A/N: Hello again friends and welcome back to the latest chapter of Evolution. I just want to say upfront we are still accepting you OC characters. If you're interested in submitting a character, send me a private message and you'll receive a form to fill out. Each one we get makes incredibly happy when I see them :)

Tyler: I'm happy that the Tag Team Tournament is coming up real soon. I can't for that to get started :)

DrPhill26: That's true. You guys will get to see that next chapter, but we've got one little thing to take care of before we can get that started.

Wendy: Which takes place in this chapter right? Please tell me it's happening this chapter.

DrPhill26: Wendy... you already know what takes place in this chapter.

Wendy: I know. I'm just so excited that it's finally taking place. You have no idea Tyler I've waited sooooo long for this day to get here and now you're allowing it to happen for me. Thank you so much. :)

DrPhill26: Well look at that, we're all in a good mood today. How about we spread the love with you reader with this chapter. Go have some fun and join in our positive mood. Once more, Team summaries are on the bottom.

"So what do you think Ty?" Wendy let out an exhausted sigh, wiping sweat off her forehead with the back of her gloved hand. "Harder work than you thought?"

"Nothing I'm not used to." Tyler said with a grunt, picking up a large bag of Pokémon food and placing it on his shoulders. "When you raise a bottomless pit disguised as a Pokémon in Magnus, you're used to Pokémon trying to eat you and the feed bag at the same time. Only difference here was that there's 30 of them instead of just the one."

"You did really well out there today for a first timer." Wendy smiled as the two of them stepped outside of the feeding barn at the daycare and walked around the side of it towards a simple looking but rather large shed next to it. She reached into her pocket and grabbed a key on an orange and blue key chain and slid it into the lock, opening the door. "I'm impressed; you might have some talent as a daycare worker."

"I think so too. I had a lot of fun today, just like raising my own Pokémon." Tyler commented as he approached the shed watching Wendy set the heavy feed back down with a grunt. "But I am glad our shift is over so we can finally get out of these damn coveralls."

"What, you don't like the coveralls?" Wendy asked as she turned to face Tyler, arms extended to take his feed bag.

"Not really. They're just so restrictive." Tyler complained as he handed Wendy the bag. He stepped back outside, grabbing the zipper of his green one-piece coveralls and quickly pulled it down all the way to his waist, feeling the light breeze penetrate the sticky and uncomfortable air that was trapped his clothes. "My body can finally breathe again!" Tyler exhaled as he threw his arms wide and let the gentle breeze wash over him completely.

"Well, you do have that part right." Wendy agreed as she closed and locked the shed door and unzipped her own suit to just above her belly button, letting Tyler once again see the navy blue tube top over her chest. She then started taking her gloves off and Tyler saw a clump of hair on the back of head move, reminding him that she'd tied her hair up in a short ponytail with a scrunchie today while she worked and she looked damn good with it. While most of him was dying to get out of this jumpsuit, part of him wanted to keep working so he could keep staring at Wendy when she wasn't looking at him.

"I just want to go and start training for the tournament. We only have tonight and tomorrow before the opening ceremony." Wendy reached up and undid her ponytail which brought a frown to Tyler's face as he watched her golden brown hair become unbound and freely rest against her shoulders.

"Wendy, we've been training non-stop for the past three days." Tyler pointed out as they started walking the trail back towards the house. "It would be smarter to let our Pokémon rest today, especially yours since they're probably not used to high intensity training like this."

"Alright, if you want to take a break go ahead." Wendy grabbed her three Poké balls and released her entire team at once, each one standing confidently behind their trainer. "But don't come crying to me when you lose to us in the finals."

"Oh that's a laugh." Tyler rolled his eyes, hands crossed over his chest as he looked smugly at Wendy. "You've made very big strides in the past few days, I'll say that much. But there's no way you'll be able to beat me if we battled each other."

"Go ahead Tyler; laugh it up while you have the chance." Wendy copied Tyler's stance and leaned in close to his face. "We're going to beat Shaq, then we're going to beat you and everybody else is this tournament and nobody is going to stop us."

"I love it when you get all charged up like this." Tyler leaned in closer himself, his forehead lightly pressing against Wendy's as they stared into each other's eyes. He could feel the spark between them beginning to catch into a heated embrace as they both threw their arms around each other, pressing tightly together.

"Yeah, well what are you gonna do about it Ty?" Wendy whispered enchantingly into Tyler's ear.

"You tell me." Tyler grinned as did Wendy, their eyes closing, the two of them feeling the warmness of each other's breath on their lips as they inched closer… and closer… and clos-

"Arty to Ty?" The walkie crackled with Mr. Riding's voice, making both Tyler and Wendy flinch and take a few steps back. Wendy pouting and muttering something about being cock-blocked by her own father as Tyler simply smiled and raised the walkie to his lips.

"Ty speaking, go ahead boss." He replied with a chuckle in his voice. There was a brief pause.

"You and Wendy still out at the barn serving supper?" Tyler turned back and looked at the barn, skimming over the large pond where a pair of Marill were busy splashing water at each other.

"More or less, why what's up?"

"Can I get the two of you wait for me over at the barn? I'll be there in a minute." The voice crackled again.

"You hear that Wendy?" Ty looked over at Wendy's disappointed expression, apparently still somewhat annoyed that their kiss had been interrupted but she nodded her head. "Yeah, we'll be waiting for you there."

"Roger that, see you in a sec." The walkie beeped and Tyler tried to clip it back to the waistline of the jumpsuit, but decided against it and just held onto it.

"I take it that's not the first time daddy's interrupted you?" Tyler teased as Wendy had folded her arms upon walking back towards the barn.

"He has the worst timing." Wendy pouted, catching Tyler's stride and leaning against his shoulder. "It's always right when I'm about to kiss a guy, I swear it's like he just knows."

"All parents do…" Tyler rolled his eyes remembering when his parents caught him with Amber back home. "But you don't need to sulk about it."

"I'm not sulking…" Tyler shook his head, spinning around in front of Wendy and holding her in place. Wendy looked up at him in surprise, only for him to lean in and finish what they'd both started a moment ago with the kiss that had been so rudely interrupted earlier.

"Better?" Tyler whispered to Wendy's ear as he broke off their kiss, giving her one last parting peck before standing back and winking at her with a smirk on his lips.

"For now, I might want another later." Wendy put her arm around Tyler's waist as the two of them walked back towards the barn. As they got to the large brown door with its white boxed outline and the crossing pattern over the front of it, they heard the familiar sound of the four-wheeler approaching from behind. Turning around, Tyler saw Wendy's father look up and do a half-wave towards them, but he also saw part of a blue diamond flapping in the breeze behind him.

"Oh hey look, Yuki's on the four-wheeler." Tyler pointed out as the vehicle began slowing to a halt. Sure enough, his princess hopped off the ATV as it reached a stop and shook her entire body before trotting over to Tyler's side and sitting before him expectantly.

"Glaceon!"

"Hi Yuki, I missed you today." Tyler cooed as he picked up his Pokémon and gave her a hug. She nuzzled his shoulder and quietly purred into his body as Mr. Riding turned off the four-wheeler and dismounted it himself.

"I see that Pulse is already here too. Perfect." Mr. Riding stepped between Wendy and Tyler and approached the large brown barn door with its white stripes and x-shaped markings across its length. He pushed the door open and Tyler was once again assaulted by the stiff scent of warm hay and floors covered in dirt, mud and a small amount of Pokémon waste. Considering that he'd just had a whiff of fresh air a moment ago and now had to step back into this musky barn, it brought a frown to his face. That frown began to deepen as he saw an Arcanine rolling around across the pile of hay in his pen. This large puppy with his fiery mane made Tyler's morning miserable as he'd been bullying some of the smaller Pokémon Tyler had to look after. The pup stopped rolling around as he heard the humans approaching him and barked at them to get their attention. Wendy smiled and approached him, cooing sweet nothings at his playful appearance, but Tyler just rolled his eyes in annoyance.

"So Ty, you have fun on your first day?" Mr. Riding asked as he slapped Tyler's left shoulder which made him wince considerably as pain shot through his arm. "Shit, my bad son. Sometimes I don't know my own strength."

"Yeah well, it probably doesn't help that I almost broke my collarbone two weeks ago." Tyler set Yuki on the ground and gingerly rubbed the top of his shoulder, grimacing as the stinging intensified.

"Uh… whoops. I didn't know that."

"It's okay." Tyler responded through clenched teeth. "But to answer your question, it was fun. Wendy's friend over there was more of a pain to me this morning than what I'm feeling now, but it was fun."

"I'm not surprised. His trainer is a piece of work himself… Hey Wendy, you can play with Arcanine later okay?"

"Okay daddy!" Wendy called back sweetly, playfully tugging on the Arcanine's golden mane. "I'll be back real soon cutie okay? You behave yourself until I get back." The Arcanine barked his approval, even licking Wendy's hand as she waved a good-bye at him before pouncing back on his pile of hay. "I don't know what you're talking about Tyler. That guy is so friendly and so nice to me."

"He was trying to eat an Oddish this morning Wendy. That's not friendly, that's being a bully!" Tyler yelled in the Pokémon's direction who didn't respond beyond his happy growling.

"Alright you guys, everyone on the elevator." Mr. Riding announced as he pressed a button on the side of the wall. "Wendy take you up here this morning Ty?"

"Wait, we're going up the elevator?!" Wendy asked sounding strangely excited to Tyler. It was just an elevator wasn't it? There couldn't have been that much significance to it… or so Tyler thought until Wendy picked up Yuki and gave her a loving hug. "I'm so excited for you Yuki. And you Pulse had better treat her like a gentleman." Tyler raised an eyebrow as he looked at the Lucario who nodded at his trainer.

"I'll take that as a no." Mr. Riding chuckled as the elevator finally reached the ground floor. He opened the simple metal gate at the front and the group stepped on the platform. Once everyone was aboard, Mr. Riding closed the gate himself and pressed another button making the motor whir to life above them. With a jolt, the platform began to raise the group up through the hole in the ceiling. The closer they got to the roof, Tyler felt fresher air and his curiosity took hold, wondering what was on this second floor of the barn.

He didn't have to wait long though, as when he made it to the top he saw a surprisingly open looking room with only one large pen back above the entrance of the barn with a large window shining a sunbeam onto that pile of hay. As they came to a stop, a light switch was flipped on and Tyler was taken aback as he looked to his right and left and in front of the open pen saw shelves of Pokémon eggs in a group of incubators.

"This Tyler, is the breeding room."

"I can see that." Tyler commented as he approached one of the bookshelf sized incubators, each one holding a dozen eggs total across three vertical rows inside of a glass case. He stopped at one in particular as he actually recognized the pattern of the egg. He knew it was a Cyndaquil egg as Magnus' egg was exactly like this one before he hatched, being mostly teal colored with red spots and a cream colored base. He smiled, remembering the pleasant memory of when Magnus finally hatched from his egg… and then almost burnt down Tyler's bedroom as he couldn't control his flames yet. "Not even three minutes old and he burns my room to cinders."

"What's that Ty?" Wendy asked curiously.

"Nothing, just getting lost in the memories." Tyler replied as he looked around the room again seeing eggs of all different colors and patterns. He wanted to take a look around and see if he could find anymore that he might recognize. But he decided to hold off on his curiosity and head back towards the open stall where everyone else was waiting.

"Now I can assume you know why we're here right Tyler?" Mr. Riding asked Tyler. He felt his heart skip a beat as the question was asked, but Tyler nodded his head timidly. "Well, this is the stage where we're about to have some magic happen tonight."

"So… we're really going through with this?" Tyler turned to Wendy, who was still finding it hard to keep her excitement in check.

"I'm finally getting an Eevee. I've waited like twelve years for this day to come!" Wendy squealed, her body shaking with anticipation.

"Well, you know it's not a guarantee that they'll conceive tonight." Mr. Riding pointed out, earning a scowl from his daughter. "I'm just saying that since Yuki passed her weight test this morning, this is the first time we can try."

"Oh boy…" Tyler let out a sigh and placed his hands on his hips. Suddenly the same feelings of not wanting to go through with this like he'd had back in Eterna when they proposed the idea swept him away. He nervously shook his head and turned his gaze back to the eggs; but that only made him more irritated as it reminded him that Yuki was about to have one of these herself because of Pulse.

"What's the matter son? You getting cold feet?" Mr. Riding asked and all eyes in the room, Pokémon and human alike turned to him.

"You could say that." He admitted. "Though I think it'd be more accurate to say that I'm feeling apprehensive for Yuki, not me."

"She looks fine to me."

"Well one of us needs to be nervous right?" Tyler nervously laughed at his own joke but nobody joined him.

"Ty, I'm a professional when it comes to this." Mr. Riding lightly placed his arm around Tyler's shoulder, remembering the pain he caused him last time. "I can guarantee you that if you're worried about Yuki's well being, you don't have to be. She will be perfectly fine tonight."

"Yeah but…"

"No buts Tyler." Mr. Riding then turned to Yuki and crouched down to her level, reaching into his pocket. "Although, if it makes you feel any better, I'm going to give Yuki this little charm to help her tonight."

"A charm?" Tyler watched as Mr. Riding pulled out a purple necklace with a large pink bead at the base. He placed it around Yuki's neck, the bead resting between her front two legs at the base of her torso.

"Glaceon?" Yuki looked curiously at the necklace she was now wearing, trying to bat at it with one of her paws.

"Don't go taking that off now Yuki. That's a special charm that will give you strength to get through the night and make it more likely that you'll get that egg that we're hoping for." Mr. Riding rubbed Yuki's forehead, getting her to smile at him and mew her name again.

"That necklace is going to make it easier for Yuki to have an egg?" Tyler skeptically raised an eyebrow. Science was one thing, but magic and charms was another entirely. That was just a simple stone necklace, there's no way it could do anything except look pretty.

"I know it sounds weird Tyler, but it actually works." Wendy knelt down to Yuki's height and continued. "That's an Oval Charm. It's a charm that is made in a ritual done by the native Unovan people, who bless it with the power of the goddess of love, to allow the wearer to become more fertile… That and it looks so cute on you Yuki, yes it does!"

"That's my little girl." Mr. Riding smiled a fatherly smile at his daughter. "I'm surprised you knew that."

"Daddy, how many times have I gone to Unova for work?"

"Uh… I don't remember, like five maybe?"

"Seven times daddy." Wendy corrected. "I've seen almost the entire region aside from the areas in the Southwest like Aspertia City. So I know a lot about Unovan culture, including the story behind these Oval Charms."

"Well regardless, it works. And if you don't believe the cultural explanation, scientific studies have shown that it increases the odds of conception from between 25, to up to 100 percent more likely." Mr. Riding added. Tyler nodded his head, mulling over what he'd been told. It still sounded like a bit of magical nonsense to him, but if it was backed by science, it had to have something to it.

"Okay, so they're here, and that's the pen. So why are we still here? Shouldn't we give the two of them some privacy?"

"What, you're not going to stay?" Wendy looked at Tyler curiously only for him to look at her like she'd lost her mind.

"What the-I-you- Of course I'm not going to stay here and watch! Why on Earth would I?"

"Well I do from time to time." Mr. Riding interjected. "But then again, I'm a breeder so it's my job to make sure things are going smoothly. And Wendy, don't tease the man. That's supposed to be my job as your father."

"Okay daddy…" Wendy feigned disappointment but Tyler could feel her giggling at him instead of her dad's remark.

"Right… well I'm obviously not a breeder. And I'd rather not spend any time thinking about what's about to happen here. So can we just get going already?"

"Glae… Glacie?" Yuki approached Tyler and sat before him, pawing lightly at his shoe. "Glaceon?"

"She wants to say something to you Sir Tyler." Pulse's ethereal voice played inside Tyler's head, sending a startled shiver down his spine but he nodded. Pulse walked through the group from his spot, placing his paw on Tyler's shoulder and Yuki's forehead before approaching the pen.

"So princess, you have something to say to me?" Tyler whispered his thought to Yuki.

"Are you sure you're okay with this master?" Yuki looked up at Tyler worriedly. "I feel like you're upset about something." Tyler shook his head.

"Yuki, don't worry about me. We already agreed that this is what we're doing. You said it yourself that you wanted to give Wendy an Eevee; that you wanted to be a mommy."

"But this is making you upset. I don't want you to be upset with me." Tyler grabbed Yuki's paw and held it in their knightly pose.

"Yuki, listen to me, okay?" Tyler raised her paw to his lips and kissed it. "I'm not upset with you. I'm upset with myself that I can't be happy that you're happy."

"I don't understand…" Tyler placed Yuki's paw on the floor, seeing her look of confusion when he stepped back.

"To be honest Yuki, even I don't fully understand why I'm upset."

"But I do." Pulse's voice interrupted the conversation as he looked at Tyler with a calming expression in his eyes. "You may rest assured Sir Tyler, I promise you that I will not do anything to her that could hurt her in anyway. I will treat her as I would treat Miss Wendy. I will treat her as the princess that you see her as. I will be gentle and not do a single thing more than she wants me to." Tyler smiled at the Lucario, walking past the group to stand next to him.

"You do know I'm going to punch you if you do, right?" A smirk came over Tyler's face.

"I would understand completely and allow it." Pulse jokingly faked taking a punch to his face.

"You dork, I was kidding." Tyler held his own fist out towards the Lucario. "Just take care of her. Treat her right and we won't have a problem."

"Of course Sir Tyler. I will treat her with the utmost respect." Pulse bowed in response, which made Tyler roll his eyes.

"Dammit Pulse we're bros." Tyler grabbed the Lucario's paw, molding it into a fist and pressed their fists together. "We don't bow. We do a bro-fist."

"Hmph, looks like he's finally got her trainer's blessing." Mr. Riding snickered as Tyler walked back towards the group. "I'll make sure things get all nice and comfy up here, you two can go grab some dinner. We made short ribs."

"Ooh, it's been a while since I had your ribs, I can't wait." Wendy chimed in as she grabbed Tyler's hand and walked him to the elevator. "You're in for a treat Ty. Daddy's barbeque is legendary in Solaceon Town. In fact, every summer there's a barbeque contest in town. And the last ten contests have either gone to Daddy, or our friends the Weilands who own the ranch north of us on Route 210."

"Is that so?"

"Damn right." Mr. Riding boastfully pointed at himself with an ear to ear smile. "If I know two things in this world, it's how to make two Pokémon breed and how to make some damn good barbeque.

"I'm looking forward to it." Tyler smiled as he and Wendy stepped on the platform. Wendy pressed the button and they began to be lowered to the ground floor again. Yuki jumped forward a few steps, calling her name as Tyler waved good-bye to her. He knew she was in good hands now, even if he still wasn't feeling one hundred percent about it. He put his hands in his pocket and let out a sigh as the elevator hit the ground. Wendy placed her arm sympathetically around Tyler's shoulder and walked the tow of them out the door.

"It'll be alright Tyler. You don't have to be worried."

"I know… But I'm her trainer; it's my job to be worried about her."

"You just need to get something to take your mind off what's happening up there." Wendy said as they stepped back outside, seeing the purples and reds of the setting sun spreading further towards the far horizon. "Let's go get some food, grab Keanu and then dip our toes in the pond and play with the Water Pokémon."

"That sounds tempting…" Tyler said in spite of the frown on his face. "But I feel like I'll just continue worrying if I'm here at the daycare while they're doing… that."

"Well, unfortunately there isn't a whole lot to do in Solaceon Town." Tyler let out another sigh. "It's not like we're in Hearthome where I could just suggest we go to Club Ultra and dance the night away."

"Is there anything at all to do in Solaceon Town?" Tyler asked, his frustrations growing greater by the second.

"About all I can think of is visiting the ruins that are east of town. But I doubt you'd be interested in that." Wendy offered.

"Better than nothing." Tyler sighed yet again as they approached the edge of the pond. "So how do I get to these ruins from here?"

"Oh you'll find the way. There are signs all over the town, you can't miss them." Wendy explained, picking up a stone and trying to skip it across the pond. The rock skimmed across the water once, twice and a third time but then sank to the bottom having only made it a short distance across the pond. "Dammit, I suck at this."

"So how long is this going to take? You know, until Pulse finishes doing his thing?"

"Um…" Wendy paused, her brow furrowed in heavy concentration. "I dunno, two, maybe three hours?"

"THREE HOU- Are you kidding me?!" Tyler looked disappointedly at his crotch, silently cursing the fact that Pulse could apparently last leagues longer in bed than him. "You mean to tell me that it's going to take him three hours to cum?!"

"What? Oh God no, it could take him as little as thirty minutes."

"As little?" Tyler narrowed his eyes at Wendy.

"What, don't look at me like that. It's not my fault I trained Pulse to last that long."

"It is entirely your fault that he lasts that long…" Tyler pointed out in a deadpan expression.

"Your personal jealousies aside, think of it this way," Wendy began. "We're trying for a successful impregnation here. Now although Pulse and Yuki are capable of having an egg together, because they aren't the same species, their DNA isn't perfectly compatible. Which means that they'll need to go at it multiple times to maximize the chances that Yuki gets pregnant." Tyler's entire body shivered on hearing those words. He felt his fists tightening as the only thought he had was to punch Pulse's head off.

"Tyler, I know you're frustrated right now. To be honest, I'd be a little disappointed in you if you weren't." Wendy said soothingly, holding him in a loose hug as they walked. "But we're doing this for each other. Just… try to think of the happiness we'll both get when our Pokémon hatch. I'll have a cute little Eevee that I'll spoil with love and you'll have an equally adorable Riolu that you can groom into a powerhouse fighter."

"Yeah… I'm sorry that I'm so distracted by this." Tyler apologized as the two of them went back to the house.

"Don't be. Even I'm a little bothered by this idea and I'm the one who came up with it in the first place."

"I'm just mad at myself that I can't be strong enough to be there for her tonight without letting my personal jealousies get involved."

"I know Tyler…" Wendy lightly kissed Tyler's cheek in a sign of compassion as they reached the house.

"So three hours? That's how long you think it'll take?"

"It's a rough guess. Could be more, could be less but probably not."

"Guess I'll see you in a few hours then." Tyler said as he approached his moped and picked up his helmet.

"You know, if you're still feeling hot and bothered when you come back, I wouldn't mind burning off some of my own frustration with you." Wendy winked at Tyler, a flirtatious giggle in her voice as she walked towards the house and made sure to deliberately shake her ass at him with each step.

"Just save me some ribs and I should be fine. Though I might take you up on that offer if you promise to stay hot and bothered yourself."

"I was hoping you'd say that." Wendy blew a kiss in Tyler's direction as she opened the door. "See you later tonight cutie-Ty."

Tyler went inside the house to change out of the restrictive coveralls and into a shirt and jeans combo before heading back outside and starting the engine. With it roaring to life, and one last check of the time before setting off, Tyler throttled the handlebar and rode up the trail towards the main road and headed south into town. Wendy was right; it was fairly easy to find the path that would take you towards the ruins. A group of large brown signs proudly boasted the fact that the Solaceon Ruins were within a few miles from the center of town. So Tyler followed their directions and before realizing it, he was out of Town and heading into a nearby forest off to the East of town.

Considering that these were ruins that he was looking for, Tyler had a picture in his head that he'd be heading towards some sort of fallen down buildings or a cave network that would be inside a nearby cliff. And although he was partially correct, he wasn't expecting to see the structure that he did see as he approached. It first looked like a large network of caves that went into a hill as he approached. But on getting closer, it turned out that this hill was actually a large brick wall that surrounded the ruins in their entirety. As Tyler approached the wall, he was awestruck at the sheer size of just the boundary. It had to be at least twice as some of the taller trees in the surrounding forest. Just how huge were these ruins?

Tyler found a parking lot for vehicles and parked his moped next to a jeep and began walking up the set of stairs that climbed alongside the wall. Even these stairs were ridiculously long, with it taking roughly five minutes to make it to the top. Already exhausted from the stairs, Tyler gasped for air as he finally saw the ruins for the first time, and again they were as far from his expectations as possible. There was a lone building standing tall in the center of a relatively open field. Tyler walked towards the building, marveling in the obscurity of its architecture. It certainly didn't look ancient until he got closer to it and started seeing statues of legendary Pokémon in the Sinnoh region. He couldn't place their names, but he knew they were the ones Wendy had mentioned when they were in Eterna City and had seen a similar statue in the park.

Tyler approached one last set of steps and on climbing them was greeted with an entrance into the ruins, which finally started to look like they were supposed to. He could see limestone walls and floors shaped into bricks that went into the building like structure. There was also some sort of marking on the wall that looked like a drawing, but Tyler couldn't figure out what it was in the low light. Releasing Magnus from his Poké ball however made the entire hallway light up and allowed Tyler to see. Together, the two of them made their way deeper into the cave with Tyler making a joke about being an explorer and Magnus was his trusty companion.

Unfortunately the high energy that Tyler had brought to the cave disappeared rather abruptly as they went further and further into the cave network. While Tyler had thought that he might find something fun here in the ruins, the only thing that he had found was a void of empty space disguised as a seemingly unending maze of hallways. And the lack of markers only added to Tyler's growing frustration.

"Dammit Magnus, why did we come here?" Tyler groaned, placing his hands behind his head in annoyance.

"Quil…" Magnus yawned, a weak ember falling out of his mouth only to be harmlessly snuffed out by his paw.

"All we've done for the past… however long we've been here, has been get lost and not find anything at all even remotely interesting … We should have just stayed at the daycare and watched a movie or something."

"Lava…"

"I mean this place should be cool. These are the ruins of a lost society, with shrines dedicated to legendary Pokémon for fuck sake. We should have found something like relics or altars or something cool like that. But nope, just nothingness as far as you can see." Tyler sat against the wall, sighing as he fell against the ground with his head in his knees.

"And all I can think about is fucking Yuki and Pulse right now. I just can't get it out of my head man." Tyler leaned his head back against the wall. "I should be happy Magnus. We're getting a new partner out of this, and a cool one too. We get our own Riolu at the end of all this."

"Qui-lava." Magnus sat beside Tyler, his flame softening so he wouldn't scorch his trainer.

"I just don't get how Wendy is so much more accepting of what's happening over there. I mean sure, she's got Tess and Yuri and me as well, but Pulse is her main Poké-lover. Shouldn't she be as upset as I am?" Tyler shook his head, looking back down the path they'd taken to get here.

"Whatever, I think we've spent enough time here Magnus. You ready to go?" Tyler waited for a response but failed to get one. He looked down at his Pokémon only to see that he was busy biting his own leg. "You look hungry. Maybe we'll stop and get some food in… shit that's right I'm out of money. Well, there should be ribs waiting for us back at the daycare. How's that sound for food?"

"Lava!" Magnus quickly jumped back up and started running around excitedly in front of Tyler.

"Of course you want that. I want some too. It's supposed to be legendarily good according to Wendy." Tyler pushed himself up, pressing his hand against the wall he was sitting on to prop himself up. But as he did, he felt the spot he was touching press into the wall, making him slip and stumble forward. An earthly rumble shook the hallway as Tyler turned around and saw the wall he had been sitting on sink into the ground and reveal a secret pathway further into the ruins.

"Well shit. It's about time this damn place got interesting again." Tyler excitedly clapped his hands as he stared at the secret tunnel. "I think food can wait a bit longer buddy."

"Quil…" Magnus grumbled his disappointment.

"Oh come on Magnus. Check it out; it looks like there's writing on the walls down there." Tyler jogged into the hallway at the edge of Magnus' light and placed his hands against the wall. His finger traced one of the grooves that he felt in the wall and was surprised to see that it did feel like a letter under his finger. "Magnus, come here so I can read this better."

"Quil!" Magnus quickly ran over to Tyler's side and upped the power of his flames to let Tyler see better.

"I was right, these are letters. Let's see here…" Tyler started running his fingers across the wall under the letter-like markings. "Fr-lend, no, friend…ship? Yeah, Friendship… all liv, all liy - is that a Y or a V? Dammit these letters are stupid. Friendship, all… lives to- all lives too… all lives tou – oh come on, this is not a letter! Dammit I give up. But it sounds like there's some sort of treasure down this hallway. We gotta find it Magnus! Let's go!"

Energy back in his step, Tyler and Magnus both took off down the hallway and ran further into the ruins. He could hear his footsteps echoing louder and louder off the wall as he made his way down the hall. His excitement grew larger as the volume increased; making him think he was getting closer to some kind of open room. Maybe this was where that treasure he thought he could find was there? Or if that wasn't the case, maybe there was some sort of ancient altar up ahead. Regardless, he was excited to find what this pathway had to offer.

A light filtered into Tyler's vision as he approached the end of the hallway and he stepped into a mostly open room with a simple altar positioned against the far wall. He slowed to a halt as Magnus joined him in the center of the room, both of them looking awestruck at their discovery. Maybe it wasn't the most elaborate looking altar, just a simple looking stone table on a small platform, but it felt important and that was victory enough for Tyler and Magnus.

"Now this is cool Magnus. What do you think this thing was used for?" Tyler laughed to himself as he approached the altar with a skip in his step. "I'm thinking some sort of ancient ritual."

"Lava – Quil, Quilava." Magnus took his time compared to Tyler, but soon made his own way to the altar. Meanwhile, Tyler was busy pressing his hand against the altar hoping to find another sort of switch or something that could be opened.

"This feels like its religious to me. I mean the room is kind of empty aside from this thing. Maybe if the sun hits it at the right angle there's some sort of ceremony here. I kind of want to wait and see what could happen."

"Lava?" Magnus looked curiously at Tyler.

"Of course I'm kidding, but I wouldn't mind coming back to find out later."

"Quil… Lava-va Quila." Magnus started walking away from the altar taking that as a cue to leave.

"Hey where you going buddy? I still need the light."

"-va…" Magnus grumbled as he turned back towards the altar, only to freeze in place in the middle of his turning around and keeping the light of his flames away from where Tyler needed it.

"Little closer than that buddy." Tyler crouched down at the far side of the altar.

"Quil… Quila-Quil." Now Tyler looked curiously at Magnus as he sounded like he was almost whimpering. His partner was standing in the middle of the room, visibly shaking in place with his flames receding by the moment.

"Magnus? What's up buddy? You doin' o-HOLY SHIT!" Tyler immediately joined his partner in being rooted in place as he laid eyes on the same thing Magnus had. Its body, if you could even call it that was mostly purple in color with green orbs spinning around the wispy edges of it body. Its eyes, also green cast an annoyed look on them directly towards Tyler and Magnus that was perfectly accented by its jagged frown. Further adding to the impending sense of terror this thing was casting, was a fact that Tyler somehow failed to notice immediately, and that was wisp-like thing he was looking at was floating off the ground.

"Um… M-magnus? Are you… are you seeing that?" Tyler stammered as he stared at the floating creature. Magnus didn't say anything in response, only a panicked nod in return. "And it's floating… R-r-right? It d-doesn't have a body… and it's floating!" That's when Tyler heard a laugh, low, maniacal and spine shiveringly dark in its voice. Tyler watched on in fear as the jagged frown on his face warp into a smile.

"QUIL!" Magnus bolted, racing towards the tunnel they'd taken into the room and leaving it drastically darker in comparison. Now Tyler was by himself, alone with this spirit creature in a place that very well could be a tomb if he didn't leave himself. The only remaining light existing in the room now came from the creature's fireball like orbs spinning around its face, casting the area around him in an ethereal purple glow.

"WAIT FOR ME MAGNUS!" Tyler chased off after Magnus, following the dwindling glow of his flames to find the exit out of the room. He didn't want to look behind him, didn't want to know if the apparition was chasing after him. His only thought was that he needed to catch up to his Pokémon and get the hell out of these ruins.

"What the hell Wendy?! You didn't say anything about these ruins being haunted!" Tyler screamed as Magnus' light in front of him jumped to his right. Tyler raced down the hall, placing his hand against the wall to try and see where he needed to turn. When his hand no longer touched the wall, Tyler looked right and saw the dwindling flames again in the distance and turned to chase after them.

"Dammit Magnus wait! I need you to see where I'm going!" With everything in his body screaming at him to run, Tyler channeled his fear into catching the burning blur in front of him. The two of them ran through the ruins with the panicked fireball leading the way, and Tyler eventually making up some ground as they both blindly pursued their fear driven instincts. Left, right, straight, down the curvy path to the right; none of it mattered as long as they got away from the ghost who was guarding that altar.

Suddenly Magnus skidded to a halt, turning around and running back the way Tyler and he had been going. Tyler only had a brief moment to wonder why before crashing into something that knocked him on the ground. As he stood back up again, he looked up to see what had knocked him down and immediately regretted it. Staring him back in the face were a pair of angry shark-like yellow eyes with a star shaped scar between them, and a blood red covered chest beneath its head on the opposite side of its body from what looked like a shark's dorsal fin along its back.

"WHY?! Why is there a shark in the ruins?! What is wrong with this place!?" Tyler crawled into a dead sprint as he backed away from the creature and once again chased after his Quilava in a panic induced outburst. "I am so done with this place! If I make it out of here alive, I am never going to step foot in another cave or other ancient ruin for the rest of my life!"

Hearing a low growl coming from behind him, Tyler squealed like a schoolgirl and ran past Magnus down the hallway. Honestly, he didn't know what was worse at this point, being eaten by the spirit in the altar room, or the land shark. Both were equally terrifying and he wanted nothing to do with either of them. Now he needed to find a way out of this cave for sure, but being completely disoriented by the running made Tyler's only remaining instinct be to burn a hole through the wall. A stupid option, but the only one that made sense given the scenario he was in.

"Magnus! Use Flamethrower straight ahead of us!"

"Lava-va!" Magnus' back roared to life as he spat out a column of flame that lit up the hallway infront of him.

"Spiritomb! Protect!" Suddenly Magnus' attack was interrupted, exploding against an unseen barricade in the hallway and scattering embers and smoke everywhere that quickly filled the hallway. Tyler fell to his knees, coughing mightily as he tried to get fresh air into his lungs again. But the clouds were getting were beginning to suffocate him and Tyler needed to blow the smoke away somehow.

"Caelum! *cough cough* Use Tailwind to *cough* blow the smoke away!" Tyler released his Staraptor from his ball, who quickly flapped his wings with vigor and the smoke receded down a branching path to let Tyler catch his breath again. As soon as he finished gasping for air however, the breath he'd regained was lost just as quickly in terror upon seeing the floating spirit from before in the middle of the pathway. "Oh come on; not you again!"

"What do you think you're doing using a Flamethrower in these ruins?" An angry sounding voice bellowed from the spirit's direction. "You need to be more careful here. You could have damaged the ancient carvings."

"It's talking to me!" Tyler shrieked. "I changed my mind; I think I'll take my chance with the land-shark! Let's get out of here guys!"

"Hold it! Stop running or you'll get even more lost!" The voice called out again.

"I don't want to get my soul eaten by you!" Tyler ran ahead of his Pokémon once again, hoping to find some sort of branching path down this hallway before running into the land shark again.

"Garchomp, stop him before he hurts himself." Tyler heard the growl of the shark from earlier and out of nowhere saw those same yellow eyes right in front of him. Before he had time to react he crashed into the creature yet again, knocking his injured shoulder against its body and fell to the floor where he landed on it a second time, doubling over under a tidal wave of pain.

"Ow, dammit!" Tyler rolled on the floor, partly in pain but also trying to get away from the creature he'd hit a second time now. "Fuck my shoulder."

"Star! Staraptor!"

"Quilava!" Both Tyler's Pokémon jumped in front of their trainer, Magnus' flames igniting with furor that lit up the beast's shadow and revealed his massive form. He towered over Caelum and Magnus with its purple skin and bloody red underbelly. But more terrifying than that was its claws, looking like razor sharp blades with wings on the back of them. Its draconic tail and the shark fin on its back weren't helping either. This creature looked like a beast straight out of hell that would rip Tyler to shreds underneath its demonic gaze before passing it off to the purple spirit to eat his soul. The beast opened its mouth, leaned down towards Magnus and Caelum and roared at the two of them loudly, echoing for what felt like an eternity off the walls. However, both Caelum and Magnus stood their ground, Caelum even flew up to the beast's eye level and cawed an intimidating shriek of his own in the beast's face. But he wasn't fazed, raising his claw as it started to glow a bright white color and held it above Caelum.

"That's enough Garchomp!" The floating spirit's voice called out before the beast could attack, stopping his slash before it could hit the Staraptor. Tyler heard what he thought were footsteps coming from the voice's direction as well, getting louder with each of their clacks against the stone floor. But the creature was floating, why would it now need to take steps? Something wasn't adding up. He rolled over to his other side, propping himself up against the wall while grasping at his shoulder.

"Hey, are you okay?" Now the voice was asking if Tyler was hurt? Something really wasn't adding up for him. The spirit wanted to steal his soul didn't it? Why would it care if he was hurt? Tyler looked over at the direction of the voice again and saw something new, a woman jogging towards him.

She looked like a floating head at first, but as she approached Tyler and stepped into Magnus' light, Tyler could see that her outfit was just black, and looked surprisingly elegant for someone exploring ancient ruins. She was wearing a black coat over her body that went down to just below her knees, lined with a puffy black fur and was clasped together in a teardrop broach at her chest. Beneath that, more black in the form of a black pantsuit that covered her body except for a v-shape of exposed skin beneath her neck that went to the broach. But Tyler's eyes widened when he finally caught a glimpse of her hair, a golden cascading river of blonde locks that went down just as far as the coat did. He didn't even notice the large black beads on the side of her head at first, he was that mesmerized by her luxurious, silky looking hair.

"Are you an angel?" Tyler asked deliriously with pain still running wildly though his body.

"No, but I know one." The woman remarked as she kneeled beside Tyler. "Where are you hurt?"

"Shoulder." Tyler growled through the pain as he gingerly tapped it with his finger. Without waiting, the woman grabbed the collar of Tyler's shirt and pulled it, seeing the bruise on his collarbone and gasped.

"Hold on, let me help." She reached into her coat and pulled out a bottle of water, placing it on the ground before Tyler and her. Then she reached in a second time and pulled out a Poké ball, enlarging it and pointing it towards the water bottle. "Glaceon! Could you help me please?"

"Glae!" The familiar looking Pokémon cried out, standing on all fours beside the water bottle.

"Use Ice Beam on that water bottle to make me an ice pack."

"Glaceon?" Tyler looked at the woman's Glaceon, remembering Yuki and a smile came to his face as jagged beams of blue energy shot out of its mouth, hitting the water bottle. Within moments, it had frozen solid and the Glaceon finished its attack, picking up the frozen bottle in its mouth and dropping it on Tyler's lap.

"Thanks very much Glaceon."

"Yeah, thank you." Tyler said placing his hand on the Glaceon's forehead and rubbing it lightly, earning a smile from the Pokémon.

"Now this is a surprise. You know exactly where he likes to be petted." The woman remarked with a faint smile on her lips.

"I have a Glaceon of my own." Tyler replied as he placed the bottle against his shoulder. "She's at the daycare though so I can't introduce her to your friend."

"That's a shame; I always do like meeting new Pokémon."

"Garr…" The shark-beast stepped into Magnus' light, making both Tyler's Pokémon react defensively squawking and growling at him for a second time.

"Thank you for helping as well Garchomp. Now return." She held up a second Poké ball which shot a red beam of energy at the beast and it was absorbed into her ball.

"That was your Pokémon?" Tyler looked at the woman a surprised gasp.

"Spiritomb as well." She turned around and Tyler saw the floating spirit once again floating right behind her.

"AH! The reaper spirit!" Tyler backed away against the wall, closer towards his Pokémon. "Ma'am we need to leave. That thing is gonna eat us!"

"Huh? You mean Spiritomb? She's harmless." The woman smiled at the ghastly spirit who looked back at her with a smile as well. "But I get the feeling she's making you uncomfortable right now."

"You think? It's because of her that all this happened in the first place!"

"Spiritomb…" If this spinning, floating embodiment of death and hellfire could find a way to look sad, it was coming pretty close with what looked like a sorrowful expression in its eyes.

"I know Spiritomb. I know you were only trying to be friendly." The woman cooed as she grabbed a third Poké ball from her coat and aimed it at the apparition.

"W-wait!" Tyler blurted out as the woman was about to press the button on her ball. "I… I-I can't believe I'm about to s-say this but…" He looked at the apparent Pokémon called Spiritomb. "I'm sorry. I just have a deep seated phobia of G-ghosts and G-host type P-Pokémon. I didn't mean to be rude."

"Apology accepted." The woman smiled after a seeing her Pokémon offer as similar a response as it could before returning it to its ball. "Although that does explain why you attacked her with your Quilava earlier."

"Why do I get the feeling that you were in the direction of that attack as well?

"Probably because I actually was in the direction of that Flamethrower." Tyler felt his heart skip a beat, looking away from the woman in regret. "If it wasn't for Spiritomb, I might have been roasted by it."

"I'm sorry again!" Tyler apologized, Magnus whimpering an apology of his own as well while his flames quieted to a soft glow. "I panicked and acted on impulse."

"It's okay. In the end no one got hurt… well, aside from that bruise on your shoulder."

"Oh this? I've had that for a while." Tyler grimaced through pain again. "Moped accident, landed on my shoulder, almost broke my collarbone. Think I'll take this as an alternative to that."

"I think I would too."

"But thanks to Yuki-I mean your Glaceon, it's feeling much better. That and he's helped us break the ice between us so… he-heh. There's that too." The woman rolled her eyes at Tyler, but at least offered a smile as she stood up, holding her hand to him to help him stand as well. "Thanks."

"I'm willing to bet you want to get out of these caves don't you?"

"Is it that obvious?" Tyler said while dusting off is coat and pants.

"Before we leave though, could you introduce me to your Pokémon?"

"Oh, sure. The Quilava is my partner Magnus, and that's my Staraptor, Caelum." Both of Tyler's Pokémon quietly said their names as the woman approached them warmly.

"Hello to the both of you. My name is Cynthia. It's a pleasure to meet you."

"Cynthia? Why does that name sound familiar?" Tyler wondered to himself as the woman looked back at Tyler.

"Okay, I've met your Pokémon, but I don't think I caught your name yet."

"It's Tyler… Tyler Lawson." He extended his hand and Cynthia shook it.

"Tyler huh. I'll make sure to remember that."

"So… yeah, about getting out of here?" Tyler inquired a bit impatiently.

"Right, just follow me. But if you could keep your Quilava out to light the way for us, that would be great. My flashlight is on low batteries." Cynthia reached into her coat and pulled out a black flashlight, flicking it on only for it to dimly flicker out almost as quickly.

"Sure." Tyler did however grab Caelum's ball and return the bird to it figuring it would be way too cluttered for him to want to fly. "Lead the way."

"Of course." Cynthia started walking down the pathway that Tyler had been running from with. "So, I feel obligated to ask after what happened just now Tyler. What were you and your Pokémon doing in these ruins?"

"Honestly, just trying to kill time." Tyler answered as they turned down a path to the left. "I needed to find a way to let three hours pass and heard about the ruins, so I thought why not check them out?"

"How come?"

"Huh?"

"How come you needed to pass so much time?" Cynthia asked.

"It's about my Glaceon." Cynthia's Glaceon looked at Tyler curiously as he'd heard his name. "My girlfriend and I are trying to get her pregnant so she can have an Eevee, but I couldn't stand the thought of her getting… impregnated, so I went here to try to distract myself."

"I see…"

"I kind of feel bad about coming here though. What do you think? Should I have stayed with her?"

"That is a tough question." Cynthia commented, closing her eyes in thought. "Obviously, it's a trainer's job to look after their Pokémon. But, if it makes you so severely uncomfortable to be around her while she was being bred, it could be harmful to your Glaceon as well."

"How so?" Tyler curiously raised an eyebrow.

"I've come to learn through my travels around the world that Pokémon are highly reactive to the emotional well being of their trainers." Cynthia explained. "If the trainer is happy, more often than not, their Pokémon will pick up on their positive aura and will be happy themselves. Same goes for feelings of sadness, anger, fear and other basic emotions we commonly share."

"I see…" The group turned left a second time, finding a pathway on an incline and climbed it. "That's actually pretty interesting."

"I think so too. We trainers sometimes forget that Pokémon are sentient creatures just like us. They understand us and how we feel sometimes even better than we do."

"You can say that again." Tyler remembered Yuki's impassioned speech that she'd given him back on the night they'd first became lovers, and the conversation he'd had with Pulse just a few hours ago. "But what about you? What were you doing in the ruins tonight?"

"Oh, well exploring ancient ruins around the world is a bit of a hobby of mine." She stopped mid-answer, directing the group down a hallway they'd almost missed on their right. "From the Ruins of Alph in Johto, to the Underground Ruins of Unova, to the various caves of Kanto, Hoenn and Kalos, the dungeons of Fiore, Almia and Obliva, even the ones in the Ransei region too, my Pokémon and I have seen them all."

"Damn, you're quite the globetrotter aren't you?" Tyler said sounding impressed. "Although, I couldn't help but notice you left out the Orre region from that list."

"Oh I've been to Orre before."

"You have!" Tyler half yelled in disbelief. Finally, someone from Sinnoh who knew of the Orre region!

"That's right; I visited the Relic Caves near-."

"Agate Village. I know the place too." Tyler boasted proudly. "I'm not from Agate myself, Phenac City born and raised. But I'm traveling Sinnoh to challenge the league and make a name for myself independent of the coliseum circuit."

"And have you had any success so far?"

"I've got one badge." Tyler admitted, pointing to where it was pinned on his trainer's belt.

"The Forest Badge? So you beat Gardenia. I think I can see why with your team as it is."

"It wasn't easy." Tyler admitted. "Gardenia put up a fight, but we were just better that day."

"So what's next aside from trying to breed your Glaceon?" The group turned left once more and Tyler saw a faint white light at the end of their path.

"Well, Wendy and I are planning on participating in the Hearthome Tag Tournament this weekend."

"What a coincidence." Cynthia remarked.

"What, you're participating too?" Cynthia laughed briefly at Tyler's question.

"No, but I will be involved in the tournament's opening ceremony. The directors wanted me to give a speech to all the participants on Thursday night."

"Huh… so I guess that means you must be some real famous trainer then?"

"I suppose that is true." She answered.

"Well now I feel bad. First for being rude to your Pokémon earlier, but now for not recognizing you. I follow the competitive battling scenes of all the major regions, but for the life of me I can't recall anyone by your name."

"You know, I must admit, it is a bit refreshing to meet someone who hasn't heard of my accomplishments before, or at least cannot remember them." Cynthia smiled as they finally exited the ruins and Tyler breathed in fresh air for the first time in ages. "Usually wherever I go I draw a crowd of fans chanting my every accomplishment, especially here in Sinnoh."

"Is that why you like hanging out in ruins so much? To get away from people?"

"I wouldn't go that far."Cynthia stretched her back, running her hand through her hair as she did. "But wandering through ruins does make me feel more at peace than being in the public eye."

"Speaking of the ruins that we're now thankfully free of," Tyler looked disdainfully back at the building that could have easily been his tomb. "I found some writing on the wall before running into your Spiritomb."

"Oh, you must have found the Guardian's room."

"Guardian's room?" Tyler looked curiously at Cynthia as she looked up at the stars.

"These ruins are actually the remains of an old temple from the time of the Aura Guardians centuries ago that was dedicated to worshiping the legendary Pokémon Dialga, Palkia and Arceus." Cynthia explained. "Now I don't know if you know anything about the Aura Guardians, but back then, they used to form powerful bonds with their partner Pokémon through rituals inside these temples. That room with the altar you found is a site where the bonding ritual between Guardian and Pokémon would take place."

"Wow…" Tyler said with revered awe. "I knew it was something important… Say, you wouldn't happen to know what the letters said would you, because I could barely read it."

"Friendship, all lives touch other lives to create something anew and alive." Cynthia recited without hesitation. "I'm sure there was more to the statement than its written now, but most of the carvings have faded away so I can't be certain."

"Damn, that's disappointing." Tyler groaned.

"So Tyler, have you killed enough time yet?" Cynthia asked as started descending the lengthy stairs towards the parking lots. "I could give you a ride back to the daycare if you have."

"Uh…" Tyler pulled his phone out of his pocket, noticing a small crack on the display that wasn't there before. "Oh goddammit…, guess I need to fix that when we go back to Hearthome this weekend… Uh… nope, I still need to kill another half hour still."

"Hmmm… then how about you come with me anyway. I happen to know of a nice little ice cream parlor in town that I think is some of the best in Sinnoh. I'll buy since my Pokémon startled you so badly back in the ruins."

"Okay sure, that sounds like fun. Maybe we can keep talking about these guardians or the ruins or whatever honestly." Tyler grinned eagerly. "I've already learned a lot from you today and I'd love to learn some more."

"Then let's get going." Cynthia smiled in the moonlight, with Tyler finally noticing a warm sparkle in her silver colored eyes. Whoever this Cynthia woman was, she was definitely an interesting person. Maybe coming to these ruins wasn't such a bad thing after all.

A/N: And there you go guys, that makes 30 chapters in the books. It's hard for me to believe that all those months ago when I wrote the very first words of this story that it'd become this big and that I'd have so many people out there interested in this story. I really can't express accurately enough in words how that makes me feel you guys. But I think I know how to express that gratitude to you guys and that's by turning out more chapters. And with our tournament starting next chapter and the beginning of introductions for some of the submitted OCs very soon. There's a lot more for you guys to look forward to as we close out the year here with more content. This is DrPhill26 signing out and wishing you all a fantastic day and I hope I'll see you guys again real soon.

Tyler's team: Magnus (Quilava, Male) Caelum (Staraptor, Male) Felix (Gligar, Male) Yuki (Glaceon, Female)
Wendy's team: Pulse (Lucario, Male) Tess (Ampharos, Female) Yuri (Lilligant, Female)