"You know, that was why legendary pokémon hide," Saniya said, sipping at something hot and soothing. "Seven pokémon. Two of them, a meowth and dusknoir, took out Cresselia. We're not all-powerful, never were, but it's even less here and now. Palkia died to three pokémon. It's just… curious, is all."

"It's kinda sad," Scout said, almost mummified in bandages. "But… don't go nuts and try to kill everyone?"

"Damn, that's my Rest Day plans out the window."

Treasure Town was a formidable place. It lived just as much as a pokémon did and was just as hardy. With The Dream ended, the pokémon that had been put to sleep had all woken up, and Treasure Town was thriving again.

Pokémon ran back and forth, bringing construction, food and water, or just more bodies and helpers to where it needed to be. Plenty of pokémon had spread out further, seeking to give aid to places not as prosperous as Treasure Town.

It would have been a wonderful thing to say that no one had died, but that'd be a lie. Ferals had exited dungeons in frightening numbers, and while they weren't immune to The Dream themselves, there had been towns that had been attacked, most or all of their population asleep.

The most recent attack on Treasure Town brought many graves—majority for the ferals, but not all.

Sunflora said something at every ceremony, fighting tears but none being allowed to drop. She knew everyone in Treasure Town. Everyone. So, she had something to say or a story to tell for everyone.

The town had rallied around the guild, as always. Torkoal had survived and had woken up as well, but he wasn't in a good state. Ponyta didn't wait anxiously at his bed, he was out and about with Team Flame, helping carry what needed to be carried.

Thoughtlight hadn't stuck around for long. He'd been very quiet after they returned and after spending a night in Treasure Town, as per Chimecho's demands, he set off in the morning. He said he wanted to see his companions again, to make sure they were alright.

Team Ion and Team Sunrise were only ordered to rest. The Spacial Rift and battles were not kind to anyone, and Chimecho tutted when she saw Scout's state.

"Why is it always you?" she had asked before getting to work.

Guardian, Rai and Mane sat with him as Chimecho zoomed over, spreading sparkles and levitating bandages.

"Scout?" Guardian spoke, lowly. "Your injury… what happened?"

The wound was there, but it was a relatively deep cut rather than the near-disembowelment that it had looked like.

"I think… that place was the very centre of The Dream since Saniya was able to be there twice. She meant to cut me worse, but it was… a dream? I don't know, it felt like she was slicing me in half." He spoke with considerable zen considering the circumstances, wincing when Chimecho bandaged him with sitrus-soaked fabrics.

"We're just glad you're, you know, in one piece," Mane said, nuzzling him.

Guardian relearned that petting cats was a relaxing thing for them as well as himself and he found himself petting Rai and Mane to an uneasy rest as Scout was dropped with a sleep seed.

Scout's expression remained a little topsy-turvy, and eventually, he said, "I do feel a little... something about Cresselia."

Guardian looked up. "There's no need to," he said, understanding what Scout was saying. "I killed her. Not you."

"We both did," Scout returned, he put on a small, and fragile, smile. "You can't take all the credit for that."

"I am happy to take the credit for destroying The Dream though!" Mane announced, nuzzling closer to what part of Scout wasn't covered in bandage. "Worship me."

"Later."

Saniya sneered at him, without any malice whatsoever. "I did most of the work, you were just the match to my powderkeg."

"Without my match, there'd be no boom." He stuck his tongue out at her, she stuck hers right back.

Guardian shook his head, the distractions were nice but that's all they were. "It was a mercy, in the end. To know oblivion like that."

"I know," Scout said, smiling when Rai also pressed against him. "It's just a bit strange." To know he'd killed someone.

He'd contextualise it in his head in time.

Saniya also needed a bit of care, having had her controlled body beaten black and blue on top of no food or water in the days she'd been asleep. A vast majority of the town felt that. The Dream and Sunflora's Grassy Terrain helped a lot, but it was no replacement and getting the children fed was a swift priority.

To no one's surprise, Banette was the first to be caring for them, before even Chansey, and made absolutely certain that every child was alright.

They strung her up and beat her until the candy came out, laughing and giggling as she swore at them, rather than sobbing and shaking from hunger and terror. That's just what Banette was like.

Mawile, Ampharos, and Jirachi stuck around for a few days to help but decided to go off together to rendezvous with the Shaymin Village to determine which places could benefit from help. There were many places in poor locations that a strong team would have to enter, they called themselves Team Expedition.

Totally not Scout's idea at all.

The town would survive.

Scars would heal.

Pain would dull.

People would be remembered.

Life moves on.

A roserade had been the first to attack him for what he was. He sent her to the realm of nightmares.

The kirlia tried to banish him with the burning light of fairies. He gave her the same gift of perpetual sleep.

A blasted luxray dashed back, avoiding his strike, and unleashed lightning. Why was it always that line to vex him so?

This was not the same one, however. A void of pink and black left his hands and the luxray was too slow to dodge, dropping it into the darkness as well.

A voice he was not expecting, having followed after the sound of rushing feet, sent shivers through him. "Luxray?" it had said, appalled.

It was something small, bipedal but not like the roserade, more like a kirlia. Gowned in fabrics unlike a leavanny's craft, he didn't know at first. An ancient memory stirred, a kind face flashed through his mind (Pelleas), and a word, human, reached the forefront of his mind.

He wanted to flee, he wanted to drown her in everlasting darkness, but….

He couldn't. He was just so very tired. Even the Hunger was dying, having consumed his insides in its voracity and leaving just the shell left. Shaking and bobbing in the air, he couldn't keep floating, and he collapsed in the shade of the tree, squeezing his eyes shut as the steps of the human approached.

He shook against the tree, trying to gather the strength, trying to tap into the Power and fighting the urge. It was different here, so different. He wanted nothing more than to plunge his whole self into it and take it for his own.

And there was nothing he wanted less, for it was unspoiled by him and if he did enter it… what Darkrai was would be corrupted with the taint that he was.

Shaking in the duality of this, he opened his eyes, lifting a trembling hand to blast the human to dust before it could strike him down.

It reached down first, aiming to crush his neck. He flinched and gasped as instead of a brutal strike, it was a soft, gentle, touch laid on his growth. She flinched from touching him.

"Oh," she said, for it had to be a female, or at least a child, with that pitch of voice. She smiled at him, not out of joy for his state, or a mocking smirk, it was a smile of kindness and understanding. And sadness.

He squinted his eyes, searching for deception, or to shield his eyes from the kindness and see anything else. Nothing and no one smiled at him like that.

The garden he had been accepted in hit his mind like a brick, and he banished it away with cries of denial.

"Are you hurt?" she asked, her eyes glinting just slightly. This magical creature before her, this pokémon, was ravaged, and it got worse the longer eyes were upon him, spotting injuries that were uncovered by examination.

He was missing an arm. His body was torn and bleeding. His gaze was tired and drooping. "Are you… in pain?" It was a silly thing to ask, but this human was so small, so young. "Oh. You are."

The wretch tried to get up, pushing her back with his arm, but couldn't float, couldn't push himself away from that awful creature and its terrible, gentle, hands. He groaned in pain, cutting it off with a vengeance but what came out was a choked sob.

She had withdrawn her hand when it pushed her away but slowly extended it back, touching the rippling darkness. It stung her hand, she could feel actual stinging shooting up her arm, and he whimpered knowing it was pain she was experiencing. Yet, she didn't pull her hand away from the poison that burned him so. "I'll help you." She smiled, eyes watering and voice cracking. "Alicia make you well."

"I…," he said, accidentally speaking. "I can't stay here." Around him, pokémon laid in terrible nightmares. They would awaken eventually and would tear his body apart.

A laughable prospect, he could feel his consciousness slipping. He had lost so much blood. There was nothing left of him to fight, just the barest scraps of memory of a better time he could never have.

"You don't have to leave," she said, kindness unknown as to why she offered it. "You can stay here."

His eyes cracked open, widening just slightly as ripples of darkest blackness swam within them. "Do… you… mean… that?"

"Of course." She nodded with the certainty of a child, but a tear still dropped. Pain. Fear. Anything but empathy. It was all empathy, her hands never left him. It hurt, so much, to feel the Shadows be ripping itself free of his body. Yet nothing had felt better, his mind clearing, his soul or what passed as one relaxing. "You can stay here for as long as you like. This is everyone's garden."

His own eyes must be bleeding as well, although it didn't sting as much as he thought it should, for his vision was blurring. Something was pooling. Her hand never left him, he couldn't remember how to stand.

He could see it in her eyes, the twitching of her expression, he was a monster.

Her hand didn't move off him, even as welts appeared and broke. He could feel it. The Hunger desperately surged up, up, and even further up like it'd escape out of his mouth and consume everything. He held it back, no one else should hunger like he. It was squeezing his veins, attacking his nerves. It hurt so much when it tore through him like this, seeking to hurt, kill, and consume.

She pressed a leaf to her lips, but he didn't see her get it. His vision was swimming in and out. She began to blow on it and….

Darkrai gasped as Oracion soothed his soul, eyes clearing for a moment… then a moment longer. The Shadow within him hissed, and recoiled, it hated the sound and so did he. But he didn't.

Alicia continued to play it, even as he began to relax under her hand, even as her hand burned from whatever it was within him. He was hurt, he was broken, and she didn't want him to be alone, scared, and in pain.

She'd take the pain for both of them.

And It came. With savagery. With blisters and blood. Came with a shriek she could hear, as Darkrai finally, finally, was freed from an empty nothingness.

Darkrai felt his cheeks growing wet with something other than blood, and it took him a long moment to realise he was crying. Crying from the simplicity of gentleness. Of the mercy of finally being free of a punishment he never deserved, all he wanted was to protect a Time Gear. Do some good, protect the world. That had been all.

The tears kept coming as Darkrai remembered how to feel. Empathy. Revelation of what he had done. It all hit him at once, but he was so tired, so exhausted, that he couldn't parse it.

As the song wound to a close, the other pokémon he had surrendered to nightmares now sleeping peacefully, he spoke again. "What… did you say your name was?"

She lowered the leaf and smiled again at him. "Alicia."

"Alicia..." Things were growing hazy again. He wanted to close his eyes and rest for a while. "Will you… stay with me?"

Alicia's cheeks were also wet, and Darkrai wondered why. Why she would cry for him. Did she not know? She had to know, she had felt it when it left him, heard its final cry, felt the hatred that had been him for so long.

Alicia nodded and raised the leaf back to her lips. It no longer hurt her to hold the creature in front of him, but painful or not, it didn't matter.

She held Darkrai as his eyes slipped closed and he breathed a final breath as he sunk into a dream.

"So, you're doing it then?" Scout asked, he was walking right again. He always recovered quick.

"Yes."

Twila nodded wordlessly.

"I'll come with you," Scout said, it was not an offer. He had not told Rai and Mane yet. The guilt crawled down his spine every minute he was with them.

He received just a pair of nods.

It wasn't difficult to get a meeting with Wigglytuff, he was always happy to see anyone for any reason. Requesting Armaldo also be present, however, was a bit trickier.

The big bug was as busy as he was grumpy, and he was always busy.

Thus, it was a curious group in Wigglytuff's tent office. The guild was being rebuilt, but it was still in construction, meaning there was not as much privacy as Scout would like but it had to be done.

Thus, there was Guildmaster Wigglytuff, all puff and smiles, pink fur blending into the pink fabric of his tent. There was Armaldo, massive, imposing, built of hard chitin and threat. Scout remembered the anorith he'd encountered on his first day in the past, how unsettling it was. Armaldo lacked its blank eyes, but his eyes were scary for other reasons. They were narrowed, intense, constantly suspicious.

Scout himself did his best to remain calm, a tiny little waif of a meowth compared to everyone else in this room. Sometimes he marvelled at how he got to a point where people like this could view him as a fellow.

And Luno and Twila. Twila was far too still to be comfortable, looking as enforcedly casual as she could, but her limbs were just too still and her smile too plastic. Lastly, Luno himself seemed equal to Wigglytuff in his normalcy here.

He looked no different to usual, slightly tense like he was ready to move suddenly. He had the outer feel of a snake prepared to strike, constantly ready to attack. It made sense to Scout now.

"So?" Wigglytuff asked, after everyone had gathered but no one had said anything yet. "What do the three of you want?"

He seemed politely amused, seeing Scout with Team Celestial probably was a little funny.

Wigglytuff was a very perceptive pokemon, however, and the anxiety clearly present in Scout and Twila's body language made him concerned. "You can tell us, what's going on?"

He could feel Armaldo by his side. Master Armaldo never believed in the soft touch, so he probably was looking very scary at the moment. It didn't bother Luno, clearly, but both Scout and Twila were looking even more anxious. Scout looked almost ill even and Rhythm's smile began to fade a bit.

Scout looked to Twila and Luno as if asking for advice and Twila began to try and form some words she had been practising.

"I am a Shadow Pokemon," Luno said bluntly, blankly, without any hesitation whatsoever. "And it has been made clear this cannot be hidden from you anymore."

Rhythm did not expect to hear that.

For the first fraction of a second, he thought Luno had made a joke, a bad one but a joke nonetheless. It would be the first time, and first jokes were usually not so great.

However, he could see Scout and Twila still, saw their reactions, and he knew Luno. Knew him very well. Had seen the siblings arrive in town, so closed off to outsiders. It took months of hard work to even begin to bring Twila out of her guarded shell. She told them they were from Fissure, and so their distant nature, occasionally concerning trait, and all those things made sense.

That's what Trill said, at least when Rhythm wondered what they could do to help them.

In the next moment, it all clicked together and made sense. He brought a hand up, instinctively to block Chitin, but the armaldo hadn't moved. They did share a brief glance, and it was an intense one. Rhythm swallowed, and left his arm slightly raised between them and Chitin.

"Oh," Rhythm heard himself say, he sounded far away to his own ears. He swallowed and took another breath, his mind whirling with thoughts. Everything was making sense and nothing was making sense.

"He's not. He's not dangerous though," Scout blurted out, unable to hold his tongue.

Armaldo immediately snorted a deep and bitter sound.

"I'm serious!" Scout insisted. "He fought for the town with everyone else, he saved Vigoroth's life and they. Um. Yeah, well everyone knows that already." He was so flustered he didn't blush.

As Scout babbled on about what the situation was, Twila was intently studying the reactions of Armaldo and Wigglytuff. Here were two of the strongest pokemon she had ever met, and only having met The Legendary Lucario herself gave her the ability to not outright call them the strongest.

Guildmaster Wigglytuff was known for his belief in the value of everyone, and she had heard him speak even for Darkrai. However, he also conceded that Darkrai had to be put down. She couldn't trust that his compassion wouldn't extend to the idea of a 'mercy' kill.

And, of course, Armaldo. Armaldo was a problem, and he looked very angry. He always looked grumpy, but now he looked furious and she stepped a little closer to her brother just in case. Wigglytuff had raised his arm immediately, a good sign, but Armaldo hadn't moved which only put her on edge.

Rhythm, however, his mind was whirling and with Scout giving him some time and information to think on, he had a question. "For as long as we've known you?" he asked Luno.

"I died when I was a child," he replied blankly. "A pyroar ripped my throat out." A free hand of his pulled down his scarf casually, as if those words didn't fill the room with horror. Luno was covered in scars, far more than even Scout was, but surprising even the meowth, was the large neck scar, completely black against his green and red scales.

"Oh my gosh," Rhythm murmured under his breath, horror in his heart at the sight. Scars were a sign of survival, he had his own. Everyone did. But that? That was a remnant of his death.

Scout had a feeling he'd never felt before. He couldn't even put it into words, it was so completely foreign it felt like a completely different person behind his eyes at the sight of that wretchedly dark stain on Luno's body.

Chitin alone reacted and felt little. There was a twinge of something, a reminder that once upon a time, the grovyle had been a living person with hopes and dreams. His eyes trailed subtly to Twila. Interestingly enough, her reaction was blank. With the current implications in every line the siblings spoke to them, she'd seen worse.

Rhythm took a breath as Luno replaced the scarf. The sight was terrible, but it didn't pull his mind entirely away from what he had said had killed him.

A pyroar? Seeing Scout twitch and frown before the show also told him that Scout hadn't known that. He had a rough idea of how old Luno and Twila were, and he began to connect a couple of dreadful dots.

That was not a question for now, however. "And have you ever killed another pokemon yourself?"

"I sate myself with the feral pokemon," Luno replied. The massive scars made a lot more sense. Shadow Pokemon can regenerate from massive damage, but utterly critical wounds could leave marks even they wouldn't fully heal from. Believed to be a sort of sluggishness of the healing factor being overtaxed.

Chitin once again snorted at that claim, but this time Twila spoke up. "It is true," she said with a sort of unbending firmness. "I've known him my whole life and we've never parted long enough."

"Long enough," Chitin spat. "So, you were in the dungeons with him as he massacred the ferals? Able to definitely confirm that not a single adventurer fell into the killing floor?" His eyes narrowed further. "Or that any feral 'woke up' before being ripped apart?"

"I cannot confirm that," Luno replied before Twila could continue mounting her defence. "If it happened, it was unknown and unintended. Besides, you hunt ferals for meat." He didn't go on to ask how that was any different to feeding his Hunger but they heard it nonetheless.

"There have been no suspicious deaths around this area of the continent for all the years that Team Celestial have been here," Rhythm said softly. "And the only known Shadow Pokemon were before them."

Chitin finally looked at his student, a sort of angry, exhausted, withering expression. Staring at Rhythm for a long time.

"…You're going to let us stay," Luno said.

"You are going to allow them to stay," Chitin said.

They had said it at almost the same moment, having read Rhythm's face the same way at the same time.

Chitin didn't move to glare at Luno or Rhythm, he just turned around with a harsh, grating, growl, before spinning back around. "You're insane, Junior. But I already know what you're thinking and I need you to know that it is insanity."

"I'd rather be insane than hopeless," Rhythm replied surely.

"Wait. Wait, you're just… okay with this?" Twila said, unable to hold her tongue. Of all the things she had expected, this wasn't really one of them.

Wigglytuff turned back to her and his gaze turned to something she hated. Sympathy. He looked to Luno as well. "...no, of course I'm not 'okay' hearing this. It's horrible to hear you were murdered as a child and have had to live like this all this time."

Luno shrugged. It was all he had ever really known.

"But that doesn't mean I'm going to throw you out or, heavens forbid let someone kill you. You are still a member of the Guild, whether graduated or Shadow or otherwise. And I believe you that you have not hurt anyone, I've never known you to be that type of person."

Luno briefly looked puzzled, not understanding what he meant. He was a killer, a revenant that Hungered for the deaths of the unafflicted. He felt the urge to kill almost all the time, all that stopped him sometimes was knowing it would upset Twila. That had always been the thing. He didn't care, but she did. And that mattered, even if he didn't understand why it mattered.

Something about Wigglytuff's eyes, however. It was filled with understanding. Like he knew what he thought and understood why, but how could he? He wasn't a Shadow. He would know.

The Hunger didn't want others who were already corrupted after all.

"Fine," Chitin growled, knowing he wasn't going to win the fight with Rhythm. "HOWEVER, there will be terms that will not be argued."

"Armaldo…," Rhythm murmured.

"Junior, I'm not budging on this," Chitin growled, and Rhythm knew Chitin only called him Junior on rare occasions. "Formerly behaved or not, the risk is always there that he could lose control and kill someone." He personally thought it was an inevitability, but Rhythm clearly disagreed.

"The first term is that everyone else is going to know, isn't it?" Twila asked, standing tall to hear these laid out.

"Yes. The Guild, at least. They deserve to know what they're dealing with."

"But not the whole town," Rhythm added. "It's not necessary, and it'll only cause strife." That the Treasure Towners lynched the last Shadow Pokemon they caught went unmentioned. The fact that it was a pyroar flashed through Rhythm's mind again, but again he didn't ask.

Twila had to take some deep breaths after Chitin's words. 'What they're dealing with,' flashed through her mind and it made her angry beyond words could articulate, like Luno was some kind of animal. She didn't say anything, and Luno didn't care.

Scout, who was still here, had been drawn back to the duo. This had gone better than he had feared, but he could still see the tension in Twila's body. So, he had an idea of his own.

"And then what?" Twila asked. "I'm not going to let myself believe things will just… go back to the way it was."

And Luno spoke up, "Am I under house arrest or not?"

"Yes," Chitin said.

"Of course not," Rhythm said.

They shared another look. "Guildmaster," Chitin growled.

"Armaldo," Rhythm returned. "If he was going to run he would have done so before telling us. There's no point in locking him in the guild, the town will eventually notice too and ask questions. Plus, they did graduate the guild, we had a party and everything."

Chitin breathed out a slow breath through his nose, Scout couldn't help but compare him and Twila. And Luno and Rhythm. What a strange comparison, but it felt right.

Rhythm also moved in a way to draw Chitin's eyes, which fell on the goods Team Celestial had brought back from the Sand Continent. A pretty impressive haul that was doing a lot of good for the rebuilding of the town. He couldn't argue their effectiveness.

"I have an idea?" Scout offered. He was more confident as eyes turned to him again. "You probably want someone to still be with them, right?" he asked Armaldo.

"Obviously," he growled.

"Someone who can handle Luno if 'something happened'."

"Yes, and? I don't see you offering your team." He snorted at the thought.

"Hey, we saved the world twice," Scout snipped. "But I meant someone else. Someone who's proved able to handle Luno in the past!"

Chitin's face was blank and then Rhythm snorted out a little giggle.

Armaldo sighed with the weight of years on his back. "You're suggesting Vigoroth?" he asked flatly. "The same vigoroth who is widely known to be in a relationship with the grovyle." He frowned a moment. "He knows." It wasn't a question.

"Regrettably," Luno answered. He didn't mention he saved Sol's life.

"I found out the same time he did," Scout said. "Which was before the relationship! …right?" he asked Luno.

"It was," Twila answered when Luno didn't. "Vigoroth has been… just the most wonderful person."

"I don't know if that's exactly trustworthy to be objective," Armaldo complained. "He should have said something," he muttered under his breath.

"Even if that was a problem," Rhythm said with a tone that said it wasn't a problem. "There's still no one better. It won't be… easy to tell the rest of the guild, some are probably going to take it better than others. Since Vigoroth already knows and has shown a reliable capability to keep up, plus he is part of their team already. He's the best choice."

And once again, Chitin couldn't deny it. "Very well then," he conceded, gruffly. "We need to work out how to inform the guild and not let the word spread. We have two gossips in this guild alone."

"We can do it," Rhythm insisted, positively. He had a new spark in his eye, a kind of energy that none of the visitors would understand but Chitin knew all too well. "We'll let you three go if there's nothing else for now, we'll let you know when we decide to tell the rest of the guild."

And then that was that.

Scout and Twila left somewhat in a daze of relief and confusion, Luno existed as he always had. He felt a bit antsy though, so he sought out Sol for a good, hard, stress-relieving… battle.

After they left, however, the guild leadership remained in silence for some time.

"I know what you're thinking," he said to his old, young, student. "There is no saving a Shadow Pokemon. Not him, and not her either."

"Just because something has never been done," Rhythm said softly, gazing out a patch window for his tent. "Doesn't mean it can't be done."

"You could get more people hurt. Again."

That hurt, and Chitin knew that was one of the more hurtful things he could say. However, he had to say it. He couldn't hold that back for the sake of feelings.

"...I know. But the day I give up on believing in people is the day I'm no longer Rhythm."

Chitin sighed, long and slowly. "...aye. Fucking aye, that is."

Rhythm sighed tiredly, reclining back in his big, comfortable, throne. It had taken a bit of exposure damage the past week, but he didn't really mind.

It hadn't rained, thankfully with all the construction and running around going on. But very sunny, and a bit windy, with some frosty mornings.

He didn't mind because he wouldn't have been resting in the chair anyway, not with work to do. It was a memento at this stage, a landmark. Where the big wigglytuff head looming over town was gone, the throne remained and so did he.

He ran his hands along the arms of the fancy chair. He was careful, he didn't need splinters or anything. Armaldo would be very upset if he came crying to him about another splinter.

At least that would be in his paw and not… elsewhere.

Banishing that thought, Rhythm slipped his paws off the arms just in case. Something crinkled when he shifted his paws down, and he glanced to the left.

Smushed so deep within that only the top of it could be seen, was something made of parchment. He pulled it out, expecting some old list or forgotten request that wound up lost in his chair.

And then his heart skipped a beat when he turned it over.

Rhythm

He froze. There were only a few pokémon in the world that knew him well enough to address him by his name, and that number reduced dramatically when accounting for how it was written too.

Those weren't footprint runes. That was unown script. Sloppy, rough, unsteady unown script but unown script all the same. He recognised the loopy y and the writing in general.

This was Soothe's writing.

Soothe had written this.

Rhythm's mouth was dry, his paws were shaking, he was taken over by a multitude of crashing thoughts and feelings, hitting him all at once.

Confusion, joy, fear, elation, wariness, eagerness, hope, dread.

He could almost look at it for years, wondering what was written within. The parchment was a simple piece folded over in half, there was his name on one half, and when he opened it up, he saw five simple words.

Kabutops was a Shadow Pokémon.

He wanted to laugh. He wanted to cry. He wanted to scream. He wanted….

Rhythm's eyes turned to a broken cliff, where an empty grave had been remade.

Authors Note:

And that's Arc 2 rewritten.

To anyone who has been rereading this, you know what's coming. For those who don't, yep. That means there is a third arc to this story!

Like in the previous, I had thoughts to share about Arc 2 when I first wrote it, and then about Arc 1 when I rewrote it. I have the same intention here, so let's get into it.

When I wrote Arc 2 back in 2020, I went into it with the idea of developing the characters of Treasure Town and blending that into Team Sunrise's plot details. I didn't end up succeeding in that and afterwards, I felt Arc 2 was the weakest of the three arcs. It was bloated with a lot of filler, most of it was 'fun filler', but still filler which made it that bit weaker.

Another thing was that when I first started writing it, and I mention this in my original talk as well, I had a sudden change of mind about a pivotal plot detail that I had hinged a LOT of the Arc's events on, meaning I was now writing a lot more blindly than I had intended to. This affected the quality of the plot. There was also a bit of inner conflict about Scout that I mistakenly went too hard into with him being very constantly hard on himself and just whinging in his inner monologue. Striker was also more of an asshole, with their reconciliation not happening until Arc 3 (I reused much of their conversation I had written because it was great though).

It was just a very messy Arc, had excellent moments. The first feral invasion of Treasure Town is widely considered one of the best chapters in the entire story. But ultimately, there was just a lot more that needed to be done to bring its quality up.

I feel that this version is indeed a lot better. Since I KNEW what I was building towards, both for Arc 2 and Arc 3 content, I feel things are a lot cleaner and cohesive. Probably still a bit of filler, but character important filler which is that really filler then? Who knows.

I think it's worth talking about Luno and Twila now.

They don't exist in the original version of Warped Skies. I added them as I was starting Arc 2 and then went back and edited a few earlier chapters in Arc 1 to mention them beforehand.

For the rereaders, their appearance was quite a surprise. Another grovyle? A braixen? Who were these two and why were they suddenly important?

We learned why. Luno is a Shadow Pokemon and yes, this is very very important. I won't spoil much, I just wanted to touch on the fact that they are a new inclusion but they are an important inclusion. All I'll say is that Shadow Pokemon play an important role in Arc 3, and I realised having a case like Luno played into the themes I wanted to do even better.

Now, I talked about Darkrai and Keira in the original authors note, so I won't go as long this time. Keira is a favourite of mine, and she was written slightly better in this version. I mostly took out some overtly nasty stuff, she's a character from my Trainer Fic. You'll find her and Felix in A Trainer's Epoch (goodness I need to post more chapters to that).

Ah, Darkrai. Was he evil? Yes. Was he well-intentioned? Also yes. He had some changes in this version compared to the original, the original played a little more straight with Darkrai causing the Dark Future. This version has him not causing it, just preferring it because he was loved and adored in the Dark Future. Fun Fact! He's not a Shadow Pokemon in the Dark Future, but he still did attack the cast in the Passage of Time and turned Sean into a pokemon and apparently, Scout went from just a normal meowth to one that knew of the world as a game, so I wonder why that is…? Heh.

He is indeed the Darkrai from Rise of Darkrai, the movie set in Alamos Town. Or, technically, he becomes that Darkrai. He did die, purified at Alicia's hand. I have it that his next incarnation remembers Alicia but takes a fairly long time to find his way back to Alamos Town. And due to being a different Darkrai, just with memories of the one that died, he just doesn't realise Alice is her granddaughter. Does offer a bit more reason as to why that Darkrai could handle Dialga and Palkia so well, though, if he already has had some experience now doesn't it~?

I think that's all I have to say for now. I have so many new ideas for Arc 3 that I cannot wait to share with you all! But first we have the Bonus Chapters of Arc 2, which there will be four of. Returning readers will enjoy some new content in the first two, however~

So, what was your favourite part of Arc 2?

Least favourite?

And any burning questions or theories for what is to come, or change, in Arc 3?

See you then!

~ Team Ion