Emiri Virray

{Ch. 1: The Beginning and A New World Order (Click)}Emiri started her journey around the age of twelve where she met her long time friend Aku who had started with a Squirtle just around the same time. They had made their way for a few days around Pallet Town and Viridian City, where in Viridian City Emiri had her first run in with Team Rocket. At the time, she had only her Charmander that she received from Professor Oak, her childhood Bulbasaur, and her Scyther that had followed her from her ranch, and didn't think that she would be able to fend off the grunts, but she defeated them. Emiri was getting ready to leave Viridian City when everything around her stopped, as if time itself had been frozen, which in fact it had because the ruler of time, Shiny Dialga, had come to challenge her. In that point in time, Emiri was supposed to have been defeated by the Team Rocket grunts and become a part of Team Rocket herself and would become a great evil to the world, but the Dialga had missed that point in time because it didn't happen when Emiri defeated the grunts herself. After she defeated the Dialga in slight fear and not knowing what he had come for, the Dialga decided to come with Emiri for a time as her guardian.

Spending a day or two in Viridian City, Emiri and her friend Aku, and a new friend they had met along the way were moving to Pewter City to prepare for their first gym challenge, but upon entering the main of the city, it had almost been completely destroyed by living fossils that had started attacking everything and everyone. The fossils were almost impossible to defeat because they weren't actually alive and were only made of bone and had no weaknesses, and after almost being killed by some of the fossils because they were so strong and Emiri and her Pokemon could only do so much, the fossils stopped attacking and all fell apart like they weren't being controlled any more. Pewter city was almost completely abandoned then because of the attacking fossils, and everything was quiet, and amongst the dusty bones of a Kabutops fossil, Emiri found a teal winged amulet with a ruby stone in the middle, as did many of her friends, and just as an entire fleet of ice and water type Pokemon started flooding Pewter City, the amulet transported Emiri and her Pokemon to Celedon City.

Unbeknownst to Emiri and her friends that had been taken to Celedon City, just like Pewter, Celedon was being attacked but by rock and fighting type Pokemon. Upon being transported there, Emiri and her Pokemon had almost gotten trampled by a rampaging Onix, and had to fend off several of the Pokemon before they all finally retreated. Celedon City had almost been entirely ruined, but Emiri and her friends, and the other trainers that gathered there had tried to keep everything from being destroyed. During a time of respite when all seemed like it was over, Dialga released himself from his pokeball and was trying to tell Emiri what was going on in the world. He tried to communicate with her through his connection to time, showing her visions of the past and what was happening in the present all over the world. Little did she and her friends know that some parts of the world were in complete discord and there were events in the past that lead up to everything that was happening right then, but Dialga was transferring too much of his power and knowledge to the small human girl and Emiri blacked out.

Emiri woke up in the Pokemon Center in Celedon a few hours later with her friends who had taken her there, but she had little time to rest afterwards as Articuno had landed in Celedon City and was attacking everything. The trainers fought to subdue him, but they soon learned that he was not there out of anger but in distress because of all of the chaos happening in the world. Zapdos and Moltres were also somewhere in Kanto in distress, but were reunited with Articuno in Celedon City where Emiri soon realized that because Dialga shared some of his being with her, his being being that of Pokemon, she could understand Pokemon speech and was given further information about what was going on from Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres. Emiri and the other trainers found out that Lance, the Johto Champion and expert dragon trainer had found all the pieces of a mythical sword that had been destroyed and guarded by legendary Pokemon all over the world, and had forged it together with the three orbs of reality from Mt. Coronet using the fires of Stark Mountain. That blade had the power and ability to bend the very fabrics of time and space to his liking, and the world as they knew it would be destroyed if Lance wasn't stopped.

Zapdos, Articuno, and Moltres left Celedon City then with Lugia and Ho-Oh who had come to the Kanto region to aid in the chaos that was ensuing, where Emiri and the other trainers were trying to figure out their next step of action. Over the next day or two, they split up to gather as much information about their new opponents as they could, knowing that the Kanto Elite Four, Bruno, Agatha, and Lorelei were aiding Lance in his plans. Emiri and her friend Aku went to Blackthorn City to visit with Clair and get all the information they could about Lance, and met up then with the rest of their group in Fuschia City, or what was left of it. Fuschia City, like Saffron and Vermillion City too they later found out, was completely leveled, nothing but a patch of dirt and dust. No one knew exactly what caused this to happen, but before any of them could question, two vicious Kingdra attacked the shore they had met on.

Fending off the Kingdra, they discovered that they belonged to Lance, and followed them for miles into the ocean to an uncharted island in the southern Kanto ocean. There on the island, Emiri and the other trainers spent a good few hours scouting the island for any dangers or any sign of Lance or the other E4 members, but came up empty. They all met back on the shore when they were ambushed by a thick gas and an enormous thunderbolt that almost fried them all. As soon as the gas faded though, they found Janine, Sabrina, and Lt. Surge who too were on the island trying to find out what was going on, and thought their group was a threat. After much deliberation and convincing the gym leaders that they were there to help, the gym leaders agreed to let the trainers help them and they were split into teams because the leaders had the locations of the E4 members Lorelei, Agatha, and Bruno and recruited them for help. Some of the trainers went with Sabrina and her Alakazam, some of the trainers went with Surge and his Electivire, and others went with Janine and her Venomoth, but Emiri and her friend Kaya were told by Sabrina to go further down the shore of the island.

Emiri and Kaya moved further down the island like they were told and met up with Giovanni, the ex leader of Team Rocket who too had made his way to the island to investigate and to put a stop to what was happening in the world. Through reluctance and ensuring that Kaya and Emiri wouldn't let Giovanni get away with anything, they moved up the mountain's summit in the middle of the island where they found Lance himself and two of his Dragonair waiting for them. Kaya, Emiri, and Giovanni found out that Lance's plan through all of this with the mythical blade was to create a new world where Pokemon weren't slaves to humans, even if that meant destroying the world and everyone in it to do so. With every intention of not letting that happen, Emiri and Kaya fought with Giovanni to defeat Lance and his Dragonair.

It was a grueling battle, one Emiri and her Pokemon were not ready for since they were still so new to training and the like, but with Kaya's help and Giovanni too, they'd just managed to defeat the two dragons, but the battle was long from over. Run down, beat up, and just as exhausted as they were, the other trainers, Emiri's friends and the gym leaders all made it up to the summit of the mountain to finish what they started. However, Lance was not done had had his entire team of trained dragons, and there was another battle to try and bring Lance down, though this was no ordinary battle. In the midst of battling Lance's dragons, the dragon master himself was using the mythical blade in order to attack the trainers and their Pokemon to do more damage. The blade had it's own power beyond any they could fathom, and was devastating in it's attacks. On one such time when Lance had gathered his energy to use the blade, he aimed it at Emiri's Ivysaur as the grass type was engulfed in a sickening toxic green glow and when the light faded, he was no longer an Ivysaur, but a Bulbasaur, weak and unable to remain conscious because his entire life force had almost been drained from him.

The rest of the battle against Lance and his dragons was brutal and more than Emiri and her friends had ever hoped to encounter. The blade was devastating in each attack that it issued with it's power, nearly killing some of their Pokemon, but just when they might have thought that they wouldn't make it, Lance's last dragon fell, and all was quiet. Lance thought he was defeated, and the group was ready to take him away, but he began to argue with the blade as if it were a sentient being, and in a blinding light and a massive quake of the ground, Lance was gone and the trainers were left on the mountain summit, though they were no longer on the island. Instead they were on a spit of land floating in space, but what they soon realized was that they weren't in space, but in another dimension, the realm of time where they could see Fuschia City, Saffron City, and Vermillion City floating in the distance, frozen in time and the reason why Sabrina, Surge, and Janine were fighting so hard to defeat Lance, but the leaders were no longer atop the severed summit either.

Confused, scared, and unsure of what they were to do then, the trainers faced the blade that still remained before them when a stream of thick black tendrils started to ooze from the artifact, and as the trainers stood, unable to fathom what could be happening, the tendrils began to take form until a grotesque monster stood towering above them. It had the face of a feline with a giant gaping maw of razor teeth and tattered, filthy matted black fur that faded into what was either scales or it's exposed rotting skin towards the back of it's body where it became more serpentine. It's front paws were massive with a set of razor claws on each, and it's eyes were empty and soulless with a sinister glare that was set upon the trainers. An enormous set of bony tattered wings took the shape at it's shoulders, and standing then before them was the sentient spirit of the mythical blade, the being that was truly trying to ruin and destroy their world for it's own.

Emiri and the trainers had little choice but try and fight lest they wanted to be killed where they stood, and so with their remaining Pokemon banning together, they fought with all they had left after all the grueling battles they'd faced already. The monster had horrific strength and was attacking with forces beyond their imaginings and one by one it started taking out their Pokemon, but the more they fought, the weaker the beast grew, until the glowing green gem that was embedded in it's forehead shattered. With it's power weakened, the trainers found that they had help then, Mew came and started fighting with them, one of the legendaries that had been guarding a piece of the mythical blade. All still seemed hopeless as the beast attacked Dialga and the legendary fell, leaving Emiri and Azuran almost defenseless, but as they tried to stand their ground and fight with their friends, the beast's wings broke from it's shoulders, another sign of it's weakening power. Kyogre and Groudon then managed to make their way to the realm, another set of legendaries who were each guarding another piece of the blade, the two guardians fighting with their strength and will combined with that of the trainers who were fighting with them.

The trainers continued to fight with their Pokemon despite the monster's horrendous power, and as they weakened the beast further, Lugia and Heatran were there to aid, the last two legendaries who had guarded the final pieces of the blade. Together with the legendary Pokemon, the trainers fought as hard as they could despite their dwindling numbers, but the monster was going to fight till it's last breath. It roared and snarled at the gathered forces, beginning to charge for the trainers as it tore up the rocky ground beneath it's paws, but the five legendaries caught it in it's charge, assaulting the monster with a myriad of attacks, pinning it to the ground and trying to subdue it as time and space seemed to distort around the spirit. It's very image started to flicker as it fought and bit and clawed at whatever it could grab, attacking the legendaries, but it's strength was receding, an energy surging out of it's body as from it's shattered gem the lustrous, griseous, and adamant orbs were released. With a final shudder, the frozen cities around them flickered and were gone, and there was a crack as the volcano's summit was ripped back through the dimensions and thrust back onto the peak of the island, where everything fell quiet.

The blade was gone, the monster was gone, the legendaries and Lance and the gym leaders were all gone, it was just the beaten and disheveled trainers and their Pokemon left on the summit, and for a moment, they all wondered if it might really be over until the mountain shook again beneath their feet, and a spray of lava came up from a shattering crack in the ground, but just when they might have thought the volcano was going to swallow them due to it being disrupted from reality distortion, the lava calmed and dispersed, and from the ashes that sprayed into the air, a set of shimmering silver and gold wings emerged, glittering and shining in the setting sunlight around them. A young Ho-Oh had been watching the trainers then, through their strife and battles, knowing that this group of trainers was amongst the purest he'd ever seen in the world, and as legend says, the phoenix flies all around the world searching for a trainer with the purest heart so that he might join them in their travels, so his gaze set upon each trainer that stood before him then, assessing which one had the purest heart and which was worthy of his companionship.

After surveying the trainers in front of him and taking each into special consideration, the young Ho-Oh had set his gaze on Emiri, and after making his decision he was carefully placed inside of a Pokeball as a part of Emiri's family. The trainers then were left to their own devices, the battle over and the world calm as it slowly returned to normal after the distortions of time and space, and despite the feeling that nothing would ever be the same again after experiencing what they had, Emiri and her friend Aku wanted to take some time to themselves to rest and recuperate after such a devastating experience. Saying their goodbyes to their new life long friends, and after leaving her amulet on the summit of the island until she felt comfortable reliving those memories again, Emiri and her friend made their way back to Pewter City using his amulet.

{Ch. 2: Growth and Development (Click)}After separating from her friend Aku, Emiri spent a few weeks in Pewter City resting and trying to cope with everything she had experienced on the island, the monster that she had to face. While it was a relief to have it all over and to know that they had taken care of it all, there was always an underlying doubt that it might not actually be over since they don't know what happened to the blade, and because of the power that Dialga shared with her, Emiri's memory began to become very vivid to her in which she was almost reliving those experiences as more than nightmares, like an alternate reality. It was becoming a bit much for her to handle, but she tried to work through it as she spent her time in Pewter, occupying herself instead with working with her Pokemon who too were trying to cope with all that had happened, leaving them scarred and broken, but they pressed on.

One day moving around the Pewter Museum, Emiri happened upon an old broken Metagross that had been shut down for an unknown amount of time, and when she reactivated it, it rebooted with a new memory circuit. Emiri, having since been trying to get a grasp on her new connection to time and memories, tried to find the Metagross' memories of what happened and why it was there, but it's memory was broken, damaged in a sense since the Pokemon was a computer, and she wanted to try and help figure out how and why it got there. Emiri spent the next week or so traveling from Kanto into the Hoenn region to visit Professor Birch and see if he had any ideas on how to fix the steel type since it was native to his region, but while the Professor was out, she left the Metagross with an assistant for the time being and moved outside from the laboratory.

When Emiri moved outside, after having a strange vision of darkness and shadows and a looming tower, she was met with an old friend, Alex, one of the friends she made while trying to defeat Lance a month or two ago, but this time around he looked different and felt different. He was wearing dark clothes and had a strange mask on, and his Pokemon too seemed edgy and off, but before they could catch up with each other, a gust of wind blew at them until two envelopes landed at their feet, one with Emiri's name on it and one with Alex's name. They picked them up and opened them, though unbeknownst to them, they were laced with a dark energy that transported them to another realm. As soon as she had opened the envelope, Emiri was gone from Littleroot Town and was outside still, but now her feet were sinking in mud as she found herself underneath a thick dark canopy of branches and vines, surrounded by a rain forest.

Scared and unsure of what was happening, Emiri had only the instinct to try and find out where she was, so she took Azuran who broke through the canopy of the trees and started into the air, but they only found that the rain forest went on for miles around them and past that as a thick hazy fog surrounded them at the edges of their line of sight. Skirting along the edges of the trees, Emiri and Azuran got attacked by a Tangla that trapped them in the branches and vines of a tree, but they were soon freed as Azuran defeated the Tangela and Venusaur helped them to the ground. They found out then that the Pokemon in this environment were territorial and aggressive, so they chose to stay on the ground as Emiri and Venusaur trudged through the trees.

Eventually Emiri found Alex again who too had been transported to the rain forest from the envelope he received, and they spent the next few hours moving through the rain forest and trying to figure out how to get out or where they were, at the same time that Alex's Grovyle was telling Emiri that they had been defeated by a Team Rocket recruiter and were forced to join the organization unless they wanted to lose their lives. Team Rocket had sent Alex on an assignment with the intention of having him report back on whether or not Emiri was in possession of Dialga and Ho-Oh, her two guardians, and though Emiri was mortified at this, with the knowledge that Team Rocket was targeting her and using her friend to get at her, Emiri and Alex promised that they would fix this and get him out of Team Rocket no matter what, though they had to get out of the rain forest first.

After a tough battle with an enormous Tangrowth, Emiri and Alex caught sight of a staircase in the distance, and as they flew up and through the fog, hoping to find a way out of the rain forest, they were met with ash and smoke as they were now in the middle of a raging fire. There was fire and smoke and ash everywhere as far as they could see, though that wasn't as far as they would like considering the smoke, and the heat was almost unbearable, but with Zaron out who inspected the flames, he came to find that while very realistic and very believable, it was all a very elaborate illusion. The flames weren't real, the smoke wasn't real, this place was just in a perpetual state of being on fire as nothing was burning away into ashes. Eventually Azuran landed finally and Emiri and Zaron began to move through the smoke and ash, hoping to find a way out.

After hours of shuffling through doors and hallways through ash and burning smoke, Emiri and Zaron had finally managed to find another staircase that lead them up and out and into an underwater paradise for some, but an utter nightmare for Emiri being trapped in an underwater temple. It seemed like there was a giant air bubble that the temple was in, but before Emiri could do any real searching in hopes of getting out or before her nerves kicked in and she couldn't handle being underwater anymore, everything went black and she wound up in Littleroot Town again. Emiri didn't have the slightest idea about what had happened or what the invitation from the Shadow Master meant, or why they'd ended up in a rain forest, then a burning building and an underwater temple, and even though she was ecstatic to be out and in Littleroot Town again, she couldn't shake the horrified feeling of knowing that she had been trapped where ever she was, and didn't know if it would ever happen again.

They were in another realm then, Emiri had figured out, because while it had maybe only been the better part of a day that they spent in the rainforest and the burning building, it had been a few days in real time that she and Alex had been gone. Getting her wits back and trying hard not to think too hard about anything unless she wanted to get worked up again, Emiri picked up the Metagross from Professor Birch's Lab with little avail in restoring his memory, and she and Alex took another week to get back to Pallet Town in the Kanto Region.

They spent the next few days traveling through Southwestern Kanto to move on to start their gym challenges, while Charmeleon was getting even more and more suspicious of Alex and what he was there to do because his Purrloin said something about Team Rocket. By the time they got to Viridian City a few days later, Charmeleon had interrogated Alex's Weavile and found out what she thought to be the real reason Alex was following them around and was furious that he was there, that Emiri hadn't told her everything, that Emiri trusted Alex more than she did her own partner, and in the midst of Viridian City, Charmeleon ran away. During an argument though that Alex was having with Charmeleon due to the mask that he wore that was capable of manipulating the auras of Pokemon so that he could understand them, and with part of Emiri's make up being part Pokemon because of her guardian Dialga, the dark energy of the mask was causing damage to Emiri as well as their other Pokemon. The mask was only an experimental technology to begin with, but since Team Rocket wasn't above the abuse of Pokemon, physically or mentally, the mask was a dark and toxic aura that when fueled by anger got worse and worse until eventually Emiri passed out from the over exposure.

Emiri came to a few minutes later, being left with Alex's Grovyle while he and the rest of his Pokemon had gone in search of Charmeleon who had run off. They spent the next few hours looking for Charmeleon until Alex found her on the outskirts of the city. Eventually Alex and Charmeleon came to apologize to each other, and they made their way back into the city where they met Emiri back at the Pokemon Center. Emiri and Charmeleon made their promise then to each other that they would trust each other no matter what, and that they would never leave each other for anything, a promise that would hold true for years to come unbeknownst to them. After spending the night in Viridian City and moving out towards Pewter City over the next few days, Emiri finally had a chance to challenge her first gym leader and earn her first badge against Brock.

A few days later, Emiri and Alex made their way to Cerulean City in order for Emiri to challenge Misty, and afterwards they separated saying their goodbyes, and Emiri then spent almost the next year traveling through Kanto and Southern Sinnoh training and earning gym badges. Her Charmeleon evolved into a Charizard after they'd defeated Erika in Celedon City, and a few months later after they'd challenged and defeated Sabrina, Emiri had gotten some terrible news that some of her companions that she had fought along side to defeat Lance had passed away. It was so surreal for her, knowing that she'd met them and knew them not months before, and now they were gone. She didn't quite know how to cope with the loss, and still to this day doesn't quite understand how to deal with loss, but Emiri flew out to that island in the southern Kanto ocean and retrieved her amulet that still remained tucked away in the same crevice she had put it in, and started her journey north to the Sinnoh Region to visit their home in Floaroma town like she had promised to.

{Ch. 3: The Real World Strikes Again (Click)}After paying her respects, receiving news that her friend Alex had been killed in a rock slide after his Pokemon had come to find her so they had somewhere to go, and spending some time in the Sinnoh Region, Emiri woke up one morning in a Pokemon Center and was greeted by chaos and frantic trainers everywhere as they were trying and failing to access their PC systems. Apparently all the PC systems in Kanto, Johto, Hoenn, and Sinnoh had gone out and were inaccessible to the trainers who'd stored their Pokemon there, and it was creating mass panic. Emiri too began to panic, when she heard word that a cottage burned down north of Cerulean City, where Bill the creator of the PC system lived and that he had gone to the police station in a hysteric frenzy. Emiri wasn't sure what this all meant, and wasn't sure what she could do, but Emiri traveled as fast as she could back to the Kanto Region in hopes of being able to help somehow.

Emiri and Charizard flew north to Cerulean City, coming up on the cape at the north end of the Kanto Region, where they saw what had to be the burnt remnants of Bill's cottage. They flew in the direction of the large black expanse covered in charred wood and ash, and as they landed, through the dust clouds and ash, they heard voices and footsteps milling about. There was arguing going on, something about one of their partners being eaten, and another voice arguing that they couldn't mess up their opportunity. Emiri caught a glimpse of a black Pokeball before the voices said to transport it over the Rocket PC system, and before Emiri could make her pursuit, she was cornered by two other Rocket Grunts.

After a difficult battle that Charizard and Rhydon had managed to come through, Emiri made her way back to the main of Cerulean City in hopes of being able to find someone that would believe her. She made her way to the police station and asked to talk to an officer right away because she had information about Team Rocket, and was met with an officer and Bill himself who too was at the station. Emiri explained what she had seen and heard from the Rockets when she'd landed at Bill's plot of land, and though Emiri didn't know the entire extent of what had happened prior to this, Bill and the officer took in the information given to them and added to their growing report thus far. Bill thanked Emiri for her report, and requested that she might stay in Cerulean for a short time while they try to work on an official report to send to the public to call all able bodied trainers to Cerulean City to help the situation. Emiri agreed, and stayed in Cerulean, and a few hours later, a formidable group of trainers had gathered at Bill's announcement around the world, her cousin Rhienne and her cousin's friend Mika included.

The same officer who had helped Emiri with her report with Bill called all the trainers to the front of the Cerulean Police Station where Bill was waiting for them for a sort of briefing on the situation. There Bill explained that during a hacking that was trying to take over the PC system, and while Bill was trying to combat it, there was yet another source that was trying to infiltrate the system, and all of those sources combined created a glitch in the system that was manifested out of the PC system, something that the officers had taken to calling Missingno, the missing number error. It wasn't a Pokemon, as far as Bill could explain, but it had a form of intelligence and was learning, and after having been captured and transferred through the Rocket PC system, it escaped and began making copies of itself that were appearing in different places in Kanto and Johto.

The plan was, for all the gathered trainers, to track down these Missingno and capture them in special police force Pokeballs called Lockdown Balls in order to subdue the glitch as they tried to determine where the real one was. Bill gave each of the trainers a specially programmed Porygon of his own design that was updated with all of the latest data on Missingno that would be able to combat it if necessary, would allow communication with Bill via their Pokedexes, and could access the trainer's PC systems if necessary since they were capable of traveling through cyber space. The first confirmed location of one of the Missingno copies was in the Power Plant just east of Cerulean City, and with Blue in tow who was called to help, or in his eyes was there to 'make sure the trainers didn't screw up too badly', the trainers were sent to the Power Plant in order to begin their mission.

The trainers all started to make their way east to the Power Plant any way they could, where Emiri took her cousin Rhienne and Rhienne's friend Mika with her on her flying types, and soon enough the trainers had all gathered at the plant to start their assignment. They weren't quite sure where in the plant this glitch was supposed to be, but as far as they knew, they were supposed to search high and low for it and find any sign that they could in order to discern it's location. Blue started the search as he moved into the plant, and the trainers followed as Emiri split up from Mika and Rhienne, taking Kovu along with her as they started to move through the labyrinthine maze of computers and machines. Someone had quite obviously been at the plant prior to their visit since a lot of the machines were somehow active and working despite being covered in a thick layer of dust, which set the group off to know that they needed to be careful while moving through the computers.

The trainers spent the next hour or so looking through the upper level of the plant, going through old rooms with more machines, what could have been the boss' room up a flight of stairs, moving through all of the rows and rows of computers until the computers started to crash one by one by a virus that had been sent through them. Nothing could be retrieved from them until a single piece of paper was printed out from a computer with a small memo, something about meetings and how a Murkrow guards a key with a password, but the trainers soon regrouped at the head of the plant where a large set of doors remained locked, and judging by the blueprints Blue had on his pokegear, that was precisely where they needed to go.

By the time they had all gathered in one place, they were ambushed by a fleet of grunts who were still left in the Power Plant, unbeknownst to them to be part of the long line of distractions that was set up for them for the Rockets to make a clean get away. Fending off the grunts though seemed to be easy enough, but the guard wasn't over as the Murkrow they'd been looking for approached, and they'd almost had it when Mika give the bird the necessary password, but it's suspicions were set off as it sounded out a loud alarm, and two Houndoom came to attack them with the Murkrow in tow. The trainers had finally managed to rid themselves of the Houndoom and the Murkrow who relinquished the key to them in a sort of peace offering in exchange for not getting attacked again, fluttering off back into the rafters leaving the trainers to their own devices then.

Emiri moved with the trainers as they opened the door with the key, heading down a lit stairwell that went well below ground level as the hum of all of the machinery upstairs could no longer be heard. Beneath the metal floors of the plant now, the trainers came up on a horrendous scene, the walls of a hallway lined from floor to ceiling with cages lined with rubber and other obstructions to keep electric types at bay. Emiri quickly grew sick at seeing the cages, knowing that these poor Pokemon had been neglected so, but didn't want to think if they were empty because the Pokemon had escaped, or if Team Rocket had taken what they could with them. The whole situation only made Emiri sicker as there were still Pokemon in some of the cages who surely would have died being in an abandoned power plant so far underground. No one would have found them, would have even known they were there, so Emiri and the trainers set to work releasing what was left into the open so they could be free.

After making sure the remaining Pokemon had been set free, and capturing a Jolteon in the process who was too scared of Team Rocket to leave his cage, Emiri followed with the rest of the trainers to the end of the hallway where a single door stood in their way, and after pushing through it, they were greeted by four Team Rocket Admins, Petrel, Ariana, Proton, and Archer. Despite them knowing that the rest of their team was long gone with all the information and equipment they needed, they were still aiming and ready to take on the trainers to get rid of them all for good so they wouldn't continue to meddle in Rocket affairs, but Emiri and the other trainers weren't ready to back down, not now, so a grueling battle ensued that was far more difficult than any of them could have bargained for since there was a security system installed in the enormous room with trap tiles that were trapping their Pokemon while the admins were attacking with theirs.

The battle took a toll on all of them and their Pokemon, having to fight four fully trained Rocket Admins while trying to dodge the traps, but with all of their Pokemon combined and help from Blue and his Umbreon, and even Red who had showed up with his Pikachu to help, the admins were finally defeated, though they were quickly reminded that their mission there was still not over. They had come for the glitch, one of the ones that Bill said would be in the plant, and with a key that Petrel offered them since his job was done and their team was long gone with everything they needed, in hopes of having the glitch take a few of their lives in the process, Petrel was gone and the trainers were left with the decision to press forward.

Taking just a moment to themselves to regroup after such a tough battle, making sure their Pokemon were alright and some reveling in the small victory they took, Bill came over their Pokegears to give them the latest update. Red had been traveling through Johto gathering all the data that he could on the Missingno for Bill as well as discerning the locations of the last few that there were, and thanks to this Bill was able to update their Porygon so that, with luck, there wouldn't be any fatalities in fighting the glitch. They could create a physical firewall as Bill put it to keep the Missingno from attacking anyone directly, but it was only a theoretical application since the Porygon had yet to actually combat against the glitch. This left Emiri with the full realization of what it was they were actually doing down there in the power plant. She had been so caught up in battling Team Rocket and knowing that they were the enemy that she had almost forgotten about the reality of their mission. She remembered the Rockets at the remains of Bill's cottage, how the glitch had 'eaten' one of their teammates, and she couldn't imagine what it would be like if that happened to one of them now, she didn't want to. Emiri understood then, just as she had at the summit on that Arceus forsaken island, that this was a life or death situation again.

Emiri was hesitant and scared, and contemplated running then, just going back through the hallway with the cages and retreating from the power plant, but she couldn't imagine leaving her friends, the other trainers, her cousin, what that would look like for her to retreat, what that would say to her Pokemon? She only wanted to protect them, but what if they ran out of lockdown balls and had they had one more they could have subdued the glitch? She couldn't live with knowing that it was her fault that Missingno was taking over the world, and all of these trainers she had come to know were gone because of her fear, her insolence. It was a two way street, one she didn't know how to cross, but she pressed on through the open door that they had used the key on despite her reluctance, and has regretted that decision ever since.

Entering through the door, the trainers were faced with what could only be described as a living personification of a glitch. It was pixelated and shifted in the space it occupied as though they were looking at a giant screen. Numbers and other figures flashed across it's surface every now and again as it actually turned to face them, as if this thing could actually tell that they were there, and in reality, it could. The space around it was distorted as it moved, getting too close to some of the remaining computers within the room as they instantly crashed at just the close proximity to the anomaly, and as it flickered and moved through the space around it, it stopped before the trainers, like it was calculating its first move.

It gave out a distorted sound that was something between a screech and a scream as the sound it gave off was actually a physical force. It was a wave the came from the glitch as it moved towards the trainers, and though the Porygon had taken up the shields that Bill programmed them for and the trainers were safe, their Pokemon were less so as Emiri looked to Kovu as his wings were flared and a mess of stray sparks clamored over his scales. He had been paralyzed despite the Missingno having done nothing to inflict it, and all of their Pokemon had suffered some kind of effect from the screech, the effects just happening out of no where. That certainly set the tone for the battle, knowing now that this glitch was capable of so much more than any of them could have fathomed, and for a time, they weren't sure if they were ready for such a battle against something that shouldn't have existed at all.

The glitch continued to attack as the Porygon kept up their protective fire walls, but the walls still did little to protect their Pokemon from getting attacked by the Missingno, however, after a few rounds of their Pokemon trying to weaken it, it gave out another screech as it's surface shuttered, the pixels and data freezing as though it were on a fozen computer screen. It threw up a protective wall around itself, but part of it shattered from the glitch's weakened state, and Mika was able to throw his lockdown ball at it. Thanks to the modifications that Bill had made to the lockdown balls, the glitch was forced inside and it was captured as the ball locked tight, and much to their surprise, the battle was over. They had captured one glitch, but there were still more to detain as Bill's voice came over all of their devices again. They were to bring the lockdown ball with the Missingno in it back to Bill in Cerulean City for further examination, and there was a glitch located in Celedon City in the Game Corner, and another in the Goldenrod City Department Store.

Emiri took Rhienne and Mika back to Cerulean City with her where they relinquished the first detained glitch to Bill who was at the police station still, ready to gather as much data as he could now that he had a tangible copy of the Missingno. From there, the trainers split up to see what they could do about the other two known glitches. Emiri took Rhienne and Mika to Celedon City where they boarded a train to Goldenrod, but Emiri stayed back in Celedon to help in the Game Corner. The surrounding parts of Celedon City had pretty much been abandoned as everyone was called to evacuate due to the glitch, it was eerie to see everything so empty and quiet in one of the biggest cities in Kanto, but Emiri grouped with the only ones that had stayed in Kanto, Alden and Odd, as they made their way into the Game Corner. They were met with Red who had more blueprints of the facility, noting that the Missingno was more than likely beneath them in a large room that held all of the servers for the games above.

With that in mind, Emiri and the others started down the stairs through the door they found behind the main desk, closed in by a thin corridor and shrouded in dim, flickering lights that did little to offer any real help. The lights continued to flicker irregularly, adding to the ambiance of the situation in knowing they were moving towards a killer glitch, but as they came to the end of the hallway and entered the rather large room they thought the Missingno to be in, there was nothing. Only boxes of spare casino chips and extra prizes lined one of the walls, the other a space for discarded machines in need of repair. Along the back wall, the servers for all the machines remained like they had been expecting, but there was no sign of Missingno, not even on any of the screens they saw.

The room was still eerily quiet though to their distaste, but it was with a final flicker that the lights dimmed out completely. Red's Pikachu tried to light up as much of the room as it could with it's stored energy, bringing some of the lights back to life, but they were dim and flickered often, and left splotches of shadow and darkness everywhere. Through the flickering lights and darkness as the trainers prepared for what may come, a noise could be heard around them, breaking the silence they had been left in. When they would look in the direction of the noise they could see a small flicker of movement, but when the lights flickered again, there was nothing there. That didn't deny the probability of there actually in fact being something in the darkness around them though for as the noise continued, Emiri's mind began to flash to old memories. The noise was familiar to her, she remembered she was talking to Alex and Aku after making it to Pewter City, but the city was in complete dissaray. She remembered that sound, that horrid sound of bones scraping together coming towards them.

In a flash Emiri blinked, only hearing Alden scream out in pain, but unaware of what had happened to him in the dim flicker of the lights, Emiri let out her own horrified scream as she focused on a giant Kabutops fossil scratching away at the shield Alden's Porygon had put up. Emiri jumped back and huddled in a corner amongst the boxes, screaming again in terror as she found an Aerodactyl fossil joining, knocking away discarded game machines with it's bony wings, letting out an airy screech of a roar. Emiri's memory was flashing before her of that time in Pewter City so long ago when the fossils were attacking and tearing the city apart. She remembered them then, how ruthless they were, how impervious they were, how they almost killed her and her friends, and being thrust back into those memories Emiri was crying and sobbing on the ground in the corner, immobilized by some of her deepest fears coming back to life.

Emiri wasn't sure how she was supposed to make it out of this battle, knowing that she couldn't face those fossils, not again, having never wanted to see them again in her life for as long as she lived, but through her sobbing she'd just barely caught the sound of Bill's voice coming over her Pokegear, saying one thing or another about their coding and how he had obtained a bit more information about them since he'd been studying the first Missingno they caught. Emiri couldn't know for sure, wasn't sure if it was possible, but daring a glance at the fossils again, in the faint light, she could have sworn she saw one of the scythes of the Kabutops flicker as it moved, and a small pixelated square appear and disappear on the head of the Aerodactyl. Those monsters were the glitch, the Missingno, it had somehow taken those forms and had come to attack them because it recognized them as a threat again.

Tears still welling in her eyes, unable to look past the fossils she was seeing despite knowing they were the Missingno, Emiri stood on trembling legs and released the one Pokemon she knew would be able to help her in such a distressful time. As an Ivysaur he had fought so hard despite his own fears to help with the fossils in Pewter, to make sure that no one got hurt, and as a Venusaur now, Emiri released him from his Pokeball. He too shared Emiri's fears as he glared at the fossils, but over riding that fear was anger and hostility knowing what those fossils had done in the past. Whether he accepted that they were the glitch or not, Venusaur stepped up to take the battle with a ferocity quite similar to the time before, and soon the battle was underway with Red, Alden, and Odd.

The two Missingno were so unlike the first they had fought, one of them being able to take out Red's Pikachu in a single strike, the other taking out one of Odd's Pokemon in just one attack. These glitches were tough and could even evade attacks by phasing through them, but just like the first Missingno, much to their surprise, the two monsters were weakening. Alden had managed to capture the Kabutops Missingno, but Emiri was paralyzed by fear in not wanting to catch the Aerodactyl. What if the lockdown ball broke, what if it wasn't weak enough to capture? She didn't want to harbor that monster all the way back to Cerulean City if it might break out of the Pokeball, but before she could protest any more with her fears, Venusaur threw the lockdown ball for her, and the monster was caught with one last airy and distorted shriek.

Together Emiri and Venusaur worked up the courage to pick up the pokeball that contained one of their greatest fears, and their task in Celedon City was done. Red congratulated them all on a battle well done and said that he would report back to Bill in Cerulean City while the programmer himself came over their Pokegears to speak with them. He'd been working on more modifications for his Porygon to where they could now transport the lockdown balls specifically through the PC system to bring to Bill because there was still one glitch left to catch, and for some reason it manifested in Mahogany Town where there was very little technology for it to be drawn to. Emiri's Porygon sent Bill the lockdown ball she had as she wearily made her way out of the game corner, and wanting now to finish what she started even though her constitution was weakening, Emiri made her way from Celedon to Mahogany Town as fast as she could with Alden and Odd, flying over Northern Johto.

Regrouping with the rest of the trainers, her cousin, and Mika that had gone to Goldenrod to take care of the other glitch, they were approached by Morty who had been at the Pokemon center, and when he thought that they were all present, he told them where Bill was getting the signal from as they moved to the north of the town, coming to an old abandoned convenience store. When Morty came to the door and started trying to work the door open, there were muffled curses and rushed footsteps on the other side, but when they entered, there was no one inside, just a very thick layer of dust covering the empty shelves and cobwebs everywhere. Until they looked down, it looked as though no one had been on the inside in years, but within the dust there were fresh footprints that wove through the shelves until they came to a back room. Opening the door though, they were still surprised to see that the room was filled with nothing but old refrigerator units. After a bit of examination though by Morty's Haunter, the two found that the largest fridge had a false bottom in it, and after finding the switch, a latch opened, leading them downwards with a ladder that was just below it.

Moving down the ladder, where they descended to none of them could have guessed. Beneath them seemed to be an entire structure that had gone undetected for who knows how long, but it was sure to have been full of activity and maintained constantly despite it's remote location. Polished white marble floors and shining white concrete walls greeted them as they gathered at the bottom of the ladder, an enormous hallway opening up in front of them. Lining the walls from floor to ceiling were very ornately carved and detailed Gyarados statues made out of a lighter stone, with red rubies embedded for their eyes. It looked as though they'd stepped into a museum, not like they had just found a secret hatch under a refrigerator in an abandoned convenience store, but their focus was quickly altered as one of them got too close to one of the Gyarados statues and a blaring alarm went off, and within seconds they were swarmed with a mass of Rocket Grunts, though they weren't normal looking grunts. They wore blue half masks that covered half of their faces, nothing like Emiri had ever seen Team Rocket wear, but that aside, they each had a grunt they needed to take care of, and the battles were on.

Defeating the grunts was easy enough, but looking down the hallway, there had to be at least twenty Gyarados statues that they could see, and if each one of them set an alarm, or even if only some of them set of an alarm, that called for a different group of grunts, there was no way they could handle all those grunts, let alone make it anywhere in an even remotely decent amount of time and try and take on the last glitch they were looking for. Morty's Haunter inspected the first statue they set off further, trying to find a way to turn off it's alarm, but any wires were set so far into the stone that they couldn't reach them to cut them, and any outside intrusion was more than likely able to set off the alarm anyways. They were contemplating just trying to ward off all the grunts that came their way until Emiri suggested they use electricity.

Turns out her new partner Kovu, whom she'd met as a dark/fire type Pokemon had evolved into a dark/electric type Pokemon, and with his electricity they were able to fry the circuits from the inside before any sensors went off, but their moment of victory was short lived as Odd's Shedinja blew up one of the other statues, and chaos ensued. There were sure to be grunts flooding into the hallway any second, so the group took off running to try and beat the grunts as Kovu set to work frying the statues that he passed by for extra measure. They raced through the hallway till they came to a large spiral staircase, and even then they were still running as they worked their way down, but they were met by two rockets who seemed to be superior in their rank with their uniforms and lack of masks, and they had to fight them off before they could continue.

They fought, and with their combined Pokemon, the two admin didn't have a chance, but they conceded defeat and left the trainers to clean up their mess for them, knowing the glitch was still down the way in the laboratory Bill had pointed out for them. Emiri and her Pokemon were hesitant still despite all their victories, and she didn't want to know if this glitch was stronger than the others since it had had more time to grow and learn, but she pressed on still, not wanting to back down now when they were so close to finishing what they started, and so, coming to face the final glitch roaming free through the discarded laboratory, the trainers began to fight with everything they had left to try and subdue the monster.

Emiri and the others attacked with everything they had, trying to weaken the monster so they could capture it in one of their remaining lockdown balls, but just when they might have thought that it was over, bits of coding starting to fall from the glitch as it froze in it's place in the air, it was only merely deleting unwanted data as it shuttered before flickering to a new form, a much more physical form that resembled that of a ghost, and it almost cackled at them then as it threw up a wall, much like that of Bill's Porygon, and in a devastating attack of horrendous blue flame it attacked Morty's Haunter, but when the ghost went to return the attack, it did nothing.

Their cumulative devices began to crackle and fizzle in and out of audio as Bill was trying to contact them, only catch bits and pieces of the frantic message he was trying to send. Something about his Porygon? That was all any one of them managed to get out of the message, but one by one they all released Bill's Porygon and the computers attacked, being able to get through the glitch's fire wall and do damage. Just as things seemed hopeless, the glitch freezing the room over little by little with it's new found power, their Porygon's collective attacks managed to break the glitch's power just long enough for them to throw one last lockdown ball, and with a distorted cry as the lights around them flickered and exploded, the final Missingno was captured.

Despite there being too many variables for any one of them to consider the situation completely over, wanting to know what the Rockets wanted with these glitches in the first place, what they were planning with hacking the PCs, why they were so keen on abandoning the glitches at every turn despite their hard efforts to capture them, they all took the small victory as it was and chose to leave the rest of the examinations up to Bill who was thoroughly enthralled with studying the Missingno now. Emiri took Mika and Rhienne to Ecruteak City after they had all said their goodbyes, and from there spent a bit of time around Kanto and some familiar territory to recover with her Pokemon, knowing that after facing killer glitches, reliving those fossils, and almost being frozen to death by the monster, they were all quite worn out and in need of some time away from peril and threats.

{Ch. 4: An Old Experience, a New Threat (Click)}Eventually Emiri made it south to Cinnibar Island where she challenged Blaine for his badge, and came out victorious after defeating his gym. With her seventh badge from the Kanto Region, Emiri and her Pokemon were ready to take their hand at challenging Blue, but after they recovered from their battle with Blaine, Bagon found a strange envelope with Emiri's name on it. The little dragon opened it without knowing, and before Emiri could say anything, it was too late. Once again, Emiri had received an invitation from this 'shadow master' and was sent to a different realm, and within a flash she found herself in the same rainforest she had over a year ago. Emiri couldn't fathom why she had been put there again, or even that the same thing would have happened regardless since it had happened so long ago. She hadn't been in the realm for any more than a few hours, and then she was sent back to Littleroot town, so she could only imagine that this time might be the same. All she knew though was that she had to get out, so she started through the rain forest again.

After battling the same Tangrowth and finding the staircase again, Emiri ended up in the room lit on fire just as she had before, and moving through it to find the staircase that time, Emiri came across who would become one of her longest and greatest friends Marcellus. He had been sent to the realm too, and had only just started his journey and wasn't sure what was going on, so they stuck together and traversed through to the water environment Emiri remembered, but instead of being released like she had the last time, she ended up in a factory with whirring machines for miles and miles it seemed like, run by electric type Pokemon. Much to her dismay, Emiri and her Pokemon were trapped for much longer then as the realm just kept going. There was a dragon swamp, and an Unown realm with psychic type Pokemon, and a smoggy factory full of steel types. They ended up in the middle of a scorching desert, a raging snowstorm, a sort of nursery with a very angry Blissey, almost got poisoned trapped in a room full of toxic gas, sent into a distorted world of dark types, and finally ended up in a cemetery.

It took what felt like days to get through all of the different environments and defeat all of the Pokemon that challenged her, but after defeating a Shedinja within the cemetery, the cemetery melted away until she found herself back on Cinnibar Island. For a moment, she thought it was over, and she had made it out, but shadows started to consume everything around her until she was shrouded in darkness, and from the shadows came Darkrai himself who had tried and failed to trap Emiri and her Pokemon in his realm a second time now. He was ruthless and bent on liberating Emiri's Pokemon from the harsh reign of a human master, looking to trap and kill Emiri within his realm so that her Pokemon would be able to roam free as they pleased in the perfect environments built for their species, but Emiri and her Pokemon didn't want anything to do with his realm or his plots any more and fought Darkrai off. Weakened and defeated, Darkrai swore revenge, but for now he retreated, and they were left alone.

It had actually been a few days this time that Emiri was trapped in Darkrai's realm since it took so long for her to get through what was thirteen different environments before she made it out, but regardless, Emiri took some time on Cinnibar island with her Pokemon to recover after facing so many dangers and threats within the realm, and eventually made their way north back to the mainland of Kanto. There Emiri challenged Blue in Viridian City, claiming victory for her last badge for her home region, and actually returned home to Pallet Town for a bit of a rest after being away for what was about over two years at this point. Enjoying her time at home, Emiri found Marcellus again whom she didn't think she'd ever get to see again after they were separated in Darkrai's realm, but after a bit of catching up since it had been a few weeks, they traveled together to Unova at Marcellus' suggestion since there were excellent training spots there and Emiri and her Pokemon had just made the decision to challenge the Elite Four of Kanto in order to try for the champion title.

She and Marcellus spent some time in Unova training and getting to know each other a bit better before Marcellus had to part ways, and with that Emiri was left off in Unova. She and Charizard were flying over western Unova when Dialga called to her, bidding her to a place known as the Abundant Shrine. There he said goodbye to Emiri as her guardian, knowing that the young human was growing stronger and stronger every day to where she didn't need him any more. It hurt them both to part ways after having been together for so long, but Emiri understood too that she couldn't keep the legendary with her always because of his place in the world, and so she bid him farewell with the promise of knowing that he would be with her always if she ever truly needed him, and with her guardian gone, Emiri and Charizard made their way back to the Kanto Region to continue their training.

About a week later, Emiri and her Pokemon were flying over Mt. Moon when a large storm started drawing in, and almost instantaneously a tornado dropped down in front of them and drew them into the vortex. Emiri and her Pokemon tried to stay together to try and get out of the storm, but they were separated, and Emiri was thrown from Charizard's back, and for a while, everything went black. Emiri woke up on the ground surrounded by yellow scales, a young Flygon had saved her from falling to her death, but in a frantic tizzy Emiri sent out Blastoise and Rhydon to find everyone. They spent the next few hours wandering around Mt. Moon trying to bring everyone back together, but at the base of the mountain they all heard a very familiar, and very distressed roar, but by the time they'd all made it down to the same spot, it was too late.

They came up on a large section of singed grass in the middle of a clearing in the trees, and Emiri didn't want to think it was true. Just barely touching the grass, Emiri was sucked into a vision, a man in black with a black Pokeball, an enormous Nidoking, Charizard's frantic cries and resistance, and then she was gone... Someone had stolen Charizard and Emiri was too late. Emiri was falling apart at the seams then as she sobbed and cried at the loss of her partner, one of the ones that had been through everything with her. She promised they would be together forever, that nothing would ever happened to her, but here she was gone in a flash of a Pokeball, and there was nothing Emiri could do. Bidding the yellow Flygon to stay with Emiri, her Pokemon went in search for hours until night fell to find any trace of Charizard or the man that took her. One by one they came back empty handed, not having been able to find any sign of Charizard anywhere, knowing that if she was still around they would be able to find her, but there didn't seem to be any hope for that. Finally Rhydon and Azuran returned, the last to come back from the search, and by this time Emiri had fallen into a sort of trauma induced sleep, having exhausted herself so much that her body couldn't stay awake any more.

Rhydon didn't come up entirely empty handed, for he found a Pokeball that had the man's sent on it. While it wasn't Charizard inside the Pokeball, they now had a captive and would use this captive to gain information on the man's whereabouts and where he might be taking Charizard, but it was night and they were all beaten and worn down after crash landing earlier that day. They solemnly made their way to the Pokemon Center to the east in Cerluean City where Emiri was brought under medical care. She suffered many cuts and scratches and bruises from having searched all day for her Pokemon through the mountain, and had badly sprained both of her ankles. The rest of them were healed by Nurse Joy and her Chansey and waited for the morning where Zaron would release them all to begin their interrogation of the captive they took.

That morning, the captive turned out to be a very mouthy Flareon who did little to offer any kind of help. The only information they managed to get from him at the time before Emiri woke up was that his master had probably taken Charizard to Hoenn where their base was located. For now, that was enough for them to go on something as they returned the Flareon and themselves when Zaron gave word that Emiri was waking up. She woke up with a start, almost falling out of the bed she was in, having been having nightmares all night about the things that had happened the day before, but much to her dismay as she woke to sore muscles and almost not being able to feel her ankles and waking up in a medical room in a Pokemon Center, Emiri was sorely reminded that everything did happen, and that Charizard was gone.

{Ch. 5: It Wasnt Over (Click)}She'd had a vision in her sleep though that showed her the Hoenn region, and since her vision and the lead they got from the Flareon matched up, they were going to start their search in Hoenn, but upon coming out to the main of the Pokemon Center, there was hysteria as the news was going on about the entire Johto Region being under a blackout and Bill the PC programmer was calling for all able bodied trainers to come to Mahogany Town. Emiri began to panic even more, remembering the last time Bill called for their aid. She wasn't certain if this had anything to do with Missingno, but she knew that if the blackouts were spreading creating mass panic, it was going to be a whole lot harder to find Charizard than if everything was normal. It was a reluctant decision, but Emiri chose to go to Mahogany Town via the Porygon Bill had given her those few years ago while Zaron went in search for Charizard in the Hoenn Region.

Distressed, lost, scared, and emotionally ruined, Emiri showed up in Mahogany Town where other trainers had gathered. She didn't recognize hardly any faces compared to the last time she had come to help Bill, but Marcellus had showed up, and Mika and Rhienne were there too, but despite the familiar company, Emiri just wasn't herself. She decided to try and shut herself down emotionally to keep from breaking down every few seconds and make things easier to cope with until this all was over when Bill came out with a police officer and Pryce from the gym to give the official word on what was going on. Zapdos and Raikou had been spotted in the region when the blackouts started and if Bill could get data on their electrical readings to compare to the ones that had shut down the entire region, then he could find the source of the blackouts and fix it. The last confirmed location of the legendaries was at the very north edge of the Lake of Rage to the north of the town, and so the trainers started that way with Pryce in tow to begin their mission.

Emiri, unable to effectively walk with her ankles bound, rode on Kovu up the way to the Lake of Rage, though the dragon didn't fly knowing what that meant for them all after Mt. Moon. So instead he walked with the group as they came to the southern edge of the lake where Pryce split them up into groups in order to start their search. Spanning the entire perimeter of the lake, Emiri and her group with Marcellus was sent to the very western territory of the lake area where the forest started melding into rock and cliff with Mt. Mortar west of them. Not even an hour into their searching though and an entire swarm of Neo Rocket Grunts was sent after them, and Emiri found herself faced off with someone who looked to be an admin of some kind, especially since he recognized her and Kovu from over a year ago. Emiri and her Pokemon though weren't in any kind of mood to take his belittling and degrading, so the battle was ruthless as Kovu, Blastoise, and Rhydon defeated his team, taking out their anger and frustration on the enemy Pokemon that had been building all this time. He had no choice left but to leave in defeat as Kovu was ready to fry him where he stood, so he ran and the search continued as they continued to move to the northern edge of the lake.

Moving to the very northern edge of the lake, Emiri and the other trainers were attacked by a pair of Neo Rocket Admins, Carl and Sham, who were a distraction for the trainers while the Neo Rockets made their escape. It was a tough battle, but they made it through, and afterwards Bill was able to get into contact with the trainers with news that Zapdos and Raikou were confirmed to be in Mt. Mortar and Pryce had seen Team Rocket moving in and out of the mountain and had gone to investigate himself. Emiri made her way back to Mahogany Town with the rest of the trainers in order to move to Mt. Mortar, but she only hoped that all of this didn't mean another attack by Missingno since a lot of the same pieces were adding up like they had the first time, especially with Team Rocket's involvement. However, she wasn't going to back down now and made her way towards Mt. Mortar with Marcellus in order to continue their work.

Emiri and Mika, and the other trainers spent a few hours moving through the caves and caverns of the northern mountain range trying to find the inner corridors that Bill had referred to where he was getting the strongest electrical readings, and facing off with hoards of angry and territorial Pokemon no doubt due to Team Rocket invading their home, and narrowly escaping being burried in a cave in caused by all the battles to fend off the wild Pokemon, Emiri and Mika caught up with the rest of the trainers who had been split up among the mountain's caves. They came to an enormous corridor where Silver the head of Team Rocket was waiting for them, ready to do them in himself since his other exploits have failed, readying with his Gyarados to take them on so that his underlings could finish their work, but as the battle became heated, chaos started to ensue. One by one different computers and machines the Rockets had started crashing and exploding, throwing the whole facility into a state of hysterics and panic, and as the battle continued, all of the Pokemon, Silver's Feraligatr included were thrown from the battle, being thrust against the wall or floor.

Ghetsis, the head of Team Plasma from Unova had come and was ready to cash in on what work Silver was trying to do, having been watching this whole time since the PC crash those short years ago, and while Emiri was tending to Blastoise who had been thrust into the wall by Ghetsis' Cofagrigus, she had a short vision, her eyes glazing over, hearing that pixelated screech, a mess of numbers and code... The walls of the cavern around them began to shutter and quake before Zapdos and Raikou burst through the rocky walls, having this whole time been trying to find the source of the blackouts for themselves to keep the region under control, but just as everything had fallen to a stand still, Ghetsis and Silver having a stare down of will to see who would come out on top, one of the largest machines in the facility burst into a shower of shrapnel and sparks, sending a shock wave that knocked out all the Pokemon in the area, the legendaries included. From the remnants of the machine, Missingno emerged, larger this time with a garbled screech.

It hovered over the mess of computers and machines the Rockets had set out as the grunts from both Plasma and Rocket began to scramble for their lives where around them all of the computers were starting to turn into nothing but a mess of code and pixels, disappearing from where they stood, as if they were being erased. Emiri clung to Marcellus, unsure of how they were supposed to get out as the cave started to collapse around them after Missingno gave out another shrill screech upon finding Ghetsis and Silver in its midst. The waves from it's energy surged over the entire cavern, striking the trainers and sending them across the rocky floor and starting to eat away at the steel beams that held the mountain up around them as it started fizzling into pixel and code. Emiri skidding along the ground as the skin on her back ripped and tore, finally stopping as she hit a rock with her back, coming to a halt on the ground. She laid there in pain and anguish and fear, not knowing if she would be able to ever move past this, and in a fleeting moment of weakness and hopelessness, Emiri was ready to accept her death from the boulders that were falling around her.

To this day, Emiri owes her life to Marcellus and her Pokemon who took her out of the cavern with them as the cave in had started to get worse. Julius flew them out and gave them a moment to themselves to try and cope with everything they had seen as Bill gave praises about how the region was being returned to normal and every able bodied authority in the region was moving into Mt. Mortar to find hide or hair of Ghetsis who could have very likely been buried with the glitch, but Emiri and Marcellus returned to Mahogany Town where they were greeted by all the nurse Joy of the Johto region who were prepared to tend to all of the trainers and their Pokemon that had worked so tirelessly to help the region in it's time of need.

After hours of intensive care from a Nurse Joy, getting her scratches and scs cleaned, rebandaging her sprained ankles, and getting her back wrapped up because of the deep gashes that covered her skin, Emiri was feeling a bit better after her exploits in Mt. Mortar, though she was silent through most of the good nurse's help. Emiri still, just as with everything else in her journey, did not know how to cope with such horrible things happening, and to boot, Charizard was still missing and she was loosing time to go find her. But Emiri knew in her weakened state she couldn't be of any help to Charizard if she needed it, so knowing that Zaron would send word to her if he found her, Emiri tried to spend a night in the Pokemon Center in Mahogany Town in order to rest herself.

{Ch. 6: Rebuild (Click)}Emiri was asleep, or as asleep as she could be with a never ending stream of nightmares tormenting her, in the Pokemon Center when Zaron called to her, waking her out of her nightmares with news that he found Charizard and she was alive. Emiri immediately woke in the middle of the night and was getting ready to leave the center, bidding Cronus to tell Marcellus goodbye for her, and from there Emiri started her way to Hoenn. The Porygon Bill had sent for her took her to Cerulean City where she started her way, though when she got to Celedon City on Kovu's back, they noticed something was horribly wrong. There were no people in Celedon, no Pokemon, not even a sound could be heard as they moved through the empty city streets, but before they had the notion to flee, they were consumed by a mass of swirling black shadows as a voice called out to them. Darkrai had found Emiri and her Pokemon again and he seemed less than merciful this time.

Once again Emiri had to travel Darkrai's realm through all thirteen of his traps, but this time her Pokemon were less than inclined to take any of his delays. They were on a mission and weren't going to stop, and certainly weren't going to be slowed down because of him and fought ruthlessly with ferocity and anger that caused them to move through his realm rather quickly, that was until they reached the cemetery and defeated the Shedinja again. This time, instead of being brought back to where they had entered the realm, the cemetery melted around them until Emiri and Kovu fell into pitch blackness. They fell for quite sometime before hitting the ground, and in a moment they feared the worse until the both started to move. They now found themselves in the realm of shadows where Darkrai himself dwelled, and sending out Rhydon again to take on the monster who had trapped them so many times before since the rhino had always been a formidable opponent, Emiri instead found a weakened brown Rhyhorn emerging from his Pokeball. Darkrai had done this, even though Emiri didn't know how, reducing Rhydon to his former state, and in a fleeting moment of panic Blastoise fought against the shadow with a strength and fury to get them all out if it was the last thing he did.

The battle took a toll on the turtle who had just barely made it through, but Darkrai released them from his realm though swore that he was not through with them yet. Making their way to the Pokemon Center, Kovu left Emiri as he went to his Pokeball and Emiri admitted Rhydon into intensive care. Even though she still wasn't sure exactly what Darkrai had done to him, the attack that Darkrai issued in his weakened state was enough to do some serious damage, and the Nurse Joy had confirmed that. Any longer and Rhydon might not have made it. Emiri spent the next day in recovery for herself after bearing through the harsh elements of Darkrai's realm before going out to a park in the city one day to catch her Pokemon up on what had happened.

Before she could tell them what was going on, she and Azuran got in a fight because Azuran was upset they weren't in Hoenn yet looking for Charizard and blamed Emiri for everything that had happened to them so far. In a fleeting moment of pain and anger that the both of them had yet to release, they released it on each other until it lead to Azuran leaving Emiri and her team behind. Emiri had bid him away if he felt so threatened by the things that happened to them, and he took the opportunity to leave, leaving Emiri and her Pokemon in the park. After an interrogation session with the Flareon they captured and finding out that the person who took Charizard was getting ready to sell her off to Team Rocket who had a bounty out for Emiri and her Pokemon, they knew that as soon as Rhydon was ready to leave intensive care that they had to get to Hoenn as fast as they could, but they couldn't leave without him since their numbers had fallen again with Azuran leaving.

In a moment of remorse and sorrow, Emiri tried to bid the rest of her Pokemon away in fear of getting them hurt even more with everything that she put them through, all of the life threatening dangers that seemed to follow her around, but just knowing that she was trying to put their lives before her own, wanting them to be safe even if it meant that she wouldn't be any more, the rest of Emiri's Pokemon accepted her apology as they worked on readying themselves to take on the man who took Charizard when they got to Hoenn.

Emiri and her Pokemon were asleep in the park when Zaron reached her, his strength weak and dwindling but he wasn't going to stop until she got the message he needed to send. He woke her up in her sleep and with what strength he had left bid her to Hoenn immediately because the people who they were trying to sell Charizard to were coming to take her, they were almost out of time. Emiri and her Pokemon rushed instantly and despite the nurse saying he wasn't ready to leave, Rhydon left with Emiri in the same rush, ready to take Charizard back despite his weakened demeanor. They made it to Lilycove City where Zaron was waiting, weak and frail and near death it looked like since he had been searching non stop for over a month now and trying to keep his connection to Emiri over such a distance. It was a race against time for both Charizard and Zaron lest Emiri want to lose them both as she started towards Mt. Chimney and the fiery path like Zaron had bid her to, the place where he had found Charizard.

Moving through the Hoenn Desert, Emiri and Kovu were grounded by a fierce sandstorm that was moving through the area, but within the sandstorm they had begun to be attacked be ferocious and rage filled Pokemon that seemed to be being controlled by something. Emiri had to have Kovu, Blastoise, Ho-Oh, and Salamence out to fend off the Pokemon, but in the midst of the sandstorm, they didn't know how much more fighting they could take until the Pokemon subsided and the sandstorm started to fade. They had just started to think that they might be trapped in the sandstorm before a warm and peaceful aura washed over all of them, and the beautiful crescent Cresselia herself descended before Emiri and her Pokemon, bidding her sorrow for the troubles that her natural opposite had caused, but that she was using her power to set those things right.

Cresselia left shortly after, the Pokemon having subsided too since it was Darkrai who sent them to try and do Emiri and her Pokemon in for good, but that was not all that the dream Pokemon had done for her and her Pokemon. A small light flickered into Rhydon's Pokeball, and upon releasing him, he was returned to his normal state, a towering gray Rhydon who looked stronger than ever. Darkrai had apparently subdued him within a conscious nightmare that was so strong it reduced him to the state of a Rhyhorn, but now he was back to normal because of Cresselia, and they were ready to take back Charizard.

A new confidence given to them, Emiri, Kovu, and Rhydon forced the Flareon to show them the way through the Fiery Path to where his master was keeping Charizard, but when they got there, there was no sign of any inhabitants, just a hollowed out cavern within the rocky walls where it looked like someone had been there, but no longer were. The Flareon though panicked at this, for the first time realizing that he had actually been abandoned by his master, and fled from Emiri and her Pokemon, leaving them alone in the Firey Path. At that point, Emiri had lost any confidence that she'd gotten from getting Rhydon back, and had lost any sense of hope that she might get Charizard back. She didn't know if she was already gone, and if she was, there was no telling where in the world she was now that Team Rocket took her, or if she was still even alive. In that moment, everything Emiri knew shattered, and what that meant for her future she didn't know, but as Rhydon was trying to console her to the best of his ability, not knowing if it might even be worth the effort, Kovu beside them heard something.

With Emiri sitting on top of Rhydon, and in the rhino's already irritated state, Kovu was quick to gain Rhydon's attention as he roared at him, and the rhino snapped, ready to drive Kovu through a wall. But Kovu ran, knowing Rhydon wouldn't stop until he caught him, and with that the dragon lead them through the corridors of the cave until they came to the outside where he ducked behind an enormous gray figure standing outside of the cave they came from. Azuran had come back and was watching the man and his cohorts move into Mt. Chimney, knowing that Charizard was in there too, Team Rocket hadn't come to retrieve her yet. Having lost all hope and to have it thrust back into their lives, Emiri wasn't sure if it might be too good to be true, but having lost her once, she couldn't dare let herself lose Charizard again.

Emiri and her Pokemon moved through the desert towards Mt. Chimney as they followed Azuran, all filled in with the only plan they could think of as their time was running out. Azuran knew that the man had Pokemon teeming all through the mountain to keep his stock protected, but if they got hulled up in battle and couldn't get to Charizard in time before they moved her again or worse, then they would lose her for certain. It was with reluctance and deep remorse that Emiri came up with the only option they had, for them to fend off the Pokemon while she snuck in and tried to find Charizard. Saying her goodbyes to her Pokemon just in case, Emiri made her way into the mountain as her Pokemon took the head of the battle, distracting the guard Pokemon as their battles ensued.

Emiri made her way through the caverns and caves, listening to the sounds of her Pokemon echoing around her, hoping and praying that they would be alright. They were the strongest and bravest Pokemon she'd ever known, she just hoped that they would be alright without her, knowing that there was a slight possibility of her not making it out. Following a path of tracks and footprints in the dirt of the cave floor, hoping this wouldn't all be for not, hoping her Pokemon's efforts would not be in vain, Emiri came up on a large cavern within the mountains where amongst a set of empty cages, crates and storage boxes, a large cage remained on the far side where a rope bound and muzzled Charizard laid on it's floor.

Over joyed at finding her, knowing that she had her in her grasp and that she hadn't lost her yet, Emiri ran for the cage and took the muzzle from Charizard's mouth, taking her head in her hands. The two couldn't believe that they'd found each other again, Charizard having thought the worst after not knowing if Emiri had survived being thrown from her back in the tornado, but just as Emiri had taken Charizard's Pokeball to return her and make her escape, Emiri was being forced backwards as her backpack was ripped from her shoulders. She struggled with screams as a hand forced her to drop Charizard's Pokeball and a foot broke it as the dragon roared and tried to escape her restraints, but the man who started it all had Emiri in his grip, and he wasn't going to let her go.

Tying her up against a protruding rock, he said that now that he had the trainer of the Charizard Team Rocket wanted, he'd get even more money when they came to pick her up, and though Charizard fought against her restraints just as Emiri did the same, neither one could escape. The man left them as he went into another corridor, and though Emiri was going to keep fighting against her bound wrists and ankles, she didn't know how much time she had to try and get out of her restraints. She continued to struggle when she saw a flash of orange pass by her, and then felt tugging on the rope around her wrists behind her. Taking a shot in the dark, she called for who she thought to be Flareon behind her, and in a stroke of fate, it was in fact the fire type who had come to help her, despite her lack of knowing a reason.

After Emiri got her wrists free, she bid the Flareon to set fire to the ropes that bound Charizard in her cage, but no sooner did he than was he dowsed by a fierce hydro pump from a Kabutops the man had with him. The Flareon managed to get up though despite the harsh attack, and struck the fossil back with a powerful giga impact attack, but it wasn't enough to subdue the fossil that drowned the Flareon in another hydro pump. In a desperate attempt to save the Flareon's life who was trying to save hers, Emiri crawled towards the fire type on the ground as the Kabutops was coming with a bared scythe, but just as the fossil was about to attack, in a fleeting surge of power and rage, Charizard broke from her cage since the ropes that bound her were gone and landed a single focus punch to the Kabutops, sending it into the wall across the cavern.

That last surge of energy was about all Charizard had left in her before she collapsed beside Emiri and the fainted Flareon, but with her ankles bound still and all of her Pokemon still within the caves, there was little Emiri could do against the Kabutops that was coming upon them still with a bared scythe. She tried to call for Cronus, to let him know that she might meet her end, but before she could know if she connected with him or not, the Kabutops was raising it's scythe ready to make it's final strike. Emiri and Charizard were ready, making peace in knowing that they would at least be together forever, and had done everything together even in death, but just as they knew their end was coming, the Kabutops was thrust from it's stance above them and stomped into the ground as Azuran stood above it, knocking it out cold with the force of the impact.

One by one Emiri's Pokemon, her team, their family, came into the open cavern, saving her, and the Flareon, and Charizard from death, but the man wasn't done just yet, he wasn't going to let his bounty get away. Team Rocket had labled the bounty on Emiri's head dead or alive, though there was more money in it if she were alive with her Pokemon, but he was going to try and get whatever money he could with the Electrode that stood beside him with a sickening grin. Emiri only had a split second before it turned to explode, bidding her Pokemon to run in whatever direction they could to get out as the cave started to crumble around them. Kovu took Emiri into his claws as she grabbed onto Flareon, Azuran took Charizard in his talons and Lynno, Salamence, Flix, and Ho-Oh flew out as fast they could while Rhydon plowed through and tried to make a tunnel for him, Venusaur, and Blastoise to try and escape.

With Emiri in his claws, Kovu made his escape and no sooner had there been crashing rocks and dust around them than did silence fill the air as he found an opening to the outside, and surrounding them then was the quiet night. With Flareon still limp in her arms, Emiri situated with Kovu so she was mounting him after untying her ankles, and set out to find the rest of her split up team. One by one she found the rest of her fliers in the air, and Rhydon and the others came out on an outcropping in the rocks, but she still hadn't seen Azuran and Charizard to know that they'd made it out safe. A few moments passed, and Emiri had begun to fear the worst until she heard Azuran in the distance coming towards them through the darkness with Charizard clutched tightly to his chest, setting her softly on the ground as he landed beside her, and for the first time in over a month, they were all together again.

{Ch. 7: One Night Changes Everything (Click)}Emiri and her Pokemon spent the next month or so in Lavaridge town healing and recuperating. The Pokemon Center and the locals took Emiri and her Pokemon in since they were all in need of more than just a simple treatment, offering space and housing for the Pokemon they didn't have room for in the Pokemon Center, and helping them all get back on their feet. Emiri spent much of her time getting to know the locals and the elderly who were helping her and helping around their houses, doing chores and shopping for them, or just being company for them. And every night she would return to the Pokemon Center to sleep beside Charizard who was in intensive care, until after a few weeks she was released. There they spent their time learning how to fly again after Charizard's wing had been broken and bound for so long, and rekindling their family into the bonds that they have today. They would spend days at a time out in the desert training and flying and building their family again, where Emiri also learned of a flying type racing circuit that she got the last qualifying spot for.

After having spent so much time in the darkest places of her memories and her mind, Emiri was enjoying her leisure time in Lavaridge with her Pokemon, growing used to the peaceful and slow lifestyle, the one she missed from Pallet Town, and hadn't yet considered leaving, but Emiri noticed for a few weeks that the Pokemon Center began to get busier and busier every day until she finally questioned and found that the GTS in Sinnoh was conducting a race around the world. They were starting late, but Emiri and her Pokemon thought it would be a good way to get reacquainted with the world after spending their time away from it, and for the next few weeks set off on a trip around the world.

Emiri and her Pokemon didn't come in first by a long shot, but they did manage to finish the race in the allotted time that it was open, ending in Blackthorn City, Johto. The next morning though, she and her Pokemon woke up outside to a terrible lightning storm that had spanned over the entirety of the city, but upon closer investigation, Emiri and her Pokemon noticed something moving in the clouds. Taking Kovu up with her, they ran into Zapdos who was still trying to recover from the events in Mt. Mortar, but after a bit of reconciling with the old legendary, Emiri finally had him remember of her time those years ago helping in Kanto against Lance, and a few months ago in Mt. Mortar. Zapdos was pleased to see the young human again, and after a small exchange asked Emiri if he might come with her since he was still weak and in need of some recovery from being attacked by Missingno, and Emiri obliged.

Emiri and Kovu landed in Mahogany then, their new companion in tow, and actually met up with Mika for a little bit who was still around before they were approached by a Gastly with an invitation to a Halloween Ball. Emiri was hesitant, but got a message from Marcellus not too long after on her Pokegear about attending the ball with him because Cronus had checked the invitations for traps, and there were no ties to Darkrai. Saying goodbye to Mika, Emiri flew out to Mossdeep City where she met Marcellus on the edge of the island in a house that he'd bought for himself. There she left Gyarados and Zapdos for the night as Marcellus helped her get ready for the ball in a dress and costume that he made for her, and when they were ready their respective Gastly took them to a private island off of the Orange Archipelago where a beautiful mansion stood.

Inside Emiri and Marcellus took to joining the party the best that they could, though Emiri stayed on the outer edges of it all with Charizard and Kovu beside her. She recognized some faces here and there from her various travels, and even found Blue and Lorelei there to her dismay, but she wasn't going to let them ruin her good time there with Marcellus. She hadn't seen her friend in a good few months, and was finally at a point where she was almost herself again, so she wanted to spend a nice evening with him and catch up after having been separated for so long.

The master of the party, a Raphiel, had come down to greet them all and welcome them to the party, and gave word of a sort of race he would be having as part of the night's festivities for the Pokemon. Emiri chose Kovu and Marcellus had chosen Styx, the Onix she'd given Marcellus to take with him months ago. The party was going just fine, and Emiri was actually handling the social event quite well despite her initial apprehension towards it, but the tone of the party began to shift as the music stopped and the lights came up, and Raphiel came down the stairs in a small panicked rush. Emiri and the other attendees were a bit confused as to why he was in such a hurry when not moments before he was giving them a small itinerary for the beginning of the night, but at a flash of light and a clash of thunder outside, they all heard what sounded like a very vicious storm coming upon them as rain started falling on the roof above them.

The storm was powerful and turning into a hurricane, and the rescue boats that Raphiel had called for couldn't make it to the shore of his island because the ocean was too rough, Lorelei and her Jynx couldn't teleport them out because there were hoards and hoards of Sharpedo that gathered so much energy it was blocking her psychic abilities, which meant that Cronus couldn't teleport them from the island either, so they were stuck. Emiri, for the time being, didn't see too much of a problem in staying in the mansion until the storm passed them over. There was room for everyone, food and refreshments, and the storm couldn't possibly last all night. They were safe rather than trying to weather the horrific conditions outside, so it was with reluctance for some but acceptance for most that they were going to whether out the storm as Raphiel began to pick up the festivities again to lighten the mood.

He was about to tell them about this race he had in mind for the Pokemon when the lights flashed again and went dark, the power having gone out with a flash of lightning that struck the house. Everything was fine as Raphiel tried to quell the concern, knowing that the power would go out from time to time but would come back on, but Raphiel started to shout and sounds of struggle could be heard as the entire ballroom started to errupt into sounds of distress and struggle. Emiri was trying to stay where she stood so as not to trip over anything or run into anyone, but as the panic and hysteria started to rise, the energy in the ballroom shifted so drastically Emiri started to panic as well until she felt something grab at her, seeing figures running back and forth around her through the flickering light of Charizard's tail. Emiri panicked, trying to get free of the grasp, but one hand grabbed onto her shoulder and thrust her backwards, thrusting her back into the memory of the man who took Charizard, losing herself to that false reality.

In a moment of hysterics, Emiri truly believed for a moment that Charizard was being taken from her again as she ran for the dragon, unaware of what had truly happened, until the lights came back up and she saw that Kovu was gone, his Pokeball gone from her belt. Someone had stolen him, someone had stolen a Pokemon from all of the trainers in the ballroom, Styx and Raphiel's own Haunter included, and knowing that Kovu was gone, and that if she'd just been able to focus a little bit better instead of being pushed into a nightmare, Emiri felt like it was her fault she'd had another one of her Pokemon stolen from her again. The pain was almost too much for her to bear, but Zaron, Flareon, and Charizard weren't going to let who ever took Kovu and the other Pokemon get away so easily, and with Raphiel behind them who wanted the thieves caught and the Pokemon returned, he split them up over his enormous property to search for the thieves.

Emiri and Marcellus and a group of trainers were sent to his library to begin their search, though entering in through the large double doors, Emiri couldn't help but find the library to be a bit off. The ballroom was in immaculate condition with polished marble floors, glittering chandeliers and freshly cleaned dries, but the library looked as though it hadn't been touched in ages, a thick layer of dust covering anything in their sights. The group split off to do some searching, some going up the stairs to the second level, some moving to the far end through the labyrinthine book cases. Emiri shuffled along the wall with her Pokemon, thinking that if there might be another door to another room somewhere, since it looked like the thieves came through the library with a set of footprints they were following, that they could find something, but following the footprints around corner after corner, they came to a dead end where the footprints stopped.

Zaron had to conclude the the thief might have scrambled up the book case after fleeing and finding a dead end, so they moved back through a few rows of book cases before there was another enormous clash of lightning and thunder where the dim lights above them almost exploded, leaving them in darkness again. There were figures moving around them in the darkness, three, five, maybe eight, they couldn't see very well despite Charizard's tail light, but in a rush the figures moved towards them all and started to push and shove around them while Emiri was thrust into another nightmare, the darkness and helplessness forcing her into the shadow realm where Darkrai remained, hearing his voice.

Emiri managed to come to as Charizard grabbed her and shook her out of her nightmare, and Emiri wasn't sure if she would be able to keep going like this if she kept losing herself to reality, but they pressed on, Cronus bidding them in a direction where some of them had found a maid working in the library. Raphiel had noted that if they should see any of his staff, that they should alert them of the thieves to keep an eye out too, so the group moved towards the maid and got her attention, telling her of the horrible things that had happened, but just as they thought the maid was coming to help them, putting down her feather duster on a book case and dusting off her skirt, the maid turned with a sinister, wicked grin and a sickly glare as she stared upon them as a bookcase slammed behind them, closing off their path and trapping them in with the maid.

The maid spoke of how foolish they were like the mortals that she'd seen in the past, and Emiri couldn't begin to fathom that she was speaking the truth, as if this had all happened before, she couldn't believe it, or didn't want to. She wanted to think that this was all some kind of sick joke, some horrible awful Halloween prank, but she was horribly mistaken as the maid shifted her form, where a Mismagius appeared before them then. The witch started chanting, what they could only fathom to be a spell, and Emiri gave out a heaved gasp as she grasped onto her head, her knees buckling in on her as she was forced to the ground, the pressure in her head growing by the second. The Mismagius was trying to control them, trying to inhibit them with a hallucination inducing headache.

The trainers and their Pokemon tried to fight off the Mismagius the best they could as the witch began distorting the library around them with a twisting floor and flying books heavy enough to knock someone out, Charizard fighting with everything she had to get the Mismagius to shut up as Emiri was crumpled on the ground behind her, not only trying to fight off the pounding headache, but keep her monsters and memories at bay. The strain of the situation, the distress she was already feeling, Emiri was starting to lose focus and lose her hold on the reality she was living until her eyes flashed from dusty wooden floors to worn brown rock, and she was on the mountain summit again trapped in Dialga's realm, fighting off the spirit of the blade from years ago. Emiri tried to fight it, tried to tell herself it wasn't real as she watched Nona and her Teddiursa get attacked, seeing Kaya and Brayden trying to aid in the fight, but she looked out to the battle to see Kovu, just in time for him to get consumed by the monster's searing cold combination of fire and ice that had nearly killed Dialga.

The Mismagius was subdued, trying to get her bearings as Charizard came back to Emiri's now fainted figure on the ground, Flareon and Zaron beside her trying to get her to come to. Zaron couldn't find Emiri in her own mind, she had gone too far in to one of her nightmares, but just when they might have thought they'd lost her to her monsters, Emiri started to stir on the ground in some amount of conscious being. Emiri was forced upwards by Charizard who had thought the worst just in time for their attention to be drawn by a blood curdling shriek as the Mismagius was being cornered by a trail of falling books, soon being consumed by shadows that came from the darkest corners of the bookcases, and just like that, she was gone, leaving the trainers in their small victory.

Zaron, concerned about Emiri's hastened awakening wondered if she was at all conscious of where she was and what she was doing, and it turned out that Emiri had woken herself up from her alternate reality. In some manner she had conscious thought during her nightmare to know that Kaya and Brayden were dead and that Kovu was gone so she couldn't have been fighting the spirit of the blade on the mountain's summit, which means that she was able to force herself out of the induced reality. It was a small step for her, knowing that she'd never been mentally strong enough to handle her mind since Dialga shared her power with her, but it was a step in the right direction where Zaron hoped she might be able to fully control herself.

In the mean time though, the main concern now was to find the master Raphiel and confront him about being attacked by one of his so called staff, and just as they were about to start smashing bookcases to try and get out, until one of the bookcases, the one the Mismagius had melted away into, creaked and turned to open on a hinge, revealing a passageway. While Emiri was apprehensive, the group of trainers took the lead to walk through, and so she followed suit, entering into the empty, dimly lit corridor until they came to a final door at the end.

Entering through the door, Emiri almost missed the dust filled Library that looked like a sterilized operating room now compared to the room they found themselves in. Almost immediately the rank smell of mold and rot filled the air as they stepped through the door, looking around at molded wood and rotting food laid out on a table with cloths so eaten and tattered they looked as though they'd been sitting there for ages. The ceiling was caving in in some places where black putrid drops dripped to the floor, creating stagnant pools of rancid water along the cracked and broken marble floors. They were in the ballroom they had been in just hours before, but came to find out what they had seen had all been an illusion, that it had never looked as well kept in what could have been decades.

Emiri feared the worst, as if this whole time she was trapped in another part of Darkrai's realm built to fool her and keep her and the other trainers there like he always wished. He took Kovu away to liberate him from her, and was going to keep taking their Pokemon until they had nothing left, but she was quickly corrected as the trainers were no longer alone in the rotted ballroom. The Master Raphiel descended upon them from the once grand staircase, though now he looked as though he were dead with pale almost translucent skin, his empty red eyes, and a gaseous smoke that billowed around his feet. Emiri could barely stand to look at him as she saw the sheen of blood on his tattered suit, making her sick trying not to think of who or what's blood it was.

Apprently, to his dismay, his staff had done little to earn his praise as they had not done their job in irradicating the trainers, but Raphiel took the duty upon himself then as he turned to welcome a few more guests to his staircase, a group of very bloodied and very dead gym leaders and the Nurse Joy that had been invited to the party. Emiri didn't know the other two leaders, but looking upon Lorelei and Blue, seeing their blood stained and tattered clothes, the open gashes on their white skin and their empty eyes, she couldn't imagine that any of this was real. She didn't want to listen to them scorn and mock the trainers for their insolence and swear their death was imminent, but inside her own mind Emiri was still trying and failing to keep her other monsters at bay. She wanted to believe that all of this was some horrible awful nightmare that her mind created, that she would wake up on Kovu's chest any second, but she knew that her nightmares were fueled only by things she'd experienced before in her past, and this was something she wished she didn't have to experience at all, almost wishing she'd died in Mt. Chimney then at that Kabutops' scythe.

Charizard knew something was coming despite wanting to help Emiri who was fighting to figure out which reality she wanted to live, and she needed to be ready, so she put herself in between Emiri and the dead leaders as Zaron and Flareon stayed beside her, only wanting to keep her safe. Charizard was ready, or as ready as she could be staring upon the dead leaders, knowing those figures in her life. It was hard to look at them, hard to imagine what happened to them, but where she had been almost ready before, she wasn't ready as the dead leaders sent out equally as dead Pokemon, Blue's Pidgeot coming out with bleeding eyes and gaping holes in it's feathers, parts of it's talons and wings missing all together.

Emiri and Charizard both were conflicted then, knowing in the very basic of terms that they were the enemy and they needed to be stopped now, but they couldn't bring themselves to attack when it looked like they had already whethered so much. The battle was fast paced and heated, and for a time all Charizard opted to do was make sure no stray attacks struck Emiri, that was until a boomburst attack attacked the entire room. Charizard went to Emiri's side as she had been knocked to the floor, but what happened next, neither one of them were prepared for as a gym leader they called Elesa released her next Pokemon. Emiri had watched as Blue's Pidgeot had been killed, the bird falling from the attacks that struck it, but then he let out an Espeon with missing patches of rotted matted fur and missing part of it's tail, but she knew Blue didn't have an Espeon, nor did Lorelei have a Lucario, and it was at the cries and screams that came from her allies she understood that they were now using their own Pokemon against them. They killed their Pokemon and were using them against their own trainers, which was why her entire world shattered around her staring at the blood red eyes and bleeding mangled figure of Kovu stalking in front of her.

Emiri tried to run towards him, only really seeing him in front of her and knowing that he was still there, that she could save him, but Charizard fought against her and held her from running into the midst of the battle as their ally, their teammate, a part of their family attacked at the command of the dead leader Elesa without question. He wasn't their teammate any more, he didn't belong to Emiri, and knowing that killed Emiri inside as she could only watch his mangled figure stalk in front of them, and there was nothing she could do about it.

Emiri was full of so much remorse, regret, guilt, sorrow, anger, frustration, and so many other flooding emotions as she sunk to the ground clung to Charizard's leg, trying to shrink away from the world as though none of what was happening was happening. She couldn't help but wonder what happened to Kovu to do this to him? Did he try and fight back, did he try to get away? Did he think that she abandoned him because she didn't come to save him? Did he give up? What would her Pokemon think, knowing that they actually lost one of their own? Would they blame her, would they fear for their lives now knowing they weren't safe no matter how much Emiri tried to keep them safe? There were too many questions and too many emotions that were hitting her all at once that Emiri could only sob into her arms wrapped around Charizard's leg, unable to find the strength to push forward. She didn't know how she was going to keep going knowing that she lost Kovu, but glancing out to the battle still with the notion that if Charizard would just let her go to him she could get Kovu back, she watched one final attack strike him and he fell, unmoving and otherwise dead as the dead leader Elesa returned him to a Pokeball without another thought. He was expendable.

Emiri broke then, completely and utterly, having actually lost her Pokemon, her beloved companion. She couldn't imagine the rest of her life living with the guilt and the fault of his death on her shoulders, and in a fleeting moment of swelling emotions, Emiri delved deep into the recesses of her mind where she knew she could find a connection that she would never lose. If she could find Dialga, he could turn back time so that she never went to the ball and would never lose Kovu, she couldn't live with knowing that his death was her fault, but Zaron intervened, scorning Emiri for trying to make Dialga go against his most basic nature to the world to fix her mistake for her, and with his own emotions winning him over, Zaron blamed Emiri for Kovu's death and sent her into the deepest recesses of her mind as she couldn't hold on any more, her body falling limp beside Charizard.

{Ch. 8: The Finish (Click)}With that, Emiri's body fell limp as her arms released their grip on Charizard's leg, falling to the ground in a mess of brown curls as Charizard looked down to her with a snuff and bleary eyes.
"Emiri," Charizard cried, reaching down to her then as she took her shoulders in her clawed hands, shaking her lightly.
"No, not again, please," the dragon snuffed, trying to sit Emiri up, shake her a bit harder, trying to get her to come to. Looking to Zaron though expectantly, she was taken aback at his lack of concern for her state of being.
"What are you doing? Help her, we can't lose her like this," Charizard said in a strained voice, having too watched Kovu die right before her eyes, knowing that she would be harboring that pain as much as Emiri would be, and she didn't want to lose Emiri too, not now. But Charizard looked at the ghost as he took no action to even move closer to Emiri to help, to help guide her out of her nightmare, to help her back to reality.
"What's the matter with you!? Why aren't you doing anything," Charizard growled, glaring at Zaron with feral eyes, her pent up frustrations and anger seeping through her fangs.
"If she doesn't want to come back to us, I'm not going to bring her back," Zaron leered harshly in a dark tone as he only glanced down to Emiri's limp body.
"What... What did you do to her," Charizar roared then, fire and embers streaming from her open muzzle as she stared at Zaron with tears welling in her eyes again, but the ghost only disappeared from her, leaving her with Emiri clutched in her arms.

Directionless and distraught, Charizard remained there with Emiri limp and lifeless on the floor in front of her as the battle continued on around them, unable to form her next course of action. She wanted nothing more than to fly out of there right then and take Emiri away from that awful place, try and take her away from the pain that was tormenting her and keeping her trapped within the confines of her mind, but any thought she might have had of doing just that was squandered as the floor beneath her feet shook and trembled, lifting Emiri into her arms as the entire ballroom began to quake violently from an attack dealt by another one of their 'allies'. Charizard clutched Emiri close to her chest as the ballroom took the damage of the attack, the chandeliers shaking above them as parts of the ceiling caved in even further from the weather outside, though it was that force alone that dealt the final blow to the already worn windows as the sound of shattering glass filled the room. Charizard turned with Emiri in her arms, shrouding her with her wings as the glass showered around them, letting in the full force of the hurricane outside with wind and rain that burst into the room.
"I can't do this by myself," Charizard sobbed quietly to herself, looking down to Emiri's motionless figure in her arms as she frantically tried to think of what she was supposed to do now. Looking out to the battle around her, finding the damage done to be devastating as those fighting with her tried to press on through the battle, one of the dead leaders targeted her with Emiri in her arms as she watched a bolt of lightning in that split second shoot towards her. In a fleeting moment of panic, Charizard turned herself to brace the attack, keeping Emiri clutched tightly in her arms, but the attack was diverted at the last second where Charizard could feel the heat of the electricity coming. Frantic now, brinking on hysteric, Charizard searched around the room then for the one force she knew that could help her keep Emiri safe. She couldn't bear the damage of any attacks while trying to hold Emiri in her arms, so she rushed through the room through the spiraling winds, finding Cronus with Marcellus crumpled on the floor at his feet.

"Please, just help me keep her safe. I'll take any blows that come your way, just make sure nothing hurts her," Charizard pleaded as she approached the Mewtwo, holding out Emiri's limp figure to him in hopes that he would help her in this dire time.

Slowly but surely loosing the composure she'd tried to maintain through the worst of the events they'd been facing all night, Charizard was frantic and almost hysteric now as she'd come to face Cronus. She always tried to remain strong and unmoving for Emiri's sake in times of trouble like this, in times of peril and life threatening instances that otherwise shook the young girl to her very core. As strong as Emiri really was and as strong as they believed she was, she was still young, and despite the nightmares that roamed freely through her mind day in and day out, she's had yet to really cope with any of it, to make ammends with the things of her past that torment her, and as they all continue to build up, it gets harder and harder for her to hold herself together. As far as Charizard was concerned, she was still the same little girl who almost didn't make it through their first string of events those years ago, the same, small, fragile child that didn't want to leave her home in Pallet Town in fear of the unknown of the outside world, and in a way, she was right as Emiri remained motionless and unresponsive to the outside world in her arms. But through all those times where Charizard was able to pull through for the both of them, knowing that Emiri's support, despite her fear and distress, was what kept her going, now she wasn't sure what to do or how she would make it through without her... And it was slowly tearing Charizard apart from the inside as she had moved towards Cronus.
At any other time in her life, she would have never stepped so low as to plead and beg for the pompus mental freak to help her, she would have hated herself if she did, but she just couldn't hold on any more. All of those times that she'd stayed strong despite what was happening, she understood then why it was she was able to keep going in such dire times, because she was doing just the same as Emiri was. She was surpressing all of those fears, those worries, her own nightmares and concerns that tormented her through those times in place of anger and hatred to push herself through it all, and maybe somehow it was Emiri that helped her keep a hold on such things, but with Emiri unconcsious in her arms, she couldn't keep herself together, she couldn't do it all by herself. She'd never been without Emiri, not a single day in her life until she'd been stolen away from her, Emiri was always there, the one constant in her life, ever since she could remember, so how was she supposed to press on without her? Gaining Cronus' attention, Charizard in that moment almost didn't want to let Emiri go, as if releasing her from her grasp would somehow break her like Emiri was the final piece of a puzzle, but she knew, no matter how much she wanted to hold on to her and keep her safe for herself, that she couldn't, not when those monsters were doing so much damage. She'd just barely been able to get away from that thunderbolt, if it'd actually hit her with Emiri in her arms... She didn't want to think of what that would have done to her motionless trainer... It was with reluctance though that she released Emiri as the wind and rain continued to flood into the ballroom through the open windows, coasting over her wings and scales as her tail blazed sporratically with steam raising from the fire.
Her bleary blue eyes never left that of Emiri's floating, lifeless figure until she felt a sharp twinge in her mind, but before she could make any sense of what it was, no doubt the powerhouse psychic that she'd just now entrusted the life of her trainer with, her frantic gaze shifted to that of the appearance of Zaron off to the side, shrouded by a force field. Charizard's eyes immediately went dark as she glared at the ghost, her fangs dripping with embers as her jowls twitched in a snarl. She wanted to end him there, wanted to engulf him in flames, wanted to get rid of him so he would never hurt Emiri again, but as a fire lit in the back of her throat, her battered mind not able to maintain any amount of self control, she was stopped at Cronus' words to her. She swallowed the fire in her throat, black smoke billowing from her open jowls as she tried to focus on what the psychic was saying, tried to focus on anything past pain and hatred and fear. Zaron wasn't the enemy, no matter how much she hated him for whatever he'd done to Emiri. Cronus was right, those monsters needed to be stopped, allies or not. They weren't going to let up in their relentless attacks, they were ruthless and merciless being controlled by whatever force had done this to them, but she didn't know if she could focus on the battle, not when she didn't know where Emiri was or if she was going to make it out of this. Cronus' words might have rang true for her at any other point in time, but at that moment, she wasn't sure how strong she was, or if she'd ever really been as strong as she thought herself to be. She felt like that helpless little Charmander again, watching those horrendous fossils attack them, her trainer. She felt weak, and useless against the brute force of the dead Pokemon they were facing, but taking one last glance back to Emiri's limp body on the floor beside her, shrouded by Cronus' force field as the muddy rain of an attack showered over them, she knew in that instant that she couldn't back down. Emiri would never stop fighting, not a day in her life if she was fighting for something that was important to her, just like how she'd fought so hard to get her back when they'd been separated. If she wasn't going to fight for the defeat of these monsters, she was going to fight to keep Emiri safe, down to the last ember that fell from her tail, and with a faint spark in Charizard's tear stained eyes, she stepped forward with a blazing tail and a fierce roar, ready to take what may come.
"I'm going to make them feel all the pain they've caused our trainers. They're going to regret everything," Charizard snarled.

Slowly stirring awake, moving ever so slightly as she shifted, Emiri was coming to as her eyes fluttered open for only a second before falling closed again. Gaining consciousness, as if coming out of a sleep, she was focusing bit by bit on the things around her as she was waking. She could hear soft breathing all around her, slow and soothing and undisturbed, moving one hand slowly to feel something soft beneath her, something smooth. She was moving up and down slowly and in sync with the breathing she was listening to, shouded by an all too familiar warmth as her eyes opened again. She blinked a few times, focusing as light flooded her vision for only a moment before she found herself surrounded by trees and a soft morning sky, curled up underneath an orange wing atop black scales. Shifting slowly again, Emiri gave out a small yawn before moving to sit up, or at the very least situate herself as she looked down over the side of the black mass that she was atop, finding Charizard asleep on the ground beside her, and Azuran beside her with his wing dd over them both. The movements under her own wing though caused Charizard to begin to stir as her blue eyes slowly opened, a fanged yawn coming over her muzzle as she too started to wake. Beneath Emiri though, the breathing that moved her up and down began to animate a bit more as the black body shifted, rolling over gently as Emiri slid off onto the ground. Around her all of her Pokemon began to slowly but surely come to as Blastoise came out from his shell with Salamence beside him, Lynno's head came out from under one wing where Rhydon moved slowly on the ground. Flareon too, who had slid off during the night shook his fur as he stood on his paws with a yawn, and she was greeted by Charizard beside her now who looked to her trainer.
"Emiri... Why are your eyes so red," the dragon asked in a groggy voice, yawning again as she folded back her wing then, moving Azuran beside her. Emiri thought for a moment at Charizard's words, sniffling some as she felt an afterwave of what felt like she had been crying. She reached up to her face and felt dried lines of salty tears on her cheeks as Kovu turned over behind her, craning his neck around Emiri's small body to lay himself in her lap. She instinctively began to stroke the scales atop his head with her hands as she sniffled again, her mind flashing to an awful night, a dreadful ballroom, looking down to Kovu's scales beneath her, finding them stained red with blood. She flinched back, but only slightly, settling again she she looked back to Charizard in front of her.
"I had a nightmare... It was so real... Real like my other nightmares, the ones my memory makes me see again," Emiri stammered quietly, looking up to Azuran then who leaned up beside Charizard, nuzzling into the fire type's neck.
"It's alright Emiri, it was only a nightmare," Azuran consoled, looking down to his young trainer, but he could see a sort of distress in her eyes as she thought over his words.
"I don't know... It really seemed real... I felt like I was there... That doesn't happen unless I actually was in my memory," Emiri tried to explain with a shake of her head, not wanting to dismiss Azuran's comforting words, but she couldn't let it go, hearing screams and cries, a vision of a horrific man shrouded in black smoke clouding over her eyes, listening to his mangled voice. She knew enough of her connection to time to know that any nightmares, or dreams for that matter, that she felt like she lived, it wasn't just a nightmare, it was a memory, a memory of something that had happened in her past, and this didn't feel like just any regular nightmare, even more powerful than the ones she had on a regular basis.
She came back though as she shook away the thoughts of the nightmare, her vision coming back to that of the soft morning around her and Kovu's black scales in her lap, but her mind flashed to a horrible, destructive noise and broken marble floors, and in that instant, small scratches started to appear on her arms, the pain familiar as if she'd actually endured it. Emiri gasped, holding in a choking cry as her hair fell around her shoulders, but instead of her typical straight brown hair, it fell around her in a mess of tangled brown curls, the faint smell of sweet hairspray filling her senses.
"No, it can't...," Emiri whispered in a hoarse, quivering voice as she raised her hands from Kovu's head beneath her, finding them covered with small sheer gloves stained with blood from the black scales beneath her as Kovu moved from her lap then. She looked around frantically, finding no one around her now, not Charizard, not Flareon, not Azuran, only Kovu who stood before her now, blood dripping from his scales and tattered wings, opening his eyes to stare at her with a feral, empty red glare.
"No, it's not true," Emiri whispered to herself, staring in horror then at the dead figure of Kovu in front of her. She didn't want to believe that that nightmare had been real, didn't want to believe that those vivid images were a part of her memory, but no matter how much she tried to tell herself that this was the nightmare and she would wake up just as she had just moments before, she knew, deep in her subconscious, that Kovu was in fact dead, and this was not the reality she was supposed to be in.
"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry Kovu," Emiri sobbed then, watching him step towards her with his open maw, fangs dripping with blood as a sickening light began to form in the back of his throat, but just as she would have screamed, knowing what was coming next, her voice caught in her throat as her body began to grow tense, and for just a moment, everything went black.

Standing as strong as she could muster at the head of the battle, keeping herself in between the raging battle and Emiri tucked away in Cronus' force field, Charizard was trying to pull herself together enough to start dealing damage where damage was due in order to subdue the monsters that were attacking them. One by one, slowly but surely, the dead Pokemon were falling, but some of them were holding stronger than the others, and dealing attacks that would do anything in. Fire built up in the back of her throat, ready and aiming for her next target through the wind and rain that continued to blow through the enormous open windows, everything around them seemed to stop as a stream of electricity moved through the air, not striking the intended targets, but instead dealing the blow to the Nurse Joy at the top of the staircase. Charizard snuffed, almost choking on the heat in her throat as smoke streamed from her nostrils and the side of her muzzle.
"What in Arceus' name," she snarled, watching the figure of Nurse Joy lay still on the ground as she scanned her side of the battle, the Pokemon that were aiding, but she couldn't determine which one was the cause of the miss fire, though she certainly wish she knew then as she turned at the sound of the dead leaders above them. Charizard tried the best her reeling mind would allow her to process the words the leaders were exchanging with each other, but glancing to the skeleton of a Xerneas that stood before them all, it was far too late as screams and cries began to fill the ballroom once again.
Charizard looked around frantically, watching as the trainers around her began to lift into the air, struggling against the hold the Xerneas had on them all as it was the cause of the direct attack. In a fleeting moment of relief, Charizard knew that Emiri couldn't possibly be being drug into the air by the deteriorating deer being safe inside of Cronus' force field, but daring to glance behind her despite the battle being in front of her, Charizard's eyes grew wide and furious as she found Emiri's body in the air along with the other trainers.

Being forced so violently and suddenly out of one of her false realities, Emiri's vision was black and she was in a state of limbo for a moment's time as her body and mind tried to adjust to coming back so quickly, but as her eyes came back into focus, and her mind opened up into the actual reality she was supposed to be living, she found herself unable to move, and almost unable to breath as she was restrained in the air. She struggled with a strained cry against the hold that was on her, panicking as her body trembled, or would if she weren't being restrained, wondering what on Arceus' green earth happened to where she was being forced into the air. Just as she felt as though her body was going to cave in on itself with the pressure that was building around her though, she coughed with a sharp pain as her body was released, air flooding into her lungs as she was then falling through the air.

Despite her innate instinct to protect and keep Emiri safe no matter what, no matter what happened or the consequences that would follow, Charizard could only stand there in fear and horror as she watched Emiri's body convulse in the air, restrained and struggling through the hold the Xerneas had on all of the trainers while the Nurse only laughed and cackled at their pain and fear. She wanted rip everything to shreds, wanted to make sure that Xerneas never saw the light again, wanted to finish what was left of Nurse Joy in her flames, wanted to burn Cronus for not keeping his promise like he said, promising to keep Emiri safe, she just couldn't focus on anything but how angry and how upset she was at everything that was happening, until it was too late and Emiri was falling.
Before either of them had too much more time to react, screams and cries filling the ballroom entirely over the howling winds and pouring rain, Emiri clutched her eyes shut again as she fell towards the ground from being held up in the air, but her breath caught in her throat again as she was stopped roughly in mid air, just inches from the ground, but was released again as she hit the ground with a softer, yet still prominent, thud.
Emiri coughed upon impact with the ground, her body trembling as her arms were splayed out in front of her from falling on her side, dress splattered with rain and hair matted and tangled, and she herself was over all broken and battered as much as she could take it. She remained there on the ground in a sobbing mess of blue skirts and brown curls, not even caring about the physical pain of her body, but rather the emotional and mental pain that was all coming back to her from just moments before. Kovu was still gone to her, that much hadn't changed, no matter how much she wanted it to, no matter how much she'd believed that that state of reality was real. She could still feel his scales beneath her fingers, hear his breathing, how steady and peaceful it was, but she would never be able to feel his scales again, hear the purr of his voice or the sound of his wings, and just knowing that was more painful than any wound or infliction someone could make on her. She knew Zaron was right, no matter how harshly he'd put it, no matter how much she wanted to call for Dialga to change what had happened. She couldn't ask that of him, to mar his name as the guardian of time just for her own sake, but that didn't make it any easier to cope with, knowing that Kovu was lost to her forever. Opening her eyes though at the sound of rumbling foot stomps coming towards her, trying to come back to some state of awareness and consciousness, her bleary red eyes focused on something on the broken floor in front of her, inches away from an outstretched hand that had fallen limp on the floor upon impact. It was a round, smooth shape, the size of a fair sized leaf, shimmering and shining in it's teal color despite the dimness and dullness of the area around her. It was a scale, a scale she'd been carrying with her for so long now, after the departure of such a dear friend. It was Dialga's scale.
"You are stronger than you could ever imagine...," she heard in the recesses of her mind, though whether it was that fond memory of her final moments with her guardian or the legend himself, Emiri wasn't sure as she stared at the teal scale in front of her, but she reached for it all the same, her fingers ghosting over the smooth surface as she gently picked it up from the ground.
"Emiri, Emiri are you alright," Charizard cried, coming to her trainer then, thrilled to see her moving and lively again, but furious and upset that she hadn't be safe like Cronus had promised, but she stopped as she looked down at Emiri's hands, finding a familiar teal scale clutched in her fingers. Emiri stared down at it for a moment, tracing her fingers over the edges, remembering the day that Dialga left her, a day she would have never forgotten no matter her connection to time. His words replayed in her head, the conversation they'd had, the reason he'd challenged her that fateful day in Viridian City.
"You have grown strong... there is nothing in this world you cannot accomplish," she heard, his words in parting to her, telling her that she no longer needed him as her guardian. Tears streamed down her face still, but not so much from the pain of the night's events, but rather from knowing what it was Dialga was trying to tell her. She knew she couldn't change the present for herself, couldn't change what happened to Kovu, but she'd been through too much already to give up now. She was stronger than she'd ever know, Dialga believed that, and Charizard did too, she couldn't let her own pain get in the way of making sure that Kovu's death wasn't in vain. This master Raphiel was to blame, not herself, the one who took their Pokemon and turned them against their own, and she needed to see to it that he was stopped, that she followed Dialga's silent wish to her.
"Are you hurt," Charizard said finally through a strained voice, coming closer to Emiri's side, settling on the ground beside her, craning her neck as her tail curled around them, covering Emiri with one wing. Emiri sniffled a bit as tears continued to fall softly down her face, staring down at the scale in her fingers.
"This has to stop. This is never going to happen again," Emiri said finally in a hoarse, pained voice, but with the confidence she knew would come to her in time as she looked up to Charizard. In that instant, Charizard could feel herself coming to a sort of calm through her own distress and hysteria, nodding at Emiri then, though she was still fuming at everything that was happening, all of the things that were taking place. She glanced passed Zaron whom still remained off to the side as she looked to Cronus.
"You promised to keep her safe. I am not going to ask you again," Charizard growled with bared fangs as she stood, though her words were cut short as a loud crash echoed through the ballroom, debris and rubble falling around them as a bout of meteors came through the ceiling, letting in the rain and wind even more. Charizard moved herself over Emiri, shrouding her in her wings as the rubble and remnants of the ceiling fell around them all, but while that was over and done with, Charizard worried for the remaining structure of the ballroom, not wanting to lose Emiri to something as trivial as the equivalent of a cave in.
"Go, this needs to stop," Emiri called over the raging winds then as she urged Charizard to the battle, her dress beginning to soak through with sprays of water from above as Charizard stood with a huff, but she knew then that they had to put an end to this before things could get any worse, moving away from Emiri, despite her reluctance, opening her fanged muzzle and firing off a fire blast towards the Xerneas who had caused them all such strife.

Uneasy on her feet still, her head throbbing from so much emotional and mental strain, still trying to focus on the one reality she knew she was living rather than the dozens that were swarming through her mind, Emiri struggled over the broken marble floors to find Marcellus whom had also spared her fate.
"Marcellus, Marcellus are you alright," Emiri asked over the wind and rain in a strained, hoarse voice.

On trembling legs that had grown sore now from the exertion it took to stand let alone propel forward, Emiri stood beside Marcellus under the mild protection of Cronus' force field. After those meteors had come through the roof and the chandelier no doubt took part of it's support with it as well, and with aid from the still cracked and broken window at the side of the ballroom, there weren't just sprays of water bursting through the room, but now entire streams of rainfall that were pouring down on them. Where Emiri had maybe only been damp before, she was more or less soaked through as the skirts of her dress were now limp and heavy, and her hair had since deflated and hung in messy, frizzy wet curls. However, the rain wasn't the only force wreaking it's havoc on the battered trainers as the hurricane winds took their new found entrance and blasted through the room now too, taking with them anything they could pick up to throw around the room. Pieces of glass from the windows, broken chair legs and torn table cloths, even some of the rotted food and molded wood were being tossed about like leaves in a breeze as the hurricane took hold of the open airways. Emiri shivered now, her soaked dress doing little to shield her from the natural cold that came with wind blowing over her wet figure, her hair flying about her with her blue skirts, but her physical state was of none of her concern as she flinched every now and again at a stray object striking at Cronus' force field. Her small, shaking hands clutched Dialga's scale still, his silent message to her slowly bearing through the evident distress and anguish that was washing over her with every passing second. Nothing was going to take away from the pain of what had happened, the empty cavity that was sure to take place in her heart because of her lost companion, but she couldn't let Kovu's death hinder her, not now, not when his spirit would still be driving forth to put a stop to all that was taking place. He would never stop fighting, not even for a moment for as long as he could keep going and then some, and it was precisely that spirit that Emiri was trying so desperately to hold on to as she stood amongst the chaos. All of her anger, her frustration, her sense of loss and madness was being pushed into the single object she held in her hands as she tried to focus her feelings elsewhere. She couldn't be upset with Zaron for pushing her away from Dialga, she couldn't blame the leaders for what it is they were doing while under control, and she couldn't be angry with herself any longer lest she want to push herself into a state where she would lose not only the battle against the enemy, but against her own monsters. Raphiel was to blame for all of this, the demon who had caused so much torment, and she wasn't going to stop fighting now, not for every second of every minute that she knew he was still standing. She was going to make sure that he never had the opportunity to ever do something like this again, that he never saw the light of another day if it was the last thing she did. She was going to make him pay for his wretched actions, and make sure that Kovu was not lost in vain.
Looking out to the battle, trying to refocus all of her distress and strife, Emiri couldn't help but feel a small sense of familiarity and confidence as she watched Charizard before her, her tail blazing despite the rain and wind that fought against it's light. She thought back to every time she'd watched that same fire, in a gym battle, in a wild battle, in any of the perils they'd faced, no matter how much they stood against and how much they were put through, Charizard's fire always lit the way, and was always the one constant in her life. Never once had she faced anything without Charizard, knowing she was there from day one, and it was in that moment that Emiri understood what that meant for her. Charizard wasn't just her beloved companion, but her own strength and her own confidence that drove her through every day and every mishap they faced. When she'd been taken from her, stolen away to where she never thought she'd see her again, Emiri lost sight of herself and what it was that her being meant, her very existence, but the one thing that kept her going was the fight to hold on to the light she saw in Charizard, what her blazing tail meant not only for her, but for her entire team, their family, and in that instant, staring at her fire, watching her broad wings and her fierce eyes, staring down the challenge of the battle without a single hint of fear or distress now, Emiri knew they were going to make it out, no matter what it took. And it was with that notion that Emiri's hands settled, her grip on Dialga's scale becoming stilled and slightly calm, and a sense of easieness washed over her. She knew nothing was ever going to be the same, not after this, not after losing one of their own after she promised to keep them all safe, the road to mild recovery was going to be difficult and trying, but as long as she had Charizard, as long as there was still one ember left on her tail, things were going to be okay.
Shivering again through the sprays of water and the wind that ravaged through the ballroom, still taking up whatever it could grab in it's unrelenting grasp and tossing it around, or taking it up and out through the roof with it, Emiri watched the battle still, and despite her growing confidence in knowing that no matter what, she was going to make sure this all ended, she couldn't help but worry that it might still be far from over as she could tell some of her allies were starting to wear down. The battle had been tasking and trying on all of them thus far, and all of them had spared similar fates it seemed like from the Xerneas that attacked them, likewise whatever else might have happened while they'd been separated through the mansion, but she only hoped that they would have the same sense to try and pull through no matter the consequences that followed. Even if she and Marcellus were the only ones left, the only ones able to pull through and press on to make sure Raphiel was taken down, she was going to see to it that just that happened, though she hoped it wouldn't come to that for the sake of those around her. She could tell that some of them were new to their training, and some of them had yet to experience as much, but if they all held the spirit of a trainer and knew what it would take to over come the hardships they could face on that path, then she had confidence in their ability to pull through with their Pokemon.
Glancing around the ballroom again, finding Novu coming back towards them through the force field while Cronus took the head of the battle, Emiri looked down to another, particularly upset, voice beside her at her feet, looking down to find Salem dripping wet and shivering against the wind and rain just as the rest of them were. Emiri leaned down and took him in her arms, holding him close to her own soaked figure, not knowing really what good it might do to either of them, but the comfort of having something close, knowing Flareon was still injured and weak from the attacks he'd weathered, was a small glimmer of comfort for her in such a dire time.

Standing at the head of the battle now, wings and fangs bared and a fire ready in the back of her throat, Charizard dared anyone to come near her with the confidence that had started to ebb away from her in knowing that Emiri was lost, but now with Emiri's consciousness and knowing that she was alright, Charizard was ready for anything. Her fierce blue eyes glared out to her opponents, eying the leaders above them at the head of the staircase, watching their every move and waiting for her moment to strike, waiting for her opportunity to get in with a hit. She'd spent too much time in this battle on the side lines, trying to figure out how to process what was going on, when she'd like to think that Cronus' words still rang true in some manner or another. She was strong, stronger than most and stronger than she would know, but having been on the brink of hysteria with Emiri's limp body in her arms, she wasn't so sure then, wasn't so sure that she really was as strong as she always thought. In those moments, being left on her own, without Emiri's guidance, she had to wonder if she was ever really as strong and willful as she thought herself to be. In those moments she felt lost and helpless, just as she had those years ago watching those fossils attack, watching Lance try and ensue his new world order, and if it was that easy for her to revert back to her younger self, if it was so easy for her to lose sight of what she was doing and who she was, then she maybe wasn't as powerful as she'd always thought, maybe it was all just some facade to hide how broken she could become and how helpless she could be in the face of a real threat, maybe that was why they lost one of their own, because she wasn't strong enough to be their leader like she was supposed to be... Charizard tried to shake her thoughts away, a snuff coming to her muzzle with a plume of black smoke. She didn't want to think like that, she knew Emiri had every confidence in her even in the most bleak situations, but she hadn't been there when she lost all control, when she had to ask for help, when she couldn't do it all on her own, so what if it was true?
Charizard's focus was starting to wane from the battle before her as she fought within herself, trying to determine if her strength her entire life had somehow been an illusion to her, some self induced reality that she managed to create for herself, and it was in that moment of conflict that it was far too late for her to oppose the power that over came her. She only heard Emiri shout behind the confines of Cronus' shield as her body grew tense and still, and as she tried to struggle, to break free of the hold the Jynx had on her then, she was useless as she rose into the air, her wings restrained behind her. Charizard grit her fangs and her muzzle twitched, she could feel that fire in the back of her throat, just ready to blast at the Jynx for it's poor decision, but there was one final strain within the psychic grasp before Charizard was thrust to the side like she was nothing, not the force she'd always thought herself to be. She hit the wall off to the side as she had been thrown through the whipping winds and flying debris of the room with a grunt, hitting her head and her shoulder as her left side crashed into the wall, taking some of the rotted wood with her on the way down.

Where Emiri was no stranger to watching Charizard take on what was in front of her at any given time, knowing that she was the toughest and bravest of them all and could take just about anything, it had been quite sometime since they had faced off against any adversaries as powerful and ruthless together as they were facing right then. Since their time in Mt. Chimney where their lives had almost been lost and they were both at their weakest points, they hadn't had any necessity for any of their rigorous training or preparation, not knowing what was to come in accepting the invitation sent to them. They weren't prepared for this, they weren't ready for this, and Emiri knew that in the instant that she watched Charizard's body grow tense and stiff as the Jynx had set it's focus on her. Charizard would have fought it, would have broken the hold or set the Jynx ablaze in no time at all, but she'd seemed distracted and off in the moments leading to her impending fate as she was lifted into the air, but that didn't stop her from running out from the cover of Cronus' force field as Charizard was thrust into the wall beside them, watching her slump to the ground as her hair and dress whipped around her, and debris struck at her.

"Charizard," Emiri cried, coming to the dragon's side then, unfazed by the pieces of wood and other unrecognizable shards of destroyed objects that were starting to rip at her dress and strike her skin. Her only focus then was the still figure of her beloved partner there on the floor, her scales dirtied and scratched, her flame being ravaged by the wind and rain that blew over them. In that moment in time, Emiri's eyes flashed, seeing bars separating them and rope tying Charizard down. She looked beaten and defeated just as she had in Mt. Chimney...
"Charizard," Emiri called again over the wind and rain, moving slowly then over broken marble and discarded pieces of wall, coming to the dragon's face. Her blue eyes were open, but they were empty and void of the ferocity and tenacity she had seen just a bit ago. The fire in her eyes was dwindling just as it was on her tail, and Emiri's hands shook as she reached out to her partner's muzzle, touching her damp scales.
"I can't do this any more...," Charizard's voice came then, broken and weak, and almost inaudible over the chaos and ruin that surrounded them. Looking down to her companion though, Emiri's hand froze in it's place on her scales, her eyes reflecting question and concern.
"I'm not strong enough... I never was...," she uttered, her eyes locked on some far away point in the distance. Emiri could only listen to her partner's words then as she settled on the broken floor beneath her. Where at any other given point of time she might have even scorned Charizard for saying something so outlandish, Emiri could see how ruined she was in that moment, how much all of this was really effecting her. Casting her eyes out to the battle, watching those around her fighting so hard and taking those hits that were being relentlessly tossed at them left and right, Emiri wasn't sure in that moment either if they were ever really as strong as they might have thought they were. She sat there for a moment more, her thumb slowly stroking Charizard's wet scales as she thought to herself, her other hand gripping Dialga's scale still.
"No one ever said we had to be strong," Emiri said finally, in a tone so unlike herself that Charizard almost glanced to see if it were really Emiri she was talking to. She was more than broken in that moment as Charizard had seen her to be, she was shattered and ruined, and she knew then that it must have been a reflection of their time separated from each other, something that was new to her, but familiar to Emiri as she could see how the tone set into her.
"No one ever told us we had to be strong, that we had to help, that we had to be strong when no one else could," Emiri started again, more than just for Charizard's state but her own, realizing it all for herself for the first time. No one ever said that she had to go to the ball, or help Bill with Missingno, or go out to that Arceus forsaken island, or even leave home to start her journey. So why did she do all of those things? Charizard moved slightly on the ground, craning her neck from the cracked marble as she moved to look at Emiri for the first time. She understood in that moment through Emiri's few words what it was that the young girl was realizing too for herself. They didn't carry the weight of the world because they had to, they didn't bear the balance of right and wrong because someone made them, they didn't put themselves in harms way because someone told them to. They did it all and pressed on through every day after because they wanted to, because it was what they were meant to do. Everything that had ever happened to them happened for a reason, and their strength didn't come from their experiences and what they'd been through, but their willingness to endure their hardships and keep moving forward despite it all, from their love for each other and their dedication to one another. And whether they actually were as strong as they thought they were at whatever point in time or not, what strength they did have was always going to be enough to keep them going, that's what they never realized all along.
Locking eyes with each other, finding each other again through their lowest points, Emiri took Charizard's head in her small hands as the dragon came closer to her, her warmth emanating into her shivering and sore body. If they were strong because they wanted to be, then they were always going to be strong enough for anything that came their way, and it was with that new found power that they both stood together, ready for whatever end may come.

They fought, the other trainers fought, everyone fought through the remainder of the battle, giving every last bit of power and will they could into defeating the dead leaders that taunted and harmed them so, and as another bout of the dead Pokemon fell, smoke billowing from Charizard's muzzle and her tenacity to press on still stronger than ever, Emiri stood with her companion beside Marcellus, awaiting the next wave of destruction to come. Only then as they waited, the wind and water washing over them from the storm just outside, the leaders too waited for their next murdered Pokemon, but nothing came. Save for the roaring winds and crashing rain, the room fell into silence as they waited for what was to come, but the balance of power in the ballroom seemed to switch as Lorelei was the first to speak up in regards to the lack of new Pokemon. All the leaders started to grow restless and unnerved, as much as they could being in their corrupted states, but as the seconds passed, their panic grew until the barrier that was shielding them from their Pokemon's attacks cracked and shattered around them, and from there, their panic turned to manic distress as they started to shout and scream at something the trainers couldn't see, just like the Mismagius in the library. Emiri moved closer to Charizard then who's muzzle twitched with a snarl, but her face fell as she too watched the leaders start to convulse and writhe in pain from some unseen force. All any one of them could do was watch in horror at the grotesque scene, watching the leader's bodies twist and contort until their heads were thrown back as their cries of pain and agony seemed to rise even over the wind and rain blowing through the room until a black mass began to leak from their open mouths. Their screams grew just as the shadow did, forging into one mass over the leaders, but as their bodies fell limp and their screams turned to a hush, the shadow dissipated into the air above them.
The leaders fell back then, their bodies giving in to what pain they must have felt from having whatever force ripped from their bodies, but as they fell back, they fell into the pokeballs they had piling up behind them, the murdered Pokemon they used to do their bidding, and one by one the pokeballs started down the stairs then at being disturbed in their piles, and one by one the pokeballs started to open. Despite what meager terms Emiri might have come to in this time in losing Kovu, she did not wish to see his dead and mutilated body ever again, knowing that image was forever burned into her memory, so instead she clutched to Charizard beside her, burying her watering eyes against her orange scales. She grew sick again just at the notion of seeing his figure before her, knowing now that there was nothing she could do to bring him back to her, only wanting to put him to rest then properly, but as she heard the sound of multiple pokeballs opening, their contents being revealed, Charizard above her tentatively tapped on Emiri beside her.
"Emiri," Charizard gasped, cautiously though as she looked out to the sea of open pokeballs, but Emiri beside her only shook her head, retreating further into her orange scales.
"No, I can't," Emiri sniffled, shaking again at just the mere thought, already trying to push away the events of the night thus far, but Charizard persisted then, grabbing one of Emiri's shoulders.
"Emiri, look," she grunted softly, gently trying to pry Emiri away from her. Emiri resisted though, not wanting to see him again no matter how much she knew it would hurt him with such a notion, but Charizard's persistence won out as Emiri was forced away from her and turned to face forward, gazing out into the crowd then. Her eyes were watery and glazed over with tears, but through her own sorrow she could see the Pokemon moving and hear the distant cries of relief and apology. It couldn't be...?
"Kovu," Emiri breathed then, looking out amongst the Pokemon, seeing Styx just a ways away where Marcellus was already heading, but her eyes finally landed on a mass of black scales, no longer dripping with blood, as she started forward on trembling legs. She was hesitant as she moved forward, not wanting to be a fool in thinking that it was even possible... She knew what she saw, knew what happened as her eyes flashed back and forth between his mutilated scales and the faded gray marks that now covered his body. She didn't want to get her hopes up, didn't want to believe that all that pain was for not, but still her body kept forcing her forward, that one small shred of hope that wanted to believe it was possible. She hesitated though as she came up to his body, an ever so slight hint of fear in approaching his figure, knowing what he had been capable of, the evil and corrupt being she had seen just before, but she tentatively came to the ground beside him, looking over his marred scales where there were still some bleeding scs and gashes, but just as she might have thought that it was too good to be true, she watched the faintest movement come over his body, a breath coming from his muzzle.
"Kovu," Emiri tried to utter, but it only came out in a hoarse whisper, as if she were afraid to say his name, as if what she were seeing was only a trick of her mind, her memory creating a false reality for her to live in, but she watched his ears twitch just ever so slightly as she moved a trembling hand, reaching out to tough his scales. She felt him move again, a breath moving through his body and air coming from his muzzle, it was no shock that he might be unconscious, or even just barely there, but he was alive...
Where most of the others around her were bearing tears of joy for having their lost Pokemon returned to them, Emiri had to wonder then if any of them had gone through something as equally as horrible. Yes, she was thankful that Kovu was still alive, but to have gone through all of that pain for nothing, and to know that after something like this, even with him being safe, nothing was going to be the same, he wasn't going to be the same, she wondered if it was really going to be as happy an ending as those around her were thinking it to be. None of them could deny the things that happened this night, these experiences, the pain, the anguish were going to be with them for the rest of their lives, no matter how much they tried to surpress their feelings and move on. She better than anyone should know just that, but before Emiri could dwell on such things much longer, the leaders had since come to their senses and were moving towards the trainers now from their stair case perch, exasperated and wounded, but sorry all the same for what they had done. Emiri couldn't imagine being in some form of conscious state while having their bodies controlled for them, watching their actions while trying to fight against what it was they were doing. It would be a nightmare far worse than she would ever know, but knowing that the leaders were remorseful of their actions and only wanted to do right by the trainers they caused such strife, Emiri would be a selfish fool not to grant them just that, even if she had to do so to Lorelei. Where she could truly say she resented the woman for her past, she couldn't hold her accountable for the present, no matter how much trouble she had caused before.
Charizard stepped forward beside Emiri, doing her best to shield her from the rain coming in and the remaining debris that still flew around the room, hovering over Kovu's fallen figure as she too looked out to the leaders who were starting to come to their senses. She glanced down to Emiri's still demeanor beside their fallen family member, confused to not see her as joyful and happy as she might have expected, like when she had found her in Mt. Chimney that time ago, but thinking back to her limp body in her arms, the way she clung to her leg and tried to disappear from all that had happened, she had to wonder if that pain had been worth it, to go through that without knowing that somehow this was all some big illusion as Nurse Joy had put it. She knew Emiri on the inside was thrilled and elated to have Kovu back in her life, to know that he was alright after all, and she herself was over joyed to know that one of their own had not in fact been lost to them, but to have been put through all that strife, and to know that now matter what they did, nothing was ever going to be the same after this, Charizard understood Emiri's hesitation then. Kovu all this time had been one of the only ones in their family who hadn't weathered as much as the rest of them, who hadn't gone through the turmoil they did upon starting their journey. He was still young, and still hopefull in what he did, where that allowed him to still be happy and content with the world around him. Charizard knew her experiences, no matter how much she could deny it, shaped her and defined who she was now, bitter to the world and all that had happened to her, and she didn't want to wish that upon anyone, especially Kovu who now would have to harbor a pain that none of them would know, and without someone to share his experiences with him, Charizard wasn't sure if he was going to come out of this as well as they might hope.

Stroking Kovu's tattered and worn scales, Emiri looked to the leaders through glossy eyes as they tried to explain what little they could about Raphiel's final plots after Nurse Joy's Chansey had so graciously tried to give their Pokemon what energy she had left in her body. She looked to Charizard who had a small revitalized glow about her scales, and Kovu too who took in a deeper breath as some of the larger wounds upon his coal body grew smaller, but from what Emiri could tell, this was still not over. The leaders were bidding them all forward to finish Raphiel, to put an end to all that he had done, and while Emiri had wanted nothing more than to do just that before, she wasn't so certain now, wasn't so certain if it was worth it. She had Kovu back now, no matter how scarred and wounded he would be for the rest of his life, wanting then to only take him away from this wretched place and never return, but taking a look up to Charizard above her, their eyes locking with each other, she knew that no matter how much both of them wanted to leave this place behind, they couldn't leave this unfinished, not when it had all become so personal.
"We have the choice," Charizard said finally, watching some of the trainers start into the open corridor that Gary had showed them.
"We can walk away, right now," she grumbled, looking down to Emiri, though almost expectantly as Emiri turned to glance up at Charizard again.
"No we can't. I can't let Raphiel go, I can't live not knowing how this all ended. I'd feel horrible leaving everyone here," Emiri replied finally after a long thought to herself, looking down to Kovu's wounded figure before her, looking over his torn wings and the scars that already marred his scales.
"I want to finish this," she pressed, her will always stronger than an instinct to run to live another day. And it was with that notion, wanting to end this all right then no matter what it took, Emiri took Kovu's Pokeball in hand, returning him to the device for safety and in hopes of being able to get him to a Pokemon Center before it might become too late for him, and with Charizard beside her, they started through the ballroom with the rest of the trainers, ready and willing to face this to the end.

It was a welcome relief finally to be out of the wind and rain that had stormed into the ballroom upon it's destruction, entering into the corridor then as the stone walls shielded them against the elements that had tormented them so. Stepping into the quiet, listening as the sounds of the wind and rushing water grew fainter and fainter, Emiri took this small moment of respite to try and gather what she could of her thoughts, feeling more and more drained with every step that she took. Her hair was limp and hung in tangled brown curls, dripping wet and riddled with small pieces of who knows what just as her dress was. The skirts were heavy now as a small trail of dripping water followed behind her with her cautious steps through the corridor, and she shivered against the natural cold that came with being in such a dank and cold cavern of stone. Charizard stepped closer though, knowing the warmth that eminated from her scales would relieve the harshness of the elements just slightly, though Emiri winced at noticing the cuts and scs that now covered her skin from the debris she'd thrust herself into, being able to feel them as her skin started to dry from Charizard beside her. It was nothing she hadn't weathered before however, the scs and scratches and splinters nothing compared to the scars she wore on her back, the long gashes she had endured upon being thrown across the rocky ground within Mt. Mortar, but now that they had a small moment to themselves out of the elements and away from danger, she was beginning to notice just how run down and worn out she really was. She was tired, not knowing how long though the night they had been trapped within the mansion, and she was sore from her constant shivering, fighting against the wind, and hitting the ground as she had upon being lifted into the air by that Xerneas. She was emotionally drained again, which aided in her exhaustion, and she felt frail and weak from how much pain and torment she'd gone through all night. Her eyes were heavy now, unable to ignore her waning energy now as a small yawn escaped her, and Charizard too above her was beginning to feel those very effects, her wings drooping just slightly. But as they moved further down the corridor, the both of them understood that they couldn't let their guard down, not now, not when they couldn't be aware of what it was that Raphiel might have left to thrust upon them. By all acounts, they knew now that he was a ruthless, inhuman monster that needed to be stopped by any means necessary, and even if the leaders vouched that he was weakened now, they still had to be weary of what he might be capable of, knowing that when a monster is truly threatened and backed into a corner, that is when it is at it's most dangerous.
It was quiet in the corridor still, the sound of dripping water only being masked by the steps that echoed through the cavern as the party moved forward, but as they pressed on, it became increasingly difficult for Charizard to keep her posture up right as they stopped finally, understanding the cavern to be getting smaller by the step now. Her neck was craned downwards so she wouldn't hit her head, and her wings were tucked in, but that still didn't take away from her now being far too big for the corridor to proceed foward, where they could see an opening just another few yards ahead of them where the corridor grew smaller still. Despite having the easiest answer to the problem at the tip of her fingers, Emiri looked up to Charizard with hesitation and caution in her eyes, not even wanting for a second to return her to her Pokeball. What if in that split second something happened to her, or in that moment Raphiel took another grab at Pokemon trapped within the confines of their balls? There were too many reasons they saw that night not to return her to her Pokeball, and for a moment that seemed like it might be the only option no matter what, until a familiar voice came to them.
"If I may... I would like to help," came Zaron's cautious voice, though they couldn't see the ghost as they looked around the corridor. At only the sound of his voice though, Charizard's tail flared with anger as her eyes grew sharp, her muzzle twitching into a snarl.
"You've done enough," Charizard growled then, daring the ghost to show himself as her eyes darted around the shrinking corridor. Emiri though looked up to Charizard with concern in her eyes, wondering if she really did have the intention to hurt the ghost if she had the chance.
"Charizard... What happened," Emiri asked in a curiously tempered tone, trying not to get upset at her partner's hostility, but she couldn't ignore how violently she was acting towards the ghost.
"I don't know, you tell me what happened when you collapsed, it was his fault and he didn't do anything to help," Charizard glowered, staring down at Emiri for only a moment before searching again for the ghost, her jowls twitching and a light could be seen in the back of her throat, her claws clenching together.
"He stopped me from doing something selfish and horrible that I should have never even thought of," Emiri fought back, having realized then, reaching out to Dialga's scale on the floor that she shouldn't have dared try to contact her guardian, knowing it would go against every law of nature he was bound to to turn back time just for her, just to fix her mistake.
"But it was still his fault, and he left," Charizard snarled, not wanting to revist that desperate time being left on her own, trying to fight a battle not only with the leaders and their own allies, but against herself in being alone for the first time in her life.
"It doesn't matter that he left, it was my fault he had to come to me, and you shouldn't be treating him like he's an enemy now," Emiri chided, looking into the fierce eyes of her partner who was growing more and more frantic with each passing second then, trying not to let herself get consumed by the desparity again, but it was coursing through her as if she still had Emiri's limp body hanging in her arms as she closed her eyes with a harsh snarl.
"He hurt you Emiri! I thought I lost you! I was alone, I didn't know what to do! You were gone, and it was his fault, I didn't know what to do," Charizard roared, clenching her claws ever tighter as her shoulders shook, small sobs coming over her muzzle then as her eyes screwed shut. Emiri stood there then, looking up at her partner, never once having seen her so broken and torn down before. This was different than when she'd found her in Mt. Chimney, and even different then when she'd accepted Kovu's death.
"Charizard...," Emiri breathed then, not knowing what to say to the dragon then.
"I didn't know what happened to you, I didn't know what to do.... I thought I was going to lose you forever and there was nothing I could do... I couldn't lose you...," Charizard sobbed quietly then, her wings hanging limp at her sides and her claws coming undone from their fists as her head lowered with her shaking shoulders. Never once had Emiri ever truly thought about what it would mean to her Pokemon if something happened to her, unaware of the effect it might have on them. Where she knew she couldn't imagine a life without any one of them, to think that she had been so sure that they could press on without her when she went into Mt. Chimney alone... How selfish could she have been...? That's why they fought so hard, not for the promise they made to her, but for their unspoken promise to each other that they would never have to live without her. Here Charizard was, the one who's beared the worst of their journey and harbored the most of their discrepencies, and where Emiri would have thought that a life without her would be easier for them, without their lives being in danger every minute of every day it seemed like, she never thought she could have been so wrong...
"Charizard...," Emiri said again, her tone remorseful now and full of regret, moving towards her companion now as she took her trembling muzzle in her hands, feeling small tears moving over her fingers from her scales.
"I'm sorry... I didn't know...," Emiri tried to console, stroking her scales beneath her fingers as she held on to her muzzle.
"Remember at that shrine in Unova," Emiri started again after a moment or two, trying to let Charizard come to through her emotions, knowing it was rare for the dragon to break like she had just then.
"You said that you were never going to leave me, you promised," she continued slowly, remembering for herself that very day, the day her guardian Dialga left her, but the day she knew that her bond with her Pokemon was always going to be unbreakable. In her hands Charizard nodded half heartedly, sniffling slightly as her shoulders still shook lightly.
"I should have done it a long time ago, but I'm making that promise right now," Emiri said softly, bringing up Charizard's muzzle so she could look into the pained blue eyes of her partner so she would know that she meant every word. She always thought that she was so strong, so sure of herself, never faltering even when she was really put to the test, but to see her so vulnerable now, so broken, she never really realized that even though she'd grown up since then, she was still that same Charmander all those years ago, scared and in need of a shoulder to help guide her. When she'd grown into a Charmeleon, Emiri could have never fathomed then that she would still need to take care of her like she had as her younger self, but she knew now that it was her fault for not taking the time to realize and notice just how much Charizard really hadn't changed.
"I promise that we'll be together forever. I won't ever leave you," Emiri said finally, bearing her soul right then and there into Charizard's eyes as the dragon looked at her, understanding and realizing every word that the girl was giving her. If ever she knew someone to be true to her word, it was Emiri, and it was with that confidence that Charizard accepted her promise, nuzzling into Emiri's small figure, knowing she would never break it so long as she still had a breath in her body. And knowing just that caused the dragon to come to a calm in her rage and despair, finally coming to grips, however small, with all that had happened that night and what it meant to her to know that Emiri was going to be there no matter what. She lifted from Emiri's figure, wiping at her muzzle with her clawed hands before looking down to her young trainer.
"Let's finish this, together," she said finally, and at that confirmation they were engulfed by a familiar purple shadow before they came to the other side of the small opening at the end of the corridor, appearing with Zaron as they looked about their new surroundings.

Where they found themselves was no better lit than the corridor they had been walking through, the majority of any light came from Charizard's tail that burned beside them, but as their eyes adjusted to the dim lighting of the other side of the door, the first thing really was how shockingly big of a space they found themselves in. With only torch light it looked like coming from only so many spots in the room, it looked as though the space could go on forever with the dimming darkness that loomed on the other side of the flickering lights, and looking up, one could only see so far up into the darkness, but the echoes that came from above did little to affirm that they might not be underground due to all the stone that surrounded them, and the water that had began to flood the bottom of the space.
"What is this place...," Emiri whispered, uneasy about stepping forward or drawing any attention to herself, unaware of what could be lurking in the darkness beyond the torch lights. Beside her though, Charizard's muzzle twitched at a rank scent coming to her, something faint over the dank smell of moldy stone, still water, and burning torches, but it was something still that was putrid when she caught the scent of it every now and again, and it wasn't making her any more comfortable about where they were. Zaron however was the one out of the few of them to really understand just where exactly they were, glancing behind him to the walls, finding a series of hollowed out holes cut into the walls where it was plain to see coffins sitting in each and every one.
"I don't think this is going to end well," Zaron replied in a sickly tone as he watched Emiri's and Charizard's eyes glance down towards the center of the large structure, finding a large black coffin sitting in the middle of a stand alone pathway, noticing too the coffins that lined the walls.
"What kind of monster is he...," Charizard breathed, not daring to wonder who or what might be in the coffins that looked to be in too great a number for any one person to justify for themselves, where the dragon was also unaware of the cemetery just above them. Before any real answer could be given to the dragon though, sounds of struggle started to echo through the chamber now, coming from above, before a strange looking tree like Pokemon came hurtling towards the ground, as if it'd been thrown, landing with a hard thud to the side of the black coffin in the middle of the room, followed by a slew of other ghost Pokemon, the Mismagius they encountered in the library included. The ghosts remained there on the floor in a crumpled pile, and for a moment no one was really quite sure what there was to be done, though before anyone thought to question what it was that had happened to the ghosts, one last figure came from above, following the ghosts in a descent, but the figure came to a slowing stop landing softly on the ground beside the unmoving Pokemon, Raphiel.
All any one of them could do was watch in fear and disgust as he began to deride the Pokemon, taking up the Mismagius in his hand and in some way or manner seemed to actually be doing physical harm to her. Where Emiri disliked the ghost, being able to feel her strong, dark aura again, as well as the many others that were looming about, she wouldn't ever wish such harm on any Pokemon, this was just cruel, but before too long, Raphiel's attention had turned from the ghost and was on them now, the group of trainers that had come to finish what they all started, and still, despite the encouragement that the leaders gave in the ballroom of weakening his power, the master Raphiel seemed far too pleased to have them in his presence. His full focus was on their group as he turned to thrust the Mismagius back into the trembling group of ghosts, her limp body hanging in the air as she remained motionless, but there was little any of them could do as they had to give their full focus to the master in return who was speaking to them directly now. Charizard growled with every word the monster dared to utter, though kept Emiri ever closer as the girl struggled with knowing they were among the dead inside the mausoleum, Zaron too who held a weary and cautious glare upon the master who spoke up to them from his center place beside the black coffin.

"He doesn't mean...," Emiri uttered in a faint voice, not daring to draw attention to herself, though Raphiel's words were more than enough to bring the utterance from her voice as he regarded the 'others' that had apparently shared a similar fight to the group that stood before him. The Mismagius mentioned something smiliar in the library at the time, in reference to other trainers... Was it really possible that this had all happened before...?
"Don't be ridiculous, he's just trying to scare us, and it's not going to work," Charizard growled, her muzzle twitching as she glared down with fierce blue eyes to their enemy below them, though the energy in the mausoleum began to shift as Raphiel stood back as if to watch something unfold.
"I wish for all of our sake that you were right Charizard...," Zaron returned in a, what could be identified as, horrified tone as he turned to look at the walls beside them where soon sounds and thuds began to move along the walls within the coffins. Emiri and Charizard both turned a sickly shade of white as their eyes landed on the coffins within the walls, watching them move and listening to the sounds of struggle coming from inside as their contents tried to escape their confinements. Below them the water that had flooded into the mausoleum due to the raging storm just above them began to stir and bubble as it's surface was disturbed, and one by one grotesque, decayed, and otherwise dead, bodies began to rise from the water, milling about in old tattered clothes. Emiri held in a scream as she backed away from the edge of their ledge, though careful not to go too far back into the shuttering coffins that lined the walls, gripping her writhing stomach as tears began to well in her eyes. This was unlike anything that she'd ever gone through before, the whole ball had been nothing but the stuff of nightmares, and she wasn't sure how much more she could take. That toxic Mismagius, Kovu being stolen away and almost killed, the demonic possessions of the leaders, dead bodies and zombies? This was all some horrible, disgusting nightmare, something straight out of the horror movies she had never seen, and she didn't want any part of it, not any more. She'd faced the end of the world, monsters from alternate realities, Darkrai himself and a man-eating glitch. She's faced death enough to look it straight in the eye and not even blink, knew more about the world now than most would in a lifetime, but all of this was something entirely different that never once in her short life she could have fathomed she would come up against. Emiri's small body trembled and convulsed with tears and sobs as her tangled hair fell around her face, listening to the sounds of the sloshing water below her and the horrid thuds and struggles from the coffins around her, though she felt Charizard beside her who too was sharing her same sentiments. She was certain any one of her Pokemon would rather be out on Cerise island again rather than facing the hellish nightmare they were now as Charizard looked down to her trembling trainer after taking a glance back out to the master Raphiel, the reason and cause for their strife and suffering.
"How are we going to do this... This isn't what we train for.... This shouldn't be real," Emiri sobbed, holding either side of her head in her hands as if she were trying to force the reality in front of her away, trying to convince herself it all wasn't real. But still, the morbid sound of the bodies groaning and moving about in the water below them and the thudding sounds of the coffins around them forced Emiri back into this nightmare no matter how hard she tried to drift away, it was all just too much. Charizard and Zaron beside her too were wondering just how on Arceus' green earth they were supposed to handle something like this, and even beyond that wonder how they were going to cope with all of this after having gone through hell and back. Their weary eyes glared out to Raphiel, at his words, his inhuman actions, only taking in Emiri who let out a scream at feeling something grab on to her shoulder. She was trembling and sobbing and fighting so hard to stay with them, but as things around them were moving too fast to keep any real hold on the situation, it felt like they only blinked and a grotesque ghostly white hand had come up from that coffin and was attacking one of their allies. This had turned into a battle for their lives.

"You're right Emiri, this shouldn't be real," Zaron started, watching in disgust and legitimate fear at the hand that wavered in the air before them.
"I'm afraid it is though, but that doesn't change a thing," the ghost continued, lowering himself closer to Emiri's trembling figure, huddled against Charizard's broad body in the darkness.
"We never trained to take on a monster from another dimension, never trained to single handedly defeat Darkrai, a glitch that shouldn't have existed, or anything that's ever happened to us," he tried to console, knowing that ever since day one they've never ever been prepared for what may come in the future, but that never stopped them then. Some how, whether by their own fate or Arceus himself, they always made it out alive. Sure, there were times they all wished they hadn't, but if they weren't supposed to be able to handle what ever situation they found themselves in, they all would have been dead a long time ago.
"But we've always made it out. We've made it this far, and we're going to keep going until this is over. This is just another battle against just another enemy. And if there's anything that we do know how to do, it's fight with everything we've got," Zaron said, not for just Emiri, but for his self and Charizard too. He knew that this wasn't going to be easy, they weren't going to come out of this even the slightest bit sane, but they couldn't let that get them killed, it wasn't worth it, not after everything they'd been through. If they didn't fight with everything they had, all of their hard work and all of their experience would be for not, and Zaron knew, even in the bleakest of moments, that was one of the most basic concepts that Emiri and her Pokemon could understand. They had a fight in them that was unlike anyone could ever imagine for as broken and beat down they really were, and that fight was what brought them through every time, no matter what. And even when one or two of them lost that fight in themselves to keep going, there was always more of them that had the sense to keep going. They were a team, a family, and they kept together no matter what, pulled each other out of the terrible situations they found themselves in. Together they were an unbreakable force that would stop at nothing to finish what they started, and Raphiel was about to find that out in the spark that the ghost saw in Charizard's eyes.
Emiri, in her hysteria, had little choice but to listen to Zaron, trying to find something familiar to anchor herself to so she didn't lose herself. His words came to her over everything that was happening around her because she knew he was right no matter how much she felt like she couldn't believe him. In the simplest terms, anything they've ever faced was just another battle with just another enemy, and they've made it out of every battle very much alive and very much able to take on the next one. They never knew they were going to be trapped in another dimension with a horrific spirit, or have to fight their way through Darkrai's realm to stay together. They never knew that any of those things were going to happen in order to prepare, but they always made it out, even if things looked like they wouldn't.
Emiri's sobbing stilled into quiet sniffles as the battle had started underway around her, but looking up to Charizard and Zaron, seeing a spark in their eyes that matched that of her own, she knew that this was just another battle, and if there was one thing she did know out of every doubt she had, they'd never lost a battle yet.
"Finish this," Emiri said in a shaky breath, stepping away from Charizard as she felt her scales heat up, and from her fanged muzzle a bout of fierce flames engulfed the ghastly hand.