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Two glimmering portals shimmered into existence amongst the last of the ones to arrive. One a shimmering ornate silver that a Dragonair slipped out of with a thoughtful expression on his face, the other a lovely blend of gold, brown, and black which deposited the trio of Era, Riley, and Keiran safely on the ground. The Pikachu and Eevee looked around in bewilderment, both scarcely believing that they were finally out of that seemly unending maze of challenges. The others there though, they were the rest of the Guild. There was little question that they had to be back in the same place as before. Which meant... "Ethfael!" Era's voice carried over to the dragon's ears in her delighted cry and he smiled as he spotted the others and came over to join them. "Thank goodness you're alright!" Era said, eyes shining with contentment to have her partner back again. Riley looked at Keiran with a knowing smile and shook his head, but really the Eevee was happy that his Leader was happy too. The Pikachu and the Dragonair began to exchange stories, and Riley looked around at the others to see that everyone must have been through something similar. At least, they all looked a little worse for the wear which would imply as much.

The instant the mirror appeared, all three members of Team MistMelody fell silent, their eyes fixated on it and drawn for different reasons. And then came the moment that they all had been waiting for, when the voice showed herself, and it effected each of them greatly. Riley took off his hat, feeling as though it was only right in the presence of such a great deity-like being; Ethfael looked at her with a level gaze but dipped his head, acknowledging that it was she who had done all of this and that they were next to nothing compared to her; and Era swayed on her feet, the words of a certain Gardevoir coming to mind as she looked at Cresslia, overcome by a feeling of awe and fear as she now realized that this was something they could not fail at any cost. Ethfael lifted his tail to steady his co-captain a bit and looked at her with concern, but Era's eyes were only for the Legendary before them. At her command the Pikachu's eyes glazed slightly with worry, but her ears twitched defiantly and she gave a nod of consent. She swallowed uncertainly and looked at the three boys around her, "You heard Cresselia," she murmured, "We have to do what she said." Keiran was off in the direction of another Guild member, a Chimchar it looked like, shortly after. Riley made as if to chase him but Era held a paw up and shook her head, "I'm sure he knows what he's doing. Keiran can fight his own battles if he needs to." Riley looked slightly stricken, especially as he watched the Riolu take a set of Fury Swipes to the face but he nodded slightly as he watched Keiran fight back with a Force Palm, hoping that the Fighting Type would be alright.

Era paused where she stood, looking back and forth in confusion. She didn't know what to attack, except that there was no chance that she was sending an attack toward Cresselia. Even if it didn't hurt her, even if she wanted them to show their strength in any way possible, the Pikachu couldn't bring herself to attack the Pokemon that they needed help from. On the other hand though, she couldn't just attack her Teammates, or anyone from the Guild. Ethfael however was on top of things. "Riley, let's spar." It wasn't a question but a command. Era looked aghast, and she was about to protest but Riley was too fast. He nodded once to Ethfael and then jumped forward towards the Dragonair who met his attack firmly. It was a delicate array of choreography; they fought viciously but never once did they land a blow that was hard enough to draw blood.

As they fought, Era looked on unhappily; she didn't want them to fight, she didn't want to fight anyone! Wasn't it a kind of strength all its own to be unwilling to hurt a friend? She converted her energy to sparks until she was a veritable ball of electricity that no one could come within a few feet of without receiving a nasty shock. The Pikachu looked about through her self-made sphere of lightning for a target, any target at all, but there wasn't anywhere safe. In desperation, she looked up at the seemingly unending white sky. That would have to do if anything would. She let the sparks fly upward, looking rather like lightning itself. Hopefully it would be good enough to impress Cresselia, without having to hurt anyone in the process.

"Oof" Veritas and Morana tumbled out of their mirror. Neither looked hurt but both seemed exhausted. The two simply laid there for several moments, collecting their strength for whatever came next.

And then Cresselia tells them to go all out, lovely. So everyone else broke out into fights in one form or another. But the two of them had already shown their best, all they had, in that damn dungeon. That place had been hell. Veritas didn't know if she had any electricity left in her.

"I knew we should have saved some of our strength." Veritas grunted, struggling to her feet. Morana got up next to her, legs shaking.

"Let's...just put everything into one last attack." Morana suggested, flicking her gaze upwards. It doesn't look like firing attacks at Cresselia is going to do anything, and neither of them felt like getting into a fight of any sort. Just show Cresselia their power and then they can take a nap.

Veritas nodded, a haze of blue light gathering in her throat accompanied. Morana gathered flames at the back of hers. Both shot their attacks upwards at the same time, the Jolteon's Dragon Pulse fired off as a small ball of energy, making a high-pitched whining sound as it shot through the air. Trailing behind it was a stream of fire that tapered out as it went higher and higher until it was gone.

Then both of them immediately sat down. They need a rest.



Atra got ejected from his mirror rather violently, as he came out sideways, hit the ground, and slid a few feet before coming to a stop. The Flareon's fur was matted with mud and blood, his limbs twitched spasmodically as sparks danced through him, and he was breathing heavily. He something clattered next to him, having also flown out of the mirror, a large blue rectangular plate.

"Damn you, making me fight that b*****d again." He cursed with a shaky voice as the Icicle Plate shrunk down to its regular shape and size of a small crystal. The Flareon rolled over back onto his belly, slipping the pendant over his head, and shakily pushed himself up to his feet. He favoured his front right leg heavily, but he stood his ground.

His eyes narrowed as Cresselia appeared. Oh, she was going down. The Flareon disappeared in the blur of a shadow, and reappeared a split second later behind Cresselia, slamming into her with a Shadow Force. The momentum of his attack sent him flying into the ground, where he tried to roll out of to get back on his feet but-

"ARGH!" Wooops, forgot about the broken leg there now did we idiot?

(( Posted because I'm going to the funeral in like....*looks at clock* An hour. Be back later ya'll~ ))

The two male members of Team MistMelody present fought as easily as if they were foes. It wasn't the first time this had happened after all, and neither could forget it, but they worked very hard to keep from doing anything terribly harmful. However, on the other hand, both of them had alterior motives that made the fighting far easier than what it should have been for two close Teammates. Ethfael tapped into the resentment that still lingered faintly in the scars that covered his body from the Eevee's claws and the competition he felt whenever the Normal Type pulled something with Era; Riley's fight came from his other self, which numbed his emotions and threatened to pull him under, may have succeeded if it weren't for what he had just recently experienced, but certainly made battle a simple task. The two fought tooth and claw, fire and card, air and magic, and neither one seemed to tire or be willing to draw back until the voice of the Legendary rang through the area, with it an unspoken order to cease their actions. Both turned to look at Cresselia, sides heaving as they panted, and a feeling of sudden, draining exhaustion swept over the two.

Era too ceased her lightning's flow and felt the pull of all that she had been through while she was here. Battles and voices and near-death experiences were a great deal to face all in such a short time-span. Her last attack had worn her down, she'd given her all with that and the recoil was far from merciful. Cresselia's words though, they were enough to give the Pikachu a new-found hope, to stir the embers of hope that had started to grow dormant within her. She would consider it, oh Arceus she would consider it! They needed her help so deperately that even a consideration was many steps from where they had been before. Only time could tell then: time would either meet their hopes or crush them. Solaris seemed to be thinking along the same lines as she was, or so the Espeon's words implied but she didn't even get to hear him finish his thought before she was plunged into sudden darkness without warning...



There was a muffled groan from Era as she blinked her eyes open only to close them again at the light of the hall. This was familiar...they must be back at the Guild. She glanced down at her paws and found that they were their normal yellow color once more which was a pleasant surprise. The Pikachu tried to turn but found that she couldn't due to being snuggly nestled somewhere smooth and a familiar blue... Era's eyes widened with surprise and she began to wriggle to try to get out, her face tinged with a blush of embarrassment. The blue form began to move and there was a soft sigh as Ethfael awoke, opening his eyes to find his partner, who froze upon their eye contact, right before them. Flustered and somewhat embarrassed, the Dragonair and the Pikachu held eye contact, neither of them moving and both of them thinking about how very close their faces were right now. There was a gap of less than an inch, if either of them so much as leaned forward slightly- "Wake up sleepyheads!" Riley's voice startled them both and cut through the thought, "We're back!" Ethfael turned to look at him and Era let out a silent sigh of relief that they weren't in the uncomfortable position of before any longer. At the same time though, there was some small part of her that was disappointed, and she wasn't entirely certain what to think of that.

Ethfael uncoiled himself from around Era inconspicuously as he turned to Riley. "It would seem that way, wouldn't it?" he replied softly, straightening up and looking about at the rest of the Guild. All were stirring except for Solaris and a certain Team who he had seen around a few times as of late. All of it then, it had all been a dream. It made sense, he supposed, as Cresselia was the Legendary of dreams just as her counterpart, Darkrai himself, was the Legendary of nightmares; yet there was something disconcerting about the whole thing. If it was a dream, did it really happen? Of course it really happened, clearly it did because they others seemed as puzzled as he was and they all had been there, like a shared dream. But it hadn't happened all the same. He shook his head slightly; the whole affair was terribly puzzling, but now wasn't the time to think about it in great detail.

Era got to her paws as Ethfael moved to let her out of his coils. She smoothed back her fur which was ruffled here and there from her awkward sleeping position and her bright eyes perused the area, pinpointing the Roserade that was tending to the Pokemon all around. In fact there were multiple Pokemon who hadn't been in their "dream" who were asking to see if everyone was alright, likely on the Roserade's orders. It brought a smile to the Pikachu's face to see the doctor again, she'd never gotten the other Pokemon's name but she vaguely knew her at least. The Dual Type wasn't that far from her, so Era picked up on the question being asked and approached the Roserade with a slight smile. "It was Cresselia," she informed the medical worker in a serious tone, "She must have brought us all into a sort of shared dream and she claimed to want to have us prove our worth to her. Physically, I think everyone's fine. I doubt Cresselia would have a dream hurt us for real, though it might be a bit mentally fatiguing, I'm not quite sure yet." In the last statement she used her own condition for an answer. Nothing hurt, she just felt...odd, like she'd lived through something that never happened. Dream time was quite different from time in real life after all. That and, although she'd slept, she didn't feel very rested. It was peculiar indeed.

(( Woo~ MP~ <3 One step closer to evo~ <333 Oh and I took the Moonlight TM and Isis now has her DW ability. Also the snarky Smoochum used the teams grey contact lens just 'cause I needed to RP it somehow. XD ))

((Remove ice typing, gain grass typing.))