THEME SONG: "Umi" (Ocean)- Pocket Monsters


Rachel's eyes flickered open, but nothing but coloured blobs swarmed in front of her.

"Mmm…" she murmured, as she willed her arm to rise, but nothing happened.

"Rachel? Rachel?" murmured numerous voices; familiar, but somehow she couldn't place the voices with faces.

"Someone had to die," growled a raspy voice somewhere in the back recesses of her memory. "Sooner or later you'll all be dead. But it's not your turn yet… I think you know whose turn it is next…"

"Karlie…" Rachel breathed, with a guttural undertone, still not really understanding why the name had surfaced in her mind. The voices continued – earnest, prodding… cautious.

Her friends, her mind clicked suddenly, and then faces began to appear next to the voices – Gary's haughty but pale face matched to the nasal voice; Trish's worried face to the urgent, Australian-accented voice; Riny's heart-shaped face and frightened eyes to the lilting Irish accent on the ending syllable of the word, and so on. Faces in her mind. Sixteen of them.

The blurs sharpened, and the faces became clear in vision, a wary but worried circle around her. Jesse, James, Tracey, Mia, Sarah, Brock, Michelle, Todd, Duplica, Erin, Misty, Ash, Trish, and Karlie's sleeping form lay the length of the small cabin away from her.

But a girl that Rachel had never seen before was standing just a little way behind the circle. A young teenaged girl, her height or even shorter, but with a wise expression that made her seem far older. The girl stared at her with deep brown eyes; her face was pale, and her shoulder-length, ringletty hair shone a similar dark brown, so it was almost verging on black.

"I'm sorry…" the girl whispered – the words unheard by anyone else.

Rachel furrowed up her brow, and tried to get a close look at the girl, who shimmered almost unreceptively with a deep cerise aura. The others completely ignored her presence, and continued fussing around Rachel.

"At the end to find the page is torn,

If all have the will to love, yet yield…"

"Rachel? Rach speak to us!" yelled Mia, exasperated, rushing forwards from where she had been momentarily checking on Karlie, and running straight through the apparition of the girl. The image faded away instantly, and Rachel sat straight upwards in shock.

"Jacqui," she gasped as the fog lifted from her memories, and the blood rushed back into her cheeks.

Jesse shoved her angry face into Rachel's full view.

"What the HELL do you THINK you were DOING turning on us you little TWERP!" she fumed, whilst Rachel ignored her and frantically looked around for one of the now-seeming-so-convenient, notepads and pens. "What are you looking for? A KNIFE so you can just stab Karlie and be done with it?" Jesse continued, and for a brief second Rachel stopped, but then saw her own white backpack nearby and scrambled out of the bedding and towards it.

Sarah and Misty exchanged wary looks as they witnessed Rachel start writing in a frenzy. Karlie opened her eyes, and slowly pulled herself up into a position where she was protectively hugging her knees as she watched Rachel from across the room. Rachel pushed the cap down on her fountain pen with a satisfied click.

"Listen to this!" she announced, in her perfectly normal, yet excited voice. "At the end to find the page is torn, if all have the will to love, yet yield." There was silence.

"Rachel, we need to have a, um, talk with you…" came Tracey's gentle, yet slightly angry tone.

"Yeah, why did you almost kill Kaz?" interrupted Ash, bluntly. Rachel's throat went dry.

"I… I… what?"

"What do you remember?" asked Michelle, helpfully. Rachel though for a minute.

"Richie's dead…" she murmured, as if she were not stating it, but almost needing it to be reconfirmed. "The cliff… I… I… looks like you've gone black…" Rachel's voice dropped to a whisper, and Karlie kept a sharp watch on her eyes, which remained at their usual, innocent blue. "I… you're next," Rachel deciphered from her memories, gasping. Her head snapped upwards and she stared at the still sitting Karlie with undisguised horror; her hand flew up to her gaping mouth and her face paled again.

Karlie shifted under Rachel's intense gaze, and woozily clambered to her feet – the fever had broken, and apart from having the symptoms of a flu, she was otherwise fine. In a flash Tracey was by her side, attempting to help her up, and Karlie looked at him with an impressed amusement. Almost worth it, she smiled to herself.

"It was, it was…" stammered Rachel. "That woman with red hair! She did something to me, put something in me…" Rachel's ramblings cut short with a wrenching sob. "Oh but it was still me," she cried, flinging her notepad across the cabin in a rage at herself. "I was going to kill you all, and no matter what she did it was always still me…"

Everyone looked solemnly at the lamenting teenager, all too frightened to approach her to comfort her. Karlie sighed, and pushed her glasses back up her nose with her middle finger. Moving away from Tracey, she walked forward a few steps and fell slowly to her knees next to Rachel, and gingerly placed her palm on her bowed head. Rachel looked up, melancholy tears swimming down her pasty cheeks.

"Karlie, I'm sorry. I wish it had never, ever happened…"

"Because of you, I almost died. Rachel, nothing you could say can make it unhappen…" Karlie replied, in an uncharacteristic tone. Rachel swallowed deeply, and Karlie smiled slightly. "It was because of you and that's never going to change, but I know it wasn't really you Rach – I saw 'you'- and I know that the person who did all that to me wasn't being controlled by you."

Karlie paused momentarily, as her pendant glowed dimly but positively, and Rachel stared enraptured at the warm amber stone, feeling subconsciously comforted by a longed for male voice. "Now Rach, I'm always going to be scared of going places alone with you now," laughed Karlie, with a hint of sincerity evident. "But cheer up, we're not going to lock you up or anything!"

"I know Velve's scary…" suddenly contributed Erin. "And seeing you like that Rach, was scary too…"

"We're probably going to see a lot more scary stuff," said Tracey, sensibly. "But Rachel just let her guard down, and if we all remember not to, then we'll make it to that island without any more casualties…" Everyone nodded somberly, and Sarah fell to her knees next to Karlie and Rachel, flipping her brown hair back over her shoulder.

"Did you see Jacqui?" she asked, excitedly, and Rachel nodded slowly.

"I remember… when I was… before… there was this voice inside my mind that told me that Jacqui was untrustworthy, and that I shouldn't listen to her…"

"I guess that means she's trustworthy and we should listen to her," remarked James.

"Did she say anything to you?" Sarah continued, impatiently, ignoring James completely.

"Yeah – she said she was sorry, and then she started quoting something, but disappeared before she could finish what she was saying."

"That thing about torn pages?" asked Brock, and Rachel nodded.

"Well, Rach it's about midnight," informed Trish. "You've been 'out' for hours, and tomorrow is out last day on the ship. We should all get some sleep." Mostly everyone nodded.

"I can't sleeeeeep now!" complained both Erin and Mia at the same time.

"Well I'm still kinda on Australian time, and I'm shattered!" retorted Trish.

"I need my beauty sleep," yawned Jesse.

"And tomorrow we'll just be trying to keep another one of us alive…" remarked Misty sadly, as she knew everyone in the room was secretly terrified of going to sleep in case they had a 'dream'. Everyone shifted.

Rachel stood apart from the mass of yawning females as they settled down on the sheets and pillows. Duplica looked up, and smiled.

"Hey, Rach, come sleep here! I don't wanna sleep next to Mia cos she hugs in her sleep and it HURTS!" the turquoise haired girl joked, as she pulled the pink bands out from the bases of her pigtails. Mia put on a mock angry face, and attempted to whack her partner with one of the large cushions from underneath her.

~*~

I can't…

I can't breathe.

I can't move.

She panicked – her legs thrashed around futilely in the thick air. Panic arose in her as she reached blindly for a surface that would never come…

Inside the small square cabin, the gang awoke and fell over each other in shock as two high-pitched feminine screams pierced the air and made their hearts jump. Rachel was nearly blasted to oblivion as both Mia and Duplica sat bolt upright staring at the opposite wall with wide-open eyes and perspiring foreheads.

~*~

"You can't have had exactly the same dream as each other… that's just NOT how it's supposed to be…" moaned Ash, through slitted eyes, as he scratched underneath the waistband of his boxer shorts and Misty prodded him sleepily with his jeans.

"And who exactly makes up the rules for all this, Ketchum?" growled Gary, sloppily pouring cold water from the nearby canister into two slightly squashed styrofoam cups and passing them to the two teenaged girls.

"You know, if we're gonna keep being woken up at early hours of the morning like this, we should go to bed earlier…" timidly joked James, and everyone smiled nervously.

"It's no big deal, right?" swallowed an ashen Duplica. "I mean, we just won't go near the deck until we get off the boat… but I can swim! I just don't get it…"

"Yeah, it'll be okay as long as you two stay restricted to this corridor…" frowned Sarah. "But there is something weird here… both of you having the same… 'fate'…"

"Maybe it's saying like, if Duplica um, dies, then Mia would get sick like I did," reasoned Karlie, shrugging. Mia stared at her nebulous reflection in the cup of water, and sighed lightly.

"Well, it'll be okay," she said finally, gazing earnestly around the room. "It was gonna happen sometime, wasn't it?" She gave a watery smile. "Ash, I like those boxers…" Ash stared at her, and self-consciously tried to pull his black tee-shirt down, as everyone erupted into spasms of giggles, and Gary groaned and crushed Duplica's empty styrofoam cup in exasperation.

~*~

Mia lay stretched out on the pillows, not really awake, but not really asleep either. It was nice to not have to go to school – if you didn't mind the constant death threats. She had no idea what time it was, but half the gang seemed to be out of the room, and the others were playing cards in a bored fashion. Erin lay still asleep about a metre away from her, upside down with her knee practically in her mouth - she never got up before 2pm if she didn't have to.

"Mmmm whasatime?" she murmured as she stretched. Michelle looked down at her.

"It's about 11.15," she answered pressing stop on her walkman.

"What's going on?" Mia asked, hoisting herself up. Michelle shrugged.

"Nothing much. James has been threatening to throw up all morning – Rachel's been playing this random card game with Sarah for at least 3 hours. It's exhausting to watch. Ash, stuuuuupidly asked me if he could hide his clean underwear in my backpack. You want 'em?" Mia laughed. Gary strutted over.

"Hey, Sleeping Beauty," he sneered. "You holdin' up okay?" Mia ignored his comment.

"Where's Duplica?" she asked, quickly looking around.

"Relax, she's off somewhere with Todd and Misty. She promised she wouldn't go higher than this deck though, calm down," replied Michelle, jabbing the rewind button. Mia rubbed her nose sleepily, before climbing to her feet and shuffling across to the pathetically tiny en-suite bathroom. Blushing lightly, Ash made his way over to the only one left sleeping, and flopped down next to the lump he assumed to be her head.

"Um, Erin? Are you asleep?" he asked.

"…yes."

"Oh sorr- waitasec, I need to talk to you."

"…do I have to listen, or can I sleep?"

"I think you'd better listen." Erin groaned, and rolled over.

"Demands, demands, demands – the clock's still got AM after the time! Are you nuts?"

"Well, I heard you were nice to talk to…"

"Nice? Nice compared to Anne Robinson, or nice compared to Sailor Moon?"

"Well, I can't talk to any of the guys, or Misty, Jesse and Duplica… Rachel has… kinda freaked me out; Karlie has ALWAYS freaked me out; I'm frightened that Mia might talk me into telling her where I hid my underwear; Michelle keeps asking me weird questions like: have you ever noticed you don't seem to have a father? And: what are those things on your cheeks? Sarah won't stop going on about this Melody girl I met in Shamouti a while back, and Trish just wants to touch my hand all day lon-"

"Touch your hand?" Erin asked, in puzzlement. Ash shrugged, deeply.

"Says it's something 'bout me shaking hands with that Dragonite guy at the Orange League finals…" Erin nodded wisely.

"Um, okay I see your point. Shoot."

"Kay, well, I guess I need your advice…" he began, embarrassed.

"Stop letting your Pokémon go."

"No, not about tha-"

"Stop hyperventilating every time Pikachu's out of your sight for more than a nano-second."

"I- what?"

"Go and punch all that glittery dandruff out of Rudy's hair."

"What, no Erin this is about-"

"Misty!" Mia called, as the cabin door swung open and the redhead appeared, rubbing her shoulder length hair with a towel and humming to herself. "Where are Todd and Duplica?" Misty stopped, startled.

"They walked me down to the swimming pool, and said they were coming back here…" In a flash, everyone (even Erin) was on their feet.

"How long ago was that?" demanded Sarah.

"I dunno, more than an hour," answered Misty, dropping her towel to the floor. Mia grabbed at the dark green pendant suspended from her neck, which was remaining cool and un-active. Mia swung around and grabbed Sarah by the shoulders.

"Do you feel anything I don't feel anything is something wrong?" she garbled, without taking a breath. Sarah shook her head warily. "Is that good or bad?" she wailed, spinning around again and grabbing Michelle's vivid pink necklace, almost strangling her. Michelle made a strange, gargling sound as Mia glared at the un-reactive pink gem.

"Look Mia," began Brock, slowly. "If you and Michelle aren't being affected, I think it's safe to say that Todd and Duplica are okay – they've probably gone to the gym or something – Duplica wanders off all the time." Mia ignored Brock's sage words of advice and looked pleadingly at Trish, who sighed.

"How about if they're not back in half an hour we go search for them?" she asked. Mia narrowed her eyes.

"Ten minutes."

"Twenty-five…"

"Twenty."

"Done."

"Aieeee………" squealed James, turning an interesting shade of green as the luxury cruiser gently leant from side to side. "I'm gonna throw uuuuuuuuuuuuuuup!" Erin twitched as James retched up his quality buffet breakfast about three centimetres from where she usually slept. Instantly, the three girls surrounding her patted her comfortingly on the shoulder, then giggled as they realised they all knew each other far too well for the situation. Rachel sighed.

"I'll um, get a mop…" she said, leaving the room smiling to herself as James moaned, Jesse screeched and Erin began lugging huge cushions across the room. There was a communal janitor's closet opposite their cabin, but a few doors down, and it took Rachel all of thirty seconds to stroll to the rather grimy white door. She reached for the traditional silver doorknob, and merrily pulled open the door. She blinked.

"Oh I'm sorry, I appear to have opened the door into Mia's imagination," she apologised, aching to laugh but managing to keep a straight face. She closed the door solemnly on the two de-robed and guilty looking teenagers, and erupted into silent giggles. "MIA!! MICHELLE!" she yelled, in the direction of their cabin. "I FOUND TODD AND DUPLICA!!"

~*~

Lillith lay on her grand canopy bed, in the large, murky room. She lay confined, as she had for countless weeks now, unable to get out, unable to breath fresh air, or even check that the large-scale search for her estranged daughter was going on as promised.

Long since abandoned by her pet, the old woman stared at the back of her lily-white hand – free of wrinkles and liver spots; just as perfect as it had been in her prime. Lillith shifted, and allowed herself to ache for the company of another. She had been fond of that little Nidoran female, but it was the third one in a week – her 'pets' kept being spirited away, probably for the experiments, she told herself dolefully.

She was fond of Poison Pokémon, but also held an infinity for those of Ice – well, it wasn't surprising with a famous daughter like hers, she thought proudly. Oh, she had been a terrible, terrible mother, she thought. Her eldest son had been a necessity – an heir, but he had quickly changed into "the brat child", and a problem. Lorelei had always been favoured, an accident from one of the one-night stands she had been so famed for, even when her husband had been alive.

But Lillith had been in her late-thirties, and her 'business' was booming. She had no time for the mauve pigtailed little girl with brandy coloured eyes who at first patiently held out a Pokéball containing a Seel or whatever, and ask if 'Meem' would help her train? Meem – it was a stupid little nickname; there was nothing wrong with saying 'mother', and sure enough, Lorelei had stopped saying it around 8 or so. Lillith had never been too sure of how old the child was.

But then her little baby girl became famous – Elite Four beginning member. Weed out the weak! Of course, her background had helped her get the position just a little…

But then, Lorelei had disappeared. Vanished from her suite in the Indigo Plateau, and some bespectacled moron called Bob or Bill or whatever had taken her place. And now the only lead they had to finding the missing link in their family was a lavender-haired Ice Trainer who wandered around the Orange Islands and called herself Prima.

And she was going to find this Prima before she died. She was sure of it.

Lillith's eyes began to droop, and she gazed up at the ceiling, willing for her 'friends' to appear.

"Dreams are made for the soul purpose of becoming reality," she murmured. "And I can make all my dreams come true…"

The maid and the young boy watched the dozing woman from the doorway; the boy holding Lillith's new 'pet'.

"Is that her?" he asked breathlessly, as he beheld the awe-inspiring legend. The maid nodded briskly.

"Yes, now you'd better bring that thing into her before she falls asleep. Only speak if you are spoken to, and if she asks you if you can see her 'friends' floating above her bed, just humour her and say yes." The young boy nodded – too new a member to be part of a division or team yet. He was nothing more than a laboratory hand.

"Woah…" he breathed, respectfully, as he edged before the elegant four poster bed. "The Madame Boss…"

~*~

"Everybody up on deck!" the crewman shouted, after simply barging into the small cabin and frightening everyone half to death. Mia began to panic.

"Deck? Why?"

"Captain's orders. We've gotta get you in the lifeboats," he answered briskly, as he attempted to leave, but Jesse grabbed his arm.

"Don't tell me we're sinking!" she growled, and the man shrugged his arm loose.

"We are not sinking miss," he said in a haughty tone. "The captain will explain up on deck. Hurry now." He left the room, and momentarily could be heard informing the next cabin. There was a stunned silence for a second, before James broke it.

"Eee, I've got a sinking feeling about th-"

"Don't go there!" snapped Gary, immediately, glancing across to where Duplica and Mia were staring straight ahead of them. They were in total silence, but grasping each others' hand so tightly their hands appeared deathly white.