Time for a Reality of Serenity update! Teeheehee... What could possibly be going on?

Amy47101 does not own pokémon.

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The Adventure Saga

The Reality of Serenity

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Serena panted heavily as she neared the outside of the city, facing the exit that was going to go onto the next route and through to the next city. She sighed, glancing up at the sky, seeing the sun was done with setting. The day was now fading to night.

Shaking her head, she went through the abandoned route gate, the receptionist no doubt asleep for the night. She walked through and stepped onto a small, sandy beach. She glanced at it and the small current of water in front of her, imagining it being perfect for children in the summer months. She saw a sign posted on the beach, and blinked in the fading sunlight.

"Don't release your pokémon into the water!" she mumbled aloud as she read. "You may not know this, but pokémon foreign to the area agitate the native pokemon! To protect those who enjoy playing in this beautiful cove, please keep your pokémon safely in their pokéballs. Only Larry the Lapras Man is authorized to give rides on 'his' Lapras." she blinked, and looked at the water. Maybe at night...?

"I wouldn't do it if I were you." Calem stated, coming up to her. She did a slight double-take at his new attire: An orange logo T-shirt and olive-green cargo shorts. On his feet were black sneakers. "They're strangely territorial. See this?" he pulled up his shirt a bit, causing Serena to jump back.

"Wha-Wha-What on earth are you doing?!" she exclaimed, blushing. Calem blinked, then smirked.

"What, Serena? We're friends. I'm teaching you a lesson."

"H-H-How is stripping teaching me a lesson?!" she exclaimed, face turning an even more furious shade of red. Calem shook his head.

"You have a dirty mind, Seré." he stated, pulling his shirt up a little more, showing a scar that looked like a large bite mark on his abdomen. "This was from about six years ago, when I was ten. Prof. Sycamore gathered me and the others on an 'educational research trip'."

"Yeah. Right." Serena said, suddenly coming up with a great idea. Calem grinned, to enraptured by his story to notice he was still holding his shirt up.

"Yup!" he shook his head. "Anyways, Trevor accidentally released some water types into the water while me and Shauna were in there." he glanced at the water, furrowing his brow. "Shauna and the pokémon managed to scramble out in time, but somehow, a Sharpedo came up. Grabbed me and dragged me under."

"I didn't think Sharpedo's were native here in Kalos." she commented, inching closer.

"They are, but rarely." Calem stated. "Up on a few smaller routes, you might come across one by chance, but other than that, no. Sycamore thought it got lost while migrating, and it ended up here."

"Seems even you get a stroke of bad luck." she said. "Like, say..." she grinned. "Now!" With that, she tackled him to the ground and began tickling the bare skin on his stomach relentlessly. His eyes shot open in surprise as they fell into the sand.

"Noooooo!" he cried out dramatically between loud laughs.

"Say uncle! Uncle, Calem!" she exclaimed, laughing herself.

"Never! I will not surrender!" he cried out, suddenly flipping over with him on top. He grinned, cracking his fingers, then began tickling her. She burst into laughter almost immediately, trying to shove him off. "Say uncle!" he mimicked in a mock high-pitched voice. "Uncle, Serena!"

"Uncle! Uncle, uncle, uncle!" she shouted almost immediately. Calem blinked as he moved his hands away, Serena taking deep breaths.

"Well geez." he muttered. "That was weak."

"Shut up! I didn't expect you to turn on me like that!" she exclaimed. Calem grinned, rolling off her and then laying in the sand next to her.

"So what were you planning on doing, leaving us so soon?" he asked, nudging her in the ribs. Serena sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"I'm not going to be able to sleep tonight." she stated. "Those birds..."

"I'm sorry." Calem said. "But I really had no choice in the matter, Serena. I hope you understand that."

"I do. But it's still terrifying. I had... some sort of flashback or something."

"Eh?" Calem asked, turning on his side and propping his head on his hand to look at her better.

"Ever since I started this journey, I've been having these crazy flashbacks." she said, covering her eyes with one hand as she used her thumb and forefinger to massage her temples. "No, scratch that. Before I even moved here, I always remembered small bits of this lullaby. I don't know where it came from, but I know that it didn't come from my Dad and my Mom never heard of it." She moved her hand from her face. "They were few and far between until I met you and the others. The day you nicknamed me."

"You zoned out briefly after we settled on the name." Calem recalled.

"Yes. It's because I was recalling a woman calling me by the same name. It wasn't my mother... I don't know who it could have been. After that, there was the bird incident in the Santalune forest. I don't know if it counts, but every time I see a bird, I get that same gripping, horrible fear. I have dreams, too. The last dream was a woman singing a child to sleep. She added new verses to the unfinished lullaby... It took place in Geosenge Town where that grunt knocked me out wit Hypnosis. But it's getting worse."

"Worse? How?" Calem asked, sitting up.

"Recently, I've been having flashbacks when I come into contact with certain things. Remember when I shook hands with Leaf?"

"Yes?"

"I had a flashback then, too." she paused. "It was the dexholders as small kids, with a small two-year-old. The only reason I know it was them was because of their names. The eyes are always shaded in the flashbacks. Recently, I've been having these auditory flashbacks of a man or a small girl, maybe seven or eight, advising me in battle or teaching me how to train. In the dream with the lullaby, there was a man there, as well, but he and the woman both had their eyes shaded. Like always."

"And then...?"

"My most recent flashbacks when I came into contact with the birds. With the Fletchinder, it was that same girl running through the forest, running from something. When your Talonflame grabbed me, I had a second one."

"So soon?" he asked. "Sorry, but it seems like these flashbacks at least separate between hours, if not days. Why one so soon after?"

"Trauma? I don't know. But I had a flashback about a huge... giant... bird snatching up the girl and taking her away. Arceus, the terror...! It's horrible..."

"Hey. Lets go back to the pokémon center. We don't need to talk about these things. We've both had a long day. Lets go to sleep, okay?" Calem smiled gently. "You can even stay with me. I'll protect you from the birds!" Serena said nothing, but stood, following him back to the orange building. They walked inside, Nurse Joy smiling as they approached.

"I'm glad you found your friend, Calem." she stated, smiling. "I was about to turn in for the night, the nightstaff was about to take over."

"Yup! We're turning in as well. Long, long day for us too. Get me a room for my friend?" Calem said, turning towards the bedrooms.

"Of course!" Nurse Joy stated, passing the card key to Calem. She waved cheerfully as the two moved past the desk and up to the room that Calem had rented out. Serena stood in the doorway while Calem simply kicked his sneakers off and tossed them in the corner.

"I don't know what's going on..." Serena paused. "I don't know why I'm remembering these things... I shouldn't be."

"Well..." Calem plopped down on the bed, patting the spot next to her, giving her the okay to sit next to him. She obliged. "It's rare for people to clearly remember something before they are five. As you get older, the older memories eventually become lost. When you're ten, what happened when you were three, four, five... they seem like yesterday. But as you age to your teens...What you remember from being five become nothing but fuzzy memories, barely able to place them together. Something must have happened to you when you were just a tiny tot... and that's why you can only recall the lullaby and the fear. You aren't remembering those with your brain... You're remembering the comfort of your mothers lullaby and the earth-shattering fear of birds... with your heart." He smiled at this, then fell back on the bed with his eyes closed. Serena sat there still for a moment, taking in what he just said.

"But in order to remember something... It had to have happened in the past. Simply put," Serena sighed, rubbing her temples with her fingers. "What the hell happened to me when I was little?"

"Why don't you sing the lullaby?" Calem murmured, one eye opening lazily. "Who knows? Maybe I know it." Serena rolled her eyes and smiled.

"I doubt you know it, but fine." she took a deep breath and began to recall the lyrics of the song.

"You and I were born
right here in the same world.
For this one brief life,
we're beneath the same sky.

The great flow of time.
The wide expanse of space.
We are lucky enough
to share this lifetime we get.

We can gain more if we give.
By taking, we only lose.
Let us make this a new age
where we show our gratitude.

There's a fragile bud of hope,
blooming in each of our hearts.
Don't you take that away.
Our dreams are meant to be shared."

"Let it grow, let it live,
Let us see what it will bring.
Where we share in our love,
We make a beautiful world." Calem continued after she stopped. Serena widened her eyes.

"Do you know any more?!" she exclaimed. Calem shook his head.

"Nope. Only up to that." Calem said, frowning. "It's a rare lullaby, though. I think that mostly people from smaller towns, like, say, Vanville Town or Pallet Town, would know it. I wouldn't expect anyone from a large city to know it. Hell, I'm from Vanville and I don't even know the whole thing."

"So we're talking really small towns." Serena muttered.

"Small populations. Maybe with less than eight, no, five hundred people or so? I know Vanville just barely brushes two hundred, with myself and you included. So small that they lack a pokémon center. Why would they need it when we can simply use our own supplies to heal them? And besides, it's not like trainers stop by them often."

"Well, I suppose that narrows it down a bit." Serena sighed. "I'm tired from thinking about all this, though."

"Same." Calem stated, sitting up. "I'm going to change in the bathroom. See you tomorrow!" Serena smiled slightly in response. He stepped into the bathroom, quickly changing into his blue pajamas and walking out, only to find Serena already asleep on the bed. He blinked, glancing back at the bathroom, as if trying to calculate how long it took him to change. Did she honestly fall asleep during what seemed to be a rather short amount of time?

Strange.

"Idiot Seré." he chuckled. "She didn't even bother to change out of her clothes." he poked her cheek. "Hey. Idiot Seré. You gonna change or what?" she mumbled something and moved over a bit, as if making room for him. "Idiot Seré? You awake and teasing me or are ya really asleep?" he listened for a moment, hearing nothing but her light breathing. "Yup." he stated, sighing as a drop of sweat rolled down his head. "You're asleep." he blinked, then nearly facepalmed. "And I'm essentially talking to myself."

He shook hid head and scrawled out a note to Serena, leaving it on the nightstand. He gathered up his belongings, shoving his clothes in his bag, and took the room key meant for the other room and moved to sleep away the stress of the day.

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"Hey, Seré!" Calem exclaimed, donning the same outfit he had on the previous night, with the exception of the bright orange beanie that sat on his head. He watched as she came up to them in the her damaged jeans and purple T-shirt. She had her black ball-cap on her head, finger combing her hair then tying the ends. "Geez, you're slow. Everyone else left ahead of us."

"Sorry!" she exclaimed. "I couldn't find my hairbrush this morning to save my life. It was like it disappeared from my purse." she blinked, looking around. "Where's everyone else?"

"Went ahead without us. Meanies!" he exclaimed childishly as they walked outside of the city. Standing on the edge of the water was a man around twenty years old with a Lapras swimming back. He glanced up at them, smiling.

"Need a ride, strangers?" he asked, glancing at the two.

"Yup." Serena smiled. He sat up.

"Across the bay, four thousand poké per person. Up and around into Azure Bay is twenty thousand poké. Per person, of course."

"We only want across the bay." Calem answered, pulling out his money, Serena following suit.

"Pleasure doing business with you." the man, Larry, Serena remembered from the sign, said as he took the money and tucked it in his pocket. Lapras glided forward, turning, and waiting for it's new passengers to hop on. Calem ran, scrambling on like a little kid, then turning to help Serena on. Larry whistled loudly, and the Lapras took off, sailing smoothly.

"Hey, Serena." Calem said, smiling.

"What is it?" she asked, dipping her hand in the water and giggling as some fish pokémon scattered from the sudden intrusion of their home.

"I'll challenge you to a battle again sometime." he stated, resting his chin on his hand. That's the best way to get strong, after all."

"Strong?" she questioned, not looking at him but glancing at his reflection in the rippling water.

"I've been thinking about it a lot. Most of the time, you have to do something amazing to be noticed as a trainer."

"Calem, you were chosen to have a pokédex." Serena said. "That's honor enough to get us noticed, people across Kalos have been recognizing us as-"

"Professor Sycamore's pupils." Calem finished. "But I don't want to be known as Professor Sycamore pupil. I want to be known as Calem Calme, he who was known for something amazing. On top of that, I feel as if I'm... lagging."

"Lagging?"

"Tierno is showing off his pokémon via dance, Trevor is completing the pokédex, Shauna is practicing battling while making her pokémon look beautiful, and you can Mega Evolve your pokémon." Calem said with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Me? I'm just a trainer. I'm nothing special. I... I can't even beat you."

"Ridiculous!" Serena exclaimed, nearly standing as she yanked her hand out of the water. "Calem, you're one of the strongest trainers I know and my greatest rival. Me and my pokémon work ourselves to the bones to beat you every time we battle, and if I come out on top, so what? You're your own person in your own unique way Calem, and if you can't see it or still feel the need to prove it... Then I pity you." Calem blinked at her.

"I was lucky enough to meet you... and end up traveling with you." he stated with a small smile. "So I'd better take advantage of the opportunity to battle when I can. To get stronger." Serena felt her cheeks heat up at the first comment, and she smiled sightly.

"You... You've been acting strangely." Serena stated. "You've been so serious, last night with advising me and now this..." Calem glanced at her. "You're usually happy and cheery and super teasing. I-I-I like you when you're l-like that. So don't scare me when you act so serious like you've been lately. It makes me think you're sick." Calem laughed slightly, then grinned. Like that, serious Calem was gone, replaced with the usual teasing young man Serena was used to.

"Promise, Seré. You've got no need to worry."

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I'm super excited for Christmas! So, Merry Christmas and happy whatever holiday you solve! See ya!

Amy47101 signing off! ^.^