"Well, here goes," Ash said, looking at Saffron Gym. "I hope this goes better than before."
Misty nodded, wincing at the memories.
Saffron Gym had not been fun, at least the first time.
Ash adjusted his Aaron outfit, thankful that this time at least there hadn't been any appearances by the Sabrina projection, then passed a pair of blindfolds to Riolu and Pikachu. "Guys, here – you might need them. In case there's illusions and stuff."
"I get the idea, but what about you?" Pikachu asked.
"I'll just close my eyes!" Ash replied. "I'm not going to be battling, after all."
"If you say so…"
As Ash walked up to the gym, however, a bearded man interrupted him.
"You might not want to go in there, young man," he warned.
"Really?" Ash asked. "Why not? It's a Gym…"
"You'll need a Ghost-type to win in there," the man warned.
"I… don't think so?" Ash replied. "Bug types, Dark types and Steel types all have the advantage too, right? It's only really Fighting and Poison-types that have a disadvantage, and even then it depends on their moves."
Are you referring to the recent article in Kanto Pokémon Monthly? Dexter asked, and Ash pulled him out of his pocket. While this article does indeed refer to Ghost types as the most effective Pokémon to use against Psychic types, it is riddled with methodological flaws. Chief among these are improper normalization owing to the mis-categorization of Aggron as a tougher Pokémon than it actually is; the use of Xatu as a base Pokémon for Bug-type effectiveness tests, and the complete omission of consideration of Dark-types from the article. In addition, the example discussed in the article is a Girafarig, against whom Ghost attacks simply would not work and which spoils the entire premise.
A pause. Plus the Gastly line is half Poison anyway.
"I didn't know you read articles like that," Ash said.
I should probably be employed doing peer review for them, Dexter grumbled. That way they might end up better.
"Why is the gym so empty?" Misty asked.
Ash looked around, frowning, then closed his eyes. "Oh, there we go!"
"Well remembered," Pikachu sniggered, as Ash pushed on part of the wall and it opened.
One of the trainee psychics turned to him. "Why are you here in Saffron Gym?"
Riolu put his paws over his eyes. "Say that again, but more slowly."
"I'm here to challenge the gym!" Ash said. "It seems to be a weirdly difficult concept here… what are you all doing, then?"
The trainee gave him a haughty look. "I am training in the talents of my mind. Observe."
He lifted a spoon, and bent it slowly to a right angle.
"Oh, huh," Ash said. "...is that something I can try? I think I know how."
"You have the most invisibly atrocious psychic signature I have ever seen," the trainee replied. "I doubt you can achieve anything."
Ash shrugged, took the spoon, and held it in his hand.
Then formed an Aura Sphere in it.
The spoon exploded, making Pikachu yelp, and little bits of metal pattered down everywhere.
"I… don't know what to say about that," the trainee admitted.
"Don't assume you know everything!" Misty said.
"Yeah, and around Ash, don't assume the power of the mind is the only kind of power," Brock agreed.
"Thanks!" Ash said.
A few seconds later, his expression changed. "Hey!"
Entering the main gym chamber, Ash looked around.
Sabrina was sitting on her chair, not doing anything… and there wasn't anything or anyone else there.
"Hey!" he called. "I'm here to battle you!"
"Don't interrupt her!" Misty hissed. "You know that girl's her, right?"
"What girl?" Ash asked. "She's sitting on that chair, but she's not talking…"
Then the Saffron Gym Leader spoke.
"Interesting… I didn't know there was such a thing as a human with a Dark subtype. Since my projection cannot affect you, I will speak directly. You will fight me, you will lose, and…"
Her tone of voice altered. "You will become one of my toys! Won't that be fun!"
"So, who are you using first, Ash?" Misty asked. "Pidgeot? She's got Ominous Wind, right?"
"I sent her on an errand!" Ash replied.
"Are you sure that was a good idea?" Brock asked. "The only other Pokémon you have with good attacks is a Fighting-type."
Misty made the same point, but more forcefully.
"What are the rules?" Ash asked.
"I will use one Pokémon, you can use two," Sabrina replied, back to the emotionless voice. "One at a time."
Ash sort of wished that it was safe for psychologists to visit Sabrina in the first place.
Well, he was sort of one. More like a battlefield psychologist. And he'd got experience with being possessed, too… Pikachu had the same thing, actually. And…
Ash had one of those weird moments when you realized how weird your life was.
"Hee, I hope you're ready?" Sabrina asked, back to the giggling child persona.
"Yeah!" Ash agreed. "Pikachu!"
"Abra!" Sabrina ordered.
"Shockwave!" Ash ordered.
Pikachu pulsed out an expanding sphere of electricity, one aimed to cover the whole battlefield. There were several ways you could do Shock Wave, and he thought his was best for-
Abra teleported through the blast front into the safe zone the attack had already gone.
"Never miss technique my fuzzy yellow behind!" Pikachu yelped as he jumped away from the Abra. He slid to a stop as the wave crackled off a shield in front of Sabrina, and Ash simply took the wayward electricity without really noticing.
He'd been electrocuted far too often for that.
"Ouch!" Misty said, who hadn't. "We'll, uh, stand back a bit more…"
Pikachu winced, then replanned.
Abra wasn't actually attacking at the moment, but he knew the Psychic-type was just going to teleport all over the place unless Pikachu could stop him.
Thunder Wave? That would work, but hitting him would be just as much of a problem as it had been with Shock Wave.
Then an idea struck Pikachu.
Abra had dodged quick, so he was clearly relying on something besides his eyes, but was he reading Pikachu's mind?
Pikachu thought briefly about the time they'd seen Arceus bombarding Michina, before it had been prevented from happening at all, and when Abra didn't react decided the answer was probably not.
His cheeks sparked, as he built up an attack… using just his Light Ball… and fired off a Shockwave again. This time it was a bolt of lightning which homed in on Abra's position, and the Psychic-type flashed away in a teleport-
-only to appear directly in the path of a Thunderbolt Pikachu had launched behind him. The Light Ball's power was separate from Pikachu's normal reserves, and he could prepare two attacks at once… one to make Abra react, and the other to hit the only safe place Abra could go.
Then Abra evolved into Kadabra.
Ash said something he technically shouldn't know at that age.
"Please, not in front of the children," Sabrina requested.
"I'm the closest thing to a children here who could possibly repeat that!" Ash replied.
"Depends how good I get at Aura," Riolu said. "Then again, I've heard worse-"
"Little help?" Pikachu asked, as Kadabra opened fire with a Psybeam.
"Pikachu, back here!" Ash called. "Squirtle, you're up!"
"All right!" Squirtle said, sliding along the floor into the forming psychic maelstrom. "Let's do this!"
He took off his shades and threw them like a frisbee at Kadabra. Halfway there they flashed blue, expanded and duplicated into two huge identical copies of the originals, and cut through the whole psychic storm to slam into Kadabra.
The impact of the two Aura constructs knocked Kadabra back into the wall, pinning him there immobile as Squirtle began shouting something.
"Just who the hell do you think I am? I'm not some kind of two bit conventional Pokémon, who just uses the traditional moves they're supposed to. I go beyond, and in looking one step further I break through whatever veil is laid upon my opponents! This Lock On is my expression that no matter what, I will always find my goal!"
Brock stared at his friend's Pokémon, currently in the process of forming a gigantic drill out of water. "What. The hell."
Pikachu swallowed his Sitrus berry snack, and shrugged. "I just try to tune it out, myself."
"If there's a wall, I'll tear it down! If there's no path, I'll just make one myself! Horn! Drill! Break!"
An enormous drill-shaped construct of Aura-saturated water rocketed from one end of the underground arena to the other, and Ash heard Sabrina's voice through the chaos. "That's not fair," she sighed. "I just remodelled this place, too…"
At least it seemed like both parts of her personality were reacting the same way.
Then Kadabra disintegrated in a blaze of red light and an explosion of water that drenched the whole room, and when the mist cleared Squirtle was also nowhere to be seen.
"Is that move legal?" Misty asked.
Sabrina looked down at her Pokéball, which was full.
Up at the one Ash was holding, which was also full.
"Did your Squirtle just do a mutual forced knockout attack?" she asked. "That was… impressive."
Ash grinned, reaching down to grab Sir Aaron's hat again. "Not what I was expecting, but I guess I win? Now, uh, there's-"
Sabrina's eyes flashed, and she knocked Ash to the floor with a pulse of psychic energy. "I can touch you now, Ash Ketchum!"
"Ash!" Pikachu called. "It's the hat, Aaron's hat! I think it made you Dark-type or something!"
Sabrina gestured, and Pikachu and Riolu both went flying into the wall.
"You were being naughty," Sabrina said. "Naughty trainers don't get badges."
"Hey, what are you talking about?" Ash demanded. "You're the one reading everyone's minds and stuff! How many trainers got badges from this gym in the last year?"
"I'm supposed to stop people who aren't as good as me from getting badges," Sabrina insisted. "They're beneath me. I'm special, and they're not."
Ash huffed out a breath, focusing, then used Protect and shed the psychic force trying to pin him to the wall.
He dove for Aaron's hat, snatching it up on the way past, and managed to get it on. "Looks like I'm gonna have to be the inner babysitter!"
Sabrina blinked, thrown. "Did you steal that line from somewhere?"
"Hey, I can come up with stuff like that myself!" Ash replied, then lunged for Sabrina and managed to clip her with one blue-glowing hand.
Aaron's Heir – or, to use his more usual name, Ash Ketchum – picked himself up from the floor. "Oww… that was not as smooth as when we did it with Misty."
He shook his head. "Okay, uh… right, mindscape, Sabrina's mindscape, what's that going to be like?"
A first look around left Ash with the impression that it was just a normal house in the suburbs of a city.
A second look made him wonder why the furniture looked so weird.
And it wasn't until the third look that he spotted a twenty foot tall teddy bear marching towards the house.
"I really should have thought of that!" Ash criticized himself, spinning up an Aura Sphere and throwing it through the far wall, then diving through before the teddy demolished the house.
It wasn't like he hadn't seen the same thing already. Her toybox.
Ash had a few ideas about the symbolism, but his best guess was that it was to do with toys and playthings. She saw herself as superior to everyone else, because nobody else could do what she could do, and even as a child she hadn't had anyone to play with because her powers set her apart.
So she focused on things. Including everyone else.
Fortunately for Ash's nerves, his hat had come with him into the mindscape, and he glanced back to see where the teddy was before putting both palms together and growing an Aura Sphere.
This time he kept pushing more Aura into it, making a much larger one than normal, then threw it into the air.
That gave him time to unlimber the staff on his back, and he knocked the descending Aura Sphere at the teddy bear – which was knocked over by the impact, then the Aura Sphere detonated.
The explosion tore the stuffing out of it.
"One down," Ash said to himself, then closed his eyes and looked around with Aura Sight.
There didn't seem to be anything nearby…
"Hello," a voice said.
Ash jumped several feet into the air, managed to land without falling on his face, and whirled to see who'd spoken.
It was… Sabrina. But it took Ash a long moment to realize that, because she looked so different.
Unlike the Sabrina he'd been battling in the gym, or the little girl he remembered from last time, she had a kind of delicate poise and serenity.
"You're… Sabrina, right?" he asked.
"Correct," she said, with a smile. "Another Sabrina, that is. There's quite a few of me in here sometimes."
"I'm here to help with that," Ash said. "Or, to try to… so, uh, what's going on with that?"
"It was when I was younger," Sabrina answered. "Before I became really famous for my powers, but after they'd begun to manifest… I always felt happiest when visiting a shrine. It was so much easier to concentrate there, in a peaceful environment, and I sort of… imagined being a shrine maiden myself when I grew older. Or, even if I couldn't be one, trying to be one."
She waved a hand. "Calm and centred, and known for my kindness… or that's what I wanted to do. But as my powers developed further, and as they became better known… I, or, she and they, the other parts of me… became bitter, and jaded. Superior. Told we were better, so often and so many times… it became hard to think otherwise."
"But you didn't," Ash guessed.
"I didn't," Sabrina agreed. "I think it's because that kind of… superiority, is just different from how I'm supposed to be. It didn't fit. I just became the part of Sabrina that Sabrina knows she should listen to, but doesn't."
Ash put the butt of his staff on the ground with a clink. "So, uh… how could I fix that?"
Sabrina considered.
"I always thought that innocent enjoyment would help," she admitted. "Something that would remind Sabrina how to have fun, properly. Or someone with an innocent heart… even someone who could surprise her. And someone who could prove they didn't want to monopolize her, or put her on a pedestal, just… have fun, and give her fun by being there."
"I don't think I qualify," Ash admitted. "I get mad, and I've done too much stuff… even if I tried I feel like I'd screw it up somehow. Remembering Lugia's song or fighting for my friends, I can do something I think is being pure? Or righteous? But… I don't know."
Sabrina chuckled. "You're probably closer than you think. Ash, you're a truly remarkable person, and there's enough about you that I can tell things have changed. I won't ask how, or why, but you're out to make a difference in the world and you're doing it already."
"Yeah, but… I really think I screwed up," Ash replied. "I should have just… done what I knew would work."
"Context has always mattered for a joke," Sabrina replied. "Maybe Haunter would have worked, or maybe not."
"Huh?" Ash asked, then noticed that she was handing his hat back.
"It fell off when you jumped," she said. "You'll need it. Sabrina assumes the worst of everyone, and normally convinces herself that she was right. I hope you have a plan."
Before Ash could reply, a ball as big as a bungalow narrowly missed the two of them.
It bounced off thin air, returning to the person who'd thrown it – the young child version of Sabrina, but several storeys high, and bouncing the ball on the road.
"Play catch with me!" she demanded.
"Sure, I have a plan," Ash began. "Is 'Run' good enough for now?"
"So, that's the situation… she's in a bad way. We think the solitude's torn her up inside."
A smile, warm and pure, with just a hint of a giggle.
Of course! It sounds like fun!
"Phew," Ash panted. "Okay, I guess we have a minute or so… I'm not saying you should have, but have you tried to cleanse your own mind?"
"I'd be fighting myself, and worse," Sabrina answered sadly. "When a psychic like me goes bad, they literally go Dark. Her powers cut through my defences, and she ignores my own abilities."
Ash mused about that. "So not the little girl?"
Sabrina nodded, and Ash frowned. "…okay, that should mean I've got the advantage… where is she?"
Sabrina closed her eyes, concentrating. "I can't sense her, but I can sense the blind spot she leaves if I take the time…"
Ash looked around as well, and spotted a flicker of movement just before another Sabrina – this time looking just like the one he'd been battling in Saffron Gym – appeared, and sent out a bolt of dark energy which smashed Ash backwards.
"Ow," he mumbled, steadying himself, then blocked Sabrina's second Dark Pulse with crossed forearms. A moment later, she vanished, and hit Ash from behind with what seemed like a Sucker Punch.
"Another one out to 'cure' me, I see," Sabrina said, as Ash caught himself with both hands. "Well, tell whatever quack psychologist assigned you-"
She stopped.
"Something's wrong. You're blocking your presence. How are you blocking your presence and still projecting it?"
Her hand stretched out. "That's not shields… you're not there. What is that?"
"I'm not psychic," Ash answered, lifting himself up again. "I'm here another way."
"Well," Sabrina said. "You won't succeed in fixing me, and if you won't leave by yourself I'll make you."
Unfortunately for Ash, it turned out that being a powerful psychic translated in an entirely unfair way to being good at hand-to-hand combat inside your own mind. Sabrina teleported in and punched him in the chest, then vanished and appeared behind him to hit him in the side.
Spinning Sir Aaron's staff, Ash managed to block the next blow, but then Sabrina kicked him – and the impact released a kind of pitch-black shockwave which slammed into Ash and knocked him sprawling.
When Ash got up again, though, they weren't in the town any more. None of them were.
Ash, Dark Sabrina and the other Sabrina were all in a grassy paddock, behind a large building, set in acres of wild fields.
"What is this?" Sabrina asked. "It's… new. And different."
"What have you done, invader?" the malicious Sabrina added.
"I said I wasn't here psychically," Ash replied, rising to his feet with a strange lightness flowing through him. "I think I know what happened. You knocked me hard enough to knock me out of your mind, but I'm not a projection… and there was only one other place to go."
"Then how is she here?" the dark Sabrina demanded, pointing at her more demure self.
"She's part of you, she wanted to help," Ash replied, and grounded his staff before whistling.
There was a distant whinny in response, and Ash held out his staff to the maiden. "Here."
"What?" both Sabrinas asked, in confusion.
"Why?" the friendly one added. "Why are you giving it to me?"
"Because it's all you need," Ash replied. "You've wanted to overcome your darkness all this time, all you need is a weapon that will actually work… and the help you need is arriving now."
Dark Sabrina summoned dark power to her hands, but then something approached the other Sabrina.
A blur of motion resolved itself into the flowing gait of a small horse-like Pokémon, which cantered, then trotted to a stop in front of her. The strange Pokémon, one Sabrina had never seen before, was clearly a foal – but possessed of a rich red mane and blue tail, and a strange sort of peace.
"Keldeo," Ash explained. "One of the noblest Pokémon I ever met. He made mistakes, but overcame them thanks to his resolute heart and became the Pokémon he was truly meant to be. This is just an echo, my memory of him, but all you're fighting is a bundle of regrets and sadness screwed up enough to hurt."
He clapped her on the shoulder. "So accept his help, and save yourself!"
Keldeo nodded in agreement, and nuzzled her hand.
With a wash of mist and the smell of the sea, he dissolved – and the staff Sabrina was holding changed into a shimmering, watery longsword that glowed with golden light.
"Secret Sword," Ash explained. "It's the move Keldeo can use when he's in Resolute Form."
"Don't you see?" Dark Sabrina demanded, trembling with rage. "He's just going to try to use you! Everyone does, we can't trust anyone, the only way to never be hurt again is to stop anyone from having the chance!"
The other Sabrina closed her eyes in sorrow. "I know what you mean, but I'm not going to hide from the world any more. There's so many people out there who are nice and kind and good, and you're stopping us from meeting them. From seeing them, getting to know them… making friends. You drive away any friend we could have."
Dark Sabrina screamed, and charged, and the other Sabrina swept the sword up without opening her eyes. It struck true, and the darkness dissolved on the wind like a bad dream.
The sword fell from nerveless fingers, and Sabrina slumped with exhaustion.
"How do you do this?" she asked. "You seem like you have no idea what you're doing, and then suddenly something like this happens. You called up a memory and gave me the strength to vanquish my own doubts with a dream…"
"Honestly?" Ash grinned. "It's kind of… things just click?"
He picked up the staff. "I have no idea how I did that, but it made sense at the time? And it worked, so… I guess that's what matters?"
Sabrina nodded. "I… suppose you're right. But what now? What about my childish self?"
She looked worried. "Do we need to destroy her as well? There are things there that I feel it would be wrong to lose."
"Actually, about that," Ash replied. "I… we should probably go back to your mind now. Let's try this!"
Ash held out his hand, and when Sabrina took it he did the Aura Purge technique again. That worked, possibly because he expected it to, and when they arrived back in the suburbs of Sabrina's mental landscape the Gym Leader just stared.
Her younger self, now back to the size she should be, was happily playing with a floating pink Mew.
"So that's where Pidgeot was?" Misty asked.
"Yeah!" Ash replied. "I thought, well, Haunter might work, but what would work for a Psychic in need of friends? Well, there's this Mew not too far away, she's psychic, Sabrina's psychic… it made sense!"
"We have no right for this to keep working out," Brock said, as Sabrina led them up the stairs. "I don't even know if that was technically a plan."
Maurice was a Pokémon Trainer from Cianwood City, in Johto. He was a member of the Blackthorn Clan of Dragon Tamers, and within that clan he was middling – not at the top, like Lance and Clair, but not at the bottom either.
The main reason for that was his Altaria, Tyltalis. Not only was Tyl an Altaria, he was an unusually big one, and he could carry Maurice on long journeys to significant heights and for long periods of time.
And, because of all of that, Maurice and Tyl were flying north of Cerulean City, and Maurice was lying back on Tyl's cloudbank.
The Dragon-type hummed a snatch of music, and his trainer nodded.
"Yeah, I know," he allowed. "But, someone's got to run the patrols, and you've got to admit that you're better at endurance than when we started. It's all training, buddy."
A whistle, this time, prompting Maurice to snort. "Yeah, I guess, but it's training for you and I'm doing important intellectual work here. At least we've got lovely weather, right? Thanks to you."
That won him a squeaky purr, then suddenly Tyl swerved to the side – not a moment too soon, as a sudden blast of wind knocked them aside.
"What was that?" Maurice asked, looking around wildly. "I didn't imagine that, right?"
Tyl whistled a series of urgent notes, cutting off Maurice as he tried to ask how something could be invisible up here and make such a strong wind, then began to scream.
A grating Perish Song echoed through the cloud layer, and Maurice clapped his hands to his ears. Tyl couldn't get the same thing, so every note would be painful for him, but it was clearly having an effect – something shimmered and crackled in the air, then a massive shape made of metal and glass refracted into existence.
Maurice stared.
What the hell was that thing doing in the sky?
"Ma'am, we've been spotted. Outriders, I didn't see them in the clouds, we flew too close."
"Understood," J said curtly. "General quarters Bosun."
The intercom crackled. "Now hear this! All hands, general quarters!"
"Guns, ready five mark nine to fire at that pair to the rear. Stagger the launch."
"Aye, ma'am," the man responded, tapping on his controls. "Open fire in thirty."
J didn't answer, simply taking the information in and ready to act on it.
Thirty seconds was a little disappointing, but within what she considered acceptable.
"Auxiliary, prepare one of the smaller antigravity vehicles. I want the Pokémon – and the rider for a hostage."
"Damnit!" someone said. "Ma'am, they got off a signal, the jammer didn't come up in time."
J's head whipped round. "Explain."
The man in charge of sensors and communications blanched. "Er… the port jammer's down, and the starboard one had been running for three days. It was offline for cooldown."
J examined him, stalking closer. "And this didn't get brought to my attention… because?"
Sensors made a sort of mimblewimble noise, then J backhanded him.
"Executive officer," she said, turning away. "This failure is reassigned to ground duty. Assign his assistant, and don't let this happen again.
"Report understood, good work. Now get-"
The phone call hashed into static, and Maurice cursed.
"Figures. Okay, Tyl… one pass, and we break for it."
The Altaria hummed his agreement, charging up a green ball of light in his muzzle, but just as it reached firing size there was a puff of smoke as missiles launched from the airship.
Tyl fired his attack, shredding the first missile, then rolled left and used Safeguard. The roll and swerve gave him enough time to sing another note of Perish Song, making two more missiles explode.
There was one left, and Tyl rolled back in the other direction – raising his cloudy wing to shield both himself and his trainer. The missile exploded, something neither of them actually saw, but Tyl's Safeguard kept them both safe.
"Nice work!" Maurice whooped.
The fifth missile came in just as Safeguard wore off, and detonated in a starburst of yellow beams. One of them hit Tyl's flank, turning him instantly to stone, and the sudden loss of control sent Maurice tumbling free of his seat.
He had enough time to curse, fumbling for his belt to try and recall Tyltalis, but then an antigravity cutter swept in and there were two goons pointing weapons at him.
Being taken prisoner by Hunter J was probably a little better than falling to the ground.
AN:
Sabrina has issues. Very, very severe issues. Thankfully, Ash was ready for them.
Anyone like my version of Sacred Sword? The Musketeer trio have a strong French theme to them, and the three swords Curtana (AKA Cortana), Joyeuse and Duredanal (AKA Durandal, Duranda, and so on) are old Frankish legendary swords from things like the Matter of France, the same kind of thing as the English Excalibur. Assigning Keldeo the odd one out, as well as the one with the strongest water theme (lady of the lake and all that) makes sense to me.
Galatine is the name given in several fiction universes to the version of Excalibur held by Galahad after Arthur died.
Oh, and our (least) favorite overequipped antagonist arrives in Kanto! Watch out, she's not exactly a pushover.
The original version of this chapter assumed that Ash would meet Keldeo and what Keldeo would be like. I think I did all right, though this version benefits from having watched the Keldeo movie.