The Greater Evil IV : World of Ruins 

Part 2 : Rebirth

Chapter 6

Blinding light welcomed the young man as he slowly woke up to the world around him. His eyes opened, the sight of a world like none he had ever seen welcoming him. A loose strand of black hair feel on his face, he slowly pushed it aside, his mind slowly trying to grasp the true magnificence of all that was around him.

 

The grassy hilltop he was on was of the purest emerald green, a grass untouched by the acid rain of human, the grass that his ancestors had seen, a thousand year ago, before pride and foolishness had ruined it. The sky was not blue, but seemed to be like a permanent glorious sunsent, all shades of gold, red, pink, orange and purple covering it. A small pool nearby was filled with water by a cascade, gently coming down from a the mountains to his left. A shining rainbow hung there, though there were no signs of rain or sun. A river was directly ahead, crystal water that sparkled, water purer than any he had ever seen. Beyond the water, an almost-magical city seemed to wait, towers of marble, or perhaps not, a material that seemed to gather the light of the absent sun and send it back to all the onlookers, making it seems almost as if the city as burning.

 

All around, the strangest beasts, creatures vaguely similar to a ninetales or growlithe, but brown, or black, barking. Birds of all color, fishes, but all of them seemed to have none of the power of the pokemon. The fishes were no seaking or goldeen, their bodies covered in scales. He had seen such before, but they were, usually, rare. The elemental power of the pokemon simply gave them an edge in the process of natural selection. A creature, almost like a stantler, but with many subtle differences, first and foremost in coloring, ran out of trees to drink from the pool of water, gazing at him with unafraid eyes.

 

The place seemed perfect, looked perfect, was perfect. There could be no complaining about the way the world around him was. Glorious beauty and peaceful serenity combined to create a place were one could live for eternity, in peace and enjoyment.

 

A heaven down on earth, the expression described it perfectly, leaving nothing out.

 

His breath caught as he realized it, his violet eyes blinking as sudden recognition came. No, this was not an heaven, nor down on heart. It was Heaven, simply. Memories, a moment obscured, came back, of the blade arching down to strike at Misty, and how he had intercepted the blow. A flash of darkness crossed the eyes of his reflection down in the pool as he remembered his long agony in the cave.

 

A deep sigh escaped him as his thought of this being the perfect place crumbled away. There was one thing lacking for perfection here, and without Misty there was no difference for him between heaven and hell.

 

All the beauty around him seemed to fade away as he fell to his knees, an hollow aching coming. A feeling of emptiness, of unbearable loneliness. The one thing he truly needed to feel at peace with the world was one he could not have. She was down on the waking world, alive and well. He was up in heaven, dead. A wrenching feeling struck him. The sky seemed darker, the water, stormier. The grass faded to yellow and brown, sickening colors. The water became murky, as if the awakening despair around him communicated itself to the rest of this world.

 

The vanishing beauty was no concern of his, he would not miss it, or only so very little that he did not mind it. Beauty such as what he had glimpsed before his mind had really awakened was not the kind he wanted to see. No, the beauty he wanted to see was that of a beautiful face, framed by splendid orange-red hair, the beauty of two sparkling aqua eyes filled with love for him.

 

"You miss her, don't you?"

 

He had not expected the voice, though he knew he should have. Turning slowly, he brought himself to face one of his fallen friends. Raven-black hair no longer tied flew in the wind as the young man's eyes sparkled, eyes of the same aqua as those of Misty, though they held only friendship for Ash.

 

"You miss my sister." It was no longer a question, but a statement. Ash did not answer, not yet, as he looked once more at his friend, noticing differences here and there, though few. The great weight that had once rested on his shoulders seemed to have vanished.

 

"Of course. And I'm sure you miss Elayne as much." He finally replied, his eyes gazing at the only traces of beauty left in the now-ruined world around him, the shining city on the other side of the now-brackish waters of the river.

 

"True." Damian sat down at his side in the strange grass. "I just try to keep in mind she'll be here. One day." He smiled sadly. "Not easy, I have to admit."

"Disgusting, too, I'd say." The very thought of wanting for Misty to die, of waiting for it to happen repulsed him. No, he would not ever hope for that to happen. "I mean...how can you even think that way? Wait for her to die?"

"Perhaps because the world is no perfect place, while once we are reunited, this would be. Because I know she's just as lonely down there as I am up here." Damian shook his head. "It disgusted me, too, when I started trying to think about it that way. But...that's the way it is."

 

They were silent for a moment, and Ash fought to convince himself his friend was right, but to no avail. The very idea of waiting for Misty to die, of wanting it to happen, made him want to run, to kill himself, if such a thing had been possible.

 

Tears of frustration rolled down his cheeks as the aching emptiness returned, a thousand time stronger than it had been. There was a price to pay for everything, and sometime the price made the thing worthless. He had saved Misty from death only to wait for her to die. The bitter irony made him want to cry in frustration and pain.

 

"Is there a way for us to see them?" He asked instead, keeping a tight grip on the raging emotions that flashed through him.

"Not that I know. Not for someone who's been in heaven for only a few weeks, like us." He answered.

"A few weeks? You died months before me, last I heard." Ash replied, surprised by his friend's answer.

"Months on earth. For whatever reason, time flow slower in here than down on earth. So a week here is about a year there." The young man corrected, as Ash reeled from the information that destroyed swiftly and decisively all that he had thought about time.

"So...I've been dead for a few years?" He finally replied.

"Yeah, two and a half or so." Damian quietly answered, his eyes looking around emptily. "If that helps any, it will make everything seems to go by faster while you're waiting for Misty to show up."

"In two years and a half...she probably forgot me already..." He felt as if the world had opened up to swallow him in jaws of steel.

"Do you really believe that? That she would forget you so soon?" Damian's question was enough to calm down his fear. Misty would not forget him, she probably would not even try to find love somewhere else, would probably even refuse offered love.

"No."

 

Silence filled the air again as they watched around. The grass seemed to be a bit more colored, the water a bit less brackish. The sky no longer as clouded. The chilling wind had died, and the weather was once more perfect, not too warm and not too cold.

 

"I think they'd give anything to be with us right now, just like we would do the same for them. I think too that they're doing whatever they can not to forget us, hoarding those figments of memories we left them..." Damian finally spoke. His "think" seemed to hide a deeper truth.

 

"Think?" Ash decided to ask rather than try to figure it out.

"All right. I was told so, by someone who should know." His friend admitted. "No, that's someone who know, in fact."

"Who?"

"Who else? I think they decided me being the seeker and all that gave me some privileges." He smiled. "Or me having been the seeker, to be accurate."

"What are they doing then?"

"Misty's traveling around the world with May Oak, fighting off Avaraens and stuff. I don't think she knows that you're dead yet. Elayne, I dunno where she is, all I know is that she's alive."

"Fighting off Avaraen?" The words put a whole new spin in the situation. Avaraen had not been so common at the time of his death as to pose such a problem.

 

Damian rose and walked around.

"Things have changed since we died Ash. When you killed Tremayne - well, you already know it destroyed technology and the like. What you don't know is that it also open a kind of...rift...through the fabric of the universe."

"Rift?"

"A kind of door that let Avaraen seeps in from beyond the universe in our world." The explanation shed a new, dark light on the situation.

"So, there are Avaraen all over the world now?"

"Not yet, not as far as I know. Worst part is that Tremayne wasn't the only god to die, three years ago." Damian brought up the point as Ash began feeling sick. Everything seemed to have taken a turn for the worst since his death.

"Which is the other one?" he asked in return.

"Enaira." There was a sad trace in the voice of the young man, one that Ash could readily identify. It was emptiness, lack of focus. Damian had once served Enaira, the mistress of destiny, with her death he now was left alone. "And that means there are Avaraen on this side, too. Not many, but they're here."

 

Ash rose, walking in circles as Damian had done only a moment before. Avaraen in heaven were bad news, but it also meant he would have something to do, a war to fight - a goal to fulfill. Something to keep himself busy until Misty returned.

 

"I think I should warn you about a few things regarding Avaraen before you do anything brash. I found out a lot about them lately." His friend's voice interrupted his train of thought. "See, Avaraen aren't really shadows. That's how we see them in our world." He began. "In fact, though...it's hard to explain...it's as if there were two worlds, existing at the same time, in the same place, yet not. There are only a few things that exists in both universe - concrete, something extremely massive - like a huge wall or the world -, starspire. What makes Avaraen dangerous is that they exists both in a normal, animal form in the second world, and as a shadow that can harm without being harmed on tour side." Damian explained, as Ash tried to grasp the notion.

"So when we swings our Staspire weapons at Avaraen...actually, we're swinging the weapon at the Avaraen on the other side."

"Kinda." Damian nodded with a smile. "It's like a game of shadows, really. You are on one side of the drape, and you must strike at the avaraen on the other side using only the shadow of it you can see. But of course, the Avaraen, unlike you, is very existing on both side, and very conscious of how it can use its shadow to harm you."

 

The whole idea made sense, in a warped way. And of course the power of light would not really be that it would harm the Avaraen, but simply dispell the shadow, if it was strong enough to prevent the Avaraen from maintaining it.

 

Without another word, Damian took his hand and led him toward the shore of the river. Then, without pausing, he stepped in the water, water that seemed to open up for him.

 

"What are you doing?" Ash asked on the verge of panic, wondering if his friend was out to drown him, or simply to show him some wonder of heaven he did not suspect.

"Showing you how to move around here." Damian smiled. "Just think hard about me." His friend smiled, continuing to advance in the water, only to vanish as his head became submerged.

 

Doing as he was told, Ash kept making his way forward in the strange giver. As soon as his head was under the clear surface, he felt himself being swept away by a current stronger than any he had ever felt, drawn toward a strange point of light.

 

His head broke the surface, and he strangely found no need for deep breaths, unlike any of the time he had found himself underwater for long in just such a way.

 

He was in a place so similar to the one he had just left that it was almost impossible to think of it as another place, even though subtle differences made it obvious it was.

 

"Welcome to my place." Damian smiled. "Before you even ask, each heaven is in the same place at once, and the differences in aspect comes mostly as reflection of the mind. Despairing minds will have a dark place, remorseful minds will have a punishing place, and so on. Stepping in the water basically send you in someone else's idea of heaven, if you think about that person hard. Otherwise, you can simply wish to be on the other side of the lake, and vlam, that's where you are."

 

Ash's eyes felt drawn to the city again, wondering why it was a place that was not part of any heaven. The shining towers sparkled still far away, seemingly calling for him.

 

"I think I should take you there now, since we're on the topic." Damian led a bewildered Ash toward the water again as the young man struggled to put together everything he had heard in the last few minutes.

 

The waters closed in on them, and catapulted him forward, toward the other side of the lake, as thoughts of the city filled his mind.

 

Chapter 7

 

A figure Ash had seen only once before but whom he recognized at first sight waited for them at the feet of the stairs that led in the city itself. Her elaborate white robes were not the one thing that drew the attention to her the most. No, that had to be the golden color of her body, sparkling under the ethereal light, the scales that covered it, just like those of a great dragon, and above all the vast bat-like wings on her back. There was a peculiar feeling of warmth around her, and the fire seemingly in her eyes was like that of the sun.

 

"My lady Leilia." Damian bowed before the Goddess.

"Damian." The powerful being whose powers extended over light, day and summer nodded.

"My lady." Ash's attempt at a bow was less successful than that of his friend, though not as disgracing as he had expected.

"Ash." An amused smile appeared on the lips. "My champion." She acknowledged. "It's good to see you again, though the circumstances do not allow me to give you the hospitality one would be in his right to wait for from the Goddess he stood for on the battlefield."

"Why so?" Ash asked back, puzzled. They had all eternity ahead of them in heaven, so why not? He had no particular desire to be treated in any special way, but the puzzling mystery remained.

 

"It's a long story, which began a long, very long time ago." She shook her head, her golden hair - or was it a mane? - flowing in the soft breeze.

 

"We have all the time in the world, and more besides, as far as I know. And for me to know otherwise, you'd have to tell me the story." He replied shrewdly. Damian chuckled at his answer, and Leilia merely smiled.

 

"True." She admitted. "It began before there was even such a thing as the universe, or as matter as we see it. At that time, there were only two primal forces. They were never created, they simply...they simply were. And they were struggling."

 

As her words reached his hears, Ash could see the fight taking place, not warriors fighting in the field, but rather two great oceans crashing in each others, tides and waves meeting tides and waves in an endless war of patience, darkness against darkness. One of the ocean seemed to be receding with each strike, made weaker by its nemesis.

 

"One of them, the void, eventually lost the struggle. But it wouldn't just die, no. It instead turned itself in matter." Her voice kept on as silvery dust sparkled form the fallen ocean, covering the other one. "Two consciousness were born from it, too." She added, and in the picture playing before his mind, Ash could see the two consciousness somehow, two beams of pure silver streaking across the emptiness as the surviving ocean expanded.

 

"The two consciousness used some of the matter to create a bubble instead the nether - that's the ocean." She explained, as the events unfolded before his eyes, the bubble appearing in the dark emptiness. "Inside the bubble, the two consciousness forged the first universe. Our universe."

 

As she spoke, Ash's mind seemed to plunge in the depths of the bubble, were new silvery sparks were seemingly created. Silvery sparks at the scale of the bubble, but as he watched them gathering in spiraling masses, the understanding that the he was in fact seeing the stars of the universe at the dawn of time filled Ash.

 

A second layer of the bubble came in existence, as if to offer a stronger protection against the crashing tides of the dark ocean.

 

"They build a second bubble inside the first. On the inside of the second bubble, they started creating planets and stars. On the outside, they made heaven, though it was nothing like this place now is. At the time, Asgard was a bit empty, and it remained so until much later. Which is the time we are getting at now. The two souls felt the need of using some more of the matter in creating more universes, but they didn't want the one they had created to stop developing." She explained.

"What did they do then?" Ash asked the question, curiosity on his mind.

 

"What else? They made the four Gods. Tremayne, for the darkness of night, for rest, for death that comes after a long filled life. Me for light, for work, for day and for summer. We were meant to balance each other, light and darkness, sun and moon, just like Rethen and Enaira, Chaos and Destiny. One ordering the whole universe, making sure everything went well, the other making sure that some random chance would always intervene, add a twist to things."

 

"What's wrong in that though?" The question came out.

"At first, nothing was wrong with that. We all played our part, and created animals on each of the planet, and pokemon on those closer to our realm, those where we could keep an eye the most on such powerful beings." The story went on, as Ash watched.

 

"But then, something terrible happened. Our parents left this world, as they had planned, and through the breach they had made to leave, which we couldn't close in case they wanted to return, the nether began to seep in the universe, ravaging everything, like..." The goddess seemed at a loss for way to explain the phenomenon, as Ash watched the story unfold.

 

Like a great river of darkness, the nether cascaded down into heaven, sweeping over the lush place, destroying everything. It was just like someone using a hose to wash over the chalk drawing of a child on the street. Just like it.

 

"I see what you mean." He replied, his voice broken at the destruction.

 

"It took all of us working together, with the help of the legendary pokemon - all of them - to push the Nether back where it belonged." She went on with her story, as the blast of power now filled Ash's mind, energy flying to repel the flood of darkness. Like a wall, it slowly repulsed it, pushing it back toward the original gap, ending the attack. "We sealed the gap, knowing we'd have to remove the seal one day, but that our creators could take care of things once that happened, and that as long as we were alive, the seal wouldn't come down."

 

Ash shuddered as the true reason of the problem became apparent to him. Of course, if the seal was weakening, there was no time to be wasted, a way to repair it had to be found.

 

"Of course, things didn't turn out quite right after that. First off, we found out about how...images...of the nether that left only shadows in this world had been left behind." She explained.

"Avaraen." Ash nodded, understanding more and more about the mysterious beasts, both from what Damian had told him and from what he now had learned from Enaira.

"And then..." She seemed to hesitate, shaking her head sadly. "And then Rethen, my brother, turned mad." She finally added. "It wasn't very obvious at first, but as time went on, he would insist that we stop watching the seal so closely. In time, we had to seal him, too, when he tried to break the other seal." She looked away, her golden hand brushing away a tear that was running down her face.

"And he manipulated things so that some of the Gods died now?" Understanding flashed through Ash's mind.

"That's a jump ahead in time, but yes. Though to understand everything, you have to know that at that point Tremayne and I disagreed about how we should watch the seal. I thought doing it together would be best, he thought he should do it alone while we rested. He always wanted to let everyone else rest while he took all the job." She smiled, though the smile quickly faded as pain flashed in her eyes.

 

"So you set up the contest, every thousand year, to determine who would have his way." Damian completed, bringing everything together to explain how things had gone from the events described to Ash being involved closely in the whole matter.

 

"So, he managed to free himself partly, not much, but enough to influence the world, only a little, enough to corrupt only a single soul, a thousand year ago." She went on.

"One of the nine." The answer came to Ash, obvious. "And with that, they made it so that the results had no clear winner." The obvious truth struck him.

"Exactly. And she managed to turn things so that Akira, in the end, fought alone, receiving all the powers. So my side won..." she left it hanging, perhaps wondering which one of them would understand first.

"But using the ways of the other side." Damian was first, though Ash came to the same answer before it even finished leaving his friend's lips.

"Yes. And so, since my victory wasn't clear, none of us was as strong as we should have been, none of us watched the seals as much as we should have. We were too busy debating what the real results of the fight had been. So Rethen was free to really influence the world, and alter things." there was a certain self-loathing in the voice of the goddess.

"So, he got followers, and this time, he affected even more the results." Ash concluded.

"Yes. He found a way to poison my sister, which in turn lead to you somehow killing my brother when destiny went haywire."

 

They were silent once more as the stories came to an end, leaving them with the situation the world was facing.

 

"So, I suppose the thing is, now Avaraen are everywhere, and the seals of both Rethen and the Nether are weakening?" Ash finally asked.

"Yes. As long as I'm alive and Rethen is trapped away, the seal of the Nether will hold. But if the Avaraen manages to kill some of the legendaries...then Rethen will probably be free, and he'll come to kill me. Once I'm dead, the Nether gets heaven...and then one of Rethen's cronies down on earth, working with Rethen here in heaven, open the gates for the rest of the universe to fall." The clinical description of the problem chilled Ash.

 

"And we're letting it all happen?" His blood boiling, his mind raging with the will to do something, Ash rose to his feet. "We're not doing a thing?" He almost yelled.

"It's going to be a fight for all of us Ash. And we'll work hard enough to avoid all that, trust me." Leilia replied calmly.

"We?" Damian asked. "What's my part in all this?"

"We all have our part to play. You're going to be fighting here, alongside me, Akira, and all the others." The Goddess turned toward him. "That's your part, at least all of it that I am revealing now." The young man nodded.

"And what of me?" Ash asked, curiously.

"I don't know what of you." She answered, her voice honest. "There's something strange about you here...something that tells me you should not be here, that you have your part to play somewhere else first."

 

Ash pondered her words for a moment, surprised by them. If he accepted what she was saying as true...was she really offering him the one chance he really wanted, a return to the living world, to his friend, and above all to Misty? It seemed too good to be true, yet confusedly he knew there were no lies in her words.

 

"The true soul prophecy." The voice that spoke was not Leilia's, but Damian. "The only human who died once, lived again, then died again." His eyes seemingly were filled with the light of sudden realization. "It had to be. It must be."

"Thriceborn, once from the pain of a human, once from the tears of pokemon, once from the blessing of a god." Leilia nodded in turn, the same realization crossing her own face.

"What are you talking about?"

 

They hesitated, their eyes meeting in deliberation, and Ash suddenly wondered how it was that Damian knew, and ever more so, how it was that Leilia seemed to want his advice on what to tell him as much as he wanted hers.

 

"It might be better if you didn't learn about it for now." Leilia finally decided, a frustrating answer if he had ever heard one. He wanted to know, not to be sheltered from the truth.

"It's not that we want to protect you. It's that we might be wrong, and we don't want to twist destiny or anything." Damian agreed softly. The we sounded suspicious to Ash, almost as if unconsciously Damian was putting himself on a level with the goddess. He shrugged it aside, that was not something worth thinking on much. Not now, at least. He would come by the answer in time.

 

"All right. What do I need to do then?" He asked instead.

 

Another glance between the two, short, charged with meaning. Again, they were deciding on something together, again Damian was not even realizing that he was putting himself - or perhaps was being put - on a level with the Lady of Light. Ash waited impatiently, eager to hear news of his role in the coming war. He would fight, because he simply could not afford to stay idle and do nothing.

 

"We need to send someone down on earth to help. So far, that we know, only May Oak know that you are dead, so that makes you the best choice. Someone who is quite respected over Johto and Kanto, and who isn't really known to be dead." Leilia stated.

"Why?" He reeled back, disbelieving yet exhilarated.

"Someone needs to warn them...they are about to face a massive war, and it's for a lot more than they think." Damian replied evasively, for a brief while giving Ash the urge to strangle him.

"I won't point out all the loopholes in that, Damian." He instead smiled. "But next time, please remember that I'm not stupid."

"I know. But I thought that answering that would get the point across that we aren't going to give you an honest answer. You're going back down, unless you really don' t want to." The quick reply came. "Of course, that mean you will have to wait here for Misty instead of going to see her." A triumphant smiles appeared on Damian's lips as Ash cursed himself for allowing his friend to maneuver him in such a position.

 

"All right, I'm going. But I still think you should tell me what I'm supposed to do." He finally accepted.

"Just follow your instincts Ash. They got you out of trouble many times..." Leilia was cut off by his answer.

"And in trouble twice as much." He smiled briefly. "All right, I'll just follow my instincts. But if you don't like the results, complain to them, not me." He grinned, waiting to hear of their plan to send him back.

 

Chapter 8

 

"How long until we do something?" The young woman's voice bore in his mind, challenging his attempts at keeping himself from acting before the time was right.

"I don't know Tomoyo." Gary answered, eyeing the world past the rim of the craters they had found themselves in. His long brown hair was loose, flowing lazily in the wind like the serviceable brown cloak he wore over his blue shirt and white pants. Besides him, Tomoyo's jet-black hair were tied on the top of her head, her silken blue kimono covering her, held at the waist by a belt of sort, which she insisted on calling an obi.

 

A soft sounds of paws on the dirt, one he would not have perceived without the extensive training he had been given by the dark-haired woman, drew him out of his thoughts. Hand on his katana handle, he whirled to face the source, finding himself looking at the stray espeon that had appeared in the crater months before, the espeon that seemed so oddly familiar.

 

It was something about the eyes, or perhaps a slight difference in the face from others espeon, but there was something odd about that one, about the way it walked around, as if it was not used to appearing as it did.

 

"We need to act now Gary." She used his first name again, rather than using a family name as she would usually do without being asked to do otherwise. He had been forced to ask more than once, and still she appeared reluctant to do so, as if afraid of establishing a bond between them she did not want. Or perhaps it was a bond she wanted, but could not allow herself to have. "It's just as with the sword. When the time to strike is right, strike. Do not wait." Her voice was half-hearted, as if she did not want to argue with him.

"Tomoyo? What's wrong?" She had never asked him to follow her ways and call her by her last name, he had never offered to do so.

"I don't want to talk about it now. But answer me. Why not strike, if the time is right?" she tried to drive him from the point that he really wanted to know about, the point that really worried him.

 

She was his ancestor, dead a thousand year before him, returning as a soul within him, separated from him when he had been carried through time by the spirit of nature, Celebi. Now they were both alive, and against his better judgement, he found himself drawn toward her. At first it had been only a good natured friendship, then protectiveness. Now, it was beyond that, love, despite the fact that they were relatives. Through a great effort of will, he forced himself to answer the question. "Because the time is not right enough. I'm waiting for one or two others, I know they're coming." He answered finally, his mind naturally drawn back toward the real problem he was now facing.

 

While it was true she was his ancestor, the problem was nothing like it seemed. The number of generation between the two of them made the link inconsequential. If they had been distant cousins with the same kind of blood relationship, no one would have cared - no one would have thought of them being related at all. But since she was his ancestor reborn, it was something else entirely.

 

He loved her, and all the true obstacles between them seemed to be worthless philosophical obstacles. But somehow, something seemed to hold him back still. Perhaps it was memories of his girlfriend of a day, dead five years before a few hours after they had admitted their love for each other. Maybe.

 

"You feel it too." She suddenly spoke again.

"What?"

"The feeling of being drawn to me, just like I'm drawn to you." She stated. "Love..." her whisper was barely audible.

"Yes." He admitted. "I've been thinking about that a lot." He added, wondering and worrying about how she would react.

 

She sighed, her eyes looking at the empty horizon. "I don't know what to do about it Gary. I just don't know."

 

Clouds gathered in the sky overhead, and they had no choice but to head back down toward their cave in the crater, where Gary's pokemon waited for them.

__________________________

 

"All you need to get back is simple, really." Leilia explained to him, watching him closely. "You need the blessing of a God, the help of the Phoenix - the guardian of the gate - and to get to the gate of heaven. That's all." She smiled.

"Great. So now you bless me, we go find the gate, I go through it, then do whatever I feel like."

 

Damian laughed. "That's about it Ash. And for once you're right, it's going to be great - would it only be because it will be easy."

 

With a shrewd look at his friend, Ash wondered how much he had changed. Laughing out loud had never really been Damian's style, nor sarcasm.

 

The idea that he was returning to the world, the place were Misty was, finally really came to him, the realization that he would meet her again before her death, that they would be together. He had heard Damian's words earlier, but in the surprise of the moment they had not really registered on his mind, occupied as he was with the offer.

 

The very thought of seeing her again, of being once more with her sent a warm feeling traveling through his whole self, a feeling of contentment to come. He would be where he belonged, and nothing could change that, not even the end of time itself.

 

"I think that account for the dark path leading to happiness in the end, right?" His eyes looked inquiringly at the goddess, a smile on his face.

"I would say so, yes." She rose, leaving him forward through a strange maze of empty streets. For the briefest of moment Ash wondered why there was such an empty city in heaven, then abandoned the idea, simply following. "If you had chosen to live, Misty would be dead. The world would be in a bit better of a state, but there would be little hope of healing it further." The answer was the one he had expected. He knew which choice he had made, had realized even before he asked how it was the right choice.

 

"Are you ready?" Leilia's question came as he looked around once more, wondering what he would have to do once he would be back in the world. He drew his sword, carefully examining the gleaming blade, pleased to see it had not been damaged, a perfect metallic sheen reflecting the light that came from nowhere.

 

"I am." He answered as the goddess watched him intently again. She seemed to be now considering something, and turned toward Damian, whispering a few words to the young man.

 

"All right." He nodded, and ran back toward the part of the city they had first come to.

"There is something I want you to have before I leave Ash. It's not a gift, not really. More like a task I have to give you." She smiled apologetically.

"Another." He mockingly rolled his eyes, not surprised at all that they had more to put on his shoulders, and not bothered much by it.

 

They waited for a few moments, not talking, not doing anything but watching the world around them all. Heaven was a surprising place in many way, Ash had noticed even before Damian had come to see him, but now, more surprise seemed to come with every second. The city, he finally realized, was not made of a material that reflected light, but of one. Looking back at the world around the city, he could see nothing save the mountains behind the city, empty, and one island away from it, strangely small.

 

The mystery of how such a small island could hold all the souls in heaven for so long was puzzling, until realization came that the Gods could bend the rules of creation that normally worked on earth. And unless he very much missed his guess, the process with heaven here was the same as the process Avaraen used to fight. There were many planes, all at the same place. A single human could only be in a given one at a time. In heaven, all humans were in their own plane, and the city in yet another. The water, somehow, carried them from one of the plane to another.

 

"Very perceptive Ash. I don't think many managed to understand that system so far, and none of them so quickly." The goddess complimented him.

"Thank you." With a smile he turned, noticing Damian coming back toward them. "There's one thing I would have liked to do before leaving this place though. Pay a visit to Gary and all of my other dead friends." He stated a bit sadly, realizing that in the excitement of going back, he hadn't thought about being able to see some friends long lost here.

"Really? Who?" There was a sly smile on Leilia's lips.

"Gary. Duplica. My mother. Lots of others." He replied, the names not coming. "Richie."

"Gary Oak never died." The words stunned Ash, though he had suspected such a possibility already, talking with Misty in an hospital after the terrible skirmish with Avaraen in the ruins of Pokemopolis. "The First of Time, Celebi, carried him to safety, with the help of a young woman she had created with the help of the Neverborn. However, I can say that you will see your friend again very soon."

 

A smile breaking on his lips at the idea of being reunited with his best friend, once his nemesis, Ash barely remembered that Gary was not the only one of his fallen friends. "What of my mother? What of Richie?" His questioning glance caused the goddess to smile.

 

"I don't think there's time for you to meet your mother, sadly..." She looked at him. "As for your friend, he is not here either, though he would rather be...if he had enough of his mind left to even think of that, at least." The deity shrugged sadly. Ash listened to her words, horrified as he began to realize that what had happened to Richie was nothing they had suspected but something far worst, far darker.

 

"What of Duplica? The others?" He asked finally after a few seconds of horrors, trying to break his mind away from the dreadful knowledge.

"There is no time for it Ash. As soon as Damian returns, you'll have to go back. Every minute is important now, I believe." The Goddess finally admitted, recognizing in the same breath that she had simply been trying to stave him off by talking about those he could not meet for whatever reason. Closing his eyes, Ash tried to hold back the tears that nearly came.

 

"Here I am." Damian's voice brought him back to awareness of the world around. His friend was walking up to them, holding in his hand a strange scabbard with a katana inside, though one very different from Ash's own.

 

The hilt was silver and black, a dark stone glittering at the end of it. The guard was of the purest black, the same black as the little piece that brought together blade and hilt. The blade itself was metallic silver, glittering, shining like the moon as it returned the fires of the city around them. It was a sword Ash knew well, too. On that day, when they had met Tremayne in battle, it had been the sword that had sunk deep in his flesh, opening the wound that had later killed him.

 

"Why?" He asked softly.

"You need to find a new bearer for that sword. We need to, but someone needs to go back with it, as I'm sure the new bearer is not dead yet. He might not even be born yet, as far as I know. In the meantime, it's a second, better weapon for you to use." She explained. "Though be careful with it. It's the Azrael blade, the sword of the angel of death - another name my brother had. And it wants to kill, so I wouldn't use him against someone I'm planning to keep alive. Only a God can control it enough to not kill with it, and you aren't that." She warned.

"So, I take it, use it when I want to, and find someone else worthy to carry it and take Tremayne's job, right?"

"Yes." The goddess moved aside even as she answered, revealing the golden bird waiting behind her. Golden, yet at the same time seemingly made of rainbow. Ash had seen him once, as he had left on his pokemon journey.

 

The bird looked at him, his eyes seemingly filled with ancient wisdom, eyes that knew everything, that had seen everything. With a short nod, the bird rose in the sky, opening the way to a strange portal that seemed to call Ash. Behind him, light. Ahead, darkness waiting, and the strange call of the dark sword, seeming to push him forward.

 

Without hesitation, he walked in the portal, returning to the waking world, his friends, and above all, Misty. It was time.

____________________________

 

"There are Avaraen around the city my lady." Damian reported as soon as Ash was gone.

"I know. The war has begun here too." The golden half-dragon figure answered softly, looking at him.

 

Watching around the city, Damian wondered if he should bring up the question that was left, the one thing that worried him about what had just happened, the one strange thing he had noticed.

 

"You did not bless him." He observed, earning himself a sharp glance from the goddess.

 

"No, I didn't." She nodded. "Observant of you. But the blessing he is to receive was never mine to give. He already had the blessing when he came here. And the task I gave him was one that was already his anyway."

"I suspected it might be." Damian nodded, then turned back toward the city. Around it, the strange shapes of Avaraen were already moving everywhere.

 

Heaven was at war, and it was time for all those who were there to gather and fight back.

 

"Gather Akira, Faile, the others. It's time to get ready for battle. And plan our defenses." The goddess' voice echoed his thoughts.

Chapter 9

 

The feeling of cold stone under him greeted him as he woke up again, and as his eyes opened, he knew that what he had heard in heaven had been no dream. The simple fact that he was back in the waking world, older than he had been upon leaving, the marks of three more years added to his body, was clear enough on this. And of course, the fact that he was back in the cave in which he had died definitely added to his certitude.

 

"Ash!" A roar greeted him as he woke up. "How..." the voice of his great fire dragon greeted him. "You're back!" Deathwing apparently had decided not to bother finding out the how or the why of the most unexpected return.

"Deathwing!" Ash grinned back.

"Hello again Ash." Celes' soft voice welcomed him as the pidgeot came up to them, standing close to Deathwing.

 

Looking around, he could see all of his other pokemon, or nearly so. Esper, his Kadabra was deep in meditation, sitting at the entrance of the cave. Rafael was bathing in a little pool that seemingly had formed from rain water in a part of the cave, though Ash suspected strongly the rain had not been natural, remembering the Blastoise's less than usual strategies in the gym leader tournament.

 

A few scattered egg shells in the back of the cave drew his attention and a smile as he realized some of his pokemon probably had reached parenthood by now. Noticing the way Deathwing and Celes were looking away from him as he watched the eggs, the conclusion that they were two of them - and probably together - was easy to reach. For a moment he wondered if the offspring would be charmander, pidgey, or a cross of both parents before shrugging off the question.

 

Aysen watched him intently, his dragonair's eyes betraying no emotions, his face neutral. There had never been much love between the two of them, the dragon only forced to follow him because of the prophecies, though they had managed to develop some grudging respect for each other. The same respect, just as grudging, that existed between him and his gastly, Khamul. Ash had captured the pokemon during the battle against May's crimson Lotus at Maiden's peak rather than letting it be slaughtered by her forces.

 

Morro, which had once been Gary's arcanine, was there also, her great eyes watching him intently. Besides her, three pokemon were waiting, two babies and one larger. The babies were a houndoom female, indicating more than clearly who the father was, and an arcanine male. The larger one was, surprisingly, already evolved, and even more surprisingly, in the shape of a Wolspire, the strange wolf-like pokemon he had seen a few off, part fire and part psychic, related to houndoom in some strange way.

 

"Hello Ash." The voice from the entrance of the cave was another he knew, and he turned to see Fenrir, his houndoom, walking in the dusty tunnel.

 

"Fenrir!" Elation filled him as yet another of his old friends returned to him, the great black wolf-like creature walking in with its two pearly white horn-hear glittering. "I suppose these are your children?" He asked, pointing at the babies near Morro, getting a nod for an answer from his pokemon.

"The Houndour is Shaylir. The Growlithe is Kyra. And the Wolspire is our first-born, Shaolan." The dark creature seemed filled with pride as he presented his offsprings. "Shyela, Kylsen, Shaolan, this is Ash, my trainer." He turned toward his children.

"Pleased to meet you Ash. I have heard much about you." The Wolspire looked at him, his eyes unreadable.

"Ash? Ashes? BURN!!!!" Shaylir grinned, spitting fire around.

"Burn!" Kyra agreed, happily unleashing flames on unoffending rocks.

"Children." Shaolan watched them, this time a twinkle of amusement in his great golden eyes as Morro and Fenrir shook their head.

 

The two pups continued running around, sending weak embers here and there randomly, for the better part of an hour. The sound of hooves connecting with the rocky soil drew Ash attention away from them after a while, and he turned to face his Rapidash, Sora, her golden eyes and burning mane still the same as they had been the last time he had seen them.

 

"Master." She lowered her head gracefully, receiving a gentle touch on her forehead. "I am glad to have you back." Her eyes shone with happiness.

"I'm glad to be back with you all, too. Where are the others? Asura and Raiken?" The question came out.

"Ashura is probably off hunting. She grew a lot since you last met her." Fenrir reported, with a nod from Deathwing. "She is probably along with Luna." The great dragon added.

 

"Luna?" Ash interrupted him.

"Our daughter." Celes smiled, and Ash needed no explanation to understand that the our referred to her and Deathwing. He had suspected long ago the hidden attraction behind the banter of the two pokemon and now he knew he had not been misled.

 

"And what of Raiken?" He remembered his first question, and watched, a chill growing in his heart as his pokemon traded uneasy looks.

"We don't know what happened to him." Deathwing finally answered.

"He never made it here." Celes confirmed. "He was separated from us because he was not in his pokeball during the breaking...I think one of the others grabbed him and took him to safety." She explained. "At least...I dunno. I think I would know if he was dead...I..."

"You know, I think he can figure it out already from what you said. He did receive the soul gift of the grand-son of one of the Firsts." Aysen mocked.

"I know. I am sworn not to reveal it right out, but there is not rule about giving him enough hints to figure it out." Celes shot back.

"Cheater." The dragonair accused, his eyes filled with mischief.

"As I said, no rules against what I did." She answered again.

 

Ash pondered her words, searching the depths of both his mind and the mind of the great dragonite who had gifted his soul to him, transferring all of his knowledge and power into Ash as death took him. Becoming one with the consciousness as he had done so often before to tap in its powers, Ash felt something he had never noticed until now. At the edge of that consciousness, a larger one stood, one that seemed to be the combined consciousness of all pokemon, dead or alive.

 

And somewhere in that jumbled mass of consciousness, he could feel Raiken's consciousness, the consciousness of a living pokemon, not that of a dead one. Specific details were beyond what he could feel, but the pokemon seemed to be safe for the moment, which was as good as Ash could ask.

 

"I see what you mean." He breathed, utterly amazed by the discovery he had just made. "It's...I never thought there could be such a thing..."

"I know." The bird nodded as Ash tried to draw his mind away from the new realization.

"Esper, can you feel human presence in the vicinity?" He turned toward the psychic pokemon still meditating.

"Yes, master." The emotionless voice came back in answer.

"Where are they?"

"We stand in a cave on the outer face of a crater. Humans live inside it." Her reply came swiftly.

 

Two shadows appeared at the mouth of the cave, and Ash watched in stunned amazement as two dragon-like creatures landed. One had the body of a dragon, but instead of a standard dragon mouth, she had the beak of a bird, and her wings were made of feathers instead of the traditional bat-like wings. Looking back at Celes and Deathwing, he could easily realize that the first was Luna, which made the other Ashura. Except, of course, that she had very little to do with the Ashura he had known, or with any of the numerious possible evolutions of Eevee.

 

Red-gold scales covered her body, and a flowing golden mane was behind her head. Standing on her hind meet, she was taller than Luna, herself taller than deathwing, and her golden bat-like wings were slightly larger than those of either pokemon. Her head was closer to that of a lion than to that of an Eevee, though with hints of the terrible faces of the usual dragon, such as Charizard.

 

"Ash!" She shouted upon entering the cave, rushing to him despite her size, nearly knocking herself out on one of the many rocks hanging from the roof and knocking the air out of Ash as she roughly and clumsily hugged him.

"Hi Ashura! Great to see you too..." He tried to breathe despite the pressure on his back.

 

"So you're Ash." Luna observed as Ashura released him. "Great to meet you." She smiled.

"And you're Luna." He nodded, returning the smile. "Glad to meet you too."

 

"There's something odd about the humans in the crater. Familiar." Esper's voice reminded him of the one thing he was truly after, finding a settlement of some kind or at least humans that would be able to help him find his friends.

"Familiar?" A surge of hope came to him as the thought that perhaps the humans in question were his friends struck him.

"Yes, but oddly. As if they should not be two presence. It's hard to explain."

"There's only one way to see." He decided, his tone calm, though a twinkle of excitement remained in his eyes. It was good to be back in action, to actually do things again. "Celes, care to fly me up there?" He turned toward his pidgeot. "Or you Deathwing?"

 

"Of course!" Celes replied at once. "Climb on." She smiled, or would have if her body had allowed her to do so. As it was, her eyes were enough of an indication of her emotions.

"The rest of you, can you find a way to go there?" He turned toward his other pokemon. "Or would you rather that I carry you along?" He drew his sword, an ancient weapon that had at the time been designed to be able to store pokemon inside just as they could be stored inside a pokeball.

"We can find a way to go inside the crater." Fenrir answered confidently. "We'll meet you there."

 

Rising on her great wings, Celes bolted upward as soon as they were outside the cave. His hand clasped tightly around her, Ash felt the cold wind rushing past him, and exhilaration filled him. He had always loved flying, and now with the feel of the cold wind against his skin, it made him feel more alive than ever before. He laughed, the sound of pure joy coming from him. He was alive, and no matter how bad the world was now, things would get better. He would be with Misty again, would find all his friends. Everything would get better.

 

He barely noticed as they flew over the rim of the crater, would not have noticed it at all if it hadn't been for the two human figures talking down on it. One of which he knew very well. With a nod from her trainer, the great bird slowly flew down, setting on the crater rim.

 

"Gary!" The happy shout reached the male figure who whirled, a grin splitting his face as he recognized the person calling him.

"Ash!" He grinned back.

"Great to see you again Ashy-boy!" His friend teased him, winking as he did so.

"Great to see you too Gary. Hey, never expected to see you again this side of heaven." With a smile, Ash caught his friend's offered hand, an handshake that meant a lot to him. The renewal of a friendship lost, recovered, and lost again, one that meant a lot to him.

"Honestly, when May shot me I didn't expect to see you again this side of death either." Gary answered, laughing.

 

"Ash." The voice was warm, welcoming. "It's great to finally meet you in person." The woman who had been with Gary and, until now, silent, spoke. Her clothes and eyes marked her as an Hoshoan, something only confirmed by the two blades that hung from her belt.

 

"Who are you?" He asked confusedly.

"My name is Tomoyo, of the Ookido family of Hosho." She answered.

 

The name jolted at something in Ash's mind, no, not in his own mind, but in Tairen's mind. Focusing upon the memory, he tried to recall what it was. Images came of the same young woman, fighting alongside the nine of a thousand year before.

"How can you be alive, Ookido-san?" He asked, remembering that she had died a millenium or so before, and at the same time remembering the Hoshoan etiquette that required the politeness he now was using.

"I don't know." The answer was honest, or at least appeared so.

"Her soul was inside me, somehow." Gary explained shortly. "Like your soul gift, in a way, I guess. When Celebi carried me through time, we were separated, for some reason." He eyed Ash, waiting probably to see if his friend would react to the mention of one of the Firsts. "Something's strange with you Ash." He finally noticed. "I mean, you run in your best friend, supposedly dead for a few years, and you act as if you expected to see him all along. Then he tells you that he was rescued from death by the only creature able to warp the flow of time, and you act as if its natural....I mean, people who're supposedly dead don't tend to show up randomly..."

"Strange then, that makes four I meet in the last three years." Ash smiled.

"Four?" Gary's mouth dropped open. "Tomoyo, me, and..." His eyes suddenly opened. "Ah, yes. I forgot May was back. I suppose you met her?" His eyes twinkled as it was Ash's turn to be surprised.

"You already knew about your sister?" He forced the words out of his mouth.

"Of course. After all, the members of the nine should keep in touch with their oracles, uh?" He grinned as Ash's felt his mouth dropping open.

"You were her oracle?"

"I think I told you so, didn't I?" Gary continued to grin. "Anyway, who's the fourth?"

"Oh, no one really important." Ash smiled as he answered, retaliating for the volley of astonishing new Gary had just unleashed. "A random pokemon master...black hair...wear a long blue cloak...used to have a pikachu...one of the nine...you might have heard of him..."

 

As his friend's face dropped open, Ash could not resist anymore and started laughing at the astonished expression. Gary soon joined in the laughing while Tomoyo looked at the two of them as if they were dangerous and insane.

 

"So if you're dead, why are you back?" Gary finally asked after they had both laughed for a while.

"Oh, to make a long story short, went to heaven, had some fun there, went back here because they decided they'd rather let me save the world instead of doing their own dirty work. Well, by me I mean us, of course." He answered in an offhand manner, a feeling of warmth he had not felt for a long time coming over him. There was a link between him and Gary, one hard to define, not a link of love, something different, a friendship deeper than any he had ever heard of or experienced. And it was one that Ash had terribly missed over the long weeks after Gary's death, one that only came back now at last.

 

A new confidence surged through him, renewed strength. Between the two of them, him and Gary would be able to slaughter most opposition, if they ran in any such. Once they joined with the others, and Misty especially, there would be nothing to stand against them.

 

Chapter 10

 

"So, how do we save the world anyway?" Gary finally asked as they made their way in the crater, toward what he described as "his little home".

"I don't know." Ash shrugged. "You know, it's one of these things "the hero followed his instinct and the counsels of a wise advisor..." thing..."

"Geez, we'd better find a wise advisor because I wouldn't trust your instinct with walking from one side of the street to the other without getting lost." Gary smiled.

"Hey!" Ash protested, playfully punching his friend in the ribs.

 

They walked down in the crater, crossing trees, a cascade, and more wonderful scenery. It was an altogether lovely place, and one that seemingly had not been at all affected by the breaking. So peaceful, so quiet...Ash could easily see why Gary had stayed in there all those years, almost perfectly content to wait. Almost, because deep inside, he would almost certainly have felt the same need to be in the action that always burned inside Ash.

 

"Well, how do people usually go about saving a world?" Gary who, apparently, was still thinking about ways to save the world, asked.

"I don't really know...I mean, it's not like our world needed saving all that often..." Ash shook his head.

"Well, do you happen to have a gold ring handy?" the next question came with a grin, a signal that it was time for the two of time to wage a war of humor again.

"No..." Ash replied carefully, wondering what his friend was about to say.

"Shame, we could have gone to Cinnabar with it. I heard throwing a gold ring down a volcano can do wonders for the world." Gary's eyes shone with innocence as he let out the reference to a novel they had both liked.

"Nah. I don't suppose you know some half-human girl who's also the last living member of some ancient and powerful specie, right?" He asked back, shifting from novel to gaming.

"No, and I don't know a vilain with long silver hair and a black coat either."

"Nah, that part of it's not a problem, we can always ask Tanya. I'm sure she'd be nice enough to give us a hand." Ash shrugged, remebering his slightly younger cousin, Tanya, a young woman who always wore tightly black clothes, a long black coat, and had long silver-white hair, like her mother. She had a tendency to hate all men, though Ash apparently now was some kind of special exception.

 

Gary laughed, his eyes shining. "Right. Then find me the city of the ancients and a northern crater and we can go along with that plan. Provided we get your half-human girl, and find Tanya again, of course." He stopped, thinking for the briefest of moment. "We would almost do better to find a starship and fly it to the Dagobah system." He smiled.

"And then spend years there looking for a jedi master?"

"That's about what I had in mind." Gary admitted. "And after that we go see the bad guy, find out his top lieutenant is your father, and let him kill his boss."

"You know, we're looking for a way to save this world, not the whole universe." Ash countered with a grin on his face.

"Awww." Gary's voice was sad - and very fake-sounding. "Then we take our starfighters, fly up, find the death star, go up the trench, and fire a proton torpedo..." he innocently offered his newest plan.

"And get a big guy with a black mask to blow us all up while we try it. While we're at it we might want to try finding a blue stone of some kind..."

"Rose-shaped?" Gary asked innocently. "Nah, we're much better finding out that one of your dragon actually died and got reborn..."

"Actually, we might do better trying to find the real vilain behind all this...I mean, it could be some sorceress trying to compress time..."

"Or a guy we know in disguise. Someone we wouldn't suspect."

"Why do I have a feeling we're going to be meddling kids?" Tomoyo sighed theatrically. Apparently, she did know something about the modern world, as would be expected from her staying as a soul trapped in Gary's head for years.

"Or a clown with a weird make-up." Gary offered yet another possibility..

"You know, that one's the most likely." Ash grinned. "After all, we already have the world being smashed to bits, and the enemy general switching side and she even was magically enhanced with the powers of a pokemon..."

"Right. Then we'd have to find the magical statues that guy is using to gain power and smash them to end magic once and for all..."

"Maybe that's not really what we need to do..." Ash smiled. "Do you happen to know a baby who's parents loves him a lot?"

"So that we can convince bad guy to try to kill him..." Gary left it hanging.

"But then get his powers reflected back at him." Ash nodded.

"Nope, sorry. Can't help you there." Laughing. Gary sat down on a rock to avoid falling.

"I wish we could do it as simply as writing our name on fifty-two cards with weird pictures on them, then facing some kind of weirdo judge and be done with it." Another comment, though they were starting to run out of anime, books, games and movies to pillage for stupid ideas on how to save the world.

"Would you two perhaps be done now?" Tomoyo inquired. "I mean, I'm sure you are having fun, but we do need to save the world. So thinking about how best to do that might be a...profitable choice for our next thing to do."

"But that's what we've been doing!" Ash protested, smiling.

"Really?" An eyebrow raised, the young woman faced him. "I somehow don't think so." She smiled. "Remember, I know what you two were talking about. I've just been hanging around his head for sixteen years or so. So now, any serious idea?"

"Yeah. Eat." The offhand answer came back.

"And how is THAT going to save the world?" A certain exasperation could be heard in the voice.

"It's not. It's going to fill my stomach so that I can think up a way to save the world." He shrugged, knowing he couldn't think on how to save the world while being hungry.

 

Tomoyo muttered something under her breath, though he had no idea what it was. They continued their way down in the crater, finally reaching a cave that actually seemed inhabited.

 

"Welcome to our chateau, milord." Gary bowed mockingly, trying without much success to take a fancy tone.

"Why my dear count, it is a pleasure to visit your most noble home." Ash bowed right back, wanting to get inside so that he could collapse on something and laughs until he ran out of breath.

 

They entered, and Ash collapsed on one of the rock that seemingly acted as chairs, laughing more than he could ever remember laughing in his entire life. Gary followed suit, his laughter filling what little silence there was left with Ash's laughter.

 

Once they were done laughing, they took some fruits that had grown in the crater, and ate them. The apple which Ash first took was one of the most delicious he had ever eaten, the sweet taste filling his mouth with each bite. As soon as he was done, he reached for another, then changed his mind, deciding to try one of the plums instead. The slightly acid sugary taste was just as perfect, the exact balance that made those the most tasty fruits he had eaten in years.

"Now that you have eaten, how do we go about saving the world?" Tomoyo asked again.

"We wait." He replied simply, getting a strange sensation that something just had to happen yet before they could set off to save the world. "We need to find a bit more about the world, first."

_________________________________

 

The small ship had sailed away from Goldenrod twelve days before, passing over the water where the reefs of Cianwood had once been, empty save for one sailor, and her pokemon. The sky overhead was clear, no storm menacing, which was a fine thing really, seeing as the ship probably wouldn't survive even the smallest tantrum of the sea.

 

"Are you going to tell me where you are taking us now?" Her voice curious, the girl turned toward he the pokemon which had been guiding her since the start of her travel, far to the east, two years before. It had taken her a long time to make her way all across the ravaged world, past new and old seas and mountains, over empty wastelands, until finally reaching Goldenrod and being unable to go further, at least not by walking. The ship she was now on had been easy to obtain, and it was pretty much the only way to cross from Aysaka to Serland.

 

"No." the spectral being replied, his voice ringing through her mind. "Why don't you see if you can find out for yourself...you know, visions of the future and all that...meditation..." He added, getting a sigh out of her.

 

She focused, shielding her mind from the outside world and blanking it, forcing herself to think of nothing at all, to get ready to catch whatever glimpses of the future she could find. Her eyes slowly closed as she felt the strange tattoo that had been etched on her back over three years before rippling.

 

Swirling colors filled her mind, strange vapors and mysterious currents. She tried to push them away, then elected instead to let them be and wait, watching. Slowly, as a curtain drawn by an invisible hand, the vapors moved away, revealing a city seemingly empty, yet not.

 

The city slowly vanished, replaced by running faces which she could not put names on, though she knew she was one. Again, the vision shifted slowly, a crater surrounded by water appearing, tall cliffs standing out of the sea as her ship slowly approached it at night.

 

The vision ended, and as she opened her eyes to look at the sun, she realized the vision had been much longer than it had seemed, as every other time she had sought and obtained one of these. The sun was already mostly vanished in the west, and nighttime would soon fall. Ahead, a stark wall had appeared, a mountainous island standing in the middle of the sea.

 

No, not a mountainous island. Looking at it again, she was almost certain that the place was the crater of her visions.

 

"That's the place?" She asked her pokemon, confident that she already knew his answer. His nod was just what she expected, and as the sun slowly disappeared behind the horizon and the moon rose in the sky, as the stars slowly appeared to dot the dark drape of night, she drew the small vessel on the empty beach of the island, near the feet of the crater's walls.

 

"I suppose I have to get inside the crater?" She did not need to ask or look for a vision, the answer was already painfully obvious. Without any flying pokemon, she would have to walk her way up to the rim then back inside, not something she was looking toward.

 

Yet she got started, knowing how limited her options were, setting foot on those few stones that were large enough to serve as stepping stone, probing with her hands to find holds. The weight of her luggage on her back was unwelcome, as was that of her quarterstaff tied there, but she did her best to ignore these, concentrating on taking the next step upward over the stark cliff.

 

The light of the moon slowly fell on the facade she was climbing, giving her a better light in which to find handholds and stepping stones, instead of the nearly complete darkness in which only her mental power had allowed her to see anything. She was far from the top still, but she kept on, slowly inching her way upward.

 

She reached a small ledge after nearly two hours and stopped here, her arms and legs sore from the exertion, sprawled against a wall, her luggage besides her. Breathing heavily, she reached for the bottle of water she had carried with her, drinking from it with a smile, feeling the refreshing liquid flowing down her throat. Closing the bottle, she picked some of her leftover food from the long travel, quickly eating some of the dried bread and fruits.

 

As she finished resting and eating, she looked at the remnants of the cliff. She had a while still to go, a few hours more of climbing, but she was more than halfway through the climbing. She slowly started again, her hands and feet grabbing for holds as she made her way up against the rock face. From time to time she stopped on a small ledge to swallow some more water with whichever hand was free.

 

After a few more hours, she finally reached the top of the crater's wall, stopping there to take the whole area in view. The cliffs on the outside were all stark, but on the inside, admittedly, the walls gently sloped down toward a lake inside. Knowing she would run out of water soon, she elected to make her way down toward it, hoping to fill her bottles. As she left, the sun started to rise, a majestic display of stunning colors in the sky.

 

The inside of the crater was covered with trees, emerald leaves glittering as the sun slowly ascended in the sky. The waters of the lake were clear as she reached it at noon and drank from it, then filled her bottle, wondering what it was that she had come for.

 

Voices behind her broke the spell of beauty of the lake and she turned to slowly face the approaching group. There were three, two men and a woman. The two men, she knew, having fought at their side often. If it hadn't been for her encounter with May Oak, she would have been surprised to see her brother, but then, where one could come back from the dead, why not more?

 

"Ash! Gary!" She called them out, watching with a smile as they turned to face her at once.

"Well, well, well. Certainly not someone I expected to see here." Gary grinned as they both joined her at the lakeside, the woman standing a bit behind until they presented her.

 

She explained her long journey from Kanto to the island, drawn forward by her Gengar across the continent, and in turn Ash and Gary both told their tale. She gaped at the two of them as they explained things as if they were nothing, but then, what had happened to them did seem small, or at least not so spectacular in comparison to what the nine had already done.

 

"So the question we were working on is, how do we save the world?" Ash finally concluded, getting a sheepish smile from Gary.

"Actually..." An idea forming in her mind, Sabrina started to remember something that had happened back when she had been traveling around Kanto with Ash and his friends, looking for the rest of the nine. "I think I have an idea of what we should do."