"Thoughts"
"A pokemon speaking through telepathy"
"(Pokemon speaking to each other)"
Flashback

Chapter 27: The Stage is Set

"Mel? Are you in here?" Zoey called out worriedly.

The coordinator pushed open the door to Mel's room, only to find it empty.

"Where is she? She didn't even show up for the meeting yesterday. It's already morning…"

Zoey gave a tired sigh as her fingers brushed through her hair, the information she had gained the other day were now flooding her mind,

"How could Mel be the traitor? This doesn't make any sense… Mel… why are you doing all this?"

"My child, can you hear me?"

Zoey was pulled out of her thoughts as she heard Uxie'svoice in her head,

"Uxie? What is it?"
"You have to return to the meeting room, we need to discuss our next plan of action."
"What? Already? But I still haven't found Mel!"
"That's fine, just come here now!"

Zoey, sensing the urgency in Uxie's voice, simply agreed and made her way back to the room.

"She's on her way here, Your Majesty" Uxie stated.

Arceus nodded his head,

"Good."
"Your Majesty," Mesprit began, "now that we know who the traitor is…"
"We now have to make sure that Paul, Zoey, and Dawn are as far away from Mel as possible!" Azelf continued.

Arceus simply looked lost in thought as he stared at the Lake Guardians,

"That's true…"

Azelf grunted, as he knew full well whom the king was thinking about,

"Your Majesty! You've been dancing around the problem for nearly a decade now! Just what happened to cause Giratina's exile?"

It was then that Arceus had snapped to attention as he gave a full on glare towards Azelf,

"That's enough, Azelf! Know your place!"

Azelf cringed at the tone of the order as he moved back slightly,

"I-I… of course… my apologies, Your Majesty."
"Your Majesty…" Mesprit whispered softly, afraid of setting off the alpha pokemon.

Arceus let out a sigh as he shook his head,

"Now, Uxie, did you implant the memories into Zoey yet?"
"Actually, there's no need. Apparently she's had all the memories already they're just dormant. Waiting for the right trigger…"
"I see."

The conversation came to a close as the pokemon felt Zoey's presence approaching.

Paul growled lightly as he and the others walked down the road. A few hours of wondering Hearthome City and learning that the gym leader was out of town, the group decided to move onto the next town, Solaceon Town. Paul cracked an eye open as he sent a glare towards to object of Dawn's attention,

"Why is he coming with us?"

Dawn and Kenny were currently talking about upcoming contests and what they had planned on doing. Kenny would occasionally glance back at Paul and send him a smirk before returning to Dawn's side of the conversation. This only irritated Paul further. Ash, seeing the seething trainer, chose to walk beside him,

"Hey Paul, what's wrong?" he asked as Pikachu steadied himself on his trainer's shoulder.
"Nothing…" Paul grunted.
"Oh really?" Brock inquired as he approached Paul, "Are you sure?"

Brock had noticed all of Paul's growls, grunts, and glares that were intended for Kenny. Brock didn't know if it was a good idea to tease Paul, but he couldn't help but test the waters. Paul's silent growls grew louder as Brock continued to state his observations,

"Like back in Hearthome City, you seemed to growl loudly whenever Kenny would get to close to Dawn, or how your glare seemed to turn anything to ice whenever Kenny would touch Dawn, or-"
"Shut up." Paul interrupted angrily, unwilling to breaking his glare away from Kenny.

Kenny turned his head, having heard the chat the three were having and said in a teasing manner,

"Aw, come on Paul! It's not like I'm a blizzard trying to hide your Luvdisc!"

The reaction throughout the group was the same,

"…What?"

After a second of thought it dawned on Paul what Kenny was referring to,

"Is he talking about the- Wait…what's he doing?"

Paul let a loud growl as he hastened his step. Once within range, Paul grasped Dawn's arm and pulled her along and away from Kenny.

"Don't do that again." Paul said as he released her arm once far enough away from Kenny.
"What?" Dawn questioned, "You mean hug him?"

Cynthia sighed softly as she sat near the ruins in Amity Square. The champion was careful to conceal herself so none of the trainers would find her and attract attention to herself.

"Where is she?"

Cynthia looked down to the sleeping Monferno on her lap; it was none other than Yori. Yori had curled into a ball with his tail hanging off of Cynthia's lap. Cynthia lightly brushed her fingers through Yori's orange fur, letting out a soft giggle,

"Mel told me to let Yori guide me to where Zoey was… but all this little one wants is to fall asleep."

Turning her attention away from the sleeping pokemon, Cynthia used her free hand to pull a pokeball from her pocket. The pokeball was different from any other pokeball Cynthia had seen. It was pitch-black color with a fire design that seemed to move towards the center button, which had what looked like a gear design on it

"I can't help but wonder though…Why do you want Zoey to hang on to this? Oh well… you always did keep your secrets."

Yori's eyes opened slightly but then closed as he gave a yawn. Cynthia chuckled softly as she patted the monkey pokemon,

"Are you all ready to go now?"
"Mon!" Yori replied as he jumped to attention and ran off, stopping only to motion Cynthia to follow

Cynthia stood from her spot and dusted of any dirt that had caught on to her clothes before heading after the Monferno,

"My, my! What an energetic pokemon."

"Then you know what you should do."
"Yeah, yeah, I know already! Don't remind me…" Mel snapped at the voice in her head.

Mel was currently walking down a path towards Solaceon Town; each step was a reluctant move. The voice let out what Mel guessed was a groan,

"We've been over this before Mel! Zoey will forgive you once everything is said and done."
"Forgive me?" Mel breathed out, her obvious anger rising, "She'll hate me when she finds out what I'm about to do! Arg, this better be worth it…"
"Yes, because saving the world is so not worth it." the voice called out sarcastically.
"Like I care about saving the world."

AN: Yes! Another chapter done! Yeah, that was what was going through my head once I finished it lol

Give a round of applause for my editors CityGal45 and Hikaru-pichu! Those two are now in charge of finding mistakes I'm to lazy to go back and read for. Anyway, Storm Dryu and Pikachu1800 had asked to be editors, but they haven't answered me yet so I'm not sure if they're still interested T.T

BTW I had gotten the idea of making little side stories for "What If?" and I was wondering if you all wanted me to wait until "What If?" was finished or make them along side "What If?" ...I probably should've told CityGal45 and Hikaru-pichu about this in the last email I sent them... Oh well! Keep in mind though, if it is decided that I make the side stories along side of "What If?" it will take a little bit longer to finish "What if?".

Anyway...

DemigodWitch96: Yup Paul has nothing to worry about! Kenny won't succeed in stealing away Dawn!

splitheart1120: Who knows... Let's watch and find out ne?

CyrstleIceFire: If you love the issues between Paul and Kenny, then you'll die of happiness when things start to boil up xD

NewObsessionxoxo: Wow, you did? Thank you!

DGMSilverAirHead03: I know Mel being a bad guy doesn't make sense right now. But if you read very and I mean very careful and wait for next chapter you might be able to piece together why Mel's a bad guy n.n

mayndrewfan123: Hmm... who knows why they're involved? xp and do I really have that many cliff hangers? geez I didn't even notice...

Sapphiet: Hm? Maybe Manaphy is in trouble... or not! As for what Mel has in mind..well there's only one thing on her mind...

Starfire1407: Well your comment just confirmed the fact that I have bunch of cliff hangers. I wonder, should the next chapter end with a cliff hanger as well?