A/N: Hey everyone. I'm back at college. Unfortunately, since my break is over now, I can't make any promises on an update schedule for this. I'll try to do it as often as I can, but there won't be any specific update times for this.

"HOW COULD YOU?!"

Tears ran down Misaki's face as she looked at Ren. The boy she had loved. The boy she thought was dead. Everyone else watched silently as Misaki yelled at him.

Ren kept his head lowered. He had been trying to protect her and the others by pretending to be dead, but he knew that was still no excuse for the pain he had made them go through. "Misaki…"

"You made us believe you were dead!" Misaki cried. "How could you do that to us?! How could you do that to me?!"

"I didn't want you getting hurt." Ren said. "Laughing Coffin was after me. As long as I was their target, you and Clair would be in danger."

"So you decided to break my heart instead?!" Misaki questioned. "Do you have any idea how much that hurt me Ren?!"

There was nothing Ren could say in his defense. The only thing he was able to do was mutter out two words. "I'm sorry."

Misaki looked at Ren with a furious glare. She reeled her arm back and slapped him across the face. "I HATE YOU!"

Ren had dealt with pain several times in PWO, both physical and emotional. But none of them had hurt as much as hearing those words from Misaki. He laid on the ground as Misaki ran off with tears falling down from her face.

"Misaki, wait!" Asuna called out, running after her.

As the two girls ran off into the distance, Kirito looked at Ren. "Look Ren, I can't honestly judge you for what you did. You were just trying to protect Misaki and Clair. But you also need to consider how they felt when they thought you were dead."

"Yeah… I know." Ren nodded as he sat up.

Clair walked up to her brother. Ren looked away from Clair, knowing she was probably just as mad at him as Misaki was. "Clair… I'm sorry. I really am, but you have to understand I did it to-" Ren was cut off as Clair suddenly lunged at him, hugging him tightly.

"I… I missed you so much!" Clair cried as she buried her face into Ren's coat. "I thought I'd never see you again!"

Ren's eyes widened in surprise as he felt Clair hug him. Seeing her crying in front of him like this was almost too much. Ren wrapped his arms around his sister and embraced her.

"I'm sorry Clair. I know I don't deserve it, but I hope you can forgive me."

Through her crying, Clair managed to nod her head. "Y-You're not going to leave again, are you?"

"Not a chance." Ren told her. "I'm never leaving you again, I promise."

Clair continued to hug her brother. Ren looked up at Kirito. "I'm sorry I put Misaki and Clair's lives in your responsibility. I felt they'd be safer with you while Laughing Coffin hunted me."

Kirito nodded his head. "I understand your reasons. But I think it's going to take some time before Misaki does."

"Can't say I blame her." Ren muttered.

Akio sighed as he walked off in the direction Misaki and Asuna had gone. "I guess I'll go check on the girl too."

"Um…" Kirito interrupted as he looked at Akio. "Sorry, but who exactly are you?"

"Akio. But you can just call me Mr. Hoenn Champion." Akio said with a smug grin as he walked off.

Liz glared at Akio. "What's with your attitude, pal?! For your information, Kirito is the Unova champion!"

"Is that so?" Akio asked. He glanced slightly at Kirito, memorizing his face. "Well then I guess I have someone to look forward to battling sometime." Before anyone could say anything else, Akio left and headed out after Misaki.

Ren got to his feet. "I'm guessing you guys probably don't want me around right now. I'll get-"

"Hold it."

Ren turned to Ryota, who looked at him directly in the eyes. The two trainers stared at each other. Ryota broke the silence as he pulled out a pokeball from his belt and held it out in front of Ren. "Get your pokemon out."

Ren gave a confused look at Ryota. "What?"

"You heard me." Ryota said. "You and I are going to battle. Right here. Right now."

Misaki ran through the woods right outside of Shalour City. When she finally felt like she had gone far enough, she leaned against a tree and let her body slump onto the ground until she was sitting. Tears rolled down her cheeks.

She was so confused. On one hand, Ren wasn't dead. He was alive and well. At the same time however, he had also lied to her this entire time about being dead. Misaki didn't know whether to be happy or sad. There was one thing she did know for sure though.

'I'm so happy you're not dead, Ren.'

"Misaki!" a voice called out. "Misaki, where are you?!"

Looking into the distance, Misaki saw Asuna come into view. The chestnut haired girl caught sight of her friend and ran over to her. She could see the turmoil going through Misaki's head at the moment. Asuna sat down next to Misaki and put an arm around her. "Are you alright?"

"I don't know." Misaki muttered through her tears. "My head is a mess. It's just… why did Ren lie for so long?"

"If I had to guess, it was because he was worried about you." Asuna told her. "He didn't want to see you or anyone else get hurt because of him."

"But why did he have to do it like this?! Doesn't he trust me?!"

Asuna put a hand on her friend's shoulder. "That's something I don't have the answer to. You'll have to ask him yourself."

Misaki stared down at the ground. "Yeah… I suppose you're right."

"Good then let's get-" Asuna paused as she sensed another presence there. "Whoever's there, come out."

From behind the trunk of a tree, Akio stepped out. Although Asuna had been the one that detected him, he seemed to be completely ignoring her. His gaze was focussed entirely on Misaki.

"Akio?" Misaki asked with narrow eyes. "What do you want?"

In response, Akio took a pokeball and threw it out, bringing out his Sceptile. He gave a small glance towards his partner and the grass type nodded. "Leaf blade."

Misaki and Asuna gasped as Sceptile jumped at them with a leaf blade attack. Both girls leaped to the side to avoid it, Misaki to the left and Asuna to the right. "What the hell do you think you're doing?!" Misaki yelled.

"Fight me." Akio said. "Defend yourself. If you can that is."

Asuna reached for a pokeball. "Alright you asshole, if you want a fight then-"

"You stay out of this, girlie." Akio told her. "This is a battle between me and her. I want to see if she's not a completely useless liability."

Misaki glared at Akio. "Fine then. You want a battle? You've got one." She grabbed a pokeball and threw it out, revealing her Altaria. "You're gonna get it now asshole!"

Akio didn't even looked bothered at the fact that Misaki was trying for a type advantage. "Dragon claw. Take that thing down Sceptile."

Sceptile claws began to glow in a blue and red light as it charged at the flying bird.

"Quick Altaria, use Cotton Guard!"

The dragon bird cooed in acknowledgement and brought out its fluffy wings around its body to block the attack. Sceptile grunted at the defensive force that the soft looking fluff had and jumped back to his trainer's side. Akio nodded to his partner once again which cause the pokemon to repeat its actions.

Misaki saw what he was trying to do. Keep her on the defensive while his grass type chipped away at her pokemon's HP. "Altaria dodge and use Dragon Pulse!"

The flying pokemon heeded the order and managed to slip under Sceptile's recent Dragon claw and shot up into the air to rain down the breath of energy. The grass type dodged to blast from above and leapt into the air after Altaria.

"Cute attempt but let me show you what a real Dragon Pulse looks like!" Akio said with a smirk.

Misaki couldn't believe her eyes as she watched Sceptile dodge so easily. Her amazement was quickly forgotten when she remembered her pokemon was in danger. "Altaria dod-!"

"Dragon Pulse that bird and show it how it's really done!" he shouted over her.

Sceptile let loose a huge burst stream of energy from its mouth point blank at the blue bird. It cried out in pain as it fell to earth with its HP in the red.

'No way… Just how strong is he?'

"Sceptile, Leaf blade on her now!"

The pokemon fell down on the ground in front of Misaki with both of its grass blades shining green coming at her. She closed her eyes and brought her hands to her face in a vain attempt to protect her from the worst. Moments passed as no feelings of pain came to her which caused her to open her eyes and see Sceptile holding it's blades near her neck, ready to kill her.

"Alright enough Scep, I think she gets it." The grass type moved the blades from her neck and moved back to Akio. "Now do you see why Ren didn't want your ass getting involved with this? He faked his death to keep you safe from this shit. If I had been a real Pker you'd be dead as would your pokemon."

Misaki fell to her knees as she slowly relaxed her breathing. She was completely outclassed by Akio. He would have even been able to kill her if he had wanted. Her very life had flashed before her eyes. As she thought about it, she realized that the very image of what just happened must have run through Ren's head about a thousand times, but with a much worse ending.

Akio walked away with his Sceptile, leaving Misaki and Asuna alone in the woods. Asuna ran over and kneeled beside her friend. "Misaki, are you alright?"

It took a moment for Asuna's voice to register in her ears, but Misaki nodded. Asuna helped Misaki get to her feet. "I can't believe that guy. He nearly killed you. Even if it was just to send a message, that was going way too far."

"Asuna…" Misaki said. "Let's go back."

"Huh?"

"I wanna go back." Misaki told her. "I want to see Ren."

"Flygon, use dragon claw!"

"Block it Torterra! Use protect!"

Flygon's attack crashed into Torterra, but the bulky grass type shrugged off the hit easily with protect. Flygon backed off, only to come charging back in with a dragon rush attack. This time, the attack made contact as Flygon slammed into Torterra and managed to push it back a bit. Torterra wasn't willing to go down that easily however as it unleashed a leaf storm upon Flygon at close range. The dragon type became swept up in the attack, taking a serious amount of damage.

Kirito and the others watched from a distance as Ren and Ryota battled. The two of them had been at it for nearly ten minutes, with neither side giving an inch.

"Is this all you've got Ren?" Ryota asked coldly. "I thought you had been traveling alone to get stronger. Is this pitiful level of power all you were able to obtain."

Ren grinded his teeth at Ryota's words. It was very clear that Ryota hadn't been slacking off on his training during the time they had been apart. He was still as strong as ever. But Ren hadn't been lounging around either. He had been doing everything in his power to get stronger. It was the reason he had gone off on his own.

"I have gotten stronger." Ren said. "I searched and searched for power, all in order to help keep my friends safe."

Ryota shook his head at Ren. "You've changed Ren. I don't remember you acting so weak and pathetic."

"How can you say that?! Do you have any idea what I had to go through to-"

"You lost faith in your friends, you idiot!" Ryota shouted over him. "Back in Sinnoh, you always talked about being able to make it through any challenge as long as you had your friends by your side. So was that all just a bunch of hot air? Cause that's what you're making it look like."

Ren fell silent at Ryota's words, realizing he was right. Back in Sinnoh, he had never been afraid. He had Misaki, Clair, and even Ryota sometimes with him. And there were countless others he had befriended too. Cheryl, Riley, Caitlyn, and plenty more.

But ever since he had fought Kira, he had forgotten all about that. Even now, Kira's strength still terrified him. No one had ever managed to do that before, not even Leon the leader of Team Reaper. Ren stared down at the ground, his head lowered in shame. He had thrown away his trust in his friends. True strength never came from one person alone. That was something he had forgotten.

But never again.

"You're right Ryota." Ren said. "I ran away like a coward because I was weak. I was afraid of losing the people most important to me." Slowly, the key stone on his bracelet began to glow. At the same time, Flygon began to become enveloped in a bright light as well. Ryota gasped, as did Kirito and the others. Ren however didn't seem to even realize what was happening. It was as if it was pure instinct driving him right now. "But I'm not running away ever again! I'm staying with my friends and together we'll face whatever comes our way! Be it Laughing Coffin or even Kagutsuchi himself, I'll stand with them and fight with everything I've got!"

Flygon let out a loud cry of agreement, as if its thoughts were synched with Ren's. Light exploded from the dragon type as it began to transform. When the light disappeared, Flygon had a brand new appearance. Its once two wings were now four, much more like a dragonfly. Additionally, the red orbs shielding its eyes had been replaced by a long one of the same red color across both eyes, looking like a pair of goggles. The claws it had were slightly bulkier, showing its increase in power. The long tail of the dragon type was thin, but very aerodynamic looking.

"No way… Is that… Mega Flygon?" Liz gasped.

"But how?!" Sinon asked, just as shocked as the rest. "First of all, where did Ren get the power of Mega Evolution? Second of all, I've never heard of Flygon having a mega evolution, so how did he create it?"

Kirito looked at the bracelet on his wrist. "So the stones in the champion bracelets were key stones all this time?"

As if suddenly snapping back to reality, Ren widened his eyes as he looked at Flygon's new form. "Flygon…"

The newly mega evolved pokemon let out a happy cry as it looked at its trainer with a grin. Ren grinned as well as the two of them nodded simultaneously. "I don't know what just happened, but how about we take your new power out for a test drive buddy?" He looked over at Ryota. "You still wanna fight, Ryota? Or are you gonna chicken out?"

A smirk came to Ryota's face. "You think I'm running away now? You must be joking."

"Music to my ears." Ren said. "Alright Flygon, let's do this. Use dragon claw!"

In the blink of an eye, Flygon vanished into thin air. Before Ryota could even realize what had happened, Flygon was right in front of Torterra.

'It's so much faster now!' Ryota gasped.

Flygon swung its claw down at Torterra's head, smashing it into the ground with a great show of force. Clearly it's power had increased along with its speed. Flygon backed away as the debris cleared, revealing Torterra with its HP at zero. Since the battle had been an official one requested through the menu, Torterra returned to its pokeball instead of shattering.

"That was awesome Flygon! You totally rocked!" Ren cheered.

Everyone had stilled been silenced by the shock of the power Mega Flygon had. But the silence soon ended as the sound of clapping came from the entrance to the square. Everyone looked over to see the one clapping was Misaki as she looked at Ren with a smile on her face.

"You still never cease to amaze me, Ren." Misaki said.

"Misaki…"

Misaki walked up to Ren. "Can we talk? Just the two of us?"

It took a moment for Ren to snap out of the surprise that Misaki was even speaking to him. He nodded his head. "Of course."

The others gave Ren and Misaki some privacy as the twosome walked over into one of the roads connected by the square. They sat on a bench together.

Both of them were finding it difficult to find the words they wanted to say to each other. They both decided to go with the same ones as they spoke simultaneously. "I'm sorry." As they both said this, they stared at each other with widened eyes.

"You're sorry?" Ren asked. "What for? I'm the one who should be apologizing."

Misaki lowered her head. "I shouldn't have blown up at you before. I was hurt because I thought you didn't care about me. But I was wrong. You were scared of me getting hurt because of you."

Ren shook his head. "That's still no excuse for what I did. I should have trusted you and the others more instead of lying to you."

"Does that mean you're not going to leave again? That you're staying this time?" Misaki asked.

Ren nodded his head. "Yes. I'm never leaving your side again. I swear on my life."

Misaki smiled as she blushed slightly. "Good. Then I guess I can give you this." She leaned in and gave Ren a peck on the cheek. Ren widened his eyes as he blushed.

"So does this mean…"

Misaki nodded. "Yes. We're still good. I'm not leaving your side either."

The words were more than Ren had ever been expecting to get from Misaki. He was afraid that his actions had cost him the person that meant more to him than anything. Right now, this was nothing short of a miracle in his eyes.

Misaki leaned against Ren. "Onto another subject, when exactly did you learn how to mega evolve?"

Ren suddenly realized that he still had yet to tell anyone about the way to obtain mega evolution. From the looks of it, only the champions would have access to it. They were the ones with key stones after all. "I should probably tell everyone all at once. It's better that we all know."

Misaki nodded her head understandingly. The couple walked back to the square, where everyone was waiting. Misaki wasn't the only one interested in hearing about how to obtain Mega Evolution. Akio already had a good idea about it, but Ren confirmed his suspicions.

"First of all, I should probably mention that based on what I can tell, I think the only ones that can use Mega Evolution are the ones that are holding onto these." Ren explained, showing his champion's bracelet. "In this city, there's a place called the Tower of Mastery. The guru there will put you through a trial. During that trial Infernape returned to me in the form of Charizard. And after that happened, I was suddenly able to use mega evolution."

"Wait, but don't you need a key stone AND a mega stone to mega evolve?" Sinon asked.

Ren nodded his head. "Charizard's mega stone just kinda… appeared. I don't know how it happened, but I think the mega stone comes to you naturally. It's not something you can physically find. Kinda like what happened with Flygon just now."

"Speaking of Flygon, how did you mega evolve it?" Silica asked. "I've never even heard of Mega Flygon before."

Ren shrugged his shoulders. "Your guess is as good as mine. Maybe the creator of the game added in new mega evolutions."

"Either way, our best chance at getting some more answers is to go to that Tower of Mastery place." Asuna said.

"We're going to need all the extra strength we can get." Kirito nodded. "Even ignoring Laughing Coffin, we've still got only two weeks before the deadline that Kagustuchi mentioned."

"Whatever he has planned for us, we'll have to be ready." Ren agreed.

"Well then what're we waiting for?" Kaitlyn asked with a cheerful smile. "Let's go meet this guru guy!" The energetic girl quickly ran off towards the tower while everyone followed.

As they walked, Ren leaned in towards Ryota. "Who exactly is she?"

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Come on Ryo! Hurry up!"

Ren glanced at Ryota with a small smirk on his face. "Ryo, huh?"

Ryota shot a glare at Ren. "You are to never speak of this to ANYONE from Sinnoh. Got that?"

"Whatever you say, Ryo."

Ryota scowled as he walked ahead of Ren. 'It's official. Everyone from Sinnoh is a pain in the ass.'

The group continued their walk to the Tower of Mastery. When they entered, they were greeted by the guru of the temple.

"Hello, young trainers."

"Sup gramps." Akio said with a wave.

The guru ignored Akio and looked at the others. "I take it you're all here to obtain new power like your friend?"

The group all looked at each other confused. Kirito looked back at the guru. "I thought the only ones that could do this were ones that had these?" he said, showing his champion's bracelet. "Trainers need a key stone to use mega evolution, right?"

"You're half right." the guru explained. "It's true that a key stone is required for mega evolution. But in truth, any trainer can obtain both a key stone and the ability to use mega evolution through this trial."

"What?!" Akio exclaimed. "So then us champions have targets on our backs for no reason?!"

"The key stones wielded by the four of you-" the guru said as he pointed to Ren, Akio, Kirito, and Kaitlyn "-are special. You are able to form the bond of mega evolution with multiple pokemon. Any other trainer can only do it with one."

"Kinda like how I can use Mega Charizard and Mega Flygon." Ren realized.

"So the rest of us only get one pokemon to mega evolve?" Asuna asked.

"That is correct." the guru nodded. "Your partner for mega evolution will be whichever pokemon you have bonded with the most. You will know which one that is by the end of this trial."

Akio groaned. "But only one person can do the trial at a time. And it took Ren over half a day to complete it. This'll take forever."

"Not to mention the trial nearly killed me a couple of times." Ren added.

The guru shook his head. "Not as long or dangerous as you think actually." He looked towards Ren. "True, you were in danger a few times, but you didn't have your partner with you for most of it. I don't believe that will be true for any of the others." He then turned towards Akio. "And to answer your complaint, three trainers can take the test at a time."

"What?!" Akio exclaimed. "Then why the hell did you say it was only one before?"

"Simple. I didn't like you."

Akio scowled as the others snickered at him. "Whatever! I get first dibs this time then!"

"I'll go too." Kirito said, stepping forward.

"I'll go in the next round." Kaitlyn volunteered. "I wanna go with Ryo."

Misaki took a step forward. "Then I'll go."

Ren looked at Misaki. "Are you sure?"

"Trust me Ren. I can handle this." Misaki told him. "Besides, there's someone I need to settle a score with." She glanced over towards Akio as she said the last part.

The guru looked at the three trainers and nodded. "Very well then. Come with me."

A/N: Hope you all liked the chapter, as well as Mega Flygon. It's a pokemon I've always felt deserved a mega evolution so I decided to give it one. I also hope that I managed to do a good job to explain the slight differences with obtaining mega evolution as compared to the games.

Lastly, as I'm sure you can all tell, there are A LOT of characters about to get mega evolution. Just like with Flygon, I will be doing mega evolutions of certain pokemon that don't have one in the games. I already have picked out the main mega evolutions for each of the champions, as well as a few other characters. However there are other characters I am still debating over, such as Asuna, Sinon, Misaki, etc. If you readers have any suggestions for mega pokemon (be they ones from the games or original ones) you'd like to see certain characters wield, please be sure to drop a suggestion in either a review or PM. I can't promise I'll make all of them come true, but I am open to suggestions for consideration.