Desolate [Pokémon Arven x Protagonist]

The Final Battle Was Unforeseen (Part 2)

Koraidon roared, the rubble on the ground shaking from the noise. AI Sada chuckled. "Ah, and the way you soared free through the very skies on those wings of yours." She sighed. "I wish that I, too, might be as free as you all—free to seek out that which I might treasure above all else. Not..." She opened her arms, sorrowfully counting the crystals melted into her body. "...bound."

"Your own treasure...." Penny gathered.

AI Sada nodded. "As long as I remain here, the time machine will not stop—for I am inextricably connected to it." She placed her free hand on her waist, smirking in realization. "So, I've made a decision: I will use the time machine to journey to the world of the ancient past that I have dreamed of."

We all gasped. "What?" Nemona begged. "You can't just leave now—right when we finally reached you!"

AI Sada wasn't fazed. "I am not going only so that the time machine can be stopped. I also cannot deny my desire to see that ancient world for myself." Even on top of the pillars, we could see a huge smile on her face. Her eyes were creased in a new brightness a plain machine could never maintain. "Is this what it feels like to have your heart race with the thrill of adventure...?"

I felt my fingers cramp up as Arven crushed them beneath his own anger. "What is wrong with you?" He shouted, a growl in his throat.

"Arven," AI Sada pressed, monotone. Arven's teeth were clenched. He looked to be about ready to scale the pillar himself to face the AI. "I am sorry that I kept the truth from you for so long," she apologized. "I inherited all the thoughts and wishes of the original professor, and so I understand better than any..." I saw Arven's breath quicken, his anger falling into a depressed pain. "...your mother truly loved you."

Tears choked him. "You... you can't...." His voice broke as he fought his emotions. "You can't just go and say a thing like that now!"

"No?" Sada seemed hurt. "I suppose you're right." Arven broke down, wiping his sobs away with his sleeve. I tried to comfort him as best as I could. There was a boot up sound from above. The machine began to open back up, spinning projectiles around its white portal. "I am sorry," AI Sada repeated. Her hair fluttered in the wind behind her, her matching blond locks waving a departure to her son. "Arven, Koraidon, Lugosi, it is a little sad, but I'm afraid this is good-bye."

The noise picked up, becoming too loud to hear each other without yelling. Particles spun angrily about the black machine, threatening to take away anything within reach. AI Sada took a step back, then another, until she crossed the bright yellow warning tape around the center of the portal. Attempting another footstep, she instead landed in the air, the portal levitating her upwards towards the abyss.

"Mom!" Arven shouted, pulling himself from my grasp, reaching out at the sky in vain as his mother allowed herself to be taken by the time machine.

Humanity does not, in fact, possess the knowledge to develop such a sophisticated AI at present. Her words echoed in my brain.

"Farewell, my free adventurers!" AI Sada shouted, gleefully and excitedly. She forced her other hand from her pocket, crystals clipping off and falling upwards into the portal.

The crystals that make up the Zero Lab have made such a thing possible here.

Sada placed her petrified hand to her forehead, giving us a final salute, edges of her smile reaching cheek to cheek. "I bid you adieu!"

But they are also why I cannot leave this place.

The portal flooded the crystal cave with light, its gate opening wide to accept its sacrifice. "Professor...." I muttered. AI Sada finished her wave with a cheeky grin and shut her eyes, letting the gravity pull her away from us. She knew.... I felt a lump in my throat. She didn't want them to stop her if they knew.... The time machine whirred furiously, sensing something off. The electric booming was excruciatingly loud, but it continued allowing the passageway between the two times, noticing its offering, and swallowing her whole. The chaos died at once. The walls turned black, the sporadic noises ceased to an eerie silence, and the machine froze in time. I could hear all of our hearts pounding in that quiet, decimated room.