Hey people! I am glad that in just two chapters of this people are greatly liking this story. This chapter marks the start of bigger hints of pearlshipping, not from Ash, he's too dense or at least he acts like he is dense (could change, read to find out). Anyways!

Read on! I don't own Pokemon (that rhymed!)

Tonio and Brock had arrived at the Pokemon Centre and were currently transferring Ash from their shoulders onto a stretcher. Nurse Joy had joined them in moving the stretcher, as the three of them moved Ash to a ward with Alice and Dawn behind them with Pikachu in Dawn's arms. Alberto had not bothered them after the incident, yet.

Nurse Joy instructed Tonio and Brock to gently lay Ash on the bed from the stretcher in the room they had arrived in. Dawn looked on in a frozen state, while her mind processed the data presented to it.

Alice glanced over to Dawn, clearly noticing the younger girl's distress and reassured her," Hey he's going to fine." Dawn looked to Alice and nodded, fear evident in her eyes.

Nurse Joy examined Ash with a stethoscope. She gave out a sigh of relief before turning to the others. "He has no external or internal injuries and by the looks of it, I would say that he was hit by a sleep-inducing attack." Nurse Joy explained his condition to the others.

Brock knowing that it was serious situation, had not tried any advances on Nurse Joy and asked her, "So when will he wake up?"

"Like I said, he is in induced sleep, so I don't know when he will wake up, could be right about now or a few days." Nurse joy said with a grave tone. Nurse Joy got a solemn nod in response as she left the room, to attend to other patients and pokemon.

Brock, up to his usual antics, left the room, probably to ask Nurse Joy out. Pikachu jumped out of Dawn's arms on to Ash's bed. Dawn too pulled a chair under her and sat beside Ash's bed.

Pikachu, using its small paws, tried to shake Ash to wake him up, but in vain. "Pikapi." he said as he looked at Ash's sleeping face as he climbed up on his chest. Dawn sat there silently just staring at the peaceful expression on Ash's face.

Meanwhile, Tonio, being the scientist he was, had been observing his surroundings in the room. He bent down to scrutinize the wooden floor. He found that the lines in the wood planks beneath his feet had been distorted as if displaced from their original position. "Huh, interesting. This is an incredible force, enough to actually warp space." Tonio said as he moved his finger over the lines.

Tonio stood and said rather abruptly," I have to look at more data!" which grabbed Dawn and Alice's attention who called out to him, as he left through the door, still muttering to himself.

Tonio took out Godey's diary from his pocket and started making his way out of the Pokemon Centre. He started theorizing to himself, "There's a strong possibility, the same thing has happened before. That must be it! Maybe there's something in Godey's diary." he said as he flipped through the book's pages.

Alice and Dawn looked at Tonio, while standing in the door, as Tonio, lost in his thoughts, collided with the wall in front of him and fell down. Alice smiled as she said subconsciously, "That is so him. Once he starts thinking something, that's that."

The two walked back inside."Ooh, looks like someone's got a crush!" Dawn nudged Alice as she teased her. "Oh yeah? At least I have admitted to it openly." Alice said referencing to their little moment in the garden, but then she gained a smirk on her face as she rebutted, "On the other hand, you Dawn, need to confess your feelings."

Dawn sat down on the chair where she was sitting before, signs of embarrassment clear on her face, tried to deny what Alice had said, "I-I don't know what you're talking about."

Alice too, pulled a chair beneath her as she sat opposite to Dawn and gave her a look that said, "Don't even try to deny it." Dawn just sighed and asked her, "Is it that obvious?"

Alice nodded and replied, "I saw the look on your face when Ash was hit by Darkrai's attack, you were also more worried than a normal person would be. It is practically written all over your face."

Dawn asked her in response, "Well if it so obvious to everyone, why hasn't he picked up on it?" she said gesturing to the boy in front of her.

Alice opened her mouth to answer her, but found nothing to tell her and closed her mouth. Dawn saw this and subconsciously clutched Ash's right hand.

All this time, Ash may have been unconscious in the real world, but he had been very much active in the dream world or rather his nightmare.

Ash slowly opened his eyes and blinked for a while, trying to get adjusted to the sudden bright light. It was like he had been asleep all this time.

He looked around to see that he was still in the same garden he had been in when Darkrai had attacked him. Nothing was out of place in the surroundings around him, except that it lacked life. No one was present.

"Huh?" Ash looked around to find his friends. "Pikachu, where are you?" Ash cried out, "Dawn, Brock, where are you guys?"l

He walked around in the lifeless garden, still searching for his friends, but in vain. Ash said to himself, "Oh man, what's going on?"

Suddenly, he saw a shadow of a pokemon heading towards him. The pokemon, as it came closer to him, he could make out its features, bipedal and tall. The pokemon itself couldn't be identified by him, even though he had travelled 3 regions and part of another region.

The pokemon looked like a dark hologram, with traces of black, purple and pink in it. It came within a foot's distance of Ash, but he didn't budge and held his ground. Then the pokemon roared and came with an inch's distance causing Ash to stumble back.

He looked back at the pokemon, having momentarily been disoriented, but saw that the pokemon had vanished.

He got back up and looked in the direction where he had seen the pokemon before. He saw there a pokemon, but not the one from before.

"Darkrai!" Ash exclaimed as he saw Darkrai floating on the ground in the distance. Then he realized what was happening and cried out in this realization, "Darkrai's doing this."

As if his instincts had taken over, Ash called out a pokemon, "All right, Turtwig, I choose you!" and threw Turtwig's pokeball in the air.

Instead of the Tiny Leaf pokemon appearing, the pokeball burnt up in the air with a blackish purple flame and vanished with no residue.

Ash gasped the pokeball seemingly was vaporized. He then turned his gaze back to Darkrai, but it too had vanished and its place had been taken by Pikachu.

"Pikachu!" Ash cried out as he ran towards his buddy, but to his horror, the ground below Pikachu turned to quicksand right before his eyes, as if it was a whirlpool of land was sucking Pikachu in.

"No, no! Pikachu!" Ash said as leapt towards Pikachu and held him tight as the both of them descended uncontrollably down a black hole. Before they just vanished in the darkness, Ash heard Dawn, "Ash!" but it happened too fast for him to comprehend anything.

"Pikaaa Chuuuu!" Pikachu cried out as it let out a thunderbolt at Ash who had been hugging him too tightly to breathe.

Hearing Pikachu's cry Dawn had too cried out in concern for Ash as he had taken the full brunt of the attack.

Ash woke up, still dazed by the attack, but then he saw Pikachu beside him and exclaimed, "Pikachu! You're okay!" and hugged him tight.

Dawn's joy too knew no bounds, and she knew that Pikachu too would be happy that Ash was back. Speaking of the pokemon, she looked at him and saw his predicament. "Ash, stop! Pikachu's suffocating!"

Ash then realized what he had been doing and apologized to his partner, "I am sorry Pikachu." Pikachu breathed in deeply and replied with a happy "Pikachu" implying that he too was happy that Ash had woken up.

Ash sat up on his bed and looked around seeing the three people present in the room, Dawn, Brock and Alice, and asked, "Where am I?"

Dawn replied to him, "The Pokemon Centre. Brock and Tonio carried you here after Darkrai put you to sleep. You tossed and turned in your bed with painful expressions. You were having such terrible nightmares, I was so scared."

Ash feeling guilty for making Dawn feel scared said to her, "I am sorry Dawn."

Brock continued explaining the situation, "Nurse Joy told me that creating bad dreams is Darkrai's special ability. If you ever fall asleep near or due to Darkrai, you'll have dark nightmares."

"You woke me up, didn't you buddy?" Ash asked Pikachu who replied cheerfully, "Pikachu."

Alice began, "Darkrai normally doesn't come out when people are around, so I don't think the townspeople are liking this one bit. Because of all those nightmares, even the other pokemon stay away from Darkrai."

"Well no one wants to have a nightmare, right?" Brock commented.

"If I ever come across that Darkrai again, I'll give him a battle, but good!" Ash said with a determined expression on his face.

"Wait." Alice interjected, "Remember, it was Baron Alberto who attacked Darkrai first."

Ash nodded realizing the situation. Brock then said, "Well then, Nurse Joy says you are ready to go, so get freshened up, and meet us outside."

After this Brock and Alice left the room. Dawn waited for them to completely leave the room, then said to Ash softly, "Ash, promise me you will not get into any trouble again."

Ash saw genuine concern in her eyes, but he knew he couldn't make such a promise to her, remembering his past encounters. He said to her, "Dawn, I can't promise you that bad things won't happen, it's just that when things go south, I just happen to be the north and well you know the rest."

Dawn had a worried expression on her face, but said, "Just-just be careful, okay?"

Ash nodded to her and Dawn left the room. Ash made his way out of the bed and thought to himself, "Murkrow's law comes into play here, if there are two or more ways to do something, and one of those ways can result in a catastrophe, then someone will do it. I can't stop bad things from happening, but what I can do is keep them safe. Keep her safe."

Well guys chapter 3 comes to an end here. BTW Murphy's law in pokemon world had to have something with the prefix of "Mur-" so I said why not and used Murkrow's law. Tell me how it was, did you like it, have any suggestions, or errors you would like me to correct, tell me all about it in the reviews.

Anonymous Trainer,

Over and Out.