AN: Welcome to the second sequel and third in the Dreams series. Like with the previous two stories there will be forty chapters in total with the five stories at the end. I will try to upload each chapter weekly instead of every two weeks unlike the last time with every two weeks or more.
"I Espeon will drink apple juice nonstop to attempt to break a world record!" Speech
"Deep thinking has really turned my life around." Thought
Team Doom HQ – Rooftop Location or Time
Chapter 01 - Awake
As I looked into their eyes on that rainy day, I thought they were going to wake up at any minute, as if either one of them was going to say something like 'Gotcha' or 'Boo' like they were playing some kind of joke on me... but deep down i knew they weren't. I would never hear them talk again, never going to smile or cry... they were gone.
In that year, I lost so much. I wanted to protect everyone, but I couldn't. It all started off in complete darkness, when I woke to my new form…
It felt as if were floating in darkness void of any light, my entire body from head to toe felt like it was on fire. Just moving a small muscle made everything worse. I wanted to scream, but even making the smallest sound hurt my chest. My mouth had a metallic taste, blood I thought but I wasn't bleeding anywhere. My teeth felt different, slightly sharper especially my canine teeth… "Odd…" I thought since thinking was the only thing that didn't hurt.
"My name is Zack Raines, I am 19 years old, Rank 02 of the Unova Savior's branch… why am I feeling so much pain?" I thought back to the most recent memory I could remember; "I was at the ruins of Team Annihilation with my Pokemon; Espeon, she can speak both Pokemon and human language. Latias, my oldest friend, we have been together ever since we were young. And lastly was my very first Pokemon I received from Nuvema town before I joined the Savior's 5 years ago' Dewott. All of us were chasing someone… a Pokemon… Shiny Latias. Yes, that's who it was. She's an enemy, an ex member of team Annihilation."
I remembered Shiny Latias attacking us in the old library of the ruins; she flew right towards me and stabbed me with something, a needle I think. "Is that why I am feeling so much pain? It must be, I can only remember complete darkness and silence after the attack."
"…Zack…" People's voices called out to me. "…Zackary?" voices I recognize well. I wanted to call out to them, but the pain made it difficult for me to respond.
"… …" Voices again, "…Zack, can you hear me?" voices I don't recognize. There were so many voices that I can't tell who they belong to. I thought I was in some sort of coma. That these voices belong to people I had not seen before, but they knew my name. "Maybe relatives or was it my friend's calling out to me? Perhaps both…"
"…Zack?" A girl's voice, she sounds sad. "But why, who is she?" I thought listening in to her voice, I could hear her crying. "…Wake up…please…"
And I did, only this time it was temporally because of one thing, pain.
Castelia City – Savior HQ Medical Floor
I awoke feeling a sharp pain throughout my body, it was as if my entire body inside and out was on fire.
Breathing, blinking and moving just a little bit and the pain worsened so much that I cried out because of the intense pain. I heard footsteps from the outside, the door opened, but my eyes stung too much for me to open them up to get a look at who had entered the room.
I tried to call out to them, to tell them how much pain I was in, I needed help. But the pain surging throughout my entire body especially throughout my mouth and throat prevented me from uttering a word. The people that did enter the room only injected me with something that caused me to fall back to sleep.
Hours passed not knowing how much; how long I was out, where I was, or why my body was in so much pain. All I had to do was to wait in this darkness while enduring the pain until it eased up and I could finally know what was happening to me.
Waking up again expecting to feel the same pain as I did before throughout my entire body, I awoke feeling much better than before. I could still feel pain throughout my body, but it was less this time. I guess whatever those people did when they entered the room before helped ease the pain.
Turning my head to the bedside cabinet I saw a bunch of flowers set down with many cards and gifts reading 'Get well soon' 'We miss you' written on different cards. Turning my head facing towards the door, hanging on it was the Savior's 'S' emblem I had seen a few times when I ended up in the medical floor of the building, so I was safe. 'Whatever that injection was must've ended me up here, my Pokemon must've brought me here after I passed out…'
I lied there in silence a little more, until the door slowly opened up, and who stepped inside surprised me, a face I hadn't seen in years; Sakura Kanai no doubt about it. Just a reminder, Sakura was one of the first people to travel with me when I joined the Savior's and helped take down Annihilation. Back when we first met, Sakura told me she didn't really know what to do for a career and was often wandering the region to figure it out. She was the first person to join my small team helping me take down Annihilation and becoming a good friend.
Before we met, she attended a group counselling session with other young and older people which lasted for a few years because of their… unsettling past. You see, Sakura's stepfather was abusive to not just Sakura, but her mother only on rainy days developing a fear of the rain for Sakura at a young age. Over the years after our journey, Sakura is studying to work at a Pokemon center near her hometown. Despite her busy schedule, she still shows up from time to time to catch up and hang out.
She was wearing a black plain t-shirt, pants and boots, and a few bracelets around her wrist. However, despite her clothing changes from her usual attire the most notable thing that remained the same was her hair length still down to her shoulders. Although, from where I was lying in the bed still, it looked as though she grew taller in the past few years apart…
"Hey! You're awake!" Sakura walked up to my bed and sat at the foot of my bed smiling. "The doctors said you came to not too long ago. How are you feeling?"
"My body still hurts." I said noticing my throat slightly stung when I spoke, similar to that of a sore throat. "Both inside and out. It hurt like hell when I first woke up, like I was on fire or something, but I'm alright now. What happened to me?"
Sakura's smile faltered as she turned her head facing the floor. "Shiny Latias uh… s-she changed you, using some kind of serum she injected into you with while you were at Team Annihilation's HQ ruins."
"Y-yeah, I remember that." I remembered walking into that building in search of Shiny Latias. In the end of searching each and every floor of that building we could, we found Shiny Latias in the library when she attacked us. "But what do you mean she changed me? Am I okay?"
She slowly looked up at me briefly before handing me a mirror, but before she could pass it over she said, "This um… y-you're not scared or badly injured. What you see in the reflection, the doctors are doing everything they can to undo this, I'm sorry."
That made me anxious, it made me scared as to what Shiny Latias did to me with that injection. If I wasn't injured or badly scared then what was wrong with me? Reaching for the mirror with my hand and touching it grasping it firmly with… a paw, a black paw with three little digits as fingers. Slowly, I held up the mirror to my face and gasped at what I saw.
What surprised me in the reflection was not something I was expecting. In the mirror I expected to see at least heavily injured or burnt because of the pain I had felt before, but there was no injury anywhere on my body. In the reflection, I expected to see my slightly spiky black hair, a stubble I hadn't taken care of ever since my mission in Hoenn from last month, and my blue eyes staring back at me through the mirror… but none of that was present in the mirrors reflection. Instead what stared right back at me was a Dewott, same height as one, and same tuft of fur at the top of the head, and whiskers.
But there was something else odd about my new appearance; instead of the usual blue fur present on the head, upper body, arms and legs, my fur was white. My new eyes were the strangest part of my new change; my sclera wasn't white anymore, it was pitch black with red irises and a darker shade of red for pupils.
Holding out my paws out in front of me and staring at them, three fingers now instead of five. I moved them, stretched them and touched them… they were real; this was real and not a dream. I brushed the side of my face and lightly touched my whiskers. I wanted this to be a dream, a dream I could wake up from and find myself in… the same bed but normal body.
"I-I'll uh… I'll go and find Professor Guard, let him know you're awake." She stood up and left the room, but not before turning at the door looking back at me while I still stared at my new appearance.
I lied back down on the bed letting my head rest against the soft pillow and stared directly up at the ceiling deep in thought. "How did this happen to me? And why? Was it to do with that strange serum Shiny Latias injected me with that made me into a Dewott?" Touching the side of my neck exactly where the needle had pierced my skin I felt nothing. "Why did she do this to me? I don't get it… she had the perfect opportunity to slice my neck and finish me off right then and there, but she didn't, she did this instead." I was tired and wanted to go to sleep without feeling a burning pain throughout my body, but at the same time I was still unsure how to cope with this.
I have to admit; at first I did feel a little uneasy on not having to wear any clothing anymore and had to walk around with only fur covering my body. But over time I got used to it continued on, and because of the fur being warm; it was as if I were wearing clothes like I did when I was human.
"But why was I a white furred Dewott with black and red eyes instead of the usual blue furred and dark eyes a regular Dewott has?" I thought, closing my eyes. "And why did she do this to me? What possible reason does she have for turning me into a Pokemon? Does she plan on… selling me? No, that doesn't seem right. Experimental reasons? Was that the reason for this?"
Suddenly, my thoughts came to an end when I felt something lean on the side of the bed. Opening my eyes again and turning to the side of the bed, I saw Latias staring right me with a big grin plastered on her face.
Latias has been my friends since I was a young boy. After hearing a loud crashing outside, we found the fence had been destroyed and a young Latias passed out near it. Carrying her inside and tending to her wounds from crashing into the fence we let her stay with us. She got along well with my mom Ayaka but not with me. Over time I had tried to play with her or get along with her, but nothing seemed to work. It had taken weeks and I gave up, but then one day after school a group of bullies from school ganged up and attacked me. Surprisingly, I was saved by Latias when she used her learnt Mist Ball at them scaring them off.
And ever since then we became best of friends. The day I left to join the Savior's, she followed after us and joined our team and helped us on our journey to defeat Team Annihilation. But as soon as we were face to face with Team Annihilation's leader; Juro, we found out that years ago, the reason Latias was outside crashed into the fence was because she ran away from them after her parents helped her escape and she once lived at their base as a test subject to control Pokemon. Latias when she was young had a controlling chip inserted into her head activated only when a phrase was spoken by an Annihilation member. That phrase was activated and Juro controlled Latias to attack me and leave me for dead. Afterwards when I had regained consciousness, I found myself cut up pretty bad and bleeding all over the floor, with my last amount of strength, me and Dewott made our way towards Juro to finish the mission and to defeat the leader of Annihilation once and for all.
As soon as we defeated Juro, Annihilation quickly fell and Unova was once again at peace. And as for Latias, members of the Savior's helped remove the chip from inside her head and she was back to normal, but her mental state was a different story, after the attack she felt so much guilt about the attack she stayed away from refusing to see the state I was in. But after a while she did come and in the end we made up and our friendship has been stronger than ever if not more.
Before I could say hi to her or move a muscle, Latias hugged me with both of her paws wrapped around my head from the pillow close to her chest/neck (in between I guess)
Expecting to hear her regular 'laaaa' or high pitched noise she always makes, she did something else; "Zack, are you feeling better?" I thought I was imagining things, or that I had gone insane, or that serum gave me some kind of side effect or something. "Zack?" She called out to me touching me with her paw against my shoulder. I couldn't understand what was happening, 'Why was Latias speaking? I mean speaking my language when she couldn't before.' I asked myself in my head combined with so many thoughts each trying to figure out why was this happening to me and what was going on, results; nothing.
"I thought i… I thought I was going to lose you. I was beginning to think you would never wake up. I was so frightened…" she sniffed, clutching me closer to her chest in a tight squeeze.
"Oooooh, so the cute girl was right after all. Zackary is awake" I didn't even need to guess who that was because of her voice. Espeon walked further inside the room and jumped up at the foot of the bed and tapped my foot with her paw. "Latias, let Zackary breathe at least. You'll probably crush his head from how tightly you are holding him like that." To bring you up to speed, Espeon is one of my friends and travels with me outside her Pokeball serving as both travelling companion and Pokemon translator, a feat both useful and helpful in many ways in the past. She can also speak human language and often joining in on human conversations.
"Sorry, I am just incredibly happy to see Zack alright again, after what my sister did to him." Latias said, releasing me from her tight grip. "I was afraid he wouldn't wake up… if he didn't, I would go on a quest on a search for my sister and exact my revenge."
"Yeah, good luck with that. Because while you are away, I Espeon shall watch over Zackary and eat nothing but nachos nonstop and totally eat burgers and fries from an original chain of restaurants and not almost identical to another worlds version; WcRonalds." Espeon said while smirking, lightly touching my tail beneath the bed sheets.
With Latias now joining in by talking, I assumed this was normal and Latias while I was unconscious was taught by Espeon or Gardevoir at some point. I was expecting Espeon to explain to me about why Latias wanted to learn the language and how the process of learning it went. But all I got was Espeon and only her talking to me and still translating everything Latias said to me or to her… she didn't know that I could understand her.
Hearing Latias speak, it was like she was speaking my language so clearly and so fluently that it was normal for her. Her voice was soft and unlike any other voice I had heard before… it was unique.
Both Pokemon looked and stared at me as I sat up on the bed ignoring the pain, staring at Latias for a little while then at Espeon, I didn't know who to talk to on how I could now understand Latias. "Espeon, I… I uh, I can think- I mean, I can understand Latias, y-yeah..." I didn't know how to word it. I wanted to say it as fast as I could and as clearly as I could, but all I got out was an awkward sentence.
"What? Y-you can understand me?" Latias' voice rose, leaning in very close towards me, her face lit up. I could only nod in response before she hugged me into another tight hug squealing with excitement and giggling loudly. "He can understand me. Espeon, he can understand me now!"
"Y-yeah!" I struggled to say, trying with what little strength I had left to push my face off of Latias' chest to breathe. "What happened to me?"
Espeon's ears drooped as she turned to Latias finally freeing me from her tight grip. Espeon cleared her throat "Shiny Latias injected you with something, you know this already. Then you collapsed not too long after the crazed bitch up upped and away out of the window of the library. We tried to fight her, prevent her from escaping, but then you were engulfed in a strange light."
"The light that engulfed you didn't last too long." Latias continued "It was only a few short seconds, and then it faded, and then we found you in your new form lying on the ground unconscious under a pile of your clothes."
"We're sorry Zackary, we were too slow to do anything… we failed to protect you." Espeon said sadly, gritting her teeth trying to hold back her tears I could see forming at her eyes.
"It's alright." I said. "You both did your best, I couldn't have asked for better. I'm just glad no one was hurt; with Shiny Latias' strength I was afraid she could've hurt you before I passed out and afterwards."
"So, you're awake I see." There standing at the doorway of my room was an elderly man I knew well; Professor Guard, wearing the same white lab coat he never seems to take off within or outside the Savior's building for a reason I never found out as to why. Underneath his coat was a white shirt and tie. Black pants and shoes both covered in oil. He was the Savior's lead member of the R&D (Research and Development) team tasked with creating new equipment for Savior members to use out in the field. He and I never spoke that much during my time at the Savior's, not that we didn't get along or didn't see eye to eye, he was too busy in his work and rarely ever came out of his workspace while I was out there trying to complete missions.
Ever since the downfall of Team Annihilation, he with Lee; another member of the Savior's that helps other Savior members while on missions with their Pokemon and help with what food they should eat and give us information on certain Pokemon if they are involved with a mission or two, sort out each and every file and document found within the base left over; lists of past and present members recruited over the years ranging as far back as almost at the start of Annihilation's start up year, blueprints of weaponry and electronic devices used for stealth missions. Even journals written by many members of Team Annihilation; how they felt about their leader, about their enemy, even how they lived amongst their co-workers, combined lasted years to read through them all.
"Sakura said he was already awake by the time she entered the scenes. So obviously, here we are to check up on Zackary." Espeon said, turning her head to get a look at the professor walking up to the side of the bed. "He also says he can understand Latias now."
"Fascinating!" The professor whispered in amazement, a smile across his face, a rare sight to be seen. "Not only had the transformation changed your psychical appearance, but it also granted you the ability to understand the language of Pokemon, perhaps even learn the moves of Pokemon… truly, this is fascinating."
"Why did this happen to me?" I asked. "Why did Shiny Latias do this to me?" Just as I had finished that sentence, the pain I had felt earlier had quickly returned. Closing my eyes and wincing out in pain shortly, I felt as if my body was on fire, inside and out.
"Ever since you came to us in this new form, had Espeon here tell us about Shiny Latias' return, we went through every folder and read through every document to check whether or not we could find out what it was she did to you since she was tied to Annihilation. And I believe we may have that information on what exactly happened to you." "But for now Zack, I want you to rest. Tomorrow we'll discuss this. Everyone, let's leave him to rest for today."
Both Professor Guard followed by Espeon leaving the room leaving me alone to rest. Before Latias left the room, she smiled at me and hugged me one last time. It was a lighter and softer hug unlike the previous tight hugs she gave me. "Get some rest Zack, I'll see you first thing in the morning. Later." And then she levitated out of the room leaving me now alone.
Tomorrow I would find out what Shiny Latias did to me, what this form was and perhaps why she did this. Lying back on the bed looking up at the white ceiling, I thought what tomorrow would bring. What kind of answers could these documents about this change give me; what it was originally meant to be, perhaps give me an answer as to why she did this, or maybe a way to undo this transformation and make me human again?
Tomorrow I would have those questions answered, that day I could only hope that that this form wasn't permanent and I would be back to original self soon.
To be continued...
Trivia:
Zack turning into a Dewott was in the original version, but he wasn't a white Dewott in that. In the original, Zack was at home at the time of the transformation instead of the Saviors HQ and never left his home town.
AN: And done, chapter 02 is up sometime later this week with chapter 03 up next week Thursday just like with the first story.
Feel free to leave a review or PM me if you want an OC to make an appearance in a future chapter.
So anyway, thanks for reading and hope you stick you around. And as always, until next time.