Nothing. The whole world had collapsed into nothing around me. Even in my dying state, I found myself wondering, "How did it come to this?" I had saved the only people who had ever cared about me, from a homicidal maniac. They had then promised me a place to live, a place I would be away from those who hated me.

The world had looked up for me, until it had all come crashing down around me. Somehow, the crazed man had been able to escape from the burning building, still holding his rifle. I had little time to react, before…

Even in my weakened state, I tried to open my eyes. I couldn't see anything through my eyelids, and sounds had ceased to reach my ears. Slowly, my eyes opened up, and what I saw made me gasp.

I don't know who it was, but someone had once told me, that when you die, your whole life flashes before your eyes. I had never believed the statement, saying it was pure fantasy. But now, I found myself finding out the answer to that statement…the hard way.

I saw myself in what looked like a tunnel of light. As I hurtled through the tunnel, drawn by an unseen force, I saw what looked like panels of glass flying past me. I looked at the nearest one, and saw the image of me, punching the hunter in the gut with my meteor mash. A smile started to spread across my face at the site of this.

Another panel flew by me, this time showing me saving the little captured Aipom. The next one showed me and John standing by the cliff. Each panel showed an event previous to the last one. It was like… my life was a movie and someone had hit rewind.

After a few minutes (or what felt like minutes), the panels were starting to go further and further back. Suddenly, a panel ahead of me broke off from the usual path, growing in size and stopping ahead of me. I braced my self for impact, which never came. Instead, the mirror started to ripple like water as I touched it, passing right through it. The light faded, as I entered, into the panel…of my memory.

As I appeared, I looked around to try and figure out where I was. It was the middle of the night, making it hard to see, but I still recognised almost immediately were I was, which made me wish I hadn't looked. I was in the Team Rocket base, the place I had been kept for so many years. I saw the many metal buildings, many of which were either containment facilities, or laboratories. I saw the barbed metal fence, which surrounded the complex at all times.

As I looked around some more, I heard a ruckus to my left. Suddenly, alarms started to ring through the complex, as red lights started to flash around me. I started to panic. What was going on? Had they found me? Would I be captured again?

As these thoughts ran through my head, I heard the sound of more yelling, this time getting closer. I heard someone yell, "Stop him!" as someone ran around the nearest corner. My breath caught in my throat as I saw the person race towards me. I rubbed my eyes, hoping that what I was seeing was just an illusion, but what I was seeing was real.

The person running towards me was……me.

I saw myself running towards me. I wondered why the other me hadn't freaked out at the sight of himself. Not even trying to stop, he…me…HIM, was about to collide with his doppelganger. I braced myself for another impact.

Once again, there was no impact. Seconds before, my body became almost see through, like a ghost. Instead of colliding, he passed straight through me, not even seeming to notice me. As my body once again became solid, I saw several Rocket grunts run out from the same corner. Not wanting another phasing episode, I jumped out of the way as they passed me.

Quickly getting up, I followed them, even more questions running through my head. Why hadn't they noticed me? What was the deal with that whole transparent thing and, more importantly, Why were there two of me!?!

Still trailing behind the grunts, I watched the events unfold. The second me was heading straight for the gate, ready to leap over it. As I neared it, I saw one of the grunts pull something out of his pocket. It looked like some kind of control…

It was then that it hit me. This was the memory of my escape from Team Rocket's hideout, the last night I could remember before coming to the city. The whole thing was playing before me, with me being the onlooker. If I was right, that remote controlled the security functions of the gate, the one thing that kept anyone from escaping. As I neared the gate, the grunt hit the button.

Nothing happened. He hit the button again, and still nothing happened. He slammed the remote with his fist, and still nothing happened. By this point, I had reached the gate and leapt over it, into freedom. As they raced towards the gate, I held something in my hand.

It was the remote. The real remote. My plan had been to steal the main control remote from the admin that night, which was an easy task. Even though each grunt had a remote to operate the gate, only the admins had total control over it.

As the grunts neared the gate, I hit the ON switch, sparking the gate into life. They didn't have enough time to react, as they slammed into the gate. Sparks shot from them, as their hair started to stand on end, and the power of the gate held them there like glue. It would take twenty minutes at least to fix it, time I planned to use to escape.

As the other me ran off, I ran to the gate, passing right through. As this was a memory of what had already happened, nothing here could hurt me and nothing I did would change what would happen. Catching up with the past me, we both disappeared behind the rocks and trees that surrounded the base.

My heart started to race as I followed behind. Even though this was only a memory, I still felt the thrill I had felt the first time. The thrill of finally escaping from that evil group.

I continued to run, for what felt like forever. I figured at least an hour had passed, giving me a good head start and a higher chance of escaping. I ducked under fallen trees, jumped over high rocks and anything else I could to make it harder to catch up to me.

As I leapt over another high rock, I stopped in my tracks, remembering what lay ahead of me. Unfortunately, the other me didn't know what lay ahead, until it was too late. He reached a steep hill, layered with sharp, pointed rocks. Unable to stop in time, he hurtled down the hill. I ran over to see what was happening.

For the first time, I saw the actual pain I went through as I rolled down the hill. Before, I had only felt it but now, I was seeing it in action. I hit rocks, broken branches and bumps as I rolled straight down. I rolled down the hill so fast, that several of the rocks caused scratches and marks to appear on my armour. Several spikes hit the back of my head, where my armour was weaker.

After a few more seconds of punishment, I hit a small ramp, which sent me flying into the air. I hit a nearby tree with my back, slid down to the ground, and collapsed, now motionless. Quickly, I climbed down the jagged hill and stepped over to my past self's motionless body.

I tried to wake him up, but my hands just passed right through him. What was going to happen now? Would I be recaptured, only to escape again? Everything from this point on was what I couldn't remember, so what happened next would be anyone's guess.

Suddenly, I heard the sound of a twig snap from behind me. Sweat started to pour down my face, as I heard the sound of footsteps, getting closer and closer. Moments later, something big stepped into the clearing. It took me a moment to realise what it was, and when I did, a small glimmer of hope started to swell up inside me.

It was Pringston! The Hariyama I had seen in one of my memory flashes. And if he was here, that meant…

My question was soon answered, as a young woman stepped out from behind him. She was wearing a long, crimson coloured dress. A large earring hung from each ear, and the rings on her fingers glinted in the sun. She looked like she was dressed for a party, rather then walking through the forest.

"Pringston, what is I…." She grew silent as she saw me. She seemed to take a moment to look me over, wondering what I was. After a moment, she turned to Pringston.

"Carry him to the house." Was all she said before she started walking away. Not wanting to get left behind, Pringston bent down, picked my lifeless body up in its huge hands, and started walking behind his trainer. Wanting to see what would happen next, I followed behind them.

We had only been walking for a few minutes, when Pringston and the woman stopped. I looked up at what they were looking at and gasped. It was an enormous house! The house looked like it had three floors, and the whole place looked like it was almost made of diamonds. I walked up closer and saw that it was really marble, sparkled to almost look like a mirror.

As we walked into the house, I was still in awe at the magnificence of the house. I was so distracted, that I didn't even notice them shut the door, which I simply walked through. Still following them, they walked up the steps towards a large wall of doors, each leading to a different room.

After passing at least ten doors, the woman stopped. Grabbing a ring of keys, she looked through them before finally selecting the right one. Slipping it into the lock, she unlocked the door with an almost silent "click".

Pushing open the door, we walked into a small bedroom. It had a one person bed on the far wall, a table and several chairs in the centre of the room, a wall clock, a dresser in the corner and a door next to it, which I guessed led to a closet. Pringston stepped into the room and gently placed me on the bed. Once my unconscious body was settled in, they both stepped out, quietly closing the door behind them.

Taking a seat (luckily I didn't pass through the chair!) I started to think things out.

Here I was, living out the events that had been flashing before my eyes and in my dreams for the last two weeks. I knew this would give me answers to the many questions, but what about after that?

Would I be stuck here, living out my um… afterlife (I had to face the fact that I was indeed, dead) in an endless loop, for all eternity? Or would it all just disappear, along with me? What was in my future?

I tried to push these thought from my head as I figured out what to do. From what I remembered from my memory flash, the clock had read 4:30 when I had awoken. Looking at the clock on the wall, I saw that it was 2:45 now. That gave me almost two hours to check out this house even more.

Getting up from the chair, I stepped through the door, into the huge hallway. As I started walked past room after room, I got a strange sense of déjà vu, like…

My trail of thought was interrupted by an odd smell in the air. I also heard the sound of chopping, along with…humming?

Wondering what it was, a followed the sounds and smells to a nearby room. Looking in, I saw that I was in a huge kitchen, complete with a fridge and freezer, oven, stove, everything you would normally find in a kitchen. Looking around, I saw Pringston chopping something up on the counter, while the well-dressed woman was mixing something in a big bowl, humming as she went.

A moment later, I heard a loud "BEEP!" coming from the oven. Without even missing a beat, Pringston placed down his knife, pulled open the oven and, using his big hands like a pair of oven mitts, pulled something from the still hot oven.

Placing it on the table, he got back to his chopping. Looking over, I saw a plate of what looked like pepperoni pizza. Without even thinking, I reached for a slice, only to have my hand pass right through it. I knew this was a only image of what had already happened, but my mouth still watered for a something to eat…

As they continued cooking, they started to talk. I could understand what Pringston was saying, so I wasn't missing anything from a conversation.

"I wonder if that young man is okay?"

"I was wondering the same thing myself Miss Elizabeth."

So, her name was Elizabeth. What a nice name…I seemed to blank out for a minute, as I started to marvel at how beautiful she was. I saw how her flawless skin seemed to almost glow, her gentle hands so delicately mixing the food together. She seemed almost like an angel…so why couldn't I remember her!

My marvelling of beauty was suddenly replaced by the feeling of rage. All this had happened after I fell down that steep hill, and all I remembered was later waking up near a lake, seemingly miles away from the forest. Some of the questions I had at that moment were slowly being answered, which still bags the question, "What had happened to make me forget all this?"

I decided I had done enough exploring, so I started back to the room where my unconscious body still lay. But I had forgotten one thing: which room I was in. Still having at least a half-hour till my body woke up, I figured I'd check every room till I found the right one.

Looking in the first room, I saw a walk-in closet. Next room, another bedroom. Room #3, bathroom. Rooms 4-8, more bedrooms and bathroom. After passing yet another empty bedroom, I was starting to wonder why she had placed me in that specific room, when there were maybe a dozen other bedrooms I could be sleeping in right now. Still looking for my room, I stuck my head in the tenth door…and was shocked by what lay before me.

I was looking into a shrine. It was still a bedroom, but with photos everywhere, several candles still smoking on the table, clothes still hanging from the dresser and the bed still looking like someone had just slept in it. Stepping into the room, I looked at the nearest photo to the door. All the photos were placed into expensive looking frames, all looking like they were dusted regularly.

In the frame, I saw a picture of a young boy, maybe around age 5 or 6.. He was smiling at the camera, standing in a freshly jumped in pile of leafs. A Shroomish was standing on his head, smiling as well. Looking at the next frame, I once again saw the image of the young boy, but this time, he was standing by a local swimming pool. This time, he was holding a flopping Goldeen in his hands.

In ever picture, I saw the same boy, standing or playing with some kind of Pokemon, ranging from racing a Poochyena, to playing hide and seek with a Kecleon, to riding a Lairon. Also, in every picture, the boy was smiling, looking like he was having the time of his life. On the back of the picture with the boy riding the Lairon, I saw something written. Looking closer, I saw the words, "To my son, Eric."

Her son? Elizabeth had a son? Or…had a son by the look of this shrine. No one would make something this devoted unless they had wanted to remember something close to them. This was raising even more questions, questions I hoped to find the answer to.

End Chapter

Had a little trouble writng this one. Hope you liked it!