"You used to captivate me, by your resonating light, now I'm bound by the life you left behind. Your face it haunts my once pleasant dreams; your voice it chased away all the sanity in me" -Evanescence "My Immortal"

25 Effect

Arceus felt the earth shake. And then he wondered why.

As Arceus, he usually knew everything that happened on earth before it did. He could tell you which celebrities were going to get together and why, before even the magazines could dish up the gossip. He could warn the world that a hurricane was going to hit southern Kanto in two months, kill off the entire city of Fuchsia and leave the region in devastation.

But he could not have predicted Yacaeli's wrath. He unfocused his eyes and allowed himself to see what was happening.

It was strange, really. Her every move used to be his priority, but as soon as he realized he couldn't accurately see what she was doing, he had sent out scouts. None ever came back. So he decided, against his better judgment, that he was being paranoid and left her alone.

Now, as hundreds of Pokemon ran, tumbled, crashed, and flew down Mt. Fellorit, Arceus began to wonder if he should go to her himself. He felt the tiny town of Oupavos get trampled underfoot. Some people were crushed, but astonishingly most of them lived.

They soared out into the ocean, abandoning the island of Ceil and leaving to meet the rest of the world with destruction and fury. Every single Pokemon, even the ones who couldn't swim, managed to get into the water and go. Most of them hitched rides on water Types. Arceus couldn't fathom why the Gyarados and Seaking would let others ride on their backs, but then, he'd never liked the fish.

"Father?" said a squeaky voice.

Arceus blinked away the visions and turned to see Mew, adorable and pink and writhing in the air. "Yes, daughter?" he said.

Mew flipped upside down in the air and began batting at her tail. She wasn't looking at her father, but at her ever evasive tail. "Mother is mad," she informed him.

He heaved a sigh. "And they call you intelligent," he said in a low voice.

"But what I'm going to tell you is going to make you mad too," she continued as if he had not spoken.

"Then don't say it," he snapped. "I don't want to collapse the universe on itself." He looked around. "Where is Suicune?"

Mew captured her tail between two cute paws and gave it a victorious nip. "See, the thing that's going to make you mad... it is about him."

"What?" Arceus cried, and he rounded on her. "Where is he? What happened?"

"He's been gone for a few days," she said. Mew gestured to somewhere beyond Spear Pillar's walls with a disinterested wave of her foot. "With Mother."

Arceus's eyes went wide. A strange light glowed around him, and he gave a furious roar. "He's with her? How dare he?" he screamed. He flicked his head, and Mew was suddenly frozen in place. "You," he said in a dangerous tone. "Go get him from Fellorit. Take Shaymin with you."

He released his hold on her, and Mew visibly saddened. "Not Shaymin! He's weird and all he talks about is flowers! I don't want to go with him!"

"Silence!" he commanded, and the hall shook with his anger. "You will do as I say, Mew, or face my Judgment!"

Mew cowered, raising her tail to hide her face. Her eyes, however, showed definite anger. "Fine," she said. "I'll take the creepy hedgehog."

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Paul sneezed when a flower tickled his nose. He blinked awake in a soft, caressing sunlight. Focused on whoever decided to run a flower under his nose. Blinked again in shock.

"May?" he said.

"Oh thank goodness you're awake!" May said, visibly relieved. She dropped the flower. "Now Red can play chess with someone else."

Paul sat up. "You're… you're alive!" He paused to run a hand across his neck, searching for the wound. It wasn't there. "I'm alive," he remarked.

"Kinda," May explained, and Paul looked at her with horror. "According to Red and Blue, we're in a prison. But we're still alive."

His face took on a confused expression. He looked at the flowers, swaying in the slight breeze. He wasn't sure how, exactly, but he could feel the emptiness of the place. In a moment of panic he grabbed for his belt, and relaxed when he felt his pokeballs still attached. "How did I get here?" he questioned.

May shrugged. "I don't know. If we did, we could get out." She smiled and pulled him to his feet. "Come and meet Red and Blue. They're really nice."

Paul realized she named colors. Immediately he was concerned for her sanity. "Are these… friends of yours?" he asked tentatively. People gave imaginary friends the weirdest names.

She nodded. "And Red's really good at chess. Hopefully you're better and can show him a checkmate so good he'll run to Blue crying."

Paul didn't respond, but allowed himself to get pulled by May. All he could think about was Dawn; her beautiful smile, her shining eyes, her idiotic personality, the last expression he ever saw on her lovely face…

Paul ran a hand down his face. He'd left her. He would never forgive himself.

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Dawn and Drew suddenly had something in common. They sat very close together, with tearstained cheeks and trembling hands holding onto each other. Max sat on Drew's other side, Brock next to him.

Which left Misty and me on the other side of the fire, alone.

We were each other's comfort. After losing May and then Paul, we were scared and without a will to keep going. It seemed insane to keep going up. It seemed logical to turn around and walk back. It seemed ideal to jump off the mountain now and kiss living goodbye.

I held the medallion in my fingers, fighting to hold it steady. Misty had had her Starmie freeze some ice around my ankle, so hopefully it would heal. But it was the least of my problems.

The medal was right up close to my eyes. I stared at it so intently, my brain started to hurt. The pictures were so effing tiny that I would need a microscope to see them. The only two pictures I had made out were practically handed to me on a silver platter.

A fire and a key. Yeah, that was hard.

There was one that kinda looked like birds, but then the bodies were all wrong and they were wearing… dresses? Jeez, I didn't know. And then another one was a person, and whoever made the medallion put yellow gems for the person's eyes. Like I knew what that meant.

In total, there were seven pictures. I had figured out two, examined the other two, and abandoned the last three. Not tonight, I decided. Tomorrow, when I wasn't feeling quite so sad and could think a little straighter. I put the medallion in my bag. It was exceedingly silent around our little campfire.

"It's my fault," Dawn said abruptly.

It had been so quiet, and her voice sounded unnaturally loud. I flinched, afraid she had disturbed the peace or something.

"It's not your fault, Dawn, you did all you could," Misty consoled.

Dawn shook her head. "No, I distracted him. I called his name, and he looked away. It attacked him in that instant."

We were silent. Dawn watched the flames of our cloth-burning fire, determined not to look at us. Noiseless tears slid down her cheeks. I couldn't be angry at Dawn, not when she was looking so pitiful.

"I killed Lucas, too," she said just as suddenly.

This made me jump. Didn't we see Lucas just last summer?

"Cynthia gave me a package to deliver to Professor Rowan," she continued, though she didn't seem to care if we were listening. "She didn't say it was important, just told me to get it to him in the next two days. I was all the way in Veilstone. I didn't want to go deliver the stupid package.

"So, while I was out shopping, I decided to call Lucas and see if he could do it for me. He said 'Sure, Dawn, but only if I get something in return.' I laughed, because I knew what he wanted, so I said 'We'll see' and hung up."

We didn't dare interrupt her. Drew was watching her with rapt attention, as was Misty. Max was trying, but yawns were capturing his attention. As I said, we can never tell with Brock, so let's just say he was listening. I found the entire story shocking, and she hadn't even gotten to the worst part yet.

"Lucas and I were training partners," she continued. "My mom had me take some fighting classes, you know, for self defense. Lucas was taking it too. At the time I didn't know why he was taking such as stupid class, but later I realized it was because I was in it. We would practice techniques all the time, and I pretended to ignore that he was interested. Lucas liked me… a lot. But I was in love with Paul. Who was clearly not interested in anything but leveling up his Pokemon.

"I made the first bad decision: I decided to play Lucas so Paul would get jealous.

"I teased Lucas, but I never let him get any farther than a hug. It drove him crazy. He started challenging me to duels, gambling stuff I wanted against my kiss." She reached into her bag and pulled out the knife we'd seen her with before. "I won this from him," she whispered. "Won it like the witch I am. And Paul noticed nothing."

Dawn took a shuddering breath and wiped her eyes. "He took the package while I was still out shopping and was on his way to Rowan. Just outside Jubilfe he was attacked. The package was more important than either of us knew. He figured it out when those devils," she spit the word, "attacked him and beat him to death. Zoey showed up and managed to get his body and the package out of there before they took it. But Lucas was dead when she found him."

Dawn paused. She looked ready to fall apart. "And then… and then, I got a phone call," she sobbed, "and they told me that Lucas was dead, and the funeral was at the end of the week, and if I could be there, it would mean a lot to his father." Her tears flowed without restraint. "I went there the next day, and Lucas was so… so broken and helpless. I couldn't look at his body without thinking, 'I did this to him. It's my fault this happened' and I swore I would avenge him. At least it would somewhat clear my conscience."

I stared at her, open mouthed. Lucas was dead? How could that be? I never went to a funeral. As far as I knew, I was going to see him when Oak and Rowan met up the next time. That must have been why Gary went all the way to Rowan. The old professor was in need of an assistant.

The thought of this made me furious. It was an insult to Lucas's memory to replace him so fast! He deserved a bit of respect, some grief! I couldn't believe how cruel Rowan was, or how heartless Gary was. How could he knowingly take the job of someone who died doing it, and not feel the least bit guilty?

I felt so bad for Dawn. To lose Lucas, her best friend, and then Paul, her love, and to feel responsible for both of them; it was too much for someone like her to handle. I knew Dawn. She was outgoing and enthusiastic and strong, but extremely sensitive and kind. These two things made her fragile and even self-hating at times. Like right now.

Drew placed a comforting arm on her shoulders while she cried. "Why don't we go to sleep?" he suggested gently. We all agreed. With sleep, we could escape the horror of Yacaeli's mountain for a few hours.

Unfortunately, there wasn't much sleeping that night. We were either too scared or too sad to sleep, and those of us who did were plagued by terrible nightmares. Yacaeli was a great cat, wasn't she? Killing off my friends and giving us nightmares all. Good cat, that one.

Morning came. I woke up, nothing exciting. I rubbed my face and felt the dark circles under my eyes. I probably looked like a train wreck. I sure felt like one.

Dawn was lying on her sleeping bag. She hadn't bothered to pitch her tent, and was lying next to Drew's sleeping form. Dawn was looking straight up, her eyes red and unblinking, while quiet tears rolled down her cheeks.

Misty was sighing softly in her sleep. With each exhale, a strand of her brilliant red hair that happened to be in front of her mouth went fluttering like a party favor. I snickered at the thought, then remember where I was and what had happened yesterday. My smile vanished instantly.

Paul was dead. Life had to move on or the rest of us would follow him. We had to go up the mountain and kill the demon Yacaeli or else millions would die.

Brock was awake and fishing granola bars out of his bag. He saw me watching and waved one in the air. "Breakfast," he said monotonously.

I rolled up my sleeping bag and shook Pikachu awake. He smelled the food and scampered over to Brock. I followed, only slightly handicapped by my ankle. It was going to heal in a few days.

But as time seemed to go on this mountain, a few days would be years.

Brock poured himself tin cup of coffee. As I watched, he fished a metal canteen out of his bag. Brock twisted the cap off and poured a clear liquid into his coffee. "Your health," he said, and he took a long drink.

I snatched up the canteen and sniffed. "Is this vodka?" I asked, astounded.

He nodded. "I need a drink when things go really bad," he explained. He gestured to the canteen in my hands. "If you need a bit, you're welcome to it. We've got something pretty awful ahead of us."

I stared at him, the vodka burning in my hands. "And what could that be?" I snapped. I was sixteen. No way was I going to touch alcohol. I'd heard too many stories of kids getting addicted and that was not how I wanted to start my adult life. Mom would kill me!

Brock drained his cup. "Digging a grave."

I froze. The canteen went cold in my hands. Silently, I raised the metal to my lips and took a gulp. It felt like I drank liquid fire. Brock was right; I was going to need it.

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Mew twisted in the air, agitated. She hated the freaky green hedgehog. Although he looked a bit more like a tiny deer at the moment. His flying form truly bothered Mew; he seemed to think he could do all the clever tricks Mew could when she flew.

"My beautiful flowers are growing splendidly," Shaymin prattled. "The other day I chased a swarm of Vespiquen away from my prize Gracidea flowers. Can you imagine if they'd taken them? I would never have been able to fly with you today!"

"Shame," Mew growled. She gave a flick of her tail and zipped ahead. Shaymin zoomed after her. She rolled her eyes in aggravation.

Shaymin flew in front of her face, giggling. "So, what's up with you, girlfriend?" he asked.

"I got stuck going to Fellorit to save my idiot brother from my mom," she said, "with you."

The flying hedgehog didn't seem offended. "I know! Isn't this exciting? We're going to save Suicune!"

"You know, sometimes I wonder if you really are a guy," Mew snapped.

Shaymin cocked his head and gave her an understanding smile. It made Mew want to blast the little rodent all the way back to its Flower Paradise. "Mew, you know I'm a guy. I'm just more in touch with my feminine side than most." Suddenly, he gasped. "Oh my gosh, Mew, look down and tell me if that boat is not the cutest little boat you've ever seen!"

Mew sighed. She missed Lucario. He was not in touch with his feminine side at all, and he certainly didn't creep her out.

*AN: Brock is old enough to drink, I promise, although he's not the best role model. I don't think I'll have anyone get drunk and do something stupid, and I only put the alcohol in there because, well, I think we would all need a drink if we were going to bury one of our best friends.

I really need to space out my updates. If this keeps up, the story will be over in three weeks. Which I think is bad. But I decided to brighten your day, so that you'd review and my day would be good tomorrow, reading the reviews. I'm going to the dentist tomorrow, who happens to be my arch enemy, so I'll need all the support I can get. DON'T FORGET TO DO THE POLL, FOLKS! IT WILL DETERMINE THE OUTCOME OF THE STORY!*