Chapter 27 – Arceus
Lentimas Town
We were finally here in Lentimas Town, a place very soon would be filled with our allies ready to make our way towards Team Annihilation Reborn's main base up on Reversal Mountain where the final battle would take place in a couple of days.
Why here instead of Undella Town? Well, Undella Town was open, patrols and drones in and out every day. Here there were no patrols or guards, an empty place besides the peaceful citizens still living a life without Team Annihilation Reborn. We were closer to Team Annihilation's Reborn main base here than if we started the assault from Undella Town. From Undella to Team Annihilation Reborn's main base it would take us two hours, from Lentimas Town it would take us thirty minutes. The path leading to Reversal Mountain from Lentimas Town was smoother and less rocky than the path from Undella.
Devon and his team entered the town in small numbers several hours at a time to avoid attention from the patrols from Undella Town. Making their main base of operations in one of the hotels by the airport. It would be a while until the planning would begin on how we should attack.
I sat at a square table inside a café with Espeon to my left, Brent to my right, and Lisa sat opposite me, all of us thinking of the final battle that was about to take place any day now.
"We're almost coming to it any day now. Man, didn't think my heart would be beating this fast…" Brent chuckled nervously to himself. "Any word from the others yet?"
"Not yet." I shook my head, pulling out the Savior's Device from my own bag. "The last we spoke was in Undella Town five hours ago when I made the call in the Pokemon Center and let them know the battle will take place very soon. It will take them some time to get here… but I would like updates hourly knowing they were okay."
"They'll be fine. I think they're just trying to avoid communications so they're not detected by the puppets. Can't wait to see the others again." Espeon said, obviously talking about my Pokemon I had left in the safe zone for five years. "I wonder if Gardevoir's dictionary collection had gotten any bigger than I last saw it. One thousand and eighteen different dictionaries she has collected if you wanted to know."
"Why does Gardevoir collect dictionaries?" Lisa asked. "And where does she put them all? I have never seen her collection before."
"Beats me. I have asked a few times, even nagged at her so she can finally reveal the location of where she keeps her collection, but that dictionary obsessed Pokemon will not reveal it." She shrugged. Gardevoir kept the location of her collection a secret to all of us and those around her refusing to let anyone know where. We did try and search for her collection once or twice thinking they might be close inside the Pokemon Laboratory in Nuvema Town, my house in the attic or basement since those rooms never got used for anything thinking she might have used them, even checking the surrounding forest around the town for a cabin or something, but we came up empty. "Oh and why she loves dictionaries so much? Well she just likes reading about the words, descriptions, pronunciations, reading from the very first introduction page all the way from A-Z to the end page every week… stood there and looked me right in the eye with a straight face and said dictionaries are much better reading material than any other book out there." She shook her head. "Last we spoke me and her, I asked if she and the others have kept pretty much in shape since they first entered the safe zone, all of them have preparing for this moment to get out there and get some action… let's hope they all did train well for what we are about to face."
"Maybe after arriving, maybe we could see how well they can battle to check whether or not they are ready for this." I said sounding a lot more nervous than I was. My worry for my friends was growing bigger; I needed them to be ready for this. If they're not ready, if they go out there and forget how to battle after all this time they would end up badly hurt or dead. I almost regretted asking for their help.
"Yeah, that'll help. Me and Lisa will see if they are able to fight in the battle soon after they have settled down here." Brent smirked and gave a thumbs up. "We'll look for how well they do in battle, their speed, reaction to things, and teamwork. I'm sure some of Devon's team will volunteer to help out too, play the part of a controlled soldier and see how well they do with them. Don't worry Zack, we got this."
"Me and Zackary can help Devon's team get things ready here until then." Espeon said leaning closer to me. "I'll ask Devon where you guys can go and train." I wanted to go with them to oversee all of the training myself rather than at some points, perhaps be the one to decide if they are ready or not then let others decide.
Later that day Espeon and I talked to Devon on what we could do to help out around the town that day, helping his team transport some cargo off the back of their trucks, helping them carry boxes and stuff to Devon's team staying inside the hotel. There was a gym on the southern part of the town where Brent and Lisa took my Pokemon to train, they had arrived an hour after me and Espeon left to do some work. I wanted to go and see them after five years apart, but I didn't want to interfere with their training, and I couldn't just up without finishing the job first. So for four hours Espeon and I carried heavy boxes around the town intent on finishing as fast as we could to see our friends again before the training had worn them out. The café was the one place we stayed in the most that day, a place one of Devon's closest friends knew and offered to assist us, even allowed Espeon and me to help out.
Almost twenty minutes until the task was done for the day, one of Devon's men approached me and had asked me to go to the northern part of the town very close to the airport to deliver another box of goods to the hotel so Devon's team can fully prepare themselves for the battle with Team Annihilation Reborn soon. I accepted the task and left Espeon inside the café to finish the job placing canned foods on the shelves in the back room after she found the task to be an easier one than carrying heavy boxes all day.
After a short distance away from the café I arrived at the place I was told to go to meet with Devon's team to help them with their task. It was a large opening behind the airport and other tall buildings only accessible by a narrow street. When I got there, I noticed there weren't anyone around, no vehicles, boxes or anything, it was deserted. I was about to walk further inside the alley, but then I stopped and realized this might be trap and reached for my scalchop while using Protect around me should anyone try and attack. At least I would have time to defend myself and fight back.
And then all of a sudden, a blinding light appeared in front of me followed by the almost deafening sounds of sparks, some touching the Protect around me but not inflicting any kind of damage to it. By the time the sparks ceased and the light faded, I opened my eye and looked back to see what caused that whole light show and gasped at what I had seen.
I was shocked, taken back what appeared before me. Standing tall was the Alpha Pokemon; Arceus in the middle of the alley. "My apologies, I wished to speak to you in private, I did not mean to alarm you, Zack Raines. I am not an ally of your enemy Shiny Latias nor am I controlled by her ability."
"Y-you're Arceus."I stuttered, still shook up and nervous as I stared into the eyes of the Pokemon standing in front of me.
"I have been watching you, Zack Raines for quite some time. Forgive me, but I had to use my powers to get you here where we can have a private talk." Arceus glanced down as a bright ball of Light almost the size of me but slightly smaller appear beside it. I thought at first it was a move it was using, but it wasn't, this ball of light was something else entirely.
Still nervous, I asked. "What did you want to talk to me about?"
"Two things; the first is about a task i have for you. But that will come later as right now i would think the best thing is to talk about this ball that was once a being you know, an enemy from the past." Arceus turned its head at the dimly lit ball of light. "Speak!" I growled at the ball as it flickered slightly.
"My Power… was infinite… my life was… infinite…." A voice came from the ball of light. "I remember you, boy. You are Zack Raines." It was Infinite's voice from that ball of weak glowing light floating in front of us. A glowing ball of flickering weak light as if it were to go out any minute. "You and your allies almost destroyed me, almost. Now I am that you see before you; my soul as it were, so fragile and dying…" I reached for my Scalchop enraged at who it was, but Arceus stopped me.
"Do not be alarmed, there is no need to fight." Arceus turned at Infinite again. "His power is weak, almost non-existent and soon to expire along with the life of Infinite. He is dying soon; he poses no threat to you or anyone else."
I looked at the ball of light that was the last living part of Infinite. The battle we had all those years ago must have destroyed his body and somehow became a ball of light. "Yeah, I remember you. But what are you? A deity? A Pokemon?"
"I am a being born in another world from yours, a being were all life was once in the billions reduced to one percent left in a matter of days due to a war within my world. I was weak; I set out to other worlds to feed off life so that I could live forever fearing of suffering the fate of those from my world. I managed to access the timelines and absorb all life, feeding and living for a long time if not forever."
"I found him like this immediately after his defeat by you and your friends." Arceus said as it looked down at Infinite. "He told me who he was, why he did this. He showed me visions of possible futures, even ones involving you and Shiny Latias should you fight."
"My possibilities? And what are they?"
"You fail on defeating her, you succeed, both of you die after a long and bloodied battle, you never face her and decide to abandon Latias fearing the outcome of the battle you have never tried, you commit suicide not wanting to fight anymore… these are only a small amount to the large possibilities Infinite had shown me of what can happen." Arceus turned her head and looked at me. "Infinite is dying very soon, but the portals remain open in your time, portals that can lead to the timeline, disastrous if fallen into the wrong hands. These portals, they will need a new guardian until the portals like their master die out."
"A being that can live for a long time until the portals vanish from this world and never to be seen again by mortal eyes." Infinite's glow flickered again. The light radiating brighter as it spoke.
"So I get that Infinite survived our last battle… "
"I know of your battle with Shiny Latias and her controlled army. You are fighting her so that you can save not only this region but the life of your friend and former love, Latias. I can offer you my assistance in the battle."
"You can help us?" I asked, surprised and happy that Arceus of all Pokemon would help us in this battle.
"I can, but first I want you to hear what I have to say." Arceus nodded. "I want you to accept a task I have for you, Zack Raines. Doing so and I shall accept your help to defeat Shiny Latias and her allies. Only because one of the worst possible futures may happen, endangering all life across the entire world for many years."
"Why me? Why don't you do it?" I asked. "All I want to do after the fighting is done with is live a peaceful life with my family. For so long I have wanted this to end, but I can't unless Latias is safe and this region will no longer be under the threat of Shiny Latias."
"You can live up until you reach the age of two hundred. Infinite's light will fade by then and the portal with him, the world shall return to the way it was before Infinite arrived." Arceus said, turning her head down at Infinite. "I cannot stay here. I must ask someone I know can be trusted for this task. Other potential candidates I have looked into cannot live as long as you can."
"We have seen your battle; you will need all the help you can get." Infinite said. "Arceus has offered to help you in this battle, doing all it can to save your friends, making sure none of them are killed during this battle."
"A possible future Infinite told me about has one were you never fight again after the conflict with Team Annihilation Reborn, this will be the final battle you will ever have in your life. That is a timeline that will only happen if you accept my task I have asked of you. Without my help, Infinite has showed me the great possibilities of what may become of your allies. Your future, your friends and family, none of you will ever know peace."
"What do you mean by that?"
"A future you will for as long as you live will fight opponents, new teams forming in different regions some more vicious and evil than Team Annihilation Reborn, suffering the loss of some of your family members." Infinite's voices rose. "Arceus can help you so that future of endless fighting never happens."
"You will be with your family for a time." It said. "Two hundred years is a long time to live, but the place you will need to stay at to guard the portal is a place that cannot be found easily. You may bring your family there if you want company for as long as they live. This place to guard the portal, you can never leave, you will stay there until your end of days."
I slowly looked up at her. "There is a possibility Latias can be saved?"
"There is, but there is a chance she may die if you do decide to accept my task, other timelines we have not seen her live. Shiny Latias will kill her."
"The task will not begin immediately after the outcome of the battle; you may live with your friends and family for two years while I make arrangements for your new place to live."
"Not all timelines I have seen see Latias live after the battle, but this timeline where you accept Arceus' Task is one of a small few to see her live." Infinite's light grew brighter, but his voice was quieter. "Most timelines see Latias die."
"So I can't leave that place to guard this portal, I'll be some kind of a prisoner there unable to leave…" I growled, not liking the sound of this task the more I had about it.
"But you will never have to fight again, it will be a peaceful place for you there." Arceus said, using its move on Infinite causing him to vanish without a trace. "I know what I am asking is unfair for you. You wanting to finally live a life of freedom and peace, but in a way you still can. The timelines Infinite and I have seen for ourselves; without my help, Latias may not live. My help can perhaps turn the tide in your favor and Latias may be saved. I need someone to guard the portal and Infinite until they fade for good from the world. Without a guardian, Infinite may return and the portal used to send anyone who enters to whenever in time they wish, altering time, it would be disastrous."
But the timeline Arceus and Infinite told me about, the one where I accepted the task there was a chance to save Latias, other timelines saw her dead. To guard a portal in some place unreachable in this world until the end of my life. "They said I would never have to fight again if I did this task, so why am I guarding it then?" I thought, looking up at Arceus. "I need all the help I can get on stopping Shiny Latias and saving Latias… Two years to spend with my friends and family before I would leave this world to guard a portal and watch over a floating ball that was once an enemy from a long time ago, if I succeed. A chance Latias can live and be reunited with Midnight…"
"So, Zack Raines, have you made a decision?" Arceus asked. "Do you accept my task?" A chance to save Latias from Shiny Latias, a chance on stopping Team Annihilation Reborn for good but at the cost of living alone for the remaining years of my life in some
To be continued…
Trivia:
Originally Infinite was not included in the story, an antagonist from 02 having survived the battle. Zack instead was tasked to guard the portal alone instead of guarding both the portal and Infinite until his end of days.
AN: Well chapter 27 is done and 13 remaining until the end. Still trying to aim for July/August to finish the story. Thanks for reading and hope you stick around until the end. until next time.