You people voted for one chapter so I've given you one chapter. I feel ever so nervous for posting this since this is really the last chapter of Rocket Academy T_T The next is an epilogue.
Thank you so much to Lynx of the Sand, splitheart1120, rin916, Foxgrl18, LeafxGreenx3, Lucky Tigger, zflame393, dattebayo4321, Lightwolfheart, Storm Dryu and ninetailsgirl 94 for reviewing.
Also, I fear that I may get mobbed in this chapter, but I'll leave you to read for now.
Chapter Twenty-Six: Of Death and Life
"Hi," a girl greeted me. She had long brown hair to her shoulders and was wearing the school uniform. She looked friendly with her green eyes and happy smile on her face. I couldn't resist smiling back. "I'm Leaf."
"I'm Dawn, nice to meet you," I said. The two of us giggled at each other for a few seconds. We stopped as two more girls walked into the room. There was another brunette and an orange haired girl. They looked at the two of us and waved.
"Hey, I think we're living here this year," the brunette said, "I'm May."
"And I'm Misty," the other girl said.
"I'm Leaf," Leaf greeted.
"I'm Dawn," I said. The four of us looked at each other, each with smiles on our faces.
"So, I guess we'll get to know each other a lot over the next few years," Misty said, "I hope we can live together peacefully."
"Yeah," Leaf agreed, "We're going to be the best of friends, I can feel it."
"I suppose we should assign rooms," May suggested.
"I'll share with Dawn," Leaf said.
"So that leaves you and me, May," Misty said.
"Sounds great. We can always rotate if we want too," May agreed.
"Or sleep in the living room so we can chatter," I said. The girls nodded. It felt weird coming into a new school after I'd been separated from all the others. Kenny and Barry used to be the ones I hung out with but I suppose times change. I looked at my new three friends.
"So who is up for chocolate ice cream?" May asked as she walked towards the door.
"Sounds awesome!" Leaf cheered. Misty giggled and followed behind Leaf. I pause before I walked after them. Things weren't going to be as bad as I thought they would.
We ran down the halls. Lyra was leading the way for some reason. I didn't want to argue with her and the way Raven was acting, I think that was a very good idea. May and Misty ran a head of Leaf and I. Leaf still hade tears in her eyes. Seeing Gary disappear like that must have been traumatic for her. No matter how strong she was, it had to be hurting her.
We turned a few corners, hot on the trail of Leo. He'd taken off somewhere and Lyra seemed to have locked onto him. I didn't ask, I just went with it. It was best to in these circumstances. I didn't want to cause a problem or become the leader. Lyra was just the person to lead us. She was our Silver, I guessed.
My mind flickered back onto Paul for a few seconds. My heart ached, tears threatened to pour and my legs twitched like they wanted to run back to him. Leaf glanced at me.
"He's going to be OK," she told me, "And when we're through with this, I'm getting Gary back."
I nodded once. She was right, I couldn't give up now. If Paul was willing to put his life on the line then I had too. I gazed in front of me. I was focused. I could do anything I wanted.
"Hey, watch it," a voice grumbled at me. It sounded grumpy and annoyed. I turned round to apologise but stopped myself. I was looking at a very moody guy with purple hair. I forced a smile.
"Sorry," I muttered.
"Watch where you're going next time, Troublesome," he told me as he walked away from me. I fumed.
"My name is Dawn," I snapped.
"I don't care," he replied. My eyes narrowed at him.
"Well, what if I were to call you… Prune head, how would that make you feel?" I asked.
"Even more uninterested," he told me. I looked him up and down. He was the cool sort of guy with the bad boy attitude.
"Fine then, Mr Grumpy," I said, "Have it your way."
I walked off with my head held high… Then I walked into someone else. I took us both out. I landed on the floor on my bum with my knees together. The other person had landed flat on their face with their bum in the air. He had brown eyes and black, messy hair.
"Smooth, Troublesome," Mr Grumpy commented, "Real smooth."
I shot a glare at Mr Grumpy before I looked at the person I had just walked into.
"Sorry about that," I said. The guy sat up, rubbing his head.
"No problem," he replied, "I'm always walking into things."
"I feel bad for knocking you over," I said but the guy just waved me off.
"It's no big deal," the guy said.
"Hey, Ashy-boy," a voice called from down the hall, "What are you doing now?"
I recognised that voice before I saw who it was. It was Gary, the school's play boy. He had brown spiky hair and a smooth sounding voice. I quickly got to my feet. Please let me escape this guy. Please oh please.
"Hey good looking," Gary said, "I'm Gary. What's your name, beautiful?"
"I hope to Arcues that you're talking to her and not me," Paul deadpanned.
Lyra stopped us mid run as we came across a block door. I eyed it carefully as Raven did a psychic scan of the room beyond.
"He's in there," Raven told us.
"Right," Lyra said with a nod, "First we knock down the door and then we stop him. Can we handle that?"
"Sure," the rest of us said.
"Alright then," Lyra said, "One. Two… Three!"
Misty sent out an electrical attack at the door. It sparked a little before it opened of it own accord. We stormed into the room to find that we were on a balcony over looking a reactor of some kind. I looked round the room quickly and soon spotted Leo round the other side of the reactor.
"Stop!" May yelled, obviously spotting Leo, "Whatever it is you're doing!"
Leo slowly turned round, a creepy smile on his face. He walked slowly round the reactor so that he could see us. He titled his head to one side, creepy smile still in place.
"So you came," he stated, "I knew you would."
"Of course we would," May snapped, "You're a mad evil man!"
"I know how everything is going to turn out," Leo said. We paused for a few seconds. "I know that Misty is wondering if she can shock me from where she is. Lyra is thinking about sending a fire attack to blow up the reactor. Leaf is thinking about her boyfriend. How sad he's dead."
"He's not dead!" Leaf yelled.
"He lied," Leo said.
"Wait," Raven said, stepping forwards, "How did you know all that?"
Leo gave a cruel laugh for a few seconds.
"You girls have no idea what you are messing with," Leo told us, "I found a Mew fossil long ago. Using the technology I recreated the Mew and put it inside my own body. I, girls, am a hybrid just like you are!"
He let out a horrible laugh as the rest of us paled slightly. No easy to beat old man. Great just great. As the information settled itself in my head, I began to feel sick. He fused himself with a Mew? What happened to the Mew?
"It's in here," Leo seemed to reply to me. He tapped his head a few times. I wondered if he could stop that for a brief second before I rolled my eyes. Probably not.
"Now all I need is Celebi," Leo said. Something grabbed Leaf. She kicked and screamed as she was lifted through the air by a hue of purple. I recognised the attack instantly. Leo was using Confusion.
"Water Pulse!" I yelled before anyone else could react. I aimed for Leo. He jumped out of the way to avoid the attack but he also dropped Leaf. Lyra quickly jumped into action. She jumped into the air and flew quickly towards Leaf, catching her easily. However, Leo seemed to recover just as quick and sent them both crashing backwards with another Psychic attack.
"Very gutsy, Dawn," Leo said, "Don't think, just do. How very clever."
"What should we do?" Misty asked as Lyra and Leaf got to their feet. Lyra winced as she looked at her hand. There was a deep graze in her palm.
"We can't beat someone who knows what we're going to do," she said. Raven nodded.
"Protect Leaf," May told us, "Whatever he wants with her can't be good."
"I want her to take me back in time," Leo told us, "Back to the day when Rocket took over Johto and then the world!"
"Why?" May asked.
"So I can lead the attack and I can rule it all!" Leo began laughing. He was clearly insane but I didn't want to dwell on that thought just in case he took offence. Instead I looked over at Raven who just shrugged. "Now to end it all!"
Leaf yelped once again as she was lifted into the air. She zoomed across the room faster than before.
"Leaf!" Misty yelled.
"Whatever you do, don't use your powers!" May shouted. We rushed towards Leo. I watched as she was placed on the top of the reactor. Clamped held her feet in place. She tried to break herself free but it was no use.
"Give her back!" Lyra yelled. She flew in for an attack.
"Lyra, no!" Raven yelled. Leo launched a powerful psychic attack at Lyra. Raven jumped in front of her and used her own powers to shield them both. They shot to the floor. Raven was unconscious while Lyra was nursing her ankle.
"Aurora Beam!" I yelled. Leo braced himself for the attack but I made the floor under his feet freeze instead. He slipped and crashed to the floor. Misty and May charged up for an attack. They fired a Flamethrower-Thunder combo at Leo. It hit him dead on. He was knocked back into the wall. His lab coat was on fire at the bottom. He looked around, pain showing on his facial expression. However his pain melted away as he saw a big red button beside him. He punched it.
"OK," May said, "We should have probably looked for the big red button before we sent him flying towards it."
Leaf let out a scream. We looked up at her. She was glowing green. The reactor was coming to life. A strange green orb was growing from the reactor. It slowly began to spread towards us.
"What is this?" Misty asked.
"A time bubble," Leo replied. He stood up straight, wiping a little bit of blood from his mouth before he put out the flame on his lab coat. "In a few moments we'll be in the past."
I heard footsteps. I turned to the door to see Paul, Silver, Ash and Drew running towards the room. They paid no attention to the green bubble and ran straight towards us.
"Update," Silver demanded.
"We're screwed," Lyra replied. I sweat-dropped. Could she have been so pessimistic about this? Ash and Drew ran over to Misty and May respectively. Paul was staring up at Leaf as he ran over to me.
"What's he doing?" Paul asked.
"We're going into the past," I told him.
"Great," he remarked. The bubble, by now, had filled the entire room. It glowed for a few seconds before it disappeared. Leo let out another one of his manic laughs. We looked at him.
"Finally! After all this time! I can rule the world as the head of Team Rocket!" he yelled. He fired two attacks at May and Misty. Drew and Ash reacted quicker, sending off counter attacks.
"Idiots!" Silver yelled. Paul's eyes widened as he saw Ash and Drew do this.
The attacks collided in the air, causing a huge smoke cloud to appear. I covered my eyes, relying on my ears to warn me of an attack. The only thing I felt was Paul grabbing onto my arm. I hung onto his hand like it was my lifeline. We waited. When the cloud disappeared May and Misty were stood in a defensive position.
Ash and Drew were no where to be seen.
"ASH!" Misty screamed. She fell to her knees, tears springing to her eyes. May did a similar thing.
"You idiot," she mumbled, "How could you be so stupid?"
Leo was laughing loudly. My eyes welled with tears as I saw May and Misty break down. I slowly turned to Leo. My eyes widened with shock. He had a gun in his hands. Where the Arceus had he gotten that from? I felt fear seize me as he squeezed the trigger.
The bang ricocheted off the walls. Raven jumped up. Leaf looked round. Lyra braced herself. May and Misty shot back to their feet. Silver turned his head. I blinked a few times as purple filled my vision.
Paul was stood in front of me. He paused for a second before he slumped forwards, grabbing his stomach with a groan. He'd taken the bullet that was meant for me.
"PAUL!" I half wailed, half screamed, "HYDRO CANON!"
The Hydro Canon was fast, strong and lethal for Leo as I shot it towards him. His smile disappeared shortly before it hit him. I glared as I watched him crumple to the ground. Lyra jumped up next, sending a fire attack to burn his body until it was nothing but ashes.
Paul was on the floor. Silver was beside him with the necklace Leaf had given Paul in his hands. Paul was laid on his side with his upper body twisted so that both his forearms were on the floor. He had his eyes closed and he was gritting his teeth. I rushed towards him, turning him onto his back. His head was resting on my legs. He grimaced as I did this but he opened his eyes so he could see me.
I looked down at the bullet wound. It was pouring with blood. Silver stood up quickly and walked away from us.
"Raven, get Leaf down," he ordered.
"Right," I heard Raven reply. I didn't care about anything else now. All I cared about was getting Paul some help.
"Troublesome girl," he muttered.
"I am," I agreed, smiling despite the horrible situation. Tears pricked at my eyes. Paul glanced at them.
"Don't cry," he told him, "You'll get my face wet."
"I'm sorry," I replied, "I can't help it. You're going to be fine. We'll get Leaf to take us to Arceus and then we'll get the boys back and then we'll save you. You'll be fine."
It was all so simple. I felt my heart race at the plan. It was perfect. I could save Paul and then we could get on with our lives. Everything would go back to normal and we could live happily. But then my heart froze as Paul spoke again.
"No… No I'm not," he said. I looked down at him. He seemed to be struggling for breath. I looked around for something. I placed him down gently before I crawled over to his wound and put pressure on it.
"D-don't say that," I told him, "I'm going to put pressure on this and you'll be fine."
"Dawn," he said.
"And then we'll go home. You'll go to hospital and Nurse Joy will fix you up. Or Arceus will heal you. You'll be fine," I blabbered.
"Dawn," Paul repeated.
"And I'll take you to meet my mum and dad. Your dad will be so happy to see mine again. Then we can all be one big happy family," I went on.
"Dawn," Paul said, a little louder.
"No!" I yelled back at him, "We're going to pick out rings in that Veilstone City Shop where the rings are so nice."
"No," Paul muttered, "Dawn… I can't…"
"Paul please," I wept, "Please don't say that."
"I'm sorry," he said. I took his hand in mind and squeezed it tightly. I wanted to tell him off, I wanted to tell him to pull his act together but I couldn't. I knew he was right. He was loosing far too much blood. There was no way to help him. He watched me carefully as I began to sob louder. "Dawn… I love you."
I looked up at him.
"I always will do," he said, "No matter where I am, I will always, always love you."
"And I'll always love you too," I said, "I mean it. I'll love you everyday and think of you everyday. You'll the only thing I'll dream about."
"Don't linger on me, Dawn," he said, "I want you to be happy."
"I'll be happy when I think of you," I replied. Paul smiled up at me. I slowly bent over him and kissed him. He kissed me back. I tasted something metallic in his mouth, blood in all possibility. I pulled away from him slowly, gazing down at him. He watched me a few seconds before he coughed loudly. The blood I tasted dribbled from the corner of his mouth. I pulled him into me, holding him close. He grabbed my hand. He coughed a few more times before he looked me in the eyes.
"You'd better… get out of here alive… Troublesome," he told me. I nodded. The tears were returning. There was something going off in the background but I couldn't make out what. Paul reached up and stroked my cheek.
"I love you," he muttered.
"I love you, too," I replied. He smiled before he let out a wheeze. His hand fell limply to his side and the rest of his body sagged.
He was gone.
I hugged him tightly as I began to cry loudly. I held him for what seemed like hours before I felt a hand on my shoulder.
"Dawn," it was Silver. His voice was calm and soft, "That's not going to do him much good."
"He's… dead," I spluttered. Silver's grip tightened on my shoulder for an instant before he let go of me. He crouched down beside me. I glanced at him. He looked sad and shocked.
"I'm sorry," he muttered. He cleared his throat. "We've sent Leaf to the past to make sure everything that should happen, happens."
"What will that do?" I asked. Silver looked at me. "It's already been done and it failed. We're trapped in this cycle forever. I loose Paul over and over again."
"Dawn," Silver said, "We need to defeat Rocket."
"I'm back," Leaf's voice came from behind us.
"Is everything set?" Misty asked.
"Yep," Leaf replied, "I put us in the same apartment, told Paul's dad to go and find Dawn's dad, put the files on Apollo's desk and everything."
"Great now we should got back to our time, right?" Lyra said.
"Yo, Paul!" May yelled, "Get up!"
My grip on him tightened as May put all the attention onto the both of us.
"May…" Raven said shakily. Everyone turned to her now. "Paul's not there anymore."
"What?" Leaf asked, "But he's Paul. He's like… He's like… He can't die!"
"But if Paul's dead then…" Misty trailed off.
"What about the other guys?" Lyra asked.
"They've gone forever," Raven replied, "And I don't think they're coming back."
"But Gary promised me he'd be waiting!" Leaf yelled, "He wouldn't lie to me."
I glanced up at Leaf with tears in my eyes. I knew that they were falling constantly but I tried to blink them away. I put Paul down on the floor and stood up.
"We've failed," Lyra said, "And we'll keep repeating all of this. We're in a never ending cycle."
"There's only one thing you can do," I told them, "We've failed. They found out this time around and now… And now we have to make a choice."
"Dawn, please," Misty said. Lyra and Raven looked at each other nervously before they looked at Silver. May folded her arms over her chest, tears tugging at her own eyes.
"We either take this thing back to the future," I said, "Or we explode the reactor and wipe out Rocket forever."
"Won't that change the world though?" Lyra asked. I glanced over at Paul's body then back at them. Everyone got the message. Slowly Raven nodded.
"We stay here," she stated, "And everything we ever knew ends."
"But that means that… we'll never see each other again," Leaf said, "And there's no way I'd ever get to meet you all if it wasn't for Rocket."
"But Gary and Drew and…" Misty choked out, "They'd be alive, right?"
"We wouldn't remember any of it either," May agreed, tears finally starting to fall. Leaf began to weep loudly as the others nodded. I walked forwards and hugged her. Slowly the May, Misty and Raven joined the hug. We were all crying loudly on each other. Silver and Lyra stood next to each other.
"This is how it was meant to end," Silver stated plainly, "Arceus said so himself. He did everything he could for us… This time."
"So this is how it ends?" May asked, "We get blown up and then what?"
"We start again," Lyra said brightly, "I'd have a family again."
"And we'd be home," Misty sobbed.
"But without each other," Leaf wept wildly.
"It's a small price to pay," Raven said, "If we get the guys back."
"So it's decided," I said. I looked over at Silver. He nodded.
"I can overload the computer," he stated. I smiled at him. He looked at Lyra. "I'll disappear before time resets itself."
"I know," Lyra replied sounding sad, "But I won't remember."
Silver nodded. He put a hand on her shoulder.
"I wish I could have been more for you," he said. Lyra giggled, tears springing from her eyes.
"Thanks," she said, "That means a lot."
Lyra walked away from him and joined our group hug. She continued to watch Silver as he walked towards the reactor.
"Good luck everyone," he said, before shooting an attack at the machine. The machine made a weird noise and Silver faded out of existence. I grabbed the people round me tighter as the machine began to glow white. I closed my eyes.
"Thanks guys," I yelled, "It's been great."
"I love you guys!" Leaf screamed.
"We'll always be together," Misty wept.
"Friends forever," May agreed.
"Good bye," Lyra muttered.
"So long, have a good life," Raven said.
There was an explosion. I felt the fire rip through my body and the bright white light of beyond.
"Troublesome."
Something poked me. I hit it away. Whack. I opened my eyes. That sounded painful. I sat up and I saw the purple haired boy. He was holding his head like he was in pain. Blood was going everywhere.
"I'm so sorry," I yelped, "You scared me!"
"Ow that hurt," he snapped. He glared at me. He had dark coal eyes. I wanted to poke them out right now. I didn't. It was a nice thought. It would make a mess. He sat backwards. His legs were crossed. He had short purple hair. It was weird because the bottom of his hair was short and spiky but the top bit was longer and went to his ears. I kneeled in front of him.
"Sorry," I repeated. I felt bad for hitting him. I leant into him. I checked his head. I reached into my pocket and pulled out a small white handkerchief. "Hold still."
I dabbed it with the cotton square. I listened to him hiss at me. He was watching me very carefully. He was waiting for me to hurt him some more.
"Your hair is a mess," he stated. I looked at him.
"Is it?" I asked. He nodded. I giggled. "Oh well."
"You're not going to freak out? Like you usually do?" he asked. I shook my head.
"For some reason I don't care anymore," I replied. I didn't. I cared more about looking after him. My hair wasn't important. He looked at me.
"What were you dreaming about?" he asked.
"I was on this most awesome adventure ever," I told him excitedly, "I was a legendary Pokémon Princess and I had to save the world from a bad, bad man."
"Sounds lame," he said. He looked sort of bored.
"It was sad too," I told him, "You were in it. You died."
"You kill me in your dreams too?" he asked. I poked his ribs roughly. He fell backwards. He laughed at me! I couldn't believe it. He sat back up. He was smiling. "You cared I died?"
"Of course," I said, "I mean… we're friends right?"
"Weird friends," he said. I nodded. We both laughed then. "My head doesn't hurt any more."
"Sorry for hitting you," I said I bowed my head.
"It's nothing," he told me as he got to his feet. He was wearing a blue t-shirt and some black shorts and trainers. I smiled up at him. I got to my feet. I brushed off my pink dress and smiled at him. "Let's go home."
"OK," I replied. We walked all the way back to the house. It was a very long way away. It took us a whole five minutes to walk there. He walked by my side. He was smiling. Suddenly he took my hand. I smiled at him.
"I'm really glad you're here," he told me. I nodded.
"Me too," I replied.
Mummy opened the door and looked down at us and smiled.
"What are you two doing?" she asked. His mummy walked up to us. She was smiling too.
"Isn't that adorable?" his mummy said, "They're holding hands!"
"There's hope for the future yet," my mummy laughed. The two mummies laughed. He looked at me. I looked at him. I had no idea what they were laughing about.
Daddy came into the room. He was looking really surprised at something.
"Team Rocket have gone," he said. My mummy looked at his mummy.
"Gone?" my mummy asked.
"Gone where?" his mummy asked.
"Their facility blew up on Mount Moon," my daddy replied, "All the Elites are gone. Giovanni, Pegasus, Leo. Gone."
"Oh thank Arceus," my mummy said. Mummy ran up to daddy and hugged him and kissed him. I looked at the boy beside me. He shrugged. His daddy ran into the room and hugged his mummy. His brother walked into the room too. He looked confused. We were too.
"Today is the beginning of a new life," his daddy was saying, "No more Rocket, no more fear. We can live our lives again!"
"Oh thank Arceus!" he mummy yelled. My daddy ran over to me and picked me up and twirled me round.
"Daddy!" I yelled. He span me round and round and round. I was very dizzy now. He put me down and I fell into the boy. He grumbled at me.
"Parents are weird," he said. His brother nodded.
"Our parents are the weirdest," he agreed.
"I love my mummy and daddy," I said, "They're funny."
"The bad guys are gone," the brother said. I thought about his name. It was Reggie.
"That's great!" I yelled.
"We won't have to fear them ever again," my mummy said. She picked me up.
"Fear who mummy?" I asked.
"Team Rocket," daddy told me. I looked at Reggie and the boy. I was confused. Who were Team Rocket? They mustn't be very important to me because I would know who they were if they were.
Soooo…. Am I going to be killed or not? *looks around for a suitable hiding place* I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I hope you don't hate me either. So one more chapter to go. Hope you stay tuned!
RSx