"The Nightmare" is exactly what happens when I stay up all night reading Creepypastas.

Chapter 49: In the Nightmare

We hiked down Mt. Travail with little incident, (except for the occasional near-invincible Shedinja that challenged us from time to time) and before long we were at Wigglytuff's Guild, examining Azurill, who was still snoring away.

"Have you noticed anything different about him since we left?" Jade asked.

"Nope. He's still dreaming away," Marill reported.

I turned to Drowzee, who was staring at Azurill with a look of concentration creasing his brow. "How's he doing? Is there anything that we can do to help him?"

Drowzee ignored me and continued to examine Azurill.

We sat in silence, watching Drowzee look over Azurill's round body. Then, after what seemed like forever, Drowzee looked up, an odd mix of excitement and concern on his face.

"There might be a way to get Azurill out of the nightmare," he pronounced.

"Really?! Oh, thank you, Mister Drowzee!" Marill said through his tears.

"But how? How can we help him?" Jade asked.

Drowzee turned to us with a small smile. "You two like exploring, right?"

"Sure! I love it!" I said.

"Good. Very good. Now, you might want to go and prepare for an exploration," Drowzee said.

"Wait. Why?" I asked.

"Well, if it's okay with you, I can send you on an expedition of Azurill's dream," Drowzee said.

My mouth dropped open in shock. "Wait… You're saying that you can…?"

Drowzee smiled. "Yes. I can teleport you into Azurill's nightmare. It's the talent that I take the most pride in."

"That's AWESOME! Why can't I do that? Am I the only one in this room that can't do some super awesome power? I mean, you can see into dreams and Emile can control aura… But are we just gonna sit around here and compare our abilities and let Azurill suffer?" Jade said.

"Nope! We're gonna go into Azurill's nightmare and find out why he's having it!" I said.

"Not so fast!" Drowzee intervened. He placed a hand on my shoulder.

"Why should we wait? Azurill is suffering!" Jade snapped.

"I need to tell you a few things!" Drowzee said.

"Okay, but make it quick," Jade grumbled.

I shot Jade a look that clearly meant "stop being so impatient".

"Go ahead," I beckoned.

"Thank you," Drowzee said. "Now, I want you two to be careful. I sense something… evil about this nightmare. Once you get in there, it may not seem evil… But I guess that's to lure you into a false sense of security. There's something in the dungeon that, has the potential to, well, kill you if you aren't careful…"

"Schist. That's… scary," Jade said.

"And just letting you know, you might get stomach pains while you're in the nightmare. Pokémon aren't supposed to explore dungeons like this, and so I guess that's why your stomach will cramp up. And there might be some nasty aftereffects once you get out of the nightmare…" Drowzee warned.

"I guess we'll have to take those risks," I said bracingly.

"You might want to stock up on apples and berries. They'll help you get through the stomach pains," Drowzee advised.

I shuffled my items around and found that we only had one apple.

"That's a good idea. Jade, let's go to Treasure Town to stock up," I said.

A few minutes later we arrived in Treasure Town, making a beeline for the Kecleon Shop. The Kecleons had just stocked up on apples, and following Drowzee's advice, we bought them all.

"Say… Just out of curiosity, why do you need so many apples?" the green Kecleon asked.

"We're going to save Azurill again," I said.

Kecleon gasped. "Azurill's in trouble? What happened to him now?"

"He's stuck in some never-ending nightmare, so we're going to get transported into Azurill's nightmare by a former criminal in hope of finding out why he's having a nightmare," Jade explained. "In that nightmare, we might get stomach pains, so that's why we need so many apples."

Jade smiled at the Kecleon's bewildered faces and led the way back up to the guild.

Soon we were in our former room, where Drowzee was waiting patiently for us. Azurill was still asleep on my bed.

"Oh. Hello, you two. Are you ready?" he asked.

I took a deep breath. "Yeah. I think so," I said.

"Good, good. Okay. I need you to stand right here." Drowzee moved aside and gestured to a spot by Azurill's head. "You're sure you're ready?"

Jade gulped. "Y-yes… I think so…" She gripped my paw tightly.

"Don't worry," I whispered reassuringly.

"You might get a little headache as I teleport you into the dream, but that's normal," Drowzee warned.

"Okay, okay! Can you just get this over with? I've got Butterfrees in my stomach!" Jade said impatiently. She rubbed her belly to emphasize her statement.

"Okay. Hold still… Three… two… one… Let's go!" Drowzee's body became surrounded in a purple light. The light expanded like a blob and completely encased Jade and I.

Almost instantly a searing pain shot through my head. Based on Jade's scream the same thing had happened to her as well. Her grip on my hand tightened.

The purple light suddenly straightened into a column. Quite suddenly, my vision went dark, leaving me completely blinded. I felt myself slowly begin to drop down through the ground, Jade's hand still clutched tightly in mine.

I tried to ignore the sharp pain in my head as Jade and I slowly drifted into Azurill's nightmare, though it wasn't very easy.

Finally, after an eternity of slowly falling, purple light flooded my vision. I felt my feet hit the ground…

And we were in Azurill's nightmare.

The stabbing pain of my headache faded away, leaving a dull aching feeling in my brain and a gnawing feeling in my stomach. This was surprisingly disorienting, and it took longer than it probably needed to get used to our surroundings.

As my eyes adjusted to the strange light, I could make out our surroundings. The floor was a dark purple with a few clusters of blue dots. The walls were a lighter shade of purple, in fact, the walls looked almost pink. The floor and the walls were made out of some strange material that I'd never seen before.

"Whoa…" I said.

"This is… Azurill's nightmare?" Jade whispered, looking around at the purple scenery in awe.

"Apparently…" I said.

"Hey!" Drowzee's voice spoke inside my head. "Have you made it in okay?"

"Yep! We're in!" Jade said aloud.

"Very good. Now, when you're ready, you can go on in. However, be careful. This is no ordinary nightmare. There's something evil here. I can sense it," Drowzee warned.

"Roger that, Drowzee," Jade said.

"Good luck," Drowzee said. Then his voice went silent.

"So I guess we'd better get going," I said after a brief pause.

"Yeah." Jade looked up at the "ceiling" (there wasn't a real ceiling; above us was a black void that probably was several miles high) and shouted "Don't worry, Azurill! We'll help you get through this!"

"Yeah!" I added.

"So come on! Let's go!" Jade grabbed me by the arm and dragged me into The Nightmare.

I expected to find scary Pokémon like Haunters and Banettes in this nightmare. I mean, this dungeon was called "The Nightmare". You'd expect to find nightmarish Pokémon in it. But instead we encountered Pokémon that, well, weren't exactly nightmare fuel.

Instead of eerie Ghost type Pokémon, we found Pokémon that were, quite frankly, cute. Jigglypuffs and Cleffas, Blisseys and Skitties, and even a Wigglytuff were the inhabitants of The Nightmare. The scariest Pokémon that we encountered was probably Croagunk, but I was so used to the guild's Croagunk that even the Croagunks weren't all that scary.

"Scary" wasn't really the word to describe this dungeon. "Twisted" was a more accurate term.

As we progressed in the dungeon, I found Drowzee was right about the stomach pains. Fierce spasms made my stomach squeeze tightly in pain. I grabbed an apple and ate it, providing temporary relief, but a few floors later the spasms returned, and I had to eat another one of our apples.

Everything was all fine and dandy for the most part… that is, until we ran into a Monster House packed to the brim with Wobbufetts and Wigglytuffs.

Two more Reviver Seeds later, we took out all the monsters in the Monster House and continued through the twisted dreamscape.

All the time I thought of Azurill, and it dawned on me that he might be able to see us going through the dungeon.

Azurill… If you can hear us, just know that it's gonna be okay. We'll help you get through this. Just hang in there, little guy… I thought.

I could've sworn I heard a small groan from Azurill, but with all the weirdness of this place, it may have simply been my imagination.

After the seventeenth floor, Jade and I found ourselves in a long "hallway" that led straight off into the eerie gloom ahead.

"Whoa… We've come a long way, haven't we?" Jade remarked.

"Yep," I agreed.

"It looks like one long passage forward from here. Let's keep going," Jade suggested.

Honestly, I didn't want to keep going. I wanted to get out of this twisted dream and escape the spooky surroundings. I wanted to go back to Sharpedo Bluff and go to sleep and block all of this out. But I knew that we had to. For Azurill's sake…

"Yeah," I said.

I started to walk down the dark corridor, but before I even took two steps, a bright flash illuminated the tunnel and sent a shock through my body.

"Wah! What was that?" I exclaimed.

There was another flash. A very familiar voice sighed.

"You're here? How did you get here?" It was Cresselia.

"Is that—" Jade began. Before she could say more, there was another flash, and Cresselia appeared in front of us.

"You're—" Jade gasped.

"Yes. It's me, Cresselia. Don't look so surprised," Cresselia said.

"What are you doing here?" Jade asked bravely.

"Never mind that. The more accurate question is what are you doing here?" Cresselia asked.

"We're here to—" I began.

Cresselia waved aside the answer. "No matter. In a way, I'm glad you decided to pop on over. It makes my job a whole lot easier."

"What do you mean?" I asked. Cresselia's words were really starting to confuse me.

"Both of you, think back to your dreams."

Both of you…?! Wait! Does that mean…

I turned to Jade, who was looking down at the ground solemnly.

"Jade?" I asked softly. "Have you been having weird dreams too?"

Jade sniffled and wiped something away from her eye. "Y-yes… Cresselia… She said that I was distorting space as well…"

Cresselia sighed. "It took you long enough to figure that out."

"Why are you acting so rude?" I snapped. "You're really starting to irk me off!"

"It's my nature. Why is Jade so sassy?" Cresselia retorted.

Jade turned red and began trembling in rage. "You have sixty seconds, ma'am. Explain yourself now, or I'll SolarBeam you!"

"Okay. See, those dreams weren't ordinary dreams. They were indeed me, and everything I said was true," Cresselia said.

Jade turned to me. "So it's true, then? We both distort space… According to her, it's because I've been to the future… And I guess you're a human from the future… so…" She let out a loud wail and collapsed on the ground.

"Don't worry, Jade. I'll get some answers out of her." I turned angrily to Cresselia. "Cresselia, here's something I don't get. What'll happen if we continue to exist? I mean, I know the world will be destroyed, but how?"

"Ugh. More explanations. Anyway, if you continue to exist, your distortion will expand. If the distortion expands, the power of darkness will expand, too. And if the power of darkness expands… the world will eventually become enveloped in a nightmare," Cresselia said sinisterly.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. I was following you until you started talking about the nightmare. Could you explain that part again?" Jade asked.

"Imagine being stuck in a world similar to the world we're in now," Cresselia said.

"You mean we'll all be stuck in a nightmare like this for all eternity?" Jade asked, sounding panic-stricken.

"That is exactly what'll happen. For now, only Azurill is trapped in eternal slumber… but if you continue to exist, the whole world will be trapped in a nightmare as well," Cresselia said.

Jade looked at me forlornly. "I-if it's all true…" She didn't say anything else before falling into my arms. I stood there, my arms hugged tightly around Jade, my mouth whispering reassuring phrases, my brain still tingling from Cresselia's words.

"It's okay… Don't worry… We'll get through this…" I murmured to Jade, though if what Cresselia said was true, then we wouldn't get through this alive.

"Yes, yes, while this has all been very touching, I need to get down to business now," Cresselia said, interrupting our moment.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"There's only one way to stop the destruction of the world, and that way is for you two to be eliminated," Cresselia said.

Jade screamed. "WHAT?!"

"If you two die, the distortion will die with you. So that's why I'm here. To destroy you," Cresselia said with a dark smile.

"B-but… Surely there's another way to stop this…" Jade moaned, sounding defeated.

"No, there isn't," Cresselia said flatly. "In order to prevent the end of the world, you two need to die. I'm sorry." But Cresselia didn't seem too sorry about it.

"And you're absolutely sure?" Jade asked.

"Yes, yes, I'm sure! Now, quit your yapping and prepare to die! You don't know how long I've been waiting for this moment!" Cresselia said savagely. Her body began to glow with a luminous light, preparing an attack.

Jade grabbed my paw. "N-no! I don't wanna die!" she said.

"I'm sorry, but this must be done!" Cresselia yelled.

I shut my eyes and braced myself for death. Why… why does it have to end this way…?

A strange electric-like sound confirmed that Cresselia was finished charging up her attack. Jade let out a defeated wail, and I could nearly feel my life leaving my body even before Cresselia launched her attack. There was no way out of this. Jade and I would both die.

Quite suddenly, a voice echoed in my head.

"Hello? Emile? And Jade? Where are the two of you?"

The electric noise stopped, and I gathered all my courage and opened my eyes.

Cresselia was no longer charging up her attack. Jade and I were unharmed, but a little shell-shocked. I couldn't see the speaker anywhere.

Cresselia scowled. "Great. Just great. That little—" She took a moment to curse someone out, "she's always intervening… And just when I was about to finish them off…"

"Um…" I said.

Cresselia gave us a look of pure loathing. "I swear to the great Arceus above, I will kill you both the next time we meet." There was another flash, and Cresselia vanished.

Jade knocked me over with a hug. "W-we're alive! We're alive! Woo hoo! That stupid Cresselia didn't get us today!" She was so happy that I didn't notice the tears on her face until she got up.

"That's good," I said wearily.

"Yeah, but… still… What Cresselia said… That really bugged me…" Jade said.

"But we can't worry about that now. We just need to worry about getting out of this place," I said.

No sooner had I spoken, a voice called from behind us.

"Hey, you two!" I turned around and found Drowzee running up to us. He was very beaten up and he was panting up a storm.

"Drowzee! Hey, Drowzee!" Jade greeted him.

"How did you get here?" I questioned.

"Well, I heard you were in trouble, so I decided to man up and come to help you. It looks like I came just in the nick of time," Drowzee explained breathlessly.

"Thanks, Drowzee," I said. "You saved us."

"No problem. I guess I made it in the nick of time," Drowzee said bashfully.

"Anyway, can you get us out of here? I wanna be in the normal world now," I said.

"Sure." Drowzee began to glow with purple light. "Hang on tight, you two!"

The purple light enveloped us, and we were transported out of the dream with a striking headache.

XxX

The next thing I knew, Jade, Drowzee and I were back in our room at the guild. Azurill was still locked in his deep sleep, which discouraged me a little.

"Is there any way to wake him up?" I asked.

"…I really don't know… I think so, but it's so difficult to find that it's not even worth mentioning," Drowzee said sadly.

"Oh…" Jade leaned down and cradled Azurill's head, muttering comforting words.

"Hey, don't worry. I'm sure we can find a way…" I said.

"Yeah…" Jade murmured.

Before we could continue, however, Chatot fluttered into the room, the whole guild parading behind him.

"Squawk! You're back! How did it go?" Chatot asked.

"Well, it's kind of a long story…" Jade said.

Jade, Drowzee and I launched into an explanation about what happened in the nightmare. We recounted all the Pokémon we found in the Nightmare, we retold our near-death encounter with Cresselia, and we admitted that according to Cresselia, Jade and I were going to cause Doomsday.

The whole guild looked shocked to find out that we were the cause of Azurill's nightmare.

"You two would never do anything wrong, hey hey!" Corphish cried.

"I'm absolutely certain that you didn't do this!" Sunflora added.

Chatot tilted his head in thought. "Hey… what you said about Cresselia… That doesn't sound anything like her."

Jade perked up. "Wait… So you're saying that you know a little about Cresselia? Then why didn't you say so earlier?"

"I guess it just slipped my mind," Chatot admitted.

"What do you know about her?" I asked.

"Keep in mind that these are only rumors and folklore that I'm going off of…" Chatot warned.

"The Hidden Land was nothing but rumors and folklore, but we found it anyway," I pointed out.

"Good point…" Chatot conceded.

"What do you know about her?" Jade pressured.

"Okay… So Cresselia is said to only appear on the night of the quarter moon." Right away I knew that there was something up. The night I had the weird dreams… there was a full moon that night.

Jade must've realized this too, as she gasped and said "But Chatot—"

"These are only rumors!" Chatot squawked. Jade put her hand over her mouth and nodded her head, signaling Chatot that he could continue.

"Thank you. Now, Cresselia can also heal other's emotional wounds with the gentle light from her body." There was something wrong with that as well. I did see a gentle light coming from Cresselia's body, but my emotional wounds—namely the time travel accident—were still burdening me down. But I didn't say anything.

Jade, however, decided to speak up. "Well, Cresselia didn't seem like the type to heal emotional wounds. She seemed like the type to cause emotional wounds. 'You don't belong in this world…' And she was all stuck-up and snobby."

"And Cresselia can eliminate darkness," Chatot finished.

"She can eliminate darkness? If so, then why didn't she cure Azurill of his nightmare?" Jade asked. "Listen, I don't know what kind of messed-up rumor you heard, but Cresselia wasn't any of those things."

"Hey… Cresselia said stuff about the distortion of space spreading and putting others to sleep… Can the spread be stopped?" Drowzee asked.

Jade and I looked at each other, sadness in our eyes. We held each other's gaze for a second, then, as if we had reached an unspoken agreement, we both shook our heads.

"No… There's no way to stop it," Jade lied.

Drowzee sighed. "Ah… how unfortunate."
"Does that mean that everyone's gonna end up locked in a never ending nightmare?" Corphish asked tremulously.

"Y-yeah…" Jade sniffed. I looked over to her and found that she was crying. I… It's been a long day, and I wanna go get some sleep. Talk to you later." Jade grabbed my arm and pulled me out of the guild, a trail of tears left behind her.

XxX

Once we got back to Sharpedo Bluff, Jade flopped down on her bed and cried. None of my comforting words seemed to help her. She just sat on her bed, her body racked with sobs.

"I… I… why? Why us?" Jade sobbed. "Why do we have to die to stop the distortion from spreading? Why can't some random Magikarp die or something?"

"I don't know, Jade…" I said.

I was also feeling pretty hopeless, as well. In fact, I don't think I felt that hopelessness ever. When Jade and I were stuck in the dark future, I felt a tiny spark of hope that we'd be able to get back to our time. When we were climbing up Temporal Tower, I felt hopeful that we could defeat Primal Dialga and restore time, even though I needed to disappear for that to happen. But now I was completely hopeless. Jade and I had to die. There was nothing that could change that fact.

"Hey, Jade, how about we sleep on it? It'll be better tomorrow," I suggested.

"No!" Jade said with surprising fierceness. "I don't wanna go to bed! I wanna figure out what's going on!"

"Okay. Now, let's start out with what we know," I began.

"Emile, are you sure we should've lied to them?" Jade interrupted.

"Well… I don't know the answer to that," I said. "I mean, they would've gotten all up in a tizzy if we did tell them, but at least they'd know the truth. It's always better to tell the truth, you know."

"Yeah, good point…" Jade seemed to be calming down, much to my relief. "But… I don't want everyone to be stuck in a nightmare like poor Azurill… So maybe… disappearing would be the best choice…"

"Maybe…" I admitted. I certainly didn't want to admit it, but if Cresselia was correct, then I guess we'd have to disappear…

Quite unexpectedly, Jade walked up to me and fell into my arms. "Emile… I won't wanna die…"

"Neither do I, Jade," I said softly. "But if we do have to die, we might as well make the most of the time we have left."

"Yeah… And in the end, we will both die eventually," Jade pointed out. "But anyway, we should get to sleep. Goodnight, Emile…"

"Goodnight, Jade," I said. After a minute, Jade's head fell onto my shoulder, and she was asleep. I slowly eased Jade onto her bed, and I laid down on my bed. But I couldn't sleep. I was too busy thinking about the nightmare, Cresselia's words, and pretty much everything else that had happened today.

So we're causing the world's destruction, huh? I thought. I don't get it… Why?

I thought back to the weird dreams with Cresselia. Those dreams… At first, I thought that those were just weird dreams… But then, the second dream… That's when I thought they were real… and Jade…!

But then I started thinking of Jade's peppier attitude yesterday. Hmm… If she was having the same dream as me… I guess it kind of makes sense. She must've suspected that I was having dreams, too… and she tried to cheer me up… She was so concerned about me… Sure, Jade was frightened, but she was concerned about me, too…

I rolled over on my bed, facing the gurgling fountain. Normally the gentle bubbling the water fountain made would lull me to sleep, but tonight was obviously an exception. The sound was keeping me up instead of helping me go to sleep.

I spent the next few hours drifting in and out of sleep. Every time I woke up, I thought about our plight for a little while before falling asleep to Jade's peaceful snores.

But one time, when I woke up, I didn't hear Jade sleeping. I rolled over to face Jade's bed, but Jade… Jade was gone.

I'll admit: I panicked. I thought that Jade had gone and… As crazy as it sounds, I thought Jade had killed herself. But then I heard a voice from above me, and I recognized it as Jade's.

"…distortion… Gosh, I don't want it to be true, but…"

Jade sounded so sad, so depressed, and I knew what to do.

I sat up and took a moment to stretch my tired limbs. Then I walked up the stone staircase.

Jade was sitting at the edge of the bluff, staring out at the vast ocean. Tears lined Jade's face, but she seemed calm enough.

I sat down next to her and hung my feet over the edge of the cliff. "Hey, Jade," I said.

"Hey," Jade said. "You couldn't sleep, either?"

"Nope. I'm too busy thinking about all the madness with Cresselia and everything," I replied.

"Ah." Jade and I were silent for a few minutes. Then Jade spoke up.

"Do we really have to die?" she asked.

I stayed silent. I didn't really have an answer for that question.

"I mean, I don't wanna die… Why can't Cresselia see that? I wanna stay here! I don't wanna disappear!" Jade said.

Disappear… The word kind of struck a nerve with me, you know, with the whole "disappear from time" incident at Temporal Tower.

"Hey, Jade… Do you remember when we fought Dialga at Temporal Tower?" I asked.

Jade's face contorted with sadness. "Yes. How can I forget it?"

"I fought, even though I knew that I'd disappear," I said. "Do you know why I fought?"

"No…" Jade said.

"I knew that even if I disappear, I would save the world," I said. "So maybe that's what we have to do now…"
"Maybe…" Jade muttered halfheartedly. "I mean, you were willing to sacrifice yourself to save the world… isn't this the same situation you were in? But I'm not willing to sacrifice myself for the world… I'm not as brave as you are, Emile…"

"You're plenty brave. And I don't blame you for being unwilling. There's something… different about this situation. Don't you think so, Jade?" I asked.

"Yes, perhaps…" Jade replied.

"Yeah. There's something… strange about this whole thing," I said.

Jade tilted her head, confused. "What's strange?"

"Pretty much everything about this. I mean, Chatot's description of Cresselia didn't really match our description of Cresselia. And the whole 'space-distortion' idea… That's a little weird, too," I said.

"But there's something else…" Jade said.

Yeah… I feel like there's something else… but what? I thought.

"Wait! I think I know!" I said abruptly.

"What? What do you think is wrong?" Jade asked.

"See, back at Temporal Tower, my disappearance wasn't really a choice. But now, both of us are fighting to stay in this world! Our disappearance hasn't happened yet!" I said. I took a deep breath. "Does that make sense to you?"

"Yep. But keep in mind, none of this is certain," Jade reminded me.

"Yeah, but if you think about it… I was a human who came from the future… And you went to the future, remember? So all that… It must all be true…" I stared down at the ground, barely holding in tears.

Now it was Jade's turn to cheer me up. She put a hand on my shoulder and whispered "Don't worry…" to my ear, but before she could say much more, I noticed a bright light rising up behind us. I sat up and found that the sun was slowly rising, bathing us in a beautiful golden light.

"Oh! The sun!" Jade exclaimed.

"We've lived through one more night, Jade," I said with a triumphant grin.

Jade and I sat there, locked in an embrace, simply letting the fresh light of a new dawn wash over us. It was quite the magical moment.

"Wow, déjà vu much?" Jade said suddenly.

"What?" I asked.

"Well, there was one time… Back when Grovyle was with us… You overheard us, didn't you?" Jade said, looking slightly embarrassed.

I did remember. That conversation felt like it had happened a thousand years ago.

"Oh, yeah. That one…" I said.

"Yeah… Do you remember what he asked me? About why we didn't give up hope in the future?" Jade asked.

The conversation flashed back to me…

"Jade… when we were in the future, confronted by Primal Dialga and Dusknoir and all those Sableye, I lost all hope. But… you didn't give up hope. You decided to keep fighting. What propelled you forward?"

"A wise person once said, 'Don't forget. Always, somewhere, someone is fighting for you. As long as you remember her, you are not alone.' I don't know why, but… I remembered that saying when we were there.

"If you think in my perspective, then you'll realize that Emile was that person. He was fighting for me. He could've been like me, a sad, scared chicken, but he wasn't. He was strong. He stayed strong, no matter what. He fought for me… I guess that's what inspired me to not give in."

I remembered it with surprising accuracy, granted that it happened forever ago.

"See, ever since we first met… you've been giving me courage. Ever since Koffing and Zubat stole my Relic Fragment… Even after you turned into a Pokémon, lost your memory, and were confronted with terrible bullies and me—I wasn't really the kindest Pokémon—anyway, you fought for me…" Jade said. "Thank you."

"Aw, any time, Jade," I said modestly.

"Even during our worst moments, you stayed strong… Like that time, at the Hidden Land… when Grovyle…" Jade didn't need to complete her sentence.

Yes, I remembered that time. The memory came back to me from time to time, and I would feel a fresh wave of pain that was greater than the last one. Yet for some reason, I felt strangely nostalgic, as well…

"Grovyle! Why are you going back? We need you!"

"You two are great explorers! You don't need me! The rest is up to you now!"

"Grovyle… Please… Don't go…"

"Emile… Jade… I have complete confidence in you two! You two are the greatest of combinations! Jade, don't worry about me. Just worry about yourself and Emile. And Emile… Though the parting hurts… the rest is in your hands!"

Then Grovyle pushed Dusknoir into the Dimensional Hole… And they were gone.

"I felt like I could never take Grovyle's place," Jade continued, snapping me back to the present. "It was his last wish, you know. He wanted me to be strong for him… Honestly, I'm kind of ashamed… I cried as you were disappearing. Grovyle wouldn't have done that…"

"Who knows? He might have cried while he was disappearing, you know…" I said.

"But that's not my point here. My point is that you're too stubborn to give in so easily. You and Grovyle and Celebi and even Dusknoir. So if you aren't giving up… then neither am I!" Jade said fiercely. "I'm not gonna let that stupid Cresselia tell me if I can or can't exist! I'm! Not! Giving! UP!"

"That's the spirit!" I said.

"But we're not gonna just waste our time on pep talks, are we?" Jade said.

"Nope! We're gonna fight at each other's side until our last breaths!" I said.

"Yeah!" Jade turned to Treasure Town. "So let's get exploring! Team Aura for life!"

"Woo hoo!" I said, pumping my fist in the air. We were so goofy, like two cheerleaders. But the thing about cheerleaders is that they can help you get your spirits up even if you're losing.

Jade and I shared a high five, and with that, I led the way into Treasure Town, thoroughly grateful that we'd stay fighting against our fate for yet another day.

XxX

Long chapters are long. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this installment.