ARC 1, CHAPTER 7

“Oh, there you are, Eon!”

“Eh? Who’s this?”

“Relax everyone. This person is trustworthy, I promise.”

“And how do we know we can trust her?”

“Simple. Her companion is as much of a secret as we are.”

“W-What? You know about?-”

“Yes, I do. Do not worry though, your secret is safe with us.”

“What secret?”

“W-Well, uh…” A pause. “She… doesn’t like to show herself…”

“That’s okay. I hope she knows she’s secure here, though. No one here lets secrets like that get out.”

“Actually, everyone in this place is a bit of a secret!”

“Really? Who… Who are you?”

“I suppose it wouldn’t hurt to tell ya, right?”

“As long as you promise not to tell a soul.”

“I promise.”

“Well, I am known as Eon, and this is my team. We are Team Oracle, the true top rescue team in this region.”

“Really? How come I’ve never heard of you?”

“If you couldn’t tell, we don’t really show ourselves to public eyes.”

“I’m sure you know how corrupt this place is. We hide to shield ourselves from that.”

“Oh.” A pause. “Eon’s kind of a funny name, no offense.”

“Oh, that’s not his real name. We use code names to protect ourselves.”

“Oh, I see.”

“Well, that’s enough about us for now. The reason I called you here is because… I need your help.”

“Help?” A pause. “What do you need help with?”

---

Slowly but surely, morning came, and the sun rose again. It would have passed for a peaceful morning, if not for the events that transpired yesterday. Indeed, a hunt for the Dreamsavers was on, with nearly every rescue team on their tail. Thankfully, the trail was still cold, as their hiding spot hadn’t been discovered.

The Dreamsavers were all awake now. It was impossible to tell how much sleep each of them had gotten, if any. And right now, they weren’t doing much of anything in their small enclosure. Zari was braiding her hair, while Irima was peeking outside, making sure no one was nearby.

“Irima?” Zari said, finishing her first braid and moving on to the second.

Irima turned to his friend, listening to her intently.

“Last night… you mentioned something about… not knowing who you are?”

Irima blinked. “O-Oh… did I say that?” Irima asked rhetorically, as the memories of last night came back to him.

“Irima… What’s going on?” Zari asked, concerned. Stella’s attention was on him now too, so he saw no way out of this.

He sighed before speaking. “Well… When you guys found me on the day we met… I…” He hesitated before continuing. “Didn’t… remember anything.”

“What?” Stella asked in disbelief.

“Yeah… When I woke up… I didn’t, still don’t remember anything before that. I don’t even remember my name, I just came up with ‘Irima’ on the spot!”

“O-Oh dear,” Stella exclaimed. “Irima, I-I’m sorry to hear that.”

Zari thought for a moment. “Irima, I want to help you.”

“Well… I don’t see how you can,” Irima said. There was some truth in his words, and Zari knew it.

“W-Well… after this is over, I’ll figure out a way!” Zari said with confidence.

Irima couldn’t help but smile at the gesture. “Thanks, Zari,” he said.

There was a pause as Zari finished her braids. There was something that had been on Stella’s mind, and now, she thought, was a good time to bring it up.

“Zari?” she asked. “How does that Umbreon know you?”

Zari froze at the mention of him. She didn’t want to think about him, but she knew it was going to get brought up again eventually. So, with a heavy sigh, she got it over with.

“Well… Umbra and I… We were childhood friends. W-We lived together with our families in the forest for the longest time… W-We even made that treehouse together! But after he evolved, h-he changed. H-He became mean… a-aggresive… And then one day, h-he just snapped.” Zari paused, taking a deep breath and closing her eyes. “I-I came back to my childhood home burnt down… a-and no survivors… S-Since then I’ve been alone. A-And Umbra would always torment me w-whenever he could find me…” Zari opened her eyes and she just realized that she was starting to cry. The memories of Umbra flooded her head; some good, but most, not so much.

“Z-Zari…” Stella said. She almost regretted asking now. Zari’s past with Umbra sounded awful. “I… I’m sorry,” was all she could think of to say.

“I-It’s okay,” Zari said, wiping her tears with her hair. While it was unpleasant to remember her past, she was glad to have gotten it off her chest. “W-What about you?” she asked Stella. “How did you end up…”

“Alone?” Stella finished for her. She closed her eyes as she spoke. “Truthfully, I don’t know. I don’t remember much of my youth; for the things I do remember, I was alone.” Stella paused for a moment, the thoughts sinking in. “That’s why I love helping people so much… I want to help anyone who may be as, or even more misfortunate than me.”

Only silence followed Stella’s monologue. Zari’s hunch was correct: all three of them were lonely souls with nothing to their name. She was certain that them journeying together was the best idea.

“That… that’s very nice of you, Stella,” Zari said after a while. She finished braiding her hair, then looked outside again. The coast was clear.

“I think we should leave now,” Zari said after double-checking.

“B-But Zari… everyone in the region is probably looking for us now,” Stella said, clear concern in her voice.

“I know, b-but we can’t stay here,” Zari replied. “I-If someone finds us here, what will we do?”

“Zari’s right,” Irima said after a slight pause. “Our odds will be better on the move.”

Stella inwardly sighed. “A-Alright,” she said after another pause. She didn’t have a right to argue after everything she put her team through.

The team crawled out of the hidden grotto one-by-one. Starting now, they were fugitives. They knew getting caught would mean trouble.

“Well… What do we do now?” Zari asked.

“I… I don’t know,” Stella said, unsurprisingly. “There’s no way we’ll be able to get people to side with us.” A long pause followed, thick enough to use Slash on. “Maybe… maybe we can’t fix this…”

“But you can’t give up yet!” came an unfamiliar voice. The three swerved toward the newcomer’s voice, alarmed, but were surprised to see a familiar face.

“Elliana?” Sure enough, the fluffy little Eevee was running up towards them. She didn’t seem threatening at all, and her next words confirmed that.

“Y-You just can’t give up!” she said, almost frantically. “Y-You guys are the only ones who know who’s really behind this.”

A shocked silence followed Elliana’s statement. It was Irima who broke the silence.

“You… You know what happened?” he said.

“Uh huh,” Elliana responded, nodding. “You guys got framed by some people who wanted to stir up trouble.”

Another seemingly long pause followed. Stella spoke up, though it was more of a stammer than anything. “H-How do you-”

“I can’t explain,” Elliana cut her off. “But that’s not important! You guys are the only ones who can solve this!”

“B-But… how?” Zari asked. “We don’t even know where to start…”

There was another pause, but this one didn’t last nearly as long. “I can help you,” Elliana said. Everyone looked at her, hoping she would explain. “I know someone who can help. They want to meet us nearby, a-and I can take you there!”

“Really?” Zari said, though she needed no confirmation.

Stella smiled, knowing at least someone was on their side. “Thank you, Elliana.”

“Oh, you can call me Ellie if you want!”

---

Ellie led the team towards her destination. Where they were going, only Ellie knew. Who they were meeting, well, even Ellie didn’t know that much. She just had to have faith, and her optimism made that an easy task. The hard part was getting there.

Of course, though, the whole journey wasn’t quiet. Someone was bound to notice eventually. And they did.

“Hey boss! There they are!” That voice was familiar. At least, it was to Stella and Zari.

“H-Hey! S-Stop right there…” came another familiar voice. The team turned to see a line of six round pokémon approaching them. Sure enough, Zari and Stella did recognize them. Team Falinks. Unlike last time, though, they didn’t seem friendly. Though at the same time, they weren’t exactly angry or hostile either.

“Um… I-I’m gonna need you guys to come with us,” Chase said after stopping. His tone of voice indicated nervousness. Or perhaps worry?

“Falinks… I-I can explain-” Stella said. She really didn’t want to fight, especially not them.

A stern sigh came from Donavan. “Alright, I’ve had enough,” he said. His voice didn’t even remotely match the nervousness of Chase’s. “Chase, these are fugitives. We’re not going to mess around.”

Chase just sighed. “Alright,” he said, hesitantly. He turned to the Dreamsavers, clear grief on his face. “I-I’m sorry… but we have no choice.” Chase turned to his team “Alright Falinks! No Retreat!”

The Falinks put on their visors and arranged themselves in a V shape. The area around them darkened, and a river seemed to crash against rocks behind them for a brief moment.

After the move ended, the Falinks seemed more focused. However, before they could do anything, the six pokémon suddenly got bombarded by a flurry of pink slashes. Zari recognized that move as Psycho Cut. But no one in their group was able to learn that move! What was going on?

They got their answer soon enough. After the barrage ended, another pokémon entered the scene, and swiped them all with a Slash, knocking them out instantly. The Gallade that took out the team sighed as he stood back up.

“People just don’t think with their heads anymore, I swear,” he mumbled as he turned to the Dreamsavers.

“You… helped us?” Stella said, half in disbelief.

“It’s the least I could do,” the Gallade said. “After all, it must be a hard time for you all right now.”

“W-Wait,” Zari said. “You’re… not against us? I thought the whole region was after us.”

“Oh please,” the Gallade said, crossing his arms. “I know how everyone is around here. Especially rescue teams. People are too quick to jump to conclusions before they even know the whole story. And I just can’t see you guys as villains. Speaking of, though…” the Gallade leaned forward, almost interrogatively. “I suppose you have an explanation for what’s going on?”

“I-It’s a long story,” Stella explained. “But we got framed… by Team X,”

The Gallade leaned back, relaxing a bit. “That’s not surprising. I hear those insects love stirring up trouble. And getting a young team to invade the best rescue team’s base sounds like something they would do.”

“But… while we were there,” Stella continued. “We found out that Team Moonlight was capturing all of the pokémon that were disappearing.”

The Gallade brought a hand to his chin. “Now that is a little hard to believe…” His next words were quiet, but still audible. “Though Amori always did think that they were up to something…”

“But it’s true!” Ellie spoke up. “They tried to kidnap me too… But the Dreamsavers saved me!” The Gallade didn’t physically react, but his posture showed that he was listening.

“Sir,” Zari walked forward a little bit. “We need all the help we can get right now. C-Can you help us stop this? Please?”

The Gallade thought about this for a moment. Would it be worth it? Even after his past experiences with rescue teams? He took another look at the team before him. They looked genuinely sincere. And he knew the rough times ahead of them, possibly ones they couldn’t handle.

“Alright,” he said after a long pause. “I’ll tag along.”

Stella smiled brightly. “Thank you so much, sir,” she gratefully said. She was very glad that the whole world wasn’t against them. “My name is Stella, by the way.”

“Resmo,” the Gallade responded. “Now, where exactly are we going?”

---

“Ma’am, I have news,”

“Oh, it better be good news, I hope!”

“Calm yourself, Phobia. What’s the verdict?”

“We have captured enough power sources, and then some, just to be on the safe side.”

“Ah, perfect. And they’re still comatosed, right?”

“Of course.”

“Then let’s go and transfer them to our power plant. Phobia, you go with her. I’ve got a few more things I need to prepare.”

“You got it, oh wondrous boss!” A girly giggle followed.

“Soon, the whole world will be in our hands… maybe even the whole universe.”

---

The team went on through the forest with no issues. Soon enough, Ellie commented that they were almost there. This gave the team hope, and hopefully they would have answers.

They soon made it to a large, dead tree. It had a few holes in it, and some odd decor around. But leaning against the large lump of wood was the pokémon whom they were told would help them. When they arrived, the familiar Furret had only one thing to say…

“What took you guys so long?”