Chapter 14: Satchel

The minute Lucas and the Chansey were out of eyesight, Dialga turned heel and walked. The next hour, thirty seven minutes and seventeen seconds were spent just walking and paying no heed to his surroundings. He did not know where this walk would have led him, all he knew was that he had to get out of the Solaceon area. It was strange, how desperate he was to get away.

...Or was it? The memories of that day came to mind vividly - as if it had occurred in the past few hours rather than some centuries ago. With those memories came a dull ache in his throat; like he had swallowed an Applin and it had gotten stuck there.

Dealing with this was easier in his home dimension; Dialga was not a creature that could afford to linger on grief - there was too much to be done to properly address it.

While he was in the mortal realm, in this form...he found that it was much harder to deal with. No matter how hard he tried, he could not just ignore it like he had always done. He could not make it go away.

(It would only be in hindsight that Dialga would realize that the fog surrounding him was not helping matters. Having nothing to focus his sights on only seemed to make his grief even more prominent.)

"...It had to be done," Dialga told himself. He doubted that a mortal could hear him - not in this late hour of the night. So perhaps, if he spoke the words aloud... "Rei's memory was preserved. I kept my promise."

The thought crossed Dialga's mind before he could stop it; Then why does it still hurt after all this time?

"...Dialga?"

Dialga's attention snapped to the presence that had made itself known. Even in the thick fog, he could see a gentle green glow. Not like Celebi's - his daughter's light was strong, but it could not pierce the fog like moonlight could. The unmistakable shade of purple only confirmed Dialga's suspicions.

"Cresselia," he greeted lamely. He wiped at his eye before continuing, "This, ah...this is a surprise."

"I could say the same of you," Cresselia answered. She said nothing of Dialga's emotional state, which he was thankful for. "How long has it been since you walked this realm? And in your human form, no less? You know, you've become the talk of the Pantheon."

"I imagine so." Between Mesprit's gossip, Celebi's involvement and the very nature of the situation at hand...Dialga would be shocked if any member of the Pantheon wasn't aware at this point. "How are you faring?"

"I have been feeling a little weak as of late, but that is simply to be expected with the new moon's arrival," Cresselia sighed. "That is actually what I wished to talk to you about."

Immediately, the sinking feeling of dread returned. The new moon. Darkrai.

Dialga recalled that the Pitch-Black Pokemon was also quite fond of Rei; the first human to face his nightmares and not run away. It was a rare human that could face the stuff of their nightmares and not show outward fear. At that point in time, Rei had already proven to be just as compassionate as he was brave. He was the first to recognize that Darkrai was lonely, and offered him friendship despite any fear he felt.

For Mother's sake, how had Dialga never taken him into consideration?

As if she had read his mind, Cresselia spoke again; "Darkrai has been rather agitated recently. That may be because of the new moon's approach, but I suspect there is more to it this month."

Dialga suspected he already knew the answer, but he asked anyway; "What do you mean?"

"I mean Rei," Cresselia answered with a gentle sigh. "I am certain you remember how fond Darkrai was of him. He was devastated upon hearing of Rei's passing, and he only recently learned the truth about the Plague."

"Only recently?!" That piece of news alarmed Dialga. How did Darkrai not know?! He was not even informed by-?! "How did this happen? I thought the Plague's effect on the afflicted was common knowledge, especially among those of us who were close to Rei!"

"It was an error on my part," Cresselia spoke softly. "I wrongly assumed that if your sister had not informed him about how the Plague would have taken Rei, then Azelf would have. I hadn't the heart to tell him myself. I am sorry."

As frustrating as it was, Dialga found himself admitting that this was typical of Cresselia. She was always a gentle spirit, even when it was to her own detriment. It was no secret among the Pantheon that Cresselia's dearest wish was for her brother to be happy. She must not have found it within her to crush that fragile bit of solace in Darkrai's heart, no matter how often she may have tried.

Still, if he only just learned the truth about how the Plague would have thoroughly destroyed any trace of Rei's-!

"You should have realized that to have remained ignorant for so long would have hurt Darkrai more. That said...apology accepted." Dialga dreaded asking, but he found the strength anyway; "Does this mean he also knows-?"

"It does," Cresselia admitted, "which brings me to my next point. Should your investigation take you to Canalave City at any point, especially on the night of the new moon...I ask that you be careful. Should you wish it, I can provide a Lunar Wing to pass along to the child."

At least Cresselia had made that offer...not that Dialga had any reason to doubt the sincerity of her words. Seeing as a Lunar Wing was the only thing that could ward off Darkrai's nightmares...it was best that he take her up on that offer. Dialga couldn't be sure how Darkrai would react to seeing Lucas, especially since he only recently learned what truly happened. "Thank you, Cresselia. I will take you up on that offer."

"Please don't thank me, Dialga. It's partly my fault that you will have to confront Darkrai's wrath the next time he sees you. I don't believe I can ever apologize enough for that."

Dialga said nothing.

Dawn pinched the bridge of her nose, letting out a soft sigh.

"So let me see if I got this right," she said, pointing at Lucas. "You got spirited away by the Unown, and they stranded you in Solaceon Ruins. You got a pouch from which you got that coat and those slip-ons."

"A candle, too."

Dawn stared at Lucas, who promptly shut his mouth. "And a candle. The Unown then led you out of the Ruins, and that's when you found April? And then - of all people - you bump into Aevus, who also helped you back to Hearthome. Did I get all of that?"

Lucas nodded, glancing at the Chansey by his side. As glad as he was to find that he was only gone for a couple of hours, he couldn't help the twinge of shame. He had been gone long enough for Dawn and Barry to notice, after all. They were bewildered to suddenly find him approaching the Center with a Chansey in tow, so the immediate course of action was an interrogation.

"That's what happened," Lucas confirmed. "I know it's a little hard to believe, but-"

"We believe you," Dawn answered. With a sigh, she continued, "We're not your grandparents, Lucas. You don't need to prove every little thing you say to us."

"But-"

"You think Barry and I didn't notice the Unown hanging around Hearthome?"

Lucas was struck silent at this. If he could be honest with himself...he thought that might have been the case. Nobody had mentioned ever seeing the Unown in the first place, so Lucas just assumed that he could see them because of his Aura sensitivity. He mentally kicked himself at the thought.

"Besides," Barry interjected. "You're like a magnet for this kinda stuff, aren't ya? Like...I dunno how to put it. I get that there's a difference between Aura stuff and Psychic stuff, but I figure they both kinda attract overall supernatural stuff, right? Like ghosts, and that thing I saw in Eterna Forest."

"You're still claiming that wasn't a ghost?" Dawn asked, a small smile on her face.

"I didn't feel a chill in the air!" Barry jumped to his feet. "Neither of you felt a chill in the air! I just tilted my head, and there it was! How could that have been a ghost?!"

April - ever the peacekeeper, apparently - approached Barry with an egg in hand. That seemed to calm him down, and he shot the Chansey an appreciative smile as he accepted it.

"There is one thing I don't get, though," he continued, even as he bit into the egg. "You said you pulled the coat from the satchel, right?"

"Yeah. Where else would I have gotten it?"

"Well, it's just..." Barry took a moment before pointing at the coat. "That coat, the slip-ons, and a candle...all out of that tiny satchel?"

A moment passed as Lucas absorbed the implication behind Barry's question. The candle was small enough to fit. The slip-ons were another thing; they might have been able to be squeezed into the satchel. But how was the coat able to get into it?!

"You know what? You're right," Lucas said, picking the satchel up. Holding the satchel up to the coat only highlighted how impossible it seemed - there was no way it could have been folded to the point it could fit. "How did I not think of it at the time?"

"Getting suddenly stranded can do that," Dawn reassured him. "I'll bet you were just thinking about how to get out of the Ruins in one piece. Anyone would have been thinking the same."

"Is it bigger on the inside?!" Barry's eyes seemed to sparkle. "Like in that one show with the blue box - the one that has the library and a swimming pool! What else could be in that thing?!"

"Don't you think a swimming pool in a satchel would be a bit of a stretch, though?" Dawn questioned, amusement clear on her face. "That flap doesn't look like a person could pass through there."

"You know that's not what I was getting at!" Barry huffed. "And anyway, we won't know by not checking it out! So come on, Luc! Open that bag!"

Lucas didn't need to be told twice; he opened the front flap and reached in. He pulled out what looked like a notebook, a couple of medium-sized pouches (filled with their own smaller items), a second notebook, a Rare Candy, a Nugget, a Max Revive and more.

With every item taken out, there was a growing sense of disbelief and bewilderment between the three. It was only when Lucas pulled out a jar of honey that Barry broke the silence; "Dude, how much can this thing even hold?!"

"I don't know!" Lucas exclaimed, as he reached further into the bag. To everyone's shock, he was able to fit his whole arm through the front flap. Despite how far Lucas reached into the bag, he could feel some sort of space around his hand. "It does feel like Barry's theory was right - about it being bigger on the inside."

"That's so cool!" Barry's eyes sparkled again. "Think about how much stuff we could fit in there! Can you feel anything else?"

Lucas felt around as much as he could. His hand did touch upon what he supposed was some kind of wall, but he couldn't seem to hold it in his hand to pull it out. Anytime he tried to wrap his hand around it, he was met with some resistance and it slipped away.

"Not really," Lucas said as he slowly pulled his arm out of the bag. "I did feel some kind of block, but I think that's just the bottom of the bag...so to speak."

Barry pouted, but his initial disappointment didn't last very long at all.

"Guys," Dawn interjected. Clearly, she had already begun to look into one of the notebooks, and she held a picture in her hand. "You might want to see this."

Lucas and Barry obeyed, and were floored by the contents.

The boy in the picture looked just like Lucas. There were two Pokemon in the picture as well - an Umbreon was draped over the boy's shoulders, and there was also a Decidueye standing on his right. At least, Lucas thought it was a Decidueye - it didn't look anything like the pictures he had seen of the Alolan grass starter, but it also looked far too similar to not be related somehow.

"Was that in one of the notebooks?" Barry questioned, squinting at the photo.

Dawn nodded. "It was. I originally thought that Lucas might've done one of those antique photo booths, the resemblance is so uncanny. But I'm pretty sure he'd tell us right away if he had a Decidueye like that one."

"Yeah." Lucas nodded, gently plucking the photo from Dawn's hand. Looking at the photo, Lucas had a feeling that he knew who it was. The name Rei popped into his mind too quickly to not mean anything. It should have struck him as strange, but at the same time it made sense. It came to mind like it was a fact; the satchel belonged to Rei, at some point in time. Whatever the Unown did...

He recalled Ethan's words - about how his friend never said anything about what they experienced because of the Unown. Ethan never mentioned his friend's name, but Lucas found himself sympathizing with them regardless. Were there even words that could describe that kind of experience? How could he ever hope to explain what happened (what he saw, who he met) in a way that would make sense, if it all seemed like something from a far-off dream?

With that in mind, Lucas chose not to mention the photo he found in the Ruins. At least, not yet. There were a few things he needed to figure out first.

Battling Fantina the second time was a lot easier - Snarl really was the difference between victory and defeat. It was Blair's proudest moment, taking on that annoying Mismagius all by herself. Lucas was proud, too - not just of Blair, but of the rest of his team. (And okay, maybe he could be proud of himself too. Baby steps.)

Lucas' victory in the Gym meant that the three could finally continue their journey. To celebrate, Dawn had suggested that they have lunch at a bakery that she found the previous day. A quick round of janken decided that Lucas would pick up the group's order once their number was called. This was how Lucas came back to the table - with everyone's food in hand - to find his friends staring at Barry's phone with a sense of surprise and bewilderment.

"What are you looking at?" he questioned. He immediately got his answer when Barry practically shoved his phone into Lucas' face.

"You have to see this!" Barry insisted, as Lucas set the food down and took the phone into his hand. "It's that guy Aether! He read this guy to filth and just about ruined his life!"

"Aevus," Lucas and Dawn corrected in unison. He immediately knew what Barry was talking about, but he played the video anyway. Sure enough, everything from that incident had been recorded; from Aevus' stepping in, to the man's increasingly panicked reactions. It even showed the aftermath. After Aevus could be seen walking away, the man was immediately confronted by his wife, and then by a girl carrying a hat that matched the man's suit. It didn't take long at all for both women to gang up on him.

Dawn took a moment before she said, "You know, I will admit I had some concerns about Aevus before."

"Did you?"

"Yeah. Between your stories about him and how he just randomly appeared and disappeared that one time...I think anyone would find him at least a little odd. That said, he never really struck me as a bad guy," Dawn admitted. "Not like that guy he called out, anyway. I met him once - he was a Contest Judge, and he gave me a really bad feeling when my mom introduced me to him. It's good to know my hunch about him was right."

"I was actually in the crowd when that happened," Lucas admitted. Before Dawn or Barry could respond, he continued, "The video doesn't show it, but the guy was harassing a couple of Psychics before Aevus stepped in."

"Oh, really?" Dawn glanced between the screen and Lucas' face. "Any idea why?"

Lucas suddenly found it very hard to look at Dawn's face. "...I don't know."

"You hesitated."

"I wasn't paying much attention," Lucas admitted. Rubbing the back of his neck, he continued, "He, um...claimed to be under Arceus' protection, and I tuned it out until Aevus stepped in. Sorry."

"Say no more," Dawn sighed, as she gently extracted the phone from Lucas' hand. "There's bad berries in every bunch. If he's one of them, I'd say he had it coming."

"Yeah..." Still, Lucas wracked his brain for a chance in topic. As cynical as he might be about the whole 'organized religion' thing, he was aware that it couldn't be all bad. After all, Dawn thrived in that kind of community. While he couldn't be sure if he'd ever be comfortable in that kind of environment, the last thing he wanted was to diminish the comfort someone else found in it. That was doubly true if that someone happened to be a close friend.

Despite his desperation for a change in topic, Lucas returned his gaze to the video. It was then that he finally caught sight of the title; 'CONTEST JUDGE CAUGHT IN AFFAIR BY WANDERING PSYCHIC?! WATCH HIS LIFE FALL APART!'

"Well...that title's not click-baity at all," Lucas muttered, craning his head to get a better look at the video. With the phone in Dawn's grip, he got a clearer sense of what was being said.

Wait a minute, Lucas realized, his eyes widening. Aevus never denied that he didn't know where the guy had been. So how could he-?

Before he could voice his thought, Barry spoke up. "You know what we should do?! Let's go looking for Honey Trees!"

"Wha-? Honey Trees?" That certainly snapped Lucas out of his train of thought, and for good reason. The Honey Tree method required just as much patience as fishing...if not more so. So, it surprised Lucas to hear the suggestion coming from Barry. Judging from Dawn's Aura, she was also stunned. "What brought that on?"

"You got that jar of Honey from that magic satchel, right? What other use is there for Honey?!" The more Barry talked, the more animated he became. "We can just slather it on every tree we find as we make our way to Veilstone! I've heard that if you're lucky, you can find some really rare Pokemon that way! That'd be good for, uh...the PokeDex! Yeah, that thing. Wouldn't it?"

Hearing Barry talk, Lucas immediately caught onto what he was trying to do. It was the perfect topic change, even if it made Lucas realize that he put filling the PokeDex in the backseat. Whoops. "Yeah, let's give it a shot! I do need to fill up as many pages as I can..."

"I do too!" Dawn was just as eager to take up Barry's offer. "Why don't we make a game out of it? Whoever finds the rarest Pokemon using that method gets the next lunch paid for by the other two."

"You're on!" Barry was already enthusiastic, but Dawn's suggestion had kindled the competitive streak in him. "I'm feeling lucky! Just watch, I'm gonna find something that'll blow you two out of the water! Like a Heracross, or even a Munchlax!"

"Barry," Lucas said, before he could stop himself. "If you find a Munchlax specifically, I'll give you that Nugget we found in the satchel last night."

"Oho!" Barry's expression was downright gleeful as he shook Lucas' hand. "It's rare to see you so competitive! You got yourself a bet!"

Lucas grinned back. Whether he was still feeling the high of winning against Fantina, or if it was just Barry's enthusiasm being contagious making him this happy...he felt like nothing could spoil his good mood.

After the last twenty-four hours, Lucas wanted to treasure that happiness for as long as he could.