Before approaching the elite four building, Fennel checks to make sure she is entirely ready. Approaching Caitlin in Gensokyo will be more difficult than approaching her in her own universe, but that’s an issue for another time. For now, she just wants to make sure she’s ready, or at least as ready as she can be for what Caitlin can do.

When she realizes she has everything ready, well, everything except glitchcloth anyway, she’ll need to look in to that later, she approaches the building. A man guards the entrance and talks to her.

“Welcome, challenger, to the pokemon league. Inside these doors are the fiercest and most powerful trainers in the region. Are you ready to face your greatest challenge yet?”

Fennel smiles, “Yep! I’m ready to do this! Though I’m not sure I’d call it my greatest challenge yet, that’s still coming up!”

The guard laughs, “Oh, you think you’re going to get to the champion then? Lots of people think that, but not many succeed. Can you show me your gym badges before proceeding?”

Fennel nods, “Yep! I have them right here!”

She gets out her badge case, and shows it to the guard. The guard looks at them skeptically, then sighs.

“These… Are the badges from Kanto.”

Fennel laughs and searches her bag, “Oops! Uh… Here, is this one right?”

“Nope… This is Johto…”

“I must have mixed them up. How about this?” she asks, a bit embarrassed, as she takes out more cases.

“That’s Sinnoh… Kalos… Those are z-crystals… That’s a mega stone, ok, you’re just messing with me now, aren’t you?”

Fennel laughs, “Hehe, maybe! Here, how about this one?”

The guard looks, and nods, “That is definitely a complete set of Unova badges. Did you actually get these on your own, or did you steal them? They look legit, but I feel like I would have heard of you before if you actually earned all of this.”

Fennel laughs at the question, “Great question, you’re a good guard. But does it matter? If I’m not good enough the elite four will defeat me pretty quickly, don’t you think?”

The guard sighs, and nods, before moving aside. “That’s true. I’ll be watching your run carefully. Well, at least I’ll ask about it. Good luck in there.”

“Thanks!” Fennel responds, while stepping inside. “I’ll need it!”

With that, she heads inside. She never had any intention to fight the elite four, obviously, just one. With that in mind, she takes the second door to the right, and then takes the psychic elevator to see the one she wants to see. As she predicted, Caitlin is sleeping. She doesn’t approach too close, because Caitlin being asleep is exactly what she wants.

“Musharna, come on out,” she whispers, as she takes out her Musharna, her screwdriver, and her computer. She presses a button on her screwdriver, which turns on her computer, and sets up a small entralink. Before she can activate it though, she hears a voice in her mind.

*Fennel… It’s been a while. Cynthia told me you were dead. It appears she was mistaken.*

Fennel starts to feel lightheaded before she can set up the entralink entirely. She starts to feel drowsy, and yawns, before passing out on the ground.

The voice in Fennel’s head continues, *Why are you here again, after all this time? I’m bringing you in to a sleepstate so I don’t need to wake up. Most people don’t understand the power of dreams, but you’ve been different. You do understand.*

As Fennel falls to the ground, she starts to dream, but she doesn’t dream alone. She looks out at a world of purple grass and pink clouds. This is a shared dream, one created by both of their subconsciouses. She smiles, because this was her goal anyway. Caitlin just got her there even faster than she could have gotten them there.

She waves, “Hey Caitlin! Thanks for letting me in your dream, I was about to do the same thing, but you beat me to it, hehe! It’s so nice knowing someone else who loves dreams as much as I do.”

Caitlin smiles, “So, last time you entered my life, you offered us elite four training tips. With your influence, we became one of the top elite fours in the entire world in terms of power. I was sad when Cynthia told me you died, yet I kept your identity secret as you requested. Now, recently, Bill has appeared again, and now you come to me. What do you want?”

Fennel smiles, “Thank you, I appreciate that! Well… An interesting situation has happened. Tell me, if you were going to take over the world, how would you do it?”

Caitlyn laughs coldly, chilling the air around her, “I would manipulate Marshall to kill Grimsley first of all, the vampire would be my biggest threat initially. Then I would use dreams similarly to get others to do what I want them to do. In the chaos and confusion, I would be the one trying to keep everything straight, and people would look to me to be a leader. Everyone has a weak point, it’s just a matter of finding it, and I would find it.”

She looks a little confused, “Why? I am not planning on doing this, if that’s what you think.”

Fennel shakes her head, “Nope, don’t worry, I don’t think you will. But… A version of you from an alternate dimension is doing an equivalent thing, and has plans to destroy between part and all of reality in the nearby universal clusters. I’m trying to stop her, but getting to her is difficult, even for me! She’s doing something similar to what you just said, basically using dreams to manipulate everyone to do what she wants. Nobody even knew she was behind anything for a long time.”

Caitlin looks a little confused, but nods, “All right, I believe you. What could I do about this?”

Fennel considers, and finally arrives at an answer. “Fight me!”

Caitlin rolls her eyes, “A pokemon battle? You might have good training methods, but you aren’t an elite trainer. You wouldn’t stand a chance against me.”

Fennel laughs, “No, silly! A dream battle! I have friends who can handle the actual fighting, but if I’m going to stop Caitlin, I think I might need to beat her in one, or at least hold my own. If I get too close, I should be prepared for her manipulation.”

Caitlin flashes a grin, “All right, if that’s what you really want…” She vanishes, and the ground becomes lava, “Then show me what you got!”

Fennel floats in the air to avoid the suddenly fiery battlefield. “Hehe! This is going to be fun!” she shouts, as she tries to track Caitlyn down, but can’t. Before she can react, the sky starts losing oxygen and chokes her.

“Come on, Fennel, I expect more from you. Show me what you can do!” A voice sounds out from beyond the dreamscape, challenging the purple haired scientist to counter her techniques. The scientist thinks, and dreams herself a spacesuit with oxygen, but as soon as she does, the oxygen tank in the suit gets replaced with poison.

Fennel closes her mouth, trying to avoid the toxin, hearing another taunt in her mind. *Keep reacting to what I do, Fennel. I’m sure you can come up with the right solution eventually.*

Fennel thinks furiously, having only seconds left before she passes out. Caitlyn just seems stronger than her. How can she compete with this level of detail, this much precision? Not even she can do what Caitlyn is doing. Or… Can she? Caitlyn isn’t trying to kill her, she’s trying to teach her. Stop reacting, focus, control the dream.

In desperation, the scientist dives in to the lava, which becomes an illusion at Fennel’s command. She commands the lava to scorch across the dreamscape, hoping Caitlyn avoids it and reveals herself. She senses a tiny Joltik leap away from the expanding fire, and smiles. Now that she has Caitlyn’s position, its time to take the offensive.

The Joltik tries to finds itself in an invisible maze, and unable to teleport away. Fire starts to surround it on all sides, trapping it. Just as the lava is about to fill in, the Joltik escapes to another place and blows away the lava… only to find itself surrounded by bombs, which blow up right around it.

Not wanting to lose the momentum, Fennel places a dimensional shield around the joltik to prevent it from escaping, and creates as many missiles and attack moves as she can to prepare to strike. As she is about to fire, she suddenly feels a dagger pierce her back, causing her to topple over in surprise pain.

“H… How?” Fennel whispers, trying to remain conscious despite the pain.

Caitlyn appears next to her, just briefly, “That was a smart move, but you also fell for an illusion. How do you check for sure next time?”

Fennel groans, knowing she’s losing the battle fast if she doesn’t do something. The knife in her back dissolves, and her back heals, but in doing so, she’s lost all trails of Caitlyn. She tries to block out memories of the pain, but fails, before Sho appears next to her, throwing her against a wall.

“I’m going to kill you, Flak. I’m going to kill you and rip your guts out!” He screams, a blade in hand. He strikes with the blade, and Fennel screams as her memories take over, her arm falling off.

Sho disappears, replaced by Rika. In her delirium, Fennel can’t concentrate or recognize its an illusion, and is left unable to react, screaming as she’s unable to restore her arm. “H… How?” She whispers through the screaming, but Rika just grins as her arm starts to glow.

“Hey, Fennel, I’m here to save you,” Rika laughs mockingly, “You’ve made me good and I’m never going to do any harm ever! Oh wait, no I’m not, because I’m evil, and you’re stupid for trusting me!”

Her hand finishes glowing, and Fennel is helpless as Rika rips out her heart. Fennel falls to the ground, somehow still conscious against her will. An ice golem appears, near her, laughing.

“Oh, look at you! You’re just like all of us, hopeless and incompetent. You think you’re such a great schemer, but look at you, you’re helpless and broken. As soon as you’re alone, you’re nothing.”

Another version of herself appears, and cuts her throat with a knife. “She’s right, you know. You thought by trapping me you were superior? You didn’t do anything, you allies did.”

Fennel is unable to respond as others from her past start showing up, friends and foes alike, all insulting her, demeaning her, and hurting her. Her failures flood through her mind, and the once fun dream battle becomes a nightmare she can’t control. Finally, after what feels like an eternity for her, Caitlyn appears right next to Fennel’s broken body and spirit.

“Your past is fascinating,” Caitlyn says, with concern in her voice, “I wish I understood your fears, but I am sure you do. The more real you can make it for the person you’re fighting, the more they forget its an illusion. The more emotion they show, the more you can summon their fears.”

Fennel tries to breathe, but is unable to do so. She thinks about Caitlyn’s words, and comes to a realization.

*Shut up, shut up, shut up! This is all an illusion. None of this is real. My body isn’t in pain, that means I can…*

The room they’re in changes to a nondescript room with white walls, and all the illusions that came from Fennel and Caitlyn’s minds start to vanish. Fennel yells, angry, and summons a sword in her hand.

She lets out a war cry, and charges straight at Caitlyn, before stabbing her in the heart.

“There!” she yells, uncharacteristically emotional and angry, “I win! I understand it now, it’s an illusion! You’ve made your point! Now let me out of here!”

Fennel hears a voice in her mind, laughing, and she freezes, losing control of even her own body.

*I haven’t made my point at all yet,* The voice in her mind says, *I understand the threat the other me poses from your memories. If you want to defeat her, you need to learn this the hard way. For someone who has lived her life in dreams, you don’t understand anything about them.*

Fennel tries to fight, to regain control of herself, but pain starts hitting every nerve cell on her body. She screams, feeling physical and virtual pain at the same time, and she has no choice but to pass out.

Sometime later, Fennel wakes up, inside a purple castle in the sky, in a room equipped with a tv and a radio. Knowing what this means, she immediately turns on the television to see what Caitlyn is forcing her body to do.

Her ears hear a noise from a familiar computer, one she has interacted with many times before.

“Entralink self destruct sequence initiated. Please enter the confirmation code.”

*Nononononono!* she thinks, scared of what’s about to come next. Thinking quickly, she gets on her radio, trying to contact the entralink.

“Koya, get me out of here now! I’ve been possessed and I’m about to destroy the entralink!” she yells, hoping Koya can hear him.

While she’s trying to get to the radio, she hears her own voice in the outside world. “Confirmation code 5, 3, 1, 1, omega…”

*It’s pointless.* she hears Caitlyn say to her mind, *There’s a shield around this place. Koya can’t hear you.*

“Stop it!” Fennel pleads, “You win! I understand, there’s a lot I have to learn. You aren’t going to make us safer by doing this!”

The voice in her head laughs, * I won’t, I just wanted you to know that I could have. If this were the alternate me, your entralink would have been destroyed, or some other disaster would have happened. Do you know how I was able to do this, Fennel?*

Fennel shakes her head. “I… I don’t know. You said I was reacting, but I don’t know how you understood the battlefield so well. I’ve never faced anything like it. You think your alternate self can do that too?”

*Yes. I believe she can. The thing you didn’t realize, that I do, is that our battle, and the results of our battle, never mattered at all.*

“What are you talking about?” Fennel asks, confused, “You won because every time I tried to hit you, you were always a step ahead. You made me feel pain, confusion, fatigue, then…. Ooh, I see…”

*Do you?* The voice responds, *Do you really understand?*

Fennel nods, “I think so. It’s not about whether our dreams can still fight, it’s about… It’s about emotion, isn’t it? People don’t expect to be attacked in dreams, it’s not part of their natural instincts. But I was treating this like a normal fight where we had superpowers, while you… You were treating it like a dream.”

*Exactly, but there’s more.* The voice replies, pleased, *Your goal was to kill me, but that never mattered at all. The entire sequence was a distraction, but the end goal is to get in to the other’s thoughts, to sense what they’re thinking, and then… to control their mind. Every time you experienced pain, your willpower dropped a little. You got distracted. You lost your sense of purpose, and I could dominate the cracks that appeared whenever you felt emotion.*

Fennel nods, “Listen, you’ve clearly shown that I can’t beat Caitlyn on my own. I need your help. Stay with me. Keep me possessed. She can’t beat us both!”

Caitlyn considers, but the voice responds with a negative. *No. My duties are here at the elite four. Yours are to defeat my alternate self, and save reality. You’re underestimating yourself for once, Fennel, your psychic potential is the highest I’ve ever seen, but you need to remain calm. Remember its all an illusion, fight her mentally to be a distraction, and let your friends help you.*

Fennel gulps, and nods, “All right. I guess this is it?”

*Yes. I’ll release you now, but remember this for the future. When you fight me for real, don’t let this happen again.*

Fennel hears her own voice again, still not under her control. “Computer, cancel the self destruct sequence. Lock all self destruct sequence countdowns for three hours. Remove all of my control over the entralink for three hours. Command code sequence F, Gamma, E, 0, 7.”

“Command accepted. Entralink self destruct sequence aborted.”

With that done, Fennel feels her mind freed, and without support, her body falls on the floor, and Fennel falls asleep in her entralink. When she wakes up, Caitlyn is gone.