(It's the one-year anniversary, and I figured I should fix this up a bit. The POV's were messy, and in my hysteria, I forgot to add a few very important names, so yeah. I'm just spiffying it up, so feel free just to read and not review. Yes, I'm serious. You don't have to, since it's really just an updated version, so yeah. I don't own.)

The teen stepped out of her car, legs swinging over the seat like how she always got out. She was smiling like crazy; her Growlithe, Zero, had just evolved into Arcanine. In her reverie, she was shoved out of the way by her cousin, Chris, eager to get inside to play video games.

Her DS fell out of her hands, and clattered on the driveway, earning a muted gasp from the girl. The game fell out, clattering on the driveway with a plasticky crack.

Chris was throwing a temper tantrum because she wouldn't give him a Togepi, or something. She saw it happen in slow motion. He saw the game, and grinned, knowing it was his chance to anger her. His sneakered foot stepped down on it, crushing the small cartridge.

The crack went off like a gunshot to her.

For an instant, she felt their presences brush past her like butterfly wings; and then they were gone.

All she could think was; Zero. He began to laugh. As if killing her pokemon was something funny. She snapped.

"YOU BASTARD!"

She dove at the eight-year old, and tackled him to the ground. She punched him, once, two, three, four, five times before she was wrenched off of him.

"ZERO? ZERO, CAN YOU HEAR ME!?" She screamed, as her father dragged her in the house. "I LOVE YOU, BABY!"

Her mother began to scream, just like she always did. "How dare you! Your cousin just stepped on a game!"

"THEY WEREN'T A GAME! THEY WERE MY FAMILY!" The girl was in a state of hysteria now.

"They weren't family. THEY WERE LINES OF CODE IN A GAME!"

The girl screeched, "Shut... UP! YOU'RE LYING, YOU BITCH! HE KILLED MY FAMILY! HE'S A MURDERER!" She ran outside, grabbed her game, and then ran to her room. Good Mew, it wasn't going to end like this. Too soon, too soon god damn it not one more person she loved was fucking dying—

Too late.

In the small bit of hope she had, she put the game in. It read: 'SAVE DATA COULD NOT BE FOUND. TRY AGAIN." She stared at that for a second. Then she put her head down, and began to cry.

/I have to fix them! I have to try!/

"Hiro-Hiro? Hiromi? Wake up, hon. 'Shinks? Haushinka? Merope?" She called out pitifully. "Where are you guys?"

/We are waiting. We are waiting in the void. We're not too far away, but the veil is like steel./

But this reassurance did not reach her ears.

/Zero's POV/

My lady is my life. I serve the lady, I serve Ari. I love her, because she is all I know, and all I want. She is strong. She knows that we're gone forever...but she'll deny it, because for all her strength, she is young. She is naive.

I found my lady in Johto, rejoined her in Kanto, following her loyally throughout her journeys, and keeping the lady out of trouble, which had a bad habit of finding her anyway.

I serve the lady, and the lady's will was—is—my life. I may no longer have breath, but I have life.

So still, I will serve the lady.

She loves me. She still does. I know that, even though she's not there. I'm waiting with a kind lady called Persephone. She's not my master, though. I'm waiting at the gates of the Underworld for my master; she's not coming. Yet.

/Vita's POV/

Fuckin' bastard. He did it to make her suffer. That's what kills me. She goes through enough! Why must she continue to suffer, just for...for what?! Nothing, that's what!

Shit.

Shit, Ari, I'm sorry. We failed you, in so many ways, but we'll do the best we can. We're still trying, even though we're gone. Remember us, because it might hurt, but forgetting won't heal the hole; it'll leave it without a purpose, just leave a void.

Use your grief as a weapon; turn it against them, and fight. Be everything they don't want you to be, and never let 'em take you alive.

I love you, Ari. Don't worry, I'll hold down the fort, keep them safe. But you've got to keep going on.

Don't fail me. Don't fail us. Not like we failed you.

Be brave. Because we're all still so proud of you, and we know you can.

/Ichigo's POV/

Mommy had said she would play.

I know she had stuff to do, but she'd always play with me. Even when we weren't on a team, we'd play. She would swim in the ocean, and try to fight with me, but we were stuck in a game of find-me, chase-me; I'd fly away, and, laughing, she'd follow.

I'm sorry I made you wait so long, mommy. I know you wanted to play with me in battle, too, but I just didn't want to stop our playing. I was afraid that if you caught me, you wouldn't play with me anymore...

But three years passed, and you always wanted to play. So I finally decided that, since now you talked about Sinnoh, it'd be fun to go with you there!

I know you'll wish you'd never taken me, but don't worry. We had a lot of fun, didn't we?

You said you'd never have kids. But I knew that really, I was your child. And I loved it. You were my mommy, and I was your Ichigo.

But... But... Where's my mommy?

Where am I?

A nice lady named Death is taking care of us, but she's not my mommy.

Ari was gonna play.

She promised.

I want my mommy back, but Death said a mean boy killed us. I hate him! He made my mommy leave! Don't worry, mommy. I'm still waiting here. And we'll play later, 'kay?

/Azrael's POV/

Oh, dear Ari. I'm sorry. We never got to the Master Rank, and I know it's rubbing against you like stone, but it's okay. I know my daughter has done what I could not, and for that, I'm proud.

I see the two of you, fighting in unison, and I remember that we'd done the same thing, so long ago. All the way up to The Level One Hundred, a rarity for all of the Pokemon, even our god Arceus. And I'd accomplished it.

Thank you, Ari. You're taking care of Amaranth, and in her, I see both you, and myself. She's a good girl. I hope that the pieces of me that I left behind help the pain. I'm sorry it ended so soon.

I'll always remember you, since I know you will do the same.

I love you. Don't forget anything. Never forget what we did together, and never forget why we did it; love. Please don't hurt forever.

/Hiromi's POV/

We were so close to The Level One Hundred.

That's all I can think about. Is that we were so close, and so ready to rule the trainers of the game, shattering them with a mere Dragon Pulse.

Oh, how I miss you.

Three days. Did you know I could hear your screams of agitated frustration through the tower? I have very good hearing, my little spitting, snarling cat. You weren't very coordinated, apparently, but obviously very determined.

Imagine the surprise I felt as I saw the Champion, that girl-child Kyogre had called a 'total lunatic', standing before me, covered in bruises, bike leaning against her leg.

When I saw the child had lived out only ten human years.

Ten years, and you'd terrified the shit out of an immortal goddess of the waters.

But that wasn't just it that surprised me.

Your eyes were far older than that. Your storm-blue eyes, so filled with the vicious rage of a typhoon, and deeper than the blackest trench in the ocean, were filled with victory and awe—

Yet I saw jaded, cynical sadness behind them. You carried yourself like an offended queen; low to the ground, knowing that no one respected you any longer, but still with a certain step in your walk that said you knew exactly what you were, even if no one else did.

Also, part of the surprise was at the state of your hair. For shame, Ari. Even for you, it was messy.

"HA! Now I get to name you RAY!"

The surprise I'd felt upon meeting you intensified into terror. Oh Mew, no. Please god, not RAY.

As much as I was amused by you and your cocky naivety, I tested you. For three days, we battled.

Then, when you were about to jump off the tower in frustration, I floated over to you. Sighing, I lay my head down on yours, feeling the warm hair underneath my chin.

Smiling, you took out an Ultra Ball, and pressed it between my eyes.

For almost three years, I was RAY.

Other than that, they were glorious years. You were one of the Dragon Den's chosen, as you told me, and the experience you had with me, not to mention the rest of the Pokemon, affirmed they'd chosen properly.

You were temperamental, vicious, and lacked common sense. But when you loved someone, you gave your entire heart to them, reason be damned.

Ah, Ari.

I didn't spend that much time as Hiromi. About seven months. But it didn't matter, since if the years in Hoenn were wonderful, I finally saw the first hints of the woman you'd be in Sinnoh. And god, was the woman gloriously...still so much of you, yet so much of a queen.

Stubborn, intellectual, and bratty, yes, but you genuinely cared, and you threw yourself into everything you did with a passion bordering on madness—well, when you wanted to do it, anyway.

And gods, you became so beautiful.

You would call me Hiro-Hiro. "Hiro, my hero." You used to joke, as you sat on the beach, watching the others fool around with me. I always chuckled, as to call me a hero was an overstatement in my eyes...but, I knew, not in yours.

It was too short of a time, Ari. Millions of years would've been too short.

But what I wouldn't have given for one last goodbye.

I know you cannot give me one—you cannot hear me, I cannot hear you. I'm lost to you...for now.

But I can soothe my own self, and speak the words I know you want to hear.

Goodbye, Ari. It was a honor, it was a pleasure, it was my birthright to serve a trainer like you.

Goodbye, tamer of dragons.

Goodbye, my lovely, hissing, spitting little cat.

I'll always watch over you.

/Merope's POV/

It didn't have to end like this.

So brutal. So short. Damn it, we deserved better.

She deserved better.

She was my trainer, my mother, my lady. I would've died for her. Turns out I did, but I didn't save her...I just left her.

She yelled, "I LOVE YOU!" at the last. She knew we fought to live, but against a human, what could we do?

But I hope she knows, we died as we lived; fighting to stay alive for her. But we're only Pokemon, and we cannot heal a damage that great.

We all serve her. We are her comrades—we fight with her, we fight, yes, because we're Pokemon, but also because it's truly a treat to stand with her in battle. She knows what she's doing—as she should, after ten years of training.

Our mother, our world, our savior. She is waiting for us, and we are waiting for her. And when the boy that killed us falls to the Underworld, we shall make him pay. Together. As we once were. Once were warriors.

/Haushinka's POV/

My girl has gone far away. She was so extraordinary...lacked enough common sense to attempt to fly off the roof, but was intelligent enough that she was reading books thicker than her forearm by the time she was nine, according to Szeren.

I have a strange name, even for her. When I asked her why, she said I was named after a song she loved by a band she adored. I felt very proud, since I knew she loved music, and knew that to be named after a favorite song meant a lot to her.

She let me listen to the song, brought the disc with her one day. One line went, "This girl has gone far away... now's she gone. Now she's all gone."

The song was right. My girl has gone far away.

She hooked me in the Safari Zone, and was so surprised, she almost let go. She'd been looking for a Dratini, true, but she hadn't actually expected one.

She caught me. Why did I stay?

I could've easily overpowered her, and left her presence.

But I knew she was special. She wasn't like the other humans, who wanted me for my power. She loved me for my beauty, and my friendship was all that mattered to her.

I love you, Ari.

We were strong. We are strong. Please don't forget me. Or cry while I'm away. You have to remember, but you have to remember what we stood for, as well; love, and hope.

Come on, angel, don't cry...

I promise to cry enough for both of us.

It took her three days to accept that they were gone. Three days. Threes came a lot into her life.

She'd have laughed, but she was too tired. Living had become exercise for her.

But she didn't forget. She would always remember. She wouldn't forget. To do so would insult their memory, ruin the girl they'd tried to build up into a woman.

And they didn't forget.

They still remember.

And they still wait.

Even if it takes eternity, they will wait.

Because they serve. Because she didn't choose them...

They chose her.