So, this story will come to a close soon. Not so soon as a chapter or two… But it's definitely going to be five to ten chapters, maybe less, but I'm not sure.

Amy47101 does not own pokémon, only her OCs, Vale and Sara.

o.0.o.0.o

The Adventure Saga

Enlightening the Soul

o.0.o.0.o

Silver stared at the water lapping peacefully against the shore of Cherrygrove City as Dayna tended to his arm. It was only dislocated, thank whatever god was watching over him, but the pain only registered slightly when it was popped back into place and put into a temporary sling. The only thing that showed that he was in pain for even a moment was the hiss as the joint was popped back into place. But he continued to stare that the ocean, the place where Vale…

"Silver! Everyone!" he heard a faint voice, then slowly turned his head. Sara was running towards him with Looker behind her. Her hair was plastered to her face, dripping water as Looker's trench coat was around her form. She was glancing over everyone, looking both exhausted and anxious.

"It seems everyone got out okay." Looker said musingly. "When our police force fished Sara out, half drowned, I was seriously worried. What happened?"

"Mask was after the dexholders due to their connections with legends." Silver said simply. "There was no need for Sara, she just got in the way. Mask flooded the place, trying to hide what he could before he initiated phase two."

"Where's Vale?" Sara asked shakily, glancing over their faces again, as if the raven-haired girl would suddenly appear. "She got out, right?"

There was a heavy silence, at least to Silver. He could feel everyone's gaze on him. He didn't say anything.

"… Silver."

That was Leaf. Her voice wasn't accusing. Simply a statement. But he knew what she was trying to say. You saw her last. What happened to Vale?

He slowly stood, and turned to look Sara in the eye.

"Vale chose to stay in the building as it was being flooded. The warp panels were shut down, cutting off the only exit or entrance to that room."

He didn't know how else to say it, so he said it as it was. And he was surprised by how much it hurt him. The only aspect of love or family he ever had as a child was just… gone. Like that. Gone out of her own volition. She… killed… killed herself.

A round of small gasps and sharp inhales echoed throughout the dexholders. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Lyra take off her hat in quiet respect, bowing her head into it, shoulders shaking. Sara's eyes widened, pupils shrinking as her mouth gaped. She bit her lip, bowing her head.

"That… can't…" she was shaking slightly, as if recalling the best friend she had as a child. Silver turned away. He didn't want to look her in the eye anymore. Looker wrapped his arm around a visibly shaken Sara in a fatherly manner.

"We'll send divers down to see if we can recover her body." Looker said, both calmly and comfortingly. Silver honestly felt bad for Sara. Her entire career as an officer began when she wanted to search for her friend. And she failed in bringing her home alive. "What about Mask?"

"As far as I could tell." Fire winced off to the side. "There wasn't anyone there. We were getting attacked by pokémon that seemed almost wild… Like they didn't have a trainer."

"The only people in that building were Mask, Proton, and Vale." Silver said. He thought for a moment. "And an odd hooded boy."

"A hooded boy, you say?" Gary said musingly. Silver nodded. "Did you get his name?"

Silver shook his head in response.

"Why would you want to know?"

"Because on a Gyrados, after another finished thoroughly thrashing Sara and I, there was a hooded boy riding on one and calming them down with a single touch. His hood fell, I think, but I couldn't be sure…"

"Did you catch a glimpse of his face?" Looker asked. Sara, at this point, had her hands covering her face, as if trying to hide her tears to retain the dignity of an officer. Gary ran a hand down his face.

"I don't know. Something green flashed as I got smacked aside again. I lost consciousness after that. So that could have been the water, his features, anything. I didn't realize how hard Gyrados could hit until I got hit by one myself."

A heavy silence.

"Was it bad?"

The watery, muffled, shaky voice came from Sara. She still hasn't raised her head from her hands. No one was sure who she was directing the question to. She lowered her hands, looking at Silver. Even with her hands hiding her face, Silver realized why. Sara wasn't like Lyra when she cried, gently with tears running down her cheeks in almost gentle streams. Sara's entire face and neck was red and blotchy, snot was running from her nose, and her eyes were already bloodshot red. The tears streaming across her face was not helping her appearance. She looked at Silver, and asked again.

"Was it bad? Was Vale's life bad? That bad?"

Silver could feel his gaze soften towards the young woman. Regaining his serious look, however, he simply nodded. Sara sniffled loudly.

"Did you… try to stop her?"

"… I didn't realize what she was planning until it was to late and I couldn't do a thing. I'm sorry."

She fell quiet.

"All we can do now is try to stop Mask from doing any more harm." Silver said slowly. "Vale, while being nothing more than a tool for him to manipulate, seemed to have gotten a reaction from Celebi."

"I remember hearing something about that." Lyra murmured under her breath. "I'm not sure I get it, though. Mask was walking by my cell when he was talking, and he said something about the Illex forest."

"The shrine." Krystal gasped under her breath. "I was in possession of the G.S. ball before I gave it to Sara for protective custody. I found it in the small shrine in the Illex forest."

"Like from the legend!" Lyra exclaimed. "Silver, you heard that legend from that old man in Ecruteak City, right?"

"Where the three heroes prayed to the shrine for help. Celebi, the supposed 'messenger of time', told Ho-oh about their strifes."

"That's where the legend gets a bit iffy." Gary muttered under his breath. "Now, is it true that Celebi turned back time just before the pokémon died, or did Ho-oh raise them from the ashes?"

"Celebi can't turn back time, it can travel through time." Ethan responded. "It's only a minor legend, it doesn't have the power to actually control time."

"That being said," Krystal continued. "It's possible for it to send people back in time to alter the future, or send people to the future in order to see their fate.

"But why would Mask want something that can travel through time?" Lyra murmured under her breath. Silver thought about that too, then it hit him.

"We need to go." he said, standing up and turning. "Everyone, go to the pokémon center, we need to restore, stock up, and go, now."

"Did you remember something?" Looker asked.

"No, I just connected the dots." Silver said. "He plans on going back in time and plucking the dexholders from their cribs. That being said, he's probably considering heading to the future to see dexholders that are yet to be. Whether intentional or not, is it not a coincidence that those who receive a pokédex are associated with a legend in some form or another. And if not, we are all born with some sort of talent for pokémon. He's going to kidnap us before we even know it, and raise us like Vale."

"Wait, you're saying that Mask plans on making an army our out of us?" Ethan exclaimed. "That's…! That's nuts!"

"It has to be impossible." Gary murmured. "He can't break the timeline like that, can he?"

"But Celebi is the messenger of time. He can travel back and forth between time and alter history as he sees fit." Krystal murmured worryingly.

"If… If Mask plans on kidnapping us as babies," Lyra said, waving her arm as if to account for all of them. "What will happen to the us of now?"

"… I'm going on a hunch here." Krystal said slowly. "But if Mask were to successfully snatch us from our cribs… Well, I can't say it's possible for a past version of us to exist in the same plane as the present version. Like…" she trailed off, as if trying to understand something. "Like, say a future version of us travelled back in time, and then the 'current' version of that person died. The future version would cease to exist because our life ended, so, no future. So, what I'm saying is that if the past version of us, being the infant that Mask plans on kidnapping, it would set us on a different course than what we've experienced thus far. That being said, it wouldn't be to far of a stretch to say that we'd…"

Gary seemed to be keeping up with her faster than the other. So he finished her line of thought.

"Cease to exist."

o.0.o.0.o

Hood squinted in the darkness, trying to navigate his way through the flooded base that he called a home for years upon years. Around him, Chinchou illuminated his way. He knew he didn't have a lot of time.

Panicked at that thought, he urged the Gyrados faster. Thankfully, he had taken the time to memorize the bits and pieces of this base, as he had nothing better to do. So he had a mental layout of where Vale most likely was, if the ocean hadn't sucked her into it's unforgiving abyss.

Entering the battle arena, he glanced to the Chinchou, and nodded. The Chinchou immediately called upon his brethren. Soon, the area was alight with the lights of Chinchou. If it weren't such a desperate situation, Hood honestly would have marvelled in the beauty. Amid the darkness of the ocean, the chinchou lit it up like stars in the sky. He wondered if this was how astronauts felt in space.

In the midst of it all, he saw a flicker of dark hair. Below him, he saw Vale, arms outstretched and her hair practically enveloping her. With her arms like that, her eyes closed and a small smile, it looked like she was welcoming death. His heart pattered at the sight. He inhaled on the small breathing apparatus his father had developed, just to make sure it was working right. It was. So why was he feeling at a loss for breath?

Air bubbles drifted from her nose. His mind suddenly kickstarted and his heart jumped in fear. Was she unconscious? Was Silver right in saying he was to late?!

Easing the Gyrados down quickly and gently, so that the pokémon would not thrash her body accidentally, he slowly left the back of the pokémon and reached out. As his fingers just barely brushed her arm, she suddenly jerked, as if startled. She kicked back, staring wide eyed at him, and he practically flung himself back, surprised by her consciousness. His arm lashed out and smacked Gyrados. It took every fiber in his body to not open his mouth, loosing his only means of air, pain wracking his funny bone. Even now, it still hurt!

Shaking his head and ignoring his pain, he turned back, and reached back for Vale. She shook her head, avoiding his arms. This confused him. He tried again. This time, she fell out struggled, pushing him away and kicking away. Just in the perfect lighting of Chinchou, her bangs drifted off her face, the part that she never ever let him see. He inhaled sharply on the breathing device in his mouth, seeing three long, jagged scars marring the left side of her face, dark in contrast to the rest of her skin. One went straight through her eye, and judging by the paler coloration, she had to have limited sight, if any at all.

She moved her head to the right, out of the light, keeping her gaze on him. Then she did something surprising. She opened her mouth, and expelled any air that was left in her.

Hood effectively panicked. He inhaled on the apparatus, expelled it, then kicked towards her. With the lack of air, she wasn't struggling as much this time. To the best of his ability in this underwater environment, he brought her closer and performed mouth to mouth at the best of his ability. Pulling back, he could feel his won lungs burning, but Vale seemed to be awake, yet dazed.

Keeping a firm grip on her arm, he reached out for Gyrados. The pokémon darted over to him. With one arm around Vale, he latched his arm around Gyrados' horn and in an instance, they were shooting towards the surface. Hood could feel his hair pulling at the roots as they moved.

In an almost majestic scene, Gyrados shot out of the water, fully airborn for a moment before she landed with a splash, jetting across the water at an impeccable rate. Hood barely had time to intake on air before they skidded to a halt in shallow water.

"Thank you." he managed breathlessly. Vale was sputtering and coughing at this point, and he was heaving for breath as well. "Thank you, my friend. Tell the Chimchou and the others the same for the assistance. Thank you so very, very much."

As he managed to pull the near-convulsing Vale on shore, the Gyrados let out a roar, then dove back down. At that moment, all of the exhaustion, both physical and emotional, hit him. Everything he did within the last half-hour was the biggest act of rebellion to date.

He's always been good, always listened to his father, always had his trust. He never had a reason to lie, to act against him… And he felt a strange mix of guilt but invigoration. It was like every time he met with Vale, a forbidden act that his father clearly knew of and disapproved of. Except a million times better.

He didn't understand where his guilt was coming from though. Was he supposed to leave her there to die, though? He didn't understand. She hurt pokémon. She hurt people. Her own kind. Her friends. And yet, he, who only met with her a few times, he, who never had a human friend before her… Was it because he was thinking of the few brief, short conversations he ever had with her. The pleasant Vale. The Vale who looked over his horrendous awkwardness. The Vale who seemed to be just as socially troubled as he.

And he… liked that companionship. Just a bit.

"Why would you do that?"

He slowly looked over at Vale. Her hair was plastered to her face, covering the marring he saw earlier, the rest of the straight-laced locks curling up slightly from the exposure to water. She was glaring at him furiously, and he was confused.

"Why, Hood?! Why?!"

"You were drowning… Vale, you were going to die…"

He didn't understand her anger. He didn't understand why she was crying. Her next words struck him to his core, making his stomach lurch.

"I wanted to die!" she snapped back at him. "I wasn't drowning, I was trying to kill myself! Arceus, I just wanted to leave this miserable existence! I didn't want to exist here, not anymore! I'm sick of it!" she slammed her fist into the sand. "I'm sick of it, sick of it, sick of it!"

"...Why?" he asked quietly.

He's heard it before. Those words of wanting to escape life, asking for the release and relief of death. And every time, he'd ask why. He'd always manage to convince them that they were safe now, that everything would be okay. But never… from a human…

As he struggled to think of words to say, a pop from his belt resounded. A small form rolled across the sand, stopping in front of Vale. It unrolled itself from it's ball, and wrapped it's stubby arms around her head. Vale was utterly still.

"He loves you." Hood said gently. "A lot of pokémon love you. Your friends care, Vale. They were crying for you. They want to see you happy, to live. They don't want you to die. And I…" he swallowed. "I don't want that either."

He awkwardly avoided her gaze. Vale looked ready to cry.

"I'm sorry." she was shaking. "But I'm so tired… And I can't fend for myself. I don't have anywhere to go. Hood, if you only knew… If you only knew…"

"It's okay!" he said encouragingly, taking her by the arm and helping her stand. "I mean, it was less than a decade ago where the youngest age you could get a trainers license at age ten. Even now, fourteen is a young age to travel on your own. Even then, I don't know things like that either… And I'm sure that if we go back to Father and explain what is going on, you'll be able to live with us again!"

At that, Vale was silent. Her entire face went pale, and she just stared at him with Sammy cradled in one arm.

"I can't go back there." she said in a quiet, quivering voice. With a more confident tone, she looked him in the eye and spoke. "Hood, you shouldn't go back either, he's manipulating you."

He felt his heart sink for a moment.

"I can't leave." he said simply. "I really can't. In order to accomplish what I want, I need my father's support."

"What is it that you want, Hood? You don't need him to back you up in order to feel validated or whatever. I know I'm not one to talk, but my brother… he told me something. He said that if you could find just one person to support you, then you don't need anyone else. One person, Hood, who could provide all the love and support you'll ever need. I'm just… Hood, whatever you want to accomplish, you don't need your father for that."

"… I'm sorry, Vale, but I do. I need to go back. Father… was always so kind to me. I need to accomplish my goals in order to make him proud. To make the world a better place."

Vale's face dropped.

"Then I suppose this is it." she said clearly, shutting her eyes. "Because I can't go back, Hood."

"Then it is."

There was an awkward tension in the air.

"Fine, then in order to watch over you," Vale held up Sammy. "This little guy will keep you safe and sound."

"Sammy, right?" Hood said cautiously, leaning down to look the ground-type in the eye. "Sammy's your friend…"

"No, Sammy's like my baby. He's someone who's been with me before I came to Mask, and that was a long, long time. So I know he'll watch over you." to emphasize her point, she placed Sammy on his shoulder, his small claws digging into his shoulder as he regained balance. Vale's hand stayed on Sammy's head, gently running over it. "Just because we're parting ways doesn't mean that we can't remain friends. And Sammy will make you laugh, if I remember correctly. Oh, it's been so long."

Hood could feel his heart pulling. He couldn't understand how this girl, who seemed to show such tender love for her pokémon, was the monster that his father described. But inside him, deep down, he felt a sense of betrayal. His father claimed to treat her well, and she claimed to be his friend, but she… Was leaving him. It must have shown on his face, as Vale flinched.

"Hood, don't look at me like that." she murmured. "Please, understand that I can't… I really, really can't go back. This isn't the end of our friendship, please don't think it is."

"Here." Hood said, pulling the third pokéball from his belt. "This pokémon was a pokémon my caregivers gave to me. She watched over me like a mother when they couldn't. If I can't convince you to come back to Father, then at least let her care for you in our place."

"...So innocent." he barely heard her murmur. "Hood, you're so innocent it's almost heartwarming. But in that light, it scares me that you're going back to him."

"I will not abandon my Father or my cause." he responded calmly, almost coldly.

"Are you sure that you don't want to stay? We can travel together, find that person my brother talked to me about… We can learn to survive in this world together."

"As sure as you are about leaving." he replied in a tone even he felt was cold. He didn't intend to be like this to her, but the underlying sense of betrayal was really starting to bug him. It was like times he caught some grunts abusing their pokémon. Why would they join this organization if they did something that went entirely against it?

Vale glanced at the pokéball in her hand, then smiled faintly at him.

"That's completely fine. Because I know your face now, Hood, so I'll be able to spot you in a crowd."

"What…?" Hood reached up towards his face, and it his underlying horror, his hood was down, his hair that curled around his cheeks sticking to his face from the water.

He could feel the back of his neck heat up. His father was always very careful about making sure his face wasn't showing for whatever reason, so he never knew how people would actually react to his face. He felt embarrassed, because this was probably the worst time for her to see his face.

"Oh, don't look like a pokémon in headlights." Vale shook her head. "You don't have anything much to worry about. Not like me." to emphasize her point, her hand brushed the hair hiding her face. She was looking away shamefully. Hood wasn't sure how to respond to that.

"You… like how I look?" he said slowly.

"Yes." Vale smiled at him. His heart pattered for a minute. But he suppressed that feeling and steeled his gaze.

"Vale, I don't know if I'll ever see you again, but I wish you luck in whatever you plan to do."

"I'm going to find you." Vale said confidently as he turned his back on her. "If not to help you see what I know, Hood, then at least to trade back for Sammy. Can you promise me that, at least?"

"I wish you understood me better." Hood said, looking over his shoulder slightly. "Because if you did, you would understand just how much the cause of this organization means to me."

"Hood, you keep bringing up that cause, over and over again." Vale said, shaking her head. "Because as far as I'm concerned… I think I was working without a motive, only by fear and manipulation. Hood, what are you working for? Can you at least tell me that?"

"My Father and I," Hood said slowly, as if contemplating his words before he carefully chose them. "Are striving to make this world a better place. And if you do not agree with my cause… Then I should simply relieve myself of you. That would be…" his voice cracked, then he bit his lip. He then spoke again. "What my Father would approve of."

"So you just plan on cutting me out compltetely."

"Yes."

He heard a small exhale as Vale sighed in defeat. He paused.

"I won't let this be goodbye." Vale said, a whole new determination in her voice. "Hood, we're going to cross paths again. Sometime in the future, I will see you again, and we'll talk. Not about opposing ideologies, not about our choices, but about simple things. We may not understand the emotions of others, and we may not understand society as it is, but to a certain degree, I think we can understand each other. So until we meet again, Hood. Good luck."

Hood was still, refusing to move as he heard her footsteps walking away. Sammy cautiously pawed at his face. Hood gently lifted his hand and patted the pokémon on the head.

"The next time we cross paths, Vale, we will be enemies." he murmured under his breath. "As this world is a painful black and white, and either…" he inhaled, then exhaled, steeling his gaze as he lifted his head. "You are for my cause or you are against it."

o.0.o.0.o

It took almost everything within Dayna's limited power as a nurse-in-training to convince the on-scene doctors to let them move, but at that point Silver was ready to sprint towards the Illex forest. Who knows what damage Mask already managed to cause with that pokémon…

"Silver, are you..."

He looked over and saw Lyra standing there, holding out a paper cup of what he assumed was coffee. She trailed off, nibbling on her bottom lip. He took it without a word, staring at Dayna frantically arguing with the doctors.

"… Gary told me you didn't care about Vale, but the fact that you were waiting for her says otherwise." she quietly sat next to him. "I know what it's like to... loose someone to suicide. And I…"

"I grew up thinking suicide was a weak mans way out." Silver said slowly. "They couldn't deal with life, so they chose to run. They were weak. And at a certain extent, Lyra, I thought the same thing about your father when I heard it was suicide. I was both disappointed and enraged that he was so weak that he chose to leave you behind. And I'm aware that your father was a good man and I'm aware that you loved him. But no matter how insensitive it was of me, I couldn't help but be mad because he chose to leave you behind. And maybe that makes me sound like a prick, but that's what I thought.

"But Lyra, I knew Vale. She was my sister, and I knew, to an extent, what she was going through. And going purely off estimation, she went through fourteen years of that, five of which she spent comforting and loving me. She had no one. She had nothing. And to top it off, she had no idea how to function without an order. And anything she had, any love she felt, she used it to comfort me. She grew up a pawn, and like that, she was knocked aside and discarded. I guess,"

He found himself bowing his head, covering his eyes with his hand.

"… I must sound like a hypocrite now, but I never realized how hard it was until you knew the person. And in a way, she didn't do anything wrong. She just was trying to survive, and she just wanted someone to care."

"I know," Lyra murmured, leaning into him and wrapping an arm around his shoulders, squeezing his arm reassuringly. "I know, Silver. I'm sorry you have to feel this too. I'm so sorry."

He almost snorted. Instead, he let out a weak chuckle.

"Somehow, I expected you to say that." he muttered. Lyra gently guided his head under her chin, and he could feel his shoulders tense. While Lyra had been chipping away at the wall around his heart, he was still not used to such close intimacy. The half-hug, sure, but even in the midst of his grief, he couldn't help but feel painfully tense, awkward, and embarrassed.

"It's never going to get better." Lyra said quietly. "I know that it won't. Every time this day comes around, it'll remind you of her. And everyday, something might remind you of her, and it will feel like your heart is being torn to pieces again. But… But what I learned is that you can't focus on your mistakes, or what you think you did wrong. Because even if you didn't do anything wrong, the guilt will consume you. Vale's life… We need to celebrate it. Because if she had nothing, and what little she had she gave to you, she must have been wonderful. So we need to celebrate that love. But…"

"But we can't do that until we defeat Mask, once and for all." Silver muttered under his breath. "We need to… I need to avenge Vale."

"We're gonna stop this." Lyra assured him.

"I'm not gonna let him take everyone away." he muttered under his breath. "He's not going to succeed. No one else is loosing their childhood, they're not going to end up like Vale."

Lyra hummed something under her breath, what sounded like a hum of agreement.

"Okay." Dayna said calmly, walking up to them. Lyra let him go and Silver sat upright.

"Is Fire and Leaf okay?" Lyra asked hesitantly.

"Leaf has regained consciousness now, she's okay. Fire got beat up pretty bad, mostly bruising though. Everyone can walk fine, and their pokémon are getting healed."

"That's a relief." Lyra sighed, placing a hand to her chest as if to calm her heart.

"The paramedics are just trying to convince Fire to not move around to much, but I don't think that's going to stop Fire." she pushed her bangs off her forehead with an exasperated sigh. "He's a great guy, but he worries me to no end sometimes. He's plenty strong with a good heart, but it's like his common sense isn't there at all!"

"I'm sure that laid-back attitude doesn't help much." Silver muttered.

"It doesn't." Dayna agreed with a small sigh. "He'll laugh off anything and everything. He's probably with those doctors now trying to smile through his pain, convincing them he's fine. He could be knocking on deaths door and he would still be smiling, trying to tell you everything is okay."

She shook her head, then smiled gently.

"But I suppose that is what makes him so endearing. I'll just have to make sure he stays alive each and every time." she glanced over at Silver. "Is your arm okay?"

"It'll be fine." Silver responded simply. "I'll ice it later."

"Keep it in the sling, okay?"

Silver simply nodded.

"What's our next plan of action?" Ethan asked. His hands were in his sweatshirt pockets. Silver guessed he was directing the question towards Dayna, their only senior dexholder, as Fire and Leaf were still in treatment, and Gary was hovering around Leaf.

"We're going to head to Ilex forest." Silver said firmly.

"Well, yes, but what about our plan of attack?" Krystal said with a roll of her eyes, placing her hands on her hips. "Surely Mask is expecting us, right?"

"Maybe Leaf can help us again!" Lyra suggested. "I read that letter, being the Strategizer sounds so cool!"

Silver snorted.

"Look how that turned out." he muttered under his breath.

"Please don't speak badly of her, her strategy was good." Dayna said quietly. "But the problems with strategies are that they can work very well and perfectly, or one flaw can be exploited and the whole thing is ruined."

"Mask is smarter than we took him for." a new voice said. Fire was casually walking towards them, pulling his shirt down over an extremely bandaged stomach. His head popped through the top, then he began pulling on his jacket. "Must have an IQ of 160 or something."

"Wouldn't be surprised." Silver said simply.

"Are you sure you should be walking?" Dayna asked gently. Fire grinned at her.

"Do you think you're gonna stop me?"

Dayna's nostrils flared as she exhaled.

"I'm gonna put you under house arrest once this is all over." Dayna said with clear resolution.

"This still doesn't explain what we're going to do."

"I say we just go with it." Fire shrugged. "I mean, the four of us beat Team Rocket on a whim with little planning, so maybe the same thing could apply here."

"Yes, but there's a different between Team Rocket and Mask." Silver said. "You said it yourself, Mask is way smarter than any villain you've dealt with or any you may face in the future."

"Not to mention absolutely bonkers." Ethan shook his head. "I mean, really! Who kidnaps kids for the purpose of making them into fighting machines, then plans to travel back in time to kidnap more babies!"

"I think this is worse than what we think."

That was Gary's voice this time around. He was approaching them with Leaf lagging behind him.

"I was talking about this with Leaf. I'm beginning to question what would happen if Leaf, Dayna, Fire and myself weren't there to stop Team Rocket three years ago. And with that being said, I'm beginning to worry for our future juniors." he exhaled. "It can't just be a coincidence that two separate sets of dexholders were involved with life-or-death situations involving a villainous team. I'm beginning to worry that this pattern is going to continue, and while I don't want having a pokédex to be associated with being a hero…"

"It's a possibility, isn't it?" Dayna murmured quietly.

"Isn't it a bit to far of a stretch to assume that, though?" Krystal said slowly. "How would we know? All we know is that dexholders seem to be determined by a talent that they have or a talent they gain."

"But isn't it equally weird that we're all connected, in some way, to a legend?" Ethan shot back. There was a heavy silence.

"If, and I'm just saying here," Lyra said slowly. "If our future juniors are connected to future life-or-death situations involving legends or bad guys, and if they aren't there to stop them…"

"We can't be certain of what will happen." Silver said. "Team Rocket was a mob that wanted to make money and control the black market. Should our seniors not be there, they might gain control of important political areas as well as businesses."

"He's right." Gary nodded. "By the time we got involved, Team Rocket was in the midst of controlling Silph Co. and the only casino in Kanto. Plus, Giovanni was a gym leader."

"If the original Team Rocket hadn't been disbanded by Leaf and the others, what would have been of us?" Lyra asked slowly.

"Does it matter? They may have moved to Johto, or we would still have had to have fought Mask." Krystal said.

"This is to confusing." Ethan groaned unhelpfully.

"Considering what happened so far, I'm afraid that these plans may just evolve." Gary said under his breath, as if he hated admitting what he was about to say. "There's so much we don't know outside of Kanto and Johto. The world is so vast and there are pokémon that are so powerful, beyond our imaginations. Plus it doesn't help how unpredictable humans are. All of this could factor into a total calamity because we simply can't predict the human psyche."

"Then that makes everything all the more important!" Lyra exclaimed, balling her fists into her chest. "Because even if the future dexholders are involved in these unknown events, these are just little babies getting taken away from their parents! And if Mask messes with the timeline, we might not even know each other like we do now!" her arm shot out, as if emphasizing her point. "We might not be friends, or even get the chance to know and love each other like we do now! Everything that happens has to happen for a reason, right? I don't wanna loose this, not at all!"

"She's right." Silver said. "We can't let Mask reset history. We need to move now."

"It really is worrisome." Krystal sighed. "Who knows how many babies he's snatched from their cribs. How many lives are faltering right now? How close are we to the same fate?"

"Then let's move!" Ethan said. "Should we fly or teleport?"

"Espeon can teleport!" Lyra said excitedly.

"As can mine." Fire grinned. "You take your friends, I'll teleport as Kantonians over in a jiffy."

"Hopefully you juniors can handle yourself for five minutes without us." Gary said arrogantly.

"You'll be fine." Dayna smiled reassuringly. Leaf stepped forward, standing across from Lyra.

"Good luck." she muttered. Lyra gaped her mouth open, then latched onto Silver's arm.

"Did you hear that, she wished me luck! Leaf Green wished me luck!"

Since Silver heard Leaf talk a good amount before this, those two words didn't mean anything to him, but considering that Lyra was an overwhelmingly huge fan, those two words probably made her absolutely elated.

Before Lyra could any further explode from pride and happiness, her Espeon waved her tail, the gem on it's head glowing. Then, with a flash of light, they disappeared from their senior's sights.

o.0.o.0.o

Whelp, and the next chapter is next. If anyone is interested in Vale's soon to be introduced design and profile is currently on my deviantart, under the name AmytheEeveeLover. Along with that is some other art, primarily Fire Emblem art, that is in my gallery. If anyone is interested, do check it out!

Amy47101 signing off! ^.^