Aamira was starting to wish that she had stayed in her own world just a little longer. If she had just gotten a couple days of training from Faris and Bisharp, maybe going through the once-easy Stony Ridge would have been a little more bearable. While traveling with Typhlosion and Riolu, they had gone through no less than three monster houses.

Aamira could hold her ground, but just barely. In this case fighting against the dungeon pokemon was more like holding them off until either Riolu or Typhlosion could come to her rescue. More than having to fight these tougher pokemon, she hated having Riolu constantly coming to her rescue. Typhlosion was nice about it, he'd knock the pokemon out, as if she was alright if she had been attacked directly, then move onto the next pokemon. Riolu, on the other hand, loved playing the hero. As if to prove his point that girls, humans and especially girl humans couldn't fight, he would always give her the same smug smirk every time he knocked out a pokemon.

It didn't matter though. It was taking them too long to get through this dungeon. Aamira's annoyance gradually started to fade and soon she was ignoring him entirely. It was still difficult though. She could barely block most of the attacks and none of her counterattacks did much damage. Her arms were starting to sting from blocking the attacks and attacking the enemies that were almost all rock types.

"Should we take a break?" Typhlosion asked after he noticed that Aamira was starting to tire out and that she was rubbing her arms more often.

"No, there's no time!" Aamira said. "We have to keep going!"

She walked off ahead of them. From behind her, she heard Typhlosion whispering something to Riolu, but she couldn't make out what it was. Nor did she care. All she cared about was getting to the end of the dungeon before sunset.

A Sudowoodo ran out from behind a corner that they were approaching. Aamira, who was still walking out front, raised her wooden sword just in time to block its Rock Smash. Aamira's arms stung and her legs buckled, but she managed to block the attack. She pushed Sudowoodo back and Riolu ran in front of her and knocked it out with Force Palm. He turned to smirk at her just in time to see her speeding past him, not even glancing down at him for a second.

Riolu glared at Aamira, but didn't go after her. Typhlosion sighed and continued on past Riolu. He hadn't known this Riolu very long, in fact he had only known him for a few days now, after Celebi said that Uxie and the others had a pokemon that they wanted him to train. Typhlosion accepted, unaware that by "train" they had really meant babysit. This kid was strong, but it was clear that he still had a lot to learn.

They were moving at a decent pace, but it was clear they wouldn't be able to keep it up for long. This human was tough though. It was unusual for there to be a human this strong. She was still human though. There would be no way she could keep going at this pace for long.

They entered the next chamber and about a dozen pokemon came towards them. Another monster house to hold them up. Typhlosion and Riolu ran ahead to fight off the other pokemon. A few that slipped passed them got to Aamira. She blocked their attacks with her sword and counterattacked to the best of her ability. Among them were three Sudowoodo and two Lairon.

"Duck!" Typhlosion shouted.

Aamira dove to the ground just as a jet of fire went over her. It knocked out the Lairon instantly, but the Sudowoodo were still standing. Aamira rolled onto her back to avoid the Wood Hammer from one of them, got to her feet, and jabbed at one with the sword. It hit the Sudowoodo in one of the yellow spots on its stomach and it flinched back. Finally, she had found a weak spot.

She continued her attacks on the Sudowoodo. She figured the yellow spots must have been sort of like nerves that kept them from moving when hit. They could easily pretend to be a tree when they chose to stand still, but somehow hitting those spots triggered the same response. After a while, the first one that she attacked went down and soon the second one followed. Finally she was able to fight back.

The third one was starting to weaken. Just a few more hits and it would be out like the others.

"Out of the way!" She heard Riolu shouting. Before she even had the time to respond, there was a loud explosion and Aamira was knocked unconscious.

Aamira opened her eyes and she was suddenly laying under a familiar tree. The large fruit, which she couldn't recognize as any real fruit, especially one that would grow on an oak, hung in the same spot as before. She jumped to her feet and turned to see Destiny sitting under the tree in the same spot she had been before.

"Back already?" She asked. "Pathetic. Really. You know that humans can control aura, don't you? Most don't realize it, but I would have thought that after being a Riolu for so long that you would at least have been able to do it instinctively."

"Oh, like you can control aura." Aamira snapped at her.

Destiny raised her hand and an Aura Sphere formed above her palm. "You were saying? And this isn't even the dragon force I'm using. Of course it would be easier to use the aura that you were born around."

"Oh so it's not really yours, it's just the energy you're borrowing from the world you're in."

Destiny shrugged. "So what? It's still more than you can do, isn't it? Not that it can actually hurt anyone the way it is now. I'm tired of talking though. I'm bored of sitting around here constantly. Thinking back on it, throwing you down there probably wouldn't have been a good idea. I could probably take over just by knocking you out while you're here. Being unconscious while unconscious. It's possible, I guess. If you can sleep in the dream world, even if you don't dream there… yea, worth a shot."

Aamira drew her sword as Destiny stood up. The only problem was that since Destiny was an exact replica of her physical appearance, she had one too. Destiny walked towards her and didn't draw her sword until she was right in front of her. Aamira only had a short amount of time to parry it and counterattack. Destiny blocked it easily and attacked again. She got in two attacks before Aamira managed to block again and push her back.

As far as sword fighting went, Aamira did have the advantage. She had been more familiar with the fighting styles of various pokemon and managed to make up her own from it. Destiny was a lot faster and stronger though and she still had minimal training with Mienshao and Lucario from before their memory had been erased.

Aamira was tired of fighting. It seemed like it was all that she had been doing all day. Even here in her mind, or wherever she was, her arms seemed to be screaming at her to stop. She could hardly breathe. She would give anything just to give her lungs and limbs the break they were begging for.

Destiny jabbed at her and Aamira raised the sword to block, but at the last second, Destiny changed her tactic and brought the sword down on Aamira's hand. Aamira's hand opened from a reflex and her sword fell out of her hand. Destiny immediately went into a frenzy of attacks that ended with a sharp blow to the back of Aamira's neck. The last thing Aamira heard was Destiny's laugh and her faintly saying that she was lucky the swords were only hunks of wood.

Aamira opened her eyes to find herself propped up against the trunk of the tree. She sat up and looked around, but there was no sign of Destiny anywhere. Aamira's sword had been returned to her, not that it would do her any good now. She was entirely alone. It was just her and the monster circling below in the black sea.

She tried for a few minutes to wake herself up before realizing that it was useless. She wondered what Destiny could be doing now that she was in complete control. It was torture knowing that she was most likely rampaging around and that Aamira wasn't only not in control of her own actions, she didn't even know for sure what she was doing.

Quill would be on his way surely. He would be coming to rescue Daisy. That was her only hope for getting out of here. She stared off at the horizon where the black sea met the blue sky. After a while of staring off into space, she started to get bored.

"Needs some clouds." Aamira thought out loud. Almost immediately, some clouds appeared in the sky. Of course. This was her mind. She could do whatever she wanted here.

Aamira looked up into the tree and started to climb up towards the fruit. Just as she got close to it and reached out for it, the tree extended its branch as if purposely trying to keep her from getting to it.

"Hey, what's the big idea?!" Aamira shouted at the tree. As much as she tried to manipulate it with her thoughts, the tree just wouldn't move the way she wanted it to.

When she thought about it though, it did make sense. The tree, the fruit, the island, and the monster in the sea below her or even the sea itself were all there before she knew about this place. Those were the things she created subconsciously, unlike the clouds. However much she tried, she wouldn't be able to manipulate her subconscious. The fruit would remain out of reach for now.

Aamira slid back down to the roots of the tree. Just as she wished that there was a more comfortable place to sit, a few of the roots near the trunk reshaped themselves into a chair-like shape.

Aamira sat down, now excited about what she would be able to do in this world of her own. And why not? There was nothing else she could do but wait. She stared at the clouds for a while and shaped them into various forms. Quill, Daisy, Lucario, Espeon, Victini, and several others. She changed the shape, direction, and color for a while. Then she thought about her home town, Inari, known for its sunset. She closed her eyes, pictured it as well as she could, and opened them to see her world bathed in golden light.

She heard a low sigh coming from under the island where the monster under the ocean was most likely watching her. Whatever it was, it seemed to be enjoying Aamira's creations as much as she was. She didn't care though. She simply ignored it.

"What can I do to this island?" She thought. "Maybe make the tree into an actual house? No, there's no need for a house here. It will only rain when I want it to. And I can just make the roots into furniture if I want. Or make actual furniture for that matter."

She looked up at the sky, which still looked really plain in spite of the clouds, which were moving diagonally now, and the gold color. She thought of the stars back in her world and they appeared instantly. Up above her was the brightest star. Faris had told her that it was always directly overhead and that the clock tower in Inari lined up with it perfectly.

She thought about adding a moon, but hesitated. Would Zoroark be able to use a moon that she herself created to see into her mind? No, this moon would be different. It would be a lot closer than other moons and it wouldn't need to give off any light. It would just be a rock filled with craters floating in the air. When she remembered that Atra had two moons, she decided to make a second one, a little smaller than the first, floating in front of the bigger one.

Thinking about Atra reminded her of the Solar flowers, so she added a few of those along with some Lunar flowers and the Dragon flowers that Lucario had made. She didn't think it looked good though, so she got rid of them. After giving it a second thought, she put a few Dragon flowers back around the base of the tree.

She made the grass a little longer and made a few small wildflowers, mostly white or yellow to reflect the sunset. She laid back in the grass and stayed that way for what felt like hours while she watched the sky. This world in her mind was a really incredible one, as small as it seemed when bound to this one island, and she wouldn't mind visiting it every night when she fell asleep. The only problem was that Destiny was there. Usually.

After a while Aamira went over to the edge of the island and laid on her stomach as she looked at the black sea below her. It wasn't really black, she realized. It was more like it was non existent. The monster below was writhing in the nothingness below her. At first she thought that it might have something to do with Darkrai, but when she looked at it now for the first time, she realized this wasn't the case. This monster was nothing like Darkrai. It was something colossal and vicious, while Darkrai acted more scared and even shy at times. The worst thing was that she couldn't see any details of it aside from a couple of white eyes, glowing like bright hot embers.

And yet she felt strangely attached to this monstrous being. Why wouldn't she be? It had nothing to do with Darkrai, so it must have been another part of her subconscious. The scary thing was that it was clearly alive and had its own intelligence. Maybe it was a sort of split personality like Destiny was, though that didn't seem right either.

She thought that the creature needed its own name, but nothing she thought of seemed fitting. If she could tell what it looked like, it might be easier to name it. She assumed it was some sort of large sea serpent since she had initially mistaken what it was swimming in as an ocean. Maybe it was just the Dellevan in her, but the word "dragon" immediately came to mind when trying to describe it.

"If I can make a living creature in this world subconsciously, can I do it on purpose?" Aamira said.

Aamira stood up and backed away from the edge of the cliff. She concentrated on the outward appearance of a Cyndaquil. Having only a limited understanding of what it would be like to be a Cyndaquil, if this did work it wouldn't be perfect.

The air shimmered for a second and a transparent Cyndaquil appeared. She tried speaking to it, but it didn't respond. The only time it moved was when her mind willed it to. So it wasn't intelligent after all, just a puppet like the illusions that Zoroark made. The monster circling below let out a low bellowing laugh that sounded similar to a Wailord blowing water out of its blow hole.

These were illusions. Everything in this world was created by her mind. She let the Cyndaquil illusion fade and made another one of a Riolu. After that, she made one of a Lucario, thinking it would be slightly more complicated. As she made more of the illusions, they seemed to become more solid. She hesitated for a moment, but then made a fourth one in Zoroark's likeness. It was nothing like the real thing. If anything, the only reason was because she couldn't get the eyes right.

Aamira took a deep breath as she let the Zoroark illusion fade. She remembered fleetingly the white dragon she had seen years ago. That white dragon who had helped her escape from a place much like this. She could still remember her eyes vividly. She closed her eyes, trying to remember every detail of it as exactly as she could and when she opened them again, her heart nearly skipped a beat when she saw the dragon, completely solid unlike her other illusions, with the same kind eyes and warm smile. The cloudlike feathers streaming from her head and tail caught the light of the sunset just as the real clouds had done. And yet, something still seemed… off. Having only seen the dragon once and having been just barely able to remember the details, she couldn't figure out what it was.

Before Aamira could figure out what was missing from the dragon, she heard a sharp intake of breath and turned to look for the source. Riolu was standing behind her, but Aamira was more interested in the dragon. She turned back to it and was disappointed to find that it had vanished.

"That was… so cool." Riolu said. "How did you do that?"

"Well this is my mind. I can do whatever I want here." Aamira said.

"Since when is a human's mind so vast?" Riolu jumped onto a higher branch and looked out at the horizon, as if expecting to see some kind of border. "Normally the sky would look like a dome of some sort, or in a world as small as this island, it would look like a small sphere around you. This is so weird…"

"You mean it's not supposed to look like this?" Aamira asked. "Well whatever, what do you want?"

Riolu jumped from the tree and landed in front of her. "I came to see why you were acting so crazy. Geez, that old guy gave me a good tongue lashing for using that attack before perfecting it, especially since it knocked you out at the same time as that Sudowoodo. So you finally wake up and he has to knock you out again just to keep you from hurting anyone or yourself."

"What did I do!?" Aamira asked.

"You don't know what you did? Well whatever. You should probably just see for yourself then." Riolu turned to leave, but turned back when he noticed Aamira wasn't trying to leave also. "Aren't you coming?"

"I don't know how." Aamira admitted.

Riolu sighed and held out his paw. "You've seriously got to be at least the second lamest person I have ever met. Still I guess it's pretty cool to be rescuing a damsel in distress."

Aamira grudgingly took his paw and started to follow him across to the opposite side of the island. "Why don't we just concentrate on finding the real damsel in distress?"

Aamira opened her eyes and looked up at Riolu, who was still holding her hand. She sat up a little too fast and fell back the second the pain shot through her arm. She hesitated for a moment then looked down to see a huge black bruise stretching up the side of her arm.

"You'll have to forgive my young friend here." Typhlosion looked pretty beat up himself and was holding some cloth on the bridge of his nose in an attempt to nurse a deep cut.

"Did… Did I hurt you?" Aamira asked.

"You tried to attack Riolu. I thought you were just mad at first, but you just kept fighting after I tried to stop you. I thought the dungeon had gotten to you, but Riolu thought it was something else." Typhlosion said.

"How'd you figure it out?" Aamira asked Riolu.

"You were stumbling through the dungeon before. Then to suddenly attack like that and not even flinch at your injuries, it seemed a little strange."

"That attack is dangerous!" Typhlosion staggered to his feet. "Don't use it again, at least not until you perfect it."

"You think that attack was what made me attack you?" Aamira asked. "Well, we've got to get going. I'll explain on the way."

Either they were getting close to the end of the dungeon and all of the pokemon had been scared away by Houndoom, or the loud explosion from Riolu's attack had scared them all away. The sudden lack of enemies was welcome with their injuries and gave Aamira enough time between the battles that would come up every now and then to explain her situation. Humans from another world, a pokemon taking over a human kingdom, split personalities, it was a lot to take in and yet they accepted it fairly well for having only known Aamira for a few hours.

Riolu started to take the lead and take care of the enemies before they could attack Aamira or Typhlosion. Aamira started to notice that Riolu seemed to be avoiding looking at her whenever they got near each other.

"Don't worry about it." Typhlosion said. "He might be impressed, maybe jealous, maybe both, I'm not sure. That kid wants to be a hero some day, but I'm not convinced he knows what that means just yet. I'd blame Mesprite personally. She probably told him too many romantic stories. Sorry, Mesprite's—"

"—the legendary pokemon of emotion, I know. Makes sense, I guess." Aamira glanced at Typhlosion who was scratching at the cut on his nose. "You really shouldn't do that. You'll just get it infected."

"I know, the medicine I used on it is one that Celebi showed me how to make. Works really well but itches like crazy."

"Are you going to be okay to fight Houndoom?" Aamira asked.

Typhlosion laughed. "Of course I will! I'm the legendary explorer!"

Aamira smiled, thinking about how similar the two of them were even though they didn't realize it yet.

"Just one question though." Typhlosion asked. "Does Riolu ever become a hero?"

"Wouldn't you prefer to find out on your own?" Aamira asked. "He does. I won't say any more than that though."

Typhlosion nodded. "Fair enough."

Houndoom was waiting for them at the end of the dungeon. The scene in front of them looked eerily familiar. Daisy was hiding in nearly the same place that Oddish had been a long time ago and Houndoom was standing right where Charmeleon had been.

"Finally here. Took long enough." Houndoom stretched and scraped his claws on the ground. "This kid's quite the fighter. Took a while for her to stop trying to escape. Only helped me out in the end really. You're lucky you got here when you did. I was starting to get bored."

"Let the kid go, Houndoom!" Typhlosion shouted.

"I won't let her go. You'll have to take her from me." Houndoom used Roar and sent them flying towards the edge of the cliff.

Riolu was the first on his feet since he had the least injuries. He ran up to Houndoom and attacked with Quick Attack. Before Houndoom could retaliate, Riolu managed to get in a Force Palm. Houndoom attacked with Ember and Riolu just barely managed to dodge out of the way in time.

"Something's not right!" Typhlosion shouted to Riolu. "That fire's stronger than what he should be able to do! Don't let your guard down!"

Houndoom laughed and walked closer. "Told you she fought, didn't I? Works for me. She's like a little battery, isn't she? Flash Fire is quite useful, wouldn't you say?"

Houndoom attacked Riolu with Bite and Riolu continued to attack with Force Palm. While the two of them were too involved in their struggle to pay attention to Aamira or Typhlosion, they started to sneak over to where Daisy was. Houndoom turned and attacked them with Ember. Typhlosion was just barely able to get in front of Aamira and shield her from the flames.

"And where do you think you two are going?" Houndoom said.

Typhlosion attacked Houndoom with Swift. While Houndoom had his head bowed towards the attack, Riolu attacked from the side with Force Palm again. Houndoom attacked Riolu to knock him back and, when he was lined up with Aamira and Typhlosion, attempted another attack with Ember. A jet of fire even stronger than the last washed over them. Riolu had just enough time to use Endure to keep from being knocked out. Unfortunately, it was a little too much for Typhlosion. In his last attempt to protect Aamira from the flames, his injuries became too much for him. What normally would have been an attack that wouldn't have been very effective was enough to knock him out.

A wide smile stretched across Houndoom's face and he laughed in triumph after what must have been his first success at using Flamethrower. "You can't endure it forever, kid. Just give up."

"There's no way I'm going to give up to some bad guy like you!" Riolu shouted at him.

Houndoom growled and directed a full powered Flamethrower directly at Riolu. Riolu rolled up into a ball and started to glow as Endure came into effect again. Houndoom kept the stream of fire going and it was clear that Riolu wouldn't be able to endure it for much longer.

Houndoom, having just learned Flamethrower, wasn't good enough to control it entirely just yet. His lungs were running out of air and it was only a matter of time before he would be forced to stop. The only question was which one of them would give into their fatigue first.

A streak of blue came out from the exit of the dungeon and rammed Houndoom in the side, sending him flying into the cliff wall behind him. Houndoom stood up and shook his head to get rid of the shock and looked for his attacker. By then, the pokemon that had attacked him had already burrowed under the ground.

Quill burst out from under the ground and hit Houndoom right in the stomach. Houndoom flew into the air and landed on his back as he fell back to the ground. He managed to roll onto his legs to avoid Quill's next attack and went running towards the edge of the cliff in an attempt to escape. Quill ran after him and stopped at the edge of the cliff just as Houndoom jumped down the steep slope. The fire from his neck and back billowed around him for a moment just as he made the sudden stop.

Daisy, who had been hiding her face most of the battle, had only started to watch just as Quill appeared. The way he looked now, posed at the edge of the cliff and surrounded in his fire as he looked for her captor, there was no way she could ever think anything bad about him.

Daisy burst into tears and ran towards her brother. Quill wrapped his arms tightly around his younger sister, relieved to see that she only had a few minor injuries. After making sure that Daisy was okay, he walked over to the others and helped Riolu, who was just barely standing, to drag Typhlosion to his feet.

Aamira carried Typhlosion most of the way back down since she was the tallest out of them and the only one aside from Quill who wasn't injured so badly that she could barely walk. Riolu was moody the entire time, which was understandable considering his ambitions.

Riolu insisted on going to the lake since Typhlosion had told him that they shouldn't make too much contact with the people from this time.

"I can only do some minor first aid on him though." Quill said.

"It's fine." Riolu said. "Celebi can heal wounds in an instant. The lake is kind of different from how it was in our time though, so it might have to wait until after we go back. Either way, this old guy is pretty tough."

"But you'll have to wait for him to wake up, won't you?" Aamira asked.

"Yea, could take some time." Riolu said. "It's no big deal though."

As soon as they got to the lake, Quill started to treat Typhlosion's injuries. He was worse than Aamira had realized and she was ashamed that she had been the one that had caused the majority of them. Of course she wasn't conscious of doing it and it wasn't technically her fault, but it was hard to convince herself of that much.

On the bright side, Daisy seemed to be better than before. Seeing her brother come to her rescue really did her a lot of good. She even asked to help Quill with treating Typhlosion's injuries. She was pretty good at it too. After a while, Typhlosion finally woke up. It took him a while to understand where he was and what had happened.

"Ah, so we won, did we?" Typhlosion asked.

"Yea, you should have seen the way Riolu fought!" Quill said with a cheerful smile. "By the time I got there, Houndoom was already—"

Quill was cut off by Riolu's sudden laughter. "Geez, that's lame! You really think that corny acting's gonna fool anyone? Give it a rest, Spikes."

"It's Quill…"

"Whatever." Roy waved his paw dismissively. "Point is, I'm a failure as a hero. I'll get that move perfected for sure and when I do, you can bet I'll be the one to rescue the damsel next time!"

Typhlosion smiled. 'So he's becoming a hero after all.' He looked down, suddenly aware that Daisy had been staring at him since he had regained consciousness. "Ah, yes. You're alright, aren't you? Is there something I can do for you?"

Daisy continued to stare up at him in silence for a moment before pointing up at him. "You're really big!"

"Daisy, it's rude to point." Quill said.

"But he's so big!" Daisy said. "Dad's not nearly this big! It's like he's mega sizes! Or even… I don't know, what's bigger then mega?"

"Giga?" Riolu offered.

"Yea, that works! Giga!" Daisy said. "I'm going to call you Giga from now on!"

"Now… Now hold on a second!" Typhlosion shouted.

Riolu laughed. "You are pretty big for a Typhlosion, aren't you? 'Giga' sounds fitting to me. I didn't think Aamira would be able to carry you all that way."

"I'm stronger than I look." Aamira said in a hurt tone.

"Yea, yea, I know that." Riolu said. "You know, you're pretty cool actually. For a girl anyway."

"Coming from you, I'll take that as a compliment." Aamira said.

Riolu gave her the wide grin that seemed to be his trademark. "You know what? I'll let you be my friend. I'll even give you an autograph if you want! That way you won't have to compete with anyone else after I become famous!"

Aamira glared at him. "Don't push it!"

"Geez, I was just joking…" Riolu turned back to the newly dubbed Giga. "Should we get going then?"

Giga nodded and stood up. "Right, let's go."

It seemed that Giga could manipulate time on his own to some degree. While he couldn't travel to other times, he could at least go back to the one he came from without Celebi's help. It was a good thing since Celebi hadn't been seen for some time now. Giga started to glow and he grabbed Riolu's arm to keep him from being left behind and a second later, the two of them were gone.

The three of them started the walk back home. Daisy seemed to be really jumpy and would panic every time another pokemon made a sudden movement, so she stayed next to Quill the entire time with her arms wrapped around one of his.

"It was nice seeing them again." Aamira said. "Even if that was technically the first time they've met us. It's been so long, I completely forgot that Typhlosion had been called Giga."

Quill laughed. "Doesn't seem like he liked it in the beginning. I wonder how that "young master" thing started? Maybe we'll find out the next time we see them. I wonder when that will be."

"Could seem like two weeks to them and three years to us. There's no way to know, I guess, until they show up." Aamira stretched her arms and looked down at the bruise again. "This is going to hurt in the morning. At least I'll sleep well tonight."

But then Aamira had to second guess herself. How could she sleep after what happened earlier when Destiny had won? Every time she fell asleep, she would probably end up back in that world in her mind again. She had hurt Giga pretty badly before. What would happen if she attacked Quill or Daisy while they were asleep and unable to defend themselves?