Ash and his Pokémon stayed in the Pokémon Center while they waited for Rick to arrived. Most of them had decided if they couldn't play outside, they'd play inside.

Pikachu sat silently beside his trainer, watching the other Pokémon play.

Ash stood up and walked over to the window. He looked out to see nothing but darkness. The lights of the Pokémon Center were the only thing in sight at that moment, standing out in the dark land. It was 7pm now. Ash was wondering if it could possibly get darker and would it at nighttime when he saw something in the darkness. It took him a moment to realise that it was Rick and his Charizard. He ran over to the door, Pikachu behind him. He walked out just as Rick returned Charizard. "What kept you?"

"Sorry Ash" Rick clipped the Pokéball to his belt. "Sent an e-mail to Prof. Oak and Prof. Hale, they said they'd look into it"

A Raichu stood at Rick's feet. It walked over and greeted Pikachu happily.

The four entered the Pokémon Center. Ash's other Pokémon had settled down and were now eating some Pokéfood Ash had lain out for them earlier. Pikachu and Raichu joined them, Pikachu's sharing with Raichu.

Ash sat down and watched the Pokémon, silently thinking. He jumped when the Pokémon Center phone rang.

Nurse Joy picked it up. "Hello, Seafoam Island Pokémon Center. How may I help you?" She nodded to the person on the phone and put her hand over the mouthpiece. She looked over at Ash and Rick. "Are you two Ash and Rick?"

"Ya" The two answered in unison.

"There's someone on the phone for you" She said handing the phone to Rick as he walked up and going around back to work on some injured wild Pokémon.

Rick looked at the videophone. "Oh hi Prof. Hale, anything that could help us out?"

"Maybe. I found an old stone tablet that has a strange inscription on it, look, here's a picture" Prof. Hale held up a picture of what looked like a square rock with strange markings on it. He showed another picture that should the back of the tablet. The back had a large black circle at the back, and in the centre, there was a pair of red eyes. Ash shivered when he saw it, but he didn't know why. "I sent Pidgeotto over with it, it should be there soon, but it's strange. It seemed to have just appeared out of nowhere, right after I got your e-mail"

Ash turned to Noctowl. "Noctowl, your a nocturnal Pokémon, fly out and wait until you see a Pidgeotto. It should have something with it"

Noctowl spread its wings and flew towards the Pokémon Center doors, which opened automatically.

Rick had just finished talking to Prof. Hale and hung up the phone.

A few minutes later Noctowl arrived back with a parcel. It flew over and dropped the parcel on Ash's lap, then flew over and perched on the back of a chair.

Ash opened the parcel and inside was a small rectangle shaped stone. It was no bigger than a videotape box and the inscriptions were pretty small.

Rick looked at it over Ash's shoulder. "Come on, let's try to figure this out"

Ash yawned and woke up. They had been working right until dawn, though they couldn't tell since the sun wasn't there. He rubbed his eyes and looked up at the clock. It was 1pm. Or was it 1am? Well it was one something which told him that he'd either gotton six hours sleep or eighteen hours sleep. He confused himself trying to figure it out so decided to look at the artefact that Noctowl had brought the night before.... or at least he thought it was the night before.

Rick yawned and got up. "What time is it?"

"Don't ask" Ash said glancing over at him.

Rick shrugged and looked back at the Pokémon. Cyndaquil was fighting with Raichu because it had accidentally shocked him. "Better go sort that out" He stood up and walked over to the Pokémon.

"Ok" Ash sighed. They hadn't been able to translate any of it. So far they'd come up with some of the weirdest things that weren't any help like "For Sale". Maybe it was a "For Sale" sign used long ago. Ash's mind began to wander as he imagined a cave man putting the sign up on a rock. He shook himself and then noticed something on the front.

On the front of the tablet there was a faint red outline of a hand. Ash hesitated for a moment then placed his hand on it. He gasped and closed his eyes. The strange letters on the tablet glowed for a little while and then stopped. When Ash opened his eyes again they were clouded over.

Rick looked back at him. "Hey, you ok Ash?" When he heard no response he walked over and placed his hand on Ash's shoulder. "Hello in there?"

Ash spun around and punch Rick in the arm before jumping back out of his reach.

Rick rubbed his arm. "Ash, what's with you?"

Pikachu walked up beside Rick. "Pika?" He tilted his head and looked at Ash. "Pikapi?" As he looked into Ash's eyes he could tell something wasn't right. His friend was taken over by something, something powerful. Pikachu narrowed his eyes and got down on all fours, cheeks sparking.

Rick looked at Pikachu and understood what was wrong. "You've got to fight it Ash"

Pikachu charged up and shot a thundershock at Ash.

Ash raised his arm in front of him and his eyes glowed red. A barrier formed around him, protecting him from the attack.

Pikachu began to pour on the power but Ash wasn't even fazed, even when Raichu joined in.

Ash felt as though he had been taken away from reality. All he could see was a pair of red eyes, glaring at him. The owner of the red eyes moved forward and even though it was dark Ash could see, from the glow of the eyes, that it was in the shape of a Lugia.

The Pokémon spoke in Ash's mind, it's voice cold as ice. "So you are the one Ho-oh has trusted with it's powers? Bad choice. You're not strong enough to break my spell. I have taken control of you and there's nothing you can do" Ash glanced around him. Where was he? It was as if he was sitting in darkness.

"You are trapped inside your own mind. The only way to gain control of it yourself is to defeat me" the Lugia said, reading his thoughts.

Ash stood up. How was he to defeat this Lugia without his Pokémon? He looked down at his hand, which was glowing slightly red. That was how he had to beat it. He clenched his hand into a fist and held it up in front of him, eyes shut tight. He raised his fist and punched it forward, a red beam shooting towards the Lugia.

The Lugia was hit, but just winced a little. It grinned and powered up, shooting an Aeroblast of red and black at Ash.

Ash was hit and Lugia's attack was a lot more affective then his. He fell and skidded across the ground, if there was a ground there at all. He stopped and sat up, trying to catch his breath.

"Do you really think you have a chance against me? I'm not even the real thing, I'm just using my powers to control you. That tablet was a good idea, one of my best" Lugia smirked.

Ash pushed himself up and powered up again. "I won't know until I try" He shot another beam, more powerful this time, at Lugia.

This time Lugia was a little more hurt, but he shot another dark Aeroblast at Ash.

Ash was hit again but was somehow able to keep his balance. He began to power up again. This was taking a lot of his energy not to mention Lugia's attacks were draining his power. Now he knew what a Pokémon in battle felt like.

Pikachu and Raichu were both worn out from using their electricity and were too tired to continue.

Ash grinned, eyes still glowing a bright red colour.

Rick picked up Pikachu and Raichu. "Ash come on, you have to fight whatever's taken a hold of you"

Ash was blasted back again by another Aeroblast. He pushed himself up weakly and looked at the Lugia. It was burnt in some places and breathing heavily, but it still was able to fight. Ash heard Rick's voice and looked around. He closed his eyes and nodded before turning back to Lugia.

"So, you still refuse to give up?" Lugia began to power up for another Aeroblast.

Ash glared at the Lugia as it shot the attack at him. He quickly countered with another blast, which wasn't powerful enough to hurt Lugia by itself, by it reflected the attack back on Lugia.

Lugia's eyes widened as the attack came shooting at it. When the attack struck, there was a blinding flash and Ash suddenly found himself back to normal.

Unfortunately all the pains from his battle with Lugia hit him all at once and he felt a jolt of electricity as Pikachu and Raichu used Thunderbolt just as the barrier disappeared. "PIKACHU!" Ash called and the electricity instantly stopped. He fell back and groaned.

"Pikapi!" Pikachu ran over to him and jumped into his arms.

"Are you ok? What happened?" Rick helped him over to a bench and sat him down.

Ash began to explain what had happened, wondering at the same time why Lugia would do such a thing. Then he realised something. When there had been a flash when he shot and attack, it showed that the Lugia was all black, not the normal white and blue. He mentioned this to Rick and then looked at the clock. It was 4 something. He'd only been awake three hours and already he was tired. He yawned and rubbed his eyes.

"You get some sleep, you look like your gonna need it" Rick said and stood up. He walked over past the phone and over to the Pokémon.

Ash caught a glimpse of the phone. "Whatever you do, don't call mom" he said. "She'll freak"

"And she'd have my head" Rick said grinning.

In the Whirl Islands, Red Rock Isle was completely destroyed. In the center stood a large building, a little like a castle. Except it had very dark grey walls, torches lighting the corridors and when you entered it was like a maze. It was built that way to confuse enemies. Right in the center was a huge room. There was a tall perch were a dark Ho-oh was sitting. The five Dark Legendaries had been able to build it in a short amount of time.

Lugia stood in front of it's leader. "The boy escaped this time Ho-oh, but we'll get him next time"

"We better, that boy could be the key to our victory. He has more power then that phoney Ho-oh let him know and if we could get a hold of him, we could claim that power as our own" The Dark Ho-oh's red eyes flashed and it's grinned evilly. "Do anything to get him to us, but I want him alive"