…
Chapter 3
Like Sheep to the Slaughter
"Watch your step."
Giselle helps her daughter climb down the ladder into Sabrina's lair. Joe and Roxanne follow suit, but as Giselle sees Joe extend his hand to Roxanne, she erupts.
"Hey! None of that!" she shouts.
"I'm sorry, I was just trying to help her," Joe says. "I didn't want her to fall and hurt herself."
"Well, I did!" Giselle replies. "I don't want to ever see you touching her hand again."
Joe rolls his eyes as he and Roxanne join Giselle and Synneva in Sabrina's den.
"Welcome," Sabrina says. "I foresaw your arrival."
"Would you stop it with the psychic crap?" Giselle says.
"But I know why you are here," Sabrina says. "The chosen one has offered herself."
Giselle goes from indignant to sorrowful within seconds. She wipes a tear from her eye as she takes Synneva's hand and brings her over to Sabrina. Synneva remains silent, with a fearful but determined look on her face.
"Follow me," Sabrina says, leading them back into the room with her machine. Joe and Roxanne follow behind Giselle and Synneva. They come up on the distortion machine, with all kinds of wires and tubes. Sabrina takes Synneva's hand and leads her to a chair. She then reaches out to plug in one of the wires.
"Hold on, where are you getting the electricity from?" Giselle asks.
"I caught a Raichu out here in Alola, shortly before Judgment Day," Sabrina replies. "That Pokémon is providing all the electricity."
Sabrina puts in a second wire, before Giselle interrupts her again.
"You know, we're doing a lot for you," she tells Sabrina. "Like giving our firstborn over to you to slaughter. If you're wrong about this, there will be hell to pay."
"Trust me on this," Sabrina says.
As Sabrina hooks up many of the wires to Synneva, tears stream down Giselle's eyes. Joe embraces her tightly, reaching out with his fingers to wipe away the tears.
"Our daughter… she's silent in the midst of her death," Joe says. "She is laying down her life for the rest of this world."
Sabrina finishes putting in the final wire, then she goes over to a lever on the machine.
"Hold on to your butts," Sabrina says as she pulls the lever.
The machine begins making very loud noises as the wires connected to Synneva light up. Electricity shoots through the air, and Synneva cries out in pain. Giselle tries to grab her daughter, but she is held back by her husband. As this happens, something shaped like a black hole appears. It slowly gets bigger and bigger.
"It's working," Sabrina says. "Giratina is being summoned."
"At the expense of my daughter!" Giselle yells, still being held back by Joe.
Synneva cries more as she convulses. The hole has grown large at this point, and something seems to be appearing in it.
"It's Giratina!" Roxanne exclaims.
The legendary Pokémon moves further and further out of the void. Meanwhile, Synneva is writhing in pain, screaming at the top of her lungs. Giselle is hysterical at this point, and despite Joe's best efforts, she breaks away from his grip. She then lunges toward Synneva, hoping to save her.
"No!" Sabrina shouts.
Giratina uses its Shadow Force, vanishing for a moment before reappearing and sending a blast of energy. But as he does, Giselle starts ripping the wires out of her daughter's head.
"Stop!" Sabrina yells. "You're going to mess it up!"
"Screw you!" Giselle shouts back. "I can't take seeing this happen to her anymore!"
Giratina blasts its Shadow Force several times, before starting to disappear again inside the black hole. Giselle tries getting some more wires out of Synneva's head, but Sabrina suddenly tackles her and loosens her grip on Synneva. Giselle watches and gasps in horror as her daughter disappears into the black hole with Giratina. The black hole closes, and it completely vanishes.
"No!" Giselle cries out sadly. She huffs and puffs, out of breath.
"It's over," Sabrina says. "It worked."
"What do you mean, it worked?" Giselle snaps back. "How do you know?"
"Go take a look outside," Sabrina says.
Without thinking, Giselle, who is still in tears, pushes past Joe and Roxanne and runs out of the room. She rushes over to the ladder, then climbs up as fast as she can. She gets to the top and steps outside of the cave, and she takes a deep breath.
"I'm out of breath," she says, panting.
She then looks around, before putting her hand on her mouth.
"Wait a minute," she says. "I can breathe out here! That means…"
She runs to the edge of the volcano and looks down.
"It's true!" she exclaims. "The radiation is gone!"
But the moment she says this, she then remembers her daughter disappearing.
"But so is my daughter," she says sadly.
She rushes back down to the chamber where Sabrina, Joe, and Roxanne are standing. Joe and Roxanne are talking with each other cheerfully, while Sabrina looks on emotionlessly. Giselle looks angrily at Joe as he begins chuckling while talking with Roxanne.
"Yeah, I know," Joe laughs. "That's a good one."
"Excuse me?" Giselle says, stepping in between him and Roxanne. "Our daughter disappears, and this is how you respond?"
Joe looks blankly at Giselle. "Daughter?" he asks. "What daughter?"
Giselle slaps Joe in the face. "Now is not the time to do your best impersonation of a comedian!" she shouts. "Our daughter just disappeared!"
Joe gives Giselle a weird look. "That makes no sense," he says.
"I agree that it makes no sense, but I-"
"I have no daughter," Joe says.
"What?" Giselle shouts. "What the hell are you saying?"
"Roxanne and I don't have a daughter," Joe says. "Tell her, Roxanne."
"He's right," Roxanne tells Giselle. "Since our wedding, we've waited on having kids."
Giselle grabs Joe by the collar and shoves him against the wall. "You traitor!" she yells. "I knew you were up to no good with Roxanne all these years! When we took our wedding vows, we-"
"I'm afraid you're mistaken," Joe says. "You and I were never married."
Giselle slaps Joe. "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying, we were never married," Joe says. "Roxanne and I got married last year. She and I have been a couple for years. I remember you from Pokémon Tech, but we never dated or anything like that."
Giselle drops Joe's collar, and she slumps to her knees. She looks at Joe's right hand, and she sees a wedding ring. She then looks over at Roxanne's right hand, and she has both a wedding band and an engagement ring. Finally, she looks down at her own hands, and she finds no rings at all.
"This can't be happening," she says. "Something has gone seriously wrong. Is this a joke? Please tell me this is a joke."
Joe and Roxanne both chuckle at Giselle's expense. "Why would we fake this?" Roxanne says. "You're the crazy one here."
Giselle then turns to Sabrina. "Are you in on this too?" she asks. "Playing a big old prank on me?"
Sabrina looks on silently, keeping an emotionless stare.
"Say something, psychic!"
Sabrina finally breaks her silence, clearing her throat.
"Apparently the distortion that Giratina brought has not just fixed the atmosphere," Sabrina says. "It looks like it distorted reality as well, and you and I are the only ones to not be affected."
"You mean…"
"That's right," Sabrina states. "We are now living in a distorted, alternate universe."
Giselle drops to her knees, then stares at the ground. Tears begin to flow down on to the floor.
"I've lost everything," she says. "I've lost my daughter. I've lost my husband. I've lost to my rival in love. I can't go on."
She pulls out a Poké Ball sadly and throws it against the wall near Joe. It pops open, and Graveler comes out.
"Graveler," Giselle says. "I want you to crush me. Use-"
Sabrina immediately stops Giselle, teleporting over to her and putting her hand over her mouth. "No, don't commit suicide," she says. "There is hope."
"Yeah, we don't want to see you die," Joe says.
"There's nothing to hurt yourself over," Roxanne says. "You just must be a little confused right now."
Sabrina embraces Giselle. "Clearly something has gone seriously wrong. We've got to figure out how to fix it. Let's get out of here. We are going to figure out what has happened to our universe."
Giselle calls back Graveler, as she decides to follow Sabrina, Joe, and Roxanne out of the room. They climb the ladder out of the cave, and they find no radiation at all. The only problem? Only Sabrina and Giselle notice it.
"The atmosphere is back to normal," Sabrina whispers in Giselle's ear. "But don't tell these two that."
Joe and Roxanne board Pidgeot. "Well, we're off back home to Rustboro City!" Joe exclaims. "Nice seeing you guys!"
Giselle reaches her arm out futilely, before watching the two of them fly away. She then collapses to her knees in tears.
"Giselle," Sabrina says. "I know this isn't going to help you, but I must apologize. I never calculated how much Giratina would distort reality."
"Oh, sure!" an angry Giselle replies. "You had no idea. What was all this crap about the chosen one and all that, if this is what happened?"
Sabrina gulps. "I hate to say it, but it's your fault."
"Oh, of course, it's my fault, it's always my fault!" Giselle yells. "Got to blame someone, don't you?"
Sabrina sighs. "When you started to rip those wires out of your daughter's head, you released some of the energy that was being provided to Giratina. As a result, Giratina's forces ended up changing more than just the atmosphere. Synneva, being a pure-hearted girl, was able to give that perfect energy which healed the atmosphere, just as I had calculated when building the machine. Unfortunately, when you tried ripping those wires out, you caused Giratina to distort other things while it was distorting the world back to normal. There's no telling what else Giratina distorted."
Giselle looks on with disgust. "Really? Well, I'm glad to hear that. That fixes everything."
"I know it's tough to hear, but if you could have held yourself back…"
"And let my daughter be swallowed up? While she was being tortured? While she was being electrocuted? Oh, sure, I was supposed to just let it happen. Let my only daughter be taken away. Sure. You know, you aren't the best person to comfort someone."
Giselle wipes more tears from her eyes, while the stoic Sabrina puts her hand on her shoulder.
"There is hope," Sabrina says. "I promise you, there is hope."
"Oh, sure, you can say that," Giselle says. "That doesn't really mean all that much to me."
"No, I'm serious," Sabrina says. "My psychic powers tell me there's hope. I can feel it. I can feel something telling me that everything is going to be all right. I feel like there is some sort of being calling out and giving out a comforting feeling."
Giselle doesn't look up at Sabrina, still crying. "If I didn't know you all these years, I'd kill you," she says. "But you have been right before."
Sabrina smirks. "Maybe," she says. "Here's the truth, though. You and I may be the only ones unaffected by this distortion. That's why I suggest we stick together. I can teleport us anywhere you want. The two of us are going to get to the bottom of this. And I promise you, as a psychic…"
She wipes away a couple of tears, feeling sympathy for Giselle.
"… I promise you, you and Joe will be married again. Trust me."
