Disclaimer: I do not own Pokémon. I do however own Alex, and this characterization of a member of the Darkrai species. Also, this characterization of the character known (for now) as 'Ashley'. And, again, the librarian.

Chapter Five:
First Quarter

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Ashley Kaughtum walked into the Canalave library, tote filled with books. Spying the librarian she had hypnotized two years ago, the serious faced woman carefully schooled her features, brushing a thick blue-grey lock of hair out of her face and putting on her best smile—one that went all the way to her light green eyes.

Clearing her throat daintily, the lady addressed the book keeper. "Umm, excuse me—I'm here to return some books."

The librarian frowned. "Just drop them off at the front desk—there's a crate there labeled 'book return'."

Ashley giggled lightly. "Oh, silly me." She paused, taking on an embarrassed front, "I really hope I didn't inconvenience anyone."

Sighing, the librarian turned to the lady, "Just a few."

"Oh," Ashley bit her lip worriedly, looking miserable for a few seconds before an idea flashed across her features. "Hey! Did anyone ask for the books recently? Maybe I can catch up to them."

"Not in the last few days. Besides, she seemed more interested in egg care than myths and legends."

She? And a few days ago, too. "She didn't leave a name or anything, did she?"

The librarian's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "No, she didn't even check out any books."

Hmm, clever. Ashley feigned obliviousness, "Do you know when she left or what she looked like?"

And the book keeper played right into her trap, becoming irritated by the questioning. "Why do you need to know so badly?"

Ashley flinched at the librarian's acidic tone, replying meekly, "I hate to think I might have quashed someone's interest in a subject by denying them the books they need to study it." The book keeper looked taken aback, so the lady continued, "If there's anything I can do to make this right…" she trailed off, giving the librarian a pleading look.

The book keeper sighed, defenses crumbling to Ashley's innocent façade. "I don't think you'll be catching up to her; she said she was going to leave town very soon, and that was four days ago."

"Oh." Ashley tried not to sound too disappointed, but failed (on purpose). She wanted to push for more information on what this girl (female, Ashley corrected herself, could be an old woman) looked like, but the lady could tell that, even with the reprieve she bought with her heartfelt book-loving confession, the librarian's patience was wearing thin. "I guess I'll just return these, then." Before turning away, however, she decided to try and fish with one more line. "I don't like the idea of an old woman traveling through the woods alone—especially if I inadvertently caused it."

Maybe not her best line ever, but the clumsy statement worked like a charm. "She wasn't old," the librarian was quick to assure her, "and she had a full team of Pokémon with her, so I think she'll be fine."

Ashley looked comforted. "Oh, that's a relief. Thanks for talking with me, and, umm, sorry for taking up your time."

The librarian smiled. "It's no trouble. Have a nice day."

As Ashley set the books in the return crate, she reviewed what she had learned over the past few days. Two days ago, a contact had informed her that the Darkrai that lived on New Moon Island had gone missing, and she had dropped what she was doing to investigate. It had taken awhile to get there, even on her fastest Pokémon, and her first stop had been the island itself. There had been only a faint trace of the legendary remaining—five days old, at least—so her next target had been the docks. Unfortunately, there had been far too many people renting boats in the last few weeks to glean any relevant information from the logs the dock master had kindly shown her. Still, she had taken a covert picture of the document when the burly man had looked away, so she could go over them again later.

She had then made her way to the library to see what her net had caught. Ashley felt a twinge of guilt from her blatant manipulation of the poor librarian, but it was all for a good cause.

And it had worked.

She now knew (or at least strongly suspected, which was good enough to follow up on) that her target was female, not old, had a full team of Pokémon (possibly including a Darkrai), had been in town four days ago, had probably left shortly after (most likely over land, but Ashley would consult the copied logs to make sure) and was either very clever, or very lucky.

Either way, Ashley's next stop was clear. No one could go up against a Darkrai without needing to heal their team afterwards—even if they did manage to catch it.

Ashley exited the library and made her way over to the Pokémon Center. She briefly considered dropping her disguise and using her fame to get the trainers in the area to talk, but whoever had either caught the Darkrai or scared it off had gone to great lengths to cover their tracks, and she wasn't yet sure if their intentions were noble or not.

Besides, Ashley enjoyed the challenge.

"Of all the irresponsible things you could have done—I was gone for FIVE DAYS! You couldn't have waited?!"

Ashley paused halfway in the front door of the Pokémon Center as a commotion near the counter caught her attention. Two trainers, a female, looking to be around 16 or so, was shouting at a younger male, 11ish, while the boy just stood there with his arms folded. Siblings, Ashley guessed.

The boy muttered loudly, "Yeah well, not like you would've taken me, anyway."

The girl exploded. "Damn straight I wouldn't take you there! It's way too dangerous for a kid!"

That seemed to have struck a nerve. The boy retaliated suddenly, "I am not a kid! I'm more of a trainer than you are, May!"

May's eye twitched. "At least I'm not stupid enough to go chasing after rumors of a dangerous Pokémon with a complete stranger, Max."

Max turned away, bitterness evident in his voice. "Some rumors. There weren't even normal Pokémon there."

Ashley decided to break in, walking up to the pair in the otherwise empty lobby with a look of concern plastered on her face. "Umm, excuse me," she began, catching their attention, "I couldn't help but overhear—you said something about a dangerous Pokémon?"

Max snorted, tone final. "Unfounded rumors. Don't bother."

Damn, dead end. Then May spoke up, reopening the topic. "Even if they were just rumors, you still could have gotten hurt! You ran off with a complete stranger! Did you even get his name?"

"Hers, and yes."

May raised an eyebrow. "Oh yeah? What was her name, then?"

Max closed his eyes and turned his nose up. "I'm not telling you."

Dammit. Ashley bit her tongue as the brother and sister continued to argue.

"Why not?"

Max cracked open an eye. "You don't deserve to know."

May put her hands on her hips. "You don't really know, do you?"

Max turned back to her, fists balled at his sides. "Of course I know! I just don't want to tell you!"

Sensing an opportunity, Ashley leapt in. "You could tell me."

May turned to the other girl, confused. "What? Why?"

Max however, was grinning evilly. "I'll tell you as long as you promise not to tell her."

And Ashley could not have planned that better. "Okay, I promise."

Max grinned, cupping a hand to his mouth, and Ashley leaned down to let the boy whisper in her ear.

Bingo.

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"What's 'mythic' mean?" Darkrai asked. The group had been traveling for a few hours now through the grassy woodlands, and Alex had just called a stop for lunch. It was the day after Purugly had tricked the legendary into smelling the strange herb Alex called 'Pokénip' and Darkrai had scared the fur off of her in revenge—though thankfully, the fat cat didn't seem to hold a grudge, so Darkrai was willing to let her trespass go, too. The dark type was feeling strangely open to sharing its thoughts since then—who knew that confessing your undying gratitude to the person who took you away from your own personal hellhole and gave you five days of uninterrupted respite from battling would open you up to the Pokémon who were listening in on the whole thing?

Purugly, who had been in the middle of ranting about attractive males, paused mid-word and turned to the dark type. "Pur?"

Darkrai explained, "You keep calling me that, I was just wondering what it meant."

Purugly blinked. "Oh, it's the proper term for 'legendary's. Humans say it wrong."

"Humans say a lot of things wrong!" Ponyta chimed in, "Like saying 'gods' instead of 'Arceus' or 'Dialga' or 'Palkia'."

Darkrai waited for Ponyta to finish. "So, what's a legendary, then?"

"Or 'Giratina'," Ponyta continued as he thought about it.

Purugly stared the fire colt down until he meeped out a 'sorry!'.

Kricketune spoke up in the ensuing silence. "A legendary, as the humans call it, or mythic, as we call it, is a Pokémon that is so powerful and/or rare that they are the focus of legends, or myths."

Darkrai paused. "There are myths and legends about me?"

Purugly answered. "About your kind, yeah." Then she thought. "Wait, how old are you?"

At Darkrai's blank stare, Kricketune explained, "How many years have you experienced?"

"What are years?" The legendary asked.

There came an awkward pause wherein everyone, even Ponyta, just stared at the dark type without speaking. Kricketune was the first to recover. "Years are what long periods of time are measured in. A year is twelve months, and a month is slightly longer than a single moon cycle—from full to new to full again. You could also say that a year is four seasons long—or a single period of heating then cooling."

Darkrai thought, trying to recall every time the world osculated between hot and cold over a long period of time. "I can remember… ten? No, eleven complete hot and cold cycles in my life." It paused, then added, "We are nearly halfway through the twelfth."

The silence that resounded then was so intense that even Alex looked up from where she was setting up a table to make her Pokémons' lunches on.

"Well, you're still older than me," Ponyta morosely broke the tension, "I'm only two and a quarter years old."

Giving herself a shake, Purugly responded with, "I'm about seven."

"As of eight and a half days ago, I am six," Kricketune offered.

Darkrai was puzzled by the Pokémons' reactions. "So I'm the eldest here?"

Purugly shook her head. "No, Alex is 19. And before you ask, Mightyena is 24—which is actually quite old for that kind of Pokémon, but dark types tend to live longer."

" 'Live longer'?" Darkrai repeated, confused. "Can Pokémon die of oldness?"

The other three Pokémon exchanged glances. Kricketune, again, was the first to speak up. "All Humans and most Pokémon will eventually die of old age. Lifespans vary with species; Mightyena is reaching the end of his life, but may yet see a few more years; Ponyta could live up to 50 years, with proper care; Purugly would be lucky to see 30; and I will pass three days after I turn 13, when the sun is at its highest."

Neither Purugly nor Ponyta paid any mind to Kricketune's strangely specific death date, so Darkrai asked the other question on its mind. "What about Alex?"

Purugly answered, "I've heard of humans living for over a hundred years, but I've also seen some die at about 80."

"Oh." So, Alex would outlive her team—by a lot, apparently. Wait… "What about me?" The idea that it could simply fall over and die one day was quite startling to the dark type.

Again, the three non-legendaries glanced at each other. "There are tales…" Kricketune began, "about Darkrai who have lived for hundreds of years. One in particular, a very old myth passed down through generations, spoke of a Darkrai that had been around since humans first started dreaming. My mother told me that this Darkrai still exists, and that it forever searches for a place untouched by both humans and Pokémon." The bug type paused. "Although, the tale is very old, so perhaps that Darkrai found its place by now."

Darkrai hoped so. It knew from experience what it was like to not have a place to feel safe in. The legendary glanced over to Alex, who was just finishing mixing up the others' food as they slowly broke from the conversation and started to crowd around her legs, and felt another wave of gratitude for the simple five days of peace it had already had, and the many more that seemed to be coming.

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Alex sighed, settling into the private videophone booth at the Pokémon Center in Jubilife City. It had been a strangely good day. After last night, she had been afraid that Darkrai and the rest of her team would be at odds with one another, but both Purugly and the legendary seemed to have taken the Pokénip incident (and subsequent Hypnosis) with extreme grace. In fact, her whole team seemed to finally be settling in with their new addition, talking and chatting animatedly while they walked, hovered, and pranced around her. It was lucky that most trainers seemed to prefer traveling between the two cities via blimp rather than walking for several days, because the mud war being waged from the shadows of the nearby trees would've been really hard to explain.

Alex grinned as she typed in the address. It still amazed her that she hadn't once been hit by any of the flying mud balls zooming past her. Of course, Darkrai might have had something to do with that—being the only member of her team who could actually throw mud balls. The trainer blushed as she thought about the dark type. Darkrai had been much more… affectionate since last night. Whereas before it had displayed open curiosity about her, now it seemed to genuinely enjoy her company, and when they had stopped for lunch, it had actually asked her (by miming) for a bit of her own food, which she had happily provided.

The sound of the call being picked up brought Alex back to the present, where Professor Rowan's stern face greeted her from his lab. "Hmm, I see you've made it to Jubilife safely. How's your little side project going?"

"Pretty good; it seems to be settling in, finally. It slept outside its ball for the past three nights and no one's had any nightmares, as far as I can tell." Alex reported.

"Hmm, good." The professor nodded. "I got in contact with an expert who advised to not let the Pokémon out on the nights three days before the new moon, and under no circumstances sleep near it on the night itself. They didn't want to tell me any more without an in person meeting." Rowan huffed. "The nerve! I am a world renown Professor of Pokémon—my character is unquestionable!" He shook his head in disbelief. "Anyway, I arranged for a meet and greet next Wednesday, do you think you can make that?"

Alex frowned. "Yeah, it should only take a few days to get down to Sandgem, but, Professor, couldn't this be a ploy to get at… it? How much do you trust these people?"

"These people? Not so much, but their liaison is someone I've worked with before—he's the grandson of a dear colleague whom I trust with my life."

"If you're sure." Alex wasn't convinced, but she had faith in the professor's judgment.

Rowan hummed, letting the topic die in silence as he moved the conversation on. "How are your eggs doing?"

Alex sighed. "No change in the old one, but the new one has been wiggling a bit. I think it'll hatch soon."

"Ah, good," the professor commented, "Egg Balls are somewhat of a new technology—even though they've been thoroughly tested, there's still the chance for something unexpected to happen." He rubbed at his throat. "Thank you again for helping to test them out, I know it was a bit of a risk for you."

The trainer smiled. "Well thanks for letting me test them—it's a lot more convenient than carting around an egg case, I'll tell you that. Still though…" Alex's smile faded as she trailed off, thinking about the egg she'd had for nearly four years now. All evidence showed that it was alive and healthy, yet it seemed like it refused to hatch.

Rowan huffed at her frown. "Alex, it will hatch when it's ready, and not a moment before."

Alex quirked a smile. "I guess so."

The professor sighed. "I'll give it a check up when you get back to the lab."

The trainer's smile turned genuine. "Thanks, Professor."

Rowan nodded. "If there's nothing else…?" Alex shook her head. "Then have a good night, Alex, and I'll see you soon."

-o-O~OOO~O-o-

End chapter.

To my reviewer who left a lengthy review; thanks for that, and I'm glad you like Mightyena—he's going to play a very important role in this story. Also, I think I'll just wait until said chapter is posted before passing judgment on the rating. I'll bump it up to 'M' if I think it's necessary.

In my humble opinion, FFnet really ought to have an 'MA' rating. People will post porn regardless of the rules (and the admins are kinda hard-pressed to enforce them as it is), and it'd be nice to have a connotation-free way of rating a mildly graphic story that doesn't have smut.

Oh, hey, May and Max! I've only watched a few of the episodes they're in, so I really hope I got their characters right. My theory is that, at eleven, Max has already toured Hoenn, and wanted to move on to a new region (perhaps to get away from May—which fails spectacularly as May uses Max's journey as an excuse to; tour the contests in Sinnoh; and keep an eye on Max (as big sisters are wont to do)). That said, I'm relying mostly on the wiki for the goings on of the anime characters, and I might miss a few things.
So, please correct me if I'm wrong, and I'll construe a new reason for them to be there.
Also, I'd like to point out that Max and May's names are off by one letter—that being 'x' or 'y'.
…Now go play more ORAS.

/Sigh. Classes have started up again, and I can only hope that (unlike the last two semesters) I have enough energy at the end of the week to continue writing… Even if I don't, though, I still have enough chapters backlogged to post every week until the end of the semester… If I can keep to my schedule, I could post the final chapter on New Year's Day. *Slams fist into open palm* Okay, that's my new goal.
Wish me luck.

Buckle up kids, next chapter is entirely from Darkrai's POV.