Chapter 14 – The Mind
Iccirus City – Pokemon Center
In the room we had booked for the night or two depending on how things turn out, Espeon and I were sat on the bed preparing ourselves. Espeon was concentrating all of her Psychic energy to allow another Psychic to enter her mind to find out what the soldiers were saying before she lost consciousness by The Five. We had no other lead on where to go next to search for another underground base or anything important. It was kind of a long shot, but it was better than nothing.
"So what happened to this Latias you two met in the hotel? Is she still up there?" Lisa asked after shutting the door.
"By the time we left the hotel we saw her leave. She flew off somewhere east of the region." I shook my head. "I can't say where she flew off to. But she did warn us about the routes being patrolled by Team Annihilation Reborn Soldier's, and once she has finished with her task she'll come back to us. So until then, Espeon and I will enter the Dark Place to try to find something to help us on where we need to go next."
"So what should we do if something happens?" Brent asked as he leaned against the bed post. "It's not like we can carry you two to escape more of them soldiers out there if they discover us."
"True, carrying Psychics still within the Dark Place will result in both minds being broken. Moving the body while within the Dark Place has a very high chance at disconnecting from the mind, meaning by moving any particular body part from its original position as they were before entering the Dark Place could shatter the mind and we'll be either suffer from amnesia as it has happened to Zackary once before, or long term confusion." Espeon said with her eyes still shut, breathing slowly. "While Zackary and I are in the Dark Place, just whisper into our ears, we can listen and we'll be out within seconds. Just remember not to touch or interfere."
"Dark Place…" Brent Scoffed. "Who named it that?"
"It was just something many Psychics all agreed on naming it." I said, thinking about the exact words Espeon once told me about it. "Passed around this region and beyond for many years. No one knows who named it that or what region the first mentioning of the Dark Place."
"Heh, I wouldn't be able to handle it. Staying still for a long period of time ain't my thing." Brent chuckled. "But you two do what you do best and me and Lisa will hold the fort. We'll let you know if something's up."
Espeon smiled at that and turned to face me with a smile. "Before we begin, do you remember the rules before entering the Dark Place?" Espeon asked me before leaning forward and pressing her forehead against mine.
"I do; never stand up or move your physical body while you are in the Dark Place state, your mind cannot handle both at the same time, and only one can be used. Doing so will result in your mind being destroyed, wiped clean, perhaps never returning leaving you a broken empty shell."
"Correct my Psychic apprentice." Espeon giggled. "I see you still have remembered all of that after our last Psychic training session. Okay, let's do this. Oh and Zackary, what you are about to see are my memories and thoughts. I have never shown anyone this so uh… whatever you see, my personal memories, please keep it a secret."
"Don't worry, what personal things I see in the Dark Place will never be talked about to another living soul. We're looking for something to help us find our next destination." Satisfied with this, Espeon breathed in and out slowly, and I did the same.
"Use your Psychic energy; combine yours with mine to become one. Clear your mind and focus. Enter the Dark Place but remember to keep your Psychic energy around mine or else it will not work." I used up more of my Psychic around Espeon's before entering the Dark Place. Closing my eyes for a time and entering the Dark Place started by seeing nothing but darkness, but after a few seconds or minutes depending on how focused you are you could look down and see your body and memories floating around you in the dark void, you were in the Dark Place finally. But this time instead of just me and the memories, right in front of me was Espeon slowly adjusting herself within our combined usage of the Dark Place. "It worked. Phew… I thought it would take a lot more out of me when attempting it for the first time, but we did it with ease."
"So who taught you how to do this combined Dark Place?" I asked as I noticed at the corner of my eye a memory of Espeon eating from a bowl of either fruit or berries. "Because I have never heard you could get another to join in with you while in the Dark Place."
"Only Psychics can enter the Dark Place with another Psychic, never a non-Psychic type. I was surprised by this combined Dark Place with other Psychics being a thing. But it isn't a well known thing as to solo use of this Dark Place." She shook her head, swiping away at three memories getting very close to her and sending them flying back into the void. She lifted up her paw as she made another memory of her talking with another Psychic type, an Abra. "To make a long story short, I met this Abra a while back; he told me about combined Dark Place with another Psychic if we combine our Psychic energy first before entering the state. The Pokemon he was with, another Psychic confirmed it. I looked it up to verify it to find out thankfully that it was official and not a 'haha got you' sort of joke or something silly. So now it is confirmed that it works how about we get to work then?" I agreed and helped her look around at the memories flowing past us, recent, and distant memories long since past.
Memories ranging from the good, to the neutral, and the bad floated around us, thousands upon thousands of them. "The mind is such a large place full of memories, thoughts, skills, dreams and many more all Psychics can access through training. Stuff we forget, to the blurriest of memoires from a time long since past we can remember clearly as if it had happened recently. How much have you discovered while you were in your Dark Place?"
"Nothing much. I have been training with my Psychic a lot in my version so I don't have time to check out my memories."
"Remember my apprentice, using the Dark Place can make your Psychic moves stronger even without training. Accessing the mind helps out. You can tire out faster by training like that, so take a load off and relax by looking through your memories; you'll still train, only slower. So give your mind a rest once in a while."
We saw memories fly past us, a column of memories mostly revolving around Gardevoir reading from one of her dictionaries. "Behold the boring memories. Most of them belonging to Gardevoir and her dictionary. Although boring, she did help me remember some big words and their meaning to help out in a conversation. I guess I should rename that section 'Gardevoir' since most of it does belong to her. She isn't boring without her dictionary; she actually is fun to be around. But with a dictionary in her paws that's when the fun ends."
"I suppose this could be a useful section. I mean sure it might come across as boring, but at least you got help because of this, you remembered big words as you put it. You do have a lot of memories of her."
Espeon glanced back at the long column of the memories of Gardevoir fly by and smiled. "Yeah. As boring as she can be at times, I do pick up on a lot of the stuff she reads from her book, even if I already know the meaning. Hey Zackary, remind me after all of this is over to ask Gardevoir to read from one of her dictionaries." The memories of Gardevoir all floated away while the recent memories came to view.
We watched as many memories flew by, some I recognized, others I didn't. But some that I did see weren't exactly good memories; they were the bad memories, arguments, fighting, death, miserable times. Espeon noticed me looking at those memories and said to me.
"I go through these memories as if watching an old TV show, laughing at some funny things, remembering important things. Even keeping the bad memories, and watching them again."
"Why do you keep the bad memories and watch them again? Wouldn't it be better to erase the bad stuff?"
Espeon shook her head. "I watch them and keep them so I can learn from them. I see memories of arguments, fighting… and death. To watch were it went wrong and how if another bad thing would happen I could try to prevent it. Those who don't learn from past mistakes are doomed to repeat it… I think that's how it goes."
I watched as memories passed by us like floating monitors all playing a past a memory through Espeon's eyes; bad memories to the left, and good memories to the right, and the forgettable or boring memory flying overhead. Espeon turned to as she found one of the bad memories of when I had just turned into a Dewott. The memory showed Espeon on top of the bed while watching over me when I was in a coma for two weeks.
"This I'd say was more of a sad memory than bad." I turned back at Espeon as she controlled the memory closer towards us allowing us to hear everything within the memory. It was silent, well apart from the voices we both heard in the background, too muffled for us to hear. "I was worried you wouldn't wake up, that Shiny Latias took away my best friend from me just like that. I was also beginning to plan a what if scenario; what if Zackary didn't wake up, or couldn't? What if the worse should happen? Then I thought that maybe I should go after her. It kept me up most nights. I'm glad you did wake up." She smiled, before making the memory return back to the other bad memories continuously flying past us.
"Me too Espeon. We had a lot fun together, didn't we?" I said pointing at a memory floating past us, a good memory of our time together learning to use Psychic for a week. The memory of the two of us learning the basics, understanding of the moves I never thought had much too it, and by the end of it we had fun together. Espeon saw the memory and made it come closer to us, smiling as she watched herself playing with me, using Psychic to play catch with an apple.
"That really was a good a memory. Not only that but we had a whole lot more to follow." We noticed more memories fly past us, memories with friends, relaxing and having fun. Times before Shiny Latias came, times with Latias… I just wished things could return back to the way things were once this was all over so we could make new memories like this together. Espeon sighed as she watched the good memories pass us, watching one or two of them she was interested on watching, but right now we had to focus, we needed to know what the soldiers said after they beat us up outside the mountain cave.
The man I remember known as Bulldozer from his deep voice I could hear him talk to someone on the phone. "We have the target lying unconscious alongside his allies. What should we do with them?" The woman known as Iris walked to an unconscious Brent with a gun pointed at his head, pressing the gun and pushing him with it.
"The bitch! I thought I was seeing things, but how disgusting is it that she did something like that. Who pulls a gun on someone like that? It makes me sick!"
"Mr. Sad has just checked with the Dewott and his allies, all unconscious but beaten up. They'll live and be on their feet again in a day. Made sure none of our attacks were anywhere near lethal or could damage a bone needed to walk or to fight for the future battle." The memory darkened as Iris stood up and turned and walked towards Espeon. The both of us sensed something pressed against our foreheads. The gun most likely since she did the same thing to Brent. We sensed fear. 'Would she kill us if the woman found out if I were still conscious?' was heard in Espeon's mind, a thought Espeon had forgotten about.
"I thought she would kill me if I showed signs I was still hanging in there. Listening in on their conversations could end up with me dead or ending up worse." Espeon spoke up after pausing the memory, rubbing her paw against her cheek. "I couldn't concentrate on what they were saying, it was mumbled and I couldn't only focus on staying perfectly still and appearing not too active for them to arouse suspicion."
Espeon played the memory again, and for the rest of duration of the memory we could only listen in. "Understood. The rest of us will get into place to prepare for the final stage. I'll rendezvous back in Lacunosa Town to meet the team. When the target arrives I'll make sure we're all stocked up and ready for-"
"What's up?" Mr Sad asked Bulldozer, hearing him walk over to him.
"The boss says none of us should go back to labs, we should stay where we were assigned to be. I guess we are looking at our final days then."
The gun was finally lifted off of Espeon, hearing Iris holster her weapon and walk towards the two. "Well that's good. I didn't need to head back to the lab. Doing so would've been a waste of my time."
"I suggest we leave right away before someone decides to pass through here. Last we need is for-" The memory ended as Espeon has fell unconscious.
"Lacunosa Town." Espeon and I looked at each other. "That guy talking to whoever it was on the phone mentioned there was a lab there." I was relieved at first that we got something out of this, but something about didn't feel right. Team Annihilation Reborn soldiers are usually careful about confidential information about bases and labs. Because of their controlled states they never talk besides giving orders and alerting to each other 'Target sighted: Zack Raines!' at the sight of me. I asked Espeon to replay the memory again; maybe I could pick up on something I missed at watching this memory or pick up on some sounds in the background that could help. They seemed somewhat sad that they would be splitting up; I suppose they saw each other as a real team or they were really close. On the day they beat us up in that battle, they told us they weren't controlled by Shiny Latias, and they willingly decided to follow her. Maybe they were controlled at some point to mention the location of the base to us? I didn't know, to me it felt somewhat easy if not for the Dark Place to obtain this information. Even if we didn't have acess to the Dark Place we would've been left wandering the region until we at least got something to go by.
Espeon kept the memory floating beside us, watching the memory in silence before she spoke up. "So there is an underground laboratory located there. Question is what lies within? Is Reiko located inside? Is it Latias? Or maybe it is Shiny Latias preparing for the final stage of her plan? Well whatever is in that lab we should check it out."
"Yeah, but this time we need to be fully stocked on medical supplies. It'll be a while before we can get to Lacunosa. In the meantime we can train and prepare ourselves for the road ahead." I didn't want a repeat of what had happened outside of the cave, beaten and almost killed without thinking, without making sure we were stocked up. If there really was something inside that underground lab, how would we find it?
The two of us left the Dark Place; we were finished in that state and needed to tell Lisa and Brent what we had discovered. We told them what we saw, what the soldiers said about an underground lab within Lacunosa Town. Lisa and Brent both left the center to purchase supplies for the road ahead; medical, food, battle, anything to help us for the battle to come.
Before Espeon and I looked at the map to see what route and what city/town awaited us, plan out our route. I thought back to when I almost left the city alone to find Shiny Latias and Team Annihilation Reborn. "Espeon, this morning I when I almost left this city to go off by myself, leaving a note and talking to you like that… I'm sorry; I just didn't want anyone to be hurt because of me." I felt I needed to say it. I'm glad I didn't leave; otherwise things might've turned out differently.
"Zackary, I'm not mad at you." She said before placing a paw on my shoulder. "I'm just worried about you. Ever since you left five years ago to search for our missing friends and Shiny Latias, I always wanted to search for you, to come with you like we did when we were still a team working alongside The Savior's. But as I hate to admit I was weaker back then, even during that year almost all of us thought you were dead I lacked in training or mastering my moves, I would've slowed you down. So I trained myself all those years so when I knew I was ready I could come looking for you and the two of us could travel together like we did all those years ago. But what Maia said, you can't do this alone. My memory of that beating we all took, if you had left I probably wouldn't have thought back on it and entered the Dark Place. It would be another memory I'd have floating up there amongst my other dark memories for the rest of my life without looking into it too much. If you did leave by yourself, despite what you said I'd still follow. Because that's what friends do. You can't win this battle alone. So you're stuck with me until then end." She smiled. I felt somewhat better in a way. On the outside I just smiled and turned my head down at the map sitting there between us.
The remainder of that day was uneventful, planning our route on the map, making a note at the side as a reminder that The Five had split up and would be waiting for us. Every route, city, and town we enter we would have to be careful, because one screw up could mean the end. I just hoped the end would come a lot later for us all, years later than sooner, a peaceful end.
To be continued…
Trivia:
Originally, Espeon and Zack were able to get up and move around within the dark place and travel through their memories. I felt this section would kind of drag on for too long and felt really unnecessary to include.
AN: Yeah I know, this chapter was a short one. But the next chapter will be a lot longer, but depending on things involving with my computer not working for me again i may be late on uploading the next chapter. sorry about that. Thanks for reading the story, more to come soon. Until next time.