AN: Hey again!

P: Let's get moving, eh?

T: Well, we ended last chapter with a bang, so we might as well just get right on with it, eh?

SV: Sure thing! Don't own Pokemon, let's rock.

Chapter 3.

The four of us stood outside Saffron, alongside Cobalt, the two Pikachu and Ky.

"Ready?" Crystal asked.

"Yep." I replied, dropping my gain beforehand.

"I'll try and help you guys out." Ash said, smiling.

"That's fine. We're all going in on the low side here, we'll just hope for the best." I patted his shoulder.

"Right. I'm going bird mode." Crystal shimmered, changing to Articuno. 'Be careful. I'll try and act as air support.'

"Just try not to drop ice on our head." Leo requested.

'No problem. Let's rock.'

Ash and Pikachu stood next to me and Spark, waiting to see if anything popped up. Ky had gone with Leo and Cobalt, and Crystal was flying high above, acting her role as air support. Since none of us knew what we were going into, aside from the fact that Team Rocket was here, we were all on guard.

"Spark, you got anything?" I asked quietly.

'Nothing you can't see.' She replied, relying on me to telepathically translate, since Ash still wasn't powerful enough to manage it in low Psychic areas, let alone high energy ones. 'I think of all of us, you'd see the most, even with the Psychic power everywhere.'

"I probably could, but I don't want to risk it." Ash looked confused, so I elaborated. "The amount of power in the air could mess things up for me." I glanced around, mostly out of habit. "I think I can figure out where to go, simply by deduction."

"Right. What's the plan?"

"Well, with what we know of Team Rocket, they're always going for two things; Pokemon and money. Going in with a worst case scenario, Sabrina's probably captured, so she's out. We've split to cover ground, which leaves us in more vulnerable groups, but we can send out a distress signal if necessary. We also know Team Rocket use Normal and Poison types a lot, or at least the grunts do, so Fighting, Psychic and Ghost will be helpful, as well as Poison types of our own." I sighed. "We don't have much to work with, but Psychic powers will be a bit of a crutch for us to use freely. Might be possible to pass Judgement off too, so we've got a bit."

"Ok. So, they likely to be at Silph Co.?" I ran through what Bella had said about the building.

"Probably. That place'll be full of rare items and things the company's invented, and with the possibility of a Master Ball there, I'd say that's the most likely place, making it the most dangerous one."

"So what'll we do?"

"Go straight in of course. But sneakily."

'Alex, this is a bad idea.'

"Yes, it is. That's why we're doing it in style."

"I am extremely confused." Ash blinked.

"Yeah, sorry. Anyway, I'm going to see if I can drop a Judgement or something in there as soon as I can."

'This is not going to go well.' Pikachu opined.

'Since when has anything gone well with our trainers?' Spark reminded him. 'It'll just get worse.'

'Joy.' I rolled my eyes.

"It can't go that badly. Half Pokemon resilience, I'll be fine."

In case you're wondering, it went badly. Well, sort of. It didn't go horribly, but it went dangerously. It pretty much started when I asked Spark and Pikachu to head forwards and act as lookout. Simple, just a quick scout forwards to make sure it's safe. In truth, I don't think any of us are completely sure what happened after that in the few seconds, but most of it was panicked scrambling and running away. This resulted in us being hidden in a maintenance cupboard, praying the reflection I'd put up would work.

"Why did you think this was a good idea again?" Ash hissed, keeping his voice as low as he could.

'Not… a… clue.' I winced back, struggling to keep the area-wide shield up while replying. From the corner of my eye, I saw Ash look worriedly at me.

"Are you ok?"

'Fine.' I rasped back. 'Just… stay quiet… ok?' My friend nodded slightly. Even with the exceptional strain I was under from trying this, I carefully pulled up enough power to look outside briefly, scanning quickly for any sign of a person outside. I could only hold up for a second or so before I started getting a massive headache from overstrain, so I pulled back with a gasp and a wince.

'Alex?' Spark nudged my cheek, worried. 'Are you alright? What did you do?'

"A check." I replied, wobbling as I straightened. "I think it's safe to go now."

"Honestly, I don't care." Ash said bluntly. "Are you alright to go?"

"Yeah. I'll be fine. I'm a bit dizzy, but I'll live. Just don't expect too much of a show for a few hours at best." I tried to smile reassuringly at him, but it must have come out wrong, since all that happened was that Ash looked even more worriedly at me. "Seriously, I'll be fine. Might need to spend a good while recovering afterwards, but I should be fine to fight my way through here if we have to. I'll just be stuck praying I can pass Judgement off as something Psychic based instead."

"If you say so." Ash didn't look convinced, but still followed me as I opened the door to look around.

"Right, come on. Let's try and figure something out." I said, closing the door again.

"Well, you said I can't look around, as it'll either be too crowded or too bright." Ash replied, waving his hand with a small blue spark. "What about you? I know you've strained yourself, but could you do it if you get better?"

"I think I might, actually." I said slowly. "It depends. I might be able to do it now, or pretty soon at least. Then I'll try and track something."

"If one of the other hybrids in Team Rocket is here, you'd be able to pick them up easily, right?" I nodded. "So we could try and lock onto one of them to pick our way through."

"We could also try and see if Crystal can pick anything up." I reminded him.

"That's true." Ash admitted. "I'd forgotten we could do that."

"Telepathy is a wonderful thing." I agreed, focusing. 'Crystal, you got anything?'

'I can see into the windows up near the top floor of Silph Co.' She replied. 'I think I see someone in there, but I can't tell who.'

'Any sign of hybrid power?' I asked.

'Errr… Dark and Rock dual type, and a Dark and Flying one. Not sure what the Rock one could be, but the Flying could be a Honchkrow.'

'Well, it's not a Tyranitar.' I joked. 'There's no way one could fit into this building without it collapsing. Though, what other Rock/Dark types are there?'

'One we've never seen before?' The Ice bird guessed. 'Anyway, other than them, just human patterns. Nothing new or familiar, aside from a notably bright pink one on a lower floor.'

'Sabrina?'

'Her, or another Psychic. Either way, they're three floors above where I think you are now, so head on up there for them.'

'Sure thing.' I pulled back from our mental conversation with a nod. "Crystal says there's a couple of powerful signals up top, a Rock/Dark and a Dark/Flying one. Other than that, a Psychic signal that might be Sabrina three floors up."

"So, go and rescue Sabrina, then what?"

"Get up top and try to drive them out, I say." I grinned, Spark rolling her eyes.

'Yes, because it's definitely that simple to charge through a building full of Rockets to the top and beat whoever's up there.'

"No, it won't. I know." I agreed. "But we'll try anyway."

'Well, at least you're not overconfident this time.' Pikachu said, relieved. 'Overconfidence is a slow killer when it comes to this.'

"So how do you want to do this? We could try stealthing our way through the rest of it, up three floors, or I can try and keep an illusion shield up while mobile."

"No. No illusion field." Ash told me. "Now's not the time to have you pass out."

"Right. Hard way it is, then." I pushed open the door I was leaning next to. "We'll need to be extremely quiet, but I think we'll be able to make it."

"Sure thing. I'll follow your lead, then."

"Fine with me. Try and keep up." I slipped out, the Aura Adept close on my heels.

Chapter 4.

There were several close calls on the way upstairs to the place this Psychic was being kept, two of which forced me to put the illusion shield back into place, to the irritation of Ash. Luckily, the shield didn't take as much power as before, since I was keeping it around just us and I wasn't bothering to hide the presence from anyone. We crept along the halls, careful not to alert anyone that we were here. After getting to the third floor above where we'd been hiding before, I glanced around for anyone who might be nearby, then signaled to Ash to duck into a store cupboard so I could talk.

'Crystal, anything to say?' I asked her telepathically, closing my eyes.

'From where I see your patterns, there's a room about four to the left of you with the Psychic pattern in.'

'And it's definitely not one of the Rocket Elites that we've heard of from Lucia and Lucian?'

'You don't think I'd have told you if it was?' Crystal's tone was sharp, and I winced.

'I've no doubt you would have. Speaking of hybrids, what's my brother doing?'

'There's a hell of a lot of Rocket grunts outside, so he's currently working his way through them. I expect he'll probably join you two eventually, or he'll wait at the bottom of the tower.'

'What'll you do?'

'I'll find a way to slip in and transform to help battle if necessary. Don't worry about me. Get moving.' I sent back a nod before reopening my eyes. Ash grinned.

"What now?"

"Fourth room on the left from where we are now has our signal. Leo's going army mode on the grunts around the building, so we'll head up to the top. Crystal's going to try and join us if we need to fight."

"Great. Can you feel the pattern we're looking for?" My eyes took on a slightly pink sheen as I quickly glanced around, and I nodded. "Let's go then. Lead the way."

"Fine." I slipped out again, heading straight for the room I could feel the Psychic in, ignoring the slight strain I was dealing with from before. I was careful not to let it show, though; I didn't need Ash to worry about me hurting myself from overstrain. I'd worry about it later, and Crystal would probably yell at me for letting me strain myself past my limits, but that wasn't the problem right now. The current issue was figuring out what was going on with the Rockets and getting them out of Saffron City.

'Alex, you are ok, right?' Spark asked from her perch on my shoulder. 'You look kinda strained.'

"I'm fine chick, don't worry." I assured her. "Trust me, I know my own limits when it comes to my powers. It's Amy who doesn't seem to realise when she's starting to strain herself."

'Right.' She recalled, with a little laugh. 'I remember a few times she's overstrained herself psychically.'

"Yeah." I allowed myself a moment to gather my senses again, then frowned. "Anyway, let's get this all finished so we can head out." I pushed open the door Crystal had indicated, then immediately shut down any Psychic powers I was using and took a step back.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked, taking a step over.

"There's a lot of Dark typed energy in there. I think it's supposed to stop the Psychic from using their powers to get out. It also means I can't go in, since I'll lose all connection to my power."

"Does that matter? I know you don't need them." Ash was confused, and rightly so. I explained.

"I can, but I'll be so disoriented that it practically doesn't matter."

"I'll go get them, then." Ash smiled. "Just try and keep this area safe."

"That I can do." My eyes flickered, and I put up a sort of illusion field that doubled as a detection field. It was a bit power intensive, but at this point I didn't care. I'd take the time to recover later on; for now, I'd just use my power to cover Ash and deal with the Rockets that were here.

'How come you could feel in there then?' Spark asked.

"It's a sort of trap, so it only focuses on the inside of the room. I'd guess that it's to make sure they can tell if Sabrina's in the room if they have a 'brid on the team."

'Do you think they do?'

"I'm going to hope not. I don't have the power to cloak an illusion field from another's senses unless they're vastly less powerful."

'What if there is one though?'

"Then I'm just going to hope and pray that we don't run into them."

'That's a fair enough hope.' Spark smiled. 'I suppose I'd better join you on that.'

"Sure." I chuckled. "Now, let's just not do something too stupid, and we'll get through this without attracting the attention of the Elites Lucia mentioned."

'Not do something stupid? Us?' Spark laughed. 'You must be joking.'

"Alex, you can drop the shield now." Ash told me, leaving the room with Sabrina in tow. "We're good." I relaxed, the duel shield vanishing from the area. "How does that work, anyway?"

"Hell if I know." I shrugged, careful not to knock Spark off. "It just sort of does. Bella could probably explain it, but I sure can't."

"Thank you for coming back here." Sabrina smiled at us both. "Where're the others?"

"Leo's charging the rest of the Rocket grunts outside and around the city with Ky and Cobalt, and Crystal's giving us a bird's eye view." I told her.

"Ah, I see." Sabrina smirked knowing, before saying telepathically, 'Literally, I assume?'

"Yep." Ash replied.

"That explains how who found me so quickly. What about Amy and Bella?"

"They've been called back home on some fairly urgent business." I explained.

"Are they ok?" Sabrina asked worriedly.

"I'm sure they are. For now, the ones in trouble are us."

"Right. Any sign of, erm, 'your folk'?" Picking up on her meaning, I shrugged.

"We aren't sure. Crystal's got mostly humans up top, though there's a couple abnormal ones. A Dark and Flying, which could just be a Honchkrow, and a Rock and Dark type. That one seems most likely to be a 'brid, since the only one we know of is Tyranitar, and there's no way this building would be standing if there was one of them up there."

"So, we've concluded that it's either a Pokemon we've never heard of before, or," Ash's voice dropped quiet for a moment. "A hybrid."

"I suppose we should hope it's the former, correct?" Sabrina asked sarcastically.

"It would be massively preferable." I nodded. "Either way, Crystal's going to drop in soon to help, and Leo's staying outside to try and clear the way for an exit, since even if we get the lot up top to clear off, the grunts might hang around."

"Good plan. I should mention, though; one of the ones that was nearby had an odd feel about him."

"Odd?" I cocked my head. "How so?"

"It's hard to describe, but it felt darker than normal. Even in my more… psychotic state from before, I knew how the different patterns felt, and I've only had more practise since then. I've also dealt with Rocket's a few times, and while they felt evil, it was lighter. This person's felt suffocating, like being squeezed in a vice."

"Was it a grunt, do you think?" Ash asked her; I was too busy trading worried glances with both our Electric types to bother.

"I couldn't tell. The strange feeling was too distracting. It's why they managed to capture me in the first place." Sabrina shook her head. "Sorry."

"Don't worry about it. We'll just hope for the best a little more cautiously." I replied. "Maybe I'll be able to get a scan up there for it."

"If you can manage without getting knocked out like I was." Spark and Pikachu leapt down from our shoulders, running down the hall.

'Alex, come on. We've a clear shot up.' Passing the message to Ash with half a thought, the three of us followed.

"Where to, Sabrina?"

"There's an elevator at the end of the right hand corridor. It'll go straight to the top. From there, I think you can just sense your way to them." Setting my face into one of grim determination, I nodded in reply, and started along, heading straight for the elevator.

Crystal ended up joining us just before we entered that final room, which Sabrina told us was the president's office. She flew up by a window, which Ash opened to let her in.

'Leo's staying out of this to clear the way for everyone.' She said silently. 'A lot of the grunt's have been cleared out by now, but more just keep filling in out of nowhere. It's like there's a vending machine or something just churning them out to give Leo stuff to do.'

'Well, given how many grunts Rocket must have, I'm not surprised.' I chuckled. 'Ready to go?'

'My main three are ready, and I've got the backup three ready too.' She motioned to the Pokeballs on her belt. 'What about you three?'

'My team's kind of drained from before.' Sabrina warned.

'We're fine, and I think Ash's is too?' I glanced at the Adept, who nodded.

'Well, three full teams should be ok, unless Ash has Blitz on him?' He frowned, and a small blue glow flashed over him.

'Don't.' All three of us blinked as the one word message passed us.

'Good one Ash. Who's instead?'

'Zack.' I got the impression that he wanted to say more, but the blue glow he was holding died off and he sighed.

'Fair enough. I'll try and take most of the attacks off of your teams then.' Crystal waved us forwards. 'Let's try and stop them.'

It turned out that whoever was in there had been expecting us, since he was just finishing his conversation and certainly didn't seem surprised when we stormed in.

"Well, I suppose if we can't come to an agreement, I might as well leave." The figure was encased in shadow, despite it being broad daylight. "Still, it doesn't matter all that much. I only needed the Master Ball for a project of mine, and now I don't need it." The shaded figure turned to a corner, also bathed in a convenient shadow, and asked, "I assume you do have it, don't you?"

"Yes sir." The outline of a person fazed out of the shadow, as though he had been created by it. "Zoroark brought it to me moments ago." His voice was cool and dark, as though he never bothered to force emotions into his voice, as if it were to much effort to even think about giving voice to his feelings.

"Well, there's no reason to stand around here arguing with a person who's clearly too stubborn to help us out." The figure stepped over to a huge window and gestured. "Is Heart here?"

"She's awaiting us now." The other replied. "I sent the alert once Zoroark brought the object to us."

"Good. Shatter us out for her to pick up. And if you don't mind, deal with our new arrivals in your standard method?"

"Very well." The window splintered into shards, which disintegrated on a phantom wind. The outline seemed to look directly at us, and I froze, my breath catching.

This was who Sabrina had spoken of. He seemed surrounded by a pitch black aura, darker than anything I'd ever seen. I wasn't sure if it was visible, but I could feel it either way. I could see it, and even the shadows around him seemed to balk as that dark power flickered. Belatedly, it made it to my mind that that power had shattered the window. "I'll join you after." The one surveyed the other, somehow managing to look at him without reacting to the air of wrongness that surrounded him.

"Do not fail."

"Do I ever?" It changed slightly then, a hint of amusement slipping into that too-smooth voice.

"I suppose not." He agreed begrudgingly. A huge hovercraft drowned out all noise for a few moments, the hatch down to show a cargo area, places where cages would go marked out by barely visible scuff marks and chains dangling from the walls, ready to secure them. Then one strange man was gone, and the remaining shadowed one laughed.

"I hope you have some power in you, or this'll be all too easy." We didn't have much more than a second to process this before the wave hit. The President fainted instantly, thumping against his desk from the effects of the blackness. But the rest of us…

Sabrina was on her knees, holding her head and shaking.

Both Pikachu were curled into little balls.

Crystal's hands were sheathed in ice, her hair looking more like icicles than the naturally ice blue it should be. She hadn't fell, but she was close to.

Ash had almost collapsed as well, hands on his knees and struggling do anything. Aura flared rapidly, as though he was trying to force away the infernal blackness. He seemed to be speaking, or at least trying to, but the rushing in my ears drowned it out as I slipped, finding exactly what was happening to cause this reaction.

Panic, as my brother shifted for the first time, without me.

Worry, as I got left behind, no power I could claim but an unstable shift I couldn't do alone for fear of an accident.

My sisters, leaving to travel in the human world we knew so well, yet so little of. Followed by my cousin, then brother. Left again.

Worry fighting with panic and fear, explaining to my team who I was, what I was.

Each of these memories passed through my mind over an eternity, a doom I couldn't escape or fight. Another hit, crackling with malice.

Disgust. That's what was written on his face. Disgust and fear, warring with each other.

"I quit. I'll keep quiet, because you were good friends, but that's it." Dropping his bag and leaving, not even letting us try and explain, try and win back his trust, try and apologise.

"Stay here with your friends. I don't want you here." His parting words to a partner Pokemon he'd fought to befriend, hatred coating his tone as he spat the words.

Something splintered inside of me. Not rage, but a sort of calm.

"Not real." I whispered. "Yes, it happened. But not like that. I wasn't left behind, and while I worried, I was supported. My powers grew quickly, once I stopped worrying and thought for a second, let myself accept the help. My family left for their own adventures, but I would join them soon, and they'd help me catch them and stay equal." I forced myself upright, the ocean of blackness so deep I couldn't see anything feeling like a void, heavier than the weight of anything I could name. "And Ash didn't hate us. He didn't fear us. He wasn't disgusted. He panicked, shocked beyond rationality for a moment, nothing more. He accepted it, and accepted our help for his own powers, his own gifts." I gasped, as another wave of malice fought against these reminders. Voices echoed, fighting for my attention, but I had an anchor now. I expected it, and I could fight it, now I knew it was there. "None of us did anything like that to each other. What happened happened, and we can't change it. But we'll remember it as it happened, not in this twisted way that brings out the darkest points." Yet another wave, but this one was laced with more panic than malice. "It was bad, but we survived. We won't be trapped by an illusion of the crap that could have been, a thousand times worse." Something shimmered, somewhere. Golden, a small flicker of flame that tried to battle the void of memories. But it was too small to do anything itself, too weak.

So I reached out, physically or mentally I didn't know, and grabbed it. I pulled on it, and blasted out a shield, using that golden flame-like substance as a fuel and support, pushing the shadows away. My shield burned with that same golden shimmer, and the darkness balked, retreating as if it was scared of the flame. I kept pushing, forcing it back, away from my friends and family, even if maintaining a shield now was hurting more than the memories had. I was too drained from before, the shields I'd weaved to keep myself and Ash safe taking a huge toll, and it was showing, weakening the shield. Still I kept it up, holding the flame against the Psychic power I used to get rid of the voices that echoed, that still were trying to take my attention, to freeze me in place with terror. The pulses of the power were more frequent, but less intense, as if the gold was stopping them from reaching us. Taking a gasping, shuddering breath, I pushed with all my strength, forcing the shield and flame at the strange person who'd lingered, the one who'd caused this. I shattered the void he'd made, and left him standing there, gaping.

"Leave us alone!" I couldn't tell if the shout had been my imagination, or if I'd actually spoken, but it frightened him. Another burst of that strange, shadowed fire, and he was gone, the window replaced. I fell now, the shield vanishing as I lost connection, my power spent. The golden flame, now little more than a shimmer of glitter, lingered for a few seconds longer, and vanished in a breath of warm air, like a hug and a smile for a job well done. Distantly, I heard Crystal scramble over to me, and I took just a second to wonder where that glowing fire of hope had come from before the world fell dark.