The Final Chapter: Welcome Home

"Uugh…"

Where am I?

Didn't I die with Chikorita and Grovyle?

Is this…heaven?

BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP! BEEP BEEP BEEP!

What was that noise? It was coming from below, from my left. I vaguely remembered it from a long time ago. I tilted my head and saw an old Nintendo DS, and the time on it. 5:30 am. Now how to shut off the noise? I remembered again. All I had to do was touch the screen, then touch the Yes button. Then press the power button to turn the whole thing off. There.

I then took in a full view of the room I was in. It had a white square-like ceiling, light green walls, dark blue curtains, a desk full of drawing materials, a closet, a faded pink backpack lying on the floor, a huge dark-brown oak dresser, a white door, and miscellaneous pieces of paper and supplies scattered around. Then I saw a picture of the altar at Temporal Tower, complete with not five, but six Time Gears in it, and I stared. Why was a tiny version of the altar attached to the wall of this room? It was like when I thought there was a false sixth one, like in The Heroes of Time. I then found I was lying in a bed that seemed like it would fit a human. Wait…a human?

I found that wearing pink PJs that I hadn't seen for a long time and gasped. Memories of the house that I lived in for 11 years of my life before suddenly came flooding back to me. I opened the door and ran down the hallway to the bathroom, turned on the light, and stared in the mirror.

I was a human again. I was 18 again.

I touched my face to make sure it wasn't a dream. I recognized that face. Ever since we defeated Queen X, I still haven't been able to forget. I then wondered what day it was, and went back to my room. I found my notebook still open to a certain page, and I read it.

-June 22, 2010—

What do you know?

I've managed to graduate from high school without falling victim to the things normal teenagers usually fall for. On one hand, I've had an inordinate amount of self-control and an IQ of that of a 21-year-old when I was only ten, yet on the other hand, I just DO NOT enjoy any of the regular stuff that normal teenagers are "supposed" to enjoy…[abbreviated]…Well, future me, I'll write more tomorrow. Goodnight.

I read the whole thing and found a watch that I hadn't seen in a long time. I pressed the date button. 6-23. June 23. And then it all came flooding back to me.

This was the day that everything changed. This was two days after I graduated from high school, the day I went on my space adventure…the day I met Chikorita, Grovyle, Samus, Adam…and my future self. The day in which the night before, Zoroark pulled me into their dimension. But how could I tell?

I slipped on my blue t-shirt and dark-blue shorts, just like last time. I tied my hair up in two ponytails, and ran downstairs to check the thermometer. 70 degrees again. I ran outside. This definitely wasn't heaven, or a dream. This was real. I ran and ran, knowing the way to the field where I first met them, wondering what had happened. Why was the love theme from Titanic playing over and over again in my mind? Within five minutes, my best time ever, I was there, gasping and panting, out of breath from the humidity.

But no one came. Not a single purple spaceship in sight.

Suddenly, I remembered that day, so long ago, when we came back to the past one more time…when Arceus showed us all how my home dimension would be kept in balance. And I realized the truth. Because I was the Master of the Universe, I was able to be reborn as Amy Vee Purima. And now, after I had died as Amy Vee Purima, I was reborn again in order to continue the life I was living before everything changed. We peeked into my home dimension and saw it happen. Now it came true. I was home.

It felt so weird that this very place I was standing on—my very hometown—could possibly become the futuristic awesome Gaijin City 500 years in the future…at least, in my universe. Here, in the real world? Who knew? The future was what it always would be: a mystery.

Time travel isn't possible in real life. Nor can any of those people I've met exist for real. They were all fictitious characters only living in video games…and my imagination. But for the past 25 years, I got to live in that dimension where they were all real…where I got to know them for who they were.

Yeah. Just 25 years. Because none of us ever chose to evolve, we had a much shorter lifespan than most Pokémon. Now I knew why lots of Pokémon wanted to evolve so badly; so they could live out their usual 100 years that they would only obtain if and only if they evolved to their highest form. Any lower, even a 2nd-level form like Grovyle's and mine, and we'd only live for 25 years at most. But we didn't care. We preferred to live out a life like a candle burning at both ends; we didn't last very long, but oh, how we shined.

Smiling, I calmed down and slowed down to a walk. I thought about how thematic it must've been that while I spent the past 6 years of my former life at my secondary school, this old elementary school of mine was close enough to walk to—and around. It was like a part of my childhood didn't want to let go. As I walked the loop around the school and subsequently back to my house, I thought back over the past 25 years of my life with my friends, and found, to my confusion, those memories to be not quite as clear as the memories of my former life, like, say, graduation.

On Capital Planet Earth, in another major city, we met with teenage Robot XJ-9, aka Jenny, and I tried, unsuccessfully, to explain to her how the teenage years are overrated. We had to join her on a quest to save the city before she finally started to realize the truth.

Another time, I got to help Blue Kirby defeat N.M.E. before he and his nasty monster army had a chance to resurface. We got help from all 32 alien species from Meteos, and together, and we led them all on our Air Ride Machines and while wearing Oxygen Orbs. Even the Geolytes in their flagship, the Metamo Ark, followed us too. It was an epic battle.

One year, we came across the Planet Aether and met with the native Luminites, including the leader of them all, U-Mos. We explained to him our stories, and he in turn explained to us that their world underwent a similar history to that of Planet Portania. Aether used to have a dark future too, but they successfully averted it just how we did. And when that interdimensional meteor crashed, it opened a portal to that parallel universe, and the original Dark Aether almost took over. Luckily, Samus averted the tragedy several years before. His point was, it was a good thing that no interdimensional meteors struck Planet Portania, as we'd have to deal with our dark future again if it ever happened. It was an interesting cautionary tale.

Zoroark and Darkrai worked together to rebuild the dark, anarchic planets and unite those aliens living there, including the Space Pirate Homeworld for Zark and Zork. In return, Darkrai became the brother Zoroark had always wished for. The two of them became good friends just like how Chikorita found me when I lost my memories after being turned into a Jigglypuff. Darkrai and Zoroark. All this time, I thought they would never be anything more than bad guys, but now...I was so happy to see them working for a good cause...that they finally had a happy ending too.

Heck, I disovered to my delight that the one and only space station known as Star Command was also in orbit around Capital Planet Earth, just as I've always suspected. Buzz Lightyear, Mira Nova, and other such famous space rangers trained there to protect the galaxy like Samus. Between those rangers and the Penalty Box satellite, Capital Planet Earth's safety was in good hands. As for us? Funny story. We passed every test they had, so we didn't even need to join them at all!

We met with Samus several times, and saw her and Sporis restore the Chozo to their former glory across the galaxy. Our Team Pecha Berry Juice Shop became one of the most popular stops for drinks in the galaxy, if it wasn't famous enough on Planet Portania. We went to Gaijin City several times and thoroughly enjoyed everything it had to offer. We played Tarzan on Planet Portania, discussed scientific topics intelligently with Dusknoir (and found out that he gained that much knowledge thanks to Primal Dialga's secret library all the way back then!), had fun in Quartzite Cave, surfed the oceans, and learned about all 1,000 types of Pokémon on the planet. And, and, and…the list went on for far longer than I could remember. We had so much fun.

But most importantly of all, I got to live out my life as a Jigglypuff with my best friends, Chikorita and Grovyle. I could turn into a human whenever necessary, but most of the time, I stayed as a Jigglypuff. We laughed, we fought common enemies, we traveled and explored the galaxy several times, and we stuck together no matter what. I had the demeanor calm enough to have serious discussions with Grovyle, yet I also regained the enthusiasm to play around with Chikorita. It was perfect. I loved them both with all of my heart. And to top things off, we actually got to die together, in our Pecha Berry home, content with how we've made the universe a better place.

Yeah, I thought we were going to die of old age together in the year 2535, but it seems that I got to resume my old life in 2010 instead. That reminded me that I still had Galactic Rainbow to develop and publish, college to attend…the future was wide open for me to run to. I got my wish: an extended childhood where I could learn how to be truly independent. I've made my universe a better place. Now it's time to do the same for the real world. I would meet my friends in that amazing land known as heaven when the time came.

But none of these memories were as powerful as the ones I had of our first adventure together, when Amy Vee Purima and I were still separate. Maybe now that I was Amy [you know who] again instead of Amy Purima, I remembered all of my memories much more vividly than hers. I just had to write it all down so other people in the real world could learn all of those valuable lessons I've learned.

For example, love doesn't hurt. It's okay to love someone with all of your heart, even if they will eventually leave you. Based on my experiences, I'd rather have loved and lost than to never have loved at all.

Speaking of which, love and romance are not necessarily equal. You can love anyone in the galaxy with all of your heart, even if they're of the same gender as yours or even a totally different species. Friendship and love go hand in hand. Not necessarily so with romance.

Appreciate how unique you truly are. No one and nothing can ever replace you, no matter what they say. Furthermore, appreciate the differences in the people around you, whether physical, emotional, or whatever. I guess I was luckier than most to have met and befriended an extremely diverse cast of alien characters across the galaxy. The Chozo were right. Respect all life, no matter what form it takes. Every time I met a new alien species, it made me grateful that I stopped Queen X's dastardly plan to subjugate the galaxy. All life is worth protecting no matter what.

And finally, I now knew why I loved Chikorita and Grovyle so much more than anyone else in real life (even my own family!): We've endured physically and emotionally heart wrenching situations together, while such situations almost never pop up in real life. Without the lows we plummeted to during our adventure, we never would've been able to reach the highs. And it's those low events (like Grovyle almost killing me) that allowed the highs to be so much sweeter (like when they all loved me back in the end).

I ran up the driveway to my house, and stopped in front of the door, thinking. Before, I wasn't sure whether I was emotionally ready for college. Now I think that, after a 25-year extension, I was definitely ready to charge in. I was ready to face the rest of the summer. I was ready to see my family again. I opened the door to see my dad, my mom, and my 16-year-old brother sitting in various rooms around the house getting ready for work and the last days of school, respectively. My heart leapt with joy at being able to see them again, and I only had one thing to say, this time, with all of my heart.

"I'm home."

And they said the words that I'd never thought I'd ever hear again.

"Welcome home…Amy."

—The End of Act 3—

And so ends the story of the one and only true Amy, the girl who touched the lives of all the beings in the galaxy and taught them what it truly means to love and be loved in return. For all of you readers out there who've followed along with her adventure until the very end…thank you, all of you. While it's unfortunate that none of the events in this story actually happened, she hopes that you learned something too. Write a review if you want to, or not, but you, too, should live your life to the fullest and do your part to make the world a better place.

THE END!