Pokemon SV fic: What have you done, my dear friend?
FINALLY!! Oh man it took me a few days to write and edit this but here it is! I wrote this when I was inspired by @k-chips ‘s Dadvell AU. Check her art as well for that AU, its quite beautiful :3
Either way, I even wrote this while there was downtime on my night shift.
So I hope you all enjoy this! Thank you for reading!
Ao3 Link in the replies
WARNING: MAJOR POKEMON SV ENDING SPOILERS BELOW THE CUT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
"Sada?!" Clavell drove around the middle layer of Area Zero as he yelled despite knowing it was of no use as he searched for his friend, "Sada! Where are you?!"
Clavell grumbled as he let Cyclizar drive deeper down to the crater.
"I swear to Arceus if I find you, Sada…"
He sighed for the nth time. He knew that he's going to be in a ton of trouble just being in Area Zero. But he had to come here.
He needed answers.
And he needed them now.
It's been a few months since Arven and his Mabosstiff came into the crater by themselves and ran into something that gravely injured the Pokemon. Since then, Arven had grown cold and distant to everyone else. Clavell has since then taken responsibility for them, but that still really didn't solve anything. He tried, he really tried like hell to contact her. The real biological mother of Arven, Professor Sada. He wanted to know what it was that attacked Arven and Mabosstiff. How strong it must be to gravely injure a Pokemon like that.
He wanted to know why she never bothered to reach out to them.
He knew that she was buried in her research. She always was, ever since they met. He knew she was too busy to even take care of a child. He knew that…
That…
He knew her well. He was the only person that would be considered her friend. They worked together on the Tera Orb technology. It's how he and even later his new colleague, Jacq met the young boy.
And now he's the only one who has been there for him.
Clavell has tried to contact her since the incident. Calls, emails, texts, instant messaging… anything he could use at his disposal to contact Sada at this Arceus-forsaken hole in the middle of the region. But it was all to no avail. It was just nothing. Radio silence.
So now, he's resolved to jump into Area Zero in secret, in search of this boy's mother.
He stopped at the 3rd Research Station for a break and to rest his Cyclizar. He sat himself on the bed and opened up his sandwich for his lunch. He realized then that this place hadn't been used in a while. There were vines all around the outer walls. There was quite a layer of dust in the desk and bed and he had to clean up a bit in order for him to actually relax. He knew that ever since the end of the Tera Orb project, that most of the assistants, including himself, had gone on to do other research. Only Sada and a couple of assistants had stayed behind.
But he recently met up with them just before he became the Director of Naranja Academy. They were mostly quiet about the project as they were asked by Sada herself to keep this secret. But they did tell him that something has gone wrong with Professor Sada once the Tera Orb project ended. Ever since her husband, Turo left her unexpectedly one day, they had barely even seen her or let alone even talked to her. The last time one of them spoke to her, they were met with nothing but rage. Over something as simple as her needing rest. The assistants then both agreed to leave after that. Not only was Sada getting more volatile, but they felt there was something… something deeper down the depths of Area Zero, that was far, far more dangerous than they first thought.
As Clavell finished his sandwich, and fed his Pokemon, he stretched himself, mounted his Cyclizar once more, and headed off deeper into the crater.
He entered a large cave that gave him a path to bring him lower and lower down the crater. On the way he saw a lot of unusual Pokemon wandering around. Most of them he has rarely seen in the wild and even saw wild Glimmora which was never recorded to have ever been spotted in the wild. In fact, he only knew what it was, when he first met the newest Top Champion, Geeta. He saw that there were more Tera Crystals around and some had even grown larger than he last saw them, and saw had crept closer to the entrance. He managed to evade many Pokemon around him and found his way into the 4th Research Station.
He's been here before of course, he spent a lot of time in this research station before. It was closer to the Tera Crystals for him to study and collect samples from. Plus he used to be Champion rank himself, so he was allowed here due to his battling prowess.
He dismounted Cyclizar and returned him back to its ball.
He found it quite odd though, normally there would be other Pokemon casually roaming around this area, but now, he hasn't seen any near this station at all.
He knocked at the Station doors despite knowing that no one would be there to answer anyway, and opened it himself.
What he saw in the station was something he could never forget …
Cables were strewn all over the floor, the giant metal canisters had fallen over, various machines broken as if they were physically torn apart by hand. Human? No, impossible. It must be a Pokemon's doing. But he remembered how sturdy everything in these stations were. Not even Dodonzos or Gagrnacls could wreck the place. He could then see that tera crystals have slowly crept in from the crevices of the walls. The power was shut down from this station, as he expected to see sparks coming from the disaster he walked in, but there were none. He couldn't even get the light switches to turn on.
Using his Rotom phone's flashlight app, he looked around the mess. The only thing he could see upright was the little command centre. He jokingly commented once before how these little things could survive a nuclear disaster. He didn't think he was actually correct.
Judging from the wreckage, he knew something went loose in here. But what kind of Pokemon could do such massive damage here?
Just then he felt something on his shoe, he peered down along with his phone, and saw that there was some sort of liquid dried up on the floor, staining it. It came from underneath one of the canisters… It was dark, dark… red? Brown?? Black??
Wait…
It…
It's….
No….
It looked like b—
"Who's in here?!"
A familiar voice quickly grabbed Clavell's attention away from the stains. His head snapped up and looked towards the source of the voice. And there he saw… he finally saw the woman he was looking for.
"Sada!"
"Clavell?!" Sada was shocked to see her friend down here. "What is Arceus's name are you doing down here?!"
Clavell blinked as he tried to just absorb the question thrown at him and then again.
'So Sada's here…' He thought… for a second he thought the stain was… that it belonged to… 'So this stain couldn't be…?'
"Clavell? Hey! Are you all right?" Sada asked him with great concern, "I overheard a Cyclizar coming down here so I went to check. I didn't expect to see you down here."
'Wait… how did she know it was a Cyclizar?' Clavell was confused, Cyclizars are typically not loud when they are driven. But then quickly changed the topic, as he had more priorities. "Sada. I came down here to look for you."
"For me?" Sada wondered, "How come?"
"Sada…" Clavell shook his head and sighed. He stepped outside the station to approach his friend, "Arven was here. A few months ago."
"He was?!" The professor was shocked to hear that from him. "Wait! What was he doing in here?"
"He was looking for you Sada!" Clavell quickly shot his answer at her as if it was the most obvious answer in the world. "Your son came down here all on his own to search for his mother who has barely sent an email to him for the past year!"
"I was… I've been…"
"Busy. We know." Clavell finished it for her. Every word dripped with sarcasm. "And do you know what happened to him, Sada? He got hurt. And what's worse, the only thing he had that was a semblance of a family is Mabosstiff. Or do you only remember him as a Maschiff? Either way, Mabosstiff got gravely injured while protecting him."
"Oh no…" Sada muttered as she felt incredibly guilty as she heard the news, "Is he?"
"No… Thank Arceus he isn't." Clavell shook his head, and pushed his glasses back up, "But Jacq and I, I hope you still remember him, have tried everything at our disposal to heal him. We've asked every professor in the world for help and while we have made some progress, none can't even guarantee if he'll ever be back to his old self again!"
Clavell, safe to say, was furious. The second reason why he came down here was to just tell Sada off. It felt wrong to him for doing something so ungentleman-like. But seeing Arven and Mabosstiff in such a terrible state… he couldn't take it anymore. He felt so helpless just being unable to help them.
He was without a doubt, taking out his frustrations at her.
Sada remained silent. She turned away, not making eye contact with Clavell.
"Sada…" Clavell took a deep breath to calm himself down. "Arven. Your son. He misses you. More than you could ever imagine. He went here to look for you. He wanted to know. Just like I wanted to know…"
"Why won't you come back?"
Sada finally turned to face her friend. Clavell was not angry at the moment. He was…
To her, her friend was pleading with her.
"Clavell… I…" Sada muttered just enough for him to hear, "I can't…"
"I can't, what?!" Clavell demanded an answer, "Why? Is there a reason that we don't know, why you can't leave this Arceus-forsaken hole?"
"I just can't leave Clavell…"
"Then tell me why?!" He repeated himself, but there was no response from his friend. "We just want to know!"
"I'm sorry…" was the only thing Sada could muster.
"Don't tell me that." Clavell shook his head, "Tell that to Arven. To Mabosstiff."
Clavell clenched his fists as he tried to restrain himself.
"His father left both of you when he could barely remember him. And now you left him for… for this!" He waved his hand and pointed at the wrecked station, "And now you're just going to let him lose the only family he has left?!"
Silence once more.
"Answer me Sada! Anything!" Clavell pleaded, "Anything to just… explain this?! Is it really worth leaving your loved ones behind?! Your friends! Sada, please…"
Professor Sada instead turned away, back facing her friend. She couldn't answer him. She couldn't even begin to try to answer him.
So Clavell took that silence as his answer.
"Very well…" Clavell pushed his glasses back, "Very well, Sada. I shall take my leave then."
He brought out his Cyclizar and gave him a good pat. As he mounted his ride, he then said to her .
"Despite all of that, Arven is surprisingly doing well."
Sada bit her lip but didn't show it to him.
"He's a strong young man. More than I could ever imagine." He continued, "I'm proud of him despite all of it."
Sada didn't reply.
"I'm going to take them in." Clavell declared to her as he refused to look at his friend anymore. "I'll take full custody of them. I'll take care of them. And they'll finally have a home. With me."
If Sada could cry right now, she would. Instead she replied.
"Thank you… and good luck…"
“You have no right to say that, my dear friend…”
Clavell didn't say anymore and drove away. Away from this hole. And away from her.
Sada turned her head just to see, to see if her friend had left the caves. Just so she wouldn't be seen.
Just so he wouldn't see the truth…
She entered the wrecked station, walked towards the large stain, then looked at what was peeking out underneath the canister.
"I'm sorry…" Sada? said as her eyes glowed red. "I'm so sorry my dear friend…"
She rolled out the canister to reveal the horrible truth underneath.
"I cannot tell you. I cannot tell you this…" AI Sada lamented, "You and Arven… deserve better… better than this…"
"You two… would be happier if you didn't know about truth…"
Clavell felt bad deep down. He had just exploded in front of his dear friend because he was frustrated at himself. But he wanted to tell her all of that. He didn't know what else to say to her in the first place.
And yet something…. Something is telling him that the entire interaction with Sada felt very off.
It is as if he wasn’t talking to the real Sada in the first place.
But he was so sure that he was talking to her. It was no illusion, there were no Pokemon around them. It was just Sada and the broken down research station.
Come to think of it, he never looked much deeper into the stain he found. He assumed it was just a chemical spill.
It's just….
It's just that Sada he talked to….
Was it really her?
Was it really his dear friend?
Was it?
Deep down… he knew something was up. He knew something was wrong with this….Sada…
If that is the case then is Sada….?
Clavell went home and never spoke word to anyone, not to Jacq, not to Arven. About what he did that day.
________________
The crystal pillars lowered down back to the ground as the AI Sada tried to put herself back together. She thanked Juliana, for her hard work and perseverance despite the challenges to be able to shut down the Time Machine once and for all.
AI Sada felt relief. That's what her emotional calculations concluded. It was a great relief that her struggles would be no more.
"Julie!"
"Jules!"
"Little buddy!
"Miss Juliana!"
Four voices rang out as the two saw the remainder of the group rush to their friend's side.
"Wha–" Penny was the first to notice the robot standing right infront of them. "What is this?!"
"Did you already beat all the baddies without me?!" Nemona added with a hint of disappointment, as she wanted to join in the battling.
"Is this…" Clavell then spoke as he tried to piece the situation together, "What I think it is? Sada? You really made it didn’t you?”
But Arven wanted an answer to a more pressing question. "Ok, out with it, you…"
Juliana and Clavell looked at Arven with great concern.
"Who are you, really?!"
That feeling… that feeling deep down within Clavell began to resurface again. As he looked at his…. Friend?? Her body is all stiff, unblinking, and with twitching movements…. As if she wasn’t even a human… as if she was a…
"Th-thank you… for… everything…." Her voice was soft but filled with buzzes and static. It is now obvious to anyone who she really was. "The time machinӘ… has final|y… ShӘ has…. fina|ly… bæn stoppӘd…"
"S-Sada?" Clavell managed to utter out.
"You're really not… my mom, are you?" It was hard for Arven to say it, but he braced himself for the truth…
"I'm sorry …" AI Sada looked at Clavell first. "I am so sorry, my dear friӘnd… tha7 I… |… I had to liӘ to you… back thӘn… didn't wan7 to… upsӘ7 you morӘ…"
"Wait what?!" Arven turned to Clavell only to see that the man whom he called a parent, turned pale, eyes wide, and fingers shaking, "You… you know about this…?"
"Sada…" Clavell could only say… as the horrific realization came to him. "You… can't be…"
Then AI Sada turned to face Arven this time… She wanted to shed tears… for him… She knows she can't, but the feeling is all too real. Whether it was made by her codes telling her so or not.
"Oh… Look… how big you'vӘ grown…" AI Sada managed to say with the sweetest voice, despite that it was all robotic. She meant it… she felt it… emotional calculations or not. She truly felt this emotion of love and pride. "5o… p-proud of you… my…"
Her voice disappeared for a second. She tried to say it. She tried to say the word she wanted to say so badly. But the emotions… it's telling her, stopping her. Telling her that she shouldn't say that… Because she cared, she cared so much for him.
So she instead said, ".... sorry… you wӘre alone s-so… |ong ArvӘ—-"
"M-Mom?!" Arven could only say instinctively…
Then the surrounding crystals within the room turned a deep scarlet colour.
Security System failure!
Security System failure!
Threat to time machine detected!
Threat to time machine detected!
The robotic voice filled the room and filled the room with a buzzing alarm.
"Wh-wh-whoa! What's going on now?" Penny spoke up, scared of what would happen next.
"Is another army of Pokemon on its way here?!" Nemona was ready to battle once more, but for once, she too was worried of what was to come.
The group turned to face each other, back and forth, looking around to see where the robotic voice came from. Trying to understand was happening right now.
It was not good.
"|t…. cannot bӘ–!" AI Sada looked up, as the program began to take over her systems.
An obstacle is preventing the time machine from performing as intended.
Activating Paradise Protection Protocol to remove the offending obstacle..
The elevator doors where the group came from then shut itself. Everyone took a step back but then realized they were already trapped.
"Wha–?! Was kӘӘping the time maɔhine running truly all thӘ profӘssor cared about?!" AI Sada was horrified. She was made as the exact duplicate of her creator, her emotions, reactions, movements, were all based off calculations based off the real Professor's personality. And yet… this…. This was something she did not expect at all… Or rather…
This is something she thought her creator would never try to do.
Locking all Poke Balls except those registered to Sada's ID.
"Wait what?!" Nemona looked at her Pokeball and tried to call her partner out of it. But she couldn't. Her Pokemon couldn't come out of the ball, no matter what she tried.
Penny pulled out her phone, as she tried to unjam the systems blocking their poke balls.
Juliana then turned to look at the AI, hoping she could give them an answer.
Instead...
Program initializing…
Gathering Terastal energy…
The AI had tera crystals, creeping out from underneath her feet.
"|'m sorry childrӘn, I'm sorry my dær friӘnd… " the crystals grew from her feet, legs, her coat, to her hands, her body… as if she herself was being Terastallized.
"This is al| too much for you…."
AI Sada slowly stretched out her arm… she wanted to reach out to her son. All she felt then was her own will, slowly being overtaken by the will of her own deceased creator.
She looked at Arven, at Clavell, at Juliana, at Nemona, at Penny… She was scared, terrified even. Because she now know what this is capable of.
She knows what this Protocol will do to her and to her friends.
She knows that she would lose all control of herself.
She knows that she would no longer function as Sada.
She knows that she would become nothing more than a cold and cruel machine…
Dead set on removing everything and everyone that is in the way … no matter what the cost…
"You… must… run…!"
Arven took a step forward, he wanted to reach out to her, to save her. Despite the dangers, he wanted to… save her…
AI Sada disabled.
Paradise Protection Protocol initialized.
The black platforms rose once more, lifting the Paradise Machine up to prepare it for the final sweep. To remove everything. To eliminate everything that is not part of the Paradise.
For Paradise must be maintained no matter what!
"Oh Sada…." Clavell trembled as he feared for the worst, "My dear friend…. What have you done?!"
"You are no7 getting in my way!"
You are challenged by AI Sada!
You are challen?ed by the Paradise Protec?ion Protocol!
AI Sada has no intention of fighting anymore!
You are challenged by the Paradise Protection Protocol!
At first I couldn't decide if I preferred Arven x Mc or Kieran x Mc because they're both super cute couples and they just... They just make sense to me...
But then
The Epilogue came out
And I just
So this is what is canon in my personal gameplay and, most importantly, in the Dadvell au.
OF COURSE IT'S ALL SOFT. VERY SOFT. THEY'RE KIDS. TEENS. VERY YOUNG. Don't be weird
