken than dead, they were just many more victims to potentially add to her tally; maybe she should start keeping a new count, she’d stopped counting long ago.

Now that the day was winding down, she looked at the mall’s directory to see if there was anything else she could take care of while she was here. She still had some time to kill before going back to the motel for the evening to review her plans for tomorrow, and she was eager to make the most of her renewed spirit.

She looked over the store listings before seeing one that might give her that little extra edge in the office, and it was right next to her.

Glancing aside, she spotted the store that may not have been one she was familiar with, but it was just what she needed.

“Breath of Fresh Anything,” she read the beauty products store’s sign, along with the obligatory holiday discount announcement.

She hummed in thought. Beauty products weren’t something she’d had much of a chance to use, but maybe it was time to give it a try.

Stepping inside and looking around, she skimmed the shelves of the products. Soaps, shampoos, and lotions were just the start of it; all manner of goods meant to fight the battle against the fickleness of age and social rejection were on display. Not that she knew where to start.

It’s not just cinnamon rolls; I also love the smell of Cheri Berries. They got any of that?

“Hi!” came an overly peppy voice to her side, which hit her something like a chisel chipping at a rock. She looked aside at the Roselia girl who must have seen her inquisitive look and had her salesgirl radar buzzing if the irritatingly bright smile on her face was any indication. “How can I help you? Not that you look like you need a lot of help, but you must be used to getting complimented all the time with such exotic beauty as yours! Ooh, and I love the Gardevoirite choker! Is that real?”

Mandy grinned at her. “First, you can dial it back from a 10 to, at most, a 7,” she said bluntly.

“...I’m sorry?”

“Ease, up, a, little. It’s, annoying,” Mandy sounded out, dulling the Roselia’s smile. “Second,” she went on, “I’ve got my first office job coming up. What’ll give me an edge there?”

“Ah, entering the corporate world? Well then, let me just ask you: Do you use any beauty products already?”

“Never got around to it,” she answered. “Wasn’t exactly in a good place for it for a lot of my life, and when I could, I had other priorities.”

“Okay, then let’s start with the basics.”

The Roselia started leading Mandy around the store as the Gardevoir handled the sales pitches with the right mixture of analysis and apathy. Shampoo and conditioner? Check. Makeup? That wasn’t really Mandy’s style, she had enough natural beauty. Body wash? Sure, why not.

Perfume? That was where Mandy’s limited experience with beauty products stopped. The closest she came was scented hand lotion. There wasn’t a lot of opportunity to get really fancied up at the academy or the orphanage, to say nothing of the streets and the facility.

But she just answered by asking for the Roselia’s advice.

“Right! Here are a few of our more popular scents,” the girl introduced them, taking a sample paper card off the shelf. “This one’s called ‘Pine Forest.’”

A cursory sniff of the card brought the promised smell of pine trees to her nose. “Not bad, but if I have to wear this stuff, I’d rather wear something I want to smell, too.”

“All right, then,” she produced another sample card, “here’s one called ‘Flower Burst.’”

Another sniff. “Mm, no.”

She was handed a third card. “This is currently our most popular item, ‘Number 5 Delight.’”

This time, the sniff made her recoil. Not just from the bad smell, but the specific smell.

It didn’t smell like...anything, really, at least nothing she could name. It smelled like...chemicals. That was all she could describe it as: Chemicals that were meant for some purpose and “smelling good” wasn’t it.

More importantly, it brought back memories of the stingingly antiseptic smell of the infirmary where she’d been patched up so many times before being thrown back into the battle chambers. Or the unidentifiable but completely unnatural scent of the laboratories she was often taken to for testing and monitoring.

It smelled like that place, the one from which she’d only recently finally freed herself forever.

“No. No. Hard no,” she immediately snapped.

“I, uh, o-okay, you don’t have to get harsh...or crush the card, a simple ‘no’ is fine,” the salesgirl said nervously.

Not having noticed or cared about how strong her rejection was, Mandy looked over the bottles. “Got anything with a Cheri scent? Or...probably not, but cinnamon?”

“Not in the perfumes, ma’am. In most offices, they’re considered unprofessional,” she answered, getting a dismissive huff from Mandy. “You might be more of a body wash-type if that’s what you’re looking for. But maybe I can interest you in one of our other popular scents?” She handed Mandy another card, who examined it without asking what it was.

sniff

That brought another rush of memories back, and maybe it was from Mandy’s guard having just been broken, but this time, they hurt in a different way.

“Wooow! This is the ocean?” the bright-eyed Kirlia had said, openly awed as a warm sea breeze washed over her.

“Yeah! I come here every chance I get. A swimming pool’s nice, but nothing beats the biggest pool in the world,” her bestie had joked back.

“That’s so cool! No wonder you love it here!”

The Eevee was already heading to where the water lapped at the sand, looking back at her friend. “If you wanna come swim with me, I’m gonna splash around for a while, but if you’re not sure, don’t go in past your waist, okay?”

“Oh, yeah! Go ahead, I’m still just taking it all in!” she said, motioning for Val to keep going. “I’ll probably just sit on the shore, go have fun!”

She spent most of her time either sitting at the water’s edge with the waves washing her legs or walking up and down the beach, just basking in the openness and color and how alive this place was.

But what really made her smile, not just on her face but in her heart, was how she saw Valerie enjoying herself even more. The Eevee glided through the waves like she was born there. She already enjoyed her treats but sharing a couple of popsicles from the ice cream stand actually made her giggle as they ate them together, and her laughter was as contagious as ever. Her eyes twinkled as she told Mandy about those times she went scuba diving, and they had a dreamy, faraway look in them as she talked about how she hoped she could live by the ocean someday.

Mandy could feel Valerie’s happiness in a way that she didn’t need psychic powers to feel, and that made her happier still.

“...Ma’am?” the Roselia asked.

Mandy drifted back to the present as she looked down at the sample card. Unsurprisingly, it was labeled “Sea Breeze.” What did surprise her, though, was the brand: S-Rank Scents.

The same perfume, down to the brand, that she used to wear.

The salesgirl leaned in a little. “Is something the matter?”

She shook her head. “No. It’s fine. I’m fine.”

She pushed through the pain in the pit of her chest, a mix of futile anger and grief that she couldn’t cleanly identify but it was like a dulled version of what she felt when she saw her ex-best friend’s face twisted by pain and fear.

“Everything’s. Fine.”

With that, she paid for her things and went on her way.

Checking the time, she figured that while she was here, she might as well get something more substantial to eat than a cinnamon bun. She still had to get some food for her stay at the motel, anyway, but that could wait until she was on her way back.

Another new priority: Find somewhere quiet so she could do her meditation exercises. It didn’t have to be the full set; clearing her mind of these extraneous feelings was enough. There had to be a bookstore here somewhere she could find a corner to sit in for a little while.

That girl who still had any goodness or innocence to lose is gone. She died in the facility, and “They” killed her. I buried her there myself...and she was the only thing I did bury that day; everyone else who died there was burned with the rest of the place after I’d finished, she reaffirmed. Never forget that.

-----

The sun had almost set, and nighttime was about to fully begin. The evening sky, while its beauty was dulled by the competing city lights and obscuring buildings, was still painted in soft pinks towards the horizon that faded to rapidly darker blues towards the rest of the sky.

Valerie had finished her short trip back to Vanessa’s and headed to the city center. Mandy had recentered herself and was heading back to the motel, which happened to take her near the city center.

The Vaporeon and Gardevoir arrived at opposite ends of the square, which already had lights strung up everywhere to frame the massive pine tree in the center, which itself had enough tinsel and ornaments that Valerie was amazed that it was about to get even brighter. Mandy, meanwhile, took the most cursory glance at the tree as she kept walking.

Even with the distance between them and the crowd filling the square, the tree itself was the main reason they didn’t see each other, having arrived at the square at the same time from opposite ends, with the tree blocking their view as Valerie got into a better spot and Mandy kept walking.

They arrived just in time as someone announced on the speakers, “Okay, we all ready?” The gathered crowd cheered, Valerie included while Mandy did her best to ignore them with her hands full of her shopping bags. “Here we go! Ten...” the countdown began, proceeding until reaching “one,” and then...

“Happy Winter’s Eve!”

As bright as the square already was, the Winter’s Evergreen all but brought the sun to them as it burst to life in a spread of brilliant white lights.

Val’s blue eyes practically sparkled as she took it in, a smile spreading on her face from fin to fin. As much as she preferred her seaside town, where things weren’t rural but were more reserved, the holiday spectacle of the city was pretty nice when she was in the right mood for it.

Mandy, despite being uncaring of the holidays, still slowed down to take in the sight. Most of the time, she’d only seen Winter’s Evergreens in people’s windows as she’d passed by them on the street, other than the all-too-short time she’d had somewhere to live and had a chance to stop and appreciate them.

One of them had her heart lit up like the tree itself, and the other one’s heart only went from “dark” to “very dim,” but they both felt warmed by the moment all the same.

That is, until a second eruption of applause and cheering from one side of the crowd took their attention from the tree.

Off to one side, with the two women still unable to see each other from being on opposite sides of the tree, the crowd had parted around a human man on one knee in front of a very flustered Zoroark woman. The Pokemon had a hand on her cheek as her hair looked like it was going to poof out as wide as her eyes, and the cause was obvious from the ring he was sliding on her finger.

Both Valerie and Mandy felt like they’d walked into a wall as they stopped to watch the Zoroark and human embrace each other while the flashes of camera phones went off, and both the Vaporeon and Gardevoir left the square with resolute faces to cover the pain in their hearts.

They didn’t leave from jealousy so much as from being hit in the face by what they’d lost, Valerie from having it stolen from her and Mandy from never having it in the first place.

It was the details in what they’d lost that differed, but even then, they mirrored each other with what they had in common: Their loss of family.

-----

Valerie’s hands were stuffed in her pockets, her tail curled and flicking with irritation, and her gaze was cast down to the sidewalk.

Of all the times to get hung up on Mandy, it had to be now.

She’d spent years rebuilding the life Mandy had destroyed, and while she had a happier life, a life based on being a person who people looked to when they were in trouble, and a bright future again, Mandy had stolen what she wanted most.

Dylan. Her childhood friend. Her first, and only enduring, crush. The boy whose hand she wanted to hold in more than a friendly way, who she wanted to hold her in more than friendly hugs, who awakened the feelings of not just how a girl and boy can be friends but of how a woman and man can be more than friends...and more than crushes.

And Mandy, that awkward and solitary new girl who they’d offered their hands and their friendship to, had repaid her by stealing the chance at them being together when Valerie had put in so much more work and had waited so much more time for it.

And I, like that ‘oh but I don’t want to risk ruining our friendship’ cowardly little schoolgirl that I was, let her snatch him right out of my hands, she berated herself as her footsteps got harder and her breaths got heavier.

At the time, she’d tried to be fair: Mandy made the first move. She’d asked Dylan out. According to her, that time she’d stopped by Valerie’s dorm just the day before had been to ask Val for advice on asking Dylan out as someone who’d known Dylan far longer than Mandy herself had; it just had the very bad luck of Mandy accidentally finding some manga hidden on her shelves that was...way too adult-oriented to be allowed at school. They’d red-facedly agreed to pretend Mandy never saw it before the Kirlia made her quick exit.

Val had tried to support them. She tried not to be the jealous friend who’d ruin everything for everyone. She saw how happy Mandy was, not like someone who merely got what she wanted but was fulfilled in a way she’d never felt before, like she wasn’t just having fun but she was really trying to be a good girlfriend for him. Yeah, she was socially...weird, like she’d never had friends before and needed us to teach her how to do it, but could she really not tell how I felt? And yeah, Dylan was kind of dense in a cute way, but could he really not tell I liked him? Was I that good at hiding it? Or did they think shy, sweet Gal Pal Val didn’t know what grown-up love was?

Her hands clenched into fists as her brow creased deeper. What made it hurt more, not less, in retrospect was that Mandy acted like she wanted to keep Valerie in their circle. When Val approached Mandy after she and Dylan became girl/boyfriends, she let herself reveal some of her worries, namely that she didn’t want to get in their way, but with the two of them spending more time together, she was afraid of being left alone.

In response, Mandy had hugged her, something she’d never done unprompted before, and promised that she would never let Valerie be lonely and would always be Val’s best friend.

The Eevee had to swallow the words that she wanted to say, that if they were going to stay friends, she couldn’t keep this secret anymore: Mandy was dating the boy she loved and she didn’t know what to do that would end this triangle with the three of them still together.

Maybe she would have ended up alone anyway. But that might have been better than what happened next.

First, Mandy had disappeared for two days. It wasn’t just that she didn’t show up to classes, but nobody at school had seen her or knew where she’d gone. Then, when she reappeared, she was a wreck. No, forget that; she was almost unrecognizable. She looked like she hadn’t slept during those two days, she kept glancing around or looking behind her, there was a scared urgency to the few words she spoke, the slightest sudden moves or noises made her flinch...

And when Valerie asked her if they could go get a cinnamon roll and just talk, Mandy had refused.

Now, the fact that this suggested Mandy wasn’t eating on top of everything else that looked wrong with her was already setting off all kinds of protective instincts in Valerie’s head that broke through her conflicting feelings of Mandy and Dylan’s relationship. But, in all the time she’d known Mandy, the Kirlia had never turned down a fresh cinnamon roll.

Something was seriously wrong, and whatever it was, Mandy was scared enough that she wouldn’t talk to her and Dylan about it.

With a little patience and gentle effort, Val got Mandy to meet her alone in private after school.

Then Mandy ruined her life.

The real Valerie’s tail curled into something like a fist along with her fingers as she remembered it.

Her friend, who had avoided so much as spectating battles to the point of being almost pacifistic, suddenly manifested Psychic hands as her face was twisted by hate. Val had never seen anyone get that angry, let alone Mandy. She had no chance of getting away, not with how panicked she was as the Kirlia lashed out at her.

She’d screamed. She’d cried. She’d bled. She’d begged Mandy to stop hurting her. She felt, with senses she couldn’t explain and yet she could feel it all the same, as Mandy violated her mind and learned things about her, secrets she didn’t want people to know.

When she was reduced to a sobbing, cowering mess that had been physically and mentally tortured into submission, Mandy told her she wanted her to get out of here and never come back. She warned her about what would happen if she told anyone. She’d forced her thoughts into Valerie’s head, images of what she’d do. Not just to her; to Dylan.

Val dropped out of the academy within the next week.

When she packed her things and left, Mandy had been there with Dylan, making no move to stop her as if watching to make sure she was gone. Then she’d heard Mandy’s voice in her head, threatening her again while Dylan tried to talk to her, unknowing of what was happening right before his eyes:

“Don’t forget, I can read minds, with or without permission. You aren’t safe from me, even in your own head. If you talk, I’ll find out. I’ll find you. But I’ll get him first.”

Thinking about that threat made Val stop and lean against a building for a minute while she refocused herself, and she couldn’t keep her thoughts in her head this time.

“Dylan...I’m sorry...I left you in the hands of that maniac,” she apologized to her lost love. “I couldn’t fight her off. I needed time to be ready...and time to stop hating myself enough to do anything about it. But...what’s she been doing to you?” She rubbed her face and looked up at the sky. “Do you even know what she is?”

She let out a breath charged with frustration before she went back on her way and asked her nonexistent bestie-turned-nemesis a question meant for her.

“And...why can I still not shake this feeling...that that wasn’t you?”

-----

Mandy’s eyes were dull and unfocused, simultaneously empty yet thoughtful, as if she had withdrawn from the world into her own head.

It was a look she often had back at the facility once “They” had beaten and broken her spirit as a Kirlia and then erased what little she had left when she’d gone back.

Almost a lifetime of suffering from hunger, from sickness, from weather exposure, from fear, from violence in every way, with that all-too-short window where she let herself believe she had a future where she’d never have to hurt or get hurt to survive again...and after all that, that life had been one big lie all throughout.

Family. The biggest lie of all.

Starting with the first people she’d loved: Mom and Dad. The only people who knew her for who she was, not just her birth name but as anything but a homeless child. The providers who sometimes went hungry so she didn’t have to. The protectors who put themselves between her and unfriendly folks who’d tried to take advantage of them or slept on either side of her so the cold or the rain wouldn’t bother her as much.

She’d never understood why they tried so hard to keep her safe and out of sight from enemies she’d never seen, but they’d promised they’d tell her when she was old enough to protect herself. But she always knew she could look to them for what she needed, even if all they could give was love, protection, and guidance.

Until that day when they couldn’t.

And then...I was found...and I would have been better off dead. I abandoned everything they taught me about taking care of myself and just let myself be taken, she reminded herself as her legs went from walking to stomping.

She didn’t know how it was possible for “Them” to take so much from her. She had nothing as a child, barely even clothes on her back. And yet, they took, and took, and took.

Mandy had tried to stop them from taking what they wanted most: Her innocence, her hope, her purity of body and mind, her very self. They wanted her to fight and hurt and kill because she wanted to, not because they made her. She kept the lessons her parents had taught her in her heart, that sometimes you have to fight for what you need but there was a difference between good and evil even when you’re fighting just to survive, and “They” didn’t just want her to do evil, they wanted her to be evil.

She fought back, if only in her heart and if only by resisting than by hitting back, and she’d found out later that they were surprised by both her physical and mental resilience, but it was a losing battle. Every little bit of her identity that died made the light in her eyes go a little bit dimmer.

When she finally hit the point of knowing she’d break if she spent one more day there, she risked everything on her escape: If she couldn’t get out of there, that was the first time she’d rather die. Luck, skill, or both were on her side that day.

Whichever played the bigger role in her escape, luck favored her again as she was found by Director Clavell, who got her into a shelter for orphaned youths and helped her get enrolled at school so she could have a chance at a normal future, where she met the boy and girl who brought color and light back into her life.

The real Mandy’s face remained eerily expressionless as she remembered how that ended. She spent years struggling to hold onto herself as a child and a teen. “They” ended up killing her so fast by making her destroy her own future by her own forced hand.

But they didn’t get away with what they’d done to her. Or to her friends. Not that time.

Mandy’s eyes had a bit of emotion flicker back in them, but, as was normal for her, none of it could truly be called “positive” emotion anymore. It was a swirl of blurred, indistinct hate.

After all, that was when, no matter how absurd or impossible it was, “They” showed just how good they were at taking from her by, again, destroying her when she thought she had nothing to lose and after she’d taken all their lives.

Once the screams, the wrath, and the extermination had ended and the facility had become a tomb, she had access to the computer logs. In all the fighting, a lot of data was lost from damaged equipment, but she wanted answers. She wanted to know what they were going to do with her.

Where once there was a withered flower in her heart, dead and never coming back, any hope that it had left a seed behind that could yet grow into a new flower with enough time and care crumbled to dust at that point.

Reading through her profile page led her to notice one section: “Parentage.” That led her to a similarly broken Buneary hole of incomplete data, but she could have spiraled into the worst assumptions just from what she read there.

Dam: Number 0671 - Status: Deceased
Sire: Doctor [ERROR] - Status: Deceased

Both lines were accompanied by pictures of her parents.

Searching every damaged but functional computer she could, there was enough fragmented information in her file and theirs for her to put together the truth. That day she escaped the facility was technically the second time she’d escaped, not the first. It was just that, many years ago, her parents took her and escaped, one of whom was a Number, another of whom was one of the scientists like the ones she’d killed.

She remembered being frozen to the spot as she read all the data that still existed on her and on them, thinking back on the lies they had told her.

“‘The best Winter’s Eve present we ever got?’ Well, honey, the best Winter’s Eve present we ever got was when we agreed we’d rather be free to be your parents than let anyone stand in our way of being a family. That was the day we chose you over everything.” “And then, not long after that, the best thing that ever happened to us happened on New Year’s Day, when we got...you, when you came into the world.”

She wasn’t the result of forbidden love or an accident they took responsibility for even when it cost them their futures, like they’d always told her. She was the product of engineering, of science, of captive breeding, whether she was wanted or not.

They had kept and raised her out of a responsibility that had been forced on her mother, and her father convinced himself it was his duty to shoulder that burden. All misguided instincts they convinced themselves, and convinced her, were love.

Mandy needed to step into an alley for a minute as she forced herself not to cry again.

I really was made to bring suffering, even to people I loved. I was a tool of hurting since before I was born.

Knowing and embracing her purpose was all she needed. She no longer had to wonder why she was here or what she was supposed to do. That was enough to keep her going.

She stepped back onto the sidewalk and continued on her way.

I wasn’t marked from birth. I was marked before conception.

-----

Neither of them slept well that night.

As hard as they tried to get their personal angst out of their heads, their thoughts caught up with them again once they were alone in the quiet darkness of the dead of night.

Valerie lay on Vanessa’s couch’s bed and stared at the wall with increasingly tired, heavy eyes, while on the other side of the city, Mandy sat on her mattress as she relaxed her mind only to have her grief haunt her once again as soon as she let her guard down enough to try to sleep.

Time ticked by in a slow, meaningless, painful blur. Both women lost themselves to futilely trying to sleep until they finally looked at their phones.

Midnight.

Damn it, they thought in unknowing unison.

Valerie sat up in bed and shuffled to the balcony where she plopped down in a chair and tried to let the nighttime rhythms of the city clear her thoughts. Even the police siren in the distance didn’t do much to throw off the calm with how far away it was. This wasn’t the same as an ocean breeze and the far-away but unmissable splash of the sea, but it was its own form of white noise.

Mandy, meanwhile, fell backwards to land on her back, not the most comfortable position for a Gardevoir given her chest spike but in the short term, it was no worse than a human lying at an awkward but not painful angle. Staring up at the ceiling gave her something to focus on to make her mind match the still and quiet blackness. It was rare that she had this much trouble sleeping anymore, but she could make it work.

As they fixated on their separate surroundings, one last bit of their personal demons came back to claw at their psyches.

Valerie’s eyes drifted from slowly scanning the cityscape up to the horizon as she remembered those thoughts she had, no matter how briefly, when her shame reached its peak after coming home from the academy.

Mandy’s hand went from flopped at her side to slowly raised in front of her face as she remembered those thoughts she had, no matter how briefly, when her heart collapsed in on itself after she finished reading her project logs.

The Vaporeon’s eyes narrowed. Ghostly black and purple energy crackled on the Gardevoir’s hand.

“What if I just...swam away? What if I just swam all the way out past the horizon...and never came back?” Valerie had wondered one day as she’d looked out over the ocean.

“What if I just...ended it? What if I just Shadow Balled myself, right here, right now...and ended the cycle of hurting?” Mandy had asked herself that day as she’d stared at the Shadow Ball in her palm.

Both women looked towards the oblivion they’d once considered embracing.

Once.

Valerie’s eyes closed, as did Mandy’s fingers.

They’d agreed with themselves back then that it wasn’t over and they still had too much to do. They’d swore to rebuild themselves into something better than what they were. They’d done too much to get where they were and had too many obstacles yet to overcome to let their suffering be for nothing; one was just motivated by someone she loved, and the other was motivated by her own self.

That had been the last time (and, in Valerie’s case, the first time) either of them thought about walking away from life.

Their restless thoughts were ultimately settled by their reaffirmed self-commitments and certainty that, whatever struggles they had to face, those struggles had meaning worth living for.

Valerie returned to bed. Mandy sat back in her meditative position.

When they closed their eyes next, they weren’t reopened for the rest of the night, and sleep mercifully took them.

-----

Both were up bright and early the next morning, despite running on not nearly enough sleep. Valerie had her train to catch, and Mandy had her meeting with her hired help.

Both left for their respective appointments, leaving Valerie to all but collapse in her assigned seat with maybe the twentieth yawn that morning while the sleep-deprived and very impatient Mandy gave the motel manager his second hit of BrightPowder and warned him not to speak to her for the rest of the day.

Val’s train left the station, and Mandy half-walked half-shuffled down the street.

Despite their mental, physical, and (to a lesser but meaningful degree) emotional burnout, they kept their minds on their long-term goals that they’d reminded themselves of the night before, even though they had more immediate concerns to address.

The Vaporeon looked at some years-old photos on her phone, photos of Dylan or of the two of them together. She may not have an extravagant life as a lifeguard, but it was a stable, constructive, and happy one. She’d been slowly putting together a plan to find him, to tell him the truth, to expose Mandy as what she really was, to get him away from her, and, if she had to, to pay Mandy back for what she’d done by fighting back this time. Then she’d take him home with her, get him on his feet, help him put his life back together, and show him that they could still build a future side by side, like they should have done. Even if he couldn’t love her as more than a friend, as someone who loved him, it was her duty, her calling, her very nature to do right by him no matter what.

The Gardevoir, meanwhile, looked at more recent photos on her phone, photos of a certain Espeon who lived in this city. One other detail she’d dug up in “Their” computers was that when she led her captors to her friends, they’d done some investigating on these people Mandy had spent so much time around. Apparently, one of Valerie’s cousins had summoned a massive Blizzard at only 18 years old right after she’d unwillingly evolved into a Glaceon, which was nearly inexplicable for a freshly evolved teenager, marking Val’s entire family for further observation and, potentially, collection. Like Mandy had only just found out, she was made to bring suffering even unto the people she’d loved, not just her parents, and “They” were even considering assigning her to the collection team if it came to that. But she had better ideas for what to do with that information.

They both took a deep breath to fan their inner fires of conviction, unknowing that as Valerie’s train approached the edge of the city, it was going under the bridge Mandy was walking over.

No more mistakes. No more wasted time. You’ll know my pain when I do what I’m destined to do... they thought.

Valerie looked thoughtfully out at the sky as Mandy looked at her target’s office building out in the distance.

Mandy. / Valerie.

At that moment, Valerie caught the briefest glance at someone under the streetlights on the bridge. They were too far away to see clearly, but that blue hair, that blue skin, and...even with how fast the train was going, she had a momentary flashback to a lock of cyan hair she saw on their face.

She swore her heart stopped beating as the train zipped by, and just like that, the bridge was behind her and out of sight.

...Mandy?

As one particular occupied seat of the train passed under her, Mandy’s telepathic senses suddenly went on maximum alert. There was someone almost right next to her who’d psychically imprinted on her, someone so familiar she’d feel their presence even if she wasn’t looking for them.

Her eyes snapped open as she looked around, scanning with her physical as well as mind’s eyes for who it could be, even though she already had a name to put on it.

...Valerie?

Just like that, their lines of fate had crossed again, maybe even touched for a time so brief that if one were to blink, they’d miss it. Indeed, once the moment had passed, they shook off the moment of shock as wishful thoughts playing tricks on them, nothing more.

And yet, as broken and dead as their relationship was, and as disbelieving of what had just happened as they were, they still felt it while it lasted.

Converlia City had lived up to its name and slogan, and it would yet do so again.

Both continued on the paths their lives had taken, but it was only a matter of time before their fates would touch again when Dylan came back to the woman who loved him and who he was ready to admit he loved, and when Mandy nearly took people Valerie loved away again, that time almost forever.

And the next times that happened, what was once their shared fate would be dust in the winds of time.

As they told themselves...it was just their destiny.