Chapter 38 - Healing

Castelia City The Saviors - Medical Floor Room 2BC – 1 Week prior to Team Annihilations Downfall

1 week had passed since the downfall of Team Annihilation, Unova became a quieter region ever since the news that its largest threat had finally ended. The Saviors found the base after a passing traveller discovered smoke in the forest north of Castelia city, the traveller called the fire brigade about it, but when they saw multiple Team Annihilation soldiers run out, that was when they called the Saviors.

The Saviors arrived and fought off the remaining reanimated corpses that escaped and Annihilation soldiers that stayed and tried to defend their base. Most of Team Annihilation members were arrested while some; a very small amount had escaped, including Shiny Latias.

We were then rescued by the Saviors before half of the building was destroyed because of the fire that spread fast throughout Annihilation's base. The Saviors after saving the prisoners used for the reanimated corpse program began searching the building for documents and files left behind. Research papers, blueprints on new weapons and tech, even plans for another Annihilation base to be set up within the Kalos region.

"H-huh? Ah!" I awoke in a hospital bed surrounded by my Pokemon (except Golurk and Lugia due to their size) and both Sakura and Isaac, all cheered as I opened my eyes still stinging from the rooms light. I was covered in bandages on both of my arms, legs, torso and forehead as if I were wearing a bandana. I had been lying in that bed for about a week in so much pain than it was when I got them, it was like my entire body on the inside and out was set on fire then left to burn in a somewhat warm room.

"Zack, we were worried about you!" Sakura walked up to me and hugged me, along with her Minccino and Marill both with a small band aid on top of their head. They weren't injured; they just found a box of band aids and placed them on top of their heads for fun while they waited for their trainer to be checked up on.

"Yeah," Isaac said stepping towards the bed with a thumbs up, "With the amount of blood ya lost, which was like a liter, although I am exaggerating about how much blood you lost; you managed to survived. All thanks to us." Isaac grinned, but Minccino and Marill sitting next to one another just rolled their eyes at him, along with the other Pokemon.

After a brief quick look around the room again I noticed one Pokemon wasn't in the room with us, "Latias… where is she?"

"She's at the hotel…resting." Isaac said scratching the back of his head. "The Saviors had offered us a place to stay in until we could leave. Latias said she is too exhausted to come today… uh, yeah, t-that's about it." Isaac stared down at the floor, so did a lot of the others.

Still lying down in the bed staring up at the ceiling I thought, "After what had happened in that base, Juro controlling Latias with that chip inside her head to attack me. Maybe the real reason she didn't come today was that Latias is too ashamed to see me… I need to see her; I need to talk to her."

Castelia City Hotel – Room 5B - Dewott's POV

About an hour ago I think, (it may have been 50 minutes or more… who care about that.) was when I last saw Zack in that hospital bed covered in those bandages stained with blood. Being in that place wasn't exactly pleasant, I don't know why it did, but it made me feel sick just to be in that building. Me with Isaac with his Pokemon went back to the hotel room together to get some things for Zack in the hospital; a clean, new, and uncut red shirt and pants and such since the old ones he wore were destroyed by Latias in that harsh attack.

Speaking of her, Latias had occupied a bed out of the four in the room to cry on day and night for the past 3 days. The other 4, Latias was hospitalized due to that weird thing inside her head.

After defeating Juro and destroying that strange machine juro said he would use to alter the world, Latias still controlled by that odd chip inside her head tried to kill Zack, but missed and electrocuted herself on one of the monitors behind Zack's head. They brought her back to the city and performed an operation to remove it and any other secret chip or 2 that may be hidden. After waking, Latias didn't wait to be allowed to leave, so instead she went to locate Zack. After about 2 hours of searching for him in almost every hospital room and a morgue at one point.

When she found him in the end, in 'The weird one's' exact words, "She bolted on outta der like crazy!" What kind of person pronounces 'there' as 'der'? (Humans sure are strange.) Well anyway, Latias remained covered within the bed sheets, her sobbing although silent now audible as I approached and climbed up pulling the sheets away from her face.

"Latias? Hey, h-" Latias looked up at me, her eyes dripping with tears, a lot more tears than I had ever saw from Latias. Her eyes were a bloodshot red after all the crying she had been doing, refusing to speak to anyone or eat anything despite the countless pleads and persuasions, she never budged.

"Dewy… you must think of me… *sniff* as a monster…!" Latias sobbed resting her head on the damp pillow. I reached out with my paw and wiped away the tears.

"No, I don't think you are a monster. Not me, the Pokemon, or even Zack." Latias shut her eyes as she covered her face with both her paws still crying. "Latias, it wasn't you who hurt him. I mean, it was Juro who that did all that. It wasn't your fault; none of us think it was." Latias removed her paws away and opened her eyes; she then looked at her claws in front of her.

"B-but… i-it, b-but my c-c-claws cut him…" Latias began tearing up more the longer she stared at her claws, "With these claws… I-I almost k-killed him… *sobs* I hurt him so much… h-he hates me… *sniff* all of you should hate me… and to h-hurt me, m-make me suffer just like I did with Z-Zack…" Latias let her head drop onto the pillow and cried some more. I then began to stroke her neck, the same way Zack did whenever Latias would rest beside him.

"He doesn't hate you, Latias. I don't hate you, Sakura doesn't, and our friends don't. Heck; even 'The weird one' doesn't hate you either. We're worried about you." Isaac and Yamask had finished packing Zack's shoulder bag full of his clothes and items he would need when leaving the hospital after he had recovered in a few days. Standing up making my way over to the door, I stopped and looked back at Latias.

"Zack said he wanted to see you again. You should go to him; it wasn't your fault in that place. When you're ready, you know where he will be." Latias didn't budge from her spot and remained there covering her face with the pillow.

Nuvema Town - Latias' POV

I remember that day like it was yesterday, the storm followed by the bright flashes from the lightning from the sky scared me as I levitated as fast as I could go. I had no memory of my life with Annihilation or why I was running away in the first place.

After hours of running in the same direction for what seemed like hours in the forest, I found lights though the trees ahead of me. Still continuing towards these lights, more and brighter they appeared until suddenly I had left the forest only to crash right into a large wooden fence ceasing my levitation to fall right down in the wet dirt from the rain.

My vision was blurry for a small brief moment, until I heard the sound of running from a species I had never seen before; it was a human boy kneeling down beside me asking me if I was alright and if I was hurt anywhere. I didn't respond to him, my only concerns at that time; where was I, and why my head began throbbing in so much pain. (Obviously due to the impact with the fence I rammed my head into.) After a minute or 2 of lying there in the mud, I must've passed out later regaining consciousness on the couch in the living room.

In the room surrounding me on the couch were Zack and his adoptive mother Ayaka treating to my wounds I received upon crashing into the fence. Zack stood there watching over me asking his mother question after question…

"What kind of Pokemon is it? Where did it come from? Is it going to be alright? What are you putting on it?" He asked each one besides the last without waiting for an answer from her. Ayaka smiled and answered.

"I don't know what kind of Pokemon it is sweetie, or where it came from." She sprayed a little more of the Potion onto my forehead. "But it will be alright. It's a good thing I had these Potions leftover from my time looking after the neighbors Pokemon last month, huh?"

"Can we keep it? Can we mommy?" Zack begged hopping up and down tugging onto her shirt by the shoulder. Ayaka playfully messed with his hair and replied, "We need to know if its trainer is out there looking for it. We can't keep it if it already has an owner."

After cleaning up my wound, Ayaka stood and walked over to the nearby phone hanging on a wall in the kitchen. She said before leaving that she was going to be making a quick phone call to the laboratory about me. So while we waited for her to return, I was left there with Zack still starring at me, examining my blue triangle pattern on my chest and wings twitching almost every time Zack approached me more closely than Ayaka did.

"Hi there," He smiled waving at me, "My name is Zack. What's your name?" Obviously I couldn't tell him, let alone ask him questions that I wanted answered. My only responses were the usual 'Laaah lah' kind of thing humans heard, but what I was truly saying were things like; what I was doing in the building, Who the 2 were, and who I was.

Zack continued to persist on asking me questions I couldn't answer, most were questions I didn't know, and this irritated me to the point I started to dislike him. Zack didn't notice my somewhat of a glare at him as he started to turn his attention to his mother that had entered the room.

"The professor will be at the lab within a few days and she can check up on our guest. But from the description I gave to her, she told me what species, region and gender; she is a Latias from the Hoenn region, a legendary Pokemon." Ayaka smiled and so did Zack a lot more. I didn't understand what Hoenn was, what a legendary Pokemon is, so I just stopped trying to ask them things about me or why I was here.

The thought at staying there for a while with Zack annoyed me at how he kept on looking at my feathers more closely to the point his face was just inches away from my body. I didn't have a problem with his mother Ayaka, it was just him.

As the days passed, the more I got to know them. I later learnt after exploring the house the very next day after resting that Zack had a little sister about 4 years old I think? Yeah, I think that's how old she was when first meeting her in her room. She when I entered her room curious at the playful sounds she was making with her toys stopped, dropped and ran up to me like Zack did. She had introduced herself as Yuri, and as if on cue Ayaka appeared at the door and told her what species I was. They didn't give me a nickname, it was just Latias.

For the past few hours we played first in Yuri's room with her toys, and then played outside playing hide and seek enjoying the warm sun and blue cloudless sky, it sure was a nice day compared to the storm from yesterday… but it wasn't exactly a nice day for everyone.

Zack had arrived home from school covered in small cuts on his cheek, he was crying on the couch with his mother. Zack had been bullied that day, he had gotten into a fight. The teachers at the time of the fight had witnessed who had started it and who threw the first punch… Zack was blamed for the fight when he didn't, 3 against one, and Zack was the only one to blame.

I didn't know how I felt upon hearing that back then. Thinking about that moment upon seeing Zack crying with his mother after the fight, after all of the blame he received by the students and teachers watching, it was unfair for him. His mother did fight for him and believed Zack would never hurt anyone, the teachers and principle refused to listen to her and began to side with the bullies. Ayaka fought against this, but for some reason they lost, Zack returned to that horrible school, only happy when he got back.

With each passing day after he returned to school he tried to speak to me, play with me or just sit beside me, but being immature I just glared at him or tried to leave the room to find another where Zack wasn't. He eventually stopped trying to be with me and was always in his room playing alone.

A few days until the professor Ayaka mentioned would return to the lab did after a week. Ayaka told Zack to take me with him to the laboratory to get checked up whether or not that I belonged to a trainer or owner somewhere in the Unova region.

It was my first time levitating through Nuvema town, I never did turn invisible while travelling to the lab that day, but if I did know how to do it, would those kids even bother with him then?

The walk wasn't too far away, 10 minutes I'd say. We had to leave at about 9 in the morning since Ayaka had to go to work very soon leaving a babysitter to watch Yuri and Zack until 3 that afternoon. There weren't too many people on the streets that hour; this allowed us to get there and back without too many people gathering around us on seeing a rare Pokemon.

"Hey freak!" One kid out of the 4 shouted out to Zack before throwing a rock at the back of his head. The kids then laughed as the rock hit him and started to walk up to him, to circle around him preventing him from trying run away.

"What the hell is that thing?" One kid spat as he began to tug on my wing causing me to flinch. It didn't hurt the way he tugged on it, I started to feel uneasy around them, almost levitating upwards to escape on my own back to the house, but I didn't.

"Man, this thing looks weird. Let's capture it using my dad's Pokeballs." The taller boy a lot bigger than the others and Zack approached me and began to pull on my ear hurting me as I shrieked out.

"Geez dude, you're scaring it good." He laughed, "Pull on its ears some more." The obese boy laughed poking my stomach hard with his fingers. Zack turned to the taller boy and stuttered slightly in his speech,

"L-leave h-her alone." One of the 4 boys that didn't touch me had pushed Zack over to the floor and began kicking him. So did the obese kid. The taller boy then did the same, until he began to kneel down to punch Zack in his face.

Before he did however, Zack said to me, "Latias, run away!" The boys laughed even more at this and I turned to run back home… but I couldn't. I looked back seeing the boys attacking Zack and laughing at him, "Are they the same boys that started that fight with him?" I thought as I looked at them hurting Zack. The thought of the teachers and students as they didn't do anything to stop the fighting, and then blaming it all on him, angered me. Ever since we first met that day outside in the storm by the broken fence, I had treated him like he was an enemy to me, someone I hated so much. He had fed me, wished me goodnight before I fell asleep, he tried to be my friend.

"Ah!" Rushing head first into the taller boy, I pushed him over stopping him from punching Zack. The other 3 stopped their attacks, but I didn't. I didn't know any moves back then so I used my speed and levitation to my advantage into pushing them away from Zack. The bullies that had attacked Zack tried to fight me back by trying to throw rocks at me or strike at me with sticks they broke off a nearby tree, they didn't touch me once since I was too fast for any of them.

One after the other I had pushed them back or on the dirt road. Some had scrapped their knees and began crying and running away, the taller boy began shouting threats as he ran, things like, 'You're so dead!' And 'It's not over yet!' and then they were finally gone leaving us alone.

Levitating down to Zack I helped him sit up and hugged him, Zack at first didn't say anything for a while, I then started to believe that he didn't want anything to do with me, but he hugged me and said, "Why didn't you run away? Why did you help me?"

Opening my mouth to answer him I stopped, since he couldn't understand me I wanted to tell him that I stayed to protect him and was worry how I had treated him before. Before I knew it tears began to fall from my eyes and onto his shirt, I just hugged him whimpering. Zack in return hugged me and cried with me.

He told me that I was his first friend he ever had, that anyone had defended him against those kids. The kids did tell their parents later that day confronting Zack's mother before leaving for work about our so-called 'revenge attack' against them. They ran off screaming again in the end. The bullying ended with those 4 kids… almost, but we grew up together as friends from then on.

Present

I awoke in that hotel room to find that everyone in the room was sleeping in their own beds already. The alarm clock on the dresser of the bed read '1:19' visiting hours were already over by now so I couldn't go.

I stayed there thinking about everything that had happened during the past few months of our travels together… until that horrible moment I had almost killed Zack. I then thought back to my first birthday with them. After finding out my age in the laboratory; which I was 6 years old at the time we celebrated my birthday. I remember my first present from Zack was a dvd of a new movie based on a Latias tv show that aired recently. It's a tv show in which a Latias a.k.a. Super Latias lives in the Kanto region and is the hero in that city. She faces challenges from villains and concealing her identity from her trainer whenever trouble is afoot.

I remember that I loved that show so much, for Halloween I put on a cape (A bed sheet) with the blue triangle shape in the center I drew on with one of Yuri's paint brushes, and cut up a long black sock as a mask and put it up around my eyes to conceal my identity… I sound like suck a dork back then.

For the longest week it had been, I smiled at that thought of my earlier days as a young Latias. And so, after gaining enough courage, I lifted up from the bed and levitated out of the open window towards the hospital.

Castelia City The Saviors - Medical Floor Room 2BC

Arriving right outside of Zack's room still invisible I waited there in silence frozen up at the thought what Zack would do or say if he saw me again. Fear, that's what i felt, but i felt ashamed to be there, levitating idly by just right outside Zack's room listening for anything from the inside, i didn't.

"Get away from me, I never want to see you again you traitor!"

"The Saviors will arrive shortly to take you away, to be locked up forever."

"I hate you Latias, I wish we never met!"

Those words I had thought up, the possible words that Zack could say if he saw me in his room. "H-H-He hates m-m-me… I-I c-can't do it…" The tears began again, but I didn't levitate out of that hospital, I just stayed there crying.

"He doesn't hate you, Latias." Dewott's words echoed in my mind to what he had told me earlier, "I don't hate you, Sakura doesn't, and our friends don't. Heck; even 'The weird one' doesn't hate you either. We're worried about you." Did Dewott tell the truth about Zack wanting to see me again, that he wasn't angry at me? I was afraid to know, and then I sighed deeply before entering the room Zack was inside.

"I'll just… g-go in. If he hates me, I'll just leave and…" I looked up at the bed Zack was lying in and saw his still covered in bandages around his body. Like how I saw him after waking up I panicked and turned, but before quickly rushing out of the room and hospital and escaped I heard Zack move around in his bed.

"L-Latias?" He called out after coughing. I levitated there facing the doorway, just a few more inches and I would be out of that room and back outside. I feared Zack's response on how I hurt him… 'This was it… it's over now.' I turned around and levitated over to Zack's bed so slowly that I almost turned back and ran for it.

Approaching his bed now I could feel my muscles tense up, I refused to look at Zack in his eyes… I refused. I could hear his breathing was struggling after he had coughed… it was horrible. It felt like minutes had passed and nothing happened, Zack didn't speak or touch me, I began to tear up some more as I continued to stare at the floor, 'He's… deciding how to p-punish me… I deserve whatever-'

My thoughts were interrupted by 2 arms wrapping around my head, Zack had sat up from his bed and pulled me close to his chest. "I'm glad you came, Latias." He didn't sound angry; neither there was any hint of anger, but happiness.

"I'm going to be alright." He whispered into my ear softly. Not sure of what to do I pulled away from him looking up into his eyes. He smiled weakly and stroked my long neck.

Crying again, I pulled him in for another hug letting my emotions pour out. Zack held me within his arms like he did when we first became friends. "Shh, it's alright Latias. It wasn't your fault; it's going to be alright."

This was…good. I worried all that time about being banished for what had happened, punished like what Juro made me do to him, but I didn't need to. I was so happy and relieved that this fear was gone, and in the morning, it would be a better day than it was that past week. I guess in a way it is like suffering a harsh wound, fearing that this wound could alter your life, give you infections or worse, but in the end it heals. For me; I feared I would be banished or punished, in the end; we were back to normal again, back to being friends.

Did that make any sense? I was trying to compare what had happened by using an injury as an example; from getting a cut, if it's a serious one or not, can it lead to infections or other serious effects. And what had happened with Juro was the cut, the hotel with me was some kind of me refusing to go to the center to get it checked, and me finally seeing Zack to know that he doesn't hate me or blame me for what had happened was the news that the injury wasn't serious and that in the end it was healing.

(Please Zack, please don't ask me again to tell a story again… I'm bad at it, and I'll only talk about how I love Super Latias. Oh, like that one time when she saved the school full of children from the fire caused by the faulty generator down in the basement, no one was hurt or died at the end of the episode, I just like talking about certain episodes trying not to give away the ending.)

(Remaining conversation with Latias was 20 more minutes about Super Latias, so I just cut it.)

To be continued...

Trivia:

In the original version (not the Original-original version but the first stage of this story) the Pokemon communicated with paw movements and showing a photo of the person who why were talking about instead of the reader understanding them.