∑ Volume Three: Thus The Earth Shall Turn To Ash ∑

Chapter Seventeen: Ghosts

"If only tears could bring you back to me

If only love could find a way.

What I would do, what I would give if you'd

Return to me someday, somehow, some way

If my tears could bring you back to me." - If Only Tears Could Bring You Back, Midnight Sons

(Asa POV)

We were faced with a maelstrom of black shapes. Rows of them moving in alternating directions, whispering incomprehensibly. And standing in the middle, Khan, on his knees and bent over double, with his arms around his head.

His students called his name, ran to him. They went flying back across the room and into the doors that had slammed shut behind us. When had that happened?!

Then the room was changing, still sandstone walls morphing into a dizzying wash of colours, rippling pink spreading across the floor like spilled ink. I took Nirvana's gift from the Items Bag. I held it up as high as I could reach.

"We're here to help you!" I called up to them.

Nothing.

"We were sent here by Nirvana!"

Nothing.

"We were sent here by a Guardian! By one of you!"

Nothing.

I felt white-hot anger inside of my chest. I screwed up my eyes and yelled at the top of my voice:

"Listen to me!"

I grit my teeth and kept my eyes shut, I couldn't bare to look up at them and see that they had ignored me again, that I couldn't get through to them, that I had failed.

"Asa," Alex said, "look."

An R was staring at me. For a moment they were alone, still in their revolving dome, the lone eye fixed on me. Then another. Then another. Then another.

The sky-blue plate I held glowed, and was slowly but firmly was lifted from my grasp. The Unown slowed to a stop, a living cage hovering above their captive, their attentions now turned away. Khan didn't look up. It didn't seem like he'd noticed.

The whisperings quieted. The plate floated between them, but their eyes were fixed on us. I felt myself wilt under their gaze.

The plate slowly floated back down. I wrapped my vines around it and put it back into the bag. There was a flash of pink light, and another was hovering in its place, this one a rich magenta shade. I placed it alongside Nirvana's. An N looked at Khan.

"He's with us!" I said. "He's here to help, too! Please let him go."

Slowly, the Unown parted like a veil. Khan collapsed to the ground, still. We ran to his side, though the bag was weighing me down a little. Each one weighed that of a small Pokémon. A Charmander, for example.

The Unown were moving back to the tiles along the walls, as the swirl of colours faded to sandy brown. The whisperings were dying away.

Tobias checked over Khan's vitals. I allowed him, I knew it would make him feel better. My lime-green Gem moved its ray of light over the Garchomp's body. He was alive, with no major physical injures. He was hungry, and exhausted, but we had some small provisions with us, and with breakfast in him he should be ready to move by morning. But that was his physical state, and currently his mental wasn't looking good. I looked up at the Unown settling into their slots, disappearing into the gaps. I couldn't quite see them disappear, I realised. A second they would be there, I would blink, and they would be gone.

I felt eyes on my back, a presence, maybe more than one. I turned, and they disappeared, faded from the room. They'd felt different from the Unown. Somehow warmer.

Alex stared at his mentor's weathered face. "What's happened to him?"

Khan was in a deep sleep. A healer can always tell. Distress had torn at his face. I couldn't say what was going through his head when we arrived, but I knew when he woke up he would still be reeling from it. He may have been dreaming of it even then.

"Let's let him rest," I told the others, "just a moment."

I didn't want to move him. That meant settling down to sleep with the eyes on the Unown peering down at us from every direction. We settled in to catch what sleep we could, Tobias nestled into Khan's back, Alex lying by his partner, I a few feet apart from the three of them. The light from Alex's fire danced along the murals on the walls.

Fog.

Flashes of colour through the haze, in the grooves in the tiles. Orange. Yellow. Rose. Pink. Blue. Red—

Lost.

Alone.

Shifting stone, the rumble of gravel.

Frost hardening soft grass, dewdrops freezing to beads of ice.

Clang of steel on earth, ancient dust rising up in clouds.

Flash of light, crackling air.

Fire, smoke, ash.

Soil, roots—

They're gone.

What's the point? Without them here to guide me, why carry on?

No. I won't let it be this way. I will find them, I will find them.

I should have stopped them. Had I just been stronger… What right do I have to walk the earth again?

They're gone.

But I can bring them back. Join me, with our enemies gone, we will bring them back. I swear it.

How dare they set foot in Their resting place—

I woke up gasping for air. Emotions ricochetted through my heart and through my body. I was shaking, I couldn't control it. I took a long, deep breath.

Alex, Tobias, and Khan lay sleeping beside me. The Unown were still hiding away, the room lit only by a small flame. I got to my feet to pace.

I didn't just see them. I was them. I felt everything they felt. They were all in terrible pain.

I stopped. Looked behind me at the others. I knew none of them would understand.

I am alone in what I know. Alone in my responsibility. I have more power than any mortal Pokémon in this world.

I looked up at the Unown.

But I am not all-powerful.

(Asa POV)

A sharp circular peak. Purple rock, cracks running through otherwise smooth surfaces. Tall, almost lean. Dotted with trees. A white peak where thin drifts of snow met low clouds. Gaps that let the sun shine through. The most unassuming of all six. The origin of the Halo Mountains' power.

"What type of Pokémon lives there?" Tobias asked, looking up at Khan.

Hoping to make this a teaching lesson, I answered: "Mount. Herald is home to the Origin Element."

Alex and Tobias looked at one another and shrugged.

"It's normal," Khan replied. "The Origin Element is the normal type."

Well, they're never going to learn if you just give them the answers.

"I would have thought that was Psychic," said Tobias, "you know, because of the Unown."

"Psychic is the most powerful medium for the Origin Element," I explained. "The Unown channel incredible energy from the Space-Time Vortex, but the Origin Element is the base of the power of Pokémon, the seed from which every other type grew. It's said that the first Pokémon ever to come into being was a normal-type, and that the second was psychic."

The bright colours of Mount. Resolution were dazzling in full sunlight. I covered my face with my vine. From the corner of my eye, I saw Alex's sword bouncing against his hip. I wondered if at any point he would use it. It seemed he'd grown a distaste to using his old human weapon. He seemed much more interested in the semantics of Pokémon-on-Pokémon battle.

"Normal isn't super-effective against anything," he said as he craned his head up at the treetops, "so there's no way we'll be fighting at a disadvantage. No more of a disadvantage, anyway."

Oh, sweet boy.

"I wonder what kind of Guardian we'll have to face," Khan said.

"Best not keep them waiting, whoever they are."

We walked down the slope of the rainbow-patterned mountainside, onto smooth purple stone shaded by tall oak trees. The plates knocked irritatingly against my side, until Khan kindly offered to take them for me. He seemed in decent physical form, so I allowed it.

We kept our eyes out for enemy Pokémon. Khan looked to the south. Through a gap in the trees, and through another between Mount. Spring and Mount. Mire, we could just about catch a glimpse of Itori. The rich green grasses of the crownlands. The black edge of a smouldering village just beyond.

"Asa," he said without taking his eyes away, "how did you know where I was?"

The atmosphere shifted with the fall of silence.

"Well, aha, Mount. Resolutions, Inner Caverns are a straight path, we were hardly going to get lost!"

Alex and Tobias were glaring at me. I felt my bulb wilt.

"You used magic, didn't you?"

My cheeks went hot. "Y-Yes. I did. We were scared for you, we didn't even know you were alive."

"How did you do it?"

Six eyes on me. I took a deep breath.

"I used Sight Sharing."

"Sight Sharing?"

I explained. Khan simply nodded. I cleared my throat.

"I'm sorry I didn't—"

Khan cut over me. "Do you think you could Sight Share with someone at the Academy?"

I blinked. "Ah- yes. As long as it's someone I've had physical contact with."

"You've trained with us. You can Sight Share with Elexi, can't you?"

We stopped. The others gathered around me. I looked at Alex, he looked away. He had condemned me for using my powers to help him, now I was being asked to use those powers again. Well. I suppose I can hardly blame him. I'd do the same if it were my loved ones on the line.

I closed my eyes. My Gem's energy surged through my body, crashed through my skull. When I opened them, the four of us were glowing, standing in a field of pure white. Then red.

Fire. Everywhere. Blood splattered on the Academy's steps. Fabric from the canopy and the walls torn and scattered across the floor. Bronze armies turning civilians to silver. Treasure Hunting Teams moving as units, bunched together, wide-spread attacks freezing them all at once, molding them together as one solid lump of silver. A Piplup stood outside the entrance, beak open and arms open wide, rage spread across a face frozen solid.

Elexi raced into the front room of the Academy, Cherry bundled in her arms. The front desk had been split in half. The dining room was splattered with silver. The hospital had collapsed.

Tina called them inside the Hall of the Hunters, their ceremony room/library, if I remember correctly. Elexi ducked down as a silver Hyper Beam went flying past her head. The Snorlax grabbed her by the arm and yanked her out of the way of a bubbling silver Flamethrower, then slammed the door shut and leaned her whole weight against it, as heavy bangs came from the others side.

"Who else is left?" Elexi asked.

Tina just looked at her. The Gardevoir placed her hand over her mouth. The Cherrim peaked a teary eye out from behind her leaves. Elexi gently wiped it away, then covered her own eyes with her arm.

The door was ripped away and Tina had to grip onto the frame to stop the wall collapsing. A Bronze Drednaw stood on the other side, a ball of silver forming in its mouth. Tina raised her arms to defend herself, but we all knew that wouldn't protect her.

Elexi used one arm to jerk Tina away with Psychic, but the other was full with Cherry. A silver stream came shooting towards them, but the Cherrim's Energy Ball vaporised it. The Drednaw came lumbering in, snapping its bronze jaws. Elexi lowered her colleague to the floor.

She placed her hands an inch apart in front of her. A black speck appeared. I felt myself pulled behind her eyes. Through them we saw every every colour on the spectrum pass by us, as if we were moving through a revolving tunnel of light. Waves and waves, pulsing like blood, as reality twisted around us. It was like nothing I'd ever seen.

Shapes appeared, all through a rainbow lense. The Drednaw fired what looked like a Liquidation. Elexi spread her hands, and the silver water disappeared into the nothingness before her. The bronze Pokémon recoiled. Suddenly dust, debris, papers, wood, all were being sucked into the black hole in the Gardevoir's hands. The bronze Drednaw backed away. Silver attacks came flying at her, some fired at Tina, some at Cherry, but all were sucked into the void.

Then cracks appeared in the plaster. The door frame broke apart and the wall finally caved in. A bronze Aipom tried to jump through, silver water dripping from a clenched tail-hand. The black hole disappeared at the same time Elexi's eyes flashed an outraged pink, and the statue went crashing through the debris, into its Drednaw companion on the other side. The gap closed.

One crisis averted, another was on the way. The roof of the building cracked. Split. Tina leapt to her feet and covered Elexi and Cherry with her body. All we saw was the cream of the Snorlax's belly, all we heard were the sounds of the Atlanta Treasure Hunter's Academy falling to the ground.

I closed my eyes. The scenery fell away, and Mount. Herald reappeared around us.

Khan was frozen. Tears rolled down Tobias' face. Alex was clutching his head. I felt like a stranger, an intruder in someone else's tragedy.

(Khan POV)

Something slithered past. I whipped my head around.

"Khan?" Tobias asked. "What is it?"

Something was moving, some kind of amorphous shape, the same colour as the mountain rock. The others looked, but they didn't seem to see it. It slithered past them.

We stood with our backs to one another. The cliffs stretched up high around us, oak trees dotted here and there. The hiss of soft wind through the leaves was the only sound. There were no hoards of wild Pokémon here. Just an amorphous purple shape slithering around us.

The cliff rock in front of me shifted. Asa nodded to me and I took the plates out of my bag.

"We're here to help!" the mage called. "We've spoken with Nirvana and the Unown. They gave us these, as proof of our true intent!"

"Or else you're thieves," voices came, changing with every word, a hissing to a roaring to a mewling. "And are here to claim the World as your own. You would not be the first, you will not be the last."

"If you're going to throw accusations around," I said, "you should at least show your face."

A shape appeared, shadowed by an oak tree. They leapt down off the cliff and landed right in front of me. Cream fur, with a red dot on her forehead. I frowned.

"A Persian?" Alex said.

The Pokémon cocked her head and smiled. "Which one would you prefer?" It was her voice. Paige. Then the Persian melted into a blob of purple, reformed again into blue scales and red wings.

"Or is this one more to your taste?" came Atlanta's voice.

This sick freak!

Fire Blast roared out of me faster than the others could stop me. The Guardian dissolved into the cracks into the earth, slunk through the gaps in the rocks onto a cliff shelf. A Ditto reappeared in their original form.

"You are trespassing," their voice echoed down, "you carry with you the aura of every other Holy Mountain with you as testimony to your sacrilege."

I put a claw to my chest. "My name is Khan. I was born on Mount. Chronicle." I feel my students' eyes turn on me but pressed on.

"And you have brought strangers to Mount. Herald," the Transform Pokémon replied, bitingly.

"We're not here hurt anyone," Tobias called up, "we've come to find a way to protect our home."

"You seek to protect your home, but I am protecting mine. I am the last bastion, the Mountains' greatest defence."

"Just you?" Alex said. "You don't have, like, an army?"

"I am an army. I am a being born from the cells of the mother of all Pokémon. I am a replica of Mew, from whom all Pokémon DNA can be traced. I possess the cellular knowledge of every single one in existence, and I can transform into any of them at will!"

Their eyes were nothing but dots, yet somehow they grew larger as they spoke. Their voice rose in a crescendo of hubris. It seemed they were blinded by megalomania.

"And I am a being greater even than Mew."

YEP.

"If you would just listen to us," Asa called, "we can explain everything!"

"Explanations are a sinner's art," said the Ditto. "You have left me with no choice. On behalf of every Pokémon of the Holy Mountains, I will destroy you."

The Ditto leapt from the cliff, shifting their body to dodge as Fire Blast, Flamethrower, and Aqua Tail, soared past them. They landed as a Squirtle, twisting on their heel and firing Tobias' attack right at Alex. The water smacked him across the face and torso and sent him skidding across the floor.

"Alex!" the real Tobias cried.

"Alex!" the faked one mimicked in his voice, then giggled.

I readied my fins and charged at them. They looked up at me with Tobias' soft purple eyes. I hesitated, I couldn't help it. They dissolved into purple and slipped behind me. A Charmander reappeared a few feet away, and as I swung my arm around they blew a cloud of grey smoke in my face, blinding me.

"You'd attack one of your own students?" came a perfect imitation of Alex's voice. "What kind of teacher are you?"

I heard the sizzling gush of Tobias' Brine from behind me. I stumbled away from the smoke, and my vision cleared in time to see an exact replica of me, charging at my student, orange-and-purple energy streaking around him. Tobias had time to dodge. But he stared, horrified, for just a second to long. He screwed up his eyes as the false Garchomp rammed into him, lifting their head and tossing him into the cliff wall with a loud smack.

"Get away from him!" Alex roared, unleashing zig-zagging pillar of fire

The Garchomp was immobile, but the Inferno went wild.

"You really are the dunce of the class," they had the nerve to say in my voice.

"Stop tormenting them!" Asa called. "This is childish!"

The Ditto looked to him, grinned, then disappeared into the cracks.

I raised both fins above my head, smashed them into the ground. If I just could land a Brick Break while they were in Ditto form…

"Stop!" Asa begged as he ran after me. "Please, I'm begging all four of you! Stop!"

"We can't stop while he's trying to kill us!" Alex yelled.

A Bulbasaur appeared several feet away, cocking their head. "Somewhat rich coming from you, Sir Alex."

I ran for them. They waited until my fin was half a second from their head, then dissolved again. Up on a cliff shelf, they appeared as a Charizard with a feathered cap on his head.

"You're standing in my place," came a voice that sounded like Feather's. "You were revived, while I was left to die."

"Shut up!" Alex screamed.

The false Feather spread his wings and took to the sky to dodge Flamethrower. They turned into an Elgyem, landing on top of a cliff. Tobias fired an Ice Beam at them. Suddenly a Pidgeotto was gliding down. Alex let out a Flamethrower but a Growlithe absorbed into it their orange fur, landed.

Alex went for them with his right claw raised. The Ditto laughed as they changed shape over and over, appearing and reappearing as ghosts. An Ursaring stood with their neck bent at an unnatural angle, eyes bugging and tongue lolling out. Alex and Tobias made a Pinsir-attack with Flamethrower and Ice Beam, but the Ditto span on their heel and disappeared yet again.

To reappear a few feet later as a Silicobra, Crabrawler, Punk Zigzagoon, Drifloon, Clefairy, Pidgeotto, Mareanie, Dewpider, Polteageist, Yanma, Elgyem, and Blastoise, all leaping and dancing around Tobias.

"Toby," a Clefairy called, reaching out a ghostly hand.

"You left us, Toby," said the Crabrawler.

"You never came back for us," the Polteageist whimpered.

"You left us to die!" cried the Blastoise.

"Leave me alone!" Tobias cried, screwing up his eyes and firing Brine from both hands.

"You're letting them get to you!" Asa cried. "They're just drawing on your grief!"

The three of us stood with our backs together. Asa ducked for cover as Fire Blast, Flamethrower, and Ice Beam fired wild, hitting smooth purple rock, forming new cracks for our enemy to slip into.

I felt eyes on the back of my head, turned and looked up. Under the shade of an old oak tree, a Venusaur stared down at us.

Asa stared at the Pokémon before him, trembling. He shook his head. "No."

The Venusaur stared back. "I'm afraid so," came a female voice.

"You're trying to trick me," Asa spat back.

The Venusaur grinned.

Asa slammed a foot on the ground. "Why should I believe a word you say?!"

He was shaking, tears in his eyes.

"Asa," I said, and his head snapped towards me; I saw the desperation seeping from him. "You can Sight Share, can't you? Can't you find her that way?"

"I—" he paused, swallowed. "I've tried. I just thought she was pushing me away. I didn't… I just thought…"

"Try looking for her now," Alex said. He turned his head to the Ditto. "We'll protect you."

Asa closed his eyes. His body glowed an angelic white. The Venusaur stood patiently. Waiting.

Asa went quiet. He went deathly still, like he'd been turned into a statue. Slowly, he opened his eyes. He stared blankly at the ground.

"She's gone…" his voice came out in a whisper.

"What was that?" the false Venusaur called down. "I couldn't quiet hear you all the way up here."

"She's GOOOOOONE!"

Asa's scream shook the very earth. The three of us collapsed to the ground. Vines shot out from under the Venusaur's flower and they clung tight to an oak tree, smile wiped clean. Asa's eyes locked on them and suddenly Solar Beam was tearing towards them, faster a Solar Beam should, too fast for the Ditto to dodge.

The sound and the stench of sizzling skin. The Guardian's scream was drowned out by the solar song. By the time it was over Asa was taking deep, laboured breaths, and the Venusaur was covered in black marks. They growled and dissolved back into purple. But with the blemishes along their body we could see them coming through the cracks. Asa's Razor Leaf dug into them, slicing at their flesh. A Persian leapt out of the ground, claws raised.

My Brick Break cracked across the body of my oldest friend. The Ditto was already morphing into a Salamence as they slammed against the wall. Navy hours grew and four glowing hooves pounded the earth as I charged at the form of my first teacher. Purple eyes went wide, and just in time the Ditto became a Charizard again; they grabbed onto the horns, gritting their teeth as Dragon Rush forced back back against the cliff wall.

Shadow Claw stabbed into my stomach. The Charizard shoved me aside and span, driving their Iron Tail into the soft part of my side. I tumbled to the floor, winded. Finally deciding to join the fight (in his own pacifistic way), Asa scattered Sleep Powder. The Charizard beat their wings hard, blowing it back in his face. His eyes drooped, his legs slackened. The Charizard's belly glowed as hot fire raged through—

Tobias's Aqua Tail smacked them across the cheek mouth. They howled, morphed into a Venusaur. Razor-sharp pink petals swirled like a tornado, sucking Tobias in, cutting at his skin, tossing him aside like a ragdoll.

Alex's Inferno came roaring. The Venusaur became a Blastoise, and they shielded themselves with their arms as the pillar of fire struck them. Their body briefly flashed blue, and I recognised it as the Torrent ability coming into play. Then they lowered their cannons and returned fire with Hydro Pump.

I heard a sizzling sound. We all did. The battle stopped dead as all heads turned to Alex, lying still on the ground, soaked from head-to-tail. His tail limp, and dull. Asa gasped. My heart fell from my stomach.

The stress, the travel, the constant conflict. He hadn't been as strong since he'd come out of that statue. It'd all happened in a split second, but I should have seen this from a long way away. I could have stopped this. I should have stopped this!

"Please no…" Tobias whispered.

Alex's fire had died.