Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. I got Pokemon Ultra Moon and a new drawing tablet for Christmas so I've been cracking at those, you guys get anything cool for the holidays? Anyway, wow, Chapter 60. Didn't think this story would go this far. JUST A HEADS UP THAT THIS CHAPTER WILL BE A LITTLE GRAPHIC. *I DO NOT OWN POKEMON OR STEVEN UNIVERSE*

The group all stood in the bubble room, staring up at the bubbled Gary Oak. He thrashed and punched as he tried to escape his bubble prison, but it was to no avail.

"What are we gonna do with him?" Amethyst asked "I mean, it's not like we can just leave him up there".

"You saw what he was capable of," Ash informed her, "Clemont, you're the expert on this stuff, what do we have to do?" he asked as they all turned their attention to him.

He looked up at Gary in thought, "I think I might know what's wrong. Let me try something real quick." He marched up to the bubble and looked him in his remaining eye. "State your name and mission".

"Star Sapphire, Faucet 3GR Cut 9ZZ. Mission, to locate and apprehend the Lapis Lazuli General Jasper's strike team failed to obtain."

With this newfound information, Clemont returned to the group. "I have a theory. Ash, do you remember what I was supposed to do to you back on Homeworld before we escaped?"

"Sure do, you were about to put something in me that would've controlled me. You think that's what's going on here?"

Amethyst ran out of the bubble room and returned with a knife from the kitchen "well then, let's just cut that sucker out!"

"No! It's delicately embalmed into his brain stem. We'd risk damaging his brain or paralyzing him. We're going to require a professional medical practitioner."

"Well good thing we've got one," Ash explained, "Connie call your mom, tell her we'll be bringing her a patient for brain surgery."

Connie left to inform her mother at the hospital while the others discussed the second most difficult part, how they were going to get Gary there.

"Maybe we could build some sort of mobile prison cell and carry him?" Peridot suggested.

But before anyone could get their thoughts out, Greg had forced his way through the still open door holding something. It was a gun.

"Dad, what are you doing? Stop!" Steven begged his father. But his plea fell on deaf ears, as Greg raised the weapon up and shot a few rounds up at the bubble containing Gary. The bubble popped, and Gary stumbled to his feet. As he began to charge, Greg fired again into Gary's shoulder.

"What are you doing!?" Pearl demanded to know.

"Relax, it's just a tranq gun. Got it at the outdoor store. Someone had to do it".

Gary struggled forward and began to stumble as the tranquilizer began to take effect. He finally fell down to Ash's feet unconscious. Ash picked him up and the group went outside and loaded him into Greg's Supremo with Steven, Connie, Clemont and Greg. When they arrived at the hospital, they were greeted to Dr. Maheswaran in the waiting room.

"What exactly am I working with here?" She asked while the others got him onto a gurney and began to escort him toward the operating room.

"There's a microchip lodged in his brain stem."

"Alright, I'll take it from here"

"No, I have to do it with you," Clemont insisted, "it's alien tech and I'm your only expert in it. You're gonna need me to tell you how to cut it out to avoid damaging his brain."

Dr. Maheswaran looked from the group, to Gary, then back to Clemont and sighed. "Is he telling the truth Connie?"

"He is mom"

"Alright. Get changed into operating attire. The rest of you, stay out here. We'll fill you in when he's done."

After Dr. Maheswaran and Clemont left with Gary, Greg took the younger kids to the waiting room. Meanwhile, Ash himself went to the hospital gift shop and bought a bundle of flowers and a bar of chocolate. After navigating the hallway he finally reached the room he was looking for and let himself in. Serena was resting on the hospital bed with the arm Gary nearly destroyed in a large cast. In her good hand, she gripped the blue ribbon he gave her so tightly her fingernails dug deep into her skin. Her eyes were closed and her face was wet from her crying.

"Hey" he gently told her once he snuck over to her bedside.

The moment she heard his voice, her eyes shot open in disbelief. When she finally saw Ash really was there she grabbed him and began to sob with relief. "I thought you were dead".

"Well they'll just have to try harder next time I guess" he joked as he held her tightly. "I'm not going anywhere yet. How's the hand?"

"They were able to save my hand, but they couldn't get my thumb in time. They had to take one of my toes and put it in place of it." she explained sadly.

"Well, I'm sure Steven can make your toe grow back. If the kid can regrow Clemont's legs and bring Lars back from the dead, I'm certain one little toe is nothing to him".

She chuckled before an awkward silence filled the room. Then out of nowhere, she looked him in the eye and kissed him.

It might have been his loneliness from losing Lapis, or the fact he wasn't expecting it at all, but before he could stop himself, he returned her kiss. Before he knew it, they were going much further than kissing. When he finally came to his senses, he found himself on top of her with his pants at his ankles.

"Oh my gosh" he said to himself as he threw himself off of her, shameful that he gave into his teenage hormones. "What have I done? What did we just do!?"

"Nothing, we started to but you stopped. I can't believe I just tried to do that to you Ash, I'm so sorry. ARRRGH! Why can't I just get over you!?"

"I, I have no words to describe how sorry I am for that," he explained pulling his pants back on. "Perhaps in another life Serena, but you know me and Lapis are meant to be, wherever she is. And I know that I'm better than what I just did!" he then screamed, throwing the flowers he got for her to the floor. After he took a few moments to calm himself down, the awkwardness was interrupted by a woman screaming from down the hall. Ash ran out to the hallway and followed the sound of the comotion.

Gary was standing outside the operating room with Dr. Maheswaran gripped tightly in one arm, while in his other hand he had a scalpel pressed at her throat. He was screaming incohesively and talking nonsense with a horrified look on his face. Ash quickly ducked behind the corner before Gary could catch a glimpse of him. Despite the rest of the wing being evacuated, and them being the only people in sight, he was acting as if he was talking to multiple people at once.

"Get away from me! Stay back!" He turned around and actually stabbed at the air with his blade, as if he tried to stab someone who wasn't standing there.

"Who are you talking to?" his hostage demanded with a nervous tone, "we're the only ones here".

"You're real, I can feel you. Which one of them are real too?"

"MOM!" Connie exclaimed as she, Steven and Greg reached the wing. Clemont finally rushed out from the operating room rubbing his head, implying Gary had attacked him as well.

"CONNIE GET AWAY!" her overprotective mother demanded.

"Which one are you talking to?" Gary screamed at her.

"GARY ENOUGH!" Ash shouted finally stepping out. "Garry we're your friends here, nobody's going to hurt you. You remember me right?"

"Is it really you Ash?" He asked. But he quickly began to look all around him, and his angry scowl returned. "No, it's not you! Or you! Or you!" He screamed pointing the blade all around himself. "I know you're real" he told Dr. Maheswaran, "is he real too?"

"Yes" she calmly answered.

"Gary, I'm real. Just let her go, you're better than this. You're scared. But it's me, Ashy Boy, just put the knife down, and we can work this out. We can help you Gary."

Gary looked him in the eye, and a level of trust began to emerge between them. But as soon as he lowered the knife, Dr. Maheswaran pulled a syringe from her pocket and jabbed it into his neck, injecting a clear liquid into his body.

"What did you?" he began to scream before he began to stumble around as if he were drunk. It was clear the doctor had injected him with a powerful and fast acting sedative. Gary continued to stumble towards Ash before falling to his knees unconscious.

Connie embraced her mother as Greg and Ash got the knocked out half gem to his feet. "We gotta get him out of here before the police show up" Greg suggested.

"Take these," Connie's mother told Ash, handing him a small box. "I'm probably going to lose my medical license because of this, but this kid is dangerous. Put one in his neck or arm if he acts up again."

"Thanks Doc"

Clemont checked Serena out and they loaded Gary into the trunk of the car. Once Greg had sped off, Ash looked to Clemont from the shotgun passenger seat. "What happened in there?"

"After we successfully removed the control chip, Gary woke up much earlier than anticipated. He began screaming about seeing hundreds of people around him despite Connie's mother and myself being the only ones in the room with him. Then he struck me with a bedpan and took her hostage."

"It must be his sapphire" Steven concluded. "That chip was keeping him under someone else's control. Now that he's in control, he has no idea how to comprehend the possible futures he's seeing at one."

"If that's the case then it looks like we have no other choice but to remove the Gem." Clemont revealed.

Once Greg returned the group to the Temple, they opened the trunk to get Gary inside. As soon as the trunk opened, Gary jumped out at struck Greg in the face. He then forced his way into the Temple, pushed past Amethyst and Peridot, and entered the bubble room screaming the entire time. The group all followed him inside to the sight of Gary leaping into the air and snatching one of the bubbled Gems. It was Bismuth's. Before anyone could stop him, he slammed his palm on the top of the bright pink bubble and sent it off.

Pearl leapt on top of him and pinned him to the ground. "Where did you send her!?"

"Where she needs to be!" he answered before kicking her in the shin and getting back up. Garnet restrained him, while Ash used one of the sedatives Connie's mom gave him. Once the injection was beginning to take effect, Gary looked Ash in the eye and whispered directly to him, "I see your tears Ash, and they are crying".

"We don't have much time before he wakes up" Clemont ordered, "Garnet get him on the dining room table and hold him down! Pearl, you're more precise than I am so you'll have to perform the operation. Steven, I'm sorry to make you do this, but I'll need you to stand over and heal whatever we do."

As the operation to remove Gary's Sapphire began, Ash couldn't bring himself to be in the same room with Serena like this after what happened earlier. He stepped outside and hid under the deck.

"How you holding up?" Amethyst asked him as she, Peridot, Pikachu and James joined him.

"I kinda came down here to be alone guys"

"That's why we feel you need some friends," James protested, "you've been "to yourself" ever since she left."

"Not to mention you're killing yourself with all this training you're making us put you through," Amethyst continued. "We're your friends and we're worried for you Ash."

"You look as if you've already passed on," Peridot examined his face. "As Amethyst explained, we are here for you. Tell us what's bothering you now."

He took a deep breath, "I almost had sex with Serena".

Amethyst, James and Pikachu looked at him shocked, while Peridot who had never been given "the talk", just looked confused.

"Well, you're devastated and she's a little desperate. I mean, it's no wonder she tried to score you on the rebound."

"No Amethyst, I initiated it. I have no idea why, but it almost happened. I feel so horrible".

"Well, you didn't go through with it. That means you still are loyal to Lapis, and you still have control, I'd say Serena still needs support through this as well." James concluded.

"What's "sex"?" Peridot asked.

"Alright Peri," Amethyst said putting her arm around the little green gem and leading her down the beach, "when two beings love each other, or they think they do, or they're bored, or sometimes one of them pays the other…" she told her as they left Ash and James.

"I'm not sure if Amethyst is the right person to give that talk to her." James stated, "I'd better go make sure everything's correct. Think about what we told you Ash."

Now that he was all alone, he watched the sun begin to set on the beach. Then he finally remembered the message he wrote in the sand for Lapis. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw what it now read. "I MISS YOU TOO". Realizing Lapis truly did still love him was enough to bring hope to his depressed heart. Now with influence, he marched back into the house just in time for Gary's operation to be complete.

"It's done" Garnet declared bubbling Garry's Star Sapphire.

"Hey Gary, do you know what's going on?"

Gary, having already woken up, leaned up from the table. "My name is Gary Oak, your name is Ash Ketchum. We are both seventeen years old and are both from Pallet Town in the Kanto region. Where am I Ash?"

"What did you do with Bismuth?" Pearl asked.

"What?"

"What did you mean by "My tears are crying"?"

"Sorry, I have no idea what you're talking about. Who are you people?"

"Alright Gary, let's have a talk."

"Explain to me why we are here Giovanni" Jasper ordered as she, Giovanni and The Iron Masked Marauder stood outside the crumbling ruins of the large tower before them.

"The Lavender Town Pokemon Tower, my dear Jasper, is where we are going to gain the knowledge of Lysandre. Marauder stand guard." He pushed open the wooden door and gestured politely "Ladies first".

The two marched inside the abandoned tower which, unknowblest to them, Ash Ketchum had traveled through nearly seven years ago. The room they entered resembled a dining room with a large, white sheet covering the table. A large chandelier lay crashed in the center of the room.

"Persian, use foresight!" the Team Rocket leader ordered his most trusted pokemon.

The cat pokemon began to scan the room, until he began to hiss at something in the corner and growled. With their position compromised, the two residential pokemon, a Gengar and Gastly, appeared in front of the two.

"I hand it off to you Jasper".

Jasper summoned her Golurk. While the smaller Gastly backed away, the Gengar decided to accept the challenge, smirking mischievously. "Use shadow punch!"

Golurk swept its fist down, but Gengar avoided it, sticking out its tongue to insult her. Jasper grunted in furry, "Use Earthquake!" The entire ground began to shake and the delicate walls began to crumble. This time the Gengar was struck. "Now use phantom force!"

"Throw your pokeball!" Giovanni instructed her.

"Don't tell me what to do." But she threw the pokeball anyway, and captured the Gengar. "Did you drag me out here just so I could capture another pokemon?"

"That's just an added bonus for you. We require the Gengar. Summon it."

Jasper scoffed, but followed the instructions.

"Gengar, travel to the spirit realm and bring this soul to us." Giovanni instructed it while showing a picture of Lysandre.

Gengar giggled and vanished. After a few minutes he returned with the soul of the deceased leader of Team Flare.

"What is the meaning of this?"

"Lysandre, my name is Giovanni, and my associate here is Jasper. We are apart of an organization that is interested in succeeding in bringing your vision of a purified world to life following your, premature, departure."

"I am familiar with you and Team Rocket Giovanni. And you're too late, the weapon I utilized for ultimate purification can easily be rebuilt. It's the power supply that is out of reach."

"How so?"

"Zygarde is forever out of our hands. The weapon requires ultimate power, one which a simple battery cannot provide."

"I understand. Lysandre, we shall foresee your vision. I release your soul, may you find peace."

Lysandre laughed, "we shall see", he told them as he disappeared,

"Am I the only one who doesn't know what's going on?" Jasper asked.

"Team Flare's weapon requires an outstanding power supply. Fortunately there are two pokemon that are powerful enough to power it, Xerneas and Yveltal, or the pokemon of life and death. To draw these pokemon out, a large amount of their power must be created. Now I have no idea how to create that much life, but I know how to make a lot of death. The Diamonds must know this-"

"JASPER!" The Iron Masked Marauder exclaimed running inside with the duo. "Our agents have found her!"

An evil grin spread across Jasper's face "where?"

"Route 202 of the Sinnoh region, just outside Sandgem Town."

"Tell the Diamonds I will rejoin them later, the Marauder and I are going hunting."

"So am I" Giovanni told her.

Lapis had no idea where she was now, but she saw that she was now standing in what appeared to be a bedroom. She turned to see a single person bed with a dresser and a large working desk. When she turned around, she was shocked to see Misty, Brock and a purple haired boy she didn't recognize were chained to the wall, all looking horrified. Standing in front of them, was a Team Rocket agent wearing an iron mask and holding a crowbar. He walked over towards Misty and squeezed her cheeks together with a sick grin.

"Still don't think I don't have the pokeballs?" he taunted her.

Before she could see what the Iron Masked Marauder had done, she woke up to an intense pain in her gut from her morning sickness. She quickly grabbed the bucket she set up the previous night and puked.

"You alright?" Zoey asked her tentmate.

"I'm, I'm fine. Just a bad dream I had."

The two exited the tent to see Cilan was cooking a skillet full of scrambled eggs over a campfire. Cress and Chili were taking down their tent, as Barry stuffed his face from a plate piled high with eggs. Conway was toying with an electronic device, and Looker was sitting on a log sipping coffee from a thermos. After they ate, Looker dumped the remainder of his coffee and began to walk.

"Mount Coronet is a four days walk from here, we'll all need to stay away from the towns and roads," he told them. Suddenly, he snatched Conway's device and smashed it against a tree.

"HEY!"

"They can track us through that."

"Well how am I supposed to know where we are? Or where we're going?"

Looker smiled and handed the tech savvy trainer a large, paper map of Sinnoh. "You'll just have to do it the old fashioned way".

"Why does Cynthia even want you to meet her there anyway?" Lapis asked.

"She has information about Team Rocket operating there. Once there, we will gather as much evidence as possible to warrant an arrest. Until then, we'll have to keep our distance from all the towns. Spies are everywhere, as shown with our previous encounter. We only stop if Lapis has any pregnancy complications, or at sunset to rest. Understood?"

"Yes" they all answered him.

"OW!" Barry suddenly exclaimed as he fell to the ground after hitting his head on something. "Who put that there!? Because I'm gonna give them the biggest fine I've ever given in my life!"

"What is that?" Chili asked.

Looker and Conway both approached it and began their evaluation. It was a pink bubble containing a large Bismuth crystal.

"This, this defies all known laws of physics!" Conway babled, "The stone inside the bubble is easily more heavy than the bubble, yet it still floats. What we're looking at is impossible!"

"You're seriously saying that after everything we've told you?" Looker sarcastically told him. "Lapis, you're the expert on Gems, what do you make of this?"

She approached the bubbled gem and recognized the bubble as Steven's work. "I think it was meant to be with us. It might be a gift from Ash and the Crystal Gems." she took the bubble and put it inside her gem for safe keeping.

"We don't have time to debate," Looker ordered, "we have to keep moving."