All That Matters

It had been a long and hard day for everyone involved. Just not too long ago, Team Flare had succeeded in reactivating the ultimate weapon that lay dormant underground in the heart of Geosenge Town for three thousand years, with the intent of using it to wipe the slate clean and create a perfect world for them and them alone, with little regard for the rest of the human race and Pokemon in the process. Thankfully, their plans were thwarted by Calem and his friends, consisting of Serena, Shauna, Tierno and Trevor, with Calem confronting the leader of Team Flare, Lysandre, and preventing him from using the ultimate weapon and leaving it to return to its resting place in the centre of the small town. Now that the dire crisis was over, the small group could finally resume their journey together.

That was, all except for one person. Calem remained by himself in Geosenge Town, having taken a seat at one of the nearby café tables located on the outskirts of the small rural town. It had been quite some time since his fateful battle with Lysandre, and yet he hadn't returned to Anistar City so he could pick up where he left off. He had chosen to spend some time in the small town to himself, taking the time to think over everything he and his friends had been through in this crisis and what he had seen and heard during it all. As he had a lookout at the heart of the town, taking notice of the large hole amongst the fallen rock structures and tipped over houses where the ultimate weapon used to be, he let out a quiet sigh. He had about a million thoughts running through his head from the ordeal, so much so that he didn't take notice of the sound of footsteps approaching.

"Calem?" Having finally snapped out of his stupor, Calem lifted his head in surprise at the sound of that voice, one he could recognise at a moment's notice, and turned his gaze to spot the source: standing there, having just arrived at where he sat was Shauna, one of his travelling companions as well as his girlfriend. With an expression of concern clearly displayed on her face, Shauna stood there, having taken notice of the fact that Calem had remained here instead of following suit with the others and heading back to Anistar City to resume his journey. "What are you still doing here? Everyone else has already left." Shauna stated, feeling surprised and concerned to see that Calem was still here.

Calem stared in silence for a few moments before he showed a small smile at the sight of his girlfriend standing there; he always seemed to feel like he could accomplish anything when Shauna was with him, and this was no different, as the sight of her here with him was helping him feel a bit better about what he just had been through already. "Oh… hey, Shauna. I just needed some time to myself. I didn't expect to see you here, to be honest. I would have figured that you would have gone back to Anistar City with the others." His voice sounded rather quiet as he was talking, almost as if like an indicator that the crisis with Team Flare had had quite an impact on him. Shauna seemed to realise this as well, as she made her way over to the chair that was just opposite to Calem and began to pull it out to take a seat for himself.

"Well, when I noticed that you didn't come back to Anistar City with us, I had a feeling that there was something going on." Shauna replied, making herself comfortable in the chair before pulling it back up. Calem felt a small smile come to his face once he heard this; if the time he had spent with Shauna throughout his journey had taught him anything, it was that she knew her friends better than even they realised something, especially when it came to him. However, the smile quickly faded and he turned his glance down, with his arms crossed and his mind racing at a mile a minute. Shauna then quickly spoke up with that familiar bright smile on her face. "So what's bothering you, Big C? If there's something wrong, you know you can always share it with me!"

Calem turned his glance up to Shauna before slowly nodding in agreement; if there was anyone that he wanted to talk to about the uncertainties he was experiencing, it had to be Shauna. She was always the one he could turn to for whenever he felt like this, since she always happened to know a way to help him feel better. So with this in mind, Calem quietly sighed before he finally started to speak. "Lysandre dreamed of making the world more beautiful, but I didn't realise that…" Calem pointed over at the giant hole in the centre of the town where the ultimate weapon used to lay while Shauna turned her head to the area in question in surprise. "This was what he meant by that. A world without Pokemon, resources reduced by the numbers or completely, people fighting over what very little they had… is that he called beauty? If anything, the world would have turned into the very thing he wanted to prevent it from becoming!"

"But we didn't let that happen. More importantly, you didn't let that happen." Shauna replied. Calem turned his gaze back to her as she continued, noticing the reassuring smile she was showing him. "You managed to stop him and save this world from becoming something it was never meant to be. He and all of those Team Flare creeps we kept running into may have given us a lot of trouble in the process, but we managed to stop from them using that ultimate weapon! I wouldn't want to imagine living in the kind of world he was thinking of; that would be a nightmare come to life if I ever saw one."

Calem simply remained silent as he had his gaze turned away from Shauna, to which she watched him in concern as she was starting to wonder what he was thinking about. "That's true, but… what Lysandre said after I battled him for the last time…" Calem slowly closed his eyes as he could still recall Lysandre's words in his mind…

"I can see only one future! One where foolish, selfish humans about nothing other than themselves and steal more and more from each other… it's a tragic future!"

After remembering those words, spoken from despair at the possibility of the world being brought into its darkest hour, Calem opened his eyes and turned his glance back up to Shauna with an expression of worry etched on his face. "I know it doesn't sound like it could ever come true, but… what if he's right? What if this world turns into the kind of thing he was describing? One where people think only of themselves and fight over what they have, never thinking about others who suffer because of their actions, and everything they have and take for granted is destroyed as a result. Who's to say that a world like that couldn't be possible?"

Shauna could only stare in shock for a few moments before she rapidly shook her head in response. "What are you saying, Calem? That's crazy! That kind of thing could never be true. I mean, Kalos was just fine the way it was before Team Flare decided to meddle. We've never had to worry about what our world would become, because that's the kind of world we would never allow to happen!"

Calem let out a sigh of uncertainty, seemingly not convinced by what Shauna was trying to tell him. He had so many conflicting doubts and worries running through his mind after his various confrontations with Team Flare that it wasn't surprising that his own convictions were being shaken by everything he had experienced. "I don't know, Shauna… I know things are just fine the way they are now, but how do we know what could happen to this region, or this world, years from now? How will we know for sure that we won't be leading this world in the direction that Lysandre was imagining this whole time?"

Shauna turned her glance down to think it over for a few moments before she looked back up at Calem as she started to think. "I won't lie to you, Calem. There really is no way to know what our world could look like in that time. There are some questions that we don't have an answer for, and some things that we can't understand. But if this whole adventure has taught me anything, it's that the world we live in now is something that should be treasured and valued, one that should never be taken for granted because it could be gone without us knowing it. Right now, all that should matter is doing whatever we can to keep this world the way it is now, making the most of everything we have now and working together to make a brighter future for everyone. I know the future is scary to think about, but…" Shauna then reached over to take Calem's hands in hers, prompting him to turn his gaze up to her as she showed him a comforting smile. "We'll do it together. That's what we do, right?"

Calem slowly nodded in agreement; he could tell that Shauna was right. But there was something that still haunted him, an unspoken fear that he never considered until his confrontation with Lysandre. "Shauna, Lysandre became the man we saw him as because of his own ambitions, because he didn't believe that people could work together to make a better future for all and only saw the worst to come. What if something like that could happen to me?" Shauna could only stare in alarm as she was asking herself what Calem was talking about, before he stood up from his chair and started to walk towards the centre of the town, looking down into the hole where the ultimate weapon lay safely, never to be used again. "What if I become someone I never wanted to imagine, someone who takes whatever he can and never thinks about others in the process? What if I could become… just like who Lysandre was?" Feeling these heavy worries weighing on his heart and soul, Calem closed his eyes in worry as the thought of becoming the very person he despised began to haunt him, seemingly refusing to leave him alone. However, he was soon broken out of those thoughts by Shauna's voice.

"Calem. Listen to me." Calem nearly jumped in surprise at the sound of her voice and turned his head to notice her looking at him with a firm expression on her face. He rarely never heard that kind of firm tone in her voice, but now he could tell that she was being serious. She wasn't going to stand for hearing him thinking this way about himself and the rest of the world. "You love your Pokemon, your friends and this world more than anyone else I've known. You fought so hard against Team Flare because you love this world the way it is and could never imagine it becoming what they imagined it to be: a world for them and them alone, disregarding everyone else if it meant having everything for themselves. Your heart would never stand for or allow the kind of injustices Lysandre committed, and I know that you would never want to be the person he was. If that ever happened, that's something me and your friends could never live with. We would lose the person you are now: someone who is strong and always ready to fight for what he believes in, but also selfless, kind-hearted and always ready to place others' needs before his own. That's something we'd never want to imagine… and that's something I'd never want to imagine. Because I love you for who you are, and imagining a world without you in it… would be an empty one. We would all be lost without you, Calem, and so would this world. You fought so hard to keep this world the way it was because you believe we could make a better future for everyone, even when Lysandre didn't believe it could happen. He may have given up on hoping for the best for everyone, but you didn't. You could never become who Lysandre was… because you would never allow that. You're a much better person than he ever would be, and that's something you should never take for granted. Understood?"

Calem could only stare in amazement, having realised that everything he had just heard came from Shauna of all people. After a few seconds of silence filled the air between them, Calem kept his glance down before he felt a bright smile slowly cross his face, the first he had shown in the aftermath of the Team Flare crisis. He knew that she was right: he fought so hard against Team Flare for the exact reasons she had just described, and there was no way he could turn into the kind of person that Lysandre became… because that was something he would never allow to happen. As all of this began to sink in, Calem turned his attention back to Shauna before nodding in agreement. "Shauna… you're right. I've been looking at all this the wrong way this whole time. The future may be uncertain, but that doesn't mean we should assume the worst. And there's no way I'd let what happened to Lysandre happen to me. That's something I'd never let happen." Feeling a confident smile cross his face, Calem nodded in confirmation as he now understood everything. "I'll never let the kind of vision Team Flare imagined for this world come true. I'll do whatever I can to keep the world the way it is, and never let my fears come to life!"

Shauna showed a bright smile upon hearing this and she leapt up into the air in excitement, happily clapping as she did so. "All right! That sounds like the Calem we all know!" she cheered. Calem then turned his head to her with that bright smile on his face, and she was met with a surprise as Calem wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"Thanks for snapping me out of it, Shauna. I needed to hear all of that." Calem softly said. Shauna stared in surprise for a few moments before the smile returned to her face and she placed her arms around Calem to return his embrace; she was always ready to do what she could to help him. After all, she was his girlfriend, and she always wanted to make sure to look out for him in any way. After a few seconds, the two let go and kept their gazes on each other with silence filling the air before Calem was the one to break it. "I think it's time we picked up where we left off with our journey. Should we head back to Anistar City together?" Calem suggested.

Shauna cheerfully nodded in agreement with a big smile. "That sounds good to me! What are we waiting for?"

So with no hesitance on his end, Calem grabbed out one of his Pokeballs to release Talonflame so he and Shauna could soar off towards Anistar City together. As Talonflame took to the skies, with Calem in front and Shauna sitting behind him, Calem turned his gaze over to Shauna as she had her arms wrapped around him and her head rested against him with a bright smile and he couldn't help himself smiling back; thanks to her, he now knew that he didn't have to worry about the future alone, because he and the others would face it together, just like they had always done.

And in his eyes, that was all that mattered.