From the Vast (Pokémon Fanfiction)

CONTENT WARNING: Mentions of Child Abuse

Aria and Autumn remained frozen out of shock as Anne’s fear grew by the moment. 

The Gardevoir wanted to immediately reassure the girl that she was safe and that she had nothing to fear. At the same time, though, their village’s safety depended on Anne being kept in the dark about where she was, and this wasn’t a responsibility she could just ignore. The two forces clashed inside her as the room stayed at an impasse. The Indeedee didn’t want to endanger everyone here either, forced to painfully overrule her caring nature and just watch.

Anne’s thoughts darted around the place, trying to come up with a way out before reminding herself that she was blind, injured, and that this ‘nurse’ had a psychic with them. What was that woman gonna use that Indeedee for—

“^Anne. You...^” the ‘nurse’ spoke, finally decided on what to do, “^...you are in the middle of the Lillywood forest. We found you after you’ve suffered your accident; and took you in to patch you up. You are safe here, I promise.^”

Autumn stared aghast at her daughter-in-law for giving out their secret, her shock clear for the Gardevoir to notice. Aria responded telepathically without looking away from Anne, “^At this rate, she’ll need her memories cleaned, anyway. The least we can do is make sure she feels safe.^” She knew full well her justification was a flimsy excuse, one that wouldn’t pass muster if she were to hear it from anyone else. 

Regardless of what the human girl had done, she was injured, blind, and utterly terrified. And to stoke the flames of her empathy even further, Anne felt so like her actual daughter with her age and voice that the mother within her couldn’t resist the desire to comfort her further, even if her stoic expression gave little of that away.

Before Autumn could argue with, or even acknowledge that justification, the girl spoke first, “~Wh-what do you—is th-this a cabin or—~”

A harrowing thought forced Anne to take another look at her ‘‘‘nurse’’’, eyes squinting harder than ever. Her mind was sufficiently wiped of any idea of what she ought to be looking at, to finally realize what she was feebly trying to stare down. No amount of disposable scrubs could ever result in an appearance like that. No way someone would wear red protective glasses when just facing patients. That wasn’t just some red patch sewn into the outfit—

…

The realization hit the girl hard as her vague fear of the unknown solidified into a very concrete terror of something very known. She froze with a pitiful whimper before doing the only thing she was capable of—hiding under her blankets and hyperventilating.

“^I’ll take care of this mom, just make sure nobody disturbs us.^”

“^Please be careful, Aria.^”

“^I will.^”

With Autumn gone and taking the post right outside, the room now only had the human, and the Gardevoir she was so terrified of. Their mental link let the latter see just what was writhing underneath the girl’s skullcap, many of the fears ones she was all too familiar with. Fear of death, immense distrust of psychics, the acute awareness of just how powerful the wild mon sharing the room with her was, and that she could do nothing to stop them.

The knowledge that, if so desired, that Gardevoir could kill her a dozen different ways before she could even scream, including some particularly disturbing ones Aria had never conceived of before.

Others were related to ideas Aria only knew of faintly. She remembered hearing from her family, many years back, that humans attached a particular amount of frightful reverence to their kin. And while the Gardevoir usually thought little of the ‘knowledge’ her old clan had passed onto her, she couldn’t deny that chills ran through her fins at sensing the term ‘ghost bride’ in the girl’s panicking thoughts, referring to her.

Trying to tug at that name, to find out more about its associations, made Anne shake in fear even harder. Ultimately, the specifics didn’t matter—they were all baseless nonsense, made viciously potent by the girl believing in them. Most of them Aria would’ve just internally scoffed at coming from anyone else. She couldn’t bring herself to do that here, though.

The shaky, pathetic sight on the bedding was much too pitiful for judgement like that.

All she could think of was comforting the girl, but didn’t have many good ways of accomplishing that. A Calm Mind would’ve helped, but only in the moment. Sooner or later, Anne would’ve realized her mind was being toyed with, and her distrust would only deepen. The only way to regain her trust was the slowest, riskiest, and most mundane way.

And so; Aria spoke again, “^Anne, we...^” She considered her words for a while, before deciding to reveal the whole truth, and continued, “^We found you injured and unconscious in the snow. Even if we knew how to bring you to the human healers, we wouldn’t have gotten you there in time. I—I know this isn’t what you expected to see, and I wish I had been honest with you from the get go. But I wasn’t, and I’m sorry for that.^”

It all hurt to admit, both to herself and to the girl, but she knew she had to.

“^I know you don’t trust me, I know you’re terrified of me, Anne... but I—I promise you’re safe here. Neither us nor... your parents will lay a hand on you while you’re under our watch.^” The Gardevoir closed her eyes, keeping a close eye on the child’s emotions. Eventually, she had no choice but to admit what felt like defeat, wincing as she spoke, “^If you would prefer, I can leave you alone for now. There’s water on the stand for you, and I could bring you more food, if you wish.^”

To say Anne’s thoughts were turbulent in response to Aria’s words would be the understatement of the Gardevoir’s life.

From fearful shock at what had happened to her, to enmity towards the psychic for deceiving her, to terror of the wild creature’s fearsome power, to self-deprecating shame at even trying to hide from something that could kill her with a passing thought, to an attempt at actually considering its offer, all those in a matter of moments.

The intensity of the negative thoughts aimed towards her was enough to almost give the Gardevoir a headache of her own, but she persevered. Her stoic appearance cracked into the tiniest frown as the girl admitted internal defeat, so convinced she was going to die that she didn’t see any point in even hiding any more.

As harrowing as it was, though, Aria could tell at least some of her words had wormed their way into Anne’s mind, making her slowly doubt her assessment of the situation. For the longest time, the girl didn’t acknowledge her words, and the Gardevoir thought she should just leave to give her some space to cool off—before hearing the weakest of whimpers, clear to her mind, “~Why d-did you s-save me?~”

The question gave the Gardevoir a pause—not because of what it said, but what it implied.

It stung, but she tried not to focus on that. Anne talking to her at all was immense progress on its own, her fear palpably fading by the moment. That realization was corroborated further once Aria opened her eyes and spotted the human peeking out from underneath her covers—and immediately stopping with a whimper once she realized the Gardevoir was staring back.

“^Isn’t that what anyone with a shred of heart would do? An injured child out in the cold, about to bleed and freeze to death... why wouldn’t we do what we can to save you?^”

The last question echoed in Anne’s mind, refusing to let itself get overlooked.

Of course, she tried to answer it, multiple times no less, with each response only getting more prejudiced and absurd alike. None of them could withstand being scrutinized for any amount of time, though, immediately falling apart when faced with what the girl knew she’d been through so far, and how many chances that Gardevoir and other mons have had to end her.

The only idea that resisted that scrutiny was of her being played with for that Gardevoir’s perverse amusement. It was no doubt finding a lot of joy in filling her head with a false sense of safety before pulling it out from underneath her. After all, it had already done so once; who said it wouldn’t do so again? It was illogical, incoherent, and incredibly resistant to being disproved. Aria was well aware, considering giving up for the time being, but… even it didn’t stick around for too long.

As terrified as the girl was, not even her panicking mind could contort the facts enough to make that idea feel realistic. Not with what that Gardevoir had said to her, be it as a pretend nurse or as, presumably, itself. Gradually, that dangerous possibility that the wild psychic was actually telling the truth began taking up more and more of her mind. Her certain fear burned into uncertain doubt—about the Gardevoir, about herself, about whether any of this was even real.

As Anne’s mind tied itself into knots, Aria took a deep breath before daring to get closer. She stomped as loud as she could with each step, wanting to make sure the girl had noticed them. And notice them she did, shrinking further underneath the blankets, trembling as she awaited her fate.

Eventually, the steps stopped, making the girl’s heart skip a beat before she felt the bedding underneath her shift as if weight had been placed beside her left leg. The gentle rustle of fabric on fabric only provided further evidence towards what she thought had just happened.

After getting over the shock of that Gardevoir having sat down on the edge of her bed, Anne dared peeking out to see what the hell were they doing, lifting the covers just a bit—

Only to see the psychic’s green hand laying down in front of her, palm side up, ready to be grasped.

The sight transfixed the girl as her exhaustion-dulled thoughts churned through what the intent of that gesture even was. Before long, though, that voice reached her mind again, “^I won’t hurt you Anne, I promise. You don’t have to fear me.^”

The previous time the human had heard this message, she’d immediately dismissed it as a cruel joke at her existence. As safety being dangled in front of her, only for her to get stabbed should she reach out for it. The book she’d been reading before her doomed escape provided more than enough fuel for terrifying mental imagery of psychic abilities being used to harm her, but… she didn’t let her imagination get the better of her.

It was all still scary, terribly scary, but as hard as Anne’s mind tried—and try it did very hard—it couldn’t convince herself that the Gardevoir was out to get her, not this time. In the absence of a concrete reason for that wild mon to hurt her, the maelstrom inside Anne’s mind finally began to calm down. Enough so for it to take a sober look at what had happened, and put it together into a coherent image.

An image that had the Gardevoir sitting beside her been trying everything they could to make her feel safe.

It was all unbelievable in the most literal sense, especially once she thought about just where she was. The structure she was in was unlike anything she’d heard of in these woods, and was seemingly tended to entirely by mons, with no people around—

Unbelievable, and yet here she was. 

Injured, blind, scared; but as far as she could piece it together on her own, safe.

Another peek from underneath the protective blanket revealed nothing had changed since the last time. The green hand was exactly where she’d last seen it, though now Anne had enough composure to look further along the arm, at the Gardevoir beside her. She didn’t dare look all the way up at their face though, not yet.

If she was safe here, with this powerful creature talking to her, trying their absolute hardest to comfort her, then maybe what she’d heard about wild mons wasn’t all that true in the end.

For a while, the girl could only stare at the green hand in front of her, still too uncertain to do much of anything. The longer she laid there, though, the more the uncertainty within her boiled, condensing into more fear. Her mind desperately wanted to cling to the idea of safety and to not let itself get torn by terror again, but had no idea how to avoid it—

Except, of course, by acting.

Slowly, very slowly, Anne’s hand reached out from underneath the pretend cocoon of her blanket, towards the Gardevoir’s. Half of the girl’s mind screamed at her to stop while the other half cheered as loudly as it could for her to continue, the cacophony making her thoughts impossibly hard to follow for a few moments. For a moment, Aria worried about the girl backing out—but thankfully, she pushed through.

Anne flinched slightly as her pink, bruised hand made contact with the green one, the immediate sensation almost indescribable. The wild mon’s skin was silken smooth, somehow so human and yet so very different. Softer than a baby’s bottom and almost electric to the touch, slightly numbing in the most comforting way. It emanated an odd warmth, beyond just physical heat—a warmth of safety, refuge, love.

It felt like it could out-protect the raggedy blanket covering her body.

“^It’s okay Anne, you’re safe. Take as much time as you need.^”

By the wonderful @anthrodyniacoms on Twitter!

Despite the inhumanity of the being that spoke towards her, Anne only nodded in affirmation. The comfort emanating from the Gardevoir’s touch stilled the relentless worry inside her head bit by bit, calming her heart along with it.

Until all that was left was silence and peace.

At least, initially. Freed of the panic that had gripped it, the girl’s mind began drifting towards confusion at everything else going on, and with it came curiosity, bright and innocent. Anne felt her hand being held that much closer at that, but didn’t connect the dots herself. Instead, she focused her entire resolve on facing the world around her as it actually was, and that extended to the being that had helped her out. Slowly, she withdrew her hand before reaching around to pull the blanket away from her face. The sudden light made her squint even harder before she looked up at the Gardevoir beside her.

She still felt a shudder go through her at that sight, the rambling of a small part in the back of her head about how afraid she should’ve been. She refused to give it any more power, though, focusing instead on the psychic’s expression and barely managing to make out the wide smile filling it.

“^Hello there, Anne. How are you feeling?^”

Aria thanked whichever deities were nearby for the girl overcoming her fears enough to make that first, crucial step on her own. Her Calm Mind-infused touch only sped up what Anne’s mind was already well on its path towards.

The curiosity she felt bubbling to the forefront of the girl’s mind only made the Gardevoir happier still, making her want nothing more in the moment than to comfort this poor child further. And that, of course, included satisfying her understandable confusion. “~I’m... I-I think I’m okay. Th-thank you... um—what’s your name? And how do you know mine?~”

“^You’re very welcome, sweetie. My name is Aria. And how I know your name... there’s a fairly strong mental connection between us right now. It lets me see some of your surface thoughts—your name, how you’re feeling, and such.^”

It was a great simplification, true, but entirely appropriate for her needs at the moment.

As the Gardevoir scooted closer to the girl, she thanked the stars that her explanation did not inspire any further fear or disgust inside her. Even without those, Anne’s mind wouldn’t remain entirely peaceful, though. Instead of fear, came self-consciousness, thoughts about everything the girl thought about the psychic while she was panicking—and how messed up and offensive it was. “~D-does that mean you could hear what I was th-thinking all along? If so, then... I-I’m sorry—~”

While Anne may have wanted to shrink away in shame, Aria had other ideas.

The girl flinched at her body suddenly being enveloped in the same kind of warmth as the one emanating from the Gardevoir’s hand. It was as soothing as it was surprising, and the former reaction soon won out in her mind.

“^Shhhh, settle, settle Anne. No need to apologize for panicking. It’s only natural to be scared of those you don’t know, especially in a situation as scary as yours. You did nothing wrong here, I promise.^”

The reassurance helped immensely; Anne responded with a gentle nod as she looked up at the Gardevoir. The sheer gratitude for her gaffe not being held against her welled up inside her small, roughed up body, making her shake a bit. “~Thank you, M-Mrs. Aria. That’s a p-pretty name...~”

Aria giggled at that remark and shifted closer still, leaving the human squirming a bit. “^Thank you Anne, your name is really pretty too.^”

The same green hand she’d held moments before reached over towards Anne’s head, gently petting her brown, unkempt hair. It emanated more of the same pleasant, tingly, loving sensations, melting through her worries even more effectively than earlier. It felt so, so very nice...

And Anne couldn’t even remember the last time she was touched in a comforting way like that.

Before Aria could investigate that stray thought, she heard the Indeedee reach out to her from the other room, “^Feels much better now! Is it alright if I come back in?^”

“^Anne?^”

Hearing Aria’s voice interrupted the girl’s train of thought before it could venture into a dark place again.

“~Y-yes, Mrs. Aria?~”

“^The Indeedee you saw earlier... her name is Autumn. She’s my mother-in-law. She’s asking whether she could come back and chat with you too.^”

A part of that sentence took Anne aback for a hot minute.

The girl was much more used to the mental image of an Indeedee as a nameless assistant at a hospital or a clinic more than she was to them being sentient beings with names, families, and personalities. However; much the same was true about the Gardevoir she was now talking with, making her shake the disconnect away from her mind with a firm nod.

“^Come in, mom.^”

Autumn wasted no time before waddling back in, smiling widely at the sight of her daughter comforting the poor child. “^Hello there sweetie~. I am so, so glad to see you doing better! Do you still need a drink, dear?^” she asked, her old, slightly croaky mental voice throwing Anne’s mind for a loop. The girl was deeply unused to mons speaking up and sounding like pe—humans. Though, with how alluring the offer was, confusion had to take a distant second place.

“~Yes, p-please, Mrs. Autumn.~”

“^Oh hush now sweetie, no need for formalities, just ‘Autumn’ is more than fine. Oh, seems you’ve dropped this~.^”

As the Indeedee made her way to the bed’s other side, her eyes briefly lit up with a green sheen, levitating the Fennekin plush back onto the bed. The moment it touched the bedding, Anne pulled it into a close hug, sighing in relief. The two psychics might’ve still been deeply uncertain about just what the relationship between the human girl and the Braixen helping with the little ones was exactly, but they had a terribly hard time imagining that Anne had ever intentionally harmed the fox.

All the while, the realization that she’d just blown up their entire facade in front of Anne was finally sinking into Aria’s mind. Still, she was good at this. Once the need arose, she could remove all traces of this having ever happened from Anne’s memory.

Or, at least, that’s what she told herself to excuse what she was about to do.

A glowing sight in the corner of her vision distracted Anne from watching the Indeedee grandma pour her another glass. Aria’s eyes were aglow with faint white light as she retrieved an important item from the side room, her find soon landing on the bedding before the girl.

“^I’m sorry for keeping this away from you earlier, Anne.^”

Anne had no idea what the Gardevoir was referring to, not managing to make it out even when squinting as hard as she could. The suspense made her quickly down the rest of her drink before feeling around in front of herself—and squealing in relief at finding her glasses. “~O-oh thank you, thank you, they’re alright...~”

Despite her overjoyed reaction, a closer examination revealed a nasty crack in the corner of the left lens, and one arm to have been bent at a harsh angle. She’d have to at least deal with the latter issue if she wanted the eyewear to stay on her head. A quick attempt at fixing it herself only made her realize her fingers had nowhere near the strength to fix the thin piece of steel.

“^Do you need help, Anne?^” Aria asked.

“~Umm... y-yeah. I can’t wear them like this, th-they’re bent here...~”

The link between them let the Gardevoir figure out what the girl was referring to. She nodded as her white aura enveloped the metal stripe, straightening it out in a single motion before Anne could elaborate. The effortlessness of it all caught the girl off guard. Thankfully, she was calm enough by then to end up towards the latter end of the terrified—awestruck spectrum.

“~T-thank you, Mrs. Aria...~”

Seeing the glass trinket be used for its intended purpose caught both psychics’ attention. Anne’s sight returned as her squinting eyes opened all the way, letting the mons make out her hazel eyes.

And cementing the realization that, indeed, all this was happening.

That she was indeed conversing with two very real mons tending to her, mere feet away. A glance around the room made her recognize that this wasn’t a cabin as she’d previously thought, but instead a large tent; thick canvas surrounding her from all sides. There was an opening up on the wall to her right, letting in light but seemingly not the cold, courtesy of the sparkling sheen covering it.

Somehow.

“^Huh, so this thing helps you see~?^”

Autumn’s creaky voice pulled Anne’s attention back towards her. The Indeedee was even cuter in as high of a definition as anything ever got for the human.

“~Mhm! My s-sight is very bad, a-and these curve the light to make up for that,~” Anne explained. For once, she wasn’t the one that ended up being utterly confused about something. Her explanation didn’t make a ton of sense for either Aria or Autumn, making her second-guess herself and try coming up with a better one.

Before she could get too far into that task, though, the Gardevoir interrupted her, “^We’ll have to ask you some more about it sometime. Right now... would you mind answering a few questions, Anne?^”

Anne nodded in affirmation and leaned in, listening intently. It took the Gardevoir a while to actually say her questions out loud. She wasn’t exactly racing to get back to the topic of the terrible things that had befallen the girl and ruin the serene mood.

Alas, she knew she would have to, eventually.

Still, that didn’t mean she had to get to the worst of it right away. Though, the question of which of the two topics she wanted to ask about was worse wasn’t exactly an easy one.

“^Sooo, I was curious... you and Ember. How were you two like?^”

Even the slightly less awful question instantly drained much of the room’s warmth away. Instead of the expected fear, though, Aria felt somber sadness fill the girl’s mind, her good arm holding the plush much closer as she reminisced.

“~W-we were... it was us two against the world. She meant everything to me. We’d go everywhere t-together, even to school. I wasn’t allowed to bring her there, a-and she’d always get really scared wh-when I had to hide her in the backpack, a-and I’d apologize every time, but I-I had to, or they’d hurt her...~” Anne whimpered, the two psychics growing aghast with each word. The lead the girl had left at the end was one they had to investigate further, as much as neither them nor the girl really wanted to.

Aria’s slow, gentle pets helped a fair bit, but they could only do so much.

“^Who was hurting her?^”

“~O-other kids at school. They made fun of me for bringing her, b-but if I left her outside the class, they’d chase her down and hurt her and she was too scared to fight back. O-or if they found me during recess, they’d corner me and beat me until I let go of her. Most of the time I’d run or hide o-or find a place where teachers were watching, or just endure it, b-but...~”

Anne’s tears kept flowing despite the psychically enhanced affection, her words filling out the terrifying picture one bloodstain at a time. The elderly Indeedee felt a wrath within her she had never felt before; a desire to storm into the human backwater and enact justice on those responsible in as ruthless of a form as she could think of—

But it only lasted mere moments before dimming into just feeling sorry for the human and the fox.

As terrible as it all was, enough to force Aria to Calm Mind herself lest she’d lose composure, she knew she had to continue, asking, “^I-I see... were there no safe places for her?^”

“~S-sort of... when I could I left her at Mrs. Graham’s library, b-but it wasn’t always open in time, or on all days... a-and I couldn’t leave her at home, o-o-or,~” Anne paused, shaking even harder than before as tears leaked from underneath her eyelids, “~or they would hurt her so much more...~”

“^Your parents?^” Aria asked.

Anne nodded, breaking Autumn’s heart. She wished she could do or say something to help the poor child, to somehow prevent all the suffering from those that should’ve been the ones closest to her. Alas, all she could do was watch as her daughter proceeded with her questioning, the resolve to make things right building up inside her by the moment.

Before Aria could ask another question, Anne continued on her own volition, mind fraying as she retold it all, “~Th-they hurt me a lot when I went back to them, and when I stopped crying as much, they started hurting Ember, a-and I couldn’t do anything...~”

Aria had enough.

The girl’s retelling was genuine and painful enough to cast away any doubt the Gardevoir might’ve had in her mind. However, it meant that someone else wasn’t telling the full truth about what had happened, and there was one person involved in all this Aria’s doubts immediately leaped towards. Still, that was a topic for another time.

The Gardevoir nodded slowly as she kept petting the abused girl, a touch of Calm Mind steering her away from reliving it all. Her other question remained, though, and with how intimately it tied to the current topic, Aria figured it was the best time to ask it, just to get it over with, “^I’m so sorry, Anne. When you were running away from your parents, on the night we found you... were you headed towards someone? A—a family member that would take you in—^”

“~N-n-no.~”

The answer was as straightforward as it was damning for any ideas Aria might have had. Her free hand clenched in a brief flash of the same anger that Autumn had felt earlier. She couldn’t comprehend anyone hurting and abusing their own little one, deep down—but that made it no less true in this situation.

“~I-I just... I had to run. I-I overheard my father saying he was g-gonna kill me if I pissed him off again. I stayed up that night, crammed as much as I could into my bag, stole a neighbor’s b-bike and took off. I thought I’d have the best chances in Lillywood, that m-maybe I could take a train from there to C-Castelia and find someone who’d help me out, s-someplace I’d be safe...~”

Like here...

A pang of pain shot through both psychics at overhearing Anne’s stray thought. No matter her previous composure, or even Aria’s constant help, the girl’s tears continued to flow. Her plea from earlier came back in force, even with the fake human place being replaced by whatever non-human place this was. It felt just as hopelessly impossible as it did last time; her fear turning her words into a pitiful whimper as she begged, “~P-please don’t make me go back...~”

As different as the circumstances were now, as utterly unthinkable a course of action as it would imply... Aria’s response to that request, deep down, remained exactly the same. “^We won’t let them hurt you again, Anne.^”

“~B-but... I-I don’t have anywhere to go—~”

“^Then let this be your home until you do.^”

As much as Autumn wholeheartedly agreed with her daughter’s verdict, she still turned to face her in shock at unilaterally deciding on something so unheard of, so against the purpose of their little shelter from humanity. It was difficult, almost impossible, for her to wrap her mind around all the implications of Aria’s words—and yet, that didn’t make them any less inarguably correct.

Before Anne could whimper out a quiet “~Really?~”, a tearful glance at Aria’s expression told her everything she needed to know.

The Gardevoir’s composed neutrality had given way to fierce determination, and then a gentle smile as the girl kept looking. And then, at last, one final firm nod sealing the promise. The next thing Aria knew, Anne had grabbed her petting hand, and moved it in front of herself to hold in a tearful, one-armed embrace. Neither expected, nor something she could leave at just that, especially with Anne’s yearning for comfort being downright palpable.

Anne’s eyes went wide at the sensations that followed. Covers were telekinetically held against her front, before she was lifted and pulled closer to the Gardevoir, leaning on her. She couldn’t argue with the outcome, though, finding herself position to not just hold the psychic’s hand, but her entire body.

There was not a shred of hesitation in the side hug that followed.

Anne’s impromptu embrace was shaky, tearful, rather awkward—but so, so needed. A kind of comfort the girl worried she’d forgotten entirely by now. The mess of thoughts stirring in her mind was just as if not even more chaotic than earlier.

Awareness that she had no idea where or even what ‘here’ was. Worries about this place seemingly not having any other humans. The intense relief Aria’s promise of safety brought. Realization of just how deeply comforting the Gardevoir’s presence was,

And an unspoken desire to have it last forever.

Unfortunately, it had to end only a few minutes later. Aria shuddered as she felt a familiar aura approach fast, one honing on her in particular. She squeezed the girl one last time before looking up at the room’s entrance and taking a deep breath.

Just in time, as the Luxray blitzed in mere seconds later. His fur arced as he came to a stop, piercing eyes turned to look at his coworker—only to go wide at what he actually saw. He had no idea what was going on in here, but liked exactly none of it.

“^What is it, Lumi?^” Aria asked, shaking him out of any grumbling. His thoughts returned to the issue at hand as he watched the human look up at him. It wasn’t supposed to have that glass trinket, goddammit Aria…

“Another human searching for this one. One, with an Arcanine. Nobody is following them, and Marco is keeping track of them for the time being.”

The news wasn’t what Aria expected or wanted to hear. As she thought about who this new human could’ve been, her ideas ventured in the most unsavory direction. The earlier impulse to hurt those who had hurt the girl came back in full force, making the Gardevoir’s expression narrow and her free hand clench into a fist. “^I see, I’ll be on my way there, I have an idea of who that may be—^”

“~W-what’s going on?~”

Anne’s quivering voice took Aria out of any further bloody thoughts. She felt the fear of the intimidating Luxray staining it, making her stroke the girl’s hair before responding, letting everyone hear this time, “^I have to leave for my duties, unfortunately. I’ll be back as soon as possible. Autumn, do you mind keep—^”

“^Say no more Aria~. I’ll stay with you Anne, as long as needed.^”

Despite the reassurance, the girl felt distraught at the unexpected symbol of her safety leaving so abruptly. It wasn’t like she had any room to argue, though, nodding as she let go of the Gardevoir. The room felt so empty the moment she left, making the human shrink into her bed.

As she departed the healers’ tent and then their village, Aria knew one thing more clearly than anything else in the world.

If she ran into Anne’s parents, there would be hell to pay.