Here's chapter fifteen! It's going to all be the same event due to the fact that it's a very long, kinda dramatic one. It's the long waited for confrontation scene between Arceus and Darkrai. Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it!

Disclaimer: I do not own pokemon. I also do not own the planet Mars.

"Pulse, what are you doing?" Darkrai asked when he saw the younger phantom sitting in front of the TV, taking notes of whatever he was watching on the notebook he held.

"I'm watching a cooking show on the food channel," Pulse replied, sounding a bit far off due to the fact that he was intently watching the

"You do realize that we don't own an oven, right?" Darkrai asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Yeah, but I'm allowed to dream," Pulse said happily before returning his attention to the show.

"I just hope it stays that way," Darkrai mumbled under his breath.

Just then, a Pidgeot flew in. Pulse didn't notice, but Darkrai was a bit startled by its sudden appearence. He sighed when he recognized who it was though. "Hello, Talon. What brings you here?"

Talon rolled her eyes. "Arceus wants you to come to the Hall of Origin and give your report."

Darkrai groaned. 'Dammit! I guess I can't hide my decision from her any longer...' he thought to himself as he ran his claws through his long, ghostly white hair. "Okay, tell her I'm coming," he said with a sigh.

Talon nodded her head. "K Darky, I'll tell her!" she said with a laugh before taking off at the speed of sound, creating a small sonic boom as she did so.

"What the heck was that?!" Pulse cried, his attention finally grabbed by the loud, terrifying sound. He flew over and hugged his father close out of fright.

Darkrai gave the child a small, half smile. "It's okay, Pulse. It was just a really annoying, really fast bird. The sound was called a sonic boom. It happens when something moves at the speed of sound or faster."

"Wow! That's really fast, huh?" Pulse said cheerfully, smiling up at the older phantom.

"Yes, it it," Darkrai replied. Then, he brightened a little. "Hey Pulse, I have to talk to Arceus. Do you want to come with me? You could play with Alpha and I think the Hall of Origin has a kitchen. I'm sure Arceus would let you use it."

Pulse beamed. "Awesome! Let's go!" he cheered as he grabbed Darkrai's hand and pulled him outside.

'Okay, this is good. Pulse is happy and Arceus might listen to reason with him there too,'Darkrai thought hopefully as they flew to the Hall of Origin.

-ooo-

"Giratina? What are you doing here?" Arceus asked when she saw the legendary of death walking toward her, his trademark grin plastered on his face. "Darkrai's on his way here to give his report."

Her counterpart shrugged his wings. "I was bored, so me and Renay came to see what you were doin'. Maybe after the report we can all watch a movie."

Arceus sighed. "You can hang out here until Darkrai's report is done. If you don't goof off, then we can watch a movie when he's gone, okay?"

"Definately!" Giratina replied with a grin as he laid down near Arceus' throne to wait for the nightmare giver.

Alpha saw Renay and ran over. "Hiya, Renay! Watcha wanna do?"

"I don't know," she replied with a shrug. "We could sing karaoke."

"Naw, the machine's busted and I don't know the words without it," he said sadly.

Just then, Darkrai and Pulse arrived. Pulse spotted the other two kids and floated over. "Hey guys! I was gonna use the kitchen to try out a few recipes that I saw on the food channel. Wanna help me out?" he said cheerfully.

"Yeah!" Alpha and Renay cheered in unison before running off to the kitchen.

Darkrai watched them go before turning to Arceus. "So, what exactly do I do?" he asked. Then, he noticed Giratina and added "And why is he here?"

Giratina opened his mouth to speak, but Arceus cut him off. "Ignore him. His report is next and he showed up early to annoy me," she said, causing her counterpart to smile and roll his eyes. "Now, just tell me what all your apprentice has learned," she instructed.

Darkrai took a deep breath and began. "Well, he's learned how to use a lot of his attacks, he can go into shadow form without getting stuck and he can take on his human form. Also, he can read, sing, and dance. He's had a little trouble, but he's made a lot of progress."

Arceus nodded. "Has he learned how to use Dark Void or Nightmare? Has his ability been activated yet? Cresselia told me that Serena is now capable of giving good dreams, can Pulse give nightmares?"

Darkrai sighed. 'This is it,' he thought to himself. "Um, about that... you see, I decided not to teach Pulse how to give bad dreams."

"What?!" Arceus exclaimed, standing up as she glared at the phantom.

Darkrai swallowed his fear, steadied his body and looked Arceus in the eyes. "I said that I'm not going to teach Pulse how to give nightmares. If I did, he'd start having terrible nightmares every night, just like me. I don't want that for him. I can handle torturing others and myself with my ability, but I wouldn't wish it on anybody. Especially not a sweet, innocent kid like him."

"Darkrai, it's your duty to teach him how to take over your job. What if something were to happen to you?" Arceus said, her voice commanding and intimidating.

The dark type didn't budge. "I doubt that I'm going to die anytime soon and I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I did that to him. If you're going to force him to learn my job, then you're going to have to go through me first. I'd rather die than cause him that kind of misery."

"Are you defying a direct order?!" Arceus growled, walking down from her throne until she was standing directly in front of the pitch-black pokemon.

"Yes, I am. And if you're going to threaten to kill me, then go right ahead," he replied defiantly. He even raised a clawed hand and cut his left shoulder, using the small trickle of blood to draw a bull's eye on his chest.

Suddenly, Giratina stepped forward. "Now wait just a minute! Arcy, he's your friend. I know that you would not kill him, but please, just let it go." Then he looked directly at Darkrai. "Dude, I admire you for standing up for your beliefs, but you don't have to worry about Arcy killing you. I'm sure that there's a reasonable solution to all of this and she would never kill her own friend if their was another way to solve the problem."

Darkrai nodded, realizing that the dragon was probably right. His body relaxed slightly and he rubbed the blood off of his fur.

Arceus sighed. "What do you mean, 'let it go'?" she asked.

Giratina smiled. "I mean just let it go. Pulse is just a kid. I don't see why he has to learn something that could ruin his life right now. I mean, human kids don't have to get a job until adulthood, why should we be any different? Also, we only need one nightmare giver. When and if he dies, Cressi could teach Pulse how to give nightmares and take a vacation from dream giving while doing so. It's basically the opposite of giving good dreams, right?"

Darkrai nodded. "Right."

"I don't know..." Arceus mumbled, unsure of what do do.

Giratina lowered his head to look Arceus in the eyes. 'Wow, her eyes are stunning. Grr, get a hold of yourself. You need to be serious right now,' he thought to himself. "Arcy, think about it this way. How would you feel if you were in his situation right now? What would you do if it were Alpha who needed to be taught to torture and be tortured instead of Pulse?"

Arceus bit her lip. She thought it over. She pictured herself in Darkrai's position and groaned. She couldn't do it. 'Dammit. Giratina was right. How come I never realized how wise he is beneath his goofy personality before?' She sighed. "Okay. Darkrai, you're free to go due to the, um... unfortunate side-effects that come with your job. If you do die, Cresselia will teach your apprentice what he needs to know."

Darkrai felt his entire body sag with relief. "Thank you, Arceus. This means a lot to me." Then, he turned to Giratina. "And you, thank you as well. I owe you big time."

Giratina grinned. "No problemo amigo! Anything to help Pulsey!"

Suddenly, Alpha, Renay and Pulse all ran/floated into the room. They were all grinning and covered with splats of batter. Pulse was holding a pan of muffins. "Hey, Daddy! The kitchen's awesome! I made some blueberry muffins because they're my faves! Oh, and I made one with orange instead of blueberry just for you!" he said excitedly as he picked up the muffin with orange colored specks and handed it to his father.

Darkrai smiled. "Thanks, Pulse. That was very sweet of you." He took a bite of the muffin and felt his smile get a little bigger. It was really good. Crispy on the outside and moist on the inside.

Pulse beamed. "Thanks, Dad!" Then, he noticed the three small slashes of the adult phantom's left shoulder. "Hey Dad, how'd you hurt your arm?"

Darkrai swallowed. "I, um... scratched it too hard. You got to be careful when you have claws," he told the younger phantom.

"Yeah, I guess so!" Pulse laughed. He flew off and came back with a first aid kit. He sprayed the wound with anti-infectant before wrapping it up. "There! All better!" he said cheerfully as he hugged his dad.

Darkrai hugged him back. "Thank you, Pulse. Now, let's go home. We've both had long days and we deserve a good rest."

After the two ebony pokemon were gone, Alpha looked at Renay and smiled. "Hey, that Alakazam I hired to fix the kareoke machine should be done by now. Wanna go play with it now?"

"Heck ya!" she laughed before they ran off to go play with the machine.

When they were our of sight, Arceus turned to stare at Giratina. She still couldn't believe how many good comments and points he'd made.

Giratina noticed her staring and grinned. "Enjoying the view?"

She sighed. "Sometimes I just don't get you."

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, you're wise and goofy at the same time. How do you do that?!" she replied, her voice a bit higher than usual due to the confusing thoughts crowding her mind.

He shrugged before smiling. "Maybe I'm goofy because I'm wise. I don't really know. I don't think about it all that much. Can we watch a movie now, Arcy? I was thinking 'How the Grinch Stole Christmas'. The real life one, not the cartoon."

Arceus sighed before nodding her head. 'He handled the situation with Darkrai much better than I did. Much better actually. I didn't know what to do and I don't know what I would have done if he hadn't been here. Am I really the one most qualified to be the leader of the legendaries after all?' she thought to herself as she watched him run over to the TV, go into human form and put in the movie.

"Come on, Arcy! It's starting!" he called as he sat on the large couch in front of the TV, pulling Arceus back to reality, but not completely out of her thoughts.

She walked over, went into human form and sat next to him, her mind still asking the same questions over and over again as she watched the movie while sitting beside the person who was causing all of these thoughts and questions. And then, a new question surfaced in her brain. If he was the one causing all of these head-ache inducing thoughts, then why was she kind of enjoy sitting at his side?

I hope you liked it! Please, review now if you read and liked the story. If you didn't, review anyway and tell me why. I like reviews. They make me feel all warm and fuzzy inside. Kinda like my Chihuahua is sleeping in my belly...