Chapter 30 – Psyblood Ritual
Looking at her Pokémon in front of her, Dawn remembered all she had gone through since the day she decided to follow her mother's steps as a coordinator. She never admitted but the day she left home she was pretty scare about travelling the world all by herself and so many times she thought about giving up before even starting her journey. When she got her first Pokémon, Piplup she thought she would finally have the courage to face the world, but that courage never came, actually, she thought about returning Piplup to professor Rowan, but she was too embarrassed to go back to her mother after less than one day, so she kept going, against her will. While travelling with Piplup, something happened, something that would change her life forever. She found a wild Pikachu, at least that's what she thought at first, but she soon realized that Pikachu belonged to someone, so she decided to help him finding his trainer after saving him from Team Rocket. And she did. She did find his trainer, but what she found for herself was way better than she expected. She found a friend, Ash Ketchum. A Pokémon Trainer who was also travelling through Sinnoh to become a Pokémon Master. She then decided to join him and his friend Brock, and suddenly all that feeling of fear, loneliness and doubt she was feeling, turned into happiness. She found two good friends she could rely on and that made her feel complete. But that wasn't the biggest surprise of her journey after all. She discovered a new kind of feeling she never thought she could feel. Love! She completely fell in love with her new best friend. She wasn't sure how that happened, maybe it was because he was so determined to achieve his goals, or maybe because he never gives up, or maybe because his heart was so pure and sweet that it made impossible to her not falling in love with him. Anyways… she did fall in love with Ash Ketchum. And she never regretted it. And now, looking at her Pokémon in front of her, she had nothing to say to him but…
"Thank you Ash" Dawn said
"For what?" he asked
She looked at him and smiled
"For everything"
Ash wasn't sure if he understood what she meant, but he smiled back and nodded with his head
"Let's start it" Dawn said looking back to the battlefield "Weavile, use Faint attack"
Weavile ran toward Sigilyph to attack it but The Lady was also into the battle
"Sigilyph, use Toxic"
Sigilyph somehow managed to attack first than Weavile, hitting it with a purple disgusting toxic spit that poisoned Weavile
"Weavile" said Dawn concerned with her Pokémon
Weavile tried to move but the Poison made him scream in agony
"Your foolish Pokémon will slowly lose energy, until it gets fainted" said The Lady
"That will give me about three to four turns to win this battle" Dawn said to herself
"Sigilyph, use sky attack" said The Lady
Sigilyph flew high and fast dived toward Weavile to hit its attack
"Weavile, dodge and use night slash" ordered Dawn
Weavile waited until Sigilyph got real close to dodge and immediately used his move in it, hitting directly a super effective attack
"Well done Dawn" said May
"I think she can do it" said Serena "Don't you think Ash?"
Serena looked at Ash hoping to see a happy face on him, but what she saw made her confused, Ash was staring at the battlefield without even blinking, it was like he didn't want to miss a single second of it. But following his eyes direction, Serena realized that Ash wasn't looking at Dawn or the battle, he was looking to The Lady with a very serious face which made Serena feel a shiver down her spine
"A…Ash?" she asked but he didn't answer her
"What's happening?" Ash thought
Back to the battle Dawn was getting excited, Weavile last attack made her start to think she could really win that battle
"Let's keep doing this way Weavile" she said
Weavile nodded and then fell on the ground once more due to the poisoning
"Damn" Dawn thought "Now Weavile is open to a direct attack"
"Sigilyph, use light screen" The Lady said
"What? Why did she use that move? She had the chance to make Sigilyph attack Weavile directly" thought Dawn while the light screen appeared in front of Sigilyph
May and Serena also noticed the wasted opportunity The Lady just had and, seeing that Dawn was apparently not knowing what to do, they decided help her
"Now Dawn" said May "Attack now"
"Yes" Serena completed "Ask Weavile to use his most powerful attack and win this battle once for all"
Dawn looked at the girls and then looked at Ash, hoping he would tell her what to do, but he wasn't paying attention on her, actually his eyes were still focused on The Lady
"Okay" said Dawn "Weavile use Foul Play"
"Very good" thought The Lady
"What move is that?" asked Serena
"It's a dark physical attack" said Ash for the first time since the battle started but still not looking at them "It uses the target's Attack stat to calculate damage, as opposed to the user's Attack stat, so in other words… The user turns the target's power against it. The higher the target's Attack stat, the greater the damage"
Everything happened too fast, Weavile using Foul Play, breaking Sigilyph's light screen, hitting it and making it fall into the ground knocked out
"I… did it?" asked Dawn still not sure
"You did it Dawn" said May hugging her
"I knew you would do it" Serena said while also hugging Dawn
"Ash I did it" said Dawn running to hug him but being stopped by Ash's words
"Return Weavile Dawn" Ash said "He can no longer be outside the Poke ball poisoned"
"Right" said Dawn a little disappointed that Ash didn't look happy by her victory
"Don't get upset Dawn" whispered May while Dawn was returning Weavile "He's been a little weird since your battle began
"That's right" Serena said "He didn't take his eyes out of The Lady for not only a second"
"That's…weird" Dawn said
Ash was still looking at The Lady but now, he seemed more angry than concerned
"Well… I lost again" said The Lady "I believe you are the last one"
May saw The Lady pointing at her and smiled
"Well… I thought you were very powerful" said May stepping forward "After all… you are Team Tenebris leader. But now I see that you are not that much"
The Lady opened a smile and giggled
"If you are so sure of it why don't we start this next battle already?" she said
"My pleasure" May answered "Pay attention Ash… this will be fast"
"Be careful May" Ash said
"Don't worry. If Dawn beat her that easily… I shall have no problems"
"What's that supposed to mean?" Dawn asked angrily
"Just kidding" said May
May took a Pokéball out of her pocket and threw it, revealing a huge and heavy Pokémon
"A Snorlax!" Dawn said "May… I didn't know your Munchlax had evolved"
"It did a couple of years ago" she answered
"But… you did not use him on the Tournament" said Serena
"Well… I never trained him that much for battles, so he was leaving with my parents" said May "But when I learned The Lady's specialty was Psychic Pokémon I though his Dark moves would be of good use"
"Clever" said Serena
"Thanks" she said "Now… let's start"
The Lady for the third time used her psychic powers to make a Pokéball appear and fall to the ground, revealing her Pokémon… A Gallade
"So far I believe it's her most powerful Pokémon" said Dawn
"I agree" said Serena "Be careful May"
"You can count on it" May answered
Serena looked at Ash again, hopping his face had finally changed to a normal one… but now he turned from the angry face to the… scared one
"Ash?" Serena asked concerned "You are starting to scare me"
"Yes Ash" said Dawn "What's going on?"
"She can't be thinking about doing that" Ash said
"Doing what?" asked Dawn
"She wouldn't dare" Ash said not paying attention on Dawn and Serena
At the battlefield, the battle was about to start
"Snorlax, use Crunch" ordered May
"Gallade, use flash" said The Lady
Gallade, as ordered used the flash move temporally blinding Snorlax and avoiding his attack
"Gallade, use double team" said The Lady
Soon, many other Gallades appeared in front of Snorlax
"I don't fall for this strategy" said May "Snorlax, use Earthquake"
Snorlax jumped and fell on the ground, making the earth shakes into a powerful earthquake that eliminated all fakes Gallades and hit the real one
"Wow' said Dawn "That must have damaged Gallade real bad"
"She's going to win" said Serena
"The Lady…" said Ash calling Serena and Dawn's attention "She… is losing on purpose"
"What?" asked Serena
"But why? Why would she lose on purpose?" asked Dawn
"She's doing that" Ash said "May can't win this battle"
However on the battlefield, May seemed to have the battle almost won, and her next move would confirm that
"Gallade, use Close Combat" said The Lady
"A physical direct attack?" thought May "She is worse than I thought"
Gallade started running toward Snorlax to hit him but when he was almost reaching him…
"Snorlax, use Hyper Beam" ordered May
"DON'T DO THAT MAY" shouted Ash "ASK SNORLAX TO CANCEAL THE ATTACK"
"What?" asked May
"TOO LATE KETCHUM" shouted The Lady while Snorlax Hyper Beam threw Gallade away
Gallade fell on the ground obviously knocked out
"Damn it" said Ash
"Ash… why did you want me to stop?" asked May "Didn't you want me to win?"
"It's not like that May" answered Ash "It's just that… she will use that now"
"That what?" asked May
"I shall explain" said The Lady on the other side of the field "Now that I have three fainted Pokémon… I can do the ritual"
"The ritual?" asked Serena "What ritual?"
"The Psyblood ritual" said The Lady
"The… what?" asked Dawn
"After the death of my mother, I realized that the most powerful Pokémon type are the psychics, so I exiled myself for years to learn all about them. I trained with the most powerful masters of the psychic world and one by one I defeated them all, turning into the most powerful psychic master of the world. But I wanted more, so much more… so I started doing researches and experimenting with my powers and my Pokémon… for so many years I got nothing until I was finally able to find a way to enhance the powers of the psychic Pokémon"
"How?" asked Serena
"By sacrificing three psychic Pokémon to transform another one into the most powerful of all" said The Lady "A Pokémon that is unbeatable"
"But… Ash said you were losing on purpose" said Serena
"And so I was" she said "Did you really think I would lose to some mediocre girls like you?"
"But why lose?" asked May
"Because sacrifice means pain" said The Lady "I needed my three Pokémon to get fainted before the Ritual. Their pain shall make me the most powerful trainer of the world"
"Ash, you knew she was going to do that?" asked May
"Not at first" answered Ash "She did act really good against Serena… but it got obviously when she battled Dawn, and more obvious when she lost to May… But it was too late to do anything"
"How did you know about this?" asked Dawn
"I told him" said The Lady "Just like I tell all Team Tenebris Members"
"The Lady would never sacrifice her own Pokémon" said Ash "It was up to us to provide her the fainted Pokémon to get sacrificed"
"You're not only cruel…you are disgusting" said Serena to The Lady "How could you think about sacrificing someone's else Pokémon for your own horrible benefits?"
"That's why Team Tenebris Members are for" said The Lady "To give not only their lives… but their Pokémon's lives to me"
"I should have noticed sooner" said Ash "I could have stopped it"
"Too late Ketchum" said The Lady "Nothing can stop me now"
With these words, The Lady took the three Pokéballs from her defeated Pokémon and with her psychic powers… crashed them and turned into a red light
"Psychic world I, The Lady herself gives you my Pokémon's souls in order to receive the ultimate power that rests within your demons. Grant me enough power to conquer my final objective. I now do the Psyblood Ritual"
After that, The Lady took another Pokéball and held it in front of her face. Soon the red lights entered her Pokéball making it glow redder. It took only a few seconds, but it was visible that dark power had entered that Pokéball.
"Contemplate the most powerful Pokémon in the world. And taste the power of the PSYBLOOD RITUAL" said The Lady throwing her Pokéball and revealing her Pokémon
"Is that a…." asked Dawn
"It looks like one…." Said May
"But… why does she have a…" said Serena
"A Dragonite" completed Ash
It was definitely a Dragonite that came out of The Lady's Pokéball, but that Dragonite was different, his color was black and red, his wings were longer than a regular Dragonite and this one had long sharp fangs
"It's different due to the ritual" said Ash "The Ritual is a dark magic that gives the Pokémon other three Pokémon's lives. It makes the Pokémon as dark as the owner"
"But Dragonite is not a psychic Pokémon" said Serena
"The ritual gives three psychics Pokémon's lives to enhance another one. It doesn't need to be a psychic type" said Ash "But I must admit that I expected anything but a Dragonite Jennifer" said Ash to The Lady
"I am a psychic type trainer" said The Lady "But deep inside it seems I have never completely forgotten my family's traditions"
"Don't try to look nice Jennifer" said Ash "Deep inside you are actually even more disgusting"
"Enough of this Ketchum" said The Lady "Get your Pokémon and face me once for all"
"Hold on a second" said May "I was the one who was battling you, and I don't care about this ritual you've just did, I'm still gonna beat you. Snorlax, use Crunch"
"Wait May! DON'T" shouted Ash to May but it was too late. Snorlax had already started his move against The Lady's Dragonite
Snorlax ran toward Dragonite in an attempt of hitting it, but Dragonite with its arm prevented the attack by placing his hand on Snorlax's head
"What?" asked May "How is this possible?"
"Dragonite, use mega punch" said The Lady
With its other hand, Dragonite punched Snorlax very strongly, making him falling into the ground knocked out with just one attack
"Snorlax" said May running into her Pokémon
"What an amazing power" said Dawn
"Is this the power of the ritual?" asked Serena
"Unfortunately… it is" answered Ash
Ash saw May returning Snorlax to his Pokéball and slowly walking back to his side
"I… am sorry" said May embarrassed "I thought I could…"
"It's okay" said Ash not letting May complete her sentence, he knew it was not easy for her to admit defeat and he would save her of that
Ash stepped forward leaving the girls behind, slowly walked into the battlefield, making clear he was going to be the next one to face The Lady
"Finally Ketchum" said The Lady "I never thought you'd use such a silly strategy like risking your friend's Pokémon just to get me tired and beat me. It's not worthy of a Dragon Master"
"Being a Dragon Master is much more than winning battles Jennifer" said Ash "If you had the pleasure to be called Dragon Master… you would know it"
"Ouch! That must have hurt" said Dawn
"Right into her feelings" completed Serena
"Irony is such a beautiful thing" said May
Ash wasn't paying attention on his friends; he was focused on his next battle, because he knew if something went wrong… who knows what could happen
"I believe Dragonite is your last Pokémon" asked Ash
"Yes" answered The Lady "But it's enough to eliminate you"
"Let's see it" he answered "GO CHARIZARD"
Ash revealed his oldest Pokémon on hand. Looking at Charizard, Ash remembered everything he passed with him through the years since when he was a small Charmander. How he caught him after he was abandoned by his trainer, how he trained him until he evolved into a Charmeleon and then to a Charizard, how he had a difficult time proving him he was worth to be his trainer and how he finally conquered his trust after so many time. How he left to train with Liza at Charicific Valey to become stronger and how he returned to Ash many ties whenever he needed until he was called to join Ash's team within the Temple of Dragons. Now Ash and Charizard were going to face one more challenger together, maybe the most difficult of them all… but to Ash and Charizard this was just one more battle, and they would do all they could to be the winners
"Charizard" said Ash looking at his companion "We've been through many hard situations and we came out victorious of all. There is no other Pokémon I'd rather want to be the first to battle The Lady but you"
Charizard like always used a flamethrower on the air and roared loudly to show Ash he was also on his side until the end
"Thank you Charizard" said Ash "Let's destroy her"