Chapter 4: Unveiling the Truth

"So…they failed. Oh? They were in their village and begin evacuating their tribe. They actually believed what I said about what I would do to their clan? Well, I guess when the disaster strikes, it will make any Pokémon worried about their love ones. And, Eterna is still not ready to face The End. I need to get her back."

Hoopa folded her arms. She saw everything using a crystal ball and she was not surprised that Team Hitoshirenu was not a match against Eterna. Right now she and her abductors were in a place she could not pry through and not even her foresight could work if anyone ventured in there.

To her, if Eterna managed to cross over Segment Ridge, it will be hard for her to catch her. However, since there was no one capable of retrieving her, she decided to trace her down. She put her crystal ball in the drawer and locked it using her esper power. Then, she wrote a note on her table to indicate she was gone looking for someone. After she had done what she needed to do, she created Hyperspace Hole to warp close to the group as possible.

Meanwhile, Chestnut was still at Oddity Hill. He had not rest at all as finding Eterna was his priority. He also lamented himself for letting her go since he said to the black figure that she was not his friend. He wanted to see her again and apologised for what he had done.

Running through the tightly clustered forest was proved to be difficult. He had to take the southern route to Abundance Plains due to barrier around Blessing Forest. He knew he was far away from Eterna judging by the pace he is now and wished he could just woosh himself to her side.

In a while later, he spotted an Inventory Box. He could not believe his luck for finding one. Oddity Hill Mystery Dungeon had multiple entrances due to sheer number of the hills, so for each entrance, there would be a box. He browsed the contents of his storage space and took out a Reunion Cape. It would only work if the user was close to another Pokémon he or she would want to teleport to. He put on the cape and hoped that it would work. In a blink of an eye, he found himself sitting on a black 'thing' and three Pokémons were astonished to see him.

"Chestnut!?" asked Eterna.

He wrapped his arms around her and said, "Eterna! I am so sorry that I left you! I was too shaken to save you from the black figure!"

"It should be me who need to apologise to you for attempting to attack you. By the way, how did you manage to warp here? This area is protected!"

"It is definitely a Reunion Cape. It can bypass the barrier put up by Xerneas. Your relationship with Chestnut proves to be strong Eterna." answered Timburr.

Chestnut nodded, "Yes. Luckily I found an Inventory Box so I retrieved this item and hope I can reach you. Oh yes! Eterna, you need to come back to Horizon Town!"

"No can do Chestnut, I have a mission to do. And you should know what it is already. Why must I waste precious time returning to Horizon Town?"

"Mistress Hoopa has plans for you before you face The End."

"So?

"She knows the best way to defeat him! Don't you want to know?

"I already have the power to defeat him, and there is no other way then to head to where he is. I thought you are smarter than that…"

Aura abruptly shape-shifted a soundproof box to trap Chestnut inside.

"What are you doing Aura?" she exclaimed.

"I sensed something in his head. It could be somebody mind-controls him and should he continued to be with us, that Pokémon can find us. It is most likely done by Hoopa."

"Oh. No wonder why he is acting so strange. So what are you going to do?"

"I am trying to break the spell, but it proves to be too strong for me. Eterna, you should do it. You could read minds using the power of yours so you should be able to remove it."

"I shall try…But interfering with his mind could prove dangerous I think."

"Miss Eterna, Just do what you can. Should anything go wrong, we will help." reassured Snover.

"I will try. Just…don't shock me okay?"

Aura released Chestnut. Before he could complain, Eterna asked him to relax, "Don't worry about it and close your eyes."

"Okay?" he replied.

She created Inundation Flames to quickly seek the thing that influenced his thought. As she expected, Chestnut immediately retaliated. Timburr and Snover pinned him down and too suffered along with him.

"Bear with it guys! I will try to end this quick!" she said.

In a matter of seconds, she discovered it. It was in a form of a purple mist moving around in his collected thoughts. Now she planned on how she could remove it. She dared not to use her curse power as Chestnut was already suffering, so she tried to use the power of light. She visualised a ball of light wiped out the purple mist. It appeared as she expected and the light ball shone to destroy the mist. After that, she quickly removed her attacks and took a few gulps of air to calm herself. Chestnut, Timburr and Snover were relieved that their torments had ended.

"I…never want to be in this flame again…" mentioned Snover.

"Me too. Who can resist this kind of attack?" panted Timburr.

Chestnut agreed, "Now I know the extent of her power. It makes me want to puke...but thank you Eterna. It was shameful of me of not to realise that I was under Mistress Hoopa's spell, but why? She took care of me ever since my…"

Eterna interrupted so that he would not need to mention his tragic past, "We aren't clear of her intentions, but I can say I don't want to meet her along the way."

"If you put it this way...Since I am here, I must as well join in your adventure. I will probably be punished on my way back home. Besides, I may know Mistress Hoopa's moves."

"Such as?"

"She can teleport to a Pokémon she had set her sights on."

"Oh no. Now there is a probability we might encounter her. We should prepare for attack." said Timburr.

"She is hard to beat. She can read our minds as well so she knows how to avoid our attacks. And she can render our items useless using Magic Room."

Eterna spoke, "You sure know a lot Chestnut."

"I saw her using this strategy on some goons before. She is not to be trifle with."

"I guess is might over cheating then! We will know what to do when the time comes." laughed Snover.

"Yeah. It is most likely Aura and Eterna do the attacking while we just hide ourselves from mind control." frowned Timburr.

In a couple of hours, they were above Abundance Plains. This was the only area without mystery dungeons. The grassland was full of grass grazing Pokémons, way more than Eterna and Chestnut had encountered during their travels to Horizon Town. And when there were grazers, there were predators as well. Eterna saw a Diggersby being pinned down by Staraptor. The bird used his talon to pierce through the throat of the huge rabbit. It struggled momentarily then it died. She had no comments of the scene since she had seen life and death everyday by watching animal documentary. Nevertheless, she knew if she had seen death in front of her, she would react differently. She wished she would not see this happen to her friends.

And as what Chestnut had mentioned, Hoopa suddenly appeared in front of them. Hoopa looked concerned when facing at Eterna. She moved forward but Aura put up a shield to block her.

"We meet again black beast. This name suits you better for abducting Eterna and Chestnut! I know you won't back down from a fight so why don't I…"

Eterna instinctively leap off Aura's back, a move that she would regret later but she could not let her mind-control her friends. Aura understood Eterna's planning and made a small opening for her to exit the barrier. Then it continued to put up the barrier while flying off somewhere. Hoopa was astounded of Eterna's daring attempt and gave chase to her. As she was about to grab her, Eterna used Flamethrower to drive her off. Then she created Abyss's Door to warp herself onto the ground.

Hoopa landed beside her impressed, "What a stunning display you did Eterna. Tell me, why do you decide to follow those Pokémons?"

Eterna replied with a hint of anger, "Simple. I trust them more than you."

"But why? Isn't I am more trustworthy than them?"

"Don't use that tone at me Hoopa! You told the ninja frogs that you will destroy their village if they fail in their mission and mind-controlled Chestnut! Just what are you planning huh!?"

"I see. You think I am a villain. Make no mistake; I only said that to Team Hitoshirenu so that they will not slack in their jobs. I need them to be well-trained enough to get you back to safely, but it seems my foresight had failed and you managed to drive them off. As for Chestnut, indeed I had mind-controlled him to try to get you back to the Horizon Town. I am doing all these just to make sure you don't head to your doom while you are still learning to cope with your power, or powers."

"So you know everything huh? And, I don't agree to your methods of forcing Pokémons to do your bidding just to catch me. Talking to you is a waste of time. Bye." she created Abyss's Door and was about to leave the area.

Hoopa raised her right hand, "Wait, don't you want to know more why I don't want you to go and fight The End in your current condition?"

Eterna eyed at her and replied, "Speak."

"The End is a being of ending lives. Currently your powers are negativity and light, but they aren't enough to put him down. He can drain your life even before you battle!"

"So? You have a better suggestion?"

"I know a way to prevent him from doing so. It is summoning a great creature that he fears. I can teach you, but I cannot teach you here."

"So…why can't you teach me here?"

"The town is protected from The End's effect so he will not know its presence. Since you have been out here for long, he knows about your arrival and your quest to defeat him. But don't you find it strange he didn't come and defeat you himself? That means he was letting you feel that you have a chance to win and then he just plummeted you!"

"Hmmm, I am worried about my own life going against an uber like him. But, I will figure out a way to defeat him. I am really want go away now."

Hoopa was getting irritated, "Eterna, I will bring you back to town no matter what."

After her speech, she threw multiple Shadow Balls at Eterna. Eterna closed the Abyss's Door and did not bother to dodge. She conjured a Light Screen to reflect the attacks. Then, Hoopa used Hyperspace Hole and warped beside Eterna. She grabbed her and attempted to warp away, but Eterna covered herself in Inundation Flames to shake her off. Successful, she created light balls, or Shining Spheres and directed them at Hoopa. Hoopa countered by using Psychic to bounce back the attack to her. Eterna was too slow to avoid and got hit by them. Her Light Screen was shattered by her loss of concentration and the light had drastically weakened her dark power.

"Now you know how unprepared you are for a battle that is way more harsh than this!" warned Hoopa.

Eterna gasped with determination, "I…will not back down since I have progressed this far…further than what I was in my world!"

A strong light radiated from her and scattered in a form of a wave. Even though she could read her thoughts, Hoopa did not expect this powerful attack from Eterna as it came from a surge of power that was not controlled by her. She tried to escape using Hyperspace Hole, but she could not outrun the speed of light bathing her in warmth with extreme stinging sensation because she was a Ghost Type. She screamed in pain and unable to move as this attack immobilised her as well. Seeing this as her chance, Eterna emitted more of her light power directed at her. Her light attracted many Pokémons to watch what was going on and once the light disappeared, they saw the conclusion: Hoopa had fainted.

Eterna was exhausted from using a powerful attack she called Purity Swirl. Seeing that so many Pokémons at the scene looking at her and Hoopa, she frantically used Abyss's Door to warp her to where Aura and the others were.

She exited the portal and landed on Snover unintentionally. Snover yelped in response of a sudden weight on his head.

She apologised frantically, "Ah! I am so sorry Snover!"

"Omph! Just…get off my head Miss Eterna."

She did so and drooped on Aura's back.

"So how is it?" questioned Timburr.

"I defeated her using a new move. It is powerful and should not be used often as I have to use a lot of energy for this. Now I want to sleep. I will tell you all the rest later."

"It is a long journey to the mountains so take your time and rest well Eterna." said Chestnut.

Eterna nodded and snoozed away. As for Aura, she lowered the barrier and increased her speed to try to get closer to the mountains as possible.

It was sunset. Judging by not able to see Segment Ridge meant that they had a lot more to go to reach there. Timburr decided they should rest for the night to allow Aura to recover her energy and let Eterna to have an undisturbed rest.

Aura descended near a lone tree that looked like a raintree. They managed to land a spot that was a distance away from grazer Pokémons migrating on Abundance Plains. They gathered food and made grass beds. As the temperature plummeted, Eterna woke up as she could not stand the cold. She was too used to live in tropical weather.

"Bueeeeeeeeeeeew! Why there's no fire yet?" she flared up to warm the air.

"I thought Fire Pokémons are resistance to cold." said Chestnut.

"Well, I am not exactly a Fire Type am I?"

"True haha. So yeah, will you continue talking about your encounter with Mistress Hoopa?"

"She mentioned that there was a creature that can be summoned and The End fears it. She wanted to teach me, but why would I want to learn this move in the safety of her zone? She shrouded Horizon Town with her barrier to prevent The End from prying."

"There is no way we can find the place it lives unless she told you so, however I it is best that we don't waste time with her. We must continue our way to where The End lives." suggested Timburr.

"We will be alright even without the summoned Pokémon!" cheered Snover.

Eterna looked up at the sky, "I hope so. Well Hoopa was knocked out so she won't bother us for a while."

They had their dinner. Eterna wondered why Aura could eat and 'digested' the food. The black figure explained that the food simply turned into energy that she could use to regenerate her energy.

They rested for the night. Unbeknownst to them, a being crept close to them and took Eterna away.