Remember? -A Pokémon Story-

Chapter 22: The End

Solgaleo looks down at you, waiting. You take one last deep breath and squeeze your dad's hand.

"Take it out," you say, trying to keep a steady voice. Immediately, the Legendary Pokémon's mane heats up and its head shines brightly. You recoil at the light, closing one eye as the other attempts to adjust.

The pain starts out small, only slightly noticeable. You can feel an uncomfortable weight in your veins, like something else is coursing through it.

The pain quickly escalates, once again making your blood feel like it's boiling, and like your veins are going to burst from your skin. You grit your teeth, trying not to scream.

Your legs give out from underneath you, unable to hold your weight any longer. Your dad catches you and carefully lays you down on the ground, still holding your hand as he kneels over you.

You look down to see your veins start glowing faintly. It's almost like your skin is translucent and the blood flow inside of you turned a bluish-gray color. 

In that moment, your muscles tighten as the bluish-gray color seeps out of your skin, almost like a mist that has a little more solidity to it. Your eyes widen as you realize that this is the DNA from the two Pokémon. 

As the DNA leaves your body, everything starts going downhill. Electricity starts discharging out of your hands, draining the remains of Xurkitree, and you start to feel weaker.

You clench your jaw, withstanding the pain. As more and more of the electricity and DNA leaves your body, you can feel yourself losing strength.

The illness your dad talked about is returning already.

Finally, the electricity disappears, and you feel an empty weight in your chest. You breathe heavily, trying to get in as much air as you can, but it's getting harder to breath. Your lungs are already starting to fail.

With one last wave of heat from Solgaleo's mane, the Legendary Pokémon jerks its head upwards, pulling the last remaining foreign DNA from your skin.

You look up at the thick, twirling mist floating in front of you as a wave of exhaustion falls over you.

Letting your head fall back onto the ground, you let out a weary breath. You try to bring your knees up, but you realize you can't move your legs.

Your body is already failing. The illness is already catching up after all these years of being dormant.

You stare up at the sky, a thick gray covering the stars. You can feel everything in your body slowing, and you know that this is it.

You turn your head slightly to look at your dad. He's biting his lower lip, trying to keep himself together. Cato is sitting next to him, looking down at you. Your breath hitches as you try to breathe, and you swallow thickly.

"Did it work?" you ask quietly. Sycamore nods down at you, a small tear escaping the corner of his eye.

"Oui, it worked, mon coeur. The universe is already starting to fix itself," your dad says as he puts his hand on top of yours.

You give a breathy laugh as blink slowly, your eyes burning.

Before you get too weak, you reach up and cup Cato's face, smiling. In return, he pushes his head down into your cold hand, closing his eyes.

"Cato," you rasp, "I need you to take good care of Dad, okay? He's gonna need it." 

You breathe heavily and smile up at your best friend as tears well up behind your eyes. Cato nods his head into your head, and you can feel his tears dripping onto your fingertips.