The first light of morning came through the cracks in the branches of the Tree of Beginning and reached the forest floor. Lucien was already up.
Today was the day.
He said goodbye to the Pokémon at the Tree, took Hoopa and Terapagos, and went alone to Colress's research facility.
The morning air was cool and clean. Around the building, elite Unova League Trainers held their positions in every direction. Alder had arranged it. When they saw Lucien arrive, they bowed without a word. He nodded to them and went inside.
The core laboratory was cold and precise, the low hum of equipment filling the air. Colress stood at the control panel, fingers moving across it, eyes on the Life Energy parameters displayed on the screen. He turned when he heard Lucien come in.
"Lord Lucien."
"Is everything ready?"
"Yes." Colress's voice carried the controlled excitement of someone who has been building toward a single moment for a very long time. "All systems are stable. Energy circulation is locked. The anchor points are set. Once sufficient energy is infused, the equipment can activate immediately."
He hesitated.
"However, drawing Life Energy directly from your own body carries real risk. Excessive output will leave you seriously weakened for an extended period."
"I know," Lucien said. "I'm ready."
He walked to the equipment and looked at the Tera Crystals that had emerged from Terapagos's body, now resting in the energy chamber. Four of them. Different colors.
Orange. That was Dragonite.
Blue. Serperior.
Fiery red. Volcarona.
Grey. Minccino.
His fingers went still for a moment. He took a slow breath.
A thousand years. Countless times he had dreamed of fighting alongside them again. Countless nights of sitting in a dark meadow, missing them with a weight that never fully eased. It had felt impossible to imagine this moment.
"Lord Lucien," Colress said quietly.
Lucien looked at him and nodded. "Begin."
Colress held his gaze for a moment, then turned back to the panel.
Lucien closed his eyes.
A seven-colored light rose from his body, quiet at first, then expanding. His Life Energy, vast, deep, carrying the full weight of two thousand years, flowed outward through the energy conduits and into the equipment in a slow and steady current.
The weak, flickering points of light inside the chamber began to respond.
They grew.
Dragonite's form built itself in the light: broad-shouldered, solid, unmistakable. Serperior's elegant shape emerged beside it. Volcarona's wings began to take shape, each flame pattern tracing itself into existence. Flesh and scale and feather regenerated at a visible pace, every detail of each of them shaped by the energy Lucien had carried for them all this time.
The laboratory lights dimmed. The screen data flickered but stayed within limits. Colress stood at the panel, palms tight, watching every number, not breathing properly until the parameters held steady.
The light continued.
After a time that had no clear measure, the golden glow in the laboratory began to settle. Several familiar shapes came to rest on the energy platform.
Volcarona stirred first. The flame patterns on its wings lit faintly, then it opened its eyes. It looked around the room for one disoriented moment, and then it saw Lucien.
It launched itself forward and buried itself against his chest, its white fur pressing tight, making sounds that were somewhere between grief and relief, as if it had been holding them back for the entire thousand years it had been gone.
Lucien wrapped his arms around it.
Serperior opened its eyes next. Its gaze found Lucien immediately, the cold reserve it had always worn had softened into something that was just longing, plain and undisguised. It moved toward him with its usual grace, lowered its head, and rested it gently against his forehead. It said nothing. There was nothing that needed to be said.
Then Dragonite.
Dragonite's eyes opened and found Lucien's face in a single instant. Its large body shook once. It let out a sound that was a Dragon Roar with everything sharp removed from it, leaving only the ache of something long endured. It pushed past Serperior and Volcarona, not meaning to, just unable to stop, and pressed its large claws around Lucien and held on.
It made a low, broken sound against his shoulder.
Lucien put his hand on Dragonite's back and felt tears come without deciding to let them.
Serperior and Volcarona, jostled aside, looked at each other briefly.
"Dragonite, Serperior, Volcarona," Lucien said, his voice rough. "I'm sorry for making you wait so long. We won't be separated again."
The three of them answered him, Dragonite with a low rumble against his face, wiping at his tears without ceremony; Serperior coiled gently around his wrist, pressing close; Volcarona tucking its face back into his chest with small, quiet sounds.
A thousand years. And not a trace of distance between them.
Then another sound came from inside the equipment.
Five small heads poked out from the equipment.
The Minccino looked around the room with wide, confused eyes. Then they found Lucien's face, and the confusion broke into something else entirely.
"Minccino!"
All five came tumbling out at once, scrambling toward him, grabbing his trouser leg, climbing up to his shoulders, reaching out their small claws to touch his face and pinch his cheeks as though checking whether he was real.
Their voices were bewildered and frightened. They had died. They remembered it, Lucien holding them, tears on his face, saying goodbye. They had always understood that death meant they would not see him again, would not eat the things he made for them, would not play with everyone the way they used to. And yet here he was, right in front of them. Which could only mean...
Was Lucien dead too?
"I'm not dead," Lucien said, and smiled at them, putting his hands on their small heads one by one. "I asked someone very capable to bring you back. We don't have to be separated anymore."
The Minccino looked around the room properly for the first time and saw Dragonite, and Serperior, and Volcarona.
The tears that had been building came out all at once. Five small faces, absolutely overwhelmed.
Colress stood to one side and watched. A quiet smile had settled on his face. He had spent years working toward this moment for someone else's sake. Seeing it happen was enough.
Lucien held his Pokémon close, and felt what had been an aching absence for a thousand years simply close.
From now on, no matter how long the years continued, he would not face them alone. He would carry this warmth with him, all of them together, continuing, watching over the land they had built, watching over each other, year after year.
"Thank you," Lucien said to Colress.
Colress shook his head. Nothing needed to be said.
"Let's go home," Lucien told the Pokémon.
Hoopa wiped its eyes quickly, pretending it had not been crying, and opened a ring to the Tree of Beginning. Lucien nodded once to Colress, then stepped through with everyone behind him.
The cold precision of the laboratory dissolved instantly into warmth and the clean smell of living things. The Tree of Beginning, soft light filtering down through layers of leaves, the gentle sound of the forest all around them.
Dragonite, Serperior, Volcarona, and Minccino looked around at the familiar forest. Memory came back in a wave: this place, this quiet retreat far from every conflict, where they had lived with Lucien in peace. They had left it. Now they had come back to it.
Dragonite let out a roar that rang through the trees, startling a group of Swablu from the branches. Not a battle cry, something that had no name except the feeling of returning home after a very long time.
Serperior moved in a graceful arc around Lucien, its green scales catching the light. It looked at the forest it remembered, and its eyes held a deep, uncomplicated tenderness.
Volcarona stayed close to Lucien's side, the warmth of its wings subdued, pressing against him as though it was not yet willing to accept that distance was safe again.
The five Minccino did not stay still for a single moment. They ran around Lucien, tugged at his clothes, climbed back to his shoulders, touched his face and his hair again and again, making small sounds of reassurance to themselves or to him, unable to stop.
Terapagos, Victini, and Melmetal came over and gathered around, the happiness between them all immediate and uncontained.
Lucien looked at all of them and felt a smile that did not stop.
"Welcome home," he said quietly.
The responses came from every direction at once.
The Pokémon who lived in the Tree of Beginning drifted over to see what the commotion was. The branches above swayed in a gentle breeze, the light through them shifting and warm, as though the tree itself recognized what had just happened.
Lucien walked with his companions deeper into the forest toward their home, Dragonite moving beside him and clearing low branches out of his way without being asked, Serperior gliding alongside, Volcarona circling overhead and scattering small warm sparks, Minccino running ahead and doubling back and running ahead again.
He had lost them here once. He had brought them back.
Behind him and beside him and all around him, everyone was here.
The sunrise and the sunset, the changing of the seasons, all of it ahead of them. Together, from here on, without end.
...
T/L Note: I hope the translation felt like it did the story justice. I hope it made you laugh, made you feel something, and gave you a Lucien worth rooting for.
To everyone who read even a single chapter, thank you.
Take care of yourselves, and keep smiling.
On that note, I've already started working on a new project: Pokémon: The Game is Real, by the same author who brought us Pokémon: New Path and Manor Lord in the World of Pokémon. I've read through the raw chapters on Qidian, and it genuinely gives me the same vibe as New Path, if you loved that one, I'm confident you'll love this too. I'd be grateful if you checked it out and gave it your support.