-Chapter XXI: An Ocean of Spells-

-Levi-

"You think she noticed that I thought she was cute?" he asked as he slashed at a Kingler trying to crush him with its giant pincer.

"The only way it would've been more obvious is if you said it to her face." Pierce replied. He leaned to the side as a Huntail lunged at him through the water, then used shadow claw as it sailed past him, slicing it clean in two. "Whoops. I forgot how delicate sea pokémon are." he said as his claws shrunk back to normal size.

"Whoops?! Now the Sharpedo are gonna be all over us!" Levi exclaimed. "We're on a tight budget, and it doesn't exactly help when-"

"Did you say budget?" Pierce laughed.

"N-No! I said schedule!" he corrected himself. Where did that word come from? "...We've gotta get to this new town, find some Wigglytuff and tell him that she needs help! We got a deadline to stick to!"

"How do we even know this Treasure Town exists?" Pierce asked as they continued swimming through the sea caves. "I've never heard of it, you've never heard of it… Heck, even the other Froslass hadn't heard of it…"

"I think she's telling the truth," Levi replied. "I could see it in her eyes."

"Like how she was telling us that the Temporal Crisis was resolved by a Mudkip and Charmander?" Pierce said sarcastically.

"Now that didn't make any sense. She said it happened three years ago… But we would've heard about those two if it were the case. And Dialga put the Lake Guardians in place to stop anything like it from happening after that."

"What if she's talking about a different Temporal Crisis?" Levi hypothesized. "Maybe something else happened while we were in that temple. We were in there for a few weeks, at least! Maybe something big went down and we didn't notice."

Pierce shrugged and swam a bit faster. "Maybe. Let's just ask for some more details when we get back."

They continued swimming through the caves, the twin brothers' golden gems on their foreheads illuminating the inky darkness like a pair of flashlights mounted on their heads.
"This is a lot more creepy than I remember…" Levi whispered. "I'm pretty sure these caves are new. And kind of spooky."

"Caves like these aren't new! They've been eroded for hundreds of years, at least! And you've ran through a snowy forest on a cloudy night. If this scares you, you've got problems."
Levi swam around an underwater stalagmite easily as tall as the trees on Blizzard island and looked around nervously. He was actually kind of freaked out. "I'm just making an observation."

"Well, my detective skills say that we're almost at the end."

"What detective skills?" Levi snickered.

Pierce quickly changed the subject. "You never gave the Froslass back that bracelet. Even if it is freakin' cool."

"And we never asked for her name!" Levi shouted. "Oh, we're stupid!"

"She told us her name already. It's Jade."

"Oh, yeah... Crisis averted!" Levi said with a nervous chuckle. "That would've been embarrassing."

"So where's this place lead to?" Pierce mumbled under his breath as a light appeared way ahead. It seemed to filter down from above, which was always good. Light from above meant either a cave or sunlight. Most of the time it was sunlight. But it wasn't enough to illuminate where they were.

Pierce nodded quickly and swam faster. "There's the warp panel! Let's do this!"

They swam to the platform, and suddenly they found themselves in the middle of a crossroads. A hill with stairs carved into it was directly behind them, a large stone water well was to their left, and a town to their right. At a glance, it seemed super cheery and busy. Which was weird. Levi saw at least a dozen pokémon walking around the streets. Then he stepped backwards as a colossal Tyranitar and a Sceptile with an eyepatch across one eye walked past them and went down a dirt path to their left, which seemed to lead into the wilderness.

"What the…?"

Then the Sceptile turned his head, briefly glancing back at them, but it blinked heavily and continued walking.

"Who was that? That Tyranitar was huge!" Pierce exclaimed. "I mean, he was as big as a Mamoswine!"

"Maybe he's the alpha?" Levi theorized.

"Oh, do you think we could ask them for help?"

"Are you insane? I mean, we're good, but I don't want to mess with either of them!"

"No harm in asking, right?" Pierce patted Levi's shoulder and darted up to the two pokémon, much to Levi's dismay.

"Excuse me! Uh… Hi." Pierce said with a small wave. The Tyranitar half-smiled and kept walking. "We're busy right now… Sorry."

"It's alright! I just need to ask you guys a quick question! I was wondering where I could find a Wigglytuff by the name of… Wigglytuff."

The Sceptile stopped walking and turned to face Pierce. Even though Levi was several feet behind them, that Sceptile made him way more nervous than any other pokémon he had ever met.

"Where are you from?"

"Blizzard Island. Why?"

The Sceptile took a deep breath and nodded slowly while mumbling under his breath. "Our meeting was not by chance…" Then he spoke up. "Did you meet a Froslass by the name of Jade?"

"Oh, yeah, she wanted us to find Wigglytuff and… wait a second, how do you know her?"

"We've been trying to rescue her for the past three days. Do you know where she is?"

"Yeah, of course! I mean… How do we know we can trust you?"

The Sceptile rolled his eye and shrugged. "I don't know. Wigglytuff is atop this hill." he gestured to the small pink tent on top of the hill, and Levi nodded quickly. "Thank you! That's all we needed to know!"

"It's not a problem. It was nice to meet you." the Sceptile said with a half-smile.

Pierce glanced at Levi and crossed his arms with a smirk. "See? Not a problem."

-Mirage-

She awoke to a Golurk knocking on the door of her room. Her slumber was surprisingly peaceful. She felt more rested than she had in a long time.

*Your majesty, the king beckons for you in the grand hall.* the ceramic giant said.

"Okay…" she yawned without opening her eyes. "Tell him I'll be out in like five minutes."

*Right away, your majesty.*

"And don't call me that, please. The king and queen hold that title." she quickly said.

*Understood, madam.*

She squinted and shielded her eyes with her clawed hand as the morning sunlight streamed through the window overlooking the entire desert. She briefly forgot where she was. This was her old room, full of all her favorite stuff… Old toys, action figures of famous exploration teams… She remembered now. She was in one of the highest towers in the palace. It used to be a problem back when she was a Trapinch. The Golurk had to carry her everywhere because her head was too big for her to traverse the stairs. She internally laughed at the memory. It made her furious at the time, but now… It just seemed silly that she was ever upset. This place had everything she'd ever needed, and then some.

She walked over to the opposite side of the chamber and looked out the window. She smiled and took in the wind that blew across her face, making a hollow whistling noise throughout her room. It would be kind of nice to stay here for a little while.

Then she scolded herself. I'm here because I need help. Once my team is safe, I'm going with them.

She sighed and turned away from the window. That sounded really petty, even in her head. Only coming to visit her parents because she needed help. But I don't want to stay here. Connor and Vulcan… All of them are my family now.

She took a deep breath and forced the thoughts away. Don't get ahead of yourself. Make sure that they don't die. That's priority number one.

She pushed her door open and fluttered down the spiraling staircase that was lit up by the sunlight directly overhead. She sighed and looked at all of the hieroglyphs and abstract paintings lining the walls. Most of the paintings were enchantments cast by psychics to protect the palace from sandstorms and sun radiation, but a few were made just as decoration.

Eventually she came to the bottom of the stairs. With three hallways branching from the circular room, she wasn't really sure which one went to the main hall.

"Hello?"

*Go right* a Golurk said from behind her. She yelped and turned around to face it. It was practically invisible until she looked right at it, which was kind of disturbing.

"Okay… Got it." she walked down the torch-lit hallway to her right and sighed with relief as she came to the place she was looking for. Her father, Andreas and Gabriel were sitting down at an extremely long table, and three Golurk were standing guard. Two were at the back of the rectangular room, standing behind the king, and the last one was standing to her left as she walked in. It stared at her briefly, then nodded. *Your highness, the princess has arrived.*

The Flygon looked up from the table and acknowledged her with a smile. "Thank you. Mirage, have a seat." he insisted.

"Mirage! Geez, I didn't know you slept so late!" Andreas joked.

"Yeah… I've been kind of restless these past couple weeks…" she murmured. "Sleep has been a luxury."

*You seem troubled* the Claydol said. *Is something-*

"No! Nothing's the matter. Let's just make sure my team is safe." she quickly flew over to them and sat in one of the seats across from Andreas. The Garchomp pointed to the wonder map and frowned. "This thing doesn't do us any good. Gabriel can only locate them if he has something that has their aura on it."

Mirage gasped and couldn't help but smile. "Father, do you have a Kangaskhan rock?"

"Yes… Why?"

"Because it will be linked to my team's storage! All I need to grab is any item from…" then she paused and clenched her fists. I need my badge for it to recognize me…

*Mirage… It is alright. Perhaps there is another way we can locate them.*

"No! Don't you see?!" Her smile vanished as the realization set in. How had she not made the connection sooner? "They planned this all from the beginning! They knew where each of us were! Those two pokémon that attacked us… They were the ones in the mountain! The rest of my team… They're as good as dead." she whimpered. They made it so that we can't rendezvous, we can't communicate… And I can't do anything about it.

Andreas gently placed one of his clawed wings on her shoulder. "Mirage, we will save them. There's always a way for the good guys to win."

"N-not… always…" she sniffled and cried into his chest.

"Yes, always. Don't ever tell yourself anything else. We'll make it through this. We all will. Okay?"

"Okay…"

-Roy-

"Annan osa sieluni parantua tämän olennon- Ugh!" he groaned. "It's all so fickle! I have to say it exactly like that?"

"Yes! Now, repeat after me once more: Olen uhrata osa sieluni parantua…"

"Olen uhrata osa sieluni parantua…"

"Tämän olennon…"

"Tämän olennon…"

"Ilmoitan, että hän ansaitsee näön lahjan…"

"Ilmoitan, että hän ansaitsee näön lahjan…?" he felt a strange breeze blow across the forest, shaking the trees and rustling Valerie's fur. It came out of nowhere, so that probably meant he was doing it right.

"Nimissä Arceus julistan lunastettavasta." Valerie finished with a small smile.

"Arceus?" Roy asked before hastily finding where he left off. "Nimissä Arceus julistan lunastettavasta!"

After waiting for a moment, nothing happened, much to his surprise. "...Why didn't anything happen?"

"Because I'm not blind. Spells like this only work if the target meets the requirements. Besides, that's a relatively simple spell. The more advanced ones took me a few years to get down."

"Simple? That incantation is hard!"

"I said 'relatively' simple. It only seems hard Because it's a powerful one. If all incantations were easy to do, everyone would do it! Then it wouldn't be exclusive to pokémon like you and I! But we're still not done yet! You have to know what to bring out of yourself. You can't just recite a verse and expect it to work."

"I still don't get it, though…"

Valerie's eyebrows raised slightly in a questioning manner. "Don't get what?"

"How do I have the ability to use magic? Do most pokémon inherently have the ability?"

"Well, most pokémon moves can be explained by complex means of chemical reactions and such, but there are some Pokémon -Mismagius, Delphox, Clefable and Togekiss, to be exact- that have abilities that can't be explained by any scientific means. Metronome is a good example. It has the power to unleash Arceus' Judgement, but can also be even the simplest scratch attack. It's a very odd move left completely to chance."

"I'm aware of that one. What about Sketch? Smeargle's main move?"

"Well, the move in itself can be explained. The Smeargle permanently memorizes the last move seen and can mimic it with their paint. But their paint itself… I have no idea how it works."

"Thanks," he mumbled under his breath. "So helpful..."

"You want to say that to my face?" she chuckled and spun him around with psychic to face her. "Go on… Say it. You won't hurt my feelings."

"You're a terrible teacher," he said.

She smirked and tilted her hands up in a questioning manner. "What can I say? I didn't think I'd ever be teaching anyone!"

"You're so irritating!" he shouted at her. "You've hardly taught me at all! Everything so far has been you saying, 'Do this! Do that!' and just expecting me to figure it out!"

"But you've learned quite a bit, haven't you?" she replied with an even tone. "Tell me if I'm wrong."

"I… You…!" he scowled and turned away from her. She was right. Even if her methods weren't the most practical, he had learned more in these past four days than he had learned over the course of several months before now. But for some reason that irritated him more than anything else! She just made suggestions, and he was able to do it within a matter of hours!

"How can you do this to me? You show me my past, how I died, and revealed that Dawn and I were…" he briefly paused, but continued. "We were very close, and now you're-"

"I just taught you how to restore her eyesight. And guess what , Roy? Do you know why she's blind in the first place? Guess why!"

"I don't know!" he shouted. He was so angry… for no reason. His mind was a jumbled mess of rage. He was mad at her for showing him his past. He had wanted to know so badly… But now that he did know, he couldn't ever see himself the same again.

"Because you gave your power to her before you died."

Roy gasped and slowly shook his head while backing away from her. "...No, that's impossible! That wouldn't-!"

"It is possible, because you were supposed to become the Alpha Gallade. Actually, you were the alpha Kirlia at the time. Your psychic power was strong enough to make a pocket dimension, which only Palkia should be able to do. So you were stronger than any mortal pokémon. Even more powerful than a cosmic lord or Temporal Guardian. And forcing that much power into Dawn, who was a Ralts, had a lot of side effects. Her strength increased to come near to your own, she gained access to Moonblast, which is normally unlearnable by her species that early in their evolutionary stage… And she went physically blind. Her physical senses were overloaded. She can see with psychic by sensing aura, but she wasn't meant to be the Alpha. But now she is. And to top it off, she thinks that Aaron is the cause of all of this. She wants him dead so badly… She doesn't care how it happens. She came close to killing him several times while she was with you, didn't she? Even manipulating Grovyle once before Leroy intercepted the attack!"

Roy just floated there silently, with tears rolling down his face. Dawn's blindness… was his fault? No… That's not who I am anymore. I'm not Castiel. I'm Roy. I'm the one that's going to give her back what she's lost.

Valerie smiled warmly and pointed her wand straight up. "I think you're ready. Go find Dawn, and give her what she longs for."

Her wand ignited and sent a pillar of blue fire straight into the air, and Roy watched as the energy barrier keeping him in exile vanished. The blue energy bubble faded, and he stared at her, completely dumbfounded.

"You could have done that the entire time?" he said with disbelief. His sorrow was replaced by surprise. He could leave this easily?

"I told you, expanding the barrier took most of my power. But as with all barriers, the larger it is, the easier it is to break. All I had to do was wait." then she pulled a small diary-like item out of her satchel and handed it to him. "Here. This is my book of arcane incantations. Do me a favor and study before you do anything huge, please. I think you'll need it."

Roy opened the multi-paged book with psychic and stared, wide-eyed at what he was reading. Even though it was Unown Runes, he found little difficulty in reading the letters. "Telekinetic Shield… Shadow-Holding... Temporal Kinesis? What are these?"

"They're what they sound like. Manipulating time, space and shadows, gaining temporary immunity to telekinetic attacks... and hundreds of other things. Literally anything you can think of is in there. Go on, try it out!"

"Do I need the book in order to use the incantations?"

"Not if you memorize it. But it's easier if you keep it with you," she quickly said. "Now go on! Don't keep me waiting! Show me something amazing before you go!"

"Okay, okay. Um… What's this one?" he mumbled as he flipped through the pages of the book. "Plant-growing spell. Why not?" he shrugged and sounded it out loud. "Kasvaa ja... kantaa... hedelmää?" his voice seemed more powerful as he spoke, but nothing happened. "...Valerie, it's not working."

"You're pronouncing your ä's wrong. It's more of an aaah, rather than ayy. You'll get the hang of it. There's a pronunciation key in the back."

"Oh. Got it." He recited the verse once more, and from the ground in front of him, a small sapling appeared, only three inches tall, barely poking out of the soil, with two small leaves growing on either side.

"Well, it's a start…" he admitted. "I guess it's one of those things that takes practice?"

"It takes confidence. Once you figure out how to pronounce everything, it'll be easier to make the spells more potent. It's tough to speak Unown. But enough about that. Go ahead and find Dawn. If you need me for anything else, I'll be here. And if I'm not here, I'll be back within a day."

Roy couldn't help but smile at the thought. He'd finally be free. Well, free-ish. He'd be able to move around the world again. But this seemed too easy. "You're just… letting me go? After everything you've told me?"

"I wouldn't let you leave if I didn't think you were ready for the challenges that await."

Roy sighed and turned to face her. "...Thank you. And… Sorry about what I said."

Valerie smiled and waved him off. "Don't thank me yet. You've still got a long ways to go."

"I'll keep that in mind," he said as he phased into the shadow realm.

Bam! That's Chapter 21! Nothing much to be said in this chapter. As always, I hope you guys enjoyed! If you did, if you have any questions, comments, concerns or theories about what might happen, go ahead and leave them in the form of a review or PM! It's always appreciated! Much Love!

-PL