Chapter 127: Secrets and Shadows – Memories of Fire and Darkness Oak's Laboratory – Evening
The heavy sunset threw long shadows over Pallet Town.
Inside the laboratory, the weight of the conversation pressed down on everyone like a storm cloud.
Sabrina stood, her voice calm but urgent.
"Shadow is moving," she said.
"They're no longer protecting humanity. They're preparing to erase it."
Giselle sat frozen.
The words felt like acid in her mind.
Meteorites? Alien manipulation? Eradication?
It didn't make sense.
It couldn't.
Her instincts screamed to deny it.
To call it madness.
But the faces of those around her—Professor Oak, Sabrina, and especially Skylar—held no doubt.
Only grim resolve.
And yet—
Giselle found herself shaking her head slightly.
"I want to believe you," she said, voice tight, "but it sounds... impossible."
She hated herself for doubting.
But her entire life had been built on logic, on rules.
This shattered everything.
Skylar stepped forward slowly.
The fading sunlight caught the edge of his face, casting deep shadows across his eyes.
He dropped to a seat beside her, elbows resting on his knees.
And when he spoke, his voice was low.
Rough.
Haunted.
"I didn't believe it either at first," Skylar said.
He stared into the fire crackling in the corner of the lab, as if seeing something far beyond the walls.
"But then I saw it."
Giselle turned to him, heart pounding.
Skylar's fists clenched.
"I saw what fell with the meteorites at Mt. Moon."
He took a deep breath.
"There was a hive. Buried deep underground. A nest of corruption — Pokémon twisted into monsters, poisoned by something alive and evil."
He swallowed hard.
"They weren't just corrupted. They were changed. Their minds were… invaded."
Giselle listened, barely breathing.
Skylar continued, each word etched with memory.
"I fought them. Misty and I almost died there. If it weren't for Gary, or my aura awakening—"
He faltered for a moment.
"—we wouldn't have survived."
He looked her in the eyes.
"And it wasn't just Mt. Moon."
He shook his head.
"In Lavender Tower, we found Darkrai."
His voice softened.
"He was being used. Corrupted by that same alien influence. Turned into a weapon to terrorize the living."
Skylar's hands trembled slightly at the memory.
"But we saved him. Barely."
He looked up again.
"And deep beneath the Tower... we found the beginnings of another hive."
His voice was a whisper now.
"A breeding ground."
Giselle sat frozen.
The world inside her crumbled.
This wasn't theory.
This wasn't exaggeration.
Skylar had lived it.
Skylar's voice was steady, though pain flickered behind his eyes.
"I saw Pokémon I couldn't recognize anymore."
"I saw people being… turned."
"And I saw how close we already are to losing everything."
Silence.
Thick. Heavy. Crippling.
Finally, Giselle spoke.
Her voice was barely more than a whisper.
"...I'm sorry."
Skylar blinked, surprised.
"For doubting," she said, her eyes shining with something fierce and raw.
She stood slowly, fists clenching at her sides.
"I believe you now."
She looked at Professor Oak.
At Sabrina.
But mostly, at him.
"I don't know what's coming... but I'll fight with you."
Skylar smiled.
It was a small smile.
A tired one.
But real.
Professor Oak placed a hand on Giselle's shoulder, pride flickering in his gaze.
"You made the right choice."
Sabrina's lips twitched into the faintest smile.
"The more who know the truth, the better chance we have."
The sun finally sank below the hills.
And in the growing darkness beyond Pallet Town—
Shadow agents whispered through the fields.
Preparing.
Hunting.
Waiting.