Ash was waiting to be seen in the room.
"Ash Ketchum", his name was called. "May you come."
A woman guided him into the room.
In it, a woman holding some kind of medical chart was waiting for him, sitting on a chair. Next to her was a sofa. Standing to her side, a Alakazam.
Ash entered the room.
"You can lie on the couch, or sit if you prefer."
Ash sat on the couch and stared at the ceiling fan that whirled overhead.
The woman read his file.
"Ash Ketchum, so... why are you here?"
I don't even know, he thought.
"Viridian's Nurse Joy gave me your card."
She frowned. "Hmmm I see. So how about we get started? I'll need you to lie down on the couch. Alakazam will need to do a psychic scan on your memories so I know exactly how to help you."
Ash did the order.
Then the Alakazam placed its two spoons around Ash's head and started moving them around. He felt a pang of pain come from his brain. In the blink of an eye, the Alakazam removed the pain spoons from around his head.
Then he placed them around the woman's head. After the end of everything, he returned to his starting position.
"And what do you feel when you remember what happened!?", she asked Ash.
"Honestly... I want to finish them with my bare hands! Make them pay for what they did. Sometimes I imagine myself squeezing that woman's throat until she begged for her life."
She started to write something down on the chart.
"Violence only attracts more violence, if you keep harboring all this grudge and hatred in your heart you will only end up perpetuating a never-ending chain of violence."
I don't give a flying fuck, he thought, hoping the Alakazam wasn't reading his mind.
"Uhm."
"Also, from the psychic scan, I see you've been having depressive and suicidal thoughts lately. We'll try to follow your treatment through therapy and the use of antidepressants I'll prescribe for you."
"I can't do therapy! I'm a pokemon trainer, I never stop at one place," he explained.
"Then you'll have to at least take antidepressants, one a day."
"Fine, I guess...," he agreed.
Ash took a deep breath, building up courage. He had already put off that moment for a long time and now he was finally ready.
In front of him, in the lobby of the pokémon center, the PC screen was turned on, entering the network.
He joined his contact list.
Professor Oak.
He selected and requested the video call.
After a few seconds on the dial screen, the video call started.
Oak was in his laboratory. Things were all messed up. There were books scattered everywhere.
"A-a-ash!?", he asked as he looked at Ash through the PC screen. "I've been trying to reach you for days now. Nurse Joy had warned me that you weren't handling the recent events very well. I was worried."
Ash replied, "I was sinking into a hole with no escape... But I'm healing now."
Suddenly, Oak had been pushed aside by two familiar arms. Then his mother appeared, making room to face him.
"ASH, FOR GOD'S SAKE. I'M GLAD TO SEE YOU WELL!", she screamed while crying uncontrollably. "WHEN I LEARNED WHAT HAPPENED TO GARY, I ALMOST HAD A HEART ATTACK THINKING THAT MY SON HAD DIED TOO."
"Mom..."
"I'M PRACTICALLY LIVING HERE AT OAK'S LAB, WAITING FOR NEWS ABOUT YOU. WHY HAVE YOU JUST COME TO TALK TO US NOW?"
Ash didn't know how to replie that.
"Calm down mom, calm down. I'm fine."
She started sobbing as she tried to calm down.
"What about that expression on your face? You're so skinny and with lifeless eyes. I knew it! I knew I shouldn't have let you leave the house alone! I've always feared the worst would happen. This pokemon trainer life is too dangerous for children... Maybe you should come back home."
Ash replied rudely, "No!"
"But..."
"My dream is to be a pokémon master, and for that I need to face the strongest trainers in the world. I won't be able to be anything in life if I stay forever in Pallet!"
His mother wiped her tears.
"I knew I couldn't convince a hardhead like you. But I couldn't help but try."
"What happened with Gary was really tragic, but I can't give up on my dreams if I take a step back with every failure," he explained.
Oak made room and spoke to Ash again: "Ash, we were all worried without hearing nothing from you. You have to understand your mother's point of view!" The lines of his face hardened. "I still feel responsible for the end my grandson had. I wonder if his fate would have been different if I had stopped him from leaving so soon. But life goes on and we can't live carrying the weight of something that wasn't in our power. ."
"I know...", Ash said. He remembered Gary's last request before he died. "Oak, before he died, Gary asked me something..."
The man was curious.
"What?"
"Do you know where his Charmander ended up?"
"It's here in my lab, along with the other pokemons deposited by other trainers."
"Before Gary died he told me to take care of him. So I was thinking... Could you let him stay with me?"
Oak looked thoughtful. "If it was my grandson's request, I don't see a problem. Besides, he's been very depressed... He spends practically the whole day inside the PokéBall and doesn't even have the energy to play with others. I think it'll be good for both of you."
Oak disappeared from the screen and his mother chattered again.
"Are you eating well? Brushing your teeth? Sleeping eight hours a day?"
There were so many questions that Ash ended up getting lost.
Oak came back. "I already have Charmander's PokéBall here with me. I'll do the transfer process."
The PC screen changed to "POKEMON TRANSFER IN PROGRESS."
A few moments later a PokéBall was thrown through a tube. Ash took it.
Oak returned to the screen. "Now you can consider yourself the official owner of Charmander."
Ash grabbed the orb.
He continued talking to Delia and Oak for a while, explaining everything that happened from Gary's death to the arrival of the police, his trip to the hospital and his testimony to Officer Jenny about the rocket team, as well as a description of what they looked like.
At the end of the call, he took the Charmander out of the Poké Ball.
"Charmander..." Ash remembered the name Gary had given the pokemon. "No, Ember. Now you're my mate and part of my team."
The lizard just looked at the ground, head down.
"I know you're sad about everything that happened, I'm still recovering too. But I can assure you, I promise, even if I die to fulfill this promise, but I swear to avenge his death."
The flame on the pokemon's tail suddenly lit up.
Ash smiled too. Both pokemon and trainer united by a single feeling. Hatred.
Ash handed Joy the room key in the center pantry.
"I'm leaving now. Thanks for worrying about me!", Ash thanked her.
The woman smiled.
"I hope you are lucky on your journey, Ash."
Ash left the center and took his parked bike. He guided it toward the street and climbed into the saddle. In the bicycle basket was Luna.
In his backpack he carried all the things, in addition to the antidepressants he had to buy at some drugstore in the town.
He opened it and, from there, took out the medicine. From the packet he removed a pill and swallowed it dry.
Then he went back to putting it away.
He began pedaling through the streets of Viridian, watching the afternoon sun shine in the sky on the horizon. He looked ahead, thinking about his first gym battle that he intended to have at Pewter's gym.
The trees of the Viridian Forest in the distance formed a huge carpet of green, stretching as far as the eye could follow.
That day, Ash had set himself a new goal. In addition to becoming a pokemon master and reuniting with his father, there was also something he intended to accomplish as a life goal.
I'll destroy Team Rocket.