The child was crying. And now I can't stop.
I remember it now. Darkrai left me after that, like he was satisfied just with all the pain he caused. Another family eventually drove by and stopped to help. When they found me, I was clinging onto Tropius and Snover to try to revive them so we could go after my parents. Of course, they never found any bodies, but the state of the wreckage, the overwhelming weeks that went by without answers, and the sole witness statement—mine, that my parents had been put to sleep and were taken by a monster—was more than enough for them to assume the worst. They pitied me, and they twisted my memory—so malleable because of my age and desperation to make sense of it—to fit the only logic that any sane person could come to terms with. I was too young to raise Pokemon, so they took Snover and Tropius away and I never saw them again. I had no family that anyone could get into contact with, or maybe they just didn't want me, and so I was put in an orphanage.
How could I forget that?! How could I forget how they were taken from me?! Worse still, now I can't stop thinking about what might've really happened to them. Are they actually dead or are they still alive somewhere? Where did they go after they passed through the Dimensional Hole? If they travelled through time, then shouldn't that mean that they knew that the future was changed? And what would that even mean for them?!
And Dialga… Shouldn't Dialga—of all people—have known about what really happened?! He said it was an accident, he—! I swallow hard. No. No, I don't think he lied to me. Not on purpose anyway. He actually seemed sorry about what happened to them. And what reason would he have to lie? He showed me pieces of that flashback: They just weren't put together like they should've been. So that probably means that Dialga didn't really know the truth either, but… Dialga should know just about anything connected to time, especially if someone travels through it.
But then he didn't know about what was actually happening to Temporal Tower either, or that Darkrai was manipulating time for so long. And Darkrai, he—
He did it.
It's all because of him!
I heave a quivering breath as I open my eyes only to see an ocean of black before me. My head is pounding from the extremes of the visions I've just had combined with the memory, even though they can't have happened for any longer than a few seconds in real time. I can hear the sounds of the battle still taking place across the lake of molten rock, but even that is suppressed by the loud turmoil wreaking havoc on my mind and body. Pushing myself up into a crouch, I feel like a worn, broken machine.
I do the only thing I can and give myself a moment to let the feeling pass. I've never had a headache like this one—not even when I first used the Dimensional Scream—but then I've never had any visions for as long or that were as complicated as the ones I just witnessed either. I think that if I tried to stand right now, I'd only end up falling back to the earth anyway. Like all of the other times, I'll just have to wait until I recover.
All this does, however, is leave me to broil with the emotions that have already been ignited. The tears have stopped, but I am still shaking. The pounding in my skull is eventually drowned out by the pounding of my heart. My entire body feels rigid. Gradually, my vision returns only for me to go from seeing black to seeing red. Then, as swiftly as the feelings burning within me had taken light, they all abruptly quieten in order to me to fasten upon one, singular desire.
I am going to destroy him.
I wobble in place as I rise to my feet, shifting one leg back behind me in order to keep myself steady. Even with the unbridled fury that hazes over my vision, my attention locks on the shadowy figure in the distance. The rest of the world and the people in it might as well be just a blur. My senses heighten, and my lips curling into a vicious snarl.
And then I'm racing at a maddened dash straight for him, launching myself into the air once I reach the edge of the rocks. I propel my body further with my aura, up and across the sea of lava back to the fighting—back to him, I am going to destroy him!
I scream. The flames raging inside me seem to take on a new life of their own as the distance closes between me and my target. I can feel them channeling themselves from my core, scorching my blood as they travel throughout my body. No sooner has Pitch Black turned his gaze to me, they manifest into something real, contorting around one of my legs in a fiery spiral that cascades a ripple of sparks across my form as I dive toward him.
He can't duck away into the shadows in time and catches the Blaze Kick for the full of its power, thrown back to skid across the dirt as I land—tucking and rolling to continue to sprint after him, unwilling to relent for even a second. With flames still licking up my body, I push myself onto my feet once more as soon as I am able and keep up the attack. Before he can fully recover, pushing himself off the ground, I swing my leg at him a second time like a bludgeon throwing the majority of my weight into it. Again, it knocks him to the earth, but the overshot knocks me off balance as well and I fall after him to land on all fours.
By now, others have begun to realize that I'm back in the fight: The Arbok and the Magmar attempt to close in on me from both sides. Growling in irritation, I reach within the Treasure Bag still fastened around me and toss a few Blast Seeds in an arc at them. I don't care if they actually get hit. I don't care about them at all, but they are not going to stop me! This is my fight—Darkrai is mine!
The small delay is enough for him to move into action. Before I can close in on him a third time, he raises a hand and fires off one of the maddeningly familiar spheres of black, and fuchsia, and violet in my direction. I quickly fire an Aura Sphere along its path and watch as the two explode in a cackling burst of shadow and light that eat away at one another. I feel the power behind them rippling in echoes of the blast that discharge all around us.
He raises himself up, staring in wide-eyed fascination at the mutual destruction of our attacks. I don't know what he was expecting, but there's no small feeling of pleasure I feel from seeing the shock that registers across his features. Only for a brief moment though, and then his eyes narrow at me. "Well, isn't this a sudden change of heart. You're actually trying to fight me seriously," he grimaces, "Yet by the end of it all, we both know exactly what you are, child."
"My name is Lira, the daughter of Shiro and Iliana!" I bark. Shifting my feet apart, I level my hands in front of me and begin to summon another Aura Sphere, drawing from the well of my reserves to intensify its power. "An Aura Guardian and a Guardian of Light! I am the Child of the Dimensional Scream!" I see his body go tense as he braces himself to dodge it. I won't let that happen. Thrusting myself forward with Quick Attack, lunging up into the air, I close in on him. "And I remember everything!"
It's obvious that he wasn't expecting me to attack him from a closer range, because he swiftly tries to get out of the way rather than wait for the right moment as he had been. A gutless reaction from a gutless monster. I fire the Aura Sphere in a curved path after him rather than straight on, and with that he can't veer away in time: It strikes true, colliding against his upper arm in an eruption of energy that throws him to one side. And I follow after it, tackling him.
As soon as I've snagged him by the arms, I use Circle Throw—not to toss him away again, but to propel him head first into the earth and flip myself on top of him. Beyond that, all measure of reasoning to the battle is lost amid the flurry of punches against him and my own, blinding rage. We scramble over on another along the ground, each fighting for the advantage until he finally dissipates from my grasp like water as he merges with the shadows only to reappear behind me and knock me back. I'm sent tumbling away, but before I can continue the assault the Aggron from earlier steps in front of me, blocking me off from him.
I growl and charge forward, barreling myself at him with Force Palm right in the center of his chest and climbing up his armored form. I use the same move again , driving my hand against his collar and throwing myself off of him from his backside.
And then I hear him fall. If it weren't for the fact that he'd already taken enough damage, I'm also not holding back. I can still feel myself quivering with rage, and it's as though I can't even truly react to the damage I've taken myself. I don't feel pain and I don't feel tired: I'm livid.
With an upward sweep of my arm, I next begin to manipulate the air around me. Something feels different about it this time than the other times that I've used Vacuum Wave. The way the winds cut around my body in a savage torrent, they feel sharp enough to carve through metal. It almost scares me and the rapid current makes it hard to breathe, but I continue to draw on that power nonetheless. I am going to end him! And his goons aren't going to stop me! I'll strike them all down if I have to!
There was no play of fate. There were no accidents. The collapse of time and space, all the times that I've been hunted down, the loss of my parents in both the Dark Future and the corrected timeline… It's always been thanks to him! And because of what—because I'm a Guardian of Light?! My parents weren't: They had nothing to do with this! Neither did Marill or Azurill, or Masa, or any of the humans or Pokemon that he's manipulated and thrust into danger just to get rid of us! So long as he can create his world of nightmares, he doesn't care about the lives he ruins! People like him don't deserve mercy, so I'll slaughter him! I'll kill him for everything he's done!
The winds grow stronger. My body rises within the center of the torrent of air. And suddenly I feel my aura react to another's. For just a second, my gaze flits away from Darkrai to land on my partner. I find him staring right back at me, his staff in hand and an unconscious Arbok lying beside him. It doesn't look like he's in the best of shape, and he needs to keep his head in the fight, but all the same he's watching me—his eyes glistening with concern. He has to feel it: The intense anger raging within me and my desire to kill.
Ri… No, I… What am I doing…? Ri, Grovyle, Dusknoir, Celebi, Cresselia… They're all still here. I don't want to end up hurting them! And the other Pokemon here aren't my enemies: They're being manipulated into fighting us, controlled by Darkrai. They don't deserve this either.
There's nothing that can douse the hatred I feel toward Pitch Black. I won't forgive him—I'll never forgive him for as long as I live! But I can never forgive myself either if I end up hurting the people I care about because of that. They're all I have left that he hasn't taken from me. Holding back the anger that threatens to consume me, I force my powers to subdue into something I can actually control. Slowly, the air begins to calm to a point that can warp it as I need to.
I cross my arms over my chest, focusing my attack for a moment longer before I release it—hurling the dagger-like winds forward to lash out at Darkrai. They still cover a wind range, and I feel the air vibrate, but they maintain their path straight for him. My body drops, and I brace myself for the landing only for someone to catch me in their arms before I can touch the ground. We both grunt from the pull of gravity turning against us, but he remains standing and cradles me against him. My partner.
"Leave it to you to catch me with I fall," I tease him in a quiet murmur, offering him a faint smirk as he sets my down onto my feet—one of his hands lingering at my waist. Inside though, I'm relieved. My mind was going to a dangerous place: I was nearly about to lose myself and he pulled me away from the darkness. Here he is, reminding me that I'm not alone and why I'm fighting to begin with. Not in the name of revenge, but for the people that matter to me and this crazy, wonderful world that we live in.
"I was starting to think that Darkrai dragged you into another nightmare," he quips, giving me a soft smile in return. Pulling me against his chest in a one-armed hug, he then adds in a whisper, "I'm glad that you woke up when you did."
I breathe in his scent and it reassures me all the more, calming my unsteady nerves. This isn't just my fight: I have him and everyone else to stand alongside me. The bittersweet moment can only last so long though, and soon enough I'm angling my body to follow Ri's gaze across the battlefield to where our opponent is steadily picking himself up from the attack. My partner keeps his hold of me, and I feel him tense up. "We'll take him down together," I encourage him, "He's weaker now, so I don't think he can handle much more of this. We'll leave his goon squad to the others."
"Right."
"And Ri?" I cast him a sidelong glance, "When we make it back home… You let me try to cook something, alright? I think I want to try to make cookies for everyone."
He blinks at me, stunned by my words and the casual way I say them. But it works. Soon enough, he's laughing at the stark normality of what I just said and he relaxes. More than that though, I'm making a promise for the both of us: That we'll both make it back home this time. "Chimecho would kill me if I let you anywhere near the kitchen alone," he snickers, "You're going to have to let me help you."
"Fine," I answer in mock defeat. With that, the conversation ends as Darkrai lunges straight for us using Quick Attack. We move in sync, Ri letting me go to step forward and take the brunt of the hit before using Counter to slug him in the head with his fist while I twist around them to use Blaze Kick against our opponent's unguarded stomach. Our attacks hit one right after the other, giving him no choice but to move back. I don't fail to notice that he starts to clutch his abdomen, but stops himself short. I also don't fail to notice the dull, reddened mark that now covers it. He's been burned. Good: That should make things easier for us.
Next, he uses Double Team—circling us both as he did before while we get back-to-back. It's as impossible to tell as ever which of them is really him among the copies and none of them remain still. We still can't sense him. I prepare for the unexpected, waiting for his next attack to come from any direction and readying an Aura Sphere into the palm of my hand. Using Copycat, Ri forms his own.
To add to the confusion, the Mismagius that Dusknoir had been fighting is sent flying over us, a Shadow Ball grappling her midsection. We quickly duck, and I half expect the Gripper Pokemon to dart toward us next. However, from the corner of my sight, I can tell that he's more than worse for wear. Dusknoir's powerful, but that Mismagius must've been able to deal as much damage back at him. With the shape he's in and the type-disadvantage against him, he'd probably end up hindering more than anything if he were to join our side. I can see him calculating these odds in his mind before he turns to where Cresselia is and moves to help her fight instead.
That's when Darkrai strikes, lunging at us from the left. My partner is the first to react, firing his Aura Sphere at him. However, to our dismay, Pitch Black's figure breaks apart and the ball of energy simply continues to hurdle toward a fall wall. It's just one of his copies!
I snap my gaze back behind us just in time: The real Darkrai appears from the swarm, a black and fuchsia sphere in his grasp. I see it aimed at my partner and I jump into action, ramming my shoulder against him to knock him out of harm's way and firing my Aura Sphere—but it's too late. Darkrai and I both launch our attacks almost in unison, and this time they graze past each other to strike us both in the chest. I hear Ri shout for me over Darkrai's cry of pain as we're both flung back, two more of his copies breaking apart like clouds of mist before vanishing as I'm knocked through them.
I see them—the shadows clawing away at my body just like they did to my family. I know what happens after this, but I just can't believe it! I can't believe I let this happen! "Lira!" Ri runs after me, but I pull myself away from him. I don't know if it can happen, but I don't want him touching me! I don't want to risk them crawling from my body to his and dragging him down with me. He has to keep fighting!
Except what should happen doesn't. I stay conscious. Ri kneels down, propping me up with one hand and clasping one of my own with the other. And at that moment, we both share a quiet gasp as a soft light begins to emanate from our bodies. I know where both our minds are flashing back to: Back in the Hidden Land, when I disappeared. Neither of us can make sense of it and we each fall silent, our bodies rigid.
It takes me a second longer to realize that the little lights tha encompasses us now are slightly different than the ones we're so afraid of. When I disappeared, they had a golden radiance to them: These are mostly white, with the faintest hint of blue shimmering from them. They aren't as vivid either, and they're stationary where the others had drifted skyward. By now, I notice that even Darkrai is frozen as he too watches them from the short distance away. And he looks terrified.
The reason why is simple. The lights begin to dissolve the shadows that creep around my body. His attack failed. I can't make sense of it. Neither can he. He stares at us both as though he were staring into his own nightmare, then—with an enraged shout—fires his attack at us again.
Something appears in a blur of motion right between us: Cresselia. She hisses against the physical pain of the sphere that rams into her, but is able to brace herself against it. The effects of the move mean nothing to her species' natural defenses and the shadows dissipate immeadiately on contact. "This is the end for you, Darkrai!" Without hesitating, she fires an Aurora Beam straight at him, propelling him back with another agonized bark.
The chaos from the fighting then quietens and the last of the copies fade away. I don't move. I don't breathe. I just wait.
"We… did it…" she gasps, exhausted from the battle. Despite however much pain she must be in though, she cranes her neck around to look at us with a bright smile, "You did it… I knew you could do it. You really are children of light."
Children of light… No way… As suddenly as they had appeared, the lights that had swarmed us flicker out of existence. My partner holds me close to him, but I remain still. So what were they?
"Just as I thought, your powers are growing," she continues, returning her gaze over toward her elemental opposite, "'So blessed by the legendaries, their powers will not be able to affect the Guardians as other mortals.' So long as you will it, Darkrai cannot envelope either of you within another nightmare. Not now."
So that's what happened. And before, when Darkrai tried to trick me, I broke away from that too… No more nightmares… I'm frozen still by the thought. After all this time, it sounds too good to be true: An impossible, unrealistic wish. It's been so long that I can't remember a time when I didn't get them. To hear that I'm suddenly free from them, just like that, I can't…
Ri helps me onto my feet and I shake my head. Right: One thing at a time. Catching my breath, I look around us to see how the rest of our team is doing. Over on one side of the space, Celebi is feeding an Oran berry to Grovyle where he sits leaning against a stalagmite. On the other side, Dusknoir is panting over the fallen Rhyperior. Besides Darkrai—who's shaking, keeping his body propped up by his arms on the ground—all of our opponents have been knocked unconscious.
"It's over, Darkrai," the Lunar Pokemon says sternly, hovering closer to him, "Time to turn yourself in and face what you've done."
For the longest while, all he does is stare back at her mutely. It's like he can't even process what's happening. Then he chuckles—a bleak, empty noise that sends a shiver down my spine. "C-Cresselia… Don't you remember…?" he grunts, hefting himself up, "I said you cannot catch me!"
My eyes widen. I don't need the Dimensional Scream to tell me what his plan is. No! But no sooner do I make a break for him, the air around us begin to distort. Across the distance, Grovyle has to latch onto the closest stalagmite to avoid being pulled by the winds—ensnaring his leg between the rocks and catching Celebi by the waist as she screams, holding her protectively against him.
Not far from where they stand, directly behind Pitch Black, a vortex begins to form. The same kind that Dusknoir had used to get to the past. The same kind that swallowed my parents. Ri dives forward to catch me, pulling me back by the wrist as soon as it appears, "Hey! What is that?!"
"It's a Dimensional Hole!" I scream, "Let me go—he's going to get away!" I can't let that happen: Not again! But the more I fight him, the stronger my partner's hold becomes and he adjusts his footing to better keep me back. Even Cresselia blocks my way. By far, this one is the most unstable, and it takes every effort of willpower for Grovyle to keep himself and Celebi from being dragged into it. We could easily get dragged into it, but we've travelled through time before and we can do it again! But If we lose Darkrai this time, there's no telling what he'll do next!
He just laughs, a look of triumph overshadowing his features as he jeers, "This Dimensional Hole may take me to the future… or the past…" He gives a mocking, nonchalant shrug, "Even I don't know where it will lead me, but I've failed only in this time. I will simply plunge the world into darkness in another."
"S-stop! Darkrai!" My partner shouts after him all while trying to maintain his grip on me. I'm fighting him like a wild animal now! I can't! I can't let him do this!
"You're not getting away!" Cresselia shouts, giving chase after him.
Even I know she won't catch him in time. Even if she hadn't overexerted herself in the fight, I doubt she have been able to. And she doesn't. Darkrai easily beats her to the Dimensional Hole—even avoiding a spray of Bullet Seed from Grovyle's attempt to stop him.
"Too bad for you!" he shouts, "I can slip away through time with just one step. You cannot catch me, so goodbye to you!" He pauses only once with his back to the vortex, swept up in his own maniacal laughter all the while, "Well, how do you like that?! Finally, in the end… It still ends in my ultimate victory!"
I struggle from my Ri's grasp at last, moving forward and raising my hand to fire an Aura Sphere at Darkrai before he can vanish across time and space, but it misses and is just devoured by the vortex—just like everything else! Whether he goes into the future or the past, whether or not he even stays within our lifetimes, we can't let him do this!
"I won't allow that!"
Startled, I hesitate to go further. I've never heard anything like that give life to my thoughts before: A voice that booms like thunder coming from nowhere. I don't even realize that it's real until I notice Darkrai's smug expression morph into one of confusion.
Then, as if things couldn't get away worse, the entire area begins to quake. Stalagmites and boulders that were fractured in the battle are jarred to the extreme that they break apart completely and the rest of us fight to remain standing. Following that, a blinding light soon covers the entire area. I close my eyes too late, feeling them sting as though I stared right into a Luminous Orb's blinding explosion.
Hear something large slams into the ground at the left, the additional quake from it strong enough for me to momentarily lose my balance. Fortunately though, it seems like the last of them. What bothers me next is a sickening feeling that I've been through this before. It doesn't take long for me to pinpoint why that is, but there's nothing I can do about it either.
I think everyone is doomed to meet some people in this world that they never think they'll see again and some people they'll never want to see again. The towering legendary that has just appeared was slated on both of those lists of mine. Even now, I inwardly recoil from the terrible sight of him looming over us. This time though, all the overwhelming fury that blankets his expression is directed at someone else: Darkrai. The latter visibly seems to shrink under that fiery gaze.
"P-Palkia!" Ri stammers, rushing to my side once again. However, it's not us he's after. Not now. Now, well… I can see why Cresselia was so anxious about what would happen to her elemental counterpart if we didn't get to him first…
"You will pay a grave price for expanding the distortion of space, Darkrai!" Palkia bellows. Spotting the large pearls on his shoulders beginning to radiate with a pinkish light, my ribs seem to twinge at the memory of our battle with him. However, rather than using Spatial Rend, he rears his head back as flecks of energy lick at his fangs. "This is a strike for justice! Take this!"
Then everything begins to quake again—a hundred times worse than before. Palkia begins to charge that energy gathering before his maw in a vivid, deadly lightshow. I release a panicked shout as Ri and I move to cling to each other, dropping to our knees and holding one another protectively. Having no other choice, Grovyle throws himself and Celebi across the distance to escape Palkia's range. Just what in Arceus' name does that moron of a legendary think he's doing?! He's going to bring the entirety of the Dark Crater down on top of us! Fear sweeping over him like a tidal wave, Pitch Black launches himself into the Dimensional Hole.
"There is no escape!" The Spatial Pokemon roars. And not a second after he releases the build-up of energy, firing it straight into the vortex. I can't tell what kind of move it is. An Aura Sphere? Hyper Beam? Something else entirely? All I know is that it comes with a devastating power that could put anything I could hope to master to shame.
I flinch as, somehow, we hear Darkrai's scream of agony from within the vortex. He's been it! But more rattling than that is what happens to the Dimensional Hole itself. The unstable winds that tore at our forms cease immeadiately and the portal itself fades into a dismal haze of greys. Then, like glass, it shatters. It breaks apart into a million pieces that all vanish without a trace before they can even touch the ground.
"Darkrai…" Cresselia balks, her gaze betraying a mix of emotions ranging from relief, to bafflement, to grief. And despite it all, her pained-stricken features are enough for me to feel a twinge of sympathy for me as she laments in a horrified cry, "Darkrai was still inside of it!"
"I heard Darkrai scream…" my partner whispers, holding me tightly. I feel him shaking against me and I loop my arms around him further. His voice is steady, but his aura signature is not. His heart rapidly beats against my own fast-paced one. "Did Darkrai disappear forever?"
Arceus, what did Palkia just do? What even just happened? All of this has been turmoil after turmoil, so much that I don't just feel completely drained: I'm numb. If all of this has only ever been a dream, I'd like to wake up now. If I do, then maybe everything will be alright again. Maybe I'll wake up in Fortree City to the smell of pancakes, five years old again as I race through my childhood home to find my mother and father in the kitchen, safe and sound. Or maybe I'll wake back up at the Guild, with Manaphy nestled between Ri and myself as he rouses us to give him a Blue Gummi. Maybe I can be ok again.
But I'm not ok. Nothing is ok, and I'm not waking up from this.
Palkia turns to us, drastically calmed than when he first got here, though he still carries a look of disgruntlement. "No. That has not happened," he answers, "He has suffered grievous damage and has been banished to some unknown place. But, wherever he may be…" he scowls, "he lives."
Relief floods within the grueling atmosphere that hangs over us, but also concern. "When he recovers from his injuries," Ri presses, "won't Darkrai just go back to his wicked ways?"
That's right. Since he is still alive, there's nothing stopping him from coming after us again or trying to destroy the world in some other time. We're still not safe from him. No one is.
Cresselia takes a deep breath, "That remains to be seen. Because when Darkrai entered the Dimensional Hole, he began to time travel. At that precise moment, he was struck with Palkia's attack." For a while, she stares at the place where the vortex had been only moments ago, then she turns to face us, "Remember what Darkrai said about Lira's arrival from the future? Darkrai attacked while you were time-travelling, and so Lira was overcome by amnesia. So, just like Lira…" her voice falters, and she swallows hard, "It's likely that Darkrai has lost his memory as well."
"What?!"
"Yes. Darkrai will likely never recover it, and he will wander lost through the world."
I don't believe her. I can't. Again, what she says seems almost like it's too good to be true. And even if he loses his memories, I'm proof enough to show how much of a lie it is to say that he can't get them back. Darkrai still lives, and for better or worse that means that none of this is over. Not by a longshot.
"We are done with him. He will not likely expand the distortion of space again," Palkia spits dismissively. Really though, it just makes it sound like all he came here for was to get revenge against Darkrai for messing with his domain—nevermind whatever could've happened to us. "I will return to the Spacial Rift. I foresee no reason to ever return here. Farewell."
Even if any of us were going to try to stop him, we wouldn't have gotten the chance. In a less disastrous burst of light than the one that manifested during the chaos of his arrival, he leaves without any further goodbyes. Good riddance, I think, drawing my mouth into a firm line. I've had enough with just about all legendaries.
"It's over then?" A shadow falls over us, and Ri and I look up to find Dusknoir gliding to a stop behind us. Picking themselves up off the ground, Grovyle and Celebi move to join us by our side as well. "That's it? We just… forget that he's still out there and carry on with our lives?" To anyone who didn't really know him, he'd sound calm, but I can hear the vexation in his tone.
"Well…" Cresselia pauses, as if considering her answer. Even if she has different reasons than ours, I don't think she can just readily accept this either. But all she says is, "That is that. Shall we also go back?"
Helping one another rise, we look around us at the aftermath of the battle. Not far from where we stand, the Mismagius evokes a tired groan. I want to help the Pokemon here that Darkrai used against us, but I don't really want to be here either to explain things when they regain consciousness. We have enough supplies: We can leave some of them behind so they can heal themselves.
I turn to face my partner. I want to go back to Treasure Town. I want to go back to a place where things actually make sense and where we're never swept up in the turbulence of our lives as Guardians of Light. Where we're just Ri and Lira, two teenagers that like to sleep in late and go on adventures.
I don't have to say a word. "Yes," he smiles at me, answering for us both, "Let's go home, Lira! Back to Treasure Town!"
Home again with the people I love and a chance of moving forward. What a dream too good to be true with all that now weighs upon my chest. Still, I squeeze his hand. I'm ready. With him by my side, I know I can face this uncertain future.
