A woman stood the edge of a boat. Her long, blonde hair floated in the wind, which tried to carry away her white sunhat. She turned and waved as the sun shined, making her shine like a precious gem in turn. Those bright green eyes welcomed him.

Those beautiful green eyes that were like the canopy of trees, interrupted by the pitch black pupil that stood out as a dead, yet magnificent tree among the forest.

Those unforgettable eyes.

She smiled, then turned back to the sea and pointed out to a storm that looked so far away, but was without a doubt already upon them.

The boat rocked back and forth angrily as the waves tore into each other and the lightning scarred the sky and the winds danced wildly clashing.

The young lady insisted on experiencing the storm, and embraced its every transgression like a mother forgives her child. A finger of wind flicked the hat off of her head. She reached out for the hat, but lost balance as the ship trashed in its tantrum.

The young man ran forward to catch her, to stop her, but was too late.

The girl was swallowed up by the dark blue waters below, and the boy cried out in distress, but there was no one to save them.

Daron woke up from his sleep doused in sweat and breathing hard. He just had another nightmare, no, another memory of the past revisit him. He sat up in his bed and gathered his wits, then slid out of the red silk bed. The sun leaked in through the snow white curtains and guided his way to the mirror.

"I look like a wreck." He sighed, then looked down at his hands. Those hands completely clean yet dirtied by the blood of another. "I swear I'll make sure no one has to suffer the same fate as you. I'll use every ounce of my power to bring it to life. I'm so close..."

He walked away from his mirror and up to the window. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something sticking out of his jacket that was thrown over a chair. He picked up the intrusion and took a deep look at it.

It was a slightly sun bleached picture of him and a girl from several years back. They were both smiling as they stood in front of a boat that had yet to make its maiden voyage. In that picture, they both looked so happy. He slipped the picture back into the pocket from which it came.

"I'm sorry, Veronica."

He carried on his morning ritual, but could not get those carefree green eyes out of his mind. They were burnt into his very being, scars that he wished to hide but never to fade away.

-----

"Elrroooon!!!" mother screamed into the pokegear. "Why am I finding out that you're ENGAGED through her parents and not from you?!"

Busted. I actually totally forgot about telling them... "I was going to tell you next time I got home," I lied.

"I know you Elron, you probably forgot didn't you? Forgot about your own mother!" I thought I heard a sniffle come through the wires.

Dang, she knows me too well.

The ship docked and there was an "all aboard" call.

Saved by the bell. "Sorry, I gotta go: the ship's here! Bye mom!" I hung up as quickly as I could.

I looked forward at the massive cruise liner that Daron's crew, and his crew only, would be taking to Sinnoh. There were two points of entry: one for people and one for luggage. The luggage one was being rapidly filled with all sorts of cases imaginable. It looked like this was going to really be a full fledged expedition. The other entryway was being clogged by two people trying to push each other out of the way.

"I will be the first one on," yelled a hot blooded man. He had red hair that was combed back and that flowed to his neck like a slow moving lava current.

"No, I will," yelled a cold blooded man back. His muscular physique bursted with roughness, as did his black beard and mustache.

Daron came up behind them and pulled them back. "If you two are going to act like that then I'll be the one that's the first one on. Good grief, you two are the reason that Cozmo wouldn't come with us, you know?"

"It's this buffoon Archie's fault, Mr. Daron!" said the hot blooded one.

"No, it's this bird brained Maxie's fault, Mr. Daron!" said the rough one.

"It's both of your faults, now hush for once in your lives." Daron took a step onto the gangplank and immediately got sea sick. "One... more... ship ride."

The other two went to his aid.

You're holding up the line just as much as they were...

Daron stood up and managed to pull himself properly on board.

"That's it, let's settle this in the battle court," decided Maxie.

"You're on!"

They ran on board, butting shoulders the entire way.

"Battling on a ship? That sounds dangerous," I said out loud.

"Na," corrected Flora, who was wheeling her two suitcases of luggage behind her. "This ship is special and has a room built for battling in the hull."

"Still sounds dangerous to me. And why do you need two suitcases? Don't you normally just need your bag?"

"Yes, normally, but this isn't normal. We're headed to Snowpoint City, a super cold region of the world! You need lots of clothes for cold weather."

"I know... but that many?"

"Don't question a girl and her luggage."

"Fine, fine."

We dropped our luggage off in our room and decided to check out the ship. It wouldn't be long before it would leave port, but they still were loading supplies onto the ship, so it couldn't leave quite yet. We were on the main deck when there was a rumbling from below.

"Come on," said Flora. "There must be a battle happening right now! Let's go check it out!"

"Don't you ever get tired of battles?" I teased.

She looked disappointedly at me.

"I guess at least checking it out wouldn't be a problem."

We walked down the many flights of stairs to the bottom decks, because apparently I don't get enough exercise as it is, and the rumbling grew as we got further down. Flora pushed open the doors to the huge room.

There were bleachers on each side to seat the spectators, of which there were quite a few, and below there was a large concrete floor. A concrete floor that was at this point cracked in several places and partially flooded. Flora and I took a seat to watch the two opposites duke it out.

"Camerupt, use Take Down!"

"Sharpedo, use Aqua Jet!"

The large, hairy cow-looking beast collided with the four finned shark. They hit heads and neither looked like they would budge a muscle. They were just as fired up as their trainers.

"Magnitude!"

"Surf!"

The Sharpedo shot back into the water that it had undoubtedly caused and sent a wave rushing forwards. The Camerupt pounded its foot into the ground and shook the ship, disrupting the wave with a small tsunami of its own.

"Solrock, Psychic!" In the entrance of the room the familiar face of Brandon stood. A Solrock rushed forward and halted the movement of both of the other two. "Maxie! Archie! This is far too big of a battle to be having on a ship! You're giving the boss a heart attack up there! And would you look at the floor! And the flooding! Daron isn't going to be happy with how much you messed up his new ship so soon."

The two of them took a temporary truce and returned their pokemon.

"Sorry Brandon."

"Won't happen again."

"That's more like it," said the adventurer, returning his Solrock. He left the room slightly annoyed.

And the two of the were already at it again.

"I returned first!"

"No, I did!"

Does it even matter?! The looked older than me be a decent amount, but they were both acting like children.

"Well, that was kind of anticlimactic," said Flora.

The ship started moving shortly after that. I had never been on a ship before, so it was an interesting experience. No matter where you went, there was a slight but constant swaying. We didn't do much after that for a while. Flora sunbathed and I just sat around. As novel of an experience as it was, it quickly got boring.

"Dinner is now being served in the dining room," called out the intercom system.

You didn't have to tell us twice, so we wandered over to the room. It was a very nice room on the first floor above the main deck, with a great view of the ocean below. There was a small stage, which I imagined would be used for musical performers, and lots of nice chairs and tables that were already almost completely filled with various people that I had never met but were also a part of this expedition. But none of that mattered really, what really mattered was the food. In shiny silver trays there were the fanciest dishes that I had ever been allowed to lay eyes on, and they were payed for on our trip.

"I have suddenly taken a liking to this whole cruise thing," I said, stacking my plate up with delicacies that I had never had before. Flora did likewise, but packed it down into her plate to make it look like she was having less. We looked around for a spot to eat among the crowd.

"Hey, you two," yelled Daron, waving his hand. "Why don't you eat over here?" On either side of him were the dynamic duo. I'm sure the only thing that kept them from fighting was the fact that he was sitting between them.

Well that's convenient. "Alright!" We took the two spots left at the table and tore into the food that we had been so gracefully given. Oh, how nice it is to eat this kind of stuff when most of my meals are camping food!

"Why don't we get something fun going?" suggested Daron. He flagged down a worker of the ship and whispered something to him. The worker nodded and walked off, then shortly after wheeled a cart with a small TV on it out onto the stage. "Let's do some karaoke! Hey, Archie, Maxie, why don't you start us off with a duet!"

"But Mr. Daron!"

He shook his head. "Nope, boss's orders."

The two sulked, but accepted anyways. After arguing a little about who would get what part, which the worker of the machine ended up deciding for them, they carried on a tune which was utterly ravaged by their battle for superiority. That got everyone in the mood for some fun, and surely enough it was almost like a party in there. I felt sorry for the people actually in charge of taking care of the ship, because they were the only ones who couldn't join in. I even tried singing a song. Lots of songs later, the excitement slowly died down, and people started leaving.

Daron took his leave, leaving the four of us at the table. "Hey, Flora, why don't you go up there?"

For once, the other two agreed on something and said she should too.

"I don't know..."

"Come on, it'll be fun! Even I did it!"

She gave into peer pressure and agreed. Soon as she took the stage, however, the mood changed. She didn't select a song for the machine to play, and instead went straight to the microphone. There was no quarreling for the moment at our table. With a beautiful but somber voice, she sang.

"With a destiny so black,

Even fire looks white.

There is no turning back,

Back to the light.

The sins of my past life

Always catch up.

Filled with such strife,

They freeze my pup.

Despite the pain I know,

Take my eighth tail.

I'll hide in my grotto,

Cold, scared, and frail.

I know like none other:

Ninetales're tough.

I could lose another.

Seven's enough."

The room went almost silent. Flora put the microphone back and walked quietly to her seat. There was a small, hesitant applause.

"Wow... I didn't know you could sing!"

"I guess I can... It's no big deal..."

The atmosphere soon returned to normal, and I decided to try to converse with those at my table. "So, how about this ship? It's amazing!"

"I know what you mean," answered Archie. "Daron makes the best ships around! I wouldn't mind living on one of these things!"

"He makes these ships?"

"That is correct," replied Maxie, irritating Archie. "He's actually one of the biggest names in the ship making industry. That's why we can have such a nice ship to ourselves and why he can afford all of this!"

That explains a lot.

We quickly ran out of things to talk about, and Flora and I decided to call it a day. We went to our room.

"This bed's yours, and this one's mine," she decided.

We're getting married and I'm still being bed-zoned! I reluctantly went to my bed and found it to be very soft, as well as luxurious like everything else on the ship. I could get used to this...

***

A/N: I'm really proud of that dream scene and that song by the way :3

Also, as Stormlocke pointed out, I did write the dream a little weird, though on purpose. That sentence that was strung together with many "and"s is using a technique called "polysyndeton," which I used to try to make events blur together like in a dream :) Just so you guys know and don't complain about it later :P