Life goes on

And thus we traveled in silence.

My arm occasionally goes up to wipe away the silent tears that I can't stop from flowing.

My legs take me ever forward as I try to navigate back to Buneary. And Salandit. And the others.

Good thing that our universe is so broken, that they couldn't die against Regice, even if they tried.

... Things truly are fucked, aren't they?

We meet up halfway. The rest of the gang looks incredibly exhausted but their grime and blood covered faces are the nicest things in this dark and cruel world right now.

Buneary takes one look at me and immediately hops up my shoulder and gives my head a hug. Her brown, dirty fur ended up in my eyes and mouth. Gross.

Salandit and Buneary hold a brief exchange in their pokemon words and then Salandit crawls up my body and hugs my head too... Her claws sting a little as she grips my face. Ouch.

Dawn asks me something and I... I answer that Lucario left to be with her friend.

More hugging ensued and I remind myself that I really need to talk to Dawn about her wilderness dress-code. Pink is just a too offensive color for the wilderness.

"Maybe it's for the best? But it's hard to believe Lucario is really gone." Someone said...

And in turn, I lied to myself and the others. "No. Lucario isn't gone. Her aura is with me."

It sounded much cooler in my head. Now it's just depressing.

...

Narrator-POV:

The group continues their travel through the dead foliage of the old Tree of Beginning as Swole shuts out the outside world from his senses.

"Do you wish to talk about it?" - "Do you want a hug?" Akari and Dawn try their best to help him out but he is stuck too deep into the rut to respond to their help. 

In the end Dawn simply hooks her arm around his and helps navigate him in the right direction.

Even Kidd and Ash try to be as nice and helpful to him as they can, after the realization has set in that he lost a dear friend to save Mew.

Despite not managing to save the original Tree of Beginning, Lucario's sacrifice did manage to stabilize the area, and birth the new Tree of Life. 

The sapling is already spreading its roots far and wide to rebuild what its parent had lost over the decades.

Kidd Summers set the direction that the group went, thanks to the map of the tree that her survey drones had gathered for her. 

In the place where the trunk of the tree branches out for the branches, the group picked up the rest of Ash's friends too.

Max, the 10 year old brother of May. And May, the almost 14 year old girl, who started her Hoenn journey last year. 

"Ash! Are you alright?" Asks May.

"And who are these depressing people?" Max follows up with his own tone-deaf question.

And Brock who currently studies to become a pokemon breeder is also here. "Kidd, at last I can bast in your beauty again!"

'Where are Zoey and Barry?' Wonders Dawn.

"I'm fine, May." Responds Ash. "And these are Jimbob and... uhhh, sorry, I didn't get your names?"

"Are you twins!?" Brock shows his interest in the new girls in his own unique way.

'Jimbob... The fake name that sounded like some autist tried to give a fake name without any time to think about it.' Dawn remembers. She remembers that Ash asked about Swole's name when they first met.

"It is a pleasure to meet you all. My name is--"

"Cough cough!" Dawn interrupts Akari with an obviously fake coughing fit. "No, we aren't twins. This is just a very popular style for a lot of girls in Sinnoh. And it's pretty rude to assume. My name is Nawd and this is Arika."

Dawn manages to come up with a brilliant solution to stay anonymous. However, she does mentally kick herself for coming up with idiotic and dumb names on the same level as 'Jimbob'.

She leans in closer to Akari and Swole to whisper to them. "This Ash is from the past. He recognized you, Swole, in the Bewilder Forest as 'Jimbob'. Great name by the way. But he didn't recognize me. You get it? We shouldn't try to change the past. We don't know him. We are generic trainers."

Swole nods absentmindedly, not fully participating in any conversations anyway but Akari agrees wholeheartedly. The risks associated with changing the past were indoctrinated into her for most of the time that she spent with Lucas in the past.

As they travel down the bark of the dead tree, the breathtaking view is ignored and forgotten in the background.

Step by step, gazes transfixed to their feet. Without any conversation, the group travels down. The melancholy infecting the entire procession.

That's how they traverse the bark of the tree.

The whole time Swole cradles the egg of Lucario in his arms like the lifeline of a climber. 

Buneary and Salandit ride on top of his shoulders, but he notices them not.

At the bottom of the tree, Kidd Summers takes over navigation again and leads everyone towards her yellow, military-grade off-road truck. 

She looks back, once. Thinking of the mythical pokemon that she did not capture. Her own goal is dismissed easily after she thought about the many sacrifices made today to keep the pokemon alive.

"Let's drive back to Rota." Kidd says.

"We can't. We are in Sinnoh." Dawn stops her. The keys in Kidd's hands stop jumbling. She did not expect that.

"What?"

"Check your maps."

... 

"How can that be? None of these maps make sense!" She tipped through some applications on her mobile computer, then pulled out the paper maps from the glove compartment. "None! What is going on? I know that island! I discovered it myself! It's not in the Hoenn sea! ... Fuck! Still no internet connection."

Kidd Summers is losing her mind. And May shoots her a dark look while she covers her little brother's ears. "Hey! Language."

"Excuuuse me, princess! But none of this makes any sense! ... Let's travel to Canalave City. I know they have a port... maybe we can use it to return to Kanto."

"This fits in well with our plans. We were on our way there as well... Before this... adventure began." Akari says.

Swole decides against commenting that over the course of the 'adventure', two of his friends have died. 

He keeps the comment to himself and enters the car in silence.

---

Buneary-POV:

...

Swole... Master...

Sigh. This isn't good.

He is a mess. Again.

And I started to like Lucario too.

Lucario was not like Salandit at all. Even though she was so much stronger than me, she didn't try to force herself between me and master.

Lucario was nice. It's unlucky that she got killed.

Worst of all, it wasn't even in battle. She died to save the dumb tree. I think. It wasn't my highest priority to listen to that stuff when Swole got back and told us about it.

It's sad that Lucario has died, but it's only natural. Everything dies someday.

But master is a human. They live differently than we do.

Their lives are peaceful and death is rare.

I'm not surprised that Swole is so shocked about seeing her die.

But I will remain close to him until he gets over the shock.

...

We are the last outside of the 'car'.

As we enter the car, I make sure that I'm seated on Swole's lap. I think he needs me the most right now. 

Or rather, just my presence. And the hand that starts petting me immediately confirms my suspicion!

I want to make him understand that I won't leave him... Even though I did... For some reason.

I can't believe I just let master walk away when we were fighting Regice. What was I thinking!?

Never again.

This is the kind of shit that happens when I let him out of my eyes. One second everything is alright, the next he turns pale and everything sucks.

'Everything will be alright.' Why was I thinking that?

I know I'm not the smartest, but I'm not that stupid either!

Why are humans so weak!? Sigh... And why do I like that about him?

He's like... my human. And I want him to feel nice...

But not because I'm sappy! Right! A happy human is one who can take care of his pokemon! That must be the reason why.

And I think he thinks the same stuff about me. Like when that thing exploded in the forest. He somehow knew it was gonna explode and protected me.

A "team"... I like that.

"What iss that about a team?" The lizard asks me.

She knows her place and has seated herself beside Swole.

"It's nice to see how much he really cares about us. My parents wouldn't have cared this much if I died. It would just be the way of nature... You know?"

I wait a bit for an answer but I guess my deep thoughts have managed to fry Salandit's lizard-brain.

All she does is look at Swole and then shake her head at something.

"It's making me want to protect him and I have this... urge to help him. At the same time, master-- I mean Swole! He helps us get stronger and without him I would be dead... You get me?"

She's silent again for some time.

... That bitch!

"Hey--" - "Aren't you making thiss thing a bit weird?"

Grrrrr... She finally said something. 

Damn her! She made me wait on purpose!

"He'ss a trophy. Something to conquer and own. Nothing more. Males exisst to protect us and to ssserve us. He collects food and I put him between myssself and the danger. That'ss how it's ssupposed to be."

Parasite.

"And... if he iss lucky. He gets to breed me."

Degenerate. Perverted. Parasite.

"You're so full of shit."

"Ssay that again, rabbit!" The red markings on her back and tail start glowing without Swole noticing.

I would say it again. But I don't want to worry Swole anymore. So I shut my mouth.

She knows that. She's acting like a bitch because she knows I won't fight her right now.

"Nothing to ssay anymore?"

Once Swole gets better, I will kick her face in again.

"You can't fool my nose. You can't even lay eggs yet."

"W-well, sso? Mommy told me all about that sstuff! I'm just a late bloomer."

'Mommy'? Pfft hahaha!

But I see why her mom kicked her out of her cave now. She's way too domineering despite being weaker and ..... less fertile, to take the argument down to her own level.

And as she gets older, it will probably only get worse.

I can't believe she tricked her way into the team-- Oh. Oh! That's bad! That's really bad!

If she's part of the team, doesn't that mean I have to protect her too!?

Shit!

"Sssay, did you know that Lucario was gravid?" Salandit asks me.

... "What's gravid?"

"You know... Ssshe carried an egg." Her claw points at the egg, resting between Swole and Salandit.

"Oh, you mean pregnant."

"No you dumb mammal. We're pokemon. We lay eggss. We're gravid. Not pregnant."

"Tomato tomato. You're neither."

"What'ss a tomato? Anyway, did you know about Lucario?"

"Yes." The smell was obvious. 

Another reason why I liked her more. She wasn't horny for my master, unlike SOME pokemon.

"Who do you think the father wass?"

"Uhhhh, no idea. Some pokemon she met?"

Her eyes are half-lidded and her grin widens. "I bet it wass her trainer. Thiss Aaron guy. I bet he fucked his own pokemon. Hehehe. I wonder when our 'master' will fuck us. Hehehehe."

My face is blushing and my ears twitch as Swole continues petting them.

"You're such a weirdo. Now, shut up. Weirdo."

"You're the weirdo."

"No you."

...

...

...

The car continues moving along but slows down while the humans talk about some stuff.

We're currently in a really smelly area with a bunch of puddles with yellow rocks around it.

Smells worse than Salandit's nesting-cave out here. Like rotten eggs and fart.

"What's that stuff out there?" I ask the gross pokemon who probably knows all about it.

"Geysersss. Occasionally, they shoot up hot water. Some are acid. They are really nice to sswim in. The hot acid prickles nicely on my sscales."

... Acid?

Fucking weird lizard.

Also, leave it to her to know about the piss-rocks and stinky water. Haha!

"Hey Salandit, I've been thinking--"

"Really?! Nice! Good for you!"

Grrrrrrr! This fucking lizard!

Deep breaths, Buneary. Deep breaths. You're being nice. For Swole.

"I've been thinking about what you said about Swole... When I first met him, I thought of him as some kind of pet, you know? One who can bring me tasty food."

"If he bringss you food. You're the pet." 

... She's right... But I didn't know that at the time!

"Anyway... I even hunted a Magikarp to solidify his status as a pet."

"Again. Pets randomly hunt food that their owners don't need. You're the pet."

Grrrrrr! 

... Fuck! Worst of all, she's right again! 

"Anyway! What I wanted to say, is that this is how it used to be. Not anymore. I now realize that a team is much better. And... I... urge you... to join our team."

The last bit was very hard to say. But I did it!

"Ssssso. You accepted being a pet?"

I want to kick her through the car door.

"No, wait." She says. "I get it. 'Team' was hisss word for 'harem'. You have sssimply accepted your role in the harem! Congratulationsss."

I hate her. So. Much.

"Don't look at me like thiss. Don't tell me you wouldn't take him asss a mate if he offered."

I stop talking with her.

The egg can't hatch soon enough. I need someone else to talk with.

---

Swole-POV:

Kidd Summers is kind enough to drive us all westwards, towards Canalave City. 

The ride is very bumpy.

I sit at the window. Staring into nothingness. Thinking about nothing.

Only petting my... remaining pokemon a little.

"Hey... How did you guys fight Regice? Did you win?"

I assume they did. Otherwise they would have been in a much worse shape.

Why did I leave Buneary behind? What madness possessed me? Am I actually going insane? 

All signs point to yes...

Everything seems... cartoonishly depressing. 

Gray colors everywhere. Most noises sound like they are underwater. I had this weird episode when I played Rock-Paper-Scizor with Lucas. I keep making the dumbest decisions. I mutter when I'm not focused.

How did I even know that we could save the tree? And everyone just agreed on it?

Did I really meet Ash before? Was that just a delusion?

... 

I double check the contents of my backpack. A Stantler antler. At least that has really happened.

"And then Regice just suddenly stopped attacking us and floated away. It didn't really look hurt. Mostly just the damage Lucario left on it. She was really powerful."

Dawn continues to explain. Her voice is nice to listen to even though I didn't hear most of it... Lucario really was in her own league among us.

Good grief... Two friends are gone. This sucks.

At least Lucas got a decent life out of it. What was the girl's name he got married to? May? No, Mai was it. 

I wonder if I can look them up in the Canalave City library. Their library has a whole bunch of historical books that have never made it into a scanner. 

I can look up Aaron while I'm at it... I owe it to Lucario to figure out the whole truth.

...

"Swole. Wake up." Dawn shakes me to get my attention. I wasn't asleep. "We are making camp here. The sun is going down."

"Sure."

I guess Lucario got to be with her trainer in the end too. Huh. In a way, both got their happy endings but left the world worse off for it-- 

... No. Just my world.

Am I selfish?

Is it bad that I want... more?

The group splits up. Kidd and her gang hang around the car near a wilted Time Flower and prepare dinner for themselves.

Dawn and Akari more or less drag me closer towards a nearby hot spring.

And then I climbed up a rock for no particular reason. To think, I guess.

The girls have already set up their tents and are preparing to bathe in the water, I think.

Buneary and Salandit followed after me.

...

I should get over it.

Good grief. 

Yea. As much as losing Lucario hurt, I still have so much.

Friends. Buneary and Salandit. And a pokemon egg. Most likely Riolu-- "OMA."

The sound of my flat hand meeting my face rings out.

"I just realized it. Lucario and Aaron fucked."

... Yuk. I'm just going to pretend the egg came from some magic bullshit.

"Did you both know that before?" I ask my pokemon who didn't look shocked at all at my revelation.

They nod.

I guess I'm just blind on both ears.

I turn away from the tree and lean back to just look at the sunset.

It's still gray.

Joking around didn't fix my depression. Damn.

I'm sorry.

"Did you say something just now?"

Buneary and Salandit shake their heads.

Weird I could swear I heard a voice-- Woah!

"Mesprit?!" A gray fairy with two tails and 4 gray appendages on her head appears before me. I know they are supposed to be pink from the sketches I saw in the history book.

She has a gray gem embedded in her forehead and in the tip of each tail. She looks a lot like Mew, except... wiser? 

And her eyes. Her gray colored eyes are peering directly into my soul. As if she can read every one of my thoughts.

I can.

She claims that she can. Her voice seems to be sounding out directly inside my head too. Her mouth isn't moving as she talks.

It is called telepathy. She rolls her eyes. Anyway. Be happy.

Huh? I can't stop grinning. Color has returned to the world and I can feel my face stretching into a wide smile.

Mesprit has a funny looking face. Pink appendages are hanging off her head. Weirdly.

The gems are red like they were in Professor Carolina Shirona's book. Just more sparkly.

Oof.

I lean back a bit too much and land on my back.

The pretty stars are coming out already.

Buneary's fur is soft in my hands. And Salandit's skin feels weird. It's almost human. Just a little rougher and a lot warmer.

Mesprit floats above me, looking right at me.

There. You did good. One of her tails petted my head twice and I had to push it away because it threatened to get into my eyes.

"Haha, what do you mean? Everything's fucked. What did I do good?"

Everything is as it should be. You did good. I close my eyes as she starts petting me again. Now. I need to do just one more thing here... Oh! And remember, her aura is with you.

What? I fight to free my face from the petting. "What do you mean?"

But the moment I open my eyes again, Mesprit is gone.

What the fuck just happened.

"Did that happen?" I ask out loud as I shake off some dizzies.

~"Yess. Unlesss ssomething different happened to you." Salandit says as she crawls on top of me, even pushing the Riolu egg aside.

... I don't think I like that look in her eyes. Or the fact that she pretty much lays on top of me with her face right in mine. Or her heavy breathing.

If she was a human... "Woah, hold your Mudsdale!" I sit up quickly and Salandit tumbles away before Buneary jumps between her and me.

"Bune! Buneary!"

"Sala!? Sa, Salandit!"

"Buneary, Salandit. Stop arguing with each other all the time." 

Buneary squares her shoulders to make herself appear more threatening and Salandit points a claw at... me? Why? What did I do?

"Grrrr."

Uh oh. "Hey! Calm down, both of you! I'm sure this is just a misunderstanding. And Buneary, you agreed on her being added to the team. You need to get along with her better. You can't fight her on every opportunity."

"Bu-- Ne-- bu--" Her paw keeps switching between me and Salandit, as if not knowing who to accuse, before she throws both arms up in the air and sits down on my lap. ~"Fuck it. I give up. -Buneary."

~"I can!?" Salandit answers her on the last part of Buneary's statement.

"Grrrr."

~"... I will asssk again later."

"Haha."

This... is better.

---

I lay there for a bit longer. Just lazing around with my pokemon.

The last rays of light for the day passed over the jagged mountains and we are left in shadow until the real night begins.

'Her aura is with you'... Mesprit's words pass through my mind again and again.

I'm not sure what she means.

'Her' must be Lucario. I can't think of anyone else.

... Wait, these bubbles, which went to me instead of the tree!

I sit up and replace Buneary rudely with the egg.

My eyes are once again closed in concentration and I try to feel for the bond between me and Lucario again. 

And-- There it is? I can feel it, but it's not going anywhere. Like a cut string.

Why would Mesprit tell me that? To cheer me up? To make me think that Lucario isn't truly gone as long as I can remember her? 

... No. That can't be it.

Mesprit literally just made me happy. She doesn't need to cheer anyone up. There must be a deeper reason to it. This was far too specific to be nothing.

But why is it so cryptic? 

... No way. I think I have an idea.

When Lucario activated her aura, she... She left something of herself inside of me--

Narrator: Not like that. Grow up.

A piece of her soul. And when... she died, I got a few more pieces. 

And now, I have an egg... A blank slate, so to say.

I could-- No. That would be wrong. I would deprive this egg, the future Riolu, of his or her life... to revive Lucario?

If that even is what Mesprit told me to do.

"Argh! Why!? Damn you Mesprit!"

It would be so much easier if she simply told me what to do. It's like she left everything up to me, just to fuck with me.

The selfish choice is to revive Lucario. I would be happy. Lucario might be happy but I effectively kill a baby.

The altruistic option is to leave Riolu alone.

Wait, it's 'try to revive' Lucario. I have no fucking idea if it would even work!

I would basically be experimenting with Riolu's soul just for a chance to get Lucario back. It's the ultimate selfish decision.

But aura is life force. Lucario told me that it's inherently not destructive. No matter what goes wrong, Riolu will survive. Just... not as the same person.

Arceus...

... "Fuck it!" I'm gonna do it!

Altruism killed Lucario.

I know that I can't save everyone but this is just a choice between an unknown pokemon and Lucario. It should be a simple decision to make.

I close my eyes and concentrate-- My breathing is erratic. I can't focus. 

I'm about to kill something.

Saliva builds up and I swallow heavily. I try my best to steady my breathing.

I'm not killing. I'm... replacing... That's right. I'm not a killer!

I think of nothing. I close my eyes again. And I feel for my aura.

I feel for every moment I shared with Lucario. Every alteration she left on my soul. Every shard I can find. And I pull on it.

Without opening my eyes, I can feel a ball of aura forming in the palms of my hand... It's so tiny. All the time I spent with Lucario amounts to so little. Yet the hole she left in my heart is so large.

Our adventure was cut short, but I won't accept that!

"Argh." I strain as I pull out more.

My own feelings for Lucario. My desires for adventure with her, the greatness I expected of her, the dreams I wished for. I pull on it all and I push it all into the egg.

I concentrate even more. I can feel the egg rejecting the bond. It struggles. But then... it relents. Accepting its fate. Letting the aura flow freely inside.

Not 'its fate', her fate. I can feel it. The changes. Whatever soul Riolu had before, has changed.

Cough "Huff! Huff. Fuck. It still wasn't enough."

She's still an egg.

"Ha. Ha. Is this my punishment for something?"

It wasn't enough. I felt it. 

There is a bond between me and the egg now. It feels almost the same as the bond between Lucario and me but I know there isn't Lucario inside.

I failed.

But I don't regret trying. It was the right choice for me and I need to live with the results.

I trace my hand over the shell of the egg.

It feels warm. Welcoming almost.

I'm left with a weird feeling in my heart. The bond between a trainer and their pokemon is a mysterious thing and as far as I know, it's still a very undiscovered research area.

When I look at the egg, it's like I'm looking at a friend.

And when I'm thinking of what I had done to my friend, I'm left with ambivalence. Regret perhaps?

No. Not regret. I just wish it had worked.

"Hey Swole!?" Dawn's voice comes from below. I peer over the edge of the rock I'm sitting on and see them sitting around a campfire, making dinner for us. Ash's group is somewhere else.

"Are you alright up there? We're making dinner, you want some too?"

Looks like they are making fried eggs. "Yea, I'm better now. We're coming down."

And I am really fucking hungry. The last food we had were sandwiches for breakfast. Right before Dawn caught a Mawile. I could eat a whole Magikarp right now.

I carefully scale down the rock with the egg in my arm. Buneary hitches a ride on my shoulder but Salandit walks beside me, like a gecko on the wall. 

"Hey Salandit. You can climb on me too."

This whole adventure made one thing crystal clear to me: I want to spend as much time with my friends and pokemon as I can.

I won't let Buneary intimidate Salandit into a second class position just because I caught her later.

Salandit appears taken aback and looks to Buneary for confirmation and when she took too long, I simply grabbed Salandit and placed her on my other shoulder before continuing my climb.

... I'm the trainer. I decide who can ride me.

Her claws dig into my shoulder but the pain can be easily ignored.

"Now. Lets pick up some food. I'm sure you two must be really hungry by now."

---

...

You know what?

Life is not so bad after all.

I was so stuck in my depression that I couldn't see what I had.

I might have lost a partner pokemon. And I might have lost one of my best friends. And the universe might be fucked beyond repair.

But I still have my friends.

"Can you pass me the salt?" Dawn asks me as she tries to eat one of the eggs that she managed to burn.

"Here you go."

"It's the cast iron. The pan got hotter than I thought." She tries to make excuses.

My dear friends, who look like twins but couldn't act more differently from each other.

While Dawn digs into her eggs like a savage, occasionally making sure we are still alone, Akari keeps up her appearances all the time: She daintily holds a piece of egg between her chopsticks.

Except when she is embarrassed. Then she stutters around like a shy girl. It's so cute of her when that happens.

We are all sitting together on the ground. Around a kotatsu-like table, which Akari insisted on getting for our group, merrily eating more or less burnt eggs and solemnly talking about only necessities. 

"Shut up. They aren't burnt. They are crisp." Dawn copes.

... I need to watch my mouth. I don't want to mutter the wrong thing to the wrong person at some point.

Anyway, the table isn't heated, so it's just a regular, low table where you have to sit on the ground.

Gives me a good idea for a future present for Akari though.

"B T W..." Akari says. Pronouncing each letter of the abbreviation out loud. "Did I say that correctly? Swole, you should know that this Ash is from the past, if you had not figured it out yet. You should attempt to avoid giving him any information. We do not want to change the past somehow."

Huh. Ohhhh, yea. That makes so much sense.

I guess I can strike out one of my many hate-points for Ash on my shit-list.

Still, I really hope to meet him in battle for the Platinum League. I want to bash him into the ground. Proverbially. The 250₽ will keep him on my shit-list forever.

And I bet he caused the whole tree thing in the first place, somehow.

"Thanks for telling me. I was too far away in my own thoughts to notice it. And when you use it in a sentence, you pronounce all the words. B T W is just for written text."

"Thank you."

That also explains why Zoey wasn't with them.

My... long distance girlfriend? It's not like we have anything official going on but she does send me nudes.

Once the internet works again, I'm going to clarify things with her.

... Do I really need to though? Sure, a girlfriend would be nice, a harem even better... But it will take time and effort out of my career.

Maybe we could find a middle ground? That we don't take it too seriously and just... see what happens?

Yea. Whatever we agree on, for the immediate future, I will focus on my pokemon.

Buneary, who gobbles down food just as savagely as Dawn. She needs to train more. It seems like she takes her position as the ace of our team seriously.

But if she wants to be the ace, she needs to work for it.

I will help her along of course, but I will help my other and future pokemon as well.

She seems to notice the shift in my mood and re-seats herself into my lap, where I can pet her while eating.

Dawn. Akari. Buneary. Zoey. Just with those few people still in my life, I can truly say that life is actually pretty good.

And not all that happened in this adventure was bad. 

I caught Salandit after all!

"Stop teasing Buneary."

She tried to steal food from Buneary the moment she got distracted, even though she has the same food on her plate and she knows, all she needs to do for more, is ask.

The little demon is quite the troublemaker. Poison and fire. What a typing. I can really only say that I lucked out with her.

Speaking of Salandit, I don't think I have really checked out her stats yet!

I completely left her out of all my battle planning! What kind of trainer am I?!

... Well, a new one. But that's no excuse to neglect my pokemon!

I scarf down the rest of my egg and pull out the pokedex and her luxurious, black, red and gold pokeball.

After a fresh scan, I see this:

Health Points: 32

Attack: 62

Defense: 35

Special Attack: 115

Special Defense: 39

Speed: 120

Moves: Fake Out, Scratch, Sand Attack, Smog, Ember, Mud-Slap, Will-O-Wisp, Poison Gas, Sweet Scent.

Whew! Not bad! Not bad at all!

She's a tiny bit weaker than Buneary now, but stronger than Buneary when I had just caught her.

A bit of a glass-cannon though. There is no way she can take hits like Buneary can. But with moves like Will-O-Wisp, Poison Gas and Sand Attack, she won't need to take hits.

And from dad's library, I remember that most Salandits have the ability 'Corrosion'. Which allows her to poison even steel pokemon!

Oh right! When we first met Lucario, Salandit's Poison Gas managed to hit her. That just proves her ability must be Corrosion, since Lucario is a Steel and Fighting type pokemon.

Ha! The stuff I said in the interview really is true now. Byron really does need to watch out, because I'm coming for him!

Salandit will be a massive counter to him!

She's great!

... Although the look she gave me earlier has me worried... If I didn't know any better, I would have thought she wanted to eat me... Or rather ''eat''...

It was probably just my imagination. A leftover of whatever Mesprit had done to our minds.

Let's just forget about that and think of the egg instead!

Right beside me, lies Lucario's egg. White, with large blue dots. A Riolu.

Even illegally poached eggs are highly valued. An egg without pokemon parents becomes legal to obtain and gains even more value. And a rare species like Riolu makes this egg even more expensive!

But... the emotional value makes it priceless. I would never sell this for any price.

So why am I even complaining so much!

This adventure was great!

Life is great!

---

Narrator-POV:

And thus, our little adventure to save the tree ends.

Our hero, Swole Solo, continues to lie to himself and to eat with his friends and pokemon, all while the effects of Mesprit's manipulations continue to linger in his heart and mind.

Some subtle, others obvious. But all her changes in Swole and many other people are steering the world on its course past oblivion.

Much death has occurred today but much more has been avoided thanks to the ultimate sacrifice made by the very brave pokemon: Lucario.

Yet, the heroes are not even aware of how many lives they truly have saved today, as the new tree - the Tree of Life - spreads its roots across the region and brings stability to the world.

Tiny, crystalline roots are currently coursing through the corpse of the Tree of Beginning. Taking over the old and forming something new.

And as more roots build, the sapling grows taller by every minute. By now, it has already begun to pierce through the ancient canopy above the heart-chamber. It already grew over Sir Aaron's and Lucario's staff and a new crystal heart is forming around it at this very moment.

The Tree of Life is destined to be much larger than its parent has ever been.

As for Mesprit, the pokemon who is said to have gifted humanity with emotions, 'The Being of Emotion': In the distant past, she was a feared creature. People believed that she would punish unworthy humans by throwing their emotions into chaos and disarray.

But in truth, she is not vindictive at all. She merely taught the chosen ones the values of sorrow, pain, and joy.

While invisible, she decides to hang around a little bit longer, to make sure that Swole comes to the correct decisions on his own.

A little bit later, just when Swole starts checking Salandit's stats on his pokedex, she deems her job to be done and leaves the heroes behind to resume with her mission elsewhere.

But not before fixing one last thing...