"This is unbelievable," the man said.

Ryan was once again in a dream. This one felt different. The corruption was gone, but in the dream, he held no resentment or fear to his lab partner. Instead, he felt a bond. A friendship. Did the human Ryan was seeing through the eyes of, used to actually be friends with this man? If so, what had happened to turn his feelings into pure ice whenever they locked eyes?

"I know," Ryan said, "who would have thought it even possible?"

"A world without humans," the man continued, "but teeming with more Pokémon than even our own. Pokémon that wouldn't even know the meaning of a Pokéball."

"It must be a wonderful place, Sam, don't you think?" Ryan asked.

"This is the discovery of a generation, of a lifetime," the man called Sam said, "we'll go down in history for this."

"It proves all our theories correct," Ryan agreed, "I just hope head office allows us to continue our research into it."

"They better acknowledge that it was us that discovered it," Sam said, "you know how they took the credit for old Benjamin's findings on the efficiency of Oran berries in creating potions."

"I do," Ryan nodded, "but I would rather the research is done and someone else takes credit, than for it to not be done at all."

"That makes one of us," Sam said, "we could be looking at significant pay rises with this."

"We crack the code of the dimensions and all you can think of is money?" Ryan laughed, "you'll never change, will you?"

"Let's get this into the right hands then," Sam said, winking at Ryan's comment.

Ryan, watching the dream, felt happy. His happiness within this dream was only rivalled by the friendship he had come to foster with Treecko.

He felt himself shaking. Weird, he thought. He shook some more and opened his eyes to see Treecko staring down at him, hands on his side.

"Bad dream?" Treecko asked, concerned.

"The opposite," Ryan said, yawning.

"Oh, I'm sorry," Treecko said, stepping back a little, "it's just… you were crying. I thought I'd wake you, to get you out of whatever you were feeling."

"Not to worry," Ryan said, "any other night and you would have been right. I've been having some real corkers of dreams recently."

"Corkers? What's a-"

They both heard voices echo across from down the corridor. They were hushed, but it sounded like a good number of them. Treecko waved Ryan over and they both peeked out of the room entrance to catch a better look at who was speaking and what they were talking about.

"…Thanks for coming everyone," a voice so gruff only Machamp could have been speaking, rung out. "I realize this is a sensitive matter, so I thank you for agreeing to this meeting."

"The problem we're talking about is the Pokémon called Ryan. The Shaymin," Espeon said. "After the past day's events, as well as my own investigation, it is clear that he is connected to these disappearances unlike any other."

"Yeah," another voice spoke up, "and what Shaymin is even called Ryan? It's obviously a fake identity."

"As opposed to what, Toxtricity? Another Shaymin called Shaymin? It's obvious Ryan is a Shaymin, that's not exactly up for debate. What Pokémon do you know that could fake being a Shaymin?" Espeon's voice paused. "Exactly, now quieten down for a moment, you dolt."

"It's clear that Ryan is involved, although we don't know how. My vote is to lock him up along with the other charmed Pokémon and find out what he knows," Machamp said.

"This is ridiculous," Treecko muttered to Ryan, starting down the corridor. As he saw Ryan join him, he shook his head. "It's better if you don't show up, they might get aggressive."

Ryan could see the logic in that and carried on listening as Treecko approached the others.

"Hi everyone," Treecko said, "what's all the ruckus?"

He could see that a good portion of the Pokémon that had been a part of the guild much longer than he or Ryan had shown up to the meeting and they were all circled around Machamp and Espeon as they spoke. The crowd parted for Treecko and he immediately felt the pang of fear; social anxiety leaping into action.

"Is Ryan on his way?" Espeon asked calmly as the others looked sheepish or suspicious, at the new arrival. Treecko shook his head.

"Ryan's still in a heavy sleep after the attack. I thought I'd stay up to keep watch for a bit and heard voices. What's happening?"

"No need to worry everyone," Espeon said, turning to the others, "Treecko is not under suspicion. My psychic abilities have already made sure he can be trusted, likewise with all of you. Also, we all know how long Treecko used to sit outside and watch the building."

Treecko flushed a deeper green with embarrassment, falling silent as he listened.

"That brings me to my first problem. I cannot get a read on Ryan. There has never been a Pokémon that I couldn't figure out, but my abilities barely penetrate his mind whilst awake," Espeon said.

"But didn't he help Pangoro?" Another Pokémon piped up.

"Until he wakes up, we can't know for certain," Machamp said, "he could have made it worse for all we know. He was caught draining Pangoro of something and then shortly after, released a blast of energy that threatened to harm other Pokémon. How do we know he isn't taking these Pokémon to sustain himself?"

"Because Pokémon don't do that," Espeon said.

"That we know of," another Pokémon replied.

"In any case, we know Pangoro is alive, at least, for now," Espeon said, "but Ryan is officially the main suspect in this crisis."

"Time to go and apprehend him," Machamp said, a lot more serious than Treecko had expected. He had almost thought Machamp would take joy in this, but he was grim.

"Don't you have any words to defend your partner, Treecko?" Espeon asked, her eyes proving that she already knew the amount of stress the anxiety was putting on Treecko. He couldn't have said anything coherent, even though he wanted to.

"Just…wait," he croaked. He held his hands up in the universal sign of 'wait here' and walked back down the corridor to go and bring his partner to the rest of them.

As soon as he turned into the bedroom and out of sight of the others, the anxiety lessened. He stared at Ryan, terrified.

"We need to go," he said, "right now."

"Screw this, let's get him," Machamp's voice rung down the corridor. Other voices of agreement rose up and their footsteps started to get closer.

"The wall," Ryan said, "where do we go?"

"The woods," Treecko said running to the great hole in the wall of Ryan's room. "Nobody knows those woods like I do."

And with a last, pained look at the inside of the building he had watched over for so long, Treecko ducked out of sight. The shadows of the other Pokémon came into view, getting dangerously close to the entrance to Ryan's room.

Ryan was unsure of what the next leg of his unusual journey would be; as long as he had Treecko by his side, he was sure he'd be okay. With this thought in mind, he followed his green friend out of the shelter of the Guild, no longer safe for them.

Treecko couldn't look at Ryan as they walked. He could have spoken up for him. Vouched for him. All Treecko did was stand there, scared to speak. How could he call himself a worthy partner after that?

Together, alone, the two small Pokémon started their trek up the hill towards the woods, determined to not be found until they solved the cause of the disasters and cleared Ryan's name.

Treecko decided against going to his home, in case the Guild searched there first. They ran deep into the woods instead, hunkering down to finish off their night's sleep.

Ryan closed his eyes and hoped for the pleasant dream to return instead of the other kind. He was rewarded.

He opened his eyes, barely aware that he had just fallen asleep. He and his partner were standing in front of a large, polished wooden desk. A man in an expensive looking suit sat with their research notes out in front of him, just finishing up reading them. Ryan was acutely aware of a blister caused by his new shoes. He had bought them the day prior, to give off a good first impression with the boss.

The man lifted his head and regarded Ryan and Sam. Then, slowly, he smiled. Ryan's heart began to do backflips in his chest.

"You two men are about to make this company a lot of money. A lot of money and the most powerful company in the world, if what you say is true," their boss said.

Ryan's heart landed headfirst from the backflip, crashing painfully. Of course, this man only saw the monetary value in their research. Sam was smiling, but Ryan had always known Sam to like money a little too much.

"Just think of the opportunity we would have, as the only company with access to a near infinite and untapped resource such as this Pokémon world devoid of humans," the boss continued, "we would control the value of rare Pokémon, flooding the market with more if needed. We could capitalize on their gifts. A new industrial era with us at the head. Thank you, both of you."

"Thank you, sir," Sam said, bowing slightly, "I do hope you'll allow us to continue to be at the forefront of this project until its completion?"

"Are you saying you're going to be experimenting on Pokémon?" Ryan asked.

"As if we aren't at the moment? Do you have any concerns you'd like to raise?" The boss leaned forward as he spoke, eyeing up Ryan, who looked down at his feet.

"Not at all, thank you for the opportunity," Ryan said meekly.

Once Ryan and Sam had left the room, Ryan turned on his lab partner.

"You're willing to do all that? You'll ruin a whole world for what? Profit?" Sam simply blinked, unbothered by Ryan's outburst. Then he spoke with a calm, low tone that chilled Ryan.

"I'm willing to do that and a whole lot more. To those silly little free Pokémon, we'll be like gods," he said, "especially now that we're allowed access to the deeper levels of the company's research facilities. Where they keep the best experimental… is toys the right word for captured Pokémon?"

Ryan couldn't speak. He could barely breathe. He had thought he'd known his lab partner, his colleague, his friend. But he couldn't leave. If he left, they'd only replace him and continue their mission. He needed to stay. To stay and stop it. His dream shifted dramatically, lurching like he had never experienced before.

Meet me. You know where. At the place before you met your new ally.

The voice cut through the dream and catapulted Ryan from his sleep.

He woke up Treecko.

"We need to go somewhere," Ryan said.

"Are you sure?" Treecko replied, blinking sleep out of his eyes, "what time is it?"

"Something just requested a meeting. In my dream," Ryan said, "it's not like we have anything else to go on right now."

"True," Treecko said, silently shuddering at having to meet yet another Pokémon.

It was turning out to be a very long night, indeed.