Notes: Okay, so all the pokemon/soul eater crossovers I see on this site SUCK. And there aren't many. They're poorly written. Bad grammer, lots of made ups. WE CAN DO BETTER! Then I found out the Japanese Seiyuu for Cilan is the same Seiyuu who played Death the Kid. And this crossover was born. XD

Across the void contains YAOI, and while its not immediate, as its story focused, there is enough explicit things in there to warrent the M rating.

Through the archway – Chapter 1 – Dawn and Iris go through the looking glass

"YAY!" Ash kicked up his heals. "REUNION PARTTTYYYY!" Ash had called all his friends for a party to celebrate him turning 18. Misty, Brock, May, Max, Dawn, Iris, Cilan, Barry, Bianca, Drew, Trip, Harley, Luke, Gary, Paul, Zoey, Volkner, Flint, Lenora, Cynthia and Aaron had all gathered in an area of Mount Coronet known for its stone ruins and statues.

"PARTY!" Max and Barry cheered at once.

Lenora just laughed. "I have to say, this is my first time traveling outside of the Unova region. I'm actually more interested in the ruins not far from here than the party."

"I wanna see them too! They're dedicated to Dialga, Palkia, Arceus and Giratina! Those are all legendary part dragon types! Anyone who wants to be a dragon master should investigate the time space legendaries!" Iris gushed, eyes filled with hearts.

"I'll show you where later." Cynthia chuckled.

"I can't wait!" Iris exclaimed. "I want to see the ruined shrine NOW!"

"I'm going too! Save me some of Cilan's pastries and Brock's stew!" Dawn beamed. "After all, I'm a native, I should show a visitor around and be a good host!"

Dawn and Iris ran off into the ruins. "HA! THIS IS AWESOME!" Iris shouted. "Race you Dawn!"

"Axew ax ax!" Axew called out to Piplup across his trainer's shoulder.

"Lup! Piplup pip!" Piplup seemed just as psyched as Dawn was, clinging to her shoulder with a huge pokemon grin on his face.

They entered the shrine, running into the old stone building. It was filled with greek style columns and at the top. "WOAH! LOOK! Paintings!" Iris cried. "oh wow! Lookit this!"

"Its a bunch of dragon and ghost pokemon. It looks like they're digging a tunnel." Dawn noted. "OH WOW! It shows Palkia and Dialga opening some kind of portal!"

"Who's that masked dude, some kinda pokemon?" Iris asked, pointing to a painting of some kind of floating figure in a green and white robe and wearing a barred mask on his face. By his side was a small, bird like puppet. In his hand a small cube. And at his hip, a very old book. Beside him was a black cloaked figure carrying a scythe and wearing a skull mask. A pair of dragon type pokemon Iris would know anywhere were extending their muzzles to them.

"Thats Reshiram and Zekrom! The twin dragons of Truth and Ideals!" Iris cried out in surprise. Whatever they were doing, legendary pokemon from all the regions seemed to be in attendance, offering the two figures their blessings. And the figure's white hand, extended to stroke Reshiram's massive muzzle, conveyed an affectionate, yet skeletal appearance. "Looks like Reshiram has an attachment to the grim reaper. I wonder if that means there's a hidden truth to be found in death?"

"DUSKNOIIIIRRR!" An enormous dusknoir carrying a crystal skull wand and with feathers tied to its head blasted a shadow ball at the girls.

"Uh oh, something tells me it doesn't want us here!" Dawn groaned. "Thats Dusknoir! Its thought that Dusknoir was the inspiration for myths of the Grim Reaper! They say the mouth in its belly is a gateway to the realm of the dead!" she started to panic, scrambling to hide behind a column with Piplup.

The dusknoir powered up a shadow punch attack. "Axew! Dragonrage!" Iris yelled. Iris was not going to back down. A would be dragon master did not /run/ from a wild pokemon attack.

"Axew! Aaaaaaaaax aaaaaaaaaaaax eeeewwwwwwwwwww!" A burst of blue fire lanced from Axew's mouth. It collided with the shadow punch attack, created an explosion that curiously did no damage to the shrine, and suddenly a gateway at the far end of the shrine with two masks above it glowed.

"uh oh!" Dusknoir powered up a high level psybeam attack, which blasted Axex, Iris, Dawn and Piplup backwards and through the portal from the shockwave. But something was left behind to guide the searchers. Dawn's hat and one of Iris' hairclips. Above the archway, the eyeholes on the two masks, one a skull and the other a barred mask, had begun to glow in red and blue.

"So a gang of Kisshins has taken up residence in this shrine to the south?" Asked Maka.

"Correct. Its the burial place of the Great Wizard Eibon." Shinigami-sama sighed, overlooking the teams that were going on the mission. "There have been strange phenomena associated with that shrine since before Shibusen was built. People say dragons pass in and out of it when the stars align correctly. And that humans who go into it come back with stories of a strange place with mysterious creatures with spiritual abilities that seems to fade in and out of existance within it. The Chupa Cabra brothers are a tribe of Kisshins eggs we've been hunting for two hundred years and they are /vicious/. They wander the deserts, sometimes its decades before they surface again. If we don't try to catch them now we may never get another chance."

"Understood." Kid looked bored outwardly. But inside he was excited. This was his chance to investigate his father's connection to Eibon more /and/ get Liz and Patti more Kisshins egg souls at the same time!

"Where are we?" Dawn groaned, getting to her feet and rubbing her head. "My hat!"

"my hairclip. It must have gotten blown off." Iris took a deep breath, then leapt to the top of a nearby column. "woah! Dawn I don't think we're in Sinnoh anymore!"

"Oh my god! Look at the sun!" "luuuuuuuuuuuuup!" "axew ax ax!" Piplup followed Dawn's example and freaked out. But Axew, being a baby, waved a stubby paw 'hello' at the sun, which had a face as it sank over the horizon.

"that is so freaky!" Dawn shuddered. "I'm scared now!"

"Dawn this is no time to freak out! We have to rig something to catch water or we're going to die of dehydration out here! There's a city in the distance, but we can only get there safely if we have water!"

"Piplup, pip pip!" Piplup thumped his chest.

"no problem, Piplup will provide all the water we need right? And my Buneary can make ice! We'll keep watered and cool!"

"axew?" Axew turned, head perking as he heard something.

A huge burst of angry green and red energy blasted towards her Dawn. The energy formed into the shape of an eagle with a rattlesnake in its talons. "Snake eating eagle!" A reedy, hissed voice called out. It was soft, quiet, but so sinister. Dawn was sent flying back into nearby stone wall, serious energy burns forming a strip on her body. Iris turned.

The creature who had made it was fading back under the sand. It was furry, and looked like it was part dog, part human, with huge blood stained fangs, glittering angry red eyes, and strange bent back knees with two joints that should give it amazing jumping abilities.

"Montezuma-sama, the girls are alone, they are not witches, we should eat them." A low, scratchy voice echoed from the group.

"Agreeed." the phantom voice hissed. "Cuatemoc, Anasazi, these two are your prey."

"Dawn! Get up! DAWN!" Iris was looking frantically around her. "Piplup, help me! Axew, on your guard!" Iris pulled out her pokeballs. "EXCADRILL! EMOLGA! HELP!"

Dawn groaned to her feet, reaching for her pokeballs. "Quilava! Togekiss! Mamoswine! Pachirisu! Buneary! Help us! We're being attacked!"

"Maaaaaamoooooooooo!" Mamoswine swallowed an ice shard attack, powered up its take down technique and charged.

The monsters laughed, and the leader who had already been identified as "montezuma" viciously leapt into the air and drop kicked mamoswine. "Excadrill, lets take them on, you do Drill run, then follow with focus blast, I'll come after them with a punch and a kick!"

"you're going to attack them?" Dawn demanded.

"Hell yeah, if an ice pokemon that big is beaten by one that easily, then its really trouble. Besides, you heard them right? They're gonna try to eat us! This is life or death! Come on everyone!" Iris shouted. "Axew, dragon rage, emolga hidden power, Excadrill lets do this! Drill run and focus blast!" Iris charged the group.

"Wait for me!" Dawn rushed the group too, fist raised to punch them. "Piplup! Hydropump! Buneary ice beam and follow with bounce! Pachirisu discharge! Togekiss Aura sphere and air slash! Quilava flame wheel!"

The group of monsters laughed. "you think you can beat the Chupa Cabra Gang? We kill all competitors and all opposers and EAT their souls to get stronger! You can't stop us!"

It dissolved into combat. Iris boldly charged Montezuma, punching, kicking, dodging. Dawn could barely keep up, but her coordinator skills were far better help than her hand to hand was.

"I'm scared as hell..." Dawn growled angrily. "But I'm not gonna lie down and die."

"I am a member of the village of dragons... I will NEVER surrender!" Iris growled. "C'mon guys! Lets show them the Heart of the Village of Dragons! AXEEWWWW!"

"AX AX AXEW!" Axew blasted dragon rage at Montezuma.

Montezuma snickered, an evil grin on his face as the girls charged his way. Two of the monsters leapt out of the sand behind Dawn and Iris and charged, slamming them into a nearby stone statue of one of the masked figures they'd seen in the temple. Dawn's vision swum on the statue of the figure with the barred mask. And as Iris' vision began to fade in and out of comprehension she focused on the statue she'd fallen beneath and gasped weakly. "How ironic, I die at the feet of a statue depicting Death."

"WITCH HUNTER!" "SPEED STAR!" There was a rattle of gun fire. "piiiiip... lup lup lup lup lup lup lup!" Piplup yelled, he and Axew charged Montezuma. They weren't the only one, Mamoswine bellowed, and Dawn and Iris pokemon struggled to their feet, fighting the pain of their wounds. "BUNEARRRRRY!" Buneary jumped on Montezuma's head, barraging him with a dizzy punch. "Quilaaaaaaaaava!" Flame wheel. "Excadrill!" Drill run. "EMO EMO!" hidden power. The pokemon roared with rage, firing attacks as they all jumped Montezuma at once.

"p... piplup run... sa... save yourself..." Dawn struggled to speak, her head was spinning.

"LUUUUUUUUUUUP!" Piplup yelled defiantly and Axew powered up a final attack. But the witch hunter attack had gotten there first. Montezuma burst into black energy, which whirled and compressed into a Kisshin's egg soul.

Piplup squealed as suddenly he was charging air, he flapped his stubby wings and fell with his beak impaled through the Kisshin soul. "Luuuuuup..." he whined at the blonde girl who put him in this embarassing position, stumbling around and trying to see around the glowing red orb stuck on his beak.

"Axew! Axew ax!" Axew toddled over to Piplup to help, pulling on the Kisshin's egg soul. Patti laughed. "hahahaha! Thats funny!"

"Patti FOCUS!" Yelled Kid. "We have to kill the rest of them still. we don't know how many there are or if this is the entire tribe!"

The Kisshin's egg soul came off of Piplup's beak with a loud "Pop!" and Axew went flying back from the force of his pulls. "Aaaxxxeewwwwww!" Axew yelled as his tiny arms windmilled in midair and he fell over on his back. The Kisshin's egg soul landed square in his mouth. Axew choked comically on the Kisshin's soul before finally swallowing it. "Axeeewwwww!" its body pulsed with dragon energy, "aaxxeewww..." Axew looked like it was going to be sick. The Pokemon stumbled around, then opened its mouth and...

A blast of dragon rage, ten times larger than normal, burst from its mouth and vaporized two of the chupa cabra gang. Axew fell over and threw up, looking weak, sickly, and very embarassed. "axxewwww..." There was glowing red goo in what Axew had thrown up, but it still looked sick, and there was no Kisshin soul there.

Axew moaned in pain, then passed out.

Cuatemoc called out. "Retreat! Chupa cabra gang retreat!" The Kisshins faded into the sand, and disappeared.

"Get a rescue team out here, we've got injured." A boy's voice yelled. There was running and scrambling and... Iris couldn't track what was going on. Her head hurt really bad.

All the pokemon were injured and weak from the fight. Iris and Dawn had numerous cuts and slashes and they'd hit their heads pretty damn good.

Piplup ran to his trainer. "Piplup pip pip!" Piplup clung to Dawn and cried.

"Excadrill." Excadrill picked up Axew, who was very feverish. He carried Axew over to Iris, who feebly raised her hand to Blackstar as the ninja knelt by her. "There's some herbal medicine in my pack, give it to Axew. Please, it will help. He was a gift from my clan elder... he's gotta pull through..."

Having been rescued from certain death, Dawn gasped to Maka. "They jumped us... my momma, I want momma, and zoey..."

"luuup..." Piplup ran to his trainer and started crying. "luuuuuuuup..."

The weapons emerged in human form. Tsubaki rummaged through Iris' bag and found the medicine in an old fashioned glass dropper. "this?"

"Yeah... its my mother's recipe." Iris said weakly.

Piplup dug in dawn's bag and found some oran berries. He motioned for the other pokemon to come over and divided up the berries between them. He ate his own, and saved the last one for Axew.

"Buneary!" Dawn's buneary grabbed Soul's headband and froze it with ice beam, then used it as a cold compress for Axew.

"Hey! Oh I see, you're trying to tend to your friend huh?"

"Bun!" Buneary looked up at Soul and nodded then back at Axew and whimpered. "Bunearrryyy..."

"What are these things?" Blackstar asked, trying to pet Dawn's quilava. He hesitated, unsure if the flames on his head and back would burn him. The creature accepted the caress for a moment before turning away and focusing on the injured, though it smiled pleasantly at him.

"Remember what shinigami-sama said before we left?" Maka asked. "Strange creatures and dragons have been seen around this shrine."

"Hey! There's a mirror over here!" called Liz. There was a sarcophagus next to a large mirror with carvings of death's mask around it and oak leaves. The sarcophagus was decorated with oak and holly leaf carvings.

Overcoming his reverance, Kid quickly called his father and asked for an emergency medical transport. "Three of the chupa cabra gang have been slain. Including Montezuma, the ring leader. In addition, there are two girls here who seem to be able to summon strange creatures. They're injured and in need of medical attention. In addition, one of their summons, a baby dragon, accidentally swallowed Montezuma's soul. It promptly threw up red goo, and is now very sick."

"Thats not good, I doubt it will die if given medical attention, but the kisshins egg soul reacts with stomach acid in non weapons, thats what the red goo was. The stomach acid was changed into a sludgy substance created by the negative energy of the kisshins egg soul. Professor Stein is enroute with spirit, Azusa, and Sid."

Carved upon it was Eibon's image, two crowns placed to his chest, one of Oak and one of Holly, carvings of a beautiful six petaled crimson flower had been affixed to the elaborate tomb. (1) Standing guard over the tomb were two statues. Soul ran his hand over the carvings on the statues' base. "The voice of the forest sings a dirge for the Green Priest, for who's protection Nature expresses Her Gratitude."

Maka stood watch over Dawn and Iris while Tsubaki administered the herbal medicine to Axew. "its fever is going down..." "axxxewwww..." Axew moaned sickly. "It accidentally swallowed a kisshin's egg. I'm surprised its still alive. Most humans who aren't weapons have really bad reactions to doing so." Tsubaki sighed. Maka looked up at her in concern. "oh they live, but for a while they're very sick. This creature was lucky that we came along. If it weren't here and swallowed that Kisshins egg it would likely die without medical attention. Its summoner is too weak to administer the medicine herself."

"his name is Axew..." Iris breathed, floating in and out of consciousness.

"What is your name?"

"I'm Iris... from the... dragon village..." Iris passed out again.

One of the hover crafts used for student transport and emergencies pulled up. Stein, Spirit, Sid and Azusa jumped out. "We came! How bad is it?"

"over here!" Maka called where she and Tsubaki were tending the two girls.

Dawn swum back to consciousness long enough to see Azusa bending over her. "its going to be okay, we're going to take you to a doctor... can you hear me?"

"Five minutes Candice I know I'm late..." Dawn mumbled, her eyes closing again.

"She's completely out of it."

Iris coughed slightly. "My stomach hurts..."

"Her entire torso is black and blue. I'm surprised she's still conscious." Stein was examining Iris. "She's got a very strong soul, this girl is no stranger to combat. See her muscles? That is a fighter who knows what she's doing. Not a strong fighter, but an experienced one."

"Excadrill!" Excadrill crossed his arms proudly over his chest and lifted his chin. "Exca exca!" He was the reason Iris had so much experience fighting!

"axewwwww..." Axew moaned sickly.

"luuuup." Piplup felt absolutely horrible. Axew swallowed that Kisshins egg trying to get it off his beak! It plopped down next to Axew and began to cry. Then it got up, still wailing and ran back and forth between Dawn and Axew, not sure who he should stay with and protect and really just wanting Ash and Pikachu to come and rescue his trainer.

"its okay." Patti scooped up Piplup. "Your owner will be fine. And Professor Stein is a doctor, he wouldn't let your friends get hurt."

"luuup?" Piplup sobbed, snuggling into Patti's arms and crying.

"emooooooooo... emolga!" Iris's Emolga blushed hugely and jumped onto Patti's shoulder. "emo emo!" It rubbed a sparking cheek pouch to Patti's cheek in a gesture of affection.

"For a creature that goes 'emo emo' you sure seem happy!" Patti exclaimed, patting the flying squirrel pokemon on the head. "you're both so cute! nee, nee, Kiddo-kun, can we take them home with us?"

"emoooolgaa!"

"They already have owners Patti, you shouldn't try to take them away from that."

"So this is the tomb of Eibon huh?" Sid was looking around. "This is real strange statuary. I recognize Eibon's symbol, the crowns of oak and holly, but not much else."

"The crowns of oak and holly?" Kid asked, looking at one of the carvings of oak leaves.

Sid nodded. "A crown of oak leaves and a crown of holly leaves entwined with each other is Eibon's symbol. It comes from the legend of the Oak and Holly Kings. Two gods of the forest who were actually halves of the same Soul. When winter turned to spring, the King of Oak would slay the King of Holly, only to become him in the autumn. And in the spring the Oak King would be born anew. It was a story about rebirth, and the interconnectedness of the living and the dead. It is a sign that Death is not final, it is cyclical, and one day our deceased loved ones will be reborn, and meet us again in the next life."

"ah, a reincarnation story."

Sid nodded. "The Story of the Oak and Holly Kings was Eibon's favorite. But for now, lets get the others home. The story is in the Shibusen library under cultural information on Magic users."

Kid nodded. He sighed, looking at the strange creatures, Mamoswine staggered to his feet. He looked over at the other pokemon.

"mamooooo..." It said to Quilava.

"quil!" Quilava nodded. It powered up flame wheel and began to write in the sand by burning it to glass. Quilava made an arrow. Then the initials I and D. Then it leapt into the air and used ember to burn a picture of Dawn and iris into the sand and the Kanji for "Warning! Monster!" before it turned, falling into line behind Spirit.

"Hey thats pretty clever of you." Spirit grinned. "its okay, we'll take care of you and your owners so don't fret."

Emolga and Togekiss leapt into the air and circled around, waiting to follow them. Spirit looked up at Mamoswine. "you'll have to follow the transport."

"I'll escort it home." Soul yawned. "Looks like mister mammoth over here has a nice fuzzy back to nap on."

"mamo?"

"We're going to that city there." Soul told Mamoswine. "The castle in the center is where they're taking your owner."

"mamooooo..." It crooned, ducking to let Soul climb on.

"hey, thanks. You're one cool cat, for a mammoth."

"mamoswine."

"I'll go too. It will leave more room for the injured." Maka climbed up on Mamoswine's back with Soul.

The transport started off, quickly outpacing Mamoswine with sirens blaring.

Some hours later, sublimely unaware of Dawn and Iris plight, Ash was training with Gary, showing off the pokemon he'd caught in Unova while his old rival flicked through Ash's pokedex to see what pokemon he'd encountered on his Unova journey.

"Its supper tiiiiiiime!" Cilan exclaimed, ringing a dinner bell.

The pokemon came running. "pikaaaa!" Pikachu started shoveling food into his mouth. Gary's Umbreon took a hesitant bite, then squealed. "umbreeeee." with hearts in his eyes.

"its supper time, but I can't find Iris or Dawn anywhere." May said worriedly. "Beautifly and Wartortle are searching for them."

"Beauuuuuuuuut!" "tortleeeee!" Wartortle and Beautifly came running back the way they'd come, carrying something in their paws and panicking.

They had some superficial wounds on them. "This is from a shadow punch attack." Brock said as he inspected them. "I have a bad feeling."

"Pikachu?" Pikachu asked. "Pika pika?"

"Wartortle!" "beautifly beau!"

Gary picked up what the pokemon had handed them. "This is Dawn's hat! And that hair clip belongs to Iris!"

"We have to search for them." Ash dug into his pocket and pulled out a pokeball. "Tranquil! I choose you!"

"tranquil!"

"Tranquil go find Dawn and Iris!"

"Crobat! Help them!" Brock threw another pokeball.

"Herdier be their tracker! Track dawn and iris by their scent!" Lenora ordered.

"Herdier!"

The group of pokemon ran off, with Pikachu leading the way.

"Ash, you should eat while they search."

"Pack mine to go."

Brock nodded. "i'll pack a thermos."

"I'm really worried." Ash told him. "I don't think I could just sit here and eat."

He caught up to Pikachu twenty minutes later to find the pokemon sitting in a half ring around an archway. There was something in the archway that was glittering, undulating like some kind of squishy mirror. It was clasped by statues of Palkia and Dialga, and Ash knew better than to touch an artifact belonging to them without backup. "pikachu, did Dawn and Iris go in there?"

"pikaaaaa..." Pikachu nodded, looking worried.

"I'm going to get the others, keep watch on the portal. If someone comes through, send Tranquil to find me."

"Pikachu." Ash turned and ran off.

"Ash, do not go into that archway until we can get there!" Professor Rowan warned. "Professor Oak, Professor Juniper, Professor Fennel and I are enroute! Cynthia, Lenora, your orders are to translate the runes in that shrine and have them ready when we arrive. It could tell us where Dawn and Iris have gone."

"But Professor!" Ash protested.

"Ash, those ruins are dangerous." Professor Rowan warned him. "They say that whoever goes through that Archway is taken away by Death."

Ash drooped, already thinking the worst.

1. While the flower is a Gracedia, the use of oak and holly leaves has nothing to do with pokemon, rather the Oak and Holly are celtic symbols of the green man, who has been depicted in oak leaves to reflect youth, and Holly to reflect age.