Ahead of time, those of you who are wondering, Iris does in fact have a Gible. It was given to her by Claire when she traveled around Johto. It was her own separate episode. It is a cannon thing, look on her bulbapedia. I don't think the episode got translated into English. If she does appear in XY and Z then you'll most likely see it then. Cilan also had his own episode where he met Brock so they too had known each other prior to this story.

Chapter 18

June 16th, 2006

The sun was high in the sky, beating down a comfortable warmth into the forest. There were a few clouds that dotted the sky like freckles, but aside from that the sky was as clear as a glass of water. Iris sighed as she ran a brush through Excadrill's dirt covered fur. She understood that he was a ground type, and was prone to getting dirty, but he needed to make sure he was cleaner. She would leave some dirt in as it was healthy to have some on him, just not that amount he had plastered onto his brown hair. It was caked on so much that it was as if he rolled right through a giant mud puddle. There was a large hole in the ground to her left. Emogla was flying around her, begging for attention and for her turn to be brushed. She would make noises every once and a while and land next to Excadrill, glaring at both pokémon and trainer. It would be a lie if she said that Emogla wasn't annoying her, she just ignored it for now. Axew was sitting beside her chattering happily with Dragonite, and Gible. They were bonding dragons. The three pokémon perked up a little, and stared deep into the forest. Dragonite's eyes narrowed as he scanned his surroundings. Iris followed their gaze and saw nothing; she went back to brushing Excadrill who grunted as she brushed at one particularly bad spot. Suddenly she heard a loud rustling noise that gradually came closer and closer. Iris looked up again and saw a pokémon shoot out of the trees in a blur of orange; it was then followed by a white pokémon. Both flew into the sky above and began to circle around. Iris squinted as she tried to catch a glimpse of what pokémon they were.

"Woah!" Lyra exclaimed. The brunette had stayed with her while the others went to work. She had said that she wanted to bond with Iris more and they had been, more or less. "Those are some pretty fast pokémon!" Lyra was behind her, sitting on the ground with her back facing Iris, hair tied neatly in a pair of pigtails. After the two blurs came a Beautifly, trying hard to catch up to the other two pokémon.

There were more rustles and a body toppled out of a bush, successfully landing face first on the ground. His hat flew off of his head and landed beside him. "Damn it!" He slammed a fist on the ground. "I'm last!" He looked up and noticed Iris with a grin. "Hey Iris! We're back!" Ash pulled himself into a sitting position and placed his hat back on his head. "Talonflame's crazy fast right? I knew he was going to win the race but I didn't want to come in last." He shrugged. "The others are far behind. Anyway you seem to be fine, what was the rush on coming back so quickly? Paul practically made us run when we got close enough. But they're all slower than me!" He exclaimed proudly.

Iris rolled her eyes at his antics. She then jabbed her thumb behind her. "There was no point in going to New Bark when Gary's hunch of staying here was right." Her mouth curved upwards into a grin. Lyra stepped up behind her and gave Ash a smile.

"Hiya! Long-time no see, right?" She laughed lightly. "I already got the whole situation figured out so there's no need to explain it all over again."

"Lyra?" Ash asked then laughed himself, throwing his head back. "We thought you guys were in trouble because of the message you sent us with Togekiss, or at least that's how Paul read it and told us."

"Paul was the one who got the letter?"

Ash nodded. "Yeah, we were all collecting firewood except for Cilan. Paul went off on his own and I guess he was the one who Togekiss saw first. He showed Cilan the letter but not anybody else."

Talking was heard as Drew pushed himself through the underbrush, holding a stick out of the way for the others to pass through. Misty stumbled out fists, muttering a finally when she gazed at Ash sitting on the ground. The rest followed Misty, sitting down except for Paul and Cilan who remained standing. Cilan wasn't looking at her, but at Lyra beside her.

"Who are you?" Paul asked bluntly with a narrowed gaze.

Lyra smiled with a wave. "I'm the person you guys were going to look for in New Bark Town, Lyra Stevens." She introduced herself.

"I thought we were looking for Lyra Niosi?" Misty said, giving her a confused look.

"Niosi is my best friend's last name, not mine."

"Where are the others?" Paul demanded, he didn't seem happy at all.

Iris glanced over at him, remembering Ash's words. "They're all out doing jobs for us to get some of the current money Johto uses."

"Why aren't you doing that too?" Ash asked with a tilt of his head.

Iris sighed. "I would but I can't."

"Why not?" He pressed on.

"Because," she started, "people like me are unwanted in this society. If I start working I can't just stop like the rest of you can. I'm unwanted and uncared for." She looked over at Cilan who was now looking at her as well, his expression was soft and seemed like it was glazed with pain. Iris was startled slightly but pushed it aside, she didn't want to be near him at all. "It's mostly changed in the future; it's not as diverse and accepting as I hope for it to be someday. There are still people who don't agree with me being me."

"Iris-"

"Gary and Serena should be coming back soon. Clemont and Dawn work later. For now we should come up with a plan on when we will leave and how based on what Lyra knows about what's going on in Johto right now." Iris stated, "She briefly told me things today and the others weren't notified because it slipped her mind, she had other things to worry about, like being a legendry's protector." She didn't want to listen to Cilan right now.

"How many pokéballs did you and Kurt get around to making today? When I went out gathering, the trees had twice the amount of apricorns than yesterday. I find it really cool how fast they grow back." Dawn said to her companion.

Clemont adjusted his gasses on his nose. "Quite a few actually, together we made around twenty-five or so."

"Wow!" Dawn exclaimed. "You work fast! Was it for a delivery?"

"Just a few were orders." He shrugged. "One order of two moon balls and one order of four lure balls."

The two trainers had already left the town, walking through the forest to their little resting spot which they had claimed such a long time ago, or so it seemed. A faint breeze caught her hair, tickling her cheeks. It was a beautiful day outside. Loud cries caught Dawn's attention; she looked up to the sky and grinned giddily as three flying-type pokémon landed around them. She kneeled down, dropping her bag as she pulled Togekiss into a hug. "You're back!" She rubbed Togekiss' head. "I made some poffins for you when you came back! I left them at camp! And don't worry; I hid them so Chespin didn't eat them!" She looked up to Clemont and winked at him. Clemont sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose, moving his glasses in the process.

"Chespin is just as bad as Ash, maybe worse now." Clemont opened his eyes. "Talonflame?" He asked. "And Beautifly? Are they all back?" A sinking feeling pitted itself in the bottom of Clemont's stomach. "Do you think they're angry because of our cryptic message? I knew we should have said more.

Dawn's own stomach clenched, they were back. Paul was back. She quickly shook her head. "If they are, I'll take the blame. I was the one who wrote it."

"Are you sure?" Clemont asked warily. "You were told to write it like that by Iris."

Dawn nodded quickly. "Yes of course. I could have written it better so I'll take the blame. I won't be upset."

"Are you sure?"

Dawn pushed herself up from her knees. "Of course I am." She glanced at the other pokémon. "Would you guys like some poffins too?"

"Beautifly!" Beautifly cooed and took flight again.

Talonflame tilted his head to the right, a look of confusion flashing across his face. "Oh right!" Dawn understood. "You haven't tried one yet! Well just you wait to taste them!" Dawn smiled at Clemont and grabbed a hold of his wrist. "Come on, let's hurry!"

"Do we really have to run?" Clemont asked between huffs, already losing his breath.

Dawn let out a loud laugh, "Of course we do!" She said just as loudly. "I need to know Talonflame's opinion on my baking!" They pushed through the undergrowth and emerged into the area where they had placed their tents. "We're back!" She shouted with a smile.

"Hey Clemont, Dawn!" Ash greeted happily. "I haven't seen you two in forever!"

"Finally." May said in an annoyed tone but her wide grin gave away her true emotions.

Serena waved from a table that they had set up, her baby blue eyes were twinkling as she gazed in their direction. "We're making plans for when we leave; do you guys want to join us?"

"Of course! Dawn agreed quickly, "I just have to hand out my poffins first!"

"Wait till you hear what Lyra told us, we actually have a lead somewhere!" Ash said with a thumbs up, "So hurry up and feed the pokémon, we gotta leave as fast as we can!"

"Got it!" Dawn agreed, giving Ash a thumbs up back. She let go of Clemont's wrist and dashed to her tent. She felt eyes following her. She stopped at her tent entrance and turned around, almost immediately locking eyes with Paul, bright blue meeting steel gray. She felt heat pound in her cheeks and she shyly smiled and gave him a small wave. Her heart leaped when he gave her a small, curt wave back.

"Wait, so can you explain that one more time?" Misty asked as she walked alongside Lyra. Ash walked behind of her, talking quickly to Serena and Clemont, she could just feel the grin that was on his face herself. He always had a bright, cheery and overall kind air to him, one that pulled people to him. One that pulled her to him all those years ago even with their less than unfortunate first meeting.

"Sure can." Lyra nodded. "I started working as an intern at the Goldenrod Radio tower with Khoury and two other really amazing people and I actually knew one for a while, Ethan and Kris, or it's what they go by now because of their past as trainers. Since there's a news station inside the tower, we all knew what was happening; there had been sightings of Celebi throughout the Ilex forest, the pokémon who can time-travel. Slowly these sightings began to lessen and lessen and these weird things began happening all throughout the regions, famous monuments disappearing, like the Bell Tower, which is the tower that is used to summon Ho-Oh, then even the Whirl Islands began to disappear, which everybody through was very strange, how could these huge landmarks disappear without a trace? What was going on? Johto was on high alert. Then people kept disappearing one by one. Whole cities were gone, Cherrygrove city was the first one gone. Then these voids came, just like black holes and they sucked everybody inside, everybody and everything. All I can think is that the region was collapsing into itself. I was the last intern left at Goldenrod. Ethan and Kris disappeared... Khoury disappeared... I remembered the spotting of Celebi, a time traveling pokémon. It has to have some kind of connections to all of this. This is not something that humans can do on their own. Team Rocket was getting worse and worse, harming Slowpoke for money again, they were defeated before, by Ethan and Kris. They aren't the type of people to be famous; it's not their thing, which is also weird that they wanted to become radio hosts someday. But who can put a face to their voices. That made me think some more. The radio waves got disrupted for a whole week, only playing the same cryptic message and fear-inducing voice that oddly sounded like a child, the language was confirmed to be ancient, but nobody could understand more than the words 'disappear', 'cherish', 'beware'." She stared intently as she led the way through the Ilex forest on their search to the shrine. Something bigger than expected is happening and knowing what I am, I know that I'm close to the answers; I have to be for Kris, Ethan, and Khoury. They need me to bring them back."

"I believe what you say is true." Misty said after a moment of processing. "Your ideas all line up, I don't doubt that you are right."

Gary was walking on Lyra's other side. A firm glare was imprinted on his features. His face was slightly pained as he squinted. He pulled a hand up to rub his forehead as he let out a pained, ragged breath. His walking slowed. "Gary are you okay?" Serena asked gently, placing a hand on his shoulder.

He brushed her hand off and nodded. "Yeah... I'm fine." He managed out. "Just a migraine or something, I'll be good in a few seconds."

"Are you sure?" Serena's face was contorted in worry. "Migraines usually last a long time, we can stop."

"I'm fine." He repeated, his vision growing blurrier and blurrier the more he stepped forward. Different shapes began forming, a person was in front of him and he quickly stepped away to avoid them as he walked on. The pounding growing harsher and harsher with every passing second. He knew he had to rest, he felt as if a Rhydon was drilling a hole through his skull. More and more things appeared around him, noise did too.

"...ary?" There was a faint call; he could barely make it out.

"I'm fine." He said again.

"Ga...?"

More and more new noises came into focus, splitting his brain in half with a piercing pain. He's never felt like this before. A new voice pierced his eardrums. "What the hell do you think you're doing?" A woman shouted, causing his heart to race. A rush of exhilaration passed through his body because of the voice, it made his pain lessen. It helped him, it healed him. "That is a mother and her child! You are a sick, evil monster!"

"What does it matter?" A loud voice barked, bringing back pain. "Important little items needed." His voice was snide and knowing. He could hear the smirk on his face because of his words.

"They are not items!" The pain lessened again. "They are living breathing creatures!"

"Enough!" The voice roared, and a loud bloodcurdling scream echoed, his heart raced in anticipation, his vision cleared and he could see. Electricity raced through his system, jolting him to the very core of his body. He looked around; the room was large and encased in metal. It seemed as if he was blocked by glass. Things were clamped onto his body, restraining him; it was the reason why he felt the electricity. He was panting in pain, why was it so hard to breathe? He felt like he was on the brink of death. He saw a smug man laughing, it became louder and more malicious the more he laughed it echoed off of the metallic walls, reverberating into his eardrums and permanently buried itself into his brain. His black hat was perched precisely on his perfect pale green-blue hair. Under him was a girl lying in a heap of brown hair. Her black shirt was skin tight and her pants were ripped everywhere. He could make out the face and a raging heat shrouded him. Anger swirled in him and he let out his own anguish filled scream before everything disappeared in a flash and he landed face down on rich green grass, his vision blurry again before going black in a snap.

I really had fun writing this chapter, what do you guys think of it?

EVEN THOUGH YOU ALL PROBABLY HEARD BUT THERE'S A NEW POKEMON GAME! What do you guys plan on getting? Sun or Moon? I want to get Sun and I'm super excited for this winter! Happy 20th anniversary Pokemon!

Have a lovely week! I know I will with the posibility of having two days off from school, I already had today off!