"Sylvia, wake up," I heard someone whispering in my ear.

My eyes peeled open to see Rudi kneeling beside the bed I was on. His head was propped up on one of his hands as he looked at me. There was a small smile on his face as he looked at me.

I'd admit, seeing Rudi's face wasn't something I had expected. Rudi was supposed to be dead. However, over the last few hours, I had learned that wasn't exactly true. He might have died, but he was also taken from us and was kept here for some reason. At first, it seemed impossible to figure out why Rudi was taken. While Rudi was a superhero, he didn't have any sort of power or knowledge that would've made him useful to any sort of criminal.

At least, that was what we had both thought until recently. After I had been beaten by Gallade, Rudi had discovered that he had the power to heal. How he could, he wasn't sure. I wasn't sure either, but we decided that it was best not to test it.

The only thing on his mind was that I got better. That meant I had to take a nap for once. I don't ever remember giving as I claimed I wasn't tired and didn't need rest when we had other things to worry about. Somehow, Rudi managed to persuade me. Either that or my body betrayed me.

"How long was I out?" I asked, as I turned to my side and pushed myself up into a seated position. The aches and pains I had felt earlier—however long ago that was—had almost disappeared completely. Every once in a while I'd feel my arm twitch or feel the pain shoot down my leg, but it didn't feel as if I had just been through a fight.

"Honestly, I don't know. Draven came to check on us a few times, so I would guess a few hours. Maybe eight or nine," Rudi guessed.

I snapped my head towards him. "And you didn't try and warn me or got any sleep yourself?" I asked.

Rudi shook his head. "They thought you were still healing, otherwise they would've taken you away. At least, I think that's what would've happened. I'm not honestly sure. And I did fall asleep, but every time that door would open, I'd wake up."

"Then why wake me up now?" I asked.

Rudi pushed himself off the floor and walked away towards the small desk. I stretched my arms up in the air, feeling the nice stretch in my back. Lethe was right; I did need to take it easy for once. Sleeping for however long I did was definitely needed.

If only I wasn't here...if only Rudi wasn't trapped in here, things would've been a bit better.

"Plu?"

The small voice took me by surprise. My eyes shot open as I leaned over my legs and looked away from where Rudi was at. At first, I thought my ears were deceiving me, knowing there was no way anything could've gotten in here. Somehow, I was wrong.

Sitting on the other side of the bed was a little bipedal Pokémon that was mostly cream colored. Her red ears had poked straight up in the air. They matched her small red cheeks that had a tiny plus sign on them. It was those plus signs that gave the Pokémon her name.

I blinked a few times, not convinced I was seeing what was in front of my eyes. The little Pokémon on the other bed must've realized this as she lowered her arms to the bed and crawled towards me. Her head nudged the hand closest to her until I finally lifted it up and placed it between her two ears.

"Plusle," I whispered.

"Seems like you know him pretty well," Rudi noticed.

"She," I corrected as I felt the bed shift beside me. I didn't look away from Plusle as I continued to scratch her head. At least she was able to free herself this time. Knowing that, I felt a bit relieved. "She was a Pokémon I saved in Hoenn."

Even though I didn't see Rudi, I could feel him smile. "See, you're not a bad person."

My lips curled down. I closed my eyes, still refusing to look him in the eye. "Rudi, Plusle was the only Pokémon I could save that day. The rest...they died in a forest fire that I helped Team Miasma with."

Rudi was quiet for a moment, probably not expecting for me to say that. It was true. The only reason Plusle was on my team was because she was the only Pokémon I could save. Even then, it wasn't by much.

To think I was supposed to be her Trainer. I was supposed to protect her. Despite that, she still had to endure the horror of being tortured by Team Miasma.

I opened my eyes to look at her. Plusle smiled up at me before she grabbed my hand that was on her head and lowered it down to the bed. I watched as the little Pokémon used my arm as a ramp, climbing up until she was sitting on my shoulder. She nudged her head, and pointed towards Rudi, not saying a word.

"Plusle seems relieved that you're okay," Rudi awkwardly said. "Anyways, she just got in here not too long ago, bringing this with her."

I turned my head, seeing a pile of papers sitting on Rudi's lap. He slid them over towards me so I could have a look at them. Each piece of paper had handwriting on it that was worse than Rena's Torchic-scratch one, but it was still legible.

The more I looked at them, the more I realized that these were all journal entries. The first dating over thirty years ago.

12/12/XX

It worked. The experiment on Subject 13 worked. He can turn into Pokémon at will. While he doesn't know I am around, I will continue to watch his every move. He travels with two other Trainers: a girl with dark black hair and a boy with brown hair. Like him, the girl is a Trainer, hoping to win the league. My hope is that they don't get too strong. If they do, this whole operation will be for nothing.

3/24/XX

Subject 13 can turn into bigger Pokémon now. The tallest being a two foot Tranquil. While this isn't much, it is a bit more of an improvement than before, where he could only turn into baby Pokémon. It worries me though as he runs around with three other Trainers, two of which act as superheroes alongside him. If this keeps up much longer, I am going to have to intervene.

On the next page, there was a huge time difference. Either there were no notes after that, or Plusle didn't get them. It didn't matter either way, as I was trying to figure out who the people in these entries were. A girl with black hair. A boy with brown hair. A boy who could turn into Pokémon. It seemed as if this was all coming out of some weird sci-fi movie.

That aside, I had a horrible feeling I knew who those Trainers were, especially if they were superheroes at one point.

4/31/XX

For years I have lost Subject 13. While Subject 13 has been proven a failure, success for my goals may still be in reach. I had successfully exterminated the Grays, so they will no longer be of trouble. Before then, Subject 13 had a boy. Even though Subject 13 no longer possesses powers due to that incident, I can hypothesize that the boy will have some sort of mutation based on the power Subject 13 had. As long as the boy has the ability to control Pokémon, or even heal them, my goal will still be in reach.

Subject 13 did have a daughter; however, the chances of her having powers is at a 5.23%. The genetic coding that went into Subject 13 is one that can only be carried by the Y chromosome. Still, my research can have a 10% margin of error. If there is, then the girl could has a slight chance of possessing some sort of power. It is just unlikely compared to the boy. Regardless, I will keep an eye out on both of them.

There was more to that entry, but I couldn't read on. I didn't want to read on.

This man killed my parents. No. Mom was able to make it out with Lethe without anyone knowing. Lethe made that very clear. From what he told me, she was on the run from someone. I should have guessed from then it would've been whoever killed our dad, but it didn't once come across my mind.

And that man was here.

"I'm sorry," Rudi apologized as a tear had dropped onto the pages, smearing some of the words on the page. I didn't realize how much I was fighting them until the back of my hand wiped them away.

"It's not your fault," I told him, as I shoved the documents towards him. "I just—it's just hard to believe that this man killed my dad. From what Lethe told me, Mom and him had to live off the grid because of him."

Rudi took his hand and started to rub my back. He didn't say a word. There was nothing he could say. Even Plusle was thrown off by all this as I could feel her shift on my shoulders, sitting down before she laid her head next to mine.

"Tell me what else was on there," I asked once I had dried my own tears. My hands dropped to my lap, curling up into fists. "We need to know what we're up against."

"Are you sure about—"

"Rudi, stop. We need to keep going or else we are never going to get out of here. Tell me what else is in there," I demanded as my eyes squeezed shut.

Whatever Rudi had to say in those documents, I had to be ready.

"Okay, I'll make it brief. This guy had been following our movements, and figured out that I could probably heal like he had guessed after that incident with Team Miasma. You know, the one where I went to Opelucid by myself, forcing you to deal with Team Miasma in Driftveil?" Rudi explained.

I nodded my head. I remembered that day very clearly. It was the one day I had taken a break from being Swanna Girl. While I did, Rudi still tried to help out by being Braviary Man. He got himself pretty banged up that day, and came back in pretty rough shape. It should've taken him weeks to recover, but it only took him three days.

Three days. How did we not realize that before? That should've caused a red flag when it happened, so why didn't it? There was no way a normal person could have been able to heal themself in three days.

Oh. My lips pressed together as I remembered the two reasons why I had forgotten. The first being that I had gotten myself injured by the time he was better. It wasn't that I twisted an ankle or something either. I had stepped into one of Team Miasma's Toxic spikes, causing the poison to go into my system and mess with me.

If that wasn't enough, there was another thing that had distracted me from thinking about Rudi's weird miraculous recovery. That same day he came back, Rena warned me to be more careful, to stay away from Rudi. She was afraid I was going to end up being like his ex. I honestly didn't blame her knowing how horrible Gila was.

Rudi continued to explain what he had found. "I never really had the excuse to use my powers unknowingly after that, so he helped Team Oblivion move their plans a bit quicker. He must've known we'd get involved in it, and he wanted to see someone I cared about get hurt so that I could use that power. He didn't anticipate that I would be the one taking the fall."

"So, if that's the case, then how did you come back?" I asked.

"They took my body when no one was looking and replaced it with another corpse that looked similar to mine. Everyone was in shock that they couldn't tell the difference. Because I took the fall for you, they knew you would be the back-up plan if I couldn't use it," Rudi said.

"So how did they get you back?" I asked again.

For a moment, Rudi didn't answer. Curiosity was eating me alive. I opened my eyes to look at him, but instead, I found a piece of paper sitting on my lap.

7/2/XX

We finally did it! I was finally able to bring Subject 14 back to life! I cannot believe I didn't think about it sooner. Since Subject 14 was killed by Yveltal, the only thing to bring him back was by a fragment of a Xerneas' antler. With Subject's healing abilities, he was able to be brought back, otherwise this wouldn't have worked.

I can almost taste the sweet victory. The only thing needed now is Giratina. I've overheard rumors where the infamous Team Miasma is looking for it. Things will be so much easier if they did the dirty work in finding it because then, all I have to do is take it from them. That won't be hard. Once again, I can have my assistant do the hard work. However he does it, I'm not concerned. All that matters is that we get this job finished and soon because we are running out of time.

I'm running out of time.

"When I woke up," Rudi said when I turned to see what was behind the paper, "I was here, not sure how I got here. The last thing I remembered was Castelia City. It just doesn't make sense how he got a hold of one. Don't Xerneas live in Kalos?"

At first I didn't answer, as this all sounded familiar. It didn't take long to realize why. The Lunar Wing I needed to get Swanna out of his Poké Ball, and any Lunar Wing I had found, or needed after that, were all because they were here in Unova. I remembered what Blair told me, especially since she was a part of them.

"Yes, but there is a group of people called the Legendary Guardians here in Unova," I told Rudi. "I just learned about them not too long ago. Long story short, each person in that group has to protect a rare item, whether it's Lunar Wing, or in this case, a Xerneas fragment."

Rudi didn't say anything after that, but I had a bad feeling I knew what happened to that Legendary Guardian, whoever that person was. After all, these people killed Lantana. I wouldn't put it past them killing anyone, especially when I remembered the fear that Blair had when she told Rena and I about it.

This was why they had to protect this item with their life. Something that seemed pretty harmless could create a lot of pain if in the wrong hands. It made me feel guilty, knowing that I was looking for Lunar Wings to save my own Pokémon; however, that was because someone had to invent something that would take their lives away.

It was then I remembered Audino still needed a Lunar Wing, one of which was here. I needed to find that feather to make sure he was going to do okay, but it was impossible when Rudi and I were trapped here. Who knew how long I had been here anyways. For all I knew, it could have already been too late.

"Plu Plu?"

I turned my head, to look at Plusle, giving her a reassuring smile. "I'm fine. We'll get him back, no worries. I just need to find that Lunar Wing."

Plusle nodded her head, but she didn't look convinced. I didn't blame her. Time after time, she had been forced to endure something she didn't deserve.

Wait...

"How did Plusle get here?" I asked, looking back at Rudi. "You said she came in with those papers, right?" I looked back at Plusle, as I started to realize something. "Did you sneak out of there all by yourself?"

Once again, Plusle nodded her head before she leapt off my shoulder and landed on my lap. She looked around for a moment before she jumped once again, landing on the floor in front of me. I stood up, looking around the room, trying to find a small crack in the wall or something she would have slipped through. There was nothing.

Something nudged against my legs. I looked down, finding Plusle tugging on my pant leg until she realized I had looked down at her. Her arms fell away from my legs as she started pointing towards the bed. It confused me.

"There's a trap door underneath the bed," Rudi explained. "I didn't realize it was there until she came in."

I knelt down beside Plusle and looked under there. Surely enough, under the bed, was a small trap door that was opened. While it was small, it looked big enough for us to slip through one at a time. After all, it was just a hole in the floor with the flap flung open.

"Rudi, we can get out," I realized, looking up at him. "We can sneak out of here, find our Pokémon, and stop these people for once."

While this should have been good news, Rudi turned his head away from me. I was confused. It didn't make sense. That was why Rudi woke me up, wasn't it? He wanted me to wake up so that we could leave before Draven or Mr. Rogue came back.

That shimmer of hope faded away the moment Rudi rubbed one of his hands on his wrist, just above one of the shackles that kept him trapped in here. It was then that I realized the problem here. There was no way Rudi would be able to escape.

His hand brushed over my cheek, making me realize I was looking down. He leaned over his legs so that his face was close to mine. With his face so close, I could see every detail of his navy blue eyes. They were dark for the most part, but there were flecks of light blue in there. Even though I could see every ounce of sadness holding back in them, I could also see a fleck of hope.

"You can get out of here. I'll think of something to buy you more time. Find Braviary and Swanna, and whomever else you brought with you. We can't do this alone, but I know you'll be able to make it," Rudi said.

"I'm coming back for you," I promised.

Rudi smiled. "I count on it, so I can do this."

He closed his eyes as he leaned in, pressing his lips onto mine. My lips melted into the kiss, feeling the soft, gentle touch of his lips. I missed it. For months, I thought I would never experience his kiss ever again, but yet here we were, holding each other in a tight embrace.

I wanted more of it, but Rudi quickly pulled away, giving me a small smile, one that promised that when this was all over, we could finish that thought. Part of me wanted to go back, so I could hold him and continue, but I felt something pull the back of my shirt. When I looked back, I saw Plusle standing there.

She knew it was time to go, so I slipped off the bed and looked under it, seeing the trap door Rudi mentioned earlier. It was open. Plusle crawled to it and quickly jumped inside, disappearing the moment she dropped. I looked back at Rudi, who was no longer looking at me, but was keeping an eye on the door.

"Promise me you'll stay safe," I told him.

Rudi looked down and nodded his head. "Just go so they don't hurt you. I'll be fine."

While I had a gut feeling that wasn't necessarily true, I nodded my head before I crawled under the bed and dropped through the trap door not knowing what I was about to witness on the other side.

Author's Note:

Hi everyone! SGBM3 will be on another short break as these next couple of chapters needs some serious editing. Goal is to have them up by the end of July.

In the meantime, Plusle is back! Since Plusle is from the Hoenn Region, I want to know what is your favorite gen 3 Pokémon?

Okay, until next time, take care!