Isa ran a hand through his hair, continuing to look down at Kaden.

I killed him. 

I should have let him take the chance at Valencia. 

I could have taken care of Darkrai, then she wouldn't have gotten a chance to attack him.

He looked at his hands. Red, of course. There were probably traces of red in his hair now. He could hear Ayana struggling, but simply blocked it out.

There was a cold nudge to Isa's side. He looked over to see Sandslash and Houndoom both leaning against him. He forced a smile for a moment before giving it up, turning back and continuing to cry.

He didn't look up again, not until he heard Ayana give an agonized scream. "Ayana?" Isa finally opened his eyes and looked up, seeing Ayana kneeling on the ground. She was a bit hunched over, but her head was turned upwards, Garchomp faithfully defending her. "Are you-?"

"How is it looking?" Ayana quickly asked. Isa didn't respond. "Oh- oh no... Did he?..." The silence from Isa confirmed Ayana's thoughts. "I'll keep you covered while you collect yourself." She gave a nod to Isa, rolling on her feet and catching Valencia off guard again. Her golden sword flew into the air to make an attack.

But it stopped.

The sudden stop caused Isa's head to bolt up, fear on his face.

Valencia, too was frozen in place.

Everything in the room was frozen. No one was moving, except Isa. There was no noise, no anything.

And then the scene grew dark, and leaves only the people and Pokemon in Isa's view.

Isa immediately wonders what's going on. They soon disappear from his sight, along with Kaden who he's still holding on to. The latter causes Isa's arms to fall into nothingness. He lets out a small cry, looking for anyone he knows in this new area.

The new area is dark. Not pitch black, but Isa can't see much past his own hands, which are pictured clearly before him. It stays like this for a small amount of time, before a small light starts appearing in front of him. He looks up, and before him forms Xerneas.

"How are you doing?" It asks, the voice much stronger than Isa remembered. Isa only gives a strangled, upset cry in return.

"You said the blessing could heal anything!" Isa lets his emotions control him, not caring about what he looks like while letting tears openly flow. He can imagine that it's not a pretty sight. "Why did you lie to me?" The last sentence is forced, a silent, cracked whisper. But the void-like area is pitch silent, so it's loud, as if he was clearly yelling.

"There's something I need to show you. Follow me." The deer-like Pokemon turns around, moving away. Isa stands up, stumbling along to follow it. As they continue going, light starts to grow in the area until the black dissolves into a navy blue and deep pink sky, similar to a dusk sky that's just about to turn night. It's dotted with stars, but no ground to be seen. Isa somehow still feels firmly on the ground though, watching as three new Pokemon come into view. Each of the three tower over Isa and even have a size advantage over Xerneas.

The first is a majestic blue creature. Its main body is a sea blue, with silver plates on the back and legs. There's a plaque of sorts on its chest, probably as big as Isa with a blue-gray gem in the middle. It has red eyes, ones that send a chill down Isa's spine.

The second is mostly gray, almost similar in shade to the armor on the first one but a little more dull. The gray skin is traced with pink, having a single pink gem on each of its shoulders. Like the first, it also has red eyes.

The third is one that has a mere presence which almost knocks Isa over. It's kind of like a bug, with many legs instead of just two or four as most Pokemon have. It has a golden sort of necklace and humongous black wings, red across various spots of the body.

Isa just barely notices that there's a person standing in front of each one. He walks to the one standing by the blue Pokemon. "Who are you? Where are we?"

"It's a hole in space-time." The person answers. He's wearing armor that matches the Pokemon behind him. "I'm Dialga's vessel, or as some called me, Nate. Or, I was."

"Valencia told us a story about three people who fought her. Were you one of them?" Isa asks.

"You mean we were the ones defeated by her, right? Because, yeah, we kind of screwed that up. Eric and I couldn't get along to save our lives." The boy sheepishly laughs, turning his head from Isa. "You're Xerneas's chosen, right?"

"Chosen?" Isa's a bit confused by the question, turning back to look at Xerneas. It looks like it's laughing a bit. "I thought you just said I was one of your vessels. One of a bunch in the line of people who you've met."

"I didn't want to pressure you much more than you were already being pressured, little one." Xerneas admits. "Your very being is one that emits life itself. You are the strongest and most life-bearing human I've ever been with."

"So if that energy was so strong, then why couldn't you save Kaden?" Isa yells the question, the boy next to him flinching back.

"Nothing can cure death." Xerneas says, a simple answer that Isa doesn't want to hear.  He refuses to listen to it. "There are still more who wish to speak with you, I'd suggest you go."

Isa wants to fight back against the answer, but he doesn't know how so he turns to Nate. "How did I get here?"

"Palkia is the master of time. It was able to pause time and Dialga, master of space, was able to open a wormhole and bring you here."

"So are you really dead?"

"I should be." Nate admits, Isa's heart skipping a beat. "Xerneas is able to use some of its energy to bring us, or at least illusions of our former selves here so we can speak to those who are vessels. You and Yveltal's vessel are the only vessels in a long time to have made it so far as to actually confront Valencia. The others in the past have never even reached her for one reason or another.

"Is that all Kaden and I were to you, then? Just vessels in the grand scheme of things?" Isa grabs Nate by a loose cloth hanging from his armor, staring him straight in the eye. "Does Kaden's sacrifice mean nothing to you? Did he die for nothing?" Isa yells at this part, Nate flinching back.

"...I think you should go talk to Eric." Nate's form suddenly dissolves in front of Isa, his hands empty again. Isa turns his head to the right, now seeing another boy who's almost the exact opposite of the person he just spoke to. Isa runs to face the next person.

"Who are you?" Isa asks again.

"I'm Palkia's vessel, Eric." Eric is folding his arms together, glaring at Isa as if saying, 'Don't come any closer, or I'll punch you right out of this wormhole.'

"How close did you get to defeating her? Was Kaden any closer than what you and your partners did?" Isa demands, standing as close to Eric as he can without initiating a fight.

"Yveltal's vessel fought harder than anyone's ever fought before to bring Valencia's reign to an end. He killed at least three of her Patrons, intimidated the highest Patron into surrender, and confronted her twice. He just couldn't finish the job, though." Eric looks down, not wanting to see the rage on Isa's face.

"So he was just a way to success for you too?" Isa's throat is aching, begging for him to stop yelling. He doesn't listen to it. "Kaden is so much stronger than all of you, combined. He's the hardest fighting person I've ever known, and he wouldn't ever leave me a losing battle."

"You should speak to Aurora." Eric says, leaving the space as quickly as Nate did. Deja vu causes Isa to turn to the right, seeing the gray and gold Pokemon with the Patron who had locked them up standing in front of it. He feels a stream of rage inside him, and as she turns her head to look at him it boils over.

Isa screams when he sees Aurora, running straight at her with a punch aimed to her face. She puts a hand up and stops him, but Isa doesn't drop the attack.

"This is all your fault! We could have snuck up there, but you had to make her aware of us and lock us up! Then you gave her your power and she used it and she KILLED him!" Isa lets his other fist fly at her, but she blocks it just as easily as the first. "She... She killed him..." Isa's breath runs short, letting reality sink in for the first time. "He's dead... I'm never going to see him again. He's gone... Nothing's gonna bring him back... I'm alone again..."

"You don't know what being a Patron is like." Aurora responds, slowly lowering Isa's hands to his side. She looks at him, regret tracing her face. "I became a Patron against my will, like Ayana did. She killed Nate and Eric. They were my best friends. I was stripped of my power and crippled before her. She warped my head and forced me to become her highest Patron. I was cheering for you three. Who better to take down the corrupted empress than the ones she draws her power from?" Aurora admits, glancing downwards. "I didn't want anyone to die this time. But here we are again. The battle's paused only for a moment, but if you jump back in now, you or Ayana will die and history is going to repeat itself, no matter how hard you try. Maybe a hundred years from now you'll be standing here, talking to someone who just lost their closest ally as you did yours. Maybe it'll be Ayana who's talking to them, and you'll be the Patron fighting against someone just like you. Either way you can't just blindly go in. That's why Xerneas convinced Dialga and Palkia to bring you here. You need to recover yourself, both physically and mentally."

Isa isn't sure how to respond. He instead listens, watching as Aurora speaks.

"There's one more person who needs to talk to you." Aurora vanishes, leaving Isa to look around. At this point he's just confused more than anything. He doesn't stay confused much longer, though, as the last person forms. Isa stares for a moment before letting out a scream. It's one that he honestly can't tell what it is himself, whether it's anger, or joy, or sadness. There's lots of volume to the scream, but it dissolves into a choked up cry, cracking off at the end.

"KADEN!" 

His feet take him there before he knows what's quite happening. Isa knows that it's just an illusion from whatever this void is, but he doesn't care. He's back.

Kaden holds his arms out, catching Isa as they collapse into the ground with laughs.

"I already miss you so much..." Isa rubs a hand against his eyes, noticing that Kaden's tearing up a bit as well.

"I told you I wasn't gonna make it." Kaden laughs a bit at his comment.

"Oh, shut up." Isa gives Kaden a light punch on his shoulder with a slight laugh to it.

"Not like I haven't practically died before."

"You never told me that story. I know you came to fight Valencia before, but what exactly happened?" Isa asks. Kaden pauses for a moment, a bit confused at why he's asking the question. He then takes a deep breath, and gives a sarcastic smile.

"Well, I came here looking to kill Valencia. You probably knew that already. You also probably knew that I lost. I don't remember the specifics, though. I remember Valencia attacking me with her sword in the almost exact same spot she just hit me in, and losing consciousness and thinking I was dead.  Then I woke up near your village, and found out it had been half a month or so since I had last been awake. I knew who I was the whole time, but I just wanted a chance to start over. And you gave it to me."

"Awww...." Isa's smile becomes a bit of a sad one. "You know I would have been friends with you no matter what your background was, right?"

"Better to play it safe when your life goal is to get rid of the only leader anyone here has ever known, and everyone has to follow that leader or suffer for it." Kaden scoffs a bit. "I'll never be able to thank you enough. You're the only person who was able to look past who I was born to be."

Isa's unsure how to respond, so he simply hugs Kaden tighter. They're both silent, being broken by a voice.

"I think I'm ready." Kaden says.

"Ready for what?"

"To move on. Let myself die this time. Does that sound morbid? I've been doing nothing but struggling my entire life, so if I'm able to somehow get through this alive, I don't even know if I want to keep on going. Better to go out with a bang now than to never know when I'll get killed again, because knowing me it'll happen pretty soon."

"But I don't want you to die!" Isa can feel his tears coming back as his voice lets out a crack. "What about everyone you'll leave behind? Houndoom? Me? Even if Ayana and I make it through this, I can't lead a region, and you know it's going to happen. The people of Axiom will want the person who freed them to lead them, and when they find out Ayana was working with Valencia they'll definitely want me over her. You can lead, you led an organization that was well known throughout the entire region! I'm just some speck. I can't lead anything, I can't do anything. Not to mention we're on the brink of war with the Knights of Darkrai and I can't handle that kind of-"

"Hey, you're strong. I know you of all people can do it. Besides, you'll have people to back you up. Ayana'll be there for you, and so will Sandslash and Houndoom. And I'll be there. Maybe not physically, but you promised that you wouldn't forget me. You may be a speck, but you're a pretty good one, remember? Here, I've got something for you." Kaden reaches for the necklace he's wearing and takes it off, a keystone. "I think Houndoom already knows what I want for her, and she'll be willing to cooperate with you." He puts the necklace over Isa's head, slipping it down his neck.

"I still don't want you to go." The end of the phrase comes out a bit needy, which causes Kaden to pull the two even tighter.

"Hey, Isa, you'll be okay. I promise." Kaden's voice is a soft whisper now, meant only to bring comfort to Isa. He repeats it a few times, Isa's breath becoming steady again.

"How do I know you're not gonna break this promise?"

"Trust me on this one. I don't start fights I can't keep." Isa doesn't look, but he can practically hear Kaden's cocky grin form.

"You sure about this one?"

"With you around? Definitely."

Once again, silence breaks between the two. They're interrupted by Xerneas this time.

"We don't have much time left before the wormhole will close. Are you ready, little one?" Xerneas looks down at Isa and Kaden, waiting patiently for Isa's response. Isa looks back at Kaden and to Xerneas again before giving a nod.

"You can do it, Isa." Kaden makes sure that Isa can see his smile this time. "There's nothing that's going to stop you."

"...Alright, I'm ready." Isa nods to Xerneas before turning back to look at Kaden. "Thank you."

"No problem. Now, go. Do the great things I know you can do." Kaden refuses to let go of his smile, closing his eyes. Isa closes his eyes as well, taking in the warmth.

He can tell that the dusk sky is growing to one of dawn as Dialga and Palkia send him back into reality.

When Isa finally opened his eyes again, he was still looking down at Kaden. He was smiling, but coldly. Isa looked for the keystone that Kaden wore, finding it around his neck. He grabbed the keystone tightly, looking up. Ayana remained fighting, her energy beginning to fade.

Isa finally stood up, letting Kaden go. He slowly leaned the body against the wall, taking one last look. "I'll fight for you, okay?"

There was no response as Isa turned around, walking toward Ayana and reaching down to grab the sword Kaden had dropped. He dropped his own sword to the sword, lifting Kaden's black sword into the air.

Don't hold back.

Ready, GO!