Disclaimer: I do not own Pokemon.

Chapter 25

The rest of the week at Relic Castle passed by in the same fashion: wake up, eat, hone our sensory skills with Lucas and Wolf, physical training with Christian and Volantes, a small-scale battle with Iris and any other rebels that wanted to battle, eat, read to everyone, then sleep. It was such a full schedule, and I was always exhausted, but I felt whole, like this was what I was supposed to be doing. Luxio was happy as well, an inextinguishable fire blazed in his eyes no matter how tired he was. My love for him knew no boundaries.

He really had grown so much in the past month, not just in stature and power, but in strength of character as well. Even in battles, his courage and chivalry stood out. Whenever he was battling a particularly weak Pokemon, he never used his full power, always making sure that his foe was able to learn as well. But when it came to fights with Iris and her Deino, he held back nothing. These battles were the most exciting, and many rebels would come just to watch us. At the beginning of the week, Iris would win most of the battles, but towards the end, Luxio's training had begun to pay off, and we would leave those fights victorious. We were on fire.

After our last battle of the day against Chase and his Gardevoir, we ate some delicious tacos and then, it was time for reading.

Grabbing my book, I headed over to the table at the end of the Mess Hall, where all of the rebels were congregated in anticipation for the end of the story. Hours upon hours had we all spent listening to the story, and my voice was hoarse from so much reading, but it was all worth it. We were finally at the end.

"… Thus Arthur achieved the adventure of the sword that day and entered into his birthright of royalty. Wherefore, may God grant his grace unto you all that ye too may likewise succeed in your undertakings. For any man may be a king in that life in which he is placed if so be he may draw forth the sword of success from out of the iron of circumstance. Wherefore when your time of assay cometh, I do hope it may be with you as it was with Arthur that day, and that ye too may achieve success with entire satisfaction unto yourself and to your great glory and perfect happiness. Amen," I said slowly, closing the book for the last time. I breathed deeply and looked up, looking at all of the faces in front of me, some in serious contemplation, some with longing, and some with tears in their eyes.

Shame on whoever says that books don't have any power.

"Hey Fallow," called out a voice belonging to a young kid, "what does that mean?"

I directed my stare to a girl, about eight years old, sitting in front of me with a confused expression. Furrowing my eyebrows, I began to explain the end in a way that someone as young as her could understand. "It means that even in your own life, you can do great things, just like King Arthur. Even though you may not be a king, you still have the opportunity to change the world, to follow your dreams. And when that day comes, take the opportunity. Chase your dream."

She frowned for a bit, then looked up at me with big brown eyes and said, "Since the legendary dragons will only wake up for a really good person, and the sword could only be pulled out by a really good person, does that mean you're like King Arthur?"

I'll admit, that question threw me off. Was I like King Arthur, the only one able to lead these people? I was just a random person, but then again, so was Arthur. He had such strong ideals, ones that turned his country into the most influential and prominent country in the world. Perhaps I could turn Unova into something even greater than it had ever been in the past.

I smiled at her and said, "I guess I am."

"That's so cool!" she exclaimed, and ran over to her mother, rattling off her discovery.

"So Fallow," called out Lucas, "what book are we reading next? Surely you must have another book inside that huge backpack of yours."

"Well, I guess we can start reading—"

"Unfortunately," interrupted Iris before I could reply, "Fallow has to leave us."

Excuse me?

"What?!" exclaimed Wolf, and then everyone began to shout all at once. The sound was completely overbearing, and cringing, I placed my hand on Luxio's side. What did she mean I had to leave?

"Everyone, settle down!" yelled a slightly perturbed Iris, and everyone reluctantly complied. "Look, I'm not entirely thrilled about it either, but Alain and his Regulation Force are on the move. More and more rebels are captured every day, and we don't have time to dilly dally. So tomorrow afternoon, Fallow will be heading to Nimbasa City, and then she will go to the safe house located in White Forest. You may all say your goodbyes tonight and tomorrow morning. Don't argue with me."

Even though I was angry that she was suddenly making me leave, I was more worried about Iris. She was uncharacteristically serious and tense tonight. Also picking up on her agitation, Luxio looked at me with worry in his eyes. Something was definitely wrong.

As the rebels were all protesting, Iris turned toward me, a deep melancholy in her dull red eyes. "After everyone is done saying goodbye, come to my room." I nodded to her, and I watched her walk away with her shoulders slumped and feet dragging on the floor. This was worrying me.

But I was distracted from the retreating form of Iris when a huge swarm of rebels ran over to me, all gushing about how I couldn't leave them and that they needed me. As much as I had grown to love all of them, I was still uncomfortable with the crowding and swarming.

Luckily, I was saved from them by the dynamic duo of Volantes and Wolf, screaming at everyone to back off. Bless them.

"I refuse to let you leave tomorrow," said Volan angrily, grabbing my shoulders and shaking me back and forth like a rag doll. He had easily become one of my closest friends this past week, surprisingly. And he was definitely not happy that I was to suddenly leave. All of my other friends— Wolf, Christian, Chase, and Lucas— nodded their heads in agreement.

"Look, guys, I appreciate the fact that you all are my friends and you don't want me to leave, but it has to be done," I said matter-of-factly. Seeing that Lucas was about to protest, I held up a hand and said, "I'm not at all happy that I suddenly have to leave tomorrow, but that's my fate and I must accept it, adapt myself to it, and move on."

Wolf looked at me with sad, green eyes. "There's no way we can let you do this on your own."

"Agreed," stated Christian. "If you ever get into a battle that requires hand-to-hand combat, you'd die."

"Haha, very funny," I muttered sarcastically, crossing my arms. Even with Christian and all of his muscular glory, I could barely even defend myself. Pathetic, I know, but inwardly, I was glad that Christian at least attempted to teach me and didn't give up. Themis almost gave up on me, too, but she kept going.

I missed all of my friends at Floccesy. Maybe I could write them letters and get Iris to give the letters to Dylan so he could deliver them to my friends. But I couldn't bring myself to write them. The pain was almost unbearable.

"Please don't leave, Fallow," said Chase quietly. A strong wave of affection washed over me, and I just wanted to hug Chase and protect him forever. But I knew he wouldn't like that, so I resorted to something a bit different.

"Here, Chase," I said, handing him my book, "I think that this book will be much happier with someone like you. I don't read it quite as much as I should."

He stared at me in complete, slack-jawed wonder. "Wha… I can't possibly do that! It belongs to you!"

I chuckled lightly. "Actually, it belongs to some random person back in Aspertia City. I just stole it so it wouldn't burn in a pile with a bunch of other books. It didn't deserve to be silenced forever in Unova. So technically, it's not mine, but I'm bestowing it upon you," I explained. He stared warily at me, so I pushed the book into his hands forcefully. "Just take it already!"

He looked at the book in his hands for a few seconds, and we all stared at him with scrutiny, wondering how he would react. And then, the most amazing thing happened.

He hugged me. And I wasn't the one who initiated it.

It was a "full-force, wrap-your-arms-around the entire person's body, and squeeze with all your might" kind of hug and it was glorious. My heart felt warm, and I just knew that everything would be alright once Luxio and I finally left Relic Castle. It was time to move on toward a new chapter of this adventure.

"We're all gonna miss you a lot, Fallow," said Wolf as he hugged me next. "Even Lucas said he would miss you too."

"Hey!" he protested, crossing his arms and narrowing his green eyes in annoyance. "Don't put words in my mouth! And I said that everything would be different once she left, jerk."

As he continued to mutter to himself, I walked over to him and enveloped him in a big embrace just to spite him. He hated it when I touched him. "Aww, Lukey! I'm gonna miss you too!"

"Get off of me!" he complained, but I knew that secretly he was glad to hug me too. I had grown on him the past week, and he would miss me. I guaranteed it.

I was about to say something else to everyone, but then I looked at my watch.

11:45 PM.

I needed to talk to Iris, and I didn't want to keep her waiting for long. Why was she acting so strange earlier? So with that question in my heart, I told all of the guys that I would see them in the morning so we could continue our goodbyes then. They begrudgingly let me walk away, and I could tell that there was such much more that they wanted to say, so much more that I wanted to say to them. But I needed to know why I was suddenly leaving so early, and so Luxio and I walked toward Iris's room with trepidation.

—

"Iris? You said you wanted me to come talk to you?" I asked her. My heart was beating erratically in my chest, Luxio shook with apprehension beside me. Something was definitely wrong.

Iris's room was always cluttered, with papers and folders laying haphazardly around the room, but everything was off, in some sort of way. Usually, the only pristine part of the room were her exquisite dragon paintings hanging on all of the walls and her statues, all carefully arranged in perfect symmetry around the room. Papers and documents were strewn all over the room, along with broken fragments of her beloved statues. Even her paintings were erratic: some were hanging crookedly on the walls while some laid face-down on the floor. Her desk was knocked over on its side. And in the midst of it all, Iris sat cross-legged in the middle of the floor, absentmindedly stroking her Deino. She only looked up when I called her name.

"Oh, Fallow," she said softly in a detached voice, "come sit in front of me."

Luxio and I walked with anxious steps toward her, where we sat a healthy distance away from her. For a while, we just sat and examined each other. Then I began to notice things about her that I had never perceived before. Normally, she exuded a confidence and cheerfulness that could brighten anyone's day, but now she sat with slouched shoulders in front of me. Her usually bright red eyes held a deep exhaustion that few people had ever experienced, while multiple shadows underlined them.

"I'm really sorry for springing that whole leaving thing on you," she apologized. She sounded so tired. "You weren't scheduled to leave until the middle of next week, but certain complications have arisen." She shuddered, and her Deino moaned lightly, attempting to comfort its distraught trainer.

"What are these complications?" I asked slowly, suppressing a shudder myself. Placing a clammy hand on Luxio, I waited for her answer.

Finally, she began to speak. "Every safe house has an informant that notifies us of any change that happens in the outside world, and ours is a man named Royden in Nimbasa City, but he comes at a high price. Early yesterday morning, I met him near Route 4 to see if anything of great importance had happened. Through much negotiation he—" she paused as a small sob erupted in her throat. "H-he gave me a recording of a Regulation Force officer and Alain discussing some plan. A-and th-the-then…" She broke off into hysterical sobs, shoulders heaving with every breath.

I quickly moved over to her side and eased her head onto my shoulder as I stroked her limp, purple hair. We sat like that for a few minutes, a Champion of Unova crying on the shoulder of the Leader. While she was crying, though, she was able to take out the recording device from her pocket and placed it in front of me.

I wasn't too sure about listening to this thing if it made Iris so inconsolable, but it had to be done. So with great apprehension and many misgivings, I pressed the "play" button, and waited.

At first, all I heard was static and muffled voices, but eventually, everything cleared up. Immediately, I recognized Alain's clear, calm voice.

"Status report?"

A quieter, yet harsh voice spoke out of what I guessed was a computer. The voice said, "We are currently packing in all of the rebels for the trip to Victory Mountain. We should be well on our way in the next two hours or so." From beside me, Iris let out another soft cry.

"That's not good enough," snapped Alain coldly. "I need whatever information these rebels have now. Time is of the essence, and we are running low on time. My father is expecting for us to have detained this situation in the matter of a month. Go get me your commanding officer."

The person on camera squeaked a reply, and there was silence for a moment. Alain let out a heavy sigh. Then, a new voice that sounded eerily familiar began to speak.

"You wished to speak with me, sir?" he said, a charismatic charm emanating from it.

"Oh, I didn't realize that I had assigned you to this mission, Commander Chapman," said a surprised Alain. My heart stopped beating.

"I volunteered in place of Commander Grant, who become horribly sick in these past few days. I was glad to do it," he said with pride.

That voice.

It was my brother.

But I couldn't dwell on this horrifying fact for long, because Alain began speaking once again. "Much gratitude to you, Chapman, but I need a full report on everything that happened. I trust you can keep it as brief as possible?"

"Of course, sir," said Audun. "We arrived at precisely midnight to attack. Using some Psychic Pokemon, we located the entrance and ran in. We assumed that there would only be a few guards, but there were more than we expected. We easily took them and their pathetic Pokemon down. The rebels put up a good fight, but they were nothing compared to us. We detained the rebels and their leaders, former Unova Elite Four Grimsley and former Gym Leader Skyla. We are packing them on to the trains as we speak."

"Any casualties?"

"Some, but they were only rebels. You trained us well, sir," said my traitorous brother.

Alain chuckled slightly, but his laugh held no humor. "I should expect nothing less from my greatest commander." There was another slight pause, and then Alain spoke again. "How soon can you get them on their way to the Castle?"

"If I can get these officers to work to their full potential, then the train should be heading toward the castle in about an hour."

"Perfect," said Alain. "Anything else to report? How is your mission faring?"

A moment of tense silence filled the room, and then Audun began to speak in a taut voice. "Unfortunately, the prisoners do not know anything. Perhaps if they actually cared about someone else instead of themselves for a change, they would know where my sister is now. After we send the rebels off, I'm heading to Aspertia City, where I will hopefully find more clues as to where she could be."

"And you are absolutely sure that your sister will join us? I don't have time for a worthless citizen," stressed Alain.

"Positive," said my brother matter-of-factly. "I apologize, sir, but I must go and supervise this operation."

"Yes, you are dismissed," Alain said, a tad detached. A clicking sound filled the room, but the recording played on. He sighed from exhaustion, and stated to another person in the room, who I guessed was Arconsy, "We finally found one safe house, located in the Dreamyard. But where are the others? And how many exist? I just… I don't know what to do Arconsy."

"Well, you can't expect to extinguish all of the rebels within the span of a few weeks. These things take time. And we already found one, so I'd say things are going pretty swell right now," said a usually indifferent Arconsy with a slightly positive tone. I could just see his hate-the-world expression right now.

"Calm down, Arconsy," said Alain, complete sarcasm lacing his tone, "people might start to think you actually care." Then static filled the recording device, and then everything went silent.

Beside me, Iris was shivering, whether from frayed nerves or fear, I didn't know which. Maybe it was a combination of both. Luxio was tensed up beside me, not understanding the whole conversation, but knowing that something terrible had happened.

And me, well, I didn't even know how I was feeling. Empty? Broken? Shattered? I mean, how do you describe a deep, unfathomable pain? A pain so bad, that all you feel is hollow? My brother, my best friend, had just attacked one of the safe houses, taking Arceus-knows how many people to the Castle to be tortured for information. Alain was right: time was running out. The more time I spent lazing off, the more that the people who I was supposed to protect and lead were being persecuted. I needed to act, and Luxio needed to train even more.

But for now, we needed to sit and mourn all of those who were enduring pain for the rebellion. Come tomorrow, though, it was time to change the world.

hahahahahahhahahahaahhahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha. hi.

So this week was quite possibly one of the hardest ones of my life. I had a major meltdown three days ago and I couldn't bring myself to do anything. But have a chapter!

A new OC was mentioned this chapter, Royden, who belongs to Tumpelo!

emosewa-13: GAHHHH I KNEW I WAS FORGETTING SOMETHING. STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID. I FAILED YOU.

AngelxofxChaos: Oh gosh, thank you so much! I was really worried that it was too rushed or too confusing or something. And you dreamed about it? THAT'S SO COOL!

Not Official Staff: Thanks! I was freaking out the whole time, rereading that scene over and over, hoping that it made sense to everyone :)

StarShine65: Darnit, get better! I hope you feel better by now :) and best of luck to you in your writing :))

Tabos: No one has explicitly said that they ship Sakei with anyone, but I feel like some people have implied that he and Fallow are kinda cute :) and I'm always open to any question!

Hands of Destiny: Hi! So I can't guarantee that your OC will come in soon, but I will definitely try to put him in somewhere!

ZorialWater: Oh gosh, you're pretty great too! And you are totally better than the pizza inventor :)

W. R. Winters: I'm all open for any ideas whatsoever, so if you have any, hit me up :)

Cottonmouth25: I love Iris so much! But I had to show how the past fifteen years have affected her, so we see a completely different side of her in this chapter.

gamergirl101: :))))

Shadow'Blaze14: WOOHOO ITS BETTER THAN ANTICIPATED! I AM SO HAPPY! And Christian is absolutely precious. And I hope you don't mind that Fallow has a bit of a crush on him :))

OPFan37: Hey, you are all good, my friend. In case you haven't noticed, I'm a tad frazzled myself. And thanks for everything :) AND YES. EMOSEWA IS HERE. HE ROCKS.

Swag Giraffe: STOP IT YOU'RE GONNA MAKE ME BLUSH, I LOVE YOU SO MUCH :D AND I CAN'T WAIT FOR YOUR STORY. IT'S GONNA BE SO COOL. And Vocalic rules my world :)

Shinymudkip25: Awesome! I'm so happy it worked out :) and Fallow is, like, my life. She's a queen.

please review. reviews make me feel good. and happy. we all like to be happy. i love you all.