The Shining Latios

A/N: Hey guys! Merytato, previously triforcelord, here with a new chappie. As per usual, I'll save most of my comments 'til the end, so until then, sit back, relax, and enjoy!

The Shining Latios Chapter 9: A Simple Voyage

Ash was leaning on the railway on the outer side of the ship. The sunset looked beautiful, and with the wake from the large vessel spraying water into the air, a rainbow pattern was formed, making it all the more awe-inspiring. However, our young hero's mind was not focused on the beauty of the sunset at the current moment.

'What have I gotten myself into this time?' Ash asked himself, sighing. What had begun as a simple vacation and a start of a new adventure had quickly turned into another mission to save the world. But this time, things felt… different, somehow.

For one thing, he was now a Pokemon. No matter how he thought about it, the young Pokemon Trainer was now a legendary Dragon-type Pokemon, a Latios. He smiled in spite of himself as he thought about all of the times his mom had told him that he would turn into a Pokemon someday with how much he ate. He wondered what his mom's reaction would be if he told her that he had done just that.

If being a Pokemon wasn't enough, he had to deal with Team Rocket yet again. That Tyranitar in the park had to be the criminal organization's doing. He couldn't think of anyone else who would stoop so low as to corrupt a Pokemon to that degree. But even so, it didn't seem like Team Rocket's style. They weren't interested in corrupting Pokemon, they were more into stealing them for profit. But who else could it be?

The thought of the Tyranitar brought Ash's mind back to the strange boy he had met in Altomare. Ryan. The boy was mysterious all right. He also had some strange powers. He was able to almost single-handedly take down that...monster, and return it to normal. He didn't talk much about himself, but Ash had a feeling that that boy was involved in this mess even deeper than he was. Ryan had also seemed to know who he was somehow. Ash wondered where Ryan was right now, and when they were going to meet next.

'You seem preoccupied.' A voice sounded inside his head, making the boy-turned-Pokemon jump and turn around.

He saw Latias, disguised as Bianca, standing in the doorway leading to the outer deck of the ship, smiling.

After the events in the park, the group had rushed to the boat. They had all agreed that after the events in the park, it wouldn't be safe for Latias to stay in Altomare anymore. As such, the Legendary Eon Pokemon was now accompanying Ash and Brock on their new journey. Lorenzo and Bianca had stayed behind in order to continue to protect the Soul Dew and take care of their daily affairs. Seeing as it would be borderline cruel to stuff the dragoness into a pokeball just for the sake of convenience, they had agreed that she would stay in her human form when in public and purchased an extra ticket for her.

Ash answered the dragoness' smile with one of his own, but it must have looked as forced as it felt, because Latias instantly put on a frown of worry and walked to stand next to him.

'What's wrong, Ash?' The dragoness telepathed, 'is something bothering you?'

Ash sighed and turned around to face the sunset. "I've been thinking pretty hard about some things," he admitted.

Under normal circumstances, Latias would have made fun of him for saying something like that. However, the expression on his face made him look like he had aged ten years in the past two seconds.

Latias moved towards the railing next to Ash. 'What kind of things are you thinking about?' She asked.

"Just… all of this stuff, I guess." Ash said, "I mean, for one thing, I'm a Pokemon now. Not that it's a bad thing, but it's really confusing. I'm not human anymore, and I don't know how other people are going to accept that if they ever find out, or if they even will. Plus we're involved in another plot to save the world. I've saved the world at least five times by now, but this one just feels… different, I guess. I feel like there's something important missing, and I don't know what to do. I mean I just keep getting thrown into all of these situations, and I'm expected to deal with them." Ash's voice began to rise, "I'm only 12! How can they expect me to keep doing all of this stuff when I haven't even hit my first growth spurt yet?! I mean, is having a normal life too much to ask?!" He rubbed his eyes angrily and was surprised by how wet they were.

Latias was silent for a moment. 'Ash, let me ask you a question.' She faced the declining sun, an unreadable expression on her face. 'Do you know why the garden is open to the sky?'

Ash was confused as to why she was asking such a random question. "No, not really. I never paid much attention to stuff like that. Why shouldn't it be," he asked.

'Well, for one thing, it leaves us open to surveillance from the sky, increasing our chances of being discovered.' Latias said, 'And for another, it leaves us open in the case of an aerial attack. So, knowing the reasons why it shouldn't be, I'll ask you again. Why do you think the garden is open to the sky?'

Ash was thoroughly confused. "I-I really don't know." He answered, a puzzled expression on his face.

'Well, I'll tell you.' The dragoness telepathed, 'It's because I love watching the sunset and sunrise.'

"But… it puts you in danger," Ash half-shouted, growing frustrated at such a seemingly meaningless answer, "Why do you do that, just for something like watching the sun?"

'Because to me, it's not just the sun.' Latias said softly, 'It's so much more than that. You see Ash, as the sun sets, I feel a sense of loss, of something ending. Not only of the day, but whatever was accomplished that day and whatever happened throughout the day. The darkness of night comes and I feel afraid. I worry if I'm going to wake up again the next morning. But then, at daybreak, when the sun just begins to peek over the horizon, I feel a sense of renewed hope. When the sun rises, it's like the first breath of life for me, no matter how much I see it.'

She paused. 'And so, even when it's dark outside, I know that eventually, the sun will rise, and everything will be OK. Night is just a temporary thing, and day will come eventually. We just have to keep faith that it will.'

Ash looked at Latias, who was still looking at the disappearing sunset. Somehow, he felt as if Latias was talking about much more than herself and the sun. He turned to watch the sun finally disappear under the horizon, and felt Latias's hand brush against his own.

He felt her lips against his ear. "Remember, the darkness will disappear soon," a very soft, quiet voice whispered in his ear. Ash jerked his head around, his eyes wide, just to see Latias disappear through the door.

Even though he was alone in the dark, Ash, for some strange reason, found himself smiling.

Right behind the door, Latias was panting heavily, a deep red blush on her face.

'I-I can't believe I just said those kinds of things to Ash!' She thought wildly to herself, her heart racing. Granted, she knew he had needed a speech like that, but when she thought of how bold she had been when her hand brushed against his, and she had spoken her first verbal words to him, it was enough to make her feel as if her heart was going to beat it's way out of her chest.

Grabbing onto the railing, she slowly walked down the steps leading into the main part of the ship, trying to lower her heart rate. As she was about to turn in the direction of her room, however, she heard a faint sound coming from the opposite direction. While she was no Audino, her hearing was far better than any human. Curious and needing a distraction of some sort, she followed the sound, stepping as quietly as she could in her human form. While switching to her original form would have been much better, the light and energy output from doing so would most likely tip off whatever was making that sound that she was there, and she didn't want to take any undue risks.

As she walked along the gloomy hallway, the sound started to become clearer and louder. About two-thirds along the hall, she stopped in front of the door where the sound seemed to be coming from. The door had some kind of shiny aura around it, most likely to keep regular humans unaware, the dragoness reasoned.

'That sounds like… screaming!' Latias thought to herself, growing alarmed.

She turned the doorknob and slightly opened the door to see what was going on. However, the door quickly slammed open, and the last thing a horrified Latias saw before blacking out was a dark figure standing in a pool of some even darker liquid, their face entirely shadowed by their wet hair except for one glowing eye.

A/N: And that, my friends, is a wrap. I know it was much, much shorter than the last one, but I feel as if adding more would detract from the overall feel of the chapter, so I decided to end it where I did. Now, for the matter that some of you are might be more concerned about. It's been getting close to a year before I posted the last chapter. I know that I said I would be posting chapters more frequently after that one, but I couldn't find my motivation for a long while. Even now, I can't really promise anything. I've honestly lost the drive I had to pump out chappies like I used to. Plus, I'm a college man...boy...person...thing...potato now, and I'm much busier than I used to be. I've also developed other interests and stuff, so that doesn't help my cause.

I want to know what you guys think. I'm a computer science major. I enjoy writing, but I have other things I need to do. I don't want to sound rude or anything like that, but if you guys want me to add this stuff to the list of things I need to do, I need you guys to let me know why. Or at least encourage/remind/beat my potato self senseless when I'm late. The reason why this is still on my mind is because of how popular this story is now _ I haven't posted for three-quarters of a year now, and this story still averages about 800-900 hits every month, sometimes more. I don't want to disappoint you guys. Lemme know what you guys think about this story and if you can and feel up to it, why you guys want me to continue.

In slightly happier news, I have a new Beta. I will probably refer to her as First Master because I met her in a wonderful game called Elsword Online and she's my guild master. Cookies to whoever can guess the reference I made (Poor girl still doesn't get it after all these months ;-;). She helped me get this thing in better shape, and will probably yell at me to write these things. She also loves my use of commas (Just kidding it pisses her off and it's hilarious). Speaking of which, she'll probably be writing a paragraph or so in the ending Author's Note, so...um...potatoes.

This is the ending Author's Note you moronic 'tato. … That was mean… I'm sorry. FORGIVE ME! Anywho… Hi. I'm… this potato's beta. He is really… just… HE OVERUSES COMMAS SO MUCH AND IT'S ANNOYING AND I DON'T GET PAID! Save me from the tunnel I'm kept in. There's no food here.
~

Thank you First Master. Now, in other news...actually, this A/N is almost a page long now _ I think we've wrapped up just about everything. I'm going to leave this here for now. If I need to add something, I'll put it in later or in the next chappie. For now though, tanks for reading. Tati bye bye for now!