"Soooo, are you a hundred percent sure Danny got the right instructions?" Mira asked hesitantly as she peeked out of the long abandoned hotel room. "This isn't exactly five stars..."

"Well if she was really as paranoid as Danny said she was, it makes sense," Amos replied, though he looked equally uncomfortable sitting in the dark, cob-webbed hotel room. "I mean we avoided this place before, and I doubt many people come here either."

"Everyone except the people who are in them cults, those punk gang people, and the people who painted the graffiti of the pentagrams and everything immoral! Those punks painted unspeakable things in the hallway! How can you people be ok?!"

"Um, I was trying not to think about it..." Margaret stammered as she wrung her hands together while keeping her gaze to the now carpet free floor, the one graffiti free place in the room. "Let's just try and stay calm for now...please?"

She heard Mira begin muttering to herself instead of continuing to complain to the others. It was the day of their meeting with Emmaline, and Margaret, Mira, and Amos were currently waiting for her to arrive. The location picked was an abandoned hotel on the previous route, which was infamous for gangs, truants, and other dark and suspicious people. Margaret wasn't happy about the arrangements either and was beginning to regret not letting Danny lead the mission, but she did her best to suck up her fear and face the situation head on.

They all jumped at the sudden sound of footsteps in the dark and dank hallway beyond. Margaret could only decipher one set of footsteps, which didn't scream a trap, but she still fingered one of her pokeballs. She had learned to remain vigilant.

She nearly didn't recognize Emmaline when she rushed into the room gasping for breath. Her once neat attire was wrinkled and dirty. Her hat was crooked and her shoulder-length dark brown hair was messy and unkempt. She looked almost frightening, but her worried expression was shattered with a smile of relief.

"Oh thank goodness you all came!" Emmaline gasped she looked around at the people present before frowning. "But...where's Danny?"

"Danny is back in town," Margaret answered. "He was injured recently so he's stayed behind with his Pokémon."

"You look awful!" Amos commented bluntly. "What's happened, why did you ask us here?"

Emmaline bit her lip and Margaret saw her gaze sweep over the room cautiously. The young trainer than said seriously, "What brand of phones do you each use? Show them to me!"

Mira and Amos all looked to Margaret, who was slightly older than them. Margaret was the first to act, taking her bag slowly and hold out the Pokegear attached to the strap. The other two followed suit, revealing the Xtransceivers on their wrists. This seemed to satisfy Emmaline, for she sighed with relief.

"Alright, I had to make sure you didn't have a Holo Caster," she explained in a rush, shakely sitting down on a dirty overturned cushion. "I couldn't take any chances."

"What's the deal with Holo Casters?" Mira inquired first. "Aren't they that new brand of phone sold exclusively in Kalos? What do they have to do with Team Flare?"

"Holo Casters were created by a man named Lysandre Fleur-De-Lis," Emmaline answered bitterly. "As you may know, a Holo Caster is like any other phone, but instead of a live feed on a screen, it's a small, live holographic image of the caller. They are extremely useful and popular, but I learned a very dark secret about them. Team Flare has been using Holo Casters to listen into people's conversations and track people. It's a quick and easy way to find targets, and unfortunately, I've become one myself."

"They bugged the Holo Casters?" Amos repeated with astonishment. "But...there's so many of them, so that means..."

"Lysandre Fleur-De-Lis created them for Team Flare's personal gain more than for the people of Kalos, yeah. He's the leader of Team Flare. Ironic how the public has been searching for Team Flare members for years and the leader has been under our very noses this whole time."

"The Holo Casters may be why they've had a hard time finding us," Margaret added quietly, pushing away her shock at how the entire region was now one large concealed microphone. "None of us have, or had, a Holo Caster. We used Xtransceivers or Pokegears. That's why they merely waited for one of us to make a move. They couldn't pinpoint our exact locations."

But Emmaline shook her head uneasily and told her, "You might not have one, but you should still stay away from people using them. They still listen to the background noises, and passersbys can be registered in the holograms."

"How exactly do you know all this?" Mira interrupted, looking rather suspicious. "How did you learn about this little conspiracy? I don't think anyone outside of Team Flare would know this, or at least discover it without some pretty deep digging."

Emmaline bowed her head to look at the ground, avoided their faces. She was shaking harder now, and she was clasping her hands together tightly.

"T-That's just it," she answered in a cracked voice. "I...I think I was apart of it!"

She forced herself to look up at the others and gasped, "T-That's why I'm here, to say...to say I'm sorry! Y-Your friends...your family is gone because of me!"

All the air left Margaret's lungs at these words. Emmaline? A member of Team Flare? How was that possible? She was nothing like them, how could she be one of them?

"You don't mean that," came Mira's voice, which was now dripping with anger. "Don't say that! Don't say you really took my brother and sister, my only family, away from me!"

"Mira," Amos began sharply and suddenly grasping her wrist. Her hand had just turned into a fist. "Mira, calm down, let her tal-"

"What happened to them?!" The younger woman yelled over Amos. "What did you people do?! They weren't a threat to you if you just LEFT US ALONE! TELL ME WHERE THEY ARE!"

"Mira control yourself!" Margaret shouted sharply, stepping between the two girls. "Give her a chance! Emmaline, what are talking you about? What do you mean when you say you think you were once of them?"

Emmaline looked up at them, Margaret now seeing tears sliding down her face. She gave a shakey breath before answering, "After the Geosenge Town showcase, I met a man who offered to take me under his wing and teach me how to become a better trainer. He wasn't only a mentor to me, but a friend. He listened to my, well, problems and helped me look away from them to see the path that lay a head if I didn't look back."

"Was...Was this man Lysandre?"

The trainer nodded at Margaret's question and continued on, "He gave me a Key Stone in exchange for my assistance in a personal quest of his. But when the payment came due a few weeks ago, I...I chickened out. What he asked of me was too great and put so many people at risk. I did some digging and found out that his colleagues were known Team Flare sympathizers or members, so I ran away.

"I've been on the run from Team Flare and avoiding the rest of my friends. I didn't want to endanger them further. But then I received a letter from Xavier last week. He told me how everyone had been looking for me, and explained everything that had happened between the two groups. When I heard about the kidnappings, I knew instantly what had happened."

"Emmaline I don't think you're to blame for what happened-"

"You don't understand! I told Lysandre about all of you, all my friends! He knew about your personalities, your behavior! He's a flipping genius to most-!"

"Emmaline," Margaret said forcefully, sitting next to their friend and looking her in the eyes. "This was not your fault! You didn't know what you were doing, and you weren't responsible for what happened! Isn't that right, Mira?"

Margaret gave Mira a stern look to show that her loss of temper had been unnecessary. The young dragon tamer muttered am apology and refused to look anyone in the eye. Margaret knew that Mira was just as emotionally exhausted and strained as Danny, but that was no excuse.

"Do you know where they are at least?" Amos suddenly asked hopefully. "Do you know the location of the headquarters or a place of interest?"

"I don't know, I never went there myself," Emmaline sniffed while wiping her tears away. "Every time I met with Lysandre, it was at a cafe or a place to train. But..."

She hesitated before saying slowly, "I...I think I know what he wants, what he's trying to do. Lysandre often talked to me about his own philosophy. He thought that the world was too far gone to be saved, and once I learned about his Team Flare connections, he began talking about...scarier things. Have you heard the story of Noah?"

"Noah and the Ark," Margaret recited quickly before anyone else could answer. "The Lord was disappointed with mankind, but found favor in one man, Noah. The Lord told him to build a huge boat, an ark, and to gather up his family and pairs of all the creatures up inside the boat. God brought storms to flood the earth, but saving mankind through Noah and his family. Everyone else drowned in the floods."

"You mean to tell me," Mira started hoarsely while looking completely dumbfounded, "Lysandre is trying to wipe out humanity?"

Margaret's stomach squirmed with unease as Emmaline nodded and continued, "Exactly, but I wouldn't say humanity as a whole. He is searching for a power to at least wipe out most of Kalos. There is no man-made or Pokémon power to wipe out the whole world population, but there are ways to destroy most of a region's population.

"Lysandre is a sociopath; a person who dislikes or has a string disregard for other people's lives. He does one heck of a job at hiding his condition to the public though. He fooled me at least. I don't know what happened to him, but I think something hurt him in the past that just made him lose faith in humanity. He built Team Flare as his own boat of safety. People who pay a huge entry fee into Team Flare are spared from the destruction he plans to unleash on Kalos. Everyone not in Team Flare will be obliterated when the time comes."

"That's why he took Fiona," came Mira's hushed response as she hugged herself tightly. "She's probably the only human in the world that he loves. I mean... he sent people looking for her, he even sent out Deborah to bring her back. Fiona is his daughter, he wouldn't risk losing her either way, but he's trying to destroy everything."

"So you're saying whoever has Fiona controls the fate of Kalos?" Amos inquired. "But Lysandre has Fiona, so that means he can destroy us any minute now!"

"Lysandre can't do anything right now," Emmaline interrupted forcefully. "He has the technology, but not the energy. To use a phone, you need to have it charged first. The payment he wanted from me in exchange for the Key Stone was to retrieve the energy he needed to power the weapon he plans to use. He said he wanted me to find a certain Pokémon, a Pokémon called Xerneas."

Margaret's breath caught in her throat and her mouth went dry at the name. A name she had not heard in a long time. A name that brought the memories of when she was a young girl with only six Unowns and a brilliant blue and black stag-like Pokémon for family.

"X-Xerneas?" Margaret stammered weakly. "He wants Xerneas? Xerneas, the Pokémon of Life? The blue stag-like Pokémon with jewels engraved in the antlers? That Xerneas?"

"Well, I assume so, I don't know many other Pokémon called Xerneas!" Emmaline said defensively.

"Margaret, are you ok?" Amos asked with concern while placing his hand on her shoulder. "You look like you've seen a ghost!"

"In a way I did," Margaret replied dismissively before continuing, "Emmaline, tell me everything you know about Xerneas! This is important!"

"I don't know much apart from the stories," Emmaline answered nervously. "I know Xerneas, the Pokémon of Life, is believed to give eternal life in legends. She can make forests grow over night and has the ability to turn into a tree in order to heal and protect itself. I assume it has the power Lysandre needs to power his weapon, which is why he's looking for it. But I can't really see the Pokémon of Life causing such destruction, can you? I mean, legends say its powers are for healing, no destroying."

Margaret didn't answer for her mind's gears were turning swiftly. Xerneas had disappeared years ago, Margaret had not seen her since finding home. It made sense for Xerneas to come back to Kalos, her home region. She assumed she came here since Lysandre must have some proof that Xerneas was indeed in Kalos and not in another region. If Emmaline was right and Lysandre was looking for Xerneas, the stag Pokémon was in grave danger. He had taken most of her friends, she couldn't lose Xerneas too.

"Even though I'm not giving Lysandre his due payment, I'm sill going to travel to find Xerneas," Margaret heard Emmaline explain more. "If Xerneas has the power to destroy the region, I need to find it before Team Flare. That little girl, Fiona, you say she's Lysandre's daughter, right? Well if that's true than you were right, Amos; whoever has Fiona controls the fate of Kalos. I'm in no position to tell you all what to do, but you need to find Fiona above anyone else. She's too important, she and Xerneas both are."

"They can look for them," Margaret interrupted, standing up straight and forcing her voice to remain calm. "I'm coming with you, Emmaline. I can help you look for Xerneas, I don't think you'll find her without my help."

Amos and Mira both looked shocked and frightened at Margaret's response while Emmaline just looked dumbfounded. Margaret felt slightly guilty at throwing this on them so abruptly, but they couldn't possibly understand why she had to do this. Xerneas had given her life back; she gave her a home, a family who loved her, and even her two best friends in a way. It was her turn to return the favor.

"What do you mean?" Mira bleated feebly. "Why do you have to go?"

"You can't leave us! What about Leia, Fiona, and the others?!" Amos added furiously.

"I never told you everything about my past, but Xerneas played an important role in my childhood," Margaret started seriously. "She was there for me when no one else was, and she gave me back the life I thought I lost forever. If her life is endanger, I need to do everything I can to help her. Mira, you would understand. You're doing everything you can to help the two people who gave you a purpose in life, who gave you love and compassion. Don't you understand why I have to help her?"

Mira opened her mouth but it seemed words failed her. She seemed to be unconsciously aware that she was twisting her shortened dirty blonde hair. Margaret knew she couldn't get Amos or Danny to under why she needed to leave, but Mira wasn't so average.

"I... yes, I think I do," Mira finally answered quietly. "I guess we can't stop then. I know theres nothing in this world I wouldn't do for my family, so why waste our breath. But the real power of choice is with Emmaline."

But Emmaline shrugged slightly and replied, "I would appreciate the company, and I would love any help I can get. I'll be setting off tomorrow, so you can discuss all this with the rest of your team and gather supplies. This won't be a quick trip."

"I understand completely," Margaret said with a nod. "But I don't think anyone can change my mind, like Mira said. Thank you for telling us all this, Emmaline. I'm sure this wasn't easy for you."

Emmaline merely offered a small smile and said in a slight whisper, "It was all I could do. People forget it but... you all were my friends too. Some of my only friends, really."

~~~

Sup y'all. This is probably sooner than you expected me word wise. I'm trying to shorten these chapters to about 3,000 words average, and this week got very little writing done either way. I would have added more but I didn't have the time so this chapter will actually be two. Anyway, if you like longer chapters, let me know, I'll make a decision on who cares and who doesn't.

Most people know that since the previous SWS3 chapter, Wattpad got EXTREMELY glitchy to the point where updated and edited chapters were being deleted. I was unable to update TDOBH at all during that time, so that's my next chore. I also had projects to turn in for school, internet technical difficulties, and were also finals this week, so that attributed to the shortness.

TDOBH will be the next updated story for Saturday and next Thursday. I'm hoping I can get more writing done now that school and Wattpad issues have calmed down. Next chapter will probably be longer. Anyway, its late here and I need to finish other things before turning in, so I'll wrap it up now. Hopefully this will satisfy y'all until the next chapter of anything, and watch for TDOBH updates