Two Golden Hearts

[Mason Moretti]

Rachel was eager for the chance to explain anything, (especially weird multiverse traveling phenomenon,) and began rambling, while unaware of Ilona's sudden charge forward, "Well, you see, Ilona, where we stand now is essentially another universe's version of Paris. There are laws that govern the multiverse, strange laws that cause peculiar coincidences. One such rule is that of fixed points in time-space, which causes timelines to split in a way that creates similar universes with slight changes. For example, the Pokémon timeline is split into multiple universes depending on the actions of Legendary Pokémon. This universe has Xerness awakening from slumber, and another has Ylveltal awaken. That same effect created the Prism Tower in a similar position to the Eiffel Tower."

"You're making my brain hurt, Rachel. Ilona isn't even listening..."

When the princess of the sun had drawn her sword, the lupine Pokémon ran behind its orange-clad partner, causing him to stumble and fall to the ground.

"Hey! Two-on-one isn't fair! Have the other Trainer put her Honedge away! You're scaring Mightyena!"

The orange-suited man took a short moment to look at Ilona's sword more closely, and then exclaimed, "What the hell?! That isn't even a Honedge! It's just a sword! Now that isn't fair at all! You could seriously hurt someone!"

Miss Y looked to Ilona and shook her head disapprovingly. "Or you could hurt yourself. Put the sword away, please. That's still a person's Pokémon. We want to battle them, not maim them!"

The man in the orange suit scrambled to his feet and recalled his Pokémon to its ball. "Look, how about we reschedule this battle? Preferably when you're not accompanied by crazy sword girl! Team Flare will rise again... later!" The man struck one final F pose and ran off, disappearing into a red-roofed cafe.

Miss Y exhaled deeply and took a good look at Ilona before seeing Macy, Rachel, and Solgaleo running up to meet her.

"I suppose you're one of Macy's friends," she said with a small laugh, "and by Arceus she sure knows how to pick them. Where in the multiverse do you find them, Macy?"

"Actually, Miss Y, we found Illie right here in Kalos! Though apparently she's been to this place called... Actually, I don't think she told us. Illie, what region does Sora live in?"

Miss Y and politely waved hello to Ilona. "It's nice to meet you, Illie. My name is Yvonne. Though that's a little hard to roll off Macy's tongue, so she calls me Y. I don't know what Macy told you, but I'm a Pokémon trainer. As a trainer, I would advise not pulling out a sword to fight a Pokémon. You have a partner right there. Let the Pokémon battle," she said, pointing to Solgaleo.

Meanwhile, the Meowstic next to Yvonne walked up to Solgaleo, watching it curiously. She meowed softly, and Solgaleo made a small noise in reply. The two continued this back and forth, almost like some kind of conversation.

@Klutzy Ninja Kitty​

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

Unbeknownst to Macy, Ilona actually did somewhat listen to the explanation that Rachel had to tell about this world. She didn't understand it all, but was fascinated by the parts that their guide would explain about Paris and how it was related to this world. "You don't say?!" the girl excitedly gasped. "I look forward to seeing more sights from this marvelous world!"

Ilona blinked, surprised when both the orange suited man and the girl battling them would disapprove of her sword. She lowered it with a frown. "I intended not to harm the pokémon, I only wanted to help." In truth, Ilona was actually used to the Lost Boys of Neverland encouraging her to draw her sword whenever a little trouble started to brew. So she was somewhat confused upon hearing someone telling her that she shouldn't use a sword to help.

Oh well, at least drawing her sword had scared away the orange-suited man, right?

When Macy would ask Ilona where Sora was from, the girl paused thoughtfully. "Alola. She's from Alola. But it's been... a very long time since I've last seen her." Plus, Ilona wasn't exactly sure if this time period and version of the pokémon world was the same one that Sora was from. It was always hard for the girl to tell.

"Anyhow, it is nice to meet you Miss Yvonne," the princess greeted with a bow and a smile. "I've no experience when it comes to commanding a pokémon to battle, but I suppose I could try my best if Solgaleo doesn't mind," she said, looking down at the kitty pokémon.

@Mason Moretti​

 

[Mason Moretti]

"Alola... Alola... I'll have to make a note to go visit that region at some time. I believe a couple friends of mine were actually planning on taking a vacation there," Yvonne mused.

"Well, I'm happy to spark an interest in a young trainer to learn to battle, but first you have to be ten years old and get a trainer's license. You get a nice little Trainer Card and Pokéballs to hold Pokémon whenever you do. You can ask Professor Sycamore to help you with that. He should still be at his lab. Macy knows where it is." Yvonne smiled and gently patted Ilona on the head.

In the meantime, Macy appeared to be rummaging through her purse, and eventually produced the electronic pass card from earlier. As she did, she handed it to Yvonne with a flashy twirl, saying "Ta-da!"

"Hey, you found it! Thanks, Macy. I knew I could count on you," Yvonne replied. She took the pass and placed it within her own bag.

Macy looked up at Yvonne with curious eyes and asked, "Miss Y, what does that little card do?"

She replied, "This pass lets me ride the train to Kiloude City, a very special place. I'm supposed to meet my friend Xavier there, so thank you so much for finding it!"

Yvonne squatted down to Macy's height and patted her head to say this next part, "Unfortunately, this pass only counts for one human and six Pokémon inside Pokéballs. I can only get myself and my team over to Kiloude. However... If you could do whatever you did to warp to me again, Xavier is already over there. Perhaps you could just warp over to him. Here is what he looks like." Yvonne reached into her bag and pulled out a picture of her friend.

Solgaleo, properly finished with his Pokémon conversation, addressed the entire group with his psychic speech, "I would be glad to take you across the region to meet this good friend, but I am very tired after the journey all the way here. If, perhaps, you could give me some rest, I can carry the group of us later." Solgaleo proceeded to lay down on his belly with his front paws underneath his mane. He began to purr, which sounded pretty loud resonating through his metal body.

"Don't worry, Solgaleo. Macy's magic necklace to the rescue! I can make a portal for us that leads straight to Mister X!"



"Lady Macy, I would advise very much against that course of action. It takes a long time for me to gather enough aura into the necklace to travel between universes. If you're going to make a portal, I suggest you say goodbye and we move along back to home and prepare for the next mission."

"But I don't want to leave Miss Y and Illie!"

"Well, I agree we shouldn't leave a Traveller like Lady Illie here, as this isn't her home, you really need to get to your home and rest. I promise, Lady Macy, that we shall return. For now, goodbyes are in order."

"Aww, okay. Goodbye, Miss Y!" Macy ran up to Yvonne and jumped into her arms for a giant hug. Yvonne laughed and squeezed her tight. She said her goodbye, then released Macy in order to hug Ilona, saying goodbye to her as well. After a full round of goodbyes, Macy's necklace began to shine with the same blue aura from earlier.

"C'mon, Illie! Stand close." Macy crossed her arms and a blue orb of light appeared in front of her, hovering in the air. She then opened up her arms, spreading them wide, and a circular portal appeared, swirling and glowing with an air of magic.



Suddenly, energy began sparking from the portal. Crashing and popping could be heard by the group, and a dark sense of dread filled the atmosphere. The portal began to shift and shake. Its bright baby blue color bled into an ominous dark red. Macy and Ilona could feel the force of the portal as it drew the pair closer and closer.



"Come to me..." whispered a voice from beyond the portal.

"Illie, hold on to something," Macy cried. Her efforts were futile, as the force of the portal eventually overcame them. Its strange energy lifted Macy and Ilona off the ground and threw them through the portal. It swiftly closed, leaving behind Yvonne, Rachel, and Solgaleo, and throwing Macy and Ilona towards who-knows-where across the multiverse.

---

CHAPTER END
​

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

"Yeah, Alola is a pretty nice place," Ilona replied with a thoughtful smile. "Except for the bad people called Team Skull. I ran into them once and they're very mean. They... did something awful to a very good friend of mine," she said with a sad sigh before moving on in their conversation.

"Oh, well, I'm actually twelve-years-old. So I should be old enough to become a pokemon trainer," the girl stated. "Although, I fear I will have to turn down your offer. It would probably be in my best interest not to become a trainer. The Sun has another destiny in story for me." Not only that, but Ilona was terrified that if she became a trainer, she might accidentally teleport and leave one of her pokemon behind. Doing such a thing to an innocent pokemon would be awful.

It was after this conversation that Miss Y would invite their group to go with her and meet her friend. Ilona listened as Macy would decide to make a portal to where Mr. X was located, but would be advised by Rachel to instead make a portal and leave this world. More interested in traveling with Macy at the moment, Ilona agreed to go with them, hugging Miss Y before they would depart.

Afterwards, Ilona moved to stand by Macy, watching as her new friend would open up a portal for them to travel into. She felt a bit nervous about the voice that whispered from beyond the portal, but had no time to really worry about it. "What should I hold onto?" she questioned. "And where are we going?"

Before she could have her questions answered, however, she was thrust into the portal with Macy, Rachel and Solgaleo, off to their next chosen destination.

@Mason Moretti​

 

[Mason Moretti]

Interlogue:
The Mother of Fortune

Everything happens for a reason. Little girls aren't sent halfway across the multiverse on an adventure without a clever excuse for them to be there. Stories are woven between worlds, and the threads of fate that make them are pulled into a tapestry regardless of where they lie.

Up until this point, the two circles of the Moretti's and the murder games had remained separate. Now, though, by meeting a princess made and molded by malevolence, Macy had joined together these stories. Not everything in the multiverse had to revolve around a Murder Game, but those involved in them are destined to make changes across worlds, whether big or small. The threads of fate were intertwined.

Thefore, it's important to follow these threads to their source. Looking back along the strings of events reveals that the actions of two children hold much more influence behind them than they know. For example, Embassy Crossing, a small world which had so far failed at being both an embassy and a crossroads, was greatly stirred by Macy's circumstance.

Three ladies, young goddesses, called this small universe home: Sisters Athena and Amara, along with their mother, Fortuna. On that day, Fortuna appeared to be the most agitated by the occurring events.

"Athena, Amara!" she called. Despite their usual disobedience, Fortuna's harsh tone beckoned them to come with haste. Her face was ambivalent, but her posture and general aura of authority emitted anger.

"Yes, Mother?" the sisters replied in unison, appearing before their mother in a flash of light.

"I'm disappointed in you. Do you know why? I had slaved for hours upon hours to make you both a nice gift. I know you were wishing for a nice little adventurer to do some Herculean task for you and be the hero in your name. So I made a perfect little adventurer. I manipulated timeline after timeline to make sure this one little Moretti was pure and innocent, at least compared to the rest of her family. And you went ahead and peeked at your gift! Completely ruined the surprise."

Athena opened her mouth, preparing to speak, but a sharp glare from her mother nailed her mouth shut again. "Hush, child. I'm not mad you opened it early, though," Fortuna continued, "because Macy was meant to meet you anyway. Sometimes mistakes happen and she discovered the multiverse too soon. What frustrates me to no end..."

Fortuna's hand rose to here forehead to try and massage the brining anger out of her temples, to little success. "...is that someone stole the aura-powered necklace and gave it to Macy. Do you two have any idea what kind of trouble that has caused?"

"We didn't give it to her! The spirit of the necklace must have chosen Macy herself or something," Amara said, jumping to their defense.

"Really? The spirit locked away inside the necklace, supposedly powerless in there, managed to open a portal to another universe?"

Athena chimed in next, "Mother, perhaps you can consider the fact that maybe the reverse happened. Some Moretti might have gotten Macy into the Embassy right where she could pluck the artifact away."

"Bull shit, Athena. I saw you give the necklace as a gift to Macy. And because of you, that necklace, that powerful artifact, is now traveling alongside the second biggest source of Malevolence this side of the multiverse!"

"Malevolence? What's that?" Amara asked.

"Malevolence is darkness and evil incarnate. It's spawned from despair, anger, hatred, and all manner of dark emotions building up throughout the multiverse. It's the last thing you want around a Moretti because it drives them crazy. That stupid family believes themselves to be important and destined for greatness, and malevolence is just the kind of stuff for them either to fight or to use for their own gain. In case you don't know the force I'm talking about..."

A glow of aura appeared around Fortuna that quickly turned dark. Rather than produce light, the aura appeared to steal the light from the surrounding area, building a large shadow behind her. A chill ran down her daughters' spines. "...This is malevolence."

Amara asked, through her quaking, "If you hated this family and didn't want any of them near evil, why the hell did you make one a heroine?"

"Because I thought it would be moral and just to see if one of them could be brought to the side of light before I burn the rest of their family to the ground. Now, it seems that poor Macy will have to burn as well, if she becomes corrupted by that princess's Malevolence."

@Klutzy Ninja Kitty​

 

[Klutzy Ninja Kitty]

~Interlude~
Pain of the Past: Part I

Unbeknownst to a young Ilona and Macy, the two girls would have a visitor watching them in the shadows. She hidden by a large building and peered out from behind it, her long red coat flailing in the breeze and locks of loosely tied blonde hair following suit. Like the young children before her, this woman wasn't from this world, nor was she even from the time period of this world. The time traveler, however, recognized these children. She knew one of the girl's better than anyone else in all of the multiverse, in fact, because they were actually one in the same.

A very nostalgic, older Ilona found herself wandering the streets of Lumiose City, tracing the steps and actions taken by her younger self. On occasion, the young woman enjoyed reliving the past and looking upon events she had once taken part in as a child. It helped to quell the loneliness and boredom she felt as she wandered the endless multiverse. She was well aware she had to be careful not to be seen by younger Ilona and was always very cautious to stay much further away from the girl. After learning what she had from the ODMA and her adventures with the group she had time traveled with, she was always more careful now than she ever had been about meddling with space and time.

The girl tapped her boot against the street, the sound of it echoing in the alleyway she remained hidden in. The blonde scarcely realized she was doing this, however, because she was more focused on the thoughts swirling around within her own mind. When young Ilona and Macy departed from the world, she suddenly broke from the trance she had been in and stepped out into the open, beginning to pace anxiously.

"Why," she said to herself, "don't I remember that girl? Why don't I remember any of this?" she questioned aloud, her blue eyes wide, yet filled with confusion. As Ilona had stated--she didn't remember Macy or going on any adventures with her. She didn't remember ever coming to this city. She didn't remember the snorlax they had encountered, Miss Rachel, Miss Y, or anything she had just witnessed. Sure, she had been in the pokemon world before, but she couldn't recall this area in particular. And it made absolutely no sense. A girl with powers almost similar to her own? Ilona knew there was no way she would ever forget a person like her, not in a million years. It was as if she had a gap in her memories.

The blonde began to pace faster, the mystery becoming more and more frustrating to her. She most definitely had a gap in her memories! But how? And why? The only way Ilona could figure out why was if she somehow retrieved the lost memories, but the girl didn't even know how to do that.

After a moment of pacing, the girl stopped and leaned against a building, letting out a sigh as she would reach into her coat and pull out her usual leather journal. She flipped it open and began leafing through the pages thoughtfully. The only solution to her problem, Ilona surmised, was that she should find a world which contained powers to restore memories. As she passed through the pages in her book, one in particular caught her eye--a note she had made about a world she had been to once long ago.

"Mist Haven, that's it!" she said, poking the page with her finger. Mist Haven was an enchanted forest of magic and wonder. If any place would have the ability to restore memories it would be that one. Nodding thoughtfully to herself, Ilona vanished in an instant when she made the decision to go there.

But maybe she should've been a bit more careful.

Overwhelmed with excitement, the girl hadn't thought to make sure she was well hidden from any possible danger upon appearing in this new land. Almost seconds after appearing, she was greeted by a sword pointed at the end of her nose. Ilona raised her hands up instantly to show the wielder that she held no weapons of her own.

"Demon!" hissed the owner of the sword, whom Ilona would see to be a well armored woman with a brooding look in her eyes. Despite how threatening and strong this woman appeared to be, Ilona showed no signs of fear. It took a lot to scare Ilona these days, on account of all she had been through and how well-versed she had become in using her malevolent powers.

"Who are you?" the armored woman added after a moment, when Ilona would say nothing. Ilona simply smiled in response.

"You have no need to fear me, Miss Warrior. I apologize if I startled you. My name is Ilona and--"

"Lies!" she hissed, moving the sword even a centimeter closer to Ilona's nose. "You're the Dark One, aren't you? You appeared here as if by magic. Only the dark one has powers such as those!"

Upon further inspection, Ilona could see a look of confusion and hesitation in the warrior's eyes. Seeing this look would only reassure Ilona's already calm feeling, and she would drop her hands entirely. She then began to walk a casual half-circle around the woman, smiling as she did.

"The Dark One, you say? A long time ago I traveled to a world called Neverland. There, I met a mean pirate who was obsessed with someone called the Dark One. I wonder if this Dark One is the same person you're talking about?" she mused. The woman would growl in response.

"Don't play games with me. I asked you a question," she stated, taking a step closer to Ilona and once again pointing the sword at the blonde's face. Ilona would give the woman no reaction, this time not even raising her hands.

"I think you've answered your own question already. If you really thought I was this Dark One--whom you seem to find so threatening--you would've attacked me already." Ilona smiled and held out her hand. "Care to tell me who you are, miss? My name is Ilona--not the Dark One--and I didn't come here by use of magic. If you'd kindly put your sword away, I'd be happy to tell you how I came here and why."

The woman scowled and sheathed her sword, but refused to take Ilona's hand. "Mulan," she told the time traveler, her tone void of emotion. She would then turn and start to walk away without warning, pausing for a moment to glance over her shoulder and speak with Ilona. "If you want to talk, follow me. It's not safe here," she stated, gesturing for Ilona to follow her into the woods.

To Be Continued...

@Mason Moretti

( @thatguyinthestore @Midnight Maiden <- Tagging you guys due to this post pertaining to Once Upon a Star.)​