Pokémon: Out of the Woods | A Galar, Unova & Sinnoh Fanfiction

Chapter 39: The March of Time

Rookidee tweeted outside the lab in Wedgehurst. Distant Yamper and Growlithe barked. Faint scents of curries and freshly-cut grass mingled with the floral breeze blowing in from the garden. Sonia watched her grandmother's furniture and equipment being shoved aside with a bittersweet feeling of resignation.

She was glad to see that the future was in good hands. Perry's attitude was as irritating as everyone warned Sonia it was, but he studied hard in Orre. He knew a lot about purification. Sonia taught Hop herself, so she was indescribably proud of him. He was not only a professor but a great teacher. Thanks to him, Prita also knew a lot about Shadow Pokémon and purification after only two days. Sonia couldn't wait to see Prita become the Galar region's new Pokémon Professor, probably before the next Gym Challenge.

Yet at the same time, she felt unexpectedly sad. She didn't exactly feel like she was ready to accept her accomplishments and retire at that moment, but her tired frame did. The walking stick left on a chair reminded her, no matter how hard she tried to avoid using it.

Her friends were the same. Abbey desperately clung to her mobility, but if she didn't accept her age soon, her declining physical health would force her to. Leon felt more exhausted than he admitted. Sonia never thought she would see the day when he wore that same resigned expression and said he was content with all he had achieved, but that day came much sooner than it did for her.

She used to find Alfie unbearably dull. In time, she came to love him like she loved their mutual friends. He was already gone. Nessa's husband died four years ago. She remained remarkably fit, but Sonia knew that like Leon, she had accepted her accomplishments and allowed her soul to retire from Pokémon battling. Raihan himself died two years ago. Although he never beat Leon, he found he, too, had achieved all he wished to. He enjoyed life. His daughter was happy and healthy. He even lived to see his granddaughter become the kahuna of Ula'ula Island.

Victor was the last of the original team remaining at the Battle Tower. He still owned it after Leon left him in charge, but soon, it would inevitably be passed on to the next generation. As much as it upset Sonia to think of life without Leon, her oldest friend, she suspected that once she officially retired and moved to Orre, it wouldn't be long until life would be just like the university days she shared with Abbey; when they felt isolated from the rest of the world in their dingy suburban flat, but they still had fun, because they had each other. This time, however, they wouldn't be dancing until 3 AM or contemplating their wildest dreams. They would watch their great-grandchildren grow up and contemplate the memories of those dreams that grew fusty in the corners of their minds. Their best friends would no longer be distant because they were busy being famous Trainers, but because they were gone.

Then there was Hop. Regardless of how proud Sonia was, looking at him broke her heart. She remembered consoling him in his darkest moments, when he broke down and insisted he had to give up on his studies, because he felt so worthless that he would only ever embarrass her and anyone else who supported him. No-one could convince him that he could ever compare to his brother.

Despite that, Hop achieved all he ever dreamed of and more. Yet his mind seemed too clouded by all he had been through to appreciate or accept it. Leon forgave their abusive drunk of a father, but even now, Hop couldn't. It still bothered him. He was also furious with his mother and Looker for hiding Mirabelle's existence from them; not only because he and Leon never knew their sister, but because she led such a miserable, lonely life, feeling like she would always be second to her mother's legitimate sons. Time wouldn't wait for Hop. Sonia worried that he wouldn't see how brightly he shone before it was too late.

Perry shoving the last of the furniture aside seemed like a metaphor for that relentless march of time. Sonia excused herself. She was happy. She didn't even resent annoying, arrogant Perry being so oblivious to what that furniture might have meant to her. The future was in good hands. Yet there was something cruel about the march of time, about the friends in her photos leaving the world, that upset her so much that she desperately wished her grandmother and father, the only parental figures she remembered, were there to hug her until her tears dried up and she felt she could show her face downstairs again. She had vague memories of her mother once. They were gone by then.