A/N: After many years of wanting to write my own Altoshipping, I've finally decided to work on one by assessing my writing abilities to be of enough quality (:P) to tackle such a story.

The current timeline of this story will take place somewhat into Unova, with Ash already partaking to be a Pokémon master in Unova. (My apologies to you all who have not seen the Unova arc of the anime) I plan on having this basically amounting to a Prologue, and the real story coming after.

My hope is to offer a story that will be able to delight any reader that passes by, and if I should fail in doing so for you, I apologize for having wasted your precious time. I would like any feedback possible you can give, whether it is positive, negative, or even a flame. Of course, if you do decide to flame, please explain why the story and/or I suck. A simple "FU" is just lazy, isn't it?

This is the prologue to Albedo.

...

Nigredo

Latias gazed out into the horizon of what was the mainland, with her stuck on the sunset laden docks of Altomare as orange-colored waves stretched across the ocean water, a sense of motionless calm enveloping the sleepy vista her home was built in.

Her brother always said that change was inevitable. Weeks, months, years, time would see to it that there was change. That change was always in motion.

But…

She didn't know how to overcome the changes that happened to her. She still mourned the loss of her older brother Latios. It only hit her when he became the Soul Dew that she truly understood the phrase of not appreciating what you have until it was gone.

There would never be another day where the two of them could fly so freely in the waterways of Altomare. Never again would she sleep safely next to her brother or play with him in the garden. She wouldn't have a chance to play with her brother or even tell him how much she loved him after that day. She desperately wanted to see him again but…

Her time with him… ended.

She shook her head. Even though her heart ached to see her brother again, the dragoness could feel the other part of her heart yearn for something she had tried to bury in her heart. She didn't want it after his death; she wouldn't allow the other half of her heart to be shattered by some petty desire.

But she did.

She just noticed him at the water race as just another trainer to her, but something about him intrigued and appealed to her. She wasn't sure why she helped him out at first. She chalked it up to her mischievous but sweet nature. Then came when he saved her from those two thieves who had somehow seen right through her disguise. (She still didn't know how they had seen her when so many others had never even noticed she wasn't Bianca, let alone a pokémon) Showing that trainer the garden and playing with him was an absurd risk. She stopped her brother from hurting the trainer and his pikachu, but when Latios demanded why she would bring a stranger to the garden, she honestly didn't know. Sure the boy had saved her, but the trainer didn't know that she was Latias. It made her think why she would show him not only her secret, but also the garden just because he helped her out of a bind. Latias attributed it to wanting to know more about him and a- a need to see him once more for whatever reason.

She thought she was just being welcoming at first to him, maybe even seeing him as a hero that played with her feelings. It was a natural thing for someone to crush on the hero that saved his or her life after all.

Yet he was the person Latias confided in when Latios was taken away. She was terrified when he wouldn't wake up after the attack by that aerodactyl, and even blushed when he thanked her. He even provoked her to use her psychic powers to save the two of them from drowning, an incredible feat considering she barely knew how to use her psychic powers.

After that… She hated to think about it, but the "what if" scenarios persisted in her thoughts far too often.

Back then she just went with those feelings of admiring the hero; perhaps in an ironic twist, the small time Latias had spent with him was the best time of her life…

That day was soon followed by the worst moment of her life not hours after. To add insult to the injury, he left a few days after they had time to grieve for her brother but she knew she couldn't force him to stay. Latias figured he had his own family get back to. The boy had his own life to lead. His own dreams and ideals to aspire, and she couldn't take that from him.

Even after four years she could recall his face, his kind personality, even his name.

Ash Ketchum.

She often wondered if he still remembered her…

Latias had never seen Ash face to face after he left, although there were the occasional times when Bianca would tell her that he was on "TV," the thing humans watched to see news and battles and other things humans liked to view. Latias would watch TV with Bianca to see Ash in pokemon battles, or more rarely seeing him take part in pokemon "contests." She would give out a loud cry when he succeeded and she would give a comforting croon for Ash when he lost a battle in a "tournament" or in a contest. She would watch the matches with all her heart and Bianca even recording every event on TV to watch so that she would not forget his face.

She did not think any length of time could etch away the memory of him, his face, his kind personality, and his devotion to his dreams. Perhaps that was the reason her heart could not move on beyond him.

When she gazed at him during the fancy water race humans had every year, she was deeply curious why he entranced her so. She had that curiosity turn to admiring his heroism when he saved her from the thieves Annie and Oakley. During the time they played in the garden, she felt so— so happy being with Ash. She had more fun than she had in years. All of that only worsened the impact when Latias had to say goodbye to Ash…

She could not bring herself to say she had a crush on him as he left. How could she? A romance between her and him would end his dreams if he were to settle down with her. She didn't find herself selfish enough to take away his dreams all for a crush on her part, even if denying herself of him tore her heart apart.

So Latias gave him a peck on the cheek under the guise her best friend and left him a drawing by Bianca to remember his time in Altomare and perhaps even her. She hoped Ash would notice the way her eyes were a different color than Bianca's, or the lack of Bianca's beret, even the way she didn't speak. But alas to her hopes, as voiced by Ash's friend Misty, they could not tell whether it was her or Bianca prompting her to leave in defeat.

That was four years ago.

Her friends did help to lessen the impact losing her brother. Bianca would take Latias around town to stores and restaurants unlike before where Latias only watched all the buildings humans visited and lived in. It didn't have the effect she hoped for, but it did take out the worst of the pain of losing her brother, the rest dealt with by years of attempting to overcome his loss. Latias only came with her occasionally, as her brother's death left her apprehensive around humans.

Latias stared at the horizon from the decks, hoping to see him come and whisk her away from the dulled place Altomare had become after Latios. So many left during those five years, so many came during those five years, change always present even in the water city she lived in.

Of course, then there were the three that arrived around four years ago as well…

Latias gazed out onto the horizon of what was the mainland, unable to accept the changes happening around her.

First her brother, and now the one person who might have been able to fill the void left in her heart when her brother died was gone. It was as if the world was conspiring to annihilate any chance of happiness she could have.

"Ash.. Why couldn't you stay…?"

Standing (or rather, floating in her true form) in her human guise of Bianca, Latias could see the boat Ash and his friends were on, although it was but a slowly shrinking gray dot on the evening horizon to her, one she could not follow however much she wept. She had wanted him to stay, to help her move on after her Latios had died. She was thankful he stayed for a few more days after he should have left, but he couldn't stay forever. She knew that too well. Every hour was just more denial being swept up in throes of imagining that Ash would stay for her, but it didn't.

Ash left just as she knew he would.

She couldn't take looking at the sea that had enveloped her brother any longer, and turned around, discarding her illusion of Bianca and using her down to refract light to appear invisible as she levitated towards her home.

She walked (or more accurately, floated in her real form) past the docks and piers back into the city, the town was eerily quiet in the falling light with the walkways all empty and no gondolas being used, reminding her that Altomare would be without a population had she and Latios not acted. She shook her head, her body wracked with constant shaking from her refusal to allow herself to cry, refusing to let her brother see that she couldn't stop the tears. But she still felt the streaks of warm liquid run down her cheeks as she sped to the garden even though it would only result in another bout of grief and sorrow of wallowing in her sobs.

As she reached the wall that covered the entrance to the garden, she felt a disturbance in the garden, her tears locking up as she started to fear that another burglar had intruded to steal the Soul Dew yet again –and so soon as well.

Her heart nearly stopped. "N-no. Not again…"

She suppressed her feelings; wiping away her tears and entered the garden, using both her invisibility and the cover of tree foliage to stay concealed as she scouted the garden for anyone she didn't know. She heard could hear three remote voices she was sure had never heard before, but the voices all sounded extremely familiar in pitch to her.

"—And yet there's no one here. This is where all our kind once gathered, but there doesn't seem to be any, minus those statues we saw."

Latias' eyes widened. That voice sounded almost like…

She flew in little by little toward the voices and hid behind a tree behind the swing set when she was only several yards away from the three voices she heard. Their identities threw her for a loop, and her jaw dropped a little at the ones who had entered her home.

There, in front of the pond beyond the swing, were two latios and another latias like her.

The large latios looked around the vast garden, bereft of pokémon. "I thought there was a latios and latias still living among the humans here. There's even a Soul Dew in that fountain, so where could they be?"

The other latios scratched his neck with his claws, remarking, "Guess not dude. Maybe… they went over to the pier to see some waves? Either way, this is a pretty cool place to chill at till they come back."

The small latias sighed, shaking her head. "You've been around humans for too long if you're still speaking like that…"

She remarked, "They're probably around… Maybe catching fish…"

She noted that the latios closest to her was even a little bigger than her brother, likely an adult Latios. There was nothing besides his large size that was remarkably different to her brother; the large latios's eye color was even red like his. To Latias, she could feel a bit of authority and no-nonsense attitude from his narrowed eyes and the deep tone he had spoken with.

Accompanying the larger one was a smaller latios –perhaps around her brother's height- that was physically identical to the larger, but this smaller latios carried a seashell necklace on his neck, and had light-green eyes. He seemed very lax in personality from how he spoke, and she couldn't help but think of humans who visited beaches often seeing him.

The last of the three Latias saw was a latias slightly smaller than her, who had shining yellow eyes like herself, and wore a mint-green scarf around her neck. Her head was downcast, and her posture seemed withdrawn and shy. Latias couldn't get a grasp of her personality from how she spoke, and although soft-spoken, her voice was too cryptic to follow.

As she was hiding, a sudden wind blew rather hard, and the swing blew back to her, and hit her wing tip, and an audible thump from being hit by the swing alerted the three lati of her presence. She thought of hiding, but using invisibility from below the tree foliage was pointless if they could use their psychic abilities to snuff out her location.

The large latios narrowed his eyes and crooned, "Whoever is watching us, come out peacefully, or we'll search you out the hard way."

Latias cringed. She could fly away, but she knew that the larger latios would catch her in little time, invisibility wouldn't help much against her own kind, and appearing human might've made it worse for her, so after a moment of hesitation, she decided to come out peacefully like the large latios had said. She only hoped their reasons for searching her and her brother were good and nothing terrible like those two thieves had done.

"Please watch over me, brother…" Latias whispered to herself.

She appeared visible again and floated over to the lati that were in her home, the three of them giving her a variety of surprised looks. Latias wore the best face of mild interest she could, attempting to look neutral despite her own shock of seeing others like herself.

"Ah… So it's the latias that's here." The larger latios raised an eye. "So where is the latios? Is he not here?" Latias became noticeably crestfallen at the question, her attempt to look neutral vanishing instantaneously.

The other latios floated over to her, raising his eyes as he examined her. "Hey… You're a pretty cute gal! Would you mind if we—"

The latios groaned as the latias with the green scarf yanked him by his tail fin. That smaller latias narrowed her eyes as she dragged him back. "…Stop that."

Thankfully for her, the bigger latios intervened. "Please ignore him. He's spent too much time disguised as a human." Latias nodded slowly as she composed herself, watching the latias give the latios a stern glare.

"W-who are you guys…?"

Her attention brought back as the large latios cleared his throat. "I apologize for him. My name is Ryuld."

Ryuld motioned his claw over to the other latios and latias she had seen. "The latios over there is my son, Oran." Oran made a flimsy peace sign with his claws to Latias, as she tilted her head in confusion. "Don't mind him. He's… rather odd for a latios his age. I assume it's from being around… less than polite humans."

He motioned over to the latias next to Oran. "The latias next to him is my older daughter, Cinnamon." Latias waved as a friendly gesture to her, but Cinnamon turned her gaze away from Latias. "Cinnamon is a bit… shy around those she isn't close to. Please don't think her rude."

Latias nodded in reply but inquired, "Well you're all um, very interesting to meet but I have to ask you some things."

She glanced at the trio. The dragoness inhaled deeply before blurting out a multitude of questions. "How did you find this place, why are you here, why are you looking for the guardians of Altomare, and who are you really?"

Ryuld coughed, an uneasy look spread on his face from her plethora of inquires. "I'll answer as best I can. I assure you, we mean no harm."

"We are from a herd of latios and latias that migrate the world over. As guardian of this place, you must know our kind's legend." Latias looked to the sky, recalling the old legend of the first latios and latias.

"I remember my brother telling me when I was very young…"

"Do you remember it?"

Latias recalled the old tale aloud. "A long time ago, Altomare was just a small town. One day, an old couple walking along the beach found two unconscious children lying in the sand. They brought the children home and took care of them. But a dark cloud above Altomare rained down shards of darkness. Anything these shards touched became dark as well. One shard was about to hit the old couple when the children started to glow and all the shards were destroyed. The children revealed themselves as Latios and Latias. More appeared, one of them carrying the Soul Dew. Their power, combined with the Soul Dew's, shone upon the dark cloud, vanquishing it. In gratitude for their help, the two Latios and Latias gave the Soul Dew to the old couple..."

Ryuld nodded. "Yes, that's the story. Although the latios and latias stayed with the old couple, the rest of our species couldn't stay in one place. The rest felt a need to see the world with their own eyes, and eventually separated into herds so such a large group of rare pokemon like us wouldn't be caught by ill-hearted people."

"Yeah, I remember that part. But why-" Ryuld placed a claw on her mouth to pause her.

"Even though we separated long ago, this place remains a home to our kind. We came when we saw the spiral of light flashing into the sky. You see, when a pillar of light appears here, it means that something devastating has occurred. We know because around… Um…" Ryuld huffed as he failed to recall the exact time in his memory. "…In any case, some time ago a pillar of light came, and when a gathering of our kind came to investigate, they had found out someone had used a machine to attempt world domination but the latios and latias in the town tried to stop them only… the latios didn't make it."

Ryuld's gaze bored into Latias' eyes, his intense stare almost qualifying as a mean look at how she could take her eyes off of his.

"That latios... Was he your father?"

Latias let out a soft coo in affirmation. The feathers on her body stiffened as she struggled to ask a question she had long ago decided was pointless in asking… But with more lati than just her brother, she thought it was worth a shot. It wasn't as if she had high hopes for it anyway.

"Do you know what happened to my moth— the latias from then?"

The dragon paused, and then answered her in such a soft voice she wasn't even aware that he was capable of. "I- I'm afraid I do not know."

Latias lowered her head. Not even her own kind knew where or what happened to her mother. An uncomfortable silence overtook the garden, as the siblings realized she had no father of her own unlike them.

Ryuld sighed heavily to break the ice. "I assume you are the guardian of Altomare."

Latias stared back at him; frowning upon hearing her title. She had grown tired of hearing that label on her name, not out of longing to escape it, but despite supposedly being the city's protector in its time of need, she couldn't protect a citizen of the city and what she believed was her only blood family from dying.

"Yeah."

He made a quick bow, as his children followed suit and bowed with him. "We're here to see what happened. We were close to this city and came as soon as we could once we saw the pillar of light in the distance, that's all."

The dragoness shook her head. "There's not much to see of it. The thing left to see is—is the new Soul Dew…" Ryuld and his children gave her odd looks when they heard the word new Soul Dew.

She rolled in her claws, her body shaking a little as they talked so calmly about Altomare. They sounded less like back up who was coming in to save the cavalry and more like the annoyed police officer that got called in to bust some idiot disturbing the peace.

It bothered her. It really did.

But.

They couldn't have known what she knew, that the pillar of light signified the death of a Latios, and the creation of a new Soul Dew. No matter how much she would've liked to tell them how much it hurt for them to toss around the event that ended Latios's life-like it was just— just…

"He's dead."

"Do you speak of your father?"

"No. His Soul Dew was destroyed."

Ryuld gaped. "The Soul Dew…destroyed?"

Latias pointed a claw to the altar. "That Soul Dew is my brother."

"Your b-brother? " Oran stammered.

A grimace spread across Cinnamon's face as she muttered under her breath, "The other guardian is dead…?"

The twins moved across the pond from the swing and spoke quietly amongst each other while shooting uneasy looks at Latias.

Ryuld flew in front of Latias. "I know this is hard to talk about, but I need to know what happened."

Feathers bristled in frustration as Latias shot Ryuld a glare. What right did he have to know? For him to bring up already painful memories she didn't want to talk about? She had barely met him, and now he wanted her to talk about trauma in her life?

Ryuld felt her anger and exhaled heavily. "I'm sure talking about a recent tragedy of yours is excruciating, especially so with someone you've only just met." He looked off to the sky.

"And I can't make you to talk about something so personal. I won't ask about it again unless you wish to speak of the matter. Even so…" Giving the altar a glance, he stated, "I must explain more to you."

Latias' frustration receded, and wanted to hear his reasons. There had was a better explanation than the short answer he'd given her before.

Ryuld gave a sharp cry; Oran and Cinnamon stopped their conversation and became silent, flying back over to him.

"As I said before, we come from a herd of world migrating lati. We actually are the third biggest herd out of all the groups of lati."

"Third?! Are… Are there a lot of our kind left?"

Ryuld shook his head. "No sadly… There used to be eleven herds, but we've slowly thinned down to only five recently and our numbers in each cut in half for the last few hundred years. Despite being part of the third biggest herd, there are only twelve lati –including us. Regrettably, our herd only meets with the other herds on the off-chance we see them along our world spanning migration. Actually, the biggest lati clan hasn't been heard from anyone for the longest time. We think they have gone into seclusion somewhere, but being gone for so long is worrying the other herds…"

A herd of her kind was missing…? She had never even seen another latias besides herself, and her late family. She hadn't even known her species was a race that was dying out. She thought her family as the only lati in the world.

"You keep saying we… Do lati have a leader in your groups?"

A nod from the latios father gave her an answer. "Indeed we do. Incase you should ask, I am not our herd's chief. Our chief is the eldest latias of our herd, Sveta. Each herd led by their own chief, and no herd rules over another, despite the different sizes."

"Hey wait, there are lots of humans here. She let you come here?"

"Of course. That pillar of light signifies something terrible is occurring in Altomare, and it is the long held duty of the nearest herd to send part of themselves to investigate."

Latias scratched her forehead. She wasn't a stranger to myths and legends (She already was one to most humans in town), but she didn't know anything about lati myths that couldn't be found in Altomare. There was a moment of hesitation of her asking him to explain their stories and not wanting to be subjected to concentrate on hearing him dump all his legends in one long, maddening tidal wave of information. Even so, she preferred a lengthy explanation to being brought down to grief and mourning again.

"You date back to the original guardians of Altomare. When the many latios and latias they called came to help, the flock of lati that appeared made a promise to the first guardians that if there ever was another catastrophe in the city again, whoever was closest would come to help out as soon as possible."

"So why are you guys the only ones here? Where's the rest of your herd?"

"We are in a sense, a reconnaissance party. Once we tell our elder the details, she will discuss with everyone her thoughts, and decide what course of action we shall pursue."

Latias gave them a dumbfounded look. "A who party?"

Ryuld heaved a sigh.

"Oran? Would you please explain?"

Oran nodded enthusiastically. "Sure pops!" Ryuld face-palmed at his son's attempt to say trendy human sayings.

Oran then flew in far closer to Latias than she felt comfortable, speaking in the laid back tone she had heard before. "Okay, you see, a reconnaissance party is like, when you're checking the lay of the land to see if anything is wrong, and then you like, report on what you found to your superior. Got it?"

"Uh…got it."

Oran smiled cheekily. "Yeah!" A light push against her claw he made afterward reminded her of how humans would do a high-five with their hands.

"That's enough Oran. Thank you." Oran pouted, but floated back to his sister without a word.

"You guys are kinda weird. Are Latios and Latias normally like this?"

It was an innocent question, but it still rubbed Ryuld the wrong way. "No, just my son." Latias could see Oran sulk from the remark, clearly upset.

"Well… unless you feel comfortable telling us more, we will go now to report to our chief."

Feelings of want to meet others like her insisted she ask to go along, but she couldn't just go off without even telling Bianca where she was going, lest the poor girl think her best friend was kidnapped…

"N-no."

"Very well." The trio crooned their goodbyes, and reflected light as the children flew into the sky, their father following close behind them.

She had to ask to see them once again. They were real –she jabbed her claw onto her arm to make sure she wasn't dreaming- and she needed to know about her history. Why her father and brother had to die to form that accursed little jewel their souls were trapped in.

"Will- will you be coming back?"

From what Latias could see as his outline, Ryuld zoomed back down just below the foliage of the trees, sunlight and shadows dancing around his body, little bits and parts of his body appearing thanks the constant difference in light. His children kept going, despite his absence.

"Possibly. It's too dangerous for everyone to come, so our elder will most likely want for only a few of us to come. If we come back, meet us by those statues by the entrance of town." He paused and turned his head to see Oran and Cinnamon's receding outlines across the sky.

"…I'm sorry. I must go to see that they don't get into trouble." And so, Ryuld left her alone.

~0o0~

Chilly night air blew through the garden as a red dragoness sat on a swing, thinking deeply about the day's events.

Latias didn't know what action to take.

She wanted to leave Altomare and find Ash to tell him her feelings for him, or even go with the herd to learn about more about her origins and species intrigued her. Staying in the garden was awful by her lonesome as Bianca couldn't sleep with her every night, the cold night air made her get the flu too often, as Latias would remember the years before when she was sad or lonely and Bianca as a little girl would comfort her while her brother was on patrol.

Her best friend was wonderful, and so artistically talented. So much so she even received a free scholarship at an art institute in Castelia City. Latias was ecstatic for her best friend even though Bianca would be leaving in a few years to go to that town in a different region somewhere far south of Johto and Altomare. Latias knew Bianca felt terrible for leaving her by herself, but the dragoness insisted to her she go, she didn't want Bianca forced to stay in Altomare like her, unable to leave lest she put the city in danger.

Without her, that left Lorenzo as the sole person that even knew she existed in the water city. She loved him as her and Latios' stepfather but he was getting on in his years. The kind old man had maybe a few more decades in him to be with her, but that only made her feel worse. Not to mention he ran the museum tours and made gondolas as his work and as a result their time together was always very short.

The sun had long set since the lati left. Normally Latias would have been asleep by then, but this was a chance to learn about her species, and maybe even find a loophole of some sort to leave the island.

Latias rose off the swing, and hovered over to the altar, gazing deeply at the Soul Dew. "Brother… I want told you what happened. What do you think? Should I ask to go with them?"

The Soul Dew glowed in a variety of colors, shining brighter than it usually did. "It's so hard to talk like this with you brother…"

"Bianca will be going off sometime from now…" The Soul Dew didn't change its hue this time prompting a sigh out of Latias. "I know, I know. But with her gone, Lorenzo working, and you…here… It's too much. Even the little pokémon that lived here left after that wave saying it was too dangerous to live here anymore…" The orb stopped its unnatural glow and went back to its regular iridescent coloring.

"Then what?!" Latias clutched the walls of the altar, her eyes narrowed.

"Bianca and Lorenzo would understand! Those guys were the first pokémon I've talked to in a long time, you know no pokémon come here anymore, and I can't talk in my human guise! I might learn a way to stop the need for a Soul Dew and free you, or- or…"

She stopped levitating and laid against the wall with her eyes becoming moist with tears. "You're right, you're right… I'm terrible. I just want to be with Ash and ditch all my responsibilities."

There was no reaction from the orb. It was always like this, she'd get her hopes up that he was talking to her by shimmering a for a moment but she was shot down that hope by how unresponsive it was to her. She knew that it was in a way just a colorful see-through sphere. Latios couldn't communicate to him, but it didn't stop her from having the occasional conversation with the Soul Dew housing Latios' soul whether or not it made any light.

"Have I changed that much...? I hope I don't feel this sad forever. That's so long to feel sad…"

Latias' ears flicked as she heard familiar steps going down the stone stairs and saw Bianca walking towards her.

"Latias!" She called out happily, rushing over to her and giving her a hug that helped to dilute the myriad of stressing thoughts going on in her head.

Bianca let go of her, an empty smile on her face. "You… you were crying again, weren't you?" The eon pokémon rubbed off the residue tears, but Bianca had seen enough. "I know it's hard Latias. It's hard for me and grandpa to accept Latios isn't here anymore…" She kneeled, peering at Latias, who fixed her eyes on the ground avoiding Bianca's gaze. "But it must be worse for you. You don't want to be here anymore, do you?"

An audible gasp left Latias' mouth. Was her sorrow that obvious to others? She did want to go away, maybe not forever, but for some time.

Yes, she wanted to find Ash.

Yes, she would've liked to learn more about the herds.

They were reasons to leave on the surface with an inner want of being anywhere away from the garden or the city of Altomare. The island just wasn't anywhere near as lively or fun or happy without Latios, and even with the pick-me-ups from Bianca and Lorenzo in the last few days, she could tell some bit of them died with her brother. Ash and his pikachu, however did manage to bring her spirit up from a soul-crushing despair with his kind words. They soothed her in the way that he didn't seem like he was just telling her to stop feeling sad already and be happy but to let out her sorrows and be there for her, as did Bianca, Lorenzo, Ash's friends but his words softened the blows most.

Bianca held her cheeks, rubbing behind her ears. "Grandpa had his suspicions. I wish I could take you with me to Castelia city." The girl took off her beret, placing it on the ground next to her. "…Except you have to protect the Soul Dew. Not to mention some people would want you because of how rare you are and who knows what they'll do to have you."

The two didn't need her to respond to know her answer to that. Bianca knew her best friend; she grew up with her after all.

"You'd still go, wouldn't you?" Bianca chuckled slightly. "You're so stubborn, Latias." The two laughed a bit, after which Bianca retrieved her beret and stood up.

"You know… Latios is watching over you, and he'd want you to brave while he's gone. You've always been so vibrant and full of life, and I think he'd want his sister to protect the ones she cares about while he can't."

A depressing croon answered her, prompting Bianca to pick Latias up, startling the dragoness. "Okay? I know it isn't easy to overcome all this sadness, but for his sake, can't you promise to always do your best to protect the things you care about?"

Latias rubbed her tears off and thought about it. Latios wasn't coming back, and without him, the Soul Dew was at a bigger risk. She doubted her ability to protect the city after already having failed it before, but she decided that while she'd do her best to protect the city, she'd make sure her loved ones were kept safe.

Latias hugged Bianca, and nuzzled the side of her head. "It's okay to cry out all the tears you want Latias. And when you can't cry anymore, remember to get stronger so you can fight against any bad guys like Team Rocket if they ever show their ugly faces here again."

The two girls let go of each other, and Bianca wished her a good night, leaving Latias alone in the garden yet again. While she did feel down a bit, she would admit that she did feel considerably better. Training, she thought would be a great way to trudge through grief and as a way to learn how she could protect what mattered to her.

The garden was still, and she decided that with the first vigor she had in sometime, she would sleep next to the Soul Dew, whether or not her brother could truly see her, she wanted to think he could, and show him that she had gained back some of her will to move past his death.

She moved to look into the fountain and viewed that treasure shine vividly once, and pursed her mouth. She decided on believing it was Latios' approval and slumped against the stone floor, her soft down making even such an unforgiving rest place nice enough to not ache her later as she drifted off into a deep sleep.

~0o0~

Latias awoke to the soft glow of the morning light, slowly lifting herself off the floor to levitate in the air as she always did.

Without taking a single glance at the Soul Dew, she flew out of the garden determined to find the trio. They were the only lati she knew that could still teach her how to fight the way a lati would, and she wanted to train to fend for herself and protect others as well.

As she soared across the town, she remembered to stop by the statues, her light reflecting down protecting her from anyone's wandering eyes. Slowing down to a mid-air halt mere feet away from the statues of her parents, she checked the surrounding area for them, making note to see for any distortion of her sight that indicated the body of a fellow lati.

As luck would have it, she saw a large transparent one. Latias crooned to it, and it's head searched around until it spotted her very faint visual outline that only other lati could see.

"Ryuld, is that you?" She asked quietly. Ryuld nodded, and went over to her to grab her claw. "Okay, I'll bring us somewhere we can talk."

Latias held his claw and together they went behind an alleyway, both taking their human guises, Latias as her standard Bianca impression, and Ryuld took on the look of a tall, broad-shouldered man with gray hair, red eyes, a plain red shirt and blue jeans, and black boots. If Latias were to describe his look in a single word, it would be rugged.

The two walked out of the alleyway, attracting a few casual glances, but otherwise ignored. Latias decided to take him the quick way through Lorenzo's workshop to the garden. As they walked to their destination, Latias' mind drifted to various thoughts.

From what she knew, neither her nor her brother could speak while they took a human appearance, and judging from Ryuld's total silence, she assumed that silence applied to every lati.

She was a bit disappointed neither of his children seemed to accompany them, although she supposed that Altomare was safe enough for the moment for just the two of them there.

Latias opened the door to Lorenzo's gondola shop, allowing Ryuld to enter first. She closed the door behind her as she entered, providing a quick nod to Ryuld to tell him it was a safe place. Taking a moment to change into their natural forms, Ryuld looked around the gondola shop, slightly confused at why the guardian had chosen a recently used human building as a place to converse.

"Don't worry! It's safe here, really."

Ryuld frowned. "I will ask you to forgive me for not believing as such. Is there a reason you chose this place to talk?"

"I just told you, because this place is safe! The only human that even comes in here is somewhere else for the whole day. You learn this sort of thing watching over the place you guard during your life." Latias nodded, a bit of cheer in her voice.

Ryuld relaxed and shook his head laughing all the while.

"You seem to be in a far brighter mood today. But let us talk business first."

Latias sighed; it felt good being a little happy after all the depression she'd gone through. "I'm feeling great today. I… think I can tell you about what happened that night now."

"That's wonderful. The elder was quite worried when I told her you didn't wish to speak about it. This should calm her and the rest of the lati worries. Now please, can you tell me what happened?"

It was morning when they entered the Lorenzo's gondola shack, and by the time she finished her tale, it was mid-day.

Latias decided against telling him about her crush on Ash, and merely told him everything that happened in her eyes while skimming over the less important details, from the easy-going Tour de Alto Mare to showing Ash the garden, to her brother being captured by thieves and how despite stopping the thieves and their eventual arrest, Latios still had to sacrifice himself and became the replacement orb for their father.

Ryuld was scratching his forehead in amazement. "Quite a lot occurred to you. So you have lived with two humans all this while, and they have been responsible for keeping the weapon (you said it was a defense mechanism) out of hands by despicable others. Until those thieves came…"

Ryuld raised his head and took a deep breath. "Thank you for clarifying this to me. Now I can give a full report to our elder. But having you alone to protect Altomare with such little –I mean offense- combat ability with only two humans –one an old man even- to keep people away from the DMA deeply worries me…"

Before he could head out, Latias had grabbed one of his claws. "Is- is there any way you could stay then?"

The larger dragon paused for a moment. "This is a sudden request, I have to think about my children, and Sveta would need time to train another to be a second in command. …You know you can't come with us though."

The dragoness lowered her head. She didn't expect much, but she thought it wouldn't hurt to ask…

Ryuld noticed her crestfallen position and touched his mouth with his claws. "I… cannot stay here at the moment. Although…"

Latias' eyes gleamed. "Al-although?"

"You need training. Truly, you do. My herd is capable of protecting themselves for the most part. What I can do is train a replacement for myself, and come here to teach you how to fight amongst other things. As such, I will bring along my children for you to spar with at that time."

Latias nodded with a confident grin on her face. "So when can I expect to see you again for that?"

"Well, if I am to go back, we will have to continue our journey spanning this world, so you can expect to see us back here…some years from now."

Latias' confident grin slowly dissipated into a sullen face. Years.

...

...

A/N: First of all, thank you for reading. I am truly ecstatic to see this story come to fruition after much planning and editing. To see it come into being is a small accomplishment to me, but don't feel that I am suggesting that I will become discouraged if I get a review that isn't complete ass kissing and is pointing out every flaw my story has.

The business with the lati trio will be delved into more in the next chapter, so don't worry.

Originally, I planned for this being a one-shot, but it was running too long and I didn't feel like making you all read through over 10,000 words was fair for a single chapter. Another issue was that completing this was taking far longer than I had expected, and I didn't want to wait to post this until the next ice age came. This felt like a good cut-off point for the first chapter, so I hope no one is too disappointed that this is all for now.

Anyway, this is just to set up the actual story, so there will be more to come. So again, review and comment if you would. If you could be coherent in your reviews, that'd be great as well.

P.S. I'm not sure if the phones you can see who you're talking to in the anime have a confirmed name, so I'd appreciate someone telling me what they are called if they know.