Chapter 81
In the Aether Foundation, Lusamine is lying on the bed with Lillie and Gladion sitting beside her, she is being helped by the life supporter, and both people look at each other with uneasy feelings.
"Why of all times that this has to be happening?" Lillie bursts out in tears and Gladion hugs her.
Gladion frowns and says, "I don't want to believe it as well...but what can we even do now?"
Ash, Tox, and Alice walk toward them and Ash says, "Lillie, this is all we can do right now, but we promise we are going to find a way to save her."
Alice touches her head and sighs, "But the temperature is low...it must be the effects of the Nihilego Toxins."
Tox says, "I don't think we can just wait and do nothing, why can't we just extract the toxins in her blood?"
"It has been 10 years since she accidentally inhaled the toxins in the blood." Ash says. "They are hard to extract in this state, considering the whole blood might be affected!"
They hear a weak voice from Lusamine, and Ash tries to hear what she is saying. "No..."
When Ash tells them what he has heard, Gladion yells, "Mother? What do you mean no? You will be fine after Dr. Tox and Dr. Gus, two of the best doctors for human problems, heal you up."
"There is no need to heal me..." This causes them to be surprised. Tox asks, "What are you talking about?"
"I know my time in the world...is about to end soon...just, please...stop wasting time on a dying person like me..." Lusamine says with a weak voice.
Ash rushes towards the bed and says, "Ms. Lusamine, what are you talking about? If you are gone, what about your children? Are you going to leave them alone? How could you do that?"
"I know I am selfish...but I don't think I can stay in this meaningless world..." Lusamine replies.
"The world is not meaningless, Lusamine." Ash says, and then Lillie and Gladion start to cry out as they don't want their mother to go.
"The toxins in my body...not even the best doctors can remove them...please don't waste your time on me..." Lusamine says as she turns to her two children. "Lillie, Gladion...help Ash and Alice all you can..."
Lillie and Gladion nod, and then not long after, Lusamine's heart stops beating and all the people in the room are now crying.
"Mom...why?" Lillie cries out loud as Ash is the one that hugs her tight, feeling sad for her losing her mother. As for Gladion, he just punches the wall, causing blood to drip from his hand, he is also furious at how it happened. As for the others, they aren't as sad as Lillie and Gladion, but they also shed some tears for a person's passing.
Then the death of Lusamine has also spread throughout the whole world, people are sad at the woman's death as the Aether Foundation has given them a lot of good deeds. Everyone has come to the Aether Foundation as they come to bid farewell to Lusamine. Lillie and Gladion also decide to bury their mother's body inside the grounds of the Aether Foundation, since it is also where their father was buried.
Once the burial is over, Ash says, "So what are you two going to do?"
The two siblings stay silent and then Alice says, "Ash and I have been thinking about this, we have decided to let you guys become a member of the Ketchum family, how is that sound?"
"You mean... you are going to adopt us?" Lillie asks in shock.
"You two have been a part of our family." Ash says with a small smile. "I won't mind having you guys as a part of the family."
Once they get back to the Sevestar Region, Delia decides to hug them and she says, "I know it will be hard for you since your mother is long gone, but you can call me mother if you want to."
"Okay...mother..." Gladion says.
Ash says, "But to become a part of our family, we will have to do something to you. To be a true member of the Ketchum, you have to pass the Aura Test, a Test that will determine if you can live and use Aura, or die with tiredness."
"We will do it." Lillie says, much to their shock. "Because we were controlled by Team Rocket without aura, and that causes us to badmouth Ash. I don't want that to happen again."
Ash says, "I see, you two really are determined." As Ash goes to prepare, Mark, Golly, Flora, and Eve are entering the room as they notice the two. Delia asks, "How are you guys doing?"
"We are having fun since Pikachu is mimicking others again." Golly says. "But where is Brother Ash?"
"He is outside preparing the Aura Test." Delia says, causing them to nod. Lillie asks, "Ms. Ketchum, how did you pass the test? Is it going to hurt us?"
Delia is surprised that Lillie is bombarding her with a lot of questions, she knows that if she tells the truth, she might not want to challenge it again. So she says, "Well, at first I couldn't hold on as well, because I am seeing the death of my husband and the betrayal of my son. But after I think of the good times with Ash, it helps me conquer the aura."
Mark says, "Mother is right, all you need to do is keep a strong mind, never let what happened to break you down. If I remember it correctly, you are going to be shown in the memories that you dread the most, and you would need to either move on or find a solution to solve it on your own. There are three kinds of memories, it will be from the least to the worst. According to Brother, a lot of people manage to get past the first and the second, but they would fail in the third one."
"And what if we failed? What will happen to us?" Gladion asks, and none of them want to say since it is related to their death.
"You don't need to worry about chances of failure, I am sure that you two will succeed because you are a member of my Elite Four, and Gladion is a good rival of mine back in the Alolan Times." Ash comes back and enters the meeting room. "The test is ready, now before I start, I want to know, are you two ready to do this?"
Gladion says, "We are ready to do this."
Ash and Alice bring them to the entrance of their castle. Ash and Alice look at each other and then watch Gladion and Lillie. Ash raises his hand and says, "The Aura Task starts now!"
Lillie and Gladion take a deep breath as they walk into the fog, as for the others, they are worrying for the two, and Golly asks, "Are they going to be alright?"
"That will be up to them." Eve says with a serious tone. "They are the ones that determine their fate.
Lillie and Gladion are walking into the fog, and all they can see is pure whiteness and nothing else. Lillie says, "You know, I really don't like what we are feeling right now..."
"But we have started the task, what we can do is just move forward and not look back. Think about the times we spent with Ash, I heard that it might be the best way to keep going on."
"You're right." Lillie says as they continue to walk forward.
But of a sudden, they see that the whiteness is starting to fade away, and they find themselves in the basement of the Aether Foundation. "What the...I thought we were in Sevestar Island..."
"This might be our first memory." Gladion says as they notice a door, as they open it, they are surprised as they see their mother, who is being captured by a Nihilego.
"No! Mother!" Lillie yells as she wants to save her, but Nihilego starts to attack Lillie with the move Venoshock. Lillie barely dodges it and tries to get close, but Gladion stops her.
"Lillie, wait just a second." Gladion says as he is still grabbing Lillie's hand.
"Brother, let go of me! Mom is being captured by Nihilego again!" Lillie yells. "I am not going to let her go this time!"
"Lillie! This is what happened in the past! This is only our memory! Think about what happened when this happened! We ride on Nebby to save her and bring her back to our world! Remember?" Gladion yells, and it manages to make Lillie stop struggling. "Lillie, I know how you feel, but as Ash said, we can't let those illusions cloud our minds."
Lillie starts to calm down and frowns, "You are right...Mom is already dead...as much as I hated to admit it, I think we should accept fate..."
Just then, the images start to break apart and go into their heart, they start to have a warm feeling, and then the whole scene is turning back to whiteness again. "Now we passed the first one, we have two more to go." Gladion says.
As they continue moving forward, the scene is now changing into Pallet Town. Lillie says, "This is Ash's hometown, we have been here before."
"But what happened to the sky? I mean... dark clouds are covering it." Gladion says as he looks up.
"I don't know...but I have a feeling what this memory is going to be about." Lillie frowns, "I think this is one of the times when we are under Team Rocket's control..."
"That means Ash is..." Gladion says as they rush towards Ash's house. When they open it, they see a broken Ash looking at two people who are actually themselves under the control.
"Lillie, Gladion, you don't think so, right?" Ash pleads as they are watching themselves.
"I can't believe that I was in the same class with you, and even let you stay at my home for a while, maybe if you didn't show up, then there would be no Nihilego that took my mom away."
After hearing her own words, Lillie breaks down in tears, she says, "This is not true...if it wasn't for Ash, then I wouldn't be able to befriend Snowy...I wouldn't be able to touch Pokemon..."
As for Gladion, he feels the urge to punch himself for saying those words to Ash, he then charges forward and Lillie tries to stop him this time.
"No, Brother, you can't do this." Lillie says. "You said so yourself! This is just what happened in the past! We can't let those illusions cloud our minds!"
"Let me go." Gladion says in anger. "I am going to beat him up so he will never use me to badmouth him again."
"Because that is you under control, rage is blinding you right now! Remember that we are back to normal and Ash has already forgiven us. We can't change the past, but we are now changing the future!" Lillie says.
Gladion sighs and says, "I am sorry, I won't let my anger consume me again."
Then the second image also turns into particles and goes into their heart once again, Lillie says, "But I was thinking about something, what were those clouds? I mean...why are they covering the sky?"
Gladion says, "This might be the reason why we are under Team Rocket's control. Ash said so himself, that was a Dark Aura Technique that forced us to say what negative thoughts we had for Ash in our mind, and thus influencing us to be under control."
"I see." Lillie says as they continue to walk towards the whiteness. Lillie says, "But that was already what we dreaded the most...is there something more dreadful than the previous one?"
"I am not sure about that..." Gladion says as they continue forward, just then, they finally arrive at the last scene, and they don't know about this memory as this place is not familiar to them.
"Where are we?" Lillie asks?"
"I don't know..." Gladion says as he notices some grunts are frozen in ice, they belong to Team Rocket. "Wait, are we in Team Rocket's hideout?"
"But why? We have never been here before..." Lillie says. "How would it be our memory?"
"Ash told us that the last one is usually for something that we dreaded the most...could it be this is Ash's memory?" Gladion asks and they notice a door in front of them.
"There is only one way to find it out." Lillie says. But as they open the door, they see something that really shocks their mind.
"Ash!" Alice gasps as she sees that Ash is breaking down because Giovanni is using the memories to hurt Ash. Giovanni smirks and says, "At least, I will be able to destroy the Ketchum Family once and for all..."
Alice can only look at the bullet coming in horror, but Lillie and Gladion jump in and try to block the bullet.
"We won't let you hurt Ash!" Lillie yells as suddenly, a Shield appears and blocks the bullet, then a Cannon appears in Gladion's hand, and then it blasts on Giovanni, destroying him. But it creates an explosion and the siblings are blasted down to the ground as the fog is dispersing.
Back in the real world, Lillie and Gladion are now lying on the ground. Ash notices the hair color as well as their eye colors, all he can do is smile at Alice and Delia. "The task is complete, Lillie and Gladion are members of the Ketchum now and they can use aura."
This causes the others to be happy. Lillie and Gladion slowly wake up, Lillie holds her head and says, "My body is really sore..."
"Does that mean we passed?" Gladion looks at Lillie, but he gasps and says, "Lillie! You look different..."
"You too, brother. In fact, you look like Ash..." Lillie gasps. "Wait, does that mean me too?"
"In fact, you look like me means that you pass the task." Ash says. "Congratulations. You are now members of the Ketchum. I am proud of you guys. If you want to change your blonde hair and facial appearance back, you can use the Aura Disguise."
They nod and Lillie says, "Well, I want to be in this form for now."
"Same here." Gladion says. "Though it is kind of awkward to call you my brother."
"I know." Ash laughs as they all go inside the castle to let them meet others and show their new skills.
Here is a new chapter, now Lillie and Gladion are officially members of the Ketchum in this chapter, I hope you like it.