Back at the hospital, Lisa was pacing back and forth between wards and basement. Between replacing bandages and rationing what little supplies were left in the hospital, she worried.

Everyone was here, everyone was fixed, everyone was safe and everyone was scared and wanting to leave. But how could they get them out of here? Many of them were too wounded or terrified to walk, and the hospital didn't have enough ambulances to carry them all away. Doing the rescue work in shifts presented it's own problems. The next town was many miles away…they could run out of gas or get derailed somehow, strand several people here. And the thought of being left behind in this place would be too much for some of these poor patients. A lot of them would only feel safe among the crowd.

The best thing to do was get everyone out at once. But they didn't have the vehicles for it. Ambulances couldn't hold that many. Still, with supplies and food running low, they may not have a choice.

Lisa started working out the details of the shifts in her head when she heard a banging on a window. One of the nurses had spotted something coming here. The Head Nurse ran up to the window to look. The faceless nurse ducked out of her way. What Lisa saw made her spirits rise.

Two large Kalville buses, the ones that had been used to ferry trainers to the town, were pulling up to the hospital. Lisa smiled broadly. This was perfect! Those two buses should have room for everyone. The nurse ran down the basement steps to tell everyone the good news.

The two drivers winked at each other. Things were starting to look up.

Ash felt a stronger twinge of pain in his eye as the machine around him started to whirl. He grimaced as Dakos' device charged up, ready for another extraction.

Dakos laughed maniacally, waiting eagerly for the machine to do it's magic and make him emperor. Oh, he had big plans. The police wouldn't be able to stand up to his mighty army of…of…whatever the hell he'd call them later. He'd have the world in his palm before long. Emperor Dakos! The name had nice ring to it.

"I've been waiting for thish for a long time!" He proclaimed. "Ever since I firsht heard of Silent Hill, I knew that the power here was mine by right. Even if I had to take it! Had to arrange a few things to get it t' work, though."

"Like bringing Alessa back?" Ash asked, trying to keep his attention.

"Oh yeah, and makin' sure that the power here wash something I could control and transfer…even iffit meant giving it all to that girl at first, and makin' shure she couldn't make it go away. I knew I could just take it later, I had it all worked out. But then she tricked me, the little devil!"

Ash sneered. "Wasn't hard to trick a drunk lunatic like you, she told me."

Dakos snarled. "Lesshee how smart your mouth is after I have my things rip it off you! Any second now…"

The machine around Ash began to whir, and a shooting pain went through the boys body…

"PIKACHUUU!"

When a thunderbolt in the right place reduced the imprisoning machine into a power-dead wreck. The pain in Ash's body subsided, although his eye was still bleeding. The electric barriers around him vanished, no longer imprisoning him. Dakos blinked, trying to convince himself this new development was just the booze. Ash looked at Misty and winked, smiling that smile of his.

Dakos had been so fixated on Ash he didn't see Misty and Pikachu come in a few seconds later. If they had come in with him, Dakos would've noticed them and stopped their plan. Now the machine was destroyed and Dakos couldn't steal Alessa's crown jewel from Ash.

Dakos jibbered at the smoldering machine. "Nononononononononononofair…" he stammered, trying to fix the power-transfer machine by banging on it sobbing.

Ash and Misty looked at Dakos increduosly. THIS was the emperor? The one who started this hellish nightmare? The one they had gone through hell itself to defeat? This drunken, sobbing, childish, pathetic, murderous twit who couldn't function without his assistants? Ash almost felt cheated. Alessa's gambit, the dead trainers, the monsters, the flaming cars, Satos…all because of this moron's quest for world domination? He nearly laughed out loud at how ridiculous it was.

Dakos looked up at the two children with blood-red eyes of pure rage. There was no comical drunkenness in his voice as he snarled at the twosome who ruined his plans, spittle dribbling out of his mouth like a rabid animal. "You…you little shits, you've ruined everything!"

Dakos bellowed out a roar of absolute fury and hatred, and all of sudden, the room was on fire. The banners and party tables burst into flames, the drops of spilled alcohol adding fuel to the blaze. Ash and Misty winced as the sudden heat hit them. The room was bathed in crimson, yellow and orange, lighting up the windows where the creatures were banging fruitlessly to get into the room.

"I'LL KILL YOU!" Dakos roared, raising himself into the air. The wires and cables inside the machine were ripped out, and the long cables formed a sea-anemone structure around the emperor. Dakos' new 'tentacles' lashed out randomly, ripping off chunks of the flaming wallpaper and floor. A few of them wrapped the flaming debris around their ends, forming blazing bludgeons. Others were still sparking with electricity. Dakos smirked psychotically at the two children, and raised his wire-and-cable tentacles to kill.

In spite of the circumstances, Ash had to smirk. This was a far cry from Alessa's threatening barbed wire.

The patients at the hospital saw these buses as a godsend. The ones that could still walk eagerly helped those that couldn't onto their escape from this cursed place. The drivers, who were wearing unironed blue uniforms and giant novelty mustaches, were greeted with hugs, kisses, and comparisions to angels. The two drivers and their mustachoid Pokemon simply shrugged it all off and guided the patients into the vehicles.

Several doctors were rearranging the seats for some of the more seriously hurt patients. As the hospital personnel and volunteers moved the bedridden patients around, they all talked about how glad they were to be leaving.

"Never coming back."

"Can't believe Dakos managed to talk me into getting a job here. Should've taken a hint from those crazy dreams."

"Mind his head! I've been on edge ever since I've came here. Gonna head to Undella Town and get some shut-eye for once."

"Careful with him, that spine took a nasty blow."

"Hey, where's the nurse? The pretty one?"

"Lisa? I don't know, I think she might be in the other bus…"

Lisa wasn't on either of the buses. The nurse had finished evacuated the patients from the hospital and was now watching the boarding from a window.

She wasn't sure if she felt relief or sadness. Everyone in her care had survived, and now they were given the one thing she never had…escape. Escape to peace and safety. Escape from this damned place and it's murderous curse. Escape from Silent Hill.

Alessa had brought her back to help these people. And she had done that. Everyone was alright. But now what? What would become of the nurse now? Her purpose had been fulfilled. Now…now maybe she could rest.

A tear appeared in her eye as she watched the buses finish filling up. She hoped they wouldn't come looking for her. She knew, whatever happened, she couldn't leave. She would never be able to leave…

A ringtone from her cell phone broke Lisa out of her troubled thoughts, surprising her for a moment. Only one person had that number. The resurrected nurse picked up the phone. "Alessa?"

"Come to Dakos' building. Bring some tools and nurses. Hurry."

"What? What's going on?"

"That moron gutted his own machine. Things won't be as clean as I hoped they'd be. There's only one way to fix this now. Now get over here. I need you."

Lisa realized what Alessa was saying. The thought of what the girl was asking her for made her cringe slightly, but she knew it had to be done. One more errand to run. Lisa turned into the hospital to collect some supplies.

The knowledge that this insanity would be finished soon buoyed her spirits.

Dakos attempt to bathe the room in flames was damped by the sprinkler system. The faucets had activated a few seconds after the fire was created. The blaze was reduced to a few small bursts of fire and a lot of steam. Ash and Misty were drenched, but they were too busy dodging the flailing tentacles to care.

The 'emperor' had lost any pretence of sanity, snarling like an animal as he tried to grapple the children running around the room. The wires and cables he used were long enough for him to reach around the room, and Ash and Misty had to constantly dodge the bludgeons, some of which were still flaming or sparking with electricity.

The steam obscured much of the room, and Ash nearly tripped over the corpse of a murdered scientist. Dakos' tentacles kept lashing out, one of them managed to hit Ash. The thick cable knocked him down, and Dakos raised a blazing wire to finish him.

"Thunderbolt, NOW!" Ash commanded.

Pikachu obliged, sending an electric shock down the length of the cable. Dakos screamed in pain as the shock ran through his body, and Ash was given enough time to get up and out of the bludgeon's way. He couldn't get his breath back however…another cable nearly impaled him, imbedding itself into the wall.

Dakos drove several wires and cables into the wet floor, and started to attack again. The steam was still too thick for him to clearly make out those two infernal children, but he could still slash at the shadows in the mist. He missed a lot – they wouldn't stop moving - but the occasional gasp of surprise told him he was getting closer and closer.

Pikachu tried another Thunderbolt at Dakos, but instead of harming Dakos, the current traveled through the wires and into the floor. The room was filled with water, and the electricity was conducted through the sprinkler's water. So instead of Dakos, Ash and Misty got a nasty shock to their systems, stunning them for a second.

That second was all Dakos needed. A swift sweep of the area with two of his larger cables and he found his targets. Ash and Misty found themselves tied up with thick metal cable, their arms pinned to their sides. "HEY!"

Dakos smiled as he lifted the children off the ground, the cables tightening around them. "Heheheh…"

Pikachu saw the cable around his master, and leapt up with his tail glowing. A powerful Iron Tail was enough to sever the cable, causing Ash to drop to the floor. He was still tightly held, however.

"Stupid rat!" Dakos flung a table at Pikachu, hitting the Pokemon hard. The wooden table splintered into pieces, and Pikachu was knocked out cold. One of the table's legs had been broken off, making a very sharp point at the end. Using his telekinesis, Dakos pointed it at Ash and laughed.

"I don't need your power, I can do this with what I have. I just need to get rid of the creatures outside, and with their master gone…" Ash struggled to free himself from the tight cable, and Misty gasped as she was dangled helplessly a few feet away. The monsters banged on the windows even more fervently. The floating table leg drew back, ready to impale Ash…

KLUNK!

Dakos felt a weight come down hard on his head. It was enough to disorient him and break his concentration. Misty and the table leg fell to the floor, the girl trying hard to get her breath back.

The power-mad emperor whirled around to see May holding a crutch broken in two. Snuck up on again! He would not have it!

May was flung away, the girl hitting a nearby wall hard. "SIS!" Max exclaimed, coming out of the mist. Dakos snatched him up with the wires, several ropes going around his mouth before he could move. The crazed emperor lifted Max up and tried to smash him into the floor, but Dakos was grabbed from behind, breaking his concentration yet again.

Brock had grabbed a broken pipe from the tunnelway the Onix monster had created, and was holding it against Dakos' throat in an attempt to cut off his air and knock him out. He nearly succeeded, but a lucky grab threw him away from the maniac and onto a nearby table.

"Stupid brats…I'll kill all of you!" Dakos screamed, throwing the tied up Max at his sister. Before either of them could react, Brock was thrust beside them and Dakos was ripping a piece of metal from the wall to bind them together. Ash still couldn't get the cable off his body…whatever knot Dakos had used, it was strong enough to keep him tied.

Dakos lifted them all off the ground, laughing maniacally. "It's over. It's allllll over." He mocked, and began to hit them into the walls. The children winced in pain as Dakos telekinetically slammed them against the bloodied walls several times. "And now for the grand finale…" Dakos constricted the metal and cables, threatening to crush them all…

Something fell out of May's backpack, making a dull clattering noise on the floor. Everyone turned to look at it. It was the rusty brown pyramid Alessa had given Ash in the restaurant. The one he threw away at the antique store, and one of his 'children' had returned to May.

The dull glimmer inside it grew brighter.

Dakos' eyes widened with horror. "What…?"

What is it?

The glow grew brighter and brighter, and the pyramid began to rise into the air.

"The Flauros…"

A cage for a demon.

The sections of the pyramid seemed to detach and spin, whirling around the blinding light like something out of this world.

"WHAT IS IT DOING HERE?"

It might bring you luck.

Suddenly, what could only be described as chains made of fire erupted from the spinning Flauros and impaled Dakos. A loud shrieking noise filled the room, and the light became too bright to look at. The bound children were forced to shut their eyes. The man screamed in agony as the blazing chains dug into his body.

Ash was able to block out the light, but he could still feel…it felt like a fire was blazing very close by. Wind howled and monsters screamed. Ash shut his eyes even tighter, trying to block out whatever was happening in the room.

The noise stopped, and Ash dared to open his eyes…