"Wow!" I exclaimed, leaping off of the gangplank. "Pueltown! And look up at that—is that Altru Tower?"

Touya and N followed me onto the first solid ground we'd seen in weeks. Almia wasn't the farthest region from Unova, but it wasn't quite the closest one either. On the way, I'd done my best to get Touya to warm up to N a little bit, and it really seemed that he was willing to give the guy a chance, provided that I didn't push it too far. In between those sessions, I read up about Almia.

It seemed that, while we were fighting our battle against Team Plasma, the Almia region's Pokémon Rangers had been busy fighting their own battle. An organization known as the Pokémon Pinchers had been using technology known as Gigaremo to steal Pokémon all over the region, using Dark Shards that exuded a mysterious power that hypnotized and controlled Pokémon . The shards were from a single, massive crystal, called the Shadow Crystal, which was guarded by the nightmare Pokémon Darkrai. The leader of the Pokémon Pinchers, who turned out to be the president of Altru Inc, Mr. Blake Hall, had taken the Shadow Crystal from its resting place deep in the Chroma Highlands, and captured Darkrai. His intent was to set the Crystal atop the Altru Tower, and send the signal out over the entire region to gain control of all Pokémon . The Tower was one huge Gigaremo. He was going to use Darkrai as his personal bodyguard, basically, and once more allow the Pokémon to protect the Shadow Crystal. But his plan backfired. Darkrai was way too strong to be controlled, even by that monstrous machine, and he and his assistant Wheeler had been sent into a Nightmare Realm by the Pokémon . Darkrai had then turned on the one Pokémon Ranger that had made it to the top of the Tower.

While that Ranger fought the battle to befriend Darkrai, three others were in the air on Staraptor. Each had a gem; the Yellow Gem that came from the Haruba Desert, the Blue Gem from Almia Castle in Hia Valley, and the Red Gem from Boyle Volcano. Alright, let me explain. These gems were straight out of the region's mythology. There was once a King of Almia, who ruled over the region with goodwill and kindness from Almia Castle in Hia Valley. He had three sons. One was clad in blue, another in yellow, and the last in red. For a long time, the family lived harmoniously. But soon, the Princes began fighting amongst themselves, until finally the King was forced to send them away. The Yellow Prince he sent to the Haruba Desert. The Red Prince was exiled to Boyle Volcano. The Blue Prince was allowed to stay. The gems are called the Tears of Princes, because they were said to have been created from the sorrow of the Princes at being exiled. The King's rule continued, but he was weighed down with sorrow, with a darkness in his heart from having to separate his sons. It was from the darkness in his own heart that the Shadow Crystal came into being.

Only the Tears of Princes had the power to counteract the incredible power of the Shadow Crystal, so the Rangers had set out in search of them after a huge fluke that proved the gems to be real. Two operators, Lisa and Rythmi, as well as an assistant named Murph, each had a pendant made from shards of one of the Tears of Princes, and they reacted to a Dark Shard sample that had been under observation.

So, the Rangers acquired the three gems, and they were ready to bring them into contact with the Shadow Crystal, but Darkrai had cloaked the Tower in his darkness, making it impossible to safely get close. It was up to the last Ranger, the one that had fought her way to the top. All she had was a styler and a few Pokémon with her. Her Fine Styler, which was standard for any Pokémon Ranger, had been upgraded. The Tears of Princes shards had been embedded into it, and when it came to the very end, the light from the gems had reacted to the shards, powering up her Styler and giving her the ability to reach Darkrai.

And when the darkness cleared, Blake Hall and his assistant had been returned by Darkrai, and the Ranger was named a hero. The Tears of Princes were floating, quite of their own accord, around the Shadow Crystal, which had turned clear, and Darkrai was allowed to remain there as the protector of his Crystal.

This was known as Operation Brighton, after the second president of Altru Inc, and Blake's father. The man had encountered the Shadow Crystal when Blake was just a child, then named Wyatt. He kept a journal, which had been found by a Top Ranger and taken to Ranger HQ for analysis. He changed his son's name to Blake before the Shadow Crystal, the power of the stone reaching and twisting his heart and mind. His company was experiencing financial difficulties, and he thought the Shadow Crystal was his answer for a new energy source. The power of the Crystal corrupted his son, who drove him out of the company. It was in his journal that the Rangers read about the Tears of Princes, and it was due to him that they were able to win the day.

And now we were here, and I was beyond excited to see all of these sites myself.

"Alright, where to first, Touko?" asked Touya. I could make out an excited gleam in his eyes that brought a grin to my face.

"Well, Altru Tower's the closest stop. From there, we could head around to the Chroma Highlands. The ruins are supposed to be incredible. What do you think, N?"

I turned to our third companion. He jumped, as if startled that I was referring to him. Then he gave a hesitant smile.

"I quite like the sound of that."

I smiled.

"Touya?"

"Sounds good to me," he agreed.

"Then let's do this!"

…

"Whoa…" I breathed in awe.

One of the employees at Altru, named Isaac, had brought us up to the top of Altru Tower. I stared in utter rapture at the huge, transparent Crystal that rested before us, the three brilliant, gleaming Tears of Princes hovering around it.

"The Yellow Gem was guarded by the dream Pokémon Cresselia," said Isaac. "The Red Gem was protected by Heatran. The Blue Gem, by Lucario. It was my one of my best friends, an old acquaintance from Ranger School, that defeated the Guardians and acquired the Gems."

"Really?" I asked.

He nodded.

"Yes. I'm sorry to say that it was my fault that this contraption was ever built. I designed the Tower, and its barriers, for the president of the incorporation. I didn't know his intentions. If I did, I would never have agreed to it. I thought it was a device that would help befriend Pokémon ; that would benefit everyone. I thought I was doing the right thing."

I glanced at N. This was a familiar story. His steely gaze was fixed on Isaac.

"Then my friend—the Ranger that defeated Darkrai—extracted me from where the Pinchers were working at Altru's abandoned oil field. She was with the Top Ranger Sven. They took me away, but not before they paid a visit to the man in charge. That man was my instructor in Ranger School, my favorite by far, and after school he took me to Altru and he gave me my job. He lied to me and used me because I was extremely intelligent, and I could do what the company needed. After hearing him admit this himself, I knew I'd been wrong."

My hand drifted to N's shoulder. He reached up with his own and squeezed it, but his eyes didn't leave Isaac. This man's story sounded very much like N's. N had been trained with a certain mindset. Used, neglected, and lied to, only to hear from the very man that he had trusted unequivocally that it had all been one huge lie, a play for power.

"I then did whatever I could to assist the Rangers in their attempts to stop Altru and the Pinchers. But when one of the Sinis Trio—they were the second in the chain of command, above my old instructor but below Blake—kidnapped my little sister, I was forced to leave with them. I had to finish the details on the Tower. I felt horribly guilty about everything that had happened because of me."

"It was not your fault."

These words came, not from me, not from Touya, but from N.

"It was not your fault," he repeated.

Isaac smiled.

"I understand that now. Everyone that mattered forgave me. They told me the same thing. And after trying to distance myself from the situation, I knew that they were right. It doesn't change anything that I did, but it sure makes it more bearable."

N nodded in complete understanding, and I felt a huge grin threaten to split my face.

"Touya," I said softly.

"Yeah," he responded. "I get it."

Sometimes, it took putting a stranger in the same situation as a person that you did know, and then meeting that stranger after the fact, that helped to enlighten a person. Isaac had made some bad decisions, leading to some very bad things, but he hadn't known that. He thought that what he was doing was good and right. He'd been used. But I could see Touya's respect for him. And N had been in much the same scenario.

We made a good choice in coming to the Tower, I thought with a smile.

I glanced up, just in time to see a dark form fly over us. It flew a quick loop around the Crystal, and then vanished.

Darkrai's job was to protect the Shadow Crystal, to keep anyone from getting close enough to be corrupted by it. Maybe, in a way, Darkrai was a healer as well. It seemed that the Pokémon was simply here to keep a balance, to make sure the darkness didn't overflow into people's hearts. And here, so close to the Shadow Crystal, but so close to Darkrai as well, I think N was finally able to heal a little from his father's influence. To realize that there was only so much that he could blame himself for, and that wasn't his fault.