"May!"

I opened my eyes. The hospital's waiting room was bright and blurry. I frowned, shaking my head, trying to clear my foggy vision and make out the figure that was looming over me.

The figure leaned in closer. "May? You alive?"

"Yeah…" I said. Then I realized I didn't sound too assuring. I straightened myself in my chair, grunting at my stiff neck. I brought up a hand to rub it, and looked back at the figure in front of me. I stared with recognition.

"Really?" Harley said, arching a brow. "You don't look it…"

"Harley! You're up! And you're walking!"

Harley grinned. "'Course! Nothing can keep me down. You surely know that by now, right?"

I shrugged sheepishly. I turned my eyes to his side, where the shapes of bandages could be seen beneath the fabric of his shirt. "Do you feel okay?"

"A little sore." Harley hovered his hand over his shoulder. Bandages covered that also. "My shoulder is the one being a bitch, but even with that I'm sure I'll live."

Standing up, I embraced him, making sure my arms avoided his injuries.

"Glad to have you back," I whispered against his chest.

"I'll always be here, hon. You couldn't get rid of me when you were ten. You sure as hell can't get rid of me now."

I pulled away from Harley, smiling softly at him.

"You're finally awake."

I turned my head. Drew came up, an amused smile on his face.

"I must've dozed off," I said. "Where's Soledad and Lionel?"

"Still sleeping. I couldn't really sleep myself. Too many…things to worry about."

I frowned. I could see the tiredness in Drew's eyes, but, as he was always able to do, he hid it with a poker face.

"We should get going," he then said.

I turned to Harley. "Are you sure you can keep walking in your condition? We can always bring crutches or something just in case."

"What for, May? My legs weren't the things that were attacked."

"You can always use them as a weapon," I heard Drew mutter, stifling a chuckle.

Harley rolled his eyes. "Oh, great plan. Watch as my enemies cower before me! Flee, fusion pokemon, and try to escape the wrath of my walking sticks!"

I laughed at that, though the humorous moment was cut off when a loud curse erupted from around the corner. I arched a brow, exchanging glances with Drew and Harley, who also seemed startled. I pulled away from the group and approached the corner, looking around it to see where the angered voice had come from.

A soldier was leaning against the wall, his brows furrowed, eyes closed, and mouth tightened into a frown. His aggron stood beside him, appearing just as frustrated as its trainer.

"What do you want to do?" spoke a female voice, which came from the walkie-talkie in the soldier's hand.

The soldier sighed and raised the device to his mouth. "My team has been ordered to stay here until backup comes to escort the doctors and patients safely to the escape pods."

"We can't send any of our troops to the Citadel either! We need every one we have to keep this monster at bay and make sure it doesn't reach the southern districts!"

"Isn't the mayor's safety as important as anyone's?"

The mayor? I thought. As in…Katherine Verdana?

"Yes, but if the monster reaches the escape pod stations, then no one is making out of this alive."

The soldier clenched his fist. "Do you even know why Professor Verdana stayed behind?"

"No," said the voice on the other side. "All we know is that she's at the Citadel. She told us over the phone that she's there trying to figure out a way to stop the monster. We lost contact before she could tell us anymore. We would've sent teams down there to search for her, but we're all tied up at the moment keeping the monster at bay. We have injured men in the high numbers and just not enough walking ones to spare."

"I can't move my team forward and risk the lives of the doctors and patients here." The soldier bared his teeth, still frustrated. "Once these people are escorted safely to the stations, then my team and I will head to the Citadel as fast as we can."

With that, he turned off the intercom before the woman on the other side could protest.

I pulled back, meeting Drew's eyes. "Professor Verdana's still down here."

"If anyone could find a way to fix this mess," Harley said, "it would be her."

I closed my eyes and exhaled.

Then, I opened them.

"We need to go to her."

"What?" Drew said, Harley mirroring his shocked expression. "May, we need to get to the escape pods and get out of here!"

I glared. "And what? Leave Verdana behind? If she's trying to get rid of this monster, Drew, then she's going to need help!"

"What could we even do, May? What's the point?"

I pinched the bridge of my nose. "I…I don't know. It's just…" I sighed. "Ellis Bane. Ever since we talked to him and he told us about the monster – about Kruismara – I've been finding it hard to just say that he was nuts."

Drew frowned, but he didn't deny my opinion.

"Ellis said that Kruismara hunted on fear," I began. "He also said that when Kruismara was finished with Enfer, he was going to go to the surface and attack the cities up there. I know it's hard to believe this stuff when it's coming from only one man, but…with everything we've seen so far…I honestly wouldn't be surprised if this monster had intentions like that. If Kruismara reached places like Lilycove…his minions would completely feast off the population while he destroyed everything that made it what it was."

"I haven't been counting the explosions or echoes of gunfire," Harley added. "But I can still say there's been a lot. The monster…Kruismara…he doesn't even seem tired yet. Sections of the city are being ravaged – one after the other. If he does have intentions to move on after this, it wouldn't surprise me either."

"Ellis also said that Kruismara's name is the key to defeating him," I said. "We may not know what he meant by that, but Verdana might be able to use that info."

Drew ran a hand through his hair. He looked at me. "I…" His shoulders dropped. He knew he couldn't win. "Fine. But we need to head there as fast as we can. Hopefully, when we get there, Verdana will still be…"

"…Alive," I muttered.

According to the map Lionel had kept (the one that had led us to the hospital), the Citadel was an armored laboratory located close to the Enfer City Contest Hall, but far enough to justify an estimation that it would take at least a day or two of walking to reach it. Considering the fact that we possibly had Kruismara and his bloodthirsty children in our path probably raised that bet a little bit higher.

After we woke up Soledad and Lionel and told them of the new plan, we snuck out of the hospital building without alerting the multiple soldiers scouting the area. Since the soldier from before seemed determined in protecting anyone inside the hospital, I assumed that the rest of his allies were just as dedicated and would keep us from leaving the premises even with the acknowledgement of what we were trying to do. Yes, this practically confirmed that our mission was dangerous, but so was the option of traversing the rest of Enfer to reach the escape pods. The fact that Verdana had the skills to create a city beneath the water assured me that she at least had something that could be used against the monster destroying that very city.

Like before, the streets were filled with debris and cars. The only slightly damaged walls of the hospital had been burned into my memory. In this case, it was a diamond in a sea of stones. Shattered stones that held no indication of what they used to be.

Hours passed. Through the smoke that clung to the top of the dome, it was hard to tell whether it was day or night. Luckily, we hadn't run into any fusion pokemon, though we had heard roars in the distance that sent shivers down my spine and convinced us to pick up the pace. All that lay before us, ultimately, were the ruins of Enfer.

We decided to camp out in an abandoned bookstore. We would have stayed in a grocery market that was a few streets down, but the building it was built into looked unbalanced, ready to collapse any minute. The last thing we needed was to be squashed while we were trying to catch up on the sleep we would need for the rest of the trip to the Citadel.

"I'll keep watch," I said, relieving Lionel of his habit of taking the first duty. I smiled at him, which seemed to halt any protests ready to come from his open mouth.

He shrugged his shoulders, closed his mouth, and sat back down by the campfire.

I looked at Soledad, who had already fallen asleep by Harley's side. Meanwhile, Harley was taking advantage of our sanctuary's materials and losing himself in an issue of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Squirtles he had found in the young adult section.

I chuckled. And then I looked at Drew.

His eyes were focused on the campfire, though they quickly met mine when he noticed me. His furrowed brows loosened slightly.

I returned his sentimental expression, but I was out the door before any words could be spoken.

I stood on the curb that marked the bookstore's corner, leaning against a streetlamp, its bulb broken. Lifeless. I kept my eyes on the street leading forward in the direction of the Citadel, while Blaziken patrolled the other streets. It was silent. Everything was silent. Even the roars and gunfire as Kruismara was kept at bay were so distant now I could barely hear any of it. Everything seemed so…alone.

I closed my eyes.

The opening and closing of a door. The sound of footsteps. Someone was approaching me. I didn't turn around. I already had an idea of who it was.

"May?" came Drew's voice.

I said nothing as he walked up to my side. My eyes met his. Silence – like the very silence that haunted these ruined streets – sat between us.

"May…" he said. His voice was softer now.

I breathed in. Those words he had said to me in the hospital…

You're not alone.

I wrapped my arms around myself and looked at him. His eyes were still on me, never leaving. Deep. Pondering.

Before I could say anything, something touched my shoulder.

Something light. Something wet. It soaked through the fabric of my shirt. When another one touched my arm, then my face, then other places on my skin, I looked up.

Rain. It was falling from the sky – from the clouds of smoke that smothered the dome. They fell on my face – soft, damp touches that seemed to come from nowhere.

Drew hummed thoughtfully. "Verdana never told us that the dome rained."

"No, she didn't…" I said.

The rain continued to fall. It fell on the damaged buildings. It fell on the lifeless streets. It fell on Drew. It fell on me. I didn't know if producing rain was the dome's response to the fires that had been burning for days, or if it was trying to feed trees and plants that no longer stood.

I looked back at Drew. The rain was already beginning to dampen his hair. His bangs hung, soaked, as he looked up at the dome.

"It was raining the day you left," I said. "Ten years ago."

At that, he looked at me.

"I'm not leaving anymore, though."

I met his eyes. They were glowing in the dark hues of the atmosphere. Droplets of rain ran down the lines of his face, falling to the ground.

Slowly, he raised his hand and brushed a wet bang away from my face. I didn't move away. When he used the same hand to cup my cheek, I still stayed in place.

My hand came up and covered over his.

A soft smile crossed his lips.

And we both stood there. In the rain. His hand on my face and my hand over his. Our eyes were locked. We were soaked, but we didn't care. The sounds of falling rain surrounded us, forming a veil around us that, at the moment, nothing could penetrate.

You're not alone.

I closed my eyes and listened to the rain.

And I smiled.

AN: The last scene was inspired by "Rain" from the Halo 3: ODST soundtrack. Very good May/Drew music.