Bella's constant badgering had finally convinced Alex to agree to do revision. It wasn't really due to exams but more just to stop the blonde from going on and on about it. She kept on saying things like 'I'm only thinking of your best interests' and 'Nobody wants you kicked off the island' and in the end Alex had caved in to her guilt tripping.

"Alright then, I've shuffled things around a bit to accommodate for all of your extra training that you do and I think I've created a pretty good revision timetable." Bella said as she highlighted certain parts of a huge A3 piece of paper different colours. "This is your ultimate revision guide Alex. It's colour coded so that you can easily distinguish between subjects. It fits in with all of your lessons and free periods and even has allocated break times."

"Yeah. Cool." Alex rolled his eyes, his words seething with sarcasm. "I just want to know how much time it's gonna take up."

"Well, if you follow the guide, I think it's perfectly reasonable for... let's say three hours."

"Well..." Alex murmured to himself, thinking the proposition through. "You know... I could definitely try... I think... maybe I could just about get three hours done."

"Alex, don't kid yourself." Lenny interjected. He was sitting at his own desk, right next to Alex and Bella. "There is absolutely no way you're going to do three hours of revision every day."

"A day!?" Alex exclaimed, horrified.

"You didn't think I meant three hours between now and the exams did you?" Bella asked. She was looking at him with that patronising 'You're an idiot' face she always seemed to wear when they did work together.

"No." Alex scoffed, lying through his teeth. "Course not."

"Sure." Bella shook her head. Alex could've sworn he heard her muttering to herself about him being stupid but it was probably just his imagination. "So three hours a day, how does it sound? If you want, I'll try my best to help you out for at least one of your sessions each day."

"I guess if you'll help me," Alex said, smiling, "I could at least try."

"Oh come on Alex!" Lenny sighed. "I helped you out with work for months and you hardly did anything! But then a pretty girl comes along, bats her eyelids at you and suddenly you're a workaholic! If you do manage to do that amount of work, congrats, but I really hope that you're doing it to pass your exams and not to get with Bella." Lenny's sudden outburst left Alex and Bella stunned for a moment and an awkward silence crept into the room.

"What?" Alex laughed. It was a pretty obvious fake laugh. "Me and Bella? We're just friends."

"Yeah, we're just friends." Bella said. For some reason, she was blushing. Then Alex realised that he too could feel some colour rushing to his own cheeks. "We're just trying to do well on our exams. You're welcome to join us if you want."

"Thanks for the offer but I'm good." Lenny said before getting up and leaving the room without saying another word. Alex and Bella turned to face each other, both of them holding fake smiles. Lenny was just spouting crazy-talk! There couldn't be another explanation for it. Him and Bella? Surely that had just come from nowhere.

"Lenny, eh?" Alex gave yet another false laugh. "Crazy guy don't you think?"

"Yeah." Bella said. "Crazy." It was odd how close together the two seemed. Alex hadn't realised it before but he was merely inches away from Bella. It was especially odd how a trick of the light made it seem as though Bella was leaning in towards him.

"Wow, is that the time?" Alex cried, suddenly looking at his watch. "I have to go and meet up with Megan."

"Oh, ok. Cool." Bella said, appearing to lean back. "I was actually going to do some more research into the Darkness Warriors."

"Good. You should do that." Alex nodded. After a few seconds of silence, he left the room.

*

It was a fine evening that Alex should've used to spend some quality time with his girlfriend but his mind was just on other things and he could hardly focus on what was supposed to be a serious conversation.

"So if you don't want to battle, what do you want to do when you grow up?" He asked. The couple were laying down on a soft patch of grass just outside the forest, before the grass abruptly stopped and there was a small drop down to the beach. As the sun was setting, they watched as tiny specks of light showed up in the night sky. It was a truly gorgeous sight.

"I've been thinking a lot about that." Megan admitted. "I think that I'll probably go on to pursue breeding."

"Really?" Alex asked. "Isn't that really difficult?"

"Well, it is but that's actually what I like about it." She replied. "I'd have to go to a good university for it though. Maybe somewhere like Mossdeep. I hear that's one of the best universities in the world."

"Well at least you have some plan." Alex shrugged. "I just don't even know."

"Of course you do." Megan laughed. "You're gonna be a great battler."

"Oh, yeah." Alex said. "That's what I'm gonna do."

"Are you alright?"

"Me?"

"No, the other person who's here in this conversation." Megan said sarcastically. After a pause, she continued. "Normally you'd have laughed at that."

"Yeah, sorry, it was funny really, I've just got other things on my mind right now." He admitted.

"Like what?" Megan asked, sitting up to look at her boyfriend.

"Oh nothing important." Alex said, sitting up and trying to pass it off like nothing.

"Come on Alex," she smiled, "If we're going to get more serious then we shouldn't be keeping secrets from each other."

"I know," Alex agreed, "But honestly, it's just something that Lenny said to me today that kind of bothered me."

"What did the shortie say?" She asked. "Do you want me to sort him out?"

"No!" Alex cried out. "Lenny's fine, I'll talk to him about it later."

"Well then what was it?"

"Ok, look, this is crazy," Alex said, "But Lenny thought that he saw something between me and Bella." Alex gave his third and most fake laugh of the day. Megan did not return it.

"What?" She said, shocked. "Was there something?" Alex panicked.

"Honestly, it was nothing, just Lenny being crazy-"

"So why were thinking about it so much?" She interrupted him.

"Because it's just a confusing thing and I was thinking about it!" Alex desperately tried to defend himself. He thought it was a perfectly reasonable thing to think.

"There's nothing confusing about it!" Megan cried, standing up. "I'm your girlfriend and she's not. If you need to think about whether or not you like another girl then there's a problem!"

"Megs..."

"Don't 'Megs' me!" She yelled. "We got to bloody third! How far are you with her?"

"Megan, you know I'd never cheat on you."

"I used to think that." Megan said, shaking her head. He may have been wrong but Alex thought he could see tears forming in her eyes. "Now I'm not so sure." Before Alex could get another word in, she stormed off, heading back to the Azelf dorm.

"Lenny, why did you do this to me?" Alex sighed, slumping back down on the grass. Things had been going so well recently with Megan and they'd started to get serious. Of course, arguments were natural in relationships but Alex had no idea how to gauge the seriousness of an argument as he'd never had a proper falling out nor had he ever had a proper relationship. But this was just stupid! It was one small and insignificant comment that hadn't even come from his mouth and Megan had just completely overreacted to it which was odd as she wasn't an overly sensitive girl. Eventually he got up and headed back to the dorm himself, cursing under his breath.

"Alex!" Bella said as soon as he entered the common room. For a brief moment, he'd thought that it was Megan calling out his name but it wasn't. It was the second reason for his and Megan's quarrel.

"Hey." He said, trying to put on his usual smile.

"I was doing some research into the Pokémon you described and I think I've made a breakthrough." She beamed. Her extremely positive mood completely contrasted with his own mood.

"Great."

"So the Pokémon that you say the Darkness Warriors took is undoubtedly Uxie, a lake guardian." Bella explained. "And as the names of the dorms suggest, there are two other lake guardians: Mesprit and Azelf. They used to each have a lake on the mainland in Sinnoh but when Team Galactic captured them, the government decided to hide them elsewhere and I think we now know where. They form a trio representing knowledge, emotion and willpower respectively. I could be wrong here but, you said that they used Williams almost like an offering?"

"Kinda, yeah."

"And that was for the being of knowledge." Bella grinned at him. Alex still didn't get the point that she was making. "Don't you see? Professor Williams is the smartest teacher at the school and at that moment was giving us a lecture that was very in depth and a lot further than we needed to go at this level. Then the Darkness Warriors appeared. I think that they were waiting for a moment when Williams really shone. I think they used him to represent the being of knowledge in order to summon Uxie."

"So the Darkness Warriors would probably want to complete the trio for some reason?" Alex suggested. "So they probably want to find the people who represent emotion and willpower."

"Exactly." Bella said. "Only problem is that the Darkness Warriors seem to be hiding all around the school, probably using that Zoroark to easily shield themselves from view and that means that they'll learn a lot about everyone in the school and have a good idea about who those people are. The good news is that emotions are pretty flexible. I'd take a guess as to say that the person who represents emotion is constantly changing depending on how emotional they are which makes it a lot harder for them to locate the person who represents emotion." It was then that Alex had a realisation.

"Have you seen Megan?" He asked.

"No, she was out on a date with you wasn't she?"

"She took off early." Alex muttered. He looked around the common room and couldn't see the redhead anywhere. "Shit!" He exclaimed, running for the door and bursting out of the dorm. It was starting to get dark but it was still just light enough for Alex to conclude that he couldn't see her. He cursed under his breath before pulling out his phone and calling Megan's number. He heard it go off. Rushing to the general direction of the noise, he saw a light on the floor at the edge of the forest. Just as he feared, it was Megan's phone, showing the background as the picture the two of them had taken together on their first date.

He had to find her. Alex pocketed the phone and ran into the forest, yelling her name over and over again but never hearing a response. Fortunately, he had a rough idea of the direction she'd be in. Her kidnappers must have taken her right on the edge of the forest for her phone to end up where it was and then it was a case of following where the grass beneath his feet looked most trampled. Soon, he heard voices.

He followed his ears before being abruptly brought to a halt by trees of all things. The forest had become oddly dense to the point where he couldn't even walk forwards anymore due to giant tree trunks blocking his path. The trees were twisted, unevenly spread and some were even uprooted. The end result was complete coverage over a wide area that Alex couldn't even see through, let alone walk through. There was no question about it: this was the location of the hidden lake. Foolishly, Alex attempted to dig his fingers in between two trunks, resulting only in his bare hands being covered in splinters.

"Shit!" Alex yelled again as he brushed away some of the little bits of wood. He couldn't be stopped by some trees. He had to rescue Megan. Thinking quickly, he sent out his Butterfree who didn't even need an order to lift him into the air with a Psychic attack. Now used to the odd sensation of being weightless, Alex was able to prepare himself for his ambush. When Butterfree's invisible hands let him go, he was on top of one of the lowest trees and not wasting any time, he jumped down.

When he hit the ground, he was in trouble. It looked like the Darkness Warriors had learned from the past mistakes as more than half a dozen hooded figures stood around the cobalt coloured lake, performing what looked like another ritual. Unfortunately, Alex was too late to stop the capture of the pink headed Mesprit and he saw it being transported away magically but he still had a chance to save Megan who was being held by two Darkness Warriors and she'd been gagged and blindfolded.

"Megan!" He cried out, alerting all of the Darkness Warriors to his presence.

"Ah, the troublemaker returns." One of them laughed. Without saying another word, all of Alex's enemies sent out a Pokémon, giving Alex a range of Dark types to face off against. Some he recognised, such as Houndour, but some were new to him like the black and grey growling hyena that was just about to snap at his heels.

"Garchomp!" Alex yelled, without even thinking. The nearby Mightyena was no match for Alex's savage creature. "Dragon Claw!" Garchomp didn't exactly listen, but it did opt to use his choice of attack, taking a wild swipe at Mightyena, hitting it into the ground before kicking it up into the air and taking another swing, batting it into the lake. It didn't resurface. Garchomp ran for the other defenceless Pokémon, hacking away at them brutally, knocking them out in quick, swift blows.

Using his rampaging dragon as cover, Alex made a run for it, ducking underneath a Houndour that went soaring over his head before slamming into a tree, unconscious. He continued on his run for Megan who had been left with only one Darkness Warrior whilst the others desperately tried to subdue the vicious dragon which was tearing through their Pokémon like paper. Alex shoulder-barged the hooded man off of his girlfriend and ripped off her gag before whipping off her blindfold. The moment the blindfold came away, Megan vanished and Alex just caught a glimpse of Zoroark's piercing blue eyes before it too was gone.

"No!" Alex yelled, kicking the ground. "Shit! Shit! Shit!" He fell to his knees, close to tears. He heard Garchomp give a final cry as the last of its enemies was knocked down. No Pokémon or trainer had escaped its wrath.

"She's gone." The one remaining Warrior said, who had been holding the illusion Megan. "You failed."

Alex's next few words were some of the ugliest, most disturbing, most horrifying things that had ever disgraced his mouth. From nowhere, Alex had discovered something new about himself. The pure rage that was within him, buried underneath his usual happy self that had been prompted to surface and now there was no stopping it. He got to his feet, looked the Darkness Warrior in the eye and swung a punch, connecting cleanly with his nose, breaking it and also hurting Alex's hand a lot. He screamed curses that he'd never say to his parents over and over, furious at himself and at the Darkness Warriors.

After what felt like hours, he'd almost calmed down. Alex hadn't noticed but Garchomp had come to sit next to him by the water's edge, their legs dipping into the lake. He'd managed to bury the rage and the fury but it had left him shaken up and he couldn't stop the droplets from streaming out of his eyes and down his cheeks. He slumped down onto Garchomp, resting his head against its rough, scaly skin. Garchomp appeared to understand his sorrow. After all, they'd really connected during the fight. They'd both been overcome with anger. On any other day, Alex would've taken a huge positive from this but on this day he just couldn't be positive. He'd lost Megan.