The air was still over Lavender Town when a sharp, familiar voice cracked through the calm.
"SKYLAR!"
Skylar turned, already bracing himself.
Gary Oak was storming across the square, coat flapping behind him, two aides following at a jog. His expression was not relief—it was fury.
"You didn't call," Gary barked, stopping just short of grabbing Skylar by the collar. "I told you—if anything even remotely like Mt. Moon happened again, you were to call me. First. No excuses."
Skylar met his gaze, tired but calm. "There wasn't time. The Hive was already awake. If I'd waited even another hour—"
"You almost died," Gary snapped. "Again."
Skylar's lips curled in a half-smile. "Not quite."
Gary let out a sharp breath and looked away, trying to calm himself. "You're damn lucky."
"I know," Skylar said. "But you're not here to lecture me. Come on. There's something you need to see."
Back beneath the ruins of the tower, the air was thick with smoke and residual aura.
Charizard walked beside them, limping but proud. Gardevoir floated silently. Misty followed with Arcanine and Starmie, all of them still visibly wounded. The deeper they went, the more Gary's expression hardened.
"This is where it ended?" he asked.
Skylar shook his head.
"No. This is where it almost ended."
Charizard growled softly, pausing at a section of fractured stone. A thin current of warm air hissed through the cracks.
"There's something below us," Skylar said. "It hid deeper than we realized."
Gary nodded once. "Rhydon. Dig."
Moments later, the ground collapsed inward, revealing a hidden stair spiraling into pure dark.
Skylar felt it before they stepped in.
Not shadow.
Pain.
The chamber below was massive. Quiet. Cold.
The light from above flickered against damp stone, glinting off something… unnatural.
Gary froze.
Misty gasped.
And Skylar's breath caught.
Laid out in a perfect circle, connected to a central, pulsing red crystal—
Ten children.
Unconscious.
Motionless.
Thin black threads pulsed from the crystal into their spines and necks, feeding a soft psychic pulse into their heads.
Nurse Joy, who had followed close behind, rushed to them with her Chansey. "They're alive—but their minds are… somewhere else. Trapped."
Gary's voice was low and dark. "The Hive wasn't just fighting us. It was preparing them."
Skylar stepped closer, kneeling beside a boy no older than ten. His hands twitched. His lips murmured faint nonsense.
"They're dreaming," he said. "But not peacefully. They're lost."
Joy swallowed hard. "Their readings… It's like they're being rewritten."
Skylar stood slowly.
He reached for a Poké Ball, the one marked in violet and black.
Pressed it.
Darkrai emerged, hovering low, body still bandaged, his eye dim but alert.
"I sensed them. Even as I rested, I could feel their fear."
Skylar turned to him. "Can you help them?"
Darkrai was silent for a long moment.
Then:
"I can enter their dreams. Shape them. But I cannot purge the corruption alone. They must do it themselves."
Joy hesitated. "Will it hurt?"
"Yes.""But doing nothing will break them forever."
Skylar nodded. "Do it."
The red crystal cracked.
Darkrai lifted his arms, and a pulse of darkness flowed into the children—soft, controlled, almost like a whisper.
Each child tensed.
One screamed.
One laughed hysterically in his sleep.
Another began to cry.
Skylar stepped back, hand over his heart. He could feel them. Feel the war being fought inside each fragile mind.
And then…
The first child opened her eyes.
Then the second.
Then a third.
They gasped for breath. Some cried. Others shook.
But they were awake.
They were rushed back to the Pokémon Center, where Joy and her Chansey worked tirelessly, moving from bed to bed, stabilizing them with care and gentle touch.
Misty sat by a girl no older than six, gently wiping tears from her cheek.
Darkrai remained outside, still floating in silence, his head lowered—not from shame, but peace.
Later that day, Skylar stood beside the observation glass.
Watching the children sleep.
Not in fear—but healing.
Gary stood beside him.
"You saved them," Gary said.
"No," Skylar replied. "They saved themselves. I just opened the door."
Gary turned to him, but Skylar was already staring through the glass with narrowed eyes.
"I can feel it," he said. "They have something now. A light. Weak, but present."
Gary followed his gaze.
And then he saw it.
Aura.
Barely visible.
Like dust in sunlight.
Skylar nodded. "The Hive touched something deep. Maybe accidentally. But these kids… they're aura-sensitive now. Maybe they always were."
Gary looked uncertain. "If the League finds out—"
"They'll take them," Skylar said bitterly. "Treat them like weapons. Just like the Hive wanted."
He turned to Gary.
Expression sharp.
Focused.
"I need someone to protect them. To teach them to protect themselves."
"You want me to call my old master?" Gary asked.
Skylar shook his head.
"No. I want Kalei."
Gary blinked. "You're serious?"
"She's the only one I trust."
"You do realize she doesn't take students anymore, right? She turned down Lance's nephew."
Skylar didn't flinch. "She fought beside me in Mt. Moon. She didn't ask who I was. She just stood there and bled and kept fighting. She taught me how to survive—how to trust my power. She'll understand what these kids need."
Gary stared for a long moment.
Then pulled out his PokéGear.
"I'll send the message."
He hesitated, then added with a rueful smile:
"But if Kalei comes back… the world better be ready."
Skylar looked back at the kids—each of them flickering with something fragile but real.
"They already weren't ready for them."