Hey guys and gals, next chapter's up ;)

Hope you enjoy it!

-Chapter 7-

Dreams...

A cool lash of wind at my cheek woke me up...

Groggily sitting up, I rubbed my eyes and slowly opened them, only to shut them tight when the sun hit my face. Trying a second time, I opened my eyes and my breath caught in my throat.

I slowly stood up from where I lay, the grass had disappeared and what lay were grey tiles, which spread out in a large square, and beyond that was a large field of green, high grass. Walking forward, I tensed my shoulders and repeatedly twisted my head, looking in all directions. On one side of the field of grass was a large bright-blue lake. I cautiously stepped toward it and gazed in it; it was clear and sparkling from the rays of the Sun above me. A forest stretched wide on the opposite side of the lake – I noticed something odd sat down in the grass, in front of the forest, it was sat in a similar position to what Lucario was in when he slept. Lucario.

I looked back where I had awoken and saw no signs of the sleeping, blue Pokemon. My nerves built all around me, I was alone. I continued to walk alone the high-grass, which levelled down as I continued, and my gaze lifted to a new unexpected object.

A large, purely-golden Palace sat on the green grass, the sun shining out of it's large dome, my mouth dropped at its sight, and my gaze dropped to what was next to it; an old, wooden piano sat next to the Palace, and sat on the stool was a man dressed in a security uniform.

I ran toward him, my sight fixed upon the piano, forgetting all behind me, my nerves dying down; I was purely focused on playing the piano – although, I was not sure why. When I got there, I stopped running, and began to inch toward the man sat down. He looked up at me, his old crinkled face in a frown, and his eyes meeting mine, but I wasn't afraid of him.

As he continued to stare I asked, "Could I play something?" I smiled, hoping he'd let me.

To my surprise, he stood up and gestured me towards the piano, and I eagerly sat down, my fingers already patrolling the wooden, stiff, black and white painted keys. I looked back at the guard and he was standing next to me, eyes gazing at mine. Looking down again I took a deep breath, and began to play a melody.

But something was wrong... It came out as a mess. My fingers continuously pushed down the wrong keys, and as I continued playing, something in me controlling my fingers pushed me to carry on, and I couldn't stop playing the out-of-key melody. I mentally willed my fingers to stop, to press the right keys, hoping it would do something, but nothing happened, my fingers continued to destroy the sound. I frantically looked back at the security guard, hoping that he would help me, but he stood still, gazing at my fingers.

My breathing rate increased, my eyes watered with tears, I arched my back backwards, trying to pull away from the piano, but nothing worked. I closed my eyes tight and bit down with my teeth, and the sensation of my automated fingers stopped.

Slowly opening my eyes, I found myself to be in a house... my house. I was lying in my bed, my eyes wandering through my old, comfortable room, the posters stuck on my wall, a small desk sat on the side of the room, with a mirror over it, against the wall, and the rest of my old things – the only thoughts in my head was the dream I had just awoken from, just the piano and guard, nothing else.

"Ready?"

That voice... I sat up and listened intently as the voice continued, "C'mon, we have to go, don't we? And you're causing us to be late".

My mum...

"Yeah, yeah, hold on will ya?"

My dad...

I pushed the covers off of me, and jumped out of bed, "Mum! Dad!"

Seconds later, they both appeared in the doorway, my mother dressed elegantly in a red dress, and my father dressed in a tight suit, bent over to tie his shoes, "Yes dear?"

I was lost for words – their appearance had thrown me aback. My mum looked at me worryingly, "Are you okay, dear?"

I smiled, "Yeah, I'm fine". I ran towards them and embraced them as tightly as possible, not wanting to let go, and they, surprised by my action, returned the favour,

"What's gotten into you?" My father blurted out.

I chuckled, "Oh... nothing, I just had a bad dream", I recalled how I was sat at the piano, and the how the odd security guard continually stared at me.

My father grabbed my shoulder tightly, smiling warmly at me, a smile that I had missed, "You should stop eating junk before bed kiddo" and he winked at me.

I smiled and grabbed his lingering hand, "Yeah, maybe." I thought back to before I went to bed, but couldn't remember anything, not even going on my bed to sleep, "Dad? Do you know what I might have eaten before I went to bed?"

His smiled faded, "What do you mean? You never went to your bed last night?"

My breath caught, "What?"

This was replied by my mum's hearty chuckle, as she gazed at my walls, "Dear, you know I don't like those posters, you should really take them down".

I walked backwards a bit, confused, "What are you talking about?"

She pointed to a poster, a band I used to like was in the picture, "Those posters, they're horrible, don't you see?"

I looked at her, and she looked back, "That doesn't answer my question."

"What question?"

I tilted my head, "The question about why dad said I didn't go to my bed last night"

"You should really change the sheets on your bed, they're filthy".

I looked back at my bed, then back at her, "What? You aren't making any sense"

Only when she kept quiet, did I turn to my dad for an answer, but, looking around the room, I didn't see him anywhere.

"Where's dad?"

She continued to stare blankly at me.

"Mum? Where's dad?"

Her face changed: her brows where arched, and she held a scornful face, "You're coming with us, whether you like it, or not."

I was taken aback by this, "What are you talking about mum? Coming where?"

She stepped forward, "I don't care if you don't want to, we are a family, and you are coming now!"

I was against the wall, and she was walking slowly towards me, "You've been a hassle to everyone lately Alex, and I'm getting sick of it."

My eyes were beginning to fill with tears, "What? Mum what are you talking about?"

She growled, and fissured away, my eyes were wide open, she was gone, and I was left stranded in my room – the growl she made reminded me of something.

"Let's just go."

My ears perked up to my dad's voice, and I quickly ran to where it was coming from. I headed out my room, along the wooden hallway, and walked silently down the stairs, looking down at my parents, who had appeared by the door, dressed the same.

"It's not fair on us, she keeps lashing out, and I'm putting a stop to it!" My mum was furious, like she had been a few seconds ago in my bedroom, "She's coming now"

My father looked apologetic, "Listen dear, we could ask a friend to come or something, she doesn't need to come if she doesn't want to."

"She's our daughter, she has to spend time with us!"

My father was quick to answer, "Doing this to her will just push her further away from us, do you really want that?"

My mum stood still, her hands shaking by her sides, and her face a mix of anger and frustration.

"C'mon, let's go" my father walked out the door, and my mother followed angrily, slamming the door shut.

Something in my head was buzzing, I didn't know what, but I knew something was wrong, besides my mother and father being angry at me, mostly my mother. I inched down the stairs and gazed out the window, my father was in the car, and my mother was angrily pulling at the car handle, which was locked, "For f**k's sake, open the door Gerald!"

My father reached over, and opened the door, allowing my mum to get in the car gruffly, slamming the door like she did with the house door. The car began to pull out of the driveway, it was night, so there weren't many cars around. My father drove forward, I could still see my mother complaining about me to him. He looked over at her, and began talking back, getting angry at her response, but he hadn't realized something... And then the unremembered thought clicked in my head.

My mother screamed, and my father followed her gaze to see what had startled her, and from the side came a truck that was driving to fast for my parents car to get out of the way, I could see the driver clenching his face, pulling back on the seat as if trying to stop the truck, although the speed didn't deter. I screamed for my parents, but it did no good. In a tenth of a second, the truck collided with my parents car, and the car was sent across the road, rolling quickly and parts of the car scattering in different places. The truck swerved sidewards, not much damage done to the front, and my parents car was crushed against the side of the road to a halt.

I stood, white-faced at the window of my house, looking at what just happened, smoke was fuming out of my parents car. After a few seconds of staring at the wreck, I managed to move, and ran out of the door towards the car, yelling for my parents, "Mum! Dad!"

As I crossed the road, heading towards the wreck, my surrounding area began to fade quickly away, everything disintegrating, even my parents car. I came to a stop, and frantically looked around, the car was gone, the house was gone, even the truck was gone. Everything was turning to darkness around me, and I was left stranded in this empty void, tears leaking freely down my face, and my breath increasing and decreasing rapidly as I looked around for something.

After a while of nothing happening, I shut my eyes tightly, and grabbed my hair as I fell to the ground... No...This couldn't have happened...Where am I...What's going on? I scrunched my eyes and lifted my head to scream loudly into nothingness...

My eyes opened sharply at the sensation of a touch on my shoulder. My vision was blurred, and, whilst my eyes re-adjusted themselves, I looked around frantically: There were trees around me, green leaves hung overhead, signs of sunlight were shown shining through them, and a blue blur was walking steadily away from me. My vision cleared and I noticed that I was back in the forest, everything I had forgotten whilst with my parents re-appeared in my mind, the castle, Lady Ilene, Lucario... Lucario. Jumped up quickly, grabbing my bag, and ran towards him, "Lucario!"

He continued to walk, "What."

As I caught up to him, I found that I was lost for words, "I... uh..."

I was now walking next to him, he didn't say anything

I thought back to my nightmare... My parents vicious crash, the piano, the security guard, and how everything changed so quickly without my realizing it, "I... it was a dream..."

Lucario titled his head toward me, "What?"

I looked back up at him, "Oh... I was thinking back to my dream... my nightmare" He continued walking, unresponsive to me.

The one thing I knew was real in the dream was the fight I had with my parents, where we were supposed to go watch a movie at the cinema together, I can't remember what movie it was, some corny thing I hated, and the crash... That happened to, almost exactly like that... The fear I had as I saw my parent bloodied faces hang from the upturned car... My thoughts drifted from each terrible scene as Lucario and I walked on.

4 Hours Later...

We had covered a lot of the distance to the Tree, and Lucario hadn't said a word to me, I had been reminiscing to the dream – still sad at the sight of my dead parents.

Something shuffled in my bag.

"Lucario, Wait" He paused, and didn't look back at me, "There's something in my bag"

He looked over, and I placed the bag on the floor. It began to shuffle slightly again, and I tensely grabbed the flap, and opened it.

"!" A small, brown... thing lunged at me, cutting my thoughts.

"Gah!" I fell back as the thing landed on top of me. Lucario quickly grabbed it and lifted it off me, it was frantically moving it's small legs, trying to escape.

I got up, and looked at my little assailant. There were three green sphere's on it's head, two small yellow eyes, and a brown, cone-like shaped body.

Lucario pondered at it, "It's a Bonsley"

I blinked, "A... What?"

He kept his eyes fixed on the thing, talking lowly, "A pokemon called Bonsley"

My ears pricked up at this, and I gazed closer at the pokemon, who was still trying to run, "hmm..."

The pokemon began to cry – and he cried out his name whilst pouring tears out. Then something happened.

I saw Lucario smile at the pokemon, and it was a kind, gentle smile. Thinking that this had been the second time since I saw him smile, and remembering what he did when I mentioned it, I looked back at the Bonsley sadly, "Awww, you poor thing"

I reached my arms out to the Pokemon, and grabbed him when Lucario let go of him, he carried on walking towards our destination.

With the Bonsley in my arms, I looked at it, Bonsley looked up at me scarcely, and I smiled warmly back, "Don't worry, I won't hurt you"

I carefully rocked the Bonsley from side to side, and the brown Pokemon stopped crying gave a gip of joy, causing me to giggle, "See, you're okay. You're heavy for a small little thing"

"Bonsley!"

I laughed, amused by the little, cute Pokemon, and then realized that Lucario had gotten quite far ahead of me, "Wait!"

After some time...

After catching up with Lucario, and grabbing my backpack, we continued our walk towards the eerie Tree, Bonsley keeping me company as I walked, the little Pokemon cradled in my arms – I had completely forgotten about my dreams whilst with Bonsley, and, thinking back to them, I wasn't as sad – due to Bonsley jumping in my arms, crying out "Bonsley" every time I looked down sadly.

Lucario stopped, and looked into the woods, I stopped next to him, wondering what he was up to. A loud car engine roared past us and continued faded away as it continued. - We had been following a path that lead us near a road which lead back to the Castle.

We followed the noise, no doubt Lucario was thinking about the odd people we had seen beforehand, who were looking for something in the bushes.

Lucario began to pace quickly towards the noise, and I followed as best as I could, knowing that he wouldn't respond to any of my questions.

He stopped at a few bushes, the path was next to them. As I got closer to the bushes, I looked outward at the path: there was a large yellow vehicle parked across from us, and, from what I could see, steam was rising upward, over the truck.

Bonsley was following my gaze, and I heard laughter from beyond the vehicle.

I looked at Lucario, he was gazing intently at that spot, I could have sworn that he was thinking about something else, other than the vehicle and laughter due to his absent gaze on the truck, "Lucario"

He snapped out of his state, and merely looked over at the spot.

I continued, "Shall we go over there?" I kept my voice quieter than usual, slightly worried about any reaction he might have.

He stood up and flared with Aura, and I stood back, looking once again at his ability – Bonsley was also gazing at Lucario's blue Aura.

Blue, flame-like ripples were moving over his body, passing though is legs, arms, chest, head, and tail. The Aura vanished and he looked back up at the vehicle.

"Is it the people from before?"

Lucario squinted his eyes slightly, and then began walking in the direction of the Tree again.

I persisted, keeping my voice quiet, "Is it?"

He stopped and growled slightly, "No. It's people that were at the festival."

I looked back at the truck, "Could we go over there?" I was hoping to be able to talk to someone who wouldn't ignore me.

Lucario turned at me, "No."

I looked at Bonsley, it was looking back up at me, a hint of worry in it's face, "Please? I just want to see if I know them or not."

"And you also said you wanted to join me to the Tree of Beginning", His glare was again pointed at me.

I closed my feet together, "Sorry... I just wanted to see if I knew them, and maybe take a break" I knew I was pushing it, but I wanted to see if what he saw with his Aura might have been Max.

"You told me you would follow me without getting in the way."

"I know... but..." I thought of something to say, "You might as well take a small break"

He was growling softly

"Bonsley"

I looked at his glare, "Please? Just to take a small rest"

He turned his head sharply and lowly growled, "Go." He walked across to the truck, and proceed to walk behind a few rocks on the side.

I took a deep breath, thank-full that all he did was growl.

Slightly smiling at my luck, I walked over to where the truck was, only then did I notice that ahead of the truck were a dozen gaps filled with water that shot out highly into the sky.

I reached the truck and peered over to the source of the laughter.

Something grabbed me, and Bonsley flew out of my arms, luckily landing softly on the ground. I gasped as my hand was kissed and looked down to find something that I regretted meeting.

"Oh...no..."

"?"

I closed my eyes, and smiled in embarrassment, "Hi...Brock..."

"Ahh!" A small hand jerked Brock's ear sharply, and he was swiftly elevated off of me,

"How many times do I have to do this."

I smiled at the person I hadn't regretted meeting, "Hi Max"

He looked up at me, an returned my smile with a joyful one of his own, "Oh! Hi Alex!"

I picked up Bonsley off the ground and looked back at the kid, "I can't believe I'm meeting you out here in this place, weren't you going back home?"

He chuckled back at me, "We were, but Ash and May thought it'd be a good idea to take a look around the place" He looked at the Pokemon in my arms, who was currently watching the distressed Brock trying to struggle away from Max's grip, "I see you caught a Bonsley"

I chuckled, "No, I found him scuffling through my backpack, and he's been with me and Lucario since"

Max's eyes perked up, "Lucario? Is that a Pokemon?"

I quickly became aware of what I had said, "Oh, em, yeah, he's a Pokemon"

Max released Brock, and Brock walked away sulking, rubbing his ear, "I've never heard of a Lucario before"

I nervously smiled, knowing Lucario didn't want the attention, "Y-Yeah, I think he's a rare Pokemon"

"Is he here with you?"

I tightened my grip on Bonsley, "Oh, em, no, he's not, he left awhile ago and told me he would be back in a while" - I hadn't intended to lie to him, but I knew that if I didn't, something worse would happen.

He looked down sadly, "Oh..."

"Don't be sad Max" An idea popped into my mind "So, what's with the steam rising?"

"Oh, there's a hot spring there!"

My eyes lit up, "Really?"

He nodded, "Yeah, why don't you join us for a while? At least till Lucario comes back"

"But I-er don't have a bathing costume or anything..."

He chuckled, "That's okay, May has some that might fit you"

"Oh, I...em..." If I wasn't comfortable dressing for a ball dance, I knew I wouldn't be in a bathing suit.

"C'mon!"

I looked toward the rising steam as Max and I walked round the truck to the hot spring.

In front of the truck was the hot spring, the warm water filling an average sized hole, where steam flew fluidly out of it. On the sides was a building formation of rocks, and on the far side was more trees. In the water were three figures, one of them I recognized as Ash, the winner of the festival, with his Pikachu racing about the boundaries of the hot spring, the other two I had no recognition of. "Hey guys! You could have waited for me!" Max seemed slightly irritated that his friends had gone in the spring without him.

Ash turned to Max, "Sorry, it was too tempting" he noticed me standing next to Max, Bonsley staring oddly at the water, "Hey, it's Alex!" He rushed out of the water and walked over to me, "How you doing?"

I shook his outstretched hand, "I fine thanks, and yourself?"

"I'm fine too"

I noticed the other two girls staring at me, and Ash followed my gaze, "Oh, sorry" he turned to them, "May, Kidd, this is Alex, I met her at the castle during the festival, Alex, this is May and Kidd"

The girl called May climbed out of the spring and shook my hand, "Hi, that's a cute Pokemon" she scratched the Bonsley,

"Bonsley!"

I chuckled, "Yeah, I just found it"

"Really?"

I nodded

"Could I hold it for a while?"

"Sure" I gave Bonsley to May, and she chuckled as Bonsley yipped joyfully.

"Hi Alex, pleasure to meet you"

I turned to the other girl, "Hi, Kidd, right?"

She nodded, "Yeah"

I noticed something about Kidd, "Hey, I think I recognize you from somewhere"

"Oh?"

Then it clicked, "I think I remember you dancing with Brock at the festival"

She chuckled nervously, "Yeah... That was...Fun..."

"Hey Alex"

I looked at Max, "Yeah?"

"Me and May found you a bathing costume"

I noticed he holding a purple bathing costume, "Oh, em..."

"You can get changed in the truck"

"Oh, I..."

"C'mon, you'd like the hot spring"

"I think I'd prefer to sit next to the hot spring"

Max look sadly at me, "Sure?"

"Yeah, it's okay."

"Well okay then." He walked off to put the suit back in the truck.

I walked over to the hot spring and sat on the edge, close to where Ash and Pikachu was, and he looked up at me, "Aren't you coming in?"

I shook my head, "Nah, I'm okay" Changing the subject, I added, "How's Pikachu?"

The little yellow Pokemon gazed at me, and smiled, "Pikachu!"

Ash chuckled, "He's fine, he was really excited about winning the match"

"Pika!"

I smiled, "Yeah, you two were a great team"

"Thanks"

"Pika Pika!"

"So what brings you round here?"

I blinked, "I was travelling around with someone, and bumped into Brock on the way"

"Oh, he didn't... did he"

Ash had read my mind, "Yeah, but Max stopped him soon after"

He chuckled, "That's good, who were you travelling with?"

"I..." I wasn't sure of what to use as an excuse, and Max already knew, "I was with a Pokemon called Lucario"

"I've never heard of a Pokemon like that before, what does it look like?"

"He em... He's blue with a yellow chest, as red eyes, black sacks hanging behind his head, a blue tai-"

Ash interrupted, "Wait, black sacks?"

I wasn't sure what Ash was confused about, "Em, yeah, black sacks, why?"

"I think he might have been the Pokemon I saw in the match" He pondered for a bit, "Y'know, the one that jumped over the roofs?"

I recalled when Ash and Max were talking about that, "Oh... yeah, maybe that was him"

Ash asked another question, "Is he your Pokemon? Can I see him?"

I used the same excuse that I used with Max, "Oh, no, sorry, he's not my Pokemon, he left for a while and told me to wait here"

Ash looked dismayed, "Oh... Why'd he tell you to wait here?"

I had to prolong my excuse, "Em, he wanted to look ahead, before coming back, so y'know, nothing dangerous would happen"

"Oh that's nice of him, where are you guys heading?"

"I... He... We were going to run some errands for Lady Ilene" At least it wasn't a complete lie.

"Oh cool, maybe we could tag along"

I thought about how Lucario would react to this news, and my thoughts weren't positive, "Oh, sorry, Lady Ilene only wanted me and Lucario to go"

"Really?"

I nodded

"Oh okay then, what's the errand?"

I made another lie, "Sorry, it's a secret" trying to think of way out of his questions, I added, "Are you guys leaving after this?"

Ash looked over at Kidd and Brock, who was slowly inching towards her, "No, we want to explore around some more" he continuously stared at Brock, "I'm, gonna go and stop Brock from scarring her...again..." and with that, he swam across to where Brock was moving towards Kidd. I wondered as to what the other scarring moment might have been – and sympathized towards Kidd.

"Bonsley!"

I sharply turned to Bonsley's cry and noticed that it was running away from a startled May.

"Bonsley's don't like water May, don't you know?" Max was chuckling beside her, she became red-faced,

"Oh, whoops"

I smiled at her lack of thought, and then gazed up at the sun, letting it's warmth touch my face. Lucario might be back at anytime, so I would have to keep look out for him, but until then, I'd spend my time with Ash and the rest of the group.

One of Alex's dreams come from one I dreamt of some time ago, and I thought it'd fit in perfectly in this story.

The next chapter will have something in-store for you people, so look out for it, (As long as it may take, sorry :[ )

As always, R & R =] and thanks for all the reviews I got from everyone =]