Pokemon: Radiant Ruby and Shining Sapphire

by Kaden627

The beloved story of the third generation. (Part of the Bonded By Aura Series) Ruby Plake and Sapphire Birch set out on their journey to complete the Pokedex and to prove themselves along the way. The terrorist organizations of Team Aqua, Team Magma, and Team Skystorm are at large and it is up to our two young heroes to stop them before the world is destroyed by their actions

25. Part 2 Chapter 9

Pokemon: Radiant Ruby and Shining Sapphire / Separation

Chapter 9

An Eventful Evening

_Later that Evening

Ruby, Blaziken, and Brawly all arrived at Dewford around 6 after being brought along on Yen Briney's boat once again. Once they reached the dock, Brawly asked, "So what's yer plan mate? Heading to Slateport tonight, or ya stayin fer a bit?"

Ruby looked over at Mr. Briney, who motioned back saying the decision was up to him. The boy thought on if for a bit before saying, "I've been moving around basically nonstop for the last few days. Taking a break would be nice. But it'll only be for tonight."

Brawly chuckled as he rustled the boy's hair and said, "Ata boy. Take a bita time for yerself ery once an awhile, yeh? Just hit me up when yer headin out, I'll see ya off." After saying this, the gym leader took off from the dock towards the gym.

Blaziken then asked Ruby, "So what's the plan then? We don't have long before sunset anyway."

Ruby responded, "I think we should just head to the Pokemon Center. I think I'm gona let the party do whatever they want there. It also gives them a much needed time to rest after the crazy battle we had earlier."

Blaziken just nodded in response and the two set off to the only Pokemon Center on the small island. On there way Ruby was greeted by the locals with absolutely no sense of hostility towards him, regardless of the fact that he was still wearing his Team Magma uniform. The reason for this is because Ruby decided to use Dewford as a sort of retreat for him to run away to to avoid the stress of being an admin every now and then. Naturally this meant that everyone on this remote island knew his real intentions for being a part of Team Magma, so it didn't bother them at all to see him dawning his red attire.

When the two of them finally reached the entrance to the Pokemon Center, Ruby took the two pokeballs from his belt and threw them into the air. They both shot down beams of light that released both Linoone as well as Lombre. He was then greeted from the far counter, "Well if it isn't the king of rude himself." Ruby looked over to see the black haired nurse smirking at him. He responded sarcastically, "Great to see you too Kaitlin."

The girl stretched out at the counter and asked, "Need any medical attention? Heard you and your dad went at it earlier today. Must've been one hell of a battle."

Ruby motioned to his pokemon to walk over to the nurse and said, "Yeah, all of them took a pretty solid beating. I'm just glad there weren't any serious injuries. But if you want to take them in for the night, I'd really appreciate it." He then turned to Blaziken and siad, "That goes for you too buddy. You might have been the only one still conscious, but I wouldn't want to find that you were hurt in someway while in a battle or something stupid."

Blaziken stretched out before thinking back, "You know what? I'm fine with it. Just holler if you need anything." He then walked over to the counter as well.

Ruby nodded and said, "I'll leave them to you Kaitie, I'ma pop out and watch the sunset."

The nurse waved him off and Ruby exited out again into the sandy ground of Dewford. He then walked north until he reached the far beach of the island. Although it's an island, this spot was the only spot anyone could watch the sunset because Granite Cave rose above the west end of the town..The boy sat down in the sand about a foot away from where the waves were retracting to the ocean. He looked west just as the sun began to hit the horizon. The sky had very few clouds that day so the view was just an orange sky spanning outwards as far as the eye could see. Ruby smiled at this until the sun fully receded below the earth. After the sun had set Ruby stretched out before lying on the ground and looking up at the darkening sky. He remembered that the last time he had done this, he was with Sapphire a whole year ago now. As he reminisce, night claimed dominion over the sky and more stars became visible.

As the boy took a deep breath in and prepared to sit up, he realised something was off. It felt like his body tensed up and was refusing to move. After a few seconds though, this feeling turned into a state of panic as he realized that it wasn't just a body tremor. The boy frantically tried to move, but to no avail. As his breathing picked up, he heard a familiar voice of a young man. "It's no use. You won't be able to move" Ruby shifted his eyes over to barely see a large metal floating structure with a silver haired man in a suit sitting atop of it. His eyes glew pink in contrast to the night sky above him.

Ruby tried to say something, but couldn't even manage to open his mouth. The man said, "Don't even bother. Metagross' Psychic is hard for Pokemon to resist. A mere human has no chance to break free."

Ruby thought frantically, "Blaziken! Blaziken! HELP!" But to the boy's surprise, there was no response, not even a thought back.

The young man asked, "Are you trying to contact your partner? Well unfortunately for you that won't work. Not only is Psychic preventing you from thinking straight. There is also a Light Screen covering a radius around us."

Ruby was then picked up off the ground and was floating in the air. He was turned to see the clear picture of Steven Stone riding atop his partner Metagross. The man then began, "Of all of the people I've had to kill in order to protect this region, I think that your death will definitely weigh on me the most. Ruby Plake."

Ruby tried once again to call out for help, but again to no avail.

Steven continued, "But before I kill you, I believe you need to understand why you have to die." Metagross lowered itself to the sand below and Steven dismounted onto the beach and began approaching Ruby as he explained, "You are a Team Magma Admin, which in itself probably doesn't warrant a death sentence. You'd of course normally be jailed for life for actively helping a terrorist organization, but death is reserved for those who would pose a threat to society just for the fact that they continue to exist." Steven folded his arms and 'looked' up into the floating boy's eyes before saying, "So you're probably wondering what kind of threat YOU pose by just existing. Well the fact is, you have the potential to become one of the strongest trainers in the world. Your skill, your talent, your resourcefulness, your determination. All of these you have in surplus and yet here you are using them to aid terrorists." Steven paused for a second before continuing, "And on top of all of that, you seem to have a powerful influence over everyone you come in contact with. If you had just swayed your parents into thinking your doing the right thing, that would be another matter entirely. However, you have not only convinced them, but four other gym leaders as well as Team Skystorm's Leader. It's unfathomable to think that you have that much influence in the region despite the fact that you work with one of the greatest threats Hoenn, no, the world has ever known."

Steven then took in a deep breath and stated reluctantly, "And that Ruby Plake, is precisely why you need to die. I apologize I couldn't make this a fair fight to the end, but the risk of you actually winning is too great. So this is where…" As the man was speaking a soft ring began to echo in the night sky. Steven stopped and looked outwards for a moment before turning back to Ruby, but before he could even continue talking, the Light Screen around them shattered. To Ruby's surprise, it wasn't Blaziken that had broken through, but instead a blued and white jet like had two wing like structures diagonally jutting out from its body and small oval shaped hands coming from its underbelly. The new pokemon floated between Steven and Ruby for a few moments before turning to Ruby, and releasing the boy from the Psychic's hold.

The boy fell to the ground and stared back up at the pokemon that had just freed him. The pokemon then flew down to him and turned, like it was trying to tell the boy to get on its back. Ruby reached out and touched the mysterious creature's back, only to be greeted by a sense that he had felt once before. Everything around the boy disappeared and was replaced by a dark blue environment. It was just him and the pokemon in this space. It was then that Ruby heard a voice, "I see. So this is why I was drawn to you. A connection like this isn't something I've felt for over three hundred years."

Ruby thought, "No way… are you talking to me?"

The Pokemon responded, "Yes, but now is not the time to be shocked. I came here urgently because my sister is in danger. You must help me help her, and quickly. It won't be long until they find her!" The boy could feel the urgency in the pokemon's thoughts.

As Ruby removed his hand from the Pokemon's back, the beach returned to normal and Ruby looked over at Steven and said, "Look, we can settle this soon, but right now this pokemon needs my help. If you want to come along, then fine, but I need to go." Ruby hopped onto the pokemon's back and the two took off into the sky at an incredible speed. Ruby looked back to see that Steven had mounted atop his Metagross once again and was following the two. As they picked up speed Ruby felt the heaviness of the wind pushing him back. The voice of the pokemon stated, "Lean down and wrap your arms around me, this isn't my top speed yet and I want to get there as soon as possible." The boy listened and closed his eyes as he felt the pokemon drastically increase its speed.

The flight only lasted a few minutes before the pokemon thought to Ruby, "We're here. Open your eyes and we'll descend. Ruby opened his eyes to see that the pokemon had started to soar down onto a heavily forested island. Ruby dismounted and thought, "Alright, so where is your sister?"

The blue and white jet-like creature responded, "She should be in the center of the forest. Luckily, this landing spot should take us straight there."

Before they could start walking, Ruby heard Steven yell, "Ruby, wait!" The boy looked up at the man who had previously been trying to murder him, but saw a rather odd expression on his face. It was like it bore a look of both confusion and fear.

Ruby yelled back at him, "Like I said, I don't have time right now. You can follow if you want, but don't stop me!"

Steven and Metagross then soared down in front of Ruby and the other pokemon as Steven explained, "Ruby, what even is this place? This island, it doesn't exist in Hoenn."

Ruby, now a little puzzled, looked towards the pokemon that brought him here. It responded by thinking, "I can explain on the way. Now let's go!" The pokemon started off towards the forest and Ruby decided to follow without hesitation.

As he ran the pokemon explained, "This is known as Southern Island. It's part of the Mirage Islands. While this place normally doesn't exist, once every year a new artifact known as a Soul Dew appears on this island. It exists only for three days out of the year, but only those within twenty yards from any of its surfaces can perceive it. The other trainer is both right and wrong when saying that this place doesn't exist." The two then made it to the top of the hill and looked inside the forest. Straight ahead of them there was a peninsula structure leading out into what looked like a small shrine. All around the peninsula was a chasm with a raging river the spawned from a waterfall past the shrine.

Once the two started to cross the landbridge, Ruby began to make out a creature laying at the base of the shrine. It appeared to look nearly identical to the pokemon he was traveling with but dawned a bright red color instead of a blue on its head and back end. Ruby ran over to the pokemon to finally make out that the bone in its right wing had been snapped cleanly in two, causing it to fold over itself. When it first saw Ruby it let out a scared cry and tried to crawl away, but when the other pokemon approached it, the red pokemon calmed down. Ruby leaned down and looked at the injured wing and thought, "This isn't good, the bone is split in two. Even with all of my potions, I'd never be able to heal it."

"Then what shall we do?" asked the blue pokemon.

Ruby thought for a moment, just briefly before saying, "I'm going to use some potions for now to at least try to numb the pain. While I do that, can you explain to me what happened, and who you both are?" Ruby pulled out a spray bottle from his jacket and began to apply it to the wing. The red jet pokemon cried, but Ruby assured it that it was going to be alright.

The pokemon began, "My name is Latios, and my sister's name is Latias. We are the pokemon given the task to protect the Soul Dew every year as its energy can supply Hoenn with its natural resources for the year."

Ruby looked up, clearly confused as he asked, "What in the world does that mean?"

Latios explained, "Have you ever wondered how a region like Hoenn can even support life? The atmosphere here is in constant conflict. It's humidity and dryness fight with one another constantly. This is due to the fact that the legendary beasts of the ocean and land both reside beneath the ocean floor here."

Ruby's eyes looked at Latios and hesitantly asked, "You're not talking about Groudon and Kyogre, are you?"

Latios answered, "The very same."

The boy looked down and started to quiver as he thought, "So… they're really here then? And they're alive under the ocean?"

Latios responded, "That is correct, however, as it stands now, the two of them will be sealed for eternity at the ocean base. There is little to no chance that... " Latios stopped as he felt Ruby's enease and began to sift through the boy's memories. "Your leader means to awaken the legendary beast of the earth? Does he have a death wish or something?"

Ruby asked, "How much do you know about the legendary beasts?"

The dragon responded, "More than I'd care to ever recollect. We were there after all, five hundred years ago when they drove this world to near extinction."

Ruby took a deep breath, but before he could respond, Steven and Metagross approached the boy down on his knees trying as much as he could to help the pokemon he was caring for. Steven knelt down in front of the boy and said, "We need to go, we aren't alone here. Metagross has picked up someone on this island and they're approaching quickly."

The Team Magma Admin looked him square in the eyes, that he knew couldn't look back at him and said, "Make up your mind already. First you try to kill me, but now you're acting like you want to get me out of harm's way. What is wrong with you?"

Just as Ruby finished saying this he then heard the sound of yet another familiar voice, this time that of a young woman. The boy took a deep breath as he heard it say, "So this is where you ran off to, huh? It doesn't do you any good to hide in the most conspicuous spot on this whole island. Wait a minute… why the hell are you here?"

Ruby took a deep breath in before standing up and staring down his fellow Team Magma Admin, Courtney. He redirected the question, "I could ask the same thing about you. Do you mind explaining to me what the hell you're doing?"

The purple haired girl scoffed and said, "Where the hell does a punk like you get off asking me what I'm doing? I've been a member of Team Magma far longer than you have, and unlike you I earned my Admin position."

Ruby chuckled and said, "And your saying that I didn't? If you don't recall, Maxie appointed me here after I beat every Admin, as well as our leader himself, in a pokemon battle. Or did the beating I gave you give you amnesia?"

Courtney gripped a pokeball off her side and expressed, "I'm down to kick your ass right here and now if you want me to." But then she looked behind the boy and decided to put her pokeball away and said, "You know what? Whatever! You aren't worth my time. I'm not here to fight with you. Just move out of the way so I can take both of those legendary pokemon back to headquarters. It was a pain in the ass to finally injure one of them so they'd stop running. It's crazy that it even managed to make it here in it's condition."

Ruby thought to Latios, "I know this is sudden, but please tell your sister I'm going to need her to get into one of my Pokeballs. I unfortunately have to ask the same of you as well. It's inconvenient but it's the only way I can think of to get out of this situation without a fight."

Latios reluctantly said, "Fine, but you're still going to help Latias, correct?"

Ruby nodded and swore, "On my life, I promise I'll try to help her to the best of my abilities."

The blue and white dragon then approached his sister and nuzzled his head against hers before approaching Ruby. The boy held out an unused pokeball and it opened, pulling Latios inside of it before clicking, signifying that it was caught. He then walked over and repeated the process with Latias, who's eyes showed the amount of distrust it had towards Ruby before entering the ball. Ruby sighed with relief upon seeing that ball seal as well. He then stood up, a pokeball in each hand and said, "Well there we go, both of them are in Team Magma's ranks now, so you can hurry on home to base. I'm sure Maxie has some other distraction he can send you away on."

Courtney audibly growled before saying, "Like hell, and let you take all the credit? I was the one who tracked these two down! Hand them over RIGHT FUCKING NOW BRAT!"

Steven then intervened, "Excuse me, but clearly we also tracked them down, how else do you think we got here before you?"

This just caused Courtney to flare up even more, "I don't even know who the hell you are! Stay out of this, this is official Team Magma business."

Steven looked like he was going to respond, but Ruby stopped him by holding out his arm and said, "No, honestly, she's right. If you want to fight so badly then let's go. One Pokemon, winner takes all. You have my word that If I lose I'll hand over the two pokemon."

Courtney grinned and said, "You've got yourself a deal. I've been meaning to show you your place for a while now!" She then took the pokeball back off of her belt and threw it out. From it came a Camerupt.

Ruby reached down and grabbed Latios' pokeball, but before he could throw it to release the Pokemon, Steven threw something towards him. The boy barely reacted in time to catch what appeared to be a bracelet of some sort. On top was a rainbow colored stone which Ruby very quickly recognised. He thought, "A Keystone? But why…?" Steven just nodded in response to the inaudible question.

Ruby then slipped the bracelet over his right hand and it rested about half way down his forearm. He then turned to the battlefield and threw out his Pokeball. Latios was released and it thought, "Alright then, let's do this!"

Ruby asked, "Latios, do you have a mega stone?"

The blue dragon responded, "The Soul Dew has the same abilities as one so we should be good to go whenever you are."

The brown haired boy took a deep breath in and closed his eyes. He remembered how Maxie did this just before activating his Keystone as well whenever he Mega Evolved his partner. He then brought his right arm up and his left hand over to touch the stone embedded into the bracelet. Ruby could actually feel a power within him, one which he'd never felt anything like before. He then lifted his right arm up and the Keystone began to radiate a purple light. The same light began to shine from Latios for a brief moment before it's body was encased into a light purple ball. Then the ball burst open revealing a completely new form of the pokemon. It's blue features had been replaced with purple and its arms had moved outwards to the sides of it's body, from which now branched it's upper wings. He had also gained two lower purple under fins.

His purple hair opponent was taken back by what she just witnessed. "Did you just use Mega Evolution… with a legendary pokemon… that you just met?"

Ruby smirked and responded, "You bet! I love that look of complete shock on your face. And I can't wait to see the look on it after I put you in your place you crazy bitch!"

Latios and Ruby thought in perfect sync, "Now go! Zen Headbutt." Latios dashed towards the orange camel pokemon in front of it at insane speeds, bashing it's skull against his opponents. As he made contact, a pink aura wrapped itself around Latios' head and then pushed out towards the Camerupt. The impact sent the whole pokemon flying past Courtney before smashing against a tree, completely out cold.

Latios then dashed over to Courtney and looked to be charging a Dragonbreath aimed directly at the girl's forehead. The Team Magma Admin trembled at the sight in front of her and she fell to her knees.

Ruby could feel Latios' hatred for the woman as if it were her own, and because of this he knew the pokemon was meaning to kill her right then and there. Ruby called out verbally, "Wait don't!"

Still charging the attack, Latios thought to Ruby, "She hurt my sister! She deserves to die!"

Ruby then switched back to just thinking, "I know how you feel, and honestly, I think she deserves more than anyone in Team Magma to die. However, you've looked into my memories and you know exactly what kind of position I'm in. If you kill her, I won't be able to stop Maxie from awakening Groudon in any capacity. But if you let her live, at least for right now, I can continue to try and save this world from catastrophe."

Latios, still absolutely furious with the woman in front of him, decided to think it through for a moment before saying, "I'll spare her for now, but you have to promise me that before this is all over, she'll die for her actions."

Ruby just looked at the legendary pokemon and nodded, signing Courtney's future death warrant. Latios aimed just over the Team Magma Admin's head and let off his attack, barely missing her and blowing the red hood off her head from the force alone. Courtney then stood up and ran away through the forest as fast as she could.

Ruby took a deep breath in before relaxing once again. He then turned to Steven and said, "Do you mind following us back to Dewford? We need to bring Latias to a good nurse as soon as possible."

Steven just nodded and said, "Well don't wait on my account. I bet the two of you will make it there way faster without me. I'll catch up as soon as I can."

Latios heard Steven say this and immediately flew towards Ruby so he could hop on his back, which the boy did. Once Ruby wrapped his arms around the dragon the two took off without hesitation Ruby felt Latios cover his ears with some sort of psychic barrier before feeling an even greater acceleration and a powerful boom shortly after. It only took about a minute before Latios began to slow down in front of Dewford's Pokemon Center. Ruby hopped off and rushed inside along with Latios. Kaitlin, who wasn't even facing the boy, asked, "Well you were out for a bit longer than I expected. Did you get sidetracked or maybe…" She turned around and grew silent upon seeing Mega Latios with the boy who was reaching out a pokeball to the counter. Ruby explained, "I need you to heal her."

Kaitlinn blinked twice to confirm that this was really happening before pulling out a operating bed and pushing the release button on the pokeball to put Latias onto it. The woman shrieked in shock, "What the hell is this Pokemon? I've never seen anything like it before. It's anatomy is completely unique to any other organic type I've seen. Of course I can see the broken wing, but honestly, I have no idea if I can even help it."

Latios then thought to Ruby and said, "Ask her how well she understands human anatomy then."

Ruby conveyed the question to the nurse, who of course responded, "I understand that really well, obviously. I'm trained to work on both human and pokemon patients, but what does that have to do with anything?"

Latios then said, "Alright, perfect!" The pokemon then flew over the counter and said something to his sister. Latias gave a hesitant nod before she began to glow. The illuminated dragon then began to reform into what appeared to be a young adult girl with long red hair. She lay naked, face down on the bed, but instead of caring about the lack of clothes on the girl, Ruby saw that the bone in her right arm was completely broken in half by her shoulder. Kaitlin started to breathe uneasy for a little while before shaking her head and regaining her composure. She exclaimed, "Alright then, whatever! I'll begin the operation immediately. You all just stay out here and I guess I'll do my damndest." She then grabbed the bed and wheeled it into the back room and blinked on the "Operation in progress" light.

Just then Blaziken rushed up the stairs and thought frantically to his partner, "Where the hell were you?! I couldn't contact you at all. It's like you didn't even exist for the last hour!"

Ruby just kind of scratched his head and chuckled before saying, "You see… about that…" He then began to convey everything that had happened to his partner. He tried to not leave anything out, but Blaziken managed to fill in most of the blanks on his own.

His partner then turned to Latios and thought, "So… you're the Legendary Eon Pokemon then."

Ruby looked surprised and thought, "Wait a minute, you know of him Blaziken?"

The anthropomorphic fire chick answered, "In name only. I figured you weren't listening, but when the Team Magma Admins were given their missions before we left, Courtney was tasked to learn more about the Eon Pokemon. It doesn't surprise me in the least though that she'd resort to injuring them just to bring them back to Maxie. Her dedication to his goal is almost sickening."

Latios then responded, "Well, it doesn't matter for right now. She'll get what's coming to her eventually."

Blaziken was brought back a bit after hearing Latios' voice. "Wait a minute, why the hell can I hear you? We may both have a bond with Ruby, but that doesn't mean we share an aura bond as well, right?"

Latios easily explained, "While that's definitely true, you can hear what Ruby does even away from him if you try right? Well, the thing is, Ruby is hearing my voice, so it only makes sense that you can as well. It's really…uh…" Before Latios could finish his thought, a purple aura began to surround him and he returned to his original blue and white form.

The dragon seemed surprised, "Honestly, I'm surprised that it took so long to revert. I don't think I've ever been in that form for over five minutes before. That was approaching about ten there."

Before anyone could get another thought in, the door to the pokemon center opened and none other than Steven Stone entered the building, along with of course his eyes and partner, Metagross. Blaziken tensed up and prepared to fight, but the gray haired man just asked, "So, how is she?"

Ruby answered, "She's in the operation room, we aren't sure yet. But i trust that Kaitlin can handle it."

Steven nodded and said, "Well she is pretty talented, that's for sure. Even at such a young age, she might be the best nurse in the region. Not that she'll ever be recognised for it way out on this island."

There was tension in the room for a moment after that, but Ruby finally broke the silence with the question everyone wanted to know the answer to, "So, where do we stand? If you want to fight though, let's take it outside."

Steven sighed before saying, "I don't think that'll be necessary actually."

Ruby loosened up a bit before asking, "Well, what changed?"

Steven answered, "The thing is, I was wrong about you. Not as a person, but about the reasons you go about doing things. I never really doubted that you had a kind heart, but that wasn't where my concern came from. It was your strength that scared me. The thing is, you are without a doubt one of the strongest trainers in all of Hoenn, and I know for a fact that you'll continue to become even stronger. That alone isn't the problem, but rather where I saw you nurturing that strength was. Team Magma is a terrorist organization, and the fact that you would be willing to join them at all was a situation taken straight from my nightmares."

Ruby looked as though he was going to say something, but Steven just laughed and said, "Don't bother, I've heard it all before. Apparently you were trying to find Professor Birch's daughter and stop both terrorist organizations in your own way. And again, I believed that much was true. But there was also plenty of trouble you've caused to the people of this region as a result. It was just really hard to believe, regardless of how many times Emerald tried to reassure me that you meant well."

Ruby explained, "Look, I get where you're coming from, but wouldn't it have been better to just confirm with me what my intentions were rather than killing me?"

The man answered, "Well the thing is, a part of me didn't want to hear that truth. I mean think about it, the strongest trainer wasting all of his potential aiding a terrorist group for any reason at all is just infuriating. And so, out on the beach, when I saw you alone…. I just thought it was my chance. I've been so worried about how big of a threat you might become that I just wanted it all to be over. It was a moment of weakness, and I'm sorry about that." He then looked over to Latios and said, "Thank you so much for stopping me from making a mistake I know I would've regretted the rest of my life."

Latios just gave a nod to the trainer, and Steven just nodded turning back to the entrance saying, "I actually have something I want to give you as a sort of apology, and you can keep the Mega Bracelet as part of my penance as well. Meet me in Fortree in one week. See you then!" And with those parting words, the man left the Pokemon Center.

Blaziken sighed and said, "As powerful of a presence as ever that one has. I wonder if he'll let us fight him next time. Now that I know he's not out to kill us, I really want to see what he can do."

His partner nodded in agreeance, and then remembered, "Oh yeah, right." He took the two pokeballs from his belt and opened one saying, "The only reason I captured both of you is to get us out of that situation." He the pressed a button on the roof of the ball. He then said, "Alright, that's Latias.. And now…"

Latios cut the boy off and said, "What are you doing exactly?"

Ruby looked at the Eon Pokemon and answered, "Well like I just said, the only reason you two agreed to be captured is because it kept Courtney from taking you. It'd be a little unfair if I used a situation like that to add you to my team."

Latios flew over to Ruby and placed it's head on the center button of the pokeball in his hand and returned to the spherical capsule. Ruby heard the pokemon say, "I owe you for saving my sister. It would be my honor to help you." The boy hesitated for a bit before finally sighing saying, "Well alright then. You're with me from here on out. I'll be counting on you Latios!" He then placed the pokeball on his belt before yawning and saying, "Well, I'm going to hit the beds. Once Latias is healed up again I guess our next destination is… huh?"

The boy heard his PokeNave ringing in his bag. He dug it out and saw that there was a new message from an unknown address. Normally, he wouldn't open the message, but this is the first time he'd ever received a message from someone not in Team Magma for a long time. The boy's eyes widened as he read the message, and when he finished he said, "Alright then, I guess we can't wait. First thing tomorrow morning, we need to head out. It looks like we've got a rendezvous at the Weather Institute."

Blaziken asked, "What do we have to do there? Shouldn't we be starting to look for some evidence for Maxie now?"

Ruby explained, "It looks like that's where we'll end up finding some proof actually. Or at least that's what our acquaintance Zinnia Draconid thinks."

Blaziken remained silent and just nodded, while he led the way to the stairs down to the basement. Things were looking to become even more eventful soon and Ruby and Blaziken both know that they'd need their rest for what's to come.