The clearing was lit up by iridescent light. Our camp was awash with every color of the rainbow as the Legendary Pokémon’s gaze drifted over all of us. The trees seemed to almost shift to grow towards it, and with every slight movement of its head, the branches swayed in the same direction. It was so beautiful I felt like I was looking at a living oil painting.
I wasn’t breathing. I wasn’t sure if I could breathe anymore. It wasn’t that Xerneas was preventing that reaction, it was just that the sheer presence of its magnificence barely let us do anything at all.
With one exception.
Diancie floated off the ground, and its gemstones reflected that light that was coming off of Xerneas’s horns. The rainbow colors took on a pink hue after hitting her, causing her to almost seem to glow in its presence.
Rather than speaking telepathically, Diancie shouted out her name like any other Pokémon, and the light that permeated our campsite almost immediately faded.
I almost fell to the floor, but I locked my knees together to prevent myself from doing so. Rather than feeling distressed or nauseous in the presence of such a powerful Pokémon, I felt reinvigorated. Around us, almost faintly, small wisps of mist emanated from every object and plant in the clearing in a form reminiscent of Misty Terrain. The mist seemed to drift towards us, and I saw all of my Pokémon except for Altaria stand up a bit straighter.
I knew Xerneas’s ability: Fairy Aura. In the games, it empowered the damage of Fairy Types moves. Was Xerneas empowering my Pokémon with solely its presence?
At this point, Xerneas no longer glowed with the light of life itself, but had dimmed to a soft white. It was almost disappointing to see that its horns were no longer rainbows but a light blue instead. It still stood there, unmoving, while Diancie continued to speak.
It was strange, watching the two Legendary Pokémon interact. Diancie was desperately speaking at a fast pace, begging Xerneas for whatever she sought. Despite her impassioned endeavor, I could understand nothing but her emotions. Still, it was transfixing to watch two incredibly rare Pokémon together, and my Pokémon’s gazes were stuck on them just the same as mine was.
Unconsciously, I took a step closer.
“Your pleas have been heard. I know what you seek.”
A voice rang out from all around us, but Xerneas displayed no moves as if it was the one to speak. Rather, that mist that was coming out of the ground seemed to vibrate with its voice as the sounds came from the environment rather than its mouth. At times, Xerneas sounded like an old woman, and at other times, it sounded like a young man. It was both speaking with numerous voices at once but also that of individuals. The meaning was clear, but the words were hard to pinpoint.
Almost as if it was giving us a message directly, rather than actually sending words.
Diancie glowed.
“I shall grant your wish, but know this. The power to nourish life lies within you.”
Xerneas tilted its head down as Diancie’s light increased drastically, and when it brought it up, the glow shattered into thousands of tiny motes that drifted into the air. They disappeared into the night sky as Diancie stared at Xerneas with tears in her eyes.
“Thank you,” Diancie sent.
Xerneas did not react to her thanks at all, and began to turn around and leave. I hadn’t noticed it, but tears had formed in my eyes. I wiped them before it was gone.
However, that was when Ninetales stepped forward and yelled her name to shout out to Xerneas.
I almost lost my balance when she moved out from beside me. I had no clue how much I was relying on her to stay standing. Xerneas paused where it was walking and rather than turn around it almost seemed to shift its body to face us one more. Ninetales was both grimacing and grinning at the same time.
I had no clue what she was planning.
“Speak, child.” Xerneas’s voice rang out from around us.
I almost wanted to call Ninetales back, but I refused to break whatever little bit of decorum I had in front of a Legendary Pokémon.
Ninetales barked her name several times, and Xerneas stared at her impassively. A silence fell upon our group, and Xerneas continued to not move.
“No. I refuse to grant power without true meaning,” Xerneas’s voice replied.
Ninetales growled. I froze. Jeers rang out from the rest of my team as they either floated or walked to stand besides her. The only exception was Altaria, who flew over to land beside me.
“What are you doing?” I hissed as low as I could. “Don’t insult a Legendary Pokémon!”
Ignoring me, Azumarill stepped to the front of the group, then smashed her fists together.
My eyes went wide.
In an instant, every member of my team unleashed attacks at the Legendary Pokémon Xerneas. Ninetales sent forward an Ice Beam, Florges twirled to conjure a Petal Dance, Whimsicott unleashed an Energy Ball, and Mawile sent forward jagged rocks from Stone Edge. I saw Ponyta attempt to use a move from the tip of his horn, but failed and was forced to rely on a Fairy Wind instead.
I tried to run forward to stop them, but Altaria jumped on me and his fluff held me back.
“Stop them! They’re going to get hurt!”
Azumarill dashed forward with Aqua Jet and spun in the air for an Aqua Tail right before the rest of the moves hit the third most powerful Pokémon I had seen with my own eyes. Almost like a wave, a wall of pink mist formed and slammed into Azumarill, sending her back and blocking Xerneas from every attack sent her way.
Azumarill flew through the air and crashed into my team, who were all standing dangerously close together. The clearing began to light up and my heart dropped as I realized the full moon was directly above the camp.
“No...” I whispered.
A beam of pure white light slammed down on my team and completely consumed them in its radiance. It persisted there for several seconds as I fell to my knees, and everyone looked just as stunned as I was.
Diancie spent this entire time in the air watching, unable to move, and I briefly and unfairly cursed her for not stepping in.
My Pokémon fell to the ground, scorched and burned.
Xerneas turned to me.
“Your team is exceptionally loyal, otherworlder. They demanded power from me to protect you from your enemies. Continue to show them kindness, and they shall return it in spades.”
I was unable to speak.
“It is not my role to interfere with the realm of humans. Your Pokémon will be fine come the morrow. Persist as you are now, but perhaps teach your companions when fighting is appropriate.”
No one was able to do anything as Xerneas walked away. I stared at my team as it left, but suddenly, it stopped one last time.
A laugh rang out around us.
“Oh. I understand.” Xerneas turned its head to look me in the eyes. “Very clever.”
Without taking any more steps, a breeze rushed over Xerneas and it was obscured by a large number of leaves. When they disappeared, Xerneas was gone, and the light that illuminated our camp dimmed, leaving us in darkness.
Ramos rushed forward.
“Hope, send out yer Cherrim. Diancie, could yeh keep watch? Alex, stay back. I’m going to make sure yer Pokémon are okay.”
Dazed, I nodded and began to take out my emergency healing supplies just in case, but he turned them down. Hope rushed forward to send out her starter, a Cherrim that knew Heal Pulse, and it began to cure my Pokémon of their injuries. Reaching into a satchel at his side, Ramos retrieved a number of bitter herbal remedies to rub on their burns, and I collapsed onto a nearby log in the camp.
Altaria followed alongside me.
“Yer Pokémon are foolish, Alex,” Ramos said when he approached after he was done. “Attacking a Legendary Pokémon? I don’t know what they could have been thinking.”
“I hate to say it, but I think they did,” I mumbled. “They saw a chance, and moved in to take it. Whatever they did, it was planned. They left me in the dark to risk everything to get stronger. It’s too much.”
Ramos grunted.
“Well, they were hit with Xerneas’s Moonblast, and what a Moonblast it was. Clearly it was holding back considering their current injuries. A move of that power should have left nothing at all, but they’re all burned in identical ways, even Ponyta, who should have been long gone if he was hit by the same attack that knocked out Ninetales.”
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Tears formed in my eyes.
“Why would they risk that?”
“Because yeh’d do the same for them,” Ramos replied.
I was left in silence at that, and was unable to do anything but keep watch. Since Ramos was done, Altaria flew over to sit next to my team's unconscious bodies and keep watch, and Dedenne approached to stand next to me. He stared for a while before running off into the woods. Diancie floated down to pat me on the shoulder before returning to bed, and with Ramos and Hope asleep, I stayed up all night, watching my Pokémon to make sure they’d be okay.
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When the sun first peaked over the horizon, Ninetales awoke. She put her paws forward to stretch, and glanced around the area, smacking her lips as if she had just woken up from a pleasant nap.
I ran forward to hug her.
“What did you think you were doing!” I admonished her. “Xerneas was a Legendary Pokémon! And I don’t mean one of the weaker ones, I mean the very peak of power! Why would you ever think attacking it was a good idea?!”
Almost as if she forgot, Ninetales blinked for a few seconds to collect her thoughts, then pushed her way out of my arms. Upset, I stared at her to see why she was so motivated to back off.
She briefly glanced over her shoulder to look my way, then turned to face the woods. Without prompting, she reared up and the image of the moon appeared behind her. My eyes went wide at just how clear it was, and as she slowly formed a pink sphere in front of her mouth, the wind almost twisted as it felt like it was sucked into it.
Soon, she released the Moonblast, the attack screaming as it tore forwards and impacted a pile of detritus not too far away. The sheer power of the move far outclassed anything she had before. My mouth dropped open as she turned around, a wide smirk on her face.
“What.”
At the sounds of her move, the rest of my team began to wake up as well. I stared at them, shocked, as they all acted as if they had woken up from a nap, then excitedly, they began to practice their moves.
None of their initial attacks had as large of an improvement as Ninetales’s Moonblast, but slowly, I could see them rework their moves to be significantly stronger. Florges’s Fairy Wind almost cracked the air as it blew forward, both Azumarill and Mawile’s Play Rough attacks caused the relevant body parts to glow a brilliant pink as they shadow boxed the air, and out of nowhere, Whimsicott was using perfectly formed Moonblasts himself.
I walked over to a tree and slid down it into a seated position.
“That’s why it said ‘Clever.’ You... you tricked a Legendary Pokémon,” I said, dazed.
Ninetales proudly trotted over and sat down next to me. She snickered as she did so.
I watched my team as they trained. Ponyta’s Fairy Winds were almost at the level of Florges’s before.
“Xerneas didn’t grant you power... but it used its Moonblast on you,” I mumbled. “As a being of life, it didn’t want to kill, so while you got hurt, you also got to experience how the strongest Fairy Type in existence uses its power. As a training method, I don’t... I just... wow.”
My team had glanced over to see my shocked reaction, and started to laugh among themselves as if it was a great success. Despite their injuries from the night before, I had never seen my team so happy, and even Azumarill and Mawile high-fived at their successfully completed plan.
I started to get angry.
“Do you know how stupid that was!” I yelled. “You had no way of knowing Xerneas would react like that, and you had no way of knowing you’d get off so lightly! Sure, you now have better insight on how to use Fairy Type moves, but was it really worth it!?”
Azumarill nodded her head, and even Florges murmured in agreement. I collapsed back on the ground from where I had stood up when I was yelling.
“Never do this again,” I ordered. “I don’t care how genius of a plan that was. I don’t want to see you all risk getting hurt. Please. I care about you all. Don’t... don’t hurt yourselves for the sake of power.”
The mood dampened a bit at that, and my Pokémon approached me to sit down next to me. I wiped tears out of my eyes at seeing they were alright, and tried to use this time to relax.
“I’ve been dumb in the past, but you were dumb last night. How about we call it even and move on?”
They all readily agreed.
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I was exhausted from staying up, but spent the next while helping my team work with their moves. As far as I could tell, experiencing Xerneas’s Moonblast firsthand let them get a far better understanding of how to use Fairy Type energy. Their moves came out stronger, faster, and while it was hard to tell, probably using less energy. While they hadn’t received a direct boost from Xerneas’s Fairy Aura like Diancie had, they basically received a personalized pamphlet to figure out how to increase their raw power.
Altaria, who had sat the trick out most likely due to his Dragon Type, received personal help from Florges to improve his Moonblast. He had significantly less improvements than anyone else, but he was improving, and with enough effort, might catch up to the rest of my team.
Dedenne had reappeared in the night and watched us train while Hope, Ramos, and Diancie were getting ready for the day. He sat on a log and stared, and when I looked at him, he almost looked jealous. When I approached to see if he would be interested in joining in, he just ran away instead before I could say anything at all.
He honestly looked lonely.
Eventually, Hope, Ramos, and Diancie had finished making breakfast, and I walked over to eat some myself, now in a much better mood. As I finished off my helping of oatmeal Ramos cooked over the fire, I started up a conversation about our next steps.
“So now that Diancie got what she needed, are we heading to Reflection Cave so she can save her kingdom?” I asked.
In response, we were hit with a wave of nostalgia and determination as Diancie sent the phrase “Home!” to our minds.
Hope looked set on leaving too, but Ramos looked opposed.
“That’s not a good idea,” he said. “She needs to master whatever she got first before we head out.”
In response, Diancie just formed a pink diamond in her hands and handed it to Ramos. Despite it looking the same as before, I could tell this one would be permanent rather than temporary.
Ramos frowned.
“Well, I can’t approve of the other two of yeh going as well. It’s best if we stay here to train for a whi—”
“Ramos, we’re going,” Hope interrupted. “We promised Diancie that we’d help, so we’re going to help.”
He paused and crossed his arms.
“No.”
“No?”
“No. I’m putting my foot down. Yeh aren’t going.”
Hope crossed her arms as well, and I gave Ramos a confused look.
“Why not?” Hope asked, accusingly.
Ramos glanced between Hope and I and took a sip of the tea he had made before the oatmeal. Sighing, his shoulders slumped a bit.
“Yeh sure yeh don’t want to stay here a bit longer? Train under a master? Learn more about how an old Gym Leader does it?”
“This is more important than a few tips,” I said.
Ramos winced.
“Then I... I guess it’s time to come clean. Alex, yeh have to stay here.”
I blinked.
“Why?”
“Lysandre escaped,” Ramos said. Everyone froze. “One night he was being held in Pokémon League headquarters, and in the morning he was gone. No Psychic Types went in or out, and as far as we can tell, someone just went in and released him.
“The good news is that Elite Four Malva’s loyalty to Team Flare was practically nonexistent. She’s been giving up all of their bases and helping with team formation to assault them. Unfortunately, she has no clue where he went.”
The campsite was silent as we took it in.
“So Lysandre is out there, and he knows about me,” I said.
“Correct.”
“And you want me to stay here so he can’t find me?”
“...Partially correct,” Ramos replied.
“How so?”
He took a deep breath.
“We didn’t want yeh going after him.”
I paused.
“Wait, you want me to stay here because you’re concerned I’m going to go after Lysandre?”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t help it. I laughed.
“Oh man, that’s funny. No, I’m not some shonen anime protagonist going to run straight after a villain when I know he’s free. Ramos, the first thing I did when I saw Lysandre out was call Steven. I don’t want to fight a terrorist organization or rush straight into an enemy’s clutches. I’ve done that once before and I’m not going to do it again.”
“You’ve done that before?” Hope whispered.
“No, I’d rather like being protected from a madman like Lysandre,” I continued. “Just please tell me the Ultimate Weapon is handled.”
Ramos nodded. I breathed out a sigh of relief.
“Great. Then I have no reason to go after Lysandre. The League would be far better at doing that than me. We just need to escort Diancie home. Tell me, were you told to stay here, or were you just told to keep me safe?” I asked Ramos.
“Keep yeh safe.”
I smiled.
“Then, with both Diancie and you close by, I feel like that’s good enough. Heck, Hope and I can both Mega Evolve our Pokémon, so as long as we stay off-route and don’t enter any cities, we should be fine. Team Flare won’t be able to track us. What do you think of that, Ramos?”
Ramos, looking far more tired than he ever had before, glanced between the determined expressions on all of our faces. After seeing the pleading eyes of Diancie, he sighed once more, and I knew he relented.
“Fine,” he said. “We can go.”
Diancie floated up and cheered, then high-fived Hope. Smiling, I turned around to the rest of my team, and clapped my hands.
“We’re heading out today, everyone!” I shouted. “High alert, be aware of everything going on. While I don’t think we’ll be heading directly into danger, as long as we stay on our toes, everything should be fine!”
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I really regretted not catching a Ralts when I had the chance. A Pokémon that could use Teleport would have been invaluable, and while I already decided to obtain one before, I knew one of the first things I’d do when I enter a new region would be to see if I could find one. It was either that or a Clefable, but as a pure Fairy Type, it couldn’t Teleport anywhere near as far as the Psychic Type Gardevoir. However, either way I wanted to see if I could get one of the two.
Being unable to fly with Altaria was a pain, but we were forced to stick to the ground due to Diancie and Ramos’s lack of methods of flight. The journey was difficult, but we slowly made our way along as we moved towards Reflection Cave.
The terrain we traveled over was craggy and full of cliffs. We had to take looping paths around the sides of mountains that had large drops into the forests below. The only reason we made decent time was thanks to our Pokémon, but in terms of travel difficulty, my legs were burning from how much hiking and climbing we were doing.
I promised myself that next time I spent time off, I was going to make sure to actually keep in shape while doing so. Eating so much of Lacey’s baking was a mistake.
Our Pokémon were a big help in traveling, simply because they let us move straight over obstacles rather than around them. Hope and Ramos’s Grass Types were able to carry them with Vine Whip, and Florges could float short distances while picking me up. At one point, Diancie was getting a bit bothered by our slow movement, and created a literal diamond staircase up a cliff. It had the opposite effect of hurrying us up since we stopped moving due to how stunned we were, but with a push from her, we quickly resumed our journey.
Despite the journey being somewhat difficult, on the bright side, it took an entire week for us to reach our target. We walked the entire length of Route 12 and bypassed Shalour to find our way to the mountain range that contained Diancie’s home. With how long it took, we all hoped that Team Flare had been mostly handled by now, but at the same time we received no calls with updates. We were in the dark.
Once we were at Reflection Cave’s mountain, Diancie picked up speed and we hurried after her. We had to be careful with our movements in this area to not reveal our location, and Ramos even had to use his Victreebell to pull us under cover a few times to hide us from flying Ace Trainers. We were unsure if the League members here were normal workers or Team Flare plants. Either way, it was best to not take the risk.
Diancie led the way and we were brought to a small crack in the ground. She closed her eyes to focus, and the rocks creaked and broke to reshape themselves into a proper opening downwards.
Glancing between ourselves, I sent out Ninetales just in case, and we made our way into Reflection Cave.
“...Wow,” Hope whispered upon emerging.
I was speechless. I wanted to agree, but I was unable to form words.
Reflection Cave was significantly more impressive than the faint memory I had of it from the games. Almost wall-to-wall, the dark stone had bright blue crystals growing out of it, and there were a number of surfaces that had broken away to reveal completely natural, smooth mirrors. Walking through its tunnels was like walking through a funhouse that combined both normal mirrors and the mirrors that modified your body shape. If there were any more crystals than there already were, I could tell that we would have easily become lost. I was thankful that Diancie was leading the way and knew where to go.
“We have to be careful. Stick together,” Ramos instructed. “We’re not on the main path. This is too tight and there’s no markings to direct us. It’ll be easy to get lost, and wild Pokémon might attack.”
We shut our mouths and nodded. Ninetales created a very dim light with Dazzling Gleam, but none of us took out our flashlights. With how many reflective surfaces surrounded us, we had no way of telling just how far out the light would go. We didn’t want to alert Team Flare if they were present.
Diancie was overjoyed to be here, and grabbed Hope’s arm to drag her forward. When she wasn’t personally leading us like that, she was floating around and checking over the crystals and reflective surfaces to make sure everything was still alright.
We carefully followed after her, and I noticed that a few wild Pokémon poked their heads up but didn’t approach. A Mr. Mime hid behind a large crystal, a few Roggenrola grouped together stayed standing within indents in the wall, and a Wobbuffet with extremely obvious lipstick on it just stood on the side and watched us pass.
I even saw the glint of a Sableye in the corner of my eye watching us greedily as we passed, but like everything else, it didn’t even get close.
Diancie led us down twisting and spiraling paths, as well as down a few vertical falls. The temperatures increased slightly as we increased in depth, but nothing too intolerable. The colors of the crystals changed to be solely blues to whites then reds, and eventually, we started seeing flecks of pink here and there.
After what felt like hours but was probably only a single one, Diancie suddenly stopped us.
“Friend. Family,” she sent to our minds.
Quickly, she zipped forward in the air to stop before one large crystal, and tilted herself down to be as close to the ground as possible. Slowly peeking out from behind the stone was a small Pokémon whose body consisted of a floating rock. A few blue-tinted crystals grew out of the rock itself, and the very top of it had a head with long, pointed ears just barely sticking out of the stone. It stared at Diancie with its deep blue eyes.
It was still for a second before it rushed at Diancie, crying loudly, and Diancie picked it up to hug and comfort it.
“Shh. Shh,” Diancie sent while also sending warm feelings. “Safe. Together.”
The Carbink let itself cry for a bit longer. Soon, it was only slightly sniffling and it pulled itself back to stare at Diancie. It began to hurriedly say its name several times to communicate, and Diancie gained a more and more upset expression on her face as it went on.
Turning to us, she quickly sent a new message.
“Kingdom, attacked. Orange, here.”
We all knew what she meant. For whatever reason, Team Flare was currently invading Diancie’s home.