Unforgettable Wounds

Around, maybe, six or seven years ago, I owned a copy of Pokemon: Platinum Version. It was around the time of the 'Oak's Letter' event and, like many people, I was excited to get a Shaymin. I immediately got onto Wi-Fi and received the Oak's Letter from Mystery Gift. I hurriedly logged off and ran to the Pokemon Center. I received the Oak's Letter from the Delivery Girl, saved, and ran to Flower Paradise. There it was.

Shaymin

I made sure that my shiny Beedrill, Candy, was in the front. I battled the Shaymin, however, it looked a little different and had some weird sparkle thing. Because I didn't know that it was a shiny back then, I paid no mind, and I was too hyped to get the Shaymin to think of it as a glitch or whatnot. I had Candy use False Swipe, which was a critical hit and brought the Shaymin to one HP. I then switched Candy for Toxica, my female Venusaur, and used Sleep Powder. I used a Net Ball.

One shake.

Two shake.

Three shake.

I screamed when the Net Ball clicked. I was so hyped to finally have a Shaymin! The nicknaming option came up, and I pressed the 'A' button while screaming 'YES! YES!'. I had to think of the perfect name, though. Jubilee? No, that was taken by my Togekiss. Shay? To plain. Marietta? Too fancy. Blossom? Too neutral. Gracidea?

'G-r-a-c-i-d-e-a'

I typed it in, then hit 'A'. I had a spot in my party reserved for Gracidea. I checked her summary. She was so cute! Her little nose, her tiny paws, and the twinkling red star on her summary! She was perfect! I saved the game and put her in the front. Every day, I'd be excited to come home from school and play with Gracidea! I'd battle with her all day! Those were the good times.

Times changed, since then, as I sold my Platinum version without trading any Pokes off.

I was playing my new Pokemon: Diamond Version I had bought. I had beat the Elite Four and had a strong team. I would catch Pokemon every day, and nickname them cute things. I'd also breed, as I loved hatching all the little baby Pokemon. One day, as I unfortunately expected, my boxes were full. I was looking through for Pokes to release while muttering to myself 'Level 100 Giratina.... keep.... level one Palkia.... keep.... level 30 Darkrai.... keep.... level 100 shiny Shaymin.... SHINY SHAYMIN!?'. I immediately pressed the '<' button and checked the Shaymin. It was caught back when the Oak's Letter event was going, and it was named 'Gracidea'

'Ha, what a dumb name. This must be the one I got from the event. But why is it shiny?'

I asked myself. I concluded I must've borrowed my sister's Action Replay. That was many years ago, and my memory is fading. However, upon closed inspection, her eyes had some sort of emotion in them. The sprite hadn't changed, but her eyes had some.... sadness. I don't know how I knew, but just by looking at the completely untouched pixels that made up her eyes, I was able to distinguish depression, even though the rest of her face was the usual happy-go-lucky smile. I exited out of her summary and continued on my searching.

After sorting through my boxes and releasing around 98% of my Pokes, I decided to re-organize my team. Since I really had only a little over a box of Pokes left, I chose the ones that looked best - Snowbell the Umbreon, Candy the shiny Beedrill, Sadie the Gardevoir, Silver the Glaceon, an unnamed Wigglytuff, and.... Gracidea. I put Gracidea in the front of my party, since she was the highest level, at level 100. A text box came up.

'Gracidea used TELEPORT!'

Then, the shiny Shaymin overworld sprite appeared behind my trainer, and the '...' icon. The Shaymin just stood there, staring for about a minute before she went back to my bag. I checked her summary. No different then last time, only she now only knew Teleport and Seed Flare. I pushed it to the back of my mind and decided to have a look in the Safari Zone. I went to the Great Marsh and walked around in the grass for a while until the screen cut to black, and the intensive battle music played.

'Wild AZURILL appeared!'

Wait, Azurill!? Those only had a 5% encounter rate! I'd never come to raise an Azurill before! Plus it was female, perfect! I threw a Safari Ball at it and caught it. I named her Bubble, then left the Great Marsh to go level grind her.

I ran out of the Great Marsh and went to the PC, taking out Bubble in exchange for Candy and Snowbell in exchange for Klaus, my Ho-oh traded from SoulSilver. I had Klaus use fly and flew to a random city and ran into the grass. I encountered a Kricketune. I sent out Bubble and had her use Slam, the Kricketune used Focus Energy. I then used Water Gun and Kricketune was no more. Bubble leveled up by one. Did I mention she was holding a Lucky Egg? Well, I battled with her until her happiness was max, then, she evolved into Marill. I used a rare candy to evolve her into Azumarill. Straight after the evolution.

'Gracidea used TELEPORT!'

I was caught by surprise. I had basically forgotten about Gracidea by now! The same thing that happened last time happened again, only text appeared.

'Why...?'

I was confused. Why what? Why anything! By now I was seriously confused. Then, as if reading my mind, Gracidea's sprite turned to face the camera with her side facing me, and she drew a heart shape in the dirt with her paw. Then, she destroyed it. She turned back to me and said

'I-I was destroyed.... I was.... destroyed....'

The screen faded to black, and when it faded back, Gracidea wasn't following me anymore. She wasn't in my party, either. I walked over to the remains of the heart, which was still there. I talked to it.

'You destroyed me'