A/N: Well, I'm glad I got this one up - maybe I shouldn't have yet, since I'm not really happy with it, but I'm pretty sure if I don't throw this one up now, I'd end up scrapping it. And that would take longer - which is bad, when you write off the top of your head. Ideas fade out, and such. Either way, it's up now. I do want to know if you all have any suggestions, things you've noticed that don't match up, any improvements you think I can make. Now, my semi-long-winded note is over... so yeah. Read on!

It didn't take a Kadabra to know that Darkrai had lied to Dave... or at the least, he had held something back. And as I helped pack up the small campsite so that we could leave, I somehow felt that he knew that I had noticed. That worried me - obviously, he was planning something, but I could only guess at what. And I could still sense the strange 'waves' disturbing the Aura around us... yet I couldn't determine the source.

Somewhat more worrying were the sounds I'd heard during the night; distant roaring, the faintest of tremors after at least one far-off explosion... the sounds of a battle. Of course, I'd not been the only one up - our accompanying Legend never seemed to sleep, either. He just... stood still throughout the night, back to all of us. It was like he was watching for something.

"What is it, Aurora?" I nearly dropped the rolled up tent with how fast I turned around. David - my trainer, not Dave - was standing behind me, his borrowed sleeping bag rolled up and over his shoulder. "I know when something is bothering you." I hesitated for a moment, and nodded. He glanced around until he saw Darkrai, still in the same position as last night - floating, now, without his stilt-like legs, but still under the same tree with his back to us. "Is it about him?"

I nodded again, sighing. Making sure to 'speak' only to him, I said "He knows far more than he says... I don't like it." As strange as it was talking badly of a Legend, I simply didn't trust him. "And there is something else..."

I was interrupted by Dave calling "We've got to get moving. Now, who's up for a drive?" I looked back to see him leaning against the side of a large vehicle - I think it was a truck. "Our tired, combat-ready pals even gave me the key!" He had an obviously forced smirk as he shook a small cluster of keys.

It took little time to pack everything into the expansive back of the truck - it took slightly more to decide who would ride where. Ultimately, Dave would drive and David would sit beside him, in the front. For the purpose of staying out of sight Ghost, Darkrai and myself were forced to ride with the disassembled campsite. I had no issue with the Scyther - we seemed to have put our initial fights aside by now. But Darkrai... he worried me.

The first several minutes were filled with actually quite a lot of noise - primarily the emphatic cursing of Dave's... lack of skill, when it came to driving. At one point, it became apparent that we were being heard even through the truck, because Dave shouted "Oh, shut it back there! I've not exactly driven a truck before! Best I got was a lesson from... ah, hell - whoops, that's reverse..." Luckily, it didn't take too long for him to get the hang of it... mostly.

After that, we went quite a while without saying a word, the only sound being the rumbling of the vehicle along the road. Finally, Ghost broke the silence. "A'ight, so what's got you annoyed?" the Scyther asked, his very casual tone still seeming at odds with how he appeared. "Doesn't take a Psychic to pick up on that." Before I could respond, however, Darkrai surprised me by doing so himself.

"It is very simple - I lied, and she knows this perfectly well." He said it so... plainly, as if it were nothing. Floating there, near the front end of the holding area, he almost seemed like he didn't care. "However, that was out of necessity. If I explained everything, for one I highly doubt he would believe me. But aside from that, it is not my place to tell him. I am here as a guard of sorts, nothing more."

If not for the fact that standing up right now would probably send me staggering against a wall, I personally would've flat-out punched him for his indifference. "What was Arceus thinking, sending you..." I would have continued that line of thought, but Darkrai finally seemed to lose his cool.

"I did not choose this for myself, Aura Wielder!" I actually flinched at his change in voice - he sounded somehow calm, quiet, sinister and enraged all at once. And what he called me was a long-forgotten name for my kind, now only used when referring to legends among us. Whatever his reason for using that name, his tone shifted back almost immediately. "You do not have to like me - you do not even need to trust me. But you do need to listen to me. I am not your enemy. Your... friend, seems to understand that."

For another several minutes, none of us said anything. Darkrai had his back to us, I was thinking over what he had said, and Ghost... he was simply resting from what I could tell. Then I heard two identical, almost synchronized shouts from Dave and David. "SHIT!" I had almost never heard David curse before, which meant something just went horribly wrong. Almost as if to confirm that, I heard a loud, electric-sounding crackle and the truck came screeching to a halt.

Immediately I forced open the door holding us in and rushed out to see what had happened. As I came around the vehicle, I had to stop and just stare - the road had been replaced! It was like a chunk of a forest had been ripped out, and thrown in where this area had been. Bright green grass stood where there had been a stone path, and directly in front of us was a full-grown tree, surrounded by bushes. Idly, I recognized a few of the berries growing on them - Oran, if I had it right.

But it was still incredibly strange - I expected an attack, or some sort of danger... not a tree and some grass. Apparently David had the same thoughts, because he just asked "… Is that a tree?"

Almost as if it was a signal, a small spider-like Pokémon poked its head out of one of the bushes - it took me a moment to realize it was a Spinarak. "… you know what? With how crazy everything is right now, I am not surprised." Dave muttered, shaking his head.

I felt a sharp tap on my shoulder and turned to see Ghost, pointing off to the side. "Hey, you seeing this?" I looked where he was pointing, and very nearly froze. For just an instant, I swear I saw a small, pink... creature, floating plain as could be in the air. But when I blinked, it was gone - by the sharp gasp I heard behind me, I was not the only one.

The only thought in my head right then was 'Was that... Mew?'

-Hall of Origin-

"What... do you mean... it is gone?!"

I knew this wasn't going to end well when I came to tell Dialga, but I couldn't exactly let a major part of the world's disappearance go unnoticed. "I told you - the Tree is gone. It's just... vanished, like Spear Pillar and the Unown's ruins. All that's left are those reality breaks."

He let out a frustrated growl and stomped once, cracking the floor. "And Mew? The Regi golems?"

That... was another bit of bad news. "I... don't know. They've vanished entirely, so they could be anywhere. But considering everything else going on... well, I'd bet my life they're in the other world." I wouldn't say it, but I honestly thought they had the right idea - it didn't look like we were gonna last long over here.

"Fantastic... first Mewtwo vanishes, then Giratina apparently lost her mind... and now those four are gone! Do you have any idea how unstable everything is getting!?" I just gave him a blank look for a moment, and he sighed. "Yes, of course you do. It is your job to know that."

I nodded. "Yeah, and if you want my experienced opinion on the situation? We've lost."

"Palkia!" He seemed shocked that I'd even thought about saying something like that. Before he could continue, I cut him off with a growl.

"No, for once shut up and listen." I snapped, glaring at him. "I'm not blind - Arceus hasn't been seen once through all of this. He's not saving us. I can't keep everything together forever, and I know you're coming to the end of your ability too." I could tell by his silence and how he looked away that I was right. "As much as I'd love to say otherwise, the world's dying. I don't want to die with it."

Dialga sighed again, and I felt everything 'jump' ahead slightly, like things were going by faster. "You are right... I could not hold the time flow much longer anyway." He glanced back at the 'door' to my area of the Halls, where we were. "Should we tell the others? I believe they deserve to know the full truth."

I knew it would cause all kinds of chaos, but he was right. "Yeah... yes, I think they ought to know, too. Call a meeting - I know you can do that - and we'll tell them all at once." With a silent nod he walked out, passing through the fog-covered exit into the main Hall. After a second, I looked back to the massive orb of energy suspended in the middle of the 'room'. Like my brother, I had my own representation of my domain... and I could feel the strain it was under.

Even as I watched bits of the ruby-colored orb were fading away, showing the literal deterioration of reality. At the same time, I had to bring up a pillar of 'spatial-stone' as I called it, to keep myself standing. My body had finally started mirroring reality's state again... and it was agonizing. 'Gonna have to thank him soon... I might not get the chance if I wait too long.'

-Real World-

"Where are we going?" David asked for probably the fifth time since we left that... patch of green in the middle of a road... sounds a lot weirder when you say it out loud. And for the fifth time since then, I had no idea. At this point, I was just driving forward. I opened my mouth to say as much, when I heard something oddly familiar over the rumbling of the truck.

"Unown..."

It was drawn out, echoing, and faint over the engine, but I recognized the 'call' - after all, Pokémon always speak in their names, or parts of it at least. When I saw one float past the truck, I groaned "Oh, great... now what do they want?!" I had an issue with the flying letters, so sue me - they dropped off that tablet, and since then everything's gone to hell. But you know what they say - ask, and you shall be screwed.

The first thing that tipped me off to something being wrong was the engine - in that it stopped. The truck rolled forward a few more feet, then came to a halt. "Unown..." There it was again - that eerie drone. This time, though, something... a bit more spectacular than a dead engine happened. Before I knew it, there was a swarm of the rune-like Pokémon circling the truck, just droning on with that same call over and over.

"Those are Unown... why are they here?" I glanced over at David and shrugged. I didn't have an answer - nothing beyond 'to make my life hell', anyway.

But something was changing - the Unown weren't drifting aimlessly, there was a pattern. Now, I'm no archeologist or... I dunno, a linguist or anything, but I -AM- a nerd, and these were still Pokemon. Didn't take me long to put a letter to each symbol - 'Move... forward... into... the... beginning...' That 'message', if it was intentional, kept drifting along in front of the windshield. 'But what does it mean?'

"… no, that couldn't be it."

I turned to my lookalike again, since he seemed to have some idea of what they meant. "What? What d'you think they're talking about?" I know letters don't talk, but it's the same bloody thing. His response came as... actually a lot like what a professional might say.

"The only thing known about Unown... is they are ancient. Before we were ever training Pokémon to work alongside us. They would only 'talk' about something they knew... something just as old." He paused for a moment, almost like he was waiting for me to figure it out myself. When I didn't, he sighed. "The only thing that I can think of... is the Tree of Beginning. But it makes no sense... that is said to be somewhere in the Kanto region."

As we both fell quiet, trying to puzzle that out, the Unown were up to something of their own. "Unown..." The rune Pokémon began circling faster all of a sudden, actually starting to whip up dust around the truck. After a few seconds, each one gained a white glow to it, surrounding the truck in a big white orb of light.

I noticed the air had some kind of... charge to it, and that set off a hundred red flags. "Everyone, brace yourselves!" At the same time, a distant roar echoed through the air... and it was getting closer, fast. 'Whatever you're doing, hurry it up...' As the glow started getting brighter, something clicked in my mind, and suddenly it felt a lot more... crowded. The last thing I noticed before the light blocked out everything was a single of the rune Pokemon floating over to the window, and I heard two words:

"We... help."