Chapter Text
Alec leaned into the salty sea breeze, closing his eyes in pleasure. He was almost tempted to throw back his head and howl, but they were close enough to shore that someone might hear— well, his father might hear, really.
“Almost there,” he breathed excitedly, closing his eyes as the seawater crashed against the bow of the ship. “I can’t wait!”
“You’re awfully enthusiastic,” remarked one of the deckhands— ah. Westley, judging by the blonde hair. “We’ve had strange omens and red skies for the latter half of the journey. Red sky by morning, sailors take warning—”
“—Red sky by night, sailor’s delight,” Alec finished.
“Indeed. Ill omens indeed…. At least it seems to have cleared up.” Westley squinted suspiciously at the land, growing closer by the minute. “You sure you want to be here around winter? Hisuian winters get nasty.”
“I can handle it; besides, if anything, that’s all the more reason for an experienced doctor to stay in the village,” Alec said confidently. “It’ll be fine!”
It was not, in fact, fine.
Jubilife felt like a ghost town; the port was empty, and the streets were covered in a grey slush that had frozen over in places. The door of the Galaxy Hall swung emptily, inviting in the snow. The Wallflower was closed, the bulletin board missing, and there was a chill in the air that had nothing to do with the winter.
Alec pulled his cloak tighter around him, wandering, and then abruptly picked up his pace. In his mind, his ears flicked back low, tail tucked underneath him; in reality, his boots skidded uselessly along the icy road, and he wished, not for the first time, that he had claws. Claws to grip and claws to protect; claws to carve his mark into the trunk of a tree and to comb through his hair in the evening.
He shook his head and ducked inside of his father’s shop. “Dad? The ship arrived today!”
“In the back,” came the gruff response. Alec sighed, half nostalgic, half disappointed, and made his way past the workspace that was almost familiar. Pausing for a moment, he picked up a strange contraption that looked almost like a bent crutch, as if the tree had been coerced to grow in that shape. How strange— but now wasn’t the time.
He emerged into the back room, cheeks red from the cold, to find his father working a piece of wood, steadfast as ever. “So. You’ve decided to visit. I’m afraid you’ve chosen a poor time— not that there’s ever been a good time.”
Alec sighed. “Good to see you too, dad. What’s going on?”
“You haven’t heard of the sky-faller yet, have you?”
“Sky-faller?”
Alec’s father gave him a long, warning look. “They call her that because she fell out of a rift, into the ocean, just as the sun was setting. She’s been strange from the start— Captain Cyllene gave her a test when she insisted on joining the Survey Corps. It was meant to be impossible, meant to make her realize— the girl walks with a cane and moves like her joints are old beyond her years. She’d be better suited working indoors, but somehow she’s now the finest pokemon whisperer the land’s ever seen.”
Alec took in a sharp breath. “She can understand them?”
“Not in the way you’re thinking, no. But she knows their body language, the purrs and barks, and she can return in kind. She’s quelled their frenzies, and taught us more than I thought possible about the beasts. It’s…comforting, I suppose. Know thine enemy.”
Alec gave a soft laugh, sitting down on a chair that had once been in the corner of his family’s living room. “You haven’t changed much, have you.”
“Watch it,” the older man said warningly. “The strange thing is— the girl wears a hairpiece not unlike that mask you’re so fond of. Of a zorua. Different colors, more like the Unovan sort.”
“You think…she’s like me?”
“That she howls at the moon some nights? Yes.”
Alec gave a frustrated huff, turning away. “You don’t have to understand it, it’s just— I feel like there’s some kind of connection, and I want to better understand why. I want to become a Zoroark because I already am one in spirit, at least partially, and it helps to express it. That encounter when I was a kid…it changed me.”
“And that’s fine.” His father continued at the lathe; slowly, methodically as always. “It’s not like I’ll ever understand you, not really. And you’re a grown man these days. You’ve chosen your path, and I’ve chosen mine. Shame, though; you’re too late. She already went home.”
“Oh— where’s she from?” Alec pressed. Okay, maybe it was a bit weird for him to be chasing a girl who might not even be of marriageable age, from the sounds of it, but it wasn’t like that. He needed to understand; needed to know he wasn’t alone.
“Unova, the future, another world— she left in the dead of night.” Alec’s father gave him another one of his strangely intense stares, as if he was trying to impart wisdom through airwaves alone. “The day the sky turned red, she was stumbling around like she wasn’t entirely there behind the eyes, and the next morning, she’d disappeared. Rei, the boy who was working and living with her, was quarantined, and we’ve not heard from him since. There’s a strange epidemic that makes people lose ahold of their inhibitions, and we’ve had raids on the food storage. Our leadership is gone, there’s a coup in the works with half our security corps on a doomed mission, our restaurant owner disappeared and hasn’t come back, and the only consolation is the healing rift in the sky.”
“I…don’t understand,” Alec said slowly, a feeling of dread building in his stomach. “What’s happened to this place?”
“It’s dying. I’ll be the first to admit, maybe… maybe you had a point about Pokemon.” His father sighs, and the grey in his hair seems more prominent than ever. “We’ve tried cooperating with them. Maybe we should have tried harder. Maybe it was never enough in the first place. But the sky above the mountain opened its mouth and screamed at us to leave, and it might be time to consider taking that advice.”
“What— no! What about the clans? What about— I read Professor Laventon’s research paper on the codependence of Hisuian growlithe, and then on the impact of acidity on the coloring of shellos— I thought things were getting better here!” Alec made a frustrated noise.
“Maybe. News travels slow, though, and things have gotten worse.” A long sigh. “I don’t know, Alec. Maybe the pokedex project was cursed from the start.”
“That’s not—” Alec stumbled as a sudden wave of something coursed through him, like a blast strong enough to leave his ribcage clattering, one hand clutched over his heart as it beat out a frantic tattoo. HOME. “Did— did you feel that just now?”
“You’re too young to be having a heart attack, unless—”
“No!” Alec grinned breathlessly, tilted his head. The wooden mask resting on his hair lurched with the motion. “Something’s changed. I’m gonna go check it out!”