Chapter 1- Separator
Forest Sin
Lake of atonement
It was fitting that that it ended here. Where it had all began.
N had often walked through the city filled with normal regular people whose lives, if his plans had succeeded, would all be dead. He couldn't live with it. He had tried; he truly had, to become normal. He longed to settle down, to raise a family. Bethany had tried to…
The forest was a massive sprawling place full of aged spirits. N had felt their presence. There was something else here as well. Something as ancient as the forest itself. It had been watching N. In every backward glance he took he saw the shadows of the guardian of this divine land.
The forest was unusually hard to navigate through. Each tree looked largely the same all of them reaching up towards the sky to such a height that only small amounts of sunlight shone through. N had entered the forest at dawn and had quickly lost track of time. It had felt like hours since he had first stepped foot in the forest but for all he knew it could have been just minutes. An odd noise behind him made him stop. It could have even been days he thought.
The lake now spread out in front of him. He sat on its edge admiring the beauty. The lake was situated in the middle of a glade that seemed to be the only thing that broke the monotony of the forest. The lake was light blue but as he looked closer it seemed to have no clear bottom. It simply stretched down into infinity.
N stood and took a deep breath. He smiled a bit. For some reason an old poem he had learned as a child had suddenly come back to him.
Run to the end
Jump off the edge
N could see the guardian clearly now. It was a gorgeous as the lake. Its huge mane flowed back and forth like a river. Its purple eyes were as deep as the lake. It rested on the other side of the lake watching him intently but without hostility.
No one gets hurt
The waters clear and innocent
N took one more deep breath. The air over the lake was shimmering as if it was full of crystals. He saw something taking shape over the middle of the lake. Vague at first, but with each passing moment it became clearer. First blue hair that flowed to and fro like the guardian. Bottomless blue eyes…
If you think this is over
N looked away and backup from the water's edge. He took a running leap.
Then you're wrong
"Hurry up you whippersnappers! Or I'll have you all clean the Lab again!"
Isaac, Sara, and Zack let out a collective groan. Prof. Oak wasn't one to make empty threats. Nearly a year ago the Professor had requested that all three of them become apprentices to him. They enjoined the work… for the most part. The main problem with the job was… well… Oak himself. Or rather his eccentricities. Oak's oddities were infuriating and numerous they ranged from waking up at odd hours of the night to waking everyone up by blasting free form jazz. It didn't help that Oak would go on rambling monologues about the three's parents.
The three were already constantly reminded by everyone around them how important their parents were. After all they were part of "The greatest generation". Over the course of two decades knowledge on Pokémon and battles had expanded exponentially mostly thanks to a group of trainers that became the best gym leaders, doctors, and researches ever.
Isaac, Sara, and Zack got the worst of it though. Zack was the son of former champion Blue and Celadon's gym leader Erika. Sara was the daughter of Hoenn's champion (and current professor of Pokémon) Brendan and gym leader Flannery. Isaac's plight was even greater than his two friends. His mother was gym leader Sabrina and his father was the world's greatest trainer: Red.
From his earliest days Isaac remembered being primped and primed to fallow in his father's footsteps. Presents on birthdays would always be focused on training. No video games, comics, or CDs it was always pokeballs and trainer's manuals. This, of course, wasn't coming from his parents. It was all relatives, gym leaders, and "Friends of the family" doing this. They all gave advice on which pokemon to use, what academy to go to, all trying to help start his obvious assent to greatness. His parents, for their part, had done a good job of blocking most of this from Isaac. They had moved to a small town a few miles away from Saffron city away from the hustle and bussle of the crowds. Neither of them had put much pressure on Isaac to decide what he would grow up to do. Sabrina wanted him to become a doctor or "Something useful" as she put it. Red had always told him "Just find something you like to do and go do it." Isaac was interested in battling but there were so many other things to see and to do he couldn't just forsake everything else just to become a trainer.
All three ran up the stairs of the old lab to where Prof. Oak was waiting. They were panting when they reached Oak who had a stopwatch out. He pressed a button on the side of it. The trio watched him apprehensively waiting for him to command them to start cleaning. Oak drew himself up. All three braced themselves.
"Record time! No need to clean today," The trio let out a sigh of relief.
Oak looked at them, smiling. In each of these apprentices he saw a bit of their parents. Sara's long hair was a mix of white and red. She wore a black shirt with her mother's badge insignia. Her inquisitive personality and knowledge of everything Pokémon came directly from her father Brendan and his father before him Prof. Birch.
Zack showed many of his father's traits. He was the most likely of the three to rush head long into something and had gotten the trio in trouble more times than they could count. Thankfully he was much more mellow than Blue (Oak suspected this was his mother's genes at work). Excluding his black hair he looked almost exactly like his father. He did not however wear his father's trade mark clothes opting out for a more stylish black jacket with red and white around the collar of the shirt.
Finally there was Isaac. He was very quiet like both of his parents. He had short spiky hair that, even when combed, seemed to be messy. He, unlike Zack, had opted to wear clothes that were much like his father's. He wore a red and white vest coved up most of his black under shirt. Along with some faded blue jeans he rounded out the outfit with an ever present yellow back pack and his father's now famous hat. Oak had suspicions that he had inherited more than just looks and personality from his parents. He had a special way with Pokémon. Oak had seen him heal and treat Pokémon he had just met with incredible expertise. Pokémon seemed to flock to him were ever he went. Oak, though he couldn't prove it, thought that Isaac may have gained his mother's psychic powers.
"I have a big announcement for the three of you!"
Oh god all three thought. Last time Oak had started out a conversation like this they had spent four hours trying to catch a legendary Pokémon that was rumored to hang around Oak's lab. Zack finally caught the Pokémon. It turned out to be a Munchlax. The Munchlax, now Zack's responsibility, had become an incredible nuisance. It seemed to go out of its way to make Zack's life worse. The same Munchlax was currently sitting on Oak's desk looking though Zack's backpack.
"I swear to god if you touch my lunch…" Zack muttered under his breath.
Just after Zack said this Munchlax found a brown paper sack with Zack's lunch in it. It reached in and pulled out a chocolate bar. He looked at Zack for a moment before shoving it down its throat.
Zack was trembling with rage as Prof. Oak continued.
"As you may have heard discoveries over the past five years or so have lead to contacts with a new region: Saigo."
The three of them looked at each other. Of course they had heard of it! Saigo: the new land. A land to be explored!
"You three have been my apprentices for the better part of a year now and I'm finally going to put you to work! My old friend Prof. Spruce has been studying the region intensely and has finally acquired the funds to build a research lab in a small town in the western part of Saigo. Spruce needs someone to explore and record the region. And I have suggested you!"
The three gasped. They were going to be sent on their own Pokémon journey!
"Previously it was next to impossible to get to Saigo. Even though it is connected to every region except Hoenn the great Black mountain range blocks nearly all transportation from Johto or Kanto. On the other side an arctic desert blocks access from Unova or Sinnoh. And odd wind and ocean currents make entrance by sea or air unthinkable. But new technology in transportation perfected by one (ahem) Samuel Oak has allowed fairly easy transportation by train through the Black mountain range. Tomorrow after doing your collective duties around the lab (collective groan) you will be on the magnet rail to Canvas town."
The three friends were almost jumping with joy. "I get to leave munchlax behind!" Zack was almost crying with happiness.
"You will receive a pokedex from Prof. Spruce when you get there. It is very important that you catch as many Pokémon as you can. We know that there are some new Pokémon out there but we are very interested in the differences between a Pokémon that lives in Saigo and a Pokémon that lives in another region."
Oak looked over at Munchlax who was, at the moment, munching on Zack's cheese sandwich.
"Oh yes and Zack would you mind taking that Munchlax you caught with you? It's becoming quite a bother."
