Chaser and the Ruins of the Other Side

Chaser and the Other Side

When Goh awoke, he found himself staring at a ceiling that reminded him greatly of the ceiling in Cameron Palace, though the room was much smaller than the grand chamber he shared with Ash that day. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes as the dim sunlight poured through the window, he instantly felt like something was wrong.

And then, the events that had brought him to this point began to replay through his mind. The thought of Chloe doing her best to bear the pain while he completed Tapu Fini's Trial threw him out of bed.

"Chloe!"

And as soon as his feet hit the ground, he noticed several things that were wrong.

First, his voice was much deeper than he expected it to be.

Next, looking at his legs, he noticed that he wasn't dressed as he was when he walked into the fog. He seemed to be wearing a tunic of some sort that left his legs bare, but it felt entirely like he wasn't wearing enough clothing.

But on that note, the next thing he noticed was that his legs looked very different than he was used to. The hairs growing on them were coarser and darker, and his muscles looked quite a bit more defined than he had cultivated during his hours of sitting in a chair doing research.

And the third thing he noticed was the quiet. There was no Grookey on his shoulder here, and reaching into the tunic revealed that there were no Poké Balls of any kind on his person.

He was alone.

A wave of dread washed over Goh, having been completely isolated from his friends and loved ones, but in the back of his mind, he could picture Chloe there, still suffering, and so he took a deep breath to calm himself and stood up.

The room he was in was very low-tech. It reminded him of an old fantasy movie, with no electric lights or modern conveniences that he could think of. Standing in a corner of the room was a tall mirror, and so Goh walked over towards it, watching the floor carefully for traps or other things to trip him up.

Once he was in front of the mirror, he saw his eyes go wide.

The man looking back at him was as though Goh had skipped about ten years of his life, looking to be in his mid twenties rather than his mid teens. But his hair, his eyes, and his skin all looked like his own, only the proportions were all an adult's. Goh touched his hand to the mirror, to be sure that the man he was looking at was himself, and the reflection mirrored him as he expected it to.

"No way..." he whispered in the man's voice. He could scarcely believe what he was seeing, but the way he was moving was reflected in the image.

But as Goh stared across at his eyes, he heard a quiet voice in the back of his mind.

'Moyse.'

It was the same voice he was speaking with, but at the same time it wasn't his own. It was more like a memory he never recalled suddenly made itself known.

"I... am Moyse..."

It was a strange feeling for Goh, to look at what could only be described as an aged-up version of himself, but it was even stranger to feel like someone else's memories were being overlaid on top of your own. He felt like he was two people at the moment: Goh, the Research Fellow from Vermilion City and this knight, Moyse.

As his mind grabbed upon the word 'knight', he turned to a corner of the room, where a large painted chest laid. In it were a few pieces of armor that looked like they were a fit for this body, and as Goh searched Moyse's memories, he could see himself putting it on, and as he searched his memories, he saw that it was something Moyse did every day. It wasn't as complete a suit of armor like what he wore during training with Wikstrom of the Kalos Elite Four, but was heavy enough that he couldn't imagine wearing it all day. Still, it was apparently something Moyse did each day, and he already felt a bit naked without it, so he prepared himself and spent the ten minutes putting the armor on. The outfit consisted of a chainmail tunic, as well as armor plated boots and gloves. There was no helmet that covered his head, but there was a sword and shield. The sword looked almost ornamental, like it didn't get much use daily and was mostly carried as a sign of authority.