Full Summary:

May Maple had once been named a savior. She had once been the hero that had saved Hoenn; she'd conquered legendary beings, dismantled violent extremist gangs, and brought some semblance of peace to a land so constantly turbulent. They revered her, they needed her, and so the entire nation relied on her to continue to uplift them.

Until she abandoned them, leaving her home with few words and never a backwards glance.

Years later, Hoenn has been left in ruins; pushed to the brink of destruction by civil war, rebuilt, and now once again being torn apart. People are disappearing, crime rates have begun to skyrocket, and sightings of things that can't be explained have been reported, and despite having put miles between herself and her cursed homeland, May can feel herself being pulled home yet again, this time by forces she can't quite explain. With her world expanding rapidly and a new extremist dead set on attaining her for his own twisted agendas, May won't be able to outrun her past much longer.

Her people are waiting for her to come to their rescue, but who protects a hero when they're the one under siege?


A/N: I had this story in my mind years ago, back when I was only fourteen. I wrote an oneshot based on what I had in mind in an old Contestshipping collection I had going (it's called Loud and Clouded, first chapter, for anyone who's interested in the old chapter).

I'm going to do a rewrite of that chapter now, and later continue the story. It will feature many of the gen 3 characters, both from the anime and the games, so I hope you enjoy it as much as I'll enjoy writing it! (Also, I apologize for any errors you come across while reading, I don't have a BETA and FF keeps messing up some of my files.)

DISCLAIMER: I do not own Pokémon or any of its characters!


NIGHTMARES

CHAPTER ONE

"IN WHICH THE MONSTERS WERE REAL."


There is no such thing as monsters.

As a child, this was a mantra she often uttered – frantically whispered, clutching her blankets around her shaking frame – as she would do anything to keep them at bay. For shadows crept in the corners of her mind, and in the night they emerged, torturing her, her very own fear threatening to strangle her.

Yes, to young May Maple, darkness was a daily torment. Nothing put her mind at ease, her parents simply couldn't offer her enough reassurance. For years she would huddle in the center of her bed, waiting for exhaustion to overtake her terror.

There is no such thing as monsters.

Eventually, like with all things, she shed her consciousness of this fear. It wasn't gone, but it had subsided. Maturity had a way of numbing the mind to its demons, and May was no exception. It simply wasn't natural for young women to cling to their childhood fears; they're often useless bouts of paranoia, senseless and inexplicable. May now often reflected upon her nights spent in fear with distaste, seeing it as a waste of energy.

Her fear of the dark was insignificant and small compared to her fears now. She knew that it had only been the beginning; it was a humbling reminder of her previous innocence. In the face of true evil, she could only cling to it. Things change, but never entirely.

There is no such thing as monsters.

She only wished she could still believe that was true.


"Does it really have to rain now?" May groaned, shielding her eyes from the light rain droplets at she huffed up at the grey sky.

Her Blaziken shifted uneasily, letting out a nervous sound. Her fire Pokémon wasn't exactly fond of water.

"Great. Just great," May seethed dramatically. "First I get lost, then it decides to rain. Blaziken, return."

Her Pokémon bowed its head thankfully before dissolving in the red light of its Pokéball, leaving May alone in the wilderness.

The young trainer could hardly believe her own stupidity; after training in Johto for six years, one simple training trip had gone terribly wrong. With one too many wrong turns and no signal on her PokéNav, she was now stuck out in the woods with little provisions and a literal raincloud looming over her head.

Sighing heavily, May began to retrace her steps. Normally, she would just send her Altaria out to scope the area, but with the distant rumbling of thunder, May feared for the flying-Pokémon's safety. So instead she painstakingly walked back the way she came, hoping to somehow stumble out of this place unscathed.

Thunder clapped loudly around her, causing the trainer to jump and let out a squeak. Lightening illuminated the dim world around her, her surroundings appearing sinister in the strange white light.

May felt the color drain from her face, now incredibly unsettled by her isolation. Another sound rumbled in the distance, followed by the snapping of branches and crunching of leaves.

Footsteps, she realized, and sure enough she soon spotted Pokémon, emerging from the trees and tallgrasses only to flee their homes. They rushed past her, uncaring of her presence, away from the scene in which May was headed.

The girl groaned internally. That couldn't be a good sign.

"At least I'll have some great stories to bring up in therapy," she muttered sarcastically.

May paused for a moment, considering the creatures that occasionally rushed past her, and debated turning around herself. Listening to nature in a strange scenario like this couldn't possibly be a bad thing, but then again, May swore that she'd seen a house a ways back. She couldn't tell if it was inhabited, but any shot at shelter was worth it at this point, the previous drizzle now turning into a rather promising downpour.

Shaking her head at her own decision, May charged off in the opposite direction of the Pokémon, desperately seeking the house.

She covered ground quickly, and soon enough she spotted the place she'd had in mind. It was a small place, and judging by the poor upkeep of the surrounding grass, and the accumulation of rotting leaves on the roof, it was abandoned. May hoped it wouldn't be too difficult to break in.

Just as she reached the paved steps to the front door, a large crash sounded nearby, followed by a human cry and a feral roar.

Just go inside May, she thought to herself. It's none of your business. You don't have to get involved.

Another sound of pain. May whimpered slightly before turning away from her shelter and running towards the sounds of distress. She couldn't deny help to anyone suffering, not knowingly. She had to try to assist them in any way she could, despite how unwilling she was to do so.

The sounds quickly got louder, another frightening roar practically shaking the earth. May's pulse quickened, and she hurried forward, now driven by her adrenaline.

Do I smell something burning?

May soon found herself in a rather large clearing, but only a small portion of it was visible. A large smoke screen clouded her vision, and the trainer had to resist a coughing fit. The creature she'd heard earlier appeared to be stumbling around within the smoke screen, unable to see.

Aside from the smoke, May quickly noticed a figure sitting crumpled on the ground smeared in blood. The young woman hurried over towards them, hoping to simply extract them from the scene rather than take her chances with whatever kept making the horrifying noises from within the smoke.

She placed a hand on the person's shoulder, leaning to whisper in their ear: "I'm here to help. Are you alright?"

Frantic green eyes spun around to meet her blue ones, and May nearly stumbled back in surprise.

"May, what are you doing here?" he breathed, his tone strained. "You're g-going to get yourself killed!"

Her eyes widened in disbelief. "Drew?" she gasped, her eyes falling to his injured shoulder. Large, angry welts stood out against his pale skin, apparently caused by a burn of some kind.

Another roar resonated throughout the forest. Think, she told herself sternly. Think, we need to get out of here before that smokescreen dissipates.

Thinking quickly, she grabbed a Pokéball from her belt, releasing her Venusaur as discreetly as she could. "Let's go, Venusaur," she muttered, hoping the Pokémon would pick up her command. "Use vine whip on a tree to draw that thing away from us!"

The faithful Pokémon obliged, snapping the branch off of a tree far away from them. The branch snapped loudly, and another stupid roar suggested that her plan had worked. Heavy footsteps began to recede as the creature charged off towards the sound, still blinded by smoke.

"That should buy us some time. I found a house near here, we need to go." Drew nodded at me, apparently shocked into silence by this ordeal. He even seemed to shake slightly, although she wasn't sure if that was due to the rain or his evident fear.

It was unsettling to see Drew like this; despite their years of separation, May still found that she was accustomed to his cool exterior. Seeing Drew so exposed told her that whatever had happened, it was something to be afraid of.

He didn't say a word as she took his wrist in her hand, gently tugging him towards shelter. The silence was so very uncharacteristic of him, and even years later, she knew this would still be true. So accustomed to his sly smirks, the arrogant flip of his hair, his infuriating coolness in the face of all struggles, his raw emotion startled her. He seemed to almost cling to her, for a moment, his green eyes filled with fear and pain, and May couldn't help but stare back at him.

He'd thought he was going to die. The idea chilled May to the bone. Drew was hardly even capable of admitting defeat – what could possibly have reduced him to such a state?

Drew blinked, his expression becoming more neutral as he no doubt attempted to regain his cool exterior. May shook her head slightly, returning Venusaur to its Pokéball before hurriedly walking back towards the house. The last thing either of them needed was the return of that… Beast, for lack of a better word.

"I found an abandoned house around here somewhere," May said quietly, breaking the tense silence the two had fallen into as they neared their destination. She could see the wooden paneling of the home through the trees now, the sight causing her to release a breath she hadn't known she was holding. "We should be able to stay here for the night."

Drew simply grunted in response; he hadn't spoken since she'd found him. At the most, she'd expected some goading comment from her old rival. It certainly would've been welcomed in place of his strange, frightening silence.

She wondered if he was more injured than he appeared, or perhaps simply too shaken from his encounter to speak.

May snorted. More like he's embarrassed that I had to come to the rescue, she thought wryly. His pride had always been the most stubborn thing, and it had quite infuriated her as a child.

Either way, it didn't matter now. All that mattered was getting inside of the house they found themselves in front of, so that they could both dry off and recover.

As she'd suspected, the house appeared to be abandoned: it was a small home featuring a great deal of exposed wood, a faded red door, and an equally faded plate attached to it. Faintly, she could make out a name. Someone had lived here, but that no longer appeared to be true.

The fact filled her with unease, but glancing over at her partner, she knew that she didn't have time to ponder this strange discovery. He was paler than before; he looked so weak, and she knew that his wounded shoulder must be hurting him.

She tugged on the door handle, confirming her suspicions that it was locked. With an exasperated sigh, May turned to Drew.

"So, you don't happen to know how to break into a house, do you?" she asked after a few futile attempts to will the door open. The young man seemed to have vanished from his previous spot, and May spotted him in the overgrown front garden, on his hands and knees. "What -?"

He rose from the ground, turning to dangle a rusted key in front of her nose, his usual arrogant expression having returned to his face.

"Can't say that I do, but I can find a spare key," he said, jamming the key into the lock and opening the door. "Nice to know criminal activity is the first thing that comes to mind, though."

May sputtered, "Well – I – just get in the house, you ass!" He smirked at her, which the young trainer returned with a scowl and obscene gesture, before the two went inside.

May sighed in relief, the warm, stale air engulfing her, chasing away the chills brought on from the howling wind. Drew quickly shut the door behind them, locking it for good measure.

"HELLO, IS ANYBODY HOME?" May shouted, cupping her hands around her mouth. Drew grimaced, his hands coming up to shield his ears.

"I don't think anyone lives here anymore," she said when no one answered.

"Gee, what made you come to that conclusion?" Drew asked sarcastically, earning another scowl from her.

May wandered through the few rooms of the house. It was nothing more than a cottage really: it held four rooms, a kitchen, a bathroom, a bedroom, and the living room that Drew was still standing in. The bedroom consisted of one medium-sized bed, with a dresser still full of folded clothes. The home was eerie – not because of its interior, it was rather cheerfully decorated, but because of the signs of life. Everything was left in its place, nothing was packed away. Towels remained folded in the bathroom, rotten food in the pantry. The only indication that someone didn't live here was the layer of dust that covered everything. Whoever had left had done so in a hurry, and that was never a very good sign.

Or they just never came home.

Shaking her head to dispel her paranoid thoughts, May gathered two sets of clothes, one for herself and Drew, as well as some towels. Returning to the sitting area, she found Drew where she'd left him: cold, wet, and bleeding by the door.

May set down the clothes and towels for him on a table. "You should get changed," she said, her tone softer than it had been before. He looked exhausted. "I'll try to fix your shoulder when we're both dry."

He grunted in response. May smiled slightly before turning to the bathroom to change. The clothes she'd found were a bit big on her, but they were warm and soft. Once she'd dried off and hung her old clothes to dry, she returned to the living room, one hand over her eyes.

"Are you done changing?" she albeit shouted, groping blindly around the room, not wanting to catch her old rival entirely exposed.

"Yeah, now open your eyes, you look like an idiot."

"Y'know, you don't have to be so rude, I'm only tr-" May gasped when she spotted him, her comeback forgotten. Drew sat on the couch, wearing a pair of pants a bit too big for him and clutching his shirt in his hand, leaving the rest of him bare. His clothes sat in a sodden heap on the ground, a fact that she would've normally berated him for, but his wound stopped her.

The skin of his shoulder had seemingly been torn away, blisters rising in reaction to what must have been a burn. It covered the entirety of his right shoulder, stretching down towards the smooth skin of his lean, toned chest.

"So if you're done checking me out, you wouldn't happen to have a bandage, would you?" he asked sarcastically, although the tenseness of his jaw told her that he was in pain.

"R-right," she stammered. "Let me see what I have in my bag."

May hastily dug into her pack, which she'd left sitting on the floor by the front door. Having travelled on her own for a few years now, May had soon learned that her small fanny pack would no longer work, and she'd upgraded to a larger bag. Without Brock to mother her, she found that a pan to cook in and a sleeping bag were more important than being fashionable.

She retrieved her first aid kit, which contained all of the necessities needed to tend to her Pokémon – revives, potions, et cetera – and withdrew her burn heal, along with a roll of white bandages. She hurried back over to Drew, seating herself on the coffee table directly in front of him.

Since when was Drew so much taller than me? May wondered, now having to reach up in order to touch his shoulder. She brushed her fingers carefully around the pink edges of his wound. The bleeding had stopped, but the skin was left raw and exposed. Drew winced slightly in pain, and hands on his knees were now white-knuckled.

May took a shaky breath, her lunch threatening to make a reappearance. Drew is in pain, she told herself sternly. You can't just sit here freaking out, you need to help him!

She picked up the burn heal slowly. "This… Might sting a little," she muttered apologetically, letting out several rounds of medicine.

The sharp intake of breath alerted her to his pain, but she was impressed by his overall composure. He remained still and rigid, the perfect patient. The years had done well to toughen her rival, it seemed, and May couldn't help but be impressed. It seemed as though they'd both grown a great deal, physically and otherwise.

May applied the medicine to the entire wound, careful not to miss any of it. Drew seemed to only grow tenser the more she applied, until suddenly he let out a sigh, the redness of the injury seeming to calm all at once. It was still frightening, but less so. It was now made up of raw, pink skin, and the inflammation was already dying down.

Thank Latios for modern medicine…

Reassured by her patient's good response, May picked up her bandages, wrapping them loosely around his burn and securing them in place. "There," she said, admiring her handiwork. "I think that's all I can do for now. Feel better?"

Drew stood, pulling the shirt she'd retrieved for him over his head, covering his toned stomach. For a moment, May couldn't help but actually check him out: the young boy she'd left behind in Hoenn was no more, and in his place stood a well-muscled young man. His green hair was a bit longer, and certainly more unkempt than it had been, and he now stood a great deal taller than her. They'd once been on even ground, but he was now over a head taller than her.

May couldn't decide if she liked the change, or if his physical prevalence over her angered her. They were rivals, after all – she couldn't have him showing her up in any way.

Not that her anger would change it; Drew had gone from an arrogant little boy to a man in their time apart. Although she would bet everything in her pack that he was still an arrogant man.

"Thanks, May," he said, his expression no longer pained and fearful.

Thunder boomed outside, followed by the howling of the wind, causing May to jump. She'd almost forgotten, now inside the warm and seemingly safe home, how much danger they'd both been in not too long ago. She wanted to ask him about his encounter, and judging by Drew's wary expression, he knew what she was thinking.

That can wait until morning, she thought. He needs rest.

"There's a bed in that room," she told him, waving towards the door in question. "You can stay there, I'll just sleep on the couch."

Drew cocked an eyebrow at her, not moving from his place before her. "May, you of all people should know," he sighed, shaking his head in mock disappointment. "I may be a lot of things, but I'm not completely ungentlemanly. I'm not going to let you sleep on some dusty old couch." He 'tsk tsk'ed her, his dry tone saying, 'I can't believe you still don't know me after all these years.' May fought back another scowl, annoyed by his constant sarcasm.

"I'm perfectly comfortable here, Drew," she replied stubbornly, tugging a blanket from the back of the couch and throwing herself down onto it, as if to prove her point. A second later she was back on her feet, coughing and waving a hand in front of her face, a cloud of dust having flown up from her graceless flop onto the couch.

Drew snorted, his eyes dancing with mirth. "Whatever you say," he chuckled.

"Oh shut up," she snapped once the dust had settled. "What do you suggest then, since you're so smart?"

"Well, considering we're both mature adults, I'm sure we can share a bed without ravaging one another, don't you think so?" Drew smirked at her before turning towards the room in question, opening the door and entering it. Begrudgingly, May followed. He knew she wouldn't turn down his idea after such teasing. He may be prideful, but her temper made her so as well.

The blankets on the bed were also dusty, as was everything else. May did her best to brush most of the dust away, careful not to send too much of it flying into the air. After a bit of fluffing, the bed did look rather inviting. May truly was exhausted, a day of wandering aimlessly through the woods having drained her.

May climbed into the bed haughtily, never pleased when Drew was right. "Alright," she conceded. "It's big enough. You win."

Drew slid beneath the blankets beside her. "Sorry, what was that?"

"You win," she snapped, pausing for a moment before turning to him with a devious smile. "So I guess we're even. I save you from, well, whatever that was, and you save me from a dusty couch."

Drew's amusement slid from his face, his jaw tensing. "Just go to sleep."

May laughed lightly at this. She'd missed their bickering. Of course, it was her decision to explore the remainder of Johto on her own, and that had been six years ago. But she missed her companions more than she cared to admit, even her irritating rival.

Both of their heads now dry and cushioned by pillows, the atmosphere was the most relaxed it had been all day. "Drew?" she asked after a few minutes of silence.

"Hm?" he hummed quietly, his voice sounding sleepy.

"What was that thing today?" Her voice was hesitant, but it was something that refused to cease in bothering her. It hadn't sounded by any Pokémon she'd seen in the area, and with Professor Birch's PokéDex, May rarely found anything she was unable to identify.

The silence that followed was heavy, tension radiating from Drew.

"A nightmare," he eventually said. "I'm afraid you'll find out soon enough."

Nothing more was said by either of them, and soon enough May heard the steady breaths of her companion, indicating that he'd fallen asleep.

The young woman closed her eyes, and just as sleep drug her beneath the surface of her consciousness, one thought resonated throughout her mind:

There is no such thing as monsters.


A/N: Expect this story to get creepier. I hope you've enjoyed it so far, and please leave me a review if you have the time! I'd truly appreciate it.

TBC.