Woo! Hika-neko-chan and I finally got back to this! We got passed the writers blocked wall! Yay!

Thank you to all who have been reading this. So sorry for the long wait, but we finally got it! Enjoy!

Ch.12

On the other side of the island Claire and Riku walked through the forest. As they walked they carefully examining their surroundings. Every once and a while Riku would stumble and nearly fall over, as he was still not use to being on all fours. Riku let out another sigh as he straightened himself up again and continued walking.

"Are you doing alright?" Claire asked.

"Just still not use to walking like this. I don't understand how Sora ever was able to do something like this." Riku commented.

"Well he really seems to have the positive attitude to doing almost anything," Claire said.

Riku laughed, "Yeah, that's Sora alright. He isn't one to give up easily."

The two walked a little further until Riku stopped and looked off into one direction. He stared off into the distance and remained silent. Claire noticed she had gotten a head and quickly turned back around and ran over to Riku.

"Is something out there?"

"Yeah… But I think it may just be another Pokemon who is a dark type. I just seem to be sense more darkness now than before…" Riku said as he let out a sigh.

"Are you feeling alright?" Claire asked in concerned tone.

"Yeah...it's just... " Riku paused before continuing, "It's been a while since I had this much darkness…Even if it is just the effects of being this Pokemon...It's just a little unsettling."

"Ah…" Claire said as she closed her eyes, "You'll be alright though, I can feel it. You know..." There was a pause before Claire continued. "You remind me of a friend."

Riku looked over at Claire, "I do?"

"Yeah...It's hard to explain...Just you remind me of him a little," Claire said.

"What do you mean?" Riku asked.

Claire shook her head after a moment. "Never mind about it. I was just lost in thought I guess..."

Riku looked at Claire questionably for a moment before shaking off the question, "It's alright. We should continue on."

"Yeah," Claire nodded in responded.

The two continued on their walk, deeper and deeper into the forest. Unbeknownst to the two, someone was silently darting between bushes while following behind them. Soon the two came to a clearing in the forest. In the center of the clearing there was a few bushes stren about the area. Out in the middle of the clearing was a rather large, tiger-like Pokemon. It had orange fur and black fur in jagged stripes all over it. It also had a extremely fluffy beige mane and tail, as well as some beige fluff around the back legs. The Pokemon appeared to be peacefully resting near one of the bushes.

Just as Claire and Riku entered into the clearing, the ears of the Pokemon perked up as it jumped to its feet. It stared off into one direction and slowly started to back up. Claire and Riku turned their attention to where the Pokemon was staring and saw that several Darkball and Shadow Heartless had appeared.

"Heartless! Let's go!" Claire shouted before summoning her keyblade, which materialized again her mouth.

Riku did the same as well, though both of them still struggled to properly get use to having to hold their keyblades in such a odd way. As they ran towards the Heartless, they caught a quick glance at the Pokemon, who was looking at them with confusion. The two ran faster as their keyblades soon clashed against the Heartless. They fought against the Heartless, knocking them farther back. Clare then ran forward at them, her keyblade engulfed in flames, as struck a Darkball directly. With a burst of flames it exploded into darkness and then faded away into nothingness.

Within several minutes all the Heartless in the surrounding area had been destroy. Claire and Riku desummoned their keyblades as they took this time to relax. From behind them they heard footstep slowly approaching.

"You were able to defeat those creatures," a female voice said.

Riku and Claire turned around to see the same tiger-like Pokemon from before. Now that she was closer to them, they could really see how much their size difference way compared to her.

"Yeah, they have been popping up a lot haven't they?" Claire said. "Are you alright?"

The Pokemon nodded, "Yes I'm fine. Thank you two for stepping in like that. Those were such strange creatures… they reminded me of Pokemon but…" She trailed off for a moment before continuing, "Though… you mentioned the name of those creatures. What did you say they were?"

"Heartless," Riku answered.

"You seem to know how to deal with them with those weapons you were using. You guys aren't from here are you?" The Pokemon stated.

Claire and Riku's eyes widened, and then Claire spoke up, "How… how do you know?"

"I've...been here long enough to know that I haven't seen any Pokemon who have weapons like that. Or anyone who can fight those Heartless like you did."

Claire tilted her head to the side, curious by the words said by the Pokemon, "You mean… you were once human?"

The Pokemon slowly nodded, "Yeah I was. I take it that you guys are to? Oh! My name is Holden by the way."

"I'm Claire."

"Riku."

"And yes we were also human, but affected by the curse that is on this island," Claire said. "If I can ask, how long have you been here?"

Holden paused for a moment, looking down at the ground, "I.. I don't really know...A few years maybe. I kinda have lost track ever since getting trapped here."

"Oh… I am sorry to hear that," Claire responded.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about the curse would you?" Riku asked.

"If I did I would have already found a way to break it," Holden grumbled.

"Ah… Well we are going to continue our search then, thank you though," Claire said with the slight bow of her head.

"Wait!" Holden's said as her expression perked up, "You guys are looking for a way to break the curse? Let me come with you!"

Claire and Riku looked back at each other for a moment before turning back to Holden.

"I don't think it would be safe, the Heartless are showing up more and more. Plus we don't even know what we are looking for," Riku said.

"I still want to help though. I am tired of this curse so I will do anything I can to help." Holden replied.

"Well…" Claire started as she thought, "It still will be dangerous if you came along with us. We don't really want to get anyone else involved, but if we do discover any information we can come right back and tell you."

"But," Holden started to say, but was interrupted by a rustling from the treetops behind Claire and Riku. Everyone quickly turned their attention over to where the sound had come from, looking for who or what it was. Not long after, a pink blur darted out of the leaves and headed straight for Holden. Tackling into her before anyone else could react, it started nuzzling into her fur.

"So fluffy, nyah."

"What?" Holden said with surprise as she looked down at the little Pokemon nuzzling her, "Who are you?"

Claire blinked a few times before shaking her head, trying to gather her thoughts, "Dawn?"

"Nyah, nyah nayh!"

Claire let out a sigh, "Yeah...that's Dawn."

"How can you be sure?" Riku asked.

"Who else do you think would tackle into someone talking about them being fluffy?" Claire asked.

"So you know who this is? Can you please get them off me," Holden said as she tried to push Dawn back, but Dawn just continued to nuzzle against her.

"But Fluffies!" cried out Dawn.

"Dawn...why did you follow us?" Claire asked, hoping to distract Dawn from the 'fluffies'.

"Fluffies, nyah."

Claire sighed again, "Well...are you going to help us since you are here with us?"

"Nyah, nyah nyah." Dawn said, nodding her head.

"Then let's get going okay?" Claire said.

"Nyah~" Dawn then darted off into the treeline in a random direction.

Holden let out a sigh of relief, "Thank you. I guess you guys have your hands full and all that. But you guys better let me know if you find out anything okay?"

Claire and Riku nodded, and then Riku answered, "Yeah, we will."

"It was nice to meet you Holden, we will see you around," Claire said as she turned to leave.

"Same to you guys, and good luck," Holden said before she headed off in her own direction.

Claire and Riku started to walk off in the direction that Dawn had ran off to just seconds before. They carefully looked around to see where she could be, and also to keep an eye out for anything suspicious.

"How are we going to deal with Dawn?" Riku asked as they walked.

"I don't really know…" Claire said as she let out a huff of air. "Hikari is usually the one to be able to handle Dawn. We just have to make sure not to lose her...or have her go running into anyone else."

The two progressed further into the forest before spotting a flash of light pink near where the treeline started to fade into the mountainside. Quickly picking up pace, they hurried after to were the pink flash ran off to. Nearing the edge of the treeline, they spot Dawn amongst the bushes, rolling around on her back while juggling some berries.

Riku and Claire looked at Dawn for a moment. Both of them glad that Dawn had not gotten into any more trouble. They then took in their surroundings, the trees were much closer together and vines were growing over everything. It was as if this part of the forest wanted to be buried away.

"Dawn…You gotta stop running off like that," Claire said. "We need to stick together as we search."

"But I found something, nyah~," Dawn retorted in a sing song voice as she threw the berries up into the air, rolled onto her feet, and caught them one atop the other, balanced as a stack on her head.

"I see that you found some food, but that isn't important to our search," Riku responded.

"Not these ya silly goose, nyah~. Can't you see it?" Dawn walked towards them, but stopped a bit before she reached the treeline.

Claire tilted her head to the side slightly, "What are you talking about?"

Dawn giggled before answering. "There's a barrier here, nyah~" She then took a step forward and lightly headbutted the air in front of her. A light wave of energy from the point of contact threw Dawn back a bit and traveled out along an invisible wall that seperated Dawn from Claire and Riku.

Claire and Riku both let out a small gasp as they stared at what had just happened. The wave of energy was already gone, but they both had still seen it.

"You… found a barrier?" Claire asked. "How?"

"I just saw it here, nyah~" Answered Dawn, who now decided to sit down and started munching on one of the berries.

Claire sighed. "I forgot we are talking to Dawn… We won't really get a serious answer anytime soon."

"That's true… but it wouldn't hurt to ask more, just in case she says something important," Riku said as he nodded in agreement before looking over at Dawn. "Dawn. How did you get behind the barrier?"

"Skitty used Assist. Got teleport, nyah~" Answered Dawn.

"Uh...whatever that means then," RIku said, not quite understanding the meaning of Dawn's explanation.

For the brief time Riku had talked to Dawn, Claire was thinking over what she could ask Dawn to try to get a better answer from her. Finally she had a thought as she opened her eyes and spoke. "Is the barrier important Dawn?"

"It covers the whole mountain, nyah~." Dawn had finished up her berries, stood up, and walked towards the barrier once more.

Claire and Riku looked at each other for a moment as they now had new information that did sound fairly important.

"Do you think it means something?" Riku asked.

"I'm sure it must… Why else would there just be a barrier on an island like this? Maybe it's even connected to what happened to us."

"There must be something on the other side then," Riku said as he looked at Dawn once more. "So Dawn, how do we get over there?"

"Nyah~. Skitty use Assist." Dawn's forepaw glowed briefly as she swiped at the space in front of her. A blast of fire appeared, rebounded off the barrier, and briefly engulfed Dawn, leaving her covered in soot.

Claire blinked a few times, trying to process what she saw. Then she remembered it was Dawn she was dealing with and some things were better left not questioned. "Well… Didn't really answer the question… But I think we should let the others know about this."

"Yeah, let's head back to the base and let them know. Maybe with all of us here together we could figure something out," Riku added.

"Come on Dawn, let's go," Claire said as she motioned with her head for Dawn to come along.

"Skitty use Assist, nyah~" Dawn swiped with her glowing paw again, although this time, it was surrounded it what appeared to be darkness shaped like a claw that just bounced off the barrier.

"Um...Can you even get back over here?" Riku asked.

Dawn didn't answer right away, instead she bounded off a bit in the opposite direction before turning back and running at them. A short distance from the barrier, her forepaw glowed again, and for a brief instance she vanished before reappearing right in front of Riku. As Dawn kept her speed, she kinda tackled into his

Given that Dawn had suddenly appeared, and also the fact that Riku was still not fully use to being on four legs, there was no time to react or recover from it. Riku stumbled to the side slightly before collapsing to the ground, with Dawn now snuggling up against his side.

"Fluffies, nyah~!"

Claire let out a stifled laugh as she looked at the two in front of her. Though as a Pokemon it was hard to truly stifle it, so it came out louder than she would have wanted. Almost instinctively her tail wrapped around her and she buried her face into it for the remainder of the laugh.

After a moment of Riku still seeming in shock over what had just happened, he finally shook his head and cleared his thoughts. "Ah… You think you could get off me now Dawn?"

"Nyah~" Dawn shakes her head, and instead just climbs onto his back and buries her face into the scruff of his neck.

Riku opened his mouth to say something else, but decided there was no point in trying against Dawn. Slowly he stood back up and let himself regain his balance. After exhaling a deep breath he focused his attention over to Claire, who seemed to finally calm down from her laugh.

"You okay?" Claire asked as she took a step forward.

"Yeah, just didn't expect that… though with her… maybe I should have," Riku said quietly.

Claire chuckled. "I agree with you there, though even after all this time for me, I still haven't really gotten use to her. But let's head back now, we gotta tell the others about this."

Riku nodded as they started their walk back to where they had come from. When they arrived back at the base they saw that the others had not returned quite yet so they decided to relax for the moment until they did. Soon enough though Hikari, Sora, and Xavier came walking into view. Once the group had come together they began to explain what they had seen in their searched. Much to each others surprise, both teams had found a Pokemon or two that says they were once human. But that of course was not the biggest part of the stories told. The biggest part that they said was the mysterious barrier that Dawn had somehow stumbled upon.

"So there is a mountain surrounded by a barrier. You guys really think it could mean anything?" Sora asked.

"It's possible," Claire started. "Why else would it be there?"

"While I highly doubt it, there's a chance it's just protecting someone who doesn't like to be around others," answered Hikari.

"You would be right about that," a suddenly light voice said. It's voice seemed to echo all around the camp, but no one saw any other Pokemon nearby.

"Who's there?" Xavier asked. "Show yourself."

From between the trees a small, pink creature emerged. It flew above the ground and made its way over to the campsite. It had triangular ears and large, blue eyes as well as a thin tail that ended in a oval-like shape.

"Who are you?" Riku asked as the small Pokemon flew to the center of their group.

"My name is Mew," the Pokemon said, though it did not physically speak. It's words still echoed around everyone. "And I have been looking for you all."

"You're speaking to us telepathically?" Hikari asked, and after a pause said more "And why us specifically?"

Mew nodded at Hikari. "Yes that is correct. And you all are different than the others who have come here. All of you have spend many times fighting the darkness and the creatures that come with it. I have seen you fight against them on these shores. That is why I need your help."

"Our help? With what?" Sora questioned.

"The darkness that has plagued this island… Not only has it trapped all of you here… but it has also affected my brother."

"Your brother?" Claire asked.

Mew nodded quickly. "My brother… MewTwo."

And this is the end of chapter 12. Big character reveal and all that and more!

The character of Holden belongs to my friend Holden Skyler of course XD.

Hope you guys all enjoyed and we shall see you next time!