Chapter 1

those who were forgotten

...

My skin burned.

Inside the house, a beam crashed to the ground, but my deafened, ringing ears barely even registered the noise.

I struggled to move, to back away from the wood of the door that was hissing and popping with heat. A small cloud of sparks blasted out of the screaming wood in front of my eyes, and I tried to jump back, but the pressure of the arm across my chest kept me from escaping.

I saw a man run toward the door. He started pounding it with both his arms, but even weakened by the flame it held and kept him inside.

Something wet hit the top of my head. I looked up to see the face of the girl who held me. She seemed impossibly tall and far away, somehow keeping me in place with one arm, resisting my struggles to move and get away. The shiny trails of tears that had boiled away glowed in the fire's light. She held her chin high, defiantly, so that I couldn't see her eyes.

A shower of falling debris hit the man, lighting the stains on his shirt. The girl put her other hand over my eyes so that I couldn't see as the screaming started.

...

"Liz, get back here with my Pokemon!" I said like the dignified gentleman I obviously was, standing here in my sweaty basketball jersey and cargo pants.

Okay, if I was being honest I screamed it into the dim cave like a maniac while racing after her. I had every right to overreact like that, though, since she had just stolen my Pokemon, the one thing I'd wanted for what felt like my whole life. I had always dreamed of getting a Pokemon and going on a journey. Thanks to a completely legitimate business deal last month that wasn't sketchy or suspicious at all, I had finally gotten one. Now that my dream had come true, I wasn't going to let someone snatch it away.

"I won't let anyone stand in my way! We came this far to catch a Solrock and we're not turning back." Liz had this passion, this drive that usually inspired me but sometimes scared me. It was moments like this that made me wonder if her crazy goals were the only thing holding her together, and if she would fall apart like a sand castle before a wave if she ever failed.

She raced ahead of me, her spiked ponytail bouncing behind her like a flag dragged by a plane. She was wearing the athletic gear she had been so proud of buying last week: the red top with white sleeves and a white stripe up the middle, the apparently moisture-wicking grey tights, and the skirt with a pokeball pattern on it. When she had bought it, I had told her it looked stupid, but she ignored me and wore it anyway. As usual, she was wearing her visor, too, which cast a shadow across her bright, green eyes, making them look dim and somehow empty, like a grimy glass window. I envied how light her clothes were.

"We can just come back later! There's no need to pick a fight!" I shouted. The ranger by the entrance had warned us about a strange group of people who had come in earlier and tried to barricade the cave and keep everyone else out. Since Glittering Cave was a national park and public property, they technically couldn't do that. Apparently, the law didn't matter to them, since the ranger told us he had helped some tourists they roughed up earlier today. We had just run into one of them, who warned us to stay away. Since I didn't want to take any risks this early in my journey, especially not picking fights with creepy pale people in tacky suits, I had backed off. Liz had pretended to go along with me, but she had really just been waiting for an opening. Once I looked away she grabbed the pokeball in my right pocket and raced back toward the man who had blocked our path.

"Wes," Liz began. That was me, my name since I had arrived at Madame Amedee's home. Only Madame Amedee and I knew the other one. That was fine with me. I liked Wes better anyway. "I won't let anyone stop me."

"I know Pokemon are your passion," I said, trying and failing to reason with her. "Trust me, I know what it's like to want to get Pokemon and go on a journey. I understand more than you know. But don't let the excitement of finally seeing that you can get what you want lead you into a dangerous situation like this." I rolled my eyes at myself as I spoke, knowing that I had done the exact same thing last month when I had been offered the chance to have my own Pokemon. I had rushed into that situation without considering how wrong everything about it was.

Liz knew this as well, since I had told her the story. "Are you even hearing yourself, Wes? If you actually thought that, you wouldn't have been Damien's errand boy." I couldn't deny it and just looked away guiltily. "You, me, and him, we can do this. That guy doesn't even look strong! Let's go!"

Before I could stop her, she raced back the we had come and I heard her issue a challenge. I had no choice but to follow.

I found Liz, her fists clenched and her whole body shaking slightly, standing with her shoulders squared at the man. He was holding a pokeball and smiling like the most conceited rich bastard who ever lived, someone who genuinely thought he was untouchable. The whole scene was foreboding, with the man and his tacky orange suit framed against the backdrop of mine cart tracks receding endlessly into the roughly hewn cave lit dimly by an ungodly amount of lanterns. You would think that having so many lanterns would bathe the whole cave in light, but that wasn't the case. The way the lanterns flickered made me wonder if they were about to go out. Great, and then we would be trapped in the sharp darkness with a very sketchy man. That wouldn't be a great end to the first day of my long-awaited journey.

"You're back? I thought you were going to be smart and leave." I wasn't a violent person, but the man's smirk was making me seriously want to hit him. "You don't really think this cave is the best spot for a date, do you?"

"It's not your cave!"

"We're not dating!"

Liz and I both shouted at him at once, both thinking about different things. She looked at me quizzically and I just shrugged.

"You think you can talk that way just because you've got a rare Pokemon with you?" He laughed mirthlessly and lazily tossed his pokeball at the ground. A Pokemon rose into existence, each little bit of light building up like a pile of sand and eventually bursting apart to reveal a small, canine Pokemon. The ball bounced back from the magnetism and he caught it without really looking at it. "I'll teach you not to irritate an agent of Flare."

"What's Flare?" I asked.

"We are an organization that should strike fear into your heart!" he proclaimed while posing.

"I don't care who you are! No one's getting in my way, especially not a guy with a Houndour and an ugly suit!" Liz shouted back at him, her heart clearly not struck with fear.

"Ugly? This suit is beautiful!" The man seethed with anger, trying to catch a glimpse of himself in a particularly shiny crystal embedded in the wall.

"No, it's really awful," I said, agreeing with Liz's evaluation. "I've never seen something so awful and everybody I live with wears literal garbage."

"It's not garbage, Wes," Liz said. She and I had talked about this before. "It's charity and it's really nice."

"It might as well be garbage," I said, shuddering uncomfortably in the clothes I knew someone else had worn. "Someone threw it away."

"Enough chatter!" screamed the Flare agent, his cool disposition shattered by our insults. "Houndour! Smog!" His Pokemon dropped its head to the rocky ground and vomited up a coiling, purple snake of gas that started to slither in our direction.

"Ba-" I started.

"Wes, like I said, I'll do this!" Liz interrupted me. She turned my Pokemon and called out his name and a command. "Bagon! Dodge it!"

Wonderful. My first day going somewhere with a Pokemon and my traveling companion was fighting with him instead of me. This situation kind of described my whole life. I was never the star of anything. In fact, if anyone wrote a story about me, it would probably begin with something embarrassing, like me losing my Pokemon.

My Pokemon rolled to the side, a cool maneuver he had been doing ever since I first got him, and avoided the smoke. The smoke didn't stop there, and Liz and I had to scramble out of the way as well.

"Why would you use a move with such low accuracy?" Liz asked. "You're just asking your Pokemon to miss. Let's strike back with a Headbutt!"

"Liz, stop! Let me!" I shouted.

"I'm getting you a registration for the League, remember. You said you didn't feel like you were giving me enough back to justify the deal, right? Well, let me do this and it will definitely be a fair deal." I couldn't argue with anything she said, and just grumbled as I watched the battle unfold.

Bagon closed the distance with a lunge and smashed the enemy Houndour with a full-force blow. Coming from his stout muscles and thick skull, it hit hard. The Houndour whined and skidded back, having to dig its claws into the rocky turf to stop.

"Ember!" shouted the Flare agent. I stumbled back and almost lost my footing as images flooded my mind. I grabbed a wall and steadied myself, not allowing this to happen. If I was going to be a trainer, I would be seeing a lot of fire moves. I couldn't let them affect me like this. I turned back to my Pokemon and watched the small jet of flame refract off his scales.

"That wasn't a very effective choice," Liz said smugly. "Are you even trying to win?"

"Stop taunting him and just finish this," I said.

Liz called for another Headbutt, which effortlessly connected with the weakened Houndour's flank. It slumped to the rust-colored ground, its face peaceful and breathing shallow. I couldn't tell whether it was unconscious or just giving up on the fight, but either way, we had won.

"Stupid kids," said the man in the orange suit. He recalled his Houndour and tried to stand in our way again, but my Pokemon hissed at him and he grudgingly moved to one side of the tunnel, letting us pass. "At least I lost in style. Watch yourself. I'm not the only member of Flare. And if you disappear in this cave, it could be a long time before you find your way out." Liz and I both ignored him, making him pout.

"See? I won," Liz proclaimed proudly, doing a little twirl and adjusting her visor.

"Yeah, you and my loyal Pokemon make a great team," I said. "Can I have this back?"

"I suppose," she said. "I'll need to keep my hands free to catch a Solrock anyway." I frowned at that. Liz could say really selfish and confusing things sometimes, and she didn't even seem to notice when she was bothering someone. I had been trying to point this out for years, and she still didn't seem to understand it. People had asked me if she was on the spectrum before because of some of her stranger comments.

Liz returned my pokeball to me. Once we had walked far enough that the Flare agent wasn't watching us anymore, I hugged my Pokemon close and he nuzzled me with his blue snout. "Great fighting, Bagon," I said, picking him up. I was going to twirl him around or some other silly shit, but he was shockingly heavy and I dropped him with a groan. "Traitor."

"I have been around for all the battles you two have fought so far," Liz said. "I coached you through you first one, too. He's not really a traitor for battling alongside me. I'm like his aunt or something."

I gave him a playful noogie before standing up to talk to Liz about something bothering me. "Actually, he fought better with you than he did with me. He didn't panic at all. Why?"

"He hasn't panicked every time you've battled with him," said Liz, her voice dropping to barely a whisper as well. For some reason, we were always quiet whenever we talked about my Pokemon's occasional episodes that fell somewhere between blind panic and berserk rage. "And when he has, it's only been when you were losing. That time, we dominated the battle and never came close to losing. If you had been fighting with him instead of me, he would've done the same thing."

"Really?" I was starting to worry if maybe Liz would be a better match for Bagon as I trainer than I was.

"Probably," she said, making me groan in annoyance. "You know, if you're still worried about this, you can take the next one."

"Next one?" I asked incredulously. I completely ignored the fact that Liz had given me permission to battle with my own Pokemon. She said things like that, well-intentioned but slightly arrogant, all the time. What I was worried about was her belief that we'd fight someone else in here. "You mean the next Flare agent?"

"Exactly!" Liz agreed with a satisfied smile. "You can battle the next one and see whether or not he panics for yourself."

"We're not going to battle another one! We were lucky enough to win that one! We can just stay and hunt for a Solrock here."

"Look, a Pokemon!" Liz ignored me and gestured deeper into the cave. A dark shape flitted back into the one shadowy part of the passage where a few lanterns had broken as if it were avoiding my eyes specifically.

"Let's hope it's a Solrock so we can get out of here," I said.

We closed in on the Pokemon and forced it out into the light. Its rocky body looked like a shape from the night sky, and some kind of psychic distortion made the air around it hazy, like smoke on a hot day.

"No!" Liz whined.

"What's wrong?" I asked. "We found it!"

"That's not a Solrock," Liz explained wearily. "It's a Lunatone."

"What's the difference?"

Liz sighed. "Just knock it out or something. It's not useful to me at all."

"Ready?" Bagon nodded eagerly, in the mood for another fight. "Bite!"

As he lunged at the weird rock creature, it spun and released some kind of of wobbly pink wave.

"That's Psywave," Liz noted.

"What do I do about it?" I asked.

"There's not really anything you can do," she explained apathetically.

The wave hit Bagon in his midsection, knocking him out of the air and stunning him. While he was dazed, the wild Lunatone tried to make an escape.

"Don't let it get away!" Liz called.

"Bagon, hit it with Rage!"

"What? Against a rock Pokemon?"

"If he's going to get hit from a distance, then I should use a move like rage, right? Then he'll get stronger every time he gets hit," I said. My reasoning made sense, at least to me.

"It's just a wild Pokemon. Don't think too hard. All you have to do to finish it is spam Bite."

"Why are we trying to beat it, anyway? It's running away." Even thought it was a strange rock creature, I felt bad for it. It had a scared look in its eyes.

"You want to defeat every wild Pokemon you come across. Your Pokemon grow stronger that way," Liz said.

"I know that, but every wild Pokemon? That's a little reckless, don't you think? What if you knock it unconscious and then a predator finds it?" Battles and training were the basics of being a trainer, but what Liz said about them didn't sound right to me. Then again, Liz knew a lot more about Pokemon than I did.

Liz's answer was simple and heartless. "That's how the food chain works."

I shrugged and continued battling. Bagon and I finished off the Lunatone without much trouble, leaving it there in the middle of the dimly lit passage.

"Why couldn't we have just caught it? It looked a lot like a Solrock to me."

"Solrock can learn fire moves that Lunatone can't, like Sunny Day or Flamethrower," Liz explained. "I want to create a team that thrives in sun and bright light."

I shrugged. "Well, whatever makes you happy." Liz did things like this on occasion, obsessing over a random goal that made more sense to her than anyone else. "Is this going to be like the time you went to that party?"

"What party?"

"The only party you've ever been to," I said, chatting amiably to keep my spirits up as the cave grew darker and creepier. Even Bagon was feeling uneasy. He started walking a little closer to me. I grinned at him when he grabbed the my cargo pants and he looked away, embarrassed. He always tried to seem so tough, but I could tell he was a very nervous and timid Pokemon.

"Oh, that one," she said. "Giovana's party."

"The one where you punched Leo in the face," I said.

"Why are you smiling?" she demanded.

"That's still so funny," I said. "That's just so you. He totally deserved it, too. But the point is you worked so hard to convince Giovana to invite you and then you made a huge scene and left. "

"Oh, and you were trying to make a comparision between Solrock and the party," Liz said, catching on quickly.

"The wild Pokemon and that weird man would be Leo." I looked down at Bagon, who was looking seriously scared. "Hey, you can ride in here if you want."

Bagon shook his head at the pokeball I was offering. He puffed up his little chest and started walking ahead of Liz and me. He preferred to face his fears, something I respected him for.

"That's creative but somewhat flawed," Liz said. "In that case, I got what I wanted and then ruined it because of a fight. In this case, I'm fighting to get what I want. They are truly two very different sets of circumstances."

I could tell by her tone that she had made up her voice and would be impossible to convince, so I gave up. "Anyway, I'm hoping that since we found a Lunatone, a Solrock will be close by."

"Close by? Close by?" A woman's voice echoed from around the corner. The speaker stepped out to greet us, wearing a familiar orange suit.

"Let me guess: You're another member of Flare?" I asked. She nodded. "Don't worry about how I knew that, I'm just a genius."

She stared at me with a laughable look of confusion for a second, but then shook her head and asked us a question. "How did you two get past the guard? He's supposed to keep people out of this area."

"Are you going to get in my way too?" Liz demanded. Suddenly, it was as if Liz was a towering giant, casting a shadow on everything below her. She was so focused on her goal she almost seemed lost.

"I have to," said the Flare agent, sounding a little hesitant. "I can't have you interfere with the field test. We've had enough trouble getting it started already." She pulled a Pokeball from the pocket of her orange pants and prepared to throw it. Liz stepped forward to confront her, but I shook my head and stepped past.

"I'll do this," I said. "Are you ready, Bagon?"

He nodded and narrowed his eyes. Our enemy sent in a green Pokemon with a crackling cry that made the back of my neck tingle.

"It's an Electrike," Liz said. "Its type is-"

"Electric," I said, finishing her sentence. "These things live on the cliff above our town. I already know about them. Also, its name sounds exactly like its type."

Liz shrugged. "I always forget how much you already know."

"Wow, that's nice," I said with a sarcastic smile. Liz shrugged again.

"Are you two done chatting?" asked the Flare agent. "Shock Wave!"

Bagon shrugged off the burst of electricity and snorted at them. That set the tone for the rest of the battle. They couldn't really do much to us, and I kept calling for a Leer to set up and then getting Bagon to use Headbutt when Electrike's guard was down.

"No! Please don't go any farther!" The agent returned her Pokemon and started some futile begging. "We have a scientist testing some new equipment in there, and you could get hurt if you interfere."

"Your advice is noted," said Liz. She stepped forward as if to shake the agent's hand, but instead brutally shoved the orange-suited woman to one side. "And ignored."

"Liz, don't escalate the situation," I said, laying a hand on my friend's shoulder as the agent mouthed some choice words at us. "You don't have to shove them around."

"They can't take this cave from the public, and they can't take my chance to catch a Solrock from me," she explained as we walked.

"Why do you want to catch a Solrock so badly anyway?" I took a potion from my bag and sprayed Bagon down as we walked. I could see the energy return to his walk as the medicine worked. It was like magic. If only they made medicine like that for people. "Do you have any more potions?

"Solrock are so cute!" Liz proclaimed, handing me another bottle of potion.

I stopped and turned to stare at her. "H-how is a Solrock cute? It's literally a pebble with eyes and little rock spike things."

"Well, I think they're cute."

"We've been doing all this because you think Solrock are cute!" I was almost too flabbergasted to keep going. "I thought there was some deep reason, like a Solrock had saved you when you were little. I can't believe this."

"You're the one who wants to see all of Kalos! You can't complain about traveling extra distance if you want to see the whole region," Liz said defensively.

I shrugged, unable to argue with that point. But her calling Solrock cute made me think of another time she had thrown that word around. "Cute," I said derisively. "I guess that explains Yves."

"Don't bring him up!"

"I mean, he looked like a pebble," I continued, smirking at Liz's reaction.

"No he didn't."

"Come on, you know he did."

Liz relented. "I suppose from a certain angle…"

"No, he just looked like a rock."

"Fine, he did."

Liz checked the time on her Holo Caster. "It will be dark soon. If we don't find a Solrock before nightfall, we should return to Ambrette Town and try again tomorrow."

"Can we leave earlier than that? I don't want to cross Route 9 at night," I said. "That's just not safe in the dark."

"Excellent point," Liz said. "That means we have another hour of searching. Oh, Wes, did you notice? During that last battle, Bagon didn't panic either?"

"I did," I said with a silly grin. "He's really getting comfortable with me now."

The first time Bagon and I had battled together had been a few weeks ago, against a fisherman and his two Tentacool. Liz had been there to coach me through my first battle, which I greatly appreciated. I knew how battles basically went from watching the Kalos League on TV every year, but Liz's absurd knowledge of all the mechanics of Pokemon battles was invaluable. We had taken down the first Tentacool with a little trouble and a lot of advice from Liz, but the second had poisoned Bagon. After that, he completely lost control, battling savagely, ignoring me, and charging like a maniac with no regard for his own safety. After he battered the water Pokemon into submission, he had been about to tear into its unconscious body with his frenzied fangs. Fortunately, the fisherman had recalled it before Bagon could attack. Since then, whenever he got seriously hurt or terrified, he would start panicking and fight like that. Liz and I couldn't figure out what he was thinking or what was going on there. Even freshly caught wild Pokemon adjusted to trainer battles faster than that. One trainer asked me if Bagon had been abused before I got him, making me feel even worse about taking Bagon from Damien when I knew so little. I kept hoping that Bagon would eventually stop doing that when he started really trusting and getting used to me, and it looked like that was happening.

Ahead, the cave narrowed to a claustrophobic crawl space, barely more than a meter in diameter. The lanterns also stopped, leaving everything ahead bathed in darkness. Liz shined her flashlight into the opening, revealing that it lead into a large area, like a doorway separating the bright part of the cave from the shadow.

"There's a light in there somewhere," Liz said. "I see it flickering. We just have to get past a few meters of darkness."

"Hold on," I said. "I hear something."

"I'm almost finished collecting fossils, but our guards said a couple of teenagers got past them." An oddly familiar, hollow-sounding, female voice echoed across the stone. "How safe is this device? I don't want to put them in danger."

"You still haven't used it, have you?" A sophisticated and cold male voice answered her. There was some kind of distortion in it, though, like it was coming from a PA system. "I knew I should've chosen Aliana to test the gauntlet."

"She's a loose cannon," answered the cool, dispassionate female voice. "She's not trustworthy. If she ever offers you help, it's a lie."

"I trust her with my life!" The static-laden male voice grew indignant. "You're the one who really isn't trustworthy. You worry too much to complete our objectives!"

"More of those Flare people," I said.

"Obviously," agreed Liz. "Let's go fight them."

"Hold on," I said. "There are at least two of them, and we have only one Pokemon. Also, they said they're testing a device. I'm not going to put Bagon in the middle of some kind of dangerous experiment."

"Why do you always worry about everything, Wes?" Liz grabbed my shoulders and stared into my eyes. "You're always being cautious and avoiding anything remotely risky."

"I'm trying to keep my new Pokemon safe!" I sputtered, indignant. "He's just starting to trust me!"

"No, don't blame this on Bagon! You've been doing this forever. Actually, I think the deal you made with Damien is the only risky thing you've ever done."

"I still don't feel right about that," I said.

"Look! Look at what you got from it, though! Now take a risk with me, and I'll get a Solrock, and you'll get a League Registration." She threw our deal back at me, and I almost gave in.

"No," I said. "Liz, there are so many other parts of this cave we still haven't explored. You don't have to choose the only part of it that's dangerous. You know what, this is what you always do! You always get so obsessed with taking down everyone in your way that you forget what you even wanted in the first place! This is why everyone at school hates you."

Liz's eyes narrowed and she looked away. I winced. I had crossed the line, going from our usual tense but friendly disagreements to actually hurting her. "We're graduating soon anyway, so does it even matter what they think? I'm going. If you really need to leave, you can." With that, she crawled through the tiny passage and I heard people start shouting in the next cavern. People always seemed to be shouting wherever Liz went.

"Damn it, Liz," I swore. I couldn't let her just go off on her own. "Bagon, we have to go get her."

A lantern flared to light as I crawled in, banishing the inky shadows and bathing the cavern in a harsh light. Weirdly enough, the cavern was huge despite the tiny entrance. Inside, Liz was confronting two people standing against the far wall. The cave appeared to end here, and the only way out was to back the way we had come. Tiny outcropping of somehow sickly-looking crystals that looked more like diseased plants than gemstones dotted the walls, and partially exposed bones pushed through the rock wall in other places. All in all, it didn't look like a very fun place.

"Whatever you're doing, stop it now!" Liz stood before the two people in orange, her fists clenched at her sides. Instead of looking defiant and cool, she just looked stupid.

"You don't even know what we're doing," said a man wearing an orange suit. His hair was tousled like he had just walked through a windstorm and his blood-red sunglasses were so cracked I didn't know how he could see. He spoke with a faint accent. Japanese, maybe?

"Please leave now," said the woman standing next to him, not even looking up at us as she spoke. She was clearly another member of Flare, but she wasn't wearing the same orange suit as the rest. Instead she was wearing something that looked like a mixture of a dress, armor, and a lab coat. Somehow despite being so piecemeal, her outfit had an elegance to it. Her hair, a deep, fake purple, gleamed in the lamp's light. Her mouth was set in an expression of pained indifference as she looked at the Holo Caster in her hand, where a hologram of a stout man with impossibly pale skin and ugly, tiny glasses was addressing her.

"There truly are no end to the distractions when our leader puts you in charge of a mission. You're a scientist who belongs in the lab, not the field," said the stout, pale man. The disapproving, static-laden voice I heard earlier belonged to him. "Don't make it a complete failure. Aliana and I can't do all of our organization's work forever."

"Goodbye, Xerosic," said the woman in the orange lab coat. She switched the Holo Caster off and stowed it away with a look of disgust. She looked up at Liz and me. "You two should leave as well." Her eyes were covered by some kind of bizarre silver and purple mask that marked where her eyes would be with a line of glowing violet. I couldn't see her eyes, but I could tell from her mouth that she was shocked when she looked at me, and she started stuttering. "D-do-Have we?"

"What are you on about?" asked the wild-haired agent, scribbling something in a notepad.

The scientist took a deep breath and stopped stammering. "He just looked like someone I knew. It's nothing."

With that, I looked at her again. There was something very familiar about her face, though I knew I had never met a woman with long purple hair or her distinctive eyewear before. Still, though, something about her brought back a memory, and for a second I was in the midst of a maze of simmering heat and my throat was filled with ashes.

"I'll deal with them," said the wild-haired man. He raised a pokeball. "Megani-"

The scientist put her hand across his chest and gently but insistently pushed him back. "There's no need for that. Continue documenting the samples we've mined. I'll battle them." Her voice was soft, barely above a whisper, but the wild-haired agent obeyed without question, backing down. She was probably his superior then.

"You're not going to stop me!" shouted Liz. "What are you even wearing on your face?"

The scientist largely ignored Liz, clicking open a pokeball quietly in her hand. Streams of white and purple energy coalesced in the air with a sad scream. Arms and a grim-looking head slipped out of the distortion, revealing a Pokemon that looked like it was carved from ice and sadness.

"It's a Froslass," said Liz, sounding surprised. "Those are quite hard to find. Bagon, use-"

"No, Liz," I said. "I'll do this. What type is it?"

"Ice and ghost," Liz said. "You'll be at a disadvantage. Don't let any of its ice moves connect."

I nodded to Bagon, who stepped forward to face the Froslass.

"Froslass, keep them away while I work. Don't hurt them too much, all right?" Her voice remained hollow and emotionless as her Pokemon nodded to her. She turned back to the wall and began inspecting a fossil.

"How dare you turn your back on me!" Liz shouted.

Froslass sneered and formed an orb of pulsating shadow from drops of liquid darkness in its white hand. It threw the orb at Bagon with a flourish of its arm, catching the light in a way that made it look like it wasn't really there. The best way to describe it would be to compare it to an old-fashioned film movie projected on a front of fog.

"That's Shadow Ball!" called Liz.

"Avoid it, Bagon!" I called.

"Good luck avoiding that attack," said the wild-haired man smugly, sketching something on the clipboard he was holding.

Bagon slid to the side and crumpled, trying to duck the move. He was still clipped by the edge of the ball despite his efforts, and snarled in indignation.

"Bite!" I shouted.

The Froslass stared at me, and recognition seemed to flicker across its face. Bagon took advantage of his foe's distraction and leapt up at his opponent and delivered a sold bite, chomping at the arm it had just used to throw its Shadow Ball. The Froslass's eyes clouded over with anger, and it shook Bagon off. Rage was pouring off of it in waves.

"Test the expansion gauntlet," urged the wild-haired agent. "This is the perfect chance."

"We don't even know if it's safe. Besides, it's only a side mission. My main objective is investigating fossils." The scientist kept ignoring him, her words quiet and her focus on the wall. "Froslass will have no trouble beating them."

Froslass raised its arms as if it were praying and snow began to swirl around it.

"Icy Wind," Liz named. "Don't let it hit."

"Bagon, dodge it!" I shouted. I didn't want him to get hit by a move he was weak to.

"Your Pokemon is overmatched," said the scientist with a cold detachment. "So lame. I recommend forfeiting. Though if you want to lose embarrassingly, go right ahead."

Froslass whipped its arms forward, trapping Bagon in a gale of frigid wind before he had any time to react. Bagon spun helplessly, shivering with fear, and my muscles tensed. I wanted to help him.

"Bagon, are you still with me?" I asked.

Bagon looked up at me. His eyes were still clear. We still had a chance, so I called for a Leer. Bagon glared at Froslass with frightening intensity, making the ghost Pokemon flinch back with unease. While its guard was down, we hit it with a Bite. After the move connected, Froslass stared at me, looking very disappointed.

"Liz, that's not good. We just used our best combination and Froslass barely felt it," I said, worried now.

"No, you can do it. Don't let them win!" Liz said angrily.

"I'm bored of this battle," said the scientist, finally turning and giving the fight her attention. "It really is so lame. Froslass, finish it with an Ice Shard."

"You're going to end this before you even test the expansion gauntlet?" asked the wild-haired man. The scientist ignored him.

Froslass circled Bagon, creating an array of diamond-shaped ice crystals while it hovered. With a flick of its wrist, it sent them all crashing into my Pokemon. The move was too quick to avoid or even react to.

"Bagon!" I cried out, unable to do anything.

He somehow dragged himself up from a battered heap on the ground to stand, barely keeping himself himself conscious. His mouth split open in a terrifying roar, something much deeper and more savage than I had heard before. Not again! He was in one of his panic moods, and he wouldn't listen to me. We couldn't afford this now, especially not against a powerful opponent like Froslass.

Bagon lunged at Froslass, his fangs dripping saliva and dark liquid. Despite the fury of his berserk attack, Froslass was just too powerful, effortlessly slapping him away.

"Bagon, stop! You can't fight like that!" I said. He wasn't listening, the light dancing off the tears in his yes. He reminded me of the fury of a young orphan, desperately clinging to the anger to keep the pain away. I remembered that day with Madame Amedee, and I didn't even think about it. I just moved.

"You don't have to be afraid anymore, Bagon. I'm here now," I said, holding him close. His claws tore into my arm, and I grunted in pain but forced myself not to let go. "Bagon, I'm not going anywhere. You're not alone." I could feel Bagon's tense muscles start to relax.

"Enough of this, we're going to carry out the test," said the agent with wild hair. He took something black and fastened it around Froslass's arm. From the ghostly wail of pain, whatever was happening wasn't pleasant, but I didn't have time to focus on that right now. Bagon was my main concern.

"Froslass, stop! Return!" I heard the scientist attempting to return her Pokemon and the dismayed noise of a failed return sequence. "Listen to me!"

"Take that thing off! That's not natural!" Liz was shouting wildly from somewhere to my left.

Bagon calmed down and hugged me. His eyes returned to normal and his lips curled into a faint smile. The happy moment didn't last, though, as he growled a warning and gestured to something above me.

The scientist's Froslass was there, writhing in pain, and trying to claw the black gauntlet off of its arm. The look in its eyes was murderous, and it was creating some kind of massive ice spear, hissing and popping with some kind of corrupt energy. And of course, the move was aimed at Bagon.

"That's not a natural Ice Shard! I don't even think that's a Pokemon move!" Liz shouted. "Wes, escape! Get out of there!"

"No," I said, taking a risk. "Like I said, Bagon, you don't have to face anything alone ever again." I turned, making sure I was in between Froslass and Bagon.

"Froslass, no!" shrieked the scientist. "Hold on, did you say Wes? N-no, it c-can't be."

The ice Pokemon screamed, closed its eyes, and launched the massive blade in my direction.

"I'm here to protect you, Bagon."

"Wes!"

...

Interlude One

They were both girls, and probably the same age, but the redheaded one had this energy that marked her as something much, much greater and more terrible than the blue-eyed one.

What do I do? And the blue-eyed one is pouring out her soul like no one has listened to her in years and she has to do something now. She holds up her cup like a hero considering a prophecy and starts to cry.

Sometimes, you just have to take a chance and let it burn. The redheaded one's advice will change so many lives and she doesn't care.

Why are you helping me? The blue-eyed one is acting like she's never seen kindness before, or maybe she has and she's just never trusted it enough to accept it.

I did something bad, and I have to make up for it. The redheaded one's words are hollow and empty, like she doesn't even need an excuse to be this way. She hands over something explosive and smiles. Use it. You know you have to. She smiles as she knows she's lighting a fire that will never go out until it burns everything to ashes.

...

Disclaimer: Obviously, Pokemon isn't mine. It's the brilliant creation of Satoshi Tajiri, Ken Sugimori, and their team. Thank you so much for sharing your imagination with us.

Author's Note: Hello everybody, I'm back! If anyone is still here, that is. I know it's been months since I've posted. And all of my chapters haven't vanished, this is just what I do. I write three drafts of every story idea I like, and it's fun to see how much I improve from the first to the last. This is the beginning last draft of this story, and it's very satisfying to see how much better it is now than it was the first time around. Thank you to everyone who read and subscribed to the past versions of this story. You guys and gals are the best! Get ready for fast updates this time! Oh, and if anyone can figure out what I'm getting the names of my chapters from this time around, you will get a lot of respect from me.