Chapter 18

2 months later

Time was going faster than I could count, I couldn't believe the progress we were making. But as the ACPFs were starting to run empty, I was left with nothing to do. That's why I had to come and face my worst fear. School!

It wasn't actually so bad, I was already good at school in the first place. And I was different from the other students. Because I already had a living, I was given, instead of the mandatory lessons, lessons to suit the work I was doing.

I had Gym, which I faired pretty well in due to all of the work I was doing in my life. I also had Biology, which I must say is way more interesting than it was on Earth. Now that everything was pokemon rather than animals, we all discussed how they used they're abilities, and how they lived in a normal life. It was fascinating. I had some normal courses but they were never as interesting.

I had potential to be popular amongst the students, but another reason I'm different, is that I'm not one to enjoy popularity. I have problems dealing with pressure and expectations, to be constantly funny and cool. I was able to duck out of the popularity, thanks to the fact that not many people knew of my work. None of it ever happened in town, as the pokemon never dared to enter the city.

All I was ever known for was the Aggron I took down, and that was months ago. I enjoyed the peace and quiet of not being popular, but I had enough friends to make things enjoyable. I never told anyone about Terra and Dallin, as it seemed rare for an adult to have two enemy species to be so friendly and cooperative to each other, let alone a teen of 15 years. I showed them only to my closest friends and they were more surprised then I would of thought.

I returned to the apartment from school only to be told to come to Karen's office with Dallin and Terra.

"So, where to today", that line was being used enough that it could become my catchphrase.

"You're going to the cliffs in the southern regions of Johto, with the professor".

"With the professor? That's new".

"Don't worry, Nick, there isn't any haywire pokemon this time. We found some ruins a few weeks ago, in one of the caves. We've been digging through and we've learned many things. But as time grew the pokemon there grew wary of our presence. After a while they started to attack us. We're sending you so the professor and his crew can work in peace, all you have to do is convince any oncoming pokemon not to attack".

"Alright, than, let's go". She opened the portal up and I was just about to walk in.

"Wait, Nick, one more thing. You should take a look around the ruins, I've gotten news from professor MacKenzie that there may be something that you should see".

"Right, by the way, where is the professor"?

"He's already there".

"Good, ok, bye". I walked in and found myself in front of a cave on over a massive cliff. It was warm. The southern air was much more moist and hot than what I was used to back in Chokoto.

I looked around to find the professor and several other people waiting there. The others looked younger than the professor, were they students.

"Hey guys".

"Nick, you're here. We can finally start. I hope you brought something to do".

"Um, no, I didn't".

"Oh well. We'll only be a couple of hours".

"Ya, only", I muttered to myself.

The professor and what was probably his students head into the cave. Without anything to do, I just sat on the ground waiting for something to happen. It wasn't so bad when Terra rested her head on my lap. Dallin rested himself on Terra's back and we just sat there waiting for something to happen. Once again, I had to start a conversation.

'So, do either of you know where we are'?

'I do', Terra said.

'Really'.

'Ya, this is where we migrate when the weather starts cooling off. We can live in the cold, we just prefer the heat. Actually, now that I think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if we found any typhlosions here'. My eyes lit up, as the typhlosion was my favorite. Dallin grunted, he heard what I thought.

'Other than you, Dallin', I petted him and he let out a little smirk.

Just than Terra's ears shot up. She jumped off my lap and started running into the forest, as Dallin got tossed off of her. I grabbed Dallin and chased after her.

I saw her frozen in the middle of a dusty clearing. 'Terra, what are you do-' I looked to find Terra, starring, without blinking, at another typhlosion sleeping alone. It looked slightly larger than Terra, with longer fur and larger ears. 'Another typhlosion, do you know-'.

'NICK, it's him, it's Shade'.

'Shade, who's-'.

'The male, I told you about'. She was interrupting me, but she was to surprised to notice. She made a dash for him.

'Terra didn't you say he was chipped'. She didn't listen, she stopped right in front of the typhlosion and started nudging him with her nose. The typhlosion's eyes shot open, with a particularly angry look in his eyes.

I heard her communicating with Shade. He got up and started growling with her. She started to back away, until the male jumped towards her. I saw her try to run, but the typhlosion tackled her and started biting her.

"TERRA", I ran to Terra as I saw them wrestling and fighting. It was more horrid then I could imagine. They were both growling, and slashing, and biting each other. I knew it had to be broken up when I saw the ground stain red.

'Dallin, can you shock them'?

'I can't, it would hit them both'.

I had no armor, and I had no EMDAC, but a strange anger overran me as I suddenly saw Shade pin Terra to the ground. It was my chance. I jumped towards them as I saw Shade lunge to Terra's neck. I tackled him off of Terra, and pinned him to the ground. My hands and legs sizzled as they touched Shade's back.

I grabbed the chip and started pulling. The typhlosion turned his head trying to bite my hand as I pulled on the chip. My stomach lurched as I saw the patterns on Shade's back light up. I pulled harder, and the chip jerked off just before I could get my hands roasted.

I laid on my back, trying to ignore the pain my hands were in after being bitten and burned. I stared at the sky, and rested my eyes for a few seconds. I sat up and opened my eyes to see that, Terra and Shade just looking at each other.

I could feel the emotions running through their heads, anger, happiness, sorrow, pretty much every emotion that I could come up with.

I finally approached them decided to see if they were ok, they seemed to be in pretty bad shape.

'Are you two ok'?

'Ya, Nick we're fine', Terra said, as Shade looked around in confusion.

'Um, how can you talk', I had just remembered that he was chipped long before I was around.

I heard Terra communicate with Shade for a few seconds. I decided to sit down by them and heal their wounds. I looked at Terra and Shade as they were covered in cuts, all over their bodies. As Terra was communicating with Shade, he looked at my hand in surprise as I healed one of the cuts on his leg.

'So you're the one the prophecy speaks of'. I jumped off the ground, and looked at him in surprise.

'OK, I'm tired of not knowing! What is the prophecy, and why am I the only one who doesn't know about it'. They glanced at each other for a brief second and stared back at me.

Terra spoke, 'The prophecy was written a long time ago, longer than any of us could remember. The word of the prophecy has spread throughout the pokemon kingdom, but none of us ever suspected that it would actually happen'.

'Wow, Dallin, did you know about the prophecy'. He nodded. 'So, how did the word spread if we wrote the prophecy'.

'Humans didn't write the prophecy', my eyebrow rose in curiosity and confusion, 'Jirachi did'. My stomach sank. If Jirachi wrote it, was it going to be part of my adventure.

'Well that explains why us humans have never heard of it'.

'I don't know about that, Nick, we suspect that the ruins that the prophecy is stored in are being discovered'.

'The ruins... THE RUINS'! I suddenly remembered that I was supposed to be guarding the ruins, possibly the ruins that could hold the prophecy.

'Dallin, Terra, let's go'.

'Right', they said in unison. I made a dash with Terra and Dallin to the ruins that I was supposed to be guarding. Just than I heard Shade snarl in the distance. We all stopped, and glared at Shade. He looked angry.

As Shade was talking to Terra, I could hear the thoughts running through their head.

'Why are you leaving'?

'Shade, I'm needed somewhere else'.

'No, NO, you're supposed to stay with me'. I could hear the anger growing in her voice.

'Shade, I'm helping Ni-'.

'NO! You won't. Your supposed to stay with me. You're supposed to be MINE'. He was starting to get angry and frustrated.

'Shade, what's gotten in to you'?

'It's not your choice. You're MINE. I want you more, Nick doesn't deserve you'. I got frustrated as he insulted me.

'HEY, you can't-'.

'Nick', Terra said, 'stay out of this'. I wasn't certain if she was siding with me or siding with Shade.

'Shade, calm down or I'm leaving'.

'NO', he snarled! He suddenly jumped towards Terra, tackling her to the ground. They rolled around, fighting each other like they did a moment ago.

'STOP IT, this isn't doing anything', Dallin said. The continued to fight, as if he hadn't said anything. After a bit of rolling around, Terra finally threw Shade off. I could see the anger in her eyes.

'I think you should leave', she said sternly. I saw her back flare up, as Dallin started sparking. I had nothing to do but look angry, but it looked kinda lame. Shade slowly backed off and than ran into the woods.

Terra turned around, 'let's head back to the cave', she thought. Even in her head, her voice was trembling. We walked back to the ruins as I kept an eye on Terra.

'I thought you said that he was more respective than the other males'.

'Actually everything you saw up to the point that he jump on me, that was polite behavior'.

'What!? Even the way he said he owned you'.

Terra sighed, 'Never mind, let's just keep walking'. I kept an eye on her. She didn't seem to happy. I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard her whimper as quietly as she could. It was depressing.

We made it back to the ruins in time to see the professor waiting outside the cave for me.

"Nick, you're back. I take it you had a run in with a pokemon". I glanced at Terra for a second as I saw her turn her head away.

"You could say that".

"Well than, I have something to show you, follow me". We all walked into the cave, and looked around to find not a whole bunch of ruins, but what seemed like a normal cave.

"I thought you said there were ancient ruins in here".

"There are, just be patient". After a while, I saw some things that resembled ruins. Carved rocks, broken pillars, the likes.

"Now, here's what I want to show you". We went around a corner and faced a large tablet, nearly ten feet tall. There was a ton of writing on it with a small text box in the middle. It was all written in a text I'd never seen before. But there was something strange about the text, something that scared me.

"We've been working non-stop to translate these. This isn't the first we've discovered, we've found them in a few other ruins in what seems like completely random places. After a ton of work we were finally able to translate only the small box of text in the center. Here, lemme read what it says".

"I can read the text", I whispered.

"What"?

'I can read the text"! I was shocked all the text was crystal clear, as if I had known it all my life. Every word and ever sentence.

The one who has lived beyond reach

The one who will leave his life behind

The one who sees the minds of the pokemon

The one who has healed the wounds of darkness

The one who sees through the eyes of the pokemon

Will be the one to save us all.