Alright! I am on a roll here!

We've got a couple super high energy chapters under our belts, so... let's see what happens next xD

Chapter 22: The Ground Is Upside-Down

Eventually I just close my eyes and cling to Lucaro. I sense him looking at me, again and again, like he's worried I'll stop existing any moment and straight up evaporate. But I can't do that yet. I've still gotta make my dad beg for forgiveness.

He's all I've got, if even him, so I'm gonna be screwed if this weird black monster possession thingy can't be fixed.

There's another moment of Lucaro tensing, glancing over me, when I catch his voice at my ear. "Keebae, why do you desire so strongly to see your father?"

He must sense my anger, like a smoldering orange halo of aura all around me. That makes me feel a whole lot more powerful. "Cuz if I lose him, I'll have lost everyone.

"See, I was orphaned at a real young age." For some reason, it's easy to talk to Lucaro. I can't stop the words from flowing through me, despite the fact I don't like talking about this stuff. Maybe it's him. The desire for him to know. "I dunno if my parents just hated me, or if they died or something, but I ran away from the orphanage and ended up in the streets. Every day was a fight to stay alive, yeah? But I got picked on at the orphanage, for being small and stupid, so it was better than that."

Lucaro makes this weird, pensive sound, like a wince but stronger, more sympathetic.

"So uh, when my first dad found me, I was grateful, more grateful than anything in the world. I had a bed, and meals, sometimes, and friends." Two friends. I try not to think too hard about them, or everything starts to shake. "But Dad 1 was... was really mean to one of my friends. He did something that shouldn't have been possible. So we tried to run away.

"Well, we failed. So Dad 1 sent me to this Dad, I guess we can call him Replacement Dad. So that's what I get for trying to be good." So now I'm like, super omega evil. I tuck a strand of my straight white hair behind an ear and smirk as I think about my evil backstory. I even have the hair to match: super weird diagonally-cut hair that starts at my ear and grows longer as it reaches the other side of my head. I came up with the style myself.

But, wait. I stopped Dad from gaining control over the world and rewriting it, so maybe I'm not that evil. Disappointing.

I don't notice Lucaro's tears until I open my eyes and glance over to him. Then I wince. "What are you upset for? Niri's not, like, dead."

He purses his lips together, then whispers, "I am sorry about your life, Keebae. You have lived so unfairly for so long."

Well that makes me feel weird. I don't really know what to say to that, so I just kind of say nothing.

Pretty soon there's a sound like an earthquake, and I quiver against Lucaro, at a loss for breath. As the tremors start to weaken, he straight scoops me up into his strong lucario arms and carries me until the world stops shaking, careful not to puncture me with his chest or paw spikes.

I'm reminded that none of my pokemon are with me right now. They were bunched around at my feet up until I raced into the portal that led here. It might be for the best they didn't follow me. They're not all that strong anyways, and maybe they'd just get in Lucaro's way.

I hope I don't get in Lucaro's way, too. But even as I think it, once he's put me down and we've kept walking, he pats my head. "Thank you for coming along, Keebae. I would be... afraid, if I was companionless."

"Aww. You don't have to be so sweet all the time, you know."

He shrugs, muzzle aimed at the strange pinkish floor. My boots make ferocious prints over it. I can't help but think of bubblegum, or brain matter. "I cannot help it. I have to tell you my truth, else I fear you will never know."

Golly, are people allowed to be this kind? Well—Lucaro isn't actually a person, technically. Then again, what makes him all that different from humans? What makes pokemon all that different? I've already experienced the truth that our ways of thinking aren't all that separate, thanks to Filma. Honestly, it gets too weird if I think too hard about how pokemon get captured by humans who are vastly inferior in strength. I guess I get weaker pokemon being captured and trained in captivity, so they no longer want to go out in the wild—but, like, then we've got Lucaro.

Lucaro, who feels extremely insecure around poke balls.

I wouldn't really know much about the whole situation. I've only ever gotten my pokemon either from other grunts or stolen them for myself, like with Chimpy, my monferno.

Well, it's not like all these questions can be answered here. We continue on in a lingering silence.

The worst part about this new world we've stumbled upon is that sometimes our feet just kinda get knocked out from under us, and then suddenly our centers of gravity shift to compensate for land hanging in the air like a rug on a laundry line. But then there's nowhere else to walk, so we have to walk over the rug on the laundry line, and my stomach keeps twisting like any moment now it'll shrivel.

It's eerily quiet. Lucaro and I were fine in our silence at first, but the total soundlessness of the world surrounding us draws us to talk. About ourselves, mostly. It's the first thing we can think of.

"All this time, Keebae, I have been searching for my mother. She was taken, long ago, by humans. It was my fault. I still mourn what I caused."

"At least you like your mother. I don't even know my mom's name. Or what she looks like."

"I only recall my mother's face because it is nearly identical to mine."

That causes both of us to stop and laugh a second.

"I wanted to be your friend. Yours and Niri's. But Niri didn't like me, and I—I wasn't very good at being nice, anyways."

"Niri likes you now. I like you too. Let's be friends."

"Gosh, you're adorable." I've never blushed because of a lucario before, but here we are.

Then I tense up and say something I've never told anyone before. Something I don't even like telling myself. "I'm still in love with a girl I knew years and years ago, even though she lives so far away from me that I'm never gonna ever see her again." I don't know. It's like Lucaro's natural goodness compels my heart to loosen up and speak.

There's a shift in Lucaro's gentle amber gaze. He reaches out, paw brushing over my shoulder. "Keebae... would it help you to talk about her?"

"M-Maybe. I don't ever talk about her, so I guess it wouldn't hurt to try." I swallow sharply. "She didn't have a name of her own. So I made up a name for her. She... She was really small, even smaller than me, and really, really cute. When things got too scary for her, she'd, like, hide her face in me, and it felt... it felt really good, trying to protect her."

My breaths come out like winces. "I think she escaped okay. It's just me who got found out. There was a vent passage we were gonna crawl through that led into the outdoors. She went first. I insisted she go first. My dad was waiting for me out there like he knew. I..."

An involuntary shudder passes over me. "Never mind. Maybe talking about this stuff is no good." Maybe no matter what, I'm gonna be chasing the shadow of the prettiest girl I ever met.

Lucaro gently squeezes my shoulder. He's really too kind for his own good. "Perhaps, after all of this, we can search for my mother and her together."

I look away, biting at my budding smile. "Thanks, Lucaro. That'd be cool." It's weird. I haven't thought of her in a little while, but it's like Lucaro just makes my most vulnerable insecurities bubble up to the forefront of my existence. But then instead of making fun of me for them, he just wants to ease them over.

"I thought you and Niri were dating," I blurt, and his face blushes straight violet.

"I have never... considered dating a human. Or dating in general, if I can be honest." A weak laugh escapes his soft muzzle. "I was either focused wholly on my training, or on my failings."

"Lucaro," I mutter, "you can't keep blaming yourself. You were a little kid at the time, right? You didn't know any better, I bet."

He sighs. "But you know that feeling, yes? The feeling of having failed someone so important to you... it is difficult to... to..."

I wanna reassure him that it gets better, but I know that's not entirely true. And it's the worst feeling.

I grab his puffy blue paw and squeeze. We don't say anything for a little while, just walk on, unable to fill the silence between us.

That's when I hear it. Something like fire, something like the whiz of a comet. Another? Nervously I turn back, our tiny entrance too far to be sighted from here, when—WHOOM—something huge and white explodes down the corridor. Shrieking, I fall back against Lucaro, who instinctively raises his paw in front of my face as some sort of protection.

As it approaches us, the fluttery white comet reduces speed and lands just in front of us, silky white wings peeling from its sides. A massive fluffy tail lolls on the ground beside it. It's got these strong blue eyes, really menacing stuff.

I'd already be losing it on account of the crazy powerful pokemon straight in front of us—strong enough that even Lucaro's got this disgruntled look on his face, but there are people on the back of the pokemon. They disembark together, and as the girl looks over to me, I feel my spirit exit my body.

No.

I can't breathe fast enough. I'm gonna choke on air. My hands fall in front of my face. I want to say something, but I'm scared to, but there's no way she remembers. Can it really be her, a part of me keeps asking. But the hair, the fluffy green hair—the pretty pink flowers...

It just can't possibly not be her.

She's barefoot, rocking this tightly-knit dress that looks to be made of vines, with a fluffy green cardigan like lichen. It accentuates her curves. I don't think I can handle being this near her.

Lucaro witnesses my reaction, and his gaze lights up. "Is that... Is that her?" His voice is faint, incredulous. "What luck..!"

"N-N-No of course it's not her," I mumble, even as my bracelet burns. Stupid bracelet!

"You," the girl calls out from across the way. A bitter wind blows between us, and the very lighting in this strange vortex flickers. Everything becomes darker, bluer. I wish I had any idea what was going on. "What brings you to this reverse realm?" It's the same voice, the same soft but secretly snappish tone. Oh my gosh. I can't—I can't let her see me like this. I wish I had my dress on. My pale yellow dress.

Maybe she'd remember me if I looked prettier. Instead I'm in my nasty Galactic garb that's sizes way too big. When Dad started making the suits, he'd made mine first as a sort of trial wear. He bought it a few sizes too big, thinking I'd grow into them. Thinking wrong.

Frick, I'm crying. Lucaro gently nudges me, like, go talk to her. But look, she's practically draped all over that stupid green-haired boy with her. I bet that's N. I bet her and N are in love and that they spent all their lives pining after one another. Wait—Wait, N didn't want us to leave. Filma told him what we were gonna do, thinking he'd wanna come with—

Why the heck is he with her?

The shock of the moment causes me to venture closer, wiping the ridiculous tears from my face. Maybe if I don't say anything, she won't realize it's me, and I can make myself look a little more presentable before I tell her. Okay. Okay. Calm down, Keebae.

I swallow tightly, coming close to facing her. My fluffy white bangs still block a good portion of my face when I reply. "There was this... black ghost thing that collapsed on top of my dad and possessed him. But then this portal, like, opened, and swallowed him up, so I'm just trying to follow it and figure out what happened to him."

"Oh. I see." Her pale blue eyes pinch a little at the edges. N hasn't bothered trying to talk.

She unlinks her arm from his, managing a step closer to me. There are vines across her hands, and they look almost like cool fingerless gloves. But then I catch really nasty scorch marks peeking between threads of vine, and I gasp. If only I had a cool healing pokemon with me, or if Lucaro knew anything about healing.

I can't focus on the wounds for long. My eyes cling to her face.

She's grown out her hair. I want—I want... I fist my hands in my pockets.

"Do I..." She presses a little closer, her voice lowering, "do I know you? I feel like... I feel like you might be..."

Frick, frick frick frick frick! "N-No, I don't think you know me," I say, because I'm an idiot, and my bracelet starts blurting red from my pocket. It's glowing through the fabric. Her gaze lands on it, and I know she knows what it means. I step on my own foot. "Filma," I add, softly, for myself, without really meaning to.

That does it. Her eyes widen, softening, and she moves right in front of me. I'm gonna collapse. "Keebae. Keebae, is that..."

I can't say anything without giving myself away, so I lock my eyes shut and bow my head. I hear her moving closer on tiptoe, daring edge into my personal space. I hiss, "I really didn't want you to see me like this," because it's too late and she has and she knows. I feel like she can just look into me and glimpse every last terrible thing I've done. Robbed houses, stolen pokemon, beat up innocent people who got in team Galactic's way, brainwashed... lied to Niri's friend about her being dead...

"Nonsense," she whispers. Her warmth buffets me. Her arms have secured around me. When did she make the decision to hold me..?

She's still shorter than me, but not by much anymore. Her head fits against mine like it should've always been there. Her hair shrouds my face, and I feel my eyes watering, it's so mind-meltingly soft.

"Filma," I whisper, because it bubbles up in me and I can't stop it. She squeezes a little tighter when I do. "Filma, I've been meaning to tell you. That town I said I named you after, the one with all the flowers. It turns out I got the name wrong. It's called Floaroma. Sorry about that."

She's giggling, quiet wisps of laughter, fluttering by my ear. "That's alright, Keebae. I like it more that nobody else calls me by it. I actually... a-after I lost you, I... I changed my name a tiny bit, so that nobody else could use it."

She... for me... I'm...

She remembered me... nobody's ever remembered me before... I...

I think I'm gonna evaporate. No one else will be able to hug me like this again purely because I'll be gone. Only Filma will have experienced it.

"Why are you here," I whisper, breathless, and her fingers run along my back, and I can't remember the last time someone hugged me. I'd been hoping I would eventually work Saturn up to the idea, once we were friends enough... but then we didn't quite get there, friends-wise, and now he's totally lost all his brain power...

I wonder... I wonder if the god Dad was gonna summon could fix all that. Could they wave a magic hand and take away all the bad that happened? Or would we still have to rewrite the world to fix his brain—to fix everyone's brains?

Eventually Filma's grip slackens, and she steps back just a little, though first her fingers find mine and bind ours together. She sort of glances back at N, who nods and comes a little closer as Lucaro approaches on my side. That dragon-looking creature, the one with the piercing blue eyes and massive white wings, continues to wait patiently. Something tells me it'll help us get to the thing that possessed Dad and the other thing with the spidery legs that attacked him real fast, faster than we'd do it on foot.

This place is such a mess that I realize, with a pang, maybe we never would've found Dad without Filma's casually showing up out of nowhere.

But it's not out of nowhere, I soon learn. While she's got me right here, she tells me everything. She tells me about growing up with a professor lady in the slowest village imaginable, and about accidentally meeting N again, and about unlocking her cool plant powers to stop Ghetsis—who's somehow not dead of old age yet—and... and find me.

"So," I wince, once she's gotten it all out, "so you're telling me that Ghetsis was... was that thing?" For all we know, he's already destroyed Dad's mind and broken into him like a parasite. I don't even know. I'm shaking, my hands struggling to find a grip on hers.

"Y-Yes. I know. It's... frightening." The concern wells up in her eyes, pale wintry blue, and she holds onto me a little more tightly. "Keebae, what of you? Where have you been all this time—and what brought you here, to the reverse world?"

"The reverse..?" I start, but Lucaro gently nudges me.

"We should leave soon, Keebae. I fear that the longer we wait, the less likely we are to fully uncover what has just occurred." There's something solemn in the way he purses his lips. "I fear that, if we are not careful, we may become lost here ourselves."

Filma and N share a weird look. "Keebae, do you realize your lucario just directly addressed—"

Oh my gosh. I roll my eyes. "Yes! He can talk. To normal people like me. And he's not my lucario." I can't fight the smile off my face. "He's his own lucario. His name's Lucaro." His eyes light up like little orange suns. Gosh, he's adorable.

A bright awe blooms over Filma's pale face. "Wow."

Lucaro makes a little mock bow before continuing. "We must hurry, before... I do not know what. But I sense it, a charge in the very air." His fur's bristling, though the rest of us just look as clueless as ever. Must be a cool Lucaro superpower, sensing when danger's about to go down. If this was a book, I bet it'd be a mighty convenient plot device. Not that my life would ever be written down in one of those things.

Filma gestures us over to the winged beast at our backs. "This is Reshiram. She will help us. She's... looking for someone too." I think some sort of interaction just went down between her and Lucaro, because his face sort of off-sets, and that bright sympathy wells up in his too nice eyes when she glances at him.

Lucaro bobs his head a little. "Keebae, she says we should come with them. We are all going to the same place."

"Neat." I eye her for a moment, the pretty goddess with the giant eyes whose voice I can only imagine. Then Filma leads me up to her side and introduces me to her. She relays to me Reshiram's greetings before we all clamber up over her side and secure ourselves in a line. Lucaro first, then me, then Filma, and N at the end.

He's been quiet, watching me like he knows everything I've done. Maybe he's just trying to be nice, giving Filma and myself some space to ourselves, but I can't quite meet his eyes.

Filma squeezes tight, returning me to the dragon's back. I think, for a second, that this can't possibly be real. She smells like flowers and pine sap and nature, and her head's on my shoulder, and if she moves any closer I might just wake up and finally shatter into a million useless fragments.

She whispers, as the wind whisks our hair and Reshiram seems to know exactly what's going on (I don't), "Keebae, why are you sad?"

"Because I'm never allowed to be happy." I bite my lip. That came out so... edgy.

It's true, though, as stupid as it sounds. I finally get one dad and he turns out crazy. I meet an incredible girl and lose all connection with her. I join a second dad and become a slim shadow of a person, only good for heeding orders and sometimes kidnapping people. I make a friend and his mind gets erased by stupid awful Mars.

I'm just waiting for the punch line now. Filma's here, but she doesn't actually like me anymore. Filma's holding me now, but she has a girlfriend way back home who's waiting for her. Filma loves me, but only until I tell her what happened to me while we were separated.

Then she'll leave, and I really will be alone again. I keep telling myself I have Dad, but do I even want to have him? Or am I just desperate for someone, anyone, and he's the only one who hasn't slipped through my fingers?

Oh, gosh. I can't see. The wind whips at my eyes, and my tears are cold lances down my cheeks. I try to wipe at them, but my balance falters, and Lucaro grunts. "Keebae, do not let go."

It takes his voicing and Filma's nudging to get my grip back on him. I'm insecure about how badly I'm shaking, but I'm stuck sandwiched between the two coolest people I know, the two people I really don't want to think lowly of me.

"Please, cry no more," Filma finally says, her words torn away as soon as they grace my ear. "You've saved me, Keebae. I never want to be separated from you. You protected me, so now I'll protect you."

But the thing is, it still doesn't feel real. Maybe it won't for a long time.

I have... I have to trust in her. To trust that she'll keep this promise.
...maybe one day I will.