Sydney Florencia Ramirez
Sydney had been moved into a small office in the back of the Pokemon Center and told to wait for one of the doctors, something she'd never had to do before in all the time she'd been training Miko. But then again this was a different set of circumstances wasn't it? It couldn't be often that a Trainer came in admitting to having their brain scrambled by a Pokemon they had just caught. They were probably going to tell her that she'd seriously messed up and wasn't Pokemon Trainer Academy material. She'd be lucky if they didn't take Miko and Titania off of her for their own safety, she was clearly too much of a liability to be allowed to keep putting herself and her Pokemon at risk. They would send her back to her room to pack her bags and kick her onto to the first ferry off the island, shipping her all the way back to Unova in disgrace.
Her pity party was interrupted when an unremarkable looking young doctor came into the office, still looking at some charts, and sat down opposite her. She peeled her eyes up from staring at her feet to look at him and wait for the terrible news he was obviously going to deliver. Why wasn't he saying anything? He hadn't even said hello! She wasn't worth saying hello to, clearly, he was just going to drop the bomb and tell her to go.
"Well," he said, finally looking up at her, "The Pokemon you brought in wasn't in the best of shape. Clearly you battled it before the capture, but in this case the Elgyem doesn't seem to be have been surviving in the wild very well. Not unusual for their species, they can't communicate with other Pokemon very well and tend to get involved in a lot of misunderstandings. They're responding well to treatment though, I don't expect them to have any long term problems."
"Um... okay." Sydney responded after what felt like a long silence, he seemed to want some sort of reaction from her.
"Nurse Joy said you don't actually remember the capture. Is that right?"
"Y-yes. Nothing from today, actually."
"Hrm, okay. That's not the normal situation here, but it isn't completely unheard of either. I'm just going to do a few checks to make sure you're alright. Okay?"
"Oh. Oh, sure..."
She hadn't expected anything like that, though really she should have. She followed his finger with her eyes and tried not to blink as he beamed a tiny torch into them. Her legs jumped obediently when he tapped just under her kneecap with a tiny hammer and she was able to recall details about herself, as well as remember a number of things he asked her to. After about fifteen minutes of tests they both sat back down.
"You seem fine to me, although you should come straight back if you notice anything unusual over the next few days. Human medicine isn't exactly my field but in cases like this we have both human and Pokemon doctors consult if we notice any serious problems. I don't think that will be necessary in your case though." He gave her a smile, probably something he'd been taught to practice in medical school. "Elgyem should be ready for you to collect from the front desk on your way out. We advise you to b-"
"Wait, wait wait,
what?"
He blinked. "I'm sorry, is something wrong? Like I said, Elgyem has been responding well to treatment, they don't need a prolonged stay."
"You... you want me to
keep it? After what it did to me?"
"Well... you don't have to, of course, you have every right to release it if you feel uncomfortable. Elgyem have been known to alter peoples memories or erase them but it's almost always out of a sense of self preservation. If I had to guess I would assume that in this case it was a sort of... involuntary reaction. It went into a panic when it realised it was about to be captured and did this out of instinct. I would consider it very unlikely you'll have any problems like that going forward. Once it understood we were trying to help it it's been very cooperative with all the staff here."
Sydney sat completely dumbfounded, staring at this
quack as he told her - in effect - that the whole thing was a misunderstanding between her and Elgyem. Was this how lightly they took someones memories getting erased? This couldn't be the normal course of action in cases like these, could it? It wasn't possible.
"No, I'm sorry, I don't think you understand," she tried to explain, "The reason I'm freaked is because I wouldn't
want to catch an Elgyem. Honestly they frighten me, I wouldn't set out to capture one and - and because I can't remember what happened I don't know how any of this could have even happened!"
"...Sydney, I understand you're rattled. Honestly I would be too in your shoes, but Elgyem aren't as dangerous in general as you seem to think they are. A lot of research has been done on them."
"Yeah," she snapped, "I know. My dads the one who did most of it."
"Oh... oh, of course, Professor Ramirez, I... didn't make the connection. But then surely you of all people are better equipped than anyone else here to train an Elgyem?"
"I... I mean, maybe, but that still doesn't explain WHY on earth I would have wanted to catch one in the first place."
The doctor shrugged and spread his hands, unable to give any real answer. "I don't know. Maybe you saw that it was in bad shape and decided to try and get it here so you could help it. Maybe you had a change of heart today for some reason and just can't remember why. Let me ask you this, you're adamant that you wouldn't ever want to catch an Elgyem. Why is that?"
"Well because... because..." She frowned, staring off to one side and screwing up her forehead. "...I don't know. I just know I wouldn't."
"Then it could be that that sentiment is what has replaced your memories of today. But the simple fact of the matter is that the only way you'll find out is by training that Elgyem yourself."
"...What do you mean?"
"I mean that Elgyem is the one who erased your memories, but we use that word a little too loosely. They can't just delete them, the brain is like a computer. Unless you pretty much wipe the whole system it's incredibly difficult to totally delete anything. A file can be retrieved or rolled back to a previous state and in this case, the Elgyem probably hasn't even deleted the memories. Just moved them to another part of your mind or, and I think this is more likely, replaced them with the idea that you don't
want an Elgyem. It would make sense that in a panic it projected that notion into your mind to try and stop you from capturing it, wouldn't it?"
Sydney took a second to mull over what the doctor was telling her. Her dad had been one of the primary researchers to work on studying Elgyem and Beeheeyem in recent years so she was fairly up to speed on them as a species. Logically they would be excellent Pokemon for her to train because of that, and she couldn't think of a single reason why she was so dead set on not wanting one. If it was a result of her experiences today that would be one thing, but she felt like that was a sentiment she'd had for a long time, and she couldn't conjure up any cause for that... was the doctor right?
"But... if you're saying the memories aren't really gone, could I get them back? That would answer all of this, right, if I could remember what happened?"
"It's certainly possible. You may have heard of Sabrina, she's a teacher here and a prolific psychic and Psyhic Type Trainer. She might be able to help you, but my experience tells me that I already know what she might say."
"What's that?"
"That Elgyem is the best one to retrieve your memories for you. They were the one who 'erased' them in the first place so they could bring them back much easier than anyone else could. My honest advice Sydney is to see if you can make a connection with Elgyem and try to convince them to restore your memories to you. There's nothing stopping you from releasing them back into the wild once that's done if you don't like the results... although, I would remind you that they don't seem to have been managing too well by themselves out there."
Sydney didn't respond, turning her thoughts over and examining them from every angle. She couldn't trust her memories because she knew for a fact that they'd been altered. Whether they were gone for good or could be brought back the fact was that right now they just weren't
there for her to call on so she had next to no solid facts she could use to make a decision. On top of that she couldn't trust her gut on the matter either, since there was a chance that even her feelings had been messed with. How was she supposed to decide what to do?
"I can tell you have a lot to think about," the doctor said quietly, standing up, "I'll leave you in peace. Use the room as long as you like."
"...Thank you. I don't know what I'm going to do but... I don't feel as freaked out anymore." She started to exhale but it turned into a nervous giggle. "I thought today was the worst day of my life, but I guess I really don't know that, do I?"