I can't believe that this game left shadow Mewtwo alone for years. :I

Polaris-Ponyta, Shanjin-Greninja, Yarak-Talonflame, Nelly–Auroros, Anakri-Dragelge, Lenaren-Noivern

Embyr-Blaziken, Lily-Mewtwo, Twilight-baby Mewtwo, Shira-Reshiram

Chapter 22: Synergy

Lily's body spasmed and her mouth opened in a silent scream. The black mist sank into her body, darkening her skin. The shadow synergy stone took root as a dim orange crystal jutting from her shoulder. It looked like it was piercing out of her heart.

My mind flashed back to the shadow Pokémon in Orre. When their hearts were forced shut, they became uncontrollably violent. Those Pokémon had been bad enough. But a Mewtwo in that state… my friend… Dread and despair filled me. I watched, numb, as Lily's feet touched the ground, her eyes blank and staring. Energy pulsed out from her, condensing and filling the arena with dusky crystals. One stabbed up in front of me. Anne jumped, pushing me out of the way.

"We have to help her!" She cried.

I stared at her. Of course we had to help. But how?

"Battle her," Anne said. "You have a Battle AR. And you know Lily. If you battle, it will build the synergy between the two of you. Then I might be able to negate the power of the synergy stone."

"How?"

She touched the brooch on her cloak. "Long ago, the shadow synergy stone flared up, just like this. They were able to use a powerful synergy stone to neutralize it. This is a fragment of that stone. If you weaken the shadow's power through battle, this fragment may be enough to turn the tides. How are you at battling? Do you can hold her off?"

I gave a humorless smile. "I'm good at battling." My mind flicked back to the battle between Shira and Lily. A legendary Pokémon hadn't been enough to take down Lily. But this thing in front of me wasn't mega evolved, and didn't have emotion or strategy. It was just swirling rage. So it might work.

I sent out Embyr and activated his mega stone. The flare of energy caught the attention of Shadow Mewtwo. I wanted to fall back into my usual method of battling since I was still new to Ferrum's style. But we needed the synergy power from my battle AR to activate Anne's stone. So I synced up my moves with Embyr's. Shadow Mewtwo sprang at him. This time I didn't make Embyr follow my movements. He was better at fighting than I was. Instead I had the link run in reverse. Embyr moved, and my body matched him. I gave him strategy, and he provided the motion to carry it out. And this way, the synergy link remained active and continued to grow.

"What did you do?" Anne gasped. "I've never sensed synergy energy like this!"

"I'm used to linking with my Pokémon. I think I know how to bring out its power more than most people would."

"Great! This should give us enough time to charge up the stone! This might work!"

Might work, huh? I turned my attention away from Anne. I needed all of my energy focused on the battle. She said something else, but I was already lost. I could no longer tell if I was me, or my Blaziken. We were like one person in 2 separate places.

Shadow Mewtwo should have been far more powerful. But its psychic powers didn't seem to work properly. It couldn't do things that Lily had no trouble with. And a Mewtwo's body is not built for physical combat. It was strengthened by the shadow crystal, but we had more experience in hand-to-hand fighting.

As Embyr kept up his expert rally of punches, kicks, and dodges, I started calling out telepathically to Lily. She was in there somewhere. Split as I was between Embyr and myself, no words came to me. I just sent out a wordless call, like a drawn out note of a song. It hurt. The shadow energy stabbed into me through that telepathic link. But I kept it up. If I could reach her, she could add her strength to fight the shadow energy.

Meanwhile, Embry bid his time. He moved not an inch further than he needed to, saving every drop of energy. He wanted to tire his opponent, but that didn't seem to be happening. And it didn't look like we could use our synergy burst attacks. Finally I gave the go ahead. There was no point stalling any longer. Embyr brought a surge of power behind his attacks, hitting faster and harder.

Shadow Mewtwo started to fall back. It was on the defensive now. Mega Blaziken pressed the advantage, landing blow after blow. Finally he clipped shadow Mewtwo's leg and made it stumble. He seized the opportunity, and leapt into a kick straight at his opponent's chest. Shadow Mewtwo tumbled backward and sprawled flat.

I gasped and opened my eyes, stumbling a bit as I returned to my body. "Embyr! You did it!" He grinned at me.

I turned to Anne. "Is it working?"

She held up her brooch. It was glowing. But before she could do anything else, a light burst across the battlefield. All of us whirled in alarm to see shadow Mewtwo rising to its feet. It was glowing. And to my horror, I saw it changing. It had found out how to tap into Lily's mega stone.

Embyr turned to defend himself. Too late. Mega shadow Mewtwo slashed out a blade of blue light and Embyr fell.

Anne cried out and I stood stunned. Then without thinking, I returned Embyr and sent out Shanjin. My Greninja didn't have as much experience as Embyr, but he was my only hope. And we had already weakened Shadow Mewtwo.

Shanjin looked a little unnerved, but he quickly accepted the sync. I tried to relax, and I matched my movement's with Jin's. This time we didn't get too close to our opponent. Jin used his strong legs to flip away from attacks. And he sent out bubbles, jets of water, and Water Shuriken from a safe distance. Mega shadow Mewtwo didn't seem to have too many distance attacks, and we would take advantage of that.

Bit by bit, the small attacks were taking their toll. Shanjin hopped in to try a direct strike. But the moment he moved into range. Shadow Mewtwo's arms stretched like elastic and grabbed Jin's shoulders. Jin was too stunned to react as shadow Mewtwo launched itself forward and slammed its head into Jin's.

Shanjin fell back, dazed. Shadow Mewtwo slashed with the blade of blue light. At the last moment, Jin's image fractured into Double Team. The attack struck an image, which dissolved. Jin sprang forward and kicked with his strong legs.

Shadow Mewtwo went down.

Anne held up her brooch, now glowing fiercely. The light expanded and hit shadow Mewtwo. Shadows billowed up all around Lily's body, trying to snuff out the light. I called out to her, and finally I could hear her voice. The shadows faltered, and Anne seized the opportunity. The brooch blazed fiercer, and the shadows flickered and fizzled out. The ominous crystal in Lily's heart shattered and dissolved.

I opened my eyes, dizzy to be back in my own body. The shadow stone fell to the ground, spent. Around the arena, crystals dissolved into dust.

Lily was lying on the ground next to the stone. I staggered forward and dropped to her side. "Lily! Are you okay?"

She opened an eye and managed a small smile. "I'll be okay. Just let me rest for a minute."

Anne took off her cloak and draped it on the ground. Lily curled up on it, nearly unconscious. Her own cloak had been torn to shreds when it got caught on the crystals.

I barely even noticed the others enter the room. The battle must have drawn the attention of everyone in the town. And now that the crystals were no longer blocking the door, several people poured in. I ignored them as I tended to Lily. I got her to take a few sips of water. But when one older man tried to reach for the shadow stone, I took it and dropped it into my backpack. I wouldn't let it out of my sight until it was destroyed.

The man started to protest, but Anne intercepted him and started to explain what happened. I wasn't really listening. I felt drained and my vision was swimming. I wanted everyone to go away so we could rest. But this was their temple, after all. We'd caused quite the scene.

"Are you okay?"

I'd been nodding. I snapped upright and saw Anne kneeling in front of me. I gave a sleepy smile. "I've never battled quite like that. It was exhausting." That's right. There were more people here. More people that saw Lily. I sat up straighter. "Anne, please tell everyone! I don't want anyone to say that they saw Lily! Bad people are after her, and I don't want them to know she was here."

"Of course!"

Twilight would be disappointed. I'd promised to take him to Diggersby land. But we'd made too much commotion in Ferrum. We had to clear out before anyone caught wind of a Mewtwo.

"I don't think I know your name," Anne said.

I blinked. She was right. "I'm Cara."

"I'm Anne," she repeated. Then she gestured to the guy who had tried to take the stone back. "And this is Walter. He's the elder of the village."

"Hi. Sorry for the trouble." I returned Shanjin so he could rest. Then I hesitated. I could hear something. A familiar voice. I gasped. "Anne! I need everyone else to leave the room! Someone's coming who can help destroy the stone, but we need privacy."

Walter nodded and started ushering everyone else out of the arena. Eventually it was just him and Anne left. And he probably wouldn't leave as long as I had that shadow stone.

I called out through telepathy, and three Pokémon descended from one of the openings in the ceiling. Mewtwo, and two Celebi. The Celebi were my friends from a couple years back: a green one and a red one. I knew what must have happened. Mewtwo had sensed that Lily was in danger. He remembered what she'd said about the shadow energy. And Celebi could purify shadow Pokémon. He'd found my two friends, and brought them to help. We'd already saved Lily, but this would be perfect for destroying that shadow crystal.

Mewtwo landed in front of me. Rather than try to explain in my sleepy state, I gestured to him, giving permission to read my mind. Some part of me expected him to be furious. I'd let Lily get possessed by powerful dark energy. But instead he put a hand on my shoulder.

"Thank you. You look like you just escaped a nest of Krookodile."

I smirked. "That's about how I feel."

The two Celebi flew over to Lily, giving her a touch of healing power. She opened her eyes and smiled when she saw who had come. "Sorry. I got careless."

Mewtwo snorted. "You're more careful than the rest of us."

"We need to destroy the stone," Lily said.

Mewtwo nodded and I pulled out the spent shadow stone. Mewtwo didn't touch it, but used Psychic to set it on the floor in the middle of the arena.

"I'll help," Lily said, wincing and sitting up. "I've been connected to that thing. I don't have much power right now, but I can hit it where it hurts. If you follow my lead, we should be able to get rid of it."

Walter looked hesitant that a relic of his people was about to be destroyed. But he'd seen what it was capable of. It was too dangerous to keep around. Mewtwo ushered us humans out of the way. Anne actually stayed with Lily, giving her an arm to lean on. If I could stand, I would have done the same thing.

Lily, Mewtwo, and the Celebi formed a circle around the stone. Then in unison, the four of them began concentrating their energy. Lily directed it, while the others provided most of the power. The shadow stone began to glow orange, as if in protest, but it was too weak now. The combined power of the legendary stretched it to the breaking point. Then Mewtwo hit it with one final strike of power and it shattered, tiny shards flickering away and dissolving.

I breathed a sigh of relief. After several moments, I turned to Anne. "I'm sorry, but we need to go. I have to take care of Lily." I wanted to talk to them more so I could explain things. But I had to get the Mewtwo out of here.

Anne and Walter nodded. Mewtwo lifted Lily with his psychic powers. Then he did the same with me. I waved as Mewtwo carried us up and out. The Celebi followed.

Once outside, I hugged the Celebi, glad to see them again.

"Don't worry," they said. "We'll see you home. We'll be your honor guard."