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The pokemon looked up as Mephistopheles entered the old library, the rotted wood creaking under his step. In his arms was a sleeping Lenore, and he laid her gently on the floor. Nelis'viel was the first to notice something was wrong. Mephistopheles was even more quiet than usual, and all she could sense from him was a great sadness.

Turning to Lenore, she found she could sense nothing at all.

"No..." Tears welled in her eyes as Mephistopheles' sadness grew. The other pokemon quickly caught on that something was wrong. Elesh Norn rushed over to Lenore's body and her eyes went wide at the realization that the girl wasn't breathing. One by one, the other pokemon came to the girl's side and noted the same. Elesh Norn glared at Mephistopheles with so much hatred that Nelis'viel was stunned and fell backwards. The darkrai's mouth moved wordlessly as the ralts got back to her feet, fear in her eyes.

"Regrettable." A sigh accompanied the single word, and Sheoldred and Urabrask turned to leave. "Wait! Do not leave!" Hell-Hoot flew down to intercept the two bug pokemon.

The metapod looked up at the noctowl. "Sorry, but we don't have a reason to stay. Get out of the way."

The noctowl stared sadly at the metapod. "Friends! Do not leave!"

Sheoldred sighed. "Don't you get it? We were only here for the girl. Now that she's dead, we're leaving." The metapod glared dangerously at the noctowl. "Now get out of the way."

The noctowl moved aside sadly, and the bug pokemon left.

As Hell-Hoot continued to peck at Lenore, Jin-Gitaxias broke the silence. "You know you could probably bring her back."

The other three pokemon whirled around. "What do you mean, Jin-Gitaxias?" Mephistopheles demanded.

The gengar's focus shifted from Lenore to Mephistopheles. "I'm not stupid. Not like the rest. I know you and the girl had a pact in exchange for her soul. Stupid girl. So all you need to do is give it back."

"I already tried that! I cannot end the pact!"

"You can't. But she can." Jin-Gitaxias shifted his gaze to Elesh Norn. "I don't understand how that power of yours works, but it doesn't seem to care about the laws of reality. I first noticed it during your fight with Mephistopheles. You weren't destroying the tendrils, you were completely erasing them from existence. I've watched you since then, and you seem to have the power to shape reality to your will. All you'd have to do is use that power to make it so that the idiot dusclops can end the pact. Stupid as she was, the girl was interesting. I don't want to lose such an interesting specimen."

Elesh Norn nodded her understanding. She turned to Mephistopheles. "Are you ready...?"

The dusclops nodded. "Absolutely. I want to save Lenore, too."

The darkrai gave a small smile as the runes on her body began to glow.

Lenore's eyes shot open to the familiar playground. Getting up, she turned to the swing set. "I thought I'd be dead."

Rocking back and forth, the other Lenore grinned. "You are. But you won't be for very long. Just like a kid's fairy tale, you're about to be revived. Don't worry, no kissing involved. Mef and Ellie are making sure that you come back."

Lenore stared at the other her. She was a mirror image, now. Exactly the same as her. "Who are you, really?"

The other Lenore stopped swinging and looked into Lenore's eyes. "I suppose that's a fair question. I'm you, but not you. I'm a part of you that you gave away a long time ago. But I'm coming back, now." The girl got off the swing and stepped up to Lenore until the two were face to face. "I'm your soul."

Lenore shook her head. "That's stupid."

The other Lenore smiled. "Maybe so, but it's true. I thought that Mef couldn't give me back, but I was wrong. They found a loophole. You're going to be fine." Tears filled the other Lenore's eyes as she smiled even more. "I'm coming home." She stepped forward once again and wrapped Lenore in a hug. "I've missed you, me...."

Before Lenore could do anything, the other girl vanished in a flash of light; but her voice echoed endlessly throughout the world. "No matter what happens, I'll always be cheering you on..."

Darkness came crashing down from everywhere and the world was swallowed up.

"You should probably go after her."

Jin-Gitaxias' words cut through the silence like a knife. Elesh Norn and Mephistopheles looked back at the gengar and nodded before rushing after the girl.

The two looked through the forest for what felt like years but could only have been maybe half an hour tops before they heard sobs coming from a hollowed tree. Inside was Lenore, her arms wrapped around her legs, hugging them to her chest as she rested her head on her knees. "Lenore..."

The girl got up as quickly as she could and took off running before a shadow flew down from the trees above to cut off her path. "No. No more running. Face fears." The noctowl looked at the girl with saddened eyes as he cut her off again and again as she tried to run around him. Finally Mephistopheles grabbed her softly by the arm.

"Lenore, what's wrong?"

The girl shook her arm free of the light grip and glared at the dusknoir, her eyes even more red from crying. "What's wrong? What's wrong? I thought we were friends, Mef! I thought we were friends, but you gave the proof of our friendship back to me!"

"Lenore, you would have died without your soul."

"I was perfectly ready to! I would have preferred to die! I don't want to go back to the way things were in Orre! I don't want to be alone anymore!"

"You're not alone, Lenore. You have the friends you've made during your stay in Zatao. You have Elesh Norn, Jin-Gitaxias, Sheoldred, Urabrask, Hell-Hoot, Nelis'viel, Shina, Officer Hartmann, and so many others! They're your friends - friends you made!"

"They're not, though! Not like we were!" Elesh Norn felt like she had been slapped. Even after all the time they'd been together, this world's Lenore still didn't see her as a friend. Not like she saw Mephistopheles. She stared at the ground as Lenore continued to scream at the dusknoir. "We had a contract, Mef! It proved we were friends, but now it's gone, and I have nothing left! Why couldn't you just let me die?!" The girl looked down, sobbing once more.

"Because we're friends."

Lenore froze and slowly looked up, confusion plain on her face. "We're friends? Even now? But... the contract-!"

Mephistopheles cut her off. "We don't need the contract, Lenore. I told you that before. We're friends. You, me, the others - we're friends. We don't need a contract for that to be true."

"You're back." The gengar remarked nonchalantly as the three walked into the library. Lenore gave a small smile as she walked over to him. "Yeah." Kneeling down, she wrapped him into a hug.

Jin-Gitaxias was motionless for a moment. "What are you doing?"

"I'm hugging you, Gita." The girl responded simply as she let go. "Thank you for being my friend."

The gengar said nothing. Stupid, but interesting.



Some time passed, and Hell-Hoot returned with Sheoldred, Urabrask, and Nelis'viel. Lenore gave them a small wave as they entered. "Hey." Sheoldred and Urabrask merely nodded, but Nelis'viel could feel happiness emanating from the two. The ralts smiled at all the happiness around the room. It was warmer than usual - it felt nice.