Transcendence

Super part 4: Don't Ever Forge-WHAT?!

The battle was over. Lant had been freed. Calyrex had reclaimed its throne.

And yet... Alex was still here.

Under the dim glow of the lanterns lining the empty streets, Alex, David, and Caitlin walked in silence. The city, still trembling from the recent conflict, felt hollow-as if the world itself had paused, waiting for something to happen.

David finally broke the quiet, his voice hesitant.

"I don't get it... shouldn't you be gone by now?"

Caitlin nodded, casting a concerned glance toward Alex. "You were so sure, Alex... You said the moment we won, you'd be sent back."

Alex didn't answer immediately. Instead, he stared up at the night sky, his tail flicking restlessly. A cold breeze whispered through the streets, and despite all his victories, he felt small again-like he had the day he first arrived in Lant.

"I don't understand," Alex murmured, his voice trembling.

He had believed it with everything in him-that his purpose here was to help David, to liberate Lant, and then return home. He had clung to that belief because it gave him a reason to fight, a reason to keep going.

But he was still here.

David frowned. "Maybe... maybe it just takes time?"

Caitlin shook her head. "Or maybe... maybe this wasn't why you were brought back at all."

Alex's chest tightened. The idea felt like a dagger to his heart.

"Then why?!" he snapped, his voice cracking with frustration. "If not for this, then what the hell am I still doing here?!"

David and Caitlin flinched at his outburst.

Alex took a shaky breath, trying to steady himself, but the weight of uncertainty crushed down on him. This was supposed to be over. He was supposed to be free from this world.

And yet, despite everything... the world refused to let him go.

The night air was cold, but Alex barely felt it. His mind was lost in the past, in the years that had defined him-years that, at this moment, felt like an illusion.

"Ever since I first arrived in this world..." Alex began, his voice soft but heavy, "I was lost. I didn't know where I was or why I was here. I thought it was some kind of nightmare I couldn't wake up from."

His paws clenched at his sides. He remembered those first days vividly-the panic, the confusion, the sheer terror of waking up in a body that wasn't his own. He had screamed. He had run. He had even tried to deny reality, believing that at any moment, he would wake up in his bed-but that moment never came. Completely oblivious that he no longer had a future in the human world as he died in an earthquake before being sent back to the Pokémon world.

"But then, there was Elton." A small, sad smile played on his lips. "He helped me. Guided me. Showed me that this world... it wasn't something to be feared. He made me love it. And over time... I fell in love again-with Andrea."

David and Caitlin exchanged glances but said nothing, letting Alex speak.

"Andrea made me see things differently," Alex continued, looking up at the sky. "She annoyed me at first, pushed me beyond what I thought I could be. She never pitied me, never looked at me like I was just some lost human. She treated me as her equal."

He sighed deeply, eyes dark with emotion.

"But then... it happened. Just like Kevin, I was whisked away. The moment I freed Dialga from the Red Chain's control, I was sent back." His voice turned bitter. "No buts, no goodbyes for my Andrea-just gone."