This chapter alone is the longest chapter in the entire story. Remember at the beginning of the story when I said that this follows the timeline of the movie? Well, this chapter happens to be right after the end of the movie, so you can almost picture the Alto Marian scene. But read anyway! :D

After two more weeks onboard the ship, I was finally back at home. The day had gone by, and now that the sun was setting, there wasn't much to it anymore. Tomorrow I could open the restaurant, and hopefully find some way to make peace with Danielle. As I walked down the gangway, I noticed that the city looked unusually empty.

"Hey," I called to a dock worker. "Where is everyone?"

"They're on the other side of the city, at a ceremony." He said. "The city's guardian is there too."

Guardian....last time I checked, there were two guardians. Either he made a verbal mistake, or something had happened in my absence. I turned back to Danielle, who didn't want anything to do with me. I left her with Gallade and me and Mismagius headed up the street to the 'ceremony'.

'Molly...I should see her first.'

I went back to the house. "Molly?" No one was home. It was starting to scare me. For two weeks I'd relentlessly called, and no one picked up. I figured she was with Latios, so it didn't worry me so much this time around.

"Mismagius," She turned to me. "I'm getting the feeling that I'm being kicked to second place in her life."

She nodded. Very supportive of her. We stepped back out and I locked the door. One of my neighbors walked by, and acknowledged me.

"Hey Calvin," He called. "How come you're not at the ceremony?"

"I'm headed there right now," I said. "Why is it so important?"

"You don't know?" He asked.

"No, I wasn't here."

"Well," He and I started walking. "It's for Latios. They say something bad happened to him."

I had to leave my neighbor and ran off to the ceremony. I didn't believe a word he said, and more importantly, I was worried about Molly now. The sun had disappeared beneath the horizon, and the sky was filled with its golden and blue remnants. The only way I could tell where I was going was the crowd of people in front of me.

I reached the ceremony. There was a wave of people, at least 2,000 of them. As I walked by, I noticed that some of the people were holding little ceremonial boats. Normally I wouldn't have been able to spot Molly, but since her hair was blue, she stood out like a sore thumb.

"Molly!" She turned around, face full of tears.

"Dad!"

She ran into my arms, still crying. She had a boat of her own.

"What happened? Are you okay?"

"I'm fine," She wept. ''But....''

"But what?"

She was crying too much to tell me. So instead, she made me follow her through the crowd. After a while it started to thin, and I could finally see the ocean in front of me.

Latias, in her normal form, was levitating some thirty feet away, accepting the boats and putting them into the water. She took Molly's boat, both of them crying. She spotted me.

'Calvin...'

'Latias,' I thought back. 'What's wrong? What happened?'

Those words only made her cry more. 'Latios is gone....'

My heart dropped. I couldn't figure out what to say. People from all around put their boats on the ground. When they were done, there were at least a thousand of them. Latias used her psychic powers and picked them all up, and set them in the water. Their small sails caught the wind, and they were on their way. Some walked up to pay their last respects. I was still standing in the same spot. Latios's death was quite a blow to me. Sure we fought all the time, and we never got along, but he was a great ally, and he'd gotten me out of pretty tight situations before, some I'd never thanked him for. Just thinking that I'd been gone for a month when I could've been here to help prevent this killed me on the inside, and I was sure Latias thought the same way.

'I wish I could've been here...'

I lay on my bed that night, staring at the ceiling. I took Molly home earlier, but she had drifted off into an uneasy sleep. I didn't blame her; she was here to witness it all. How Latios died was still a mystery to me, but since no one was willing to tell me, I didn't question it.

Danielle walked past my door. If there was one thing I could set straight, it would be the relationship between me and her.

"I'm sorry..."

She stopped. 'Excuse me?'

"I said I'm sorry."

'You think that a simple 'I'm sorry' is going to set things straight?' She snarled. 'Read my lips: I'm NEVER going to forgive you.' Technically, she wasn't using her lips--shut up Calvin, she can probably hear you....

"Then what can I do to make you forgive me?" I asked.

'Nothing!' She walked away. The last thing I needed was for someone to be mad at me right now, so I followed her.

We ended up in the terrace. The moon was out, and the city was absolutely silent.

'Why are you still following me?'

"...hit me."

She looked at me, confused. 'W-what?'

"We're not getting anywhere with conversations, so just vent out your anger and hit me. Like you said, three years is worth the wait."

That comment angered her so much. She raised her arm and concentrated on his neck. From the looks of it, he was suffocating.

'You think this is some sort of joke?' She asked. 'That you could just toy with my emotions?'

She waved her arm, and sent him flying back about ten feet. Her psychic grip on his neck hadn't faded, and she could hear him gasping for air.

'I worked for you, night and day, for two straight years,' She yelled. 'No recognition, no award, not even a simple gesture!'

She picked him up again, and hit him. He wasn't even trying to fight back, and that made her angrier.

'On the night of the break-in, I wanted to attend my sister's birthday, and you know what you said to me?' She let go of his neck. 'Tell me.'

"I...I don't--"

'TELL ME!'

"If...if it isn't a death, then...then you don't get...the night off." He panted. She quickly sent him back to suffocating.

'I've been a Gardevoir for three years now, it doesn't bother me anymore,' She said. 'But nothing between us will ever change.'

She threw him across the terrace. He landed, and rolled up to the fountain. She removed her psychic grip on his neck.

The night was silent again. Her anger had subsided, and her breathing returned to normal. Twenty seconds had passed. Calvin wasn't breathing.

'Wait, no!' She finally realized that she couldn't kill him. He put her through hell, but that wasn't enough to kill him over. She walked over and knelt down next to him. 'What have I done?'

"The right thing," He suddenly opened his eyes, and she jumped back. "Danielle, did you really think you could suffocate me? I can hold my breath for quite a while."

It was something about his voice that upset her so much, or at least the way he spoke to her.

"Yes, I was the most horrible manager ever, and I never treated you like family," She never knew he considered her...family. "Because...I couldn't."

'Why not?' She demanded.

"Don't you know how hard it's been?" He asked. ''Time and time again I wanted to thank you for your efforts, but I couldn't. Emmy passed away, and it was just me and Molly. Being a mother and father at the same time can do that to a person, and I didn't know how to express my feelings except to be angry.''

'That's no excuse Calvin!'

He took a deep breath.

"Danielle, believe me when I say this," He went on. "You were always there for me, and even though I didn't show gratitude, I was always happy to have you around. If I could take back what I said the night of the break-in....when I left the restaurant, I started thinking, and I knew I was wrong, and by the time I turned around and got back to the restaurant...you and Molly were gone."

'You were coming back to apologize, weren't you?'

He nodded. "I've searched the world for three years in hoping I'd find you, and pray that you'd forgive me. But when I found you a couple weeks ago, I knew there was no hope. And now, to make it worse...I just found out today that one of my friends died."

She didn't know he had any other friends. He didn't make many after Emelina passed; he kept to himself.

"If there's anything in the world," He said. "Please forgive me. You can hate me for the rest of your life; you don't even have to speak to me. But just forgive me."

He really meant it. He didn't have the dignity to get down on his knees and beg, but he really meant every word.

'I...I need some time to think.'

She walked past me, and back towards the house. Mismagius revealed herself. I'm surprised Danielle didn't sense her.

"Latias..." She was next. I could picture her alone in her garden, experiencing nothing but sorrow and pain. I was waiting for someone to finally wake me up and tell me it's time to get off of the boat, because I still couldn't believe Latios was gone.

The next morning Molly and I, hand in hand, approached the park. Like the day before, the city was dead silent. Stores and shops were closed down, and shutters were closed and locked. It was as if every single Alto Marian got up, and moved to the mainland. Molly was walking silently beside me, eyes darkened from crying. I hadn't noticed how much of a loss this had on her, and it wouldn't have been wise to ask her if she was okay, as most people do.

"We need to see Latias," I said. "She needs to be around friends right now, and no one at the hall knows about this."

"We should go see her in the garden then," Molly said.

I had no idea how to get into the garden where the Lati's lived, nor the path to use to get there. Of course, she wanted to come anyway. Molly was wearing a golden bracelet, which seemed to glow strangely as we walked past certain parts of the city. It glew brightest when we entered the park. She walked up to a cluster of trees, and disappeared. When I ran into them after her, I was caught in some sort of vortex, and before I knew it, it looked as if I was in the park again. She turned around. "This is the Garden of the Lati's."

"Really?" I took another look around. Like my terrace, it was abundant with greenery. There were some pokemon in this garden, some in trees, and some enjoying their surroundings. There was a swing on a tree nearby, and to my left I saw a fountain. There was a teardrop-shaped object at its center, and glew a blue-white color. Latias was nowhere to be found.

"Latias?" We called. No answer. There were so many trees that it probably muffled our calls. However, telepathy was unrestrained. 'Latias, we've come to see you.'

We heard a voice, but it soon died away. Molly and I made our way past fountain and down a grassy pathway, deeper into the garden. Molly apparently knew where she was going, so she led the way. We soon came across a huge opening, and it made me question if this was a garden or another park. Latias was lying on the ground not too far from us, face covered by her paws and crying. Molly sat beside her, tears forming in her eyes too.

"Latias, I don't want to impose any more pain on you," I said. "But I need to know what happened while I was gone."

She stopped crying and uncovered her face. Much like Molly's, her eyes had dark spots under them from excessive crying. 'The...the DMA.'

I'd heard about it once or twice. The DMA, or Defense Mechanism of Alto Mare, is a device used to protect the city in a time of immense danger. However, for it to function, it requires the Soul Dew, the soul of a passed Lati in tangible form. I didn't get how Latios fit into the picture, since that entire conflict would've been past tense.

'They used him too,' They? Who's 'they'? I never found out, even to this day, but I decided not to ask. 'They made this giant...thing...out of the water. When we finally freed Latios, it fell apart and...'

Latias couldn't go on, so I figured it out for myself. "Whatever they made out of the water, returned to the water....right?"

"Yeah," Molly said. "But it created a tsunami."

Like the mythical city of Atlantis, Alto Mare would've been sucked up by the tsunami. And it was clear to me that Latios gave his life to stop it. I was at a loss of words for that moment. I looked back up the path to the fountain. The teardrop-shaped object sort of blinked at me. 'That must be the soul dew....of Latios.'

"I should've been here," I said, turning back to her.

'You couldn't have been in two places at once,' Either way I would've lost a close friend.

"Latias," I brought her to eye level with me. "You don't have to go through this alone. Latios was close to all of us, especially you."

She nodded.

"No matter what happens, you'll always have your friends," I looked back at the fountain again. She did too. "They're never really gone."

She burst into tears and consumed me with a hug. I hugged back. It was the least I could do.

'Calvin, you're a great friend,' She sobbed.

"Um, Latias,'' She looked at me. "I know you don't want to be alone, and neither do we, so…do you want to come along with us?"

'…okay.'

The three of us (Latias, in human form of course) got back to my house. I was holding a box in my hand. In it, was something that could've prevented the fallout between me and Danielle. Speaking of her, she was sitting in the bench in the terrace, thinking to herself.

"Uh, Danielle?"

She looked up, eyes full of concern. I revealed the box, and gave it to her. ''I....I should've did this three years ago.''

She opened it. In it, was one sheet of paper. "Calvin.....what is this?"

What can't be said with words sure can be said with a piece of paper. "Go on, read it."

She frowned, but read anyway. "The Owner and Manager of this restaurant would like to present to this worker, Danielle Stewart, a certificate of achievement...."

I smiled.

'....for outstanding work through the duration of his/her employment. He/She has also been subject to job promotion, which now stands as.....Assistant Manager?' Tears started to form in her eyes. 'I...I don't know what to say.'

"Don't say anything, you deserve it." I said. "Present tense, because you're still alive...if you're willing to come back to the restaurant."

'But I'm--'

"Ah ah ah....first rule of the Culinary Arts," I said. "Don't judge a book by its cover. If you think about it, Mismagius and Millie are always there helping, and customers love having them around. I mean, it is a family business. And Danielle.....I can't change what happened to you these last three years, or the pain you went through. But I can't tell you how good it is to have you back."

She hugged me. 'I....forgive you. And I would love to come back to the restaurant.'

Molly and Latias broke a smile for the first time in days. I had a good feeling about the road ahead.