A/N: If you decided to take the life-changing step of reading this, I applaud you, because things are going to be slow, more than likely short, and amateurly written. You've been told, so that I can be critiqued, even though everyone on this site should expect that. Just saying it so I can further motivate you to make a move. Don't be shy; review, fav, alert, or PM, take your pick or one not listed. Or don't say anything at all. I don't mind, so long as you read and remember this for more than ten seconds.

(1) I'd like to take the time to say, if you haven't already read my profile, that this is not much of an original idea. I was inspired, and decided to take matters to my own hands. The plot is original. The idea is not. I'd like to encourage you to read the cause to this effect. It's called True Dreaming by Kagetaka and it's found in the One Piece section. Read it, review it, message the author. He or she deserves it since they were previously discouraged. It's an awesome fanfiction that should be continued and finished, so One Piece fan or not, lover of Original Character or not, I ask you to at least give it a chance.

(2) If you despise all fans' original characters, I still would like if you would give this fic a try. Unlike my last attempt at an Original Character fic, I gave some thought to this, and decided to go ahead and post it. I hope I can follow through.

(3) Pokemon does not belong to me; Nintendo and Game Freak hold ownage. Disclaimer here only; you won't see it anywhere else.

(4) Unova, beware.

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1.1

Prelude of an Unexpected Visitor

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I awoke to a sound. Normally, I'm a heavy sleeper but something about this sound brought me out of the land of dreams. I lifted my head away from the pile of pillows, eyes scrunching in irritation as I tried to pick up the sound again. Nothing happened.

Sighing irritably, I slowly lowered my head back down, ears still perked to pick up any other sound wishing to disturb me.

And it was then that I heard it again.

This time, I full on sat up straight, body rigid as it came to my attention that the sound was nearby. It wasn't next to me, but it was loud enough to be fairly audible. I looked around my room, my eyes landing on the door. It was open a tad bit.

That explained why I could hear it. When I went to bed last night I had closed it for sure.

Out of reflex for whenever I was awake, I reached over my bed's headboard to my desk. I gripped at my alarm clock, whose purpose was anything but to alarm me since I usually woke before it could ring.

Right now was no exception. It was three twelve in the morning.

Whatever is going on, it couldn't be a normal thing. It's too early in the morning for the usual activities in the house to start. My heart began to accelerate with fear.

I guess I could pretend nothing was happening and go back to sleep. But the sound – heavy thumps hitting the floor – was insistent. I could ignore it easily, but it was just so out of place, I couldn't.

Then there was the fact of the direction the sound was coming from.

This fact alone convinced me to get off the sanctuary of my bed. My feet landed gently on the carpeted floor, my blue night dress gently descending around my legs as I straightened up. As quietly as I could, I made my way to the door.

Nudging it a bit, slowly, I squeezed through the space I gave myself and entered the dark hallway outside my room. A short distant from where I was, to my left was the set of stairs leading to the downstairs portion of the house. To my right was the rest of the hallway, leading to the three other rooms making up the upper portion.

At the very end of the hallway, I saw a thin line of light.

I felt a bit of a deep plunge heading towards my stomach.

Forgetting completely about stealth, I ran for the last room in the hallway, straight ahead, stopping abruptly in front of the door which I pushed opened with a hand.

Inside the other bedroom, standing in front of the large king's bed and me, was a dark figure. The form was large, mostly from the upper torso which gave it a rather intimidating build. I noticed thin legs holding up the heavy body, but my interest was cut short when my eyes saw the eyes of the figure – a dark blue – staring directly at the inhabitants of the bed.

"Please, please don't hurt my parents," I heard myself say a moment after I did. The words just came out of my mouth without me realizing, but I didn't regret it, even once my heart started pumping faster than ever in fear.

Whoever or whatever this person was, his or hers or its attention turned to me after I spoke. I next heard, "Don't worry. I won't for now."

I opened my mouth to speak again, but before any words could come out, a dark hand emerged from the dark mass, heading towards me. And then all I saw was black.

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For a while, I felt a heavy pressure on my chest. There was nothing I could do about it during that time, but eventually true feeling began to return to my sense, which had been aware for much.

The first thing I did was cough. It didn't hurt, but it felt a bit uncomfortable. Still, all the same, I coughed a few more times before I took a heavy breath from my mouth.

My nose flared opened a bit when I attempted to breathe out of it next. The scent of lavender wafted it. My body tensed a bit at the scent's presence.

Slowly, I lifted myself into a seated position. I had been laying on something hard though, so my body was currently protesting at the stiff place I had left it on. I tried stretching out and relaxing before I opened my closed eyes.

The color purple greeted my sight. I blinked in confusion before slowly moving my head to the sides, a feeble attempt in shaking the wooziness I suddenly felt. It only made it worse, so I stopped that quickly.

Sitting still, I looked forward and traced the color to its source, a large bed I sat close to. It wasn't my bed because the last time the laundry was done; I picked a blue and orange striped cover. My bed was a platform; the one before me was a brass.

It was only a second when that thought went through me that it came to my attention that I was not in my room. I probably wasn't even in my house for that manner.

Come to think of it, I was lying against a hard floor. A peek down revealed to me a fuchsia hued rug with pink and mahogany stripes. Aside from the rough, thin texture of the mat, the rest of the floor was yellow hardwood. My house is carpeted.

Looking at the room more and more, and taking in the objects within – a Wii connected to a flat screen TV, a computer desk with the item it was named after, potted plants – the realization started to bore into me.

I turned my knees inward, pushing up from to my feet unsteadily, only one thought in my mind.

Where the heck am I?

"Hey, Mom!"

The shout made me jump because of its volume and proximity. I turned left, and saw that an open door revealed a hallway and a set of stairs. The sound of stomping feet came loud and raucous from the steps and grew louder with each one. My heart resumed its previous thumping and sending me to a panic.

Before I could think of what else to do, I jumped over towards the bed, my body's instincts telling me to hide. But of course! Under the bed! With my platform, I never had the frill of hiding under a bed.

But the second I made it to the divan, my body froze. What if I can't fit? What if the person shouting and coming up the stairs see me in this room? My doubts began coming, the thudding of my heart causing pain to blossom in my chest. If I didn't do something now, the person would undoubtedly see me, and questions would be asked. I could be accused of trespassing and be arrested.

Just when I thought my mind could not think up something else to make the situation much worse, I heard the voice again, right next to me, "Be sure to wake me up early tomorrow, okay!"

In my panic I didn't hear the person approach me. I flinched, waiting for the next movement.

But it never came. I felt a rush of fabric next to me, moving before me, and then it was quiet. My eyes had stared forward to the window throughout that moment, and it slowly slid down to the bed.

Resting on the white pillow was the head of what looked to be a fifteen year old boy. His unkempt brown hair lay against the white and made the boy stand out against the white sheets. His eyes were closed, his posture stilled. He was going to sleep.

It occurred to me as I studied his youthful face that he hadn't noticed me at all.

Out of an impulse, I lifted my hand and reached for him. It was a bit rude, I know, and he was probably still awake, but I had to see something for myself.

My hand was only an inch away from his face before I rushed to touch it.

My fingers went right through him.

"His name is Hilbert."

I shrieked. Normally I wouldn't be scared so easily, but considering what's been happening in the last minutes, I wasn't exactly prepared for much now. My hands flew towards my mouth to cut off the loud scream, and I quickly whipped around to the source of the voice.

The black figure stood before me. Now that it wasn't so dark and I had the light of the hallway lighting the room, I saw that he was… dark because he was covered in a cloth. His large figure stood a ways from me, and though they didn't stand out so much now, I thought I saw him roll his eyes.

"They can't hear us."

My eyes widened a bit, my hands slowly leaving my lips.

"They can't see us, either."

I looked at the figure in disbelief, approaching him despite what occurred earlier.

"We can't even touch them."

At those words I finally spoke up. "Why?"

The figure lowered his head, blue eyes disconsolate before the fabric of his cloak hid them. "Because I'm dead."

My heart jumped, and I thought my eyes would pop out of their sockets. Cold fear began to fill me, and though I knew I wasn't much of a confident speaker, my words came out with an awful stuttered. "W-w-w-what-! W-w-wait-!"

"You are not dead!" The figure bellowed. I cringed at the loud tone. Even though he said we couldn't be heard, I was sure even the boy could hear that. Reflexively I turned around to check on him. He was sound asleep.

I turned my attention back to the figure, who was still staring down to the floor. He was quiet now, and though nothing else was said, I had a feeling he was deep in thought. I couldn't be so sure but I imagined I felt his depression, judging from his words. As my heart calmed, pity began to emerge from a corner of it.

I had to ask. "Why are you dead?"

I didn't get an answer immediately. The figure slightly turned to his side, as if remembering something he wished he hadn't. I quickly regretted asking, looking down in embarrassment. "S-sorry! You don't have to answer."

For a time, nothing else happened. At this point I had looked up again, watching him curiously, waiting for his next movement. I may pity him, but he did something to me that probably left me not dead, but something similar, I think. Something wasn't right that was for sure.

He finally did speak again, but it was so quiet I nearly missed it.

"You'll do."

I inched my ear to the side. "I'm sorry, what?"

His head lifted up to attention, his blue eyes staring directly at me. Something about them unnerved me, and I felt the inklings of fear filling my heart again.

"You have to help me."

I blinked at that statement before setting my face out into what I hoped was an indifferent face. "Why should I?" I left it at that. I wanted to say more, but once I said those three little words, the rest died in my mouth.

The figure took a step closer to me and I had to grit my teeth so as not to take a step back. "Because otherwise you can say good-bye to your parents."

I gasped, full-blown gasped when he said that. "What are you going to do to them?" I yelled. The next second it occurred to me that I probably shouldn't be acting like this towards someone who's threatening to off my parents.

"Nothing for now, I already told you." He growled. I swallowed whatever rebuttal wished to snap at him.

The figure started making his way towards me. I backed away when he made a stop next to the bed, where he looked at the boy. Silence once again fell on us as I stared at him, he to the boy, before it was broken by him again.

"That being said, it's not your parents I will be doing harm to you if you will just cooperate with me." He sighed after saying that, turning his gaze away from the boy to me. I looked away, my eyes landing on the boy in bed. Even though I was visibly avoiding him, he continued to speak.

"I ask of you to watch over him."

My eyes flickered over to the figure, and I looked at him in surprise.

"Please." That one word was said with such force, I knew it wasn't a question. "I don't know who else to turn to." At this point it was too late for me to look away; his eyes suddenly held so much desperation, the pity I felt for him multiplied.

His eyes hadn't lost that sense of determination I saw earlier either.

I tried shaking my head, a simple feeble movement but I tried. A part of me still wished this wasn't real. "Why me?" I asked again. There was no guarantee he'd give me an answer, just another statement, but I didn't get any of this. Why…

"Because I don't know who else to turn to." He answered. Our eyes were still locked on to the other when he began to move. A movement from his cloak caught my attention, and emerging from it a moment later was a hand. I flinched at the sight, but he merely held it out as he broke eye contact and started to move. He moved with slow steps so I quickly realized he wanted me to follow, which I reluctantly did.

"There's not much time for me." He continued gravely, hand retreating to his cloak. I merely looked in his direction. His head was inclined so I could no longer see his eyes.

"But there's something I need to do that I cannot do. I was given a chance but they limited me so…" His voice drifted off and at this point he had also stopped in his tracks. I continued ahead a little before I took noticed he had stopped before I did the same, turning his way.

His body was shaking. I couldn't tell if he was shaking in rage, crying or overwhelmed. I think it's the latter. I was sure I could hear the sound of heavy breathing coming from him.

"…so I need your help. Only you can come here, and keep an eye on him." He finished, his eyes once more searching through mine.

So many questions went through my head, but out of all of them, only one reared his head. "Is he going to be okay?"

The figure turned his head slightly. "Even that they wouldn't tell me." They? Who are they? But I wasn't given a chance to ask that question. "Something tells me he's in danger."

I gave him a look. "The boy?"

He nodded in confirmation. "Hilbert. And I want you to watch him."

"How?"

"By coming here every night."

Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, what? "How?"

"I cannot stay here for long, but you can. Every night you will come here… when you sleep."

That threw me off the curve. "When I… sleep?"

"They permitted me that much of prowess," he continued as if I haven't spoken, "so I can have someone else in my place. And that's you."

Right here, I put my foot down, promptly stomping my foot on the ground. "Hold on a minute! I haven't even agreed to help you!"

To think my attempt to stand for myself was quickly shot down with a glare, one worthy of possibly killing someone. The figure's blue eyes held so much ferocity that my mouth closed not because I willed it to, but out of a bodily reaction to the fear from that gaze. He towered over me; eyes making me feel like he was reducing me to a smaller size than I already was.

"You will watch over him where I cannot. Because I can't guarantee the outcome of your parents if you don't…" He ended with a drawl. Then, too quick for me to see, his hand shot out of his cloak, gripping my shoulder.

My view went black again.

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Until next time. Ja mata ne!