Ummmmm...wow. It's been a while since I uploaded the last chapter. I'd like to apologize for the very long wait between the last chapter and this one. School took up a lot of my time and I was suffering through a bit of writer's block.

But I'm back now! And I hope you guys enjoy the chapter!

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The Haunter floated above Dawn, inching closer and closer to her. Dawn was backed into a corner. There was nowhere she could run. "Hey! Get away from her!" Paul shouted at the Haunter.

The Haunter took no notice and went back to tormenting Dawn. Paul stomped his way over to the Haunter. "I said back away from her!" he threatened.

The Haunter then finally turned its attention to Paul. "What did you do to everyone?!" Paul asked, angrily.

The Haunter didn't answer. Its eyes began to glow red. It waved its disembodied hands back and forth while laughing quietly. For some reason, Paul stared directly into its eyes and began to feel light-headed. He began to fall to the floor and lost consciousness. Paul then dropped to the floor, unconscious. "Paul!" Dawn shouted, frightened.

Paul didn't answer her. He began to black out. All he could hear was another body falling to the ground and a loud, cackling laugh.

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"Paul? Paul! Wake up!"

Paul could hear a faint voice calling his name. He heard it, but he didn't respond. He couldn't move his body no matter how hard he tried. "Paul, wake up!" the voice shouted again. Again, Paul didn't reply.

Suddenly, Paul felt a sudden rush of water going up his nose and covering his face. He quickly jumped up and frantically waved his arms around. He coughed and sputtered as he regained consciousness. "What was that for?!" he asked, angrily.

"Oh good, you're awake," said a voice. "And the water washed away that stupid face paint you had on you."

Paul recognized the voice and immediately looked up. He saw Justin, wearing a black track suit, standing over him with an empty bucket in his hands. "Justin?" he asked.

A Haunter then materialized right beside Justin. "Hey, that's the Haunter from earlier!" exclaimed Paul.

Paul jumped up onto his feet. "Okay Justin, tell me what's going on!" he demanded. "The last thing I remember is being in my mom's condo and seeing you, mom, and Reggie unconscious. And then that Haunter put me to sleep!"

Paul then looked all around and saw that he and Justin were standing on a beach at the bottom of a steep cliff. He noticed that there were some lines drawn in the sand, making the beach resemble a battlefield. "Where are we?" Paul asked. "Where's mom? And Dawn? And Reggie?"

"Geez, you ask a lot of questions," sneered Justin.

Justin then began to walk away from Paul. "I'll admit, I'm a bit surprised at much hostility there is in this whole family," he said.
"Where are they?!" Paul asked, again.
"Look up," instructed Justin.

Paul looked up towards the top of the cliff. He was horrified to see what was up on top of the cliff. At the top of the cliff, there was a small crane which had its arm extended far out over the edge.

What worried Paul the most was who was at the end of that arm. There was his unconscious mother, tied up and dangling precariously off the edge of the cliff over the sharp rocks below. "Oh no," muttered Paul. He then focused back on Justin, who only had an evil grin on his face. "Did you put her up there?" Paul asked, angrily.
"I thought she would enjoy the view," replied Justin.

Paul grew more and more furious at Justin. He ran towards his mother, hoping to save her. But a steel chain pulled him back, causing him to trip and fall. Paul got up, turned around, and saw that he had a shackle locked tight around his right ankle, which was connected to a steel chain that was tied down by a large boulder pressed into the face of the cliff. "What the hell is this?!" he asked, angrily.

He tugged and pulled on the chain with his might, but it was no use. The boulder and the chain were too strong. Justin and Haunter only laughed at Paul's feeble attempts to free himself. Haunter appeared right beside him and began to pull on Paul's chain, mocking him.

"Stop laughing and help me!" demanded Paul.
"I shall do no such thing," protested Justin. "I think the 'ole ball 'n' chain suits you just fine."

Haunter reappeared next to Justin. He began to pet the ghost Pokémon. "You did a good job helping me, Haunty," he said.

Paul was in disbelief. He couldn't believe that Justin, someone whom the whole family had spilled their guts out to, had just stabbed them in the back like this. "Why Justin?" he asked. "We trusted you. We told you our most personal feelings. Why are you doing this?"
"There was no other way," he answered.

"No other way for what?!"

Suddenly, a shrill scream cut through the air. Both Justin and Paul looked up. They could see that Regina was finally awake, and was not too pleased with where she was. "What?! What's happening?!" she asked, frantically. "Why am I tied up? Why am I so high up in the air?!" She began to squirm around. "Someone get me down from here!"
"Mom!" shouted Paul. "Don't move or you'll going to fall!"

Regina followed his advice and stopped squirming. She looked down towards the beach below and saw her son bound to a boulder. "What? Paul, why are you chained up?" she asked. "Justin, what are you doing? What's going on?"

Regina then looked across towards the other side of the beach. Her eyes widened, shocked at what was on the other side. "Oh no, Dawn!" she gasped.

Paul hastily turned around and looked up. Up above him was Dawn, who was in the same predicament that Regina was in. She was at the end of a small crane, tied up and dangling over the edge over some sharp rocks.

Soon after Paul and Regina discovered her, Dawn slowly opened her eyes. "Wha-what happened?" Dawn asked, groggily. Dawn tried to make herself comfortable, but she found that she couldn't move her arms. She then realized that she was suspended high up in the air over a bed of sharp rocks. She screamed. "Where am I?!" she asked, panicking.

"Dawn, don't move!" warned Paul.

"Paul, help me!" she yelled.

"I will! Just hang on!"
"As if she has any other choice," taunted Justin.

Paul turned to Justin. "Okay Justin, this has gone too far! What exactly do you have planned for all of us?!"
"Oh alright," replied Justin. He turned to his Haunter. "Well Haunty, we better tell them."

Justin turned back to Paul. "Well first off, you can stop calling me Justin," he said, his voice suddenly changing. It had become much deeper than before. But everyone else recognized it immediately. "That isn't who I think it is. Is it?" Dawn asked.

Justin took off his glasses and threw them to the ground, shattering them. Then, he grabbed his black hair and pulled it, revealing it to be a wig. Long, purple hair then unraveled itself and cascaded down his head, just stopping at his shoulders. Justin had become an entirely different person. But this person was someone that nobody was happy to see.

"No," muttered Dawn, "It can't be. It just can't."
"You have got to be kidding me," groaned Regina.
"Dad?" questioned Paul.

Paul Sr. leaned over towards his son and grinned. "Hello son, did you miss me?" he asked, in a taunting manner. "I sure missed you. Do you know how lonely I was in prison? I mean, you never even send me a letter!"

Paul just sat in the sand, completely stunned at the revelation. "Justin" was actually his own father in disguise. "No! This can't be real," he said. "This has to be a bad dream or something."
"Ah! But it isn't," replied Paul Sr. "I am very much real. I remember on the first day we met. You all accused "Justin" of being me. To think, your suspicions were correct, but yet I duped you into thinking otherwise."
"Okay stop playing tricks, Justin!" yelled Regina. "This isn't funny."
"Regina, you out of all people should know that I've never been a joking man," said Paul Sr. "Justin is no more! Or rather, he never was. It was me all along."
"But you're supposed to be locked up in a maximum security prison!" shouted Dawn. "Looker said so himself! We called him!"
"Apparently, the prison wasn't set up to deal with the mischief of a ghost-type Pokémon," explained Paul Sr. "Haunter managed to sneak into the prison, put several guards to sleep, and he was able to outsmart that stupid Looker!"

"No way! That's impossible!" argued Paul.

"I thought so too, but Haunter proved me wrong. They're a rather pathetic police force if you ask me."

Paul Sr. turned his attention towards his wife. "But what I find even more pathetic is how emotionally weak you are all, especially you!" he shouted. "You actually let your feelings get the better of you, to the point where you began to cry in a public setting!"

Haunter shook his finger at Regina. Regina remembered when she and "Justin" went to the pancake house for breakfast. At the time, it really boosted her spirits, but now that she knew the truth, she began to feel like an idiot.

Paul Sr. then turned to Paul. "And you're even worse than your mother!" he said to him. "It's unbelievable how even when I'm not around, I'm still on everyone's minds. You've all become so obsessed that it reached the point where you'll tell complete strangers about me."

Paul Sr. paused for a moment. "Unbelievable!" he continued. "I have no regrets leaving this pathetic excuse of a family."

"Shut up!" shouted Paul.

"Aww...what's the matter? Are you to cry again?"

"So you think we're weak and pathetic?" Paul asked, angrily. "And yet, the first thing you do is come back to your family. Why would you come back to us if you had no regrets leaving?"

"Well, I have a little bit of unfinished business with you all," answered Paul Sr.

Paul Sr. began to pace back and forth on the beach. "When I broke out of prison," he began, "the first thing I wanted to do was to get you back for sending me there in the first place. All you, your mother, and your bother have done is hold me back. You see I left the family because I wanted to be the strongest Pokémon trainer in the world. And I was so close to achieving the dream. But then, you go and take it away from me."

"Well, I'm glad he did!" snapped Dawn. "You're a cruel and heartless person! You tossed aside your family for your own selfish reasons! Paul had all the right to do what he did!"
"Why don't you shut up? You annoying little girl!" ordered Paul Sr.
"Hey, don't talk to her like that!" shouted Paul.
"Oh, I'm sorry. Do you not like it when I talk to your little girlfriend like that?"

Paul Sr. shook his head at his son. "It's amazing how soft that girl has made you," he said. "Your mother did the same thing to me."

"Shut up!" shouted Paul. "I don't think me falling in love with Dawn has made me soft! In fact, she has made me stronger than I was before!"

Paul Sr. and his Haunter only laughed at Paul's declaration of love for Dawn. "Oh no, now she's gotten you to start spouting off corny lines like that!" He then stroked his chin. "But okay, if you truly feel that that is the case, then we shall put it to the test. Let's see how strong your lovefor her has made you."

Paul raised his eyebrow. "A test?" he asked. "What kind of test?"

"It's simple. You're going to have a Pokémon battle," explained Paul Sr. "It'll be four-on-four. If you win, I'll release Dawn and I'll drop her back onto the ground safetly."

"What about mom?" Paul asked.

"Oh, your mother will plummet to her death!"
"Wait what?!" gasped Regina.

"Now, hold on! I love Dawn, but I'm not going to let my mother die for her sake!"

"Well...you could always lose the battle. In which case, I'll free your mother, but Dawn's the one that takes the plunge."

Everyone gasped at the barbaric proposal. "You're insane!" growled Paul. "You can't make me pick between my mother and Dawn."

Paul then crossed his arms in defiance. "I refuse to battle with conditions like that!"

His father only shrugged his shoulders. "Fine then," he said. "I guess I'll just kill them both."

"What?" asked Paul.

Paul Sr. took out a remote from his pocket and pressed a button. Immediately, the two girls began to plunge towards the ocean below them, screaming as they fell. Paul was horrified to see the two falling to their deaths. "STOP!" he shouted.

Paul Sr. pressed another button on the remote, which stopped the ropes and prevented the two from meeting their end. Both Dawn and Regina groaned in agony as the sudden stop caused an incredible amount of whiplash. Paul Sr. didn't care. He only smirked at Paul while the two girls were slowly lifted back into position. Paul was relieved that both his mother and Dawn were safe...for now.

"You see what good your mother and that girl has done for you?" he asked. "You have potential, but you're letting those two hold you back, just like they did with me."

Paul couldn't stand to see the two suffering and in pain. He felt sick to his stomach. Reluctantly, he kneeled down to Paul Sr. "Dad, please don't do this," he pleaded.
"Look, now you have resorted to begging for mercy. I'd expect more than that from you."

"I don't want to put those two at stake," explained Paul. "I'll do whatever you want me to do. If it means that they both get to live, then I'll join you."

Regina and Dawn were both surprised to see Paul look so vulnerable. Paul Sr., however, wasn't impressed. "Oh, so now you want to join me?" he asked. "Well I'm sorry, but that offer has expired a long time ago. It's either you battle or they both die."

Dawn and Regina could only watch as everything unfolded in front of them. "This is ridiculous," thought Regina.

"I know he was a cruel person, but this is just mad!"

"He can't make him choose between the two of us," thought Dawn. "This is bad. There has to be another way."

The two of them looked up and stared at each other. Of course, neither of them wanted to lose their lives (especially if it was due to the outcome of a Pokémon battle), but they didn't want to see the other person fall to their death. "Paul has been so much happier ever since he fell in love with Dawn," thought Regina. "I don't want things to end like this, but if he loses Dawn..."

"Regina is Paul's mother," thought Dawn. "She has loved him and cared for him for all his life. What will Paul do if she...she..."

Paul stared at his feet, trying his best to remain calm as he considered his options. He tugged at the shackle around his ankle, which reminded him that he was trapped. He couldn't go anywhere, nor could he save the two girls. "There really is no other way?" he asked.

"You brought this on yourself Paul," Paul Sr. said. "You let these girls get to you."

Paul reached into his pocket and took out a Poké Ball. "I'm not happy about doing this, but there's no way I'm letting them both go!" he proudly proclaimed.

Both Dawn and Regina were surprised by Paul's choice. "Is that so?" Paul Sr. asked. "I think it'll be much easier if you just let them both die."

"No!" disagreed Paul. "I don't care what you think! They may not mean anything to you, but both Dawn and mom are both important to me. They love me just as much as I love them!"

"So you're going to kill one to save the other?" asked Paul Sr.

"I'll find a way to save them both."

"Oh lord, now you're just desperate to be a big mane. It's impossible. You're only prolonging the inevitable."

Paul raised his Poké Ball up in the air. "Enough talking!" Paul shouted. "Come on, dad! You want to battle? Let's battle!"
"Oh wait, you thought I was going to battle you!" his father laughed. "You actually thought that you were going to battle me? Hahahaha! Oh, give me a break! I would never waste time battling someone like you."

Paul was confused. "I thought you..." he began.

"I thought I told you this a few years ago," interrupted Paul Sr., "you're not good enough to battle me!"

"Well then, if I'm not battling you...then who am I battling against?" Paul asked.
"Look around you, boy!" answered Paul Sr. "Notice anyone missing?"

Paul looked all around. He saw Dawn, Regina, Paul Sr., the Haunter...and then it hit him. "Reggie!" he shouted. "What happened to him? Where's Reggie?"
"Oh, now you start caring about me?" said a voice.

Everyone turned and saw Reggie walk onto the battlefield. Strangely, he was wearing the same black track suit that Paul Sr. was wearing. "Reggie?" asked Paul, confused as to what's going on.

"So you finally start wondering what happened to me," Reggie said, angrily. "These past few minutes, all you have been worried about is Dawn and mom! Not once have you expressed worry for you, your older brother! I knew you were self-absorbed, but I didn't think you were that bad!"

"Self-absorbed?" Paul asked. "Reggie, what's gotten into you? You're not like this. You've never been this angry."

"And what would you know about me?!" snapped Reggie. "You never cared about me. To you, I'm just someone who's holding your Pokémon."

"Reggie!" shouted Dawn. "Please, you have to help us!"

"You shut up!" Reggie screamed.

Everyone was taken aback by how angry and aggressive Reggie was. They knew something was wrong. This wasn't the kind and caring Reggie that they were used to.

Reggie ignored everyone and turned to his dad. "How do I look dad?" Reggie asked, spreading his arms out so that his father can see him in his attire.
"You look great son!" complimented Paul Sr. "I think you'll do even better than your worthless brother."

"Wait...you're on his side?!" snapped Paul.

"Yeah, and what of it?" replied Reggie.

"I'm ashamed that I gave up on Reggie too soon," Paul Sr. said. "Had I know that you would be a disappointment and a failure, I'd probably would have just continue training you."

"It's okay dad," Reggie said, comforting him. "You and I will make it right."

"Alright son, take your place on the battlefield," instructed Paul Sr. "I shall be the referee."

Reggie did as he was told and he walked over to his side of the battlefield. "Oh come on, Reggie! Not you!" cried Reggie.

"Sorry mom," Reggie muttered, quietly.

"No need to apologize!" called out Paul Sr. "You're doing the right thing! She was holding you back."

Reggie took his place, standing on the opposite end from his brother. Paul Sr. stood in the middle of the makeshift battlefield and raised his arms up. "This shall be a four-on-four Pokémon battle!" he proclaimed. "It will be between my two sons: Reggie and Paul! They will be fighting for the lives of two captured maidens! If Paul wins, Dawn shall be freed but his mother will perish to the sea below! However if Reggie wins, then Regina shall be safe but Dawn is the one who will be taken to a watery grave."

Regina and Dawn still couldn't believe the stipulations that we're in place for the battle. They couldn't believe that their lives were at stake. And they were still shocked at the way Reggie was acting.

Paul Sr. turned to Reggie. "Are you ready, son?" he asked. Reggie nodded his head. He had a cold look in his eyes. Paul Sr. turned to his other son. "How about you, Paul?" he asked. Paul just stood there, unable to speak. He was still trying to fully comprehend everything taking place. "I'll take your silence as a yes!"

He then raised his right arm in the air, an evil grin on his face. "I'm going to enjoy watching this," he thought. "Let the battle...begin!"

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TO BE CONTINUED...

A/N: So, there you have it! While admittedly, it's much shorter than the previous chapters, I think it's a good way to start off the next 'arc' in the story. Remember at the end of the first story when I mentioned evil older brothers? Well...yeah, this is it. It's going to be a Pokémon battle between Paul and Reggie! However, as it plays out, it will eventually become an emotional turmoil between pretty much everyone involved. I hope you guys are excited as I am!

Now then, aside from school, real life and "Pokémon: Contest Chronicles", another reason why I took some long with this chapter was because I went back to the original "DP Love" story and while I don't hate it, I did think that there were some things in it that could have been better. So I spent the past few months re-writing the first chapter of "DP Love: Series of Dawn x Paul." It hasn't been uploaded yet (except on the Bulbagarden Forums), but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

I planned to rewrite all of the chapters in "DP Love," including a massive rewriting of the "Seaside Galaxy" chapters. But then I realized that it's pretty silly for me to be rewriting the first story when I'm not even halfway through finishing the second story. I do still have plans on rewriting the first fanfiction eventually, but for now I'll concentrate more on this fanfiction (and of course, "Pokémon: Contest Chronicles).

Tl;dr I spent some time rewriting the first story. Realized that second story needs to be finished first.

Once again, sorry for being gone for so long. I hope you all found this chapter to be worth the wait. Please, feel free to leave a review telling me what you think, what you liked, what you hated. I'll try to reply to each one.

Next time: The battle between Paul and Reggie begins as Paul Sr., Regina, and Dawn all watch from the sidelines! Who will win between the two? Can Paul get through to Reggie before it is too late? And who will Paul choose to save, his girlfriend Dawn or his mother Regina?