"Okay mom, we'll be back in a while," called Angie as she left her house yet again.
Ash and Angie left as usual. Ash was now starting to get used to his surroundings in this place after being there for so long, and as they approached the back of the day-care centre, they stopped to look at what was there. It seemed like nothing was out of the ordinary; the green grass swayed back and forth amidst the mid-morning breeze whilst not much else stirred. They walked further away from the house, passing by the strong smell of where they usually stored the food. They were right by the boundaries of the day-care centre when they came across a wild pokemon that stopped and looked at the two people standing before it.
"What pokemon's that?" Angie asked.
"I think it's a Gardevoir, but I'm not sure," Ash replied with an unsure tone.
He deftly took his pokedex out of his pocket and proceeded to flip it open. It scanned the pokemon to reveal that it was 'Gardevoir, the embrace pokemon. Gardevoir will try to guard its trusted trainer with its life and has the ability to see into the future. '
"It's pretty rare to see a wild Gardevoir," Ash commented.
"I wonder what she's here for,"
"How do you know that it's a she?"
Angie turned to the pokemon, "Are you a girl?"
After closing its eyes the Gardevoir nodded slightly. After this however, the Gardevoir resumed looking into Ash and Angie's eyes as if it could see into their minds. The unrelenting glare almost caused the trainers to go into a trance before Ash questioned Gardevoir's reasons for its own presence.
"What are you doing here?"
Instead of replying, Gardevoir simply did nothing. This confused Ash and Angie even more, who were really intrigued by the pokemon's appearance. After a few more moments of silence, Gardevoir turned to Angie. Its eyes then glowed with an intense pink hue, freezing Angie in her place.
"Wait, what are you doing?" Ash asked intently now.
This was to no avail however, as Angie seemed to be falling asleep due to a hypnosis from Gardevoir. In seconds, the young lady's body became limp, almost falling to the ground. Ash swiftly caught her underneath her arms from behind before turning to face the Gardevoir again; the last mistake he would make before he began to fall to the same move as Angie.
"But… Why?" were his last words before toppling over. He hit the ground with a light thud. Ash lay there asleep in the morning sun; Angie was lying on top of him whilst still in his arms. The fall had left them both motionless on the ground but the Gardevoir still remained there.
When Ash regained consciousness, he swiftly got to his feet before checking around him. He turned to see Angie still lying on the ground, breathing lightly. He then sat down and waited, watching her sleep and not noticing the world around him, just looking at Angie resting peacefully before him. It was a while before she finally got up. She slowly lifted her head and looked around before tuning to Ash.
"Where are we?" she asked wearily.
"I really don't know," Ash replied nervously.
"So why is everything in black and white?"
This was a legitimate question. Apart from themselves, nothing had any colour except from various shades of grey. They seemed to be in a small town or village, near a small house. For some reason, Ash found this house extremely familiar.
"I'm sure I know this place, but from where?"
He was interrupted by the voice of a young boy. The call came from the house as the door slowly opened. Out came a small boy with messy black hair, wearing a white t-shirt and some blue shorts. He ran to the front of his house with a spring in his step. Suddenly something in Ash's mind clicked before he lightly placed his hand on his face.
"Of course I know this place, it's my house!"
"So this is where you live huh?" Angie mused, "but that still doesn't explain why everything is in black and white. Also, who is that little boy?"
"I think," Ash hesitated a little, "that that's me!"
The little boy had made his way to a patch of tall grass. He looked around until he saw what he was searching for. He approached a small Pidgey and had started to play with it, his love for pokemon obviously remnant from his childhood.
"So, when you were younger you still loved pokemon." Angie wondered aloud, "and even then you were cute." Angie stopped moving as she had realised what she had said.
"Huh?" Ash said as apparently he hadn't heard her, "what was that?"
"Nothing… nothing," she repeated with a sigh of relief.
Ash continued to look round. The boy had gone back inside now which left the two of them alone in the greyscale world. Time seemed to slow down as Ash and Angie pondered what could be going on. After what seemed like a while, Ash came up with an idea.
"Hey Angie, do you think that it we might be in the past?"
"Well, that would make sense since we saw you as a little boy," Angie replied, "but why would we be in the past? The last thing that I remember was meeting that strange Gardevoir."
"I was thinking the same thing, but I can't work it out either,"
Angie turned to the clear sky in hope of answers. The clouds just kept on floating by until suddenly she spun round to face Ash.
"Maybe it was that Gardevoir that put us here. It could show us these things through telepathy! It is a psychic pokemon after all," Angie stated.
"Angie, you're a genius!" exclaimed Ash, making Angie blush slightly, "but… why would Gardevoir show this to us? All we know now is that the visions we see are real."
Straight after these words were said, the world for the two trainers started to fade. Their vision blurred as they again lost consciousness. Little did they know that in the real world, they still lay on the ground with Gardevoir towering above them, using its powers to show them the images that it desired to.
The young trainers awoke at the same time. They slowly got up as they tried to focus their eyes. For a few seconds, they seemed to be nowhere, only darkness surrounding them. However, a light started appearing which started to reveal the background.
"Where are we now?" Angie whispered to Ash.
"I don't know, I still can't see mu…" he began to say before they heard a terrifying roar. The sound echoed around them, forcing them to listen to its fearful noise. Strangely, Ash knew this sound from somewhere.
"At least we know that we can hear," Angie said apprehensively.
The level of light gradually grew higher. Soon they were able to see that they were in a type of cave. On all sides except the front there was rock, rock that had not been touched by anyone or anything for a long time. The opening of the cave was straight ahead of them, but all they could see outside of the cave was a dark, mysterious space. Suddenly, a huge black shadow flew past at incredible speed. From what the two of them could make out, it was a huge creature with a large body and wings.
"That thing outside, it's huge," Ash noted.
"Let's think about this, the last time we woke up was in a past memory of yours. So, do you remember this cave?" Angie questioned.
"I don't think so, the outside and the shadow seem vaguely familiar but I've definitely never been in this spot before."
This left the two trainers confused. For a few seconds, nobody knew what to do. Fortunately, Ash had a suggestion.
"Maybe this is the future. The pokedex said it could see into the future, so it would make sense for this vision to be of an event yet to happen."
"Hmm, I guess so," she muttered, "but that wouldn't explain why she's showing us the future. Could it be a warning or something?"
"Well I definitely wouldn't want to be here. Even if I did get here I'd be very careful because I'm getting a bad feeling from this place," Ash informed her.
Right at that moment, the lights began to fade again. Ash and Angie both struggled to keep awake, eventually succumbing to the inevitable sleep that awaited them.
It was mid-afternoon and all was calm at the Day Care centre. Many Starly flew across the clear blue sky as most people went about their normal routine. The usual faint smell of pokemon food floated in the air. Inside Angie's house, Ash opened his eyes to this scene, staring at it through a window. He quickly realised that he was in a bed, lying down underneath several covers. He twisted around to see that in a bed on the opposite side of the room, Angie lay there sleeping quietly. Slowly, he closed his eyes and fell asleep again.
Sometime later, the young pokemon trainer awoke once more, this time with more company. As he sat upright, he recognised his friends with Angie's parents who turned to him as he awoke.
"Well, it's about time you woke up," Angie's mother told Ash.
Something stirred in the other bed now. Angie sleepily rose from her bed to see all the people crowded in her room.
"So you decided to join us to, huh?" Mrs. Aoi said calmly.
"What… what happened?" the still sleepy Angie asked.
"We were hoping you would tell us that," her father answered.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Angie asked in return, puzzled by her father's answer.
The two parents looked at each other and nodded before her mother spoke.
"Let's just say that I was rather… surprised, to find my daughter outside, laying on top of Ash here."
Everyone stifled a laugh at this profound choice of words. Everyone, except for Ash and Angie of course. Angie went one of the deepest shades of red that there are, deeply embarrassed and almost hiding underneath her covers. When Ash had realised what had happened, he too began to blush, his face almost the same shade of red as his hat. However, after a few seconds he regained his composure and decided to explain all that had happened; not only to clear up the situation, but also to neutralise the awkward circumstance that had arisen and caused two people in that room great embarrassment.
"I can explain everything," Ash told them.
"Well please start then," Angie's father said.
"So, it all began after we left…" Ash began to say. He explained the whole story of what had happened. He spoke of how the Gardevoir used hypnosis on Angie, who was caught be Ash who also fell to the pokemon. Then, he recapped the visions they were shown by the mystifying Gardevoir, and how they first saw a vision from Ash's past, and then a strange place they hadn't been to yet.
"…And then I woke up here. So you see, it was a mysterious pokemon that left us like that. I'm extremely sorry for what you found," Ash said solemnly, lowering his head.
"Ash. Thank you." Angie's mother replied causing Ash to look up again, "know that we never suspected you of anything, and that we're grateful that you stood by our daughter and didn't flee when she was put to sleep."
"I'd never leave her if she's in trouble, I would even give my life to save her" Ash confirmed.
Angie, who had been watching the whole thing, stopped. Ash's last sentence had meant more to her than anything anyone had ever said to her. A final straight promise of what he had said before. A promise that he would never leave her side when in danger, and even sacrifice his own life for hers. This promise, Ash would never break.
The evening had now arrived and the light was fading. All embarrassment had dissipated and Ash and Angie had decided to sit down on the grass just behind the house. The stars shone gently above them as the wind rustled their hair. They both looked up at the sky, admiring its beauty.
"Why?" Angie asked whilst still looking upwards.
Ash thought for a second before understood what she meant, "I think it was a warning. Gardevoir have always tried to protect humans, and I think this one tried to show us the future. From what I saw, I think this future isn't good."
"Our future…"
"Yes, a future that will surely happen. It's just a matter of time now, and when that time arrives, I'll be ready."
"But…" Angie whispered with a slight tone of fear.
"At that time, I will protect you."