The voice from Nathan's dreams tried to communicate with him once more. It started out sounding silent but slowly grew in volume.

"…

Nathan…

Nathan!"

A loud boom of thunder rang through the air, snapping Nathan out of his sleep. He jolted up from the cold stone floor of a cave. Putting his hand to his chest and taking a breath, Nathan looked around at his surroundings. Midna, Yoshi, the masked Marth, Nathan, and his partner Pokémon were all in a cave. There was a small fire next to Nathan which kept him warm. Yoshi was sleeping on the opposite side of the fire. Midna was floating and leaning against one of the walls. On the other side of the cave was the self-proclaimed Hero King who was also leaning against the cave wall. Another loud crash of lightning rang from the cave's entrance. Eevee jumped into Nathan's lap and curled up into a ball. She was shivering. She looked up at Nathan with her crystal violet eyes. Nathan put a slight smile on his face as he comforted the Pokémon with his arms.

"Don't worry," he said. "It's just a sound. There's nothing to be afraid of."

These words seemed to make Eevee smile softly. Nathan then looked over at the masked swordsman who was staring towards the cave's exit. He realized that he never thanked them for saving him.

"Hey, uh, Marth," Nathan said. (He clearly knew that the swordsman was Lucina, masking herself to pretend to be the Hero King, but he decided to keep that a secret. He thought things would be more interesting that way.) "Thanks for earlier. We would have been goners if-"

"Don't mention it," Marth said raising a hand. "You're just lucky I showed up in time to help. I'm sure Lucario could have taken care of them, that is if that oversized bee wasn't mega evolved."

Nathan, after hearing Lucario's name, looked around the cave. Lucario was nowhere to be seen.

"Wait, where is Lucario anyways?"

"He left the cave shortly before you woke up."

"What? But he's injured." Nathan, setting Eevee at his side, stood and started walking towards the cave's entrance.

"Hey, where do you think you're going," Midna asked.

"Where do you think," were the only words Nathan responded with as he walked out of the cave. Midna was about to follow him but was stopped by Marth.

"Don't worry about him," Marth said. "I'm sure he'll be fine."

"Are you kidding me? What if something happens to him while he's out there?"

"Something tells me he'll be fine."

Midna crossed her arms and leaned back against the cave wall. "I still think you sound like a girl."

Nathan's search for Lucario led him deep into the forest. He decided not to shout out for him because he didn't want anyone bad to find him. He saw a few flashes of lightning not too far away in the night sky from time to time yet kept walking until he got to a small pond. He knelt, picked up some water with his hand, and drank it. It tasted fresh and pure. As he was drinking, he saw a reflection of some blue light in the water. He looked up and saw Lucario on the branch of a nearby tree looking down at him with glowing blue eyes filled with aura. Nathan was relieved to have found him.

"Lucario," he said in a happy voice.

Lucario jumped down in front of Nathan. He then closed his eyes and the appendages on the back of his head started to vibrate.

"Forgive me for displeasing you." The voice echoed through Nathan's head as if Lucario was inside it. (Nathan knew Lucario could communicate to humans using telepathy so he wasn't surprised when he spoke.)

"Displeasing me?"

"I tried my hardest to protect you, but I failed. Please forgive me."

Nathan wasn't sure how but he could somehow sense a sad aura coming from Lucario. Why did Lucario sound so focused on protecting him. Was he trying to prove something?

"Lucario, I'm not sure what exactly you're talking about, but you haven't displeased me one bit. You did your best to fight off those Beedrill." Lucario didn't respond. Instead, he turned away from Nathan. He continued to speak. "Look, I know you and the other brawlers have been trying their hardest to protect me at all costs but, if I'm being honest, I've kind of been frowning upon you for doing so. I know it's the only way I'm going to survive in this world but watching you guys fight enemy after enemy just to protect me…" He let out a sigh. "To tell you the truth, it's painful for me to watch." Lucario still didn't respond. He was crouched with his head facing towards the ground. Nathan moved towards him. "Are you even-" Lucario lifted a paw to silence Nathan.

"We aren't alone," he said. Lucario could sense a chilling presence with his aura. After a couple of seconds, Nathan started to fell it too. Lucario then heard the slightest sound come from behind them. He created a small ball of aura and launched it into a nearby tree. Nathan looked at where Lucario shot the aura sphere to see a shadowy figure quickly disappear. Nathan shivered as a devilish giggle rang through the night.

"Who… who's there," Nathan asked. Shortly after saying this, his whole body shivered again. Lucario turned to see a shadow slowly growing beneath Nathan's feet. He quickly moved towards him and pushed him out of the way just before a creature could emerge from the shadow and attack him. Nathan fell to the ground. When he lifted himself off the ground and looked up, he saw the figure. There, hovering above Nathan's head, was a Gengar, staring at him with a face that would make anyone cower in fear. Nathan dared not to move. He didn't know what to do. Lucario quickly stepped in between the two. It became silent. Even though no one was speaking, Nathan could tell that Lucario and the Gengar were communicating in some way.

"Get back," Lucario said to Nathan. Nathan, without hesitation, quickly stood and went behind a tree to watch the two of them. The lightning Nathan saw earlier was also closer now and thunder could be heard rolling in the skies above.

The two Pokémon didn't move for a while until, eventually, Lucario jumped towards Gengar. The Gengar disappeared causing Lucario to land on the other side of the pond. When he turned around, Gengar created a large fist that punched Lucario into a tree. Lucario quickly shook himself off showing he was alright. Gengar jumped towards Lucario but he jumped out of the way before Gengar could touch him. Lucario created some aura spheres and shot them at Gengar. They would have hit him but Gengar vanished into the ground before they could do anything. Lucario created a blue bone and got ready for Gengar to appear. But without warning Gengar sneaked up behind Lucario and did an attack that paralyzed him. Gengar then teleported them both high into the air and created a bunch of hands that started hitting him repeatedly.

Nathan couldn't do anything but stand and watch in terror as Lucario got beat up. He didn't know what else to do. There was no way he'd be able to defeat Gengar by himself. Then, Gengar stopped the hands causing Lucario to fall to the ground in pain. Gengar then turned towards Nathan and charged towards him. Nathan closed his eyes as he also put his hands up, preparing for the worst. Then, something odd happened. Nathan started feeling... warm. He opened his eyes and saw that the stone on his bracelet had started to glow again. It started to glow brighter and brighter and brighter. It grew so bright that Gengar even got scared of it and backed away. Then, some energy came out of the stone and flew straight into Lucario. Lucario stood, his energy restored. He put his hands on his chest as he was surrounded by a ball with the mega evolution symbol on it. He then broke out of the sphere revealing that he had become Mega Lucario.

Lucario looked towards Gengar with an angry look. Lucario put his hands together and instantly seemed to vanish from where he was standing. He then instantly reappeared behind Gengar. He grabbed the shadow Pokémon and kicked him into the air. He then put his hands behind him to charge up some aura.

"Watch the power of aura," Lucario said as he shot his arms forward, creating an aura laser that hit Gengar directly and caused the ghost to fly higher into the air.

Lucario then created a long blue bone and jumped towards Gengar. He moved so quickly that Gengar couldn't react fast enough. Lucario swung his bone at Gengar like a baseball bat and hit him with such force that he went flying straight into the thunderstorm. Nathan and Lucario watched as Gengar flew across the sky and get hit by a thunderbolt. Nathan laughed silently and then turned to look at Mega Lucario who slowly lowered himself to the ground. Lucario looked over at Nathan too. The two walked towards each other. Nathan wanted to hug him but didn't want to feel a spike in his stomach. So instead, he raised his hand for a high five. Lucario raised his paw and the two gave each other a high five. Mega Lucario then turned back into regular Lucario.

"Thanks, Lucario," was the only thing Nathan could think to say. In fact, that's all he had to say. "Come on, let's get back to the others."