Chapter 11: Knowing the Truth

Nothing had changed in Serene Village. It was peaceful, and the village folks were chatting merrily; especially about the courageous Pokémons that saved the world from Dark Matter from space. As the group entered the entrance of the settlement, the Pokémons noticed them and turned their attention to them; chanting of their success. Maginvade liked their praises, but Vivi, Shuy and Eterna just smile and nodded, before heading their way to Uncle Carracosta's house. As for Sir Ampharos, he embarked on a journey to Lively Town. This time, he would not wander everywhere, thanks to the aid of X-Ray Specs. His words to the heroines before his departure was:

"I shall await for your return to The Pokémon Expedition Society. Even though we have saved the world, we still have Pokémons to rescue. Well, that is how it is. And I must admit, Vivi, you are a fine leader to your team. I am proud to be under you for that mission! Though sometimes, you need to stand firm against Eterna in your decisions. Alright, I shall be seeing you!"

Vivi acknowledged, "Yeah, I know. See you soon, sir."

Upon the heroines' arrival, Uncle Carracosta came out of his blue armour dome-shaped house as he heard the commotion outside. He looked the team, and hugged them in joy. As for the crowd, they dispersed so that their reunion would not be interrupted.

He said, "Oh! The four of you are back! And safe! Some Psychic reporters that spread the news about all of your achievements. Oh…I can't help but to express my gratitude for saving us! Give me a moment, I will make some hearty soup for our celebration!"

Vivi struggled while he was still hugging the team and commented, "Umm…Uncle Carracosta? Can you…release us?"

"Oh! My apologies, Vivi. Ah yes, while I make the soup in my kitchen, you can find Grendon under The Tree of Friendship. I heard he wanted to take a nap there; what a lazy bum! Though, I can't call him that anymore because he had done lots to save this world as well."

Vivi giggled, "He is still lazy to me! Alright, we shall meet him soon."

The team walked up the hill to the special tree. Under the tree, they observed Grendon snoozing away in a crouch position. Vivi sneaked closer to him and let out a loud yup. Grendon was spooked and quickly backed away. But once he realised it was Vivi who teased him, he let out a sigh:

"Seriously, Vivi! Stop doing that to me."

Vivi replied, "Well, that is the only way to wake you up."

"Hmm…I know I am a deep sleeper, but what you had done could cause me a heart attack! Anyway, I know the world is at peace now thanks to you and your friend's efforts. And, you want to retrieve Xerneas's energy back, am I right?"

"Yes. Do you know where you hide it?"

He dug the ground and took out the light ball.

"There you go." he said.

Vivi received the light ball and deposited in her sling bag. She cheered, "Great! Now we have to return this to Xerneas."

"Maybe not as we have a celebration to attend now." reminded Maginvade.

Grendon was surprised, "Oh? Gramps is making us lunch? Haha! That is so like him. I guess returning the energy back to her has to wait, Vivi."

"Can I ask you a question, Grendon?" said Eterna.

"Sure."

"How is Dark Matter doing inside you?"

"Umm…It became an emotion, a part of me. It is not Dark Matter anymore."

"I see. So you do not feel any uneasiness, aren't you?"

"Not at all."

Eterna folded her arms and replied, "Hmm. So when It is accepted, It becomes an emotion huh? Maybe we could have done differently to Dark Matter from space..."

"It may not work against It if It has too many negativities. Besides, I am sure It is resting in peace now. But may I ask why are you asking me this question?"

"Well…in the future, I might…" then she coughed, "Uh hmm! I guess I have to return what is not mine to Him now. It doesn't cause me pain, but…I will be right back."

She warped away using Abyss's Door. The rest were left bewildered of her abrupt dismissal.

"What makes her so anxious?" asked Vivi.

Grendon answered, "I am not sure as well. Ah yes, Vivi. Do you have anything else to ask me?"

"Yes. Do you…have any memories of my past? I been thinking, maybe you didn't erase my memories. You have been keeping them safe, right?"

Grendon looked at the sky and responded, "I am prepared that you will one day request me of this. Yes, I have your memories. But I need to ask of you, do you really want to gain them back? You were willing to have your memories wiped by me at that time."

Vivi asked him uneasily, "Are they…really bad memories that you have to warn me about?"

"No, but there are some memories that you do not wish to know about it."

"Uh…"

"Vivi," said Shuy, "Now it is a good time to know who you are truly are. And, we are here by your side if you ever need some consolation."

Maginvade continued, "All I can say is, go for it!"

Vivi agreed to their suggestions, "Alright. I want to have my memories return to me, Grendon."

Grendon nodded in submission, "Okay. Give me your foot."

Vivi put her left foot on his right foot. Before Grendon started the process, the sky went black for a few seconds, before returning back to normal. The group was started by the abnormality. What was even more astonishing; Eterna returned back to them in her Oppressive Obliteration Form. She grabbed Vivi's left paw away from Grendon and spoke:

"You might not want to remember everything of your past in one go, Vivi."

"You are in your other form? What happened?" bewildered Vivi.

"I won against Arceus, so that means I won the bet. The bet was to reveal why you wish to forget your past."

"Is that the reason why you left so suddenly?"

"No. I just needed to return his light back to him, and requested for a battle. Since there is a bet involve; if I lose, I will have my power sealed again. As if I would let him do that, heh."

"You are very motivated to battle him, aren't you? Anyway, I think…it is best that I get back all of my memories so as to leave out any uncertainties." commented Vivi.

"I understand. Here it goes."

Memories flew into her head in such a speed that she felt queasy. She fainted onto Eterna's arms after Grendon had given all of them to her. Eterna then sneered at Grendon:

"Oh goody, now she knows the truth about you and your relations with Arceus."

Grendon admitted, "I can't deny that…but that also means she will realise the efforts I did to protect her…"

"Hope that she won't strangle you later. Ah yes, do you want to know my battle against Arceus? Usually, He controlled time and space to defeat me, but not anymore as I finally used a move to stop the irregularity of time and space, known as Disparity Nullification. With his trump card out of the way, I performed Mania Dance to injure him till He could not retaliate anymore."

Shuy replied, "That explains the darkened skies before. He was weakened to the point he could not maintain his world for a while."

Eterna laughed, "I knocked Him off real good, huh? Anyway, how long does Vivi intend to sleep?"

"Hmm, I am not sure whether Vivi will wake up before the celebration." worried Maginvade.

"If you want, I can shock her into waking up." suggested Eterna.

Grendon objected, "By using your Curse Power? I won't allow it."

Eterna grinned, "Heh, alright then. If that is the case, my job is done. Should I try to power down? Or…" she noticed something from afar and continued speaking, "Hmm…is that a dead tree with a door at its base? What is that place?"

He answered, "It is where the disappearance pranks began. Now, the Litwicks and Solosis decided to stay there and aren't disturbing us anymore."

"Hmmm. I shall play with them a little then. Here Grendon, I shall leave Vivi in your care."

She handled Vivi to Grendon before she flew using levitation to that location. And once she entered the door, she enclosed the area using her Shadowable Barrier Form. Grendon was worried of what she might do to them.

Maginvade assured him, "Don't worry, Eterna loves to play pranks as well; just that there is no room for the players to escape."

"All I could think was that she will be using fear to scare all those poor residents." said Shuy.

Grendon agreed, "I might have a way to stop her. But right now, we can't bypass her barrier, so…we just do something else then. Why don't we rest in my gramp's house?"

"Oh yes. My stomach is rumbling." moaned Shuy.

Maginvade replied, "Vivi deserves to rest on a good bed for all the things she had done for us. Let's go then."

As the threesome carrying Vivi to Uncle Carracosta's house. Vivi was in a dreamworld of memories. Right now, at sunrise, she was looking at Ancient Mew on top of Temporal Tower. He spoke:

"I am sorry, Vivi."

"What for?" her voice resounded.

"For making you do so many saving the world stuffs. Vivi."

"It is no big deal. My homeworld is gone, so right now I am doing is repaying the debt that Arceus had done to saved me."

"About that…do you think it is abnormal for a big asteroid to crash onto your planet?"

"It is a little strange, yeah."

"Indeed. That is a hoax. Arceus and I had discussed on how to make you keen on helping us. We decided by telling you that your homeworld is gone, there is no other option for you to go back to your world."

"WHAT!? Why…why must you lie to me?"

"We…I…are desperate. You see, we Pokémons might have magical powers, but we are lacking in determination. Once we learned about the existence of humans in other universes, we decided to summon some of them here to help us. Currently, you are the best of them. You never faint in battle, yet you guarantee your teammate's safety. You care more for others than yourself. That is why we want you to stay here…with us."

"Mew…Still, it is better if you just tell me of your motives in the first place. I never lie to you, yet you…That's it, I want to go home now."

"But…"

"No buts! I want to know how my family is going along. I have been away for too long. I am sure they are worried sick about me."

Ancient Mew lowered his head and responded, "I…understand. I shall create a portal for you to return back to your family."

"Good. I have another request. Don't you EVER summon me back here."

"Vivi…is my apology not good enough for you?" he plead.

Vivi's memory self replied in anger, "No, I have enough. Now, do it!"

Ancient Mew opened the portal. Once Vivi's memory self entered and exited from it, she was devastated. Her house was empty. The sunlight revealed blue police tapes cornering off the living room, and there were dried blood patches on the ground. Her family, had committed suicide. She was in human form, and she kneeled down and was distraught of the scene. She wondered why they had done it, till Vivi in her memory spotted a note on the small rectangular brown desk. She peered at it; her family had written something. It stated:

Dear Vivi, we missed you so much. Where have you been? We had made a police report, but they can't find you for five months. We hope that you are somewhere on this planet, and will come back to us one day. But unfortunately, we have cannot handle the fact that maybe, you were already in the Afterworld. We agreed to die together to meet you there. But if you are alive, and somehow reading this letter, we apologise that we have left you. You are always our precious baby girl, and we will support you wherever you go.

Love, Daddy, Mummy and Bro

Another paragraph was added. This time it was her brother. She read it:

Yo. I think you are alive somewhere in another world that I cannot reached. I believe you are in a world that you have been fantasising about: creatures of magical powers and living among side humans, and sometimes, battle to claim victory in gym battles and The League. I want to be with you. I know suicide won't bring me there with you, but you see, I can't live my life without you. You were always there for me when I was down, and advised me whenever I had done wrong. Nobody else is as great and compassionate as you, my dear sister. So…I am sorry if I had gone before you. However please, don't die because we did. I know you are a toughie, and I am sure someone needs your help direly. Just help them in need, and make more good friends. I don't want you to keep remembering about our silly deaths. By the way, I played finished your Mystery Dungeon game. The story was good; it made me emotional. No wonder you like to play this! Okay, this is me signing off!

Your awesome brother

Vivi's memory self put the letter in her pocket, and went up to her room. There, her room was tidied, and not a speck of dust in sight. She saw her handheld console placed neatly on her wooden study table. She turned it on, and started playing her Mystery Dungeon game. She noticed her party creatures' name were different. It was typed as:

I hope you

continue to

cheer some1

from now on

"I will. I will do my best, and make you all proud." her memory self said so.

Soon, Vivi heard some raffling noises. Her memory self turned around, and was surprised to see Ancient Mew floating in front of her. He hugged her, and comforted her:

"I did not know this had happened…I can't say how many faults I had done to hurt you. But you are really needed in my world, Vivi. What can I do to repay you?"

Vivi found herself looking up at the ceiling, and her memory self replied, "For now…let me cry in peace."

Her flashback ended. When Vivi woke up, she found herself surrounded by Grendon, Shuy and Maginvade, looking at her anxiously in Grendon's room. She was slightly startled of how close they were staring at her, and her friends jerked back as well by her waking up.

"How…long did I passed out." she asked while shaking her head.

"Not long. Gramps is still cooking the soup." answered Grendon, "How do you feel, Vivi?"

Vivi stared at Grendon and requested of him, "Grendon, we have lots to talk about, later."

He acknowledged grimly.

She continued, "So, where is Eterna?"

"Well…she is in that dead greyish tree...house?" replied Maginvade.

"There is no way we can enter that barrier of hers." said Shuy.

"I shall get her back here, it shouldn't take long."

Vivi informed Uncle Carracosta that she was going to bring her friend back, before heading towards the dead tree. Grendon, Shuy and Maginvade decided to stay behind as they understood Vivi wanted to speak to Eterna alone. They sat down and shared their adventures together. Shuy and Maginvade listened attentively to his story, and nodded in appreciation that he revealed his conversation with Vivi after she had learned the truth about being used of; despite the guilt that Grendon was feeling.

Artwork time!
art/Hug-619060969