My Distorted Reality, the Final Chapter

I could hear water flowing. I could hear grass bend to a calm wind. I could also hear a laugh; one I knew all too well. I was face down on the ground, but my location wasn't the summit of Mt Coronet anymore. I looked out from my position, seeing things that were just impossible. Patches of land floating in mid-air, upside down, even. Water continuing to flow regardless of it being up or down, side to side; some of it even flowed upside down before turning upwards and rising into the sky.

The sky. It wasn't blue, but a deep purple, with black clouds. The sky actually made up the better part of this world, as I noticed it continued not only as high up as I could see, but as far down as I could see, as well. Far as I could tell, this Distortion World was truly another world, somehow connected through that mist hovering above Mt Coronet. Still, one question persisted in my mind.

"How did Giovanni create this?" I spoke out loud. A cackle from the man echoed throughout the very world, it seemed.

"I did nothing of the sort," he spoke out to me. I looked all around, trying to spot him amidst the floating islands, but to no avail. "I merely opened a door."

"So this world already existed before you did anything?" I called out to him, hoping to keep him talking.

"Since the beginning of time. I never imagined I'd have to resort to this to accomplish my goals in our world, but your meddling, as well as Lance's have backed me into a corner. So to speak." As Giovanni spoke, my eyes continued to scan each and every island they could, but still I couldn't find any trace of him.

"Why? I mean- why go through all this trouble? You have Team Rocket, don't you?"

"Are you trying to give me advice on how to conquer the very world you hope to protect?" I had to admit, that was sort of where I was headed.

"N-No, I mean, it's just-"

"You're trying to find me." My heart skipped a beat. Could he see me? Still my eyes continued to scan the lands ahead.

"I must admit, you're rather bold and noble for such a small child," he taunted. It didn't matter what he said, so long as he continued to talk. "Why do you do this? What do you hope to earn from putting yourself in such peril?"

"I'm doing this because of you," I said, finding myself taking the bait. "Because of what Team Rocket has made me suffer through."

"Ahh, your Pokemon. The ones stolen from you at the Union Cave, in Johto." My eyes widened. He knew?

"You ordered that?"

"My grunts are instructed to gather as many Pokemon as they can for our efforts. That you were one of the many trainers we have affected is coincidence, and nothing more. My surprise when I put all this information together." Though my ears were wide open, my eyes were more focused on locating him. No matter how many islands I looked at, he was still no where to be seen.

"There's also what you did to Primeape," I said, keeping the conversation going.

"Casualty of battle. Sometimes accidents happen, you know."

"Liar! You used illegal moves in battle!" I screamed back. There was an unusually long silence, which made my heart race. I stopped scanning the islands and rubbed my eyes for a moment. Giovanni said nothing, leaving me to hear the flowing water.

"I'm afraid we'll have to continue this another time. I have a rare Pokemon to catch." My eyes widened, and I spun around. He had found Giratina.

"Giovanni! Where are you?" I screamed into the sky. He didn't answer. There had to be a means to find him, to travel through this world. I reached for Haunter's Pokeball, when I suddenly remembered he had helped me into the Distortion World in the first place. Had he been able to enter with me?

"Haunter? Haunter, are you out there somewhere?" I called out. It took him a moment, but he reappeared in front of me. Relieved, I gave his solid form a pat on the head.

"We need to find Giovanni," I told him. "Help me find a way off this rock."

The ghost Pokemon pointed to an adjacent island, one that was perpendicular to the one I was on. I figured with a bit of his help, I'd be able to climb it to the top, but that island didn't lead anywhere substantial. I walked over to the wall of grass and dirt, touching it with my hand. The grass felt identical to any other grass I ever touched. The question still remained: how was I to climb that wall?

Haunter pointed at it, but still that did nothing to help me solve this riddle. Then, he started floating sideways, as if the wall was underneath him. He motioned for me to follow, which got me thinking. Taking something of a leap of faith, I put one foot on the wall. I held it there for a moment, and took a deep breath. I forced my other foot into the air, and somehow found myself tripping and crashing into the grass. The entire ordeal felt extremely awkward, especially since I didn't even feel myself fall backward away from the wall.

"Wait," I said to myself, remaining perfectly still on the ground. "I didn't fall back; I fell forward."

I picked myself up off the ground, and turned to Haunter. He wasn't floating sideways anymore. Rather, he still was, but from my position, he was upright. I looked behind me, seeing what used to be the ground for me. The flattened grass where I stood for so long as I spoke to Giovanni confirmed it. Just by attempting to walk on the wall, I was able to walk on it.

"Okay, this is weird," I told Haunter. The ghost just shrugged. "Point taken. No sense thinking about it, just use it. Let's go!"

After that first time, it became surprisingly easy to jump from one level plane to the next. I made my way all over those islands, trying my best to find Giovanni, or at the very least some trace of the Pokemon he was after. Even if I had to capture it myself, I couldn't let him succeed.

~o~

"It's been over an hour," I said to myself, "and I haven't seen anything or anyone."

Actually, it had probably been more than an hour. I had been running that entire time, never feeling tired, or hungry. It was as if I had limitless energy, though I couldn't quite explain even THAT. Then again, this entire world allowed me to walk on walls and had land floating in midair. Wasn't exactly that farfetched given a bit more thought.

I stopped running entirely. In all that time, I hadn't heard or seen anything new. There had to be another way to move through this world. Something I wasn't quite grasping just yet. I took a seat on the ground, choosing to use my head this time. Giovanni was no where to be seen, and even though there were hundreds, maybe thousands of floating lands around here, if he or Giratina were in the vicinity, they would be at least audible. There just had to be a secret doorway or something...

And then it happened. As if my very desire for it to appear was the only thing required, a door emerged from no where in front of me. Without giving myself a chance to doubt what was beyond the door, I opened it up and went inside.

It was dark inside, pitch black. Then, lines began to magically draw a rectangular shape on the ground beneath my feet. The rectangle gave form to an arena, and on the other side an opponent I had been looking for. Standing tall and with that evil grin fixed on his face, Giovanni awaited me. His greeting was that cackle of his.

"Didn't think you'd actually find the means to travel in the Distortion World so quickly. What's more, you've seem to have cornered me here."

"So you can't just leave?" I asked him.

"Your desire to catch me has forced us both into the same 'room' here. Until you leave, we're trapped here." Then I did have him just where I wanted him.

"Surrender, Giovanni. Turn yourself into the police in Oreburgh City."

"Weren't you always accompanied by a Vulpix?" Those words pierced my cool shell like a knife through butter. What's worse, he noticed. "I see..."

"Don't make me, Giovanni!" I threatened as best I could. "I don't care if I order my Pokemon to attack you directly!"

"That is what most people call a crime, Star. Would you honestly dirty your hands to catch me?" I clenched my fists at my sides.

"No one would ever believe your word against mine." Giovanni began to laugh uproariously.

"Spoken like a hardened veteran of Team Rocket! I'll grant you this one opportunity, Star: join my side. Your loss can be turned into a victory; together, we can make use of the Distortion World and rule the other world!"

I'd like to tell you that I spat his offer back in his face without a second thought. But that would be a lie. In truth, I went over that offer at least half a dozen times in my mind before I answered him. I could feel myself inching ever closer to his way of thinking, ever since Vulpix died. And worst of all: I was finding it harder to resist thinking that way.

"Well? Have you decided?" His voice didn't seem so bad, now. It even sounded inviting, and before I realized it, I was standing before him. His hand was offered to me, but in my deepest heart I could not bring myself to take it. And yet, I saw with my own eyes as my hand moved to take his. My mind worked to stop my body, but it was moving of its own volition.

"You've made the right choice, Star," said Giovanni as our hands joined in a mutual shake. The shock of this entire ordeal finally reached a critical point. I screamed out from within my own mind at the top of my lungs.

~o~

I was no longer speaking with Giovanni. I was no longer in the Distortion World. For that matter, I wasn't anywhere near the Sinnoh region. Much to my surprise, I was back in my own room! I crawled out of bed, feeling both the bed itself and my walls to see if this was real. Could it all have been a crazy nightmare? Outside my window, the sun was shining brightly, and warm sunlight forced its way through the glass. The calendar on my wall was flipped to June, the month I left on my journey in the first place. Now I knew something strange was going on here.

"Star! Breakfast is ready!" I heard my mom call out from downstairs. My first instinct was to reach for a Pokeball, just in case. Of course, there were none on my waist. I panicked for only a moment, then remembered this was before I left on my journey. There was only one Pokemon in my possession. And she was no where to be seen. Regardless, I ran downstairs.

"Star, why aren't you ready for school? Eat quickly and then get ready!" Mom told me once I was downstairs. Breakfast looked to be the same as usual with her, but I couldn't shake the feeling something was wrong. I took a seat, but went against eating anything.

"Mom, where's Vulpix?"

"Vulpix? What Vulpix?" She replied with a confused look on her face. My fears grew larger.

"My Pokemon! You got her for me last year!"

"I think you were having a wild dream, Star. You don't have any Pokemon. We discussed this yesterday, remember? You have to keep up your studies." It was like a nightmare.

"No," I said, shaking my head, "this is the dream. None of this is real."

"Star? Are you feeling well?" I continued to shake my head, backing away from the woman at the table. She got up from her chair after me.

"Stay away! You're not my mom!" I screamed at her before running upstairs. I heard Mom chase after me, but I locked my door behind me. Instantly she started knocking on the door, demanding to be let in. I backed away from the door, looking for a means to escape. My gaze shot to the window.

"Star, open this door, NOW!"

Ignoring her commands, I ran to my window, and tried to open it. When it wouldn't budge, I looked to the locks, and noticed they were rusted over in the locked position. After trying to force them open, I noticed the nails keeping it closed, as well. This dream was quickly turning into a nightmare.

"Star, open this door!" Mom's voice started to change, sounding more and more like a monster of some kind. The door began to shake violently, as if there was something larger trying to force its way through. Try as I might with the window, it just wouldn't budge. A piece of the door was ripped off, and a dark arm reached through the crack to open the door. All I could do at this point was curl up in a corner, praying I'd wake from this nightmare soon.

The door opened, and a large black apparition stepped into my room. I could hear nothing but my heartbeat resound loudly in my ears. This nightmare wasn't ending, and that thing drew ever closer. Once it was practically in my face, I realized something; something that destroyed this nightmare. I looked into the dark creature's eyes, seeing something I had almost forgotten on my journey. The fear dying down, I stood up and faced the apparition directly.

"You don't scare me, anymore," I said to it. "I know what you are."

As if to deny my claim, the apparition morphed its 'face' into something else, but there was something it could not change anymore. The eyes remained the same; those same sinister eyes that I'd seen once before. A memory I could never forget. With that memory shining brightly in my mind, I felt the entire dream around me start to melt away.

~o~

I was back in the Distortion World now, the floating fragments of land all around me. And hovering before me was the source of that dream: the Pokemon Shuppet. I knew it was the same critter that had attacked me back in Lilycove City, despite clearly remembering Nancy having caught it. This was the cause of everything here, and I had to disperse the ghost. With Haunter back at my side, I prepared myself for battle.

"Haunter, Night Shade!"

Haunter blasted the Shuppet with the dark wave, knocking it into the ground in a single strike. After a moment, the Pokemon did not rise up again, making this battle seem almost anticlimactic. Then, its body started to glow and expand, and I knew it was evolving into something else. I quickly scanned it with my Pokedex before it could recover.

"Banette, the Marionette Pokemon. A doll that became a Pokemon over its grudge from being junked. It seeks the child that disowned it."

"A doll? That's a strange thing to become a Pokemon," I said to myself. I looked over at the Banette, which had thoroughly recovered and was prepared to keep fighting. This would be the final confrontation with this critter.

"Haunter, Lick!"

Haunter swooped in on Banette, tongue first. He just barely missed the target, as Banette threw himself high into the air. He released a Shadow Ball attack on Haunter, which my Pokemon was unable to dodge.

"Haunter, try Hypnosis!"

Recovering quickly, Haunter tried to lull Banette to sleep, but the attack failed to connect when the Pokemon twisted its head backwards. Slightly disturbed, I knew I had to take the offensive instead of my old tactics.

"Haunter, Shadow Punch!"

Wasting no time, my Pokemon propelled his fists forward, but again missed the mark. Banette swooped in on Haunter, delivering another Shadow Ball attack directly in his face. Haunter was forced back towards me, his ghostly body starting to lose cohesion. There was no way I could be losing this badly to Banette!

"Haunter, return," I said, putting my ghost Pokemon back in his Pokeball. The ghost ahead of me giggled, awaiting the next critter on my end. I hesitated, unsure what Pokemon in my roster had the best chance to defeat Banette. It seemed to evade every single attack I threw at it without any difficulty, almost as if it saw them coming ahead of time.

In that instant, it all made sense. I looked to Banette again, who continued to taunt me to release another Pokemon. Instead, I closed my fist, staring the ghost down. It looked at me now with confusion in its eyes, not realizing I had finally seen through its clever ruse. The first mistake it made wasn't in the dream sequence at home. It was actually before that, when I was forced to shake Giovanni's hand. Even in my deepest despair, I'd never resort to that.

I took a step towards Banette, who remained confident in believing it had the upper hand. I stood before the floating Pokemon, remembering what the Pokedex said about its origins.

"A doll that became a Pokemon," I said to it. "Thing is, I never had a doll. But we're not talking about a real doll, huh? The doll is me, before I lost Vulpix in this dream. That's what gave you the power to build the Distortion World here."

The Pokemon merely looked at me, unsure how to proceed at this point. Its ultimate plan was finally laid out to bare.

"I never woke up that night in Lilycove City, huh? You attacked me, stole the memory that meant the most to me, and then threw me into a dream so real, I'd never realize you continued to drain my life. And when you couldn't get anything more out of me, you tried to dig deeper by lowering my guard. You made the mistake of forcing me to shake Giovanni's hand."

Rays of light started to force their way through the dark skies. The elaborate dream Banette had constructed was finally starting to tumble. I need only deliver the final blow to shatter this distorted reality. I looked the Pokemon directly in the eyes.

"None of this is real."

I reached into my bag, and pulled out the feather dropped by Cresselia. Exposed to the Distortion World, it acted as the final blow; the final ray of light. With that, I saw the illsion collapse before my very eyes. The long dream had finally come to an end.

~o~

"Star! Are you alright?" Came a familiar voice through my blurred vision. As my eyes regained their focus, I saw Nancy's face looking down at me.

"Am I back?" I asked.

"You were attacked by that Shuppet, remember? Don't worry, you're back in your room, safe and sound."

Somewhat relieved, I looked beyond Nancy to see the room I had been staying in. I was still wearing my witch costume, while the hat was on the ground nearby. And close to it was Vulpix, whose shot upwards upon hearing my voice. She looked at me, and I could feel the tears streaming from my eyes. The small fox jumped onto the bed, and instinctively licked my face to comfort me.

"Star, what's wrong? Are you hurt?" Nancy asked, reaching for a handkerchief to dry my tears.

"No, I'm all right now," I said to her, hugging Vulpix. "Everything's all right."

~o~

Though it might seem a bit abrupt, that was the end of my Pokemon journey. After having lived through all that time in a perpetual dream, I decided not to see it through again, even if it didn't play out exactly as before. That Shuppet had ruined my birthday party, but it did give me the chance to finally see my true goal in life. After thanking Nancy wholeheartedly for everything she had done, I asked her for only one more thing.

"You want to go home?"

"Yes," I said to her, shortly after having woken up that night. "While I was out of it, I had a dream. And I think it's time I went back home."

"Are you sure, Star? You seemed intent on continuing your journey before." I could've told her everything that happened, but it would've all been pointless. She'd never believe me.

"Trust me, Nancy. It's time I went home."

As a final farewell to me, she paid my passage back to Vermillion City. She had to exchange a ticket to Mossdeep, something else I had 'foreseen' in my dream. It made me wonder, all the way back to Vermillion, what would've happened had I continued as before. But none of that mattered anymore. The entire trip back to Vermillion City, I kept Vulpix close by. The thought of losing her again too much to bear.

The first snow of the year fell on the day I finally arrived back in Pallet Town. It was like a welcome back from the town itself. I walked through all-too-familiar streets, making my way home slowly. Along the way, I decided to stop by the beach again, remembering something. Something that had been stolen from my by Shuppet in the dream. As expected, there he was, sitting by the beach. I walked a bit closer, and heard him mutter something to himself.

"We still are kids," he said, a line I had told him once before.

"Just a little older, and a lot wiser." I finished for him. My voice caught his attention, and he spun around to see me. He walked up close, trying to prove to himself that I was finally standing there before him. Vulpix barked at him, happy to be reunited.

"Is it really you?" He asked, voice quivering just slightly.

"Something I read once," I said to him, recalling a distant memory. "Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Some love poem thing."

He smiled at me, and I jumped into his arms, giving him a hug I hardly remembered doing in the first place so long ago. After a moment's embrace, he separated us, and looked deeply into my eyes.

"What happened? I didn't think you'd be back so soon."

"A lot of things happened," I replied, my smile concealing a wealth of knowledge I'd never share. "I learned a lot of things, too. Sorry it took me so long to get home."

"No, it's okay," he said to me. "All that matters is you're home."

My heart went aflutter in my chest as Deneb pulled me in close. This was what Shuppet had stolen from me, the memories of the one boy I loved. The only thing that could've shattered its hold over me in that nightmare. I finally remembered.

Our lips locked together in a kiss. Our second kiss, and the one to seal our future together. And all the while, Vulpix barked cheerfully in the distance.

~ The End ~