Geez. You know, with OR/AS out, I've had NO time to update! Legit! So now I'm getting back to The Adventure Saga. I hope you enjoy!

Amy47101 does not own pokémon. Only Vale.

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The Adventure Saga

Enlightening the Soul

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Lyra felt a pain in the back of her head... It hurt. It hurt like the time her Mom got drunk and hit her with the liquor bottle... But something felt so warm... So comforting...

"Mm..." she mumbled, curling into warmth, hearing something thumping under her head. Wha...? A heartbeat...? She smiled a little. It was speeding up. She could feel herself moving, they were moving quickly... Was she being carried? But by whom? Shouldn't she be scared? But... But she felt safe.

She groaned again. The moving stopped.

Who was it? Her will to sleep and her undying curiosity battled within her. Slowly, she cracked open her eyes, blinking against the light. She looked up, slightly surprised to see Silver. But then again, it made sense. It wasn't as if Vale or the crazy masked man would carry her so gently.

"Silver...?"

"Who else do you think it is?" he shot back, kneeling to set her down. She heard a strange cackling, and saw a Haunter appear, almost as if it was trying to tease Silver. Said redhead scowled, and quickly returned the dark type. Lyra smiled, then winced as she ran her hand along a rather bloody bump.

"Ooow. My head hurts."

"Well, of course it hurts. If Vale hit you hard enough to draw blood and knock you out, I'd be surprised if you don't have a concussion or something."

"Oh."

"Anyways, there's no time for resting." Silver said, standing up. "We need to find your two idiot friends and get off this stupid thing. I can't stand the very thought of being in the same place as him."

"The Masked Man." Lyra said simply. Silver glared. He stood, and began walking away. Lyra blinked in surprise. "Silver!" she exclaimed, getting up, then blinking away a wave of dizziness that hit her. She groaned in pain from the hit, but continued to stumble in the direction the redhead went. "Silver, seriously! Wait up! Please!"

She felt someone grab her upper arm, and blinked up at Silver. Briefly, concern crossed his features.

"How many fingers am I holding up?" he asked. Lyra blinked.

"Three. Why?"

"Are you aware of where you are right now, Lyra?"

"We're on the Masked Rocket's hovercraft, searching for Krys."

"Can I see your trainer ID?" she blinked, then nodded, passing said ID to him. He glanced at it. "What's your full name?"

"Lyra Soul Kotone." she answered immediately.

"Date of birth?"

"April first." she answered just as quickly. Silver passed the ID back to her.

"Pokémon currently on your team?" At this, she grinned.

"Bayleaf, Flaafy, Snorunt, Eevee, and Dratini!" she sang out.

"One more question." Silver said. "How are you feeling? Sick? Tired?"

"My head hurts where the bump is and I'm really dizzy." Silver let out a breath. To Lyra, it sounded like a sigh of relief.

"There are usually eight obvious signs of a concussion." Silver explained. "Brief loss of consciousness after the injury, memory problems, confusion, drowsiness or feeling sluggish, dizziness, double vision or blurred vision, headache, and nausea or vomiting." Lyra blinked, counting off on her fingers. "From what I can tell, you seem to only be suffering from dizziness and a headache, but those are natural symptoms of being knocked out, especially with the force that Vale employed."

"So no concussion?"

"Not from the symptoms, but you should still get it checked out." Silver stated. Lyra grinned.

"You should be a doctor! Where on earth did you learn these things?"

"Books."

"Oh, you read about stuff like this?"

"I read about ways to make sure I wouldn't die." Silver responded. Lyra blinked, then frowned.

"...Die?" she asked. "Silver...?"

"Just drop it so we can find your idiot friends and get out of here."

o.0.o.0.o

"How are we gonna bluff it that we know where Vale is?" Ethan hissed to Krystal as they moved through the hallways, following the young, nameless man.

"Simple." Krystal responded. "Something happened, we tell him she's in the infirmary. We just need an excuse..."

"While I was crawling around the air ducts, I heard some grunts talking about Vale getting in a fight. Just say she was hurt." Ethan responded. Krystal nodded, turning to the young man in front of them.

She found it odd how strange this guy was acting. He strolled along casually with his hands in his sweatshirt pockets, but Krystal could tell with the constant pausing at the slightest and quietest sound that he was trying to sneak unnoticed. She glanced at the cameras hanging in the hallways. Was he oblivious or did he just not care? She couldn't tell. He claimed to know Vale and heard 'through the grapevine' that she was hurt. That meant that he was somehow associated with these 'Masked Rockets'. But he wasn't wearing a uniform and didn't seem to have, well... anything to even indicate he was a part of the organization. Heck, she couldn't even see the shrunken pokéballs that every trainer carried. Was he even a trainer?

For some reason, he just didn't seem to belong.

He pushed open a door, both teens blinking as he walked towards a keyboard and typed something in. A holographic panel popped up.

"It's on autopilot back to Azalea." he stated. He typed in a few more things, and a map popped up. "I'm going to set it so that you land in a area outside the Ruins of Alph." he stood, shoving his hands back in his pocket. "Don't touch the controls, and you should land safely, okay?"

"Understood." Krys nodded. "Now to hold up our end of the deal. We've heard fighting, and grunts cheering Vale on. She got in a fight and was hurt, thus sent to the infirmary." the young man didn't lift his head to reveal his eyes, but his lips parted slightly, as if surprised, before he closed them.

"I see." he stated, walking towards the door. "Thank you."

"No," Ethan smirked victoriously as he watched him leave. "Thank you."

Both were unsure what to do at the moment, so they simply stared at the map, the blipping dot steadily moving closer to their destination.

Suddenly, there was a flush of the toilet.

Both snapped their heads to each other, confused and afraid. They heard a door open and both whipped towards it. Who they assumed was a grunt walked out, sighing contently. He looked up at them, widening his eyes.

"What are you doing here?!" he shrieked angrily. He rushed at them, both ducking out of the way as he rammed into the controls. Krystal, turned, kneeing him in the stomach then roundhouse kicking him in the head, sending him crashing into the controls again, unconscious.

"Whoa..." Gold muttered as Krystal readjusted her clothes. She turned to him, and glared.

"If you saw anything, I will send Misdrevous after you." she stated. Ethan flinched, her knowing of his fear of ghost types.

"Y-Yes ma'am." he muttered.

"Help me drag him back to the bathroom, we'll lock him in there until we land." Krystal said, grabbing one of his arms. Ethan made a move to help, when a sudden beeping stopped them in their tracks. Slowly, they turned to the controls, seeing an exclamation point in the middle of a triangle beeping. Underneath was the sentence: Warning! Autopilot is off! Begin manual control?

Ethan rushed to the panel, searching for the button to click no. Finding it, he clicked it when another box popped up. Error, Autopilot is currently unavailable

"Crap!" Ethan exclaimed as he glanced at the screen. "The autopilot's off!"

"How do we turn it back on, then?!" Krys exclaimed in response.

"It's busted, I think!" Ethan said, glancing at the cracked and screwed up board. He whipped around to the small hand control, and glanced at the map. "We've gotta get control of this thing!" he heard a scraping noise and the ship jerked wildly. He grabbed at the handles and pulled up. The ship gained altitude. He ground his teeth together, glancing at the map, spotting the blank area close to the ruins of Alph. "Krystal, announce a crash landing over the loudspeaker!" Ethan ordered, grabbing the speaker from above him and holding it to her.

"But that will call attention to us!" she responded in a panic.

"It doesn't matter! Masked Rocket or not, they don't deserve to die out of nowhere because we screwed up the autopilot!" Ethan shot back, glaring. "Plus we have Lyra and, as much as I hate the jerk, Silver on here as well." Krys glanced at the speaker, then snatched it from his hand in a panic for her cousin's life. Pressing the button and causing a slight static, she spoke.

"Everyone! This is not a drill, we are crash landing! I repeat, this. Is. Not. A. Drill!"

o.0.o.0.o

Vale slowly opened her eyes, glancing about the room. A headache raged in her head, and confusion clouded her mind. She tried to think back... Why did everything hurt so much? She remembered getting backhanded by Mask... going to her room... then getting summoned to Mask's labs. Then... Then what?

"Arceus..." she groaned. She pushed herself up, glancing around. She was in the infirmary... next to her was a small table, on the table sat one thing: her scratched half-mask. She let out a sigh, slowly placing it over her face.

"Is that why you where that thing?" Vale inhaled sharply, snapping her head to her right. She blinked as she took in the sight of the hooded young man. He sat on a chair, with his eyes shaded as always, chin resting in his hand as his elbows balanced on his knees. "Do you where it to cover the scars on your face?"

"How long have you been sitting there?" Vale asked, avoiding the question.

"Not long." he responded, sitting up. "Well? Is that why you where the mask?"

"...Yeah."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you cover them?"

"Because I don't like them." Vale responded bitterly, turning away. There was a pause.

"You're weird." he finally settled on saying. Vale snapped her head up at him, surprised for a moment, before small laughs began to bubble through her mouth. She continued laughing for a minute, the mask actually falling off as she reached up to wipe away tears that began to form. "I-I apologize." she stated. "I mean, you think I'm weird for covering up scars, but you disappear for no reason, then suddenly reappear again."

"I'm... sorry?" he responded somewhat hesitantly. Vale shook her head.

"No, don't be." she turned fully, her feet touching the floor. "I have not laughed in years. So I thank you for that." he frowned slightly.

"But you were crying."

"No, those are happy tears. Sometimes people get so happy they cry in relief."

"I... I did not realize that."

"It's a bit confusing... but think about it like this. Have you ever wondered why little kids are so proud and happy to do something bad?"

"No."

"Huh?"

"I have never been outside much. He does not allow me to."

"So Mask even has his claws in you..." Vale muttered.

"Excuse me?"

"It's nothing. Just keep on your toes." she stood, scooping up her mask.

"Wait," he said, grabbing her hand as she began walking away. "I have a question, Vale." She paused, looking over her shoulder.

"Yes?"

"What... What's a friend?"

"A friend? You don't know what a friend is?" he frowned in confusion.

"According to the dictionary," he stated. "A friend is a person whom one knows and with whom one has a bond of mutual affection, typically exclusive of sexual or family relations."

"No!" Vale shook her head as she turned around fully. "That's not... you can't have a book define friendship."

"But the dictionary said that's what it was."

"No. No, friendship is..." How could he not know what a friend is? She wracked her mind for a definition, but suddenly realized something. She had no idea how to explain it. Mask never let her leave, and when she was allowed to go, it wasn't like she was going to socialize with anyone... "Well..." She plopped down on the bed across from him, still holding his hand. "I..." she laughed slightly. "I don't know either!"

"What do you mean?"

"I don't know what a friend is. I never had one either!" she laughed again, pulling her hand away and resting her chin in her hands. "It's kinda funny."

"Can we... be friends?" he asked hesitantly. She blinked.

"You do realize that I'm not even supposed to know you exist, right?" he shrugged. Vale straightened up, stretching. "I mean, I don't see a problem. But it's gotta stay secret. Arceus knows what will happen if he knew."

"Okay." he stated, smiling slightly. There was a content silence for a moment before the ship lurched dangerously. Vale widened her eyes.

"What-?"

"It must be a slight disruption. A wind disturbance or something." the young man quickly said. It jerked again, even worse than before.

"That's no wind disturbance." Vale muttered. "This ship should be on a direct and safe route to Azalea! Why is it jerking like this?!"

"Everyone! This is not a drill, we are crash landing! I repeat, this. Is. Not. A. Drill!"

"What in the world-?!" Vale exclaimed. The ship shook violently again and scraping could be heard.

"Shit! SHIT! We're going down!" a male exclaimed. "We're going down!"

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MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! CLIFFHANGER!

I'm evil. XD

Amy47101 signing off! ^.^