Meanwhile, on the debris from the staircase at the hospital, a severely battered and barely awake Grimsley opened his eyes. He tried to move his hand and sensed pain. Then, with difficulty, he took out a dusty pokeball from his pocket. He tried cleaning it with his sleeve but only managed to make it dirtier, then he called out his honchkrow. The dark feathered pokemon came out and took a look at his wounded trainer, its eyes changed, it was immediately horrified. Honchkrow let down its beak and touched Grimsley's shoulder, Grimsley let out a laugh subdued by pain and stroked its feathers, then grabbed honchkrow's head and used it to get up and climb on its back. Honchkrow knew what Grimsley wanted it to do, but it still hesitated,
"let's go," Grimsley said as he patted honchkrow's head, and the pokemon flew away, swiftly crossing through the destruction, while Grimsley, in his poor state, tried as hard as he could to hang on to it. They arrived at the entrance to find Sabrina floating right in the middle of the giant room, shrouded in all of her power.
Honchkrow flew as fast as it could toward her with Grimsley still struggling to hold on to it. Zinzolin identified them and immediately ordered his soldiers to strike them down. Attacks from all directions, water, ice, and flames were thrown at them until one flamethrower hit honchkrow in the head, and an ice beam finally took it down. Grimsley channeled all of his remaining strength to jump out, he managed to reach Sabrina's legs and put his arms around her knees however he could; his life depended on it.
Sabrina waved her hand, directing an attack at him, but the psychic waves didn't affect him. Grimsley was infused with darkness, he was basically a dark type himself, so Sabrina resorted to punching the living hell out of him. She stayed floating as she threw fists full of Zinzolin's rage right on Grimsley's face. One after the other she pummeled Grimsley and disfigured him.
"You want to take her mask off, free her from my power!" Zinzolin said through Sabrina,
"I won't take it off, she will," Grimsley shouted,
"the hell she will," Sabrina said as she continued hurting him,
"you aren't immortal, you can't resist forever!" Zinzolin shouted,
"I never said I was immortal," Grimsley said. His voice weakened as his face received more and more attacks but the grip he had on Sabrina's knees didn't falter one bit,
"fall down! Fall down! FALL DOWN YOU IDIOT! Who do you think you are?" Sabrina continued shouting, but Grimsley could sense that Zinzolin was cracking down,
"PLEASE! Fall down you idiot! Who are you!?" Zinzolin cried covered in sweat, which was mixed with the tears rolling down his eyes,
"you are nothing special! You are just a man," Zinzolin cried out,
"exactly..." Grimsley said triumphantly as Sabrina stopped her fist covered on Grimsley's blood just a few inches away from him. She looked right at him and the pink glare in her eyes disappeared, it was Sabrina, the saffron gym leader from Kanto who was looking right at the person below her with eyes filled with sorrow and repentance, which then turned at her bloodied hand; she was disgusted by it. She kept looking at her hand until it reached the top of her head and grabbed the mask, then took it off, and the pink glow disappeared entirely, and Grimsley gave out and fell off of her.
Luckily Sabrina reacted quickly and managed to grab Grimsley by the arm. She slowly came down with him and let him safely on the ground, then grabbed the mask with both of her hands and used them to crush it until it broke down in pieces on the ground.
Meanwhile on the ruins, Zinzonlin kept screaming as loud as he could, hoping that his messages of hate would still reach Sabrina, which wouldn't happen. However, his screams managed to reach Lucia's ears as she was desperately looking for him around the ruins.
That was enough for her to finally find him, on a small ditch covered by some rocks, which hid the light that came out of the numerous espeon hiding there with him. Seven of the four legged psychic pokemon, all of them with their eyes closed, were gathered in a circle around Zinzolin, as the apparent source of his mind-controlling powers. None of them moved as Lucia walked in with her three houndoom behind her, the four of them with hate visible in their stares. It wouldn't have mattered if the espeon had moved and attacked them on the spot, Lucia's resolute sight was set on Zinzolin and only Zinzolin. She saw him, covered all in black except for his head. Both his hair and his face were wet, and he had a gray mask covering his mouth, with the edges leading all the way to his temples on both sides.
He extended his hand at Lucia to try and control her, Lucia stopped walking at him and waited, but felt nothing,
"do you remember why you joined team plasma in the first place?" Zinzolin suddenly asked her with a tired tone, "I was there remember, you wanted to get revenge on a trainer who would humiliate you and defeat all of your pokemon whenever he saw you,"
"shut up," Lucia calmly said,
"you came to me for protection, I know you, as the little girl who came to us crying because trainers were mean to her,"
"yeah?"
"yeah, you have nothing to do here."
The light surrounding the espeon suddenly vanished, they opened their eyes and looked at the two people sweating profusely. Then, one by one the seven espeon got out of the ditch and slowly walked away without minding Zinzolin in the least.
"Wait!" Zinzolin cried out loud, "who told you you could leave?! Come back here!" He knelt down and raised his open hands at them, "don't leave me please! Please come back, I beg you."
Lucia couldn't look at him, she lamented that he looked so pathetic and pitiful; all of the sudden she couldn't enjoy his breakdown. So she looked at the espeon and waited until they were out of sight, just then she turned back at the man laying on the floor, who now looked just like what he really was, a coward, sad, alone, desperate, and more than anything, afraid.
One of the houndoom behind her growled and showed its fangs. This was enough for Zinzolin to get up and run away scared, but he was too slow and too tired to actually have a chance to escape, and the houndoom didn't have to wait for any of Lucia's orders as they knew well what they had to do. The three of them quickly ran after the sad and tired man, tackled him to the ground, and ripped the black robes off him, revealing his body. He had a lot of cables tangled all around his torso which led to a rectangular box on his back, which in turn led to the mask on his mouth.
The houndoom started chewing all of his machinery up while Lucia approached and tried to take the box off his back, managing to take its top off, revealing Sabrina's bracelets right in the middle of it, entangled around all of the cables that went into the box. Lucia violently turned Zinzolin on his wet back, grabbed as many cables as she could from his chest, and shattered them. She then did the same with the mask on his face, which turned out to be way harder than it should've been, maybe Zinzolin had somehow ingrained it to his face. Nevertheless Lucia managed to rip it off, causing Zinzolin a great deal of pain. She moved right above him and knelt down, leaving his torso between her thighs, and grabbed his injured face,
"you think this is it? I did this from nothing, I'll come back and do it again," Zinzolin said below her,
"you won't,"
"yes I will, for always,"
"we'll see," Lucia said, then she punched Zinzolin hard in the jaw. He felt the hit just as much as he felt his skull shaking from it, all over his face all the way to the back of his head, infusing everything in between with pain, which somehow felt the worst on the inside of his head. She then punched him again, this time right on his mouth, and the abundant pain stayed in the inside of his lips and on his teeth. He couldn't help but let out a grievous, guttural moan,
"you still want to take over Unova?" Lucia asked angrily,
"yes..." Zinzolin cried, and she punched him again, this time on the nose, so hard it hurt her hand deeply even though his nose seemed like the softer choice. He let out another painful moan and grabbed his nose with both of his hands. Lucia then grabbed his hands and removed them from his face, then continued punching him without holding anything back, knowing that the more her first hurt, the more he suffered. And Zinzolin kept crying, louder after every hit which made his cranium shake from the constant hits and the pain. The back of his head hurt as much as the battered front. She kept hitting him, there seemed to be no end to her rage, and she became angrier and angrier after every hit,
"Lucia!" She then heard, stopped hitting Zinzolin and raised her head. Bianca, Jonny, Helma, Popito, and Quincey, and their pokemon, stood in front of her with relief visible in their faces. Lucia looked at them unapologetic, right on their eyes, while the rest of them looked at Bianca not sure of what to do. Bianca turned to Jonny after a few seconds, and Jonny looked back at Lucia, and nodded. She smiled, looked at the vividly red faced man below her, and punched him once more, sensing how his face now cushioned her hit better because of how swollen it was getting. She managed to hit him harder without getting hurt too much. She winded up another hit, and prepared to strike Zinzolin one more time, but before she could do it his shaky hand touched her arm and stroked it softly,
"please...stop...I won't...do this ever again," Zinzolin pleaded sorrowfully to her. She looked at the battered Zinzolin on the ground with anger in her eyes, then she let her arm down. Zinzolin let out a faint but haunting cry. Lucia ripped yet another piece of his robe and cleaned some blood off her hands with it, then threw it at his face,
"but I want you to do it again," she said as she got up, "try and take over Unova again, do it, but first take a look in the mirror and remember that now you have someone willing to hurt you to stop you, don't ever let me see that disfigured face again, or I might just fix it back for you," Lucia said with anger.
She kept looking at the man below her, who was in so much pain that he couldn't concentrate on screaming so his cries sounded like the whispers of an old sick man.
Everyone stayed quiet while Lucia breathed heavily and Zinzolin cried sorrowfully. No one knew what to do next, victory seemed so far and so unlikely, and yet they had won.
"All the trainers are gone," Bianca suddenly said,
"the mind control stopped and they just left, some of them even apologized to us," Helma added, but Lucia kept quiet, still catching her breath.
Time went by, they got out of the cave carrying a still unconscious Cheren with them. All of the remnants gathered at the entrance, they dragged Zinzolin away and left him on the ground near them, but they did not care for him in any way, they just wanted to save the police a tiring trip into victory road. They all looked at each other, they were free, they could see it on their faces. Cheren started snoring while he was sleeping on the ground next to Bianca, Jonny thought of something to say but chose to keep it to himself, and none of them moved.
Lucia looked at all of her friends and opened her mouth, but before she could say anything, Sabrina and Colress appeared carrying a severely bruised Grimsley on their shoulders. They all faced each other, but everyone stood silent. Nobody knew what to do before, and now that feeling had multiplied,
"sorry," Sabrina scantily said. And then there was more silence,
"...we'll forgive you..." Jonny said, breaking the suffocating atmosphere, "...if you do one thing for us,"
"what's that?" Sabrina asked,
"you have to promise to stop chasing after us" Jonny naively said,
"done," Sabrina cheekily replied,
"alright it's all settled, we are all friends now although that doesn't mean I like you," Jonny continued, "now if you don't mind, me and Helma are going to take Lucia to wash her bloodied hands cause they are making me sick."
Helma reacted quickly and grabbed Lucia, who was still a bit on shock, by the arm and took her away, and Jonny and skuntank followed behind them. However, the boy and the pokemon stopped before reaching the nearby pond where Lucia and Helma were heading,
"skuntank, thank you for helping me," Jonny said, "your trainer is free from the mind control, and even though I don't want you to, you must go back to him now."
Skuntank growled sorrowfully and licked Jonny's hand,
"I don't have to be your trainer in order for us to be friends, besides, there's not much I can do for you, I always was a shit trainer, it's not what I want to do, but that doesn't mean we can't be friends, and I'd like to keep being friends with you if you don't mind."
Skuntank kept licking Jonny's hand and then it moved to lick his face joyfully,
"dude, dude! I don't like that stop it! Your trainer has you very pampered dude,"
"Skuntank!" The skuntank shouted at Jonny after letting him go,
"I've found my calling, I'm going to become a merchant, or rather, I'll continue being one, so tell all your friends okay, alright I guess it's time for you to go."
Jonny knelt and hugged skuntank honestly, albeit for just a second, and then watched it every step of the way as it made its way out of the zone and finally off his sight.
Skuntank passed Helma and Lucia on its way without them noticing it, and the two of them reached a small pond where Lucia started washing her hands,
"how do you feel?" Helma asked,
"I'm sad and my hands hurt," Lucia replied, "it only felt how I wanted it to feel when I started punching him, immediately afterwards it devolved into just blind rage and ultimately sadness, when I had him below me I stopped caring about him at all, it was all about me, I just wanted to show him how much stronger than him I was, and I completely forgot how much pain I was inflicting on that poor human being, a horribly misguided human being, but a human being nonetheless,"
"he deserved it, and he's still alive so he has a chance to change I guess," Helma interrupted her, "you did show him who was the boss, besides, your hands will heal, I'll make sure of that,"
"thanks."
Helma went over to hug Lucia and she took out her clean hands out of the water to reciprocate the hug, which could've lasted the whole afternoon.
"All this time I thought I knew the future," Sabrina said to Grimsley outside the cave, "but it was you who knew all along...you know the future don't you...you know what I'll say...I was wrong, this is my fault, I almost killed you,"
"before this goes on..." Colress interrupted, "technically it is my fault, I wanted to make team plasma disappear, I wanted to erase it from existence and from everyone's memory, I sent everyone I could to stop it, including Sabrina...I should've just asked you what you were doing, I saw you as a nuisance, I wanted you all gone,"
"...you didn't do this to me though, to any of us," Grimsley said, "I would love for you to apologize, in fact I'll accept any kind of repentance you have for me, as many apologies as you want, but I can't truly blame you for this, consider yourself released from your past or whatever,"
"if it is of any consolation, I was not left unharmed," Colress added, "if it matters, it seems everyone who deserved to be punished has in fact been given what they deserve, looking at that red pulp on the ground which used to be Zinzolin, and myself, because he did manage to rough me up a bit, for a good while,"
"what now?" Sabrina asked to everyone, and no one knew how to answer.
"I don't know about you," Grimsley spoke, "and I've never said this before, but I think I need a vacation,"
"you can go anywhere you want, and when I turn in my official report I'm sure everyone will change their minds about all of you, they'll probably hail you as heroes," Sabrina said,
"they better do, but I don't care for any praise, although you can keep praising me all you want, I won't complain, however, I do care for something I learned once, something I'd forgotten, something that, because of this, because of you, I've remembered, it is self respect. I used to think of myself as an aberration, the lowest of the low, until somebody change my mind, somebody who taught me that even if people still think of me as an aberration, and even if they aren't willing to change their minds, I'd still be alright, most people don't care about me, a lot of them could die and I wouldn't even know, only the people who truly care for me know who I am, and I am alright, not physically of course,"
"well said," Popito added, "you know, seeing all of my friends fight a battle just to protect my home has given me a new worldview, and a new sense of respect toward myself, I shall call it, self respect, a sense of it which is calling me to become a different entity from the being that saved my life, to whom I'll be eternally grateful, however it is time to be myself, so," he turned to face politoed, "master, I need you to release me from being my master,"
"politoed,,," politoed said,
"no? Okay, I tried," Popito said disheartened,
"anyway, to get back on track, I feel the same way Grimsley does," Quincey carried on, "today I fought for myself and I'm looking forward to keep doing so in the future, after our vacation,"
"what about the elite 4?" Bianca asked,
"they can stick it I'm leaving either way," Grimsley said, "if Sabrina wants my place she can have it, temporarily of course, she could let the people from the dojo have their gym back on Saffron city,"
"I defeated them fairly," Sabrina said with a defensive tone,
"yeah, because the people from the dojo used fighting types against you everyone knows that," Grimsley tested his luck,
"did you just go there?...You know what I owe you big time after what happened so I will gladly hold your place for as long as you need," Sabrina finalized.
Jonny, Helma, and Lucia, walked back to the group. They had never looked happier, each of them sporting wide smiles on their faces, mainly born out of relief.
"So what's the deal?" Jonny enthusiastically asked,
"we are going on vacation," Popito answered him,
"but what about the cave?" Helma cried out,
"I'll gladly take care of it for you, it'll be here waiting for you when you come back," Bianca said
"you are coming with us though," Jonny quickly replied,
"maybe I'll join you later, we can go wherever we want now, now you can visit me at the lab whenever you want, and even if you leave for a while we'll keep in touch now that you can visit me and Cheren, and we'll come here a lot too,"
"oh great, Cheren," Jonny said, "still I think we should say something to you, and I think all of the remnants feel the same way, you've really done a lot for us, maybe too much, you trusted us from the beginning even though we weren't so great, and you helped us realize that there are people like you who enjoy the company of weirdos who like to hang out in caves, and for that we'll be eternally grateful, or rather, we'll be grateful until we perish and our bodies disintegrate over time, leaving nothing of us in the foreseeable future, where nothing that we've said to you will matter because we'll have long ceased to exist, nevertheless it does matter now though,"
"that's so morbid," Bianca said with a smile on her face as she wiped one or two tears off her face.
Jonny turned to Colress, "what are you gonna do bro?"
"I don't know," Colress answered,
"why don't you come with us in our vacation?"
"Where are you going?"
"I don't know, but it has to be somewhere warmer than here for sure, maybe somewhere with a lot of beaches and where nothing bad ever happens,"
"alright, that sounds nice, maybe I'll take you up on that and join you, it would be nice to go somewhere else and continue my research..."
"what?!" Jonny asked incredulous, "what research, you are a scientist?"
"Yes,"
"dude I had no idea."