"I do not believe you truly understand the reason of this sacrifice, the reason for this research, the reason for this entire facility. You ask me how I can take the life of a Pokémon when I am supposed to be protecting them, trying to foster their protection and equality.

"Our people and the Pokémon are inexplicably bound together. You understand this bond, don't you? It's how we understand the Pokémon, how we manage to foster friendship and love with them, why we are all of different opinions on them and how they should be treated.

"Pokémon are just as human as you and I. You see this, do you not? Can you not feel the pain in their eyes, or the love of their embrace? Can you not see how the pokémorphs prove this, or how much of ourselves are shown within Pokémon?

"You say that I am crazy. I admit it, I am crazy. But are we not all? Is love sensible? No. Do we all have love in our hearts? In one for or another, the answer is yes. So would we not all be crazy? Would you, who love your Pokémon so much you once risked your life to defend them, not in your own way be as crazy as I?

"I want to prove our bond. I want to show people that we are tied more closely to the Pokémon, and by extension the pokémorphs, than what we see on the surface, that, in a way, we are of the same breed.

So if I am crazy for wanting to do everything in my power to protect the ones I hold dear, then I am crazy. But I am crazy enough to know that I am willing to, if and when the time comes, lay my life down for them without a second thought.

"That is the reason; for this facility, for the heartbreak of every sacrifice, for every single piece of steel you can see here."

-From Hiora, Pokémon Genetics professor, follower of Arceus

-Intro-

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Dear Journal,

Every day I am closer, closer to the answer I and my allies seek. I can feel it. But at the same time, every day, it becomes harder to go on.

Though my efforts slowly bring fruit, every tribute to this search is a needle of salt through my heart. Every drop of sweat spent is a drop that those opposed to this project will spit upon, and do their utmost to halt for their own reasons.

But I must keep going. I have to. Once this is finished, we can finally prove the bonds that exist between the Three Sentients, and then we will be able to save lives. Only then will be finally able to end the senseless violence that permeates the world, and if not end it, then we can at the very least bring it down to the point where it might strangle itself into nonexistence.

Today, however, was particularly unusual.

I rested in the front hall this morning, trying to maintain my strength and resolve to continue this project, as I do every morning. I was meditating, specifically, on the pokémorphs, and as I now look back upon that morning, I see the irony of this, and it makes me wonder if it was not random chance, but fate weaved and given power by the will of almighty Arceus, a fate placed upon a being whose race came forth with the aid of my own hand.

The irony of that morning is that one of the pokémorphs had barged into the building, holding her shoulder and crying for sanctuary. She was being hunted by her own people, and that was because she'd been caught with the humans.

This I still cannot understand.

They share human traits, even some of our appearance, and yet they distanced themselves from us like the living from the dying, and even sometimes saw themselves as superior to humans, a greater race than ourselves, though the real irony might be that many humans thought the same way about the pokémorphs, seeing themselves as more important than them. I see now that particular morning was a cacophony of ironies of all shapes and sizes.

And I, as you very well know my trusty journal, am not a fan of irony.

She came, pleading for safety, for sanctuary in a house dedicated to the one that helped shape her. I am a follower of Arceus, a man of the father of all things, so I could not in good faith allow one of His creations to be deprived of aid when I had empty beds and full pantries.

I extended her protection, as was required of me both of Arceus and of a faithful, decent man.

Then those that sought her demise came for her. They entered a house of peace with anger in their hearts and a taste for blood upon their tongues. I did my best to turn them without violence, as spilt blood only begot more of the same.

They refused. I maintained my temper only until one of them threatened the other children of this house.

That I would not stand for.

I…I lost my control. I would have taken their lives had they not pled for my mercy.

This reminded me of my duties as a man of Arceus. I reminded them to leave this house of their maker, who would not stand for spilt blood on the grounds of life, and this time they heeded my words, leaving in peace.

The one who had been pursued gave me thanks. I deserved no thanks. I had lost my temper and nearly became another hypocrite who warns you with one hand and does what he warns against with the other.

Now that she resided here, I showed her she was not alone in this house, that there were others who sought these walls of faith, and who I opened them to for shelter and love. I showed her, within these walls, she was as much my child as were all the others here. Irony struck again, as the remark about being my child was far closer than she realized, as I knew.

I gave a bed to rest on, and food for her belly. She accepted, and I told her I would find her a home among my people if her own had rejected her. That seemed to brighten her mood. Then she told me the name of someone she wanted to meet, a boy that had captured her heart.

I cannot remember his name. I think that it was Dominic. No, wait, it was Zack. Wait, ah, now I remember.

His name was Ash, Ash Ketchum.

This is the story of his love.

A pokémorph named Jade.

-End Intro-