The sky was a brilliant blue as I stared up at it, with picturesque white, fluffy clouds slowly drifting overhead. A cool, refreshing autumn breeze blew across me carrying a promise of rain in its soft touch, and thankfully I was in exactly the right mood to appreciate it.

  A twig snapped nearby, and a shape appeared above me.

  It was a small animal, somewhere between a cat, a fox, and a dog, with black fur and yellow rings across her body. Her tail was soft and pointed, and beautiful red eyes were staring at me.

  “Hi little one.” I said, smiling up at Venus.

  She yawned, revealing rows of sharp teeth, but settled down next to me.

  It had been a long day, and I probably should have been more concerned about how dirty I was getting my clothes.

  I was laying in the grass in a pencil skirt with a nice blouse and jacket, because it was a special occasion. Today was the official sentencing date of Kane, and I was there to watch it happen. The entire process had taken longer than I thought it would, mainly because Kane had caused so many problems in so many different regions that each one of them wanted their just recourse.

  For his numerous crimes against both humanity and Pokémon alike, Kane was going to be spending a very, very long time in prison. His Pokémon would be rehabilitated to the best of the League’s ability, and his entire smuggling ring was being taken apart piece by piece.

  “Couldn’t have happened to a better person.” I mused, reaching over and scratching the back of Venus’ ears.

  She yawned again in agreement, and nuzzled closer into my chest.

  The trial had taken almost two years - Kane’s lawyers had tried their best, but there was simply too much evidence against him.

  I smiled, feeling the warm fur of Venus as she purred in contentment.

  Kane had managed to acquire quite a large amount of money thanks to his illegal activities, and there was going to be compensatory damages paid out to his victims - including myself.

  It was, I thought, a good way for him to repay us for putting Venus and I in those cages.

  My phone rang, and I sighed, fishing it out of my purse and flipping it open.

  “Hello Professor.”

  “Alina.” He said warmly. “Congratulations on the win.”

  “To you as well.”

  Professor Rowan had been intensively questioned by the courts, considering he had once been Kane’s traveling companion.

  “Would you mind coming over to the Lab?”

  I sat up too quickly, regretting it as a wave of vertigo passed over me. “Is it time?”

  His smile was audible over the phone. “It is.”

  “Great, I’ll be there soon.”

  “Take your time, they’ll be here in a couple hours.”

  “Sounds good. I’ll get changed and see you then.”

  We exchanged pleasantries, then I snapped the phone shut, smiling at the little charm of an Eevee that I’d tied to it.

  “Alright, time to get up.” I sighed, and pushed myself off the ground.

  Venus yowled in complaint as her pillow moved, but she grumbled and got up as well.

  I turned around, and smiled at my house.

  My house.

  The house was situated on the outskirts of Sandgem Town, close enough to the coast where I could taste the salt in the air and feel the ocean breeze on my face.

  It wasn’t big, in fact it was somewhat small, but it was all mine. I’d bought it for cheap, as the previous owner had died a while back and it had remained empty. The Four Islands of this world didn’t have quite the same population problems as my previous one, but there were still plenty of houses to find if you wanted to put in the elbow grease to fix them up.

  There was still a lot of work to go, but with the help of my friends and people I’d met along my Journey, it was coming along quite nicely.

  I kicked my heels off in the entryway, and stretched as I meandered into the living room.

  A large dog bed was there for Kōjin, a couch and coffee table with some books on it, and a stand for my guitar.

  Polaroids hung from the walls, and I smiled at the memories held within them.

  There was Rei and Alejandro’s wedding, the time when I visited Ted in Hoenn and got to relax on their famous beaches, a shaky selfie of me in front of the Prism Tower, Ted, Lucas, Kevin at the Pokémon Conference, Dawn receiving her Piplup for the first time, her and I after she won her first Contest, and so many more.

  “It’s been a good couple of years, huh?” I asked Venus as she hopped up and curled into a ball on the couch.

  Despite the professor’s reassurances, I changed back into my usual outfit immediately, before poking my head out the back door.

  “Zetian!” I called.

  After a few moments of silence, a buzzing filled the air, and Zetian arrived with a small procession of Combee.

  I rolled my eyes fondly at her display.

  She had been ecstatic once we finally settled down, and had immediately got to work establishing her own little domain.

  The local Combee hives had been quickly folded into her own nest, and a small empire had been growing in my own backyard.

  “We’re going over to the Professor’s lab, want to come?”

  Zetian, resplendent next to her attendants, thought for a second, then buzzed in a negative.

  I smiled. “Fair enough. I’ll let you know when we get back.”

  She buzzed again, and turned to disappear into the treeline.

  Zetian had been thriving, and even if I didn’t quite get to see her as much as I used to when we were still on the road, it was good to know she was living her best life.

  There was a mound in the backyard, and I sighed as I stared at it.

  The dirt was piled into a heavy lump, and there was a small garden sign I had placed on it.

  Jira.

  She had fallen asleep last month, and I was waiting for her to wake up. It was a standard part of the Larvitar’s lifespan, and it normally would have happened earlier - after one had chewed its way out of the mountain it had been born in. Due to Jira’s circumstances, she was a late bloomer, and was currently enjoying a long dirt nap.

  Once she emerged, however, she would be a Pupitar, and it was going to be interesting to see how she was going to adapt to her new body.

  This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

  “Wake up soon.” I said fondly, then made sure everything was ready - including recalling Venus to her Poké Ball.

  I had to be outside for this next part.

  Once my boots were on and I locked the door, I let Kōjin out, who emerged with a bellow that left my ears ringing.

  “Yes yes!” I shouted, reaching up to pet his shoulder. “You’re very intimidating.”

  The Arcanine yipped happily, tail beating a quick rhythm as it thumped against the ground.

  “We’re going to the lab, think you can get us there?”

  He barked, and laid down so I could clamber up onto his back.

  I pulled a set of goggles out of my purse and slipped them on, then leaned down to grab onto his dark grey fur.

  “Let's go!”

  /^\

  I was looking considerably more windswept by the time we arrived at Rowan’s lab. I’d had to invest in the goggles after my first trip with Kōjin after he evolved, and it was a good purchase - he liked to run very, very fast.

  With shaky legs I hopped off of Kōjin and leaned on him for a moment.

  “Alina.” Professor Rowan’s voice said from the open door to the lab. “I thought I told you not to rush.”

  I pushed off of my big dog and smiled at him.

  “Professor! You did, but I wanted to give Kōjin some exercise.”

  He sighed and shook his head. “Well, now that you’re here, there’s somebody who’s been looking forward to seeing you again.”

  “Oh?”

  “Alina!”

  I smiled, and turned to see the boy- no, the young man hurrying out of the lab.

  “Lucas!”

  He had, much to my chagrin, gone through another growth spurt in the last two years, although he was still in that lanky phase that a lot of young men went through. A white lab coat was thrown on over his normal trousers and t-shirt, and-

  I stared flatly at him, causing the young man to stumble to a halt.

  “You need to shave.” I said.

  He gasped, holding his hand over his face. “Don’t you dare!”

  “It looks like you have a scrub pad on your face.”

  “I’m growing it out!”

  I turned to Professor Rowan. “Please tell him he needs to shave.”

  Rowan smiled, and stroked his own moustache.

  “You all disgust me.” I said, rolling my eyes. “When did you get back?”

  “Yesterday.”

  “And how’s the Great Marsh doing?”

  “Wet. Swampy.” He smiled. “No, it’s doing great. The Wooper population has started to recover nicely, enough so I could come back and relax for the first time in a little bit.”

  “Did you ever figure out what was causing the problems?”

  Lucas’ smile turned to a deep frown. “Yeah. Somehow a Paldean Wooper was introduced to the population; we think it was probably released by a Trainer. It must have been sick, and the local Woopers weren’t acclimated to the Paldean virus. Still, we were able to isolate the strain, and a flyer from Paldea managed to make it over last week with a vaccine and instructions on how to make more.”

  He shrugged. “It seems to be working, but we’re still going to keep an eye on the region to make sure nothing worse happens.”

  I grinned, and reached up to ruffle his hair.

  “Ack!” He said.

  “Look at you! You’ve grown up so much in the past two years! Just to think, the first time we met you-”

  “Let’s not talk about that!” He said quickly, but there was a bit of a smile behind his words.

  I was glad he was doing better. Lucas had only reached 19th in the first, and only, Pokémon League Conference he had gone to, and then a month later he and Kevin had broken up when Kevin decided he wanted to go compete in the Indigo League. It had been a rough couple of months for Lucas, but he had gotten himself back into the swing of things by officially joining Professor Rowan’s lab as a full-time researcher.

  And now he was helping save Pokémon. I was proud of him.

  “So what about you? I heard about the court decision, way to go.”

  “Thanks.” Lucas had helped testify, as had Ted, but they hadn’t been nearly so involved as I had.

  “What else have you been up to?”

  I shrugged. “Not much.”

  “Liar. A little Starly told me that you went down into the Grand Underground again.”

  “Ahha, ha, so that was just a request by the Rangers. I didn’t actually want to go back down there again.”

  “But you did it anyway.”

  “They needed help and were willing to throw some money my way. Apparently I’m considered an expert in the Underground or something, I wonder where they got that idea.”

  I glared at Professor Rowan, and he hid his smirk behind his hand, pretending to stroke his mustache.

  “Anyways, have you heard from Ted?”

  “Yeah, he’s in Galar now, studying Slowpoke. Apparently they made a big fuss about him wearing a cape because he has so many Dragon-types now.”

  I stuck out my tongue. “Glad I don’t have to worry about that.”

  It was probably for the best that I had never actually gotten a Dragon-type, considering how temperamental they could be.

  Then I clicked my tongue. “Well, of course Ted sends you letters, I’ve only gotten like, two postcards, and the last one was from Paldea.”

  “Alina, we don’t send letters. We talk on, you know, our phones?”

  His Rotom Phone popped out his lab coat and twirled before going back into his pocket.

  “We video call pretty much every week.”

  My phone was old enough that it didn’t support any of the new video call functions. And the computer I had in my house was text only - I hadn’t sprung for the fancy in-built phone and video features.

  “Well… still. He could send more letters.”

  Lucas rolled his eyes. “I’ll make sure to mention that the next time we talk. I swear, you’re worse than my mother.”

  “Hey, trust me, in a decade or so when everything becomes about the internet and most people are terminally online, you’re going to wish you were like me with a flip phone and an old computer.”

  “Uh huh, sure. Anyways, he mentioned he’s going to do his doctorate on the differences between regional forms and the reasons for them.”

  “Good for him! Tell him to make sure he sends us invitations for when he does his defense.”

  “I hate to interrupt,” Professor Rowan said. “But I believe the time has come.”

  We all stopped talking, and turned to see a trio of young kids hurry up the path. Two boys and a girl, all of them vaguely familiar to me. I’d seen them around Sandgem and Twinleaf, but I never got their names.

  One of the boys and the girl were arguing and struggling to be the first one up the path to the lab, while the second boy trailed behind, obviously trying to get them to calm down.

  Professor Rowan sighed happily. “I love this part.”

  He stepped forwards and put on his sternest face, and let out a rumbling harumph.

  The three kids slowed as they came up to him, and the two in the front stopped pushing against each other.

  “Hello there! It’s so very nice to meet you! My name is Rowan, however, everybody just calls me the Pokémon Professor. The time has come, and your very own tale of grand adventure is about to unfold.”

  The three kids, those chosen to be sponsored by the Lab and receive their Starter Pokémon, looked up in awe.

  “On your Journey, you will meet countless Pokémon and people. I’m sure that along the way you will discover many things, perhaps even something about yourself. You three. You truly love Pokémon, do you?”

  Lucas and I shared a smile as the kids all talked over each other, trying to convince Rowan that they did, in fact, truly love Pokémon.

  “Five dollars that the girl will take the Chimchar.” I whispered to Lucas, and he struggled to hide his smile.

  “You’re on.”

  /^\

  The sun was just beginning to set when I finally got back to my house. I’d lost five dollars, but the look on the girl’s face as she hugged her Turtwig more than made up for it.

  I stopped at the small garden on the side of my house, smiling at the white and red Gracidea flowers, and bent down to ruffle a patch of grass in the garden.

  One of the Combee that was on constant guard by the flower plot buzzed happily at me, and I smiled back at her three faces.

  It was Zetian’s favorite spot to get pollen, and she constantly worked to make sure that it was kept safe.

  I slowly meandered back into my house, kicking my shoes off at the entryway, and pouring myself a glass of fresh Moomoo Milk from one of the local farms.

  Kōjin emerged from his Poké Ball, stretched, then went to lay down on the massive dog bed I had bought for him. He circled it twice, then flopped down with a happy doggy grin. He had gotten to run today, and all was well in his world.

  Zetian made a brief appearance, giving me a small hug before flying back to the massive tree in the backyard where she had made her nest.

  Jira was still sleeping in her dirt nest, and I smiled at it, hoping she would emerge soon.

  And finally, I released Venus, and we went out to the porch together, sitting on the rocking bench that I had Lucas help me install.

  We settled down, Venus curled up in a ball on my lap, and I stared out at the landscape.

  The sky was a beautiful canvas of pastels; red, pink, orange, blue, and a dark purple all fading into each other as the sun began to drop below the horizon, slowly disappearing behind Mount Coronet.

  If I squinted, I was sure I could make out Spear Pillar on the very top, and a warm sensation filled my chest.

  A breeze gently blew across the scene, stirring the grass and causing the distant cries of wild Pokémon to quiet for a second, and I smiled, petting Venus’ warm fur as she purred.

  Fireflies winked to life in the field as darkness settled in, and for a long moment, the world was at peace.

  I smiled, feeling the weight slide off my shoulders, and just relaxed.

  It’s good to be home.