"Statements"

'Thoughts'

Side Notes

There was a long flight ahead of Ash and Goh. Professor Cerise had requested them to travel to the Sinnoh Region to research a sudden outbreak of strangely colored Garchomp.

"So Goh, you ready to get to the Sinnoh Region?" Ash said.

"You bet! I bet there's all kinds of Pokemon to catch there. I might even bag one of the special Garchomps for myself," Goh answered excitedly.

"That'd be fun, I can't wait to return to Sinnoh. All the memories I made there with Dawn and Brock were great!"

"Speaking of which, you'd never actually told me of your adventures in Sinnoh. Aside from Infernape, I'm not actually too familiar with any of the Pokemon you caught there."

Ash thought for a second, then smirked. Goh was his friend, but it did occasionally annoy him that the relatively new trainer was so good at catching Pokemon, even bagging a Legendary like Suicune along with a fairly rare Absol. So whenever Ash got the chance to brag a little about HIS Pokemon, he took it.

"Well actually, I caught a whole bunch of Pokemon, and I still remember every single one of them. Torterra, Infernape, Gible, Buizel, Staraptor, and Gliscor all helped me through some of my best battles in Sinnoh, all the way up to the Sinnoh League." Ash stated.

Goh was somewhat surprised by this, he was well aware of how skilled Ash was, his impressive team of 6 showed that clearly, but he knew you had to be at the top of the competition to make it to a regional league.

"The Sinnoh League? I didn't know you competed there. How'd you do?" Goh questioned.

"I fought some really great trainers. I went against this incredibly strong trainer named Paul in the quarterfinals. He was actually Infernape's original trainer until he released it as a Chimchar and I took it upon myself to train it," Ash reminisced on his former rivalry with the purple haired fellow, "He was tough, but I managed to pull through thanks to the help of my Pokemon."

"Woah, this Paul guy sure sounds strong, nice work beating him."

"Yeah, unfortunately, I lost to this even stronger trainer named Tobias. He had a Darkrai and a Latios. Even though I tried using some of my best Pokemon against him, I could only beat 2 before losing." Ash said with a solemn tone.

Goh was shocked "D-DARKRAI AND LATIOS? BUT THAT'S A MYTHICAL AND A LEGENDARY! HOW'D HE EVEN CATCH THEM?!" A bewildered Goh stated.

"Dunno, although you've caught a Suicune before, so I figured catching Legendary Pokemon must just be something only special trainers can do. Although I had caught Melmetal and a Naganadel before, so I guess that makes me pretty special too," Ash said with a wide grin on his face.

"Sounds great!" Goh said, happy that Ash didn't seem too saddened by his old loss.

The pair talked all about Sinnoh as their plane progressed, little did they know, another individual had made her way to Sinnoh earlier carrying just as much excitement, if not more.

"Ah, so this is the Sinnoh region. It's a long way from Hoenn, but this refreshing breeze really makes up for it. This'll definitely help me get my spirits up for the Wallace Cup," A certain honey blonde girl said with great excitement.

Ash quickly fell asleep as the plane passed through the dark sky. Figuring he may as well regain his energy in case he were to encounter any other trainers participating in the World Coronation Series. What initially began as a fond little dream about cruising through the night on a rambunctious Archeops soon turned grim as everything around Ash's dream world turned dark. He looked around seeing the pitch black void into the empty nothingness.

He attempted to repeatedly open and close his eyes. He knew he was in a nightmare, but couldn't quite shake off the feeling that there was more to it. He spun around hoping to find something in the void when he did. He spotted a distant blue figure laying face first on the ground.

As Ash made his way to the figure, its details became more and more apparent, he saw a line run through the lower half of its back with another running across to create a "T" shape of sorts. It also had small white claws on its hands and feet. But the most noticeable detail was the horn on its head. A large, curved horn with a remarkable shape at the end.

Ash quickly realized what he'd been looking at. It was a Heracross, and it was badly injured. Despite its injuries, it was able to let out a small cry that Ash could tell meant it was pleading for help. Ash tried to comfort the poor thing, but he couldn't move. He could only look towards it in horror. Ash gained a sense of familiarity from this, but he couldn't tell what. As he gazed upon the suffering Heracross, another cry made its way to his ears. He looked behind him to spot a Torkoal laying on its stomach, just as badly injured as the Heracross was.

Ash was horrified, he couldn't just let these two suffer like this. Even if it was just a nightmare, it went against the very morals that Ash believed in as a trainer. But still, as he desperately tried to aid the fallen Torkoal, his body simply froze up in place. The same sense of familiarity he felt with the Heracross grew even stronger as he saw this Torkoal. This was agonizing for him, but just when he thought things simply couldn't get any worse, he heard 4 more cries opposite to the direction he was facing. He quickly spun around only to find a Gible, Sceptile, Swellow, and Pikachu all incredibly hurt from unknown injuries.

That's when Ash realized it. The familiarity, the desperation, Ash recognized this group of Pokemon. It was his own. He was looking at the very team he used in the Semi Finals of the Sinnoh League against Tobias, and he was looking at the aftermath of each of those fights. Each of his Pokemon were positioned in the very manner that they'd been in when they fainted in that match.

Ash blinked, and noticed the swirls in their eyes, indicating that they'd all fainted. He closed his eyes, hoping that he'd wake up from this perilous nightmare, but when he opened them, he'd found himself in a crowded arena. He looked around and saw groups of people looking down towards him. As he looked closer, he spotted Brock and Dawn. Each of their eyes were relatively normal, but he could feel their disappointment just piercing through his gut. He couldn't take it anymore and turned, only to find the very same suffering Pokemon he'd just seen earlier. This time, they were all laying down on the battlefield. But this time, they were joined by two other Pokemon, both of which seemed just as hurt as his own were. Ash quickly recognized them as Darkrai and Latios.

'Darkrai and Latios? But why are they here-' That's when Ash had remembered that his team had taken these two down during their battle with Tobias. Just as his mind had reached that last word, the man himself had appeared across the field from Ash, almost poetically. Ash noticed something strange, though. Whilst he was relatively unfamiliar with Tobias as a person, this version of him just seemed...empty. Tobias was enigmatic, sure, but Ash certainly didn't remember him to be a soulless shell of a human being.

Tobias tilted his downward, catching Ash off guard, creating a shadow upon his eyes created by the shade of his hair. Just then, two red glows appeared in the shade, sending chills down Ash's spine. This wasn't Tobias, this was an entirely different creature. The "Tobias" entity raised his arm in front of him, revealing a Pokeball in his hand. But instead of the usual flash of light that usually came after an occupied Pokeball was opened, a surge of darkness appeared instead, quickly aiming to engulf Ash in the same void he'd been in earlier. Ash quickly reached for one of his Pokemon to defend himself, only to realize he had none. The darkness came looming closer whilst Ash feared for his life. But just as the void had nearly reached him.

"Hey Ash! Wake up!" Goh quickly said to his friend. Ash woke up startled, but relieved.

"I was in the bathroom for a bit when I found you...like this," Goh said concerningly, "What happened?". Ash felt the pool of sweat running down his neck. He'd been panting the very second he woke up. He quickly explained to Goh everything he saw, to which his friend responded to in bewilderment.

"Woah, that sounds crazy, you're lucky I woke you up when I did." Ash could tell that his friend felt a tad bit more confusion than concern, and he couldn't really blame him. To Ash, this was a traumatizing experience, but to Goh, this was just his friend having a vivid nightmare. But Goh wasn't an idiot. He knew how serious Ash was feeling about this, so he tried not to be too condescending to his friend about it. Ash eventually calmed down after a few minutes, along with a few plane snacks that Goh had to embarrassingly ask the stewardess for.

"So what do you think it meant?" Goh questioned. Ash looked to him in confusion and could only respond to him with, "Huh?".

"You know, dreams and nightmares are usually a reflection of one's thoughts, so what was on your mind that made you have this nightmare?" Goh had thought that this nightmare arose due to their earlier discussion about Tobias, but Ash could really only give him a purely dumbfounded stare. He knew what his friend what asking, but he didn't know the answer to it.

"The thing is, I don't really know. This nightmare just sort of came out of nowhere." Ash responded truthfully, and not a single expression on his face hinted that he was thinking about his loss to Tobias, so Goh seemed to be satisfied with this answer. Ash didn't really seem like the type of individual to be overthinking things, especially not before he went to sleep. He was usually more casual with things, so Goh knew he wasn't lying.

As the plane kept flying, the two friends decided to just keep talking(although quietly as to not wake the other passengers) about the Pokemon that they were so excited to see in Sinnoh. What they didn't know was just above the plane where Ash was, a dark, looming entity drifted. It's dark visage was hard to read, but even a toddler could tell its face was filled with disappointment. It swiftly floated away from the plane as it descended towards its own destination, uttering only a single phrase, "Darkrai."