Disclaimer: … I've only collected two hundred dollars, but I need two thousand to get my team out of the slammer; this is not going to be easy…

A/N: I am so ecstatic! This is my second update in roughly three to four weeks; that's a record! I've been on a roll with my writing; all that pent up creative energy's finally found an outlet! This chapter examines not only our hero and heroine a bit more, but we see some more characters that will make their appearances soon... They forced their way into the story; couldn't be stopped. Enjoy!

"…": Characters talking

'…': Characters thinking to themselves

"…": Pokédex speaking or recounting information to trainers

(…): Extra facts about the story

Chapter 26: Nightmares

1:15 AM, May 18, 2005; Laboratory, Oak Homestead, Pallet Town, Kanto Region

Misty tossed and turned, sweat glistening on her skin. Her mind was practically screaming, voices sounding everywhere, and she wondered what she could do to alleviate the pain. As she turned over, she yelped in surprise as she fell off her bed, ending up with the sheets tangled around her legs.

"What happened?" Misty groaned her head pounding. Getting to her feet, she opened the door to her room and slowly walked down the hall, heading for the bathroom that May had shown her earlier. She hoped that there was some kind of medicine in there to stop her headache, or at least lessen the amount of pain.

As Misty opened the door to the bathroom, she flipped on the lights and had to blink a few times to allow her eyes time to adjust. Moving to the medicine cabinet, she opened it and silently cheered upon seeing a bottle of Advil© in front of her. Popping open the lid, she took two out and, swallowing them dry couldn't help but think of the dream, or rather nightmare, that had scared her so much…

FLASHBACK

Misty was running through a dark forest, dressed in just a blue hospital gown. She could hear the pounding of feet and the breaking of tree branches behind her; they weren't far away, and she had to escape. Suddenly, she saw the entrance to a cave and, without thinking ran into it, believing that she was safe surrounded by stone walls.

"You fell right into my trap, my dear."

Misty's head jerked up in surprise but before she could say anything she found herself strapped to a cold, hard, metal table, and no matter how much she struggled to get free she couldn't. "What are you doing?! Once he finds out…"

A dark laugh came from above her and Misty looked up into a cold, hard face that sneered at her. "Yes, well, you'll find that he is just a little bit incapacitated at the moment."

"No!"

"Oh, yes, my dear. Yes indeed."

Misty's vision gave way to the darkness where, after a few minutes, her eyes opened to a field full of flowers. She looked around but only found fields upon fields of red roses, white violets, narcissi (the plural of narcissus), orange mock, forget-me-nots, bittersweet, freesia, white heather, and blue hyacinth.

"Wow, so many different kinds of flowers," Misty murmured, leaning down and picking up some bittersweet. As soon as she touched them, she paused, seeing a multitude of images in her mind. There was Gary, but he was in a car with what appeared to be at least ten, uh, "well-endowed" women, all of whom were chanting his name, some with pom-poms in their hands. She then saw Gary with his Umbreon, telling two other males, one with dark skin and brown hair and the other with pale skin and black, messy hair that he'd changed and was different, and that he'd see them around. He then walked off, waving good-bye with one hand, not looking back.

'What's going on? Gary never told me about this!'

She then saw a younger version of herself talking to three women, one with yellow hair, one with pink, and one with violet. 'Those are my sisters, Daisy, Lily, and Violet, but why are they telling me that I'll never amount to anything? Gary and May told me that they knew that I was an accomplished gym leader and that they were proud of me…'

Then the scene shifted to the messy black-haired man from her second "vision", this time with a yellow mouse on his shoulder. He was talking to her animatedly, his arms waving around wildly before they wrapped them around her shoulders. 'What's going on? Who is he?'

The image of her with the black-haired man's arms around her faded to that of her talking to a large group of people, her auburn hair hanging down her back in waves, with the same black-haired man from the previous image on her left, his head nodding in agreement with her words. Then, all of a sudden, the windows burst open and glass rained everywhere. Misty ducked and covered her head, but still felt the glass shards cut her hands, the iron smell of blood invading her nose in a matter of seconds. She could hear the black-haired man giving orders, but his voice was abruptly cut off when he landed next to her, his breathing shallow and blood leaking from a long slash on his arm and what appeared to be rapidly darkening bruises on his chest.

"Miss Waterflower, I'm so glad that you could join us," came the same cruel voice from earlier in her dreams, but before she could say anything she was back to running in the dark woods, the sounds of broken branches following her and no moon to be seen. However, instead of taking refuge in the cave, she ran past it and into a pair of strong, warm arms that were somehow made of white heather and blue hyacinth.

"Don't worry, Mist, I'll save you. I'll always save you."

Misty looked up, and just as she was about to see the face of the person (or creature; she wasn't sure which) who made her feel so safe and warm the image shattered. She found herself falling into a black void, and when she blinked, she found herself back at the beginning of the dream, running for her life.

FLASHBACK ENDS

Misty splashed some water on her face. 'What does that dream mean?! I've had it no less than five times tonight, and each time just makes it harder and harder to figure it out. Maybe May'll know.'

Misty went to leave the bathroom, but before she could do so, a jolt of pain went through her, causing her to cry out. Kneeling on the cool tile she held her head as she saw the nightmare repeat again; this time, however, she was awake. 'Can, can that even be possible? I mean, don't dreams and nightmares happen when people sleep and not when they're awake?!'

After a few minutes, the pain subsided and Misty slowly got to her feet, clutching the bathroom sink for support. Clutching her head, she moaned. "Okay, maybe I need to get some more sleep first before I talk to May."

Misty stepped out of the bathroom but having her eyes closed meant that she ran into something hard.

"You okay?" came a voice and Misty looked up, seeing the worried eyes of her cousin.

"Yeah, I'm fine; well, sorta. I had this really weird nightmare, and even had it while I was awake, and I was just wondering if you had any idea about what it meant."

"Well, it might make more sense to me if I knew what it was you were talking about," replied Misty's cousin and without warning reached down and picked Misty up, carrying her bridal style to her bedroom, where Misty was gently placed on her bed.

As Misty recounted her dream, she watched her cousin's eyes, seeing the varied emotions that ran through them. As she finished, she felt herself getting sleepy. Her cousin, noting this, told her to go to sleep and as she did so, Misty felt a hand gently tuck a stray piece of hair behind her ear.

As Misty drifted off into sleep, her cousin strode out of her room and, shutting the door leaned against it and slid to the floor, cradling his head in his hands. 'Damn it, she's remembering things about her past. She remembered me when I was an arrogant ten-year old; when her sisters put her down and told her that she'd never amount to anything; when I told Brock, Ash, and her that I'd changed; even when Ash first asked her to go out on a date! Then, that last image, well, that last event had to be when she was kidnapped. What confuses me are the fields of flowers; and, how she was able to remember them all. Then, there were those images with the cruel voices and the fear…'

"What is going on?!" Gary was so frustrated that he didn't even pause to think about how he had tucked a piece of Misty's hair behind her ear, a motion usually bound to the relationships of parent and child, or lovers/spouses. The latter category, in and of itself, should have bothered him the most, considering that Misty was an engaged woman and he was supposed to be her cousin, but oddly enough that didn't even bug him. Gary's action had felt completely natural, which was why it didn't bother him. Not that he realized this, of course; he was focusing all of his energy on trying to figure out Misty's nightmare, but when the action came back to haunt him Gary would discover just why he had done what he did…

1:50 AM, May 18, 2005; Office of the Master Elder, Undisclosed Location

The Master Elder grumbled underneath his breath as he filled out paperwork. Honestly, it wasn't enough that he had to deal with the failure of Butch and Cassidy in their mission to bring back his missing… pet, but he also had to deal with that pesky relationship developing between former gym leaders Falkner and Whitney. Honestly, couldn't Falkner just keep his hands off her, and Whitney her hands out of his pockets? No, he supposed not. Still, this was not to be tolerated; he'd have to make an example of them the next day. Of course, there was always the chance he could assign them to do his paperwork, leaving him free to train his protégée… but no. Too risky to let those fools look at papers as important as the ones he was studying now. Even if it was one thirty in the morning, paperwork was a never-ending problem, and the Master Elder hated it with a passion.

Without warning, the door to his office slammed open, and a rather well built young man with bright blue hair and black eyes ran in. Bowing, the man didn't wait for the Master Elder's permission to rise and, standing up and said, "Sire, I have terrible news. Norman Maple is not here."

"What?!" The Master Elder stood up and slammed his hands on his desk, his dark emerald eyes glittering with rage. "Explain."

"I was looking through the reports of all of my fellow agents, sire, when I noticed that one of the notes was not filed properly. I went to check it and noticed that it hand-written in pencil, not typed, and the penmanship was sloppy and unrefined. Taking a closer look at it, I realized that it was a fake, stating that Norman Maple was a field agent and had been sent to the Kanto Region. I checked in with every field agent in Kanto and none of them had heard of the message, much less seen the man. I thought that you would like to know this, sire."

The Master Elder was furious; no, he was beyond furious! How dare that… that… man not be present? He had double-checked the documents in question after he had taken those fools from the Hoenn Region captive and Norman Maple had been present. So, the question that remained was: Did Norman somehow escape like his red-haired pet had done, or had he been present at the conference but somehow escaped? If it was the latter, then who in the hell tried to fool him?!

"Agent Brawley, I thank you for your loyalty. You will be rewarded in due time."

"Sir, yes sir!" Brawley replied, bowing again before leaving the office. The Master Elder, meanwhile, sat down behind his desk once again and, muttering curses under his breath reached underneath the desk and pressed a series of small buttons, which had the effect of summoning one of his best agents with all due haste.

Within a few minutes, said agent walked into his office and, kneeling said, "Sire, what can I do for you?"

The Master Elder folded his hands together and, staring at the agent replied, "I have a task for you, my loyal and trustworthy agent."

The agent nodded and, after receiving the mission bowed once more and left the office, the door closing quietly. The Master Elder sat back and, folding his hands again thought, 'If my agent cannot fix this nightmare with Norman Maple, then nothing will save either one of them from my wrath. Nothing at all.'

2:05 AM, May 18, 2005; Phenac City, Orre Region

Rui Orre (yes, she knew that her husband's name was a bit strange, but then her maiden name Ska hadn't been much better) opened her ice blue eyes to find that her husband of two years was tossing and turning, his silver hair in disarray. Sighing, she reached over and lightly touched his shoulder, not surprised when he stiffened under her touch before relaxing.

"Which nightmare was it this time?" Rui asked, already running the known ones through her mind. There was the nightmare where a group of bandits kidnapped Wes as a child, torturing him for a week before the local police found him, or the nightmare where Cipher stole him then experimented on him for pure amusement. There was also the one where he had been facing Evice and had been severely burned, saved only by his Suicune's Water Gun attack; or the nightmare where she had been kidnapped… actually, Rui decided that one was not worth remembering; it hadn't been that long ago and it still had an effect on her.

Wes sat up and, looking at his wife replied, "It was entirely new. Something I've never seen before."

"What was it about?"

"That's just it; I can't remember."

"You can't be serious?"

"I am; want me to spell it out for you?"

"Calm down, Wes. I'm just in shock that you can't remember the dream at all."

"Actually, from what I do remember, it was more of a nightmare."

"A nightmare? Well, do you remember anything from it?"

Wes' molten gold eyes fell on his long, royal blue duster that was draped over a nearby chair and, reaching over pulled out his P DA and, flipping it open went to the newly installed map function, something he had had imported from the Sinnoh Region. Pulling up maps of the other known regions, he gave it to Rui and said, "From what I remember, this region kept popping up again and again, which means that I should probably go there."

Rui looked up and, glaring at Wes replied, "What's this 'I should probably go'? I'm coming with you."

"No."

"Yes, Wes, and that's final. You are not leaving me behind again while you run off and play hero."

"I do not play hero," Wes growled, eyes flashing angrily.

Rui crossed her arms. "Really? Who ran off and defended the newly built Gateon Port from a band of renegade Cipher team members and left half of his Pokémon and his wife here without any warning?"

"That was a one-time thing!" Wes didn't like to be reminded of that incident. Yes, he had successfully defended Gateon Port, but in the process, he had ended up severely burned by an enemy's Shadow Quilava, and if not for his Suicune's quick thinking, he may have ended up with one less arm.

"Sure, and how about when there were rumors of more Shadow Pokémon showing up in Pyrite Town and The Under? Who went there with just Entei and Raikou and almost ended up getting seriously injured again?"

Wes winced. Damn, he had been hoping that she hadn't known about that. The incident hadn't been pretty; hell, his semi-friend and rival Cane had had to come and rescue him when a section of the tunnel near the rust bucket that had served as the main entrance to The Under for years had almost collapsed. He had been lucky to escape with his life, not to mention both legs, as rusted iron beams had trapped his legs. Wes had stayed in Pyrite Town, recovering from the near disaster for two days, and upon returning home had decided not to tell his wife what had happened. Apparently, she had found out.

Wes sighed. "Fine; you can come with me. But, you have to be careful, all right?"

Rui snorted, something that Wes always found mildly amusing, as she often scolded him for snorting, but she did it as well, and replied, "I'm not the one who almost always gets hurt going out on rescue missions." Her expression softening, Rui continued, "Besides, I can take care of myself; you know that."

Wes merely nodded his head, and replied, "Fine. We'll leave as soon as possible for the Kanto Region with all of our Pokémon and equipment; this afternoon, if possible." As Rui fell asleep, Wes couldn't help but think that something bad was going to happen; he just knew it.

3:45 AM, May 18, 2005; Fifteen miles outside of Cherrygrove City, Johto Region

"Wake up!"

A young man about twenty-five years old suddenly sat up, his heart racing. His girlfriend sighed and gently felt his forehead. "Are you okay?"

The man breathed deeply, forcing himself to calm down before opening his green eyes and replying, "Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine."

She rolled her eyes before curling up beside him, wrapping both their blankets around them. "You had that dream again, didn't you?"

"What dream?"

"Come off it, Green. Red swears that he heard you tossing and turning when you two were off on your so-called "male-bonding camping trip" and that you looked horrible the next day."

"Guess we know who secretly dreams of being a gossip queen, huh?" Green looked away from his girlfriend, running a hand through his cinnamon locks. "It's not that easy to talk about, Blue."

"Why not? You know you can talk about anything you want with me, right?"

Green stared up at the stars for a moment before turning to Blue and, looking into her eyes replied, "I know, but… it's just that, this dream is telling me something, I know it, but I can't even begin to interpret it. It's like the answer's right in front of me, but I can't grasp it."

"What's it about?" Blue tucked a stray piece of light brown hair behind her ear, once more cursing herself for not getting her hair trimmed earlier that month. It was entirely too long now, even for her.

"I see this guy – and no, not in that way – and he's standing in front of me, his hand outstretched, as if offering me his friendship, but when I go to reach for it the hand fades away, as if it wasn't there. Then, I see the same guy, but this time he's surrounded by a lot of people, one of whom looks disturbingly similar to Red, but there's a ring of fire surrounding them. I try to reach them, but before I can the image dissolves as a mouth full of teeth appears and swallows the guy and an orange or red-haired woman whole, their screams all that's left behind."

Blue, rather than replying right away chose to move closer to Green, taking comfort in his strength. That dream was dead scary, and she was afraid of what it meant. Blue herself may not be a total expert at dream interpretation, but she knew enough about it to realize that Green's future was destined to be full of obstacles, all of which could very well affect their futures, and possibly his life.

"I think that we need to get the others in on it," Blue continued, ignoring Green's outraged look. "Look, from the sounds of your dream, the future's going to be rough, and we're going to need all of the help we can get. Don't argue; you know that it's true."

Green muttered under his breath before giving up and, resting his head on Blue's head replied, "Fine. We'll get in contact with them tomorrow. I hope you know what you're doing."

Blue didn't reply, but as she drifted off to sleep again she thought, 'So do I.'