'No...'

The thought flashed through his mind as his eyes, opened wide in a mix of horror and disbelief, were fixed on where Eva stood. Or rather, where Eva had been standing.

'I lied to you, Zeke.' His blood ran cold as he remembered her saying these words. 'I'm not really who I said I was.'

And then, in an instant, Eva vanished. Disappeared. From right in front of him, she vanished into the night air of the Olivine coastline. He looked at the photograph in his hand again, the picture that he and Eva had taken together not even an hour ago.

But she wasn't in it.

'What is this?' he thought to himself, unable to grasp what was happening to him, to Eva, in this moment.

She reappeared before him, just as she had been standing. She turned to him, took a step forward, and vanished again. With a yellow ribbon in her hair.

'She wasn't wearing a ribbon tonight...' he thought to himself. She wore her black dress, but no ribbon. 'She hasn't worn that ribbon since our second date, with—'

She reappeared with her back to him, wearing a green tanktop and blue jeans, the yellow ribbon in her hair. She looked over her shoulder at him. Vanished.

'That was-!' he drew a sharp breath. That was how they met on their second date, the flashback playing in his mind. Him in shorts, with a white T-shirt underneath a black, opened button-up. Her in jeans and a green tanktop.

She reappeared, playfully twirling towards him in a gorgeous red dress, gently laughing as her eyes met his. Vanished again.

'The festival at Ecruteak!' He remembered the festival. They went together. She wore the same red dress. She did the same twirl as they danced together—as if something had taken that memory and played it in front of him with the ocean now behind her, instead of the Tin Tower. His eyes fell to the sand.

There were no footprints where Eva had been twirling. The hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

Two bare feet and exposed legs appeared where he had been looking. He raised his head just as Eva , in a skirt and button-up blouse, lowered hers to see his face, turned her head to the side with a sly grin, vanished. He lowered his gaze again. No footprints. Movement beside him caught his eye, and he turned to see Eva ankle deep in the fluctuating surf, her hand in the water. She laughed as she slung water towards him. He forgot to move as Eva and the water she splashed, which was about to streak across his face, vanished again.

'What is this...?' the thought ran through his mind again. She reappeared, wearing a yellow sundress with an oversized yellow hat, a larger wave crashing in the surf behind her, sea spray flying up around her.

"Zeke," she said clearly, though softly. Lovingly. For a moment, his heart soared. She vanished again, along with the foaming surf that had just surrounded her, the sound of the crashing wave vanishing into an unnaturally sudden silence.

Off to his left, beside one of the boulders that spotted the shoreline, a shadow moved. Zeke turned to see what was there. His eyes caught the faint red glow of something very familiar.

"Umbreon?" he said aloud, the Moonlight Pokemon focusing on him. Even nearly thirty feet away, in nothing but the light of the moon, Zeke could recognize his Umbreon. And then, the thought came.

Some Dark-type Pokemon have latent Psychic capability. It's why some of them are able to learn Psychic-type moves. Even Psychic-type abilities.

Psychic Pokemon can read the minds of others, whether it's other Pokemon, or people. Like their trainers.

Eva's eyes were strange. They usually appeared green, but in all of the best memories of their time together—the Ecruteak festival, their stroll through Goldenrod, when they met in Dark Cave—her eyes seemed red. A shimmer of red, just like-

Eva appeared before him, wearing her black dress like she had been all evening. With the same two golden bands in her hair that she had been wearing.

'Golden rings...' Kaito's eyes widened as his stare met with Eva's. The red shimmer in her eyes.

"Now, you see the real me," she said softly as she raised her hand to Zeke's face. He nearly jumped when he felt her fingers caress his cheek. Her hands were warm—the warmth made his heart ache. She vanished for a brief moment, the warmth of her hand vanishing with her, and returning with her. A sign of proof about who she really was. What Eva Fredericks—the girl who had caught his eye, stolen his heart, won his affection, and claimed his love; who stood before him, beautifully basked in the pale light of the bright moon—truly was.

A moonlit mirage.

"This can't be..." Zeke whispered, his watering eyes locked on hers. "It was...fake? It wasn't real?" he asked, more to the empty air than to the girl who stood before him. She smiled gently to him as she gently stroked his cheek.

"Of course, it was real," she replied lovingly. "Can't you feel me?"

Zeke reached up, almost fearfully, for her hand. He watched as his hand touched hers—the sensation of touch, feeling its warmth, was now overwhelming. His legs gave out from under him and he fell to his knees in the sand, Eva falling with him, cradling his head in her arms. He wrapped his arms around her and pulled her tight against him. And there, in the moonlight of the Olivine coastline, under the stare of his watchful Dark-type Umbreon, in the embrace of the Mirage he so fondly knew as Eva, everything Zeke thought he knew came crashing down around him.