There's a click in the darkness. The elevator door opens steadily, and Dill immediately falls out. Korrina, who was similarly close to the exit, stumbles but catches herself.

The rest of us, disoriented by the quick drop, walk out to find ourselves in complete darkness. Korrina sends out Hazel and I send out Nico, both of whom light up the darkness with their aura. The elevator behind us looks to be in decent condition, but there are no lights inside.

Khrys calls from the interior, "The elevator's broken."
"Of course it is." Dill says, voice dripping with sarcasm.

"Damnit!" Toxis slams a fist into the control box of the elevator. "How did we walk into this one?"

"So, what now?" I ask. "We have to have some sort of plan.

"That's that. We aren't getting out of here." Korrina says, arms crossed. "I say we get everyone out and find some way around all this. I have a feeling Lysandre wasn't kidding when he said he'd give us a fair chance. He at least wants something with Shauna."

"Screw that! This isn't some game. We're getting back up there now." Bronze huffs.

"We have flying Pokemon." Sky offers. "Carrot alone could fly half of us up."

"You aren't moving that elevator." Korrina warns. "This entire thing was a trap all along."

I look at the elevator, which sits in a disappointing pile before us.

"No way are we doing that. Not only does it possibly weigh about a ton, but there's no way Lysandre hasn't put in extra defenses to keep us from going back up. This entire thing is a simple yet effective trap." Khrys sighs.

Someone yells in the distance, a high female voice.

"Diantha!" Shauna yells.

I feel goosebumps rise on my skin as another sound replaces the scream, a deep purr vibrating through the hall. "It's so kind of you to comment on my handiwork. I work really hard on these things, you know." Lysandre emerges from the shadow, the long passage before him lit up. It's a plain and simple metal hallway stretching far into the distance. The only thing that breaks the monotony is a rolling conveyor belt on the floor.

"I was just about to head to Geohenge Town for the unveiling of the weapon that will end life as we know it on this world. Would you like to join me?" he asks, reaching out a hand as if to invite us to a dance. Withdrawing his hand, he adds, "That was a rhetorical question. If you have any intent to stop me, I suggest you get on."

I reach for my Pokeballs, ready to fight, but Bronze throws one of his and it lays dormant on the floor.

"You can't open those down here." Lysandre says. "I try to come prepared to parties. This is a place for men, not beasts. We'll fight like Pokemon once we're there."

Bronze growls, and his fist erupts in flame as he slams it towards Lysandre, who catches the fist with his bare hand, unharmed. "I'm not one for party tricks, you know. You're not the only fire-type down here." His feline eyes turn down the hall. "No, really. Attack me again, and you're not going to see Diantha."

"What did you do to her?!" Shauna cries.

"Nothing. I would never harm a friend." he puts his hands up defensively. "Just making preparations up ahead. She'll join us very soon, as long as you all cooperate. If not, I also installed energy fields that will cut you into a million tiny pieces if you try to run. Added security measures and all." He clicks a button and bright blue fields appear on either side of us, moving slowly towards us with an ominous metal groan. I step onto the conveyor belt and clutch Bronze's hand, which is still uncomfortably hot, like a pastry just out of the oven.

It only makes me hold on tighter.

"It's so touching to see a family like this." Lysandre continues, "A group of dreamers standing over the cauldron of hell. I know you must be terrified, but I assure you this is all for the best."

"You're willing to kill millions 'for the best'?!" I yell.

"I'm not killing anyone." Lysandre looks away, hands folded behind his back. "After all, none of them really exist."

No one replies to this. What is he saying? What kind of insane madness is this?!

I notice that some of the other team members are especially disturbed by this. There's something suspicious about the ordeal- a secret I haven't been let on to.

"You seem shocked..." Lysandre says. "Is it possible that you already know what's going on? Has someone let on that this fragile reality is hardly more than an illusion over a far more terrifying truth?

No. Of course not. I know from the number of you that there's something going on. If you do know, I'm sorry. In a better timeline... we could have been friends.

However, as it stands, you are the only thing between me and liberation. I ask that you listen to the story I have to offer."
When no one objects, he continues.

"Once upon a time, there was a princess trapped in the palace of her own mind. She called out but no matter what she screamed, no one ever came. One day, a knight in shining armor came to the walls of her kingdom and day by day, night by night, he began to scale the wall between them, learning to climb them with his bare hands.

This was no easy task, seeing as the walls were made out of pure crystal. However, he eventually found a way in and when he looked upon her, he had never seen anything quite as beautiful. The one thing that stood out... were her eyes. Just like him, she had beautiful golden eyes.

Now, imagine that prince... found out that they were in a fairy tale. The funny thing about fairy tales... they end. When they end, so do the characters. Nothing ever becomes of them again.

This is our sad truth. I met Diantha early in our childhood, and I spent most of that time piercing her crystal heart. She had hardened to the world. It was cruel to her from the very beginning. Our only comfort was that we were both Goldeneyes, and this became our only calling. We went on a journey of our own. We tamed the powers all of you have learned. We found our past lives, a legendary and a Pokemon incapable of Mega Evolution- two oddities alone in the world.

While she was more interested in the results of our journey, a world where we would be co-Champions caring and protecting all of Kalos, and I sought answers, a different kind of result. Why would Pokemon return to this world in such weak forms? What was the criteria to return? What was our power in comparison to the legendaries themselves?

Do not let anyone tell you I was the ambitious one. No matter how we expressed it, we were both ambitious to the point of exhaustion. However, her path, usually the one that leads to greed and corruption, lead to blind altruism, while unfortunately my path, that of the sage looking for a better way, led me to a great and terrifying darkness.

While she went on to become a movie star, fall in love with a young Professor who had noticed her talents, and rule Kalos's Elite Four with a fist of crystal, I discovered the single most dangerous secret the world has ever known: all of it, all this time, was just an illusion centered specifically around us.

There are rules that make no sense. There are things that shouldn't be physically possible. There's the pointless destruction of an entire region that was never covered up. Our lives are indeed little more than a simulated game, and we have been played for far too long.

I began organizing my own technology corporation, hoping to find the... 'code' of said game, all while marauding under the guise of experiments my dear Diantha would approve of. It didn't matter who I talked to. Our conversations were always superficial. Anything they said, they would repeat again at some point like a broken record.

You, at least, have had each other. You can not imagine how mad a world so empty could drive someone who has spent almost forty years in it. I doubt there is a single line of dialogue I haven't heard."

He pauses briefly.

"There's a possibility that somewhere, beyond this place, lies wherever the players in this game originate from. There's a world where Johto is still there, where things make sense, where I... No. I doubt there's a future for me there. I only hope to see it before I die.

Anyhow, from Kalos mythology, I found that there might be one way to purge this world. At the least, it will do what it has promised- cleanse this world of the blank and empty eyed people who have no idea they're being tampered with. At most... it might bring me home, wherever that is."

Lysandre finishes.

"You're lying." Shauna says finally, though her hands are shaking violently as they clench into fists.

"Am I?" Lysandre asks.

"You... you have to be lying! That's ridiculous! Our lives aren't a stupid-"

"He's right." Toxis speaks up first. "That's what our old trainer, Ashley, was trying to do. Before we died, she was trying to save the world from a monster with the ability to edit the game code. This is all... it's just..."

"It was better in Johto. We never noticed. It was only after we died that..." Sky says quietly.

"I never- I didn't-" I stutter, shocked. "You can't be-"

"We're not. Does this feel real, Lilly?" Bronze says, tightening his grip.

I pull away from him, slamming against the wall. I get back up only to find myself nose-to-nose with the energy fields.

Korrina shakes her head. "No. It doesn't matter. I don't give a crap about what this world is or isn't. I've seen too many people and done too many things to care what you think you are or aren't doing!" Her eyes burn with aura fire. Her Goldeneye abilities are activating. "You can't do this, Lysandre! No matter what these people are, they have a right to live. This world will not die by your-"

Footsteps.

Diantha emerges by his side.

"I'm afraid the rumors were true." she says.

Shauna is crying again. She's down on the ground, hands in her arms. I don't think it's even fully set in yet. I can feel my own heart racing alongside hers.

"One last time, I urge you to reconsider, old friend." Diantha says.

"This isn't about Sycamore, is it? You know he betrayed us both."

"No." she says. "It isn't. You know there are better ways. There are many things this prophecy could mean. We don't have to play the heroes anymore. Right here are others like us. This child is a reincarnation of Floette herself! With her help... we could fix this. Everything." She looks into his eyes, one hand reaching out to his, to offer a shake on it. "Please."

Lysandre turns away. "You're just as naive as when I met you, Diantha." Before us, a giant door of metal opens, leading into an enormous room. The conveyor stops and we all stand in the middle, nothing audible but our own terrified breaths and Shauna's continued crying.

No one wants to say a word.

If we do, we might lose the war. Heaven knows what we're fighting for anymore.

Korrina yells, "They're gone!"
I turn about to see that Lysandre and Diantha are both gone. Above us, the ceiling opens up to reveal what looks like a red egg, wires connected to every part of it.

"Yveltal." breathes Korrina in awe. "That's Yveltal he's got up there."

"He's using it to power something!" Bronze yells.

"The ultimate weapon." I say, shocked.

We've been tricked.

Lysandre's voice blares over the speakers in the room from some unknown source. It comes out as almost a purr, but the malice is unmistakeable. "Party's over."