After some time, Joe approached Vulpix. "I know it hurts right now, but you understand, don't you?" He pointed at her body. Roughly where her heart was. "Your mom is always with you, and eventually you can see her again."
Vulpix sniffed, but nodded. She could feel the power inside her. The warmth of a mother's love wrapped her in a tight embrace. Until they met again, Vulpix just had to work hard. She was young and incapable of handling the immense power of her mother, so there was no speeding up the process. She had to learn to regulate her energy properly or she'd implode.
"Come on, let's go." Joe put his hands out. "I promise I'll help you see your mom again."
Vulpix wanted comfort so didn't resist. She was in Joe's care now, and care she wanted. She buried herself into Joe's chest and he held her tight in return. After a slow walk to their little campsite, Joe attempted to ease up as he sat down, but Vulpix wasn't having it. So he kept hold of her and stroked her for a long time. She was glued to Joe, needing to be treated with love and care, as she worked through her troubles.
That night, the temperature was decent and Joe had the Talonflame feather so he was sprawled out inside his tent. At first Vulpix acted like Sprigatito and curled up by his face, but when he rolled over, Vulpix saw her opportunity and pushed herself between his arms. Joe scratched her chin and they fell asleep together.
The next morning, Joe and Peonia set out, Vulpix in Joe's arms. They were a few hours away from Icterine. Along the way they met with a river and followed it until they saw a school of big red fish. Magikarp. They jumped out of the water at regular intervals. Peonia looked at one in particular multiple times as they passed by, even going as far as to look over her shoulder at it.
"What is it?" Joe asked.
Peonia shrugged. "I don't know. I've never seen someone befriend a Pokemon." She eyed Vulpix. "I guess it's made me want my own." She had only ever seen the result, a Pokemon already being good friends with their Trainer. Seeing the creation of the bond had her curious to experience it.
Joe rustled around in his pocket. It was getting a little awkward, but upon touching a ball he just had a feeling about who was inside. He pulled out Fomantis' Pokeball and passed it on to Peonia. "How about fighting Magikarp then? Maybe it'll accept you." He swapped the arm holding Vulpix to dig around in another pocket for a spare Pokeball. He always kept a few on hand now. "And you're going to want this to catch it."
This wasn't part of the job, but she appreciated that Joe didn't complain about being sidetracked. She'd hired him to get her to Icterine, not mess around with catching a Pokemon.
She took the items with a nod. She gave her thanks so quietly that Joe almost missed it. Before Joe could tease her about being embarrassed, she spun and jogged the short distance to Magikarp. As if sensing the potential connection it could have with someone, the Magikarp she had looked at had stayed behind while the rest of its school travelled upstream.
"It looks a little dopey, doesn't it?" To Joe, Magikarp looked like an airhead. Its pinpoint eyes and permanently open mouth made it look a little dumb. Magikarp turned to Joe, its eyes a little sharp.
"Be nice to my future Pokemon."
Peonia tossed Fomantis out and Rotom moved into her field of view, showing her what the Grass-type could do. It startled Peonia, but she quickly adjusted and used it, whipping out her glasses to see. A short bout ensued in which Magikarp used Bubble, filling the area with floating orbs packed with energy. A couple burst around Fomantis, but they didn't bother her too much. A bit of Slash and Bullet Seed usage and the battle was over.
Peonia threw the spare ball. It hit the top of Magikarp and absorbed it, then fell to the edge of the river. It shook a couple of times before falling still. Peonia caught Magikarp.
She picked the ball up with a smile on her face, letting her Pokemon out immediately. Onto the ground. She cursed as Magikarp flopped about, hopping up and down. "Hey, calm down! I can't do anything if you're moving so much!"
Magikarp would've listened, but a certain cat acted out. Sprigatito came out of her ball automatically because she sensed a fish. Her natural prey. The cat was instinctively drawn to Magikarp. She ran after the fish as it flailed and bounced away. Sprigatito managed to pounce atop Magikarp but was quickly tossed off. She licked her lips and opened her mouth. The chase just made the food taste better. Joe grabbed the back of her neck and lifted her.
"What are you doing?" Joe asked, watching the cat play dumb with a tilt of the head.
Magikarp hopped a couple of times to adjust its sight and then slowed down. With her Pokemon calmer, Peonia pushed Magikarp into the river. She crouched and scooped up water. Poured it over Magikarp's head, appeasing the fish.
Peonia stood up and gave Joe his Fomantis back. "Thanks." She spoke in a louder voice now, watching Joe put his cat on his shoulder.
"You made it look easy." Joe said.
They set off again, walking close to the river to allow Magikarp to swim alongside them. After a while, Peonia grabbed a fallen branch beneath a bush and started tossing it, treating her fish like a dog and playing catch. Magikarp went along with playing, jumping out of the water and biting the stick.
After a bit of silence, Peonia spoke. "You, er… You need to find a psychic specialist, right? Well you're in the right country. I can't remember her name, but there's on in Kanto. She's a Gym Leader and has the power to see the future, among other things." Peonia wanted to help, but seeing the smug look on Joe's face after she spoke made her regret her decision. He just had this ability to be cheeky, and to her, cheeky was annoying.
"I appreciate it, Peonia."
When they got close to town, Icterine clearly in view, Joe had Rotom do a quick search now that he had a signal. Sabrina, the Psychic-type Gym Leader of Kanto. She was situated in Saffron. So that was Joe's destination. He would head East to Cerulean, then South to Saffron. He wanted his own problem out of the way for a few reasons. One of which was that he couldn't stop thinking about it. He needed to focus. Didn't want a distraction at the wrong time while trying to help someone else.
When the river became annoying to stick to, trees and a steep drop getting in the way, Peonia gestured for Magikarp to come to her. It jumped and she caught it. She struggled a bit. Magikarp was bigger than average and with extra size came more weight. She wrapped an arm above and below the fish, holding her Pokemon to her chest. Unfortunately it tired her out quickly so she had to put Magikarp away.
They stepped into the town's territory. Icterine was a layered town, built onto a mountain beside Mt. Moon. Four distinct tiers rose a few hundred meters. Mt. Moon itself was a tourist attraction, with wooden walkways and lanterns inside. The worksite for Peonia's father and fancy pants was on the other side of Mt. Moon, away from the public section.
Peonia had already memorised where the hospital was so she was headed there, and Joe had no reason to separate from here even though his job was done. He was now just hanging out with a friend.
A big building came into view after a while. It was on the lowest tier of the town. Joe watched a large, dark-skinned man as big as himself exit through automatic doors. He hopped along with the help of crutches, one leg in a cast. He had sharp green eyes and a shaved head. A few details made Joe connect the dots, and confirmation came a moment later.
"PEONIA!" The man shouted, his deep voice booming through the area, his smile big enough to reach his ears.
Peonia grumbled and jogged to her father. "Dad, shut up. You're being a nuisance to other people."
The man turned his attention to Joe. "Is that the young man that escorted you?! Was he a gentleman?! If he laid a hand on you…!"
"Dad, will you be quiet for once?"
Her father ignored her. "Young man, get over here!"
Joe obeyed and walked to stand in front of Peonia's father. They were equal in size, to the exact millimetre. "Sir?"
"Good, you're polite!" The father scratched his stubble and started looking Joe over. Sizing him up. "There's something about you…"
"My rugged good looks?" Joe wore a grin and put a hand on his chin.
"Ha! I like you!"
Peonia once again grumbled to herself. Now there were two idiots in her life. "He's the guy from Olivine. You know, the private jet and all that?"
Her father lit up. "Of course! That was some good work, son! Let's hit the pub! Is that what it's called here? You know, a bar?" He put his hand out. "Name's Peony, by the way! Nice to meet you, boy!"
Joe shook as he raised an eyebrow. "Peonia, Peony and Penny?" He turned to his friend. "What's your mom called, Petunia?"
Peony laughed with a hand on his belly. He ruffled his child's hair, his hand quickly getting slapped away as Peonia glared at him. She had long since noticed the funny stares, no doubt people assuming that two big men meeting was a cause for concern. Troublemaking brutes. They weren't wrong, although Joe and Peony were a different sort of trouble.
They separated, Peony saying he'd catch Joe later. He gave Joe such a specific time and place that Peonia believed her father had already left the hospital to laugh it up at the pub. She knew he was fine before getting here, but if he was good enough to go to the pub then he was more than fine. It annoyed her and made her question why she even bothered coming. But still, she shooed Joe away saying he'd done enough as she grabbed her father's arm as if to support his weight and took him to a nearby hotel.
With nothing else to do, Joe simply walked. He stopped by a nice restaurant and filled his stomach with a good meal before continuing his march up Icterine. Once he realised what he was doing, he figured he might as well go to the highest point of the town and look at the view.
As if city planners knew this would happen, Joe found a park at the top, benches aimed out above rooftops. He sat down. At some point he had taken his phone out without noticing. He tapped it against his leg, spinning it and thinking hard.
"Hey Rotom, what's it like to send Pokemon to and from a place?"
His phone darted out of his hands at the mention of its name. "Are you talking about Pokemon storage?" When it received confirmation, it continued. "Working together with another Rotom, we exchange coordinates and teleport Pokeballs to a shelf not unlike the Gym Leader shelves you've seen."
Joe knew that, and he didn't want to do it. Tucked away from reality wasn't fair on his Pokemon. "Since it needs two Rotom to work, I guess you can teleport to a custom location?"
"That's correct. Teleporting is extremely complex, but it can be done. Some Pokemon, like Ralts, can take advantage of it across short distances, but the further the destination, the harder it is. That's why we need another Rotom for precise targetting at the location."
"So I can't teleport myself to trouble whenever someone needs me?"
"No. That would be impossible, even with a Rotom at the location. Directly transporting organic matter is not possible. Pokemon are only okay because they're in a Pokeball. Pokemon that teleport are put under more strain the further they go."
"Shame."
Joe looked down at his hands as they drummed along to an inaudible song. He was nervous. Delaying his main point. He had been thinking about what Ninetales said, about not blaming his family. Besides a phone call to his mother in Pallet, he'd gone out of his way to avoid his family since he figured out he was brainwashed. But now he wanted to pre-emptively bridge the gap, his idea being to send his Pokemon to his home in Gloriosa.
Ariana, being a Gym Leader, had money to burn. Because she grew up in a village, she hated the millions of people in Gloriosa. It was too busy for her. She bought a large house on the very edge of the city and with it came plenty of land. Ariana's Pokemon roamed freely and Joe wanted the same for his own.
The problem was that Joe worried he'd give himself away. While he wanted to bridge the gap, he didn't want to confront Ariana. There was no need. He just wanted to go to Saffron and have the outsider energy removed.
But then he realised he was just delaying the inevitable. Once his mind was unravelled, what was he going to do, pretend he hadn't fixed himself? One way or the other his family would know he figured it out, whether it be now or in a week.
With a sigh, Joe gestured to Rotom. "Come here." It obeyed and flew into his hand. His thumb hovered over the phone symbol by his mother's name. He grit his teeth and cursed his weakness before forcing himself to slam his thumb onto the screen.
His mother accepted the call before he could put the phone to his ear.
"Hi, Joe. How's your holiday going?"
"Hi, mom. Yeah, it's good. Look, er… I sort of became a Trainer and was wondering if I could send my Pokemon to you. If it's not too much of a problem to look after them."
"Oh, of course! You don't even have to ask. Do you have one of those RotoPhones? Because I'm a Gym Leader, I have a Rotom here already. Courtesy of the company and all that. I'll just need to send coordinates in a text and then you can send them over. Ruby will be glad to have more Pokemon to look after."
Ariana saw no need to mention that she already knew what Joe was doing. She was a Gym Leader. She had Trainer's Emporium, same as the others. When Joe mentioned Absol, she'd checked the forum and found nothing. But she checked again recently on a whim and saw her son's name. Saw his public PokeDex. He'd caught himself a nice selection.
"Who?" Joe asked.
"Ah, right. Recently I felt like the house was too quiet so I hired a housekeeper. Her name's Ruby. She's a little younger than you and she loves Pokemon. She often dotes on my team. I'd say she'd be glad to have more work, but she doesn't consider feeding and brushing animals to be work."
"Okay… Well that's very helpful, thank you. I'll send to them you soon."
"Is everything okay, honey?" Ariana asked. Joe was a little quieter than normal and he was speaking in an overly formal manner.
Joe heaved a big sigh. The biggest of his life. Then he went quiet. His mother patiently waited for him to speak again. "I know about the hypnotism. I've been trying to figure it out for the past few weeks. I'm heading to Saffron to get it sorted once and for all."
Now it was Ariana's time to be quiet. "…Yes. Looker will be pleased. I heard he went to my mother about it, saying it needed to be sorted."
Joe didn't need to know, but Bertha, Ariana's mother, came down on the side of her grandson. It started a massive argument between mother and daughter in which Ariana realised she had become complacent. And if Ariana didn't do anything about it soon, Bertha would.
Bertha had tried to be gentle about the situation and let people resolve it on their own, but now she was prepared to go to war with family if Joe didn't have his memories restored. That was the reason she agreed to it in the first place. Bertha and Looker had given the stipulation that the hypnotism was to be reversed once Joe was an adult.
"Looker knows?" Joe was surprised by the mention of the detective.
"He does. Look, Joe, what we did… You were just a boy. We did it to protect you."
"I sort of figured that out. I'm not blaming you. As far as I'm concerned, you raised me well. I've had a good life thanks to my family. I was raised right, with love. And I love you all back. I just… Whatever it is, I'm an adult now. I can handle it."
"Okay… Okay. Where are you in Kanto?" Ariana asked, knowing this should be done in person and an express taxi would get her there in a few hours.
"Icterine, by Mt. Moon."
"I'll see you soon."
Vulpix, still in Joe's arms, could sense his slight distress. She was starting to accept her mother's passing and was thankful for Joe's comfort, so now it was time for her to do the same. She reached up and licked his face until he smiled.
Sure enough, late afternoon, a bit before dinner, Ariana arrived. Joe had stayed at the park overlooking the town. A large, sleek black bird with a carriage dangling from it descended until its basket hit the ground. Its wings were strong enough to kick up dirt and dust, causing Joe to cover his eyes as his mother got out of the carriage.
Her striking short red hair and white suit drew eyes. She was also on the taller side, five-nine. She awkwardly smiled and gestured for a hug. Ariana wasn't sure she'd get one, but Joe hadn't suddenly become heartless. He hugged her tighter than normal, reassuring her that whatever she said, Ariana was still his mother.
Joe picked Vulpix back up. He still hadn't formally caught her so he had to put her down. She had brushed against his leg and stuck to him the entire time.
Ariana gave an awkward smile and brushed hair behind an ear. "I see you have a Vulpix. That's quite a rare one."
"Just lucky, I guess."
They sat down on a bench. Ariana had been given hours to prepare, and still didn't know where to start. Really, she'd had years to prepare. This should've happened much sooner but she was lured into the sense of security that the status quo gave her.
Eventually she spoke. "Where do I even start… It's a complicated situation. I think… I think first, you should know that we're not your biological family. I'm not your mother."
Joe absorbed her words but didn't really take in their meaning.
"Um, so your parents are called Rose and Oleana. But…! You may think you know them, but you don't."
Joe was stunned by the names. He'd researched them back in Amethyst. Chairman Rose, the CEO of Macro Cosmos, the creator of the Pokemon League, and Oleana, Rose's assistant. "You mean that Rose and Oleana?"
"No, no!" Ariana waved her hands. "You… You're from a different Pokemon world. You're the son of a different Rose and Oleana."
That just left him confused more than anything. How could that be true? But the gears started turning. There was a name he knew that wasn't fitting in anywhere. A scientist that needed a reason for Rose to hate her. "Lusamine…"
Ariana's eyes widened. "You got that far?" She gave a fake laugh and deflated a little, and with it the words spilled out. "Yes. Lusamine was messing with forces she had no control over. She pulled a Pokemon from one world to another, and you were caught up in it all because you were with that Pokemon. You were just nine years old when you came here. You were found by aunt Agatha. She took you in, but then you saw Rose and Oleana on the news and called them mom and dad… We panicked and decided it would be best for you to start over. We didn't know what kind of impact it would have on a young child, coming to a new world and never seeing your real parents again. It's a burden a young mind didn't need to bear." By the end, Ariana was practically pleading for Joe to understand. She stood by her decision, fearing what would happen to a child in that situation.
Joe didn't know what to say. What could anyone say? But pieces started to click into place, like how he didn't know anything from his single digit years. He'd been pawned off to Ariana because Agatha wasn't fit to raise a child. She was always grumpy, to put it mildly. But despite that she cared, hence the ghost she put in his shadow. It was there to keep an eye on him. At least, he assumed that's why it was there. It fit with his idea of Agatha.
He instinctively started petting Vulpix for comfort, the little fox sitting perfectly still on his lap. It had been a long time since Joe had been emotionally and mentally vulnerable so he didn't know how to handle it. He always had advice for others like he knew it all, but now he was at a loss.
"That's why we lived in Gloriosa. We wanted to give you a familiar place to put your mind at ease but without letting you see exact matches. Maybe seeing specific scenery would bypass the hypnotism. But yes, this means you're a Galarian." Ariana winced at a certain memory, but felt it was best to be forthcoming with Joe. "That's where you got your name. We settled on Johto, so Agatha called you Joe."
Joe responded to that with a little chuckle. Of course that came from Agatha. He realised he was starting to accept the situation. "...What's my real name?"
After taking a deep breath, Ariana responded. "Laurence. Laurence Hawthorn."
He nodded, slotting the name into his mind and messing around with it, imagining friends calling him Laurence and seeing how it sounded. It sounded good, but he didn't know if he should adopt it immediately. Everyone knew him as Joe and explaining the situation constantly would just annoy him. Maybe he'd use the removal of energy as an excuse to switch to Laurence. After all, his memories would be back.
"How come I can't remember certain things from middle and high school?" Joe asked, a pretty good idea of the answer forming in his mind.
Ariana smiled. "You were always too smart. You and your friends kept getting close to removing the hypnotism, and we thought you were still too young, so we reapplied it while adding those memories to the list. Looking back, maybe it was a sign you were ready. But in the moment, you were just a curious teen that didn't know what he was messing with. I don't know, maybe we should've left you to your own devices. There's so much we could've done differently. I'll never say we acted perfectly, but please try to understand… You learn at twelve that you can never go back to your biological parents. What would that do to your mind? We didn't know. We didn't want to know."
Joe had the foresight to hesitate at what he wanted to ask next, so Ariana said it for him.
"You're wondering if you can go back, right?" When she received a slight nod in response, she continued. "Unfortunately, you can't. Looker reached out to someone in Aether just a couple of days ago. Apparently, the research was sealed away, Lusamine understanding it was far too dangerous to mess with ever again."
Joe accepted that answer. The idea that, in his desire to return to his parents, he caused someone to go through what he did… He couldn't allow that to happen. He didn't want his actions to harm others. This understanding was what separated him from a villain that had something done to them and went and performed the same act on others.
Ariana had no idea what to say either, but she tried to reassure him. "Whatever you choose to say or do, you'll always be my son. If you want to try and go back, I won't stop you."
Joe rose. Despite what he'd said about not blaming her, he needed space to figure things out. "I think I need some time, but thanks for telling me the truth… Mom."
He walked off and left Ariana to wonder if he meant that last word or if he used it out of obligation. Even Joe didn't know. Not right now. He wanted to say the same back, that no matter what she was still his mother, but it was a lot to take in. Peony's offer of drinks was sounding nicer by the second, but one of Joe's final thoughts before he got wasted was that there was nothing to say he couldn't have three parents.
* * * * *
As Ariana watched her son's back, she was reminded of when she first met him. She was at a gathering of extended family, so at first she saw the boy and thought nothing of him. Someone she barely spoke to had a child. Not a big deal. And that was when Bertha broke the news that Ariana was in charge of looking after him.
"What, for like, the rest of my life? Hell no." Ariana, still being mid-twenties and seeing the rest of her life flash before her eyes, had said.
"Children need a stable home until they're adults. He has no one. He ended up in Agatha's care, but she doesn't have it in herself to raise a child." Bertha replied.
"But I'm fit to raise him? Like I said, no. I'm just like aunt Agatha, I can't give him that loving home you always say kids need." Ariana felt she was being fair and turning her mother's logic against her. If Agatha couldn't raise a child then Ariana couldn't either. And Bertha, being a part-time nurse alongside her battle work as an Elite, was always going on about what her children patients needed to live properly.
"You'd be surprised." Bertha said with a glint in her eye, like she was all-knowing and could see the future.
Curse that old woman. She was right. As soon as Joe attached himself to Ariana's leg and she looked down at those big green eyes, she was captive. From that point on, she did everything in her power to raise Joe right and give him the best life possible. All the advice he handed to others was from Ariana researching lessons to imprint on a child. She showered him with treats like holidays every couple of months because treating a child was one way to show love. She took that lesson a bit too literally so for a time Joe was a spoiled brat until Bertha stepped in.
If only past Ariana could see how much of a doting mother she'd become. She'd scream and pull her hair out.
"But it was worth it…" Ariana quietly said to herself, looking up at passing clouds. She wouldn't trade Joe for the world. Looking at the man he'd become, she was proud of him. Joe was a responsible adult. He was even a hero to some. If she never spoke to him again, she knew he would continue to be a strong, capable man that pulled others from the brink. That's just the type of person he was. Her son was the best of the best.