Cyrus woke up choking.
Not on air.
On weight.
It pressed down on his chest like gravity had doubled, pinning him to the bed. The room was dark—but not night dark. The window glowed faintly, as if moonlight had learned a new, wrong color.
Ditto slipped off his chest immediately, splashing into a wide, panicked puddle before snapping into a frantic thumbs-down.
"Yeah," Cyrus rasped. "I noticed."
The pressure lifted just enough for him to sit up.
That's when the screaming started.
Not inside his head.
Outside.
Real voices. Hundreds of them, rising at once—panic rippling through Divide City like a snapped wire.
Gengar phased through the wall from the hallway, eyes wide, grin gone.
"…Gen—GAR."
Cyrus was already on his feet.
The Sky Over Divide City
He crossed the room in three strides and yanked the curtain aside.
The sky had changed.
Not clouds.
Not weather.
Presence.
Something enormous had unfolded above the city, silhouetted against the stars—its form jagged and incomplete, like a nightmare still deciding what shape it wanted to be.
Darkrai.
But wrong.
Its body was larger, stretched, the white plume around its head split and flaring like torn wings. Veins of violet-black energy crawled across its form, pulsing in time with the city's screams. A halo of fractured dreamlight orbited it, broken crescents where something else should have been.
Mega Darkrai.
Fully awake.
Fully visible.
And hovering directly above the boundary line.
People flooded the streets below, pointing upward. Some fell to their knees. Others clutched their heads as waking nightmares bled into reality—shadows stretching too long, reflections moving half a second late.
Fairy Pokémon shrieked and fled eastward.
Dark-types gathered west, drawn like iron filings.
The boundary line shattered into motion, light and shadow bleeding into one another in violent waves.
Cyrus felt it in his bones.
"This isn't a warning," he whispered.
Ditto snapped into a rigid thumbs-down so hard it trembled.
"No," Cyrus agreed. "This is escalation."
The City Breaks
Emergency sirens wailed. then warped, slowing, bending into distorted echoes as Darkrai's presence dragged sound itself through molasses.
From the sky came a pulse.
Not an attack.
A broadcast.
Every sleeping mind in Divide City convulsed.
Every waking one felt watched.
Cyrus staggered back as the room filled with flickering silhouettes—half-formed dreams bleeding through the walls, looping memories, fears without owners.
Gengar planted himself between Cyrus and the window, eyes blazing.
"…GAR."
"I know," Cyrus said, steadying himself. "You can't fight the sky."
Ceruledge's Pokéball clicked.
Once.
Then again.
Still didn't open.
Tyrunt roared inside his ball, furious and confused.
Meltan's hum spiked into painful static.
And through it all...
Laughter.
Soft.
Childish.
Sing-song.
"See~? Big now~."
Cyrus's head snapped up.
"Hoopa," he said sharply. "Seriously...tell me you didn't do this, actually...on second thought it might be easier to fix if you had."
A pause.
Then, floating beside the ceiling light, a golden ring shimmered into being.
Hoopa's voice drifted from nowhere and everywhere.
"Didn't make~. Didn't start~."
The ring wobbled, uncertain.
"But didn't stop~."
Cyrus's stomach dropped.
"You knew this would happen."
"Would~ eventually~," Hoopa chimed, almost apologetic. "Missing moon makes shadow stretch~."
Outside, Mega Darkrai turned its eye.
Not toward the east.
Not toward the west.
Toward the Axis Atrium.
Toward Cyrus.
The pressure slammed back down.
Windows across the city cracked.
People screamed as one.
And for the first time since Divide City was founded—
The nightmare wasn't personal.
It was public.
Cyrus clenched his fists.
"Okay," he said, voice shaking but firm. "Now we move."
Gengar grinned.
Low.
Dangerous.
"…Gengar."
Above them, Mega Darkrai spread its fractured halo wider—
And the city of balance officially stopped pretending it could sleep through this.