Author's note: This is the next to last chapter in this story. Hopefully you've found it to be interesting reading thus far. Apologies if the previous chapter wasn't very good. Again, I don't think I'm very good at writing battles.
And as pointed out by Elite Dog (thanks for the comment, I didn't notice how bad I messed it up until you pointed it out), I seriously botched some of the type alignment stuff, although maybe this is because I always thought that Ghost-types were weak against Psychics. Maybe this had to do with me being able to kick the asses of Gastly and its evolutions because they're part-Poison. Whoops. Better luck next time?
Also, as for where Gardevoir initially says nothing about her relationship with Micah but towards the end she says quite a bit about it, I didn't notice that until after I uploaded it. I guess the only logical explanation is that she mentions what happened immediately after she defeated Milotic and Banette put two and two together and it was too late for Gardevoir to try to paint that as anything other than what it really was without looking like the worst damn liar on the planet. Lame explanation, I know, but that's all I got.
So yeah, Chapter 12 was kind of a dud. Again, my apologies.
Hopefully, this story has been able to help me with my creative skills so I can work on other stories for posting here as well. I'm planning a crime drama Pokemon fanfic next, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that turns out.
For now, though, there's this story to bring to a close. Language warning again:
As soon as she was past the city limits, Gardevoir began to run.
It had been two days since she had kissed Micah goodbye and started off to be with Karl one more time. She had somehow managed to cram more into those two days than she could have ever imagined doing in a month. And her journey was not over yet.
The gatehouse forced her to stop running, but only for a moment, as she opened the door and ran to the other end, throwing the door open and charging off again.
The road was much longer than she had expected, and the day was sweltering hot. The remains of the food spilled on her during her ride on the train had begun to dry on her skin and hair. She didn't want Karl to see her like this.
Much to her relief, there was a pond nearby, tucked innocently behind several feet of brush. She braved her way through the thick foliage and finally made it through, slightly dirtier from the dry twigs breaking against her skin, but unhurt nonetheless.
It was then that she noticed the clear path that led to the pond, and she facepalmed in her embarrassment.
Shaking the thought from her head, she quickly dropped her luggage, stripped out of her clothes, and plunged into the water. It was rather lukewarm, yet not exactly unpleasant as she scrubbed the grime away as best as she could. The water glistened on her white flesh, giving her a supernaturally glowing appearance.
She turned in the water and was shocked to see her bags missing.
"What the-" she began, but then she heard a too-familiar giggling, and as she looked around in her rage, she saw the small, shadowy figure of a Gengar running as fast as he could with her things.
"HEY! THAT'S MY GODDAMN LUGGAGE!" she yelled as she charged full speed out of the water and chased after the ghost.
"HEHEHEHEHMINEMINEMINEMINEMINE!" laughed Gengar as he sped away.
"GET BACK HERE, YOU ETHERAL LITTLE TROLL!"
As she ran naked down the road, it occurred to Gardevoir how funny it must seem to a random passerby to see a mischievous Gengar rapidly floating down the road with two heavy pieces of luggage and being chased by a wet Gardevoir noticeably missing her gown or any other item of clothing. Either they'd shrug it off as a heat-induced hallucination or they would run around and tell everyone of what they saw until they were finally carried away to a mental sanitarium.
Fortunately, the little asshole is part-Poison, she remembered. This ought to make my job easier.
She began to glow even brighter in the hot sun as she unleashed Psychic on the thief, knocking him down and sending her bags spinning on the ground. The dazed Gengar looked up to see an angry naked Pokemon standing over him.
"Shove me into pools and steal my things, will you?" she snarled as she lifted him up, malice in mind. "Maybe you'd like to go flying into another time zone?"
"NONONONONO! Please don't hurt me! I'll give you your things back!" pleaded Gengar.
"Damn right you will!" she yelled as she forcefully tossed him to the ground.
"Here! Take it back! All of it!" uttered the frightened ghost, pushing the bags towards her.
She began to pick them up, but stopped. Straightening up, she started glowing again, panicking the Gengar. He tossed a package of berries at her that he had tried to steal from one bag. She caught it, then started glowing again. Gengar tossed all of her money back at her, which finally sated her wrath.
"Now hightail your ass out of here before I decide to help you do it!" she ordered.
"OK, OK, OK! You don't need to hurt me anymore! I'm leaving!" said Gengar hurriedly as he wriggled free from her grasp and was soon gone.
Gardevoir opened up one bag and began to search for a clean gown and clean panties. The heat, combined with her running, had mostly dried the moisture from her hair and the surface of her skin. If nothing else, it had left her with some dust on her feet and ankles, but she was still clean otherwise.
A few minutes later, having put on a neon green T-string and a clean gown, she continued on down the long road to Celadon City.
Four hours had passed, and the rays of the sun had begun to noticeably slant. The heat had begun to slowly diminish as well.
A weary Gardevoir felt like she was burning in the hot summer sun, her feet dragging her along as her tired arms barely held up her luggage.
Then, in the distance, she saw tall buildings in the skyline, and one had letters on it visible from where she stood a couple of miles away:
CELADON GENERAL HOSPITAL
Something came upon her, a realization that she was so close, and a sudden burst of what she could only figure was adrenaline surged through her veins as she broke into a frenzied run. Past many confused people she charged, not taking her eyes off the hospital. As she came closer, she spotted an older couple standing outside, and the woman noticed her and pointed. "That's her! That's the one Micah was telling us to watch for!"
That must be Karl's parents!
The couple rushed over to her as she ran towards them. "Oh my god, we're so glad you made it!" said the woman as she wrapped Gardevoir in a hug, completely unfazed by her chest horn. Then they hurried the Pokemon towards the door, saying, "At least Karl will get to see you before it's too late, we hope."
As they entered, one of the nurses saw Gardevoir and had her mouth open to protest, but the man, who Gardevoir assumed was Karl's father, waved her away. "It's OK, she's with us."
The nurse moved out of the way as the trio went straight for the elevators, taking the first empty one.
"Micah, your master, called us and told us you were on your way. He said he wanted to come himself but couldn't so you volunteered to visit our son in his place?"
Gardevoir nodded.
"You have no idea how much that means to us," his father said, trying not to break down.
The door opened, and the three hurried out. Gardevoir was almost running again, so Karl's parents yelled, "Room 243!"
Gardevoir began mentally counting off doors: 237, 239, 241.…
She slowed down, saw the number 243 outside the door, and walked in.
What she saw left her in a mixture of shock and horror.
Karl lay in the bed, pale as the sheets that covered him. His hair had fallen completely out. His body seemed to have wasted away, IV needles in his arms leading to bags of fluids. A machine that Gardevoir could not identify was helping him breathe, but only barely.
She set her bags down and slowly approached him, moving a chair to bedside and sitting down. Karl's eyes slowly opened, and he just as slowly turned his head, saw her, and smiled.
"So, somebody tells me you're good at communicating telepathically now," he said, slowly and haltingly.
"Y-yes, I guess I am," she replied.
"Nice. Man, I wish I could have been there when it happened. Actually, I wish I could have been there for a lot of stuff that happened. He told me about you blowing Wallace's Pokemon through the wall. I got a good laugh out of that. That was, what, a year, two years ago?"
"I don't know. I sort of forget usually."
"Ah, it doesn't matter. He ever tell you how much I drove him nuts for months after I traded you? I couldn't stop calling to see how you were doing."
"He's just like you said. He's a very kind man, just like you."
"Yeah, but he's a lot cooler than me. So he wins." He laughed, a short laugh that clearly pained him. "Man, we swore up and down that we were gonna drive around town after we were done challenging all the gym leaders, and we were gonna drive too fast and pick up too many girls and stay up too late and just get ourselves into all sorts of messes. No chance of that now, I guess."
"I-I-"
Gardevoir broke down, her tears cascading to the floor. Karl reached for her as best as he could and put an arm around her. "Shh, it'll be all right. I'll be fine. Don't worry about me."
"But-but you're dying! It's not going to be all right!"
"I know, and I wish I could change that. It's kinda too late for me now. But you know something? I'm gonna make sure I don't leave you again. Somehow."
He looked around, then saw something lying nearby. He picked it up and handed it to her. "Here. I want you to have these."
It was a case. She opened it up and saw twenty-four badges neatly lined up and polished. Gardevoir had a hard time getting past the lump in her throat.
"I-I couldn't possibly-"
"Go ahead. I won't need them much longer. Soon, I won't have to deal with all this sickness and pain anymore. Maybe then I'll be allowed to watch over you. You know, like a guardian angel or something."
This only caused Gardevoir to cry harder, and it brought a tear to Karl's eyes as well.
"I missed you so much after I traded you. I felt so terrible because I felt I betrayed your trust by doing that to you. I really am sorry."
Gardevoir could hold back no longer, and she leaned over as far as she could and hugged him, her body shaking with her sobs. Karl hugged her back, rubbing her shoulder as he did so.
"It'll be all right. Everything's going to be just fine," he said softly in her ear, over and over.