SALIENTIA'S INN (UPPER FLOOR), LATE AFTERNOON

Looking through an assortment of leaves, Salientia frowns. The number of herbs she usually has have dwindled down to a small fraction of what they were. Looking at a map on the wall next to her, she searches for the nearest area with an abundance of plant life. The nearest vegetation of any kind is the Windell Forest at the base of Mt. Meteora.

"They don't have many herbs or berries this time of year, so I wonder…" She thinks aloud.

On the map, she comes to a location to the far east called Landlove City. She remembers it as a city that grows rare seeds, such as Reviver Seeds, or the highly restricted Allure Seed. She shakes her head, not having any use for rare items or recreational herbs.

"Though they might have more of what I need."

She picks up a basket of newly picked berries and sets them on a counter next to her. Picking a chesto berry up, she tries to turn on the water to clean it off. To her dismay, no water comes out.

"How lovely," She says unenthusiastically.

Putting the berry down, she walks toward the room nearest to her. Inside, Roselyn lays sound asleep on her side. Despite how peaceful she looks, Salientia can tell that her mind is partially damaged from Frost's magic. Though she's tried everything to cure the Sylveon's brain damage, she knows that there is only one way to fix it that she doesn't have access to.

From the bottom floor, she hears a tap on her front door. I don't mind company, but I don't think I have enough materials to treat anyone right now. Even if I don't, I'm still obligated to open the door for anyone who might need my help.

"Come in!" She calls

A moment later, she hears the door open with a gentle push. She recognized the light, quadruped footsteps making their way up the stairs. Without turning around to look at the pokemon, she smiles.

"How is she?" The pokemon asks.

"She's in a coma, and I don't have what I need to heal her."

"Well what do you need? I'm sure I have it."

She turns to him and shakes her head.

"Blade, I know you are skilled in what you do, but I doubt you'll be able to find one of the ingredients. See, the first thing I need is easy. That would be persim berries. The second thing I need, however, are enigma berries."

The leafeon's eyes widen slightly.

"Those… can only only be found from a darkrai."

She nods.

"But…"

When he looks at Roselyn, Salientia notices a dreadful look on his face.

"You know, you two look the same age."

He looks at her, "What are you getting at?"

"Well, I was thinking that you might like her a little bit."

Blade shakes his head, "No, it's nothing like that. It's just, I've only known her for two days, but in that short time period, she's come to trust me. Even though she's a little naive, she's one of the few friends I've made."

"I see."

She notices a spark of determination in his eyes.

"We're leaving to the mountain tonight with the Relic Master. When we do, I'll take Rose with me and see if I can track down a darkrai. I'll do whatever it takes."

Salientia smiles at him. He's young, but I can tell he'll do his best to contribute to those around him.

LIGHTNINGROD PALACE, LATE AFTERNOON

Zapdos waits impatiently by the door as Rook's rhythmic footsteps approach the door. Though he only hears the Bisharp, he detects two other pokemon following behind him. He notices them getting close, and on an impulse, he pulls the door open before they come in the room.

He takes a breath, "Finally."

Flying to the other side of the room, he looks out the window. He then notices something strange at the edge of the city. Toward the northeast, the water reservoirs next to the Lightning River are backed up and overflowing into the lower end of the city. Next to him, his assistant notices the problem as well.

"Braravi, go take care of that, I have some business to attend to."

The Aggron nods then exits the room. Zapdos turns around and looks at the three other pokemon in the room. Giving them a slightly annoyed look, he sighs.

"I've told you time, and time again, I'm not giving Bone Clan to you. No matter how many times you asks, and no matter how many deals you try to make the answer is no."

Sepullen eyes him, "Rook has already relayed this message to me, so why call me here repeat it?"

"So that you'll stop trying to make deals with me. I cannot stress to you how much I'm tired of you asking. I know others think of you as relentless, and a pokemon not to be trifled with, but this is the one thing you are not going to get."

There is silence for a moment.

"Do you know why they say those things about me? It's because I have ways of getting what I want. That being said, I have one last deal for you."

Rook shoots forward and extends his blade dangerously close to Zapdos's neck.

"This is my proposal; your life, for the clan."

The lightning bird starts crackling with electricity.

"If you're going to make an attempt on my life, you of all people should know not to send the steel-type."

Sepullen extends his own blades and Rapid Spins toward Zapdos. He attempts to block, but the claydol's blades shred into his wings. From beside him, Rook slashes at his side and back. Enduring these attacks, Zapdos flies upwards and prepares to use Thunder. Seeing this, Sepullen calls back to Aubadia.

"NOW!"

The solrock's eyes glow red as she takes hold of the bird with Psychic. Zapdos' electricity disappears in an instant. Aubadia levitates him down to the floor only a few meters away from Sepullen.

"Now, I'll give you this one chance. Deal or no deal?"

To his surprise, Zapdos bursts out into a severally mocking laughter.

"Did you not hear me before, Relic Master, I said don't ask me again."

Shaking his head, Sepullen says, "Then let it be said that on this day, I have killed yet another legendary pokemon."

Sepullen moves forward with his blade out and puts them up to Zapdos' neck. All of the sudden, the building shakes and a pipe on the ceiling busts and sprays water onto most of the room. Zapdos smirks as his feathers are drenched in water. The Relic Master attempts to move backwards, but is electrocuted when electricity is Discharged over most of the room.

The lightning bird becomes distracted when a massive shifting sound moves throughout the city. Looking out the window, he finds that a large crack slowly moves up the side of the dam in front of the reservoirs. In another moment, the dam breaks and a large magnitude of water is released into the city.

He looks back to see Rook, Sepullen, and Aubadia Teleport away. After a moment, he feels the sharp pains of his wounds flare up as he collapses onto the ground.

"I'll make it, I know I will."

He spits up blood with a horrid choking sound, then loses consciousness.

STEEL CITY WALL (NORTH END), LATE AFTERNOON

Four figures look down at the city from atop the wall. Only meters away from them is the collapsing dam. Lyle looks at it with a small amount of concern.

"Should we really be this close to a collapsing structure?" He asks the empoleon next to him.

"Nonsense," She says. "The crack won't reach this far up."

"Are both of you done yet? We've been here all afternoon," A furret asks.

"Be patient, Moon, preparations for these things take time."

Moon looks next to him at a shiny flygon.

"Easy for you to say, you're used to waiting for things."

The flygon looks at him with a blank look and says nothing. Lyle looks over to the empoleon, just as her eyes start to glow a brighter purple. The water from the Lightning River behind them begins to ripple and contort. The empoleon smirks deviously as the water from the flood below them moves rapidly toward Lightningrod Palace.

"Be prepared, but don't destroy it quite yet, Myro. I want to have a word with Zapdos before we start."

She looks at him in fake disappointment, "It's just like you to delay my fun, isn't it?"

Ignoring her, he turns to the Flygon, "Pyros, you're up."

"Right."

Pyros flares his wings and dives off the wall. Lyle jumps down with him and wraps his arms around the Flygon's neck. Moon watches as they fly towards the center of the city. He sighs, then curls up in boredom.

"Ah, great. There's nothing here for me to do, and I'm stuck here with this destruction maniac."

Annoyed, Myro points her wing at him, "If you could die, I'd enjoy killing you."

"Yeah, yeah," He says sleepily. "If don't mind, I'm going to take a nap until things get interesting."

Staring forward, she says, "Oh it will be interesting, you just wait and see."

STEEL CITY STREETS (NORTHEAST SIDE), LATE AFTERNOON

"Are you sure you don't want me to -INTERROGATE- ask someone directions?" I ask.

Branna shakes her head in annoyance. She looks intently at the street name with curiosity, then turns to me and asks, "We're on B7 Street. That's close to where we need to go, right?"

Frost sighs, "No, the square is on C4 street. This city is built like a grid, how did you manage to get us lost?"

"I would have a much easier time telling which direction we're going if it wasn't constantly raining."

"Strange," Djinn says. "It usually does not rain like this in the city."

I flinch from a particularly large drop of rain hitting my eye. Looking up, I see that he's right, the rain pours down harder then any desert should.

Do you feel it? Do you see what's behind the rain?

"Quiet," I say under my breath.

Looking back, Branna asks me, "What was that?"

"Nothing."

Oh, but is something. I know you can feel it.

I do my best to ignore the voice. Instead, I walk closer to Branna and peer at the map. For a moment, I don't realize what I'm looking at. When it hits me, I chuckle in amusement.

The serperior turns to me and asks, "What's so funny?"

"Nothing, it's just that you're holding the map sideways."

She gives me a blank stare, then looks at the map. A moment later, she rotates it, then bursts out in laughter.

"I can't believe I've been such a moron this whole time."

From behind me, Frost sighs and shakes her head.

"Branna, can't you just give me the map? You can't even read half of it."

She shakes her head stubbornly, "If I'm going to be our team leader, then I'll have to get used to navigating again. Besides, I'm going to show Sepullen that I can do more then he thinks I can, and I'm going to do it my way."

"Fair enough," The froslass says.

I'm about to say something, when I notice a shadow of something passing over us. Looking up, I find a flygon passing over us. On its back is Lyle.

"That can't be good," Frost comments.

"I think it would be best if we move elsewhere," Djinn warns.

"Why is that?" Branna asks absentmindedly while looking at the map.

"Look in front of us."

To my surprise, coming up the street is a considerably sized deluge of water. I stare at it for a moment, before panicking internally. Branna continues looking at the map. I watch her take an apple out of her bag and bite down on it.

"Can it wait, I think I almost have this figured out," She says.

With an impatient look on her face, Frost effortlessly lifts Branna and Djinn off the ground. Startled, Branna drops her apple, but holds on to the map firmly. At first, she looks at the fruit with a look of annoyance, but jolts in surprise when it's washed away by the flood. The Frost sets her and Djinn on the roof of a nearby building. Suddenly, the serperior goes wide-eyed and looks over the edge. A relieved look washes over her face when she sees me dangling on a broken wire. It takes her a moment to realize I'm being electrocuted and barely holding on with one arm.

As soon as she realizes this, she extends her vine down and wraps it around my body. She pulls me up, then sets me down next to her. For a moment, the glow in my eyes doesn't shine. The three of them watch in anticipation for me to get up.

"I've had about enough problems today, I don't need this one."

Frost floats over to me and strikes me with her hardest punch. I recoil in pain as she pile drives me into the sheets of metal the citizens call 'shingles'. The froslass withdraws her fist and moves away. I lay still for a moment, before slowly picking myself up. As soon as my eyes start to glow green, Branna rushes forward and coils around me in excitement.

"At first I thought you were dead," She says in relief.

I grunt, "Yeah well, I guess that comes with getting -murdered- punched by an unnaturally strong pokemon, after getting electrocuted while drenched in water."

Frost rolls her eyes, "It's nothing to lose your head over. You may not be able to defeat me yet, but you're pretty durable."

"So what now?" Branna asks. "We can't follow the map anymore, now that the streets are flooded."

"We couldn't follow the map anyways, because you don't know how to read it," The froslass reminds her.

"Now I can."

She looks at Branna in surprise, "You learned it that fast?"

"Yeah, it was actually really easy. There's a key on the side that tells me the footprint runes equivalent of the Unown Script."

"Wow," She says. "But anyways, we're going to go after Lyle. I don't know what he's doing here, but I honestly don't care."

Frost is about to fly towards the palace, but I stop her.

"How will Branna and I get to -our deaths- the palace?"

She gives me a sly smirk that makes me wonder if I should rephrase my question.

"I'll carry Branna, but I'm going to throw you there."

I glare at her, then sigh, "Just don't miss."

"What will I do?" Djinn asks.

Frost looks at him, "Depends, do you want to fight, or do you want to go back to the inn?"

He thinks for a moment, then says, "I don't like fighting unless it is necessary..."

Looking around at the destruction caused by the flood, he continues, "...And right now, it seems that fighting is the only option. I have no doubt that the dam did not break on its own."

"Then climb on my back, we have no time to waist."

The froslass suddenly sweeps me off my feet and swings my around. After several rotations, she lets go. I watch the buildings below me dissolve in a blur, as I fly toward the Lightningrod palace.

LIGHTNING ROD PALACE, EVENING

"How pitiful," Lyle says in a mocking tone. "That you, a Legendary Pokemon, would be brought down by a just a mere copycat of what I was fifteen years ago."

He looks down at Zapdos' bleeding body and grunts, "It's not like you can hear me, but it really is a shame. Though, we can't have you die just yet, so I'm going to fix you up."

Coming closer to the lightning bird, he sets his hand on Zapdos' chest. He spits up blood as the Red Orb in his chest activates. A moment later, the birds wounds fade, but only enough to stop the bleeding. Immediately, Zapdos jolts awake and looks around. He tries to stand when he notices Lyle and Pyros in the room with him. He sighs as he falls back onto the ground.

"Lyle… I presume?" He says through choked breaths.

"Zapdos, we know that there is a girl in this city who has a certain quark in her DNA. Tell us where she is," Lyle commands.

Zapdos looks at him with an incredulous look, "What… do you… take me for?"

The blaziken frowns, "Moon was right, he really is a stubborn one. Well, we'll have to fix that."

He picks the lightning bird up by his wing, and drags him over to the edge of the room. Strengthening his grip, he slams Zapdos into the wall with enough force to make a dent in the solid iron slabs. Picking him up to look at him, Lyle is surprised to see a faint smile on the bird's face.

"Did you… really think… I would go out… after one impact?" He asks.

In anger, Lyle takes him by the back of the neck and repeatedly slams his body into the wall. After a moment, he stops to catch his breath. Even more shocked then the last time, Lyle sees Zapdos break out into a wider smile.

"Like... I told you… no amount… of pain… can make me… give up."

Lyle is about to punch him, but restrains himself.

Taking a breath he says, "If I can't hurt you with force, I'll just put you in constant pain until you talk."

He throws Zapdos to the other side of the room, then turns to face the wall. His fist lights on fire as he prepares to punch the wall. He pulls back his fist, then strikes the wall with Fire Punch. The wall opens up and melts away to reveal several metal beams and wires. Lyle rips out three small metal rods and turns around. He walks forward, until he reaches the window next to where Zapdos lay.

"Now we're going to play a game. You have three chances to tell me where this girl is. If you decide you don't want to tell me, I'll just find somebody else, say, Nova. How does that sound?"

Zapdos spits up blood into Lyle's face, "Bone Clan... and... your former teammates... will kill you... before... you can... even get to him."

Lyle slams his foot down to spread out one of his wings, then slams one of the rods downwards. The lightning bird shrieks as the metal pierces through his wing and embeds itself in the floor. Lyle looks down in a deranged satisfaction.

"Are you ready to tell me what I need to know, OR DO YOU NEED A LITTLE MORE CONVINCING?!"

Without saying anything, Zapdos attempts to lift himself up. Before he can, the Blaziken takes a second rod and shoves it through his other wing. This time, Zapdos endures the pain and doesn't make a sound.

"This is your last chance before I pay a visit to Nova. Why throw your life away for him? He's just a Basic Pokemon that'll die one day, but you're an immortal Legendary Pokemon."

He looks up at Lyle and responds, "You don't get it… do you? I would… never throw… my life away… if not necessary... However… as it stands… if I have to… then… then…"

When he stops talking, Lyle looks at him in frustration.

"Then so be it, if that's how it is, then your life ends right here. Though, I've always admired pokemon with outstanding power, and with your status as a Legendary Pokemon I'm inclined to let you choose your last words."

"You can… go ahead and… jump out… that window… You'll… accomplish… more then… then you would… staying alive."

Lyle watches as Zapdos nearly faints with exhaustion. He takes the third rod and positions it over the lightning birds chest.

"At least those who knew you can remember how resistant you were to the very end. NOW DIE!"

As soon as he starts to move the metal rod downwards, I burst through the window and knock him off his feet. Frost, Branna, and Djinn come in right beside me. Lyle picks himself up off the ground slowly and looks around.

"What in the…?"

He body flares up in flames when he sees me.

"VENOMITUS!"

For a moment, we stare at each other. A moment later, I pick up on a faint line of communication between Lyle and somewhere else.

DESTROY IT.

STEEL CITY WALL (NORTH END), EVENING

"So what's happening, Myro?"

"Nothing yet, Moon, but things are about to get interesting as soon as Lyle says the word."

The furret uncurls himself and scurries over to the empoleon.

"Interesting, you say?"

She looks down at him, "Yes, all sorts of interesting stuff is about to happen. First-"

"Well spoil it for me! I haven't seen anything exciting happen in a while," He interrupts.

"You know, we might actually get along, after all," Myro comments.

She extends her wing out to him with a smile on her face. He grabs onto it and climbs up to her head. They watch the pokemon below them do everything they can to escape Myro's flood.

"I was thinking, maybe you wouldn't be so bored all the time if you learned to appreciate the beauty of destruction."

The furret nods absentmindedly, "Maybe."

Though he didn't seem to care about her statement, Myro can tell he's thinking. They both stand at attention when Lyle's voice resonates in their minds.

DESTROY IT.

"Well, that's my cue," The empoleon says excitedly.

Moon watches as Myro's eyes glow with purple energy. He turns around in annoyance when hot water is splashed on him. The water from the Lightning River that had only been rippling before was now boiling. The furret chuckles slightly at the bodies of several wild fish pokemon float to the surface.

The water from the within the city walls suddenly rushes toward a center point and converges on the base of Lightningrod Palace. Moon turns back around in time to see the flood spiraling up the tower, moving into every open space and breaking windows along the way.

LIGHTNINGROD PALACE, EVENING

"DO YOU HEAR THAT?!" Lyle shouts at me. "THAT'S THE SOUND OF HOW YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!"

He motions towards the flygon next to him, then climbs on his back. In a splits second, the two of them shoot out of the space where the window used to be. With a vicious look on her face, Frost starts to fly after them, but almost immediately, a pipe bursts and a jet of water knocks her backward. The impact from hitting the ground knocks her out next to Zapdos. I notice Djinn and Branna staring out the window so I shout to them.

"This is no time for -WASTING YOUR LIFE- sitting around! We have to get these two out of here."

The cyndaquil looks at me and shakes his head, "I do not believe we are getting out of here."

I look out the window to see what his point is, and stare dumbfounded at the situation. Above the dam, water from the Lightning River floats in a twisting and contorting shape that resembles a fish. A moment later, the massive shape takes on a solid shape that is revealed to be a pokemon.

"Is that…?" Branna asks at a loss for words.

I swallow and nod my head, "Yes, that is the -Alpha- Legendary Pokemon, Kyogre."

-V. Locke