"Yeah, you were awesome!" Ash chimes in, his eyes turning to Buizel, whose stood by his side, "Weren't they, Buizel?"

"Bui! Bui!"

Ash and Buizel's approval seems to snap Dragonair out of her sadness, as the Dragon Pokemon looks up at the rest of the group and lets out an enthusiastic cry that brings a smile to all of their faces. Casey turns to Ash, mouthing a silent 'thank you' to him in appreciation.

They may have not got as far as they might have wanted to, but Casey's still beyond proud and glad that they gave it a go.


Valor Lakefront - Sinnoh

It's a calm and chilled evening on the Valor Lakefront. Casey leans back against the headboard of her bed, sighing contently as she watches Monferno eat a batch of Poffins along with Piplup, Buneary, Ambipom and Munchlax. She's been listening to Dawn, May and Zoey talk about Pokemon Contests for a while now. It's fascinating to hear about Contests, and it's something that she didn't really appreciate before competing in one herself.

Not getting through to the next round was kind of an eye opener for her. It's made her realise that she can't just head from challenge to challenge with the expectation that she'll win. It's grounding.

"So, May, please tell me: what are Johto Contests like anyway?" Dawn asks, voice teeming with enthusiasm and interest.

Casey's noticed that since May, and even Zoey, have arrived. It's the same way she reacts when she's around Cynthia or even a Gym Leader. It's adoration and respect and honor all rolled into one.

However, before May can even begin to answer Dawn's question, a loud thud sounding off from nearby interrupts her. It sounds like it's coming from Ash and Brock's room.

Casey springs up off of the bed, locking eyes with Monferno in an instant. He nods, and she takes that as all the confirmation she needs to make her way towards the source of the sudden noise. Dawn and the others follow close behind her and Monferno. They burst through the door to Ash and Brock's room, both ready to fight off anything that may lay inside, but they're all surprised to find no threat within the room.

Instead they find Ash, lying haphazardly on the floor instead of within his own bed.

"Ash, you do have a bed you know?" Brock says from his seat at the side of the room, clearly bemused.

"I know. I was dreaming I was in the middle of a really tough battle." Ash says as he sits up, sheepishly rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment.

"I know the feeling." Casey says, wincing slightly at the memory of all the times she tumbled out of bed through re-enacting her dreams a little too literally, "Whenever I have that kind of dream, I always try and clear my head."

"That's a good idea! I'm gonna go for a walk." Ash decides, getting up and putting his jacket and shoes on to out in.

He heads out of the room, Pikachu following in tow, and the girls wait a few moments before beginning to make their way back to their room.

"You coming, Casey?" Dawn asks, turning back to her from the door.

She considers going back, but then she knows that Brock will be on his own for a while, and he's going to have to deal with all the mess that Ash left behind, which doesn't seem particularly fair considering that he made them all a delicious dinner earlier on.

"I'm gonna stay here and clean up the room." Casey replies, chuckling, "Ash left it in a right state."

Dawn nods, and then she turns and follows May and Zoey back to their room. Once she's gone, Casey turns to where Monferno was stood, surprised to find him already at Brock's side, peering over his shoulder to get a look at the book he's reading.

She smiles to herself, leaving him be as she begins to clean up all the mess that Ash made. She makes up the bed, picking up the pillows that Ash must've thrown on the floor during his dream, and it's not long until the bed looks as if it hasn't even been slept in.

Casey sits back down on the bed, and she's content with sitting there and relaxing as she did before in her own room, and a few minutes before the comfortable silence of the room is interrupted by Ash bursting back into the room, Pikachu following closely behind.

"Brock! Casey!" He exclaims, eyes wide and frantic, "In Lake Valor, it was shining! It was spinning! Then all of a sudden, whoosh!"

Casey looks to Monferno, who looks just as confused as herself and Brock, before looking at Brock. The two of them briefly make eye contact, both of them concerned, prompting Brock into attempting to calm Ash down.

"Slow down. I don't have a clue what you just said." He says calmly.

"Ash, slow it down and go from the start, okay?" Casey suggests, getting up from the bed and walking over to the distressed boy.

"What's wrong?" Dawn asks, walking into the room with Piplup held securely in her arms. May and Dawn follow in after her, both looking just as concerned as the bluenette at the sight of Ash.

"The thing! In Lake Valor! It was glowing, and then, whoosh! It disappeared! I've got no idea what it was!" Ash rambles, and Casey watches as Dawn and Piplup both look at each other in a similar to how she and Monferno look at one another.

Dawn gives him a nod, and then Piplup's turning towards Ash and firing an array of bubbles right at his face, much to the surprise of everyone else.

"Okay, now it's your turn to wake up!" She chuckles as Ash frantically blinks the water out of his eyes.

"Okay, I'm fine! No more!" He cries, holding up his hands in surrender.

"Look, why don't we all just sit down and talk this through, okay? Maybe that way you can give more thought to what you saw." Casey suggests logically, and she knows that Monferno's on board with the idea when he jumps up onto the bed and takes a seat.

Everyone agrees with her idea, taking a seat either on a bed or opting to stand at the side. Ash gets particularly comfortable, even going as far as taking his shoes off as he and Pikachu take a seat on the bed next to Casey and Monferno.

"Let's see. You say you saw some kind of strange light in Lake Valor, is that right?" Brock asks once everyone's settled.

"Yeah, but it's like the light was alive or something." Ash replies, seemingly in deep thought about what he saw. He turns to Pikachu, "What did you think, Pikachu?"

Pikachu, though not as frantic as his trainer, still seems slightly less enthusiastic than usual. Whatever they saw must've affected him too.

"The same thing happened to me." Dawn says, surprising everyone, "Yeah, I thought I told you about it. It happened on the first day I met Piplup. I was at Lake Verity and saw a strange shadow. Professor Rowan's always said that there was a legendary Pokemon living in Lake Verity. Sounds to me like you and me had the same kind of experience."

"Pikachu, do you think we saw a legendary Pokemon?" Ash asks, looking back to Pikachu after considering Dawn's words for a moment.

"Pika pika."

"Hey, that reminds me. We heard a story like that when we were in Snowpoint City." May chimes in, "Right around that area, there's a lake that's called Lake Acuity, and there are all these rumors saying that a mysterious Pokemon lives there."

"Another lake, huh?"

"Well, I know what May's telling us is the truth. You see, I'm from Snowpoint City, and I used to hear those stories when I was young." Zoey explains, everybody fascinated to learn where Zoey's from.

Casey's never been up to Snowpoint City herself. Apparently her Grandfather said it was because he'd never be able to deal with the cold. It's a miracle he deals with the weather in Pastoria. Even for being one of the hotter areas in Sinnoh, it's still not exactly a tropical paradise.

All of this talking about the importance of the Sinnoh Lakes jogs Casey's memory rather suddenly, and she has what she'd refer to as a 'Eureka' moment.

"Now that you mention it, I feel like my Grandfather talked a bit about Lake Valor when I was young." She admits, "I don't think he ever mentioned a legendary Pokemon, but he always talked about how special the lake is. Perhaps that's the reason why he did that."

Her Grandfather, though not the most knowledgeable in regards to the Sinnoh legends, didn't fail to tell her what he knew here and there. Then again, she's learnt so much from him that it's kinda hard to keep track of it all. He probably did tell her at some point and it's just that she can't remember.

"But suppose they are legendary Pokemon, all these sightings and stories might have something to do with the Sinnoh space-time legend." Brock muses.

It's silent, everyone clearly considering the conversation that's just taken place, and then the silence is interrupted - at least for Casey - when a sudden familiar jolt of painful energy surges through her. She scrunches her eyes shut, and when she opens them she's shrouded in darkness.

"Dialga and Palkia, the time has come! Now, reveal yourselves!"

She can't see a thing, but she can hear. There's an unfamiliar voice, but even if she did recognise it, she wouldn't be able to understand what it's saying. It just sounds muffled. It almost doesn't sound human; she knows that she can hear rage laced amongst the voice. That's what she knows for certain.

She wishes she could see where she is. She wants to know what's going on. The darkness seems never-ending, as if it stretches all the way to the end of the universe. That thought is absolutely terrifying, but it's nowhere near as terrifying as what she sees when the space around here is suddenly illuminated.

Two Pokemon, no, two shadows are before her, some kind of red malice surrounding each of them individually. The two shadows are letting out ferocious roars, the very sound of which are ear-splittingly loud. The shadows don't want to be here. Somebody's made them appear.

The shadows begin to materialise, and as they do Casey realises exactly what they are. It's Dialga, the Ruler of Time, and Palkia, the Ruler of Space. They're supposed to be mere legends, but here they are before her. How is that even possible?

A sudden intense pain hits her like a ton of bricks. She screams in agony as her entire body burns. It's the worst thing she's ever felt, yet she's not entirely sure if its real. Pain so intense cannot possibly be real. It's too unbearable to comprehend.

She needs it to stop! Someone needs to make it stop!

And then her eyes are snapping open again (which makes her wonder if they even opened before), and she's wincing through the pain and distress as five sets of concerned eyes look back at her (eight if you're counting Pikachu, Piplup and Monferno).

"Casey, what happened?" Dawn asks, hesitantly reaching out to place a hand on Casey's shoulder in what she guesses is an act of reassurance.

She flinches back instantly, standing up from the bed and insisting that she's fine. Because of course she is. She may have had experiences like this before, but she's still fine. She's got everything under control. She can deal with this.

She begins to make her way towards the door, because she knows that if she can get out of here and calm herself down she'll be just fine. If she's on her own she can forget about what she saw. She can move past it.

But then she feels someone touch her arm, and it sets her over the crumbling edge.

"GET OFF!" She screams, turning around and shoving off whoever it is.

Except she hadn't been expecting it to be Zoey of all people.

The Coordinator's eyes shine with hurt, and the pure guilt that burns in the pit of Casey's stomach at the sight of her face is immeasurable. She can't bring herself to look at the others, and for that reason she chooses to take off instead without looking back.

She rushes through the hotel, bursting outside into the cool nighttime air all alone. She would take Dragonair out of her Pokeball and fly away instead of running, but she left her Pokeballs in her room and she's not about to go back and grab them.

She doesn't even intend on going back.

Only, that's stupid. And irrational. And nonsensical. And any other negative adjective she can possibly think of to describe the situation.

At least she kept her shoes and clothes on. Thankfully she hadn't chosen to get ready for bed yet like most of the others had. She's certain that she wouldn't be able to fair long in this cold air in just her pj's and potentially some slippers to go with them.

She keeps running. Running until she's breathless and practically kneeling over in exhaustion, but she doesn't care.

She doesn't care because her head's going at one hundred miles an hour and she feels as if she's going to burst into tears at a moments notice.

That can't happen. Because if she starts to cry her friends are gonna keep asking questions, and they still don't know that she's seen more disturbing visions in the past, and she doesn't want them to know even if Cynthia's told her that she should talk to them about it.

"Mon!"

She stands up straight, steeling herself but not turning around because she knows if she does she may break down.

"Go away, Monferno." She says coldly.

She's not surprised. She had expected him to follow her. She just wishes that he hadn't.

"Mon-ferno!"

She sighs frustratedly. She had expected him to stay.

"I mean it! Go!" She snaps, turning around to face him with nothing but rage.

What she hadn't expected was for him to match her rage.

Sure, Monferno has his moments when he gets mad (like everyone else on the planet, of course), but he's never looked as angry as he does right now. She's seen perhaps Electabuzz this angry, but not Monferno.

"Monferno! Mon! Mon!" He screeches, fists flailing angrily at his side as each syllable punctuates her ears.

It's almost terrifying to witness.

But it's also enraging.

"What do you want me to say, huh?! I don't know what's wrong with me!" She yells, the anger that she's struggled to keep bay lashing out in its full force.

She's beyond angry, because what right does he have to be mad at her? If she had stayed, she would've only gotten angry and snappy towards everyone. You'd think he'd appreciate her keeping her distance when she feels like she does.

"I feel like a ticking time bomb and there's no one around who can diffuse it! I feel-!"

He lurches his head back and releases a roaring flame right for her, and her shouting is long forgotten as she barely manages to dodge his sudden and unexpected attack.

"Hey!"

He fires again. And again. And again.

Blisteringly hot rays of fire surge towards her time and time again, all of which she only narrowly avoids. Combine her dodging attempts with her pre-exhaustion from all the running, it's not long until she's gasping for her.

"Monferno! Monferno, stop it!" She gasps out just before one of the Flamethrower's actually makes contact.

It hits her right in the chest, making her front sear in pain and then her back does the same shortly afterwards when she lands flat against the grass. She feels the wind get knocked out of her when she hits the floor, and she lays there gasping for air frantically as Monferno runs to her side.

"Mon."

She sits up after a moment, wincing at the sudden movement, and she turns to her partner, her rage slightly subdued but still present.

"Why did you do that?" She asks, and it comes off as less of a shout or demand and more like a plea if anything.

"Ferno. Mon-ferno. Mon."

She understands him in a second. Even if he's not speaking her language, she knows Monferno. It may have taken her getting knocked over to realise it, but she gets it from looking closely enough at the torn expression on his face.

And that's when the guilt kicks in.

I should've talked to him. I should've told him the first time.

She begins to sob uncontrollably all of a sudden, all of the emotions that were hidden beneath her thick layer of rage finally coming to the surface. Everything comes apart, and her head's spinning from the tears and the thoughts spinning around at breakneck speed in her head. She feels like everything's breaking.

And then she feels Monferno nestle his head underneath her arm, lifting it up from her side and looping it around himself. His other arm wraps around her waist, anchoring her to something other than the pure anguish she's feeling.

He's holding her together, like he always does when she feels truly lost.

She knows she has to go back and apologise, but for now all she can think about is how she feels and how she's not alone.

"I'm sorry, Monferno. I'm so sorry." She whispers relentlessly, silently willing all the dark thoughts out of her mind in that moment.


She apologised to Zoey first. It was awkward, and she's certain that if Monferno wasn't there, she wouldn't have managed to do it. He's her reassurance.

Zoey accepted her apology without hesitation, and she thankfully didn't ask her anything else on the matter. She checked that she was okay, and Casey half lied by saying that she was, but Zoey still thankfully accepted it.

She spoke to her Pokemon after that. The others weren't around for that conversation, of course, because if they were she would've left out the part about her visions.

She spoke to May after that. She had apologised for acting up during her visit to Sinnoh, but then May told her that she was being silly and she didn't mind what happened one bit.

She had told Ash, Brock and Dawn that she didn't know what happened, which of course is a lie but she's still not ready to tell them the truth. They hadn't asked her anything else then, but she's expecting them to soon. Then again, they've always respected her boundaries as she has done for them. It's how their group dynamic works.

They're heading out for the Wallace Cup soon. Everyone's getting ready upstairs, and Brock's helping them all with that. Casey herself offered to help, but everyone said they were just fine. Dawn seemed a tad bit nervous, but both Zoey and May swooped in to help ease her nerves in an instant.

So that's when Casey decided to head downstairs to the main lobby, specifically to the videophones in the corner.

She's got a very specific person that she wants to call.

When she reaches an empty videophone, she murmurs each number as she types it into the dial pad. She wrote it down on a slip of paper, but she chose to commit it to memory in case she ever lost the paper.

She still hasn't lost it, but she'd rather be safe than sorry.

Cynthia had given her a number to contact after she called her a while back, and she was certain that she wouldn't end up using it. The last thing she wanted was to bother the Champion.

But given what appeared in her vision, she feels like it's her duty to tell Cynthia about it.

It begins to place the call and she waits anxiously for it to go through, tapping her foot against the tiled ground in anticipation.

She doesn't get her answer like she had hoped, though. Instead, she's greeted by the computerised voice of the answer machine.

"You have reached Cynthia's answer phone. Please leave a message after the tone." The robotic voice beeps, a loud tone following quickly afterwards.

"Um, hi, Cynthia. I-it's Casey. Casey Montgomery. I'm sorry to be calling you, but I just...I needed to tell you about what I saw." She begins to ramble, and she's stumbling over her words frantically as she does so, desperately trying to find a place to begin.

She takes a deep breath, finding her composure before continuing in a far calmer and even voice.

"I had another vision. It was darker than the last one. I couldn't really see anything, and there was this muffled voice that I couldn't really understand but...I saw Dialga and Palkia. They were there, and they were suffering."

She half expects someone to reply, but of course that's nonsense.

"I know there's not much you can do...unless there is and I'm just being stupid and-." She sighs, "I just had to tell you. Sorry for calling."

She ends the call then, not fully content but still slightly better knowing that there's at least a chance Cynthia might get her message and know what she saw.

She knows that this isn't the end, that she may have even more frightening visions in the future, but right now that's not her priority.

Her priority is going to cheer her friends on in the Wallace Cup.