A/N: Hello, my lovely readers! I hope you enjoy this latest chapter! I had a lot of fun writing it!

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokemon, but this weird story idea is mine.

"To spare oneself from grief at all cost can be achieved only at the price of total detachment." Erich Fromm

Chapter 18: Race Against Time

Raven knocked Kat back into the field with an emotionless expression. Kat's body rolled slightly upon impact. She slowly looked up at the gray-eyed guardian and noticed the red in her eyes was spreading. Her bloody eyes gave so signs of how she was when she first encountered the two guardian grunts. Kat was on the ground, looking up at Raven tauntingly. She felt as though she won.

"You're too late! I sent the message. There's nothing you can do!" Kat said triumphantly.

For a moment, Raven maintained her emotionless expression. In the next, Raven was seething in rage. The marks on her eyes began to glow ominously as her urge to kill her target intensified. Kat gulped at the intensity of her eyes. It was only then she realized the severity of the trouble she was in. When Raven picked up on her fear, she made a devious, seemingly evil smirk.

"Nothing I can do? You underestimate me. Enjoy your new life in the Distortion Zone…" Raven murmured viciously.

"AHHHHHHH!" Kat screamed as Raven lunged at her in an instant and dislocated her head. Kat's body crumpled on the ground immediately.

Raven looked down at the now deceased woman with little remorse. She picked up the camera-like phone Kat used for the recording and placed it in her pocket. She was trying to scan her mind on what to do next, but her thoughts were interrupted when she heard someone right behind her.

"Raven…?" Marge gasped when she sensed Raven at her most powerful. She sensed Raven's true marks being out and it got her slightly nervous. She remembered the Hybrid Purge and what dusk guardians relinquishing themselves to their marks would do upon seeing a person. Although she was wondering why Raven was here, she focused on the looming threat Raven possessed.

"…" Raven said nothing to the old lady as she glared at her. Marge noticed she was hesitating to attack or threaten her, so there was some part of her that was still there.

"Raven, listen to me. Snap out of it. Don't let your instincts run you. You're stronger than you think." Marge said.

"…" Raven closed her eyes and held her head in pain. She recognized the voice, but she didn't know from where. She was shaking her head wildly. Marge looked hopeful at the dusk guardian. Raven had better control than what she remembered.

"Fight it! I know it's harder to control yourself as you kill more people, but I know you can do it!" Marge encouraged.

Raven suddenly relaxed. She opened her eyes and seemed like she didn't recognize Marge. Her eyes were glowing red subconsciously.

"I'm not as strong as this woman thinks I am. Everything must die." Raven thought coldly. She didn't know who this woman was, so she created a bone club as a weapon. Marge sweatdropped. Raven breathed, "I see nothing but an old corpse in front of me."

"Oh dear. The shadow of her mark is too strong for her, but I notice she's having better control of her instincts compared to a decade ago. If only she didn't see herself as awful, then her aura would respond in a more positive way." Marge thought sadly. She then said while repeatedly tapping her staff into her other hand, "I don't want to do this, but I will knock some sense back into you."

With that, the two clashed fiercely.

Raven looked at the old lady viciously. She was frustrated at the strength the old lady had. Marge had her eyes closed, but wasn't giving in to the younger guardian's pressure. She was frowning slightly because of the situation itself. Raven eventually won the deadlock and pushed her back. Marge slid on the ground, but wasn't deterred.

The elderly guardian quickly reacted to Raven's next attack. Raven shot several aura spheres at her in succession. Raising her staff, she made it and her mark glow green. A small forcefield formed around her and protected her from all the strikes. She then stuck her staff on the ground and made a taunting grin at Raven. Marge had both hands on her staff, facing Raven. She didn't seem too impressed. The grin worked.

Raven hated the cockiness of this lady and wanted to overpower her. She shot a blast of dark aura toward the old lady, but it did nothing to break Marge's guard. The forcefield looked just as well as before and it baffled Raven. The dark-haired guardian decided to let go of her pride and focus on what the old lady was trying to do instead. Raven concentrated on Marge and her body language.

Though Raven was under the influence of her marks, her observation skills were still exceptional. She could see Marge drawing energy from somewhere, but wasn't sure of the source. She noticed Marge's defensiveness and seeming need to be on the ground. Then, it hit her.

Marge noticed that Raven hadn't moved for a little while and wondered if Raven was picking up on her style of fighting. After all, Raven hadn't attacked her again after the dark aura blast. Raven's eyes began to glow an intense red. She put her hands on the ground. Then, she concentrated her dark aura on the ground and toward Marge. Marge winced in pain from the ground now being tainted with dark aura. The forcefield disappeared and the green glow on Marge's mark disappeared. Raven smirked at this.

Marge felt dark aura-like cracks temporarily on her arms and shivered at the sight. She didn't know Raven to be able to do that before. She frowned at the revelation. She quickly had her arms glow blue to cleanse herself of the dark aura she was exposed to. Marge still appeared drained afterward.

"Even if she temporarily doesn't remember my style of preferring to use the ground, she picked up on it again quickly. I trained her too well…" Marge observed.

Raven quickly approached Marge now that her guard was down to swipe her down. Or so… that was what Raven thought.

Marge's clover mark began to glow pink as she got Raven where she wanted. She quickly dodged Raven's attack. Raven gasped as she realized Marge baited her to come close to weaken her. Raven hated how clever her opponent was. She found herself weakening the more Marge's mark was glowing pink.

"The Charm emulation worked beautifully. Now to snap her out of this…" Marge thought solemnly.

Raven felt like she didn't have the energy to move or do much of anything. Marge stuck her staff on the ground as it also began to glow pink. Raven felt herself weakening more and more until she collapsed on the ground, unable to attack for much damage. She scowled at the old lady.

"I know I can't directly beat you in a one on one at my age, but I can weaken you to where you're harmless. Now, I'm going to say this again. Fight the influence." Marge said in a strong voice. She really didn't want to hurt Raven.

Raven, despite being weakened by Charm, was slowly beginning to get up. Her eyes showed no signs of grey as they were completely red with black moons for irises. Though Marge couldn't see Raven's eyes, she sensed something severely off with her marks. Marge gasped and for the first time since interacting with Raven, she was legitimately nervous. She'd never seen a person with the Blood Moon mark have their mark change like this and become completely black. Marge knew talking could no longer get through to Raven. Raven was grinning creepily.

"Harmless…? Why do people always underestimate me? Old lady, you've made me angry." Raven said as she threw a punch toward Marge. Marge, despite feeling anxiety, showed an outward unwavering stubbornness on her face. She took the punch with her right hand. Raven widened her eyes at this, then wailed in pain when Marge twisted her hand. Marge made Raven go down on her knees despite being significantly shorter.

"I've had enough. I tried not to hit you, but you've left me no choice. This is going to hurt you more than it hurts me." Marge said while picking up her cane. With all of her might, she slammed Raven's head with her cane. Raven wailed in agony from the impact.

"Ow!" Raven said in pain, but her eyes were still red with black moons. Marge sighed as she decided to double her efforts.

"Snap out of it!" Marge screeched. She continued to whack Raven on the head progressively harder. Each hit had Raven's eyes slowly turning back to grey.

"Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! OUCH!" Raven screamed each time she got struck by Marge until the last hit had her stunned on the ground. After a few moments, Raven sat up and held her head. She had her eyes closed as she tried to reorient herself. Raven groaned, "Agghh… my head…"

"Raven… you truly here? Not that shadow of yourself?" Marge asked, somewhat hopeful. When Raven opened her eyes, she got her answer.

"Ugh… Marge?" Raven said, somewhat shakily. Her grey eyes were looking around, confused. The marks in her eyes returned to her hands as horn-like shapes. Marge smiled warmly.

"Haha! Got through! Are you feeling okay?" Marge asked in concern while inspecting Raven. The dusk guardian seemed horribly confused, but not too hurt. Marge was glad. She decided to try and jog Raven's short term memory by asking, "Why are you here and with the mark of the Blood Moon exposed? You never like using your real marks."

"Why… am I… here?" Raven took a moment to think about what she would want to be here. Then, the last few hours hit her like a truck. She quickly got up. She said in a panic, "I have to get back to Aurora! Her Rotom might be able to intercept the message! I have to hurry!"

Raven was about to leave, but she was stopped in her tracks by the now concerned Marge. Marge's normally mischievous face was looking at Raven with slight annoyance for her attempt to leave after her actions. Raven sighed and knew there was no getting out of this.

"Raven, you're not going anywhere until you explain yourself," Marge said in such a serious tone that it caused Raven to shiver.

Raven decided to explain everything up to this point, from listening in on her conversation with Ash and Aurora to know where Serena would go to her following the two suspicious people into the fields. She explained that the two grunts sent a video of Alice and Serena together. Raven also apologized for attacking her. Marge laughed and told her not to sweat it. Raven made sure her intentions clear: to make sure one of the Zurui bosses doesn't see how Serena looks. Marge was puzzled by this, but had an idea why Raven was so determined. She knew this was important.

"Hmm. I see," Marge said while pondering. "Considering the two people you killed were Zurui grunts, I will bury them and leave Serena ignorant of our encounter. I don't condone you killing again, you know."

"I will do what I must for those I care about. If that's selfish of me, then so be it." Raven said in a low voice.

"Though I commend your determination, it's unfortunate you're still viewing the world from one lens," Marge said while shaking her head. She noted, "I will still tell Alice what happened here, though. You seem to want to protect Serena from the shadows."

"I would like that very much. Thank you." Raven said while bowing in respect.

"No need to thank me. Go. I wish you luck in foiling the Zurui. Here." Marge threw up a Poké Ball and revealed she had an Alakazam. Marge said, "Alakazam, teleport Raven to Aurora and then come back for breakfast."

"Of course, my lady." Alakazam bowed with respect as he replied.

"Thank you for everything…" Raven was grateful that Marge wasn't angry at her and willing to help her out. Raven waved Marge off as she teleported with Alakazam back to Midnight City.

Marge put her hands behind her and began to walk back to the breeding facility in deep thought. She noted how much Raven had changed from the last time she saw her. She seemed more motivated to help others instead of herself and she seemed to have gotten stronger. Marge was thankful for the change, but sighed at how… ominous… Raven's marks appeared when she had been pressured hard enough. Marge decided to look into what that meant after she had Serena and Alice leave.

"Well, that's the most excitement I've had in a while. I hope Raven succeeds in her quest. The Zurui is such a bothersome group…" Marge said to herself.

Raven was teleported right behind Aurora fighting what seemed to be a challenger to the gym. Raven noticed she was using her Charizard in her regular form. Aurora was so engrossed in the battle that she didn't notice Raven come back behind her. Her opponent seemed to be a Midnight City native youngster. She had bright middle length wild red hair with orange highlights. She had excited red eyes. The girl had on a pink sleeveless top with a red jacket and loose jeans. She also had black fingerless gloves.

In front of the girl was an Arcanine. The Legendary Pokémon seemed just as pumped as his trainer, but he seemed very tired. Chari looked like she hadn't broken a sweat yet.

Aurora brought out her hand and said, "Chari, use Dragon Rush to finish this!"

The youngster said, "Dodge that and use Wild Charge!"

Chari punched her fists together with a grin and formed a blue dragon-like aura around her. Chari then flew toward Arcanine and sought to slam her body into the opponent. Arcanine was about to dodge as his trainer wanted, but Aurora already had an idea of where she would dodge to.

Aurora's eyes glowed yellow for a quick second. She smirked and said, "Sharp turn left!"

Arcanine was surprised to see the Charizard shift her momentum so quickly. He hissed in pain when Chari slammed her body into him. The force of the attack was so great that Arcanine was knocked into the wall with squiggly lines for eyes. Chari stretched her wings out wide in triumph. Aurora gave her partner a high five in slight celebration. The girl had her mouth wide open both in awe and excitement.

After petting Chari on the head and returning her, she used her aura grip to get Arcanine out of the wall and lied him on the ground. Then, she sat in a pretzel shape, closed her eyes and concentrated. The Legendary Pokémon's wounds were beginning to go away. The girl eyed Aurora's technique in wonder. She was grateful Aurora took the time to even do this for her. After a few minutes, Arcanine was full of energy again. He sat beside his trainer.

"Woah… I don't see people aura sense that quickly! I gotta get my reaction time to be just as fast as yours. You're so amazing!" Helia said while being right under Aurora. Her eyes were sparkling in excitement, but she didn't seem to notice how uncomfortable Aurora was getting. Aurora politely moved away from the young girl and sweatdropped.

"Thank you for the kind words…" Aurora said with a mix of an embarrassed and nervous laugh. The girl peered behind Aurora and noticed a black-haired woman with an Alakazam next to her. She made an elongated gasp.

"Raven! I was looking for you!" The girl exclaimed. Aurora turned around and noticed Raven there as well. She had been so focused on the girl that she hadn't noticed. She thought of Raven having an Alakazam as strange, but didn't think much of it.

"Um… who are you…?" Raven asked.

"My name's Helia. I want to battle the strongest trainers in the region and eventually take over my dad's gym in Autumnwood City. I wanted to see if I usurp your position as strongest gym leader." Helia stated.

"You're Helios's kid?" Raven blinked her eyes in surprise. She thought Helios's daughter was younger than this girl. Helia appeared to be a thirteen year old to Raven instead of ten. Raven scratched her head for not keeping track well enough.

"Yep! I know I have a lot to learn still, but I know I can do it!" Helia said, pumped up. Raven sweatdropped at the energy this girl had.

"That's an ambitious goal and I commend it. Aurora, how was your battle with her?" Raven asked, hoping to move the conversation along.

"She's pretty strong, but she isn't at your level yet," Aurora said. Helia seemed a bit bummed out to hear this. Her earlier excitement vanished.

"Aww… I'll come back at a later point, then." Helia said with slumped shoulders. She started to walk out of the gym, but Aurora stopped her by placing a hand on her shoulder. This prompted the child to look up at the lady.

"Just because I don't think you're ready to face Raven, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try still. You may very well prove me wrong." Aurora said with a gentle smile. Raven was beginning to get more anxious. She didn't want to be rude since Helia seemed to be very impressionable, but she was more concerned about the Zurui than a child.

"Aurora…" Raven whispered to get her friend's attention, but it was fallen on deaf ears.

"Really?" Helia said with renewed vigor. Aurora nodded and smiled warmly at the orange-haired lass.

"Yes. Don't let someone deter you so easily. Reach for the stars and go for it!" Aurora said while pointing to the ceiling. With a bit of her aura, she created an aura sphere, aimed it upward, then destroyed it before it could damage the gym. Small sparkles formed from the explosion. Helia seemed enthralled by the sight. She had a large open smile on her face as she looked around and tried to catch some of the sparkles.

Raven groaned internally. Precious time was being wasted.

"Aurora," Raven said a bit louder, but Aurora's attention was still on Helia.

"Thank you, Miss Aurora!" Helia said as she bowed in respect to the raven-haired, braid bearing lady.

"Not a problem," Aurora said. Raven had enough of this. She needed to get Helia out of the gym if she had a chance to intercept the grunts' message.

"Aurora!" Raven yelled out. Fortunately for her, it was enough to get Aurora's attention this time.

"Yes, Raven?" Aurora said as she turned her body to face Raven. She looked at the Alakazam a bit more closely. She noticed this Alakazam had a small scar on his torso and noticed this Pokémon looked aged. Then, it hit her. Aurora gasped, "Wait… is that Meema's Alakazam?"

"I need your help with something. It's urgent." Raven said in a serious tone. Aurora's smile went away as she looked at her friend with a grave expression.

"I… see." Aurora had a feeling that Raven found something wrong when she checked in on Serena. Aurora could tell this was important to her. Raven turned to Helia.

"I normally don't mind taking on challengers, but right now I'm in a bit of a hurry. I don't do psychic types, so if I'm borrowing someone else's, then I'm really busy. Come back in a few hours, kid. I'll be sure to battle you." Raven said with somewhat of a sad voice. She didn't like declining challengers, but Serena was more important to her.

"Okay…" Helia said, somewhat disappointed, but not deterred. The girl then said to Aurora, "Thank you taking the time to battle, Miss Aurora! Maybe one day, I'll get to beat you."

"Keep at it, but… I don't plan to go down until my son has had a chance to battle me in the league. With that motivation to do my best, I won't lose. Work hard to become better than me, alright?" Aurora stated. Helia nodded at the challenge. She wouldn't back down.

"Oooh, the thought of that makes me excited! I'll be back! Count on it!" Helia said as she ran out of the gym. Her blood was pumped and she was excited to battle later on. The girl grew determined to become just as strong as her dad one day and was determined to do so.

"Take care!" Aurora said as she waved the girl off. Raven sighed in relief that Helia was gone.

"Aurora, I need you to get your Rotom." Raven said immediately after the girl left. Aurora raised an eyebrow.

"What happened at the facility?" Aurora asked. Raven started to explain how she intercepted two grunts that spied on Serena and Alice. She also explained how one of the grunts was successful in sending the recording. Aurora listened to Raven intently, but noticed she was being vague. Aurora asked, "Why does it matter that the Zurui doesn't see how Serena looks?"

"It's important, alright?" Raven said while looking away.

Aurora's eyes suddenly turned red as she hissed at her friend with annoyance. Raven gasped at Aru being out. Aru stepped in Raven's face with a scowl. They were barely a few centimeters from each other. Aru then grabbed Raven by her poncho and lifted her so they were looking at each other face to face. Since Aru was taller, Raven couldn't feel her feet on the ground. Raven gulped. Aru looked like she was being held back from doing more by her balance as she noticed a yellow gleam in her eyes.

"You're not about to hide anything from me when you need my help. I want you to tell me why completely, not hide any truth. I will not hesitate to distance myself again and I won't help until you do." Aru growled. Raven could feel herself getting intimidated. It was a stark contrast to the friendly Aurora she saw earlier. Aru used her aura to force Raven to look at her eye to eye. Aru narrowed her eyes.

"…" Raven didn't know what to say.

"Raven." Aurora's right eye became yellow. With both sides of the Ketchum out, Raven knew that Aurora would actually cut herself off from her. Raven had a choice to make: hide the truth or value her friendship with Aurora enough to gather the confidence to say it. Just like Aurora chose her in the past, Raven decided to choose Aurora over her fear. Raven sighed.

"Fine. Donnivan Kovan must not see her." Raven said reluctantly. Aurora let go of Raven upon hearing that and made her eyes go back to yellow. Raven readjusted herself once free.

"Kovan…" Aurora gasped. She knew that name and she knew his mark. Aurora now knew why she had such a feeling of foreboding when viewing Serena's psychic mark. Aurora's eyes turned back to yellow. Aurora said, "Is it because he's her father? I'm pretty sure the DDD let him know of her existence by now."

"The DDD doesn't remember Serena. I made sure to have them remember a mysterious person helping a psychic out, but they don't know who that person is or what they were doing in Kalos." Raven said with a confident smirk. Raven said in a more serious tone, "It's more than just Donnivan just being her father. There's a reason why Grace moved to Kalos and requested that I had Serena forget her father. He was… the abusive type."

"Oh my," Aurora said with widened eyes.

"Grace faked Serena's death in front of him so he thinks she's dead. Donnivan was abusive to Grace... often to where she was bruised. Though, oddly enough, Donnivan never laid a finger on Serena nor used his power on her. They had a good relationship. I remember Serena being the only person he wasn't willing to harm, actually." Raven explained and noted.

"Serena was his primary weakness? That shrewd man never shows emotion toward anyone otherwise. Interesting..." Aurora thought.

"Grace decided to prevent Serena from possibly getting abused in the future, so she cut off their relationship through the faked death. Serena longed for a father figure once he stopped visiting and Grace hated to see her like that. Grace feared her safety if she got old enough to begin using her powers and if she found out about Donnivan. She had me promise not to let Serena know about Donnivan." Raven explained. Aurora closed her eyes, taking this in. Aurora was frowning.

"You know that it will be impossible to prevent Kovan from finding out about Serena, right? Ash wants to come here one day and I know Serena wants to become the Hokori Queen. They're bound to make a buzz, especially since I'm the Champion and Serena's dating my son. You know how people are... things spread quickly." Aurora told her. Raven sighed wistfully.

"I know that, but we can at least delay it. Please, Aurora. I'm not sure if we can intercept the message, but we have to try." Raven begged. Aurora shook her head. Raven was giving Aurora her best pleading face. She could see Raven being desperate to protect Serena. Aurora decided to help, but she wasn't sure if it was worth the trouble.

"I see this as a fool's quest, but I help out my friends. I'll see what I can do." Aurora decided. Raven looked ecstatic.

"Thank you," Raven said gratefully. Aurora shook her head.

"Raven, I'd be more concerned about Serena's mother safety than Serena's if we fail to intercept the message. If he's still the abusive man you described, I'd expect him to go after her." Aurora warned.

"Donnivan shouldn't know where she is," Raven said confidently. Aurora wasn't so sure about that. She was aware Grace still conversed with the Zurui despite not being in the team. Aurora could tell Raven didn't know this, but decided not to say anything. She could tell Raven still valued her old friendship with Grace and it was clouding her view a little. She decided to tell her only if they failed. Aurora sighed to herself.

Aurora threw out a Poké Ball and out came out an electric psychic cheetah. She started to float above the ground lazily as her tail also hanged down lazily.

"Greetings, Aurora. What do you need me for?" Chi-Chi asked.

"I need you to teleport us to the Erudite Power Plant. We need to reunite with Roto Roto to intercept a message." Aurora told her.

"Got it," Chi-Chi said with a nod.

Before they could go, Raven decided to acknowledge the quiet Alakazam. He seemed to be processing all the information he heard to analyze it. Raven wondered what was going through that supercomputer brain of his, but wasn't curious enough to ask.

"Thank you so much for teleporting me here, Alakazam. Give Marge my thanks as well." Raven said to the Alakazam.

"Not a problem, Raven. I pray you to find good fortune in your quest." Alazakam teleported away upon saying that.

Raven and Aurora looked at each other and nodded. Then with a snap of her paws, Chi-Chi teleported them away from the gym.

Meanwhile…

A man with wavy platinum blond hair, striking blue eyes and stern look to him was in his office going through his daily routine. His office was spacious with a large window behind the main table. The man could view the whole city from where he was. The room itself had a bright atmosphere, being painted with white and beige. There was a large 'Z' shaped dragon in the middle of the tiled floor. There was a large brown wooden desk in the middle in the room with a distinct logo.

The man liked to get up early before anyone entered the company building and found this time of day to be quite peaceful. He already had his morning coffee and watched the sun rise. Before he looked at any statistics of reports over the state of his company, he always went through one thing.

He looked around himself to make sure no one was there. He then closed his eyes and scanned the building. He sensed no one else on the top floor with him. He relaxed.

The man brought out his hands and made the table begin to float in the air. Under the middlemost spot under the table, the man saw there was a small compartment that when touched revealed a red button. He immediately pressed it. The table began to vibrate until he heard a click. After the click, the man put down the table and saw the item he was seeking.

On the top of the table was a small golden heart-shaped locket that had been taken out upon pressing the button. The man sat down, opened it and revealed a picture of a little toddler with wavy honey-blond hair, bright blue eyes with a pink sundress on. She was being levitated by a younger and smiling version of the man. The little girl looked so happy being brought so high into the air. He sighed to himself as he attempted to smile, but found that he couldn't do it. The man thumbed the girl in the picture. His eyes grew soft.

"Every day I look at this… my last shred of humanity. If only she lived still. I would shower her with gifts upon gifts…" The man thought solemnly.

Part of him couldn't believe that he was still mourning the girl, but that smile of hers had been enough to make him keep going whenever things got rough in the day. As per usual, after looking at the picture and doing some self-reflection, he moved to sit in front of a computer to keep up with events he had to go to and to read any messages he had received. He always had the locket beside him until after he'd check everything. It felt like a small part of the girl was still beside him.

He decided to read through his messages first.

Upon opening up his email, he noticed the first email on the list was an email with an untitled subject from someone he didn't know. Puzzled by this, the man concluded it was spam, but decided to see if it really was spam by looking into the future. He saw the two paths he would take upon viewing the email. One path he saw himself not opening the email and continuing his day as normal. In the other path, he saw himself being distraught opening it.

Tears started to form in his eyes. Could his future vision be messing with him?

The man immediately hurried to open the message. He saw a link to a brief video and opened it. There, he saw an old lady with greying black hair talking to a young teenager with wavy honey-blond hair about the breeding facility's head Marge. He knew the woman to be the Champion's mother. However, the girl was evoking a nasty feeling of familiarity.

He saw the video abruptly end when the person making the video was interrupted by another lady making a chillingly creepy voice. He could care less about the grunt who sent him this and wouldn't be surprised if the person who interrupted the grunt was Aru.

He decided to watch through the video again to make sure he had seen things right. When the video reached a point where he could get a good glimpse of the girl, he paused it. The man opened the locket and compared the two girls. His eyes widened. There was no mistaking it: this girl was one in the same.

"How…? My serene princess… she's still alive?" The man thought in both shock and confusion. He examined the older girl closer and noted, "She grew up beautifully, too. My stars in the sky, she has the brilliance of my eyes. She even has the color of my old hair from before my powers got more potent. She's…she's…"

The man didn't know where to place his thoughts. He snapped his fingers as he thought of the right word. He sighed as he thought to himself, "She's still pure. I can tell she hasn't become fully emotionless, but it's starting to come out. This foreign emotion… I'm feeling. I forgot what happiness felt like until now…"

"I can't believe my baby girl infiltrated and befriended the Ketchums, particularly one of the elderly ones. Serena… I wonder how you're like…? Are you like me… or like your dastardly mother? It's very likely Grace had someone sap your memories of me or had you grow up despising me…" The man's eyes suddenly started to glow sky blue as he felt an anger he hadn't felt in years.

Just in case something happened to the video, he saved it to several different drives including a flash drive, an SD card and the actual computer. He wanted to always cherish the video. The man grabbed his laptop and a few prototypes of gadgets he had been working on. He put them all in a black backpack. He then put the locket around his neck for the first time in years.

The man took a moment to look in the future today for different outcomes. He analyzed the best course for himself and decided to go from there.

"Hmm… let's time some errands correctly. Today's going to be more important than I imagined…" The man thought carefully as he immediately teleported from his office.

A/N: Oh boy... it seems like Raven failed to stop Donnivan from getting the message. What will happen from here? He didn't seem too pleased at the aspect of being lied to for several years...

Important Note: I am going to be taking a bit of a hiatus (about a couple of months) to write a few chapters ahead of this one. I'm only currently one and three quarters ahead at the moment. I'm not suffering through writer's block, but with my summer job taking up a lot of time, I would like some time to write ahead. I will try my hardest for the wait to be worth it. Serena's father is interesting to write about!

I wanted to make sure to let everyone know ahead of time after coming to this decision. Also, I feel like this chapter would be a good temporary stop because of the possible discussion from it. Happy reading!

Next Chapter: A Fool's Quest

~SPG123~