PMD: Warped Skies

by Team Ion

Playing the part of the hero sounded fun at first, until he took a meaty punch to the face. Stranded in a world reminiscent of a game he once knew, a human-turned-Meowth struggles to retain his humanity while filling the shoes of the game's protagonists. However, this is not a game. Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Explorers, SI-OC/Isekai. Cover by Bograbbit!

61. As the Dream Goes

Thanks to everyone for sticking around with me for so long.

Placement is going really well! It is finished, actually, now. You can tell I wrote this author note weeks ago and only updating it now :P

And I will mention it here just so that the chances of you reading it is greater. I have removed the thing I was talking about in a prior chapter. It was the Keira vs Team Ion battle.

Now I removed it not because it was taken badly, I was keeping it even with that, I'm removing it because it clashes with a plot point yet to happen too severely.

It was my mistake, I had the moment planned, and I added in the fight on an impulsive moment when I thought. "Hey, right. Why isn't she fighting them? That's like… most of the reason she's there?" Even though I had a very reason, she wasn't doing so. I had it written down and everything.

Oh well, the damage is done, but I have removed it so what is canon now is that Keira and Team Ion have NOT fought yet. Guardian talked her out of the battle, so their last night in the guild was a pleasant one.

Okay? Okay. Let's begin.

---

Did you know… all beings dream?

Scout chuckled mirthlessly to himself. Darkrai sure did have a way with words. Leaving behind everyone wasn't as hard he thought it might have been, walking off into the portal to the crossroads all on his lonesome.

This was a dream, logic dictated that nothing should be able to harm him here. Scout wasn't going to just believe that, however. Even if it was all in his head, things here could still hurt him.

The Dream reminded him of the Dark Future in many ways, but one relief was that it did not carry the same maddening outcome as being alone. There were many things he could not grasp very well from his times there, but one thing he could remember as clearly as yesterday was fleeing the prison and then being all on his own.

And then how his heartbeat began to speak to him. How sense began to leave him. How he was told to release, and he did, falling off a cliff he was hanging onto.

That was hard to grasp onto when trying to remember. It was like gripping onto a wriggling Magikarp that smacks you in the face multiple times with its large fin. He knew it was there but calling upon those patterns of memory was not easy.

Not wanting to dwell on it much, lest he call the madness to him in this dream, Scout banished the thought and trotted forth. Treasure Town wasn't too far away, neither was the guild.

He wanted to go there first. He knew where he actually had to go, but he wanted to go to the guild first just to make sure the pokémon there were okay.

Was it foolish and silly and senseless? Probably. Scout didn't care.

He stopped at the grate and drank in the nostalgia as a voice cried up. "Pokémon detected! Pokémon detected!"

He knew to brace for Loudred's returning boom. "Whose footprint? WHOSE FOOTPRINT!?"

It had been such a shock the very first time. Walking up to that grate, seeing it from such a different angle and receiving that audio shock to his ears. The game could never really explain how loud Loudred could be.

"The footprint is Meowth! The footprint is Meowth!"

"I don't know about that, seems fishy," Scout heard Loudred grumble, but he grinned. Loudred had been doing that whenever he was being read for months now, playing off the wariness he initially had for Scout for a bit of humour.

Soon enough, the grate raised. Scout took a moment as he walked up to the mouth to glance to the left, Chatot's grave stood unblemished there, watching over the town right to the side of Wigglytuff.

Just as he had in life.

There were pokémon doing very little in the middle rung of the guild, largely lolling around, vacantly reading meaningless scribbles or sharing the same conversation over and over. He spotted no one from the guild there, so he continued downwards.

The heart of the guild was as active as ever. Loudred and Diglett manned the sentry, Croagunk was serving Marill, Wigglytuff could be heard singing as he prepared the evening meal. Paras, Corphish, Bidoof, and Flaaffy, were playing a game of marbles and betting gossip and secrets on it.

Paras was winning by a landslide.

Armaldo was nowhere to be seen, but he didn't mingle often.

It was lively, and for a snapshot moment, Scout wanted to take it all in forever, wanting to believe this was how things were.

But Wigglytuff's song repeated the first two lines.

Marill traded his items into the Swap Cauldron constantly, getting a regurgitated number of a few things.

Paras might have been winning their game, but it was set up again with no fanfare or conversation.

It was lively but only in a superficial way and Scout blinked, the illusion of normalcy dropping and he closed his eyes with a sad smile.

"Hey, Diglett?" Scout asked, strolling over to where Diglett burrowed. His head popped out of the ground quite quickly.

"Yes?" Diglett asked politely.

"…So, Mane has been bugging me about foot jokes, but I'm not good at them. Mind sharing a few good ones he might not have heard?"

Diglett beamed and quickly shared some ideas that left Scout's spine-shivering, but he smiled and thanked the confusing little pokémon.

"No worries!" Diglett chirped. "To tell you the truth, the one about Kangaskhan's feet actually comes from my dad. But you can't let anyone else know that, or he'll ground me for the rest of my life!"

Scout smiled reassuringly, and part of his heart broke for Diglett. He swallowed and nodded, agreeing to not let anyone know Dugtrio's secret. Satisfied, Diglett returned to his post.

With the smile lingering on his face, Scout glanced out an old, broken, window and a flash of anger flickered across his face at the game that this was.

Shaking his head, Darkrai said a lot of things about this, Scout moved on.

He talked about the days having graduated from the guild with Loudred. Loudred spoke of how Sunflora, Corphish, and he were strongly considering trying out for graduation themselves now.

After that ear-ringing conversation, he moved to Croagunk and Marill.

"And what do we have here?" Croagunk asked as Scout came up to his little cove. "Meh-heh-heh, Scout. Nice to see you." Croagunk was the only guild member that regularly called Scout by his name. He wondered about that.

"What's up?" Marill asked, clutching a set of blurry items in his paws.

"Just wondering how you two are doing?" Scout replied.

"No complaints here," Croagunk chuckled. "How about you, Marill?"

"I'm fine," Marill replied, shifting the items in his paws. "Just trying out the Swap Shop."

"What about yourself, Scout?" Croagunk asked. "You look like you got something to say?"

Scout shrugged. "When don't I? Heh, nah. Just feels like I haven't spoken to either of you in ages."

Croagunk didn't have many expressions at the best of time, but the inflation of his cheeks slowed for a moment as an almost-crease appeared on his face.

"Hmm, yeah it has been a while hasn't it?" Marill said, smiling vacantly. "I guess graduation has you all over now?"

Scout nodded as Croagunk's expression returned to normal with that explanation.

"Meh-heh-heh, well, don't be a stranger. You or the others."

"I won't. See you."

Scout noticed that Wigglytuff had stopped singing, and as he walked over to where the others were playing a game, he saw Wigglytuff climbing the incline.

Putting that aside for later, he watched the game for a moment. It was a simple as it could get. A series of marbles within the bounds of a scratched-out line on the ground. With their own marbles, they took shots at knocking them out.

Paras and Corphish were at something of a disadvantage with claws, but Paras was nailing every shot. Corphish wasn't doing nearly as well. Bidoof was doing surprisingly well with his paws, having some nimbleness in his digits. Flaaffy was doing the worst and with each failure was only growing more flustered.

He decided not to talk to them, even a few inches away they weren't noticing him, eyes sliding off anything that wasn't the game. Still, it was nice to watch for a moment. Paras owned the marbles, Scout remembered.

She was quiet, but a big fan of the game and would challenge anyone who dared. Sunflora had been talking about Paras challenging townsfolk and random teams to games with information on the line since she was all about learning as much about literally everyone that she could.

Sunflora scared Scout sometimes, running what almost looked like an information racket at times. Still, she was as nice as you could get and didn't use her information to hurt anyone. She just liked to know things.

With not much left to stall with, Scout pushed the massive doors of Wigglytuff's chambers open, marvelling at his own strength now and remembering the first time he'd tried that.

It hadn't worked at that time.

He also remembered how Chatot had first taken Rai and him inside with a dramatic opening of the doors, he had made them look as light as a feather on his wing.

Armaldo grunted, not even looking up from his desk. "What do you want?"

"Nothing, really," Scout said.

"Go away."

Smiling, he backed out. Scout sighed a breath and started the walk.

He paused at the incline and glanced back for a long moment before his eyes fell on the sleeping quarters. He powerwalked over there and went straight to Team Ion's old room.

It still smelled like them as he walked in, the combined bed was still there. Scout laid down in it for a moment, just remembering, before pulling the strength necessary to get up and leave.

He did glance in Team Sunrise's room before he left, Striker and Guardian were already sleeping inside it. So, he didn't disturb them.

Scout took one last look at the guild as he walked out of the sleeping quarters, wishing he had a camera or something to take a picture. But at the same time, he knew he'd never forget the real guild, and that this was just a dream.

He left the guild.

Rhythm was singing something softly as he edged under the gate. The Guildmaster was sitting by Chatot's grave, staring out into the ocean and the setting sun with a mixed expression.

"But into the stillness, I'll bring you a song, and I will call your company… keeep~. Til your tired eyes, and my lullabies, have carried you softly… to sleeeeeep."

Scout left him alone. And when he looked back, the Guildmaster was gone.

He had walked into the guild only to remember what it looked like, to see them again. That was a foolish thing, Scout knew, but he also knew he was a foolish pokémon.

The amusement of that thought carried his feet lightly as he stepped down the stairs, unburnt and undamaged from chaos, water, or fire.

"Oh, Mr Sandman, you brought me to dream," Scout sang. "Here in your nightmare, or so it does seem." He thought for a moment, composing his next words. "You sang a strange song, you proved you're a rover. Now let us just get this all done and over."

He paused as he passed the crossroads, expecting Darkrai to want the dramatic timing. He then turned around, Darkrai floated there, silent as the grave, with a tiny amused smirk hidden badly on his face.

Two arms, identical, hung by his sides and stilt-like legs protruded from the wispy, ragged, skirt that made up Darkrai's lower body.

Azure eyes glowed brightly in the setting sun, but it was Scout who spoke first. "Hello, Darkrai."

---

"You ever feel like we're being watched?" Saniya asked Keira.

"Literally always." Keira nodded, patting her bag. "I'm keeping a very close eye on my cookies."

Saniya blinked blankly at her. Keira gave her a solidly serene stare in return until the celebi broke and glanced away.

They had left shortly after Scout, not wanting to dilly-dally for this important task. Saniya couldn't teleport them from inside the dungeon either, dream or not.

"Alright, everybody hold on to someone else," Saniya instructed after Scout had disappeared through the portal. Sean linked his paw with Mawile's hand, who held Keira's paw, who held out her paw for Saniya to take. Saniya completed the chain by grabbing onto Sean.

"We've learned something pretty neat during our time here," Saniya chirped. "Even though this dream mostly reflects real life, it isn't. Injuries are a weird thing, but so is exhaustion. I can teleport much farther here than I can otherwise, even further than I could with full power even! It'll only take two jumps to reach Evertrail Town, but it could still be rocky, and I don't need any vomit, imaginary or not, on me so be ready!"

Saniya beamed at Sean's pleased look. "Basically, I also hold back a little in real life, just because I don't need to hurt anyone or myself. But here? Here there is no holds barred so LET'S GO!" As she had been talking, she had been feeling out with her abilities, latching onto everyone connected and focusing clearly on the place to be.

The four pokémon disappeared in a flash of pink, leaving a small fire in their wake that flickered out quickly, leaving behind an ashy picture of a Pikachu and Eevee.

Saniya jostled them pretty badly when they first reappeared, on the edge of a drop into the void, before teleporting again.

She tossed them once they reappeared the second time, blasting them back with a contained psychic blast. It might have been a dream, but no pinches would prove that as Sean, Keira, and Mawile felt their heads and bodies pounding from the rough teleportation.

"Uh, hehe oops," Saniya giggled bashfully. "See, this is why pokémon have to train to be teleporters for years to the detriment of battle skills. You got to be good at it if you don't want to be tossed around, and I'm far too good at fighting to not invert some spines."

"I'd really rather you don't talk about inverting spines," Sean groaned, a flicker of memory from the Dark Future returning to his head. Saniya was very rarely entirely kidding with the overblown threats and claims she made.

He almost felt sorry for that hakamo-o.

"I'm glad I've learned dream pain still hurts," Sean grouched, pulling himself up. He'd gotten off light, Keira had been thrown through the side of a building, and she was on her back, kicking angrily at the air, with rubble strewn about her.

"Should we help her?" Mawile asked, groggy after bouncing off a large rock with her head.

"She's doing it for attention," Saniya answered, dismissing Keira's struggles. She was right, and so Keira slipped out of the building, dusted herself off, and affixed an imaginary tie to her blunted spike.

"Shall we?" Keira asked, gesturing forwards.

With their eyes no longer rolling and ears not ringing, Sean and Mawile were able to take in the area around them once again. Sean had never been to Evertrail Town, but Mawile had.

She nodded to the stone buildings, squat and functional over the flavourful, but often structurally unsound, buildings that many pokémon preferred to decorate their towns with.

"Question, Lucario?" Mawile asked. "About why so many buildings are shaped like the owners?"

"I don't know," she answered. "I question many things every day of my life. What things I've done wrong. What ways could have been done better? But those? I don't know, and I fear to learn the answer because if I'm responsible, then I have some terrible things to answer for."

Satisfied with that answer, Mawile nodded, and they began to walk. Sean took a moment to look at Keira in concern, but they had no time to dwell on the matters of shopkeepers.

Some things were better left unpondered.

Putting on her Legendary Lucario mask of indifference, Keira strut into town with an aura blade fully manifested and her tassels floating gently. She whispered to Mawile, flicking one of the tassels. "I don't actually know why they do that." Before putting on a stern expression.

They had attracted quite a bit of attention thanks to Keira. The aura blade was well known as a sign of a powerful Lucario, and the greying fur and two spikes worn down to nothing were even more distinctive.

Some Lucario might learn the aura blade themselves. Some might find ways to bleach their fur, badly in most cases. But the pain and self-harm of breaking their own spikes were beyond anyone sane, which Lucario tended to try and be.

To Evertrail Town, this had to be the real deal.

She walked until a crowd had developed before booming. "Citizens of Evertrail Town, I am Lucario." Seemed that Keira could speak the word with the gravity others did, if not more so as several members of town collapsed in a heap. "It is of grave urgency that my companions and I speak to Team Go-Getters."

Whispers broke out immediately, and several pokémon were pushed aside as a large white and green, bushy pokémon made himself known. "Honoured Lucario, it is an honour to have you here. I am Mayor Abomasnow, leader of Evertrail Town."

"I am aware of you," Keira replied. There was no hint of tiredness in her voice, but Sean could spot a tightening of her jaw and eyes. She had been here before in this dream, but of course, no one remembered that.

Abomasnow seemed stunned into silence for a good few moments at the idea that The Legendary Lucario knew of him, but he recovered his voice quickly. "I-I see. Yes. Team Go-Getters is currently out on a venture to retrieve a lost wagon. But I can send them now if that is needed!"

Keira nodded. "Do so. This is extremely urgent. The three of us will wait at the border of the town, near Natu's house."

There was a brief moment of lucidity in Abomasnow's eyes at the mention of Natu. Natu, who was not anywhere in sight or even anywhere in town. But it faded quickly, and he busied off, calling for the swiftest pokémon to go fetch Team Go-Getters.

Keira led the way. On her previous trips to the town, she had found that Team Go-Getters were using Natu's home as their base, as she had somehow avoided the spreading nightmare that had enveloped the rest of the town.

Pokémon followed, but from a distance, and didn't approach as they left the town to enter Natu's home.

"This is… cluttered," Mawile said, concerned as she looked around.

"Can only imagine what it was like before they cleared it out," Keira sighed, pushing something off a seat to sit down. "What?" she asked when Sean looked offended she'd just tossed something around in another's home. "This is a dream, not her actual home. The only reason they haven't cleared it out entirely is just in case she shows up and is all hurt. Fair enough, but still."

Sean took a careful seat on the ground and looked up to Keira. "You don't like it here at all, do you?"

Keira gave him a flat look that spoke so much. "It's frustrating enough getting that response once, but usually it wears off if I'm around for a while. But this dream keeps removing those memories, so every time I show up anywhere, it's to gasps and cries of adoration. We're in this house because I don't want to feel their eyes on me."

That wasn't really what he was asking, but they both knew that. It was hard to imagine what it'd be like to be Keira.

"You have no privacy, do you?" Mawile asked, uncomfortable with the thought.

"No," Keira drawled. "I was a people person, sure, but I never wanted this. Never this."

Mawile frowned, thinking of something, but decided to ask anyway. "What would you do differently? You said it like a joke, but was it?"

Keira snorted at her and didn't answer.

"Would you do anything differently?" Sean asked. "If you could?"

"There's not much point in questions like that," Keira replied. "Sure, time travel is a thing but probably not with this world anymore. Would I do anything differently? As frustrated as I am all the time, this world still is pretty alright. I'm proud I was able to bring an entire world into community and civilisation. And I wouldn't change that. As long as it's enough for my side of the bargain, then everything will have been worth it."

They had additional questions, but there was no time to talk.

A clamouring of sound perked Keira's overly-large ears, and she got up to glance out the window. "That was fast," she commented, tossing the door open and strutting out. "Okay! Big important world stuff is afoot. I need to speak to Team Go-Getters without an audience. Go back to your daily lives that will make me proud of you to see the communities I created flourishing."

That got the crowd moving.

Charizard was flying down, carrying Dimitri and Chikorita. A swellow flew with them, but they swooped down and vanished into the larger town, satisfied they'd done their duty.

Sean ran out, and Mawile walked out at a sane pace as Team Go-Getters landed.

"Dimitri!" Sean cheered. The human-turned-wartortle detached himself from Chikorita's vines and gave Sean a hug.

"Nice to see you again," Dimitri said, Sean, tackling into him for a hug.

"Aww," Charizard and Keira said.

Then she wacked them both, relatively gently, on the head with a Bone Rush. "Makeup with your boyfriend later, we've got stuff to talk about."

"It's nice to see you too, Lucario," Chikorita said dryly. She gave her a finger gun before gesturing to the doorway where Mawile had returned to.

"Good to see you too. Now, come on. There is no time like the present."

She walked them away from the crowds and closer to Natu's house before stopping abruptly. "Chikorita!" Keira snapped, freezing the whole group in place with the harshness of her tone. "What did you offer me when we first met?"

Chikorita blinked before answering. "A knuckle sandwich, curtsey of Wartortle."

Sean and Mawile, who had been confused, realised what Keira was doing. It made sense to be careful, with Darkrai capable of creating illusions in dreams and all.

"Dimitri, what did Kenji do the last time you saw him?"

"Told me Jade was in safe hands, away from him and that neither of us would ever have to see him again."

"Bit of a depressing fella after realising he was a humongous bastard," Keira said, shaking her head. "Charizard! Which one of you scored the first hit on me during our battle."

"Wartortle did," Charizard replied. She nodded. She asked them different questions every time, never anything discussed in the dream. Only things from outside it. With that out of the way, they asked her a question in return.

"Why did you come to meet us the first time?"

"I had to see the human."

Everyone understanding each other now, they carried on. While Team Go-Getters had decluttered the inside of the house, many old charms and strange objects hung in off Natu's roof like a mystics home. A circle with a crescent cut out of it swayed in the wind, a dreamcatcher built of a joltik's web nestled gently between two totems on string.

Fitting six pokémon into a cluttered house normally sized for a natu was not easy, but they managed by sticking Charizard out in the cold with only his head poking through the door.

"Okay," Keira said, awkwardly with Sean and Mawile pressed upon her sides. "World saving teams… go!"

Mawile felt left out, and her horns slurred something. "Ruuuuude."

Keira flicked them, and Mawile flinched.

"I'm curious, does that include you?" Dimitri asked.

"By technicality?" Keira asked, cocking her head. "Yes. Also literally, I helped out on some world saving stuff in my own world as well." She smirked. "What? You think Arceus would ask some no-name chump? I was awesome even before I came here."

"Felix too?" Sean asked.

Keira's expression softened. "Very much so. But we are already getting fumbled up."

"It would help if you told us why you are here," Chikorita said. Keira blinked at her. "You do realise you haven't told us yet?"

Keira may have gotten a little ahead of herself.

"Well. We've got some invaders. These two, and Scout-Meowth, have entered this little dream realm with some Dream Eater shenanigans. They're here to find the place Darkrai is basing this whole dream from, and as you three have been doing most of the exploration, there was some hope you'd have an idea of where that would be."

"Before we go further," Dimitri asked. "It sounds like you already have an idea of where Darkrai could be, just not where that location is? How do you know it's based anywhere?"

"There's a strong chance that he's in the Spacial Rift," Sean explained. "It's to Palkia what the Hidden Land is to Dialga… I think. Either way, Saniya talked about how a dreamworld like this would work, and we know that it has to be anchored somewhere. And to envelop the whole world, it'd need to manipulate space. From Palkia's domain."

"And if it is possible to enter and exit," Mawile continued. "Then, there must be pathways. We believe that Darkrai's domain is both in the real world AND here. A place that exists in both."

"By the way, Cresselia is evil too," Keira mentioned. "Just chucking that fact out there in case you've seen her around."

They hadn't.

Per Mawile's request, Team Go-Getters discussed their experience in The Dream as it had been so far.

"We must have been some of the first," Dimitri said. "There was not much besides the dungeon that we got put to sleep in… that sounds worse than it is." He nodded to Sean, who shared a disturbing expression.

"And it took us forever to find out way out," Chikorita complained. "Endless corridors, no ferals or nothing. Just more and more walls that we couldn't even break!"

"That was a strange dungeon," Charizard commented. "Much of it could be destroyed in the real world, it's how we found the true path to the exit or just the trap. But while trapped within the dream dungeon, the walls could not be harmed. It vexed us for some time."

"But when we did first wake up," Dimitri brought up. "We had two options. Continue the way we were going, which we obviously took as we didn't realise we were in a dream, or back the way we'd come."

"And we haven't been able to re-enter the Vastswallow Dungeon," Chikorita sighed. "Not properly, at least. Entering in it just brings us to that final room, and either direction we take winds up leaving the place."

"That definitely sounds interesting," Sean said, getting up. "I think we should check this place out!"

Mawile agreed, and Keira stood up herself. "We have checked it out before, but at the same time, another look can't hurt. If you three can't think of any other strange things or possible ideas?"

The famous team shook their heads. Not happy about that, but relieved Saniya and Scout were also searching, Keira led Sean and Mawile along with Team Go-Getters to the place they had first awoken.

Potentially it was the first area of The Dream created, something like that was usually important in some shape or form.

There was no one loitering around as the group of pokémon left the edge of town. Even with Keira's edict, the fact there was no one was a bit of a surprise.

Those that knew understood that the other pokémon had likely forgotten Keira had even shown up by this point...

She was still keeping a close eye on her cookies, eyes glancing into the few reflective surfaces around.

"Here we are," Dimitri announced blandly, raising his arms in a mock-welcome to the Vastswallow Dungeon. It was a crack in the air, a space that opened up into nothing—the standard dungeon entrance.

"Is it safe for us all to enter?" Mawile asked as they approached.

"There's one thing we've learned about dungeons in this dream," Charizard explained. "They aren't quite like the dungeons we know. The routes are less random, and the rooms less predetermined. This is just a dream, after all. They aren't real dungeons."

Entering the dungeon was like walking through a filmy web stretched across the opening. It spread across their faces and bodies before snapping abruptly, the area around them changed to the darkness of a cave dungeon.

They were in a larger room, spacious and filled with large and small stones, handy things to hide behind if one wanted to lay an ambush.

But there was no drapion again.

"I'll demonstrate," Charizard said, taking flight. He zoomed down the pathway ahead. But as this was the final room of a dungeon, leaving it simply brought him outside. He re-joined them from behind and then demonstrated again, leaving the way he'd come.

Once again, he exited and had to enter once again.

With that demonstration out of the way, Sean and Mawile began to poke around. Mawile left as well to see things from her own point of view while Sean poked around the rocks while Team Go-Getters checked around the walls.

With water to look for any hidden cracks. Or by flying up to the roof on Charizard. Creating a Grassy Terrain to spread to every available space. Or by performing a combination attack on a random part of the wall.

Team Go-Getters had been able to injure Rayquaza and force it to listen to them nearly twenty years ago. The dungeon wall didn't have a scratch left on it.

"You took out Palkia," Sean said, looking up to Keira. "Can't you break anything in here? You broke the roof of that dungeon before."

"One, you cannot prove anything about me breaking any roofs," Keira replied. "Two. Watch." She flung a Dragon Pulse at one of the smaller rocks on the ground.

Despite the detonation shaking the room they were in, the rock was undamaged.

"I think that's enough to imply there's something about this place," Sean said, shaken and ears ringing. "Or are you unable to break anything anywhere?"

Keira paused. "Hmm. I'm pretty sure I felled a few trees but didn't try anything outside here. And before you ask about the big tumble of rocks in Mt. Bristle, it was gone before Saniya, and I took up shop there. I'll be back." She dashed outside, and Sean followed. He arrived outside the dungeon to see Keira clearing out several trees and gouging out parts of the wall.

She saw him and nodded, returning to the dungeon with her aura blade. She smashed the spear tip into a rock and her blade shattered.

"This is a dungeon, though," Chikorita said as Charizard joined Mawile in gathering up dirt from the ground. That could be moved at least. "Not just some random trees. Have you destroyed anything in a dungeon?"

"Have you?" Keira retorted.

Chikorita glanced to Dimitri. "Not really intentionally or anything I remember."

Dimitri was frowning, and he slowly nodded. "No, there was that sawk a couple days ago. Smashing down walls in that dungeon. Just 'Rock Smash/Rock Smash/Rock Smash' echoing that whole time until we knocked him out."

Chikorita's expression was blank for a moment before it screwed up slightly, and she nodded. "Right, yeah." Squeezing her eyes slightly, she shook her head. "Huh. Yeah, I do remember that. It was really annoying."

"But what you're saying is that you're forgetting things?" Keira asked, walking over. She crossed her arms and sighed. "Great."

"Hey! It could just be normal memory loss! Who remembers every part of their day?"

"It was really annoying though," Dimitri pointed out, a troubled expression crossing his face. "We hunted for him specifically to make him shut up the crashing and banging, and there was a lot of debris."

"Hey, Charizard!?" Keira yelled, looking over to where the large Flying-type was chatting amicably with Mawile. He looked up. "Remember anything about a sawk wrecking a dungeon wall?"

Charizard stared blankly, just like Chikorita, before he gave a slow blink and remembrance bloomed on his face. "Right." He nodded. "Forgot about that, sorry."

Mawile held a curious look, a pouch of dirt forgotten in her hands. Keira nodded. "Alright. Seems like we're getting nowhere, but things are coming up. Everyone regroup, we need to brainstorm some ideas."

Assembled in a circle, Team Go-Getters on one side and the others joining them. Keira formed a Bone Rush and poked it into the ground.

"Part of this dirt can be moved," she said, but it could only scratch superficially deep. Soon enough, she hit Minecraft-like bedrock that simply would not shift.

She opened the floor to suggestions and words were shared.

"What other dungeons are close by? Checking for ourselves the limits of other dungeons may work out if this one is special at all?" Mawile suggested.

"You know, this is a dream? If we're all aware of it, maybe we could try changing it? Ever heard of lucid dreaming? That's like what we're doing now!" Sean offered for consideration.

"I could kill you all?" Was Keira's wise addition to the meeting. This was flatly refused. "Come on? You don't die in real life if you die in a dream."

The answer was still no.

"I believe that this dream is stupid and we should just accept that!" Chikorita declared, standing up as tall as she could. As she was a pear with legs, this did not add much imposing height. Determined, she walked right into the wall and smacked her face against it.

"Turns out biting your tongue in a dream still hurts," Chikorita said pained, trudging back to the circle with shame wilting her leaf.

Overall, little was achieved.

"Alright, once again, this isn't working," Keira groaned, getting to her feet. "Maybe nothing will work since this world itself is under the control of The Enemy, but fuck that. You two!" She pointed the finger at Sean and Dimitri, sitting side-by-side. "You are humans who became pokémon to solve threats to this world."

She growled, eyes piercing them. "There doesn't seem to be a new human showing up, and this Darkrai thing was what you were brought over for technically anyway, Sean. Do the human thing and make a stupid idea that still somehow works."

"That's very… childish of you to demand like that," Dimitri said, carefully as this still was Keira whether or not she was acting like this.

She blinked. "Fair enough. I can get carried away with acting like a whiny bitch at times. Fine, let me rephrase that. As awesome as pokémon are, the majority of us lack that ingenuity that humans have. I was brought here because I was so damn human in mind, but I'm still not, and I haven't been around humans for centuries. Can you look at this problem, together, and see if you can think of anything. Even if it's stupid-crazy, I'm out of ideas. I don't know what to do."

For a moment, everyone saw a side of Keira that no one did. A side that wasn't the awe-inspiring Legendary Lucario that could do anything and knew everything. She felt the eyes of sympathy and surprise and turtled up. "What are you looking at me for?" she snapped, hunching her shoulders as if to appear dangerous.

Not looking at anyone in particular, she gritted out. "I don't know everything, I can't solve everything, and I never once claimed I could. Regardless of what I've done for the world, Dimitri was still called in to save it. Sean was still brought over to save it. I wasn't able to. Do you get it? I wasn't able to. I'll do what I can to help, but I don't know what to do, and so I'm asking someone else to think of something for once."

She shook her head, violently. "FUCK!" And then stomped out of the dungeon, cursing under her breath. Charizard, Chikorita, and Mawile were speechless.

Sean and Dimitri got to their feet. "Alright. She's got a point. Let's take some time to talk about this?" Dimitri suggested. He looked to his companions and smiled. "We'll be back soon. Maybe check on Lucario?"

"I feel like she doesn't want attention," Charizard rumbled. "Not while she's feeling like this."

"We won't give her attention then," Chikorita said, getting up and pulling Mawile up with a vine. "We'll just be around, make sure she's not alone."

"If what I'm beginning to understand about Lucario is true," Mawile said, accepting the vine. "Then she's always alone. Putting everything on herself… I hadn't quite thought about the other side of being responsible for civilisation. Does she blame herself for crime and greed?"

No one had an answer for that. While the other three went to search for Keira, Sean and Dimitri took to walking. They chose to cycle through the dungeon over and over. It kept them moving, kept the area changing, but also kept them in one place so that the others could find them when they needed to.

Dimitri's expression turned troubled as they rounded their first revolution through the dungeon, and Sean was the first to speak.

"Keira has a point. The two of us were brought here to fix stuff. Although I was just randomly grabbed. You and that Jessica I've heard of are probably more suited to figuring out stuff than me."

"Sean," Dimitri sighed. "Chikorita, Charizard, and I had no idea what we were doing before. It was basically luck that we were able to get Rayquaza to destroy the meteor, as he was damn well supposed to do anyway! Jessica, maybe, but between the two of us, you were able to go back in time and solve Darkrai's plan."

"Not just me," Sean countered. "Saniya and Giratina did most of the planning. I was just the guy who found the Time Gears. Heck, even Scout did more planning than me."

Dimitri nodded. "But you're human, and he's not. We both are. Surely there is something we can start with?"

"We need to find out where Darkrai is," Sean said, rubbing his furry chin. "Maybe it makes sense there's something in this first dungeon you appeared in? If it took you so long to get out, maybe there wasn't any other part of the world until others began falling into this nightmare as well? If it was the first place, then maybe it's THE place?"

"Maybe, but even if it is, there's nothing we've been able to do to even scratch it," Dimitri sighed. "Ugh, I'm so tired of all this world-saving crap. I did it. You did it. Heck, Kenji even was a part of the first world-ending thing that required human intervention! Something about something turning pokémon to stone? I don't know, he didn't say much about it."

Sean chewed the inside of his cheek. It wasn't pleasant with sharper teeth, and he stopped when he tasted blood.

"Yeah," he sighed. "One world-ending event was enough for me, but it's happening again. You've lived through it three times already."

"We didn't really have anything to do with Paradise and their thing," Dimitri pointed out. "But it really wears on me. Why does this world keep getting put into danger? Why do humans have to be summoned to save it? Sometimes I wonder why a pokémon isn't saving it. But I have my partners, and so do you."

Sean didn't really know what to say.

"Sometimes I wonder if a pokémon is saving it," Dimitri grumbled.

"Pardon?"

Dimitri's large ears flicked and he flushed. "N-Nothing."

Sean frowned, he felt the conversation move on from that, but he pressed anyway. "No… what do you mean by that?"

"Nothing, Sean."

"Dimitri! What do you mean?"

Dimitri sighed a hard breath. "Well… if this is a dream world, then nothing can really threaten it again, right?"

Sean's eyes went wide. "You are not serious right now!?"

"It's just a thought," Dimitri argued. "It all feels the same as the world we came from. It sucks a bit that no one else remembers, but maybe that's better. At least they are happy."

Sean was repeatedly blinking. He could not believe what he was hearing. This was… this was… not right.

His expression stilled. That was not right at all. "You're not Dimitri."

Before the wartortle could react, Sean hit him with a Force Palm, aiming to break whatever illusion was pretending to be his friend.

But rather than an illusion shattering, Dimitri's shell cracked from the overpowered attack he was unprepared for and sent him flying, rolling on his shell until he smashed into the wall.

Sean flinched back, arm aching from the knockback from the Force Palm and gasped. That didn't do anything to any illusion, Dimitri groaned, pulling himself up onto his feet, rubbing a welt on his head.

"Okay," he sighed, getting up entirely and raising his hands and clenching his fists. "We're doing this now."

This time it was Sean who failed to react as Dimitri blasted him with a pressurised stream of water. Sean crashed into the opposite wall, only barely Enduring the attack before he was left with broken dream bones.

Dream or not, that attack still hurt.

Drenched in tepid water, Sean's fur sagged, and he growled. Priming his paws, he burst off into a sprint, deftly evading sharp streams of water Dimitri fired at him until he was within close quarters.

Dimitri spun around on a foot and hand, swinging out his tail suddenly bursting with water but Sean matched it with his Force Palm. The wartortle was the stronger of the two, but Sean knew that.

His body glinted orange, and as he was flung back from the force of the hit, Dimitri was Countered with twice the strength. His shell cracked off the wall again, skull slamming into it.

"Again with the head," Dimitri groaned, hitting the floor with both feet. "Then let's do this." He tucked his head into his shell, and his whole body glowed with Power. He launched himself as the still-falling Sean.

Sean glinted white, and he braced, tanking the Skull Bash and deflecting the worst of it. Dimitri, slipping off Sean like soap in the shower, was tossed towards the ground and Sean fell after him, priming his paw again and he delivered another crack to the human-turned-wartortle.

Dimitri lashed out, braced against Sean's physical blows now but Sean was able to duck. An Aqua Tail was matched by another Aqua Tail, and Sean poked his nose with another Force Palm.

More like a Force Pawpad. Still hurt both of them, and Sean nearly broke that digit from the knockback.

Dimitri's nose was bleeding from the blast now, and he rubbed the blood away. "This is going nowhere, Sean!" he yelled. "How is fighting each other going to help?"

Sean fell into a position Keira had taught him, similar to her own. Dimitri gave him a dubious look.

"If I've learned anything about living as a pokémon, it's that things tend to make sense after we beat the crap out of each other."

"The furriness is getting to his brain," Dimitri sighed, raising his hands. Water glistened at the tip of a claw before he began to shoot sharp jets of water. Extremely small, but absurdly fast, Sean took on to a tassel and his ear and it sliced right through.

"I'm not playing games, Sean," Dimitri warned as the riolu recoiled, feeling himself begin to bleed. "I have been going easy on you thus far, but if you are going to persist in a pointless fight, I will make sure you regret it."

Sean's eyes, widened and fearful, suddenly narrowed and he returned to his position. "Bring it."

Dimitri sighed, and his whole hand began to glisten with water while he surreptitiously tucked the other one behind his back. "Since this is a dream, I probably can't hurt you. Maybe Keira is right, and this attack will just wake you up. I hope so, at least. Stay still, won't you?"

Sean would not. He began to dart from side to side, avoiding Dimitri's other hand, revealing itself to shoot those same jets of water from before. He was not the best shot, and Sean was able to duck and evade, acting erratically enough that Dimitri couldn't pin a shot on him.

"Stay still!" Dimitri yelled, a jolt of frustration, causing a spray of water to blast out. It hit Sean, but it was just a splash.

And a faint, but he did the splits and avoided a shearing jet that would have gone through his neck. Sean planted his paws and swung his legs, sending a double Force Palm to blast himself into the air.

Dimitri grinned and readied his bigger shot, now that Sean was prone in the air.

Sean used Copycat.

A jet of water from Sean was aimed behind him, propelling him forthwith that blast pushing him right out of the way of the massive stream. It blasted a hole through the ceiling.

"I knew it!" Sean yelled, only one person could break stuff here, flying downright for 'Dimitri' who only managed to gasp. He slammed into the wartortle with both paws outstretched, double Force Palm breaking bones.

Dimitri smashed into the wall, and it cracked as did his shell. It all began to crack.

He groaned as Sean powered up for a finishing blow.

"Enough," Dimitri growled, a floor of darkness snaring Sean. He rose up to his full height and kept on rising as his shadow lengthened and darkened the black floor all the more.

"I knew it," Sean repeated as Darkrai shed his disguise.

"How vexing you are, Sean," Darkrai said, brushing off the disguise as if it was a costume. "Truly human. You do not know when to quit. You do not know when to die. You do not know when to understand."

"So this is what Scout talks about when he's describing you," Sean replied, taking everything about Darkrai in front of him to memory. "The Darkrai of my region hide themselves away to avoid hurting others with their ability, but you would walk right into a town and make it your nest forever, wouldn't you?"

"The Darkrai of your region is little different to me," Darkrai replied. "In fact, the Darkrai of your region and I would have the same memory. Pelleas at least, they should all remember. How forgiving a world you must exist in, that your legendary Pokémon can feel safe enough to create more of themselves, dividing their power into multiple beings if only to have someone who understands."

"I also see what Scout means when he talks about you fishing for pity," Sean snarled. "I am not listening to anything you have to say!"

"I had thought to come here to work towards a peaceful resolution," Darkrai sighed. "To convince you to accept this. Already, Saniya has refused me, and I can already see your thick-headed resolution to block out anything you disagree with. Regardless, I will try anyway. THIS world is far safer than the one it is based on and even of your own home dimension. You are all safe here."

"No one is safe while you still exist to plot and plan!" Sean shouted. "Release EVERYONE from this nightmare!"

"You cry and demand like a spoiled little cub," Darkrai snarled back. "I grow weary of our discussion, Sean. But to prove that I am a doting caretaker, I'll give you what you want."

Darkness covered everything, and Darkrai vanished from view, but his voice lingered on.

"Look to the crescent moon if you really desire to go further."

The light stopped existing. Sean could not comprehend it. By the time he woke up, he couldn't remember the details of his clash with Darkrai, but he could remember his message.

A worried Team Go-Getters, Mawile, and Keira fussed over him. Dimitri was shouting something about Sean just vanishing on him, while the others were checking him for damage.

Sean was staring upwards though, to where the full moon hung heavily in the sky. "I have an idea."

---

Saniya flew.

She thought that was the case at least. It was hard to be sure if she was flying or falling with style. It was often the same thing with her.

She was in the void, of course. Where else would she be? Kalos?

No. The void. Or at least avoid representing the unfilled areas of The Dream. It was the darkness between space. The places undreamed about. It was the unpainted parts of a tapestry, able to be anything but currently nothing.

She wasn't a fan. No rotom possessing violently orange machines were in sight.

It could do with some sprucing up. A fern there. A splash of purple there. But instead, it was just dark. Not even pleasant dark with twinkling stars above, or a soft breeze, of the sound of her friends' breaths as they slept peacefully for the first time in a month.

She treasured those nights. The ones where she did not sleep, but instead watched after the others as they managed a night of rest undisturbed by confusing, but terrifying, nightmares.

She'd just guard them in their sleep, refusing to let anyone harm them again. Not Dialga. Not Darkrai. No one.

And she'd often listen to Wigglytuff singing in the night. She did not know Chatot very well, but she felt an odd connection to him and Wigglytuff, due to them sharing one common thread. Soothe.

She felt like she knew them thanks to listening to Wigglytuff's songs. Songs about adventure. About excitement. About soft moments. About difficult moment. About teaching others. About simply being together on a day that neither would remember.

He had sung to the grave, but also to anyone who had been awake to hear it. Everyone in the guild had at some point. Wigglytuff's voice tended to carry whether he meant for it to or not. She wouldn't be surprised if it was meant to, that he knew there were others listening.

His songs were lovely. Sometimes she heard ones that included Soothe in them as well. Those songs made her tear up.

These were soft memories, yet strong in her love for them. Singing was sometimes the only thing a poor pokémon in the Dark Future had to remind themselves that they were alive, that they were still here.

The memories were a light in this empty darkness, but as bright as it was, it was a candle to the ocean around her.

The void was a terrible place to be. To simply step into it was inviting risk, and to venture in was pointless. It was nothing. Absolutely nothing.

A normal pokémon could not handle such nothing. Even a legendary could not handle it for long. Saniya considered the story told of Cresselia, remembering finding the frozen moon dancer in the Dark Future. A mind that had touched oblivion, she didn't blame Cresselia for going insane.

Didn't mean she wouldn't pull all those feathers out for trying to murder her friends. But that would simply be revenge, didn't mean she couldn't understand or at least pity her.

She was crazy too, but not insane. Saniya decided there was a difference. And it was Saniya and Cresselia.

The memories were nice, and Saniya preferred to occupy her thoughts with positive memories. They were hardly the only memories she had, however, and as more and more of the darkness sunk around her, Saniya's thoughts turned darker.

She could almost see it metaphorically reflected in the deep of the darkness. And then she could almost literally see them playing before her eyes. An accelgor trying to kill her. The first pokémon that ever actually posed a threat to her. It was so fast. It was a great dirty Bug-type. And she was still so young in the ways of the world.

It had nearly killed her before Giratina had managed to startle it into slowing down enough that she could escape, roaring like the underworld itself had opened up to consume the beast.

She had cried for hours.

More memories touched her, long lost ones from a time that had never been. Weeping in loneliness, not being able to even cradle against Giratina as it was trapped on the other side of a mirror. Being so cold, so hungry, so tired.

She could remember trying to find the Time Gears herself but couldn't do it. Time was too damaged for her to pinpoint herself, as the damage to time messed with her sensitivities. They had to bring someone else who could take the gift, take the burden, without being connected to time like she was.

Arguing with Giratina for so long. Going nearly seven months without speaking to it, deciding she was right with her choice. The choice being Soothe. A pokémon, differently coloured just like Celebi herself was.

Giratina stated they needed a human to do it, Celebi had done her best to give Soothe the Dimensional Scream, but she just didn't know how, and Giratina wouldn't help her give it to a pokémon. Maybe it couldn't be given to a pokémon?

She remembered saying goodbye to Soothe, hoping beyond hope that she'd wake up in a world of light and laughter and enjoy a perfect victory.

She'd given Soothe such a stunning start to fix the case of missing time. The expedition to save time had begun, and Celebi knew Soothe would enjoy some exciting exploration escapades.

She didn't know that Soothe would barter in blood and that she was just a prelude to violence. The world was still in danger, and Celebi's stress as a pokémon of the future broke that wall between her and Giratina.

She accepted that perhaps she was wrong and decided to try it Giratina's way. It was no easy come, easy go, but Celebi knew who she was in the dark. It may not have been her time yet, but she was on her way.

She had found such a wonderful group of friends with Sean, Striker, Scout, and Guardian. She'd received her third name, this time from Sean, and never told anyone she had other names beforehand. She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

She was Saniya now.

"Oh Soothe," Celniya asked. "Why?"

"Why did you do it?" Sanibi asked.

"What are you doing?" Sanebiya asked.

"Why are you doing it?" Celiyabi asked.

"Who am I?"

"Who am I?"

Who am I?

Saniya flinched as the darkness cracked. It wasn't dark at all. It was simply filled with things she hadn't seen before. The closest thing was taller than Temporal Tower, its legs thin and rickety and rose up into a spherical body.

She gazed up at it in wonder before a light that didn't exist fell on her, and she saw more of them. Countless entities, their legs stretched so far, their bodies so far away, their hunger so close.

She began to fly away. She began to fall to new depths. She was far now, and she was farther still.

Something grabbed her, and she blasted it with pur, and it made a warbling sound that made her teeth rattle and her eyes jiggle in their sockets like her eyes were trying to escape her head.

The legs around her were cracking, splitting apart, as the bodies descended. Breaking into smaller legs, taking purchase on the nothing that was all around her. A proboscis extended, searching for her and she fell faster.

She had to reach the bottom at some point. The fetid pit of this nightmare world. This dream realm. There are no limits to dreams.

There were never any limits to dreams.

A Lost Second. Celebi. Saniya. There are no limits here.

"She lost the beings chasing her. They never existed in the first place. It's nothing but a result of the dreaming mind, your own terrors far eclipse anything another could form."

"Just ask Lucario. Ask what burdens she carries. I once asked if Lucario dreamed and if she knows a nightmare. I have my answer now."

The darkness broke again, but it turned into yet another darkness—a still landscape of muted colour and frozen nothingness.

She was in Treasure Town, among the pokémon she had come to know and adore. For the most part. Sunflora was there laughing with Corphish, Loudred, and Dugtrio. But Dugtrio was dead, and they were all frozen.

Rocks fell, rocks that would crush her body. She tried to blast them, but nothing worked. Saniya screamed, but the froze in place. Never to move again. She screamed again, empty cry falling on deaf ears.

There was no one to listen. They never do, do they? Simply smile and nod along, crazy Saniya, they sigh, laughing at you.

"No, no, no," Saniya sobbed, turning around, she wasn't there. She wasn't. She wasn't. She wasn't-wasn't-wasn't-

She was there, but it wasn't her. She was tied to a stake, but it wasn't her. Striker, Sean, Scout were tied to the execution poles, Guardian simply watching as a fire was lit, and they began to burn.

An eye appeared on a reflective surface behind her. "NO!"

Primal Dialga appeared, it attacked her, she was the enemy. She would die, and nothing could stop him. Saniya couldn't move fast enough, time did not obey.

Guardian was a Ghost-type, he could move.

Saniya gave a soft, weak, sound. "oh." As Guardian blocked the Roar of Time aimed for her. "n-no, guardian."

He turned his head back, in agony, a weak look of pleading forgiveness met her eyes before his eye darkened and he broke into the lifeless air, dissipating into nothing.

Not into light. Just into dust.

A puddle of something silvery revealed a twisting, serpentine, figure for a brief moment. "NO!"

They were in a cave. It was a terrible cave. She had only gone once, wanting to see where Chatot had died.

Drops of fetid water fell from the ceiling, drawing her eye to the roof where a monster laid. She screamed and leaves began to appear around her, ready to blast the creature to mulch.

Her Power wilted and the leaves died as Kabutops descended, scythe raised to cut her in half.

She saw Sean die.

The scythe of the kabutops, wreathed in a reeking, shadowy, smog impaling him through the chest before ripping itself out brutally. All she could hope was that Sean died quickly, heart bisected in two. Saniya felt something crack an surged, only to clasp onto nothing as there was never anything there.

A golden mask stared from beyond even the void, through a mirror. Saniya cried out again. "No!"

She closed her eyes, begging it to stop. But with her eyes closed, she could only see a pyroar, demonic in its form. Fur charred away to reveal bone as if it was a houndoom as well, or perhaps a pyroar that was burned to death.

The stink of smoke caused her to cough and her eyes to sting. The whole area was burning, trees, the grass, bushes and shrubs. It was all burning and she couldn't fly away, she couldn't. Someone needed help. Someone small, someone with coal-black fur.

Mane was lying motionless, charred and burned as the fire hungrily approached. She coughed, wheezing for breath and tried to levitate him out. But the darkness was choking her mind and body, he wasn't moving.

Saniya could only watch as the pyroar plodded forth lazily, maw burnt to a wretched skull as fire crackled in it. Two burning pits in the place of eyes stared into her as fire began to consume everything. She couldn't close her eyes, as they were already closed.

The fire reflected in the lights of dying eyes, was another being watched through them. "no!"

Saniya opened her eyes, she wasn't in a field of ash and death, she was in a cave. Another cave, not as drippy as the previous one but a massive lake instead. Stalagmites and stalactites met in congress over the lake as a gentle blue light illuminated the room.

She had heard the story, it wasn't just a story. But it could have gone a different way. Mesprit was down. Mane was down. And Rai had attacked Striker from behind. He took a bad hit, but he was okay in the end.

Saniya knew the story, no one was happy with Striker when it came up, but it had always ended well. She saw something else. Striker reacted slightly worse, edging his blade slightly further, the honed instincts that kept him alive in the Dark Future, causing him to make a bigger mistake.

Rai's eyes glazed over and he dropped motionless from the slash through his chest, his blood drenching the sand. Striker froze, he didn't mean to do it. It was a warning slash. It was a reflex. It was-

Worthless to Scout. His Night Slash went through the frozen Striker's chest, and he took vengeance. He was so terrifying she refused to look. Still, Saniya sobbed at the sight.

And she sobbed more as he was taken by the neck by Darkrai's right hand, back in the void, lifting Scout up as he dissolved into dull motes of light and then into nothingness. Each light has an eye appear ever-so-briefly within them.

"no."

She shook. She cried softly.

Darkrai approached calmly. "Seems like quite the imagination you have," he said, voice almost amused but carefully controlled. She cried harder at his gentle, terrible, voice.

"It doesn't have to be this way, you know?" he said, waving his hand. They were now in a land of light and wonder, Team Ion and Team Sunrise dancing around, getting along. Scout and Striker laughed together before Scout was picked up and tossed happily by Guardian.

Sean, Rai, and Mane raced to see who was the fastest with Quick Attack, Sean matching theirs with his Copycat manoeuvre.

Rhythm and Trill and Soothe drank tea together, pinkie's out, or feathers in Chatot's case, as Saniya knew was polite.

She sobbed until she shuddered wet, rasping, breaths.

"This is a world of no limits to those with the will to see it," Darkrai continued, waving his hands and they changed to the guild. Then to Pokémon Square. Then to Treasure Town. Then to Paradise. Then to Temporal Tower. Then to the reverse world. Giratina looked up sharply at them before they returned to the void.

"With an imagination like yours, your will and wit, there are no things you cannot achieve here," Darkrai crooned, edging closer. "You could do anything. You want Striker? You can have him. Want to watch Striker and Guardian on a date? You can see it. Want to revive Chatot? Befriend S-Soothe? Battle to your heart's content? Create the funniest play and laugh at the best jokes… it is all within your grasp, Saniya."

"I-I-I."

Darkrai began to approach. "Oh yes, you know that's what you truly want. No consequences. A world where you can do anything and no one can, or will even want to, speak against you. You will be queen, empress, a goddess even. Everyone will love you. And if you desire, everyone will hate you. It will be a tapestry of imagination, all to yourself. Anything you desire, anything at all."

Saniya lifted her head, tear-stricken face meeting Darkrai's eager gaze. "I-I-"

And then reality shook with a roar that would frighten Time and Space into behaving for once and let that poor shroomish go back to its family.

Darkrai was obliterated by the appearance of what a sane creature would view as a demon. But to Saniya.

"GIRATINA!"

Sobbing in relief, Saniya began to fly towards it, hoping to cling on and never let go. Giratina turned to her. "Who are you?" it demanded and Saniya's heart broke.

Face collapsing as that brief moment of hope and relief was shattered as yet another nightmare stabbed into her heart, Saniya SCREAMED.

Parts of the void around them began to crack into pink light before Giratina, mildly alarmed by this turn of events, called. "Stop! Who are you, and why do I dream of you?"

Saniya continued screaming for a moment, its words registering but the need to scream overpowering everything else.

Once her lungs were done trying to pull a Majin Buu, she blinked her aching eyes. "What?" she asked tearfully. "You've dreamed of me?"

Giratina curled around, its body in the serpent form Saniya only knew and nodded with its golden mask unchanging. "Yes," it replied, the tendrils that made up its 'wings' creeping around the void they were in. "I am aware that a paradox occurred to destroy a part of the timeline. And as Giratina, I can recall aspects of the paradox during the rare periods I sleep. I have dreamed of you, and yet you should not be here."

"I… I…" Saniya had no idea what to say. Her heart was pounding in her throat, and she wanted to scream everything. Everything about their last moments as parent and child: scream about how many times she had tried to contact it. Scream just in general.

But she didn't.

"You… you, and I was instrumental in saving the world. Time had been damaged to an irreparable degree by Darkrai, Dialga lost its mind entirely and became a vile beast. You and I brought together a team of pokémon to undo Darkrai's actions, even if we didn't know it was Darkrai who did it, by repairing the tower in the past before it was too late."

Giratina nodded, curling down to get closer to Saniya. "I see," it rumbled. Its voice was like a thousand shards of glass falling down a mineshaft. It was music to Saniya's ears, and she found herself tearing up again.

Another sob hit through her throat, and Giratina looked perturbed at her. "You appear emotionally unstable."

"Can you blame me, you big blind bastard?" Saniya yelled. "Do you have any idea what I was just witnessing now?"

"I saw it all," Giratina confirmed. "It is unwise to grow close to mortal Pokémon, Celebi. Their-"

"I've heard it all before," Saniya snapped. "From you even. I don't care."

Again, Giratina blinked. "You are a curious one, pink celebi. There are many questions I have. How you exist? What more happened in this lost timeline? Who was gathered to save time? But the one I am most curious about, one that you will answer. Why do I dream of you?"

Saniya was not a pokémon you told a secret that you wanted to keep too. She buckled easily. Even more so with a secret, she didn't want to keep.

"You… you taught me everything I knew," Saniya admitted, flushing slightly. "Guided me from the world you call your own. You could not exit it during the Dark Future, Dialga had prevented you from doing it, and your world kept what little remained of the world balanced so that we had a chance in the first place. Trying to leave would have doomed us."

"I could figure that much out myself," Giratina pointed out. "I am more than aware of the importance of the Reverse Distortion."

"We were together," Saniya said softly. "As Striker, Guardian, and I held Dialga off long enough for the paradox to take it. We remained together… like… we were together as the world ended and we all disappeared."

For a brief moment, there was a flicker of emotion over Giratina's face. No one knew it like she did, she could see the change where no one else would see through the impassive golden mask. But what emotion crossed its face, she didn't know.

Mourning? Regret? Confusion? She certainly felt confused.

"Giratina?" Saniya asked as it had stopped speaking. "Ever since I returned, granted another chance at existence by Arceus, I have tried to contact you. Over and over and over again. We were… close before. I could contact you through my mirror or even any mirror if I was desperate enough and you were listening. But I've been asking for months. Is this even you, or are you just another aspect of this dream?"

Giratina stared at her. "Darkrai was trying to convince me I could have anything in this dream realm," she continued. "There are a few things I want more than to have you back in my life. How can I believe that you are you?"

Giratina snorted. "I feel no need to prove my existence to you, but out of respect for your question, I will answer it."

It rose up, looming over her. She was not intimidated. "With the near-collapse of time, the Reverse Distortion has taken a staggering brunt of corruption to correct. You are aware of the importance of my world, correct?"

"Yes. It corrects wider-reality problems, attacks on reality, and I suppose that'd be changes to time? You never were clear on that."

Snorting again. "Seems I may be a bit of a bastard then." Saniya couldn't help but smile at that. "Dumping this problem on the past version of myself feels like something I would do, but I disdain that. Regardless, the sheer strain on reality has clouded my world to the brim with the corruption I have been working to undo. I have not noticed any calls to me, and if I did, I was too busy to answer them."

It loomed further over her, but again she was not phased. "Furthermore, I sleep very rarely. I have only dreamed of the change to time a few times, barely enough to understand. The only thing in common was a pink celebi in each one."

She smiled at that.

"I did not know you were attempting to contact me. However, lately, there has been a different reason." Giratina looked up to the void around them, it didn't seem so dark with another here now. "In my business to correct the distortions, I failed to notice a new reality growing like a tiny seed. The Reverse Distortion balances all worlds in its local dimension. In my urgency to correct one mistake caused by the inconsiderate Dialga, I failed to see another one brewing."

"So, this dream really is a whole new world?"

"Almost," Giratina answered. "It is like a bubble blown by a babe. It could pop easily, but it is growing firmer. It may even eclipse the world that those trapped here originally came from. But as I saw this, I tried to intervene. Yet, I found myself trapped."

Saniya frowned and Giratina did too. "Perhaps not unlike the trapping, you said I was locked in within that future time. My ability to even communicate has been jammed entirely by a titanic manipulation within Palkia's domain, a metaphysical barrier between the Reverse Distortion and the physical realm. I cannot enter Palkia or Dialga's domains directly from my own, only the physical realm. With this distortion in the way and blocking me, I have been entirely trapped and left blind and deaf as well."

"Then… then how are you here?"

"Because this stretched out a portion of Palkia's realm has become this false reality. Even so, I'm not truly here. You have delved so far down into this place that you have reached near the bottom of reality, you have nearly reached the Reverse Distortion. You are close enough that I can call out to you, as it were."

"You always did have quite the presence," Saniya sighed, an almost-smile on her face. "Giratina… it's nice to see you again."

Giratina stared at her curiously but accepted the comment without complaint.

"So… do you know where the origin point of The Dream is?"

"If you refer to this realm as The Dream, then yes."

Her heart leapt. "Can you show me?"

"That I cannot do," Giratina replied and Saniya's heart sunk. "I am not here, remember? Look closer at me." She did. It moved in the air oddly, static. The tendrils did not twist, they simply passed through, changing directions. When Giratina curled or uncurled, it simply flipped between the states.

"With this realm jamming me, all I can do is impart knowledge and advice. Palkia's domain is the origin point of The Dream that I can tell you for certain."

"We thought as much," Saniya said. "We're here in The Dream, or at least a couple pokémon are, to confirm that and find out where to go. The Spacial Rift!" she added. "Scout said that's a way into Palkia's dimension. Do you know where that is?"

"I can give you the location," Giratina said. "Directly as I do not know the local geography."

Saniya beamed before pausing. Giratina had given knowledge to her before, and it was never spoken. It was implanted in her mind.

"You have to put it directly into my head, don't you?" Saniya asked. Giratina seemed unsurprised that she knew that and nodded. "Ah…"

"You do not trust me," Giratina stated.

"I… I can't," Saniya said, chewing her lip. Her earlier point about Giratina being another trick rang through her mind like alarm bells. Who knows what Darkrai could get into with her in his domain, truly nothing could be entirely trusted.

But still… she had to try.

"I have something to ask you," Saniya said seriously. "If you can answer it… I'll trust you." She waited until it nodded and floated up to its head, leaning in to whisper the question as if the void itself had ears.

Giratina recoiled as soon as the words left her lips. "How do you…?" it began, stunned. Then composed itself. "What were we to each other?" it wondered, but Saniya didn't answer.

They stared at each other for a while before Giratina made a sound like a typhoon breaking apart. A sigh. "Forever."

Saniya nodded, new tears filling her eyes. She didn't wipe them away and carefully, awkwardly, Giratina lifted a tendril as if to wipe one away. But it wasn't there, and Saniya knew it.

"Give me the location now," she asked softly, and Giratina leaned in.

"Brace yourself." It breathed the knowledge through her. It was never a pleasant experience to take. She could feel parts of her physical brain, twisting to accept this violation into it without driving her crazier.

She breathed a heavy sigh once she knew. "Thank you. We will see each other again, Giratina."

Giratina raised its head in acknowledgement. "You are strong, Celebi. I believe we will see each other again.

She flew off. She had the location they needed, she just needed to get back now. And no void-born nightmare was going to try and break her this time.

She had what they needed. Now she simply had to complete the mission.

---

A meowth with dark fur and avoid that stood up to walk stared at each other in silence.

Amusement flickered in Darkrai's azure eyes at Scout singing his song and doing his greeting before it faded to something of a curiosity. He cocked his head slightly. "Hello, Scout."

Darkrai's head rose an inch. He already towered over Scout and floating to gain even more height, but by raising his head, he appeared to be gazing down on him more so than ever.

"Broke in that arm yet?" Scout asked, nodding to Darkrai's new right arm.

Darkrai's eyes twitched briefly into a narrow-glare before he rolled his shoulders. "I hope you are not being crude, Scout. No. This arm is merely a dream." He flexed the fingers on that arm. "My physical body went into shock for a time from your… disarming of me, on one… hand I am impressed, on the other I am disappointed."

Scout too was disappointed with the double-pun combo Darkrai just smacked him in the face with.

Darkrai gestured with his left hand. "Let us walk, since you seem ready to talk."

"I knew you'd be around," Scout said, turning around to follow Darkrai. "Waiting for me to be alone. I can't believe you waited for me to sing your own little song for you to show up."

"You overestimate yourself, Scout," Darkrai chuckled. "I was not following you like Raigeki and Mane trail after your tail, I had business with the others that have invaded The Dream first."

Scout frowned, insulted twice and worried once in one sentence from Darkrai. He didn't rise to the bait, however.

For a moment, he seemed annoyed, and the expression lifted Scout's heart. An annoyed Darkrai had to be a good thing.

Darkrai floated along serenely before chuckling. "It's like old times, isn't it?" he said, giving Scout a cheeky look. "You are a dream apparition, and I have two arms."

"Somehow I don't feel the nostalgia."

"But you admit there is something melancholic about it all?" Darkrai pressed. "Walking the trail to the beach? The guild standing strong behind you and good memories to remember?"

Scout turned his head slightly, glancing at Darkrai. The nightmare bringer was not looking at him anymore, staring off into the distance as they came upon the beach.

It was beautiful. Krabby blew bubbles that glistened in the dwindling light left by the sun below the horizon, the moon and stars twinkled merrily in a clear sky. The sounds of the ocean crashed and swayed, spilling and dragging sand back and forth.

It was a lovely sight, one Scout knew Rai would have loved to see. It was perfect. The bubbles hung glittering in the air like fallen stars, not too few to be wanting and not so many to overfill the scene. The water was as blue as the crystals in Crystal Cave, revealing shells, seaweed, and swimming pokémon.

The light of the moon touched the maroon horizon, laying down what looked like a bridge of starlight across the sea, a mysterious path to unknown shores.

Absolutely perfect.

Darkrai watched Scout's face closely as they stared out on the beach. There was an initial smile of joy at the sight before a flicker of loneliness flashed across his face until his smile faded and his eyes hardened. Perfection was not the truth.

"I have something I want to show you, Scout," Darkrai said, knowing nothing would be done here in front of his tapestry. He didn't extend his hand to Scout, he didn't need to. Their surroundings blurred and Scout blinked before the world righted itself again.

This was The Dream. There was nothing Darkrai could not do here.

Nothing at all. There was nothing he could not do. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Nothing.

The transportation was as smooth and gentle as anything Scout had experienced and he glanced around in a surge of panic, looking for Cresselia, or Darkrai, or horrors in general.

Instead, his eyes fell on an overgrown entryway. An ancient doorway, built of metal, crafted by a species long gone from this world. It still stood, however millennia it had been. Vines curled around it and grass grew upon it. The metal was rusted and peeled from exposure to the elements, and only small pieces of it could actually be seen beneath the growths.

Scout looked to Darkrai suspiciously, but a bizarrely pleasant smile was on Darkrai's face. Not much of his mouth could be seen, of course, but there was a softness to his eyes, relaxation to his posture, and a smile on his face.

"You are not in any danger here, Scout," Darkrai said, rather amused by Scout all over again. "No one is in danger here. Not in The Dream. And certainly not in this garden."

He floated forward and ducked through the entry. Scout followed carefully, and they stepped out into a field of flowers.

Flowers bloomed everywhere. Yellow, purple, white, red, and more, flowers turned their heads up to where the sun shone. Scout was pretty sure the sun shouldn't be shining here, but that was the least of things he was noticing.

There were Pokémon. A lot of pokémon. Dancing and playing, laughing and having a good time with each other. Some were chasing, others were curled up together, there were young pokémon being taught simple tunes to sing or play by stamping their paws.

Scout could see Normal-type's and Fire-type's. Dragons and Ghosts. Psychic-type's, wrestling Fighting-type's, gliding Flying-type's. There were so many pokémon, all enjoying themselves in this massive place.

It was ringed with a thick wall of trees on both sides, but not so tightly compacted that no one could move through the trees. The flowers bloomed farther than Scout could see, going down a gentle slope until it was too far to follow, or it turned a different direction. He wasn't sure.

"What… is this?" Scout asked.

Despite Darkrai being a dark blot among the flowers, no one seemed to notice him or Scout. Someone ran by Scout, they avoided him but didn't seem to consciously do it.

"This is the garden," Darkrai answered. Scout gave him a filthy look. "I'm serious. This place doesn't have a formal name, none of the pokémon here ever deemed it necessary to do so. It's the garden, that's simply what it is."

Scout turned to stare out again, seeking to see the silent horror he saw everywhere else. He couldn't see it. "Why are we here?"

"Here feels like the most appropriate place for me to make my argument," Darkrai explained, Scout turning back to him with a disbelieving look.

"You still think I'm going to listen to anything you have to say?"

"Yes," Darkrai stated, utterly certain. "You called for me. You asked me to come to you. You can't harm me here, you can only speak to me, and so that is what we are going to do. I want to say my piece, all of it, and you are here to listen. Yes?"

Scout stared at him, expression firmly in the expression of NO. But he didn't say it.

Darkrai took that as a yes.

"After I returned to life, this slaughtered body being reanimated by the corrosive influence Soothe forced into it, I did not immediately seek to create a world of darkness," Darkrai explained. "I sought help at first, frightened and confused after my ordeal."

He shook his head. "Even were I not a Shadow Pokémon, it would have been futile. The previous Darkrai protected the Time Gear because it was far away from any sane pokémon. It was somewhere where he could do something good for the world, without subjecting the pokémon within it to his malign aura."

Scout wasn't sympathising. Yet.

"But I did not stay. I was too afraid, I thought I was injured, not reborn, and sought help from anyone. Even just comfort, perhaps. However… Bad Dreams… pah." Darkrai scoffed. "Such a juvenile name for my ability. Those affected experience horrific nightmares preying on their worst fears, insecurities, and experiences."

Darkrai shook again. "Nothing can 'turn it off'—no Gastro Acid. No item. No force of will. Where I am, it simply is as well."

"Cresselia," Scout retorted.

Darkrai snorted at him. "Cresselia, he says," he spat back, taking on an affixing of Scout's voice to mock him. "You act as if that's never been tried before. We are opposites, not magnets. We don't cancel each other out, it simply causes a frustrating loop. A nightmare turns into a dream then back into a nightmare and then into a dream. It's even more exhausting for those experiencing it."

Darkrai lowered himself to the ground. His skeletal hands touching the soft grass and he braced himself, lowering himself to a sitting position. It looked awkward to Scout, but Darkrai didn't seem to mind. He continued his story. "Understandably, however, I was rejected. My appearance is frightening, and my ability is worse."

"None would help me," he sighed. "And I do not blame them for it, not anymore. Needless to say, a foolish, desperate, action left me critically wounded again, and I fled, seeking to hide somewhere quiet so I could die alone." He looked up, glanced back to the entrance. "I thought something as old as that would be abandoned."

Scout's eyes widened slightly, and he looked back to the pokémon of the garden.

They sat in silence until Darkrai continued. "Despite my… appearance. Despite my anger. Despite what I am, this place took me in. This is no town, no money is used here, but it is a peaceful community. Something between civilised and wild pokémon, they are. They saved my life and took me in as one of their own."

There was a smile on his face, but it looked strange. It took Scout a few moments to realise it looked strange because it looked like a real smile, not the grimace that Darkrai twisted his face into normally.

"Even when my ability ran havoc, I was not ejected. Even when the hunger that lurks within me, that I keep as controlled as I can, reared its ugly head, they did not send me away. The kindness of the pokémon here saved my life… which saved them as well."

Darkrai gazed up at the sky again. "I admitted what I was. That the recent sleep problem was my fault. They did not ask me to leave. They worked with me, some sought other means to rest, pokémon spoke about sleeping while I was away, ultimately… I left on my own accord. I did not wish to put the pokémon here through suffering, I slipped away in the night and never returned to darken their doorstep."

"And yet you still tried to destroy time?" Scout demanded.

Darkrai gave a wispy chuckle. "One positive experience isn't enough to sway a monster like me," he replied. "Yes, I was grateful, but I am still a Shadow Pokémon. And no words can communicate how much I loathe It. You do not understand, but maybe you will if you'll listen."

Darkrai rose up, excited to get to his argument. "Do you not understand, Scout? In this world… we ALL win. Look at the pokémon here, LOOK at them."

Scout had been looking.

"This is what I meant by the words that those that deserve it would be rewarded. And those that don't aren't even aware of it. The pokémon here that helped me, the pokémon everywhere even those who harmed me, they have eternal life… they are free of pain, age, or care. You've seen it for yourself now, you cannot doubt what your own eyes see."

He swept his hand in a dramatic glide, clenching his fist. "Every day is a new day, even if they are doing the same things. They do not know this is a dream, so they are immune to the exhaustion of immortality. Think about it, Scout!? Immortality for all, but without the consequences of it. No madness, no sickness, no injury that makes eternal life an eternal hell."

"Until everyone starves to death in the real world," Scout snapped.

Darkrai chuckled. "That's the beauty of it, Scout. The Dream has slowed the metabolic processes of those in it. Yes, your bodies will eventually expire, but The Dream is real enough that even as their frail bodies die, they will remain here. No knowledge of what has happened. This is perfect, for truly everyone wins. Myself. You. Everyone here. Even Cresselia. She gets her world of silence, and I get my world of control."

"A prison is a prison, no matter how much space there is and how pretty the chains are," Scout argued, but his voice was weakening. "Just because they don't know they're trapped, doesn't mean that they are not."

"Once The Dream fully eclipses the world, and everyone is here, it won't be a prison," Darkrai murmured. "It will BE the world. The world of excitement. The world of wonder, of joys, of adventure. Hurt will be a memory, every day will be new. Scout, listen to me. Everyone wins. Can you truly say eternal life without the consequences of it is something that you will refuse?"

"This isn't living. This isn't even surviving. This is barely even existing." Scout's expression slipped into something odd. His own words reminded him of the Dark Future. "But… of all the things you could have done to a world under your control, this place is surprising."

The pokémon here did look happy, there was no awareness of where they truly were, but their eyes… Scout could not tell if they were blank or not, and that was scaring him.

"And what right do you have to refuse on behalf of the entire world?" Darkrai asked. "Let me… explain how and why everyone wins this way."

He raised his hand, counting his fingers. "First and foremost. The world wins. It will remain safe. No more threats can harm this place as I will be a benevolent guardian. Sickness, death, misery? It will be a thing of a distant memory, like a dream you forget upon waking up."

He cast a hand to those who were playing. "I am not puppeteering everyone into their actions, that would be unnecessary and overly complicated. They are still automatous. They simply have a guardian. The previous Darkrai could only think of protecting a Time Gear to help the world, I am protecting the entire world and everyone in it."

He raised another finger. "Secondly, I win. I know those words fill you with instinctive revulsion, but this is not a bad thing. I seek a world that I control. Whether it be a world of darkness or not. I seek to control so no one can hurt me. And because I know there are entities that would do far more damage to it if they slipped in any further. No one can die here, Scout, so the Shadow-born hunger within me will be curtailed forever. I will have beaten It."

Darkrai paused. "You do not realise the true scope of the threat Shadow Pokémon present. You look at the minutia, the threats as they come rather than the overarching problem. You do not… grasp the implications of what I was stopping with the Dark Future."

Darkrai scoffed out a bitter sound. "The plans of deranged monsters far more twisted than I. To have beaten it for good, I had done it. And then you all undid it. I almost wonder if She had a part in that…"

He gazed at Scout for a long moment before raising another finger. "But I digress. Cresselia too wins. Entirely insane due to knowing oblivion, she seeks to kill everyone and everything. But by transporting everyone to The Dream, they are safe. She will end your bodies and physical forms, but she won't come here. She will have a world of silence, as I have a world of control. She does not truly harm anyone, as she would not do if she was sound of mind, but still gets what she wants. Yet another side of everyone winning."

Scout sighed tiredly. "Why are you doing this again?" he asked. "Why do you argue your point, offer rewards, present it so nicely? What's stopping you from changing your mind and turning things into a nightmare world later? You think I will just believe that because things look so nice now that it doesn't mean that can't change later?"

Darkrai met his eyes. "The only one who does not win is The Shadow. And the monster that fashions itself as its oracle. This has always been my true goal, in the end, now I understand. Absolute victory comes with an absolute loss. It could not win in the Dark Future, too many pokémon were lost. This way is even more elegant. This is not simply 'the bad guy' winning, Scout. This is stopping something so much worse."

He paused for a moment, gathering words. "I know what you know, now," Darkrai said. "Star Cave and Saniya later were able to reveal the truth of you. I could not have guessed something like that, and I wonder how you could possibly know the things you know in such a way. It sounds…." Darkrai trailed off and shrugged. "Rather unsettling."

Azure eyes stared right through Scout. "I've wondered why I feel something of a… kinship with you. Never before did I imagine I would seek the company of another so often. Not merely to manipulate you, but to talk. I wondered why I wanted to tell you the truth, and I have worked it out now. You are an aberration."

Scout didn't respond to that.

"As am I," Darkrai continued. "You… you do not belong in the story you understand, and yet you are still here. While I am a legendary pokémon that was somehow corrupted by The Shadow. That should be impossible. Part of the reason we resurrect was to circumvent being corrupted if we were ever slain by a Shadow Pokémon or absorbed too much of its essence in other ways. I should not be a Shadow Pokémon, and yet I am."

Darkrai smiled. "I find some sort of comradery in the knowledge that I am not the only outlier in existence. And I hope you can as well, even if it's with me."

"You've said… The Shadow, a few times?" Scout asked calmly. "What do you mean?"

Darkrai hissed. "The Shadow is the problem. It is an entity, a force beyond your understanding, and even I can barely fathom It. It seeps through the cracks in reality, unable to create, only able to change and corrupt. It was contained by humanity, humanity itself is capable of absorbing its foul essence, and their bodies are suited to containing it better than a pokémon's body which would be corrupted for sure."

Darkrai smirked. "Maybe that's what they were for? Maybe they simply evolved naturally to contain it? Perhaps that varies from reality to reality, but there were supposed to always be humans: a million-million bodies, each containing and drawing that foul essence away from vulnerable pokémon. Spread so thin that It cannot affect even the humans that it is absorbed into. In a species so tenacious to survive that ending them all would be the notion of a madman."

Scout took a sharp breath. "AZ," he breathed.

Darkrai nodded. "From the memories I have from a previous Darkrai, going back so very long ago… I remember his partner Pelleas… so long ago. And perhaps… no, it is laughable to suggest that. But… Arceus-Zygarde slew humanity in one timeline and created this world. With his action, from a Shadow Human, if such a thing is possible, he opened up the world to It."

He floated silently for a moment. "You've heard Saniya rant about the weakness the legendary pokémon have in comparison to what we used to be?" Scout nodded. "That is why. We all gave up a portion of ourselves, of the Power that we are, to contain it in humanity's stead. But only barely, and it gets through regardless, to be contained by the world as bizarre labyrinths of infection."

"Do you want me to purify you?" Scout asked. "Is that what this is all about?"

Darkrai chuckled. "It would make sense, wouldn't it?"

Scout frowned. Darkrai rose up again, ready to move once more. "I would leave you with a thought, Scout. This world IS safe. Safe from those that would seek to undo it and its inhabitants. Safe from the plans of true monsters. Think about what this dream is before you seek to end it."

He moved to leave, but Scout stopped him. "I want to ask you two things," he said, and Darkrai turned back.

"Yes, Scout?"

"What is your name? Your real name? Since you know mine."

Darkrai blinked, that was rather bold. He paused for a moment before nodding. "Dreams of Darkness," Darkrai answered, giving a chuckle at Scout's perplexed expression. "Lucario changed how pokémon name each other, but I still prefer the old way. Call me old fashioned if you must. A pokémon like I have three words to describe ourselves as our True Name. Saniya may be the same."

Scout shelved the question that spawned for later since he'd only asked for two and didn't want Darkrai to ignore the next one on a technicality. "You are a Shadow Pokémon, and you say that The Shadow is some actual entity with intelligence."

"Of a kind, perhaps. Intelligence as we understand intelligence to be, I am not so sure about."

"That wasn't the question," Scout snapped. "Just a statement. If you are a Shadow Pokémon and you admit that Its… affliction affects you. That It turned you into this psychopath. That It influenced you, no matter what… how can you say that THIS is stopping Its plans?"

Darkrai stilled. Scout continued, more questions technically, but both were beyond jumping to technicalities. This was all the same thing he wanted to ask, just more ways to phrase it. "How can you say that this dream is not what It wants? How can you be certain that you aren't playing exactly into what It wants? Are you really stopping It? Or are you just doing the work for it?"

All movement stopped. Not just in Darkrai, but everything. Only for a moment, though. Darkrai flinched back as if he'd just be slogged in the face by a metal bar. "I-I," he stuttered, eyes going wide and crazed. "No that's… I…." He turned around and fled, disappearing as fast as possible.

---

I hope this nice, long, chapter makes up for my month-long absence!

At long last something that has been being hinted and teased at for ages has been revealed! Why the legendary pokémon are weak. Why humans are important. And a confirmation of sorts that there is something bigger behind Shadow Pokémon. There was another reveal too, although it was only heavily implied rather than outright stated. Good times. I've been nervous about this reveal, but I always am for the bigger stuff!

Hope you've enjoyed it all. My placement is done. I will be a fully-fledged registered nurse soon!