Watcher of Arceus

Disclaimer: I don't own Pokémon. Only the idea and OC's.

Author Notes:

-X-This will be used for scene breaks and for when the story switches to another character, but it does not mean that a new section of the story has started.

~xXx~ This will identify where each paragraph breaks.

"Human Speech" 'Character Thought' {Pokémon Speech}

Co-author: Catsithx

The following is a total and complete Reboot of the story "Watcher of Arceus".

~xXx~

Chapter 45 : The War of Legend

A single bright crystal shined a fair bit of light at the end of the passage, into a large empty stone chamber with two side passages and upon closer inspection, what looked like a window. Thomas quickly moved up to the window and rubbing his hand on it and letting a little of his power flow, the window brightened up along with most of the wall, before he shined his much smaller light through it.

The chamber was over looking a single room, a large pedestal within the room sitting there alone, and atop it was a large stone sphere with what looked like writing on it and a large ring in the middle, not unlike a giant stone pokeball. "Exactly as we left it." Thomas stated, before looking over the chamber a bit, Dahlia doing the same while Xent and Verna stepped into the room, Radara at their side.

"So, a quick explanation then. How does this prison work? I don't really see much." Xent asked walking up slowly and looking down into the chamber.

"Well, in easy to understand modern terms, think of this prison as the world's most advanced pokeball, and the structure above us as an isolated pokebox." Thomas replied.

"This is the most advanced pokeball and pokebox on the planet... Doesn't exactly look that advanced to me." Xent asked, looking to Thomas who was still inspecting the room.

"Its what mortal's don't see... and aren't supposed to see, that makes it so dangerous. You two don't leave this chamber under any circumstances." Dahlia added as she slowly turned and looked towards the two side passages for a moment before starting towards one.

'Its a lot more complicated then just calling it a pokeball, but the basic idea is the same as far as you need to know. The thing is isolated and bound here, with no access to the physical world. It is however part of a large... well I suppose you could call it our own private wireless phone network, or at least part of one. This place is connected to two other major sites which help contain this one.' Radara explained, staying beside Xent for the moment while Dahlia inspected one of the side passages, Thomas going to join Dahlia.

"And how do the other two sites interact with this one?" Xent asked, looking to Radara now.

'Mostly they control the locking mechanisms. Distance is of no real concern for this construct, and actually helps make it hard to accidentally stumble upon. Even if you know what your doing, it would take a large group of people or pokemon working together in multiple places at once without being to talk with each other to undo every lock to get into the prison chamber.' Radara explained.

"And if the other locations are tampered with?" Xent continued.

'Then this location goes into lock down. We'd never have gotten this far and the remains of the city would have... well become hostile.' Radara continued.

"And what about forceful entry or escape?" Xent asked.

'You'd have to basically level a mountain which intends to fight your attempts. Conventional weapons and explosives the humans have would be ineffective, the spacial distortion around the place protects it against anything small scale, and you'd need what might as well be a force of nature to disrupt that field first before they could be used to any real effect. Any such attempt in that method would have been seen for miles already and it would have triggered secondary safe guards.' Radara explained.

"This place hasn't been touched since we laid Shen to rest here." Thomas called out from the side chamber with Dahlia who was still looking over things.

"Shen?" Xent asked.

'One of our brothers. When his sister was killed for being a watcher by the knights, he asked to be laid to rest here, so that maybe his bones would ward off would be intruders. We laid him on the throne almost four hundred years ago.' Radara replied, only to look towards the side passage.

'D-dahlia...' Verna whined a bit moving forward some, towards the side entrance where Thomas and Dahlia were, carefully looking over the doorway. While still heeding the warning about not leaving the chamber, she could feel Dahlia's mind getting a little unsteady.

"I... I'll be fine. I'm doing this for me. I need to know... to do this." Dahlia stated slowly, looking carefully over the room she was in. Her voice was just a bit off though, like something was painful for her and as Verna looked in, she was holding her head some.

"You don't sound fine. Is something wrong? You didn't trigger something by accident here did you?" Xent quickly asked seeing how worried Verna was and knowing that couldn't be good as he moved carefully as well.

"Its this place. Its trying to make sure we are at our best in case we have to defend it, but in Dahlia's case its trying to tie her to her brother again. There's a lot of memories tied to this place, good and bad ones and it wants us to know them. Without her full god-essense though, she's having mortal problems." Thomas stated, walking over and helping Dahlia stand fully, before gently pressing his head to hers and she quickly held him, pressing her head to his.

"Our lives, the entirety of who we are. It doesn't fit well in a mortal body with mortal restrictions. I have thirty three lives crammed into my head right now and every day, it feels like I might lose a bit of it." Dahlia stated, grumbling some, but Thomas was helping ease the thoughts, helping her stay focused and not lose a thing.

'I... it hurts. You're hurting, are you really sure we should be here.' Verna asked in a soft but very concerned voice.

"There's... just one more room to check. Its this room specifically that's a problem, its a giant history lesson and set of detailed notes on how to make sure everything is as it should be." Dahlia replied, Xent quickly trying to look over the room, but not seeing anything.

"Let me guess, more of that whole you need special eyes to read it thing? On the off chance that someone can read it, it wouldn't give any kind of instructions about breaking out would it." Xent asked.

"No. It's mostly the history of the fall of Pokelantis, and series of signs to look out to keep it from happening again. The notes left behind by Latias and Latios are reset instructions, how to make sure any open lock or misalignment of the chamber can be restored to their proper positions." Thomas replied as Dahlia slowly let him go, and then gave the side passage room one last glance before moving out.

"I'm sorry, I just need a moment." Dahlia stated, stepping back into the main chamber again, Verna quickly grabbing her and helping her move over, even encouraging her to take a seat.

"You did fine Dahlia. I can look over the notes and see if there's anything that might help directly." Thomas said, Radara moving over into the side chamber with Thomas now to look over the vast amount of text.

'We won't be long. Just give us a few to finish up here.' Radara stated now as she joined Thomas.

Xent though was distracted now for a moment though, watching Dahlia and Verna sit down in the corner. He could easily tell how badly this was affecting the two of them. "Are you really sure you're going to be okay?" Xent asked, reaching into his bag and pulling out the canteens, offering them to Verna and Dahlia.

"Its... its the Twin Sickness. I'll be fine, I just need a-" Dahlia panted some before looking at Xent's wrist when a small beeping sounded.

"We should start heading back now. I don't want to get stuck here." Xent quickly stated as he checked his watch and looked over Thomas and Radara. "How much longer?"

"Well, I'm not seeing anything here to suggest that someone was here. There is also nothing here about more detailed notes, its just a reset plan." Thomas sighed, all the extra notes in the room wouldn't be help them at the moment.

"Are you sure? We know how disorganized they can be at times." Dahlia asked, quickly getting, but Verna just held her, not sure if she should let Dahlia go back into the room.

'We'd have better luck checking their garden in Alta-Mare. Its their primary workshop and where they keep the most notes, if we could make sense of their organization system.' Radara sighed with a shake of her head.

"Found it..." Thomas stated very suddenly, looking over the room a second time, finally leaning down and looking down into the corner of the room, a little amazed that he even found it.

"What happened?" Dahlia quickly asked, rushing into the room again, Verna giving her a worried look and once against stopping at the doorway.

'Dahlia... be careful.' Verna called out as Radara moved to join Thomas and Dahlia looking down into the corner.

'Well then... this was all a false alarm after all.' Radara stated.

"False alarm... you made a really big deal out of this, what did you find and how can you be so sure." Xent quickly asked.

"A trace of power, a little echo of someone looking a little too close over the region. This was our fault." Thomas replied looking to Radara now, who gave a nod.

"I'm sorry, but I thought you said that no one could touch this place. If you can touch it, then I'm pretty sure its not as secure as you make it out to be." Xent said, rather bluntly with a shake of his head even.

"Its nothing major, and a very simple fix actually. When me and Radara were realigning our senses, we reached out to the whole world. Continuing with the wireless comparisons, we basically dialed in by accident when we were busy reorienting ourselves." Thomas explained as he stood back up.

"How fast can you fix it?" Xent quickly asked now as Dahlia almost fell again, Thomas quickly catching her and walking her out of the room to Verna's waiting arms.

'We reset the chamber when we leave. Would have done it anyway when we went to leave anyway, so no big deal here.' Radara replied as she walked back into the main chamber as well.

"And... bigger question, what's to stop anyone else from doing the same?" Xent asked now.

"You'd have to be able to connect with the senses of the world, have god-essence to even fall into that kind of meditation, and then you'd need to be able to interact with the senses and essence of the world." Dahlia replied as she held onto Verna.

'Dahlia, we should leave now.' Verna stated as she held Dahlia now, feeling the strain on her mind. 'Why... why are you having so many problems here? This wasn't a problem in some of the other temples, and surely they had more memories tied to them.'

"The other temples and sanctuaries are places were we are at our best, and they aid us, give us more power and strength in a sense." Thomas explained, moving back over the glass looking over the stone prison, and it frosted back over, going dusty and dark once more. "Here, its isolated, there is no power to aid her. You are right though Verna, we should leave quickly."

"No-not yet." Dahlia stated looking up a bit as Verna gave a small whine, reaching over to grab her, feeling the pain in her head. "I want to be sure, just in case."

"Dahlia, are you sure you can handle this. I understand that you need to do this, but this place, its trying to wake you up too much, its trying to call out for all of you." Thomas asked, picking his words carefully as he moved back to Dahlia, Verna holding Dahlia's arm a bit.

"I... Look, you don't need this. You sure you found the problem?" Xent quickly stated looking at Dahlia and Verna, who was giving Thomas and Xent a pleading look.

'She's in pain, she's hurting. Please, we need to go.' Verna begged a bit, Dahlia trying to gently push her back with a shake of her head.

'How much time do we left before we should start leav-' Radara asked, before Xent's and Thomas's watches both went off. 'Do we risk an extra hour. We know the keys can be volatile at times. They were never meant to be active for long, just a quick check up or reset the locks.'

"We should double check, just to be sure." Dahlia quickly stated.

"I'll double check with Radara, you three head back upstairs. There's no reason to risk hurting yourself." Thomas offered as Xent moved up and gently held Verna with one arm to try and calm her down while carefully reaching over to Dahlia.

"You knew this might happen didn't you." Xent asked.

"It needs done." Dahlia stated, turning back towards the side chamber, but Xent grabbed her now.

"You don't need to hurt yourself, you don't have anything to prove." Xent stated, only for the light at the top of the staircase to flicker orange once.

"Out of time, you three get moving." Thomas quickly stated now as Radara rushed into the side room, giving one last look over.

"We'll catch up. You three start back up the passage." Thomas quickly stated as he moved off into the other side of the chamber, reading something and then moving back into the center of the chamber.

"I'll be fine, let me help." Dahlia stated, only for Xent to try pulling her along.

"Let's go. We can figure this out later, unless you want to spend a few more days here." Xent tried to argue, as Dahlia pushed him back. Verna grabbed her tightly though.

'Please, I don't like seeing you hurt yourself.' Verna said, and Dahlia finally slowed down some, turning to look at Verna.

"I'm sorry... I just need to know that my final life means something." Dahlia stated quietly, holding into Verna's arm a bit. "I've been a prisoner this lifetime, I wasn't even awakened properly when I my brother … when the knights took me and I've been stuck unable to do much ever since."

'Go. We can manage this and we'll catch up.' Radara repeated as she rushed into the middle chamber again, starting to look over the center of the floor with Thomas, both kneeling down and letting some power flow into the room, the large wall that shined over the prison sphere going more solid now as the room got a little darker.

Dahlia took a few breathes and with the pain in her head growing some, she relented, and turned with Xent and Verna.

The three of them started up the steps back up into the catacombs while Thomas and Radara began to reset the chamber as it grew dark behind them.

As Xent, Dahlia, and Verna made their way back up the steps, it wasn't entirely easy. Dahlia kept looking back, and even stumbled a few times with the pain her head.

Still, they managed to the reach the chamber with the statue of the king again. "Come on, we should at least get up into that courtyard." Xent stated softly as he helped Dahlia along, only for Dahlia to not take his hand, and finally stand up fully on her own again.

She pulled up her sigil, looking it over now, and giving it a small kiss, before pressing it to her head. "Sorry Argyle... I guess... I had hoped I would be better still." She said softly, Verna and Xent both giving her a moment.

Another flicker of light from the chamber though, and Dahlia looked up again. Mostly back to herself full form again, she lead them back to the courtyard, to wait for Thomas and Radara.

It took a few minutes, but at last Thomas and Radara walked up into the courtyard. "Chamber is rese-" Thomas started, only for a yellow flicker of light around them, the crystals around them glowing a soft yellow now.

"That key is decaying fast, we need to go." Dahlia rapidly spoke now, quickly grabbing the lantern as Thomas quickly pulled out the baton light again, cracking a few glow sticks as well.

"I thought you said we have a little bit of time left. Three or four hours right? Its barely been two." Xent stated, in a rush himself, grabbing his lights and shoving their canteens into his bag.

"Its not an exact thing, those keys are hard to make by intentional design." Dahlia quickly replied as the group took off at a run now. Outside and back in the streets, more and more crystals were slowly turning yellow in the ceiling, fading away into a dull golden color that hardly shined as brightly.

'How long do we have?' Verna yelled out as they all ran now, Verna holding onto a few glow sticks, stumbling and dropping the canteen she had, but just left it as Dahlia helped her up to keep running.

"Minutes! Ten? Maybe twenty? Half an hour if we truly lucky, but I doubt it." Thomas stated as he lead the way in their sprint, keeping the light directed in front of them as they ran, while Dahlia held onto the lantern trying to give them all light.

"Ten minutes? Oh come on, that's tight as hell." Xent half yelled out as they dashed long. "Can't you just teleport us to the exit?"

'If you like the thought of potentially losing limbs and or organs, possibly vital ones, be my guest. I'm running and I suggest you do the same.' Radara snapped back keeping pace with Thomas and not getting too far ahead.

"Seriously... Is there any good news in this whole debacle?" Xent yelled out as he kept pace.

'Less shouting, more running. Don't waste your breath on words when you need it in your legs right now.' Verna added as they kept up the rough pace.

While the trip in had been calm enough, there was still some reason to take it slow. The roads had dozens of loose bricks and pavers, a few large faults here and there, even a collapsed watch tower that was never fully moved out of the way, and all of this now hindered the group. There were a few stumbles, and Verna out right fell twice, Dahlia helping her up and running along even when they dropped a bag, just trying to get out. The whole time though, the place was slowly getting darker as more and more crystals were turning a dull golden yellow and not giving off anywhere near as much light.

"Almost there, this is the last block right?" Xent yelled out, seeing a statue of Arceus and bottles of wine around.

"Two blocks left." Thomas yelled out, still leading them, only to suddenly slow down and stop, Dahlia doing the same and Radara slowing down herself, before coming to a stop.

"Hey hey, no stopping." Xent called out, skidding to a halt and turning to try and grab them, only for a loud clash of stone to sound in the distance, and then silence as the place was pitch black, minus their lights which also seemed dimmed now, like the world was shunning any source of light.

"That... was the exit wasn't it. And we missed it." Xent asked, Dahlia giving a small nod.

"It will take... three or four days to make another key." Thomas stated, Radara coming back.

'Since we now have three days to waste... we should go back and get that bag and canteen we dropped...' Radara said softly.

"Well... this just turned into a total mess." Thomas sighed as passed out the glow sticks that he had been just holding around with his mind. "Everyone gets a glow stick, tie it your side or wrist or something... and when its color can't be seen properly anymore, make sure to crack another and replace it." Thomas explained very firmly now as he slowly turned around, digging into his bag and pulling out some string and the charge pads and battery pack.

"Okay, just so its stated again. This is now an emergency situation. Stick close, do not stray, do not question the rules, and do not touch anything until you know for sure what it is your trying to reach out for." Dahlia added as Thomas strapped the charge pads to his arm, and then plugged the cord into his electric lantern.

"So... I assume you have plan for us being here for the next three days?" Xent asked.

'Dahlia... are you sure fine? Being trapped here... you can survive right? What happened in the chamber won't start happening up here will it?' Verna asked very worried now as she could already feel Dahlia getting a bit tense, annoyed.

"Me and Radara will do everything we can to keep her safe, to keep her mentally ready and prepared for this place." Thomas stated, reaching over and rubbing Verna's shoulder a bit, looking to Dahlia himself.

"I'll... I'll manage. We should just stay away from the prison right now. Our bigger concern should be getting out of the open, and quickly. We couldn't have dropped that bag more then a minute or two ago, so we should be able to find it easy. I'm... not sure if we should go looking for that canteen though." Dahlia said, quickly changing the subject.

'For now, we should be very thankful that we have left Zai behind. The place us for us to take cover may be within the brewery.' Radara stated, letting Thomas clip a glow stick to her tail.

"You really think that's the best place to hide out for a few days?" Xent asked.

"There's plenty of room, stone tables and desks, multiple fire pits in what might as well be a kitchen, and rooms with no windows. And... a drink might help me calm down." Dahlia explained, before starting to lead the walk back to find the dropped back.

"Really good thing we didn't bring Zai then... exceptionally good thing." Xent said, giving a slow annoyed shake of his head, taking some of the offered rope and making a loose belt for Verna to tie a glow stick now, then doing the same thing for himself.

"Welp, might as well make the best of it." Xent stated, pulling his flashlight up again, only to see that it didn't seem to shine as far, and looking to Thomas's lantern, it seemed darker as well. "Hey... is it just me or is it-" Xent started.

"Darker... and its only only going to worse. Unlike other places that we would call home or of communal worship and interaction, this place has far more direct forms of protection. We should try to get set up fully in the next hour. This place is hiding away in full again and quickly. It will be brighten up a bit hopefully once we take cover in a building and barricade our selves in, but its going to be a bad idea to stay out in the open." Thomas finished, walking with Radara and Dahlia slowly into the darkness, making sure not to go more then a few steps ahead of Xent and Verna.

"The first defense here is sensory deprivation to anything out in the open. It will start with making you think that it's harder and harder to see, before making it seem like you can't hear anything. It requires a more direct line of sight of the crystals to do that though, so the sooner we take cover, the less it will effect you." Dahlia explained.

'Let's just find that bag and get inside... I know I'll go mad if I can't see. And I thought that the other temple that we stumbled upon that Xent tried to force his way into was scary, this is so much worse.' Verna stated, quickly moving to hold onto Dahlia's hand. Dahlia just eagerly let her come up though and leaned lightly into Verna, the two supporting each other a bit, much more mentally right now as they went to get the lost backpack.

It was a short walk back to where they had dropped the bag, but Thomas found it quickly enough, before the group turned around and then started back down the road again, this time turning when they found the statue of Arceus again, and turning off the main road, walking down a block become coming to a large stone structure.

"Not... quite what I imaged when I think of a brewery. Looks more like an oasis." Xent stated, looking over the remains of an overly fancy lounge like room. Lots of fancy décor, gold and crystals, what looked might have once been large fancy seats and tables. There was even the remains of a small garden and large long since drained water pool.

"This brewery served what you might refer to as the upper class on a regular basis. Priests, farm and ranch owners, advisors. They didn't want just anyone walking through the place, so the entrance itself was just repurposed to be a serving room." Dahlia explained as they moved through the room and into the back.

"Back in its prime, I used to like coming here. Of course, that was before..." Thomas added.

'We use to have our own table here, right in the corner. My brother courted three different girls here, in two life times. It was a lovely place before it was betrayed from within. There was a time when I might have wanted to a home here.' Radara added, walking through the room and into the back, down a flight of stairs.

"Must have been quite a nice place at some point if you wanted to live here." Xent shrugged.

"It was once upon a time." Dahlia nodded as she walked with Verna down the steps and into a fully enclosed room. "Careful on the steps, don't want to fall through."

"Are we sure we want to risk staying in this place... it won't fall down on us will it?" Xent asked.

"We'll be fine. The structure will hold, its just the small things that we need to be wary of." Thomas replied, still leading the way, but not noticing anything as he stepped into the lower chambers. "There were some private quarters down this hallway. We'll hold up there."

"You sure it will be fine? I'm not eager to lose too much more of my vision." Xent stated.

"Once you stay inside for a bit, your vision will recover some. It won't clear up fully until we're outside, but you won't go blind." Dahlia explained, following Thomas down the hall and into a side room that looked just as fancy as the entrance hall.

"We'll stay down here for a few days until we see light outside that window." Thomas stated, pointing to a small window along the top of the wall.

"So... that's it. Just stay inside until we see light out the windows." Xent asked.

'Pretty much. This is why we brought enough food just in case as well as packed camping gear. I was hoping we wouldn't need it, but it doesn't appear the case.' Radara replied as she began to slowly moved everything still inside the room to one side, all of the ruined furniture getting pushed out of the way to give them some room.

"Seems like a dull way to spend the time..." Xent grumbled.

"We did tell you to bring something to do." Dahlia reminded him as she started to set up the camping gear now with Verna's help.

~xXx~

Verna and Dahlia eagerly took the chance to spend some time with each other, both now relying on each other for the moment, and bonding more over handheld gaming devices that Thomas kept charging for them. The two of them were bonding in full, a bottle of ancient wine between them while they enjoyed the company of each other, racing each other in a Legend of Zelda game now. Of course, as the day went on, being mostly stuck in the same space though, boredom grew in Xent's mind, as well as his curiosity.

"Thomas... you mind if I ask about that whole war thing? The uh, what'd you call it, why you made this prison... war... War of Legend, that's it." Xent asked as he moved over to help Thomas set up the cooking pot, cracking open the practice lock he had the hundredth time in the past hour, Radara adjusting the lock again.

"Well, I guess that depends more on the questions you want to ask honestly." Thomas replied.

"What all are you willing to share about it?" Xent asked, just going vague to start not really sure where to start more specifically.

"It was probably the darkest time in the history of the world. The knights hunting us watchers is close, but I feel that's more... more of a personal history, and not quite as worldly." Thomas stated.

"Well... you said it changed the calendar itself, so definitely not a small scale thing. How... well it had to be a world wide thing right? How many nations were involved? Everyone?" Xent asked.

"The actual fighting was limited mostly to the island of Japan, and some of the waters to east. Its effects were felt world wide though. Unnatural weather patterns, swathes of natural disasters, numerous temples dedicated to our mother bursting into flames or collapsing." Thomas replied, starting to set up a meal.

"I really don't recall of that in the history books." Xent asked, not recalling anything that might fit that kind of description in the various history books he studied.

'People would rather forget about the worse the world has to offer. Reading and writing were also far less common, more of a thing that only a those in positions of power, the upper class, and dedicated business men and woman needed to know. History was shared in stories, and those stories changed over time.' Radara explained.

"I blame the bards of the day honestly. They shared the lessons of the stories well enough to be sure, but they always exaggerated or picked something more amusing for their songs." Thomas added.

"Leave it to the media to blow things out of proportions and change things up for the ratings." Xent quickly shook his head, not really surprised by hearing such a claim, but no less annoyed and irritated.

"More detailed written history would only start about a thousand years after that, long after the War of Legend. By then, the stories were changed so much that they hardly matched the facts and it wasn't our place to write history for them. We knew what happened, and they lessons of what we wanted the people to learn were felt well enough, so we didn't interfere too much." Thomas explained.

"How... how long did it last?" Xent asked after a pause.

"That's a matter of debate among us." Dahlia spoke up now, even Verna interested in the conversation, both of them have paused their games. "I say it started when that thing showed up in the first place. It never desired peace of any kind, only compliance and worship."

"The actual large scale fighting lasted about five months, across thirty-three battlefields. There were a few dozen skirmishes besides though throughout the ordeal, but those were limited in scale and combatants. Personally, I say the war started when it started to possess our brothers and sisters, the legendary pokemon." Thomas explained.

'And most of the rest of us agree that it choose war when it started to possess the masses in the first place. There was still some debate in things for centuries after it ended, but most of us agreed that it started when the possessions began.' Radara added.

'How... many people and pokemon did it possess in the end, before you sealed.' Verna asked slowly, now just as interested in this as Xent was, and taking the chance to talk since Dahlia had joined in herself.

"A few hundred thousand directly possessed, and maybe a million who were following its command. We don't have the exact numbers, but its... It was a lot. For every person that we knew it possessed even for a while, it had another four or more people aiding them as well." Thomas said.

'At first, it just took over who it could, but it learned. It quickly figured out who was more valuable to it, people in positions of power, like nobles, kings and queens, or priests. Only those with strong bodies could keep its possession for long though before they decayed from the inside, their bodies burning themselves up. We will never know the full extent how many it would have taken control over, we can only guess.' Radara explained.

"And, it possessed some of the legendary pokemon? What about any of you, the watchers?" Xent asked.

"We were spared... not that it didn't try. The unique nature of our twin lives however, of two minds and two bodies made it impossible for it to dominate us properly, our twins... o-our..." Dahlia started, only to go quite and just grab her sigil again.

"We could always brings the other back from the brink. Our dual nature made us too hard to dominate both at once and so we were spared." Thomas said rather quietly now, Verna moving quickly to Dahlia's side again and sitting with her, holding her hand and lightly pressing her head to Dahlia's.

'You don't have to talk about it, not if will cause you harm or discomfort.' Verna quickly stated, both reassuring to Dahlia, and also a pleading with Xent to change the subject a bit.

"Sorry... didn't mean to bring up anything bad." Xent said, looking to Dahlia, and sorry that he had asked the wrong question.

"Its... its fine. I... need to learn to talk about it. I need to find peace with it before... before my time comes." Dahlia said softly, holding Verna close, but still looking down.

"How did it... well end?" Xent asked, still curious, but speaking more quietly trying to give Dahlia a chance to calm down some.

"Here actually. Or a few miles east of here, in what was once the largest river in all of Kanto before it dried up and was... well rerouted." Thomas said, only to give small shudder, pulling his left arm to his chest now, and even holding his left elbow, almost possessively.

"You... okay there Thomas?" Xent asked, now very concerned.

'My brother lost an arm in that battle.' Radara stated, now getting up and gently pulling Xent along, and outside the room, picking up one of the lanterns with her tail and just walking down the hall.

Curious, Xent followed along now. "You two were here? You took part in the final battle?"

'Soular didn't participate as a combatant so to speak, but it was where he found the source of his courage. It had possessed Lugia, Suicune, Latias, and was trying to dominate Palkia. Soular came here to use words, to help free those possessed. It cost him an arm, and has forever scarred him since. He never liked to fly before then sure, but its why he has a deep seeded fear of flying.' Radara explained.

"What happened to scar him so badly that it lasted through multiple life times?" Xent asked, following along, but still keeping his voice low.

'We wanted to help when the final confrontation went down. To save as many as we could. Back then, my brother wasn't much of a fighter, he learned to fight specifically because he didn't want history to repeat itself later. No, we choose to join the battle directly to help as much as we could. I was an espeon back then too, and that may have been all the saved me. Cobalion had even come to plead with Soular to try and talk sense back into some of our sisters, but we had already made the decision to do it anyway.' Radara started, leading them into a side room, and then just getting comfortable on her side, laying down clearly away from the others.

'Ho-oh flew us to the front lines. Soular joined Tavu, Zini, Dahlta, Gali, Darkrai, Cobalion, Latios and Arceus in the final confrontation with it directly. I joined Dahlia, Argyle, and another fifty of our other brothers and sisters in the fight going on around them, holding off the forces set to conquer the world, and nearly broke my mind that day helping as much as I could. Tens of thousands of lives were lost that day, and I took my share of them. I did what I felt I had to, trying to protect my family and the world, but Soular... Soular was there right there even closer then I was.' Radara explained as Xent took a seat himself to listen.

'It started poorly, with Ho-oh almost getting taken out at the start when Lugia attacked her, possessed by this this. It flung Soular from Ho-oh's back and he landed hard, as Ho-oh was tackled into the river throwing a barge up that landed on his arm, taking his hand and crushing about half the bones in his arm. The landing almost broke his legs, and even before it started, he had lost a hand, but he still got back up. He couldn't free Latias when she came down to try and finish him, but with his words, he at least talked some sense into her. He convinced her to run, to hide and avoid the battle and then worked to help Arceus and the others to try and pin Lugia to free her.' Radara continued, before pausing, thinking back on that day.

'The lost of his hand had made things difficult for him though, and even for me. It felt like I was missing a paw myself and I stumbled frequently just trying to manage myself. I can only image how much it messed him up. Tavu and Zini had to save him a dozen times in that fight because he couldn't save himself even, before Gali stayed at his side throughout the entirely. He was outmatched, outclassed, and yet still willing to do whatever he could. His words chipped at the mind of Lugia who began to resist its control.' Radara gave a long pause now, looking at her own paw for a bit, gently flexing her toes as she felt the same ghostly feeling of loss from that day as Thomas did when he thought back on it.

"You two, you really share everything? Even the feelings of a loss limb?" Xent asked, seeing how Radara was focused on her front paw as well.

'Together, we make up a single legendary pokemon. I believe that Thomas's choice in words are fitting. We are separate, and we are our own individual when it comes to mental thought and personality, but we still share so much with each other, even the feelings of losing a limb. Even though I was off helping to isolate the fighting away from Arceus and Lugia's confrontation, I knew well what Soular was doing, or could at least feel it. If I was not so mentally strained that day, I would have clear memories of it, but my own efforts had taken a large toll.' Radara replied, before looking back up to Xent.

'It was a long battle, and took hours. Finally though, Soular's words gave up the opening we needed, Lugia struggled for control, Tavu, Gali, and Soular helped pin her down. Tavu took a hard blow to the head, Lugia accidently broke Soular's legs with before he could fully pin her tail, and even Gali got bruised, but it was enough. Our mother made a call to all of us, asking for some of our power, the powers that she had given us, and... and we all agreed. I don't remember much after that, I was too exhausted. I know that everything that this thing was possessing was freed. The entire world was freed from its control all at once as Arceus locked it crystal for a while, and Latias and Latios began work on that stone sphere, its cage that was never meant to be opened.' Radara continued.

'We were all left weak, but our elder brothers and sisters were left far worse off. Us twins survived mostly intact, and together, we helped sink the capital district of Pokelantis, while Latias and Latios began to construct the prison. It took a few years, but then it done, and the world was saved from that thing. We all knew that one day it would break out, but by then, we would have recovered, or so we had hoped. The next nearly 1300 years were calm. There were some who tried to take control of us through other means, but us twins were now always on watch. When that evil was sealed, we took up the mantle of protectors, to always be on the watch to protect our elder brothers and sisters until they recovered.' Radara said, before looking back towards the others down the hall for a moment.

'To be bluntly honest, I know there is more that happened that day, but having strained myself far too much, I don't remember all of it well. I have glimpses of the Soular's actions that day, but I don't know exactly what all happened that day. Shortly after it was done, we took an oath, an oath to protect our elder brothers and sisters. And we have been on watch for signs of the evil since as well, to try and be ready for it. I have no question that the act of sealing that evil done by mother was thorough. No piece of it escaped her grasp when we all gave a piece of our power to seal it away and save the world.' Radara stated suddenly looking back to Xent.

'I have no doubt that its sealed away here and now, unable to interact with the world. But what it did that day, it changed the world. And... I'm not sure if we're ready to take it back on, not after the World Mother, our mother gave up power she had been saving for a thousand years to try and save a few us when Tavu betrayed us. If it breaks free now, I fear for the world. I will do everything I can to save this world, but trying to force the burden of the Guardian Aegis on Thomas, to make him take up the role of defending this world with it. Thomas cannot take up that burden, it may break him.' Radara explained.

'I know that we need allies... and maybe you can help us. Darkrai training you... well it would help us all greatly. His champions have always been someone we trust, but he will try to push his idea of trying to push Thomas into using on you. Don't.' Radara warned now before getting back up slowly.

Xent just listened the whole time, and stayed silent until Radara started to get up and he was sure she was done. "So... Lugia and Suicune were both possessed by this thing? I mean... as motherly as they are, caring, gentle from what I've seen. Especially Suicune... its just hard to believe that they were possessed. I thought you said it that you had to have a weak mind to be possessed." Xent asked.

'The weak of mind are easily taken, and while the strong of mind can resist, it can still forcibly dominate a single mind at a time, and then retain control. Its not a simple process, and this thing attacked each of us it wanted to personally. Most of the world is made of water, and so it sought to control those with powers related to all that water. It targeted Lugia and Suicune for their powers, it attacked them, strained and wore them down, attacked them mentally, and then dominated them. Latias and a few others were taken by sheer chance, their minds left open in the shock of what they had witnessed.' Radara explained.

Xent just nodded, not even wanting to think about what that meant, or what kind of tortures that the legendary pokemon had to endure to be possessed. "Well, you have my aid. Maybe I can help, maybe not, but I'll damn well try. There's enough things already messed up in the world if you ask me... I'd rather not see that thing get out and pick up where it left off."

Radara nodded lightly, and the two of them started back down the hallway. As they walked in, things were quite, and Radara just moved up to help Thomas finish dinner for now. Xent walked up, seeming calmer then he had ever been before. He walked up slowly to Thomas now, moving to help himself.

"Thomas, things are probably going to get worse before it gets better, you don't have to take up the... whole responsibility of what that sword means, not right now. But you can change, it's part of living, I mean you've changed me despite my thick skull, you CAN be better, but it's not going to happen all at once, it takes steps. This can be that first step, don't refuse it because you think you aren't worthy, I'm supposed to be the one making dumb decisions. Accept it, not for yourself, but for the people you would use it for." Xent stated quietly, taking the first bit of cut up veggies to put in the curry mix for now, now putting a little space between them.

"How much did you tell him?" Thomas asked quietly himself, his words just for himself and Radara.

'Enough? Perhaps too much. Or maybe not enough at all. There's no telling, only that it will sate his curiosity for now. And apparently, it was enough to teach him some better respect for us. It seems that he's learning quickly. I had worries that being stuck at our side would cause more problems then it solved, but perhaps he is truly champion material.' Radara replied, her words only for Thomas right now.

'Darkrai will do everything he can train him now. We can be sure of this. But I've shared enough that he will help Darkrai push things upon you. We should prepare for its return either way, but perhaps it is time that we... returned ourselves to the world.' Radara added.