When Misty opened her eyes all she could see was bright white light. Instinctively she shut them only to meet with an equally intense red light. It was a dark, haunting red. The red that has shone from Ash's eyes, which only moments before had been the kind and gentle ones she had come to love.
The events of the ballroom flashed before her in an endless whirl replaying itself over and over again. The explosion… the cries of the frightened and wounded… the black creature… Ash… Ash… Pikachu flying through the air… Sabrina protecting her… falling... the flower?
She gasped for breath and sat up, her eyes slowly adjusting to the light. The only thing of which she could be sure was that she was lying in some kind of bed. She felt a hand on her shoulder. She turned but her eyes couldn't focus on who it was. For a moment the figured shimmered and then she saw Ash sitting next to her. He smiled and Misty could feel her heart well up in happiness. Could it all have been a dream?
"Misty," Ash began.
"Ash!" Any further words stuck in her throat.
"Misty," Ash said again, but it wasn't Ash's voice. Misty couldn't break through the cloud of confusion around her. Finally her vision began to clear. Sitting next to her was Professor Oak.
"I'm so glad you're awake," Prof. Oak said with a sigh of relief. "We need to go."
"Go? Go where? Where am I? Where's Ash?" The endless questions she had flowed from her.
"I don't have time to explain it all right now. I'm sorry, Misty, but you're going to have to trust me."
"I don't understand. Tell me where Ash is."
The professor sighed again, but this time it was definitely not one of relief. "He was taken by the creature that attacked the hotel."
"Taken?" Misty very being seemed to grow cold. "Where did it take him?"
"I don't know for sure. But we have to hurry if we're going to find him in time."
A thought suddenly sent another sliver of ice down her spine. "What about Mrs. Ketchum and Brock and Pikachu? Are they ok? What about Togepi?"
"Delia and Brock got hurt pretty bad, but the doctors assure me that they are going to be ok. They were taken to another hospital. Togepi, fortunately, was only shaken and is at the local pokémon center recharging." At that point his voice broke and Misty saw a tear run down his face. "Pikachu, it doesn't look like it will make it. He was taken to the Viridian Pokémon Center for emergency treatment."
"No…"
"Misty, I'm sorry. This may sound callous, but we have to go."
"What are you talking about? Go where?"
"We have to find Ash before it is too late. I know you have many questions, but please just trust me. I'll explain on the way."
Prof. Oak had always been one of the few adults that she had trusted and at the moment she didn't really trust herself. If he said that there was a chance they could find Ash, she had no choice to follow him.
"We have to hurry," the professor continued. "And quickly; if the doctors catch you out of bed…" He didn't have to finish. "I brought you a change of clothes. I didn't think you would want to go out in that."
Misty looked down at the thin hospital gown that she was wearing. She tried to form a smile that the professor's little joke, but failed miserably. In fact, she felt closer than ever to tears.
Prof. Oak handed her the clothes and then quietly left the room so as to give her some privacy. She stiffly got out of the bed and took stock of her injuries. She hissed with pain as she extended her left arm to untie the gown. The pain she felt in side was confirmed when she removed the gown to reveal a large set of bandages taped around her stomach.
I hope Brock and Mrs. Ketchum will be ok… She tried not to think about what the professor has said about Pikachu. There was always hope, right?
As quickly as her damaged body allowed, she put on the new clothes. The strangeness she had felt since waking up did not leave her. Even so, she walked over the door and gently knocked. The door slowly opened enough for her to slip through into the hallway.
The sudden barrage of noise made her dizzy. From the looks of it, many of the injured from the hotel had been taken here. Nurses and doctors run this way and that, trying to treat patients as fast as they could. Misty must have been one the first to brought here, explaining the private room.
If the professor had had any worries that they would be stopped, he needn't have. The hospital staff was too busy to bother with two people trying to leave the building and who apparently didn't need their aid.
* * * * *
It would take some time to grow accustomed to its new body. It had been countless eons since it had last had a physical form.
As it was, it still hadn't completely gained its strength back. The battle with the psychic had proven that. Soon, however, that would no longer be a concern. Once its link with this world was complete, nothing would be able to stop it.
The human still continued to fight, but it was futile. It had already won that particular battle. Still, it was amusing to feel the waves of emotion emanating from the tiny presence within. Every creature in the world had emotions, but humans were the only ones that allowed themselves to be controlled by them. That was not to say that emotions did not have their place, but it had long since decided which were more important that others. It wallowed in its hatred of those who had imprisoned it so long before, and waited for the day in which it would feel the pleasure of looking down at their broken forms. It would be it finest hour and the world's darkest day.
As it flew soundlessly through the night sky, it contemplated on what its next move would be. It had to admit that the psychic had weakened it more that it had originally thought, so it might do well to feed. Besides, it was time that the world was formally introduced to its new ruler.
It lowered its altitude and was soon speeding within the canopy of the wide rolling forest. As it neared the ground it spied a trail worn into the ground by passing travelers in the moonlight. Trails always led somewhere, so it reasoned that its appetite would soon be sated.
After several minutes it spotted a wooden sign nailed to an ancient oak. The words on it were expertly burned into the grain. It spent a moment to scour through the human's mind to find the ability to read it.
"Pewter City – 2 miles."
It felt a flare of emotion from the human. Perfect.
* * * * *
The sun was just beginning to rise over the horizon and it gave each of the leaves that sped by the window a reddish glow. Misty could see her reflection in the car window overlaid on the passing wilderness beyond. Her hair was tangled and fell limply over face, but she made no effort to push it away.
Could it be possible that only hours before she had been completely happy without a care in the world? Could such a world have existed?
"Misty," the professor said in a gentle voice. She made no attempt to reply. "Misty, we need to talk."
"What is there to talk about?" When the professor had taken her from the hospital on a quest, he had said, to save Ash, she felt as if a rope had been lowered down into the dark well she had found herself in. But even as the light above grew closer, she could feel that rope tearing.
"I'm sorry," the professor as if to no one in particular.
Misty turned away from the window and looked at the professor. For the first time she noticed just how old he looked. It had been almost six months since she had last seen him, but it looked as if he had age twenty years in that time.
"You said we could find Ash?" she asked.
He stared ahead and did not turn as he replied. "Yes, I did say that."
"What was that thing? Do you have any idea?"
"Oh yes, I have an idea. I know all too well."
"How?"
Before she could ask anything else, he interrupted her. "Misty, I'm going to tell you a story. It has based on everything I know about the creature that attacked the Indigo Hotel tonight and stole Ash away." He paused before continuing. "But before I begin, I must ask you to promise me not to interrupt until I am finished. Do you understand?"
Confused, and even a bit frightened, but determined to save Ash, she agreed.
The professor sighed loudly and long before speaking again.
"A lot of what I am going to tell you will be hard to believe. It is part fantasy, part mythology, and part history, but all true in its own way.
"Before the age of man, even before the age of pokémon, when the world was still new, the god pokémon ruled the world. All was well until a lone god decided that it wanted everything. Not satisfied with the role given to it, it slowly strengthened itself. When it felt the time had arrived, it waged war against the other gods in an attempt to rule the world alone.
"Not much is known about this god pokémon; its original name has long since been lost. The only striking detail that we do know was its red eyes. Their crimson hue, they say, could drive one mad. A powerful psychic, it was strong enough to face the others alone, and in fact it almost won. After a devastating war that lasted hundreds of years, it finally succumbed to the combined powers of the other gods. It could be called the world's first demon; given a new name by the victors, the Redeyes.
"What the other gods did not know, however, was that while the Redeyes had lost its body, its spirit still had a hold on the world of the living. With this, over an excruciatingly long time, it built its power within the spirit world, the realm of ghost pokémon.
"In the world of the living, nothing was heard of the demon, and it was forgotten like so many of the old legends. Then fifty thousand years ago, as the age of pokémon was waning and the age of man was just beginning, the Redeyes returned. Having conserved its power for the eons since its defeat, it was able to manifest itself in our world once more. However, without a physical form, it could not make full use of its powers. So it went in search of a host to serve as a link between the worlds. It found what it was looking for in a Mew.
"The god pokémon, having long since let petty differences separate them, were not able to mobilize in time. When they finally were able to mount a defense, the Redeyes had regained too much of its power. No matter how they fought, it was just too powerful, for now it could draw on the power from the worlds of the living and the dead.
"Then, amidst the battle, a human seer appeared. At first the pokémon and their gods refused to listen, as they did not yet trust man. Even so, this seer said that he had seen a vision that had shown him the way to defeat the Redeyes. The spike from the Gaiasaur, the rare fourth generation of Bulbasaur, could neutralize the link the Redeyes held between the realms and destroy it and the Redeyes for good.
"A human boy volunteered to take the spike and try to destroy the Redeyes. Humans and Pokemon joined together for the first time in a massive attack in an attempt to weaken the Redeyes. The plan almost worked. As the boy tried to stab the Redeyes, it killed him, but not before its host was mortally wounded. This weakened it greatly and Lugia was able to attack the Redeyes directly. Without its host, the Redeyes formed into what could only be described as a liquid darkness, which Lugia froze into a solid statue. Thus, it was unable to affect the world of the living and also could not reach the world of the dead to draw upon its power. It was effectively trapped forever, not dead and not alive.
"The Redeyes was sealed away with the hope that its forced slumber would never be disturbed. The god pokémon returned to their realms, but the world would always bear the mark of this battle. The Mews, ever afraid that one of their kind would again be used in such a matter, fled, never to be seen again, falling into the realm of legend themselves. Humans and pokémon grew a mutual respect for one another, agreed to share the world
"Years later, the same seer that had seen vision of the Redeye's defeat was laying on his deathbed. Just before he died, he recited one more prophecy, which was dictated by a witness. The prophecy was a warning of a time when the Redeyes would return once again to claim the world as its own. His prophecy was lost until a team of archeologists uncovered it three years ago. These are the words spoken by that seer so many years ago.
"A master will be born, the youngest to wear the crown. Upon the coronation, the Redeyes will be awakened to reclaim the world it lost. It will take the master, and its reign will begin anew. The sky will rain upon the world, and human and pokémon alike will fall. Forests will burn, seas will boil, and the world will end. However, amidst the horrors, a flower of water will bloom, wielding the thorn that will extinguish the redeyes, and free the world from its fate.
Misty waited, but the professor had evidently finished his narrative. The entire time he had been talking, Misty has stayed quiet. Now she had so many questions she didn't know where to start. Through the storm that was raging in her head, something kept tugging at her, but she couldn't place it. It was something from the prophecy the professor had recited. What had happened right before she had passed out in the hotel? The Redeyes—now she knew its name—had attacked her and then Sabrina had saved her. Just before her memories went blank, she remembered heard Sabrina saying something to her that at the time had made no sense, "Because you are the flower."
"The flower," Misty whispered.
"What was that, Misty?" the professor asked.
"Before I passed out, Sabrina called me the flower. She said I was the only hope."
"You are, Misty," he said quietly.
"The prophecy? But that was written thousands of years ago, you said. How could it know about me?"
"I know it's hard to understand."
She tried to remember what the professor had recited. "A master will be born, the youngest to wear the crown." If the flower was supposed to represent her, the master was assuredly Ash. Then a sudden realization came to her. It made her sick to even think it, but how else could she explain everything that had happened since she had woken up in the hospital.
"Professor," she began, but her throat tightened and she felt sick to her stomach.
"Yes?" the professor asked, his voice revealing a twinge of apprehension, as if expecting her next words.
As calmly as she could, she said, "You knew this was going to happen, didn't you? It was no accident that you were there at the hospital to pick me up." Even after she said it, she didn't want to believe it. If only the professor would deny it, she would believe him, mostly because she wanted to. Anything would be better than the professor having something to do with what had happened to Ash and the others.
But the professor said nothing. He just stared forward into the waning darkness.
Misty could feel tears running down her face. She could hear herself crying, but it was as if she was watching it from afar. The shock just wouldn't let her comprehend it. Her tears felt hot on her skin and she could feel the anger building in her.
Still the professor said nothing.
Finally, unable to stand the silence any longer, she released it all. "You knew! You knew and did nothing? How could you? How could you have done this to Ash?"
"Misty, listen," the professor began, but she cut him off.
"No, you listen, you bastard!" Even as angry as she was, her words shocked her, but she didn't stop. "Ash loved you! He looked up to you! He saw you as the father he never got a chance to know!"
Her last comment seemed to hit him physically. He recoiled away and slammed on the brakes. At first Misty though the wheels were going to skid, but then the car slowed. The professor pulled the car onto the shoulder and shifted into park. After several very long moments of silence, which Misty could not seem to break, he turned to face her. His eyes were bloodshot and his face was damp with tears.
The sight startled Misty, but not enough to quell her rage. "Don't you have anything to say for yourself?" she shouted finally.
"I know what I did was wrong."
"Wrong? Wrong doesn't even come close to what you did! You could have stopped this and you didn't! You said that prophecy had been found three years ago? When did you find it?"
"Two years ago," he replied in a whisper.
Again Misty was shocked into silence. For two years he had known?
As if reading her mind, the professor said, "I first found it during my studies. At the time I didn't know it was talking about Ash. How could I? For all I knew the events it spoke of wouldn't occur for hundreds or even thousands of years."
"But once the final match was set, you had to know there was a chance," she said. "Even if you didn't care about Ash, what about Gary? He could have won. He's your own Grandson."
"You have to understand. Yes, I knew about the prophecy long before tonight. As soon as I knew that both Gary and Ash were entering the Masters' tournament, I knew there was a good chance one of them would come out the victor."
"So you just sat back and waited to see which one would win?"
"No!" he bellowed in a mixture of rage and anguish. "I'm not as cold hearted as you think! Believe me, regardless of who won between the two, the Redeyes poses a threat to the entire world. Ash is merely a means to an end for it, and that end it to regain power over the entire world. And it has no qualms of destroying everything to get it."
Misty didn't know what to say; she could feel herself beginning to break down even more than before. "You could have told him. You should have at least warned him."
"You have to understand."
"Stop saying that! What is there to understand? You knew that Ash was walking right into the path of a creature bent on taking over the world. You let Ash become its tool in accomplishing that. You not only betrayed Ash in the worst way, you also sentence the world to the same fate!"
"No Misty, that was far from my intention, and it still is. Just let me explain."
Misty was about to interrupt him again, but stopped herself. Her life had been turned upside down and everything she thought she had known she was no longer sure about. More than anything, she needed a reason. She needed to know why one of the people in her life she trusted the most had betrayed everything she held dear. "Ok," she said after a moment, "have your say."
"It wasn't until the final match at the Masters' Tournament was announced that I felt sure the prophecy was coming true. Although I doubt you will believe me now, I agonized for a long time over what to do. I wanted to go right over to Ash and Gary and tell them everything."
"Why didn't you?" Misty asked.
"You have to," he started but caught himself. "Prophecies don't tell the future, not exactly anyway. They tell of a possible future. They're like recipes. If certain events occur, a particular outcome will be reached. Most of the prophecies found today are not real, either hoaxes or the words of sick minds. The prophecy of the Redeyes is not one of those. It is very real. It states that the Redeyes will return, take a human host, and begin its fight for world domination once again. But it also says, that once these things happen, the flower will arrive and defeat it once and for all."
"And you think I am that flower?"
"I do."
The professor continued on before she could say anything else. "The prophecy is saying that if all of the events come to fruition, the world will be saved."
"Then why—" she started, but this time the professor cut her off.
"We don't know why the Redeyes wanted Ash in particular. If it had just wanted a human host, it could have found one long before reaching the Indigo plateau. Its first host had been a Mew, and perhaps there is something about Ash that is compatible with the Redeyes. Ash has always had a strong will and has established strong bonds with both the people and pokémon he has met throughout his life." As if remembering what he had done to the boy he was describing, he paused and wiped the fresh tears from his eyes
Misty took the opportunity. "Why not hide him away? If the Redeyes couldn't find its… couldn't find Ash, then it wouldn't have hurt anyone. Right?"
"I thought of that, but there was no guarantee that it wouldn't find another host instead. If it did that, then our recipe to destroy it would be worthless. I've spent the last year looking for the hidden location of the Redeyes' tomb. I thought that if I could keep it from being awakened, I could stop it all from happening entirely. But I knew if I failed in that, I couldn't stop anything else in the prophecy from occurring, the good and the bad.
"Yesterday, an archeologist found the tomb and accidentally awoke the Redeyes. I knew at that moment there was no going back.
"If I had hidden Ash away and the Redeyes found another to take, it would still would have been powerful enough to destroy everything and we would have no plan of fight against it. But as long as we stay within the confines of the prophecy, the world may yet be saved. Soon the Redeyes will regain the rest of its powers it lost during its imprisonment, and when that happens…" He didn't have to finish.
Misty found herself unable to reply. What the professor had said possessed a grain of sense. That wasn't to say that she agreed with what he had done. For from it, she knew she would trust Samuel Oak ever again. But for the moment she had no other choice but follow him. He knew more about what had happened than seemingly anyone else.
She remembered the time when Ash had been the Chosen One back in the Orange Islands. Now she knew what he had felt when the weight of the world had been literally placed upon his shoulders. But he had persevered and she knew she had to at least try to do the same. Besides, she couldn't change the past, and she needed to save Ash from the clutches of the demon that held him. Slowly the anger inside her was being replaced by something else, determination. "Professor," she said.
"Yes?"
"You say I'm the flower. We better get started."
"Ok," he said in a sigh of notable relief. He shifted back in drive and pulled back onto the empty highway.
Off to her left, she watched as the sun continued to rise into the sky.
* * * * *
The small city of Pewter had been awakened from its slumber just as the sun was rising into the sky. Now the screams of its citizens filled the air. Local trainers had joined with passing travelers unfortunate enough to have spent the night in the sleepy town. Together, they had fought valiantly against the demonic creature wearing the visage of human boy. Now the broken bodies of pokémon and trainer alike filled the streets.
Ash saw all of this, trapped inside his own mind like a prisoner. His body, no longer in his control, continued to move through the town, killing as it went. The fog that had first surrounded him was clearing, and the rest of his senses were returning as well. At first he had thought he getting some control back, but now it seemed he was trapped in what he could only describe as a glass enclosure. He could not directly feel the outside world, but it was as if his sense were be transmitted to him. It was like his consciousness had been given its own body that was trapped within this cage. He could walk around and even feel the walls around him.
The one thing he couldn't do, however, was stop the images of outside from impacting his mind. In fact, he would have given anything just to have the ability to close his eyes. Ash had never seen someone die before, but now he had seen more people fall before this demon that held him than he most people would in their lifetime. The horrors were almost too much to bear.
Just then, a young trainer, no older than 13, ran forward and released a pokéball. A pikachu materialized and attacked with a thundershock.
The creature that controlled his body raised an arm. A bolt of red energy shot forward hitting the yellow pokémon mid-jump and sent it to the ground where it did not stir. The boy shouted in anger and his eyes shone with a stoic determination despite the peril around him.
Suddenly, the creature flew forward and grabbed the boy, who instantly began to writhe in pain. Ash knew what was going to happen next, having seen it happen many times since he had arrived in Pewter. The boy stopped moving and hung limply from Ash's outstretched hand.
As it had happened before each time, screams began to echo around Ash's enclosure. It was the boy's screams. It was as if his spirit was crying out all around him. A sickening though came to Ash. What if that was what he had heard? Ash thought of the strengthening barrier around him. It's feeding off them. Not just killing them, but stealing and perhaps even consuming their spirits. Any previous hope of escape left him. Even if there had been a chance, soon it would be gone. As he thought, the barrier grew a little stronger.
Finished with the boy, the creature let his body fall to the ground. Ash saw that his face was twisted in a grimace of horror. He found himself asking if it had been he that had been trapped in Pewter, would he have done something so brave. He would like to think so. Despite the dangers, he had faced challenges before. But he also knew that he had faced them because of the two people that had always been at his side. He knew that Misty and Brock would have been right beside him to face the unknown evil, knowing only that it was the right thing to do.
Thoughts of his friends filled him. He hoped that they were all right. There had been no sign of his mother or Brock before the creature had captured him. He did know the creature had attacked Pikachu and could only hope that it had not fared the same as the boy's had only moments before. He also knew that it had attacked Misty, but she seemed to have been saved by someone else. Much of his memories of the attack were blurry and unclear.
Ash knew that Brock would be devastated to hear of what atrocities were being committed in his hometown. Thankfully, Ash had not yet seen any sign of Brock's siblings or his father. Hopefully, they had been able to escape or at least were well hidden inside the family gym.
As if on cue, Ash caught a glimpse of the gym through the smoke from a burning home. It looked untouched.
Without warning a voice entered his mind. "Are you enjoying yourself? When I last roamed this world, your kind were mere insects crawling around trying to survive from one day to the next. It seems they changed much during the intervening years between then and now. They think they have this marvelous gift they call progress. They must learn how insignificant they truly are. And so do you!"
Ash could feel the creature shift its attention toward the gym.
"Yes," the voice said, "this should be a valuable lesson."
The creature began to well its energy and then shot a powerful attack, larger than any of the previous ones, at the gym. The impact resulted in a fireball that consumed most of the front wall. Seconds later a resounding cracking sound resonated through the emptying streets, and the entire roof of the gym caved in, sending a cloud of dust and debris into the air.
"I think I have fed enough for today," the voice said cheerfully. "Yes, I believe it's time to go home."
Ash could only stare at the devastation around him. The world was truly coming to an end, he realized.
(to be continued…)