Epilogue
Adelina:
Adelina slowly walked through the doors of the Nimbasa City Contest Hall. Looking around, she saw that very little about the interior had changed since the last time she was in the building; the portraits hanging on the magenta walls at the far end of the hall remained the same, the light pink floor beneath Adelina's heeled shoes was as shiny as it always was and the large front desk was still manned by four receptionists, all ladies. As Adelina approached the desk timidly, one of the ladies looked up at her and smiled at her, only to lose that smile as she watched the approaching Co-Ordinator in shock; she recognised Adelina, there was no doubt, but she was not only surprised by how timid – reluctant, even – Adelina looked, but at her modest attire! Instead of the usual questionable clothes she'd frequently wear, Adelina's clothes consisted of a fully buttoned-up white blouse, a black skirt that covered her knees and sensible-looking heeled shoes. Her hair, meanwhile, was still as bronze as ever, but it hung freely, and she wore small gold studs instead of her usual large loop earrings and absolutely no facial make-up whatsoever.
"M-Ms Cross! M-May I help you?" the receptionist asked shakily, putting on a nervous smile. Adelina didn't appear to be fazed with the lack of stern professionalism from the woman and merely sighed.
"Yes...I'd like to withdraw my participation in the new Nimbasa Contest," she requested quietly.
"Uh, y-yes, a-a-absolutely," the receptionist said timidly as she hastily began typing at the computer in front of her, hidden from Adelina's view behind the desk. "W-What is your reason?" the receptionist asked shyly.
"That would be the other reason I'm here," Adelina replied glumly. "If it is even possible, I-I wish to speak to the Contest Organiser."
"Oh? D-Do you have a complaint?" the receptionist asked hesitantly.
"No. It's...it's about Hailey Hawkstone's appeal from the last Contest..."
Hailey:
"Okay, are you guys ready?!" Hailey asked excitedly. She was in her back yard with Colin, Peggy, who sat on Piper's back, and the twins; Peggy, Daniel and Daphne were out of their school uniforms and in much more comfortable attires. Roland and Rhonda sat next to their respective Trainers as the rest of the family watched Hailey with intent; her bleach blonde hair appeared to have been feathered and wore a light silver metallic prom dress with matching heeled sandals. Hailey's Cinccino looked up at her keenly.
"Show us what you've got, Honeybee," Colin said eagerly.
"All right, then," Hailey began as she looked down at her impatient Cinccino. "It's time, Brie!"
"Cino!" Brie flipped backwards and landed in a handstand; her long white tail slowly began to spin as water began to gather around it.
"Everyone, I present to you...our FIRST triple combo! Starting with a little Aqua Tail..." A pulse of water shot up into the air from Brie's rotating tail, which began to spin more rapidly as the spiral of water was fired into the air above her. "To give the Water Pulse more volume...and then..." Electricity began to cackle at the base of the Cinccino's tail, which immediately began to course all over the pulsing water; the sight of the small bolts of electricity dancing around the water impressed everyone, Peggy especially. "Thunder Wave to brighten everything up!"
"Oh, my days, Mum, that is AMAZING!" Daphne praised with complete delight.
"Better than Brie's attempt to juggle her own Seed Bomb," Daniel said in agreement.
"Cin-cinno," Brie muttered in corroboration.
"It's so pretty!" Peggy squealed in awe.
"Ti-ruuuh!"
"So, this is going to be your appeal for the new Contest next week?" Colin asked curiously. "You're going to win that round for sure!"
"At least qualify for the next one," Hailey laughed coyly as the combination faded and Brie hopped back onto her feet. "Whether or not it'll get the most points remains to be seen... As for the battle round...Flint's going to take care of that one if all goes well."
"It'll go swimmingly, honey," Colin said encouragingly. "I'm sure of it."
"Me, too, actually," Hailey said sunnily. "Ooh, I can't wait for this...!" Colin, Peggy and Daphne laughed at Hailey's over-abundance of excitement. Daniel, however, smiled lovingly. "And I can't wait for everyone to come back for the Contest! Hey, maybe Harvey will bring Naomi this time around!"
Harvey:
"So, what's going on?" Troy asked as he returned to his lounge with a tray holding three identical mugs and a small tray of rounded biscuits in his hands. Troy placed the tray on the coffee table in front of the sofa and his parents just before taking one of the mugs of tea and sitting on one of the armchairs nearby. Harvey smiled proudly as he took the mug of peppermint tea in both hands.
"C'mon, sport, you know that your mother and I have been spending more time together," he laughed as Naomi took one of the biscuits and dunked it into her tea.
"That much is obvious," Troy chuckled as he saw his mother gleefully eating the soggy half of her biscuit. "But you said you had something to tell me?"
"Yep; we wanted you to be the first one to know before the rest of the family gets informed."
"Even though they'll probably see it coming a mile away. ...actually, you might have as well," Harvey laughed. "But anyway! Your mother and I are getting back together."
"Yep, you're right; I saw that coming miles away," Troy said cheekily.
"Don't act too happy about it, sweetheart," Naomi said playfully.
"Don't get me wrong, I'm happy for the pair of you, but I'm just a little too old for it to make me bounce up and down like a Spoink on happy pills," Troy laughed sheepishly. "But, yeah...I'm happy for you two."
"Thanks, sweetheart," Naomi said kindly.
"Are you going to tell Uncle Hayden and Aunt Hailey?" Troy wondered.
"Of course," Harvey nodded. "Although, I'm not sure how much more good news Hayden can take at the moment," he laughed. Naomi dunked half of her remaining biscuit half into her tea and quickly ate the soggy part before it dropped into the mug.
Hayden:
"Yep, I'll see you on Wednesday," Hayden said to the phone he held against his ear. "Okay, bye." He pulled the phone from his ear and hung up the call. He sighed as he returned to his sofa, sitting next to Lily, who was watching as Roberta looked at Ian curiously. "Sorry about that, Dad; XCommunications again."
"You got the deal, what more do they want?" Ian wondered as he carefully examined Roberta's eyes. Keenan walked down the slightly spiralled staircase of the Violet City residence with Iara hanging from his shoulder as he headed straight for the refrigerator.
"Well, a place to set up shop, for starters," Hayden laughed. "The would-be store manager for the Goldenrod store's meeting up with me to choose where he wants the shop to go."
"That's good," Ian smiled. "As is Roberta's health, Lily."
"Thank you. She's only been with us for almost a week now, but-"
"Yeah, she seems happy enough already."
"Nido," Roberta happily nodded.
"I still think she should meet Nando, though," Keenan laughed as he removed a small bottle of milk from the fridge before closing it,
"Wait until your sister comes back first," Ian laughed, smiling at his grandson.
"That reminds me," Hayden sighed. Ian, Lily and Keenan looked at him in confusion. "I'm sorry you only found out about the recent happenings because of her..."
"Don't be so concerned, Hayden," Ian said kindly. "She told me about everything – Sinnoh included – because she wanted to. That being said, I'm happy that the light was at the end of Rock Tunnel." Keenan suddenly looked at Iara, carrying a playful smirk.
"So THAT'S where you got it from!" Iara sniggered at him.
"Now that I'm thinking about it, I hear Jollie finally evolved!" Ian said happily.
"She has," Lily confirmed. "She and Alexa were happier than we'd ever seen her, it was so touching to see!"
"It didn't help that she and Keith got back together just before Jollie evolved," Hayden added with a warm smile. "That light you were talking about was brighter than it could ever be..."
Alexa:
A slender Raichu with a fringe over her aqua green headband stood on top of a cliff, looking down at the colourful town beneath her. A round amethyst hung from her neck and wore some sort of tube top over her flat chest as a Blaziken with an x-shaped scar on her beak and a Lucario that looked like he was part Furret walked over to the Raichu.
"We're home," the Raichu said simply.
"What do we do now?" the Blaziken asked timidly.
"Oh, for goodness' SAKE, Dixie...!" the Raichu complained as she spun around and looked up at her tallest ally. "We let everyone know we're back, what else?!"
"Think they're going to be ready to see the new you?" The hybrid Lucario wondered. The Raichu smirked as she drew her attention to the hilltop building that resembled the head of a Wigglytuff.
"They weren't ready for my first return, so what makes you think they'll be ready for this?"
"True," the Lucario laughed. "So...shall we?"
"Last one there's a rotten Exeggcute!" the Raichu yelled eagerly as she ran down the cliff, keeping her long whip-like tail away from her unusually large feet. Panicky, the Lucario and Blaziken hurried after her.
"Wait up, Sarah!" Dixie called. The Raichu laughed as the camera began to pan away from the trio, gradually shifting its focus to the sunset overlooking the entire town. Once the camera stayed in place, a title card appeared in the middle of the sky; the words "Pokémon Mystery Dungeon" were written in a slightly comical yellow-to-orange font with a light blue shadow, but the words "Times Beyond Darkness" were in a more ominous and almost sinister black and red font.
Many people exited the movie theatre, a chorus of amused laughter and mumbles of praise erupting from the crowd. Keith and Alexa walked out of the theatre by the time the exiting crowd was virtually non-existent, both with an arm wrapped around the other's waist; Alexa wore one of her Gracidea flower hair clips in her hair, clipping her left-hand bangs to the side of her head, a pale green casual rib bardot top, a pair of her navy blue jeans and her white slip-on trainers, while Keith wore his engraved dog tags over his black and light grey three-quarter sleeve raglan shirt, blue jeans and black plimsolls. Alexa looked up at Keith as they walked over to the quieter side of the premises, towards a balcony of some kind that overlooked the Unovan ocean.
"That was fun." Keith nodded.
"I didn't think I'd be so engaged, considering I haven't seen the prequel."
"It's nice they made it easy to understand for people who haven't seen it," Alexa complimented as she and Keith leaned against the red fence and looked across the serene ocean and the warming sunset in front of them. "I really had fun today, Keith...thank you."
"Sure. I had fun, too," Keith said sweetly as he nuzzled Alexa's cheek. He smiled contently as he watched the sunset before him. "Tell you what, though, things are going to be so much better once we get back to the Ranger Union." Alexa lost her smile as she looked at the ocean underneath her sadly.
"Actually...I might not be coming back..."
"What?" Keith looked at Alexa in shock. "Why?!" A quiet sigh from her caused him to feel tense. "I-It's not because of what I said, is it?"
"It is, but not in the way you're thinking of," Alexa replied as she looked up at him. He stared at her in complete bewilderment. "Ever since Operation Brighton finished, I've really been suffering so often that it can't be amounted to just a severe case of bad luck..." She stared at the horizon across her, still looking fairly glum. "Most of it being my own fault, so I wasn't a victim of circumstance like I was with Adelina..." Keith pitied her.
"Kincaid kidnapping you wasn't your-"
"That's not that I'm talking about; I'm talking about the things I could control – hitting Rhythmi and getting suspended, not letting Cain's antics get to me as they did, letting us follow Jordan to Cinnabar Island..."
"That one was my idea," Keith said worriedly. Alexa shook her head.
"My point is...my mental and emotional health were jeopardised more times than I care to remember after Operation Brighton. ...heck, my PHYSICAL health was at risk even BEFORE Operation Brighton..."
"So you wouldn't be coming back for health reasons?" Keith asked curiously. Alexa huffed a small laugh.
"In hindsight, I probably shouldn't have taken up such a physically demanding occupation with the metabolism I have," she muttered jokingly. "But, yeah...if I don't end up coming back as a Pokémon Ranger, it'll be for health reasons." All of a sudden, she looked up at Keith in a panic. "B-But that doesn't mean we wouldn't be able to see each other again, I-"
"I know that," Keith laughed. Alexa soon relaxed and smiled coyly.
"Sorry...I just don't want you to think I might end up abandoning you..." Keith smiled lovingly as he pulled both himself and Alexa away from the fence slightly as he looked into her eyes.
"Alexa, I appreciate the thought...but you really need to think about yourself; this is YOUR life we're talking about."
"I know...I just don't want you to think our days are numbered if I decide to not return to the Ranger Union..." Keith placed one hand on her shoulder and cupped her cheek in his other hand as he slightly tilted her head up to further establish eye contact.
"Sounds like you're still not sure."
"I'm not. My Uncle Harvey did suggest I go travelling again like I did when I first met Phoenix, but...I don't know..."
"Look, just stay on your leave of absence until you're able to make your decision," Keith said generously. "But, no matter what you decide to do, I'll support you." Alexa smiled sweetly at him.
"Thanks...Treasure."
"Uh?" Keith was baffled.
"You call me Kitten...it's only fair I have something to call you... Treasure sounds fitting, don't you think?" Keith stared at her in wonder before smiling caringly.
"That makes me the kitten's treasure...I can get used to that. Thanks, Kitten."
"Sure thing...Treasure..." She drew her face closer to Keith's as she planted her lips onto his. Keith ran an arm down her back and held onto her lovingly as she began to wrap her arms around the back of his neck. As they shared such a romantic kiss, a large Mantine soared from the ocean and dived back into the water after twirling in the air.
~ Fin.