Foreword: Well, in another fit of feminine behavior (or at least stereotypical feminine behavior according to SOME men I know *cough-KERO-KATO-cough*), I've changed my mind about moving the stories to a new account. I've thought about it and figured that, though it may be convenient for a few people, it will still be INCONVENIENT for everyone else. However, thanks to Tiggera, I was able to change just my name. Arigatou to Tiggera!
(By the way, you can still call me Mai; I really don't care.)
***
Episode 14--
See No Evil
Apollo and Artemis approached Zero at the edge of her lake. Apollo, for once, removed the hood of his cloak, revealing his dark skin, dark hair, and deep, dark eyes.*1*
"Lady Aigori," he addressed.
She turned around to face them.
"Do you know if the Prime is ready?" Apollo asked.
Zero looked back at the lake waters. "So far, he has passed every test I have given him. He proved his willingness to save others when he risked himself and his host to save his watcher. He has proved his determination by keeping history on course. Two tests. Both passed. However, there will be more tests along the way."
"What about the third child?"
Zero smiled. "The third has already proven how much he wants to be part of the prophecy, though he has yet to know it. The legendary Pokémon all have agreed that he has the courage, spirit, and determination needed. He indeed has come far from where he was when Ho-oh had chosen him. The only thing missing is his exposure to our world."
"M'lady, how soon will it be when the prophecy begins?" Artemis asked.
Zero smiled. "Luckily, not until a long time from now. But long is depending on how you look at it. The Prime and the Hero both have sufficient time, but I'm afraid Keios' power will peak within the next two to five years."*2*
"Are you sure this is enough time?" both shifter and watcher inquired at the same time.
There was a short period of silence.
"Yes. I have foreseen it to be enough," Zero replied. "Do not worry. Both will be ready..."
~~~
Ash Ketchum. Johto League near-champion, conqueror of the Houen League, and the one who actually got May off to a decent start. And now, he parts from Brock and May for a bit to go off on his own. To collect Pokémon and raise them to be the best. To be the true Pokémon master.
After all, what's a Pokémon master without Pokémon, no?
He had heard about a fabled cave north of Cerulean City. Its official name was, of course, the Cerulean Cave, but others, those old folks who like to spread rumors to scare the crap out of novice trainers or boost egotism to no end (like one old fellow had inadvertently done to Ash's), call it the Unknown Dungeon.
"Dangerous things up tha' way," the old man said to Ash at the Pokémon Center. "Pokémon at levels beyond your imagination to the left o' ya; Pokémon the same way to the right o' ya. It ain't a pretty thing to walk through, m'boy! Yeh've gotta have a pretty darn good team jes' to get there!"
"Well, I've got a pretty good team!" Ash objected. "My Pokémon took me to the top sixteen of the Pokémon League on the Indigo Plateau, helped me defeat Drake in the Orange Islands, AND got me into the Johto League finals!"
The old man sipped a cup of coffee. "So? They'll all be eaten alive by the Pokémon in there! Trus' me, NO trainer has gotten back from that cave, sonny!"
"If no one had gotten back, how do you know what's inside?"
"I hear stuff. I go fishin' nearby, an' I can hear screamin' from in the heart o' the cave!"
Ash gulped. "Well... Well, I'm not afraid!"
The old man shrugged. "Suit yerself. It's yer own life."
And so, presently, Ash journeyed north of Cerulean City for hours...
...Until it occurred to him that he had no idea where Cerulean Cave is.
He groaned, clutched his stomach in hunger, and managed to tread out of the forest and onto the beach.
"Hey, Pikachu, do you think we could catch a fish for dinner?" Ash asked his Pokémon partner as he stared out to sea.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu tugged on Ash's pant leg and pointed to the south.*3*
"Huh?" Ash looked south to see the lighthouse. "Hey! A lighthouse!" He paused. "Weird... I could have sworn I've been here and said that before..."
"Chuuuu," Pikachu sighed as he shook his head.
Ash shrugged. "Eh! Oh well!"
~~~
He stared at the lighthouse doors as soon as he got there.
"This lighthouse looks weird... and familiar..."
He shrugged and rang the doorbell.
Jude answered it. She opened the door and leaned in the doorway.
"Hey. And who are you? The pizza boy?" she asked.
"Uh, no," Ash replied. "My name's Ash Ketchum. I'm a Pokémon trainer looking for a place to stay and something to eat for the night."
"Does this look like a hotel to you?" Jude asked as she narrowed her eyes. "Go back to town or find a spot in the forest to camp out."
"JUDE!"
Bill covered Jude's mouth and pulled her away from the doorway. He then bowed apologetically.
"Please excuse my sister's behavior," he said politely. "She didn't know that I welcome all Pokémon trainers to stay here for the--"
Bill finally glanced at Ash and stopped short. Ash blinked.
"What?" the young trainer asked.
"Ash... Ketchum?" Bill smiled.
"Wow! Looks like my fame and reputation reaches places before I get to them!" Ash said overjoyed.
"Pika..." Pikachu twitched.
"I see you don't remember me," Bill said with a slight frown. "In any case, please, come on in!"
He stepped aside (dragging Jude with him) to allow Ash and Pikachu inside.
"Sorry," Ash apologized. "I see a lot of people on my journeys. Where have I met you before?"
"Right here."
"Hmm... I know! A.J.! You had a Sandshrew!"
Jude burst out laughing as Bill blinked.
"Ah, no," Bill finally said. "My name is Bill, and I don't own a Sandshrew... Or at least, I don't think I do. I tend to do odd things during a full moon."
The researcher led his sister, the trainer, and the Pikachu toward the living quarters as Ash thought about this for a moment.
"Ah! I remember now!" Ash said cheerfully. "You were the one stuck in the Kabuto costume!"
Bill stumbled but quickly caught himself. A complete lecture on the basics of Pokémon, followed by the sighting of the rarest breed of Dragonite in the world, and all Ash could remember was THAT. He cleared his throat and opened the door leading to the staircase to the living quarters.
"Jude will show you to your room as well as around the living quarters," Bill told him. "I would do this myself, but I'm afraid I have some work to do."
"Hey! Why do I have to show the unwelcomed guest around?" Jude inquired bluntly.
Bill gave her an icy glance. "Jude..."
"I'm going! I'm going!" she sighed as she watched her brother leave before motioning for Ash to go through the door. "Right this way, monsieur."
~~~
"So, tell me again. Why did you let Ash in?"
Bill smiled sheepishly. "Well, I can't just say no to the boy who saved my life twice in one night."
Ziggy cocked her head. "I thought you were even when you shifted into Pikachu."
"I don't see it as the same."
Ziggy shook her head, shrugged, and replied, "Whatever."
"Now, you were telling me something before I went upstairs. Would you mind finishing your thought?"
"Right." Ziggy smiled. "You have to shift."
Bill jumped in surprise. "WHAT!? You... You didn't stop me to tell me that!?"
"Human priorities are confusing," Ziggy explained. "I thought this would be more important than your shift."
"Unless there happens to be someone up there dying, NOTHING is more important than a shift!" Bill told her.
"Hey, you never know," Ziggy replied. "There could have been someone up there dying on your doorstep."
Well, she had a point.
He sighed. "Never mind."
He proceeded to shift out.
~~~
"And on your right is the bathroom," Jude said to Ash in classic, tour-guide fashion. "Further back are the bedrooms. You can take the first one on the left. Back to the left is the living room, and right next to it--" Jude turned around and led Ash to a room on the left. "--is the dining room, slash, kitchen. Listen, our cook took yet another vacation, so if you wake up to an explosion and smell something REALLY foul, Bill's probably trying to make breakfast again. Just wait ten minutes for him to air out the room, then go in, and I'll hold him off long enough for you to get something to eat."
Ash blinked.
"What?" Jude asked.
"Nothing," Ash replied before going off subject. "So, you're Bill's sister, huh?"
He walked into the plain guest room with Pikachu and set his backpack down.
"Yeah. What about it?" Jude asked.
"I don't see a family resemblance."
"Good."
"What's your name, by the way?"
"A lot of people call me Jude. You'd better too."
"Well, a lot of people call me--"
"I know your name."
There was a moment of silence.
"So, where does your brother work, by the way?" Ash inquired.
"Trust me, you don't want to go down there," Jude replied. "He goes into the cellar, but it might as well be called the Gateway to Chaos. Sure, he looks like he's neat and organized up in the living quarters, but down there, it's like a tornado, hurricane, AND earthquake went through there."
"I think you're exaggerating."
"Suit yourself."
Suddenly, Ash's stomach growled loudly. He put a hand over his stomach and blushed as Jude rolled her eyes, turned, and began walking out of the room.
"Come on," she said. "Let's get something to shut that stomach of yours up."
~~~
Bill woke up and looked around. It was dark and crowded. Wherever he was, whoever used this space was obviously obsessed with the occult. Bottles of strange potions sat on the shelves along the wall, pictures of Tarot cards hung about, candles burned at numerous places, all purple, and in the center, there was a round table which had been covered with a purple cloth and upon which sat a strange, leather-bound book in which an ancient writing he didn't recognize was written.
{Where am I?}
"Xatu? Have you come out of your meditations?"
A woman poked her head out of a doorway concealed by crimson curtains. Her curly, black hair was barely held back by the red ribbon serving as a headband, and her green eyes glittered as much as the jewelry around her neck.
"Wonderful!" the woman exclaimed. "Neptune has as well. Hold on to your vision for a second, and I can retrieve him to compare predictions!"
She disappeared as Bill stared blankly at the curtain.
{Xatu? Vision? Prediction? ZIGGY!}
The hologram appeared in a flash.
"Ooh... Occulty! Interesting..."
{Right. Just tell me my situation,} Bill told her. {I think my charge expects me to do something I have no idea how to do!}
"Okay! No problem," Ziggy replied as she clapped her hands together. "Alright. Your REAL charge, Neptune, is a boy with ESP.*4* You happen to be inside his Xatu, the so-called other half. And your charge's mother, the woman with the curly, black hair, is the shopkeeper for an occult shop right here in Salem.*5* Now for the problem. You see, Neptune's been having these strange visions, like he's going to die in a few days. You've got to stop him from doing so. That's all I can give you on this mission. Sorry."
{It's alright. I know what to do,} he replied before pausing. {Wait... I'm supposed to tell the gypsy something. What should I do?}
"Two words. Ad lib."
{Thanks, Ziggy,} he said sarcastically.
She smiled. "No problem! Now, I've got to fly. Good luck! Ciao!"
She waved and vanished.
The curly-haired woman came back, leading a tall boy with long, straight, aqua hair and his mother's same green eyes.
"Neptune?" the woman inquired.
"Darkness," Neptune replied, lowering his head. "Decay. Blood. Death. Chaos. The inevitable. Mother, I've told you a thousand times. I foresee my own death."
"Hmm..." The woman turned to Bill. "Xatu? Do you have anything to say?"
{Uh... Oh boy... Er...} He couldn't think of anything.
The woman sighed. "Nothing."
There was a pause.
The boy frowned. "Allow me to speak with Xatu alone, Mother."
Neptune's mother nodded slowly and left the room. Neptune himself placed a hand on Bill's head.
"There is something wrong," Neptune commented as he closed his eyes. "I've sensed a new aura."
Bill began to panic, but refused to allow it to show.
There were several silent moments between them before Neptune finally let go.
"I see..." Neptune turned away. "Return from where you cam from, spirit. You can't help me."
With that, Neptune left the room.
~~~
Sun had set a long while ago. Jude had turned the beacon on, just the way she watched her brother do so, and retreated to her room to monitor Bill with the COM device.
In the other guest bedroom, Ash lay back and tried to sleep until Pikachu hopped out of the bed and pawed at the door.
"What's up, Pikachu?" Ash asked with a yawn as he sat up and pulled himself out of bed.
Pikachu glanced back at his human partner, then back at the door. Ash opened the door, letting Pikachu out. The electric rat ran a bit down the hall, then looked back at his trainer.
"You want me to follow you?"
Pikachu nodded.
Ash shrugged and followed the yellow mouse down the steps and into the main hallway. He watched as Pikachu sniffed around, but finally came to a nearly hidden door in the wall, unnoticable, save for the painted doorknob.
"What's in here, Pikachu?"
Ash turned the knob and pulled open the door. Cautiously, he went down into the cellar and indeed found the mess Jude spoke of. The computer monitor was on and showed Ziggy in sleep mode, but the light coming from it lit the room just enough for Ash to see the outline of a hand.
He threw a glance to Pikachu. Pikachu nodded.
Warily, Ash made his way around the desk the hand was poking out from behind and found none other than Bill, lying on the floor, motionless. Ash knelt down, shook him, and got no response.
At this, Ash straightened up and darted up into the living quarters. Hastily, he knocked on Jude's door.
"Hey! Jude! Open up!"
Jude opened the door quickly.
"This had better be good, or I'm kicking your ass," she snapped.
"If I had a nickel for everytime I heard a girl say that," Ash muttered.
"What do you want?" Jude asked.
"Listen, I saw Bill down in the cellar. He's unconscious. I think he's hurt," Ash explained. "I think we need to call an ambulance or something."
Jude looked back at her COM device. Bill hadn't shifted back yet. So how could Ash see...?
"He sometimes falls asleep on the cellar floor when he's been working too hard," Jude lied.
"But why wouldn't he wake up when I shook him?"
"He's a deep sleeper."
"Oh. Okay."
Ash shrugged and retreated back into his room with Pikachu. The yellow mouse cocked his head, shrugged, and followed.
As soon as the door closed, Jude cocked her own head.
"How could he see Bill...?"
~~~
Shadows grew. Red eyes. Claws. Wings. Fangs... The horrifying picture of a creature unknown to him. The chill he got just by looking at it.
"Lady Aigori..."
She fell into its hands like a weak, trembling butterfly. Her eyes closed, and it closed its hands around her as it let out a sinister laugh.
A rush of darkness and cold overwhelmed the young seer's mind.
A light flew from below, trying to get away, but this darkness gripped it with one hand and crushed it.
With Lady Aigori in one hand and pure darkness in the other, the creature let loose dark, cold waves...
~~~
Bill woke up with a jolt. The dream was so vivid. So real that he still felt cold and that this cold reached to his very heart. He gasped for breath, as if he had only just experienced a nightmare. He shook his head and closed his eyes.
{That's what it was. A nightmare,} he mumbled to himself, throwing the thought of a Xatu vision out of his mind.
He rested for a moment, but he couldn't shake the thought of the giant shadow.
'Strange,' he thought as he opened his eyes. 'Nightmares don't tend to bother me.'
"That's because that wasn't just a nightmare."
Bill focused, forcing himself to adjust to the darkness of the room. He could just barely make out Neptune's form. The boy lit two candles to either side of the Xatu, then sat cross-legged on the floor.
"I'm sorry, I hope I wasn't intruding," Neptune said.
{I don't mind.}
"Good. Then allow me to explain,"*6* Neptune said. "Xatu, in their sleep or during their meditations, can see into the future. Because you've possessed my Xatu, you're able to use her ability yourself. Unfortunately, one must have had previous practice or must have been born with the ability to truly harness psychic power. Xatu's precognitive gift let you see your own future."
{How do I stop myself from seeing things like that?}
"You? You can't do anything but leave my Xatu and return to where you came from. That's your only hope for peace."
{Neptune, I've come here to help you, and I refuse to leave until I do!}
"You can't help me. Fate has stated that I die today, and so I'll die today."
{Today?}
"Yes. The clock has struck midnight. I have thirteen hours to live."
Neptune stood.
{Neptune! Wait! I'm not done speaking with you!}
Neptune looked at the Xatu. "What can YOU do to stop Fate?"
{I don't know. Not yet. But I CAN tell you one thing -- all beings have a choice. Fate... Destiny...} Bill lowered his eyes at this. {All living things have a choice. We can either give up, lie down, and blame fate, or we can stand up, take our own lives, and create for ourselves the fate and destiny WE want. Sure, you MIGHT die today, but that's just it. Your gift only told you what MIGHT happen. Perhaps there's a way you yourself can avoid your so-called fate.}
"But the Heavens..."
{...Have nothing to do with it. We are all put on this earth as an experiment. Whatever you might think is up there is only watching us, seeing what we do with our own lives. He -- or She, or whatever -- doesn't write down the way we all end up in a slab of stone. We end up the way we want to end up, and if we die along the way, it's not because of fate; it's because of us.}*7*
"But my predictions NEVER go wrong!"
{Perhaps this is because no one has ever tried to defy them before.}
Neptune looked down at the floor. "No, they haven't."
{Perhaps, then, you can be the first one to do so.}
Neptune's gaze climbed upward. For the first time, he smiled. "Yes, I could!"
He turned and began walking back to his bedroom. He finally stopped and turned around, throwing a curious glance to the Xatu.
"Just out of curiousity, why do you want to help me so badly, Bill?"
{I hate seeing innocent people die.}
"I see." Neptune paused again. "And by the way, about Warp... I'll keep it a secret."
Telepathy. You gotta love it.
Though startled by Neptune's statement, Bill was still able to nod gratefully. {Thank you, Neptune.}
As Neptune departed, Bill sighed and smiled inside as he closed his eyes in weariness.
~~~
The images came again. As clear as they had been before.
A boy with a bow and arrow, aiming at the shadow and firing an arrow of light. Like it had with the spark of light, the shadow crushed it with one clawed hand.
There was a darker figure with a sword and who darted in, slashed across the shadow, and came across on the other side. The shadow simply smacked the figure away with its giant tail and batted away the boy in a similar fashion.
The shadow let loose a laughter that shook the night and made the seer shiver.
"Please... Leave them alone..."
The shadow heard the weak, male voice, and so did the seer.
"Don't... hurt... them..."
The shadow laughed. "Perhaps you would like to see the girl go first, wouldn't you?"
With a free claw, the shadow reached over to grab an unconscious Jude on the ground a few feet away.
"Please... No! Don't hurt her..."
The shadow paid no attention to the voice as he picked up the helpless girl and held her in a strong hand. It laughed.
"What are you to do now, Angel?" the shadow hissed. "With your part of the prophecy unfufilled, I'm free to do whatever it is I want! Starting with..."
The hand gripped her, about to crush her...
~~~
{NO!}
Bill opened his eyes and gasped for breath.
{Jude,} he whispered.
"She's not awake yet. Do you want me to wake her up?"
Ziggy. A welcome voice, for once. He smiled.
{That's alright, Ziggy,} he replied. {I... I just wanted to know if she's alright.}
"Well, she is." Ziggy blinked before continuing, "However, Neptune might not be soon if you don't get moving!"
{What? Where is he?}
Ziggy shrugged. "He left already. And if you want to finish this mission successfully, you'd better get going, find Neptune, and keep a close eye on him!"
{Yes, but where is he?}
"Oh. Sorry. Pokémon Center."
{Thank you, Ziggy!} Bill jumped off of his perch on the table and scrambled across the floor. {Don't you worry. I won't fail!}
As soon as he left, Ziggy smiled.
"I know you won't," she said before disappearing.
~~~
Salem. It's strange. It's a city. It's a time warp. It's both rolled into one.
On one hand, some streets and individual sites are still shadows of hundreds of years ago. The new feeling to each restored building is so accurate and eerie, you almost felt like you went back to the time when so-called witches died emitting bloody screams as their fiery executioner climed slowly up the stake.
Then, there were the slightly modern buildings. The ones which stood in our time, before the Great Catastrophe which created the Pokémon.*8* If you closed your eyes and pictured these parts of Salem, you would be able to see people in their second millenium A.D. fashions, walking down the street, barely caring about terrorists, but still having Iraqis on the mind.
And finally, you had the buildings of the future. The ones Ash and everyone else in the Pokémon world called modern.
And Neptune didn't appear to be in any one of them.
{My job would be SO much easier if I could tell which one is the Pokémon Center...}
Bill stopped as other people walked down the Salem street, taking no notice of him. He realized that the city lacked one thing: obvious signs.
Without a thought, he continued, passing by a single building, unaware of what was going on inside...
~~~
The building he had passed was the Pokémon Center, and inside the square formed by the four walls, Neptune was speaking with a friend of his, a lovely girl with her strawberry-blonde hair tied in a braid going over her left shoulder and down to her bosom and who gazed at others with sapphire eyes.
The rest of the din inside the Pokémon Center was enough to drown out the fair girl's voice, and so eventually, she took Neptune's hand.
"Neptune, I want to tell you something, but I'd like to tell it to you in private," she said. "Will you join me on the roof?"
"Of course, Arcana," he replied.
And so, the girl took Neptune by the wrist and led him to a set of stairs down a hallway whose opening was located in the back of the common room. She gently lifted her denim skirt as her sandaled feet mounted each step.
Second floor. Rooms trainers could use to stay overnight.
Third floor. Chansey and Nurse Joy's quarters.
Roof.
Arcana pushed open a door and led Neptune into the open air on the flat roof, one spot overlooking much of Salem.
Arcana stepped out and took a deep breath as Neptune checked his watch. 12:56. Four minutes until the time he had foreseen as his time of death.*9*
"Arcana?"
She smiled and turned to look at him. "Neptune, we've known each other for a very long time, haven't we?"
"Of course," Neptune replied. "Friends since first grade, if I can remember correctly."
"Well, since our freshman year in high school,*10* I've wanted to tell you something," she said. "Did you... Did you ever pick up on it?"
"On what?"
"I..." Arcana blushed.
"What?" Neptune sat on the parapet lining the roof.
"I... I love you."
Neptune's eyes widened. He knew Arcana for a long time, but he respected her wishes and stayed out of her mind (as in telepathically), so he didn't even expect this.
He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, he slipped and fell over the parapet. Arcana screamed and watched him fall.
~~~
Three stories to fall. Concrete waiting below. Uh, I don't think a skinny kid with no protection would walk away without a scratch.
Neptune just passed the second story when a green and red blur flew past and and caught the psychic in two, red clawed feet.
Bill frantically flapped Xatu's wings in an effort to allow Neptune to land softly on the ground. Neptune breathed a sigh of relief as he was set on the ground and as Bill practically collapsed on the ground.
{I don't mean to be rude, but you're not the lightest person in the world, and Xatu's not the strongest,} Bill commented as he caught his breath (after flying five blocks through an obstacle course of people to catch a young man).
"Sorry, Bill," Neptune whispered. "But thanks for catching me."
Neptune looked at his watch. 1:01.
"I'm okay..."
{I'm hoping you are.}
"No..." Neptune looked to the sky. "I predicted that I was going to die at exactly one o' clock this afternoon. It's one minute after one, and I'm still okay..." He turned to his Xatu. "You were right. Everything you said last night... You were right!"
{Of course I was,} Bill replied with something like a smile.
"Neptune!"
Before he knew it, the young man was embraced by Arcana. She kissed him on the cheek and cried on his shoulder. He looked at her, smiled, and threw one last glance at Bill.
^Thanks for everything,^ Neptune whispered telepathically.
{You're very welcome.}
With that, Bill shifted out.
~~~
At first, it seemed almost as if Bill was asleep. All he saw was darkness, but he knew he had shifted back.
'Don't tell me there's been another mix-up,' he thought with a sigh as he remembered the time he went into Loki's body.
Just then, he heard Zero whisper softly to him. It wasn't telepathic, but it still seemed to come from inside Bill's mind.
"There is something you must know," she said to him. "A third one will come. Marked already with the gift of sight. When you realize he can see you, give him a bit of your gift. It is destiny that makes the Three equal."
"What?" He blinked and fell silent, listening for a whisper which didn't come. "Wait! Zero!"
Nothing.
"I wonder what she means..."
He closed his eyes.
~~~
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back in the cellar. Not only that, but, he felt someone grab his arm. He gasped, sat up, and looked over, finding himself staring straight at Jude.
"Jude? What's wrong?" he asked, studying her anxious expression.
"Definitely something," she replied. "Bill, Ash saw you. While you were gone."
Bill blinked. "While I was gone?"
Neither of them noticed a Pikachu had come downstairs, followed by a boy looking for the electric rat.
Jude nodded. "He came down here, and he saw you. Even I can't do that without my watcher equipment!"
"He... saw me?"
Bill thought back to what Zero had told him. Suddenly, it all made sense.
"The third one..."
Jude blinked. "What?"
"Ash... I think... I think Zero wants me to make him become a shifter," Bill said.
"A what?"
Both looked up suddenly, to see Ash picking up Pikachu. He had heard most of the conversation but still blinked in his confusion.
"What's a shifter?" he asked.
Jude and Bill looked at each other.
"Oh boy," they said in unison.
~~~
Chester filmed the experiment. One Antiwarp shifter was strapped to an examination table as Crocus approaced him with a syringe.
"Chester?" the doctor addressed as she threw one glance at him.
"Recording, doctor," the assistant replied. "Antiwarp file tape number fifty-one. Experiment thirty. Testing the effects of the drug AS27 on a shifter."
"Good," Crocus said. "This drug contains a chemically-built virus which should alter the DNA and the cells themselves, eliminating any traces of Pokémon in the nucleic acid sequences as well as causing the cells to be incapable of producing enough extra energy for the body to allow it to push one's mind and soul out of it -- in other words, to shift."
"Let's just get this over with, doctor," the subject said with a low growl.
"First, we must thank you for being a willing subject," Crocus told him.
"I've got nothing to live for."
"So you don't."
Crocus cleaned an area on the lackey's arm and injected the liquid. Crocus stepped back, and the entire room went silent.
It remained this way for a few minutes until the lackey gasped, then began to scream and twist in his bonds. Crocus and Chester watched for several minutes... or possibly several hundred. It was hard to tell.
Finally, the screaming died down, and the lackey fell limp. The only thing heard was labored breathing for several minutes before nothing at all.
Crocus discarded the needle and went over to take the subject's pulse.
"Time of death..." She looked at her watch. "3:49 PM."
"Would you say this had been successful, doctor?" Chester inquired, still recording.
Crocus turned her head and grinned at her assistant. "Yes, Chester. Prepare one for use on McKenzie."
***
End episode 14*11*
---
Footnotes:
*1*: Just letting you know, if anyone hadn't picked this up, but Light Sneasel gets another cameo in the form of Apollo. ^_^ (DarkCatXX and Dr. Thinker may get their own cameos as well; I just need to think of a way to fit them in. o.o)
*2*: Time goes fast in the story, so you won't wait long to find out what happens when this happens. ^_-
*3*: Oddly enough, Ash could see the sunset from the beach during "Mystery at the Lighthouse", making him face directly west and putting Bill's lighthouse to the south. This is a bit ironic because in the game (and just about everything else), not only would Bill's home be to the north of you when you arrive, you're also facing east when you reach the body of water nearby (not counting the Cerulean Cape directly south). O_o;
*4*: This is actually a pun. According to astrology (or, okay, one of my astrology books, Seventeen Total Astrology: What the Stars Say About Life and Love), Neptune is the planet of ESP, spirituality, and illusions.
*5*: Well, it's about time I started giving locations. =p
*6*: Most people think about what they say before they say it (or at least I do -- I'm not sure about most of my classmates and all American politicians. =/), so Neptune can't directly understand what Bill said here. Instead, Neppy used telepathy to "listen" to him.
*7*: Just for the record, this is a personal belief of mine. ^_^; We're all set on this earth by the supreme Spirit (can't say god or goddess because I don't know if whoever is up there is masculine or feminine, and I fear that He/She will smite me if I insult 'em) to live our own lives, and if something happens along the way, it's the fault of either ourselves (suicide, organs dying due to disease, other unpleasant things) or other human beings (uh, homicide). Nope. I don't believe in fate or destiny. I just write about them because they make the story interesting. ^_^;
*8*: Just a reminder, but my belief is that the Pokémon world is set years in the future, after the Moon Stone crashed on earth, spreading radiation which caused the mutations that created Pokémon. (See the prologue to Lost Souls on madgoblin(dot)cjb(dot)net.)
*9*: Get it? Thirteen hundred hours? Thirteen is an unlucky number?
*10*: Neptune and Arcana are in their senior year of high school.
*11*: Okay, first off, I'm aware that I've just made the whole destiny thing confusing. Let's see if I can straighten this out. First off, Zero believes in all destiny, but Bill doesn't believe in celestial-written destiny (destiny written in the stars, so to speak). The latter had simply chosen to follow Zero's requests of "fufilling his destiny" because he wishes to save lives and make the world a better place. Secondly, there's a heck of a lot of foreshadowing in this episode. I hope I'm not annoying anyone with the wait. ^_^;
(By the way, you can still call me Mai; I really don't care.)
***
Episode 14--
See No Evil
Apollo and Artemis approached Zero at the edge of her lake. Apollo, for once, removed the hood of his cloak, revealing his dark skin, dark hair, and deep, dark eyes.*1*
"Lady Aigori," he addressed.
She turned around to face them.
"Do you know if the Prime is ready?" Apollo asked.
Zero looked back at the lake waters. "So far, he has passed every test I have given him. He proved his willingness to save others when he risked himself and his host to save his watcher. He has proved his determination by keeping history on course. Two tests. Both passed. However, there will be more tests along the way."
"What about the third child?"
Zero smiled. "The third has already proven how much he wants to be part of the prophecy, though he has yet to know it. The legendary Pokémon all have agreed that he has the courage, spirit, and determination needed. He indeed has come far from where he was when Ho-oh had chosen him. The only thing missing is his exposure to our world."
"M'lady, how soon will it be when the prophecy begins?" Artemis asked.
Zero smiled. "Luckily, not until a long time from now. But long is depending on how you look at it. The Prime and the Hero both have sufficient time, but I'm afraid Keios' power will peak within the next two to five years."*2*
"Are you sure this is enough time?" both shifter and watcher inquired at the same time.
There was a short period of silence.
"Yes. I have foreseen it to be enough," Zero replied. "Do not worry. Both will be ready..."
~~~
Ash Ketchum. Johto League near-champion, conqueror of the Houen League, and the one who actually got May off to a decent start. And now, he parts from Brock and May for a bit to go off on his own. To collect Pokémon and raise them to be the best. To be the true Pokémon master.
After all, what's a Pokémon master without Pokémon, no?
He had heard about a fabled cave north of Cerulean City. Its official name was, of course, the Cerulean Cave, but others, those old folks who like to spread rumors to scare the crap out of novice trainers or boost egotism to no end (like one old fellow had inadvertently done to Ash's), call it the Unknown Dungeon.
"Dangerous things up tha' way," the old man said to Ash at the Pokémon Center. "Pokémon at levels beyond your imagination to the left o' ya; Pokémon the same way to the right o' ya. It ain't a pretty thing to walk through, m'boy! Yeh've gotta have a pretty darn good team jes' to get there!"
"Well, I've got a pretty good team!" Ash objected. "My Pokémon took me to the top sixteen of the Pokémon League on the Indigo Plateau, helped me defeat Drake in the Orange Islands, AND got me into the Johto League finals!"
The old man sipped a cup of coffee. "So? They'll all be eaten alive by the Pokémon in there! Trus' me, NO trainer has gotten back from that cave, sonny!"
"If no one had gotten back, how do you know what's inside?"
"I hear stuff. I go fishin' nearby, an' I can hear screamin' from in the heart o' the cave!"
Ash gulped. "Well... Well, I'm not afraid!"
The old man shrugged. "Suit yerself. It's yer own life."
And so, presently, Ash journeyed north of Cerulean City for hours...
...Until it occurred to him that he had no idea where Cerulean Cave is.
He groaned, clutched his stomach in hunger, and managed to tread out of the forest and onto the beach.
"Hey, Pikachu, do you think we could catch a fish for dinner?" Ash asked his Pokémon partner as he stared out to sea.
"Pika pika!" Pikachu tugged on Ash's pant leg and pointed to the south.*3*
"Huh?" Ash looked south to see the lighthouse. "Hey! A lighthouse!" He paused. "Weird... I could have sworn I've been here and said that before..."
"Chuuuu," Pikachu sighed as he shook his head.
Ash shrugged. "Eh! Oh well!"
~~~
He stared at the lighthouse doors as soon as he got there.
"This lighthouse looks weird... and familiar..."
He shrugged and rang the doorbell.
Jude answered it. She opened the door and leaned in the doorway.
"Hey. And who are you? The pizza boy?" she asked.
"Uh, no," Ash replied. "My name's Ash Ketchum. I'm a Pokémon trainer looking for a place to stay and something to eat for the night."
"Does this look like a hotel to you?" Jude asked as she narrowed her eyes. "Go back to town or find a spot in the forest to camp out."
"JUDE!"
Bill covered Jude's mouth and pulled her away from the doorway. He then bowed apologetically.
"Please excuse my sister's behavior," he said politely. "She didn't know that I welcome all Pokémon trainers to stay here for the--"
Bill finally glanced at Ash and stopped short. Ash blinked.
"What?" the young trainer asked.
"Ash... Ketchum?" Bill smiled.
"Wow! Looks like my fame and reputation reaches places before I get to them!" Ash said overjoyed.
"Pika..." Pikachu twitched.
"I see you don't remember me," Bill said with a slight frown. "In any case, please, come on in!"
He stepped aside (dragging Jude with him) to allow Ash and Pikachu inside.
"Sorry," Ash apologized. "I see a lot of people on my journeys. Where have I met you before?"
"Right here."
"Hmm... I know! A.J.! You had a Sandshrew!"
Jude burst out laughing as Bill blinked.
"Ah, no," Bill finally said. "My name is Bill, and I don't own a Sandshrew... Or at least, I don't think I do. I tend to do odd things during a full moon."
The researcher led his sister, the trainer, and the Pikachu toward the living quarters as Ash thought about this for a moment.
"Ah! I remember now!" Ash said cheerfully. "You were the one stuck in the Kabuto costume!"
Bill stumbled but quickly caught himself. A complete lecture on the basics of Pokémon, followed by the sighting of the rarest breed of Dragonite in the world, and all Ash could remember was THAT. He cleared his throat and opened the door leading to the staircase to the living quarters.
"Jude will show you to your room as well as around the living quarters," Bill told him. "I would do this myself, but I'm afraid I have some work to do."
"Hey! Why do I have to show the unwelcomed guest around?" Jude inquired bluntly.
Bill gave her an icy glance. "Jude..."
"I'm going! I'm going!" she sighed as she watched her brother leave before motioning for Ash to go through the door. "Right this way, monsieur."
~~~
"So, tell me again. Why did you let Ash in?"
Bill smiled sheepishly. "Well, I can't just say no to the boy who saved my life twice in one night."
Ziggy cocked her head. "I thought you were even when you shifted into Pikachu."
"I don't see it as the same."
Ziggy shook her head, shrugged, and replied, "Whatever."
"Now, you were telling me something before I went upstairs. Would you mind finishing your thought?"
"Right." Ziggy smiled. "You have to shift."
Bill jumped in surprise. "WHAT!? You... You didn't stop me to tell me that!?"
"Human priorities are confusing," Ziggy explained. "I thought this would be more important than your shift."
"Unless there happens to be someone up there dying, NOTHING is more important than a shift!" Bill told her.
"Hey, you never know," Ziggy replied. "There could have been someone up there dying on your doorstep."
Well, she had a point.
He sighed. "Never mind."
He proceeded to shift out.
~~~
"And on your right is the bathroom," Jude said to Ash in classic, tour-guide fashion. "Further back are the bedrooms. You can take the first one on the left. Back to the left is the living room, and right next to it--" Jude turned around and led Ash to a room on the left. "--is the dining room, slash, kitchen. Listen, our cook took yet another vacation, so if you wake up to an explosion and smell something REALLY foul, Bill's probably trying to make breakfast again. Just wait ten minutes for him to air out the room, then go in, and I'll hold him off long enough for you to get something to eat."
Ash blinked.
"What?" Jude asked.
"Nothing," Ash replied before going off subject. "So, you're Bill's sister, huh?"
He walked into the plain guest room with Pikachu and set his backpack down.
"Yeah. What about it?" Jude asked.
"I don't see a family resemblance."
"Good."
"What's your name, by the way?"
"A lot of people call me Jude. You'd better too."
"Well, a lot of people call me--"
"I know your name."
There was a moment of silence.
"So, where does your brother work, by the way?" Ash inquired.
"Trust me, you don't want to go down there," Jude replied. "He goes into the cellar, but it might as well be called the Gateway to Chaos. Sure, he looks like he's neat and organized up in the living quarters, but down there, it's like a tornado, hurricane, AND earthquake went through there."
"I think you're exaggerating."
"Suit yourself."
Suddenly, Ash's stomach growled loudly. He put a hand over his stomach and blushed as Jude rolled her eyes, turned, and began walking out of the room.
"Come on," she said. "Let's get something to shut that stomach of yours up."
~~~
Bill woke up and looked around. It was dark and crowded. Wherever he was, whoever used this space was obviously obsessed with the occult. Bottles of strange potions sat on the shelves along the wall, pictures of Tarot cards hung about, candles burned at numerous places, all purple, and in the center, there was a round table which had been covered with a purple cloth and upon which sat a strange, leather-bound book in which an ancient writing he didn't recognize was written.
{Where am I?}
"Xatu? Have you come out of your meditations?"
A woman poked her head out of a doorway concealed by crimson curtains. Her curly, black hair was barely held back by the red ribbon serving as a headband, and her green eyes glittered as much as the jewelry around her neck.
"Wonderful!" the woman exclaimed. "Neptune has as well. Hold on to your vision for a second, and I can retrieve him to compare predictions!"
She disappeared as Bill stared blankly at the curtain.
{Xatu? Vision? Prediction? ZIGGY!}
The hologram appeared in a flash.
"Ooh... Occulty! Interesting..."
{Right. Just tell me my situation,} Bill told her. {I think my charge expects me to do something I have no idea how to do!}
"Okay! No problem," Ziggy replied as she clapped her hands together. "Alright. Your REAL charge, Neptune, is a boy with ESP.*4* You happen to be inside his Xatu, the so-called other half. And your charge's mother, the woman with the curly, black hair, is the shopkeeper for an occult shop right here in Salem.*5* Now for the problem. You see, Neptune's been having these strange visions, like he's going to die in a few days. You've got to stop him from doing so. That's all I can give you on this mission. Sorry."
{It's alright. I know what to do,} he replied before pausing. {Wait... I'm supposed to tell the gypsy something. What should I do?}
"Two words. Ad lib."
{Thanks, Ziggy,} he said sarcastically.
She smiled. "No problem! Now, I've got to fly. Good luck! Ciao!"
She waved and vanished.
The curly-haired woman came back, leading a tall boy with long, straight, aqua hair and his mother's same green eyes.
"Neptune?" the woman inquired.
"Darkness," Neptune replied, lowering his head. "Decay. Blood. Death. Chaos. The inevitable. Mother, I've told you a thousand times. I foresee my own death."
"Hmm..." The woman turned to Bill. "Xatu? Do you have anything to say?"
{Uh... Oh boy... Er...} He couldn't think of anything.
The woman sighed. "Nothing."
There was a pause.
The boy frowned. "Allow me to speak with Xatu alone, Mother."
Neptune's mother nodded slowly and left the room. Neptune himself placed a hand on Bill's head.
"There is something wrong," Neptune commented as he closed his eyes. "I've sensed a new aura."
Bill began to panic, but refused to allow it to show.
There were several silent moments between them before Neptune finally let go.
"I see..." Neptune turned away. "Return from where you cam from, spirit. You can't help me."
With that, Neptune left the room.
~~~
Sun had set a long while ago. Jude had turned the beacon on, just the way she watched her brother do so, and retreated to her room to monitor Bill with the COM device.
In the other guest bedroom, Ash lay back and tried to sleep until Pikachu hopped out of the bed and pawed at the door.
"What's up, Pikachu?" Ash asked with a yawn as he sat up and pulled himself out of bed.
Pikachu glanced back at his human partner, then back at the door. Ash opened the door, letting Pikachu out. The electric rat ran a bit down the hall, then looked back at his trainer.
"You want me to follow you?"
Pikachu nodded.
Ash shrugged and followed the yellow mouse down the steps and into the main hallway. He watched as Pikachu sniffed around, but finally came to a nearly hidden door in the wall, unnoticable, save for the painted doorknob.
"What's in here, Pikachu?"
Ash turned the knob and pulled open the door. Cautiously, he went down into the cellar and indeed found the mess Jude spoke of. The computer monitor was on and showed Ziggy in sleep mode, but the light coming from it lit the room just enough for Ash to see the outline of a hand.
He threw a glance to Pikachu. Pikachu nodded.
Warily, Ash made his way around the desk the hand was poking out from behind and found none other than Bill, lying on the floor, motionless. Ash knelt down, shook him, and got no response.
At this, Ash straightened up and darted up into the living quarters. Hastily, he knocked on Jude's door.
"Hey! Jude! Open up!"
Jude opened the door quickly.
"This had better be good, or I'm kicking your ass," she snapped.
"If I had a nickel for everytime I heard a girl say that," Ash muttered.
"What do you want?" Jude asked.
"Listen, I saw Bill down in the cellar. He's unconscious. I think he's hurt," Ash explained. "I think we need to call an ambulance or something."
Jude looked back at her COM device. Bill hadn't shifted back yet. So how could Ash see...?
"He sometimes falls asleep on the cellar floor when he's been working too hard," Jude lied.
"But why wouldn't he wake up when I shook him?"
"He's a deep sleeper."
"Oh. Okay."
Ash shrugged and retreated back into his room with Pikachu. The yellow mouse cocked his head, shrugged, and followed.
As soon as the door closed, Jude cocked her own head.
"How could he see Bill...?"
~~~
Shadows grew. Red eyes. Claws. Wings. Fangs... The horrifying picture of a creature unknown to him. The chill he got just by looking at it.
"Lady Aigori..."
She fell into its hands like a weak, trembling butterfly. Her eyes closed, and it closed its hands around her as it let out a sinister laugh.
A rush of darkness and cold overwhelmed the young seer's mind.
A light flew from below, trying to get away, but this darkness gripped it with one hand and crushed it.
With Lady Aigori in one hand and pure darkness in the other, the creature let loose dark, cold waves...
~~~
Bill woke up with a jolt. The dream was so vivid. So real that he still felt cold and that this cold reached to his very heart. He gasped for breath, as if he had only just experienced a nightmare. He shook his head and closed his eyes.
{That's what it was. A nightmare,} he mumbled to himself, throwing the thought of a Xatu vision out of his mind.
He rested for a moment, but he couldn't shake the thought of the giant shadow.
'Strange,' he thought as he opened his eyes. 'Nightmares don't tend to bother me.'
"That's because that wasn't just a nightmare."
Bill focused, forcing himself to adjust to the darkness of the room. He could just barely make out Neptune's form. The boy lit two candles to either side of the Xatu, then sat cross-legged on the floor.
"I'm sorry, I hope I wasn't intruding," Neptune said.
{I don't mind.}
"Good. Then allow me to explain,"*6* Neptune said. "Xatu, in their sleep or during their meditations, can see into the future. Because you've possessed my Xatu, you're able to use her ability yourself. Unfortunately, one must have had previous practice or must have been born with the ability to truly harness psychic power. Xatu's precognitive gift let you see your own future."
{How do I stop myself from seeing things like that?}
"You? You can't do anything but leave my Xatu and return to where you came from. That's your only hope for peace."
{Neptune, I've come here to help you, and I refuse to leave until I do!}
"You can't help me. Fate has stated that I die today, and so I'll die today."
{Today?}
"Yes. The clock has struck midnight. I have thirteen hours to live."
Neptune stood.
{Neptune! Wait! I'm not done speaking with you!}
Neptune looked at the Xatu. "What can YOU do to stop Fate?"
{I don't know. Not yet. But I CAN tell you one thing -- all beings have a choice. Fate... Destiny...} Bill lowered his eyes at this. {All living things have a choice. We can either give up, lie down, and blame fate, or we can stand up, take our own lives, and create for ourselves the fate and destiny WE want. Sure, you MIGHT die today, but that's just it. Your gift only told you what MIGHT happen. Perhaps there's a way you yourself can avoid your so-called fate.}
"But the Heavens..."
{...Have nothing to do with it. We are all put on this earth as an experiment. Whatever you might think is up there is only watching us, seeing what we do with our own lives. He -- or She, or whatever -- doesn't write down the way we all end up in a slab of stone. We end up the way we want to end up, and if we die along the way, it's not because of fate; it's because of us.}*7*
"But my predictions NEVER go wrong!"
{Perhaps this is because no one has ever tried to defy them before.}
Neptune looked down at the floor. "No, they haven't."
{Perhaps, then, you can be the first one to do so.}
Neptune's gaze climbed upward. For the first time, he smiled. "Yes, I could!"
He turned and began walking back to his bedroom. He finally stopped and turned around, throwing a curious glance to the Xatu.
"Just out of curiousity, why do you want to help me so badly, Bill?"
{I hate seeing innocent people die.}
"I see." Neptune paused again. "And by the way, about Warp... I'll keep it a secret."
Telepathy. You gotta love it.
Though startled by Neptune's statement, Bill was still able to nod gratefully. {Thank you, Neptune.}
As Neptune departed, Bill sighed and smiled inside as he closed his eyes in weariness.
~~~
The images came again. As clear as they had been before.
A boy with a bow and arrow, aiming at the shadow and firing an arrow of light. Like it had with the spark of light, the shadow crushed it with one clawed hand.
There was a darker figure with a sword and who darted in, slashed across the shadow, and came across on the other side. The shadow simply smacked the figure away with its giant tail and batted away the boy in a similar fashion.
The shadow let loose a laughter that shook the night and made the seer shiver.
"Please... Leave them alone..."
The shadow heard the weak, male voice, and so did the seer.
"Don't... hurt... them..."
The shadow laughed. "Perhaps you would like to see the girl go first, wouldn't you?"
With a free claw, the shadow reached over to grab an unconscious Jude on the ground a few feet away.
"Please... No! Don't hurt her..."
The shadow paid no attention to the voice as he picked up the helpless girl and held her in a strong hand. It laughed.
"What are you to do now, Angel?" the shadow hissed. "With your part of the prophecy unfufilled, I'm free to do whatever it is I want! Starting with..."
The hand gripped her, about to crush her...
~~~
{NO!}
Bill opened his eyes and gasped for breath.
{Jude,} he whispered.
"She's not awake yet. Do you want me to wake her up?"
Ziggy. A welcome voice, for once. He smiled.
{That's alright, Ziggy,} he replied. {I... I just wanted to know if she's alright.}
"Well, she is." Ziggy blinked before continuing, "However, Neptune might not be soon if you don't get moving!"
{What? Where is he?}
Ziggy shrugged. "He left already. And if you want to finish this mission successfully, you'd better get going, find Neptune, and keep a close eye on him!"
{Yes, but where is he?}
"Oh. Sorry. Pokémon Center."
{Thank you, Ziggy!} Bill jumped off of his perch on the table and scrambled across the floor. {Don't you worry. I won't fail!}
As soon as he left, Ziggy smiled.
"I know you won't," she said before disappearing.
~~~
Salem. It's strange. It's a city. It's a time warp. It's both rolled into one.
On one hand, some streets and individual sites are still shadows of hundreds of years ago. The new feeling to each restored building is so accurate and eerie, you almost felt like you went back to the time when so-called witches died emitting bloody screams as their fiery executioner climed slowly up the stake.
Then, there were the slightly modern buildings. The ones which stood in our time, before the Great Catastrophe which created the Pokémon.*8* If you closed your eyes and pictured these parts of Salem, you would be able to see people in their second millenium A.D. fashions, walking down the street, barely caring about terrorists, but still having Iraqis on the mind.
And finally, you had the buildings of the future. The ones Ash and everyone else in the Pokémon world called modern.
And Neptune didn't appear to be in any one of them.
{My job would be SO much easier if I could tell which one is the Pokémon Center...}
Bill stopped as other people walked down the Salem street, taking no notice of him. He realized that the city lacked one thing: obvious signs.
Without a thought, he continued, passing by a single building, unaware of what was going on inside...
~~~
The building he had passed was the Pokémon Center, and inside the square formed by the four walls, Neptune was speaking with a friend of his, a lovely girl with her strawberry-blonde hair tied in a braid going over her left shoulder and down to her bosom and who gazed at others with sapphire eyes.
The rest of the din inside the Pokémon Center was enough to drown out the fair girl's voice, and so eventually, she took Neptune's hand.
"Neptune, I want to tell you something, but I'd like to tell it to you in private," she said. "Will you join me on the roof?"
"Of course, Arcana," he replied.
And so, the girl took Neptune by the wrist and led him to a set of stairs down a hallway whose opening was located in the back of the common room. She gently lifted her denim skirt as her sandaled feet mounted each step.
Second floor. Rooms trainers could use to stay overnight.
Third floor. Chansey and Nurse Joy's quarters.
Roof.
Arcana pushed open a door and led Neptune into the open air on the flat roof, one spot overlooking much of Salem.
Arcana stepped out and took a deep breath as Neptune checked his watch. 12:56. Four minutes until the time he had foreseen as his time of death.*9*
"Arcana?"
She smiled and turned to look at him. "Neptune, we've known each other for a very long time, haven't we?"
"Of course," Neptune replied. "Friends since first grade, if I can remember correctly."
"Well, since our freshman year in high school,*10* I've wanted to tell you something," she said. "Did you... Did you ever pick up on it?"
"On what?"
"I..." Arcana blushed.
"What?" Neptune sat on the parapet lining the roof.
"I... I love you."
Neptune's eyes widened. He knew Arcana for a long time, but he respected her wishes and stayed out of her mind (as in telepathically), so he didn't even expect this.
He opened his mouth to reply, but before he could, he slipped and fell over the parapet. Arcana screamed and watched him fall.
~~~
Three stories to fall. Concrete waiting below. Uh, I don't think a skinny kid with no protection would walk away without a scratch.
Neptune just passed the second story when a green and red blur flew past and and caught the psychic in two, red clawed feet.
Bill frantically flapped Xatu's wings in an effort to allow Neptune to land softly on the ground. Neptune breathed a sigh of relief as he was set on the ground and as Bill practically collapsed on the ground.
{I don't mean to be rude, but you're not the lightest person in the world, and Xatu's not the strongest,} Bill commented as he caught his breath (after flying five blocks through an obstacle course of people to catch a young man).
"Sorry, Bill," Neptune whispered. "But thanks for catching me."
Neptune looked at his watch. 1:01.
"I'm okay..."
{I'm hoping you are.}
"No..." Neptune looked to the sky. "I predicted that I was going to die at exactly one o' clock this afternoon. It's one minute after one, and I'm still okay..." He turned to his Xatu. "You were right. Everything you said last night... You were right!"
{Of course I was,} Bill replied with something like a smile.
"Neptune!"
Before he knew it, the young man was embraced by Arcana. She kissed him on the cheek and cried on his shoulder. He looked at her, smiled, and threw one last glance at Bill.
^Thanks for everything,^ Neptune whispered telepathically.
{You're very welcome.}
With that, Bill shifted out.
~~~
At first, it seemed almost as if Bill was asleep. All he saw was darkness, but he knew he had shifted back.
'Don't tell me there's been another mix-up,' he thought with a sigh as he remembered the time he went into Loki's body.
Just then, he heard Zero whisper softly to him. It wasn't telepathic, but it still seemed to come from inside Bill's mind.
"There is something you must know," she said to him. "A third one will come. Marked already with the gift of sight. When you realize he can see you, give him a bit of your gift. It is destiny that makes the Three equal."
"What?" He blinked and fell silent, listening for a whisper which didn't come. "Wait! Zero!"
Nothing.
"I wonder what she means..."
He closed his eyes.
~~~
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself back in the cellar. Not only that, but, he felt someone grab his arm. He gasped, sat up, and looked over, finding himself staring straight at Jude.
"Jude? What's wrong?" he asked, studying her anxious expression.
"Definitely something," she replied. "Bill, Ash saw you. While you were gone."
Bill blinked. "While I was gone?"
Neither of them noticed a Pikachu had come downstairs, followed by a boy looking for the electric rat.
Jude nodded. "He came down here, and he saw you. Even I can't do that without my watcher equipment!"
"He... saw me?"
Bill thought back to what Zero had told him. Suddenly, it all made sense.
"The third one..."
Jude blinked. "What?"
"Ash... I think... I think Zero wants me to make him become a shifter," Bill said.
"A what?"
Both looked up suddenly, to see Ash picking up Pikachu. He had heard most of the conversation but still blinked in his confusion.
"What's a shifter?" he asked.
Jude and Bill looked at each other.
"Oh boy," they said in unison.
~~~
Chester filmed the experiment. One Antiwarp shifter was strapped to an examination table as Crocus approaced him with a syringe.
"Chester?" the doctor addressed as she threw one glance at him.
"Recording, doctor," the assistant replied. "Antiwarp file tape number fifty-one. Experiment thirty. Testing the effects of the drug AS27 on a shifter."
"Good," Crocus said. "This drug contains a chemically-built virus which should alter the DNA and the cells themselves, eliminating any traces of Pokémon in the nucleic acid sequences as well as causing the cells to be incapable of producing enough extra energy for the body to allow it to push one's mind and soul out of it -- in other words, to shift."
"Let's just get this over with, doctor," the subject said with a low growl.
"First, we must thank you for being a willing subject," Crocus told him.
"I've got nothing to live for."
"So you don't."
Crocus cleaned an area on the lackey's arm and injected the liquid. Crocus stepped back, and the entire room went silent.
It remained this way for a few minutes until the lackey gasped, then began to scream and twist in his bonds. Crocus and Chester watched for several minutes... or possibly several hundred. It was hard to tell.
Finally, the screaming died down, and the lackey fell limp. The only thing heard was labored breathing for several minutes before nothing at all.
Crocus discarded the needle and went over to take the subject's pulse.
"Time of death..." She looked at her watch. "3:49 PM."
"Would you say this had been successful, doctor?" Chester inquired, still recording.
Crocus turned her head and grinned at her assistant. "Yes, Chester. Prepare one for use on McKenzie."
***
End episode 14*11*
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Footnotes:
*1*: Just letting you know, if anyone hadn't picked this up, but Light Sneasel gets another cameo in the form of Apollo. ^_^ (DarkCatXX and Dr. Thinker may get their own cameos as well; I just need to think of a way to fit them in. o.o)
*2*: Time goes fast in the story, so you won't wait long to find out what happens when this happens. ^_-
*3*: Oddly enough, Ash could see the sunset from the beach during "Mystery at the Lighthouse", making him face directly west and putting Bill's lighthouse to the south. This is a bit ironic because in the game (and just about everything else), not only would Bill's home be to the north of you when you arrive, you're also facing east when you reach the body of water nearby (not counting the Cerulean Cape directly south). O_o;
*4*: This is actually a pun. According to astrology (or, okay, one of my astrology books, Seventeen Total Astrology: What the Stars Say About Life and Love), Neptune is the planet of ESP, spirituality, and illusions.
*5*: Well, it's about time I started giving locations. =p
*6*: Most people think about what they say before they say it (or at least I do -- I'm not sure about most of my classmates and all American politicians. =/), so Neptune can't directly understand what Bill said here. Instead, Neppy used telepathy to "listen" to him.
*7*: Just for the record, this is a personal belief of mine. ^_^; We're all set on this earth by the supreme Spirit (can't say god or goddess because I don't know if whoever is up there is masculine or feminine, and I fear that He/She will smite me if I insult 'em) to live our own lives, and if something happens along the way, it's the fault of either ourselves (suicide, organs dying due to disease, other unpleasant things) or other human beings (uh, homicide). Nope. I don't believe in fate or destiny. I just write about them because they make the story interesting. ^_^;
*8*: Just a reminder, but my belief is that the Pokémon world is set years in the future, after the Moon Stone crashed on earth, spreading radiation which caused the mutations that created Pokémon. (See the prologue to Lost Souls on madgoblin(dot)cjb(dot)net.)
*9*: Get it? Thirteen hundred hours? Thirteen is an unlucky number?
*10*: Neptune and Arcana are in their senior year of high school.
*11*: Okay, first off, I'm aware that I've just made the whole destiny thing confusing. Let's see if I can straighten this out. First off, Zero believes in all destiny, but Bill doesn't believe in celestial-written destiny (destiny written in the stars, so to speak). The latter had simply chosen to follow Zero's requests of "fufilling his destiny" because he wishes to save lives and make the world a better place. Secondly, there's a heck of a lot of foreshadowing in this episode. I hope I'm not annoying anyone with the wait. ^_^;