Of curse it didn't help that all three heads of the Dodrio screamed into their room to wake Brighton and Craw up. The Pikachu nearly roasted the ratite bird Pokémon as he threw a lightning at it. "WHOA WATCH OUT DAMN IT!"
Brighton rubbed his head tired. "I am sorry... I was surprised."
Craw rubbed his ears. "Do you have to scream at us?"
The Dodrio growled. "I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU MEAN!" Then he scurried away to the next room.
Craw winced because of his headache. "Why does he has to scream so loud?"

It was the first day after the meeting with the guilds leaders. Like every other new rookie and the trainee teams as well as the bronze rank teams they were set in the first third of the guild tower. The lowest part was mostly for the normal citizen of the city with the information center and the task counter where the citizen could hand in tasks for the guild. The task letters would then be posted on the task wall in the second floor next to the bounty wall where the bounty missions that are made by different regions were hanging. Throughout the whole tower were training rooms and coordination rooms for teams to use for training and coordination between each other. The second half of the tower was for silver and gold rank teams and the top third of the tower was for the platinum and diamond ranked teams. The top 3 floors were only for the guild leaders and except for a few nobody really knows how it looks up there. The top of the tower was separated from the rest of the tower creating one additional floor and the roof with the beacon crystal that was visible as soon as the horizon came into sight if the air was clear of fog. This very top of the tower was where Brighton and Craw were heading to now and many were talking about it as they passed them. Besides the leaders only a hand full of Pokémon ever saw that very top since a strange wind was howling around it protecting it from flying Pokémon to fly up there. Craw felt very strange as all the eyes were set on him. Pokémon were stopping in their motion and pointed on them starting to talk and whisper about them and slowly it dawned to Craw why Brighton wanted to keep it a secret that he was a prince. All this attention made him extremely nervous. There were several elevators throughout the tower but none went from foot till top of the tower. The way the tower was built in a spiral made that impossible. So they had to walk through several parts of the tower before they finally reached the last elevator. It was protected by two guards, a Hariyama and an Incineroar, that stopped them. "Where you thinking are you going?"
Brighton looked to them. "I am prince Brighton Alexander von Volt. The-"
"Doesn't matter if you are a beggar, a prince or a king. Only the ones the guild leaders want to see come up here." The Hariyama stopped him.
Brighton sighed. "I just wanted to say. The guild leaders wanted to see us this morning."
The Incineroar looked to them and then went into the elevator. "Wait here." Then he drove up to the guild leader's office. It didn't need long till he came back. "You can go." He then stepped aside letting the two go into the elevator. "They said they would wait in the crystal chamber..." The Hariyama looked to the Incineroar surprised. "I-In the crystal chamber?"
The Incineroar seemed to be very calm or he just had a really good poker face. "Yes."
Brighton looked to Craw and even he seemed to be surprised. "I thought we would meet them in their office or something... that is... I don't even know what to think about it..." He went into the elevator. Craw was visibly confused. Not because he was ordered into a specific room but more because he didn't know why everyone made such a fuzz about it. He followed Brighton inside and the lift slowly ascended. Brighton seemed to be lost in thought so Craw waited till they were up a bit. "Why everyone make such a fuzz about that room?"
Brighton looked to him confused. "What? Oh yeah you can't know... That room is a room of legends. It is known far beyond the borders of my father's kingdom that the room exists but nobody knows what is inside... well that's not entirely true. Only a few Pokémon even know how it looks and those are keeping it a secret. It's a mystery of it's own. The crystal room... It is said that a power given by Arceus is hidden there or that it is the room where the secrets of the humans is stored. Secrets that could destroy all balance in the world. The only thing that is known to be stored there is the crystal of lights. The one that gives the beacon on top its light. That crystal is the reason why the tower was built centuries ago and that gave the city it's name. In fact it is a huge diamond and it is said that it stored the light from the beginning of time and space."
Craw nodded. "So the crystal of lights sounds important to the city and the guild itself and seems to itself reason enough to keep it stored away... but if it was only that some guards and some bars would be enough and everyone could still visit and see the crystal..."
Brighton nodded. "Yeah."
Then they both ere quiet each of them lost in there own thoughts while the elevator slowly ascended beside the statues that held the last room and the beacon. Now that he was so close he took a closer look at the statues. strong and silent they stood on top of the huge tower looking up to what they were holding in their risen arms. A dome shaped room that hat the beacon on the top. The statues were a Lucario, a Guardevoir, a Zoruark and a Lopunny that stood there like contemporary witnesses of times that were long forgotten.
Then they reached the dome. For a moment Craw couldn't see anything as he was blinded by a light that seemed to be brighter than the sun. after some seconds his eyes strangely accustomed to the light making everything around him still look very strange like if everything was colored white. In the middle of the room that he entered as the elevator stopped was a diamond bigger than he could have imagined that was held by a Riolu statue. Above the diamond were 4 other statues floating motionless just some centimeter under the ceiling. They were a Mew, a Celebi, a Victini and a Jirachi. The diamond was nearly as big as a house and shined brighter than every sort of light he ever saw. Or at least he was sure he never had seen such thing. He didn't noticed that his mouth hung open before someone started speaking. "A wonderful sight isn't it?"
Craw and Brighton looked around trying to find the source of the voice. There was a Gothitelle but she was also colored white. "If you wait a bit your eyes will accustom to the light more and you will see everything normal again just in a pretty light color." Craw nodded and looked around more blinking some times. After some more seconds his eyes seemed to see pretty normal again. Everything was colored again even though it looked a bit pale. The wall that was around them was painted in a huge painting with one scenario after the other all looking like if they were showing different parts of the history of some country. The room itself was filled with furniture, play stuff, art and antiques. Everything looks extremely expensive and even the play stuff looked very old. Then he saw noticed the other three Pokémon standing behind the Gothitelle. A Lucario, an Aggron and a Tyranitar were waiting for the two to finish with the gawking. The Aggron was looking rather bored while the Lucario and the Tyranitar looked impatient while the Gothitelle was the only one that seemed to enjoy the Riolu's and the Pikachu's face. Craw thrust Brighton with his elbow slightly since his friend still was looking around amazed.
The Pikachu squeaked surprised and looked to Craw confused.
Craw pointed to the four Pokémon and Brighton quickly noticed them. He blushed a bit before he straightened himself and went ahead to them. As they stood in front of the four leaders he stopped.
The four leaders now took a closer look at the two not saying a single word. It was an uncomfortable situation like if they were dissecting the two. Then the Lucario stepped in front of the two. "So... You are prince Brighton the Pikachu and you are Craw the Riolu?"
Craw gulped and just nodded.
Brighton stared back at the Lucario like if he didn't fear anything. "Yes sir."
The Lucario looked back at the Gothitelle and nodded.
Suddenly a piercing pain went through Craw's head making his headache even worse together with a soothing voice. "Don't try to fight against it. I have to see through your memory. If you fight against it it will only be more painful." He looked to Brighton with tears of pain in his eyes. The prince seemed to have to go through the same thing since he held both his hand on his head. To Craw it was like a nightmare. It felt to him like if someone was going through his brain with a finger slowly searching for something. Luckily to him it was over after some seconds. As his senses came back he was on his knees panting heavily. Brighton wasn't kneeing trying to help Craw up again.
"I am sorry but it was necessary. What you will see next will have to stay a secret. You are going to see something that nobody else should know about."
Brighton was worried. "Are you OK Craw? You took it much worse than I did."
The Gothitelle looked to them with a bit of sorrow. "I am sorry for it. I had to use my psychic powers and fighting types take it worse since they are weak against psychic type moves. Sadly there was no other way."
Craw nearly puked. He felt like if his whole body was turned inside out. "You could at least have warned us..."
The Lucario just glared at them. "It doesn't work that way."
The Gothitelle sighed. "What he means is that if we would have warned you you could have been prepared and hid some things from us. We can#t afford that."
Brighton gasped. "T-That means."
The Gothitelle smiled. "Don't worry. We already knew that Craw is a human as soon as he stepped into the city. Only a few psychic types know that since only a few ever met a human in person but humans turned into Pokémon have a special brainwave that is very faint but if you keep watching out for it you sense it right away since it sticks out like a Zangoose in a heard of Seviper."
Craw thought about it for a moment. "Wait... does that mean-"
"Yes. I knew the last human known as Craw the disturber." The Gothitelle nodded.
"Like all of us." The Lucario stated. "Now you have to swear us something. The things you see and hear the the time while you are in here have to keep a secret."
Brighton looked to them nervous. "But what if a psychic type scans us like you did?"
This time the Tyranitar took the word. "We will take precaution about that. In the tower it is forbidden to scan someone without the permission of a guild leader but to be fully sure Miss Serene will seal your minds. It will be impossible for anyone who is weaker than her to scan your mind and even if they are possible they will be flooded with senseless coded thoughts that won't make any sense to them. I won't lie to you. It will hurt. A lot. Much more than the simple scan."
Craw became pale as he heard that. "Now I am really unsure if I want to hear anything..."
The Lucario nodded. "I can understand that better than you might think... But it is necessary."
The Gothitelle smiled. "If you want I can use Hypnosis. Then you won't feel much and will just have a strong headache when you wake up."
Craw nodded. "O-OK... I think that would be the best if it is really necessary..."
Brighton looked to him. "Are you sure about it?"
Craw nodded. "I somehow have the feeling this is really important..." He stared at the Lucario and the Lucario stared back. It was like if none of them wanted to blink.
Brighton watched this for some minutes before the Lucario looked away.
The Lucario turned around so the two only could see his back. "Do you two swear to not tell anyone about what you will see or hear here?"
Craw nodded. "Yes, I swear." His face showed that he was grave serious.
Brighton looked to him for a moment before he answered. "Yes, I swear." It was a secret what Brighton thought since he had a perfect poker face.
The Lucario nodded. "OK. Since all of this is now out of the way let us introduce ourselves first." He turned around again revealing a faint grin. "I am Anubis the leader of the defender guild. Or better said officially I am the leader of the defender guild. In fact I am just second in charge but more about that later."
The Gothitelle smiled and curtsied. "My name is Serene as you may already know. I am the official leader of the trader guild but unofficially I am just the second in charge."
Then the Aggron stepped next to the two. "I am Silver the leader of the Rescuers guild in official terms but unofficially I am second in charge as well." He leaned down a bit to reach them his hands. "Nice to meet you."
Craw and Brighton looked to him a bit confused shaking his hands.
The last one was the Tyranitar. "I am Siver. Silver is my brother and I am officially the leader of the mercenary guild but unofficially I am just second in charge."
Craw looked at them puzzled. "What does all this mean?"
Brighton looked at them wary.
Then they heard the voice of someone else. "Let me explain it." It was a strange voice. Not only because it seemingly came out of the nothing but also because of it's sound. It was defenetly a male but it had a slight androgynous touch to it and it somehow sounded young but at the same time old like the one of a grandpa.
Craw looked around confused. "Who was that?"
"I am sorry for our behavior but we have to be very careful." Then slowly from the mew statue a blue Mew with deep clue eyes that seemed to be as deep and old as the ocean.
Brighton gasped and looked at him and the other three shadows that appeared from above the statues.
A shiny Celebi, a shiny Victini and a shiny Jirachi appeared from the statues as well.
Craw was amazed and surprised to see four shiny mythical Pokémon. He looked to Brighton seeing that something else was off here. "Brighton? what is going on here?"
Brighton was still staggered. "T-The story is true? The human... The other Craw... He was the savior?"
The Mew suddenly had a very sad look on his face that made it look very old. "Yes... It still makes me sad that we have to keep it a secret..."
Brighton looked to all of them. "B-But why?"
The Mew sighed. "Did you ever read the inscription on the plate at the entrance of the tower?"
Brighton and Craw shook their heads.
The Mew nodded. "Sadly the least do that... I still have it in my mind like the day I wrote it down for the one who made the plate... Let me enlighten you. 'Whoever enter these halls remember those words. We live because others died and we fight to protect others. We give our all to save the world every day a little bit...' Those are the words at the plate. Now please read the plate at the base of the statue of the human turned into a Riolu please."
Brighton and Craw looked at the Mew confused before they looked to each other. Then they went to the statue and read the plate's inscription. "Addition to the plate at the tower's base: Never forget that Craw who is sadly wrong titled as the disturber gave up everything for us. He gave his reputation, his heart, his soul, his future, his love and his life. With these words everyone shall know that he was the one who saved us all and stopped a war that would have cost more lives than we could ever imagine. With his last breaths he only asked if the war ended. Till the very last moment he only cared for a world he wasn't a part of."
Brighton was visibly speechless only standing there with an open mouth.
Craw on the other side had tears in the eyes. He didn't know why but he was so touched by the words he just read that he didn't know what to say.
Again it was Brighton who first spoke what both thought. "Why? Why is this such a secret?"
The Mew just shook his head.
This time it was the Celebi speaking first. Similar to the Mew's voice their voice sounded female with a touch of androgynous and young and old at the same time. "Let me explain this. Or better let me help you understand it. Ask it yourself. If a war broke out... a war that only started because of a mistake... a war between all nations at once only because everyone hated each other for so many generations that they forgot why they hated each other. Now imagine that the war only ended because of one reason. Fear. Everyone feared the power of a human so powerful that he caused a catastrophe that all lands had to bound together to end it and to defeat the human. Now... Would you tell everyone who still hated each other and just ended a world wide war that lasted for ten years the truth about the human? That he was the one actually stopping the cataclysm and only acted as if he cause it so all lands would accept a truce to defeat him?"
Craw gulped. He had a big lumb in his throat and tears were running down his face. He didn't even know why but he felt so touched by all this that he didn't know what he should think anymore.
Brighton looked to the Celebi shocked. "H-He really did that? How do you know this? I mean how do you know he really wanted to cause peace and didn't want to rule our world?"
The Mew nearly cried. "We knew him..."
The Celebi nodded.
The Jirachi looked down with a sad face.
The Victini sighed. "More than that... We four were his guide. Actually all the mythical Pokémon worked as his guide. It is our mission that we got from Arceus. We were with him as he stopped the cataclysm."
"As well as we were." Anubis now stepped next to the mythical Pokémon. "We were there too. We were his teammates. He was the one who founded the guild by the way. Back then we were only a small guild of about 40 members in a shoddy base. The city was nothing more than just a village and didn't even had a name. The crystal didn't even existed back then... Craw had a special power. All humans turned into Pokémon have one. Craw had the power of the seal. He was able to seal anything away into a crystalline prison that would never come free again. Nothing could go through this seal except for light and only he or Palkia itself could break the seal. Back then as the lands were still at war a mad Pokémon activated a human technology that somehow found it's way through a rift in the space time. As we found it Craw told us it was something called an atom bomb. Some kind of explosive-"
"A bomb that was invented by humans to end wars. When it explodes it destroys everything. Nothing is able to withstand it and the area it destroys as well as many many more kilometers some hundred kilometers probably is infested with something that is called radioactivity. Particles so small it goes through nearly everything and every living being that is hit by enough particles will die without any heal. A so called mass destruction weapon a fitting description if you ask me."
All Pokémon in the room fixed their eyes onto Craw. Especially Brighton seemed to be extremely surprised by what Craw just said.
Even Craw was surprised. "Why do I know that?"
The Mew looked at him. "Because you are a human. It seems to be common knowledge in the human world."
Craw looked at the Mew nervous.
Anubis sighed. "Yeah. Please let me continue. Well as we found that atom bomb it was close to explode and Craw didn't knew anything about how to disarm it as he called it. So he started to seal it. Right at the moment he finished the seal the bomb exploded and the explosion was frozen in the moment it happened for eternity.
Instinctively Craw and Brighton fixed their eyes onto the huge diamond that was floating in the center of the room.
Craw even went as far as to take some steps back from it. "Wait... Do you want to tell us that the crystal of light-"
"Is that very explosion frozen in the moment it happened yes." Anubis finished Craw's sentence.
Craw took some more steps back from it. "You are sure it is save? I mean what about the radioactivity."
Anubis nodded. "It is fine. It is now about 20 years ago that it was sealed. We would have felt it first. There is no problem with it."
Craw looked at them unsure but nodded. He and Brighton looked at the crystal for some minutes in silence. The others didn't seem to want to disturb them in the moment.
Then the Mew flew to them. "OK. Enough of the staring. Let us introduce ourselves. My name is Zaviro. Zaviro the Mew and I am the real leader of the defender guild."
Then the Celebi stepped in. "My name is Rubin the Celebi and I am the real leader of the Rescuers guild."
Then the Jirachi came in smiling. "My name is Diamond the Jirachi and I am the real leader of the trader guild. Pleased to meet you."
"Platino the Victini. Real leader of the Mercenary guild." The Victini just said waving his hand.
Craw and Brighton nodded to them. Then Craw realized something. "OK... But if this all is such a big secret then why do you tell US of all that?"
The Mew smiled. "Because you are a human. You probably don't know but humans are very special to the Pokémon world. Whenever they appear they either bring balance or chaos to our world. Our world is at the brink of destruction from the Aura-less. We wanted to be sure if you would help us or if you would finish what the Aura-less started..."
Craw looked at him nervous. "And to what conclusion did you come?"
"Don't worry. If you would have been the danger we feared and not the balance we hoped you would be dead by now." Anubis just stated without showing any emotion.
To Craw the Lucario was the biggest mystery of them all. The Lucario looked at him all the time with a look in his eyes that made Craw feel uncomfortable. It was some mixture of expectation, hope and disappointment. But there was also something else. This other thing was what confused Craw the most. It was sorrow. Every time the Lucario set eyes on the Riolu he seemed to regret something.
But the Mew took him out of his thoughts. "From tomorrow on the guild leaders will train you two and the other rookies. The training will be hard and you will probably stumble but you will have to go through that. You will need to be strong for what is coming."
Brighton stopped him. "Wait a minute. If it only was about Craw why you asked for me too? I mean sure I am a prince and all but I thought social ranks don't matter in the guild and if you wanted to tell all this to Craw then you wouldn't need me to be here."
Brighton was right Craw thought. "Yeah... that is a really good question..."
The Mew smiled. "You have a sharp brain Brighton. You are right. There are reasons for that. For now you only need to know the three main reasons. First of all if we only would have invited an unknown Riolu that nobody knows it would have been suspicious. Rumors would spread and we couldn't continue the way we planned it. This way they will think we wanted to talk with you two because of you Brighton. As you may know the relationship between the guild and the Volt kingdom is a bit tensed the last years. The others will now just think that we invited you to us to get on better terms with the Volt kingdom. The rumors will calm down after a month or something." He smiled as if it was a master plan he created. "The second reason is that You two trust each other. If we only would have told you about it Craw then he would have surely told you about it Brighton. Since you two met you were the only Pokémon you two could really trust. You have formed a friendship of trust and that brings me to the third reason. Ever since humans came to the world of Pokémon they met a partner. Even tho humans are strong enough to face the danger for that they are sent here they always meet a partner that they can trust. Even more strange is that it is always the first Pokémon they meet. We still don't know if it is because of said bond of trust or if it is because Arceus himself has his fingers in it on that but these partners always stick with the human. They are as important as the humans themselves. You will see that out yourselves."
Brighton and Craw looked at each other a bit confused.
The Mew smiled. "For now I would say you two think about what we told you and rest a bit."
Craw looked at them. "One last question please. Why do you look at me like this?" He now stared straight at Anubis.
Anubis stared back not flinching a moment. "You remind me of him. As you know I knew him personally. You two are similar. You two have some things in common that makes me remember the time with him. You should maybe know that back then I was his partner. We were like brothers."
Craw looked at him. He didn't know how but he knew that Anubis was lying. But he wouldn't ask further. He knew he wouldn't get a true answer now. "OK... If I remember right you wanted to seal our memories."
The Gothitelle nodded. "It will be more than just your memory. Your thoughts overall will be sealed. Nobody will be able to read your mind. Well nobody exept from me."
Craw looks to her. "You wanted to use Hypnosis on me first right?"
Serene nodded. "Yes. It will make everything easier for you."
Craw nodded. "Then do it."
Then suddenly everything went black for him.

Zaviro looked to the two unconscious Pokémon on the ground. He knew they would wake up soon again but somehow he still felt sorry for them. Maybe it was because of what they would have to go through in future. "Anubis why did we have to lie?"
Anubis sighed. "It is be better this way Zaviro... He wouldn't understand and it would only confuse him more."
"Are you sure he really is the same? Are you sure he is our Craw?" The Victini looked to the Riolu unsure.
Anubis nodded. "They are one and the same. He has the very same aura and as we know even humans nearly never share the same aura..." He knelt down next to Craw. "Brother... why YOU were the one sent to us again... Does Arceus really want you to go through this again?" He softly stroked the Riolu's head with tears in his eyes.
The Victini sighed. "And why we have to lie about the leader thing?"
Anubis smiled weakly. "Let me this little thing please... I want him to be more open to me. He wouldn't act towards me like if he would if he would know the truth. I want him to be himself towards me..."
The Victini nodded. "As you wish guild leader. If you four are OK I would like to think about everything for a bit."
Siver nodded. "You are free to leave."
The four mythical Pokémon floated back up to their statues leaving the four real guild leaders alone with the human and his partner.

Author's note: I hope you had as much fun with reading this chapter as I had with writing it. I know it's a bit dry with loads of information but that is necessary. Just 2 more chapters and the most necessary information are out. Then we get a bit more action!