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

Chapter 103: Rigel's Story, Part II - The Blue Star

By the time Rigel's new surroundings at Jahzeel's council house sank in, his Pokémon were beaten and threatened into silence. His adoptive parents were already dead. Meeting his father was supposed to be a joyful occasion, yet when Jahzeel told Rigel that his neighbours – members of a criminal syndicate, Cipher – attacked and killed his Pokémon parents, he found himself hating the world he wished he could be part of. After all those years of dreaming and hoping, perhaps it was true that Pokémon and people never belonged together... and that Rigel would always be on the side of Pokémon. He wanted to be on that side. This world was cruel. Even his reunion with his father wasn't what he dreamed it would be. Jahzeel said the right things, but his words seemed inexplicably empty to Rigel. Then he learned that Abaddon wasn't his grandfather but his evil uncle, who left him in the forest to ensure they never met... or so Jahzeel said. Of course, that wasn't true, but Rigel believed it then.

He did question all of that when he went to school and found Queenie again. Until those bullies with their Shadow Pokémon suddenly appeared from nowhere, Rigel and Queenie were happy. Pokémon seemed happy with their classmates. Queenie never trusted Jahzeel. She didn't even believe he was Rigel's father. Could that be true? A part of Rigel wished it was, but then he felt guilty for thinking that at the same time as he lived in fear of Jahzeel ever discovering his friend's identity. He was too naive, too lost, to understand why that scared him so much.

Then, as those kids who once loved learning began to skip school to travel as far as Hammerlocke, they discovered that Queenie was pregnant. Rigel understood exactly what that meant. He wanted to support her, so he ran off from school once again to wave to her from the fence, but that was when she snapped at him.

'Fuck off! Anyone'll hear your stupid stammer a mile away!'

He was used to Jahzeel insulting him when he got frustrated. Queenie never had before. He was deeply hurt. When he told Jahzeel that a friend was mean to him, Jahzeel convinced him that she was never his friend at all.

Rigel was so lost and confused that he never noticed the familiar face next door until one day when he sat in the overgrown garden. His neighbour hoisted herself up onto the fence and smiled.

'Hi! What's your name?'

It was the girl he used to see in the woods. She wasn't a ballerina at all. Her name was Muirne and she wanted to be a Pokémon Professor, specialising in history like Sonia Magnolia. She gave up ballet when Volo could no longer afford lessons. He certainly wasn't a basketball player. He never passed his driving test.

Muirne loved Pokémon as much as Rigel and Queenie did. Rigel felt like he already knew her. Though he never confided in anyone but his Pokémon friends and Queenie before, he found himself telling her everything. She encouraged him to find Queenie again. She didn't believe that a friend so loyal would ever turn on him, just like that. On the floor at Craving Books, a place that looked just like Rigel's dreams, Muirne even promised to go to Bede's cottage with him. Volo would give them the money to get the bus.

They noticed that their fathers seemed to disagree over something. Volo looked distraught, but he must have agreed in the end, because Jahzeel grinned all the way back to the council estate. Something about that drive made Rigel uncomfortable. Volo was actually able to drive, because Jahzeel sat in the passenger seat, but although Rigel couldn't explain exactly what it was, it was such a subtle display of a power imbalance that even he noticed something unsettling.

The next day, Jahzeel announced some 'incredible' news: Rigel and Muirne would be home-schooled in their new home, an underground castle that they would be the prince and princess of. Their future son would be the king of a perfect world.