I didn't know what to expect when we asked Diantha for a plane, but if I had to guess, this would be more or less what I expected. Khrys's hands are folded as he stares earnestly at her, as if the question was a normal part of everyday conversation, while the others are trying not to burst out laughing at the preposition.
"You want a what?" Diantha asks, setting down her tea. Though she conveys little more than slight surprise, it's the most emotion I've seen her show thus far.

"Does it look like we're kidding?" asks Ferro.

Diantha looks around the room and back into her tea. "No, I suppose it doesn't. In the wake of recent events, this is probably the most normal thing that has occurred thus far. I suppose I could arrange transportation..."

"How are we getting to Johto?" I ask, my heart pulsing. Just the mention of going home fills me with pure, unadulterated anticipation.

"I usually fly on my Pokemon, though I believe that will be insufficient. If we want to transport all of you on short notice... I suppose I could get out my private jet."

"You have a private jet?!" asks Dill, slamming his hands on the table.

"What, did you think she just walked all over the region? You do know that takes months, right? Even with flying Pokemon, it would take about a week to get across the region, let alone to get to any others." Sky sighs. "I admit that it's not something the general population would own, but it's not far fetched for a Champion."

"When you're Champion, people will throw anything you ask for at you without hesitation. I have a lot of pointless luxuries in my house." Diantha looks resentful, possibly towards herself, at just the mention of it.

"If they're pointless, why do you accumulate them?"
Diantha sighs. "They have their uses. I try to donate as much as possible to charity, but I'm afraid the fame occasionally gets to my head. " She waves the conversation away as if it disgusts her, which it probably does. Diantha looks guilty as she gets up from the table. Shauna stands up too, quite suddenly, and then sits back down.

"Um..." Shauna says, "Do you need to make any preparations."

Diantha laughs dryly. "I'd need a pilot, for one thing. No one is going to believe me if I tell them friends have business in Johto. It's so barren and potentially dangerous there that almost no one is allowed to go. Airplane fuel isn't cheap either, but I know I have plenty... hmm, what else, what else... No, that should be all."

Khrys smiles. "I can take care of the pilot."

She looks at him, then nods. "You're a flying type. I assume. Have you actually piloted a plane before?"

Khrys slips out his pilot license from inside a pocket of the very nice pajamas Diantha has and slides it across the table, where it lands against the centerpiece with a clink and stays there. He slams his hand against his face as Sky giggles. "Can someone please pass that the rest of the way to Diantha?" he asks.

Rage carefully picks up the plastic rectangle and hands it to Chompers, who hands it to Diantha.

She examines it and nods. "That should be sufficient. Thank you."

"So..." I say, putting down the rest of my breakfast bagel. "When do we take off?"

"This afternoon." Diantha tells me. "Be ready."

With that, she gets up and walks away, pacing out the door.

"What was that about? We could have at least enjoyed the rest of breakfast together." Toxis says, staring after her.

"Certainly has a flair for the dramatic." agrees Dill.

"She is an actor, ya'know?" Millie adds, pushing her oatmeal away from her.

"Probably just wanted to get started on preparations." Dusty says. "We should be grateful we have such a lovely host!"

"No." Shauna says. "I think... she's just a little flustered over yesterday. I... suppose I am too."

"Lysandre's death? What a fool." Shika says, her tone dark. "No one should ever have the power that only gods dare to possess. Humans aren't meant to abuse things like that."

"Well yes... but I have other problems. I just can't believe that... that..." Shauna catches on the same world like a broken record player, repeating it twice before going back to her pancakes, frustrated.

"Can't believe what? Are you alright?" Sky asks, concerned.

"How do you stand knowing it's all fake?" blurts out Shauna. Even across the table from her, I can see that she's stressed over this. Her fists are clamped and shaking. I know I could see tears if I was closer.

"It isn't." Bronze says.

"B-but we're stuck in a game!"

"That doesn't make it any less real to us within it, does it?"

Shauna returns to her pancakes. Bronze returns to his. Nobody speaks until we're finished, and one by one we leave the room in silence.

***

I hastily walk into the courtyard, the remains of breakfast still churning in my stomach. Not wanting to waste a second of whatever I may have left, I throw open my five remaining Pokeballs. Rune, Nico, Akita, Pich, and Crypt stare at me anxiously.

They're so animal. So afraid. Did Ashley's team stand like this after the Lake of Rage? Did Bronze look like this as he stood next to Ashley in the last seconds before the world was torn apart?

Finally, Pich speaks. "Is she really... dead?"

I nod, not wanting to extrapolate.

"So that's it then." Crypt grunts, trying to mask the furious lashing of his tail and grinding of his teeth. He's far more moved by Chrona's death than he'd like to convey. "Why are we here? When are we going to the next gym?"

"I... I don't know. Possibly never. Whatever I was looking for beforehand, it's not important anymore. What matters now is that we do whatever Celebi needs to do and then I-"

"You what?" presses Pich, wings held against her side, puffing her up.

"I don't know what's going on." I tell them. "I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know much of anything, and that's why I bought you all out here."

"You're treating this like a goodbye." Nico says, as usual knowing far much more than I'd like to say.

"It may be. It may not be. The truth is, I don't know what I'll do when Celebi takes me back. Sometimes, this world feels so much more real than the one I came from. At the same time..."

I look down at my hands. Once, they were terrifying and new to me. Once, I was hardly able to control my human body and now... I might as well have been born human.

"Whatever you decide-" Pich cooes, but Rune slides in front of her, stick blazing.

"No, no, no. I don't give a shit about the whole 'oh boy, do what your heart says' or whatever! You're our trainer and you can't just get up and leave because some ugly onion fairy told you... told you..." He clears his throat, slicing his stick downwards as embers flare from it. "We're a team! That's the most powerful bond there is!"

"I know, Rune. That's why I have to go home."

He snarls. "What about us?"

"Like I said. I don't know what awaits us when we get to Illex."

"So don't go."

"If you lost me, would you do anything to find me?"

His eyes narrow. "Chrona would."

"This isn't about Chrona."

"I would, too. Hypothetically."

"So you get it."

His fire extinguishes. "Just put me back in the damned Pokeball. If you do anything stupid, I'll be back out. Until then, I just want some time to think about all this."

I withdraw him, looking despondently at the others.
"Me too." Pich says weakly.

No one else says a word, so I withdraw them all.

I go back inside, open up the PC, and release all of my Pokemon still inside it. It's a split second decision, but some part of me knows I'm just doing them a favor.

***

The afternoon tension buzzes in the air like unwanted flies, festering over what remains of yesterday's anxiety. Diantha escorts us all on and then piles in herself, firmly locking her seatbelt.

I sit down next to Bronze and clench his hand. He takes the window seat. "Crazy, isn't it? How long has it been?"

"Over a year." I say. "I can't believe it either."

"Put your Pokemon away and prepare for takeoff." Khrys calls over the intercom.

"Are we going to have to watch one of those safety videos next?" asks Ferro, full of his typical snarky sarcasm.

"No." Sky says, probably gripping his intercom up in the cockpit. He's flying alone, but she knows enough to be his copilot.

"I cooked macarons!" yells Shika.

The whole plane is alive with further questions about the flavors and content of said macarons, but all of it is drowned out by loud beeping. We all sit flat in our seats as the airplane races down Diantha's launch pad and soars into the sky. I feel my stomach drop as we leave the ground, my hand leaving Bronze's to firmly clench the seat.

I'm only stable when we hit regular altitude. The others are talking around us as well. It feels comfortable. Cozy. Whatever this is, I don't want to give it up. What lies in wait for this family?

I stare at Rune's Pokeball, tracing how the light falls on it. Somewhere in the strings of data within is a starter who may stand on the verge of losing his trainer. What lies in wait for mine?

Hours in the air later, the sun is setting, despite us travelling west.

I sit pressed up against Bronze like a Purrloin, sinking into his shoulder. He's staring out the window uncertainly. This entire time, as we've passed region after region, he's been stoic as a rock. He gets like that when he's hurting on the inside. It's better than the alternative, which is fire and brimstone.

"Lilly." He has that grave tone of voice, similar to the one he used at Olympia's gym. "We're home."

I practically fall into his lap to get a look out the window, but all I can think when I see it is no we aren't.

Mount Silver is the first visible landmark. The entire mountain has seemingly caved in on itself. A giant crater emerges from the earth where the mountain once proudly stood, as if some giant Pokemon pressed the entire landform in on itself.

"Does anyone have any idea what the hell is going on here?" yells Khrys over the loudspeaker.

"We told you it was bad." Diantha says.

"This can't be Johto." insists Shika.

"What happened?" Sky asks desperately.

Diantha walks into the cockpit. "Johto is a hostile and dangerous wasteland. Almost nothing grows here and few ever visit. As for how it got that way, I-" The intercom stutters. "I am not quite certain."

"This isn't Johto." Shell says matter-of-factly, sitting in front of us. "It doesn't exist in this world."
"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Wait until we get out." he assures me. "She doesn't remember anything because it's not programmed in. We've traversed beyond the code. We're somewhere that isn't supposed to exist."

"Then where are we?"

"According to Lysandre... we're free."

The airplane light flickers over the "fasten your seatbelts" and later begins to fall. We touch down in an area of nothingness. The ground is little more than gray earth with little discernable texture. Overhead, the sky's still blue, but the clouds are gone and the sun has popped back up, stuck in one stagnant position we passed long ago.

"This isn't the Illex Forest." Bronze snarls.

"That's what the map says." Sky tells him. "I don't like this either. I was raised around Illex, remember? I may not have been able to see, but there were scents. Sounds. You never realize how alive a place is until you go somewhere... dead."

The whole world around us feels artificial.

"It's almost as if... the world itself is falling apart here." Toxis says sadly.

I can feel Bronze's hand work his way into my own. Shauna's does too, on the other side. I consider breaking both of their grips and getting out my Pokemon, but I have a feeling not even they could save us now.

In the middle of all the carnage stands a single weathered shrine. It looks nothing like the last building you'd expect to see standing after a nuclear holocaust. It's delicate. Fragile. Otherworldly.

"What do we do?" I ask, my voice like a hiss.

Bronze breaks my grip and approaches the shrine. He kneels before it quietly, as if in prayer, and says, "Ashley, if you're out there... we're coming home." His voice echoes endlessly over the dead land.

Home.

Home.

Home.

Trees ripple in and out of existence around us, narrowly dodging some of the party members. Wind blows in forest scent before leaving our nostrils empty. Far away, a bell chimes and then falls silent.

A bright green light shimmers overhead, descending onto the shrine like a beacon of hope.

"Briiii..."