Perhaps an enemy...

Sol flinched at the return of the maybe-a-voice, maybe-a-thought. She hugged her arms close to her body, hunching slightly as she walked. Everything about this place felt hostile. The ground, the air, the fog, and now even the thoughts in her own head.

Ren didn't look to be doing much better. He silently trudged behind her, barely fast enough to keep pace. Sol felt shame well up in her throat. She should be braver, she should be making sure he was ok. Sol was his leader, she should at least act confident to give him hope, but that shame was nothing compared to the growing knot of anxiety and fear that tangled in her gut. She didn't have it in her to be strong. Not even for her team.

A sharp agony shot through Sol's head. She hissed in pain, unbidden tears welling in her eyes, but she tried to muffle the sound as best she could.

Don't fail them more than you already are.

The pain shifted, becoming more localized in her head. Sol could feel it like someone grabbing her ear, pulling her in a direction. She gritted her teeth, swearing to herself that she wouldn't cry, wouldn't scream, she may feel defeated but she wouldn't break.

Sol changed direction gradually, following the slow relief from pain. Was all this because she was hosting? Drowzee said it would be hard on her, but if this is what he meant... no, no, it was better her than Eevee.

What lies you tell yourself.

A small, spiteful flame of anger flickered in Sol's chest.

Yes, better me than Eevee, she insisted in her own thoughts, nursing that little bit of hate within her. She'd let anger be her candle any day.

"Void gives way to foundation."

The sudden input from Ren startled Sol. She glanced back at him, and saw his own gaze fixed on something up ahead, the same direction the pain had been pulling her.

Sol couldn't see anything at first, but slowly was able to pick out a silhouette in the darkness. Something huge up ahead, vaguely cylindrical but broken up, familiar...

"The tower," Sol began. "But why lead us here?"

"Lead?"

"I... right, yeah, I just kinda... felt a pull over this way?"

Ren made eye contact with Sol for a few seconds. He looked exhausted as he slowly nodded, accepting the explanation for now. Sol would explain in more detail later, when they were out of this place. There was a lot she had to explain to Ren, actually, but for now...

"Let's make our way over there then, and maybe- wait, it's gone?"

Sol watched in disbelief as their one landmark in this nightmare landscape dissolved from the bottom up, misting away to join with the fog that permeated this place.

"I don't understand, why-"

The mist around them abruptly surged upwards, swirling like a tornado around them. Sol could see shadows and inhuman shapes within the fog, feel that knot of anxiety twist into itself even more tightly, and the return of that sharp pain through her head.

Ren moved closer to Sol, standing back to back with her against whatever may come next.

Concrete figures began to materialize in the mist, like the tower but in reverse. The swirling fog slowed in intensity, beginning to settle around their feet once more.

A choking gasp escaped Sol's throat when she saw what the fog had brought them. She was only dimly aware of the screaming from the small Azurill, eyes tightly shut and clutching Jak for dear life.

Jak, as strong and focused as always, told Azurill to stop yelling, they weren't falling, and no, they weren't dead. She didn't even look surprised to be suddenly standing before Sol and Ren. It had been too long since Sol had seen her, and that relief and hope blinded her to the glare Jak gave to Ren as she spoke.

And Eevee, he was slumped sitting on the floor of this place, his expression dazed and confused. But he was unhurt, and he was here. Sol rushed forward to hug him tightly. Now that the tears were of relief instead of defeat, she let them fall freely.

"I had no idea where you went! I turned around and you were just gone, something attacked me, I don't know what, but I was alone, and then I found Ren, but I didn't know where you were.."

The words fell out of Sol's mouth in a nearly unintelligible rush. Eevee stared at her blankly, not resisting the hug but not returning it either. He blinked slowly and deliberately.

"You... you didn't disappear. Or wait," Eevee's brow furrowed as he pieced it all together in his mind. "You did, but you came back... Sol!"

The dazed look disappeared into alertness. Eevee's eyes moved from Sol, to Ren, to Jak and Azurill, before landing back on Sol.

"I thought I was somewhere else, back at the tower..."

"A place of lies," Jak spat. "Do not believe them."

"It wasn't that easy... I thought if I left, you would disappear, Sol. And it would just be me..."

"Never," Sol declared. She still felt that knot of anxiety poised to choke her, and hoped that she was able to hide any waver in her voice. "Team Wanderers to the end, right?"

Her voice cracked as she spoke that last line, but Eevee still closed his eyes and nodded.

"Jak managed to find Azurill, and then me... And now that you and Ren are with us, we can get out of here."

"Right."

A silence descended on the group.

"How?" Azurill eventually asked in a small, timid voice. "I just want to go home."

"We keep moving," Jak said.

"Really?"

Jak glared at Ren again as she spoke. "It is better than sitting in a trap."

Ren didn't meet Jak's eyes and stayed silent.

"Uh, Drowzee?" Sol called up to the sky, hoping for some direction. They all waited several seconds for a response, but none came.

"On our own, in my head. Great."

"We found each other, that's what's important." Eevee stood up, mustering his determination. "With all of us here we'll figure it out."

Another lance of pain shot through Sol's head. She grimaced and rubbed a spot on her temple.

"It'll be ok," Eevee insisted to her.

"A light in the dark," Ren finally spoke up.

"Exactly!"

"Wait, no, something's actually coming."

Sol pointed out into the expanse of fog towards what had caught Ren's attention. It was hard to judge just how far away it was in the vast nothingness, but off in the distance was a bright, pink light darting to and fro, somewhat obscured in the fog.

"Has anyone seen that before?"

"No," Jak said with a voice full of distrust. She glared at the distant light, zig zagging back and forth but always coming closer. Jak took one step forward to put herself in front of Azurill.

"Pink's a friendly colour, right? Nothing bad is ever pink."

"We'll see," Sol said, and they all prepared to meet whatever this new development was.

The light grew closer, and as it did more details revealed themselves. Amidst the pink, they could make out less prominent streaks of gold and blue. They also began to make out a shape beneath the light, and figure lit from within. A being with a swan like body, and golden crescent shaped flairs around its head. Bright pink rings emerged from the sides of its body, appearing to act like wings as they flew through this nightmare realm with the darting movements of a hummingbird. It appeared ethereal, angelic, possessing some manner of otherworldly beauty. Sol gaped at the creature as it came to hover above Team Wanderers, staying just out of their reach.

"At last," the being said, in a compassionate and feminine voice. "I have found you all."

Sol's mouth went dry, and she found it impossible to find words. Eevee was able to collect himself first, and it was him who asked the question with wide eyes.

"Who are you?"

The being smiled with the beauty and soft radiance of a full moon. "I am Cresselia, the guardian of dreams. And I know you, Team Wanderers."

Jak narrowed her eyes and growled. "You did this."

"There's... no..." Sol stuttered. The presence this Cresselia had, it was warm and welcoming, the complete opposite of what she felt from the nightmare around her. Surely that couldn't be true.

Cresselia sighed. "No, I am not the cause of this plague of nightmares. I came here to stop it, no matter how painful it may be to do so."

"Do you know what is causing it?" Eevee asked.

Cresselia smiled softly down at Eevee. "As I said, I have heard of you all before. Team Wanderers, the heroes that stopped the planet's paralysis, who helped heal the mind of Dialga. The world owes you so much."

"Ok..."

"And so it pains me so greatly to have to tell you this. The cause of these nightmares, it is all of you."

Sol went cold and still. No, no no no no.

"You saved this world, but you no longer belong in it. You have spent too long in a future, in a world, that never existed. That distortion has settled in you like a sickness, and it will bring only darkness."

No no no no, not again, don't ask this of me again.

"That sickness is spreading out from you, infecting the world. It will not stay contained to this town, the site of your leaving and return from that collapsed future, for much longer. As the distortion persists, it will expand, and so too will the darkness within the distortion. As long as you exist, so will this plague."

I can't do it again. I'm not strong enough, I can't!

"The only way to heal the world, Team Wanderers must be destroyed completely. I am so sorry, you all deserve so much more, but a few individuals, no matter their greatness, cannot be put before the very world itself."

Sol was shaking. She couldn't believe it was happening again. Just like at Temporal Tower, she was being told she had to sacrifice herself for the greater good. She felt despair dig its claws into her deeply. She couldn't go through that again, she couldn't walk up to her death with open arms, not after everything.

"You lie."

Sol's head snapped over to look at Jak, staring defiantly up at Cresselia.

"It is the only way, as much as I wish otherwise."

Jak growled, small embers escaping her mouth as she spoke. "This one has walked through four lies of this nightmare. These lies were not made to hold this one, you pull at feelings this one does not have. You push fear into this one's head, but this one is not afraid of you."

Sol's heart was beating a mile a minute and she heard a ringing in her ears. In her panic, she was barely aware that Jak was speaking. She couldn't do it again, she wouldn't.

"Please listen to me, the world is at stake-"

Cressila was cut off as both Sol and Jak shouted in unison.

"I WON'T!"

"LIAR!"

"Wait, no!" Eevee yelled, but too late.

A gout of flame erupted from Jak's mouth as a Focus Blast shot away from Sol, both aimed at the figure hovering above them.

There was a flash of light and the nightmare around them exploded.

It has been... so long. Too long. But I'm alive, so good news, right?

Yeah... I am really sorry about how much time has passed here.

Thank you everyone who has read this fic up to this point, and to those who continued to send me kind messages.

If anyone is interested, as a fun Christmas present for me this year, some of my friends put together narrated videos for the first two chapters of this fic, and they plan to do the rest as well. I laughed for a good five minutes when they sent me the link, lol. Go to Nofish Productions on Youtube to check it out.