Pokémon : The Journey of Travis Tedford

Chapter 10: Soulmates

They dragged me into the Pokémon Center and immediately called for Nurse Joy. When she looked at me, she could already tell that I had been poisoned. "Bring him to the back, and hurry!" she instructed us. She asked Efren to explain what happened, which she did, and she immediately grew angry. "To think someone would use their Pokémon to attack someone directly, that's the worst thing a trainer could do," said Nurse Joy with anger in her tone. She then turned her attention to me. She examined me and noticed that the attack had hit me directly in the face, which made the situation a lot worse. "I'm going to need you all to wait in the waiting room, please. I'm going to need to concentrate," said Nurse Joy. Efren, Anna, and my Pokémon all went into the waiting room. Efren was an emotional wreck. Anna could tell that he blamed himself for what happened, so she went to sit next to him and tried to comfort him, but he got nervous and backed away. "I'm sorry, it's my autism," said Efren. "It's okay, I just hope you're alright. I have a strong feeling that Travis is going to be okay," said Anna. "Even so, he shouldn't even be in this position. He's always protecting me, why does he do that? Am I so weak and fragile that I'm always in need of protecting? Why can't I ever stand up for myself?" said Efren angrily. "You did stand up to Adam, that's the only reason any of this happened, was because Adam couldn't stand to see that you weren't that weak kid that he used to pick on back in the day anymore," said Anna. Efren then looked over at my Pokémon, who were all sitting on the ground worried. "I'm sorry, guys. I'm sure Travis will be fine," said Efren. Anna sighed. "I think I know why Travis is always quick to protect you. I think it's obvious that he's in love with you," said Anna. Efren looked at Anna shocked. "No...I don't think he is. He's always saying he doesn't think about that kind of stuff," said Efren. "That's because he doesn't understand any of that kind of stuff. It's an excuse he uses to avoid talking about it. Today proved more than anything that he'd do anything if it meant protecting you," said Anna. "Even if that is true, he shouldn't have to keep protecting me. I have to be able to protect myself from now on. From here on out my goal is to become stronger. I'll become so strong that someday I'll be able to protect him," vowed Efren. Anna smiled but then she began to feel a bit sad. She herself was in love with Travis but now that she knew he was in love with Efren, there was no way he'd ever return her love. Meanwhile, back in the room while Nurse Joy was working on an antidote to heal me, I was in a deep dreamlike state. In the dream, everything was pitch black for a moment, and then out of nowhere I found myself falling. As I was falling, I was passing by what looked like multiple different weird-looking planets, and then eventually I ended up landing on one, and then suddenly everything went black as I passed out. When I opened my eyes again, I saw someone standing above me. When I finally came to my senses, I realized that the person standing in front of me was an older version of me. "You, you're the one that I saw in those dreams the other night," I said quickly. "Yeah sorry about that, I was hoping that wouldn't happen to you but it looks like I really am cursed," said older me. "What do you mean by that?" I asked. Older me's hands began to glow and suddenly a giant screen appeared in front of us. On the screen were multiple different memories from many different versions of me. "As you may have realized by now, there are multiple different versions of us from many different universes. Some memories from other versions of us have been leaking into your dreams lately," said Older Me. "Yeah, I noticed. It mainly happens whenever I'm holding Efren's hand. I don't understand that though, I don't understand any of this," I said. "It's simple. As you've seen, Efren was shot and murdered in one universe and his spirit was reincarnated into the universe you're from. The only difference between this universe and the other universes is that we originally didn't exist in that universe," said older me. I frowned a bit because I was confused by what he was saying. "You don't get what I'm saying? Efren was reincarnated into that universe but we weren't. That's one of the few universes where we originally didn't exist. However, six years ago I used my powers to change that. When Efren had died he was engaged to us in a different universe while the other me hadn't perished. So I created you for Efren in your universe," said older me. My eyes widened with shock as I couldn't believe any of what I was hearing. "You're lying! None of this you're telling me is true! This doesn't make any sense!" I shouted. "I know it's hard to believe but it's the truth. However, just because I created you specifically doesn't mean you're any less of a me than I am. I created you so that your universe's Efren could find his happy ending in this universe since he couldn't in his previous one. I felt sorry for the me from the previous universe because he had suffered so much despair and I know how much he and Efren loved each other," said older me. I had many different questions to ask but only one managed to make its way out of my mouth. "How were you even able to create me? Are you some sort of god or something?" I asked. "In my universe, I was experimented on and then was turned into a demon. Years later I obtained angelic energy which is very rare for a being to harness both powers so eventually I became so powerful to the point to where I couldn't stay in my universe anymore or else I could have destroyed it. Since then I've made it my duty to watch over all universes. I especially pay attention to all the universes that I reside in which is at least in 90% of them," said older me as his hands began to glow and then multiple portals opened which showed many different versions of me. From young to old. In some of the universes, I had children, while in some I didn't but was married to men and women I had never seen before in my universe. What caught me off guard was that Efren was in a lot of those universes. "I know what you're thinking. Yes, Efren and you are endgame in about 60% of these universes. While in other ones you were matched with other people that you won't ever meet in your universe," said older me.