Hi everyone! Happy Holidays!

We got a new chapter in before the New Years! Want to thank all who have been waiting patiently for each chapter. Thank you, SinCityAssassin for editing!

Chapter 90:

Pastoria Gym...

"Come on, Damion!" Crasher Wake called out. "You got to fight back to win! Can't always be on the defense."

Damion rolled his eyes, growing frustrated as he tried a different tactic. "Buizel, Aqua Jet to the sky!" The Pokémon didn't even try to hide its own exasperation before following Damion's command and shot up into the air. "Sonic Boom!"

"Dive, Quagsire!" The slow blue Pokémon slowly sank into the water, avoiding the attack.

"Ice Punch!" However, Buizel didn't listen to the command merely did a nose dive straight into the water. "BUIZELl!"

The two Pokémon popped out of the water, landed on one of the floating platforms, and continued to fiercely fight against one another. Well, Buizel was while Quagsire managed to dodge all the attacks, as if performing a strange dance routine. Each miss aggravated Buizel further and further.

"Buizel! Stop, take a step back!" But that command to 'retreat' pushed Buizel further, becoming more and more desperately to hit and becoming more erratic in its attacks. "BUIZEL! STOP!"

"Quagsire!" Crasher Wake called out, and immediately the Pokémon stopped its dancing and tipped its head forward, allowing the attack to make contact. The impact appeared to have absorbed and reflected because Buizel was the only one sent flying backward.

"BUIZEL!"

"Enough! Training's over!" Crasher Wake waved his hand, ending the battle, "We haven't eaten lunch yet, so let's head to the cafeteria. Full stomachs will put everybody in a better mood!" Before he finished his sentence, Quagsire already tumbled back into the water. It wore a content face as it floated on its back. "Come on, my lazy old friend!" The gym leader laughed wholeheartedly at his Pokémon's antics.

On the other hand, Buizel was vexed, and became even more so when its owner came stomping towards it. "Buizel! You're supposed to follow my lead! Don't blindly charge forward! What would happen if Quagsire actually decided to fight back?! You'd be-" Damion received a huge jet of water and almost tripped on the slippery floor by surprise. "BUIZEL!" The Pokémon glared at him before it jumped into the pool and swam to the opposite side to where the cafeteria was.

"Your Buizel is still stubborn," Crasher Wake chuckled, more amused than worried. "But that was an improvement. You're getting there. Just need to be easy on the lectures."

"Wish it wasn't taking this slow." Damion had been working with Buizel on their teamwork since Dawn and Lucas left for the Pokemon Contest about two weeks ago. It seemed like Buizel is good at following commands in the beginning, but if Damion's strategies don't work the first time, then it started to ignore them. "This is completely different compared to Monferno and Croagunk."

"Every Pokémon is different," Crasher Wake reminded him. "To be honest, I'm more surprised with Croagunk. It has its complete trust in you, but at the same time, it can completely improvise in its attack on the fly without your command."

"Yeah, I'm not even sure that one considers me as its trainer sometimes…" Ever since it had joined the team, Croagunk simply did its own thing. It wasn't hyperactive like Monferno, as flighty as Staravia and not hot-tempered as Buizel. It usually just sits on its haunches until he was needed to battle or to assist in something, whether cooking, laundry, cleaning; it has already achieved a sort of celebrity status with the workers and trainers here.

"I've been Croagunk's trainer for way less time than Buizel. I just don't get what's missing."

"Every Pokémon is different," Crasher Wake repeated, as the two of them walked towards the cafeteria. "Something about you must have resonated with Croagunk more quickly. I ain't saying it won't happen with Buizel. It just takes time."

"Urgh, I don't have time. I need to get stronger," Damion moaned before he remembered who he was talking to. "Sorry, I wasn't trying to complain."

"Well, I can't blame you. I tend to be impatient too but let me tell you something. When I see improvement, it motivates me to keep going. You'll get there, but right now, what you and your Pokémon need is food," Crasher Wake turned to his Pokémon, who was still floating on nearby them without a care in the world. "Quagsire! Let's go eat!" The Pokémon responded by lazily drifting towards the edge of the pool before it breached itself out. The water slid off its back easily as it shook itself dry. Damion couldn't help but feel envious how quickly Quagsire listened to Crasher Wake.

"Damion!" One of the sailors poked his head out of the door. "Phone call! It's your girlfriend!"

"She's not my girlfriend," Damion said, reddening. He quickly stalked past the sniggers and headed to the phone booths. If there was one thing that Crasher Wake is out-of-date with, it's the phone service here. The only reliable way for communication for visitors was through the landline and was a pain in the neck to use. But for the sake of his friends, he worked it out with them to call the gym for any updates.

He quickly headed over to the receptionist area and picked up the handset. "Hello?"

"Hey, Damion? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah, Dawn; how are you? It's great to hear from you. I've been talking to Lucas for the past week and let me tell you, I've heard enough about the chemistry of Poffin for my ears to fall off. Anyways, how is the contest?"

"Damion, is there anyone around you? I need to talk to you in private."

"What's going on? What's with the whispering?" He didn't like the urgency in her voice. "Wait, hold on." He glanced around, checking to make sure no one was around and closed the partition before he continued. "Okay, what's wrong?"

"It's Lucas…"

"Oh, what happened? Did he get into a food coma, like again?"

"Not funny, Damion. He- Do you remember back in Eterna City? At that bike shop... when he claimed he was from the future." Damion fell silent as he recalled the conversation. It felt like a lifetime ago.

"Yeah… vaguely. We never got to the bottom of it… Why?"

"I think he's telling the truth. I saw this picture and… oh, Arceus… Damion, we met his mom."

"Wait, what?... WHAT?!" Other patrons in the Gym glanced at his outburst, Damion quickly turned away and sulked further away from the open.

"Shiki! Shiki is his mom! I didn't believe it at first, but then I saw the picture and-"

"Wait, Shiki? You mean that coordinator that was helping you? What do you mean sh-wait, hold on. Back it up. What is this picture you're talking about?"

"It's a picture of Shiki and her boyfriend! Damion… he-he looks exactly like Lucas." Her voice is hushed now. However, Damion was skeptical of the idea there was a doppelganger, Lucas was already such a character as is, to say the least. The idea of another one running around gave him an unpleasant feeling in the pit of his stomach.

"I-It could be a coincidence."

"Someone else that just happens to look exactly like someone who we just met one day? I don't think so. Look, this guy… he's in trouble, and I think it's really bad. Shiki ran off already."

"Oh, come on," Damion said, finding himself the voice of reason for once. "I'm sure whatever it is, she can take care of."

"Lucas doesn't think so…"

"How's he handling it?" Damion said before realizing something else with this new development. "Wait, this whole time… did he know that Shiki was – I mean assuming that everything is true – his mom?"

"I-I think he did. He was hanging out with Shiki a lot. A whole lot during my training. At first, I thought it was because he was interested in her, but that didn't seem to be the case I guess…" It was faint, but Damion could hear a small sense of relief in Dawn's voice when she drifted off, and the pit in his stomach felt worse.

"Well, what is he going to do?" he said, trying to get back on topic.

"He went to follow Shiki."

"Wait, what? He just left you there?!"

"He didn't just leave me; I told him that he should go with her."

"Why?!"

"His dad is in trouble! I couldn't tell him to just stay here. Damion, please. We need to go after him. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson are already suspicious about the whole thing."

"Wait, you can't leave the contest! What about your dreams of being the top coordinator?!"

"Damion, Lucas needs our help. Contests happen all the time, and this contest won't be going anywhere. Please, Damion." Her voice was strained now. "You know if your dad was ever in trouble, I would be there in a heartbeat, right?"

He felt his stomach clench again at the mention of his father. "Well, that's never gonna happen but…" Damion closed his eyes, trying to gather his thoughts. "You're right," he conceded. "J-just hang in there. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Thanks, Damion," Dawn sighed in relief. "Thank you so much." With that, she hung up, leaving Damion still holding tightly to the phone.

"Yeah… Anytime…"

…

The cool air gave Shiki goosebumps even though she was wearing a jacket. The drastic change in temperature from Soleaceon and Route 210 could be visibly seen by the thick gray fog in front of her. She couldn't see more than three feet in front of her and knew that she could not fly any further.

"Let's get back to the ground," Shiki ordered her Altaria to descend before the mist could consume them. Hopping down, she looked at the intangible white barrier before her. Even if the fog wasn't there, Shiki couldn't fly into the town. There was a no-fly zone policy in place due to the area being sacred grounds and such. Too many travelers appearing could cause problems for the locals, but this was the quickest way to get to her destination, or at least towards the nearest area where she could fly the rest of the way.

The mist swirled around her, clouding her vision of her destination and her thoughts. The last hour had been a blur, and it took all of her energy to not collapse. She needed to apologize to the Robinsons for leaving so abruptly, and once she found Daniel and Fuuta, she will ask them… Ask them what?

What happened? Why they hide everything from her?Shiki could feel tears welling up once more and rubbed them away, refusing to cry again.

"Here." A small handkerchief was produced in front of her.

"Oh, thank you Luca- Lucas?!" She almost choked from shock. Lucas continued to stand there, tired yet attentive. "What are you doing here?"

"Umm, following you?" he said, unsure if this was a trick question.

"No, I mean…" Shiki sighed, trying to gather her thoughts, "Why are you here? How did you get here so quickly? You should be back at Soleaceon Town with Dawn."

"One of the locals gave me a ride," Lucas shrugged before going back to the topic at hand, "I want to help. Daniel is in trouble."

She gave him an odd look before responding slowly, "Lucas, I appreciate the gesture, but you didn't need to come. There's no reason for you to come…"

"Umm, actually, there is."

"What?"

He pulled something out from his back pocket and handed it to Shiki. She took it with trepidation before immediately recognizing the photo that she had given Dawn earlier.

"You came all this way to return this to me?" Shiki said, bewildered.

"You keep a photo of him with you. Even though I don't know him… I know he's important to you, and I want to help out in any way I can. To repay you for helping me." It wasn't a complete lie, but Lucas still felt guilty nonetheless.

How much he had shared so far and how much he still hadn't… How far was he willing to intervene in hopes for a better future? There was still so much he couldn't understand of this time, and whether or not him being here got Daniel captured at all.

"Go. Go help her." Dawn didn't hesitate when she said those words to him. She knew, and for that, Lucas was truly grateful. Even if the future changed to the point of unrecognizability, he decided that this was worth more to protect.

"Lucas, I appreciate your offer, but as I said before, this isn't of your concern," Shiki said, putting the photo back in her wallet. Lucas noticed how carefully she placed it, not letting it crease in the process. There was a sense of melancholy as she gazed at the photo before she shifted her attention back to Lucas.

"Head back to Solaceon Town."

"But-"

"No buts. You need to go back and support Dawn in her contest." She pointed down the road, leading back to the town. "Tell Mrs. Robinson I'll let her know the whole story once I get to Snowpoint."

"Snowpoint? Is that where Daniel is?"

Shiki paused, realizing her mistake. "Just go back. Okay?"

"But what about you? You can't walk through that. You'll get lost!" Lucas gestured to the fog around them. It seemed to get even heavier and heavier as time passed by.

Shiki silently turned to her patient Altaria. "Defog." The flying Pokémon beat its glowing cloud wings, and with a powerful blast, the mist swirling around them vanished without a trace. Lucas was able to see the lonely path twisted up ahead and the overgrown tall grass that stretched across. The sky was still covered in tumult gray that matched the sorrow he saw in Shiki's eyes when she looked back at him.

"I need to get to the next town. Follow the trail back. This isn't your problem." With that, she turned and ran down the route with her Altaria. Not once did she look back.

"Wait, Shiki!" But just as quickly the mist disappeared, it immediately flooded back into the vicinity, surrounded him again, leaving Lucas alone.

"But it is my problem…"

…

"Dragon Claw!"

Cynthia's Garchomp charged at Weavile who dodged the attack with nimble speed. The once sacred ground was now riddled with scorch marks, glacial spikes, heavy rubble, and deep gashes. Weavile was able to use the ruined terrain to its advantage, expertly dodging each move hiding amongst the new cover. It was toying Garchomp, snickering with each missed attack.

"You really should reconsider your Pokémon choice," Cyrus said calmly. "Your Garchomp is at a disadvantage."

"Don't underestimate me or my Pokémon," Cynthia glowered.

"I should say the same."

Amid this raging battle, Rav stood in slight awe at the scene before him. That is the Sinnoh Pokémon Champion! What was she doing here? This was too surreal.

"Tory! Are you okay? Say something." Leander panicked when the poor boy groaned in response. He remained unconscious, but Leander sighed in relief and tried to lift him, failing miserably in the process.

"Careful," Rav warned, coming over and quickly checking on Tory's Metang. "It looks okay, but we should get them out of fighting range. Hey Donovan, can you give us a hand? Donovan?"

"Melt the ice cover! Take him with a Sand Tomb, he's right there!" Donovan shouted, enthralled with the live battle.

"Donovan!"

"What is it? I'm cheeri-! Oh, right…" He quickly hurried over and lifted Tory onto his back with ease while Leander quickly returned Metang into its Poke ball. "Let's get this guy to the hospital before he tries to fight again."

"Wait, we can't just leave Cynthia here. One of us should help." Rav and Donovan stared at him apprehensively for the suggestion.

"Hate to break it to you, but that guy just whooped our butts 4v1. No shame in running from a freak of nature."

"But that doesn't mean-!"

"Listen," Donovan said before Leander could finish, "I get that you have some honor code or whatever, but in this house, we speak safety, and safety is telling us to get everyone out of here first before we even think about killing ourselves. Besides, we'll probably just cause more trouble for Cynthia if we stick around."

"We need to find Liv and the others," Rav added looking back at the battle. "If this guy didn't come here alone, there's a chance his crew might start attacking the town."

"You're right," Leander looked thunderstruck. "I didn't think about that."

"Well, that's why we're here, glad you could catch up with us," Donovan grinned in immediate confidence, causing the other two rolled their eyes in sync. "We better hop to it, Rav needs to make sure his girlfriend is okay," he added.

"Girlfri-wait what? Are you and Liv dating?!" Leander gaped in shock.

"No, we aren't. Let's go," Rav grunted, back into his sulky mood; his ears were slightly red now. The group had enough sense to drop the subject, and they all headed down the path they came from earlier. They could still hear the battle behind them, echoing from the ruins. The visceral clash kept their jogging momentum going.

"Do you think Cynthia will be okay?" Leander asked, unable to shake off his guilt.

"She wouldn't be the Sinnoh Champion for nothing." Donovan rebutted nonchalantly.

"But that guy… he's pretty strong."

"Well...not that strong. I could take him out."

"Donovan, you literally just said we shouldn't be fighting him again."

"I said we shouldn't be troubling Cynthia, I can take Mr. God Complex on in a fair fi-!"

"Hold it." Rav interrupted, speaking up for once.

Donovan and Leander stopped bickering and turned back to the front to see a stranger casually walking towards them for the ruins, clearly unaware of the chaos surrounding the town.

"Who is that?"

"Don't look like they're from around here," Leander said, squinting. "Could they be with that Team Galactic guy? What do we do?"

"Hey! What are you doing here?" Donovan called out and rushed forward. Only slightly stunned by the initiative, the two followed.

"Excuse me?" The traveler looked rather taken aback at the disheveled looks and the unconscious body on Donovan's back. "Are you okay?" Donovan ignored the question and assessed the stranger shortly. As weird as it sounds, she looked strangely familiar. "Um, hello? Are you guys okay?"

"Oh, ummm… Yes?"

The girl looked at the sorry state Donovan and them were in before carefully rebuking them. "I don't… think you guys are okay…"

Okay, looks like she could be trusted. he thought.

"What are you doing here," he asked, "it's dangerous."

"I just got here to see the ruins," she said defensively. "What's going on?"

"There is a serious Pokémon battle going on! Like 'ready-to-destroy-the-whole-town' serious. You need to turn back."

"Turn back? Are you joking?"

"We look like we just duked it out with an Ursaring bare-handed and running in the opposite direction of where you can hear a cacophony of death. I think that warrants turning back."

"Donovan," Leander whispered to him before rushing ahead, "we need to head to the hospital. Now."

"Oh right. Anyways, you should turn around, you'll catch less death," Donovan followed after Leander and Rav, not looking back at the person they talked to.

…

Route 217

"How much further?" Candice called out; a deep trail of snow prints followed them as they continued north. Even if she knew the trails her whole life, the snow never made it easy for her to gauge how far she's been.

"I… We should be there soon," Daniel said, still trudging through the snow with such fierce tenacity that even Candice was having difficulty catching up.

"Well, don't wander too far. Looker won't like that." The only reason why they were even trudging through the snow was that Daniel promised to fully cooperate if he was able to investigate something quickly back at the 'crime scene'. With everybody else busy, Candice was 'volunteered' to escort the poor boy.

"What do you know about him?" He tripped and landed headfirst into the soft snow. "I'm okay!"

"Looker? That's confidential." Candice waited patiently as Daniel picked himself back up. The layers of clothes he wore puzzled her greatly. Okay, so she wears short-sleeves and pants out in freezing temperatures but having been born in a mountain town does that. Daniel seemed to be on the complete opposite of the crazy spectrum; he looked like an orange snowman or a puffy marshmallow.

"I already know he's part of the International Police. And I know he's trying to follow Galactic Enterprises, or Team Galactic, or whatever they're called. He wants evidence that they were responsible for the Veilstone Incident," he said calmly as he wiped the snow off the sleeves of his coat, "I'm asking if he can be trusted."

Candice raised an eyebrow in surprise. "How do you know about Team Galactic and the Interpol in the first place? He told you?"

"He hasn't really told me anything. Which was basically the first clue. But I was kidnapped in Johto and brought to Veilstone a few weeks back and escaped to Goldenrod City to drop off someone who was captured with me before coming here. Before I headed back, I looked up Veilstone City's general layout, and based on location, I was being held in a Galactic Enterprise Warehouse. Could've been a coincidence if the same people that kidnapped me didn't come for me the minute I landed there. The instant the dust settled after what happened, reinforcements came to the scene quite conveniently, and that Looker guy went straight to me. That doesn't seem like ordinary law enforcement activity. Made me think I was being followed since I'd left Goldenrod."

Candice began to think the files had underestimated him.

"Also, his name. It's obviously an- an… ali… alien? Um, what's the word… You know, fake?"

"Alias," Candice corrected. Well, probably not too much.

"Oh yeah; that's the word. Anyways, maybe it's just me, but he seems to have another reason why he's interested in me. That makes me suspicious. So, I have to ask you. Can he be trusted?"

Candice silently contemplated as she listened to his cautious questioning. One of Looker's agents involved in the Team Galactic Veilstone incident had encountered Daniel, and both managed to escape while caring for an injured victim. The field report made note of Daniel's eccentricity, to say the least, but had reference to his strong survival skills. Daniel took her silence in stride.

"Well, regardless, I'll have to be on my guard until I figure things out," Daniel continued and closed his eyes, wishing Fuuta was here to do his mind read thing and sort things out. What happened during that fight? Why oh why did he have to get knocked unconscious. He stared gloomily at the clear blue sky and shivered as a freezing blast of wind blew by. Opening his eyes again he spotted something in the cold, something that wasn't the vast white snow. He blinked twice, to make sure he wasn't seeing things.

"What is that?" he asked, pointing. From a distance, it looked like a large sky-blue mirror.

"That? Oh, that is Lake Acuity."

"It's louder."

"Huh?"

"The voice. It's there. Hello?!" Daniel called out. "You called for me?" With surprising dexterity, Daniel was already halfway to the lake.

"Daniel!" Candice groaned but followed.

As he got closer, Daniel saw that the lake wasn't one continuous smooth mirror. In the center was some sort of island, barren from the winter cold. Was that where the source of the voice coming from?

He paused at the edge of the frozen lake, wondering how he was going to get across before he realized he had the solution all along. "Slowbro!" He threw out his Poke ball to reveal the pink bipedal water Pokémon with a gray spiral shell clamped onto its tail, "Use Psychic to get us to that island!"

"Wait! Stop! You can't go there!" Before Candice could get out her Pokémon, Slowbro used its extrasensory powers to skate across the ice by spinning on the top of its shelled tail like a top. It also carried its floating trainer to the island. "DANIEL!"

He ignored Candice's frustrated shouts and soon her voice was lost in the howling wind. He focused his attention on the island as it slowly got bigger and bigger until he arrived at the shore.

"Thanks, Slowbro." The Pokémon yawned and shivered from the cold. "Oh, right. Go ahead and rest. I'll need you to help me get back later."

He turned his attention back to the cave entrance and wondered what was so special about this place.

Help me…

That voice again! He quickly walked around until he noticed an opening. Without even thinking, as usual, he stepped into the darkness.

"Hello? Did someone call for help?" He fumbled with the flashlight until the light illuminated the ground. It was a hollow chamber with no other entrance other than the one where he just came in. For some reason, it felt a lot chiller here than usual. There was a very shallow pool of water, intricately woven through the ground into some sort of design that Daniel can't make out.

"Hel-Whoa!" Waving his flashlight around, Daniel found himself face-to-face with a floating yellow round head. "Oh, you scared me for a second there."

He aimed his flashlight carefully and saw that the hovering head was connected to a small gray body with two fan-like tails with red gems. A bright red jewel is encrusted on its forehead and glittered in the light. Despite its eyes being closed, it circled Daniel with piped curiosity.

"Were you the one who called me?" The creature merely nodded and continued to stare. "Well, I would like to help you, but exactly what do you need?"

"DANIEL! Where-?!" He jumped from the sound of his echoed name and turned to see a dumbfounded Candice.

"Whoa! How did you cross the lake so quickly?"

"No way…" She whispered in shock, ignoring his question.

"What? Is there something on my face?"

"What? No! Do you realize what that is?" She gestured to the floating creature.

"Uhhhh… a friend?" Daniel and the mysterious creature shrugged their shoulders in unison.

"That is one of the lake guardians of Sinnoh – the bringer of knowledge." a voice said. Candice and Daniel turned to see a stranger standing at the entrance, silhouetted by the darkness.

"Who's there?! Show yourself!" Candice demanded. The stranger walked into the cave in quite lightly, allowing Daniel's flashlight to shine on her figure. The yellow-G of her uniform shone brightly against the light, her purple top-knot in full display.

"Team Galactic!"

"My, my, so it finally shows up. I was getting so very tired of waiting." The purple haired woman ignored Candice and stared at the lake guardian in fascination. "Oh, don't bother Miss Gym Leader," she added as Candice tried to pull out her Poketch. "This whole area has been jammed. No signals will be interrupting our little rendezvous."

Without skipping a beat, Candice took out her Pokeball, ready for a fight. This woman matched the dossier she received from Looker. Commander Jupiter. If it was all accurate, she definitely was not someone to be trifled with.

"What do you want?" Daniel said quietly. Unlike Candice, his reaction was much more understated. He remained stoic, as calm and collected as the Team Galactic commander before. His tone had an icy edge to it, as cold as the air surrounding them.

The woman paused. Two against one. Unpleasant memories shored up the last time she fought those odds back in Veilstone. All this troublesome meddling. "I'm not in a good mood at the moment, but for the sake of time, I'm going to ask nicely just once. Give me the lake guardian or else we are going to have a problem."

"And if we refuse?"

She took out her Pokéball. "Then we have a problem."

Author's Notes

Well, looks like we're travelling more now! And seems like a lot more disasters waiting to happen at the same time. XP

I am going to miss sleeping in now that my vacation is almost done.

Thank you for reading, and I'll see you in the next chapter!

-JapanDreamer