In a small town, a lone man sat with a pile of red-and-white orbs sitting beside him. The pokeballs had various pokemon of all types and levels of evolution inside them, all waiting for someone to summon them. People come and go, but none even look in his direction. But no matter how long he waits, the smile on his face never fades.

Then a boy, barely fourteen years of age, comes up and askes, "Why do you have so many pokeballs?"

"Because, my good lad, I will give you any pokemon I have in my collection, but only if you can defeat me with them."

"Alright, do you have a Gravler?"

The man shook his head, "Nope, sorry."

"What about an Onix?"

Another shake.

"What about a Gardevoir?"

The man thought about the question for a moment and reached out, snatching a pokeball from the pile. "Here we are, one Gardevoir. Open it up and take a look."

"Gardevoir, I choose you!" the boy hurled the pokeball into the air and watched as it popped open. A flash of light was ejected and came down to become the psychic pokemon Gardevoir.

The pokemon's flowing gown was white as snow and her green hair was almost like an emerald in its shine. The air around her almost seemed to hum from the high levels of mental energy she had at her command. She was a true wonder of her kind. When the pokemon locked eyes with her new trainer, the boy understood all of her abilities. It was like she was telling him through her mind.

The man looked over the pile and grabbed a pokeball of his own before walking out into the open field behind him. "Alright, here we go. Golem, I choose you!" He hurled the pokeball before him, summoning a large boulder of a pokemon. The golem's round body was massive and looked extremely hard. "Since you're so young, you can go first."

"Gardevoir, use Psychic!" the boy commanded and his pokemon nodded. The Golem began to glow with a strange aura and was sent flying though the air. It came down with such a crash that it left an imprint on the ground.

"Golem, use Rollout!" The Golem came bursting out of the hole and rolled at an amazing speed.

"Gardevoir, use Psychic again!" The Gardevoir focused her mind again, but the Golem was too close and moving too fast. She could only lift him off the ground, sending it flying over the pokemon's head. It came down through the roof a house and a woman inside screemed.

"Golem, use Earthquake!" The Golem leaped out of the house, a surprising stunt considering its bulk. Wooden beams were shattered like they were toothpicks. Then it came down such such force that it caused the ground to shake. The building collapsed upon itself and rocks were thrown into the air towards its opponent, who could only barely dodge them. It was only because of luck that the Trainer had moved to a new position after the Golem came flying over his head. But he still couldn't believe the destruction brought about by the errant attack. He had to stop this.

"Gardevoir, use Hypnosis!" He watched as the Golem slowed it's advance and sat itself down. After seeing what the Psychic attack had done, he didn't want a repeat. But there was a move he could use still. "Use Nightmare!"

The Gardevoir connected her mind with the slumbering Golem's, allowing her to alter his dreams. At first it looked as if nothing had happened; then its head twitched, revealing that it was indeed suffering from a nightmare. But then the Golem started thrashing about in its sleep. It pushed itself up and fell to the ground again and again, unable to control itself while it screamed in agony. Its eyes opened but it kept screaming with pure fear. Then it lost its footing and started to roll towards the Gardevoir. She tried to use Telekinesis to hold him still, but it was too late.

The two dissapeared in a flash of bright light as the Golem used Explosion. The shockwave seemed to shatter the rip the air around them as pieces of Golem shell mixed with shreds of white gown fell back to earth.

The boy could only stare in shock as his newly-befriended pokemon was nothing more than bits and pieces fluttering in the wind. But the man didn't seem concerned by what had just transpired. He wandered up to the pile of pokeballs, which strangely hadn't moved from their spot. He grabbed another pair of pokeballs and tossed one to the boy. The pokeball opened, revealing another Gardevoir.

She touched his face and smiled, bringing his mind back to reality. He hugged her and wondered if it had all been a figment of his imagination. His mind was so shocked that he didn't even notice the fallen house or the blood that stained the ground.

"Alright, I choose Steelix!"

"Gardevoir, use Future Sight!"

The Steelix looked around, but nothing happened. The man did the same and shrugged before giving his command, "Steelix, use Slam!"

The giant snake-like pokemon raised its tail and brought it down upon the Gardevoir, who couldn't get out of the way in time. The Steelix pulled back, revealing a badly injured Gardevoir. But she was still alive; if only barely.

"Use Psy Beam!" the boy almost screamed. He wanted to help her, to tell her that she was going to be ok. But he had to beat his opponent if he wished to keep her. The Gardevoir weakly raised her arm, which was broken in nearly seven places. One of her fingers were bent at a strange angle while another was missing entirely. She hit the Steelix with all she had, focusing all her power and will into one beam of psychic energy. The blast blew back the Steelix's head, but it only seemed to daze it for a few seconds.

"Steelix, use Bite!" The pokemon scooped up the fallen Gardevoir along with a chunk of earth and bit down. The boy couldn't hear the Gardevoir's screams over his own as the Steelix's teeth crushed the lower half of her body.

"Gardevoir, use Psychic!" The boy could only watch as the pokemon weakly lifted her head. "Use Psy Beam, use Hypnosis...use anything!" Unfortunately, the pokemon had flinched when her pelvic bone was turned to dust.

"Alright, let's finish this."

"No, don't! Don't do it!"

"Steelix, use Chomp!" The Steelix shifted her around in it's mouth to get her into a better position. The Gardevoir looked down and reached out for its trainer before the Steelix closed its mouth. Blood sprayed out from between its teeth and dripped down its shovel-like chin. The boy could barely stand as the man went back to the pile to pick up another pokeball and tossed it by the boy. He still had a smile on his face and almost seemed happy with himself.

The pokeball opened to reveal another Gardevoir. She wrapped her arms around the boy, who was on the verge of crying. He was so happy to see her that he could barely stand. She had to help him to his feet because he just didn't have the strength to do so himself.

"Y...your al...alright?"

The Gardevoir nodded and walked out into the field where the Steelix still waited. She hit the Steelix with a Psy Beam that was so powerful, it blew the Steelix in half. The massive pokemon thrashed about, gasping for air, but its lungs had burst like ripe fruit.

"I...I...did it...I did it..." the boy did his best to smile, but then the Future Sight happened. He looked into her eyes, which were full of happyness and glee at becoming his pokemon, when her head was turned into a pink mist by a sudden wave of psychic energy. Her body reached out to him, still wanting to be by his side, before falling over.

The man wasn't smiling anymore as he dragged the body away and pulled out one of his eyes. He dropped it before the boy, who grabbed it without knowing what he was doing. He was concious, but his mind just wasn't there any longer. The man looked annoyed now as he pulled out his other eye, revealing it to be another pokeball, just like the one he gave the boy.

The two pushed the buttons on their pokeballs, causing them to expand, and cast their them out to reveal a pair of Darkrai. They looked at each other like mirror images, before looked down on the boy.

They seperated as the man strode towards the boy and grabbed him by his shirt. Then he spoke in rhyme, "Hello little boy, guess what I can't see, just look at what you did to me! I am older than you, I am as old as time, you made me find your dreams but now they made you mine! Well, guess, what, it's the end of the show, is this just a dream, do me wrong and the answer...is...no..." The man removed his face to reveal Darkrai, who laughed as he gazed at the boy with empty eye sockets.

Then everything went black.

x

The boy woke from his horrible nightmare to find himself in the arms of his Gardevoir. She had a look of great concern on her face as she could feel what he was going through. She seemed qutie surprised when he suddenly hugged her. He looked into her left eye and traced his finger down the scar that had left the right blind. Even with her psychic abilities, it was difficult for her to see into the chaos that was his thoughts.

Then he got up and pulled a pokeball from his belt. It popped open in his hand and Darkrai appeared before him. He stared into the pokemon's eyes, wondering just how deep they went if they were the windows to its soul. He hung his head in defeat, finally realizing just what he had done to capture it.

"Take it and do with it as you wish." He held up the pokeball and waited.

Darkrai considered the action for a moment and nodded, taking the pokeball and flying off into the night. The boy, almost a man now, couldn't believe how stupid he had been during his journey. He went to his Gardevoir, who could sense the change in him and smiled.

"I can't thank you enough. If it wasn't for you, I might not have survived."

The Gardevoir grabbed his wrist and opened the map on his Poketch. She pointed to one location and looked at him. He stood there, shocked, and nodded.

The journey took nearly a week, but during that time, the boy kept his Gardevoir out of her pokeball and by his side. He made sure that she was well fed and kept her warm at night with his blanket. She even started to hold his hand again; just as she once did as a Kirlia.

Then they finally came to the Spirit Tower. He was nervous at first, because this was to be his third time here. But he took his pokemon's hand in his own and walked forwards. Inside, he located the five gravestones that were the reason for his second time being here.

One was for his Golem, whome he had ordered to use Explosion so often that its internal organs were ruined; it died when its heart failed. The second was for his onix; a pokemon he trained so hard with to make it a Steelix. But after being forced to train against one to many fighting-type pokemon, its rock body simply came apart.

As he honored these two with their favorite berries, he noticed that his Gardevoir was standing by the last three. He paused for a moment, but then he remembered that this had to happen. He joined up with her and dusted one of them off.

"I still remember this one so well. She was your grandmother and my first pokemon. I was so young that I tried to catch her with a bug net. But I tripped and fell on my face; I cried for so long that she just walked over and put herself in it. I was so happy that day that I actually 'caught' a pokemon." He moved to the second, "This one, beside her...your...mother." He could barely bring himself to speak. But then his Gardevoir hugged him. "I'm so sorry."

He had lost the first when he became lost in a dark forest full of ghost pokemon. The second he lost when he was trapped in a Lairon's gathering grounds. She fought to protect him and her two children; one being a Ralts and the other still an egg. Then he looked to the third and remembered it to be his Gardevoir's sister.

"I remember training your sister and making her strong and brave while you were still just an egg. I lost her when I failed to realize that she was poisoned. She was so proud and stubborn that she didn't let it show until it was too late. She was so much like me. But I'm not going to be like that any longer." He traced the scar on his Gardevoir's eye again. "I will make it up to you. I will become a pokemon breeder and learn how to treat pokemon with the respect they deserve. Then I will teach other trainers how to do the same."

He left a berry on each of the three graves and left with his Gardevoir, who was happy for the change. Little did they know, a Ghasly had been watching the whole thing. It passed through the ceiling and floated high above the tower. From there it waited until nightfall.

Darkrai appeared before it as soon as the sun had vanished below the horizon. The Ghasly spoke of what the boy had done and how he had acted towards his fallen pokemon. Darkrai nodded and vanished into the darkness of the night. The Ghasly slowly faded to reveal the ghostly image of a Gardevoir before dissapearing completely, leaving a trail of light as she passed on.

Down the road, a lone figure was sitting by himself with a pile of pokeballs sitting beside him. There were not many people to meet him because it was dark now. Those who did pass didn't seem to notice him. But no matter how long he waits, the smile on his face never fades.

Then a girl, only twelve years old, came up to him and asked, "Why do you have so many pokeballs?"

"Because, my good girl, I will give you any pokemon I have in my collection, but only if you can defeat me with them."

"Do you have a Pikachu?"

The man shook his head, "Nope, sorry."

"What about a Charmander?

Another shake.

"What about a Togepi?"

The smile on his face only widens as he reaches out to grab a pokeball.