1,401Anonymous Review Replies!
DEV: Hahah, ja, das freut mich, dass die Original-Dialogzeilen sich gut einfügt haben - ich hab beim Schreiben sicherlich den Bosskampf so oft gespielt, dass ich die Synchro jetzt noch höre, wenn ich den Dialog lese XD Darkspine im Spiel ist tatsächlich ziemlich...dark, eheh, er besteht quasi nur aus Rage, Hatred und Sadness, meine ich, und Sonic ist ziemlich durch wegen Shahras Tod. Sonics Reaktion auf den Tod einer seiner Freunde zu schreiben ist...nicht einfach, finde ich, denn man hat schließlich so ziemlich zero Vorlage aus dem canon, wie er reagieren würde. Ich glaube aber insgesamt, dass er zwar emotional ziemlich aufgewühlt wäre, aber sich nicht in so ein Rage-Monster wie Darkspine verwandeln würde, sondern sich eher noch zusammenreißen könnte, bis er den Mörder besiegt hätte und es dann später versuchen würde, zu verarbeiten, oder so...deswegen hier lieber die Variante von Darkspine mit 3 positiven und 3 negativen Emotionen, ist etwas ausgeglichener :) Über Hintergrund, warum ich was wie gestaltet habe, rede ich auch immer super gern, also her mit allen Fragen XD Und haaaah, yeah, es sind echt jetzt 12 Jahre geworden...schon krass, irgendwo. Ich hab mich auf jeden Fall immer total über deine Reviews gefreut, waren immer ein Highlight, wenn ich ein Kapitel hochgeladen habe :) Dementsprechend hoffe ich jetzt, dass das wirklich finale Kapitel auch ein dazu passender Abschluss ist und den Kommentaren bisher würdig :D Here we go one last time...
LoneGarurumon: Oh yeah, definitely! In such a grand tale of friendship, we can't have the last battle be fought all alone, right? :p Thanks for the comment and now let's see how our heroes handle the aftermath...
Disclaimer: If I owned this game, development would have lasted 12 years...
Recap: The Erazor Djinn has been defeated! The Arabian Nights have been saved! But what happens now, with Shahra still dead...?
Chapter 48: Worth A Chance
As soon as the ring of wishes had soared from Erazor's disintegrated body into Sonic's hand, another wave pulsed from it, rippling through the void surrounding them, transforming this netherworld back into the Night Palace around them. Sonic himself could feel it wash over him, could feel the other rings flying away from his body, gravity gladly wrapping its arms around him again to pull him back onto solid ground.
Once he did make contact with the stone, though, he almost collapsed, exhausted muscles too far gone. Sonic barely managed to catch himself on his right knee and left hand, his own weight unfamiliar after what had been Darkspine Sonic inside him was gone. But now he was himself again. Himself, just like…
Sonic's gaze snapped down to his own chest.
Then he almost felt like collapsing a second time when he saw that finally, finally the burning arrow in his heart was gone, disappeared together with Erazor's nightmarish neverworld, the rings having lifted the curse placed on him that had almost cost him his life.
For a moment, Sonic wanted to fall to his knees and weep, but of course, there was no time.
Around him, the rings were now disappearing into the air, his friends landing beside and behind him. Sonic almost absentmindedly noticed that luckily, his gloves and shoes had returned, too (since anything else would have been slightly embarrassing).
But now that reality was back, all of his friends disentangling themselves from each other, calling out and running toward him, it also abruptly became real that Shahra was not there with them, that she was well and truly, gone, where she had been now only…
Sonic blinked.
"Sonic! We did it!"
"Sonic! Oh my gods, you're okay! The arrow is gone!"
Tails' and Amy's impacts against him almost didn't register for a moment, the blue hedgehog too distracted by what he had just seen, and then Knuckles was also already in his field of vision, the echidna's gaze darting around the room.
"Alright. That's that. Now, how do we get home? Shouldn't there be a portal here somewhere?"
"According to the prophecy, yes," Robotnik frowned. "But before we leave, any idea what to do with him?" he raised his eyebrows, making a gesture to his side.
Where he had pointed, in the middle of the throne room, Erazor's body - now returned to its former shape - appeared to lie motionlessly. But as they watched, the djinn already groaned and then his hand shot out to grab for the razor-sword still embedded in the palace floor.
"Ahh! What the-?!" Amy leaped reflexively backwards, grasping at Sonic's arm, eyes wide.
"How can he still have stamina?" Shadow hissed, also dropping into a ready stance. "Quick, we need to-!"
"I! Shall NOT be defeated!" Erazor spat at them, trembling but pulling himself to his knees, his black eyes burning pure hatred at Sonic. "I am not mortal, I AM DJINN! If you defeat me, I will simply return, again and again! I cannot be vanquished!" he laughed, a distorted, manic and gurgling sound like you would expect from the last breath of a dying mad god. Sonic's friends had already taken a few steps backwards, desperation that this still wasn't over written in their faces.
Sonic bent down and picked something up.
"Oh really?" he asked.
The moment Erazor's eyes focused on the item in Sonic's hands, the sword in his grip clattered to the floor.
"Tha- that can't be," he stuttered, "That's...the…!"
"...the magic lamp of Ali Baba," Tails supplied, his own eyes wide. "But where-?"
"Wait, that's the thing Shahra gave you!" Rouge interjected. "That brain-like metal ball you showed me last night! Only now it's...been repaired?"
"...'go back to the way you were'," Knuckles quoted, his eyes narrowed. "That's what you said when you were trying to revive Shahra. Only she couldn't save herself…"
"-but she could repair the lamp!" Tails burst out. "With that we have him!"
"N-no-!" Erazor started, but Amy had already interrupted him, now grinning,
"Oh yeah! Because that's your lamp, isn't it? And the genie of the lamp is supposed to grant three wishes, am I right?"
"I...I will never grant any wish from the likes of you!" Erazor shouted, scrambling to his feet, but now the hatred in his eyes was mixed with desperation and actual, naked terror, eyes fixated on the lamp like a burnt man hypnotized by fire. "I...will not-!"
"Oh, but you will," Sonic gave him a bright grin, now thoroughly enjoying walking over and seating himself on the throne as Erazor watched him helplessly. He directed the lamp straight at the Djinn, and then hoped like hell that this time, it would work.
"My first wish, Erazor! Bring Shahra back to life!"
There were collective gasps as the lamp in Sonic's hand apparently took that as a command to shoot lightning at Erazor, a beam hitting the djinn straight in the chest and letting him collapse to his knees again, screaming. As they watched, a pinkish glow started leaking out of his chest and fingertips, the djinn fighting and seizing, but unable to do anything about it.
"N-no! My body...my magic-!" he cried, and for a moment, Sonic flinched on the throne as the pink light flowing out of Erazor snapped together into a ball and zipped right toward him. But then all it did was go to his finger...and reform into a perfect ring around it.
Sonic could feel his throat go dry. With his empty hand, barely managing to suppress its trembling, he reached out, his finger brushing over the ring ever so slightly...
"...Shahra?" he whispered.
And golden light mixed with purple smoke flowed from the ring, rising up in the air and reforming into...
"...Sonic?"
"SHAHRA!" Amy shouted loudest of them all, running over to squeeze the life out of the confused genie girl suddenly in their midst again (and ignoring Robotnik's groan at the scene), Tails also rushing to hug her and even Shadow giving her a nod and what almost could be called a smile.
("What, you having a soft spot for someone who single-handedly betrayed us because of a guy, now?" Rouge asked him with a slight elbow into his side.
"A...soft spot for redemption, maybe," Shadow carefully averted his gaze. "And I liked a story she told.")
"Hey, Shahra," Sonic smiled at her. "Welcome back to the land of the living." Then he gave her a sharp grin. "And you're just in time to see what Erazor's got coming to him. Yo, Erazor!" Sonic shouted the last words, focusing his gaze away from Shahra and back at the panting djinn on his knees before him. "My second wish! Return the Arabian Nights to the way they were, so that the world can have its stories again!"
The lamp shot a second time, and once more Erazor howled as he was hit. Sonic was vaguely aware of Shahra giving a shocked cry next to him, but watching the djinn right now was far more fascinating - letters and characters had begun pouring out from every pore of his skin, lines and lines of text leaving his body and disappearing out of the throne room's door and its windows, rushing toward the open sky. And as soon as they did, the throne room also began to brighten, sunlight now streaming in through the windows, a bright blue sky once more existing outside as the world returned.
When it had stopped, Erazor lay panting on the floor before the throne, exhaustion, pain, hatred and fear still warring on his face as he looked back up at Sonic, trying to lift his head and bare his teeth at him but failing.
"Not quite how you imagined it would go when you tried to put that arrow into me, huh?" Sonic commented, wondering whether there wasn't a hint of the rings in him yet, considering how viscerally satisfied this scene made him feel. But no. Considering what Erazor had put him through - considering that he had spent the last couple days basically trying to come to peace with dying - Sonic felt what he would say next was more than justified.
He raised the lamp for the third and final time. "My third wish. Erazor Djinn! You shall live out the rest of time, trapped inside your la -"
"NO!"
Sonic paused. And turned around to Amy, who was the one who had screamed.
"...'no'?" he asked.
"It's...it's Shahra," Amy said, looking at Sonic pleadingly from where she was kneeling on the floor, her arms around the genie girl, who was now hiding her face in her hands and crying. Tears were also pooling in Amy's eyes, but she still held Sonic's gaze fast. "Sonic. She…she betrayed us, yes, but…she also saved you and she still loves him," Amy said, helplessly. "You're killing her if you seal him away forever."
"But...he tried to kill her." Sonic jerked a thumb at the panting, barely conscious Erazor in incredulity. "Amy, the guy is a complete monster."
"...I know," she said, biting her lip. "But...you know what this reminds me of?"
("That we should get back to our world where I have an Emerald to protect?" Knuckles asked without much hope, but was ignored.)
"Of what?" Sonic asked.
Amy drew a breath. "Perfect Chaos. Two years ago. Don't you remember how that went?" she asked, also casting a glance back at Tails and Knuckles. In her arms, Shahra had stopped audibly crying, but was now looking at them, uncomprehending.
"After you had beaten him, as Super Sonic. We wanted to seal him away, like Erazor, to an eternity of hatred and madness in the Master Emerald, after he had killed all those people in Station Square..." Amy trailed off for a moment, but then swallowed and continued, stronger, "But then Tikal showed up and begged for his life, remember? Told us how helping him heal was far better than just...locking him away. Or…" she gestured to her side,"Take Shadow, even. He tried to destroy the world, too."
("I swear, you try to obliterate one planet," Shadow grumbled, but was drowned out by Knuckles stepping forward with a sweeping gesture of his hand.)
"Yes. But that was different. Shadow and Chaos had both been dealt a shitty hand. They weren't harming anyone until one had his family murdered and the other was seeking revenge because Pachamac's tribe killed the Chao and his friend he had sworn to protect." Knuckles crossed his arms. "Erazor was basically fairytale Ghengis Khan from the start."
"But I don't think that's all there is to it," Amy shook her head. "When I was...Sheherazade, the storyteller who had invented all of the Arabian Nights, I knew all the tales. And in all of them, genies are the ones who always become enslaved and mistreated and imprisoned. Isn't that right, Shahra?" Amy asked, looking down at the genie girl, who immediately flinched and cast her eyes downward.
"I...it is the fate of us djinns, yes, but..."
"Shahra...those visions I saw in your head, when we were in the desert," Sonic said slowly. "There was a guy who yelled something about how love isn't for slaves or how djinns aren't supposed to fall in love, or something like that. Was that...?"
"That...was a long time ago." Shahra tried to rub some of the smoky tears away from her eyes, casting a shy glance at the still barely conscious, madly mumbling Erazor on the floor, and then immediately averted her gaze again. "He was...different, then. When I met him. We both served different masters, but they lived closeby, so we could see each other often...he dreamed of freedom for our kind, and I liked to dream with him." There was a small, sad smile on her face, but it vanished when she spoke again. "Until his master found out about us."
Sonic's face hardened a little. "Didn't take that too well, huh?"
"No," Shahra shook her head. "He was furious. He thought Erazor had told my master – they were business rivals – his secrets. And despite our protestations of his innocence," Shahra swallowed. "His master, he…tortured Erazor. And then sold him to a travelling merchant when he still begged to stay with me," Shahra looked at her tightly clasped hands. "We didn't see each other again for four seasons. But Erazor hadn't forgotten me – he had managed to manipulate his new master into traveling back to the city where I was still in service to my old owner. I was ecstatic to see him," Shahra managed a pained smile at this, her eyes briefly faraway as if she was seeing something else for a moment. "But he had also come back with a dream. Erazor was by now trying to rally other djinns for a rebellion, meaning to take freedom for us all. But when," she faltered, briefly, "when his plans were discovered, they called on King Solomon to seal him away as punishment. For a thousand years."
"A thousand years. All by yourself," whispered Tails. "That'd be enough for anyone to go mad..."
"When he was freed from his confinement, he found me a third time. I, too, hadn't been treated well by life in the meantime, but I thought...if we could only be together, maybe find a nice, kind master who would let us serve him together, it would be...alright." Shahra looked at her hands. "But Erazor, he had...changed."
"Full-on warlord mode, huh?" Sonic asked quietly, and Shahra nodded.
"Yes. He threatened, and pleaded, and raged, and hurt me, and loved me, and made me do...I was so confused and...and so scared to lose him again." She bit down hard enough on her lip that she likely would have been bleeding, had she been human.
"He said if I would help him, if I delivered to him the legendary collector of the rings, we could finally free the djinns, make a world where we could live without chains, without masters, without stories that write us as enslaved...and I wanted to believe that. So badly." Shahra closed her eyes, took another shaking breath before she continued.
"He said that no one who had ever commanded a djinn, would ever think to control a genie deserved to live...and I think a part of me believed that...until I met you," Shahra said, and then, for the first time since she had spoken, looked directly at Sonic with a sad smile. "You were the first master who became my...friend. And I started to doubt Erazor's words."
"Oh, Shahra," Sonic managed, for a moment not sure what else he should say. Or what else he should do. He did feel pity, for both of the genies, but there had also been cruelty, and madness, and hate buried so deep in Erazor after his thousand years of confinement he honestly could not see how anyone, least of all someone so loving, but so easily manipulated as Shahra, could help him ever see reason again. Behind them, Erazor groaned on the floor, his lips forming more rage-filled sentence fragments bare of any sense. Shahra averted her gaze, squeezing her eyes shut.
"But...but I see what is necessary. I know...he cannot be allowed to..." her voice broke and she turned quickly, a strange, wretched noise somewhere between a strangled scream and a sob breaking from her, face already hidden again against Amy's shoulder. The pink hedgehog looked at Sonic somewhat panicky, obviously wanting to be there for the genie, but at the same time completely overwhelmed.
"Sonic! Do something!" she hissed.
"Do what?" Sonic, still holding the lamp asked, glancing at the others. A moment ago, his course had seemed so clear, but now…?
"Guys, help me out here?"
Rouge shrugged. "Sorry, that's hero business, big blue. I'd just keep the lamp 'cause it's pretty."
Next to her, Shadow merely raised an eye ridge when Sonic's questioning gaze landed on him next.
"Don't look at me. I'd say you should put him out of his misery."
"No!" Amy protested. "Shadow, there's always hope! For everybody, even him!"
"But there should also be justice," Knuckles said, evenly. "His crimes need punishment."
"That's true..." Robotnik mused. "Of course, you could also make me his new owner, Sonic," he suggested innocently.
"Yeah, I think I'll pass on that one, Eggman, thanks," Sonic replied dryly, before turning to the last member of their troupe who hadn't yet said anything. "Any bright ideas on your side, li'l buddy?"
Tails scratched the back of his head, as always a little nervous when he was in the spotlight, but still trying to put on a smile for the older hedgehog. "I...I don't know, Sonic. But you had the ring of wishes, so that must mean you're really good at wishing, right?" He gave his brother a hopeful expression. "Maybe there's something that will make everybody happy?"
"...right." Sonic looked at Tails for a moment longer, but then seemed to come to a decision and nodded once. Then he turned and strode over to Erazor's prone form, crossing his arms as he looked down at him. "So, from what Shahra just told me, you weren't dealt the greatest cards in life, huh?"
He asked, then briefly glanced back at Amy and Tails, both watching him anxiously from where the rest of the group stood, before looking down at his fallen foe again. "So good news. There's gonna be mercy." From the corner of his eye, he could see Amy and Tails' faces break into a smile, and even Shahra lift her head with a disbelieving stare, and couldn't help himself but also break his own neutral expression up with a small grin. "'m not the vengeful type anyway."
At this, finally, Erazor seemed to drift into the here and now again. Red and black eyes rolled for a moment, but then seemed to focus on him, purple face screwed up in a grimace of furious contempt.
"M-mercy?" Erazor spat. "I do not need nor will I accept your pathetic mercy, you filthy rat! I am Erazor Djinn! I-!"
"Shahra?" Sonic briefly looked up from the spasming djinn.
"Yes?"
"One more wish, please. A bunched-up teatowel in the dude's mouth would be awesome."
"-willMRGPGF!"
"Thank you," Sonic said, calmly. "And as for you, Erazor" he continued, looking down at the spirit on the floor again and raising the lamp. "Don't worry. There's gonna be justice alright. You ready for my final wish?"
The djinn's eyes narrowed and then widened, fear warring with hatred in his gaze focused intently on the lamp. He looked oddly pathetic like this, like a dog helplessly looking at his master's whip, and for a moment Sonic thought he could see the centuries of servitude written plainly on the other's face. But then he forced himself to focus. He needed to get this last wish right.
"You wanted to take away my story," he said. "So now I think I'm gonna erase yours."
There was a gasp from behind him and even Erazor's expression had now turned from his previous mix of emotions to singular, existential horror. "E-erase me?" The djinn stuttered, having finally managed to spit out the rag in his mouth. "B-But you're supposed to be the hero."
"He is," Knuckles said from his vantage point with the group. "But you seem to have forgotten how fairy tales work. Good is not soft."
"True. Ready for my last wish?" Sonic asked, raising the lamp to point straight at Erazor's heart. The entire throne room had fallen silent, everyone staring at him with their eyes fixed on the lamp, waiting...
"I wish," Sonic began, "for your story to be erased – right from the point on where it started to go wrong!"
"What?!"
"Wait, how-?"
There were gasps and exclamations from his friends, but Sonic ignored them, now still staring at Erazor with the brightest grin. "What I want, buddy, is for Shahra to have the happy life she deserves – and if that's with you, that's exactly what she's gonna get. So, for your punishment, I'm going to take away your memories of your imprisonment, your hatred and your pain," Sonic said, and he raised the lamp high. "Erazor! My last wish! Go back to the way you were - become the one you were a thousand and one years ago!"
Lightning erupted from the lamp for the third and final time, hitting the djinn right in the chest. Erazor screamed as he was hit, prompting a few surprised yelps from the others as well. Then, white winds started to howl in the chamber, not unlike the ones Shahra had always summoned when taking away the fake memories implanted in the others, and Sonic turned around, facing a row of surprised, mildly impressed, or simply speechless faces. He winked at them.
"I never liked sad stories, anyway."
xxx
Only a few moments later, when the winds had cleared, they left a much younger-looking, more slender and lightly purple-hued Djinn with long, flowing red hair kneeling and blinking in the middle of the throne room. His eyes were still resembling the same red coals glowing in a moonless night as before, but now the expression in them could only be described as utterly confused. The Djinn gave all of them, including Sonic still holding the lamp, a slow blink. The Mobians tensed up.
"E...Erazor?"
It was Shahra who spoke first, and even if her voice had been so quiet to be nearly inaudible, the djinn's head snapped up almost instantly.
"...Shahra?!"
"You're back!"
All at once, Shahra had surged forwards, her arms flying around the other Djinn, his youthful frame now much more easily embraced by the genie girl.
"I, uh-was I...gone? I can't remember..."
"It's not important," Shahra was laughing now, even if tears were running down her eyes as she stroked his hair, running her hands along his face as if she still couldn't believe he was real. "Not important at all."
"It's not?" Erazor first looked at her, then at Sonic and the others with a slight frown. "Uh, I'm so sorry, I think I'm a bit out of sorts today...have we met?"
"Um..." Sonic briefly looked at them, then shrugged, a small smile appearing.
"I dunno, you tell me. I'm Sonic. Sonic the Hedgehog, " he said, putting just a bit more emphasis on the last part of his name than usual as he stuck out his hand.
For a moment, Erazor looked at the hand with obvious surprise on his face, but then made to grab it. "I'm Eraz...oh. You're Shahra's master, aren't you?" A kind of flatness had entered his tone as his eyes locked on the ring on Sonic's finger, expression immediately becoming colder.
"What, 'cause of that?" Sonic shot back, gesturing at the ring. "Nah, I told her. I'm not the master type. In fact, she can have it back if she wants," he said, at the same time pulling off the ring and flicking it to Shahra, who caught it with a small gasp. Then he re-directed his gaze at Erazor, studying the dazed expression on his face. "And you," he said, carefully, "might wanna take care of your lamp?"
Erazor's jaw fell open.
"Sonic," Shahra breathed, still cradling her ring to her chest like the most precious thing she ever held. "You're...you're freeing us?"
"Sure," Sonic said, and the smile that he could feel pulling at his lips did feel far more like his own than the thoughts of revenge from earlier. He smiled. "I said I'd give you reason to smile before this adventure was over, right? Did it work?"
The very next moment, Sonic was also the victim of a very enthusiastic hug by the genie, but he didn't actually mind.
xxx
"...you really think it's gonna be okay?" Sonic asked, a while later, then added, "That you're gonna be okay with him, I mean?" to make it more obvious what he was referring to.
Shahra turned toward him. They had returned from the Night Palace into the Palace of King Shahrya - still empty of people for now, but the Arabian Nights were still rebuilding themselves, and they were certain that the first characters would return to their stories soon.
With combined powers, Shahra and Erazor had managed to open a portal here half an hour ago that they had first tossed Robotnik through (taking great care that the portal actually opened to somewhere on the opposite side of the continent, just so they'd have a couple of days' peace - subsequent protests of the scientist, re: "What?! But I HELPED!" were summarily ignored on the basis of "Yeah, but you were also the one who made us end up in this mess IN THE FIRST PLACE!")
They also saw off Knuckles, who only gave a last nod before he stepped through the dimensional gate onto Angel Island, apparently satisfied with the state they had left things in after all.
Rouge on the other hand had asked to stay a while, citing various...souvenirs she might want to take from King Solomon's tomb first, whereas Amy and Tails had mostly badgered Sonic to stay for a beach-and-palace-holiday in Sand Oasis. And Shadow…hadn't really said where he was going, but he had taken his Captain's hat. The portal, at least, would stay here and open for them until they were ready to leave.
Shahra sighed and shook her head. "I hope so. You might not have known it, but freedom comes for a genie with the price of severely reduced powers. Erazor couldn't destroy the stories now if he wanted to. But I don't think he does, anyway," Shahra smiled at him. "He's now just like I remember him, so...full of life and dreams and hope." She took a breath. "I think he wants to go travelling and see the world, see if there are any genies that still need our help."
"Alright," Sonic nodded, giving her a thumbs-up. "Sounds like a great plan. I might go then, and see what Tails and Amy are up to. You and Erazor need anything else?"
"No, I think we've got everything we could wish for," Shahra said, before again drawing a breath and shaking a little. "Sonic. How can I ever thank you for what you did?"
"Well." Sonic grinned. "I might not be your master anymore, but think I do have one last wish."
"Of course!" Shahra immediately nodded enthusiastically. "Anything in my power I will try to grant, I promise!"
"Heh. In that case…" Sonic directed his gaze at the far-off horizon. "Someone I once met said, that we're all stories in the end. So if that's true…" he glanced back at Shahra, smiling.
"Make sure yours is a good one, ey?"
ooo
Wishes are eternal, but all stories need to come to an end.
If only so new ones can begin.
And so, the legendary blue hedgehog, having saved the world of the Arabian Nights, ran endlessly, until he and his friends found their way back into their own world.
Along the way, they had many adventures... but those are stories... for another time.
Fin
Well, there you go. Another monster of a fanfic finished. Thanks to everyone who read until here, writing and receiving your comments along the way was a blast. I really hope all of you enjoyed yourselves as much as I did. :)
For anyone who's interested how I envision Shahra's and Erazor's future to look like, there's a bit of a crack-ish hint in my seasonal one-shot "A Christmas Carol". Or if you want to revisit this story, TheGingerSaiyan is currently putting up a COMIC ADAPTION over on Deviantart of this story, so have a look there! :D
And for anyone who's looking for another adventure-y fic with Sonic and the cast, I recommend either "Shadow the Hedgehog: First Class" (don't be scared by the High School set-up, I promise there's normal Sonic action in it XD) or "Catch Them If You Can!" which has Sonic&Co fighting for their lives and trying to get home from a foreign planet (and yes, it's the Pokémon planet, but no, you don't need to know anything about Pokémon. It's funny and a character piece, I swear ;p).
That said...hope your own stories are all you wish them to be, hope to see you all at another fic again, and if you read, for one last time PLEASE REVIEW, it does make my day each time and for the last chapter would be cool :)
-Taranea out :)