THE LUGIA CHRONICLES - AFTER CHRONICLES - THE RPG-S

by ArkNorth

Chapter Twenty Eight - Afterglow - A year has passed - it would seem the worlds have almost forgotten about the near destruction of everything caused by the evil Mauvais. And as those effected move on, for some, the end is near - or maybe the beginning? The Roll Play has Ended, but the Story Continues.

25. Team Rocket North By Northwest

NOTE! GRAPHIC VIOLENCE & LANGUAGE – NOT FOR YOUNG READERS

AFTER CHRONICLES

T h e ¤ R P G / S

Based on the FanFic series

THE LUGIA CHRONICLES

By Anne Ruecroft & R. A. Stott

and

The RPG

'TEAM ROCKET'S HAUNTED HAYRIDE'

Compiled, edited and rewritten by R. A. Stott

Contributing Author for this chapter -

TiredGamer & ArkNorth

---

Chapter Twenty-Five

Team Rocket North By Northwest

---

Part One

Go East Young Man

"Mother?" Jessie asked. Myamoto shook her head to clear the cobwebs that seemed to have formed there in that brief moment.

"I'm – I'm okay…" she gasped as she crawled over to the monitor Mr. Button was looking at. "What is she?" she spat. "What is that… creature?"

The second in command peered at her over his glasses. "It would seem that we have a little left over from when you were put back together," he told her. He waved the scanning rod that he had just used on the electrified PBM and MewTwo kitten at her and looked at its readouts. "It's odd that this is showing a balanced reading. If she's out there in her dark form as well… logically, there should be a light side there as well…"

"Unless the powers were already tipped in favor of the dark side originally," they heard. They looked back and saw it had come from Lugia in his healing tank. "This Myamoto is balanced, leaving any extra energy as its own entity."

"WHAT?" Jessie barked, but was settled by Mr. Button waving his hand at her.

"Actually, that's a logical assumption," he told her. "At one point, your mother did work for Team Rocket in a way that was more towards the evil side of things… as did you," he added.

Jessie looked at him flustered. "Well! I mean, I AM evil!"

James, Meowth and Myamoto looked at her. "Really?" they all questioned her.

Jessie's face turned the color of her hair. "Wha… uhh… Of course! I'm the meanest, nastiest… rootin'… tootin'… umm…"

"Rootin' tootin'?" Meowth asked. "You's say 'varmit pluckin' and I'm leavin'!"

Jessie looked as if she were about to explode when a hand tapped her on the shoulder. She looked back to see her mother looking straight at her.

"You're not really," she told her. "Or you certainly don't have to be."

"Momieeee!" Jessie squealed and did a silly tip-toe dance which amazed her companions.

"That looks like it hurts!" James noted.

"You's ain't seeing me ruin my claws doin' somethin' like dat!" Meowth added.

Mya smiled, but then looked at the monitor as she saw her darker self tossing the armored-clad man about.

"I must go and deal with her," she stated. "We need her to get off Robert."

Button looked at her. "Robert? That's NORTH?!" he yelped. "Why am I feeling Roy from his position?"

Myamoto drew a lance from the ether and tread towards the open hanger deck hatch. "I'll ask him if I'm not busy. KETCHUP!"

The angel Pikachu appeared nearby. "Ma'am?" he asked, and then saw the sparks coming out of the observation room. "Umm, what the hell?" he pondered.

"Keep an eye on what's going on in there for me, please?" she asked him.

"Umm… okay, but just what IS going on here?" he asked as he watched Peanut and the kitten continue to sizzle and zap.

"Good question," M2 told him with a grunt.

"Mother…" Jessie asked, now more concerned that she was leaving. "What about me? What should I do?"

Mya placed her hand on her cheek and sighed. "Stay here and be safe," she told her. "Out there, without any protection, you'll only be a target for what's coming. You've got two friends here that depend on you as much as you depend on them." She then kissed her on the forehead and lifted off the floor. She then dashed out of the hanger.

"Mommy," Jessie whispered.

---

- Team Rocket Headquarters – Tech Lab One - Level Prime

"Up Tobor! Up!" George commanded the Gyarados before him. It had a large section of roof trusses in its maw. A second one was lifting the opposite end, while a Squirtle lightly misted the area in an effort to keep the two water dragon's skins moist while doing this heavy labor. They crawled out the now gaping hole in the south wall of what had been the Test Center. A pile of rubble made smooth by a hyperbeam allowed them to ascend the ten feet it took to get above ground from the floor level.

"I see the tube!" Ziggy yelled from below some roof sections. "It looks like it might be still running, but I can't tell." He squeezed his cat body through the twisted beams and fixtures until he was next to the vessel – Charm's Stasis Tube.

"What does it look like in there?" George asked as he stooped down to see just where the Persian had slithered into. A light on the cat's head swayed back and forth in the distant corner. It would flash and blink as the wreckage would block its beam.

"I was wrong," the cat reported back. "The only thing running I see is the controls for the casters. The life support and stasis controls are all dark!"

George craned his head through the hole, hoping that the position he was in would help – it did not. "Can you put a paw on the tube's surface? Is it cold?"

There was a brief moment while he could hear rustling in the cavern of twisted steel.

"It's still cold – it's still frozen," Ziggy yelled. "But it feels like the glass might be broken."

George nodded as he listened to the report. "That's okay, as long as the stasis gel is still whole. It takes a transmat to remove it anyway."

Ziggy popped his head out of the junk pile as he made his way back out. "Transmat? They didn't have a transmat when they did these stasis tests before… [1]"

George helped the Persian out. "North perfected it. Instead of freezing the gel as it used to be done, he used a transmat to bond the molecules together along with the subject. The cold is used simply to keep the body intact while the hibernation proceeds."

Ziggy looked back at where he had climbed out of. "Then what happens when the body starts warming up while in the gel?"

"Suffocation… Her respiration would attempt to start, and she'd suffocate within the gel." George continued to direct the Gyarados in the removal of debris. Ziggy looked back at the hole he had climbed out of.

"North is gonna flip!"

---

- Level 1.1 – Somewhere east of Pallet

Dark Myamoto laid into the scientist with a series of energy bursts, and followed it up with a swipe to his side with her sword. She was surprised to find North deflecting her shots, and the blade strike hit nothing but the steel of the Black Katana. She smirked.

"Impressive, Robert dear," she snickered. "I expected this of Strom."

"Not surprising, dear," North mimicked back at her. "You are facing the both of us."

"What?" she chirped, standing momentarily as she quickly sensed the man before her. "That's not… no… this can't be!"

"It can," North grumbled, "and you're in my way."

Myamoto straightened out. "Fine… you stole Strom's powers."

North smiled. "Not really. Since we are dimensional twins, I'm only borrowing them."

She folded her arms. "Excuse me. I'm now corrected. Now I'll show you who I can borrow power from!"

Wings, arms and hair all flew wide as Myamoto began to draw energy into her form.

"MASTER OF MASTERS, I BESIGE THEE," she began to chant. "GRANT ME YOUR POWERS FROM THE WRAITHS OF ALL THAT IS EVIIiiiillll! Ooh!"

As North readied to strike back, a streak shot through the battle snatching the evil Myamoto away and pounded her into the ground. When the blur settled down, another battle suit greeted him.

"Don't you hate it when the bad guys stand around powering up while the other person in the fight just mopes around watching?" the new Myamoto of the Light asked North as they watched the cloud on the ground where the other Mya had struck grow.

North looked about. "Not to miss the action, but can you handle her?" he asked. "I've got to catch up with Mauvais."

Mya was about to answer when she was sent skywards by a beam of energy. The stream split. The second line began to head for North.

"Forget this, Myamoto!" North bellowed at the demon on the ground as he placed his arm shields together. The beam struck them and scattered. He then commanded "KAH EL!"

From her position on the ground, Dark Myamoto could see that North was beginning to be surrounded by both her energy and a fiery ring. She quickly pulled the beams together, pouring all she could into the steam striking the scientist. But from her position, she could not see that her energy was simply wrapping around him and continuing on into space.

"You should hold off on this transformation Rob," suddenly rang through North's head. It almost sounded like his own voice, but just slightly different. And in the heat of changing, time seemed to have slowed down enough for his conscience mind to tell him just who he was hearing.

"It's too late Roy," he thought. "The metamorphosis is underway."

"Then say 'reaka tiha' and you'll revert the transformation, but keep the fireball, which is all you need right now."

The words of the Captain rang true in his mind. Changing now had not been what he had planned, and might in the long run be the incorrect method.

"Very well - Reaka tiha," he said in agreement. Instantly, the feathers he had started to see manifesting returned to his body. But the fireball expanded, curving the beam energy in a wider arc around himself. He then glared at where the energy was coming from, and saw the Dark Mya venting all she could in his direction. He reared back, and tossed his fireball downwards, popping out the far side away from the power field that was streaking away from the orb.

"No! NO! NOOOO!" Dark Myamoto shrieked as the ball of fire crashed down upon her. North then saw a flash of flame shoot out from under the inferno. Dark Myamoto appeared from the blazing form with a look that would kill most. She began to search for the man who had dropped a kiln on her, but was greeted by the outstretched forearm of her other self. She landed a couple hundred yards away from her battle suit clad mirror image.

Myamoto of the Light turned towards North. The look on her face told him what he needed to do. Go - take care of Mauvais. He turned and shot off in the direction the Black Lugia had flown off in.

---

- Level 1.1 – Ten and a half miles outside Viridian

The emergency transporter deposited El the required twenty miles away from the crash site of her pod, much to her chagrin. Being outside Viridian was not where she had wanted to be. She launched herself skywards to get her bearings.

Clearing the trees, she looked about, and was greeted by two large arms grabbing her and spinning her about like a toy.

"Careful! You'll make her sick doing that!" she heard Rianna yell.

"El! El! El!" cried Charmega as the tears poured all over her friend's head. The captain struggled to get some air, but knew that while the Charizard morph had her in her grasp, breathing was not going to be easy. She then found herself being held out at arms length.

"And look at you!" Charmega exclaimed. "What is that you're wearing?"

"Umm… this is my Federation Alliance uniform… er… Captain's uniform…" El said rather quietly, partly because she was not sure if she should tell her old friend, but mostly because she was still a bit breathless from the bear hug.

"Oh, Captain is it?" Charmega kidded her. "Why not General then?"

El glared at her from under a new hug.

"Geeze, you're serious, aren't you?" Charmega noted. "Well, you always said that your past would catch up with you someday! Ha ha ha… ahem…"

"Char, you might want to put her down!" she heard Rianna yell at her again. "She's gotta breathe you know!"

The threesome drifted back down to the forest floor again, and El finally was released by her over exuberant friend. She looked between the other two and felt a twinge run up her spine. It was incredible seeing them again, even if for them it had only been a day or so. For El, a year had passed, and the attitude of a ship's commander had taken over… for the most part.

"How did you find me so quickly?" she asked. "Oh, right – you probably just pointed and followed my senses right to me, ya big lunk!"

"You got that right," the winged Rapidash told her. "She was out of that hanger deck and burning the sky this way before any of those Red Haunters knew what hit them!"

El looked back at her. "Red Haunters?" she asked.

She nodded. "Umm, El, you were surrounded… didn't you know that?"

Lugia42 looked about. The forest seemed quiet and peaceful, save for a stray ghost that shivered far back behind a tree looking at them with fear – that was until Charmega spat a single splat of flame at it, which vaporized it.

"Wait a minute," she then realized. "H-how did they find me so fast?" she gasped, referring to the red ghosts. "The emergency transporter should have been almost random to them."

"It put you down in the center of a cloud mass is why," she heard. She looked at her wrist communicator and pressed it.

"Chargon?" she asked.

"We have a lock on you and your friends, captain," he replied. "On your command, we'll come down out of lunar orbit and transport you all out of there."

El smiled and drew in a deep breath. "Thank you commander. Standby."

"Standing by," he grumbled as he took the center seat. "Helm, preset the coordinates."

"Aye," Ptero acknowledged and nodded towards Ellie to set her navigation plots.

"Two-seven mark eighty-four," she noted to him. "Set!"

"Warp Two on your command for one quarter second burst," Ptero replied to the chair behind him.

"Thank you," Chargon grumbled as he crossed his legs and tapped his fingers against his chin while burning a hole in the main view screen.

"We've got to get going," Lugia42 said. "I can feel him – he's on the move again, and he's nearing his target."

"So what should we do?" Rianna asked.

The captain pondered the situation a bit, and a smile crossed her face. "I've always been one for the direct approach, haven't I?"

The Charizard morph grinned a toothy sneer. "I'm all for that girl! How do you want to do it?"

El looked about. "Well, we know that the Black Lugia is heading for Forrestal, since that will be where the eggs will be…"

Charmega cleared her throat. "Actually, they're up on the Stratus…"

El looked at her stupefied. "Uhh, huh? Why are they there?"

"That's a heck of a lot better than keeping them down here now, isn't it?" Charmega noted.

El shook her head. "They won't stay there," she said. "That's… that's not how Legendaries work!"

Rianna and Charmega looked at her funny as the captain started pacing. "What?" they asked.

"Trust me… that's not how it works!" El demanded. "It's rare enough when Lugia mate… and since they usually do that in the Heart of the Stratus [2], where Legendaries come from, when it happens on the outside, rules have to be followed."

Charmega shook her head. "What are you babbling about girl?" she asked her. "How do you know anything about Legendaries?"

El stopped and looked at her. She pointed at herself. "Seriously, really?" she asked her as an answer. "Call it instinct – call it a mental link… hell, maybe it was just seeing what that bastard did to Lady on my viewing screen… But I know they won't stay there."

"Where will they go?" Rianna asked.

El looked at them and then looked to the northeast. "They'll return to their closest living parent for protection."

Charmega dropped her chin. "Honestly?" she asked her. "El, Lugia is mostly chopped sea bird. He's in no condition to deal with protecting those eggs!"

She nodded in agreement. "Captain to Genesis," she barked into her communicator.

"Genesis here," Angelica replied. "Yes captain?"

"Angie, see if you can relay this message to Forrestal, quickly!"

---

"They do what?" Mr. Button barked at the com.

Angelica looked at her console perturbed – there was an awful noise coming from the other end of the link. "Forrestal, can you boost your gain any? The signal is full of static," she asked.

Button looked over at the flashing and sparking room he had come out of. "Sorry Genesis, we have some local issues. So, you're saying that the eggs will seek out Lugia, since he is the surviving parent?"

"That is what the captain told us, Mr. Button," Angelica told him. "It has something to do with the Legendaries she said."

He nodded. "They do tend to break the rules. We'll look into it, Genesis. Thanks for the heads-up. Forrestal out." He tapped the com switch twice. "Communications," he told the wall com.

"Bridge, Lt. Albertson," it replied.

"Lieutenant, we need a com to the Stratus – specifically to the Heart of the Stratus if possible," he requested.

"Aye sir, but communication with the Stratus is shaky at the moment, seeing the high-gain antenna is missing," she explained.

"Do your best, Dolly… let me know what you can get."

---

The Chevarian pawed the ground nearby as his student stood before a strange yet beautiful sight. The pair of eggs had been deposited in their charge within the Heart of the Stratus with little knowledge of just what they were, or of their significance, at least for the girl, not the winged horse. Now they had three, as a black one had also arrived for safe keeping.

"This is peculiar, indeed," Nightwatch stated as he stepped around the trio. "Are you quite sure that is what they told you?"

The girl, a hybrid of a gray cat and a human created by Giovanni mis-using a transmat, shook her shoulder-length blond hair. "That yellow electric rat simply said 'watch these' and took off. What am I supposed to do with these huge eggs? Paint them?"

Nightwatch looked at her with a questioningly stare. "Your proficiency at making things into art is commendable, but not with these, and certainly not advised. Besides, these will not be here for very long."

She examined the shiny black one, and then the pearl-luminescent one. "Why is that?" she asked.

Nightwatch looked about as his black fog he tended to trail behind himself started to be blown away. "It is the nature of this world we are in that the young of a Legendary remain near their parents, for their protection."

The girl placed her hand on the black one. "They're so warm," she said. "What are they from? Which Legendary?"

The Chevarian snorted as he watched those gathering nearby at the sight. "These are Lugian," he told her. "The water god."

"Lugia?" she asked. "But isn't there only one Lugia per world?"

"Not here," he told her. "They usually nest here in the Heart of the Stratus to breed. If these were brought here from the outside, somewhere a pair have mated."

The girl looked at him with a perplexed expression. "Umm, I always thought that Lugia was genderless…"

Nightwatch yanked his head back at the thought. "My Lady Shadowcat, I believe you have a phrase from your own world – 'It takes two to tango?' – Suffice to say, there are male and female Lugia, and that a pair have most definitely mated to produce these three. It is just unusual that they would have done so somewhere where the safety that the Heart provides is not."

Shadsie finally noticed the gathered creatures that were surrounding them. "Umm, how safe is it here then without either of the parents?" she asked.

Nightwatch glared at those now approaching. He spread his massive wings wide and lowered his head. "Approach at your own dread, vermin!" he bayed as he scraped a hoof on the ground.

"Lugia eggs?" they heard something screech. "Mmm! My favorite dinner! Eggs, bird and fish!"

As the two took defensive positions, behind them the eggs glowed briefly, and then simply winked out of sight.

"Ohww!" the unseen creature complained. "There goes my surf and turf meal!"

Shadowcat and Nightwatch continued their stance. "Is that what you meant by they won't be here long?" she asked him.

"Obviously," he intoned and swung his wing low. "Get on!"

Her cat-reflexes allowed her to spring off the ground and land neatly on his shoulders as he then pounded the air with his wings.

"Hey! Where are you going?" the phantom voice called out. "We aren't gonna eat you two! You're all stringy and sinewy!"

"Much," a second voice added.

Shadsie glared at the unseen creatures below them. "They remind me too much of the fast food customers I used to serve… they hated the food, but ate it anyway."

"I do not come with fries," the Chevarian snorted and flew them away.

---

Ketchup noticed it first. He looked about trying to sense just where they would appear.

"OF ALL THE… I JUST SENT THEM UP THERE!" he shouted.

BJ looked down at the floating Pikachu from the edge of the tank, as did Mr. Button from the doorway. "What?" they both asked.

"THOSE!" he yelled as he pointed at the floor before the tank. Two veterinarians were tossed aside as the eggs appeared where they had been standing.

The commander sighed and pressed the com switch on the wall. "Forrestal to Genesis – confirmed that your captain was correct. They just arrived."

"I am NOT taking them back!" Ketchup barked.

---

El looked at her friends as the message was relayed back to her. "Told ya!" she said in a less-than-happy tone. "We need to get there before the Black Lugia does!"

Rianna nodded. "Then we head there and take him head on, right?"

"RIGHT!" roared Charmega as she puffed off a fiery shot and her tail flared. "I've got a score to settle with that wind-bag! And I may have an attack to use on him as well!" With that, they launched themselves towards Pallet.

---

The electrical output of the kitten MewTwo was starting to wane, as the child was beginning to deplete herself. The tingling that PBM felt was starting to settle down as well. She opened her eyes and saw the gathered personnel at the doorway and laughed.

M2 stepped into the room, which was still sparking from the discharge, plus the child was still letting her have what she could.

"Hang tight there," Button said stepping around him. He held out the scanning rod and got a quick reading. He whistled.

"Dang… girl, you're sizzling!" he said then took a shot of electrical energy. It simply played off his body, since he was naturally protected from such things. The scanning rod though was not, and it popped in his fingers.

"Thanks," he grunted as he tried to get the final reading the device would give him. "I needed that…"

"I think I can do it now," PBM smiled, her eyes shining with the built up power.

"Whoa - whoa," Button said. "You're sizzling, but not quite that much… You're still a few terawatts short there kiddo."

She looked at the floor then at the child in her arms who had finally spent all she could, and was now sleeping. "I know I can bring the rest from my own reserves, Mr. Button."

"And I know I can give her what I can," M2 added. She looked up at him and smiled.

Button shook. "You aren't getting my point – I'm sure you can generate the power as well now – probably could have without that added boost - But you've only split a soul in two, not divided a creature into separate bodies, and right now, I'm not quite sure which takes more power to do! Also, the last thing we need is a good and evil Mew, Lady and whatever else would come out of Mauvais!"

"Mr. Button, Black Lugia five minutes and closing!" the intercraft barked, which silenced the argument.

M2 looked down on him. "It's not like we have much choice, do we?"

Button looked grumpy. "Very well… Mr. Kinza, you and BJ gather up those eggs again… get them in a shuttle and get them out of here. You two…" - He pointed at the MewTwo and sighed - "We'll give you as much cover fire as possible."

They smiled and nodded. Peanut gave the sleeping kitten back to her 'mother' and followed M2 out the door.

"This is going to be interesting…" Ketchup noted.

Button glanced up at the floating Pikachu. "That's an understatement. Let's go."

---

Mauvais bore down on the town of Pallet. It would be only moments away from finding the eggs and his ultimate power. And that ship – oh how he was going to make that ship pay for the indignities it had inflicted on himself! He pressed his wings for more speed.

North was falling behind. "KAH EL!" he shouted and began his transformation. He reached up and tapped the spidery device on his neck again, and the fiery ball of flame that would have transformed him into his Moltres form erupted in a larger ball of heat and energy.

Mauvais could not help but to notice. Even at this distance, the heat generated hit his backside, and the area around him flashed from the light of the flames. He twisted his neck slightly to peek behind himself and saw a comet rushing towards him.

Far ahead, Lugia42, Rianna and Charmega started their run in the opposite direction to cut off the oncoming demon bird.

"So, what's this trick you have up your sleeve?" El asked.

Charmega grinned. "I think I have a way to get Lady Lugia's soul out of Black Lugia," she told them.

El blinked. "Oookay… and how do you expect to be able to do that?"

The Charizard-human hybrid smirked. "It's something I learned from when Strom inadvertently created me in the first place - how the souls of the human Chevvonne and the Charizard Swift of Evolution were merged together to form me… I think I can use this to split Lady from Mauvais!"

Rianna looked at her confused. "Umm, didn't you say once that it had been caused by accident? Because you two were dimensional twins and were too close to a Supreme when transferring to the Stratus?"

Charmega puffed a smoke ring. "But that's just it! It gave me this powerful body, and dimensional transference powers! I'm sure I can use this and my healing powers together to draw the soul of Lady out of that beast!"

She noticed a hand against her forehead.

"Nope… no fever…" El commented. "And she's right… It did happen by accident."

Charmega looked at her fingers and nodded. "Well… yes…"

"And doesn't Roy have special powers that let him do such things?"

Charmega snorted a puff of fire. "Are you saying Charizard are weak?" she huffed.

"Not at all," El said trying to sooth the quick to flame Charmega. "I'm just saying that Charizard don't normally have those extra strengths!"

Charmega looked at her hands. "I don't know what it is… something inside me says I do… or something like it… Kind of like how you knew about Legendaries." She then looked up. "No time to chat about it now! Come on! Here he comes!"

El could not stop her friend as she thundered off in the direction of the Black Lugia. She could only shake her head and take off after her.

Rianna shrugged and transformed into her Rapidash Pegasus mode and followed.

---

The eggs were rolling about in the handcart that Oak had fashioned for them. Kinza and BJ had to steady them as they loaded them on the last working large shuttle. BJ found herself being tossed aboard with them as Kinza jumped into the pilot's seat of the ship.

"Tie 'em down while I get us out of here!" he shouted. Oak and Tracey fell on board as well to assist her, and were taken by surprise as the ship lifted off.

"Okay… let's see that bird follow this…" the Tomassamassa grumbled. The ship lurched forwards with Tracey's legs dangling out of the still open side hatch. He scampered the rest of the way on and grabbed an egg to hold.

"This is crazy!" he yelled when he noticed he was holding the black egg.

"This is science!" Oak implied.

"This is insane!" BJ called back as she agreed with Tracey.

"This is going to be close!" Kinza yelled as he punched the main thrusters. The ship launched and blasted away to the north.

Mauvais kept an eye on the fireball that was catching up with him. He then felt a spark run through his head.

"What is this?" he thought. "The eggs… they're moving!"

"Here he comes!" Charmega yelled as she held her claws as if she were ready to wrench the soul out of the beast. They blew over top the starship and Oak's Pokémon Center. The town of Pallet was under them as they continued on their collision course.

"Where's that shuttle going?" Rianna yelled. Charmega ignored her. She could see her target approaching.

But Mauvais turned to follow the eggs. Charmega, Rianna and El now had an oncoming comet to deal with.

"WHOA! STOP! WAIT!" they shouted as their potential incineration loomed before them.

The fireball burst just as it was about to strike, releasing a golden white firebird which twisted in flight to avoid them. As it continued on, it dropped a long black item to Charmega who caught it out of sheer panic.

She opened her eyes as she tried to catch her breath. El and Rianna moved alongside her panting just as hard. "What the hell was that?" they asked aloud.

"I don't know, but look at what it just dropped to me!" Charmega exclaimed as she held up the black bladed katana.

"Use its powers to split the Ryuujin Demon from the Black Lugia," rumbled through their heads. They blinked.

"Umm… Did you just hear that?" Charmega asked.

El looked at the departing firebird. "That sounded like Roy… then again it didn't…"

"Roy? I thought it was Rob… err, I mean the Professor!" Rianna exclaimed. "But that certainly wasn't either of their transformations!"

"What are you three waiting for?" they now heard. They turned about to see the two MewTwo speeding by them.

"Uhh…"

El nodded. "Looks like we're being… left… behind?"

Charmega looked at El and saw she was looking the other way. She followed her gaze to see a man she had seen before floating right in front of them.

"Oh, it's you again!" Rianna whinnied.

"Pardon me, but have you seen a large black demon bird?" Edward asked. He looked a bit mussed up, as did the two ladies behind him and the woman who was carrying them both over her shoulders.

They just pointed north.

"Thanks," he said and they continued on.

"There's something about that man," Rianna noted.

"How so?" El asked.

She shrugged. "Well, for one thing, most humans I know don't float!"

"Roy does," El pointed out.

"Well, yea, but he also turns into that Bird of his as well…" Rianna then turned scarlet as she added, "So does Robert from time to time it seems…"

"Damn it!" Charmega shouted and puffed, now getting furious because of all the quibbling and the fact that she was being left out! In the process of her anger, she swung the black katana across her body. Instantly, a clanking sound was heard, and a black armor covered her.

"Whoa… NEAT!" she called, but then found herself dropping to the ground with a thud.

"Umm… what happened?" Charmega asked in a slight daze.

Rianna and El lifted her up the best they could. "Umm, whatever this armor plate is, it covered your wings as well as your body. You lost lift because of it.

The hybrid Charizard stood up and howled to the sky. "WHAT IS ALL OF THIS?!" She swiped the sword again and again the same way. Armor popped on and off each time she did.

"Hey! Hey! HEY!" El shouted to her, finally grabbing the flaying arm. "One swipe only!"

At this point, she had managed to get some of the armor on, and some was off. When she gave the sword a single swipe, it now simply reversed what was there and what was not.

"YARRRGH!" she bellowed and started heaving the loose pieces off herself. As she did, the parts vanished. She glared at the katana and flamed it. The blade glowed briefly then returned to its shiny black.

"COME ON!" She snagged El by the collar of her uniform and beat the wind hard with her wings. Rianna just shrugged and transformed again to follow.

---

Button watched the whole mess from his scanner station on Forrestal. He could not believe what he was seeing.

"Kinza, you have a tail!" he yelped into the com unit.

"No I don't – at least not one you can see!" he replied.

"Check your rear scanner!" Button barked. "You're taking them on a trip north and out of range of our phasers!"

"Who's idea was it to take these eggs on this joy ride?!" he yelped.

"Bring it back this way if you can, and gain altitude," Button ordered. "I don't think he can go into outer space…"

Kinza looked at his readouts. "I sure hope you're right," he mumbled as he continued to climb – a slow process in a shuttle that was not designed for speed.

"I seem to remember Exeter being besieged by red ghosts while in orbit!" BJ yelled forward. Kinza looked back at her.

"Really?" he asked. "When?"

"Back at Shimouti when you were busy," she told him, "and Mr. Button had been fried by a psychic feedback."

"Great…" he mumbled. "One thing's for sure," he noted to his passengers, "their boss can't go there."

"Are you sure?" BJ asked him, which made him scowl. At least he hoped the beast could not. Now was not the time to wonder though, as Black Lugia fired his Hyperbeam at the craft, crazing the paint on the port side. Kinza turned off slightly and did a flip that placed them on track for the area over Forrestal again. Mauvais turned and fired again. But this time he had a worse shot as the firebird that had been coming up from behind him to that point, slammed into his belly, causing him to tumble away.

"Uh oh," Tracey said.

"What?" Oak asked.

The egg in the artist's hand jumped up and down in his lap.

Oak gritted his teeth. "NOW?!" he yelped.

"Oh, why not?" BJ pointed out in exasperation. "Now would HAVE to be the time!"

"Now is what?" Kinza asked as he struggled with the controls.

"The Black Egg is hatching!" Tracey yelped.

Kinza looked back at the gyrating egg. He noticed some movement in the other two as well.

"Scragg!" he mumbled. He raised his deflectors and splattered a number of Red Haunters that were joining the chase. "This isn't going to work. I don't know if this shuttle can sustain enough power to keep us airborne as well as shield us from all the ghosts."

Oak mumbled something under his breath as he checked his watch. "My, these eggs are being sprightly!"

BJ grumbled as she held the cart. "They sure picked a good time for this…"

A warning flashed on the pilot's console. "I've got no choice - I'm going to have to land her… now just where?"

"They sure picked a bad time!" Tracey griped as he fell into Professor Oak when a jolt ran through the shuttle.

Oak pushed the hyperactive boy away as he wrapped a warm, damp towel around another egg. "All this movement is unhealthy for them!"

Kinza leveled off as another group of ghosts splattered against the screens. "We can remain here for a moment, but not too much longer."

The sound of crunching metal was followed by a loud thrumming in the compartment. The shuttle rocked violently and curses were heard as bodies took the brunt of impacts to protect the Lugian eggs.

"Want to try and keep the bruising to a minimum?" BJ growled, trying desperately along with Tracey to keep the eggs safe.

"Want to learn how to fly a shuttle?" Kinza shot back. Warning alarms went off. "And there went a power conduit. Forrestal, we need a lift here… Forrestal?"

Button's voice crackled on the speakers and died.

Kinza groaned. "Okay, so the ghosts must be setting up interference…"

An explosion rocked the shuttle as more alarms sounded, then it pitched before the auto-nav corrected.

"Belkar's beard, this is just getting messier by the minute…" He continued to struggle with the craft, managing to pull its nose up to keep from plummeting into the ground. The slower ghosts were falling behind, but it was not enough.

---

White Lugia moaned and pressed his head against the wall of his tank. "I cannot let that monster get away… I will not." He let his heartbeat and breathing slow, focusing all of his powers on healing his battered form. One last battle… that would be all he needed to survive.

"No my love," whispered through his mind. "Please… Rest. All will find its place without another sacrifice." He looked around while his head remained below the surface of the water.

"My Lady?" he asked. "Am I hearing things?"

Nothing answered. But still, her tone remained resonating within his thoughts.

---

The shot the white firebird had given the Black Lugia had sent both plummeting down into the ground of the Viridian Forest.

North growled, "Damn you!" He leapt into the sky, but just as quickly he had to turn back and deliver a brutal flurry of blasts as Mauvais attempted to attack again. "Stay down you bastard!"

A smoldering ruin of trees was left, along with the shuddering form of the creature. "You… cannot… stop me…" Mauvais hissed.

"I don't need to stop you right now, idiot beast," North shot back, lobbing a few more rounds at the creature. The firebird turned and started flying after the crippled shuttle.

---

"My my… what a pitiful sight you are!"

Mauvais glanced up as a voice entered his mind. "Who are you?" he asked it as he slowly pulled himself out of the hole he had been impinged in. He felt a strange pulse of energy being fed into him. It was not any of his ghosts replenishing his strength, so it must be… this voice?

"…And what are you doing to me?" he asked his unseen assistant.

"That is irrelevant at the moment. It will suffice that at this time you may call me... Phoenix."

Mauvais thought a moment. "Ah… You are the fire beast that distracted Strom for me during the fight back at the islands. So, why are you aiding me?"

The voice laughed. "We both know, power wise, you are nothing to this mortal scientist. If he wished to do so, he could easily vanquish you… but he is holding back for the sake of this world."

Mauvais growled inwardly. "You fool I am far more…" Mauvais started, but then squirmed as he felt a pit of blackness surge into his mind.

"Idiot… what you have in power you lack in magic, and probably in mind and creativity as well. This North creature will bring to bare powers you cannot withstand. So stop your bickering and listen to me - I have an offer for you."

The Black Lugia huffed as he felt the energy continue. "I'm listening…" he snorted.

"This human trash which I am forced to inhabit is becoming unruly. He is becoming infatuated with the goddess which threatens his dependence on me – blasted Celestials. Furthermore, I have discovered he has a metaphysical twin elsewhere by the name of Peter Ketchum…"

"The name escapes me," Mauvais grunted and up-righted himself with a thud of his two huge feet.

"Ah, but you do know of him by his nickname of PK…"

Mauvais growled louder. "The rodent that first defeated me, and who returned just hours ago to delay my arrival here… he is the dimensional twin to this human that you inhabit? That's a riot!" He howled with laughter.

"You find this humorous?" Phoenix shouted in his head. "If you wish my help, you will hold your thoughts!"

"A thousand pardons my benefactor," Mauvais 'apologized'. "Damn that rodent is slippery - You mentioned an offer?"

He could hear this Phoenix huff in his mind. "I will take care of this human confronting you now and weaken him for you to attack and destroy later. But first, in exchange you will kill the young goddess that is coming towards you at this moment and absorb her powers, after which, combined with my own might, we will destroy this errant scientist Robert North. Finally, you will go forth and kill the mortal child that holds the spirit of your first enemy for me."

"I will assume if I kill his family as well, that will not deter our partnership? If what you say is true, I have a bone to pick with his father – this Ketchum person was Lugia's rider when we first fought!"

"Fine… For this, I will allow you some of my own strength in exchange for the first death and revenge will serve as payment for the second."

Mauvais smiled. "So delicious… this plan is worthy of a temporary partnership!"

"Then we are agreed?"

"Yes, Phoenix… I am already indebted to you for Strom, and now this. Let us fight!"

"DONE!"

---

"So which do we help first… the shuttle or North?" Edward asked, glancing back at those with him.

Gabrella looked at the two young deities with her as she released them to fly on their own. "Robert is more powerful than any of us imagined."

Puruu weakly shook her head. "Robert is not acting like himself. He is so fixated on Mauvais… I worry he will do something terrible." She looked at Edward and noticed he was nodding in agreement with her.

M2 and PBM zoomed up to join the group. "I can barely sense the eggs," the male MewTwo noted.

"Eggs?" the ladies all asked.

"I thought Ketchup had taken them to the Stratus!" Puruu exclaimed.

"He did," explained PBM. "They had other ideas, and returned to their daddy."

"That would explain why I could sense the one I had earlier on that shuttle," Edward noted. "And you can't feel them because they're behind some sort of barrier… probably these red ghosts." He pointed in one direction and then another. "I suggest we split up and tackle both problems at once."

Xuru looked up wearily at the human who seemed to be leading the way for them. Something was wrong… she could sense it. She glanced at her friend Puruu, but the goddess appeared to be even more worn than herself.

'Why do I feel something dark inside this Edward character… can you feel it, Puruu?'

But then…

Xuru's eyes widened as a sense of something powerful had just shocked through her. "Mother…!" she whispered.

Gabrella stopped with an expression of amazement crossing her face and looked about. "What the heaven? PHOENIX? Is that you? BASTARD! What are you doing? WHERE ARE YOU?"

"YEAGHUH!" they heard in front of them.

"Edward?" Puruu called to him. Gabrella and Xuru looked at the floating mage and stared. M2 and Peanut spun about to witness this new power manifesting itself.

He was still pointing towards the area that the shuttle had gone a few meters ahead of the main group but behind the goddess. "I… I don't…" he stammered.

Puruu now sensed it. "Edward!"

The mage suddenly clutched his head. "You… you can't… what… are… you… DOING?"

M2 looked in alarm between the human and the goddesses. "What is wrong with him?"

PBM gasped. "M… look! He's changed!"

The MewTwo glared at the mage. "What the hell?" he bluntly asked.

The man turned in midair… but he was not Edward. The clothing was the same but the body was different. This person was taller and thinner with a darker complexion and long black hair that stretched past his shoulders. A mustache and goatee graced a face otherwise smooth with high cheekbones and deep-set eyes, which were the most disturbing as they were a blazing, fiery red.

"We meet again," he said with a bow to Gabrella. [3] His voice was a deep baritone that thrummed in one's chest.

"You!" the Demon-Goddess harped and instinctively lowered her eyes.

"What… what are you?" Puruu stammered, feeling a strange sensation of fear and anxiety at the sight of this stranger.

"Phoenix!" Gabrella answered in an almost hypnotic manner. Her eyes then widened in fear. "By the Darkness…"

The man smiled and made a sweeping bow as if to mock Gabrella's status more. "I see your memory has caught up to your desires, my lady. Sadly I cannot stay to reminisce about the 'Good Old Days'."

"R-relevance!"

The man had just made a slight turn to leave. "Ea?"

Gabrella, who had moments before shown a slight sign of fear, now glared at him in defiance. "Relevance! Even you have to follow the dictation of the Treaty! And you sure don't look like Phoenix I saw last! Relevance! When did we meet last?"

He smirked at her. "Time… how quaint. It's usually irrelevant to me, but… You have seen me as recently as the Ryuujin escape. But personally, the last time we met was… Seven Jewels," [5] he told her. He again turned to leave.

"Edward!" Puruu cried.

Phoenix glanced down with a sneer. "You will not have to worry about him ever again." He then threw his arms wide and the sky exploded in flames. Phoenix swept away in his truest form – the fiery bird.

The smoke cleared from around a dark-blue bubble that had surrounded those it had left behind. M2 and PBM both shook as the shield collapsed, looking back at the trio. "What is this about?" M2 asked. "I heard Seven Jewels mentioned. Rob's told me about that. Is this the same person?"

Gabrella sighed and glanced with sad eyes at him, her daughter and god-daughter. "I'm sorry Xuru… I should have realized the danger…"

Xuru lowered her eyes. "Mother… is that Phoenix related to the one… the one in the records?"

Puruu's eyes filled with tears. "Miss Gabrella… you told the Council…"

"I know what I told them!" the greater demoness snarled. She then frowned and turned to Puruu. "You have to believe that I didn't want either of you hurt. I thought he was no relation to that… that bastard!"

"No relation? NO RELATION?" M2 thundered. "Gabrella, there has only BEEN one rouge Phoenix! The former Guild Leader! The Phoenix Guild has a warrant for his arrest as does the Denivan!"

Then it dawned on him before Peanut, who was wavering behind him, could ask what he was on about. "Rob! ROB!" he called in his mind.

"I hear you boss," they 'heard' back. "What's up?"

"What was it you once told me about a man you were seeking with a hole in his soul?"

"H-hole in his soul?" Xuru shuddered, realizing she had seen this earlier, yet not put this together with her history studies. "I saw that in Edward! He has a gaping hole in his soul!"

Gabrella stared at him as the realization struck her as well. "Him? That human?" she asked.

"He fits the description," another voice intoned. "It was why I was keeping an eye on him. What do you think, Rob? Do you think it's him?"

"He's your warrant, Roy," they heard the scientist state. "It certainly sounds like a match, and it sure would explain why we were never able to find him… her… whatever that damn bird is…"

"Do we now have two creatures to battle?" M2 asked.

"Affirmative," the voice of the captain said. "Battle stations!"

"Umm, Roy? You're lying on your back in the sick bay of Genesis," North reminded him. "I don't think anyone can hear that."

"Damn it…"

M2 drew in a breath. "Yes, but I heard it fine. Peanut, you and I will follow our new distraction – the rest of you keep going after our old one!"

"NO!" North countered. "Something tells me I'm about to have company. Stay your course and take out the Black Lugia! Charmega is coming with something that might help you."

"M, what's this all about?" Peanut finally got the chance to ask. He looked back at the demon-goddess and scowled. She looked down to avoid his stare.

"It would take too long to explain fully now," he stated. "The fact is that that bird is a criminal, wanted by both its own kind and the Denivan for attempted genocide and inciting universal war by trying to urge both sides in the eternal struggle to battle."

She looked at him puzzled. "Eternal struggle?" she asked. She then noticed Puruu and Xuru holding up a hand each.

"Good," the goddess said quietly.

"Huh, evil," the demon snorted with a slight smirk.

"Huh?" the female MewTwo questioned.

Xuru spat a small jet of steam. "Good/Bad, Nice/Naughty, Heaven/HELL?" she tossed out as examples. "My Little Pony/Terminator, Bambi/Godzilla…"

"I get it, I get it," Peanut told her. "What's its strength?"

M2 took her paw. "Before the Treaty of Advent was signed, it was the power that kept the basement and the attic from fighting. It's got the strength of a Supreme, if not possibly a bit more."

Peanut shook her head. "The what and the what? Basement and the Attic?"

M2 snorted as he took her paw in his. "Code names the Observers use for Hell and Heaven," he stated.

She stared at him as he started to guide her to their destination. "And we're to let Rob take care of it alone?" she asked in shock.

"He has the strength," she heard. She looked back at Gabrella, who was looking at her with a strange expression for a demon – sorrow. "I'm not sure myself how, or where it came from, but somehow, he seems to have brought forth power that he hid very well up to now."

"I still don't get it fully," PBM groused. "I mean, up till now, all I've seen is that Moltres he can turn himself into, and even that seems to shorten his life if he does it too often."

"You forget that he is Captain Strom's dimensional twin... of sorts," M2 reminded her. "But he is in fact more than that. He is from the dimension at the top – the level above where the Captain's own ship reaches its supposed limits."

She looked back at Puruu. "Isn't that heaven?" she asked him.

He shook his head. "Rob told me that it is not. So where that level is anyone's guess. Even Forrestal has to make a special jump to get to it through the Source."

Peanut stopped, popping her paw from his. "The where?" she asked, totally confused now.

He reached back and took her paw again. "Like I said, now is not the time to dwell on all of the complexity of this story. Mauvais awaits."

She sighed and nodded. They shot off towards the forest ahead of them.

Xuru looked at her mother and friend. "Now what are you two going on about?" she asked. "What is this about the Council?"

Gabrella rubbed her arm. "The council and I were… attempting to hide the escape of the Ryuujin Demon…"

Xuru crossed her arms. "You mean the SECOND Ryuujin, don't you? The mate to the first one?" she asked her.

Her mother nodded. "We had successfully followed the Treaty up to that point… but when the female escaped to this level, the council asked assistance from Robert, and a promise not to bring it up with the Denivan for scrutiny. As it turned out, to our mistake, bringing it up to him was like reporting it directly to them."

"Well, duh… dimensional twin to their leader," they heard. They looked over to a new arrival – a burning flying Pegasus.

"Rianna, please," Puruu hushed her.

"As I told them," Gabrella said with a sneer to the flying Rapidash, "he hid his strengths well. It was he who demanded that it still required a proper sealing when the escaped Ryuujin found a host in the girl Charm. But the council and I did not want to bring in the… attic… as it would be hard to explain how it had left the Abyss. Plus Roy would want explanations as well… It was then a member of the old Phoenix Guild arrived to assist us."

Xuru and Puruu stood in shock at this news. "Mother! You knew that they no longer were the ones to contact in such matters!" her daughter exclaimed. "Why would you allow one to help you in this situation?"

She looked away in shame. "I… I needed a quick fix… he came to me with an answer…"

"How fast?"

Gabrella looked back at Puruu. She had her arms crossed with her hand on her chin. "What?" she asked her goddaughter.

"How quickly did it appear to you after you were told of the Ryuujin's escape?" Puruu questioned. "We were taught about the Abyss demons while in school."

"That's right," Xuru agreed. "The demons so vile that even hell could not tame them. They were sent into the Abyss since nothing could escape there without… council's permission?" She looked at her mother.

"Hey, don't look at me," she stated. "I certainly didn't authorize their release! I only sent down the centennial cleaning crew to wash them!"

"Their funk does get extra funky after awhile," Xuru nodded.

"And they escaped while the crew was down there?" Puruu asked.

Gabrella pondered. "No, that was when they found they were missing," she remembered. "The male had been caught before we could do anything about it, as a holy monk sealed it into the body of the boy Rithius. Seeing it wasn't doing anything to cause a ruckus, we simply added our seal to the one from the monk to make it a proper Treaty lock. We figured it was just tired from dealing with its mate, who tended to be a bit more… temperamental?"

"Yes, I saw that," Xuru shivered.

Her mother looked at her. "You saw it?" she asked her.

"The professor had it caged in the lab when I arrived to help Roy deal with its attempt to escape… before it was taken away by the Black Lugia."

Gabrella held her breath. "Did it… look at you?"

"Of course it looked at me!" Xuru sneered. "What did you expect? It also was smashing and bashing against the shielding he had up around the inside of that box!"

She was surprised as her mother came over and held her close. "Xuru… my Xuru… it had your scent!" Gabrella told her. "That's how Mauvais controlled you so easily!"

"It smelled her through an electro-magnetic shield?" a strange PokéMorph in a starship uniform asked her. The question got her a smirk from the demon-goddess.

"You must be Lugia42," she grunted. "A scent does not need to be something as simple as an odor, my dear captain."

El nodded. "It caught her frequency," she hypothesized. Gabrella nodded. "So why is it no longer able to control her now?"

Puruu thought about that. "Mauvais discarded her," she told them. She looked at her friend, worried that she had blurted that out a bit too impassionately. "Um, I mean, he has a tendency of either loosing certain powers after a while, or loosing them after no longer needing them."

Xuru looked down between them. "But still… the Phoenix… why it? Why did you entrust anything to it?" she asked her mother.

Gabrella sighed. "I'm scared of it, so I allowed it to use me," she admitted. "An insane bird with the strength of a Supreme? Are you going to say I should not have agreed to let it help out? I convinced myself of it… and so I convinced the Council."

"But when?" Puruu pressed. "When did it ask you if you needed help?"

"Why is that important?" Gabrella asked her back.

Xuru butted her forehead against her mother's. "Mom, think. The Ryuujin was in the Abyss - Inescapable without assistance… like from an insane bird?"

Gabrella's eyes grew wide. "What would the Phoenix be doing in the Abyss? Even Roy avoids going down there because of the difficulty of getting back."

"What would Roy be doing going down there?" Xuru pondered.

"Larry and Cecil?" her mother reminded her. "The guardians have to report directly to him once every year."

"Larry and Cecil?" Puruu asked them.

"Umm, the Minotaurs who guard the Labyrinth at the entrance to the Abyss," Xuru told her. "I'd love to see you in a Head Butt Smash contest with them!"

Puruu looked at her in shock. "What?"

"Don't knock it dear," Gabrella said to her. "Your mother was a pro her first time out with them!"[4] She looked back at her daughter. "So you're saying that all this with the Ryuujin is because Phoenix let them loose?"

Xuru sighed. "Well how else would they have left the Abyss without anyone noticing?"

She shook her head. "My only concern was to contain the demons, and to keep their escape secret. It wasn't until Phoenix so easily agreed to my plans… and it laid out its objectives for Roy that I began to question…" She saw the expression on Xuru's face and stopped.

"Mother… you… were going against Roy?" she asked her in shock.

Gabrella shook her head. "No, dear, no… I never envisioned that, ever. It was Phoenix."

"That should have told you exactly who you were dealing with right then!" Xuru chastised her.

"Okay, explain," El asked. "What's with this other Phoenix?"

Puruu cleared her throat. "In the time before The Treaty of Advent, prevention of war and anarchy was held by The Phoenix Guild under the then Treaty of Set.

Charmega shook her head. "You had a treaty before this Advent one?" she asked in a confused voice. "Just how many have you had?"

"How many global or intergalactic wars have you had?" Xuru shot back at her. "Every time one of those occurs, there's probably a good chance that the latest treaty has failed."

"The Treaty of Set held for a very long time though," Puruu explained. "The Phoenix Guild arbitrated many situations justly and fairly. But the leader of the guild, a wise and noble bird, felt that it was her duty to maintain the balance herself. This worked fine, until the natural order of things began to take its toll."

"Natural order?" Rianna asked. "It got old?"

Puruu nodded. "Phoenix have a time limit, much like anything else… entropy is not limited to mortals, but to the immortal as well. As much as one may wish to live forever, there is a price if you don't renew at some point. You do know the legend of the Phoenix, do you not?"

Rianna cocked her head. "Umm… don't they burn themselves to a crisp, then rise from their ashes anew?"

"Wow, that's a blunt way of saying that!" Charmega noted.

Puruu shrugged. "As colloquial as that may have been, she is correct. But the Guild Leader, fearing anarchy taking over in her absence, refused to take her natural process. She claimed that even if it was brief, a young, more vibrant Phoenix would come forth without the same wisdom she had accrued over the centuries. The memories would be intact, but the sensibilities would be lack."

"The problem was, what it feared happened anyway," Gabrella continued for her. "The longer it strayed from its normal life cycle, the more deranged it became. It ordered the destruction of all Celestials as they were seen as cosmic threats, even though they were used as their personal body guards. Finally, without the Guild's knowledge, it caused a catastrophic event that lost us a vital link between heaven and hell. It was then that the Denivan became the guardians between our respective sides, and the Treaty of Advent was created. The Phoenix was deposed and became very bitter of the Supremes. And I'm sure that the feeling is mutual." She then looked up as if someone was talking to her. "The Council…"

Xuru gingerly slid away from her mother, slowly flapping her aching wings. "Its okay, Mother… you… you did things…" She glanced at her partner who had also moved away from Gabrella. "It's not like I'm innocent in all of this either…"

"Or me," Puruu admitted.

Gabrella sighed. "You mean with the Myamotos?" she asked.

"Mom… you knew?" Xuru asked.

The greater demoness smiled that coy smile of hers. "You can never keep something from a mother. I guess the Council will have some tough questions. I almost rather Soltarn…" She took a deep breath and smiled to keep the tears back. "It's not the first time this sort of thing has happened." Gabrella then slowly extended her hand and stroked Xuru's cheek. "I love…"

Before she could say anything further, Xuru moved away and gave the traditional parting to a superior.

"Best of luck, Mistress…" Then the demoness hitched up a crooked smile. "And I know… I've always known…" She then floated away in the direction Black Lugia awaited them. M2 and Peanut followed.

Gabrella looked towards Puruu to keep her daughter from seeing the tears and smiled. "Take care of her," she mouthed to her daughter's partner and friend. When Puruu nodded back, the demon goddess drew in a deep breath and put on her game face before disappearing in a black mist.

Puruu wiped her face and chased off after her friend, followed by the three PokéMorphs. Xuru had turned away to clear away her own tears. "We need to catch up," she said in a husky voice. She did not look when she felt an arm wrap around her.

"Right… partner," Puruu responded.

"This is getting rather mushy," Charmega snorted as she lifted off to follow them. "By the way, now I'm confused... Did she say something about this Phoenix being a she? I'm pretty sure as we were arriving and it was leaving in that flaming whoosh earlier I saw a guy."

Xuru glanced over at her and laughed. "That is the great question of the Phoenix Guild. Depending on which form they are in determines which gender they present. So this one is a guy when in mortal form, and a girl when in bird."

"The bird is their primary gender," Puruu added.

Charmega and El looked at one another and shrugged. "I've seen some strange life-forms out there," the captain noted, "but this one takes the cake!"

Rianna whinnied from high above them. "Char! El! The shuttle!"

They flew up to her side and saw the stream of smoke that lead to the far end of the forest.

Charmega shook. "I feel… eggs!"

Her two companions looked at her strangely. "Err… wanna rephrase that?" they asked.

She shot a belch of flame out and glared at them. "THE LUGIA EGGS!" she shouted. She turned and dove towards the dropping craft.

"Umm, didn't the Professor say she was needed in the attack against Black Lugia?" Rianna asked.

"Too late now!" El yelled as she chased after the charging Charizard.

"You're telling me," Rianna agreed as she reluctantly followed.

---

There was another crunch and the shuttle shuddered. "Scragg, there goes one of the engines. We're going in for a crash everyone - strap yourselves in!"

He veered the craft right and then left as he tried to shake the ghosts. A small hill passed and the shuttle clipped treetops, followed by another crunch as the struts were sheered off. He may have looked like a security officer, but Kinza was still one of the best pilots and navigators in the fleet. He deftly swerved the small ship using the maneuvering thrusters to avoid trees as it slid down the hill. Finally a clunk and a sudden stop announced their arrival at the base of two particularly large oak trees. Without stopping to think, Kinza slapped the emergency beacon and switched all power to the last remaining shield generators. "Kinza to Forrestal, can you read?" he barked as he began to un-strap ceramic shields from a storage drawer behind the passenger seats. More static greeted him. He pounded his personal com unit and found the same coming from it.

BJ watched him working. "Can you do anything?"

"No, but the good news is we landed close enough to Forrestal to make a run for it," he noted as he pointed towards the starship several kilometers away as it appeared out a small window in the cabin.

"Why isn't something being done? Do you think they can't see us?" she asked while squinting at the ship. "Shouldn't they be sending help?"

Kinza handed her a pair of shields. "If the ghosts are disrupting their readings, I would say they can see us but not pinpoint us. That means no transmat and no weapons… at least not if they don't want us to fry along with the ghosts." There was a small explosion and then a tapping on the rear exit of the shuttle. "What the…?" He looked at the sensor data and nearly whooped in joy. "Everyone get ready to run. It looks like we have our way out." He took the two plates from BJ so she could gather an egg to carry.

The hatch lowered. Lugia42 smiled from behind it as she blew away another two red ghosts. "We're your escort service, Mr. Kinza!" she remarked.

The security chief grinned. "Much obliged, captain… now let's blast a tunnel to Forrestal."

"You heard him Rianna… Charmega! Let's clear the road!"

"Woo hoo!" they heard as the two ladies flew between the trees torching ghosts and anything else that got in their way.

BJ, Tracey, and Professor Oak all carried the eggs while Lugia42 and Kinza walked guard. Charmega flew overhead, blasting ghosts with her flame breath and popping them with psychic attacks – she even found that the blasted katana worked nicely against them as well!

But Forrestal was still kilometers away, though. It was going to be a long walk.

"Mr. Kinza, I might ask, but why were you flying the eggs around for?" El asked as she set her personal phaser to a modulated dispersal setting.

He handed her a ceramic shield and pulled out a second one for himself. "Heat of the moment," he told her as they abandoned the crippled shuttle. "They arrived as you said they would. We wanted them away from the center of the battle, so we were taking them to a shielded location in the mountain up north. We kind of thought the way the place was built, they wouldn't try to find their daddy again."

El vaporized a pair of dive-bombing ghosts over their heads. "That probably wouldn't have worked," she noted. "If they found their way back to him from the Heart of the Stratus, they'd probably do the same from there. You'd need to transport Lugia as well."

Kinza splattered a small red Gastly with his shield. "Yea, well with all transmats down, that wasn't going to happen. And by the way, we do have one other issue to deal with here," he advised her.

"Whoa! Stop it! Stop it! STOP IT!" Tracey yelped as the black egg he had holding leaped up and down in his arms. El just stared at the active egg.

"Timing is everything," Kinza groused as they pushed along.

El shook her head. "Heat of the moment..."

---

North flew over the crashed shuttle. He saw the open hatch and the lack of crew, bodies or anything else inside. His senses turned back towards Mauvais who he could feel was recovering much too fast for his own good.

He finally saw the crew below, along with the three PokéMorphs, including CHARMEGA with the SWORD! Why was it always the head-strong ones who could not follow instructions?

But was he not ignoring his own instructions? Why was he flying away from the battle with the dark nightmare? Was not his first duty to destroy the Black Lugia at any cost? Maybe he should ask Caroline to put the Exeter in EVAC… she might be able to rescue the crew on Forrestal as well. Was there the time to do it? Probably not… this new form of Mauvais was much faster to regenerate. The red ghosts were stronger too and faster than the previous hordes.

Shadsie… would she understand? This was his job… no, not just a job. This was his life now.

His inner thoughts were rudely interrupted when a fireball came down and exploded in the air before him.

"About time, Phoenix," he said. "I was only told about your coming five minutes ago. I must say, this is a different form for you."

"We meet again, scientist." The voice was deeper… somehow more sinister than he had heard once before.

"Younger – interesting…" North noted. "I could ask relevance, but you'd probably scoff at that. What role is it now, savior or destroyer?"

The bird made a small bow with its head. "It is so good to finally meet you instead of your created alter-ego, Captain Roy Strom."

"Don't be too put off – I know your creator as well," North replied in a steely voice. "He's a good friend of mine. I am surprised that you know this though."

Phoenix swept around North in a wide arc. "I know because it was my business to know, mortal. I know because this is not the first time we have met, Robert North. Or perhaps it was Captain Strom…? It does not matter to me, for you are the same man to my eyes."

"It's good that we understand each other then," North's Bird snorted as he kept an eye on the circling Phoenix.

The firebird turned and slammed into North, gripping him with strong burning talons. The impact would have crushed the hull of a starship, but it only fazed the scientist and got him mad. Phoenix then produced a web of blue that spun around his prey's body before contracting.

As they sped through the trees, M2 pointed at an explosion of red and yellow off to their right. "It's begun! Rob's battling the Phoenix."

Puruu and Xuru had caught up to the MewTwo. The demon-goddess sensed ahead. "Mauvais has changed course! He's heading for the others!"

"Mauvais will slaughter them… let's go!" the female MewTwo called out before speeding towards the darkness of the forest.

---

Myamoto moaned and held her arm where the dark sword had made a glancing blow. Sweat poured down her face and caused her purple hair to mat against her forehead. "This… is getting us… nowhere."

Her demonic counterpart was in equally bad shape. Dark Myamoto's lip was bleeding from a series of haymakers that Myamoto of the Light would have never thrown, and multiple cuts along her clothing shown the ferocity of the battle. "Why… why do you… have such power?" she huffed, drawing in ragged breaths from some bruised ribs.

The new Myamoto of the Light shook her head, but had to stop as it caused bright spots to pop up in her vision. "God only knows… but I'd say you were getting weaker."

Dark Myamoto groaned and leaned against a rock, holding her left side. "Well damn Him… and damn that bastard Black Lugia… this must… be his fault." She grimaced as another sharp pain shot up her side.

"What… do you mean by that?" asked the demoness' good self.

"It means she is tied to Black Lugia and the monster is drawing away part of her power," answered a voice from behind some smoldering trees. Out stepped a beautiful, older Myamoto wearing forget-me-not blue robes over white battle armor. She held up her hand as the Dark Myamoto began to rise. "I'm not here to fight, sister. We both know now what has transpired."

Myamoto of the Light looked in confusion at her older self. "But… but how can you be?"

The older Myamoto smiled. "The convergence… it worked for both sides. The balance was kept in this case. I believe you are my Level 1.1 self?" she asked of the wounded younger woman.

Myamoto nodded, immediately regretting it as more stars danced in her vision. "Who are you, if I might ask?"

"She is the Prime Myamoto…" came the answer, but from Dark Myamoto. She glared at the woman. "But then she is also the Myamoto of Level 1.3, just as I am both the evil Myamoto of Prime and Level 1.3." She gave into the pain and sat back down on the rock.

"That's not possible… the Mew – you were not split like those on the other dimensions! They found your body on the Prime – Rob told me!"

The older Myamoto cut across her and smiled at the mention of the scientist. "Sometimes, you need to fool yourself," she advised her counterparts. "My Mew did just as those on the other levels. She did what she needed to save my Prime self from being completely subsumed by Black Lugia's evil. It is too complicated to explain right now, but the convergence created a connection between the Mews that resulted in enormous waves of energy flowing between them. It is a miracle we were not all destroyed by it."

"But… what about the body?" Myamoto of the Light asked. She saw the dark one shake her head in disgust.

"That old bastard," evil Mya snorted. "Transmat cadaver?" she asked her other self.

The older Mya nodded. "As ordered by the Admiral, yes."

An eerie silence fell over the battlefield. Here and there a few fires went out as the underbrush blackened. A yellow rodent materialized and let out a whistle. "Damn, some battle they had here… Myamoto, where are you? I can barely feel anything with all the ghosts around here!" Ketchup shot around a tree and smacked clear into someone wearing her… ceremonial armor? "Whoa, who… Oh, Mya!"

Myamoto had a haunted look for a moment before she gathered the Pikachu into her arms. "Hello little Ketchup… I was waiting for you to arrive."

Ketchup looked from the woman holding him to the two battered ladies. "Whoa, I'm seeing triple here! Did I get conked on the head again?"

Myamoto smiled and petted the little Pikachu angel. "Your Myamoto is here, along with my sister." She felt him tense when he finally registered Dark Myamoto. "She will not hurt us."

Dark Myamoto grumbled before extending her wings and sighing. "So what now?"

---

There was an enormous crash as several hundred pounds of body fell to the forest floor. "Owie owie owie," whined the Charizard PokéMorph. She glanced up at the dark shadow passing over. "Damn that monster is fast." She aimed several psychic attacks, but they were deflected by a dark energy wave which she just managed to dodge – one she sliced in two with the katana.

Kinza growled and took aim at another of the super-large Gengars. "Where the scragg is Rob?" he called out.

"He did say he was coming this way, right?" El asked as she Hyperbeamed a few loose ghosts. Her shots seemed only to bounce off the colony Gengars though.

M2 finally arrived with PBM close behind and moved up behind Kinza, blasting several ghosts at once. "He is detained," he told him. "Phoenix has taken control of the human who was carrying him and now they are fighting him."

"Great," Kinza growled as he cranked out two more blasts, swearing under his breath and smacking a stray ghost with his shield. "Wait… did you say Phoenix?"

M2 nodded as he blew an arm off one of the Super Gengars, which proceeded to scatter into smaller red ghosts.

"Not Roy's Bird?" he then asked for clarity.

"Affirmative," M2 grunted as he scatter-shot at the released horde that had come from the giant. "I'll assume you're familiar with this creature?"

Kinza ground his teeth in anger as he took two more ghosts apart. "You could say that… you didn't find someone with a hole in his soul, did you?"

Puruu and Xuru heard his comment as they joined in the fray. They both looked over at the Tomassamassa.

"What do you know about this?" Xuru shouted.

"Now - isn't – the – TIME!" Kinza yelled back as he thrust, smashed and pounded the shield into a rapid succession of ghosts, dispersing each one as they tried to approach those with the eggs. "But let's just say, the last time I had to deal with anyone like that, I was dealing with a disaster before you two were born!"

"What?" Puruu asked. But before she could ask a follow-up question, she was struck and sent tumbling back by dark Hyperbeams.

"Puruu!" Xuru shouted as she flew back to where her friend was struggling to defend herself with an energy shield. She generated one of her own and curved it just right to send the offending beam back on the creature sending at the goddess.

Mauvais roared and sent out an enormous ball of glimmering black at the goddess and demoness. "Don't be fools!" he bellowed "I care nothing for the eggs now except as another source of life energy. Surrender yourself goddess and I will allow these mortals free passage!" He shook off a second blast of energy from PBM before sending a crawling red web of energy at her.

Xuru grabbed her friend by the arm. "Don't trust him any further than you can throw him!" she warned her. "And don't forget Edward…"

'And why is he so determined to get Puruu all of a sudden?' she pondered to herself.

Puruu set her jaw and blew away a purple blast from one of the Super Gengars. "There must be a way to solve this problem, Xuru. We've been in worse situations than this…"

Just then a second enormous blast knocked down more trees as one of the Mega-Gengars self-destructed. M2 had barely thrown up a shield and was kneeling among the wreckage beside a gibbering Tracey. He quickly realized he was holding one of the eggs and loosened his panic before he crushed it. A second Super Gengar tromped up with a wicked grin and started to power up.

PBM began to charge up as well when Mauvais' super-extended tail slammed into her. She spun around and sliced the appendage off as the goddess and demoness laid into the beast. "Please, someone help M2!" she cried out, forced to throw up a shield against a flurry of blasts as Mauvais counterattacked.

Charmega grunted and launched herself at the Gengar, followed by an explosion as the dark energy surged back into the red ghost and caused it to explode. Lugia42 screamed her friend's name before she was forced to dive under several red ghosts disgorged from the larger red Gengar.

Charmega wheezed and coughed as dirt kicked up by the explosion settled on the clearing. She noticed she was flying but her wings were still folded against her body. "You okay?" a voice grumbled in her ear. Charmega glanced up and saw a huge Charizard was holding her.

"Are… are you okay?" asked a second voice that was younger. Ash leaned down but still found it hard to see in the dust cloud.

"Whoa…" Charmega whispered as she blushed. "Hey big boy…"

Ash looked around. "Umm, who is she talking to?" he asked his ride.

"Not you, that's for sure," his Charizard answered with a huff. It took Ketchum a brief moment to realize that he was actually TALKING to him!

"Weird things happen when spirit Pikachus are about," Ketchup grinned in front of him, and then vanished.

Ash's eye swirled. "P-Pikachu! Did you see that?"

"Really Ash, it's not like this hasn't happened before," his yellow partner told him from his customary shoulder perch. "Or do I have to remind you what happened last Halloween?"

"I think I'm loosing it!" the boy whined.

"Just don't do it while riding on my back!" his Charizard noted.

BJ dodged out of the way as one of the Mega-Gengars swiped at her. The dust was still thick in the air from the last explosion. "Kinza! Tracey! Professor Oak!" she called out. She did a back flip as the red behemoth tried to grab her. "I'm in TROUBLE here!"

"Trouble?" she heard.

"HA! Prepare for trouble!"

"And make it double!"

BJ could have groaned and cheered simultaneously if she was not already scared out of her wits. "Where…" she asked, glancing around to get a pinpoint on the voices.

"To protect the world from devastation!"

"To unite the peoples within our nations!"

A small form appeared in the air behind the Mega-Gengar. It looked like some sort of white cat suit. Barely hanging onto either shoulder was a pair of young humans…

"Jessie!" cried the girl.

"James!" called the boy.

They flipped themselves up and landed on a pair of thrusters on the suit's back as it flew just short of the Gengar's head.

"Team Rocket blasts off at the speed of light!"

"Surrender now or prepare to fight!"

"DAT'S RIGHT!" blared out of a PA system coming from the suit, causing the two Rocket agents to wince in pain from it glaring howl. BJ finally saw what it was – the Meowth-sized ceramic armor that Ketchup had been flying about in earlier.

Meowth shoved up the face guard and grinned as his partners looked like they could throttle him for bursting their ears. Two large barrels slid up on either hip of the suit. "And now it's time ta save da day!"

"Aw scragg! Not that stupid suit! EVERYONE CLOSE YOUR EYES!" Kinza's voice called out from the other side of the battle-made clearing.

BJ turned and threw herself down just as two massive balls of light were launched from the twin cannons on the Meowth suit. The Mega-Gengar exploded in a magnificent display of bits of red goo as it rained down on everyone. BJ blinked her eyes from the afterimage that had burnt in through her closed eyelids. "What in the name of Ninetails…"

A smoking heap on the other side of the clearing rattled before several moans came up. "Meowth, whatever you do, DO NOT FIRE THAT THING AGAIN WITHOUT LETTING US OFF!" Jessie growled.

Meowth rolled back and forth like an overturned Blastoise before a small burst from the jetpack righted him. "Wow, disding's got one heckuva kick! But dat round only left me with two or three more shots."

James meanwhile was lying upside down against a tree with swirly eyes. "Look at the pretty colors, he hee!" he babbled.

Kinza stumbled up to the Rockets, trying not to smile. "I thought that suit was out of commission after that last fight!"

"I thought I left that thing in the hanger for repairs!" Ketchup added, grumpy that his ride was being used by… a MEOWTH!

Meowth tried to flick his paw to show off, but the armor was so heavy he was trembling just keeping it up. "Hey, d'ere's only one cat dat can use dis, and dat's ME!"

He then had a face full of yellow teed off rodent. "It's designed to be used BY A SPIRIT! You AIN'T DEAD YET!"

"Give him a chance, if he does something like that again!" Jessie snarled.

"Those were photon-charges," Kinza stated of the attack rendered. "What was left when you got out of this thing?" he asked the angel Pokémon.

Ketchup scratched his ear. "Not much… I pretty much wiped out the weapons banks, the short range flame thrower was melted shut and needed replacing, the swords were snapped and were being mended last I saw, and there were hairline cracks along the head unit where I wound up butting ghosts in the end."

Kinza was crawling all over the unit looking it over. He looked up at the Pikachu. "What about the final-blow?" he asked.

Ketchup cocked his head in wonder. "Final blow?" he asked. "Ah, you mean that large button on the internal dash that said Divine Wind?"

Meowth looked down inside his helmet and saw what he was describing. "You's mean dis one here?" he asked as he reached for it. But he then found his head banging on either side of the wide spaced helmet like a clapper in a bell. When his eyes stopped spinning, he saw the face of the Tomassamassa at point-blank range looking in on him.

"Don't you DARE hit that button outside a Mega-Gengar!" he snarled. "You'd freeze us all!"

"What?" the dazed cat asked. "Why'd ya wanna freeze one of dose big red beasties? CAN you freeze one of dem?"

M2 tapped him on the helmet. "Not from the outside – inside them."

Meowth swallowed. "Err, inside dem?" he squeaked.

M2 smirked at him, which made the chatty-cat squirm a bit, now regretting climbing into this ceramic begging kitty. "Exactly – let me show you how!"

Meowth found himself levitating over them. In his helmets window he found the largest colony Mega-Gengar being targeted.

"Please… ah… Jessie… JAMES! WHAT'S DIS CRAZY PSYCHO-CAT DOIN' TA ME?"

"Get ready hero!" M2 yelled. "And you might want to fire up your thrusters to assist getting through this!"

"NYAAAAAAAA!" Meowth screamed as M2 flung him at the monster ghost collections. He saw it slowly turning to see what was coming. He would hit it directly under its left arm. He finally punched the rockets moments before striking home.

"What are you doing?" James shouted in shock and amazement.

"Don't worry – he's perfectly safe inside that suit," Kinza advised him.

"Well, just as long as he remembers to hit that button once he's inside that thing," M2 admitted.

"OW! Geeze it's getting' HOT in here!" Meowth yelped as he traveled further into the monster. "OW! OW! OW! Da BLAZES wit dem sayin' I can't hit dis switch!" He pressed down on it.

Instantly, the red hue that had filled his visor turned an ice blue. He popped out the far side of the Mega-Gengar only to find the suit shatter from the extreme temperature change it went through. As he tumbled through the air, he could see the colony behind him fracture and crack. It finally exploded in a massive release of ice shards that sliced through two more nearby companion colonies, causing them to begin some sort of chain reaction.

"Gotcha!" he heard. He felt something grab the scruff of his neck and lurch him upwards before he would have splattered across the ground. He looked up to see a pair of those cursed yellow and black ears bobbing about.

"Hey!" he complained. "Since when does a' electric rat save a noble Meowth?" he yelled.

"You're welcome," Ketchup told him with a cursory zap with his tail.

Above them came another explosion from the sky. This was followed by a controlled fall by PBM. She fell to her knees behind Kinza. He turned and immediately let the female MewTwo lean against him. "Hey bright eyes, you can't be tapped already," he told her with a light pat to the cheek.

Peanut shuddered and then smiled at the Tomassamassa. "That's why I'm back down here… I've been using only the barest amounts of my energy." She sighed again and smiled in relief as M2 landed next to them. "Are you okay?" she asked as she slipped her arms around him, laying her head against his shoulder.

M2 blushed slightly as he almost absentmindedly blasted a red ghost. "I'm fine… now."

"INCOMING!" Rianna called out. Everyone watched the sky for what she had referred to. The large black water god was thundering down from a high point, seemingly aiming at something behind them.

Kinza quickly looked back to spot the target.

"Puruu! Climb!" he shouted.

The goddess and demon looked up to see the Black Lugia barreling right for them. Xuru grabbed her friend's arm and leapt just as Mauvais gorged out a strong Hyperbeam. But as he did so, he and everyone else were either knocked away or knocked down as the remains of the Mega-Gengar, along with the two smaller ones detonated, flattening the forest in a wide circular pattern.

---

Meanwhile on the bridge of Forrestal, everyone winced at the convulsion against the hull from off to port.

"What was that?" Commander Button yelled.

"Massive explosion two miles north of our location, sir!" one of the scanner deck girls reported. "It looks like two or three Mega-Gengars let go at once."

"What about our crews out there?" he called up to a stray light in the ceiling. The roof hatch was open, and Erin was there with a hand scanner.

"There's still too much interference!" she called down.

The commander was ready to flay someone. "Does anything work on this ship anymore?" he yelled at his Chief Engineer. "Phasers, transmat, something… I'd even settle for throwing rocks at it!"

"Well, there are the tractor beam generators," Marshall noted. He looked up and saw the rather unimpressed look he was getting from the person in command.

---

The battlefield was a mess of fallen timber. Oak, Tracey, BJ, and the eggs were behind a large wedge of trees lying atop a shimmering blue field. In front of them was a Meowth in the remains of a ceramic battle suit, two Rockets out of their wits, Kinza, and the two MewTwo. "That was close," PBM sighed as she held the energy dome up.

"Yes, but we must be careful not to rely too heavily on your reserves," answered her partner, "so, allow ME!" He brought his energy up and cleared the trees away from them.

Above the battlefield, both goddess and demoness were being held by Charmega, who in turn was being held by Ash's Charizard. "You two okay?" she asked. They nodded weakly to her before turning their attentions to Mauvais.

"We need to land," Puruu noted.

Lugia42 coughed and slid from underneath a pile of trees, noting as she did a small purple crackle of energy from an orb shield holding the trunks up. As soon as she was clear it flickered and died, followed by a crack as the trees fell back into the pile.

"What is that?" she asked, looking at the top of the tree that had been at the top of the heap. It vibrated from the thunk it had gone through when the trunk had settled to the ground.

"Hey, can you get that?" she heard from above. "I can't hold that thing while holding these two!" Charmega called down as she carried the deities down while being carried herself.

"How did that come about?" El called back up.

"I'm not sure myself," Ash replied from the back of his Charizard. Pikachu just patted him on his fevered head.

El jumped up on the trunk of the tree and yanked on the impaled katana. Removing it from the bark, she glanced down at the sword and felt it lightly throb in her hands. "What was that…?"

Mauvais snarled and righted himself, having tumbled through the air some distance away. "Cursed ghosts! Who are they working for?" he growled. He twisted about and headed back towards the artificial clearing. "So now we are reduced to this." He looked about and found his target descending in the arms of the Charizard-hybrid. "I am growing bored of this fight, ladies. So perhaps I shall simply… drive home my point!" His eyes glowed red as hundreds of black spikes began to burst up around everyone.

"What are these?" M2 griped as he and PBM blasted at the spears, but as they did more formed to replace them. They continued and cleared a small area around themselves.

"Exactly what Pokémon power is this?" Kinza yelped as he shot a few with his phaser, taking out several more.

A scream pierced the clearing. All looked over as Jessie fell back, holding a bleeding arm. James pulled her behind him. "No one dares hurt my Jessie!" he yelled up at the monster creating the sharp cones.

Mauvais started to chuckle when three blurs slammed into him. With a roar he fell to the ground in a heap.

"Who dares…?" he roared out, looking skyward. "YOU!"

"That's right, no one hurts our Jessie!" answered a woman with purple hair. She was floating next to a woman who might have been her twin had she not had a slight grey in her hair. Next to them meekly floated a woman in black armor who was likewise Myamoto.

"Well, that ain't the Powerpuff Meowths, that's for sure!" Ketchup commented. He surveyed the situation before sweeping down next to Lugia42. "We need to join up with the others," he said to the PokéMorph captain.

El nodded lightly, a bit caught up in the sight of all the Myamotos. "Umm, I know who she is," she noted, "but since when have there been three of them?"

"You really need to read the book sometime," the Pikachu angel advised her.

"Mommy?" asked a dazed Jessie as she saw three of them.

Mauvais sneered at Dark Myamoto. "You never were very useful to me."

Suddenly she doubled over and fell from the sky, hitting the ground with a sickening thud. Immediately the black spikes nearby turned into tentacles that wrapped around her, squeezing her. She whimpered and struggled but for naught.

"He's using the Ryuujin!" Xuru called out. "He's got her scent!"

---

The blue binding had held him for only a moment. North's white eagle shredded the wraps which he flung back at its sender. He then came about and showed his own talons as he grabbed the red firebird by the chest and legs. He dove for the ground and slammed it hard with his opponent's body.

Phoenix arose from the large crater in a halo of flames, showing little damage from the forced impingement. "While you battle me, my temporary accomplice is slaughtering your friends," it told him in a rather casual way.

North snarled something unintelligible as he slammed down into the other fiery bird. A spell came to mind that caused an enormous column of light to come down onto the pair. The explosion shook trees as far away as the Orange Islands. The crater smoked as North rose up from it, gulping down deep breaths. That had been a serious bit of control he had exercised not to have the beam penetrate straight down through the planet's crust! He focused his senses and swore as he looked back.

"What the hell are you?" he asked the Phoenix. "That's not elemental power!"

A disc of red light was spinning over the bird in the new hole. "I am no elemental creature, mortal." The disc suddenly shot straight towards North as Phoenix rose up from the smoking crater. North dodged it and then had to do a pirouette in midair as it changed direction. "You fly well for a monkey that normally walks on his hind legs!" The disc made one last turn and caught the very tip of North's left wing, coming away with several flaming feathers which immediately turned to ash.

"Don't give me that crap!" the scientist shouted. "I've seen you – you take this simian-form from time to time as well!" North growled and focused himself away from the pain. "If its tricks you want, I'll show you some smart tricks then!"

A swipe of his wing and a mumbled few words under his breath, and a dozen pieces of rock flew into the sky turning into rough stone statues of monkeys. Each one then leapt at Phoenix, grabbing at legs or wings or tail feathers. There was then a flash as each one exploded, sending debris everywhere.

Phoenix shook away the pieces of dirt in disgust. "Parlor tricks, mortal… simple parlor tricks." Beams of dark-red burned from its eyes and slid over North's form, causing the flames of his body to quiver and darken.

North groaned… damn that hurt! The beams felt like two knives of ice cutting over him. He barreled into Phoenix as he turned up the heat of his flames. Now flickering white-hot, the very rock around them began to melt from the intensity. "How about an old-fashioned family barbecue…? We'll make you the main course!"

Phoenix suddenly disappeared and reappeared high in the air above the smoking crater. "That almost tickled, Robert North." He then made a dive through the air and caught the scientist-turned-bird in the chest. The opponents ground through rock and soon trees as they carried into the remaining forest. An explosion of flames ended the slide as North streaked into the sky.

"What is this, some sort of fighting series?" He glanced down at the forest, now in flames with a long gouge cut through it. Suddenly the entire forest caught fire, filling the air with black smoke. An enormous wave of heat followed which blew the smoke away as the flames of the trees rose up in the form of a giant bird and engulfed the fiery bird form of North. "Argh!" was all he could get out before the oxygen was sucked away. There was a moment where he panicked before he focused on what to do…

A blinding light was followed by a shockwave that swept the clouds away with its force. Trees for a hundred kilometers around were knocked down or burnt to ash. North shivered with the force it had taken, but not because it tired him… because it had felt so good. Still he was tired… that was undeniable. He could feel a pressure on the back of his head, which meant he was starting to really dig into the powers of Denivan.

"That was an impressive display of power… for a mortal."

North glanced around with his senses, trying to get a bearing. Phoenix seemed to be everywhere at once. "Come out and play with this puny mortal," he grumbled.

Clouds then swept around the fiery bird. "Explosions are quite yesterday's news… perhaps I can give you tips on cooling down?" The moisture suddenly exploded into a mass of frigid moist air that sizzled as it hit North's body. His breath began to vaporize and it was getting colder by the minute. When he turned up the heat, the moisture exploded into steam which obscured his vision further.

"My father was a weatherman in the Air Force, freak," the scientist smirked. "You've got to do better than that to loose me in the fog!"

He turned at the last minute and charged at Phoenix. As they sped towards the ground, he smashed his beak into the chest of the firebird. He was rewarded with a crunch and a scream of pain, along with something wet. "So you can bleed, Phoenix… I would have thought your blood had turned to ice already," he laughed.

Phoenix, for his own, rent at North with sharp talons and slammed North's head with his beak.

"So… now we are left… to simple brawling- AAAGGGHHH!" Phoenix's screams split the air as North bit into one of his opponent's larger muscles, ripping it. Blood was streaming down onto North as the two continued to fall. There was an explosion as the pair landed, creating yet another crater near a river. Water pouring into the new lake quickly sizzled and smoked.

---

"RELEASE HER!" the senior Myamoto demanded. Mauvais only looked at her in disdain as he circled away.

Lugia42 was the closest along with Ketchup to the writhing woman. She slashed at the tentacles with the sword, and to her surprise upon contact with the blade, the tentacles melted.

Mauvais growled in frustration as he eyed what the sword was doing. "It doesn't matter now," he scoffed. "She's too weak to be of much use to yo…" His head then snapped back as Myamoto of the Light laid in on him.

"SO – SORRY – NOT – TO – SAY - HI!" she howled as she socked the creature repeatedly. She stepped back as her Prime self pulled out a blade of light and threw it at Mauvais. The monster roared in pain as the dagger buried deep in his flesh, and then exploded in a bright light. Pieces of black were sent everywhere. But as a finale, all were surprised by an enormous ball of energy that was sent into the gash by the demon-goddess Xuru.

"Leave my underling alone!" she yelled as she panted.

Prime Myamoto grabbed her younger self to keep the reconstituted Myamoto from collapsing. "You may have the energy to fly, but fight is out of the question."

Mya of the Light nodded in agreement and floated down next to her demonic counterpart. But then she had a mass of red hair make a flying tackle on her. "Jessie…" both women said at once, before they found themselves chuckling.

A tear-stained face poked up and glanced from one to the other. "W-Wait… which one of you is my mommy?"

"They all are," Kinza answered as he helped BJ up off the ground. "Come on folks, we're not out of the woods yet!"

"Not that there's much left of it," BJ grinned as she patted his shoulder. "Knowing us, we'll just knock it down on the way back to the ship." Her grin faded as he looked over at Dark Myamoto. "Something wrong, Mr. Kinza?"

The security officer stepped over as the older Myamoto moved towards her demonic sister. "Let me, ma'am." He gently but with incredible strength picked the demon up in his arms. "BJ, come here and place your egg in her lap."

The strategist shook her head to fathom why he wanted her to do that, but she did as she was asked.

"Good… Mya, you think you have enough strength to hold that there?" he asked the woman he was carrying. She nodded slowly as she placed an arm around the black shiny oval. It rocked slightly at her touch, no longer leaping like it had been while in Sketchit's care. "Okay then, BJ, take my gun from its holster please."

She looked at him as if he had lost his mind. "W-what?" she asked.

He lifted his load slightly. "My arms are kind of full," he told her. "I need you to be our cover as we head over there. Besides, I know your score at target practice. Just be careful of choosing your targets with that thing – its set to disperse."

She swallowed as she drew the long pistol-like weapon from his side holster.

"Umm… it's well balanced," she noted.

He nodded. "Upper left, two o'clock," he told her.

Instinctively, she spun about and aimed the gun where directed. A stray red Haunter was dropping down on them until she vaporized it. She reached down and picked up what was left of his ceramic shield.

"Let's do this," she told him.

"Hey, I tawt dat Sketchit kid was carryin' da black egg," Meowth noted. "Where'd he go?"

BJ glared over at Tracey, who seemed unaware that he was missing something.

"He dropped it in the heat of battle," she growled, which he heard and winced. She looked down at the egg she had been assigned, the pearl-blue one, and gestured to it. "Get it and don't drop it this time – GOT IT?"

"Y-yes ma'am!" he replied after Oak smacked him up the back of his head.

Prime Myamoto looked over at the goddess Puruu. "My Lady… we should head to Forrestal."

Puruu turned and shook her head. "We must wait for the monster to regenerate. Take the others and then return to your original assignment."

Myamoto's eyes widened. "But Lady Puruu…"

Puruu turned her head away. "That is an order."

Myamoto nodded and continued off with her younger selves.

Xuru looked warily at the black bits as they oozed their way towards each other. "We could use her power."

Puruu turned a grim look towards her friend. "I must not endanger my protégé."

Xuru grimaced. Protégé? The reality of the fact that they both had the same woman as their protégé at one time, almost as a lark – two young fresh-out-of-school deities with their first chosen assignments – train and keep from trouble a split soul life force.

Xuru's eyes flickered towards Myamoto. "You can't mean that," she said in a small voice. "Besides, didn't we both do that already?"

Puruu smiled and looked towards the other fight. If it came to that… would she do it again?

---

Both birds stood on either side of the artificial lake. The water still steamed from their presence under it moments before. Neither had moved for the last several minutes. A casual observer might think they were in a stare-off contest. A psychic would register a hundred different blows being rained down on each side. Occasionally, the water's surface would ripple or the few remaining trees around them would sway. Then it was action as Phoenix coughed up an enormous ball of energy which created a wake on the water as it went for North. The explosion blew trees up a hill and sent clouds of dust and debris with it. North was already three-quarters the way across the lake when Phoenix saw the coming attack. A barrier like a thousand sheets of triangular, blue, translucent paper fixed over each other appeared. North bounced off it with the sound of a bell clapper and skipped across the lake like a stone.

"You are getting better, vastly better human… I admit myself impressed by this improvement." Phoenix was heaving with the effort of creating such a strong barrier.

North swirled in midair and swept upwards, drifting for a few seconds on the warm air currents. "This is not even my true power, Phoenix." He crossed his wings and Phoenix's barrier fractured. North then dove at it creating a blazing aura of gold which gathered in front of him like an arrowhead. The attack struck the barrier, shattering it and sending both combatants tumbling together into the trees.

Phoenix screamed out and swept into the sky leaving a mushroom cloud in his wake. "I can now see how Strom is considered so powerful."

North leapt into the air to follow and was suddenly struck by boulders the size of mini vans. There was a crunching sound as hundreds of stones landed on the hillside. The dust slowly cleared as the rocks started to steam. An explosion of lava showered the lakeside and started fires in the forest. North was again airborne, bringing himself level with Phoenix.

"So tell me," he pondered, seemingly having felt nothing of the last attack, "how do you know my connection to Roy?"

Phoenix drifted with the air currents. "It was my job to know such things."

"Enough riddles," North snapped.

Phoenix cocked his head. "You are incredibly impatient Robert North of Twelve Eighteen Howard Road, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States, Earth."

The white eagle made the same canted look back at his adversary. "Umm, where?" he asked.

Phoenix blinked and looked at him perplexed. "Twelve Eighteen Howard Road…"

North mimicked it. "That's nowhere near any place I've lived, bird… who is it that gives you this information?"

Phoenix spun about – it knew he was telling the truth! "This is impossible!" it crowed. "You ARE the Robert North of Twelve Eighteen Howard Road, Chester, Pennsylvania, United States of the planet Earth!"

"Wrong! I am Captain Robert North, and I am an Observer!" howled the scientist as he slammed into Phoenix. The pair tumbled for a few minutes before smashing into the other side of the hill. Several small explosions followed which set more of the forest on fire.

---

The battle to reach the starship became a series of skirmishes, with BJ leading James and Meowth in defensive position to the front, and El, Rianna and Charmega keeping watch overhead. Since BJ was the only one with a gun, James and Meowth worked as her eyes to get targets that were coming in from the remaining tree line.

"Ma'am, see if you can tap my patch," Kinza asked his Myamoto, which she did. "Forrestal security, copy?" he called as they approached the edge of the woods.

There was a momentary screech of interference, but finally a "Copy chief," was heard.

"Preston, get a team of a dozen down to the base of the lower hanger deck with weapons set for disperse," he ordered. "We're coming from your north and will need cover fire."

"Copy chief," was the reply. "What is your condition? Do we need to bring anyone else?"

He looked at his party. "We'll need Doctor Joy – the eggs are hatching - and we'll need medical for one energy-based humanoid."

"Rodger – we'll see you half way!"

He nodded as the link shut down. "Okay, the cavalry is on its way!" he called to those in the front.

"Good!" BJ yelled back. "Because I don't think this gun's power is going to last!"

"Treat her with respect, ma'am!" he chided her. "That's my favorite! If you can get back here for a moment, I'll show you how to swap the power packs!"

"I think you might want to get up to her," James called back, "because I think they KNOW she's running out of power!"

Kinza looked at where the Rocket was pointing and saw the start of a strip wave.

"Umm, that's not good!" the Tomassamassa grumbled, as he jogged forward of the central group, load and all.

"Let's go you two!" Charmega called to the boy and Charizard. "It's ghost torching time!" She peeled off to their right.

"Let's go Charizard!" Ash yelled. "Follow the leader!"

Kinza arrived beside Meowth. "Okay cat, reach into the holster and pull out what looks like the bottom of that gun she's using, quickly!"

Meowth reached in and found what he had described. Then he found a second one.

"'ey, I found two!" he told the security officer.

"Scragg, I forgot about that other one!" Kinza cursed. "It's flat too! Did you mix them up?"

Meowth fumbled with the pair of power packs. "Umm, err…"

"Of COURSE he mixed them up!" James yelped bitterly. "That's what Meowth is FOR!"

"Hey!" the chatty cat sadly complained about goofing up.

"Then use LUCK!" Kinza yelled at him. "You're a Meowth!"

"I gave dat up fer bein' able ta talk!" he nervously said as he looked at the pair of packs in his paws. "James, which one would you's give her?"

A pair of Haunters dashed through the pyro display that Charmega and the Charizard laid out and made a bee line for the gun-wielding lady Rocket.

"Err, umm… the RIGHT one!" James stammered, not expecting the cat to suddenly make him decide.

"Guys?" BJ nervously asked as the pistol finally gave out. The Haunters sped up.

Meowth handed her the left one. She pressed a release switch Kinza showed her, which dropped the spent cartridge out. She took the new pack and slapped it into the grip, aimed and vaporized the two incoming spirits.

James watched with his mouth agape. "I told you the RIGHT one!" he yelped.

"You bet 'cha did, bucko!" the cat snidely remarked. "I knew you'd pick da dud one!"

The group resumed pressing towards the ship. Volleys of fire started to shoot over their heads as the security force from Forrestal indeed found them half way to their sanctuary. Medical services rushed out to greet them as they neared the lower landing bay. The eggs were brought in the nick of time as they started to fracture. Kinza carefully laid the demon Myamoto on a floating medical bed. Ketchup wandered over and looked down at the woman as she moaned and curled up on herself. "Why did you help her?" he asked the security chief.

"She tried to make up for past sins…" he replied, lightly scratching the back of his hand.

Ketchup looked down at her. "She's probably done so many bad things… Do you really think one good deed can make up for her sins?"

Kinza smiled and looked at the angel Pikachu. "What do I look like, a priest?" He started to turn, but then glanced as the woman stirred. "Do we really have a right to judge the actions of others? Besides, I've been working with these folks for a while now, and let me tell you one thing… in some cases, there's not really much different between them."

The Pikachu stared at him. "Really?" he asked a bit shocked at the Tomassamassa's revelation to him. "I mean, look at her," he then added with a gesture towards the woman on the gurney. "She's from HELL!"

"Been there," Kinza stated matter-of-factly. "There's always a party going on down there."

Ketchup shook his head. "But, what about heaven?"

Kinza nodded. "Been there as well. It's not as stodgy as advertised. They know how to have fun too. You've got to remember something though," he explained, "both places specialize in what they have to. Heaven cares for those who were good and wholesome. Hell takes those who… weren't. It's their job."

Ketchup blinked. "Huh… I never thought of it like that."

Kinza smirked. "Read the treaty sometime… you'll see what I mean." He then grinned and shook his head. "Listen to me… all philosophical! Come on kiddo, let's see what we can do for the others." He took one more look back at the unconscious Dark Myamoto before walking away.

---

A loud crack pierced the silence of the clearing, followed by a mass of flames and feathers that smashed through several trees before falling to the forest floor.

Puruu started towards the bird, but Xuru held her back. "He's hurt…"

"And… a good thing… believe me," a voice called out. North swooped into the clearing in obvious pain as well. Barely seen in the flames where the Phoenix lay, blood oozed from several large gashes. It hit the ground with a loud sizzle.

Xuru's eyes widened. "Rob… he did that?"

Phoenix slowly rolled over and rose on unsteady legs. A second large gash ran down the front of its body. "I… am not… finished."

"I'm thrilled, because I'm not finished with you either Phoenix," growled North. "I've got a few HOLY SITES I'd like to remind you about!"

Puruu stepped between them. "You must stop fighting! It is pointless for us -"

Her words were cut off when Phoenix swatted her aside with his wing. "I have no time to deal with you, little girl." He was rewarded with North slamming him into the large pine, the force snapping the thick tree. North followed up with two beams of angry red shoveling his opponent through several more trees.

North was taking in deep breaths now. "You won't stop me, Phoenix. Nobody will stop me, do you understand that now?"

There was a very pregnant pause and then a groan of pain. Everyone turned towards the steaming form of Phoenix. Flames swirled around the bird and a man stumbled back against the stump of a spruce. "Damn… you…" the man groaned, holding his stomach as it bled freely. Then a crazed smile lit his face. "But… I have not… lost."

North turned just as the hyper-extended tail of Mauvais wrapped around his neck. "Arrrgh!" was his only words as the creature whipped him against several trees before flinging the fire bird away.

"Excellent work my ally, most excellent," the Black Lugia chortled. "He nearly didn't notice me!"

Xuru glanced over at the worming pieces of black and then realized: "A diversion - you had reformed already underground!" She leapt back as black spikes came up from beneath the surface, but then gasped as they reached out and sliced at her with black blades.

M2 snarled a word and a massive blue beam swept through the spikes and struck Mauvais. He smiled as PBM stepped up next to him and added a beam of her own. "DIE MONSTER!" he shouted.

Mauvais howled in pain and splattered against the ground.

PBM grinned. "This is getting pretty easy."

Puruu flew over to the prone man who had been Phoenix and reached down. "You… you're hurt." She winced when her hand was slapped away.

"Keep your filthy powers away from me, you little insect!" Phoenix snarled. He coughed and wiped blood dripping from his lip. "I do not need you to corrupt me with your touch." He retched up some blood and spit at her feet. "My contempt for you… is deeper than The Pit."

Puruu bit her lip to keep from showing how sharp his words had cut. "What did I ever do to you, Phoenix?"

Phoenix wiped away some blood that began to drip down his forehead, eyeing the murderous looks he was getting from the others. "You exist… and your existence only brings me further pain and trouble. That is reason enough to hate you with all my being!"

"That must be of your own choice then, Phoenix," reverberated within their heads. "The Guild certainly does not have that policy towards the Attic. Have you become so one sided?"

The man, who had earlier seemed so tall, muscular and dark, now seemed frail, small and pale. He looked skywards with a wild glare. "Strom! My hate for you is greater than that of those accursed half-angels you protect and this creature who dares attempt to touch me! Where are you?"

There was an audible sigh. "You've been fighting me, idiot," the voice told him. "First, you can't get Rob's home right, and then you can't even figure you're fighting two powers at once. Honestly, do us all a favor and regenerate already!"

"NEVER!" the man shouted. "I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU ALL!"

"Ah, hate… an emotion I understand quite well," echoed another disembodied voice.

Xuru looked cautiously around. "Where is that bastard now?" she hissed.

Phoenix shocked those around him by whipping his legs about, knocking Puruu over. As she tumbled to the ground, it quivered and quaked, sprouting harpoons of black goo around her. The goddess had only just avoided being impaled by the black spikes, but several deep cuts still bled on her arms and legs. She whimpered as she felt the wounds, swaying a bit from the shock. She felt arms wrap around her as they hauled her out of the zone of attack.

Xuru hushed her. "Its okay, the wounds are only superficial." She smiled as her friend regained composure.

Phoenix slid down the spruce, chuckling. "This Mauvais is quite good at what it does…"

Xuru growled and would have launched herself at him if she had not felt Puruu's hold on her arm tighten. "I know… I know," she reassured her. "But it doesn't mean I can't do this!" The demon-goddess quickly whipped her tail about and slapped the traitor with her tube-jewelry that chimed a smart ring, and left a growing welt on the man's cheek.

Phoenix only laughed harder as he rubbed it. "You are just like your mother… impetuous until the end. I told her she would rue her decision against me. They will all regret their decision against me."

"As lovely as this chat is, I must interrupt." Mauvais appeared in the midst of the clearing along with a dozen red ghosts. "I'm touched you remember me," he remarked as the others launched attacks. Red ghosts swarmed to intercept each attempt as small explosions shook the area.

M2 blew away a second ghost. "Where is Rob?"

"Ah, I believe he is busy with my real horde. Seeing my ally is now too injured to hold him off any longer, and I must still have time…"

Xuru glared at the beast. "Time for what, monster?" She pulled a crackling, black blade from nothingness and held it in a guard position before her.

Mauvais chuckled to itself. "Why time enough to absorb my ally. Substantial magical abilities like his will then enable me to absorb you and the goddess."

Phoenix growled, but then started to cough up more blood. "Damn you beast… we have a pact! I will give you the damn magic - just kill the little girl for me!"

Puruu felt a shiver up her spine. She glanced back at the wounded stranger, currently captor of Edward's body. Tears made his image blurry for a few seconds. "Why… why do you hate me so much?" While a goddess may come to understand the surface reasons for hate, it was impossible for a soul so pure to understand the deepest meanings.

Phoenix opened his mouth to say something when his eyes widened. There was a terrible moment when he knew it would be impossible to draw on his untapped reserves. He looked up and saw the Black Lugia opening his maw. There was nothing he could do!

"NOOOOO!" a voice from over the trees screamed.

Puruu recognized in an instant where the attack would land. She watched with sickening slowness as Mauvais opened his mouth and disgorged a monstrous black tongue. It would bury itself deep in its target and draw away all life and light into this evil thing. She leapt from her friend's side and placed herself before its path. She gripped it in her hands. But her strength was not enough to stop it from impaling her. She could feel it pulse with her energies. Everything was starting to darken around her. 'Edward… I lo…'

Xuru screamed in pain and brought her sword down on the monstrous tongue, slicing it. "DAMN YOU!" she shouted. But instead of flopping limply on the ground, the appendage at once slammed her aside. She moaned in pain and anguish as the evil piece of Mauvais easily reconnected with its host.

A second roar of pain swept the artificial clearing. A rush of flames washed against Mauvais in the ebb of a frenzied white eagle. There was a minor explosion as the two bodies were swept away through the forest. More explosions followed, but the occupants of that battlefield were not reacting. They were looking back at the base of a scorched spruce.

Xuru scampered over the ashes and gathered up the frail form and held her friend close as she cried. What did it matter now if she showed weakness? She gulped hard as she looked at the extent of her injuries. There was blood everywhere, and it kept coming out. The demoness was shaking so bad she was afraid of dropping her, so she slowly laid Puruu back onto the forest floor. "Please… you - you… you can't die. N-No, not the final d-death… Puruu please live! MOTHER! AUNT KATHERINE! HELP US! Please… please…"

She saw a flicker as Puruu turned her eyes towards the demoness. Xuru immediately grabbed her friend's hand, stroking it softly in hers. "P-Puruu…" She leaned forward as she saw bloody bubbles forming on her friend's lips, moving silently. "W - What…?"

"E - E…dwa…rd…?" she whispered.

Xuru glanced up through her blurry sight and saw the man with his hands covering his face. "Y – you stopped it in time… He… he's fine."

A small hint of a smile lit Puruu's lips, crimson with her own blood.

Behind them PBM buried her head in M2's chest and let out a low moan before breaking into stabbing sobs. M2 could only feel cold anger as the warm tears and the wrenching emotions of his mate washed over him.

There was a crunch which momentarily startled everyone. North's bird form hobbled out of the trees with something like a sad look in his eyes. "He got her… didn't he?" he groaned, stomping closer.

Xuru could only nod halfheartedly, returning her gaze to Puruu. "How… how could He allow something like this… why?" she said just loud enough for those in the clearing to hear.

North was about to say something when he heard laughter. Deep, slow laughter coming from a form leaning against a tree.

Phoenix slid his fingers down his face, creating trails where Puruu's blood had splattered him from the violent attack. "He… hee hee… He does not care what happens to her… or you… or anyone! As long as the plan continues… as long as HIS plan continues… we all are easily replaced." His eyes flickered downward. "Easily replaced… yes, that was the way of things." There was a shout and suddenly a strong beak clamped on the man's shoulder shaking him.

North slammed Phoenix from one tree to another. "DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU, DAMN YOU! YOU AS GOOD AS KILLED HER!" He threw the man down on the ground and bore down. "It doesn't matter now what we do… the beast has some of her power." His eyes blazed with a fresh wave of anger and kindled power. "I don't care what happens, but I will see you in Hell first!" No one made a move or said anything as North prepared to fry this… thing - Except…

"Rob," the voice returned.

The white eagle did not turn its head. "Don't stop me, Roy. Don't even think about it. This… this bastard has got to pay for all he has done! The Holy Sites – Charm – now Puruu! It's too late, Roy… I'm sorry."

"No one has to die, Rob."

There was a gasp.

That time the voice was not in their heads. North turned his head and glanced back at Roy Strom. The last time he had seen his double…

"I was in pretty bad shape, yes," he stated as if to finish the scientist's thoughts. He was next to Puruu's side, with a hand on Xuru's shoulder. "I understand how important this is. I will support your decisions on this matter one hundred percent. But uninformed decisions are poor ones, Rob… we both know it." In explanation he pointed down to the goddess at his feet. She was breathing, albeit raggedly and with much coughing.

North looked coolly at his… his friend. "Careful Roy, I'm still drawing power through you. It's probably the only reason why either one of them can be so close to you right now. If you try to tap any more…"

Strom nodded to his fellow Captain in silent understanding. "You need to keep pressure on Mauvais. I'll send the rest along… after I deal with this."

'If you fail, Roy…'

"I know," the Captain whispered under his breath. North flew off. His head immediately snapped to the right as he saw Phoenix.

The man had risen up to his feet and was grinning. "You have so little precious time, and so little power. You probably could not even contest me if I so wished, Son of Denivan." He slowly wiped fresh blood from the corner of his mouth.

Strom grabbed Xuru's shoulder as the demoness prepared to launch herself. "No, not this way," he told her. "It would be feeding into his demented views."

Phoenix chuckled to himself. "Yes, yes let us attack the helpless body of your friend."

The Captain sighed and looked at the state Phoenix was in. "Edward is as important to you as he is to her," he stated with a gesture towards the wounded goddess.

Phoenix exploded in rage. "THAT FILTHY BITCH IS NOTHING! HOW DARE SHE THINK SHE CAN TAKE HIM FROM ME!" He huffed and grabbed the tree stump as if the outburst had cost him. In emphasis of this, he held the side of his head and mumbled something under his breath.

Xuru stared wide eyed at him. "Jealousy? This was all because he was jealous of her?"

"I think I understand now," Strom continued. "The reason why you fear this woman… Do you really fear losing your host this bad, Phoenix?"

Phoenix growled and kept his eyes downward. "Shut up, human. You cannot judge me - you have not lived the years I have. You are just as your predecessor was - self-righteous to a fault."

Strom's eyes flickered. "Gather Damon? What about Damon? He was a good man. And I believe you knew his predecessor."

Phoenix chuckled, before coughing up more blood. "Of course I had dealings with your infernal order of Denivan, human. I knew all of its members, as well as their histories and every nuance of their powers. It was my job… yes, my job to know things…" he finished, glancing away.

Roy crossed his arms as he stood looking down on the slowly folding form of the man before him. "How long has it been since you refreshed your power, Phoenix?"

Phoenix's eyes trembled at the Captain. "I do not know… perhaps over a million years."

Xuru gasped in surprise. "The trial!"

Strom looked down at Puruu. The energy he had given would not sustain her for much longer. "Gabrella's trial… yes, that would make sense. Your mother was thought to have instigated the last war between Light and Dark. But the Treaty Tribunal discovered a Phoenix had coerced her, perhaps even planted the idea in her mind. There was something special about this Phoenix…" He looked at Xuru. "But much of the testimony was suppressed by the committee."

Phoenix snorted. "More like covered up to protect their precious positions. God knew what I had done, and that was the most important part." He stepped towards the pair.

"I will destroy you if you take another step towards my daughter, Phoenix." Gabrella appeared next to Xuru and held her arm before her. She glanced for a moment at Xuru and smiled.

At the same moment M2 and PBM moved up next to the Captain, nodding to him. Strom glanced at Phoenix and noticed the man biting his lip in frustration. "You don't look so confident now."

Phoenix's eyes narrowed. "If you are so strong in your own confidence…"

Gabrella turned to Strom. "Roy… I don't care what you have to do. Don't allow it to do to Xuru what it did to me!"

Phoenix chuckled. "Gabbing Gabrella strikes again!" He flicked his hand and there was a loud popping sound as the Demon Goddess disappeared.

Xuru growled and drew her sword. "What did you do to her?" Her sword then dipped as a red aura formed around the man. "W-What is that…?"

"I'd say he just unsealed herself," Strom replied. His face was completely calm as he stared down this renewed threat. "If forcibly sending Gabrella back to the Council wasn't an announcement of your intent, this certainly is."

"Aurelis!" Xuru suddenly shouted. She held her sword steady now. "That's your name, isn't it?"

Strom grinned. "It explains a great deal now. The First Phoenix was named Aurelis. It could renew whenever it wished, rather than how the other Phoenix are forced to renew every five hundred years or so. It was the one who first forced a peace on the Attic and the Basement to protect existence, with that abysmal Treaty of Set. It monitored all of time and protected it from disturbance. But when it found that both sides were beginning to become aware of its shenanigans, it caused a great cataclysm and disappeared. That was when we wrote the Treaty of Advent."

Phoenix growled at Strom. "That damn Council… they dared go against me too many times! I was becoming just a figurehead to them, a patron saint of their beautiful Treaty. What utter trash that document was! I told them time and again to expand my authority… for naught!"

Now Phoenix was staring far away, watching events from a time long before any standing before him were born. "I could see the ways in which both sides abused the limited terms of the Treaty. I could see through time, I could see all that was occurring right under His nose! Yet even He ignored my dire warnings! What was I to do, what possible role was left to me?" Phoenix slid back against the trunk of the blasted spruce. "Then in His folly he dared create humans… the despicable creatures were adaptable like a virus. Yes, they were a virus that He concocted… and He dared to tell me that my place was soon to be elsewhere among them! Even after one dimensional level's batch of overgrown monkeys nearly exterminated themselves, and all others of their kind throughout the universes when they dared usurp His own powers, he felt pity over them and allowed them to be reborn. That was when I needed to take action!"

"You started the next war," Xuru stated in a hollow voice. Her sword had long dipped to the ground in disbelief.

Phoenix looked up at her with a malevolent gleam in his eyes. "Yes, yes the war, the glorious war! Oh how I hoped the humans would be annihilated by it. It thinned the numbers… and it forced both sides to recognize what a folly it was to deny my authority! I had to make all the decisions… I had to choose all the right paths. All existence continued because I worked so hard, because my children worked so hard to protect it!" Then a sullen look came over Phoenix and he finally slid to the ground, slipping his arms around his legs.

Strom sighed. "But someone found you out, discovered your hand in this."

Phoenix didn't look up. "Yes… my precious plan was ruined. Damn those humans and their infernal machines. Damn the Denivan for aiding them." His eyes turned up to look straight at Strom. "Damn you!"

Strom's communicator patch whistled loudly. "ALERT! – DO NOT CONTINUE… TO DO SO WILL DO POSSIBLE HISTORIC DAMAGE… SAM-SYSTEM 1."

Everyone glanced at Strom uneasily as the Captain slapped the patch. "Override, Strom-1," he whispered.

Phoenix giggled. "You are like a dog on his leash… how perfect for you, Captain Roy Strom! Do not worry - I have no intention of giving you information against me. But remember… I will have my revenge on you." His eyes narrowed. "I will have my revenge on all of you. Especially the one that… that dared touch…" Phoenix buried his head in his legs.

"Jealousy…" M2 looked down at the figure. "You endanger all of existence… over petty jealousy."

Phoenix giggled and looked up. "Perhaps when you have children of your own… watch them go off… watch them die… I was protecting them. What are they now? Lackeys of this human and his fellow Denivan followers? They were once the most loved… the most sacred… you would not understand. You are just a folly of man. You are man's attempt at usurping His power."

In a movement nearly too quick for the eye, Xuru leapt forward and put her clawed hands around Phoenix's throat. "You wouldn't understand love if it crawled up inside you and died!" She felt Roy's hands on her arms, hands much stronger than what she was prepared for. She did not look at her superior because she did not want to see the concern written there… or any possible disappointment. "Puruu's going to die…" It was a statement.

"No…" a voice weakly replied.

Puruu's breathing had become shallow and halting. A translucent figure was kneeling next to her wearing a heavy jacket. His hair was about shoulder length and the bangs got in his eyes. He looked like a young man of twenty-two. He was trying to stroke her forehead, but his hand would pass through her.

Strom looked at the ghostly man with alarm. "You shouldn't be manifesting! Edward, you could -"

The young man's shoulders shook and tears slid down his face. "I don't care… I've got nothing left. That… that thing's taken everything from me… my body… my love… my soul…"

Phoenix slowly moved his head up, staring at the entity with a haunted look. "You will die… Edward. Please Edward, do you not see…? We can still do so much together, you and me! All following her would do… is mean further pain."

"Like you're hurting Edward right now?" asked the demoness. She stood over Phoenix without obscuring his view of the ghostly figure. "Roy, you said something about manifesting…"

Roy looked at the man over Puruu. "Edward's soul was pulled apart. He is the man we have been searching for – a man with a hole in his soul."

"I had seen that in him," Xuru noted. "How is that possible? What does it mean?"

Roy nodded towards him. "Your mother and god-mother discovered it. There was an experiment done to a child once in an attempt to artificially create a hole within a whole soul. That would create a place to hide a creature of energy."

"And that was how he escaped? In this child?" M2 asked. Strom shook his head.

"No, the child was rescued before it could be completed, and besides, it would not have worked," he stated. "But that didn't mean he couldn't have done it to someone else. Phoenix placed itself inside Edward to keep him balanced and alive."

The captain then looked at the 'man' at his feet. "Phoenix, I may not have the power to excise you right now, but the Treaty Council does and will do it, if the Phoenix Guild doesn't do it first. And it would seem that Edward might expel you before anyone else… he's already fighting against you. And you know he can do it."

Xuru looked at the Supreme with a puzzled expression. "He can? How?"

Strom grunted. "Because, Edward is the last of his kind – and the only one who Phoenix would have trusted his power and life force stored in."

Phoenix looked at the Captain for a moment sighing and buried his head in his legs. "I know… I… I did not want it to end like this. I wanted him to be mine… forever." He shivered and looked at the ghostly Edward. "You… you will return to him. Do you understand what that will mean?"

The image of Edward rose up and floated towards Phoenix. "I can go home. I can save her… No, we can save her! I will remember everything… and I will be free of you!" The phantom leapt down, grabbing Phoenix by the shoulders.

Phoenix, grimacing in obvious anger and pain, nodded and looked down. "I… I understand." He closed his eyes and then cried as the form of Edward slipped into the body.

Strom pulled Xuru back. "This could get messy… a very upset Phoenix is about to appear and I'm not sure if I have enough of my powers to control her." He grabbed Xuru's sword hand. "Do not strike unless I tell you!" He let the intensity of his gaze speak the rest of his feelings on that command.

The human form of Phoenix slammed back against the tree and let out a keening wail. Steam rose from the body and then it turned to a light smoke. Suddenly flames erupted that drifted and swirled into the air. Winds were blowing through the clearing which kicked up pine needles and dust. The shrill cry slowly switched from coming from the immolating body to that of the growing ball of flames that was rising from it. Then the burning sphere burst, and at first a magnificent bird covered in living flames emerged. But then it wavered. The form started to smoke and spark. It ended with a sucking sound as the burning avian vanished and another humanoid-shaped person appeared. He was stunningly handsome… wearing only a pearly-white robe with short, spiked hair the color of blood. His eyes were a bright, electric blue. He looked around, as if with new eyes. But he immediately started to shake and he wrapped his arms around himself. "So cold… so blasted cold…" he mumbled. He glanced over at the scorched remains of the spruce, and the body he had just vacated.

The man who sat there with a slightly dazed expression on his face was indeed Edward, but at the same time was someone else. His face was young, but not as youthful as before, and his long brown hair had a hint of silver in it. He was wearing an old black shirt and worn blue jeans. As the moment of separation pulled away, he moaned and slid over onto his side, curling up in pain.

Xuru stared at the pair. She looked at Strom to see if he was having the same reaction as she was. As soon as she saw the man on the ground, her first thoughts were, 'This… is HIM?'

Phoenix bent down and reached out a shaking hand. He smoothed the trembling man's windswept hair. "E-Edward…?" He withdrew his hand when the man moaned. "I am sorry, Edward… I thought perhaps you could grow to understand me. Perhaps even grow to care for what I have been through." He leaned forward. "I… do not… blame you."

Edward sat up violently and pushed Phoenix away from him in a cloud of ash dust from the scorching they had just put the area around them through. His eyes darted around the clearing in fear, and then confusion. His eyes were a deep jade and looked entirely too old for his appearance.

Strom slowly walked towards him. "Easy there, son… do you know where you are?"

Edward nearly jumped. "Strom!" Then a memory flashed through his mind. "P-Puruu… where is she?" He looked around frantically before he spotted her. Standing up on wobbly legs, he nearly fell before the captain grabbed him.

Roy held his arm. "Take it easy, Edward. Here, let me help you to her." They stumbled and gimped over and kneeled next to the prone goddess. Her breathing was so light now that it was difficult to notice it.

Phoenix slid sideways against the remains of the spruce and sighed. "Nothing… left…"

Edward stroked Puruu's hair. "She's going to die…?" he nearly whispered.

Strom looked at him and then at her. "Not if we can help it. If you transfer power into her, I can direct it to heal her wounds."

Edward looked at the Captain. "You… you don't understand. My power…" He glanced with contempt at Phoenix. "He was my power. I'm nothing here," he started when Strom grabbed Edward and shook him.

"No, you have the power! You channel the purest form of energy in the whole of existence, son! What do you think all of your power was before you came here?" Roy saw Edward looking over at the sullen Phoenix. "Not him, Edward… it was not the Phoenix who gave you power. Don't you see? He was dependent on your power to exist outside your world, not the other way around! When he fought Rob, it was with your power!"

Xuru stormed over to the white garbed man and grabbed him, shaking him violently. "Tell him, Phoenix! Tell Edward the truth!"

Roy looked with some trepidation at the man, who appeared withdrawn. "Xuru…"

Xuru looked down with open hatred at the human-seeming Phoenix in her hands. "NO! Tell Edward the truth, damn you!"

"Fine… he can…" His eyes flickered towards Edward and he closed them in pain. "I… I was just using your power… I am the nothing here!" He then turned and looked sternly at Edward. "You can channel enough power… to do anything!" He immediately turned away and put his face against his arms.

Edward looked at Strom. "You've known… you've known all along, right?"

The captain nodded. "Most of the time… a churning in the stomach mostly," he told him a bit lightheartedly.

He looked coldly into his eyes. "What am I Captain? Just why was I needed for him to use this way?"

Strom shook his shoulder. "You're a Celestial, son. The last of your kind, again, because of that."

Xuru dropped Phoenix, took one step towards them and then two steps back. "He's a what?" she asked nervously. "D-did you say CelESTIAL?"

Roy nodded. She grabbed her sword and took another step back.

"Roy, you do know about Puruu's father, right?" she asked. "HE was supposed to be the last of the Celestials!"

"Amethyst… yes, I remember him," Phoenix mumbled. "He betrayed me… fell for that goddess… fell for that captured angel…" A wild expression swept his face as he realized something. "YOU!" he cried. "YOU! You are their… OFFSPRING!" He held a trembling finger up at the prone form between the two men. "How… how did I not see that? I am all seeing… see? I'm seeing all… seeing all right now… see saw see…"

Edward nearly wanted to belt the creature, but it seemed to be wilting before them. Most of the red in its hair was now snow white. He returned his stare at the Captain.

"What is a Celestial?" he asked.

"A very powerful being," Roy told him. "You nearly have the strength I have, though yours is self contained. Celestials were at one time the protectors of the members of the Phoenix Guild. But after a supposed uprising, the leader of the Guild ordered a purge of them, saying that they were a threat."

"Supposed?" Xuru asked. "What's that mean? They didn't?"

Strom shook his head. "No they never did. It was a plan he came up with to consolidate his strength. If he were to relieve the rest of the Guild of their protection, leaving his alone to augment his own powers, he would have no one to usurp his leadership. You see, Phoenix does have power, but it needs to combine it to overpower higher strengths."

"And you don't?" Edward asked him. It seemed a bit outright, but the captain seemed not to mind, as he shook his head no.

"That's one of the reasons the Denivan replaced the Phoenix Guild as those who patrol and police those with our types of powers and strengths," he explained. "I mean, do I look tired to you right now?"

Edward shook his head no. "Aren't you assisting that other power I sense right now?" he asked.

Roy nodded. "Yes, and I don't feel any of it. You see, as I said, your power is within you, while mine isn't – mine is drawn from an outside source, which allows me to have greater strength when needed, but its governed by committee – hence the reason why its more diplomatically allowed. But it sometimes has its drawbacks, which in this case is a blessing." He gestured to the woman between them.

"Puruu?" Edward asked. "What do you mean?"

"You may have noticed how she was drawn to you almost as soon as you first appeared," Roy noted. He saw the man's face turn slightly scarlet at the statement. The captain smirked. "I'm guessing you did."

"Roy, you're not saying…" Xuru gagged. "Aw, not the moth to the flame analogy!"

He looked over his shoulder at the demon-goddess. "You two were taught it in school, were you not?"

She turned aside and spat. "It's not like it would have worked on me anyway," she snarked. "It's a Heaven thing."

He laughed slightly. "I'd love to see what would happen if Bartok got near you.

"Captain, please! What do you mean?" Edward pleaded.

He smiled. "You and I have a mutual problem when we encounter energy beings," he told him as he placed a hand on his shoulder. "And as Xuru stated, the analogy of the moth being drawn to that flame is nearly correct. Because of our almost unnatural energy source, we tend to draw them to us, unconsciously of course. And it does depend on your particular polarity which side you draw." He looked back at Xuru and found her grimacing.

"Eew! Bartok? Really? That wrinkled old prune? NEVER!" she barked.

"Umm, Bartok?" Edward asked in a whisper.

Strom cleared his throat. "He's the only member of the Denivan who has a negative output," he told him before getting back to his point. "The thing is we have the capability of sharing our energies and strengths with those like Puruu and Xuru. And that sometimes causes them to be drawn to us."

Edward saw the expression on the captain's face. "It happened to you, didn't it?"

Roy nodded as he looked down on Puruu. "Long ago, when I first found out about my powers, and I needed to present myself to those in the Attic, I made the… acquaintance of a goddess while there and nearly caused a violation of the Treaty of Set right there and then. Of course, I was not aware of all the terms of it yet, and pursued a relationship with her until I was told what I was doing. You see, too much of our strength will make them power drunk with a nearly deadly withdrawal period."

"Faa! Which is why you two can NOT be together!" Phoenix harped from his bent over and crouched position. He looked up and glared at Edward. "IT'S - AGAINST - THE - LAW!" he yelled in a long drawn out way.

He looked at the hand he held in his. "So, are you saying that Puruu may only be reacting to me because of my powers?" Edward asked.

"Brother, she's been reacting to you ever since she first laid eyes on you," Xuru pointed out bluntly.

"Exactly," Roy said back to her. "But how close were you to him at the time?"

Xuru blinked. "Umm, err… about the length of that beach back on Shimouti," she guessed.

"Right," he told both of them, "well out of range of our aura. She sensed you, but had not become intoxicated by you. She was interested in you from first sight. Plus, she does have a defense from that effect as well, due to her parentage."

Edward held her hand closer to his chest. "You said something about her father being a Celestial as well?"

"That's right," Roy agreed. "And that is why she shouldn't have the issues that other goddesses have when around us. And you're her only chance son. While Rob is tapping my powers, I must give him what I can. Right now, only you can provide to her what she needs to survive."

Edward looked at Puruu, then reached down and gathered her into his arms. "I'll try." He leaned down and put his forehead to Puruu's, closing his eyes. "Please… live," he whispered to her.

Strom placed his hand on the top of the goddess's head and focused. The Captain could feel energy surging into her and had to place his hand on Edward's shoulder to hold the younger man back else Puruu would burn out. The wounds knit with remarkable speed and Strom slipped away from the pair. It was only important in the most critical stage to modulate the energy. Now that Puruu was consciously drawing it in, the officer's guidance was unneeded. And as he stood up, he could not hide a smile watching Puruu slowly draw her arms around Edward.

Puruu opened her eyes and smiled at Edward.

"So," Xuru asked the captain as he walked over to her, "just what happened to this goddess you bewitched?"

He considered her for a moment. "She's out there, somewhere," he said. "Last I heard she was exiled to Earth on Level 1 of the Master Levels." He noticed the slight smirk the demon-goddess was giving him. "We are only friends – by agreement."

"You damn near married her, and you know it, blasted Supreme!" Phoenix spat as he curled up into a ball.

Roy sighed. "It was one of the reasons we developed these," he noted as he dangled his Doorknob device. "As soon I discovered what had happen…" He trailed off in a brief moment of thought.

"Hey," Xuru cut in, "but what about BJ?"

He looked back at her. "What about JP?" he asked her. "You know, you're getting a bit impertinent all of a sudden…"

Xuru shrugged. "Just making sure you're not Jim Kirk," she giggled. Strom groused at her.

Edward opened his eyes and smiled back at the goddess he held. "Hey there stranger," he whispered to her. "Long time no see."

Puruu's smile brightened as she stroked his cheek. "I prayed you would come back…"

Slowly Edward helped her to her feet, but pulled her close again. "Only for you…" He smiled at her blushing response, but reddened a little himself when the captain cleared his throat.

"I'm sorry to break up this touching moment, but we still have a situation." He looked off to the northwest where the current battle was taking place. "We still have to help Rob."

PBM looked at the sullen Phoenix. "What about him… we can't just leave him here."

"Delivery!" rang a squeaky voice as four people appeared through a teleport move provided by the spirit rodent. Ketchup stood back as he saw the new state of the battlefield. "Whoa! Wipe out city! Puruu, you're hurt!"

Charmega stretched one of her wings and grimaced at the pain as some of the joints cracked. "I hope you didn't start the party early!"

Lugia42 only smiled and ribbed her friend before pointing at Edward and Puruu. "I hope we weren't interrupting anything!" She looked with concern at the man sitting on the ground by the lone remaining tree standing. "Who is that?" she asked.

Ketchup meanwhile had flown straight to the goddess, and then did a double-take as he passed by Edward. "Wait… are you the same guy?"

Edward laughed and received a few looks for it. Nobody had seen the visitor laugh before. "You could say that…"

Puruu smiled and waved her hand over her battle costume, completely repairing it. She flexed her fingers and smiled at Edward. "You completely restored my power." Even the injuries from her previous fight were gone.

Strom cleared his throat again. "Mr. Ketchup," he called out with some commanding tone to his voice. The Pikachu looked over at the Supreme and found him beckoning for him to follow him.

"WhatdidIdonow?" he quickly grumbled as he floated over.

"Ketchup, I want you to take this man back to Forrestal," the captain bluntly told him as they stood/floated over the Phoenix. "Guard him and consider him dangerous to himself and others… but do not hurt him."

The Pikachu looked at him in surprise. "Hurt him? I could hurt him?"

Strom glared at him.

"Oh yea, I guess I could," Ketchup grinned. He scratched his ear. "Should I inform Security Chief Kinza?"

Strom was about to say something when he looked down at the man for a moment. Phoenix only looked up while holding his head between his knees.

"Kinza?" he asked. "Do I know a Kinza?"

Strom took Ketchup aside. "Yes, but remind him that he is a prisoner, understood?"

Ketchup looked back at the man. "You make it sound like they have a history," he whispered.

Strom could not help but feel pretty much the same that his security officer would if he knew that they had finally found the creature responsible for a disaster that nearly plunged all the universes into a perpetual war. "We ALL have a history with this guy," he calmly told him as he held his emotions in check. "Do as you're told now."

"Umm, yes sir," Ketchup said with a short salute. "Okay buddy, up and at'tum!"

Phoenix glanced up through several bangs of his now white hair. "Now a prisoner…" he grunted. He glanced at Puruu and sneered. "Know this little girl… whatever happiness you have now is fleeting. You know the laws…" He then looked back at Strom. "You know them well." He nodded and smiled in a sort of self-satisfaction.

Ketchup glanced at the captain and then Puruu and Edward. "Ooookay… I'll keep the fort down. Come on you…"

"Wait," he heard Edward call out.

Strom turned to him. "It's perfectly fine - Phoenix is not a direct danger to us now."

He smiled and shook his head. "No, that's not it. I'm still very weak, and my role in this fight will be minimal because of it. I think it would be best if I stayed with him. Two is probably better than one watching over him, and I get the feeling I know what you mean by keeping Mr. Kinza at bay."

Strom nodded. "That's not a bad idea… maybe you should be the one to explain it to him, since he was the most effected by what happened back then."

Edward took Puruu's hands in his and kissed them. "Also, I want you focused on that thing and not my safety."

The goddess smiled and hugged him close. "I understand."

Edward looked at the others. "I think the fight with the Phoenix may have weakened Professor North. I also want to try and make up for this bad turn… so if you'll all stand still for a moment…"

He stepped away from Puruu and crossed his arms, summoning power from deep down. A large circle of power spread from him to engulf everyone in the clearing. PBM, M2, Xuru, Lugia42, Rianna and Charmega were momentarily engulfed in columns of light.

"WHOA! WAIT! STOP! OW! HOT! HOT! HOT!" Ketchup yelped. Edward released his power-boost from him and got an angry look back from the angel.

"Sorry," he said to him before the show ended and Edward's knees gave out.

Puruu immediately had an arm around him. "Edward! You should not have done that." She softly stroked his back.

"Tell me about it… so THAT'S what a Thundershock feels like!" Ketchup griped as he shook his ears about.

Edward looked up at Strom. "I can't give you any power…"

The Captain nodded. "It would be dangerous if you tried. The feedback would blow us all up. And yea, no boosting a spirit, okay?"

Edward found a hand being offered to him. He followed it up its arm to find it coming from Phoenix. He looked at Puruu and slowly rose with her assistance. "Thank you, but I don't want anything from you," he told his former benefactor.

Phoenix nodded to himself. "Captain, you were searching for a man with a hole in his soul?" he asked Strom. "He is no longer here. This one's soul has been filled." He then looked at the floating Pikachu. "I am ready."

Edward smiled at Puruu. "I expect you to come back… and you too," he added looking at Xuru.

The demon-goddess, who had been grinning and looking at her healed self, was caught a bit stupefied. "What? Oh… yeah, sure thing I'll come back."

"Even if I have to drag her," Puruu interjected, smiling at her friend.

Xuru started to scowl, but then laughed. "Who will be dragging who, ea?"

Strom suddenly turned away from the others. "Rob's down! Come on people, it's now!"

Edward saw her taking off as he felt the angelic Pikachu teleporting him and Phoenix away. 'I love you…' He smiled and felt his heart make a loop-d-loop when he heard her response in his mind.

---

Dark Myamoto groaned and rolled over to a surprise. "Oh crap, not you… anyone but you!" She sat up and huffed.

Kinza grinned and put the wound healer away. "Well, ma'am… I think after the second medical tech nearly got his hand ripped off, staff willing to help was few and far between."

Dark Myamoto moaned and held her side. "Who removed my armor? It wasn't…?"

Kinza put up his furry paws. "Now that I had no hand in, that was probably the first medical tech. It's pretty hard to treat wounds through armor."

"Actually, I did," a voice from around the back side of a nearby parked shuttle said. They saw Myamoto of the Light tap her nose as she leaned against the open rear hatch. "Seeing that we're pretty much the same person, I simply told it to go away." She smiled and turned to enter the craft.

"I really do hate her," the dark lady growled. She looked across the landing bay. "Why are you helping me anyhow? I'm the enemy."

Kinza shrugged and fiddled with the end of the wound healer. "You're my patient. Besides, according to the Treaty of Advent, both sides are to be treated in the same manner when it comes to aid and assistance when dealing with injuries and life threatening situations. Now sit back and take slow, deliberate breaths while I finish up on your ribs."

Myamoto sighed as the furry security officer pushed her back. She could not explain it, but for some reason the Tomassamassa's firm but gentle grip was relaxing. "You're pretty good at this sort of thing… for a security officer."

He grinned and started to slowly heal the woman's ribs. "I'm used to fixing problems."

Myamoto snorted and looked away. "You haven't a clue about my problems."

Kinza nodded. "So is that why you came to Jessie's rescue back there?"

She shrugged. "I guess… I'm allowed to care, right?"

The security officer nodded in response. "You care about your own Jesse?" he asked of the red-haired former Rocket agent from Level Prime. He put the wound healer back into the medical case and closed it.

The demon rolled over on her side away from him. "Yeah, I care about her…"

Kinza sat back on his haunches. "So when she died…?"

Myamoto curled up. "I didn't want to give her up. Does it satisfy you to badger me with personal questions?"

The Tomassamassa scratched his arm under the uniform. "Are you trapped here then?"

Myamoto glanced back. "And what if I am?"

Kinza reached over and pulled up a chair. "No sense getting harassed while you're here."

"What's that mean?"

He reached into his personal bag where he had stowed the medical kit. After a few moments, he produced a book entitled 2013 – Life After 2012 and opened it at a dog-eared page. "I might as well catch up on some reading while you sleep."

Myamoto looked confused for a few moments, but then abruptly turned away. "Rob's… rubbed off on you…" she murmured in a husky voice. She did not even stiffen when she felt a furry hand rubbing her back as she cried.

Nearby an ecstatic Pokémon scientist was gleefully writing down numbers and times as a black baby Lugia glared at him. "My you look rather unhappy." He knelt down to stroke its head when it grumbled at him.

"E-Excuse me…?" Oak asked, nearly dropping his notepad. She was barely out of her shell and had already spoken to him!

The baby Lugia looked back at its litter mates then returned to the human. "We want our mom-ma!" she said in a squeaky, yet determined voice.

And the Roll Play Rolls Along…

---

[1] See THE LUGIA CHRONICLES - Chapter Eleven - Branded here on FFN

[2] See THE LUGIA CHRONICLES - AFTER CHRONICLES - YEAR OF THE CAT - Chapter Six - Shadow Memories here on FFN

[3] See Haibane-Renmei: CORPORATION - Chapter Nine - Sinner's Rock here on FFN

[4] See HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION - Chapter 12 - To Hell and Back Again - A Haibane's Journey here on FFN

[5] See HAIBANE-RENMEI: CORPORATION here on FFN

©2002-2015 The Lugia Project/Denivan Media Services

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