When The World Ends

by Skylight Sparkle

Nothing in the world lasts forever. Sometimes the good guys aren't all that good, and the bad guys aren't quite as dark as they seem. Ash and his friends are about to learn that, in a world that's about to end, all actions come with a consequence and all secrets come with a price. Sequel to The Harbinger of Life.

37. Our Deepest Fear

When The World Ends
Chapter 36 - Our Deepest Fear

Storms had plagued them over the last week. Thick clouds with raging winds and rain that chilled to the bone. Some people whispered that it was still the after-effects of Groudon and Kyogre's death (which made a lot of sense), but others theorized that it may have been another legendary Pokémon wreaking havoc on them so that they could no longer organize against Team Rocket. That also made a lot of sense.

So when the clouds broke, revealing the blue sky and the warm sun, Max was quick to slink out of the safety of the Dragon's Den to be able to actually breathe.

He pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose and looked towards the white clouds and the blinding sun above him. It felt nice to be outside and not coddled for once. A scowl passed over his face as he thought about how much the adults shielded him, babied him even. When May was his age they had gone head to head with legendary Pokémon. Hell, he himself had been a part of those adventures. He could understand keeping other younger trainers safe, but he had been through terrible situations before. He was smart, and he could handle it.

"If you keep scowling, your face will stay like that."

Max jumped a bit and looked over his shoulder to see Bonnie approaching, Dedenne resting on the top of her head. She plunked herself ungracefully at his side and he asked, "Does your dad know you're out here."

"Nope." She shrugged her shoulder. "I was going stir-crazy inside. Besides, they'll know we're out here. There are cameras everywhere." She pointed over her shoulder at a little round thing he had assumed was just a decoration. When he voiced this, Bonnie laughed. "Clemont made things like that before." Her smile faded away a bit. "I miss him."

"I'm sure he's okay," Max reassured her. "He's with Ash."

"I'm not sure whether that makes it better or worse," Bonnie admitted, though she sounded almost amused. "I love Ash too, he's like my second big brother, but he gets in trouble all the time."

"Sounds about right," Max agreed. He looked back towards the sky and frowned. "You really never ran into any legendary Pokémon with him?"

"Well..." Bonnie trailed off. "There were a couple times that he would go off on his own for periods of time and later on we heard rumours about legendary Pokémon being seen. Then there was Squishy."

"Squishy?"

She looked wistfully at the sky. "Yeah. He was a form of Zygarde. He was my friend for a while but he had to leave one day. I never knew what happened, but Ash left again around that point in time. That was also when Team Flare tried something and the league stopped them." Bonnie looked at him and tilted her head. "Do you think...?"

"Ash was involved? Definitely." Max nodded his head. "He's the Chosen One, which is more like a mediator between legendary Pokémon and the rest of the world. It's his job to protect them from us, from each other, and to protect us from them." He tapped his finger on the ground as he watched Dedenne scurry off of Bonnie's head to sniff at a nearby flower. "The thing is, people get hurt, we've been hurt before. He probably didn't want to get you involved if he could help it."

"I get that, it just seems stupid," Bonnie said bluntly.

"Stupid?" It made a lot of sense to Max.

"Yeah. I get wanting to keep us safe, but everyone knows that Ash works better in a team than completely on his own." Bonnie held her legs to her chest. "I wish we could help him now."

"Me too," Max agreed. "I hate feeling useless."

"Hey, Max?"

"Hmm?"

"What happens if we lose?"

His head snapped around as he looked at Bonnie, who seemed oddly small as she looked at the ground. Sure, she was physically a small girl, but he already knew her personality was bigger than life. She was so bubbly, optimistic and confident. Really though, she had a legitimate question.

"I guess, everything changes," Max admitted. "They'll probably take our Pokémon, or severely limit our usage of them. Blocking the regions from one another again makes sense so we can't fight together like we're starting to now. Everyone in positions of power will be replaced with people loyal to Team Rocket." He shook his head. "All the while, the environment will get worse. The Mirage Pokémon won't be able to replace the real legendaries. The world will get worse and eventually..."

"We all die," Bonnie said. Max expected her to sound sad or downtrodden, and was taken aback by just how angry she sounded. "That's stupid too! It's a bad plan! How can that be their plan? It doesn't make sense!" She stomped her foot on the ground.

"Maybe they have an endgame we don't know about," Max theorized. Actually, he was pretty sure that wasn't just a theory. He was sure that Team Rocket had some kind of endgame that they were unaware of. Nothing made sense otherwise.

"Den!" They both jumped as Dedenne cried out in alarm and ran back to them, stopping and staring at the bushes defensively.

"Dedenne?" Bonnie asked hesitantly, getting up to her feet. Max mimicked her motions, hands resting on his Mightyena's Pokéball.

Dedenne's fur stood on end as its eyes glared at the bushes. The leaves rustled, and both children took a step backwards.

Then a pink, furry Pokémon popped out and stared at them with her big, blue eyes. "Mew?"

"Mew?" Max repeated in shock.

"That's a Mew?" Bonnie asked, eyes wide with disbelief as she took a step forward. "It's so cute!"

"Mew!" The Pokémon cheered as it did a little loop in the air and smiled at Bonnie.

"Wait a sec!" Max cried out. "It could be a mirage."

Mew looked insulted by his words and shook her head. She looped around them and then flew away, stopping to look back over her shoulder and waving to them.

"You want us to follow you?" Bonnie asked, picking up Dedenne.

"Mew!" Mew nodded her head.

"Wait!" Max yelled again, grabbing Bonnie's arm before she could move closer to the Pokémon. "It might be dangerous. Maybe we should get someone else?"

Bonnie stared at him, blue eyes searching and curious, before her lips straightened into a firm line and her eyes blazed with a fierce determination. "If you're scared, you can stay here. I'm going to see what she wants." She pulled her arm away from him and started to trail after the legendary Pokémon.

Max bit his lip before releasing his Mightyena. "Stay close." He trailed after Bonnie, his Pokémon following him.

Bonnie kept her eyes on Mew as they hurried towards the woods, ignoring Max's warning cries. She wasn't sure how far they ran, or where they were going, but she wasn't afraid.

Though she did almost run into Mew when the Pokémon finally stopped in front of a giant boulder.

Bonnie observed the rock a Max came to a panting stop beside her. "What's important about this?"

"It's what's under that's important." Both children jumped at the childish, feminine voice that ran through their minds.

"Did you just-?" Bonnie started but Max interrupted her.

"Of course, you of any Pokémon would know telepathy," he said with a sigh. Bonnie shot him a glare that he didn't notice.

Mew giggled a bit and touched the boulder. Both of the children gaped in shock as it melted away into nothingness, revealing a set of stairs going down into the earth.

"There," Mew said happily. "Now you have a better way in than those other tunnels. Good luck." A pink glow surrounded the little Pokémon, and she vanished.

Bonnie and Max both stared at the tunnel in front of them before exchanging shocked looks.

"We need to show everyone else."

...

Clemont stared at the strange, rippling sky of the Distortion World. It was strange how it was almost comforting. When they were in the Distortion World, despite the fact that the stories of it were so negative, they were safe.

It wasn't a negative place, he was quickly realizing. It was just a place that was different from theirs that was created to balance it, and poor Giratina, who had legends saying that it was a vicious monster, was one of the nicest legendary Pokémon Clemont ever met.

They owed everything to Giratina.

"You know, I've been thinking," Serena spoke up, "in Kalos, the league just recently took down Team Flare." She ran her fingers gently against Giratina's strangely textured skin. "So they might not be a problem there at all. They couldn't regroup so quickly, right? And we know Team Rocket didn't really have a huge footing there. I imagine Diantha took them out. Team Flare though..."

"That depends on how they were taken down," Leaf replied. "If the leader's still there..."

"Lysander. He was the leader," Ash said, startling everyone. He looked down at Pikachu unsurely as they all looked at him.

Misty leaned on his shoulder, and said, "Tell them."

Ash looked towards Serena and Clemont. "Diantha told me to keep quiet about the whole thing. I was there when it was Alain."

"Alain?" Clemont raised an eyebrow. "The way you talked about him at the league was like you had no idea who he was."

Ash shrugged. "I didn't really know him and the whole thing was a secret anyway." Pikachu nodded his head in agreement.

"Misty knew." Serena pointed out, a light bit of accusation in his voice. Ash just shrugged, not looking the least bit guilty for that.

"Pikachupi cha pi Pikapi," Pikachu said dryly.

Ash blinked and looked down at his Pokémon with a betrayed expression. "Pikachu!"

"Pi," Pikachu shrugged his shoulders.

"What did he say?" Cilan asked, leaning forward to look at them from where he was sitting, trying to keep Iris from running up to Giratina's head and ask a hundred questions again.

"Nothing." Ash glared at Pikachu who just smirked back.

Giratina suddenly started moving upwards, startling them all. Dawn leaned forward a bit and said, "We must be there!"

"Time doesn't move the same here, so it's possible," Clemont agreed.

They all held on as Giratina released an attack that ripped open a swirling portal above them. Ash closed his eyes in an attempt to block out the sensation of going from being surrounded by Aura to just feeling the surface of it in their world. It was always a bit of a shock to his system.

The first thing that hit them all was just how warm it was. Unlike Sinnoh and Unova, Kalos was not chilled or covered in snow. In fact, it looked exactly how Ash remembered it.

The area they were in was a sandy beach, with the sun high in the cloudless sky and a gentle breeze to fight off the heat so it wasn't scorching like it had been in Hoenn.

"Oh wow," Iris mumbled as she pulled off her jacket. "It's so much nicer here." She clearly approved from her tone of voice.

While everyone else started pulling off their own jackets, Giratina vanished, but that came as no surprise. It was safer for the Pokémon to only surface every once in a while.

Establishing the fact that they had to give each other privacy when they were changing was something that they very quickly did, especially as their group got bigger and bigger.

Clemont stretched out his arms and rolled up his sleeves before digging through his bag to pull out his laptop. "Alright, let's see where we are."

"You know...we've come full circle, haven't we?" Serena asked, looking around at Clemont and Ash. "This is where it all began for us."

"It's only been a couple months," Clemont noted. "It feels a lot longer than that. Right, Ash?"

Ash wasn't paying attention to anyone else, not even Pikachu as he took a few steps forward and looked around him. He made a face, clearly perplexed by something. He closed his eyes to focus, but opened them quickly again.

"Ash?" May called out to him, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"It feels different here," he explained. "Like the air's not as heavy here." His eyes darted left and right. "There's one close to here. It's a little faint but close enough."

"Giratina probably brought us as close as he could get to one," Gary said. "And maybe the other part has to do with the fact that they may not have Mirage Pokémon here." He raised a hand above his eyes so he could stare at the cliffs that bordered the beach. "Where are we?"

"On the beach just outside of Ambrette Town," Clemont answered as he finally got a GPS match. "We could always try going there first to see if we can get any supplies. If Team Rocket or any other team doesn't have backing here, we may be in the clear to use normal transportation for once."

"You mean no more grand theft auto," Leaf asked him, bemused. He just smiled at her.

"Is there any place significant around here?" Cilan wondered, tapping his lip with his finger. "Where a shrine might be?"

"The Glittering Cave is pretty close," Clemont said, standing up and putting his stuff away. "If I had to take a bet, I'd say that's a good place to start."

No one had any sort of objections. Then again, this was the first time in a while they felt warm and surprisingly safe, so there wasn't really much to object to.

They skirted around Ambrette Town the first time they drew near, deciding to head towards the Glittering Cave first.

"When we come back, Iris and Cilan could go into the town to see if it's safe," Leaf suggested. "They're the least likely to be on any sort of shit-list at this point."

"It'd be nice if we could sleep in the Pokémon center," May said wistfully, clasping her hands in front of her as they started to walk along the side of the cliffs, looking for a place to get up without having to use their few escape ropes to try and scale the walls.

"A bed would be nice," Serena agreed with her, sighing. "An actual shower too."

"Come on now, our portable cleaning wipes are fantastic," Cilan noted, sounding rather optimistic but they all knew he was being sarcastic.

"We could probably get up that way, if it'll take us to where we need to go," Iris noted as she stared up a steep path.

"That's still really steep," Gary said as he looked up.

Clemont groaned as he followed her gaze. "I wish I could say no but yeah, that'll take us there." He glanced over at Ash. "What do you think?"

He didn't say anything, unable to really tell yet. Though it was easier to feel things out with his Aura compared to other places, it was impossible to be that specific until they got closer. Realizing that Clemont was waiting for a reply, he shrugged.

Pikachu looked at the cliff and huffed, jumping up on his trainer's shoulder.

"Why don't we just use a flying Pokémon?" Dawn asked. She wrung her hands together. "It's just...that's still really steep. If someone slips they could get really hurt."

"The Pokémon are all way too tired, we haven't been able to take them to a Pokémon center in a while and I don't know about you, but I'm out of any type of potions," Misty pointed out.

"I don't have the right berries to make natural cures either," Iris added.

Ash stared up at the cliffside, pursing his lips slightly. He shifted a bit, eyes darting over the different places that could act hand or foot holes. He looked around at Gary and said, "Do you have an escape rope? Just one?"

Gary eyed him briefly before looking up at the slope. "Think you can get up there?" A very small part of him was worried too, because though Ash didn't seem outwardly as depressed, there was still the chance that he could just decide to not catch himself if he slipped. Gary wished he didn't have to think that way, but he'd rather be prepared to help his friend.

Almost like Ash knew what he was thinking, he said, "Climbing has always been easy for me."

Gary nodded and pulled out the longest escape rope they had. He passed Ash the rope, and Pikachu jumped up onto Gary's shoulder instead.

Without waiting, Ash slung the rope so it was draped over his shoulder and jumped, grabbing onto the lowest jutting rock. From there, he found it easy.

Ash had always loved to climb. He had always been good at it, able to scale almost anything with ease to the point where other kids would dare him to do the most ridiculous stunts he could. He'd gotten in trouble a couple times for ending up on rooftops or the top of a tall basketball net.

As he quickly scaled up the cliffside with just a very slight slope with absolutely no safety precautions on his part (though if he fell, he could always just stop his fall with his Aura so it wasn't like he was worried), he felt almost free. It was a strange feeling, and maybe it had to do with the fact that there was no negative Aura pressing down on him or even just the nice weather. He didn't know. What he did know was that he felt like he could just keep climbing for hours and be completely happy.

The cliffs weren't that tall though, and he was soon hauling himself to the top. He looked around before finding a large rock that he wrapped the rope around, securing it so that it wouldn't slip, tugging on it. He backed towards the cliff while holding onto it and tossed the rope down to his waiting friends. "Use it to climb up. It's not hard."

"Says the Mankey," Gary replied while shaking his head. Pikachu jumped ahead of him, easily scaling up the rope and jumping onto level ground next to his trainer.

Gary grabbed the rope once he was sure Pikachu was up but then turned to Leaf. "You wanna go first?" He glanced at her black dress and wiggled his eyebrows ridiculously.

She snorted. "Joke's on you, I'm wearing shorts under this." She grabbed the rope, tugged on it, and then started scaling the side. They could just barely walk up the ledge, but without the rope, it would be nearly impossible for the people who couldn't climb. When Leaf got to the top, Ash reached out to her. She grabbed his hand and he yanked up. When Gary came up behind her, they both helped him but then she smacked him.

"What's that for?" Gary asked, holding his arm where it sort of (not really) stung. Leaf raised an eyebrow at him and motioned to her dress.

Dawn and Serena were the last ones to scale up, Dawn going first at Serena's insistence. It wasn't that they didn't trust Clemont (the last one left aside from them) not to take advantage to look up their skirts, but they agreed to let him go first anyway.

"So where to now that we're up here?" May asked them stretching out her arms.

Clemont groaned from where he was gasping on the ground. "We have to walk that way. There are a lot of steep falls so be careful. Some people prefer to take Pokémon over the terrain, it can be rough, but we can get there on our own by tonight."

"Let's keep going then, the sooner we get there, the sooner we can check out Ambrette Town to see if we can actually stay in a Pokémon Center for once," Dawn insisted, shifting on her feet, thinking about having a nice shower for once.

As they made their way around the rocky formations, they could see Ambrette Town in the distance.

"You know, I really wanted to come to Ambrette Town," Misty said wistfully. Ash blinked at her, surprised. "I wanted to ask if we could come after the tournament. See the beach and the aquarium." She looked back at the town that led to the ocean.

Ash's expression softened. He shouldn't have been surprised that visiting this town had been a part of her original plans when she came to Kalos to see the tournament. Of course, everything was thrown out the window after that.

He was a bit startled when Misty suddenly grabbed his hand. He looked at her and Misty beamed at him. "Maybe we can come back after all this is over."

After it was all over? That was a nice sentiment. Ash nodded his head and that seemed to appease the girl, who muttered something to Pikachu as the Pokémon climbed from his shoulder over to hers.

He could feel it. Everyone was starting to feel a little more hope. Maybe it was because Kalos seemed okay - it felt okay to him - and they were so close to getting all the orbs. They were in the home stretch now and everything seemed to be looking up.

Ash wasn't normally a pessimistic person. If anything, he was overly optimistic to the point where people called him a dreamer. At the moment though, he got the sinking feeling that they were in the eye of the storm and things were going to go really bad, really soon.

He glanced at Misty and Pikachu, and then over his shoulder at Ambrette Town, before focusing on the walk ahead of him.

...

"Why is it so mad?!"

"Maybe because you kicked a rock at its face?!"

"That wasn't my fault!"

"Just go!"

There were a couple expectations about how they'd find the Glittering Cave. On one hand, most of them expected to reach the entrance and maybe take a break before calmly continuing onwards. Then there were the skeptical ones that just knew Team Flare was going to show up even though they were recently defeated.

No one expected May to accidentally kick a rock at a Heliolisk and have an entire herd of them give chase in response. Oh, their Pokémon could have handled them with ease if they were in top shape, but most of them were still too exhausted or injured. So, instead, they ran.

The herd of angry Pokémon stopped chasing them when they ran into the entrance of the cave, and after a moment of running into the darkness and realizing that they weren't being pursued, they all stopped running.

Dawn was the first one to burst into a fit of giggles. She tried to hide it, but was unable to do so. May, though still flustered at accidentally causing their earlier mishap, followed suit. Soon, each and every one of them were in hysterics.

"Holy hell," Gary choked out as he managed to settle his laughter. He looked around as Misty walked by him, raising an eyebrow at the awestruck look on her face. When he turned to see what she was looking at, his breath left him. He wasn't one to call things beautiful, but with the light filtering in from the front of the cave and bouncing off hundreds of colourful gemstones lodged into the walls, sending rainbows sprawling across the rocky floor, he had to admit that the Glittering Cave was beautiful.

"Look at it," Serena gushed as she ran her hands over a red stone.

"It's amazing this place hasn't been completely mined," Leaf said, a hesitant honesty to her voice.

"It's illegal," Clemont answered. "This is considered a protected site so no one's allowed to mine it. Sure, I imagine some people come and take a couple here and there but they wouldn't be able to sell them. They're a very distinct composition."

"Well, it gets really dark very quickly," Iris noted. "We'll probably need our flashlights really soon."

Ash leaned close to the wall, at one crystal specifically. He raised an eyebrow and glanced at Pikachu, who tilted his head in response. The boy reached forward and pressed his finger against it, watching a bluish-green glow spread out from it.

"Hey," Ash called out to the others, who were about to start digging for their flashlights. "Save those. Watch this." He pressed his hand against the wall and focused, reaching out to the very thin current of Aura that he knew was passing through the walls, and pushed the energy. Small crystals began glowing, spreading out down the cavern, illuminating it in a faint light.

"Woah," Iris breathed out. "That's amazing."

"Is this Aura?" Cilan asked curiously.

"Yeah, just like the Tree of Beginning," May answered. She then made a face. "As long as we don't run into giant blobs that try to eat us again. Once was enough."

There was clearly a story behind that, but no one who knew it bothered to share as they started walking forward.

"Is it here, Ash?" Clemont asked, walking beside his friend.

"Yeah, it's here," he answered. Though it was a bit hard to see beyond the veins of Aura he brought closer to the surface of the cave walls, and beyond the power emitting from the orbs in his backpack, he could still feel it.

The Glittering Cave was easily one of the most beautiful places that they had visited yet. The shining and glowing stones were enough to make most of them forget that they were, in fact, walking farther down into an eerily quiet cave system.

It was only when Ash stopped beside a pitch black opening that veered off from the main tunnel that the spell was broken. He stared at it, his unsure expression lit up from the aquamarine lights.

"Why is nothing glowing down there?" Misty asked curiously.

There might not be any of these stones there," Ash said with a shrug, picking one out of the wall and dropping it into her hand. Misty smiled at it slightly, running her fingers over the familiar, smooth surface. She had one of these stones already that he gave her years ago. She kept it in her room at home so she would know when he was nearby. Her smile immediately vanished when Ash added, "The orb's definitely down there though."

"Of course it is." Leaf sighed and brought out her flashlight. "Guess we do need these after all."

"Most of these side entrances are usually roped off," Clemont noted, looking left and right. "I don't see anything set up for that though."

"It might not have existed until we got here," Gary pointed out. "Now come on, the sooner we get the orb, the sooner we can see if we get a bed to sleep in or if we're swiping more cars." He nudged Ash. "Lead the way since you can sense where we need to go."

Ash stared at the dark tunnel, a wave of unease rushing through him. He slowly walked forward, not bothering to pull out a flashlight. He could see the faint pulse of Aura through the earth, and though it wasn't nearly as vibrant as living creatures, it was enough for him to know when he was about to trip on something.

One step after the other. Just keep going. The power of the orb in question started settling onto Ash, and he felt that familiar, heavy weight returning. It was the feeling that made him want to run for the hills, because it was all too much and he was just a teenager who had no clue what he was doing, no matter what anyone else said he was supposed to be.

"Why don't you stop thinking about yourself for a change?"

Ash came to a stop at Misty's hostile voice and turned around. He stared at her, confusion dancing across his eyes.

"Misty?"

"It's always been about you." She put her hands on her hips and glared at him. "Ash Ketchum is going to be a Pokémon master - anyone else be damned. Look at your Pokémon. You don't even care about them."

She pointed to his side and he followed her finger until his eyes met with an angry, beat up Pikachu. Charizard was just beyond him, wings broken and eyes hostile. Sceptile was limping, his leg jutting out awkwardly. Garchomp was growling and backing away, holding his arms close to his middle to protect a wound. Greninja's side was bloody and bruised. Ria's hackles were raised and she looked ready to strike back at him.

"That's not true," Ash muttered, feeling the weight press down on his chest. "I didn't...I would never..." His Pokémon really were hurt and he was unable to take them to a Pokémon Center because he was stupid about letting the enemies see their faces.

"Ash, honey..."

"Mom?" He whirled around again, shocked and confused to see his mother standing in front of him. Try as he might, he couldn't stop the tears from welling up in his eyes. "Mom! You're okay!" The last he heard, someone had attacked her, and that thought made him feel sick. Not just because of the act itself, but because he was able to outwardly shrug that aside while Ritchie's death crushed him so soundly. "I thought you were..."

"Oh, I am dead." Dark red splotches started to stain her shirt as her skin grew paler. "Why couldn't you save me? Wasn't I important to you?"

"Yes! You are!" Ash cried out and tried to run forward to heal her wounds, but no matter how much he ran, he couldn't seem to reach her. "Mom!"

"No, I'm not." She looked at him accusingly. "You're just like him. Just like your father. You leave everyone behind without another thought, not really caring. You're so selfish." Delia frowned as she headed towards the entrance of the cave, silhouetted by an intense orange light. "That's why you're going to lose. You're going to kill all of us."

"Mom!" Ash yelled and lurched forward one last time, but she vanished. He stumbled out of the cave, and immediately froze. Everything around him was destroyed or burning. He could see the legendary Pokémon; he could see his friends; he could see his family; he could even see his enemies. Everyone was dead.

He fell to his knees and wanted to vomit, but there was nothing to throw up. He had failed.

...

Misty wouldn't admit it, but she wasn't a huge fan of the dark. Her sisters told her so many ghost stories growing up that it made her a little suspicious and reluctant to be surrounded by complete darkness. Leaf's flashlight didn't even seem to be doing much good anymore.

A wailing caused Misty to freeze, and she looked around in the darkness, confusion passing across her features. "Do you guys hear that?" She didn't wait for an answer. "It sounds like...a baby." She took a few steps forward and then realized that no one was following her. "Guys?"

How she had gotten separated from them so quickly, Misty didn't know. What she did know was that she could still hear a child crying. No, not a child, it was much younger, more like a newborn infant.

Frowning, Misty ran towards the sound, shoving aside her own fear. Who would leave a child down in a dark, dank cave?

She rounded the corner, and froze at what she was seeing. There was a blue-haired woman cradling a small child. Her throat felt like it was closing up when the woman looked up, her brown eyes meeting Misty's green ones. "Violet?"

"Misty." She held the swaddled child close to her and smiled. "Look at her. Isn't she beautiful?"

"She really is," Daisy agreed as she stepped out of nowhere. "Such a precious child."

"So sweet," Lily agreed as she appeared at Violet's other side.

Misty made to walk towards them, but ended up walking straight into something solid. She put up her hands, pressing against a glass wall. She looked at her sisters with confusion.

Then water started rushing in from the ceiling.

"No!" Misty screamed and slammed her hand against the glass. Her sisters were screaming and scrambling to look for a way out as the water rapidly rose, but there was no way out.

"Misty!" Violet yelled. "Misty you have to save her! Please!"

"You're the strong one, don't abandon us!"

"Save us!"

Misty sobbed as she slammed her hand again and again on the glass wall until her fists became bloody and bruised. Realization hit her hard, she was not going to be able to break the wall.

She turned around, closing her eyes and pressing her hands over her ears so that she wouldn't hear her sisters' screams or the wails of the baby.

"Why didn't you try to save us?"

Misty's eyes snapped open and she screamed at the grotesque versions of her sisters in front of her.

"Why did you abandon us?"

"I-"

"Misty, why? Why did you do this to us?"

"I didn't!"

"You did. This is your fault. You left us."

Misty shook her head and backed up until her back was pressed against the glass that she dared not look back at. She squeezed her eyes shut and pressed her hands over her ears to block out the screams and the wailing of a young baby.

Then the glass shattered and the water rushed in.

...

Somehow Gary must have gotten turned around, that was really the only explanation he could think of. One minute, he was inside of the pitch black cavern lit up by Leaf's flashlight, the next he was standing in the backyard of his grandfather's lab. Or, perhaps the cave had been a dream, a cruel and twisted nightmare.

He heard voices coming from beyond the lab, following it curiously. He got to the front yard and blinked with surprise, staring at a man with spiked, light brown hair. He was talking to his grandfather.

"Gramps?" Gary called out, and both men turned to look at him. His breath caught in his throat when he saw the man's blue eyes, his mind reeling back to his youth to the last time he had seen them. "Dad?"

John Oak, better known as Blue in the history books, scowled at his son, an expression that Gary had seen many times when looking in the mirror. Everyone always told him that he looked just like his father, even if his colouring was more similar to his mother. "What are you doing here?"

"Me?"

"Yes you? Shouldn't you be studying or something?" Blue eyed him skeptically. "You're not good for much else. Pity really, that the only thing I left in the world was you." He turned around and started walking away.

"Dad! Wait!" Gary was about to run after him, but his grandfather caught his arm. "We have to stop him."

"Don't you want to be alone?"

"What?" Gary was completely taken back by the man's question.

Professor Oak stared at him with knowing blue eyes. "Don't you remember, that's what you told them. To leave you alone." He paused. "I suppose I should do that too."

"Wait!" It was too late, his grandfather was gone too.

Slowly, Gary's outstretched arm fell. He stared at nothingness for a moment before it shifted into a busy hallway.

"Loser."

"Monster."

"Orphan."

"Pathetic."

"Such a show off."

"A complete jerk.

"Good for nothing."

Those words and others mixed together into a horrific harmony in Gary's mind. Over and over he could hear it, getting louder and louder as the glares became more intense.

A hand rested on his shoulder and he shoved it off violently. "Shut up and leave me alone!" His breath caught in his throat again when he met Ash's eyes.

"Oh, okay," he took a couple steps back, brown eyes flitting with disappointment. "I'll leave you alone." He turned around and walked into another room.

"Wait! Ash! I didn't mean it!" Gary launched forward, sudden dread passing through him. He didn't want to be alone. He didn't want to have to face everything on his own. It was part of the reason why he went with Ash, Leaf, and the others in the first place.

At first, the room he ran into was pitch black, but then the lights flickered on and Gary almost threw up. On the floor were his friends, dead and mangled in ways that shouldn't have been possible.

"You were useless to save them, but it's for the best," Blue said, appearing on the other side of the room. "Now you're finally alone like you always wanted."

Gary fell to his knees and stared at his friends in horror. They were all dead, because he was useless and didn't have the power to save them.

...

"What the hell?" Leaf asked, twisting around with confusion. Hadn't she been in the Glittering Cave a moment ago? She didn't remember entering a room surrounded by mirrors. Perhaps she just veered off in the darkness.

She stared at her reflection and frowned. She was pretty sure that she had a flashlight only moments before.

Shrugging that thought off, Leaf approached the mirror closest to her and placed her hand on the cool surface, staring at the spot where her white glove seemed to touch its reflection. She blinked, and it suddenly looked a little different.

Looking up, Leaf took a step back, the reflection doing the same despite being different. The teenage girl in the reflection wore a black dress like her, but hers was a turtleneck. Along with it, she simply had white gloves, white boots, and earrings - so similar yet so different compared to Leaf's choice of teals and pinks so deep that they looked almost red.

This woman's hair flowed in just a slightly different way from her own, the colour a darker, more reddish variant that highlighted her green eyes. Differences aside - including the fact that Leaf looked down at her slightly - their facial features were almost identical. The shape of their eyes, the bridge of their noses, even their narrow jaws.

Leaf knew who this woman was. "Mom?"

The girl in the mirror, a younger version of Amanda Green, put a hand to her chin, staring at her critically. "Huh, you're just like me, aren't you?"

Leaf took a step back from the mirror again, and eerily enough the reflection of her mother took a step forward. Leaf shook her head. "No, I'm not."

"You're trying to be a leader when you're just a follower. Trying to be intelligent when you're average. Trying to be a fighter when you're weak. I see through you." She took another step forward. "It's easier to be like me, isn't it? To let things pass you by or to wait until it's too late. To be indecisive until it doesn't matter. Of course, you're devious like me. You don't mind throwing morals to the wind. You would walk over the laws and your friends for something that you claim you want but maybe you really don't. You're not that decisive."

"Shut up!" Leaf snarled at her. "None of that's true! It doesn't even make sense! Will I walk over everyone or be nothing?"

"Because you're like me, both." Green smiled. "You'll destroy things in your wake and get nothing from it."

"No! I would never-."

"Only a few years ago, did you not want to be a researcher? Specializing in poison-types and plants? You tricked that other potential assistant for Professor Oak into going in the wrong direction. How about poor Joey? You agreed to escort him to Johto but then left him as soon as possible. Selfish child, he wasn't in a good frame of mind to be left alone."

"Shut up!" Leaf yelled at her, hands clenching into fists. "I didn't just leave him!"

"Oh, but you did. How about your journey now? You want glory and recognition, but you'll never get it when so many others outshine you. Such a jealous child."

"I'm not."

"You want to trust that boy, to see if you could love him though so you're so very confused, selfishly not caring about what type of person you become attached to. You reeled him in and now you don't know if you wanted to. Pity." Amanda reached forward, her gloved hand pressing against the glass that saved them. "He may leave you with a child. Leave you with something that will leech off of you until there's nothing left."

"Shut up!" Leaf screeched, pale brown eyes watering with unshed tears. "Shut your mouth! I am not you! I'm not the thief you were, the one who would have killed people to get what she thought she needed. I'm not the one who's going to abandon my friends because something doesn't go my way!" She closed her eyes briefly, letting the tears fall before opening them. "I would rather never have children than abandon them or treat them like you did me. I don't play with people! I don't leave them."

"Are you sure?"

The mirrors started to shift and Leaf was pitched forward. She stumbled on the uneven ground until she managed to balance herself, not understanding what the strange thing she was standing on was. She blinked and looked down.

She found herself staring at a pale, clearly-deceased and starting to rot, adult version of her mother. Under her, in a pile that seemed to be never-ending were her friends and other trainers and Pokémon she met in the past.

Nausea hit her hard, and she jerked back when her mother's corpse moved her head, looking directly up at Leaf. "I'm so proud of you. You got to the top just like I would have."

It took her a moment to understand the meaning behind the woman's words, but when they hit her, they hit hard.

Leaf fell to her knees on a blank, black floor, and buried her face in her hands to muffle her sobs.

...

May couldn't see a foot in front of her face. She had no idea where Leaf's light went but she knew that it was gone. Turning around to ask Dawn what happened, May froze, unable to see anything behind her at all. She listened, but couldn't hear anyone either.

Mentally, she cursed herself. She must have turned in another direction without even realizing it. She swung her green pack off her shoulder and dug through it until she found her flashlight. She was about to zip up her bag when she heard movement behind her.

Shoulders tensed, May zipped the bag and moved it on her shoulders. She slowly stood up and looked around, shining her flashlight in front of her.

Her scream echoed around her as she stumbled backwards, falling onto her rear as the flashlight rolled across the floor, somehow lighting up the entire cavern. Her eyes stared into a very familiar pair of green ones, but they seemed so blank and lifeless. Tears welled up in her eyes as she took in his bloody outfit, the gashes across his cheek and arms, green hair tinted and stuck together with thick splotches of red. One of his arms was clearly dislocated, one hand was in a position it shouldn't have been and there was blood caked over his pants.

"May," he said in a lifeless, garbled voice.

"Drew," she choked out, hands shaking violently as her tears fell.

"Why couldn't you save me?"

"I'm sorry," May sobbed. "I'm sorry! I tried to hold on! I tried! But you-"

"You blame the dead?"

"No!" Maybe a part of her still did. That little piece that screamed that it wasn't her fault but was still looking for someone to blame. If he hadn't been so self-sacrificing. No, it wasn't his fault. She knew who was to blame. "It was Team Rocket! And those rogues from Aqua and Magma! It wasn't you! It wasn't me!" It took her a long time to be able to say that and she wasn't about to let go.

The twisted, bloody version of Drew turned and started to stumble away. May sprang to her feet and ran after him, surprised at how quickly he moved when one of his legs shouldn't have been sticking out the way it was. She had no idea why she was following him, she didn't want to see him like that. It made bile rise up into her throat, a burning sensation running through her chest and body. It made her sick, angry, sad, scared, and horrified; yet, it also made her a bit hopeful. He was talking. Surely she could save him despite his injuries and his dead eyes?

May stumbled around a corner, and screamed again as she fell to the floor. Her parents were sprawled out, halfway in the darkness. Bodies twisted and mangled in ways worse than Drew's was. She jerked away, retching onto the cave floor.

"M-May."

Her head snapped up, eyes searching wildly around the cave for the origin of the voice. Her heart beat wildly in her chest as panic flooded through her. She knew that voice.

Then she saw him.

"Max!" May screamed, jumping to her feet and running to her brother's side. He was injured like the rest, a bloody mess, but he was still alive.

His eyes glistened in pain and fear as he reached a bloody hand up to her. "Please, help."

"I'm here Max, I'm here." She knelt beside him, unsure of where to start with his injuries. She reached for her bag, but it wasn't there anymore even though she was sure that it had been on her back a moment ago.

"May..."

"I'll find something! I promise! I'll get help!"

"Please don't leave me alone again." Tears started streaking down Max's cheeks. "I was alone and I didn't know where you were. Please don't go."

May didn't know what to do. She hated to admit it, but her brother was so much smarter than she was when it came to theoretical information and ideas. If he wasn't coming up with a solution, there probably wasn't one.

She shifted so that she was sitting and pulled him to her so that he was in her lap. She held him close, not caring if her shirt or jeans were coated in blood. "I'm here. I won't go anywhere. I'm here."

"Thank you, May," he mumbled, leaning on her. His glasses were gone, she realized, but she could see a cut where the glass must have broken against his skin. "May?"

"Yeah?"

"Could you sing to me? The song mom used to."

May looked up to where the bodies of her parents were, but they were gone. She and Max were alone. "Yeah. I can do that." She closed her eyes, trying to keep in her tears as she started to hum a familiar tune. Their mother used to sing to them when they were younger, and it was the same song that they used to help Jirachi go back to sleep years before.

"No. Not the melody. The words."

She ran her fingers along his cheek, struggling to force the lump in her throat away. Closing her eyes, May took a deep breath and started singing the words that she knew by heart since she was a young child. She rocked her younger brother the entire time, not realizing that her own tears were falling down onto him.

"Slip softly to that place, where secret thoughts run free, and there come face to face with who you want to be..."

...

Dawn had no idea how a deep, dark cave in Kalos led to a large contest hall in Sinnoh, but she wasn't about to complain. Looking around at the high ceiling and the dark stained-glass windows, she recognized it as the Alamos Town contest hall specifically.

She walked by her reflection, realizing that she was wearing her favourite pink dress for contests, similar to what she wore when she was younger, but more suited to her taste and age. It wasn't strange that she was in a hall with this outfit, but what was strange was that there was no one else there.

Jumping when she heard footsteps approaching her, Dawn looked over her shoulder, a smile appearing on her face. "Mom!"

Johanna, dressed in an outfit suited for contests as well, smiled as she walked towards her. Dawn wanted to cry, to apologize for running away with Ash and her friends instead of going back to her, but all her words caught in her throat when her mother ran a hand across her chest tenderly.

"Mom. I-"

"You ruined my life," Johanna said, never once losing her smile.

"Mom?" Dawn tried to take a step back, but the woman's hand slid to her chin and held on tightly. "Ow! That hurts!"

Johanna squeezed harder. "You know, I only had to retire because of you. I was still so young. I had the world - even your father. Oh he was handsome, everything I could have wanted."

"Mom!" Dawn tried to jerk back, managing to get away from the hand grabbing her chin. Her mother grabbed onto her arm instead. "Let go of me! What's wrong with you?"

"You." Finally, the woman's face went cloudy. "You don't look anything like him. Every bit like me. You act like him though. I think I knew from the beginning." She sighed. "He would have stayed if it wasn't for you."

Dawn had heard vague stories of her father in the past. She knew that he probably didn't even know she existed. She didn't understand it when she was younger, but now she did. Her parents had either dated for a brief time or were together only once, Dawn didn't know which. Her mother had never said anything like this to her before though.

"Why would I want to know someone like her? Call her mine?" A deep voice boomed out. Dawn twisted around, watching a tall figure, features hidden by the shadows, walk towards them. Though she couldn't see his eyes, she felt like they were searing into her.

"Are you...my father?"

The shadow figure flinched away. "I wouldn't want to be associated with something so...weak and useless."

"I'm not-"

"You're the cheerleader, right? The annoying voice on the sideline that chants 'no need to worry' while everyone else fights like that will help? A stuck up child who thinks she knows how the world works but is truly ignorant and useless. I knew you wouldn't be anything special. Why do you think I never came back? Or reached out? I knew who you were." She heard him scoff. "I wish I didn't. Your so-called friends feel the same way."

Dawn felt like her throat was closing at his words. She had never needed her father, she was always happy with just her mother, but hearing his words made her feel sick to her stomach.

A shadow reached out from behind her to place a hand on her shoulder. She spun around, slapping the arm away and screaming, "Don't touch me!"

To her horror, once her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she found herself staring at Ash. At first, he seemed stunned, but then a cross expression passed over his face. "Fine, be the stuck up, know it all we all know you are." He turned to walk away from her.

"Wait! I didn't mean-I thought you were-"

"We don't need you." Those words pierced through the chipped shield that her mother and father had worn down. She held out her hand, but Ash walked into the shadows and she was alone in the darkness.

...

A shiver went up Iris' spine when she heard a familiar roar. Her hands scrambled to find a specific Pokéball, but none of them were there. She heard the roar again, followed by a scream that pierced through her.

Iris ran as quickly as she could, jumping over jutting rocks and quickly scaling up steep slopes. It didn't matter if she got some cuts, bumps, or bruises.

A startled yelp escaped her lips as Iris suddenly slid off something slick. She slammed onto the rocky floor with a loud thump and a groan. Pushing through the pain, she shoved herself into a sitting position, realizing a moment later that her hand was resting in a thick, warm liquid. Her breath caught in her throat and she didn't want to look down, already knowing was it was.

Still, she forced herself to look down. Iris had to force herself to not vomit as she jolted up, pretending that the floor and her clothes weren't coated in a thick layer of blood and that there weren't pieces - no - chunks of people left behind.

She wanted to cry, but kept it in. Iris was a tough girl after all. She could keep going forward.

As she turned the corner, Iris wished that she hadn't. A painful, heart breaking scream echoed throughout the cavern, and it took Iris a moment to realize that it was her scream. She ran forward, to the Pokémon scattered on the ground - her Pokémon - and stared at the bite marks in them. Hydreigon laid not far from them, taken down by something else.

"No," Iris muttered, kneeling beside her Pokémon. "Please, no."

"Iris..." A voice croaked out. Her head snapped up and she stared at Cilan in horror, brown eyes scanning over the deep wounds as he reached towards her. She reached out, but couldn't get to her feet no matter how much she willed it.

"Cilan!" Iris cried out. "Stay with me! It's-it's adventure time! Right? You gotta get your eyes open!" Her heart beat painfully in her chest, like it was preparing to rip itself out with every gasping breath he took.

"I thought...you could... be a...Dragon...Master," he managed to choke out in between deep gasps that bubbled out of his throat. "I thought...you were...strong enough. That I could...always...count on you."

"You can! I promise!" He closed his eyes. "No! Cilan! Open your eyes! Please! Cilan!" He didn't respond to her screams, no matter how loud and desperate they became.

"He's gone Iris, like we are." A woman knelt down on one side of her, a man on the other. Iris looked from one to the other, tears blurring her vision as Cilan and her Pokémon all faded away. It took her a moment to recognize them, not because she knew them, but because she saw little bits and pieces of her own features in them.

Her parents.

"I'm so disappointed in you," her father spoke up sadly.

Her mother cast her eyes to the ground and sighed. "We had such high hopes for you. You couldn't save a single Pokémon. You grew up learning about dragons. You should have been good enough."

"You couldn't save strangers, your Pokémon, or your friends from an ordinary creature. How do you think you'll help save the world?" Her father added.

They didn't sound mad. Iris could have taken that. What right did they truly have to judge her? The disappointment took all of the fight out of her. It hit the remnants of her cracked and fragile heart, smashing it to smithereens.

She pitched forward so that she was kneeling, her hands slamming into the stone ground. They were right. Of course they were. She was nothing.

Iris' agonizing scream echoed in the empty caves.

...

The gym was empty, and Cilan knew then and there. Quirky, strange, a bit random, and slightly immature at times, were things that had been associated with him and his brothers to varying degrees, but they were not irresponsible. They wouldn't have run off, leaving others behind to suffer in any form. There was only one solution.

His brothers were dead.

Cilan looked at the ruined restaurant before going to the battlefield. He wished that he hadn't.

There were no costumes, hats, or silly dramatics that could bring a positive spin on what he saw. There was nothing but destruction. No person or Pokémon - barring a few that they didn't own - could have survived this.

"Cilan!"

His heart leapt to his throat as he heard Chili call out to him. He turned and there they were, his brothers. They were different though, with their flawless skin that quite literally glowed. It was dim and comforting, and so very warm.

Though not nearly presented with as much flair as Cilan would have liked.

"Come on, Cilan." Cress held out his hand. "Come with us. No one needs you here."

"That's right. Why go anywhere with anyone else when you can be with us," Chili added.

"We were born into this world together, we should leave it together too."

Cilan could see the logic in their words. It made sense to him. He would never be complete without his brothers, no matter how much he smiled at his friends and insisted that he'd be okay.

Two people appeared behind his brothers, and Cilan gasped. His parents smiled at him silently.

"We can all be together again," the redhead insisted. "All five of us. Just come with us. No one needs you. Only us."

Cilan nodded his head and was about to move towards them when a different voice called his name. He looked over his shoulder, his green eyes meeting Iris' bright brown ones. "Iris? What are you doing here?"

"Don't go with them," she pleaded, clasping her hands together in front of her as her eyes watered. "Come back with me. To the others."

He stared at her, his heart thumping painfully in his chest. "Iris...my family needs me."

"We do too!" she cried out. "Please! Come with me!"

"Do you really need me?" he asked skeptically, arching an eyebrow at her. "Really? How?"

Iris opened her mouth to speak, a pained expression passes her features when she couldn't say anything. Pain rippled through Cilan as she looked at the floor.

She really didn't need him.

He looked back towards his brothers, taking in their smiles and the hands that they were holding out.

Cilan glanced at Iris only once before reaching for his brothers.

...

"Big brother!"

Bonnie's scream broke Clemont out of his musing. He had been thinking about the tunnels, where they could lead, and what possible legendary Pokémon could be guarding them. The terrified cry was enough to immediately catch his attention. He didn't wait for anyone else, he just started running towards where it came from.

"Bonnie!" Clemont cried out as he ran, not knowing where he was going. He tripped and stumbled over small stones and grooves as she screamed again. It wasn't a word this time, just a horrible, terrifying scream.

He stumbled over his feet, toppling end over end until he slapped into a solid object with a groan. Clemont squeezed his eyes together and groaned, before stretching out his legs to make sure that nothing was too injured or broken. Satisfied, he pushed himself up, ignoring the small tweaks of pain.

He stared at the door, but didn't hesitate to push it open. That was where Bonnie's scream had come from.

The bright light stunned his retinas that were used to the darkness, temporarily blinding him. Clemont threw his arms to block the sun as he squinted, trying to get used to it. When he could see again without burning his eyes, he stopped and stared.

He'd been in this hospital room before. Many times.

"Clemont," a quiet voice whispered. Though it was so timid, it still broke through the silence harsh enough to startle him.

Clemont whipped around, and froze. His blue eyes met a pair identical to his, belonging to a woman with stringy, blonde hair that was far too thin to be healthy. Her cheeks were gaunt, her eyes sunken, and her skin so pale that it was almost translucent.

They had never shown Bonnie the pictures of their mother just before she died, and he was glad for this very reason. He would never forget her face, but at least his sister could picture her when she was healthy and happy, not like this.

"Mom." Clemont took a step forward, but then froze when he realized that his mother was cradling a bundle of blankets, a stock of blonde hair sticking out the top, though the rest of the person was completely covered.

It wasn't the size of a baby. It was the size of a child. It was the size of Bonnie.

"You promised me," his mother said, her soft voice choking on tears. "You promised me that you'd always protect her."

Clemont remembered holding his mother's hand, dressed in protective gloves and a face mask.

"You left her alone," his mother continued when he didn't respond, staring down at the bundle. "My sweet Bonnie, you left her all alone to run off."

"I thought-I thought she was safe," Clemont choked out. First his mother, now his sister. They were both gone and he was powerless to save either of them. "She was with dad! She was safe!"

"You should have stayed with her," Meyer spoke up, appearing beside his wife and staring down at her and Bonnie. There were tears in his brown eyes. "She wanted to be with you. To go with you. She always took care of you more than you took care of her." He closed his eyes. "Why couldn't you fix this?"

"I thought...I couldn't..." Clemont fell down, staring at his family as they blurred behind his tears.

He thought he could keep them safe by helping keep the world safe.

He was wrong.

...

"Ugh!" Serena sat up in her bed, arms flailing to get her mother's Fletchling away. The Pokémon always woke her up by pecking her head. It was infuriating.

She pouted as she got up and looked in the mirror, her pout vanishing as she stared at her reflection with confusion. Looking down, she grasped her long hair. Hadn't she cut it?

"Serena! Breakfast is getting cold!" She jumped at her mother's voice, but hurried down the stairs. Cutting her hair must have been a dream. She was proud of her long locks that were so different from her mother's.

"There you are," Grace said as she put out three plates piled with food. "Dig in. We're going to practice today."

"Practice?"

Grace sighed. "Yes. Racing. Remember?"

"I..." Serena's brow furrowed. She didn't like Rhyhorn racing.

"Come on, Serena-bo-bean-ah, you're food's going to get cold!" A cheerful, male voice said. She glanced up as her father slid into the third chair. She felt the blood rush from her face as she stared at the man, his blonde hair a shade lighter than her own. Her shocked expression must have been obvious, because he looked up at her with concern. "Are you alright, sweetie?"

"Oh, she probably just changed her mind about racing again," Grace interjected dramatically. "You know how she is."

"I suppose," he agreed, and reached for the remote, about to turn the channel from where it was showing Kalos Queen Aria's latest performance.

"Wait! I like performances!"

"Do you?" That seemed to surprise both her parents.

"Well...yeah...I think so." She frowned. Serena knew that she loved performances, she just didn't know why. "I want to be the Kalos Queen, so I do need to participate in them."

Laughter echoed through the room, and the world outside the windows went dark.

"Don't be silly," Grace said, "you could never do something like that. Traveling, dedicating yourself to something so long-term? You could never do that. You've always been a sample-and-go girl."

"It's true," her father agreed. "It's safe really. You've never been able to stick to a single thing. How could anyone trust you? You'd lose interest in training your Pokémon in a week."

Anger and hurt rose up in her. "That's not true! I can do it!"

"No you can't, sweetheart," her mother sighed. "Don't delude yourself, thinking you're strong. You're not. You're nothing really."

That was right, wasn't it? She was nothing. Tears welled up in Serena's eyes at the thought. She wasn't strong enough to help anyone.

"I can't save anyone," she breathed out, her hands curling into fists, her fingernails digging into her palms. "I'm too weak. I can't save them. I can't save you." She closed her eyes as the pain of the truth hit her hard.

"Why would you have to save me, Bo-bean-ah?" Her father coughed after he spoke, and her eyes snapped open. His cheeks suddenly looked much more gaunt, his skin paler, his hair thinner.

"I couldn't...because you were sick," Serena breathed out, her face scrunched up with confusion. "You were really sick like so many people and you...you died. I never got to say goodbye. And then-then mom took me to Kanto where I met..." Serena trailed off.

She stood up and stared around her house, at the pictures of the three of them. "Mom took me to Kanto because I kept asking where you were, when you were coming back. She had friends there and she couldn't handle it. She enrolled me in summer camp." She looked at her father. "You died."

"Serena..."

"You're not real," she breathed out, taking a step away from him and her mother. The pictures began to fade. "You died. I never understood but...the performances...my hair..."

"That sounds like a horrible nightmare, Honey. That's all it was though. Just a nightmare."

Losing her father had not been a nightmare. Ash. Bonnie. Clemont. They had not been a dream. Misty. Leaf. Gary. May. Dawn. Cilan. Iris.

They were not a dream.

But this was.

"You're not real!" Her hair was short again, under her white hat, and she was wearing her tiered red skirt and her black shirt again. She stared at her father and mother. "This is a dream. You're not real."

They smiled. She woke up.

Serena stared at the ceiling above her, lit faintly from a pale pink glow coming from some of the crystals around her, as well as Leaf's discarded flashlight. She breathed in and out twice before suddenly sitting up.

All of her friends laid around her, faces twisted in different ways as they faced some sort of horror in their minds.

"Pika!"

Her head snapped over, and she stared at Pikachu, who looked back at her with alarm.

"Pikachu! What happened?"

"Pika pi pika cha pikachu pika pika pikachu pi pika cha ka!" Pikachu gestured wildly to the glowing stones, down the dark corridor beyond them, and at everyone else.

Serena didn't entirely understand what he was saying. She couldn't translate directly. What she assumed he was saying was that the crystals had somehow put them to sleep in nightmares of some form.

Her mouth went dry when Serena realized that she was the only one awake, and that something must have done this to them on purpose.

She took a deep breath and pushed herself to her feet. She looked back at Pikachu and said, "You stay and protect them. I'll go find what did this."

"Pika!" the Pokémon protested in alarm, though he had yet to leave his trainer's side.

"I'll be okay." Pokémon didn't seem to be affected like people were. She was about to grab Delphox's Pokéball, but remembered the scuffle with Team Plasma. Delphox needed a Pokémon center, not more trouble.

She rummaged through her bag for her own flashlight, choosing to leave Leaf's, just in case someone else woke up. She grabbed three Pokéballs and called out, "Vivillon, Florges, Meowstic!" The three Pokémon appeared before her, all completely alert. They weren't trained for battles anymore than her other Pokémon, but they could still fight well enough. "We need to see what's down this hall and doing this to everyone. Be ready for anything, it's just us." All three Pokémon nodded, and they started down the hall together.

Serena looked back to wave at a worried Pikachu before they went around the corner.

There were more glowing pink orbs, and she got a sense of déjà vu for some reason that she couldn't pinpoint. This just reminded her that she had to be on her guard.

The tunnel opened up to a large cavern that had to be a couple stories both up and down. She came out on a thick ledge with an old, rather questionable staircase going down it. She looked over her shoulder at her Pokémon and whispered, "Get down." Even Vivillon pressed herself to the floor as Serena turned off her flashlight and they all crept forward.

The lower part of the cavern was lit up by the same pink glow as the cave was, but it was so much brighter. Serena's breath caught in her throat when she saw the shrine below them. Though the orb wasn't lit up - it wouldn't be without Ash - she knew it had to be down there.

"It must have been some kind of defense," she whispered before glancing at Florges. "Can fairy-types do that?" It sounded way more like something a psychic-type Pokémon would do. Florges didn't respond, but her smug expression was answer enough.

Serena thought about their options. The easiest thing to do would be for her to go down there and grab the orb herself and then give it to Ash. Actually, sending Vivillon down there would have been even easier. The problem was that they didn't know if Ash needed to be the one to physically remove the orb from the shrine (or next to a crushed shrine, in some cases). No one would want to wait 24 hours underground to see if it would vanish back, and they could be pretty far away in 24 hours if they actually managed to leave.

Serena groaned as she scooted back a bit, only standing up when she was sure that nothing below them would be able to see her. She motioned for her Pokémon to follow her back down the tunnel, and she turned on her flashlight again.

She got back to her friends, all of them still unconscious, though some were muttering under their breath and twitching. Serena knelt beside Clemont and shook him. "Wake up. Clemont!"

The blond boy groaned and curled into himself more, a tear sliding down his cheek. Serena backed off quickly, and tried to wake Misty with the same results. If she tried to wake them, it sent them into worse nightmares.

Her face went pale. "Oh no. Pikachu!" The Pokémon jumped. "How much have you tried to wake Ash? I think it makes it worse!" The terror and shame on the Pokémon's face answered her question.

Serena moved beside Ash and pushed his cap off of his sweaty head. He flinched under her touch and muttered, "I'm sorry. I'm sorry."

"It's okay, Ash. We're all here and we're okay." Relatively speaking, anyway. Serena was surprised when her words actually seemed to calm him. "Ash? Your mom loves you and believes in you. Misty loves you and believes in you. We all do. We're all here with you. You're not alone, okay? I'm sorry we made you feel like you were." She closed her eyes briefly before they snapped open, determination colouring them. "You've carried us this far in one way or another and lately, others have been trying to help, but not really me. It's my turn to carry you."

Serena tried to yank him up, only to be met by firm resistance. Ash Ketchum was many things, but light was not one of them. "Ugh. Seriously. Guys, help me with this." None of these Pokémon were physically strong, not even Florges, but it was better than nothing. She got them to lean Ash onto her back where she hiked him up in an awkward piggy back. Vivillon fluttered behind him, keeping a bit of his weight off of her.

"Meowstic," the Pokémon muttered, staring at her with a bit of shame in her eyes. Serena knew it was because this Meowstic struggled a lot with telekinesis-based abilities. Otherwise Serena would have got the Pokémon to float him there.

"It's okay," Serena smiled at her Pokémon. "I want you to stay in front and be ready to fight, and carry the flashlight please. Florges, you help her, okay?"The two Pokémon nodded and walked ahead of them. "Pikachu, I know you're worried, but I need you to stay with everyone else, okay? We'll keep Ash safe."

Pikachu's ears fell, but he nodded. "Chu."

Serena took a deep breath. One step at a time was the key. Ash was not a light boy, and given that he was just dead weight at the moment, it was worse than normal. Her arms and legs were shaking, and Serena was sure that if it wasn't for Vivillon, she would have dropped him not even halfway there. How she planned on getting him down the steps, she didn't know. She just wanted to get him to the cavern first.

"Holy hell you're heavy," she muttered, trying to distract herself. "No more pizza pockets for you! How does Misty deal with you being on top of her?" Serena paused that thought process, though she physically kept trekking forward. A part of her was stunned that she'd dare utter a thing.

She snorted in the most unladylike way. "I've been hanging out with Misty, Gary, and Leaf too much. At least everyone else is sweet. Sweet...but not weak. We're not weak. None of us. Not May. Not Dawn. Not Clemont. Not you. Not me. We're strong. We just need to get up and keep moving forward." She gritted her teeth. "You taught me that, you know?" He didn't answer, but that was probably for the best right now.

They were almost to the entrance of the cavern. "You still got him too, Vivi?"

"Vi!" Vivillon cried out affirmatively.

Serena sighed in relief when they reached the ledge, and struggled to set Ash down. She had no idea how they were going to get him down the steps yet, but her muscles and back begged her for a break.

She was just glad that she didn't have to carry Ash when he was eating properly and completely healthy. That wouldn't be any kind of fun.

Suddenly, Meowstic's fur stood on end and the Pokémon hissed angrily, dropping the flashlight that quickly flickered out. Florges and Vivillon were quickly in defensive stances as well.

Serena looked over her shoulder at a looming silhouette. She froze, staring at the creature with wide eyes. Ash shifted beside him, and her eyes darted back to him.

She couldn't let anything happen to him now.

"Florges! Vivillon! Meowstic! It's time to fight!"

They all lunged forward at the mysterious creature while Serena hovered in front of Ash's prone form.

...

Lance stood at the edge of the staircase that descended down under the ground, patiently waiting for word back from the team that was sent down to explore it.

Beside him, Tracey leaned over the maps that they brought, looking over both the known underground ones from as far back as they could find.

"Either Mew just made this one now, or it's ancient," Tracey finally concluded. "There's not even a hint of a tunnel in any of these maps. Not even a slightly strange detail."

"So while they may know about the ones up around Pewter City, they'd have no clue about this tunnel, is that correct?" Lance asked him, staring at it thoughtfully.

"Yes," Tracey agreed with a nod. He tapped his pen nervously against the map before adding, "It makes me nervous though."

"What does?" The Kanto-Johto Champion was barely paying attention to the young man behind him.

"Why Mew chose now to show up." That made Lance pause and glance back at him. "Why not earlier on? Why just this?" Tracey shook his head. "Unless maybe Mew, or Arceus, thought that we needed the help."

"That is unsettling," Lance agreed. "Though it also might mean that maybe they have a plan to beat the Mirage Pokémon."

The radio suddenly sprang to life with static. Everyone turned their attention to it, as if they'd be able to see the team that had gone under the ground. Unfortunately, it was a rather old machine, but they didn't want to risk Team Rocket finding out about the tunnel. One of the Elders in the Dragon's Den owned that two-way radio, there was no way Team Rocket would be using something similar, and if they were, finding the exact frequency they were using would be a miracle.

"Dragonite?" Brock's voice came through the radio.

"Go ahead, Steelix."

"Sir, we didn't get all the way there, but it's a pretty clear route. Definitely made by Pokémon. There's no sign of any human presence. We need to go further, but judging from the GPS, I think it goes right into Kanto."

"Alright, regroup back here. We'll get a team together for a full excursion to see where it comes out."

"Copy that."

Lance took a deep breath and looked at the sky. If the tunnel truly went into Kanto, and Team Rocket didn't know about it, it might have been the answer that they'd been looking for.

…

"Ash!" Serena cried out to her friend, shaking him though there was the chance that her interacting with him could make his nightmare worse. "Ash! You need to wake up!" Whatever her Pokémon were fighting was strong, and none of them were able to land a real hit. It was like the attacks were just passing through it.

Vivillon crashed into the wall of the cavern, falling to the ground. Serena screamed, scrambling to grab her Pokéball, and call the bug-type back. Desperation fuelled her and she turned around to face Ash again, raising her hand up, and slapping him as hard as she could across the face.

The sound seemed to almost echo through the cavern, but somehow it did the trick. His bright brown eyes snapped open and he looked around wildly. For a moment, Serena was afraid that he was still lost in his nightmare, but he blinked up at her and his brow furrowed with confusion.

Serena saw movement outside of her peripheral vision, and looked over as another shadow loomed over them. Somehow, she knew that it was staring at Ash, not her. This was proven true as it reached out for him.

"No!" Serena jumped up, throwing her arms out so that she was shielding Ash. She wasn't about to let some shadow creature crush him when they were so close to getting all the orbs. "I don't know what freak Pokémon you are, but I'm not letting you hurt him!"

He clearly had no idea what was going on, but his eyes focused on the figure, and he just looked more confused than anything again. "It's not...it's more than one Pokémon."

Serena looked at him for a moment before his words sunk in. More than one Pokémon together to make themselves look like a bigger Pokémon made sense. It explained the strange movements and why none of Florges' or Meowstic's attacks landed. They just kept moving out of the way.

"Florges! Meowstic! Grab just a part of it!" The two Pokémon rushed forward, grabbing the hand of the creature and yanking back. It easily separated from the rest, and the three Pokémon fell to the ground and into the faint light.

Ash blinked. Serena stared. "It's a...Carbink?"

The little Carbink stared up at her with wide eyes before squeaking and getting up, rushing back into the groups that froze. Florges and Meowstic stood protectively in front of Serena and Ash, staring back.

Hearing Ash shift behind her, Serena looked over her shoulder and saw him struggling to stand up. She twisted and held out a hand to him, which he gratefully grabbed, and she helped him to his feet, holding his arm as he stumbled a bit.

He let go of her, and held his hand out. She winced from the brightness as an Aura Sphere appeared above his hand. The pale blue light made the bags under his eyes seem even darker, and his skin looked much paler than normal.

The Carbink all scrambled back away from the light, staring at them briefly before huddling in a circle and whispering. A couple of them quickly scuttled off.

Serena had no idea what was going on, but they seemed to be safe for the moment. She looked at Ash and asked, "Do you feel okay?"

His brow furrowed and he glanced her way. "Where's everyone else?"

"Pikachu's watching over them. We were all trapped in nightmares." Ash flinched at that, clearly hoping that he was the only one that suffered through whatever terrors he had seen in his head.

"How did you-."

"I slapped you really, really hard."

Ash just stared at her oddly as his hand reached up to the cheek that was burning and stinging, now that he actually focused on it. Not that he blamed her. "How did you wake up?"

"I figured out it wasn't real," Serena answered, smiling slightly at his impressed look. Her eyes widened and she grabbed his arm again. "Ash. The orb's right down there! You go!"

"What? I'm not-" He stopped talking as the Carbink came back, but they weren't alone this time. A larger Pokémon appeared, a faint pink glow surrounding her.

Serena inhaled sharply as she recognized the Pokémon. "Diancie?

When she and Clemont mentioned not having met any legendary Pokémon before, that wasn't entirely true. They had met Diancie briefly - having taken the Pokémon shopping of all things - but she quickly disappeared, as had Ash. It was only a brief meeting, but it was a memorable one.

"Hello, Serena. Ash." The Pokémon floated over to them, smiling warmly. "I'm sorry the Carbink attacked you. They didn't realize who you were until they could see you better. They were just protecting me and the orb until you got here." She clapped her hands together. "Come on." She led the way towards the stairs.

Serena felt like a load had been lifted off of her shoulders now that Ash was awake and Diancie was leading them peacefully towards the orb. She quickly recalled Florges and Meowstic, holding the Pokéballs close to her chest and whispering thanks to them. She didn't like that feeling of pressure at all, being so responsible for everyone else.

The Carbink made sure that neither of them slipped down the worn, steep staircase. The bottom of the cavern was covered with crystals that put the outer tunnels to shame, all glittering and sparkling from the dim light of Ash's Aura Sphere.

"What happened to us? Our friends?" Serena asked.

"Oh no, you still have more friends that are asleep?" Diancie seemed horrified. "That's really old magic that flows through the pink crystals in the walls. It uses the small Aura currents that run through caves. Everyone has Aura in them, so it responded to that."

"You didn't do it?" Ash asked warily as he approached the shrine.

"No!" Diancie seemed horrified. "It was one of the Diancie before me - back when we were a bit different. We change with the world too, just not as quickly. You can stop the flow and that should wake them up."

"Are you telling me that I slapped him hard enough to disrupt the flow of Aura around him?" Serena asked, and Diancie just shrugged. Serena jumped when Ash's Aura Sphere vanished, but her eyes didn't have to adjust to the darkness for long, as the orb lit up with a pale pink glow.

Ash stared at it with a rather sullen expression before glancing at Serena. She nodded her head and said, "We should go wake everyone else up. Get them out of their nightmares. Diancie, are you coming up with us?"

"Oh, no." The Pokémon shook her head. "Giratina said to call when we were ready. I talk to her sometimes through the crystals and mirrors! Oh! And I was supposed to tell you to look for the dragon next!" She waved at the Carbink. "Could you help them up the stairs?"

Before they could go more than a step, Diancie suddenly reached out and grabbed Ash's arm. "Ash. I know it's hard, and it's scary. But you can do it. There was never any doubt in my mind. We all believe in you, and we're all rooting for you!"

Ash stared at Diancie, slowly nodding his head. She let go of his arm, and backed away. They took this as their cue to move, walking back up the stairs carefully.

Serena breathed a sigh of relief. It was hard to believe that it was over just like that. No, not completely over, Serena realized when they came upon their friends again.

Pikachu cried out in relief, and Ash rushed forward, skidding to his knees beside Misty. The girl groaned as he picked her up, cradling her upper-body in his arms. Ash took a deep breath and pressed the hand that wasn't cradling her to the ground. A faint light pulsed across the floor, and the crystals turned from pink to pale blue.

Serena knelt beside Clemont, watching as his face twisted with agony before his eyes snapped open. He stared at Serena, before gasping in shock and sitting up, looking around the tunnel wildly.

"I don't know what you saw, Clemont, but it wasn't real," Serena said soothingly, putting a hand on his shoulder. "I swear."

Slowly, he nodded his head, still shaken. "What happened?"

"Diancie," she answered. "It was a trap to protect the orb."

"Did you get it?" he asked her.

Serena looked back to where Ash was. A smile rose up on her lips as she watched him press his forehead against Misty's, talking to the teary-eyed girl. Both of them were clearly distressed, but it was also painfully obvious that they were leaning on one another for support.

"Ash got it," she said after watching the couple for a moment. "We can leave."

"It wasn't me," Ash spoke up, leaning his head on top of Misty's in a comforting gesture for both of them. "Serena managed to wake up on her own. She beat her own nightmare. I-she somehow got me down to the cavern...how did you do that anyway?"

Serena flushed. "I carried you."

They all stared at her and Misty raised an eyebrow. "You carried him? No offense, but I know for a fact that he's heavy." She could still lift him though, something she was quite proud about. Serena wasn't exactly known for her physical strength though.

Serena shrugged and stood. "I know it's sudden, but I think we should get out of here. Get some real light."

"Yes please," Dawn squeaked out and May nodded her head in agreement.

Bags on their shoulders, and several flashlights out, everyone crowded much closer together to walk this time. No one dared to speak, but from the way flashlights kept shining behind them and down every nook and cranny that they passed, everyone was frightened.

The Glittering Cave was a beautiful place, Serena thought. It was ironic that the beauty hid a darkness beneath it that few would discover. No, perhaps irony wasn't the word she was looking for.

It was more appropriate than anything else.

...

They waited on the outskirts of Ambrette Town, patiently staying out of sight until Iris and Cilan returned. The two silently went ahead to make sure that it was safe for the rest of them to head into the town.

May, for one, really hoped that they could go. She didn't want to be outdoors at night, and the sun was rapidly falling as it was.

Her blue eyes turned from one person to the next. Misty and Ash were leaning on one another, talking so quietly that she couldn't hear what they were saying. Leaf had her arms crossed, and looked rather cranky while Gary was uncharacteristically quiet. Serena was talking to Clemont quietly, frowns on both of their faces, and Dawn sat not too far away, holding her knees to her chest.

Misty held Pikachu close to her as Ash looked around. He didn't seem alarmed, so May was sure that there was no danger heading their way. A sigh of relief escaped her when she realized that Iris and Cilan were walking back towards them.

"It's safe," Cilan said, and everyone let out a sigh of relief. "Sorry we took so long, but we booked two rooms at the Pokémon center. It's pretty busy. That's only eight beds though, so either we mix up the rooms, or the girls get one and have to share, while the boys get the other."

"May and I can share," Dawn suggested. "We're both small." Relief passed over May's face. She didn't want to be alone.

Misty shifted closer to Ash, a clear, silent motion that she was sharing with him one way or another.

"Mixing it is," Cilan nodded his head. "Let's get going."

They led the way through the narrow streets, by the houses and the shops. The Pokémon Center looked like a big, beautiful beacon in the darkening sky as they approached it.

The sight of Nurse Joy smiling at them as Cilan led them towards their rooms was so comforting, that May was sure she was going to cry.

The second they got into their rooms, and dropped their bags to the floors, is when May's eyes actually began to tear up. They were in a real room, with real beds. For now, they were safe and could sleep securely.

Except, she had no desire to sleep at all, not after what she had seen. May was positive that almost everyone else felt the same, no matter how exhausted they were.

Showers proved to be an absolute blissful excuse to stay away. They basically took over the boys' and girls' shower rooms, but it was so late that no one else could complain about how long every single one of them took.

Iris, Cilan, Serena, and Clemont went into the other room, leaving Gary and Leaf with their own top bunks, while May and Dawn shared one of the bottom bunks, Ash and Misty sharing the other.

By the time May got back, Ash and Misty were already sprawled on one bed, both asleep in an strange tangle of limbs that would probably be painful and stiff when they woke up, and somehow, Pikachu ended up in the middle of their human knot.

Gary was above them, staring at the ceiling blankly. May couldn't see if Leaf was awake or not.

Dawn was curled up in a ball close to the wall, so May plopped down beside her, curling up so that she was facing the opposite direction. It was comforting to know that her friend was back to back with her. That small thing was really all that she could ask for. That, and the light that they all silently agreed to keep on.

...

Dr. Yung stood in front of Giovanni, an excited expression on his face. "Arceus is coming along nicely. His physical form is perfect right now, but the power levels need a little more preparation. Otherwise the real thing could defeat him easily. He'll be finished soon."

"Good," Giovanni responded, leaning back in his chair slightly. "And all the others remain stable?"

"As stable as possible with Arceus created. Should we want to use him, we may have to sacrifice some of the others."

The leader of Team Rocket nodded and stared at him thoughtfully. "We were prepared for such a loss from the beginning. Proceed with the rest of your preparations." When Dr. Yung hesitated, Giovanni raised an eyebrow. "Is there something else you need, doctor?"

"Yes," Dr. Yung answered. "I finally received and was able to review the footage from the prison Galactic lost in Sinnoh. I was reviewing it to see how Mirage Darkrai was defeated, and I found him." He held out a picture that clearly showed Ash Ketchum's face. "This isn't the first time he's meddled with us - but there is something strange about his actions. He doesn't always directly confront our comrades. In fact, he abandoned others to go and find that." Yung presented Giovanni with another image, this time showing Ash holding an orb.

"What of it?"

"I did a little bit of digging about glass orbs. I was worried he might know something that we don't, and I may have been right. I found a legend that originates on Shamouti Island about three orbs that can be used to calm the legendary birds there in a time of chaos." He showed Giovanni a picture of the orbs. They looked identical to the one Ash was holding, but different colours. "Through conjecture, I believe that there may be orbs for all types, since these ones are fire, ice, and electric. They may even be connected to legendary Pokémon. Whatever they're for, he's trying to collect them."

"You believe this is dangerous?"

"I don't know what they're for," Yung repeated, sounding annoyed with himself. "They could be trouble for us though, especially if they have a connection to the legendaries."

Giovanni stared at the images thoughtfully. "Ash Ketchum. I haven't thought of him in a while now." That was foolish of him. He brought up the files that he had collected on the boy after all the tests that he had ordered were completed. He read the first line, did a double take, and read it again.

Dr. Yung looked genuinely surprised when Giovanni started laughing almost maniacally. "Sir?"

"Do we know if the orbs on Shamouti Island are still there?"

"No, sir," Yung answered cautiously.

Giovanni pressed a button on his desk and said, "Have Annie and Oakly report to me at once." His eyes turned to Dr. Yung. "Proceed with your tests. I will take care of this."

"Sir, if I may ask, what was so amusing?"

Giovanni smiled darkly and brought something else up before turning around his monitor. "What do you see here?"

Dr. Yung studied the two images that took up the entire monitor. On the right was Ash Ketchum, on the left was another young man. He stared at them before saying, "They're related. They have the exact same hair colour, and the shape of their faces, ears and noses are far too similar to be coincidence."

"Yes. Father and son to be exact." Giovanni smirked. "That, is a picture of Master Red when he was 16."

Dr. Yung hadn't been expecting that. He continued to stare at the images as Annie and Oakly came into the office.

"You called, sir?"

"Yes. I want you two to put a team together and canvas Shamouti Island, and the surrounding smaller ones. Your first objective is to see if any orbs like these ones," he clicked to the picture of Ash holding the orb, "are there. If they are, your second objective is to capture and bring me this boy when he comes looking for them. Alive."

"I know him," Annie said suddenly. "He stopped us in Altomere." Oakly nodded in agreement.

"Then you know how slippery he can be. I will not tolerate failure in any form this time. Do you understand?"

"Sir! Yes sir!" They both echoed together.

"Good, you are dismissed." Both women left together and Giovanni looked to Dr. Yung. "I owe you thanks, doctor. You just found us the key to cracking Master Red."

…

Note

If you're still here I am impressed this chapter is an absolute monsters, and that includes cutting out the repetitive part of 'Ash woke up, they called Giratina, who showed up to take them somewhere else'. Honestly when I wrote this I was using my tablet and had no easy way to immediately check the word/page count so when I got on my laptop…well…39 pages later…

There are entire stories shorter than this chapter. So good on you if you got here in one go.

I want to thank everyone for their awesome reviews in the last chapter. You guys rock! This includes: Anoon1, KuramaFTW, FloraParade (ch 1-7), nerdy anime girl, UGX7, Guest, amandaalb4, Tropicallight, Model314, JediMasterDraco, PokeshipperByHeart, dawny1999, Walelu, thor94, thedarkpokemaster, DevineDemonDragon, and ultimateCCC. Thank you so much!

Things will seem like they're speeding by in these chapters compared to the first ones (where it took us like 15 chapters to get anywhere), but that's stylistic and on purpose. This will probably be the longest chapter, barring possibly the last ones, but we'll see!

Thanks again!

Til next time,

Written by: Skylight Sparkle
Edited by: EchidnaPower