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Chapter 4

Use Confusion

Fuzzy black clouds fill the room. Giselle tries her best to see, with her eyesight badly impaired. She can somewhat make out a figure in front of her. It's a boy standing there anxiously, wearing a tuxedo. She looks up and sees a cross on the wall. She looks a little higher and sees stained glass, but all in black and white. She then turns her eyes to the side. Her vision is clouded by the fuzz, but she can make out some faces. There's Sabrina standing next to Will… there's Jasmine standing next to Silver… there's Whitney next to Gold…

"Wait a minute," Giselle says to herself. "These are the others from the Elite Eight. That could mean that only…"

She walks forward a few steps and squints. His face somewhat covered by the fuzz, he reaches out his hand towards her. She continues to walk forward, before looking down below her.

"I'm… I'm wearing a wedding gown! I'm a bride!" she says. "And that makes him… Joe!"

Giselle continues down what seems to be an interminable aisle, not getting any closer to Joe. She sees him fading away in the fuzz, so she begins running. But the aisle never ends; the more she runs, the farther away Joe becomes. Finally, Joe disappears altogether amongst the fuzz. She then feels someone grabbing her arm.

"Let go of me, Roxanne!" Giselle yells. "Get away from me!"

"It's Sabrina," the person says. "You need to wake up."

"Huh?"

Sabrina pinches Giselle on her arm, and the Pokémon League champion awakens. She turns over to Sabrina and looks dumbfounded. "Where am I?" she asks.

She looks around the room, seeing boxes piled up all along the walls. She then begins to realize what is going on.

"So that was a dream…" she says sadly. "I'm in some sort of warehouse apparently."

"This is the Silph Company's underground warehouse," Sabrina says. "I used to work for them. I knew this place would have survived Judgment Day, and that's why I took you here."

Giselle looks angrily at Sabrina. "Of all the places to take me, you take me to a damp, musty warehouse. Couldn't you have chosen a trash landfill instead?"

Sabrina lets out a slight chuckle. "You fell asleep from all the stress you've been under. So, I teleported you here."

"Whatevs," Giselle replies. "All I want is my husband and my daughter back."

Sabrina sighs. "The chosen one is gone for good. But I do feel that you will get Joe back."

"Well, that's a relief!" Giselle exclaims sarcastically. "Boy, I'm really glad your feelings tell you that! Maybe your feelings can tell me what I'm going to eat tomorrow. I feel so much better now that you said that."

Angered, Sabrina gives Giselle a stern glare. "Look, as a psychic, I can see and feel things you don't. I also am not able to tell you everything about the universe. My powers are limited."

Giselle giggles. "Great. So, basically, you know everything except for what you don't know. Got it."

Sabrina shakes her head, before walking over to one of the cardboard boxes. She rips it open, and Master Balls come rolling out.

"Just look at all the potential this place had," Sabrina says with a touch of disappointment in her voice. "If not for Judgment Day, Silph would have been able to sell all these Master Balls. In turn, Saffron City would have thrived. And my gym would have become the central spot on the Pokémon fighting circuit. But now, there are no Pokémon because Arceus killed off all of them… except, of course, for the ones we kept safe."

"And your point is?" Giselle says.

"That there's hope," Sabrina says. "We just have to put in the work."

"What work?"

"The work of finding out who survived and who didn't. The work of building back all these buildings. And, the work of figuring out what to do in a post-Pokémon world."

Giselle laughs. "Well, good luck with all that," she says, while pretending to push Sabrina away with her hands. "I'm just going to head home now. Goodbye now."

"Giselle, I hate to say it-"

"That you're going to need lots of luck? Yeah, I agree."

"No, that's not it."

"Then what is it?"

Sabrina gulps. "Joe and Roxanne took your Pidgeot. You have no way of flying back home. You must stay here with me. Only I can teleport you where you need to go."

Giselle puts her hands on her hips angrily. "Then teleport me back home! The very least you can do for me is to let me cry my eyes out in peace!"

"No," Sabrina says. "We are going to get to the bottom of this. And that starts by searching through Saffron City for survivors. If we could find other people, we can start working together toward building a better future. And you're coming with me."

"Oh, sure!" Giselle complains. "I can't wait to do that for you! Seriously, would you put a sock in it? I just want to go home now. It's not much to ask."

Sabrina shakes her head. "There's a certain person we need to find. Once we find him, we may get a peek at the results of the distortion."


Sabrina and Giselle stand outside a pile of rubble on one of the main streets of Saffron City. It can be seen clearly that this used to be a big and fancy house, but it has completely crumbled thanks to the events of Judgment Day. Sabrina levitates over to the ruins and begins to sift through.

"What the hell are you doing?" Giselle asks. "I thought we were going to get to the bottom of this distortion, not the bottom of the pile of garbage."

Sabrina ignores her, as she moves around the wreckage. She then finds a handle in the ground, on a door facing straight up. She pulls as hard as she can, and the door opens. Below, there is a staircase, and light emitting from a room underneath.

"I've found it," Sabrina says. "Come with me."

Giselle sighs, but agrees to follow Sabrina. The two of them climb down the stairs into the underground area. Before they arrive at the bottom, a girl's voice pipes out.

"'Bout time you finally showed up!" the girl says.

Sabrina finishes walking down the stairs, then sees who has greeted her.

"Liza!" Sabrina exclaims.

She runs over to Liza, not even thinking to levitate. She immediately glomps Liza, who hugs her back warmly.

"I've been waiting nine years for this moment," Sabrina says. "I just wanted to see you again. You were like my sister."

"Same!" Liza replies. "I knew you weren't dead, you wouldn't have let me off the hook."

Liza then sees Giselle.

"Hey, it's Miss Alpha B-"

"Don't say it," Sabrina says, putting her finger over Liza's lips.

Liza shrugs. "What are you doing here, Giselle?"

"I could ask the same of you," Giselle says. "Joe and I thought you were living in Mossdeep."

"I was!" Liza replies. "But ya know me, right? I can teleport."

"Now where's that other brat, your brother?"

Liza looks confused. "What brother?"

"Idiot!" Giselle shouts. "The one who you were with nearly 24/7. Tate, of course!"

Liza shakes her head. "I've never met anyone by that name. And I'm an only child. So, I dunno what you're talking about."

Giselle gasps, then looks over at Sabrina.

"Apparently the distortion is worse than I thought," Sabrina says. "Liza, tell me why you are here in Saffron."

Liza laughs. "'Cause I had a premonition you'd be showing up! This is your own safety shelter that you built in your house. I knew you were coming, so I teleported here!"

"So let me get this straight," Giselle says. "You were able to predict the future, yet you don't even know who's your brother?"

"Again, I have no brother," Liza says. "I don't know what's so hard to understand about that."

Sabrina breathes a loud sigh. "Liza, doesn't someone live here?"

"You mean, you?"

"No. I mean, a man. About 27 years old, purple hair, wears a mask."

"Oh, you mean Will?"

Sabrina's eyes light up. "You know him?"

"Of course I do," Liza says.

"That means he survived!" Sabrina exclaims. "Awesome! Tell me, do you know where he is right now? My psychic abilities can tell me a lot, but for some reason my mind has been clouded when it comes to my husband Will."

Liza looks weirdly at Sabrina. "What do you mean, your husband Will?"

Sabrina gasps, and Giselle gives Sabrina an arrogant smirk.

"Will, my husband," Sabrina states. "He and I got married a long time ago, at the end of our big battle with Team Rocket. And you were the flower girl!"

Liza laughs. "Good one!" she says. "Will's been married to Karen for the past ten years."

A tear forms in Sabrina's eye as she gasps again. Giselle shakes her head while trying to hold back laughs.

"Well, well, well," Giselle says. "My, how the tables have turned. Now you feel the way I do."

Sabrina looks forlorn at Liza. "Tell me, does he have a daughter?"

"No way!" Liza replies. "Karen wouldn't allow it!"

Giselle begins to laugh as she watches Sabrina drop to her knees in shock. "Isn't so easy to take when it's happened to you, is it?" she says. "Where's all that hope-y stuff now?"

Sabrina ignores Giselle's taunts. "Liza, there's a lot I need to tell you."

"Sure, let's have lunch!" Liza replies. "I brought some fried fish."


Sitting at a table in the basement shelter, Liza and Sabrina munch on the fish. Giselle instead eats some freeze-dried strawberries that were one of many emergency foods hidden away in this downstairs chamber.

"Oh, come on!" Liza says to Giselle. "You refuse to eat fish?"

"I happen to be a vegetarian," Giselle replies. "Besides, how else am I the most attractive woman in Kanto if I'm not eating right?"

"You're just weird," Liza replies.

Sabrina then gets Liza's attention. "Liza, I want to tell you a story."

"A story? Sabrina, I'm not a little kid anymore, I don't need you to put me to bed."

"Just hear me out."

"Okay, then."

"Here's what happened. I was captured by Cynthia and tortured. She then tried to become one with Arceus, and failed. While she attempted this, I was able to escape. After her failure to unite with Arceus, she came and captured me again. Only this time, she didn't, because Duplica – who lived here in Saffron – helped me create a Ditto that looked like a broken-down version of myself."

"Got it," Liza says.

"In reality, aside from the torture, I was completely fine physically thanks to my psychic power. Cynthia got that Ditto that looked like I had been crippled, and she captured *it.* She then killed that Ditto and let the whole world know that she had killed the mighty Sabrina. Within weeks, Arceus came back to exercise Judgment on Cynthia and on the entire Pokémon world for Cynthia's evils. And that's how we ended up like this."

"That's right," Liza states.

"So, all of that you agree with?" Sabrina asks.

"Of course!" Liza says. "I don't see anything about that that's wrong."

"So, you remember what happened with myself and Will, right? That he was torn between the two of us. That he had an illegitimate child with Karen despite being married to me. That she was a daughter named Roxette. And that the two of us were going to raise her, before Judgment Day."

Liza shakes her head. "None of that checks out for me."

"Okay…" Sabrina says. "Tell me which parts in particular are wrong."

Liza giggles. "Well, for starters, you and Will never had a relationship. Will was always into Karen from his days beside her on the Elite Four. They never had children, and neither did you. So, I don't exactly what you're telling me. Is this some sort of psychic test?"

"No, it's not."

"Then what is it?" Liza asks. "Infidelity much?"

Sabrina laughs. "What infidelity? How can I be unfaithful if, according to you, I'm not even married!"

Liza's eyes grow big, then she breaks out into uncontrollable laughter. She has a hard time holding it in, slapping the table she is seated at.

"Silly Sabrina," Liza says. "First you make up this big elaborate story in an attempt to set yourself up with Will. And now, you claim to not even be married, when you had the most expensive wedding in Kanto history!"

Sabrina's eyes are the ones which grow big now, and Giselle breaks out in hysterical laughter.

"You are kidding me," Giselle says. "So, Miss Psychic didn't even know she was married. Boy, isn't it fun for the shoe to be on the other foot now!"

Sabrina grabs Liza's hand and squeezes it tight. "If I'm married, then tell me who to!" she says. "I have to know!"

Liza begins to guffaw again. "Sabrina, I've never seen you act this dumb. Maybe Cynthia did knock out some of your brain cells. Or maybe you're just pretending. Tell you what, I'll make you a bet to find out. I'll let you have the five Psychic Pokémon aside from my Lunatone if you can guess who your husband is. You wouldn't turn down that opportunity, would you? With every guess you get wrong, I keep one Pokémon."

"Let's play, then," Sabrina says. "I'm trying to figure out who this could possibly be."

"Maybe it's Joe!" a laughing Giselle says. "That would make for some real fun, wouldn't it?"

Sabrina shakes her head at Giselle. "No, I'm going to go with the person Giovanni tried to set me up with. Silver. It's Silver. He's my 'husband,' if you are right. I'm the one Giovanni wanted his son to marry. So, it has to be Silver."

Liza laughs. "Wrongo! I keep one Pokémon."

Sabrina looks surprised. "Okay, then," she says. "Who else could it be… maybe Lieutenant Surge?"

"Wrong again!"

In exasperation, Sabrina tries coming up with names that could work.

"Is it Bruno?"

"Nope!"

"Lance?"

"Uh-uh!"

Sabrina slams her hand on the table. "I have no clue, then."

"You still have one guess left!" Liza taunts her.

"Fine, let me just go back in time in my mind here… who could it have been? Oh, I know! Ash Ketchum!"

Liza suddenly looks completely serious, stopping her laughter.

"You… are…"

She then holds out her arms in the form of an "X."

"Wrong!"

Sabrina picks up her remaining fish and throws it on the floor. "Fine, you just tell me. I'm sick of this stupid game!"

Liza laughs. "Okay, you give up? I'll tell you. It's…"