Breaking the Chains
Chapter 10: Life is Sweeter on the Other Side
Author's Note: Remember how I said at the beginning of the story that the religious references were subtle? Yeah, now I'm kinda turning it up to 11. From here on out, I'm officially screwing over subtlety and Christian elements will be much more obvious.
Aaron's POV
"Where… am I?" I asked myself.
I found myself on a magnificent stairway, one that only went straight up. The steps themselves were a pure white, and translucent. Looking down through them, I could see beautiful clouds below me. The staircase was somewhere high in the sky, but there were no handrails of any sort. Yet… I had no fear of falling.
"I… DID die… right? …Yeah. Yeah, I did."
I turned to my back, wondering if down was an option. Upon seeing no steps behind me, I quickly deduced 'no'. I looked back ahead of me.
"Well. Looks like there's only one way to go." I began my ascent up the stairway.
On my way up, I replayed in my mind what had happened before I arrived here. It was Team Galactic's lab… They… attached that thing to my heart.
A switch was thrown.
I remembered my last words to Riley. He was the only person I could ever consider a true friend.
Then I died.
Being here almost felt like… a dream. A wonderful dream that you would never want to wake from.
I continued my way upwards. I couldn't help but wonder how Riley was doing. Where was he? Did he escape Team Galactic? And what about that other creature… Project Alpha? My mind scrambled around these questions like a 5-year-old on a Hershey's Chocolate high. I eventually decided to discard the questions; at least until I got to the top, then maybe I could get some answers…
I finally reached the top of the never-ending stairway. It felt like YEARS had passed before I got there, and I was a bit exhausted from the long journey up. Instead of wondering where I was, I stated,
"You know, someone here REALLY needs to install an escalator."
"Actually, I've been trying to get onto the big man about that."
"Hmm?" I turned to the direction of the voice. The soothing, yet relaxed voice came from a holy being, dressed in the finest garbs. He sat on an (evidently comfy) recliner. His robes were pure white, a glowing, gorgeous white that didn't look like any shade of white I've ever seen on Earth. The being… sported a beautiful pair of wings which radiated an iridescent blue; more beautiful than any I knew on Earth from any bird Pokémon. Except maybe Ho-Oh's…
"Who are you?"
"Well, who do you think?" he asked in a joking, casual manner.
"An angel." I told him flat out.
"…And he caught the Herdier named Bingo." The angel stood up, and dusted off his robe.
"This is heaven, isn't it?"
"Yep."
I looked around the area, not finding much. The cloud which we were somehow standing on had very little to say about it.
"Wow. Well… umm… I didn't quite expect it to be so…" The last word refused to leave my mouth.
"Barren?" The angel finished for me. "Relax. There's more than you think to it."
"What do you mean?"
The angel chuckled. "Just follow me." He walked off, onto the cloud. I promptly went after.
Our walk on the cloud was… dull, to say the least. The cloud had been much longer than I initially thought it would be. All around us was just visible blue sky. The cloud's surface was certainly quite soothing on the feet, but it didn't do that much to ease the boring walk. I decided to make small talk with the angel.
"So…" I began. "Where… are we walking to, exactly?" The question had been on my mind for a while.
"We're walking to the Pearl Gates. You know the…"
"Yeah, I read about that in Revelation. But is heaven really like it says? With the streets of gold and that there are supposed to be a bunch of mansions?"
"…Mostly."
"What do you mean 'mostly'?"
"Hey, we wrote the good book over two thousand years ago. You don't expect heaven to stay exactly how it is for 2,000 years, do you? We've made a couple of renovations."
"Hmm. Point taken. How much farther is there to walk… uhh… I never got your name."
"Metatron. I hate to sound braggy, but I'm one of the Big Kahuna's top angels. I'm a scribe up here."
"I'm…"
"Aaron." the angel finished for me, surprising me. "Species: Lucario. Born to a family in the Green Valley. Captured by Team Galactic at a young age."
"How do you know all of that?"
Metatron laughed heartily. "You ask a LOT of questions, don't you? That's to be expected. Almost everyone here asks a LOT of questions about heaven, hell, God, life… and why my name sounds like something that came out of Transformers… the list never ends. But to answer your previous questions, we're right here."
I looked around. I was so busy in conversation with the angel that I didn't even notice that we had arrived. The Pearled Gates… no words could describe how beautiful they were. They gleamed with a glow that could outshine the sun. Even Palkia would be envious. Next to the gates was another angel, sitting on a chair looking like a secretary. In front of him was…
"A computer?" I stated with confusion. "I thought it was supposed to be the BOOK of life."
"Well, it WAS a book," the angel secretary said to me. "But after thousands of years and a lot of Christians… the Book got full and we had to move the list to a heaven-only accessible site. Gotta love modern technology."
"Yeah…" I uttered, still somewhat surprised that the heavens could adapt to modern technology.
"Now… name?"
"Aaron." I told him.
He glanced at me with a funny look on his face.
"Uhh… species?" he asked.
"…Wait. I thought that angels were supposed to know this stuff…"
"…All right! I don't play Pokémon much, OK? There's a lot of 'Mon fans up here, but I don't know zilch! OK?"
I stepped back, slightly nervous of the now hectic angel secretary. Metatron set his hand on my shoulder.
"Don't worry." he assured me. "Jim's new to this. He does this with EVERY Pokémon… and most animals. You're fine."
"Jim, he's of the Lucario species." Metatron told him. The angel promptly began the search for me on the computer.
The wait was definitely nerve-wrecking. I WAS probably on the list, but the simple notion of NOT being on there was terrifying. I crossed my fingers. Turns out I didn't need that extra luck.
"Yep. You're on here. All right, I'll open the gates for you."
A click was heard from Jim's computer. The Pearl Gates unlocked and they peeked open. I walked up to it, pushed it the rest of the way open, and went inside.
I marveled at the beauty that beheld my eyes. I don't… I don't know HOW I could possibly describe heaven after witnessing it. I can try, I suppose.
It was… absolutely wonderful. True to the good book, the streets were gold. FREAKIN'. GOLD. As I walked on the golden street, I observed my left and right sides. On the left were tall, majestic buildings, made from every mineral and gem possible. Jasper, sapphire, emerald, topaz, amethyst… you name it, and there was a building somewhere in the sacred city made from it. The colors collided flawlessly, and provided a shining rainbow of lights across the city.
On my right was a beautiful massive garden, with every flower from Earth in it… and some I was pretty sure that WEREN'T on Earth. Flowers made of diamonds and pearls… yeah, those aren't on Earth. The garden was also obviously open to the public, with mortals, angels, and Pokémon alike all in the gorgeous garden.
I ran into the garden, ahead of Metatron. I don't what it was, but some indescribable compelling force called me into it. I ran past the humans, past the angels, past the Pokémon, past the trees of gold and silver, past the chrysanthemums of ruby and sapphire, and past the roses of diamond and pearl, to a hill out into the distance. It stood out in the garden above the walls of the sacred city. On the hills were no heavenly flowers made from gems, but just regular orchids, roses, and chrysanthemums. The sun was rising in the distance.
"This is finally it." I thought. "I'm free."
Then I fell back onto the flowers, with them assuring my safety and comfort. I laughed heartily, a laugh that never would have come from me on Earth. I looked up to the sky, which seemed to be exploding with the fire and passion of a thousand suns. Not even the Northern Lights could compare.
After laying there for a while, marveling at the beauty of heaven's skies, I decided I might want to check out the rest of heaven. I pulled myself up and turned around. I came face to face with none other than…
"Hi there, honey."
"Mom!"
In front of me was my mother, the beautiful Lucario who I had not seen since I was a Riolu.
"What? How? Who? When? Where? Why?" I blabbered. More gibberish came spurting out of my mouth. My mother only giggled innocently.
"Seeing dead relatives for the first time has that effect." she explained to me.
"You're telling me." I chuckled as I embraced her, something I hadn't done in a long time. "Speaking of other dead relatives, where's Dad?"
My Dad was not a Lucario, nor a Ditto (thank God), but a handsome Infernape who well known in the Green Valley for his famous martial arts skills. It's kinda funny. It wasn't my Mom who fell in love with him. It was the other way around; Dad fell head over heels in love with Mom. The proposal was hilarious, or so I'm told. Apparently Dad proposed to Mom, but he didn't have a ring with him, so Mom thought it was a joke. Cue Mom laughing and Dad embarrassingly explaining that he was serious.
Mom took my hand. "Your Dad's up at our house. Come on, he's going to be so thrilled that you're here."
I followed my mother through the confusing layout of the sacred city. I was going to need a map to get myself around here later. We passed by many services to the public. I hesitate to say 'shops' since there didn't seem to be a currency used in them. No Dollars, no Yen, no Euros… no currency whatsoever. Services seemed to be completely free. I assumed it would be because angels have vast amounts of trust with each other.
Eventually, we reached a suburban street with house of varying designs spread among it. Again, just like the flowers and surprisingly modern buildings of heaven, the houses were made from many different gems. My mother and I kept walking until we reached a house composed of diamonds and pearls. I wondered why they decided to live in a house of gems, but I disregarded the question. At the very least, it was darn pretty.
As we waltzed up to the front door, excitement soared through my veins. I was FINALLY going to get to see BOTH of my parents again. The last time… the last time I saw them, they had died from the fire in the Green Valley started up by Team Galactic.
But it didn't matter anymore. I will finally rejoin both of them.
The front door was, to my surprise, unlocked.
"Shouldn't you keep the front door locked?" I questioned my mother. "You know, for burglars and creeps at night?"
"Son, this is HEAVEN. Trust me, nobody breaks into homes and steals things up here. There's no point, either, since there's no currency up here."
We headed inside and into the main hallway of what would be my home.
"Marshall!" she shouted. "Guess who I brought!"
I heard a voice in the distance from upstairs. Grunts and groans were coming up from up there, as well.
"Is it Phoenix?" he shouted back. As he continued talking, his voice came closer and clearer. "Cause he's supposed to come over for that barbeque to-"
He stopped talking the second he laid his eyes on me.
"S-Son?" he stuttered, surprised by my appearance. "It is… I mean, is it really… it's you, isn't it Aaron?"
I ran up to him and tackled him, something I always did to him when I was a Riolu.
"Who else BUT your son can tackle you like that? What were you doing up there, anyway?"
"Ahh, training. You know me; I'm the kind of guy who always loves to battle."
"You always DID love to spar, Dad." I smiled at the fond memories that I had with my father. And now, I would have the chance to make new ones. "Hey, uhh… who's Phoenix?"
"A friend."
Just at that moment, the doorbell rang. My Mom opened the door and welcomed the guest inside.
"Phoenix! Glad to see you!"
"Likewise, Karen."
'Phoenix' turned out to be a Blaziken. Except… he had WINGS that defied the anatomy of your standard Blaziken. To his credit, they were absolutely beautiful wings. They were of the purest white and were smaller than, but still resembled, Metatron's. I've read of humans getting wings in heaven, but Blazikens? The question was inevitable.
My first words to him were, "Why do you have FREAKIN' WINGS?"
"Ahh. So you're Aaron. Your parents have told me a LOT of great things about you. Glad I finally get to meet you. As for the wings… you've got work your way up to get these babies. I call them Donatello and Leonardo. You'll need to perform plenty of good and righteous acts up here to earn them."
"…Ok then…"
"Why don't we discuss it over the barbeque?"
An hour later, Phoenix, my parents, and I were all out on the patio, eating some of the most delicious steak I had ever tasted; it was even better than the one Riley cooked for me…
Riley…
"Riley…" I said subconsciously without noticing.
Phoenix's eyes widened in curiosity. "Marshall." he said. "You never told me anything about a Riley…"
"I don't know a Riley." My father then turned to me, now also curious about my statement. "Son, who are you talking about?"
This also caught my mother's attention, now turning to me wondering who 'Riley' was.
"Son," she said soothingly. "Who's Riley?"
I then explained to them what had happened to me after their death over the last few days of my life back on Earth.
"So let me get this straight…" said my dad. "After we died in that fire, YOU got kidnapped by Team Galactic?"
"Yeah."
"For 3 years?"
"I think so… it was kinda hard to keep track of all of the days…"
"And then they wanted your aura for a Project Alpha? That's how you died?"
"In the end, but not initially. The first time, the machine screwed up and went kaput. I used that chance to get out, but the sedative they gave me wore me down quickly. Fortunately, a human named Riley found me and brought me to his house… I'm really thankful for him. He showed me that not all humans were evil and corrupt."
"But you're still here." Phoenix pointed out. "So, you still died."
"They kidnapped me again, and successfully used it on me that time. But I didn't give them the satisfaction of dragging me to my death. I went peacefully."
My dad smiled. "I NEVER knew you had that much guts, son."
"I'm darn impressed, too." Phoenix admitted. "Still… I wonder whatever happened to that 'Project Alpha' you mentioned…"
"Yeah…" I muttered. "I still wonder what happened to Alpha… and Riley."
Pokémon © Nintendo / Game Freak
Sorry for making you guys wait for… a month for an actual update. Don't worry; I've got a hold on where I want the story to go now. Again, thank you Matthais123, Tanon, Aurora and Aura Blue, and Aura Guardian Kimi, for the awesome ideas. I couldn't have gotten back on track without you guys!
A/N: Metatron is an actual angel (a heavenly scribe) that does NOT appear in the Bible, but is often mentioned in Judaism and Christian mythology. Why the heck not?
FUN FACT! The situation with Aaron's parents getting married... is exactly how my parents were. It was freaking hilarious. Anyway, hope you guys enjoyed the chapter.