Chapter 106 Family Reunion

Ash is having a hard time processing what he has done when he was being controlled by the PULSE Hypno, and he can't believe he managed to do a 6 vs. 36 with his own victory as well.

Delia: And here we are. I don't know by what means or madness Shade pulled you back into this world, but it appears you have business that you are not yet permitted to quit. If I may be so bold, how was it on your end that you managed to return?

Ash: Luna...she showed me the way, and then Shade brought me out there.

Serra: Luna did? Then...

Radomus: It seems there are still miracles that defy our understanding. Will you still hold your wounds close, Miss Voclain?

Serra: I don't know what to count on anymore. Maybe nothing.

Radomus: Now you're getting it. Let us presume to hope she will be back one day. After all, you never know who will stroll through the door next. Everyone is always coming and going, and coming right back.

Just then, Anna and Noel rush into the room, and Anna quickly rushes toward Ash and gives him a hug.

Anna: Ash, you made it back~ Not that I doubted Nostra or anything!

Serra: Where did these kids come from?

Anna: Mom! Good to see you again!

Delia: How are you two, Noel? Anna?

Noel: We're doing fine, Mother.

Anna: (Notices Serra) Ohmigod! Are you okay?! What happened?!

Serra: (Confused) I'm... sorry?

Anna: Those cracks all over your skin- do you need help!?

Serra: On my... skin? Am I getting wrinkles again...

Anna: No, not wrinkles! Cracks! See, all over here, and here, and here- (Points at the spots, but Serra can't see it)

Serra: I... don't?

Noel: Don't worry about it. She always sees things other people don't.

Serra: That seems safe.

Anna: It's not always! Geez!

Delia: But you two have some explaining to do, I know Ash is here for Team Meteor, but what are you two doing here? This isn't the place for the both of you to come.

Anna: Nu-uh! If this wasn't a place for children, then why would we be here?

Noel: (Turns to Radomus, who has been looking away) We're here for him.

Anna: Yup! Nostra made us sleep so that that poor Hypno couldn't! And then we came to meet him! (Walks to Radomus) Hi! Cute hat! Have you been crying?

Radomus: Not anymore. You really are just like her. Come here.

Then Radomus hug both Noel and Anna, but Serena and Lillie seem to be confused.

Ash: Oh, I haven't told you, this is Noel and Anna, they are my younger brother and sister. Blood-related.

Serena: Seriously? You have siblings?

Anna: What, like everyone didn't see that coming!

Lillie: ...Yeah, Ash didn't mention that to us, and we didn't know you exist...

Anna: Sorry to keep you waiting so long!

Radomus: It is so very, very all right. I'm just happy to see you again... You've both gotten so big. When I last saw you, you were just thiiis tiny! And if anyone should be sorry to keep someone waiting, it's me. You both deserved so much more.

Anna: It's all right! Nostra says this is the only way it could have happened.

Radomus: I do know how that is. So you've still got it. That's a relief.

Anna: Of course I do! We would never willingly let go of something you gave us!

Radomus: (Turns to Noel's doll) And that Cleffa too.

Anna: His name's Nomos!

Radomus: Nomos. Hello, it's nice to meet you.

Noel: ...He says "hi".

Anna: Noel, tell him everything Nomos says, not just the first part!

Radomus: Noel, you said? And if I heard correctly, you go by Anna.

Anna: Yup, that's us!

Noel: Shouldn't you already know that?

Delia: Those aren't the names that I chose for you. Painter. (Refers to Noel) Fantasia. (Refers to Anna)

Anna: Those are such cool names!

Radomus: She had some flair about her. But when I had to let you go, I purposely withheld your names so there would be no way they could find you.

Noel: Who is "they"?

Radomus: Team Meteor.

Ash: Dad, can you tell us the whole story now? I mean, why would you send Noel and Anna to the orphanage?

Radomus: It is not a simple story... but I will say it as clearly as I can. Mistakes are lessons waiting to be learned, and some might say I have been very well educated indeed. During one such lesson, a certain person helped me understand that particular objects could be very dangerous in that group's possession. So, I did what I had to, and stole those particular objects. In order to disguise their origin, I asked a close friend to fashion each of them into jewelry. Jewelry was a passion of his back then, but he was unprepared for the energy those keys held, and one of them broke in half. He was able to recover it, and he did fantastic work with the others, so I gave him one of the finished pieces as thanks. And with the others, I sought out buyers. In particular, I searched for strong Trainers who would be able to effectively defend the pieces, should Meteor try to recover them. Caroline and Monty were the first. With two Gym Leaders together, I felt certain they would be safe. They chose the Sapphire Key to match their eldest daughter's name. Next was Mr. Molinar. He chose the Ring for his engagement. (Turns to Delia) And the last one I entrusted to the beauty who showed me the light. And so, I reinvented myself with a new name, a new personality, and a new history. Ash, I hope you will forgive me for deceiving you. My wealth has never come from my success as a chess player. It came from the sales of those Keys, and a few extra digits taken from Meteor's coffers. I always hoped to be able to fulfill your mother's dream of living in a castle.

Delia: And I'm still glad that you work it out.

Anna: That's so cool!

Radomus: I do not defend thievery, but I daresay it was a better use of the money than they would have found for it. And, for a time, she was happy. I thought it would all end happily, but it turns out "happily ever after" just means the next story hasn't started yet. Team Meteor learned of what I had done, who I was, and where the Keys were. And so, it began anew. Your mother and Ash were walking miracles. But for better or worse, people often outlive their miracles. After their disappearance, I was scared, above all else, for both of your safeties. It was a long time ago, but I had done something back then that made them very angry. I didn't want any harm to come to you, so I had to make sure you didn't get mixed up with them. And just look how that turned out.

Ash: It's okay, we know you were just doing your best!

Radomus: Whether it was right or not. (Takes out the Amethyst Pendant to Anna) Here. You should have this back.

Anna: You had it! I was so sad after it was taken! I was so sad that I got sick and almost died of sadness!

Noel: (Jealous) Why did you give it to her?

Radomus: It was not one of my better plays, perhaps. I was hoping Team Meteor would never find it if it was with you two, but instead, it gave them cause to seek you out. Perhaps sentimentality got the better of me.

Anna: Whether that was right or wrong~

Ash: Dad, I think Noel means is that...why do you choose Anna for the Pendant, instead of Noel?

Noel: Thanks, Ash. I want to know, why is Anna the one that's always special?

Radomus: Ah...

Anna: (Takes the Pendant and gives to Noel) Here. You can keep it.

Noel: (Surprised at his sister's action) No, that's okay. I don't want it. I just wanted to know. You deserve it more than I do.

Anna: It's not about deserving it or not! Just take it!

Noel: Anna, I can't even hear Nomos. I never could. I shouldn't hold something like that.

Anna: I know you can't.

Noel: What?

Anna: That's okay! You'll understand eventually. If you ever want to hold the Pendant instead, just ask me, okay?

Noel: Okay. (Turns to Radomus) So why did you give it to Anna?

Radomus: It was your mother's. I simply thought it would suit her better. But it seems there may be some cause and effect in your similarities after all... Still, I understand that was unfair to you. I hope you can forgive me.

Noel: It's not like it matters.

Serra: I don't understand any of you.

Ash: What do you mean by that?

Serra: It's been how many years, and you all just go on as if nothing happened? You act like all of you knew the whole time that you would meet here.

Radomus: The future has a funny way of never being how we know it. But we never had to know; All we had to do was decide. The future cannot hold a candle to resolution.

Anna: Ummm... Well, to tell the truth, I knew all along! It was just a matter of waiting for the right timing~ And since I knew Daddy would be lonely in the meantime, I asked my friend to help out!

Radomus: I beg your pardon? To whom are you referring?

Anna: Mr. Shadow, of course!

Radomus: You are referring to the same Shade that Luna spoke of?

Anna: Yep! I asked Mr. Shadow to lead her to you so that you wouldn't be alone like before!

Serra: Then when she came to stay with me... Was that your doing as well?

Anna: Nope! Either she or Mr. Shadow did that on their own!

Delia: And just now... When she stepped into the black hole, Was that in your plan?

Anna: (Gasps) She did what?!

Radomus: I see... In other words, she was never meant to leave me.

Anna: Because then you would have just been lonely again! Plus, I think she would have made a great older sister! Don't you, Noel? Ash?

Ash: Maybe you're right.

Noel: I still don't know who you're talking about.

Serra: But even when they're meant to stick around, no one does.

Anna: Nobody's always there, but somebody always is! That means that there's nobody to miss!

Noel: Considering something like the law of large numbers, it's only logical this would happen eventually if we kept looking.

Anna: Plus, we had a little help~

Serra: (Sighs) You're unbelievable.

Anna: What! I can totally be believed! Right, Noel?

Noel: Sometimes.

Anna: Noel!

Serra: But despite being unbelievable, here you all are.

Anna: Then that just means you need to change your beliefs! If how you see things isn't an accurate reflection of reality, then why keep looking that way?

Noel: You're the last person who should be saying that.

Anna: Or the first!

Serra: A reflection of reality, huh? In that case... Maybe it's better to just put the mirror down. Let there be no reflection at all.

Anna: And see things however works best for you!

Serra: Smooth talking runs in the family, doesn't it?

Delia: I guess so? And maybe we all have room to learn from them too.

Anna: It's tough to lose people, but you can just lean on the people still around you! So depend on us now!

Delia: (Chuckles) Hey now, who's the parent here?

Anna: Oops!

Radomus: But you are, of course, correct. I only lament that I had to say "good bye" to Gardevoir and Luna to say "hello" to you.

Serra: Not to mention the other boy. But I'll admit, it could have been much worse, given the circumstances.

Radomus: Perhaps the only reason the damage was so minimal was because Gardevoir fought to control herself even though their hypnosis.

Serra: Loyal to the very end? That's something I'm not used to.

Anna: Maybe it's time you changed that!

?: Um, excuse us!

Just then, Eve and Lumi walk into the room, much to Ash's surprise and delight.

Eve: Sorry to interrupt, but-

Anna: (Rushes towards them) You did it, you did it! Great job to both of you! (Turns to the others) Okay, everybody! These are my friends, Lumi and Eve!

Lumi: Um, hi!

Eve: We've caused a lot of trouble for you. Please accept my apologies.

Radomus: I believe the man in black who was here before had called out to you?

Eve: That is correct... if pitiable.

Lumi: It's kiiind of a long story, but basically, we were stuck together with him for a long time ...In the same body. I wouldn't recommend the experience...

Eve: In essence, we've had to work for Team Meteor the entire time. I developed the PULSE systems that have been used to create a nearly-insurmountable degree of trouble.

Serra: Oh. Thanks for that.

Lumi: Hey, she didn't do it because she wanted to!

Eve: I agreed to develop machines for Team Meteor only under the condition that Lumi's physical body would be adequately preserved.

Lumi: That BOTH of our bodies would be. You don't need to keep putting yourself aside.

Eve: I always intended to find a way to restore ourselves to our proper bodies, But working towards that was impossible when we didn't even have the privacy of our own thoughts.

Lumi: I'm happy to be back, but I wish we didn't have to lose that poor Magnezone for it... And full control took a little while to get used to again...

Eve: It was difficult at first, yes. Thank you again for what you did.

Anna: Totally!

Lillie: And... what exactly was that?

Anna: Noel and I switched places with these girls! Nostra said it would be really important for them to wake up right away!

Eve: Thanks to that, we were able to help Ash reach this place. We hid in and moved through vents to evade Team Meteor and stole our Pokémon back to help Ash.

Ash: (Smiles) I knew they were your Pokemon.

Lumi: (Blushes at Ash) Thanks for taking good care of Glaceon, Ash! It was kind of like a really intense game of hide and seek!

Eve: Though what happened after Ash actually got here could have gone better.

Lumi: Yeah... Um, don't get us wrong, Ash! We're not trying to fault you! But we knew Zero would try to use Hypno to control you- So we tried to stop it!

Eve: We tried to cut the system's power as soon as he used it on you, But unfortunately, the power supply had an auto-reboot function. I hadn't accounted for this to preempt it, so all we were able to do was power cycle the system.

Lumi: We were hoping if we did it enough, maybe it would make enough holes in the control scheme for Ash to break through!

Eve: But you saw the result.

Ash: That's okay, you tried as best you could!

Lumi: I feel really bad for Cain... He never even had a chance to act on his own from the time he came here to when he fell into the black hole...

Anna: Yeah... But! Ash came back, so maybe he can too!

Radomus: Speaking of coming back, it may be prudent for us to quit this place before too long.

Lumi: Um! Would it be all right for us to go with you? We don't really know who else to turn to to get away from Team Meteor...

Anna: Are you kidding?! Not only can you come with us- you have to!

Delia: I see no reason why not.

Anna: Everyone will be waiting in Calcenon City!

Eve: I have some information about Team Meteor that will be of relevance to you all as well.

Serra: (Turns to Shelly, who is still sleeping) What should we do about this one?

Anna: (Tries to wake Shelly up) Hey there, sleepyhead! It's time to wake up~ Look at all the friends surrounding you!

Shelly: (Slowly wakes up) Mmm...? (Notices Ash and the others) Umm... What... What happened? Where is Cain?

Ash: We'll have to explain later... For now we need to get going!

Lumi: By the way, there was that boy sleeping in one of the elevators still!

Radomus: That sounds like a cozy place.

Eve: We tried to wake him up after Hypno had been stopped, but he still wouldn't move.

Lumi: Even Glaceon's Heal Bell wouldn't work- he just went right back to sleep every time!

Radomus: We'll see what we can do. Should worse come to worst, I'll carry him myself.

Lumi: Can you really get him by yourself?

Radomus: All the way to Calcenon? Certainly not. But as long as we have our Pokémon, anything is possible.

Ash: Or maybe we can just give him a Wake-Up Slap, his sister often does that to him.

The others laugh as they all leave the Glass Workstation and heads back to Calcenon City.


And here is a new chapter, as you can see, Noel and Anna finally get to meet Radomus, their father. I hope you like this chapter and we'll be getting back to Agate City with Team Meteor in the next chapter.