Holy crap, this one took me forever to finish. Uh, hey, I know I said I'd stop commenting on how long things have taken me to put out, but this kinda warrants it because honestly, I wouldn't blame you if you thought I just abandoned this thing. Before we start, I'd just like to say that no, I didn't abandon this story, I just took a break and then kinda struggled to get going again, I hope you can understand.

Anyway, yeah, let's get back on track.

February 9th, 7:22 am

Team Echoes' Base - Rory's Room

Coast Continent

After the party the day prior, Rory woke up with a stretch, "Ah, I feel refreshed! I feel like I could send a Duraludon into orbit with just one punch!"

But before she could step out her door and start the day properly, Mesprit teleported right in her face, "You're technically supposed to be the team leader, right?"

Rory brought a paw to her chin as she tilted her head, "Uh, yeah, why?"

Mesprit clasped her hands together as she smiled at Rory, "Perfect, then, you're the one I should be scolding right now."

"Huh!? W-why me!?" Rory shrieked as she slingshotted back in surprise.

"Because while we were all partying, everything's fallen apart! First, more space rip thingies start appearing, and then those freaks got their grubby hands on a plate!"

"Woah, woah, woah, slow down! First off we!? You were at the party too!?"

Mesprit rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, "Oops, I forgot to mention that the Abra at the party was me, my bad."

"Ok…?"

"B-but that's beside the point! There was another space rip thingie! A-and it probably brought some poor soul through it!"

"Since when did you care about whatever comes out of those space rifts?" Rory asked as she paced around the room.

"Since always! Haven't I told you that they're a direct result of Fiora's tomfoolery!?"

Rory frowned as she brought a paw to her temple, "Oh, yeah, almost forgot about that…"

"And that brings me to my next point, Fiora's got her grubby mitts on a plate! While we were none the wiser!"

Rory noticed the anguish on Mesprit's face and decided to try to ease her nerves a bit, "Relax, we're still up a few plates, I'm sure it's no big deal."

Mesprit grabbed Rory by the shoulders and shook her furiously, "NO BIG DEAL!? THIS IS A CRISIS!"

"Ok, Ok, I get it, but what do you expect us to do about it right now? If we had been there to stop them, we would've just gotten demolished! We're in no shape to take her on right now, especially with Joseph in the state he's in right now."

"W-well-" Mesprit tried coming up with a rebuttal but ultimately sighed as she failed to do so, "I guess that's fair… I guess we can't really do too much about her right now, we'll just have to get stronger and deal with her when we're ready."

"We'll?"

"Yeah, we. I'll be right there behind you when you need me. When the time comes, that is."

As she placed a paw on Mesprit's shoulder, Rory smiled, "Alright then! We'll make sure to train so that we can stand beside you in battle."

Mesprit nodded, "Well said." She floated back toward the door and faced Rory, "Now, what are we planning on doing today?"

Rory thought for a moment, "I didn't really have any plans for today, I was just gonna check on Joseph and go from there."

"Sounds like a plan, let's get moving then!"

Mesprit turned to the door and opened it, on the other side, Stumpy attempted to knock on the door only to have it ripped away from him as it swung open abruptly, "O-oh, hello!"

Mesprit rolled her eyes, "Oh, it's you. Don't think I've forgotten about the time you used my face as a doormat."

Stumpy's smile inverted as he lowered his head, "I'm sorry, I was just protecting my friends."

Seeing Stumpy frown made Mesprit feel terrible, so she punched his shoulder and giggled, "I'm just kidding, I forgive you, just don't do it again, or else I'll get Groudon to get revenge for me."

"Groudon?" Stumpy questioned, "What's that?"

"Do you seriously not know about Groudon!?"

"Nope. Never heard of it."

"Them." Mesprit corrected, "They're a legendary Pokémon, everyone knows about them."

In the interest of time, Rory stepped in by pointing out why Stumpy was so oblivious, "It's worth noting that Stumpy is a dinosaur, from like, millions of years ago."

"I mean yeah, that much is clear, he's gotta be super old if he doesn't know about Groudon." Mesprit chuckled.

"No, no, I don't think you get it, Stumpy here is literally an amalgamation of two fossils, he was brought back to life by some weird machine, it's honestly surprising nobody seems to pay him any mind."

"Wait, you're being serious?"

Stumpy nodded, "Yup, even I was freaked out when I found that out."

Mesprit floated over to Joseph's door quickly, "L-let's just drop it before Mew gets any ideas."

"How would they even find out?" Rory questioned, "They aren't here or anything, are they?"

"No, but they will undoubtedly find this conversation in my memories if we keep it going, so for our sake, let's just drop it and check on Joseph."

Mesprit faced the door and reached for the doorknob, only to have her hand (very lightly) whacked by Stumpy's tail, "He's still sleeping, we should wait until he wakes."

"Um, no, we shouldn't." Mesprit countered, "His alarm's probably gone on snooze like six times already, he needs to get up already."

"He's still sleepy, just let him rest, please."

"Ugh, fine. I'll just, use my psychic powers to see how he's doing.", She briefly closed her eyes as she tried to gauge Joseph's recovery, "No good, he's still got a few days until he's all better. Oddly enough, he seems to be doing a little worse today, so if he gets out of bed, maybe go easy on him."

Hearing about his best buddy's poor condition made Stumpy gloomy, "That's a shame… I was hoping I could show him what we've been doing on the island."

"Hmmm… That doesn't sound like a bad idea." Rory said, "Maybe the flowers you guys are growing there will remind him of home or something."

"Well, if it'll help him recover, then it's worth a shot! I'll go tend to the flowers until he wakes."

Everyone else seemed on board with this plan, as Rory was quick to join in, "Great! I'll go write a note for him when he wakes up."

That just left Mesprit, who was still on board with the plan, she just wasn't as enthusiastic as the others, "And I'll… Uh… Follow him around and make sure he doesn't get into too much trouble, I guess."

"Sounds good to me." Stumpy chirped, "Let's hope this works!"

A few hours later…

When Joseph finally woke up, he noticed a note had been left for him just before his door. As he approached the note, his head started pounding, "Ack! What's with the migraine all of a sudden!?", doing his best to push past the sudden head pain, he picked up the note and began reading.

Hey, it's me, Rory. Stumpy wanted to give you a tour of his island. He thought maybe the flowers he's been growing would remind you of home…. Somehow…

Anyway, we'll be waiting for you on the island, just take the warp panel in Stumpy's room when you're ready.

See you in a bit

- Rory

Joseph pushed the note aside and took a step closer to the door, "I'll be there in a sec, just need to get rid of this headache first."

February 9th, 10:17 am

Sunset Square

Coast Continent

As his head continued to pound, Joseph arrived at Sunset Square, thankfully, it seemed like a bit of a slow day, as nobody seemed to be around. Using this to his advantage, Joseph quickly checked in with the Kecleon brothers to see if they had anything for headaches, "Hey, you guys wouldn't happen to have anything to make this headache go away would you?" He asked.

"Nope." The red-striped Kecleon replied, "Try checking around the department store, if we don't have it, they definitely do."

"Will do, thanks, mister." Joseph said as he turned around. He set a course for the department store.

When he got there, he noticed an Abra sitting in front of the door, "I wonder what this place will be like." They thought aloud.

Joseph rolled his eyes, "Mesprit, what are you doing?"

The disguised legendary did an instant 180 to face Joseph, "Eep! Joseph! I-I totally forgot I was supposed to be keeping an eye on you, I uh, may have gotten a little sidetracked."

"I don't need a guide, I'm old enough to find my way around on my own."

"Dang, what's with the attitude?"

"Sorry, my head feels like it's gonna explode any minute here."

"You have a headache?"

Joseph nodded, "Yep, feels like I just slammed my head into a brick wall."

Mesprit was a little confused by this seemingly random turn of events but decided to help anyway, "A-alright, I think I heard someone mention some sort of headache remedy, let's go look around for a bit and see what we find."

Despite his splitting headache, Joseph managed to think ahead, he knew if he went in first he risked having Ribombee shower him in confetti, so he had a proposition, "Alright, but could you do me a favor?"

"Well, as long as it doesn't involve paying for you, yes, I can." Mesprit replied.

"Can you lead the way? There's a Ribombee who loves to shoot confetti at anyone who enters this place, and I don't wanna risk making my headache worse."

"Oh, sure, I'll take the bullet for you, I mean it's the least I can do after getting you actually seriously hurt."

As the sliding door slid open, Mesprit floated on forward, after being completely and utterly showered with confetti, she peeked back out and gave Joseph a thumbs up, beckoning him onward. Once he had entered the department store, he greeted Ribombee with a silent wave, but something seemed off, she had this worried look on her face, as if she knew something was off, "Are you alright?" She asked, "You look like a Psyduck struggling with a massive headache."

"Funny you mention that."

"Oh my gosh, I knew it! Stay put! I'll get you something to help with that!"

In a flash, Ribombee disappeared, leaving Joseph and his faux Abra companion sitting by the door, after a short wait, Ribombee returned with a bottle labeled 'Lums'. She handed Joseph the bottle and patted him on the head, "Take one of these whenever you feel head pain, it should suppress the pain for a few hours."

After popping the top off the bottle, Joseph looked inside to find dried Lum Berries, 'Ah, I see, so Lum Berries can cure more than just status ailments.' He thought as he shoved one of the berries in his mouth. The berry was, well, dry, it had been dried after all, other than that though, nothing stood out about its flavor, which was nice considering how horrid human medicine often was, "Thanks Ribombee, you're a real lifesaver."

"No problem! Oh, and don't worry about payment, I already cleared it with Grumpig."

"Oh, uh, thanks, I didn't even know you could do that on my behalf."

Ribombee covered her mouth as she giggled, "I can do a lot of things you wouldn't really expect me to, that's the best part of my job!"

'Gee, that doesn't sound power-hungry at all.' Mesprit thought as she rolled her eyes under her Abra eyelids.

"Well, uh, thanks again for your help Ribombee, I'll see you later." Joseph beamed as he waved the jittery bug farewell.

"See ya!"

As Joseph exited the department store, he was blinded by a sudden flash of light, when he opened his eyes he noticed a Litten pointing a camera at the upper part of the building, seemingly unaware that his flash was indeed on, "Ack! My eyes! Watch where you're pointing that thing!" Joseph grunted.

"O-oh crap! S-sorry! I couldn't see you coming through the door!" The Litten replied.

"It's fine, but why were you just snapping pictures all willy-nilly like that?"

"I wasn't! I was trying to get a good shot of the building!

"The building? What's so special about it?"

"Nothing, I was just told to grab a picture of it."

Joseph didn't really understand what was going on here, and he wasn't really given much time to dwell on it as a rather panicked-looking Electrike rushed to the Litten's side, "GAH! THE PHOTO! That guy was in the shot! We have to scrap it and grab a new one!"

The Litten sighed and shook his head, "Sparks, we've been over this, just because someone's in the shot doesn't mean we have to get rid of it, we just need to ask them for permission to use it."

The Electrike's eyes fell on Joseph, she stared for a bit before somewhat rudely asking, "Well, can we use the shot or not?"

"O-oh, uh, I'm cool with it, it saves you the effort after all."

Joseph's answer seemed to put a smile on the Sparks' face, "Thanks mister, you're very thoughtful."

Sparks looked over her companion's shoulder, she took a peek at the shot on his camera's screen. After confirming that the shot was worth keeping, she nodded, causing her Litten companion to sigh, "You are way too critical of my photos."

"It's not my fault your shots are always so blurry! Maybe if you didn't have such shaky paws, I'd back off a bit!"

The Litten sighed again, "I told you there's a good reason for that, but you wouldn't listen to me."

"Uh, yeah, because your story is stupid, nobody's gonna believe you."

The Litten turned their attention back toward Joseph, "I'm getting a bit sidetracked, my name's Scott, nice to meet you." He said as he extended a paw toward Joseph.

With a friendly smile, Joseph accepted the handshake (or pawshake if you will), "Nice to meet you too, my name's Joseph."

As the two broke the handshake, Scott felt an indescribable yet somewhat familiar feeling wash over him, he couldn't explain why, but he wanted to fight Joseph, not because he hated him or anything, far from it in fact, he just felt like he wanted to battle him.

Joseph felt the same way, it was as if the eyes of two trainers met, at least, that's how Joseph saw it anyway. But Joseph refrained from requesting to battle Scott, he didn't think that they'd be allowed to duke it out without consequence, surely there was some law against battling other Pokémon.

Scott on the other hand just dove right in and asked, "Hey, I know this is gonna sound weird, but, do you wanna battle me? I don't hate you or anything, I just wanna have a friendly battle, y'know?"

"I'd be down." Joseph replied, "As long as we don't get in trouble or anything."

"If I may." A voice called out.

The pair turned around to see Crimson the red-striped Kecleon walking on through, "As long as it's just a friendly battle, you two should be fine, just don't turn things into a death match, otherwise Chandelure will snatch ya up, ya hear?"

The cats nodded, "Alright, we won't go too crazy." Joseph assured him, "Now where should we do this?"

After handing his camera to Sparks, Scott spoke up, "How about in the square itself? I saw some other guys fighting there a little while ago, a crowd gathered to watch the fight, maybe that'll happen again or something."

Joseph wasn't sure about how he felt about having an audience, but once he saw how excited Scott was about a potential audience, he couldn't say no, "Alright, that sounds good, let's do this!"

The two walked over to Sunset Square's namesake, beautiful colored bricks painted the plaza, creating a bright, vibrant display on the pavement on par with human architecture. It's not like Joseph hadn't been to the square itself before, I mean he was literally already basically standing in it, it's literally in the middle of town, it's kinda hard not to have been there at least once, but Joseph just hadn't really taken the time to think 'Yeah, this place was built to be an arena.'

As he stepped onto the arena, Joseph stared at his opponent, he stared right into their eyes, 'Hmm… Something feels off… His eyes look… Kinda strange.'

"Hey, you ready, man?" Scott asked, ripping Joseph straight out of his thoughts.

He crouched down and prepared to lunge at his opponent, "O-oh, uh, yeah! Let's do this!"

"Alright then! GO!"

Scott opened up with an Ember which Joseph quickly skirted as he tried to close the distance between him and his opponent, 'Man, I'd kill for some range.' He thought to himself.

Once the distance was closed, Joseph swung a spike-covered paw at Scott, just narrowly missing as Scott used his cat reflexes to dodge, "Woah, how'd you learn Needle Arm?"

Scott's question did little to deter Joseph as he swung again, this time hitting Scott straight in the chest, "It's called Secret Power." He quipped.

After catching his breath, Scott slammed Joseph back with a kick from his hind legs, sending him back a bit. Scott took advantage of the space he had created and spat another Ember Joseph's way, it hit its mark, causing Joseph to wince as the pitiful flame scorched his starboard side (right side).

By this point, a small crowd had started forming, among the crowd stood one very confused """""""Abra""""""", "I wonder what that kid's gotten himself into."

Joseph paid the crowd no mind as he rushed back toward his opponent, as he ran he started charging his electricity before discharging it all at once as he collided with them.

The blow devastated Scott, sending him reeling so far that he almost hit someone in the crowd. As he got back to his feet, his expression got a little more intense, "Heh, not bad, but if ya wanna topple me you're gonna have to do a little better!"

Scott's tenacity surprised Joseph, 'Gosh, he's tough for a tiny little cat, he reminds me of myself a little."

With Scott back on his feet, Joseph kept trying to play catch up as he ran over to his opponent for like the tenth time, however, he stopped dead in his tracks as another Ember flew his way, it was then he noticed, 'Wait I do have range, I have Tera Blast!'

Sparkles lit up the battlefield briefly as Joseph fired a normal type Tera Blast through the flames, catching his foe off guard, 'Crud! I didn't think this guy had range!'

Scott quickly jumped out of the way, just narrowly avoiding the beam of sparkly crystal energy, he used his momentum to leap into the air and bounce off one of the nearby buildings and crash into Joseph, closing the gap effortlessly.

In an attempt to get Scott off of him, Joseph swung another spiky paw, only to just barely miss as Scott ducked his head down for a chomp. As Scott's fangs sunk into Joseph, he felt the energy being sapped from him, he quickly shook him off to minimize his potential energy loss.

'Alright, he's got a healing move, I should probably wrap this up quickly before he ends up healing too much.' Joseph mused as he looked down at his deep blue Tera Scarf, 'With him this close there's no way he can dodge a Tera Blast in time, this seems like the perfect time to test on-command Terastallization.'

Joseph took a deep breath as his Tera Scarf began to glow, before long he was engulfed by crystals. The crowd ate this up, cheering wildly as the lights dimmed (somehow), Sparks even snapped a picture on Scott's camera. Once the crystals shattered, Joseph emerged sporting a water type Tera Jewel, it looked like a little blue crown hiding a crystal water fountain inside.

Now it was Joseph's turn for a quip, "Fitting, I guess I'll be ending our little kitty fight with water."

Scott's confidence faded as he started cowering, "NO! NOT THE SPRAY BOTTLE!"

As Joseph released his Terastal energy, a torrential downpour hit the square, leaving Scott with little room to dodge. Despite his best efforts, Scott failed to dodge the attack as he was given an impromptu shower from the heavens, a fate worse than death for the previously dry cat.

"*cough* GG… Bro…" Scott hacked as he lay in defeat, absolutely soaked from head to toe.

Joseph pumped his fist as the crystals around him faded into sparkles, "Phew… yeah, good game dude."

Shortly after, Joseph fell to the ground, he was thoroughly exhausted, "Heh, really brought me to my limit huh."

Mesprit flew over to Joseph and scoffed, "Dude, that was super corny, you sounded like a basic protagonist character from some stupid poorly written book or something."

"Well, I'm sorry, I'm still kinda feeling off, I'm surprised I even had enough strength to stand a chance."

Scott got back to his feet and gave Joseph another paw shake, "You did great, don't be so hard on yourself!"

"Thanks… You weren't half bad yourself."

Scott's companion Sparks came in hot, knocking him back off his feet, "Are you kidding!? That was AWFUL! I share my TMs with you and THIS is how you repay me!? Pitiful! PITIFUL!"

After picking himself back off the ground (again), Scott grabbed his camera from his companion, "Since when were you a battle critic?"

"Since always! Didn't I tell you I wanted to be an explorer?"

"I mean, yeah, that's why you became a photographer, but does that give you the right to be so harsh?"

"O-oh! S-sorry! I didn't mean to come off like that! Gosh! Why can't I just be nice for once!?"

"It's alright, old habits die hard." Scott looked back over at Joseph, "So, uh, where were we? Oh! Right, I was gonna ask you for your number."

Joseph noticed the watch on Scott's… Wrist? Ankle? Haven't we done this before? If not, it feels like it, uh, anyway, he lifted his watch and touched it against Scott's, the watches vibrated in unison, indicating that they had registered each other, once they were registered Joseph smiled, "Nice, I'll be sure to contact you next time I wanna fight or something."

Smiles went for miles as Scott returned a smile, "And I'll be sure to send you some of the photos Sparks and I take." He said, "Anyway, I got to go, see ya around!"

Scott and Sparks ran off and the crowd that had gathered to watch the fight had dispersed, returning Sunset Square to its previous slow-day state, but something was off…

"Did anything seem weird with that Scott guy?" Mesprit asked, "Because I couldn't shake the feeling that something was way off about him."

Joseph's eyes wandered around the now empty streets, "Depends. Do Pokémon use the term 'GG'?"

"Oh right, that, what does that even mean anyway?"

Joseph jerked his head back in Mesprit's direction, "Y'know, I think we should just drop it, you are definitely gonna like the answer."

"What? Is GG something offensive?"

"What!? No! It stands for 'Good Game', it's commonly used by gamers as a sign of respect."

Mesprit was lost, like really lost, "What's a gamer?"

"You starting to see the pattern?"

"There's a pattern to all this?"

Joseph's eyes rolled on instinct, "Read my mind real quick."

"U-uh ok?"

Using the privacy of his thoughts to his advantage, Joseph told Mesprit what he thought was going on, 'So gamers are people who play video games, video games are a form of entertainment that humans invented, so doing the math, that all adds up to…'

'There's no way, right!? There can't seriously be another human here, right!? RIGHT!?'

Joseph sighed, he figured Mesprit would overreact like this, 'This is exactly why I wasn't gonna tell you.'

'Seriously!? You were just gonna let him go undiscovered!?'

'Look, he's not hurting anybody-'

'Yeah not yet! Think about what's gonna happen now!'

'Nothing's gonna happen now, he's just a photographer, he probably just got mixed up in all this against his will, just like Yumi.'

Mesprit didn't want to admit it, but Joseph's argument had a lot of weight to it, the chances of the distortions bringing another human were astronomically high, and they were only going to get higher until Fiora was finally defeated, so Mesprit reluctantly decided to leave Scott alone, besides, it could've just been a coincidence, right? 'Ugh, whatever, he lives… For now. But if we find out he is evil… Then… Then…'

Joseph took the bait, 'Then what?'

Mesprit briefly swapped back to her normal form and her eyes turned pitch black, 'I'll pick you apart limb from limb with my bare hands.'

Her soulless eyes sent a shiver down Joseph's spine, 'Noted.' He gulped.

Mesprit transformed back into her Abra form and smiled, 'Good, now, let's go chillax, I need to let off some steam.'

Joseph chuckled, 'Y'think?'

February 9th, 11:00 am

Stumpy's Private Island

After taking a short trip back to the base, into Stumpy's room, and through the warp panel, Joseph and Mesprit ended up in a hut somewhere really far away from the Coast Continent. The hut was rather crude, only just passing the criteria for being a shelter, the walls were relatively thin, and the floor was just a giant nest. To top it all off, it didn't have a door, instead, it had a little set of curtains made out of strips of various plants. Despite the crudeness of the hut, it came off as very charming, "Wow, somehow this place is… Cozy… I wouldn't mind living here." Joseph thought aloud.

Mesprit rolled her eyes, whatever Joseph was seeing she wasn't, "You call this cozy?"

"I know! It sounds so stupid! My standards are usually way higher than this, but something about this place… I don't know what it is about it, but it's just… Super cozy…"

Mesprit - still in her Abra form - dropped onto the floor, "Y'know… This place isn't actually half bad. I think it's the hay flooring that ties it all together, like, you take one look, and initially you're all like 'how is this place still standing?' but then you step inside and you just wanna curl up into a ball and doze off."

While the pair were taking a moment to lay in the hay, Rory entered the hut, "Oh hey Joseph. Wait a sec… Mesprit? Are you doing the thing again?"

Joseph's head tilted, "Huh? How'd you-"

Mesprit lifted herself off of the floor and transformed back into her normal form, "Yep, I asked Mew if they'd teach me how to transform yesterday, so I figured I'd try to get some mileage out of that ability."

Rory looked almost embarrassed that she couldn't see through Mesprit's ruse (again), "O-oh, I somehow wasn't expecting that."

"Yeah, and I'm surprised her dumb plan worked." Joseph sighed, "Anyway, where's Stumpy?"

"He fell asleep in a flower bed." Rory replied, "You two sure took your time getting here."

"Yeah, sorry about that… I had a headache and I went out to get medicine, then I bumped into Mesprit while she was using her Abra disguise to check out the department store, and then I ran into this guy who wanted to spar, so we spared for a bit."

"That's neat, it must've been refreshing to have a low-stakes battle for once."

Joseph hadn't even thought of that, it was really nice just being able to have a fun match for once instead of having to worry about making it through a dungeon or something, "Huh, you're right, I hadn't thought of that until just now, that was a nice change of pace."

Mesprit shook her head, "Change of pace? Really? You've been moving at a snail's pace for the past few days!"

Rory responded by giving her a side eye, "And whose fault is that?"

Mesprit's face turned as red as the gem in her forehead as her confidence started to falter, "Um, well, uh, you see, th-there was a very good reason-"

Before she could continue her helpless sputtering, Rory cut her off, "Don't even finish that, you've got nobody to blame but yourself."

Surprisingly, instead of fueling the flames, Mesprit just sighed and gave up, "You're right, it is… All of it is… It's my fault Fiora's here in the first place… And it's my fault I hindered your ability to fight back against her… I'm sorry…"

Her sudden shift in tone caught Rory completely off guard, "Woah, is something up? I thought for sure you were gonna snap back like you usually do."

Glistening teardrops hit the hut's hay flooring, "If I had just paid more attention to who I was bringing here… The world wouldn't be in danger…"

"H-hey! Calm down! It's not your fault!"

"Yes it is! You even said it yourself! I have nobody to blame but me!"

Joseph decided to intervene before things got ugly, "That's not true! From the sounds of it, Fiora wasn't always this horrible person, she just chose to throw everything away, it's her fault for choosing to betray everyone!"

Mesprit wiped her tears away with a sniff, "Y-yeah, I-I guess you're right… B-but I still got you hurt!"

"It was bound to happen eventually, besides, it's not like you disabled me or anything, I'll get better eventually, even if my recovery is really slow." As he finished that sentence, his head started pounding again, but this time, the pain was so overwhelming it became hard to think, "Urgh… Speaking of recovery, I'm gonna need another one of those Lum berries."

He went to pull out another Lum berry, but his paw missed his bag as dizziness overtook him. As the world started to spin, Joseph fell onto the floor, "Joseph!" Rory and Mesprit cried out in sync.

There was no response, Joseph passed out in an instant… This sent his companions into a panic. "Wh-what's happening!? Is he gonna be ok!?" Rory blurted.

Mesprit flung her arms around wildly, "I-I don't know! I've never seen anything like this!"

"Well don't just sit there! Use your psychic power to see what's going on in his head!"

"R-right!" Mesprit's forehead gem started to glow as she peered into Joseph's mind… But the results were… Not very helpful, "It's no good! All I'm getting is a big blank!"

Rory rushed to Joseph's side and lifted him onto her lap as she sat on her knees, his body had gone completely limp, it was almost as if… No! He can't be dead, can he!? "W-what do we do now!?"

The expression on Mesprit's face grew grim, "We do the only thing we can do… We wait and hope for the best…"

Time: Blank

Location: Blank

Status: Blank

Joseph took in a huge gulp of air as he woke up, a quick survey of his surroundings revealed he was back in his room, his real one, not the hollow imitation he made at the base. Completely disoriented, Joseph went to get off his bed but quickly realized that something was off, "I'm still a Shinx!? But how!? Is this not my real house!?"

He got up and wandered around the room for a bit, it was then he noticed something new, "I don't remember having this tall mirror in my room, did mom buy it for me while I was gone or something?"

Taking a closer look at the mirror revealed the altered form Joseph had become all too familiar with, "Yep, still the size of a house cat, I don't know what I was expecting, it's not like that was going to change in an instant or anything…"

After Joseph was done lamenting his loss of height, and thumbs, and basically everything else about his human self, he looked back up at the mirror just as the glass shattered into a million pieces, revealing what looked to be a portal. A mysterious ball of red-orange light emerged from the portal and set itself beside it, "Greetings, Joseph."

Still somewhat shaken from the events that had just transpired, Joseph hesitated before responding, "H-hello? W-who are you?"

"I am a piece of your soul, more precisely, I am the piece that gives you the courage to fight on despite your grim circumstances."

Joseph's brow furrowed, "Piece of my soul? Then how are you here, when you should be in here?" He asked as he pointed to his chest.

"Your current form is a mere imitation of our full self, this is because we were heavily damaged, so heavily damaged in fact that we split."

"So… What does that mean?"

The piece of Joseph's soul giggled, "It's up to you to rebuild your spirit, preferably before sundown."

Joseph's palms started to get all sweaty as a shiver ran down his spine, "U-um… Why specifically before sundown?"

"Because if you don't… You… No… We will all perish."

"What!?"

"Indeed, if we remain separated for too long, we will all cease to exist."

"Well then tell me how to fix all this!"

"You must gather the missing parts of your soul, both good and bad, and place them here."

The courage soul piece entered Joseph's being, filling him with the courage to continue pressing onward.

With his courage restored, Joseph eyed the newly formed portal in the mirror, "Well… Here goes nothing…"

Joseph took a deep breath, he knew that he had to succeed, otherwise, everything he had done up to this point would have been in vain. With that thought weighing heavily on his shoulders, he pressed on through the portal…

Time: Blank

Location: Garden of Wisdom

Status: Determined

Stepping through the portal brought Joseph to a strange garden of sorts, a maze of hedges surrounded him. Going from such a familiar location to this strange, unfamiliar hedge maze really threw Joseph for a loop, but he pressed onward, treating the maze as if it were any old dungeon. After wandering the halls for a bit, Joseph heard a pair of voices bickering with each other, "And what makes you think you deserve to be part of the soul!?" Said a nice-sounding, feminine voice.

A burly, arrogant-sounding voice spoke up, "Are you KIDDING!? Have you forgotten that I ALONE, hold this whole thing together!?"

"You would say that! You arrogant imbecile!"

"Damn right, I'm arrogant! I'm the most important part of the soul! And for the record, YOU are the IDIOT!"

Joseph rounded a corner to see two balls of light, one a light green and the other a dark indigo, at some sort of shrine, he assumed they were the two arguing, so reluctantly, he decided to make his presence known to them, "What are you two arguing about?"

If the two soul pieces had bodies, they would've turned Joseph's direction, "Ah, hello!" The green light greeted, "I see that in our time of need, you have arrived to clear everything up."

With a sigh, Joseph replied, "I guess…"

"Are you SERIOUS!? You're not even supposed to know of our existence! Why are YOU the one who's gonna fix this!? Why can't I do it instead!?" The indigo soul piece blared.

The green soul piece seemed annoyed, so it diverted its attention back to Joseph, "That's your pride, and I am your wisdom."

"Cool! So that's two more soul pieces!" Joseph chirped, "Now just come with me so we can find the rest!"

"ARE YOU FOR REAL!? YOU REALLY WANT ME TO WORK WITH THESE USELESS FOOLS!?" Joseph's pride shouted.

The soul piece of wisdom's light dimmed, "Yeah… About that…"

"Great… Looks like I gotta shut him up before you two join me."

"Yup! Have fun with that!"

Joseph looked at his pride, he found it ironic that he of all people had any sense of pride, he didn't consider himself an overly arrogant person, far from it in fact, so he was a little confused about where his pride was coming from, but he wasn't exactly given the time to ruminate it as the piece of his soul changed forms, they now resembled a Persian "Look kid, you ain't makin' me go back to keeping your soul together, I have had ENOUGH of everyone else's crap!"

"I don't wanna fight, but if it's the only way to get you to come with us, then bring it on!"

Joseph charged headlong into battle, only to stop dead in his tracks as the pride soul fragment scoffed at him, "Why even bother taking this fight? You can't stack up to me! You're STUPID for even THINKING you could take me!"

Its words weighed heavy on Joseph's mind, as doubt filled his mind he felt the world start to spin, this doubt was followed by blind rage, "Shut your mouth! I'll show you!"

"Looks like my Swagger got you good. Heh, idiot."

Before Joseph could get his act together, his pride started to psych itself up using Psych Up, taking advantage of the attack boost it had given him, "Look bud, you've got one more turn to do some damage, so come on! TAKE THE SHOT!"

Still fighting his emotions, Joseph stumbled, plummeting face-first onto the floor, "Heh, I knew it." Pride scoffed, "You're not worthy of being the hero, so MOVE ASIDE!"

Joseph's pride hit him like a truck, the Impact was so Giga (See what I did there?) that it caused an explosion of energy around the pair, leaving Joseph as just a body on the floor, "YEAH! That's what I THOUGHT!"

Joseph's wisdom stared at the corpse in terror, 'There has to be something I can do!'

They scanned their memories for something that could prove useful, after a quick scan of their more recent memories they pictured an image of a rather peculiar Pokémon, 'Of course! Rabsca!'

After quickly changing forms, the wisdom fragment summoned all its energy and passed it to Joseph's corpse. The corpse began to glow softly as it continued to lie on the ground… Completely motionless…

"HAH! YOU IMBECILE! YOU REALLY THOUGHT THAT WOULD WORK!?"

Wisdom started shivering, tears formed in its new form's eyes, "No… Not like this… Please…"

All hope seemed to be lost as the dim light faded from Joseph's body, he remained lifeless… He had lost at possibly the worst time, and now… The world was doomed…

Pride seemed not to care though, even though it understood what would happen now that Joseph had his Wikipedia page updated to say 'was' instead of 'is' he couldn't care less, "Well, I'm starting to get bored, I'll catch you later Wis'."

"My name's not Wis! And no you won't! You just doomed us all!" Wisdom shouted back.

"Oh right, I almost forgot, well, it's no skin off my back, toodles!"

The soul fragment walked off, keeping its new form as a memento, this however would turn out to be a bad idea. Just as the Pride fragment approached the shrine, it heard a voice from behind, "No skin off your back, huh?"

Joseph's pride whipped its head back to see Joseph stumbling back to his feet, "What the!?"

"You're really just gonna let every part of my soul die, and for what? So you can boast about how you're so great?" He paused to shake his head, "Your victory was a fluke, even if you don't see it as such, and I'll prove it to you!"

The Persian apparition rolled their eyes, "HOW MANY TIMES DO I GOTTA TEACH YOU THIS LESSON, OLD MAN!? YOU ARE OLD NEWS! I'LL TAKE YOUR PLACE AND REIN SUPREME!"

Joseph's courage took the wheel as he lowered into his battle stance, "I'm not gonna let that happen! No amount of dirty tricks will save you now! Bring it!"

Joseph's wisdom landed beside him, "Well said, I have no doubt that courage found its way back to you. I shall aid you in battle as well."

Joseph nodded, "Thanks, now let's destroy this arrogant fool!"

The fight resumed as Joseph ran at his Pride, striking it right in the face with Secret Power, which strangely turned into the move Pound, or at least, that's what it seemed like at first, somehow, the move paralyzed the soul fragment. This development confused almost everyone involved, "GAH!" The pride piece roared, "Since when could that attack PARALYZE!?"

Joseph was just as astonished, "Uh, no clue, I feel like I just performed black magic on accident."

"It was Secret Power." Joseph's wisdom explained, "A rather unorthodox move that changes form and effect based on the user's surroundings, nifty, but I feel its time in Joseph's arsenal is nearing its end."

The Pride piece growled, "SHUT UP, I DIDN'T NEED YOUR EXPLANATION!"

Wisdom retaliated by shoving Pride to the ground using some unseen force, "Oh? Is that true? Then why do I recall a certain Persian asking about what just happened?" They giggled, "And another thing, that look isn't it, next time you should pick something a little prettier."

"Says you! You ugly bug!"

Joseph used the bickering as a window to get in an attack, summoning a pair of Psychic Fangs to chomp the prideful Persian, "GAH! HEY! CAN'T YOU SEE WE'RE IN THE MIDDLE OF SOMETHING HERE!?"

"Maybe focus on the fight at hand instead of starting another one then." Joseph quipped, "Seems like a better strategy."

Pride snarled once more, preparing to launch another assault on his opponent's ears. As he opened his mouth, Wisdom used their psychic power to shut it for him, "I agree with him, you should focus on scrapping instead of yapping."

The overgrown house cat was fuming at this point, it felt like they were being toyed with, which last time they recalled was THEIR JOB, so they decided to try to get some payback, they charged at Joseph and prepared to crash into him at full force, using all of their energy to do so.

But when it came time to hit their target, Pride faltered, as Joseph vaulted over them, completely avoiding the attack, "WHAT!? HOW DID YOU-"

Joseph wasted no time with his counterattack, slamming straight into the piece of his soul with a Spark attack, knocking it down. As the soul fragment tried to retaliate, it was pinned down and slammed with a Secret Power, "How about you shut up for a change!"

One Secret Power turned to two, then three, and before long, Pride was on the receiving end of a hailstorm of cat slaps, but somehow through all that they still managed to pull through and get Joseph off of them. Once Joseph was on his back, the pride fragment's gem flashed blue before creating an accurate recreation of a cold shower (Chilling Water).

Unfortunately (or fortunately, depending on how you see it) Joseph isn't a fan of cold showers (because he's not mentally unstable), so the attack left him shivering and disoriented, as his teeth chattered he tried to retaliate, but his assailant shrugged off the poor excuse for an attack he managed to muster. Joseph was in luck, however, as he wasn't alone, his wisdom struck his attacker with a barrage of spine-chilling bug sounds.

That last attack seemed to do the trick as the pride soul piece's legs gave out from under it. As it hit the ground, its form returned to its normal state, "Urgh... Fine… I yield… I can't defeat you… Not on my own, anyway."

Wisdom dropped their Pokémon form too, "Does this mean you've finally come to your senses?"

"Yeah… He can't go on without us… Even if he wanted to… His life would come to an end if even one of us were to abandon him. It was foolish of me to think I could take his place. Even if I think I'm the most important, what does that even mean if I'm bringing us all to our end?"

A sweat droplet rolled down the side of Joseph's head, "Well you could've worded that a little better, but you seem to understand regardless."

"I was just saying hypothetically!" Pride blurted, "There's no way I could top bringing you back from the dead!"

"Wait, was I actually dead!?"

Pride and Wisdom exchanged worried looks, "W-well…" Wisdom sputtered, "You were, but you still are… If that makes sense."

Joseph was at a loss, "No, it doesn't… Care to explain."

"Of course!" His wisdom chirped, "Basically, in the real world, you're dead!"

"WAIT WHAT!?"

"Yup, and in this world, also known as your subconscious, you just died, but I was able to bring you back. With Courage's help, of course."

"So wait, I'm already dead? Then what am I working toward!?"

Pride decided to get one last sound barrier-destroying scream in, "LET HER FINISH!"

If Wisdom still had eyes, they'd be rolling them right about now, "Thanks Pride."

"No problem."

Once Joseph recovered from having his eardrums blasted out, Wisdom continued speaking, "You're dead in the real world, but it's not too late, if you can reassemble your soul before sundown, then you may be able to revive yourself."

Joseph was a little overwhelmed, he tried taking a deep breath to help him calm down a bit, but it didn't seem to be helping, "I'm sorry, I'm gonna need a minute to take all this in."

"Understandable." Wisdom said, "When you're ready to move forth, walk over to the shrine and imagine yourself back in your room."

"A-alright…"

Joseph found a nice place to sit near the garden shrine and plopped down, 'Jeez, I can't even formulate a cohesive thought right now, like, I'm dead! How am I supposed to think!? How am I in my own subconscious!? I shouldn't even have one anymore! And let's not forget about everyone in the real world, they're probably worried sick! I hope Mesprit knows what's going on, maybe then she'd be able to clear everything up.'

February 9th, [TIME REDACTED FOR DRAMATIC EFFECT]

Stumpy's Private Island

Rory started pacing around the little hut on the island frantically, "Are we seriously just gonna sit here!?"

"Well unless you can figure out what's wrong with him and get to fixing it, yes, we are." Mesprit shot back.

Rory's expression soured as she put her back to a wall and slid down until she was seated, "Isn't there something you can do to check if he's still alive?"

"Well, we've already tried our abilities, maybe we could… Check his pulse?"

Rory's brow furrowed, she wasn't exactly a doctor or anything, so checking pulses was completely foreign to her, "Check his what now?"

"His pulse," Mesprit reiterated, "it's a way of checking if his heart's still beating."

"How do we do that?"

Mesprit rolled her eyes in frustration, "Ugh, forget I said anything, I'll just do it myself."

Mesprit flew to Joseph's side and grabbed his wrist, she held his wrist for a moment before realizing, 'There's nothing! I'm not getting a pulse!'

The silence left Rory confused and concerned, "So, did you… Get anything?"

Mesprit dropped Joseph's wrist and started to squeeze her forehead, "Shit!"

Time: Blank

Location: Garden of Wisdom

Status: Worried

Joseph shook himself out of his thoughts, they only served to further fuel his worries, instead, he approached the shrine and closed his eyes, 'Alright just picture gotta picture myself at home…'

"Wait!" Wisdom shouted, "I almost forgot! We need to return to you!"

Joseph's eyes shot open as he flipped around, he saw his wisdom and his pride floating behind him, "That seems like a pretty crucial step, how'd you manage to forget it?"

"Look, I'm not used to this alright, this is just as much new to you as it is to me."

"Alright then… But can we make this quick? I wanna make it back before everyone finds out I'm dead."

"Understood." The ball of light said as they tried their best to nod, which, as it turns out, is very difficult when you don't have a head, "Without further ado, I am your wisdom. I help you make good decisions. I am the one behind all of your thoughts, the one who guides you to the truth, and most importantly, I am the one who allows you to live freely. Please, take me along the journey to reassemble your soul."

Before Joseph could object, his wisdom returned to him, joining his courage to form an unfinished soul.

"I guess I should be returning as well." Joseph's pride said, "I am your pride. I might get the best of you every once in a while, but without me, you wouldn't feel proud of yourself. You could conquer your greatest fear, but without me, you wouldn't feel accomplished. Let's get through this together, that way, you can be proud of what you've achieved."

Without a choice, Joseph reclaimed his pride, bringing him up to three soul pieces. Suddenly he felt proud of his progress, he knew that even if he failed at this point, it would've been a valiant effort. But of course, he wasn't gonna let that happen, he was gonna give it his all 'til the very end.

"Right, now where were we?" Joseph asked himself, "Oh, right, the shrine."

He turned back around and closed his eyes again, picturing his room around him, after keeping his eyes shut for a few seconds when suddenly, he felt the cold breeze disappear…

Time: Blank

Location: Joseph's Subconscious(?) - Joseph's Room

Status: Proud

When he opened his eyes, Joseph was back in his room, well the one in his mind anyway. Something was definitely amiss, however, as books lay scrambled all around the floor, and the lights seemed a bit dimmer than before. Most importantly, the portal in the mirror started spreading into the room itself, catching Joseph completely off guard, "Woah, that portal, it looks like it's becoming unstable!"

As he crept closer to the portal, something didn't feel right. As the unease started to set in, Joseph felt a slight breeze, "Where's this draft coming from?"

He inched ever so slightly closer, when suddenly he was swept off his feet. The draft had turned into a cyclone, pulling him in before he could act, "AAH!"

Time: Blank

Location: Joseph's Subconscious(?) - Joyful Beach

Status: Terrified

After being pulled through the portal, Joseph woke up on a beach, "Ugh… Again? How many times have I woken up on a beach at this point?"

Just then, a cutesy voice spoke up, "Just 2! A-at least I think it's two, I might've missed one…"

Joseph got up and scanned the area, he was greeted by another piece of his soul masquerading as a Pokémon, this time, it was a translucent, fully pink Skitty, "Uh, wh-who are you?" Joseph stuttered.

"Oh me? I go by plenty of names! Happiness, Joy, Glee, and my personal favorite, Joseph's Favorite Emotion!"

"Uh, I'm not sure that last name is the most accurate."

"Sure it is!" The Skitty bubbled, "You love being happy, don't you?"

Joseph was starting to feel a little creeped out by the Skitty's joyful attitude, "W-well, y-yeah-"

The soul Skitty's smile widened further than Joseph expected, creeping him out further, "Great! Then I'm the favorite!"

"Weeeeeeell… I wouldn't exactly say that…"

"Huh? Why not?"

"I think happiness is great, but like, in short bursts, y'know?"

"I feel ya," The Skitty nodded, "I understand, we can't be happy all the time, otherwise, our friends wouldn't get their time to shine!"

Joseph was a little confused, "Our friends?"

"The other soul pieces, 'ya dingus!"

"Ah, your friends, gotcha."

"I mean, they're your friends too! Without us, you wouldn't have a soul!"

"Oh, I uh, hadn't thought of it that way." Joseph muttered, "I mean, I guess that makes sense."

The Skitty's tail started wagging furiously as they extended a paw to Joseph, "Glad you understand! Now where were we? Oh yeah! Introductions! You can call me whatever works best for you, friendo!"

"Alright, Smiles it is then."

"Smiles… I like that name, I'll add it to the pile." Smiles smiled (try saying that one ten times fast), "Nice to finally meet you, Joseph!"

Smiles wrapped Joseph up in a hug, "W-woah! What's with the hug all of a sudden?" Joseph protested.

"I've been waiting for the day I would finally meet you. Us soul pieces were aware of your existence, but we were unable to interfere, we only served to give you the ability to feel emotions. But we knew that someday we'd meet you face to face, and we'd finally see what kind of person you'd become. And it seems that day has finally come."

Joseph chuckled nervously as he stared the culmination of his happiness in the eyes, "Well… I wish we could've met under better circumstances."

"Oh, trust me, these are the only circumstances we could've met under." The soul Skitty said, "If you were alive right now, we wouldn't be talking to one another."

"I see… And you're not concerned about meeting me too soon or anything?"

The carefree soul fragment smiled as she bubbled, "Nope! Now let's get off this beach! We have a tea party to attend!"

Without much of a choice, Joseph followed his happiness to a humble abode beside the beach, they opened the door, revealing the interior of a very cozy beach house. Across from the door stood a table with three cups of tea placed in front of each of the three seats surrounding the table. One of the seats was already occupied by another piece of Joseph's soul, this one taking the form of a deep blue Hisuian Sliggoo, "Hey… You finally showed up…" They sighed.

"Let me guess." Joseph interjected, "You're my sadness."

The Sliggoo frowned as they stared into their cup of tea, "Right on the money…"

Happiness slid up beside their counterpart and started snuggling them, "Hey, don't be down on yourself, Joseph's here! He's made it home!"

"You do realize you just told me not to feel down, right?"

Happiness, not realizing what they had just said, kept up their peppy attitude, "What's wrong with that?"

"My name is Sadness, being down is kinda my thing…"

"Oopsie! I kinda forgot! Heh heh…"

While the parts of his soul were goofing off, Joseph took a sip of the tea in front of him. The tea's flavor was peculiar, it tasted like black tea, but there was some strange, potent mystery ingredient that stuck out like a sore thumb, "Uh, hey, what's in this tea?" He asked.

"Shuca Berries." His happiness answered, "They started growing her when you became a Shinx. They go great with tea!"

Joseph's eyes darted back down to his cup, "I mean, you're not wrong, this is pretty good…"

"Is something wrong?"

"No, I'm fine, it's just… It doesn't feel like teatime…"

"Nonsense! We have tea, we have our friends, everything is lining up perfectly!"

"Well… I think teatime lacks… Appropriate timing? Y'know?"

"We have that too! You just need to take another sip of tea. Let the tea melt your worries away."

Begrudgingly Joseph reached for his cup again when suddenly his paw was swatted by a ghostly Skitty tail, "Don't use your hands! It's undignified!"

"What do you mean don't use your hands!? What else am I supposed to pick my cup up with?"

The mischievous soul fragment giggled, "Repeat after me."

Happiness' tea was lifted into the air by some unseen force, making its way to their mouth, allowing them to take a sip.

Joseph smacked his paw into his forehead, "Of course, it's that simple, I just have to summon my nonexistent telekinesis to bring my cup here, why didn't I think of that!?"

"Nonexistent?" The Skitty questioned, "I thought you had already learned one of your psychic powers."

"Well, I know Psychic Fangs, but isn't that kinda cheating?"

The soul fragment shook its head, "Nope, that'll do… Although… I would've expected her to teach you more about your gift."

"Huh? What are you on about? Whose she? And what gift are you talking about?"

Happiness almost spilled their tea, "O-oh! Oopsie! I said too much, didn't I? Wouldn't want you to spend your entire afterlife worrying now, would I?"

Disappointed and confused, Joseph sighed, "Whatever, I guess I'll just finish my tea and be on my way."

Sadness looked up from their tea and raised an objection, "Where are you planning on going? There's no need to leave!"

"Well if I'm gonna fix my soul by sundown, I have to seek out the remaining pieces, as much as I want to stay here and chill, I can't, I've got people waiting for me in the real world. People who would be very upset if I didn't make it."

As they listened, more and more Smile's smile started to slowly die out as a frown took its place, "Yeah… I guess you're right… I can't believe I tricked myself into thinking this would be better for you. It was selfish of me to try to keep you here."

"Huh!?" Joseph blurted.

"I admit it, I was fully aware of what was going on, I just thought, 'Maybe if I show Joseph how happy he could be here, he won't want to go back to the world of the living.'."

"Are you serious!? Is this what this stupid tea party was for?"

"Yeah… I deserve this…"

Joseph was outraged, so outraged in fact that he knocked his tea off the table, "I can't believe you would try to keep me here! And for what!?"

"I… I just thought… Maybe if you stayed here with us, you could be happy, and you'd never have to feel pain ever again."

Joseph sighed as his temper died down, at least there were good intentions behind their actions, "Well, I'm sorry to say it but, that's a fate worse than death."

"Huh!? B-but why would you ever want to feel pain?"

Sadness saw the prime opportunity to chime in, "The same reason you hang out with me, to maintain a balance. If Joseph were happy all the time, he'd go insane, same goes for all of his other emotions. We all have our roles, but we can't overstep, otherwise, we break that balance."

"I… How did I lose sight of that…? And I thought Pride was selfish…"

"They're uh, in here somewhere." Joseph awkwardly mentioned as he pointed to his chest, "They probably heard that."

"Oh, uh, s-sorry, Pride." Happiness squeaked as they awkwardly waved to Joseph's chest.

"Well, now that that's all settled, how about we get going, I can't imagine we have much time left before sundown."

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that, Fear is the only remaining piece of your soul, so let's just skip the formalities and get going, shall we?"

Before Joseph could object, Happiness and Sadness reverted back into their generic ball of light forms and returned to him, giving him a bittersweet feeling, as if he just finished reading the final chapter of a story he was really invested in.

"Phew… Glad that's over… Now, how do I leave this place?"

A sudden sharp pain hit Joseph's chest, almost like a knife had stabbed him at mach 10. He fell to the floor in an instant, giving him no time to comprehend what just went down. He wouldn't attempt to get back to his feet, as his consciousness was already fading rapidly, all he could do was wonder what happened as his world faded to black.

Time: Blank

Location: Joseph's Subconscious(?) Room Remnants

Status: In Pain

Joseph shot awake as he felt another sharp pain in his chest, "Ugh… What's going on?"

A quick survey of his surroundings revealed he was back in his room, only now it had been torn to bits by the rapidly spreading portal, 'Must be a sign that time is running out… I better get a move on, then!'

He wasted no time making his way toward the (now massive) portal, jumping off the nearby rubble. As he launched himself, he realized, 'This is it, it's now or never. I'm either gonna wake up back in Stumpy's hut, or I'm gonna be trapped in this void forever.'

Knowing this, he braced himself for whatever may lie ahead. As the portal swallowed him up, his fear faded, after all, the fate of the world was in his hands… Assuming no one else was foolish enough to take his place anyway…

But as Joseph flew closer and closer to the portal, something strange happened, the portal exploded into a burst of bright light. He shielded his eyes from the intense light, only to be sent tumbling to the ground afterward. As he looked down, Joseph noticed a floating island had formed beneath him.

As Joseph got back to his feet, he heard a demonic-sounding voice, "So, you finally made it here… Hmph… I expected to see you sooner."

Joseph looked up to see a ball of sparkly purple smoke, "Fear!" He exclaimed.

"Yep, that's my name, and it'll be etched into your memory 'til the end of time."

"Huh?"

"Everybody always sees fear as this wimpy, helpless thing, but in reality, it's the opposite. I am the reason you feel fear because…" Fear paused as a face appeared from the smoke that made up its body, "I'm the thing you're REALLY afraid of!"

Joseph braced himself for a fight, "Look! I don't wanna fight! I just want you to come back to me so I can move on with my life, alright?"

"KEHEHEHEHEHEHEHE." Fear cackled, "Oh, you won't be fighting me! You'll be fighting someone else, someone you're afraid to fight."

Fear dove into the ground, blinding Joseph with dark purple fog. Once the fog cleared, Fear was nowhere to be seen, in his place however stood a very familiar disfigured figure, "I was wondering when I'd run into you again." The disfigured Eevee grumbled.

Joseph was flabbergasted, he didn't know how, but he was staring death in the eyes, "Fiora!? But- how- I-"

"You look about ready to piss yourself, guess you really are an idiot." Fiora scoffed, "Let's just get this over with, I have places to be."

Joseph was shivering so intensely that he could hardly move, unfortunately, this left him wide open for Fiora's opening attack, she leapt at him and kicked him with both of her hind legs, the attack sent a shiver down his spine.

Joseph tried to retaliate by firing a Tera Blast, but as soon as his attack manifested it fizzled out, leaving him wide open for another attack.

"What's wrong? Are you scared or something?" Fiora taunted, "Some hero you are. Here you are, staring death in the face, and all you can muster is some fairy dust? Pathetic…"

'She's right…' Joseph thought, 'I can't do it… I'm not meant to be a hero…"

As his hope sank into the void, a voice rang through his mind, 'Joseph! Don't give up!'

'B-but I…'

'You've come so far, you've grown so much, please, don't throw that away! You can do this! Just keep pushing onward!'

'What if I can't keep pushing forward?'

'OH COME ON! JUST SHOW HER WHO'S BOSS!' Joseph's pride shouted.

'Come on Joseph! Let's take her out and go get tea!' His happiness chimed in.

'She insulted our intelligence,' Wisdom added, 'I trust that you won't let that slide.'

'I'm rooting for you too… Go get them, Joseph…' Sadness muttered.

'We're all rooting for you! Now make us proud!' Courage roared.

Pride chuckled to themselves as Joseph started to pull himself together, "No, I let fear control me! I don't care how you got here Fiora, but I'm gonna send you right back where you CAME FROM!"

Suddenly, Joseph started glowing. Huge gems engulfed him as he began to Terastallize, but something was off, Joseph didn't have any of his stuff, his scarf included, so not even he knew what was going on. When he emerged from the crystals, a huge crystal turtle crown adorned his head. The crown was surrounded by floating multicolored gems, with each gem corresponding to a type of Pokémon, "This crown..." He said, "This is the Stellar Crown. But how?"

"Cool magic trick." His opponent quipped, "Too bad that crown won't do anything for you."

Fiora used Joseph's confusion as an opening, firing a barrage of off-yellow stars his way.

With no time to react, Joseph took the brunt of the attack, the stars burst into little splatters of acid. The acid melted away little pieces of the crystals surrounding Joseph's body, "Wh-what the- wait a sec, your attacks! They're modified!"

"Welcome to the present, dummy! Like my acidic Swift? Or do I need to hit you with another bone-crushing Double Kick?"

A pair of Psychic Fangs latched onto Fiora, knocking her off her high horse, "I think I'll be fine, how about you try one of my Psychic Fangs!" Joseph boomed.

He bit down on Fiora, causing an explosion of crystal dust as she was sent reeling, "Gah! That… That actually hurt! I don't think I've felt genuine physical pain in about 800 years. Thanks for reminding me what that felt like, have some more acid for your troubles."

Another flurry of stars flew Joseph's way, but this time, he was able to weave through the stars and strike Fiora with a Spark, the residual electricity from said attack bounced off of the crystal dust before fizzling out.

"ENOUGH!" Fiora shouted as she tried to slam Joseph with her Rage attack.

However, Joseph met her paw with his own, using his Secret Power to overpower her attack and send her to the ground. The impact of the two attacks created another explosion of crystal dust, blanketing the ground Fiora landed on

Joseph's assailant was starting to get really frustrated, "UGH! JUST DIE ALREADY!" She shouted as she got back to her feet and shot another barrage of stars directly upward.

This time, however, Joseph met Fiora's star storm with one of his own. He used his Tera Blast to imitate Terapagos' Tera Starstorm. Joseph's stars proved to be more powerful, as they destroyed Fiora's and started raining down on her, dealing massive damage.

"GAH! THIS- THIS CAN'T BE!"

The disfigured Eevee melted into the ground, disappearing from Joseph's subconscious, "Stay out of my head you fiend." He quipped.

All of a sudden, Fear reappeared before Joseph, but instead of cackling, Fear was clapping, "Bravo! Well done! Etcetera, etcetera! You saved your self-conscious!"

"Huh?" Joseph questioned, "What do you mean by that?"

"All that smack I was talking? It was to make you think that was an illusion I created, which, uh, in case you couldn't tell, that wasn't an illusion, your little soul injury left you vulnerable, so Fiora decided to make a big mess."

"Ah, so that's why my soul broke apart, but when did she get the opportunity to get in here?"

Joseph's Fear sprouted arms so it could shrug, "No clue. Her powers are beyond our understanding. But we did learn something today."

"Her weakness is the Stellar type?"

"Yep!" Fear smiled, "There's just one small problem… Nobody knows about the Stellar type here."

"Ah, and let me guess, this was just a temporary thing."

Fear's body flashed green as they used the arms they sprouted to give Joseph a thumbs up, "Ding ding ding! Correct!"

Joseph sighed, "Well… I guess that gives us a lead on how to defeat her, so there's that at least…"

"Well, I believe it's time for us to part ways… Sort of anyway… Let's just get this over with before it's too late…"

Joseph's fear rejoined him, reinstating his fear of the future, but also renewing his drive to save the world. It seems now that his fear had returned, his courage was at its best, restoring balance to his soul.

The space around Joseph started to get brighter and brighter until all that was left was a white void as opposed to the one he was in before. Just as he was about to call for help, Joseph opened his eyes and…

February 9th, 5:30

Stumpy's Private Island

When he opened his eyes, Joseph was greeted by the warm embrace of the setting sun, it seemed while he was out, somebody had moved him. He got up and looked around, beneath him sat a bed of pink and yellow flowers, "These flowers are so pretty."

Behind him, Joseph heard the voice of a certain bird-dragon-dinosaur-thing, "Thanks! I grew them myself!"

Joseph ran over and hugged Stumpy's leg, "Stumpy! I'm so happy to see you!"

"Same here bud! Glad you could make it to the island! Although, I saw Rory and Mesprit leave a while back. They seemed to be upset about something."

"Crud! They probably think I'm dead!"

"DEAD!?" Stumpy squealed, "Why would they think you were dead!?"

"It's a long story, and I don't have time to explain it right now, I gotta go let everyone know I'm alright!"

Joseph ran off toward the warp panel in a hurry, leaving Stumpy with his flowers. Stumpy just shrugged and plopped back down onto the flower bed, 'Today's been a weird day…'

February 9th, 5:34

Team Echoes' Base

Coast Continent

The entire team (barring Joseph and Stumpy) gathered in the lounge. Rory and Mesprit were fighting back tears (And Rory wasn't doing so well at that).

As Specter took a seat, he rather bluntly asked, "So, what's with the meeting all of a sudden?'

"W-w-well…" Rory sputtered as her bottom lip refused to stay put, "*sniff* We h-h-have some very unfortunate news…"

As Rory paused to fight back her tears, Vulcan raised a question, "Where's Joseph? Shouldn't he be here for this?"

Aaaaaand the dam broke… Tears flowed from Rory's eyes as she lost her composure. At this point, Mesprit took over for her, "Team Echoes… It is with great sorrow I inform you, that Joseph…"

"HEY!"

Everyone turned around to see Joseph rushing out of Stumpy's room after entering the base through one of the warp panels, "I'M NOT DEAD!"

Mesprit and Rory both had mini heart attacks, "JOSEPH!"

They both snatched Joseph up in a hug, leaving everyone else in the room utterly confused, "What… What is going on here?" Cinder asked.

Mesprit broke off from the hug and turned back to face the rest of Team Echoes, "We went to Stumpy's island, and Joseph just up and passed out! And when we tried checking on him, he was unresponsive!"

"Maybe he was just in a deep sleep?" Sammy suggested.

"Well, when was the last time your heart stopped beating while you were in a deep sleep?"

"How do you know if his heart stopped beating?"

"We checked his pulse, there was no response."

A collective gasp rang out through the room, those words shook everyone in the room, including Tiny, who popped out of Cinder's bag, "There was no pulse!?"

"Indeed." Mesprit nodded, "When Rory and I realized that, we placed him onto a bed of flowers and declared him dead."

"Ah, so that's why I woke up on that flower bed." Joseph interjected, "I was a little confused about that."

Mesprit glanced back over at Joseph, "That reminds me, how the heck are you still alive!?"

Blood rushed to Joseph's cheeks as he felt the gaze of everyone in the room falling on him, it felt almost as if his teacher was calling on him when he wasn't paying attention in class, "Uh, well… I'm not honestly too sure myself, I'm still trying to process all of what happened."

"All of what happened? What could've happened? You were dead!"

Yumi shivered as she threw in her two cents, "Maybe he wandered around as a ghost for a bit?"

Joseph sighed, "I wish… That would've been so much easier to explain…"

Mesprit must've learned Earthquake or something, because she shook Joseph so violently it left him dizzy, "Well then tell us what happened then!"

"Well…"

Joseph explained his experience, making sure not to leave out any of the details, he ended up having to explain things multiple times as he ended up losing Rory once or twice along the way, which is pretty understandable considering Joseph himself barely understood what was going on in the first place. But eventually, he caught everyone up on what happened and their reactions… Well… They were less than pretty, that's for sure…

"So you mean to tell us, my ancestor invaded your mind and shattered your soul somehow!?" Specter blurted, "This is starting to get a little crazy, how do we know she didn't just jump to one of our minds!?"

"I wouldn't worry about that." Mesprit advised, "She was probably only able to get into Joseph's mind because he was injured, I doubt she could just insert herself into anyone's mind otherwise. Besides, Joseph is probably target priority number one for her, given he's a human."

"B-but, I'm a human too!" Yumi interjected, "W-wouldn't that make me one of her targets?"

Mesprit's face went red as she tried desperately to find words that wouldn't hurt Yumi's feelings, "Uhm… Well… Not to insult you or anything but…"

But before she could find her footing, Specter spoke up, "You are the definition of non-threatening, like seriously, the dictionary page is just your biography."

He could almost feel all the death stares from across the room, so he quickly pivoted to avoid getting mauled over a misunderstanding, "I don't think you're weak! Don't get me wrong! I just don't think you're a threat! Especially to that monster… I can't even begin to imagine what she considers threatening."

Much to Specter's relief, the gazes lightened up a bit. It was then he felt something feathery on his shoulder, he looked over to see Flint placing his wing on his shoulder, "I commend you for turning that around, you truly are a genius, Master Cameron."

"Uh, th-thanks, but what's with the whole 'master' thing?"

"Oh, it's just a sign of respect."

"O-oh, I uh, didn't know you respected me like that."

"Well, now you know, you're one of few Pokémon I would actually consider a friend."

Sammy jumped out of his seat, "No way! Did I just hear what I think I just heard?"

"HE SAID THE FRIEND WORD!" Cinder squealed, "THE SUN IS GONNA EXPLODE!"

Flint brought his wing to his face and sighed, "I knew I should've waited before saying that…"

Thankfully, Mesprit took the reins and tried to get things back on track, "Hey! I know this is, like, a monumental moment for you guys, but we were kinda discussing something pretty important, and I'd like to get back to that."

"Joseph had some weird dream." Vulcan said as he stretched, "What more is there to discuss."

"Well, if he really did have an encounter with Fiora in his 'dream' then how is he still here?"

That question caught everyone's attention, Mesprit did have a very valid point, if Fiora invaded Joseph's mind, and he had to defeat her to survive, then how is he alive? "Um, Joseph? You got somethin' you wanna tell us, buddy?" Cinder questioned as everyone turned their focus back toward him again.

He nodded, "Yeah, I do, actually, but I'm not sure anyone's really gonna understand what I'm about to say."

Before anyone could jump in and do the whole 'Just tell us already!' thing, Slippy rolled up to Joseph and politely said, "It's ok, just try your best, I'm sure someone will understand."

Slippy's polite attitude made Joseph smile, "Thanks, bud!"

"No problem! I know you've had a rough day, so I wanted to try to make things a little easier on you."

"I appreciate it! Now, uh, where should I start…?"

Joseph explained the concept of the Stellar Tera Type to his friends, surprisingly the explanation wasn't as long or obnoxious as he expected it to be, everyone seemed to understand, but by the time he was done explaining everything he wanted to pass out. Today had been a long day for him, and he just wanted to curl up into a ball and kiss it goodbye, "...And that's basically everything… Now if you'll excuse me, I think I've been through enough today, and I'd like to go catch some z's…"

Joseph walked off into his room, leaving Mesprit in charge of the conversation, "Hm… I guess I'll have to poke around and research this 'Terastallization' thing a bit more, I thought I had seen it all when Joseph froze me to that tree… Guess I was wrong… I'll check with some of the other Legendary Pokémon. In the meantime, you guys should keep collecting plates, there's no telling what will happen if we give our enemies too much leeway, so let's not do that, understood?"

Rory gave Mesprit a thumbs up, "Got it! We'll keep grabbing plates while you do your research."

"Alright then, I'll be off, let me know if anything happens alright?"

"Okie dokie!"

And just like that, Mesprit was gone, officially ending the meeting. Everyone in the lounge disbanded so they could return to their daily activities before grabbing dinner and heading to bed.

Meanwhile…

February 9th, 8:00 pm

Temple of Light

Mesprit floated through the temple's halls, she stared at the yellowish stone walls as she floated on, she seemed distracted by something, but it wasn't really clear what was on her mind.

She was yanked out of her thoughts as she bumped into someone or something that felt like a big ol' rock. When she looked up, she discovered that, indeed, what she had bumped into was a big rock, but it wasn't just a big rock, it was a big talking rock, a big talking rock that didn't flinch when bumped into even. The rock turned to face Mesprit, once they noticed her, they started floating a little lower to the ground so they were on eye level with her, "Did you bump into me?" they asked.

Mesprit looked the rock in the eyes and realized, that the rock was actually not in fact a rock, but in fact a princess, "Ah, Diancie, I'm sorry, I guess I zoned out."

Diancie smiled as the gems on her head sparkled, "Don't worry, hon, it's nothing."

"So, uh, what brings you here?" Mesprit asked as the gem on her head sparkled back in jealousy, "Don't you spend most of your time in some cave somewhere?"

"It's not just a cave, it's my kingdom." Diancie corrected, "But, yes, I'm usually devoting most of my time to my subjects. But I figured I'd take a little nostalgia trip here."

"Nostalgia trip? Since when did you ever hang around here?"

Diancie giggled, "Back when you were messing around with that human." She said as she booped Mesprit on the nose, "I think her name was Fiora or something? Wonder what she's up to nowadays."

Mesprit was stupefied, she didn't think someone could be this clueless, "You really need to visit the outside world more often."

"Huh? Why's that?"

"Well, normally, mortals die after about a hundred years, but she kinda… Came back from the dead and started destroying the world."

"Oh right, you did mention something about her betraying you, it kinda slipped my mind."

"Ugh, look this isn't really important, there's something I wanted to study-"

Diancie heard the word 'study' and immediately cut Mesprit off, her eyes started to glow as bright as the diamonds on her head, "Study!? Can I join!? Actually, don't answer that! I'll just go bring us some coffee! You go find us a seat in the library!"

As the pink diamond princess flew off at the speed of light, Mesprit slammed her palm into her face, 'Great… Shoulda known better than to tell anyone what I'm doing in this circus of a temple. It's funny, I think we legendary Pokémon act more like kids than actual children, and I would know, I've been hanging out with a bunch of kids… Actually, that's a good point, why's everyone on team Echoes so young?'

Before she could continue that train of thought, she was dragged into the library by a pink and gray blur, "It's alright! I got us a seat!"

"I- uh- wh- y'know what, never mind, I'm just gonna go look around for a book…"

After being forcefully relocated (A.k.a. kidnapped) Mesprit got up and started scanning the bookshelves for information about Terastallization, "Let's see… 'Why Pinap Berry Pizza is Good, Actually', I didn't know Arceus was a sinner…" She thought aloud as she tossed the book onto the floor and grabbed another, "This one's just titled 'The Lore', I'm not sure what that's supposed to mean, but it's probably not of any use to me… Come on! There's gotta be something in here I can use!"

Mesprit began frantically tossing books onto the floor as her search for a book on the flashy crystal phenomenon grew more and more desperate, that was until she heard Diancie chattering with someone. Mesprit flipped back around to see a tiny turtle standing on top of the mountain of books. "Uh, excuse me, but who are you exactly? I don't believe we've met before."

Diancie answered for the turtle, "Oh, him? That's Terapagos, I found him trying to blend in with my loyal subjects. Now he's my guest of honor in the kingdom. I thought I'd show them around the temple."

"Hiya!" Terapagos greeted, "It's a pleasure to meet you, miss! Although you should be a little more respectful of the library's books, they belong on the shelves, not the floor."

The glimmer emanating from the tiny turtle reflected in Mesprit's eyes, "I'll clean them up later, I'm trying to find something about weird type-changing crystals."

"Really? Well, I might know something about that."

Mesprit was a little skeptical of the turtle, his small size wasn't exactly doing him any favors and the only other thing she really had to go off was his vaguely gem-like body, "Get serious, what could you possibly know about Terastallization?"

"Well, why don't you sit down and let me tell you what I know?" Terapagos giggled, "I might surprise you."

Mesprit glanced back and forth for a moment and considered her options, 'I doubt this little guy knows what he's talking about at all, but I don't think I'm going to be able to find any info anywhere else… Ugh… Fine… I'll let the little guy talk, worst comes the worst, all I'm losing is a little bit of time.'

"Fine, I'll listen to you, but do know if you lie to me, it could result in the end of the world, do you understand?"

"Understood miss!" Terapagos chirped, "Now sit down and grab some coffee because this is going to be a long story."

A long story for another time, that is! Heh heh… Uh, anyway, thanks for sticking with me while I took way longer than I anticipated to release this, I guess I really underestimated just how burnt out I was after that Halloween special because I just couldn't seem to get back into the swing of things. Hopefully, I'll be able to get the next one out in a reasonable amount of time, but if I can't, I apologize in advance…

Anyway, how's about we wrap this thing up?

/ /Boss data downloaded successfully!\ \

Joseph's Pride, The """"""""""""""""Backbone""""""""""""" of the Soul

Joseph's pride was so shaken up by the sudden soul split that they immediately blamed it on everyone else, as you'd expect from the embodiment of pride itself. In their blind rage, Pride used its cheap tricks to take Joseph out with ease. That was until Joseph got back up and humbled him. Realizing their error, they gave up the fight and rejoined Joseph, allowing him to emerge from his subconscious alive.

/ /Boss data downloaded successfully!\ \

Ms Main Villain Herself: Fiora

Although it's unknown how exactly Fiora got into Joseph's head, she did it and immediately started wreaking havoc, splitting Joseph's already fragile soul in the process. Her attacks are all infused with a dark power, giving them properties from other moves, such as her Swift attack taking the acidic properties from Acid Spray (A move she can't even learn) or her Double Kick, which takes the defense-lowering properties from Crush Claw (Hence the shivering). Surprisingly, however, Joseph managed to scare her off, freeing his mind from anyone peeping in uninvited. But it still begs the question, just what are the limits to Fiora's resentment power?

And with that, I think we're done here, well sort of anyway… I wanted to kinda lay out the next few chapters because I feel like the order is gonna kinda seem a little funky. I'll start by saying that despite it making the most sense for us to pick up where we left off this time with Mesprit, that's not what I'm gonna do, I'll save that for just a little later. In my head.

The order I want to do things goes a little like this: Draco Plate Chapter (Finally), then Mesprit's research (Picking up where this chapter left off), and then Team Echoes pursuing another one of the plates. Sounds unconventional, but I can definitely make it work in a way that makes sense. Now, why am I doing things in this order? Well, mainly because I just wanna get the Draco Plate chapter out of the way before I just outright forget about it.

Anyway, with that wall of text out of the way, next time, we hear about Rory's experience grabbing the Draco Plate, see you then!