Chapter 12 Saffron gym

"Well, here we are." Ash glared at the building. "Here's hoping it goes better than before…"

Misty nodded. Their experiences in the Saffron gym had not been fun, including as they did being manipulated, danced rings around, and most notably being minimized into dolls.

Ash rolled his eyes at the memories. At least this time there hasn't been anything from that projection of Sabrina as a young girl…

Brock squared his shoulders. "Let's get going, then."

Misty rolled her eyes. "Easy for the man with the Steel type to say."

Ash adjusted the Aaron outfit he'd been wearing more and more often lately, and took out a few strips of cloth. "Okay, Riolu, Pikachu, put these over one eye each. That should let you blend Aura sight with normal vision – and I have a feeling illusions will be a problem in here."

"What about you, Ash?"

"I'll just check whenever I think I should, don't worry."

"If you say so…"

Ash walked up to the gym, but was interrupted by a tall, bearded man. "It might not be in your best interests to go in there, young man."

Ash rolled his eyes. "And why not? It's a gym, it's kinda there to battle."

"You won't win. Not unless you have a Ghost type."

In response, Ash pulled out his Pokédex. "Dexter? Psychic types?"

Effective combatants, but not all powerful. Bugs, Dark types, Ghosts and Steel Types all have the advantage, offensively, defensively or both. Only Fighting and Poison types have a disadvantage. Of note is that several Kanto scholarly articles repeat the results of an experiment in Isshu, mistakenly claiming that Psychic types were immune to Ghost attacks after someone incorrectly recorded Meloetta's type combination – making the advice suspect at best if the interlocutor has kept up to date with scientific literature.

Ash raised an eyebrow.

In addition, the only ghosts native to Kanto are the Gastly family, all of which are part poison and hence as weak to Psychic attacks as their opponents would be to Ghost.

"Huh. So much for that advice. We're going in."

Sabrina's father shook his head sadly. "I warned you…"

"Ah, so this is where everyone is!" Ash pushed through a door, one that had seemed to Brock and Misty to simply be part of the wall. "I was wondering, the place seemed empty."

A man walked over to them. "What are you doing here, in Saffron gym?"

"Challenging the gym, duh. Is that such a difficult concept in this town? What are you all doing, then?"

The man glared haughtily at the friends. "I am practicing with my psychic talents, as are the rest of the people here. Observe."

He lifted a spoon, and concentrated. Several seconds passed, and eventually the spoon began to slowly bend, until it was about a third of the way to a right angle.

Ash grinned. "Can I have a go?"

The Psychic handed over another spoon, saying "Go ahead, but I doubt you'll do much. You have the tiniest psychic signature I've ever seen."

Ash closed his eyes in response, seeking the inner calm he had begun to attain. Not emotionless, but isolated. Once he had something along the right lines, he began to execute step three of forming an Aura Sphere – the gyroscopic rotation.

And only step three.

The spoon twitched, before abruptly twisting into a spiral shape of rent metal.

The man's sneer vanished. "What the…"

Misty clapped Ash on the shoulder. "Don't assume you know everything – or that the power of the mind is the only one."

"Heh, thanks Misty… hey! Are you saying I don't have a mind?"

She laughed. "Not much of one most of the time, that's for sure."

Ash entered the main gym chamber, seeing Sabrina sitting on her chair all but unmoving. "Hey, guys, shouldn't there be a girl somewhere?"

Misty huffed. "Honestly, Ash, you're terribly unobservant sometimes. The girl let us into the room, and she's sitting right there on Sabrina's lap!"

Ash squinted… nothing.

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!"

Man, she really needs a friend.

"Er, Ash…" Misty asked, "Shouldn't you be getting Pidgeot ready round about now?"

Ash rubbed the back of his head. "Actually, I kinda sent her off on an errand just before we entered the Gym…"

Misty exploded. "You sent away one of your two Pokémon with Ghost attacks – and the other's a Fighting type! What's next, Ivysaur against the Cinnabar gym?"

"Calm down, Misty." Ash turned from the fuming girl to Sabrina. "One Pokémon each at a time?"

"Certainly." There was the emotionless voice again. This was starting to look more and more like a case for an actual psychologist… if any would be able to make it into the building.

Ash Ketchum, battlefield psychology, worlds saved, possessed more times than I have possessions. My life is so freaking weird…

"Okay, guys, we might have to do some fancy footwork here. Anyone gets caught, I'll switch them out and put someone else in instead."

"Ready?" Sabrina giggled, back to the child persona.

"Pikachu!"

"Hee, Abra!"

"Pikachu, start with a Shockwave!"

Pikachu pulsed out his version of the never-miss electric attack, an expanding sphere of electricity. There were several types of the attack, and he felt his was better against many-

Abra teleported past the blast front into the safe zone where 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.

Okay, he's going to teleport spam all over the place unless I can somehow stop him. Thunder wave? Nah, too risky if he can Synchronize. Hmmm… how is he determining when I attack? Most psychics can't do that, it's too deep of a mental dive to actually use the information. Pikachu backed away further until his back was almost against the wall.

Okay, got something. This is going to be undignified.

Pikachu bent his neck round so he could bite at his shoulder fur, pulled out some of the stuff and spat it at Abra. It wasn't a very good imitation of Swift, but it looked like an attack, and if-

There!

He span around, cheeks flaring, and shot three Thundershock attacks at once, catching Abra on the foot with one of them and startling the psychic Pokémon awake. He'd caught the first half of the teleport since he knew it was coming, and there weren't many places it would normally be safe to teleport to. He'd blasted them all.

Haha! That got him! That's the downside of combat precognition, it only shows the future – so something that looks like an attack is treated as one!

Abra glowed, and evolved into Kadabra.

Ash said something he technically shouldn't know at that age. Sabrina looked mildly annoyed.

"Please, not in front of the children." Ash was surprised, it was the first emotion she'd shown in her adult persona.

"Sabrina, I'm the youngest person here who could possibly repeat that."

"Nevertheless."

Pikachu conjured a pair of Double Team illusions as he retreated from the psychic pulses of his opponent, and mentally sighed as – once again – they were completely ignored. Well, that's just not fair. Then again, Sabrina never was all that interested in the rules.

"Pikachu, back here!" Ash suddenly called, a white beam from a Poké ball flashing into the forming psychic maelstrom. "You're up, Squirtle!"

Squirtle took off his shades and threw them like a frisbee at Kadabra. Halfway there, they glowed blue, inexplicably became two huge identical copies of the originals, and slammed into their target. He was sent flying into the wall, pinned there by the Aura constructs 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!"

As the enormous, drill-shaped construct of water elemental Aura rocketed from one end of the underground arena to the other, Ash heard Sabrina's voice – somehow audible despite the total chaos. "That's not fair… and I just reinsured this place, too…"

Well, if this was having one benefit, both halves of Sabrina's personality were reacting in the same way – with total incredulity.

Kadabra disintegrated in a blaze of red light under the force of the attack, and when the mist cleared Squirtle was also nowhere to be seen.

"What the hell just happened?"

Sabrina looked down at her Poké ball. It was full. She then looked across at the one Ash was using, and the same was true. "Did your Squirtle just force my Kadabra to return to its' Poké ball, while itself returning as well? That is… impressive."

Ash grinned, reaching to the floor to retrieve his elegant – if drenched - hat. "Not what I was expecting, but it looks like I win then!"

Sabrina's eyes flashed, and air pulsed out from her, knocking Ash to the floor. "I can touch you now, Ash Ketchum!"

Pikachu frowned. Then, suddenly, he realized it.

"Ash! It was the hat, Aaron's hat! I think it gives you a Dark type effect!"

Pikachu went flying into the wall as Sabrina glanced at him.

"It was completely unfair, going into a battle with that kind of advantage… Ash Ketchum. Or do you deny that you make use of Aura Sight in your own gym battles?"

"Hey, lady, you're the one reading everyone's minds and turning your own mother into a puppet!"

Sabrina curled her lip. "I have that right. I'm special, that's what they told me… so then if they want me to be more than normal, they shouldn't object if I treat them as beneath me."

Ash shook himself as he stood up. "Right then, I think I know what to do here." He whispered to himself, "Protect," and a jade-green shield sprang up, blasting away the psychic force. "Looks like I'm going to have to be the inner babysitter."

Sabrina blinked. "Did you steal that line from somewhere?"

"Why can't people ever believe I actually come up with these things?" Ash sighed. "Er, where were we? Oh, right." He lunged for the Saffron Gym leader, and managed to clip her with one glowing hand. Both fell to the floor.

The heir of Aaron picked himself up from the floor. "Ow… that wasn't exactly a smooth transition. Okay, got to get on my game. Mindscape, right. Sabrina's mindscape… now, what's that going to be like?" It seemed fairly normal, like a house in the suburbs… unusually proportioned furniture… twenty foot teddy bear outside…

A boom echoed through the mindscape as the enormous children's toy marched towards the house Ash was in.

Crap crap crap crap! Of course her mindscape is that psycho toybox thing! Ash spun up an Aura Sphere and rammed it through the wall, making a quick exit before the teddy demolished the house. Okay, apparently the symbolism here is that she sees everyone as dolls, toys, playthings. That's the sort of thing someone does if they don't have anyone to play with, they fixate on things.

Adjusting the hat he was incredibly glad to have again – he guessed Sabrina's memories of him were mostly with the hat on, but he wasn't an expert – he slammed together two more Aura Spheres to construct one about four feet across. Releasing it in front of him, he unlimbered the staff on his back and swung at the large Sphere like a cricketer.

The ball of pressurized Aura knocked the bear over on impact, before detonating and tearing the stuffing out of it.

One down… Ash switched to Aura Sight, scanning his immediate surroundings. Nothing seemed to be a threat.

"Hello."

"Gah!" Ash leapt five feet into the air. Spinning, he got a good look at the person who startled him.

She seemed to be a twenty-something young woman, with a kind of delicate poise and serenity. She also had black hair, and after looking at her for a few seconds Ash realized that she looked a lot like Sabrina.

"Who are you?"

She smiled demurely. "I'm Sabrina. Another Sabrina, I should say, there's quite a lot of me in here sometimes."

Ash nodded. "I'm sort of here to try and help with that. So, where do you come from?"

"When I was younger, before the whole fame thing really kicked off," she began, "I used to be really inspired by shrine maidens. Their calmness, the way they were revered for their wisdom… I used to imagine myself as one. Sort of like how most children dream of becoming a Pokémon master, I pictured myself as a calm and centred woman who everyone looked up to for her kindness. As my psychic powers developed, I – she, they – the other parts of me, they became bitter and jaded to the world. They didn't want people to look up to them, they wanted people to know their place. But it didn't touch me, somehow."

"Wow… okay, any ideas how to solve that little issue?"

She looked down. "I would assume that someone with a truly innocent heart would be able to open to her and prove it, prove that they didn't want to use her or monopolize her… just have fun, and give her fun by being there."

Ash relaxed his shoulders, slumping slightly. "I don't think I qualify… I'm not an innocent, I know that much. I feel fear, and rage, and my soul's too battered from too much of life to be carefree. I can manage righteous, even pure – all I need for that is the thrill of Lugia's song or the fires of Aura – but innocence is beyond me."

Sabrina chuckled. "You sell yourself too short. Too few people can even feel what to aim for in this day and age – the only other people I can think of off hand are Lance, Steven Stone and an old man from the Orange islands who beats up palm trees for a living."

Ash snorted with laughter. "Wow… a Sabrina with a sense of humour, the world is ending!"

She smiled again, more faintly. "I know."

"Er, what?" asked Ash.

"I felt the tiny shift as events were altered by one of the legends, and in you I see the hero of the age. Don't let us down, Ash. And I know, I know, that I didn't even need to tell you that. You're a truly remarkable person."

"Wha, guh…how?"

She handed him back his hat with a wink. "I couldn't resist a peek. The hat fell off when you jumped, you'll need it. My other self is not a nice person – she assumes the worst of everyone, and normally she convinces herself she was right. I hope you have a plan."

Before Ash could reply, a childish voice boomed over the figment of town. "PLAY CATCH WITH ME!"

The two looked round to see child-Sabrina, at about five times her older facet's apparent height, bouncing a ball as big as a bungalow on the road.

Ash gulped. "Okay, here's the plan for now: leg it!"

"So that's the situation… she's in a bad way. I think the solitude has torn her up inside."

A smile, warm and pure.

How could I possibly refuse?

"Huff… huff… phew… Okay, now we have a minute," Ash gasped, "Why is it that you haven't already tried to cleanse your own mind? I mean, you're a powerful psychic…"

Sabrina replied sadly, "Unfortunately, when a psychic goes bad, they literally go Dark. I can't so much as touch that aspect of myself without pain, and her powers cut through my defences. Not to mention that I can't even affect her."

Ash mused on that. "Okay, I have a plan. Where is this Dark aspect of yours?"

His reply was Sabrina quietly concentrating. Almost a minute passed before her eyes snapped open. "Found the blind spot she leaves. About a hundred meters – no – she's coming! Look that way!"

Ash turned the direction she pointed, and met a palm strike coming the other way. Turning the attack with his shoulder, he was buffeted backwards by hundreds of insanely fast successive strikes.

What the hell… she's actually teleporting her arms and legs into position for the strikes! I am very glad that she's not this good outside her own mental plane.

The other Sabrina eventually slammed a knee into the boy's chin and sent him flying into a wall. As he groggily pulled himself out of it, she stalked forward. "Another attacker out to 'cure' me, I see. Well, you can tell whatever quack assigned you, psychic, that-" Sabrina stopped. "Something's wrong. You're blocking your presence. How can you be doing that and still project it into my mind?"

Ash coughed. "I'm not psychic. I'm here by different means."

Sabrina shook her head. "Regardless, you will not succeed, and if you will not leave, I will make you."

Apparently the time for talk was over. Sabrina vanished, and Ash felt a heavy blow smash into his side from behind. He'd barely even registered that when she appeared again, sweep kicking his legs out from under him – catching him in the chest – three blows to his back – bringing down a massive axe kick that sent him sprawling.

When he rose, feeling strangely lighter, he saw her looking around in confusion. Gone was the suburban street, replaced by a grassy paddock out behind a large building, set in acres of wild fields.

"What is this, invader? What have you done?" Sabrina said.

Ash snapped his fingers. "I get it! See, Aura techniques for entering the mind aren't projections. They're bridges. And you just forced us out of your mind-" Ash gestured, at the replication of the fields at Oak labs where all his Pokémon stayed while not with him "-and into mine."

A chuckle came from behind the dark Sabrina, and she whirled to find her shrine maiden aspect walking delicately across the grass. "How are you here as well?"

She smiled. "I was invited."

Ash gave her a tired smile, and then carefully unlimbered his staff. Setting it on the ground, he whistled a short sequence of notes. After a distant whinny in response, he nodded gravely and strode over to the maiden. Dark Sabrina's attacks on him bounced off a green shield raised with a mere thought.

Ash passed the staff over. "Here. This is all you need to beat her."

She looked startled. "What? I mean, I – I can't!"

He shook his head gently. "Of course you can. Oh, maybe you couldn't, but you will be able to… about now."

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, with a truly righteous heart. This is just a sort of echo, but then all you're fighting is a bundle of regrets and sadness screwed up tight enough to hurt. So accept his help, and kick her ass!"

Keldeo whickered in agreement, and stepped forward, nuzzling her hand. With a wash of mist and the smell of the sea, he dissolved… and the staff Sabrina was still holding changed into a shimmering, watery longsword that weighed next to nothing.

Sabrina gasped. "What is this?"

The boy responded by pulling Dexter out of a pocket. Sacred Sword: the signature move of Cobalon, Virizion, Terrakion, and Keldeo. Each is emblematic of a great noble weapon: Curtana, Joyeuse, Duredanal and Excalibur respectively. The move draws upon the power of these weapons.

She looked ready to faint. "So this is..?"

"Nah, it's just a shadow of it. Call it… Galatine."

Dark Sabrina approached, trembling with rage. "Don't you see? He's just going to try to use you! Everyone does, we can't trust anyone, lock us away from the world and we won't be hurt again!"

The maiden closed her eyes in sorrow. "I'm not going to hide from reality any more. There are lots of people out there who are perfectly nice and kind and good, and you're stopping us from meeting them, from seeing them, getting to know them… from making friends."

Dark Sabrina screamed in frustration and charged. Without opening her eyes, her foe swept the Sword of Victory up in an arc, cutting her from hip to shoulder… and she dissolved on the wind like a bad dream.

Sabrina slumped to the floor, suddenly exhausted. "How do you do this kind of thing? You seem like… I don't know, a savant or something. You're a klutz… and then you do something like this. It's… perplexing, for a start."

"Honestly?" Ash grimaced. "I don't know. Sometimes things just click. I mean," he picked up the staff, "I have no clue how I just did that. But that's okay, it comes through. Maybe I just have the ability to get overdrawn on karma or something."

She managed a giggle. "Yes, I remember that memory of yours with the bad pun in the prophecy. But what do we do now? My child aspect is still friendless, and without sorting that out I'll just relapse."

"Don't worry. Let's go back to your mindscape, and we'll sort out everything. I do plan things out."

She giggled again. "Could have fooled me…"

After a few minutes trying, Ash remembered that Sabrina had managed to make it between the mindscapes herself. She smiled a little less wanly than before, and pulled him through the air, leaving them back in the suburbs of Sabrina's mental landscape.

The scene that met their eyes made Sabrina simply gape, as Ash grinned with the satisfaction of a job well done.

Child-Sabrina was happily playing catch with a floating pink Mew.

"So you sent your Pidgeot?"

"Yep!" He replied, as Sabrina led the team up the stairs from the basement battle pitch, absently caressing the tail of the Mew on her shoulder. "I thought, what kind of Pokémon do I know that would be a good fit for a psychic in need of friends? And I thought, Mew! The eternal kitten!"

"I'll teleport back and forth, if that's no issue to you, Sabrina."

"Of course it's not. Though I like the idea of visiting your home sometime. A land of crystals that grow like plants sounds interesting."

Maurice of Cianwood, a third tier member of the Dragon clan of Blackthorn (and hence in possession of a dragon companion capable of extended flight) lounged back on his companion Tyl's cloudbank. Tyl was one of the special Blackthorn breed of Altaria – one of the many Dragon species that had been selected explicitly for the size and capability to carry humans long distances.

Tyl hummed a snatch of music. Maurice nodded. "Yeah, I know. But someone's got to run the patrols, and you got to admit you're better at endurance than when we started."

Another lilting tune. "Like I say, what can you do. Well, at least we've got lovely weather thanks to you."

Tyl began to emit a squeaky purr – but broke off abruptly, the duo swinging sharply to the left as a huge something passed, catching them in the backwash.

Maurice looked around wildly. "What the hell was that?"

Tyl whistled a trio of notes urgently. "Invisible? Okay, I-"

The Altaria cut him off with another piping sequence of almost-music, then began to scream.

Maurice clapped his hands over his ears, wishing he could to the same for his Pokémon, as the grating Perish Song resounded through the cloud layer.

Something shimmered and crackled, then an enormous construct of metal and glass refracted into existence.

Maurice stared, aghast. What the hell is this thing doing in the sky?

"Ma'am, the outriders have spotted us."

"Understood, Sensors." J's lip curled. "General quarters, Bosun."

The intercom echoed her words to the backdrop of a strident alarm. "Now hear this! All hands, general quarters!"

Her crew swarmed to their stations and the huge flying fortress came alive with restrained power.

"Guns, fire five mark IX to that pair at the rear, stagger the launch."

"Aye, aye, ma'am." 'Guns' answered, bringing up his schematic of the ship and reassigning feed queues to the launchers. "Firing in twenty."

J didn't answer, simply absorbing the information and acting on it. "Aux, dispatch the cutter on launch. I want those two as hostages."

An oath came from the other side of the command deck. "Ah, damnit. Ma'am, they got off a signal. The jammers didn't manage to spin up in time."

J's head whipped round. "And why is that?"

'Sensors' quailed under her gaze. "Er, the port jammer is down and the starboard one's been up for three days. It needed to be taken offline for cooldown and maintenance."

The silver-haired woman stared at him for another few seconds, before smiling dangerously. "And this didn't get brought to my attention because..?"

The sensor and electronic warfare officer made a squeaking noise and passed out.

"Hmph. Executive Officer, this piece of garbage is reassigned to land duty. Assign his assistant, and don't let this happen again."

Her XO nodded fearfully.

"Well done for reporting this in first. Now, get-" The phone call hashed into static, and Maurice bit back a curse. Figures…

"Okay, Tyl. One pass and we break for it." The Altaria hummed his agreement, and began to muster a green ball of light in his mouth. Just as the Dragon Pulse reached firing size, however, a puff of smoke heralded the launch of air to air missiles from the airship.

Tyl fired his attack and shredded the first missile, then snapped up a Safeguard and sang another jarring note of the Perish Song, killing two more. The one that made it through glanced off the shimmering shield and exploded far off to the left.

Maurice cheered. "Nice work!"

The final missile darted in just as the Safeguard dropped, detonating in a flash of light – and a starburst of yellow beams. One of them splashed across Tyl's flank, turning him instantly to stone and dispelling his cloudy cloak. Without the semisolid seat, Maurice lost his grip on his partner and fell towards Route 14 far below.

It was fortunate for him that he was caught by J's cutter mere seconds after he fell – though given that he then became a captive in the airship's large jail cells, he could be excused for not feeling that way.

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 assumption made here, that Ash will eventually meet Keldeo in the Isshu/Unova arc of the anime or in the movies, seems to be a fairly good one. Thoughts? I have been deliberately leaving the events in Isshu vague, so the skip back could have been at any point in the as-yet-unseen series