Started 3/3/03
Disclaimer: Guess what, I don’t own pokemon, ‘nuff said. So don’t take my writing and don’t sue!
Notes: <> for telepathy, ** for thoughts, italics if a pokemon talks!
5 years later… Pokemon World
Chapter 2…
“I want you to kill me.”
He stared blankly at the ground, at the luxuriant forests around him, at the happy pokemon left.
They were all gone, weren’t they?
He had seen enough, from the scrying mirrors hung all over that spangled cave. No sign of civilization, except a small band or two, nomadic, tent-dwellers.
No one left…
No trainers…
What did he have now?
His title as ninth champion of the Indigo League meant nothing. Nothing!
Battling had always been his way to prove himself. With it gone, what did he have left?
… Nothing…
“Why would I?”
He didn’t look at the Dragon Master. Lance’s golden eyes were focused on the horizon, where a lovely sunset bloomed. “What would be the point?”
“?”
“You hurt me… but thanks to you, I was able to activate my hidden power…”
“I didn’t mean to!”
“I know you didn’t.”
“I have nothing left! Just… why do you care about me?” He demanded.
“You survived my attack, even though you were not one of the ones I had placed the seals on beforehand. There are maybe sixty trainers judged worthy to remain, and yet…”
“You- what did you do?”
“Oh?”
“I know you must have done something! You wanted to destroy this world, didn’t you?”
“My, that’s a nasty way of putting it. I simply followed the will of the pokemon and gave them back what was rightfully theirs.”
Red swallowed. He didn’t quite believe Lance’s words, but he didn’t seem to be lying…
What was really true?
“You’re lying…”
“You really think I’m evil, don’t you.”
“You just destroyed the world!”
“Red, look around you… does it _look_ ruined?”
And he had to admit that it didn’t.
It was verdant and lush and the very look of pastoral scenery… without people.
But it wasn’t a mess.
He had expected smoking cinders, dust, but that was more the result of what would have happened if nuclear war had descended.
“You see?”
“But why did I live?”
“I do not know.”
He truthfully didn’t. He had been surprised though… quite surprised. Strange, white protective barrier; so which legendary had cast it?
Well, it did not matter.
Perhaps Articuno-san…
Well, it did not matter. He must have some value. Now, he had to keep Red safe so he wouldn’t try to knock himself off and wreck the legendaries planning.
How to do that? He didn’t even know him!
Still… he must have potential somewhere.
Lance thought back, back to the ninth Indigo League Championships. He and the other Elite had been there, scoping out the talent.
The finals had been Red versus Green, hadn’t they? Well, Green had lived, he had judged the boy worthy… and Lorelei thought Blue was amusing, so she had survived… but he had made sure to not count Yellow.
She was a potential danger.
But then, it had been an interesting battle. All the others thought Green would win… he was the only one that bet on Red.
Why?
He couldn’t remember, maybe it was just… natural talent? The boy did have that, no lie… yes, more than talent.
Gyarados was not even his originally, as it was traded, yet it obeyed him without question. How interesting…
And then… Aerodactyl.
He had been able to control a newly resurrected dinosaur without previous experience. Very valuable, that…
Lance slipped out of his musings as Red gasped.
“Red? What’s wrong?”
“Pika!”
He hugged the pokemon to his chest as the pokemon hugged him back, crying tears of joy.
Lance hid a smile. Yes, the pokemon had been spared… except for some exceptions that couldn’t be.
“Your other ones are waiting for you too… they woke up only a few weeks before you yourself did.”
Red didn’t think Lance was lying; it would be a cruel joke…
Sure enough, there they were… all of them.
So he said something he never thought he would say.
“Thank you.”
Lance smiled oddly. “It is not my doing.”
Lugia had spared them, sealed in the same types of bubbles for protection while the healing rain fell for three months and the forests sprang forth in glory anew and rivers were purified and the earth was renewed.
The pokemon liked it…
So why should he deny them what they wanted, he thought, as Star sat in his arms and he groomed her carefully.
The three stones of Viridian still rested comfortably in a hidden pocket on the inside of his red jacket.
She was safe now…
But really, if he bought Lance’s lies, than all the pokemon were safe and happy, and what was so bad about that?
He killed people!
But he didn’t kill me… why?
End Chapter
Completed 3/7/03