A Journey's Link

Chapter 27 - Connections

"..."

Where am I?

What's happening?

Why is it pitch black?

Thoughts raced through Ash's mind as he struggled to remember what had happened. He remembered he was explaining to everyone what Lucario had envisioned. What was after that? He recalled seeing Goh with a thinking look on his face and then nothing after that. Why can't I remember?

Ash opened his eyes suddenly and was met with a blue, wavy landscape. No matter where he looked, he was met with the calm movement of blue energy. What is this place? He took a step forward and noticed his step was a bit different. It was full of strength and felt nothing like a usual step.

Because of this, Ash looked down at his feet and was surprised at what he saw. Where his human feet were supposed to be was a pair of black paws, complete with a strong set of legs. He looked at his feet for a moment, attempting to process what he was seeing.

Bringing his hands up to his face, Ash saw that his normal hands had also been transformed into a pair of black paws; they had white, sharp spikes on top of them. He also noticed the same blue energy that was all around him was also surrounding his hands.

He felt his face and discovered that he had a snout of some kind, along with a pair of long, pointy ears that sat on the top of his head. Looking at his body, he saw another spike like the ones that sat on his hands on his chest, along with a red band going around his waist.

After seeing all these changes to his body, Ash finally realized what had happened. I'm in Lucario's body! He didn't know exactly how to react to the situation but decided to look for a way out of this atmospheric area he was in.

After running in an arbitrary direction, Ash began to see a faint yellow light in the distance, so he decided to run towards it. After a few minutes, he was able to discern what the yellow light was and was shocked once he figured it out.

Ash recognized the yellow light to be Uxie, much to his surprise. He walked up to the Knowledge Pokemon and attempted to touch it, but his hand only passed through. He tried, again and again, to try to get its attention but never could seem to touch it

Ash tried to call for its name. Uxie! He tried to scream, but only managed to produce a small grunt similar to Lucario's cry. I can't speak! How am I going to talk to it? He looked at his hands and saw the blue energy floating around and decided that maybe the energy could help him in this situation.

Ash clapped his hands together, causing the energy to spread where his hands collided. He attempted to focus all his brainpower on harnessing the energy to try to get through to Uxie. He wasn't sure how or why the blue energy was going to help him, but something in his gut just told him it was going to work.

A flow of energy exited Ash's hands and into Uxie, who seemed to be absorbing the energy. It almost looks like Lucario's Aura Sphere. He realized something as he continued pouring the energy into Uxie's body. Maybe I'm using Aura? He looked in delight as Uxie began to slowly start moving around, responding to Ash's energy flow. I think it's working!

Ash somewhat smiled as he watched Uxie begin to move more and more, almost to the point where it was completely aware of its surroundings. Just when it was about to wake up, a strong quake shook Ash and everything around him, causing him to fall over and lose focus of the energy that was flowing into Uxie.

No! I was so close! Another quake hit, sending a thunder of green lightning scattering throughout the landscape. Ash watched in surprise as the once blue and wavy landscape turned into a green, sharp one, almost a similar hue to the green lightning that had just struck.