Chapter 36 – Where the Enemy Dwells

Infinite's Domain

We had just crossed the point of no return, we had now entered the location we had for many months tried to find, to face the leader of anomalies and knights, the one who caused the time portals to appear attacking so many we care for; Infinite. And to find him, all we needed to do was to go down this straight path leading us to a large castle floating in the dark abyss along with other buildings and small pieces of rocks, tree's pulled from their roots and old carriages. The castle appeared very old, ancient from early Johto times, perhaps longer. The castle walls had many arrow slits running along the walls stopping at the keep of the castle. The draw bridge was already lowered for us and we could see from here the castle gates were raised.

The keep of the castle appeared to be damaged, but if one would get closer towards not only the keep but the castle, they would see it was fading. The path behind the portal was also fading, Infinite's plan soon to come into motion.

From all the way down here at the top of the castle we could see something, it was a bright light shinning up from the highest tower of the castle, whatever it was we couldn't see from here, but it was the only thing of a source of light in this world.

"So this is Infinite's domain, eh?" Brent said glancing up at the castle, specifically towards the light. "And not an anomaly in sight. Ya think this place would've been heavily guarded? Hah, So much for the leader of the anomalies, am I right?"

Just right after Brent said that, five portals suddenly appeared around us and out came five humanoid anomalies preparing to fight us. The five anomalies appeared weak as they stood there in front of us. Their bodies looked a lot paler this time with many small dark holes in their bodies from head to toe, like they were just in a battle not long ago.

"Bent, remind me to break your legs if we ever get back to our present…" Espeon sighed getting into fighting position alongside Lisa's released Blitzle.

Brent released his Murkrow and gave the first out the first command to attack one of the five anomalies surrounding us, followed by Umbreon attacking the anomalies behind us, and then Espeon using Psybeam at two of the anomalies, all directly hit by each of the attacks collapsing to the ground in screaming as they… faded? This was odd to see since anomalies usually last longer than one hit. Over the past few months since our mission began travelling through time we had hardly any time to train our Pokemon for them to get stronger. I thought these anomalies were just weaker than the anomalies we usually face, that they were somehow left behind here in this world. I thought that after we had defeated these anomalies more would appear again and again, leading up to a stronger anomaly or something… but after the final anomaly was defeated, we were left alone surprised at how easily we had defeated them.

"That was surprisingly easy." Espeon said turning her head back and forth for any sign of anomalies, but nothing. "This is supposed to be the final dungeon if this were a RPG, so they should've been a little tougher than these level ones. It almost makes you think this Infinite guy wants us to reach him. Sending the tough guys outta here and leaving the small guys behind to sweep the floors… now I feel bad."

"I don't." Brent said with a grin. "If the rest of these freaks are like this, this easy to defeat, then our Pokemon will almost be at full strength when we finally reach Infinite."

Walking together down the long narrow path which would lead us towards the castle, Lisa stood where she was. "Greed… are you here inside the castle?" She said quietly to herself as she stood there looking up at the castle still floating in the dark void while we walked on ahead. Lisa stood there for a short while before she quickly followed behind us not noticing that Espeon had been listening in to her talk quietly to herself and watched her closely with concern as we quickly walked closer to the bridge and finally up to the large doors opening them up as we walked together inside the castle.

Infinite's Castle – Throne Room

The castle's ground floor layout was… bizarre, instead of an entrance hall when we opened the large doors of the castle like we expected it would be, it was a small modern kitchen with marbled walls and wooden floor many appliances set up at every corner with four tables set out with a single chair set.

There were doors on both sides of the room which lead to other rooms such as the 'stairs' room when looking up them you would see an endless amount of stairs. An armory with medieval suits of armor (none of which like the knights of Infinite wear) and swords and shields and many weapons set up on weapon racks.

A large rectangular room with nothing but hundreds and hundreds of TVs set up in multiple areas with individual price tags placed in front of each one of them all with different prices; 200 PDs (Poké dollars) for a 17 inch TV, 1000 for a 25 inch, 100000 for a 40 inch, and the largest TV in the room was a 50 inch TV costing 5000.

Other rooms we entered were different than the others; we entered libraries with many books that made no sense when reading, bathrooms with broken mirrors, and the women's restroom with a harmonica playing through a speaker, and a hall of mirrors that didn't show a reflection of either one of us.

Our search for Infinite had ended after months of trying to find him through the time dimension, but now we had to search the castle, something we thought would be over and done within a matter of minutes. As we searched, we encountered many anomalies both humanoid, flying, and larger bulkier types while searching the castle, and they like the anomalies we fought and defeated outside, they were quickly defeated with little to no effort, even in large waves. But we didn't let up or assume they were all weak, we couldn't afford to let our guards down, not now, and not here.

Our search on the ground floor was getting us nowhere, so our next step was to walk up the stairs, the one place we hadn't checked yet. That was what we thought; that we had checked every room on this floor, but we missed one. It was but a simple green door with no patterns or markings on it except for its door handle which has the words 'Infinite' engraved on it. We could've easily overlooked this door if it had not been for the light glimmering on the silver door handle in the only green/room with many floral growing everywhere almost camouflaging the door.

Entering the room we were surprised to see an even larger room with a large throne at the very end with someone sitting on it. Cautiously, we walked closer with our chosen Pokemon to the throne ready to fight. It was when we were closer we could see that the person sitting on the throne was just like the other knights wearing the same armor as them, but this one wasn't wearing a cape. The armor was completely gold along with the helmet and visor.

Standing just a little bit close but not too close to the throne with our Pokemon beside us, we waited. The armored knight didn't say anything or move an inch.

"Hey! You that Infinite guy?" Brent called out watching the suit of armor carefully, but nothing happened. No response, nothing but silence. "Hey! I'm talking to you!" Brent was about to walk up to the throne with his Seviper, but he stopped as all of us quickly turned at hearing a voice we recognized from behind us near the entrance of the throne room.

"That is nothing but a mere decoy for potential intruders such as you." We turned at the sudden voice behind us; there standing before us was the final armoured knight of Infinite; Greed, the same one we had encountered a few times within the time portals and Pewter City. "But this does not come close to what Infinite would look like if he were human suited up in fake armor."

"Where is Infinite?" I asked grabbing one of my Poke balls preparing to call out Golurk to attack, Brent and Lisa stood beside me spreading out a little with their Pokemon in front of them preparing to attack.

"Where is Infinite, you ask? Infinite is atop the tallest tower of this castle waiting for the change to begin, the change that will alter the world thus creating the perfect world for all to live in; myself, and all of you." Greed pointed at us. "If you had not found Anger and took that device to bring you all here, we would not be having this conversation right about now. Your mission would fail and all including yourselves would awake in the new world."

Lisa Stepped a little bit forward and asked. "E-excuse me but um… Y-you… a-are you… J-James?" All of us were confused at this not sure what was going on or why Lisa asked if Greed was this James guy.

"James? Lisa, do you know him?" Espeon asked watching Lisa taking a few steps towards Greed staring at her in silence as she stepped closer to him.

Lisa ignored Espeon's question and continued. "I had a d-dream not long a-ago. I was standing on a bridge in the town I grew up in; Twinleaf Town in the Sinnoh region. Y-you spoke to me, you revealed to me that you are my brother. Is it you?"

"Y-your brother?" Questioned Brent as his eyes widened at Lisa mouth agape. Lisa didn't respond to him, she only stared at Greed as he stared at Lisa for what seemed like a long time of silence. But then he spoke.

"Yes, it is. It was me who spoke to you in the dream, it was James Rivers who I once was before I became this; an agent of Infinite." Greed held out his hands as he looked at them. "I don't know why I did what I did. I don't know why I told you who I was; I have never said who I was to anyone before…" Greed said as he lowered his arms to his side. "Not those other knights I once called as my allies, not to Requiem, or even those anomalies following me."

Lisa stepped closer to him with her Umbreon following close to her. The two stopped until they were standing so close to him. "James, why are you helping Infinite with this plan of his? What does he actually get out of this new world he wants to create? James, please tell us."

Suddenly, Greed snapped his fingers, Umbreon glanced back at the sound of the portals appeared behind Lisa. Three humanoid anomalies emerged out of the portals preparing to attack Lisa; Umbreon jumped behind her and took the full force of all three of the anomalies attacks. "Umbreon!" She gasped. Umbreon quickly stood up and used Quick Attack to take down the anomalies, but as soon as the anomalies were defeated, hundreds of portals had appeared within seconds throughout the entire throne room and so many anomalies of different variants appeared, humanoid, flying, bulkier larger anomalies wielding large shields.

"J-James no, it's me Lisa! Don't do this!" Lisa shouted with her very all to reach out to him. She didn't want to fight him, she wanted to help him. Stepping forward towards him, she was suddenly pushed back slightly by an unseen force when Greed held his hand up towards Lisa. Umbreon ran up in front of Lisa to protect her from any more attacks from Greed. Greed struggled as he grasped his head with both of his hands and violently screamed, it was at that moment when he turned around that we saw something was attached to the back of his head, it was a small purple anomaly similar to the anomaly balls used to control the anomalies within the timeline.

"L-Lisa!" Greed desperately called out through his screams. "E-end me! I can't c-control myself… t-this thing is controlling me! M-my body, it burns! I'm starving, I'm thirsty, and I'm tired… it's sickening… everything hurts, p-please end this… I beg of you… please save me from t-this torment!" Greed knelt down as he clutched his head desperately trying to tear off the anomaly at the back of his head, but every time his hand got too close, he always screamed louder as if the anomaly was inflicting more pain. Some of the anomalies moved in front of him and attacked Lisa. Umbreon prepared to fight them off but Brent's Seviper moved in and attacked them defeating them quickly one by one.

"Lisa!" Brent said as he ran to Lisa's side. "We gotta help the guy. Take out the freaks and make a run for him to get that scab off of him!"

"B-but Brent, there are so many of them. Are you sure you two can handle them?"

"Listen to me with this one; I know I ain't the kinda guy with the brightest of ideas at times, or the kinda guy who can control oneself when enraged when things ain't lookin' too good for us, but trust me on this one; we can handle this. We must work together to defeat the anomalies and to save your brother. We'll cover you while you and your Pokemon get that thing off of 'em.' Got it?"

"Alright, I can do this!" With that, Brent and I focused on the anomalies while Lisa with her Umbreon and now her Blitzle and Pidgey focused on saving her brother from the anomaly controlling Greed's actions as he summoned more anomalies to appear and summoned thousands of small razor sharp shards of glass to fall right on top of us at high speed. Lisa along with all of her Pokemon were quickly protected by Espeon's Protect while me, Brent and our Pokemon were protected by Golurk using Iron Defense and shielding us with its large body, but it still felt some of the shards losing some health.

After the last of the glass shards fell and shattered on the cold hard floor, the anomalies charged all together right at me and Brent. I called out Latias, Dewott and Gardevoir to assist Golurk and Espeon to fight the anomalies while Brent called out his Koffing, Muk and Murkrow to protect Lisa from the anomaly attacks.

Lisa with her Pokemon walking towards Greed still summoning more anomalies faster than we could defeat them ordered the anomalies to attack Lisa, but they were defeated or held back by Blitzle and Pidgey using Wild Charge and Fly while Umbreon stayed close to Lisa as they slowly inched closer to Greed.

Greed summoned a large sword from a portal grasping the handle with both of his hands and tried to stab Lisa through the chest with it, she evaded the attack with ease since the attack was slow, too slow that Lisa could see clearly that her brother was trying to fight the anomaly trying to gain full control of him. If he was fighting against the anomaly, this would make the fight a lot easier than fighting a full powered knight.

"Blitzle, charge directly at Greed with Wild Charge!" Blitzle did as it was told and quickly charged towards Greed. The anomalies surrounding Lisa and her Pokemon moved in to attack Blitzle, but Koffing and Muk's attacks stopped the anomalies allowing Blitzle to charge at Greed without worrying about the anomalies. "Pidgey," Lisa said as Pidgey flew her. "Attack the anomaly at the back of Greed's head after Blitzle attacks! Destroy it!"

Greed watched as Blitzle was charging right at him trying to prevent the anomaly to regain control over him and attack with the sword in hand. Greed raised the sword above him preparing to strike down as soon as Blitzle got close, Blitzle was now so close that if Greed was fully controlled by the anomaly it would have made him strike down, but it didn't happen. Blitzle had made contact with Greed's chest; the impact of the charge caused him to fall back on the ground dropping the sword.

Greed attempted to stand back up to summon another portal for more anomalies to appear out of, but as soon as Greed's head had lifted up off the floor, Pidgey had attacked the anomaly at the back of his head destroying it for good.

But it wasn't over yet; the anomalies were still here in the room with us, so we had to quickly defeat them before we could rest. Lisa seeing as how the anomaly that was once attached to Greed's head was now destroyed, she ran over to him to help him, but what she didn't know was behind her a few large shield wielding anomalies were chasing after her preparing to attack her with their shields.

"Lisa, No!" Greed called out to her as he stood up, and by using the same power to summon the portals, he created a large portal above us and pulled in all of the anomalies in the room into it.

As the anomalies were all pulled inside, one of the shield wielding anomalies threw their shield directly at Greed he was sent flying into one of the large pillars of the room collapsing right on top of him. It was only after the portal had vanished along with the anomalies when we ran over to Greed with our Pokemon to help remove the rocks off of him trapped underneath. Golurk was the one to remove most of the larger pieces while Espeon, Gardevoir and Latias carefully picked up the other pieces of debris with their Psychic also being careful not to injure him.

Moving one of the rocks we found Greed, he was still alive, still breathing. We didn't know if he was injured within the armor, so all of us together removed the rocks off of him. Greed coughed and was the first to speak.

"Lisa… a-are you alright?" He asked, Lisa nodded and tried to remove his helmet, but he stopped her by playing his hand on her shoulder and saying. "Don't. The face you recognize as James Rivers from long ago isn't underneath my helmet. Under my helmet is nothing but a skull with rotten flesh on it… an abomination created by a being known as Infinite…"

"J-James… w-why didn't you tell me you were still alive?" She asked trying to hold back the tears.

"I thought I was dead. I felt nothing but the last thing I felt before death; Greed for money I wanted to use for you and me to start a new life together, in a new peaceful town we could call our home… but I wanted so much more. The world Infinite brought me into wasn't the afterlife I believed it would be. I lost sense of everything dear to me; who I was, my real name…" He touched Lisa's cheek as she placed her hand on top of his, "Who mattered to me. It was when I saw you again a few months back outside of Pewter City I slowly remembered who you were, who I was."

"A-after you died i… I was alone. I left everything behind. I moved from city to city trying to find something, anything to make me stay... it was so difficult for me…" Lisa said closing her eyes.

"D-don't tell me you wanted to-" He stopped when he saw Lisa tearing up. He tried to reach up to her and wipe away the tears with his left arm; it only took him a few short seconds only to realize that his arm from his elbow had been cut off. He lifted up his right arm and wiped the tears from her eyes. He suddenly felt weak and let his arm fall, but Lisa quickly grabbed it and held his hand with hers.

"Lisa, you are not alone, you never were." He placed his hand on her shoulder. "Live, fight for the future, don't give up. If you had, we wouldn't be speaking like this here and now, you wouldn't have made good friends such as those travelling with you, fighting alongside with you."

"Head up the stairs; it will lead you straight towards Infinite." Greed said "You better hurry; time is running out for you, for all of you." Lisa placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded before standing up. Before she turned towards us and walk together out of the room, she looked down at her brother and smiled before saying to him.

"We'll come back for you. We are not leaving you here, and that's a promise. So stay here and rest until then." He looked up at her and slowly nodded and watched as we left the room. Before Lisa has left the room, she turned back towards Greed for a short while before exiting the room leaving him alone.

"C-careful Lisa… I-Infinite is far more powerful than the o-other knights you have faced…" Glancing down at his arm, Greed noticed that his arm almost completely gone and he was slowly fading just like the other knights before him when defeated in battle. At the corner of his eyes he saw something; a Leafeon, his Leafeon resting its head on his chest. "I thought I told you to stay in the library. I can't complain though, you always did have a knack for disobeying me…" The Leafeon stood up and walked towards the doors and waited for Greed to stand up and follow after her. "You know this will be it once we step through those doors, there is no turning back?" He said staring at the Leafeon as it did nothing but stare back at him.

He didn't have long, so he pushed himself up and walked up to his Leafeon, and together they walked out of the throne determined to join us for the final battle against their former master Infinite.

To be continued...

Trivia:

Originally Requiem was meant to appear in this chapter controlling Greed as a puppet to attack the four. The battle would've ended with Greed regaining total control over him and defeating Requiem once and for all. But this outcome of Requiem's defeat by Greed didn't involve Espeon. So instead this idea was dropped so the two in the next chapter could face one another in a final battle.