Chapter 6
Familiar Face
(Pokémon Zack's point of view.)
I ran after the Lord of the Reverse World, avoiding his path of carnage as best I could. Giratina had gone into a frenzy after that mark appeared on his head, not caring for anything around him. I'm not even sure he cared for himself, as his body was used as a weapon on more than one occasion. I turned a corner, only to find he had disappeared from my sight.
"Well, crap. Where do I go now?" I said to myself, only to hear Giratina's roar. He was close- really close. I looked all around me, but the last thing I expected to happen did.
{Destruction! Chaos!} Giratina said. He definitely was crazy, but I still didn't see him coming. Well, until he broke the island from underneath me, shattering the rock and sending me flying. I landed on his back, and I climbed my way up to his head.
{Giratina, listen to me!} I shouted. He turned, but I held onto the golden spikes on his side. {You are not yourself! Stop this madness!} He flipped quickly, entering into a steep dive, crashing into another island. I was flung off, and I landed hard on a surface below. It's a good thing my robotic arm broke my fall.
I saw Giratina fly away, and I knew I had no hope of catching up. I might as well regroup with Zack, and we'll search together. I hopped around the islands, until I reached a rather large one. This one had a small mountain range, one that I have to traverse to get by.
I noticed other things, too. Pokémon roamed this newer landscape, but they were just shells, semi-transparent ghosts. I remembered that the dead all go to the Reverse world, so I must have stumbled upon one of the places those spirits frequent.
I traveled across the mountains as fast as I could, but Pokémon stopped to talk to me once in a while. It was a long time since they saw anyone alive, so I bet I was a novel to them.
{Who… are you..?} A ghost said to me from behind me. I turned around, to see a ghost of an Absol, one that was differently colored. {Wait… I know you… you are the human, Zack…} That's when it struck me.
{Abita?} I asked slowly.
{Yes, I am. You do remember me after all.} he padded forward on slivery paws, his ghost form more graceful than when he was alive. {Do not worry, Zack. I have no desire to kill or harm you anymore.}
Cautiously, I asked, {Why?}
{For two reasons. The first, I couldn't hurt you anyway, since I am but a humble spirit now. The second, you had given my daughter hope and help, and that is a debt I cannot repay, especially now.} He stopped in his approach, looking at me with ice-blue eyes. {However, to try to settle my debt, I will help you with knowledge. Anything I know, anything at all, is yours.}
I was surprised by the sudden development. But, I wasn't one to turn down an offer of friendship. {Thank you, Abita. I do have one question for you, though. Before you- well, kicked the bucket, you mentioned you were a human before. Would you mind explaining?}
{Sit.} He said, gesturing to a stable-looking tree stump. He sat down in front of it, and shared his story. {I was a young human at the time. Not as young as you, but in my… early twenties, I'd say. It's hard to remember. But, anyway, I was contacted by a mysterious organization one day. They said they wanted to further human understanding with Pokémon. They wanted to make us better.}
{I see. So you accepted?}
{Yes, Zack. I went to a research lab in Orre, where I met with Mrs. Dakol, one of their head researchers.}
{I knew you said that name.}
{Does it have special meaning to you?}
{Yes, it's my last name. My mom was that researcher.}
Abita shifted on his silver paws. {Intriguing. But, she said that their goal was 'to further human interaction with Pokémon by bonding with them.' At the time, I thought it was some sort of accelerated friendship thing- I would be friends faster with any Pokémon. But I was wrong. They had taken the DNA of an Absol and injected it into my brain, where it replicated and mutated to spread throughout my body.}
{That must have been painful.}
{It was indeed. I was mutating into an Absol. My spine readjusted to fit a quadruped, and my species' trademark sickle-horn grew rather explosively. I was in pain and turmoil until it was over, and I was a Pokémon. Then, after all was over, they didn't even try to feel sympathetic. All the scientists said was that I was a failure, and they kicked me out to the wild.}
{It's no wonder you hated humans after that. I would too.}
{Yes. That was my story. But, Zack, could you answer me something?}
{Sure, Abita.} I felt sympathetic for my old enemy. I mean, who wouldn't?
{How is my daughter handling my death? I want to know.}
I wasn't sure how to respond to him. I decided with the honest route. {Talia isn't taking it well. She spends most of her time in front of your grave.}
{Really? I had that much of an impact on her…} I had to cheer him up, though.
{However, another Absol had appeared. He won't say his real name, since he can't remember it, but we call him Dusk. He says you saved him when he was a pup.}
Abita thought, reaching back into his mind. {Dusk… he was that young Absol I rescued when his mother was killed by humans… a fine young man by now, I'm sure. It's good to know that someone is by her side now.}
{They seem rather close to each other. I believe Dusk wishes to court Talia.} I laughed a little, trying to lighten the mood.
{Really? I do believe he'll have a hard time with that. But, Zack, could you do me a favor?}
{Sure. What is it?}
{When you get back to the real world, give Talia and Dusk my blessing as her father and his mentor. They'll know what I mean by it.}
{I will. Thank you for your time, Abita.} I started to get up, and walk off when Abita called me back.
{Say, something seems different… we met only once, but I do not recall your face to be that appearance.} he pointed his claw to a small pool of water, and I looked in.
{What the hell..?} I whispered to myself. My green hair had a blue-ish stripe down the middle, and my eyes were a darker yellow- no, orange in color.
{Were you like this before?}
{No, no, maybe it has something to do with my Aura Powers.}
{Aura? You truly are a strange human.} Abita walked over to me, ready to travel. { I may not be able to leave this world, but I will help you finish your goals here. It is the least I can do for what you have done and promised for me.}
We walked out of the mountains at last, and out into the Reverse World plains. In the distance, Giratina's Pained howls could be heard.
(A/N: A slightly filler chapter. Yay. Next week: Zack, Abita, and Zack VS Marluxia and Giratina. Who will win? Who will lose? Who will keep their sanity? Find out next time! ~Nano)
