In the plane... Prof. Birch looked out of the open door. "I can't see Brendan. Oh, I hope he's okay." (I'm such a terrible father. The last time I saw him, I refused to spend time with him so I could do fieldwork. I'm sorry son. I feel so terrible. Please be okay.)

Ruby was looking out too. She had been scanning the scene for a while now. "Wait! Is that May?! ...It is!" She ran over to Wattson. "Wattson! Land the plane now! May's right over there!"

Wattson shook his head. "Wait, I can't. There are too many trees and rocks. I have to find a place to land somewhere else."

She shook the poor old man... which also made the plane shake. "LAND NOW!!!"

"Ruby we-"

"Shut up Norman! This is our daughter we're talking about!" She yelled.

Zigzagoon watched the interesting argument from a corner. He didn't plan on getting involved. But suddenly, Wynaut popped out of some of the supplies. "Zagoon?"

"Wynaut!"

Prof. Birch heard over the yelling. He turned to see Wynaut. "What? What's he doing here?"

A yell from Norman distracted them. "Getting in a plane crash wont help her! Calm down! We'll send help. Wattson, can you get us as close to the ground as possible?"

"Uh... sure..." Wattson started to fly the plane lower.

Ruby seethed in anger. She was going to help her daughter no matter what.

Norman released his 2 Slakings and Vigoroth. "Help them fight. Ready to jump?"

All 3 nodded. Wattson took the plane as low as he could, and one by one they jumped. Vigoroth went first. Then, one of the Slakings. The other came close, but was surprised when Ruby jumped on his back. The two fell out of the plane.

Norman shouted, "Ruby! Hey!" (The fool!)

Slaking awkwardly landed and Ruby slid off his back. Wattson had to fly the plane higher before he would end up crashing into a tree. Slaking was at a loss of what to do.

"We need to get to May. Let's go." Ruby said.

Slaking agreed. He picked her up with one arm and started running in the direction they last saw May.

Back in the plane....

"I can't believe she did that." (Well... at least I can depend on Slaking keeping her safe.) Norman thought.

On the ground... May was getting nervous. A huge fissure separated her from Joel, but he kept walking towards her. As if nothing was in his way. (I shouldn't be scared since Miltank is with me, but I have a really bad feeling.)

Joel came close to the edge before he stopped. "Hello Sapphire."

May and Joel suddenly heard someone approaching. They turned to see Slaking running up towards them. Slaking stopped at the fissure and Ruby was put down. She didn't even notice Joel.

With fissures all around them, May, Joel and Ruby were all cut off from each other.

"May! Are you okay?!"

" ...Mom..." (She's here.)

Ruby noticed the shackles and chains connected to her and she became very angry. "What?! Who did this to you?!"

"I did." Joel calmly said.

Ruby finally saw Joel. They stared at each other for a moment before Ruby took a step back. "You..."

May was surprised. Her mom looked scared.

Ruby took a deep breath before looking at May. Her resolve strengthened and she looked back at Joel. "You did this! I didn't think you would ever stoop so low! Get out of here Joel! I have a restraining order if you've forgotten! Go! And stay away from my daughter!"

"You think I care about that? I plan on killing her. Nothing will stop me."

"You kidnaped her just because of what I did?! Why take it out on her?!"

(What the- Mom knows him?) May thought in confusion.

"I'm not taking anything out on her. It's Norman Sapphire." Joel explained.

"What?" Ruby asked.

(What?!) May thought.

"He took someone I loved away. Now I'll take someone he loves away." Joel said.

"If you still had feelings of love you wouldn't be doing this!" Ruby yelled.

"True. Those feelings went away. But the pain didn't. I wont be free until I kill her." Joel said.

May tried to figure out what was going on. (I'm so confused. How do they know each other? Wait... don't tell me they used to be together! Ugh! I think I'm gonna barf again!)

"If you want to live, stand back and watch as I kill your daughter." Joel blew his whistle again.

The sound reached a Gyarados fighting with Flygon and Sceptile. Gyarados knocked them back with a surprise Fire Blast. Flygon fell to the ground from the hard hit. Sceptile was caught up in it as well and had taken a lot of damage. Sceptile was shocked to see the Gyarados leave. He was sure Gyarados would have finished him off. The other pokemon were battling the other 5 Gyarados. It was up to them to find out what this one was doing. Flygon and Sceptile started following that Gyarados. All while Ruby and Joel were talking.

"You're a fool if you think I'd let that happen!" (All this just for revenge. When I was the one who was wronged. I wont let him hurt May too!) Ruby thought.

Joel just smiled as the Gyarados approached. He would get what he wanted at last. Slaking went on alert as the Gyarados raised it's tail. May gasped as she realized the Gyarados planned to attack her mom first. Slaking pushed Ruby out of the way and grabbed the tail as it tried to crush him. Slaking gripped hard and would not let go. Gyarados looked frustrated but Joel knew that would happen.

In the plane...

"Oh my... do you see that?" Wattson asked.

"Yes. My wife and daughter are in trouble. Hurry and find a place to land!" Norman yelled.

"I'm trying, but I'm afraid we might be a bit late in helping."

Zigzagoon noticed Wynaut come close to the open door. Wynaut seemed to be very worried. Zigzagoon went over and patted Wynaut's back in comfort.

Back with May... Ruby got up and saw Slaking holding onto the Gyarados tail. But it didn't look like he could hold on for long. The Gyarados was thrashing about.

"Use Ice beam on Sapphire." Joel commanded.

Gyarados stopped thrashing and turned his head towards May. That threw Slaking off, he wasn't expecting that. Before he could do anything, Gyarados fired an Ice beam at May. Miltank stepped in and took the blow for May. Her special ability, Thick fat kicked in. Making the damage from the ice attack halved.

May sighed. (I'm glad Miltank is with me.)

Miltank suddenly cringed and her entire body was enveloped in ice. May went over to Miltank and touched her.

(She's frozen solid! ...I hope she's okay.) May thought.

Gyarados turned his attention back to May. Nothing stood in the way now. Slaking grasped the tail harder, but that didn't stop Gyarados.

Before an attack was launched, Flygon barreled into Gyarados. The force started to knock the three pokemon over. Ruby was in the way, luckily, Sceptile appeared and snatched her up and out of the way. Gyarados, Slaking and Flygon fell into a heap. Seeing that there was too much company, Joel blew the whistle again.

Arcanine and the 2 electric dog pokemon were surprised when the Gyarados they were in a battle with turned to leave. The 3 dog pokemon looked at each other before running after their opponent.

Meanwhile, in the pile up, Gyarados dislodged Flygon and Slaking and went to attack Flygon. Sceptile made sure Ruby was safe before going to intercept. Flygon was very tired. He wasn't sure if he could even fly anymore, let alone dodge another attack. Gyarados prepared an ice beam and shot it at him.

Sceptile got there in time to take the hit. He may not have been able to help Brendan, but this is the least he could do. The super-effective hit instantly took down Sceptile.

Slaking was unable to battle at the moment, with Miltank frozen, Flygon too weak to move and Sceptile KO'd, it was time to end this. Gyarados charged up for a powerful attack, called Hyper beam. His target was May. No human could withstand such an attack.

Zigzagoon lunged to grab Wynaut. But was too late as Wynaut jumped out of the plane.

"Wynaut!"

Everyone stopped to look up as Wynaut fell towards them.

"Wynaut?" (What is he doing?) May wondered.

Gyarados roared, he wasn't happy with some little squirt interrupting his victory. Wynaut's body flashed for a moment and a light shined on both him and Gyarados. Creating a temporary bond between the two of them.

Prof. Birch recognized this. "Oh my, is he using Destiny Bond?" (If I'm right, then both of those pokemon will-)

Wynaut couldn't use attacks, but he did have a special move he could use to save May. If all went well... Gyarados fired the hyper beam at Wynaut instead. The devastating attack knocked out Wynaut in one shot.

Wynaut fell right towards May. She caught him before he hit the ground. (Poor Wynaut. Everyone is getting hurt because of me...)

Those thoughts were interrupted as Gyarados roared in pain. Gyarados fell over in defeat. Wynaut's destiny bond worked perfectly. Of course, the only way it could work was to have Wynaut get KO'd. But Wynaut was willing to do that.

And then there were 5.

Another Gyarados appeared suddenly. He saw his fallen comrade and was furious. He turned to May and went after her. Slaking punched Gyarados in the side to derail him. Flygon jumped on Gyarados to try to pin him down, but was easily knocked off thanks to how big Gyarados was.

Annoyed by the disruptions, Gyarados charged at Ruby and Slaking. Slaking was unable to move at that point because of his ability. They were wide open for attack, but two strong jolts of electricity zapped Gyarados. Manetric and Electrike had attacked just in time. Arcanine was close behind them and they watched the Gyarados fall in defeat. Leaving 4 left.

Arcanine was on the side where Ruby was, and went to greet her.

"Oh, hey Arcanine. Do you think you can get to May?" Ruby asked.

Arcanine looked at the fissure separating them. He shook his head, it was too far of a leap. With the 4 Gyarados... they were locked in combat with Grumpig, the other Slaking and Vigoroth. But a look in the other direction made the Gyarados realize their numbers were dwindling. They were told to gather and attack Sapphire if too many of them were defeated. They suddenly left. Seeing that they were going towards May, the other pokemon ran after them.

Back with Joel... (Looks like the others are coming. Good. We'll settle this now. It's been a long time. It really hurt to see the one I loved and had been with for a long time in the arms of another man. That turned to anger when I found out she had gotten married. I wanted to get revenge. I didn't want to hurt Ruby. Just that husband of hers. He took someone away from me, so I wanted to let him know how that felt. The perfect opportunity came when I found out she was pregnant. I would kill his child. It was perfect, but it was hard to find an opportunity. I waited 15 years before I saw a slip up. That window was unlocked. I missed my chance then, and had to follow her to Hoenn. But she always had a pokemon or person with her. So I started training some Magikarp and a Zubat. That Zubat was so weak and stupid. But I could use him to poison Sapphire at a distance so that Arcanine couldn't smell me out. That just had to fail too. I took time away from her to train my pokemon. And came up with a plan to leave her defenseless. Arcanine can't stand water, it was too cramped for Lapras and too deep for Miltank and Grumpig. Flygon might have been an issue, but she foolishly kept him in his pokeball as she looked for Wattson in New Mauville. But I didn't want to kill her just yet. I wanted that man to squirm. But looking back, I should have killed her the moment I had her in my trap. No matter, I will have my revenge.)

The 4 Gyarados arrived and started to attack. May's pokemon blocked the way to May and started a counter attack. It was getting too dangerous for Ruby, so Slaking picked her up and started running in the opposite direction.

Ruby was not amused. "Hey! Stop! Put me down!"

May watched her mother being carried off with mixed feelings. She wanted her mom near her. But also didn't want her to get hurt too. She looked down in her arms. Wynaut was out cold. Suddenly, she heard a crack. (What was that?)

She heard another crack. Then May noticed the ice that held Miltank prisoner was what was cracking. After a few more seconds, it shattered as Miltank broke free.

"Moo!"

"Miltank! Are you okay?"

Miltank nodded. She was kind of cold, but other then that she was fine.

"I'm glad. But we're still trapped." (Seriously, any stray attack comes our way and we're finished. I'm a sitting Psyduck.)

The sudden appearance of Lapras's head at her side surprised May. She looked back to see Lapras was obviously free and offering them a way out. May and Miltank climbed on her head, and then Lapras moved them over the fissure. Mama Miltank and Alice walked over to May.

"You freed Lapras?" May asked.

"Well what did you think we were doing during all that?" Alice had a point.

May and Miltank were placed back down. Then Lapras shot an Ice beam at the fissures they just got over.

(Those idiots!) "Sapphire is getting away! Go get her!" Joel yelled to the Gyarados.

The Gyarados saw that May was indeed on the other side and went to cross over the fissures themselves.

"It would be a good idea to start running now. 2 tired out Miltanks are no match for 4 angry Gyarados." Alice said.

May agreed and they started running away. The Gyarados easily crossed over the gaps and went after them.

May's pokemon, along with Electrike, Slaking, Manetric and Vigoroth ran to the fissures, not knowing how they could cross. But to their luck, it appeared that Lapras thought ahead and made an ice bridge. Slaking walked forward, but was stopped by Flygon. It would be better to let those light on their feet go first. Arcanine and the two other dog pokemon sped across. Then was followed by the others.

Slaking was last. He had been left behind since the others were in a rush. He carefully stepped onto the ice. It seemed stable enough. He made it halfway before it started cracking. Slaking rushed over and made it just before it completely shattered. Okay, he could admit it. Perhaps he was a little overweight. But he was still Norman's strongest pokemon. That meant something. He ran to catch up with the others.

May and Alice didn't get far before the Gyarados caught up. Lapras shocked them with Thunderbolt to keep them at bay. That gave the other pokemon time to catch up. The 4 Gyarados knew they had to take Lapras down. But those pests, Electrike and Manetric would draw all electric attacks. Those electric dogs were a real problem. They had to be stopped.

All the Gyarados enemies ran at them. Lapras left May and Alice to participate. The Manetric and Electrike had sparks coming out of them. Bad news for the Gyarados, but they weren't giving up. They all used Earthquake again. The ground violently shook and everyone but Flygon was caught up in it. Flygon flew up just in time to avoid it. He was still very weak from earlier. And wasn't sure how long he could fly. The other pokemon suffered greatly from the attack. The Gyarados took that to their advantage and whipped them all with their tails. All the pokemon went flying. They all fell near May. Electrike, Manetric and even Vigoroth were knocked out.

Flygon flew down by them to land. He and the rest of May's pokemon were beat up pretty bad. Arcanine and Lapras looked like they were having trouble moving. The Gyarados went to finish them off, but heard a shout.

"Slaking! Slak!" Slaking beat his chest to egg the Gyarados on. He had arrived in time to see the Gyarados injure the others. He planned on buying time. His plan worked, because all 4 Gyarados charged at him.

May looked at her injured pokemon in sadness. They were all in pain. (This is all my fault. If I had just died that night no one would have been hurt. Brendan would still be alive and everyone would have been better off.)

Grumpig looked back at her. (I wish she wouldn't say that. It's not true.)

May was shocked. (What?! Did I just hear Grumpig speak human?!)

Grumpig was equally confused. (What's going on? I hear her, but her mouth isn't moving.)

May thought, (...I think you're talking to me in my mind. You must be using some kind of psychic power.)

(Really? I've never been able to do anything like this before. And I can't hear anyone else's thoughts.) Grumpig thought.

(How strange.) May thought.

Alice and the pokemon watched May and Grumpig. It looked like the two of them were having a staring contest.

Grumpig decided to go with the flow. Since he could make her understand, he would tell her how he felt. (Anyway, I'm glad you can understand. Because you must know that all of this isn't your fault. I don't want you to think that you aren't worth anything.)

(But it's because of me that Brendan was killed and all of you are hurt.)

(No, May. He died to save you. And we all fight for you because you ARE worth something to us.)

(I don't want anyone else to die though. I'd rather-)

(Don't even finish that thought! You yourself told us that you wanted to find your own identity, but that isn't something you find. It's who you are. We like you for you. You've worked hard and became a strong person. You already are your own person. Don't let that man weaken you and make you forget. We, your pokemon, are your friends. We'd do anything for you. And even if it's against your wishes, we will keep fighting for you.)

Grumpig turned to his fellow pokemon. "Grumpig grumpig grum grumpig."

All the pokemon looked surprised and looked from May to Grumpig.

(Um... what did you say?) May asked.

(That I'm speaking to you in your mind. And your doubts.) Grumpig answered.

(You can't blame me for having doubts though. Even if you're still willing to fight, I'm not sure if I should let you. Maybe I should just accept my fate, so that the rest of you will live.) May stared wishing she said that out loud since only Grumpig could hear those thoughts.

Grumpig was about to "say" something when Arcanine said something. Of course, May couldn't understand.

(Arcanine says to tell you that he really enjoyed traveling with you. He didn't like how troubled you were with your nightmares, but he saw how a tragic soul turned into a strong brave one. He has always admired that about you.)

Flygon spoke up and Grumpig translated.

(Flygon says that before he met you, he was all alone. But you gave him a chance, even though it was out of anger. And he finally had friends. He is grateful that you not only became his friend and gave him others, but he was able to do something he never thought possible. Be able to fly. Flygon also says that he's happy you caught him. Without you, he'd still be all alone.)

Miltank chose to say something too.

(Miltank says she has had a lot of fun with you. She feels that she's gotten much stronger and was able to go on adventures. Miltank was so happy when you gave her that scarf. She wears it proudly as a symbol of your friendship. She also says that she hates it when you feel sad. And that you shouldn't doubt yourself.)

Lapras spoke up as well.

(Lapras says that she wasn't sure if you were strong enough when you both met. But now she doesn't know why those thoughts came to her. You are very strong, smart and brave. She's glad she had a chance to meet you. And she wants to continue to stay with you and the others.)

May didn't know that they felt that strongly about her. Her pokemon truly loved her.

Grumpig smiled. (See... and if it weren't for you, I'd still have to bounce around like a lunatic to stay alive. I am truly grateful to you. You not only helped us, but gave us your trust and friendship. We do not want you to die.)

" ...Well..."

Her pokemon looked at her. Did May really understand their feelings? Or would she give up on life?

"Okay, we'll keep fighting. After all, we saved Hoenn from drowning. What's a little battle with 4 Gyarados?"

Her pokemon cheered. Yes! She was back! Alice was completely in the dark. But figured something positive happened. Their cheering was cut short as they heard Slaking yell in pain. They looked over to find that he had been defeated.

"You guys ready?" May asked them.

With renewed strength, all her pokemon stood ready for battle. It was as if they hadn't been injured at all. The Gyarados turned to face them again. And now round 3... The final round had begun.