Three days had passed since Arceus’s last visit, and the villagers had finally begun searching the woods more frequently after total silence. Mercifully, Chara exercised caution by remaining concealed in her cave until they had departed before venturing out.

The villagers were exploring the forest an hour away from Chara's cave, and it would take them 3 hours to return to the village, depending on how high they climbed the mountain. Without the villagers, Chara slowly approached where she first met Dia, Parr, and Grir to see if Arceus was waiting.

The sound of rustling reaches Chara's ears as she gets halfway to the burrow. Suddenly, a dazzling flurry of white and golden light flashes before her eyes. As soon as she looks around, she figures it might be one of the nearby villagers. At that moment, Chara notices a change in direction, and the rustling stops. A tiny blue blur then jumps on her, letting out a joyful cry, "Crara!"

Chara almost falls over when Dia lands on her, shocking her. She gasps in shock and cries out, "Dia?!"

"Crara, Crara, Crara!" He begins to lick her face while standing on her chest and shoulders, and Dialga chirps and nuzzles her joyfully before doing so. His little tail wags with excitement.

"Aww, haha. As Chara joyfully accepts the kisses and hugs him once more, she chuckles and says, "I missed you too, little guy." She holds him close, making sure he does not slip out of her arms accidentally..

Prior to noticing the disturbance between Chara and Dia, Arceus was circling the forest in a worried manner, observing the villagers' exploration of the area today. Laughing, Arceus then slowly drifts down to land next to them. "Hello, again, Chara. I presume you like the surprise I brought along with me?" 

Chara looks up at Arceus once more after laughing merrily and tenderly kissing Dialga's little head as she holds him in her arms. “What happened to Parr and Grir? Are they here too?”

Arceus gives a silent assent and says, "They are back home, asleep. I did not wish to disturb them, so I only brought Dia with me, if that is alright.”

“Oh, haha, yeah! That’s totally fine! Thanks so much," Chara giggles as Dialga wriggles happily in her arms and gently nuzzles her chin avoiding injury. Dia lets out a joyful squeal and wiggles even more as Chara tickles him, then blows raspberries into his little tummy with a smile.

While observing them, Arceus chuckles joyfully and then gently lies down next to them, finding a comfortable position to lay down.

Chara looks over at Arceus and says, "You two doing well, I hope?" as she continues to playfully tickle Dialga.

"We are. What about you?" Arceus asks tenderly, then nuzzles her cheek, eliciting a giggle from Chara.

"I guess I have been okay..." Dia nuzzles Chara and licks her other cheek once more, causing her to smile down at him. ‘However, I would prefer it if the villagers would just leave.’  Chara looks down and thinks quietly. Arceus comforts her by nuzzling her, sensing her sadness.

"I observed some humans surveying the forest earlier… Do they scare you?" As Arceus frets, Chara lets out a gasp as he perfectly anticipates what is on her mind.

"H-how did you know?"

"I noticed them milling about just before you arrived, and especially given your injury...  it’s not that hard to assume you’re perhaps worried about them finding you?” Arceus repeated himself.

"Well, I.... I told you that my wounds were from fighting with the kids in the village!"

Arceus is growing increasingly suspicious of Chara's lies, and her pout is a sign of that.

As he examines her, Arceus can not help but frown at the sight of her filthy and torn clothes, which are a stark contrast to his last visit a few days ago. “You have been residing in the wilderness by yourself.  And the kind of injuries you described a few days ago—such as whiplash or third-degree burn scars—do not occur when children fight.”

"I... I..." Biting her lip, Chara clings even more tightly to Dialga while she looks downcast and guilty. “I simply… I didn’t want you to worry about me.”

Despite Dialga's confusion, he can feel her melancholy and wants to cheer her up. She whimpers and sadly nuzzles her chin in response.

"...I told you I will always worry about you, little one," Arceus says, nuzzling her further.  While I may not have known you for long, I feel obligated to assist and care for you despite the circumstances.

“......I will be fine.  I know I can hide from them when needed. And…. actually, they have been looking around this forest for me for at least 3 days now, and they haven’t caught me yet.” Chara replies, not wanting Arceus to fight the villagers and die for her.

When Arceus and Chara were not looking, one of the villagers had gone back to the group and seen the ten-foot-tall, azure-and-golden-horse monster slowly approaching Chara. Before Arceus and the others saw him, the villager slowly crept off to find the others and tell them what he had seen.

“Child, are you sure?" Arceus asks delicately, rubbing his face against her soft hair. But before Chara could respond, Arceus felt something terrible had happened back in his original world and looked up towards the sky, seeing yet unseeing at the same time. His demeanor had taken on an air of urgency, which Chara noticed right away.

"Arceus, is everything alright?" Concerned for him, Chara inquired as she and Dia raised an anxious eyebrow at Arceus.

"Chara, I believe you should keep that thought until later." I have to take care of something, but I will be back as soon as I can. Arceus simply responds with an air of gravity and worry. Chara simply gives Dia a gentle handoff and returns her to Arceus. Arceus kneels down, allowing Chara to place Dia on his back with care. As soon as she is finished, Arceus returns to the skies, opens another portal, and vanishes through it.

Chara gives Arceus a quick look before turning to leave and deciding to go back to her cave. Sadly, Chara was ambushed and pinned to the ground by the humans who had been hiding in the forest after they were suddenly alerted to the situation. 

"Traitor!! You stupid shit, what were you doing with that monster?" The villagers shout at Chara as four more began to pile on top of the small child.

With five adult humans' weights pressing down on her weak body, it is almost hard for her to breathe, and Chara cries out in excruciating pain and terror, letting out a piercing scream. 

"Agh! Stop—it hurts!" Chara shrieks in fear of what the villagers might do to Arceus and the babies if they decided they were a threat. "It is not what it seems to be! They are not dangerous, I promise!"

"LIAR!!" A group of people start shouting at her, hitting Chara in the face, and then grabbing and yanking her hair, roughly pulling Chara’s bruised face off the ground as she grits her teeth in pain, one tooth already starting to fall out.

"They're monsters! They will steal our SOULs if given the opportunity! Are you trying to use them against us, brat?! And, after all, we have done for you!!"

Chara tries to convince the villagers to release their grip on her hair while sobbing in agony; her nose is beginning to bleed slightly from the blow to her face.

"No, they could not care less about that! They only want to enjoy life to the fullest. They do not mean to hurt anyone!" Following this, she starts to cry because she is scared of what the villagers might do to her new friends and does not care how badly they hurt her.

"You spoiled rotten kid! It is exactly what they want you to believe!!" The people in the village yell as more people come up and surround Chara completely. That way, she would not be able to get away even if she managed to get out from under the adults in the village.

"Let us destroy those monsters before they free the others from the barrier! We need to catch them before they do any more damage!"

"Yes, absolutely!" The townspeople erupted in applause, with some even raising their fists in celebration.

Wailing and scratching at the hands of the villagers, Chara was now desperately trying to escape. Her nails were digging into their skin and leaving little scratches on them.  

"No, no, no, that is not true at all! They are my friends!" Chara lets out a low growl, her crimson eyes revealing her growing wrath and terror. Then, out of nowhere, a flurry of red knives materializes around her and is hurled at the villagers, who are either slashed across the body or killed instantly when the Determination knives pierced their skulls or eyes.

"I will not let you find them or tell you where they hide! You will have to kill me first!!"  Chara snarls and yells in pain when more adults jump on her and add to the nearly 600 pounds of weight that is already on her, crushing her even more and cutting off her air supply.

The last thing on her mind was how she really wishes Arceus and Dialga would never come back to this place…

At that very moment, Chara's vision began to blur as she struggled to breathe under the immense weight on her small, seven-year-old frame. As the throng moves closer, she spots a familiar face emerging from among them.

But a couple of the villagers see what is happening and feel bad for Chara, saying things like, "Hey, look, this is getting out of hand. I mean-"

"What? What?!" 

"This brat deserves everything that happened to her because she tried to form a team with those horrible creatures!" yells another villager, interrupting the one who was beginning to feel some sympathy for Chara's plight.

"Lilith! Look at you, you brat! What have you done this time?! There is no way you are ever leaving my house again after what you did! You are going to pay dearly for making our family look bad.” Salenor speaks with an intimidating tone.

"L…Like I haven’t b-before? And… I go by the name of Chara! Not L….Lilith…!” Chara sputters even as she’s on the verge of losing consciousness from a lack of air.

Following this, Salenor gives her a piercing look before telling the villagers to stop bothering his daughter. After that, he drags Chara by her sweater collar and pulls her up, easily lifting her several feet off the ground. Without wasting a second to allow Chara to catch her breath after being finally allowed to breathe again, he delivers a hard slap to her cheek, which causes Chara’s neck to snap to the side from the force of the hard slap to her face.

"You fucker!" That is not a name at all, Lilith!”  Salenor snarls, "Your name can be 'fucking shithead' for all I care!! You do not get to choose your own name, you little shit!"

"Nghk…!" Chara winces and coughs up a tiny bit of blood as she continues to recover from everything that has happened so far and is unable to speak. "F...fuck... you!!" Chara sputters, looking back at her father as she tries to get away from him and his grip on her throat as sh weakly kicks her legs and grabs his arm. Her red eyes begin to glow again in anger, but any attempts to materialize her determination knives quickly falls short.

Chara then attempts to remove her father's hand from her body, but she is too weak and sluggish to do so. Fearing being dragged back into that cursed village and subjected to harm and torture once more, she wanted to flee and make a quick getaway. 

Still, she is suddenly overcome with fear that the villagers will capture Arceus and the babies if she continues to fight. Images of the little ones desperately trying to flee and fly away to safety, only to be shot out of the sky by spears thrown at them by the villagers, crying for their father to save them before being cut down and stabbed to death and without mercy.

Imagining barbaric humans chasing after Arceus, hacking and stabbing him with spears, swords, and anything else they could find, crimson streaks of blood marking his otherwise flawless fur. Swiftly evading the villagers' relentless assaults, he desperately tried to flee before his strength failed him.

Chara could not let this happen, but how could she stop them from returning?  Exactly what could she possibly do???! With tears streaming down her face, Chara's father gave the order for the other villagers to bind her firmly. A small group of the villagers eventually pulls her back, while some opt to remain in the woods a;ong with Salenor to help find Arceus in the event that they return.

“No, no!" As Chara grimaces once more, she tries to call upon her Determination knives once more, this time aiming them at the villagers who have chosen to remain behind. Unfortunately, Chara's father and the others were moving too quickly away as the remaining began to drag Chara along back into Ebott Village for her to kill or at least slow them down. She had not fully controlled her magic enough to direct where the knives went. So instead, they collapsed pathetically to the ground and vanished.

After seeing the fury fade from her eyes, Salenor smirked and continued to drag Chara along as they made their way back. 

Chara could only hold out hope that everything would work out in the end... Oh, how she despised her own frailty and helplessness.