Palmer, Thorton, and Dahlia looked upon Caitlin, who was hovering in the sky, looking down upon the terror she brought upon the Battle Frontier and its people. With a wide, jagged grin on her face, she let out a cackle so loud the three Frontier Brains below had to cover their ears, lest the monster's horrifying laugh would render them deaf. Her outburst of satisfaction didn't last long, and she descended from the sky, to an area where the Frontier Brains could deal with her directly. Palmer donned a look of pure confidence, and walked towards to spot the dreaded psychic landed, only to be stopped by Dahlia grabbing his arm.
"There's got to be another way," Dahlia pouted. "She isn't some insane person like Cyrus was, you know. She's just a little girl."
Upon hearing these words, Thorton scoffed and forcibly removed Dahlia's grip from Palmer's arm.
"Now isn't the time to be wearing goddamn blinders," Thorton retorted bluntly. "Don't you get it, Dahlia? The Sinnoh Region is doomed if we don't do this!"
"But, Thorton, this isn't happening," Dahlia said as she grabbed Thorton by the shoulders and started to chuckle. "D-Don't you see, Thorton? This is… This is all a dream."
Thorton winced in pain as Dahlia's grip on him began to tighten. He looked into the woman's large, diluted, twitching eyes, and saw the raw fear that was within them.
"Dahlia, you're… You're hurting me, Dahlia!" Thorton yelped. "What the heck's gotten into you!?"
"I-It's okay, don't you see?" Dahlia said as her small chuckle erupted into a loud, screeching laugh. "This is all a dream! Everything's fine! The Battle Frontier's okay, can't you see!?"
Dahlia threw Thorton to the ground, and she then pounced right on top of him and grabbed him by the neck.
"E-Everything is fine, Thorton…," Dahlia said. "FOR LADY CAITLIN IS OUR SAVIOR."
Thorton's eyes widened when he heard these words come out of the mouth of his fellow Frontier Brian, but before he could respond, Palmer whacked Dahlia right in her head, and knocked her out. Thorton took her hands off of his neck, and scuttled away from her as quickly as she could.
"She's in denial of the situation, and it drove her mad," Palmer said. "Can't say I blame her."
"It's more than that," Thorton said, rubbing his neck. "That last thing she just said… I think Cailin was… speaking through her."
"ALWAYS THE SHARP ONE."
Dahlia got up from the floor, despite the blow that the strong Frontier Brain gave her, but something was definitely off with her this time: everything on her person was in place, but the most glaring things about her was her once beautiful tan skin, which was now a sickly paper white color, and her eyes were wide and completely devoid of their irises. Dahlia's long black hair was a bleached grey-white, and her mouth was reworked into a large, crooked grin.
"W-What the hell!?" Thorton yelled. "D-Dahlia!? W-What the—"
"No!" Palmer yelled. "It's Caitlin… She's possessed Dahlia!"
"AND YOU'RE NEXT!" Dahlia yelled in a loud, warped voice. "BUT FIRST…"
Dahlia grabbed Thorton again, but this time by his throat!
"LET'S SHOO OUT THE CLOWNS."
She slammed Thorton down to the ground and began to relentless strangle him. Thorton struggled and gasped for air, and clawed at Dahlia's hands and arms as he struggled to get free, digging into her skin so deep he begun to tear some flesh off. But that didn't faze the mad psychic's puppet, and proceeded to tighten her grip on Thorton's neck, laughing manically as she did it. Thorton looked at Palmer, who attempted to reach out to him, but Palmer couldn't move a single inch, for the ordeal once again proved too much for him, and he froze in place. Tears welled up in Thorton's eyed uncontrollably, and his eyes rolled up in his head as Dahlia's grip tightened, and tightened, and tightened, until…
*CRACK!*
And there laid Thorton, dead and cold, as another victim to Caitlin's monstrous malice. Dahlia let go of Thorton's neck, and her paper white skin began to return to its natural tan color. Her eyes regained their beautiful irises, her hair was once again black and charcoal, and her crooked grimace became a small, sweet smile. But the moment she laid eyes on the corpse of Thorton, her fellow Frontier Brain, she broke down in tears, and begun to tear her beautiful hair out. Palmer walked towards Dahlia and reached a hand out, but she swatted it away in anger and fear.
"Y-You… You let me kill him…," Dahlia whimpered. "You could've s-stopped me… You could've done something… But you let me kill him…"
"D-Dahlia, it wasn't you," Palmer said, tears running down his cheeks. "It was her using your body—"
"SHUT UP!" Dahlia yelled. "YOU COULD'VE STOPPED ME! YOU LET HIM DIE!"
Dahlia fell to the floor, yelling and grabbing her head, hitting herself and tearing her hair out.
"A half-hour later and our workday would've been over…," Dahlia said, in a calm, quiet voice completely belying the loud, broken tone she just ranted in. "A simple thirty minutes and the day would've been done, and we'd all be home…"
Dahlia turned to Palmer, who didn't know what to say.
"It's fate, Palmer," Dahlia said with a smile. "It's fa—"
And the Frontier Brain's head exploded into a mass of blood and brains, spilling all over Palmers face and body.
"Déjà vu."
That voice belonged to the one who started this entire mess: Lady Caitlin herself. Palmer didn't freeze or keel over this time, because he knew what had to be done for the nightmare to end. Caitlin appeared before him, looking the same way she's always looked, aloof, innocent… and completely covered in blood and innards.
"Why?" Palmer asked.
"Why what?" Caitlin asked in a cutesy voice.
"Destroying the Battle Frontier, our home," Palmer said. "Killing all these innocent trainers and their Pokémon, killing… your own comrades. Thorton, Dahlia… Darach, your own butler… Why?"
Caitlin walked around, leaving footprints of blood with each step she took.
"Because I was sick of sitting in a chair while everybody else was having fun," Caitlin said nonchalantly.
"So that means everybody had to die and everything had to be destroyed!?" Palmer yelled. "You know why you can't battle, don't you?"
"YES. And I don't care. Do you think living in a world where you can't do the one thing everybody else in the world is able to do is fun experience?" It is NOT."
"You didn't ask to be born with psychic powers, I understand that. But… we had to do this, don't you see? It was for your own good!"
"NO, IT WASN'T!"
Caitlin lifted a hand, and Palmer began to rise in the air.
"It was for the good of you, your 'Frontier Brain' buddies, and every other spineless joke in this world!" Caitlin yelled. "It wasn't to protect me from all of you, it was to protect all of you from ME. They did this because they were afraid of me… Cynthia's afraid of me… Darach was afraid of me…"
"YOU are afraid of me," Caitlin said as she motioned her hand and made Palmer get closer to her. "But that's okay, and do you know why?"
Caitlin clenched her hand, and Palmer yelled in agony, begging Caitlin to stop. But it was inevitable, as Palmer's head, much like Nurse Joy and Dahlia before him, exploded. Caitlin dropped Palmer's dead, headless body on the ground.
"Because in death, you have nothing to fear," Caitlin said.
Caitlin went up into the air once again, to look down upon the havoc she wreaked. The Battle Frontier, a beautiful place where Pokémon Trainers from far and wide would come together to battle, converse, and have the time of their lives, was now a wasteland of demolished buildings. Each and every one of the happy, lively inhabitants of the Battle Frontier were now either dead by Caitlin's or their own hand, missing, or frozen in shock, as they were unable to fathom what's just transpired at the place they'd always go to just to have fun. But Caitlin didn't care. All Caitlin wanted to do was battle, and these people wouldn't let her. These people were all having fun without her. They were enjoying themselves, and having the time of their lives… without her. Every trainer, every Pokémon, even Darach and her fellow Frontier Brains never bothered to consider her feelings. They deserved to die, each and every one of them… at least, that's what she kept telling herself, as she flew away from the destroyed Battle Frontier in tears. She didn't bother to look back at the destruction she wrought, because even she couldn't fathom that what had happened was of her own doing.
She didn't know what to think anymore, except for one thing: she was a monster, even worse than some of the most ferocious, more destructive, most horrifying Pokémon. Deep down, she didn't want it to be this way, but she couldn't think of any other way. But that's when it finally rung in her head, what had to be done for this nightmare to end…
"It's me," Caitlin said, in a soft, solemn, but gravely, monstrous tone of voice.
She took both her hands – her dirty, bloodstained hands – closed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and plunged them straight into her chest. She writhed in agony and pain, but knew that what she was about to do was inevitable, and had to be done. She pulled her hand out of her chest… with her heart coming out after them. She stared at her heart – a disgusting, mangled mess of veins and arteries – seized it with both her hands, and crushed it into a mass of bloody glob. Caitlin cracked a smile as she plummeted from the sky and crashed into the water below, where the sea claimed her dead, lifeless body.
TWO WEEKS LATER…
"So, this is where is happened?" a pale-skinned, blonde-haired boy in an orange-and-white striped shirt and green scarf asked. "This is where my dad died?"
The man he asked was plan-skinned and blonde-haired like him except he was taller, and had on a dark blue jacket, black pants, and a chain hanging from his hip. The man started at the young boy who asked him this question with her cold, blue eyes.
"Yeah," the man said. "Your old man died here, Barry."
Barry started at the Battle Frontier, which was wiped clean of its ruined facilities and the dead trainers and Pokémon lining its streets, and was now being repaired. Countless workers were walking around, carrying lumber and stone from one place to the next, rebuilding the once ruined facilities, of course with a couple of Pokémon helping them out.
"How?" Barry asked the man.
The man closed his eyes.
"The higher-ups at the League won't let me, kid," the man said. "Sorry."
Barry grabbed him by the arm.
"Volkner, please," Barry begged, as a single tear dripped down his cheek. "How did my dad die?"
Volkner signed and wrapped a hand around Barry.
"A girl called Caitlin killed him," Volkner said. "She was a Frontier Brain, like him."
"Caitlin…," Barry said. "The girl from the Battle Castle that would hand out Castle Points? She killed him? She… She k-killed all of them? How…? How did a little girl like her… do all of this?"
Volker gave out another sigh.
"That question's better left unanswered, Barry," Volkner said. "Trust me. It's for your own good."
"That's the same thing that butler guy said when I asked him about her all those months ago," Barry said as he took Volker's arm off his shoulder, and walked off without another word.
"Barry," Volkner called out.
Barry turned to Volkner again, crossing his arms and trying to hold back tears.
"There are monsters out there, Barry," Volkner said. "But these kinds of monsters are different. They're nothing like Pokémon – they're true evil, they're true despair… And they're always around, even in places where you'd least expect them."
Barry turned away from Volkner again.
"Some more than others, it seems," Barry said as he left Volker and went his own way.
Volkner took one last look at the Battle Frontier, and left the premises without a trace.