After I made it through the work day and came back home, I had some leftover casserole for dinner, watched some videos, read some stuff in my book, then started getting ready for bed.

The events of the day weighed heavy on me. I was shaken up pretty thoroughly, and I was certain I'd remember this day for years to come. I mean, a weird dream that felt like an end to my 'dream saga', some weird experience with me saving my coworker from a bad fall, and then a long, heated discussion with a delusional woman about how I was actually someone entirely different from a made-up world? Yeah, that tops the list for the weirdest day of my life.

I was feeling more than a little tired after a day like this. And while I told my coworkers some of the story about that strange woman, I didn't mention the parts that felt oddly specific about what had been happening to me. I didn't need them making fun of me for that--especially if it was just a one-off thing. I had already determined that if that woman came back, I would be calling the police on her.

I really don't need more stress like that in my already stressful life. People like that really need to be in rehabilitation centers or something and not harassing people on the street, like me.

I yawned, and cozied up under my covers in my bed. I tossed my book onto my nightstand and turned off the reading lamp I had on. I looked at the clock as I set my alarm for tomorrow. It was 10:23 p.m. Good, at least I got to bed at a better time tonight than last night. Maybe I could get some sleep.

The last statement that woman made to me today suddenly struck me. That 'if she couldn't convince me, then she would send her friend to convince me herself'. For some reason, I had thought that that meant later today, and while I expectantly awaited the arrival of another crazy woman, none showed up. So why was the thought coming back to me now, so late? Was I concerned she'd show up in my dreams tonight?

Yeah, right. I'm just paranoid of dreaming of more weird stuff is all. Combined with that woman's rambling, it's just mixing to trip up my sense of safety in sleep. Nothing was going to happen; I just had to close my eyes, and drift off...

...

Huh.

I sat upright, but not in my bed. I glanced around at the blank white space around me. I looked down at my hands and wiggled my fingers: it felt strange. As if I wasn't entirely present here, but at the same time, fully aware of what was happening.

Oh wait, was this a lucid dream? One of those dreams where my conscious is alert and able to control things while I'm asleep? Wow, I don't think I've ever had a lucid dream before. This was surreal, and a nice change from the pokemon life dreams.

I stand up, and find my legs feeling weak, but stable enough to support me. I test the surface of the white floor, and it seems somehow... unsubstantial; as if the floor isn't really meant to be walked on, but more just there as some faux ground. But I know this is a dream, so I try walking on it, and it holds me upright.

I've never had a lucid dream before, so I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do, but it's almost weird just how aware I am of my surroundings. I mean, I can think the same way as if I was fully awake: is that how these types of dreams normally go?

I'm carefully finding my footing along this spacious, empty void, when I feel some kind of other thing with me. I look around in all directions, but I see nothing. Maybe it's a dream thing? Maybe if I just try to control it, I can make it do what I want. Isn't that what lucid dreams are like? So I try to imagine a blue sky and green grass opening up before me in all directions, but nothing happens. Maybe it was too much? I picture a simple wooden chair to sit on appearing in front of me, to no avail. Hmm, I guess I'm doing it wrong somehow. I'm not sure how this whole thing works, so I'll just settle for the void, except I still feel that sense that something else is here with me.

I try to imagine that feeling going away, to replace it with a sense of calm. I close my eyes and concentrate on picturing and feeling what I want, when jarringly, a voice comes out of the nothing:

"No, you're doing it wrong. You've gotta close your eyes tighter and reeeallly try picturing what you want."

My eyes shoot open immediately, and I catch a glimpse of a small, pink thing flying about. I spin around to better see what it is, when its face appears right in front of me--too close! I stumble backward and fall onto my butt to its delighted giggling.

"Wh-what the?!" I finally get a proper look at what this other thing was that occupied this blank space with me. It was a small pink mouse-like creature, with a long, thin tail... wait, I'd seen this thing before.

"Mew...?" I question aloud.

It spins around the air happily. "That's me! Heehee~" It seems like it's in a good mood for some reason, which I suppose is a good thing.

Did I conjure this thing up? This was my dreamscape after all.

"Nope! I came here myself! Besides, you would never be able to dream up something as adorable as meee~" It giggles again, and upon listening to its tone, I quickly decide it's likely a female.

I sigh, defeated. I guess I can't go without pokemon in my dreams anymore, even though this particular scenario is new.

"Ooh, ooh, you could say 'this particular scenario is Mew'!" She twirled around again as if she'd made the most clever joke--wait, did she just read my thoughts?

She rolled her eyes playfully. "Of course I did! I'm a psychic type you know! Plus, I'm in your mind already, so reading your thoughts is basically as easy as reading a book!"

Ok... a little disconcerting, but again, it's a dream. Anything can happen in a dream.

I clear my throat as I get onto my feet again, unsteady. "Alright Mew, what-"

"Oh, I'm a Mew, but you can call me Eve! That is my name after all~" Eve flew around me as if to punctuate how unusual this was all beginning to seem.

I don't bother trying to follow her flight around anymore. I set my vision straight and say, "Ok Eve," I start, but find myself marveling at how rare a circumstance this is for me. I've never had a lucid dream before, and now I do, and get a mew to ask questions and talk to? Not what I would pick as my first choice for being aware while dreaming, but definitely not too bad either. "First off: what are you doing in my dream?"

She stopped flying to float in front of me. "I was told that you didn't listen to my friend, so she asked me to come see you! And since this is the human world, I can't really manifest my physical body here, but I can still come in dreams! Pretty cool, right?"

Her friend sent her? Oh no, not--"Was Melody the friend who told you to come here?"

Eve's eyes shimmered. "Yes! I guess you've met her already, huh? What did you think, did you like her? I hope you did!"

"Y-yeah, I guess so..." I should've known. It would make sense that the crazy events from yesterday would be enough to invade my subconscious too. Which means that this mew will probably know everything Melody did, since she can only know what I know.

"That's not true, silly!" She told me before I couldn't say anything else. Ah, right, she reads my mind. So everything I think is free reign for her to know.

"Thaaat's right!" She exclaimed as she put her little paws on her hips triumphantly. I did have to admit though, she was pretty adorable; even if this was just a dream.

"Eve," I start, before she could reply to my thinking she was adorable. "If you're here because you want to tell me that I'm actually some famous pokemon explorer guy from a fictional world, and that my entire human life is a lie, I'll just save you the trouble by telling you now, that I don't believe it. So, as neat as this dream is, you can be on your way now."

"But I don't wanna go so soon." She said, with a pouting expression. "Besides, you haven't even heard what I have to say! You can't just kick me out so quickly. Didn't your parents teach you manners?"

I knew she was being playful and innocently jabbing at me, but that comment touched upon sore memories from my childhood. I saw a brief flash of my mom shoving me out of my chair because I'd accidentally spilled the juice. My dad got involved, there was shouting, but it was gone just as quickly as it came. I refocused on the present. "Look, it's my dream--my subconscious, so I think I have the right to end it when I want to, and-"

"No, you don't." She said, hovering a bit too close for my like. I stepped back shakily, my legs still feeling uncertain. She added, "Since I'm here, you can't just finish your dream and be done. I have control over this while I talk to you, and I'm not gonna leave! So you'll just have to sit and listen."

Given that I don't actually know how to end a dream intentionally and wake myself up, I'm subject to exactly what she claims. But it's ok, it'll just be more of the same jargon as yesterday, but with an excitable, adorable creature that doesn't really exist, as opposed to a loony, strange woman who unfortunately does exist somewhere out there. I'll just let her say her piece, and be done with it.

She sighs, as if her quirky personality is slipping away slowly. "Alrighty, listen Ardor--can I call you Ardor? I know you've got a new name now too, so should I call you that?"

"It's Wyatt." I say. I definitely prefer they use my real name, and not some fake name they claim I once had.

She crossed her arms: trying to be serious. It looked much more cute than serious. "Wyatt, huh. That's a weird-sounding name, but whatever you say!" She cleared her throat. "Wyatt, the pokemon world needs you. Your soul was sent here to be born as a human and live out a human life until it was time to bring you back to save our world. And Arceus told me it was time, so I just kinda went along with it!

"But really though, you're kinda badly needed in our world you know. There's this big cataclysm coming, and you're a great hero there, so we pretty much need you to come back and prevent the world from falling to pieces! You think you can do that?"

Straight to the point. At least she's clear about what she wants from me. But I know what to say. "No."

She frowns. "'No?'"

"Yes. No." I tell her.

She puts her little paw to her chin. "So are you saying yes, or no?"

"I'm saying no." I tell her again. "No, as in I won't do what you're asking."

She pouted again. "But why not? All the pokemon need you to help them save the world! Don't you care about all those in need?"

I shrug. "It's not that I don't care. It's that they're not real. None of what you've told me is real. I know pokemon is made up, I know that this is just a strange series of events happening to me, and I know that after this dream is over, I'll go back to my boring life, look back on this sometime in the future, and laugh about how ridiculous it all was."

"You're not at all like how Melody told me you were. She said you were 'panicky and shy', but you're not." She said.

"It's because I'm in a dream; I don't need a filter. Nobody but me will remember this anyway." I respond.

She shook her head, disappointed. "You know, I'm totally gonna remind you of this when I see you face to face."

I laugh at her statement. "Yeah, sure. 'Face to face'. We both know that I'm just having another weird dream based off of pokemon, except this time it's lucid and I'm aware of everything. Nothing special is happening here."

For a moment she seemed like she wanted to reach out and grab my face, but if she even could, she chose not to. She then said: "Melody and I came all this way and went through all this effort to find you! Ardor, Wyatt, you're more than special."

There's a flash of anger that overtakes me. "No no, stop. I'm not going to listen to that again. Melody tried to tell me the same thing, but it's such a load of crap. I'm not special. I've never been special. I'm just an ordinary guy that works an ordinary job--actually, no! Not even that! I'm less than ordinary--I'm trash! I'm a nobody who just happens to live in the same place as everyone else. I've never done a special thing in my life! So stop saying I'm something I'm not!"

My outburst of anger seemed to have shocked her, as she held her paws close to her chest, and wore a concerned expression on her face. I know this is just a dream, but still; me shouting at her was uncalled for, and maybe even cruel. She didn't deserve it. Maybe I should apologize.

I move to speak. "Look-"

She silences me by holding her paw out. "It's ok. I know. But I'm not giving up. I'll make you see you're more than who you think you are." She floated closer to me, but I didn't move back. She then touched her soft paw against my forehead, and for a moment I marveled at how soft her paw was, but then I was thrust into some fragments of images strewn about my mindscape.

I saw a variety of things as so many images passed by: memories-no, that's not right-my dreams throughout the years of my life as a pokemon flew by my vision. But it wasn't just pieces of my dreams from the past, there was more information mixed in with them; an assortment of things I'd never seen nor experienced in any of my dreams, but they seemed to be a continuation of said dreams.

I caught a glimpse of an old one I dreamt back when I was six, of me as a cyndaquil. It showed what I had seen back then too: growing up in a small hut in a village with my parents. Infernape was the father, and a floatzel was the mother. My cyndaquil self was playing with my two parents, who were enjoying each other's and my company. I saw me being tossed up in the air and caught by my infernape dad, who looked at me with such joy it almost made me start crying. But when I expected the vision to end where I had woken up, it didn't.

The 'dream' kept going past what I'd dreamt. The infernape held the cyndaquil close and tickled him, to his adorable giggles. The floatzel then leaned close and kissed his little forehead like a loving mother might. I was taken aback; my dream didn't show those things, and I had never seen them. So how...?

That vision passed and another showed up from when I was in middle school, which was one of the more devastating ones I recall. Still a cyndaquil, I was a bit older now and off in town. I remember me running back to the house excitedly, since both my parents were supposed to be home today, and they promised that we would be playing the new 'pokemon dungeons board game'. I was nearly back when I spotted multiple dozens of pokemon surrounding my house, with the guild teams being present as well as medical pokemon. My excitement faded into fear as I approached the house. I briefly overheard the words, '...surprising. How could this happen to two explorers like them?'. I was quickly grabbed by a rhydon, who pulled me away from the scene to my protesting. I bit my lip as I knew what all of this was about. My pokemon parents had been killed and brutalized while in the home by an unknown enemy.

I looked away as I distinctly recall what happened. I heard the rhydon consoling me and trying to explain what happened, while I stared down at my feet. I expected the dream to end when the rhydon hugged cyndaquil me, but once again, it didn't; it continued on as the rhydon left me with a luxray from one of the explorer teams. She kept me close as I cried over my parents, and she didn't say anything while I did. I had to look at what was happening, since I had never seen it.

She kept her paw over me and just held me near her while I bawled my eyes out. I saw the look on this professional, top explorer's face: care and affection for me... or, cyndaquil me. Or not me, just the cyndaquil. But still, it was moving to see someone whom I barely knew and who barely knew me, showing such deep concern and even... even love.

I waved at the vision as I looked away. "Stop." I say, while barely holding back tears. "I-I don't want to see more."

"But there's more to see Wyatt." Eve the mew said to me. "This is your life, or at least, the life you once had. You've seen only some of it, but there's a whole story here. And it's not all bad memories either. See?" She gestured to another vision.

I didn't want to look at what was being shown. That was, until I heard the unmistakable voice of someone I thought of as my friend throughout many of my dreams: "Hey, Ardor! What's goin' on? I saw you from down the hall and thought I'd say hi."

I turned to view the vision of one of my past dreams yet again. I saw me, or quilava me, in the training facility to become an explorer where my friend, a pawniard, came up to me. I believe we had been friends at this point for a year or two, and he was proving to be a really good guy, er... pokemon. I remembered this dream as well, since it was the day I graduated the academy and became an explorer in training alongisde my friend. But in this dream, it was also the day I met her.

My friend and I walked through the hall together while making small talk as we did each day. We eventually went out into the courtyard with the rest of the students, to formally graduate and start our journey to become an official team together.

I watched the dream play out just as it had years ago when I'd dreamt it, but I received a new perspective seeing it again this way. I could see all the bright and expressive faces of all the various pokemon I'd later meet throughout my travels and missions as an explorer. There were so many familiar faces that at the time, I hardly even considered or thought about, but these people-pokemon, I mean-would become valuable associates, helpers, even friends along the way. I could see all of this in a way I couldn't when I had dreamed it.

And as the ceremony commenced and we all went up to receive our provisional badges, a particular braixen was next to receive hers. I remember seeing her in my dream, and now I got to behold this moment again, as she got her badge and our gazes briefly connected--hers and my quilava self's gaze. I remember the feeling that went through me when I saw her and she saw me. It was like a flash of lightning went through my being and shook me to the core. I felt my heart beat rapidly increase, and I had to actually remember to breathe. It was intense.

Now I see all of that, and there's some kind of deep ache in the pit of my stomach. I can't place it, but seeing that again reignited my desire to relive some of these dreams as they happened.

But, I knew they had to be just dreams. Nothing more worth even thinking about...

The dream had ended after the ceremony, but the vision continued as I waded through the crowd of pokemon to find that braixen. I watched, curious as the quilava me pushed and shoved his way through to find someone who really was probably gone by now--except wait, there she was.

Quilava me went over to her as she was talking to a brionne and a delcatty--her friends, maybe? The quilava stumbled over, and that braixen turned around. Quilava me stopped and said hi, with a quick introduction and a sloppy attempt at fast-tracking being her friend. I cringed as I watched what was supposedly me, fumbling and desperately trying to appear calm and collected in front of this braixen girl.

But, after all of my cringe-worthiness, she smiled and said, "Hello to you too."

I felt a zap course through my body at hearing her voice. It was melodic and beautiful, and something inside me both heavily longed to and simultaneously hated to hear it more. I shut my eyes and cover my ears. "S-stop! That's enough! I've seen enough!"

I felt some change in the air and slowly opened my eyes to the blankness of my surroundings. It seems like everything returned to normal. I looked over at Eve who stared at me with her sad expression worn over her small face. "Do you believe it now, Wyatt?"

I uncover my ears and looked down at my hands. I imagine myself in the place of that quilava, and... it's not hard. Actually it feels almost right to be like that. B-but it has to just be some kind of trick of the mind, or crazy thing within a lucid dream! It surely couldn't be... I look up at Eve. "I-I... I don't... It can't be true..."

"But it is!" She yells with concern. "It is true Wyatt! I saw how you reacted to all of those memories--you remembered them! I know you were dreaming about some of them, but you can't deny how real those all felt!"

It's true. But... "I just can't believe it. I can't..."

"You have to!" She screamed as she flew closer to me. She was getting desperate, I could tell, and I saw little teardrops start forming on the edges of her eyes. "You have to believe it's true! All of those weren't just dreams, they were memories from your past! You actually did those things, you actually met those pokemon, and had that family! You actually did save the world, and now we need you to come back to save it one more time! Please Ardor, you have to come with us back to the pokemon world!"

I'm becoming overwhelmed with all the feelings and sensations I'm experiencing. It's getting harder to deny all of this, but at the same time, it's so beyond crazy that... h-how can I even accept it's validity?! I'm being put in an impossible position, and told to pick between two increasingly more difficult options! What can I do?! "H-how... how do I know...?"

Her eyes cast downward as she gently grabbed my hand with her two tiny paws. They felt soft and delicate to the touch. "Wyatt... Ardor... your soul was never meant for the human world. I think... I think that's why you feel so alone here."

Wh... What? What is she-?

"I can feel it inside you." She said as one of her paws touched my fingertip. "You've lived a life not knowing why you feel certain ways, and why everything seems so wrong. You're still bearing the grief from another life that you don't remember, and it's confusing you. But... but things can change. You can come back and find the closure you're needing. You can meet your friends and family again! And maybe, if you're really wanting to, we can find a way to bring you back here once the crisis is averted."

I stare at her; words failing to even form in my throat.

Her eyes move up to meet mine. "But we need you back, just for a little while. Just long enough for you to save everyone again. We're not asking you to stay there forever if you don't want to. I promise we'll get you back here once it's over, but the world is doomed without you helping us. So please, Wyatt, come back with us to your world."

I'm without anything to say. I swallow roughly as I consider everything she's just said, and everything I've seen. It's too much for me to think about all at once: I need time to process it. But, there's an overwhelming sensation building inside of me that's screaming what needs to happen next. I know it to be true.

I clench my jaw. "Ok. What do I need to do?"