Chapter 40 – Eternity

New Home – Several years later

Waking up with a big yawn, Latias levitated out of her bed towards the open door. She levitated down into the kitchen to find Aqua, Lisa and Espeon baking a cake. When she got close enough she saw on top of the cake was icing which spelled out 'Celebration'

"What's this about?" Latias asked, moving her head back away just as Lisa was about to put cream around the edges of the cake.

"We figured we should have a party, a celebration for us being here." Aqua said while admiring the cake she helped make. "We haven't really done anything like that since… well never while we were here."

Espeon laughed and held Aqua up with her Psychic and brought her over to Latias to hold. "The cake has ice cream in it, so best hold onto the Dewott, Latias, otherwise our hard efforts will be all for nothing. A celebration without a cake…" she shuddered. "A revolting thought."

"Is it a surprise?" Latias asked, keeping a firm hold on Aqua as she tried to break free from her grip to get at the cake. "Who for?"

"The others." Lisa smiled, finally finishing up with the cake. "Zack, Isaac, Sakura, Brent, our Pokemon and our families."

"We're going to have the party here tonight. We'll have food, drink and music. Oh! And of course entertainment like games and many more." This afterlife, this realm we now live in, if you want to use that word since we're obviously not living anymore, it gives us anything we want really. Why food though you may ask if we are dead? We don't need to eat, sleep, or worry about illness. Others want to eat or drink again because they liked doing it, or they simply miss it. Something they did either a small bit or a lot in their lives, they don't want to part with something they did, I guess. This place was pretty much endless on the things you could possibly do.

Espeon sighed as she looked down at the cake. Smiling at what she help baked with the others, excited to bring it out to us for the party. "I hope this will be enough and that everyone will get at least one slice of this cake. Hmm, I don't know, does this cake look small to any of you?"

Aqua shook her head. The square cake was big enough for all of us (almost thirty of us) "It's big enough for all of us. Plus some will definitely have an extra slice. And because I thought of baking this cake first, I deserve one of the extra slices." she said as her smile grew wider. "And I will take the first slice once the party has begun."

Espeon shook her head. "I'll stand beside you Aqua to make sure you take one slice just like everyone else will. If you want an extra slice, you are gonna have to eat your slice first and then wait until everyone else has had a slice of this cake we have baked for them."

She huffed. "Fine. But I refuse to have a corner piece; too much icing is sickening for me. And this cake we sure did put on quite a lot of the stuff."

"All right, fine. You can get a side piece without much icing on your cake."

Aqua cheered in the arms of Latias as she glanced out the window to see Sakura and Isaac talking with their Pokemon with their new trainers.

After his death, Isaac's Pokemon found a new home with another trainer, a trainer that had helped Isaac's Pokemon to get back on their feet. The sudden death of not only their trainer but their friend had almost crushed them. But Yamask never did get over his death. Sakura's Pokemon were also taken in by another trainer, with them it took time but they slowly got back up wanting to do something to honor her memory in a way. With their trainer, they fought in many gym battles and earned their way to the top.

Latias watched for a moment, happy to see Sakura and Isaac with their Pokemon after all that had happened. She set Aqua down on the wooden floor and levitated out of the kitchen towards the entrance hall. She saw one fothe boxes besides a side desk with the words 'party supplies' written on the side left by Lisa. Looking back towards the kitchen, she could hear the others talking about other kinds of food to make for the p[arty tonight. She could understand they would be quite busy in there, and so she decided to help out. Breathing in and out she grabbed one of the boxes with her paws and opened the box ready to start setting up the supplies.

"This shouldn't take too long. I'll be done in an hour." She whispered to herself with a smile, using her Psychic to help set up the decorations.

I was walking down the street towards my house that resembled the streets found within Nuvema Town. The house wasn't the same as my one in that town, it was kind of a mixture of the mansion from the dimension I lived in most of my life and the one in Nuvema Town. The parts of this realm I had been to kind of do resemble places I had been to before in my life. I didn't know why they did, I suppose it helps those who haven't been here long enough get adjusted to this place easier, I don't know. I got a message from Espeon saying to come back home at around six later in the day.

I turned and looked back to see Brent quickly jogging, calling out to me to slow down. "Hey, buddy! Hold up for a sec!"

"Brent, what's up?"

"Somethin' important I gotta tell ya." He gasped for breath as he had caught up with me. "Just found out the new tournament at the arena is being held next week. But man, the slots open is rapidly decreasing with almost over two hundred slots left. I just signed up, you in yourself, Zack?"

"You ran all this way just to tell me that?"

"Yeah…" he gasped. "Phew… figured it be a good way to pass the time and stay in good shape. There's a great prize for winning the tournament, ya know. I'm enterin', so is Lisa, and maybe Sakura. The amount of people who can enter is decreasing rapidly. If you want to see how good we are in battle, sign up soon otherwise you'll have to wait next year."

"Hmm, maybe I will. In this realm I don't have to worry about my ability killing Pokemon again."

"Damn right! So how about Zack, you in?" I thought about it for a moment, this would be the first I would enter the arena to fight against other Pokemon. I was still anxious about fighting other Pokemon even now, anxious that if I fought and defeated another Pokemon it would kill them again as stupid as it sounds. No one can die again here, I suppose the closest thing I'd say would is to get knocked out, another thing for some reason this realm still has.

"Maybe I will. It has been a long time since I last fought."

He chuckled. "A little rusty at fightin', eh? You could always go and check out the gym. Would be a good place to get ready for the tournament." I'm enterin' this tournament to impress my grandkids. Gotta prove to 'em that I was a soldier back in the day." Four years after I left, Brent continued as a member of The Savior's for a while unsure where to go in his life, especially with his writing. But after meeting a woman named Hina within the Kanto during a mission he went for it and wrote his stories. And a few years after that, he and Hina got married and had children. "So think on it, huh. You uh, did Espeon tell you to come back to your house?"

"Yeah, just got a message from not too long ago. Do you know what it's about?"

Brent shook his head and we began to walk together back to my house. "No man, she didn't tell me why she wanted us to come back to your place. I'm guessin' she wants to talk about that thing she wanted to do for a while but never had gotten around to it yet." Espeon had for a while wanted to meet with her parents ever since she arrived in this realm. She wanted to know them, if she had any brothers and sisters. But she was too nervous to search for them and co9nfront them, not knowing if they would care about her or would want to know. She was bred at a farm and left when she was still in the egg to live with her previous trainer Eliza.

"If this isn't about that, sometime soon we should talk about it with her."

He sighed. "Yeah, definitely."

We arrived at the house to find our Pokemon, Sakura and Isaac standing outside by the front door. Kairi ran up to me and hugged me. "Dad, you made it!"

"Hey Kairi, what's going on?"

"Espeon told us to wait out here until everyone else and you had arrived."

I translated this to Brent and he simply grunted. "Well we are all here, aren't we?" people in this realm could choose to understand the language of Pokemon if they liked to help communicate with their Pokemon and others better. Some did wanting to talk to them, while others didn't, not being used to talking with a Pokemon.

Just then, Espeon opened the door of the house and smiled. "Ah, I see everyone has showed up!" She looked at the Pokemon first, then at Sakura, Isaac, Devon, Brent and me. "I would've liked to have invited more, but because of the size of the house it would've been too full inside, so they'll have to come to the next party we'll have for them in a few days." She cleared her throat and stepped aside from the door. "Please come on in and enjoy the party!"

Most including kairi cheered and ran inside, but Brent stood there and asked her. "A party? What's the occasion? It's not anyone's birthday."

Espeon walked up to us and smiled. "It's a celebration for our time spent here. We haven't done something like this since arriving here, and we thought it would be nice for us to get together at times and have ourselves a party, to have fun. Why, are you against parties, Bent?"

He shook his head. "No way, I'm all for 'em. So uh, what kind of food did you bring?"

"We baked a cake big enough for all of-" she stopped herself, her eyes widened as she gasped and looked back at the house. "Oh no! I left Aqua by herself! What was I thinking!?" She yelled as she ran back inside to find Aqua.

The party started with a loud bang. The radio broke a second after the first song had played for some reason and we had to resort to using a computer to play the music for the party. It wasn't the best quality speakers in the world, but it got the job done.

Food was on the table for human and Pokemon consumption; some I did get a helping of before the table quickly emptied by the others wanting to taste the food Lisa, Espeon and Aqua made for the party.

"Hey Zackary, great party, huh?" Espeon asked as she stood next to me. "It was hastily planned. The location being here since the food needed to be prepared, we didn't have anywhere else in mind we could've gone too. If planned with enough time we would've made sure to include the others who had missed out on the party today."

"It is great. The food is nice. Shame about the radio breaking down before the party started. The quality of the computer is terrible."

"Gonna get a better speaker for your computer, Zackary?"

I shrugged. "Eventually. But if it is for another party in my house again then I'll have to order one soon."

"Even in the afterlife we still have to buy the things we want from stores still… this isn't what I had in mind for an afterlife. I expected things to be handed out to you for free… but no; we still have to do jobs to get our paws/hands on something we want; a video game or a book… "

"Guess things can't be simply handed out to us on a silver platter even in this realm. So we can do jobs, help out here and there to run things."

"Well Zackary, in this realm we can do a lot of things. But the one thing we won't ever have to worry about ever again is another evil team threatening the world again forcing us to leave our life of relaxing and peace and risking the lives of our loved ones." She nodded slowly. "Yep, here we can truly relax and be free from the fighting. Well, the life threatening fighting I mean, but the ones we have here, the friendly sparring matches, they are fun. That arena we can go to fight other Pokemon at, that's the fighting I enjoy. Catch you there some time?"

I smiled and nodded my head. "Sure. But I won't hold back if we do fight in the arena. I want to see which one of us is has stronger Psychic type moves."

She smirked. "Only one way to find out, huh? I'll look forward to that day we fight in the arena. But right now, let's enjoy the party." She turned towards the computer were the music was being played to find Brent now dancing with Lisa. "Hm, this is the life, huh? Or should I say afterlife since we are dead. You coming to join in on the dancing? With you and I out there, we might out dance Bent." She chuckled.

"I'm going to have to sit this one out. I might dance in a little while."

Espeon nodded and smiled. "Huh, final words of Espeon in this story, huh? Hmm… let's see; catch ya later, Zackary!" she giggled before she walked over to them and joined in on the dancing.

Sometime later into the party I felt that I needed some fresh air and so I decided to leave the house and sit down beside the tree out in the yard. I turned to see Aqua opening the door and walked over to me with a plate in her paw.

"Hi Zack, what are you doing out here?"

"I just needed a little fresh air."

"Mind if I join you for a little while?"

"I don't mind." I shook my head as she sat next to me. "So, are you enjoying your cake still? That is your first slice, right?"

She shook her head. "I managed to get another slice of this delicious cake." She said as she took another bite out of the delicious cake. "Did you like it?"

"Yeah, it was very nice. Did you have something to do with making it?"

"Well, it was Lisa who came up with the recipe. Her own recipe after her Savior years. Me and Espeon helped with the icing and getting the measurements. It was a vote between a chocolate cake, vanilla cake, or this one, obviously this cake won because of me wanting to try it out… and the results; an amazing cake definitely a delight on the taste buds." After eating the last piece of cake she set the plate aside and smiled at me. "So, what do you think? Every year we have a party like this one, family, friends come to have fun, enjoy delicious food and great music. I suppose it would be like a tradition for us."

I smiled. "That sounds great; I would like to do this again. Somewhere else since this place is kind of small for us to invite more people and Pokemon."

"Yeah, it would've been nice if we could have invited more, but the house and the yard is way too small to fit all of them. Plus we didn't have enough cake for all of us if we did have enough room." Aqua sighed. "I wanted to invite your parents and mine over tonight."

"We are throwing another party next week for those that couldn't come."

"That's good. I wonder if we should make the same cake then or bake either one of the two we didn't bake. I suppose so they don't miss out on this delicious cake we make this again…" she smiled "And that means more cake for me!"

I chuckled and turned to look up at the stars. "So my parents and yours, our children and grandchildren, and I would like to invite several members of The Savior's I worked with."

"Hmm… in that case we'll probably bake the same amount of cake as we did today." Aqua and I turned towards the house as the music inside had become louder, followed by someone shouting.

Aqua kissed me before getting up with her empty plate with a little stretch. "I'm going to go in and check on our children. I know they are old enough to look after themselves, but I just want to make sure they aren't getting into any trouble." I nodded, watching her walk back inside the house for a little bit before turning back to look up at the stars.

Then I noticed Latias levitate out from the house towards me, holding a small gift in her paws. When she was near, she smiled and handed me the gift. A small box wrapped in red gift wrapping with a red bow on top. "Hello, I uh got you this. I know your birthday isn't for another two days, but… well with the party now, I figured you wouldn't want to have another party. I uh… y-you can open it right now if you like." She said getting nervous the more she held out the present for me.

"Thanks, Latias." I took the present from her and carefully opened it up. Inside the present it was a framed photo of me standing with Lisa, Brent, Espeon, Latias and the rest of our Pokemon before we left Nuvema Town in search of Shiny Latias. That day we took that photo, it was the day me and Latias started a relationship with one another, and it was a good day. "This is… wow, it's really nice."

"It was kind of hard to get." She said as she levitated down on the ground next to me. "Getting photos we once had in the living realm I had to do some jobs first. It took a while, but I got the photos."

"Thank you, Latias. I couldn't have asked for a better present."

"It sure is nice being here. I feel at peace being here. Maybe soon we can organize something, maybe a little travel through this realm, see what lies beyond over the hill." She pointed over at the hill we could see in the distance. This realm was pretty much endless, with so much to do here, and so much to see, I was curious and wanted to see what was over that hill, perhaps beyond that.

"From what I hear, there are huge cities a hundred miles beyond those hills, taller than the ones we have seen in Castelia City."

"Wow, we have got to go and see that someday. One other reason for me suggesting we go beyond the hill is because I have heard there is a city that has a Super Latias event." She nudged me with her paw. "The creator is signing comic books. So uh, there's that if you want to take me to that event soon. I mean you don't have to if you don't want to… I'll just go by myself. Yep, poor Latias must go alone without anyone…" she held up her paws and pretended to cry and glancing down at me.

I rolled my eyes and sighed. "All right, I'll go with you if you want. I have read that comic a few times before; I think I have gotten interest in it." I nodded. "Yeah, I go with you." At that, Latias smiled and squealed in delight as she pulled me in for a hug.

"Hurray, i knew I could get you to like Super Latias one day. I have the DVDs of the first eight seasons. Tomorrow we will definitely watch them."
I chuckled. "Well, I don't want to be overwhelmed with how much Super Latias I get thrown at me. Let me watch it in small amounts. Maybe three or four episodes."

She sighed and flicked some grass with her claws. "Aww, but the first season starts to get good after the first ten episodes…"

"Oh alright, I'll see if I can manage fifteen episodes then."

She nudged me with her paw. "You'll love the show. As long as we take things slow, you'll get into it."

I nodded, and looked up at the stars.

"My mother is still looking after Midnight." She sighed, smiling up at the stars. "Within a hundred years she will be here with us. I'm still kind of nervous about meeting her."

"She was nervous herself about meeting you… before the final battle, I mean. She didn't know how to approach you, what to say after all this time, or if you would hate her for leaving you."

She shook her head. "No, I wouldn't hate her. I know how she saved me from the soldiers trying to capture me after the escape from that lab we lived in when I hatched from the egg, lived there a few years with my sister. She spent years searching for me after she had escaped from that lab, but the only thing she ever found of me was a note inside another lab…" she softly smiled. "I want to thank her for looking after Midnight for this long. I want to thank her for all that she has done. Sure I might be nervous about meeting her, but I think I will be alright, if you're there with me when she shows up."

I smiled and held her paw and nodded. "I'll be there." Latias gave one last look up at the stars before getting up again.

"You coming back inside? You'd better hurry up otherwise Aqua will eat up all of the cake."

"I'll be coming inside. I just need a moment first." I said. Latias simply smiled back and levitated back inside the house to join the others.

I looked up at the stars, thinking back to how it all started for me. Starting out as a member of The Savior's travelling all over the region and fighting Team Annihilation for a quarter of my life almost, travelling through the timeline to fight a being from another dimension, turning into a Dewott and fighting human turned Pokemon, losing my memory and trying to return home while evading a crazy Purrloin trying to kill us, fighting Shiny Latias in that five year search for my kidnapped friends, and living in that dimension with Aqua until old age.

Life within this realm was never boring; it somehow always found a way to make you happy, relaxed, that you belonged there. Families and friends reunited, to see their faces once more and full of life. I met my parents, my real parents and sister again within this realm and… well I can say it was a happy family reunion, after the little awkward introduction I had with them when first meeting them. For a long time we talked about the things I had done in my life and for them they told me what I was like as a child before they had died. I was happy to know them and that they were family.

I was not alone anymore. And never again would I ever have to fight, to kill a Pokemon with my ability. That was over for me. The voices never woke up again, urging me to kill, shouting and demanding for blood to be spilled. And after a long life, I could finally be with the people and Pokémon I loved.

The End

Trivia:

The story would've originally ended with Midnight arriving in the afterlife to be reunited with her parents.

AN: And so the main story has finished after almost five years of writing. I have to say it was difficult at first not knowing if what I wrote was bearable to read, a story full of errors and bad writing, or if anyone would want to read this. But the amount of positive messages I had been getting from readers over the years helped me come back and try to write the best story I could write for you.

Zack's story is complete, but if you would like to stick around for a little while I have 5 move chapters I am writing at the moment. These 5 chapters are considered 'filler' chapters that happen before, during and after the main story I call 'Side Stories' that have appeared since the first story.

Thank you for reading this story.