After MONTHS of waiting and a number of writer's blocks, I finally accomplished my goal: I uploaded Chapter 8 before 2009...by a day! Yay! (wind blows and some tumbleweed goes by) Well, hopefully there are some people still reading. It's only been like half a year. However, this chapter is also somewhat like a filler, so I will also update chapter 9 today. Sorry for the ridiculous wait. I am currently also having a serious case of writer's block for chapter 12, but hopefully that will be resolved soon.

NOTE: "Quotations mark Dialogue"; "Italics with quotations mark telepathy", 'Italics with just apostaphes mark thoughts'

Disclaimer: Seriously, do I really have to say I don't own pokemon? I don't think anyone will think I do. But just in case: I don't own pokemon. If I did, it would be more awesome than it is now.

Now on with it! Finally!

Chapter Eight:
Five Years Previous

From the museum, I "borrowed" the will and headed back to the garden. The whole way there, Latias (still in human form) kept complaining that I shouldn't "borrow" century-old artifacts from the museum without permission; especially since the chances the will would be significant to discovering the Secret were slim to none. No matter, I convinced her that it was the only lead we've got and we need to do something.

"To hell with the Rules!" I said to Latias while walking down a canal. Latias was walking behind me and we just passed by a startled woman and her Pokémon. "Excuse me," I said to her as I passed by.

"Can't we just study it at the museum?" she asked me telepathically while insisting we go back. I had the will stuffed into my duster so no one would see it.

"No we can't, because in a couple hours we would be kicked out anyway because of the gala anyway." We turned down an alleyway so that we could have a bit more privacy and walked down it with the Legendary behind me.

"Look, I want to stop these Order people too, but can't we do it in a way that doesn't involve breaking laws?" she asked as we went deeper into the alley and stopped.

I turned to her and looked directly into her eyes. "Latias, this is the only lead I…we have. I admit, the chances that it is just a will with nothing special about it are extremely high, but we can't just do nothing as the Order tries to possibly finish what that evil trainer tried to accomplish all those years ago. It could be worse than what could've happened five years ago."

Latias stared at me and mentally sighed, "I guess that ever since my brother died, I tried to act more like him and follow the rules, but if he were here now, he would agree with you. If there was any chance that this will might help us reach the secret before the Order, then he would take it." She walked down the alley silently and I followed her until she stopped at a wall and back to me. "You really do remind me of him, you know, and it's more than just your eyes that remind me too."

She then turned back and literally walked through the wall. I had to blink a couple times and wait a few seconds before I realized that it was a trick wall. I walked up to it and reached out my hand, which just went through the wall like air. I then walked through it and there was a moment of suffocating darkness, before I reappeared in the garden.

In the garden, Latias had turned back into her normal, red-and-white dragon, pokémon form. She asked to see the will, and I handed it to her. She soon asked if I knew Italian, to which I answered no, and she surprised me yet again by saying she will translate it to English for me. Apparently, living in a city named "Altomare", that seemed to have been made in the Renaissance, with a friend named "Lorenzo" all your life can make one pick up on the language pretty easily.

Latias took the will and flew up to one of the trees to do her translations. I was left with nothing to do, so I sat on a slope of grass and laid down. There was a soft breeze and the afternoon sun was warm. I tried to stay alert in case Una or some other Order member came back, but the sound of the chimes, wind, and water made my mind wander and my body sleep.

I felt someone kick me in the side. "Wake up, sleepy head!" I heard someone say. I turned over and looked and saw my teacher standing next to me.

"Teacher?" I asked groggily. "What the hell?"

"You already slept two hours in, and I tried everything else," she said as she walked out of the tent. I stumbled up and walked out. "Seriously," she continued, "you could out sleep a snorlax if I gave you the chance."

I looked out. It was still dark. "Two hours late? You wanted me up at like four in the morning?"

"Yes," she said matter-of-factly as she was clearing the campsite some. "Today, we start your defensive training. I believe that you got the offensive stuff down pat, so now I thought we get an early start today before breakfast. Isn't that exciting? Now get warmed up"

"Oh, joy," I said sarcastically as I tried to wake up some more. I tried to relax and let my aura flow after my night's sleep so that I could use it at a moment's notice. My Teacher and I were out on one of the many islands in the sea east of the Hoenn mainland. We were in a clearing near a cliff that faced the south east. It was around five in the morning so it was still dark out. My Teacher liked to do the morning exercises in the crisp cool of the morning before breakfast to get ready for the day. She was definitely a morning person.

My Teacher wore clothes not unlike mine. She would always say "function before style". She had on worn black boots and blue jeans on that were held up a trainer's belt, which, unlike mine, had a couple pokéballs on it. She wore a loose red shirt and a brown leather coat. It was not quite a duster, but it was long like one and it got the job done. She had green eyes and brown hair that was in a ponytail. She too had on tight gloves and staff similar to mine with some runes on them. It can be hard to tell how old she is judging from her looks. She looks like she could be anywhere between 30 and 50, but if you were to look at her eyes carefully, it would look like she has learned and experienced more than anyone twice her age could ever do.

Once I got my aura flowing, I turned to face my teacher. However, as soon as I turned to face her, I was bombarded by about half a dozen aura spheres. As I fell to the ground, my teacher laughed, "What the hell was that, Esteban?" she asked between laughs. "You are supposed to defend yourself when using defensive auramancy, not stand around like an idiot."

I got up. "Come on, Teacher, you know that this is my first defensive training and you didn't even warn me!"

"Like anyone is going to warn you before they attack, Esteban," she laughed again. "But I will try to go easy on you just this once. Try to focus on forming a solid wall between you and the attack, or a shield in other words." She then let fly another half dozen spheres of energy at me.

I instinctively let fly a few aura spheres of my own to stop some of my Teacher's attacks and I jumped out of the way of the rest.

I thought I did well but my teacher yelled out to me, "I said shields not spheres! I said defensive auramancy, not using offensive auramancy to cancel out my attacks!"

"What?" I asked back. "I blocked them didn't I?"

She rolled her eyes. "Okay, let's try this…" She snapped her fingers, and I felt an awkward sensation climb up my body. She tossed a couple more aura spheres. I tried to block them again with aura spheres, but nothing happened. I realized, as I was hit once more with aura spheres, that what my teacher did was block my aura from flowing out.

"Not fair, you blocked my aura!" I yelled out.

"I only blocked your offensive auramancy, you can still use the defensive stuff," she said. It is pretty advanced stuff learning how to block a certain kind of aura from leaving one's body, and I was learning how to make shields. I had a lot to learn. "You can't learn to defend yourself if all you use is an offense. Sometimes the situations call for shields that block multiple attacks that you can't stop with a good offense. You should be happy I'm not using focused blasts"

"Crap," I muttered as I got ready for another bombardment. "Focus on creating a wall," I echoed. My Teacher's attacks came and I put up my arms and my gloves glowed as I focused on creating a wall. The air became slightly wavy, and I thought I noticed the aura spheres slow down a little bit. However, the attacks were hardly phased and I once again fell to the ground.

"Well," my teacher said, "we got…something. Try and keep it up." I was glad that my Teacher also noticed the "shield" despite how pathetic it was. I got up again and tried to think up another strategy. My teacher always said to try and use your surroundings to your advantage. My Teacher's attacks came after me again. I ran out of the way. "What's up with that?" she asked smiling. She then started throwing even more spheres at me as I ran towards my side. The onslaught of attacks almost caught up to me when I reached a loose area of sand. I dived down into the sand to avoid the spheres of energy. I grabbed a large handful of sand and threw it into the air before my Teacher could toss more aura spheres. If I couldn't make a solid wall out of thin air, I could at least try using sand. Before the particles of sand could fall to the ground, I put my hand out and focused again on making a shield. This time, a glow surrounded the sand particles and they floated in the air. As my Teacher's attack reached the sand shield, most of the attack was blocked, but all of the sand and some of the attack's energy came right at me. I covered my face to make sure none of the sand got in my eyes.

As the cloud of sand dispersed, I saw my Teacher clapping. "Now that is what I am talking about!" She walked up to me. "Not the kind of shield I had in mind, but I like the creativity. Now let's practice a few more times before breakfast, but I don't want you start using sand as a crutch for making shields. As you saw, it can backfire on you." She chuckled.

Once we saw the glow of the sun on the horizon, we decided to have breakfast. I made breakfast as usual. It consisted of some freshly picked berries with some sweet bread that we got from a bakery last time we were in town. To drink, we had some fresh berry juice. "We're out of meat," I told my Teacher and I handed over her plate of berries and bread. We sat on the edge of the cliff eating breakfast.

"Well, if we don't go into town soon, we could just as easily hunt something," she suggested.

"I guess," I agreed.

As we ate, she complimented me on picking such good berries. "This will definitely help out with more training later in the day." She said after taking a bite of the bread. "By the way, you did pretty good for your first shield lesson, but there is more to a good defense than a good shield, just so you know."

"Thanks," I said. We continued to chat idly as we ate. My Teacher planned the day ahead as we talked. Just before the sun was about to break the horizon as I was cleaning up, I noticed a strange phenomenon. Out way past the horizon, a very thin blue beam of light was shooting into the sky that wasn't sunlight. "Teacher," I said, "do you see that?"

She stared at it for long while and then sighed and closed her eyes while grabbing the golden cross around her neck. "It is the light of sacrifice. A very powerful being just gave its life to save many people." She then started whispering a prayer.

I waited until she was done to ask, "How do you know?"

"I have seen many things, Esteban, including something like this once before, except I was much closer to the beam then." After a few more minutes, the sun started to rise, and the beam dissipated. She then turned to me and said, "You should know that if you were to ever to get to a situation that meant life or death, think of others first, even if it kills you. It is more noble to die saving a life than it is to live knowing you could have saved them." She then held on to her cross and added, "Always know that just because you gave your life to someone doesn't mean that it is over. Remember that." She then smiled and got up.

"Esteban, wake up, I'm done with the translation."

I opened my eyes and saw Latias hovering over me. It was already dusk, as I could see the sky was dark blue with some stars coming out, but there was still orange-red sunlight in the west. I got up from the ground, fumbling a bit as I did, and brushed the grass off my back.

"Well, that's good, but I think that we should look at it inside as it's dark now," I yawned. I decided to take my time walking to the house to think about my dream. 'My God,' I thought, 'I just remembered that day. It was five years ago. I was…16 then. That beam…it must have been Latios. It was the right direction. Amazing how fate works that way.' I then grabbed my Teacher's cross around my neck. "Just because you give your life to someone doesn't mean that it is over," I said aloud. I then pulled out the glowing blue jewel that was the Soul Dew from my leather pouch. The light coming from it was magnificent in the twilit garden. "I have proof of that." I then put the Soul Dew back into the pouch and headed to the house.

Now to the next chapter...

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