Chapter 16 – Over the rainbow

—Pika pi—Pikachu said sad and tired as he was walking next to Ash.

Ash cried, thinking about Gary.

—It was my fault! —Ash cried putting his face to the ground and blaming himself for Gary's death.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu exclaimed worried about his best friend.

—If I hadn't let him go… —Ash shouted in tears.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu started to cry too.

—I'm sorry! —Ash shouted to the sky as if Gary would listen to his words.

—Pikachu! —Pikachu kept trying everything to cheer Ash up.

—Gary's not here…I…I'm not strong enough to go on… what do I have to do now? —Ash asked pessimistic—…I wonder where everybody is… this world is… so deserted, are we in that void Gary talked to me about? It's almost abysmal here without him.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu exclaimed surprised.

And suddenly, a massive explosion was observed by them to the far east.

—What? What was that? —Ash asked frightened.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu exclaimed running in that direction.

—Pikachu! Don't go there! I don't want to lose you too! —Ash ran after Pikachu but his best friend was faster than him.

Moments ago, Lysandre, along with his Mega Mewtwos X and Y, was headed to the furnace where he would get rid of Serena, Clemont and the others.

—I'm sure Ash and Gary will come to save us! —Bonnie exclaimed mad to Lysandre.

Lysandre laughed sarcastically.

—Why do you laugh? They will kick your ass! —Bonnie exclaimed angry.

—Are you sure? Are you completely sure? —Lysandre asked laughing.

—Yeah! Ash is the bravest person I've ever known! He will come to save us! —Clemont exclaimed to support his little sister.

—Yeah, that dork has always something to surprise us—Jessie commented.

—And his yellow rat is always a trouble—James added with a smile.

—So keep laughing, he and Gary will come to save the day, I believe so! —Bonnie exclaimed determined.

—Gary just died—Lysandre said with an intense laugh in his face.

—What?! —Bonnie exclaimed frightened, her face blanked and started to shed tears.

And suddenly; Lysandre's fortress was totally destroyed and Xerneas, Yveltal and Zygarde could get out of the Pokéballs that kept them jailed. The massive explosion was generated by the three angered Pokémon: Xerneas's ferric aura destroyed the fortress; Yveltal's void spheres absorbed everything around and Zygarde's tri-attack generated flames, thunders and froze the environment creating a chaotic arrangement of destruction. Lysandre's Mega Mewtwos recovered their normal form and teleported away.

—What the hell?! —Lysandre exclaimed astonished.

—Look! —Meowth said pointing up where Yvetal was making the sky his territory.

—Ah! —everyone screamed scared when Zygarde appeared in front of them.

—This is the end—Zygarde said telepathically.

—What? Did he just talk? —Sycamore asked surprised.

—Zygarde! Stop! —Diancie teleported to that place and told him telepathically.

—Who's that Pokémon? —James asked scared.

—It's Diancie! —Meowth exclaimed surprised.

—You can't stop me Diancie, even if I don't want to do it, humanity needs to end its course now—Zygarde said determined teleporting Diancie somewhere else.

—We have decided it—Xerneas said entering the scene.

—It's a sacrifice we're willing to make—Yvetal said from the sky.

—What? Why?—nurse Joy asked scared.

—Simple. You humans have shown us that you don't deserve to keep living in this wonderful world—Zygarde said regretful.

—That ambition you have for power is pure negativity to our Pokémon friends—Yvetal said.

—There's not a pure heart left in this world by now—Xerneas added.

—I sent all Pokémon to my void in order to make them wait for a new better world, without humans—Yvetal explained.

—Hey! There's a Meowth over there! —Xerneas exclaimed.

—You will thank me in the future, my friend—Yvetal threw a small sphere to Meowth making him disappear.

—Meowth! —Jessie and James shouted scared and sad.

—Wait! If you say you're planning to take all Pokémon to a better world, what about the humans that are in your void? —Valerie asked curious.

—You're one of the ones who escaped, I see—Yvetal said surprised—they will just stay there forever—he added.

—But that's not fair! You're condemning humanity to an eternity of desolation! —Bonnie cried.

—You condemned yourself, your darkness has consumed all of you, even if we don't take an action to send you all to the void now, this planet will explode because the lightness-darkness equilibrium has been lost, we don't want this planet to be destroyed, it would be such a hard task for Arceus to make another planet for our Pokémon—Zygarde explained.

—But not all of us are mean like this lion man! —Bonnie exclaimed madly.

—Hey! You brat! —Lysandre slapped Bonnie in the cheeks.

Yveltal threw a dark sphere to Lysandre making him disappear too.

—We know that not all of you are mean but the price you have to pay as a whole is because of some, that's the rule—Zygarde explained.

—Who sets those stupid rules? —Ash asked.

—Ash! —Serena exclaimed running to Ash and hugging him.

—Hi Sere! —Ash exclaimed happy.

—Pika pi!

—Excuse us? —Xerneas asked surprised.

—That rule you just said is stupid, why are we going to pay the price of others? —Ash asked.

—We already did this once, you humans needed to work together as a team with Pokémon to live a joyful life, but in the past you used them as war tools in order to conquer territories, just as the thing that guy wanted to do with us—Yvetal commented.

—We decided to send the whole humanity to the void and begin a new world with all Pokémon and a new human race—Zygarde said.

—Then we went to a deep sleep—Xerneas said.

—But I woke up, as I'm the Pokémon of death, I feel when the humans are not being good to each other and to our Pokémon friends, that increased the darkness levels in the world; and that harms yourselves—Yvetal explained.

—And because of some of you, all of our Pokémon friends suffer—Xerneas added.

—You set fire to forests and thousands of our friends lose their homes.

—You throw industrial wastes to lakes and thousands of our friends die.

—You pollute this world and millions of our friends die.

—You make our friends your slaves.

—You make our friends live a mediocre life.

—It's not revenge, we're just imparting justice, just because some of you harm all of our Pokémon friends, we're going to erase you all from this world—the legendary trio explained.

—But that's totally unreasonable! —Bonnie exclaimed angry.

—Some of us make our Pokémon our best friends! —Ash exclaimed.

—Pika pi!

—What? A Pikachu? I'll send you to the void, friend, I promise we will give you a better world, without humans —Yvetal said starting to make a dark sphere to send him to the void.

—No! —Ash exclaimed standing in front of Pikachu before Yvetal could launch the dark sphere.

—Why do you stand in between? —Yvetal asked surprised.

—I don't want to lose him; I won't stand losing him too! —Ash exclaimed crying—Pikachu's my best friend…and I need him now more than I ever!

—As he just said, there are humans that make Pokémon their friends and let them live a joyful life—Diancie's voice said from Gary's mouth. Wait, Gary?

—Gary? Gary! Gary! —Ash shouted in happiness, taking Pikachu in his arms and running to Gary to give him a big warm hug.

—…I'm sorry Ash, I'm not Gary—Diancie said sorry from Gary's body.

—What? —Ash said shocked and paralyzed.

—You don't have control over this body. That's why I'm using this human form and not my Pokémon form—Diancie said, explaining that she was using Gary's body so Zygarde would not teleport her anywhere.

—What do you want, Diancie? —Zygarde asked irritated.

—I want you not to erase human race from this world; they don't deserve it, please! Not because some of them are mean to us we have to condemn them to an empty eternity! Don't you see you're doing the exact same thing the last humanity did to us? You're just turning into them! —Diancie exclaimed from Gary's body, trying to convince the legendary trio to stop their nonsense.

—…she might be right—Xerneas commented.

—…you're right Diancie…but there's nothing we could do now—Yvetal said.

—As we have just said, there's not a pure heart in this world so it's practically impossible to stop this catastrophe—Xerneas explained.

—Why does there have to be a pure heart? —Clemont asked curious.

—A pure heart will balance the darkness and the lightness of this world, right now the world is in pure darkness because the humanity itself has created darkness in this world for the past 3100 years; with a pure heart sacrifice, the person's heart will absorb all darkness until lightness and darkness get balanced and reach equilibrium—Zygarde said.

—But no one has ever done that before, it's just crazy idea Arceus told us a long time ago—Xerneas commented.

—I'll do it! —Ash exclaimed.

—What? Ash, don't! —Serena exclaimed scared.

—…you saved your Pikachu from going to the void…you said he was your best friend…—Yvetal said thoughtful.

—You understand that if your heart is not pure enough to hold the necessary darkness you will just die in vain and we will just erase your friends to the void, right? —Zygarde asked.

—…yes—Ash said determined.

—Well, I hope you prove that we're wrong and that there's still lightness in humans, if you do that, we promise to go to sleep again and let the human race keep their life course.

—It's a promise then—Ash said smiling to the legendary trio.

—It's a promise—the legendary trio said at the same time.

—No! Ash! Don't do that! —Serena started crying.

—Pikachu, my best friend, I will never forget you, thanks for everything you've done with me, thanks for the fights, thanks for those gym medals and for those leagues… we may have not won one of the Pokémon leagues…but we won the most important one, the league of friendship—Ash smiled to Pikachu.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu exclaimed trying to stop Ash.

—I love you buddy, take good care of my mom when she gets back to this world—Ash caressed his Pikachu for the last time.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu cried taking Ash's hand to not let him go.

Zygarde created a barrier that made Serena, Pikachu and the other unable to get closer to Ash, Ash as well wasn't able to listen to his friends' words, the words that didn't want him to do that sacrifice.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu's hand was separated from Ash's. Then he started to launch thunderbolts to break the barrier but it was useless.

—Ash! What the hell are you doing? We have a pending battle! —Clemont shouted in tears but the barrier didn't let him go closer to Ash.

—You fool! We need to see your face when we finally steal your Pikachu! —Jessie exclaimed mad and crying.

Inside the barrier there were Ash, Diancie in Gary's body and the legendary trio.

—Diancie, can I ask you a favor? —Ash asked nervous.

—You're going to clean this world and prove these guys are wrong, of course—Diancie said smiling.

—Please show respect to your olders—Zygarde told Diancie.

—Is there a chance I can talk to Gary? I mean, you're in his body—Ash said curious.

Diancie looked at Zygarde for a moment, looking for some sort of approval; Zygarde moved his head indicating a positive answer.

—…yes, you have a minute—Diancie said using her strongest ability to get Gary back to life for a minute.

—Ash! What am I doing here? —Gary asked surprised hugging Ash.

—I love you! —Ash started crying holding Gary the closest and strongest he had ever done.

—I love you too! —Gary exclaimed so overjoyed he really felt he was alive again— wait…didn't I die? I was burned by the flames and a minute ago I was in some sort of paradise with my parents… and now I'm back? Was I dreaming? —Gary asked confused.

—Unfortunately you weren't dreaming—Ash said crying.

—What? —Gary stopped hugging him and took Ash's shoulders with his hands to see him face to face.

—But I will join you very soon—Ash said smiling with tears on his face, touching Gary's cheeks and contemplating his face.

—What? What are you talking about? —Gary asked extremely confused

—I love you—Ash kissed Gary for the last time.

The minute went away like a second and Gary disappeared, Diancie showed now her true-self since she couldn't be in Gary's body anymore.

—I won't take long before we start our eternity together—Ash faced up to the sky with a hopeful smile.

—Are you ready to clean this world? —Zygarde asked Ash.

—…yes—Ash answered determined—thank you for all; Clemont I'm sorry man, I owe you a battle; Serena I hope you can become an Idol, Bonnie I'm really curious whether you'll decide to become a trainer or something else, professor Sycamore thanks for introducing me to this new region, nurse Joy thanks for taking care of my Pokémon, officer Jenny thanks for ensure us safety, Valerie I would have loved to battle against you too. Even Jessie, James and Meowth, thanks for traveling with me and Pikachu on all our journeys. Thank you everyone, for everything—Ash thought of all the friends he had made on his life as he opened his pure heart.

He started to ascend and soon he lost conscious of his body and he fell asleep…and the moment came, Ash's chest started to shine and all the darkness started to be absorbed by the barrier and then by Ash's heart, it was like a magnet attracting the darkness because the opposite charges of darkness and the lightness of Ash's heart.

From outside, Clemont, Pikachu and the others were shocked to see this happening. The tears and despair were inevitable. Diancie and the legendary trio were hopeful that Ash's heart would clean the world from the darkness the humanity had given itself for the past 3100 years. Second by second, Ash's heart was absorbing more and more dark matter, the amount of negative energy was astounding, Pikachu tried to use a thunderbolt to stop Ash but his attacks weren't effective at all so as everyone's efforts to reach to Ash.

—Clemont, do something! Make some damn artifact to break that barrier! —Serena shouted in despair.

—I can't do anything! Pikachu's attacks don't do anything to that barrier! —Clemont shouted scared.

—Let's do it! —Molly took Bonnie's hand.

—Ash! —Bonnie and Molly ran to the barrier but they were pushed back at the instant they reached it.

—Bonnie! —Clemont ran to see if his sister and Molly were fine.

—C'mon everyone, we have to save Ash! He doesn't know what he's doing! —Serena shouted stressed.

Everyone understood they couldn't do anything to help Ash. Pikachu kept using his electric attacks but the only thing he was doing was getting tired, the barrier was unbreakable. Ash body was being raised up second by second as the darkness of the world kept being absorbed by his heart at an amazing speed. The legendary trio inside the barrier, along with Diancie, was worried; they didn't want Ash's sacrifice to be in vain.

A massive explosion of a white light ended the darkness absorption…equilibrium was finally reached.

—Ah! —Bonnie exclaimed as the light was so strong that made everyone go blind for a few seconds.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu shouted afraid of the worst.

The white light disappeared after a minute or less. Neither did Ash nor the legendary trio and Diancie were there.

—Ash! Ash! No! —Serena shouted lying in the ground shedding the most painful tears in her life.

—He…he sacrificed himself for us—Clemont said shocked.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu started crying.

Something fell from the sky…it was Ash's hat.

—Pika pi! —Pikachu ran to Ash's hat.

—I can't deal with this, it's so sad—Jessie covered her face to not show her tears.

And suddenly, the world started to flourish again, the brown fields were now turning green; the gray sky was changing to sky blue, clouds appeared again, they could hear the flow of water again, they could hear the flow of wind once more. The ground was getting full of flowers of all colors, the forests regenerated; humans were teleported back from the void as well as Pokémon. Everything was peaceful again, thanks to Ash Ketchum from Pallet Town.

—Mom! Dad! —Molly ran to her parents who appeared in front of her and gave them a big hug.

—Molly! —her parents exclaimed shedding tears.

—Meowth! —Team Rocket exclaimed happy to see their best friend back.

—C'mon guys, I was away for a couple of minutes only—Meowth said irritated.

And that place and the whole world started to repopulate again, everyone was back.

—Mother! —Serena ran to her mother searching for comfort after Ash's death.

—Serena! —her mother started to cry of happiness to see her again.

—Daddy! —Bonnie ran to her father.

—Father! —Clemont ran to his father and hugged him along with Bonnie.

—I love you my kids! —their father started crying.

Clemont's Pokémon, Serena's Pokémon, Dedenne, Ash's Pokémon, Gary's Pokémon, Umbreon and everyone's Pokémon also got back.

—Dedenne! —Bonnie exclaimed happy to see her friend back.

—Zar? —Charizard looked confused to see Pikachu holding Ash's hat. He rapidly understood the situation—Zar! —he started crying understanding his friend's sacrifice.

—What happened here? Where's the dork? Why's Pikachu holding his hat? —Meowth asked Jessie and James.

—That stupid dork! —Jessie cried.

—…he…he gave his life to save us—James cried too.

—What?! —Meowth shouted frightened.

—He saved us—professor Sycamore said.

—He's a hero—nurse Joy added.

—He's more than a hero—officer Jenny commented.

Sinnoh's champion and Kalos's champion were really happy to see their Garchomp and Gardevoir back respectively.

—I would have loved to face him on a battle—Diantha said after a sigh.

—He was the best trainer I ever met, the way he treated his Pokémon, I saw him lose at the Sinnoh's league but I totally thought he was the champion, I really believe he would have become the Pokémon Master one day…he really remembered me of myself when I was younger—Cynthia commented sentimentally.

Even A.Z. came back! He was with his beloved Pokémon: Flabébé.

—A.Z.! —Valerie exclaimed happy to see him again.

—Big guy! —Molly exclaimed happy running from her parents to him.

—This was all thanks to…

—Ash and Gary—Valerie said smiling with tears.

—I see—A.Z. said understanding what Valerie's tears implied—my friends, we won't let Ash's and Gary's sacrifice to be in vain! From now on I say we humans live a joyful life with our Pokémon as Xerneas, Yvetal and Zygarde wanted! We take away all the hate, all the envy, all the negative energies away from our lives! We don't want that to consume us again! I say we spread this to all peoples on Earth. Who's with me? —A.Z. asked to all.

—This guy is right—Clemont agreed.

—Pika pi—Pikachu agreed with Ash's hat in his small claws.

—I guess we can make our own Team now—Jessie said.

—We can name it: Team Ash—James proposed.

—We will protect the world from devastation—Jessie said.

—We will unite the worlds within our nations! —James exclaimed energetically.

—I wanna join Team Ash! —Bonnie exclaimed excited.

—Whoa! What's that? —Meowth asked surprised feeling a breeze and looking up at the sky.

The wind blew and waved so tender in their direction. Even a double rainbow appeared! Up in the sky, along with hundreds of flying Pokémon they could all see Ash's "z" cheek marks. They could see his face once more.

And somewhere over the rainbow…

—This is just the beginning—Ash smiled holding Gary's hand as they walked over the rainbow.