Chapter Text
Mother Highness, do you love me?
Of course, Freya. But under one condition.
What condition?
The condition of accepting that following orders of conquering Paldea with Terastalisation. That way, we can finally achieve unity as the highest echelon.
So… you won’t love me more if I can’t accomplish that feat?
Perhaps no. We’re a family after all. A family is all about adhering to the same rules. I’m only enforcing this out of love. Do you understand, my heiress?
Yes, Mother Highness.
“Freya, you’re spacing out again.” Tommi dragged Freya back to the present, “Is it owing to the food tasting or smelling bad?”
Tommi, who was her fellow Floragato, was still annoying to her for interrupting her zone, but he wasn’t wrong about the spices’ fragrance that Sila the Sneasel was cooking.
In fact, Freya the Floragato actually felt pangs of doubts prickling her heart. Each heartbeat pounded with shame and envy.
Manon, a young Sneasel, with Kung Fu the Mienfoo using sign language and laughing with him… In the Tera Escapades, anyone with a disability, be it hearing impairment or autism, would get disposed of immediately. No disabled individuals, as they wouldn’t be fit to harness the powerful force of Terastalisation, according to her mother. The last time a disabled Pikipek with a bent leg tried joining, moments later Freya’s own father dismembered them behind the scene - she knew when she could taste that night’s soup’s Pikipek legs…
Scarlet the Bisharp having a blended family of biological Pawniard children, and a Riolu as an adoptive daughter. No way would a family of unconventional structure consisting of both biological and adoptive children be approved by Freya’s own dogmatic parents. Once there was a member, who was a Flareon that adopted an orphaned Houndour, they were both executed in some sort of fighting pit against Freya’s mother, who overcame her type disadvantage against two Fire-types with bare paws and Flower Tricks’ guaranteed critical hits…
Again and again, her Meowscarada parents always reiterated that Terastalisation was always about ensuring the fittest survivors to wield. And she had to be one of those eligible survivors. Strong, unempathetic, elitist, and merciless.
Why was it even an ingenious idea to let Sila add poison to the curry that was being cooked…? It would absolutely be more scrumptious if it wasn’t poisonous…
“I’m not in the mood of eating spices, as usual!” Cuddles the Swirlix stretched her fluffy body, e “I prefer my regular cravings for sweets! Speaking of which, I really wanna eat that limited edition cake you guys bought from Gym Leader Katy’s sweet shop!”
She then coughed and wheezed at the strong fragrance, “Ugh! Sila, tone down the spiciness next time! My eyes are watery!”
Axel the Pikachu agreed with Cuddles, “Yeah, I prefer having something that is more lightweight. Less in energy intake. Maybe biscuits-”
“Or sandwiches!” Tommi piped in enthusiastically, grinning like a child. Freya rolled her eyes; he still had a sandwich addiction. Then again, sandwiches weren’t so bad when she first tasted it - she felt so odd when she realized she never knew what ham tasted like.
Her parents claimed to love her, but they rarely spent time with her as she grew into a teenager Sprigatito. All they did was to tell Toph the Glimmora to nanny her, or to strenuously train her even when she was so tuckered out during midnights. Tch, as much as she loved Toph, she really just wanted to laugh and smile with her parents with a picnic, even if they would never bother to have one.
Xavi grumbled at Tommi’s silliness, “Yeah yeah whatever Tommi, just don’t force us to eat at your speed! Only you can gobble down one whole sandwich without separate bites!”
Freya couldn’t bear to gaze at Tommi’s joyful smile, rather distracting herself with her yoyo. This was the same cat who accidentally hurt her. She knew it was him. But she… couldn’t grow to detest him. He had been the sunshine that her family had obstructed her from marveling.
She was never told that Terastalisation was for anyone, let alone to someone who always smiles.
Optimists had always been forbidden in the mob…
“Here! Have a tomato and ham sandwich!” Tommi kindly offered her one large sandwich.
Maybe eating a sandwich could calm her own nerves, Freya told herself. She just had to ignore her fluttering heart… for him…
But just as the female Floragato was about to take a bite…
“Ugghhhh! What-what is this burning sensation?!” Monique the Galarian Ponyta was the first one to whine while wheezing in agony. This was followed by several other Pokemon coughing and vomiting.
Basically, all the other Pokemon teammates of Jennie and Streamie’s were all poisoned, evident by how they were hurling all over the place. Even Sila, who just taste-tested the sauce, was hurling in sickly puke. All of them, minus Tommi, Axel, Cuddles, Xavi, and obviously Freya, were horribly afflicted.
“Ugh… tastes like… strong corrosive POISON?!” Scarlet the Bisharp, while still struggling to breathe under her now sickly condition and vomiting, was the first to know something was wrong with the food.
The Bisharp, even when she was almost passing out, then furiously scowled at Freya, who was the one that gave Sila the suspicious sac.
“You are behind this, AREN’T YOU…?”
Tommi gasped at Scarlet’s accusation - even if it wasn’t uncalled for given Freya’s shady history with those Pokemon at an abandoned Pokemon Center. While Freya bit her lips, her paws were uncontrollably fiddling with her yoyo, and her eyes shied away.
The cat was LITERALLY out of the bag.