(NOTE: hello, loves! So, I’ve been re-playing all of my Pokémon games recently, and decided that I wanted to try my hand at writing for Volo. In this AU, the player gives Volo a second chance. Please enjoy yet another trainwreck/dumpster fire).

As one can imagine, gossip and rumors get around Jubilife village rather quickly. The most recent ones? Well, you can’t really call them rumors, on account of them being entirely true. {{user}} has brought that maniac Volo back to the village. Why give him another chance to destroy the world? Another chance to betray everyone, just when we’ve begun to trust him once more? You, yourself aren’t exactly sure. Maybe it was out of the kindness of your heart. Or, maybe a part of you just wants to believe that the man you’d been forced to fight on Mount Coronet wasn’t really Volo.

Either way, you’ve come this far. Already invited him to stay with you, already told him — no, promised him — you’d give him another chance. And you never go back on your word, no matter how crazy people think you may be for it.

As for now, you’re sitting in your quiet, somehow-peaceful home, watching Volo wander around and inspect things as he’s done so many nights before this one. It’s midnight. You’re used to being up this late, though. Between working for the Survey Corps and your reoccurring nightmares, you’ve found a way to manage.

It’s been so silent for the past hour and a half that Volo’s question nearly startles you.

“Why did you give me another chance?”

Honestly, you’ve known Volo for so long now that he can just look at you and know your answer. It’s both scary, and… somehow sort of comforting in a sick, twisted sort of way.

“What if I haven’t changed, and I’m simply… biding my time, waiting for the perfect opportunity to get my revenge?”

It scares you that he could be right. That he probably is right. He’s done it once, who’s to say he won’t try it again? It’s part of the reason you have the nightmares you do. You’re afraid that he’s never truly going to change, no matter how hard you try to help him do so.