The air inside the Heartscar sank like lead.
Not cold. Not hot. Thick—with memory, with silence, with the weight of a million unspoken goodbyes. The walls of the black crystal tower weren't smooth. They were textured with fossilized handprints—human and Pokémon, pressed together in final embrace.
Teo's left eye burned. Through it, the entire chamber pulsed with golden threads—bonds, severed and intact, woven into the very architecture.
"It's not a prison," Rin whispered, voice trembling. "It's a tomb. For every bond that's ever been."
Yumi signed: Or a cradle.
Trevenant's roots spread across the floor, sensing the resonance. It let out a low, mournful hum—recognizing kin in the fossilized wood lining the walls.
Lucario stayed close to Teo, aura flaring in protective waves. But even its Silent Guard felt thin here, like fabric stretched over a storm.
They reached the central dais.
The chains Kaelen warned of weren't metal. They were solidified aura—crystalline, humming with sorrow. And at the center of the dais, floating in a sphere of still air, was a single object:
A Poké Ball.
But unlike any Teo had seen.
It was made of bone and obsidian, etched with symbols that shifted when looked at directly. And it was open.
From its hollow interior, a soft, golden light pulsed—like a heartbeat.
"The first bond," Rin breathed. "They didn't imprison a Pokémon. They imprisoned the act of bonding itself."
Teo stepped forward.
The moment his foot crossed the dais's threshold, the world shattered.
Not the chamber.
His mind.
He stood in his lola's kitchen.
Sunlight streamed through the window. The smell of sinigang filled the air. His lola stood at the stove, humming.
"Teo," she said without turning. "You're home late."
Relief flooded him. "Lola… it's really you?"
She turned.
And her eyes were hollow. Black pits.
"You were never real," she said, voice flat. "You're just a ghost clinging to a dead world."
Teo stumbled back. "No—"
The kitchen dissolved.
He was on EDSA.
The e-bike roared toward him.
But this time, his lola stood beside him, watching.
"Go on," she said. "You were always going to die alone."
He screamed.
The vision shifted again.
Now he was in the Glass Wastes, holding Lucario's lifeless body.
"You failed," Kaelen said from the shadows. "Bonds are weakness. You proved it."
Teo fell to his knees, sobbing.
Is this the truth?
Was everything I felt… just a lie to keep me fighting?
Then—a touch.
Not physical.
Emotional.
A thread of warmth cut through the static.
"I see you."
Lucario's voice—real, raw, unwavering—echoed in his soul.
And suddenly, Teo remembered.
Not the perfect memories.
The messy ones.
Lola burning the adobo and cursing in Cebuano.
Her scolding him for staying out too late.
Her pressing his fevered forehead with a damp cloth during dengue.
Love wasn't perfect.
It was present.
He looked up at the false lola. "You're not her. She'd never say that."
He stood.
"I don't need perfect memories to know I was loved."
The illusions shattered like glass.
Back in the sanctum, Teo gasped, collapsing to his hands and knees, tears dripping onto the dais.
[ MEMORY CORRUPTION PURGED — IDENTITY INTEGRITY: 82% ]
[ TRUE ANCHOR RECOGNIZED: IMPERFECT LOVE > IDEALIZED MEMORY ]
But the trial wasn't over.
The Poké Ball's light intensified.
A voice—ancient, genderless, resonant—filled the chamber:
"To approach the First Bond is to answer: Is connection worth the pain it brings?"
Teo stood, wiping his face. "Yes."
"Even when it ends in loss?"
"Yes."
"Even when it makes you vulnerable?"
"Yes."
"Even when the world breaks because of it?"
Teo looked at his team—Lucario, Yumi, Rin, Trevenant.
"Especially then."
The chains around the dais groaned.
And began to crack.
But breaking them came at a cost.
Trevenant stepped forward, roots unfurling like wings. It let out a deep, resonant hum—the same lullaby Yumi's people sang to soothe storm-spirits.
It was offering itself.
"Wait—" Yumi cried, reaching out.
But Trevenant had already begun.
Its bark split. Light poured from its core. The golden threads in the chamber surged toward it, weaving into its form.
[ TREVENANT — MEGA EVOLUTION TRIGGERED: SACRIFICIAL SYNCHRONIZATION ]
[ COST: TEMPORAL EXISTENCE — FORM WILL DISSOLVE AFTER CHAIN BREAK ]
With a final, thunderous pulse, Trevenant slammed its roots into the chains.
The black crystal shattered.
Light exploded through the chamber.
When it faded, Trevenant was gone.
Only a single seed remained—glowing faintly—floating in Yumi's outstretched palm.
She closed her fingers around it, tears streaming silently.
The Poké Ball floated toward Teo.
The voice spoke again:
"To touch the First Bond is to merge. Host and Pokémon will no longer be separate. You will share one mind. One soul. One fate."
Teo looked at Lucario.
It met his gaze—no fear. Only trust.
"You sure?" Teo asked.
Lucario stepped forward and placed its paw over his heart.
Always.
Teo reached out.
His fingers brushed the bone-and-obsidian surface.
And the world unfolded.
He saw it all.
The first human—a child, lost in a storm, shivering beneath a rock overhang.
The first Pokémon—a feral, wounded Vulpix, limping toward the same shelter.
Not predator. Not prey.
Just two creatures in pain.
The child offered half their last piece of bread.
The Vulpix nuzzled their hand.
And in that moment—kapwa was born.
Shared identity.
Shared survival.
Shared soul.
That single act of connection rippled through time, sparking evolution, language, civilization.
But it also made them vulnerable.
Because to bond is to risk loss.
And when the Sky Rended… the world grieved so deeply that reality itself cracked.
The First Bond wasn't the cause of the Rending.
It was the reason the world was worth saving.
Teo opened his eyes.
He wasn't just Teo anymore.
And Lucario wasn't just Lucario.
They were Teo-and-Lucario—two minds, one will.
[ SYNCHRONIZATION: 100% — IRREVERSIBLE MERGE ACHIEVED ]
[ NEW STATUS: APEX SYNCHRONATE — HUMAN/POKÉMON CONSCIOUSNESS INTEGRATED ]
[ ABILITY UNLOCKED: NEN — "HEART OF THE FIRST" — AURA MANIPULATION AT WILL ]
He turned to Yumi and Rin.
"I know what we have to do."
The Conclave didn't just want to study bonds.
They wanted to erase the First Bond.
And if they succeeded…
All bonds would unravel.
Every trainer would forget their Pokémon.
Every Pokémon would forget their trainer.
Love, loyalty, kapwa—gone.
Teo clenched his fists.
"We stop them."
But as he spoke, the System—silent since the merge—finally reactivated.
Not with warnings.
With a revelation.
[ FINAL WARNING: THE VEILED CONCLAVE IS NOT THE TRUE ENEMY ]
[ PRIMARY THREAT: ASCENSION CULT — "THE TRANSCENDENCE DOCTRINE" — ALREADY OPERATING IN REGION 2 ]
[ THEIR GOAL: REPLACE POKÉMON ENTIRELY. ASCEND HUMANS INTO LIVING WEAPONS. ]
Teo's blood ran cold.
The Veiled Conclave… was just a symptom.
The real disease was coming.
And it had already begun.