Chapter 15 – Another Weakness

Route 08 – Three Years Ago

After returning back to the Unova region after my training with Master Ken within the Kanto region, my search continued once again. Getting off at the ship at Castelia City without any other lead to go by, I just randomly went in one direction and found myself at Route 08, searching every corner of the area to find a clue at least or something that would help me lead to a Team Annihilation Reborn base or camp just like the others. And just like the others I would end up with nothing and move on to the next, and the next, and the next until I go around the region in one big circle.

The region was somewhat lacking with the amount of Team Annihilation Reborn soldiers I would usually see patrolling certain areas. Up to a hundred soldiers within a town or city, half the amount at a route or inside a cave with the buzzing drones hidden within the treetops and their Pokemon pretending to be wild Pokemon just waiting for me to show up. And yet it was so much less than that. I was worried that they might have followed me when I left the Unova region to the Kanto region that Master Ken could be in trouble. "I'm sure he's fine. I'm sure the soldiers went somewhere else in this region, maybe back to their main base… when I'm back at the center I'll check to see if the Kanto region has been flooded with Team Annihilation Reborn soldiers yet, if so then I'll try and contact him and warn him to stay alert… and I suppose if not then I'll still warn him."

The walk was going well, a little too quiet for my liking but no sight of any soldiers or drones so far, but I still kept my guard up. But if I kept it up a lot more than I did, then I would have noticed a Pokemon leap out from the bushes before tackling me into the bushes off the main path. The Pokemon immediately covered my mouth when I tried to speak, and then whispered into my ear. "Be quiet!" I looked back to see the legendary Pokemon Mew, but this wasn't any other wild Mew, but one I knew; Jessica. Her fur was white like mine and her sclera black and irises purple and her pupils a darker shade of purple. Back when we were fighting against Team Doom, she was a member of the Team Doom Eight, eight human turned Pokemon lived only to be killed by me so I could absorb there energy and become stronger before Shiny Latias would come after me and to control me. She didn't like being a part of Team Doom, and I wanted to take them down, and so the two of us helped each other out. Jessica provided me and my team help, and I helping to free Jessica from Team Doom and Shiny Latias so she can live a happy life somewhere else. I had not seen her since the attack on Team Doom's base, I had questions to ask her about what had happened to Shiny Latias since, but with her paw still covering my mouth, I instead looked where she was pointing with her other paw. Through the bushes we watched as soldier's were walking down the path; five, ten, thirty of them with controlled Pokemon of many types walking alongside them, and many drones too many to count.

We watched as they walked on by not one of them noticing we were ever there. After they left we crawled out from the bush and carefully looked around if there were any more following behind the large squadron.

"That was a close one." She sighed; brushing off some leafs stuck in her fur. "I saw you up high in the trees before about to walk into them. Sorry I just tackled you like that without giving you a heads up first."

"No, it's alright, no harm done." I smiled. "Jessica, it's so good to see you again."

"It's good to see you again too, Zack." She smiled, but before glancing over her shoulder down the path the soldiers came from. "I suggest we get off the path and head somewhere else for a little while. There are more soldiers up ahead near Opelucid City." I nodded and followed Jessica as she guided me away from the path and into the forest.

After a good distance away from the main path we found ourselves at a small clearing with a small unoccupied cave at the side and decided to stay in there for a little while until it was safer for us to travel again.

"It was a good thing I noticed you before you entered this route, or else you would've ended up in a battle against Team Annihilation Reborn soldiers. Less than the amount of soldiers I saw a three weeks back near Castelia City, but troublesome to deal with singlehandedly."

"You saw a lot of soldiers three weeks ago?" I asked, "I noticed there are less soldiers around, where did they go?"

"I stopped at a small team of soldiers stationed outside Accumula. I heard over the radio a soldier was using, he mentioned something about entering I think was called… the beginning stage of something I couldn't hear from where I was hidden within a bush not wanting to be caught by them. Whatever it was, almost every single soldier had returned to the main base to train."

"They all returned to their base?" Back then I was more disappointed I had missed a huge opening on finding Shiny Latias other than ask more on this beginning stage they were talking about. Maia had mentioned the same thing that Team Annihilation Reborn was at, the final stage of their plan. But even if I did attempt to sneak on one of the trucks or follow them to their base, I doubt I would be prepared to face Shiny Latias without training first. "Did you follow them?"

"They were told they would be moving between three and eight of the next morning from the call. I waited and prepared myself to follow the soldiers closely. The time came, and slowly the minutes passed until two hours passed, yet the soldiers did not budge, they never moved from their spot. They remained there for three weeks, that's when the soldiers returned from the main base to patrol the region again."

I showed my disappointment on the outside, almost letting it slip by revealing that I had left this region to go train in the Kanto region. It's not because I didn't trust her, it's just the fewer who knew about Master Ken the better. So it was best to stay silent and make up my training methods to others rather than risk the safety of others. "I see. At least I know they do return back to their base, I'll be ready for them the next time they do return."

"So Zack, what have you been doing since we last saw each other? I have heard rumors about you being the only active member of The Savior's of the Unova branch left."

"Yeah, that's about right. I accept jobs people request; find my Pokemon, find my bag, help me fight off a rowdy gang here and there, jobs like that to get myself a room and hot food for the night."

"All by yourself?" She asked, I just nodded in silence. "And you are fighting Team Annihilation Reborn on your own?"

"That too." I set my bag down to the side of the cave and clutched my cloak tighter as the cold air entered the cave entrance. "What about you? After Team Doom I heard from Espeon you went back with them but left shortly after."

"I have been out here just wandering to and from different locations, sometimes trying to find out more about my family, my life before I became a Mew. But mostly I end up with nothing with the remainder running into Team Annihilation Reborn." Jessica sighed as she leaned back against the rock wall. "I don't know if they know or not that I was once a member of Team Doom or that Shiny Latias is still after me, so I flee faster than they see me not wanting to have to run into her again. Where have you been?"

"After Shiny Latias controlled me, forced me into the Dark Place and losing memory in the process, I ended up being thrown off the rooftop and into the river. Without any memory of who I was or where I had come from I was found washed ashore the beach near Castelia City by an Oshawott named Aqua. We joined a gang run by a psychotic Purrloin, we escaped to return to Nuvema Town after remembering something about it whilst being pursued by Purrloin and her gang, and before I had recovered all of my memory Aqua evolved into a Dewott and the two of us got into a relationship and had children. The two of us returned to town after defeating Purrloin and her gang to find out Shiny Latias had kidnapped Latias and my friends, and so alone I have been out here searching for them to bring them back home."

"You and Latias were a thing, right?" I nodded in silence. "And you're saying you forgot everything and you and this Aqua got together and had children?"

"Yeah… if I had known about Latias and how we were a couple, I wouldn't have gotten into a relationship with Aqua, I'm not like that." I said feeling uncomfortable talking about this. "I didn't plan this to happen, but it did happen and I have two children; a son named Light and a daughter named Kairi. With Latias… we only had our love for one another, no children..."

"No Zack, I wasn't trying to interrogate you or to make you feel bad about this, it's just I-I... I'm sorry, I worded that all wrong. I just, let's try that again, shall we?" Jessica walked in front of me. I just shrugged finding myself slowly feeling a little bit down. We stood in silence for a moment before she spoke up. "So uh, you are out here searching for your missing friends?"

"Err, yeah that's right."

"You are fighting both Team Annihilation Reborn soldiers and Shiny Latias all by yourself?" she asked as she started to levitate up off the ground.

"That's right."

"If you are going to fight Shiny Latias, I believe I can help you with something only a small few know about her. Team Doom Eight members all know about and learnt about as soon as all seven of us were all turned into Pokemon; a weakness neither of us brave enough to attempt."

Intrigued, I asked. "And what might that be?"

"Working alongside Shiny Latias during my time at Team Doom has taught me a few things about her; one, she isn't stupid. She always wants her targets to make their first move to find any weaknesses. Two, she is very skilled at both ranged and close attacks, usually preferring to finish off her target close range for the finishing fatal blow with her claws, so watch out for that. But then again she doesn't wish to kill you, but she would most likely move in to injure you pretty good. Three, well you obviously know about the eye thing and how she can control you if you look directly at her eyes. And four, if you enrage her… well the only thing I can say is to either run or make your stand, because she hates it when her so-called allies argue with her, it'll only result with her losing control."

"I don't plan on running from her. I plan to finish this fight once and for all the next time I see her. So what is this weakness?"

"She isn't invincible. She is no goddess or immortal being, she can die just like you and me and everyone else on this planet. Her weakness is similar to your secondary ability, Zack. Whenever she gets angry, she loses control. Call it a berserk like state until the target has been neutralized."

"She is weaker when she is angry?" I questioned, finding it odd despite the times I have been face to face with Shiny Latias I had seen her angry before. "I have seen her angry before, she didn't seem weak when we fought her."

"She has learnt overtime to control it a lot better when she did during the early days of Team Doom. Usually they are nothing but short bursts and nothing more, not wanting to get too angry for her to lose control. But don't count on thinking she'll go down easily should you enrage her; she is very fast and tricky to fight, mostly attacking with her claws. It'll take a whole lot more other than enraging her to defeat her, so be careful about that."

This was something I hadn't expected when Jessica mentioned Shiny Latias had a weakness. The two of us lost control because of our rage, almost never stopping until the target or targets have been dealt with or we were defeated. "If I enrage her while my eyes are closed, she would lose control of herself and attack me a lot, perhaps close range thus allowing me to strike when she is closer." I felt a little happy knowing this. Training to fight without sight and with my other senses, knowing her weakness, all of this might help on defeating Shiny Latias for good. I hadn't found Shiny Latias yet or my missing friends, but all of this after so long helped me feel as if my journey was almost at an end.

"That is unless she doesn't enrage you first. Shiny Latias doesn't have all that much to be mad at besides her soldiers or those working with her make mistakes. She plays with her victims first before moving in for the kill, so again be careful."

"I will. I am trying to control my anger. Trying to stop the voices from controlling me whenever my anger rises is difficult, sometimes I forget about it, but I am trying."

"What kind of training do you do, Zack? I mean, what moves are you going to use against Shiny Latias?" I hadn't thought about changing up my moves at the time, I have only been using the moves I have on me and upgrading them instead of replacing them and trying out new ones.

"I have Psychic a move I use for ranged attacks, even helps when countering projectile moves or weapons like rockets are shot at me I can use it to throw it someplace else or back at an enemy. I have also Protect to shield from attacks, Razor Shell to attack, and then there is Scald. I have been training with them for a long time, trying to master the moves that I have."

"I have a suggestion for you Zack, how about I help you train? It wouldn't hurt to know you have a chance against her."

"No…" I shook my head. Jessica was a Pokemon like me, and with my ability, the one that absorbs the life energy from a Pokemon I defeat in battle, it will kill her. "I'll just find some other way to train. With my ability I can't fight Pokemon knowing what it will do after I defeat them."

"Well, how about we try something else? After we had gone our separate ways after the battle with Team Doom, I have learnt to control my ability finding a way to reduce the aggressiveness of the visions my victims see." She explained as she levitated up off the cave floor. "Zack, have you ever fought against Shiny Latias before?" I thought back on that, only my Pokemon had fought against her from when we first met and until the last time we saw one another on the rooftop of Team Doom's HQ, I had never done so. "I have memories of Shiny Latias fighting her enemies, or her victims to stay in shape. I can help create for you a Shiny Latias with moves you can train with without suffering any injury or Shiny Latias using her ability if you look up at her eyes controlling you."

"Well that's a relief… I suppose I can start off with that and up the difficulty as I progress with this training."

"My ability I call Nightmare creates obviously a nightmarish world for my victims. A world so realistic to them, their fears all brought out one by one until it overwhelms them and thus kills them. I can control my ability so don't worry about a thing. Nothing you see will harm you. If it gets too much for you just tell me and I'll free you immediately. I'll be very close but not in the way of your training." She said as her purple eyes began to glow as her ability was now active. An energy I could feel surrounded us and altered reality. From inside a cave we were now inside a large white brightly lit room. "This room I have made to be simple. If you'd like to have anything more included just say so."

I stood up and walked towards the center of the room feeling hopeful that my new way to fight and knowledge of Shiny Latias' weakness could be the thing I needed to defeat her. All I had to do was to get used to fighting Shiny Latias without using my sight. "Let's start off by having Shiny Latias appear. Let's start off with an easier variant then amp up the difficulty later."

"Sure thing. Just give me a moment. Creating Shiny Latias from memory is easy, but to alter her fighting strength is a bit hard. I don't want to create a slower version of Shiny Latias that seems easy to deal with but with insanely high stats and high HP. Balancing that stuff isn't my strong point."

Jessica created with her ability Shiny Latias levitating right in front of me, staring right into my eye. If this were the real Shiny Latias and not a hallucination then I would've been caught by her ability and under her control. This Shiny Latias had no scars or injuries anywhere on her body or her face. Espeon told me after I was thrown off the edge of the rooftop in Team Doom's headquarters she jumped up at Shiny Latias and scratched her face up a lot before fleeing with the others. "Is this what Shiny Latias looks like now?"

"This is the Shiny Latias you remember seeing last and mine after Team Doom fell apart." Jessica shook her head before levitating up close to the fake Shiny Latias. "She has been in hiding ever since, slowly controlling new people and Pokemon from the streets to become her soldiers for her new and growing army. I had however heard things about how she looks now; scars across her face hidden behind a helmet she rarely takes off in front of anyone." Jessica inched closer to the face of Shiny Latias, shivering in fear when the fake Latias looked back at her. "Even for a fake, my ability does create some convincing stuff. All members of the Team Doom Eight were warned to never look at her eyes, or else we would be first to fight and be killed by you, Zack. Or to do some harsh task lasting a really long time without rest was the most common case should one of us look at her."

"Is this safe?" I asked as she levitated back down on the floor beside me.

"Don't worry Zack, I have made sure the hallucinations from the use of my ability will not harm you in any way." She said as she levitated up off from the ground, using her ability to begin with the training. "Are you sure you want to do this? I mean with your other ability and how you lose control over yourself should you get enraged, I don't want hurt you."

I nodded. "If I want to end this battle once and for all I need to know if I have a chance against her. Learning to control my anger can be done at a later date, so don't worry about that, I'll be fine."

"So how real do you want this?"

"As real as you can make it." I responded calmly, feeling my heart beating fast as the hallucination of Shiny Latias started to appear just a little in front of me. When her head materialized, I closed my eyes immediately and remembered my training with Master Ken.

"We meet again, Zack Raines." Her voice both vicious and cruel echoed throughout the thick forest, a voice I almost forgot wasn't real. As soon as the voice reached my ears the voices in my head slowly crept up all telling me to kill and reminding me nonstop of what she had done. "You are a pathetic fool. You will never save my sister. The only thing that awaits her is my claws stabbing her right through her heart; the last thing she'll see is me smiling at how pathetic she is. She'll die knowing you who have searched the region for her, trained to become stronger ever since you left your home town for your missing friends, suffered for so long will be all for naught. And your allies and children will die!"

I gripped my scalchop and detached it from my hip. Instead of sight I relied on my ears to listen into the environment; I heard nothing but Shiny Latias, I heard her in front of me breathing steadily. She wasn't too far away, but close enough I could hear her from where I was. "Alright, let's see how I can make you angry… what could I try?" Swearing at her or make fun of her scars were nothing but childish insults to her, meaningless words, so I had to think of other things to say. "I could try to make fun at how after all these years of planning have failed and she has never succeeded in the past… hmm, no that's not good. She doesn't like it when her allies or followers fail her… hmm, I do have something but it's worth a shot." I had thought of something that might work, Shiny Latias talked about Juro a lot, seeing him as her father, and him I suppose as his daughter. I don't know how close he was to her.

"Juro lived as a fool and he died as a fool, all he left behind was a failure." Was what I came come up with. I probably could've said something much better if I had thought about it, but from the reaction I had gotten from Shiny Latias, it appeared to work.

"What did you just say?" She growled, sounding closer than she was, perhaps levitating closer towards me. Like with the voices I hear all demanding for blood before they could control me it would take a lot more than just that, I had to say more. And again without thinking about what I should say I just randomly said;

"You should've heard Juro when he was torn to shreds by his own creations, screaming like the pathetic fool he was!" Yeah I probably could've said something better than that, it sounded to me a bit immature, but hey it was training. So at least I had that to work on besides getting stronger.

"And you should have heard my sister cry out in pain before I cut her up with my claws, crying and shrieking like a little child desperately calling out for you, Zack. But you will never save her, she will die alone and scared. I might let you live once I control this region knowing how pathetic and pointless your search was. I will kill all of your allies and friends leaving you all alone in this world, my world." Wanting to enrage Shiny Latias only ended up with me getting angry, almost hearing the voices in my head to kill this fake Shiny Latias. This was a good fake, a realistic one, but I had to calm myself down. This was training after all and not the real thing. I didn't want the voices all to come back and forcing me to kill everything I see, endangering Jessica's life.

With my eye shut I could hear Shiny Latias move around the room, her feathers rustling as she began to charge up a move, A Mist Ball being charged up. But this move was very fast to charge up, Shiny Latias was taking her time with it. But then again this place wasn't real, thanks to Jessica for alternating with the stats to help me train I suppose. As soon as the move was fully charged and released, I was hit on my right shoulder almost dropping my scalchop upon impact. The Mist Ball was shot too fast for me to even try and dodge it or protect myself from it.

"Zack, are you alright?" I heard Jessica a few feet away behind me call out. The move didn't seem to hurt all that much, it just left a tingling sensation in my right shoulder, very weird.

"I'm fine. I can do this." I prepared myself for Shiny Latias to attack again, waiting for the right moment for me to strike, and then I noticed another move being used. What move she was using? I didn't know, but it did sound familiar to me, the name of the move was just on the tip of my tongue. The sound when charging up I had heard many times when Latias was with me travelling on our journeys. Then I heard Shiny Latias swoop down in front of me and then felt Shiny Latias slash with her claws across my chest and I fell back.

"You alright Zack?" Jessica immediately asked as she levitated down beside me before checking my chest where Shiny Latias slashed at. I only felt a tingle sensation across my chest, but I suffered no injury.

"That felt weird… it felt sharp at first, like a being slashed with a knife, I could feel my skin being cut open… Now my chest feels tingly… huh."

"I did all I could to prevent my ability from harming you. This was all I could do. Are you hurt? I'm sorry I did all I could to lower the difficulty."

"No, it doesn't hurt, just weird."

"Maybe turn down the difficulty a little bit more, I wasn't ready for that…" I stood up with the help of Jessica.

"Well, one step at a time." She smiled. "So you aim to battle Shiny Latias without the use of your eyes? Considering how she can control anyone who looks right into her eyes, it is a safer way to fight but it is risky if you don't know how. One mistake is all it will take for her to get a hold of you, and she isn't the most patient of Pokemon during a battle. Rarely will she ever take too long to fight an opponent."

"If that stronger version is anything like the real one, I might not have enough time to enrage her." I gasped for breath, still feeling the tingling were Shiny Latias swiped at me across the chest. "But I will keep at it until I get used to the timing of her attacks. Some are faster than others… phew."

"Shiny Latias during her time within Team Doom spent a long time not only training her soldiers and the Team Doom Eight, she also trained by herself a lot more than with any of us, getting faster, stronger, and mastering every move she had combing them into powerful versions. To catch up with her strength, to be ready for her you gotta train and become stronger with your moves. I wish I could tag along with you, but I have to finish up things with Team Doom I have left unresolved, Martha related."

I understood and nodded, knowing we were her for a while longer, I thought of something. "Hey Jessica?" Thinking of one Pokemon I wanted to see again, to listen to her voice again after so long, I thought of asking Jessica if she could create a Pokemon to appear within this place, a memory of her. Despite not being real, I hadn't seen her face since the battle with Team Doom; I wanted to see her again. I had no photos with me, only memories. "Do you think you could create Latias within this world?"

Slowly, Jessica lowered down onto the ground and shook her head. "I'm sorry Zack, but I cannot do that…"

"W-Why not? You created Shiny Latias within this place, why not her?"

"Within my Nightmare world, I only create horrible things, and it will only accept horrible things to be used against my victims. I was able to create Shiny Latias because of what she did to your mother and captured your friends. You have bad memories of her, fearing what she might have done to them while you were out here looking for them. You fear she might have killed them already and this search was a wasted one." She said, showing me another Shiny Latias appear before us. "I was able to block out the memory of her killing your mother. If I showed you your loved ones, friends, people and Pokemon you know, my world would feed off your fears of 'the what if' Shiny Latias got a hold of them, and creating something awful from it, never anything good. Those you have known, friends and family long gone… this world will recreate the moment they were taken from you. I know that from experience…" She was talking about Martha, a woman who worked as a teacher for the children of the first Team Annihilation and became the sixth member of the Team Doom Eight while Jessica became the fifth. They were really close and they saw each other as a real family. She died before the battle of Team Doom, she must have used the Nightmare ability to see Martha again, but this being a nightmare world it would show her the bad things rather than the good.

"I understand Jessica, thank you for all your help. I just hope all of this wasn't for nothing." I thought about asking her to come along, maybe for a little while until I figured out my next step, the lack of company was getting to me a little.

The days we spent together we trained so I could prepare myself for when the time would come for Shiny Latias and I to battle, one I intended for it to be our last. I listened out for attacks and trying to time the perfect chance to dodge and to move in. It was difficult at first, but after trying and failing many times over i got the hang of it... eventually.

The next day, Jessica and I both went our separate ways, being a dangerous thing to travel together since Shiny Latias was after the last surviving members of the Team Doom Eight wanting to control them all and have them fight me to the death. Absorbing the life energy of a human turned Pokemon for example would be like absorbing fifty Pokemon, so we split up just to be safe.

I had learnt to fight without sight, slowly getting used to it and using my Dark Place to help myself train ready to face Shiny Latias; the moves she knew, the timing for her to charge up attacks and then using them, the best moment to strike. Because I met Jessica in Route 08, I had learnt of a weakness Shiny Latias had similar to mine; anger. I had learnt of her weakness, and If I enrage her, she loses control, prone to mistakes, perhaps granting me an opening to finishing her off for good.

Jessica promised to help me with Team Annihilation Reborn, giving me updates on their patrols and any new pieces of information that may help bring me closer to my friends or Shiny Latias herself. And also to keep in touch; with Aqua and our children, my Pokemon back at the safe zone I could only speak to ten minutes at a time every week, two weeks or longer depending on the situation, with Jessica I was able to speak to someone else longer.

To be continued…

Trivia:

Jessica was set to appear towards the end of the story, more of a late character appearance and that was all to it. I decided to include her almost mid way to help Zack train to fight Shiny Latias.