There's a light in the distance. I can see it on the horizon, beckoning me ever closer, and I run towards it as quickly as I can.

As I near it, I can see that the light seems to be coming from some type of Pokemon. It shines bright green, much like sunlight filtered through leaves in a forest. The glow about it is oddly reassuring. It makes me feel warm and safe without giving off any sort of heat. As I take another step to stand directly below it, I hear a joyful call. "Biiiii-"

"Celebi." I whisper.

The legendary takes off again, and I race after it only to fall down the side of a cliff. When I stand up again, I'm on a field of tall grasses, unable to see anything.

"You sure this is the place?" asks a voice that I've heard far too much of from the past day. Lysandre is speaking from beyond the grave... no. This can't Lysandre we met. It sounds younger. Happier. He can't be older than twelve.

"Absolutely." Diantha. She sounds far more confident and far less resigned than her current self. Still, there's that icy isolation that surrounds her tone, even now.

"If you say so." Lysandre says. "Alright, now..." he pulls away the grass and races past me. I follow, my feet far stubbier than usual. Something about every movement I make is stiffer than usual, but I ignore it, curious to see where they're going.

Following them, we come to a clearing. Around us is an area of shorter grasses, with a single flower popping out of the earth. The Fleur de la Mort waves in the wind like an old friend waving goodbye.

Shauna, I think.

Lysandre runs to pick it up. He carefully plucks the stem and lays the flower in Diantha's hand. "My lady."

"My knight." she replies.

He takes the flower and then places it behind her ear. "That's much better."

She doesn't even blink. "Really?"

"Sure. You look beautiful?"

"Do I?"

"Like a princess."

"No. The princess always gets saved in the end." She turns away. "I want to save people, not the other way around."

"Well... then you can become a queen. Not an evil queen, a queen who rules over her kingdom with grace and dignity, and everyone else looks up to her. I'll still be your knight, right?"

She doesn't answer.

He reaches a hand out and she turns back around. There are tears in her eyes.

"I c-can't..."

"You can't what?"

"I can't keep lying to myself anymore." she says.

Lysandre suddenly goes stoic. His body freezes as if possessed... or... paused?

He faces me with contempt, and his voice is his adult voice when he speaks, "Our treasure is in the woods."

Both of them are gone. I walk back into the tall grasses, into the woods, and there in a clearing with green light filtering through the trees is a small grave.

A child is buried there. I think, and fear rises within me. However, I'm not alone.

Celebi descends behind me. "This was the only ending when you interfered."

"What if we didn't?" I ask. My voice is unfamiliar even to myself.

She takes my hand, and I look back out towards the fields, which have been replaced by barren land. The corpses of dozens of people lie on the ground, expressionless, and the sky is the endless black I recognize as the unnatural color of glitched data.

"He wins." Celebi sighs. "Well, not quite. There is still one thing you have left to do. Your companions have received the same message."

"What message?" I ask.

"It's time to go home." Celebi tells me.

I realize what's different in a split second. Turning about, I see a pool of water and my own face. I'm an Ampharos again. I look just like my sister, or what I can remember of her, anyways. Something about this doesn't feel completely right.

"All of us?" I ask.

"You need to come back home. For m- Ashley. For Ashley."

"You were about to say 'for me'." I point out.

"Was I?" Celebi looks bewildered and slightly guilty.
"Yes!"

"We both need you. You were not meant to be here. This was an act of desperation."

"Otherwise, Kalos would have died." I say. "Surely, that's not the right answer.

Celebi gestures in exasperation. "No, no! Since you existed, you had to interfere! Since you interfered, you have to finish the cycle!"

"You're not making any sense!"

Celebi opens its mouth and closes it. "No. I'm not. I am very sorry. I shouldn't even be in your dreams. Meet me in Illex and I'll explain everything." It snaps its fingers and everything goes black.

***

I wake up with tears in my eyes, unaware of how they got there. Bronze sits bolt upright beside me, clutching his chest. "Holy sh-"
"You too?" I ask.

He nods before falling back onto his bed. "I dreamed I was with Ashley. Then... then she died, and Celebi said..."

"Illex Forest."

I hear groans echoing down the hallway. We're not the only ones awake. I slip into the next bedroom, Bronze gripping my hand like a drowning man, and slide into Shika's room. She follows us into Sky and Khrys's room, and all of us go to the next room together, until we all end up in Chomper's room, placing far too much weight on even the luxurious king sized bed.
"It was real." Shika says incredulously. "All of you had the same dream?"

Toxis yawns. "Same ending. Different dreams."

"Point is, Celebi interfered in all of ours. Now how the hell do we get to Illex Forest? I'm pretty sure they don't book flights to regions that no longer exist." Ferro says a little too loudly.

"We could get a plane." Khrys says. "I could fly us to Johto."

"Why don't we discuss this in the morning? I think ya may be a bit tired, Khrys." Millie says.

"I'm not kidding. I work as a pilot. Being a flying type, it came pretty naturally." he insists.

Sky yawns, leaning against him. "He's the best pilot."

"Alright, that's settled." I say. "Anyways, I don't want to discuss it this early."

There's a murmur of agreement across the room.

"So... can you get off my bed now?" Chompers says, and we all file out slowly.

I open the door and Bronze enters, and we all collectively go back to our rooms and lay in bed until the sun comes up.