…
Chapter 6
Lombardi
"Yes, I'm sure no one's around me right now. You may speak at ease."
Gary rolls his eyes as he says this. Why the heck would he think I'd have the nerve to blow our cover? he thinks. Man, we waited so long for this, there's no way we'd blow our chance!
"Yes, that's right," Gary says, speaking into his Poké Gear. "We have found Sabrina. She was with that little girl. Liza, I think? I don't know, I didn't pay too much attention to her. She teleported away, but trust me, she'll be back."
Gary leans in closer to hear the voice on the other side of the line. He then heartily responds.
"We're in great shape," he says. "We have only two threats, two people who know the truth. One is Sabrina. The other one? Giselle."
He then winces as shouts of curses come from his Poké Gear.
"Yes, I know she's powerful," Gary responds. "But she's broken. She's lost everything now. I saw her – she was close to crying, and you know well that she never cries. She's not anything to worry about, I don't care what happened 12 years ago."
He listens in to one last message.
"I know my next step. There's nothing to be concerned about. We're getting everything ready."
Gary hits a button on the Poké Gear to turn it off.
"Man, is he a pain in the butt to deal with," he grumbles. "That man is so worried about the events of 12 years back that he doesn't realize how good we have it. All it's going to take is a few experiments, and we're going to rule this world."
Giselle and Cubone arrive at Route 6 in Kanto, both panting. Destroyed buildings lie behind them, in front of them, and all around them. It is nearly impossible to make out the road that went through this area, but an old sign with the number six on it lets them know where they are.
"Cu-cu-bone!" Cubone says.
"Yes, I know," Giselle says. "We've walked a long way to get here. Give me a second here. Even Pokémon Champions need to catch their breath."
"Cu-cu!"
Cubone scurries ahead and points his bone at a particular portion of the ruins. The Pokémon then disappears from sight, digging down into the mess, before coming back up. When Cubone appears again, the Pokémon rushes over to Giselle carrying a small object.
"What is it, Cubone?" Giselle asks.
She takes the object out of Cubone's hand, revealing it to be…
"A key? To what?"
She looks carefully at where Cubone had dug, before realizing where she is.
"Wait a minute, we've finally made it here!" she exclaims. "This is Pokémon Tech!"
Giselle starts sifting frantically through the ruins, finding old desks and tables, and lots of expensive equipment destroyed beyond repair.
"I never thought I'd see the day…" she says. "But if this key is here, then that means…"
She tries tracing her steps, in an attempt to figure out exactly where she is.
"Okay, this is the main study hall," she says. "Then, if I walk in this direction, I'm going toward the dorms. But if I cut back this way…"
Giselle walks over several burnt-out buildings to find one specific piece of land.
"Ha-ha! Found it! Come on, help me out here, Cubone!"
Cubone rushes over and helps Giselle lift up some of the wreckage. When they have removed enough, Giselle finally sees the white marble block planted in the center of the former campus.
"The Pokémon Tech Time Capsule," she reads. "'Do not open until January 1, 2020.' Ha, we're long past that now, aren't we?"
She pulls out some grass which has sprung up in between the letters.
"You know, Cubone, this is crazy. And you know why?"
"Cu?"
"Because I always knew of the existence of this time capsule, and I knew that the key was kept in the principal's office. You found the key, and now I've found this. Now, I need you to go dig this thing up for me. Make sure not to damage it at all, okay?"
"Cu-cu!"
Cubone burrows underground, then makes four lines of dirt surrounding the capsule. The Pokémon loosens up the capsule from the rest of the ground, before digging back up and pushing it right into Giselle's lap.
"Good boy! You must have had a great Trainer," Giselle tells Cubone.
She then looks at the capsule, which is a small square white marble container small enough to be held by one person.
"It may not look like much, but that's because…"
She takes the key and inserts it into the top of the box, removing the lid that said not to open it until a certain date. She begins pulling out small black discs, the middle of each one containing the picture of a member of Pokémon Tech. She quickly scrambles through them to find the one with her face on it. She then lifts out the ancient-looking device which resembles a phonograph. It has a turn-handle on the side, allowing her to turn the lever to make the disc spin and be read by the machine.
"If my memory is correct, which it always is, all I have to do is put this disc here, put the needle here, and turn this here."
She starts to turn the lever.
"Hi! This is future Pokémon League Champion Giselle Gravelpot! I am graduating this year, 2006. When I look back at my time at Pokémon Tech, there is a lot to be proud of. I am about to graduate with near-perfect marks in all of my classes. I have defeated every other student here at least twice. I have earned an automatic berth in this year's Indigo League Tournament. But more important than any of that was this one boy I met here. His name is Joe. Joe, if you're listening, please go study! You don't just wake up and find yourself League Champion! It takes a lot of work… a lot of it! But you know what, you'll do well. And how do I know this? Simple!"
The next part is a whisper, forcing Giselle to push her ear close to the phonograph.
"You know I love you. And I'm counting on you to buy me a big ring. And that's how I know you'll do well… because one day we will share the last name."
The disc comes to a screeching stop, and Giselle drops the lever. She sits in dead silence for a few minutes, before the tears start streaming down her face. She drops her head into her hands and breaks out into hysterics.
"You bought me that ring… we got married… we had a daughter… no, none of these things are true anymore."
She sniffs in between sobs, wiping whatever tears she can out of her eyes.
"You and I were just meant to be. There was no better man for me than you, and there certainly was no better woman for you than me. We took our vows… we were connected by fate."
She makes the sign of the cross while continuing to cry. Cubone scurries around the time capsule, looking for something in it, while Giselle sobs.
"I would go to the ends of Kanto for you. I would die for you. I would even give up my Pokémon League championships for you. Well, maybe just two out of the three. You and I – we were meant to be together. It was our destiny. And now…"
Her voice trails off as Cubone interrupts her and plucks out another one of the discs.
"This one?" Giselle says. "Okay."
She grabs the disc without looking, puts it on the phonograph, then begins to play it.
"Hello, my name is Joe. I am currently in class 3-A here at Pokémon Tech. I am trying my very best here at Pokémon Tech. My goal is to someday be as good of a Trainer as Giselle is. Someone once said, 'If we chase perfection, we will catch excellence.' That's my goal. I am going to try to be perfect in all my classes, perfect in all my battles, just like her. And while I know I will never catch her, I will catch excellence. Oh, and one other thing…"
The phonograph again drops to a whisper.
"I love you, Giselle."
Giselle immediately stops turning the lever. "Ah-ha! Gotcha!" She pumps her fist in celebration.
"He really does love me, even in this world I live in! We still are a couple. We still are married. We still have a daughter. All of that is true! The distortion didn't change everything. Somehow, the truth has survived the distortion. Now all I've got to do is find a way to make things back the way they are."
Cubone starts scurrying around, but Giselle ignores him.
"A one-woman band, trying to fix the whole world," she sighs. "If it were only that easy…"
"Giselle."
Giselle hears a woman calling her name, and she looks around frantically.
"Who is it?"
When Giselle gets her eyes on the woman calling her, she is shocked.
"You? Of all people?"
Sabrina and Liza arrive via teleport in a burnt-out Goldenrod City. As they pass through, they see one face that looks familiar.
"Whitney!"
Whitney waves to the pair of psychics, who rush over to meet her.
"Nice to see you!" Liza exclaims.
Sabrina is not so cheerful. She grabs Whitney by the collar. "Who are you in love with, and it better be who I think it is or I'm going to go mad."
Whitney chuckles. "Who would I cheat with during an apocalypse? Of course it's Gold!"
Sabrina lets go of Whitney's collar, then embraces her warmly.
"That is exactly what I needed to hear," she says.
Whitney smiles. "Jasmine and Silver are with him in the underground Gym," she says. "And judging by your reaction, I think they are the perfect people for you to talk with."
"Yes, that's right, I'm the one and only Janine!"
Giselle sighs, looking over at the ninja girl. "What the hell are you doing here?"
"It's simple!" Janine replies. "Falkner flew us over here to Kanto once we found out that the radiation had stopped. We happened to catch you here on our flight."
Giselle then looks over and sees a Pidgeot landing a hundred yards away, with Falkner dismounting it.
"Janine, you've got to tell me," Giselle says. "Who are you in love with?"
"I just told you, I'm with Falkner."
"Are you sure?"
Falkner walks up and puts a hand on Janine's shoulder. "Yes, she's sure," he says.
Giselle breathes a sigh of relief. "Then what is going on?"
"What do you mean, 'what is going on'?" Falkner says. "We've survived the apocalypse brought on by Cynthia and Arceus. Now we have to pick the pieces up and rebuild."
Giselle puts her hands on her hips. "No, no," she says. "What I mean is, why is my Joe with Roxanne? We found out that he is with her, Sabrina is with Gary, and Liza has no brother Tate."
Janine looks puzzled. "I'm confused," she says. "What is so surprising about any of those facts?"
"Facts?!"
Enraged, Giselle picks up a random disc from the Pokémon Tech time capsule and spikes it to the ground, shattering it into a bunch of pieces. "What the hell is going on out here?" she screams.
Janine rushes over to Giselle and puts her arm around her shoulder. "You must be suffering from the radiation," Janine says. "Come, let's get you to Violet City where we can take care of you."
"Not until you hear this!" Giselle shouts.
She starts turning the lever of the machine again, and Joe's voice comes through loud and clear on the phonograph.
"Hello, my name is Joe. I am currently in class 3-A here at Pokémon Tech. I am trying my very best here at Pokémon Tech. My goal…"
Joe's voice goes silent, so Giselle tries turning the lever faster. It is to no avail. No sound at all emits from the machine.
"It can't – it can't be!" Giselle cries. "I had all the proof I would ever need that we were together! And now it's gone, just like that? What in hell is going on to me?"
As Giselle falls to her knees and begins to sob, Janine puts her hand on her shoulder. "Perhaps we can help you out. Come with us to Johto."
Janine stands there silently as Giselle cries. Some of her sobs are louder than others, but Janine stands by her side the whole time. About ten minutes later, Giselle finally speaks out.
"Okay," she says. "I'm bringing this machine with me."
"But it might make flying uncomfortable!" Falkner shouts.
Janine shoots a death glare over at Falkner, who immediately concedes his position.
"Come on, we'll get you some help," he tells Giselle, as Janine walks with her arm and arm back over to the Pidgeot.
In the underground portion of the former Goldenrod Gym, Sabrina and Liza sit alongside Gold, Whitney, Silver, and Jasmine. The six of them are sitting in a circle, with Whitney's Miltank performing in the middle to much laughter.
"Very good!" Liza says, as Miltank dances wildly.
"Miltank's a natural," Whitney says.
"Okay, I need to tell my story," Sabrina tells the others. "Because solving this distortion mystery is going to involve lots of information sharing."
"Go on," Gold says.
"Okay, so I faked my death with Cynthia," Sabrina says. "Using a Ditto from Duplica. I then escaped to the underground in Alola right before Judgment Day and the ensuing radiation. I spent the next ten years gathering parts for an experiment. I'd teleport around, looking for objects I could use. The point of the experiment? To save the whole Pokémon world by getting rid of all the radiation."
"And how's that working out for you?" Silver asks.
"Well, it worked to one extent – the radiation is gone. But now all kinds of things are backward. I am somehow married to Gary Oak. Giselle's husband Joe is now with Roxanne. And Liza here has no brother."
"So, what you're meaning to tell us is that, the world we live in is a different universe?" Gold says.
"Not exactly," Sabrina says. "What I've found is that certain things have been distorted. Not everything, but some things. And I want to go back to the way things were before Judgment Day. I want to be married with Will, with Liza and Tate training under me."
"Good luck with all that," Silver says casually, causing Jasmine to shake her head at him while Whitney gives him an angry look.
"Let's try to figure this out," Gold says. "You're saying that these certain facts are not true, while we are saying that they are true. In addition, you're the only one who is making this claim; none of us can corroborate your account. In this case, you've been missing for years, and now you show up saying these things."
"Oh, hush!" Whitney tells Gold. "I believe her. She has proven herself over the years to be extremely trustworthy. To rake her over the coals like this is ridiculous!"
"I agree," Jasmine says softly.
"And let's face it, who did we always rely on when things got bad in the Giovanni years?" Whitney continues. "We relied on Sabrina!"
"…and Will," Sabrina finishes Whitney's sentence.
"Oh, please," Silver says. "Gold and I have gone to the edges of Johto looking for the mythical beasts. We thought they would save us from the radiation. Now you're about to go along with a left-for-dead psychic who may or may not be completely lucid?"
"Silver!" Jasmine exclaims angrily.
"All I can say is, good luck!" Silver says.
"I disagree. I think there is some merit to this," Whitney says. "Let's take a vote on this. Who believes Sabrina's story, and who doesn't?"
Jasmine slowly raises her hand, while Whitney raises hers proudly. Liza then raises hers as well.
"We've got the majority!" Liza exclaims. "We are going to figure this out!"
Silver shakes his head, while Gold taps Whitney on the shoulder.
"Yes?" Whitney asks.
"It's all good that you got the majority, but there's one flaw…"
He then looks right over and stares at Sabrina.
"Where in the hell do we start?"
