Zander crawled out of his tent the next morning to an unexpected surprise. Several yards away from his own tent, was another, more spacious looking one than his own. He had hoped to have this area to himself, but the chances of that actually happening were slim to none. Still, it was a bit worrisome to say the least, that someone else was camping by this very spot. There were a number of different people that could be there. A random hiker, a cultist, albeit they didn't exactly strike him as the type to camp. What he found, was that it was neither of those things. Lo and behold, a familiar emerald-haired woman unzipped the tent.

A rather tired-looking Nora peered out of her tent and was about to come out when she remembered something vitally important. Something that caused her to freeze as she held onto the opening of the tent to veil herself from the unexpected sight of Zander who was standing not too far from her tent. Looking down at herself, she realized that she must have been far more tired than she thought after training as she had simply discarded her clothing. Stepping out now would leave very little to the imagination and in turn, embarrass her to no end. Slowly zipping the tent back up, she hastily gathered up her clothes and threw them on before stepping out of the tent.

"Heeeey Zander... I um... didn't realize you were camping here as well," Nora stammered.

"It's fine," Zander replied over his shoulder as he continued packing up his tent so he could begin moving on to Suntouched City.

"So, has Mew decided to join your team yet?" Nora inquired curiously, eyeing his belt to note that three spheres were separated from the rest, indicating that he either had a new friend or Mew had finally decided to consider Zander his trainer.

Her answer came in the form of the pink cat in a bubble floating upside down in front of her, giving her a bit of a jump scare. Mew giggled as he floated in mid air before vanishing from view.

"Well," she breathed, catching her breath and placing her hands on her hips, "I guess that answers my question then!" she shouted so Mew could hear, a frown dawning on her face as she glared at where the laughter was coming from.

"To further answer your question, I did add something new to my team," Zander said casually as he finished packing up his tent and hoisting his bag onto his shoulders.

"Out here? that's interesting... I mean I guess there are a few Pokémon that are sighted here every now and again but with that temple and all..." she trailed off, her eyes glancing over at the ancient structure as she spoke. "Rumor has it there's a Lucario in there that can Mega Evolve without a trainer. Not that I believe it or anything..."

"Well the rumors are true," was Zander's reply as he headed off down the trail.

"Wait, what!?" Nora exclaimed, catching up to him quickly and falling in stride with him. "And just how would you know that? it's not like it's just going to come out and perform it like a parlor trick," Nora added as she kept pace.

"You're right, she wouldn't do that, unless she was protecting her young from cultists," Zander quipped, his eyes shifting to hers for a brief moment.

"Cultists?" Nora said worriedly, stopping as Zander turned around to face her. "You ran into Cultists?"

Zander nodded, a sigh escaping his lips as he recalled staring down death for the third time in his life.

"They were after the Lucario and used her son as bait. And me being the idiot that I am," he paused, reaching down and snapping off the ball that held Riolu from his belt and tapping the mechanism in the center to release him.

Riolu emerged from his poké ball and immediately claimed Zander's shoulder as his spot. Nora looked at the little canine with widened eyes.

"He's a-"

"Delta Riolu, I know. The mother was a Delta as well, and before you ask, the answer is yes, I did confront the cultists. I don't know what cult they're from but if their usage of Water-types was any clue, it must be centered around that," Zander surmised.

"You confronted the cultists, with a team as inexperienced as yours!? Zander, you're either very brave or stupid, I can't decide which," Nora groaned, rubbing her temples with worry.

"I think I established the idiot part earlier. I would have been dead had the mother not come when she did. I'm not sure why... but I had a feeling that she was around. I guess that's part of the reason I did what I did. Part of me knew I'd definitely get myself killed. But what was I supposed to do, leave resign Riolu to his fate?" Zander replied sternly.

"I... I guess not. Still, you have to be careful. If they caught wind that you were one of the chosen they-"

"Would have done something worse? I nearly got cut in half by a Crawdaunt. I don't think they could have done anything worse than that," Zander replied as he began walking again, causing Nora to follow.

"Okay, I'm sorry. It's just... this whole thing is really scary you know? part of me wishes that Celebi never found me. I could be just like everyone else and not have to bear the burden of high expectations, and I'd be fine with that. But life doesn't work that way apparently as I'm sure you've found out..." Nora sighed.

Zander had indeed found that out, the hard way of course. He never asked to be dealt the hand he'd been given. First he was kidnapped by a group of psychopathic cultists with a leader who was the embodiment of sadism herself, and if that wasn't enough, he lost the majority of his memories to her damned Gengar! Some of it was in tact, like his knowledge of Pokémon and things of that nature. But now he had to deal with the shocking revelation that he was one a group of trainers whose fates were intertwined and whose destiny was to overcome the darkness that had spread through Torren.

Honestly, he didn't want this. Any of it. Having to deal with the fact that he couldn't even remember what he liked to do, his favorite colors, foods, or anything else was truly infuriating. And as much as he didn't like this out of the blue task he'd supposedly been given, he hated the cultists even more. He wanted to remember more than just his name. If he ever found that Gengar, he'd strangle it until it regurgitated every last memory it greedily swallowed up.

"Yeah... I can relate," Zander replied with a frown, taking a deep breath as he did his best to calm himself down and suppress the rage he felt at that moment.

"I suppose there's a silver lining to all of this. We can work together on this. There may only be two of us, but with Mew and Celebi having our backs, we can hold our own," Nora responded, opting to have a more positive outlook on their situation.

Zander smiled faintly at her remark. While it was true that they weren't very much on their own, the fact that the two mythical legends were on their side was comforting. After all, it was thanks to Mew that he was alive at the moment. It got him out of Darkrai's Children's headquarters. And now it was watching his back as per instructions from a mysterious benefactor that he knew absolutely nothing about. There was one thing that bothered him though. The voice of his benefactor... it sounded familiar somehow, almost like he knew them.

"You're right. As long as these two are with us, there isn't much we should worry about, unless they're packing something similar," Zander replied with a nervous laugh, remembering how Persephone had summoned Darkrai in an attempt to persuade it to her side.

He could only imagine what would have happened if she had succeeded. Just the thought of Darkrai doing the bidding of someone like her was something he couldn't fathom. The nightmares she would create would be horrendous. Thankfully, Darkrai had some sense and didn't listen to the crazy woman. After what seemed like hours, Nora and Zander reached what was known as the Cyan Cavern.

"Suntouched City is on the other side of this cave. It's a pretty lengthy walk though," Nora sighed, looking up at the entrance wearily.

"According to the map, it'll take the rest of the day just to get through it. Since there's a lot to explore in here, we might end up being in there longer," Zander replied, adjusting his head lamp as he ventured forth into the cave.

"That actually sounds like a nice opportunity to train. Now that I think of it... there are a lot of Pokémon in this cave we could battle against. Hey! why don't we have a few practice matches? It'll make your team stronger and one of them might even evolve if you're lucky," Nora chirped with a grin.

"That would give me more of a fighting chance in case we run into any cultists along the way. Not that they know who we are yet..." he said half truthfully as one cult in particular did in fact know who he was.

"It'll also help you in your gym battle too! there's a really strong Gym Leader in Suntouched City named Orion! I heard he's only a kid, but he's pretty strong. I've been wanting to see how I measure up to the strongest trainers in Torren..." Nora added with a smirk.

"Gym Leaders huh?" Zander thought, liking the sound of a good challenge that could push him to become stronger. "If he's already a Gym Leader as a kid, he must be good. I guess if I'm gonna be collecting badges I might as well do it right..." Zander resolved, turning to Nora with a determined look in his eyes.

Nora mirrored his expression and smiled. It was comforting to know that she was not alone in the burden she bore. While he had a lot of catching up to do, she would do her best to ensure that he could pull his weight when it came to battling. She knew how tough Orion was by watching his matches live. With that advantage in mind, she had the team to match his, blow for blow. Oddly enough, Zander's team was also capable of taking it on, as long as she managed to help him strengthen his Pokémon a bit more. Riolu and Treecko held the advantage out of all of them, considering what she had just learned about this particular Riolu after having scanned it hours prior.

"What are we waiting for? let's get started then!" Nora exclaimed, following Zander as he advanced farther inside.