Chapter One: Somewhere Far, Far Away

"Celeana, your lunch."

The pale-eyed woman's smile was gentle, every strand of stiff flaxen hair gelled into place, catching the sunlight and being bleached even whiter. A tray sat in her hands, the usual, standard meal of rice, vegetables and meat—the essentials for a healthy, nutritional meal.

"Thank you, Miss Enya," the teenage girl responded with a smile, accepting the plate from the older lady and poising her fork above a tantalising piece of meat. "I really do a—appreciate you bringing me lunch today."

Ignoring the way she'd tripped over a word, the psychiatrist took her seat next to her patient's bed, watching her as she savoured her lunch heartily.

"How are you feeling today?" A standard question, but necessary for all psychiatrists to ask.

Tucking a lock of her long, ultramarine hair behind her ear, the teenager tilted her head to the side. "Fine, I guess." Her voice was casual, and it relieved the woman to hear the sincerity in her voice.

"That's nice to hear," she encouraged. "Are you nervous?"

Celeana raised an eyebrow. Yes, she did have an appointment with the doctor today, but she didn't know what it was about. "Not really. I—I mean, appointments with the doctor aren't really that uncommon..."

Another smile— the one Miss Enya would shoot her when she knew something that she herself didn't.

She sighed. "So you won't tell me?"

"You'll find out soon enough," her psychiatrist replied in her usual kind tone. "You'd better finish your lunch soon. Your appointment is in twenty minutes, so get changed before then."

"Y—Yes, Miss Enya."

• • •

The teenager brushed her hand against the door to the doctor's room, knuckles scraping against the pristine white of the wooden frame as a hollow noise resounded—it caused her to jump back, alarmed by the loudness of the sound, but calmed herself as she realised that it was nothing to be afraid of.

She offered a brief smile to the familiar man who opened the door. "I'm here for my a—appointment, doctor," she commented.

"This way, Celeana," the doctor replied, leading her into the small space inside. It was cluttered, yes— but it brought a sense of warmth to see the frequently-visited site once again. "We'll just be taking some simple tests and check-ups."

The girl was disappointed— she had been expecting more of a surprise. It had sounded like something important, from the way Miss Enya had spoken.

Changing the topic, she tilted her head in confusion. "Didn't I just have a check-up last month?"

Her heart promptly deflated as she was met with no answer. The man stayed quiet, and she lowered her head in internal defeat, stepping onto the weighing scale— just as she had done for the past five years.

The next half an hour passed by in a blur, and as she sat down to have her pulse taken, she was feeling more and more fed up.

"What are you planning to do?" she asked, uncertainty creeping into her flat tone.

"Now, don't feel worried," the doctor reassured, his tone taking all of five seconds to switch from professional to empathetic. "We're not going to hurt you or anything."

"Then why am I having a check-up so soon?" Celeana's voice rose, and the doctor realised that giving her a surprise wouldn't work— instead, it was giving her a huge panic attack and probably causing all sort of thoughts to race through her mind.

He smoothed his hair back, sighing at his patient— she could be difficult to deal with sometimes. Yes, she'd recovered from her trauma for the most part, but he had to look out for her haphazard outbursts of raw, fierce emotions crashing down in angry waves.

I guess some things take a longer time to heal than others, he thought to himself with a grim expression. In this case, we can only hope that her fears can go away soon.

Hazel eyes glinted behind the thin lenses of his spectacles. "The hospital just wanted to surprise you."

She gave him a strange look, taking deep breaths to calm down at the same time. "By giving me a check-up?"

"No," he assured, face breaking into a wide smile. "We just needed to make sure that your health was OK."

"For?" The fear had dissipated almost completely, and was replaced with a look of genuine curiosity. Wide amber optics stared at him, almost ordering him to continue.

"Have you read the stories of Pokemon Trainers around the world? The ones of people like Red and Green who went on journeys to become Pokemon Masters?" His voice was calm. "We were planning to release you from the hospital and allow you to go on a journey."

The doctor laughed as he saw Celeana's expression; the shift in her features and the surprise registering on her face before she could hide it.

There was a delicious moment where her face washed blank with confusion, like her brain cogs couldn't turn fast enough to take in the information from her wide eyes. Every muscle of her body froze for a split-second before a grin crept onto her face, it soon stretched from one side to the other and radiating nothing but pure happiness.

Unconsciously, she drummed her fidgeting fingers against the side of the desk, unable to stop moving for even a second.

"You mean an a—actual journey?" she blurted out. "You'll let me stop living in the hospital?"

The doctor laughed— he'd always had a soft spot for children. "If we'd kept you in the hospital all your life, we'd be denying your freedom. Your health hasn't deteriorated yet; you deserve to go out on your own."

"T—Thank you, doctor." She let the euphoria die down, replaced by a lingering, sweet shroud of happiness that soaked right through her bones.

A journey.

She would be able to live like a normal person for once.

• • •

"Did you enjoy the surprise?"

Celeana offered a wry smile to the psychiatrist, but her heart was still pounding with excitement. "Now I know why you didn't tell me."

She bit back an immature pout as Miss Enya laughed, studying her wide-eyed, childish expression. The woman smiled, grey eyes twinkling as she continued packing clothes into her patient's haversack.

"But first," she vocalised, "We have some administrative issues to take care of." As a groan was elicited from the teenager, she sighed, continuing. "We need to know where exactly you want to start your journey in. You've learnt about the regions, yes?"

Celeana bit her lip, nodding. While Kalos was a beautiful region, she didn't want to travel there. She would be all alone— this time, with no one protecting her— and if the Meowstic came across her again, she wasn't sure what would happen to her.

I don't want to go back there. She'll hurt me and—

"Celeana!"

The Meowstic will try to control me—

"Celeana. Look at me."

Stifling a gasp, she blinked her eyes open, met with a pair of comforting, familiar optics. The last traces of her hysteria cleared from her vision, and Miss Enya was gripping her hands, brow creased over with worry.

"I don't want to be in Kalos," she muttered, shaking and burrowing into the older woman's warm arms. "I'd like to go far away. Far, far away."

"That's fine," Miss Enya soothed, pulling the girl closer in and stroking her hair in a condoling gesture. "That's not a problem at all. I'll tell them that you won't be able to start in Kalos." Her tone dropped, taking on a soft, motherly tone that she had adopted over her long years as a psychiatrist.

As she wrapped the patient in a warm embrace, a suggestion slid through her lips. "Well, how about Hoenn?"

Celeana relaxed, drawing in breath after breath in attempt to forget about her thoughts. She'd heard about the region— a tropical place with vast expanses of ocean, known for their clear seas and fluctuating weather.

Anywhere but Kalos, her mind hummed.

"OK," she smiled. "I've heard that it's very tropical there."

Laughing, the psychiatrist beamed back. "It is. There are many things to experience in Hoenn, you know. Things that you won't be able to find here."

"Like?" Celeana sat up, eager to listen.

"You have plenty of choices," the woman replied. "Battling, coordinating, breeding— the possibilities are endless.

The teenager's mouth tugged downwards into a frown, confused at the unfamiliar words, but she ignored it. "That sounds interesting, to say the least. B—But I'll be alone?"

Celeana saw a slight sullen look flash across her face, as if considering how to present her answer to her. It seemed like an eternity she she looked up, wiping her face clean of the troubled expression and replacing it with the grin that she was familiar with.

"Well, it'll be a good learning experience," she started slowly. "You'll have your freedom, and we're more than sure that you'll be able to take care of yourself. And if you need help, you can call us."

Still unconvinced, the teenager shot the psychiatrist a dubious look.

Stumbling over her words, Miss Enya added on to her previous sentence hastily. "I—If you'd like, I could come with you to Hoenn for the first few days. To get you adjusted to the new environment and everything."

Well, that would be nice. Maybe I would enjoy my journey after all.

"OK." Celeana brightened up, all traces of the previous stormy expression in her eyes gone. "I'd like that."

• • •

"So this is Lumiose City?" The teenage girl paused in front of a large building, inspecting the marble pillars with their sculpted figures of Pokeballs. "It's... big, to say the least."

"This is the centre of Kalos, after all." Miss Enya placed an arm around her patient. "And you're standing in front of Professor Sycamore's laboratory right now, where he'll give you a Pokemon. We've already booked an appointment with him."

Celeana opened her mouth to speak, words tripping over her tongue, but was cut off by a deep voice. She looked up, jumping in surprise when met with a pair of thick, round glasses peering at the both of them, the irises of the man's eyes blurred through his frames. "Are you Celeana Asthansia?"

Nodding, she hastily straightened up, stumbling back into her caretaker's arms.

"I'm Sycamore's assistant," he stated, his tone flat, looking me over with an uninterested tone. "He's free now, and he's waiting for both of you on the top floor."

"Thank you," Miss Enya replied with the gracious tone a psychiatrist would have been expected to carry, nudging Celeana into the building.

She'd expected it to be something grand— but in reality, the laboratory resembled the hospital she'd lived in for years, with its plain, dull blue walls, dizzyingly large interior and sparse furnishing. Elaborate machines made up most of the decoration, and it was too silent, the only sounds coming from the whirring of the machines and low whispers that scientists held their conversations in.

The lift was dingy as compared to the rest of the sleek, spotless look of the basement, with a thin layer of grime coating its cramped walls. It creaked as it shuttled upwards, and Celeana paused to think if the machine was safe.

When they stepped out of the claustrophobic container, the teenage girl hesitated raised her head to inspect the top floor.

It seemed much cosier— there was a hint of colours in the office, with a brighter ultramarine used for the walls, gold edges lining the room, and a deep, velvety red carpet spread over the white-tiled floor.

A lanky man sat behind an antique-looking desk, books scattered everywhere, and he looked at the two visitors with a kind smile.

He nodded to Celeana, acknowledging the fact that the girl was present, but turned to converse with her psychiatrist for a few moments in the same low voice that the scientists used. She didn't like it—the whispers reminded her of how the Meowstic would keep things from her—but she put up with it as well as she could.

She caught glimpses of their words—a Meowstic here, a worried for her there, but it wasn't enough to make sense of the full context.

At last, the two adults finished speaking, and the man wiped his face clean of the solemn expression he'd been wearing and flashed her a warm smile.

"Welcome," he started. "You've arranged to meet here today, right?"

At this, the psychiatrist walked over, whispering something to him in a hushed voice. Celeana tilted her head, straining to make out their conversation, but it was near impossible.

"Right," he continued, face morphing into a relaxed smile once again. "I'll be giving you one of three basic Pokemon found in Kalos."

With that, he walked over to a shelf, taking down a glass case with three ordinary Pokeballs sitting in a bed of velvet cushion. With a swift swipe of a panel, the glass slid open, and he pressed the buttons on all three capsules to release the creatures inside.

Three pairs of eyes stared at Celeana, and she gazed back in awe. She'd never quite seen a Pokemon this close up before— the most she'd seen was a few Chansey or Wigglytuff helping out in the hospital or a few wild Caterpie or Pidgey in her home's garden.

She'd read about these three Pokemon before— the ones that were presented to young Kalos trainers at the start of their journey.

She'd never thought that one day, she'd be one of them.

The first Pokemon was quite obviously a fire-type, a small foxlike creature with sleek features and a shining orange coat. Dark amber eyes blinked at her, and she turned away from time to time to lick at her coat.

The second was what she called a Chespin, a hedgehog-like organism with green spines protruding outwards. He hid behind the third and final Pokemon, but  took the time to nervously study the trainer in front of him before turning away.

She looked at the water-type creature— something resembling a frog, with a layer of pale blue skin and a wild mane of white bubble-like substance on his small chest and back. She'd known from pictures that he had large black eyes, but they were now shut, having lost complete interest in the girl and revealing only the yellow sclera.

Celeana knew that all three of them would make wonderful starters— she would take all of them if she could— but she could just choose one.

She had read about the final evolutions of the trio, and while she did fancy the bulky, powerful Chesnaught or the tall, proud Delphox, but she had another Pokemon in mind.

"Professor Sycamore?" Her voice was small. "Froakie does evolve into Greninja, doesn't it?"

He nodded. "Yes, you're right. So, have you chosen your starter?"

Greninja is known for its flexibility, speed, and complete and precise control over its body. Control— that's what I aspire to have.

She reached out for the capsule on the right, staring at the defiant water Pokemon as her fingers closed around the cool metal of Froakie's Pokeball.

"I choose Froakie."

• • •

I hope you enjoyed the chapter! It's not as good as my usual standard of writing, but that's because I can't write happy things. Literally. I'm only good at writing angst. xD I'm sorry for the late update-- exams are coming up and such >~< Besides that, thank you so much for 179 views and 40 votes! It means so much to me ;0; my next goal is 55 votes cx

Critiques are most certainly welcome, and don't forget to read, vote and give your thoughts in the comments! Please be 100% honest

~ nyxia ☆