"Oh my gosh..."

Dawn hid her mouth with her hand in horror. Did he really just say that? By pure instinct, her hand grabbed and squeezed his like a lemon.

His eyes were so pale... pale, icy blue, bleached with fear.

"Wait, wait, wait!" Barry barged in, breaking the temporary silence.

"Don't you think that was all a dream? I mean, how else were you in some weird dimension while still being at the lake? Mesprit must've messed with your head and knocked you out!"

"No."

Barry's rambling came to a winding halt. A single word from the professor stopped all the sparks and fire he was spewing while his teenage mind flipped out in fear and awe.

"Much more than a dream. The being of emotions... Lucas, you said it invaded your mind?"

The boy slowly nodded. "Y-yes, Professor!"

"If that's the case. Not a dream. Rather... this could very well be a conglomerate of negative emotions stewing up to create a brutal and dark nightmare, with Mesprit perhaps planting visions of other dimensions into your psyche. Lingering residuals. You said you've been experiencing headaches?"

"THAT'S RIGHT! Even when we had our battle, Professor! I was telling Lucas something my dad told me a while back about training—then he finished my sentence WORD FOR WORD!"

The glass tubes and test equipment in the room rattled at the RRUCKUS of Barry's thunderous voice, as if complaining about how unbelievably loud he was.

Lucas watched the professor with laser-focused eyes.

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The professor’s aged, wrinkling face was so... still. Even with all the crinkled skin, his face looked steadier and straighter than a lake on a windless day. Far more serene than any of the three kids.

It was like nothing—not Mesprit, not the scary soul-sucking black void, not even the gigantic monster that swallowed Lucas—nothing seemed to unnerve him in the least.

Dawn was still mortified by Lucas's fit; she'd never seen anything like it. It was horrible.

"Lucas... I'm sorry for everything you've been through. A child like you shouldn't have to experience such horrors... that said—this certainly isn't out of the blue. And this may very well be... your own doing."

Lucas's eyebrows knitted together, straining as if pressed down. "Pardon—?"

"What do you mean, 'isn't out of the blue'?" Barry chimed in for the umpteenth time, folding his arms with fire starting to glow in his eyes like a heater warming up. "And just what the hell do you mean, 'your own doing'? Are you NUTS? You think his violent fit five minutes ago was 'his own doing'? Are you even THINKING, old man?"

"Hey, don't talk to the Professor like that!" Dawn suddenly burst out, causing Lucas to flinch. "I get that you're scared, Barry, but you need to show some respect—"

"I'll talk however I want! Lucas hasn't done anything to deserve this. He's the nicest guy I know—you should've seen him in our battle, he even begged me to stop Turtwig!"

Lucas’s head dropped to the floor upon hearing that.

"What does that even have to do with—"

"It has A LOT to do with the nonsense your boss is spewing, DAWN!" Barry snapped her words in half like toothpicks. "Lucas isn't the type to go around making people angry, he's not the type to pick a fight with ANYONE. He hasn’t done anything to deserve these headaches, and certainly not a random attack from a damn DEMON! Even if it was just a vision and not your premonition or whatever!"

"Barry, c-calm down," Lucas sheepishly suggested, looking down at the floor. "Professor Rowan's probably right; it probably is my fault. Mesprit attacked me because I disrespected and disrupted its peace..."

Barry glared down into Lucas’s eyes, disappointment shining in his orange gaze as he marched away.

"You can stay and keep blaming yourself for everything like you always do, Lucas. I’m done waiting around, listening to people who think they know what’s going on, like they’ve gone through it already—like they orchestrated the entire thing. I’ve got things to do."

The bright blue door SLAMMED shut as the bold blonde disappeared in a flash, like an angry bolt of lightning.