The railroad crossing bell chimed loudly. The train car was bathed in a red glow. Ash felt the train bobbing along the rails under her. There was no one on the train except Ash. She looked out the window behind her, but couldn't find the crossing, or the sun. Ash rubbed her eyes, but she still couldn't focus on anything. She turned back around to see herself, sitting across from her.
There she was, green eyes staring back at her. Her blonde hair tied into a single ponytail. She looked older. She looked at Ash with her eyebrows knitted together in concentration. Like she was looking at an incomplete puzzle. Ash raised her hand, but the girl staring at her didn't move. Ash put her hand down. The bell chime got louder in Ash's ears.
The girl's mouth moved as she spoke, but Ash couldn't make out the words over the sound of the bell. Something in the girl's voice unnerved Ash. She sounded disappointed. Ash felt like she was being scolded for something. Something important.
The bell chime grew louder, deafening. Ash covered her ears, but it didn't help. The train entered a tunnel, and the girl in front of her disappeared. Ash couldn't see anything, and couldn't hear anything either. The bell had finally stopped. Ash felt the rails under the train fall away. She felt her body leave the seat as she too began to fall, she reached for something to grab onto. She felt a cold wall with her hand. Then, she felt it against her face.
The floor was nothing but spotless white tiles. The walls, if there were any, couldn't be seen. Ash laid on the floor, her cheek pressed to the white tiles, in the center of a spotlight. The darkness around her was impossible to see through. The cold of the tiles hurt her face, and she sat up. She recognized this floor. She knew she should be dripping wet from the sprinklers in the Game Corner, but she wasn't. She knew there should be fluorescent lights buzzing above her, but there weren't. It was so quiet. The kind of quiet that it felt rude to interrupt.
Ash stood up and walked forward. The spotlight around her followed, and the white tiles continued on in front of her. After a few moments of wandering through the endless tiles, she felt lost already.
Ash felt the hairs on her neck stand on end and she whipped around. There was nothing there. But Ash knew she had felt someone behind her a second ago.
Another spotlight appeared. There was the wooden door to Giovanni's office, just as gaudy as before. Ash stepped forward and opened the door. It swung open, but there was nothing on the other side. The entire door frame was filled with oppressive darkness. Ash felt as though if she reached forward some of it would get on her, somehow. In the distance, far behind her, Ash heard the bell chime.
But then, out of the inky blackness, a pale, white hand emerged. So distinct from the black around, it hurt to look at. It reached forward, for Ash's face. She tried to step back, but suddenly there was no floor beneath her. She was falling, and the white hand was drooping and stretching forward, impossibly long, to reach her. It reached for her neck, and Ash opened her mouth to scream.
#
Ash's eyes snapped open. She was drenched in sweat. She felt her heart pounding in her chest. She reached for the lamp on the nightstand and turned it on. She tried to let herself calm down in the bed, but soon gave up and walked to the bathroom. She ran cold water over her hands and then splashed it on her face. She looked at herself in the mirror. Her hair was a mess and her eyes were red, but it was her.
Ash left the bathroom light on as she went back to the bed and lied down over the covers. She stared up at the ceiling of the Poke Center overnight room and for the first time since she had started her journey, she missed home.
The clock on her phone read 04:44. At this time, everyone she knew in Pallet Town would be asleep. A few hours ago, her parents would have been on the couch watching their favorite soap opera, although Ash could never pay enough attention to keep up with the plot. Professor Oak would have been at his lab, since he always stayed much later than any of his research assistants. Avery Oak would have been in her room at Ryan's house, studying for college with her Vulpix, Lucky, curled up at her feet.
Ash wondered what Josh, Ryan, Jake, and herself would have been doing at that time, if their lives had gone differently. If they hadn't chosen to become Pokemon Trainers. She knew Jake had wanted to become a car designer. She had seen the drawings in his room a few times when she had visited Josh at his house. He had been a good artist. She could hardly remember any careers that Josh and Ryan had aspired to. Although she knew one thing: whatever one of them had said they wanted to do, the other one of them would immediately say that they would do it better.
Ash thought of herself, looking up Professor Oak's research papers after their first class trip to his lab. She could hardly understand any of it at the time, but the peer-reviews and news coverage on his research all agreed that Samuel Oak was at the top of his field. The study of human and Pokemon interactions. But even the Professor had changed his mind, at one point in his life. Ash had also found old pictures of his days as a young Trainer. It had been almost eerie, seeing a black-and-white photocopy of a newspaper, with a handsome boy referred to as Sam in the article but looking more like an older Ryan, standing next to his team with a wide grin and a glint in his eye. The article had been only a brief profile on his career as a Trainer up until that point, mentioning his fifth Gym Badge after four years of training.
It was a touchy subject for Ryan himself, Ash would learn. She had asked him about it once, only for Ryan to scoff and tell her to mind her own business. Instead, Josh had filled her in on the story. The Professor had actually won all eight Badges, and even made it to the Indigo Plateau. But, for whatever reason, he had suddenly changed his mind and decided to dedicate himself to research instead. Josh's voice had trailed off toward the end of the story, the way it usually did when he was called on in class to answer a question he didn't know the answer to.
The next day, Ash had visited the Professor in his lab. She had brought Dinah with her, and Ash had sat watching as the Professor tried to coax her Clefairy to stay still long enough for him to take a picture.
"Professor, why did you quit training?" she had asked.
The Professor lowered his camera and gave her a quizzical look.
"You've never asked me about that before," he had said.
Ash had explained what Josh had told her, what she had read in the article she had found, and the way that Ryan had reacted when she had asked him.
"I thought you had just been a Trainer for a little bit, and then stopped. But you didn't. You were a Trainer for years, you seemed to love it. If you made it to the Indigo Plateau, then you must have been good, too," she had concluded.
"I did love it," Oak had said quietly. "For a time. For a long time. But do you know what I remember the most from those days, after I retired?"
Dinah had stopped floating around the lab and settled on a bookshelf where she was now watching the two of them, but Oak was no longer paying attention to her. He had walked to Ash and sat down in the chair next to her. Ash had known better than to interrupt. She had known, even at the time, that what the Professor was about to say would be important.
"It was my own Pokemon," he had said. "It was the look in their eyes when they looked at me. Not the battles, or the Badges, or Victory Road, or any of that. I loved to see my Pokemon grow and become strong. There's nothing more amazing to me than seeing a Magikarp become a Gyarados. It shows you just how much can change in an instant, and what we're all capable of — if we're given the chance. My father once told me you could tell the measure of a person by how they treat their Pokemon. In those days, I liked to watch other Trainers with their Pokemon. You can see so much of them in their Pokemon. Just like how I can see so much of you in your Clefairy."
Ash had looked up at Dinah. She had smiled, and whistled a tune which Dinah promptly picked up and proceeded to chant as she began to float around the lab again.
"I do miss those days," Professor Oak had said, "but I realized there's so much more to the world of Pokemon than just battling. Humans and Pokemon, we interact in so many ways. And I wanted to understand every way that we do, not just in battles."
Ash had looked at Oak's face, trying to discern the younger boy she had seen in the old newspaper. Dinah had settled on a table, and was standing on her toes to peer into a microscope. Ash had giggled, and Oak had shaken his head at himself.
"Look how you've got me rambling when I was trying to work," he had said with a smile. He had stood up and quietly approached Dinah, then brought up his camera and taken a picture. "Some things are more important, Ashley. Cherish every moment you have with your Pokemon. These moments are what you'll remember when you're my age."
Ash laid in the bed of the overnight room, thinking of Professor Oak's words. The clock read 05:41, and the sun was just starting to peek out from the horizon of Lavender Town. Ash got up from the bed, having given up on going back to sleep, and started gathering her things. Her supply of Potions, Full Heals, and Great Balls was still full. There were hardly any Wild Pokemon in the Lavender Town area, and Ash didn't have to wonder why. The whole town seemed just as dour in the morning as it had been last night when she had arrived. The town was nestled between mountains on both sides, which seemed to funnel gray clouds and fog into the town itself. Even now, with the sun rising, there was hardly any color in the sky.
Ash spent the day fishing on Route 12 and training her Pokemon. Despite only having spent a few hours in Lavender Town, all her Pokemon enjoyed the change in scenery. Pat dove in the water and created a gentle whirlpool as he floated on his back and lazily spun on the surface. Dinah and Haigha danced on the bridge. Tarrant watched Ash curiously as she ate her boxed lunch. Once the sun was close to setting, she packed her things and returned to Lavender Town.
The Pokemon Tower, the only building that was recognizable from a distance, cast a long, jagged shadow which Ash walked under as she trekked to the shelter. Ash recognized the building by the wide, fenced area it was attached to. The field was populated with Nidorans, Pidgeottos, Rattatas, Sandshrews, and other Pokemon playing in the grass. Ash entered the shelter, and saw even more Pokemon relaxing in paddocks that lined both walls. There was a Vulpix, a Growlithe, two Meowths, a Jigglypuff, and a Cubone. Each paddock had a cushion on the floor and a water dispenser.
Ash walked to the paddock the two Meowths were sharing and reached her hand over the gate.
"Ps ps ps," she whispered.
The Meowths perked up and scampered to her, then cautiously sniffed her hand. Ash smiled as they started to gently lick her fingers, and then she pet them. Ash moved to the next paddock and hummed Haigha's melody to the Jigglypuff. The Jigglypuff smiled, puffed up his cheeks, and harmonized with Ash's voice. Ash moved to the next paddock, where the Cubone was already standing on the other side of the gate waiting for her. Ash opened her mouth to speak, but the Cubone whacked the gate with his club and Ash recoiled.
"Get away from there!"
Ash stepped back and watched as a girl with ginger hair in pig-tails ran to the Cubone's paddock and shooed him away. The Cubone narrowed his eyes at Ash and grumbled, but eventually turned away.
"I'm so sorry about that," the girl said as she turned back to Ash, "he doesn't like strangers."
"That's okay," Ash said, "I should've known better. I know this is a shelter for Pokemon."
"Oh? We don't usually get visitors," the girl said.
"I'm Ash Delaney, I'm a friend of Professor Oak," Ash said, "he said he knows the owner."
"Oh, of course! He said you would be coming soon, I've been so busy today I completely forgot. I'm Reina, nice to finally meet you."
Reina stuck out her hand and Ash shook it. Ash tried to remember what the Professor had said about his friend. Reina looked about Ash's age.
Is this his granddaughter?
"Are these wild Pokemon you took in?" Ash asked.
"No," Reina said, "most of these Pokemon belonged to people. Some people get tired of taking care of them, or just bored of them. Can you believe that?"
"There are worse things that could happen to them," Ash murmured as she surveyed the paddocks. Reina gave Ash a quizzical look. "Where do they go from here?"
"We try to find new owners for them," Reina said, "But most of them stay here until they're mature enough to leave on their own. A lot of them usually end up staying a while."
"Where's Dr. Fuji?"
For a moment, Reina's eyes widened as if Ash had just clapped her hands in front of her face.
"Mr. Fuji isn't here right now," she said, and then looked away from Ash, "he went to pay his respects… at the Pokemon Tower."
Reina's voice had trailed off towards the end, in a tone that Ash knew well. It was the same way that Josh would get when he tried to lie.
Ash watched Reina closely as she spoke. "Has he lost a Pokemon recently?"
"Hmm?" Reina said as she tried not to make eye contact. "No, not recently. He just… likes to pay his respects."
Ash nodded, as if accepting this, and then headed for the stairs. "Do you mind if I look around while I wait for him here?"
"He may be a while," Reina called after her, "it would be better if you came back later."
"I can wait, I've got a book I can read," Ash lied as she climbed up the stairs.
Once she reached the top, Ash paused for a moment, to see if Reina came after her. Once she was confident she hadn't been followed, she quietly made her way down the hallway. Ash slowly opened each door to ensure she made no noise while she peeked in the rooms. There were multiple rooms for the people working in the shelter. Ash saw a stuffed Clefairy plushie that she imagined belonged to Reina. Finally, she found Dr. Fuji's room.
Ash recognized the golden seal and red stamp of the Saffron University diploma on the wall above a desk in the corner — the same university that Professor Oak had graduated from. Ash walked into the room and locked the door behind herself. She looked around.
Like the Professor's lab, the entire room was filled to the brim with books. The spines on many of them were worn and impossible to read. Ash imagined Dr. Fuji leafing through the pages like Professor Oak so often would. There was no computer on the desk, instead there was a mess of papers and a chess board with an incomplete game. Ash picked up a piece to look at it. It was a simple wood carving with a felt base, but Ash recognized the small grooves meant to mark the Dragon's whiskers.
Ash twirled the piece in her hand while she sifted through the papers on the desk. She hardly knew what she was even looking for. Her eyes drifted across a flyer and Ash recognized the "Celadon Game Corner!" logo printed on it. Ash froze.
She dropped the chess piece and picked up the flyer, reading it over and over again as if the words on it would somehow change and assure Ash: no, no, you misread — a friend of Professor Oak would never do such a thing. But there Ash was, reading a flyer that extolled the features of the Game Corner. An open bar, open 24/7, and rare Pokemon offered as prizes. Ash crumpled the flyer in her hands. She stood there, huffing in anger, and briefly considered destroying the entire room.
She'd never met Dr. Fuji, never even seen a picture of him. Was she going to pass judgment on him based on a flyer? It was possible that Dr. Fuji simply enjoyed gambling, and had no idea of what went on behind the secret door that Ash had uncovered hidden in the wall. Had no idea where the prize Pokemon came from, or what had been done to them after they had been captured.
Except, a nasty voice in Ash's head reminded her, Celadon City is hours away from here. Do you really think an old man would travel so far just for a sleazy casino?
Ash pulled out the drawers in the desk, but there was hardly anything informative in them. Only once Ash got to the bottom drawer did she find something that gave her pause. An empty bottle of whiskey, a leather journal, and a black-and-white photograph.
Ash took the photo and journal put them on the desk. The journal was old, every page yellowed and frayed at the edges. The photo looked even older. It was a family photo: a man, a woman, and a little girl who looked nothing like Reina. They were all smiling, standing in front of what looked like a lake. Ash sat down at the desk and stared at the photo. There were photos just like this one in her own house, from summer days she had spent with her parents on Cerulean Cape. Ash couldn't picture her own father in that casino.
Ash stood up, stowed the flyer and journal in her bag, and then put the photo back in the drawer. She looked out the window. The sun was nearly gone, slipping under the horizon of Lavender Town. It seemed dusk here was less blue and more purple. Ash stared at the silhouette of the Pokemon Tower as Sabrina's words came back to her. The direct path was staring back at her.
#
Ash paid Reina little attention as she left the shelter and walked to the Pokemon Tower. The sun had slipped under the horizon, and the only light came from the street lamps, which glowed in the night-time mist.
The Pokemon Tower was only seven floors, but it was an imposing presence. Each floor of the tower receded from the one below it, making the building more of an elongated pyramid than a tower. Its jagged edge in the moonlight made it look like a castle in a black-and-white movie. By nightfall, the Tower was of course closed. Ash only paused for a moment at the massive wooden doors, secured by a chain and padlock, before calling forth her Wartortle and breaking the chains with an Ice Beam.
Ash stepped through the doors and was immediately surrounded by darkness. What little light that seeped in through the open doors and boarded-up windows hardly seemed to penetrate more than a few centimeters before being swallowed up the blackness. Ash couldn't see much farther than her own outstretched hand.
Again, the memory of Sabrina, sitting in her office, with that large clock ticking away behind her, came to Ash's mind. Ash bent down and laid Giovanni's briefcase on the ground. She had commanded Pat to pry the locks open days earlier. Ash pulled out the strange goggles inside. They were heavy, and featured two large, beady red lenses that reminded Ash of a Venonat.
Ash pulled on the Silph Scope and adjusted the straps so it fit her head. Ash felt the mechanism inside whir to life and pinch the bridge of her nose. It hurt her neck just having it on, and the view through the lenses was entirely shades of red. It didn't provide any kind of magnification, and it was strange to look through. Parts of her surroundings seemed to shift in and out of focus without Ash moving, and it made her dizzy trying to look at anything more than a few meters away. Whatever the Scope was meant for, it wasn't night vision, but it would have to do.
Ash carefully walked through the floors of the Pokemon Tower. It was deathly quiet, and Ash felt as though even making a sound would disturb something among the graves. Even through the strange, distorted vision of the Silph Scope, Ash could recognize them. They were all kinds of different shapes and sizes. They stuck out from the floor in disorganized rows.
Ash could just barely make out the inscriptions on some of the tombstones.
Ulises
12 de enero de 1924 - 7 de junio de 2002
"No hay despedida en el cielo."
Odette
18 août 1952 - 12 septembre 2008
"L'Éternel est mon berger: je ne manquerai de rien."
アキラ
1939年5月1日 - 1993年1月25日
ご冥福をお祈りいたします
Zizi
22 February 1992 - 4 November 2006
"Death lies on her, like an untimely frost, upon the sweetest flower of all the field."
Ash didn't want to read any more. She quickened her pace as soon as she found the shifting shape of stairs in the wall, eager to move up to the next floor if only to get away from the graves for a moment.
By the fourth floor, Ash was starting to wonder if there was any point to her journey to the Tower. Surely Dr. Fuji wasn't so morbid that he would stay inside the Tower all day and night. Ash turned to look behind her, to find the stairs she had just come from, but suddenly couldn't find them. Ash took off the Silph Scope, walked forward, and stuck out her hand in disbelief. But the Scope wasn't tricking her, and Ash laid her hand on the flat surface of the wall — except it wasn't cold stone, it was wet.
Ash withdrew her hand and looked at it. The skin on her hand was darker, and Ash felt something strange as she rubbed her fingers together. Ash took of the Silph Scope off and looked again. Her hand was coated in what looked like ink.
Suddenly, Ash felt something rolling up her back. She froze, her mouth opened in a scream but her voice had left her. The strange, moist, clearly living thing on her back slid upwards, made the hair on her neck stand on end as it touched her bare skin, and again Ash felt the strange inky liquid spreading on her as it rolled up her head and made her hair stick up as though it were gel.
Immediately, Ash felt herself lose all sensation in her back and neck, and she fumbled with her Poke Balls in her ice-cold hands. She whipped around and dropped a Poke Ball, which thankfully snapped open and let Dinah out. But her Clefairy froze, and looked around, eyes wide with fear. There were no tombstones around them. The entire area seemed to be filled with a purple smoke.
Again, Ash felt the strange sensation rolling up her chest. Her breath caught in her throat as she felt icy cold spread across her body and on her face. But this time, Ash saw the faintest silhouette in front of her as she saw a translucent tongue slip back inside of a mouth.
"Dinah, Thunderbolt!"
But Dinah stood trembling in fear. Ash watched as the silhouette moved away from her and into the smoke. Then, a shadowy blob broke through the smoke and flew towards her. Ash ducked just in time, and heard an explosion behind her.
"Dinah, snap out of it!" she said, "It's a Pokemon, this is just another battle! If you see a Shadow Ball, shoot a Thunderbolt where it came from!"
Dinah looked around frantically, still panicked. Another Shadow Ball broke through the smoke and hit the Clefairy in the face. Ash crawled back to the Silph Scope and brought it up to her eyes, not bothering to even secure the straps. Just as her eyes looked through the lenses, all the smoke around her disappeared, and Ash saw the hazy silhouette become the shape of a Haunter before her. It's mouth curved into a wicked smile.
"There, Dinah!"
Ash pointed with her free hand, which felt like nothing more than a nub at the end of her wrist, and Dinah let loose a Thunderbolt. Ash watched as the lightning struck the Haunter, illuminating the whole room for a moment, its entire body and hands seized up in shock. Ash could hear the Haunter screech in pain, which sounded like the sound of glass shattering, and the Haunter fell to the floor. Ash reached in her bag and threw a Great Ball. The ball shook once, twice, and clicked. Ash breathed a sigh of relief and watched as the ball briefly illuminated the entire floor as it shone white, and then vanished. Ash's Pokedex beeped, confirmation of her latest capture being sent to the PC.
Ash read about her newest Pokemon as she waited for the strange coldness to leave her body. There were all kinds of rumors that a Haunter's tongue would steal your life away and stop a human's heart, but Ash knew better than to believe in those stories. Ghost-type Pokemon were Pokemon like any other, they knew how to take advantage of their surroundings — like a pitch-black cemetery, for example — that suited their abilities. They hid in darkness, and relied on fear.
Ash clenched her fists, rubbed her chest, and flattened her hair as her body returned to normal. She would give that Haunter a talking-to once she got to the next PC, and thought of a name for him. But there was no way she was turning back now. Ash knelt down and laid a hand on Dinah's head to steady her. They looked into each other's eyes. Dinah was shaken, but she nodded to Ash reassuringly. Then, Ash pulled on the Silph Scope properly and tightened the straps. The memory of Sabrina's last words to her rung in her ears, but Ash pushed that aside. It's just a tool, she thought to herself, it reveals Ghost-type Pokemon, that's all. That's why Sabrina told me to bring it.
They continued through the tower, ascending the next floor which was thankfully devoid of any more Ghost-type Pokemon. As she reached the top of the steps to the sixth floor, Ash saw a pile of rubble in the center of the otherwise perfectly flat floor. Ash walked towards it, the rubble was shifting and stretching in the vision of the Silph Scope, looking like a mass of writhing tentacles.
As Ash came closer, the strange objects became clearer. They weren't rocks — they were bones. Ash could see the long, thick bones that used to be limbs; thin, curved rib bones; and a skull. Ash recognized the snout and horns — it was a Marowak.
Ash felt Dinah clutching at her leg, pulling her away, but she ignored it. She took off the Silph Scope. Without the Silph Scope obscuring her vision, she could see every detail of them. They were pale white, dry and cracked in places. One of the eye sockets was chipped, as if the shape of a tear had eroded the bone itself.
Suddenly, Ash felt a chill down her spine. She gasped, and she saw her own breath. Dinah let out a small whimper. This was a different kind of cold. Nothing like the feeling of that Haunter licking her earlier. It had instantly spread through her entire body, and Ash could feel her heart start to pound in her chest. Ash brought her hands to her arms and rubbed them furiously, but it didn't help. Nor could she shake the urge to burst into tears.
Ash turned back to Dinah, but her Clefairy was frozen in place, eyes wide staring at something. Her Clefairy had lost all color to her body, she was white as a sheet. Ash turned back, and she saw it. The bones seemed to whither away into a fine dust, rise into the air, and take the shape of a Marowak. It shifted in the air, as if any gust of wind would blow it out of existence. In between ragged breaths, Ash quickly brought the Silph Scope up to her eyes, but the Marowak didn't change when she looked through the lens. Ash's hands froze, and the Scope fell to the floor. Ash stared up at the Marowak, wanting to run away, but her feet were frozen in place. The Marowak raised a single paw and held it out, as if offering Ash something. While her mind was filled with terror and the continuing urge to cry, something compelled Ash to reach forward and take the Marowak's hand. The Marowak's hand was cool to the touch, but as Ash held her hand there the Marowak's empty eye sockets looked at Ash, and her vision began to shrink. Shadows appeared in the corners of Ash's vision, and converged until she could see nothing but the empty eyes of the Marowak, until finally those disappeared into the darkness as well.
#
The smell of fresh rainfall came to her first. The concrete floor and tombstones had been replaced with dried grass and leafless trees. Ash watched as her own paws dug through the ground and her fingers closed around the thick trunk of a bone. The weight of it was strangely comforting. Ash's eyes scanned the area, and finally met the eyes of a Cubone. She recognized the eyes staring back at her. The same eyes that had glared at her through the paddock of Dr. Fuji's shelter. But there was no anger in them in this moment. Those eyes widened in the same way they had when they had first opened. The eyes looking at Ash had known her for their entire life.
A lifetime passed between them in a single gaze. Ash remembered the way that the Cubone had poked his nose through the crack in the egg he hatched from. The way that his eyes scrunch up when he eats too many Spelon Berries. The way he liked to be scratched under his chin. A quiet realization came to Ash's mind — this is the last time she will see those eyes.
Ash remembered when Team Rocket first came to the forest. The other Pokemon in the area had started to disappear. Ash had known they should try to leave, but she had lost a battle to a wild Kadabra and her head still ached horribly if she stayed upright for too long. She had hoped she and her Cubone could sneak away in the night, but the sun was still far from setting and the humans had already cornered them. That left one option.
This will be the last time she sees her Cubone, so she must stay strong. Ash whacked the ground with her bone and motioned behind her.
Go. Now. And don't look back.
The Cubone whimpered, his eyes pleading.
Ash snarled, and whacked the ground again with her club, kicking up a patch of grass.
Do as I say. Go.
The sky above them was gray and featureless as Cubone scampered away, and his mother stood defiantly. She did not react as the Rocket Grunts found her. The leader, a man with dark circles under his eyes and a gap in his yellowed, front teeth; did not bring a Pokemon of his own to face her. He smiled cruelly as he unfurled a whip of his own making. It was made of specially treated leather that made a deafening crack as it flew through the air. It sounded like a gunshot.
Ash thought of her Cubone in her final moments as her skull split open. She remembered the way he had poked his snout through the hole he had punched in his egg. The one bright brown eye darting around to look out at the world through that hole in the egg, before it finally settled on Ash herself. The blood that left Ash's skull was bright red as it fell to the grass. But the color dulled to black as the sun slipped back under the horizon.
#
Ash awoke lying face-up on the ground, and she could hear Dinah whimpering quietly beside her. She sat up, feeling the tears well up behind her eyes. She held out her arms in a wordless plea, and her Clefairy came to her. She held her tightly, and Ash sucked in a ragged breath as she tried to hold the tears back.
"I shouldn't have come here," Ash gasped.
Ash could tell by the look in Dinah's eyes that she had also seen what Ash had seen. That was her only comfort. They held each other until the tears finally stopped, and Dinah tugged on her shirt, urging her back from where they had come from.
"… No," Ash said as she stood up. "We can't stop now. I have to know if Dr. Fuji… I have to know."
Dinah gave Ash one last pleading look, but eventually she nodded her head.
The staircase to the seventh floor felt different from the others. Each step Ash took seemed to take more work than the last, and Ash could hear Dinah sniffling behind her. But finally, she made it to the top. The seventh floor of the Tower was so small it felt almost claustrophobic compared to the lower floors. There was no darkness to obscure what Ash knew she would find.
Four silhouettes became people as Ash approached. She recognized three of them, the three Rocket grunts from the vision she had seen. The fourth was an old man with white hair and a hook-shaped nose. The old man was sitting cross-legged on the ground against the far wall, flanked by tombstones, while the three grunts stood around him.
One of them turned as Ash approached, and she saw the whip attached at his belt.
"Huh? Who is this?" he said.
"What are you doing here?" Ash said, her voice remarkably calm.
"Listen, girlie, just walk away," another of the grunts said, "don't get yourself into trouble."
"You're the ones who are in trouble," Ash said as Dinah scampered in front of her and faced the three men, "I already took down your boss in Celadon, and if you don't let Dr. Fuji go, we're going to have a problem."
The two grunts at the flanks exchanged a nervous glance, but the man with the whip only scowled.
"Tch," he said, "you're the one who did that? No way. You're bluffing."
"Yeah, Giovanni said the same thing," Ash said. This time, all three of them recoiled at Ash's words.
"Saying his name out loud like that," the man said as he unfurled the whip from his belt, "we'll make you regret that."
"Try it."
In unison, the three grunts threw out their Poke Balls. The three white masses of energy that emerged materialized into a Weezing, a Venomoth, and an Arbok. Ash threw out Pat and Tarrant in response, but this only gave the man a chance to snap his whip at the tail of the Arbok with a deafening crack. The Arbok hissed in pain and widened its eyes, which cast an eerie yellow flash that lit the entire chamber. Immediately, Ash saw her three Pokemon stiffen, Dinah let out a stifled gasp.
"Pat, Ice Beam! Dinah, Thunderbolt!"
But her Pokemon struggled to move their muscles. Instead, the Weezing let out a massive cloud of black smoke that quickly enveloped the Rocket grunts and their Pokemon. A spray of purple liquid sprang forth — hissing through the air — and landed on Dinah's face. She squealed and fell back, unable to even break her fall. A pair of twisting red and green beams broke through the smoke and struck Tarrant, who crackled with a noise similar to TV static in response.
"Tarrant, quickly, Conversion!" Ash yelled, "Pat, Ice Beam, you can do it!"
Tarrant's body glowed a pale white for a moment, then shifted to a pale green. The static noise the Virtual Pokemon had been emanated shifted to a dull hum in the process. Pat shot out an Ice Beam into the cloud of Smokescreen, but Ash could tell by the noise it had only hit the wall somewhere.
"Tarrant, Psybeam! Dinah, return!"
Tarrant's body swung in the direction of the Signal Beam which was still blasting into it, like a needle toward a magnet, and let out a mesmerizing multi-colored beam from its nose. The beam overtook the Signal Beam and cut through the Smokescreen as it blasted through the air before finally striking the Venomoth. The Poison-type writhed painfully in the air and fell to the ground.
Dinah's form barely escaped the second Acid Spray, the liquid landed in the exact spot the Fairy-type had been standing in a split-second ago and sizzled as it burned into the stone floor. Ash stowed Dinah's Poke Ball before throwing out her next member.
"Pat, Rapid Spin!" she said, "Lory, Thrash!"
Ash's orders came just in time. Pat withdrew into his shell, began to spin, and slid across the ground like a hockey puck, just in time to dodge the Arbok as it sprang from the Smokescreen and buried its fangs into the floor where Pat had been standing. Lory immediately charged into the Arbok and sent it flying into the wall with a shoulder bash. Lory immediately changed targets and stomped on the Venomoth's body.
Pat slid across the ground, bounced off a wall, and slid through the Smokescreen. His speed and spinning were so fast that it created a tornado effect, quickly gathering the Smokescreen into funnel shape and sending it up into the ceiling.
The three Rocket grunts scrambled to recover, but it was too late. Ash commanded Tarrant to Psybeam the Arbok as it struggled to slither back to its Trainer, and Lory needed no further instructions — he immediately clotheslined the Weezing and sent it into the ground with enough force to leave a crater.
For the first time since her encounter with Giovanni, Ash allowed herself a grin. But her face froze as she saw a black serpentine shadow arc across the wall with horrifying speed toward her. She heard the crack of the whip and brought her arms to shield her face, expecting to feel her head split open again.
But instead of searing pain and a splatter of her own blood on the floor, Ash lowered her arms to see the Cubone standing in front of her, his club raised in the air with the whip wrapped tightly around it. At this distance, Ash could see not only was the whip made of leather, but it even had metal spurs and hooks attached at the tip.
The Rocket Grunt tried to withdraw his whip, but the Cubone growled and yanked his club back, pulling the whip from the man's hands and throwing him face-first to the ground. The man yowled in pain and scrambled to his feet.
"Enough of this," he screamed, "Mac, get us out of here!"
One of the other Grunts yelled something, but Ash couldn't hear it over the sound of her Nidoking thrashing around. But Ash's heart leapt to her throat as she saw the Weezing start to glow a blinding white, casting a spotlight into the ceiling from the crater that Lory had left it in.
"Lory—" she began, but then she caught herself. Her Nidoking was between herself, the Grunts, and Dr. Fuji. There was almost no time left.
Do I save him? Should I even try?
Her split-second hesitation was interrupted by the Cubone sprinting forward and jumping to Dr. Fuji, still sitting against the wall, and wrapping the man's body in a tight hug.
"Lory, to me!" Ash yelled. "Protect me!"
The Nidoking shook his head, dazed from his Thrash, but charged to Ash and wrapped his arms around her, smothering her into his chest. Then —
BOOM!
#
Ash's vision returned slowly, but it came with a painful ringing in her ears and a throbbing headache. She pushed against Lory and he released her from his embrace. Ash staggered to her feet, half her body aching from the impact that she had apparently shared with her Nidoking.
Without her hearing, Ash looked around frantically trying to locate her attackers, but they were gone. Only their three Pokemon were still there, all fainted, as well as most of her party members. Only Lory was left standing, though his entire backside was blackened from the blast, and Ash could see his shoulders rising and falling in ragged breaths.
Finally, Ash saw the Cubone from the shelter stiffly step away from the wall he had been bracing against. There was a small outline of burn marks on the wall from where the Pokemon had been moments ago, and within it was Dr. Fuji, still sitting, trembling from the Explosion he had miraculously survived.
Ears still ringing, Ash stomped to him. The Cubone met Ash's eyes and moved to intercept her, but Ash pushed him away easily and finally stood in front of Dr. Fuji himself.
"Why are you here? What were you doing with them?" Ash said, not hearing her own voice, "Why are you here?!"
Dr. Fuji looked up from his safe haven, his lips trembled, and he held up his hands.
Ash waited. The ringing in her ears slowly died down. But Ash's headache didn't, nor did her anger.
Again, she clenched her fists and repeated, "Why are you here? Are you working with them?"
Dr. Fuji stared at her, and adjusted his glasses — both lenses having cracked from the blast — before he answered.
"Working with them? Of course not," he said, "I came here to stop them. Try to, at least —"
Ash threw her bag on the ground — making Dr. Fuji jump — and knelt down to dig through it. Then, she pulled out the flyer from the Celadon Game Corner.
"Then why do you have this?" Ash said, still not recognizing the iciness in her voice, "why would you have this if you knew where they came from?"
"Where what came from?"
"The Pokemon!" Ash screamed, "the prizes —" Ash recoiled at her own words, but continued "— that they had there. Those Pokemon didn't belong there. They were abused."
Dr. Fuji's eyes widened, but not in surprise. He lowered his head and stared at the ground before answering.
"… Yes, they were abused. Many of them came from this Town. Or close by," he said quietly, "I admit, I knew about it."
Ash stepped forward, but felt the Cubone bite the hem of her shirt and yank her back.
"I've done things I'm not proud of," Fuji said, "or seen them being done and did nothing to stop it. I had nothing to do with those Pokemon being taken, but I didn't stop it when I had the chance. I came here… to try to make amends. If I didn't stop them then, I thought I could at least stop them from disrespecting the memory of the Pokemon here."
"On your own? You came here with no plan at all?"
"… Plan?" Fuji said, as if it were a word he had never heard before, "I gave up on plans a long time ago. My plans were what got me in this position to begin with. Thinking that I could control my fate, control nature, play God. And God has been punishing me ever since."
"What do you mean?" Ash hissed.
The Cubone growled at her, but she ignored him. Dr. Fuji looked up to meet her eyes, which seemed to look past Ash.
"I made mistakes," he said. "And I tied myself to the worst men imaginable in the process. Before I knew it, they owned me, and I had to stand by and watch as they continued with their work. I decided, if my life would be nothing but failures, it wasn't much to lose if I came here."
The words hung in the air. Ash felt unsteady on her feet, but felt if she sat down she may never get back up again. Looking at him now, Dr. Fuji looked nothing like the man in the photo she had seen earlier. Ash knew he had gone to Saffron University at the same time as Professor Oak, but Fuji seemed almost twice the Professor's age. His face was wrinkled beyond belief. His hair was white and thinning, and Ash could see liver spots on his scalp. Worst of all were his eyes — sunken, and hollow.
"It's over now," she finally said, wanting nothing more than to leave the Tower, "let's go."
Ash offered her hand, and Dr. Fuji took it. As Ash pulled the man to his feet the Cubone ran to his other side and pushed him upright. Soon, the three of them were walking, each holding one of Fuji's hands and leading him through the darkness of the Tower.
For a time, nothing but their footsteps broke the darkness. The smell of the Cubone's singed skin wafted through the air. Then, Dr. Fuji spoke again.
"Who are you?" he said.
"I'm Ash Delaney," she said, "I work for Professor Oak."
Dr. Fuji gave a breathless laugh and hung his head. "I never imagined I would meet you like this. Seems like such a long time ago that Sam told me about his new project."
"Did you work with him?"
"No. Sam researches the relationships between Pokemon and people. I was a geneticist."
Another moment passed as the three descended another floor.
"What you said about Giovanni, was that true?" Fuji asked.
"More or less," Ash said, "I wrecked his casino and stole his briefcase."
"And you're how old?"
"I'm 13."
Fuji shook his head as he reached the last step of the staircase.
"Unbelievable," he murmured, "to think someone so young could do that to a man like him…"
The three of them crossed the town in silence, until they finally reached Dr. Fuji's home. The Cubone scurried onto the porch and opened the front door. Dr. Fuji stepped forward, but Ash pulled him gently back.
"I'm sorry for yelling at you," she said, "when I found the flyer in your desk — I wasn't thinking. I just assumed the worst."
"You assumed correctly," he said, "but I thank you for taking pity on me, all the same."
Dr. Fuji let go of Ash's hand and took his first unsteady steps on his own to his own porch.
"Dr. Fuji," Ash said, "there would be something lost, if you were gone. You've done a lot of good with the Pokemon I saw here."
Dr. Fuji looked back at Ash, and his eyes softened. For a moment, Ash saw a flash of the man she had seen in the photo earlier, and the ghost of happiness lingering somewhere behind them.
"Thank you, Ash," he said, and walked back into his home.
The pitch-black darkness of the night returned as the porch lights in Dr. Fuji's home turned off. Only the wind and the faint buzzing of a Bug-type Pokemon somewhere in the distance broke the silence. Ash turned around and rummaged through her bag.
For a moment, she considered going straight back to Pallet Town. She missed home more than anything, it seemed. But as Ash's hands tossed around the contents of her bag, her fingers brushed against he Pokedex and the Silph Scope. Again, the memory of Sabrina at her desk with the grandfather clock ticking behind her, came to Ash. There was still more to be done.
The rustle of grass behind her made Ash turn around. The Cubone was standing there, bone club in hand, and still smelling faintly of something burnt.
"You again, huh?" Ash said as she shouldered her bag. "Guess you followed me once you saw where I was going. And you took that Explosion well. Almost as well as my Nidoking. You're tough."
The Cubone stared back at Ash with familiar eyes.
"I'm going to Saffron City," she declared, "It's nothing like this town. I'm going to find Team Rocket and make them pay."
Ash pulled out a Great Ball from her bag's side pocket and held it forward.
"You in?"