Part 40

OlivineCity

Battle Dome

"Have you guys seen Blake?" Grace asked as she approached Robbie and Matt who shook their heads.

"No, I haven't seen him yet." Matt replied.

"I gave Mari a call. She said she was with Blake and they were on their way to the Battle Dome like an hour ago." Robbie explained.

"An hour ago…" Grace muttered, glancing around the lounge that was still packed with people. She had a vague idea of what Mari looked like, but to find her in this crowd was the challenge. "Do any of you see her?"

Robbie and Matt looked around the room as well before Robbie spotted the girl near the entrance, struggling to watch the news report like the other occupants. Squeezing her way through the crowd, Grace made her way over to Mari who greeted her with a wave before the two of them left the lounge to speak in a more comfortable environment.

"Mari, do you have idea where Blake is?" Grace asked, looking toward the girl who perked up at the question. Now she realized that she had lost track of Blake after entering the Battle Dome lounge.

"The last time I saw him was when we first got here. We saw everyone in the lounge so we decided to see what was going on." Mari began. "After that I got sucked into the room and lost track of Blake. I haven't seen him since then."

Grace looked down, trying to figure out if she should be worried about Blake or not. He could be somewhere in the Battle Dome at this very moment, but the fact that the news was broadcasting something about New Bark Town made her second guess her first conclusion. Blake was from New Bark Town, and Grace felt confident that Blake must have taken off to go investigate the situation there.

If Blake did travel to New Bark Town, Grace was sure that he was bound to meet up with something bad. She could only assume that a town disappearing off the map in an instant had to do with the Dark Crests and the Storm.

"We have to get to New Bark Town."

11/22/0046/Late Morning

Route 29

Blake rested on the back of his trusty Salamence who was currently flying at top speed toward the New Bark Town. The journey had taken two entire days, but by using the map on his Pokedex, Blake managed to stay on course the entire time.

Salamence was finally back to normally, and when he had released it from its Poke-ball two days before, it had no knowledge of its actions. Blake decided to leave it at that, pleased with the fact that he could freely use Salamence again. Since then the two of them had been in the sky. A majority of the trip had been done by flying, but when they stopped for Salamence to rest, Blake continued to move on foot so as not to waste any time.

Now the two of them were closing in on New Bark Town, or what was left of it.

'Is that it…?' Blake asked himself as he saw the grassy green fields of Route 29 turn completely black. In fact, not just the grass, everything looked as though the life had been sucked out of it. "Slow down Ryuu."

The dragon reduced its speed as they entered the skies above the dark plains. The scent of a grassy field was gone. The skies had become cloudy.

Salamence continued to float as the black plains continued for a while before Blake caught sight a single structure in the distance.

'What's that?' Blake asked himself before pointing it out to Salamence. "Ryuu, let's land there."

Salamence gave Blake a nod in reply before it began to its decent, coming to a soft landing outside of the gate of a building that was all to familiar to Blake. There was sign on the gate that was tilted sideways and worn out that read 'New Bark Town Orphanage'.

"What happened?" Blake asked himself as he jumped off of Salamence's back before returning it to its Poke-ball with a quick thanks for its help. Give the gate a soft shove, Blake found that it wouldn't budge at all. Using more force this time, Blake still found that it was firmly planted in its position, so he resorted to jumping over the fence to enter his old stomping ground.

Slowly walking up toward the front porch of the building, Blake could remember his last conversation with Lola before he left on his journey. But as he placed on foot on the first step of the porch, the wood snapped under his weight.

"It looks like no one has been here in ages." Blake noted out loud, wondering how stable the rest of the porch could be. Tossing backpack onto the porch itself, Blake found it was more stable than the steps. Bypassing the steps with a small jump, Blake collected his backpack from the floor before advancing toward the entrance of the orphanage.

Taking a hold of the door knob, Blake gave it a twist but the knob popped out of its place. Blake could hear a clang from the other side of the door.

'It really does look like no one's has been here in a while.' Blake noted, looking back at the poor condition of the front porch. Blake slammed his shoulder into the door after remembering how stubborn the gate was, but his surprise, it broke right of its hinges as Blake came into contact with it.

Blake went tumbling into the orphanage, coming a stop in front of the staircase that led up to the rooms on the left side of the building.

"What the…?" Blake looked around at the aged building. It was a dusty mess. The floor boards were rotting. The paintings on the walls had faded as if several decades had gone by. "What happened?"

Blake rose to his feet, the floor creaking beneath him. The first thing he did was rush up to the second floor, checking each of the rooms. It looked as though the rooms had been touched in ages.

"Hey, is anybody here?" Blake called out, hoping that someone would answer him. In reply though, Blake only received the piercing screech of a Fearow which sent a shiver down his spine.

Blake whirled around, searching for the voice, but he could not find the source. Racing out the room he had been standing in, Blake made his way to the cafeteria next, finding that it was completely vacant as well. Spotting the balcony he would use to enter the cafeteria every morning while he was living in the orphanage, Blake sprinted up the staircase to return to his own room.

Bursting into his room, Blake found that his room, and his room only appeared to be in use. The paint wasn't peeling, the floor was polished and the room didn't smelt nice compared the rest of the house. But before he could allow himself to relax, Blake dropped to one knee clutching his head as he felt the pain of a splitting headache.

'Come up to the attic'. This command was spelled out on the wall above his bed. Blake looked up at the words through one eye, and he felt a shiver run down his spine for the second time since he had arrived. Something was definitely wrong…

Rising up to his feet, Blake leaned against the wall for support as he made his way out of his room. If he wanted an answer, it seemed as though the attic would be the location of what he desired.

As he moved down the hall, the pain from the headache only intensified, to the point where Blake would stop himself to massage his temples. This did little to relax t he pain, but Blake refused to turn back. New Bark Town had been wiped off the map, and the orphanage was one great big mystery. He had to many questions and he couldn't leave without any of them being answered.

Reaching the staircase that would taken him up to the third floor, Blake slowly scaled the stairs. As he came to the top of the staircase, Blake's eyes narrowed as he scanned the hallway. It was much colder up here compared to the last floor.

Continuing forward, there was only one more staircase separating him from the attic. Just a little bit farther. Nearing the finally staircase, Blake decided to go the incline all in one go but he paid the price for this when he made it to the attic. It felt like he had been hit in the head by a charging Tauros.

"It's about time you got here Blake."

Blake's eyes became wide as he heard this voice.

"Lola?" Blake looked up, but he was greeted by a sight he never thought he would.

It was a Lola. And she was holding hands with the one person Blake still scorned.

"Alan!" Blake snapped, rising to his feet. He could ignore this headache. "What are you going here?"

"I have some good news Blake, Alan and I made up." Lola exclaimed happily, but Blake gaze was firmly planted on the man who had deserted this orphanage many years ago, leaving Lola to handle everything on her own. Alan gave Blake a smile as well. A crooked one.

"You're seriously going to trust him after what he did to everyone?!" Blake shouted her, pointing at Alan.

"Blake, please calm down." Lola began as Alan stepped toward him. Blake instinctively took a step back, settling against the wall.

"Come on Blake, I was waiting to apologize specifically to you." Alan said, only to be interrupted by Blake.

"Don't apologize to me, apologize to all of the kids here who would go to bed without dinner because you weren't here." Blake hissed at him with a dark glare.

"Why would I apologize to a bunch of illusions?" Alan muttered.

"Illusions?" Blake repeated the last word of Alan's previous question. "What do you mean?"

"Isn't it obvious Blake. Look around you. This place hasn't been touched in decades." Alan began, watching as Blake took some time to examine the room. Blake had to agree though. There was something wrong with the orphanage he had left several months ago compared to the one he returned to.

"What did you do to the orphanage Alan?!" Blake snapped at him. "Where is everyone?!"

"They never existed." Alan replied.

"What?"

"He's right Blake. I'm sorry to say, but all of those kids you grew up with weren't real people." Lola added.

"You know what, let's just get straight to the point." Alan said, raising his left arm into the air. His Crest lit up in its usual dark color, but Blake's eyes widen with surprise as Lola did the same.

"No." Blake said in a whisper before Lola's wrist lit up in a dark color that matched Alan's. One red star and one blue star burst into the attic from above, the intense light coming from their body cooling down after a few moments.

Floating beside Alan was a Latios.

Floating beside Lola was a Latias.

"You're…a Dark Crest?" Blake asked as he began to slide down against the wall, unable to stand any longer. His headache took priority again. Placing a hand against his forehead, Blake grinded his teeth together, trying to distract himself from the pain. But nothing was helping this time.

"Yes Blake..." Lola began, motioning to her Crest. "This is why the orphanage is in such a state. It was all an illusion. In fact, New Bark Town has been nothing but an illusion as well. The people of Johto recognized it as a backwater town, but travelers rarely passed through, only stopping to visit Professor."

"Your childhood Blake, it was nothing but an illusion. You spent all of those years growing up in an illusion that Latias had created." Alan explained a with a twisted smile. "Everything that happened here-"

"Shut up!" Blake roared, slapping the floor with both of his hands. He couldn't take it anymore. His headache had gotten ten times worth with this new fact. It had only been a few moments, but Blake's brain had gone into overdrive trying to contemplate all of this.

The one person he had trusted during his time at the orphanage was a Dark Crest. And a conniving one at that. Not only had she been lying to him from the very beginning, but she turned his entire life into a lie as well.

What was the truth then? Who could he trust if his figurative mother had turned everything into a lie? Was his journey a farce as well?

Blake felt his right hand slip off the side of the staircase, this weight imbalance causing him to tip over. Blake only hit seven or eight of the thirteen stairs, but he was in a daze when he finally reached the bottom. His entire world was spinning, and the edges were beginning to fade away into the darkness.

Alan and Lola looked down at Blake's unmoving body from the top of the staircase. They could conclude that he was unconscious now.

"Good work Lola, Sander will be happy." Alan commented.

"The King will be of no use to Sander once we unseal Abyss Arceus. Once that's over we'll finally be able to head over to Hoenn."

"I can't wait."

Chapter 40.

Short chapter, I know. Sorry about that, but now we're heading toward what will probably be the biggest chapter of the story, so I wanted the build up to be appropriate rather than rushing straight toward it. Boy I'm excited now since we're moving towards all of the stuff I had been promising you guys like twenty chapters ago.

Anyway, what did you think of this chapter? Confusing? Surprising? Tell me what you felt.

So peace out all! Next update is on the way! :D