Seven Years Later Chapter 9
Seven Years Later
CH. 9: Mind Games
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Eyelids popping open, Kutty was blinded by a light. "Finally awake?", a voice stated from behind. Rubbing the pain away from her eyes, Kutty turned to face the mysterious speaker. To her surprise, it was human dressed in a fancy white labcoat. "Who...", began Kutty. "Already forgotten about me?", the man grumbled. Kutty gasped, "You can't be...Kieth?" "Bingo. Welcome to the inner part of your, or should I say, my mind", Kieth chuckled. "I would have eliminated you as you slept there, but Hypno forbid it." Appearing from out of thin air, Hypno looked at Kieth silently. "The source of this mess lies within your past", he spoke to the two of them. "To fix this, we must start by unraveling the events that led up to your current situation." Hypno shut his eyes and began to channel his energy. The empty space around the group soon formed into a bright and sunny scenario.
"This place...", Kieth gasped, "...this is a memory from my childhood." Kieth soon realized something very important. "Before, I couldn't remember any of this." The trio watched as young ten year old boy walked on a trail with an even younger six year old girl. "Come on Kieth. Just tell me what the surprise is!", the little girl whined. The boy laughed and told her that it was only a few steps away. The two stopped when the grass began to shake. A wild torchic jumped out, frightening the little girl. The boy smiled and took out one of his own pokemon. Throwing the pokeball that held his closest friend, a familiar pokemon emerged from the ball.
"Isn't that me?" Kutty said in shock. Kieth only watched in silence. "Okay Kutty, it's time to catch a new friend for Wendy. Are you ready?" The charmander in the memory nodded and the battle began. The memory skipped past the battle and showed the pokemon trainer celebrating his victory. "Here you go Wendy", Kieth smiled as he handed the captured torchic over to the girl. "Big brother, this is the best present ever!", the girl giggled. Releasing her new pokemon, she hugged the torchic closely. "I'm going to name you Poishu!" After she said that, everything froze in place.
"Why can't I remember anything?", Kieth growled. A new memory began to surround them. This time it was in a rainy forest with a fifteen year old Kieth fanatically running around. "WENDY!", he screamed out into the downpour. A few more minutes of this and he eventually found her. Hiding beneath a very large tree, she was holding two pokemon very close to her body. "Kieth", she sniffled, "something attacked us and destroyed all of my pokeballs. I can't...please save them!" Kieth saw his charmander and her torchic bruised up and shivering from the cold. The flame on the charmander's tail, which represented its health, was slowly fading away. Panicking, Kieth removed his jacket and shirt and wrapped the sick pokemon in them. "Come on, we gotta get to the pokemon center."
Again, the memory fast forwarded, but this time to the pokemon center. The siblings waited out in the lobby, hoping that their pokemon pals were going to be fine. When Nurse Joy came to talk to them, she had horrible news. "They won't make it", she said in a low voice. The memory froze when Kieth swore to himself that he would become a pokemon doctor.
The color drain from Kieth's face. "Something was wrong with Nurse Joy", he whispered in shock. "It was her eyes. She...lied to us back then." Kieth glared angrily at the ground as a new memory began to play. They were now inside of a building. The dim lights overhead were flickering, showing the true age of the structure. A twenty five year old man wearing a white lab coat sat in front of a desk, writing down a few notes. A name stand on the desk revealed the man's name and his occupation. An intercom attached to the desked turned on suddenly. "Kieth...er I mean Doctor Inra, please report to the chairman's office." Sighing, the man organized his papers and got up.
Fast forwarding to his boss's office, Kieth stood and looked at the back of an older man. "Do you know why I called you in?", the boss asked quietly. Kieth gulped and stayed silent. Turning around to face Kieth, the boss stood and smiled. "Thanks to your hard work, you're getting a promotion! Starting today, you will be moved to a different division, so congratulations." Kieth thanked his old boss and left to pack his office.
Skipping again, Kieth was now in an eerie room by himself. A mirror hung on the wall in front of him while an intercom was placed in the corner of the room. "Welcome new kid", a voice came from the intercom. "Before you begin working in this division, we must test your current knowledge. Should you fail, you will immediate by asked to leave the grounds and never return. Understood?" Kieth blankly stared at the intercom through the mirror and nodded. He was then asked a series of question, but was able to answer all of them correctly. The person on the other side was speechless. "I can't believe you got a perfect score. Well, we're extremely lucky to have you on the team. Now, get ready to meet subject 774748662." Kieth was confused. 'Ready for what?' he wondered before a thick gas began to fill the room. "What the hell is going on?", he shouted. Holding his breath, a voice came from the gas. "Nice to meet you kid", the gas spoke. "In this division, you all answer to us." With that being said, it enveloped the man and tainted the memory.
Everything became static-like. They couldn't make out anything except for images that looked like metal bars. Months of memories passed by in this state. However, it was soon recognizable again. The possessed Kieth walked into a room filled with pokemon locked in cages. Looking coldly at the suffering pokemon, he went to do his job. All these months in this kind of environment shattered the once positive man. Unlocking two cages, he grabbed the inhabitants inside and held them under each arm. "Char..." Kieth stopped in his tracks. "Chic..." Something inside him that buried underneath all the hate began to dig itself out. "Ku...Kutty?", he whispered. Breaking out of his state of possession, he looked down at the bundles he was holding to find old pals. Crying, he hugged both fire types and promised to get them out.
Rushing towards the exit, he barely managed to escape unnoticed. Headed into the forest, he stopped to catch his breath. "You can't get away from us that easily!" Nearly jumping out of his skin, he turned to find subject 774748662 glaring at him. "Subject 774748662, no Spiritomb...you're a monster", Kieth coughed out. "Monster you say? Oh we'll show you what this monster can do", Spiritomb chuckled. Kieth felt a sudden pain in his chest. Coughing for air, he looked down towards the ground and froze. "So you noticed our shadow sneak. Hehehehe, not that it matters. Now, become a part of us~." As Spiritomb unleashed a wave of darkness, a bright flash of light covered the area. When the light cleared, Kieth and his pokemon found themselves in a different place.
"You've all had a horrible life", came a gentle voice from the sky. Floating down towards the ground, a green dainty pokemon went up and touched Kiefe's cheek. "I'm sorry, but I must ask you all to risk your lives once again. You see, I've seen the future of our worlds." Kieth was barely conscious, but managed to hear everything. "What do you mean by 'our worlds'?", he wheezed out in pain. "Shh, save your strength. Both this world and the world of pokemon are in great danger. Can you imagine a world where time has stopped? A world where the sun never rises and the wind never blows? A state of eternal darkness and complete distortion? This is what our future will be like if nothing is done. So please, lend me your strength."
Forcing himself up, Kieth reluctantly agreed to help. He followed the strange pokemon deeper into the forest, until they came across a clearing with a strange swirling hole in the ground. "This is the passage of time that I normally use for long trips through time. I've set it up to take you all ten years back into the past. You must stop them from..."
An evil laugh broke through the leaves. "Oh, Celebi. Stop us from doing what, exactly?", Spiritomb cackled as they emerged from the trees. "GO NOW!", Celebi shouted. Kieth stumbled into the passage, but he looked to find something chasing after him. Breathing in one last breath, Kieth turned around and shielded his pokemon with his back. The brunt of the move forced the life out of Kieth, and affected both of his pokemon as well. "Keheheh, how does the power of my pursuit feel? With this, I shall lock away your memories and send you hurtling through time forever!", Spiritomb laughed before the memory shattered into pieces.
Hypno and Kutty watched as Kieth slumped to the ground. He covered his face with his hands and began to cry. Kutty walked up to her former master and long lost buddy and hugged him closely. Sniffling, Kieth hugged Kutty back and apologized. "Even now, I was still Spiritomb's pawn", Kieth said, rubbing his eyes. Kutty only stayed silent and hugged Kieth with all her strength. "I'm sorry, Kutty. Even though I'm gone now, I'm glad that I managed to save the both of you. Let my memories become your strength." Kieth's body began to glow transparent. With tears streaming down her cheeks, Kutty was surrounded by the warming light as she absorbed everything that use to be Kieth.