Chapter 26
Misty, Brock, and the Professors walked down the long corridor, being careful not to touch anything that might cause further delay. After about a minute, they arrived at a large chamber with white, glowing crystals hanging from the walls. In the center was a cluster of amathyst crystals that glowed brighter than all the others.
"Is that what I think it is?" asked Oak.
"I believe so," replied Birch, "that must be the Millennium Crystal."
"I guess you could call me that, but I'm not really a crystal,"
The group jumped in surprise.
"By the way, I'm Jirachi, the Wish Pokemon!" the voice giggled.
The Millennium Crystal grew brighter and brighter until they were forced to shield their eyes. When they could see again, the Millennium Crystal was gone, and in its place was a small, white, and yellow Pokémon with three blue tags hanging from its head.
"Now," Jirachi smiled. "You have a wish you need granted, right?"
"Um, yeah," Brock still felt a little shocked.
"Great!" Jirachi did a flip in the air. "I haven't granted a wish in over 900 years! What would you like to wish for? My only rule is you can't wish for more wishes,"
"What should we ask for?" asked Misty.
Birch stepped forward. "Jirachi, how many wishes are we allowed to have?"
"You can have three!" Jirachi pointed to the slips of paper on his head. "I would give you one each, but… I only have three wish tags."
Misty turned to the Wish Pokemon. "Alright then, Jirachi, I wish that we knew what to wish for to save Ash,"
"Coming right up!" One of Jirachi's wish tags glowed, and a paper scroll appeared in Misty's hand.
Oak leaned forward to read the scroll. "What does it say?"
Misty began reading.
The Prophecy of True Eons
A fateful night in a city of water,
An Eon makes a sacrifice like his father,
A human will save him with the purest of hearts,
That is where the prophecy starts.
The Chosen of Arceus will then arise,
Saving another from their demise.
Taking the form of Eon with power,
Stronger than Raquaza, within the hour.
The mythical Latius will be the new Chosen,
Though he already has been, and said he was frozen.
The Chosen, however, will have to fight,
And push back the darkness with his light.
The Chosen has the power to win,
But be warned, the battle is not won.
As evil's greed commits a sin,
The Chosen alone cannot shun.
Before the world can be saved,
Before the Chosen saves.
A singular wish must be made,
In Hoenn's ancient caves.
The wish will succeed, but only if
It is carefully done, so don't let your mind drift.
To save the Chosen from evil's curse,
You must use this special verse.
When you wish, it must be truly meant,
Or else, it will not be truly sent.
Read on very carefully,
So that your wish will come to be.
Misty took a deep breath. "Uh, Brock, can you help me with this?"
"Sure," Brock took the scroll from Misty. He cleared his throat and read the words on the parchment.
~~~
"Are you sure?" Latias fidgeted with her claws.
Pikachu nodded. "As sure as I can be,"
Latios sighed. "If there aren't any other ideas, this might be crazy enough to work."
"Let's go crush some evil dudes!" Skye's amulet glowed as she switched to her Jolteon form.
Although Pikachu told Latias his plan would work, he wasn't entirely sure himself. He planned to have Latios and Latias fly around until they found Ash. Once they did, he and Skye would make a distraction so Latios and Latias could grab Ash's Pokeball and make a run for it. It wasn't the best plan in the world, but it would have to do. They had considered using his original Pokeball but figured it was too risky since the Dark Ball might have messed with the Pokeball's functions, seeing how it captured Ash even though he was already caught.
"Ready, sis?" Latios shoved a metal rack of Ultra Balls out of the way.
Latias clenched her claw. "Let's go save Ash."
~~~
Latius was bored. He had been in this thing for hours (okay, minutes, but it felt like hours). He didn't mind that the machine was draining his energy. It wasn't using much, and he didn't need it anyway. He just wished it could do its job without him being in this stupid metal cage that he couldn't even touch.
"Can I go now? I'm bored," Latius complained.
Nigel sighed. What was wrong with that Dark Ball? He hadn't minded at first, but Latius was very annoying. At least it had wiped his memories… maybe he needed something stronger for legendaries in the future. After all, Ho-oh had been freed, and Nigel was forced to recapture the Rainbow Pokemon. He made a mental note to himself to do that soon.
"I'm hungry,"
"You'll get food later," Nigel held back his annoyance, "But only if you stay in there."
"Ok, fine,"
Nigel cracked his knuckles. It was time to put his plan into action. Pressing a button, he channeled the machine's energy into a small device. Making Dark Balls had always been a long and expensive process, which was why only he had Dark Pokémon and gave the rest of his team Shadow Pokémon instead. But not anymore. Nigel pulled a newly made Dark Ball out of the capsule. Perfect. In fact, why put off making a stronger Dark Ball longer? The sooner he did, the sooner he would stop being harassed by complaints of boredom and hunger. Now, how to do that?
"Is it later yet?"
~~~
"Have you found him?" asked Latias
"Not yet sis, just keep looking, he can't have gone too far," Latios flew through another hallway, pressing his ear to each of the metal doors for any hints of where Ash might be.
"Couldn't we try talking to him with telepathy?" asked Latias.
"Good idea," said Latios, "let me try really quick." He reached out to Ash, tracing him using the bond they had formed over the time they had been together. "Ash? Are you there?"
After a second of delay, a voice responded. "Hi! My name's Latius! Who are you?"
That was… a strange reply. "I know you're Latius, Ash. This is Latios."
~~~
Back in Nigel's machine, Latius was just as confused as Latios was. But that name… Ash… he had heard that somewhere before. And Latios too… maybe this was one of his friends, and he called him Ash for short. Though he didn't see where Latios got 'Ash' out of 'Latius'. He shrugged. At least he had someone to talk to. "Hi, Latios! Um… do I know you? Your name kinda sounds like mine. By the way, do you have any food? I'm hungry,"
"Yes, I have some food, but I need to know where you are."
Latius suddenly realized he had no idea where he was. "Uh… I don't know, but I'm in a room with this machine with a bunch of weird mechanical arms. Also, I'm kinda stuck between these metal rings." He sent Latios a mental image of the machine.
He heard Latios gasp and wondered what was wrong. How bad could this be?
~~~
Thank you for reading!
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