A/N: First off, an explanation.
When I began this continuation of Wings of Flame, I fully intended to see it through to completion. Then, things happened. Things like work, college, and life in general. By the time I once more had time to work on this story I no longer had the desire to. This was rather shocking on my part, once I realized it, and also rather sad. This story and its characters had become such a part of me that I wasn't quite certain what to do. So I did nothing.
But I still thought about it. I knew the basic plot line of what was going to happen even before I started writing it, and it's not like I could just make those ideas go away.
I know that when I'm reading a story and the author just stops working on it, with or without an explanation, I wish that they would at least tell the readers what they had planned for the characters that we had so come to love. This is what this chapter is all about.
This chapter does not mean that I have picked up the story again. What is to follow is simply a summary of where I had planned to take the story, had I continued writing it.
The reason I didn't do anything like this sooner is because I had fooled myself. I seriously thought I would finish it, even after months had gone by and I hadn't touched it. It was only around this past December that I realized I would not.
Anyway, without further ado, I give you the last update to Wings of Flame.
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The second chapter would have begun with Khyt's thoughts, just like the first chapter began with Chasm's thoughts. (All chapters following would begin with a glimpse into each of the characters' heads in such a way.) Khyt would have talked about the night before and Erin's talk with her father, as well as Erin's relationship with Nero and how fully Khyt trusts Erin with the mew.
Erin and crew are now on the outskirts of her city and sit down to rest before they enter Ashwood forest (not in any way named after the main character of a certain show), which is rumored to be haunted. The volcano that once served as Blaine's gym is now surrounded by this forest. Erin is thinking about Khyt and is worried that, because of his age, he won't be able to keep up with them for much longer.
Suddenly a group of torchic surround her and a homeless man lets himself be known. He is a bit crazy and goes on a long rant about the fact that he is a genius because he found the torchic before they hatched and he trained them to steal things from travelers. They attack Erin and she runs away, telling the others not to attack them. Later, when Chasm asks why, Erin says that those were the first fire types she had seen since Abadon and it brought up unwanted memories.
They enter Ashwood forest and make their way toward its center where the former gym resides. There is confusion and strange noises invade their heads and Erin thinks she sees Abadon. She runs after him despite Chasm's warnings and attempt to retrieve her. The group gets split up.
It turns out that it was just a group of ghost pokemon tricking Erin and she almost dies, but eventually Chasm comes and saves her, defeating the ghosts and thus buying a safe passage through the remainder of the forest. Erin sobs on the ground, completely broken. In her mind she had had Abadon back. The ghosts had made it seem real to her, and now he was gone again. Thanks to the help and encouragement of her friends, Erin picks herself up again and they all head out for the volcano, hoping that it is the resting place for the fire gods in this realm.
At the same time this is going on, Ryan and his two pokemon are getting picked up by a ship. On their way to Cinnibar to find Erin (remember, he didn't know what happened to her that night at the Pokecenter. He had found her Pokedex and eventually talked to Professor Chronal) they had gotten shipwrecked. Because Ryan was such a good swimmer, doubled with the fact that he owned a water type pokemon, he was able to survive along with his crawdaunt (I don't remember how to spell it!) named Geyser and an absol named Soru. They had been on the island for many months, but now they are able to continue their search for Erin and her pokemon.
This next part I did have written already. It is a dialogue between two people, but you aren't supposed to know who they are yet. Ooo, mystery.
"She's coming, just like our sister said she would."
"She's been coming for a while now, in case you haven't noticed."
"Yeah, but she kept taking detours and round-about routes. Now she's close."
"For someone of your age, you certainly are impatient."
"You're just as old as I am, so you shouldn't talk."
"True, though our age pales in comparison to or dear sister."
"Don't let her hear you say that; you know what happens to those who insult her. Besides, it's not like you can tell."
"Age aside, you're still impatient. You keep checking on her."
"She interests me. Or rather, the choices and decisions she makes interest me. It's intriguing to watch what the next step she takes will be."
"She's training; building up all of them for what she believes is to come."
"What does she think is coming?"
"That's just it; she doesn't know. She's been looking for information on the gods-"
"-Good luck with that."
"Right. Well, for obvious reasons, she hasn't found anything. Anyway, I don't think she's given up on it, but it's not like she doesn't know enough already."
"She's curious. She craves knowledge."
"On certain subject matter anyway."
"Correct. At least she doesn't crave power along with it; those are the ones that end up getting themselves destroyed."
"You care that she isn't destroyed?"
"Yes. I think I've grown fond of her. I think sister's fond of her as well."
"We should be careful. The gods grew fond of Latios and Latias, and those two ended up immortal."
"You're not fond of her?"
"…I don't want to see her destroyed, and I suppose that's pretty much the same thing."
"Close enough, anyway. Although, I doubt there is enough involvement in this matter for anyone to gain immortality."
"True, but you never know when these things might get blown out of proportion."
"Well then, I suppose we'll just have to keep a lid on it, won't we?"
"The only way to do that is to get involved firsthand, isn't it?"
"Yes; too bad for us."
"A shame, really."
"…"
"…"
"How much longer do you think it'll be before she gets here?"
"Still impatient."
"Jackass."
Erin and crew make it to the volcano and finally find a way inside, but only Erin, Chasm, and Celeste (inside her pokeball) enter. The heat from within the volcano, even a dead one, would be too much for Khyt, a grass type, to handle, and Nero stays with him.
They walk through the many tunnels for a while, not finding anything, but then they are ambushed! It turns out that this is not the resting place for fire gods of any sort, but it is where a fire cult happens to live. Erin and Chasm are stuck there, not allowed to leave. They want to integrate Erin into their community. Every person has a fire pokemon partner. Think of a brainwashed supposedly-utopian society that's actually extremely corrupt and you have a good beginning to understanding what life is like there.
Erin becomes friends with another girl a few years older than her. Like Erin, she wasn't born there, but wandered away from home as a child and ended up there. Her partner is a ponyta that should have evolved many years ago, but seems unable to. She (the friend never had a name) doesn't remember much about life outside of the cult, but does know that she liked it and would like to go back and try and find her family.
The cult leaders had wanted to wait and give Erin an eevee kit as her partner so it would evolve into a flareon (really, it couldn't evolve into anything else). A flareon would be more familiar to her than another pokemon (seeing as how she already had an umbreon) but there were no flareons about to give birth. They gave Erin an egg that was close to hatching instead, telling her it was a surprise. They had eventually planned to get rid of Chasm in some way and didn't know about Celeste.
I didn't have much plot planned for this part beyond what's already here, but there's a big fight as Erin battles the leaders of the cult along with her friend and some other people who want to leave. Her friend's ponyta finally evolves to a rapidash. They escape and Erin and crew find the same tunnel they had entered in the first place.
The closer Erin gets to the exit the larger a headache she seems to be getting. Along with the headache is a sense of dread and overwhelming sorrow. She gets out of the volcano to see a crying Nero over a dead Khyt. Nero doesn't know why Khyt won't wake up. He said that they had gone to sleep the night before and now he wouldn't wake up, even though it was the afternoon. He can't reach his mind, either.
Erin has to explain to Nero that Khyt was really old and that he won't be coming back. They put him on the rapidash's back and carry him through the forest back to a green field they had seen. They burry him there.
The next morning Erin and her new friend split ways. Erin must go to the other volcano she thinks might be what she is looking for, and her friend wants to return to Cinnibar and try and find her family. I don't know what happened to the other people who were trying to escape. They got out another way or something. Erin's egg hatches into a cindaquill (again, not sure on the spelling there. I'm too lazy to go look it up) at some point around here and she names him Pyre. Aww, he's adorable. Even though I've never written a situation with him in it, I still lurves him to death. Cuuute.
Let's see, what happens next? From here on it's pretty sketchy. I had a basic idea of what I wanted, but not how to get there or anything.
Erin would probably meet up again with Ryan and his team around here, because she needs a friend. There would have been one or two more dialogues between the two unknown characters that would either confuse the readers or give them immense insight as to their identity. Erin and crew make it to the other volcano, which is actually much older and larger and should have been explored first, without much incident. Well, meeting up with Ryan and them again was probably the big travel part of the plot, so as not to bore you. Time passes, because it takes a while to walk between islands. I don't care what the game tells you; it would take a long time.
But then they can't find a way in! What to do? They find two brothers hanging out in the forest around the volcano (the non-haunted kind of forest). One is named Hephestus and I can't remember what I decided to name the other because I never wrote it down, but it was some other Greek god. Then it dawns on the readers. Artemis is the name of a Greek god too! What is their connection?
And since there's no way to lead up to this in a summary, I'll just come out and say it. The two brothers are really Grodon and Entei, the fire gods, and Artemis is really Suicune, their sister. And she's really not an old lady. But trust me, there would have been a long lead-up to that bit of information. No one would have seen it coming; I swear. Except that I suck at being subtle. Also, the two people having the dialogue every once in a while in the story were actually them.
Anyway. Erin and team get into the volcano thanks to the strange brothers (we don't know they're gods yet). Um. I really don't know what happens next. The gods let themselves be known. Erin has to go through some sort of ritual thing to get Abadon back, involving the ashes she had saved. And… I don't know; her soul gets tied to his or something. Sorry this part isn't too fleshed out.
"But Charpal!" you say. "It's what the whole story has been climaxing to! It's the big finish where Abadon comes back to life! How can you not know what happens?"
I simply shrug and say something like, "Eh."
Lots of power is flowing about everywhere. Blinding light and the like. Yay for Abadon! He makes Erin happy again. They go on to live their lives. The End.
Except for the epilogue, which is as follows:
A typhloison and a mew are visiting a pair of graves, which belong to Abadon and Erin. It's been many, many years. Erin and Abadon lived out their lives until they were old and died together (their souls were tied, remember). Chasm had returned to her old pack years before that and got together with that jolteon. Erin and Ryan had hooked up and probably have children and grandchildren running around somewhere.
The world is looking better. Plants are growing larger and more abundantly and wild pokemon sightings have been confirmed as fact. Many people are actually catching them. Things are looking up for the world.
Nero and Pyre reminisce about the old days for a while, noting that Chasm didn't make it this year. It is the anniversary of Erin and Abadon's death and the three of them meet there at that time every year.
A sound is heard. Someone is coming. The two friends say their goodbyes and part ways until the next year.
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A/N: And so the saga comes to an end. I enjoyed it while it lasted and wish it could have continued in a timely fashion, but it was not to be.
I do still write, as it says in my profile, just not any fanfiction. I am currently writing a novel. On my site, www (dot) charpal (dot) deviantart (dot) com, I sometimes upload things I write along with my pictures, so you can explore around there it you wish.
I want to thank everybody who followed Wings of Flame and commented. You are the ones who kept it alive as long as it was. You kept me going and pushed me to become better. If it wasn't for this story I wouldn't be the writer I am today, and for that I am truly grateful.
A few of you need special thanks. To Keleri and Luna Nightraven, you two have been with the story from the beginning and always gave great reviews. To Crystal Light as well; you didn't start reading as early, but you jumped on the awesome review bandwagon as soon as you were able. LastFarewell was always there to point out when I did something cliché or something that seemed to conflict with the rest of the story. Some of your questions were explained in later chapters as the story progressed, but I still want to thank you for pointing out my mistakes to me so I could look out for similar mistakes later on. It caused me to think a bit more about the direction I was taking the plot. Also, a special thanks to Stardragon X. She's the one who convinced me to upload this summary because she wanted to know what happened, even if it wasn't in story form.
With that, I wish you all a fond farewell.