"I love the way that your heart breaks, with every injustice and deadly fate. Here you are, down on your knees again, trying to find air to breathe again, and only surrender will help you now, I love you please see and believe again" - Flyleaf "Again"

37 Divine Intervention

"Murderer!" Yacaeli screeched.

"Traitor!" Arceus thundered.

Yacaeli let out a deep, bone rattling roar. The entire mountain shook with her fury. Arceus retaliated with his own furious screech, and the two engaged in a vicious battle once again.

Dawn had been tossed off the mountain, but she had miraculously not been thrown very far. There was a slight pain in her wrist, and she guessed it was sprained. Paul was already on his feet and making his way over to her, concern evident on his face.

Funny. The first emotion she had ever seen Paul show and it was concern—for her.

Anxious, she looked around for the others. Drew had Max in his arms, and May was stumbling to get to them. Further down, Brock was bloody, but most of it was from what Yacaeli did to him earlier. His backpack was beside him, having somehow remained on his shoulders the entire time. He was rifling through it, and finally pulled out a pair of pants and threw them at Misty.

She kept looking, worried that the one she was most concerned about was already lost, when she saw him. Ash lay on his back, covered in dirt, and not moving.

Dawn crawled over to him, Paul trailing after her as he tried to think of what to do. She reached his broken form, and with shaking hands grabbed his arms. "Ash?" she whispered, tears keeping her voice from going any louder. "Are you okay?"

When he did not reply, the blunette listened to his rugged breathing (thank Arceus… er, no, don't thank him. He did this to Ash. But at least Ash was alive) and placed her hands on his chest. She flinched as she felt the ribs, clearly not in their right places.

What if his spine was broken? Could he live if that was so? She closed her eyes and fought to remember all those classes her mom had signed her up for. The spinal cord controlled all the nerves in the body. If that had been broken, Ash may never move again.

"Dawn," Paul warned. He was getting nervous, as the battle of ferocious Legendaries was getting closer. "Can we move him?"

She shook her head. "We'll just injure him more." Her fingers trailed down to his wrist, tapping the bracelet gently. "There is nothing we can do right now."

*************************************************************Paragraph Break**********************************************************

Above, on the mountain top, Yacaeli had sunk her teeth into Arceus' shoulder. She felt his cold, silver blood on her tongue, and it tasted sweet. Revolted, Yacaeli let go, but doing so allowed him to impale her with the spikes on his middle.

While she recoiled from the pain, Arceus took the upper hand and butted the Sky Cat with his head. She fell, and again, he took the advantage. With a stamp of his foot, the ground opened up, revealing bubbling lava. Abruptly, it shot up in a fiery plume. His Earth Power attack was greater than she'd been expecting, and she barely rolled out of the way in time.

Shaymin had scuttled to back to the top of the mountain, panic coursing through him like a disease. Mew hadn't moved. She remained motionless on the cold, hard stone, her fur ruffling in the ever-present wind. He hurried over to her, terrified. Was she alive? Injured? Was there anything he could do if she was?

Suicune struggled over the edge, following the little hedgehog. He shook himself and limped after Shaymin. "Is she okay?"

Shaymin looked up at the other Pokemon with huge, terrified eyes. "I don't know. I don't… I don't think she's breathing."

Suicune's expression mimicked Shaymin's. If Mew was dead… he couldn't bear to think of what would happen.

What would he tell Lucario?

No, she had to be alive. He nudged her broken form, listening for breath. He could hear none due to the wind, but he felt a heartbeat. "She's alive," he told his friend.

"Oh thank Arceus!" Shaymin cried, collapsing on her unconscious form. "I was so worried she was a goner!"

"We should take her to Celebi as fast as possible," continued Suicune. "She can heal her."

*************************************************************Paragraph Break**********************************************************

I blinked. The world around me was dark. Oh great, I thought. Another nightmare.

I began to wander around, hoping the illusions I saw this time wouldn't be so awful. Eventually, I came to a mirror. I don't know where the mirror came from, or why it was there, but it was. Since there wasn't anything else to do, I walked up to it.

My reflection looked a little different than I remembered myself looking. He had the same scruffy hair, but… it was a little shorter. His eyes were the same deep brown, but they had an unfamiliar glint in them, as if he knew something I didn't.

"Hey," he said. "Been a while."

"Yeah," I replied, though I wasn't sure why I was talking to my reflection. "How've you been?"

"Meh," he answered. "So-so." His knowing smirk faded, and was replaced by worry. "I think I saw Leaf die," he said quietly.

I blinked. "She did," I whispered.

"But Yacaeli can bring her back, right?" he insisted.

Uncertain, I shrugged. "I don't know. I hope so." Suddenly, an odd thought struck me. "Am I dead?" I asked.

My reflection shrugged in reply. "Kinda looks like it, doesn't it?"

I found myself nodding. "Is this the waiting place before you go to heaven or hell?" I wondered.

He surveyed the room. "Pretty sucky place to wait, if you ask me." He craned his neck, looking beyond me. "Oh look. A light."

I turned. "Is that heaven, then?"

"It could be."

Suddenly, I was scared. I didn't want to die. Honestly. Death was scary. What if I never saw Misty again until she was an old, old woman? Would she still love me? Doubtful. "I don't want to go," I said in a shaky voice.

"Silly boy, do you not remember what Madame Eulixia told you?"

I looked away from the light. There was Madame what's-her-face, with angel's wings and everything. For some reason, I wasn't surprised.

"Hey aunty," said my reflection.

She nodded to the mirror. "Fire," she said, addressing me, "have you no memory of what Madame Eulixia told you?"

I tried to remember, but nothing came to mind. Regrettably, I shook my head.

"Follow the light, for it knows where it's going," she repeated, and the words gave me a de ja vu feeling. It was like trying to remember a dream from years ago.

I turned away from the two, my eyes fixed on the light. It knew where it was going, right?

"Hey!"

I twisted back around. My reflection was still in the mirror, and he had a rather indignant expression on his face. "Don't leave me here," he insisted.

I don't know how I knew what to do, but I did. I walked back to the mirror and placed my hand on its cold surface. My reflection did the same.

Suddenly, it was like my mind felt whole again. I hadn't even known a part was missing, but now it felt… complete. I blinked in shock. That wasn't what I had been expecting, but I was glad for it.

"Now go," ushered Madame so-and-so. "There are many waiting for the fire to burn again."

I listened. It was the strangest thing, like a dream that was far beyond my control. But I walked right into the light. For a moment I was blinded.

Then there was pain, and my eyes snapped open as I screamed. I saw for a heartbeat, until black spots of pain came over my eyes. There was so much noise. My ears rang deafeningly. My back felt like someone had snapped it in half. My head would not cease to throb. Things felt just wrong on my body. I didn't know what to do.

"Snap out of it!"

A hand came out of the blackness and struck me across the face. I could breathe again. The spots faded away. The pain was still sharp, but it was no longer the reign of my mind. I looked and saw Misty. She was red in the face and shaking out her hand. "By Celebi, Ash, no need to scream like a girl!" Her eyes were red and furious. "Man up!"

I blinked. My breaths were coming in gasps. It was a struggle to think straight. "What's going on?" I managed.

"You were dead, that's what's going on!" she snapped.

"No he wasn't," Dawn said quietly. "We thought it was a coma, though."

"Can you move?" asked Drew.

I tried to sit up, but it only hurt more. "Yes," I lied, and I forced myself upright. It hurt so effing bad. But I managed to get to my feet, despite how dizzy it made me. The fact that the ground was sloping didn't help. I blinked, and saw that, up above, Yacaeli and Arceus were battling again.

I blinked again, feeling sick. I had to think. Okay, Arceus and Yacaeli were going to kill each other, so I… I had to stop them, right? But I was so tired. I wanted to sleep…

Drew walked past me, reached down, and reappeared with a pair of glasses in his hand. I stared at them, wondering why the lenses looked weird. It was as if they were warping, distorting the world I could see through them.

A sudden insight made me lunge for the glasses and tear them from Drew's hands. He made a confused sound, but I paid no attention. I placed the glasses on my face, curious as to what I would see.

And what I saw was truly amazing.

The world blurred, like my eyes had gone out of focus. But other things became clearer, like strips of air that began to glow. It was like a path had been made from the stars, a galaxy sprinkled through the air.

The pain left my mind, and I started running. My friends yelled after me, but I ignored them. The Absol fell into step beside me, and I was certain it could see the lights as well. Pikachu was riding on its head, a determined look on his face.

We reached what had once been Yacaeli's cave on the peak, now a battle arena for her and her former mate. The three birds circled above, at a loss for what to do.

Each bird left their own light, as did every swipe of Yacaeli's paw. I could see everywhere she'd been, and I could see everywhere she was going to be.

Repeatedly, she and Arceus would draw back from each other, giving me enough time to get between the two and create a fire. If I could separate them long enough, I could probably talk sense into them.

I looked down to see the blurry Absol and Pikachu smirking at me knowingly. I nodded, and they took off. They needed to distract Arceus so he wouldn't attack while I separated him and Yacaeli.

Absol blocked Arceus, barking something to him to get his attention. Arceus ignored it and tried to get around the Pokemon to aim at Yacaeli. I sprinted in front of Yacaeli's oncoming charge and thrust out my arm.

"Move, human!" she screamed. "Or you shall perish like the one before you!"

Her words hurt. She had killed my father, and my grandmother. And countless other people. Maybe she deserved to die. Maybe Arceus was in the right here. Maybe…

I hesitated in creating the shield of flames a moment too long.

Arceus got so frustrated at Absol that he tried to hit him with a Hyper Beam. He missed. The fire from the bracelet didn't come fast enough to create a barrier like I'd intended.

The attack hit Yacaeli with deadly force. I was blinded by the light it made. The sound was impossibly loud. The flames rose and sucked up the remainder of the attack. Abruptly, I could see again, and she had fallen to the ground, limp and unmoving. Her fur was singed, and yet, her eyes had managed to close.

She had absorbed the power of the Genesis Stone, thinking it would make her immortal. I learned later that the Stone's powers did not work that way. Arceus would explain it woefully, crying over the body of his beloved Yacaeli.

Because the Sky Cat perished that day. As the morning light broke through the clouds, as the clouds began to clear and dissipate for the first time, Yacaeli was slain by her lover's hand.

And it was all my fault.

*AN: Gah, that took forever. I'm sorry. I'm updating while doing calculus homework, so... yeah. I didn't edit it very thoroughly. Luckily, I got started on the next chapter last night, so there won't be much more to write.

Thank you all so so so much for your reviews and everything! It means a lot to me. Now I'm going to do calc homework, like I should be. Bye.*