"Thoughts"
"A Pokémon speaking through telepathy"
"(Pokémon speaking to each other)"
Flashback

Chapter 31: The Plates (Part 1)

"Quickly Mel! You must find and secure the three plates before Team Galactic finds them!"

"I know!" Mel snapped at the voice in her head as she picked up her pace towards the Solaceon Ruins, "Tch, why is saving the world always such a pain…"

The voice chuckled softly, "I know you hate having to leave her but this is much more important."

"Not to me it isn't." Mel mumbled, luckily the other didn't hear.

"They already have eleven of the plates! If they get those three then they will have fourteen, leaving only one remaining!"

"Will you relax?" Mel rolled her eyes and wondered why her master was so paranoid, "Remember I already hid the one we found and Team Galactic doesn't even know we had it in the first place!"

Mel had soon reached the exit of the forest and made a dash for the entrance that was within sights.

The voice let out a sigh, "That's right… I suppose you are right…By the way, why did you trade your Pokémon with Zoey's?"

Mel gave a small smile, "So they can protect the Flame Plate."

"The Flame Plate? How? Zoey is going to the area where you hid the Flame Plate?"

"Yeah, guess you can say that." Mel replied as she entered the ruins.

"Dawn…Dawn!" Paul shouted, trying to gain Dawn's attention but it was no use, Dawn was dead set on ignoring him.

The group left the Solaceon Town's daycare and was now making their way to the town's exit. All but Pikachu, Chimchar, and Piplup had been returned to their Pokéballs. Pikachu sat on Ash's shoulder, while Chimchar was on Dawn's shoulder along with Piplup in her arms. Mel's Pokémon were following from behind at a reasonable pace, trying to give the trainers their space as they waited for their trainer to return.

"Err… what do you think happened to them?" Ash whispered to Brock as the two trailed behind the other trainers.

Brock scratched the side of his head as he watched Paul continuously call out for Dawn's attention, "I wonder… maybe they had a fight?"

"A fight?" Ash questioned, his eyebrow lifting slightly.

"Pika?" Pikachu said from atop of Ash's head.

"I know Paul can be a jerk sometimes," Ash began, "but he wouldn't do anything that would upset Dawn… right?"

Brock let out a soft chuckle at Ash's hesitation, "No… He wouldn't."

"Paul!"

Brock and Ash turned their attention away from the arguing couple to see Zoey running towards them with Yori close behind. Zoey stopped near Ash and Brock, while glancing at the others, immediately noticing the tension between the couple. Zoey raised an eyebrow before turning to Ash and Brock, "What happen between those two?"

Ash shrugged his shoulders before glancing back to the two, "Not sure."

"We think they may have had a fight." Brock added.

Zoey smirked as she teasingly said, "Alright, what did he do this time, Dawn? Should we lecture him about showing his affection again?"

Her question unfortunately had the opposite effect of what Zoey was expecting. Dawn's eyes hardened before completely turning her back to Paul, "He needs a lesson on how to not lie to your girlfriend!"

"Huh?" Zoey raised an eyebrow before looking back to Paul as Dawn stomped ahead of the group, "Err… what did you do, Paul?"

Paul's lips turned into a grimace as his eyes turned back to Dawn, "Something incredibly stupid…" He whispered.

Brock let out a sigh before offering Paul a reassuring smile, "Just let her cool off for a bit, I'm sure she'll listen to you once she's calmed down."

Paul nodded his head. He already knew that getting Dawn to talk to him when she was this angry with him wasn't going to work, but it was at least worth a shot. Paul watched as Ash, Brock, and Pikachu went on ahead to catch up with Dawn. Once they were gone, Paul finally let out a sigh as he stared down at the ground, "I am such an idiot…"

"Come on, Paul, we better catch up." Zoey said. She knew better than to try talking to Paul when he starts to berate himself. The only one who could pull him out of his self-loathing was Dawn.

Zoey let out a small sigh before turning to Mel's Pokémon and returning all but Yori to their respective Poké Balls. Paul saw this but thought nothing of it, seeing as his mind was occupied by other thoughts. With a small, encourage push on his shoulder, Zoey went off to catch up with the others. Paul barely felt the nudge on his shoulder since he was focused on glaring at a nearby tree. "When Dawn and I finally start talking again, I'll tell her everything. I don't care if Arceus will punish me for this! I can't loose her…"

Mel let out a groan as she walked through the Solaceon Ruins, the dimly lit area full of spaces. Mel's eyes wandered from wall to wall, reading all the inscriptions across the wall, all of which were in the Unown alphabet.

"Glam?"

Mel's hazel eyes traveled down to the Pokémon that was following her closely, "What's wrong, Glameow?"

"Meow! Gla meow glam. Meow meow?"

Chuckles passed the trainer's lips at the cat-like Pokémon's question, "Yeah, don't worry about Zoey. My Pokémon will take good care of her. You should know this already Glameow, seeing as we all traveled together for about 2-3 months."

Glameow let out what sounded like a snort before climbing up Mel's feet and towards the trainer's right shoulder, "Glam!". Before Mel could say anything, the Catty Pokémon leaned her head forward and playfully bit on Mel's ear.

"Ah! Ouch! Glameow!"

The Pokémon snickered before jumping back onto the ground, her tail waving back and forth in a mischievous manner. From the Poké Balls attached to Mel's belt, two beams of light shot out and started to materialize to other Pokémon.

"Shellos Shell!"

"Mis Misdreavus!"

Mel sighed as she watched the three Pokémon play a game of tag as they continued through the ruins, "They're just as energetic as my Pokémon… I wonder where Saturn and the others are?"

"Commander Saturn, we found it sir! The room that contains the Splash, Iron, and Draco Plate!"

From his place on top of a rock, Saturn looked up, "That took longer than expected, Mars even left a while ago. No matter. Secure the area, while I retrieve the Plates. We've wasted enough time here."

"Yes, sir!"

The grunt turned to convey the orders to the others while Saturn entered the pathway his men found. His footsteps echoing in the empty cave, "Soon, we'll be able to create a new world… Maybe then, we'll all be happy…"

"Come on, Dawn!" pleaded Ash, "We both know Paul can be stubborn and not tell us things."

Brock nodded his head as he walked on Dawn's other side, "Ash is right. Paul isn't the type to open up about everything. So maybe he just thought it wasn't important enough to tell you?"

Dawn's blue eyes hardened as her glare intensified, "That still doesn't make it right! He knows he can talk to me!" "And he used to be so open to me!"

With that, Dawn continued to stomp ahead on their path out of Solaceon Town, Chimchar and Piplup following close behind her. Ash leaned towards Brock as his hazel eyes followed Dawn to make sure she didn't accidently get lost, "Hey, Brock, did you figure out what Paul supposedly lied to Dawn about?"

Brock shook his head, "Not a clue, Ash." Brock raised his hand so that his fingers could brush against his chin as he spoke aloud his thoughts aloud, "For all we know this could be a case of lack of communication."

"Lack of communication?" Ash questioned. Pikachu, who was on Ash's head, turned his head as well, "Pika?"

"Yeah. Well, we know that Paul isn't exactly the friendliest of people. So maybe Paul just doesn't know how to properly express his feelings in words?"

"I guess that makes sense…" Ash replied before turning his head slightly to look back at Paul and Zoey. The other two trainers had taken up the rear of their little group.

"Pika Pi…"

"So, what happen to that lizard of yours?" Paul asked. Despite carrying a conversation with Zoey, Paul's eyes followed Dawn, making sure to keep the girl in sight. Paul knew Dawn had a tendency to wander and with her brooding, Dawn definitely wasn't paying attention to where she was going.

"I don't know." Zoey admitted, "Mel took off before I could ask."

"Of course she would." Paul murmured under his breath, "When you see her again, tell her she's getting hit with lightning."

"Why don't you tell her yourself?" Zoey asked with a roll of her eyes. She and Dawn never could quite understand the rivalry between Paul and Mel.

Paul snorted as he watched Chimchar and Piplup try and cheer up the blue-haired coordinator, "Oh please, you'll probably run into her before I do. It's like she has a sixth sense on where you are at all times."

Zoey's cheeks colored red slightly as she coughed into her fist. Zoey's red eyes teasingly glared at the purple-haired trainer, "Like how you have a sixth sense on when Dawn needs you?"

"Tch!" Paul's head turned away from Zoey and she could swear she could hear him murmuring threats under his breath.

Zoey smiled softly as her sight set on Dawn, "Don't worry, Paul. Everything will work out soon enough."

"Right…" Paul's attention was once again focused on Dawn. Piplup had climbed his way back into the coordinator's arms while Chimchar seemed to be doing a compilation of weird faces in hopes of making Dawn laugh, "By the way, I noticed you had the lizard's Pokémon, even their Poké Balls. Why is that?"

"Oh, err…" Zoey flushed slightly as she thought of an answer, "I guess you can say Mel and I traded Pokémon."

At hearing this, Paul's eyebrow rose. He pulled his gaze away from Dawn to give Zoey a questioning look, "You guess? She didn't tell you why you two were trading and you just agreed?"

"It's more of she switched our Poké Balls when I wasn't looking." Zoey let out another sigh as she rubbed the back of her neck. Her head tilting up to look at the sky, "And like I said before, Mel left before she could explain anything…"

Paul opened his mouth to reply, but before he could…

BOOM!

Everyone let out gasps as the ground beneath them shook slightly. Once everyone got their bearings back, Ash looked in the direction of the loud sound, "Hey… Isn't that smoke!?"

The others turned in the direction Ash was looking, and just as he said, there was smoke rising into the sky. Zoey's ruby eyes narrowed as she saw this, "That's…"

Paul, being the closest to Zoey, heard her, "Do you know something?"

"That's… " After a few seconds, Zoey's eyes widened in fear as she gasped out, "That's the direction Mel was headed in!"

"What?" Ash asked, "If that's the case we better make sure she's alright!"

Brock nodded his head, "Right, that sounded like a huge explosion. If she was in that direction she might have gotten caught in the explosion."

With a nod from everyone, they took off towards the Solaceon Ruins.

AN: So... a year later and here's the next chapter... n.n;;

Just in case if some of you don't know, most if not all the previous chapters will be going under a rewrite! After being on hiatus and looking at the plot from a different perspective, I realize that the current plot won't make any sense. As a result, I ended up reworking the whole thing into something else, and I'll be honest with you guys; I already have the ending planned out and I love it n.n. Now since the plot is going to change, the previous chapters will be undergoing the said rewrite to keep the story consistent. Don't worry about the next chapter guys. I promise you guys, the next chapter won't take another year ;p In fact, I already have half of Chapter 32 finished. I'm just preoccupied with the rewrites to make sure everything flows before the next chapter. Because of this, don't be surprised if a few of the updated chapters come in before Chapter 32.

Now, since the plot is changing, some other things are going to be different besides the plot, and I was hoping you guys could help with that. You know how we have Daichi the Torterra, Mel's partner from Mystery Dungeons, and then we have Paul's Torterra. Why don't we change what Pokemon Daichi is? That way it won't be confusing to you guys and to me on which Torterra is currently being talked about? Your options are Venusaur, Blastoise, Meganium, Typlosion, Feraligatr, Sceptile, Blaziken, and Swampert. (From the list of possible partners from Mystery Dungeon: Explorers of Time/Darkness with no repeating Pokemon that appear in the story).

Another choice, well more of an opinion, is do you guys like the little moments between the Pokemon? Like in Chapter 30, how there was a scene more focused on the Pokemon and how they interact with each other while at the Day Care. I mostly put them in to establish each of the Pokemon's characteristics, like how Paul's Chimchar is actually mischievous here, unlike how he is in the anime. I was just wondering if you guys want to read those little moments for a break from the plot before getting thrown back into it.

Also, I will be deleting all the ANs that pretend to be a chapter -_- but before I do that, do you guys need the first AN? It's only there to let you know the nicknames and Pokemon that Mel has incase anyone gets confused with which Pokemon has which nickname.

Credit for editing goes to CityGal45 and Shadow-Wolf-Hikaru.

Anyway...

gennalindz: I'm sorry about the false hope! Well, hope you're not disappointed this time n.n

The Girl Who Doesn't Care: Well, good news - it's an actual update! Bad news - it ends in a cliffhanger n.n;;

Reading-is-4-life: Don't worry! Main couple never actually break up! Just wait and see what happens :p

MysteriousMew: Yup, they have something to do with Arceus. Questions is what?

beingVague: Well... that dramatic opening got my attention! And yeah, cliffhangers are my specialty :p

CellyMellyGleeky: Don't worry! Dawn and Paul will get happy ending... eventually.

PandaMonium1218: Noo! Don't cry! Cause if people cry then I start crying! T.T

shippofan2k: Don't worry. I got the drama canon locked and loaded!