Shadow Pokémon
8am the next morning
Chloe leaned over the table where Goh was sipping his coffee and watching Professor Cerise talk with officer Jenny.
"Do you know what's going on?"
Goh shrugged but Ren popped up from his computer.
"She's asking the lab for help with some Pokémon that Team Rocket left behind. The Professor thinks they might be like the ones we have the files on."
Chrysa nodded, attention still on her screen. "The police are calling them shadow Pokémon but they don't have the resources to help them."
"Why don't they take them to the Pokémon center?" Chloe plucked the mug from Goh's hand and stuck out her tongue at his squawk.
Goh glared as Chloe as she drank his coffee with a smirk and a wink. "They're probably too aggressive. And anyway if these are the same as what we're looking at in these files it would be good to get to see them ourselves."
"On to a more pressing topic," Chrysa turned to Goh. "Are you alright?"
Goh's eyes widened. "You told them!" He accused Chloe.
Chloe shrugged. "No, I told dad. Looks like he told everyone else."
Ren and Chrysa had the decency to look embarrassed when Goh turned their direction, but didn't say anything. Goh huffed.
"At this rate no one is going to think that I can live by myself."
Chloe laughed. "We already thought that. Everyone's seen the things you call food. Why did you think everyone brings leftovers to share so often?"
Goh turned his outraged glare toward Ren and Chrysa who suddenly were engrossed in their work.
"My cooking isn't that bad!" He protested.
Ren snorted and tried to cover it with a cough and ended up choking. Chrysa rubbed his back and cast a sympathetic gaze to Goh.
"Sorry, but it really is. We had a bet going on how long to would be until you gave yourself food poisoning."
Goh flushed red up to his ears. He had actually gotten food poisoning the first week he lived alone and had never told anyone. He would take that secret to his grave now.
"You guys are mean," he said instead.
"We're not mean," Professor Cerise said as he joined his coworkers, a black poke ball in each hand. "We just care, like a family."
He put the poke balls in a machine off to the side of the main dais. The machine whirred to life and scanned the poke balls, the screen scrolling through data.
"Are those the Pokémon that Officer Jenny mentioned on the phone?" Chrysa asked.
Cerise nodded. "Apparently they're more aggressive than the normal Pokémon that are confiscated from Team Rocket and she wants us to look into it."
Ren looked up, watching the machine for a moment. "Do you think these Shadow Pokémon are connected to the files we found?"
Professor Cerise frowned, nodding. "These and a few others were confiscated from Team Rocket members that have been arrested recently. Officer Jenny said that almost every Pokémon Professor has a few at this point. Everyone is trying to figure out how to cure them."
"But we're the only ones that know why." Goh bit his lip as he watched the scan data fill the tiny screen.
An alarm rang from Chloe's phone. She glanced at the time. "I guess I need to head out."
Various have funs sounded from the gathered researchers. Chloe drained the last of the coffee with a smirk at Goh's protest of "my coffee!" and passed him back the mug. With a wave she picked up her school bag from by the door and disappeared around the corner.
"But why would Team Rocket only start using these shadow Pokémon now?" Ren asked tapping his chin. "It kinda feels like a trap."
Chrysa raised an eyebrow. "Unless the process they're using is getting better and members are trying to get rid of less strong versions."
"I guess," Ren frowned, still rubbing his chin.
Goh leaned forward to place his mug on the table to pull out his phone. "It could be both? If all the professors have Shadow Pokémon and everyone is researching them no one if going to expect something bigger and badder."
"Or it's not a Pokémon at all." Professor Cerise added quietly.
All eyes turned to him.
"I had this theory since we first saw the files but I wanted to look into it more bodies I said anything." He gestured to the empty table and his assistants all moved to sit as he pulled up the virtual file. "I noticed the date on file six right away but I assumed it was just a coincidence."
File six filled the screen, zoomed in on the dates for each of the data points on the chart. It was the date of Ash's Macro Cosmos interview. Goh gripped his knee, twisting the fabric of his pants in his fist.
"The next date... when?" He stumbled over the words.
Professor Cerise's face twisted into a grimace. "It's the day he officially started. And it might not mean anything. But the rest of the dates? I looked online and they all line up with training camps hosted by Macro Cosmos."
"It might not be Ash," Chrysa started with a pained look toward Goh. "He wasn't the only trainer to start working with them at that point, but..."
"But," Ren continued. "That means that it's still a person. They're trying to make Shadow people."
Professor Cerise nodded. "So the faster we solve this puzzle of curing the Pokémon the sooner we can try to cure the people. Cure Ash if he is one."
"He is." Goh stared a hole into the table. "He has to be, right?" Goh tried to keep the quiver out of his voice, but looking at the faces around him he had failed.
Chrysa pat his shoulder, but didn't say anything.
In the background the machine dinged.
Goh left the feed his Pokémon and tried to calm himself down, but as soon as the glass door to the park closed he felt tears steaming down his face. Mixed sadness at what was happening to Ash, what torture he had gone through to become what he was now, but hope that he could be saved. Cinderace found him there, hand still in the door. She pulled him into. a hug, giant fluffy paws wiping his tears. Grabbing the wagon handle she kicked him lightly down the path to start passing out the food. Hungry Pokémon were angry Pokémon. And Goh talked. He told Cinderace, and Pikachu when he joined them, about the kidnapping the previous night that he had avoided mentioning all morning. He explained Professor Cerise's theory about shadow Ash. He cried again. All the emotions that he had been bottling up since Ash left, since the attack in Galar, since he was given Pikachu came spilling out. He cried until he was a dry husk of a person.
Goh yawned as he tapped the tablet screen in front of him, typing one handed as he recorded the progress on the machine the shadow balls were in. The two red Rs looked menacing even under the blueish tinge of the scanner. Another ding. No luck. Until they could crack the registration on these balls they couldn't transfer the Pokémon through the transfer network or even move them to actual poke balls. Even the lab's healing unit didn't recognize them.
Goh checked the time. 12:17 time for one more cycle before bed. He punched in the next set of variants from the list Professor Cerise had provided. Ren would be in at 5am to take over so Goh could get a few hours of sleep until then. He knew that no one would admit that the reason he had the over night shift was because Chairman Rose had extended his trip in Kanto and was touring with his trainers to meet new talent or whatever his excuse was. And Goh knew the lab had way better security than his apartment building. But he lied to himself that it was because he was the youngest, the newest. It was fine.
He slid the tablet back into the front of the scanner with a click and it whirred as it worked through the numbers. He turned to head to the dorms but a figure was waiting in the doorway, half obscured by the shadow of the door.
A smirk. "Miss me?"
Goh bolted for the other door, but Lucario was already waiting. He spun back to Ash.
"Why...?" He trailed off, eyes trained on the metal glinting dangerously in Ash's fist. He had a gun. Fuck fuck fuck.
"I didn't want to do this, but I made a mistake letting you leave the gym the other night so now I have to fix it."
"No, no, no" Goh stuttered out. "You don't have to do this."
Ash took a step forward and Goh flinched. "But I do. Rose told me his plan for you, but now you've gone and ruined the surprise." He took another step.
"But..." Goh's eye flit back and forth desperate for an idea. "That doesn't mean you deserve to be punished." Lucario pushed him. There was only a few feet between him and Ash now.
Ash's face split into a feral grin. "Punished?" He laughed darkly. "I volunteered."
They were close enough to touch now. Ash ran the cold metal along Goh's neck, fingers on his chin like iron holding him in place. "I will miss you Goh."
Goh swallowed, his whole body trembling. "Please..." he breathed.
Ash shook his head, face a neutral mask before he pulled Goh into a rough kiss.
The last thing Goh saw was Gengar's eyes as he faded into the black.
"Goodbye Goh"
Ash held the gun loosely in his hand, letting it dangle above the water as it crashed against the concrete dock. Guns aren't like poke balls. You can't return them, can't undo what's been done. The pain from the base of his skull was moving up the back of his head. Blood pounded in his ears. He held out his hand, slowly tipping it until the gun slid off his palm and into the waves. He could still feel the weight in his hand. The sunrise burned red, black clouds almost orange against the night sky. He could smell the smoke.
Why
Why
Why
Why
He wasn't making these choices. This isn't his body. His hands trembled. Nausea coiled around his organs and he wrapped and arm around his middle, fisting his shirt to keep it at bay. He clung to the weightless feeling that had claimed his hands. This wasn't his body.
Dreaming
Dreaming
Drifting away
He felt rather than heard the car pull up behind him. Dropping the hand from his chest he clenched his fists and spun on his heel away from the water. From the gun. From the past.
Chairman Rose was sitting in the back when he opened the door. He slid in next to him and the car pulled away from the curb.
"Is it done?" Rose asked with a grin
Ash nodded passing the two black poke balls over without a glance.
"And the files?"
Ash frowned but still didn't look over. "They sent copies to Aether Paradise. Apparently they're in charge of purification since they have the biggest facility."
"Well." Rose leaned back against his seat pressing his pointer fingers to his lips.
Ash's headache was getting worse. He closed his eyes. It hurt to see. The lab burned behind his eyelids.
Help me