Thanks to everyone who gave me a review! I understand this chapter is a bit late, yet I couldn't update for the past three days, so please bear with me.

Chapter 26

"What is the meaning of all of this sister?" The beast's deep voice was strained with anger and the fury that was boiling over. His cave was under the sea, his sea, and his domain remained large.

Sundav bowed her head, "You know humans, brother. I could not stop them." The light bird gave off an aura of light that filled her brother's dark cave, illuminating every stalactite and detail carved from years of water movement.

"You know of the humans that did this." He stated. Not asked, the beast knew his sister too well to ask a silly question such as that. He wouldn't snap at this point, with only his sister to take his rage out on. That would not do, especially since she would provide no fight for him.

"I do." Sundav replied quietly. "Do you remember Mystic?"

"Yes."

"Mystic has finally been reborn." She murmured, turning her head to one side, as if refusing to meet her brother's eyes.

The beast paused for what seemed like a century. His feathers, slick and smooth as always, had come up slightly from shock. "You surprise me sister." He finally said coldly, "That-that human? Your pitiful choice of mortals is showing sister."

"Mystic was a good mortal, for the while I knew her." Sundav replied without enthusiasm, knowing that this old argument would never be won. "She already has the right Pokemon so far as well."

"…Continue." There was no effort in the word. Just 'continue'.

"The bird of the sky-named for the night's jewels. A Swellow. A Swellow named Star." Sundav leveled a glare in her brother's direction, "The daughter of a Pokesprite and half a Pokemon she does not appear to be. The half-Absol that appears to be full Vulpix, Althea. Must I continue?"

"Star and Althea eh? A lucky break, I say. No human I've ever known has ever been reborn." The beast of the sea shifted in his bed of water, "So why is it possible that this is true?"

"People can be reborn, brother." Sundav growled, "It takes thousands of years for them, but it can be done. Unlike Pokemon, who can come back about three hundred years, it takes a very special human to come back to life." Realizing she'd hit a nerve, Sundav continued, "And that's why your old friend hasn't come back."

"DO NOT SPEAK OF SELRA LIKE THAT!" He roared, shaking the whole of the caves as his got up and opened his wings; displaying a very intimidating sight. "If you are here to insult me, you'd best get out now sister!"

"You insulted my old friend, why do you feel the need to say that insulting yours is not okay?"

"Continue, maybe I will believe you." Sundav's brother settled down again, but still was fluffed up from anger.

"…I do not remember what the third Pokemon would have to be." She murmured, "That was why I tried to stop."

It was always the truth that Sundav and her brother told one another. Only here could Sundav say whatever she pleased without draining her powers. Her brother's power hung heavy in the air, but it was what stopped Dominus's controlling magic from taking effect here. "I remember it." The beast of the sea stirred the water of his cave in circles, unknowingly creating waves on the ocean surface. "The third was supposedly more powerful than Marina herself. A small Pokemon with powers even the late legendary Marina could not even imagine. And of humble origins, to top it off. I cannot believe you forgot that one, of all the Pokemon required."

As one, Sundav and her brother swept their wingtips across their hearts, remembering what the cruel creature Marina could do. The three nightmare Pokemon: Oxren, Blatos, and Rikeren; the Pokemon that had once been Moltres, Articuno, and Zapdos. Or parts of them.

Marina had been a cruel Pokemon, a fallen legendary as well. The great Mew had seen to that, after learning of what she had done. Sundav and her brother had still been chicks when Marina had done the unspeakable in creating her three nightmares. Oxren had the body of a monster, but the heart and heat of one very unfortunate Moltres. Rikeren had the body of Zapdos, but was a cruel beast with seemingly no heart at all. And worst of all, Blatos had been a mistake, trying to get the soul of an Articuno, and none of anything else. The soul of the tortured Articuno, she had never been able to truly pass on. Though by legend it was Blatos that was cruelest to her 'trainer'.

"The reincarnate of Mystic, her name is Sara, has her third Pokemon, a Flygon named Sandsinger. But I daresay that Flygon are not small." Sundav murmured, "So it must be the Espeon. Karen, the silver-furred Espeon, probably fills the third requirement."

Her brother cleared his throat, "I thought that the required Pokemon were listed in the order they had to be caught."

"Maybe." Sundav murmured, "But maybe not. Sara does not know of anything we are speaking of at the moment. She would like to hear that one of her Pokemon is special in that way."

"What of the fourth, fifth, and sixth Pokemon?"

"I do not remember those either." Sundav admitted, her voice turning dull and flat as she realized that was a very bad thing.

"I remember… one… it was… a Pokemon of many talents that speaks nothing but the truth." Sundav's brother stammered out, "And this Pokemon supposedly wasn't captured in the normal way."

"I doubt she has that one yet." Sundav replied, thinking about Meep and snorting slightly, "Unless her kitten has many talents, and my help made the capturing… different."

"Sundav… you really need to stay here for a little while." His tone was worried, but as always, Sundav's brother loved her company, even if they got along almost never.

Sundav looked down at her feathers, which were pastels in color. "I guess you are correct, brother." She stated, sitting down and staring at her brother with amusement. "So, how is your life going, swims-with-fishes?"

"Here, kitty-kitty! Come here!" Adam cooed under his breath when the silver Espeon, Karen, came closer to the tree he and Famulus were hiding behind. Her eyes were glued to a bright little thing on a string that Adam was pulling in. She dropped into a hunter's crouch before two kittens, a Squee and a Naki, beat her to the toy and dragged it away, pulling the string right out of Adam's hands.

"Nice one." Famulus growled sarcastically, "We will so get killed if you continue playing around like this."

Adam bit back a retort as the Vulpix Althea joined them, smoke pouring from her nostrils. Karen padded up next to her, saw what she did, and growled. "Uh oh." Was all Adam could think of saying as he turned and fled for his life, Famulus and fire following him.

"What's going on?" Drake asked as Karen came back from the bushes without Althea and pressed her forehead against his leg urgently.

Karen told him once that her psychic powers could be used for communication once. Drake had his doubts that anyone else knew, but it seemed pretty obvious, so he kept his mouth shut about it. "It's Dominus's cronies, Adam and Famulus." She spoke to his mind.

Drake had taken a break from the Pokemon Center, leading out all the Pokemon that wanted fresh air. At the moment, it was only Meep, Squee, Karen, Althea, and Dorovi that wanted to leave. Dorovi was sunning himself like a lazy lump on a tree stump at the moment, carelessly ignoring Drake running past him back to the Pokemon Center.

"Evil trainers!" He cried, startling his friends and their Pokemon from their lunch.

"Did they have horns?" Pocky asked sarcastically, chewing on a stick of her favorite food, Pocky.

"No…"

"Then they couldn't have possibly been evil." She nodded and went back to her lunch. Althea and Karen nosed their way in, and Althea barked something at Sara.

"Why is it that all the girls understand them and we don't?" Jacob asked as he observed Pocky, Sara, Rena, and Elvina stiffen.

"Because you're not special." Pocky muttered to him.

"Adam and Famulus?" Sara asked, looking up to Drake, who nodded, "That's just wonderful, they know where we are."

"So what? We're leaving here today anyway…" Rena muttered, watching a trainer with a Growlithe walk by and give them all a level glare. "And I'll be happy to go too."

"Althea says they fled from her and she chased them far from here." Sara translated, "So that means we had time to leave now."

"What did I miss? Leave? We just got here…" Dorovi grumbled, having sat down and pressed his warm scaled side to Drake's leg. He muttered something of an apology to his trainer, something about stupid electronic doors. Drake knew for a fact that his Pokemon had left his sunning place very reluctantly.

"I'm not leaving so quickly." Pocky muttered, "The lizard's right, we did just get here. So I'm staying, since these trainers probably don't even know I exist."

Devon grinned and leaned on Rena, just to be shoved away, "We're staying too." He said, "Just incase these trainers do know Pocky exists."

Jacob muttered something about food and Alkie with his excuse to stay as Sara got up and was followed by Elvina and their Pokemon. Mellow came to perch on Drake's shoulder. "You look good Mell." He told his Swellow with a grin, Mellow had been preened for the first time in a long while, and his feathers were looking good. As they exited the Pokemon Center with their Pokemon, Solorite and Fiendre bringing up the rear, Squee and Meep attacked Sara's shoes. The blonde girl explained to Squee what was happening and the Naki cast a tearful look at Meep before going into the Center without him.

Mellow didn't reply, he was too busy singing for his Star. She flew above him, casting looks down at him and sometimes adding a note to the song. Rio eventually joined them, his eyes shadowed.

"Isn't she wonderful?" Mellow asked in a dreamy voice which didn't fit him at all. His sights were fixed on Star and wouldn't look away.

"Earth to lover-boy. Come in lover-boy!" Dorovi exclaimed from the ground.

Mellow casually ignored him and flapped over to Sara, where he sat down on her free shoulder. Star had landed, since flying in soot wasn't very good for her. Soot was falling freely over them all, and most of the Pokemon returned to their Pokeballs because of it. Faithful Dorovi stayed out though, half-buried in soot.

"This stuff stinks." He complained though, over and over again.

Dorovi got the shock of his life as he stepped on a discolored patch of ground and a little boy jumped out from it. "Out of the soot I jump!" He cried, brandishing a sword, "I challenge thee!"

"Uhhhh… no you don't. Challenge my trainer, not me."

"Sure, I accept." Drake said, grinning down at his Pokemon, "One-on-one?"

"I wasn't talking to you!" The ninja boy, by the looks of his clothes, growled as he pointed the sword at Elvina's nose, "I was talking to her! Yeah, that's right!"

"It wasn't me you where challenging." She argued, "You didn't jump out when I passed you!"

"Well… I uh… challenge you now! How about that?"

"How about no?"

"Alright, alright… how about you little lady?" The ninja boy turned to Sara, "Would you like to battle?"

"Why don't you just battle Drake?" Rio asked softly, "You did challenge him…"

"Now look here!" The ninja boy stepped forward, a big mistake. For he had stepped on the tail of a seriously angry Fiendre. The old Houndoom snarled and snapped as the boy turned around and ran for his life.

"You owe me a battle!" Drake yelled after him, but the boy took no notice.

"That's was just plain strange." Elvina muttered when Fiendre returned, looking very chagrined. They continued on, until another ninja boy jumped out.

"I challenged her." He stated, pointing at Sara, "Now battle me."

Rio, who stepped on the ninja boy this time, snorted, "Yeah, right. You challenged me, now we have to battle!"

The boy narrowed his eyes, "I didn't challenge you. I challenged her! That's right, the blue-haired one. Ouch!" Elvina had knocked him out cold from a hit to the side of his head.

She dusted off her hands, "Let's keep going, shall we?" Elvina asked as if she hadn't done anything.

They two boys kept a good distance away from Elvina as they kept going through the soot-covered path and eventually reached a strip of grass that lead away to a sun-filled pass that would eventually become desert. Sara walked over to Drake when they finally got away from the soot, and offered him his Mellow back. "Tired of being a pile of Swellow, eh?" He asked with a laugh as he perched his ruffled Swellow on his shoulder. Mellow resisted for a while.

Sara laughed, "You don't know the half of it. But maybe Star will visit Mellow sometime…" Star squawked something to her trainer, causing her to giggle, fluffed her feathers and turned her head away from Drake.

"That was mean." Dorovi stated, but he was letting off small lizard laughs.

"Alright, what was Star's insult this time?" Drake asked in a monotone voice, causing Sara to laugh even more. He was quite used to the Swellow's sassiness by now, and was very glad he couldn't understand her most of the time.

"I'm not saying." Dorovi responded, snickering slightly. Sara shrugged and refused to say, while Mellow just stared at his Star.

"What do you have to say?" Drake muttered to his own Swellow.

"I love her." Mellow said in that same star-struck tone.

"Oh, no you don't!" His trainer exclaimed as he caught the bird by his talon and held him. "Give Sara some peace! I know Star is pretty and-"

"Don't hit on Berry!" Mellow squawked in reply.

"Who's Berry?"

"My Berry." The male Swellow cocked his head at Star, who was fluffed up as Sara walked farther away from them.

Drake hurried to catch up and let Mellow sit on his shoulder while Star shifted to be close to him. "You nicknamed her Berry?"

"Yup. And do you want to know what she named me?"

"This'll be good." Dorovi said, still snickering.

"Go on…"

"She named me Thorn! Isn't it lovely!"

Dorovi was nearly crying with laughter. Even his trainer had to stifle laughter, "Uhhhh, I don't think Star likes you-"

"Nonsense! Berry loves me!"

"It sure doesn't look like it…" Drake sighed, but knew he couldn't argue with the bird.

"Sassy, eh?" Dominus growled, having his Pokeball returned to his hand, empty. Blatos jeered at him and flew upward, out of range. The bird had no real form to speak of; she just appeared as a cloud, much like Gastly. A blue cloud in the shape of a very large bird, to be exact.

"You'll never catch me!" She roared with squawking laughter before the fallen legendary was gone.

Dominus snorted, this was just how it ended with the nightmare. Oxren and Rikeren loved the darkness; they had come to him easily enough. But Blatos? No, she still had a heart of her own and no darkness could ever really touch the soul of an Articuno. But he tried, he tried…

"Masssssster, I think ssssssshe'ssssss gone." The Serptra at his feet, a long, skinny thing, hissed. A dark and poison type, this certain Serptra followed him around, feeding off his dark aura. Her head was narrow, flat, and black, the red eyes fiery. Her long body was thin and much longer than any other snake-like Pokemon, was forest green and mottled with black.

Dark types didn't need dark control bands, they by nature served Dominus. This one was no exception. "I could have guessed that." Dominus replied with a dark laugh.

"Sssssshall I fffollow her?" Serptra hissed.

"And what would you do when you found her?"

"Ssssssoul offfff Articuno sssssoundssss like a good ssssnack."

"Go have fun."

"You promised Sandsinger you'd let her out, remember?" Star asked with a friendly peck to the side of her trainer's head to get her attention back.

Sandsinger had been ready to beg and plead Sara to let her out, and it hadn't been hard for her to convince her trainer to let her out in the desert. She had said it was because of the desert flies (Sandsinger's favorite food.) and she wanted to eat them. But it wasn't hard to figure out that the Flygon was missing her own kind.

The Flygon blinked when she was released from her ball, looked at the desert in the distance, and exclaimed happily. "Come on Sara! Let's go, let's go!" She literally picked up her trainer and flew off with her. Star wasn't too happy about this, she was left behind.

Her friends hurried to follow them, Sandsinger was making good time. "You look happy." Sara observed, and her Flygon bobbed her head happily.

"I am happy! I get to see friends!"

"But this isn't Sun-"

"Doesn't matter! Everyone of my kind is a friend! And maybe Star-bird, but I like you!"

Sara blinked, "I like you too. Can you set me down now?" She put her Go-goggles on when they entered the sandstorm going on. Sandsinger didn't seem phased at all by it. She let her trainer down, and immediately, Sara stumbled and fell.

She got up to see her Flygon standing on the sand like a statue, not even twitching. "What's wrong?"

Sandsinger shook her head and pointed. Sara followed her clawed finger to see what she was staring at. Large groups of Vibrava were staring at them, red eyes glinting malevolently. Sara and Sandsinger had fallen for a trap!