16. Great War

Grace was surprised over what she heard.

"Wow, really? So because of him, you were given an unaltered book made from evidence collected by professors, professionals and government officials that contains all of Kalos' legends, myths and history with no bullshit added or important bits taken out?" Serena nodded without saying anything, her heavy blush still on her face.

"Wow. No wonder you're reading the book since it's practically a gift from your dark haired savior…"

"MOM!" snapped Serena with a glare over her mother's joking once more.

"What? You should've seen that one coming," said Grace as she chuckled.

Serena huffed as she crossed her arms. "Whatever."

I guess I could say it was a gift from Ash, but…I wasn't the only one who got something because of him…

Grace didn't know what her daughter was thinking as she continued chuckling for a bit before calming down. Looking at her daughter, she decided she'd play nice a bit.

"So…what are some of the hidden facts about our Kalos?"

Serena glanced at her with raised eyebrows. "You really want to know?" asked the honey blonde haired girl with skepticism.

"Of course," replied back Grace sincerely.

"If it's the actual true facts about our region and if it's something that interests you, I want to know too. We have similar taste, remember?"

Smiling at her mom, Serena looked at the book in front of her and went back to where she was at.

"Alright. Well, there's so many. One thing was about a myth that dates back thousands of years. It says that our ancestors performed a special rite to summon the legendary pokemon Xerneas so the legendary can show up and grant them longer lives."

"And another ritual was one about bringing back those who had passed on but there's no evidence of that ever being done. The longer life one is well documented and there's a lot of evidence of it being done. But even though it worked and Xerneas would come, it would do their own thing to determine if the person or pokemon was worthy enough to be given longer life..."

Grace's eyes widened as she let out a whistle. "Wow, I never knew that. That's incredible."

"I know, right?" replied Serena with a smile, glancing at her mom before facing the book and flipping through the pages back towards the beginning of the book.

"And remember how my friends and I fought against Team Flare so they wouldn't be able to fire that weapon of theirs?"

"How could I forget? I was so worried about you and scared to death when I found out you were in that fight too," said Grace with a frown.

Serena looked at her, feeling guilty about making her worried. "Sorry Mom."

"It's alright. It's over and done with. And I bet he probably did whatever he could to keep you safe," she said with a playful smirk.

Serena reddened again while the image of a raven haired young man appeared in her mind.

She moved her eyes back to the book and stopped on the page she was looking for. "SO, AS I WAS SAYING…" started Serena loudly, making her point quite clear that they were moving on while Grace's smirk grew into a large grin. "…it looks like that weapon was actually fired before a long, long time ago and Team Flare's leader, Lysandre, was telling the truth about that. It says that the man who made it first built it as a machine to restore life to his pokemon."

"When it was used, it caused the deaths of countless pokemon, humans and plant life around the machine since it used their aura, which is another way to say life energy, to bring back his pokemon that lost its life due to being forced to fight in the Great Kalos War. When the pokemon came back to life and learned of what its trainer did to restore it to life, it was disgusted of the man and left him. Because of his despair and anger over everything, the man turned the machine into a weapon and fired it at both sides involved in the war that caused horrific levels of destruction. And that was what caused the Great Kalos War to end."

"Now that's terrible. I can't believe that actually happened. But why didn't that man try to do that other thing to see if Xerneas might bring back his pokemon?" asked Grace, wondering why go to such horrible lengths when there already a possible way to get it done.

Serena looked back at the open book and looked for the notes she saw with her right index finger moving over the page to help her do so.

"Well, I read here before that they don't know the exact reasons why, but guessed that it could be because...oh here it is. So yeah, they thought he didn't know or that he tried to summon Xerneas but was unsuccessful. But they're leaning towards him not knowing since that legend about summoning the legendary pokemon of life seems to have been lost in time since they were only able to recover evidence about it being done before the man's time."

"I see. Well, sometimes people can do extraordinary things, both good and bad, when pushed to the edge," remarked Grace heavily.

"Yeah." Serena agreed with a heavy tone on that. After everything she's been through and seen with her own eyes, she knew that was true.

Some people would just do whatever it takes to get what they want, even if it meant hurting others to do so. But, she also knew that there were also those who would stand against them, picturing a certain young man in her mind.

"Well, anything in there about something good?" asked Grace, catching Serena's attention as she looked at her mom.

"I need to hear something happier after all that doom and gloom."

The honey blonde haired girl chuckled in agreement.

"Right. There is one that I just read recently." Flipping through the pages, she stopped close to where she was in the book and showed the pages to her mother.

"There's a legend about the elemental winged titans and how they have multiple homes throughout the world. One of their homes is actually here in Kalos and it's called the 'Sky Spirits Den'. It says here that its open to everyone but only the worthy ones, the chosen ones, will be able to meet them in person. And if any who enter desecrate their home, they'll know who it was and unleash their wrath on them."

"Okay, that's a little better. But why mention this one? Isn't there anything better?" asked Grace.