Chapter 31: Cresselia (the Good One) Explains it All

Another female voice called out, "Yes that's exactly it! Never abandon hope!"

There was a flash of light and as we turned, vines came in and wrapped around Cresselia, while a voice shouted, "You stay away from them!" I looked to the side and saw James with Carnivine using Vine Whip and Cacturne holding his arms out ready to use Pin Missile. And beside them was…

I rubbed my eyes, "Another Cresselia?!"

A yellow light shone from Cresselia's body, and a black Pokémon was wrapped in the vines. But it took advantage of its thinner size and squirmed out of the vines.

Palkia shouted, "WHAT?! WHAT IS THIS?! WHO IS THIS?!"

Cresselia dashed in front of us and pushed the Pokémon back, letting Cacturne fire Pin Missile. The Pokémon was knocked on the ground and stayed there panting. Cresselia said, "Excellent! We were just in time!"

I looked past her to try and get a better look at the other Pokémon. I've seen dat one somewhere before… Holy smokes, dat's a Darkrai!

Darkrai panted, "Blast you… Cresselia! I've been foiled! Just as I was about to dispose of those meddlers once and for all!"

James pointed, "Not today! It ends now, for you!"

Darkrai glared at James, "You! I thought I saw the last of that old fool's meddling when I destroyed his connection! How are you in this world?! And with different Pokémon?"

I raised an eyebrow. Dat's right… Pokémon here don't know about Poké Balls.

Cresselia said, "Please listen, Rio, Meowth, and Palkia. You have been misled all this time! By Darkrai there!"

Palkia shouted, "WHAT?!" Rio and I just stood and listened as Cresselia explained.

"The Cresselia you thought you knew until now… was not me! That false Cresselia was nothing more than an illusion made by Darkrai! It was merely a mockery of me!"

I growled, glaring at Darkrai, "I knew somethin' was fishy about all dis!"

Cresselia glared, "Darkrai! Using an illusory duplicate of me to deceive others… is so typical of you! But you usually never bring your actual self out of hiding! You normally operate under the cover of darkness! That you'd personally emerge from the shadows to dispose of these two… That is so very unlike you!"

Darkrai paused for a long moment, lifting off the ground, floating, "You two, behind Cresselia…"

Rio and I tensed up as he went on, "Pay close attention."

He spread his arms outward, "Now, the one truly responsible for exploiting the space distortion…? For shrouding the world in nightmare…?" He put a hand on his chest and bowed slightly, "It is my doing. Mine alone."

I felt my blood boil, "What?"

Darkrai chuckled, "You are more than welcome to try and stop me. Come to me in Dark Crater."

Both James and Cresselia said, "You're not getting away, Darkrai!" Cresselia charged forward and James said, "Carnivine, Vine Whip!" A black hole surrounded Darkrai and the vines only snatched air.

I heard James curse, "Drat!"

Darkrai's voice echoed, "You cannot catch me, Cresselia… Not ever. You two… I shall be waiting in the Dark Crater."

Rio muttered, "Dark Crater…?"

-Vlad's POV-

Sunshine was all in a huff again.

Once Rio and Meowth were late for the morning meeting, he sent Dash to go get them. Two minutes later, Dash ran back here in a panic saying that there wasn't any sign of them and that there were two giant footprints inside the bluff. We had been sent to fan out and search ever since this morning.

I was stationed in the skies above Treasure Town, in case they came back. Dash and Levi were crisscrossing the countryside west of the mountain range, hoping to catch a sign of them, Siltram, Damus and Cathy were asking around Treasure Town, the guild and the beach, respectively, to see if anyone had seen them. Once they turned up empty, they left to search every area that they could. Rose teleported Hogan, Savage, Penny and Mel to the east side of the mountain range and they split up to search.

In truth, the first one I went looking for was Meowth's friend, but he was gone too. I sat cross-legged in the air. I would've been much better at searching the countryside than acting as a sentry. Then an orb of light appeared, moving over the sea and going into the bluff for a few seconds, the inside flashed and then the light departed once again.

I flew over and phased into Meowth's home, seeing Meowth, Rio and even James back, as if they'd been there the entire time. They were accompanied by a strange-looking Pokémon too. They all turned to me and I was about to say something, when Meowth said, "You would not believe da night we had…"

I just gestured over my shoulder, "I'll call everybody back. You have some explaining to do." I flew over the mountain range, a good central point for the signal. I sent a massive Shadow Ball straight up into the sky and watched as it exploded. From different locations, a Thunderbolt, Dark Pulse, Psybeam, Focus Blast, Seed Bomb and Razor Wind shot up into the sky, signaling that everybody knew to return.

-Rio's POV-

Cresselia accompanied us back to the guild infirmary and her glow enveloped Azurill. He slowly relaxed and woke up. We met up with the rest of the guild and our recruits at the town square and Marill had been there, about to visit Azurill that day too. The two brothers had another heartfelt reunion.

Marill turned to Cresselia, "You did it, Miss Cresselia! Thank you so much!"

Azurill said, "And Mr. Drowzee too!"

Drowzee seemed surprised, "Huh?! Me?!"

We moved out of the way as Azurill and Marill walked over and thanked Drowzee. Marill added, "You stayed to take care of Azurill this whole time. Thank you so very much!"

Drowzee rubbed the back of his head, "Well… shucks, it's the least I could do."

Meowth turned to Cresselia, "Say, Cresselia, where'd Palkia go after dropping us off?"

Cresselia responded, "Palkia is immersed within Spacial Rift… Where he's attempting to take care of the distortion of space. As the being that governs space itself, he is staking his pride on success. Given that duty, I would not expect to see him manifest here again."

Chatot said, "Well done! How remarkable! It's truly quite marvelous! Marvelous indeed, Cresselia! We'd heard of your power to dispel darkness, but only in rumor. But it was all true! I must say, this is completely marvelous!"

Focusing back on the conversation, I said, "So that's how you broke Darkrai's illusion in Palkia's nightmare and got us out of there?"

Cresselia nodded, "Indeed. I do have the power to dispel darkness… It lets me dispel darkness and awaken those in deepest sleep. Darkrai stands as an opposite to my being. He has the power to enshroud those who sleep in nightmare."

Uh-oh…

Before I could think to ask what James was worried about, Cresselia continued, "Meowth. And, Rio. Do you recall where you met my impostor? The impostor, that is to say, the first Cresselia you met… Those encounters were always within dreams, weren't they?"

I gasped and Meowth crossed his arms as he thought, "You're right! Our dreams, Azurill's nightmare… Heck, I bet it was him that told us ta go into Palkia's nightmare! Why didn't I tink o' dat?"

Cresselia said, "Darkrai has the power to create realistic illusions. What Darkrai was doing… was using his illusions to make you think you were seeing me. It was all an elaborate ruse to get at you, Rio and Meowth… So that your whole existence could be eliminated."

The guild members and our recruits all gave exclamations of disbelief.

"Whaaaaat?!" Bidoof shouted.

Chatot exclaimed, "To get rid of Rio and Meowth… from this world? E-eliminate?! Those two?!"

I heard Levi say, "Well, this explains their sudden interest in space distortions yesterday…"

Rose said, "Why didn't they tell us?"

Vlad said in reply, "If they did, it would have just caused undue worry. Besides, there was nothing we could do to prevent it from happening, since they were ambushed at night, apparently."

"Well it's shocking that he wanted to get rid of you…" Drowzee said. "But why would Darkrai plot something so complicated? Why go to all the trouble of usint a Cresselia impostor? Wouldn't it be faster to confront them directly in battle."

Cresselia replied, "I would guess… that it was all out of fear of Rio and Meowth."

I heard Dash snicker, "Go figure. I guess he's heard of how they fight, and he was afraid he'd lose."

"Yes," Cresselia said. "Because Rio and Meowth saved the world once before. That was when they prevented the collapse of Temporal Tower. But who was really the one that put the ruin of Temporal Tower in motion? Who was it that really sought to put the planet into paralysis? It was none other than Darkrai."

Meowth said, "Say what?! Dat was him too?!"

"Darkrai intends to enshroud the world in darkness. Darkrai failed to do that with the destruction of Temporal Tower. After that failure, he turned his attention to the distortion of space itself. If the distortion of space were to grow, Darkrai's power to create nightmares would also grow. What he sought to do was envelop all Pokémon in a nightmare. It was all Darkrai's doing… He was making the distortion of space expand."

"All of it…" I said. "It was all Darkrai? But we-"

Meowth cleared his throat loudly.

"I thought that the space distortion was expanding because of us."

Cresselia replied, "It is true that your existence is causing space distortion… But the distortion you cause is extremely small. Furthermore, your distortion of space won't expand on its own."

"So…" I ventured.

"Yes," Cresselia said. "The expanding distortion of space has nothing to do with you. It was blamed on you, however, so that you would be eliminated. It was all part of Darkrai's elaborate deception."

I let out a sigh of relief, before laughing, "So it's all right for us to be here after all." Meowth put a paw on my shoulder.

Wigglytuff stepped forward, "I don't know what you two went through… But… It's just not possible… for either of you, Meowth and Rio, to not belong in this world. If either of you went away, Meowth or Rio… It would make me sad. I think everyone at the guild would be sad too. It makes us happy that you're with us, Meowth and Rio! That's reason enough… to keep existing!"

I smiled, "Thank you."

Wigglytuff continued, "More than that… it's not just Meowth or Rio… Everyone here… All the Pokémon in the world… Not one of their lives is without meaning! So never think that you don't belong ever again. Stay full of cheer! All right?"

I heard a sniffle and I turned to see Meowth wiping his eyes. He said, "Don't get da wrong idea; I got somethin' in my eyes."

Corphish chimed in, "Hey, hey! But talk about dirty and dishonest! That Darkrai's a piece of work!"

Cresselia nodded, "He never comes out in the open. He does his nefarious work from the shadows. If you confront him, he will always flee… That is how Darkrai has always done things. But Darkrai is doing something so unlike him right now… He has invited Meowth and Rio to confront him…"

I nodded, "It's true. Darkrai left these parting words… 'You two… I shall be waiting in the Dark Crater.'"

Wigglytuff said, "Cresselia, you believe that he demanded Meowth and Rio come to him for a reason, don't you? Do you believe that it's a trap?"

"Yes. It's a trap. Without a doubt," Cresselia replied.

Meowth looked at me and we both nodded. I said, "It doesn't matter if it's a trap or not! If we don't stop Darkrai, the whole world will be smothered in darkness. We have to do something! Let's go!"

Cresselia paused before nodding, "…Okay. I respect your decision. I will accompany you. I have long been aware of Darkrai's scheme… I have pursued him a long time to thwart his plan. But every time I caught up to him, he would elude me… This time, he is waiting for us. I would like to settle this once and for all."

"I'll go too!" Drowzee said.

"Me too!" Chatot added.

Everybody started volunteering to go with us, but Cresselia looked around and said, "I'm so delighted by everyone's offer to help. I'm afraid that Darkrai would be scared off if too many of us were to go. This is a rare chance to corner Darkrai and stop his nefarious scheme. Please be content with just the three of us going."

Everyone was disappointed, but agreed that it was for the best. Meowth said, "Don't worry, everybody! We'll defeat 'im fa sure!"

Chatot said, "Yes! You do that!"

"If anyone can, it's you!" Drowzee added.

Bidoof said, "You all take care, by golly!"

I smiled, "Thanks, everyone!"

We met up on top of Sharpedo Bluff and Cresselia said, "You two should prepare for an exploration. We'll be leaving shortly."

I looked at James' shadow, "What about James?"

Cresselia shook her head, "As I said, a large number of Pokémon would scare Darkrai off. He'll have to stay here."

"Oh, nah, nah, nah. I've seen action movies. The bad guy pretends he's gonna meet us alone, an' he has a whole squad o' henchmen waitin' ta pounce."

"That's just a chance we're going to have to take," Cresselia replied.

"But James doesn't have to have his Pokémon out. Can Darkrai see James, specifically?" I asked

Cresselia paused and then shook her head, "Not outside of dreams, no."

Meowth clasped his paws, "Well, there ya have it, James can tag along and stay hidden as a just-in-case. If Darkrai really wants ta fight us alone (which don't make sense), great, but if not, James can help us out."

Cresselia turned to James' shadow and seemed to be in a mental conversation. After a while, she said, "There will be a slight risk in that James and his Pokémon are dream bodies, but I should be able to protect them from being taken over by Darkrai."

I reached out to James with my mind. Dream bodies?

My Pokémons' and my real bodies were put into a sleep state so that we could come into this world. I was concerned that he would be able to affect us, since we're technically asleep.

I nodded. I see, that would be cause to worry. It's impossible to tell what could happen…

"Ya know," Meowth said, "it's sad that I've known James da longest, an' I'm da only one dat can't talk ta him directly…"

James waited at the bluff with Cresselia while we left to stock up on our exploration. Meowth packed a bunch of Chesto Berries. When I asked him why, he said, "Trust me. Ya don't wanna let dis guy put you ta sleep." I decided to take his word for it as he packed a full batch of nine berries with our usual gear.

Afterwards, we met up with our recruits and Meowth said, "Alright, guys and gals, we're headin' on our second mission ta save da world. You all have da day off. If there's anythin' ya've been meaning ta do, try ta do it today. I'll go first. There's somethin' you all should know about me."

I looked at Meowth. He's doing this now? Well, I suppose he said that he meant to, but we were too busy with what's been happening. I guess he sees this as his last chance, since we might fail and the world will fall into eternal darkness.

Meowth told everything, from beginning to end; the same story that he told me. From working with a crime syndicate, to leaving and arriving in this world with no memories, to getting them back and meeting me and starting Team Righteous. "And da rest is history."

Everybody stared back, and Meowth said "I'm not makin' dis up. I'm dead serious."

The table was silent before Dash said, "That's it?"

Meowth turned, shocked, as if he expected a different response, "Huh?"

Dash smiled, "Did you think that we would suddenly hate you, and ignore all of the good that you've done? Give us some credit, Meowth."

Siltram added, "Yeah. You and Rio have always led us to do the right thing. That's why you're the bosses."

Savage said, "I don't really care, long as I get to fight tough enemies. But you better stay straight, cuz I'm always looking for a reason to kick some ass."

"What he said," Penny added.

"You may have been a bad guy once," Hogan said, "but you're definitely not evil. You've got a good heart, and you've stuck your neck out tons of times when others on the team were in trouble."

Damus said, "While I can't condone taking part in criminal activities, technically speaking, you haven't broken any laws since arriving in this world."

"For once, I agree with Sunshine," Vlad interjected.

"Besides," Damus frowned at being interrupted, "this answers my question of how you were so effective at out-predicting your opponents."

"I've read tons of stories about people who try to redeem themselves and are never accepted," Levi said. "And I've always been disgusted by others' inability to give one a second chance, so I'm willing to do so."

Rose said, "You can't have been all bad, from the sound of it. You just sound like you had a hard life and had to make some hard choices."

Cathy said, "Being on this team is much better than hanging around in Mystifying Forest all the time." She laughed, "Besides, I think this will make a great story to tell whoever you inevitably decide will be your mate."

Rose slapped her shoulder, "Be serious about this, Cathy!"

Vlad looked at Mel, who just stared resolutely and nodded, and then he said "Mel says that the past is in the past. You're fighting for the future of all Pokémon."

Meowth sniffled, "Thanks guys…" He wiped his eyes and pulled himself together. Filled with new energy, Meowth said, "Alright, Rio! Let's stop Darkrai once an' for all!"

The recruits started talking about their plans, and I heard Hogan say, "Hey Savage, wanna go for a sparring match?"

Savage turned and said, "…Nah."

Everybody in the room stopped talking and looked at Savage. Vlad floated over and said, "All right, who are you, and what have you done to our foul-tempered friend?"

Savage punched him, sending his fist straight through his face, "F*** off."

Unphased, Vlad said "Okay, it's still him."

Growling, Savage said, "I just wanted to try the Hot Springs. Primeape's always going on and on about it; thought I'd try it, so that he'd shut up about it."

Penny started saying, "I'll spar with-"

"Nope!" Cathy interrupted, pushing Penny towards the exit, "We haven't spent any girl time together, and I refuse to let you miss out and be a total muscle-head!"

"Hey!" Penny protested. "You can't-"

"We're spending the day together, whether you like it or not." Cathy pushed Penny straight out of the exit, though I don't know how. Penny's twice as tall and probably weighs much more.

Hogan crossed his arms and tilted his head as he thought, "Well, I guess I can train any day. Hmm…"

I looked at Rose, who seemed to be at odds with what to do. Suddenly, she yelped and jumped out of her seat. This got Hogan's attention and Rose stammered, "Um, do you want to spend the day together, just to hang out?"

Hogan thought about it, then shrugged, "Sure, why not?"

As they left, I noticed that Meowth had his paw on the underside of the table. I looked under just in time to see a shadow retracting to his paw.

I looked at him, "Really?"

He shrugged, "I never got anywhere wit' my crush by doin' nothin'." Then he thought, "'Course, I didn't get anywhere by doin' somethin' eitha… Meh, ya get da point."

-James' POV-

After Meowth and Rio got back, Cresselia turned and stared out over the sea, "To the northwest of here… There is a land of volcanic terrain. The Dark Crater is located there. I will guide you there."

Meowth raised an eyebrow, "Don't we hafta take da ocean paths?"

Cresselia shook her head, "Unnecessary." Her eyes glimmered and Meowth and Rio were lifted off of the ground. Rio spread his arms and balanced himself out; he appeared to have free control of my limbs, but he was levitating. Next to him, Meowth was less graceful.

"W-wh-whoa! How do ya steer dis thing?!" His arms and legs were moving every which way, trying to gain control.

Cresselia laughed, "You don't. I'm controlling your flight path, but allowing you some free movement. Don't worry; I'll be sure to keep you right-side up." Meowth stopped flailing and his limbs relaxed, remaining pointed down, as if he were standing tip-toed on the air.

When we started moving, Meowth slightly panicked again, but he relaxed after a short distance. Being a spirit, I was flying on my own. I looked at Meowth. With all of this commotion, we've had barely any time to talk… He's told me his story, but I never had a chance to tell him what was going on back home.

I reached out. Rio.

Yes?

Can you speak for me? I'd like to talk to Meowth while we're on our way. I never got a chance to tell him what was going on with my end.

Sure.

Rio got Meowth's attention and said that I wanted to talk to him. Meowth said out loud, "Yeah, Jimmy?"

Deciding to ignore his use of the nickname, I said, "I'd like to tell you about how things have been going with Jessie and I." Rio relayed the message and continued to tell it to Meowth as we flew. I was amused that Meowth was laughing at references to our previous misadventures that Rio was entirely clueless about and just repeating as per my request.

The final countdown!

Na-na-na, na!

Na-na-na-na-na!

Na-na-na, na!

Na-na-na-na-na-na!