Jack came under attack almost immediately. The moment he stepped through the doorway a Water Shuriken came out of nowhere and barreled towards him. There was a crackle of electricity and a brief flash of light, then the attack quite literally vaporized in midair.

Jack cracked his knuckles and surveyed the room. "Well then, is that how you treat a guest? I'm offended."

Jack observed his surroundings, taking in everything that he could. There were large metal containers with various markings on them stacked all around the room. In front of him all four hybrids, including Lucario, were arranged in a semicircle.

The Greninja hybrid quickly disappeared into the shadows, which wouldn't help her at all. The Charizard was a bit to his right atop a stack of containers. The dragon didn't move but glared intensely at Jack. The Serperior was coiled on the floor on his left. Her tongue flicked in and out of her mouth as she started slowly slithering closer to him. Finally, Lucario was standing directly in front of Jack. He was as emotionless and blank as the last time they had fought.

Jack sensed Nova sneak in behind him under one of her illusions. He could tell she was anxious about Lucario, and whoever this 'Hamilton' person was. Jack trusted her not to do something stupid though, unlike himself. He intended to do a lot of stupid things in the very near future.

"Not much for banter I see," Jack continued at the general silence. "Oh well, I guess I'll just go ahead and beat you all to a pulp then. I feel it only fair to warn you though, I'm not in a good mood. You may regret not running soon."

"Shut up," the Charizard hybrid growled, darting forward and bringing all four of his arms down at Jack's head.

A cloud of dust and concrete shards flew into the air as the floor shattered under the blow. When it settled, Jack was standing with his left arm raised above his head effortlessly holding off the hybrid's attack. The air around him was literally glowing with energy. White hot sparks crackled around his body in slow motion.

"Like I said," the boy continued, his eyes glowing like molten gold. "You may regret not running when you had the chance."

Before the hybrid could so much as think of doing anything, Jack struck. Energy flowed through him, flooding his entire body and supercharging every muscle. With a single thought he sent a tidal wave of energy racing down his right arm like a bolt of lightning.

There was a blinding flash of light and a noise like thunder. One moment Falkor was standing over Jack, the next he was halfway across the room. The hybrid crashed into a stack of metal containers, causing them to toppled over onto him. When the hybrid managed to free himself, there was a red hot patch of charred flesh in the middle of his chest.

Jack stood with one arm extended, his hand open as if to show that he'd chosen to strike with a flat palm instead of a fist. The harsh scent of ozone filled the room, as did the foul smell of burned meat. After a moment Jack sighed and lowered his arm, not even bothering to drop into a fighting stance as he stared down the hybrids.

"So," he remarked. "Who's the next least intelligent of you?"

The hybrids' only response was to charge Jack all at once, now knowing better than to fight him one on one. Jack's eyes immediately singled out the invisible Greninja, Nightshade, as his first target. She was obviously the glass cannon of the group, so it'd be best to take her down quickly. Jack was about to launch an attack, but Nova made her move first. The Zoroark was obviously thinking along the same lines as Jack as she targeted the Greninja first as well, tackling the Ninja Frog Pokémon to the side from within her illusion.

Jack made a mental note to return the favour some time. Now he only had three opponents to worry about. A split second after Nova tackled Nightshade away, Jack launched himself into the air as well. In the blink of an eye he'd landed a devastating lightning strike on each of the three remaining hybrids, knocking them clean out of the air before landing lightly on his feet himself.

Meanwhile, Nova's attack caught the Nightshade completely off guard. Before the Greninja could react, she cried out in pain as a powerful attack hit her in the back. Nova smirked as her Night Slash connected. While it wasn't the most effective of techniques type-wise, it certainly left a mark.

The hybrid let out a growl as a blue pulse of water between her webbed hands. Jumping into the air, she unleashed the powerful Water Pulse directly underneath her. The attack hit the ground and burst into a giant wave of water that spread out in a circle from the point of impact. Nova jumped backwards before climbing atop one of the containers as the wave of water swept across the rest of the room. Jack glanced over just in time to see it, and he grinned viciously as he saw a film of water cover the floor.

"Nova," he said, "Jump."

Nova jumped off the metal container she was on and used her aura to grip onto the wall. As Lucario and the Serperior hybrid got to their feet, or the former did at least, Jack unleashed a tidal wave of electricity into the water at his feet. Even from her vantage point on the wall Nova could feel every hair on her body stand on end. Jack poured every scrap of energy he could muster into the attack. He didn't even notice how much aura it consumed.

The entire room lit up as the immense current raced through the water and metal containers. Nova was careful to avert her eyes until Jack stopped his assault. There was a thud behind her as Nightshade fell to the ground, completely knocked out from the powerful attack. The water that had been covering the ground was completely gone from the extreme heat of the electricity. One of the hybrids was out of the fight, but the other three managed to avoid the attack. Falkor was flying in the air while Lucario had protected himself and the Superior with a shield of aura.

"Well, that's one down at least," Jack commented, a little disappointed that he'd only hit one of them. "Who's next?"

The Serperior and Charizard hybrids immediately went back on the offensive, but before they reached him Jack noticed Lucario breaking away and heading straight for Nova. Jack hoped Nova could keep her friend busy while he dealt with the other two. Then they could work together to get that device off Lucario's head. Jack barely had time to waste planning though, as the two remaining hybrids were almost on top of him.

Nova grabbed the hastae off of her back and charged its surface with aura just as Lucario brought down a staff of aura on her. Raising her spear, she blocked the attack but was not prepared for the following kick to her chest. The attack sent her crashing against the concrete wall and knocked the breath out of her lungs. Her vision was dazed for a moment before she saw Lucario rushing her with Metal Claws at the ready. She grabbed her hastae before rolling out of the way.

The sound of metal scraping against concrete filled the air as Lucario's claws dug into the concrete. Nova swung the end of her spear out and caught Lucario's legs. She had hoped to knock him off of his feet, but he managed to stay standing with the support of having his Metal Claw attack stuck in the wall.

Meanwhile, Jack had his hands full dealing with Falkor and the Serperior. Neither of them had so much as scratched him yet, but he was gradually getting slower and his attacks had less force behind them. The Serperior was fast enough that she managed to avoid a good number of attacks while the Charizard didn't seem to even care when it was hit with even super effective attacks, although he was visibly being hurt by them.

Even so, Jack didn't let up. He wanted to get this fight over with so he could help Nova with Lucario. With a grunt of exertion, he conjured up another surge of power. It was getting harder and harder to maintain his speed and strength, but he couldn't afford to lose his momentum. So he pressed on, oblivious to how much aura he was burning with each attack he launched.

The two hybrids launched a coordinated attack against Jack. Vines launched out of Serperior towards Jack as she attempted to tie him down and allow Falkor to land one of his powerful hits. Jack jumped backwards quickly, leaving a trail of electricity in his wake, but it wasn't fast enough. He could tell there was something wrong the moment his feet left the ground. The Serperior had already used her lightning fast speed to circle and unleashed another Vine Whip towards Jack at nearly point blank range.

As soon as he realized what they were doing, Jack released a surge of electricity that should've fried everything that touched him, but the attack didn't have nearly enough power to take on the hybrid grass type. Though he still didn't realize it, Jack's supply of energy was starting to run dangerously low. The vines quickly ensnared him before throwing him against the ground and lifting him back into the air. Falkor was already above Jack diving towards him. His entire body was surrounded in a bright orange fire, leaving a wake of flames in his path.

Time seemed to slow down for Jack as his mind went into warp drive. He only had a second at most to react before his face was introduced to Falkor's fist. It was a meeting he'd rather avoid if at all possible. He strained against the vines, but he knew he'd never break free in time. If he had something to brace against sure, but he was currently suspended in midair. He doubted he could stop the Charizard hybrid's attack in this position, even a blast of Psychic would only slow him down slightly at best. It was times like this when Jack knew the perfect answer was staring him in the face, and he'd kick himself later for not getting it. If there was a later of course.

It was at that moment that it sunk in fully. If this blow connected, Jack might very well not survive. In fact it was very likely that he wouldn't. This thought sent a spark down Jack's spine. He couldn't die, not yet.

'That's right. You can't die now, not with so much left to do.'

It was as if someone had opened the floodgates. Memories started flowing into Jack's mind like a river of information. Each one slotted naturally into place as if it had always been there, and each one brought a tide of new thoughts with it. Words he'd never heard before, ideas he'd never dared dream of. Then, all at once, the stream was cut off. Jack desperately tried to keep the memories coming, but something kept foiling his efforts.

'Sorry, that's all you get. Any more would be dangerous. We're already toeing the line as it is, I don't know how much more we can get away with. At any rate, this should be more than enough for now. If you still have the strength to use it…'

Jack felt energy course through his arms and crackle from his fingertips, but this time he didn't just let it go wherever it wanted. Without even thinking about what he was doing, as if he'd done it a hundred times and learned it off by heart, he kept the electricity concentrated and focused into a single stream.

With a flash of light and a crackling thrum of energy, the vines surrounding Jack were cut to shreds which only left him with one problem. A split second before Falkor's fist connected, Jack gave himself a telekinetic push to the right allowing the hybrid to barrel past him although it was a dangerously close shave. As the hybrid passed him, Jack lashed out with his new technique and landed a glancing blow on Falkor's back.

Jack twisted in midair and landed on the balls of his feet, but the Charizard wasn't so fortunate and tumbled to the ground like a ton of bricks. Jack's attack seemed to have landed right below Falkor's wings, which he hoped meant that they'd be out of commission. He had other things to worry about however as the Serperior was already rushing towards him, her tail glowing white as she closed in with Leaf Blade.

Jack saw the attack coming at the last second, and extended his hands out as if to catch it. Just before the snake Pokémon's attack landed, an electrical arc jumped between Jack's fingers and stopped the attack cold. The focused stream of energy behaved as though it were a physical object, bending inward from the force of the Leaf Blade, but it didn't snap. Instead Jack gave it a little more power and managed to push the Serperior back long enough for him to teleport around behind the hybrid.

Jack felt his senses sharpen, his concentration narrowing until he could see every movement his serpentine opponent made, every muscle she tensed. He felt electricity flow down his arm and almost reflexively started pooling it in his hand, compressing it into a form that was now quite familiar. He settled into a fighter's crouch, his sword at the ready. This time not made of aura, but white hot lightning.

The Superior glared at Jack, but if she was surprised she certainly wasn't showing it. Her tail started glowing green as she spun around in a circle. With her insane speed it didn't take her long to complete the large, powerful Leaf Storm attack and launch it at Jack. However, he simply blasted it to the side with Psychic.

Knowing he had to take the offensive, and quickly, Jack darted forward. His body moved before his mind could catch up, dodging a secondary Vine Whip attack before he even knew it was coming. He closed the distance between him and his opponent in the blink of an eye and slashed downward with a backhand stroke at her right side.

Despite his amazing speed, the Serperior proved to be faster as she dodged the attack with ease. The snake-like Pokémon attempted to counter attack by sweeping her tail at Jack's feet, but the boy simply leapt backwards over her head. Jack did a flip midair and lashed out at the hybrid from above, cutting clean through the vines she threw up in defence and landing a shallow blow on her back. It was barely a couple centimeters deep, but it was more than enough to prove the deadliness of Jack's newest weapon.

The Serperior hissed viciously at Jack, glaring daggers at him as she flinched from the pain. Every part of her radiated intense hatred, it dripped from her like poison. Even so, Jack felt a stab of guilt at the thought of killing her.

'Stop being such a saint! You're about two minutes away from running out of energy. You can't afford to hold back at this point, you're fighting for your life.'

Jack shook his head. He refused to go down that road again. He would find a way to win without killing them.

'Suit yourself.'

Meanwhile, Nova was managing to hold her own against Lucario. She was fully aware that she couldn't beat him, but in his current state neither could he defeat her. His reactions were sluggish compared to normal, but he was still fast enough to block almost all of her attacks. Even so, she could just as easily deflect and block his blows with her aura-charged spear.

She was currently beating back a rather powerful Metal Claw attack. Twirling her spear around, Nova managed to get Lucario's claws out of position for a brief moment. Striking out with the rear end of her spear, she tried to land a blow against the black and white Lucario. However, he easily blocked the attack with his forepaw, not even flinching as the aurically charged wood slammed against his fur. Nova hoped that Jack wouldn't be much longer as she had no power to break the current stalemate.

Jack swung his glowing sword and intercepted a Leaf Blade attack without even flinching. His new weapon was not only powerful, it felt even more natural in his hand than when he'd made it out of aura. With every stroke he could feel new memories rising to fill the gaps in his mind, gradually tying together the scattered, fragmented images into a cohesive whole. Every time he grasped at that completed memory though, it darted just out of his reach as if something, or someone, were deliberately keeping it from him.

He barely had time to worry about his memories however, as he was locked in a bitter stalemate of his own with the Serperior hybrid. His new sword had won him a huge advantage, and some breathing room, but it was a two edged blade; literally. Ever since he started using this new technique, he'd become painfully aware of exactly how much strain it was putting on his already depleted aura. With every blow he could feel himself moving slower, getting weaker. He'd long since stopped discharging electricity into the air around him, he barely had enough energy to fuel his own body. At most, he was fighting on fumes. He needed to end this quickly.

It was at that moment that Falkor struck. The Charizard Hybrid roared in fury and unleashed a white hot torrent of flames at Jack from across the room. Jack barely managed to jump out of the way in time, the Flamethrower missing him by inches. He felt his hair smoke and his skin crinkle from the heat, but far worse was the knowledge that he'd left himself wide open. He spun around in midair, raising his sword to deflect the attack he knew was coming.

If he'd been a split second slower, the Serperior's Leaf Blade would have likely cut him in half. He could almost feel the hate from her glare as she stared into his eyes. As it was, the force of the attack flung Jack halfway across the room before a metal crate brought his flight to an abrupt halt.

Jack felt something crack in his chest, maybe several somethings. He coughed involuntarily, and saw blood. His injuries didn't hurt for some reason though. In fact he couldn't feel any of the fatigue and pain he'd felt just a moment ago. He wondered briefly what had happened, then he realized that he couldn't feel his legs and his body was slowly becoming numb.

"I'm losing consciousness…" he thought to himself.

He knew that if he fell unconscious now, both he and Nova were dead. Damocles too. From his vantage point Jack could see the Gallade hybrid lying on the ground, having fainted from his injuries. Or worse...

Despair began to fill Jack's mind. Was this how it ended? Was this how he died, unable to protect his friends, old or new? He could barely find the energy to care. He could feel his mind slipping away.

"Help… Me…"

'You've gotten us into a proper mess this time, haven't you Jack. Look at you, no more than a shadow of the boy you once were. Just like me. We're just a pair of shadows you and I, and you've only just started to see the light again. I can't let you die of course. If you die, so do I. I know this is probably the most dangerous thing I could possibly do, but if I don't then we're already dead. I hope you'll forgive me. I promise to go easy on our body.'

Then everything went black.


The boy opened his eyes, Jack's eyes, and immediately took stock of his surroundings. The Serperior was closing in on him, her eyes shining with hatred and her Leaf Blade ready to finish him off.

He tried to move, but his body was unresponsive. Even worse, it hurt like the very dickens. The boy estimated that at least one of Jack's ribs was broken, and his spinal cord had been severely damaged as well. The rest of his body was covered in smaller, but no less painful, cuts, scrapes, abrasions, bruises, and other assorted injuries. He wouldn't be going anywhere without some serious healing, but there was no time.

"Jack," he thought ruefully to himself, "You're gonna give us grey hairs at this rate."

The boy reviewed his options, and concluded that the first order of business was to get his body healed. The only problem was the time constraint, but he knew a good way around that.

"I'll have to use my own aura," he decided. "Jack doesn't have enough left of his own. If I use any of that, it'll kill him. Fortunately, our auras should still be similar enough that I can mix them. We'll soon find out."

The boy opened his own aura pool and allowed some of it to trickle into Jack's. He'd kept quite a bit saved up for emergencies like this, and a good thing too. He'd most likely need every bit of it if he was going to pull this off.

The Serperior towered over him, savouring his helplessness. He needed to buy time; time to heal, time to plan. Just as the Serperior prepared to strike, her blade over his heart, the boy disappeared.

"Much better," he thought.

He was floating in an empty void, surrounded by a thousand tiny point of light as if he were suspended in the night sky. A plane of existence where earthly concepts of space and time had no meaning. It could be entered from anywhere and anywhen, and left the same way. Once here, it took no more effort to travel a thousand miles than it did to go one inch. Going a hundred years into the future, or the past, was just as easy as going back one second after you left. All you had to know was where and when you wanted to end up. And, of course, you had to know that you could.

The boy had been here plenty of times before. It was a place very few people knew about, and a very closely guarded secret among those few. It had taken Jack a while to remember how to travel to this place and back again, to 'teleport' as he called it, but he had no idea how different it was from true teleportation. This boy knew it all too well, and he also knew just how to exploit it.

"I was right. His spine is broken," he thought. "This is going to take a while. Then again, I have all the time in the world."

And so the boy worked, methodically repairing every injury Jack had sustained. While he was at it, the boy also took the liberty of making a few... aesthetic changes. It was more a matter of comfort than anything else, the boy was used to a few specific features that Jack's body didn't currently have.

"I'll change it back later," he promised, although Jack couldn't hear him.

By the time the boy was finished with Jack's body, he'd used up most of the aura he'd already shared with Jack and was forced to donate a little more. That said, the results were worth it. Jack's body was back to full working order, and the boy had even gone ahead and done some much-needed dental work as well. Happy with his work, and more than a little eager to be in control of a physical body again, the boy allowed himself to slip back to his original position in space.

The moment he reappeared, the boy cloaked himself in an illusion that made him all but invisible. The element of surprise was one of his favourite weapons, and he prefered to use it whenever possible.

"Unlike Jack," he thought to himself. "The guy doesn't know the meaning of the word 'stealthy.'"

Taking a look around, the boy realised that now was not the time to be complaining. He'd reappeared less than thirty seconds later than when he left, but already the Serperior and Charizard were moving to gang up on the blue-furred Zoroark. What was her name, Nova? Yeah, that was it. She'd helped Jack out a lot, so the boy figured now was a good enough time as any to return the favour. With a small grin at the wonderful sensation of having a body again, the boy summoned a blade of crackling golden energy his his right hand and silently closed in on his target.

Nova was starting to falter. When Jack disappeared, she had felt her heart drop. While she knew that Jack hadn't abandoned her, or at least that was what she was telling herself, she didn't know what had happened to him. She couldn't even sense his powerful aura anymore. Now with all three remaining hybrids closing in around her, she knew that she did not stand a chance at winning this fight.

Lucario was effectively holding her in place with his constant attacks. Nova was definitely on the defensive as of this point in the fight. Her movements were slowing down from the prolonged combat while Lucario didn't seem to care at all. She spotted the Charizard hybrid out of the corner of her eye as he readied a Flamethrower that would undoubtedly end this fight if it connected.

Falkor drew in a huge breath, white hot flames building up in his throat ready to be released, then he froze in place like a statue. The flames in his mouth died down, and the dragon's expression changed to one of stunned incomprehension, as a blade of golden energy emerged from his chest.

The Charizard looked down in disbelief at the glowing sword which had impaled him, instantly cauterizing the wound it had created. With a sickening hiss the blade retracted, leaving Falkor standing in stunned silence unable to comprehend what had happened. Then with a thud that shook the whole room, the dragon toppled over and didn't move.

Standing behind the fallen dragon was the boy, his sword in hand. His hair was as black as midnight and his eyes were the same dark, ominous shade of grey as a thundercloud. He wasn't grinning any more. He had intended to stab the hybrid through the heart, but for some reason he couldn't make himself do it. Maybe Jack was starting to rub off on him. At any rate, he didn't have to kill the dragon to take it out of the equation. Assuming its physiology was comparable to that of similar creatures, the boy knew exactly where to strike in order to render the Charizard completely paralyzed for several hours without killing it. His blade even burned the wound closed behind it, so the hybrid wouldn't lose any blood.

"It feels almost like old times," the boy thought wryly, although his face showed no emotion. "Only with more elemental monsters."

Nova was looking at him with a mix of surprise and fear. It was in that moment that she let her guard down and Lucario connected with Metal Claws against her left shoulder. She let out a cry of pain before turning her attention back to her opponent, but by the time she did the boy had appeared between them.

Lucario struck with Metal Claws again, but the boy countered the attack effortlessly. Another blade of energy appeared in his left hand, allowing him to deflect both of Lucario's attacks at once. It was a style he'd specialised in back when he had a body of his own. The trick was never to face your opponent's blows head on, but instead deflect and redirect them while expending a minimal amount of effort; all the while waiting for any opportunity to strike. Nine times out of ten, it was decidedly effective.

"You might want to tend to that Gallade," the boy said as he parried his opponent's blows, his voice as calm as his expression. "He's going to die soon without healing. And while you're at it, you'd better heal your shoulder too. I'll focus on holding these two off, then once you're done you can join back in."

"Right…" Nova said, obviously still somewhat afraid.

Holding onto her bleeding shoulder, Nova started over to where Damocles' fading aura was. She found him lying on the ground, deep cuts all over his skin. His sword was broken in two and his shield had a massive crack in it. Kneeling down next to his body, she pooled aura into her paws before placing them on the most serious wounds and slowly started healing them. While her healing skills were much more advanced than Lucario's, they did not even come close to what Jack had done last time. That and she could not afford to drain too much of her aura. She had a feeling she'd need it.

After a few minutes, Nova had managed to close up the most life threatening wounds. His aura was no longer fading, but it was not rising either. That was the best she could do though as it meant that he was no longer in danger of dying. She had already exhausted a good amount of her aura to get him to that state, and she didn't dare use anymore of it while there was still a fight at hand.

While she was tempted to heal her shoulder, she decided to simply endure the pain as the three cuts were not too deep. Turning her attention back to Jack, she saw that he was still holding Lucario off. In fact the boy even seemed to be gaining ground, practically dancing rings around his opponent and lashing out with his dual swords. Every once in awhile one of Jack's attacks would slip through Lucario's guard, but they didn't seem to be cutting so much as delivering an electrical shock each time. Even so, Jack didn't seem able to land a direct hit on the device on Lucario's head. Every time he tried, Lucario would either dodge at the last second or deflect it; sometimes even allowing it to hit his shoulder or arm instead.

The Serperior hybrid was still in a state of shock. She had not moved since the human had stabbed her comrade. While she had been particularly distant from the other hybrids, she still saw them as family as it was all she had. Even if they mocked her for her odd ways, she still was willing to fight for them. But to see Falkor lying motionless on the ground after being stabbed in the chest… She was not prepared for that. The hybrids were supposed to be invincible… unkillable… What was currently happening was simply not possible.

Nova had come back to Jack's side, leaving the snake hybrid alone as she didn't seem to be much of a threat at the moment. The last thing she wanted to do was bring her back into the fight. She positioned herself on the other side of Lucario, always keeping him between herself and Jack as to force him to fight on two fronts.

The boy meanwhile was glad to have someone to back him up. His skills were rusty after so long without a body, and he wouldn't be able to keep up this pace for long without burning up too much aura. He could see the target, the device on the back of the Lucario's head, but he couldn't get a clean hit off on it. As much as he hated to admit it, he needed help.

"I can get that thing off his head," the boy said telepathically, deflecting another attack and launching a lightning fast riposte. "But I need a distraction."

"Right," Nova replied, recoiling slightly at his mental voice.

She backed off a bit, allowing Lucario to focus solely on the boy for a moment. It was in that moment that Nova struck, her claws glowing in blue energy with a mix of aura and a Night Daze attack. With the boy holding Lucario in place, she was able to briefly land an attack against the device on his head, tearing away some of the metal and exposing its inner circuitry before Lucario flung her off of his body.

Lucario instinctively turned to protect the back of his head, but at the exact instant he turned away the boy dissolved into a shadow. The inky black shape lunged forward, darting behind Lucario and almost hitting his head in passing. The shadow then gathered back together and solidified into the boy's body again, and in his hand was the mind control device. With the glancing blow he'd scored, the boy had sheared the main hub of the device clean off. After glancing at the butchered device in disgust, the boy dropped it on the ground and crushed it underneath his bare foot.

"And that, Jack," he thought to himself, "Is one more you owe me."

Lucario had collapsed to his hands and knees, his chest heaving as if he were recovering from drowning. While a few parts of the device remained screwed onto his head, it had obviously lost its control over him. The boy could feel Lucario's aura filling with emotion again, and drastically growing in power at the same time. Whatever else that device had done, it had not only suppressed his emotions but also sealed away a large chunk of his strength in doing so. The boy found himself impressed against his will at exactly how powerful the Lucario was when not under the effects of the device.

"So," the boy commented to Nova. "That's what he's like without that infernal contraption controlling him. Impressive."

"Trust me… you haven't seen anything yet," Nova replied, a certain amount of happiness in her voice.

The boy sighed. "And I doubt I ever will. My time is pretty much up. I used up way too much aura getting this body up and running again, especially after so long… Yeah, I'm going to have to get going now. I'll leave the clean up to you, Jack isn't going to be much help for a while. In fact he'll probably be in pretty bad shape after all this."

Nova only stared blankly at him, one of her ears flopping to the side as she was completely and utterly confused.

The boy met Nova's gaze, his stormy grey eyes containing none of the humor that usually filled Jack's.

"Tell Jack he owes me one," the boy said, before snorting slightly in amusement. "As if we're keeping score at this point. I can't even count how many times I've saved his life now."

"Right…" Nova responded, nodding her head slowly as she was still completely lost as to what was going on with Jack.

The boy closed his eyes and took a deep breath. Now came the tricky part; sealing himself away inside Jack's mind again, and taking as many memories with him as possible. Far too many had leaked through into Jack's mind again, for all he knew it was already too late. Still, for the time being he would work under the assumption that there was still time.

The boy barely remembered to restore Jack's body to the way it normally was before he left. As his hair faded to Jack's normal golden blond, the boy retreated into the furthest recesses of Jack's psyche where, hopefully, he'd be able to hide for a while longer.

'Good luck, Jack,' he thought. 'You won't be seeing me again for quite some time.'


"You wanted power?"

Who... who is that?

"Then I will show you power!"

Jack's eyes fluttered open, their normal electric blue color restored. "What… How..."

The sound of gunfire soon filled the room as soldiers opened fire. Jack flinched instinctively, but he soon realized the gunfire was not directed at him. The soldiers were shooting at Lucario, who was surrounded by a purple auric sphere that deflected anything that hit it. There was silence for a moment as the soldiers hastily went to reload their rifles, but before they could finish Lucario pulled the weapons from their hands and tossed the firearms out of reach.

The dark purple colored spikes on his wrists started to glow as they elongated into blades running up his arms. The blade on his right side started glowing a light purple as it grew a bit longer.

"Nova… get ready to leave," Lucario said as he glared at the troops that were filling the room. Another squad had come in to reinforce the soldiers already present, though they had yet to attack him.

Nova simply nodded her head as she created an illusion around herself and went over to where Damocles was still lying on the ground. She carefully picked him up, leaving his broken sword and shield behind as she carried him over to where Jack was.

"Wh-what's going on…?" Jack muttered, propping himself up with his arms. "Did we… did we do it?"

"I guess you could say that…" Nova replied as she laid Damocles down on the ground before turning towards Lucario and nodding her head. He then moved and scraped his glowing blade along the ground a bit behind him as he used his other paw to maintain the aura field in front of him as the Alpha soldiers had renewed their attack. A swirling portal of purple energy appeared as Lucario cut through space itself. Nova picked up Damocles before dropping him through the portal. Turning her attention towards Jack, she helped him through the portal as well before looking at her mate.

"Alright, what about you?" Nova asked, her voice full of worry as this situation seemed very familiar to her, and she did not want it repeated.

"I will be right behind you," Lucario started, "I mean it."

With that said, Nova simply nodded before dropping through the portal herself. Once he was alone, Lucario funneled the spatial energy into his other blade. He was about to do the one thing Palkia told him never to do, yet he simply did not care at this point. Swinging his left blade through the air, Lucario ripped through space once again. Then he ducked into the first portal and disappeared from sight.

Jack barely had time to comprehend what was going on. His mind was still struggling to fit itself back inside a body that felt like someone else had been driving it.

"It must have been him," he thought to himself, although he didn't consider it strange that he knew who the other boy was. In fact there were a lot of things that he didn't consider it strange to know. He didn't have time to think about that at the moment though, as he seemed to have landed face first in a snowbank.

As he attempted to pick himself up from the snow, there was an ear shattering crack that reverberated throughout the area. Lucario, Nova, and Jack all turned towards its source, the Alpha base. In the blink of an eye, a massive purple dome appeared and encased the entire mountain. Its swirling energy expanded further and further as the distortion in space advanced out from the base. The energy dome had started off massive in size, but now it was simply gigantic.

Then, as soon as it had appeared, the entire bubble of energy disappeared, along with everything that was inside it. All that was left of the Alpha base was a perfectly spherical hole in the ground, clashing starkly with the surrounding terrain.

"Ugh…" Jack groaned, having fallen back into the snow from the shock of the implosion. "What just happened… And why is there a big hole in the ground?"

"I just created a localized… black hole I believe you humans call them," Lucario replied in a grim tone.

"A black hole…" Jack muttered, grinning nostalgically. "I remember the first time I made one of those. My teacher was so mad at me…" Jack's eyes suddenly went wide. "Wait, what? But that's… how can… I..."

At that precise moment, the memories began to fade. It was as if someone was going along with a vacuum and sucking them up, one by one. Jack clasped his hands to the sides of his head, shutting his eyes tightly as though he could somehow hold the memories in place.

"NO... !" he shouted, futily to keep the knowledge he'd regained. "I remembered, I remembered everything!"

Focusing all the strength he could muster, he frantically grabbed hold of whatever memories he could. He fought a desperate, and hopeless, tug of war for them, but it was a losing battle.

"Give it back!" he cried, tears streaming down his face as the last of the memories faded to empty blankness. "Give… give it back…"

Unable to support his body any more, he collapsed to the ground again in defeat. For one brief moment, one brief blissful moment, he had remembered everything. He had known with utmost certainty who he was, who his parents were, and why he was here. Now, he could only stare once more at the blank, empty space where the memories should have been.

"They're gone… the memories are gone…" he moaned listlessly, staring blankly off into the distance.

Jack vaguely heard people talking around him, Nova maybe, but he didn't listen. He was still searching the depths of his subconscious to see if maybe there was anything left. There were bits and pieces, his memories of training with a sword for instance, but not much else. Nothing that told him anything useful. Nothing that answered any of his many questions.

Eventually, Jack gave up looking. It was obvious that whoever had wiped his memories again, they had been extremely thorough. They'd deliberately left him a few memories, maybe as some sort of consolation, but everything else was just… gone.

"I guess I'm back to square one then…" he thought to himself.

Jack suddenly became aware that Nova's Lucario friend was staring at him. Turning his head slightly, Jack examined the Pokémon he and Nova had fought so hard to rescue. He seemed so… alive compared to before. His aura was full of emotions now, although they seemed to be dominated by an oppressive feeling of guilt at the moment.

"So…" Jack said in barely more than a whisper. "You're Lucario. You're Nova's… friend."

"That is more or less correct," Lucario replied, looking over at Nova who was currently pressed against his side with a happy smile on her muzzle.

The corners of Jack's mouth curled up slightly in a small smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "So… I guess that means the mission… was a success. We won…"

"That we did," Nova said in response.

Lucario was staring off at the giant crater that used to be the Alpha base. He closed his eyes and exhaled as he clenched his paws, his blades briefly glowing before disappearing. He was obviously trying to concentrate, probably trying to remember what had happened during the time he'd spent under that device's influence. Jack knew what that felt like, although he admitted to himself that he might have just been projecting his own pain onto Lucario.

Jack realized that his assumption had been correct, as Lucario soon fell to his paws and knees. Tears of pain and sorrow streaming down his muzzle, and Jack knew then and there that Lucario had found his memories and wished he hadn't.

"I… I killed them… So many people…" Lucario mumbled through grit teeth as he clenched his paws.

"No, Alpha killed them. You had no choice in the matter," Nova said in a quiet, caring tone after she pulled her head away from his and moved her paws down to his shoulders.

"But I still killed them… They used me to kill who knows how many innocent people…" Lucario replied in a strained voice as he sat up.

"That wasn't you though," Nova responded before carefully hugging her mate, avoiding his chest spike.

Lucario remained silent, not responding as he rested his read on her shoulder. He moved his arms around Nova and hugged her back, though not as tightly as she was holding onto him. They remained in each other's embrace for a few minutes before Lucario pulled back away from Nova. The two of them stood up, snow sticking to their fur as they did so. Jack could see that Nova's presence was a great comfort to Lucario, and he was reminded of the times when Nova had comforted him on this journey. Suddenly, Jack didn't mind so much that his memories were gone. He was just happy that Nova had finally been reunited with her mate. It was enough to send another tear down his cheek, a tear of joy.

"We should get out of here…" Nova stated as she looked around.

Jack was still lying in the snow, staring off into space with his face wet from his tears. When he heard Nova however, he sighed and got to his feet.

"You're probably right," the boy agreed, wiping the moisture from his face before it froze. "It won't be long before someone decides to see what that big purple explosion was. Tell you what, I'll carry Damocles."

"That sounds good to me," Nova replied as she looked up at the cloudless, blue sky. Lucario silently nodded his head in agreement.

Jack walked over to where the Gallade hybrid was lying unconscious. Jack knelt down beside Damocles and put a hand on his chest.

"I assume you're the one who patched him up," Jack commented, glancing at Nova.

"A little bit, yes," Nova responded. "Just enough to keep him from dying."

Jack nodded. "Good job then. I'll give him a once-over when we get wherever we're going. We are going somewhere specific, right?"

"I figured either Axiom or our home," Nova said, "They are both on the way south from here and would allow us to rest for a while."

"Alright then," Jack replied, looking back at the unconscious hybrid in front of him. "Sounds like a plan."

With that, Jack dug one hand into the snow under Damocles' back and the other under his legs. Jack tried to lift Damocles, but as soon as he strained his muscles he could feel them screaming for energy that he couldn't give them. His aura pool was barely a puddle; it was a wonder he could even bear his own weight, there was no way he could carry someone else.

"Okay," Jack remarked breathing heavily, his face white as a sheet. "Maybe I shouldn't be lifting things for a while…"

"I guess I will carry him then," Nova said before walking over to where Jack was kneeling. She knelt next to him before wrapping her paws underneath him and picking him up. It took her quite a bit of effort to do so and she wobbled on her for for a bit upon standing up, but after a bit she was stable.

Lucario let out a small laugh as he shook his head some. Jack wondered what was so funny, then he remembered something that made him feel very silly indeed.

"Nova, you seem to be forgetting something," he said with a faint smile as he walked in front of the two of them.

She looked over at her mate with a look of slight confusion on her face. A long purple blade then materialized from the spike on his right paw. The blade started to glow a light purple as it extended a bit further. He sliced at the air in front of him as another portal opened up.

"After you," Lucario stated as he gestured towards the tear in space.

Nova laughed some as she shook her head. Realizing that a little levity might be just what the doctor ordered, for everyone there, Jack got to his feet. He wobbled a bit, but managed to find his balance.

With a deliberately clueless expression, Jack walked over to the glowing oval suspended in midair. He walked around it behind it, making a show of examining it closely from all angles. He then stuck one finger into the portal and pulled it back out again before turning back to Nova.

"This appears to be a portal of some kind," he deadpanned.

"You don't say," Nova replied as she rolled her eyes and shook her head before making her way through the portal.

Jack hung back a moment and looked at Lucario one last time. He didn't know why, honest curiosity maybe. At any rate, he only took a quick final glance before stepping through the portal. Once Jack was through, Lucario walked through it was well and it closed behind him.

Upon exiting, the climate and scenery was quite contrast to where they had been mere seconds before. The treeless tundra had been replaced by a heavily forested mountainside. The below freezing temperatures replaced by a mild breeze and warm air.

"So," Jack commented. "Where is this exactly?"

"Domus," Lucario replied as he took in a deep breath.

Jack blinked. "And Domus is…"

Nova smiled and glanced at Jack, joy written across her face.

"Home."


Me: And that concludes the single longest chapter I have ever written to date. I blame Osean for this one, him and his 5k+ word chapters... Anyway, the reason I felt this chapter important enough to commemorate with an increasingly rare author's note is that, as of the last chapter, we've officially passed 100,000 words on this story. We've also done it with thirteen fewer chapters than Book 1. I don't know what that says about my writing. Hopefully something good. I still blame Osean. Anyway, we've also recently passed 150 reviews on this story which is also pretty impressive.

Really guys, I can't thank you all enough for the support you've given my stories. To know that out there, on the other side of the world, someone is reading and enjoying my work... it's a wonderful feeling. But that's enough sappy stuff for one day. If you enjoyed the epic climax to this story arc, please consider leaving even a short review. Especially if you spot any typos or mistake in the chapter, it really helps out. And as always, I'll see you all in the next chapter. Hopefully it'll be a little more tame than this one.