I am here to tell you a story... a story that will torture your thoughts by day and poison your dreams by night.

And though I will do my best, there are no words that can be written, nor brushstrokes laid on canvas, that can describe the stark and utter horror of the night that Annabel died...

Her eyes, as blue as the midday sky, stared straight into mine; the light within them grew fainter by the moment.

"The Emptiness wants you," she whispered.

And that was it.

One last shaky breath was exhaled before her eyes softly fluttered closed, and she was lost to the world.

This is not a tale for the faint of heart. I can not possibly stress this to you enough, but I will try. You see, there is no happy ending to this story. It begins, and ends, in misery... as it always will.

You have been warned.

The world was burning...

Everything in sight, be it tree, field, or building, was engulfed in high, crackling flames. People and Pokémon alike were running in every direction; their screams and yelps rose into a terrible cacophony. The heat from the dancing orange and yellow wisps was unbearable. In fact, it had reached the point to where anyone running too close to something on fire would also burst into flames. This added to the amount of fire and noise, as whoever lit up would begin screaming in a tone yet unmatched by anyone else... save the others being burned. Soon, the flames were so numerous that they began to sap the air of any remaining oxygen. It was only a matter of time before anyone still running was on their hands and knees, gasping in vain. Before much longer, there was no one left alive... They had either been burnt away or suffocated.

Except for me, somehow.

Despite the damage to the area, my practiced eye could tell which city it was. It was Mauville... a city of wealth and grandeur. Despite not being the largest or most popular city in Hoenn, it was considered a crucial one. From here, you could go anywhere: South to Slateport, West to Verdanturf and Rustboro, North to Lavaridge and Fallarbor, and East to Fortree and Lilycove. It was the center of Hoenn.

Unfortunately, that appeared to no longer be the case. The casino... the gym... the hotels... everything was burning away, including the surrounding area. Soon, I reasoned, the incredible wildfire would spread to the cities close by, burning them away as well.

Standing in the middle of Main Street, my emerald green eyes wide with incalculable shock, was I, Blair Whitacre. I'm little more than seventeen years old. I'm not exactly tall, and my hair's probably a little too dark compared to my pale skin. Not to say that I'm not proud of my appearance... but everything had always seemed just a little too childish about me. My expressions, especially.

The flames and smoke twirled around me, and the heat was causing my face to burn with sweat. Still, it wasn't hurting me, and I didn't quite understand why. Why that even mattered was well beyond me. This was my hometown burning away right in front of me... the one place I could always go to for comfort... and it was taking everyone with it. That should have been the main focus of my thoughts... and it was before long.

I wanted to run and scream at the top of my lungs for someone -anyone- else. Unfortunately, I knew, deep within, that there was no one else to hear me. Even if I did walk the extra mile to where my house was... between here and Verdanturf... I was sure that it, too, would be nothing but fire and ash. And my Pokémon? Where were they? I hadn't even considered them! I looked down to check the left side of my belt... and my fears were confirmed. There was nothing there... No one was here for me anymore. My Pokémon had all but vanished, my family was probably dead, and everything around me had been plummeted into a fiery inferno. What the hell was I supposed to do now?

Tears threatened to form in the corners of my eyes. I honestly try not to cry most of the time... at least not in front of people, but I had been bested for once. What else was there to do when confronted with such damning circumstances? Forget trying to get out of here. Forget trying to find someone that was still alive. The fire wasn't harming me for some reason. As such, I just didn't care to move anymore... or do any of those things. I just wanted to stand here, head bowed to the ground, and sob uncontrollably. Maybe the fire would decide to take me at last. Then, there wouldn't be anything else to cry or worry about...

But even I knew that was not going to be the case. It would've happened by now...

But then, I realized something... I realized that I couldn't remember how I had gotten into this unlikely situation. On top of that, I couldn't even remember walking to this very point. And hell... I couldn't even remember ever coming back to Mauville. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep under a tree somewhere outside of Canalave... in the Sinnoh region!

Now just wait one damn minute...

About time you figured it out.

I gasped as my eyes widened even more, beginning to look around quite frantically. Someone had just spoke! Surely that meant I wasn't alone! Now things were getting really strange... and making even less sense to boot. I'm here, despite the fact that I don't even know how I got here, and now I'm hearing voices?

But the more I looked around, the more disappointed I got. There was no one -nothing- anywhere near me. All I could see were flames and crumbling buildings. I wasn't hallucinating, was I? Surely not! I had heard a voice, dammit! I opened my mouth to speak, but I was stunned to find that I couldn't say anything. I honestly wanted to call out to whomever had just spoke, yet no words would come forth. I literally could not will myself to say anything. It was as if I had forgotten how...

Don't bother trying to speak, Blair Whitacre... I'm the one that's going to be doing the talking here.

My eyes narrowed as the voice sounded yet again, frustration beginning to mount. Oh, really now? Not only was this mystery person not showing themselves, but now they wanted to tell me that I wasn't going to be allowed to talk? And they knew my name? I tried even more desperately than before to cry out words of protest, but still... I couldn't talk. Gritting my teeth and curling my now shaking hands into fists, I impatiently awaited the smug voice's return.

Now, now... don't get angry. There's actually no need for you to talk, you see... I know what you're thinking, because I'm in your head. This... this is all just a dream of yours, and I'm the one holding the reins.

A dream? Well of course it was a dream! None of this was making an inch of sense. It was all beginning to add up now. Kind of ironic, actually. By not making any sense, it was making more sense to me. Come to think of it, that was what had made the voice begin talking in the first place. Apparently, it had just been waiting for me to begin figuring out that none of this was real.

Exactly!

What was this... some sort of game? The voice had said something about being 'in my head'. What was that supposed to mean? Had I finally snapped? Had years of traveling with no one to talk to, save Pokémon, finally taken its toll? Impossible! I always made sure to visit home often enough to retain at least some of my sanity... The chance of me developing some maniacal alter ego capable of producing hellish visions was incredibly unlikely, especially without any knowledge of it myself...

Quit grandstanding... You sound like a moron. No, I'm not part of you... And no, you haven't gone crazy... yet.

Yet?

Yet...

Instantly, the scene of the burning city disappeared, only to be replaced by a large white room. Honestly, I hadn't been paying very much attention to it since the arrival of the disembodied voice. Still, now that it was gone, I could take a few breaths to try and relax. Glancing around, I immediately came to the conclusion that this 'white room' extended infinitely in every direction... There were no corners to give the illusion of walls... nor anything to give my surroundings a level of depth. It was, in all sense of the words, a blank slate.

Much better, no? I don't really care for such brightness, but I guess it's necessary...

I furrowed my brow at the statement, the frustration remounting. What was the voice hinting at? And why the hell had nothing appeared yet? The snide, arrogant tone of the imaginary voice was really beginning to annoy me on a different level. This... thing... was toying with me, it seemed.

Would you quit your whining? I mean, honestly... would you rather we go back to the flames?

The voice had a point. So, trying to put aside my negative thoughts on the situation, I stood stock-still and faced forward. A curious feeling began to fill my mind... this one a bit more polite, perhaps.

Much better...

Finally, at long last, something appeared. It stood in front of me... hovered, more like, as it didn't have legs. A large plume of gray fog extended from the top of its body, constantly shifting and billowing as if it were being blown by a soft wind. Lower down, the fog took on the appearance of thick hair falling over the figure's face. It obscured things to the point where only a large bright blue eye could be seen upon its dark face. Below the small, rounded head was a hard, red shell-like thing that I assumed to be some sort of natural growth. The 'shell' was rounded off in sections that tapered around to the back, and two sharp spikes protruded downward from the very front. The rest of the thing's body was jet black and formed a rough hourglass shape. I could see arms extending from its sides, ending in sharp, clawed hands. It also appeared to be wearing an old, tattered cloak... but that couldn't have been clothing, because it actually looked to be in perfect form with the shape of the creature's body. Completing the eerie shadow's guise were two wispy, upward extensions from its shoulders and something similar in the back, shooting outward, that might have been a tail.

All in all, it carried with it an air of dread and despair... like the darkness itself. I could seriously feel something like an icy hand gripping my heart at the mere sight of it, causing me to feel an immense and unexplainable hopeless sadness. I had never seen anything like this thing in my entire life, and I was seriously wishing that things had gone on that way.

Suddenly, it seemed that I was able to talk. I immediately blurted out the first thing that came to my mind in an embarrassingly meek voice:

"W-what... what are you?"

There was a pause before it finally replied in an ominous voice, without any sign of moving lips or anything like that:

I am Darkrai... Legendary Pokémon God of Nightmares, Fear, and the Darkness itself. It is not often that I find myself willing to communicate with humans, but I feel that I must in order to save their kind.

That was seriously unexpected... Darkrai? A Pokémon? I had honestly never heard of anything like that. And it had called itself a God... Just what in the hell was going on here? "But... why me?" I asked, feeling incredibly singled out and confused, "I'm no one special, really... And besides, why would you care about humans? You just called yourself the God of Darkness... surely you wouldn't mind us... disappearing."

It all seemed to make sense to me when I said it, but it didn't sound as thoughtful resounding in the air around me. Still, if this Pokémon was supposed to be in control of the one thing that most humans were afraid of, wouldn't that make sense if it completely hated us?

The reason I came to you, specifically, is unimportant. I didn't say that I cared for humans, either. Now slow down your questions, and allow me to speak.

That vision I showed you, however fabricated it may be, is not out of the question. Something has happened today that will make all of that a reality in due time. The experimentation of humankind has reached a point of no return... The dabbling foolishness of you humans can no longer be ignored. You have created that which was forbidden... a perversion of Pokémon and human life, alike. We have decided that it must be destroyed, lest this entire world be burned and plunged into Emptiness.

This thing was rambling, and making no sense in the process. It were as if Darkrai expected me to know what it was talking about. "What do you mean by that?" I found myself asking automatically, having no idea just how much of a reaction I was about to bring out. Honestly, I had no clue what I was supposed to say anyway. How was I supposed to?

Darkrai advanced on me in an instant, and I found myself unable to move out of the way. As the Legendary gripped my collar with one of its shadowy hands, I gasped sharply and squeezed my eyes shut, fearing the worst. Sense gripped me though, as I remembered that this was only a dream. Slowly, I opened my eyes and focused them on the large, bright blue orb only inches away from me.

For centuries, you silly humans have waged pointless wars, using Pokémon as your weapons. You have strained their precious and sacred abilities beyond recognition. In doing so, you have brought about the ire of us Legends... us Gods. Your crooked fates have called for blood, yet we have restrained ourselves from condemning this planet as a failure and destroying it.

This is different! This blending of species falls well beyond any arrow previously cast at us. This has struck us in the very heart! We created other Pokémon for you humans so they could live alongside you in harmony! Instead, you have allowed this 'Team Rocket' to continue their devilish schemes...

We have decided that there are only two options left for this planet. Either someone removes this black mark from the face of the Earth, or we remove the Earth itself. Where is your God... hmm? Is he nowhere to be found? Has he done anything to prevent this travesty of life from occurring? Every passing second proves that you have been forgotten...

We are your Gods now, and we are not amused... not in the slightest. Destroy this plague, Blair Whitacre, and in doing so... save this world.

I was blindsided and speechless, staring blankly at the Legendary before me. It spoke of this planet as if it were just an experiment... something that could be ended at any minute for any reason that these 'Gods' didn't agree with. Well... it finally appeared that they were fed up with everything that was going on. A perversion of human and Pokémon life? What did that even mean? And how in the world was I going to be the one to put a stop to it? And how, just how, did it justify blaming all of humanity for the problems that Team Rocket caused? If I didn't know better, I'd've thought that this would be the Rockets' goal... to destroy this very world with the results of their machinations. Unfortunately, it looked like their mission had been accomplished.

"Why are you telling me this? And why can't you do anything about it?" was all that I could breathe out, the icy grip of Darkrai's hand becoming unbearable. I just wanted it to let go of me...

The others advised me not to, but I ignored them. Despite our differences, we Legends are not at war. We control our own portion of reality, but when it comes to problems like this, we are left to come together and make a joint ruling. As I am the only one that can contact people without physically coming into this world, through dreams, I had to be the one to do it. And as for your other question: We aren't supposed to interfere directly... ever. This is your world, not ours. You make your mistakes, and you fix them... Besides, if one of us were to actually cross into this dimension, physically, the results could be potentially catastrophic.

I believe that anyone should have the opportunity to first undo their mistakes before being crucified by them... and I believe my counterparts feel the same. As such, I decided to inform just one member of humankind... just one... of what was going on. As to why it was you, I am not at liberty to share. Let's just say that it should work out in your favor, and your favor only, when the time comes...

You're the only one that can do this, Blair Whitacre... believe me. I speak on behalf of the rest of us when I say that it is not our goal to destroy mankind. Unfortunately, it seems as if things may have to end up that way...

No pressure, of course!

With a final wink of that eerie blue eyes, Darkrai vanished before I could say another word, along with the entire dream.