As Gold continued to lie in bed being tormented by Pryce's poison, he was preparing to receive blood from Crystal to replace lost blood.
" Are you ready to donate blood, miss?" The doctor asked.
" Yes, please take what I can give!" Crystal clenched her fist.
Meanwhile, Gold was walking alone in a dream-like world that is his sub-conscious, forgetting all troubles of the outside world.
" What's going on, what is this place?" Gold looks around his surroundings in a unfamiliar place to him.
" Silver, Lyra, Crystal!" Gold called out but heard nothing except echoes.
" Ngh!" Gold felt his sternum and remembered the pain.
" T-that's right, that masked freak did this!" Gold feeling the pain slowly sapping his strength.
" I-I got to find everyone..!" Gold began to move and begin his search.
" W-what do you mean you can't proceed, he needs my blood now!" Crystal argued with the Doctor.
" Young miss, you have blood type A and this young man is type B, did the nurses not make anything clear?" The Doctor asked.
Flashback
We jump back to the scene where Crystal had asked Clair about her feelings for Gold.
" What..What are you asking all the sudden..?" Clair answered back.
" I'm being serious here, Clair, no games." Crystal said.
Whitney watched the two and felt the serious atmosphere that made her feel a bit awkward.
" I don't under.." Clair tried to speak but was then interrupted by Crystal.
" Cut the act, Clair, you know what I mean when I ask you, what do you feel for him, is it care, is it friendship, is it love?" Crystal boldly asked that makes Clair's expression change at the mention of love.
" ...Why does it matter..?" Clair quietly mumbled.
" Speak up, I can't hear you!" Crystal said.
" I said why does it even matter to you, whether I care for him, like him as a friend or even love him?!" Clair raised her voice in defense.
" Because I'm falling for him, Clair and if a great guy like him can't even get someone like you who I know he really cares for to not admit her feelings, doesn't deserve him!" Crystal argued back.
" Kris, what business is it any of yours to ask me, who do you think you are?!" Clair replied.
" I'm your friend and I've seen how you are when you're hurt, I want this to be fair between me and you if you feel for him same way I do!" Crystal said.
" You..you really do feel that strongly about him, don't you..?" Clair asked.
" Yes, I will go to great lengths for his sake, how about you, how far would you go for him?" Crystal said.
Whitney then looked at Clair to hear her answer while silently praying for her.
Clair's heart was beating fast as she too may realize her own feelings.
" I..." Clair began to speak but then as fate would have it, a nurse had inadvertantly interrupted.
" There is an emergency and there isn't much time, your fellow patient Ethan is losing much blood and he needs replacement immediately!" The nurse informed.
" Oh no, what is his blood type?" Whitney asked.
" Blood type B, if any of you are of the same blood type and would like to help save him, please step forward now." The nurse said.
Clair knew she was a blood type B and was about to answer but then Crystal beat her to the punch and had volunteered first.
" I can help him, take me to him!" Crystal volunteered.
" This way, he is three doors down!" The nurse said.
" Clair, I'm sorry.. It's just when I saw how you reacted with Jasmine and back at that Rocket Hideout about Ethan, I just really had to know..Forgive me.." Crystal stepped foot outside the room and apologized.
" I know..and thank you.." Clair answered back and forgave Crystal.
" Hurry, there isn't much time!" The nurse urged and thats when Clair and Crystal left off before Clair talked with Silver.
Back in the dream-like world, Gold had gotten weaker and weaker as he was slowly succumbing to the poison.
" Damn, where am I, where is everyone..?" Gold walked slowly.
" If I don't do something...I won't make it.." Gold continued with his struggle and now we're back in the outside world.
Hospital
" You don't understand, I'm fully aware that ordinarily my blood type won't help Ethan's, but my blood isn't ordinary I can help him!" Crystal confusing the Doctor leaving him in a unfavorable position.
" Agh, ARGH!" Gold struggled on the outside with the pain that started to compel the Doctor to wonder what Crystal has in mind.
" What makes you so sure, young miss?" The Doctor asked.
When Crystal had broken her two arms in her trip in Vermillion City of Kanto, she was bleeding from the outside her arms and needed immediate medical attention.
" Ouch, this really, really hurts, Mama, Papa!" The young Crystal cried out for help.
No one but a small girl with blonde hair covering her identity that was Crystal's age, answered the call.
" Who..who are you..?" Crystal sniffled.
" It's okay, please be still, I'll heal you." The blonde girl quietly but cheerfully answered then began to concentrate.
The mysterious blonde girl suddenly produced blue energy around her hands and almost instantly, all blood went back into Crystal's body in a golden color.
" She's..she's actually healing me, it doesn't hurt anymore..!" Crystal thought while the blonde girl wraps her still fragile arms in tight bandages.
" Change the bandages daily, and in just a few days maybe a week, your arms will be as good as new!" The blonde girl smiled cheerfully.
" What did you do and how did you do it?" Crystal showing interest in the young girl's abilities.
" I was somehow given the ability to heal a while ago by this Pokemon I have never seen before, I was granted this ability to help others who are hurt like I was." The blonde girl answered.
" Amazing, you didn't know what Pokemon saved you?" Crystal asked.
" Not at all, all it had asked was for me to save lives, it's power is mysterious.
" The girl said. "Well thanks, you saved me..um what's your name?" Crystal asked then flashback ends.
" It's complicated just please let me donate my blood Doctor, please!" Crystal begged.
" Doctor, I'm a B blood type, let me take her place!" Clair came at the right moment and volunteered her blood.
" Are you sure?" The Doctor asked.
" Yes." Clair answered with no hesitation.
" Good, please lie in the bed next to young Ethan." The Doctor instructed.
" Clair..?" Crystal thought as if she had confirmed her suspicion.
Right after Clair had laid down and began to transfer blood, Hinata Hibiki( Gold's mother ) had shown up with Prof. Elm in response to their worry about Gold and the others.
Again in the dream world, Gold realized it wasn't full of light anymore and now it has darkened and became fitting to Gold's dilemma.
" No, this is not good..!" Gold said then saw a dark purple snake crawl through the ground, making it's way to Gold.
The purple snake hissed loudly and made Gold realize that the snake was a manifestation of the poison overtaking him.
" Stay the hell away from me!" Gold kicked the snake in the face which only delayed it for a little bit and kept it's course coming for Gold as if it mocked him.
The snake then did the ultimate insult and struck Gold in the sternum like Seviper had done, taking out whatever fight Gold had left in him.
To Hinata's horror, what she had feared had to come to fruition as she sees her son in a hospital bed.
" AGGGHHH!" Gold agonized in pain then spat out a large amount of blood from his mouth.
" Ethan!" Clair screamed.
" My son, what has happened to my son?!" Hinata demanded.
" Mrs. Hibiki, we must not interfere they...!" Prof. Elm spoke but then cardiac monitor sounded off as Gold's heartbeat had stopped.
" Oh no sir, his heart has stopped!" Saeko the nurse alerted the everyone's horror.
Gold lying motionless in what appears be a great nightmare in his fight for survival.
" No..can't feel..my body.." Gold weakly thought as the snake had transformed into a purple sludge that began at Gold's feet to cover up his entire body to completely overtake him.
" Is this the end, am I really...going to die?" Gold thought.
The masked man's laughter can be heard in many echoes as the sludge was progressing up Gold's body.
" NOOO!" Crystal ran though and pushed the Doctor and nurse away at instinct to begin CPR and mouth-to-mouth.
" Please Ethan, please!" Crystal began to cry frantically while pumping Gold's heart and breathed through his mouth in her desperate attempt to save his life.
It was then that Clair had realized that Crystal would truly go through great lengths for Gold as she had acted on instinct without thinking twice.
" Crystal... you really.." Clair thought while watching how hard Crystal was trying.
Gold's Sub-Conscious
" I can't believe it...this is it.." Gold lamented.
" My mother..." Gold thought of his mother and also lamented that he may never see her again.
" My Pokemon...my friends.." Gold's voice pained thinking of his Pokemon, Clair, Crystal, Silver and Lyra.
Elsewhere, a man who's face was not revealed was sitting on a rock and had gasped then disappeared.
" And.. all my dreams.." Gold closed his teary eyes as if he accepted his fate as the sludge was closer to his face now.
The man who had disappeared then showed up in Gold's sub-conscious, opened his palm and had destroyed the purple sludge in a flash of light just in time before it covered Gold's face.
After few more tries, Crystal's attempt on reviving Gold was not in vain as his heart responded by beating and showing readings on the cardiac monitor that he was alive.
Crystal feeling greatly relieved as did everyone else, then felt very light-headed and was caught by Hinata who thanked and thanked her for saving her son's life.
Gold then opened his eyes in his sub-conscious and saw that the man look very familiar from behind then reckonized the short sleeved-long white haori that had decorations of yellow lightning bolts stylishly on the edges of the haori, a large yellow lightning bolt imprinted on the back with the kanji written in red, blue and yellow that reads "The 87th Pokemon League Champion".
" It can't be..?!" Gold wondering if what he's seeing is too good to be true.
" Giving up on your dreams so easily, are you really my son?" The man spoke that made Gold realize who he is.
" ...Father..." Gold said in disbelief.
" Come with me, son." Yamato Hibiki said then teleported himself and Gold away from Gold's sub-conscious world.
With Gold's heartbeat reading normal on the monitor, everyone took a sigh of relief except for the Doctor.
" Alright, his heart rate is stabilized for the moment but he is still in danger, we will need to extract the poison if he is to remain healthy." The Doctor informed.
" What will we need, I'll get anything." Prof. Elm asked.
" First we will need to counteract the poison with my latest invention, perform surgery to extract all traces of poison then revitalize his nutrients." The Doctor said.
" Where do we get the antidote, sir?" Hinata asked.
" Oh not to worry, the supplies will come shortly from Nurse Joy downstairs." The Doctor assured.
" Thank you." Hinata gratefully sighed and is now in relief.
" Alright young miss, we'll hold on to what blood we already drew from you until we start to replace young Ethan's nutrients and we may need more from you so in the meantime, have something to eat and keep your fluids up." The Doctor instructed Clair.
" Yes, sir..." Clair said with some shame in her voice due to Crystal's action to save Gold.
" Oh so you're Clair and you're Crystal?" Hinata asked the two.
" Oh, yes ma'am!" Clair and Crystal both answered.
" Ohh, I see well I'm sure the both of you are hungry so let's eat while we wait?" Hinata proposed.
" Sounds great, I'll buy." Prof. Elm offered.
" Thanks." Clair and Crystal agreed.
Unknown Region
Gold and his father have teleported to a place not of the world but away from all troubles.
" Father, where are we?" Gold asked.
" For the moment, I have you in a place where you will not be in danger of the poison that man has injected into you, I wish to speak to you son." Yamato said while Gold remained quiet.
" So tell me, how is your mother, is she safe?" Yamato asked with a smile but there was no smile on Gold's face.
" After all these years of not seeing you or not knowing why, that's all you have ask?" Gold said.
" Son?" Yamato asked. Gold could no longer hold his anger and took a swing at his father.
" Why, why damn it why?!" Gold continued to swing at Yamato who dodged every punch.
" Ethan?!" Yamato wondering why Gold was greeting him this way.
" How could you go off leaving behind your wife and your son?!" Gold shed tears with every missed punch.
" Do you know what it was like to not have a father for more than half of your life?!" Gold ceased swinging once Yamato caught his punch.
" I wasn't ready and seeing you again is bringing me back all those painful memories!" Gold resting on Yamato's chest while crying.
" Sorry son, it must've been terrible news to you and your mother of my death, can you forgive me?" Yamato consoled his son.
" Father..!" Gold held back his father.
" I can tell already that you're strong trainer now, am I right?" Yamato asked.
" How can you know if I'm a trainer now, Father?" Gold looked up and wondered how Yamato knew.
" I have watched you since you began your training, when you met Master Oak and my student Lance, your travels and experiences with your two friends, your rival as well as your Pokemon. Although I must admit there were some things better left unseen." Yamato replied.
" Unseen?" Gold said.
" Ahem, about..you..with those girls.." Yamato blushed in embarrassment as Gold knew exactly what he was talking about.
" Ohh uh um, sorry." Gold rubbed the back of his head.
" D-don't get the wrong idea, I know you're a growing man and I didn't watch if I didn't have to,understand?!" Yamato expressing his flusterness but also telling the truth.
" S-sorry dad but all that was..!" Gold explained.
" Out of your control?" Yamato answered.
" Yes but how do you know?" Gold asked.
" W-well in my younger days.." Yamato refusing to look Gold in the eyes.
" Dad, don't tell that getting mom pregnate was a mistake!" Gold said.
" Wh-what, of course not son, you were planned, your mother was the only woman I loved." Yamato at first was flustered then maintained his composure meanwhile Hinata sneezed at a nearby restaurant next to the hospital.
Back in the outside world in Goldenrod, the city was raining due to happenings elsewhere.
" In other news, regarding the storm originating from Hoenn..." A female news anchorwoman said from the television of the restaurant.
" So Ethan's father was the hero that saved this very city, Mrs. Hibiki?" Clair asked surprisingly.
Hinata looked down smiling thinking of fond memories with her late husband.
" Yes sweetie, Ethan's father truly had a heart of Gold." Hinata speaking very fondly.
" Mm yes, Yamato Hibiki the former champion saved not only Goldenrod City but the entire region of Johto perhaps the rest of the world!" Prof. Elm proudly said.
" Truly amazing!" Crystal commented.
" My brother always spoke highly of your husband, being that he was the apprentice of him and all." Clair said.
" Your brother?" Hinata asked.
" Yes, my brother is Lance the current champion." Clair replied that put a smile on Hinata's face.
" Lance, I remember him he was Yamato's best student between him, Steven and Cynthia who was my favorite and your brother, who was my least favorite." Hinata said cheerfully and Clair was caught off guard about Lance being her least favorite.
" Oh don't get me wrong I like your brother personally, it's just he had an attitude that he was better than everyone especially Steven, although since the last time I saw him he's become much more humble!" Hinata recalled while laughing.
" I had no idea that brother could be like that but he was withdrawn from the family." Clair said.
" I think my honey's love for his students changed your brother's attitude, all he could talk about since training those three was how much proud he was of them." Hinata said.
" Ethan's father sounds like a great man, how did you both fall in love?" Crystal asked.
" Well when we were young it didn't start that way.." Hinata began.
Hinata's memories recall her back to when she first arrived in Pallet Town to begin her journey and when she first laid eyes on Yamato.
The Young Hinata opened the door to see that Giovanni was leaving with his new protege, Red's father Satoshi Tajiri then saw the young Prof. Oak and Agatha with the younger Yamato and Lorelei as their proteges.
" Giovanni, be sure to meet back here in eight months after you finish training young Satoshi!" Prof. Oak called out.
" Hm, the best of luck to the two of you, until then." Giovanni replied then smiled at Hinata as a sign of welcome and departed.
" The three legendary trainers..!" Hinata completely fascniated at the chance to see the best trainers of Kanto at the time.
" Hm, oh it seems you have another vistor Yukinari." Agatha calling Prof. Oak by his first name.
" And she's a cute one too!" Agatha greeted the shy Hinata.
" Ah, you must be young Hinata from the Hoenn region, welcome!" Prof. Oak smiled warmly that made Hinata blush since she crushed on him.
" No one, could tell how excited I was to see my heroes that inspired me to become a trainer well except that.." Hinata continuing her story.
" What's wrong do you have to use the bathroom?" Yamato apparently having no filler and asked an awkward question that embarrassed Hinata.
" Y-Yamato, you idiot!" Lorelei scolded.
" What I do, it just look like she needs to go poo since Master Oak spoke to her?" Yamato cluelessly said to the embarrassment to Prof. Oak, Agatha, Lorelei and especially Hinata.
" I definitely have a lot to teach this boy..!" Prof. Oak whispered.
" Good luck to you..!" Agatha whispered back.
" Um forgive Yamato, he tends to speak without thinking." Lorelei said but her words didn't seem to get through to Hinata who was fuming.
" M-master Oak, what Pokemon did you give him..?" Hinata quietly asked the frightened Prof. Oak with veins popping on her cheek.
" Oh um, a Charmander and only a Squirtle remains." Prof. Oak replied since Lorelei already had an ice type as her beginner.
" Good, cause I'm going to pulverize this idiot all his life!" Hinata frightening everyone but Yamato who smiled.
" Gee, it seems like Master Yamato was as stupid as Ethan." Clair thought.
" Indeed." Crystal answered in her thoughts as if she too agreed with Clair.
" From then on, we had become rivals and battled time and time again, I won some match-ups but in the end he got the better of me and then.." Hinata describing their battles as young trainers over time, even at times when she would punch Yamato comically for his unfiltered moments with a vein on her fist which would continue until a fateful night.
Ah feels good to be back, hope you all will continue to like and enjoy this story, Read and Review, love feedbacks