Regret

A Darker and Edgier Pokemon experience. The main character gets wound back in time 80 years to stop the Bad Future from occurring, with little more than a few vague pointers as to what he needs to do. Pokemon are depicted as dangerous, intelligent creatures, with people dying from Com Mons such as Wurmple being a common occurrence. In fact, the author goes out of his way to create a vibrant, realistic world with little political, economic and day-by-day quirks that makes the world seem incredibly realistic and likely.

It can be found here.

It now has a crossover by a different author with the mindnumbingly popular Pedestal being written, found here (though it has since been discontinued), as well as a prequel written by the same author, located here.

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Tropes used in Regret include:

• Abusive Precursors: The Celebi. They were originally meant to help keep the world on the right track, but due to Immortality Immorality, they eventually decided to start reshaping history. Some of their changes, such as making humans more resilient, are genuinely beneficial. But in order to achieve this, they had to steal children near the time of birth, and raise them as Unwitting Pawns.
• Achilles' Heel: Played straight in that every Pokemon has one or more weak spots. The Soldier's relatively untrained Sableye manages to get the upper hand on a wild, dangerous Nuzleaf by exploiting the sensitivity of its nose. The Soldier's training also involved being able to identify and recall these on a number of Pokemon.
• Action Girl: Lacey.
• Action Survivor: Arguably everyone, given the nature of the world they live in.
• After the End: The story starts off this way, with people living in small camps, fighting each other and eating their own dead.
• Exclusively Evil: Somewhat. Generally it seems that the more power a person or Pokémon has, the more they abuse it. Case and point being the Sinnoh Elite Four member Aaron.
  • Played with in the case of the Gardevoir. They know of memories and feelings from fellow individuals and for them, raping others and skinning them alive is a perfectly natural fact, and a tradition that must be defended. And they will go after someone that has killed one of their numbers. It's unknown if Gallades think the same way, since the only one we know shrugs it off.
• Amazingly Embarrassing Parents: Chris', from her point of view.
• Anti-Hero: The main character himself.
• Anyone Can Die: People and Pokémon both. So far we have three of the main character's Pokémon, one of Adryan's, Jennifer, and a number of characters murdered by the main character himself.
  • We recently lost Mia and Xander, and very close together at that. Anyone really can die.
    • Adryan just died in Chapter 54, too.
• Armor Is Useless: Averted. The Soldier bears many scars and bullet marks due to his previous lack of its usage.
• Artificial Limbs: Chris, who has an artificial arm after an incident with a Parasect.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: The protagonist's general battle strategy, until it's pointed out to him how flawed that plan is.
• Ax Crazy: Lacey. She starts off by trying to murder the main character, kills random Pokémon whilst still with her trainer or goes off on her own to do so, and massacred most of her former clan. Scar also seems to be getting this way when battling, and Erra, since Fallarbor (justified in that she was affected by some sort of toxin that keeps her in a sort of adrenalin overdrive).
• Badass: The main character, somewhat. Most of his pokemon too.
• Badass Abnormal: Aaron, who can commune with every form of insect, Pokemon or not. Too bad he was a bad guy.
• Battle Butler: Alistair, the character's Gallade. He finishes his sentences with honorifics like 'sir' and gives everyone little apt titles.
• Because Destiny Says So: Pretty much the reason behind the whole story.
• Beware the Nice Ones: You don't want to harm Adryan's Pokémon.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: Bug-type Pokemon, with emphasis on "creepy".
• Big Damn Heroes: Averted. Every time something bad happens, the main character has to figure out how to escape on his own, with back up arriving just after the crisis, if at all.
• Bilingual Bonus: The random Italian-speaking guy in Chapter 21.
• Black Best Friend: Chris is this to Adryan.
• Blessed with Suck: Humans can use Psychic Pokemon to see the future. It comes with the price of getting a terminal brain tumor, though.
  • Telepathy also counts. When the human first has a Pokemon speak to them telepathically, it causes intense migraines until they've adapted.
• Boom! Headshot!: Each headshot is stated to end in an explosion of blood, bone and brain.
• Break the Cutie: Mia, very much so.
  • Erra also qualifies.
• Buffy-Speak: Most characters drop into this occasionally.
• Chest Burster: Erra, in Chapter 38. We later find out it's because the man was forced to swallow her Pokéball.
• Child Soldiers: The main character mentions he became one at about 13.
• Cliff Hanger: Every other chapter seems to end with one.
• Cold Sniper: Arguably the main character starts off as this.
• Crapsack World: The horrible future the main character is from, which apparently was conjured by the Celebi and the main character's imagination.
• Dark Fic: Mostly all the time, though there are rare moments of happiness or laughter.
• Darker and Edgier: Pretty much the basis of the story.
• Dark Is Evil: Lacey.
• Dark Is Not Evil: As of the latest chapter, the colony of Shiftry, who are only acting because most of Celebi's plans end up ruining the world. Loki also qualifies - he can battle well, but his main interests are pranking others and playing around.
• Deadpan Snarker: The Soldier, Alistair, Lacey when she's translated, Adryan and Chris.
• Death Is a Slap on The Wrist: Chillingly deconstructed. There exists a spring that, if a Celebi's corpse is placed within it, it will be brought back to life. The amount of time this takes is equivalent to how long the Celebi had lived... the first time. The second time, it takes half of its total lifespan. The third time, it takes half of that. One of them even says that after enough deaths, it only takes a few minutes for them to come back. The downside to this is that while they're recovering, their spirit is still aware, having fun in the Afterlife. When they come back, they're not allowed to go back until they die again, which means every time they die, they spend less and less time at peace. Eventually, they decided to start killing their newborns, since that would save them the tragedy later on.
• Deconstruction: Of a lot of friendship-based fics, in addition to a lot of other Pokemon-based fics. Also the depiction of some Pokémon, Gardevoir in particular - the author goes a long way to get away from the general stereotype used.
  • Same goes for Pokémon instincts - if a Gardevoir is on heat, it won't care what it captures as long as it can use the victim to sate its sexual desires.
• Defeat Means Friendship: While capturing a Pokemon works with this in mind, it takes time to earn its trust and to train it up. After a capture, the protagonist often spends the next few chapters (or weeks in-universe) trying to bond with it.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Averted. No one seems to have a problem with firearms, and the Soldier only feels truly protected with one at hand. Lacey has some interest in them, and even tried to learn shooting as a Nuzleaf - it didn't go well because of her fragile wrists, so she was promised to be taught as a Shiftry (so far, nothing on it was mentioned again).
• Drugs Are Bad: And everyone knows it. The Soldier becomes addicted to a sort of serum that resembles heroine, and even knowing it's a very bad thing, he can't stop using it. Later on we find it is medicine for poison Pokémon, and a lethal concoction to anything else.
• Earth Is a Battlefield: In the future, Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, Sinnoh and possibly Unova are torn apart by war and a highly contagious Hate Plague.
• Everything Trying to Kill You: Most of the wild Pokemon encountered so far are bloodthirsty monsters and only the trained ones seem capable of being relatively normal, depending on who their trainer is.
• Expy: The author admits that he thinks of Hoenn to be like Australia, Sinnoh like Canada and it seems that the Sevii Isles hold an accent similar to old English.
• Failure Is the Only Option: From the start we're told that the main character fails his mission.
• Yaoi Fangirl: Drunken Mia, very much so.
• Freak-Out: The protagonist suffers one when he's told the theory that if he stops the Bad Future, he'll disappear.
• Grey and Gray Morality: The main character plays this trope to a T: he's out to save the world (or himself) and if he has to kill people to do so, so be it.
• Guns Are Worthless: Averted. Pokémon and people alike are killed quite effectively with guns.
• Hand Cannon: The Soldier packs a .50 AE Desert Eagle, and he knows how to use it.
• Healing Factor: Synthesis works like this, but it takes a few hours to work effectively.
• Heroic BSOD: The protagonist, when he thinks that saving the world will kill him.
  • Before that, when he tells Adryan of his encounter with two Gardevoir. He sits and cries for hours, and his mind blanks out to the point that no one, be it human or Pokémon, can break him out of his stupor.
• Humans Are the Real Monsters/Humans Are Morons: Psychic-types say that all the time.
• Living Shadow: Haunters are nothing but purple shadows with bright red eyes.
• Mood Whiplash: A number of times.
• Morality Pet: Xander, to an extent. For a while, he's the only thing keeping the main character from becoming a sociopath.
• Mythology Gag: Played with. A number of them are deconstructed and made fun of in text, such as warping to the nearest Pokemon center when all your Pokemon faint.
• Mysterious Past: Everyone, even the main character and the Pokemon too. It doesn't help that the protagonist doesn't really care about his friends' pasts, which means that we don't get to know either.
• Nailed to the Wagon: The Soldier gets forcibly addicted to a serum extracted from poison Pokémon, and can't go cold turkey by himself. Scar does the trick by breaking the syringe's needle and stabbing him in the arm with it. It works - the Soldier starts to mind his addiction after that, and seeks help to get rid of it.
• Nameless Narrative: The protagonist, until the final chapters.
• Ninja: Played with. Adryan's Electabuzz seems to think that she's one.
• Never a Self-Made Woman: Averted with Chris, who builds up her own business with her own work.
• Noodle Incident: A number. Quite often if Adryan and Chris are having a conversation. One of the best involves Adryan talking about his Rapidash.

Adryan: There's nothing quite as bad as having your Pokémon urinating in public without a care in the world. Worse still if it happens to be over a small child.

• No Name Given: To the point that even the supporting characters don't use a proper vocative. The most we've seen the main character being called is Soldier, as a joke.
  • Averted at the end. It's revealed in Chapter 58.
• Parental Abandonment: We're told early on that Adryan's mother has wiped her hands of him, but never given a definitive reason. We later discover it's because he came out of the closet. Turns out she's a massive homophobe.
• Pokémon-Speak: Averted. Most psychics are capable of telepathy, but actual Pokemon are only ever referred to as 'speaking' in grunts, growls, snarls and other animalistic sounds like in the games.
• Psychic Powers: The Psychic Pokemon. Given the mythology, one would expect Psychic-adapted humans to be similar.
• Psycho Electro: Erra has become this as of late. See Ax Crazy above for a good explanation.
• Rape as Drama: Played straight with the protagonist, even if it's not consummated. Comes up again later with Mia.
• Reality Ensues: Quite frequently.
• Rival Turned Evil: Played with. Adryan flips out at one point and has a man kill himself because he thinks he murdered Adryan's Rapidash. The protagonist is understandably freaked out. Then we later find out why: it was actually one of the protagonist's Pokémon that killed the Rapidash.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The Soldier in the Fallarbor gym. After being kidnapped, tortured and forcibly addicted, he massacres almost the entire staff, even those not responsible.
• Sexy Secretary: Professor Birch's. The soldier even wonders if she was hired just because of her looks. Turns out she also had an affair with the Professor.
• Shower of Angst: The protagonist, after Dewford.
• Spell My Name with an "S": Adryan.
• Invisible to Gaydar: Adryan. So much so. Also a massive case of Fridge Brilliance, in that every conversation where he's mentioned previous lovers is composed of gender-neutral terms. It knocks the soldier for six when he finds out.
• Take That: There's a number of small jibes at the Pokemon media in general.
• The All-Concealing "I"
• Token Minority: Subverted - out of the Soldier's three human friends, one is a half black/half Asian woman and the other is later revealed to have always been a Invisible to Gaydar, as seen above. His final human friend is also a Yaoi-obsessed maniac at times.
• Transformation Sequence: Averted. Pokémon evolution is stated to be a long, slow process, akin to real-life growth. When the Pokémon does finally reach the ultimate stage of evolution, it locks itself inside its Pokéball or hides away somewhere quiet.
• When Trees Attack: Sort of, in that Shiftry are described as looking like twisted, knotted old trees.
• You Can't Fight Fate: Played straight in that when the soldier tries to get away from having to save the world, he ends up being dragged back into having to do so. However, we learn that his life is essentially planned, which makes this trope even more applicable.