A Journey's Link

Chapter 58 - Master?

Taking another deep breath, A clicked on the file and was met with images of an article. An article? A was now officially intrigued, so he disregarded his surroundings as he began reading the article from beginning to end, wondering how it could relate to his master and clue him in on any details.

The article seemed to be written about the leader of some crime organization called Team Rocket. The leader, Giovanni, was a mad man of sorts, stopping at nothing to get what he wanted. As A continued reading, he found that the author of the article had a biased hatred towards this Giovanni person, as they would always refer to him in a negative light.

Once he reached the end, A frowned. He assumed that the article would lead him somewhere in explaining who exactly his master was, but found that it was simply an article about some crime lord who had disappeared from the face of the planet. A scrolled back up and looked at the name of the author, which looked familiar to him.

'Aaron K' was the name of the author. "Aaron K?" A said out loud, visualizing the name in his head. The initials are AK! A realized suddenly. A sat there for a moment, thinking about those initials. The computer owner's initials were AK! Does this mean that...?

A began thinking fast, trying to piece together all the information. Not only was his master keeping a mysterious article on his computer, but he was also the one who wrote that very article. A began hearing noises coming from behind him, so he quickly tried closing all of the files he had opened and tried turning off the computer before anyone could catch him in the act.

As A extended his hand to shut the computer off, he felt a blunt force impacting his head. His vision blackened and he felt himself falling onto the floor out of the chair, unable to process what was happening. He felt the cold floor scraping against his body as he was dragged out of the room, losing consciousness the entire time.

[-]

Ugh... my head is pounding. Where am I anyway?

A slowly opened his eyes and saw a gray, concrete floor. He brought his head up and rubbed his eyes, feeling a massive headache with every pulse throughout his body. It was unbearable, so he sat there holding his head, attempting to find some relief through the torture.

"Must hurt, huh," A gravelly voice said, causing A's head to hurt even more. He looked up to find the owner of the voice, but it was hard to see in the darkness. He crawled towards the voice but found that he was contained by iron bars on all sides, leading him to understand that he had been caged.

He sat back down out of exhaustion and heard footsteps coming toward him. "I did knock you out pretty hard," the voice said apologetically. The voice sounded extremely familiar to A, but something about it was just so painful. "I was about to scold you for failing to stop Ash from saving Ninja Village, but when I saw you there I just...exploded," the voice explained.

A opened his eyes wide. Ash? Ninja Village? Those words repeated in A's mind, furthering his headache. "M-Master," A weakly spoke, his voice tiny compared to his master's booming presence. "Ah! Turns out I didn't hit you in the head too hard!" His master's voice boomed excitedly.

A brought his head up and saw him standing right in front of him. The mask that he normally wore was completely gone, exposing his raw face, unfiltered. It was oddly human. A had always thought that his master was some higher being, but in front of him was just a man. A simple, normal man.

"Master?" A questioned what he was seeing, wondering if his eyes were playing tricks on him. His master chuckled and shook his head. "Just call me Aaron from now on," he said, his smile fading as he spoke. "Since you already found out who I am," Aaron said menacingly, causing A to legitimately fear for his life for a moment.

A sat unmoving, tracking Aaron with his eyes as he paced around the room and shook his head. "You just don't get it, do you?" Aaron said, circling the cage that he was in. "Get what, mas-" A began, cutting himself off from saying his previous name. Aaron shot him a dirty glance, before answering his question. "You don't get who I am or why I'm doing this, do you?" He asked A, who shook his head.

"No, Aaron, I don't, " A responded, finding the name unfamiliar on his tongue. Aaron sighed and sat down on the ground. A felt a sense of tension grow between the two of them before Aaron spoke again. "Do I look familiar to you, A?" Aaron asked what seemed like a random question to A. "Um... Maybe," A responded hesitantly.

Aaron shook his head. "Look closely," he insisted, leaning forward slightly for A to see. Looking at his facial expressions and features, A found some familiarity with him. "I guess you look kind of familiar," A said softly, hoping that was the answer he was looking for. It wasn't, as Aaron grunted angrily and punched an iron bar out of frustration.

A expected him to cry out in pain upon coming into contact with the bar, but instead, he shook his head as if he had just punched someone else rather than a metal object. "How did-" A spoke up before getting shushed by Aaron, who still had things to say. "You must know that I'm the author of that article you read?" Aaron asked him as he put his hand in his pocket.

A nodded as Aaron continued. "Then I guess you know I hate Giovanni," He said definitively. A tilted his head to the side. "Why do you hate him?" A asked bravely. "Besides the fact that he's a crime lord, it sounded like you had a personal grudge," he added, earning a small wince from Aaron. "I do," Aaron responded in a cold tone. "He took away something very important to me."

A could hear tones of pain and sorrow in Aaron's voice, leading him to feel sorry for him momentarily. He was brought back to reality when he saw Aaron punch another iron bar with another hand out of anger, unfazed yet again. A decided not to ask about what Giovanni had taken from him, but he had already begun explaining before he had a chance.

"I had a family," Aaron began, rubbing his hand after the punch. "A family that I loved," he added with a sigh. "We moved to a new town after I found a job as a journalist for a local news station," he explained, visualizing his home and job in real-time. A could tell that he was longing for that time again, as there was a gleam of hope and nostalgia in his eyes.

"My very first article was to cover him," Aaron continued, his voice dropping as he talked about Giovanni. "I was able to go undercover and ended up revealing so much about what was happening underneath the surface. It even led to the temporary disbandment of Team Rocket and the disappearance of Giovanni," he explained, smiling as he remembered the fame and glory he got for writing the article.

A was able to smile alongside Aaron for a moment, before watching as the smile turned into a painful frown. "But then he came back for revenge," Aaron whispered. "He forced me apart from my family for years, causing me to never see them again." While A had never had a family to lose, he couldn't imagine going through such a process.

"And then, after being able to shake Giovanni off my trail, I discovered that not only was my family doing just fine, my son had gone off on his adventure," Aaron continued explaining, his hopeful tone reappearing in his words. "So I was able to find him and began tracking his journey with great interest, seeing him defeat gym after gym and making friends along the way." By this point, Aaron had gotten excited as he talked about his son's advancements.

A noticed yet another dip in enthusiasm. "Of course, I also discovered that Giovanni was after another target for power," Aaron depressingly said. "So I began targeting that power to use against him," he added. "Zygarde," A whispered in awe. Aaron softly smiled and nodded. "Correct. I was, and still am, after Zygarde so that I can finally get to my son again safely," he said, finishing his story.

"But I have to stop my son from getting in the way," Aaron added in an almost reluctant manner. "I have to stop him in his tracks so that he doesn't get involved in the fight at all. I don't want to lose him again," Aaron said passionately, his eyes flaring up with the same intensity that A had seen in Ash.

It made sense. All of it. A stared at Aaron in awe and stuttered, "I-Is your son Ash?!" He yelled in a confused and shocked manner. Aaron looked at him and grimaced with a slight grin. "You finally get it!" Aaron exclaimed happily, his voice booming throughout the room they were in. "I'm Aaron Ketchum, and I'm going to take down Giovanni once and for all to get to my son!"