"So with any luck the next chapter won't be too far behind this one. " -Me, the author's note from the last chapter.

So much for not being too far behind, huh? *chuckles* I am so bad at updating. I swear I need to get better at it and soon or this might never be finished and that would suck. Because, gosh darn it, I need to be able to finish a chapter story for once in my life and I want it to be this one.

I've been having a hectic summer. My brother is heading off to college, I'm going to my first convention in a couple weeks, I'm helping out at my church, a friend and I have been working on a series of one-shots for something we're just doing for fun (I'm not posting them, sorry guys) and I've been getting ideas for that left and right. It doesn't help that this chapter really got off track from the original at one point so I had to make it all work and get it back on track. But I'll try to be better about getting this story out to you guys because we are officially past the halfway point (I'm pretty sure we are at least) and the point that I used as the summary of this story. So, enjoy.

SkyWolf907: I'm glad you think I've been doing well so far, I really try to get it right when I have the time to write. And, you should write your stories. I'd love to see them. If you want to write for any fandom, I say go for it because it's the things that you don't do in life that you'll regret. And I'd rather you not have to regret not writing those stories for whatever reason you have not to.

Faliara: Yes, the evil cliffhanger of DOOM! *insert evil laugh here*

Ranger Belle: I completely understand, I hate using my phone to write, especially with the autocheck changing the word to something you don't want. It's so annoying! I'm glad you enjoyed the description in the last chapter, it was actually pretty hard to do some of it. How do you describe a song? It's really weird and most try to avoid it if they can because of that. And I understand why, you have to convey the emotions in the song with words, and it just doesn't work. As for the mojo, good, I wanted that feeling. You'll see why as soon as you read the title of this chapter.

Disclaimer: I write fanfiction... do you really think I own pokemon? If you do... you might want to look for some help... just saying.

Words: 5048

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Chapter 18

The Beast of the Sea

When I was a child, my dad used to tell me stories. He would talk about his home in Johto when he was my age. And he would go on and on about his adventures in the region. How he caught his first non-starter pokémon. How his first pokémon was the fire type Cyndaquil. And he loved to talk about how he tried to get to the Elite Four time and time again until he finally realized that he wasn't cut out to go against them. But there was one story that was always my favorite. Thing is, it wasn't even a story. It was a prophecy; there wasn't even a story around it that he would tell me. It was just a poem, really. Nothing special and it shouldn't have caught my attention at all. But something about it just stuck with me. I still remember the entire thing.

"Disturb not the harmony of fire, ice or lightning, lest these titans wreak destruction upon the world in which they clash. Though the water's great guardian shall arise to quell the fighting, alone its song shall fail, and thus the world will turn to ash. O Chosen One, into thine hands bring together all three. Their treasures combined tame the Beast of the Sea."

I can't explain why I liked it so much. There was just something about it that peaked my intrigue. And since there was no story to go along with it, my mind would supply the story for me. Stories of heroes and the near destruction of the world. Legends forming in my mind around something that, really, I shouldn't have cared about in the first place. Prophecies are great and all, but they're useless unless you're the one that they apply to. Then you have to go through the trouble of figuring out what the thing means because they never speak normally. They always have to use mystical, incomprehensible speak. Seriously, it'd be so much easier if they just said what to do in a language everyone understood!

Still, never in a million years did I think that I would see this famed "Beast of the Sea" with my own eyes.

Yet as I rose to the surface, my eyes could only widen. The sight in front of me was… unexpected to say the least. There was a cave, large and spacious (maybe twenty-five feet tall and thirty feet wide), stalagmites and stalactites on the ceiling and floor encroached on each other, some even touched to create massive pillars. Then there was the song, loud as ever. A simple melody that I doubted I'd ever be able to forget. The rocks that were scattered across the ground were expected. Lights were flashing, filling the room with slightly blinding light or varying colors.

And there he was, moving around the room in what many would consider a very graceful manner (which was quite the accomplishment since he was battling), Lugia. The Beast of the Sea. His song still playing plain and clear, a melody I'd never be able to forget for as long as I lived. He took up most of the room in the cave, which, was expected. He wasn't a legend for nothing. I had encounters with other legendary pokémon before (Latias being a key example of it), but I never imagined that I'd see him. It was enchanting. He had this air of peace and power about this. A meek aura that said he could easily get rid of any intruders if he so pleased, but would much rather send you away without a scratch. The only legendary I'd seen that could come close to matching this feeling was Ho-oh. Even there it was more of a feeling that he would much rather be left to himself and wasn't afraid to use his full power without much provocation.

Another bang brought me out of my trance. Right. Had to focus. There were others here, of course, why would Lugia be fighting if there wasn't? I think I could see maybe two or three on the ground, shouting and running around frantically. They were yelling out orders to their pokémon who were out on the field. Then there were maybe four in the air, I couldn't really tell, they were just shadows to me. They were shooting… something, either that or their own pokémon were attacking. It's hard to tell when all you can see of them is the light from each beam. Lights of blue, green, gold, white and violet flashed almost constantly.

It was chaos, pure and simple.

Yet, somehow, through all the madness, I could see the glint of light being reflected off of iron. Lugia's song was a constant melody, and it covered most of my subconscious thoughts. I hadn't even noticed the constant beating in my head. Looking back, I have to note that it had been happening for almost as long as I could hear the song, yet I never noticed it. I don't see how, it sounded like someone playing a song on a marimba without any pauses or breaks, but I didn't. Maybe it was because it was in tune with the song around me, because that was probably the weirdest part. It was as if the beat was playing along with Lugia and it wasn't its own separate thing.

I knew someone had to stop the insanity, and that was what I had set out to do. This wasn't some trainer battle, a complete idiot could tell you that. And I was a ranger, it was my job to stop things like this. I just wished Ben would get here soon, there was way too much here for me to be able to do competently on my own. This is why we had partners. So we didn't have to do things like this by ourselves. He was okay, he had to be. After all, he could take care of himself, or, at least, that's what he keeps telling me. I hope the kid's alright. Maybe I was just being a mother hen, I had no reason to worry.

Taking a deep breath, I swam towards the rocky shore before climbing up and removing the aqualung from my mouth and shoving into my pocket. No need to have it out since I wasn't in the water anymore. The room was cold, and I almost instantly started shivering (being wet did not help at all), probably because it was so deep under water. Sunlight probably never reached here. Easing the googles off my face and into their normal position I hastily looked for a place to stay hidden. Or did it not really make a difference. Deciding that I probably didn't have the time to make up my mind on the matter, I just let my mind go blank and go through the motions. My hand reached for the stylist, and I aimed at one of the ones in the air. Going through each of the steps that I'd preformed so many times before that it was just second nature to me.

Granted it would only sedate them. It wasn't like with wild pokémon. These were owned and trained by each user. I couldn't just make them stop attacking all together. If their owner said to attack, they'd probably just hesitate for a while before following the command. To be truthful, I shouldn't even be trying to pull off a capture on caught pokémon. They weren't being controlled or anything, so there was no need to. Plus it went against the code. But I couldn't just sit around and let them take down the water's great guardian. At least not in a completely unfair battle. Surely they'd understand, right?

Even if they didn't, I would rather be reprimand than not do anything about this. It was World's End, it had to be. I mean, who else would bring so many people down here and have some people digging holes? Even the people who would come down here to challenge Lugia, if they even knew he was here, wouldn't do that. And they wouldn't bring anyone else either. Seriously, who has a friend who would be willing to dive into the ocean and enter a cave that might not even have anything in it? That probably means your friend is either a) really bored b) really loyal to you or (the most likely out of all the options) c) is somewhat insane.

The sylist danced around each pokémon, almost constantly having the chain breaking with their never stopping motion. I couldn't even tell which pokémon I were going after, I just knew I was capturing something because of the slight blue glow on its fur/skin. The grunt were yelling out to each other, and I couldn't care less about what they had to say. I was to focused on my own actions to care about theirs. Attacks glowed and I doubted that anyone even noticed my existence in the chaos even though I was out in the open. Even if I had been seen, I wasn't top priority. At least, I don't think I was.

After a while I fell into a rhythm, it was nothing special, and it was rather simple when you got into the flow of it. It was just arm movements, no mare, no less. I can't even tell you how long I was at work. I can't even say how many of the grunts pokémon I had sedated, or if I had captured each more than once. There were just light after light. Beam after beam. Capture after capture. Rock fall after rock fall. A part of me just wanted to stop. I wasn't getting anywhere, the fact the battle was still raging on was testament to that. But I couldn't do that. Now could I? I had to keep trying. It was the least that I could do.

Vaguely, I had to wonder where Ben was. He should have been done up in the sky by now. If nothing went wrong, he should be in the water and have found the cave entrance. What if he wasn't okay though? What if something went wrong? What if they had hurt him? What if he fell in as well? What if he had gotten caught again? Was I over reacting? Probably. But with Ben… I just could never be too certain.

Taking a deep breath, I stopped my assault. Rubbing my eyes, which had started to get sore from the constant strain. Though it only succeeded in making my vision swim for a second. I couldn't tell if the chaos was dying down at all, I kind of hoped it was. I hadn't bothered to try and calm down Lugia. He needed to be able to fight back.

There was a yell, I could only just hear it over the noise that was coming from all around "I think I got it!" Got it? Got what? What could possibly be down here other than rock? I guess a shard, but why would someone go out of their way to hide one here. Of all places in the world, why here? I mean, I guess it made sense because Lugia could protect it and few people probably even knew about this place. Which brings up the question, how did they know about this place anyway? I mean, the Ranger's Union didn't even know about it, as far as I knew at least, so how could they? Too many questions, too little time.

Looking to where I think the voice came from (with all the shots being fired and orders from trainers to their pokémon, plus the song, it was kind of hard to tell) and I saw a grunt; only an outline though (odds are he was not only wearing the black uniform, but had dark hair, making it hard to see him/her). They were holding something, and it glowed slightly, a gentle blue, like the color of some of Lugia's attacks. Was it a shard? Was that really what the shards looked like in the dark? I had no clue, all I could do was make assumptions. Most of the other grunts looked at him as well (even some of the ones currently battling looked over. Seriously, when you're battling you shouldn't let yourself get distracted by outside forces unless it was something urgent. Come on, that's how to be a pokémon trainer 101right there) and they were probably smiling. I know I would be if I were them. It meant that their job was done and that they could get out of here. Most of them were more likely than not just waiting for someone to say they got it so they wouldn't have to stay anymore.

"Ranger!" Metzo alto, panicked, probably female. It would be my luck that someone would notice me. And it would be once things were going to start settling down and not during the whole encounter. Shame, I had been doing so well too. Okay… maybe I hadn't done a good job at staying hidden, persay, but I had been doing a decent job of staying unnoticed. I like to think so at least. I mean they hadn't me before, that was something, right?

I think a few of the grunts shook their heads and placed a hand on their face. It was something I would of done if I were in their place. They were the ones who had pieced things together in their own minds and couldn't believe they had been so stupid to not realize it earlier. Or they were the ones who couldn't believe they hadn't noticed me before now. It was one of the two options, I'm sure. "That explains why my umbreon didn't really want to fight anymore. I thought she was just getting tired." The voice sounded dumbfounded, as if they couldn't believe what was happening, and I just wanted to laugh and tell that person congratulations for possibly being the last person here to put all the pieces together.

Some of the grunts just sighed at the one's outburst, annoyed that the person had even stated the obvious out loud. "Thanks Captain Obvious!" Someone had shouted in return before going onto say "What are we waiting for? Let's get that ranger!" Just like that, three of them sent their pokémon after me. Truthfully, I was wondering how long I'd have to wait for one of these guys to have the sense to say that. And, to be fair, I should have left the moment they realized I existed. Turning my head back to the pool I came from I mentally willed Ben just to come out of it. That would have really helpful at this point.

But, of course, he didn't come.

Shooting out the stylist, I couldn't stop feeling like all of this was completely pointless. It wasn't going to stop the three pokémon (a spearow, machop and a frolass; an odd grouping, but nothing to write home about) anyway. It would just slow them down. Eventually they'd notice the little affect it had on their pokémon and the others would send theirs out. Then, soon enough, there would be far too many for me to try and stop. Even when Ben got here (because he would eventually, he had to) it might still be too much. Literally the best option in the long run was to get out of there.

I couldn't do that though, now could I? They had a shard (I'm pretty damn sure it was a shard at least, I'm not really certain, did shards glow in the dark?) and if they managed to get Lugia, the water's great guardian and creator of storms, well… I'd rather not think about that. The mere thought of a forty day storm was enough to stop the train of thought with a shiver rushing up my spin. Shaking my head, I removed it from my mind. No time to get distracted. I had work to do.

Over time, just as I predicted, more and more of the grunts sent out their own pokémon to come after me if they weren't busy dealing with Lugia. There were probably ten different pokémon going after me now. Honestly, I was shocked they could spare this many people. Lugia was only dealing with three or four of them. You'd think that they would focus on the legend more than a ranger. Seriously, was I that much of a threat? I had pretty much been forced back against the wall at this point. I could feel the stone against my back, and the chill of it wasn't really appreciated since I was already shivering.

Where was Ben? I could really use his help right about now. Biting my lip, I kept my capture going, even though it was going to have to charge soon. It wasn't meant to be used so long periods of time and it was starting to drain quickly. Disagreeing with the idea of having to go on much longer. But what choice did I have? Running wasn't an option anymore. The moment I sent out the capture device it was eliminated from my list of "what to do". It was too late to change my mind. And it wasn't like I had access to the pool of water anymore anyway. They made sure I was practically surrounded so I couldn't really leave my spot against the wall.

Crying out, I felt something hit my wrist. Immediately causing me to end the capture, the device falling to the ground. Grabbing my wrist I pulled it close to my torso and closed my eyes. Knowing that the grunts would soon be ordering their individual pokémon to attack before I could even start getting the device back into the air. Yet… nothing came. Hesitantly, I opened my eyes, and sure enough, not a single one of the pokémon were even getting ready to attack. "I think we've won this one, what do you guys say?" The voice was male, cocky, far too confident for his own good.

The others nodded and one came through the hemisphere. Female, brown hair and brown eyes, completely unfazed about the battle still going on behind her with the water's guardian while some of the others flinched or winced whenever a loud sound echoed throughout the entire chamber. She got in my face, and I just stared back at her. What was I supposed to do? I had nowhere to go, I might as well have been cornered for all it mattered. She grinned at me and I glared at her, she had freckles on her face. Quickly reaching out, she grabbed my hand and pulled it away from my wrist (which was probably burnt, it hurt, it actually burned with pain which I found mildly amusing. A burn burning, gee I never would have guessed) before pinning it against the wall.

I knew what she was doing; she was going to ask for something to hold my wrist against the wall so I couldn't go anywhere. Not that I could anyway. All it would take would be one order and that would be that. So I didn't fight back, no point in it really. I knew a lost cause when I saw one, and this was one of them. Looks like Ben was going to live his small fantasy of saving me. I chuckled at the thought and the girl gave me a questioning look. She probably thought I was going insane. But aren't we all somewhat insane anyway?

She grabbed my other hand and I fought against the urge to wince. Her grip hurt, agitating the burn that was defiantly there. As if she knew something was wrong, she loosened her grip enough so that it no longer felt like she was digging her fingers into the wound. Then moving that hand, she put next to the one against the wall. "Anyone got any rope or something?" Her voice was oddly quiet. Not just because of the noise in the room, but she, quiet in general. As though she couldn't speak loudly. I put it down to possibly having a sore throat. She had to have been yelling a lot, what with everything going on here and all.

Someone handed her a length of twine and she began to wrap it around my wrists. I knew I should be fighting back, I could easily knee her, but I didn't. Maybe I should of; because as soon as she was done she tied them to a rock that was jutting out of the wall. Then backed off and turned to her accomplices. I tugged at the bonds experimentally, tight, but loose enough to allow blood flow and not hurt my burn. Which I did appreciate. I don't really know how much time passed after that. Most of the goons just went back to digging (or rather filling the holes they dug) or finally getting close to bringing down Lugia. Every now and again I'd tug on the ropes, but it wasn't much of an active effort on my part. Honestly, I was just sick and tired of being caught. I swear, when did I start having such bad luck?! I mean, really!

That was when I heard someone yell "Summer!" My head shot up instantly at the sound of the voice. It was as if the world had stopped entirely. I could see him standing at the edge of the water. That absurd cowlick unmistakable.

"Ben?!" My voice shock, and sounded kind of weak to me. And, suddenly, I didn't know what to feel. Ecstatic, Ben was here, he was okay, I had some help. Worried, was he hurt in anyway, what if he gets caught, that would be the end of our fight for a while. Relief, even if he was injured he could walk and he seemed alright in the shadows of the cave. Curiosity, how was he going to handle the situation I was stuck in. Anger, he shouldn't be here, what if something happens, he needs to get out of here. Fear, it wasn't safe here, maybe when I had some control over the situation, but not now, he needed to leave and soon. But I didn't voice any of these thoughts. I couldn't. It was like someone had taped my mouth shut. Like my mouth could move but the words wouldn't come out.

The girl from earlier stepped in front of me, arms at her side and she whistled. And, just like that, an espeon was in front of her. It's tail wrapped around her legs in a possessive way. I assumed it was hers, why else would it respond to her call so quickly. Looking around her, I saw Ben's face change. Fear replaced by determination. Worry substituted for an almost cruel indifference. Panic to anger. The sudden change of emotion would of frightened me, if I hadn't him do it before. What really scared me was how easily he could switch between his two halves so easily. It was as if he had to do it for his entire life, like it was a simple matter of flicking a light switch on or off. "Let her go." Even his voice had lowered threateningly.

"Let's make a deal." She began, ignoring his demand completely. Nodding to her espeon, I could see the glow of the red gem on its head. Then, it turned to me and I saw that its eyes had begun pure light violet. I knew what that meant. I had used an espeon at one point on my adventures, when I had tried to be a trainer in hopes of finding out where Teran went off to and earn some money to go to the Ranger Academy. That phase of my life only lasted a short time though, but I learned enough from it to know how a pokémon looks when they're going to attack.

A part of my mind just sort of shut off and I stared at the sun pokémon awkwardly. What was I supposed to do? I didn't exactly have use of my hands, and I have no clue how badly the stylist itself is damaged, if at all. Not to mention I was tied to a rock. It wasn't like I could do much of anything. Looking at Ben, I shrugged. I had a feeling that the deal would be one of those cliché, you leave and she won't get hurt kind of things. What was the harm in hearing it out?

He seemed to understand what I was thinking and questioned "Well, you going to tell me what the deal is, or do I have to play twenty questions?"

The girl snickered and shock her head. "I suppose that would help, wouldn't it." Taking a deep breath she went on "It's rather simple, I bet you already figure out what it was, you leave, and Eos won't use psybeam. Easy, right?" Called it. Score one point for Summer Minami, zero points for girl who I don't know the name of. I wanted to say it out loud, but I had a feeling it wouldn't be the best idea. So I just kept my mouth shut.

Ben growled, though it sounded weaker than it would have normally. That boy can growl like a growlithe or an arcanine when he wants to. I've heard him do it as well. Looking at him, I could almost see the question he was going to ask through the shadows of the cave (that still lite up from the attacks being dealt in the background). "Will you let her go?" Sticking with the things that have already been done a thousand times over. But I wasn't complaining. At least he seemed to be considering what she was saying. That was something right?

I knew that they probably wouldn't let me go. The deal was for my safety, nothing more, nothing less. And who knew if that would even be maintained after Ben left. But I give the boy some props for asking. His brain was running, I could see it in the depths of his eyes that looked kind of black because of the lighting. The girl shrugged "That's not my choice to make, sorry." And she sounded genuinely sorry as well, like she would love to confirm it but couldn't. "It all depends on what the boss has to say."

"And who is your boss?" That was a good question actually. Ten out of ten, Ben. Not really, but still. Of all the questions he could have asked, it was a decent one. It wasn't like we knew anything about this guys other than what they were going after. We didn't know who their boss was. Why they wanted these things. How they seem to know where they are. They were good at keeping secrets. Most of the other groups would have boasted about their goal by now. But no, they kept quiet about what they were doing, for the most part at least.

The girl sighed exasperatedly "That, my dear ranger, is none of your business. Do we have a deal or no?" She looked at her espeon (Eos, I guess) before turning back to Ben "Because I think Eos here is getting tired of holding back that attack." I bit my lip, holding back any comments. I wanted to scream at Ben to accept the deal just so he could get out of here. I didn't want him here anymore. He should have left ages ago and told Professor Hastings what was going on.

There was a pause in the conversation. Did he really have to think about this? The answer seemed obvious to me. But that was me, and I wasn't Ben. The rocks falling, the marimba playing, the loud screeches, and the endless song were the only thing that filled the silence. White noise that didn't matter. And so, I paid little attention to it. Why pay attention to something that didn't matter?

After some allotted amount of time Ben spoke up "You've got a deal." I smiled slightly, glad that Ben could leave. Our eyes met around the girl, and it didn't take a physic to read the message in his hazel eyes. 'I'm sorry.' Mentally I shook my head and smiled at him. Everything would be okay in the end, so I didn't know why he was sorry. But I couldn't read minds. And I didn't want to be able to.

He turned and walked away, but looked back at me sadly, I just kept smiling. Then nodded my head towards the pool in a way that said, 'you should get going Benji'. Putting on his goggles and aqualung, the last I saw of him was when he jumped into the water. He disappeared into the black depths below, and couldn't stop the small frown on my face. I was glad he was gone, I really was. Odds are he would tell the professor what happened and then they'd come after me. That was just how we rangers worked. We didn't leave our own behind unless we had to.

Though after that I just sort of lost feeling. Like I was in control of my body, but I wasn't in it. Everything was hazy, but clear. As if I was there, but I wasn't at the same time. My head hurt, it throbbed and ached and I just wanted to sleep. I'd had one of these before. An out of body experience. Most people thought they were impossible unless you were a ghost or something stupid. But, no, if you're out of it enough or just sick enough, you have one. Time passes slower and movements feel sluggish. That's what it means to have an out of body experience. To be so sick, or out of it, that everything seems far away.

I could hardly even tell when they untied my wrists from the rock, and took me away. But at that point, I was so far gone, that I just let it happen. The moment they set me down, somewhere, I closed my eyes and fell asleep.

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Eos: in Greek mythology, Eos is the titaness, and goddess, of dawn. It was said that she rose each morning from her home at the edge of Oceanus (a World Ocean that both Greeks and Romans believed in, it was basically a giant rive that circled the entire world). I thought the name would be appropriate of an espeon since you gain them from evolving an eevee with happyness during the day. Plus, it just sounds cool and I've always liked the early morning.

Marimba: a percussion instrument that is basically a piano on wheels, with keys made out of wood, with pipes underneath for the sound to reverberate and you hit it with mallets. They're kind of like a Xylophone, but the pitch is different.

I actually have had an out of body experience in school once. I had been feeling sick that day, but I didn't tell my mom so I went to school anyway. By third period I felt like I was just watching what was happening. Time felt slow and it was hard to move. Everything sounded far away and everything looked far away as well. It was kind of like playing a first person video game and someone set the fov to the highest setting it could go. You're in control of what happens, but you aren't really there, and you feel like it's hard to do much of anything because everything is jerking around. I wanted to go home earlier because I had a feeling that I shouldn't be staying at school if I felt like I wasn't even in my own body. But the nurse wasn't there that day, so I was just sent back to my classroom.

And with that, chapter 18 is done. Now we move onto the part where the story actually gets somewhat interesting, isn't that great?! Anyway, I'll see you when I finish the next chapter.

Until then,

Ember