Knock knock knock!

“Bwaghh! Wha- Huh?!” Neesha awakens with a start as the sound of very, VERY loud knocking, almost sounding like pounding practically can be heard coming from the door. “Who’s there?! N-Nobody else is here, y-yeah! I’m just a voice that’s haunting the place and-!”

Childlike giggling can be heard coming from the door, a familiar Chespin poking her head inside, the morning light of the sun reflecting off her head. “Neesha, it’s just me! You don’t need to freak out like that! Just wanted to say good morning is all.”

Oh.

Well now she just feels embarrassed.

Neesha lets out a long sigh as her body floops down to the floor, limbs splaying out as she tiredly glances up at River. “Morning to you too, River. Don’t scare me like that. You almost gave me a heart attack._Again.“

“Eeeeeheheh, sorry.” River chuckles sheepishly, skittering into the house and reaching a hand out for Neesha to grab onto. “Y’know, aside from just me coming over to say hi, would you be willing to walk to school together today? It’ll be fun!”

Now, Neesha is very, very wary of that offered hand. That hand that, every time it’s grabbed her, has dragged her across the ground through the village. She has to be very, very careful about making this decision, for if she does, she may need to take a third bath! Ah well, here goes nothing. “Y-Yeah, uhh, sure. I guess.”

Slowly, carefully, Neesha reaches out for River’s hand, scrunching her eyes tightly shut in anticipation as she feels River’s hand wrap around her, bracing for the worst and-

She’s helped back onto her fours with no sudden jerky movements.

Neesha’s eyes open, staring incredulously at River as they dart around, realizing they’re perfectly still, not rushing anywhere. Is this real? Is she dreaming?

“What?” River asks, staring at Neesha with an innocent smile on her face. Seems she really doesn’t know, huh?

“…N-Nothing.Let’s just get to school, yeah?”

---

“Gosh, I’m still thinking about yesterday.” River says, the two on the path to the school, the sun continuing to slowly rise into the multi-colored sky. “The caves, the anomaly, the battle with Gabite, I haven’t had that busy a day in a long time! I still can’t thank you enough, Neesha!”

Thank her? For what? For willingly going into what should have been a death trap with her? It was a cool adventure, all things considered, but Neesha is just left confused more than anything as she smiles confusedly at River. “Uhhh… You’re welcome, I guess?”

“Aww come on, you don’t gotta be like that. We killed it yesterday! We were like a real team, making our way through the anomaly together, fighting Gabite together,”

“And taking him down together when you threw that blast seed into my mouth…”

River snickers softly. “You’re still bent out of shape over that? It wasn’t that bad, wasn’t it?”

“Mmmnnh, I can feel at least maybe half of my taste buds recovering today.”

“Then maybe the other half will recover tomorrow!~” River chuckles, throwing her hands behind her head. “Gosh, this is fun! I’ve never walked to school with someone else before!”

That elicits an ear flick from Neesha, the Fennekin looking up at the Chespin. “Really? You’ve walked to school by yourself this whole time?”

“Yup! I don’t mind it, don’t get me wrong, but having company is nice!”

All things considered, why is Neesha not surprised in the slightest?

Well, they’re finally at the school. Vice Principal Watchog seems to be watching over the kids as they arrive. And Neesha is totally expecting River to jumpscare him in three, two, one.

“Hi, Vice Principal Watchog!”

“Good mor- GAAHH! HOOOH!” Yup. “A-Ah! River! You’re on time today! That’s- That’s, err, quite the surprise to see! _{Hoooh, good gravy.}“

Before the Vice Principal has anything else to say to River, she’s already off towards the classroom. Or, classyard, to be more accurate, really. Nobody else is there, not except for Shiloh and Shelmet. Of course.

“Hey gu-“

“You have two seconds to back off before I push you.” Shelmet says, glaring at River. Eeesh, is it just Neesha, or does he seem even angrier today? “It’s already hot enough without you breathing down my back, “

River, smiling nervously, rightfully and smartly backs off. “Uhh- Okay, guys! No need to worry about that, I’ll just keeo my distance! Hope you’re still enjoying those stones we brought back for you, by the way!” She just goes ahead and takes her seat beside Neesha, huffing a bit. “Ah well. Can’t win ’em all, I guess.”

“Good morning, Mr. Watchog!”

“Um, morning. Mr. Watchog!”

Saline and Goomy too. Neesha curiously glances back at Shiloh and Shelmet. Will they strike? Will they keep their word.

“Hey, Goomy! You’re a-” Shiloh starts to speak up, but suddenly stops himself, as if he’s held back. He side-eyes Neesha, and the Fennekin can’t help but give a teensy bit of a smirk to him as she watches him grip his fist, knowing he has to keep his word, slumpg back into his seat as he half-heartedly glances back at Goomy. “A really, uhh… Cool Pokemon, I guess.”

“…Huh?” Goomy blinks, the Deerling beside him sharing in his confusion as they glance at each other, whispering quietly. _{“He just complimented me. Should I be scared?”}

_{“I think we should just roll with it and not ask any questions.”}

Goomy slowly turns back to Shiloh, who has totally faceplanted onto the desk, hiding in embarrassment, and likely shame. “Thank you! I think!”

Feels good.

---

“Ahem! Good morning, class! I’ve got some good news and bad news to announce!” Farfetch’d taps at his stand with his stalk, smiling at the class. “The bad news is, the field trip we were planning for today is going to have to be rescheduled to tomorrow, as the dungeon we usually travel to is under heavy Anomaly activity.”

Neesha can hear River groan in disappointment beside her, head thumping on the desk. _{“Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaannnnn…”}

“A field trip? To a Mystery Dungeon?” Neesha asks, wanting to hear more about this.

River peeks at Neesha as she lifts her head from the table ever so slightly. “Mmmhm. Usually a few times every week, everyone gets to go on a little adventure. This sucks, though, I was really looking forward to this.”

“The good news, though,” Farfetch’d speaks up once again. “We have a special lesson to make up for it! This one continuing off what we learned yesterday, even! Not only that, but we’ve got a few special guests to teach you for this.” He steps aside, tapping at his desk with his stalk again. “Alright! You can both come out now!”

“Awwww, but I was having so much fun being a tree!” A playful, feminine voice can be heard behind the chalkboard’s tree, and a very… Interesting looking Pokemon drifts out from behind the tree, one Neesha has definitely never seen before. She looks like a shiny Celebi, but with yellow accents instead of green, much taller, much bigger wings, antennae on her head replaced with wing-like antlers, the most notable different being the overcoat she’s wearing. She looks back behind the tree, gesturing for someone to come forward. “Glyphyyyyyyyy, come on! You just gonna stand there?”

“No. I’d rather relive my days of being an office plant, obviously.” Very deep and heavily synthesized voice. She wonders who that belongs to- Okay, yup, yup. That’s definitely a robot Grovyle. Good thing River told her that robot Pokemon exist last night, otherwise Neesha would be slightly more confused right now. He’s not a one-to-one direct recreation, though. Eyes are one giant visor with glowing LEDs, arms are detached with little plastic leaves rotating around them, the leaf on his head is now two yellow holographic lights resembling the shape of a leaf.

The students are all ooh-ing and ahh-ing, all in amazement of what they’re looking at. A lot of them are very excited! Some students like Goomy are a little scared… Okay, only Goomy is scared, but Neesha can’t exactly blame him. Neesha doesn’t find them scary, personally, but she does find them rather odd, given how they almost look like normal Pokemon, but still have that uncanny, slightly off feel to them.

The shiny Celebi-like rests her arms on top of the robo-Grovyle’s head, leaning on him like a desk or a table. His expression is not deterred in the slightest. “Helloooooooooo everyone! We’re so happy to be here with you all today!” She says with an enthusiastic wave of her arm, pointing to herself. “My name is Pixie, a Chrono Voyager from the ancient past! And this cute hunk of metal and wires here,” She taps at his head, a tingy metallic sound coming from it. “Is my sweetie pie, Glyph.~ An Iron Vines from the distant future.”

_{“Just had to point that out in front of the class, didn’t you?”} The robot-glyph mutters, loud enough for some of the students to hear it, which giggle. Neesha glances to the side, seeing River absolutely enamored with both of them.

“Just sharing the love, is all.~” Pixie giggles, zipping off of Glyph’s head and fluttering beside him. “Aaaaanyway, we’re here to tell you all about the places and time periods we come from! _{Can you even really call them time “periods” anymore when they all exist together simultaneously? Ah well, we’ll just say that for the sake of consistency!} Aaaaanywaaaaaaays.~” She gestures over to Glyph, pointing a claw at him. “Glyphy, you can go first! I bet the children would love to hear about all the super cool futuristic stuff!”

Glyph scoffs, his electronic eyes rolling. “I’m sure there’d be plenty of students who’d be excited to listen to nature documentaries, but whatever you say.” He says with a playful, sarcastic tough in his voice, lifting his arm up, taping at a few things before a holographic display beams up from it arm. Neesha can catch River leaning against her desk, eyes wide, full of wonder. The rest of the students are equally quiet, waiting for Glyph to continue.

“In the future, the world had it rough. In the wake of countless catastrophes, humanity sought to heal the Earth through, what they called, the Global Restoration Project.” _Beep! One tap later, the display changes, showing a picture of the Earth from space. “Many regions had been lost, so mankind wanted to rebuild. Humans were stubborn like that, refusing to be defeated, always persevering even to the bitter end. While some of the largest cities, like Black City and Nimbasa City still stood tall, mankind wanted to build a giant, sprawling mega-city, one where all humanity and Pokemon could live together in unity. That city… Would eventually become known as The Veil.”

_Beep! The display changes again, the picture displaying a massive, towering city with buildings that pierce the clouds, neon lights glowing brightly, illuminating the night streets cast below the rain. “This project would turn out to be a massive undertaking, and-“

“Is it true that The Veil’s community thrives on music?” River interrupts, leaning against her desk enthusiastically. “My pops has a radio that pick up radio stations all the way there and I listen to it aaaallllll the time whenever I’m home! There’s so many different radio stations and radio hosts and they talk about it all the time!”

“Can’t you wait till after he’s done talking? Some of us are trying to actually listen, you know?” Shiloh calls out from the back, Neesha glancing behind her and gazing at his sneering expression.

“Ah. It’s fine.” Glyph responds. “To not go off on too much of a tangent, yes. Music was considered to be the heart and soul of humanity in The Veil, the boundless archives of music deemed one of the most precious things mankind had left, the spirit of creativity. There’s always music playing in The Veil, nightclubs on every corner dedicated to all kinds of music, even a sub-culture dedicated to electroswing, reflecting humanity’s fondness for the past with a hint of that futuristic touch.”

He clears his throat (even though Neesha’s sure robots don’t really have mucus) before continuing. “But please, save any questions for later. Back on topic, though, building The Veil would prove to be a massive undertaking, one that humanity and Pokemon couldn’t accomplish on their own. So, they came up with a solution, and that solution, was us.”

_Beep! Yet another display change, now showing a picture of all kinds of robotic Pokemon built in the same vein as Glyph. A robot Hariyama with floating hands, a robot Volcarona built to be more sleek and compact, almost like a drone, a robot Pokemon that she doesn’t recognize, but almost looks like… Some sort of bike, a lizard bike.

“In the beginning, we were merely assistants, some of us even toys for human children. For the longest time, that’s simply how it was. But over time, as more and more of us were built and we became more advanced, we became self aware. Only a few of us at first, but then more of us gained sentience, attaining individuality. Of course, not everyone was happy with this change.”

_Beep! Another display change, an uneasy Delibird standing next to its robotic counterpart. “Many humans and Pokemon, while accepting of our newfound self-awareness, just as many abhorred the thought of us having just as much cognitive thought as them, demanding we be reverted back to our older state, leading to the creation of terms such as Pro-Bots and Robophobes. What comes next is… Well…”

_Beep! Rockets, space shuttles, thousands of them all prepared for launch. “If we were to spend time talking about the specifics of everything that happened between then and now, we’d be here all day, and it’s a sour topic in The Veil. So give the long answer short, history has a way of repeating itself. Humans feared Pokemon all over again. In fear of their lives, they abadoned Earth, leaving us all to ourselves.”

What.

Left for the stars? Humans gone? B-But then why is she here on Earth?! To heck with it, she needs to ask, she needs to know more. Maybe this can give her more of an idea about why she ended up here. “E-Everyone left?” She speaks up. “Every single human on Earth, gone? Just like that?”

Glyph shakes his head. “Not every human, no.” Se’s paying extra close attention now. “While there were humans that chose to stay behind, they were incredibly few and far between, to the point where the population of Pokemon heavily outweighed the population of humans. To this day, my partner, Lexxi, is the only human I ever met after the humans left. Well, before she turned into a Pokemon, anyway…”

Before she turned into a Pokemon?! So Neesha isn’t the only one! A lead! She has a lead! M-Maybe she can figure out how she became one! Maybe this’ll explain everything! “H-how did she, uhh, turn into a Pokemon, if you don’t m-mind me asking?”

“Glyphyyyyy.” Pixie floats closer to him, smiling playfully as she places her hands on his shoulders. “You better be very careful about how you answer this. You don’t wanna go giving them all nightmares, hmhm.~” _{Oh this might be unpleasant.}

Glyph rolls his eyes again, muffling a quiet chuckle to himself. “I won’t go that into detail, Pixie.” He turns back to the class. “None of us can one hundred percent say for sure. The most plausible theory we came up with was, when she got sucked into one of the vortexes popping up, she got attacked by a Faceless and almost turned into one. However, she must have escaped before the process was complete, so while she made it out, she turned into a Skitty and lost her memory in the process.”

That’s it! That’s it! That makes sense it totally does! It, it…

No.

I-It doesn’t make sense.

It would explain a few things, but certain things don’t line up the more she thinks about it.

Because it still doesn’t explain the Beheeyem. She’s pretty sure those guys still have their faces. Whatever she did, she made them angry

As much as she’d like to believe it, too many things don’t line up.

A lead, but not a very good one.

Why would she, as a human, willingly venture into an anomaly anyway, knowing that it’s dangerous?

“Oh… W-Well, uhh… Sorry, I lost my train of thought, heh. Thank you, Glyph.”

“Not a problem at all. I do understand it’s a very strange thing to process.”

Saline speaks up next, tilting her head. “If humans left in the future, though, then wouldn’t that mean since all time periods have converged, they’d still be around now?”

“See, that’s the odd thing.” Glyph responds. “That’s what you would think, but to our surprise, we’ve still yet to see any humans from the present anywhere. Worst case scenario, maybe something happened to them during the Singularity, but it’s still too early to be sure. We’re still looking, even six months later.”

M-Maybe that’s another possibility.

What if, when the singularity happened, she and the other humans turned into Pokemon?

But… That still doesn’t seem likely, at least not for her. Why would she wake up as a Pokemon six months later? Unless it’s just time being weird. She doesn’t know at this point. Not just any explanation will do, she needs to know the truth, what really happened to her.

“Anyway, I’ve babbled on long enough.” _Beep! The display retracts back into Glyph’s arm as he turns to Pixie. “Now then, Pixie. You’re up next. Take it away.”

“Happily.~” Pixie buzzes over to the front of the class as Glyph steps aside. “So! I don’t have any fancy, flashy presentation like Glyphy here does and I don’t have too much to recap, because our history isn’t quite as complicated as the distant future. We used to be a society built on prophetization. Or, to put it simply, we predicted what the future would be!”

“Sure, we weren’t right all the time, but a lot of times we got pretty close! We foretold some of the largest events in the world’s history, the raging battle of Kyogre and Groudon, The Darkest Day, The Great War, all kinds of things! But… This is all very, very recent development. Up until just a few months ago, we didn’t know all this.” She reaches into her grab, grabbing for something. “After the Singularity, we began to discover more and more of our history, of the society we used to be. And for everything that we have learned, our people, the birth of our world and universe, all started with this.”

She pulls out a large, rolled up sheet of paper, unrolling it onto the chalkboard.

A picture of a mural.

A depiction of what Neesha can only assume is the creation of the world, of the planet Earth. It seems simple enough, at first, but that all changes when Neesha looks up to see what’s looming above the Earth, a strange, gnawing pit forming in her stomach as she tries to process what she’s seeing.

It’s a Ponyta.

But not just any Ponyta.

Deep purple fur, a brown horn resting on its forehead, covered in every single inch with eyes all over its body. So many, she can’t even count. Has to be dozens, if not hundreds of them. It’s mane, rather than the fiery blazes of a Kantonian Ponyta, is more frizzled, fuzzy, closer to a Galarian Ponyta, but a much shorter mane, colored green and blue rather than the pastel pink and blue Galarian Ponytas typically have. It holds the world in its hooves, as if hugging it, staring down lovingly at it with its many eyes.

The rest of the students all stare, she can hear their voices clamoring quietly, murmuring to themselves. _{“Whoooaaaa, what is that?” “Ponytas don’t have that many eyes, r-right?” “It looks so… Otherworldly.”}

Pixie smiles softly. “She has many names. The Goddess of Eyes, the Void Prophet, but across all of the ruins we find, all the artifacts we uncover, one name remains consistent across all of them; The Creator. Who she was exactly, whether or not she still watches over us, we know not. In fact, there’s still so little we know about her, but it seems she has an intimate history with our old society, with our old ways. Some have even theorized that the reason we’re all still here after the Singularity, is because she saved us. That she repaired our world, granted us mercy with her love.”

The Creator…

A simple name, yet it strikes something within Neesha.

She’s not sure what, though. Fear? Compassion? Resonance? The mural is so much to process all at once, she’s not sure she can form a single cohesive thought regarding it.

River, on the other hand, seems to be… Does she look frightened? She looks unusually scared, such a stark contrast to her typically fearless demeanor she’s put up this whole time.

“River?”

“Whuh?!” She flinches, nearly falling down as her body tenses up, quickly turning to Neesha, quickly realizing how she must’ve looked as she laughs embarrassingly. “Oh! Yeah, Neesha?”

Neesha’s ears droop back a bit. “You doing okay there? You looked like you were freaking out.”

“I am! I mean- Well, yeah, it’s, you don’t see something like that every day, you know? Just something that defies your understanding?” Her smile returns, albeit nervous. “I dunno, it gives me a lot to think about. Maybe a bit too much, heh.”

“And, with that,” Farfetch’d speaks up from the side for the first time since the lesson started. “I’m afraid that’s all the time we have for today. Glyph, Pixie, we really appreciate you coming here today, especially on such short notice.”

Pixie giggles softly as her wings flutter. “Oh, it’s fine, Farfetch’d! Things are still veeeery busy, sure, and I’m sure we’ll be getting busy again once we get back, but we had enough time to put aside today. It was wonderful getting to meet the kids. They deserve to know how much the world has changed and how, just like everyone else has.”

“Pixie’s side has been far busier, yes.” Glyph nods. “Most we’ve had to deal with are tourists and trying to set up routes for anyone who wants to travel out of the city and see the world.”

Well, River was certainly right about one thing.

The world has changed so much.

Is still changing, too.

Unfortunately, that just makes things all the more confusing for Neesha, and all the more worrisome.

There’s a lead, but it’s still a very reliable one.

Finding out just who she is isn’t going to be easy, huh?