Here's the next chapter
I have posted a poll on my account about which of my major stories you guys would like to see updated. Plz make a little time to cast your vote.
Anyway, enjoy this chapter.
~Zea
Edit: Fixed/spaced out the paragraphy flashbacks area.
Somewhere in the past…
"Where are we?" Sakura asked
"We're about 20 years in the past." Zea replied. "And don't worry; the people of the past can't see or hear us. Celebi made sure of that."
The girls looked around to see where they were. They were situated on the bank at the top of a waterfall. When they looked down, they noticed someone fishing a little downstream of the bottom of the waterfall.
"Is that Aunty Misty?" Laura asked, squinting her eyes as she looked down at the figure. "It is!"
"Aunt Zea, what's going on? Why'd you bring us here?" Sakura asked. She was getting the feeling it had something to do with the way she behaved, as well as what she said to her parents.
"You wished that your parents never met. And since we can't seem to reason with you for you to see why they treat you the way they do, I thought I'd show you why." Zea said in a calm voice, her face having a calm expression as well.
"I thought so." Sakura said, crossing her arms with a scowl on her face. "But I doubt whatever you have to show me will make me change my mind about them." Narrowing her eyes towards her guardian.
"We'll see." Zea calmly replied. "Let's have a look see at what happens here shall we."
"This is when your father first started his journey."
The group heard something that sounded like a group of bird pokémon. They turned around and saw a boy, about 10 years old, holding an injured Pikachu in his arms. He was running away from something. When they looked up, they saw a flock of angry Spearow chasing after him. The boy wasn't watching where he was going and fell off the cliff into the waterfall, which dragged him downstream. He wound up getting caught in the girl's fishing line, causing her to pull him out. When he noticed the angry flock was still after him, he grabbed the girl's bike and rode down the path as quick as he could, only to hit a bump in the road, causing him and his Pikachu to fall off the bike. He stood to protect his pokémon from the angry flock, only for the Pikachu to rescue him by attacking the flock of Spearow.
"Was that… daddy?" Laura asked in a cracked voice, both hands over her mouth in disbelief. Zea nodded. She looked to Sakura to see if there was any change of expression. There was a slight change, but not one to say she was convinced.
"Now, I'm not showing you two this to scare you for when you start your own journey. I'm just showing you what your parents have been through." Zea said to them.
The scene before them disappeared and was replaced with pure darkness. The girls got a bit scared and clutched onto their Guardian.
"Don't be scared." she told them. "This is what's going to happen every time Celebi brings us to another time period." She explained.
Zea would talk to Celebi telepathically to let her know where to go next.
The darkness around them disappeared and they reappeared in what seemed to be a stadium. There were two of different pokémon around the stadium ground field and they seemed to be fighting each other. The center of the field was vacant, as if the pokémon were staying away from it for some reason. They heard an explosion coming from above them and looked up, to see Mew and Mewtwo fighting one another. They heard voices and realized that they were standing next to a group of trainers who seemed helpless to do anything to help or stop the pokémon. The twins noticed Misty once again and saw Brock was there as well as their father, Ash. A crash was heard from above them once again, as Mew and Mewtwo's psychic shields collided. When they came down and made contact with the ground in the middle of the field, still connected from their midair collision, it caused an explosion that knocked out the battling pokémon, injuring them.
The girls looked to their father, somehow sensing that he would do something to try and stop the two powerful pokémon from fighting. They saw the hurt and worried expression he gave as he looked at all the injured pokémon.
The two powerful pokémon sent a burst of psychic energy towards each other, which met halfway and exploded when they collided, causing the two pokémon to push themselves further away from each other. They prepared their attack once again. Ash got up and made a dash towards the center of the field calling to the two pokémon to stop, but they didn't hear him and attacked each other once again. Ash made it to the center of the field just as the attacks were about to collided, causing him to take both attacks, which caused another explosion. He became surrounded by a blue energy and fell to the ground, turning to stone. Pikachu ran over to him, trying to wake him with his electric attacks. Pikachu began to cry as did the rest of the pokémon, seeing what had happened to the trainer. And, by some mysterious force, their tears went towards the statued trainer. His body glowed bright for a few moments and he began to move again. When he got up, both pokémon and trainer were happy to see each other again.
"…Daddy…" Laura whimpered with tear stained eyes. Sakura was crying to, but kept whipping them away to make it look like she wasn't.
The scene disappeared and they were once again, surrounded by darkness.
"I'm sorry I had to show you that." Zea said to them sympathetically. "But that was one of the things your father did when he was your age, before he met your mother."
The tears continued to fall down Laura's cheeks as she replayed what she had seen in her head. Zea comforted her as much and as best she could. Sakura's expression, however, was almost unreadable. It wasn't completely serious like before, but it didn't show too much concern either. She looked like she was deep in thought after seeing what her father had done and what had happened to him when he was her age.
"If dad did all that before he met mom, just to protect and save the pokémon, then… how much did he risk during the time he spent with her?" Sakura thought. Although, the thought of seeing the things her father might have done to protect her mother when they were younger, scared her a bit.
Zea had heard her thoughts and gave a small smile. "Only after seeing the second of one of her father's major past events, she's starting to understand."
The darkness disappeared once again, and the group found themselves standing in front of a building. There was a giant robot with a Pikachu in one of its mechanical hands. The girls looked around; trying to understand what was going on. They spotted three people who seemed familiar to them; their father, Ash, who was wearing a different outfit and seemed to be older than when they saw him in the last two visits of his past. Professor Birch, whom they have met when visiting their grandparents in Hoenn. And a girl who looked a lot like themselves, but a bit older. They quickly realized that the girl was their mother, but when she was younger.
"Is this when mom and dad met?" Sakura asked.
"Indeed it is. But they didn't take much notice of each other when they did… as you can see." Zea replied, gesturing to the huge robot before them.
The girls heard Ash call out to the Pikachu to use its electric attack, which seemed to be very powerful compared to what the girls have seen from Pikachu when he uses his strongest electric attack. Bolts of Pikachu's electricity flew all over the place and the robot seemed to be absorbing the electricity. They heard a scream and turned to see it coming from May, who freaked when one of Pikachu's electric bolts hit her bike, destroying it. Zea explained to the girls that Pikachu had been overcharged with electricity and that he had to release as much of it as possible.
When the event with the robot ended, the group found themselves inside the building, which was the pokémon laboratory. May and Ash introduced themselves to each other, then May went to receive her first pokémon. She thought the Treecko was creepy, while Ash thought it was cool. And the Mudkip wasn't exactly fond of her; but the Torchic took a liking to her very quickly, so it became her first pokémon.
"Is that Blaziken when she was a Torchic?" Laura asked.
"Indeed she is." Zea replied.
"And is that Sceptile when he was a Treecko?" Sakura asked.
"No." Zea shook her head in reply. "Your dad caught his Treecko in the wild. Let's continue watching shall we."
The next day, May was seen outside, observing her bike. She looked quite annoyed. "My poor bike. This is all that Pikachu's fault. I've got a bone to pick with them." The travellers heard May say. She went back into the lab, a scowl on her face, showing she was ready to give Ash a piece of her mind. When she opened the door to the room, her demeanour quickly changes at the scene before her. She saw how worried Ash was about his pokémon. She forgot about the bike incident for the moment and closed the door. After she saw the way Ash was with his Pikachu, she went back outside and released her new pokémon so she could get to know it better. Just then, Ash and Pikachu came out of the lab. May greeted them and Pikachu jumped off of Ash's shoulder and landed in front of Torchic. The two greeted each other and began to play with each other. May looked to her bike one more time and shrugged it off.
When they were about to leave the lab, she suggested that she and Ash go to the next town together. When Ash agreed, she turned away from him and exclaimed in a whisper, "YES!".
The scene turned to darkness once again.
"Looks like mommy took a liking to daddy when they just met." Laura said, giggling at what she saw her mother's past self do when their father agreed for them to travel together.
"Yea, but dad seemed completely confused." Sakura added in.
"Indeed he was Sakura." Zea said. "Your father was completely oblivious to anything that didn't concern pokémon when he was younger."
"Now… we're going to be doing a little time hopping." The girls looked up at their guardian, confused. "That means we're going to go to different time periods in your parents life, so you can see the bond that they shared. But we won't be staying long like we did for the previous ones. Those were major events; these will be minor till we reach major again."
The girls nodded in understanding.
"Is that ok with you Celebi? It's not putting any stress on you is it?" Zea telepathically asked the time travel pokémon.
"No, it's fine. I'm used to doing it anyway." Celebi replied with a giggle.
In the next timeline, the girls saw May collapse to her knees crying about her Torchic being stolen. Ash knelt next to her, promising to get her Torchic back.
In another time, the four travellers were in a forest. A Wurmple dropped itself from a tree with its silk, stopping briefly in front of May, startling her and then continuing its way down the tree. May decided to go after it to catch it. Ash tried to stop her but she was long gone. He turned to his remaining companions and worriedly asked if it was ok to let her go alone.
~ A group of Mightyena show hostility to the group. May quickly runs and hide behind Ash for protection.
~ Ash and May discover that a Team Aqua intruder is in the Devon Co-op building and that Max could be in potential danger. May clasps her hands and asks Ash for reassurance and support, that Max will be ok. Ash comforts her and she breathes a sigh of relief.
~ A green haired boy with a Roselia is criticizing May on her coordinating abilities. Ash gets upset, and defends May against the trainer.
~ May lost her first pokémon contest and Ash is blaming himself for her loss.
~ The ground beneath May crumbles, causing her and Torchic to fall off the cliff the group was standing on. Ash worriedly calls out to her. She safely grabs onto a branch that is sticking out of the cliff wall, but it still in danger of falling. Ash ties a rope around himself and is lowered down the cliff, saving May.
~ Max asks May who she would like to see win in the gym battle between their father and Ash. May says that she wants their father to win but she doesn't want Ash to lose. Her brother argues with her about choosing Ash's side over their father and she blushes nervously.
~ During the battle with her father, May shows worry when it looks like Ash is going to lose and joy when it looks like he's winning.
~ May is trapped in a forbidden garden inhabited by grass pokémon who dislike humans. The rest of the group is worried about her, and Ash decides that they should just go save her. The grass pokémon are about to attack May and Ash swings in to save her. When they left the garden, the Bulbasaur from the garden decides to join May on her journey.
~ The group are at a pokémon center. Ash calls Professor Oak about his Bulbasaur. Professor Oak send Ash's Bulbasaur over to him and his and May's Bulbasaur immediately took a shine to each other. When May's Bulbasaur is attacked, Ash's Bulbasaur quickly goes to her defence, protecting her.
~ May is overconfident about her contest. When Ash tries to give her some advice about using her pokémon's moves, she argues with him telling him she knows what she's doing and doesn't need his advice. Her overconfidence causes her to lose fairly early in her contest. Outside the contest hall, May is sitting on a bench with her Bulbasaur next to her, contemplating on what happened earlier. Ash goes over to comfort her.
~ Ash hops on top of Dragonite with Elite dragon trainer Lance, to save Pikachu. May goes over to them and worriedly tells Ash not to do anything crazy.
~ Ash is lost in a blizzard. May becomes worried. While they search frantically for him, May keeps a hold onto his hat until they find him.
~ A Donphan using rollout is heading straight towards May. Taken by surprise, she panics, becoming frozen where she stood. Ash quickly jumps at her, pushing her out of the way. His arm around her waist as they landed on the ground and makes sure she wasn't hurt in any way.
May can't fall asleep because of how creepy the place is. She hears music, becoming more scared and quickly goes to try and wake Ash up.
~ May and Max fall off a rope bridge which had been cut. They hang on for dear life while May calls out to Ash for help. Ash hears her cries and calls out to her. He and Brock quickly find the two and pull them up to safety.
~ The group had set up camp. May offers to find water, while Max went to find firewood. Ash generously offers to help May in finding water.
~ Ash and May just finished battling in an unofficial pokémon contest, ending it in a tie. The judges are unsure of whom to give the ribbon to. Ash and May look to each other and nod. Ash threw the ribbon into the air, having his Sceptile cut it in half, allowing the two trainers to each have half of the ribbon. Later, May revealed to her friends that she was going travel on her own in Johto. Ash was surprised, but supported her and her decision. Max didn't take it too well and wanted Ash and his sister to stay together.
Darkness surrounded the time travellers once again.
"Wow… mommy and daddy have been through a lot together, huh?" Laura said, more as a statement than a question.
Zea nodded. "And those were just minor events in your parents' life. After they went their separate ways, they met up again in Sinnoh, where your father met your aunt Dawn."
She then looked toward Sakura.
"Mom and dad have been through a lot." Sakura said in an almost inaudible voice. "I think I'm starting to understand why they're so strict on me sometimes." Her back was facing her sibling and guardian, so they couldn't see her face.
"I also see and understand why mommy and daddy said that old cut ribbon is one of their most prized possessions. It's the one thing that they shared while they were apart that kept them together." Laura beamed excitedly at her theory of her parents' love story.
"You're a regular romantic aren't you?" Zea asked her.
"It's all the romance novels she reads." Sakura stated.
Zea and Eve beamed at the two siblings. "Anyway, we have one more stop to make. This is the major event in your parents' past lives." Zea told them. The darkness around them disappeared once again.
The group found themselves to be underwater. By instinct, the twins covered their mouth and nose to prevent them from drowning. When they realized they weren't getting wet from being underwater, they slowly removed their hands from their face, seeing that they were able to breathe. The girls looked around and spotted a school of Luvdisc. Among the school of Luvdisc were two figures. On closer inspection, the girls noticed it was their parents with a Manaphy and Buizel, along with Pikachu, swimming with the heart shaped pokémon. The two teens continued to glance at each other while smiling.
Pokemon Ranger Jacky, is conversing with Ash about May and Manaphy being too attached to each other. Seeing that Ash seems to be closer to May than any of the others, he asks Ash to separate the two, but he refuses.
Manaphy has gone missing. Heartbroken, May begins to cry. Ash gazes at her with a pained expression and glistening eyes.
The sea temple is being flooded, causing the group to leave before they drown. Before they are able to return to the submarine, Manaphy escapes from May's grasp, swimming back to the sea crown. May quickly goes after Manaphy. Worried about her safety, Ash immediately goes after her.
Ash and May place the crystals back into the sea crown. When they were done, they realize that one of the crystals is missing. The crown's chamber starts become too flooded for them to stay, forcing them to flee. Every path they took was blocked by more water coming into the temple, forcing them to find other areas to escape the oncoming water. While going up a flight of stairs, they spotted the missing crystal. Ash picks it up and they continued on, trying to get away from the water. They arrive at a dead end, until Ash spots a rescue pod. He gently places May, Manaphy and Pikachu into the pod, telling Pikachu to take care of May and Manaphy while he goes to return the crystal to the crown.
May tries to stop him, but to no avail. The water soon raised, covering up the capsule and preventing May from doing anything. Ash gets to the chamber and almost drowns trying to put the crystal in place. May, worried about him, prays for his safety. Manaphy uses his ability to send May's prayers to Ash. When he hears her, he quickly recovers and was able to return the crystal, saving the temple.
When the temple rose to the surface, May opened the pod and stepped out with Manaphy and Pikachu. She becomes happy that the temple was saved, but sadness and heartbreak takes over when she thinks that Ash didn't make it. The Phantom pirate grabs Manaphy and quickly makes his escape with him. Ash appears flying from the temple in a yellow air containable substance provided by the temple, chasing the Phantom and rescuing Manaphy.
The group stood on the ship's dock watching the temple return into the ocean. May is saddened about having to say goodbye to Manaphy. He returns one last time to say his goodbyes, by calling her Mama and telling her he loves her. She returns his love and releases him back into the ocean.
Darkness befalls the time travelers once again.
The girls stood in shock at what they had just seen, silence taking them for about a minute.
"… Mommy… Daddy…" Laura said with tears in her eyes, hugging her Guardian for comfort. Zea rubbed her back to comfort her. She looked to Sakura to see her reaction to what she had just witnessed.
"… Wow… mom… dad. Dad… he… he almost died… again, saving mom… but this time… mom saved him." Sakura thought, tears streaming down her face.
"Nuha! I UNDERSTAND NOW!" Sakura yelled, the tears never ceasing to fall from her eyes. She turned and ran over to her Guardian and sibling, tightly embracing her Guardian as her tears fell onto her shirt. Zea rubbed her back to try to calm her a bit.
"Please Aunt Zea! I've seen enough!" Sakura said, her voice quivering.
Zea smiled at her. "So does that mean you don't want to see what would happen if they never met?"
Sakura shook her head wildly. "I-I've already seen what happened to Daddy before they met! I don't want to see what would happen if they never did!" her voice still quivering.
Zea's eyes widened in surprise. "She hasn't called Ash 'daddy' for some time now. One day she just started calling her parents 'mom' and 'dad', saying that calling her parents 'mommy' and 'daddy' made her sound like a baby."
Zea smiled and nodded to her. "Ok Sakura."
"Ok Celebi, take us home." Zea said to the time travel pokémon.
"Celebi!" the pokémon replied, as the group disappeared from the darkness in the flash of a bright light.
UPDATED: 25/05/12
FIXED UPDATE: 28/05/12
Really long chapter this one. But it should hold you guys till the next update. Hope you all enjoyed it. If you spotted any errors, please let me know.
*'Nuha' is supposed to be a crying sound (just to clarify it for you guys)
~Zea