Iris hadn't been sure what to expect from the newly opened passageway. Part of her expected to find a massive labyrinth leading further and further downwards until all memory of sunlight and fresh air were banished from their mind. The other part of her expected this to be little more than a dead-end. The method of which it had been opened brought to mind the idea of a panic room, or some similar type of room meant to be used in emergencies to hide vulnerable individuals or precious objects when the area was under siege.

The biggest problem was that the passageway was uncomfortably small. Not quite claustrophobic, but Adrian had to bend down to get through, and he wasn't considered a large human, even by their standards. It was also narrow enough that it was safer to go through one at a time, so Ember was chosen to go in first, so that she could use her flame to light the way. Adrian followed her, possibly to better direct the Charmander if necessary, and Aureia followed immediately after that for no reason at all.

No one had really explained the exact reasoning, so Iris had come to this conclusion on her own. Sorin was actually incapable of going through the passageway at all, due to the bulk of his wings and the size of the passageway making it impractical for him to move. He didn't seem too disappointed by this, but Avis still opted to remain behind to keep the Altaria company.

Iris knew full well Kaito had no intention of passing up the opportunity to examine a previously undiscovered section of the Ruins, so she reluctantly went after him. She wouldn't have minded lingering behind with Sorin and getting to know the dragon Pokemon a little better, and maybe even get some insight into why he seemed so adamantly afraid of Ember, the fire lizard's volatile temper notwithstanding. However, she disliked the idea of being completely out of the loop with Kaito's situation and wanted to be able to use her Teleportation abilities to aid the Togetic if the passageway led somewhere dangerous.

It wasn't a particularly long passageway, but it was very dark compared to the previous chamber of the Ruins. The Kirlia couldn't be sure if the lighting in the main area was natural lighting or if it had been added to the area by Pokemon or human scientists, due to the frequency of tourists and research, but it made the absence of light all the more disorienting.

The narrow passage eventually expanded outwards into a surprisingly spacious, circular room that was tall enough for Adrian to stand fully upright. For some baffling reason, it seemed that everyone had decided to remain where they were until Kaito and Iris caught up, but Iris quickly noticed that Adrian cast a puzzled look into the passageway when she had come out.

Iris' gaze swept the new room quickly. At even a basic glance, there didn't appear to be any alternate routes in or out of the room, almost confirming her suspicion that this passageway may have been intended to be a panic room or storage area, yet it was curiously empty. There were no runic writings along the walls nor murals of any sort.

Despite this, Iris shivered intensely. There was a different sort of vibe within this chamber. Whereas the Ruins as a whole had been giving her strange feelings and impressions of the emotions and minds of the individuals within, there was something much worse within this room, and only this room. It was the feeling that something was wrong.

"Kaito?" Iris said quietly, her eyes darting around the room and sneaking glances at the others.

"I feel it, too," the Togetic said. His expression was set into a serious, nervous look and he too was looking around uncomfortably. Even Adrian and his Pokemon didn't seem to be entirely immune to the feeling of unease that lingered in the air like ghostly fog.

"It's different, though," the Kirlia insisted, biting her lip. "It's not the same doom sensations that go along with Diab-"

"I know," Kaito said, cutting her off and shooting her a meaningful look before gesturing pointedly at the other Pokemon nearby. Iris blinked, but nodded. For whatever reason, it seemed that the Togetic did not want to explicitly mention the Spiritomb around others. That was fine with her, although it'd have made more sense to have said as much before now.

"So...it's an empty room," Aureia deadpanned. "Can we leave now?"

Adrian set down the bag he had been carrying on his arm and fumbled into one of the pockets before finally withdrawing a rod-like object. The next moment, a beam of light lanced out from one end of the rod, casting an illuminating circle on the wall across from them. He shifted the light to his other hand as he pulled the bag back onto his shoulder, and then slowly let the beam of light travel over the curiously blank walls.

"Why is no one moving?" Ember grumbled, giving everyone a weird look. Iris blinked. She hadn't really noticed that everyone had been standing in one spot since they got into the room, but she could attribute that to the incredible sense of unease that the room gave off. Something about the place felt wrong, and it seemed like a bad idea to run around in such a place, in case the place was loaded with traps. According to Kaito, it was not entirely unusual for ancient sites to have measures in place in the event of robbers and other undesirables breaking into the area.

"Maybe what we're looking for is concealed," Kaito suggested, although he seemed to be talking more to himself than anyone else, and he slowly moved forward. "Lin said something about a barrier that kept her from seeing the Keystone piece...is the same security in place here?"

Aureia gave the Togetic a weird look, but didn't comment. Ember looked over at Adrian, but found him too immersed in directing his beam of light upon the walls and floor of the chamber to notice.

"Do I need to Shadow Claw a wall again?" the Charmander asked sarcastically. "Mew knows that's the only way I get attention."

"Technically, that's what you did to open this area, so this could be considered your fault," Aureia noted. Ember's reply was entirely nonverbal, and Iris quickly returned her attention to Kaito, her cheeks burning. Unwilling to let the two trained Pokemon notice her reaction, she stepped nearer to the hovering Togetic.

"Anything I can do to-" Iris' sentence cut off with a loud scream as her foot touched the ground, and then phased right through it. Unprepared for such a drastic imbalance of weight, her body pitched forward, and she tumbled to the ground. Pain erupted from her leg, and tears rapidly filled her bright pink eyes.

"What the-?" Kaito gasped, staring at Iris, or more specifically, at her leg. Looking down, Iris could see the chamber floor, but her injured leg was seemingly swallowed by it. There was no hole in the ground, but half of her leg was clearly below the surface of the floor. It was like stepping into a deep pothole in the ground, and then filling the hole with her leg still inside.

Adrian and his Pokemon had spun around at the Kirlia's scream, but all of them were looking at the Kirlia with the same befuddled expressions. Well, Aureia's expression was significantly less expressive, but the way she kept blinking and refocusing her eyes was more than enough to confirm her confusion.

"Are you...stuck inside the ground?" Adrian asked, stepping closer with concern, but Iris shook her head hastily, still choking back sobs. The human blinked in confusion, and Iris carefully pulled her leg closer to her body. It slid through the floor easily, phasing through what seemed to be solid rock without any difficulty or damage to the ground.

"I don't get it," Kaito said blankly, floating down to the ground and cautiously prodding the space of ground that Iris had stepped on. To his surprise, his arm phased through the rock just as easily as Iris had, and his expression hardened. "It's an illusionary floor."

"An illusionary floor?" Iris repeated, rubbing her injured leg in a vain attempt to cease the painful sensations.

"Yeah...this one doesn't seem very deep, but there's a small pit here," Kaito confirmed. He swept his gaze around the room. "That could pose a problem, if there's a whole bunch of pitfalls or hazards here that we can't see without falling into."

"What are they talking about?" Adrian asked, directing the question to Aureia. The Vaporeon rolled her eyes and responded by tapping her paw against the ground, moving it forward slightly after each tap, then abruptly jerking the paw downwards to illustrate a sudden drop. The human blinked and eyed the ground warily. "Hidden pitfalls, huh?"

"Wow, I definitely need to invite you to play Charades with me and Force sometime," Iris said, distracted from the pain in her leg and giving Aureia a smile, which the Vaporeon did not return.

"And what am I, chopped Tentacool?" Ember asked irritably. Iris was mercifully spared from answering by Adrian rummaging around in his bag again, which took Ember's attention away from the conversation.

Iris rubbed her paws together and focused her energy through them, then began to massage her injured leg again. A faint white glow surrounded her paws and before long, she sighed in relief, feeling the pain fading away and the scrapes mending themselves. Heal Pulse was a technique that many young Ralts were urged to learn before evolving, because it was a technique that required a strong sense of empathy for others. It was an ability most commonly used by Pokemon that worked with injured people and Pokemon, and so was at its most effective when sincerely caring about someone else's well-being. It could be harnessed for oneself, but it was significantly less effective to the point of being nearly useless for larger wounds. Despite that, it seemed more convenient to mend herself of such a minor injury than to ask Kaito to use his energy for her sake.

"Better?" Kaito asked, taking note of the mending skin on her leg. Iris smiled and nodded before climbing carefully back to her feet. The unnerving feeling within the room was growing stronger, but now she was suspecting that the false floor may have been a contributing factor to the sense that something was wrong.

"Aureia, could you fetch Avis, please?" Adrian asked the Vaporeon, closing his bag with a heavy sigh. The Vaporeon gave him a look, but stood up and disappeared down the passageway. Ember gave Adrian an inquisitive look. "I think Avis' vines could be useful for finding the pitfalls. I had hoped to have my umbrella in here, but I must have left that at the apartment," he explained to the Charmander.

"Definitely a better idea than walking around blindly," Kaito admitted. He tapped his chin with a thoughtful frown. "False floors are not something I've come across in any of the other Ruins before," he murmured, again talking more to himself than anyone else.

"I'm not sure how such a thing can even exist," Iris agreed. "At least...not like this, you know? I can imagine regular pitfalls, where the ground gives out under you, but..."

Kaito nodded and gazed around again. "I can't think of the purpose of a room like this. I'd normally think a treasure chamber. The Ruins of Alph are said to be hiding many secrets in little chambers guarded by sliding puzzles and instructions in Unown hieroglyphics, but yet...this room doesn't fit the pattern. There were no instructions, there was no puzzle. And then this room is seemingly empty but has invisible holes..."

The Togetic trailed off and glanced towards the passageway as Aureia returned, with Avis hitching a ride on the Vaporeon's back, much to Aureia's chagrin. The Snivy promptly slid off once they were both inside the chamber.

"Okay, Avis, this is going to seem weird," Adrian said, chuckling and scratching the back of his neck. The Snivy cocked her head curiously. "Apparently...some of this floor is fake and hides pitfalls. Could you use your vines to test the ground so we know where it's safe to walk?"

Avis blinked several times, and then extended a vine from the pseudo-collar around its neck. She prodded the ground with the vine a few times, then slowly began to wander the room, prodding each section of the floor before stepping on it.

"Why are we even here?" Aureia muttered, fidgeting restlessly and casting increasingly annoyed glances at Adrian. If the human noticed, he didn't react, for he had taken out his notepad again and was scribbling something.

Avis abruptly flinched and peered at the ground, then poked it with her vine, flinching again when the vine phased through the ground. "Ooh...there are hidden pits here!" she marveled, extending her vine to judge the depth of the hole, and then prodded around until she likewise could determine the size of the pit.

Once satisfied, the Snivy detached the vine from herself and placed it in a loop around the pit, something Adrian noted with a smile. The grass lizard seemed slightly pleased by the approval, but didn't dwell on it, instead extending another vine to continue her search.

"Even if we know where the pits are, what's the purpose of being here?" Iris asked Kaito seriously. "There aren't any runes or carvings to examine, so..."

"I think that there might be some sort of barrier here that's concealing what we're here to find," the fairy Pokemon explained. "The vibes of this room are still as strong as ever, and dismantling the uncertainty of the floor should help."

"What's even causing the fake floor in the first place?" Ember demanded, clearly irked at how the situation was shaping up. Aureia was fidgeting out of boredom, but Iris could sense the restless energy within the Charmander. It was gradually overwhelming her and making the fire lizard twitchy and moody.

"We don't know, it's something I've never come across in a site like this," Kaito said. "We want to err on the side of caution and take the time to-"

"Blah blah blah," Ember interrupted. "Is it caused by Unown or whatever those things are? Ghost-Types? Because if it's that unusual, it's probably being maintained by something actually HERE, in the room, that we can't see. So you should be able to disable it somehow."

Kaito stared at Ember, his mouth beginning to form the words of a response, but then he floundered for a moment. "Well...damn."

The Togetic took a deep breath and closed his eyes. His wings began to flutter more gently, and a pale blue glow began to surround his body. Then his eyes flew open, now glowing with the same blue color as the rest of his body. The energy around him expanded outwards in one large pulse, washing over the entire chamber.

As the light filled the room, holes emerged in the floor where there previously were none, including one marked by Avis' vine length. But most interesting was at the back of the chamber, the area where none of them had ventured close to due to discovering the pitfall. Standing next to a stone pillar engraved with runes was a tall bipedal fox-like Pokemon.

Its body was covered in dark gray fur, with a long red mane adorned with black tips trailing behind its back, tied near the bottom in a ponytail-style. The Pokemon had nasty-looking red claws at the end of its paws and feet, and bright blue eyes that gave off an eerie vibe when Iris looked at them, as if the eyes could see something truly ethereal.

The bipedal Pokemon's gaze flicked around the room, observing the transformation in the surroundings, then focused its ghostly eyes upon Kaito, before hastily slipping one of its paws into its mane, as if depositing something deep within the fur.

"You're such a spoilsport, Kaito. To raise the curtain on my performance so suddenly...this isn't Oz, you know."

The Togetic visibly recoiled on seeing the other Pokemon, but regained his composure quickly, a brief scowl flitting across his face.

"Hello, Kuro," he stated in a tone that could only be described as borderline hostile.

"Is that a Zoroark?" Adrian wondered aloud. The black Pokemon spared the trainer a look, a smirk flashing across its face.

"Still...I can hardly credit your own intellect in unraveling my little game, Kaito. Let's hear a round of applause for Ember here. You were brilliant, dear," the Zoroark chuckled, clapping its paws together quietly. The Charmander narrowed her eyes, but said nothing, her body tense.

"What are you even doing here, Kuro?" Kaito demanded. Iris could feel an odd emotion welling up within the Togetic, something she wasn't used to detecting from him, and couldn't immediately identify. Kaito was excellent at hiding his emotions, even if he was more open around her, and Iris still couldn't shake off the unnerving vibes of the room.

"Putting on a show, of course!" Kuro stated, spreading his forepaws out dramatically, indicating the entire room. "I've had quite the audience of scientists and scholars, all entranced by my performance here. So many interpretations of my dance, too...ah, but alas the Unown won't let me take it on tour...shy little buggers, I'm afraid."

"What the hell are you even talking about?" Ember growled.

"Ooh, but let's not forget the winner in the Best Supporting Player category," Kuro said, his smirk widening as his eyes flicked back to Ember. "That claw slam to the wall, dear, was brilliant method acting. You really FELT the anger within you, and that was the key...your anger opened this door, after all."

"Does anyone know what he's talking about?" Avis asked, the grass-type looking completely lost. Iris was just as clueless as the rest of them.

"Does HE even know what he's talking about?" Aureia muttered.

Kuro chuckled and stepped nearer to Ember, the Charmander tensing and flexing the claws of her left paw, the one she hadn't recently slammed into a stone wall. The Zoroark paid this no attention.

"I cannot imagine why one would seal a door with an emotional lock, much less requiring anger as the key. The Unown are stubborn little sigils. They claim that I, as a master of the stage, have no true emotions, only acting. The door would never unseal for me...ah, but for you, my dear...that flimsy lock shattered with ease. Truly a beautiful performance..."

The Zoroark gently stroked beneath Ember's chin with a claw, only for the Charmander to viciously swat his arm aside.

"Get away from me," she snapped, readying her claws. The tension in the room skyrocketed, causing Iris to cringe prematurely. Kaito had narrowed his eyes, and Adrian had stiffened. Aureia had taken a pace backwards, giving Ember more room if a fight did break out, whereas Avis was watching the events with open fascination.

"Lovely, lovely," Kuro whispered, gazing at Ember's face fondly. "You do deserve a prize for your performance. I've outmaneuvered Kaito this time without incident, so my show is lacking a climax. Perhaps I can interest you in taking the stage with me-"

Ember's claws lashed out with impressive speed, striking the Zoroark's face with vicious accuracy. Kuro yelped in pain, a deep gash appearing on his right cheek, blood trickling down to his chin. He staggered back, but he did not clutch the wound nor did his expression change very much. His blue eyes glinted a little, and his smirk expanded into a grin.

"I do like a good battle tango," Kuro murmured in delight. He flicked his claws outwards, before adopting a mimicry of Ember's current stance. "Let's dance, deary."