So, yeah! I promised you guys the scene that Vale witnessed between Silver and Lyra, so here it is! Enjoy!

OH! And also, there will be references to The Beginning with Leaf Green throughout the , some parts may not make sense to readers whom have not read The Beginning with Leaf Green.

Amy47101 does not own pokémon.

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The Adventure Saga

Enlightening the Soul

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"Yays!" Lyra exclaimed as coins poured into her coin case. Turns out, the young girl was very good at gambling and winning coins. "I win some more!" Everyone gathered around her slot machine, watching in amazement as a girl much to young to be playing on slot machines won away, barely even aware that she was the only patron in the bar slash gambling corner that was under the drinking age.

She grinned as more shiny coins poured into her coin case. This was turning out to be a very good idea! If she kept winning likes this, it would be no time before she could obtain her prize she had thought about all night. She glanced at the promotional poster advertising pokémon as prizes, an Abra, an Ekans, and a Drantini. Her mind filled with the idea of a Dragonite flying her through the air, and she turned back to the game.

Cheers for her success rang out as more coins poured out, and she hoped she had enough. She snapped the case shut, closing it, and then moved away from the slot machine, looking at everyone.

"You all must really wanna play!" she laughed, walking away. "Sorry for hogging up the machine!" groans rang out as the girl stopped her winning streak, and everyone slowly sauntered back to other machines. She walked up to a machine that counted the coins, and dumped her winnings inside. She watched as the shook neatly down the holes, and then a small piece of paper was spat out. Lyra smiled, reaching to grab it, when another hand did. She blinked, her eyes trailing up until she saw a familiar set of silvery-gray eyes and red hair. "Oh, hi Silver! Are you here to win prizes too?"

"What," he hissed, showing her the ticket, waving it in her face. "Is this?" Lyra blinked, squinting.

"It looks like a receipt counting 2,100 coins." Lyra said, her eyes suddenly lighting up. "Enough to get my Drantini!" Silver nearly facepalmed. Instead, though, he grabbed the girls wrist, dragging her outside and ignoring the stares of other patrons and whoops of encouragement from drunkards at the bar. Once they were a good distance away from the gambling corner, he turned, slamming her wrist against the wall above her, and holding it there. She winced from pain, but Silver kept his grip.

"Listen to me, insolent girl." he growled out. "You're what, twelve? Thirteen?"

"Fourteen, actually." Lyra responded. SIlver was slightly surprised by this. She was fourteen? He never would've guessed by how childish she acted. His glare intensified.

"Fourteen-year-old girls do not gamble in the middle of the night in a big city." he said, crushing the receipt in his fingers. "Do you even realize what kind of nasty, dirty, drunken sleezebags are out there, waiting to take advantage of a pitiful excuse of a trainer like you?" Lyra felt the grip on her wrist tighten with each word, and she wondered if Silver knew how hard his grip had become. She felt as if her entire wrist was going to snap!

"Silver." she said quietly. "Silver, let go!" she tugged at his own wrist, trying to get him to relinquish the grip. He was still yelling at her, and she had suddenly become very scared, remembering things from her childhood.

"You stupid brat! It's your fault he died! Its your fault he left us!"

"Mama, stop it! Let go!"

"You're hurting me!" she suddenly shrieked. Silver stopped, abruptly letting go of her wrist, watching as she just fell to her knees, cradling her hand and sobbing. Had he... had he really hurt her that bad? Oh, good Arceus, now he was starting to feel guilt. Great. He's done plenty of nasty things; stealing, beating people up, relentlessly abusing his pokémon, yet here he was, feeling guilty about maybe or maybe not bruising some girls wrist.

He felt the strange urge to slam his head into the brick wall behind him to knock some sense back into his head, but decided against it. Instead, he simply slid down next to her, tilting his head back to look at the stars above him. He let out a low sigh.

"Look." he said, pointing up. Lyra cast a teary glance at him, then up at the sky. "I'll race you to the find three constellations. Are you ready?" he couldn't believe he was doing this. Couldn't believe he was sharing a pastime that was reserved solely for him and Vale.

Lyra reached up, wiping her tears with the back of her hand, then giving a slightly watery smile. "Okay!" she exclaimed, determined. Silver hid his smile as her eyes scanned the sky for constellations. Silver already picked up his three.

"One, Scorpius the Draphion. Two, Virgo the Virgin," he thought. He glanced at Lyra.

"One, Ursa Major, the Ursaring! Two, Ursa Minor, the Teddiursa! And, um..." she scanned the sky.

"Three, Draco the Dragonair." both said in union. Lyra grinned.

"Jinx! Now you owe me a soda!" she grinned. "Or you could give me back my receipt. I wanna turn that in for my Dratini!"

"A Dratini?" Silver mused, opening his palm to reveal the crunched up piece of paper. He held it out to her and she took it, opening it up and smoothing out the wrinkles. She then folded it once, twice, then stuck it in the front pocket of her overalls.

"Thanks for showing me that little trick!" Lyra said, pointing to the stars. "It really helped!"

"Hn." Silver grunted, looking away.

"So, listen... I found out that there was a pokémon contest tomorrow and I kinda wanted to go and see it."

"See it?" Silver smirked. "I would've thought that you'd enter it."

"Oh, I wanted to, but the registration was all filled up! But I found out that Krystal entered as well!"

"Krystal...?" Silver asked, suddenly remembering the blue-haired girl. "Oh, you mean the catcher, right?"

"Yup! I had no idea she was interested in contests." Lyra said, tapping her chin thoughtfully. "Anyways, I should get back to Papa's. He's probably worried."

"You mean Ethans grandparents, right?"

"Yup!" Lyra exclaimed as they both stood. "Oh, and don't worry, you didn't hurt me. I was just remembering something that happened a long time ago, thats all!" she raised her hand in a wave, and he raised an eyebrow at the darkening bruises forming around her wrist. He glanced back at the gambling corner, drunkards stumbling out, barely able to keep themselves upright, then back at Lyra, who was walking away in the middle of the night wearing those ridiculously short overalls.

Another strange and unfamiliar feeling was starting to erupt inside him. He tried to place it, settling on the fact that, since he was not at all remotely tired, that it may be close to anger. Was he angry at Lyra? Why would he be angry at Lyra? He was a little mad at himself for hurting her, but that was an accident.

"You're worried about her, stupid!" an annoying little voice in the back of his mind stated.

"No," he growled back. "I'm not."

Yet he followed her back to the Hibiki household to put his mind at ease.

o.0.o.0.o

"Oh, Silver!" Lyra exclaimed, turning to the redhead. "You actually came!" Silver blinked, hardly recognizing the girl. She, for one, did not have on her usual ridiculous hat and her hair in gravity-defying pigtails. Instead, her hair was out, settling down to her shoulders in loose waves. Instead of her hat, around her forehead was a crown of dark pink flowers. Her overalls and red T-shirt was replaced by a strapless dress, green around her chest and a dark pink skirt which oddly resembled flower petals that fell to her knees. Sandals were on her feet, and two bracelets similar to her crown wound around her wrists. Her Eevee sat at her feet, a little dark pink flower tucked by her ear.

"Well, it's only because of what happened last night..." he muttered bitterly, slightly glad to see that the bracelets covered up most of the bruising. He didn't need anyone else mad at him.

The last thing he wanted was to be here, surrounded by a bunch of idiots parading around like absolute morons in their costumes. A beauty contest. Was this world trying to make pokémon weak or was he just stupid?

"What are you, exactly?" he asked.

"I told you it was fine!" Lyra exclaimed, responding to his previous statement. "And I was a fairy, but somebody ripped my wing, so I had to take them off to avoid further damage. I guess now I'm a pixie."

"Hn." Silver grunted. Lyra stared. "What?" he asked. She grinned.

"You still don't have a costume yet, do you?" Silver blinked.

"Costume?" he asked.

"They won't let you in without one!" Lyra exclaimed. Silver almost couldn't keep his joy inside.

"Oh, well... better be off than." he said, unable to hide the slight hint of joy in his voice.

"But they have spare costumes here for people who still want to watch!" Lyra exclaimed happily. "You won't get to miss a single solitary thing! aren't you happy, Silver?" Silver glared.

"Overjoyed." he growled out as she lead the way to another room. Inside, it was filled with rack upon rack of costumes in Arceus knows how many colors. He could already tell by the look on Lyra's face that she had an absolute field day going through rack after rack of costumes.

"These were all the costumes from the photobooth underground." Lyra said, already starting to pick and choose through costumes. Silver raised his eyebrows.

"You went underground?" he asked.

"Sure!" she said. "It was fun! I got Eevee groomed, and she really seemed to like it!" Silver still stared in shock.

"Weren't there, like, criminals down there? With pokémon and weapons?" he asked, remembering his own trip underground to avoid people overhead. While there were some good-natured salesmen, there were gangs that loitered around as well, waiting for someone to battle and rob if successfully beating them. They were no match for him, of course, but with her... He didn't want to think about the possibilities. Lyra tapped her chin in thought.

"Yeah, there were, but it was a really good workout for Dratini." she said. If it weren't for his personality his jaw would've dropped to the floor. She went down there to train her new pokémon? And came out unscathed? "He's almost at the same level as my other pokémon, so I'm happy. That means he can keep up with them in double battles or he won't get undertrained or anything. Not that it matters, really." she turned to him and grinned. "All my pokémon are my friends!"

"Heh... Friends." Silver chuckled slightly to himself, choosing to stand in the corner as Lyra went in between rows of costumes. Silver glanced absentmindedly at the displays, his eyes falling on something white. He blinked, walking over to it, finding it rather strange that something white would be on a rack of black clothes. He reached up, taking it, looking at it, then dropped it as if it burned him.

It was one of those masks.

"No way..." he thought as he picked it back up, turning it over. Sure enough, it was indeed one of the masks that haunted his childhood. Same upturned grin, same downturned eye slits. There was no way anyone would want to make something like this, and even if so, why would it be among costumes for a contest of all things? Could they actually be here? Did they know he was here?

No, they couldn't. They haven't made a move to get him back in almost five years. Then why else...?

"-Krystal looked so pretty in her costume! She's going to do so well on stage, even if this is her first contest. I have faith in her!" Silver caught a part of one of Lyra's long stories, remembering the blue haired catcher. Was she really competing? Were they making a move to go after her? They did want her earlier on...

He nearly facepalmed as realization hit him. This could all just be a mistake, after all! There was a variety of costumes here... maybe someone wanted to dress up as an evil villain or something, and this was a convenient accessory.

"C'mon, I think I found you a good costume!" Lyra exclaimed, waving her hand back and forth near a dressing room. In her other arm was some clothing. Silver let out a sigh, making his way through the racks of clothing to get to her.

He couldn't help but toss the mask into a nearby trashcan.

o.0.o.0.o

"Oh no. Oh no, no, no." Vale muttered to herself as she tore through racks upon racks of clothing. "Where is it?! Where is it?!" Vale usually was not one to panic. She was, after all, the seventeen-year-old executive of the Masked Rockets, and had to learn to keep her cool under the pressure of ordering around adults whom may or may not want to kill her to snatch her position. But right now, she was in full out panic-mode.

She couldn't find her mask.

"Oh Arceus." she said, raising her hand to the left side of her face, where her half-mask usually laid, and began pacing. "Oh Lugia. Oh Mew. Holy Ho-oh, I'm dead. I'm dead, dead, dead. Deader than a doornail. Deader than a Pacharisu battling and Onix. Dead. He's gonna-"

"Excuse me, miss?" Vale whipped around, looking at one of the receptionists standing aside, her hands folded neatly in front of her. Vale turned back, grabbing a random mask off the pile."You shouldn't be down here. The contest will begin soon. Are you alright?"

"Oh! I'm fine. I'm fine, I swear." Vale responded, glancing at the mask. It was a black mask with two long, fang-like black protrusions down the side. The edges of the masks were covered with small silver sequins, and the eyeholes were covered in white. She smiled. This mask, although not approved, would be perfect. The black protrusions would cover the scars perfectly... "I just lost my mask that I made specially for my first contest. It was really important, that's all."

"You don't have to wear a mask, you know." the receptionist answered. Vale smiled, and slipped on the new mask. She turned to the receptionist, gathering the sides of her dark hair off her face and tying it into a small ponytail at the back of her head.

"Then why call it a masquerade?"

o.0.o.0.o

"Okay, Ethan said he would be somewhere around here..." Lyra said, scanning the crowd with her eyes. Silver kept his eyes peeled as well, looking for the boy, but found it increasingly hard considering there wasn't much for him to distinguish.

"Hey, nice costume fedora-kid!" someone shouted. Silver turned around, about to address the person and tell them that he was fifteen for Arceus' sake. But instead, he held his tongue and moved on to following Lyra through the throng of people. He glanced down at his costume and suppressed a smirk. Despite her idiotic marshmellow hat look, Lyra could choose good costumes.

She had decided that it was 'perfect' for him to be a mobster. So her he was with his hands shoved deep into a black trench coat, underneath that was a loose white dress shirt with a skinny black tie. The tie he wore loosely with gray slacks, and atop his head was a black fedora with a white band.

"Ethan!" Lyra called. Silver scanned the crowd, and saw someone dressed as a hiker waving his hand back and forth. He narrowed his eyes, almost immediately recognizing Lyra's friend. He grabbed her arm, and she looked over her shoulder at him. He lifted his black-gloved hand and pointed at the hiker, who's waving hand was lowered, features set into a glare.

"Is that him?" Silver asked. Lyra craned her neck and grinned.

"Yup!" she exclaimed, grabbing his hand and beginning to shove her way through the throng of people to get to him. She kept on exclaiming 'excuse me' over and over again as she bumped into people. They, of course, glared, but when Lyra wasn't looking, he glared back, shutting up any rude comments they may have had.

They managed to successfully get to Ethan, and saw him with Lyra's yellow backpack on the seat next to him, his own over his shoulder. He had on a red plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up to the elbows, a brown vest, jeans, and hiking boots. On his head was a traditional hiking hat with a red feather and a green feather sticking out of it. He glanced at Silver warily.

"Hey Lyra!" Ethan exclaimed, glancing down, noting their entwined hands. "I didn't realize you were bringing a... friend." Silver cast his eyes down, and shook his hand fre of hers. She glanced at him, pouting slightly, then turned back to Ethan, her grin evident.

"Yeah, I asked Silver last night, and he agreed!" she smiled. Ethan glanced at Silver.

"Well, it's to bad." he said with a nonchalant shrug. He glanced up at Silver, smirking. "I only reserved one place. For you." Lyra's face fell. Silver felt his left eye twitch slightly from irritation. Was this guy challenging him or something? He'd show him! He turned to the person in the seat next to Lyra's, a man whom seemed rather irritated to be here.

"Move." Silver ordered. The man glanced up, then lowered his head again. Silver sighed, annoyed. "Perhaps you didn't hear me. That's my seat, and I said move." his sharp tone lashed through the air, and the man flinched, getting up in his clumsy knight costume and moving as far away as possible from him. Silver, with a satisfied smirk on his face, sat down, crossing his arms.

"That was really nice of that guy to move for you!" Lyra said, moving her bag to her lap as she sat down.

"Lyra, that guy threatened him." Ethan said. Silver glanced at him out of the corner of his eye.

"I did not. I simply asked him to move." Silver responded, smirking. "He was happy to comply." Ethan narrowed his eyes to slits.

"Oh, Ethan!" Lyra exclaimed, turning her attention to him. "My Snorunt! I wanted to ask if your grandfather gave her to you to give to me. He said he'd finish training in time to send you here."

"Oh, yeah!" Ethan exclaimed, digging through his bag before coming up victoriously with a pokéball. "Here you go! One level-twenty-five Snorunt!"

"Oh! Tell Papa I said thank you!" Lyra said, letting out the ice-type. As she ducked down to greet her pokémon, Ethan smirked at Silver, whom scoffed in response. Ethan was acting like he had one-upped him in some way, all because he delivered a pokémon to her.

"So have you thought on what to evolve her into yet?" Silver asked. Lyra blinked.

"Eh? Evolve?" she asked, turning her attention to him. Silver smirked. Finally, he can put all those lessons from Mask to good use!

"Snorunt is known to evolve into two different forms: Froslass and Glalie." he said.

"Oh. Well, whatever works best for Snorunt, I guess. I really don't want her to feel forced into an evolution." Lyra said. The crowd cheered suddenly, and the trio looked up to see a young woman standing on stage, dressed in what looked like the dark version of Odette from Swanna Lake. Her dark hair was pulled off her face in a small ponytail at the back of her head, letting the rest flow free, while a mask concealed her upper face. She smiled, and with a graceful sweep of her arm, a pokéball was enlarged and she tossed it in the air. Out popped an beautiful and unusual pokémon, certainly not a species from Johto. The seal on the pokéball caused rings of water to pop out with it.

"Wow!" exclaimed the announcer as they laid eyes on the levitating pokémon. "I've never seen anything like that before!"

"Froslass, Ice Beam." the girl ordered. The pokémon, with a beautiful cry, froze the rings of water.

"This 'Froslass' froze the water! What do they plan to do?" the announcer wondered as she watched in curiously.

"Destiny Bond." Froslass waved it's arms back and forth in a graceful dance, a ring of purple surrounding it and the frozen rings. The rings were brought together, surrounding Froslass, concealing it from view of the audience. People murmured in wonder, some craning their necks to catch a glimpse of the pokémon. "Ominous Wind!" Suddenly, the entire structure glowed purple, becoming translucent. The Froslass, still in the middle, was completely visible for she was glowing brighter than the ice, and she simply floated through the top, the Ominous WInd swirling around in the ice structure.

"That's a lot of power they're storing in there! What do they plan to do?" the announcer exclaimed. The girl grinned.

"Slam it down!" Froslass, with a simple flick of her wrist, sent the structure flying down. It burst, sending ice shards and small bits of dark purple ominous wind spiraling around. "Froslass, dance." Froslass did as told, dancing a graceful and well practiced dance as the ice and purple wind made her look even more beautiful.

Once the attacks fizzled away, Froslass floated next to her trainer, and both took a grateful bow as the crowd cheered.

"And that was Tani Wakare with her mysterious and beautiful Froslass!" the announcer exclaimed as she walked off the stage. Silver leaned back in his seat. He had to admit that this was slightly entertaining. It seemed like the girl had an idea of what she was doing. He felt a tug on his jacket, and looked at Lyra.

"What?" he asked. Lyra glanced at Snorunt, whom was still fixated on the stage.

"Um, we decided." she said with a smile on her face. "Me and Snorunt want to know... How can I evolve her into a Froslass?"

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Somewhat crappy ending, but who cares? XD

Amy47101 signing off! ^.^