Author's Note: This is the last chapter of the story. Thank you everyone for reading!
I know this has been a rather haphazard fanfic because I've been writing each chapter off the top of my head with no fixed plot in mind.
Hope you've enjoyed this story! This is my second fanfic and my first multi-chapter fic. Please feel free to review/comment, and do stay tuned for the Epilogue!
She hit the ground below with a loud crash, surrounded by twisted metal and broken glass. Incredibly, she was still alive and fully conscious, feeling no pain.
However, an object falling out of the window after her landed on her head, causing her to cry out. Rubbing her throbbing head with one hand, Lyra pulled herself up on the mattress she was still lying on and reached for the object with her other hand to study it. It was the hamper.
The Occa flowers and card were probably just touches put in by whoever-was-behind-this to spite her. The Clefairy doll, however…
She suddenly remembered her original purpose in heading to the Goldenrod Department Store – to buy a replacement doll for that infernal pest who could never keep her possessions properly. Well at least she won't have to go back to the Store and risk another violent confrontation; although she wondered if Jill would be back there, reverted to her usual store assistant form.
Pulling herself up from the mangled bed, she looked up and down the street and realised that the hospital was only just across the street from her final destination: the Goldenrod Train Station! Final destination indeed.
Unsteadily, she ambled toward the station, still a little dizzy from incredibly having survived being defenestrated from a hospital ward.
On an ordinary day, the Goldenrod Train Station would be bustling with people at all times of the day, with the magnet train being the most efficient means of commuting between Johto and Kanto. However, ever since waking up in the Department Store, the situations Lyra had found herself in had been anything but ordinary.
This time, instead of throngs of people waiting to catch the half-hourly train to Saffron City, the station was filled only with a small amount of people. All of them sat on the waiting seats provided, alone. The room was eerily silent, with no one talking or moving. Everyone just sat like statues, staring straight ahead emotionlessly without blinking. As she observed closely, she realised that almost all of these people were elderly, although there were one or two exceptions.
There in a corner though, was a young teenaged girl. She was obviously moving and blinking. Though she had not seen her in years, Lyra immediately recognised her to be the Copycat. Upon catching sight of Lyra's noticing her, she rose in greeting.
"Hello, Lyra!" the Copycat chirped in Lyra's own voice.
"Hello, erm, Copycat," Lyra replied, not quite as cheerful. Strangely, Lyra realised that she had never gotten the girl's real name.
"I got your note. I couldn't find your exact doll so I got you a new one."
Lyra held the Clefairy doll up to the Copycat warily. Though she was now older, Lyra couldn't be sure if the girl would burst into tears and start screaming for her old doll. It was thus to her immense relief and slight perplexity when the Copycat smiled at Lyra, paying no attention to the doll at all.
"I wasn't referring to my Clefairy doll, Lyra," she smiled. "I meant my… puppet doll."
"P-puppet doll…?" Lyra asked in confusion.
"Yes my puppet," the Copycat, still smiling, pointed at the sole Poké Ball on Lyra's waist. A sudden light of realisation went off in Lyra's head.
"I forgot! You owned a Banette!" Lyra almost shouted in surprise. When she had browsed the Copycat's immense doll collection after finding her Clefairy doll the first time, Lyra had come across what she thought was a Banette doll. Owning so many life-like dolls of so many rare Pokémon from so many regions, she never thought that this one would be a real Pokémon. Until it suddenly turned and giggled, frightening the living daylights out of Lyra.
"Own," the Copycat corrected. "Would you please hand him over now? His job is done."
"O-Of course. Sure," Lyra hesitantly unclipped the Poké Ball and handed it to the Copycat. The girl took the ball from her and opened it. Emerging in a flash of light, Banette came close to the Copycat and nuzzled the girl gently in the face, confirming her to be its true Trainer.
"Good job, Banette!" the Copycat cooed while Banette giggled, happy to be finally reunited with its owner.
"So, er… what exactly was this job that you sent Banette out to do? Why did he come to me?" Lyra asked, now more confused than ever.
"To find you, of course!" said the Copycat triumphantly. "Now that I've found you, the first part of my mission is complete!"
Observing Lyra's bewildered expression, the Copycat became serious and straightened up. "Lyra, there's something I need to explain to you. Why don't you take a walk with me?"
Without waiting for a response from Lyra, the Copycat turned and began walking towards the gantry barring access to the train platform. Lyra ran to catch up with her while searching through her bag for her train pass. However, the Copycat merely sauntered past the conductor without showing him anything and he ignored her. Seeing this, Lyra quickly dashed through the gantry and again, the conductor stood like a statue and did not stop her.
Hurrying up the escalator leading up to the platform, she saw that a train had already pulled into the station, with its doors open. The Copycat stood in front of the doors nearest to the staircase, waiting for Lyra.
"Are you going back to Saffron now? Are you asking me to come with you?"
"No, Lyra. This is the final part of my mission. I'm just here to send you off," the Copycat said mildly. "This is your train."
"My train? Don't all the trains here go to Saffron?" Lyra was befuddled.
Instead of answering the question, the Copycat just smiled sadly. "You've been holding up this train for too long, Lyra. For almost 2 years. Look, I'm not allowed to explain everything to you but I'm sure you've probably figured out by now that the world you're in now isn't real, right?"
Lyra nodded slowly. Just as she suspected. And even now, as she finally came to terms with that fact, she felt her surroundings shimmer and glow with a dreamlike quality.
Something about 2 years buzzed in her memory. Something someone else had said about 2 years…
"Lyra… you can't go back to the physical world anymore… I-It's just not possible…" the Copycat said delicately, like a doctor breaking the news of a patient's death to a family member. "Y-You have to move on, Lyra. It's the only way…"
Lyra stared at her feet, feeling heavy and finding herself unable to say anything. What did all of this mean?
"Well, you got to say your goodbyes already. We managed to arrange that, lucky you," the Copycat said, trying her best to sound positive. When Lyra still did not move but continued staring at the floor, she approached her slowly and put a hand on her. "Your train is here. You should board. Everyone is waiting for you."
Looking up slowly and into the carriages, Lyra thought she saw a few people sitting in the train. They too seemed to be stone-still. "They don't look like they're raring to go," Lyra pointed out.
"I didn't mean those others, although yes, they too are waiting. I meant… I meant your mom… Ethan… all of us. Everyone. They're waiting for you to board."
Lyra's eyes widened at the mention of her the people closest to her. "I will see them when the train gets to… my destination? On the other side?" The… other side?
"Someday, they will. Come now," the Copycat said gently, while using her arm on Lyra to guide her slowly towards the train. "Someday, we all will see you again. On the other side."
Lyra began walking mechanically to the open doors, feeling like she was being led by an invisible force that she had no control over. She was vaguely aware that the Copycat was no longer walking with her but still, she felt as though she was on autopilot, her body magnetically drawn into the magnet train.
As she boarded, she turned one last time to look at the Copycat, a face she recognised. The Copycat smiled. And in that smile, that face that could imitate so many others, she saw the smiles of everyone she knew and cared about. Her mom's loving smile. Ethan's ever-cheerful grin. Professor Elm's warmth. The friendship of all the other companions she had met. Even the selfless devotion of her Pokémon.
At last, she felt ready to leave. Looking forward again, she boarded the train. Behind her, the train doors quickly slid shut and the locomotive began moving immediately. Looking around her, she saw that the train was again filled with mostly old people, all of them sitting alone. She too took a seat and contemplated all that had happened to her in her life.
As the train pulled out of the darkness of the station into the outdoor brightness of noonday, dazzling light entered the cabin windows, blinding her. But as the light increased in intensity, she knew that this was not ordinary sunlight. This radiance had a physical tangibility which enveloped her, holding her in a brilliant and warm embrace of sheer blazing whiteness.
And as she was enfolded in light, seeing nothing else, Lyra suddenly knew not who she was anymore or remembered at all what had happened to her. She only knew where she was being taken and she smiled one final time in utter bliss, as her entire being and the whole train dissolved into the light.
- The End -