The Journey of 1000 Miles- Ch.2 Jirachi's Recovery~

"Tsume?" Mei said, seeming to break momentarily from the trance. She glanced back to where he had been. He must not have been fully recovered from the ice cave, but Mei's attention was stil being pulled where the light had been. "I..." she started, and began trailing off into silence, "I can't..." she whispered as she continued taking blind steps in the direction she'd been moving before. Absolom walked up to Natsume, and nudged him with his nose to let him know he was there.

Natsume tried best he could to get up. Knowing Absolom was there was reassuring to him, at least it didn't move on without them. He couldn't be sure what to do now. "Mei, come on!" He said, being unable to see her. "Are you alright?" He tried to reach for her. He felt helpless in the situation, not knowing what to do in the situation. Something happened to Mei, it was too dark to see, and he had no idea what was still ahead even.

"Tsume...that light...the other one..." Mei muttered nearly incoherently. She was still staring forward, and taking staggering steps through the dark toward the ghost of the light. Even though it had flickered out, she knew that was where it had been, and was following it like a beacon. So, she continued forward. Absolom nudged Natsume, trying to push him forward as if to say to follow her voice. After a nudge or two, he too began walking after Mei. Unlike the other two, he was used to cave life so wasn't quite as handicapped by the darkness.

"The light..." He wondered looking forward, but he didn't see it. Was it the one he saw before? He thought it was an illusion from his own fire at the time. He took the hint of Absolom nudging him, and continued forward with Mei, and apparently Natsume was the behind one of the group again.

Mei continued walking forward with little regard for anything around her now. Her eyes were fixated forward, trying to pierce the darkness. Absolom stayed between her and Natsume to make sure he didn't fall behind. That and to make sure he didn't just fall in general. Mei seemed to be having no troubles traversing suddenly, as though she subconsciously knew where each and every stone and crack was in the cave. Her determination alone was pushing her forward, the curiosity that she felt needed to be satiated.

Natsume thought of using his ability again, but knowing Absolom had already directed him, he felt he didn't need to. His ability to keep footing in the dark wasn't the best, though. He had accidentally tripped and scraped his left knee, and tried to get back up quickly before it was noticed. He could feel something starting from where he scraped his knee running down his leg slowly, and assumed it to be bleeding, from the usual thick odor it gave. He tried to hurry at any chance that he had fallen far behind in the process.

Absolom slowed his pace a bit, brushing against Natsume a bit. He would try to safely lead the boy through the dark unharmed. Well, as unharmed as he could get by this point anyway. Mei however, seemed to pick up her pace instead. In fact, her feet could be heard lightly echoing through the cavern as she began to run to her destination. She could feel her heart beating heavily in her chest, eyes wide to the dark waiting for the spark again. Waiting for that glimmer to show itself to her. She wanted...no, needed to know.

Natsume felt it when Absolom brushed across again. He also heard Mei running, and wanted to try keeping up with her, and tried to sprint with little luck with footing, since he couldn't tell when he should step to the left, and really ran into every obstacle, unlike Mei. Eventually, he had fallen into a room that felt bigger from the rest, and from the way his fall had a larger sound, he assumed they made it into the room finally. He didn't see the light though.

Then suddenly, a large flash of electricity had struck down just beside Natsume, and just the energy from the side was enough to burn at his skin. He grabbed his arm, as if guarding it. "Huh..." He thought out loud. "I don't get it... what's happened...?" He asked, then the sound of crackling electricity had occured. He looked toward the sound, seeing much energy, and some creature whose color seemed to be black. He slowly walked up to it, being cautious as possible.

Mei rushed into the room, but quickly halted as she heard the crack of electricity. She followed it over, seeing Natsume in a flash, and then faintly in the glow of the massive Pokemon. Her eyes slowly followed starting from the ground, and inspecting it, scanning all the way up to its head. She was in awe of the mighty beast, and rather shocked to see it at all.

Absolom carefully wandered over to Natsume, and helped him off the ground by allowing Natsume to us him as a crutch of sorts. He carefully watched the giant dragon though, static jumping around the room wildly. Absolom knew what it was, and was going to be careful even being in the presence of it.

"Z..." Mei started, but quickly caught her breath in her throat. The legendary creature, whom was rumored to have only presented itself to one of pure ideals. There was something all too ominous about its presence, especially after having just seen Kyurem the previous night. What could possibly be going on?!

The dragon pokémon looked oddly disapproving of Natsume's presence at the time. It seemed to charge up much energy and got ready to charge straight for him. Natsume watched in fear as it came closer. He had become frozen in his step. What could he do? Definitely not outrun the dragon, or the thunderbolts getting ready to strike. He merely cringed to get ready for it.

Mei immediately broke from her trance, staring in horror to both her new and old friends. Swiftly, she ran over, jumping in front of them. She faced Zekrom, arms held outspread as though trying to block him. It would have been a funny sight had they not been in mortal danger. This one little girl standing in front of a legendary beast of such magnitude as though she could do something.

For once, even Absolom felt a little helpless. There would be nothing he could do to protect any of them from Zekrom's might. He simply wasn't powerful enough. The tables have turned, old friend, Mei thought quietly to herself, a very serious look on her face. Her eyes were focused on Zekrom, and her voice pierced the air. "Zekrom, stop this!" she said forcefully, "These are not your enemy!" she said again. Even she was surprised at how strong she sounded, when inside she could feel herself shaken to the bone.

The Zekrom seemed to stop at the last second, and all the electricity surrounding it had disappeared, making it dark once again. Natsume couldn't tell what happened. "Mei... you alright?" He needed to ask. He couldn't think of what to do. Natsume stepped to Mei's side, rather than staying behind her, not wanting something to happen to her.

The crackling came again. Natsume looked forward. The electricity covered only its tail and nothing else. It took flight upward over their heads. It looked toward an odd path and to them as if trying to tell them to follow it. It then took its own exit out through the top, being able to hyper beam its way through easily.

Mei could feel the heavy beating of her heart in her chest as Zekrom's charge dissipated into darkness. Her chest rose and fell deeply as her eyes darted around. Did that really just work? she asked herself silently as her arms slowly lowered to her side. She felt someone approach her, but from the size and direction she knew it must have been Natsume so she didn't panic. At least, not until Zekrom's tail lit up.

She immediately went on guard again, not that it would do much against the huge dragon. What she didn't expect was its next action though. As she had done with Absolom so many times before, she followed the great Pokemon's gaze to the new cave door at the other side of the room. "An exit?" she whispered, before looking up just in time to watch the great beast go crashing through the roof in a beam of light.

"Tsume?" she asked aloud, her heart pittering quickly in her chest. "What just happened?" she wondered, then looked over to the cave door. The hold Zekrom made created enough light to now see in the pitch black room, enough so to clearly see Absolom heading for the door.

Natsume continued his eyes back and forth between the hole and the newly discovered pathways. "I'm not sure what happened... but it didn't seem angry in any way now.." he says to Mei. "What do you think will happen after this?" He asked, looking at the path. He was rather glad his ability was unneeded here any longer, it now being brighter. Since Absolom was already walking that way, he assumed the best thing to do is follow, so he started walking toward Absolom.

Mei paused, thinking about everything that had been happening to them. Ever since she met this boy, her life had certainly been more adventurous, if chaotic. Now that I think about it...it was shortly after the two of us collided that Jirachi fell from the sky... she thought, a very serious expression on her face. She closed her eyes, shaking her head once before opening them once more and looking forward.

He was following Absolom, which was what they'd been doing this entire time. Did he know all this was going to happen, or was it all just coincidence? Surely he couldn't have foretold the future like this, they were only supposed to tell of bad fortune after all. Mei took a few steps forward, arms crossed with her right hand coming up, index finger gently resting on her lips as she thought. Her steps echoed through the cave and she paused momentarily to look back to the darkness. Was that other way really back to Kyurem's lair? she wondered, but fought her insatiable curiosity for a change.

Absolom had already walked off to go through the exit made by Zekrom, and so she would have nobody in case she got caught up in danger again. She turned back to the exit with a oft sigh, jogging a bit to catch up to the others. She quickly caught up, following Natsume and Absolom through the path.

Natsume had waited for Mei's response, but continued when it hadn't come. He had his hand in his pocket, clenching a pokéball for his Lucario, but did nothing with it. He made his way through after Absolom through the cave to outside the cave. It lead back to the outside world. The sun was still shining, and hung high on the sky. He walked through from the front of the cave, which had plenty of tall grass.