//------------------------------// // Chapter 21: Guilt and Vengeance // Story: Pokemon Cosmos // by FandomPlays1234 //------------------------------// Once the flash of light began to die down, the group looked over to see Nihilego slowly remove itself from Nebula as it returned to it's Beast Ball. Meanwhile a weakened Nebula fell back as the Beast ball landed next to him. "BOSS!!" his grunts screamed as they ran over to their boss. Nova caught Nebula before his head could hit the ground as Comet and several grunts surrounded Nebula. Chrysalis and the Changelings unsure of what to do slowly walked over to the crowded group to see if Nebula was alive. "Symon," said Amber as he took a step forward. Symon looked back at the group with a sad look. Amber hesitated but let go of his arm as he approached the small crowd. Amber feeling awkward followed, then Gladion, then Fluttershy, then everyone else. "Boss," said Nova. Nebula weakly opened his eyes. "What the hell is going on?" asked Nebula. "Boss thank goodness your alive," said Comet. "Of course I'm alive you dumb ass," hissed Nebula. "Nebula," Larry called out as he approached him. The group of grunts quickly moved out of the way to let him pass. "The hell do you want champion?" asked Nebula. "Come on Nebula don't be like this," said Larry. "Your followers are worried about you," "Like I give a crap," said Nebula. "You know how this feels," "How what feels?" asked Fluttershy. "Come on seriously?" asked Nebula. "Everyone knows that if you want someone to listen to you ya gotta be intimidating," Larry sighed,"Come on Nebula you still mad about that?" "Shut up asshole," Nebula hissed weakly. "Nebula that was years ago," said Larry "You really need to give up on that," "I said Shut up," said Nebula. "God your champion you should know the words I'm throwing at you," "That's not the point," said Twilight. "And why the hell are you getting in for?" growled Nebula. His grunts came closer as he winced. "Darling just tell us why your so angry," said Rarity. "That's none of your concerns pony," hissed Nebula. "And besides even if I DID tell you the same thing from years ago would repeat itself," "Nebula please just tell us," begged Starlight. "We want to help," said Fluttershy. Nebula went silent for a few moments before letting out a sigh,"As a child I was always picked on by the older kids," "They would tease me just because I was too shy to do anything on my own," "They would always call me weak and puny," "I eventually swore to myself I would get stronger and show those idiots that they were wrong," "And you DID get stronger," said Rainbow. "So there problem solved," "You don't understand," hissed Nebula. Getting stronger wasn't enough for them," "I took the Island Challenge like the two brats and people would always see me as the Gloomy Dark Type User because that's all I had on my team," "Eventually people started calling me out for trying to be a Nanu wannabe just because I used Dark Types only and started saying that I was a disgrace for not even trying to get an original team," "I can see how that would make sense," said Nanu. Acerola nudged him with her elbow shaking her head in disapproval. "What I'm speaking my opinion," said Nanu. "It was terrible up until I became Champion," said Nebula. "What do you mean?" asked Cadence. "I managed to beat Sun and take his place as Champion," answered Nebula. "And for weeks on end I beat everyone Challenger I faced," "I wanted everyone to see how much I've grown so they can realize that they were making a mistake messing with me," "It eventually got up to the point where my name was known as Alola's Worst Champion," "What why?" asked Fluttershy. "Because the public decided that the first time wasn't enough," hissed Nebula. "Anyway even though everyone kept talking trash about me I kept beating trainers left and right and everyone eventually started fearing that beating trainer's Pokemon mercilessly was my way of getting revenge so they started sending powerful trainers to battle me in attempts to remove me from the champion's chamber," "Their plans failed and I remained Champion until Larry showed up and destroyed my team with his stupid Bug and Fairy types," "Well obviously he had an advantage," said Lillie. "THAT'S NOT THE POINT!!!!" hissed Nebula. "As I was saying he destroyed me and I ended up in square one again," "Everyone was glad that I was knocked down and things went back to the way it was," "I hated Larry he took my only source of hope and left me to bite his dust," "Eventually I realized if I couldn't get respect I was gonna have to take it by force," "And that's how you became the Team Cosmos Boss I assume?" asked Lusamine. "Yes," answered Nebula. "I heard about the Ultra Beasts and decided that I would use them to strike fear into the hearts of Alola's trainers to get my revenge for what they did to me," A tear rolled down his cheek as he smiled and chuckled, "It was amazing people all over Alola saw that I was the real deal and everyone started bowing down to me like I was royalty," His smile vanished as he continued, "But then all of YOU had to come in and ruin everything," He closed his eyes as more tears began to from, "Dammit," he cursed. At this point everyone had begun to feel sorry for Nebula. "Everything was perfect until our organization started getting beaten by a bunch of animals and two teenagers who was only 10 years younger than me," sobbed Nebula. Sniffling he cleaned his eyes from the tears, "But I guess all good things just don't last," "Listen sugarcube we're sorry for what y'all had gone through but..." Applejack stopped short. "But what?" asked Nebula. "That there was a better way to solve problems like this?" Nebula chuckled, "You don't understand do you?" "Not all problems have answers specifically not this one," Applejack's ears drooped upon hearing his words, "The only good solution to this problem is fear and intimidation," said Nebula. "If nobody gonna show you respect you gotta scare and force them to give it to ya," "But there were other ways," said Spike. Nebula's eyes widened, "What are you tryin to get at?" "He's right," said Starlight. "Why do you know?" groaned Nebula. "Back when I was just a filly Sunburst was my only friend," said Starlight. "But after he got his cutie mark he left me to suffer," "Eventually I stole the marks of many ponies and was beaten by Twilight and her friends," "Then I went back in time to try and get revenge only to be beaten by Twilight and her friends AGAIN then you move on to learn about friendship and now you can't even make friends cause your afraid that everyponies gonna know what you did," There was a slight silence before Starlight realized that Nebula was staring at her in awe. "Wow," he said. "Yeah but what I'm trying to say is that your not the only one who's suffering," said Starlight. "Hmph at least you HAD ponies that respected you," groaned Nebula. "What she's trying to say is even if there are those that look down on you at least one person or pony in this world look up to you," said Celestia. "Oh yeah name one," said Nebula. "We do," said Comet. "The hell are you saying?" asked Nebula. "Your brain must be rotting I FORCED you all to stay," said Nebula. "Yeah but even so YOU'RE the only one who knows whats up," said Nova. "Even if you did treat us terribly we believed that you can lead us to victory," said a grunt. "You all," said Nebula. "See there are those that look up to you even if you lash out at them or treat them like crap," said Amber. "You," said Nebula. "He clenched his teeth as the tears once again began flowing out of his eyes. "Boss," said a grunt close to tears. The rest of the grunts crowded Nebula with tears in their eyes. At this point Nebula had lost it, unable to hold in the emotions he let loose his tears, "What have I done," "All I ever thought about was to earn everyone's respect," "Nebula," said Luna close to tears. "I'm sorry," Nebula sobbed. "I'm so sorry," "I've been so terrible," "BOSS!" the grunts cried. Everyone watched Nebula, Comet, Nova, and the grunts cry with tears in their own eyes. After what seemed like an hour, Nebula weakly got to his feet with the help of Nova and Comet, "I've decided I'm disbanding Team Cosmos and turning over a new leaf," he announced. "Really?" asked Cadence. "Yes," Nebula answered. "It may not seem like much but it's the only form of redemption I could think of," "It doesn't matter if it's big or small," said Larry. "As long as you can realize what you did wrong its good enough for all of us," Everyone nodded their heads in agreement. Smiling nebula turned towards Solgaleo and Lunala, "I guess I owe you an apology," Both of the legendary let out cry showing that they didn't mind. "One more thing," said Nebula. "I need you two to open up the wormholes so I can return the Beasts," "I don't think that's necessary," said Anabel. "What do you mean?" asked Nebula. "The beasts are contained in the beast balls," answered Anabel. "It be better if we keep them in there," "Oh," said Nebula disappointed. "But enough about that," said Larry. "Yeah let's head back we have to have a celebration on our success," said Hau. Everyone nodded in agreement. Nebula smiled, "Uh huh," he said in agreement. Both Solgaleo and Lunala let out a cry as the summoned the Wormholes allowing both the heroes and Team Cosmos to pass through to return to Alola for their victory celebration.