Pokémon Abandoned

[AceTrainerWesley]

This story contains tones of depression, and, as per the title, abandonment. If any of these bothers you, proceed with caution.
This story is set in the same world as Midnight Hollow Pokémon School. Please check it out!

This story a part of Short Stories involving Wesley. If you would like to read them, I suggest this order, despite it not being entirely chronological:
Abandoned > Worthy > Liberation

I would love to hear any feedback you have to give me!
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Abandoned​

Liana was sent out of her Pokéball. A moment later, so was Midnight. Under the starlit sky, the Espeon noticed that her trainer was crying. The moon reflected off of his tears.

She noticed that she hadn’t been sent out of her Pokéball after Wesley had returned home from school, and she could tell something was wrong. One glance at Midnight, Wesley’s Umbreon, told her that he was thinking the same thing.

He had been struggling in Grade School, and the day before, Liana had already foreseen that his grade report was going to arrive tomorrow, but what would come of it was unknown to her, as Wesley closed the window to his room before she could read further into it.

“The two of you are better off without me.”

Wesley’s voice was shaky, and exhausted. As though he had been crying for hours in the middle of the night. A cold breeze brushed Liana’s fur, and she felt hollow. She realized what he was going to do. She was too stunned to react. Wesley pressed the buttons on their two Pokéballs, and blue beams of light shot out from them and engulfed Liana and Midnight, but they were not sent back into their Pokéballs.

“I’m nothing but a waste… I don’t deserve you two.” He turned around, and started to walk off. The Espeon and Umbreon glanced at each other, then back to their former trainer.

“Esp!”

“Um!”

They ran back to Wesley, and he stopped in his tracks. “No. Don’t… Don’t make this harder than it already is.”

His eyes were hidden from Espeon’s sight, as his hood was up. All she could see was a tear, shining in the pale moonlight, following the glazed path on his cheek that other tears had already taken.

“I’M NOT CUT OUT TO BE A TRAINER. I’M NOT CUT OUT TO BE ANYTHING!”

His sudden outburst caused the Pokémon to both jump backwards. Now she could see Wesley’s face. Distorted in grief and failure. Hurting from what his father could have possibly said to him during the day.

Espeon had seen this face many times before, and it never failed to break her heart. But now it felt even more broken. He looked as though he had just plunged a spear into his own Pokémon just by shouting at them.

“See?” He sobbed, “I can’t do anything good. For anybody or anything.” He turned around and ran. Umbreon began to chase after him, before realizing that Espeon was frozen.

Umbreon returned to the Espeon, who was shaking. Abandoned. This was the last thing she thought she would be. Winds were spiraling around her like a tornado. All sorts of premonitions rapidly entered and left her mind's eye, and there were so many things that could happen now.... Screams and grief, funerals and trials. Cemeteries and urns and fighting and jails. Everything resulted in a broken family that Espeon used to be a part of. Possibilities flashed in and out of the Espeon’s head, and she felt like she was getting a headache, as though the twister of wind outside was breaking into her head.

For three days, they were alone together. The Pokémon had found a river bank, and some bushes of Belue Berries. Though the sky was overcast and gray, there was just enough orange light permeating through the clouds that told the Pokémon that the sun was setting. Umbreon offered Espeon some of the berries, but she refused. Though the winds had let her trainer go, Espeon’s mind had not. Truthfully, Wesley had never left her head in at all during the last few days. She wondered if this was how he felt, day in and day out.

As the sun hit the horizon, a breeze stroked her head, she perked up. It felt so much like Wesley’s hand, stroking her in the way it used to, it was almost uncanny. She glanced up, and saw Wesley crying once again. She rushed to comfort him, but the vision faded, and her ears drooped as she realized that she was still in the forest. Umbreon ran up to her, looking concerned.

Umbreon nudged his counterpart with his head, as leaves started to rustle with the breeze once again. Once again, the air weaved through the forest, and combed over Espeon's head and between her ears once again. Caressing her head in such a way that felt exactly like him. Only once Umbreon nuzzled her once again did she manage to break free from those bygone memories and desires. Umbreon's expression was one much more worried than she had ever seen. He always had a careful demeanor about him... but deep inside him she could tell his heart ached with the exact same pain as her own. She looked up at the Dark-Type. He glanced down at her in turn.

"Do you remember before we were caught?" Umbreon asked. Liana slowly nodded... Those memories were from so long ago... Being a wild Pokémon was hard then. Yet it felt so much harder now. Umbreon looked up to the sky. They had to compete among the other eevee, and other wild Pokémon to survive. However, back then, Espeon was an outsider. All the other Eevee around their age were around three months of age, and could just about fend for themselves, Espeon was only barely older than a month old. The mother eeveelutions of the pack were just about ready to let their own spawn out into the wild world, and none had the time or patience for her- and yet worse, she reeked of human scent.

"I didn't want to leave you," Umbreon confessed, "I did most of the work myself. I tugged you along with me... Trying harder than any of the adults were to take care of you."

"I... I know... I Remember..."

Umbreon nodded, and started once again, "I always thought of you as my sister... despite you never having been accepted into the pack..."

He recalled another day-- much like the present one. The sky was an endless, thick layer of gray. Espeon was tired, hungry, and dehydrated. She couldn't continue. Midnight tugged at her scruff with all his might... but she was too heavy for his small self. Suddenly, Umbreon was heaved from his feet, and was carried away. He protested with all his energy, but it was nothing compared to his fully grown mother. He watched helplessly as his sister was left behind, a dim orange glow perturbing from the trees above and down onto her.

Liana stared at him, her eyes filled with tears. "I... I don't remember that..."

"I was told to stay with the pack... And I was told to forget about you... But I couldn't. I was told those same two commands over and over again that night... My own instinct for survival told me such as well... But it didn't matter how much I was told to stay away... So I ran. I followed your scent until I found the same clearing."

"I thought that they had left you... I thought it was because you wanted to protect me so much."

The Umbreon turned to the Espeon, as the shadow of the horizon crawled across the land, and started casting them into the darkness. "Then I would have abandoned you. I had to come back to save you."

Espeon's eyes widened, and shook a little. She stood up, almost autonomously, and glanced away from the sun, towards their home, somewhere underneath the darkening clouds. Another gust of air passed through the area, tickling against her delicate fur. She saw another vision of Wesley. He sat alone in the darkness, in an empty house. He wept once more, and glanced at the remaining Pokéballs by his bed. "I don't deserve any Pokémon not after what I did to them..." And with a flash of blue light, she returned to the present.

Umbreon watched her. "Another vision?"

"Y-you're right... Wesley is much more to me than just a human... or a trainer... He's family..."

Umbreon's ears perked up, as she continued, "And by not coming back... we abandoned him, just like how he abandoned us..."

She just had that vision. There was still time, but it was of the essence. Wesley had given up on himself, and he was going to push away the rest of his Pokémon if they didn’t act soon- permanently sealing his fate to the grim future that she had foreseen. He needed someone, or something, to be there for him more than ever before.

"We need to go back! We need to save him from himself!"

Umbreon nodded in absolute understanding. He then closed his eyes, grinning. Espeon caught a slight tremble of relief in his voice as he said, "It's about time."

So they ran. They ran out of the forest, and into the suburbs. Running faster than they had ever done before. Random people and Pokémon watched them as they ran by, some people attempting to try to battle them, but did not stop. Espeon knew exactly where Wesley was, for she had just seen him. They leapt over the fence to Wesley’s father’s home, and darted inside through the Pokémon door. She slowed down, stepping onto the carpet that she had missed, and into their old home. Still, there was something she missed even more than the carpet, and she could hear him, despite his efforts to stifle his own sobbing.

Umbreon caught up to her, and they walked into Wesley’s room, as the door was still slightly crept open. Wesley stopped immediately upon hearing the door open. She knew this was his natural reaction to hearing something amiss.

He slowly looked over his computer to see if there was an intruder in the house. The Pokémon's eyes met with her trainer's. “Liana?”

Espeon shouted with glee, and ran to Wesley. She jumped into his arms and began licking his face. Wesley said nothing, but Espeon felt some tears hit her back. “Why… Why did you come back?”

Espeon stopped and looked into Wesley’s eyes, smiling. Umbreon walked up next to them, and Wesley looked at him, realizing that the dark type had some tears in his eyes as well. “Midnight?!”

“Umbre.”

Umbreon curled up next to Wesley, his rings glowing brightly with happiness. Wesley looked to the both of them. Espeon nuzzled his head, and her foot pressed the spacebar on Wesley’s computer, which she had pushed aside with her psychic power.

From the laptop, the video that Wesley must have been watching continued.

“If you love something, let it go. If it comes back, it’s yours.”

Wesley inhaled sharply, and he wept. He didn’t try to hide it anymore. Eventually, he stopped, and just enjoyed his time with his Pokémon. Later on, Wesley’s brother and his father returned home, and found Wesley asleep, snuggling with his Espeon and Umbreon.

Wesley went back to his middle school the next day, leaving Espeon and Umbreon back at home again. However this time, thanks to her precognition, that he would return home happily. When he returned, he gathered the two Pokémon and opened his backpack. A bunch of Luxury Balls poured out of it. He brought them outside, and set two Luxury Balls out for each of them. He stepped away from the two Pokémon. "This time... I'm going to let you choose if you want to stay or leave. I, uh, obviously hope that you'll stay... but... well... it's your choice now."

Umbreon turned to the Psychic Type. "Never again?"

Espeon smiled at her family. "Never again."

Espeon and Umbreon looked at each other, then to Wesley, and they both tapped the buttons on their respective Luxury Ball without a moment's hesitation. The Luxury Balls popped open, and jets of red light shot from the black-and-gold capsules, and surrounded the two eeveelutions. Wesley watched as the Pokéballs shut, and then immediately clicked- releasing a flurry of sparks.

Wesley sent Liana and Midnight back out without delay. They all smiled at each other before Liana leapt into Wesley's arms, sending him falling down onto his butt. The three of them all laughed together, basking in the glorious afternoon sun- underneath a clear blue sky. Liana looked up at her trainer, her heart pouring with joy as she got to see his smile once again- something that just a few days ago- a sight she was mortified that she would have to live the rest of her life without ever experiencing again. And she was so grateful to never need to worry about it for the rest of her life.

As the day went on, Wesley brought out every single other Pokémon of his, one at a time, and released them in the forest. With each one, he would explain everything to them, and then let them choose whether to stay, or return to the wild. Many of his Pokémon chose the Luxury Ball, and there were a few who left returned a few days later. However, there were a handful of Pokémon that said their goodbyes to Wesley, and returned into the thicket- never to be seen again. Despite some sad goodbyes, in the winds, Liana read that Wesley had found a happier place in life after doing this, as this was a symbol of his Pokémon's devotion towards him. A vow to stay by his side no matter how tough things may get. A symbolism of his family. His future and theirs was set straight once again, and the road stretched to a brighter light than the one before.

~fin​

 

[Negrek]

Hey, Wesley! I thought I'd return and take a look at some of these little side stories you posted. They seemed like a nice way to get into your story without needing to commit to another full chapterfic right away! A quick note before we get started--your paragraphs got kind of squashed together in this one. If you throw a [respace] at the start of the story and [/respace] at the end, it should take care of that for you.

Anyway, this is a classic sort of story establishing the bond between a trainer and his pokémon. Always a topic I love to see explored. I don't know a great deal about Wesley yet, but I think he feels like a realistic kid here, with kid-sized concerns and a certain impulsiveness and raw feeling in how he reacts. The part where he lashes out at his pokémon when they understandably try to comfort him, then takes that outburst as a further sign that he doesn't deserve them, struck me as particularly true to life. And heartbreaking!

I also love the focus the pokémon get here. Wesley really does hurt them, and they have to help each other out when they're on their own. Espeon gets much more focus than Umbreon; those visions sounded pretty intense! It's interesting to think of how a pokémon so tied to others' minds and emotions could be affected by others' distress and have their own compounded. I'll admit that I first thought Espeon's vision was actually her reacting to past events in her life rather than foretelling something--that she'd previously been abandoned and having Wesley release her now was that much more traumatic as a repeat of those events. But foreseeing your trainer's death would also be super traumatic, so I think either interpretation makes sense there, heh. All in all, Espeon and Umbreon's initial hurt at Wesley's rejection of them, and their eventual decision to return to make sure he's okay, make sense, and the theme of "if you love something, let it go" works well for this story.

I just wish we'd gotten a little more insight into what made Espeon switch from mourning to deciding they needed to return to Wesley! The way it read to me, Espeon kind of ran away, took some time to cool off, then decided to go back to Wesley once she was feeling better, sort of at random. It would have been nice to see what, after the time they'd spent on her own, made her change her mind--what realization triggered that desire to return. Maybe it was a particular memory or fragment of vision. Or perhaps somthing Umbreon said or did could have given her that spark; like I said, he didn't get as much focus here, and that might be a way to make him a more active player in the story. That moment is kind of the key turning point in the story, and I think you could afford to play it up a little more!

As an aside, I thought the blue release beam on the pokéballs was an interesting detail! It's always fun to see how different authors handle releasing pokémon, since it's something we don't see a lot of in most canons.

Also, the end where Wesley asks all his pokémon if they want to stay or leave and offers them luxury balls is a heartwarming ending and works well with the story's theme. However, it kind of suggests that the pokémon might not have been free to leave before, or didn't realize that they were, which has kind of creepy implications! Might be best to make it clear that this is kind of a reaffirmation that the pokémon want to be on Wesley's team, him wanting them to take a chance to reevaluate things, rather than kind of being a one-off where the ones who did want a break might otherwise not have gotten one.

A few nitpicks:

A cold breeze brushed Liana’s fur, and she felt hallow.

Did you mean "hollow?"

Though the winds had let him go, Espeon’s mind had not. Truthfully, he had never left her head in the last few days. She wondered if this was how he felt, day in and day out.

I was a little confused about what was being said here. My interpretation is that Espeon has been sharing her thoughts with Umbreon, and she's been thinking about Wesley constantly over the past few days? But is "he" Wesley here? What is "how he felt," sad? She'd have an idea of that already, right, having been around him plenty? Not sure if there's some pronoun confusion here or if I'm missing something obvious or what, but these sentences are a real puzzle for me.

He gave up on himself, and he was going to push away the rest of his pokemon if they didn’t act soon- permanently sealing his fate to the grim future that she had foreseen.

You want "he'd given up" rather than "he gave up" here. "He'd given" indicates it was something that happened in the past.

The Pokémon's eyes met with its trainer.

I think what you're going for here is that their gazes met, in which case you'd want "trainer's" rather than "trainer" here. Right now Liana's looking at Wesley in general rather than meeting his eyes specifically.

Umbreon curled up next to Wesley, its rings glowing brightly.

Since the pokémon are usually referred to as "he" or "she" throughout, it was odd to see Umbreon called "it" here.

All in all, I think this makes a solid side-story to a main fic and gives some nice insight into the characters. Also, Umbreon/Espeon duos are fun! If you haven't already checked out Of Sand and Shadows, that's one you might enjoy. Lots of fun Espeon and Umbreon action there! Thanks for sharing this one with us.

 

[Namohysip]

Part 1 of my three-part review! I read in the order you requested, and am giving you some stream of consciousness thoughts. In the third short story (Liberation) I'll give some overall thoughts on how, while standalone, the three loosely related stories come together.

Now, considering where we're starting, I felt that the opening was a little too sudden for not knowing who or what Pokemon our main perspective was. It's was resolved a little later, but it was distracting at the beginning.

It's difficult to entirely get in the mindset of such an emotional scene right off that bat when it's a short one shot in this way. I don't know a whole lot of context and I almost wonder if maybe an opening scene or two to set the stage would help build toward what would be a more climactic moment that were opening with. As it stands, it falls a little flat.

"Sealing his fate to the grin future she had foreseen" made me realize just what she had seen in the end of that first scene, and it was actually a little confusing. I thought it was referring to things that happened in the past to lead Wesley to feeling the way he did, but it's actually a premonition of what would happen? I'm not completely sure when this line was dropped, so I'm feeling less confident on the context of Wesley's life now. I get that he's got issues, but unfortunately with so little info it's hard to discern beyond that.

Or is it both and Espeon is getting both a premonition and also reflecting on past broken families Espeon knows about?

With a Psychic Pokemon I feel like clarification would be good here.

By the end it's more clear. I like that it was finally established as a more ambiguous idea of "the winds" being what guided Espeon forward in those premonitions.

Overall, though, this was a nice slice of life style story that I enjoyed for its emotional base. It could have used some fleshing out, though, and in retrospect (this is me speaking after reading all three parts) this one definitely felt the most out of place because of it. Perhaps it was because it took place between two very different genres, and Wesley himself seemed very different here compared to the other two installments. I'm still not sure how to think on that one.

Anyway, though, as a starter, it was short and sweet. Onto the second...

 

[AceTrainerWesley]

Hi @Negrek and @Namohysip! Thank you both so much for your reviews and critiques! I've gone back through the story and added more onto it- and (hopefully) clarified some things that seemed to be causing some confusion, and added some more to the story for Midnight! I also fixed the silly grammar errors that slipped under my radar.

I must say, after the additions I made to it, I'm a lot happier with this story myself! I honestly felt like it fell a long ways short from Worthy and Liberation, and never quite knew how to fix it. It feels a lot more complete than it was before! So once again, thank you both SO MUCH for the reviews!

If you haven't already checked out Of Sand and Shadows, that's one you might enjoy. Lots of fun Espeon and Umbreon action there!

I've checked a few chapters out! I really need to dedicate more time to it honestly, because Espeon and Umbreon are just such a power duo XD