Chapter 11 – Absorbed
—He's okay, I just put him a headband, and he needs to rest so Ash is taking him to the bedroom, upstairs— Nurse Joy commented as she got out of the kitchen.
—How long do you think it's going to take for him to be recovered completely? —Champion Diantha asked worried.
—A whole day, even two, his body lost a lot of energy trying to keep him alive.
—I see—Diantha said comprehensive.
—He's fine, he's now sleeping—Ash said relieved, entering the living room and taking a seat in the table.
—I have a question; you are Cynthia, the famous Pokémon League Champion from Sinnoh, right? —Serena asked.
—That's right, you don't have to be flatter—Cynthia said smiling.
—Sorry. Why are you here in Kalos? I mean, shouldn't you be there to protect your title as a Champion in Sinnoh?
—Yes, I may be the League Champion but I also have a personal life—Cynthia said laughing.
—We gather once a month, we're great friends in spite of what all people say—Diantha added.
—What do they say? —Ash asked curious.
—They say that we're like enemies because we're the only two female Champions, that's so not true, Diantha and I are like best friends.
—Yeah, we even traveled together when we were trainers—Diantha said smiling.
—Really? That's amazing! —Ash exclaimed surprised.
—It's awesome that you two turned out to be champions—Clemont added.
—I know, right? But it was not like that since the very beginning, I mean Cynthia was a tough trainer since the very beginning but I wasn't.
—Oh, come on Diantha!
—That's true! You were winning all those regional leagues in Top 4 while I was barely reaching the Top 32.
—So you weren't the winner of all those leagues? —Ash asked curious.
—Honey, that's impossible! No one can win all regional leagues in the 1st place, and Diantha, even though you were Top 32 in most of them, here you are now, one of the strongest Pokémon trainers in the world, the champion of Kalos! —Cynthia exclaimed with happiness.
—Thank you, Cynthia—Diantha said smiling.
—Wow! I thought you had to be the best in all regional leagues to be a champion—Ash said surprised.
—It's good that you search for being the very best of all of them but there's always going to be someone better than you, even as a champion we're not saved from that—Cynthia advised.
—I wanna be the very best, like no one ever was! —Ash exclaimed full of energy.
—You know what? Don't pay attention to Cynthia, you can be the best of all of them, even better than me and Cynthia—Diantha said smiling.
—You really think so? —Ash questioned surprised.
—Of course, I wanted to be an actress since I was young, then I met my first Pokémon: Ralts and I wanted to be a Pokémon trainer, I wanted to be both of them, I thought there was not any connection between those worlds but I always had faith in me, I always believed that I could be the one who could connect those worlds, and I did! —Diantha exclaimed really emotional.
—That's so beautiful! —Serena exclaimed amazed.
—Thank you, Diantha! —Ash exclaimed almost crying.
—You're welcome honey, and this is for everyone, you can all make your dreams come true if you believe in them—Diantha said smiling.
—You're such a sweet person—Cynthia said smiling.
—You too! —Diantha exclaimed—well, continuing the story, this month it was my turn to visit Cynthia, we were there enjoying the warm Sinnoh's weather...
—We were drinking tea in the garden table in my backyard…
—Cynthia has these amazing roses in her garden.
—And then my mom got out the kitchen really scared, she knows Diantha comes from here…
—She told us to go to the kitchen to watch the news with her.
—And then we saw what was happening to Kalos, the red sky, the hordes of Pokémon being absorbed by the black hole in the sky…
—I had to come back home, I was worried about my family, my friends.
—I couldn't let her come here all by herself, the flights and ships were cancelled so we flew over my Garchomp for six hours, it was a tiring job for her—Cynthia said looking outside to see her precious Pokémon taking care of them.
—Wow! That's a lot of time for a Pokémon to fly! —Clemont exclaimed shocked.
—It was the only way we could arrive here—Diantha said.
—When we arrived here, we went to Professor Sycamore's laboratory.
—Everything was destroyed; we didn't see any living thing around the place.
—And there's when we joined Nurse Joy, Officer Jenny and him, to search for survivors.
—We found this house and we used it as our base, we searched all night in the middle of the earthquakes—professor Sycamore said.
—It was about 3 in the morning when we saw the three legendary Pokémon for the first time, fighting in the moonlight—Cynthia said.
—We kept on searching for survivors, luckily we found you—Diantha smiled.
—Oh my God! —Serena shouted really scared.
—What? What's going on? —Ash asked surprised.
—The sky! —the girl shouted as she got out of the house, everyone else followed her.
The sky was glowing in red, blue and green colors.
—I know it's not the time to make jokes, but is the sky turning into a rainbow or something? —Clemont asked.
—What does this mean, professor? —Diantha asked scared.
—I don't know exactly, but as we can see: red, blue and green are the colors of Yvetal, Xerneas and Zygarde respectively.
—Could I be sort of a thing related to their strength? —Meowth asked intuitive.
—That's what I was thinking—professor Sycamore answered.
—Meowth, you're so intelligent! —Jessie exclaimed surprised.
—What do you mean by that, professor? —Ash asked.
—It's quite simple, the strongest of them three dominates the world, in other words the strongest of them will color the sky with its respective aura.
—I see, rememeber when there was only Yvetal destroying everything? The sky was red back then! —Clemont exclaimed.
—And when Zygarde arrived, the sky turned green! —Bonnie added.
—That's right, in a moment, Yvetal was the strongest, then it was Zygarde and now the three of them are in equal power terms—Sycamore inferred.
—Professor, is the sky normally blue because of Xerneas? —Serena asked surprised.
—That's an interesting question, Serena. I would like to think of an affirmative answer to that question.
—What's going on here? —Gary asked getting out of the house too.
—Gary! —Ash exclaimed super excited, his eyes shined more than the stars in the moment he listened to Gary's voice again.
—Beware! —Diantha shouted frightened after seeing a dark sphere going towards Gary.
—Gary! —Ash ran to Gary but it was meaningless, the dark sphere hit Gary in the moment Diantha warned him about it.
—Oh my God! —Bonnie covered her eyes about to cry.
—No! Not you now! No! No! No! No! —Ash threw himself to the floor and hit the ground with his fists, starting to shout in tears and despair.
—I can't…I can't handle this anymore—Clemont said afraid.
—Why? Why? First Pikachu, my best friend…and now the one that I love—Ash cried and cried his eyes out.
—…we should go inside—Cynthia suggested.
—No! Without Gary and Pikachu, I don't want to be here in this world—Ash stood up cleaning his eyes—Yvetal! —he shouted to the sky—throw me one of those dark spheres: absorb me! —Ash shouted angrily.
—Are you insane? You can't do that! —Serena shouted him surprised and mad.
—Please Ash, let's go inside—Clemont said.
—For what? What are we waiting for? We all are going to end up being absorbed like Gary and Pikachu, we all are going to end up disappearing from this world! —Ash shouted madly in tears.
Jessie slapped Ash.
—Hope is the last thing that dies, show some courage, neither your Pikachu nor Gary would like to see you behave like this, we'll find a way to solve things out!—Jessie added after slapping Ash.
—Jessie is right, we can't give up like this, there's got to be something we can do, right Meowth? —James asked nervous.
—Xerneas and Zygarde need to work as a team—Meowth said.
—Why? —Clemont asked.
—I see Meowth's point, if you look closely neither Xerneas nor Zygarde are using powerful attacks into each other, Yvetal is the one who is out of control, he has thing uncontrollable desire of death—professor Sycamore added.
—Yes, if Xerneas and Zygarde calm Yvetal down, then there might be a hope for us—Meowth said.
—So don't you dare to say it's the end for everyone! Ok? —Jessie asked asked.
Ash didn't say anything, he kept himself crestfallen and resisting the urge to cry.
Meanwhile…
A dark silent place, the silence made it the most peaceful yet the creepiest place he had ever been at. He saw tons of people sitting in the ground, none of them willing to live. He saw tons of Pokémon lying on the ground too, all of them with gloomy faces.
—Where am I? —Gary asked himself scared.
—Pika? —a Pikachu asked himself after listening to a familiar voice.
—Pikachu! —Gary exclaimed relieved after seeing Ash's Pokémon.
—Pika! —Pikachu exclaimed angrily.
—Wait, why are you upset? —Gary asked surprised.
—Pikachu! —Pikachu shouted, trying to use a thunderbolt over Gary, it was useless.
—Pokémon attacks are neutralized here—a young woman added.
—Valerie! —Gary exclaimed surprised.
—Hi there—Valerie added smiling.
—Pika pi! —Pikachu was still mad at Gary, thinking he was conscious of what he did just before Pikachu was absorbed (catching Xerneas and Yvetal with the master balls).
—You don't have to be this angry, Pikachu—Valerie said.
—Pika?
—Valerie, what is going on? The last thing I remember was going out of your house with your car—Gary said confused—then I woke up in a bed in an unknown house and I think the apocalypse was just happening, I got out and I saw Ash and the others but then I was absorbed by a black sphere—he added.
—Pika? —Pikachu asked himself confused, trying to analyze what Gary had just said.
—So it seems like you lost a part of your memory; that is not common to happen just because, I guess you were hypnotized—Valerie inferred.
—What? —Gary asked surprised.
—Pika! —Pikachu exclaimed happily, jumping into Gary.
—I guess Pikachu sort of confirmed us that you were hypnotized—Valerie said smiling.
—I guess so but this is just so confusing, where are we?
—It's the dark void created by Yvetal.
—A dark void? Yvetal? —Gary asked astonished.
—I see it this way: Yvetal's darkness has eaten everyone who is here, humans and Pokémon.
—We have to get out of here! There's got to be a way out! —Gary exclaimed hurried.
—Yeah, right! —a man laughed sarcastically after overhearing Gary and Valerie's conversation.
—Excuse me? —Gary asked.
—There's no way we can get out of here, we're in the middle of the nothingness! —the mysterious man shouted negatively.
—Don't be so negative! —Valerie exclaimed.
—Let me ask you something. How long have you been here? —the man questioned.
—I don't know, a day or two maybe—Valerie said.
—I just arrived here—Gary added.
—I've been here for 3000 years! Shut your mouth up! —the man shouted in madness.
—What? 3000 years? —Gary asked thunderstruck.
—…I've searched everywhere around this place, there's nothing, just people who have already accepted their eternal condemn, and that's what you should do too.
—No! I refuse to do that! We have to get out of here! I have to see Ash again! —Gary exclaimed scared.
—I'm sorry—the man said ashamed.
—Please, there's got to be a place, anything—Valerie insisted.
—…there is a place…
—Take us there! —Gary exclaimed accelerated.
—It's useless; everything is written in an ancient language that I don't even know.
—Please! —Gary exclaimed.
—Pika pi! —Pikachu took the man's pants with his little hand.
—…is this your Pikachu? —the man asked curious.
—Oh, no, he's actually a friend's—Gary clarified.
—…do you want to see your friend again? —the man asked directly to Pikachu.
—Pika pi! —Pikachu exclaimed hopeful.
—…let's get going—the man said standing up.
—Thank you so much! —Valerie exclaimed.
—By the way, I'm Gary.
—And I am Valerie.
—Pika pi!
—…my name is A.Z.
