DarkFoxKit: Okay, we are here, at the end. We will now be answering everyone who's reviewed the last chapter.

Traveling Master: We hope you guys got all your questions ready, cause we won't be able to answer any after this epilogue.

Dust: I still can't believe it's been roughly 3 and a half years since you two started this story. Weird how I had only 1 year to complete my task. But nonetheless, we all made it!

DarkFoxKit: Dust? Why are you here again?

Dust: Come now, you know as well as I do that you can't keep me out of here. Plus, this is the finale, the last part, the end of this story. So of course I wanna be here to see it all.

DarkFoxKit: Well… I guess fair enough. Now, let's get into the reviews!

Epilogue: The Awaiting Dawn

In a lone prison cell, Grace sat on the cold bench with her arms cuffed. She looked up through the only open window, blocked by dark steel bars, with her right eye. She could still feel the sting of the everstone embedded in her left eye, despite the medic trying their best after Eclipse had captured her. She was exhausted, every careful plan she had made, every cautious step she took, all had fallen apart. And it was all thanks to that infuriating Absol and chaotic Goomy that Grace was now in this Mew forsaken prison.

If only Dust had given me the Syzygy, then everyone would've gotten what they wanted. That foolish Goomy was practically on my side, but no! Dust chose to rebel and cause everything to fall apart! Grace mentally shouted.

Grace was rubbing her left eye. How did this happen? Everything I planned for Dust kept failing, and changing. Every time I thought Dust, the disaster Absol who never did Crusading on his own, and chased away any partners that we tried to give him, would fail, he ended up succeeding… beyond what was expected. So many times I had to blackmail their guildmaster, and stop Dust from reaching the Gold Rank. I truly underestimated him, he really is Eclipse's son. But it's not just him… the Pokemon who followed him, that Goomy, she seems to be the key to his success. I've never heard of a Goomy being as resourceful or as intelligent as that one. If I had been able to get her by my side, along with the Syzygy, this region… this world would've been under my thumb. But everything had to go wrong! Where did I go wrong!? I did research on Dust's team, I carefully learned what each of those Pokemon wanted. But it still wasn't enough!

Out of anger, some of Grace's psychic and fairy powers exploded out of her, sending out a force of pink and purple energy at the jail cell. The explosion, however, quickly dissipated before even touching the bars.

All of a sudden she heard someone humming from down the corridor, which seemed odd to Grace. Every time one of the guards came by to do a check up, they always were cautious of her, ready to act if she tried anything. Not once did any of them hum or whistle a tune. But as the humming got closer and closer, she could only sense this newcomer either was casually walking to her without a care, or didn't know who was residing in here. What caught her next attention was the temperature suddenly dropping, with the bars themselves slowly being covered in ice, followed by the frosty breath coming from her mouth.

The mysterious new figure then stopped in front of Grace's cell, just out of the light to hide their true form. "My, my, my, how far from grace you have fallen."

Grace frowned, she didn't know who this was, but from what she could tell… this wasn't someone she should be messing with. Not only was the temperature much lower than it should be, but the ice around the bars were getting thicker, and she could sense a certain amount of pressure that felt like it was being held back. She didn't want to know what would happen if all of that pressure was suddenly released.

"Who are you? What do you want?" Grace asked, keeping herself calm.

"What do I want? Hmm, well I guess that depends on how this conversation goes," the voice responded with a slight chuckle before continuing. "But don't worry, I won't waste too much of your time. Especially considering how tomorrow is your big day, and it doesn't look like it's in your favor. I can imagine you being condemned, you did do some pretty nasty stuff to deserve that kind of punishment, after all."

"Are you here to condemn me yourself then?" Grace huffed.

"Oh my sweet Grace, if I truly wanted to kill you…" The mysterious Pokemon then chuckled once more as ice started to cover more of Grace's cell. She noticed ice spears forming all around her, ready to strike at her with every angle. "I would've done so already."

Grace, normally composed even in the face of danger, shrunk in on herself, shutting her eye. She waited a moment, but nothing happened. There was no pain, no sudden coldness going through her body, or her body suddenly laying dead on the floor. Grace slowly opened her eye back up to see the ice spears had disappeared.

"Instead, I'm here to congratulate you on passing," The voice responded before stepping into the light, revealing a medium bipedal black pokemon, with white claws, and red piercing eyes. "Allow me to formally introduce myself. You can refer to me as Bane, I've been dying to meet you."

Grace paled, she had never seen Bane's true identity, but she had heard of his name. "Bane… As in the mysterious leader of the SDS? The leader that so few had seen that many questioned if you exist?"

"In the icy flesh," The Weavile responded.

Grace had to take a moment to let this all sink in, before her brain remembered what he said. "You said I 'passed'? What did I pass exactly? What warranted you to come see me in the flesh?"

"Well, while you were busy playing your little game, the SDS has been keeping a close eye on both you and your former partner, Dio," Bane answered. "You see, in order to achieve our goals, the SDS must operate in secret, giving little information while gaining what we can. So with that, we needed to see how you and Dio would react when facing failure. When the Persian was ready to reveal all his secrets, including some sensitive information regarding my organization in hopes of making a deal with those Crusader, Abstract knew at that moment Dio had failed and stopped him from saying anything further."

Grace recalled reading the reports from Torrent, as well from Team Night Tide, of how they encountered 'Icy' the Glaceon, but was then later to be revealed a Ditto the whole time. The Ditto then froze Dio, transformed into a Gardevoir and teleported away with Dio.

"You, on the other hand, were given every chance to make a deal, to share your secrets, yet you've kept your mouth shut," Bane continued. "Originally I was planning on waiting until after your trial to see if you would truly betray yourself and throw away your pride to make a deal, but I was advised that it would be best to speak with you before your trial. And so far, you have yet to disappoint, well…up until your little fiasco with those Crusaders. Granted, hard to imagine how anyone would react with having a shard of Everstone embedded in their eye while their whole plans fall into pieces. Though who am I to judge?"

"I came close to getting everything! If it weren't for that Absol and Goomy, I would've had the Syzygy in my power right now," Grace hissed.

"If that had happened, then you would've been dead before you even got to use the Syzygy," Bane darkly stated. "As I said before, we've been watching you closely, and while we were merely testing to see if you qualified to join our ranks, our true intentions was the Syzygy itself. So, in a way, that Absol and Goomy ended up saving your life."

"What?" Grace frowned. "You wanted the Syzygy?"

"No need to worry about it, that can come later. Right now, we have other matters to take care of, such as breaking you out of this cell," Bane remarked.

Grace was doubtful, knowing how durable those bars were and was about to make a snide remark, but then Bane placed his right claw on the middle bar covered in ice. After a few seconds, the middle bar, along with the other frozen bars, shattered into pieces.

"Now let's go before we have more unwanted company," Bane said. "You can ask all your questions once we are gone from this place."

Grace nodded, she would rather go with this mysterious Weavile than stay here and be condemned. Then Grace realized something. "What happened to the guard?"

"Oh, no need to worry about the guard. He's just resting, that's all," Bane remarked as he turned to the side.

Grace followed the Weavile's gaze and nearly gasped as she saw a frozen Incineroar.

"Did you kill him?" Grace asked.

Bane gave a quick laugh before answering. "No, that would've left too many clues. He's simply in a frozen state, and he hasn't even realized it yet. By the time we leave, he'll thaw out, without ever knowing he was frozen in the first place. Now are you ready to leave? Your new future awaits."

Grace took a moment to regain her composure, before she stood up straight. "Yes, let's go."

"Perfect," Bane grinned as he held out his right claw for Grace to hold onto while holding up his left claw against the open air.

Grace was about to ask what the Weavile was doing, only for a shadowing sphere to form where his left claw was at. It grew until it was bigger than her. Grace marveled at Bane's abilities, and had many questions, but knew the Weavile would answer them in time. Instead, she took his claw and followed as Bane led her into the dark portal. Once the two had completely passed through the portal, the dark circle shrunk out of existence, leaving only the Incineroar alone as his body soon thawed, and was completely clueless on what just happened.

Meanwhile, back at the Unity Guild, almost all the inhabitants inside had retired to bed, with only a few nocturnal Pokemon being up and about. At the Medical Bay, hardly any activity was going on. Dr. Perfume had stayed late to monitor their only patient, the still sleeping Charmeleon, in case Al made any sudden improvements. The Aromatisse let out a sigh, unsure of when the Charmeleon would wake up from his slumber. He gave a few instructions to the Blissy who worked the night shift to notify him if there were any sudden changes from the Charmeleon before saying goodnight.

With the Aromatisse gone, the Blissey looked at the sleeping Charmeleon, half expecting him to suddenly wake up, but there was no movement. She was about to turn of the lights when she noticed the room get slightly brighter. Turning, she was surprised to see the Charmeleon's tail flame having grown, giving up what seemed like a healthy glow. Soon after, Al's body slightly twitched, showing some kind of activity, giving Blissey relief. Recalling Dr. Perfume's instructions, she quickly left, hoping to catch the Aromatisse. Seeing how it had only been a short while since Dr. Perfume had left, the Blissey believed Al should be fine on his own.

With Al now truly alone, the Charmeleon laid on the medical bay, keeping a steady breathing since first arriving there.

Where are you going? Al saw an image of someone walking away from him. The image was blurry and hard to make out, but from what Al could tell, this Pokemon was orange and big, and they were important to Al.

The Charmeleon's heart was starting to race.

Al didn't know how he knew the Pokemon was important to him, but he felt like he had to catch up to this Pokemon as they kept walking away from him. Come back! Don't go!

The Charmeleon's head slightly winced, a pounding feeling rocking his head.

"Don't follow me." A voice said back to Al. A voice that sounded familiar, but also foreign.

The Charmeleon's heart is racing even faster, his body burning intently, the pounding becoming intense as his tail flame keeps on growing and growing.

The Pokemon began to turn around, but suddenly a Sliggoo came up, blocking the Pokemon. The Sliggoo was glaring angrily in Al's face and let out a roar.

"NOOOOOO!" Al roared as he sat up, flames almost coming out of his mouth.

The Charmeleon then grunted in pain as he noticed the intense pounding in his head. He pressed his right claws against his temples, hoping that the pressure would subside soon. Feeling his insides burning, Al got up from his bed and walked out the room he was in. He didn't know where he was, but he needed to cool off. Luckily he spotted a sink with a mirror above nearby. Turning it on, he dunked his head below the cool water, and despite being a Fire type, it was the most refreshing thing he's felt in a long time. He let the cold water run down on his head, feeling the pounding starting to leave as his body started to cool off.

Al gave a sigh of relief as he turned the sink off, resting both of his arms along the side of the sink. He was taking deep breaths, glad the pain had gone away, but was only confused by what he saw.

A dream? A memory? Al thought before taking one last deep breath of relief. "Don't know…but looks like I'm all good-"

Al stopped as he looked up at the mirror, expecting to see his own reflection. Instead, he saw the same Sliggoo from his dream staring back at him. In that one moment, his tail flame grew, giving off intense heat, his heart starting racing once again while the same pounding returned to his head, this time with much more intensity. Al bared his fangs while breathing hot air threw his nostrils. His eyes dilated while his vision started to turn red. And in that moment, without thinking, Al struck at the window with Dragon Claw, shattering it to pieces.

Al stood there, with his right claws against where the mirror used to be. As he came back to his senses, he saw red liquid coming from his arm, most likely having cut himself when he smashed the mirror. The Charmeleon stepped back, blinked a few times while shocked at what had just happened. Even though his heart was going back to normal, and the pounding in his head was now barely noticeable, Al could still feel a growing heat inside. He looked at the broken mirror, before looking down at his bloody right claws.

Al let out a shaky breath, his eyes never leaving his claws. "...I'm…I'm all…good…" Al said, repeating the phrase in his head many times before leaving the Medical Bay, his head too focused on what was happening to him to be concerned about a possibly angry Dr. Perfume.

In the Distortion World, Giratina was looking through a mirror. The mirror didn't show his reflection, but rather what was going on in the other world. He had been keeping an eye on Dust, especially since the Absol was prone to nearly dying so many times. Despite that, Dust seemed to come out alright, either due to an immense amount of luck, or his friends.

Giratina could tell that Dust's friends cared a great deal about him, especially the Goomy, or rather, the Sliggoo now. The Sliggoo had risked her own life multiple times just to rescue the disaster prone Absol. Although he had been rather surprised by this outcome, it wasn't a very likely scenario.

And yet, it was the most ideal scenario. Giratina couldn't say if it was a good or bad thing, he just knew that something like this was going to have quite the consequences in the future.

"All we have to do now…is wait…" Giratina quietly said to himself as he watched Team Night Tide closely, with his main focus being on Dust and the cold hard shell that his gooey friend was in. "Let's see if you'll escape from your own prison."

The shell stayed still and quiet, but even though Berry's body was dormant, that didn't mean everything was at peace.

To be continued…

Oragonking: DarkFoxKit: Yeah, essentially Berry is a Hisuian Sliggoo.

Yeah, we didn't want the Syzygy to just be the Dynamax stone. It's more open than that, and we didn't just want it to come from Eternatus either. It's possible the Syzygy could've come from Eternatus, but it's not confirmed.

I can't answer that question regarding Berry as that is possible spoilers.

Dio's fate is unknown, but he's still alive, I can tell you that much.

Skywalker405: Traveling Master: XD While not intentional, yes…we ended the story very nicely.

Berry4Goodra: Traveling Master: Dust knows first hand what Eclipse is like when she's angry, but that's more of a parent being angry with their child. Dust never really saw or noticed how others would perceive Eclipse when she was angry with them. So it was a big shock to Dust when he saw Berry's point of view of when Eclipse showed her frustration towards Berry. So while the memory might've been slightly exaggerated, it was still more intense than what Dust had experienced himself.

DarkFoxKit: The Goodra is representative of both Tsunami, and Berry's fear of becoming a monster. So in a way, it's more of both combined. As for the shadow Gardevoir, it represents how Berry sees Grace, an evil Pokemon with strong powers. She's not a literal Shadow Pokemon like from the Colosseum games. I don't think Berry even knows those existed.

Traveling Master: Sorry, but just like with Berry's father, Dust's father will be kept secret until it is revealed in the future. We've left clues that I see you pointed out, and as we said before, they are all connected to who Dust's father is. But the only thing we can confirm for sure is that Snowflake is the father's name.

Can't really say much about whether Dust is a normal Absol, or if he is a duel type, but not because we want to avoid spoilers, but more towards we haven't officially decided yet. So for now, he's just a normal Absol, not sure yet if we'll keep him that way, or if we decide to try something new with him. But that will be later in the future.

DarkFoxKit: I'm just gonna say this now, yes, Berry is currently a Hisuian Sliggoo. You asked this question several times later on, so we will be ignoring those questions due to me just giving a simple 'yes' answer.

As for when we decided to evolve Berry into a Hisuian Sliggoo, we didn't, she evolved into a normal/Kalosian Sliggoo, she became a Hisuian Sliggoo using the power of the Syzygy to hide from the world. But if you're asking what made us decide to have Berry become a Hisuian Sliggoo, that was because of Legends Arceus, but we didn't decide on it right away. We were actually going back and forth if we wanted to have Berry become the Hisuian version or not for a good while. Originally, I planned for Berry to become a regular Goodra, because back then, Legends Arceus wasn't out, so there was no alternative. But after seeing, and using, Hisuian Goodra myself… I really liked the Steel typing they added to Goodra, and the shell it uses is really cool, I also liked how the Hisuian Goodra went into its shell when idle. But we haven't seen a Hisuian Goodra in anime form, so we weren't sure how it would move and all that. But after a while of thinking, talking, and planning, we finally decided to give Berry the Hisuian form. And when Pokemon Scarlet and Violet came out with the whole Terastalization gimmick, that became the perfect opportunity to give Berry the Steel typing since we didn't know how else to get her to become a Hisuian Goodra due to her not being from Hisui.

As for how the scene was originally supposed to play out, that's actually an interesting question. We had something entirely different planned out before. Berry taking the Syzygy and becoming the final boss herself of the book was actually a last minute change. Before, the final boss to use the Syzygy was going to be Grace herself. She was going to use the Syzygy and Dynamax, while Berry ends up evolving into a normal Sliggoo, and helps out in a raid-like battle to fight back against Grace, along with Zacian and Zamazenta. Yeah, Grace was going to play a bigger role at the end, but we decided it was too… generic. Having a more emotional battle with one of the sweetest characters in the story becoming the final boss seemed a lot more… well, emotional. Sure, maybe it's not as grand as it would've been had all of Team Night Tide and the other characters from Unity Guild joined forces to take down Grace, but we think it worked out better this way.

You don't need to change your name. Changing your name is mostly up to you. But if you really want to specify the Hisuian part, just go with Berry4HGoodra.

We have not decided if Berry is capable of switching between regular Sliggoo and Hisuian Sliggoo.

Berry is not going to evolve into a Hisuian Goodra any time soon, even after she wakes up. She'll have to learn how to be a Hisuian Sliggoo first, and accept her state. The Goodra evolution needs to be earned. You can see it like a cocoon state, it's definitely going to be a growing pain for Berry in more ways than one.

Traveling Master: There wasn't much Brody or Grant could do, since Al had remained unconscious. But we had them visit Al off-screen, nothing much happened besides them checking up on Al.

Concerning Al and his possible relationship to Berry, as you've read in the epilogue, it isn't exactly a peaceful one. It's something that will be revealed later in the future, but unfortunately we still can't confirm/deny whether or not Al is Berry's father. Those are all good speculations as to why Tsunami shows animosity towards the name Calcifer, but again, her past will be covered later.

As for how Tsunami would react to Al if the two would meet, well Al would just seem like a strange Charmeleon to her, since Al has amnesia and all, so it's hard to say if he had always been like that, or if he was a completely different Charmeleon back then. We haven't really made any plans on if Al would meet Tsunami at the moment, so right now it's more of a speculation at best.

Brody would be both shocked and jealous that Al, of all Pokemon, had some kind of relationship and even was a father. Grant would just deny it and stubbornly say that there's no way Al could ever be a father. Grant would most likely wish to battle with Tsunami, always seeking to challenge himself, and would probably give Torrent some dirty looks after finding out that Torrent and Tsunami were friends, probably assuming the worst of his former master.

We liked White Reaper more than just Reaper by itself, hence why we decided to add to it for Eclipse's title. As of right now, there isn't any other Pokemon with the Reaper title.

Since our main focus has always been Dust and Berry and their point of view, we haven't really shown much to Team Crimson Raiders side. We at least wanted to show that there was more to them than just being the "mean rival group." Crimson's origins and home are something important, and it covers why he acts the way he is. But that's all it is, a simple tease for Crimson's backstory. We will cover more of that later in the future.

DarkFoxKit: Everyone in the story is doing something during the timeskips. Also, Copperaja just seems more like an elephant than Donphan, and way bigger, so that's why we went with it. It didn't occur to me that Dragapault and Copperaja were from the same gen, so it worked out better that way.

We used 'Distortion World' and 'Reverse World' several times in place of 'hell'. 'Hall of Origins' is meant to be the replacement of 'heaven'. So it's supposed to be 'heavens no'. We kinda rarely use the Legendary Pokemon name in comparison, I'm surprised you forgot about it.

Traveling Master: We don't have an exact time on how long it's been since humans disappeared. We mostly keep it vague, but we can at least confirm that it happened long before Chihiro was born. As for Spooks and Phantoms age, yeah, they would be around 50 years old, but that's like the equivalent of somewhere between 5-10 years old to a human.

DarkFoxKit: The Tandemous weren't supposed to be there, so Chihiro is surprised to hear about that. Yeah, Kuro showed that he's got some street smarts considering how he had to survive.

Traveling Master: Gonna be honest, I don't exactly remember why we went with the name Olympus Guild. But right now it seemed like a fitting name for the first guild to have ever been established. The members themselves don't view themselves as gods, they do know the Olympus Guild is one of the busiest guilds, receiving the most mission requests, as well as having connections to all other guilds. Think of Olympus Guild being the main tree, with all the branches being new guilds. As of right now, there's no connection to any legendary Pokemon, or at least any we thought of. It's simply just a name.

We can confirm that Xavier the Metagross is Chrome's grandfather. Please don't ask us how exactly they are related, cause we know (game wise) Metagross is genderless. We didn't go into full detail on how exactly Xavier became a grandfather, so don't ask how it's possible.

But as I answered last time, the only member of the guild council who is a Crusader is Eclipse. Xavier is not a Crusader.

DarkFoxKit: No, Cliff hasn't met with Tsunami. We haven't really thought of how Cliff would interact with Tsunami, but I get the feeling it would be a rather adorable interaction. But Berry wouldn't let Cliff go near Tsunami until she feels she could trust Tsunami enough to not attack the little Larvitar on sight. Tsunami have proven to be quite dangerous when she's angry and hungry. As for how Tsunami would react to Berry seeing her as a Hisuian Sliggoo, that'll be for another story.

Traveling Master: The chain itself is the same kind of chain the Drapion used on Berry. What's special about those chains is that they can be modified. They are hard to come by, very expensive to purchase, and one they are made with specific Typing, they really can't be changed. For example, those chains used to bind Gardevoir will only have Dark and Steel type energy within them, while the ones used against Berry would only have Fairy type energy.

There's a reason why Eclipse is a Master Rank Crusader, she's come a looooong way to get there. And yes, Grace was already arrested, with Eclipse having brought her to Unity Guild.

Concerning Dust being able to enter Berry's mind, that is indeed due to Giratina's blessing, not the Legendary Pokemon themvselves. There's more to just seeing the future, something that Dust will learn later in the future.

There's a reason why we kept it vague concerning whether Dust's father is alive or not. Nice comparison though, so if we were going that route, then yeah, it would be something like the whole Darth Vader thing.

DarkFoxKit: The Syzygy could work in many different ways. It's unknown if it can change a Pokemon's species though. Berry becoming a Hisuian Sliggoo doesn't necessarily mean it changed her species, it could've just awakened the hidden DNA within her being. A Hisuian Sliggoo is still a Sliggoo after all, it's just a Sliggoo with a shell. If Berry knew she could potentially become another species, it's hard to say if she would go for it. She's a strong believer in 'everything happens for a reason' even if she tries to deny it. If Grace had the Syzygy, she would've Dynamaxed like Berry did, though Mega Evolution is also possible, not sure about permanent since it would only last as long as she had the Syzygy.

Okay, I'm not sure what you're hoping to accomplish by telling us about the Mega Rayquaza two stone rules, but thank you for the information.

Traveling Master: Oh, that's what you meant by asking about Al's age. Sorry, can't give a definitive answer, cause that goes into spoilers, regardless if Al is or isn't Berry's father. That's something that will get revealed later in the future.

As for the guild council members, only the Olympus Guild has council members. Every other guild, including the Unity Guild, just has a Guildmaster, Crusaders, and other members helping out with the guild. So Chihiro is the Guildmaster of the Unity Guild, while Carrie, Vesper, Myagi, and Otti simply are non-crusading members.

DarkFoxKit: We like to think the Syzygy is able to have a mind of its own, but only when it's activated by the holder. It sensed Berry's anger at Grace, and desire to get stronger to hurt her for hurting her and Dust. The Syzygy is meant to be a mystery, and its origin is unknown, so we won't be answering any specific questions regarding it. Also, maybe ask us first if we played and beat those Mystery Dungeon games instead of apologizing if you spoiled the ending for us? Be better than taking the risk in case we haven't beaten those games, which my co-writer hasn't. I personally prefer Super Mystery Dungeon to Gates, because you have a lot more Pokemon to work with. But I enjoyed the characters more in Gates as there aren't as many characters to work with, so the characters get more chances to shine.

Just so we're clear, I already answered the majority of your second review. Again, you don't seem to listen to us when we say check your previous questions before asking new ones, because we are not answering your same questions again.

Traveling Master: We haven't gone into full details concerning how exactly gossip/rumor/story works in our story. Wish we could give you a better answer, but it's something we haven't really thought much of, only that there is a news outlet in our world, and I can see them being similar to the Pokemon Delivery company, able to get their news fast and deliver them around. But that's all I really got, we might think of something more, depending how relevant it would be to the story.

I don't believe Tsunami is aware of a giant Sliggoo having rampaged…seeing how only very few Pokemon actually know her location. And Torrent was with her at the time, so no other Pokemon besides Team Night Tide would even think of telling her what happened.

DarkFoxKit: And we don't plan on Tsunami having any involvement with the giant Sliggoo anyways.

Traveling Master: Torrent knows of the basic knowledge of the Syzygy, but not the whole details.

Sobbas: DarkFoxKit: It was a treat to read your perspective of what was going on while Dust was in Berry's mind. You've pretty much hit the nail on everything. You even said some stuff that hadn't crossed my mind, but was also fitting. I like it when fans make their speculations like this, it could also help show us a deeper meaning behind the action they take even when we write them out. And yeah, Berry giving up on herself when Dust turned his back on her was pretty traumatic, and if Grace hadn't been there, who knows what would've happened to Berry.

Dust: I will say…it was…something I wasn't expecting. This whole time I thought I understood what Berry was going through, but as I watched her memories unfold, it only made me realize how much Berry had been truly struggling, and how I had only made it worse. I'm afraid to think of what would've happened had I failed to reach her, if she had remained as a gigantic Sliggoo.

I was upset, and all my anger was unjustly focused on her. I don't know how long it will be, or if Berry could even hear me, but I do hope that she'll come out of her shell soon, so I could properly apologize for everything I've said and done.

DarkFoxKit: Heh, I'm glad to see that Berry became your favorite character. Despite everything, Berry has a good heart, and never wants anyone to die on her account. Especially when she can save them. I'm hoping that even after she evolved from a Goomy to a Sliggoo (Hisuian or not) you'll still see her as Berry. I'm a big fan of timid and weak characters becoming stronger over the course of the story, which is why I made Berry. I remembered reading in Pokemon X's Pokedex entry that Goomy was seen as the weakest dragon, which was what inspired me to make Berry a Goomy. And then there's the Pokedex entries for Sliggoo later, talking about how it can't see well, and it can't tell the differences between friend and food. And in the Shield's Pokedex entry mentioned how it only thinks of food and escape, making the Pokemon itself sound dumb. That's why I had Berry be the tactician of the group, and why Pokemon kept mentioning they were surprised at how smart Berry was since it was stereotyped that Goomy weren't very smart Pokemon. I love subverting expectations like that, which you will see more of in the sequel.

Traveling Master: What's funny is that you are actually right, in a way. Originally, that was the intention of the Syzygy, only to dynamax a Pokemon, and it was originally gonna be Grace who dynamaxed, not Berry. But when we got to the scene, new ideas surfaced up, as well as Pokemon Scarlet and Violet being out, helped us decide that it would be better if Berry not only Dynamaxed, but also Terastialized, since it ended up working with a key idea we have for Berry in the future. There's more to the Syzygy that we explained in recent chapters as well, that it varies depending on who uses it and their desires, with Berry's desire being to save Dust and stop Grace, which led to her evolving and later becoming an Hisuian Sliggoo. We are still working on certain ideas, such as how this will affect Berry in the future, so nothing is certain yet on whether it will be a permanent power for Berry, or some other idea.

DarkFoxKit: We were trying to make sure all the characters we've introduced (okay, maybe not ALL) would get some kind of time to shine here. But Team Night Tide was the most important. We wanted to make sure they all tried their best to help Berry in some way, bring her out of it. Shab's confession is what helped Berry gained enough mental strength to break out of the bubble to save Dust. Unfortunately, Berry wasn't in her right mind when he said it, so there's a good chance she won't remember the confession.

Berry did actually become a Hisuian Sliggoo. The Terastalized Steel type fused with her current form after she shank back down to normal, turning her into the Hisuian version of Sliggoo. The shell part was something that worked out because Berry wanted to hide herself from the world after what happened. Although Berry coming out of her shell as a Lugia or Rayquaza would've been really cool, that's not the kind of story we're going for.

Traveling Master: I don't blame you, Weavile seems like the obvious choice, but we promise you all the clues we left behind concerning Dust's father are all relevant. Very nice theory on whether Snowflake is truly dead or alive, and there's a reason why we kept it vague. Story wise, it is something that Eclipse wasn't fully prepared to answer for, but you said it perfectly, only time will tell.

There's a lot we have planned for Crimson, his past, and his purpose as to being there. Another reason why we kept it vague at the end with him, since those things will be brought up in the future and play a key role. But for the main part, throughout the story, he was always meant to be Dust's rival and a type of antagonist for Team Night Tide, but more in the sense of a rival than a villain.

You're not wrong in saying it was hasty with Grace, since we haven't really shown her being an antagonist throughout the story, and it wasn't until the climax we showed her true colors. It was our intention, that she would always have been the main antagonist for the story, but it's something we can work on so that next time we do a type of bad guy reveal like that, it will be better paced and set up.

But, after reading this epilogue, I do hope it's to your satisfaction to see it's not the end for Grace XD. we still have plans for her, and what kind of role she will be playing in the future. Before she was only dangerous when she was close to achieving her goals, now, with nothing else to lose, she has become that more dangerous and we can't wait to share what she'll be doing in the future.

DarkFoxKit: Roxy did want to join them, yeah, too bad everything happened before Dust got to talk to her about it. But let's see how things turn out for them. And Roxy also hopes that Team Night Tide will be able to recover from this, having essentially lost Berry, and needing to clean up.

Okay, so I do have to ask, why did you want Dust to return to the Olympus Guild with his team? From what I've read, it sounds like you want them to explore more of the world and such, but… they don't need to go to the Olympus Guild for that. They just need to get Gold Rank.

But other than that, I can promise you that you'll see pretty much everything you listed there in the sequel. We already have plans for it after all.

Dust: Wait…why do I have to suffer more?! I demand justice for all the suffering, both in and out of this story for me!

Traveling Master: …No…

Snowfate: Traveling Master: Where to begin, gonna apologize in advance cause there are probably a ton of ideas that we did change, and most of them we have forgotten, but we'll try to share what we can recall.

DarkFoxKit: At one point, Berry was considered to be a Dratini instead of a Goomy, but after thinking about it, and seeing the Goomy's Pokedex entry being seen as the weakest dragon, I thought it'd be more appropriate to have her be a Goomy instead. I thought about making Blizza into a Haxorous originally, or a different dragon, but TM decided to go with Jangmo-o due to using one in his Pokemon Sword playthrough.

Traveling Master: Another big change was Dust's father. We had made plans on who it was gonna be, but thanks to a joke we made about Dust being related to this other Pokemon, we realized how perfect it was and ended up changing the original idea. Unfortunately, can't say who the original father was gonna be, cause we plan to still use that Pokemon, but for other ideas now.

DarkFoxKit: Of course, Team Night Tide was originally just gonna be Dust and Berry, the other members, Shab, Cliff, and Kuro started coming in one at a time, and we didn't just want them to disappear from the story if Dust and Berry aren't using them in a dungeon, so of course we had to work on their personalities and give them time to shine as well. We didn't plan on these Pokemon specifically, we started adding them when we wanted to add certain Pokemon due to the games we play. Cliff, for example, was due to me playing Pokemon Prism, a fan made rom hack Pokemon game where you start with a Larvitar, and the Larvitar I started out with was female, so she became Cliff. Shab was thought of because I thought it'd be funny if Berry had a fish stuck to her body, but then he became an integral member of the team. It's the little things like that that create more Pokemon to our story.

Traveling Master: There were many other missions or side adventures we thought of Team Night Tide taking, like one where they would go with Team Destruct into a Jurassic like dungeon, and it was there that Team Destruct would find their own egg. Unfortunately, most of these side adventures ended up feeling like filler and would've interrupted the flow the story itself. But we did at least show Al having brought back an egg during their adventure.

DarkFoxKit: So how Dust was going to get the Syzygy was different from how it actually went. Originally we were going to have Dust and Berry go through this really long and complex dungeon. Where they would almost starve as they get lost while climbing the dungeon, and their teammates realize they're missing and are looking for them. Dust and Berry would've had to fight against the Spiritomb as a miniboss, then when they finally get to the Syzygy, that's when the confrontation between Dust and Berry happens. However, that was changed due to the fact that we already did something like that back at Team Purify's base, and it would've taken way too long for them to go through such a long dungeon. We wanted to get to the climax, and going through such a long dungeon like that seemed really unnecessary. But perhaps the biggest, and most recent, change we did was who got to Dynamax at the end.

Instead of Berry taking the Syzygy, it was Grace who took it. She succeeded in taking it from Dust, then she used it to become giant and strong. Berry was supposed to take the injured Dust back to the guild and wake everyone up, warning them of Grace's size and her intention. It was going to be more of a raid battle with Zacian and Zamazenta coming in, and Berry evolves into a normal Sliggoo during the battle. Berry's evolution was also changed, she was originally just going to evolve into a Kalosian Sliggoo, and eventually into a Kalosian Goodra. But due to the existence of Hisuian Goodra, TM and I spent a long time to consider if we wanted Berry to evolve into that instead of the normal Goodra. It was not an easy decision to make, since I did plan for Berry to become a Kalosian Goodra originally. But eventually, after seeing gen 9 come out with Terastilzation, we figured it would be better for Berry to become a Hisuian Sliggoo by using the Syzygy herself.

Dust: It has been quite the journey, both with its ups and downs. There was in fact one time when I met my future, or I think my future self. It was when we were at that ghost mansion, with all those strange doors. There are two that have stayed in my mind, one of them showing a supposed older version of me with a Goodra, who I still believe is Berry. That version seemed…content and it makes me wonder if that is truly a future that I will have, or if it's one of many alternate timelines that may never come to be.

The other…where I saw a barren world with only that Absol alone. He seemed like he knew what me and Berry were doing, and it makes me afraid to think what kind of timeline that Dust lives in. Celebi has also mentioned having met other versions of myself, so I can only imagine that maybe one day I'll speak with my past self, and if so…I can't deny the conversation we would have would be quite…fascinating, that's for sure. Though you are right…there's a good chance I'd be embarrassed seeing how I used to act.

Earthpatriot117: DarkFoxKit: I guess you'll see who the new guildmaster at the Olympus Guild might be.

Traveling Master: Let's just say Snowflake wasn't the father's original choice XD. Alolan Ninetails seems really fitting, but you said it perfectly, Dust's father will be revealed in the future, and all the clues we left behind will make sense.

Concerning when the second story will come out…that is a good question. I wish we could give a good date, but at this moment, we only have ideas and key plot points, we'd still have to work on fleshing out the entire second story, thinking of which characters to focus on, which new characters to introduce, as well as making sure we got a good handle of the direction we want for the second story. I do wish it would be sooner, but forcing ourselves to come out with the second story so soon would only hurt the story itself. But we plan on at least doing an update for this story and announcing when the second story will be released.