A faith that can be destroyed by suffering is not faith -Richard Wurmbrand
My name is Faith. I don't know how I got sucked into this business. Everyday, hiking out to weird caves and forests, looking for lost items, arranging meetings for little kids or old geezers, and occasionally, actually helping someone. Maybe it was the look on the kid's face when he found me starving on the side of some godforsaken mountain. His little Charmander face lit up like Christmas had come early.
"Are you lost, Missy?" he had asked with round eyes.
"What's it look like?" I managed to get out before breaking into a fit of coughs.
He flinched and pulled a blanket out of a huge purple backpack, which he draped over my back. Next thing I know, he's leading me back to some sort of "secret base", chattering the whole way about being part of a rescue team. Suddenly, we're wearing matching bandannas, and I'm a hero.
I chuckled at the memory, and Blaze turned around to look at me.
"What are you laughing at?" he asked me. His voice had grown infinitely deeper since he had evolved into a Charizard.
I just shook my head, and he rolled his eyes. As we walked through the small town, every Pokemon greeted us enthusiastically. We had become very well known, and were now a gold rank team. We were living the good life, tons of easy missions were requested of us, and they all paid good. Not that we would turn them down if they didn't. People just paid extra for Team Disaster. Yes. Team Disaster. I was being sarcastic when I suggested the name, but Blaze had taken me seriously. Ignorance is such sweet bliss.
We were heading back from the post office, a bag full of letters strapped to Blaze's back, when I was run over.
"We need help!" someone squawked in my ear.
"So do I," I responded, covered in dirt from the road.
A scaly hand reached down to help me up, and I gratefully excepted it. I shook myself off, and thanked the Garchomp who had just helped me up.
"Please forgive my young friend here," he said, motioning to the Gabite at his side. The Gabite looked like a pain in the-
"Hey, lady!" he shouted at me, "I said we need help!"
I growled, "You know, it's one thousand years of bad luck for upsetting an Absol."
"Nuh, uh. That's Ninetales, stupid!"
I was about to come back with a clever response, when I felt Blaze's clawed hand on my shoulder. I allowed myself another growl, before giving up, and resigning myself to licking the snowy white fur on my chest.
"She's got a short temper," Blaze apologized.
"Really, she's quite...charming," the Garchomp said with something of a sneer, "It is rather odd to have an Absol on a rescue team..." he trailed off.
"Look buddy, if you're some kind of racist-" Blaze started.
"No, no, I was just mentioning...never mind, we do in fact, require your assistance," Blaze still didn't look to happy, "My dear friend, Broo, set out for Mt. Aura several months ago, and has yet to return from his trip. I advised him against going to the area, because as a Breloom, I knew he would be vulnerable to the numerous Psychic Pokemon that live there. However, he insisted on going, and I haven't seen him since."
For a moment, neither Blaze or I said a word. Then I said, "Mister, if you think we're going to Mt. Aura, you've got another thing coming. How stupid do you think we are? Do you even know where Mt. Aura is? It's on the other side of the freakin' planet, how do you expect us to get there? Are you kidding me?" I continued to rant for several minutes, using increasingly vulgar profanity, before the Garchomp stopped me.
"Maybe you'll change your mind, when you hear what I'm willing to pay you."
"This is gonna be great," I muttered.
"In addition to a large sum of money, I am willing to offer you a very rare and valuable item."
"Exactly what item is that?"
He smiled a very chilling smile, before answering, "I am willing to offer you," he leaned in close, "A Mew egg," he paused for effect.
I burst out laughing, "A Mew egg, yeah right, and I'll give you a baby Lugia," I continued to laugh. The Garchomp looked a little annoyed.
"If you really insist on laughing, look at this," I noticed for the first time, the snooty little Gabite was wearing a backpack. The Garchomp reached into it, and pulled out a picture, which he handed to Blaze. Blaze's mouth fell open. Silently, he handed the picture to me. I stopped laughing. In the picture, was a beautiful, pink egg. It was small and fragile-looking. The egg made my heart leap into my throat, I felt like laughing an entirely different laugh, one of pure ecstasy. A Mew! A real live Mew! I was startled to find tears of joy in the corners of my eyes. I handed the picture back to him.
He smirked, "So when can you start?"
Later that night, I sat in our base, rocking back and forth in the fetal position.
"I just don't know, Blaze. That was a Mew egg, Blaze. A Mew egg. A Mew. Mew. I can't even believe it, but it was. I don't know what we're gonna do. We can't go to Mt. Aura. It's not happening. But we need that egg. Need it," I continued in this fashion, muttering sentence fragments, until Blaze stopped blowing smoke rings, and turned to me.
"I'm going."
"What?"
"I said, 'I'm going'."
"You're going to get killed. No, we're going to get killed. You can't leave me alone. If you go, I have to go, too. You better have a good reason for getting us killed!"
"It's a Mew."
And that ended the argument. For any humans reading this, you gotta understand. Mew is a big deal. It'd be like if someone offered you a dinosaur egg. You'd be all 'Yeah Right'. It's an even bigger deal than that, because Mew were revered, and every one was a hero. Even hundreds of years ago, they were rare, but since humans started building cities in the mountains and the forests, none have been seen. We were willing to anywhere, if it meant getting a Mew, but there was one problem.
About twenty years ago, a guy named Giovanni found a Mew hair. You probably know that part. Not many people know what he did with it, though, but every Pokemon does. He made a monster. He took everything that Mew represented, hope, joy, love, purity; and he inverted it. No one knows how he did it, but it resulted in one of the worst disasters in Pokemon history. He called the evil thing he made Mewtwo. It was Mew's exact opposite. It was big, evil, full of hatred, and worst of all, purple. Giovanni kept it locked up in a cell, and tortured it. One day, it got out, and killed a bunch of humans and Pokemon. It erased the memory's of everyone who saw what it did, and fled to Mt. Aura. When it got there, it started to capture other Pokemon, and turn them into "shadow Pokemon". Shadow Pokemon were Pokemon who were made the same way Mewtwo was. They were normal Pokemon whose souls were inverted. However, since no Pokemon was as powerful or as good as Mew, no shadow Pokemon were as bad as Mewtwo.
However, they were still pretty terrible. The shadow Pokemon started to spread out from the mountain. They began to murder, pillage, and rape entire villages. Nowhere was safe from them. After about ten years, the last Mew, named Serenity, headed to Mt. Aura with his rescue team, which consisted of a Sceptile, a Totodile, and a Charizard. His partners went down fighting shadow Pokemon, but Serenity managed to make it to Mewtwo. They had a huge battle, that killed both of them. When Mewtwo died, all the shadow Pokemon were returned to their original forms. Shortly after these events, it was discovered that because of Serenity's pure and selfless soul, his entity was preserved in the heart of Mt. Aura. This would have made the mountain a holy place, where people could go to purify themselves, but something went wrong.
Mewtwo's soul grabbed onto Serenity's soul, and preserved itself in Mt. Aura, too. The mountain cannot support both of their souls peacefully, and so the mountain is at war with itself to this day. Humans have no idea why anyone who goes near the mountain dies. They blame it on freak storms, and things like that. Pokemon can reach the mountain, but most skirt around it. Evil Pokemon live there, and freely do the bidding of Mewtwo. They kill anyone who ventures too close.
Me and Blaze were powerful, but not that powerful. It was terrifying, but we were willing to try if it meant getting that Mew's egg. If we could hatch it, not only would it destroy Mewtwo's soul once and for all, but it could bring about a golden age for Pokemon.
Then Blaze mentioned something that had been bothering me, "Why would that Breloom go out to Mt. Aura, anyway?"
"He couldn't have been up to any good. Especially since he was a friend of that sleazebag Garchomp."
"I don't like this, but we have to do this."
"Yeah," I paused, "You know I love you, you big, dumb, Charizard."
"I love you too, you little, bratty, Absol," he hugged me.
We sat in silence for a minute, staring into the fire that Blaze had started in the fireplace earlier. Nothing made any sound, except for the crackling of burning wood.
"We should get some sleep," he said finally.
"Big day tomorrow," I groaned sarcastically.
For the first time since he had been a Charmeleon, Blaze slept next to me. I used to wrap around him. Now he wrapped around me. I felt warm and safe, but that would be changing soon.
We woke at dawn.
"How many apples do you think we'll need?" Blaze asked.
"We should've packed last night," I moaned, "I can't think straight."
Blaze seemed to have figured out how many apples he needed, and I checked to make sure he had packed the right berried in case we needed to heal injuries. Finally, we set out. It was strange walking down the familiar road with so much dread knotting up our stomachs. Normally, setting out down this path filled me with a sense of adventure. This time, it just gave Blaze nervous gas.
By lunch, we were at Mt. Steel. We stopped to rest at the edge of a cliff. As I bit into my apple, I looked over the horizon. In the distance, I could see the little town where our base was. This was the farthest we had ever been from home. We only came out to Mt. Steel every couple of months. Most of the time, people didn't come out here. There was no reason to.
I tried not to think about Mt. Aura, and when I succeeded, I was surprised to find that the journey was fun. Every step of the way, I seemed to find something new and amazing. Whether that be a new kind of flower, or a spectacular waterfall, it didn't matter. I felt like I had when I had first formed a rescue team with Blaze. Each day was a new adventure. Team Disaster could never be stopped! Whatever we attempted, we would succeed at, and at the end of the day, we would head off into the sunset. Of course, I had never worried so much about death before.
At the end of the first day, I was exhausted. I curled up next to Blaze, and felt asleep.
I dreamed I stood on a mountain top. Thunder crashed around me as I screamed, not in pain, but in fury. It was a fierce battle cry. I felt something powerful building up inside me, and I let it grow. My enemy was a shadow. Merely a glimpse of a something. I let the force inside of me loose.
I woke up sweating. Blaze wasn't super keen on emotions, so he didn't notice I was upset. I was glad.
Before we got going for the day, I pulled a map out of the pack we had brought. I traced our path with my paw. We were a few weeks away from Mt. Aura. I looked over the area we would be traversing today. Yesterday, we had gone through territory similar to home. Though I had seen many wonders, it had all been forests and caves. Today, we would be heading through the desert. Interesting.
Turns out, the desert is hot. My fur was soaking wet. Absols were not made for heat, with our thick white fur, that covered our entire bodies. Absols didn't have sweat glands either, so I was panting the whole way. The only good thing, was that I could go without water or food for a long time. Snowy polar ice caps didn't have much of either.
While I suffered through the desert, Blaze was having a ball. Every now and then, he would jump up into the air and fly around, spewing fire. It scared the hell out of all the Cacnea and Sandshrew at ground level, so by the time he came down, my soaking wet fur was full of sand and Cacnea spikes. Needless to say, it was a miserable day for me.
We didn't leave the desert until late in the afternoon. The only way to get out of the desert without passing over huge treacherous mountains, was to go through a small, narrow canyon. Now I was in my territory, and Blaze was uncomfortable. The canyon was much cooler than the desert, and it had tons of caves in it's walls that the wind passed through, making an eternal ghostly whistle. Perfect. As we entered the canyon, I stretched lazily, and looked up at Blaze. He looked anxious, and shuffled his wings nervously. He tried not to squeal as a Spinarak ran over his foot. I tried not to laugh.
Even though I enjoyed it at first, the canyon became steadily creepier as time went on. I saw strange shapes moving through the corners of my eyes, and the air was filled with the scent of something dead rotting. Blaze had already shut his nose an hour before. Charizard had flaps of skin they could shut their noses with. I had no such luxury. Suddenly, we saw what was making the awful smell. A huge, Snorlax carcass completely blocked the road.
"Guess we can't use a Pokeflute on this one," I commented.
"What?"
"Inside joke."
Blaze stared nervously at the body, "I can't fly over that."
"Yeah? Try walking," I jumped up on what was left of the Snorlax's huge stomach, and jumped down on the other side. It was gross, but not too bad.
Blaze took a step back, then tried the same stunt. The Snorlax's stomach collapsed under his weight, and thousands of weedles crawled out, covered in entrails. Blaze clawed his way out and cleansed himself off with a Flamethrower.
"That's going to give me nightmares," I told him.
"What about me? I'm the one that fell through that thing.
That night, we slept uneasily. I tossed and turned for hours before I could finally sleep. In my dreams, I saw the shadow again. This time, it was with me in this terrible, dark canyon. It was bearing down on me, and this time I had no warrior's cry. I could only whimper as it backed me into a corner. Suddenly, it leaped at me and I screamed.
I woke up screaming, and in the process, woke up every other living thing too. Suddenly, I lost consciousness. I felt myself thrashing around, and could hear myself screaming, but I wasn't aware of anything else.
Finally, it stopped, and I sat up panting. Blaze grabbed me and pulled me to his chest. He looked like he was about to cry. I felt a dark sensation clawing around in my chest, and realized what it was.
"We've gotta go, now!" I told him.
"What? Why?"
"Go, go, go, go, go!" I started running, and he followed.
"What's the matter? What's wrong?" he asked over and over, but I couldn't answer. I could only hiss in fear and run faster. We ran and ran, until I lost sense of my surroundings. After what seemed forever, I couldn't run anymore. I stopped to catch my breath.
Blaze's eyes shone with concern, "What happened?"
I could barely choke out an answer, I was breathing so hard, "I Saw."
Blaze's eyes widened in surprise, "You Saw?"
I nodded. I had never Seen before. Most Absols Saw every few years. I had never been able to See. I was exiled from other Absols, because I was considered to have done something terrible in a past life to merit not having the Sight. I had taken care of myself since I was a young child. The other Absols had their first sights. Their faces had lit up with rapture, seeing bright, grand futures. I had never Seen, and now that I had, I had Seen something terrible.
"I don't know what it was. It was terrible, a shadow of something."
Blaze picked me up in his arms and began to fly. I held as still as possible. We hadn't flown earlier in our journey, because Absol are fairly heavy Pokemon. It was hard for Blaze to lift himself and me, but he managed to save us a few days of walking before he had to land.
"We're safe now," he grunted, and set me down.
"I hope so," but in my heart, I knew we weren't safe. I had Seen the future. No one would be safe.
Blaze fell back asleep quickly with me in his arms, but I couldn't sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, the shadow returned. If I tried to relax, a strange screech in the forest would cause me to jerk back to reality. It was a hellish torture, like the story of Tantalus, who was always within reach of food and water, but could not eat or drink. When I saw the sun rising above the horizon, I prayed to the Pokegods. I wasn't religious, but I needed to thank someone.
Blaze stretched as he woke up, "How did you sleep?"
"Good," I lied.
"Any more visions?"
"Nah, I think I'm done for a while."
We began walking, and I was embarrassed to discover that I couldn't stop shaking. I made sure to stay a few feet away from Blaze so he wouldn't notice. Once again, we were walking through the type of generic forest setting we did back home. I thought I was starting to feel better, but around lunch, I started throwing up. I went to take a bite of a gummi, and ended up losing it all over a Paras.
The Paras looked offended, and ran off.
"Maybe we should go home," Blaze offered.
"No, it's okay. We have to keep going, for Mew."
"For Mew," he agreed.
Every step I took after that was agony. My muscles ached, and I was still shaking uncontrollably. I was now starving, but I was afraid I would puke again if I tried to eat anything. As we walked, Blaze started to sing a lullaby Charizards sang to calm Charmander. If you've never heard a Charizard sing, it's something to hear. You would think it would sound terrible, but in reality, it sounded like the deep, sonorous calls of Wailord deep in the ocean. It calmed me, and soon I stopped shaking. I was finally settling down, when I heard a screech. My heart jumped into my throat, and I cowered behind Blaze.
Suddenly, I realized what I was doing, and I became furious with myself. I've never been scared in my life! Some stupid shadow creature's not going to change that!
I leaped out from Blaze's shadow and let out a fierce growl. I ran to the source of the screeching, and found a horrible sight. A pack of Mightyenas were feasting on a dead Ninetales, and several Vulpix. The poor things had been slaughtered, and their once beautiful fur, was now stained with blood. The Mightyenas were ripping apart the bodies ferociously, and backed up against a tree trunk, was a live Vulpix. One of the Mightyena was playing with her, pretending to let her go, then pouncing on her and raking her with it's claws.
I let out a long, low, growl. They all turned to look at me. I fluffed my fur out, arched my back, and hissed. They all looked at each other, and started to make a chuffing noise, that I realized was laughter. I roared. They stopped laughing and growled. I walked calmly up to them, grabbed the little Vulpix by the scruff of her neck, and started to walk away. I thought I was going to get out of this without a fight, until one of them jumped towards me, and bit my left back leg. I screamed, in the process dropping the Vulpix, and spun around. Suddenly, I felt a force inside of me. It felt as powerful as the ocean. It came in waves, trying to push out of my body. I wasn't sure what to do, so as I started fighting the Mightyena by myself, I let it grow. I had knocked out a couple Mightyenas, but I was quickly losing the fight. One grabbed me in it's mouth and knocked me over. I cowered beneath the huge wolf Pokemon and began to howl. The force inside of me had grown so huge, I could no longer contain it. I let it loose. A wave of darkness emanated from all around me, and knocked the Mightyena over. Each time they tried to get up, a more powerful wave came. Finally, the last wave left me, and knocked all of the Mightyenas unconscious. I fell over in exhaustion.
After a few minutes, I started trying to find the little Vulpix. The poor thing had probably been trampled to death in the battle, but I hoped I had at least saved her from any more suffering. I heard a tiny whimpering, and I headed for the sound. My vision was still blurry, but I quickly located the Vulpix. Gently, I picked her up by the scruff of the neck, and carried her back to the road. When I set her down, she was too weak to stand. She fell over and didn't move, except for the weak rise and fall of her sides, which told me she was still bleeding. As my vision cleared and I looked closer, I saw that she was covered in scratches. Some had even had time to partially heal, which meant she must have been tortured for hours.
I felt boiling anger rise in my stomach. It was one thing to hunt for food, and another to cause needless suffering. I let the anger subside, and began to wash the baby Vulpix with my tongue. I tried to make sure all her wounds were clean, and when I was almost finished, I heard someone coming up the road. I turned around and hissed.
"Hey, take it easy!" Blaze looked surprised.
I stopped hissing, "Oops, sorry Blaze."
"That's all right," he got closer to the Vulpix, "Oh my God, what happened?"
I told him about the awful scene I had come across in the woods, but I left out the waves of darkness, instead telling him, "After I knocked a few out, the rest ran off."
He investigated the Vulpix's cuts, and after sniffing them told me, "I wish she was a Charmander, I could clean them with flames. Even though Vulpix are fire Pokemon, my flames are too strong. They would just make it worse.
"How are we going to feed her?" I asked. All we had were apples and gummis.
"I'm pretty sure Vulpix are naturally carnivores, but I can't tell if she's been weaned yet."
We decided to make camp there for the night, and see if she would wake up. I didn't want to fall asleep, in case she woke up in the middle of the night, but Blaze convinced me.
"If she wakes up, she'll cry or whimper and you'll hear it," he promised.
Finally, I fell asleep. I dreamed I had an Absol kitten pressed up against me. I purred and began to clean it. When I woke up, I found the little Vulpix was gently prodding me with her paw.
She stared at me with wide eyes before saying miserably, "I'm hungry."
I looked down at her, her face covered in scratches and asked, "Would you like to try an apple?"
"What's an apple?"
The little Vulpix sniffed the bright red fruit curiously, and I showed her how to eat it. She crunched through it noisily, and when she was done, her little stomach had become bloated, "I'm full," she said quietly.
"Good," I checked all of her cuts, and were relieved to find that none of them were infected, "How do you feel?"
She began to shake, "Sad. I want my momma, and my brothers and sisters," she began to cry.
Watching her made my heart break. I started to give her a tongue bath, and would occasionally make a remark, "Don't cry, sweetie. It's okay." After a while, she stopped crying.
Eventually, Blaze woke up. He looked over at the Vulpix, "Hi there!" he said enthusiastically.
She took one look at him, and hid herself in my fur.
"It's okay, buddy. It's just Blaze. He used to be as small as you," I smiled at her. She couldn't help giggling. Now that she was in a good mood, I asked her, "What's your name, princess?"
"Venus," she told me shyly.
I smiled reassuringly at her, "What a pretty name! My name is Faith."
She smiled back.
"How fast can you walk?" Blaze asked her.
This time, she didn't seem afraid of him. She just seemed to want to show off, "This fast," she told him, and set off at a slow shuffle.
I laughed and asked her, "How would you like a ride?"
She squealed and climbed up onto my back.
I sighed in relief when I looked at the map and saw no creepy canyons or boiling deserts. Today would be smooth sailing through a tropical forest.
As we walked, Venus would squeak happily at new things. She almost fell off my back when she saw a herd of Tropius through some trees.
"What are they?" she asked in amazement.
I told her they were Tropius. It turned out she was full of questions.
"What do they eat? Why do they have fruit on their chin? They can fly?"
I didn't have an answer for every question, but she seemed satisfied enough with the answers I did give her. At lunch, she asked me the question I'd been dreading.
"Where are we going?"
Blaze grimaced.
I looked her straight in the eye, and told her seriously, "Somewhere very dangerous and scary. We're going to have to be very quiet, and you're going to have to do everything we tell you, so we don't get hurt."
Her eyes got big, "Why are we going somewhere dangerous?"
"We have to go find somebody, and when we bring them back to our old home. We'll get a Mew egg."
If her eyes had been big before, they were enormous now, "Wow! A real Mew! Is it gonna live with us?"
I smiled, "Maybe. Maybe it'll be part of our rescue team."
"You're in a rescue team?"
And so she became fascinated with everything about me and Blaze. We started walking again, and as we did, we told her stories of other missions we'd gone on, and other rescue teams we'd worked with. By the time we stopped for the night, she was dead set on being part of our rescue team.
"I wanna be in Team Disaster!"
"Sure, kid," Blaze grinned, "I got an extra bandanna around here somewhere," he pulled out a black bandanna that matched ours and tied it around her neck.
"Wow," was all she could say.
I whispered lullabies to her, until she fell asleep. I curled around her, and Blaze curled around me, so that we were like Nesting dolls. I purred quietly. For the first time since I was a child, I felt like I had a family.
Every day, Venus seemed to get a little bigger and more talkative. After a while, she began to walk by herself and I didn't need to carry her anymore. It had only been a few days since we had found her, but her wounds were healing, and were replaced by subtle scars. The only real proof of her ordeal was a slashed ear.
Eventually, the good times had to end, and we reached the base of Mt. Aura. That night we were all very nervous. Blaze started to execute plans of attack, but I stopped him.
"Listen...I was thinking...most of the Pokemon that live here are Dark types, right? So I was thinking...maybe it would be safer if I went in myself."
Blaze sat stunned, before his face hardened with resolution, "No, absolutely not-"
"Stop it, Blaze! You know it's true! They'd never even know I didn't belong there! You think you're being brave, but you're being a coward! You can't just let me go," I trailed off.
Blaze looked like he was going to say something, but he stopped. His face changed from angry, to desperate, to empty.
"Please don't go, Faith. I love you," his azure eyes looked up at me. Normally, they were bright and sparkling. Now they looked like an ocean during a storm.
"I love you, too, but this way Venus won't be in danger."
He nodded sharply, "Yeah, I guess so."
Without anymore words, we went to sleep.
In the morning, I woke up before Blaze or Venus. Quietly, I slipped off my bandanna, so I wouldn't be marked as being in a rescue team. I turned to leave, and felt a furry paw on my back.
It was Venus, "Please be careful."
"I will, sweetie, I promise," I tried to comfort her.
"I don't want you to die," her eyes filled with tears, and I felt my heart break.
"I love you, Venus."
"I love you. Please promise you won't die."
"I...I can't promise that, but I promise I'll come back to say goodbye."
Venus started crying.
"Shh...It's okay. Remember, I'm Faith. You can't hurt faith. Faith is blind, but it can be one of the strongest things in the world."
She forced herself to stop crying, but I could still hear her whimpering.
Walking away from her and Blaze was one of the hardest things I ever had to do, but I hardened my heart, and entered the mountain. As soon as I walked into the cave, I felt a chill in the air. It wasn't really cold, it was more like...hatred. I shivered. Most of the through the mountain, I didn't see anyone else, but I could feel the presence of watching eyes. The only real sign I had that anything was alive here, was the occasional shrill cackling coming from the shadows. I tried not to look scared.
Finally, I saw another Pokemon. It was a Sneasel with a huge scratch across one eye.
I tried to make my voice low and gravelly, "Have you seen a Breloom around here?"
"Nah, what's it to you?" he cocked an eye at me suspiciously.
"I heard from one of the," I tried to think of a Dark Pokemon, "Houndour that they caught the scent of one."
He paused a moment, "You said you were looking for a Breloom?"
"Uh, yeah."
"I've got a friend who might know where it went. Come on," he motioned for me to follow him.
I followed him for seemed like an hour, through increasingly darker and narrower tunnels, until we reached a large antechamber.
Suddenly, I had a horrible idea, "Who's your friend?" I asked nervously.
The Sneasel smirked, "You might know him."
I looked around the antechamber, then turned back to the Sneasel, "Hey, when's your friend-"
My mouth fell open. Where the Sneasel had been standing, there was now a Gabite.
"Remember me?"
I stood speechless for a moment before I could say anything, "How?" was all I could get out.
The Gabite smirked. I saw it's outline go blurry. Then it turned back into a Sneasel. Then a Mightyena.
"You-?" I was so angry I couldn't get any words out.
"That's right," he said in a deep Mightyena voice, "I've been following you the whole time."
He turned into a Tropius to prove his point.
"Most of the time," he said, "I looked like this."
He changed into one of the smallest Pokemon I had ever seen. It was only a few inches long, and if you didn't look carefully, it appeared to be a leaf or some other piece of plant matter.
"I spent most of the trip as a Budew in that stupid Charizard's backpack. Every now and then I got out to stretch my legs. Or eat."
My thoughts went back to Venus's mother and siblings, their bodies mutilated horribly, and the little injured Vulpix whose body had almost been torn apart. I felt something start to grow in my stomach.
"Is that Garchomp a Ditto, too?" I asked.
"No," responded a voice from behind me, "I am one hundred percent real."
I turned around and saw the Garchomp. My eyes flashed with anger.
"You."
"Yes," he said dryly, "Me."
"Why-" I started, then paused, "Why would you bring me here?"
"Simple, Faith. We needed someone to bring Mewtwo back."
"You think I would help you bring back a monster?"
"Not willingly," he smiled a chilling smile, "But it doesn't need to be willing."
He started to back me into a corner.
"Why me?"
It sounded so childish. So stupid. It didn't sound like something I would say.
"Haven't you ever wondered why you never had a vision until recently. Haven't you ever wondered why something so simple would cause your family and friends to abandon you?" he paused for effect, "You have the power, to be either very good or very evil. Most creatures, Pokemon or human, fall somewhere in the middle of the scale. Most of us, are shades of gray. But every now and then, someone is born or created, who is the essence of either good or evil. Most often, they choose which one for themselves. Your family and friends abandoned you, not because they thought you weren't good enough, but because they were terrified of you. You could have been the most evil creature to walk the earth. You never had any visions, because you were teetering on the edge of a precipice. One wrong move, and you could have fallen off either side. Right now, you are still balanced on that edge. You have the potential to be either good or evil, but for right now, you have the powers of both."
"How did the other Absols know I was like this? How did you know I was like this? I didn't even know!"
"The other Absols, simply enough, were sensitive enough to the path of destiny, and the likeliness of disasters, to sense that you were different. As for me, I just had to pay attention to the signs."
"Like what?" I felt sick to my stomach, but I had to keep him talking.
"Oh, there are lots. For example, haven't you noticed you don't have red eyes like other Absols? Yours are violet. Or that you connected with that pitiful Vulpix? Most Pokemon would be instantly afraid of Dark Pokemon, but she didn't notice you. She could sense the potential for good. That's the same reason that insufferable Charizard took a liking to you when he was a Charmander. In any case, I am about to decide your fate for you. I am going to sacrifice you to Mewtwo. It doesn't matter if you want to be sacrificed. Being used to bring back the most evil creature ever to walk the earth is enough to make you pure evil as well. It won't last long. You'll be dead of course, but for a split second, with the two evilest beings of all time next to each other, you will overwhelm what is left of 's spirit, and rerelease the shadow Pokemon!"
"But why would you want to do that?"
"Because, although I am not a Ditto, I am no longer a Garchomp either."
"What?"
"Around the time when Mewtwo first fell, I was a simple Gabite who was trying to find a way to evolve quicker than my peers. One day, while walking through the canyon that you recently visited. I found a legendary Pokemon. I found Darkrai! When Mewtwo and the shadow Pokemon were at large, he was all powerful. He feeds off misery, you see. But when I found him, he was close to dead. The joy every human and Pokemon had felt when Mewtwo was vanquished, weakened him immensely. He offered to help me evolve, if I let him merge with me, and...I did," he cackled menacingly, "I think I've answered enough of your questions. Let's get started."
His face lit up with a wicked grin as he started to approach me, I tried to run, but was surprised to find myself in the grip of a Charizard.
"Blaze?"
"Sorry, guess again," replied the Ditto.
My body was shaking with anger, fear, and confusion at the things I had just heard. I felt some strange force growing inside of me, getting stronger and stronger, and now I knew what it was: hatred. I let it loose. It knocked the Charizard over, but had no effect on the Garchomp.
"That won't work on me," he said.
I tried to do something, anything, but I was powerless. The Charizard was holding me still again, as the Garchomp began to draw strange symbols in the ground around me. I heard him saying dark mantras over and over to himself. I struggled against the Charizard that held me down and whimpered. How pathetic. A Charizard, then a Charmander, had once saved my life, and this Charizard was going to help end it.
The Garchomp bent over me, and began carving the symbols into my body. I started shaking violently, and screeched with the pain. As he drew symbol after symbol, I began to retch violently. The whole time he sang ancient, evil songs of blood and death. Every single second of was racked with pain. I began to steadily fade in and out of consciousness. Was I still alive? Was this hell? There was no way to know.
I felt the evil magic begin to take hold on me. I prayed quietly, though I didn't know how much good it would do. Lastly, I thought of Blaze and Venus. At least they're safe. With that thought I felt warm and safe. I remembered being curled up next to them. It made me feel better. I felt a force grow inside me.
Not again, I thought, That's not going to help, But this force was different. Instead of being a vast uncontrollable ocean, it felt like a gentle rainstorm, but warmer. It was pleasant and I faded into it. Suddenly, I felt an awful wrenching pain. I opened my eyes, and above me saw a Mew and a Mewtwo.
"What!" screamed Garchomp, "Why are they both here?"
I felt that warm feeling in my stomach getting bigger. I giggled lightly. It tickled. I felt it grow stronger and stronger. It reminded me of how quickly Venus had grown since we found her. Finally, the force was too strong for me to handle. I didn't want to, but I let it go. There was a flash of light, and then I was gone.
"What's happening?" The Garchomp screamed. The Absol was dead, but nothing was happening.
Then, FLASH! A beam of light shot out of the Absol. It surrounded the Mew, and the Mew began to glow. The light became stronger, and stronger, forming a force field around the Mew. The Mew released it, and Mewtwo was gone.
By now, the Ditto was long gone. The only Pokemon left in the antechamber were the Mew and the Garchomp. Slowly but surely, the Mew turned to the Garchomp. FLASH! The Garchomp was gone. Then, the Mew floated down to the floor. It floated silently around the Absol's body. It began to sing. A gust of wind came from nowhere, and ruffled the fur on the Absol's side. It grew stronger and stronger, until there was a miniature tornado in the middle of the room. The Mew circled around it, still singing. The tornado turned pink, and the Mew reached inside it, and pulled out a round, pink ball of light.
The ball of light hovered over the Absol for a minute, then seemed to shrink, and melt inside it. For a moment, it was gone, but when the Mew started a new verse, it returned. This time, inside the pink ball, there was something shimmery and white. The Absol's body winked out of existence, but the ball stayed.
The Mew took the ball in both hands. Sat quietly on the floor for a moment, and then faded away.
Outside the mountain, Blaze was holding Venus who was crying.
"She's not coming back! She's not coming back!"
"Shh...Sure she is kid," he patted the Vulpix lightly on the back, and began to sing to her.
FLASH!
"What the hell was that?" Blaze yelled.
Venus stopped crying and her whole body began to shudder. She looked at the mountain and grinned.
FLASH!
After a moment, something began to descend from the mountain. Blaze couldn't quite make out what it was, and Venus couldn't see it at all. Suddenly, it appeared right in front of them.
Venus was the first to realize what it was, "Mew!" she bounded up to it, and nuzzled it with her nose.
The Mew smiled and nodded, then frowned. He handed the ball out to Blaze. Blaze took it in both hands.
"Is this-" he paused, "Is this an egg?"
The Mew nodded sadly.
"This is great! We don't have to find that stupid Breloom after all. Faith is gonna be so happy! Where is she Mew?"
Mew didn't say anything, but he floated lower. He looked guilty.
Blaze's smile drooped, "Where is Faith, Mew? Mew? Mew!"
Mew shook it's head sadly, then floated up to him. It pressed both paws against Blaze's forehead, and sent him the memory of what had happened. Blaze jerked back, "Faith!" His big blue eyes filled with tears.
Mew showed Venus the same thing. She didn't say anything. She hid her head beneath her tail and began to cry.
The Mew sighed, then placed his hands on the egg. From the egg, came a foggy shape. It was Faith. She wasn't in the shape of an Absol, or any other kind of Pokemon. She wasn't in the shape of anything really, but somehow, it was obviously her. It felt like her. The foggy shape of Faith, that was both her and not her, floated above the egg, then disappeared inside it. Another image of Faith came out. This one looked like an Absol. It smiled, and floated away.
Blaze didn't hear it say anything, but Venus distinctly heard it say, "I told you I'd come to say goodbye."
Mew handed the egg back to Blaze, and for the last time, faded away.
One year later, Blaze and Venus sat next to the egg. Venus was no longer red with six tails. She was now golden with nine tails. Blaze looked almost the same, but to those who knew him before, he looked slightly older somehow.
The egg began to shake. Tiny cheeping noises came out of it. A crack appeared. Then another one. And another, and another, until the whole egg was nothing but cracks. Finally, a tiny shape came out of the egg. It was a beautiful pink, kitten-like Pokemon. It giggled lightly, and floated around the base. It yawned, showing it's tiny pink tongue, and flaoted down to Venus's paws. There it fell asleep. Venus sighed, "What are we going to call her?"
Blaze looked surprised, "I thought it was obvious."
"What?"
"That her name was Faith."