Chapter Fourteen
He's not evil, he's my grandpa!
Dawn cried out in pain as the grunt finished tying her to the metal pole. She looked at her surroundings with a look of despair. Saturn stood in the upper floor, eyeing her with an angered expression. She could practically feel the anger emitting from his sapphire eyes.
The bleak warehouse didn't help with her fear, and the four grunts that stood in front of her with their Houndoom glaring at her with a hungry expression only furthered her fear.
"Saturn stop this! I'm sorry!" Dawn shouted, but he ignored her cry for help.
"Proceed," he ordered.
The grunt's Houndoom began to unleash their Flamethrower attack just to where Dawn could feel the flames intensity. The lead Houndoom then stopped using Flamethrower, but coated his fangs with the inferno then began to snap at Dawn, making her scream in terror.
"Stop! Leave me alone!"
Infernape, Skuntank, Gabite, Arcanine, and Crobat –who all had been heavily chained– began to try to rip from the cord, only ending in failure.'
Gardevoir began to give loud called as if she were scared, worrying Selene.
Lucas looked up at the psychic trainer and her pokémon that was beginning to cover her face with her hands, and sink away into the corner of the Canalave City Library.
"Lucas, Gardevoir says Dawn's getting attacked! As I've suspected they've frightened the truth out of her and are now trying to eliminate her! You're the only one who can save her since Barry and Damion haven't returned," Selene explained in a hurried tone.
Lucas quickly realized that one of the grunts must have seen them at Lake Verity and reported her. Guilt began to cloud his thoughts "I've caused her a lot of trouble, and now, she could be killed because of me..." He thought before Gardevoir looked over at him and blinked heavily, teleporting them both.
When Gardevoir got them where Dawn was, Lucas recognized this to be abandoned Fuego Ironworks.
"Dawn!" Lucas shouted once he saw the situation she was in.
The grunts and their pokémon turned around then ordered an attack on
Gardevoir, who retaliated with Psychic to stop the fire attack. Then she proceeded to use Hypnosis to make the fire canines fall fast asleep, making the grunts retreat.
Lucas hurried over to Dawn, her eyes were wide with fear, she seemed to be trembling, and light burn mark was visible across her cheek.
"Dawn, are you alright?" Lucas frantically asked.
At first Dawn didn't respond, but after a quick second she finally came-to. "Y-yeah, better now that you're here," she said in a hopeful tone, which made Lucas smile a bit.
He then began to try to untie her.
"Wait a second," Dawn said, grabbing his attention. "Lucas, there's a few things I need to say before you untie me," she started.
"Okay, but can't it wait? I don't want to risk those galactic morons coming back."
"No, it can't wait. Look, I know that it's a way too soon to be saying this, but I love you, and I'm sorry..." she hurriedly spoke.
Her 'I love you' comment threw Lucas a little off guard, but nevertheless he smiled at her. "I-" but Dawn cut him short.
"I'm so sorry for this..."
Lucas sympathetically smiled at her before lightly kissing her cheek. "You've done nothing wrong Dawn," he whispered softly.
Tears began to well in her eyes. "Oh, but I have, and for that I am sorry but..." she said before taking a deep breath. "Saturn now!"
Before Lucas had any chance to react, grunts seemed to flood the factory.
"Don't let him escape!" A loud voice ordered.
Gardevoir tried to get to Lucas, but one of the male grunts little crow pokémon quickly swooped down from the raptors above using Astonish, making her flinch.
The only downfall with this was since Destiny Bond was still in effect, Dawn also felt the pain. All of her muscles tensed, her eyes widened, and she felt like she was having a panic attack.
From above, Saturn noticed this and gritted his teeth in frustration.
"I swear if any of the grunts harm her I'll kill them. She's the perfect bait and I can't have her hurt!" he hissed under his breath.
All the battling subsided as the grunts finally had Lucas captive.
"Alright Commander Saturn, we've got him," The grunt Aria called once everyone was silenced.
"Good," Saturn said in a chuckle. "I guess I owe an apology to you Rhea. Thanks to your work, we now have one person who knows information about us. You're one step closer to redeeming yourself."
When Lucas heard Saturn's mini-speech he looked back at Dawn, who was now being untied along with her pokémon.
"Dawn, why?" He asked, confused beyond belief as to why Dawn would aid the enemy. She didn't answer him, which worried Lucas. He could tell that for some reason she seemed to be fearing something.
"Gardev!" Gardevoir called, challenging Dawn.
Dawn looked at the Embrace Pokémon, and seemed to shudder before looking up to where Saturn was standing. "Saturn, we need to defeat Gardevoir. If we don't, she'll still be able to track me!" she shouted.
Saturn gave her an indifferent stare. "But isn't she attached to you in some sort? Everything she feels you feel?" he asked.
Dawn nodded. "Yes, but it must be done. We can't have her following me. Gabite and Arcanine, standby for battle," she ordered in a slightly angered tone.
The ground shark pokémon marched obediently over to Dawn while Arcanine's steps were a little unsure looking.
Gardevoir was Selene's Pokemon, and he was Damion's. Damion and Selene were more than good friends, so was it wrong to hurt his friend even though his orders were to obey Dawn?
All the grunts and Saturn seemed to watch with interest as Gardevoir began to survey the situation. Two against one: hardly fair. If she could get Arcanine on her side, she just might stand a chance...but then again, Damion's pokémon always follow orders.
The psychic pokémon blinked heavily, making the air around her drop to a very low temperature. "Vior!" She called, using her psychic powers to make the frozen air rush at the two defending pokémon. Even though her new move Icy Wind was ice type, it still hurt Arcanine a bit.
Both pokémon's limbs seemed to freeze, slowing them considerably.
"Arcanine, use Fire Fang. Gabite, you use Flamethrower on Arcanine," Dawn ordered.
Intense flames billowed out of the Cave Pokémon's mouth, and when it made contact with Arcanine, it melted away into his fur, powering up his fire type moves. Arcanine howled as the flames made contact with his pelt, then went running at Gardevoir with a flame-coated mouth.
Gardevoir placed her arms in front of her, making a bright orange light appear in front of her, and just before Arcanine attacked her, she fired it at him. His fangs still got a hold of her arm, but the Focus Blast hurt him badly.
Gardevoir shouted out in pain, making Arcanine feel a bit guilty. Not enough to make him disobey Dawn though.
"Arcanine heal yourself with Morning Sun while Gabite uses Shadow Claw."
Arcanine's fur began to glow and he began to feel a lot better, and Gabite's claws became encased in a dark energy, slashing at Gardevoir with great force.
The psychic pokémon was knocked back quite a few feet, slamming into one of the grunts.
Both of them fell to the ground, but when Gardevoir looked up at Dawn, Dawn too collapsed to her knees. She clutched her fist over her front and seemed to be struggling to breath.
"Rhea, are you alright?" Saturn asked with mild concern as he leaned against the railing.
"Y-yeah, Destiny Bond sucks though," she said, between breaths.
"Dawn stop this! I don't know what they've done to you, but you can still stop this!" Lucas yelled, before one of the grunts threw him to the ground then kicked him in the gut. He grunted in pain, which made Dawn feel worse, but she said nothing about it.
"Double Flamethrower!" Dawn ordered in a stressed tone.
Both of the pokémon combined their Flamethrowers, but missed Gardevoir.
"Gabite use Aerial Ace!"
Unable to miss this move, Gardevoir accepted that fate and took the hit. Dawn also shouted out in pain but knew that Gardevoir was only seconds from fainting.
Gardevoir also knew that her time was almost up, but she couldn't give up. That wasn't in her nature.
She launched another psychic attack, knocking Gabite a good distance away from her, but what she didn't expect was for Arcanine to act on his own.
The fire canine quickly ran at her at howled loudly. The Roar made her freak out and she then used Teleport to get away.
A cold wind seemed to blow over Dawn as she took a deep breath. "Destiny Bond...is over..." she mumbled before collapsing completely on the ground.
A few grunts tried to get her to stand, but the urge to faint was weighing heavily on Dawn.
"Dawn-" Lucas tried to shout before getting kicked once more.
Dawn saw Lucas in agony, and she remembered hearing Saturn frantically shouting her name, before giving in to the immanent darkness.
When she awoke, she quickly realized that a Skuntank and her Infernape were standing beside her, and she was in her room back at the galactic headquarters.
She knew that it wasn't her Skuntank since hers had a distinctive indent on her forehead from an old battle scar.
"Finally. You've been out for some time," A feminine voice said in a relieved tone.
Dawn blinked a few times before her eyes adjusted to the light, and she noticed Commander Jupiter. "Jupiter?" Dawn asked as she sat up.
"Yeah. I came to check on you because I'll be honest, I was a little worried. You've certainly earned my respect. Ever since your argument with Mars at Lake Verity she's been in her room staring at her mirror saying things like 'I'm not old!'. It's pretty funny if you ask me," The purple commander said, grinning.
Her Skuntank hissed a laugh along with Infernape.
Dawn sighed. "Do you know what happened to Lucas?" Jupiter shook her head.
"I've heard nothing about him. All I know is that Saturn has had him in the interrogation room all night."
"How long have I been out?" Dawn asked, looking over at her Infernape who was grinning at Jupiter's Skuntank. It was easy to see that they were fast friends.
"I'd say a little over a day. Though Saturn gave me orders to bring you to the interrogation room as soon as you wake up. Sorry."
Dawn sighed again as she slid out from the covers. "Can I at least shower? I feel disgusting," she asked.
Jupiter shrugged before leaving the room. "Be quick though," she said before the door closed behind her, with Skuntank following right behind.
Dawn remained silent as she gathered her clothes then walked into the large bathroom to shower.
Infernape felt a small sense of Déjà vu as he jumped up on Dawn's bed and waited for her. He also began to wonder what happened to make Dawn go against Lucas. They finally seemed to work everything out emotionally, but ever since that trip back to Lake Verity Dawn had been on edge. Ever since this mission began, she had been on edge.
Life wasn't fair, and Infernape was having to learn this the hard way.
While Jupiter lead her down the hall, Dawn couldn't escape the feeling that she was going to faint. Nausea took over and it felt like the world was spinning. After placing her hand on her forehead, she stumbled a bit and had to use the wall for support.
"Rhea, are you alright?" Jupiter asked, turning around to face the fallen commander.
"Y-yeah, I think I'm just tired is all..."
Lucas could feel his tension rising.
Saturn had finally left the room about an hour ago, but everything was beginning to pile up. Saturn had threatened him multiple times; he hadn't eaten in a very long time, giving him a hunger migraine; and his thoughts kept trailing back to Dawn. He rested his head in his right hand and began to tap his fingers on the table in an attempt to relieve some of his stress.
When the door opened, he looked up expecting to see Saturn again, but he didn't know whether to feel relieved or worried about. The only emotion he felt right now was heartbreak.
He was about to say something when Dawn moved her finger up to her lips, signaling him to be quiet.
"I'm not supposed to be in here. Jupiter is keeping guard outside, and Saturn will be back here soon. We need to talk," she said with pleading eyes.
Lucas sighed before looking at her with an angered expression. "I don't think there's anything to say," he said bitterly.
"Lucas please...I'm sorry. Please understand," she begged. She then watched as he shook his head.
"Just leave me alone Dawn. Every bit of silence I can get I don't want to waste before your little boyfriend comes back to interrogate me."
His last comment hit Dawn hard. "Lucas, I told you nothing is going on between us! He's my mentor, nothing more!" she said, her tone going over her hushed whisper.
Lucas snorted at her comment. "Like I'm going to believe you."
"Why are you so adamant that I'm involved with him?" She asked.
"Oh, that's right. You passed out. Exactly what you deserve for lying to me."
Now Dawn was more confused than anything. "Lying? What have I lied about?" She watched as he rolled his eye and stood up.
"Everything! I can't believe that I ever fell for your little trick! You're nothing but a conniving little..." he paused to make sure he didn't say anything he might regret. "I've already given you the information you want just let me go! It's obvious that you've chosen your destiny, but I refuse to be a part of this!"
Dawn shook her head. "I don't have control over this. Please forgive me Lucas! I never wanted them to hurt you!" she said, walking around the table to stand in front of him.
His anger only escaladed. "You know what? I can't wait for your mother to hear about this! You'll be an even bigger disgrace to your family. She was right. You're no better than your father!"
A few tears began to pool in Dawn's eyes at his last statement.
"If I-"
"Stop! Just stop right there! I hate you! I. Hate. You!" Dawn yelled, moving forward to try to slap him, but found that she suddenly held no strength.
Her hand lingered at his cheek for a second before she fell into him and just stayed there, crying. "I hate you..." she mumbled.
She felt him sigh before he put his arms around her in an embrace. "You don't deserve any of my sympathy," he said quietly as he rested his head atop of hers.
Dawn continued to cry, wondering why he still had to rip her apart. She again stated that she hated him, and she began to feel a defined wet spot on his shirt due to her tears.
"If I had been given the choice, I never would have fallen in love with you." Those words began to ring in her ears.
If I had been given the choice, I never would have fallen in love with you...
I never would have fallen in love with you...
Crobat and Gabite let out a worried whimper. Crobat was seated on the top of Arcanine's head, who was sitting right next to Dawn's bed; Gabite stood beside Arcanine; Infernape was seated at the very end of the bed; and Skuntank was curled right next to their trainer, who was still asleep.
They watched as a few tears began to roll down her cheek, and she began to move a bit. Infernape hoped down from the edge of the bed then walked up to where Arcanine was and made him move a bit.
"Infern," he muttered as he wiped the tears off of her cheek with his blue fingers. "I'm worried. This is the second time this has happened," Infernape spoke, looking at all of the pokémon around him.
Nobody replied as they continued to monitor Dawn while she slept, Infernape only moving to wipe away the tears that still seemed to flow. Dawn finally began to wake up.
"Arca!" Arcanine barked, moving to lick her cheek.
Dawn giggled a bit at began to rub the side of Arcanine's head as she sat up. "It was...only a dream..." she mumbled, pulling Arcanine a little closer so she could wrap her arms around his neck. "I'm sorry everyone...I-I've been a jerk lately haven't I?" she asked in a hushed tone.
Her pokémon gave her a confused look before smiling at her.
"Skuu-uh!" Skuntank purred, sitting up to rub her muzzle against her cheek.
"Thanks, Skuntank," Dawn said as she leaned away from Arcanine who seemed to be giving her a smile.
The door to her room began to open a bit, but stopped midway. "Would you quit following me? You act like I'm about to go murder her! I'm the last guy you should worry about!" A male voice argued.
From what Dawn could see, it wasn't a grunt, but the clothes looked similar to Commander Saturn's, though the male seemed just a bit shorter. "Which is why I suspect you the most," Came the rougher male tone.
The male sighed then turned around, leaving Dawn a bit wide-eyed.
"Good morning, beautiful. You gave the commanders and us quite a scare yesterday. I hate to you rush you, especially since you've fainted twice now, and you probably haven't eaten in about two days, but we're about to start the next mission to get Uxie, and your assistance is required."
Dawn still sat there gazing at the person ahead of her. All of her pokémon turned to look at the person, and they too seemed shocked.
Frigid air blew through the area as two people landed in front of the Snowpoint City gym.
"Good of you to show up on time, dearie, I was wondering if you were going to make it or not," came a kind, elderly voice.
Dawn smiled at the approaching old man, as he trekked through the snow. "Oh, Charon, why do you always assume that I'm going to be late?" she asked with a sweet smile.
"Well, when you're with Saturn you tend to run just a tad late," he replied in a joking tone, eyeing the other commander.
Saturn passed an angry sigh, making the air around him visible due to the cold. "I suggest we get inside the gym before we freeze," he grumbled.
"Yes, yes! Let's make this a long drawn out battle! Come now dear, don't want to keep grandpa Charon waiting!"
A light giggle passed Dawn's lips as she followed Charon into the gym. This had to be the easiest mission yet!
Commander Jupiter was to steal Uxie from the lake, but in order to do that the city's gym leader needed to be distracted; this is where Dawn came in. She was to challenge the gym leader to a gym battle, earn the badge, and give them enough time to get Uxie; Charon posing as her very encouraging grandfather and Saturn being the friend who tagged along.
The gym battle against the ever-peppy Candice went a little easier than planned.
Saturn and Charon sat in the stands watching her battle. Saturn looked bored out of his mind, but Charon seemed to be enjoying the battle. "Good show I say!" he called as Candice's Abomasnow fainted after a second Flame Wheel from Infernape.
"Oh, you little! Now that I'm down to my last two pokémon, it's time to break loose and not hold anything back!" Candice shouted before tossing a standard poké ball onto the field.
A little yellow pokémon appeared and began to dance a bit. His cone shaped body was covered in a mostly yellow cloak that was rimmed with orange; his face, feet, and hands were completely black, only being offset by his beady blue eyes. "Snorunt!" tt cheered.
"Okay little buddy, let's start off with Spikes!" the gym leader ordered.
Snorunt seemed to shudder a bit before his body glowed, releasing tiny spikes everywhere.
"Be careful where you step Infernape, but use Double Kick!"
After glancing around to make sure that his path was clear of spikes, the fire ape went running at the little snow pokémon.
"Protect!"
Just before Infernape could begin to rapidly kick him, a blue sphere surrounded Snorunt, nullifying Double Kick.
As the battle was dragged out a little further by the annoyance Snorunt, Saturn could feel himself begin to shiver. He hated the cold. He was beginning to wonder how on earth Candice and Dawn seemed to be warm, especially since they were both wearing skirts.
"Saturn, we're going to need backup! I underestimated these two trainers, and now I could really use some help!" the voice of Jupiter ordered in his earpiece communicator.
Saturn glanced back down at the battlefield. He had been too busy thinking about how cold he was to notice that Dawn had switched out to her Crobat.
Candice's Snorunt had fallen, and she now replaced him with her Sneasel.
The little black weasel-like pokémon scratched the short pink feather atop her head, and then called her name.
"Crobat, use Hypnosis!" Dawn ordered.
The purple bat began to stare intently at Sneasel before letting out a harsh screech.
"Sneasel dodge!" Candice ordered.
Using the frozen floor below her, Sneasel used her feet like ice skates to speed away from the oncoming move.
"Use Ice Punch!" Candice ordered.
Sneasel's razor sharp hook claws began to become coated in ice as she again skated to get closer towards Crobat. She just barely missed, but clipped Crobat's bottom wings, making him incapable of flight.
Now Dawn was in a bit of a bind. Most of Crobat's moves involved him flying, but now he was stranded on the boulder of ice until his wings thawed, and being in this frozen gym, that wasn't going to be soon.
"You know Dawn, I really like that you chose to use a Crobat against my ice pokémon seeing as you have the type disadvantage. But you won't be winning this if you keep depending on your luck!" Candice commended. "Sneasel, use Assist!"
Sneasel's eyes began to glow. The trick to the move Assist was that it allowed Sneasel to use any move known by her fellow team members. Her eyes continued to glow as her expression softened and huge tears began to flow from her eyes.
Crobat was surrounded in a blue light as the Fake Tears lowered his special defense by two stages.
Dawn tried to think of something to order, but everything would have to be a close range for Crobat to attack.
She could switch out her pokémon, but where was the fun in that? She wanted to show Candice that Crobat was more than capable of battle.
"Now Sneasel, use Ice Shard!"
A small shard of ice began to form at Sneasel's claw tips, and then she fired the ice gem at the grounded Crobat. "Crobat use Air Slash to block that!"
Crobat frantically waved his top wings, sending out a small ball of wind. It was enough to knock the ice off course, missing Crobat by only inches. Dawn and Crobat sighed at the same time, but when she glanced at Saturn, she could tell that he needed her to speed things up.
"Icy Wind!"
Snow seemed to rush out of Sneasel's mouth, and its attack span was too large for Crobat to do anything to dodge. His wing tips were now completely frozen, and he was incapable of any movement.
"Now let's finish this with Ice Punch!" Candice ordered, hoping that it would be her last, for this pokémon at least.
Crobat began to tremble with fear as Sneasel drew closer. His hope at winning almost faded, until Dawn called out an order. "Poison Fang!"
He forced his jaw open and the toxin seemed to be dripping from his sharp fangs, and just when Sneasel was in close range, he sunk his teeth into her arm.
Both pokémon were knocked out, but since Dawn still had remaining pokémon, she was the victor.
"Great job Sneasel," Candice said softly as she went to pick up her fallen Sneasel on the field then put her back in the poké ball. "You too Dawn!" She said as Dawn went to recall Crobat.
Dawn smiled. "Thanks,"
"But here's your Icicle Badge!" Candice said as she handed Dawn the blue badge that looked like two mountains capped with snow.
Dawn took the badge then looked up at Saturn and Charon.
Saturn nodded.
"Well, we better get going," she said causally.
"Yes, we must! We must!" Charon said, standing up. "Come on now, move lazy bones. I'm an old man and I'm moving faster than you!" Charon grumbled, glaring slightly at Saturn.
"Hang on!" Candice said, stopping Dawn in her tracks.
"I know I said this earlier, but you look really familiar. Like, really familiar! Especially the tall guy over there," She continued, making Saturn a bit irritated.
He had given her a false name numerous times, yet she never seemed to remember it.
"Wait a minute... You're not just Dawn..." she said, her expression beginning to look panicked.
Dawn's heart began to pound. Had she somehow overlooked the fact that her picture could have been on any news channel as Rhea of Team Galactic?
Saturn too began to worry about this, so he reached into his pocket and pulled out a minimized poké ball in case of anything.
"You're Dawn Berlitz! You were in the Veilstone City Double Contest! I totally saw that!" Candice shouted excitedly, making Dawn inwardly sigh with relief. "I don't remember where your guy friend is from, but I remember you now! Where's Lucas? Or was that just a contest deal?"
Before Dawn could answer any of her questions, one of the many grunts rushed into the gym, panting and out of breath. "Saturn, Rhea... Trouble at Lake Acuity!" he said quickly.
Candice looked a little confused. "I thought you said your name was Dawn?" she questioned, looking at said trainer.
Dawn nervously laughed. "Eh, well...Saturn what do I do?" she asked aloud.
He chucked loud enough for it to echo in the empty gym. "We head to the lake and get control of Uxie, simple as that. You've weakened all of Candice's pokémon so there's not much she can do to stop us now."
"Wait, Uxie? No...Now I really remember you! You're Team Galactic!"
"Ding, ding we have a winner. Actually, you've already lost. Rhea, let's leave. Jupiter already asked for backup," Saturn ordered as he began to make his way down the stairs calmly, poké ball still in hand.
Candice squinted her eyes in anger. How dare someone use her as a distraction? "Hold it right there! I'm not about to let you just waltz out of here! I won't let you get Uxie, and I want my badge back! You're gonna have to go through me before anything!" She challenged, grabbing a poké ball to a pokémon she hadn't used in battle.
Dawn smirked at the angry ice specialist as Saturn spoke. "I figured you'd say something like that. Ambipom, keep her busy." With a flick of the wrist, the large purple monkey pokémon leaped out onto the icy field.
Using her long tails that had three-fingered hands, she maneuvered easily on the ice then leaped up at the leader, using her tails to keep her from moving.
"Am-bee!" The ape called in a cheerful tone as the woman tried to get out of her grasp.
"You'll, ah!" She tried to yell, only resulting in Ambipom squeezing her to keep her quiet.
"You see Candice. Every time you scream, talk, or do anything to get attention, Ambipom here will tighten her grip. I warn you, she's not afraid to hurt you, and sooner or later you might pass out due to lack of air. Now, choose your words carefully.
"Rhea, Charon, we're leaving."
"You're a disgrace! You're a disgrace to everyone around you! Your family, to all gym leaders who gave you badges, to everyone! Especially to yourself!" Candice shouted at Dawn, with a hateful expression as Ambipom squeezed her a bit more.
Dawn stopped walking, and her expression darkened. Saturn noticed this and seemed to get a look of curiosity.
She whipped around and glared at the trapped leader. "You hear me! I am a disgrace to no one! I earned all of my badges fair and square! My family is nothing but a bunch of liars and backstabbers! I'm correcting the wrongdoings they have committed but surrounding myself with people who fight for the greater good! You don't know me!" she yelled, putting a look of shock on everyone around her. "We'll be leaving thank you," she said in a much calmer tone before heading out.
And with that the three commanders left, Ambipom still gripping the leader.
"Ah bee, bee, pom," she giggled.
When she felt the girl try to rip from her grip, she placed her weaker two arms around her and hugged her tighter.
Charon had stayed behind to resume some work on the Snowpoint Temple on a pokémon known as Regigigas, just leaving Saturn and Dawn to back up Jupiter.
When they got there, they found Damion and Barry standing at the lakes edge, Jupiter nowhere in sight. A Skarmory was standing at Damion's side, and a large water penguin known as Empoleon was standing at Barry's side.
"Barry, Damion. It's been awhile," Dawn called in delighted tone.
When Barry saw her, he seemed really surprised. "Dawn? Is that really you?" he asked.
"The one and only, but I actually go by Rhea now. So, I hear you have defeated one of my superiors? I commend you for that, but now it's our turn to beat you," she said, smiling the whole time. "Saturn, will our strategy work without Infernape?" She asked, looking at the older commander who stood at her side.
"O-of course. Pardon me. I-I hate the cold."
Damion sighed then looked at his younger battle partner. "I guess we really have to battle her. We're not holding back just because you're our friend, Dawn," Damion announced.
Dawn simply laughed at him. "You two? My friends? Please. I'm no longer friends with people like you," she scoffed, batting her eyes a bit.
Barry just looked at her with the most bored expression. "Geez, you sound like you when I first met you. All snobby because mommy told you that regular-folk have no privilege knowing your name. Blah, blah, blah," he mocked.
This irritated Dawn.
Saturn took a casual step forward. "I will be nice and give you both two options. You can calmly leave, we'll collect Uxie and be on our way; or you can be stubborn and stay which will result in a battle. Which sounds easier?"
Damion looked at the commander with determined eyes. "It may not be the easy way out, but it's the honorable way out. We stay to battle, and we'll win!"
A smirk ran across Saturn's face. "Your first mistake. Toxicroak, standby for battle!" He said as he released the bipedal frog who then croaked his name and seemed to be itching for battle.
The Toxic Mouth Pokémon began to shudder a bit, signaling that the opposing pokémon knew some super effective moves.
"Go Gabite!" Dawn ordered, releasing the Cave Pokémon.
When the battle was over it ended up with Dawn as the victor since Damion had knocked out Toxicroak in no time and since he had no other pokémon with him seeing as Ambipom was still with Candice, and his transportation pokémon was useless in battle.
"You've improved a lot, Barry. I'm truly honored to have batted you, but we must be going now," Dawn spoke, in a confident tone.
Barry angrily shook his head and stood in their way as they moved towards the lake. "Okay you beat my pokémon but you haven't beat me! I'll fight you both if I have to! I-" Barry froze and seemed to be unable to speak.
"I'm afraid we're going to have to say otherwise. Fist fighting is so low...don't you think Barry?" Came a familiar voice.
Dawn turned around and smiled at the oncoming group of grunts. "Good timing. We could use some help. Keep them occupied while we get Uxie," Dawn ordered, smiling at the lead admin.
He nodded and returned the smile as his pokémon kept using Psychic to keep the trainers at bay.
"Rhea, do you still have the two Lanturn?" Saturn asked. He had worried that Jupiter might fail the mission so he made Dawn leave behind a few of her pokémon so she could keep the two water pokémon.
"Oh course."
"Release them into the water. They already know what to do."
Once given the order, Dawn released the two Light Pokémon into the water. Their fish-like body was mostly hidden under the water, but their yellow masked eyes were visible along with the glowing antenna on their heads.
Saturn nodded at the two before they disappeared underwater. The two pokémon looked at one another before hurrying off into the depths of the cold water.
Once they were at the bottom of the lake, they noticed the bright light coming from the legendary lake pokémon. The pokémon seemed to be in a bit of distress. Obviously, he knew that the other lake pokémon were in danger, but his duty to stay in the lake kept him from doing anything.
One Lanturn got in front of Uxie and the other behind him. A light glow surrounded both pokémon as they used Charge to raise their special defenses in case Uxie reacted, and to make sure their next attack would be powerful.
The two yellow spheres on the tip of their antenna began to glow then they fired their powered-up Charge Beam.
Uxie let out a cry of despair as he tried to clear his thoughts and figure out what was happening. When he looked into the eyes of the Lanturn ahead of him, he noticed that its eyes seemed to be glowing, leaving him confused. "U...xie?" he mumbled.
When he tried to launch an attack, he felt like something had stabbed him in the back, but it was really just the effect of Thunder Wave.
With Uxie paralyzed and confused, both pokémon then used Psybeam to carry him to the surface.
This had been too easy. Azelf had put up one tough fight, and Mespirit was pretty tough too, but Uxie was almost as weak as a Caterpie!
Once at the surface, Saturn grabbed a yellow and black poké ball that had been in his pocket and tossed it at the weakened legendary. In seconds Uxie was caught.
Dawn smiled and turned towards Barry and Damion, who were still trapped by Psychic.
"Thanks for your time boys. We'll be seeing you later...or not," she said, adding a little wink to her latter statement, hoping that they would realize that she was still on their side; for the most part.
But to her it looked like they hadn't noticed.
When they were a good distance away from the trainers, the pokémon that had been keeping them back freed them.
"Magmortar," the large Pokemon grumbled.
"Go ahead Saturn, I need to heal Crobat before we can fly," Dawn said, releasing her injured bat pokémon.
"Okay, I have to go get Ambipom though so you may want to hurry," he said before releasing his transportation Honchkrow. Once him and all but one grunt left, Dawn pulled out a potion from her bag and shivered a bit.
She didn't mind the cold, but in her summer clothes it wasn't that comfortable. The grunt that had stayed behind, pretending he was having trouble with his Staraptor, grinned before making his way over to the commander.
When Dawn turned around, she looked up at him and smiled.
He offered his hand to help her stand. She took his offer to stand then went in to hug him. "I'm so glad that you're alright, Lucas," she whispered into his shirt, feeling him laugh a bit. "But there's one thing I don't understand," she said, looking up at him.
"What's that?" He asked with this usual smile.
"You're not a commander and you're not a grunt. How exactly did that work out?"
"Simple. After integrating me for hours, I finally came to an agreement with Saturn. I'll give him all the information he wants if he let me join Team Galactic. Though, I was very clear that I refused to dye my hair any weird shade of green and get a bowl cut. He said it was a fair enough deal and allowed it. I went through a quick judgment battle against him and with the help of my new pokémon I did all right. I didn't win, but it was enough to impress him. So now I'm just a higher up grunt. Not quite a commander, but almost an admin I guess you could say," he explained.
Dawn replied with "ah," before leaning back into him.
A light chirp came from Staraptor, her way of telling Lucas that she was getting cold. He flickered his eyes back to her before looking back at Dawn.
Just as a gust of wind blew, knocking down snow to make it look like it was snowing, he moved in to kiss her.
However, Crobat would have none of this.
He flew up and began to swat his wings at Lucas's head, forcing him away from Dawn. After a sound that resembled a hiss, Crobat flew over to a rock that was a short distance away.
"Guess Crobat doesn't like me," Lucas said, rubbing the spot that Crobat had swatted.
"I'm so sorry! Crobat!" Dawn said before turning towards the guilty bat.
He looked away as if nothing had happened, making Dawn sigh.
"I guess we better get going since Crobat is acting up...but first," Dawn said. She didn't know what it was, but something reminded her of what Charlotte had said to her a few days ago, and now wondered if it was true.
She softly turned around and looked at Lucas with soft eyes then walked a little closer towards him. She carefully moved her right hand up to his cheek and used the back of her fingers to trace his cheek to the back of his jaw and watched as his eyes widened a bit. She then used her fingers to move down his jawbone then let two fingers linger under his chin. Then she moved in to where it looked like she was going to kiss him, but quickly moved to peck him on the cheek.
She giggled a bit since he seemed to be frozen in that spot with the same expression. "C'mon Crobat," she beckoned.
The bat pokémon flew up in the air to gain some momentum so he could carry Dawn. "I'll see you back at headquarters," she said with a wink as Crobat flew just to where she could get a hold of his feet so they could fly.
Lucas just stood there for a few more minutes before Staraptor got angry and lightly pecked his shoulder. He shook his head a bit, snapping himself out of the little fixation. "Whoa...I don't know what that was...but that was...something," he said with a small smile.
Staraptor just rolled her eyes as her trainer climbed upon her back. He was such a klutz when it came to emotions, and it just seemed to get worse when he finally got involved with Dawn. Oh well. He was happy, and that was all that really mattered.
By now Dawn and Crobat had made good time with the winds in their favor. When the mountains that divided Sinnoh came into view Dawn laughed a bit. "I guess Charlotte was right."
Crobat looked down at his trainer and gave a sigh noise. Humans were such odd creatures. Get together, make an egg, and get it over with! At least, for Crobat that's how things were supposed to work...