Chapter 2

The rain didn't get worse, exactly, but I did notice its effects more. First, it helped increase the water level in my cell, and the whole prison, quite quickly. Within what I guessed was an hour of the main door opening, the water level had risen from knee-deep to waist-deep on me, and I was now standing on my bed in a useless attempt to keep as dry as possible.

Outside, the roar of the rain and crash of thunder obliterated most sounds, but I could still hear the waves slamming up against the outside wall of the base. Judging by the sound and the way the water kept splashing in through the window, either the sea level had risen dramatically or the waves were insanely rough.

The clouds were still black and still totally covered the sun, but the lightning - which had gotten worse, and closer, over the last hour - lit up the sky often and well enough that I could mostly see normally. Not that there was much to see, but at least there was light.

I didn't know how long it was later, but the water had risen almost to my knees over the bed and I was feeling almost tired enough to fall asleep standing up when I heard a faint noise outside. I instinctively looked up, then remembered that I couldn't see straight out my window anyway.

I still looked out anyway. A few minutes after I had heard the noise, something passed by my window. Whatever it was was skinny and bent over at the end like a person bowing...

Or a submarine periscope.

I started yelling for help out the window, but the thunder and water were so loud I could barely hear myself. Instead, I hopped down off my bed and dragged it to the wall by the window, hoping I could wave out of it and catch the sub pilot's attention. It took a little while, and a lot of effort, and a lot of spitting - the water was up nearly to my neck standing on the floor - but I managed to get the bed close enough for my plan to work.

The sub had passed by twice more already, but I stuck my arms out the window anyway. My chin just cleared the bottom windowsill, so I could see out, but I could only get part of my arms out the window.

"Help!" I yelled as loud as I could. "Help me! I'm stuck in here! HELP ME!"

The sub came back around slowly, the periscope turning back and forth, scanning the walls for something. A few feet past my window, it slowed to a stop, then the periscope disappeared.

"No!" I yelled. It couldn't just leave me here... Except it could. And it looked like it would.

Until a moment later when Archie's head appeared in the window. "Scamp!" he yelled, though I could barely hear him over the storm. "What are ya doing there?!"

"I got left behind!"

He shook his head. "I'm gonna get you out of there! Get away from the window!"

I nodded and his head disappeared from the window. I hopped down from my bed into the water. There was a red flash and a nearly inaudible yell, and then Archie's Mightyena was clamping its powerful jaws on the thick bars over my window. It growled and pulled, but the bars didn't move. Archie yelled something else and it redoubled its efforts, chomping on the bars like they were prey.

Being familiar with a Mightyena's jaw power, I was not surprised when the bar it was chewing on snapped. The Mightyena spat out a piece of the bar back into the water, then tore out the broken pieces still anchored into the rock. When that was done, it moved on to the next one.

When the Mightyena stopped, its jaws were bloody, but three out of five bars had been ripped out of the window. I scrambled back up onto my bed and patted its snout - the only part of it I could reach - before it was recalled with a flash of red.

Archie's head reappeared in the window. "Can you get out that window?"

"Yeah!"

He reached in and I grabbed his forearms and scrambled up onto the window ledge. It was difficult to do, as my feet couldn't get purchase on the wall so I had to haul myself up with pure upper body strength, but Archie pulled as hard as he could and we managed. I wriggled out the window and dropped onto a rock beside Archie. I nearly slipped, but he held my arms in an iron grip until I balanced myself.

"We're going to head back to the sub," he yelled, gesturing into the water nearby. "Bruce will take us over."

I looked into the water below us and saw a Sharpedo that didn't look anything like any other Sharpedo I had seen.

First of all, it was huge. Its jaws were huge, and full of long, sharp-looking teeth. It had spikes sticking out on either side of its jaw, and its dorsal fin looked like it had had some chunks taken out of it in a long-ago battle, and the yellow 'x'-markings that were on the snouts of normal Sharpedo were all over this one's back.

I looked at Archie. He must have seen my nervousness - or fear - in my face because he lifted up his anchor pendant to show me something. "It's okay, scampo. You've met Bruce before. He's just Mega Evolved."

The stone set into Archie's anchor pendant was glowing softly, shining like a rainbow. Now that I had a closer look at it, I could see that it was definitely an active Key Stone, and I relaxed, knowing now that the mutant Sharpedo wouldn't attack me. I nodded to him and he let his pendant drop.

He leapt into the water, landing beside Bruce and climbing onto his back. He guided the Sharpedo closer so I could jump right onto its back, and I was about to join him when a sudden bolt of realization hit me like a Thunderbolt.

Where were my Pokémon?!

"Where's my team?" I yelled.

"They're on the sub! Come on! We've gotta get out of this rain!"

I wanted to demand more answers - ask why he had bothered to bring them with him - but he was right. The longer we stayed out in the storm, the more risk we ran of getting hypothermia or pneumonia or any number of other unpleasant conditions. I leapt onto Bruce's snout in front of Archie and held on for dear life as he turned us around and sped off.

A few seconds - and soakings - later, we nearly ran into the side of the sub. Bruce stopped short beside the ladder onto the top, and Archie and I climbed off his back right onto the slick ladder. Archie recalled his Pokémon without cancelling the Mega Evolution. I looked at him curiously, but he just shook his head and climbed.

Up on top of the submarine, he pulled open a hatch and gestured inside. "Hop down, scamp. We're gettin' outta here."

I climbed down the ladder as fast as I was able. Archie followed, pulling the top hatch shut and enclosing us in darkness. I felt for each rung of the ladder, not wanting to fall down. Archie slid down the ladder instead of waiting for me. I felt him pass by, his chest brushing my back and his anchor landing on my head, which hurt. The pendant was big and heavy and hard.

At the bottom of the ladder, Archie opened up a door, letting light flood in. I moved a bit faster, now able to see the rungs, but Archie was gone by the time I made it to the bottom.

Through the door was the cockpit, which was small but not cramped, even with the two of us.

"It's designed for two people to pilot, when it's done properly," Archie said from his position in one of two chairs by the front controls, "but you can do it with one alright. Diving an' depth controls are over here, and moving controls are there." He indicated his console and the empty one respectively. "I'll teach ya how to use the depth controls later, so you can help crew this vessel."

"Okay, sounds good." I went to join him at the controls and watch him work, but he held up a hand to stop me.

"Later. Right now, I'm gonna bring us down so we don't get tossed in the waves too much, then you're gonna get dried off and I'll explain what happened."

"I'm fine, though."

He turned and frowned at me. "You're shivering, scamp. Go get your stuff, it's in the other room. Change outta that wet stuff, make sure your Pokemon are alright, then come back. Got it?"

Now that I had a moment to think about myself and not the water or possibility of drowning, I realized I was freezing. "Right."

The other room really was cramped. It contained two beds set into the wall, one on top of the other, and an open floor locker as tall as my waist with a divider in the middle. There was barely enough room between the beds and the wall to turn around. Two doors besides the one leading to the cockpit led to a small kitchen and an even smaller bathroom that reminded me of one that could be found in an airplane.

I looked into the floor locker. One side was apparently Archie's - it held a set of clothes that were not unlike an Aqua grunt's uniform, though nicer, and my belt with my bag still attached. The other side was Shelly's and contained a copy of her Aqua Admin uniform.

I pulled my belt out of the locker. Immediately, Jace's Poké ball shook and he leapt out in a fighting stance, which dropped as soon as he realized who I was. He engulfed me in a hug, pulling me close and warming me right up. As I relaxed in my trusted Pokémon's hold, he kept up a stream of chastising chirps and cries. I couldn't understand exactly what he was saying, but I got the gist of it.

"I know, I'm an idiot, Latias told me." He nodded. "I should have brought one of you out at the first sign of trouble." Another nod. "And I should have let you out in the prison, so you could kick Archie's ass yourself." He let out a proud chirp at that, and I snorted. "Arrogant birdy. I'd like to see you go toe-to-toe with Matt."

He cocked his head and chirped again, considering. Then he shook his head and sighed.

"He's a bit too big for even you, huh."

From within my Blaziken's warm embrace, I reached to open my bag. I pulled out my spare T-shirt and sweatpants and started to change. They weren't the cleanest - my rush to stop Team Aqua's plan at their base meant that I hadn't stopped at the Pokémon Center for more time than it took to return my Linoone to the PC and heal the rest of my team, so I hadn't washed these clothes for almost a week - but I didn't think it really mattered. The sub smelled like salt water anyway, and I hadn't worn these clothes much.

When I was changed and my normal clothes were hung up on a hook in the bathroom to dry as much as possible, I returned to the cockpit. Jace refused to return to his Poké ball, so he walked beside me and stood behind me to my right when I stopped. Archie stood waiting for me in the cockpit, leaning against the back of the seat at the depth control console.

"You feelin' better?"

"Warmer, yeah. Having a Fire-type around helps with that."

"Yeah, guess it would." He nodded to Jace. "Bit protective, eh?"

"Yeah."

We were both silent for a while, the gravity of the situation suddenly weighing me down. I was now essentially trapped on this submarine, still captive, though no longer Archie's prisoner. Regardless, I was stuck with him for the time being. The man who had started this situation. The man who had awoken the super-ancient Pokémon controlling the storm.

Archie was the one who broke the silence. "Look. Before we get started with this, you should know one thing. I'm sorry. Sorry about how this turned out, sorry that I didn't listen to you or Shelly, sorry... I'm just sorry. Right now, scamp, I'm just one man-sized pile of guilt and regret. So... yeah. Hate me if you want, I just wanted you to know that."

I nodded, and it was silent again. I didn't know what to say, and it didn't look like Archie wanted to start.

Suddenly, my stomach growled, filling the small space. Archie started, and he snapped out of his sudden mood.

"Well, in that case, maybe we should get something to eat first. Come on."

He led the way into the kitchen and pulled open a cabinet. "We got loads of canned stew and ration biscuits, but that's about it, so I hope you don't mind eatin' the same thing three times a day every day." He pulled out a package of biscuits and made a face. "Haven't eaten this badly since I was on a fishing trawler off the Kanto coast, and that was almost a decade ago." He put the package back and pulled out a microwaveable container of stew, took the lid off that, and put it in the microwave.

"You worked on a fishing boat?" I said suddenly. This wasn't the weirdest thing I'd heard out of his mouth, but somehow it was unbelievable that Archie had a life before Team Aqua and megalomania.

He cocked an eyebrow at me. "What, are we gonna play twenty questions?"

"Maybe we should." It would be easier than talking about the real issue, I didn't say.

He just stared for a while. "Yeah. Maybe we should." The microwave beeped, and he pulled out the stew, took a fork from a nearby drawer, and offered them to me. "It'll be hot. Let's go sit down and we'll play twenty questions."

We sat in the seats in the cockpit and turned to face each other. "You'll have to remind me how to play. It's been awhile since my last girly sleepover party," he said dryly, and I snorted.

"I don't really know. We just ask each other questions, I guess, and they can be about whatever, but you have to answer them."

"Alright, I'll ask first. Where're you from?"

"We moved from Johto... Goldenrod City specifically. Dad worked at Whitney's Gym when I was growing up, then he got moved to Olivine and we lived there for a few years. Then, when the position in Hoenn opened up, Whitney and Jasmine both recommended he take it. He took the job and moved, but my mom and I didn't wind up moving until almost a year later." I took a bite of stew, and when I got over the sensation of burning tongue, I asked, "You said you worked in Kanto. Did you come from there?"

"Nah, I was born and raised in Hoenn. Pacifidlog Town." At my blank stare, he elaborated. "Little community built on big rafts. It's down on Route 131. Not a lot of people live there, but it's a tight-knit community. Everyone shares everything... even stuff that's not meant to be shared." He grimaced.

I laughed. "Does that mean like, toothbrushes, or..."

"Worse."

I shuddered. "I don't think I want to know."

"I knew everythin' anyone needed to know about human bodies by eight."

I mimed puking. "I said I didn't want to know!"

He laughed, filling the small space with noise. Jace scowled - as much as one can with a beak, anyway - and I rolled my eyes at my Pokémon.

"I'm not in danger," I muttered. "Go back in the ball."

He glared at me, but let me return him anyway.

"He's not a bad bodyguard, that overgrown chicken of yours. Where'd you pick him up?"

"I got him as a Torchic. He helped me rescue Professor Birch from a wild Poochyena attack."

"Vicious, those things are."

I rolled my eyes. "For all that he loves fieldwork, the Professor is not very good at handling wild Pokémon attacks. He could probably have knocked it aside, no problem and no pain."

"Huh. Never met the guy, don't know him too well, so I'll take your word for it."

"So, um, what was your first Pokémon?"

He smiled, a look of joy and nostalgia that seemed to take years off his face. "My first Pokémon was a little runt of a Carvahna, no bigger than my head back then. I was out fishin' for dinner an' I saw the little guy getting beat on by a bunch of Tentacool, so I fought them off and rescued him. He wouldn't stop followin' me around after that, so I started calling him Bruce, and when I left home, he came with me."

"You're a softie."

He looked offended. "Rescuin' Bruce does not make me soft. Sharpedo are tough, dangerous creatures, an' it takes a firm hand to - why are you laughin'?"

"You're just a big Teddiursa. Seriously. Even your plan was like, 'Save the Pokémon'."

He rolled his eyes. "So bein' an environmentalist makes me a cute little bear Pokémon."

"Well, no, that's all you, actually."

"Right. My turn. What happened when you were a kid, with your brother?"

I sobered immediately. "Pass. I don't talk about that. Not to you, not to anyone."

"Right." He looked like he knew he had crossed a line. Good. He hadn't just crossed it, he had jumped over it. I let that incident slip in the Aqua base, but I wasn't going to talk about it now.

"Do you like Hoenn better than Johto?"

I snapped back into the present. "Uh, yeah, definitely. It's warmer, that's for sure. It's winter up in Johto... normally, it'd be snowing..."

And then it was my turn. And I knew what I wanted to - had to - ask.

"What happened?"

Archie was silent for a long time, gathering his thoughts. Then he began, in a quiet and heavy voice.

"Shelly and I left the base after we talked to you. We took the sub over to the site where Kyogre was sleeping... the Seafloor Cavern. A sealed cave that shouldn't have been opened. Shelly... tried to warn me one last time before I started the drill... told me I was making a mistake... but I still didn't listen.

"I broke through the barrier and almost ran to the cave where Kyogre was at, with the Blue Orb in hand. I was so excited. My plans were finally almost complete..."

He grimaced. "I got to where Kyogre was, woke it up... While it was still waking up, Maxie showed up and tried to stop me, but it was too late. He thought maybe if he took the Blue Orb, it would stop Kyogre waking up any more, but I made my Pokemon stop him. They didn't want to - didn't like Kyogre much - but I made 'em do it anyway.

"I succeeded. Maxie couldn't stop me, so Kyogre woke up. All the way. And the Blue Orb turned it into Primal Kyogre, just like we'd planned. Then it dove away, to the Cave of Origins... Then everything went to hell.

"Primal Kyogre was way more powerful than we had expected. Within hours - not even a day, just a couple hours - parts of the mainland had flooded and the seas were going crazy. I sent my people out to help evacuation, get everybody to high ground. Most of the country's up on Mt. Chimney now, or at least most of the people from the cities, or whoever we could reach.

"But I went to Sootopolis to confront Kyogre. Me an' Shelly. We got into the Cave of Origins, thanks to that Gym Leader, what's 'is name. We had diving suits prepared for something like this, in case we needed to get near Kyogre. They were supposed to protect us from anything - impact, heat, cold, whatever. So we went down into the cave to try and calm Kyogre - capture it or something, but it wasn't havin' any of that. It used some powerful attack on us - shot water balls that exploded like bombs. We got thrown all over the place. I was lucky enough to land near the stairs, so I ran, but when I got out of the cave - Shelly wasn't behind me. The door shut on me after I got out."

He'd given most of his story in a deadpan tone with little expression on his face, but this last part broke him. He buried his face in his hands, shaking, breathing ragged. A sudden feeling of empathy washed over me, and I wanted to comfort him, but I didn't know how. What could I say? So I just sat and watched him sob into his hands.

"She's dead," he whispered. "She died down there. I just left her - I ran away to save my own skin and left her behind. Even with the Aqua Suit - it had to give out at some point. She's dead because of me."

"I'm sorry," I whispered. Overcome, I reached out and laid my hand on his shoulder, trying to take some of his pain away.

He stiffened for a moment, then started to shake even harder. I scooted my chair closer and put my whole arm over his shoulder. I wondered what had happened to the rest of the people of Hoenn... Matt had mentioned when they were evacuating the Base that they were going to try and move as many people as possible to Mt. Chimney. I wondered if they had gotten everybody. I hoped my parents had made it safely to the mountain.

After a while, Archie stopped sobbing, and I pulled my arm away as he sat up. His eyes were red, but his expression was calm.

"Thanks."

"Yeah." It was a little awkward, so I blurted out, "It's May."

"What?"

"My name. It's May. I don't think I ever actually introduced myself to you."

"Oh. Yeah. I guess I've been calling you scamp ever since we met, eh?"

"Yeah." I chuckled a little, but it sounded hollow, bouncing off the walls of the little galley. "I didn't mind, really. Just thought you should know my actual name, if we're going to be working together for the next little while."

"Not a bad idea."

"So... Matt said when everyone was leaving that you were going to try and get everyone up to Mt. Chimney. Which towns did you manage to evacuate, and how many people are up there?"

Archie snapped straight into business mode. "We evacuated the major cities and most of the little towns. Some people had already started moving when the worst of the floods started. Thank Arceus Hoenn's a small region, cause most of the population can fit up on the mountains. We've got around three hundred on Mt. Chimney itself, another two hundred up on the other mountains in that range, and around fifty on Mt. Pyre."

"That's good. So, what are we going to be doing?"

"I'm going to bring you up to one of the mountains, then I'm going to try to stop Kyogre myself."

"No! You can't go alone."

"I have to go alone." He looked me straight in the eye, and I could see the pain and guilt there, overshadowing everything else. He looked tired, the shadows on his face deep. "I can't have anyone else dying for my stupidity. I've got to end this, and I have to do it alone."

"I won't let you go alone. If you die, it's not going to help anyone."

"May, there's nothing anyone can do to help!"

'Throwing away your life isn't going to help anything either, though! It's not going to bring Shelly back, or anyone else who's died! The best way to make up for your mistakes is to end this, not to kill yourself!"

His eyes narrowed in anger. "We're all dead anyway," he said flatly. "What does it matter how I die?"

"We're not dead yet, though!" I felt my eyes fill with tears. "There's still hope, but not if you don't try! And this is not trying! This is giving up!"

"What can I do!?" he bellowed. "There's nothing can stop that beast now!"

"There's - Oh!" I couldn't believe I hadn't remembered before. "One second!"

I dashed off to the crew quarters where my bag was and started rifling through it. It had to be in here, it had to...

"Ha!" I yelled triumphantly, holding up my catch.

"What's a rock going to do to help us?" Archie asked scornfully. I hadn't noticed him following me.

"It's not a rock! It's the Red Orb! That old couple on Mt. Pyre gave it to me after you ran off with the Blue Orb. They said it was the only thing that might be able to calm Primal Kyogre!"

"Oh yeah?"

"Yeah!" I turned to talk to him and held the Red Orb to my chest. "I'm not giving it to you, though. They entrusted me with it, so I'm going to be the one to use it."

"May. I'm not going to let you come with me. I don't need you throwing away your life to fix my mess. Red Orb or not, you could still die, and I don't want that to happen." He looked me in the eye again. "You're young. You have your whole life ahead of you. You don't need to throw it away like this."

I met his right back, unmoved. "I'm not throwing away my life. You'll be there to back me up, and I'll back you up, too. We can work as a team."

"No."

"Look. This is my fault, too. I didn't stop you, even though I could have. I could have told the authorities or someone about your plan instead of trying to stop you myself, like an idiot. My dad works for the League, for Arceus's sake. He would have investigated at least a little, if I had told him. But I didn't. So part of the blame for this falls on me, and I want to fix it."

Archie shook his head. "You tried your hardest. And no one would have believed you. Your dad wouldn't have found anything. None of this is your fault."

"But I'm going to help you fix it anyway. I'm supposed to be a hero. It's my job."

Archie was silent for a moment, then he shook his head. "Nothing I can say is going to persuade you, is it?"

"No."

"Fine, then. We'll work as a team."

"Good. Now teach me how to work the sub." I put the Red Orb back in my bag and tied the bag around my waist.

"Not tonight. You should get some rest. Pick a bunk, and I'll take whichever one you don't.

I considered protesting, but I was actually really tired, so I just agreed. "Okay."

A few hours of rest later, I headed into the control area to get those sub piloting lessons.

"Hey, scamp. Sleep well?"

"Pretty well. What's going on on the surface?"

"Still raining. We're heading out to Ever Grande right now, make sure there isn't anyone left there who can't get to higher ground. We don't have room for many people on the sub, but I've got some people's Pokemon who agreed to help fly people to safety. Thing is, this far out from high ground, it's dangerous to fly, so we'll take as many as we can and let the rest fly. I'm hopin' there aren't too many people left, though."

"Yeah. Well, I mean, isn't Ever Grande where the Pokemon League headquarters is? So you'd figure that most of the people there would have strong Pokemon to get them out of there."

"That's what I'm hoping."

Archie gave me a crash course on how to pilot the sub, and after he was done I took the depth controls. He seemed to prefer controlling our course anyway.

A few days later, we'd reached Ever Grande. I brought us up into the still torrential rain, and Archie headed out of the cockpit. I followed him to the exit airlock and watched as he climbed up the ladder and headed out of the hatch.

A moment later, he dropped back onto the ladder and shut the hatch. He slid down the ladder and headed back into the control room without a word, dropping heavily into his seat and burying his head in his hands.

"Bring us down," he said quietly. I did so, then turned to him.

"It was gone," he said. "There was nothing left of it. The whole island – gone beneath the waves."

"I bet everyone got off it, though," I said, trying to boost his spirits. "The people that gather at the Pokemon Leagues are no pushovers."

"Yeah. 'S true."

We were quiet for a moment. Then, in a tone more cheerful than I felt, I asked, "Well, where to now?"

"We should see how the people on the mountains are doing," he said. "But we'll head to Pacifidlog first, an' see if there's anyone still there. It's on our way anyway."

Pacifidlog Town was nothing but a mess of driftwood when we reached it. Archie and I stood on top of the submarine for a while, just staring at the wreckage.

I glanced over at Archie. His head was bowed, and I was sure that if the rain was any less intense, I'd be able to see tears streaming down his face.

Silently, I reached out and took his hand.

He clung to mine like a lifeline.

A week or so later, we reached Mount Pyre. Not much of it was still standing above sea level, but what was was crowded with life – people and tents covered every inch of available space, it seemed.

An Aqua member saluted us as we approached on top of Bruce.

"How many we got here?"

"Forty-six, myself included. The water level rises a couple inches or so a day – the whole mountain's gonna go under soon."

"How long?"

"Best guess? Maybe three weeks, tops."

Archie surveyed the place and nodded. "Get your people to pack up. I'm sending you to Mt. Chimney."

The Aqua member saluted, then turned to the others on the mountaintop.

"Get your stuff packed! We're headed for the mountains!"

Three or so hours later, as people streamed onto the sub and headed out via flying Pokémon, I frowned.

Archie caught my look. "What's wrong, scamp?"

"My mom's not here." I shrugged. "She's probably up on one of the other mountains."

"Probably."

Two weeks in a cramped sub later, we finally reached Mt. Chimney. I tried to catch a glimpse of my mom or dad as I helped people onto land, but neither of them made an appearance.

"Ready to head out, scamp?" Archie asked as the last of the people from the sub made it onto dry land.

"…Yeah. Guess so."

We headed back down to the cockpit, where we both sat in our respective seats. I took us down beneath the waves, but before we started moving, Archie turned to me.

"Ya didn't find your mom, did you?"

"No. Not my dad, either."

"Ah. They're probably on one of the other mountains, then. You wanna go check?"

I shrugged listlessly. "Not really. I'm sure they're safe."

Archie studied me for a moment, then nodded.

"We're headed to Dewford Town area," he said finally, turning back to the controls. "We're going to skim just under the surface, see if there's anyone who survived on the back of a Pokemon."

"Sounds good."

About a week later, I happened to glance at the sonar map as we were cruising. It showed something below, like…

Buildings?

There were five or six buildings all crowded together, one of them larger than the others. I recognized the layout of the town, but it took me a second to realize that it was Littleroot Town.

"Hang on! Stop the sub. I'm headed up."

"Whaddaya mean, headed up?"

I didn't answer, just brought us up to the surface and dashed out of the cockpit.

After almost a month on the sub, I knew where most everything was stored. I headed straight for the locker where the Aqua Suits were stored and threw on the smaller of the pair.

I pushed Archie out of the way and made my way to the hatch, ignoring his protests and questions. I scaled the ladder, opened the hatch, and dove into the roiling water, swimming down as hard as I could.

The water all around me was black, despite the light of the Aqua Suit's headlamp. I could no longer tell which was up, never mind if I was making any headway.

I kept swimming.

After a while, I felt a soft bump against my legs. I turned my head to see Rain, in a form I'd never seen before – her head almost looked like a submarine. She headbutted my legs again and moved into my chest. I threw my arms around her, and she started to move.

A little while later, we bumped into something – it looked like part of a building, revealed to be the lab as we swam around it.

Rain brought me over to my parents' house. The roof had caved in, but the walls were still standing. The door was hanging off its hinges, so I shoved it out of my way and poked my head in.

I nearly vomited right then and there. On the floor, huddled together, were two bloated, horrific bodies. Bodies I recognized.

My parents were dead.

Vaguely, I felt my arms wrap around Rain. Then, the lashing of the downpour.

A warm set of arms wrapped around me, and I came back to reality a little. My vision was filled with blue and white, and a deep rumbling voice filled my ears. Dad…?

"…on, scamp. Can you hear me? Scamp? May?"

The sound of my name snapped my memories back into place. I pushed back from Archie and spewed my breakfast all over the floor, sinking to my knees and shuddering.

"Hey, it's okay. You're gonna be okay." Archie knelt down beside me and stroked my hair, wrapping his arms back around me as I turned into his chest. I grabbed desperately at his shoulders as sobs wracked my body.

"M-m-m-" I tried to speak through the blubbering, but Archie shushed me.

"You don't have ta tell me, May. Just let it out for now. Tell me later."

When my sobs finally died down and the shaking slowed, Archie spoke again. "Now. Do you wanna tell me what happened down there?"

"My parents," I mumbled through numb lips and a throat dry and rough from sobbing. "They… they didn't…"

"I get ya." He looked far away for a moment, then shook his head. "Right. Well, we should get ya to bed. Can ya stand?"

I shook my head, not trusting my body to move me anywhere at the moment.

Archie stood, then bent and picked me up, cradling me in his arms. He carried me to the crew quarters and put me down in my bunk, then turned to leave.

I reached out and caught his wrist without thinking.

"Stay. Please."

He took the pillow from his bunk and sat on the floor beside my bed.

"I'll be here. Get some rest."

I woke to find Archie's head sharing my pillow. The bandana had slipped from his head and his dark, shaggy hair was poking out, lending him an odd sense of vulnerability.

I leaned over and did something I'd been thinking of doing for weeks – I pressed my lips to his.

His lips were softer than I expected. I pressed closer, and he let out a soft sound, his eyes blearily opening to meet mine. Despite the confusion in his eyes, I didn't pull away. I just shut my eyes and parted my lips slightly against his, an invitation he took, reaching out and pulling me into his lap.

"May," he murmured, pulling back slightly to whisper across my lips. "Are you sure?"

I didn't hesitate. Seeing death so close… I could see what I wanted, with a clarity so sharp it almost hurt.

"Yes."

Archie groaned, pulling me harder against his chest. I could feel him getting hard under me, and I shifted my legs so they were wrapped around his waist. He groaned again, bucking up into me.

His hands moved to the hem of my shirt, tugging it upwards. We separated long enough for him to pull it over my head, then his mouth came back to mine like the tide, flowing forward, receding, then crashing back again.

Meanwhile, I wasn't idle. My hands made their way over his chest to the zipper of his wet suit, pulling it down to reveal his muscular body. I ran my hands over the planes of his chest, admiring the muscles and the way they tensed and relaxed as I moved my hands.

Archie stood us up and pulled off his wet suit and the boxers underneath, revealing his manhood standing tall. I followed suit, removing my shorts, and we stood for a moment, just watching each other.

We came back together, lips crashing against each other like waves on the rocks. Archie pinned me against the bunks, and I slid down onto my bunk, Archie following. I opened my legs and wrapped them around his hips, moaning at the feel of his length pressing against my entrance.

"May," he groaned, pressing his lips to my forehead. Then he slid into me, and I gasped at the glorious feeling of fullness.

We worked each other into a frenzy, hips moving in tandem and lips sliding against each other as he thrust and I bucked and –

We came together, gasping each other's names, lips open and pressed together, breathing the other in. I collapsed back against the thin mattress, and he propped himself up on his elbows so he didn't crush me, laying his head against my chest.

He mumbled something that I didn't quite hear.

"What?"

"I shouldn't have done that."

My blood ran cold. "What does that mean?"

He saw the look in my eyes. "I don't – it's not that I regret it. I just feel like I'm taking advantage of you."

"I want this."

"May, I'm a killer. I've killed a lot of people. And I messed up the whole world."

"I know. But I still want you."

He leaned up, meeting my eyes with a stern expression unlike any I'd seen him make. "Are you sure? May… I killed your parents. I killed Shelly. I doomed everyone in this region to death by drowning."

"I know! But you're trying to fix it! And I'm going to be right here beside you, trying to fix it too."

He looked me in the eyes for a few moments longer, searching. Whatever he found apparently defeated him, because he dropped his head back to my chest and let out a hollow chuckle.

"Whatever you wanna do. I can't stop you."

Dewford Town was in no better state than Ever Grande.

Archie punched the cockpit wall, then shook his hand out and slammed both onto the console beside the controls. "Dammit!"

"Everyone probably made it to the mountains," I said. "Brawly isn't the type to leave people behind."

"Hope so," Archie muttered.

Three days, we sat on the sub, defeated and adrift, while the water level rose around us. Three days we sat, talking and trying to come up with plans, and coming up with nothing.

I stared at the Red Orb. The omega symbol on it shone bright, probably thanks to the power of Primal Kyogre all around us. I tried to think of something, anything, that would let me use it to stop Kyogre, but came up with nothing.

Suddenly, a memory dawned on me. The legends had said there were two super-ancient Pokemon, Kyogre and Groudon. What if...

"What if we woke Groudon?"

"What?"

"There's supposed to be another super-ancient Pokemon," I explained, my voice rising with excitement. "The one of the sea, and the one of the land. Kyogre and Groudon. What if we woke up Groudon? Wouldn't he be able to stop Kyogre?"

"Yeah, maybe. But where are we gonna find Groudon?"

I faltered, glancing back at the Red Orb. "Well... you said you found Kyogre in a seafloor cavern, right? Well... what if Groudon is underground?"

"Underground... under Mt. Chimney!"

We looked at each other, and for the first time, I saw hope shining in Archie's eyes.

"We gotta get everyone off Mt. Chimney before we start drilling. I'll contact Matt, have him start moving people to the other mountains."

"Great. Then, we'll head for Mt. Chimney."

Five days later, everyone had been moved onto other mountains, and we had started drilling. Shortly into the side of the mountain, we hit open air – a cavern inside the mountain that soon filled up with water.

Archie and I donned our Aqua Suits and entered the cavern, the Red Orb safely held in the outer pouch of my suit. Inside, we found a sight to behold.

The water was evaporating.

A hulking Pokemon the size of a building stepped out of a pocket in one wall of the cavern. It roared upon seeing me, and the entire Red Orb glowed bright.

I held it up triumphantly. "Go! Groudon, go beat Kyogre and put an end to the rain!"

Groudon roared again, glowing bright. Veins, as if of lava, came into existence on their body, and they began to glow. When the glow subsided, they had grown by a lot, and the Red Orb was gone.

Primal Groudon roared again, stepping out of the cavern, and the clouds dispersed above where it stood. Harsh sunlight shot through the hole in the cloud layer, and all around Groudon steam rose, and earth raised itself from the water to meet their steps.

It was glorious.

Groudon began to move in the general direction of Sootopolis City. As it passed, Archie and I looked at each other, heading back for the sub, which stood in the still-deep water. We headed back in, and set a course to follow Groudon's steps.

Archie and I kissed in the bright sunlight, as the people on the top of the mountain who'd seen the spectacle started cheering.

All hell broke loose when Groudon reached Sootopolis City.

The titans of land and sea fought viciously, but neither could win out over the other. The destruction they caused was epic in proportion – earthquakes rocked the whole region, all the way out to the mountains, and multiple tidal waves threatened to wash away everything that stood on dry ground, the people on the mountains included.

Archie and I watched from the sub in despair.

"We've made an even worse mistake than before," I muttered, burying my face in my hands. "Everyone's going to die so much faster now – what are we going to do?"

Archie placed his hands on my shoulders to try to comfort me. Suddenly, he was thrown into the controls by a massive force – the sub was shifting, completely out of our control.

Archie glanced at the screen he'd been thrown into and swore loudly. "Buckle in – we're caught in a wave," he said grimly.

For the next – I don't know how long – the sub was tossed around in the wave like a rag doll by a child. After what felt like hours, the spinning and lurching finally stopped, after a crash that shook the sub. Alarms started screaming.

The hull was damaged.

I gathered up my stuff and donned my Aqua Suit as quickly as I could, running to the exit of the sub. It was listing hard, and it was difficult to make it up the ladder and out the hatch, but finally, Archie and I stood on a small land spire, watching as the sub sank to the bottom of the turbulent sea.

"What now?" I asked quietly.

Archie turned. The land we stood on was even and flat, with walls of stone jutting up on all sides of us. On the other side of the spire's top was a hole, which I dashed over to to find the structure below filled with water.

"I don't know," he said heavily. "I don't know. Our last hope failed. We failed."

I opened my mouth to say something – anything – but nothing came out. He was right.

"Nothing else to be done, then," I muttered. I climbed up on one of the lower walls, which faced towards Kyogre and Groudon. Form this distance, they were indistinguishable, but I could tell the flashes of light from Groudon's harsh sun from Kyogre's lightning bolts.

A puzzled look suddenly passed over my face. "Do you... Am I missing something?"

Archie looked confused for a minute, then something dawned on him. "There's no rain here. No sun, no earthquakes. It's like the weather..."

"...isn't hitting this spot," I finished for him. "But how...?"

In the sky, I spotted something moving. I looked up to see a hole appear in the clouds, and a Pokemon unlike any I'd ever seen appeared through it.

It was long and serpentine, with two arms that ended in wicked claws. It was bright green in colour, but as it came closer, I noticed yellow lines covering it, in patterns that reminded me of the patterns on Kyogre and Groudon's bodies.

"Rayquaza..." Archie said reverently. "I thought they were just a myth!"

Rayquaza came down and coiled itself in the air before us, letting out a sound that might have been its attempt at comfort. Humans... You have released terrible forces from their slumbers, came a voice in my head that was not my own.

"Rayquaza..." I murmured in wonder. "We – yeah. We released Kyogre and Groudon."

Rayquaza – sighed? It sounded like a sigh. Your intentions were noble, but your actions foolish.

"You're right," Archie agreed. "I fucked up. And now there's nothing we can do to stop them. Kyogre and Groudon are going to destroy this world... because of us."

Rayquaza's eyes sparkled. This fight is not yet over. You have a Key Stone.

"What does that have to do with anything?"

Rayquaza looked directly at me. Child, I see in you potential I have not seen in many years. Climb on my back, and take your mate's Key Stone.

Archie and I shared a glance. We shrugged, and he handed me over his anchor pendant, which I hung around my neck.

Rayquaza came towards me, and on instinct I reached out and touched their face. In my other hand, Archie's Key Stone began to glow.

Rayquaza let out a roar of triumph. Climb on my back! We will fix this mess yet.

Archie and I climbed onto Rayquaza's back, and they turned and flew towards the fighting Pokemon in the distance. As we approached, I pressed my hand to the Key Stone and channeled everything I had – my desperation, my love of Pokemon and people, my grief for my parents and Shelly and everyone else lost –

With a roar, Rayquaza Mega Evolved. As we reached the place where Kyogre and Groudon fought, the great dragon ascended into the air, diving down at Groudon and Kyogre.

As we attacked, Kyogre and Groudon roared in pain and rage. A devastating Hyper Beam came from Groudon's mouth, aimed at Rayquaza, but we were moving so fast that it couldn't get a clear shot.

Instinctively, I knew what Rayquaza could do. We worked together, connected by the same bond I shared with each of my own Pokemon, and the bonds of Mega Evolution. "Rayquaza! Dragon Ascent!"

With a roar, Rayquaza flew upward, diving down once more to slash at Kyogre and Groudon. Around us, the rain slowed, and the sun shone less harshly. The earth ceased its shaking, and the waves calmed.

We were doing it!

"Rayquaza, one more hit! Draco Meteor!"

A chiming roar came from Rayquaza, and the sky above us turned a bright blue. Meteors rained down, propelled by a force unlike any I'd ever seen before, slamming Kyogre and Groudon backward and away from each other.

They will not return to their slumber! You must capture them!

I reached into my bag under the Aqua Suit and pulled out the first pair of Poke balls I grabbed. Rayquaza made a pass over Kyogre and Groudon, and I dropped a ball on each of the great beasts.

With a bright red flash, they were gone. One Poke ball landed on the water, the other on the land, shaking so hard I was afraid they'd break.

But, slowly but surely, each Poke ball stopped shaking. They glowed red to signify a successful capture.

As the red glow receded, each ball began to glow green. The glow built until it was impossible to look at, then shot into the sky. The clouds immediately dispersed, and the harsh sun faded.

The world came back into balance in a rain of green.

After I retrieved the Poke balls containing the titans, Rayquaza flew us over to Mt. Chimney, where the whole region had gathered together.

As we stepped down, a figure emerged from the crowd. Steven!

Steven walked over to us with purpose in his steps. He faced Archie down.

"Archie Aogiri, you are under League arrest for ecoterrorism. Your trial will be held as soon as the waters covering Ever Grande city have receded, and the Pokemon League is able to gather to decide your fate."

Archie hung his head in defeat. I was blinded with anger. "What!? You can't do that! He just saved this whole region – the whole world! You can't arrest him!"

"His actions toward stopping the disaster will be taken into account at his trial, but my statement stands."

"But -"

"May," Archie said quietly.

I shut my mouth, tears stinging at my eyes. I nodded at Steven. "Fine. Just... give me a minute with him."

I didn't even wait for Steven to nod. I yanked off my Aqua Suit, as Archie pulled his off, and I flew at him and threw my arms around his shoulders.

"I love you," I whispered, the tears that had been threatening now boiling over. "I love you."

"May," he replied, and I pressed my lips to his, hard.

Suddenly, there were arms around me, pulling me away from him. I struggled against their grip, even as Steven clamped a set of handcuffs around Archie's wrists and led him away.

"Let go of me! Archie!"

He didn't look back at me.