Chapter 12 – Silence in the East
Restlessly, he soared, his weary eyes sweeping the land below as he wandered with no destination. He had done virtually nothing else for months now, pausing only to tend to his physical needs, never staying in any one place for long.
Such had been his lot ever since the day of his homecoming, the day he’d hoped would bring his redemption. He had brought himself before the ones who had set upon him the task of doing good to balance against the crime he’d committed so long ago, and there, he had testified to them about all the work that he had done and the fruit that it had yielded.
Of course, he had been very consciously selective of the picture that he’d let them see of his achievements and how they had come about. His censored version of events had nearly fooled them, too. However, he had overestimated his ability to shape the truth in ways that favored him – and had also underestimated the silent, indignant protests that lay deep within his own conscience, a conscience that would sit quietly in deference to his denial no longer. He had been betrayed before they who tried him on that day by his own sense of right, and by the love that empowered it and allowed it to rise triumphant at long last.
Upon learning the whole truth of what he had done, they’d sentenced to a permanent exile. They had rendered him physically unable to return to his native land. They had also decided to bar him from other places, those where his greatest crimes had been committed and where those to whom he had done the most harm resided. These restraints were only temporary, made to wear off in a few years’ time, but the thought of being even temporarily unable to go back to those places, no matter how his heart ached to see them again, pained him even more than the more severe and permanent banishment from his homeland did.
And so, from the day he was cast out into the world, he could do nothing but wander. He was tormented in his every conscious moment, as well as in the dreams that accompanied his rare and fitful sleep, by regretful thoughts of how things might have turned out differently. He could not stand to stay in any given place, for it was not where he longed to be. He often found himself drifting in circles, passing over the same areas so often that eventually he became aware of and familiar with all that occurred in those places.
Thus it was that he readily noticed that something was strange in this land on this day. His interest piqued, he descended in order to try and figure out what was going on. The scene he found there perplexed him deeply, and troubled him more deeply still. He attempted to counteract what he’d found, but not even his most potent and sophisticated methods yielded any success.
With a mind that raced with questions, he left the scene, hoping to find some possible solution or assistance elsewhere. He instead found a scene identical to the one he had just left behind. A search of the entire region only yielded more of the same, a widespread problem that neither he nor anyone else around could solve.
Driven by a dark suspicion, he departed that part of the world for another, dearly hoping that what he found there would contradict what he had just seen in the previous region. To his immense sorrow and fear, this region – fully separated from the one he had just left behind – was swiftly and steadily following suit.
The scope of this phenomenon was all too clear. He was sickened by the notion that he was powerless to stop or undo it. And yet… it wasn’t that there was truly nothing that he could do. It was just that he could only do very, very little. With only power enough to reach so terribly few, it became a matter of deciding whom he would try to reach.
Immediately, his heart knew the answer, without a doubt.
Without another moment’s hesitation, he shattered a bond of power between himself and someone nearly half a world away…
* * *
Months had passed since Solonn’s appointment as the mayor of Convergence and Jal’tai’s subsequent retirement from his League position, and the International Pokémon League had been pleased with Solonn’s service throughout that time. The city prospered under his guidance just as it had under his predecessor, with the quality of life for its citizens kept high. Convergence seemed capable of thriving under any leadership. Confident in the abilities and competence of Jal’tai’s successor, as well as in the stability of the city he managed, the IPL had thereby decided that the next phase of the Convergence Project could commence. The time had come to begin revealing the existence of the integrated community to the public.
Knowledge of the city would be disseminated downward through the ranks of the League before being released to the world at large. The Apex League, the highest echelon of the IPL’s organized battle division, had known about the Convergence Project from the start, as had the governing bodies outside the IPL. The regional Champions and Elite trainers had been made privy to this information shortly thereafter. The next step would be for the lower members of the League, those who operated at the city level, to be informed.
The various forms of Pokémon-based competition over which the League presided were all seeing a great deal of action at the time, as was ever the case. Gathering all of the League personnel into one place at one time, even those of just a single region, would therefore be no easy feat. The IPL had thus determined that it would be easier, more practical, and more convenient to set up these informative meetings around the schedules of the lower members, letting them in on the Project singularly when they weren’t tangled up in other business.
It was suggested to Solonn that he could introduce his city to them himself if he so wished. He was given a choice of two ways by which he could go about conducting these meetings: he could either convene with the lower League members via satellite, or he could go and meet with them in person. The IPL had decided that none of them would actually be allowed into the city itself until they were properly briefed.
Solonn had rather liked the idea of traveling to places he had never seen before. Being a new member of the League as he was, his superiors had kept him busier than his predecessor had been in the same office, wanting to see if he was truly League material. Solonn’s service to the Convergence Project kept him bound to the city he led; he only ever left Convergence on League business, such as he was doing now. Any chance to step out of town, however briefly, was something that he appreciated, and so he had gladly taken the League directors up on their suggestion.
His tour would take him to every city in the area in which the League had any presence: any place where there was a gym, a breeding center, a Pokémon laboratory… or a contest hall. So it was that on this day, his tour brought him to a place that he’d never thought he would see again – Lilycove.
Ever since the day when he’d been delivered from that place and the dangers therein, his thoughts had often turned towards the people he’d known there, wondering what had become of them, wondering what would become of them. From the moment that he’d taken on the role of Jal’tai’s successor and the form that came with that role, he had known that he would most likely never have anything to do with any of those people again.
Such thoughts were once more first and foremost on Solonn’s mind as he stood ready for departure to Lilycove, waiting for his personal Teleporter to be available to serve him. Solonn knew that he would not be in town long – this was strictly a business trip, and he would be leaving town as soon as he’d concluded his meeting there. It was therefore very unlikely that he would see anyone he had once known while in town today, not out of a great city of many thousands.
He considered also that it had been years since he had had anything to do with any of them. For all he knew, the Humans he had known in Lilycove, as well as the Pokémon if fortune had freed them from their abductors, might have gone to live somewhere else during that time. Perhaps Morgan and her family had determined that they, like him, would be safer if they left the city.
“The guy’s sure taking his time, isn’t he?” remarked a voice to his immediate left. Solonn turned slightly to acknowledge Byron, a bodyguard hired to escort him during his travels. He was shorter than Solonn, but much broader, his muscle-bound physique meant to be intimidating. However, his short, slightly untidy hair and his round, often smiling face somewhat softened the stern and serious air he might otherwise have possessed. The bodyguard wore a suit very similar to the one Solonn wore that day, only in black rather than blue. He held a manila folder containing dossiers filled with information about Convergence that Solonn would use as visual aids in his presentation.
“Cliff will be ready soon enough, I’m sure,” Solonn responded, hoping that that prediction would come true even as he spoke it aloud. He wanted as little delay in getting to Lilycove as possible; whether out of interest in seeing it again after so long, getting his business there over and done as soon as possible, or both, he could not be altogether certain.
Still, he maintained at least some patience through resignation to the fact that the delay in getting to Lilycove would be just as long, if not longer, if he were to rely on a different mode of transportation. Whatever Cliff was doing at the moment could be excused, since the convenience he provided was well worth the wait.
“Sorry about the wait,” came a high-pitched voice then, its source being a plump, pink Clefable who wore an acid-green fanny pack strapped around his waist. It was Cliff, who had just entered the lobby from a nearby restroom; neither Solonn nor Byron had even known that that was where he’d been.
The Clefable came to stand with Solonn and Byron, motioning for them to draw very near to him to ensure that they were both caught in the Teleportation field he was about to create – an unnecessary action, as both of the Humans had gone through this routine several times before and therefore knew what they were supposed to do. They gathered close to the Teleporter just as soon as he was in their midst.
“Okay, Lilycove, is it?” Cliff inquired. Solonn nodded in confirmation. “All right, let’s see… that’s about, oh, two hundred miles south-by-southeast of here, right?”
Solonn gave Cliff a dull stare. The Clefable had insisted on joking in the exact same way prior to the past few Teleportations. Byron was quite fortunate in his inability to understand Cliff; it spared him from having to suffer the tired old “I have no idea where we’re supposed to be going” bit.
“Nah, I know where it is; you know I’m just playing with you,” Cliff amended then, taking a moment to laugh at his own joke before proceeding. He then closed his eyes, and after a moment’s focus, a Teleportation field was summoned that swept the three travelers from the lobby of the Convergence Tower and into the parking lot of their destination.
The very moment Solonn materialized in Lilycove, his gaze traveled upward along the face of the magnificent building that filled almost his entire view from so near. The Lilycove Contest Hall was almost exactly as he remembered it, minus only the crisper definition that the stronger eyes of his prior form had given the picture. He stood staring at it for seconds on end, his body and mind transfixed by the feelings and memories that the sight of this place brought back.
“You two just go on in and take care of business while I have a smoke, all right?” Cliff spoke up then, breaking Solonn’s reverie. Without bothering to wait for any sort of reply, the Clefable pulled a lighter and a pack of cigarettes out of his fanny pack.
“They’re not going to let you do that…” Solonn muttered, to no response from Cliff. At every single one of the stops on this tour so far, Cliff had tried to take a cigarette break in the vicinity of whatever League building Solonn had happened to be visiting, and on each of those occasions, the Clefable had been reprimanded by the personnel at those facilities for doing so.
At that moment, the contest hall’s doors opened. Out stepped a red-haired woman in a navy blue pantsuit, who trotted quickly towards Solonn and Byron on her high heels, offering a hand to the former before she had even come to a stop before him.
“Hi, good afternoon! I’m Mrs. Penn, the director of Lilycove’s contest hall, but you can call me Meredith,” she introduced, telling Solonn nothing that the nametag she wore hadn’t already. Her eyes shifted over towards Cliff, who was leaning against the building, smoking in silence with an odd sort of pensive look on his face. “That Clefable should know that this is a no-smoking zone,” Meredith said with a frown.
Cliff cast an annoyed glance at the director. “Just call the office when you’re ready for me to come and get you,” he told Solonn, then left the scene in a golden flash.
“Come on, then, right this way…” Meredith beckoned once the Clefable had left, motioning towards the entrance of the contest hall before passing through the automated doors. Solonn followed her in at once, with Byron close at his side.
While the contest hall had looked the same on the outside as it had all those years ago, it seemed very different on the inside from what Solonn remembered. Everything was still in its old place – the receptionist’s desk, the posters on the wall, the great doors leading into the auditorium, and the smaller, more secluded entrance to the backstage area for the performers’ use – but the atmosphere was much more subdued, lacking the noise, excitement, and activity he recalled from his previous times here. He had simply never seen it so empty before – there was no contest today, no coordinators, performers, or spectators waiting excitedly for the show.
The contrast from what he remembered was strangely unsettling, making the contest hall seem somehow foreign and wrong. He tried to maintain his focus, to keep his mind on the matter at hand rather than on the past. But in a place like this, where such vivid memories were forged, he could not help but think of the times he’d spent here, as well as the one with whom he’d shared them.
He wondered if Morgan did still live in this city, and if so, where she was at that very moment and what she was doing. He also wondered if she had ever been reunited with her other friends. It pained him to a fair extent that he would leave Lilycove today with those questions still unanswered. He also ached in the knowledge that he had returned here safely, yet they, who had certainly been wondering all this time what had become of him, would never know it.
Lost in those thoughts, he almost failed to notice when the director had stopped before them, having arrived at her office in the very back of the building. He followed her in without a word, taking the seat provided for him in front of the director’s desk, while Byron stood silently at his side.
The bodyguard handed Solonn the folder. Solonn let his gaze linger upon it for a second before proceeding to open it. As he was doing so, a rather nasty itch overtook his eyes out of nowhere. He set the folder down on the desk quickly, and then proceeded to try and relieve the sudden irritation. He managed to calm it fairly quickly, though his eyes still watered a bit afterward.
“Oh, allergies?” Meredith queried. “I sympathize; I get them too around this time of year.”
“Hm,” Solonn responded wordlessly. “Well, normally, I don’t,” he told Meredith, blinking rapidly in an effort to stave off another itch that was threatening to happen. “It could be something in the air around here, I suppose.”
“Mm, could be,” Meredith said with a shrug. “Tissue?” she offered, gesturing towards a box of them that sat on her desk.
“No, but thank you,” Solonn declined politely. He figured that he and his dignity could endure doing without a tissue, so long as his nose didn’t decide to get involved. “So,” he proceeded then, “I assume you’ve been given some idea of why I’ve come here today, yes?”
“Mmm-hmm,” Meredith confirmed, nodding. “There was mention of some sort of major project the League’s put together. They didn’t go into details… Are you sure you don’t need a tissue?” she asked again, more concernedly this time, for Solonn’s eyes were clearly bothering him once again. He gave an indeterminate reply as he rubbed his eyes, harder this time and seemingly in vain. “Actually, maybe you ought to try and rinse those out,” the director suggested. “The men’s room is up the hall to the right; I’ll wait here while you take care of that.”
“Good idea,” Solonn agreed, rising from his seat. He left the room with Byron accompanying him, straining to keep his eyes open as their irritation grew steadily worse. He made his way quickly to the restroom, halting Byron as the bodyguard attempted to enter the room along with him.
“You can stay out here,” Solonn told him, wincing and screwing his eyes shut as he did so; they had ceased to merely itch and had begun to burn. “I doubt there’s anyone in there, and I’ll only be a moment.” With that, he stepped into the restroom and shut the door behind him, then forced his eyes open long enough to spot the sinks and make haste towards them.
Solonn gritted his teeth as he quickly shoved his hands underneath the motion sensor that activated the tap. He gathered handfuls of the cool water that flowed forth and brought them to his eyes, rinsing them vigorously in hopes of flushing out whatever was irritating them so badly. His efforts were in vain, however – rather than relenting, the searing pain only grew worse, until it became so intense that it was all he could do not to cry out.
The water shut off as he clutched his forehead, the pain in his eyes stabbing into his skull so brutally that he could not even think to wonder what in the world was wrong with him. But then… just as unexpectedly as it had come, the pain subsided, fading mercifully quickly until it was nothing more than a dull throb.
Not quite daring to trust the relief at first, Solonn opened his eyes very slowly. He had to quell an urge to immediately close them again, for the bright light in the room struck his eyes with a peculiar harshness. He continued to lean over the sink for a few moments, giving himself time to relax after his ordeal, before lifting his head and straightening his posture once more. When he did so, the reflection that greeted him from the mirror above the sink told him just what had been tormenting his eyes.
This time, he could not stifle his scream.
The face before him shook with shock and fear, staring wildly back at him with eyes of a piercing, electric blue.
Glalie eyes.
How…? No, this can’t be happening now… he tried to convince himself in fearful confusion, but the truth could not be denied. The effects of Jal’tai’s Transfigure technique were wearing off – years before they were supposed to do so.
The door burst open as Byron responded swiftly to Solonn’s cry; Solonn immediately turned to prevent the bodyguard from seeing what had happened to his eyes. “What’s going on?” Byron demanded concernedly.
Solonn was considerably hesitant to answer that question. He had kept the fact that he was not truly Human a strict secret during his leadership of Convergence. He had never intended for it to ever be revealed, unsure of whether or not it was a fact with which the citizens would be able to cope. Jal’tai, as it happened, had already thought of this, and had assured Solonn that he had seen to it that the plan he had formulated to deal with this issue could be executed without a hitch.
In a few years, when it drew close to the time when the Transfiguration would wear off, Solonn was to name a local Glalie as the one who would one day succeed him in office – the very Glalie he would happen to become upon his reversion. After Michael “vanished” without a trace, Solonn would “take his place”. By this time, Jal’tai had claimed, the climate of society might be safer and more accepting of a Pokémon in a position of leadership.
But with the premature reversal of the Transfiguration, things were already not going according to plan. Here Solonn was, cornered, with his secret betraying itself. He had not had the warning that he’d been assured of, and now there was no time to set up a smooth transition of power from whom he’d pretended to be to whom he actually was.
Solonn had no successor to his office other than himself. The only way he could think of that would make it at all possible for him to keep his position was if it were known that the Pokémon he was becoming and the Human he had been were, in fact, the same person. Someone would have to witness his change, and Solonn knew that that someone would have to be Byron. He could only hope that the bodyguard would not react too adversely to what he was about to see.
“Sir… what’s going on?” Byron asked again. Solonn heard him take a couple of steps closer.
As Solonn resigned and braced himself for the revelation he was about to give, he saw the skin on his hands begin to shift towards a dark, flat grey, stiffening as it darkened. The truth could wait no longer.
“Don’t be alarmed,” Solonn said as calmly as he could manage and far moreso than he felt. “I’ll explain everything later… Just please, call Cliff. Now,” he commanded flatly, and then turned around.
Solonn saw the look on the Human’s face turn in an instant from concern to shock as their eyes met. Byron stared speechlessly as he watched a Human being turn grey as stone right before his eyes, a Human being who looked back at him through eyes befitting a demon. He stepped back from Solonn, tension written all over his stance.
“What… what the hell…” the bodyguard sputtered, his voice trailing off. His eyes remained locked onto Solonn, holding his employer’s gaze with a keen, alert stare. His arm twitched, his hand moving to his side, where a handgun and a nonlethal taser were concealed under his jacket.
Solonn noticed this, but tried not to let his eyes shift conspicuously towards the weapons or to let his focus be broken. He strongly doubted that Byron would shoot him, but reckoned that the bodyguard might well stun him with the taser if he thought that Solonn might be losing control of himself and posing a threat. The fact that Byron hadn’t resorted to either weapon upon first sight of him told Solonn that the Human must still recognize him, at least, and would probably still listen to him as long as both of their heads were kept level enough.
“No time to explain,” Solonn reiterated. He then gasped in shock and doubled over as the cruelest cold suddenly struck deep into his bones. “Just call Cliff,” he urged almost voicelessly. “Please, hurr– AHHHH!” He collapsed to his knees as what felt like hammer blows struck his temples; his hands flew up and clutched his head, feeling the cold, hard surface of the horns that had just erupted there.
Dizzy with pain and shivering violently, Solonn lifted his head with difficulty and looked up at Byron through eyes that streamed with tears. The bodyguard had backed up even further, standing right at the door and still staring warily at Solonn. However, there also seemed to be a hint of concern in his eyes. One of Byron’s hands still hovered near his weapons, but the other now held his cell phone. Come on… Solonn urged him silently, barely able to catch his breath due to the cold. Call… please, for the gods’ sakes, call!
It was then that a strange sensation took hold of Solonn, one that was incredibly potent – and familiar. After years spent outside of its wonderful embrace, he had reentered into the loving arms of the element of Ice. In the midst of his agony, the reunion with his mother element was a rapturous escape, one in which he quickly lost himself.
He was completely unaware of the sudden, intensely white flare in his eyes, and of the massive, involuntary release of Ice-type energy that accompanied it with a sharp, resounding crack.
The sound snapped Solonn out of his elemental transport in an instant. The scene surrounding him returned to his focus and brought with it the sight of a man who stood fixed in a startled stance with an expression of sudden terror, unmoving… unbreathing… unliving.
“Oh, gods…” Solonn uttered in a brittle voice, staring aghast at the man he had just inadvertently flash-frozen. His newly formed heat-vision told him that not even the slightest vestige of the warmth that had once fueled Byron’s life still remained. Solonn’s element had returned to him before he was ready and able to control it, and as a result, someone had just died by his hand.
Trembling in horror, as well as his unrelenting pain, Solonn attempted to rise, but his body could barely respond to his command. His joints were beginning to lock, to fuse. A faint swelling of light crept up into his vision; he looked towards it and saw that a soft, sea green glow was emanating from every square inch of his skin. The green light suddenly intensified in an almost blinding surge, and with the sickening sound of crunching bones, Solonn’s limbs collapsed in on themselves and were absorbed into his body in a single, violent instant. A split-second later, his spine followed suit, telescoping inward less suddenly than his limbs had, but no less painfully.
Solonn’s reversion continued at an accelerated pace, and the agony of it was greater than any that he had ever known before. As his body expanded, reproportioned, and reconfigured in wrenching, spasmodic bursts, his pain manifested itself through an involuntary cryokinetic display. The ice that glued Byron’s legs to the floor spread rapidly over every surface of the room and formed violent, jagged spires that jutted out all around their tormented maker.
Solonn was barely able to perceive anything other than the pain that consumed him, barely able to do anything consciously except to wish to the gods that the torture of his terrible change would end soon. As if in answer to his prayers, his loving mother element sent another surge of power through him, one that rebounded back upon him. With another crack like crashing thunder, his mind was cast into nothingness.
* * *
The next thing Solonn was aware of was a steady humming, one that grew louder as he reconnected fully to his senses. The pain he had known prior to losing consciousness awakened along with him, but was far weaker now, barely more than a dull ache throughout his entire body. As his mind congealed once more, he remembered the cause of this pain, which seemed to flare up a bit more at the memory of his agonizing reversion.
He remembered also the eyes that had stared emptily back at him, after he had stolen the life from behind them…
His eyes flew open and he sat up in alarm, his heart pounding as he recalled what he had done. He realized at once that he was not where he had last been, and that he was apparently alone here. A soft, off-white light glow filled his entire vision, seeming to come from the surrounding surfaces themselves. He saw dark walls and the flashing indicators of some unidentifiable equipment some distance before him, and as his eyes focused and made out the finer details of these things, he realized that the glow was not coming from those surfaces. The pale light was in the form of a wall of energy that stood between him and the other things in this place – one of many such walls that enclosed him, he recognized as he turned to look all around him.
Solonn rose from the floor, lowered his head slightly, and experimentally prodded the energy barrier with one of his horns. He was immediately met with a nasty shock, one that did nothing to calm his nerves. He realized that he had been put in a containment field, imprisoned by it within some place that he did not even remotely recognize. He knew not where he was, but he had a terrible feeling that he knew why. Someone must have opened that restroom door and found him there, along with the man he had killed, and now he was being held captive for the life he had taken.
With a heavy heart, Solonn sank to the floor and closed his eyes in deep, solemn thought. He wondered where he would be and what might have transpired if Byron was still alive. He also wondered if he would be kept in this place forever, and if so, what would befall Convergence. If neither “Michael” nor the Pokémon he truly was were there to lead its citizens, then who could?
Through closed eyelids, Solonn just managed to perceive a brief surge in the lighting around him. It was so quick that he might easily have imagined it, but he opened his eyes in response to it anyway, without really thinking about it. What he saw was one of the last things that he would have expected.
Bathed in the soft light of the force field, her golden, metallic form glowed like an apparition. Her deep blue eyes were unreadable as she gazed upon him, her whiskers drooping in an expression that somewhat resembled a frown, but suggested far more.
“It really is you,” she all but whispered. “I’d given up on ever seeing you again… and yet, here you are.”
“Sei?” Solonn inquired incredulously, his eyes widening. The Alakazam nodded. “Gods, I thought I’d never see you again, either!” Solonn exclaimed almost breathlessly, a surge of relief managing to rise through him even amidst all the terrible feelings that weighed upon him. “I’m so relieved that you’re safe… but what of the others? Were they also freed from the ones who abducted us?” he asked.
Sei’s brows drew tightly together. “What? Solonn… none of us were never abducted,” she said, sounding concerned.
A look of troubled perplexity came over the Glalie’s features. “…You were, though,” he insisted. “We all were, more than four years ago.”
“No, Solonn,” Sei said quietly. “No one was taken that day except for you.”
Solonn stared at Sei in disbelief. How could she not recall her abduction? Perhaps, in surmounting her formidable Psychic abilities, the abductors had damaged her mind, her memory… “That can’t be true,” he told her. “Morgan told me all that had happened when she found where they were keeping me.”
Sei did not respond to this. She held him in her now deeply troubled gaze for a moment, remaining utterly silent. Her eyes narrowed, sharpening her stare. Then, very abruptly, she turned on her heel and sent a brilliant, iridescent wave of Psychic energy crashing into the equipment behind her. There was a series of loud bangs, and the indicator lights on the devices flickered madly before failing completely. A small plume of smoke rose from the ruined equipment, and the containment field surrounding Solonn faded away.
The room was now very dark, but Solonn could still see Sei as she turned to face him, her expression unreadable once more.
“Come here,” she said soberly after a beat.
Growing more worried and confused by the second, Solonn rose from the spot and drifted over to her. “What’s the matter?” he asked softly.
Sei sighed. “I thought I sensed something abnormal about your mental signature,” she said. “Now with that anti-elemental wall out of the way, I can be certain of that. Solonn… someone or something has tampered with your mind.”
“What?…” Solonn responded almost voicelessly, shaking his head in disbelief. “But… how? What do you mean by ‘tampering’? What could have possibly been done to me?”
“A number of things,” Sei answered, taking a step closer to Solonn. “If you’ll allow me to investigate your mind, I can find out exactly what has been done to it. I will warn you that it would involve opening your mind to me completely, including giving me access to your thoughts and memories.”
The notion of giving free access of his mind to another was quite a discomfiting one. But the notion that his mind could have been tampered with, and that he could have been completely unaware of it up until this point, was one that Solonn found far more disturbing still. He could still only barely believe that such a thing could have happened to him, and could not even begin to imagine when, where, or how it could have happened. He trusted Sei and her Psychic perceptions, though; if she said that something had been done to his mind, then there was a very good chance that something had, indeed.
“Go ahead,” he permitted her.
Sei gave a quick nod of acknowledgement. A deep blue light filled her eyes, and she became utterly still, seeming to barely even breathe. Solonn noticed a definite something within his mind as Sei projected her consciousness deep within it, like a nagging, unbidden thought. It was not painful, not even really uncomfortable – just very distracting. Sei moved too quickly through his mindscape for him to discern her exact actions there, but though she was too fast for his mind to ever catch, the foreignness of her presence would not let it abandon the pursuit.
After only a few moments, she ceased her Psychic investigation, her eyes losing their glow. “My word… what a strange and incredible experience you’ve had…” she remarked. She looked up into the eyes of the Glalie before her with a combination of outrage and pity on her face. “But there is something very wrong with the circumstances as you recall them.”
“What? What do you mean?” Solonn asked, troubled.
Sei sighed and lowered herself onto the floor, sitting cross-legged. “You might want to sit down, too,” she advised Solonn. The Glalie heeded her advice, descending gently to the floor. “You may not believe what I’m about to tell you,” Sei said, “but I may be able to prove it yet. You have known so much deception since we were parted… you deserve to reunite with the truth.” She took a deep breath before proceeding. “Solonn… the evening when you left Lilycove was not as it seemed to be. The one who led you away… that was not Morgan.”
“What?!” Solonn exclaimed incredulously. He remembered that evening perfectly clearly… he remembered her care, her sorrow, her sincere love and concern for her Pokémon friends… how could that not have been Morgan? “That can’t be possible!”
“Morgan did not leave this city on that evening or at any time during the days that followed, not even for a moment,” Sei informed him. “When I returned to our home, I found her there, along with a couple of police officers. She had contacted them the moment she had come home and found that you were gone. She was so distraught with concern for you that she remained waiting by the phone all night after the police had left, as well as through much of the time that followed, waiting for any word on your whereabouts.”
“But… if that wasn’t Morgan, then who in the gods’ names was that?” Solonn demanded, still unable to believe that things might not have transpired as he so clearly recalled them.
“I can think of a possible suspect,” Sei answered quietly. “Someone you know who just so happens to possess the ability to pass flawlessly for a Human.”
Solonn fell dead silent as Sei’s statement sank in. “No,” he breathed. “You can’t honestly accuse that man of such a despicable thing…” Unconsciously, he rose, letting his cold, cyan gaze bear down upon Sei. “If you’ve seen my memories of him, you would know what sort of a man he is. You cannot truly believe that he would do what you’re suggesting he did!”
“No,” Sei responded, unflinching in the giant Glalie’s appalled stare. “I can’t truly believe it; I can only suspect it. However, evidence that may prove or at least support my suspicion might exist within your very mind. There are parts of your mind that are artificially separated from the rest. They were so well hidden that I could not have noticed them had I not investigated your mind so thoroughly; as it is, they still nearly eluded my detection. They are very well quarantined, sealed in such a way that I may not be able to undo successfully. But I am willing to try,” Sei told Solonn earnestly.
“…Go on, then,” Solonn said after a beat, and set himself back down. He wanted to get to the bottom of the matter even more than she did. He could not abide by the fact that there were aspects of his own mind that had been hidden from him, or the fact that some of what he had known might have been a lie. Solonn still could not bear to think that his last moments with Morgan had been wasted on an impostor, and he utterly refused to accept for even a moment that someone as motivated by a sense of justice and fairness as Jal’tai could have been that impostor.
“Whether successful or not, this procedure will not be a pleasant experience for you,” Sei warned.
“I assure you, I’ve experienced far worse,” Solonn told her earnestly, the memories of all that had transpired on this day still fresh on his mind. “Please,” he implored, “just do whatever you can.”
“Very well, then.” Sei rose to her feet and remained utterly silent and still for a moment after, seemingly gathering her strength and bracing herself for the task at hand. She took a couple of steps back from Solonn, then extended her arms forward and slightly upward and crossed her spoons in front of her, as if forming a crosshairs bearing directly upon Solonn’s forehead. Light bloomed within her eyes once more, but deeper in color and more intense than before. The spoons took on the same glow as she focused her Psychic power through them. Then, with a cry of effort from its maker, a bolt of Psychic energy shot forth from the crossed spoons and lanced the Glalie’s skull with a brutal impact.
Solonn saw his vision swallowed up by the rush of indigo light, and heard his voice come roaring forth of its own volition. The Psychic bolt drove into his brain like a burning, dull-edged sword, sawing against the fabric of his mind as it strove to break through a seemingly impassible barrier. The pain was not only physical, but mental, as well, threatening to fray the edges of his sanity.
Sei snarled in her struggle to break the seals in Solonn’s mind, fearing she would not be able to persist much longer. She felt her power beginning to ebb out of her grasp, her mind aching and longing to relent. The Alakazam was sure that she could succeed if she did not let up, and so she ignored her brain’s pleas for rest. Knowing fully well how such overexertion could harm her, she nonetheless reached deep into her Psychic energy reserves and drove her power onward with all her might.
A piercing cry exploded from the Glalie’s throat as the torment of his brain escalated in a crescendo that peaked with a sensation like nothing less than his skull being blown apart. But then… incredibly, the pain was gone without a trace, and a wave of utter tranquility descended upon his mind in its place.
The peace was broken almost immediately by a veritable deluge of memories.
All at once, the memories of what had truly happened in the wake of Solonn’s departure from Lilycove took their place in his history alongside their fabricated counterparts. In a single instant, Solonn learned of a version of events that was very different from what he had remembered.
A morning that found him cast into another form, without warning, without consent…
An attempted escape from a role into which he was forced…
A terrible punishment for his resistance, worse even than the agony of his reversion…
With a jolt, Solonn found himself pulled back into the scene surrounding him as Sei’s violent drive into his mind abated. He saw her crouching before him, panting and sweating heavily. “Are you going to be all right?” he asked worriedly, his voice rather shaky. The sudden rush of information that he had just received had left him quite overwhelmed.
Sei only nodded in response, still fighting to catch her breath. Once she had done so, she looked up at Solonn, trace amounts of indigo light still lingering within her eyes. “Having compared those two chains of memories, I can distinguish with almost absolute certainty which of them is native to your own mind. It was the truth that had been locked away,” she said. “I think we have just learned a great deal about Jal’tai.”
Solonn looked deep into her eyes and started to respond, but found that words failed him at that moment. He did not want to believe that the best friend he had ever known had done such terrible things to him. But the validity of Sei’s words could not be denied; on some deep, subconscious level, even he could sense which of his memories were truly his own. He could not pretend that what he had just learned was untrue.
“You now know the lengths that he was willing to go to in order to secure you in his endeavors,” Sei continued. “It is therefore quite plausible that he impersonated Morgan so that he could lead you out of Lilycove, so that you would go where he wanted you to go.”
Solonn remained silent, still staring at Sei with eyes whose light was unsteady and muted with unease. Sei’s theory made sense, as much as it pained him to admit it. As he now recalled, Jal’tai had even admitted to having been at the theatre where Solonn had been held by his abductors, saying that he had been prepared to get Solonn out of that place if Morgan hadn’t done so first. The truth, it seemed, was that Jal’tai had delivered him from that theatre on that evening. Morgan had not even been there.
Still… while it was true that the memories of Jal’tai doing truly terrible things to him were real, so were the memories of the years of guidance and friendship that the Dragon had shown him after. Solonn could not deny the worst of what had been done to him… but he could not deny the best of it, either.
He turned back to Sei. “I honestly don’t know how to feel about all this…” he said, his voice breaking.
“I would imagine not,” Sei responded somberly. “I can think of few things as overwhelming as it must be to have one’s past undone in a single moment.”
Those tiny vestiges of that deep blue light still sparkled in her eyes, and as she rose back to her feet, it steadied into a strong, even glow once more. “I’m afraid that the recovery of your history is not yet finished,” she told him then. “I’m sure you are aware of a hole that still exists within your memory, are you not?”
Sei was right. Solonn knew that there was a small frame of time, from the morning that he had awakened as a Human, that was still missing.
“I suspect I know where that missing memory is hidden,” Sei went on. “There is another section of your mind that is still sealed, a smaller one, but one that is sealed in a different way. Ergo, I will have to approach this seal somewhat differently.”
Solonn frowned at her concernedly. “I know that it took a lot out of you the last time… Maybe you should rest before you attempt such a thing.”
“Maybe so,” Sei concurred. “But as I said before, you deserve to reunite with the truth. The whole truth. You have suffered such injustice at the hands of a Psychic being… let another Psychic undo this wrong.”
Sei was concerned about the honor of her element, Solonn realized. That much was as it ever was. “Sei… I know that not all Psychics use their abilities to do harm,” he assured her. Sei made a noise of acknowledgement, though she still wore an apologetic look. “Go ahead and try to undo that seal,” Solonn consented. “But please, don’t push yourself too hard.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be careful.” Sei once again crossed her spoons in front of her. She stared into Solonn’s eyes for slightly longer than she had the time before, as if carefully plotting her course of attack. Then, she sent another Psychic probe lancing through his mind.
The sensation of it was every bit as unpleasant as it had been the last time, but this time, there was something different about it. Sei’s effort to break through the barrier in her way was met with more resistance than the last seal had given her; Solonn could feel the strain of her power within his mind, barely making any headway at all against the obstacle before it.
And then, with an alarming abruptness, the barrier gave way, hurtling Solonn into another lost memory…
* * *
Light suddenly filled his vision, unnaturally crisp and white. With a delay, his eyes adjusted to the brightness of his surroundings. Even then, they seemed unable to focus properly; his vision seemed dull and hazy.
Movement in the distance before him caught his attention. There, he saw a silhouette behind a translucent partition, seeming to pace back and forth. The barrier before the figure was tinted in such a way that not even the harsh luminosity of the space outside it could shine through entirely, making the exact appearance of whatever was behind it indistinguishable.
Curious about the figure behind the dark barrier, Solonn tried to move towards it – but immediately found that he couldn’t. Terror built up swiftly within him as he found himself completely paralyzed. He tried to call out for help, but found his voice as unresponsive to his commands as his body was.
Solonn stared with wide, fearful eyes at the silhouette before him, which had stopped moving and now seemed to be staring intently at him. He wondered if the silhouette represented someone who could help him, or if it was the one who had rendered him so helpless.
Then, something entered his sight that made him forget all about the figure behind the barrier.
Slowly, smoothly, they descended from above with a faint sound of mechanized motion. Their forms were those of an enormous pair of thin, spindly arms, made of glinting metal and glossy, pristinely white plastic. Solonn was consumed with a desire to scream and bolt at the sight of them as they reached greedily towards him, but could not even do so much as shudder in his fear as the strange hands prepared to close around him…
* * *
Violently, the unlocked memory playing within Solonn’s mind came to an abrupt halt. A sensation like a bomb going off inside his head accompanied its termination, along with a matching burst of searing red light within his eyes. He shouted involuntarily at the sudden shock, and heard another voice explode forth likewise. His vision returned, and he did not understand the dark, blank picture it was showing him until he realized that he had somehow ended up on his back and was now staring up at the ceiling.
Solonn ascended, his head pounding at the motion. He saw Sei still lying on the ground before him, her eyes wide and bulging as her breath came in pained gasps. “Sei!” he cried, and rushed over to her.
The Alakazam looked up at him, her expression changing from agony to sorrow as her pain slowly dulled. “I’m so sorry,” she apologized very softly once she caught her breath. ‘There was some sort of anti-Psychic mechanism there… it repelled me, forced me out. I’m afraid that I cannot restore your memory entirely. I’m so sorry, Solonn…” she repeated.
“It’s all right,” Solonn consoled her. “You did the best you could.” He lowered his head, offering a horn to Sei in order to help her get up.
“That was not even the memory I was seeking to unlock,” Sei said as she pulled herself upright with an effort. “That scenario bore no relation to the events of the morning you found yourself changed…” She sighed. “How many questions must lie unanswered within your past?”
Solonn could only shake his head in response, not knowing the answer to that question any more than Sei did. The memory that Sei had just resurrected within him was indeed unrelated to the morning that he had awakened as a Human; its setting bore no resemblance to the Grand Suite, and it did not fit within the small frame of time that was missing from his memory of that morning. He knew not what the memory of the silhouette and the mechanical arms could represent, and he got the feeling that he might never know.
“I think all that really matters now is that we’ve found each other again and know that we’re safe,” Solonn said then. Sei looked at him a moment, then made a small, wordless noise of agreement, but still looked quite troubled. “How did you find me here, anyway?” he inquired then, hoping to ease Sei’s mind somewhat by turning the subject away from his imperfect memory.
“Well,” Sei began, “shortly after I arrived here at the Pokémon Center, I thought I detected your mental signature. I could scarcely believe it at first, but I followed it and was led here, to the ward for dangerous Pokémon, and to you.”
A fresh pang of guilt swelled within Solonn as he learned the nature of the place where he currently was, realizing that his suspicions about why he had been imprisoned here within a containment field were correct. The reminder of the life he had taken sickened him to his core, and he turned away from Sei in shame as he realized that having searched his mind so thoroughly as she had done, she had most certainly learned of the terrible thing that he had done earlier that day.
“Be at peace, Solonn,” Sei said somberly, correctly interpreting his response. “You know that you did not mean to kill him.” The troubled look in her eyes deepened. “At any rate,” she added almost voicelessly, “it would not have made any difference if you had not.”
Solonn turned back to face her at once, looking quite appalled. “How can you say that?” he demanded in disbelief. “If I could undo what I did to Byron, I would do so in a heartbeat. He should not have died so young, so senselessly!”
“I’m sure he should not have, but he would have, anyway,” Sei responded. She closed her eyes. “Something terrible has happened, Solonn,” she said gravely. “Something impossible… something unnatural.”
“What’s happened?” Solonn asked, an inauspicious feeling stirring within his mind and growing rapidly. Sei’s tone and the grave sorrow in her expression already told him that he would not like the answer.
Sei seemed unable to reply at first, but finally managed to find the strength to do so. “Earlier today, probably not long after you were brought here, something struck the Humans of the city. I was enjoying another day out on the town, observing their kind, when it happened… The streets fell into chaos as some of them were stricken within their vehicles. I saw others fall as they walked. I sought help within their hospital, their police station, everywhere – but in every place I searched, they all simply lay there, fast asleep and fully insensible.”
“All of them?” Solonn questioned incredulously. “How could that be? Could you really find no one of their kind that hadn’t been stricken in such a way?”
“No, I could not,” Sei answered sadly. “They all sleep, and we have not been able to find any cause for their condition or any means to awaken them. Once I realized that none of them could be reached, I began going around town and releasing Pokémon from capture balls and PC storage – that’s actually what I was doing here in the first place. I sent some of those who could swiftly fly out to other Human settlements in hopes of finding some solution there, and sent some of those who could Teleport or otherwise force entry into locked buildings to help let out the rest of Lilycove’s Pokémon in case… in case no solution could be found.”
A sorrowful sigh escaped her. “Unfortunately, it seems that no solution will be found. Some of those whom I sent out have already returned, and they tell of the same strange affliction plaguing the Humans elsewhere. What’s more, we’ve also learned that the malady is terminal.” Her last statement was barely more than whispered, with what little of her voice it held breaking on the last word. “The very old and very young have already succumbed.”
“Oh, dear Gods…” Solonn whispered, absolutely stunned. He could never have imagined anything that could so effectively strike down an entire population, yet here it was happening, a surreal nightmare brought to life. It was a terrible notion, that these Humans could all be soon to perish.
Every last one of them…
Solonn’s eyes grew massively wide, and he inhaled sharply as the full impact of what was happening sank into him. “You’ve got to take me to Morgan,” he urged Sei, his voice strained with panic. “Now, by the gods!”
Without a second’s hesitation, Sei invoked her Teleport technique. Solonn’s heart raced as the citrine light engulfed him, knowing he was about to reunite with Morgan at last – but under circumstances for which he would never have wished.
* * *
-Sei! It is fortunate that you –-
Both the telepathic voice and the incomprehensible rattling that accompanied it fell abruptly silent as their owner noticed that it was not Sei alone who had just appeared in its midst. Oth’s many eyes all stared at Solonn, as did the eyes of three others, though it was clear from all of their expressions that they all had far more weighing on their minds than the Glalie’s return.
There they all were, the Pokémon whom Solonn had known all those years ago. All of them were safe and sound – but then, of course they were. They had been safely together all this time, just as Sei had said.
The four of them were gathered in a small, unfamiliar room; they had apparently moved into a new home since he had last seen them. Oth hovered nearby in the center of the room. The others were all at the far end of the room, gathered around a small sofa with Aaron kneeling in silence at one end and Brett and Raze huddled at the other, the latter crying almost silently as the former held her with a foreleg around her shoulders. The shock and sorrow emanating from them all was palpable, hanging over the room like fog.
And there she was, lying on the sofa with a lovely little blue blanket draped over her sleeping form. Without a word, with barely even a breath, Solonn glided over to her. Though she was now a grown woman, the face he saw as he looked down upon her was almost exactly like the one that smiled back at him from his memories. Her expression radiated the utmost serenity, with eyes closed and the tiniest ghost of a smile curving her lips. It was hard to believe that someone who seemed to be in such blissful peace could be in the hold of something so strange and terrible.
“I don’t believe it… We were all sure that you would never return,” Brett said in a soft voice, as the Glalie set himself down with a low, sorrowful hiss. “How did you finally find your way back?”
“That is a very long story,” Sei responded at once as she came over to join the others, with Oth following at her side and helping to support her, “one that he will tell if and when he feels like it.”
Solonn silently thanked Sei, grateful that he had been spared the matter of his ordeal for the time being. He could not have focused on the subject enough to relate that story to them, not now. His entire world in these moments consisted of the girl who lay before him, closer than she had been to him in nearly half a decade, and yet so terribly distant in her unnatural slumber. All this time, she must have ached with worry for him. He had vanished from her life without a trace… neither of them had been given any chance to say goodbye to one another. Now, history was repeating. But this time, it would be he who would have no time with her before she was taken away.
“Nothing can awaken her?” he asked in a pained whisper, his voice carrying a plea that his question would be contradicted. “Nothing at all?”
-Nothing,- Oth confirmed sadly. -Her body does not respond to any stimuli.- A number of its eyes closed. -Her physical processes are slowing, steadily and irrevocably. Soon… they will cease,- it said quietly.
At the Claydol’s words, Raze gave a strangled sob. The Skarmory’s entire body shook as she sat there weeping, her head lowered so that it lay beside Morgan’s.
“Shh, it’s all right,” Brett tried to comfort her, but the brittleness of his tone told that he was trying just as hard to comfort himself. “At least she’s not suffering… at least she’s going peacefully.” Raze lifted her head and looked at him over her shoulder for a second, but then turned away, unconsoled.
-It is true that she cannot truly be awakened,- Oth spoke up then, with the slightest hint of hesitance in its mindvoice. -However… there is a chance that she can still be reached.-
Every eye in the vicinity other than Oth’s own turned towards the Claydol. “Oth… what do you mean?” Sei asked.
-There is a method that could allow me to contact her within her subconscious mind,- Oth answered.
The others gained astounded expressions, their eyes wide. “Can you really do this?” Brett questioned in a hushed tone.
-Possibly,- Oth replied. It uttered a long, low rattle. -I have been attempting it all this time, but to no avail. I did not tell any of you what I was trying to do because I did not want to risk raising your hopes in vain… However, now that Sei is here…- Oth turned towards Sei, even though its ring of eyes made such unnecessary. -With your assistance, I may be able to succeed in establishing contact with Morgan,- it told her.
“What do you require of me?” Sei asked.
-I will not need much. You will need only to synchronize yourself with my Psychic frequency and provide a small boost of power.-
“All right, then.” Sei agreed. Her eyes closed, and all eight of Oth’s followed suit immediately thereafter.
Solonn and the others watched Oth and Sei with bated breath, wondering what, if anything, the actions of the two Psychics would yield. None of the four who watched them were altogether sure of exactly what the two were doing, but held a wary hope that Oth’s method would indeed enable some kind of contact with the otherwise unreachable Morgan.
Seconds passed with no clear indication that the two Psychics were actually doing anything at all. Then, all of Oth’s eyes suddenly opened and emitted a flash of pale light that swallowed up everything in sight.
When the light subsided, the tiny room was gone. Solonn and the others now found themselves in a place that was very different, but also very familiar. A wooden fence enclosed them in a small field of vividly green grass, with clouds drifting through an endless blue sky above. A Sitrus tree stood nearby, its branches covered with delicate white blossoms. And beneath that tree sat Morgan, very much awake and staring pensively at a Sitrus blossom in her hand, picking off a couple of its petals and letting them fly away on the breeze.
How is this possible? Solonn wondered silently, staring speechlessly at the sight of Morgan awake and well once more. Aaron, Brett, Raze, and Sei were looking upon her with equal amazement.
-This is a living dream,- Oth privately told the other Pokémon using its mindvoice alone, almost as if it had picked up on the Glalie’s unspoken question. -I have projected her dreamscape into our minds and stirred her own consciousness within it. Her body still sleeps, but her mind is awake in this place.-
It seemed to be the only good news that the circumstances would allow. Morgan could not be saved, but at least she could spend what little time she had left with the Pokémon who cared about her… all of them. Somewhere between illusion and reality, she would see a face that she’d thought lost forever.
Tentatively, Solonn rose and began to approach her. “Morgan?”
At first, Morgan gave no clear indication that she had heard him, and Solonn feared that this attempt to reach her would be in vain after all. But then, she gave an unmistakable, albeit delayed reaction, a strange look crossing her face. Slowly, she lifted her sights from the flower in her hand. Her verdant eyes met the glowing, blue ones before her, and widened dramatically before filling with tears.
A bright smile of amazement spread across her face, and with a cry of joy, she leapt to her feet and rushed over towards Solonn. There was something strange in the way she moved; she seemed almost to drift more than run, as if she were under less gravity. The moment she reached Solonn, she threw her arms around him as far as they would go, hugging him tightly. Solonn immediately made an effort to keep his coldness away from her, not knowing if it could affect her in this place or not.
Seconds passed before Morgan could find her voice, as she stood there holding on to Solonn and crying in relief and happiness. “Oh, my God…” she said finally. Her voice, like her movements, was peculiarly altered; she sounded faint, distant. “I thought I’d lost you forever!”
“I thought I’d never be with you again, either,” Solonn said quietly.
“I was so scared,” Morgan sobbed, almost breathlessly. “I didn’t know what might be happening to you… Are you all right? Did they hurt you?”
“Yes,” Solonn answered, his tone sober as he recalled just how he had been hurt since leaving Lilycove. “But I’m fine now.”
“Oh, thank God,” Morgan whispered. “Thank God…”
She let go of Solonn then and stepped back from him. Her face was still streaked with tears, but she was smiling radiantly. Her gaze swept over the backyard, finding all of her Pokémon gathered there with her. “We’re all together again,” she said happily, gratefully, and made a beckoning motion towards the others.
As they all drew in close to her in as much of a group hug as they could all manage, Solonn noticed the wind starting to pick up. He cast his gaze away from those around him and saw the scene surrounding him fade momentarily, very briefly losing color and definition.
Solonn had a terrible feeling about what the ebbing stability of the dreamscape might mean, and shot a worried, questioning glance towards Oth. The Claydol nodded insofar as it could, subtly and silently. Solonn looked away from Oth at once and turned back to Morgan. He was very soon to part with her once more… but he found that he could not bring himself to say goodbye to her. He had never seen such pure elation on a person’s face before as he saw on hers at that moment, as she stood surrounded by some of her dearest friends. He could not bear to shatter the joy of her reunion with him by telling her that it was not to last.
But there was, at least, something that he knew he should tell her, something she deserved to hear. “Morgan,” he spoke up. The Human looked up into his eyes, still beaming brightly, her eyes still sparkling with tears of joy. “Thank you… for everything,” Solonn said sincerely. “For all the kindness you’ve shown me, all the caring… I never forgot it, and I never will.”
“Oh…” Morgan uttered, looking up at Solonn with wide eyes. She then embraced him very tightly once more. “You’re so sweet…” she whispered. “I should thank you, too,” she said earnestly, “all of you guys. You’re all such wonderful friends…”
She smiled again at those around her, and before their eyes, her form began to fade away. “I love you all,” she told them, her voice growing fainter with each word. “I’ll always love you…”
The wind whipped up into an earnest gale then, pulling the Sitrus blossoms from the tree. They alone seemed to keep their definition as the rest of the dreamscape faded into a blur. One final gust swept around Morgan’s vanishing form, and in a swirl of white petals, she was gone.
The room came back into focus as the dreamscape disappeared completely. Six living souls emerged from the illusion and beheld the reality that now surrounded them, the reality that now lay lifeless before them.
A stark, surreal quietness hovered as the full impact sank into them with a delay. Raze’s voice was the first to break the silence, a piercing cry of pure anguish. Her outpouring of grief stirred likewise reactions from the others, and well into the night, they all remained gathered there in mourning around the friend who had just departed from their midst.
* * *
The following evening was painted with fire, with gathered flames dancing beneath the colors of the setting sun. From a safe distance, Solonn sat and watched the pyres burning, his mind and heart heavy with thoughts of the recent tragedy represented by those flames. Aaron, Raze, Brett, and Oth were there by his side, and hundreds of other Pokémon were also gathered in mourning there in the streets of Lilycove.
In such a short frame of time, existence as Solonn had known it had been completely dismantled. Less than two days ago, he had been a Human being, working from day to day towards the goal of bringing his former people and his adopted people together. Now, once again in his own true form, he bore witness to the terrible fate of these Humans, who were now separated in the most final and irrevocable way from the rest of the world’s peoples.
There was a burst of golden light at his side, as if one of the flames from the pyres had decided to leap out and join the crowd of mourners. “Hello, Sei,” Solonn regarded its source in a hoarse, weary voice.
“I delivered your message,” the Alakazam informed him, sounding equally drained of vitality.
“Thank you,” Solonn said with a sigh. He thought about how the people of Convergence must be reacting to the message that he had sent to them via Sei: that “Michael Layne” had perished along with all the other Humans in Lilycove. Solonn imagined that they would certainly be saddened by the news, but that they would not be surprised by it. The Stantler guarding Convergence had only been keeping it hidden from Humans; the Flying Pokémon scouts who had searched the west for aid had found the Humans of the integrated community stricken with the same fate that had befallen those here.
During the course of this day, more such scouts had returned with news that the same, terrible phenomenon had occurred in every Human settlement they had searched. The unnatural, fatal sleep seemed to have touched all of Hoenn – and, according to the most recent reports, it had reached Humans living in nearby regions, as well.
In the wake of these reports, rumors began to spread among the Pokémon who had witnessed the lethal phenomenon about its scope. Many of them began to believe that as widespread as the malady had already proven to be, it might very well prove to be a tragedy of global proportions.
Solonn was among those who found themselves possessed of such dire suspicions, and it was thus that he had decided not to attempt to go back and try to resume his position as the leader of Convergence. If Humanity was truly vanishing from the face of the Earth, then it was no longer necessary for the leader of that or any community to be able to speak to them. With such abilities no longer a requirement of the position, anyone with the mind and the spirit to lead the people of Convergence could do so. Solonn reckoned that in these troubled times, they needed the guidance of one of their own number… not that of an unknown Glalie who would seem to just come into their midst out of nowhere.
In considering where and how he would carry on from here, Solonn knew that there was still a place in his heart for Convergence, and that he might like to return there someday, but as just an ordinary citizen. He also felt a sense of belonging here in Lilycove, and knew that he also liked the idea of coming to stay here with his friends. At the present, however, there was one place in particular where he knew that he most wanted to be.
“Just let me know when you’re ready,” Sei told him then. “I’ll take you as soon as you wish.”
“I’m ready,” Solonn said quietly. It had been nearly half a decade since he had last seen his homeland, his people… his family… He had thought about Morgan’s promise to return him to Virc-Dho once his contest career was over. Even though it had not truly been Morgan herself who had released him from her custody, Solonn knew that the real Morgan would have also ultimately let him go. He felt that she would want him to return to his home, now that he could no longer serve the purpose for which he had agreed to stay.
-Please, Sei, let me transport him,- Oth offered. -You have done a great deal for these people during the past two days. You deserve a chance to rest.-
“Very well,” Sei agreed, and took a seat amongst Raze, Brett, and Aaron.
Solonn rose from the ground as Oth came to hover beside him, and turned to face the rest of his friends. “Maybe we’ll meet again someday. I hope we will… until then, goodbye,” he said, and a chorus of farewells echoed his own.
He gave one last, faint smile to his friends, then turned to face the pyres in the distance. “Goodbye,” he whispered to one last friend as he gazed into the flames, and held her in his thoughts as golden light surrounded him. Your promise was kept, my friend…
Next time: After nearly half a decade, Solonn is returning to Virc-Dho at last. See you then!