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Lucas is a smart kid, everyone can see it even by only knowing him for an hour. He would have to be smarter than most other kids his age to be Professor Rowan’s aide after all, even with the connection his father has to him. But his vast wealth of knowledge is astounding for a kid only thirteen, pouring over his pokedex and feverishly taking notes while following the Professor like a lost puppy. Lucas was proud of his knowledge of Pokemon, able to recite small fun facts about Pokemon every now and then to those two strange kids.
Lucas couldn’t quite wrap his head around Barry and Dawn, honestly. Barry was a loudmouth, running every which way and bumping heads with those who had the misfortune of being in his path. Dawn was the opposite, a gloomy, low-energy girl with no apparent interests outside of collecting interesting rocks she finds on her path. And while he thought they were strange, he admired them. They weren’t smart like him, but they were powerful, talented trainers. This was evident in the first battle he saw from them, fighting off those Starly as though they knew what they were doing. And they had this chemistry together, a kind that seemed unshakable, one that made him almost feel intrusive when they came together as a trio.
Sure Barry likes to grab him by the hand and run, leading him to whatever catches his eyes, and Dawn likes to sit him down and care for his injuries even when he insists it’s just a scratch, but he can’t ever be a part of them as a group. The way they can just talk about anything. The way they are always on the same page. The way they know everything and anything about each other. It’s the childhood aspect, a part of their life he’ll never be in.
He likes Barry and Dawn, he wants to be their friend, but he can’t be with the two the way they already are, he decides.
It starts feeling lonely though, not being a part of what they have. They’re one of the few constants he has on his journey, not including Professor Rowan and his Pokemon pals, after all. So despite how happy it made him feel, having Barry dragging him around and Dawn following close behind with a rare smile, he began to drown himself in knowledge, avoiding them. He’d spend so much time in ruins and libraries, reading and learning until it hurt his brain.
But then an older man told him he knew nothing, that his definition of knowledge was a sham, and everything that defined him shattered.
It shouldn’t have meant anything, he was a stranger after all! But the way he said it, the way his eyes pierced through Lucas’s soul, and his final words to him being, “Anyone could know what you do, your definition and wealth of knowledge is a disappointment to this world we live in.” It shook him to his core, and then he just… walked away. It made his blood cold, and it would ring incessantly in his head.
Dawn and Barry finding him in the ruins with such a shooken up expression obviously concerned them, the girl grabbing his hand and the boy asking who he has to fight for his sake. Yet he could only reassure them that he was okay, feeling bad for making them worry in the first place. It made him feel warm.
They’re good friends.
But that incident made him question things, question his thoughts, question if what he did best was even that impressive. Did he even have a single inkling of worth in this world? And then he’s told he’s the definition of it by the Champion, THE person said to have the most spiritual connection to this world.
It didn’t make sense. It hurt his head even more. Now he’s having migraines every day, every second. How could Uxie even be fond of him?
And in his first encounter with Uxie, he asks, “Why did you choose me?” “What must I know?” “What should I seek?” But it does not answer. Instead it just flies away, not giving him even a minute to try and chase after it. And every other encounter, it just leaves him with more questions, more headaches.
It almost felt insulting when, in trying to protect Uxie from Team Galactic, he tripped and broke his glasses. Overhearing Saturn laugh and calling him and Uxie a fool for thinking they could protect the knowledge of this world. And then Barry goes with him and he can only stare as he sees the teary, yet confident eyes of the blonde, and hears Dawn scream and yell for him not to go.
In his search for things only he could know, he forgot he was supposed to protect this world. He then questions if it was even smart for Uxie to rest this role on him when he’s so young. Shouldn’t he have been laughing? Playing? Not searching for the keys to this world? Not searching for why humanity exists? Trying to fill his Pokedex with Professor Rowan?
What happened to him?
He moves his hand to reach for the thermos hooked onto Dawn’s bag, clipping it off while she sobs. He doesn’t know what else to do, so he pushes the still warm hot chocolate into her hands. She looks shocked at first, before Lucas pulls her into the first hug he gave anyone that wasn’t his family.
And they cry together.
Lucas is shocked this gave them both comfort.
Everything after was… a mess. And coming awake from the distortion world left him feeling empty more than anything, outside of the burning mark ever ingrained in his body in the form of the adamant orb on the back of his leg.
He still didn’t know anything. The man who left him with these questions was gone and probably won’t ever return. The lake trio didn’t leave them with anything. All that he has left is the aforementioned adamant orb that burns whenever anything touches it, and the ever present memories of begging to gods that won’t answer their plea to bring back their friend who was killed by childhood innocence and selfish adults.
He wonders if Giratina was feeling generous then, or annoyed maybe, seeing their teary eyes and praying hands. Or maybe it wanted to show up it’s creator, after seeing the empty, horrified look of its favorite after it denied life to its child.
He would toss and turn in his bed for months, sitting in libraries, studying the caves and temples, and not a single answer came to him. But when he sees Dawn with such a listless look after a childhood lost, and Barry with a body ever so cold, he wonders if things could’ve been different if he was simply smarter.
So he steps up to the one other possible person who would know. An archaeologist, a champion, and most importantly, Arceus’s chosen.
The two meet in a library, Lucas approaching first while Cynthia was reading a book on astronomy. She didn’t seem bothered by him approaching.
With her curiosity, he asks, “Mrs. Cynthia, am I worth being Uxie’s chosen one? I’m Professor Rowan’s aide, and I’m one of the smartest kids my age, but- if I was Uxie’s favorite… wouldn’t I- wouldn’t I know things no one else would?” The tears start coming out, and he can’t stop sniffling “Like- I should be a wealth of knowledge, but I don’t know anything except for pokemon trivia. Even after we went to the distortion world I feel like I know less than what I do now. So what should I know? What is the only thing I know?”
Cynthia stares at him and his crying face, before she stands up from her chair and closes her book. She then kneels in front of the boy, and gently holds both of Lucas’s hands in hers. Her hands are so warm, and they wrap around his own fully. He almost feels like they’re being held gently by a mother.
“Arceus blessed us with the gift of the earth, creating not just us, but our water, land, and skies. However, in order to help maintain this earth, it entrusted certain Pokemon with concepts and domains. The Lake Trio are no different. When Azelf, Mespirit, and Uxie flew, they each gave us a gift. You’re a smart boy, do you remember what those gifts are?”
Lucas, through his sniffling and tears, mumbles, “Willpower, emotion, and knowledge.”
Cynthia nods, “Mhm, but you want to know why they’re so important?”
Lucas thinks for a second, of course they’re important. But he just never really thought about why he had those three things. So he shakes his head.
She lets go of his right hand, pointing at the hand she just let go of, “Mespirit gifted us the feeling we exist…” She then points at his heart, “...Azelf gifted us the will to exist…” and then she points at his head, where his brain is, “...and Uxie gifted us the knowledge we exist.”
“These are the three keys to not just humanity’s, but the entire world’s existence. Even the grass we stand on has these three things.” Cynthia says with a gentle smile, letting her hand travel to Lucas’s teary eyes to remove his glasses with that same gentleness, wiping his falling tears with a hand. “Not everyone can know the keys to this world, not everyone can know every single detail, and not everyone can know the things you do. We don’t have to know nor understand everything. Simply knowing that we live, and understanding the people and things around you live just like you do, is enough.”
She gives Lucas’s smaller hand a gentle squeeze. “I may not be Uxie’s chosen one like you are, but I think it wants the entire world, but most of all you, to understand that. And I think you, out of everyone, deep down, already know that.”
Lucas sniffles more, before dissolving into full on bawls. He lets the gentle hand of Cynthia comfort him as he cries.
"You still have ways to grow up Lucas, and even if you don't think you fit being Uxie's chosen, I know you'll grow into into a person worthy of the title in your own eyes."
A third voice enters the conversation, one he's grown to adore and find comfort in, "Barry and I already think you do."
He turns around to see Dawn standing with her hands behind her back, giving him that rare smile that makes him feel so warm.
“Wanna go visit Barry with me…? You can ask him for yourself.” she asks, before turning away. “It’s not the same when it’s just us two,” she mumbles. She offers Lucas a hand, the one with the lustrous orb ingrained in the back. Cynthia lets go of his hand and moves both of them to her lap. And then Lucas takes hold of Dawn’s, letting her lead the way.
He notes Dawn doesn’t flinch in pain when he grabs it. Just as the grass grazing the adamant orb in the back of his leg doesn’t hurt anymore.
And when he sees Barry in his room lighten up when he sees the other two, despite the scar in his head and the griseous orb in his neck, and Lucas starts laughing with the other two, the everso smart child of knowledge decides.
He may not know everything, but he does know one truth only he could know: he knows that being with the other two is where he belongs.