Chapter 34: Reunion

*Rio?(1)*

"…so that concludes our contest. The scoreboard with all of the places of each contestant will be shown there. Your groups from now on will be split into groups of five, so the top five places will form a team, sixth through tenth will form a team, and so on. Now, check the results and find your team."

For Bryce, that was no problem. The top five players were standing right next to him.

"Didn't think I'd see you here, Bryce." Rio said, smiling.

"Neither did I. How'd you get here?"

Rio paused for a moment. "Well, two days after Violet left, her parents grew suspicious that I might have hidden her somewhere, so I decided the best thing to do would be slip away, so that's what I did. It never truly felt like home anyway."

Bryce nodded. He knew exactly how that felt.

Rio continued. "After traveling for a while, I had a dream in the middle of the night, showing me a house. When I woke up, I followed the path in my dream and found the house. Not a very big place, just a bedroom, bathroom and living area, but it was enough. Then I found out about the Legion of Light and decided to join."

"Interesting." Bryce said. He was going to ask more, but he was interrupted by the voice over the loudspeaker.

"Now the leader of each group will be the highest ranked contestant in that group. So for the first three groups, the leaders are the winner, sixth place, and eleventh place."

Bryce didn't care. He honestly didn't want to be the leader. I guess it's a good thing the leader wasn't determined by the performance in fighting, or else Quilava would have beaten Rio and himself by a mile.

"As for the living arrangements, one of you in each group will have a house that is much bigger than the rest. That's where you will be."

"I guess that's my place." Bryce said. *Wait, how did they know that one person in each group would have a bigger house? They couldn't have known the results before the game started…could they?*

"If anyone on your team doesn't have anything to do or bring, they may leave with the person with the larger living quarters now. The rest of you may go back until tomorrow to finish whatever you may need to."

"Well, I've got nothing to bring." Rio said.

Finally, Grovyle spoke. "I've got some stuff to do, so I'll see you tomorrow I guess."

Quilava nodded once in agreement. Haunter just mumbled something about 'finishing something that should have been finished a long time ago'.

The portals appeared and everyone went back to their respective homes.

As soon as they arrived at the mansion, Bryce turned to Rio. "Quick, hide somewhere so you can surprise Violet."

Smiling, Rio nodded and hid behind the doorframe to the kitchen. No sooner had he concealed himself when Violet walked out of the game room.

"Hey you." She said, smiling. Bryce smiled back as the two embraced.

"So how'd you do?"

He shook his head, sighing. "I was hoping you wouldn't ask."

Violet's smile grew wider. "You are such a bad liar."

"Okay, fine! I got second out o-" Bryce confessed before Violet knocked him to the ground, kissing him lovingly.

"See, that's why you shouldn't ever doubt yourself."

Bryce shrugged. "I kind of just hid until the end, but so did the winner, so I guess that's not too bad."

Rio growled at him from his hiding place.

Violet looked puzzled. "Uh…what was that?"

Bryce explained how the groups were made and that one of the contestants decided to come back with him now.

"…he actually was the winner. Of course, there's no point in introductions, because you already know him."

Rio emerged from his hiding place. "That's low Bryce." He smirked as Violet ran toward him.

"Low, but true." Bryce replied.

Chucking, Rio embraced Violet happily. "It's good to see you again, Violet."

She smiled up at him. "I couldn't have asked for a better person."

Bryce was glad as well. Now Violet had the best of both worlds.

"Whatever room you want to use is fine, Rio. There are a couple down that hall and one or two on each floor."

Rio nodded, walking off to find a bedroom to use. Bryce turned to Violet. "Happy?"

"Very!" Violet said, her tail wagging back and forth.

Bryce smiled. "You're too cute when you do that."

Violet giggled. "I can't help it," she replied, wrapping her arms around Bryce, "Everything I ever wanted is within a moment away."

Bryce smiled, looking into her eyes. "Me too."

As he held the beautiful Lucario, he could feel her body shaking. "Geez, you need to lose some energy."

"Feel like playing Brawl then?" She asked.

"You bet. I'm always up for a match."

The two made their way to the gaming room. As Bryce found the CD and inserted it into the Wii, a thought crossed his mind. He sat down on the couch by Violet and started the game up. "So what do we tell the others about 'us'?"

Violet selected team match with them being Blue Team and two level nine CPU's as the Red Team. "Just say that Staravia and I are your guests and we're staying here. If Rio is the leader, then they can't do anything about it. Besides, they shouldn't care, so just don't mention it unless it comes up."

The match begun: Marth (Bryce) and Link (Violet) VS Ganondorf and Mr. Game and Watch. In the following minutes, several noises and yells came from the room, such as:

"Two nines in one match? Come on!"

"Stop spamming projectiles!"

"Why does a bomb land on me EVERY time I attack?" (2)

In the final moments of the match, Game and Watch was already gone, and the other three had one stock each. Link jumped into the sky and used the ending blow (Down A). Ganondorf grabbed a bomb and threw it up at him, but Marth purposely jumped into its path and it killed him instead. Right after, the attack from Link was successful and Ganondorf was sent soaring into the background and out of the game.

"Thanks for sacrificing you last life to keep me alive."

Bryce smiled. "I'd always give my life for you."

Violet pushed him onto the couch and crawled on top of him. "You're not going anywhere. You're staying right here with me."

Smiling, Bryce leaned in and kissed her passionately. Moments after, the two were heavily making out. Rio walked by, rolling his eyes and smiling.

"Ah, young love."

Grovyle finished packing everything. He stepped out of his house and walked a few miles into the forest. He soon found the secret place. Standing there alone in the middle of the night brought back so many memories. In that moment, he promised himself he would visit this place again someday.

Quilava had just completed gathering up everything. He took his saber and sharpened it. As he did so, he noticed a picture. He felt the hate from others that he somehow used to call his tribe. He put the picture away, but as he did, a gleam of gold words on the bottom shone in the moonlight, "Never Forget."

Haunter didn't have much to bring, but even so, it felt as if his life was starting anew. Maybe this time, his life would have purpose…after all of this; he knew this new journey is just what he needed.

I changed "Violet's best friend" to "Rio". Originally he wasn't going to be a main character, but he is now

I swear, this happens to me at LEAST once per match.

Author's Notes: Finally I have time to write this chapter. Sorry it took so long with school, and I was almost hospitalized for a while. It's not fun having an EKG at only 16 (even if it doesn't hurt at all, it's still a scary thought). Also, I need your guys' help: I have got NOTHING for Haunter's Character. At all. I've got one attack for him and that's it. So if you guys want to post some character ideas, I'd be really glad to look them over and get some ideas. I promise I'll get better at updating more than once every two months or so. Finally, I redid chapter 12 if you want to go read it again. I PROMISE this story isn't dead and won't be. I keep drawing "DV21" on all of my school stuff . Read and Review, and thanks again for being so patient.

-DeltaViolet21