The moon flared.
Not brighter — harder.
Cresselia descended again, slower this time, rings orbiting her body in deliberate, tightening arcs. The dreamlight she radiated no longer soothed. It pressed. It filled the sky with a gravity that demanded rest, demanded surrender, demanded stillness.
Sleep.
Darkrai recoiled.
Its shadow writhed violently, expanding outward in jagged pulses that tore through cloud and starlight alike. Nightmare energy surged in uncontrolled waves, spilling across the city like ink dropped into water.
Darkrai would not sleep again.
Cyrus felt it — the refusal.
Not fear.
Not rage.
Defiance.
The darker half of Divide City screamed in response. Windows frosted over with shadow, streets warped as nightmare projections bled into reality. People collapsed where they stood, clutching their heads as dreams turned sharp and merciless.
Pokémon cried out.
Some fled.
Some froze.
Some turned feral under the weight of unleashed nightmare energy.
"No," Cyrus whispered.
Cresselia's rings flared wide, lunar light pouring down in shimmering curtains. Where it touched, nightmares softened, edges blunted, panic replaced with drowsy confusion. Pokémon slumped gently instead of thrashing. Humans fell into uneasy but survivable sleep.
She was choosing them.
All of them.
Darkrai shrieked — a soundless scream that cracked the air — and surged upward, meeting Cresselia head-on.
The sky folded.
Dream and nightmare collided with a force that bent light, sound, and thought itself. A shockwave rippled outward, rattling buildings and sending Cyrus staggering backward as Ursaluna braced, digging its claws into stone to keep them upright.
Ditto wrapped tight around Cyrus's neck, forming a rigid brace.
Gengar snarled, shadow flaring wildly.
Ceruledge stepped forward, blades igniting, instinct screaming to protect even if reason said it was meaningless.
Above them, Darkrai struck first.
Not claws.
Not beams.
Fear.
A wave of pure nightmare intent slammed into Cresselia, visions of endless isolation, eternal waking, the suffocating weight of consciousness without rest. The air around her distorted, her glow flickering as the attack tried to unravel her purpose.
Cresselia faltered.
Just for a heartbeat.
Then her rings snapped inward, locking into a tight halo as she pushed back.
Her counter wasn't violence.
It was memory.
Dreamlight exploded outward — visions of safety, of warmth, of lives continuing because sleep existed. Children waking from bad dreams. Pokémon curled beside trusted trainers. Cities resting so they could rise again.
Cyrus gasped as fragments of dreams that weren't his brushed his mind.
Darkrai reeled.
Its shadow fractured, splitting into writhing tendrils that lashed wildly at the sky.
"No," Cyrus breathed again. "It's not losing control."
Hoopa hummed nearby, amused but attentive.
"It's afraid~"
Darkrai surged again, this time condensing its power, nightmare energy compressing until its form sharpened — the mega energy around it stabilizing into something terrifyingly focused.
It struck Cresselia physically now.
Shadow claws raked across her rings, sparks of moonlight scattering like shattered glass. One ring cracked — not broken, but strained — and the shockwave sent dream energy cascading downward in uncontrolled bursts.
People screamed as dreams intensified.
Some laughed.
Some sobbed.
Some collapsed, lost entirely.
Cresselia cried out — not in pain, but in grief — and descended sharply, placing herself between Darkrai and the city, rings spreading wide again as shields rather than weapons.
She would not retreat.
She would not abandon them.
Darkrai hovered, chest heaving, nightmare energy spilling uncontrolled from its form.
It would not sleep.
It would not be sealed.
It would not be forgotten again.
The two legends hovered, locked in a stalemate that shook the foundations of Divide City.
Cyrus stood trembling, fists clenched, heart pounding.
"This isn't a winner-takes-all fight," he said hoarsely. "This is… survival."
Hoopa floated into view at last, rings spinning lazily.
"Yup~" he said cheerfully. "They're both right."
Cyrus shot him a look. "That's not comforting."
Hoopa shrugged. "Balance never is~"
Above them, Darkrai and Cresselia surged again — dream and nightmare colliding once more, not to destroy, but to force an answer neither of them wanted to give.
The night stretched.
Unwilling to end.
And Divide City held its breath as gods fought over whether rest was a mercy… or a cage.