Four Paws and A Tale

Chapter 37: Jacob

"Zeraora?"

"Indeed."

"Why?"

Marv frowned, "I told you, he has been lost to the evil of the Shadow Crystal." I was shaking my head before he'd even finished.

"No, why bring me here? Couldn't you and the other legendaries stop him?"

Marv stood, walked to the wall where the Shadow Crystal had once been and placed his hand on it. "No, we couldn't, remember there is a fifth gem, the ancient Evolution gem, it has great power and allows all Pokémon to evolve. Zeraora placed some of the Shadow Crystal's evil into the evolution gem, in doing so he created chaos and an army, most Legendaries have been busy with that. The Shadow Crystal, it feeds on the negative emotions of people and Pokémon alike, even Legendary Pokémon cannot resist it. Every living creature has the same potential for Good or Evil. The Shadow Crystal makes it so that one cannot ignore the evil which sleeps within them, you should know." (Oof, Marshadow throwing Shade)

"Ok, but all you needed to do was gather the Tears of Princes, that would've been easy for you, you didn't need me."

"Yes, we did. Some Legendaries, they agreed with Zeraora, they think humans are evil, they joined him, the Pokémon world was divided, we were on the brink of war and caught in the middle, was humanity. Only a human could stop the war. You see, humans possess something which Pokémon don't, a sense of right and wrong. Pokémon live by instinct, they live to survive. Amongst Pokémon there were none of what we needed."

"Which was?"

"Heroes. In our world you are what you know, we needed someone, to teach Pokémon, how to be Heroes. You weren't brought here to save our world, you were brought here to teach others, how to save it."

"But I failed. I killed my best friend, I gave in to the Shadow Crystal. Some Hero I am."

Marshadow turned from the wall, he looked me in the eye, he frowned. "Heroes aren't born, they're made, that's why you were brought here. We thought you were a Hero, when Palkia came to you, he asked for help and you agreed, all of us believed in you. We watched you fall, again and again. We discovered that you're no Hero, we thought our plan had failed. But then, every time you fell, you rose again, you've come so far... You went through so much, I'm sorry."

I grit my teeth, the darkness on my face slowly disappeared, the lightning stopped, the shadows were gone from my mouth, my eyes returned to normal, I was a plain-old Eevee again. Grunting I stood and raised my head, I looked Marv in the eye, he looked sad and surprised.

"You know, I've always wanted to be a Hero. The good guy, who never gives up, who everyone loves. Marv, I've always wanted to be a Hero, but I never knew how. Now, I finally know, all because I came here. Marv, I promise you, I'll be a Hero yet, and this world, there's tons of Heroes in it, they just don't know it yet."

Marv smiled at me warmly, "Well ok then."

I frowned as I thought of one last question. "Hey Marv, why is it that I can evolve into all of my evolutions and back again?"

"You can what?!"

"Um, I can evolve into any Eevee evolution and back again at will..."

Marv brought a hand to his chin and thought for a second.

"Well, Zeraora wanted to create chaos in the world and he needed an army to destroy mankind, so he exposed the Evolution gem from it's ancient sleeping place and mixed it with the Evil of the Shadow Crystal. Perhaps when he exposed it a little of it's power escaped and entered your body before you awoke in this world."

"I guess that makes sense."

"But, the evolution energy that entered your body, we don't know if it's pure or not, it may be contaminated by the Shadow Crystal and if it is then every time you evolve you are giving the Crystal more control over you. I would advise you against evolving too much."

"Okay then."

I rose and started walking towards the exit.

"Come on Sidekick."

Marshadow was walking beside me in an instant. He smiled and 'Hm'd'.

"Hm, you know what I think? You are a Hero."

Frowning at him, I was about to speak but he continued.

"You are the kind of Hero that no-one could ever deserve but everyone needs."