Chapter 33

"What is it?" asked Skye.

"We have to use Nigel," said Ash.

"What!?" Out of all the things Ash could have said, his Pokemon were not expecting that.

"Yep!" Ash glanced at Nigel, who had started to stir. "Perfect! He's waking up!"

"Wait," said Latios, "How do you know we have to use him?"

"Jirachi told me," replied Ash.

"Who's Jirchi?" asked Pikachu.

"Jirachi is a Pokemon who only wakes up every 1,000 years," said Latias, "but legend says that if you have a wish that you truly want and you take on a quest to find Jirachi, it will wake up and grant your wish,"

"You did an entire quest while we were knocked out?" asked Skye.

"No," said Ash, "Jirachi told me that Misty and Brock wished I would have help. I guess they must have done the quest,"

"I wonder how they found Jirachi," said Pikachu, "any idea Latios?"

"No," replied Latios, "I think we'll have to wait until we see them again,"

Nigel opened his eyes. He blinked. Where was he? Looking around he saw a strange Pokemon floating over to him. It looked kind of like an orange Latios.

The Pokemon stopped a few feet away from him. "Are you ok?" It asked.

Nigel stood up and dusted himself off. "I'm okay... who are you?"

The Pokemon sighed. "Do you remember anything, Nigel?"

Nigel. That was all it took to trigger his entire memory. Tin Tower, The Prophecy, Latius. He stumbled backward. "Alright, I give up. What do you want from me?"

"I want you to free the Dark Pokemon,"

"Free them?"

Latius nodded.

"But... that's impossible," said Nigel. He was still trying to process the experience he had been through. Somehow he felt different. There was no reason why he should feel different, after all, he still remembered what had happened to him at Tin Tower all those years ago, when he had successfully made his first Dark Ball, read the prophecy, and did all he could to thwart Latius. Yet despite all that, he wasn't angry at Latius for stopping him, at Ho-oh for failing to block the attack, or at himself for being weak... again.

"I think it's possible." Latius was... smiling?

"What do you mean?" asked Nigel.

"I mean," said Latius, "that you can free the Dark Pokemon. You're the one who made them Dark Pokemon, and you're the only one who can reverse it,"

"You're not mad at me?" asked Nigel, confused.

"Of course I am," said Latius, "but you did those bad things because you thought that was the only real way to live right?"

Nigel nodded, stunned.

"But now you know the truth," Latius gave him a serious look. "because of that, I'm willing to give you a second chance."

"I guess I don't have much choice," said Nigel.

"Not really,"

"Alright then," said Nigel, "I'll help you Latius,"

"Great!" Ash offered his claw to Nigel and lifted him off the ground. "Just one thing,"

"What?"

"Call me Ash,"

And so Ash, his Pokemon, and Nigel set about freeing the Dark (and Shadow) Pokemon. Freeing (or Purifying as Ash later called it) the Pokemon was easy... once they figured out how to do it. Though maybe they shouldn't have started with Ho-oh.

"Hurry Ash, we can't hold Ho-oh down for much longer!" yelled Pikachu.

"Okay, just a few more seconds!" said Ash, "Are you sure you can't feel anything Nigel?"

"I can't," said Nigel, "Ho-oh is just too strong,"

"Come on," said Ash, putting a claw on his shoulder and closing his eyes in concentration.

It was a good thing too, because Aah had to quickly pull Nigel away as Ho-oh shot a Fire Blast at them.

"Ash! We can't hold Ho-oh off any longer!" yelled Latios.

"Nigel, return Ho-oh quickly," said Ash, "we can't handle it anymore."

Nigel returned the Rainbow Pokemon, but when Ho-oh returned to the ball, it began to glow. Instinctively, Ash shot a tiny beam of the light he had used earlier at it. It wasn't enough to drain Ash's energy like the one he had used for Nigel, but it was enough to produce the desired result. The light covering the ball was too bright to look at, so Ash and Nigel were forced to cover their eyes. When they opened them, a regular Pokeball sat in Nigel's hand.

"Well, we did it," said Ash.

"I wish we had thought of that from the beginning though," said Latios.

"Hey, at least we don't have to go through that again," said Ash.

"We still won't be done anytime soon," said Nigel.

"Why?" asked Skye.

"Because we have to do that two hundred more times,"

Ash groaned. "I guess we better get started then,"

"What do you want us to do then?" asked Latias.

"Why don't you guys round up the Pokemon from the grunts," said Ash, "we'll need to purify them too,"

"Won't they put up a fight?" asked Latios.

"They won't," said Nigel, pulling out a rotom phone from his Pocket. He pressed some buttons on the screen and began to type. After about a minute, he put the phone away. "I sent a message to the entire team telling them a Pikachu, Eevee, Latios, and Latias are coming to pick up their Pokemon for inspection."

"Won't that seem a little weird?" asked Pikachu.

"He's asking if that would seem a little weird," translated Ash.

"Probably," said Nigel, "but they'll listen,"

"Okay you guys can go ahead and go," said Ash, "let me know when you're done and I'll tell you where to meet me,"

"Come on!" said Skye, rushing out the door, "Whoever gets the most balls wins!"

"Oh I'm winning for sure then," said Latios.

"Don't be so confident," said Pikachu, "this mouse was built for speed!"

"I bet I can get more than double what you get," said Latios.

"Well I bet I can get more than triple!" countered Pikachu.

"If either of you want to win," cut in Ash, "you might want to get started. Latias and Skye are already gone,"

Latios and Pikachu stopped their 'argument' and looked around. Sure enough, Latias and Skye were nowhere to be seen. Both of them gained a horrified expression and quickly dashed out the door.

"So," said Ash, "where should we start?"

"If you don't mind," said Nigel, eyeing his fainted Pokemon. "I'd like to do my Pokemon first,"

Ash nodded. "That's fine with me,"

Ash and Nigel proceeded to Purify Nigel's Pokemon one at a time. When they had finished, Nigel led Ash to the storage room where Team Void's extra Pokemon were stored.

"How did you get all these Pokemon?" asked Ash.

Nigel sighed. "Stealing mostly. Don't worry, I'll get every Pokemon back to their rightful trainers as soon as I can. Think you can convince the police to let me do that before they put me in jail?"

"You're turning yourself in?" asked Ash.

"Yeah, it's the right thing to do," said Nigel, "I just hope they don't give me a lifetime sentence."

"I think I can help with that," said Ash.

"Thanks," said Nigel, "and speaking of which, I had a question for you,"

"What is it?"

"How are you so nice? You could have killed me back there and I would have deserved it too... but instead, you helped me even after I captured and imprisoned you,"

Ash laughed. "You know, I've been getting that question a lot lately. I don't know why I did it, just instinct I guess,"

"Latios asked you a similar question I assume," said Nigel, "after you saved his life?"

"How did you know that?" asked Ash.

"The prophecy says so," replied Nigel.

"I still don't know what prophecy you're talking about,"

"Oh I forgot, you didn't read it." Nigel set down the Dark Ball he was holding. "Let me get it really quick,"

Nigel returned with a scroll of paper. Ash took it and read the prophecy on it. When he had finished, he handed the paper back to Nigel with a sigh.

"You know, I kinda wish I had read this earlier,"

Chapter complete!

I know it's not the best, but don't worry, there will be a re-write!

In the meantime, if you enjoyed this story so far, be sure to leave a review and consider joining my discord server (discord . gg/eX4k3bV2au) (link on my profile page if that doesn't work)