A/N: Hey look, an update a reasonable amount of time after the last one! This update's a little weird, though: because of the events of the cliffhanger last chapter - which may not have been clear, but don't worry, because it's fairly obvious and will be explained momentarily, depending on how fast you read - this chapter will be split between Evey's POV and a third person perspective focusing on Jack. I'll mark the transitions pretty clearly, but do watch for those changes so you don't get too confused and review me with silly questions (not that I mind silly questions or reviews, mind you :).

So, with little further ado, the chapter!

Disclaimer: I asked my cat if I owned Nintendo or Harry Potter, and she just gave me a condescending glare. I think she secretly owns them, but either way, they're not mine.

Chapter 20

Jack's POV (3rd person)

Jack returned to the Pokémon Center when it was dark enough outside that he could barely see Tropius anymore, and not a moment sooner. He headed into the room he had rented earlier to get to bed - even he got tired sometimes, although the insomnia still often did a number on his sleep cycles - to find Sydney and the rest of Evey's Pokémon panicking.

"What happened?" he demanded, confused and irritated.

Sydney squawked something at him and, not for the first time, he cursed at not being able to understand Pokémon. If only Evey were around...

"Where's Evey?!"

Sydney nodded and took off out of the room. Jack stared after her for a moment before following with the rest of the Pokémon.

"I don't get it, but I'll come along anyway," he muttered.

Evey's POV (first person)

I blinked my eyes open and shut them again as a bright light stabbed them.

"She's awake!" yelled a voice from beside me. All of a sudden, I felt my shoulders grabbed by big hands, and I was pulled roughly to my feet.

I rolled my eyes under their lids and cracked them open again. When they were used to the light, I opened them fully and glanced around at my surroundings.

I was in a chilly, wet cave. I wasn't really sure where, or how long I had been out, but judging by how wet my jeans were, I'd been in the cave for a while. I amended that when I realized I was standing in a rather wide but shallow puddle - I had no idea at all how long I'd been out.

Evidently, I'd been Stunned on the beach and captured by... someone. I glanced at the man whose hands still held my shoulders in a vice grip. He was wearing a white, skull-like mask and a black cloak. Ah. Death Eaters.

"Great," I muttered through my teeth.

Then, more cloaked figures came in through the cave entrance. "And here's the rest of the Moron Brigade," I snarked, hiding my terror. If I was in Death Eater custody, I probably didn't have long to live.

" I wouldn't be so sarcastic in your position," the front Death Eater, apparently Lucius Malfoy, advised. "It will only make things worse for you."

"I don't think things can really get much worse, can they?" I replied, fighting desperately to keep my voice casual, and failing at least a little. "Way I see it, I'm already dead meat."

"Your life is indeed forfeit, but not just yet. The Dark Lord wants to make an example of you, to show the rabble what happens to those who try to escape."

"But?"

He scowled at me. "But nothing. You will be made example of."

"As soon as we get back to the Ministry," rumbled the Death Eater behind me, "you're dead."

I almost rolled my eyes. "He just said that, you know."

My smart mouth got me a heavy blow to the head and a Silencing Spell.

Jack's POV (third person)

Jack followed Sydney out of the Pokémon Center, past Nurse Joy, who complained something about curfew to his back, past the town gate and onto the white beach where the group had walked the day before. Sydney darted past the footprint reader's house to a relatively innocuous spot beside a bush.

"What an I supposed to be looking at?" he asked rhetorically as Sydney circled around the bush in obvious panic. Evey's other Pokémon came forward, sniffing at the spot. Trace and Alec sat on their haunches and began to howl, while Adrian stared sadly at the drag marks Jack now noticed in the sand beside the bush, and Inuise wrapped herself around the Riolu in comfort.

'Where's Mama?' Jack suddenly heard in his head. He started back, looking around wildly.

"Who said that?" He looked at the Pokémon in confusion. Evey's group were looking at Adrian with similar shock on their faces.

'Jacky? Where's Mama?'

Jack's face became blank in his confusion. "Oh. It's Adrian. How's he doing that?" he asked no one in particular.

Adrian tugged at his jean leg. 'Where's Mama?'

Jack crouched down to be closer to Adrian's size. "We don't know. But we're gonna find her, don't worry. I promise."

Sydney landed in front of Adrian and chirped something that sounded reassuring. Inuise raised her head and said something as well, and Jack felt a wave of calm reassurance wash over him. They could find Evey.

"Trace, Alec, can you follow her scent?" Jack asked, falling into the role of leader. Trace glanced at him and sniffed around the bush. She barked something at Alec, and he cut out the howling and joined her. They chattered between themselves for a moment, then Trace let out a loud bay and plunged into the bush.

"Are you kidding me," Jack muttered, scooping up Adrian and following her.

Evey's POV (first person)

I watched with a silent scowl as the Death Eaters conferred on the other side of the cave, making preparations to return to our world - only they didn't seem to realize that we were in a totally different universe, as I heard some of them mention Apparition. They didn't bother to keep their voices down much. They probably figures that they didn't have to worry about me spilling their plans to anyone, since they were leaving anyway, and dead men tell no tales besides that.

From what I could gather, they figured that they might have to do International Apparition to get home. I hadn't heard much about Apparition before, since we didn't actually study it until sixth year, but I gathered that Apparating over long distances was difficult and dangerous and required a lot of willpower and preparation. I also gathered that Malfoy planned to take me by Side-Along Apparition himself, because he didn't trust the others not to splinch themselves. Knowing the average intelligence of most Death Eaters wasn't that great, I almost didn't blame him for his mistrust.

Finally, they were prepared. Malfoy stalked over and grabbed my arm. Without a word, he turned on the spot... and nothing happened.

He tried again, but again, nothing happened. We remained standing in the middle of the cave, as did the rest of the Death Eaters.

"Why is it not working?" Malfoy demanded of the cave in general. He rounded on a skinny, short figure. "Why have we not gone anywhere?"

The man tried to stammer out an answer, but Malfoy didnt wait to hear it. He released my arm and turned, vanishing with a crack, and reappeared with a similar crack on the opposite side of the cave.

"So why can we not Apparate to the Ministry?!" he snarled. He raised his wand and pointed it at a larger Death Eater. "Answer me! Crucio!"

The man fell to the ground, writhing and screaming in pain. The other Death Eaters watched for a few minutes until Malfoy released the man from the curse.

Malfoy rounded on me. "You must know. Why can we not Apparate away from here?" With a vacant flick of his wand, he removed the Silencing Spell on me. I remained silent.

He nearly screamed in rage. "Crucio!"

Immediately, the worst pain I had ever felt dominated my senses. I screamed and probably fell to the floor of the cave, but I wasn't aware of it. I couldn't feel anything past the burning, tearing, stabbing pain.

It felt like years passed before Malfoy removed the curse. I lay in the puddle on the cave floor panting heavily. My cheeks felt wet, and I realized I had been crying.

"Tell me why we can't Apparate!" Malfoy demanded. He raised his wand above me again and I broke.

"Okay, okay, I'll tell you!" I said, my voice cracking. "Please." I looked up at him. "This isn't just a different country. It's a totally different world. You can't Apparate back to England because England doesn't exist here."

The Death Eaters generally exploded into angry yells. "Lies!" Malfoy yelled at me. "Crucio!"

I found myself in pain again, screaming. "I'm telling the truth!" I forced out. "It's a different world! You can't get home that way!"

With a snarl, he released me from the curse and turned to the other Death Eaters. "Make a fire! We can use the Floo Network!"

"It won't work," I muttered into the puddle. "Why don't they just believe it?"

Jack's POV (third person)

The group tramped through the thick, muddy bush for at least ten minutes before they reached the shore of a lake. Trace pointed across it to a small rock island. Jack squinted at it and noticed an opening in the rock that was lit up.

"So she's in there. But how did she get over the lake?" He went over to the shore and bent to fell the water. "Freezing. So she couldn't have swam... So someone brought her over." He studied the island harder and saw, at the edge, a rather large rowboat.

He rolled his eyes. "Of course it's over there."

He shrugged off Evey's bag and reached inside it, rooting around for their Poké balls. He returned Spitfire and Ace, since they would be of little help at the moment, and went to do the same to Alec, Trace and Adrian, but the former two glared at him and Adrian started to cry.

'No! Don't wanna go in ball! Wanna help Mama!'

Clearly, Alec and Trace felt the same way. Jack rolled his eyes.

"Fine. You can stay out then. But as soon as we get to the island, we're making a plan, and you're returning if you're not part of it."

Without waiting for an answer, Jack released Tropius. "Evey's on that island over there. Can you fly us over?"

Tropius gave an affirmative grunt and bent to the ground so the group could get on. With everyone settled in, she took off over the lake.

Jack reached back into the bag to put the Poké balls away, and his fingers found a long piece of wood. Pulling it out, he realized it was Evey's wand.

"I hope she's alright."

Evey's POV (first person)

I watched as the Death Eaters built up a massive bonfire away from the cave entrance. Since there was no wood, it was just a magical fire and it didn't give off any smoke. One of the Death Eaters expressed doubts as to its ability to work with the Floo Network, but apparently Death Eaters could Floo with any fire that they built as long as they identified themselves with their wands as they said their destination.

It only took a few minutes to build up the fire. Once it was ready, a stocky Death Eater was pushed in front of it and given some Floo Powder.

He tossed it into the flames. They roared up green, and he drew his wand and stepped in. "Ministry of Magic!" He cried.

He didn't move. He stood there stupidly, staring at the flames, until they started to burn down to red again and caught his robes on fire. With a startled yelp, he leapt out of the bonfire and extinguished his cloak.

"Nothing happened!" one of them yelled.

"We're trapped here!" another panicked. "We'll never get home!"

This pronunciation made most of the rest begin to yell and plead incoherently. Disinterested, I looked around the cave again. Something moving in the darkness caught my eye. There was someone outside!

Relief made its way into my throat, but I clamped down on my reaction. There was no guarantee that the person outside was on my side. For all I knew, it was another Death Eater.

I was paying so much attention to the door that I didn't hear the Death Eater behind me. "Crucio!"

Jack's POV (third person)

Jack watched through the cave entrance as the cloaked figures argued over a fire that was burning unnaturally brightly, and a lone black-blue-and-green-striped figure lay in a puddle nearby. As he watched, one of the group in black cloaks and skull masks came up behind Evey and pointed its wand at her. "Crucio!"

As he watched her scream and writhe in the water, Jack felt sick. He turned away, to the group of their Pokémon arranged on the rocky shore. "Okay, here's what we'll do," he said, trying to hide the anger in his voice. "We need to distract or incapacitate the cloaks. I'd suggest fog, but there's not enough water in there to use that tactic." He turned to Reaper and Tricks. Can you two use Hypnosis on them? Like, a widespread one, knock all of them out at once."

The two Ghost-types conferred for a moment, then Haunter kind of shook his hand back and forth.

"So only a few at once, then. Okay. Then we'll need something else too." He reached into the bag again and pulled out Evey's Pokédex to check Tropius' moves. "No Sleep Powder or anything. That's a little less than convenient. So what can we do instead..." He noticed Ruby and Sydney staring over his shoulder with wide eyes. "What is it, guys?"

He turned around to see a Gyarados at his eye level, glaring at him, as Gyarados tend to do. The sea monster growled something at him.

Adrian tugged at Jack's jeans. 'Gyarados wants to know if you with the cloaky guys. He wants them outta the cave. The cave is important, and humans aren't supposed to be in there.'

"No," Jack addressed Gyarados. "My friend's in there. The guys in cloaks kidnapped her and I want her safe."

Gyarados growled again. 'She help you get your friend from the cloaky guys if you get the cloaky guys away.'

Jack gave Adrian a sidelong glance. "She?" He shrugged. "Alright then. Let's get rid of some cloaked jerks."

Evey's POV (first person)

I writhed under the Cruciatus for what seemed like hours again. When the curse was removed, the Death Eater kicked me viciously in the side and left to join the angry, confused huddle on the other side of the cave. I rolled my eyes and rolled over in the puddle, still feeling the memory of the Cruciatus Curse in my protesting nerves.

I turned to look at the door again and spotted a pair of small, dark figures float through it.

"Reaper? Tricks?" I muttered into the water. The bigger shape waved a little before the pair floated towards the Death Eaters on the sides of the cave, away from the main huddle. The Death Eaters each of the pair approached dropped to the ground.

They didn't stay unnoticed for long, though. Some of the other Death Eaters spotted Reaper and Tricks dropping their fellows and drew their wands, pointing them at the Ghost-types.

Then, all hell broke loose.

Jack's POV (third person)

He clung to the Gyarados' neck frill as she prepared to break through the cave wall.

"On three," he murmured. "One... Three!"

With a roar, Gyarados reared back and flung herself at the rock wall. The rock cracked, visible lines spiderwebbing the hard stone. She reared again and smashed the wall harder, breaking small pebbles off.

With an irritated roar, she smashed her whole body into the wall, finally breaking it. Her momentum carried her through the wall into the cave proper, scattering the cloaked crowd. Jack whooped in glee and hopped down from Gyarados' back, beckoning to the other Pokémon outside. The strike team, which consisted of Ruby, Sydney, Alec, Ace, Trace, and Tropius, thundered through into the cave proper.

"Start taking down the cloaks! I'll get Evey!" Jack called to them. All the Pokémon but Sydney immediately began harassing the cloaked figures with various attacks; Sydney flapped around trying to find Evey.

Evey was in trouble. A cloaked figure whose mask had slipped off to reveal a man with silvery-blond hair and sharp features was standing over her and apparently threatening her with his wand.

Jack was across the cave. He started to dash over to rescue her, but he knew he couldn't reach her before the man used a spell.

He prayed that something would stop him before Evey died.

Evey's POV (first person)

After the wall crumpled and Gyarados charged in, the Death Eaters panicked. A number of them raised their wands and tried to fight; others Apparated away before anything happened.

I tried to get up and run out of the cave, but I was immobilized by a Leg-Locker curse.

"You're not getting away," Malfoy told me casually, standing over me with his wand drawn. "I worked too hard to find you to have you slip away."

"You can't get me back to England," I taunted. "Voldy will never see me alive. You can't make an example out of someone who disappeared."

"No, I can't get you back to England. But I can kill you. Avad-"

Before he could get more than the first syllable of the Kilimg Curse out, he was hit from the side by a white-and-green feathery projectile. "Oh no! Whatever you were going to do is not gonna happen while I'm around!"

"Sydney!" I cried.

Malfoy got up and glared daggers at Sydney, who was now hovering above me. "Little pest," he snarled. "Stupefy!"

Sydney dodged the red jet and flew at him again, landing a solid hit on his chest. He stumbled back a step. Sydney dodged back and sent a jet of water at him, which missed by an inch as he dodged.

"Impedimenta!" There was nothing for Sydney to dodge. She suddenly dropped to the ground, unable to flap her wings.

He stood over us again, a triumphant smirk on his face. He pointed his wand at me again.

Once again, he was interrupted in whatever he was trying to do by an impact. This time, it was Jack slamming into his back and knocking him flying and sending his wand flying out of his hand.

With that, the curses on Sydney and me were lifted. I stood and went to Jack's side, where he was glaring at Malfoy's prone form with enough heat to melt steel.

"Bastard," Jack snarled, kicking him in the side. "How - dare - you - threaten - my - girlfriend!" He punctuated each word with a kick aimed at various parts of Malfoy's anatomy. One solid blow to the head knocked the blond senseless.

I couldn't blame him and didn't feel like stopping him, so instead I rooted around in my bag for my wand. I found it and drew it out with relish.

"Incarcerous," I said, waving my wand over Malfoy casually. Ropes sprouted from midair and trussed up his wrists and ankles.

"Handy," Jack commented.

"Yeah. Supposed to do the whole body, but I'm not great at it."

"Hog-tying him's probably fine."

"Guess so, yeah." I regarded Malfoy for another minute, trying to think of something else I could do to him to get revenge. "Oh, I know. Furnunculus!"

Big, ugly, red boils began to pop up on Malfoy's face. I left it at about seven, then stopped the curse's progress and looked up.

The cave was mostly empty but for the Pokémon. The Death Eaters apparently got away.

Jack, apparently figuring out what I was thinking, assured me, "They didn't get away without some damage. We'll leave immediately, so they can't find you here again."

"Where will we go?" I asked. "There's only so many places we can go."

"Maybe Jubilife, for a while. Or just head up to Celestic, keep on going for the badges."

"I dunno." I just felt tired. I needed a rest, and possibly some time to break down, but that could come later.

I turned to check on Sydney. "Are you okay?"

She had hopped to her feet and was watching Jack and me. She shook out her feathers. "I'm great! I feel really pumped!"

She started to flap up into the air, but dropped back to the ground when she suddenly started to glow a bright white.

I think it stunned her enough that she didn't protest to evolution this time, because when the light faded, she was bigger, with a massive beak and longer, wider wings.

She shook out her new feathers and flapped up to my head and settled there as usual. Unfortunately, her new form was significantly heavier than she used to be and I staggered under her weight. She flew from my head with a start.

"Guess I'm gonna have to get used to that," she said rather sadly.

"Look on the bright side, Sydney," I told her, "at least now you can carry Adrian more easily."

She perked up immediately. "You're right! Where is the little guy, anyway?"

Adrian poked his head out from my bag suddenly. "Here! Mama, you're safe!" He jumped out of the bag and ran over to me. I picked him up and held him to me. "Glad you're safe." He glanced at Sydney and his eyes widened. "Sydney, you're big!"

"Yeah! I evolved!" She puffed up with pride.

I rolled my eyes. "Don't have such a big head, Sydney!"

She rolled here eyes in return and shot me with water. "That was a terrible pun."

I snickered at it anyway.

Jack turned to the elephant - or rather, Gyarados - in the room. "Thank you for your help," he said. "We couldn't have done it without you."

"And the cloaked ones would have never left this sacred cave without your help, so I thank you for that." Without another word, she left the cave and dove into the lake with a loud splash.

"What was that about?" I asked.

"She wanted the cloaked morons out of here too, apparently."

"Ah."

Among my Pokémon and Jack's, we gladly left the cave. As we left, I remembered something. "Oh. I probably shouldn't leave that lying around." I flicked my wand. "Accio Malfoy's wand."

As I caught it in my hand, Jack asked, "What are you going to do with that?"

"I don't really know," I answered. "I might keep it as a spare. Or I might just keep it to have it away from him."

He shrugged. "Whatever you say."

We returned to the Pastoria City Pokémon Center to retrieve the rest of our belongings - which wasn't much, as most of our stuff was already in my bag - so we could leave immediately. Rather than face Nurse Joy's wrath, Jack snuck in the window as I snickered at him.

"I would have gone around front, if I were you," I told him as he extricated himself from the rose bush under our window.

"Shut up," he growled.

The sun poked over the horizon as we flew north on Tropius' back. It was in the air that I finally broke down and started to cry into Jack's shoulder. He awkwardly rubbed my back as I sobbed quietly and shook against him.

"Sorry," I muttered at some point. "Just the adrenaline crash."

"It's fine," he said quietly. "It's been a really long, really stressful day for you. Get some sleep. We should be in Celestic in about an hour or two, and we can get a room there for a while."

"'Kay," I said into his shoulder. "Thanks."

I was asleep before I heard his reply.

A/N: A calm ending to a hectic chapter. It didn't end quite like I expected - or wanted - but that's how it goes, I guess. A little more Gyarados screentime for you, AcaelusThorne, but nothing permanent :P.

You know, once I got it started, I actually really loved writing this chapter. It was so much fun giving Malfoy boils at the end. I mentioned to my parents that doing evil things to antagonists was fun, and they kind of just looked at me like I was crazy. They just don't understand my writer's craziness, I guess... Ah well. I can have fun being crazy on my own.

Please review! Tell me if you liked it, if you didn't, what I could improve on, what you'd like to see in the next chapters... Tell me just about anything, really, I'm not too picky. But please do review! You're all wonderful!

EDIT: My good friend and constant reviewer, AcaelusThorne, pointed out that I missed some silly errors while I was looking this over, so I edited them. I have three reasons for this: 1) I type this on my phone and my autocorrect doesn't recognize context; 2) I don't have a beta, which I probably should, but oh well, it's not that bad I don't think (so if you see any errors, please do tell me); 3) I don't do a whole lot of editing, just spellcheck, and spellcheck doesn't recognize context either. So again, if you do notice any errors in my writing, please feel free to let me know.