The nightmares weren't his anymore.
Teo woke screaming—not from Scorchclaws or Sunderers, but from a memory that shouldn't exist.
His lola standing in their kitchen, back turned, voice cold:
"You were always a burden, Teo. I wish you'd never been born."
He sat up gasping, sweat soaking his shirt, heart hammering against his ribs like a trapped bird.
"No," he whispered, clutching his head. "That didn't happen. She loved me."
But the memory felt real. Vivid. Heavy with the scent of sinigang gone sour, the flicker of the fluorescent light above the sink.
[ WARNING: MEMORY CORRUPTION DETECTED — SUNDERRER RESIDUE ACTIVATING ]
[ FALSE RECOLLECTIONS IMPLANTED — ORIGIN: EMOTIONAL ANCHOR SITE ]
[ HOST IDENTITY INTEGRITY: 73% ]
Teo swallowed bile. The Sunderer hadn't just scraped away his memory—it had replaced it.
And the worst part?
He couldn't tell what was real anymore.
He looked at his dead phone—still in his pocket, screen cracked, battery long dead. On the lock screen, the photo of him and his lola smiling over a pot of soup.
Did she really smile like that? Or is that just what I want to believe?
A hand touched his shoulder.
Lucario.
Its eyes—sharp, steady—held his.
Without words, it pressed its forehead to his temple.
And shared a memory:
Teo, kneeling in the acid estuary, pressing his trembling hand to Lucario's chest.
"You're not alone."
The warmth of that moment cut through the false memory like sunlight through storm clouds.
Teo exhaled shakily. "Thanks, buddy."
[ SYNCHRONIZATION: 81% ]
[ IDENTITY INTEGRITY: TEMPORARILY STABILIZED VIA EXTERNAL ANCHOR ]
But he knew it wouldn't last.
The corruption was spreading.
Later that morning, Rin presented the group with the Hollow Lucario's final gift: a palm-sized crystal, glowing faintly blue, humming with residual aura.
"It's a memory shard," she said, voice hushed. "They used to make these in the Conclave—compressing a Pokémon's last conscious thought into solid form."
She placed it in Teo's good hand.
The moment his skin touched it, images flooded his mind.
Not of battle.
Of place.
A cavern. Walls lined with fossilized Pokémon bones. A central dais cracked open like a blooming flower. And above it—a rift in reality, sealed with chains of crystallized aura.
The Heartscar Inner Sanctum.
But one detail chilled him.
Carved into the dais: the same symbol from Yumi's map of the seven regions.
"The Heartscar isn't just where the Rending started," Teo realized. "It's where they sealed something."
Yumi signed quickly: A prison.
Rin nodded. "The Conclave doesn't just want to study bonds. They want to reopen the prison. To prove that the source of all bonding—love, loyalty, kapwa—is the true corruption."
Teo's blood ran cold. "And if they're right…?"
"The world unravels," Rin said. "Permanently."
They traveled for three days through the Glass Wastes, now guided by the memory shard's pull. Yumi's new Trevenant moved with them, roots spreading ahead like scouts, forming temporary bridges over acid chasms—each step infused with shared memory, making the path stable.
Lucario's Heartstep had evolved further. When Teo clutched his dead phone during a panic attack, the Lucario teleported it into his trembling hand—proving that objects holding emotional weight could now be moved through space.
But the false memories grew stronger.
At night, Teo dreamed of his mother turning away.
Of friends laughing as he fell.
Of his lola saying, "Go. Don't come back."
Each time, he woke shaking, unsure if the love he remembered was real… or just wishful thinking.
He stopped talking about home.
Stopped looking at the photo.
Stopped trusting his own past.
On the fourth day, Kaelen found them.
Not with Milotic.
Alone.
He stood on a ridge of black stone, backlit by the pulsing crimson sky, his white cloak tattered, face gaunt.
"You're walking into a tomb," he said without preamble.
Teo didn't lower his guard. "We know."
Kaelen stepped closer. "Then you don't understand. The Heartscar isn't a place. It's a wound. And the thing inside it… it's not a prisoner."
He looked Teo in the eye. "It's the source of the first bond. The original connection between human and Pokémon. The Conclave believes severing it will 'purify' reality."
Teo frowned. "And you?"
Kaelen's expression darkened. "I believe it's a tumor. A cancer of emotion that must be excised."
"Then why warn us?" Rin demanded.
Kaelen's gaze flickered to his Milotic's empty eyes. "Because even tumors… have memories."
He turned to leave, then paused. "If you reach the sanctum, don't touch the chains. They're not meant to hold the prisoner in."
He looked back, eyes burning.
"They're meant to keep you out."
Then he vanished into the ash.
That night, as the group camped in the lee of a fossilized Onix skeleton, Teo sat apart, staring at his phone.
Lucario joined him.
"You remember her, don't you?" Teo whispered. "My lola."
The Lucario nodded slowly.
"Tell me," Teo said, voice breaking. "Tell me what you see when I think of her."
The Lucario closed its eyes.
And projected:
An old woman's hands—wrinkled, strong—kneading dough.
Her humming a Visayan lullaby during a typhoon.
Her pressing a warm pan de sal into Teo's hand before he left for work.
Her saying, "Anak, come home soon."
Tears spilled down Teo's face.
"Is any of that real?" he asked.
The Lucario placed a paw over his heart.
It's real because you feel it.
Teo pulled his partner into a rough hug. "Then it's real enough."
[ SYNCHRONIZATION: 85% ]
[ IDENTITY INTEGRITY: 76% — STABILIZING THROUGH RECIPROCAL TRUST ]
But as he held Lucario, he noticed something new in his aura-vision.
Faint threads—golden, almost invisible—stretching from his chest to Lucario's, to Yumi, to Rin, even to the distant Trevenant.
Not just bonds.
Anchors.
And deep within his fractured mind, his lola's voice—true, warm, unwavering—whispered:
"I'm proud of you, Teo."
He finally believed her.
At dawn, they reached the edge of the Heartscar Peaks.
Not mountains.
A crater.
A mile-wide sinkhole in the earth, its walls lined with fossilized Pokémon of impossible size—Arceus bones, Mew skulls, the ribcage of something that predated legends.
And at the center, rising from the abyss:
A tower of black crystal.
Chains of solidified aura wrapped around it, glowing faintly.
The prison.
Teo took a deep breath.
"We go in," he said. "Together."
Lucario nodded.
Yumi gripped her satchel.
Rin clenched her fists.
Trevenant's roots coiled like ready serpents.
They descended into the wound.
And the world held its breath.