Pokémon PMD: Warped Skies

[Team_Ion]

As Team Ion and Beheeyem stepped through the crack in space and disappeared into its twisting corridors, Chimecho sharply turned towards the east.

"They're here," she gasped.

"Now?" Sean asked, spinning back with Striker and Guardian. Screams were crying out and crossing over Treasure Town as a distant mixture of rampaging shapes and colours came into distant sight.

Striker gritted his teeth and took a half-step forward, but a telekinetic pulse pushed him back. "No," Chimecho said, stoically reserved as she pressed him back. "You need to go in after the others, Darkrai must be stopped."

Sean slowly gripped his muzzle in horror as Team Sunrise stood frozen. She was right.

Chimecho closed her eyes. "I must guide them, but I must grant you the right time to enter. You have to enter as soon as it is safe, I must remain. Five minutes."

"Surely…," Guardian began, but he didn't know what to say.

"We held the ferals at the front of the town for some time with a wall of fire," Sean said, closing his eyes. "But you barely had any time to get anything in place."

Shockwaves blasted out, and pokémon could be seen flying away from blasts. The town shook as Wigglytuff charged the horde himself. He was powerful, but he wasn't as tough as he was strong. Sunflora's vines began to break out of the ground as panicking pokémon ran for cover from an attack far sooner than they could be prepared for.

It was breaking into carnage immediately, there was simply not enough time to prepare. Sunflora couldn't warn them in time, for her vines hadn't spread far enough. The horde truly had been on Seedot's heels.

"Four more minutes," Chimecho whispered, the wind was beginning to blow.

They were on a sheer cliff, but a river snuck through town and ferals leapt out of it, catching the defenders off guard. This was more than just a blind attack of feral beasts. This had to be planned.

Wreathed in flame-like a charging inferno, Ponyta barrelled into a horde going for the tents bellowing. "BEGONE FOUL BEASTS!" A ring of fire turned grass to ash as Ponyta stomped and bones snapped. "YOU WILL NOT HARM ANYONE WHILE I STAND TO FIGHT!"

Something landed on his back and bit down, causing Ponyta to whinny in pain. Green energy flowed off his body and into the zubat; the sky was attacking them now as flying ferals descended like a cloud of vileness.

A bolt of electricity knocked the zubat off him, and Ampharos began rotating his arms rapidly, building up friction as the swarm of zubat began to break and fly at different opponents.

"Mawile, now!" Ampharos called, and a sweet pink mist began to seep from her horns, driving the zubat into a frenzy, but also causing them to all come for her.

Ampharos let loose the lightning and a thunderclap rocked out as zubat fell in droves.

"Three minutes," Chimecho called, the wind was ruffling her body as she and Team Sunrise could only watch. Hands clenched, arms trembling as they were forced to watch and do nothing. What was the point in saving the world if the world was destroyed in the process?

"Hold," Chimecho, Melody, repeated. "You must hold, and we will hold as well. You are not the only heroes in this place. There will be a world for you to get back to."

Vines pulled themselves up from the ground to tangle the feet of everything rampaging over the ground, where the refugees had already passed. Wigglytuff came crashing back like a walking earthquake, jumping right into the middle of them and unleashing a Yoom-TAH that sent ferals flying miles away.

The ground was cratering from Wigglytuff's actions, but he was coughing.

A mienfoo and mienshao double-teamed up, coming at both angles with sharp punches and kicks, the mienshao using its fur to wrap around Wigglytuff's paw when he went to strike back and pull him off-kilter before he could react. He took a devastating kick to the belly and then a rising punch to the jaw while still snared by the fur.

Fine for him. Wigglytuff pulled sharply, immediately throwing the mienshao up with him and he spun it around as it screeched before smashing it into the mienfoo.

He landed and another mob of ferals charged him.

"Two more minutes," Chimecho said as fleeing refugees neared them. They weren't aiming to get cornered, but there weren't many places to go. Several pokémon hid in Kangaskhan's Storage before fleeing in mounting fear, two manectric jumping out from the trees.

Chimecho's eyes flashed, and the manectric froze in mid-air, right before landing on the cowering ralts. The ralts got up and ran as Chimecho threw the attackers as hard as she could, right over the side of the cliff. One of them tried to discharge on her, but it bounced off a Protect.

Seeing this, a few pokémon ran for them. They understood that Team Sunrise wouldn't be there forever, but Chimecho would be.

"Those that can use any ranged attack, stand close," Chimecho ordered the six pokémon that approached them. Two of them, a boltund and piplup, nervously stood by Chimecho as the other four hid further back, Team Sunrise moving to give them room. "When any feral comes into range, attack," she directed, and she got two shaky nods.

"I-I'm not a fighter," Piplup said.

"You don't have a choice today," Chimecho replied firmly. "None of us do. They'll have to go through me before they get to anyone else. One minute," she added.

Guardian raised his hands, and Striker's arms glowed. "We'll give you some breathing room," they said as more ferals broke free of the chaos to charge them.

Guardian caught their legs with Shadow Sneak, the tendrils wrapping around various appendages. Striker's Leaf Blade's flew from a distance, striking every position they could while Chimecho tossed another light pokémon off the edge of the cliff.

Sean did his best to copy Guardian's move, but Guardian could control the attack far more elegantly than he could. He was able to pin a rhydon in place for Striker's Leaf Blade to finish it off.

"Leave the battle to us," Chimecho said, the seconds ticking down. "This is our fight; you have yours. Fourteen seconds, get ready to go!"

The trio lowered their arms and culled their attacks, sharing a nod. "Hold out for as long as you can," Guardian said, sending a shadow further through the town to give Sunflora some sign that help was needed here.

Chimecho gave them a shaking smile. "End the threat of Darkrai. We will hold out here."

"Good luck," Sean said and Team Sunrise, missing a member, dashed into the Spacial Rift, the portal closing behind them.

)(*&^%$# ! #$%^&*()

The Spacial Rift was silent.

"What is this place?" Rai asked, stepping carefully on platforms that shivered in place. Ripples spread out like he was walking on something as fragile as water.

Thoughtlight floated above the inky ground, not eager to touch it and fall into an unseen gap. He was slower than Team Ion, but they were walking carefully anyway.

"Not quite what I thought it would be," Scout admitted, paw tangled in Mane's tail to hold onto something stable.

"What exactly did you expect this to be, Meowth?" Thoughtlight asked, sticking very close to them. The walls were… uncertain, and the ground felt as fragile as a soapy bubble bobbing down a stream.

"Stone. Floor. You know, more of the entry?" They had charged into the crack in space, finding themselves in a stony cavern. Stepping into a dungeon portal from there had brought them into this dreamlike realm, where things felt as thin as a passing thought.

"This place looks awful," Mane said, the most forefront of the group. "But the ground is fine; nothing's happening."

"That's just asking for something to happen at a dramatically mistimed moment," Scout said, yanking Mane's tail when he tried to speed up.

"Yeah, keep tugging."

Scout yanked him harder, and Mane yelped. "Okay, fine!"

"He talks a big talk, huh?" Thoughtlight whispered to Rai as Mane grumbled mutiny.

"You have no idea," Rai replied.

"Sounds like Volt," the beheeyem sighed. "Although he isn't just talk."

"Oi! I do more than just talk!" Mane snapped, overhearing the tea being spilled all over him. "You want some stories? Okay, first time me and-" Scout tugged his tail, and he yelped.

"Really not the time," Scout said. "And even if it was, talk about something else."

"Oh yeah, you knew exactly what I was going to say, didn't you?" Mane leered.

"If anyone deserves to tell THAT story, it's Rai," Scout replied, sticking his tongue out when Mane gave him a faux-hurt look.

"Fine, fine. Storytime can be later." Mane took a defiant step forth and then tilted face-first into nothing. "AH!"

Scout yelped and yanked his tail, feeling Mane's bulk suddenly pull at him. Scout wasn't weak, but he was a fair bit lighter than Mane, and he was getting pulled forth as well.

"Woah now!" Thoughtlight waved a hand, fingers flashing. He tried to get Scout on reflex, but the Psychic slid off the Dark-type. He grabbed Mane next, squeezing the air out of his lungs as he pulled him out. Psychic was not a pleasant move to be under.

Mane took a few hard breaths, partially out of the psychic squish and partly out of the adrenaline rush of nearly falling.

"Are you alright?" Rai asked, bounding over carefully to press his forepaws on Mane's shoulders.

"Y-yeah, I'm fine," Mane said, breathing a little more calmly. "Thanks, Scout. And, uh, Beheeyem for grabbing me in time."

Thoughtlight waved it off. "It was nothing."

Scout raised a paw. "I'll accept the gratitude for both of us."

Rai gave him a dry look before licking Mane on the cheek. "Looks like we do have to be careful."

Mane rubbed his cheek, a little static zapping him, with a frown before nodding. "Yeah, yeah, I've learned my lesson."

"Let's all hang on close to each other?" Scout suggested as they began to walk again. They were already close, but Scout now had a paw on both of his partners.

"You know, this place kinda reminds me of the Hidden Land," Rai said. Mane blinked in confusion. "When I came here the first time with Sean and Striker."

"It does?" Scout asked, looking around. He'd heard the stories and they weren't pleasant.

"Just in how… weird this place is," Rai explained. "The Hidden Land was still… well, it was still a 'normal' dungeon with rooms and corridors and such. Time was breaking, so we had weird sections where… things. I can't really call them 'pokémon' were breaking through tiny little cracks to bombard us."

"I always felt like that had to be some sort of Dark Future bleed over," Scout said, looking about for any attackers. "Those things in the dungeons weren't pokémon. Not really."

Mane nodded. "Looked like them for the most part, weren't even Shadow Pokémon. Just… wrong."

"Sounds awful," Thoughtlight said, wanting to be a part of the conversation. "Pokémon reduced to such a manner; even ferals are still pokémon. Even Shadow Pokémon are still pokémon."

Team Ion nodded in unison.

"Whatever those things were," Mane said, shivering. Some things couldn't be forgotten, paradox or not.

"They weren't pokémon anymore," Scout concluded, to their nods.

They continued in silence for a little. Despite the similarities of this shadowy realm to other, terrible, places, silence did not invite madness, only focus.

The Spacial Rift was distorted; there was no question of it. The realm was unsteady, there were more holes in the infinite blackness around them, but Thoughtlight was immune to the threat of gravity, and Team Ion kept ahold of each other.

Scout hoped that Guardian would be enough to fulfil Thoughtlight's role for Team Sunrise. "Maybe Guardian will carry Sean and Striker?" Scout suggested, wanting to hear it.

"He's definitely big and strong enough too," Mane agreed.

After some time of wandering in the darkness, something began to change.

There was no light, yet they could see each other without difficulty. The ground was just nothing, and the distant walls seemed to be forever away.

Until they weren't.

They passed a doorway, and the area around them shifted. Purplish stone created a spiral on the ground, leading into the centre of the room.

The walls were still blurry, waving in and out of existence, and when they looked away, there tended to be slight changes.

The floor was stable. This was good and bad. It was good, except it was all bad because that's when the foes began to appear.

To Rai's relief, the enemies were still pokémon. Unfortunately, that meant panicking ferals were attacking them.

Jets of ice and poison, lightning and esoteric pulses of energy battered the four spelunkers. Thoughtlight, always a supporter, erected a Protect in front of himself and charged forth to block the majority of the attacks. Energies were mixing into a deafening bang when it all detonated.

Thoughtlight's shield cracked, but the volley was paused enough for Team Ion to jump into action.

Rai and Mane blasted pokémon away while Scout delivered surgical slices into the legs of lumbering pokémon, causing them to crash to the ground.

He pulled an orb out of the Treasure Bag and called. "Get clear!" As he tossed it.

The orb shattered and exploded like a grenade, the noise and pain of it driving ferals away from the only exit to the room, which Rai and Mane dashed for with Thoughtlight hanging onto them.

The corridor closed behind them, and they caught their breath.

"At least that's like old times," Scout said.

"We can handle attackers," Rai agreed.

With no need to rest, they trotted forwards with a touch of speed to their step.

This was the Spacial Rift, a distorted Spacial Rift at that. The dimensions were not normal here, and as they stepped out into the next room, they found the walls to be rising like a sheer cliff, the distant sky unviewable in its distance, and a titanic apple right near the door.

"Holy-" Scout began. "Wigglytuff would LOVE that."

"Why is it so big?" Rai asked, trotting up to it and poked it. The apple rolled back from his touch.

Thoughtlight waved his hand, and the apple rose before he set it back down. "It feels no different to lift than a normal apple," he said, levitating one out of Scout's bag as well.

"So, we're small?" Mane asked.

"This is weird," Scout said, nodding as they began to make their way through the vast room. There were no ferals in sight, which was a relief.

No one said anything, but even thinking such thoughts were dangerous in a dreamlike realm.

A weedle appeared out of thin air, dropping what looked like dozens of metres to hit the ground. It was vast, titanic-sized. It reminded Scout of what little he'd saw of a Dynamax pokemon.

"Weeeee!" the weedle screeched, booming yet also high pitched. It caused Rai and Mane's ears to flatten, Scout to clamp his paws over his head, and Thoughtlight to drop to the ground, his focus on levitating snapped like a string.

"L-let's just edge away," Scout began, but the weedle spotted them and immediately vomited a stream of all-consuming white.

String Shot was annoying at the best of times, but when it was a a river of goo that would drown them it was a little more than just annoying.

Mane spat back a tiny, little, stream of embers that nevertheless detonated with the force of his normal Ember, causing the String Shot to light up and burn all the way back to the weedle, setting it on fire.

It screeched and flailed, fire fading quickly as its Power fought off the Infinity Energy Formed Fire. It glared back at them with its eyes going red.

"Well now you've made it mad," Scout said, forming a Shadow Ball. It was like a dot of dirt on a clean screen, but when it hit the weedle, the Bug-type went flying.

"At least we're no weaker in this form," Thoughtlight said, rubbing his head.

"Could even be useful?" Rai said as they continued. "It's harder to notice us like this!"

He taunted the devil, so the devil sent a scolipede.

"I think we should just stop talking altogether," Mane said, as the four stared up at the skyscaper-sized monstrous bug in horror.

It pounded the ground, the shockwave proving to be all the more terrible at their size, sending them flying. Quite effectively splitting them up.

Scout laid on the ground, limbs spread dramatically as various items were strewn about him. He considered the fact that he'd love to just go to sleep and wake up with everything fixed. Sadly, he knew it didn't work like that and pulled himself up.

The scolipede, proving that Darkrai, that devil, had to be behind this to some ironic degree picked him as its target and it was stampeding after him like it was a wildebeest and he was Mufasa.

Scout hit it with a grapeshot Shadow Ball on one of the forelegs, and it stumbled. He tried Hypnosis, but he was simply too small.

A tiny jolt of electricity hit it from a vast difference, and the scolipede shrieked as it was fried.

Pulling everything back into his bag, Scout palmed a sleep seed, formed a Shadow Ball around it, and lobbed it for the beast's head.

It took some time to reach it, but Rai kept up the discharging long enough that the scolipede was paralysed. Scout's Sleep Shadow Ball hit it in the eye, and poisonous blood oozed from the grapeshot blast.

It staggered, limbs still locking up from the Thunderbolt before the seed was absorbed through the eye and it dropped, causing the ground to shake from the impact.

"Okay." Scout nodded, satisfied with the great big bug's defeat. He pulled another item out, their Rollcall Orb. It hadn't been tuned to Thoughtlight yet but activating it teleported Rai and Mane to him at least.

"You both alright?" Scout asked, considering that both of them were weak to Scolipede's Ground-type attack.

"I'm fine," Rai said.

"Ditto." Mane nodded.

In the far distance, they could see Thoughtlight, so the three began to sprint across the giant ground, hoping to get out before the scolipede woke up.

Despite their size and the distance of the room, other ferals were easily dispatched. Team Ion was no longer the rookie team that struggled to coordinate as an effective team.

They had saved the world, and no one could forget that.

Thunderbolt. Fire Blast. Shadow Ball. Even Thoughtlight's Psychic forced their enemies aside, and they escaped the spatially-challenged room.

And nearly immediately got crushed against each other when their sizes reversed in the next room. Instead of being tiny among giants, they were the giants.

"What do we do?"

"Ow, get off me!"

"Why is Meowth so bony?"

"I have trouble eating sometimes, sue me!"

"When I said I wanted to be crushed, this wasn't quite what I meant."

"Mane, shut up!" Rai and Scout snapped in unison.

"Just let me…" Thoughtlight levitated Scout's bag up and around their limbs, it couldn't be released entirely, but he was able to open it. "Have any warp seeds?"

"Yep."

He was able to pull out the squiggly seed and tore it into four pieces and shoved it in their mouths. The four vanished.

They appeared in a room they hadn't seen before. It was beautiful. Crystal-like structures spread out in every direction, glowing azure, cerulean, lavender, topaz, even emerald and sapphire.

The ground crunched as they dropped on it, the floor was made of countless crossed wafers of crystal. It wasn't very comfortable on the feline's feet, but it didn't pierce their skin at least.

Cracks spread outright from their landing and continued to spread. "Oh shit," Scout gasped, the four only taking a moment to adjust to not being crushed together.

"RUN!"

The cracks touched the walls, and an ear-splitting snap rang out as the whole room began to shatter. Running only made it worse, but it was already falling apart. Thoughtlight deflected falling crystals from hitting himself and the others, and they reached the middle of the room as the majority of the floor simply crumbled into an abyss.

Thicker rows of crystal hadn't broken yet, forming bridges for them to dash over, but they were splintering as well, and each push off the floor sent shards flying.

Thoughtlight, at least, could float but he couldn't bring himself to look down. Darkness was absolute down there.

Team Ion dashed for the doorway, and Thoughtlight yelped, but Rai stopped them before they exited entirely to wait for him. The way had closed each other time, they weren't going to risk leaving him behind. He got through after him, leaving the sounds of smashing glass behind them.

"How much farther do you think?" Thoughtlight panted, the tetrad pausing to catch their breaths. "Pardon me, but I'm rather sick of this place. I would not have thought that the journey to reach the villain would be more difficult."

"Don't start tempting fate again," Scout said. "This place… I think part of The Dream must be affecting it. Just talking and thinking about the horrors are causing them to happen."

"At least if it's happening more," Mane said, first to catch his breath. "We must be getting somewhat close?"

That was a comforting thought at the very least.

The Dream. Warping of space in Palkia's very heart, built under the strength of the reflected dream deities, Cresselia and Darkrai. It was a place for sleeping minds, their power protecting the functionality of The Dream from the chaos of the slumbering mind.

It was a new world for those sleeping. Even those aware, they were still sleeping. Sleeping minds were protected from the onslaught of lucid compromise.

Waking minds are not.

A great deal of tension was high among Team Ion and Thoughtlight. They wanted this to be done with. They wanted to adventure in safety again, help others without fear again. Thoughtlight wanted Team Gazer back. They wanted this to be done with.

They were awake as they began trespassing further into a distorted space-dream dimension. Darkrai had chosen his stronghold well. Not only was it the only place The Dream could be formed, but by retreating here, the sheer magnitude of reality was its own defence.

There are no fears that Darkrai could create that would be worse than the horrors that lay in the back of your own mind.

The walls began to tighten, rooms becoming more akin to corridors. Feral pokémon rose in great numbers, many were blending into monsters unnameable, and their ferocity was cumulative.

The fear of falling took all of Team Ion down a chasm, but Thoughtlight was just able to grab Rai at the top, his teeth around Scout's tail while Scout held onto Mane with all his strength.

The beheeyem nearly got broken in half with a Brick Break to the spine, but Rai was able to zap the attacker away from him before it knocked him down with them.

Thoughtlight panicked when the heavens unleashed on them, and they wound up in a room that was filling up with water. Scout, the most capable swimmer somehow, scratched him and they dove for the exit.

The deeper mind is a place of instinct, of half-forgotten thoughts, of memories long past. It is rougher, coarser, like sand but far greater in number, but it's the waking mind where the real horrors lurk.

An electrike split Rai off from the others, wreathed in a vile purplish shadow.

"Tell Cobalt I said hi," it said, smarmily to Thoughtlight, before the light of evolution took it from electrike to Manectric.

"Y-you-you-you live. Lie. Die. Die. You. Did. Die." It stuttered before tossing its head and screaming before charging Rai enveloped in shadow.

Rai could not even begin to evade, stunned before it smashed into him and darkness exploded off it like an eclipse.

"RAAII!" Scout yelled, squinting against the blowing darkness. "HOLD ON!" He dashed for it, Mane joining him before another shadow cut between them and knocked them back a maroon blaze.

"Oh, sweetheart," it said, darkness sinking away into tan legs, black fur, shining claws, and a red and yellow stream of fire for an extended length of hair. "You've got your own problems to deal with."

Mane made a soft, weak, sound and Scout hesitated before she, before Scorch the Pyroar, spat an Ember at him and knocked him away from Mane. "This is between my son and I."

She prowled forth as Scout rolled to a stop near Thoughtlight.

Thunderclaps shook the room as the darkness severing the pokémon from each other was lit up from the other side. Rai, bleeding and burned, clashed with Manectric's Shadow Bolt. Crackling purple lightning met shining golden electricity in a clash of wills.

Rai had his head bent slightly, pushing with all his might as lightning splintered and began to break off the match, tearing up the ground and knocking the dust and lighting it on fire.

Manectric continued to scream nonsensical words, but Rai was refusing to listen. The lightning bolts rose up, flicking around as Manectric tried to blast through Rai's. Still, the shinx refused to yield, matching the Shadow Move with every bit of fury a pokémon had.

His claws dug into the ground as his entire body vibrated from the effort, Rai's fur was curling and smouldering from the sheer heat of the clash, and his right paw twitched.

Shining white, Rai double-tasked with two moves. Multi-wielding Thunderbolt and Quick Attack, he sprinted forth in a burst of speed, bathing himself in the electricity being surrendered to the area around them. He struck the Shadow Bolt, and for a moment, all he knew was pain.

Rai screamed and then screamed louder as the Shadow Bolt splintered everywhere, shattering the shadowy veil in an explosive purple shockwave.

He collided with Manectric, cracking its skull with his own. Manectric recoiled, its attack ceasing, but it was not finished, and it smashed back against him, roaring.

Rai was thrown back from the shadow-infused headbutt, and Manectric lit up with terrible lightning again.

It reared up, calling to the shadows before it was grabbed in a light pinkish field and then slammed into place, legs cracking the ground as Thoughtlight intervened. "GO!" he yelled, Scout pouncing as Rai landed on his feet.

Scout snapped from point A to point B, curling his arms as a Night Slash burned off his paws. Six sabres slashed through Manectric, from its legs to its belly to its neck.

Vapour seeped instead of blood as Scout nearly decapitated it, Rai pulling himself up as the nightmare staggered.

Rai roared and unleashed Thunder.

The light burned away the darkness, and with a thunderclap, the shadow of Manectric's memory was obliterated.

Rai growled before roaring, surging with electricity for a moment before coughing, the charge fading and his wounds disappearing. It was just a dream, after all.

Scout got to him and helped him up. "I'm okay," he said, eyes a little watery. It wasn't Manectric, and it wasn't vengeance. It wasn't even defeating his demons, for they were already gone. Rai smiled at him. "Let's help Mane!"

While Scout had been thrown away by Scorch, Mane couldn't move. She sauntered up to him, waving her hips in the way she always had to everyone.

"How remarkable," she said, with an air of surprise. "You here, me here. Now."

Mane's lip curled, the hollow-eyed expression faded slightly. "Right. Because you are DEAD!"

He blasted a fireball at her, she cocked her head, and it missed, hitting the shadow veil far back.

"Is that any way to treat your mother, Mane?"

"Mothers love their children!" Mane yelled back, firing another Ember ball.

"I hatched you," she said, stepping closer and Mane stepped back. "I fed you on my milk." Another step, he stepped back. "I raised you." Her legs were longer than his, she was getting closer. "I taught you everything you know. I am the reason you are you."

Mane shook, he opened his mouth to retort, but he had no words.

"Oh, sweetheart," Scorch crooned, reaching him. She nuzzled him. "Mother's here."

"No."

She raised a paw and put it on the back of his neck. The touch was not light, nor gentle. She put pressure and his legs buckled. She pushed harder, and he gasped, his ability to breathe being restricted.

"Stay in the dirt," Pyroar snarled. "You and Rumble were to be my champions, the kings of the new world. And look at both of you. A guild brat that plays second fiddle to that bitches brother. I suppose I can at least say you're not the failure that Rumble became." Her grip became softer, gentler for a moment. "That's right, Mane. You're the better of my two, isn't that what you always wanted to hear? At least your name is known while he will rot forgotten by everyone, even you." She licked the top of his head.

"I-I," Mane wheezed, finding the strength to push back. "I don't want to hear anything from you!" He forced himself up and used a Fire Blast at point-blank range. It blew him back, it didn't even move her.

"Oh, Mane," she sighed, shaking her head. "Don't disappoint me again. The continent knows your name and yet you do nothing with that power. Is it shame? Shame that you weren't there?" She took another step forwards, he took another step back. "Given your fame for simply being part of the team that saved the world, when you failed to join them. That the runt had to do it on his own. And that you weren't there, as the other runt died."

Mane was beginning to hyperventilate as this nightmares words punched in deep, tears striking his eyes as all his fire was snuffed out. She was still approaching and he was boxed in, unable to run, unable to do anything as she sauntered up to him again like every one of his nightmares.

"I-I-I did my best."

"I taught you to lie better than that," she uttered softly, breathing flames now that licked at his fur.

Cornered, Mane did as a cornered cat would do and attacked.

He breathed an Ember. Except it wasn't an Ember, it was a full-on stream of fire. Pyroar's eyes widened as the Flamethrower hit her directly, enveloping her in fire. Her eyes glowed darker than the flames, she continued walking unopposed.

"You can't defeat me," she said as Mane's fire burned harsher, turning orange, then blue, then white. "You never could. It was the town, and you didn't even see it. You don't truly know. I could still be out there."

Her paw shot out and grabbed him by the throat, cutting his flames off. "I am still alive, as I always will be. In you. Bring me back, my son."

"I. I. I didn't," Mane said, tears dying in the heat. "But others did."

Her eyes narrowed in confusion before shooting wide.

With Manectric destroyed, Rai, Scout, and Thoughtlight came for Pyroar together. She was caught in a Psychic and thrown up, as Rai discharged on her in mid-air. As the lightning took precedence in the sky, Scout formed a massive sabre of darkness as Mane jumped forth.

"Take her apart!" he yelled and boosted Scout. Scout cut her in half and the nightmare faded.

Once she was gone, Mane closed his eyes and buried his face in his paws, screaming into them for a moment. By the time Rai and Scout got to him, however, he was already pulling himself up.

"We can't talk about it later," he said, doing his best to shake the words off. "Darkrai has fucked with us one time too many. Let's go."

The Dream was roiling around them, touching the edge of their senses but the quartet was done with distractions. "Just push on."

Siren calls sang out. Chatot fluttered by, but Scout ignored it. Cobalt and Volt called for Thoughtlight, but it pushed the beheeyem along. A lightning field opened up with a family of shinx-line pokémon dashing towards the thunder, Rai turned away. Mane smiled a little sadly, there was nothing that could call out to him that wasn't already by his side.

A normal meowth stepped into view as the corridor of dreams was abandoned. Fur white gripping visible ribs and visible scars.

They stopped.

The other Scout smiled sadly at them. "This is the final obstacle," he said, opening his arms as if for a hug. Or to say he caught a magikarp THIS big. "Me."

Scout stepped forward, they both did. "I guess this one's for me then?" he asked. "Rai and Mane had their stuff, but I didn't."

Scout smiled, shrugging. "Must be. I never was entirely sure if I was Scout or an interloper stealing his body. Now that I'm here, in front of me. What do you think?" The normal meowth stepped closer again. "Am I only another dream to try and trick you, or am I the real Scout alive because of the infinite nature of the dream? Or did Darkrai take something out of you, me, to make all this and I'm here now? He revived us for a reason after all."

Scout's eyes searched his copy. Besides the colour of their fur, they looked identical. It had bothered him that his type changed upon Darkrai resurrecting him, it made him wonder what else he'd done.

The copy searched him back. "Or, maybe you're wondering why it's me? Because there are other people that could be here. People that should matter more. Where's Guardian, still in the throws of desperation? Where's Danny, who gave everything just to give you a chance? Do you not care about them? Did you ever care about them?"

"Not a very effective argument," Scout replied at last. "And if you were really me, you wouldn't be trying to talk me out of this at all."

"Am I trying to talk you out of this, though?" his copy asked.

"Not in so many words, but you are trying to make me doubt myself."

"Maybe I'm not the 'real' you," the copy agreed. "Maybe I'm something else. Maybe I'm just that part of you that makes you wonder in the dead of night? That little question of… why are things different? Why did things change even before me? Why did Chatot die?"

That hurt, Scout almost recoiled.

"Why did Danny and the rest die too? Why did Dialga and Palkia die? Why did Dugtrio die? What have you done to make the world so much worse?"

"Stop it!" Rai cut in, shouting at the copy. The copy just looked sadly at Rai. "Scout would never be this cruel!"

"Are you sure?" the copy asked. "Because you didn't really know me, I wouldn't even tell you who I was as I was dying. When you tried to tell me you loved me, I still just remained silent. What other things do you think I might not have told you?"

And that, that, really began to hurt. Scout's copy's eyes were sliding back to his own. It knew.

"I trust Scout!" Rai declared.

"You might not have always done things the way we'd like," Mane agreed, stepping up to surround him with Rai. "But you always do the right thing." Mane smiled at him, open, vulnerable, trusting.

Scout wanted to cry.

"I guess in the end only we know ourselves," the copy said, stepping aside. "Best of luck, no matter what aspect of Scout I am, I do only want you to be okay. So go ahead, beat the baddy and save the world for real this time."

The four of them slowly continued, stepping past his copy that continued to gaze over at Rai and Mane like he was taking in every moment of their faces that he could. Thoughtlight kept his fingers primed in case the copy did anything, but it only watched them until they were all out of sight.

"Before this begins," Scout said, after they had left the nightmares behind. "Let me go first. We must be near the end, and Team Sunrise isn't here yet. But Darkrai and Cresselia will know we're coming, we can't just do nothing and let them get the jump on us. I'm going to go ahead."

"Absolutely not!" Rai barked. Scout turned to give him a tired look. "We're doing this as a team! We came here as a team, got through here as a team, and we are going to fight them as. A. Team!"

Scout smiled. "I'm not saying I'm going to start fighting all of them on my own. I have an idea, I'm going to stall. You'll be close by, in case it doesn't work."

"Scout," Mane said, voice tensed to the point of snapping. "What is it?" he forced out. "This plan?"

"I'm going to talk," Scout said. "I still know a thing or two to trip them up!" He gave a shaky smirk, trying to look confident.. "Just give me five minutes. I'm tough, remember?"

"You can't die again," Rai said, voice cracking. "No. Not again. You're not sacrificing yourself again."

Scout took him into a hug. "That's not what this is," he insisted, rubbing Rai's back. "I'm not dying, I'm not even close to that. I promise. Please?"

"…okay."

Armed with his Treasure Town, it had been through hell itself and was frayed and repaired all over. It was shouldered and comfortable, and Scout walked forth, ready to have one final conversation. He wouldn't think about Scout.

"This is The Dream. Isn't it? Why does it feel so real? Why does it feel so fake? I must be getting close."

The Spacial Rift had returned to the grey stones they had seen when Scout had first entered. Dark stones, dungeon entrance, and then after that, it was confusion and chaos. Now? It was like he'd taken one step, fallen asleep, and woken up from the dream. Even looking back, he could see the entryway they had all stepped through, but no sign of the portal.

Sean and Team Sunrise were in then. That was good to know.

"All I have to do is stall," Scout thought. He was confident in thinking, he was a Dark-type after all. No mind readers could get him.

The path began to open up, just like your normal dungeon. Scout didn't hesitate, but he did take a deep breath, and he stepped into the heart of the Spacial Rift.

Grey stones curled like bony fingers around rocky outcroppings in the far walls. The ground was an ocean of stars, hard as fact but as boundless as fiction. Far within, a pair of pearls gleamed brighter than any star, a lighter path of space forming between them.

In the way spikes of stones jutted from glassy panels on the dungeons walls, glitters of hope and wonder of sleeping minds shone. While whispers of something beyond a mortal pokémon's comprehension was scripted in the way the air felt against his fur.

Reflecting the infinite ocean below hung a tapestry of colours, spanning the distant sky, close enough to seemingly touch but far enough to never feel. Songs swam like swans through the colours, blending into a million-million different hues and shapes. The richest of purples and brightest of yellows clashed with the darkest black and whitest rays.

The Dream was here. The ground flowed, and the walls beat. This was the heart of the Spacial Rift, and it was spreading The Dream further.

The Dream, a solid spike of diamond, jutted out of the ground and roof, nearly meeting in the middle where a yin-yang of light and darkness swirled, sending out gentle pulses every few seconds that ruffled Scout's fur and made him remember forgotten dreams.

It was not empty.

Cresselia swam through the lights in the sky, sending glitters of thought wafting down into The Dream. A shock of pink, unlike anything else, was Saniya, for there was no one quite like Saniya. She floated serenely, with her eyes closed, in front of the crystal that was The Dream.

And Darkrai was here. Where? Scout couldn't know. He only knew that he was.

Neither Cresselia nor Saniya reacted as Scout stepped in, defiantly walking where no mon had the right to walk uninvited.

"Well?" Scout called, voice loud and brash. "I'm here, just as I was always going to be."

The infinite stars beneath blinked out for a moment as the darkest one rose up.

"Scout," Darkrai crooned, two-armed and forever dangerous. "It is rude to invite yourself in."

Scout flashed him a smirk, and he formed his Night Slash sabre and held it out, ready to skewer.

A drop of blood fell, and Scout flicked back, throwing a Shadow Ball right into Cresselia's face and blasting her back. Right as she tried to vanish from sight and get him with his guard down. "Nice try."

He ducked underneath an Ancient Power. "Try again."

He jumped up and swung out, free of Darkrai's Dark Pulse and delivering a Shadow Ball back. While in the air he clashed against Saniya and another Shadow Ball to guard against Cresselia.

He landed on his feet, successfully forcing three legendary pokémon back for a moment. "Never knew I was this good," he commented lightly.

Cresselia, uninjured, readied herself for another go but Darkrai held his hand up. Saniya froze, and Cresselia sneered.

"Why do you think you can stand up to us?" Darkrai asked. "I'm willing to indulge your attempts at stalling us. I am a kind pokémon, I'll give you a chance to try."

Scout smiled and crossed his arms. "You always were too nice," he agreed. "The kind to plan and plan, never act unless you are certain, with two, four, ten backup plans at the ready. The fact that I'm traipsing in here is enough to make you hesitate, Darkrai."

Darkrai's visible eye narrowed. "Despite your words, you aren't unafraid of death. You cannot survive Cresselia, nor would you harm Saniya."

"Darkrai!" Cresselia snapped. "Stop talking to it. He spoke of his desire to stall us already! It will just get under your skin again!"

"With information, he's told no one," Darkrai argued back, Scout's eye gleamed. Darkrai paused and spun to Scout again, waving his hand for chains of darkness to snare Scout. His arms and legs were restrained, but he didn't let them pull him to the ground. "Ah, I understand. You seek to lie to cause me to hesitate?"

"Of course," Scout replied, still grinning brazenly. "After all. Isn't that something I'm known for doing?" Despite his own words, Darkrai hesitated. "You said it yourself, we're not so different. You turn the truth to manipulate, and when have I ever said the entire truth?"

"…A lie," Darkrai denounced, the chains of darkness grew tighter. "You would never willingly compare yourself to me."

"Darkrai," Cresselia growled, trembling with energy. "I am done with talk." She moved, wings shining white to slash the restrained Scout in half.

A flicker of fear went through Scout's eyes, and Darkrai knew.

MUSIC TRACK HERE

A Thunderbolt struck Cresselia in the eye, causing her to scream and recoil, missing Scout by inches and crashing into the ground. Darkrai spun around as a double Flamethrower burned the darkness restraining Scout away.

"Oh, thank god," Scout sighed in relief as Rai and Mane dashed in, Sean and Striker inches behind. "I really am not as good at stalling as I thought I was."

Rai tackled him out of the binding. "Don't you dare convince us to let you be this stupid ever again!" he shouted.

Mane breathed a line of fire around them. "Make out later! Get ready!" Rai sprung off Scout, and he pulled himself up on Rai's tail, Team Ion standing together as Cresselia returned to them.

"You have done it now," she uttered, a line of blood trailing down her pristine head.

A tendril of darkness wrapped around Darkrai's midsection and held him in place as Sean ran up and delivered a brutal Force Palm to his head.

Thoughtlight raised both of his hands, fingers flashing, as he cast a powerful Psychic, freezing Saniya in place as she moved to divebomb Sean. He gasped as she slowly began to jitter forth, turning slowly to face him even as he put everything he had into holding her.

She threw her hands out as if she was declaring that to be begone. And her Psychic snapped. A glowing stone of energy formed between her hands and she lobbed it right at Thoughtlight's big head.

A blade of green cut it in half as Striker stepped between her and Thoughtlight. "Saniya!" he called. "Stop this! This isn't you."

She floated back, right into Darkrai's outstretched hand. "Be careful you seven," he crooned, claws closing around her neck. "I have something valuable, and fragile, right here."

Sean bit his cheek, Guardian's eye flickered, Scout hissed, and Striker's expression became stormy. He sighed and stepped forth, one arm beaming out a Leaf Blade. He raised it. "Saniya… would understand," he said before firing it.

Saniya waved her hand, grabbing him in a crushing Psychic of her own. The air was squeezed out of his lungs, and she gestured with a finger, floating him over. Striker flew for a few metres before he flicked his wrist, sending a weak Leaf Blade through the air at her.

It splashed harmlessly against her, but he dropped to the ground.

"That's how it's going to be?" Darkrai asked, readying himself for battle.

They seven raised their heads, Striker nodded, Thoughtlight floating up determined behind him.

"Then let's go."

"I wager that big crystal is what we need to destroy," Scout said as Team Ion split apart, putting distance between themselves so Cresselia couldn't bombard them all at once.

"Go for it!" Rai yelled, discharging a lightning bolt. "We've handled her before!"

"You're fast enough," Mane added, Flamethrower vs Psybeam.

Scout nodded and dashed for the crystal, but Cresselia jinked backwards to get between him and it. "Begone!" she roared, rotten darkness beginning to seep out of her. He was headbutted and sent flying. She followed up, zooming after him with bladed wings.

Scout matched the Slash with his Night Slash, and Mane blasted her away before the second wing could go for a repeat. Cresselia gurgled something, and a blast of darkness left her body like a shockwave.

It hit Scout, and for a moment he saw hell. then the effect broke as he hit the ground.

"Are you okay!?" Rai yelled, discharging a lot of electricity into holding Cresselia back as Mane dashed for him.

"You went all stiff for a moment," Mane said, pulling the bag open. Scout accepted an oran and mashed it in his mouth.

He swallowed, eyes narrowing. "So, she did get somewhere with that game?"

"What are you doing?" Darkrai bellowed, being thrown back by double-hit from Sean and Guardian. "Stop floating in place!"

Cresselia was burning with a crackling aura of building darkness. It wasn't the purple wrongness of a shadow attack, however.

Scout's eyes snapped wide. "Everyone, DON'T LET THAT HIT YOU!" Scout bellowed as Cresselia unleashed the vortex of hatred.

Scout grabbed Rai and Mane and threw them back as the sphere closed in on them. He threw a Shadow Ball back, and it connected, erupting and shaking the sphere but not destroying it.

They weren't running far enough, and this sphere had locked onto them somehow. Rai began to crackle with electricity.

Shadows wrapped around Rai and Scout's midriffs and Scout grabbed Mane as Guardian tugged them away, the sphere colliding with the ground and turning it to solid stone.

"Okay, she can turn us to stone," Scout said. "Great."

"That's new," Darkrai said. Cresselia turned the crazy eyes on him, and he flinched. "Whatever dark powers you've tapped into, turn them on THEM!"

She turned a bloodthirsty gaze on them and began to crackle again, generating power.

Generating was slow, Team Ion was swift. Fire Blast mixed with Thunderbolt with a Shadow Ball tail. The electricity caused her to rear up, the Fire Blast burned feathers, and the Shadow Ball' knocked her flying, the aura not building up further but remaining as it is.

Cresselia fell smoking, near where Saniya and Striker were before shaking it off.

Saniya choked Striker and was pelted with hard psychic spheres. "Here!" Thoughtlight yelled, throwing his arms out. The room was titanic, and Trick Room could only go so far.

To get it as big as he could manage, he had needed to loiter in safety behind Striker as the rest of them fought the legends. But he was here for a reason, and a twisted room of elements spread out to touch the corners.

The legendary pokémon suddenly found their speed turned against them. Scout zipped forth, faster than he'd ever been and he slashed a cut through Cresselia's side, ripping out several feathers as he did so.

As Saniya shook off the attack and began duelling Striker with Magical Leaf vs Leaf Blade, Scout came for her. "Striker!" he yelled, holding a feather up. Striker nodded and tackled Saniya.

She was a lot stronger than she looked and at least one of his ribs snapped when she broke his hold and threw him off, but the distraction slowed her enough for Scout to reach them and slap a feather on the back of her head.

He had to hold it there until she awoke and she thrashed, but his Dark-type body refused to yield to a Psychic attack and the feather disappeared.

Saniya suddenly stopped writhing and paused. "Wha?"

She gave a big yawn. "Oh. I'm awake."

"And in the middle of fighting!" Scout yelled, pulling her away as Darkrai lobbed a Dark Void. It missed Saniya and almost hit Striker.

"Oh, that son of a whore," Saniya growled, spinning around to Darkrai. "Yes. YOU! You're going down, clown."

"I liked her better when she wasn't talking," Darkrai muttered, disappearing into a shadow to dart around the room, avoiding Saniya as she charged after him.

Rai and Mane continued levelling Cresselia with firepower until she accepted that the time taken to charge her fetid prize from her attempt of summing Dark Matter wasn't going to help. Yet.

They unleashed so much heat on her that smoke billowed out from burning feathers, enveloping Cresselia in a smoky fog. Things went silent from that side of the battlefield.

"It's raining." Rai and Mane tensed.

"You're bleeding." Not much, but they were.

"Cressssselia is starving."

She was slower due to the Trick Room, but not so slow that Rai and Mane were able to avoid her when she came for them, wings flashing. Twin Psychic's tossed them back together when they tried to split apart, and Cresselia cracked their heads together for good measure.

She powered through the elemental barrage they unleashed upon her, wings shining and ready for blood.

"Throw me at her!" Sean called, jumping into Guardian's grip. Shadows pooled and tossed Rai into Mane to pull against the Psychic hold as Sean was thrown at them.

His body glinted white and then silver. Cresselia slashed out, twice with a wing each. It was Sean who took the double shot, Endure deflecting the worst of it. He flashed a violent red and then Countered.

A devastating bang twisted Cresselia's head brutally, and she was introduced to the dirt again. Sean landed on three limbs, protecting Rai and Mane who scrambled back to their feet.

Saniya teleported after Darkrai, not letting him get anywhere close to whatever escape plan he had. He did not approach the back of the room, only around the front, but she couldn't spend valuable time thinking about it.

A wretched hand burst from the shadows around them and grabbed Saniya. She shrieked and vaporised it, but then took a Dark Void to the face and dropped asleep once more.

Cresselia's stolen feather retook control, and he revived Saniya under his control once more. "Better," Darkrai muttered. "She's stopped yammering on about pounding my face like a wishiwashi melt."

Saniya teleported in between Rai and Mane, them not quite ready for her to be an enemy again and she threw them both apart, bouncing them off the walls like the world's most unhappy bouncy balls.

Scout, who had been reunited with Guardian and Sean, were next to be targeted and Saniya flew at them. Scout grit his teeth and formed a Shadow Ball, hiding one of the other two feathers he'd ripped off Cresselia in it.

It was popped by a barb of shadow, courtesy of Darkrai, and the feather was vaporised. Saniya clubbed him with a levitated rock and Guardian caught it after Scout was already knocked to the ground and crushed it.

His own shadow reached up and grabbed Saniya's legs, she tried to kick them off, but she continued to skip leg day. She blasted it with a pure Psychic blast, but Guardian had already readied another hit.

Socking her in the body with a Shadow Punch the size of her head, Saniya was knocked back. "You are my friend," Guardian sighed. "Therefore I will beat you the crap out of you, because that's what you'd want."

A Dark Void came for Guardian's back, but he evaded it, Scout's warning shout unneeded.

Scout spun on Darkrai, the nightmare bringer sneering as he sunk back into a shadow. This was his domain, there were shadows everywhere for him to hide in. Scout glanced at The Dream and prepared a Shadow Ball for it.

Striker, who had thought of the same idea, threw a Leaf Blade at it.

Darkrai appeared in front of it, tanking both attacks without even a grunt. "You seek to challenge me?" he said, floating down. "Come."

Scout, Striker, and then Sean raced for him.

Scout was faster, but Striker was closer. His arms burned with green and he slashed out, Darkrai ducked. He spun on the ball of his foot and lashed out again, the nightmare ruler evading again.

Striker began to deliver a rapid flurry of cuts and slashes that Darkrai evaded with ease, swimming around them as if they were bubbles in a river. Scout reached him and jumped up, one Night Slash, one Shadow Ball.

He threw the ball, Darkrai ducked and slashed out as Striker came in for another volley.

Darkrai caught both of them by their wrists. "Cute," he said and squeezed, causing their wrists to crunch and pulling at the same time to throw Striker into Sean's Force Palm and slamming Scout into the unyielding ground.

He followed with a Dark Pulse through the ground, blasting the three back. "You cannot fight me in my own domain," Darkrai uttered, levitating hands ripping out of the air around them to grab arms, necks, and tails.

Cresselia, having pulled herself up again, churned with her stolen power again. She turned her gaze to Guardian, battling Saniya with punches and shadows. His back was turned. Rai and Mane were too far away, even as Rai shocked Cresselia she didn't cease. Dark Matters stolen gift burned again.

The power reached an apex, and she unleashed it, anchored onto Guardian's source. Rai and Mane couldn't stop it, shouting out Guardian's name.

Scout, Sean, and Striker couldn't stop it, dazed from Darkrai's assault.

Saniya wouldn't stop it, under Darkrai's command.

There was one other. "Dusknoir!" Thoughtlight raced in between, and the vortex struck him head-on. Enveloping him in a blast of dark magic, it sunk into every part of Thoughtlight and took everything away.

It faded in seconds, and all that was left was a statue.

The Trick Room around them shook, no longer being fed by its maker. Darkrai threw a barb up, as did Cresselia and Saniya. The Trick Room broke, and they took their speed back.

Scout stared in horror at Thoughtlight before his eyes stung with blackness that pooled like tears.

Guardian's own eye had flickered between the dull light of horror, the yellow of anger, and then glowed a deep vermillion red.

"You will regret that," Guardian spoke as Scout raced away from Darkrai. Saniya took advantage of his distraction to pelt him with leaves, stones, and blasts of psychic energy, but Guardian didn't even seem to feel them.

Scout clashed with Cresselia, Night Slash vs Slash. He broke his own move and split it into shining white claws, slashing out with a violent Fury Swipes and blinding Cresselia in the eye Rai had zapped and drawing her shining blood.

Rai and Mane looked between Cresselia in rage and Saniya alone. As Guardian focused on Cresselia and backed up Scout, they turned to Saniya. Mane's fire knocking the Grass-type back.

"I really hate to fight a friend," Mane panted, breathing smoke.

"She'd hate it too," Rai agreed. They couldn't focus on Thoughtlight yet.

"I agree," Saniya said, teleporting between them and herself. "I DO hate it."

They flinched back from the sudden appearance, and Saniya gave them a thumbs up before punching her sleeping self in the face.

"News flash everyone!" Saniya yelled, capturing her own self in a powerful Psychic. She couldn't hold it for long, but long enough to speak as Darkrai called out in fury. "This place IS The Dream! Thanks for waking me for long enough to home in on it, Scout!"

Saniya broke her dream self's hold and created a swarm of Ancient Powered stones. "Oh cool," True Saniya said, grinning. "I CAN DO THAT TOO!"

Once Darkrai had set her back to sleep, she'd woken up in the time-frozen location she last remembered, only unfrozen. With Giratina's gift and her unrestricted teleportation in The Dream, it was child's play to get back here.

And this WAS The Dream as well as reality. She existed here on both levels.

And Saniya had a theory as well.

She sent her sleeping self, clumsy and unfocused, into a wall and winced. "I'll be feeling THAT tomorrow." Before turning to Darkrai. "Hey, you! Yeah, I've got your number." Saniya smirked, flying forth as Darkrai tossed Striker and Sean aside and formed a Dark Void.

"Want to dream in a dream?" Darkrai scoffed and threw it, she teleported through it.

"You don't fool me, Darkrai!" Saniya said, slamming her head into his and throwing him back, near to the source of The Dream. "You put YOURSELF to sleep! This isn't your real body, is it?"

Darkrai shuddered, and Saniya knew she was right.

"FOCUS ON ME AND CRESSELIA!" Saniya yelled. "I'll handle Darkrai, legendary dream apparition vs legendary dream apparition."

"You are no master of dreams," Darkrai scoffed and matched her Psychic with a wave of darkness. "I rule the sleeping mind."

"I'm not into the master/slave play," Saniya shot back, teleporting around him to deliver quick punches in the face and crotch.

"Stay STILL!"

"If you are so powerful then MAKE ME!"

Shockwaves as they clashed ruffled the colours around them, pink and black met in brief, brutal, clashes.

Striker and Sean, ignoring Saniya's loud command to focus on other opponents, returned to help her. With an understanding of what Darkrai was, they focused less on taking him out and more on sheer damage.

Sean had confirmed they still felt pain while in The Dream, and that was no different for Darkrai.

Bolts of lightning and fire held Saniya back, she teleported past them, but they pursued until she focused purely on them.

Scout, eyes blank but expression twisted into a snarl, was slashing Cresselia apart with every chance he got. She did not appear to be a dream Cresselia, her tangible and physical form was bleeding and sagging in the air.

A flicker of something other than blind hatred was entering her eyes, and she tried to charge up another Dark Matter attack, but Guardian caught her with painful shadows.

"How are you doing this?" Cresselia choked, speaking again. "How? HOw? HOW?" She screamed and sent a shockwave that didn't move Scout in the least. "You are not natural! You are filth upon filth!" She ripped a stalactite of diamond off the walls and began trying to beat Scout with it. "DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE! DIE!"

Scout dodged around it, Guardian intervened, but she bashed him to the ground with it, and he couldn't get closer. She turned the object on its axis and threw it out wider, finally clubbing Scout in the chest. Cresselia's eyes gleamed, and she raced forth, with Scout still attached to the stalactite she trained her eye on the nearest wall.

"I hear you're tough!" Cresselia screeched before Scout was smashed into the wall with the stalactite. He just barely managed to slide far enough off it that the impact didn't crush him, most of the stalactite simply hit blunt wall and not his squishy body. She ripped it away and turned it, so the point was facing him, Scout groaned from the impact. She speared it forth.

A tendril of darkness tugged the point away, and it crashed uselessly against the wall instead, shattering.

Cresselia threw it aside, caring not and resolving to finish it with her own wings. She flew it and rotated, slashing out like a spinning blade.

Scout raised his paws, forming Ghost-type energy but not a Shadow Ball. He caught her Slash partially, but it partially moved from him as well.

Dreams were easy to remember here, and Scout suddenly remembered in painful detail how Cresselia ejected him from The Dream. By cutting him in half. His muscles, organs, and bones severing underneath the wrath of the dream deity.

She slashed in, piercing his belly, but he thrashed back, flight or fight kicking in and pushing back with everything he had to just barely hold her back from cutting him in half completely.

But she still slashed deeply, slicing into his body and spilled his blood on the stone.

Guardian, dazed from having a stalactite beat him into the ground, slowly rose up and his eye fell on Scout, barely holding a raging goddess back from outright bisecting him, and Cresselia's manic grin as she screamed for him to give in and die.

A pin could drop and he'd hear it.

"That's my son."

Scout's shadow turned solid and shot up, spearing Cresselia through the chest and out her back. Guardian's eye had frozen as he had pulled the shadows up and through Cresselia. "THAT'S! MY! SON!"

Faster than he should ever be able to move, Guardian flash stepped through the shadows, wrenching his fist back cloaked in darkness. Ripping the Shadow Sneak out of Cresselia, he forced her towards him. He delivered a devastating haymaker to her head, snapping her neck from the sheer impact, breaking it towards the left and knocking her flying.

Guardian was not done. His belly mouth opened, and his fingers clenched rapidly as the air around him began to shake as he formed his Fell Shadow Ball, bigger, and bigger, and BIGGER.

Scout, still conscious, eyes still swimming in darkness as it dripped down to the wound on his stomach, stopping the blood flow and beginning to stitch the wound up.

Scout stepped forward, ignoring his injury, and reached Guardian and formed his own Shadow Ball from the blood that he was losing, mixing with Guardian's own to create the Father/Son Fell Shadow Ball.

Cresselia, a Psychic-type, was not down for the count entirely. Puppeteering her own body with Psychic, she rose again. She was giving off soft gasping noises, her head tilted unnaturally far to the side and hanging, but her eyes were just as crazed. "I. Will. Not." She levitated still, charging something bright.

The father and son unleashed the combined Shadow Ball as Cresselia fired a Psybeam with all the Power she had. The might of the legend met the might of the two in a crackling showdown, shaking the entire room and causing parts of The Dream to crack from the pules rippling off.

Darkrai screamed at them to stop, but neither pokémon were listening, and Saniya smacked him in the face.

As the attacks tried to overpower each other, Scout pulled a paw back from his stomach, marvelling at the blood as an old lesson returned to his mind, crystal clear.

'Blood that is given express permission to use can be utilised in the same way as your own.'

Scout had never done so for Guardian, not the Scout he was now. "Hey!" Scout yelled, flicking the blood drenching his paws to Guardian. "Use my blood!"

It landed in Guardian's hand, and he clenched his fist around his son's blood, the blood freely given smoking as Guardian called a second move on top of their ultimate attack.

A thin barb of shadowy Ghost-type energy speared right through the middle of the clashing attacks and struck through Cresselia like a sniper shot. She flinched, jinking in place, as her attack was distorted by the Dark-type blood and Ghost-type move.

The Fell Shadow Ball enveloped her, and her eyes briefly widened. "I see oblivion again," she whispered, unheard before the attack took her entirely and Cresselia died.

And then the rift cracked.

"NO!" Darkrai bellowed as everything shifted two feet to the right without them, causing everyone to stagger.

The white of the yin-yang disappeared and the entire dream fractured with Cresselia's death. The chorus above them shivered and began to seep away, only the infinite below them remained as it was—the real Spacial Rift.

"This isn't over!" Darkrai cried, a ripple of darkness belched out from the back of the room, and a one-armed Darkrai came sagging over in chains of darkness. Another feather, one Darkrai had, was pressed into Darkrai and the real Darkrai's eyes opened, while the fake one remained there.

Saniya floated between them, a shield in Darkrai's grip as Darkrai took to the field in doubles. "I WILL HOLD THE DREAM MYSELF!" he shrieked, filling the white up with more darkness. Immediately, Saniya screamed as The Dream became a complete nightmare. Twice the darkrai and none of the cresselia.

Scout had one other feather still, and Guardian took it off him and sent it along in a shadow to Striker. With the feather in hand, he ran for Saniya as both of them screamed and thrashed in the air.

With Cresselia's death and her connection to Dark Matter not true, the stone around Thoughtlight began to crack and peel off.

Darkrai began to laugh hysterically as the damage to the crystal of The Dream deepened, exposing a kaleidoscope that was filled in by a void as dark as nothing. It was melting off him as his skin bubbled, and his eyes broke like glass. Using his body and soul to maintain The Dream. Yet there was more to Darkrai than his body and soul, that rotten sickness that permeated his whole being was sliding forth, sinking through the cracks in dimensions.

Striker forced the feather into Saniya, and they both stopped screaming, one disappearing and the other one opening her eyes properly. She did not yawn cutely and give a cheeky comment, just shook in horror in Striker's arms.

"It is infecting The Dream," Saniya whispered. "I don't know what It is, but It always is. It always was. We have to end this now before It goes any further.

"How are you okay, Scout?" Guardian asked, the wound Cresselia dealt was still bleeding, but it wasn't a brutal cut as it had appeared.

"This dream," Scout said, grappling for understanding. "They're more powerful in it, but what they do is still… a dream. I'm okay, she didn't get me too much."

Seven pokémon, and one statue peeling off, stood before two Darkrai's as the world around them began to break and melt into something worse.

Darkrai was screaming and silent, gazing and unseeing. He raised his arms. "It will never be over," he cried. "I. Will. NOT."

Darkrai was melting, merging together and splitting apart and laughing and laughing. And so the shadows twisted, hands appeared, Darkrai's eyes burned a rotting blue and he came at them twice.

Clawed hands ripping out from the space around them snared everyone by their limbs, and throats. Guardian, larger than anyone, ripped the arms off him as Striker backflipped and destroyed several by draining them to husks.

Grabbing Striker out of the air, Guardian charged them both forward, letting Striker loose to dash up to the darkrai duo. He received a double Dark Pulse to the chest and smashed into Guardian, knocking them back.

"Do. Not. Come. Closer." Darkrai was cracking and splitting, more hands were appearing and melding into where the twin darkrai's shadows met. Something was opening eyes in there.

Saniya began to scream and Mane staggered as well, howling and clutching his head with his paws. "Mane! What is it?" Rai yelped, rushing to him but Mane exploded with fire and warded everyone back.

Sean's tassels began to rise and quiver and he couldn't force them down. "Ow. Ow. AHHH!" He grabbed his own head as well, beginning to scream. His paws closed around his tassels and he nearly went to rip them off but Saniya grabbed him in Psychic.

Whimpering in pain herself, she could barely control the strength and Sean gasped weakly and jerked and twisted, nearly breaking his neck as Saniya's control over her attack went rampant, something snapped and Scout popped a Shadow Ball on her to break her control.

Sean dropped, twitching on the ground.

His eyes met Rai's from across the battlefield. They weren't affected by whatever Darkrai was doing, and Guardian and Striker were getting back up themselves.

Darkrai gestured and his dream self charged forth, trailing lines of ruddy dark slime in his wake. He was melting. His claws were revealing the bone. He was becoming an actual nightmare.

Scout formed a double Night Slash and leaped forth, bringing them up as an X to cut Darkrai into four pieces. He took a ring of Dark Pulse that knocked the wind out of him before a devastating wind pulled as his very soul.

And then Darkrai reached him. Clamping both hands around Scout's midsection, he squeezed until ribs snapped and Scout squeaked, then did it again. "Fhahahaaha, that's adorable."

He squeezed again and Scout continued gasping and squeaking in pain.

His hands formed new Dark Pulse's and Scout was blasted out of the sky in a rain of dark rings. They crashed down on the pokémon, raining pain and terror down upon them. Dark Pulse, made of a mon's worst thoughts, was a terrible thing to be from the nightmare lord himself.

Scout hit the ground and stopped moving.

"Pokémon these days," Darkrai gurgled, turning to face Rai as he unleashed a thunderstorm on him. Darkrai floated serenely through it. Guardian unleashed a Shadow Ball on him, it was also unable to move him.

"Wrong Darkrai!" Saniya yelled, still on the ground. "Attack the real one! You can't harm that one!"

"I am beyond pain," Darkrai said, grabbing a struggling Rai as he shocked him over and over again. "I am beyond restraint." He grabbed Rai's throat and began to crush it. Rai unleashed all the electricity he could, didn't even move Darkrai. "I am beyond the end, and I've come for you Raigeki."

Striker took Darkrai's arms off with a double slice. His whole body was burning with green, Overgrow had finally activated. Rai fell to the ground and stopped moving as an armless Darkrai turned to Striker, the arms floating back up as ten more appeared out of the air around him.

"I hear you are a powerful grovyle," he said, casting his hands down to snare Striker. "One who's heart never gives in. A heart such as yours would be useful." He slammed his hand forth, tearing right through Striker's chest."

He gave a sharp, high, keening gasp as Darkrai ripped his heart out. "What a marvel," he said, admiring it as Striker staggered back, no wound on his chest at all. An illusion, yet the heart still ached in agony.

He pointed dismissively and struck Striker through the throat with a barb of darkness. "You have begun to accept your folly," Darkrai said, floating back up between them and The Dream. "You could never have won."

The shadow with eyes was beginning to set into a painful shape. Painful to look at, to simply exist near.

Thoughtlight fell to his knees, the stone finally leaving him. He gasped for breath, eyes crazed. He could see them. The things of the void. Charging him. Consuming everything. Everything. Everything.

He looked up and saw the darkness manifesting and screamed, a blast of pure Psychic power cascading into a wave-motion beam that collided with it. Darkrai was silent as everything else shook and roared.

"No," he uttered as Sean, Mane, and Saniya's eyes snapped open.

Darkrai closed his eye in contempt and waved again, his real body rising up. "Look what you've done," he said, gesturing to The Dream. "Immortality. Freedom. Safety. My world was granting it all. And now? The pokémon are shaking in horror as terrors invade it." He gave a brief, sad, chuckle. "Was this what you meant, Scout?" He examined his own hands, dripping with the power of The Shadow.

"It is getting into The Dream, you have doomed the world. Win or lose, you have destroyed hope and safety. You once killed an entire timeline and now you end the only good dream that could have saved the world. And you call me the villain?"

Two darkrai floated down together as four pokémon staggered to their feet to fight. Guardian, Saniya, Sean, and Mane met two darkrai in mortal combat.

Fire and leaves clashed with darkness. Shadows and fists met a battered body.

Darkrai caught Sean from behind, wrapping both arms around him in a full nelson to pull him away from his sleeping body. Guardian delivered a neck-snapping haymaker to Darkrai's back and he released Sean.

A whirlwind of leaves swam around Saniya like a thousand motes of light. She flew into Darkrai's personal space and slashed into his throat, his chest, while Mane powered blasts of flames after her. She teleported away and the fire exploded on Darkrai. She reappeared, further back with a magical stone she slammed into the back of Darkrai's head.

A tendril slashed through his belly as a ring of darkness wrapped around Mane's throat and Darkrai pulled them both up, slamming them together before he and the dream Darkrai unleashed a double serving of ringed hate upon them.

Weaving around Guardian, Darkrai grabbed Sean again and squeezed his skull before throwing him into the path of a Shadow Ball. He spun back and formed legs, hard ones, and speared through Guardian's abdomen. The Ghost-type wasn't done and he grabbed the leg before it could fade and pulled Darkrai towards him.

The dream was unharmed from anything Guardian could do, but he blasted a hole through and used that hole to fire another Shadow Ball.

The real Darkrai couldn't see it coming and was jarred as Guardian, Saniya, and Sean homed into the real one and unleashed a Team Sunrise special on him. Palms blasted shockwaves into stones into fists into leaves and into fire.

Darkrai came to his own aid and they blasted a shockwave to force the fighters back. "Win or lose, I will not allow evil such as YOU to ESCAPE THIS PLACE!" He screamed, a shadowy eruption of power overwhelming everyone at once.

Swallowing them into fetid darkness, plunging fire and lightning into dying flickers, wilting the green and tearing at flesh, fur, and soul all at once.

A burst of pink popped into view and Darkrai spun on it.

And came face-to-face with Saniya.

"Evil such as us?" she asked, her eyes open with the power of a miracle. A Psychic hold snared both Darkrai, and to their shock they could not break out of it so easily. "I was awake in your dream and it was nothing but a hollow shell."

He threw a punch, it barely tapped her. "How are you doing this?" he seethed, feeling as if a dozen Psychic's were hitting him all at once.

"Well, see, you had an interesting idea," Saniya continued. "Make your own reality, effectively override the real world with your own. Let everyone die, thus holding everyone in some sort of purgatory that you can pretend is a real world, stripping everyone of future, of life, of children, of pain and dreams in equal measure."

He snarled at her, still reaching out. "You are as blind as the rest of them."

"You are the one who's blind, Darkrai," she replied.

"A Lost Second," his voice hissed, almost simpering. "I have seen what you truly fear. The reality you know will one day occur. The death of the mortals you dared to love. In MY world, that would never come to pass. You could dream with them forever."

Saniya's expression flickered a little, but not into doubt. "You just don't get it, Dreams of Shadows. That kind of fear comes from love. Love of them and who they are, their dreams, their hopes, their futures. Something you just cannot understand anymore. But I wasn't done."

The Psychic intensified. "See, you really did do your homework. Made the world in Palkia's domain, and use it to eclipse everything else. Including Dialga. You created your own timeline within another timeline, and you made a world 'perfect', without flaw, without restrictions. In short, you created a system. And even though you thought that only you and Cresselia had any sort of control over it, I am the guardian of the time stream. Time travel may be disabled in reality, but."

Darkrai's blue eyes had gone wide, and wider still as more and more flashes of pink began to appear around them.

"Not in yours."

And then Saniya was there. And then she was there again. And again. And again so many more times.

Everyone gazed up in confusion and wonder as healing mist drifted down upon them by a veritable horde of Saniya.

"It was Giratina and Keira's idea. In the moments between waking up and being put back under your control, I started time travelling in The Dream. Every moment, I'd split off again and again and again until there was enough of me to all come to the one moment. So, teehee, thanks Darkrai. It was fun seeing what I can really do for once?" She winked and then.

Then The Dream met The Pink.

Dozens, if not hundreds, perhaps even thousands of Saniya descended on the blended spatial realm of dream and reality, zooming in as a locus horde of blaring pink that instantly swept the shadows away from the others and overwhelming Darkrai with sheer weight of numbers.

Gasping for air as he was freed, Mane looked up at the fight of two darkrai and many celebi for a moment before spotting the crystal of The Dream. He narrowed his eyes into a keen-eyed glare and his mouth crackled with fire as he began to move for it.

"NO!" Darkrai bellowed, arms ripped out from the ground to grab his own legs and drag him out of the Saniya horde. Bolts of electricity and slashes of green splashed against his body as he was freed. He had two arms.

Striker and Rai were standing again as well, Rai's snarl thrumming with the force of a storm.

Scout was only barely stirring and Guardian was tapped out from dealing with Cresselia. Striker, deciding that Scout could not one-up him on stubborn ability to move, charged forwards with Rai.

"I'll take him, get to Mane."

Striker ran up, stepping on-air as he had to move, and this was a dream. He slashed out six times, moving so fast afterimages remained, and then they remained longer.

Darkrai grabbed Striker by the throat as the afterimages began to move after him. The afterimages of himself grabbed Striker from behind and began to drag him down, pressing against him and beginning to bubble and melt as well.

Sean pulled himself together as well and was moments behind them and blasted the false Striker's off his friend with Rai's own lightning. As he did so, afterimages of himself grabbed onto his head and tassels and pulled savagely, Striker slashed them off him in return.

Yet, more Striker's began to appear until they were surrounded by melting versions of themselves, flinging themselves onto the real ones.

They exploded as Saniya's came down in a wave, beaming blasts of light everywhere while tossing Darkrai down at himself.

Rai and Mane, splitting to take a direction each, took aim at the core and unleashed fire and lightning.

The shadows pushed back, deflecting the blasts and sending them to smoke.

"DO IT AGAIN!" Saniya's voice was like a thrumming wave, being called out from dozens of throats at once.

Darkrai screamed, tearing forth like a wounded, desperate, animal and doing everything he could to stop them. Sean threw Striker after him and they both collided with Rai, knocking the three of them to the ground.

Mane's attack, however.

The sea of Saniya's flew up in a coordinated wave, around the Fire Blast as the shadows tried to deflect the attack again. She swam in a vortex, more and more of herself flying around it until it was a rotating wave of pink. The Fire Blast stopped in place, all the Saniya's flying for it now besides one.

Striker and Darkrai wrestled on the ground as Sean sprinted for the dream version who stood motionless, staring up at the display in what may have been resignation.

Saniya, Cel, A Lost Second, the celebi from the lost timeline, the architect of salvation, the time travel pokemon, flew around Mane's Fire Blast, each and every version of herself from a different fragment of time spent travelling through the Dream, taking a snapshot moment of the Fire Blast for themselves. Conquering the boundaries of The Dream, abusing Darkrai's obsession with a perfect world to time travel in the joint realm of dream and reality.

She took Mane's Fire Blast.

And duplicated it near-ad-infinitum.

And then she lit The Dream ablaze.

Mane's final Fire Blast struck the crystal core of The Dream over and over and over again. A reverberating blast, echoing out in the minds of every sleeping pokemon in the world as the crystal began to crack, the corruptive shadows infesting it able to do nothing against an attack not only from every angle at once but every moment between impact and conclusion at once.

For a brief moment, the world dreamed of fire.

And then, The Dream shattered.

Darkrai screamed in anguish, one voice crying out as the other was silenced and his dream vanquished. Lost to all reason, he called upon the powers of time and space he'd stolen from their masters and ripped open a Dimensional Hole.

The manic thought was clear in his head, if Saniya could do it, so could he.

Yet, he was no Celebi. He was no Dialga or Palkia either. And, most importantly, the Dream was already destroyed, the blending of realities vanished the moment it did and they were rooted firmly back in reality once again.

And in reality, time travel was impossible. The crystal dream shattered from the attack and opening of the Dimensional Hole and the pieces were all sucked into the core before the core was drawn in by the distorting Dimension Hole, turning to nothing and then that nothing began dragging everything else it.

Scout was waking up in Guardian's arms and he saw them in danger. "Sean! Striker!" Rai and Mane were already retreating, but those two had been pulled closer due to their fight against Striker's nightmarish afterimages.

Scout broke from Guardian's hold and rushed in. He left blood behind, Guardian fuelling another Shadow Sneak to try and pull the pair away from the hole that was sucking everything in. Striker burned green, and he grabbed Sean and threw him up before a Leaf Blade knocked Sean flying, bleeding, but away from the chaos.

The wind began to pull them all and Guardian saw Striker's choice and redirected the Shadow Sneak to grab Sean and pull him to safety.

Scout, who had already stepped too far, got caught in the wake of the vortex, Rai and Mane fleeing back from it as Saniya and Mane destroyed the core. All her time travelled dream selves had vanished the moment the crystal broke, leaving just herself to try and fly free.

Striker tried to Dig into the ground, but the ground was not ground, and he could not shift it. He looked back at Darkrai, who had stopped screaming. Just standing silent and still, watching Striker struggle to survive.

Their eyes met. Darkrai's dulled and Striker's still wild with the will to live. Darkrai recalled Saniya's rebuff of his offer. What drew her to make such a selfish choice, and if it was so selfish after all.

Darkrai raised a hand and blasted Striker with all the power he had. Miraculously, he only sent him flying, away from the pull of the void and into reach to be saved.

The hole rippled and collapsed further, the Spacial Rift cracking in space and shattering like glass as a distant, howling, cry began rattling the very souls of the pokémon. Darkrai glanced back at it, not moving.

Darkrai was being ripped back, the shadowy body being torn from the sheer weight of the pull dragging him back. And yet he was silent until his eyes fell on Scout. Scout who Cresselia had tried to cut apart, but it barely seemed like there was a scratch on him. His eye widened.

Scout, who had stepped forward to help but had stepped forward too far. He was scrabbling, pokémon were crying out for him, as he was pulled and lifted.

Scout slammed a Night Slash into the ground, desperately anchoring him in place as Guardian charged forward, ghost-like body resistant to this black hole of a nightmare.

Not entirely resistant and Guardian was scrambling for purchase, knowing he couldn't help with his weight if he was to be sucked in as well. He could feel his Power waning under exhaustion, but he formed another Shadow Sneak, sending the rippling shadow to wrap around Scout's other arm.

"I've got you!" he yelled and began pulling him back.

That was what made Darkrai move. Lashing forth, as there was not much space between Scout and him now, he was suddenly grabbed in the gravity of the collapsing hole in space/time, but he grabbed onto Scout with his remaining arm, the other lost to Scout's own claws.

"I know what you are!" Darkrai said, voice shrieking with madness. "I've figured it out, Scout! I know why I am drawn to you! I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE!"

Scout desperately lashed out with what little movement he had, but Darkrai's grip was the strength of absolute madness, and Scout could feel his weight begin dragging him.

"LET'S DIE TOGETHER!" Darkrai bellowed, his one arm crushing the bones in Scout's arm. He tried to do anything. Shadow Ball. Foot Night Slash. Cut off his own tail, he couldn't, he was pulled from every direction, and he couldn't release from the ground.

"Because if we don't," Darkrai continued, voicing faller to a whisper. "We both live. And if you knew. If. You. Knew. Then you'd let go right now."

Scout struggled, but there was nothing he could do. His heart ached as he broke his promise to Rai and shouted. "GUARDIAN, LET ME GO!"

"NO!" his father bellowed back. "NO! SCOUT! SOMEONE GET DARKRAI OFF HIM!"

Rai unleashed a Thunderbolt, but it only shocked Scout as well, and Darkrai still wasn't letting go, his arm almost fusing with Scout's as it warped in the anarchy around them.

The vortex shuddered again, the pull getting stronger as it neared its climax.

Scout bit his lip drawing blood, and then a Shadow Ball formed in his mouth. He spat it at Darkrai, and it jolted him but didn't shift. He did it again and again and again, but nothing moved Darkrai.

Until a Fire Blast hit him in the chest.

Mane, breaking from the group ran around to the side. He was caught by the gravity and as he was pulled in as well, he aimed and unleashed fire. The extra oomph of an explosive detonation finally ripped Darkrai off Scout. Still, it also snapped Guardian's Shadow Sneak and the three of them began to fall.

Guardian reached out again, extending the Shadow Sneak, but Scout slashed it away, eyes on and mouth screaming, "MANE!"

Scout sprinted after him as the litleo flailed in mid-air. He was a Normal-type, Guardian couldn't grab him.

Saniya tried to grab him, but the sheer gravity was breaking space around them, and they were an infinite distance away from her.

Scout's paw grabbed Mane's, and he clung on as one final band of shadow wrapped around his chest. The two were slammed into the ground, Scout holding onto Mane with all his strength.

Guardian was pulling them towards him, but the portal was turning violent colours as Darkrai fell into it.

Darkrai's final screen echoed across space as two massive towers appeared in the sky, being constructed in the middle of a town.

Guardian launched them and himself together and slammed them into his chest, spinning around and crouching over them as the portal imploded and then detonated.

Across the Grass Continent, hundreds of pokémon were waking up with a jolt, having dreamed of a big fireball. Within Treasure Town, the battle against the feral horde turned in an instant as new warriors surged forth, no longer needing to be protected.

In Evertrail Town, Team Go-Getters immediately got pokémon moving to areas they knew were at risk.

At Blackstone Village, Abra and Indeedee breathed a sigh of relief as pokémon woke up and the Psychic Network began to light up with hundreds of messages from confused pokémon.

Pokémon as a whole cheered as they understood that the danger had passed. Lives and towns would be rebuilt, and things would return to normal.

In the Spacial Rift, two little feline pokémon lay underneath the unmoving form of a dusknoir.

A green arm tipped with talons was able to move him off, and the gentle light of a pink creature spread drops of living dew onto him. The dusknoir stirred but didn't wake up.

On the backs of a canine with tassels and another feline, this one with a star-tipped tail, they carried the other two felines.

A strangely shaped, oddly coloured, bipedal creature floated slowly after them, rubbing his aching, pounding, head as if something was knock-knock-knocking on his very mind.

The canine magically unzipped the air and the eight pokémon crept out, injured and exhausted.

They were met with the world they had fought for, saved from the grasp of darkness.

They had won.

 

[Team_Ion]

"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

 

[Team_Ion]

It's always fun for me to look over my old author notes, some of them were so damn wordy. This one wasn't, but still fun.

This is Rai's bonus chapter, it goes into parts of his backstory and has some first person sections in italics! Unlike the original, it has some extra content~

Enjoy!

---

It's not a widely known thing that I am… or I guess 'was' a wild pokémon.

It's a little blurry with me since I mostly grew up in Treasure Town and joined the guild and everything. But I was hatched as a wild pokémon, to wild parents, with wild siblings, in a wild place.

I guess it's not widely known because the rest of the town sees me just like them, while my sister never got used to the town and left eventually, I was still young enough to adapt. I'm like… a wild pokémon coloured in like a civilised pokémon. It's why I can be a bit erratic, I think, and hasty.

I grew up in Treasure Town, and I love the pokémon there. I like the stability and the community. But a part of me never has forgetten where I started, and I hope I never will.

I'm Raigeki of Team Ion, son of Raiton and Kogeki of the Amp Plains tribe.

This is my story.

"Raigeki? Get back here!"

Shinx looked back curiously. The lightning-charred plains smelled of ozone and the tangy smell of sitrus berries. He was climbing an outcropping of rocks, wanting nothing but to see the other side.

Down below Mother frowned up at him. Her shaggy mane was full and fluffy and very warm, Raigeki knew that for a fact.

Confident she'd catch him if he fell, he just continued on like a little shit.

Raiton stared after her son with concern. He had big paws and a big head and no sense for what could go wrong. He was still too young to really understand consequences, she spoiled him she knew, but he was the first boy of her babies, and Kogeki was no better.

"Arashi!" Raiton called, looking around. "Fetch Raigeki."

They had stopped for the night, going a little farther than normal into the lightning fields. It was a nice little cove. There would be an entrance to a twisted labyrinth nearby in case there was the need to leave urgently, but with the thunderstorms growing fiercer it was highly unlikely anyone would come by.

A few large rocks were scattered about, one of which Kogeki was napping on, letting the cubs play while Raigeki, always the spirited lad, tried to climb the cliffs.

Arashi, oldest of the four was busy making sure Sa and Ji didn't roughhouse too much, looked up. "Coming Mother," she said, separating the young twins and trotting over.

Sa was a big fan of tossing sticks into the jaws of trapinch, while Ji had an unfortunate love of discharging a charged busrt of electricity into his parents when they picked him up.

Seeing his daughter move to fetch his oldest son, Kogeki also got up from his nap and made his way over.

It was getting awfully loud, and the smell of ozone permeated everything. This might have been a dangerous time for a wild family, unable to hear or smell the approach of anyone. But no one would be foolish enough to be out here right now.

Right?

The clouds were rumbling louder, but Raigeki wasn't afraid. He had been warned about the danger of being hit without Mother or Father, but it'd never happened, so he knew it never would.

As Arashi neared, Kogeki nuzzled his mate, getting shocked by Ji when he tried to pick him up. But he was a tough luxray and didn't drop him even as Ji giggled.

Raiton picked up Sa, it was just about time to leave this place and step into the fields so they couldn't let the twins run off.

It was Kogeki who's ears flicked first, sensing something wrong. It was Raiton, however, who smelled the taint that was approaching.

Raigeki climbed without a care in the world, his older sister staring up in concern.

He nearly cut his paws on the rocks, but he pushed through the discomfort, he was nearly to the top. Around his neck on a thick reed swung some old rock. He'd found it months back while exploring just like this.

It was proof that there was treasure about if only one was brave enough to look.

"Rai," Arashi called, from below. "Come back down, looks like the storm's getting close to beginning. Arashi was the only one who called him Rai, they weren't too different in age, and she couldn't quite manage Raigeki at first, settling on Rai.

It was their thing.

"Give me a moment, Ara," Rai returned, he too called her by a nickname. More out of fair play than anything else. "I'm almost to the top! Maybe everyone can come up too after-woah!"

He had hoisted himself up that last foot and had expected flat ground or at least some surface. Instead, he flipped himself over a steep cliff and immediately began to roll. "Aaahh!"

Gasping when her dumb little brother just vanished, the claws came out and the legs got-to-working. Arashi ascended the cliff in record time and jumped after him. She didn't hear Mother or Father drop the twins to yell out a warning, she was already running.

She may have been the oldest of the four, but she still was pretty young and prone to acting without thinking.

Arashi too tumbled down the cliffside until she landed on Raigeki, causing him to squeak. "Owww," he whimpered as she groaned and picked herself up.

"Why did you jump over?" Arashi demanded.

"Why did you jump on me?" Raigeki retorted, getting up on shaky legs. His back left leg was limp, and he whimpered again. "I-I-I hurt my leg."

His legs buckled and he sunk back onto his belly, whimpering as Arashi's anger turned to concern. "Okay, here let me take a look at it."

"No."

"Rai… come on."

"It hurts!"

"I know, but it won't get better unless I take a look." Raigeki still wasn't extending the leg, so she had to use her forepaws and nose to angle it out.

Rai squealed when she pulled it out, flinching back. "That HURTS!" he yelled.

Arashi didn't know what to do, she didn't want to leave him, so she looked back. "MOTHER!?" she yelled. "FATHER!?"

But the clouds were rumbling every few seconds, any call for help was drowned out before it could reach them. She could see bolts of lightning fall from afar and knew that, if nothing else, they'd come looking for them pretty soon.

Arashi looked back at the cliff, considering if she should climb it just to let them know where they were. Then, a titanic blast of lightning came upwards.

And over the storm, a bellow of pain could be heard. Gasping in shock, Arashi bolted up the cliff again, leaving Raigeki alone and afraid. She didn't vault over, instead poking her head over, muzzle resting on the rocks.

This is a story of what Rai suffered, and he did not suffer so much as to see what Arashi saw in the Amp Plains clearing, she never told him either. He could hear the sounds over the thunder, however, and he never liked thunder again after that.

Lightning tinged with purple was split in the sky by twin bolts of golden electricity, carving the corrupted attack and shattering it in the sky. The thunder itself seemed to pause at the display of carnage in the clearing.

The dungeon was far away, this was years back. One may remember hearing that the Amp Plains was a strange dungeon, unlike most it continued to spread, drawing in more land. During this time, it had not spread so close to this clearing.

"ACCEPT!" a voice screamed over the crashing of lightning. "ACCEPT! ACCEPT! ACCEPT! FALL-PERISH. DIE-DIE-DIE. FEED A HUNGER. FEED THE HUNGER. HUNGER! YOU FALL. She FALLS! YOU SUBMIT. YOU DIE AND FEED HUNGER! ACCEPT AND DIE."

Raigeki cried as Arashi bolted back down, ears flattened, and bellows of pain choked into screams of it.

She reached Rai and gripped his scruff in her jaws, squeezing down far too hard and biting into his scruff. He cried out as she flipped him onto her back. "Hang onto me as hard as you can!" she demanded, moving before he responded. He nearly fell before his forepaws anchored around her neck, nearly choking her.

Knowing the escape plan their parents had told her about, she went for the dungeon, knowing it was difficult to be chased through one.

Arashi ran.

Rai would never actually know that, not quite. Not of the guilt that Arashi held, wondering that had she gone to fight rather than to flee, maybe they would have survived?

Yet, what was a shinx barely out of being considered a cub going to do to tip the scales that two luxray couldn't?

Guilt didn't obey such logical thoughts, however, and so she wondered if maybe… just maybe she could have saved her other brothers as well. Maybe without having to protect them as well, Raiton and Kogeki could have fought harder?

Or maybe she just would have died as well, leaving Rai helpless for them to claim him too. He wasn't going to be able to run with an injured leg.

The doubt was a poison.

Raigeki was blind to all this, knowing only of the sounds of violence as his family was killed by a monster.

I don't really remember much of that night. I was young, but I think it was mostly just repressed stuff. All I remember is Ara telling me to hang on and the… sounds that the monster was making as it took my parents and brothers.

How long she ran for? I don't know. I think she ran the entire way to Treasure Town without stopping. She made it to the Amp Plains dungeon, smaller than it is today, and so had an even bigger distance to go than we did when I returned to Amp Plains back then.

It took us a day of travelling to make it. She was carrying me the entire time. I might not be the closest with my sister, since she's not really around much, but I always wanted to be as strong as someone who could do that.

I don't blame her for leaving. After all, she was still a child herself when she had to raise me.

I won't really go into detail about settling into Treasure Town. It's annoying to say, but I don't really remember. It's a haze of pain and confusion, going from the simple life I knew to my new life with that hole ripped out of me.

I don't know how Ara handled it. I was young enough to not entirely understand, but I know that she saw it. She saw what the monster did and could only run.

She was also too old to be comfortable in Treasure Town. She's a wild pokémon, still is. I mean, sure, she goes about the continent, acting as a mercenary for towns. She still pays with money and sleeps in the occasional hostel, but she's never been one to remain in place. She says our family was like that, always moving.

Living in Treasure Town, raising me, still a child herself… she stayed there for years, being a rock for me to brace on until I could stand on my own.

There's not so much I can say about that stuff that isn't me being fragile and helpless and Ara being fierce and difficult. So, I'll move onto the first time I met Mane. It was year two of my stay in Treasure Town, so I was pretty used to the place by then….

The day was like any other.

That is, it was sunny, and the town was lively.

The Wigglytuff Guild stood strong as Ponyta once again nearly tripped upon standing on the grate. He could be an apprentice forever, and he'd never be able to do it right.

It wasn't Diglett who read his hoofprint but a trapinch.

But this isn't about Ponyta the Wigglytuff Guild apprentice.

A new family had arrived in town. Well, they'd been around for a while on the outskirts. A stuttering morpeko avoided the Kecleon Brothers' eyes when he bought various healing items, and a stunningly beautiful pyroar caught the eyes of many.

The two weren't seen together at all, but there was a rumour they were involved, nonetheless. Likely based on the fact that both had appeared in town around the same time and both avoided bringing others back to their home, no matter what kinds of eyes Pyroar gave others.

Arashi didn't take much notice of Morpeko. Despite being another Electric-type, he was just another Electric-type. It wasn't like there were none around, Electabuzz taught pokémon new moves, and a dojo in town could help refine those moves better.

So, some random electric rat didn't take her notice. He was too nervous, anyway.

Pyroar, however, she hated on sight.

She didn't know why.

Pyroar moved with a silky fluidity that raised the fur on the back of her neck. She smiled in a hollow way that didn't reach her eyes. She spoke with a tone that could only be described as seductive one minute and patronising another, depending on who she was talking to.

Arashi hadn't been close enough to Manectric to notice much of anything. But if she had, she may have understood why she felt so uneasy. What aspect was triggering something in her head.

Rather, the two butt heads a few times. Arashi was compelled to start trouble and walked off steaming, looking like a rude bitch, or even got in trouble with Magnezone by attacking Pyroar with a Thundershock.

She was just a shinx, she couldn't do much to Pyroar and Pyroar, most graciously, insisted she not suffer any real punishment for her actions.

"The poor thing is wild," she justified to the police. "Cannot blame her, and she's caring for her sweet young cub. You can't lock her up, even for a day."

"He's my brother!"

"Of course he is, dear."

Rai wasn't allowed near her, and if they were together, Arashi would send him away.

But they weren't always together, and one day Pyroar came in with company.

Rai had been talking to snubbull from the guild about what it was like to find treasure when Pyroar strode into the marketplace.

All eyes naturally fell on her. Possessing a feline grace unlike the scruffy shinx who took care of her brother, Pyroar took centre stage whenever she stepped into a room.

Even if that room was as large as a town.

Her mane trailed silkily behind her, cascading along the edge of her back, and occasionally ruffling in an unfelt wind. It was said that when she smiled, Guildmaster Wigglytuff himself would sing, just to maintain the look.

It was not unusual for pokémon, male and female, to flock to speak with her. Some for her beauty, others for the mysterious nature she cultivated, and others for the simple charisma she had, hoping to learn it themselves.

But this time no one approached, for trailing in her wake were two litleo.

"Everyone," Pyroar said, pokémon having followed as she entered the town, "I would like to introduce you to my sons. Boys?" She looked left and right where both were. One was hiding slightly behind her and the other was trying to look confident but it came off as awkward.

"Go on," Pyroar said. "Mother will attend to her duties. Mingle, get to know someone, and come back once I call."

One litleo separated right away, the other one didn't move just yet.

Rai, who had forgotten that Snubbull existed, not that she remembered Rai was there either, approached Pyroar. "Hi!" Rai said.

"Why hello dear," Pyroar said, noting that one of her sons was still close by. "Could I trouble you to play with Litleo? He's rather shy."

"Sure!" Rai said, eager to play. Pyroar smiled at him, it was an empty sort of thing. An emotionless twitch of muscles. She caught the eye of a mightyena and drifted off to speak with him.

"Hi!" Rai repeated, this time to Litleo who held a most perplexed expression at the leave of his mother.

Fear but also a sense of relief mixed and Rai cocked his head. "Aren't you going to talk?"

"Of course not," Litleo scoffed. It wasn't the litleo in front of him.

Rai oof'd as he was bumped and the little saddlebag he had to carry some berries scattered its occupants. "Hey!"

Berries rolled, and the aggressive litleo speared one with his claws and took a bite. "Whoops," he said as Rai gave him a dirty look.

"That's mine!" he growled sparking. The show of threat immediately got the berry flicked back at it and he flinched as it bounced off his forehead.

"You shouldn't do that," the smaller litleo said, speaking up at last.

"What did you say?" the bigger litleo demanded.

"You shouldn't do that," Litleo replied, meeting his brother's eyes for just a moment. "Everyone is looking. Mother will be mad."

Litleo paused as he realised that, yes, there was a lot of pokémon staring at them. A few whispers were shared, a few curious looks were sent at Mother Pyroar.

Litleo swallowed, his bravado popping like a balloon. "S-sorry," he muttered out and slinked off, bumping into a fennekin and scuttling off.

"Your brother is mean," Rai complained, rubbing his head as he got back up. "But my sister can be mean too! Let's play."

Litleo stared at him curiously before the sound of his mother's laughter caused him to twitch, and a big, fake, smile took over his face. "Sure!"

They played tag. Shinx was pretty fast, but Litleo was cleverer, and they tagged each other multiple times. Eventually, Marill and Buizel got pulled into the game and took advantage of the river through Treasure Town.

Litleo loosened up a little over time, giggling without control for a time that let Rai give him a proper tackle hug and pin him for tag. "Gotcha!"

Litleo's paws immediately shot up and clamped him, holding him in place. "Nah, got you!" Litleo purred.

Rai blinked. "What?" He struggled out of the hold and eventually rolled his way off Litleo who looked embarrassed. "You're it!"

Shaking off the moment, the game was re-joined, but Litleo lost the energy for it, and Pyroar finished her tasks for the day.

"I've got to go," Litleo panted, nodding to where his mother and brother were waiting. Pyroar was smiling in a good way, older brother Litleo was scowling. Both things made the litleo called Mane pleased.

"Bye, Shinx," Litleo said shyly and slunk up to his family members. Rai didn't hear what they had to say before they were going.

He was lighter on berries by a significant amount, which Arashi would not be happy about, but was lighter in spirit, delighted in making a new friend.

Now that Mane and I are close I've remembered our first meeting as it really went.

Over the years I've twisted it around. Forgetting that his brother was the one who took the berry, convincing myself that it was Mane who did it.

Changing the story of our game of tag to him bumping and bullying me a lot. I thought I imagined all the bad stuff, although Mane did confirm he did grab me after I pinned him. He didn't know what he was doing, and neither did I, it was just something he had been taught to do by his mother.

I never noticed anything wrong with her and Ara didn't let me know what really happened to her, about what she really was. She shielded me from a lot of things in those years together.

Afterwards, Mane changed. He's never told me why exactly, but I can put enough pieces together to make a guess or two. But after that, our games became a bit harsher. He began to mock and tease me when I'd lose, and eventually, it spiralled into outright bullying.

I've forgiven him for it now, but for a long time, I hated him, or at least as much as I could hate. Major dislike really. It's in the past now, and I love him now.

Pokémon are tough. We often base our lives around fighting, and even young pokémon can take a pretty big hit before any real danger is had.

But there are things, tiny little things, that can make a joke out of that toughness. It was the infection that ultimately would have killed Scout, and he's as tough as they come especially for a meowth. I too got sick once, so sick I can barely even remember anything about it.

It's important, though.

Arashi was exhausted.

It wasn't uncommon for her to be exhausted. She was a growing shinx still, and she lived next to a waterfall.

A waterfall because it was loud enough to drown out thunder when it grew stormy but she still didn't sleep well.

It wasn't uncommon because what food she could scrounge up was mostly given to Rai. Their most common fight was over how much he ate and how little she did. So, she pretended like she ate more than she did to appease him.

She was a wild pokémon. She couldn't work for the Kecleon Brothers or for Kangaskhan for long. She was too caustic, too rough, too wild to handle it.

There were generous townsfolk who offered help, but Arashi was also proud. The only times she bent the knee, and accepted help was when it was just getting too hard, getting too weak and Rai getting too upset.

She entered dungeons and exited them. She occasionally brought items looted from the dungeons to sell, but then would spend all the money she earned to feed herself and Rai for a week or two.

She knew she could never adapt. She knew that Rai had a chance, though. So, she got him into the school, and she did her best to keep him fed, happy, and healthy.

She couldn't do the last.

What caused him to grow a fever, she didn't know. Was it from roughhousing? Was it some bad food? Did he not eat enough during a bad period? Or was it just simply, terrible, luck? She knew they'd had their pyroar's share of bad luck, especially when Pyroar had been around.

It started off mild, Rai just didn't feel well. He still went to school. He still ate. He didn't play much.

Two days later, he collapsed.

Arashi was no medic nor a rich mon, but she still dragged Rai to Chansey. It didn't matter that she didn't have any money or anything to pay with, Chansey was kind, and she'd pay her back later if she had to.

Chansey did her best, but it wasn't enough. It wasn't an injury that she could heal, it was already going too deep. Rai could barely wake up and couldn't move. He was vomiting and making noises so awful it reduced Arashi to tears.

She shouted. She roared. She demanded. She even cried and grovelled, but this wasn't Chansey holding healing for ransom. She simply couldn't do it. Neither could Chimecho when she came to the guild, a place she avoided, begging for help.

So, Arashi asked around. She avoided the town normally, but civilised pokémon kept records, someone somewhere had to know.

It was from wise old Torkoal that she learned of the Gabite Scale and rushed to let Chansey know of it.

She didn't have any.

The Kecleon Market didn't either, the difficulty of gaining them was far too much to reasonably sell.

It was Chimecho who suggested the guild, Ara could put in a request for help. Arashi did not like the guild. She never explained to Rai why, but he had a feeling it had to do with exploration teams entering Amp Plains when they still lived there.

"I have no money," Arashi barked when the guild came to her "Nor any trinkets that you like. I only have Rai!" Rai had something, though, and Arashi considered offering it.

The Relic Fragment. His treasure.

She hesitated on it, however. Rai had nothing else to call his own besides it. Even their saddlebag was technically Ara's.

She almost did, however. His life was worth so much more.

"Ahem." The bird of the guild, Chatot, cleared his throat as he hopped into the medical area of Chansey's nursery. "I believe you are in need of aid?"

"What do you want?" Arashi demanded. "I don't have money or items. But I'm strong. I can get them for you. I can join your guild, or, or, or something! Please just… he's all I have."

Chatot cast a compassionate eye on Rai, shivering under blankets, and nodded. "The guild will not demand anything of you," he said. "Already we have a team dispatched to Labyrinth Cave, where a feral gabite is known to be. You won't owe us anything."

"A favour then."

It's what she intended, no matter what Chatot or any guild member had to say. If they were to save Rai's life, then she'd give them anything they wanted.

The favour was never called, and she was then never around to see it be called. Rai was given the life-saving scale and made a full recovery, now bedazzled by the idea of the guild that would be so incredible to save his life for free.

Arashi never called them generous. In her mind, she owed them tremendously, more than she'd ever owed anyone. With his life saved, Rai became enamoured by the idea of the guild, by the thrill, and by the excitement of finding new places and rescuing people in need, his old treasure tucked safely in Sharpedo Bluff calling out a siren song of exciting times of finding and doing incredible things.

Outside Arashi's knowledge, anyone's besides Trill and Rhythm, it was not just the guild that she owed.

"Why are you doing this?" Chatot asked curiously, half an hour before he met with Arashi to tell her the guild would help. Arashi was too proud to tell the guild she needed help so quickly, and they had existed oblivious to Rai's failing health until someone else stepped in.

"Fuck off, that's my business," Litleo the Younger snapped. "Just take the cash and don't let ANYONE know I was here."

Chatot handled the bag of Poké, a hefty sum for a hefty job like obtaining a gabite scale. He'd bet a tenth of this that this was all Litleo had. "You're doing a good thing, but why would you not want them to know?"

"I already told you it's none of your business," the hot-headed feline said. "Just…." An unbidden flicker of concern washed nakedly over his face. "Make sure Little Shinx gets better, or I'll take the money back."

With that, he stomped off, head held high out of pride his tail stiff with nerves. He'd be going hungry for weeks, and risking injury or worse himself to dart into Apple Woods to survive.

Outside of Mane's knowledge, however, Chatot didn't take the money. Slowly, but surely, he snuck coins back into Mane's way. Never so much as to draw his suspicion, just enough to seem lucky. He'd plan his own ventures into Apple Woods on the days he knew Mane was struggling to leave a bit of a windfall in his wake. After all, you could find money in dungeons too.

He still did it, though. Not that he'd ever let Shinx know his role in filling his head with dreams about the guild, ironic in the end that was. And it was more than worth it in the end.

Being saved by the guild awoke something in me.

By that point, I was old enough to have adjusted to the town and not that I knew it, Arashi was thinking of leaving. Me getting sick caused her to stick around longer, but only for so long after that.

I didn't always want to join the guild, but after that, it was on my mind every waking moment. I did try and join not long after, but I was turned away because I was too young. Which is fair enough.

Afterwards, Mane really started getting nasty to me, seeking me out all the time to pick on me, and my confidence got shaken by him. I don't know why, maybe it was a weird sort of concern that I almost died and he didn't want me to get in over my head? I haven't actually asked him directly, I think I should but revisiting those memories is never fun for either of us.

Still, I'll always treasure the guild for what they did for me.

I know I've emphasised it a lot, but Arashi was not happy in Treasure Town.

She stayed for me. Because we could not have survived on our own. She's very proud, but she knew that she needed the community to back her up. She was still a kid. I can't stress that enough. Still so young herself when she had to take care of me.

I never really knew my mother, and she never pretended she was my mother, but she raised me, nonetheless.

Once I was old enough, once I could stand on my own feet, once she trusted the town enough to make sure I was okay in her stead, she left.

At least she explained herself.

"Rai… it's time for me to leave."

"What… what do you mean?"

"Treasure Town is… well, the place is fine. I won't deny that."

"Yeah…?"

"Rai, I don't belong here."

"…"

"I never did. That's why we live on the outskirts, well partly. It's why I never tried to hold one of their 'jobs' and why I don't really get along with anyone here."

"…"

"What do you want me to say, Rai?"

"…I want you to tell me this is some bad joke."

"I can't do that."

"Well, this IS a bad joke because I'm not laughing!"

"If you think you can convince me to stay by acting like a cub, well it's not going to work. Rai, I'm… restless. I'm cranky and zappy. I want to run through the leaves, climb the rocks, race along the lightning plains. This kind of place… I'm just choking here."

"I… I need you, though."

"That's why I stayed this long. But you don't."

"Yes, I do!"

"Raigeki, you are not a cub anymore. You're getting stronger, and you can handle yourself."

"Litleo would disagree."

"Fuck Litleo."

"Ara… I've never been alone before."

"You can handle it. You're strong, I know you are."

"I'm not you."

"You don't need to be in order to be strong."

"…"

"I'm sorry, Rai. I will come and visit, but I'm not asking you. I'm telling you. I'm not leaving right this minute, but I will be going soon."

"Then… take me with you."

"...Rai."

"Let's do it! Explore the world! Chase the storms!"

"Rai."

"There's so much we can do out there, and it'll be okay because we'll be-"

"Rai. Rai. Rai this is your home."

"No. You are my home, Arashi. Wherever you go, that's where home is."

"...Rai. I see the way you look at the guildhouse every morning. You talk about it in your sleep. I know, one day, that's going to be your home. And I can't take you away from that. I'll never join a guild, Rai. I don't belong there, I don't belong here, boxed in these walls. I'm not the kind soul you are, who wants to explore and save. You'd be miserable out on the road with me, and I just… I can't handle staying here any longer."

"I want to be able to. I don't want to go and leave you alone, I've held it together as long as I can but I'm going to go wild if I stay here much longer. But you? You're gonna save the world, one day. You're gonna save everyone you set out to rescue, find places no one else has ever found, and become king of that guild! But you won't do it with me still here. Rai, I love you but as long as it's safe you'll make excuses. Like me. We both do it. You gotta step it up and walk into that joint, you know they'll take you the moment you step on that footprint reader. You just gotta do it."

"And I'll be cheering you on."

"..."

"..."

"I'll miss you."

"I'll miss you too."

Arashi had to go, but I still wasn't ready for her to go. She said her being a safety net kept me from stepping up to join the guild but losing her meant I was alone and Mane only got more vicious.

Still, though, I was older than she was when she had to take care of me. She had to grow up way too quickly and even though she tried to make sure I had a childhood, I think part of her resented that she gave up hers for mine.

I sometimes feel like I was ungrateful, especially when I still didn't join the guild after she left. I wondered where she was every day.

And she didn't come and visit.

I feel like there is some exaggeration on the idea of how many times I tried to join the guild.

I was definitely too nervous and a bit of a whimp, but I was rejected once for being too young and Mane really, really, wasn't helping.

I lived in Treasure Town for seven years before I joined the guild. I was around half a year when I lost my family. I was rejected from the guild at age three and a half, fair enough. And I knew Mane for five years. Five years of teasing and bullying and breaking my confidence.

I tried to join the guild a bunch of times, but I only really remember seven times in particular. Heh, seven times for seven years. I succeeded on my eighth.

Rai took a heavy breath, facing the Wigglytuff Guild looming before him.

He'd gone in before, sometimes just to hang out on the middle level and talk to the exploration teams. He knew he wasn't really supposed to, but the apprentices and Chatot and Wigglytuff didn't seem to mind.

Chimecho was always around and was nice.

To step in and ask to join felt different. Wigglytuff felt like he was looming over him, casting a judgemental look as if to ask, "You? Join MY guild? Mwehahahahaha."

He'd not seen much of the Guildmaster, and everyone spoke of his pure strength.

Rai had felt a couple of earthquakes that were not earthquakes.

The first time Rai tried to gather the nerve to join the guild, he ran away without even touching the grate.

He stopped entering the guild after that, unable to escape the feeling of being judged and judged poorly.

The second time he tried, he even wore the Relic Fragment to give him some strength. He mulled about, slinking closer and closer to the entrance as the setting sun beamed its last rays. He was almost there when he was interrupted.

"Well-well-well," a voice most unpleasantly familiar caused him to jump.

Spinning around, fragment swinging, he saw Litleo strutting up to him with a smirk. "Finally trying it then?"

"What do YOU want?" Rai growled, putting a paw over his Relic Fragment. He rarely wore it, fearing it to be stolen. And he never wanted Litleo to see it.

"What have you got there?" he asked, coming closer despite Rai growling. He pulled Rai's paw away and tapped the Relic Fragment. Rai swatted him with his other paw and edged to the side.

"None of YOUR business!" Rai snapped and then ran off before Litleo could say anything more, hoping that he'd just forget about seeing it.

The third and fourth time Rai didn't bring the Relic Fragment, paranoid that Litleo was lurking in the bushes or something. He briefly stepped on the grate the third time and managed to do it the fourth time but ran off before Diglett could finish his spiel.

He'd lived in Treasure Town for five years at this point. He'd try, run off, and pretend otherwise as he decided he didn't need to be an explorer, or didn't need to be a guild explorer, or didn't want to anyway.

He always came back, whether it took days or months.

Sometimes Rai would approach, and there were pokémon about, so he'd turn around. He tried to time it to be alone, so he'd have time to gather his nerve.

As failures mounted and Litleo's comments grew heavier, he began to drown in them.

"Is Little Shinx unable to survive without his big sister."

"Hey, Little Shinx, joined the guild yet?"

"Heey… it's Little Shinx. Tell you what, let's make a bet. If you join the guild today, I'll suck your-"

"You know, Shinx, you're really pathetic sometimes. If you want to join that bad, just DO it. What do you think they'll do? Eat you?"

"Hey Little Shinx, I heard Wigglytuff eats little shinx for breakfast."

Fifth time, as he walked away. "You know, the only one who's stopping you from joining is yourself." That one stung.

"Shinx, Shinx, Shinx. Say it enough times, and it doesn't even sound like words anymore. Is that why the guild hasn't let you join? You stutter when trying to introduce yourself. They don't even know you exist?"

"It's been years Shinx. Why would they want you now when it's so obvious you can't even muster the courage to ask?"

"Wow! Shinx! Looking strong today. Want to wrestle in the dojo? Hey. Come back, I'm serious you look… urgh."

"Hey, Shinx. Electabuzz told me to stay away from you but fuck him. We… hey, come back!"

"You know, I try to be nice, Little Shinx, but you're nasty too. Why would they want that?"

"Just go up to them and ask! There are guild members everywhere. It's not that hard to just talk to someone! Want me to do it?"

"Hi, Shinx. Oi, you're not running this time. Gotcha. Now. We're going to march up and, GYAH!"

"If you weren't the pet of the town you'd get in trouble for shocking me the other day."

"This is all you're going to be, Shinx. Because you don't have it in you to even try."

"Okay…," Rai breathed, nervously eyeing the guild. He still wanted to join. His spirit may have been battered but never broken. "I'm going to do it this time."

He strode forth and put his paws over the grate.

"Pokémon Detected! PokemonDetectedPokemonDetected!" Diglett sped up, recognising the feet already.

"Whose footprint? Whose foo-"

"SHINX! The footprint is Shinx!"

It was daytime, rather than evening, and Rai was trying a different way. Maybe the idea of other pokémon being around would help rather than hinder?

"OH!"

The gate opened up fast, clanking harshly. Rai steeled himself; it'd been years since he'd entered the guild. He began to walk forth.

"There he goes."

Only to pause in the mouth. He flinched and looked back, spotting Litleo who was grinning at him. All he saw was another mocking smirk. "I knew you had it in you!"

It felt facetious.

Mane wasn't a dumb pokémon, although he still was pretty dumb most of the time. He recognised what was going over Rai's face and tried to backpedal. "Well, whatever, have fun, Little Shinx."

Perhaps if he hadn't said it that way, calling him 'Little' again, or if he hadn't been around at all, Rai still would have gone in.

Yet, he was there and he did say it.

Mane cursed as Rai zoomed past him, guilt gnawing at his stomach. But he had to hold his head high, always save face. He couldn't look like he actually cared, then he could be hurt.

Mane explained to Rai later that that was how he justified his actions to himself.

Maybe if he hadn't been there, Rai wouldn't have met Scout or would have met him in a different way, the story already vastly different to what Scout knew.

Or maybe he would have run anyway. Not having someone to lean on, even a little bit, had always proven to be too much for him. Maybe if Mane had been that rock to steady Rai in the sea, rather than the water-rip dragging him under he would have done it much sooner?

Maybe Rai wouldn't go to bed, hating himself, and try again another day, only to back out again.

So… that's my story.

I know not much detail, but a lot of the more 'interesting' stuff I don't quite remember and the rest of it is kinda painful.

We've never been a group to treat our own pain as 'worse' than anyone else's. Mane and Scout had horrid upbringings. Mine was, by all accounts, a walk in the park compared to them. I don't really remember losing my family and Ara leaving… well I still made it through that.

Those two though. Mane got raised by a Shadow Pokémon, and I can't even imagine what she did to him. And Scout grew up in a time that I literally cannot imagine. I've been told about it, even told I was supposed to go to it myself.

Honestly, what happened when Striker, Sean, and I were going through the Hidden Land the first time and how those… things were nothing new to them speaks a lot.

Still, this is where I came from. Half wild and half civilised, with a sister who's too young and too old, with my dreams breaking.

Heh, whoever would have thought that that silly old daydream of the Relic Fragment's importance did mean something? I don't know why I was chosen for the Relic Fragment. Honestly, I'm not too convinced there was any magical choosing of the chosen one. I just found it because I explored to far, maybe I'll tell that story one day too?

…what's with the look, Azumarill?

Azumarill spent several sessions going over the above stuff with Rai in detail, helping him understand his own feelings and begin to work through buried issues healthily.

However, word had spread through the town about an incident that had happened a couple days ago.

"Oh, nothing, Shinx," Azumarill assured him. "We still have some time left today, is there anything else you wanted to dive into?"

Rai considered the question in silence for a time. Silence was a thing Azumarill had coached him through, letting him slow down and think about stuff as he'd talked about disliking how hasty and thoughtless he could be.

His face slowly darkened. "You're talking about what happened the other day, aren't you?"

Azumarill kept a neutral expression. "Only if you want to talk about it."

Rai breathed out heavily, thinking hard for a moment. Remembering….

---

Scout had been looking vaguely guilty for a couple of days already. Like he had something he wanted to say but couldn't find the words.

If things weren't so busy fixing up the town, I might have noticed it earlier. I don't know if I want to have noticed it earlier or not, I guess I want to. Being able to notice when my partner is struggling with something is important. It reminded me of the look he'd sometimes get before he came back.

He had a secret see. More than he was from the future. I won't say what it was, but it was really big and weighed on him the whole time we knew each other. He told us when he came back and I wish he'd told me sooner. I really, really, wish he had.

He puts too much pressure on himself.

Just like that day.

"Are you okay?" Rai asked, concerned as Scout continued to squirm in obvious anxiety. He had gone to talk to Wigglytuff and Armaldo with Team Celestial just a few minutes ago and came back looking both relieved and terrified.

He asked them to talk and they headed out to walk along the trail. Scout continued looking like he was preparing for something and Rai could tell that Mane was also getting anxious. Scout only looked like this when he told them The Big Secret, and that was earth-shattering and recontextualised everything they knew about him and the world at large.

Mane had admitted to Rai, and then Scout later, that it was harder for him than he admitted at first to move past learning that secret. After a couple of days, it really sunk in and he had difficulty. He and Scout had done a big, long, talk in privacy after Rai pushed for them to talk about it and came out closer than before. Rai didn't ask for details, but Mane thanked him.

They'd agreed that there would be no more big secrets between them after that. Scout promised, and Rai tensed as well as Scout gathered the words and began to speak. This wasn't something else he'd kept secret all this time, was it?

"I'm okay," Scout said, nodding to reassure them. "Really, I am. I just. There's been a thing going on for a bit now, since the attack on Treasure Town. The big feral attack. I saw. Something."

And then it all came tumbling out.

"Don't freak out, just let me finish talking before you respond. Luno is a Shadow Pokemon. He's been one since he was a kid, he went… I don't even know? Reverse something. When the ferals almost killed Sol, he just lost it and started doing Shadow attacks. But Sol and Twila calmed him down and and and well, he and Sol fucked on the beach. I asked Twila in The Dream and I saw… I saw how Luno died. She told me he's kept himself under control all these years, hasn't hurt anyone, and I believe her. After we left the Dream I told him I knew but I didn't tell you ONLY because we had Darkrai to deal with and I didn't want to distract you two or freak anyone out, but we've told Wigglytuff and Armaldo and they're gonna work on seeing if there is a way to fix the shadow stuff or or or something. But it's fine, he's not gonna be hurting anyone."

Scout said all of that with only one or two breaths in between.

Rai and Mane were a bit stunned.

More than a bit, maybe.

Mane began to blink quite an alarming amount as Rai slowly licked his lips, reminding himself that Azumarill was teaching him to breathe and think before responding.

It helped, barely.

"He's a Shadow Pokemon?" Rai asked, voice unnervingly empty of emotion.

"Y-yeah," Scout said, nodding. "But he-"

"And you knew?" Rai cut in, tone sharper.

Scout visibly flinched. "Yes, I did. But I only didn't say anything because we had to focus on Darkrai."

Rai's jaw clenched a bit and he had to work to unclench it. "Darkrai was stopped days ago."

Mane wasn't speaking.

Scout scrambled for words there, but he couldn't find a response for a few seconds. "I wanted to…."

"To what?" Rai asked. "You told… Wigglytuff and Armaldo before us?"

"I-"

"Okay," Rai said, stepping back. He couldn't listen to Scout try and explain this any longer. "I'm gonna need." He cleared his throat and shook his head. "I'm gonna need a bit of time not… here. Talk later." And then he turned and trotted off, trying hard not to run.

Mane flashed Scout a look that seared itself into his mind. A mix of confusion and hurt that stung worse than anything he had ever said before turning and running after Rai.

Scout watched them go, feeling weak. He slowly sat down and lost the fight of trying not to cry.

…sorry, Azumarill. I don't want to talk about what happened.

---

Rai woke slowly, almost sluggishly.

He gave a nice hard stretch as his mind slowly returned to the present. He felt warmth and safety around him and, like most mornings, wanted to burrow back into it and drift off again.

Unlike Scout and Mane, he wasn't so easily tempted by the cuddle pile and he pulled out of it anyway.

Scout was here because a fight or not they weren't going to make him sleep on his own. It'd been a couple of days since Scout told them about Luno and neither had taken it… well.

No one had slept well the first night. Scout stunk of guilt and neither Rai or Mane had much to say to him, besides an attempt at goodnight.

The rest of the guild had been informed of Luno's condition as well and reactions were mixed. Timber of all people barely seemed to care, looking more confused when Loudred reacted badly and helping calm him down.

He had not taken it well at all and had to be ordered to do nothing, threatened with harsh punishments if he told anyone outside the guild.

Diglett and Corphish leaned more on Loudred's side, but weren't as angry about it, while Sunflora was mostly herself, though shocked she then wasn't after a few hours of thinking about it. "It makes sense, honestly."

Flaaffy, Paras, and Marill were all disturbed by sharing a living space with a Shadow Pokemon but none were outright antagonistic about it.

Chimecho floated between Loudred and Sunflora's general reactions before settling somewhere closer to Sunflora, maintaining politeness at all times.

Lastly, Croagunk didn't so much as blink at the news. "Okay," he said and continued doing as he always did.

With the guildhouse still being rebuilt and their focus being more on the town being fixed up, the apprentices were dispersed through the town itself.

It made things harder to keep under wraps when the centre of the town was now the guild and the tension in the guild multiplied by ten overnight.

Though, as the guild was already tense, Wigglytuff had tucked a certain letter away somewhere private, it wasn't immediately noticed that Luno was no longer allowed to leave.

Such a restriction couldn't last without suspicion forever, but at the moment Loudred was loud and Vigoroth stuck to Luno like glue so no one noticed anything awry just yet.

Rai was an early riser.

Vigoroth wasn't, surprisingly. He had a lot of trouble sleeping and typically stayed up late into the night until he just crashed and slept until around midday. On a good day.

Lugging so much around town lately was good for exhausting him and he was still out when Rai walked out to watch the sunrise at Sharpedo Bluff.

The smell of grass and blood on the air told him he was not alone.

Turning to scan the area showcased nothing creeping up on him, but he did catch the tailend of a green mon walking away.

He huffed a breath, glanced back at his home, and then walked after him.

The town was not even waking up yet, thus it was just the two of them with only the Kecleon Brothers present but their shop not even open yet.

"Morning, Shinx. Grovyle." Purple yawned.

"Morning guys," Rai said walking past.

He followed Luno, not quite catching up to him on purpose until Luno turned left at the crossroads and headed up to the destroyed cliff.

The Wigglytuff Guilt once stood here.

Chatot's grave was made here.

Dugtrio died here.

Something about coming here rubbed Rai's nose the wrong way. He hadn't so much as spoken a word to Luno since they learned the truth. He almost found it funny. He'd looked up to Team Razor Wind, but they'd done terribly by Sol. He'd looked up to Striker, then Guardian. Both nearly cost him everything. And he'd admired Team Celestial so much. He really had a bad nose for admiring people, but at least Wigglytuff was secure.

"What do you want?" Rai asked lowly, almost growling but not quite.

Luno came to a stop near one of the totem poles and turned around to face him. "It's odd that nobody's told the town about me. Why haven't you, Rai?"

Luno always used people's names once he learned them, even if they hadn't been the ones to tell him. It was one of those oddities that people looked past that contextualised itself in other ways now that Rai knew.

Was it a taunt? Or did he just not understand? Scout's words said the latter, but everything anyone knew about a Shadow Pokemon demanded the former.

"Because Scout told me not to," Rai answered. Scout actually hadn't, but everything he had said was to that effect. Rai could hear what he was actually asking even if he didn't want to listen to the words. "And as much as I… don't like this. I." He had trouble finishing his thought.

"You don't have to dance around it. I'm well aware of what I am. And what the consequences would be if something went wrong."

Rai's eyes narrowed a fraction. Luno sounded so unbothered, he heard the insinuation of him killing a town member and turning them into one of him, and he sounded like he was commenting that the waves were a little more foamy today.

"Yeah," Rai agreed because the townsfolk killing Pyroar was something everyone had thought of when the guild was told. "But you have Guildmaster Wigglytuff backing you up. The last time a Shadow Pokemon was lynched was the event that made the town a bit scared of him, he wasn't happy."

Where did the story of Guildmaster Wigglytuff, so happy go lucky and ditzy, become a force in the town that everyone tensed at the word of his anger?

When the town killed Scorch he had lost it for the first time that anyone had seen. The guild used to be on a hilltop in the midst of others, with the sea farther out. After that day, the guild bordered the sea and no one in town spoke of Pyroar again.

Luno's eyes slowly dragged down to him, a look almost like puzzlement on his face. "I still don't understand why you're both mad at him," he said. "It's meaningless. He's not the Shadow."

Rai was not expecting this of all things to be what Luno wanted to talk about. "Well, it's. No. It's none of your business, actually. But it's not about you."

Luno's expression shifted. It was subtle, it was always subtle, but now he was looking for it. His expression became almost challenging. "I believe I have grounds to make it my business now that his partners have abandoned him."

"Don't you dare," Rai snarled. "You don't understand anything at all if you think being mad at Scout means we're going to leave him. He shouldn't have kept this from us, we agreed no more big secrets like this."

"It was the logical thing to do," Luno replied, frustratingly calm as always. "Not knowing would not affect the fight against Darkrai, but knowing likely would understanding in particular your traumas."

Rai had to take a breath so he wouldn't snap again. "See. That's exactly why you don't get it. But I'm not going to tell you why I'm mad or why Mane is upset. Because it's none of your business and Scout has to work out why on his own. That's all I want him to do."

Luno did not seem to understand. "How unexpectedly manipulative of you. I suppose I still have more to learn about you."

This time, Rai was sure it was trying to bait him, but to his own surprise… it didn't work. He didn't even have to suppress his anger, he just felt… sorry for him. "Is that really what you think?" he asked softly.

"Is it wrong? My sister did the same while we were growing up. Make them squirm until they either give up or plead for an answer."

"I don't want him to plead or squirm," Rai raised his voice that time, shaking his head. "I don't. But I just… it just hurts that…" he sighed again.

Luno was quiet a moment, thinking. Then he said, "It was my idea to keep it hidden as long as we did."

A lie. Maybe not a complete lie, but a lie nonetheless.

Rai looked up. His face was… difficult to parse. It looked like he was looking for the truth in Luno's expression, or that he was hoping to find it. Whatever he saw, Luno couldn't determine exactly what.

Rai's expression settled on puzzled. "Why are you trying to make this your fault?" he asked, genuinely curious. It sounded like Luno was trying to centre all the anger on him and not at Scout, or Twila for that matter. She knew all this time. Sol knew as well, for about as long as Scout did and also said nothing. Rai wasn't really upset with them, though.

"I don't have to make it my fault. It already is. The looks the people give me, the way they step away from me, everything. So when I see people look at Scout like that, it confuses me. All he wants to do is what he believes is best."

Luno glanced back to the sea. "Suppose it's just another facet of living that I won't understand."

"No," Rai said, deciding this conversation is over. "I suppose it's not."

He turned around and left the spot. Thoughts clouded his mind like stormclouds and he mulled over what to do as the day began.

When Mane eventually came out and passed by him, they rubbed against each other but didn't say anything and that was enough for Rai to decide.

He set his paws towards the bluff and walked until he found Scout hovering aimlessly around Kangaskhan. "Can we talk?" Rai asked.

"Yeah. Yeah of course," Scout said, nodding desperately.

"Beach," Rai said and they passed through town silently.

He knew the silence would be making Scout anxious, but he couldn't find anything to say and so just resolved to make up for it later.

Once the sand was getting between their toes and they were sitting on the beach, Rai began to speak. "Do you know… why we're so upset?" he asked.

Scout didn't answer for what felt like a minute, but was probably only ten seconds. "I… I think it's probably a lot of things."

Rai huffed a tiny smile. "Yeah, true but… what things?"

Scout's eyes flicked down to the sand. "Because I promised I wouldn't keep important stuff from you guys anymore?"

Rai nodded. "Yeah, that's part of it. I wish you'd told me back at Fogbound Lake. I wish you'd trusted me enough to share that with me. But I'm happy you did eventually, I know it wasn't an easy thing to keep secret, or tell anyone."

His claw played with some sand. "What else do you think?"

"...I guess saying hiding a Shadow Pokemon is too obvious."

Rai made another sound of short amusement. "Yeah, but sometimes the obvious is true too. I lost my family to one… and I wasn't even strong enough to beat it myself, it would have killed all of us if Guardian hadn't jumped in to save us. Hearing that yet another person I looked up to has been lying to me, has been one of those things all along… yeah, it bothers me a lot. I don't know why you think he's all this, but… I did talk to him a couple hours ago. I think I get it a little bit more, he's not like the stories about them say."

Scout hung on his words like life dew in the desert.

"It's not the main thing though."

Scout looked down, hope taking a hit again. After a time, he got out what he thought was the real issue. "Because you feel like I don't trust you?" he asked sadly. "Because I do, I do, I-"

"Scout," Rai said, lifting a paw to stall the word tumbling that was going to occur. "...yeah, that did hurt a lot. Because, like, of course, I was going to be upset about Luno. Of course I was going to be. Anyone would, even without what happened to my family. And I understand why you thought that way, why you didn't want to cause that division in the middle of fighting against Darkrai. Like, it makes sense."

He frowned, sense or not. "But… but did you not think that I'd know that? I'd hate to hear it, but did you really think that'd stop me from working with him and Twila to help save the world? Did you think I couldn't put it aside for the world's sake?"

"I… I don't know," Scout muttered softly. "I don't want to say I was too stressed to think clearly, but…."

"Heh, yeah, true," Rai allowed. "That's the thing. I get why you did it. I can't expect you to make every 'right' decision, especially in situations like that. I get why you hid it… but the fact you told Wigglytuff and Armaldo before us, that hurt more than anything else. It was after the case, at least."

"I didn't…." Scout sighed. "I was putting it off because I was scared of how you'd respond. I knew you'd be angry with me."

Rai nodded. This was all good to hear. It didn't magically wave everything over, but it was good to hear nonetheless. "Even though we'd be madder at you hiding it for longer?" he said, in a joking way but it was serious.

Scout hunched his shoulders.

"Scout, I love you," Rai said openly and honestly. Scout looked up. He looked relieved for a split second before it hit him that that was obvious and didn't need to be said. "I love you too," he said.

Rai licked him on the nose. "Stop thinking like we're gonna be mad at you forever over this. I don't like that you did this. Even though I get why, it doesn't mean that I'm cool with it happening at all. You promised and you broke that promise… but I do forgive you for it."

Scout smiled at him, shaky and a bit teary but very thankful. "Thanks, Rai."

Rai licked him again. "I gotta admit, that isn't really why I got so mad."

Scout looked up, flashing between relief and more sorrow. "...I'm sorry, I don't know why," he said.

"Because it hurt Mane too," Rai said. "So, I'm gonna need you to talk to him on your own. I won't tell you why he's upset either, and it's not all the same as me. He's gonna do the thing where he pretends he's fine, so please don't just let that be it."

Scout nodded. "Okay. Okay. I promise I'll do my best."

"That's all I ask for," Rai said, licking him one more time and then nuzzling him. "But if you do need help, ask. You can ask him for help. I think he just wants you to get it too. Good luck, I'll see you two later."

Rai let Scout depart before him, he wanted to watch the waves a few minutes longer. He was grateful to Azumarill for everything she'd taught him, one of those things was that some things had to be worked out between them and not just told to her.

Mane was with her right now. Hopefully ,he'd be in the right state of mind to have a real talk with Scout later on….

It's not that I feel like Scout doesn't actually trust us.

He does, I know that in my heart.

But yeah, emotions are funny sometimes. You can't help how you feel sometimes. I wish he wouldn't put so much pressure on himself, knowing the things he knows, I think Scout sometimes feels like he has to keep the world together on his own. Any success is other people, all the failings are his fault.

Well, better get back to work. Town won't fix itself.

 

[Team_Ion]

Two chapters? Well well well.

I wanted to put out both Rai and Mane's together. So if you came to this chapter first, there's a chapter before it that's also just been posted!

Would you believe that when I first started Warped Skies in 2019, I didn't intend for Mane to be a character at all? I adapted a LOT as the story went on, he was introduced to be a feline 'rival' of sorts to explain why Rai was such a nervous guy despite having a backbone deep down. Quickly he developed into something else and I love him, don't tell anyone else but Mane's probably my favourite.

Now. This chapter has a trigger warning for family abuse… yeah. My favourites tend to go through some shit :/

---

So, why do you want to know about how we first met? Rai told his version of it? Hm. Well, fine, whatever. We met, we played, I went home.

Is that not enough? Before and after? It's not like you don't already know, Azumarill.

…Fine.

It was The Best Day Ever.

Mane's eyes opened up when the rays of sun poked at him, forcing them open like bright fingers pulling his eyelids open. He slept in his burrow again last night, it hadn't been too cold, and it was nicer than trying to sleep around Rumble and Father. Rumble was also Litleo, Father was Morpeko and very quiet.

He didn't want to be tired for today, it was to be The Best Day Ever, and he wanted to enjoy it with every scrap of energy he had.

Mother had spoken of this day a few suns and moons ago. She explained after their training that they were to be tested. That seemed scary at first, tests were bad if you failed them, but she said the test would involve going to The Town.

Mane had heard about The Town many times, although he'd never gone. He snuck out once to give it a peek, but he'd… well, he'd not been punished. But Mother was unhappy, so he'd promised to never do it again without permission.

Now today was the day!

He waited happily around the entrance to the house. It was either there or the den, and Mother… was much nicer to him than Rumble would be.

The house was a pretty thing, big and brown, made of wood with the occasional scorch mark giving a dash of black to scar the wood. Mane could proudly point out every mark he'd left on the place, and not once had the thing burned down!

He considered knocking on the door, but Mother would be displeased… he didn't want to wake her up, she liked her sleep, and he wouldn't ruin it.

So, he waited.

Rumble and Father came along eventually, but Mane did not listen to his brother's words, no shower could dampen this day, and no event would break his hopes.

Eventually, Mother exited.

He heard Father take in a soft, hissing gasp and couldn't withhold a giggle. Father was… so besotted with Mother. It was cute.

Mother was Pyroar. She told him that he would not look exactly like her when he reached that form himself; he'd have a much bigger mane. The idea made him beam. That was his name, after all. No one could have or be more mane than Mane.

"Good morning," Pyroar said, giving a stretch that involved her whole body. Her claws popped out, tearing the ground. Father's eyes were trained solely on the impressive blades jutting from her paws. "I see we're all ready to go."

Mane nodded, too excited to speak. He shuddered in excitement, heart positively pounding at the sight of Mother. This meant they were almost there. He was about to go to town!

Without any further delay, Mother began leading the way. They chatted a little as they walked, or at least Mother did. Father was always quiet, preferring to stare at Mother, and Rumble liked to bump Mane, but at least he wasn't saying mean things.

No one misbehaved too much around Mother. Her disappointment felt… terrible.

Before they went too far, Mother turned to Father, and she requested he separate from them to do some housekeeping. Father nodded quickly and scurried off. He… loved to please Mother so her house would be spotless by the time they got back.

For the longest time Mane had known, quite literally all the time he had existed, he'd never spoken to more than three people before. Three was rare enough, mostly it was just Rumble, and he sucked to talk to.

The days were long, training his body to toughen him up or train his brain-thing to make himself tougher in a different way.

He was nearly one year old and had been raised to be strong.

But as they approached Treasure Town, he got a little scared. He'd never talked to anyone, never met anyone really. What if they didn't like him? What if they expected too much of him? Mother was… so incredible, and he knew she came to town. What if he wasn't good enough?

Mother always told him he had to be good enough, what if he failed this test?

The town was big. So big. And he was so small. Standing in Mother's shad̨ow for… comfort, they walked forwards.

The dirt track, much smoother than what his paws were used to, led to a strange place where the path split into four directions. The left winded into the trees and was lost. Back they came was the path they just took. A long incline with strange rectangles cut out in a rising pattern led to where a terrifying pink thing loomed to the right.

Mother paid no attention to any of those paths; her eyes were firmly on the front. Mane couldn't help but notice a waterhole, and he was reminded of his parched throat. He couldn't remember drinking water ye-last night.

He swallowed thickly, eyes on the clear liquid that was so inviting. He didn't approach it; however, he wouldn't step away from Mother without permission, and his throat was a little too parched to bother asking her.

He could drink later. Any time wasted would be less time in town. He knew there were other pokémon there, more than he could ever imagine. Father had told him; Mother had as well in a different way.

Both parents told him stories. He liked Father's stories a little more, though.

He spoke of exciting people, interesting people, and cool things to do that weren't as much work. Pokémon that helped each other for no reason, just to help.

Mother's stories were a little more practical, though. She taught him how to defend himself because other pokémon were dangerous.

He wanted to believe Father, though, and if Mother was taking him to town, then they couldn't be so bad. She'd never… put him in danger.

Not as much as he could handle, at least.

They passed a big stone, not the biggest Mane had seen but big enough for him to note, before entering Treasure Town.

There was a big sign happily proclaiming the town's name, but no one who came here wouldn't already know where they were.

Eyes were immediately drawn to them as Mane and Rumble saw more pokémon than they had ever seen in their lives.

Big pokémon, much bigger than the two little litleo. A few pokémon smaller, little mice pokémon and fairies and grassy things. Fire-type's like them, Electric-type's like Father, lots of Normal's as well.

Blue, yellow, pink, red, green, and more colours from even more pokémon met his eyes. Mane shivered under the attention, and it wasn't even directed at him.

He could see it already, Mother was a good teacher after all, or maybe he was a good learner. She taught him about this kind of thing.

Eyes lingered, trailing down the silky mane that flowed down the curve of her body. Mother's mane moved in an unfelt wind. She could cause it to flow as if it were a river.

Mother smiled at a pokémon, and they went a funny colour, like fire but not as orange, and bashfully looked away.

It was overwhelming to see that many pokémon, so many voices and sounds and sights and smells all at once. Mane's head swam, and he pressed against Mother a little too hard, nearly leaning on her.

He pulled himself away quickly. He was a grown cub by now, after all. She glanced down at him, and he looked away.

They continued walking, Mother's head held so high while Rumble, a little better under pressure, strutted along with her. A flick from her tail caused Rumble to hold himself a little more modestly.

Mane crept along, suddenly feeling like he'd walked into the combee nest with no items to speak of.

Pokémon were following them, and he really didn't like it. So many pokémon to keep an eye on, he wasn't sure how Mother did it, but he understood why she said they were dangerous. He didn't know who was going to do what, and it was impossible to watch everyone.

They walked a fair while, gathering quite the crowd before Mother spoke. "Everyone," she began, a beautiful voice drawing in more eyes and ears. "I would like to introduce you to my sons. Boys?" Below her, on each side of her paws, Mother gestured with her head.

Mane shivered, wanting to hide in her shadOw and never be seen. Mother was strong; she could protect him if someone wanted to do something.

Gasps and whispers broke out. Rumble preened under the attention, though Mane could see he was shaking a bit. This time Mother didn't reprimand him with her tail. Mane, however, listened in.

"Sons?"

"She has kids. Wow, I didn't think anyone was good enough for Pyroar."

"Who's the lucky guy?"

"Wonder if they're mine, heh?"

"One of them is hiding. Poor thing looks so shy."

"Where did they come from, daddy?"

"Uh… ask your mother."

No threats, but a few had noticed him. Still, the smiles and pleasant chattering relaxed Mane a little, and he reminded himself that Mother wouldn't put him in any danger whatsoever.

Then Mother nudged him. "Go on," she said. "Mother will attend to her duties. Mingle, get to know someone, and come back once I call."

Without another word, Mother stepped free of her cubs and strolled into the crowd to talk, mingle, and do what she needed to get done. Mane and Rumble were left in the street.

Rumble, quite happily, stepped off immediately, having spotted some older children he could get to know. Mane was paralysed for a moment. For a moment, he had Mother and even Rumble, now he was on his own.

And he knew that this must be the test. Get to know someone. What did that mean?

Looking back and forth, with his breath quickening and small sparks spitting out, Mane didn't know what to do. He wanted to run after Mother, but he knew he shouldn't.

Suddenly, a little blue and black pokémon with electrically yellow parts jogged up to Mother without a care in the world. Mane froze. No one approached Mother that quickly.

He didn't really hear what the little pokémon was saying, but he caught Mother's attention and Mane tensed as… nothing happened?

"Could I trouble you to play with Litleo? He's rather shy."

Before Mane could register the words, the other pokémon had bound over to him. Feline, just like Mane, but all blue and black instead of the handsome dark brown that Mane was, about the same height as him and with a yellow star on his tail.

Mother walked off with a big mightyena as the shinx came right up into Mane's personal space. Their noses were almost touching.

"Hi!" he said.

It'd be a lie to say Mane's breath didn't catch in his chest at his first meeting with Rai. It wasn't anything more than just a nervous, awkward panic, although Mane liked to claim it was love at first sight.

Rai cocked his head at Mane's lack of reaction. "Aren't you going to talk?" he asked bluntly.

"Of course not."

Rai was knocked sprawling in moments and Mane just watched as Rumble sneered over him. The bag Rai was carrying popped open, and some berries fell onto the ground. Rumble immediately ate one.

Rai growled and sparked with electricity, just like Father would. For a moment, Rumble looked scared, but he covered it up quickly. "What?"

"That's mine!" Rai said, sparking even more. Again a flicker of panic crossed over Rumble's face, but he was bigger than Rai, so he lashed out. Flicking the berry back at Rai, he hit the shinx on the forehead and Rai flinched.

"You shouldn't do that."

Mane wasn't sure why he said it, even years after the fact. He had no attachment to Rai at the time, but maybe it was because he was in the middle of town. There were other pokémon there. If they were dangerous to anyone, it'd be if someone attacked one of their own. Rai was one of their own.

"What did you say?" Rumble snarled, glaring down at his smaller, younger, weaker brother.

"You shouldn't do that," Mane replied because Rumble was a little slow and terribly dumb and needed common sense explained multiple times. "Everyone is looking," he added, but Rumble was an attention seeker, so he concluded with a threat, "Mother will be mad."

Just like Mane, Rumble hated to disappoint Mother. Her… she… it didn't feel nice to make her sad with them.

Rumble flinched again. This time, Mother rather than Father was on his mind. He glanced around, pokémon were looking, and they could tell Mother. Rumble had been taught that he had a right to dominate those weaker than him, but he wasn't the strongest here.

Mother's eyes met Rumble's for a moment, and he immediately buckled. "S-sorry," he muttered out, not looking at Rai. He ran off, not looking at anyone and knocked another pokémon over but didn't apologise to them.

Mane watched him go with a sense of victory. He liked getting one over Rumble since it didn't happen too often.

"Your brother is mean," Rai complained, standing up and shaking off the roughhousing as nothing important. "But my sister can be mean too! Let's play."

Play? Mane wasn't entirely sure about that; playing with Rumble never ended well. But Rai wasn't as big as Rumble. Still, he wasn't even sure what to play or if he wanted to play with Rai until he heard Mother's laughter.

Mother's laughter was a wonderful thing, laughter meant happy, fun times, and he placed a beaming smile on his face. "Sure!"

Rai beamed back and batted him with his paw. "Tag, you're it!" And then he raced off. Mane grinned at the challenge. He had played this before.

Rai was a bit more agile than Mane, slightly smaller and had some good legs on him. He knew the town much better and was able to evade Mane at first quite well; Mane was not used to dodging around other pokémon or moving obstacles in general.

He was nothing if not a survi-adaptable and was able to keep up with some clever tricks of his own, boxing Rai into a dead-end he'd gleaned as they ran around and got the swift shinx.

Rai tagged him back pretty quickly in return, and Mane breathed an annoyed breath of smoke, but he never backed down from a challenge and kept it up. He bumped into Buizel at the same time Marill collided with Rai, and the two of them were pulled into the game as well. This made things even more fun. Mane could easily catch them.

Although the two of them could swim, so they weren't outmatched by Rai and Mane either.

It was fun. Getting tagged didn't mean he had to run for minutes trying to catch up. It was just something for fun, and he found himself giggling along with Rai after Rai crashed into him and knocked him onto his back, pinning him. "Gotcha!"

No, Mane realised he had Rai and while on his back, he snapped his legs around Rai and tugged him against him until they were chest-to-chest. "Nah, got you," he purred.

This was what Mother had taught him, he remembered. Bring the target in close, whisper weird things into their ears and… well, he wasn't too sure where things went from there, she said he'd learn later, but no time like the present to practice!

He wasn't sure what to say, actually. He knew some words, but Rai was pulling back against him. He realised he was losing his chance.

"What?" Rai asked, cocking his head. He frowned cutely and pulled back, and Mane, unsure, let him go. He rolled off Mane and pulled himself up. A moment of silence passed before Rai forgot it and laughed. "You're it!"

The game was still fun after that, but Mane found himself losing energy for it. He was distracted with thoughts, thoughts of what he was supposed to do vs what he wanted to do. He knew Mother said he'd learn, but it seemed a bit… weird.

Either way, they couldn't play forever. Mother came back as she always did and began looking around for him and Rumble.

"I've got to go," Mane said regretfully. He wouldn't keep Mother waiting, absolutely not. She was smiling pleasantly, though, which was nice, while Rumble wasn't, and that was even better.

"Aww, already," Rai pouted. He smiled and butted his head against Mane. "No one has been able to catch me that much! You've got to play again sometime!"

"I will," Mane promised. "Bye, Shinnnx." He added a purr to his voice or at least tried to. It came out a little awkwardly, and he slunk off as Rai also found his enthusiasm for the game waning without Mane to play it with.

"How did it go?" Mother asked as he joined them. "Litleo has informed me he spoke with some zubat and koffing for the duration of my work."

"I pla-I worked on Shinx," Mane said, correcting himself quickly. "Marill and Buizel too! They've already invited me for another time."

"Excellent work," Mother praised, and Mane could float off like a hoppip at the praise. And then they went home.

That's very good to hear…I'm glad your first day in town was such a pleasant memory. I hope you've continued to build good memories of Treasure Town.

Still, would you be able to tell me more about what brings you here? Are there any popup moments that come to mind when I ask, 'What made Litleo who he was today?'

Yes? Well, do go on, say as much as you want to.

Honestly, the worst thing about growing up is that Rumble got everything. He got the first pick, got the warmest place to sleep, always got his way. You want to know why I'm so fucked up? Fine, but it won't be as long. Listen to this.

The day was to be a good one.

He woke up inside, a little bit cold. Sleeping inside was usually nicer, warmer, with walls around them to keep them safe. He never slept too well in the house with Mother, though, always a little bit on edge for some reason.

Mane yawned cutely, handsomely; he was the cutest, most handsome, around, so anything he did was that.

Being the first to wake, he had a chance to creep around on his own. The den was a small thing, dug underground by Father. He'd brought in some straw and had a special locked room they weren't allowed to go into. Otherwise, it was dirt walls, bits of wood to reinforce the cave, and little else.

It smelled like dirt, and so Mane didn't like to sleep in there often. It also had a lot of loud snoring, Rumble and Father's snores echoing in the small den. It was that, in the house with Mother, or in the leaves and he knew which he preferred.

Always the lea-inside. He preferred inside.

Mane nosed his way forward. The other aspect of the den is that it was generally pitch black. Rumble's mohawk and Father's cheeks lit the place up a little, but not much.

Father was mostly yellow this morning, which was good. When he turned purple, that wasn't as fun of a time.

Mane pulled himself up through the passageway, tummy grumbling a little. Father may have been yellow sometimes, but Mane himself felt like he himself could turn purple at any minute all the time. He was always really hungry… growing cub after all, never had enough to eat… yeah.

He poked his head out of the den, feeling the cool air against his face. He took in a nice, clean breath of air and felt the chilly breeze tug at his whiskers.

Eager to find something to fill his tummy, he pulled the rest of his body out of the den, shook the lingering dirt particles off, and debated bathing himself to get rid of the rest of it or finding something better than hair for breakfast.

His tummy rumbled again, and he ducked away from the den, not wanting to wake Rumble or Father. That settled it, breakfast first.

Father didn't keep much food around, any that Mane knew about at least, although he usually had something to share at dinner time. Mother kept food, however.

It was in the house.

He wasn't sure about that, though. He didn't want to wake Mother, she could turn a little purple around the edges too sometimes, and it was a little scarier than when Father did.

His tummy gnawed at him, though. He didn't HAVE to wake Mother, probably for the best anyway. That way, he could choose what he had for breakfast.

Deciding he could be quiet, Mother liked it when he showed initiative. He began to plod along on his big paws. He didn't get very far before something hissed out at him.

"Psst."

Jumping and then stumbling over his gawky paws, Mane spun around to find Rumble strolling after him. His paws weren't as big on his body. He was bigger than Mane and had grown into his feet, so he could walk around like he owned the place.

"What are you doing?" Rumble asked, catching up to him quickly. He had a bit more dirt on him since he had to struggle a little more than Mane to get in and out of the den. Shows him right, Mane should be the one sleeping in there every night rather than being told to sleep outsi-

"None of your business," Mane said, scoffing and turning around. Rumble grabbed his tail and pulled him back before he could run off. "Hey! Let go!"

He swiped at Rumble but was batted to the side pretty easily. Before he could blink, Rumble tackled and pinned him with his heavier body.

Mane's ribs pressed uncomfortably into the softer chest of his older brother as Rumble sneered down at him. "You don't turn your back on me. I asked you what you were doing."

Mane wanted to spit an Ember into his face, but he was smart enough to know that wouldn't end well. "I'm getting food," he muttered.

"From Mother?" Rumble asked, amused. "You won't get ten steps in there."

"I so can!"

"No, you can't."

"Let me go, and I'll prove it!"

"Whatever," Rumble pushed off him, knocking the wind out of Mane's lungs. He coughed a few times, stomach growling, as his chest heaved over his bony ribs. "If you want to… want… if you want to fail, go ahead. I'll just have breakfast on my own."

He spun around, tail lifted proudly, and began strutting off. He went slowly though, teasingly, knowing that Mane would soon ask. "What? You have breakfast?"

Rumble glanced back with a smirk. "Yeah…?"

"How?"

"I snuck some food when Mother was with Father yesterday!" Rumble said proudly. "See, that's the smart thing. Don't risk it with her actually in there. Steal some stuff while she's away. Can't get caught then."

With that, he continued, leaving Mane with his protesting stomach and a difficult choice.

Rumble didn't go far before he heard Mane's big, plodding steps trying to catch up. "Wait," Mane called, panting. It was too early to be running. He hadn't eaten yesterday… night and was getting a little lightheaded.

"What do you want?" Rumble asked, stopping for Mane.

"Can I… can… c-can I have some?"

Rumble considered it for a moment. Facing away from Mane, the indecision was hidden on his face. He only risked taking so much, it wasn't even enough for himself let alone sharing it.

The silence made Mane desperate, he was willing to beg. "P-Please. I don't want to disturb Mother."

Another growl came from his stomach, and Rumble eventually nodded. "Alright, you got to do two things for me, though."

Mane sighed and nodded.

"First, you got to replace whatever you took later. Second, if you get caught, you take the fall for it all."

"All of it?" Mane protested. "You stole this stuff!"

"Borrowed," Rumble corrected. "And if you want to eat it, and you didn't get it yourself, then you got to take responsibility."

Mane wavered for a moment; Rumble was tricky; he knew that. But his stomach begged him, and he folded. "Alright."

Pleased, Rumble led the way to where he had stashed the food. "You wouldn't believe what I was able to get!" he bragged as they went. "Apples, this big sour berry, I even found a bit of meat!"

"Meat?" Mane's mouth salivated at the mere idea of that.

"I was learning to cook it too! But raw isn't the worst." He brought him to a little grove of trees close to where they did some of the training with Father, and Rumble stepped in proudly. "Right in…."

He froze, and Mane bumped into him, moving too eagerly to stop. They both stumbled forward and dropped to their bellies when they saw Mother.

"Here, you said?" Rumble asked, voice shaking slightly. "Hi, M-Mother."

Mother gazed at her children with an imperious stare, her head was raised, and eyes narrowed. She was a little bit purple, the colour swimming around her legs and flowing mane in a crackly aura.

Her eyes slowly moved from Rumble to Mane. Her claws were out, and below her foot was a woven bag, popped open with food spilling out.

"Here, you said?" she asked, repeating Rumble's words.

"M-Mane said he had something to show me," Rumble said. Mane's eyes widened at his brother.

"What? No! Rumble was showing me this place!"

She looked between them, from the defenestrated Rumble to the slightly-raised Mane. Black fire from her paw burned into the food back, reducing it to ashes at record speed.

Rumble bumped Mane hard, knocking him onto his side. "He was up all early today, all sneaky, so I wanted to know what he was doing, and he said he was going to show me something!"

Pyroar looked at Mane, and all arguments evaporated on his tongue. He whimpered and bent his head, not wanting to look at the… disappointment in Mother's eyes.

"Thank you for your honesty, boys," Pyroar said, taking Rumble's words and Mane's buckling as proof. "Rumble, wake up Morpeko and bring him to the second training field. I'll be handling Mane's training alone today."

Rumble didn't hesitate to run and leave him. Mane shivered as Pyroar approached him. "Get up."

He rose on shaking legs. Pyroar's paw raised, and he flinched, but she petted the top of his head. "You shouldn't steal from me, Mane. If you are hungry, just ask." She lowered her paw and began walking. "As punishment, you will have to train before breakfast today, but sometimes life is too fast for breakfast. Come along. If you do well, you'll get a reward afterwards."

…

… …

That's all that happened.

Rumble lied straight to Mother's face, but she believed him at his word. That's what I thought back then, at least. Nowadays, I'm sure she knew he was the one who stole, but he was faster and better at lying and that's what she was teaching us anyway.

This kind of thing happened all the time, he'd make things up, and Mother and Father would just go along with it. I'd get… 'time outs', no breakfast or lunch or dinner, and have to sleep on the leaves.

Well, it was better sleeping on the leaves anyway. It got gross in the den and… Mother needed her privacy.

But this is exactly what made me, me. The lone-litleo I became, why I got so bitter about everything. Mother and Father favoured him. Father even took Rumble rather than me when they left. Well, one good thing he did for me, at least.

…is it wrong that I kind of pity Rumble nowadays?

He… he went through the same thing that I did. He was older, he'd gone through it alone and then I hatched. I don't really blame him anymore for passing it all onto me. I hate him for doing it, for making me the scapegoat, but… shit. What was his life? He was stuck obeying Father even afterwards.

Guess it's more complicated than I used to think.

That must have been very difficult for you to live through. Having your brother be favoured above you.

Right on the docket, shrink.

Now, may I ask about your relationship with your mother? She's come up a few times in our conversations, but never any solo focus has been given to her.

…

If you'd prefer, we can-

You already know what these stories are all about, what I'm pretending isn't happening, but fine. I'll tell you what you want to hear.

Mother Pyroar taught many life lessons to Mane.

Too many to cover in just one session, but there were two main stories Mane could draw upon for things that she taught him well.

The first lesson was one of the earliest she taught him. Mane couldn't pinpoint which was exactly the first, but one of the earliest ones stuck with him.

"You can only ever truly rely on yourself," she explained one day, climbing a large tree with Mane and Rumble. "If you look down from where we are, the distance to the ground is quite far."

Unable to help themselves, the kids did look, and vertigo gripped them at how far the ground was. Morpeko looked like a nervous yellow dot in a sea of brown and green.

Mane's claws nearly ripped out of the bark, and he yelped, grabbing onto a poking-out bump with his teeth while his claws scrabbled against the tree.

"If you fall, you'll fail," she warned. "I could try to catch you, but I'm too far up, and you'd fall too quickly. Your brother could try and catch you, but he'd only be dragged down with you. Everyone knows this. If someone falls, they fall on their own."

Her tail flicked out, smacking Rumble on the side of the head and then Mane. "People will try and make you fall." Her paws burned, smoothing out the bark by searing it with heat. She continued climbing and they climbed too. The burn parts either crumbled immediately or couldn't be pierced by their claws at all. "Find out other ways to get by them."

Rumble, being longer, was able to grip onto a higher part. Mane had to climb sideways, around the burnt parts. It took him longer, but it was safer, but Rumble was ahead of him now.

Whichever one of them reached the top first won a great prize, and Mane tried to speed up. One time his claws weren't in far enough causing him to nearly slip. Only the back paws anchoring him help him up to splat back-first onto the wood. "Help!" he cried, the ground was so far down.

"No one will help you," Mother said. "Not without incentive."

"Rumble help me!" Mane begged, they were still young enough that he hoped his brother would stick up for him one day.

"I…." Rumble hesitated, he was still young enough to dream of a better life. He looked between Mane and Mother. She was staring down at him with that expression. "I want to win," Rumble whimpered, looking away from the crying Mane.

"MOTHER! FATHER!"

"If you fall," Mother said, not looking back as she reached a safe spot, a thick branch, "then that was your own fault."

Mane felt the bark giving way, but his body was flexible. He was able to twist and latch on with his forepaws again, pulling himself back into business.

Mane sniffled, he was so high up, and Rumble was even higher, climbing fast and eager to his eyes. He growled, and fire built up in his mouth. Unable to control himself, he spat an Ember at Rumble, and it smacked into his back, causing him to yelp.

"Mother!" Rumble cried. "He attacked me!"

"Good," Mother said approvingly. "Do whatever you have to do to win."

The injury caused Rumble to pause, and Mane began to climb again, starting to catch up.

"Sometimes falling is unavoidable," Mother warned. "Sometimes, you can do everything right and still fail or do everything wrong and still succeed. Other people will knock you down if they get the chance."

Rumble's eyes widened at her words, spoken straight to him.

Mother said to do anything in order to win.

She was looking at him again.

Mane realised what Rumble was going to do before Rumble did, but he couldn't dodge while clawing his way up a tree. Rumble's stronger Ember collided with his head, an extra push of force causing him to slide down the tree, carving scratches into it. That may have been enough to assure victory, but Rumble would do anything.

The follow-up Ember knocked Mane off the tree.

"If you do fall, try and convince someone to take the hit for you," Mother called as Mane screamed, swinging at the air desperately. He slammed into something hard, but not as hard as hitting the ground would be, and everything went black.

Morpeko had caught him, for a measure of caught at least, and Mane hadn't been badly injured. He had been only a few months old at the time of this fall.

The second lesson was a lot harder to learn, took a lot longer to learn, and sunk in a great deal deeper.

"Never show weakness. No matter how 'kind' or 'accepting' others may seem, they will take any advantage over you that they can. Be an impervious soldier, first learn to show no weakness, then learn to have no weaknesses. If you are weak, you are useless, and no one will want you for anything."

Mother was a driven pokémon. She saw the world differently than many pokémon, but she believed that everyone saw it the same way, only they tried to hide it.

Maybe she was right…?

There was no single moment that drilled this lesson into Mane's head, taking hold of his thoughts and twisting his desire to help and be helped.

But he did learn it. He learned it when asking for more food and getting more demanding training. He learned it when wanting comfort and being placed outside. Mane learned it when befriending Rai and not wanting to use him. I learned it living with a Father who didn't care, a brother who bullied me, and a creature in the shape of a pyroar that hurt me every minute of every second of every day!

Okay. Is that enough? I don't want to talk anymore. Fuck. Fuck you for making me think about this again. Just let me ignore everything and pretend like it doesn't matter. Pyroar's dead, Rumble's in prison, and Morpeko is alone. Or dead in a ditch somewhere, hopefully.

I'm done. I'm gone. I'm not coming back. I didn't want to talk about this, ever. And you made me! Why? You're supposed to be HELPING! This is just painful! Leave me alone, don't make me come back here, FUCK!

The door slammed as Mane stormed out. He didn't need to slam it, but he also did need to slam it. Sparks were popping off his mohawk and his paws as he ran.

Azumarill's house was, most annoyingly, almost as far from Sharpedo Bluff as it could be. So, he had to run through the rest of the houses and dodge annoying pokémon, run the dirt track and dodge annoying happy adventurers, run through Treasure Town, and avoid annoying shopkeepers, and run, run, run, run, run-

He hated running, but it was something he was damn good at. Rumble was much stronger than him; he was older and bigger after all. He was more cunning in how he cosied up to Mother and Father, playing the obedient pet that liked being told what to do.

Mane was smaller, weaker, younger, and didn't know how to hold his tongue very well. He learned how to run fast and be agile. Learned it well and at a very young age.

He hated happy-go-lucky pokémon, who didn't even know a tiny taste of adversity. Having perfect little lives with perfect little parents and perfect little upbringings and didn't know even a taste of hunger or fear.

He used to hate the guild. Well, not Chimecho, but everyone else for not seeing Pyroar for what she truly was. No one had ever figured it out until Morpeko grew the balls to out her. She didn't even get as punished as she should have been. She didn't have to bear any consequence for her crimes except death.

Mane never got closure from her. He hated that too. No nightmare-induced horrors in some race to save the world counted as closure, just a reminder of what he'd never get.

He never hated Rai, though. Rai was just like him, he felt. A poor, tragic orphan from a family torn apart by a Shadow Pokémon. Not that many pokémon actually knew that, but Mane did. Rai told him enough about the monster that had taken his family for Mane to recognise where it was similar to himself.

Before, they had become enemies.

Rai was so hurt, like him, but he stuck to his guns, and Mane was so envious of that.

Mane used to hate himself too. For letting Pyroar beat him.

Things were blurry by the time he crashed into Scout, just walking up the stairs of the bluff, and they tumbled down in a pile of fur and claws.

"Oww, Mane, what the f-"

Scout's yell was cut out immediately when Mane burst into tears, burying his face in Scout's chest. Both of them could be a little bony at times; both of them have had trouble getting enough food at points in their childhood.

Scout's annoyance at being thrown down the stairs with a cat on his face immediately shifted into concern, and he hugged Mane, pulling his head in closer. "Shh, I've got you," Scout soothed as Mane left his chest as wet fur.

Rai, who had nearly been knocked over by Mane racing blindly past him, dashed into their home a few moments later to find Mane sobbing on Scout.

He carefully crept over, casting Scout a concerned look before nuzzling up on Mane and purring comfortingly. Scout, who didn't do it often, added in his own purrs. They huddled with Mane until he'd cried enough, breaking into soft hiccups before his breathing evened out, and he took in some shaky breaths.

"Sorry," he mumbled, half-heartedly trying to pull away from Scout. Still, the meagre weight of Scout's arms around him caused him to give up immediately.

Scout didn't reply with words. Saying it was 'okay' or 'are you okay' just wasn't right at all. Instead, he nuzzled Mane, still purring.

"You should purr more," Mane said softly. "Hey, I'm on you right now. Want me to make you purr some more?"

Scout shook his head, rubbing his face over Mane's.

"Eww, I'm gross. Why would you want to do that." Rai also nuzzled him, and he continued to grumble at their show of support, even with his salty, snotty face.

"Come on. All this love and support is ruining my emotional stuntedness." His voice wavered slightly at the last words. Rai and Scout licked his face. "Dammit," Mane's voice broke, and he buried his face in Scout's neck again. He didn't fall apart again, but he sobbed a few times, going boneless over him.

"What happened?" Rai asked after Mane's breathing evened to a stable, if still shaky, rhythm.

"Azumarill made me talk about growing up," Mane muttered. "And so I just lied to her, and she knew it, and I knew she knew it, and she knew I knew she knew it, and I kept on lying."

Mane shook his head, rubbing his face into Scout. "I told her my version of how we first met, Rai, and was all like 'I slept outside because I wanted to' Because sleeping inside was awful enough. I didn't fucking want to. I chose to. And I would never have asked Pyroar, not after the first time at least."

"Pyroar was so fucking scary. I can't even describe how it was to live around her. She trained us, and it hurt, and if we complained, she hurt us more. Rumble learned quickly enough that you shouldn't talk back. He became a pathetic suck-up just to avoid getting hurt by them. Morpeko was hardly any better. He was a coward and wanted strong people to protect him, so he trained our attacks while Pyroar trained… other things. You should never look at your mother and know she's going to kill you one day."

"You know, I was saying things like 'Mother's stories are more practical, didn't like them as much as Father's though.' Ugh. I'm so pathetic. 'Mother would never put us in danger; she loved us and was only training us to help us survive, not like she was a monster in a Pyroar's skin or anything'."

"Mane, you're not pathetic. You survived that."

"Yeah, right, survived it because I was too weak for Morpeko to take with him, strong enough to not die and instead become a heartless asshole who targeted you because you were just like me but didn't break like I did. I could have done anything after they left me, but I just became what Pyroar was trying to do."

"You are nothing like that."

"Scout, you don't understand what she did to me." Mane broke and buried his head in Scout's neck again. "Even nowadays, I just do what she taught me to do. I'm smart because she taught me to be smart. I notice things because she taught me to notice. Fuck, I flirt because that was one of the biggest things she taught me. 'Seduction and Domination to Get What I Want'. How disgusting is that? She…."

"M-Mane. She didn't… actually…"

"No. If you're asking if she ever… touched me, then no. But she still taught me the worst things. How to pin someone, how to 'get what I want'. She wanted to breed an entire army of Shadow Pokémon but didn't want to do most of the work herself. So, she started teaching us, and that's fucking disgusting!"

He turned his head to Rai. "On the day we first met, I was, what, a year old at most or something? You pinned me, and I immediately got you in a grapple. I didn't fucking know why or what, but THAT is the kind of thing she taught me. There's no reason I should EVER have done that, but I did. I did. I'm exactly what she wanted out of me."

"Mane, you're not-"

"Well, then listen to my next story. I told Azumarill about how Rumble stole some food and pinned it on me. Pyroar caught us. I told her that Pyroar just 'playfully patted me on the head and made me train before breakfast'. That's just what I do, lie. She beat me until I blacked out. And she knew it wasn't me who stole it, Rumble just was a good liar, and that's what she wanted. Morpeko had to take me to Chimecho. That's why I learned to lie on reflex."

"Then you're incredible," Rai said. "You survived. You learned, you adapted, you survived. You played what you had to, but you never lost everything that you really were. She. Did. Not. Win."

Mane's lip shook, and he hiccupped again, looking away. "Why do you even bother? I'm such a mess."

"We're all messes," Scout said, still holding onto Mane. "I'm just surprised we're not co-dependent."

"We're a little co-dependent," Mane said, almost breathing out a laugh.

"I'm here for you," Rai said, nuzzling him again. "And Scout is too. And I'm here for Scout, and I know you two are here for me."

"Little presumptuous there," Mane commented. Rai licked his cheek with a sparking tongue for it. "That tingles! Lower."

Scout licked his neck, and Mane eeped. "Okay, fine, fine, I accept your love and worship."

"Calm down, tiger," Scout said, smiling up at him. There was a hint of tears in the edges of his eyes, Rai's too.

"I like that name. Call me Big Tiger."

"Mane," Rai said kindly. "You know what you're doing."

"Deflecting from the emotional heaviness with flirty humour," Mane sighed. "I know, I know. I'm sorry."

"No need to apologise," Scout said. "That's who you are, and, unfortunately, we kinda love you for it."

"Eww, love for who I am. Can't you love me for this smoking hot bod instead?"

"Yes, that helps," Rai said plainly. He poked Mane in the chest. "I like that in there too."

"My liver?"

"Your heart, you big goof."

"I knew that! I just have trouble believing it sometimes."

"Then we'll reassure you every time."

Mane sighed out a heavy breath. "Alright," he said softly. "I'm… sorry for breaking down like that. I really didn't expect to be hit with that today."

"How do you feel?" Scout said, letting Mane pull himself up and off him.

"Like shit," Mane said, bluntly. "I hate that I put all that on you two and still wish I could handle it all on my own."

"That's alright," Scout said. "Just as long as you don't always hide it from us when you are feeling it. I hate putting my crap on you as well, but I'm pretty sure that's part of what a relationship is."

"Another pro of us being a threesome!" Rai grinned. "It's not as hard if you can carry it between three."

"Another pro of us being a threesome is-" Mane began before Rai kissed him on the mouth to silence him.

"You know, I was going to leave town after you joined the guild?" Mane said, staring off. "I even stole the gold ribbon from Charmander so that I could buy a ticket off the continent."

"You gave it back," Rai said, licking him on the cheek. "And he said he forgives you."

"Of course. I'm a hero, he had to say that."

"Or maybe he forgave you?"

"Mm."

With Rai and Scout purring around him, Mane surrendered to the good vibes. He tugged at his sheet and smiled. "You know, a lot of pokémon didn't like me after Pyroar was outed, for whatever reason. Chimecho, though, was always so kind to me. After getting beaten up, I could go to her in dungeons or whatever, and she'd always patch me up. I actually got the sheet from her. I had my own bed to the point she just gave me the sheet to stop me coming back so often, hah."

"Chimecho is pretty nice," Rai said, snuggling into Mane. "Even with all her work, she always has time for people."

"Yeah," Scout said, nodding smartly. "Still evil, but a nice kind of evil."

He got a double wack to the face from two tails, and the three of them laughed until they cried.

It's not easy to think about where I came from. And some days are harder than others. I am proud of where I've got to, though, and… well, talking does help. It hurts for a while, but it helps. Thanks, and sorry, Azumarill, for storming out the other day. I just needed some personal time with Shinx and Meowth to calm me down, if you know what I mean ;3

---

Team Ion was a strong team. Not just in actual battle prowess, but in their connection to each other.

Fights happened. Never as severe as the one about Luno, but they happened. They were better at communicating than they used to be, more than just Azumarill had helped with that.

Mane had gone through a rough session with Azumarill and for a moment, that was all that mattered. They were no longer fighting, there was nothing to talk about except assuring Mane that he was loved and cherished for who he was, flirts and attitude and all.

It did mean that Scout got out of another day of having the difficult talk with Mane. Rai didn't press the matter for that day, but Scout stirred when Rai got up and Rai nodded to him and Mane as he left with a look that pled with him not to accept the freebie.

Because Mane would let it lie. He normally wouldn't have snapped and broken down at Azumarill but the feelings that he buried within about what went down with Scout had ate at him until he found another thing to explode about, that meant the matter could be resolved without talking and everything set aside.

Scout was happy to let that be, but Rai saw through both of them. He wouldn't press it if they didn't, but he felt they should talk before truly calling the matter resolved.

And Scout knew he was right.

"Dammit, Rai. Why are you the most mentally healthy out of all of us?" Scout muttered a few hours later.

He didn't want to wake Mane up to do this, so they just started their days. Around midday, his thoughts consumed with Mane, he decided he had to do this now.

Rai started it the first time, because Rai was wonderful, but Scout and Mane were experts at avoiding the issue. Really, how Rai put up with both of them was a mystery.

He found Mane helping magmar keep a barbecue going, but the lunch rush had passed and he caught his handsome, soot-stained, partner's eye. "Litleo!" he called.

It never felt normal to call him Litleo, but he'd get looks if he called him Mane in front of everyone and Mane would swagger about but be embarrassed on the inside.

Mane smiled as he spotted them. "My dear, my darling," he said, trotting over.

A few people smiled at the affection and didn't bother the heroes. Mane was doing well since he'd helped save the world, playing that key role in lighting the fire that destroyed the Dream.

Almost everyone on the continent had dreamed of a fiery inferno when they had awoken, Mane had starred in the land's dreams.

Scout walked him out to Sharpedo Bluff. The beach wasn't really private enough in his opinion, Rai owned the home in the Bluff so the area was softly considered to be his.

"Whhaaat's up?" Mane asked, a little puzzled by the serious silence Scout strolled in on the way out.

"I, uh… I just… I thought maybe we should talk about the whole 'Luno' thing," Scout suggested awkwardly. Oh, it was so much easier with Rai who led things and explained his emotions.

Scout and Mane were not so good at that.

Mane just blinked. "Why?" he asked flippantly. "Water under the bridge, hmm, speaking of under we're near our beds~?" He did a thing with his eyebrows.

Normally that'd work on Scout and he blushed just a little bit. "Mane, not now," he said, swatting him off gently as Mane leaned in.

Mane pouted, blowing a ring of smoke. "Come oon, you know we have fun."

"True. But…" Scout remembered Mane doing this a few times. Usually when he was at his most stressed of uncomfortable, like in the Dark Future. Mane admitted he resorted to doing it when he was at his worst and that settled it. "Mane, you know what you're doing."

Mane's smug mask lingered a few more moments before it cracked in half. One side of his mouth twitched down and he looked away. "What does it matter?" he asked. "We got over it, why dredge it right back up?"

"We… we didn't, really," Scout pointed out.

"Sure we did. I broke down, you made me feel better and loved and all that junk. Problem solved, no one's mad or upset or anything anymore. It's no biggie."

"It… Mane, it's gotta be something big. You wouldn't even look at me for a whole day." And the less said about Mane having a breakdown at all the better.

Mane looked back at him, brightness in his eyes. "Scout. It's fine. Yeah, it was a bit of a surprise that weirdo Luno was…" He glanced behind them for anyone. "You know. And it sucked that you had to hide that, but you had to. I would have freaked out, Rai would have freaked out on the inside, and we… well, I probably would have messed something up and gotten someone killed, maybe myself. It's fine, it's good even!"

Scout hated everything Mane said. The forced cheerfulness, the tone brushing off the idea of him dying. Everything.

He also knew Mane well enough to know what he was saying. "I'm sorry," he said, ears tilting down. Mane paused. "I didn't mean to make you think that way."

Mane continued to be frozen for a longer time than anyone could be comfortable with. "Mane?" he asked tentatively.

Mane took a breath. "Do you really?" he said, voice suddenly as tense as a bowstring. "Do you really really think that's what bothers-bothered me?"

Scout almost leaned back from the sudden tension in Mane's voice. "Uh…."

Mane huffed out, there was smoke and a bit of a spark in there. "No. Scout. That's not what it is. Was."

Scout nodded slowly, guiltily. "I'm sorry, I'm trying to…."

"To figure it out?" Mane asked, bitterness colouring his voice. He looked around them and shook his head. "Scout, we talked in the Dark Future. You know what I think about you already. It's only gotten better. I love you, I can't imagine my life without you, all the shit I've gone through is worth it because at least I'm here now. But dammit, you're an idiot sometimes."

Mane began to walk, pacing around Scout but motioned with his head to join him in walking closer to the cliff. "I remember thinking… I don't remember when I thought it, but it was some point when you were in The Dream without us that you'd give up the world for us."

Scout looked down sharply, guilt striking through his chest. "I… nearly did," he admitted. "When the town was put to sleep and it was just me, Darkrai… we spoke before Soothe appeared and I nearly… I nearly gave up. If she didn't step in…."

Mane nodded, understanding. "That's really romantic of you… or just sweet in general… but I hate that. We went to the Dark Future. I could never live in a world like that, I'm glad my future self was frozen, at least he never had to experience that. If it came down to us or the world, you know Rai and I would want you to pick the world. Same as everyone."

"Do you think you could do that?" Scout asked, almost breathless. "If you were the one alone in town, being told everyone you know is going to die unless you give in? Would you fight anyway, no Soothe showing up?"

Mane's expression softened a little and he sighed, "Hard to say," he replied. "It's selfish to be relieved I never did have to face that kind of choice. I don't know how you can do it… I don't know, I don't even know what I really would want my choice to be. Heh, it is easier to put that on someone else."

Mane came to a stop near the edge, right next to where Scout had woken up all that time ago. Probably about two years now. How time flies.

"I hate that I get left out of those things," he said, voicing it to the sea like Dugtrio had voiced his woes many times. "It's no one's fault, except mine. But it happens a lot. I couldn't go to the Hidden Land. The last time I saw you was you getting dragged back right as we escaped the Future and then Rai comes back with Sean saying you did get back but died anyway, along with everyone else from the future besides Sean. I never even got to say goodbye to you."

Scout shuffled closer to Mane, hoping he wanted him to be close. Mane leaned into him.

"You got the last hit on The Dream," Scout offered.

Mane smirked. "Sure did. But. I didn't go into The Dream with you. Mawile and Twila did. Rai and I were so worried. He talked a little bit about how he felt about us going into the Dark Future without him. Watching you go in without us, sure you had backup but we didn't know what you were going to go through."

Mane breathed out a sigh. "But, I did go to the Dark Future. And Rai and I did go to Ashen Island without you, though that did end up being a diversion. You had to fight Darkrai by yourself if Soothe didn't show up… well. You said it yourself." Scout glanced down.

"It's not that I want to be part of everything… but I had feeling useless. I hate feeling like… I'm not needed."

He had apologised to Rai when they escaped the Dark Future. Apologised for not being Scout, not being the right one.

"You are needed," Scout insisted.

"Really?" Mane asked, not tauntingly or challengingly. Just sadly. "If you didn't feel like you had to tell us the 'Big Truth' would you have?"

Scout… couldn't really answer that. He didn't know.

"I always felt like an outsider to the town," Mane continued. "Never really welcome after Pyroar was dealt with. Tolerated out of pity, but alone. Shoved aside. When Rai did join the guild, I thought that was it for me. I'd made my whole reason to stay to make him join, trying to make myself important in that kind of way. If I could just do one good thing, I could leave and finally make a life for myself… but you two didn't let me leave."

He smiled again. "Hated you so much for that and stuck around to 'punish' you for it. But, then you let me join the team. You did, Rai was uncertain but you stuck up for me and gave me a chance and finally, I felt like I was a part of something. I wish I got to go on the expedition too, haa… but oh well."

Mane looked to Scout this time, still smiling. "...even so, though… you've always got your own plans going on. Back then, Rai and I had no idea what was really keeping you up late at night. And even after you told everyone, you still looked like it was weighing down on you. Like it was still your problem to solve and load to carry."

The smile slowly faded until he just looked sad. "I'm going to ask you something I already know the answer to and that you're going to hate me asking."

"Okay," Scout said.

"Do you really think of us as people?" he asked, voicing the words he hated so much. "Or are we just characters in that game? A game I wasn't in, still not over that."

"Mane!"

"I know the answer," Mane replied, closing his eyes. "But sometimes the worst thoughts come in and I just gotta hear what I already know."

Scout carefully touched his face, then pulled him into a hug when he leaned into it. "You're both magical people. You're all amazing people. I haven't doubted for a second in almost two years that this is real."

Mane licked Scout's shoulder. "Sorry for asking it."

"It's okay," Scout replied softly.

"I, Rai, both of us hate that you see yourself as so little," Mane murmured as they were so close. "It's like you think you owe it to us, and everyone else, to take everything onto yourself. You shouldn't have kept Luno's condition from us, but not because it was a bad secret, and not just because we are your partners and should have a say, but because you don't have to do this by yourself."

Scout, inexplicably, felt himself tearing up at Mane's words.

"You told us, not just because you had to, and not just because it was the right thing to do, but because you never had to carry it by yourself. No one asked to exist, I sure didn't, but that means you don't have to justify your existence to anyone. If shit is going on, just tell us. We can tell when something is bothering you, but if you want us to ask just let us know. No one's gonna judge you. Or be annoyed. Or angry. That's what this whole partnership thing is all about, okay?"

"Okay," Scout sniffled, now quietly crying onto Mane's shoulder. "I'm sorry. I don't know why I do this. I just. I just don't want to bother anyone."

"It's more of a bother if you hide it," Mane said, firmly but his voice was emotional as well. "We'll make you see yourself like we see you someday."

Scout couldn't help but laugh wetly at that. "Damn, Mane."

"I know, I'm awesome."

"You really, really, are," Scout said. Hugging him firmer now. "I hope you know that too. Fuck the game, it'd be shit without you in it. I want you to always be yourself because I love you for that."

"Even when I'm being weird?"

"Yep. That's the rules, that's what this whole partnership thing is all about. Love you for who you are, not in spite of this or that."

Mane sighed out and leaned against him. They decided to take the rest of the day off working around town and go out on a small mission together.

They invited Rai to come along, but he gave them a very happy smile at their tear-tracked fur and happy expressions. "Sorry, I promised to help Electivire with something. But you two have fun! And tell me all about whatever you get up to!" He bumped into both of them to show his affection and dashed off.

---

Ahh Mane. I do love you.

In the original story, Scout and Rai have a BIG fight in Chapter 20 due to a thing in Chapter 19. I took that out in the rewrite, which was a shame because that fight felt important. It was a thing I did to show that they're far from perfect people, both of them were in the wrong and both got pretty vicious in their fight (then they don't see really each other until Chapter 30 so that was also fun)

As I was getting to the middle of the rewrite of Arc 2 I had the idea of a different fight they could have. Centred around Luno as we know. This one IS a lot different, as Rai is FAR more composed and his issues more reasonable, plus Mane is also upset. But I still wanted to do it, mostly to showcase that Team Ion DO have fights occasionally, as all couples/triads do, but they're healthy enough to talk about it.

Sometimes with a bit of a prod, Luno to Rai and then Rai to Scout, but they get there. They get there.

Two more bonus chapters to go! Unlike these two, they aren't backstories but instead are set in the post Arc 2 period but follow a very different character to the rest.

That being, Keira, The Legendary Lucario! People really liked them the first time, so hope you enjoy once I release them!

 

[Team_Ion]

These two chapters serve as both Keira's bonus, a focus on The Legendary Lucario and what drives and has driven her, as well as a prologue to Arc 3 of Warped Skies!

---

The Dream shattered, and Keira's eyes snapped open.

She rose from the bed she had been laid upon, a little too fast. Muscles that hadn't moved in weeks immediately protested, cramping up and causing her to grunt in pain.

She turned her head, ignoring the sparks of pain, shooting up and down her spine and swung her legs off the bed. It was a nice height, perfect for her to bend them down gently. It still was grinding agony to move her legs, but Keira made do.

"Cara?" she called.

She was in a room, small and sterile and real in ways The Dream couldn't duplicate. There was that distant, woody smell. Distant sounds of clamour and tension met her ears. The room was an ugly little box; the ache in her legs was too real.

And Carapace was in the room with her. He was slumped over on the ground, softly groaning and rousing himself from whatever sleep had taken him as well. Based on his sprawled-out position, she guessed that he'd fallen into The Dream while standing next to her. There were scuff marks on the floor from where he had fallen.

Metallic exoskeleton clanged on the wooden ground as Carapace, the scizor, student of Lucario, pulled himself up to one knee. "Keira?" he asked, voice raw with thirst.

She was by his side in an instant, kneeling to steady the scizor who looked like he was about to topple over. "Here," she said, pulling his arm around her neck and hoisting them both up. His shell was dull and felt rough, any worse, and it'd start to flake.

She didn't like that.

Keira carefully walked Carapace out of the room they had been in, mind racing over what might be going on, but she banished the thoughts to focus on him.

They left a sterile room to enter a sterile corridor. She'd almost guess they were in a hospital, Cara would be that much of a worrier to take her to one, but it didn't smell quite right. This was sterile out of bureaucracy rather than cleanliness.

There were pokémon moving about, and it took less than a few seconds for them to be noticed. Gasps rang out, and the three pokémon in sight froze, a magby, smoochum, and treecko.

It only took them another moment to flinch out of shock and move towards them, babbling out.

"Oh, thank the legends."

"Lucario's awake! Treecko, go inform Xatu now!"

"Right, right, right, right, right." Treecko ran off as the other two ran forwards.

"He needs some help," Keira said as the two baby pokémon came close, but not too close. Cara was sagging in her grip, and she glared at them, hoping to snap them out of that star-eyed reverence they were hitting her with. "Scizor need water now."

"I'll go get some!" Smoochum effectively shrieked and began to run off.

"Hang on!" Keira snapped, and she froze so fast she fell over. "Make some ice, you." She looked at magby. "Thaw it."

Shivering, Smoochum complied, and Magby succeeded in not setting the floor on fire. Smoochum made a cup of ice as well, and they were able to get them some water.

Keira held it to Cara's mouth while they began making more water, crushing the ice for him to suck on after he had swallowed the water. They continued until more pokémon came barrelling towards them, including, thankfully, an audino.

The next few minutes passed in a blur to Keira. She held onto Cara until a chansey also arrived with a Xatu and had Xatu levitate Cara into a medical room for Audino and Chansey to help him.

She couldn't loiter around to watch, and through insistence and pleading looks, she was drawn out and into some big room with a lot of chairs, tables, even cubicles that drowsy Psychic-types were occupying.

She found some water herself, and by the time the world stopped spinning, Keira found herself with a few pokémon staring at her with a mixture of awe, relief, and hope.

Xatu, Archeops, and Gengar.

Her eyes flicked up to the footprint rune-scribed signs lovingly built into the building.

Pokémon Exploration Team Federation

HAPPI.

"So, this is what Cara did after Darkrai sniped me," Keira mused. She had witnessed the shattering of The Dream, being one of the few pokémon aware enough even to notice. How reality itself splintered like a panel of ice before the cracks were lit aflame and reality burned to ashes. It took less time than it took for a neuron to fire, but at the moment, she had seen it.

"They did it, heh. Little kitties are heroes two times over."

"So." Keira looked over the three. "Tell me what's going on."

While the pokémon from before had needed the patented Legendary Glare to behave, these three could at least rein it in to act professional.

It was Xatu who spoke. "Ah, Legendary Lucario. Some time ago, current approximations are sixteen days, Scizor reported you had been trapped in an unwakeable nightmare. He sought sanctuary with us, the Pokémon Exploration Team Federation and we, of course, obliged. However, over the weeks, more pokémon began falling unconscious, unable to be roused through any means."

Archeops cut in there, continuing as Xatu paused. "Such things are happening all over the continent! And worse, ferals are leaving dungeons and attacking!"

"Our resources are stretched thin," Gengar added. "But now that you've awoken, Scizor too, and everyone else, we should be able to get on top of this!"

Keira glanced over all three. "The Dreamworld I was trapped in has been destroyed. Hopefully, that means Darkrai has been stopped as well. Every pokémon across the world who he trapped should have awoken with me."

She stepped forwards, walking past the three. "Ferals though? That's a problem. Scizor was weakened by the long sleep, I can only imagine what other towns must be dealing with. No time to waste, let's start helping."

Sharing nods, the three joined her as Keira stepped into the Psychic Network.

Not literally, but the heart of the network was here. Close to the centre of the continent, the Pokémon Exploration Team Federation had the largest number of Psychic-types attuned into the network. There was never less than five. Everywhere else was offshoots, but they were the core that ensured it never was out of reach.

And the poor pokémon were being run ragged. Many had only just woken up themselves, weak from hunger and thirst from the few pokémon who had to feed and water the many, but they were professionals, and the network was lighting up.

In a whole new panic, pokémon who were asleep were waking up and calling for help as hunger, confusion, thirst, and ferals ravaged the towns.

Keira was not a Psychic-type. She could not access the network herself. Still, she could do her part, and her flaring aura was one of the original inspirations for the network.

She sat with Abra and Claydol and Elgyem and Espeon and others. Hearing the plights that Harrow Town, Nether Village, Overlook Pass, Siyaca, and Moreloom were all facing, providing advice, support, and on two occasions, her physical presence.

"H-Hang on, please, you must speak slower; I can't. Yes. Yes. Yes, I understand. How many? Get to a safe place; don't put yourself-how many? Okay, OKAY!"

Keira had noticed the mounting panic of Kirlia, down in a corner and walked up to her. Keira had been moving and aiding for hours, but she felt fine. Better, even. She'd never slept that long in her life, especially not in the last eight decades. She could go all night, she decided, and more.

"What's the situation?" she asked, coming to Kirlia. Kirlia's look of stress turned to one of terror briefly when she realised who was asking her.

"W-Woobat from S-S-Sev, ah. Yes, yes. It's okay. I have Lucario - yes The Legendary Lucario here - she's asked me what the situation is. Can you, yes, yes, THAT Lucario."

Keira waited for Kirlia to collect herself a little, she could almost feel the feedback Kirlia had received upon telling Woobat that she was here.

"O-Oh gosh. Woobat of Sevella says that everyone in town is only just waking up, and ferals were attacking while they were asleep. It's… oh gosh. AH!"

Kirlia flinched back as something painful came across the network. "AH!"

Keira grabbed her shoulder and steadied her as Kirlia shuddered into a dreadful trembling, she wasn't quite crying, but she was close. She'd been working non-stop for weeks, never having fallen asleep like the others.

"Sevella?" Keira asked. Kirlia managed a nod. "Tell Woobat I am coming."

Keira broke off into a run, tracking down one of the teleporters that were also being run ragged to get her to Sevella.

A feral horde had descended on the farming village of Sevella like a plague of locusts. The town, a blotch of colour among rocky crags, had weathered the assault as well as it could with everyone asleep. In their homes, thankfully.

Fires were burning, and homes were crumbling as pokémon screamed for help. The ferals had rampaged like a natural disaster, recounting ancient fears.

There had been a time where ferals left dungeons much more readily. Where attacks like this weren't a once-in-a-lifetime event.

The world had largely forgotten that, but Keira hadn't.

There was a reason ferals stopped leaving dungeons, after all.

With Bone and Dark and Dragon and Steel, Keira was a whirlwind of destruction. They were no Palkia, and numbers meant nothing to her if they were senseless and disorganised.

She stopped a home from collapsing on top of a family, holding the roof up with shining bones and creating a path for a family to flee. She met tooth and claw with metal and fury and sent monsters back the way they had come.

She hit one feral dragonite so hard it blinked, clutched its head, and she moved on, seeing a storm of reason returning to its mind. The rest, she'd bear the burden of what had to be done.

Night, as it had already been night when she arrived, turned to day as shaymin arrived, and Keira nodded to them. They had been in contact with the federation while she was away, forging that bond anew to supply help to the continent. She respected the shaymin. They did what most legends did not.

With pokémon on hand to help, she stepped out and was teleported back to headquarters, returned to helping and not resting.

Kirlia, too, wasn't sleeping. Once again, she encountered a situation so dire that Keira herself stepped out to resolve it before any more lives could be lost.

She wasn't sure then how long they'd been stamping out fires and fixing problems. Kirlia couldn't keep her head up, and Keira realised that she'd been with the little pokémon for a couple days.

"Don't you need to sleep?" Keira asked. Things had grown quieter; pokémon in the Psychic Network had traded out to others, taking the chance to sleep. Kirlia had no.

"N-N-No?" Kirlia yawned. Keira was fairly sure the stuttering was exhaustion rather than nerves by this point.

"Go to sleep. Turns out you need it. Especially a Psychic like you." Keira stood. "Come on." She picked Kirlia up by her shoulders, and the Fairy squeaked as she was held in The Legendary Lucario's grip.

Not in the mood for a debate, she carried Kirlia to a room.

"L-L-Lucario?" Kirlia managed after Keira dumped her on a bed. "Don't you need to sleep too?"

"Not the worst attempt I've heard of getting me into bed with someone," Keira said dryly, and Kirlia nearly fainted from embarrassment. "Go to sleep, Kirlia."

"W-Will you stay, just for a little while?" Kirlia asked. Keira paused at the door and glanced back, meeting her eyes.

There was nervousness, fear of asking, and that same old tension that had been in her eyes since the start. Kirlia had seen nearly everyone here fall asleep and not wake up. Keira wondered how long she'd actually stayed awake.

Nodding, she leaned against the wall and waited for Kirlia to make herself comfortable on the tiny little bed until her breathing evened out and her body relaxed.

She almost looked like she'd melt into the bed, her body relaxing a great deal of stress away that she'd been carrying.

Keira did wait around a little longer, casting curious looks at Kirlia before shaking her head and walking out. Her aura tassels were beginning to rise and tingle.

She had a feeling she knew what that meant.

Hurrying, Keira found a private closet before the surge peaked, and she felt a wave of aura burst out of her body. For a few moments, she could see everything and everyone within fifty kilometres.

Shutting her eyes did not shut it out.

Keira seized against the wall as she was overburdened with dozens of pokémon's fear and stress at once.

She felt like she could cry, that she could die, that she wanted to run away, that she had to help, that she couldn't help, that she missed Bloom, that Crystal was cute, she should talk to Gengar, she was scared someone would be hurt, she wanted to sleep, she dreamed of flying, she dreamed of crying. She saw and felt so much, too much, all at once.

Even worse was the ferals. The dungeons nearby, with ferals that hadn't left. She sensed their crawling madness, what little remained of them, of hunger, violence, sex, fear, desperation. Desperation. Desperation, HELP!

The door to the closet broke as she knocked it off its hinges, running full stop. Pokémon had to get out of her way lest she ran straight through them. Keira burst through the doors to the Federation and bolted for the dungeon she had sensed that from.

Her legs felt like they could split apart at any moment, they probably could, but she was used to that.

The aura flares were weakening, growing shorter. She entered the dungeon; she began to lose them. She hung on as long as she could, but she couldn't affect her aura at all. Once it surged, she couldn't control it, and she couldn't hold onto it either.

Relying on the sense of hearing, sight, smell, she flew through the dungeon. She crushed ferals in her path and brokered her way to where a chimchar, a treecko, and a ralts were huddling together.

They witnessed her arrival in awe. Like an angel from heaven, striking an ariados down before it could finish them off.

"What injuries do you have?" Keira heard herself asking, and she saw herself tending to the worst wound on the chimchar. She led them out of the dungeon and took them to the Federation for better medical attention.

Afterwards, she walked to the room she had woken up in and fainted.

The worst of Darkrai's chaos had been thwarted, and when Keira woke up next, things were a little less chaotic.

"You really need to stop doing this to yourself," Cara chastised, sitting with Keira at her bed. Apparently, she had been moved from her room to the medical area after they found her slumped over her bed and mostly unresponsive.

She'd been fine, just a little bit of exhaustion. She slept like the dead, the undead that is.

"I really need a snack." Keira grinned back. "I'm fine, honestly," she added, laughing at his disbelieving look. "I could almost thank Darkrai. Haven't slept that long… ever. Needed a good nap. You know, if it wasn't for all the chaos and mayhem going on. How are you?"

"I am the one who's fine," Cara replied. "You had quite the overreaction to my state."

"Your shell was peeling!"

"Out of stress, not dehydration. I admit I did get a little sick due to worrying over you. Stress isn't good yada-yada."

She shook her head fondly at him and got out of bed. Cara gave her a dubious look, but Keira didn't waver or stumble as she walked. A little extra rest had done her good.

"Um, Miss Legendary Lucario?" Audino said, noticing his patient was out and about.

"I'm off," Keira said, not slowing down. "Feel fine—no unusual pain. No dizziness. I saw a zubat, a houndoom, and myself in the blotches. I'm off."

Looking reasonably alarmed at what she said, Audino looked to Carapace for help, but the student of The Legendary Lucario shrugged and followed after her.

"Um, please don't strain yourself at least," Audino called after them.

With the pokémon less disorientated from The Dream but still cycling in and out, there were fewer pokémon running around the white halls then there were the last few times she'd walked around.

"Do you know your way around here?" Keira asked. "Because I have no fucking idea. I was running on auto before."

Rolling his eyes, Cara stepped ahead of her and led her to the War Room or whatever they called it.

Keira peered suspiciously at the sign.

Auditorium

She decided that 'War Room' sounded better.

"Yo, Xatu!" Keira said as they entered. Xatu was not there, and so she looked foolish as literally every eye in the room besides Cara turned to her.

"…Gengar then," Keira settled, spotting the other vaguely remembered pokémon from the other day. "This room should be renamed the War Room."

Gengar immediately nodded. "Hee-hee, I agree. You're wise, great Lucario.

Too many eyes were on her. Over a dozen pokémon connected to the Psychic Network, an ocean of thought and communication, yet all of them had slipped out to look at her.

"Gengar, let us talk. Scizor… find someone to help."

Cara walked off to the teleporters, running ragged, as Keira went further into the room. The eyes followed her; no pokémon was making a peep, but eventually slipped back into the network. She noted one pokémon, a kirlia, lingering on her longer than the others and a vague memory about that one floated up.

"The Psychic Network is nearly at full capacity again," Gengar explained as Keira convened with her. "From Treasure Town to The Cliff to Sandy Valley and Seabrook. Pokémon are back."

"The continent has woken up then?" Gengar nodded. "Fucking fantastic. We'll need to get someone to Treasure Town to find out exactly what went down."

"Already being taken care of." Gengar nodded, pleased to be ahead of the game. "Staraptor has flown out. We didn't want to reduce our network capacity at all. After ensuring they did not need help first, of course."

"Very good. Alright, what about these feral hordes? How is the situation there?"

Gengar's smile dimmed a little. "Not ideal, of course," she explained. "So many leaving dungeons at once is unheard of! It's too early to be sure, but there has been some discussion across the network that after pokémon awoke, the ferals' cohesion seemed to break. If Darkrai was controlling them, that control must have broken as soon as this mass dream did."

"Still dangerous, though."

Gengar nodded. "Through the Shaymin, yourself, and what pokémon we have been able to send out, the danger to life and livelihood has been reduced with several towns liberated. Some towns have not yet connected to the Network… we are sending out those we can, but Abra and Kadabra are getting utterly exhausted. We've asked for teleporters to come here, but none have arrived."

"Tell those who can spare it that I was the one to ask," Keira said. Gengar nodded eagerly. "Alright." She glanced back to the Network pokémon. "I'm going back out."

Gengar's smile twitched again. "You aren't going to stay here?" she asked, a little strained.

Keira glanced back at her, eyes narrowing slightly. "You seem to have a good handle on things. I can do much more in the field than by telling pokémon to do what they're already doing."

Gengar nodded, and Keira stepped out. She didn't get far before Kirlia called her. "L-Lucario!?" she cried, and Keira swept to her side without thinking.

"What is it?" Keira asked, kneeling with the pokémon. She briefly touched her shoulder but almost flinched back, letting go quickly from the sensation she felt.

"I just wanted to thank you," Kirlia said. Keira nodded as if she understood. She had a vague few memories of rushing about with a kirlia close. She assumed this was the same. It might just be a general 'Thanks for being the best pokémon ever', and that wouldn't be the first time.

"Thank you for staying with me until I was asleep," Kirlia continued to the jealousy of her peers. "That meant a lot."

"Don't mention it," Keira said. "Seriously. Don't."

"O-Of course, and. AH!" Kirlia flinched, raising a hand to her temple and looking like she was listening. "Oh dear, yes, yes, I hear you. Oh, thank Luca- ah? Oh. Oh! Yes, I can help. I have Lucario with me. She can help you!"

Kirlia looked up to her, eyes shining. "Slowking of Clear Lake. They've contacted us! But they are in danger, a large group of ferals is attacking, the townsfolk are safe at the moment in the trees, but the ferals have damaged a lot of the lower town."

Keira nodded. "Clear Lake. Got it. Are there injuries?"

Kirlia asked and got a quick answer. "Yes, quite a few. Please, he's, yes, she-yes. Yes, she's coming."

Keira stood up and raced off but froze at the door. "Damn. KIRLIA! Show me where the teleporters are." Kirlia immediately got up and raced after her.

Seconds later, Keira wondered why she hadn't asked Gengar to show her, but it was too late now. Kirlia led her through a few corridors before sweeping a door open with a telekinetic push and gestured. "In there!"

An exhausted Kadabra looked up as she entered. He was so tired that the usual relief and reverence didn't even touch his eyes.

"Can you take me to Clear Lake?" Keira asked. Kadabra took more than a few seconds to answer.

"I'll need a boost," he said. Kirlia, who was loitering and looking in, immediately jumped to aid again.

"I can help!" she cried, racing in. Keira was satisfied, that was why she brought her. She was a genius, as always. Kadabra nodded and took her hands, and squinted his eyes.

"I can't close them," he said. "Or else I'll fall asleep."

Frowning, Keira entered the ring made by their linked hands and waited. She could almost feel the headache Kadabra was experiencing or was that just her own eternal headache?

It took minutes of sitting, and her legs were aching before Power flared, and the three of them disappeared.

Clear Lake was nestled near the base of a mountain and had enormous trees dotting the landscape where pokémon had made a village. The lake itself was as clear as it was said to be, the trees growing large over centuries.

Keira was pretty sure she remembered coming here when the trees were not nearly so large. The town had been built initially on the ground, and remnants of that remained. Shops and other buildings, things like that still remained on the ground. The homes and community had moved above ground into the titanic trees.

There wasn't much left of the trading part of town, various ferals having rampaged through it. She drew her Aura Blade and took to battle. Even Kadabra found a spark of eagerness in watching as The Legendary Lucario fulfilled ancient oaths.

A rally cheer began rising from above as Keira tore into the ferals. A foot kicked a canine pokémon into a tree. A blow from the blade struck a dustox out of the sky. Waves of Dark Energy blasted pokémon off their feet and sent them cowering. She sent a slugma into the lake, avoiding burning herself by launching it with a bone instead.

Realising a bigger predator had arrived, the ferals broke and fled. Keira struck a few that were close by down, and the others ran for the dungeons. Or anywhere that wasn't here.

The cheers grew louder, and a few pokémon carefully came down. One of which was an elder slowking.

"I never thought I'd see you again," he said, through wizened lips. Keira blinked as he bowed, the old, cracking crown nearly touching the ground.

"There is no need to bow, Slowking." Again? She'd been here before, but she barely remembered it. "There was never."

Chuckling, he rose with some assistance from a servine. "That's what you said last time, besides me being a slowpoke. Ah, I remember it so well. Thank you, Lucario. You promised to come if we called, and you have. Thank you, thank you."

Pokémon began repeating his thanks, crying out in joy. Kirlia was beaming, and Kadabra was taking a nap, and Keira felt incredibly exposed. Something about the deep lines in the slowking's face, the stiffness of his movements, the extreme age. Yet she stood, back as unbowed as ever, only a slight greying to her fur and the pain in her legs any sign of her age.

She didn't let discomfort show, waving off thanks and having the injured brought to her. She wasn't a healer like a chansey or audino, but she could impart a Heal Pulse at the very least. It would tide a few over until their healer was able to assist them.

No one was seriously injured, which Keira was grateful for. She was not as grateful for the relentless adoration. She barely remembered the place, Slowking saying she had promised to return if they needed help… well, that did sound familiar in the foggiest of senses.

An old ache made itself known in her body. Not in her legs, or her back, or her neck. It was something in her chest. How many times had she made that oath?

Thousands of times.

Smiling and waving their gratitude off, which was enough to make a shaymin blush at this point, Keira returned to Kadabra, and they left for the Federation.

Kirlia stuck close even as they returned to the War Room. Keira noted with some amusement that the name had already been changed with a roughly-cut plank of wood with the new name.

Keira didn't mind the clingy pokémon and sat with her as she continued delving into the network to help. Kirlia didn't take as many breaks as the others; Keira had to prompt her too. She wasn't sure if she was simply so devoted to helping, or she wanted to impress The Legendary Lucario.

Kirlia looked earnest, so she hoped it was the former.

A major break came when the Clefable and Lilligant Guild's got into contact within minutes of each other. Blackstone Village had fought off an actual army of feral pokémon and hadn't had the time or ability to call out for help until Mayor Indeedee found enough of a reprieve. Apparently the battle was quite impressive with Indeedee and Clefable halting sixteen steelix that had rampaged towards the town together.

While Lilligant's Rescue Guild had simply been too far away to immediately reach, Gengar had been right that connections have been remade across the continent, and Gothitelle was communicating with them.

With the additional monpower there and Cara's return from his own salvation work, Keira decided it was time to leave.

Three days she had stuck with the Federation after a continent-spanning emergency.

"What?" Cara asked, dumbstruck after Keira told him her plans. "What?" he repeated, blinking in blunt shock.

"I'm going," Keira repeated. "Things are steady here, so I'm going."

"Steady? Hang on." Cara raised a pincer to halt her words. "Steady. They only just, only JUST have had a reprieve. Who knows what else could go wrong?"

"They'll be able to handle it."

"That's not the point," Cara argued. "You're here, and you can do a LOT for them! More than anyone else could. Why are you leaving? The biggest network is here, teleporters too? There's no lack of pokémon to find to help. Who do you think you're going to find when rushing off blind?"

"I'm going to Treasure Town," Keira said.

"You're not patient enough to wait for Staraptor?"

"That's not why I'm going," Keira answered. "Although, I do want to hear what went down personally. I'm going. They don't need me."

"I just… don't understand," Cara said, staring at her in genuine confusion. "Lucario, there is so much you can still do here. Maybe you aren't NEEDED, but your aid would still be invaluable."

"They need to be able to do it without me," she replied easily. It was a conversation they had had before. "Already too many pokémon are looking to me to guide them. I'm here to steady the boat, not steer it. It's time for me to move on."

Cara shook his head in bafflement, still not understanding. "You… you would never have left this quickly when I knew you before," he said, voice taking on an accusatory tone. "You've changed."

Keira raised an eyebrow and almost laughed. Almost. "I knew you over forty years ago, Cara," she pointed out. "You've been gone far longer than I had known you. People change, Cara. And forty years is a long time to change someone."

"I just… I don't believe that this is the right thing to do," he said softly. He withdrew his pincers, almost huddling them to himself and staring at her with just… she couldn't name the expression. It'd be too painful to even try. "The Lucario I knew would do everything she had to help, to save, to protect, to guide. You were always… 'sarcastic' about things, but you were earnest. What happened to you to change you like this?"

He sounded heartbroken like she had suffered some terrible loss. His eyes flickered as he came to his own conclusion. She had lost him.

"Cara," Keira said, voice hardening as she saw him coming to silent conclusions. "The world was different back then. Things were rougher; times were tougher. Ferals attacked more often; there were more Shadow Pokémon. Towns weren't as connected, the Psychic Network was small, places were still so much more isolated, dungeons seemed so much more dangerous."

She sighed. "The world needed a bigger safety net, someone to push them in the right direction a little more. I was less of a crutch then. But things HAVE changed, for the better even. I'm not needed, and I'm not helping by sticking around. I'll take this place backwards; already, pokémon are looking to me before one of their actual leaders."

He still looked troubled, but something was beginning to come to an understanding.

She sighed again, needing to add something. "I'm bonding with Kirlia," she admitted. "That bond," she added when Cara's expression was most amusingly dubious.

It took a moment, but realisation dawned, and his mouth fell open. He was a bug with a carapace, his colour didn't express his emotions like some other pokemon but she knew his body language more than well enough. To see how pieces connected and the worst of old pains dredged up like a foot to an old, unhealed, wound. "Ah."

Her eyes softened. The loss was over forty years ago to her… but he'd vanished and been frozen not a couple of weeks after it happened, to him the worst moment of his life was barely a few months ago.

"Right." She nodded. "I won't harm Kirlia like that, not with that. That's not the main reason I'm leaving, but it is a reason."

He looked for a moment like he'd like to ask if that'd really be so bad, but then the pain hit him again and he didn't say it. She was glad he didn't say it. Time did not heal all wounds, you just learned to live with the scars.

"I'm still having trouble getting to know the new you," Cara said after another moment. "I know you still have your heart, but it's just… we travelled together, helping everyone until they were helped."

"It's not like it's the first time I've changed," Keira replied. "I was different before you…" The word lingered, like she was going to say another. "Made me a little bit nicer. I'm old, Cara. Old as fuck."

"And… what were you like before?"

"Before… heh." She smiled, closing her eyes. "Well, I used to be an angry little shit. Everything was terrible; life was pain, usual cub angst. I hated everything. But after bonding with the stupidest kid on the playground, it changed a bit."

Her eyes were still closed, there were still lines around her eyes, but in an instant, she looked decades younger. "I was still angry, but he tempered me a bit. I didn't really know the full extent of why until later, the fucking aura bond fucked him. But at least I started putting that anger towards more useful things."

"I had suffered." Her eyes opened again, and the age returned. The centuries of living. "I can joke about it because it's easier, but my early life was really fucked up. I had no control; I couldn't protect those who mattered. I couldn't even protect myself. So, I decided I would. I would protect Felix. I would protect our teammates. I would protect everyone. Haah." She shook her head at her own youthful foolishness.

"The first life lesson I knew was that bad things happened. The next one was that you can't protect everyone. No matter how strong you are. I thought I'd get strong, be the strongest, but… there was always someone stronger."

Her lips pursed. "Always someone that could hurt you. And we also got teammates who had already been hurt. I couldn't protect myself from my past pain, and I certainly couldn't change their pasts either. Friends and family were being hurt before I knew them; I couldn't protect them from that. I couldn't protect anyone. No matter how strong you are, you can't be everywhere."

She leaned back against the wall, crossing her arms and staring off into space. "And, in the end, I couldn't even do the bare minimum and NOT hurt them." Keira smiled then, and all Cara wanted to do was hug her. Tears had hit her eyes.

She said it so simply, so bluntly, that there was no room for arguments or cries against it. It was a simple fact, spoken into stone by The Legendary Lucario.

No one loathed you for your mistakes more than yourself.

She pushed off from the wall. "Then I came here. Arceus gave me another chance, and I never seem to learn from my mistakes. I had a chance for a new start, to really do some good, and I just did the same thing."

She shrugged. "I'd save a village from a flood, or a feral, or a Shadow, or SOMETHING. I'd stay, I'd teach them to be strong, to work together, to explore and thrive." She formed a Bone Rush and swung it against nothing. "But I didn't. I didn't teach them that. They already had those skills. All I did was feed my ego and build a culture of dependence. On me."

Cara desperately wanted to say something but talking to Keira on a rant was like jumping into a moving river.

"They depended on me," she continued, getting heated again, "but others needed help, so I'd leave. But I couldn't leave them with nothing, so I gave them permission, the ability, to contact me when they needed help. It might take a month, a year, 59 years. Who the fuck knows? Slowking did. But eventually, I'd get called back. I'd return. I'd save them again, teach them again, teach them to rely on me, depend on me, again."

"And I'd leave," she growled. "I'd find someone new to save, and the cycle would start again. Eventually, I found myself inundated with cries for help, I'd be racing over the land to come in as a saviour, but it got harder and harder."

"I was getting exhausted, sick, worn down. I'm not omnipotent; I doubt anything is. I killed Palkia; I saw Arceus be brought to Its knees." Cara raised his eyes in surprise. He'd never heard of THAT. "If even they aren't, then nothing can be. Pokémon and towns and villages would all be crying out for help, and I began to realise that I'd done it again. It took a lot longer to realise it this time, decades rather than months, but I did. I stopped answering, but then they'd panic. They wondered why I left them and began to fall apart, so I'd return."

And then the sadness returned. She slumped against the wall and slowly began to slide until she was on her tail. "It got worse. Civilisation and communication meant disputes. Disputes that they'd drag me into. I'd saved two towns; they came to loathe each other. Wanting to wipe each other out. They both asked for my favour, for my blessing, for my assistance. What was I to do?"

She looked at him then, like he could tell her what she should have done. "One village was far more powerful than the other, if I did nothing, then the other village would be destroyed, but if I intervened, then I was choosing sides. Proving one side 'right'. I was paralysed, and pokémon died because of me."

Cara hated the look. As it only reminded him of what she ranted and swore and 'joked' about. That everyone saw her as a leader. When did Keira get to turn to someone and ask to be told what to do? What should be done? When did she not have the weight of lives resting entirely on her?

"So, I began to pull back. I couldn't do it so suddenly; the world had become distressingly dependent. I was vaulted, worshipped even. That's terrifying." She met his eyes. "Fucking terrifying."

"I pulled back. Slowly. I came less, I did less, I acted up, I behaved strangely. I'd vanish for years at a time, answering nothing, showing up randomly. I'd still do what I could. I'd hunt Shadow Pokémon, rescue pokémon from dungeons. I wouldn't tell those who I was, but a lot of them figured it out anyway. I mean, look at me." She gestured down at her greying fur. "It's obvious who I am."

"I was in the middle of this when you found me," Keira explained. "You dogged me. Tracked me. Convinced me. You just didn't realise it since I'd still help if someone directly asked me. That's what my method changed to. Specific requests, personal ones."

She laughed at herself, almost fond at herself. "I still couldn't bring myself to refuse those, assuming they were as benign as I was comfortable with. I hate to admit it, but I like being needed. I like being liked. I like being respected. I like being able to protect since I was never truly able to do it before. But even now, I can't. Do you get that?"

Cara didn't even know what to say as she stared up at him. Eventually, he made a vague, shrugging gesture. "Too much protection, and they grow too reliant," Keira explained. "They stagnate. They turn to me for all answers and then cry foul when I tell them to do it themselves."

"It's better these days," she sighed, looking down at the wall. "I'm almost a myth to most pokémon now, a spectacle rather than a crutch. Things are going well. I can step back. I can help where I can help, and I can also step back when things are on track. They don't need me here."

She smirked, that Keira cockiness returning. "They want me, for sure. I know I can continue helping. But… then what? They will always be something I can do here to help. My name, my word, my experience can all do so much. But they must be able to do it on their own. And they can. I don't want to cause them to take a step back, to look to me for everything when they are more than capable of doing it on their own."

Cara nodded. "Alright. I understand. You're going now, then?"

Keira nodded, rant melting away to quiet exhaustion. "You can stay if you want, but I'm going." She said it with something heavier, and he edged away from the door.

"Very well." He nodded, shouldering the mental weight she'd tossed on him. "Lead the way, teacher."

Keira snorted at him. "For the millionth time, call me Keira, you fucking smartass."

Cara almost smirked at her; he knew she hated to be called teacher in the way she hated her ego being challenged. That she actually loved it, but only because she could argue with someone for it.

They left without telling anyone. It wasn't Keira's way to announce her departure. Carapace felt bad about leaving them high and dry, but he knew Keira would return if they did need help. It was her way. She said she'd teach them to sink or swim, but she was always ready to dive down and save someone from drowning.

To Treasure Town, they travelled.

They took the long road travelled.

Cara wasn't stupid. He knew Keira better than anyone else did. For all her words, as much as she meant them, she still valued helping. They could have taken a teleporter with ease as if anyone in the Federation would refuse her.

They walked. And so, they ran through towns that were recovering and gave them a bolster. They explored through dungeons where pokémon had taken to hiding, or simply getting lost in, and saved them.

They didn't stop, not for very long at least—something Cara did notice as different. Keira's path was unhalting, she knew the roads well, and they ran through as many towns as they could while still getting closer.

Took nearly two months for them to arrive in Treasure Town. Thanks to dungeon speed bypassing some land.

"Damn," Keira whistled as she stepped in. "I hadn't seen the place after Palkia."

"You had been put straight into a nightmare world."

"And then, what, a feral horde attacked this place?"

"Right."

She had been there when the guild had been destroyed, heard it crumble as a pokémon died to save his son. The body of Palkia had been removed from the clearing she, Armaldo, and Wigglytuff had slain it in. A simple grave had been made for the legend.

Palkia's tossing of the sea onto town had damaged the buildings, and then a feral horde had descended on the place. Even two and a half months after the chaos had unleashed itself on this place, the town was still recovering.

The shops had been rebuilt. Some made out of the ruins of their old buildings and held a rustic charm. Others had been built anew and held a shinier, sleeker expression for the town.

The dojo had survived both assaults on the town well, which Keira was pleased to see. She had plans for that.

As had become a common sight in Treasure Town, pokémon were running back and forth, moving supplies and resources to continue building and cleaning. Part of the ground had been wrecked entirely and had been cleared, creating a small cove that a Lapras Port was being built into.

Capim Town was the main port of this side of the continent, but there was no reason Treasure Town couldn't have one too.

Lapras would be happier, at least. He had been given the freedom to design the port in thanks for his help in saving the world twice. The concept was strange but nice for a pokémon who hadn't ever really had riches or possessions.

It had been nice spending time and helping pokémon with Carapace again. She wished she could have spent more time with him rather than losing him for forty plus years.

She debated telling him that.

For now, however, she had business and pleasure to get done. In whatever order she wanted.

Stepping into Treasure Town, all eyes turned to Lucario and Scizor.

"Treasure Towner's," Keira boomed. "Bring me Team Ion."

To a mixture of disappointment and relief, they didn't rush to obey her. Most pokémon glanced around, returned to their work, but a few did break off to find Team Ion.

She still received a lot of pokémon coming up to her and thanking her for what she had done. Perhaps being dropped into The Dream as well broke some of the awe of Lucario.

Or maybe killing Palkia left them feeling weird? Who knew? Plenty of pokemon did after she rid them of a local Shadow swiftly and mercilessly.

It didn't take long, though. Team Ion wasn't far, and Keira formed two Bone Rush as they approached, the meowth between his two boyfriends.

"Team Ion," she began as the whole town stopped at the sight of a move being used in town. Her voice was low but carried, almost a growl. "I came here to battle you once, and a god died instead. But. You're not getting out of this."

She grinned and slammed the bones together, forming her Aura Blade. She twirled it once before pointing it at them. "En Garde, Team Ion."

"I-Here-Now-Hello?" Scout spluttered as Rai and Mane looked at each other in trepidation.

"Dojo, actually." Keira gestured with a thumb. She spotted Marowak staring with his mouth open. "That okay with you?"

"The Legendary Lucario desires to use my dojo?" Marowak whispered before he nodded so fast she was worried his skull would fly off. "Of course. Of course. I shall ensure it's ready for you!" He sprinted off with speed never before seen in a marowak, crashing through a couple of other pokemon and falling to the ground.

Keira and Cara stared at the twitching Marowak. "Ookaay. Scizor, make sure he doesn't swallow his tongue or something." As Cara went off to help, she turned back to Team Ion, sharing whispers. "I'll give you… mmmmmm, I'll be nice. You get ten minutes."

And with that, she walked off, tail wagging at the idea of fighting someone again. She had clashed with Cara a few times as he had recovered from his deep freeze, but that was just light training.

She was hungry for an actual battle. Marowak ran around his dojo with a broom and had pulled a vigoroth into helping as well, but they really only kicked up more dust.

It didn't take long, but Team Ion took that ten minutes on the dot to make her wait. She had counted. The door to the dojo opened, and three adorable kitties entered. Scout had retrieved their Treasure Bag, Rai had rubbed his fur on them both to generate some static electricity, and Mane was breathing out sparks as his inner fire flared.

"Luno is going to be so jealous," Sol said in a mixture of excitment and glee that at least someone got to fight The Legendary Lucario. Team Ion didn't seem to share in his vibrating anticipation.

There was no need for talk. They knew she'd come back for them eventually. Keira formed her staff again and readied it.

"Ready?" Keira asked, pointing her Bone Rush.

Scout swallowed, Rai crackled once, Mane stretched and his mohawk sputtered with fire.

Team Ion nodded. She smirked and gestured. "Come."

Rai and Mane immediately jumped off, speeding with glinting light to cross the battlefield. Keira stomped her feet, and a wave of darkness blasted along the ground in every direction.

Rai and Mane, going too quickly, were flipped over and tumbled along the ground. Scout saw the wave coming and jumped, pricking a paw and tossing a Shadow Ball.

Keira shifted her head slightly and avoided it right as Rai and Mane reached her, rolling like tumbleweeds. She formed a new Bone Rush, lengthening it rapidly to slam the ends into them, sending them flying.

Eyeing Scout, she bent her leg and then pushed off. The footsteps thundered as Keira rapidly approached, raising the Bone Rush to slam down. Scout's claws on both paws lengthened into sabres, and he crossed them right as she swung.

His Night Slash formed out of a memory of frustration, shattered on impact but jarred her swing just enough for him to flinch backwards and out of the way. The bone hit the ground and then bounced as Keira swung it back up. This time he couldn't avoid it, and the end of the staff cracked against his jaw.

Scout yelled in pain as he was launched into the air, head snapping back from the brutal strike. Keira faded the bone and began forming a vortex of burning purple energy before electricity struck her from behind.

She barely twitched as lightning crackled over her body, failing to break the forming pulse in her paws. She spun around and tossed the Dragon Pulse, exploding the Fire Blast coming for her. From within the smoke pounced Rai, leaping through crackling with lightning.

His tail shone white and then silvery, and he did a flip, aiming his steel-hard tail at Keira's steel-hard head. She caught him in both paws and spun again, tossing him at the only-now falling Scout. She continued turning on the ball of her foot as Mane's second Fire Blast came for her and leapt over it.

As she flipped, Mane tried again. A scattering of flames couldn't be stopped as easily, and Keira braced her way through the Ember, the flames almost bouncing off as glints of light met and bounced the fires.

She landed and raced for Mane. He yelped and tried to avoid her, but she was far too quick. Slamming her staff into his chin to knock him up, spinning it to knock him into the air, then juggling him with her spinning staff as she sought a wall to slam him into.

Lightning struck her staff, but it dissipated and she made her choice. The crack caused Marowak to flinch as Mane was launched into a wall.

"Ssstrike! Ooh, that's gonna leave a mark," she whistled as Mane slid down the ball.

"So's this."

She spun again, bone raising to block a Night Slash. She smirked as Scout kicked off from her sturdiness. "Shouldn't talk," she taunted, waggling a finger. "You lost the element of surprise."

Scout huffed at her and tried again. She raised an eyebrow, defending with her bone as he struck again and again and again. One Night Slash, then two, split them into six, then back into two. He was actually a lot faster than she had expected, it took a lot of footwork just to avoid being speared, and his rapid swipes were nicking her legs.

She swung out suddenly, aiming to bash him in the gut, but he limbo'd under it with impressive agility. She twirled the staff around, going for a clothesline bash to his ribs, but he pushed off with an arm and managed to flip over it, striking out with a Night Slash from his foot that hit her right in the chest.

She jumped back, putting some space as Scout got on two feet again and nicked his paw, forming another Shadow Ball. He tossed it as she saw what was going on behind him.

Bone broke the Shadow Ball, then she raised the Ground-type construct and spun it rapidly as a lightning strike's worth of electricity came for her.

The heat was so intense she could see the fur on her paws singing just from deflecting it with Bone Rush. Oh wait, that was actual fire. Mane had gotten up and was nailing her from behind with an Ember attack, panting hard as Scout ran for him.

Their Treasure Bag laid open near Rai, and Keira put the pieces together, mouth twitching into a smile. She'd fought Team Go-Getters, Jessica, and Team Sunrise. Each of them presented a bit of a challenge, but never anything she had been unable to handle.

Each saviour team had lacked something in their fight against her.

Team Go-Getters had the cohesion and power, but none of them were terribly creative with their items. Jessica had chosen to fight her alone, without her Pikachu partner's help. She had the skill and creativity, but gave up any cohesion and once Keira took her seriously it was pretty much over. Team Sunrise had the power and Sean was decently creative along with Saniya's erraticness, but she had noted that they lacked the cohesion a team like them should have in challenging a more powerful opponent.

She wasn't sure what she was going to get from Team Ion. As far as she had heard from the retelling of Shinx, they hadn't fought Dialga. But to be fair, Team Go-Getters hadn't actually fought Rayquaza either, just enough to make him look up. She wasn't sure if this would be a little bit of a disappointment after Team Sunrise and Palkia, but they'd all taken a good few hits from her and were still standing.

Seeing Rai standing in front of Scout and Mane as Mane wolfed down some berries was rather impressive, he was thrumming with golden energy as he tried to overpower her staff with lightning. Even as he did it, she knew that he knew that he couldn't do it, however that wasn't actually the point. It did force her to stop, at least for a few moments as that much lightning wasn't something even she could just brush off.

He couldn't discharge forever, though. She swung out sharply with her staff as she felt the charge begin to weaken and dispelled the last of the electricity. Rai came rushing for her, and she ran for him.

This was not ideal for Rai.

He yelped as he saw her charging him and tried to shift gears and evade. She tagged him with a smack to the ribs and he was sent rolling. With him taken care of for the moment, she turned to the other two. Both were up and splitting apart. Clever kitties, the power she'd need to wipe them out in a single hit came from her Dark Pulse, but they were constantly splitting up and evading, ensuring none of them was an easy target and they couldn't be all wiped out in a single hit.

"You're faster than I expected," she called as Scout went for Rai next. "Quick seed?"

Scout smiled slightly and nodded, giving Rai the other berry.

"Respect." She nodded. They were clever, but so was she.

She moved.

Scout was impressively fast even without a quick seed to amplify him. With it, he was only barely able to see Keira move, but was too slow to do anything about it.

Every step caused a puff of displaced air that began blowing dust from the dirt floor into their eyes as she darted around the place, filling it with dust that left Team Ion coughing.

With sight restricted, she relied on her ears, hearing where they were. They all sounded a little differently, and it took a few steps to knock Mane and Scout back at Rai.

"Now." She closed her eyes and began building some Dark thoughts. "See if you can handle this."

A roiling, writhing, mass of rings squirmed in her hands as the Dark Pulse formed. Keira had many dark thoughts to share.

Team Ion were banged up and knocked over each other as a presence began to build. To Rai, it felt a little like when Guardian had been charging that massive Shadow Ball in the Hidden Land… only breathlessly more terrifying. The noise in the room fell away, the dust itself seemed to shiver and fall until all that was left was the awesome power of The Legendary Lucario. And a glowing Rai who stood between her and the others.

"Stay firm," she called and then unleashed it all upon him.

Light returned in a thunderclap as Rai unleashed a Charged Thunderbolt. Rings exploded in every direction as lightning met the void. Waves of Dark Energy washed out, knocking Mane down, forcing Scout back, but Rai held himself together through it.

Despite how much Power he put into the attack, he could see the battle was being lost. Rings were going everywhere, but there was just more and more and more.

All the power he had couldn't stop it, only slow it. He could see his electricity being forced back and back, but he took a breath, grit his teeth, and counted on all his Charge's from earlier, meaning anything.

Rai's lightning was overwhelmed, and he disappeared in an all-consuming mass of blackness. Scout and Mane yelled out his name, but it was lost over the roaring in their ears.

The dojo's windows all shattered from the force, and holes were in the walls from the deflected rings.

Keira sighed out, the attack ceasing and slumped slightly. The darkness faded, and Rai was revealed.

He was still standing.

His legs were ramrod straight and trembling, he was breathing like he'd just been drowned and revived, and his head and tail were limp.

"Wow. He actually took that," Keira said, genuinely impressed. Rai coughed pitifully and then dropped to the ground. "Respect."

"I'll give you some time," Scout said, tossing the bag to Mane. "Get Rai up."

He came bounding for Keira on all fours, and she stepped back into a fighting stance, forming her staff anew.

"Don't you get bored of that?" Scout asked, leaping up and clashing with the Bone Rush with his Night Slash.

"Force me to switch," Keira retorted and broke her own staff, removing his ability to kick off. He yelped in mid-air, and she grabbed him by the throat and slammed him into the ground before he exploded from the forming Dragon Pulse in that paw.

Scout groaned. "Regret."

Keira snorted and grabbed his tail. "I haven't switched yet, twink."

Scout seized up and swung himself with her grip on his tail, claws coming out and clamping onto her head. His koban flashed, and he met Keira's eyes.

Hypnosis needed some level of eye contact after all.

If eyes were the window to the soul, then hypnosis was a battle between his and hers. He met Keira's willpower with his own and was almost drowned in the vastness of her.

"Gah," Scout yelped, breaking the connection immediately. Saniya had once said that the difficulty in trying to hold Keira down with Psychic was similar to holding time together during the battle of Dialga and Primal Dialga.

Scout didn't really believe that. But just trying a Hypnosis nearly knocked himself out.

Keira smirked as Scout's claws loosened and threw him off her, forming a quick pulse to blast him out of the sky.

Before she could, she was once again struck by a Thunderbolt. This time it hit her eye.

"FUCK!" she bellowed, flinching back from that hit.

Scout had done as he had said and bought some time; Rai was up. He was tilting a little. Even with the reviver seed, he was about to faint, but he had enough to nail Keira that one more time.

Scout landed as Mane came barrelling in, maw burning with flames. Keira was rubbing her eyes, trying to remember how to see as a Fire Blast sent her flying.

"Are we actually winning?" Mane panted as Keira did a few blackflips and landed on her feet.

"I wouldn't count on it," Scout said, head pounding from his attempt to put Keira to sleep. "Okay. Plan. YOU hold her off; I've got an idea." He ran back for the bag as Mane squeaked in disagreement with that idea.

He turned back to Keira. "And she's up," he said and she was looking delighted. That was a bad sign, it meant she was getting excited and he had no business exciting girls. "Great."

"Okay, fire cat," Keira snarled through a carnivores smile. "Let's dance."

Scout ignored the sounds of flesh being pounded and yells of pain as he dove for the bag and pulled out as much as he could, looking for the stuff.

By the time he turned around, Mane was beaten, bruised, and tossed next to Rai.

"Okay, horny cat one and secretly horny cat two are dealt with." She cracked her neck and grinned at Scout. Her fur was charred, wounds on her legs, drops of blood on her chest, but she looked like she could go thirty more rounds.

Scout bit down on another quick seed and palmed two other items, and stepped into combat with Keira. Scout was not known to be smart.

He knew he had no chance to actually beat her. Why Keira wanted to fight them, he wasn't sure. None of THEM were humans, but if she wanted a fight, he'd damn well give her one.

Even with the boost to his speed, he could only just match her. Claws met bones. His sabres shattered, and her staffs splintered. Scout wasn't weak, but he wasn't able to do any lasting damage to her either.

With one of the seeds hidden in his paw, he managed to get in close and hit her in the face with his own 'Force Palm'. The blast seed sent Keira, and himself, careening back, arm jarred like nothing else but her nose was bleeding. He'd drawn blood! His left arm went numb and he feared he'd dislocated it.

That was fine, however.

He formed a Shadow Ball and threw it. It was popped. He formed another and another, barraging Keira with as many as he could. She formed a Dark Pulse and splintered them entirely, Scout just barely dodging the worst of it.

He formed another Shadow Ball, this time with his right paw. The seed within that paw dispersed into the Shadow Ball. The effect would be diluted, but she wouldn't have to eat the seed to be hit with its effects now. He kept it relatively small, more stable, needing to get in close to make sure she took it.

He ran in, almost as fast as Rai and Mane's Quick Attack with his numb left paw forming a Night Slash. She caught it and nearly broke his arm, but he swung around with the other and hit her in the face with the Shadow Ball.

"Pffft, BLAH. What was that?" Keira coughed as she was also hit in the face with some sort of powder. "What did you… ugh." Her eyes flashed, once with understanding and then again with a furious grudging respect. "Fffffuck. That was a sleep seed, wasn't it?"

Her eyes were already blinking dopily, and Keira kicked him back almost half-heartedly. She yawned. "You did your research then," she said, beginning to sag. Her eyes were blinking a lot. One of them was awfully red from getting a jolt of lightning earlier.

"Whatever." She kicked the ground and blasted a fast pulse of darkness in it. Scout was too exhausted to avoid it, he'd gotten some of the splashback from his own Sleep Shadow Ball, and she nailed him with a follow-up Dragon Pulse.

He crashed near Rai and Mane and fell limp. She yawned again, dropped to her knees, and smirked at the carnage around them. Team Ion had the cohesion and the creativity, lacked a bit in raw power though. Now she wanted to know who'd win out of the four teams. "Heh, not bad." And then she hit the ground and began to snore.

The seeds effect wouldn't last for too long, but as things were quiet and townsfolk peered in, it looked like it was a draw.

A cheer went up through the town, and pokémon came in to give aid to the brave fighters.

---

Keira vs Team Ion HAD to happen.

But, like, she took on Palkia in full on combat, while they had to just evade and try and get around Dialga. They were never going to WIN the fight, but winning wasn't the point.

Keira likes to know that the world is in safe hands, or paws, or whatever. It's like she said to Cara.

 

[Team_Ion]

"This is a useful dungeon. Having one so close to town but new and small enough that it's not really any danger to the citizens. Perfect to have secret, clandestine, conversations in. I bet this is where Sunflora gets the goss."

Keira was leading the way, as she always did. Carapace walked with her, stoic as he usually was. Behind them followed a meowth and a riolu.

Keira had wanted to speak with them both. Privately, of course. It wouldn't be hell on their nerves otherwise.

The place of choice? Slippery, slimy, feral-infested Beach Cave.

"You know, I don't actually like this place," Scout commented as he nearly slipped over. He grimaced, his foot having been pressed into something wet and awful. "I swear it's gotten slimier."

"Little slime won't hurt you," Keira said. A drop glooped down from the ceiling, and she sidestepped it. It splayed globlets of green goop on Sean and Scout upon hitting the stony ground.

"Fantastic," Sean said, wiping his face.

"Ah chin up, Scout. You should be floating on air, one of the legendary defeaters of Lucario!" Keira beamed.

"You are far too happy about that mistake," Scout said darkly, wiping something off his ear. "You were asleep. You fell asleep in our battle. That's more insulting than victorious."

"The terms were to unconsciousness," Keira said.

"There were no terms!"

"The unspoken terms."

"You were asleep!"

"Which is unconscious."

"For like five minutes!"

"You were only down for eight."

It was the day after Keira had waltzed into town to beat up three innocent kitties. With the townsfolk finding everyone in the dojo down, it was erroneously believed that Team Ion had managed to defeat The Legendary Lucario or, at least, took her down with them.

If they were anyone else, any time else, no one would have believed it. after saving the world twice, their arguments that she was only asleep due to a sleep seed was deemed to be modesty.

Keira was absolutely loving it.

"Think of it as passing the torch," she had said with a shit-eating grin plastered on her face. "One point I was the undefeated mon of the world that everyone wanted to challenge to prove themselves. Now it'll be you. HahaHAHA."

Team Ion had truly been looking forward to even MORE challenges out of nowhere.

"Truly, I haven't fought an opponent so tenacious since Jigglyrough," Keira sighed. "Ah, that was an awful experience. You guys are much more fun."

"Jiggly…rough?" Sean wagered a word in.

"Don't ask," Carapace said, shaking his head. Keira was looking haunted.

"They call it 'Double' Slap," Keira muttered. "That implies two. Not two hundred."

She shook her head.

"I remember her just taking a nap and launching you off the cliff when you touched her, somehow," Cara added. Keira gave him a very dangerous look for speaking such terrible lies.

Sean shared a look with Scout before changing the subject back. "I mean, hey, you did better than we did!" Sean beamed. "And that was with four members!"

"Yeah, I just punched you in the face over and over." Keira nodded smartly, looking rmoe cheerful already with that cherished memory in her head.

"And kicked me in the ribs."

"That too. All in the name of therapy!"

"I prefer Azumarill's therapy," Sean said dryly.

"Maybe I should give her some tips…?"

"No, I said I prefer hers!"

"On the to-do list then."

"You are a basket case," Cara said. "If you talked to her, you'd end up telling her your entire life story. And that'd be a little much for a town therapist."

"Ah, you're right. Diddly darn."

"Still, how much were you holding back?" Scout asked seriously. "Not that we don't appreciate it; being able to still walk is nice."

Keira snorted. "Tough question, really. Did you stand a chance? Yeah, I'd say so. I didn't go easy on you if that's what you're worried about."

"Seriously?"

Cara rolled his eyes as Keira beamed. "Oh, I wish I could make so many jokes with that word, but this isn't the time."

"She has a sense of tact?" Sean whisper-yelled.

"I heard that."

"With those big ears, I bet you did."

"Someone is cranky," Keira snorted. "Need Cara to take you out back and work that frustration out?"

"I'd be happier being able to eat without having to drink it through a straw."

"Pity," Cara said, admiring his pincers.

"If you want me to tell you that I was going easy on you," Keira said, facing Scout. "I won't. Because I wasn't. I wanted a good fight, so in some regards, I might not have hit you with as much force as I can, but that was because killing my opponents isn't something I'm very much into. It's not like you hit every opponent with your max strength, that'd be exhausting. Pokemon used to do that, you know? When going into dungeons. Man are mons dumb, I shouldn't have had to teach anyone that endurance is a requirement. In more ways than just battle, if you know what I mean?"

Sean and Scout glanced at each other. Chatty Keira was somehow more intimidating than regular Keira.

"It's a lot easier to kill someone than it is to actually defeat them," Keira added, eyeing him before turning back around. "Assuming they don't realise you're going for a killing blow right away, if they do then it's way harder. Hit them too hard on the head, stab them in a bad place, or really just stabbing in general."

Somewhere, an audino sneezed.

"Pokémon, and humans for that matter, are damn durable, but things die when they bleed, and it's a lot easier to do that than you may think."

They continued chatting after that morbid note as they walked the rest of the small dungeon. The path of Beach Cave was a little longer nowadays than it was when Scout first arrived in the world, but not much longer.

Keira ranted on about how old she was a few times.

"I thought you were immortal, though?" Scout asked. "Do you even age?"

Keira snorted. "Yes and no. I'm still physically as old as I was before I died, a solid eleven years old! But even though I don't 'age', certain things that get worn down that don't regenerate no matter what age you are, it still affects me. Like the cartilage in my legs. Metal bones, bitch, imagine those grinding on you as hard as Horny Cat does for a couple centuries and see how well you walk."

And she also ranted about her status.

"Don't worship me. Worship Giratina. Worship a conveniently sized lamp. Worship Dunsparce! I actually met one in Paradise; he charmed the pretty boy Virizion. Be more like Dunsparce, not like me. I'm an asshole."

They had caught Keira up on what exactly had gone down after she was put to sleep. A lot of it she did know but hearing it first hand was useful.

She took the time to get some more specific details than just an overview from last night.

"Yeah, magnagates are fucking awful," Keira said after Sean recounted the experience of going through one. "One of the biggest pieces of evidence for me that dungeons have something to do with Shadow Pokémon."

And Scout told her what Darkrai had told him about the true nature of Shadow Pokémon.

"Darkrai explained a lot of things about Shadow Pokémon," he said to Keira's intrigue. "He said that The Shadow is an actual entity, corrupting pokémon like this. And that it was contained by humanity, that they." He nodded to Sean. "Could absorb and contain it. Over millions and billions of bodies, spreading it so thin that it couldn't do anything."

Keira eyed Sean for a moment but let Scout continue.

"But after AZ, the king of Kalos, fired the Ultimate Weapon in THIS world, it split the world. He killed humanity, and The Shadow got in."

Keira nodded. "I am… aware of some of that," she admitted. "But that's good. I knew humans had something to do with containing it. I just knew it!"

"He also said that legendary pokémon gave up a lot of their power to act as a safeguard in humanity's absence," Scout said. "That's why they're weakened here."

Keira nodded. "Right. After that, dungeons began to appear. I reckon that's why they exist. The Power given up by the legends gave the world some sort of… other way to contain it."

"So, you do think dungeons are shadow stuff?" Sean asked. He and Scout and the others had discussed this before. Darkrai hadn't specifically said that dungeons were caused by The Shadow, but he had all but said it.

'To be contained by the world as bizarre labyrinths of infection', he had said.

"That's why you must work out that stress IN dungeons," Keira said, deciding to say what little she hadn't said those months ago. It felt like so much longer. "These places? They're like… a blister, a wart, a pimple. An infection zone on the planet. I'm pretty sure that they're meant to contain It. So, beating some of that shadow juice out of you, and it actually has a place to go, rather than right back into you."

Cara nodded to this as well. "She has more of a point than you may think," he explained. "You likely have not been forced to face it yourself, hopefully not at least, but Shadow Pokémon possess a fierce regenerative process. This effect flares to restore wounds that would even be lethal as if they didn't happen. Still, we found that this regeneration was slowly taxed if fought within a dungeon itself. More so than trying to tax it outside of one."

"Heh, Shadow's tend to avoid dungeons too." Keira winked. "More reasons to suspect stuff like that. Still, for all my time here, I've figured barely anything out. Even IF it was from Darkrai, it's nice to have some sort of answer."

"Would you be able to purify a Shadow Pokémon that way?"

Keira shook her head. "I hoped so," she admitted. "And I tried. I tried quite a few times. It just… it's too far IN them to be fully removed like that. It's already a part of them by that point. You can tax the regeneration but not actually remove The Shadow in them. I'm not a human, at least, I can't do it."

The small pair nodded, but Sean held a troubled look he was trying to mask.

"Speak, Riolu," Cara said, knowing that Keira would be far less gentle than he would.

"I just… does that mean that I could just… become a Shadow Pokémon?" he asked, a flicker of real fear breaking through his expression. "Just by absorbing this psychotic evil stuff that's just anywhere and everywhere?"

Keira considered him for a moment. "That's hard to say, really," she eventually said. "I have no known event where that happened. I mean, if even Kenji wasn't a Shadow Pokémon, then I doubt you'd become one."

"Perhaps we should explain the actual process of it?" Cara asked. "It may alleviate some concerns?"

Keira gave a slow nod. "Fair point. Alright. I'm about to learn you some Acts of True Horror." Scout and Sean exchanged a concerned look at that.

Talking about this was giving them the uncomfortable focus on the Shadow in town. And the members of the guild that weren't so happy about him being around.

"When a Shadow Pokémon kills you, it injects some of that 'stuff' into you," Keira said. "Well, maybe. It's really hard to quantify, but not anyone who's killed by one becomes one. It tends to be some level of bad luck, although those intelligent ones have a higher rate of transmitting it."

She shook her head. "Either way, It takes you when you're weak. Something like that doesn't seem to be able to take someone strong. That can resist. That's why it's easiest to kill a pokémon and turn them into a shadow, hard for a dying mind to resist much. The Shadow gets in, regenerates the body. Depending on how much that poor person was still able to resist, they may still have their mind intact. But that's a far worse punishment than those who just become broken monsters."

Like Manectric was a broken shell.

And how Luno still had his faculties.

"So, if you remain determined to refuse it," Cara added. "I believe you'll be fine. You went through a magnagate and withstood it. You've been through a lot, but it's never taken you down. You'll be fine, Riolu."

Sean breathed out a sigh, this time of relief. "Thanks. It's… thanks. I needed to hear something like that."

"Can only a dead pokémon become a shadow?" Scout asked, a little morbidly curious.

Cara went to nod, but Keira shook her head at the same time. He glanced at her in surprise.

"No," she clarified. "That's why I said 'strong' not 'alive'. I mean, you mentioned you knew of Cypher and their awful experiments." She nodded to Scout. "That's a living pokémon that gets twisted. Torture, physical injections of Shadow Essence and the like can begin wearing you down."

Her face darkened. "You resist, you fight, you fight so much, but they keep hurting you. They make you think you can't be saved; they make you think it's your best friend and partner doing it to you. They torture you until you break and then offer you what seems like salvation. They might as well kill you; it'd be kinder."

Things fell silent as three pokémon stared at Keira. She raised her paw to her face and noted she had tears. She chuckled, wiping her face. "Right. Sorry."

Things continued to be silent, and getting very uncomfortable at the stares, Keira changed the subject. "Well. Enough of that. I have two other things for you. Storytime and gifts! Presents! And such fun, happy stuff."

"Uh," Scout said, clearing his throat. "Okay. What did you actually want to talk about?"

"Just some other stuff to get off my chest," she said. Ruefully she added. "Much lighter, just some clarifications for the new legendary non-legendary pokémon of our era."

She gestured to Cara and then to herself. "It's a bit of a… misjudgement to say that I, Keira the Great and Powerful, created civilisation here. Like… I've been here for a couple hundred years? You think I could have pushed the boat hard enough to do all THIS in that time?"

She gestured so wildly one may think she was doing the jazz hands and distracting from that earlier moment.

"No…?" Sean said.

"How dare you," Keira snapped. "I'm amazing. I totally could have done it. I just didn't have to."

She grinned. "The truth is that communities already existed. Towns already existed. Pokémon were already working together. What was lacking was… a bit of unifying stuff. There was a lack of actual government, still is, but you've got stuff like HAPPI that do… something of a job. Don't really need it, pokémon are less overwhelmingly needing more, more, MORE than humans."

She formed a Bone Rush and leaned on it. For those that had come to know her, which was everyone here, they realised she did that when her legs were aching too much—serving as a reprieve from that.

"Really, what I did was come in, make a big scene, help out a town. Teach them a few things. I rescued pokémon, I introduced money rather than just trading goods and services. I helped create the Rescue Federation that would be split off into the various things pokémon do with dungeons. I taught them that dungeons could be tackled. I made pokémon talk, built alliances, communities that extended further than their singular towns."

She shook her head. "But I didn't make it in the first place. Very little of it was made up BY me. Rescue Teams? That was an idea made by a little group of pokémon from Square Town, later Pokémon Square, as it came to be known. I took that idea and spread it further, so it got attributed to me."

"The Psychic Network too," Cara added.

"I had a flare of my aura," Keira confirmed, nodding, "connecting to thousands of pokémon over a massive distance, and that got some others thinking. They began testing out psychic links, going further, introducing new members, having some speedy communication. It's not the internet, but it worked, so I suggested the idea elsewhere. Boom, Lucario's idea. I'm the biggest plagiarist in history."

"It's not like you did nothing, though," Scout protested.

"I hardly said THAT," Keira scoffed. "I'm aware I'm amazing. I was literally chosen by Arceus to do this; you'd HOPE It had the right idea. I pushed the boat, and I pulled it too. Things might have gotten to this point now eventually, but when I came here, time for 'eventually' had run out. I also was here to kill Shadow Pokémon."

And they were back to that.

Like a balloon slowly being deflated, the pomp went out of Keira as she remembered. "You know… ugh, no I'm not talking about that."

She shook her head. "I gave the world a unifying factor," Keira sighed. "I acted as their leader, venerated by many waaaay too much. I brought cooperation and unity when the world was being torn apart by fear and paranoia. Thanks to those bastards, the 'First Fallen'. It's so much for just one pokémon to do, and I didn't do it alone. I gave solutions and argued for compromises, but most of the work was done by those who actually belong here. It's their world, not mine."

Cara raised a pincer and set it on her shoulder. She snorted at him but didn't lean out of his comforting weight.

"Were you a Shadow Pokémon?" Sean asked softly.

Keira snorted. "Yep."

It was surprising. Not that announcement, Scout and Sean had come to that conclusion due to the torture talk earlier, and it made sense. It was surprising how much weight seemed to drop from Keira as she said it.

They shared another look. Could they…?

She sighed again, looking to Cara who raised a pincer as if to lay it comfortingly on her shoulder but hesitated as he knew she wasn't a fan of being toucehd.

"It's why I'm so brutal with them," Keira said, turning back to Team Ion. "I've killed every single Shadow Pokémon I've ever met here. Because I know. I know what it's like to be one. I can remember that vacant emptiness like it was yesterday. I can remember wanting to feel but being unable to, or just feeling burning hatred or gnawing hunger that nothing could fill."

"Not anymore," Sean said softly. His mind was pulled back to Keira as a riolu, a fierce but excitable little pokemon playing King of the Hill with the human kids and winning every time. Except when she pulled Gabriel into playing too, she could never beat him. He wondered again about why he was the one chosen to do this, when Gabriel was the obvious better choice.

Then he shook that thought away. He wouldn't want anyone to go through what he had, it was better this way.

"No, not anymore." Keira nodded. "It's why I was perfect for this job in the end. Arceus needed a human touch to bring civilisation, and because of my Bond with Felix, I was human enough. And because I had been a Shadow Pokémon and purified… heh, did you know that a purified shadow is immune to becoming one again?"

They did not.

"I was also being sent to purge the world of Shadow Pokémon," Keira said. "And there were so many, and since I was immune even if I wasn't good enough and I did die to them. It'd be no risk to Arceus' plans. Arceus could just get someone else to finish the job."

She leaned back, so old and so young. "Really, I need to stop being so depressing, but I guess I'm just at that age. Of what's coming next, I just want to talk, so I don't regret anything later. I don't know what's going to happen, I have hopes, but we'll see."

That was not elaborated upon; Keira was continuing.

"Shadow's can be saved and brought back to normal, so you might think I'm a monster even more." She smiled at them, but they shook their heads. "No? Even though I was saved, and yet I don't let others have that chance?

"How were you purified?" Scout asked. This he really, really, wanted to know.

He and Sean continued sharing the smallest of looks. Keira sounded regretful for what she had to do, but would she still do it if she knew about Luno?

"Haah. That's the ticket, I guess. Felix. Human. There's not exactly many here, and I fear what might happen otherwise." She shrugged. "Even if it was, they're so dangerous. If it broke free and killed someone else? I'd have to live with that as well. Sadly, it's the safest choice for everyone. And putting them down? Well… it's hard to live with what you've done while in that state. Ultimately, I never succeeded in killing anyone when I was one, but I sure did try to kill the only person who truly gave a damn about me."

Ah. Okay. No telling her about Luno then.

"For many pokémon, the guilt of what they did while in that state may be too much. It's not my right to decide that, but I have to choose between them and others, and it's not fair to risk others either. Better that I suffer with the guilt rather than anyone else."

"You take so much on yourself," Cara uttered softly. Sadness was in his eyes.

She grabbed her bag. "I think I've unloaded enough on you two," she said, upturning the bag. The usual pile of mess that shouldn't fit fell out.

"How does your bag fit that much?" Scout broke the awkwardness to ask.

"Delphox enchantment," Keira answered. "It's bigger on the inside. A mismagius was able to make it weigh nothing to me either, so that's nice."

With everything out, she dug her arm right up to the shoulder and began feeling around. It was odd to look at, but anything after what she just said was a relief.

"Aha." She unzipped something loudly and overturned the bag again. Only a few items fell this time, something that looked like a game controller, and some crystals. There was something purplish and crystalline that gave Scout a pounding headache to look at, and two red and white spheres.

"Hang on!" Sean gasped. "Are those?"

"Yep," Keira chirped and picked up both shrunken pokéball's. "See," she began, tossing on up and down, "dungeons are weird places. In my centuries of being here, I've occasionally found some things that don't really belong. Things from other worlds. I found three pokéball's, I used one of them already though."

She tossed one to Sean and one to Scout. "Careful; if you enlarge it and press the middle button and hit yourself with it, you'll get sucked in," she warned.

"Are you… giving these to us?" Scout asked, stunned. This was the gift?

"Why not?" Keira shrugged. "They could come in pretty useful. Don't know exactly what. You could nail an enemy with one or even one of your friends to save them from a fall down a cliff or something. I won't give predictions; in this world, there are some weird events that go down, and I'd rather not tempt the proverbial fate."

"Thank you," Sean said, and Scout repeated it. "Heh, I actually brought ten of these with me but used them all in the Dark Future early on. Before I even met Striker."

"Neat. You can show Scout how it works if the directions aren't easy enough."

"Seems pretty clear," the meowth said flatly, enlarging it and observing the ball carefully. It was made of metal but thin and quite light. The pokéball, a real pokéball in his paws, was amazing. He shrunk it down.

"No one ever said I wasn't Santa Claws," Keira said, chuckling. "Or was it Santa Claus? Eh, doesn't matter."

She smirked at them as Sean continued admiring it. "Did Sean ever tell you that he and I know each other from way back?" she asked, and Sean immediately flushed.

"What's this?" Scout asked.

"Don't do the OwO shit, please," Keira asked, and Scout grinned. "But yes. Sean was one of the kids in Solaceon Town. A year younger than Felix. He was Mr Grabby Hands, the one with sticky fingers. Always. Sticky."

"My hands were NOT always sticky!" Sean protested.

"They were when you grabbed me. I'd have bitten them, but I didn't want that in my mouth. Gross child."

Cara laughed as well, as Sean grew more flustered.

"Damn. Are you sure you're not Cameron's Lucario?" Scout chuckled.

"Whoever that is, I hate them," Keira said. "Felix was my trainer, and I was his. We made that work, surprisingly."

They shared some smiles after all the grimness.

"I guess the only bit left to talk about is Dark Matter," Scout said, stashing the ball away.

With Darkrai dealt with and the Bittercold before even them, that was the last thing he knew was a threat.

Scout did his best to explain again. He'd told Sean already, so he was able to help with the explanation.

"With how much that's already changed, though," Scout said, uncertain.

"Well, with me around, I'm sure it gets enough negativity to last a lifetime," Keira joked. "But… well, how much do you really have to do?"

Scout wasn't sure how to answer that.

"You've saved the world twice, you two."

"We're not going to do nothing!" Sean protested.

She waved him down. "I didn't say that. But if there is some reincarnated Mew, not sure how that works, and human from forever ago as the ones to beat Dark Matter… well. Why don't you protect that special water, Sean's human, so he can unlock the barrier, take some water, and then when this problem makes itself known, you've got an ace in the hole."

"I just don't know if anything I knew will be the same," Scout admitted ruefully. "It's the first time since I came to know this stuff that I well and truly don't know what's going to happen next."

"Welcome to living like a normal person."

"Thanks. I hate it."

"You'll get over it." Keira sighed. "Well… a piece of advice, one way or another. The world seems to be a bit of a cheeky bastard at times. Things that should not happen at ALL because of the 'likelihood' still happened. I mean, you didn't exist in the story. This Soothe lass didn't exist and has been mucking up who knows what for twenty years! Yet your 'Sky' story still happened mostly the way you expected it to."

She squeezed her eyes shut, with a headache. "Some meta shit there, I think. Too complicated for me to really bother trying to understand. From what I KNOW about time travel, and this should theoretically apply to this as well. Unless changes are HUMONGOUS, things still play out about as they should."

She looked to Scout. "Tell me, you watched a bunch of Ash's adventures?" Scout nodded. "He time travelled more than once, and yet he didn't paradox himself out of existence. Just one small change in one small place. Some train station continues running, and someone's not dead. Yet the world is still pretty much the same despite the assumed ripple effects some media likes to imply."

"Nah." She shook her head. "Time travel has to do something utterly titanic to actually cause a paradox. Like stopping time from collapsing. That's big enough, obviously." And so, she nodded to him. "You actively tried to not change things, so things had an easier go of running along."

"That makes… some sense," Scout said. "But things still did change."

"Well, duh, they still CHANGE," she exclaimed. "It's not like nothing happened differently. Just… the changes tend to be more centralised. Really, what I'm saying isn't that fate rules all, fuck that fate doesn't exist. I'm mostly saying that people are still born as they would have been, and events still generally line up as they may have in the previous iteration. Unless it's a big change. I don't fucking know, I'm a lucario, not Dialga."

"We could probably ask him," Sean mused. "Saniya wouldn't really know."

"In conclusion for today," Keira said, clapping her paws. "I'm sad, don't worry about that. I'll be good very soon. Dark Matter is a bitch, so you can plan a bit out. Since you HAVE changed a lot of what you already knew, things will definitely be wildly different in some ways with that. You've got these now, better to have them and not need them, right?"

They nodded.

"Okay. Last thing. Scout." She pulled out a map. "Do you know where Destiny Tower is?"

"Destiny Tower?" Scout blinked. "The Arceus tower?"

"Off to a good start," she said eagerly. She shoved the map in his face. "Any bells being rung?"

Scout hesitantly pointed to the top of the Grass Continent, to the right where some islands were. "Uh, on the coast around there, I think… might have been an island… if I'm remembering right."

"No, that's good." Keira took the map back. "I was told a long time ago of that area. I was just making sure you could back that up and that I wasn't just going senile."

"So… wait, you're going to Destiny Tower?"

"I am." Keira nodded. "It's time Arceus and I have a little chat."

She cracked a knuckle threateningly.

Cara's eyes were shadowed as Scout and Sean looked at her in something unknowable.

"What are you…?"

"Are you… coming back?"

Keira faced them silently. "I think I got enough off my chest for me to not have to say it," she said. "But I will if I have to. I'm going to Arceus. And I won't be coming back."

Keira spent one last night in Treasure Town. Sean and Scout didn't tell the guild and neither did she.

Still, The Legendary Lucario being around was always due for a party and Keira enjoyed one last night around pokemon that had mostly gotten used to her. Enough to stop revering her, at least actively prostrating themselves before her.

As she ate and drank and was merry, Cara was drawn away by other pokemon and slowly distracted from his own thoughts.

Another Bug-type was controlled by nothing but his thoughts.

Chitin the armaldo, Armaldo the Explorer to many. Mentor to one. Holder of a secret, holding a life in his claws. He lurked on the fringes of where Lucario was, his usual glare fixed to his face and no one came within his personal space.

Thoughts bubbled behind his eyes. Keira the Legendary Lucario. Shadowslayer. The most powerful pokemon in the world. With the death of Palkia at her hands, with his and Junior's help, any doubts to the contrary were removed. She was the strongest in the world. Really, only Giratina was an argument, but the boundary deity wasn't in the world, now was it?

Chitin privately bet that Junior could give her a pretty hard run for her money, both of them were keeping up with her. Or perhaps she was slowing herself down to defend them? It was hard to be sure.

In any case, in every case, she was the most powerful. Not just in strength, but in sway. She could do anything and most would support her, and the few that didn't would bite their tongues.

She was an unstoppable force. He had heard the tales of her legendary battles, and of less spoken of epics, when she delivered the Shadow Pokemon absolution in death. The best tracker of the sickness ever known, it would be… so easy.

That she hadn't realised that Luno was a Shadow Pokemon told him that her legend was propped up by other people, but in getting to know her he knew that wasn't her intention. She was The Legendary Lucario. The stories told about her were about her, not other people.

No one would be surprised if she happened to work it out.

No one would be able to stop her when she did what had to be done.

No one would know he-

"Teacher?" Chitin stiffened when Junior's soft voice reached him and he turned to him.

Rhythm was looking at him.

Looking at him.

Most people thought Wigglytuff was something of a fool. Chitin knew the kid just refused to conform. He wasn't polite, he didn't bite his tongue, he didn't bend himself into something acceptable. In his eyes, he was himself and should only be himself.

Chitin honestly admired it, when he wasn't frustrating him to no end. So, rarely did he admire it.

Yet, Junior was perceptive. He touched a map Chitin had struggled over for years and instantly knew how to solve it, just by the size and weight being different to how it should have been.

"Don't," Rhythm said. A single word.

Chitin stared back.

Pokemon danced, the fires flickered, Keira was laughing.

Finally, Chitin sighed, his tense posture vanishing and Rhythm smiled at him.

Chitin did not tell Keira about Luno.

Cara had barely said anything for a couple days.

She was glad he'd come with her, but he was stiffly silent. Painfully silent.

Scout and Sean didn't really have much to say after she let them know her plans. Attempts to talk her out of it were not going to work; she rebuffed them all.

"It's not like It'll just kill me," she scoffed. "Assuming Arceus keeps its side of the deal. I just won't be here anymore, however."

Dark Matter couldn't make her stay. Carapace couldn't make her stay.

Keira had lived for hundreds of years. She was tired. She missed Felix. She wanted to go home.

"I've done enough." She hoped.

With Alakazam's help to teleport her across the continent, Carapace had journeyed with her. It wasn't a matter of question; he would be with her the whole way.

They'd reached The Cliff with several jumps and two teleporters. The northmost town on the continent. Small fishing village.

"Thank you for your incredible efforts," Keira thanked Alakazam and then handed him her bag. "I doubt you've really been thanked for YOUR side of things, so here."

Alakazam stuttered at her and almost dropped the bag as she dumped it into his hands. Cara also blinked at her quite a few times. Keira waved, not giving Alakazam time to try and refuse.

"Heh, now he's got to sort out all my junk," Keira chuckled, and that was that. Cara had money if anyone would possibly need it out here.

So then, they went east. It would take a few days to reach the straight separating her from Destiny Tower. There weren't many civilised pokémon in these parts; towns were the way of the rest of the continent—nothing but rocks and sand out here.

Cara trudged silently behind Keira as she walked with a spring in her step. Her long journey was coming to a close. She could almost hear Felix again. She'd held onto those memories so damn hard. Ten years of her life compared to hundreds, but she remembered Sean's sticky hands, and she remembered her days in the sun with Felix, with Lilith, with Miss Norrie, and so many others.

She'd forgotten more about her time here than she had forgotten about them.

Part of that might have been the hundreds of years compared to one decade, though.

"You alright, Cara?" Keira asked as they approached the shoreline. It was a bit of a craggy coast around, mostly sheer cliffs with waves crashing down below. They needed a ride over, as neither of them could swim that far.

"I'm fine," Cara answered.

"You haven't been talking since we left Treasure Town."

"I've spoken."

"Like that, though." Keira planted a staff in the ground and unearthed a rock. Cara paused. "I feel like having a talk is probably the right thing to do here."

"If you want to talk."

"Oh boy," Keira muttered. She faded the staff and turned to face Cara. They had a short trip down to the beach where they'd look for someone to assist them. They were almost there, so close that Keira could feel it. Her soul sang in the gentle breeze.

She crossed her arms and faced her red and shiny friend. "Carapace," she said, using his full name in gravity. "We've worked together for years. There's no one in this world that I trust more. There's no one else that I really give a damn what they think. Come on, talk to me. We don't have much time left to do that."

"It's just that," Cara snapped, words unlodging. "'Time left'. I just…I don't understand."

Keira cocked her head slightly. "What do you mean? What don't you understand?"

"What you think you're doing," he said. "You told Riolu and Meoth that…are you seriously coming here to die?"

Keira chewed her lip for a moment, considering the question. "Yes," she answered bluntly. "In a way, I guess. I don't really know for sure what Arceus is going to do or say WHEN It shows up." She cast a glare at the sky. "Whether It makes me younger or just takes me as I am, I won't be here anymore. I suppose I'm not literally coming around to DIE. I'm here to get my end of the deal seen through."

"Is that all this was to you?" he asked, voice carrying over the waves, and things fell silent between them.

Keira stared at him.

"Just to get your 'reward'?" Cara asked lowly. "Is that why you did…anything?"

Keira took a breath and then exhaled hard. "Yes and no," she said plainly. "At first…? Well…yes. Yes, Cara. I died and was offered another chance if I did something for literally Arceus. Really, what was I going to do?"

Cara lowered his gaze.

"You know, when I came here, I thought Arceus was underestimating me. It told me I was being sent hundreds of years into the past of another world, to have the time needed to achieve Its demands. I thought that was ridiculous; I didn't really understand how large the world was. So, at first, I even rushed it. In my mind, the sooner I got it done, the sooner I could go back."

She shook her head. "I know better now. Even IF I solved it in a day, Arceus would have been asleep at that point in time. After about fifty years, I truly realised how big the task was. AND, by that point, I'd grown to give a damn. It's easy to think of people as numbers, as statistics, but you begin to care when you get to know them. At first, Cara, I was doing this purely so I could go back, but I began to love this place and what I could really do."

"Then why go?" Cara asked desperately. "If you love it here, why go!?"

Keira blinked at him. "This…," she sighed. "Cara, I won't say I became a saint. I've kept myself going mostly with the dream that one day I could go back. It was always going to come to this point. It's part of why I avoid people, not wanting to get attached. Like with you. It sucks, and I'm sorry. But I've made my decision. I made it a long time ago."

Cara bowed his head slightly. They continued standing for a moment before Keira wordlessly gestured to the beach. "Will, you at least see me off?"

Cara nodded, and they walked down to the rough shore to find a way across.

"Bye… bye this Castelian Pie," Keira sang as the sharpedo she convinced to help them swam off rapidly.

They stepped off the shore and into the wooded trees, giant spire splitting the sky before them through this copse of trees. "Took my levy to the levee, but the levee was dry. And them good ol' boys were drinking whisky and rye, singing `this'll be the day that I die'…."

She cast a smile, closing her eyes. "This'll be the day that I… die."

Cara followed her in dead silence, feet barely making sound on the ground as her big plods took up all the required sound. She was stomping forwards, singing ancient songs she could barely remember, heart thrumming in her chest as it rapidly tried to beat the last moments of its time.

If her heart was trying to beat for every moment, she would still live for, Keira feared her heart would beat forever and would wind up in some museum to be stared at. Or church to be worshipped.

Still, she didn't turn back to look at Cara. The smile had lingered on her face as she held onto Sharpedo's rough scales, feeling Cara's eyes on her from above. It hadn't taken long to swim over, not with Sharpedo's speed, and Cara had touched the ground only a minute afterwards.

His gaze was staring holes into her back, but she didn't turn around. He'd see her face them.

"Bye…bye… this Castelian Pie," she repeated, voice light and almost flippant with the subject at hand. Her face was creasing, and her eyes darted to the ground, where she was stepping. "Took my levy to the levee, but the levee was dry."

She took a silent deep breath as she nearly stumbled. If she hit the ground now, she may not be able to get up. Her heart continued pounding in her ears. "The good old boys were drinking whisky and rye, singing…."

She trailed off, swallowed the saliva in her mouth. "This'll be the day that I die."

Cara was still silent. She could feel him behind her though, her tassels were tingling.

"Come on, Cara," she said, putting forth a laugh. "Finish it with me! We've come this far. It'll be symbolic!"

Nothing.

She cleared her throat. "BYE-BYE, THIS CASTELIAN PIE!" she sang very loudly. Maybe Arceus would hear her from its high tower.

"Just stop," Cara said right before her next line, the words cutting short in her throat, and she nearly coughed.

Keira did stop. Stop walking entirely. "Hm?" She glanced back, eyes moving up to Cara's face. "You know, I've never liked the fact you're taller than me."

"Don't… don't." Cara shook his head. "Okay? This isn't funny anymore. This was not funny at all."

"Okay… what level of grief are you at? Denial, anger, bargaining, or depression? Because this clearly isn't acceptance."

"Just STOP!"

Keira nodded. "Bargaining then," Cara growled at her. "Little bit of anger. I guess we've got time to get weepy, hug it out, depression and then you'll be at acceptance in no time!"

"Keira," Cara said, and she flinched. He said it with the exact same weight as others said Lucario. Almost, at least, less reverence and more desperation. "You… you… you're too important. This just… no. I. No. No! NO!"

His pincers opened, and the swords flashed around him for a moment. Keira took a half-step back before girding himself.

"This is my decision, Cara," she said. Soft but as firm as steel.

"Then your decision is STUPID!" Cara yelled. "You are out of your mind if you think this was EVER an option? Die? What the fuck are you doing? What happened to all that fucking counselling you pushed for to stop this kind of thing!?

"Cara-"

"Do not 'Cara' me, Keira!" Carapace continued yelling. "Stop this! Stop this right now! You're scaring me. If anyone else knew about this, they'd be doing the same thing. You're scaring me, you'd scare everyone, you-"

"CARA!" Keira screamed, voice snapping across the tension and breaking it like a fragile band. Carapace recoiled, shocked. Keira never yelled.

"Cara, I'M fucking scared, okay?" she yelled, spinning around on him, old eyes narrowed so tightly it almost masked the tears in her eyes. "I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know if Arceus is going to be there. I don't know if I'm even in the right time! Time has been so fucked up in this world so often that I don't know for sure, even WITH Sean and Scout around telling me things."

She growled and stepped towards him. "And if It is there? What's going to happen then? Did I do enough, or did my piss-poor, wasted, all-about-me attempt not meet Its standards? Is it going to just send me back again? Or am I going to have to stay here? CARA! If my choice is between staying here forever and DYING, I'm… I'm old. I'm tired. I'm just. So. Fucking. Tired."

Cara's mouth trembled, and his pincers flexed. He could feel his blood pressure spike, his exoskeleton feeling a size too small as the pressure increased, his neck twitched, and he snapped back. "NO!" he roared and bared both pincers. "I will not let you do this! I will not allow you to kill yourself! This is wrong; this is WRONG! You're not thinking straight. You need help, not some tower! I don't know what you've been doing since we killed Dancer but I will not let you go any further!"

She recoiled. "Do NOT bring that name into this," she snarled.

Swords appeared around him as Keira stepped back, face shadowing. She eyed the swords as they pointed in towards himself and shot into his body. His body flashed red before more appeared and did the same until he'd boosted enough, forming seven more. "I won't let you do this. Even if I have to force you," he uttered.

She closed her eyes, her lip trembled, but no tears fell, and when she opened her eyes, they had hardened. "I guess this is my final test," she said thickly, forming the Aura Blade. "I was on the brink of giving up when we first met. When you beat your way through my walls and gave me a new reason to life. But if I have to fight you… you know you can't beat me, Cara." She shook her head.

Cara huffed and snapped his bag off, tossing it to the side. Before it flew, however, his pincer tore through it and revealed something. Keira's eyes opened. "Don't you-"

She was too late. His pincer snapped shut around the awakening, and Cara burst with Power.

Her jaw fell open, and she stared in pained shock as Cara transformed.

His pincers lengthened and developed saw-toothed serrations, perfect for gripping and crushing. Black armouring appeared around his legs and face in a three-pointed crest. Striated coverings glowed into existence along his shoulders and thighs.

His tapered legs stabbed through a discarded branch as he stepped forth threateningly, wings beating a wind around their feet.

He had swore he would never mega evolve again. Not after Dancer.

Keira's face darkened as he transformed until he began approaching, even more swords appearing around him. "Carapace," she said, voice cracking. "You cannot keep that form without a human to balance it. You'll kill yourself."

"If you can threaten that," Cara snarled, voice warping with the overflow of power.

Her teeth gnashed, and both paws clutched the blade she'd formed. "Fine. I'll just have to take you down quickly."

Then, she moved.

Light flashed, and leaves fell off trees from miles around as a shining bone built of Power and charged with burning aura crashed against a pair of crossed swords and a shield of gleaming emerald.

The swords broke, and the shield cracked immediately as the shockwave from the impact cut Carapace's facial crest and caused branches to fall off several trees behind him.

The Legendary Lucario's attack was stopped, however.

Unflinching from the crack to his face, Carapace swung out with a heavy pincer cloaked in shining white energy. It jarred with her flattened chest spike and cracked ribs as Cara launched her back off him.

He pursued, swords flashing back into existence. His wings beat, and he caught her as she bounced off the trees.

The Swords Dance became realised as his body began seeping with red.

The swords were immaterial but still struck hard. Fur fell, lines were sliced in the skin, and blood began to flow as dozens of swords flashed into and out of existence, each being driven through Keira's body.

She touched the ground; it had been seconds since the battle began. Cara loomed above her, raising both pincers shining white as more swords came down to skewer her in place.

Two swords impaled her arms as she raised them to block. They cracked out of existence in a moment, not even drawing blood, but the push from them was enough to knock her back as he slammed down a double pincer Brick Break.

She rolled.

The ground cracked and nearly exploded from that impact; stones being shot out of the ground from how hard he hit the ground. Keira kicked up, sending a blast from the palm of her foot.

She kicked Cara's abdomen, and the kinetic impact knocked him off her. She jumped to her feet and formed a new staff.

Just as he had done, she pursued the falling Cara, far faster than he was.

But he had wings. They buzzed, and he flipped up, avoiding her blow, and formed two new blades. He took them in his saw-toothed pincers and met her return strike with both.

This time they didn't break. Two swords trembled against the staff as they pushed their muscles against each other.

"Stop this," Keira barked, pushing more and knocking him off balance. She didn't follow up, letting him stumble back to sure-footedness.

"Are you going to see sense?" Cara barked. Keira's mouth pinched, Dancer had said that, on that day. "Thought so!"

"Do you not hear yourself?" she growled back.

Cara mouth opened in a snarl. "I know what I'm saying," he said, eyes wet. "If that's what it takes."

He came at her again, and she dodged back, his swords had a wider range than her staffs, and she found one buried in her back. Then another. Pushing her back forth and robbing her of her agility. He swung at her again, and she ducked under it and forced distance between them with another Force Palm.

It dissuaded Cara for hardly two seconds.

He came at her again and again. Even as she beat him back, she was hardly doing anything to his hardened exoskeleton. Besides the crack in his face from her initial attack, she hadn't dealt any damage.

Cara's pincers were far heavier than he was used to, and he wasn't as fast with his Brick Breaks as she was used to. She almost forgot that wasn't the only thing he could do.

A rapid slug nearly cracked her shoulder as Cara punched at her like a rocket. The jarring pain left stinging shooting up and down her left arm.

The other pincer opened as the saw-teeth glinted an even brighter metallic. She jumped back, but a dozen swords appeared around her, forming a physical wall.

She swung back with the staff and shattered them all with a single swing, but it still wasn't fast enough.

He punched forth with the normal pincer as fast as before. She caught it with both paws, just barely. He swung around with the other heavy beartrap-like claw, and she planted her feet and heaved with everything she had.

The Metal Claw-amped pincer missed its target as she tossed him over her shoulder and slammed him into the swords.

"You," she panted, spinning around. "Can't." Her paws melted into darkness. "Beat." She unleashed a Dark Pulse. "ME!"

It bounced off a Protect, and the rings scattered all over, but most were reflected right into her.

"I will not accept defeat!" Cara bellowed, leaping after her as she staggered from having her own worst thoughts bounce back into her.

'I will NOT accept this!' Dancer had howled.

Every word struck blades into her heart. She was nothing but scars, inside and out, and yet somehow he knew just where to hit, just how to hurt her. To make her falter.

"I lived hundreds of years before I met you," Keira said softly, quietly, a voice of absolute ancient exhaustion. "If you think these memories can break me… then you never knew me at all."

His pincers glowed again, and she was getting awfully sick of that. Keira formed a crisscrossed staff and blocked the first breaking blow, and darted to the side to avoid the other. She reformed the shattering staff to full and swung out, and Cara deflected it with a slide of green.

Her attack struck a tree instead and carved straight through it like butter. Cara's pincer shot out and clamped onto the trunk as it began to tilt and ripped it the rest of the way out, swinging out with an entire tree and clobbering her across their battlefield.

Destiny Tower laid in the distance as another tree was torn up and tossed at Keira like a spear.

She had cracked into a tree with enough force to shake all the apples off it and barely was able to blink before the second tree smashed her through it.

Two trees fell as Keira rolled, body glinted with an Endure, most of the impact just sliding right off her.

Keira rolled to her feet and breathed a blast, splintering another tree being thrown at her. She leapt forth and sliced through another one. "You're going mad."

Most of the trees on Cara's side had been deforested already.

"Stop! Just stop!"

"I won't stop until you do."

"I'm doing the right thing."

"THIS is the right thing?"

"It's MY choice, Cara!" Keira yelled. Her voice broke. "Not yours. Not… hers."

Cara's expression, a flurry of rage and pain, tightened, shivered, broke, his mouth began to fall, and he breathed out a very hot breath. It steamed in the air.

He began walking towards her as Keira's eyes squeezed shut. "I've done enough, Cara. I've lost count of the years. You gave me a reason to keep going… but you have to stop. You have to let me go!"

"You can be helped!" Cara said, the anger shifting for a moment. To desperation. "I know you're in pain, but killing yourself isn't the right way!"

"Cara, you aren't listening to me."

"You've said everything, but you won't listen to ME. What would you be doing if this was me, begging you to let me die?"

"I'M NOT JUST GOING TO OFF MYSELF!"

"WELL, THAT'S WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE!"

He formed a sword and raced for her. Just one, but one was enough when he was putting far more into it than the others.

Keira reacted almost too late to form her own to block the strike. Her Bone Rush shivered and cracked from the single hit.

They began to duel, Cara's aggressive strikes needing everything Keira had to block. He formed other swords, weaker ones, to try and break her defence, but she took those strikes without even a grunt to acknowledge them."

Her staff continued to crack.

"Please," Cara begged, pushing Keira back step by step to one of the fallen trees. She'd trip eventually. "I cannot just allow this to happen. What can I do? Tell me what I can do to help you!"

Keira didn't respond. Her eyes had gone flat, almost sightless. She bounced a sword strike off her bone and shifted her head away from a weaker one. Her expression had detached like she wasn't even seeing him.

"Talk to me."

"There's nothing to say," Keira said flatly. Her eyes flicked up to meet his. Distant, ancient, and so very sad. "Except this. I never wanted a student. I didn't need a burden. I didn't want something weighting me down. I didn't want something that would try and make me stay. But you imposed."

She pushed back against a strike as the cracks in her staff faded away.

"What could I put down that'd be worth keeping? Nothing. It was always going to be this way."

Cara coughed out a heated breath. Keira's expression almost frowned at the heat being blown in her face. "You don't mean that."

"You chased me for how long?" A taunt entered her voice. "You wore me down. You always did. That's what you're trying now. To wear me down. Well, there's nothing left to wear down. I'm done."

Cara didn't respond, but his expression spoke louder than any word. For a Bug-type, he couldn't emote much but how his mouth turned, and his eyes tightened….

It hurt Keira to see it. To say these things back to him, to try and break his will before he broke hers.

Cara swung, and Keira did too. Their blades met in mid-air and clashed in a thrumming blow; more leaves fell off trees.

Then both constructs broke.

Cara hesitated, just for a moment, not sure what to do next.

Keira, however, did not. Fury overtook her eyes.

She grabbed his head and pulled him down, raising her knee and cracking his head against it. He shouted in pain, face cracking further and recoiling upwards, as a pulse of draconic energy blazed from her mouth, and she unleashed it right into his.

Cara was blasted back, smoking, from the Dragon Pulse, and Keira pursued. He formed a Protect just in time to block a strike to his neck, but a follow-up Feint shattered it like glass. She punched him in the torso and tossed him against the ground.

She yelled out as she raised her paws, and the sun darkened as she called upon her grief and rage once more. Cara's pincers flashed white as Keira unleashed it on Cara, and he knocked himself up with a pair of swords and met the anger with his own dedication.

The rings tore at his body, his Power, at everything as the Brick Break desperately fought against the Dark Pulse. He began to walk forwards, ignoring the pain to his body, bouncing the worst of it aside with his massive pincers. He could barely endure the flood, he felt mere flashes of centuries of living, of doubt and pain, anger at the world, desperation, guilt and remorse so deep and unyielding it persisted beyond life and death.

For a second, he almost held against it.

Then Keira screamed and he was blown away by it. The trickle already blotting out the sun became a tempest of darkness so grand the light of Destiny Tower flickered against it.

Cara's shout was drowned out by hers, and she was behind him before he could even think. A bone hit him so hard he flipped into the air, and Keira tossed another Dragon Pulse after it.

"I FORCED MYSELF TO KILL DANCER!"

Blowing him up in the sky. Cara fell, and once again, she was there before he was with a whole new staff.

Centred at both ends, it was like a dumbbell. Only she was using it as a double-ended battle hammer.

"AND EVERY SHADOW POKEMON!"

One side beat his chest like a drum and knocked him through one of the poor, abused trees on this island. She caught his leg before he could fly away and tossed him back up and hit him like a tennis ball with the other end, having spun the staff to not lose momentum.

Keira snapped the staff into two maces and chased him. Cara's metallic, mega-boosted body was denting but not cracking, and his eyes snapped open.

She jumped up to hammer him again, and he sent one sword lightning-fast through her. It stabbed straight through and pinned her against the ground before fading, leaving a slice on both ends of her torso. She threw one of the maces with force.

Cara landed and formed a shield, blocking the thrown mace and shattering it. Keira did as he knew she would and ran in with a Feint to shatter it. He faded it right as she swung and caught her wrist with his saw-toothed pincer.

He clamped it and felt something crunch. She roared and then shattered the other mace against his head, leaving just a dent as he formed Steel-energy around his head right in time.

Culminating it, he headbutted her with an iron-hard head and ripped gashes in her arm from the teeth of his pincer. He swung back and clobbered her in the side of the head with the other one, shining white.

Metal met metal, and something cracked.

Yet, like Keira before him, he didn't pursue the advantage and hesitated as she got back to her feet. Instead, he spoke again. "Why?" he asked, voice breaking. "Why, just…why? Why let me come along to see this? Why sing such a horrible song about dying? Why teach me at all? Why make things so light when you are only hurting? Is this just a game to you, Keira?"

Keira's expression cracked like his voice. Tears streaked her cheeks in a moment, and she screamed. "MAYBE BECAUSE I THINK IT'D BE EASIER IF YOU HATED ME!"

A pulse of blackness ripped out from every direction of her body, but he parted the darkness with the emerald Protect.

Keira's tassels were rising, and she experienced an aura surge. "I HATE THIS!" she roared in anguish. Her voice rising to a pitched crescendo, a wail.

And then she fell to her knees, and Cara realised she wasn't crying out; she was actually crying.

"I hate this," Keira sobbed, falling to her paws as well and ripped the grass out in desperation. "How dare you bring her memory into this, Cara? HOW DARE YOU?"

"Why are you so selfish!?" Cara yelled back, tears breaking down his face as well. "How dare I? What are you doing to ME? To everyone? WE NEED YOU!"

'WE NEED YOU!' Dancer cried.

Keira's teeth gnashed so hard they might break. "...if she couldn't convince us to go along with her plan. What on earth makes you think repeating those words will change anything?"

"Did you not care at all?" Cara demanded, voice cracking between sobs. "We were a team! Keira, Cara, and Dancer! We did what we had to do but."

"Don't. Dare. We tried everything we could before she got too dangerous," Keira howled back at him. "You think I didn't think about that every FUCKING day for months. I thought you hated me. That you blamed me. Because it WAS my fault, we both know it was my fault. That fucking aura bond fucked her up, but I COULD have stopped it. I just wanted to have someone again. A reason to keep going. But everything turns to ash around me. I used to HOPE you were DEAD and didn't abandon me out of hatred! At least that would be easier to live with!"

Keira sucked in an agonising breath. "How could you ask me if I ever cared? I've shared more about myself with you and Dancer than I had with anyone. You knew how much I love this fucked up world."

"BUT WHY DOES THIS HAVE TO BE MY BURDEN?" Keira demanded. Any rage she had built broke again, and she curled down, screaming into the grass. "CARAAAA!?"

He collapsed as well. It was so painfully hot and shuffled closer to her on his knees. Keira fell to her chest and screamed more into the grass.

He didn't go any closer, her tassels still raising and flaring out. He was pushed back from pulses of aura she couldn't control. That she never could.

"Cara," Keira whimpered. "Why? Why did you have to be so persistent? Why couldn't I just keep away from you? From Her? I knew this would happen. I knew this would hurt. I never let anyone close. I'd lose them eventually. Or I'd leave them."

"It was my choice," Cara coughed, the grass below him curling from the heat in his body. He saw the saw-teeth of one of his pincers warping slightly.

"Cara… when you disappeared on me, it was one of the worst things I've ever felt in my life. And I died by ice and fire. I was tortured into becoming a Shadow. They defiled my body to break me. But this fucking hurts MORE. This is why I don't make friends. This is why I don't take students. This is why I don't stay in places like Pokémon Square or Treasure Town. I'm immortal. Anyone I love will die eventually."

"If I meant so much to you, why did you stop looking for me?"

Keira coughed herself, a weak, wet cry. "You're such an idiot."

Keira raised her head and forced herself to her feet. "Cara," she said, voice shaking as she took in his appearance. "You're going to kill yourself."

Cara stood up as well. "I'm not backing down. You taught me to never back down, not even to you."

She took a shaking breath, almost a smile fainting across her face before it was set in resolution. "Just another stupid lesson from a senile pokémon." She formed her staff before slid her paw up the end, fusing another two bones to it. Aura flared as her tassels lowered and her aura blade shone. "But I got one more for you. I'm not a good person, and you should never have believed that was the case."

Cara was so hot he could barely see, but a sword materialised in his pincer anyway, despite the teeth of the pincers beginning to melt.

Keira met his eyes, and Cara met hers. She moved faster than he ever was.

They both swung out, and a clash of energy rang out—such a simple sound for a simple ending.

Keira slid to a stop as the twin strikes echo faded. She sagged forth and planted her blade to steady herself, listening and feeling for the thump as Cara collapsed to the ground, the body change caused by the awakening beginning to melt off him.

She had slashed a portion of his exoskeleton wide open, deep gash. Heated steam burst forth from the opening, hitting the air rather than his organs.

She gasped for breath, taking sharp puffs of air through pursed lips. Everything hurt so much. She slowly straightened up, pushing up with the Bone Rush before turning herself around.

A deep gash had made itself home in her fur as well, and her blood dripped to the ground. She took one step, and her staff broke and her legs, losing all feeling, couldn't support her, causing her to collapse to her knees. She crawled to Cara's unmoving form.

Gentle light lit her paws as she waved a shaking arm over the slice in his exoskeleton she had delivered to end the battle. It began to close, stopping oozing out his lifeblood.

His eyes cracked open. "You cut me," he said breathlessly. "You knew I was beginning to melt."

"Cara, you dumb, stupid, idiot," she whispered painfully. "You could have damaged your organs with that heat." She finished sealing his wound; it hurt but was hardly lethal. "You knew you couldn't beat me. You knew."

"I had to try," he whispered back, pained and more pained for failing.

Shaking, crying, Keira bent her head until it was touching his. She hooked her arms under his and held him against her. "Why? Just… why?"

"You're asking to kill yourself. How am I supposed to just let that happen?"

"Cara… I'm not doing this to die. I'm doing this to go back. Maybe I'll have to die in order to go back, but I'm not going entirely… just… going back to my own world. Where I belong.

"You belong here, though."

"I don't."

"You do."

"No, Cara. I don't. This isn't my home. It doesn't matter how long I've been here. It doesn't make it home."

"You shaped it, though. This world is like your child."

"This world is one I guided. It's one I fought and bled for. But it's not mine, Cara. It isn't."

"But why…?"

"I was chosen, asked, to help this world. And I did. I did. But it was always supposed to end like this. It was our deal, Arceus and I."

"Then was that the only reason you did all this? Became the hero we needed. Just so you could get your side of the bargain?"

"No, Cara. No. I did care. I didn't want to. I didn't mean to. That's how it was supposed to be—just a job. But I came to know people, love and care and teach. I didn't want to care, but I did. But it doesn't change the fact that I'm so old, Cara. I'm so tired. I miss my friends, the family I found. If nothing else, I just want to apologise to them for what I did."

"…"

"You asked me why I stopped looking for you? I never stopped looking for you. Ever. Every year I came back to Blizzard Island and looked everywhere I could think of. I have no idea how I couldn't find you. Why I couldn't find you. Story or game, fuck I don't care. I just wasn't good enough. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for saying I did give up on you, I just didn't want you to be hurt when all this happened, I thought if you hated me it'd hurt less."

"…"

"Cara… please. Please let me go."

"…"

"Cara, haven't I done enough? I don't even know. It's up to Arceus. But haven't I? Please tell me I have."

"..."

"After so many months, I had to stop thinking about you and Dancer. It was too much, it was making me want to give up. Again. I've wanted to give up so many times. You pulled me out of that, that… exhaustion. The pain had stopped. Even the weariness had stopped. I was numb. I was so tired I couldn't sleep. I was in so much pain I couldn't feel it anymore. And then you came. And made woke me up. You and Dancer did. And then I ruined it, like I ruin everything. I can't keep going. I learned too many times that I break whatever I touch. I broke Dancer. I broke you."

"..."

"Please."

"…Alright."

"You…?"

"I'll let you go."

"Thank you," she said, tears falling onto his face and mixing with his and stinging the crack on his face. "Cara… I never told you this, but you made it easier. My whole life here, it's been so hard. So… damn hard. But you made it easier. You made it easier to keep going. You made it easier to keep fighting. You made… it all easier."

"I'm glad."

Slowly, surely, she took her arms off him, lifted her head, and lifted her body. She had to form two braces around her legs to walk, but she did.

"What am I going to tell people?" Cara asked before she could go.

"The truth, probably," Keira said. "Tell them I completed my mission and have returned to Arceus for the next one."

"Haah."

"It is the truth."

"I know."

She took a step, gazing up at Destiny Tower still looming in the distance. It stretched so high up it disappeared into the clouds—her final journey.

Keira glanced back at Carapace, still on the ground, sniffling and crying quietly. She couldn't look for long, that sight alone would break her if she let it take hold. "Goodbye, Cara."

He took a shuddering breath. "Goodbye, Keira."

And so, she walked the final leg alone.

Destiny Tower was not a dungeon.

The door opened with a touch, and she was presented with a staircase. With her legs, a staircase was just cruel.

She had come this far. However, she'd come this far for centuries.

And so, Keira climbed.

She waited for the attackers to drop. She waited for the traps to be sprung. She waited for the staircase to turn into a damn slip-n-slide.

Nothing of the sort happened.

It was just a massive staircase. One that took her hours to climb.

When Keira finally, at long last, reached the pinnacle of the tower, she stepped out into the sky.

The sky was above her and below her.

Runes painted the paved ground with esoteric symbols that glowed with a strange energy. Strange but distantly familiar.

She looked around; it was like a castle's ramparts, with gaps like teeth lining the circular field. There was no mystical portal, no lame llama statue, just one heck of a view that went as far as the eye could see.

The sea was all around her. The Grass Continent was not the only thing that could be seen. A ring of smaller islands and a channel of landmarks that reminded her of something in a map.

"Where the fuck am I?" Keira asked. She had a Bone Rush cane and poked at a rune. "Well…? I'm here. Hello? ARCEUS?"

Yes, Child?

Keira nearly jumped out of her fur at the voice. It didn't touch her ears so much as touch everything. She could see the words, taste them, feel them, even smell them.

It was disorientating for a moment, but only a moment. She'd felt this once before.

She blinked the lights out of her eyes and got up from the ground. She didn't remember falling down, but she was at that age, she supposed.

Her legs bent with no problem, and she rose up like a spry riolu of 5 years. "My legs?" Keira asked, looking down in wonder. "They don't hurt?"

I Am Sorry For That Pain.

Arceus had said, and Keira crossed her arms. She didn't give a snappy remark though, taking away that pain was a nice first step. A show of light brought her eyes to the sky and she witnessed Arceus' arrival.

Arceus floated down from the sky. In the distance, she could see a portal with streamers of rainbow light curling out and cascading across the world. The portal slowly closed as the four hooves of Arceus tapped the ground as It landed, letting out a pleasing click.

Arceus was just like she remembered It as. The eyes of the creature were impossible to meet for long, so she focused on Arceus' lack of a mouth. Why would It need one when it spoke so strangely?

Her eyes trailed along the golden crest and the ear-like protrusions alongside Its head. They stood in silence, waiting for the other to speak first.

Despite everything that Arceus was, something so very Different, It was also not. Arceus belonged. She felt like she could speak to It, despite who It was.

As Arceus was almost an embodiment of patience and Keira was not, she broke first.

"How's Felix?" the question tumbled out, she hadn't thought of it, it just came out automatically.

Arceus almost seemed to smile at that being her first reaction to Its arrival.

He Is Doing Well. His Brother Has Joined Him. As Has The Spitfire Angie, And The Bearer Of Mesprit's Grace, Dawn. His Heart Still Aches, But… He Is Okay.

That meant more to her than she could ever voice.

"Have I… done enough?" she asked, voice choking off in a mixture of hope and fear. "Have I completed your task…? Can I… can I go home?"

Arceus observed her for a moment before turning Its head sharply to look over the skyline as if It were judging the world with a glance. She wouldn't be surprised if that was the case.

You Have Fulfilled The Terms Of Our Agreement.

Arceus said, turning back to her. It was like all the tension left her body at once, and Keira's legs slowly buckled. Not out of pain, the very opposite.

Our Terms Were Of The Formulation Of A Cohesive Civilisation. That You Have Fulfilled. In Addition, You Were To Purge Shadow Pokémon. That You Have Fulfilled, I Can See The Weight Of It On You. I Shall Ask You This, Broken World Yet Hopeful Eyes. Do You Believe You Have Completed Your Task?

Keira hesitated and thought over everything.

"That's not my name," she said, first. "Not anymore."

Of Course. My Apologies. Do You Prefer Determined Spike With Strongest Heart, Lucario, Or Keira?

"Keira."

Keira.

"I've done what you asked of me," Keira said, feeling the weight once more. Her legs were fine, but no amount of Arceus presence would remove all the weight she carried all at once. "I put the world together as best as I could. I killed as many Shadow Pokémon as I could."

There Would Be More You Can Do.

Arceus pointed out.

Keira flinched. "…Then what? Is this some sort of Faustian Bargain? We make a deal that I can never, EVER, fulfil, and I'm trapped doing this forever?"

I Did Not Mean That.

Arceus shook Its head.

I Am Sorry For That Which You Have Suffered. You, I Can See, Carry Much Upon You—More Than I Know. I Merely Wanted To Be Sure You Were Ready.

"You don't know?" Keira asked, a flicker of disbelief.

I Am Not Omniscient, Keira.

Arceus said. For a moment, she heard many voices. Its voice was impossible to discern. It was not masculine or feminine, It was both and neither. It was racing winds and thundering waves. Rockfalls and echoes. A day at the beach and a battle for the world.

I Know A Great Many Things And Can Guess A Great Many More. But I Do Not Know You More Than Yourself.

Keira slowly nodded. "…I've done enough," she said tiredly. Her eyes slipped closed, and for a moment, she wondered if they'd open again. They did, and she looked at Arceus, so patient, kindly to wait for her to find her words. "The world has to survive without me. If it can't, then I failed in the first place."

Slowly, Arceus nodded.

You Are Wise, Keira.

It said, almost… sadly.

It Is A Great Curiosity. Despite The Great Differences Between Us, I Feel We Are Alike. And, Most Upsettingly, You Seem Like The Older One.

Keira almost smiled at that, it sounded close to a joke, but she wasn't sure.

She gazed at Arceus, meeting Its eyes for a moment longer.

She swallowed. She hadn't expected this, but she could feel a spark of something roar up within her and consume her, and before she knew it, she was speaking again.

"You owe me answers," she said, shocking herself. "About this world…about why you took so long. What the fucking Shadow is. Why I had to fix this world. You owe me that much."

She shivered; she had raised her voice against Arceus, but she didn't regret it. And she didn't take it back.

It dipped Its head.

Very Well. I Will Answer That Which You Want To Know As Much As I Should.

She clenched her jaw for a moment, swallowing a snarky comment.

"…This world. Tell me… just… I don't even know, just tell me."

I Will Hazard A Guess To Your Question.

Arceus raised its head, and their surroundings faded into light. A great and terrible machine. A crystal. A scream of thousands of souls. Headstones. The cry of a fairy, the cry of a man, the scream of a woman, and an undercurrent of laughter fathomlessly evil.

The sky split into colours Keira couldn't understand, and the tearing of paper hit her soul.

When she came to, the world was back to normal, and Arceus was waiting.

"The war," Keira grumbled, picking herself off the ground. "I knew that."

I See. I Believed Perhaps Not, But It Serves As The Beginning At Least. When Arceus-Zygarde Tried To Activate His Creation, Men And Magical Creature Stepped Forth To Stop Him. The Weapon Was Activated And The World Felt Something Coming.

To Break The Dimensions, It Takes More Than Just Power. It Takes More Than Just Effort. It Requires A Choice So Immense That The World Itself Will Be Truly Different Either Outcome. When These Occur, However Rarely, It Is Up To Me To Decide Whether They Remain.

Most Worlds Do Not. They Cannot Be Obliterated Entirely, But Realms Such As The Crystal Cave May Hold These Aberrations In Check.

In One World, AZ Was Stopped. How And Who, I Do Not Know. I Was Not There. However, I Saw The Aftermath—This World Remained Out Of A Curiosity Of Sorts. Humans Had Become So Integral To The World After The Shadow Entered Reality, Some Twenty Thousand Cycles Around The Star. But How May Things Have Gone Otherwise? With No Humanity To Keep It In Check

This Is Why This World Remained. Perhaps It Was A Mistake. When You Perished And Accepted The Task, The World Had Been Overrun By The Shadow's Corrupted Sort. I Sent You Some Five Hundred Years Back. That Was The First Time Reality Was Changed Here, A Small Enough Change That It Merely Altered What Was To Come Rather Than Tear It Entirely.

"That's how long I've been here?" Keira asked. "Five hundred years?"

No. That Was How Far You Were Sent. However, My Interference Brought New Disaster. An Asteroid Was Pulled Left Instead Of Right And Would Have Inflicted Utter Catastrophe. But In That Time, I Was Asleep, Believing Myself To Be Betrayed By Damos Yet Saved By Another, Ash.

"Then… how?"

My Interference Brought About The Dark Future. When You Were Sent Here, The Timeline Had Reached A Shadow Apex Of Horrors. That Was Terrible, But The World Could Be Saved. Thus, By Changing Time, A Sequence Of Events Led To A Worse Future. The Dark Future. When Time Was Altered So Greatly As To Prevent Time From Collapsing, That Was Enough To Destroy The Timeline. Thus, The World's Current Time Was Pulled Into Line With The Time Of The Others.

"My head's spinning," Keira groaned.

My Apologies.

"It's an answer at least," Keira grumbled. "Thanks for letting me know the Dark Future was my fault, though."

That Was Not What I Meant.

Arceus denied, shaking Its head.

Your Actions Served To Create A Civilisation That Led To The Capacity To Save It. My Actions Led To Time Collapsing. However Indirectly, However Distantly, It Can Be Appointed As My Blame, Not Yours.

"You can't just take everything as your fault," Keira protested.

Is That Not What You Have Done?

Keira couldn't reply to that.

It Is Strange, Keira. You And I Are Very Similar. We Both Carry The Weight Of The World On Our Backs. We Both Find That We Cannot Engage With The World We Fight So Hard To Preserve. Am I Correct?

"…Yes. You say you're not omniscient."

I Am Not. Yet, I Am Very Intelligent. Forgive A Creature For Its Arrogance, But I Can Infer Many Things Through Experience, Memory, And Logic.

"If you knew that The Shadow was so dangerous, why did you let things get this bad?" Keira asked next.

After Two Thousand Cycles Around The Life Star, Marcus' Attack Left Me Wounded, And I Had To Retreat For One Thousand Cycles Around The Life Star. The Legendary Creatures Of This World Had Already Made A Great Sacrifice Of Power To Empower The World To Hold The Shadow At Bay.

"So, that was true?"

Yes.

"Does that include you?"

No. When The World Splits, New Legendary Creatures Are Split To Manage It. However, I Am The Same Across All Realities.

"Even Giratina splits?"

Yes.

"If you're still so powerful, why haven't you done anything?"

The Same Question You Receive Yourself, Correct?

Keira frowned.

We Are Similar. However, Where Your Pain Comes From Fame And Worship, I Feel To Be Actually Cursed With Distance.

Let Me Tell You A Story, Keira. It Is A Story Of A Kingdom Of Man. Not A Prosperous Kingdom, No. This Was A Blighted Land of Famine And Illness. The Men And Magical Creature Cried Out For Help, But None Would Cast A Gentle Eye.

No Calyrex Or Landorus Heard. Or, If They Did, They Did Not Care.

I Knew It Was A Mistake To Intervene, I Knew It. But I Spend So Long Looking And Never Touching. Guiding Yet Never Following. Creating Yet Never Experiencing. I Wanted To Help, And I Did So Against My Better Judgement.

I Felt That I Could Mitigate Consequences. That In My Power And Wisdom I Could Account And Control Every Variable. I Was Wrong.

The Kingdom Grew Prosperous, Hymns Were Sung And Festivals Held, Of Which I Was Invited. I Grew Close With The People I Showed Them My Favour.

But I Could Not Do So Forever. Eventually, I Knew I Had To Leave. But The People Did Not Want Me To Leave. Not When I Could Continue Guiding Them. Not When I Could Continue Blessing Them. Not When They Had Grown To Depend On Me.

Keira's eyes widened as she felt something she never expected to, not with Arceus. Empathy. The realisation that It really was telling the truth when It said they were similar, if even in a small way.

"They couldn't handle you leaving them, so they turned on you?"

Arceus nodded.

Yes. I Do Not Blame Them For This Action, For Did I Not Teach Them To Do So? What Kind Creature, What Merciful 'God' Turns Its Back On Its Favoured Children? They Could Not Accept That I Had Realised I Had Allowed Them To Grow Spoiled, I Ignored The Decadence And Depravity Building. They Turned To Art When Their Needs Were Met.

And Then To Thrill.

Arceus appeared very sad for a moment that lasted an eternity. An ancient, aching sadness that permeated all that It was.

I Loved Them And They Me, But They Did Not Accept That I Turned Away Out Of Love. Things Had To Change, They Had To Stand And Work On Their Own. Yet, Other Lands Had Grown Jealous But Would Never Dare Attack With My Protection.

"And as soon as you turned away…"

Ruin Came To Them.

Water fell from the sky. Arceus did not cry, but It did not need to when the world itself felt Its grief.

Desperate To Save Them Again, I Returned And Stopped The Violence. Yet, This Merely Worsened The Problem. Now It Was Proven That I Had A Favoured Creation. More Jealousy, Vying For My Attention. I Wish I Could Liken It To Squabbling Children For A Parents Attention, But The Atrocities Committed Haunt Me Greater Than Any Fight Of Dialga And Palkia.

I Was Trapped. I Felt That I Could Not Leave Until I Did. I Drew Myself Together, Then I Banished My Compassion, And I Left Them To Die.

Keira bowed her head, hating how well she could understand Arceus at that moment.

I Knew The Names Of All Men, Woman, Other, And Child There. I Still Know Them. The Knowledge Can Never Leave Me.

"I'm sorry," Keira said. Arceus smiled at her; even without much of a face, she could see it was.

You Call Yourself Heartless, You Call Yourself A Bad Person. You Are Not, Keira.

Keira snorted. God, Itself apparently could say that, and she'd still repel it.

This Kingdom Was Named Arcaru. It Was Obliterated From History. The Two Of Us Are The Only Ones To Know Its Name.

"Did they name it after you?" Keira asked softly.

That They Did. Beforehand It Was Called Aca. I Protested The Change, Knowing What They Were Doing. Yet Alik And Saa And Charla Played Light Of The Name, Made It Less Reverence And More An Inside Joke. I Had Never Experienced Such A Thing, No Arceus Had.

It smiled again. Both sad and happy at the same time.

Even Now, There Are New Things For Even One Such As I To Experience.

Arceus eyes closed.

For That Is Part Of My Curse. Any Time I, Or A Previous Arceus, Has Intervened. Any Time We Have Shown Favour. Any Time We Have Simply Tried To Experience The World That Was Created By Us. It Turns To Ruin. An Artist Who Can Never See Their Art. A Musician Who May Never Hear Their Music. For If They Do? The Weight Of Lives And Pain Follows. That Pain, That Loneliness, The Distance Arceus Must Take From Its Own Creation, Ultimately Destroy It.

Keira understood. "And that's your answer for why you don't do anything. Not that you can't… and not that you don't want to."

Tell Me. Have There Been Times You Have Intervened To An Event That Ultimately Grew Dependent On You?

Keira snorted and then full-on laughed. "Still not omniscient?" she teased. "But damn smart, I guess. We are similar, truly insane that I can say that."

Do You Understand?

Her smile became crooked, bitter but also not. "Yeah. The fact that I think it's so strange is the problem. It's exactly what others feel about me, a figure of awe. A leader. A prophet. Never a friend. Never a companion. Just a figure to be idolised."

Few Ever Have Truly Understood This Burden, And Once More I Am Truly Sorry For Having You Carry It As Well.

She shook her head. "I did this to myself, made everyone rely on me. You could have warned me. But you can't take THAT blame on yourself either."

I Will Try.

"I find it hard to imagine there's anything you can't do perfectly," she said. "But, then again you can do everything right and still lose."

It Pleases Me That Are Growing More Comfortable. It Took Gabriel Three Duels To Be So Familar With Me. He Shared The First Meme, One Of A Meowth Requesting In Broken Human To Be Given A Cheeseburger. It Was Very Humurous.

"I'm surprised you know what a meme is." She blinked. "Gabriel… Felix's Gabriel?"

Yes. He Makes An Excellent Challenge In The Card Game He And Felix And Angie And Dawn Have Created.

Keira blinked again. "You're not speaking much sense."

It May Please You To Know That Your Card In The Game Is Exceptionally Powerful. I Was Defeated By A Force Gattling.

"Again… what?"

Nothing Important For Now. Are There Other Questions You Wish To Be Answered?

"There's the topic of me, and what The Shadow is…?"

The Reason You Were Asked Remains The Same. You Were The Perfect Choice. Purified And Thus Immune To The Shadow, With A Sense Of Humanity From Your Bond With Felix. You Could Shape The World, Give It The Humans Progressively Aggressive Touch While Being Safe.

And, Perhaps, I Believed Felix Deserved Not To Suffer The Pain Of Losing You Forever. He May Not Have Travelled Back In Time With Ash And Dawn To Save Me, But He Still Performed Admirably To Slow My Rampage.

Keira nodded in gratitude. "Thank you."

As For The Shadow. There Isn't Much That Is Worth Telling. It Is One Of The Monsters From Before. Possibly The Most Intelligent If You Can Consider It As Possessing Such Capacity In Any Regard. In A Sense You Could Consider It My Sibling. But It Cannot Create, Only I Can. It Can Only Corrupt And Destroy And Seeks To Do So To All. It Will Never Succeed. Not While Humans And Magical Creatures Such As Yourself Stand Against It.

"What about that? Humans… how does that work?"

The First Humans Who Stopped It When It Succeeded In Slipping Through My Defences Attained A Capacity To Dispel Its Malign Influence. Such A Useful Tool Spread Quickly With Some Guidance From Us. Humanity Is Not Immune To Its Power, But When Split Across Billions Of Bodies Its Power Is Reduced Only To The Few That Have Already Been Taken. Or Those Few Madmen Who Use Technology To Draw It In. Such As What Happened To You.

"Okay. I have just one last question."

Speak Freely.

"Michina Town. How did an asteroid nearly kill you?"

For the first time, she saw Arceus hesitate. Then It spoke.

You Recall What I Said Of Loneliness? Ultimately, The Death Of Most Arceus Are Self-Inflicted

Keira didn't outwardly react to that at first, staring down at Arceus' golden shoes before slowly raising her eyes to meet Its eyes. "…I had wondered," she admitted, mouth dry. "How a meteor of all things nearly killed you. It seemed… unbelievable, especially since Rayquaza's job is to blow them up."

A Role Rayquaza Are Built To Do.

Arceus reminded gently.

I Cannot Control Time Or Space Perfectly, Those Are Dialga And Palkia's Domains.

"But a meteor?" Keira asked. She pursed her lips and glanced away. "I guess it makes sense, if you are all types at once you WOULD be weak to Rock." She glanced away. "You just told me the truth anyway." A pregnant pause held between them before she just said it. "You were trying to die."

Arceus nodded.

Pathetic, Is It Not? I Lasted A Mere Few Million Years. My Predecessors Lasted Far Longer Than That, The Previous Was Even One Of The Two Who Did Not Die Intentionally, But I Could Not Handle It Anymore. I Saw Fit To Die Saving A Place I Had Never Known

Another pause held between them.

It Was Not The Returning Of My Plate That Saved Me. It Was Damos.

The name was spoken with something truly heavy in it. Yet… not overwhelming in misery. It was a deep and lasting nostalgia that sunk around one's shoulders but hugging like a long-missed friend rather than crushing like an enemy.

Damos Saved My Life By Pulling Me Away From My True Killer. Loneliness.

It cocked its head slightly, observing Keira as her lips thinned and trembled slightly.

Yet Another Similarity Between You And I. That Enemy. I Admit That It Is Cowardly Of Me To Want To Kill Myself, As I Merely Place The Burden Onto The Next Arceus. Truly, I Admire Giratina. In Each Reality, Giratina Has Never Died. It Is The Only Being To Have Lasted For All Of Creation.

Keira was quiet. She swallowed. She had no idea what to say.

Do Not Concern Yourself With Me, Keira. Despite These Words, Damos, My Chosen - Azai And Zaia - Ash, Gabriel, Felix, And More. They Have Taught Me That Life Can Be Experienced. Perhaps Not In The Way I Truly Want, But I Have Recently Learned That Simple Games Do Not Constitute Interference. If I Ensure Privacy, And Trust, I Can Know What Companionship Is Like.

At Least Briefly. The Shadow Is Not The Only Monster That Tries To Break Into All That Is. Perhaps It Is The Most Cunning, But Others Pound On The Door And I Cannot Step Away From My Duties For Long.

"I'm taking up your time then?" Keira said. It shook Its head, but she pushed on. "I've asked what I wanted to ask… just two other things. Scout, are you responsible for him?"

I Do Not Know That Being.

"He's a meowth. He's got a perception of the world, all our worlds, as a form of media from his own, where this is all fictional. A video game, anime, made up."

I Do Not Know, I Am Sorry. Even I Can Hardly Fathom The Full Extent Of Reality. And I Am Merely One. I Exist The Same Across All, But I Do Not Exist In All At Once. And As I Said. I Am Not Omniscient, There Are Things I Do Not Know. The Corralling Of Alternate Realities Into The Mirror Caves Was A Necessity For I Cannot Examine Them All At Once. This Form Is Me, The Same That You Are You.

"Fair enough. Okay. I'm ready… I want to see Felix again. How?"

Then We Are Reaching The Conclusion Of This Time Together. What I Have To Tell You May Not Be To Your Liking, However.

She tensed.

Dimensional Travel Suffers Strict, Unbreakable, Rules. To Go To A New World, The Only Way To Go Back Is The Same.

Keira was silent.

Then she realised. "I have to die?"

Arceus nodded.

Slain By Kyurem And Asha And Your Soul Acquired By Me Before The Choice. I Offered You A Different One, I Reconstructed You Then, Here.

"That's not so bad then; I'm sure you could take me out in two or three hits," she joked. "Might have to take you on in a battle to be sure!"

I Hear Your Jest, Keira.

"I'm not joking."

A Battle Is Not Necessary. But If You Desire One?

She smiled softly and then shook her head. "No, I think I'm all battled out today." She perked up. "Does this mean I won't be all worn down and such?"

I'm Afraid Here Is Where We Discuss What I Meant. You May Not Like This. But, When I Brought You Before, You Were Young. You Were Eleven Cycles Around The Life Star. In Order To Pull You From One Reality To Another, Send You Back In Time, And Reconstruct You As You Were. Things Were Simpler.

She grew still.

In Order To Retain Yourself, You Had To Be Able To Hold Onto It. At Your Age, This Was Simpler. Your Will Is Truly Great. However, You Are Many More Hundred Cycles Around The Star. I Can Reduce You To Your Essence, I Can Take You Back To The World That Is Your Home. But If You Remember Yourself Or Not, That Is Up To You. I Am Sorry It Was Under Such Violence That You Transferred, Others Have Far Kinder Paths, Yours Was Never An Easy Path.

Keira's mouth had fallen open slightly, and her vision blurred. "You mean I might forget Felix? Forget Cara?"

Arceus knelt to Its knees and met her gaze.

That Is Up To You. I Believe Your Will Is Great, What You Truly, Truly, Want To Hold Close To Your Heart, You Must Hold Close Indeed. I Will Give You Time To Think, To Dwell, And Gather What You Most Want To Keep. I Cannot Aid You, It Is No One's Ability To Do So Besides Yours. Gather Your Cherished Thoughts, Gather Your Love. Once You Have It, Never Let It Go And It Will Go To You To Your Next Life.

Keira held still for a moment. Or maybe a lifetime. It was strange to be in Arceus' presence.

What would she forget? The horrors she'd delivered? The laughter with Felix? The deaths of innocents? Cara's laugh? Dancer's Jokes? The hardships? The bonds?

She could abandon all the pain and hold onto what was good but thought against that. It was part of what made her, her. Not everything she had to remember, even here and now in Arceus' presence opening her mind, she couldn't remember everything.

"I know what I want to keep," she said, closing her eyes. "My life with Felix. It was only ten years, but I've held onto that for centuries; it's what kept me going here. It's why I'm here, to go back to him. I want to remember Cara; I want to remember these last few weeks in Treasure Town with those wackjobs. I want to remember making mistakes; I want to remember doing good. I don't want to be The Legendary Lucario, but she's still me."

She paused. "I do want to forget seeing an alternate reality Sirius fucking that blaziken, though. That still haunts me. Why would that even exist in any reality ever? Ugh."

Once You Are Ready.

She took a breath in. Felix. Everything, everything she could. She knew she'd forgotten much over the centuries, but she held onto what was most important.

She remembered him saving her.

She remembered battling Brock. Ash. She remembered battling Lewis, Tobias. She was the lucario who defeated three legendary pokémon. She remembered learning Bone Rush from Brian, defeating Adrien, losing to Sahara. Chatting with Lilith. She remembered just laughing.

Just a day. Somewhere on the road. Where? What region even, she had no idea. It was her and Felix; she couldn't remember who else might have been there. There was nothing special, but they were laughing. Just laughing. She pushed him off the table and he kept on laughing.

That tiny moment. She would never give up.

She remembered Treasure Town, Team Ion and Sunrise. She remembered Cara. Everything about Cara. Her student. Her friend. Searching dungeons with him. Teaching him how to fight, to tell her to shove off when she was being stupid. About searching Blizzard Island every single year, from top to bottom. She remembered Dancer, her friend, her link, the person filled with dreams and passion to make the world a better place.

She wished she could hang onto everything; she also was relieved she wouldn't. There was so much, and she wanted to be able to sleep without nightmares of failures, of holding the world on her shoulders.

Really, she knew Arceus had no choice, but It was being kind anyway. To forget being The Legendary Lucario was the second greatest gift It could provide.

"Okay," she said, breathing out. She took another in. "I'm ready."

Close Your Eyes.

She did so, her last sight being Arceus rising up and taking a step forward. She heard, felt, knew the sound of it walking towards her.

Against all wishes, she did feel scared.

"Will it hurt?" she asked softly. She had died so painfully the first time.

No, It'll Be Just Like Slipping Off To Sleep.

She smiled. "Will you make sure Felix finds me?"

I Will Let Him Know How To Find You.

Her heart was beating, but not pounding. Arceus was gentle, even if she still felt a little afraid. Ice and fire, hatred overwhelming love and shame. She had died choosing hate over everything else. Now she would die choosing him, like she always should have done.

Arceus took another step, and she felt It move in closer. She took one last breath.

She raised her paws, feeling Arceus before her. Her paws sunk into fur as soft as a dream and felt like she pulled Its head before her. She felt the golden crest touch her faded fur, the softness of Its head, and then-

.

Arceus laid Keira down gently. Her eyes closed peacefully, her limbs slowly relaxing until she was lying on her back. She did not take another breath.

Arceus gazed at Keira as a bright mote of light drew out from her. The light floated up to Its crest and bounced off it before floating around It happily.

You May Enter.

Arceus said, and from the faded entryway, Carapace entered.

He looked up at the creator and then to where Keira lay. He raised a pincer to his face as a sob choked out of his chest. Uncaring of Arceus, he ran over and knelt by her body, feeling her before curling over her in grief.

The mote floated away from Arceus and bounced off Carapace. Then again, when he didn't react. Then again until he looked up. It floated around him happily, brushing up against the line on his face softly and perching itself on his head before Arceus made a sound.

Almost abashed, the mote floated back to It.

"Can I… take her body?" Cara asked, voice wet and tears falling.

Of Course, Carapace. I Know You Will Ensure A Burial.

Cara swallowed and another sob wracked through him. He couldn't wipe his face, and the tears kept falling. "I know this is right, but it still hurts so much, she's gone, she's gone, she's-" he babbled. He looked up as the mote bounced off him again, almost aggressively. A smile ghosted onto his face, and he raised a pincer. It lit up the eyemark on his pincer before doing another spin around his head.

"She's… happy."

Arceus nodded.

This Is Not Her End.

"Will I… will I ever see her again?"

I Cannot Say For I Do Not Know. But Stranger Things Have Happened.

Arceus smiled kindly at Cara as he picked up Keira's body. She looked like she was sleeping. He knew she wasn't. She'd be frowning if she were because of nightmares and pain in her legs. She looked… peacefully happy, a lasting smile on her face.

"Then just let her know that I'll take care of things," Cara said. "And I will try and find her."

She Knows. She Looks Forward To Battling You Again. A Rather Aggressive Lucario, She Is.

Cara laughed until he cried and then cried until he laughed.

Farewell.

By the time Cara looked up again, Arceus and the mote were gone. The remains of a portal the same that he'd seen earlier, curling out with ribbons of energy, was fading away in the sky.

He bowed his head and carried her body down and buried her near the foot of Destiny Tower. Away from where they'd fought.

He scratched an encryption into a common stone.

Keira

You Will Be Remembered

You Brought The World Together

And taught us to live

Until we meet again​

---

Thus concludes the story of The Legendary Lucario. But that was never who Keira was, just who she had to be for a while.

In the first time I wrote this, I talked for a while on how Keira was a bit of a divisive character. I did some mistakes with her the very first time, things you won't find in the old version anymore either but were there long enough to leave a mark.

But that's not what we're here to talk about now.

I won't waffle on as long in this version. Keira and Carapace, I had a less good grasp on Keira's ancient anguish when I first wrote this chapter, I did more writing for her on other stuff and I learned better just how truly tired she was. The hardest parts of her journey weren't the fights, weren't killing Shadow Pokemon she couldn't save, it wasn't even her final battle with Cara. No, the hardest part was the exhaustion.

I cannot imagine what it is truly like to live for hundreds of years with a Sisyphean task that is both creator and destroyer at the same time. Keira had her ups and downs over the decades, but the hardest point was when she stopped caring. And she did. She acts like she doesn't care in the story as we see, but she does. She cares way too much. She likes being strong. She needs to be needed. But after so many years of struggling and feeling like it would never end, it did more than jade her.

She eventually stopped caring. The numbness was crushing, all-consuming. Her drive was the last reason Arceus chose her for this task, but even a will like hers can falter after literal centuries where it seems like there is no progress, no sign you're getting close, and carrying so much self-hatred for what she did. She burned everything to keep herself going. Even her self-hatred, she even exhausted that drive by the time Cara crawled his way into her heart.

Now. It was never romantic, more brotherly, same with Dancer who came shortly after Cara. Killing Dancer felt like killing Felix and then Cara left her to 'take some space' and then vanished for forty years. Sadly, they really didn't have any other option with Dancer, the story has never gone into the why and I probably never will, it's something that's better left to the imagination. But I can tell you that Keira's aura bond latches onto specific people. It latched onto Felix and gave him the ability to understand pokemon, but it takes as well and it eroded his humanity and gave it to her. The bond takes the best parts of who it latches to and replaces it with the worst parts of Keira. And after so many years, what it imparted into Dancer was monstrously terrible. It was as much a mercy kill as it was anything else.

Farewell Keira. I'm glad I got to write you again, again. To the emotional feels when Felix is able to reunite with you! I really do need to get to that in Roundabouts, ahaaaa... it's been years since I originally wrote this, oof.

This is the prologue to Arc 3. The Legendary Lucario is no longer in the picture, the world is... less safe :)

For those who know what, WHO, is coming, brace yourself. She is gonna be even more.

And for those who don't, get ready. Because Arc 3 is the best one!

Lastly, enjoy some post-credits~

---

Things were cramped but warm and comfortable. Movement. Strange. Warmth, more of it.

"I noticed you have a team of five. I thought you might appreciate the gift. She, I've been able to have that confirmed, should still fit your theme and even be a little of me. She's a riolu, reach lucario, and you'll have a Steel-type yourself!"

"O-oh, Ch-Chairman, I cannot possibly-"

"It's already done, Oleana. Now, raise her well."

"Thank you. Thank you so much."

)()()()()()(​

Arceus stood Above.

It felt concerned.

Keira had done well, and yet….

Something yet felt wrong. The Shadows were at an all-time low. But they continued to crop up, no matter how severely cut down they had been in that world.

It felt concern. And perhaps… fear. An echo of laughter in the light of that weapon lingered in Its mind.

Perhaps something yet was still driving things.

)()()()()()(​

Cara bowed his head as he explained to the local branch leaders, Xatu, Archeops, and Gengar, what had become of Lucario.

They did not want to believe him, but why would he lie?

It was agreed not to let this information spread. Simple let Lucario be lost to myth and memory, no one knowing for sure that she had passed.

Sean and Scout toasted to her name, privately. Unaware of eyes upon them.

)()()()()()(​

The connection faded and a confused frown, or perhaps smile, wormed over Her face.

If Lucario really was dead….

It seemed things really could start in earnest now. No more sneaking. The finale had begun.

The sky would fall.

But first, She had a gravesite to visit.