#and my twt username is already taken on twitch :(

[seraphsfire]

question for followers does Sa6riel read as 'Sabriel' or not

[catflowerqueen]

Déjà vu (Oh, the Irony)

Summary:

Jirachi comes to the Wigglytuff Guild for a visit, and inadvertently grants a wish with some interesting consequences for Team Rainbow. After all, it's one thing to know, mentally, that Paula and Laura are rather young for being such being good explorers. But this... this is something else entirely. Also, Drowzee gets a new appreciation for the meaning of the word "irony."

Knowledge of my “The World’s Treasure” and “Missing Scenes” story is vital for understanding this. Feel free to view those stories, as well as this one,on my fanfiction .net account or ao3 as well. My username is the same in both places.

And my askbox is open if you have questions.

Author’s Note: This is somewhat of a new series of stories that I’m going to attempt, but don’t expect updates too often, as I’m still getting back into the swing of creative writing. Also, with this story in particular… don’t expect updates for at least the next two weeks, because I have a lot of major papers due for school soon as the semester is ending, as well as paperwork to grade, and I already spent today writing this when I really should have been working on those instead.

 This is technically non-canon for the eventual storyline I have planned, but all backgrounds and histories—both for the characters and for specific locations/things discovered through use of the Dimensional Scream ability—are the same as those in the World’s Treasure and Missing Scenes series—it’s just that this is not the method in which those histories and backstories are going to be revealed when it comes to that point in actual canon. …assuming I eventually find the time to actually write said canon out. I still want to! I’m just continually busy with other things, because Real Life is complicated. Also, I have some stories in another fandom that I want to write as well.

 As this technically takes place in the future of the TWT and MS universe, there are a few things that might be spoilers. I’ll try to be vague in the story to avoid that as much as possible, but I can’t guarantee that some things won’t slip through. 

Check the author’s notes at the end if you want a bit of background for what exactly is going on in this universe at the time of this non-canon scenario. Otherwise, please enjoy the story.

-----

Chapter One: Bidoof’s Wish

“Are you two sure you’re up for this already?” Chatot asked, glancing between the two girls of Team Rainbow with a look of concern on his face.

It wasn’t the first time they had been asked this question today. Even though the… incident… with the outlaw known as the “Dreamy Blackmailer” had finally resolved and Laura was given a clean bill of health by Nurse Blissey from Magnezone’s Police Headquarters, and then taken an additional week off to try and heal a bit mentally, their friends throughout Treasure Town and the Guild were still concerned. After all, not only had the incident had brought both of them face to face with some of their worst nightmares—literally speaking—it hadn’t happened too long after the Weathered Peak expedition. And while no one had been in the best of spirits after that expedition, what with the overwhelming failure to actually find anything of interest aside from a new definition of “extreme weather phenomenon” and, in Chatot’s case, a rather horrifying lesson from an injured and delirious Laura about the myriad of ways that one could construct prison cells and stockades from repurposed caves and rock formations, Paula and Laura had definitely been hit the hardest. Sure, Chatot was a close contender for that position, what with the aforementioned front row seat to that lesson on prison cells and stockades, but Laura had been the one to actually suffer the injury and the experience of reliving some terrible memories during an expedition she hadn’t really wanted to go on in the first place; and Paula had to endure what was technically blackmail—and from the Guildmaster, of all people!—which forced her to be split from her partner during the exploration, meaning that she wasn’t there to stop her from getting injured or provide moral support in the aftermath, compounded with the fact that the lack of treasure meant that they had gone through all that pain for nothing. Or at least close to nothing, since even though the goal of the blackmail—to get Laura and Chatot to spend some time alone together so that they could clear the air between them, make up from their recent fight, and get back on friendly terms—had technically worked, even Wigglytuff agreed that it really wasn’t worth it when the price had been injury and trauma on one hand and betrayal and worry on the other. He still felt guilty about it now—especially since the memory of the blackmail probably did not help Paula at all during the aforementioned Dreamy Blackmailer debacle—even though Paula, Laura, and Chatot had forgiven him for it.

Suffice to say, Team Rainbow had really been put through the ringer lately, so it wouldn’t have been surprising if they weren’t quite ready to get back to exploring yet. Then again, this was Team Rainbow they were talking about, who had the unfortunate tendency to downplay any problems they were having via overworking themselves in an attempt to get people to stop worrying about them. Which of course just made people worry about them even more.

But at least it meant that Paula’s response of “Yes. We’ll be fine—don’t worry!” as she adjusted her treasure bag, her partner nodding beside her from where she was just finishing up a swap with Croagunk, didn’t come as a surprise.

So it was with a resigned sigh that Chatot finally waved them off with only a minor admonishment to be careful, and the two ascended from the lowest guild level in order to head off on a day of exploring. But he couldn’t help but follow them with his gaze, and once they left his line of sight his eyes still lingered a bit on the top of the ladder before he blinked and shook his head, determined to put the inevitable worry he still felt out of his mind and get back to work running the guild. Today, after all, he also had the additional task of preparing some informational pamphlets for Drowzee to look at in regards to how to manage an exploration team. He didn’t actually expect the Hypnosis Pokémon to arrive in town from the little exploration he had decided to undertake as a sort of goodbye to being a solo explorer until tomorrow—or possibly later tonight, at the earliest, in which case it would likely still be too late for him to actually have time to meet with Chatot—but it never hurt o be prepared.

He sighed again before glancing about, noticing that everyone else who was with him on the lower level was in the same boat, despite their attempts to hide their true feelings. Croagunk was determinedly looking down and organizing his items in pure silence, with none of his usual mutterings and praise towards his prized Swap Cauldron. Loudred was attempting to use a stage whisper—with an emphasis on “attempting”—to get Diglett to let him know when Team Rainbow fully left the premises, even though Diglett’s job was only to monitor those coming in rather than those leaving, since determining moving footprints wasn’t an easy task. Wigglytuff had his door cracked open, and his mouth was quivering, as if it wanted to form into an uncharacteristic frown.

This, Chatot determined, was where he should focus his energies for the time being, as an upset Wigglytuff was never a good thing. It would also be a good segue into preparing those pamphlets for Drowzee, as a seasoned explorer such as Wigglytuff would be sure to have some good advice for the ex-outlaw, especially considering his own past as the apprentice of an explorer with a history as an outlaw. But before he could start to make his way over, he was interrupted by Bidoof coming down the ladder with a very perturbed look on his face.

“Bidoof? What are you doing back down here?” Chatot asked, equally as thankful for the interruption as he was annoyed at the fact that the apprentice was ignoring his orders. “I thought that I told you to look over the job boards today.”

Bidoof cringed at the glare on Chatot’s face, even though it wasn’t at its usual levels of scariness. “Oof… Sorry Chatot, I.. I really would like to do that but…”

“‘But?’” Chatot sharply prompted.

“But… but the boards are both empty, by golly!”

“Squawk! What? What do you mean they’re empty?!”

“There’s… there’s no jobs left on them, no siree!” Bidoof shook his head, “I think Team Rainbow took most of them for themselves… and then the other teams hanging around took the rest of them… and by the time I got there, there was only an S-class outlaw job left… which I don’t think I’m ready for anyways… but then Team Poochy snatched it right out of my paws before I even got the chance to look at it too closely, yup yup!”

“That’s…” Chatot got a twitch beneath his eye before sighing in defeat. The sequence of events was extremely plausible, as unfortunate as it was—especially the part about Team Rainbow grabbing the majority of the jobs from the boards before anyone else got the chance. Chatot could remember very well that same scenario happening shortly after Laura asked her goddess’ permission to stay in the Pokémon World, rather than return with her to Earth… and even before then, there was that incident with Laura right after she returned from wherever she had been after the future was saved. Add Paula’s exuberance and love of exploring into the mix—especially when she, too, was trying to convince everyone that she was actually fine and recovered—and it was practically a given that the two would ignore the guidelines for how many requests that a single team should realistically take on at once. It wasn’t that they couldn’t do all of those jobs successfully, but more that they shouldn’t. Although Chatot did appreciate the influx in treasures, bounty, and reward money that it generated for the guild, it was a bit inconsiderate to the other exploration teams that would come to the Wigglytuff Guild specifically for the use of the boards, not to mention that it denied those still apprenticing in the guild the chance at a little training. Also, it left them all worrying over the two girls’ mental and physical health even more, since they had all seen the consequences of their overworking themselves in this manner many, many times. It made Chatot consider, not for the first time, the possibility of him and Wifflytuff setting up a board specifically for Team Rainbow’s exclusive use, just so that the two could ensure their precious graduates safety and wellbeing. But on the other wing, he supposed that it rather defeated the point of their having graduated if he and the Guildmaster were still regulating what the two could and could not do…

But all of that was something to consider at a future point in time. He would definitely have a little talk with the two of the two members of Team Rainbow when they finally returned to town at the end of the day, but for now he needed to figure out something else for Bidoof to do.

“Very well,” he said, “I suppose I can’t exactly fault you for that, so for now why don’t you—”

But he was cut off by a surprised exclamation from Loudred over by the sentry post. “WHAT?!” he yelled, before hollering again, “Hey, BIDOOF! Diglett says you have a VISITOR at the entrance!”

“A visitor?!” Bidoof repeated in surprise as he and Chatot headed over. “Golly, that’s sure a surprise! Who is it?”

Loudred turned to call back down to Diglett, intending to ask for more information “HEY Diglett—!”

“Yes, I heard!” Diglett called back up before Loudred got the chance to finish his question. “Give me just a moment… Okay. He says that he is… Jirachi!”

“W-WHAT?! J-Jirachi?!” Loudred and Chatot repeated incredulously. “Wh-Why would Jirachi come here? And to meet Bidoof, of all pokémon?”

Bidoof frowned in confusion. “Jirachi… Jirachi… do I know a Jirachi…? Maybe… oh!” He smiled as he finally remembered. “Diglett! Ask him if he’s the one from Star Cave!”

Then, the others understood as well, remembering the Snover incident from so long ago, when Bidoof took the initiative to go on an ill-advised and technically against the rules trip to Star Cave after having been tricked by Snover, and how he was able to explore the depths all on his own after the rest of the guild rescued him, culminating in his meeting with the legendary Wish Pokémon. He never did them what he ended up wishing for, though—only that it was granted, but the effects would take a while to actually manifest. There had been some wild speculation running through the guild for a while, until the incident was nearly forgotten in the excitement over Team Rainbow joining the guild a few months later.

“The answer is… yes!” Diglett called back in excitement. “This is the Jirachi from Star Cave!”

“Well don’t just STAND there!” Loudred whipped around and demanded of Bidoof. “Go up and MEET him! And then bring him down HERE so we can see him, too!”

 -----

A few minutes later saw Jirachi in the bottom-most level of the guild. He didn’t seem at all bothered by the fact that he had amassed an audience, as all of the apprentices who were left in the guild (which ended up being everyone but Dugtrio, basically, as he was out getting more job requests in order to fill up the boards while the others were stuck waiting for his return since they, like, Bidoof, had been a bit too slow to pick any before Laura and Paula nabbed them all). Instead, when he wasn’t turning this way and that as he levitated, taking in all the sights, he was focused on his friend.

“Ooh… This place is really interesting!” Jirachi told Bidoof in excitement. “If it’s always like this, then I can see why you like exploring so much, Bidoof. I thought that I would be tired after journeying all this way, but the energy surrounding this place is so exciting! It’s perking me right up!”

“Yup, yup! The guild is pretty great!” Bidoof agreed with a smile. “And… gosh, it sure is nice to see you again Jirachi… I must admit, I’ve been meaning to come see you for a while now… I wanted to thank you for granting that wish for me, but it’s been so busy that I never had the time to!”

Jirachi smiled. “Ha ha… That’s all right, Bidoof. With a wish like yours… it’s only to be expected that you would be too busy to find the time to visit. And… I’ve been sleeping a lot again lately, so I may not have noticed even if you did come by,” he admitted with a sheepish grin. “But that wish of yours… well, it’s not exactly why I came by, but now I’m curious; where are those buddies of yours you wished for? Have you been teaching them lots?”

Bidoof blushed a bit, slightly embarrassed about the fact that everyone in the guild now more or less knew what he wished for so long ago, but he also couldn’t help but smile at the thought of his friends on Team Rainbow. “They’re out exploring right now! They already graduated from the guild, see, and… well, gosh, I don’t know how much of it is do to anything I taught them, but… I’m real proud of Team Rainbow, yup yup! It was so much fun to be with them when they were still apprentices, and they still live nearby so I get to see Laura and Paula nearly every day!”

Jirachi’s mouth formed an “o” of shock. “Did you say that one of the buddies I influenced to come here was… Laura? Of Team Rainbow? That’s what you said, right?” He looked around at the others, verifying if what he’d heard was correct.

“Hey, hey! That’s what he said, alright!” Corphish nodded

“Oh, wow, wow!” Jirachi clapped his hands and spun in excitement. “That’s great! That’s actually exactly why I came in the first place!”

“Oh, oh?” Wigglytuff asked. “You wanted to meet friendly-friend Laura? Why?”

“You see, I don’t really get out much,” Jirachi admitted, to the surprise of no one, “so I’m a little… or, rather, a lot… behind the times when it comes to some things… or, really, a lot of things… but… sometimes while I’m dreaming, my psychic powers act up a little, and I hear whispers of conversations. Rumors. And sometimes they’re really interesting! So, I wake up in excitement! But… I don’t really have a way to know if these rumors are true, since I live so out of the way, and travelling can get so tiring so I usually just fall back to sleep.” He huffed a bit in frustration before brightening again. “But! This time! This time I heard some rumors about a girl named Laura… who joined an exploration team called Rainbow… who is currently a treecko, but who some say used to be a human!” He paused again to clap and spin with excitement. “So I just had to know if they were true. I had to! And I remembered! This time I had a way to verify those rumors! You, Bidoof!”

“H-huh? Me?!”

“Yes! You told that you were a part of a guild—and not just any guild, the Wigglytuff Guild! That place—this place—has tons of information, right? And tons of explorers! And you! My friend! So I thought… if I came here… I could verify the rumors! And that hopefully…” Jirachi got quieter, and seemed almost wistful. “Hopefully… hopefully some of them would be true. And that it would mean… well, it would mean what I hoped. That they… that she… well. I’d better not say… just in case I’m wrong… I don’t want to get my hopes up too much.”

“Well… golly! I’m honored, Jirachi!” Bidoof said, slightly nervous about potentially disappointing his powerful friend, but still hopeful that he would be able to help, and happy to get the chance to ramble on about Laura, and Team Rainbow in general. “So let’s see… Laura… well, first off—yup yup! The Laura that I know, who joined Team Rainbow and the guild here… she really did used to be a human!” Bidoof verified. Then, when Jirachi’s grin turned from wistful back to gleeful, he decided to add, “She is a treecko right now, but she surely did used to be a human, yup yup! And we even got to see her human form for a little bit, too! I don’t know to much about humans in general, but I thought she was really pretty, so I reckon other humans would think so too. Especially her eyes—they looked like rainbows, and still do even though she’s back to being a treecko now, yup yup.”

“Oh… oh…!” Jirachi clasped his hands in front of his mouth, his eyes widening and starting to shine with unshed tears of joy. “And… and one more thing! Did she… does she… the Dimensional Scream? Is that an ability she possesses?”

“Yup yup! It surely is!”

“Hooray!” Jirachi exclaimed, throwing his hands in the air and spinning in ecstasy, laughing as happy tears escaped his eyes and rolled down his cheeks. “Finally… finally a Rainbow Child is visiting again!” He slowed down his spinning, sighing wistfully again as he slowly calmed down. “It’s been… so very long. I know I slept through most of it, but… it must have been nearly a thousand years since I last… since she last…” he sighed again, this time in resignation. “But… you said that she’s out exploring now, right? So I guess that means I’ll still need to wait a while to actually see her again…”

“Oof… I reckon that’s true,” Bidoof said, frowning at sad his friend sounded about that fact, and feeling bit sad himself at the thought of how long Jirachi had waited to see the Rainbow Child return, even as he was shocked at the timespan and surprised at the fact that Laura’s past incarnations apparently used to visit the pokémon world a lot… as well as curiosity and unease about the fact that they had apparently stopped some thousand years ago.

“Oh!” Wigglytuff suddenly explained, clapping his hands together. “I know! I know! Bidoof, while we wait for Team Rainbow to come back… why don’t you show Jirachi around Treasure Town? Give him a tour! It will be fun!

“Ah! Yes, guildmaster, I concur!” Chatot agreed with the flap of his wings. “That is an excellent idea! And while you’re there… as I was about to say earlier… Regarding the day’s duties, since Dugtrio is not yet back with replacement jobs… please do a survey of the shops in town; it is important to know which get the most use from the members of our esteemed guild, and in what ways… and if any of them will be offering new services soon which we should be aware of.”

“Oof… I, uh… yes siree, I will do that,” Bidoof said, his happy mood at the thought of getting to show Jirachi around town becoming slightly dampened by the fact that it wouldn’t be a day off, like he’d thought, but rather an exercise in multitasking. “Come on, Jirachi, I think I’ll show you Spinda’s Café first…”

With that, the two headed off, and Chatot set the rest of the guild to do some mild cleaning and reorganizing until Dugtrio finally made it back and they could do some real exploration work.

 -----

Team Rainbow still wasn’t back by the time that Bidoof’s tour/survey was completed. This was a bit surprising, as the whole endeavor had taken a bit longer that Bidoof anticipated, since Jirachi stopped frequently to either admire something or because he needed to rest a little bit before continuing. He was, after all, a sleepy pokémon in general, and hadn’t been lying about how long his journey had been. Some of the things he stopped to admire seemed a bit mundane by Bidoof’s standards, but if he really had been sleeping for nearly a thousand years, then he figured that it would make sense that Jirachi would have missed an invention or innovation or two that was commonplace now. …Though he wasn’t sure if that fully explained why the legendary seemed so enamored by the dandelions dotting the path in some places. Surely those existed for far longer, right?

In any case, the tour was also lengthened by the fact that many of the shopkeepers seemed ecstatic to talk about their shops and wares, especially the Kecleon brothers… and Marowak, who seemed to take the opportunity as a chance to test out the new pitches he was considering to entice more pokémon to come train at his dojo… but Bidoof figured that at least part of that was excitement over seeing a legendary wandering through town. The last time that had happened had been with Cresselia, after all, and while it had been fairly recent, the circumstances surrounding it had… not been the greatest. By the time that Bidoof was finally finished and ready to report back to Chatot, Jirachi was understandably bored and uninterested in hearing a bunch of information that he’d already heard throughout the day. So, he opted to go visit the Beach for a while instead. He seemed weirdly excited by the prospect, too, but Bidoof figured that it had something to do with Laura, or the Rainbow Child in general, so he let it go without too much comment. He invited Jirachi to come have dinner with the guild when he was finished at the Beach, but Jirachi declined, citing interest in seeing what the Café’s menu was like in the evening. Though he did promise to come and stay at the guild for the evening if Team Rainbow still wasn’t back by then.

So this is why, when Jirachi failed to return to the guild like he promised a few hours later, long after dinner was finished and with still no sign of Team Rainbow, Bidoof found himself heading towards the Beach, intent on finding the legendary. Dinner had been a bit earlier than usual today, so the sun hadn’t yet fully set and he found the Wish Pokémon fairly easily. Unfortunately for Bidoof, the reason that said pokémon hadn’t returned to the guild yet was because he—rather predictably, in hindsight—had fallen asleep. So then Bidoof was faced with the somewhat arduous task of waking him back up.

One fight and several bruises on Bidoof’s part later, and a more-or-less awake Jirachi was yawning drowsily and looking around at his surroundings in mild confusion. “Hah… yawn… Ah, I’m still on the Beach…?”

“Erg…” Bidoof groaned a little, “Yup yup… I reckon you fell asleep here.”

“Oh… right… I was going to head over to the Café, but I felt so tired that I decided to rest for just a little bit longer… and then… well.” Jirachi said, blinking, as he finally noticed Bidoof. He easily spotted the bruising and ruffled fur, and had the tact to look sheepish as he put two and two together. “I must have attacked you in my sleep, huh?” he guessed. “But I see that you managed to wake me up again, so that’s good! I… probably owe you another wish for the trouble,” he finished, the last part in a mutter.

“H-huh?” Bidoof said, a bit confused before it clicked what Jirachi meant. “Oh! No, no, that’s fine,” Bidoof shook his head. “I don’t really need anything. But… you said that you wanted to stay in the guild if Team Rainbow didn’t come back in time, right? And, well, they’re still not back yet, so…”

“They’re still not back?” Jirachi tilted his head. “Is it normal for them to be out exploring so late?”

Bidoof shook his head, a frown on his face. “No siree, it really isn’t…” He sighed in sadness. “To tell you the truth, everyone at the guild… we’re all really worried about them. Some real stressful stuff has happened to the two of them recently, and I reckon that working hard like this is probably the only real way they know to cope with it, but… golly, it just isn’t right!” He stomped his foot in frustration. “It’s so unfair… all of these stressful and trying things seem to happen to them… the whole Temporal Tower thing from years ago… the thing with Darkrai… the other thing with Darkrai… and then what’s been going on recently… and they’re still so young! Paul is only sixteen… and Laura is just fourteen… and… golly, I know exploring is really fun for them, but with all the other stuff… sometimes I just…” Bidoof’s frustration simmered down a bit and he sighed mournfully.

“What is it, Bidoof?” Jirachi asked, worry and empathy on his face for both his friend and the plight of Team Rainbow.

Bidoof sighed again, looking down at his feet. “Sometimes… I wish that the two of them had the chance to just be kids again. Even if just for a little while…”

At those words, Jirachi twitched a little as something resonated inside him. “I see,” he said, his eyes starting to take on a faraway look. “Bidoof… you never fail to amaze me. Of all the possible wishes in the world… all of the things people have asked me for before… and you always, always choose not to be greedy; you always choose to help others… it makes me like you even more!”

“I… wait. What?” Bidoof asked, blinking in confusion and looking up before cringing back in shock at the sight of Jirachi, who was floating even higher in the air than he typically did, eyes glowing.

“And I suppose, technically, this is my fault a bit, too,” Jirachi said, more to himself than to Bidoof, in a voice that seemed to echo slightly with power. “I could have chosen someone other than Paula to nudge in the direction of the guild… and if I’d been more aware… I could have eased that poor girl’s suffering… and maybe the visits wouldn’t have stopped… or if not, I could have spent those years preparing… I could have done something to ease the suffering of the last one, instead of wallowing in loneliness… I’m the selfish one this time, so really…”

Jirachi tilted backwards as his eyes slowly closed… but as they did so, the one on his stomach—which Bidoof hadn’t even known existed—opened instead, brimming with even more light and power. But its owner took no notice.

“Really…” he repeated, as his true eye fully opened. “Granting this wish… it’s the least I could do!

Bidoof screamed and slammed his own eyes shut as the brightness spilling out of Jirachi’s true eye grew to blinding, and the wave of power that Jirachi unleashed was so huge that Bidoof briefly lost his footing. He thought he heard a thump as something fell to the sand, but other than that… there was stillness and quiet for a few minutes before Bidoof dared to risk opening his eyes again to try and figure out what happened. He glanced around… and then immediately jumped to his feet with a cry of alarm when he saw that Jirachi was facedown on the sand, shaking with the aftereffects of whatever he had just unleashed.

“Jirachi!” Bidoof called, rushing over and helping him to sit up. “Are you okay?! What just… what just happened?! What did you do?!”

“Oh… Bidoof…” Jirachi slurred, one of his regular eyes cracking open lazily. “I think I… ngh… I think I… overdid it… a little…”

“Overdid… what?! What just… what just happened?!”

“That wish… sigh… it was… really good… but… really draining. I think… sigh… I think I need to sleep for a while again. I should wake up soon… to fulfill the rest of it, but… yawn… until then… please take care of me… zzz. Zzz…”

And with that, Jirachi fell asleep. He was so completely dead to the world that even his psychic powers were inactive, and nothing Bidoof tried could wake him up. He had no choice but to struggle and shift Jirachi onto his back so that he could carry him to the guild, all the while wondering what exactly just happened, and getting a sense of foreboding that he’d accidentally done something wrong…

-----

“…I see,” Chatot said, glancing at where Jirachi lay asleep—and drooling a little bit—on the bed in the room at the end of the hall where they’d placed him after Bidoof had returned, shouting frantically about there being trouble. He’d had to shoo everyone else except Wigglytuff away because, as usual, the other apprentices were too nosy for their own good, but after doing so he’d had Bidoof recount exactly what happened to leave Jirachi in this state.

“And you have no idea what happened when that power was unleashed?” he confirmed.  “Or why Jirachi even did… whatever it is he did… in the first place?”

Bidoof looked uncomfortable as he shook his head. “No! No siree, I have no idea! I’m just as lost as you are! Except…” he paused.

“Except…?” Chatot prompted.

“Well… last time… when I met Jirachi the first time in Star Cave… he told me that he granted wishes to those who managed to wake him up. And… and when I found him on the Beach, I had to wake him up so that I could bring him back here, so… so I reckon that maybe he counted that, too? As fulfilling those conditions?”

“I see…” Chatot murmured, nodding to himself, “that makes sense… So then that power… I would assume that means…” he raised his voice back to normal levels and asked, “Did you make a wish? Or say something that could be interpreted as such?”

“Oh, gosh… uh… I don’t think so… lemme think…” Bidoof started muttering to himself and pacing, trying to push past the worry and remember what it was that he said right before Jirachi went all strange and glowy. “I said that… and then there was that… and then Paula and Laura came up and… and… oh.” Bidoof stopped dead in his tracks. “I think… uh… oh golly, I think I made a big mistake…” he whimpered.

“Don’t worry Bidoof, it can’t be that bad!” Wigglytuff assured him. “What happened? What did you say to friendly-friend Jirachi?”

“I j-just…” Bidoof gulped, before continuing, “I was just talking about how worried we’ve all been since Team Rainbow has been under a lot of stress lately… and I was frustrated today, especially, since they still aren’t back yet after taking on so much… and I was saying how it was so unfair considering how young they are… so I uh, I may have accidentally told Jirachi that ‘sometimes I wish that the two of them had the chance to just be—’”

But the end of his inadvertent wish was cut off when the three of them heard shouts of alarm coming from the main area.

“Eek! Oh my gosh!”

“What in the…?!”

“Hey, hey! What the heck?!”

“Dad, why are… how can…?!”

“Is that…?”

“What in the WORLD is going on here?!”

The three of them rushed out just in time to hear a voice which they hadn’t expected to hear until tomorrow begging, “H-hey, can everyone please calm down a little bit? Or at least your voices? You’re scaring them!”

“Squawk! What is going on out here?!” Chatot demanded.

“Chatot!” Drowzee, who had indeed arrived a day early and stopped in at the guild despite the late hour, answered brightly, looking highly relieved to see him. For some reason, he had Team Rainbow’s treasure bag slung over his shoulder, and in his right hand…

“I know I’m early… and I wasn’t planning on stopping in so late, “Drowzee started to explain, a bit of suppressed panic mixed in with the awkwardness he still often felt around the guild members, despite everything that they’d been through together recently, “but there was… I ran into, uh, a bit of a problem as I was heading into to town, and I’m really, really hoping that you know how to fix it,” he finished, glancing down a bit to the right as he did so.

Chatot followed his gaze, and was then dumbstruck by what he saw. “But that’s… what is… what?” he demanded. “I just… what?”

In Drowzee’s right hand was held the hand of another… and this hand belonged to a human. She was tiny, Chatot supposed, at least compared to the last human he’d seen. Her outfit, a cute little dress with matching leggings, was… well, he could tell that it would have been white, if not for the grass and dirt stains covering it. Her hair was equally white, rather than the brown that he would have expected, considering the girls eyes—which were the familiar, rainbow-colored ones belonging to his dear friend and precious graduate…

She looked like she was relaxing a bit after holding herself tense—likely in response to the yelling earlier—and she looked around, making small noises of excitement as her smile grew and grew. She spotted him and gasped in wonder, leaning forward and unconsciously trying to tug her hand out of Drowzee’s grasp, as if she wanted to dash forward and get a closer look at the pretty, talking bird in front of her. But she couldn’t really make any serious attempts to do so, as her other hand—and the attached arm—were too occupied holding onto a tiny, adorable, pichu who was teary-eyed and sniffling, periodically turning her head to hide her face in the human’s collar.

That combination… an electric-type rodent with a human companion… appearing at the guild around the same time that Team Rainbow was expected back… Team Rainbow’s treasure bag in Drowzee’s grasp… it couldn’t be… and yet…!

“Drowzee… is this… are they…?” Chatot couldn’t quite formulate the question, his voice sounding strangled from sheer disbelief in spite of the fact that there was no denying the proof in front of him.

“Yeah…” Drowzee nodded, still feeling shocked himself at the situation. “I happened to meet Team Rainbow at the crossroads when I was headed into town, and then while we were talking, Laura and Paula… they suddenly turned into… well. This.”

Chatot was struck silent, but Wigglytuff was finally able to break his own as he turned to Bidoof and asked, “So… what was it, exactly, that you said to Jirachi?”

“Th-that…” Bidoof whispered, shaking his head at the sheer absurdity of the situation “that sometimes…. I wish that the two of them had the chance to just be kids again.”

No one had a response. The entire guild was silent as they all took his words in…

…and then, with a singular voice, Drowzee, Chatot, and the other apprentices all screamed, “YOU DID WHAAAAAAAT?!!!”

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Author’s Notes: Important background for this story: This takes place when Laura is about 14 and Paula is about 16. The two girls have recently had some very emotional things happen to them recently, with the most notable things being Laura getting injured and then trapped in a cave with Chatot during an exploration to a place that she already had some mixed emotions about in the first place. Throughout this Paula was upset that; first off, Laura and Chatot hadn’t been getting along recently; secondly, in a somewhat misguided attempt to get his friends to get along again, Wigglytuff pulled rank and declared that Laura and Chatot had to explore together, alone, so Paula wasn’t there to stop Laura from getting hurt or help her through the emotional memories; and thirdly that—inevitable successful reconciliation between Chatot and Laura aside—it was all for nothing since no one even found any treasure anyways.

 The second big emotional thing to happen was that some outlaw with the ability to travel through dreams—so probably, like, a gengar or some other ghost- or psychic-type—struck Treasure Town while Laura was away visiting Mason/recovering from the recent emotional stress and started plaguing everyone with nightmares and diving into their subconscious thoughts in order to acquire blackmail material (which is part of why they were able to stay at large for so long). This of course includes Paula, who was probably among the primary targets since her fame and notoriety would have been too enticing to pass up. They are eventually caught around the time that Laura gets back, and then they decide that the best way to hide/escape would be to essentially take Laura hostage by diving into her mind and forcing her into a nightmare—similar to what happened to Azurill. Except this turns out to be a huge mistake on their part, since Laura’s mind ends up so confusing and cavernous due to the fact that she’s had so many reincarnations that the outlaw basically gets lost and trapped, necessitating outside help. This leads to Drowzee and Cresselia—who had been using their abilities to help catch the outlaw in the first place—to have to team up with a different outlaw with dream walking abilities and more familiarity with Laura’s mind in order to successfully rescue her—and the perpetrator themselves, by this point. Unfortunately, Paula is, once more, stuck behind and unable to help her friend, which of course does not help her mindset—which is still recovering from her own stint at being this outlaw’s victim, especially in light of how big a role blackmail played in this incident, considering her experiences with it on the recent expedition. Also not helping is the fact that she and Laura have somewhat of a bad history with the person teaming up with Drowzee and Cresselia, and has not forgiven him for what he did even though Laura has.

 But the trio is successful, and decide to form a more permanent team together—partially with the intent that it will help the third member with parole/rehabilitation.

 So at the moment this story begins, Team Rainbow is suffering from emotional exhaustion—Paula feeling useless and Laura just… a mess in general—and is only just starting to get back into exploration work, all the guild members are upset after having watched their friends suffer—and in some cases being to blame for some of the suffering—and are continually being struck with just how young these two actually are despite having been through so much. Drowzee is also still hanging around town, or at least close enough to it to visit frequently—both because he, too, needs to recover mentally from the rescue mission and because there are some logistical issues regarding his new team and circumstances that need to be finalized. Mason may or may not be helping with that, since he also has a history with the third team member, but one that is decidedly less fraught with tension and bad blood, on the whole—which may actually be one of the things that everyone else finds so surprising/unnerving about the whole situation, to be honest.