Epilogue

Dearest family,

What you just read is the story of what happened to me. I'm assuming you got this shortly after getting my email, although from my point of view I've been away for four months now. Dialga brought me back in time to when I was taken away so I could retrieve my camera equipment and to leave this. It was weird, but I actually saw myself being ripped from this world. I'm also leaving my camera and tablet computer I used on the alternate Earth, as proof what I'm telling you is true. You will not find another camera or computer like it on this Earth. I've also left many photos on the tablet, showing some of the amazing, incredible things from this other Earth; the Pokémon there are truly incredible and amazing.

I wish I could stay, but since I cannot become human again, I simply don't belong on this world anymore. Further, I've made a new life on this other Earth. But I had to come back to leave this, before I'm noticed to be missing, to tell you what happened (and what will happen) to me. Please do not worry; I'll be fine. If Palkia allows, I hope to come back for a visit, but I can't be certain. If we do see each other again, you must remember I've have this new, monkey-like body, as you'll see in the photos. I fully accept I'll be declared missing and then dead after seven years, but you'll at least know the truth.

Attached to this you'll find a detailing of all my online and financial accounts; handle everything as you see fit. Mom, Dad, please use the money to move to someplace warmer, as you've been dreaming about for so long. Sis, I don't know if you're getting serious with Timothy or not, but if/when you get married, use some of the money to get a good start with a family.

Well, it's time for me to go. I know this is a lot to take in and there was nothing to prepare you for it, and for that I'm sorry. If this is all still unbelievable for you, I understand. Try to keep in mind the universe is a big place, and even bigger when you accept there's more than one universe out there, many filled with their own galaxies, stars and planets. Maybe I'm exceedingly lucky or unlucky, but I've been given a completely new life and a new body with abilities that are, I'm told by Palkia, mostly impossible in this universe. So I'll be alright. And I have a new wife too to help take care of me. You'll see her in some of the photos. So please don't worry about me.

Please tell my friends what happened when you think they're ready, or feel free to make something up.

Love you all as always and forever,

Alex

For the hundredth time, I reread my handwritten letter that went along with the printed account of what happened to me. This was the last chance to make changes, but I decided it was as good as I could make it after a couple weeks. Taking my favorite pen from my desk, I at last signed it.

Immediately after, I sent the mentioned email to my family, alerting them I left something very important for them to read, and that I was leaving for a long time, perhaps forever. Being nighttime, they probably wouldn't read it until morning, I figured. I just hoped they would forgive me.

With a sigh, I shut down my old laptop and packed it with the other stuff I was taking back, including my old camera equipment, several dozen movies and a disc player, magazines, and many other favorite possessions. Some of the stuff I just wanted to keep as precious reminders of where I came from. Other things I thought would be interesting to those on my adopted world. No doubt everything would make for interesting study as items from an alternate Earth, not to mention being 'alien' artifacts and technology for all intents and purposes.

Then…that was it. My final task in my origin universe was finished.

Inside my illuminated house, I took a moment to walk through and just have a final look as Charna followed, patting around on the carpet. I felt on the verge of tears as it really sunk in that this was the final goodbye I had requested, and that it was nearly over. To my old home and life, I was giving a proper farewell. And for the chance, I was grateful.

Charna picked up a stuffed animal in my bedroom, something I had been given when I was younger and more interested in the large cats.

"This a…Liepard?" she asked. "Color wrong, tail different."

"It's actually a leopard. Different cat; not a Pokémon."

Her wide mouth formed an "oh" as she set it down.

I picked it back up and handed it to her. "You can have it if you want it. I'll find room."

She took it, giving me a quick hug. I took the opportunity to exchange a kiss too while giving her back a quick rub, trying not to think how close she came close to not even being with me. More amazing, she hardly had any scar to remind she had her throat slashed.

Gale was waiting in the living room as I finished the last round of my house. As I walked up to her, she pointed to a small photo on one wall.

"Is this your family?"

"Uh huh. My parents, younger sister Sarah, and me." And of course, now that it was pointed out: "Oh, I should bring that too."

"So that's what you looked like as a human," she said, taking the photo down to show Charna as she came running to see.

"It's a few years old but yeah, that's me," I said, pointing to myself and suddenly self-conscious. "Or, was me."

Both females stared for a moment before Gale grinned. "You were cute. Still are. Or maybe more so now."

"You human!" Charna almost shrieked, before a grin crept across her creamed-colored simisage face. "But you simisage now."

I endured a vigorous rubbing of my head hair by the woman, followed by a little tickling from both of them. That was then followed by some playful tussle with the female simisage, during which we nearly broke a lamp.

After Gale replaced the caught lamp on the end table and brushed her long, brown pony-tail back over her shoulder, "I guess we should go now, huh? Palkia and Dialga only gave us an hour here." She glanced at her watch as if making sure.

I nodded with a long sigh.

"Palkia say he make him invisible," Charna reminded.

"He said mostly, but not completely," I corrected as I found room to pack away the family photo and the now squished leopard in one of the two fully stuffed backpacks.

"You really have a nice house," Gale commented quietly for third or fourth time as we slowly left through the back door and out into my yard. "Wish we had time to see more of this Earth. I'd really like to learn more about it. There's so many things that are the same."

"I'm bringing all those magazines and some stuff on the computer you can look at," I reminded just as quietly so as not to wake up any neighbors, doing a quick double-take to make sure I did pack the laptop's power supply.

"Just make sure Juniper and anyone else doesn't get them before me," she replied with a half laugh. "But still, this is a nice planet from what I've seen."

Obviously she knew little of the problems it faced, but in any case, "Thanks."

Like seeing the outline of two large, almost invisible crystal statues in my back yard, both Palkia and Dialga were inside a special dimensional sphere created by the former to conceal themselves. I was again very grateful to Palkia for agreeing to Juniper's suggestion of bringing me back for a last visit, providing a chance to wrap up my human life. On the other hand, it was also the least he could do for me! On his own suggestion, Dialga came along to bring us to the moment of my teleport, giving me a chance to retrieve my camera equipment, and then forward a few hours to that night to take care of everything else. It made things easier that way, instead of maintaining the same elapsed time between the two worlds and coming back four months later to who knew what. Heck, my house could have been sold off by that time, and my old camera gear certainly would have been long gone.

I also figured it would be best not to visit my parents or sister, instead providing photos, video, and a written account of what happened. They were in for enough of a shock without suddenly seeing my simisage body without any warning.

"Have you completed everything?" Palkia's telepathic voice asked as we approached the 'concealment' barrier.

"Yes," I replied.

"Then it is time to depart," Dialga announced.

With Charna and Gale, we walked into the sphere and after joining hands, a light enveloped us as the view of my backyard quickly faded.

Goodbye everyone, I thought, a tear going down my face.

For some time we tumbled through a grayish tunnel, our joined hands keeping me together with Gale and Charna. Then like when we had left my world, it was dark on returning to the 'Pokémon' Earth, with the light of a sunrise just beginning in the east. Although Palkia moved us between the worlds, it really was Dialga's work to move us forward again four months, and keeping our total time away only the couple hours we were actually gone.

"Will I ever get a chance to go back again?" I had to ask just before the legendary pair made to take off, neither desiring to be seen on the front lawn of the apartment building.

Palkia cocked his head, focusing down on me. "Perhaps the opportunity will present itself. We appear to be connected, Alex; it's possible I may hear you, if you try hard enough."

"Farewell Alex," Dialga said next. "It's possible we may meet again too...sometime in the future."

As Gale, Charna and I waved, the time and space dragons flew up, both disappearing into their own portals.

And you might hear me…on occasion.

I paused for a moment on 'hearing' Palkia's final words, until feeling a tap on my back.

"Shall we go inside?" Gale asked. Jabbing her thumb toward her back, "This pack is getting heavy, cute stuff."

Before I could answer, Charna gave me a push to get me going. Just as well; my pack wasn't much lighter, nor was I in a mood to stand around and talk.

We returned to the apartment Charna and I had on the same floor as Gale's, and before returning to her own place, she helped us unpack. It really didn't take long, considering our new apartment was mostly empty and there wasn't designated spots for most of it yet.

Although an apartment had became available a month prior, it wasn't terribly cheap, and even then we had gotten a break. I had surprised the hell out of the management the day I walked into the office. Despite their (apparently quite common as well as practical) policy of not renting to Pokémon, I was so well known that they couldn't grant Charna and I an exception fast enough, along with reduced rent. Well, there was something in it for them too in renting a place to the world's only (known) talking Pokémon. Hell, they even wanted to use me in an ad! I had said no to avoid any likely embarrassment. That, and I didn't want my address so widely known.

Being able to pay the rent and actually afford to furnish it were two different things, however. We had a cheap folding table, some chairs, a well-worn couch, a small television on a makeshift stand, some dishes, a used bed…and little else. But we had privacy, something that was quite important for us these days.

With a quick peck on my cheek and an invite to see us at the park later, Gale left and I promptly setup my old laptop…right next to the new tablet computer and camera gear donated by the store I'd bought my first ones from. Certainly I couldn't connect to anything here due to incompatibilities including this world's version of the internet (and even the power was iffy), but it did contain my entire library of photos I had taken on my origin world in recent years. Professor Juniper assured there were plenty of programmers around who could likely come up with a way to transfer the image files to a computer of this world and convert them to a standard format. Sooner or later, I intended to take up her offer to find one.

I decided to sit start going through them, recalling many of the fun times and places they represented. Charna showed some interest too, asking a question here and there, but getting on in the morning, I needed to do something useful such as make breakfast. At least my homesickness started subsiding after getting a fully belly. Which was good; it was going to be a big evening for us, and I really did need to go through my growing volume of emails (not to mention regular mail). The email account was mostly to support of something I had been thinking about for several weeks, but it wasn't long before some people found out who the address belonged to and the volume grew quickly. After all, a Pokémon with an email address and who would occasionally answer was quite the novelty. Especially if that Pokémon had saved the world.

As such, the vast majority of the hundreds of email I received on a daily basis had nothing to do with why I got it, comprised mostly of various forms of thanks for saving the world, battle requests, questions about Palkia, Dialga, and the other legendaries, more questions about my origin world, and even a surprising number of interview requests, peppered with occasional requests for research (on me). Professor Juniper would be so amused, I thought.

Then...there was the spam that apparently not even I could avoid. Mixed very occasionally among all the other garbage however, were emails of an very personal type, sent by what I could only call were the more…adventurous humans, to put it charitably. It was stated more than once that the fact I used to be human brought them out.

I really needed to change my email address, thinking while reading through one of them. Most I would simply delete as soon as I recognized the type of email it was, but this particular one started off rather well-written and innocent. Keeping my interest, it fluidly transitioned into quite the explicit imagery of desired intimate human-Pokémon contact if I agreed to meet her! Granted, I held a certain amount of interest in the subject, but I had only disgust for these type of emails. They were after me, after all! Yet this email was better than any other, considering I read the whole thing. Then at the end was a photo of her leaving absolutely nothing to the imagination.

Oh, good grief!

"What doing?!"

I nearly jumped out of my simisage skin before hurriedly clicking another window as Charna came up behind me. "Oh, just catching up on some emails again," I answered, trying to sound as bored as possible. Truth was, that email did have an effect on me. So did Charna's hands that started out rubbing the tuffs of hair on my shoulder before slowly traveling down my spine…all the way to the base of my tail…before moving through the hair on my hips to close in on...

So my wife was in the mood too.

No further words were exchanged nor needed as I got up and we headed into the bedroom for some rather enjoyable intimacy. It was actually funny when we first got our place and had the privacy we needed, as it was educational for both of us; wild Pokémon apparently knew little of various techniques to make things more interesting and pleasurable, and I needed to get used to anatomical differences, such as what to do with my tail. At least I'd gotten over my revulsion to doing it with an 'animal', mainly because unlike any other Pokémon, I saw Charna as something other than one; she was so much more to me now. She was my friend, my lover, my soul mate, my savior, and I wouldn't push her away for the world. If anything, she became a little more human-like every day, likely picking up certain behaviors from me.

I thought over that as I pulled her closer afterward, enjoying her warmth as our tails draped over each other. Oh what a long way we had come. When we had first met four months before...I smiled thinking back to that and just snuggled her head closer, giving her one ear slow strokes while she brushed a hand over my chest.

Not really wanting to leave, we finally got to the park closer to noon where Gale was at the end of a battle, Serenity just finishing off a hapless dewott and its trainer.

"Well, you two are a bit late this morning," she greeted after.

I shrugged. "We were busy."

She gave Charna and I a look that nearly said she knew what we had been busy with.

Was Charna's face still flush?! "And it's getting a little cold in the morning these days," I hastily added. "We're grass types, you know." It was getting into fall this time of year, conveniently enough.

The woman just returned a quick smile. "Well, guess what. Marvin's here this morning. And he wanted to see us over lunch."

"Marvin?!" Charna exclaimed.

I echoed that. We hadn't seen the man since the day after the big battle on the mountain, when he stopped in the hospital to say goodbye.

Gale nodded, hefting her pack after brushing back her ponytail and getting Serenity back in her ball. "He came here for a visit before he returns to Sinnoh."

"I'm surprised he hung around in Unova this long," I commented as we headed for the concession stand where, sure enough, I spotted the man in his blue and silver jacket at one of the tables. Along with a good many others who seemed to notice us, or rather me, heading their way.

"He said he stayed to challenge the gyms. And yes, he won all the badges."

"Wow," Charna said with a tail flick. "His team strong."

"No kidding," I added with my own tail flick, wondering just how much stronger Drago, Coal, Lightening, Razor, Wisp and Squirt could possibly have gotten.

"Oh, just a bit stronger," Marvin answered as we ate lunch. "Of course, with that Spacial Rend of yours, my team decided they had some catching up to do before they could match you in a battle. With eight badges, we all feel qualified now."

"Hey, I'm not battling them," I stated flatly. "I've had enough broken bones for one lifetime."

The man laughed. "I'm sure they're flattered to hear that. But you're looking good. Very glad you and Charna are fully healed. I heard you guys are…married?"

"Yes, he mine!" Charna answered, wrapping a quick arm around me before sinking her teeth into more of her burger.

"Sure are," I happily translated. "We even have our own apartment."

"With some donated furniture from my parents," Gale added.

Marvin nodded, then grinned with a slow shake of his head. "You really are just like a human, Alex. Well, belated congratulations. I'm glad you and Charna are doing well. You're certainly unique, and famous. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked about you guys."

I buried my face in my own burger to hide my forming grin. I still could do without all the fame, but there were occasional perks. Such as the new camera equipment I was given.

"So you're heading back to Sinnoh soon?" Gale asked propping her head on an arm.

"Yep," the British-accented man replied, a hint of regret about his tone. "Really need to get back home and catch up on things. Although I still intend to be a trainer, I think I'm reaching the point in my life where I better start thinking about finding someone and starting a family. Late thirties is getting close to the point that if you don't start, you're probably not ever going to."

For a moment, the look he gave Gale seemed to have some expectation about it. Thinking back, there were a few times when I thought there could be something between the two of them, but I passed it off at the time as just normal friendliness. Other times, they didn't seem to get along very well at all, such as after Marvin had his Pokémon really go after me at the base of Twist Mountain. Further, I thought the age difference between was maybe a little too great. But then again…

Either way, Gale didn't seem to respond with any serious interest.

"And I really should consider getting a real job," he continued after a moment. "Being a decent trainer certainly pays, but there's more to life than battling, too. Unless you're a gym leader or such."

Gale nodded to that. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that too, lately."

"Perhaps you should be a professor," I threw out. "You must have a bunch of knowledge about Dialga that even the top Pokémon professors would practically kill for."

Suddenly laughing, "Oh don't think I haven't already been grilled about that!" Marvin returned.

We continued our small talk for the remainder of lunch. Afterward as we made our way away from the concession stand, I watched curiously as the man reached into a pocket to pull out two silver necklaces. Handing one to Gale and the other to me, I noticed the pearl color glass-like slivers hanging from them.

Gale took hers with an "Oh!"

"Palkia wanted the two of you to have these Lustrous Orb shards as a memento and thanks. Dialga, somehow, got the necklaces made from a special metal he told me, but didn't really explain."

This time I went "Oh!"

"Anyway, they gave one of these to me as well a couple months, then wanted me to get these to you two when I could. Sorry it took so long."

Both Gale and I took a moment as we put them on, Marvin giving Gale a little help with hers and Charna replicating for me.

"Well, thanks!" Gale said.

I did the same. Not that I really cared to see any part of that orb again, but in this circumstance I didn't mind. "So you've seen Dialga and Palkia since they left the mountain?"

"Yeah, he and Palkia only visited once, a few days after. Mostly Dialga wanted to thank me privately for helping. Not much more than that besides these necklaces. Oh, has Palkia taken you back to your Earth yet, Alex?"

"Just early this morning, as a matter of fact," I returned. "Dialga came along too to provide a little time traveling service."

"We saw him being taken from his planet four months ago, actually," Gale explained. "Though at quite some distance."

"He flashed and gone," Charna furthered spreading her arms in a good 'poof' gesture.

Which I mostly translated, but added: "Don't know if Ill ever get to go back again, though. Palkia left it up in the air."

Marvin patted my shoulder. "Well, maybe he'll see fit to take you for another visit. But you got everything taken care of like you wanted?" After my nod, "I'm sure your family will appreciate it."

"I just hope they'll believe the story I left. I also left my camera equipment and tablet as proof, though." After his growing objection about my photography business, "Don't worry, I've got new equipment though."

We continued our walk through the park for a while, going into this and that and covering more of what we did since we parted over two months before. We didn't have complete peace though, being followed at various times by people wanting either battles or photographs. Well, maybe one wanted to just ask for my autograph.

As it got on to mid-afternoon, it was getting time for me and Charna to get going. The three of us said our farewells to Marvin, and after the man gave a quick kiss to Gale who returned it, we watched him go the opposite direction for a bit before heading back to our own abodes.

"I think he actually likes you quite a lot," I stated boldly.

"I like him as a friend," Gale replied. "Besides, he's fourteen years my senior; just a little old for me."

"When you get a mate and have babies?" Charna asked.

I grinned inwardly at Charna's rather more direct question, and gave my translation as: "Charna wants to know when you're going to get married."

The woman nearly snorted. Looking down at one of the Pokéballs on her belt: "Don't you get any ideas, Serenity." Shrugging, "Who knows. When I meet the right guy, I guess. Alex, if you weren't a Pokémon, I get the strong feeling we would of ended up together, assuming you came to this world in exactly the same manner. You looked rather cute in the photo, you know."

I grinned outwardly now, even after Charna gave me a scowl. Jealously? Still, I could only feel Gale was right. I remained attracted to the woman, that hadn't changed at all, but I had found my love, and wrapped on arm around her scowling frame, the scowl disappearing.

We had another meal at Gale's apartment a little later, then I gathered my stuff and the three of us headed out again, this time to the shopping district. A few blocks later, we arrived in front of the camera store, which by now was familiar to me and vice versa. We stood out front for a moment as I took in the new signage painted one of the windows in sharp, red letters.

ALEX SIMISAGE PHOTOGRAPHY CLASSES TAUGHT HERE!

"Well, would you look at that," Gale announced. "Looks like we finally have a real business!"

I grinned nervously. It was a bold move for me, yet since I didn't want to subsist on Pokémon battling and selling photos, I needed something else. The logical choice for that something else was to expand my budding photography business into teaching basic photo classes. Something that could likely bring in some real money. Computer programming had been my main occupation when I was human and was something I perhaps still could do on this world with some education, but my heart just wasn't in it anymore. Maybe someday. On the other hand, my passion was now photography and after discussing it with the store's owner, I obtained permission to use a small room upstairs. Much like the apartment building management, Mr. Fillmore couldn't contain his excitement at having the world's only (known) talking Pokémon wanting to use his store for classes.

With Gale's and Charna's help, I got setup and we opened the door to a dozen very excited students, stretching in age from teenagers to senior citizens, all wanting to learn the basics of photography.

Maybe.

"OK, how many of you are eager to learn more about photography?" I asked the class after doing my introductions.

All the hands went up.

"And...how many of you are here because a talking Pokémon is teaching the class?"

There was some hesitation, but again all hands went up.

As I suspected. Of course, I wasn't above using that fact to get students!

The class went well though, everyone being polite, paying attention, and asking some really good questions. My nervousness was gone by the first half hour. I was no expert photographer by any means, but I had a solid grasp of all the basics and could talk about several more advanced techniques. This being the first class of a couple, I was saving those things for next time.

A couple hours later and close to closing time, we said goodbye to the last person after I'd given the elderly lady an autograph. She responded by giving me a hug, and thanks for what I did to save the world.

Shucks. Even here, I wasn't going to live that down.

"You good teacher," Charna said as she started helping me pack up.

"Went better than I feared," I returned, breathing a long sigh of relief while thinking about how much money we just made.

"Oh, hi."

I turned to find Gale addressing Mr. Fillmore.

"How'd it go?" the tall, thin store owner asked. "I heard nothing but excited chatter from the people as they left. No doubt they'll all be back and buying some equipment!"

"Went well I thought," Gale said.

I seconded that. "They were all good students."

"Hello there! Sorry about being late, but we couldn't get here any sooner."

Mr. Fillmore looked behind him as yet another, also familiar voice, called from the hallway. "Oh, you're Professor Juniper!" the owner exclaimed. "Uh, welcome, but I was just about to close up for the night."

"Oh, if you don't mind, we just wanted to talk with Alex."

I tilted my head, definitely not recognizing the new male voice.

Mr. Fillmore stepped aside as the Professor appeared in the doorway. "Hello Alex, Charna, Gale. Nice to see you guys again. So you did decide to teach photography classes, huh?"

"Yeah, just started tonight," I provided, wondering who the tall, thin guy (much like Mr. Fillmore, but more 'French' looking) behind her was as they came in. With black hair and very thin, partial beard about his lower cheeks, I couldn't recall seeing him before.

"Right, he's actually a pretty good teacher," Gale added. "Everyone loved him!"

"I can just imagine," the unfamiliar man said with some hint of astonishment. Putting hand to hips and striking a pose as someone taking me all in, "And you really are a talking simisage! Amazing! Ever since I watched you on television, I knew I had to come here as meet you myself! Fortunately the Professor here was kind enough to make some arraignments."

"Uh...great." I was about to ask who the heck he was. The look on Gale's face suggested she was about to do that same.

"Oh, I better introduce you," Juniper said hastily, raising her one hand. "This is Professor Augustine Sycamore, from the Kalos region. And yes, he's been chomping at the bit to meet you."

"Kalos?!" Gale exclaimed.

"Yes indeed," Sycamore answered. "Oh please pardon my manners for the suddenness of this, since I'm as giddy as a youngster right now, but Alex, Gale, how would you like to visit my research center back in Kalos? A human turned Pokémon would provide such a ..."

Juniper started laughing, slapping hands to her knees. "The rumors are true! You really can be like a kid sometimes!"

"Sometimes the eyes of a child can see what the adult cannot," the other Professor returned. "The solution is to never lose your childhood loves, like the love of Pokémon."

"But Alex just started teaching classes tonight," Fillmore interrupted, looking quite worried. "He has the second class later this week!"

"I do have to teach class again on Thursday," I pointed out, getting a little worried myself about the sudden invitation, though for other reasons. "Tonight's class was the first of a set of two."

"Alright, so how about Friday then, to come stay a week or two with me? I know Professor Juniper had been studying you too, but my research is a little different, and I promise I won't draw blood like she has."

Juniper gave him a jab.

"You could be such a help to my research, especially with translating and knowing one of the moves of the legendary Palkia!"

The man sure had a charming way of asking, certainly with childlike sincerity.

"He does have a pretty impressive research lab," Juniper added, raising her eyebrows. "I think I might come along too if you go."

"Kalos, huh?" Gale said, sounding alarmingly thoughtful as she crossed her arms over her chest.

"Where Ka...Kalooos?" Charna asked, looking between Gale and me.

"Beats me," I answered. "But hey, I have a waiting list for classes a couple hundred long..." I trailed off as Gale kneeled down to face me, suddenly wearing a overly sweet smile.

Putting hands on my shoulder and running fingers through my white hair, "So remember when I said I've been thinking about going to someplace new sometime? And don't forget you've still promised to help me with battling."

I let my shoulders droop as I got the feeling the next group of students would be waiting a slightly longer than planned.